RTHK: Malaysia drops charge against Kim murder suspect A Malaysian court on Monday freed an Indonesian woman accused of assassinating the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's half-brother after prosecutors withdrew the murder charge against her. Siti Aisyah had been accused alongside Doan Thi Huong from Vietnam of killing Kim Jong-nam by smearing VX nerve agent on his face at Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017, in a brazen Cold War-style hit that shocked the world. "Siti Aisyah is freed," judge Azmin Ariffin told the Shah Alam High Court, as he approved a request from the prosecutor to drop the murder charge. He granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal. "She can leave now." In his request to withdraw the charge, prosecutor Muhammad Iskandar Ahmad did not give a reason for the move in court. He said Aisyah was free to leave the country. Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia Rusdi Kirana told reporters: "We are pleased with the court decision. We will try to fly Siti back to Indonesia today or as soon as possible." It was a surprise move as the court had been scheduled to hear Huong who was in court alongside Aisyah testify on Monday. (AFP) ______________________________ Last updated: 2019-03-11 HKT 10:54 This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Hong Kong: HK an intl school hub Chief Executive Carrie Lam Im pleased to say I was here nearly three years ago for the schools foundation-stone-laying ceremony. Its gratifying to be back today to see the vision for this school realised, and so superbly. Bringing together the UK's Malvern College and its more than 150 years of tradition with this stunning, state-of-the-art campus, Malvern College Hong Kong is providing quality education to more than 400 students of different nationalities. I understand the number will rise to 700 in the next academic year. The speakers before me spoke of Malverns heritage and philosophy, of providing students with a holistic education. I'm delighted to know that the school embraces whole-person development, including leadership training and critical thinking; that Malvern College's students benefit not only from a compelling emphasis on STEM subjects, including coding and robotics workshops, but also sports, art, community service, even a Forest School programme. As former chairperson of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Governments International Business Committee, I know the importance of a vibrant international school sector to meet the needs of our large and growing global community. Indeed, Hong Kong is home to Asias largest international school sector, with more than 50 international schools in the city. Malvern College is a welcome addition. Schools such as Malvern College Hong Kong expand our educational horizons and our imagination. More than new schools, they create new ways of thinking for our students, our teachers and down the road, for Hong Kong. They make our city even more attractive to global businesses. In doing so, they affirm our status as Asias world city. But for a city like Hong Kong where land is in short supply, the Government has to play a facilitating role in growing the international school sector. Thats why we introduced the School Allocation Exercise. It ensures an open and competitive bidding process for vacant school premises and greenfield sites. In fact, this very site was awarded to Malvern College Hong Kong through that same competitive process in 2014, along with sites allocated to the Shrewsbury International School and the French International School Tseung Kwan O Campus. I had the pleasure of officiating at their opening ceremonies last year. For Malvern College Hong Kong, I would say that this is an extraordinary location, and fits perfectly with the schools dedication to international excellence, particularly in science and mathematics, innovation, technology and creativity. Hong Kong Science Park, the Institute of Biotechnology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Education University are all close by. All, in one way or another, are contributing to Hong Kongs fast-emerging expertise in innovation, technology and creative thinking. Im confident that Malvern College Hong Kong will build continuing connections of all kinds with these institutions. And I have no doubt that the school, its students and Hong Kong will excel deep into this 21st century of opportunity and boundless promises. Chief Executive Carrie Lam gave these remarks at the opening ceremony of Malvern College Hong Kong on March 11. This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Governor of the People's Bank of China Yi Gang attends a press conference on the financial reform and development for the second session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, capital of China, March 10, 2019. (Xinhua/Li Ran) BEIJING, March 10 (Xinhua) -- China has implemented most of the financial market opening up measures it announced last year, central bank governor Yi Gang said here Sunday. "We believe the opening up of China's financial market is conducive to both China and the world," Yi told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual legislative session. The governor of the People's Bank of China said the country will firmly advance the opening up of the financial market in accordance with the timetable announced at the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference last April. A total of 11 financial opening-up policies were mentioned in the timetable, covering sectors including banking and insurance. China last November approved the application by a joint venture of American Express for setting up a bank card clearing and settlement institution, and allowed S&P Global Inc. to enter its credit rating market in January. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen joined a U.S. envoy Monday in advocating more religious freedom in Asia, a joint jab at China, where the government restricts worship and resents American officials for political dealings with the island. The president of the self-ruled island told Sam Brownback, U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, during a closed-door meeting that Taiwan wants to help the United States contribute to the development of religious freedom and democracy, officials said. Tsai told Brownback she expects that Taiwan and the United States, through more cooperative exchanges, can in the future continue promoting joint values and strengthen the two sides partnerships, according to a statement on the presidential office website. China and Taiwan have been separately ruled since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, but China insists that the two sides eventually unite. More than 80% of Taiwanese oppose unification, government surveys indicate. Advertisement Taiwan has no restrictions on religion. About 35% of its 23 million people practice Buddhism, followed by 33% who follow Taoism, the U.S. government found in a 2017 study. Around 5% follow Christianity. In China, churches are required to register with the government and are subject to Communist Party supervision. The Trump administration has stepped up informal contact with Taiwan to harden his stance against China during the past years Sino-U.S. trade disputes. Brownback told a 15-country religious freedom forum Monday in Taipei that Beijing should negotiate with the Dalai Lama over the exiled Tibetan spiritual leaders return to China. He further accused China of detaining ethnic Uighurs, a Muslim population in China, to silence their family members living abroad. What does the Chinese government have to fear from people reading the Bible or Uighurs naming their children Mohammad? Brownback said at the forum. The Chinese are a strong and vibrant people. They do not need to fear people who have strong religious beliefs or convictions. The Chinese foreign ministry objected to Brownbacks comments. We urge the U.S. to face up to and respect the basic facts, abandon prejudice, be cautious and objectively consider Chinese religious policy and freedom of religious belief, and stop using so-called religious issues to interfere in Chinas internal affairs, foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a news briefing. Brownback was expected to spend several days in Taiwan. After the envoy gave a speech Friday in Hong Kong, where he spent four days, Chinas foreign ministry accused him of slander. He had said Beijing should allow investigations of detainment camps where ethnic Uighurs say theyve been tortured. Ambassador Brownbacks visit this time not only showcases the values of human rights and freedoms that both sides enjoy, but its also a great example of ongoing Taiwan-U.S. partnership relations, the foreign ministry in Taipei said Sunday. Jennings is a special correspondent. Algerias president of two decades abandoned his bid for a fifth term Monday following unprecedented protests over his fitness for office, but his simultaneous postponement of an election set for next month had critics worried he intends to hold on to power. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has rarely been seen in public since he had a stroke in 2013 and just returned from two weeks in a Geneva hospital, promised to establish a panel to plan a rescheduled vote and to put an interim government in place. In a letter to the nation released by the state news agency APS on Monday, Bouteflika, 82, stressed the importance of including Algerias disillusioned youth in the reform process and putting the country in the hands of new generations. But for many of the protesters students, lawyers and even judges the most important sentence in the presidents letter read, There will be no fifth term. Advertisement Celebrations popped up on the streets of the capital, Algiers, at the news. Car horns rang out while people waved flags, jumped up and down, and sang the national anthem. Several thanked Bouteflika. One described the development as a real ray of sunshine. Others were more cautious, calling their longtime leaders pledge to move aside just a first step. Bouteflika did not give a date or timeline for the delayed election. He said in his Monday letter that the national conference he would task with planning the vote also would be responsible for drafting a new constitution for Algeria. He said he would name an interim government as well. The changes were put in motion within hours. Noureddine Bedoui, a Bouteflika loyalist and the current interior minister, was made prime minister and charged with forming the new administration, according to APS. Critics said they fear the moves could pave the way for the president to install a handpicked successor. Others saw his decision to postpone the election indefinitely as a threat to democracy in Algeria. Bouteflika fought in Algerias independence war against French forces and played a role in Algerias major developments for half a century. He became president in 1999 and reconciled a nation riven by a deadly Islamic insurgency, but questions swirl over whether he is really running the country today. The recent protests surprised Algerias opaque leadership and freed the countrys people, long fearful of a watchful security apparatus, to openly criticize the president. Algerians also expressed anger over corruption that put their countrys oil and gas riches in the hands of a few while millions of young people struggled to find jobs. Algerian lawyers in Algiers joined in calls on Monday for the nations president not to seek reelection. (Fateh Guidoum / Associated Press) The unprecedented citizens revolt drew millions into the streets of cities across the country to demand that Bouteflika abandon his candidacy. On Monday, Algerian state television aired the first images of Bouteflika since the protests started. Bouteflika, who has used a wheelchair since his stroke, appeared weak and moved with slow gestures. No sound accompanied the images. While the tense nation waited to see if he would make any concessions now that he was back from his hospital stay, teenagers and lawyers held protests, and workers held scattered walkouts. Security was high in Algiers, where some businesses were shuttered by a second day of strikes. Lawyers in black robes gathered in front of courthouses to join calls for Bouteflika to withdraw from the election. Some judges joined the lawyers protesting in the city of Bedjaia. Judges normally are prohibited from publicly demonstrating, as are police officers and soldiers. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika returned to Algeria on Sunday after two weeks in a Swiss hospital amid massive demonstrations demanding he withdraw his candidacy for a fifth term. The 82-year-old Bouteflika suffered a stroke in 2013 and has rarely been seen in public since. The decision to run for a new term in the April 18 election angered large swathes of Algerian society. Bouteflika arrived at Boufarik military airport, about 20 miles south of the capital, and was shown in video by private television station Ennahar in a fast-moving convoy heading toward the Algiers suburb of Zeralda. He could be seen inside a car slightly bent over and with a cap on his head. Bouteflika resides in Zeralda, not in the presidential palace in the capital. Earlier, Bouteflika had departed from a Geneva airport. Advertisement The official APS news agency confirmed that the president had returned home after a private visit to Geneva ... during which he underwent periodic medical tests. The power structure has been shaken by the size of the unprecedented citizens revolt, which has drawn millions into the streets of cities across the country to say no to a fifth term and to a system blamed for corruption and keeping Bouteflika in office despite his medical condition. A general strike Sunday was taking place as the president arrived, with numerous shops in Algiers and other cities closed. As if to lay the groundwork for change, the top Algerian party backing the beleaguered chief of state broke its silence Sunday over the massive demonstrations demanding the end of the regime, saying its ready to work with all parties to end the crisis. The National Liberation Front, or FLN, said in a statement that it wants to find a way out of the crisis with the least cost to the country. Army Chief of Staff Ahmed Gaid Salah added his voice, saying Sunday that the army and the people have the same vision of the future. Thousands of protesters in the Algerian diaspora protested Sunday in Paris and other French cities. Protests also were held in neighboring Rabat, Morocco. The protests trickled down to middle-schoolers and high-schoolers, with several hundred marching in the center of Algiers, also calling for Bouteflika to withdraw his bid for a fifth term.. Since I was born, the only (president) Ive known is Bouteflika, said a young protesting girl Amina, asking not to give her full name. These kids dont have any political calculations, said a mother on the sidelines of the protest, Karim Ziad. Theyre just 13-year-old kids. Peaceful nationwide protests began Feb. 22 to protest Bouteflikas plan to run for a fifth term in April 18 elections. The protest movement also wants a change in the much-decried system that has kept him there and maintained a stranglehold on the power structure. Bouteflika, first elected in 1999, is the first civilian president of the North African nation except for a short term by Ahmed Ben Bella after Algeria won its independence from France in 1962. He was deposed in a bloodless military coup in 1965 that set the stage for a series of generals serving as presidents. On Friday, hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of Algiers calling for change in the biggest demonstration yet against Bouteflika. Similar marches were held across the country. On the eve of a crucial vote in Parliament, British Prime Minister Theresa May won concessions from the European Union during a last-ditch trip to France late Monday to try to save her Brexit deal. As negotiations deadlocked and she faced the prospect of another humiliating defeat in Parliament, the prime minister flew to Strasbourg to meet with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. The agreement includes legally binding changes to strengthen the plan for exiting the EU that had been contested by lawmakers, May said after the meeting. The amendments capped a day in which many lawmakers and analysts had been predicting chaos. Advertisement Until Monday night, the EU and Britain had not resolved how to maintain an open border between the Republic of Ireland, an EU member, and Northern Ireland, which will leave the 28-member bloc along with the rest of the United Kingdom. British lawmakers had balked at a so-called backstop agreement, a contingency plan in case Britain and the EU could not agree to a future trade agreement. It would have the whole of the U.K. remain in an EU customs union until a permanent solution were found; Northern Ireland would remain linked to some rules of the EU single market. Some critics said such differences between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. could damage the union, a danger in a region once marred by years of bloody sectarian conflict. Others complained the backstop could tie Britain indefinitely to EU trade and customs regulations with no means of unilaterally withdrawing. David Lidington, minister of the Cabinet Office, appeared before Parliament in London late Monday and told lawmakers that they would be presented with two new documents ensuring the European Union cannot try to trap the U.K. in the backstop indefinitely. At a news conference with Juncker, May said the amendments deliver exactly what lawmakers had asked for. Today we have secured legal changes. Now is the time to come together to back this improved Brexit deal and to deliver on the instruction of the British people, she said. May said the deal enabled Britain to regain control of its laws, border and money while also guaranteeing a close future partnership with the EU. Juncker warned that the concessions made late Monday were as far as the EU was willing to go. There will be no third chance, he said. It is this deal or Brexit might not happen at all. The opposition Labor Partys Brexit spokesman Sir Keir Starmer said the prime minister had gotten herself into an absurd situation and argued that it appeared though nothing had fundamentally changed. With 18 days to go until the March 29 deadline, when the decades-long partnership is due to officially end, questions remain about how Britain will proceed with its divorce from the European Union. Opponents have argued that the prime minister is attempting to force the hand of lawmakers who think approving an imperfect deal is better than failing to agree on one altogether a move that risks the country crashing out of the EU without any contingency plans. May last put her Brexit deal to lawmakers in January, and it was defeated by 230 votes in the 650-seat Parliament the largest defeat for a sitting government in British history. It highlighted the depths of discord within Parliament over how to implement the results of the 2016 referendum that asked British voters whether they wanted to leave, or stay in, the European Union. Leave voters won by 52% to 48%, and the issue has consumed the political agenda ever since. The bitter nature of the campaign left the country divided, and both the ruling Conservative Party and opposition Labor Party have become deeply fractured. Whatever happens now, youve got to think of the social impact that will be left behind, said Matthew Flinders, a University of Sheffield politics professor. Youre going to be left with an incredibly fractured society. Even though an EU withdrawal deal was agreed to by British and EU negotiators and signed off on by all 27 EU leaders in November following months of difficult negotiations, it was vehemently opposed by some British lawmakers who took exception to the backstop arrangement regarding the land border on the island of Ireland. After Januarys failed vote, May promised her colleagues she would go back to Brussels and return with a revised deal that they could vote on. If Mays deal is rejected again Tuesday evening, lawmakers will be offered the chance to vote on leaving the EU on March 29 without any deal, a resoundingly unpopular option because of the damage it could cause to the already shaky economy. If that vote also fails, they will then be asked to vote on extending the March 29 deadline to see whether a new compromise can be sought. But it is unclear how long any extension could last, and this could put Britain in the awkward situation of having to put forward candidates for the upcoming European Parliament elections at the end of May. Many pro-EU lawmakers and campaigners believe a vote to extend the deadline would be their chance to overturn Brexit altogether. The so-called Peoples Vote campaign has been gaining pace and supporters in recent months and has planned another huge march through London on March 23. The last rally drew 700,000 people, according to organizers. Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn recently said he would also support a second referendum if Mays deal fails to pass Parliament and the prime minister will not rule out no deal. The mood among EU leaders and diplomats had been bleak Monday before the May-Juncker meeting. Some officials had begun discussing a post-May government. The fact that May has survived this long as prime minister is remarkable. No other recent leader has endured so many parliamentary defeats and still remained in power. It is a testament to her tenacity as an individual, but also symptomatic of the fact that no other politician wants to take up what is widely seen as a poisoned chalice. Nevertheless, in recent days, some members of her own Conservative Party have started to openly question not if, but when, it will be time for May to move on. Lawmaker George Freeman, who has openly raised questions about a new prime minister, said Monday that he is not calling for a panicked change of leader right now, but as soon as Brexit is done. I do think we need to choose a new leader for a new generation with a new vision of a Conservatism that can make sense of Brexit and reinspire and reunite the nation, he said. May herself has told her party members that she will not lead them into another election, scheduled for 2022. Boyle is a special correspondent. It was once considered the British party that stood up to racism and inequality. But today, the Labor Party is at risk of splitting over an anti-Semitism crisis with which it seems unable to come to grips. For several years now, the main British opposition party has faced a steady flow of allegations that some of its parliamentarians and other members were exhibiting openly anti-Semitic behavior. In February, eight lawmakers quit to form an independent group of parliamentarians, stating that the failure to bring this issue under control was one of their key concerns. Last week, Britains Equality and Human Rights Commission announced that the party may have unlawfully discriminated against people based on their ethnicity and religious beliefs. Advertisement It marked the first step in what could turn into a formal investigation of how the party has handled complaints about anti-Semitism. One anti-Semite in our party is one too many, a party spokesman said in response, promising to cooperate with the investigation fully. But many Jewish people remain critical of the speed and transparency with which complaints are being dealt with by the party and in the nation itself. I would say theres a link between whats happening within the [Labor] party and the rise of anti-Semitic crime in the country, said Gideon Falter, 35, who heads the Campaign Against Antisemitism. It emboldened anti-Semites outside the Labor Party, and within it. The number of hate crimes has risen dramatically in Britain in recent years, with the Muslim community still the greatest target. Anti-Semitic incidents, tracked for the past 35 years, reached a record high last year with 1,652 episodes reported, according to the Community Security Trust. It marked the third consecutive annual increase and a roughly threefold rise since 2013. One recent poll showed that nearly 40% of Britains more than 250,000 Jews would seriously consider leaving if Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn became prime minister. Rising anti-Semitism is not unique to Britain and has also cast a pall over U.S. politics. Soon after taking office in 2017, President Trump was faced with how to react to the deadly demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va., at which neo-Nazis chanted, Jews will not replace us. Trumps response was that there were fine people, on both sides of the confrontation. Last week, Trump claimed that the Democratic Party was anti-Jewish and anti-Israel as he blasted a House-passed resolution, proposed by Democrats, to stem controversy over remarks by freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) that many criticized as anti-Semitic. Falter was born and raised in England and, until recently, never really questioned his future here. But as a Jewish man, he feels it is becoming an increasingly unsafe place for members of his faith and cites one reason above all others: The election of Corbyn as Labor Party leader in 2015. Falter is among a growing number of British people who allege that Corbyn has failed to adequately speak out on the issue and not only root out perpetrators, but swiftly expel them from the party. Corbyn, an internationally focused socialist and vocal supporter of Palestinian rights, has campaigned throughout his career against Western imperialism and aggression. His allegiances with militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas, whom he controversially referred to as friends, have led to accusations of being a terrorist sympathizer. Although Corbyn ordered an independent inquiry into anti-Semitism in his party in 2016, critics say it was ultimately compromised and contend that Corbyns reticence to speak up more forcefully against those who express anti-Zionist views is borne out of a desire not to alienate himself from those on the left whom he is ideologically aligned to. But this also makes him an easy target for those on the right who see his failure to lead on this issue as deeply troubling. Falter believes Corbyn is turning the Labor Party into a place where racists can be at home. I personally feel very worried about my future in this country. One of the two political parties is infected with anti-Semitism, he said. Its totally terrifying. Britains Labor Party has repeatedly said it is committed to tackling the issue, but complaints continue to mount. Records show that between April 2018 and January 2019, the party received 673 complaints alleging acts of anti-Semitism by its members. Luciana Berger, a young Jewish member of parliament who was one of those who recently quit the Labor Party and joined the independent group, said she has received a barrage of hate mail and verbal bullying. One online troll was sent to prison after calling her Jewish scum. Last month, video published of Labor lawmaker Chris Williamson added fuel to the fire for those who believe Corbyn is either complicit through complacency or privately anti-Semitic himself. The close ally of Corbyn was caught on camera telling local Labor activists that the party had given too much ground and been too apologetic over the anti-Semitism issue and that Labor was being demonized as a racist, bigoted party. He later said he deeply regretted his comments and was suspended from the party. It is impossible to overstate the damage that the anti-Semitism accusations are having on the Labor Party, said Matthew Flinders, director of the Sir Bernard Crick Center for the Public Understanding of Politics at the University of Sheffield. The Jewish Labor Movement, an organization that has long been affiliated with the party, recently held a lengthy debate over whether it should cut ties, and the leader of the Labor Party in the House of Lords, Toby Harris, said in an open letter to Corbyn published Friday that the human rights probe was a political failure. The last time that the watchdog organization took action against a political party was during an investigation of the far-right British National Party regarding its whites-only membership policy. For the Labor Party to be in this position is nothing short of humiliating and a matter of great shame, Harris said. Corbyn backers counter that the issue has been overblown and say it is an attempt by rival politicians and right-wing news organizations to discredit their leader, who has presided over a huge groundswell in party membership, especially among younger voters won over by his promise to prioritize education, welfare and healthcare. Supporters say Corbyn stands by his principles, but some have soured over what they see as a failure of leadership over anti-Semitism as well as the chief crisis facing the country: how to deal with Brexit as the March 29 deadline when Britain is due to formally leave the European Union looms. I dont think this is a major embedded problem that has polluted the whole of the party membership and ranks. Its a relatively tiny proportion of Labor Party members that hold some incredibly worrying views, Flinders said. What I dont understand is why Jeremy Corbyn hasnt made a very clear and strong public statement about his view and the Labor Partys view on the issue. Address this quickly and effectively -- basically show some leadership. Boyle is a special correspondent. 7 quit Britains Labor Party, citing Brexit and anti-Semitism No one was more surprised than Rotem Sela when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to a short Instagram story she posted on Sunday. Sela, 35, an Israeli television host, had responded with pique to an interview in which firebrand Culture Minister Miri Regev darkly warned of the dangers posed by Arabs in the upcoming Israeli election. That prompted Sela to ask: When the hell will someone in this government broadcast to the public that Israel is a country for all its citizens? And every person is born equal. Arabs, too, God help us, are human beings. It wasnt long before she heard from Netanyahu. Posting a photograph of himself on Instagram against the backdrop of an Israeli flag, he wrote: Dear Rotem, an important correction: Israel is not a state of all its citizens. According to the nation-state law we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people and them alone. Advertisement Israeli TV host Rotem Sela was immediately subjected to a swarm of online abuse after she posted that Israel is a country for all its citizens, including Arabs. (Noam Revkin Fenton / Associated Press) Netanyahu, 69, added that his administration had invested in the Arab sector more than any other government. But that didnt quiet the furor over his remarks, which seemed to suggest that Arabs who make up about 20% of Israels population were second-class citizens at best. President Reuven Rivlin was quick to lambaste Netanyahu. We are being exposed to an unacceptable public discourse regarding Arab citizens, Rivlin said in comments appended to a long-planned speech Monday marking 40 years of peace between Israel and Egypt. There are no first-class citizens, and there are no second-class voters. We are all equal in the voting booth. Rivlin, whose post is largely ceremonial, had been an outspoken opponent of the nation-state law, which was approved by parliament in July. It declared Israel to be the nation state of the Jewish people and downgraded Arabic from an official language to one with a special status. Rivlin, 79, does not present an electoral challenge to Netanyahu, but the prime minister is facing a strong challenge from former army Chief of Staff Benny Gantz. In his campaign, Netanyahu has suggested that Arabs, who hold about 13% of the seats in parliament, would likely join Gantz in a coalition government. But Rivlin or even Gantz may not present the greatest threat to Netanyahu, who has dominated Israels political right for a generation. If he fails in his reelection bid, others in his camp are waiting their turn. Judy Shalom Nir-Mozes, 60, a politically-connected television and radio host and scion of the family that owns Israels widest distribution tabloid, told The Times she is mulling a run for leadership should Israels political stalemate result in another round of elections in the near future. Shalom Nir-Mozes, a member of Netanyahus Likud party who has long been viewed as a potentially formidable candidate, said her greatest disappointment in Netanyahu is that he is tearing society apart instead of bringing us together, like a leader should. When I am prime minister, she said, the first thing Ill do is seek out what unifies us. Netanyahu embraces the ultra-right in effort to stop the left Election day is April 9, and recent polls have shown the right-wing Netanyahu neck-in-neck with centrist rivals led by Gantz. The rights of Israels non-Jewish, Arabic-speaking minorities, including Muslim, Christian and Druze citizens, have been a hot-button topic since passage of the nation-state law, which is the target of several still-pending Supreme Court appeals. Sela, who has 835,000 Instagram followers, was immediately subjected to a swarm of online abuse after she published her post. Later Sunday, Netanyahu tried to explain his comments. Speaking to his Cabinet, he said he wanted to clarify a point that, apparently, is not clear to slightly confused people in the Israeli public. Israel is a Jewish, democratic state, he said. This means that it is the national state of the Jewish people alone. Of course it respects the individual rights of all its citizens Jews and non-Jews alike, but it is the national state, not of all its citizens, but only of the Jewish people. The comments come during a turbulent period for the prime minister, who is fighting multiple corruption charges the attorney general plans to file sometime before the election. After the latest comments, even Wonder Woman piled on. Gal Gadot, the Israeli star of the Wonder Woman franchise, posted on Instagram that Selas remarks about the status of Arabs in Israels political discourse were an inspiration. Tarnopolsky is a special correspondent. In the biblical book of Jonah, God wants to destroy the city of Nineveh because of its wickedness, but Jonah begs him to have mercy, and he relents. Today, what was once Nineveh is the eastern half of the Iraqi city of Mosul, where a version of the biblical story has played out again. In the siege that drove Islamic State militants from Mosul, the east side was largely spared. For the record: This article misstates the biblical story of Jonah, who did not beg God to have mercy, but rather delivered a warning that the inhabitants of Nineveh heeded, causing God to spare them. The west side is an entirely different story. If it were possible to stand at the center of the Tigris River where it bisects this ancient city, once the crown jewel of Islamic States conquests, the view might bring to mind an oft-repeated cliche: Mosul has become a tale of two cities. Advertisement Looking east, youd see crowded restaurants and casinos, the riverside cafes where men suck on water pipes as they play cards with gusto. The smoke of a dozen barbecue joints would waft over the area, and at night, cars would jostle for space on a brightly lighted thoroughfare. Look west at night, and youd see very little. The west lacks electricity, and even if there were power, there are no street lamps left standing. Sunlight unmasks this right bank of Mosul as a topography of rubble, the crushed remains of the thousands of buildings that once stood here. Its a cityscape scrubbed out with a gray-brown brush, where residents casually walk past a skull peering from a head-high mound of rocks, rebar and trash. It was in 2017 that more than 100,000 Iraqi troops and militiamen, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, routed the Islamic State fighters who had made Mosul their Iraqi capital. The riverfront neighborhood on the western side, a warren of alleyways and closely stacked buildings known as the Old City, was the site of the militants last stand. It was smashed. After 277 days of combat, culminating in what then-Defense Secretary James N. Mattis called the use of annihilation tactics by the U.S.-led coalition, Islamic States three-year reign was over. Entire neighborhoods were destroyed, the bulk of them in west Mosul, with tens of thousands of people dead, many buried under the ruins. For many, a year and a half later, the victory is still a Pyrrhic one, with authorities doing little to help those who had suffered under the extremists rule to rebuild their shattered lives. Its a scenario that is replicated throughout much of the country. But nowhere are the stakes higher than in Mosul, Iraqs third-largest city, and nowhere are they so viscerally illustrated. One of the many cafes reopened in Mosuls revitalized east side. (Nabih Bulos / Los Angeles Times) East Mosul represents one possible future, a city restoring its place among the countrys and the Arab worlds top metropolises. Old buildings are largely intact, and new buildings, including a more than 300,000-square-foot project called Golden Mall, are being built. At the University of Mosul campus, students crowd coffee sellers on the street for a quick caffeine shot before class. One of the regions top academic institutions, the university was under Islamic State control for two years before Iraqi forces took it back in January 2017; two months later, classes were already restarting. Now, more than 30,000 students have returned, professors say. Nearby stores flaunt clothing and advertise wares proscribed during Islamic States rule, when the militant groups harsh interpretation of Islam made even the most quotidian matters fraught with danger. Everything you see here, we couldnt sell, let alone wear, said Saad Mohammad, a university student and clothing store worker. He gestured toward stacks of Turkish-made stovepipe pants, colorful shirts and leather jackets. These pants, too long. Our beards were all wrong. They gave us trouble over everything. The sounds of traffic burble up outside the store in the upscale Zuhoor neighborhood, whose streets are lined with storefronts doing brisk business among throngs of pedestrians. Its the absence of pedestrians that is striking over on the west side, where many roads remain inaccessible. Those that were reopened were the work of activists, not the government, said Ahmad Ayoub, the mukhtar, or head, of one neighborhood in the Old City. The western side has its history too. The Old City was where Mosul was first established, sometime after the fall of Assyria around 6th century BC. By the time Islamic State came, it had become the home of Mosuls poorer residents, a worn-down warren of narrow alleyways snaking through creaking buildings. Much of the Iraqi citys west side was ravaged in the battle to oust the extremists. (Nabih Bulos / Los Angeles Times) It now represents the Iraqi states return to old habits: ineptitude, corruption and heavy-handed practices that in 2014 drove Mosul residents to welcome the extremists as liberators. Getting rid of the militants required the most intense urban fighting since World War II. More than a year and a half after the offensive, tasks as urgent as removing millions of tons of rubble (much of it containing improvised explosive devices and other unexploded ordnance, not to mention body parts) are still confounded by problems both practical and bureaucratic. One recent morning, a crew from the United Nations Mine Action Service and personnel from G4S, a private multinational security company, assembled at the Khaled bin Walid school in Mosuls Old City. One small mistake and youre dead: Defusing bombs in Mosul Inside the school playground, an armor-plated bulldozer scooped up debris, then strewed it over a space cleared in the center. Four uniformed men stood in a line, then walked in step over the detritus in an awkward dance. A moment later, one of them raised his hand, gave a curt shout and pointed at a small lump of shaped metal a piece of unexploded ordnance left over from the offensive. A demolitions expert came for a closer look, declared it safe and plucked it from the rubble. Belts, 155-mm artillery shells, canisters with [55 pounds] of explosives, fuses, small bomblets for drones, recited one member of the demining team, pointing to a pile of ordnance recovered from the neighborhood in the previous three days. A nearby church site, he added, contained 53 suicide vests. Though everyone moved quickly, it was torturously slow work; at the present pace, the group expects the Mosul cleanup to take 10 years. And although the citys home province doubled its share of the 2019 federal budget to 2%, the work is chronically underfunded. Mosul cleanup is slow and underfunded. On the west side, a resident uses a cart to clear a path. (Nabih Bulos / Los Angeles Times) A message on the side of a building in west Mosul. (Nabih Bulos / Los Angeles Times) The government also has not provided compensation to residents for war damage, leaving many unable to rebuild their homes, said Bashir Hussein Fathi, a onetime Old City resident and member of Iraqs Communist Party. We think theyll offer a small sum thats a fraction of the value. Its like the proverb: From the camel they give you an ear, he said in a phone interview. Like most others here, the neighborhood mukhtar Ayoub has nowhere else to go. He cant afford the average $250 rent for an apartment on the east side. Other members of his family refused to help, he said, forcing him to return to the Old City and sleep in the ravaged husk of what was once his house. Meanwhile, despite the presence of the U.N., donor countries and international organizations, the government has done little to rehabilitate the infrastructure. In spite of those conditions, about 160 families have returned to Ayoubs Old City neighborhood. Still, he said, hundreds more would follow once schools such as Khaled bin Walid were reopened. Schoolgirls in the Old City quarter of Mosul learn how to deal with mines and other unexploded ordnance peppered throughout their neighborhood. (Nabih Bulos / Los Angeles Times) Many families that have come back send their daughters to the Hafsa Girls School, where 25-year-old Nuha Samir Mohammad, who works with the demining service, plays a game to teach the children to not play with things they find on the street. The children of Mosul talk about life under Islamic State. They saw things no child should see She lifts a laminated card with a picture of a goat. Goat! the class dutifully recites. Mohammad nods and says, We can touch a goat, in a singsong voice. She flips the card to a picture of an unexploded canister. Canister! shout the students. Again, Mohammad nods. This we shouldnt touch. Many parties blame the lack of progress on the governor of Nineveh province, Nofal Akoub; he is accused of obstructing aid efforts while facilitating the sale of millions of tons of scrap metal at rock-bottom prices for the benefit of the Popular Mobilization Forces, the Shiite-dominated militias that took part in ridding the city of Islamic State. A parliamentary investigative committee questioned Akoub about that deal, as well as real-estate repossession and the parceling off of state land. It has yet to release its findings. Meanwhile, Mosuls hard-won security after Islamic State is showing signs of fraying. On Friday evening, a car bomb detonated in east Mosul as the head of the citys National Security Service drove past. Two people were killed, including a 13-year-old girl, according to a police statement, and at least 10 others were wounded. It was the second car bomb in as many weeks, after a string of attacks in rural areas outside the city attributed to Islamic State. Hours later, civil defense crews had already cleaned up the site and the streets rhythm was returning. Another explosion will happen and life will go on again. We insist on living our lives, tweeted Bilal Mosuli, a nurse from the city. But he wondered how those who had placed the bomb knew of the security personnels movements. Till when will this joke continue? Till when do we keep on getting killed and our blood spilled? Business Digital TV restacking frequently asked questions(FAQ) | Soukacatv.com Digital Modulator 11.03.2019 08:13:56 - If your television is connected in this manner (through a coaxial cable), and the UHF frequency used by the RF modulator is very close to one of the new digital frequencies, the modulator may prevent you from receiving some Freeview|HD channels. (live-PR.com) - Here are answers to some frequently asked questions that arose during the Freeview frequency changes project. Why have the TV channel frequencies been changed? New Zealand has a certain amount of radio spectrum that can be used for communications, broadcasting and other services. Radio Spectrum Management (RSM) wants to make sure that radio spectrum is used as efficiently as possible. So some - Here are answers to some frequently asked questions that arose during the Freeview frequency changes project.Why have the TV channel frequencies been changed?New Zealand has a certain amount of radio spectrum that can be used for communications, broadcasting and other services. Radio Spectrum Management (RSM) wants to make sure that radio spectrum is used as efficiently as possible. So some of the digital television frequencies were restacked, which means that they have been moved into a narrower band. This means that the frequencies on which Freeview|HD is broadcast have changed and helped free up the 700 MHz radio spectrum band for new uses. The frequencies were progressively changed in 9 transmission areas across New Zealand from mid-2011 until mid-2012. HDMI Encoder Modulator,16in1 Digital Headend,HD RF Modulator at Soukacatv.com What are the frequency changes for Freeview|HD viewers? Freeview|HD services are broadcast from local transmission towers. The frequencies on which these services are transmitted have changed. Who is affected? The changes only affected viewers of the terrestrial service received through an UHF antenna i.e. people who watch TV through Freeview|HD. Will I need to purchase any additional equipment as a result of the change in frequencies? It is unlikely that you will need any additional equipment existing receivers will work satisfactorily if they meet the Freeview specification. As a first step, if you have problems in retuning your television, please see our trouble shooting guide. If the antenna was not upgraded to Freeview specifications when the household switched to digital, a few homes may need to adjust their antenna or provide an outside aerial. Is my VCR (or reception through my VCR) affected? Depending on how it is connected to the television, your VCR may have been affected. VCRs using audio and video leads are unaffected, however if you use a RF connection (typically a single coaxial cable), you may have needed to adjust the VCR output channels. Your VCR manual will explain how to do this. I use a personal computer to receive Freeview|HD, am I affected? Computers using PC cards or USB sticks generally use software programmes to select the wanted frequencies, and these will need to be set up again. There is unlikely to be an auto update function. Does this mean Ill need to push a different button to watch my favourite TV channels? No, the changes dont affect which buttons you use to see each channel. The frequencies that changed are those your TV uses to receive the Freeview|HD signal. I have a MyFreeview|HD digital television recorder, how should I retune? If you use a MyFreeview digital television recorder you should go through the same process as those using a standard Freeview|HD digital set-top box. Please note that your pre-programmed recordings may need to be rescheduled. I have an RF modulator in my installation, what should I do? The change in frequencies for Freeview|HD may have caused reception problems if your television aerial cable is connected via another device (VCR etc) that uses a radio frequency (RF) modulator. A RF modulator is a very low power radio frequency transmitter used solely in the aerial cables feeding a television. RF modulators are commonly used in VCRs, DVD recorders, some older SKY decoders, or to connect a SKY decoder into a television in a second room. HD Encoder To DVB-T RF Modulator Off-Air Signal And QAM Digital Modulator For USA Market Single HD To RF MEPG2 ATSC/QAM Modulator If your television is connected in this manner (through a coaxial cable), and the UHF frequency used by the RF modulator is very close to one of the new digital frequencies, the modulator may prevent you from receiving some Freeview|HD channels. The simplest solution to this problem is to connect your equipment to your television through a composite cable (two or three RCA connections, usually with a yellow video connection) instead of a coaxial cable. Users connected in this manner will not experience any problems. If your equipment does not have RCA connections, then you will need to change the output channel (frequency) of the RF modulator. You may need to change the output channel through the onscreen menu, or there may be an output channel switch or adjustment on the back of your equipment. (Try using Channel 42 which is well clear of FreeviewHD usage). You will also need to retune your television to this new channel. Please refer to your operating manual for further instructions. Established in 2000, the Soukacatv.com main products are modulators both in analog and digital ones, amplifier and combiner. We are the very first one in manufacturing the headend system in China. Our 16 in 1 and 24 in 1 now are the most popular products all over the world. For more, please access to 4 Fixed Channel RF Modulator CONTACT US Company:Dingshengwei Electronics Co., Ltd Address : BldgA,the first industry park of Guanlong,Xili Town,Nanshan,Shenzhen,Guangdong,China Tel : +86 0755 26909863 Fax : +86 0755 26984949 Mobile : 13410066011 Email : Website: Source:rsm.govt.nz of the digital television frequencies were restacked, which means that they have been moved into a narrower band.This means that the frequencies on which Freeview|HD is broadcast have changed and helped free up the 700 MHz radio spectrum band for new uses.The frequencies were progressively changed in 9 transmission areas across New Zealand from mid-2011 until mid-2012.HDMI Encoder Modulator,16in1 Digital Headend,HD RF Modulator at Soukacatv.comWhat are the frequency changes for Freeview|HD viewers?Freeview|HD services are broadcast from local transmission towers. The frequencies on which these services are transmitted have changed.Who is affected?The changes only affected viewers of the terrestrial service received through an UHF antenna i.e. people who watch TV through Freeview|HD.Will I need to purchase any additional equipment as a result of the change in frequencies?It is unlikely that you will need any additional equipment existing receivers will work satisfactorily if they meet the Freeview specification. As a first step, if you have problems in retuning your television, please see our trouble shooting guide. If the antenna was not upgraded to Freeview specifications when the household switched to digital, a few homes may need to adjust their antenna or provide an outside aerial.Is my VCR (or reception through my VCR) affected?Depending on how it is connected to the television, your VCR may have been affected. VCRs using audio and video leads are unaffected, however if you use a RF connection (typically a single coaxial cable), you may have needed to adjust the VCR output channels. Your VCR manual will explain how to do this.I use a personal computer to receive Freeview|HD, am I affected?Computers using PC cards or USB sticks generally use software programmes to select the wanted frequencies, and these will need to be set up again. There is unlikely to be an auto update function.Does this mean Ill need to push a different button to watch my favourite TV channels?No, the changes dont affect which buttons you use to see each channel. The frequencies that changed are those your TV uses to receive the Freeview|HD signal.I have a MyFreeview|HD digital television recorder, how should I retune?If you use a MyFreeview digital television recorder you should go through the same process as those using a standard Freeview|HD digital set-top box. Please note that your pre-programmed recordings may need to be rescheduled.I have an RF modulator in my installation, what should I do?The change in frequencies for Freeview|HD may have caused reception problems if your television aerial cable is connected via another device (VCR etc) that uses a radio frequency (RF) modulator. A RF modulator is a very low power radio frequency transmitter used solely in the aerial cables feeding a television. RF modulators are commonly used in VCRs, DVD recorders, some older SKY decoders, or to connect a SKY decoder into a television in a second room.HD Encoder To DVB-T RF ModulatorOff-Air Signal And QAM Digital Modulator For USA MarketSingle HD To RF MEPG2 ATSC/QAM ModulatorIf your television is connected in this manner (through a coaxial cable), and the UHF frequency used by the RF modulator is very close to one of the new digital frequencies, the modulator may prevent you from receiving some Freeview|HD channels.The simplest solution to this problem is to connect your equipment to your television through a composite cable (two or three RCA connections, usually with a yellow video connection) instead of a coaxial cable. Users connected in this manner will not experience any problems.If your equipment does not have RCA connections, then you will need to change the output channel (frequency) of the RF modulator. You may need to change the output channel through the onscreen menu, or there may be an output channel switch or adjustment on the back of your equipment. (Try using Channel 42 which is well clear of FreeviewHD usage). You will also need to retune your television to this new channel. Please refer to your operating manual for further instructions.Established in 2000, the Soukacatv.com main products are modulators both in analog and digital ones, amplifier and combiner. We are the very first one in manufacturing the headend system in China. Our 16 in 1 and 24 in 1 now are the most popular products all over the world.For more, please access to www.soukacatv.com 4 Fixed Channel RF ModulatorCONTACT USCompany:Dingshengwei Electronics Co., LtdAddress : BldgA,the first industry park of Guanlong,Xili Town,Nanshan,Shenzhen,Guangdong,ChinaTel : +86 0755 26909863Fax : +86 0755 26984949Mobile : 13410066011Email : ken@soukacatv.com Website: www.soukacatv.com Source:rsm.govt.nz Press Information: Dingshengwei Electronics Co., Ltd BldgA,the first industry park of Guanlong,Xili Town,Nanshan,Shenzhen,Guangdong,China Contact Person: Phone: 13410066011 eMail: eMail Web: http://https://www.soukacatv.com 11.03.2019 08:13:56 - Disclaimer: If you have any questions regarding information in this article please contact the author. Please do not contact Live-PR.com. We are not able to assist you. Live-PR.com disclaims content contained in this article. Live-PR.com is not authorized to give any information about content and not responsible for content posted by third party. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, joins deliberation with deputies from Fujian Province at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 10, 2019. (Xinhua/Li Xueren) BEIJING, March 10 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping on Sunday afternoon joined deliberation with deputies from Fujian Province at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress, China's national legislature. "[We] should create a favorable development environment for innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity," said Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission. China should seek momentum from reform and opening up, unleash to the maximum the whole society's power for innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity, and keep improving the country's influence and competitiveness in a world that is undergoing profound changes, Xi said. Xi stressed creating favorable conditions for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and young people, and establishing an acceleration mechanism for high-tech companies. He urged solid implementation of the policies and measures to encourage, guide and support the development of the private sector. Fujian must leverage the combined strengths of the special economic zone, pilot free trade zone, comprehensive experimental zone and the core zone of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and keep exploring new approaches, Xi said. Xi called for efforts to explore new ways for integrated development across the Taiwan Strait. The two sides of the Taiwan Strait should enhance economic and trade cooperation, infrastructure connectivity, energy and resource exchanges, and shared industry standards, he said. Cross-Strait cooperation and cultural exchanges should be strengthened, he added. Xi stressed the importance of implementing the people-centered development concept in the work on Taiwan, urging efforts to benefit Taiwan compatriots in the same way as people on the mainland are served. He encouraged listening to the voice of Taiwan compatriots and research on what other policies and measures can be introduced to bring them benefits. Xi said that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China, and it is necessary to ensure that no one in the country's old revolutionary base areas falls behind in the process of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. He called for adherence to targeted poverty alleviation and efforts to identify the root causes of poverty to enhance the effectiveness of anti-poverty measures. More efforts should be put into coordinating economic development with ecological protection, Xi said. Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning and Zhao Leji, all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, also joined deliberations with different delegations. Li, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, said formulating the foreign investment law is a major legislative task set by the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core. Deliberating with the delegation from Jiangsu Province, Li said the legislation is conducive to creating a first-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based and international, providing an even stronger legal guarantee for high-level opening up. Deliberating with the delegation from Tibet Autonomous Region, Wang Yang, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, called for efforts to further maintain law and order, improve the quality of poverty alleviation work, guarantee stability and peace of the plateau region, and ensure that people of all ethnic groups live and work in contentment. Wang Huning, a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, underlined the overarching goal of social stability and enduring peace in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region when he joined the delegation from the region for deliberation. He required earnest efforts to safeguard and improve people's wellbeing. Joining the delegation from Hainan Province, Zhao Leji, secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, called on efforts to accelerate developing the pilot free trade zone and explore building the free trade port with Chinese characteristics. He also demanded improving Party and state oversight systems to make sure various tasks are well implemented. Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2019 > Hanoi Summit on North Koreas Nuclear Issue: Implications and (...) by Sudhakar Vaddi As far as the Korean Peninsula is concerned, one can declare war overnight but cant declare peace and it can only be built through the gradual process of mutual trust among the parties. The second summit at Hanoi (Vietnam) on February 28, 2019 between the United States (US) and North Korea [officially the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK)] not surprisingly falls under this category. At the summit, though US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un failed to reach an agreement on denuclearisation, the meeting and goodwill gesture shown by the two leaders displayed advancement in their high-wire diplomacy. The first North Korea-US summit was held in Singapore in June 2018 where President Trump and Mr Kim agreed for the complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula. Subsequently, the US suspended the annual joint naval exercises with South Korea by saying those were highly provocative and expensive. As a reciprocal action, North Korea has not made any military provocation during this period and more than one year has passed since North Korea conducted its last missile test in November 2017. It also dismantled some of its missile and nuclear facilities including The Sohae satellite launch station.1 Nuclear Bargain During the Hanoi summit, the US demanded irreversible steps to scrap North Koreas nuclear arsenal, including dismantling its Yongbyon nuclear complex. Since North Korea has been pushed into a corner by the sanctions for its previous actions, during the summit, easing of the sanctions was given a top priority for Pyongyang. In fact, recently North Koreas request for humanitarian assistance from the United Nations to feed its people is a reflection of the grave situation of the impoverished country.2 Its external trade volume fell significantly with the exports ban on coal, steel, fisheries and textile products. As a result, the entire industrial production in North Korea has crashed. Further, due to the workers ban under the United Nations (UN) resolution-2397, other nations, including its trusted ally China, sent back tens of thousands of North Korean workers home, thus eventually cutting off another key source of hard currency for North Korea.3 At the summit, both parties expressed their points of concern but could not conclude any agreement this time. They thereby left an opportunity for the continuation of the dialogue. Perhaps, the Trump Administration is calculating that a nuclear agreement with North Korea could help to boost the Presidents chances for re-election in 2020. If this is true, then some tangible outcome may be expected before the US presidential elections next year. The point at this juncture is whether the international community or Washington can trust North Koreas efforts or not. Due to the severity of the imposed sanctions, factories have closed and military units are resorting to charcoal-engine vehicles and ox-driven carts for transport.4 Due to the existing economic turmoil, North Korea is seeking to ease some of the economic sanctions which would affect the ordinary peoples economy and livelihood. Pyongyang has been clear about what exactly it wants. It will not unilaterally disarm unless it receives something from Washington. They want a process in stages where they give a little and get something in return. It means that right now Pyongyang feels that it has done enough to warrant relief from sanctions. However, the US has also been clear on its stand by stating that sanctions relief would be possible only on the ground of complete denuclearisation. President Trump has been under huge pressure at home, with his opponents accusing him of selling away the massive US strategic advantage vis-a-vis North Korea in exchange for worthless concessions. Past Experience In the past, the goal of the outside actors, particularly the US, was somehow to bring North Korea to the negotiation table and set an agenda for North Koreas denuclearissation process. In fact, Washington exerted the policy of maximum pressure by imposing severe economic sanctions on Pyongyang through the UN. However, the confidence-building measures initiated by North Korea, including scrapping of a few nuclear and missile facilities and the ongoing inter-Korean rapprochement process, were unable to impress the conventional wisdom and hardliners of the US and they are still doubting the sincerity of the North Korean regime. However, by analysing the past experience it is seen that Pyongyang has a positive reciprocal track record with Washington. On September 27, 1991 President George H.W. Bush announced the removal of all US Tactical Nuclear Weapons (TNWs) from South Korea. Within a month, North Korea halted the reprocessing of spent fuel to extract plutonium.5 In early 1992, President Bush announced the suspension of the annual Team Spirit joint military exercises. That very day, a DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesman announced its intention to sign a safeguards agreement with the IAEA.6 This sequence of events in the past strongly suggests North Koreas willingness to accommodate the US on verification in return for US steps to end enmity through reciprocity. Conclusion Easing of some sanctions which are affecting the livelihood of North Koreans is an urgent point of need. It motivates the North Korean leadership for the denuclearisation process to move forward. Pyongyang has called for a step-by-step model, matching each denuclearisation act to a specific concession, which would be implemented over a longer timeline to ensure the stability of the denuclearisation process in the Korean Peninsula. We cant overlook that it took several decades for the US to accept North Korea as a negotiating partner and Pyongyangs ability to come up with a tangible solution to the nuclear crises in the region. In this perspective, the ongoing rapprochement formula would definitely yield a substantial outcome in the near future and certainly, the US holds the key to moving the peace process forward. Endnotes 1. It is believed that the Sohae satellite launching site played an important role in the development of technologies for the Norths intercontinental ballistic missile programme. Prior to this move, Pyongyang also dismantled its only known nuclear test site at Punggyeri in front of the world media in the month of May 2018. 2. The UN says North Korea has asked for help on food shortage, The Japan Times, February 22, 2018, at https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/02/22/asia-pacific/social-issues-asia-pacific/u-n-says-north-korea-asked-help-food-shortages/ (Accessed on February 23, 2018.) 3. The UN Resolution on North Korea https://undocs.org/S/RES/2397 2017, (accessed on December 4, 2018). 4. Choe Sang-Hun, Sanctions Are Hurting North Korea. Can They Make Kim Give In?, New York Times, April 20, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/20/world/asia/north-korea-trump-sanctions-kim-jong-un.html (Accessed on February 2 2019.) 5. Sang-Hyun Lee, Bushs Second-Term Korea Policy: Prospects and Options for South Korea, East Asian Review, Vol 16, No. 4, 2004, p.16 6. The US-North Korea Agreed Framework at a Glance, https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/agreedframework, (Accessed on January 30, 2019). Dr Sudhakar Vaddi is an Assistant Professor, GD Goenka University, Gurugram (Haryana). Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2019 > Imparting Creative Dimension to Marxist Criticism: The Role of Namvar (...) TRIBUTE by Prem Singh Professor Namvar Singh is no more. After battling with a prolonged illness, he drew his last breath on February 19 at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. In the tributes which immediately followed his demise, it was rightly noted that his death has brought an era to an end. His absence has generated an irreplaceable void in the literary world from which it will never recover. Namvar Singh was a tall figure in the world of Hindi literature and it would not be an exaggeration to say that he was an institution in himself. His impeccable writing style and the debates which ensued wherefrom kept the critical and creative landscape of Hindi alive for six decades. His profound interest in language was not restricted to Hindi but extended to all Indian languages. Along with Hindi, he was also proficient in Sanskrit, Apabhransh, Urdu, Bengali, English language and its literature. Namvar Singh was an eloquent rhetorician and this quality received the praise of even Mrs Indira Gandhi at an event. He enriched the literary traditions of scholarship in inimitable ways and such was his impact that his lectures have occupied an exhaustive literary space and continue to be debated in literary circles. Ashok Vajpayee has been quite apt in his tribute for Namvar Singh by describing him as a high ranking public intellectual. Namvar Singhs status can very well be attributed to his perseverant learning, profound understanding of the subjects and unique skill of oration which secured him invitations from important gatherings all over the country. Once, Prof Harish Trivedi candidly remarked that there are two types of seminars in Hindione in which Namvar Singh is present and the other in which Namvar Singh is not present. However, in the later days, his attention shifted from critical writing to the art of speech. He was often accused of changing his stance on an issue from one lecture to another. But despite such criticism the allure of his presence in the gatherings remained undiminished. Such personalities make rare appearance in the literary world. He continuously wrestled on literary beliefs/values/canons with the most prominent figure of the modernist school, Agyeya. Namvar Singh was the only critic from the progressive camp who, when it comes to the establishment of personality cult, gave a tough fight to Agyeya. Agyeya has written commentaries on the phenomenon of personality, particularly the uniqueness of literary personality. He gave enough self-expressions too. Agyeya was particularly cautious of the cult of literary personality. Namvar Singh was not seen as making conscious efforts in such a direction. In reality he never gave into self-expression. Despite such immense popularity, intimacies and high public attendances, he maintained a distinct, neutral and objective personality which struck a chord with the people. Krishna Sobti has written about his personality in the following words, in the personality of Namvar Singh a reflection of boththe protagonist and the antagonist can be seen. It is not that he is oblivious of the significance of being Namvar but what is worth noting is that he preserved his persona not with pride, rather with grace and dignity. In his context, self-glorification was unheard of. (Ham Hashmat2) As a teacher myself, while teaching his critiques in the classroom, I have found that the students in addition to his body of critiques also display curiosity in his graceful personality. In the words of his own students, Namvar Singh was an exemplary teacher. His efficacy in text-editing, knowledge of languages, curriculum designing, research-supervision, journal-editing and other such academic works was of extraordinary proportions. The domain of critical work generated by Namvar Singh is wide. In books such as Chhayawad (1955), Itihas aur Alochna (1957) Kahani-Nayi Kahani (1964), Nayi Kavita Ke Pratimaan (1968), Doosri Parampara Ki Khoj (1982) Vaad, Vivaad, Samvaad (1989), and other such books of criticism, including the journal titled Alochna, eight edited books, his periodic interviews, lectures, bear witness to his range and profound depth. In criticism he is known for Vaad Shaily (argumentative style). He himself gave endorsement to this fact. He created many controversies about literary values and beliefs. He also gave rise to controversies about his predecessors and contemporary authors and critics. Many a time, controversies have arisen over his own role in different fields. However, this is not the place for delineation of those disputes. It is also true that the controversy-loving Namvar Singh at times used to refrain himself from attracting certain controversies. For instance, when the Hindi literary world was taken by a storm due to the works of the renowned Dalit critic Dr Dharmveer, Namvar Singh refused to partake in the controversy citing that opposing Dharmveer would further strengthen Brahmanism. He took this stance when some of the Marxist critics were proclaiming Dr Dharmveer to be fascist. The figure of Namvar Singh has been controversial. On the occasion of his 89th birthday in 2016 Namvar Singh attended a programme, organised in his honour, by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) even in the regime of the present BJP Government. He was ostracized from the All India Progressive Writers Association (AIPWA) for this act. In the wake of the authors decision to return the awards as a protest against the increasing intolerance in the society, Namvar Singh once again kept himself at bay by describing it as not the proper way of protest by writers. Some Marxist scholars even described these two incidents as the culmination of Namvar Singhs journey from Red to Saffron! In fact the same allegation was leveled about 15 years ago in an editorial of Alochna by Namvar Singh against Ram Vilas Sharma based on the latters writings. Nonetheless, Namvar Singh as a critic is important. Attendance in a particular event or friendship with a particular person cant be the basis of any scholars assessment. The body of criticism produced by Namvar Singh will be the basis of his evaluation and vision. Namvar Singh has made an important contribution in the era of post-Ramchandra Shukla criticism, which has been accepted in many ways by his later critics. He played a consistent and important role in curbing the Communist culmination of the Hindi Marxist criticism. For this he has been accused of being formalist-impressionist. But he courageously employed meaningful aspects/insights available in the formalist-impressionist criticism to loosen the knot of Marxist criticism. Thats why he would be known for imbuing a creative dimension to the Marxist criticism in Hindi. After reading his body of criticism, it feels that he is not just a charioteer illuminating new paths of literature, he is also a reader, the sahriday, a kindred term found in Sanskrit poetics. Such people seek and attain the depth of life before engaging in a formal study of literature. This is the main foundation of Namvar Singhs body of criticism. It can also be due to the effect of his Guru, Hazariprasad Dwivedi, on his being as well of his beloved poet Muktibodh, who has said, Critics should not take their eyes off the life. Namvar Singhs own poet-heart has also played a role in the formulation of his position as a critic. Perhaps it is a critic like him who can say that the criticism is equal to the composition. Namvar Singhs identification and contri-bution as a scholar was not restricted to the world of Hindi. In addition to literary criticism, he undertook serious study of disciplines of social sciences. From Marx to Gandhi and Lenin to Lohia he engaged in a serious reading/learning of modern political thinkers. That is why he gained respect of the scholars of other disciplines and he used to get invitations as a speaker. Senior Hindi journalist Prabhash Joshi organised a series of talks/symposiums called Namvar Ke Nimitt (in lieu of Namvar Singh) to mark his 75th birthday on an all-India basis. It received audience in large numbers and also saw scholarly lectures on many subjects. Here I would like to make a fond recollection. On completion of the eighty years of Namvar Singh, a two-day seminar was organised in his honour in DAV Girls College, Yamuna Nagar, Haryana. Professor Bhim Singh Dahiya, the former Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University and the Principal of the College, Dr Sushma Arya, had made all arrangements. Namvar Singh attended the programme but expressed his wish to not make a speech. However, at the end of the last session, teachers of both Hindi and Englishwho were in attendance in large numbersrequested him to address them. And when Namvar Singh began his oration it was like a downpour of words and he addressed them for a long time. That long speech was unforgettable much like many of his previous speeches. On that occasion, I wished him that may his good health and life endure much like his words. Namvar Singh lived a long life and paid his dues. In 1959, he contested for the Lok Sabha from the Chandauli constituency as the candidate of the Communist Party of India (CPI). It is learnt that his last wish was that his mortal remains be kept in the premises of Ajoy Bhavan for some time after his death. It goes without saying that Namvar Singh owed allegiance to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy as a citizen and as a scholar. His writings will carry further these principles. A solemn tribute to the stalwart of Hindi criticism! The author, a former Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, teaches Hindi at Delhi University and is the President of the Socialist Party (India). Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2019 > Christian Colonial Impacts and Sustainable Reparations by Ava Sturm Colonialist exploits have existed for centuries. Despite this, the awareness of the impacts of recent exploits have increased and their impacts continue with the globalised capitalistic system. This paper explores the spiritual roots of the Christian capitalistic colonial exploits which have provided the foundation for the knowledge system under which these systems have been perpetuated, and the subsequent spiritual disenfranchisement experienced by indigenous peoples of both India and Canada. Because the Western capitalistic knowledge system remains dominant, colonialism remains a reality in both Canada and India and thus the question of reparations has been brought to light. The politics of reparations are examined, with examples from both Shashi Tharoor and the Self-Governing Yukon First Nations. Issues pertaining to sustainability and reconciliation are spiritually located, and the importance of self-determination in the light of colonial oppression are also examined. Colonial Motivations in Canada and India Christopher Columbus was a Portuguese adventurer seeking a westward sea route to India. [Ref 1] This journey was one of colonisation and evangelisation, supported by Ferdinand II and Isabella I, monarchs of Spain. [Ref 1] This evangelical effort was to be effected through learning about Indian people in an effort to properly convert them to the holy Christian faith.1 Though in reality Columbus did not reach India, but rather the eastern shores of present-day North America, he was the catalyst to a colonial effort which, according to historian David Stannard, was the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world. [Ref 1] However, eventually European colonial efforts found a sea route to India, with the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama rounding the Cape of Good Hope and reaching India in 1498. In the years following, conversion efforts in India were undertaken by Saint Francis Xavier, with minimal progress until the mission was taken over by Father Roberto de Nobili. [Ref 1] The minimal success of conversion was attributed to the missionaries lack of under-standing the mindset of the Indian people, and thus it was approved by the Society of Jesus in 1606 to study Hinduism to better understand the Indian people and thus market Christianity in their terms. [Ref 1] The centre of this effort was in Madura, and while following the social habits of Brahmins, Nobili spent many years learning and eventually participating in the established practice of Sastrarthavedadebating religious topics before an audience. [Ref 1] Despite this large effort to uphold the Christian doctrine in terms of the Upanishadic thought, and the respect from many Brahmins of the court, most Hindus were not willing to follow this effort and Nobili returned to Rome. [Ref 1] It is thus evident that Hinduism was recognised to a certain extent as a valid religion given the efforts to conform to the mindset of the Hindus. Though Hinduism has a long-standing oral tradition, at this time accepted canonical texts such as the Vedas and Bhagavad Gita would have been in circulation and thus provided a certain level of credibility to the Christian mindset. This mindset is largely reliant on orthodoxy and thus informs the textual authority derived from Biblical authority which in turn informs the authority of Western knowledge. Despite the presence of canonical texts, conversion was still prioritised but some validity was given in that the colonisers attempted to adapt Christianity to Upanishadic thought. Hinduism had deeper roots than the Christian colonisers expected, thus it was able to be rejected. [Ref 1] Such critics of missionary efforts include Swami Vivekananda, who stated that Christianity wins its prosperity by cutting the throats of its fellow men. At such a price the Hindu will not have prosperity... Blood and sword are not for the Hindu, whose religion is based on the laws and love. [Ref 1] The use of the word religion to describe Hinduism indicates that it is well-established and authoritative. This same authoritative recognition of indigenous spiritual beliefs cannot be said in the case of Christian conversion attempts in colonial Canada. Though having established spiritual beliefs, Canadian indigenous peoples have a largely oral tradition. Thus, its lack of textual authority may have contributed to the ease in which indigenous people were dehumanised and invalidated. In the mindset of the coloniser, this justified hundreds of years of genocide. This was enacted through claims of racial superiority and self-righteous Christian truth. [Ref 1] With the decline in Portuguese power, Catholic missions also declined in India and were replaced by evangelical efforts of the Protestant churches of England. [Ref 1] The British Government of India helped missionaries, and encouraged them to work among the backward tribes. [Ref 1] As these are considered to be the indigenous peoples of India, there is certainly similarity with reference to the experience of the indigenous peoples in Canada. Though Canadian indigenous peoples and the people of India had distinct experiences, what remains similar is how Christianity, land possession, and capitalistic exploitation worked hand in hand in creating colonial states and mindsets of economic prosperity over all. The Christian Mindset It is evident that Christianity played an inseparable role in colonial expansion. This is necessarily implicated in the production of a certain mindset. It has been proposed that many issues the world is facing are not solely environmental, social and economic but much more deeply rooted in spirituality and subsequent mindset production. The way in which the world is studied and categorised, though providing ease of understanding and learning, in actuality serves to disconnect issues from one another and from their root. Gus Speth, founder of the Natural Resources Defence Council and Dean of Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, explores this perspective: I used to think that top global environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and climate change. I thought that with 30 years of good science we could address these problems, but I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed, and apathy, and to deal with these we need a spiritual and cultural transformation. And we scientists dont know how to do that. [Ref 2] Speth is not alone in this thought. One must look only to indigenous leaders to find similar perspectives on the disconnect of people from the categorised issue of climate change. Take, for instance Chief Seattle, Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself [Ref 3] It is thus evident that these issues go much deeper than science, but in the minds of the people who share in collective identity which is informed by and reproduced through spirituality. Given that efforts were largely motivated by evangelism and Christian conversion, the mindset derived from this Christian thought, which justified the colonialism synonymous with genocide and exploitation, must be brought into question. One must only look to the creation story, Genesis 1, to find the roots of such a mindset. Genesis 1: 28 states God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. [Ref 4] This story thus provides a narrative which informs a mindset of possession and entitlement: land, Earths resources, and authority over these things. This is a stark contrast to the mindsets created by and through indigenous knowledge systems around the world. This is evident in Chief Seattles comment that humankind does not stand outside the web of earths ecosystem but within it. Indigenous peoples lived in a harmonious relationship with the land and with physical, spiritual, emotional and intellectual well-being. [Ref 5] This othering of humans from the environment necessarily creates a hierarchy where anthropocentrism, environmental racism and sexism are tied to colonial assumptions grounded in a history of ecological subjugation [Ref 6] Post-colonial ecology has thus emerged to better explore the nature of this relationship of colonial humans with the natural world. This further supports the assertion that ecological issues are not rooted in science alone, but are necessarily products of colonial exploitation: ... post-colonialisms concerns with conquest, colonisation, racism and sexism, along with its investments in theories of indigeneity and diaspora and the relations between native and invader societies and cultures, are also the central concerns of animal and environmental studies. [Ref 7] This hierarchical perspective on the relationship of humankind with the environment is thus deeply spiritual. At the time of Spanish conquistadors, spiritual power was understood as wealth, and therefore colonial conquests in the name of religion were undertaken. [Ref 5] This idea of wealth was perhaps translated by Columbus in stating the wonder of gold as a way to open the soul to paradise. This mindset thus clashed with existing indigenous cultures in the Americas and continues to create a conquest of wealth and division of spirit. [Ref 5] As European explorers and Spanish conquistadors continued their colonial expansion, governments and corporations formed which served to continue the erosion of indigenous knowledge and ways of living and being. [Ref 5] The traditional way of life was challenged with the deliberate introduction of diseases, values, technology, and material culture. [Ref 5] Thus, the hallmarks of Western knowledge such as economic growth, land possession and textual authority are rooted in Biblical authority. Missionary efforts to change the values of the so-called savages were initially well-received as indigenous peoples had existing spiritual beliefs and believed the missionaries were heavenly people. This quickly shifted to a loss of trust as missionaries enacted hundreds of years of cultural genocide which continues to have inter-generational traumatic effects on Canadian indigenous populations in continuing cycles of abuse and isolation. [Ref 5] Evidently, colonialism has lasting impacts which stem from a deliberate imposition of a vastly differently-founded knowledge system. Reparations Post-Colonisation A distinctive difference between the Indian and Canadian contexts is the lasting nature of colonialism. In Canada, indigenous peoples were, and continue to be, affected by settler colonialismit is an active process to this day. In India, the nature of colonialism was exploitative, as it was in Canada, but the colonisers did not settle. Though India did not experience settler colonialism and thus it could be argued that the colonial experience was not as impactful, many Indian people, informed largely by nationalism and anti-colonialism, believe that Britain owes India reparations. The prominent figure of this movement is Indian politician Shashi Tharoor, who delivered a powerful speech at the University of Oxford that subsequently produced large anti-colonial and nationalist reactions among the Indian people. In the debate, Tharoor states that British colonialism decreased Indias share of the world economy, and de-industrialised India to support the British industrial revolution. [Ref 8] He says specifically, that social traditions and property rights were undermined, and thus issues persist with ethnic/religious tensions due to this colonial experience. He suggests reparations as a means to atonement, not empowermentthat it is enough to simply state and accept that reparations are owed. [Ref 8] Though a very powerful message that resonates with the experience of many Indian people especially in terms of nationalist identity, the politics of reparations are difficult to navigate. One must ask what apologies realistically accomplish other than obtaining the moral high ground. If the argument is that people continue to suffer due to the impacts of colonisation, how will an apology help this suffering unless it is active? His argument is largely based on the military contributions of India to Britain in the World Wars, but also mentions the social and spiritual tensions between ethnic groups that have resulted because of colonisation. [Ref 8] Tharoors message has certainly been a tool to stir guilt, with no proposed productive avenue to give people the means to move forward from colonial impacts. He makes a valid point in that no monetary sum could adequately represent the loss of lives and social/spiritual capital. However, for many this does not negate the need for action. The type of action that is needed is not action that exists within the Western colonial knowledge systemthat is the whole problem in the first place, and would serve only to perpetuate neocolonialism. The type of action needed will be further explored in the Canadian context in a subsequent section. Though it was mentioned that India was not a settler-colonial nation and thus may have had a different experience in terms of colonial impacts, a study by Lakshmi Iyer of Harvard Business School finds that areas of India which experienced direct British rule continue to have lower access to education, healthcare, and infrastructure. [Ref 9] This ultimately contributes to poverty, and higher infant mortality rates. Despite this, Iyer notes that explicit post-colonial policies designed to equalise access to schools, health centres and roads can be a means in which the impacts of this colonial governance period can be reduced. [Ref 9] It is thus evident that specifically targeted work must be done to address the impacts of colonisation on certain populations. To further explore the politics of reparations, the Canadian context can be used as a means to compare ideas of what reparations can realistically do. In recent years, reconciliation with indigenous peoples has been at the forefront of Canadian politics. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has offered numerous apologies for the atrocities which indigenous peoples have undergone under colonialism that led to the creation of the nation, Canada. Despite what Tharoor suggests in his speech, apologies never go far enough and do not produce the change that is needed to address the lasting realities of colonialism. Self-Governance: An Avenue for Reconciliation? As aforementioned, many issues of the world are informed by the capitalistic, colonial mindset which has served to exploit and spiritually disenfranchise indigenous peoples in both Canada and India. Any amount of reparation accomplished by the Western capitalistic knowledge system will thus only serve to reproduce colonial ideas and provide solutions within the colonial knowledge system. In Canada, this issue is being addressed through efforts in self-governance. The Indian Act, which served to largely keep indigenous peoples in place within this knowledge system, has been destabilised and ceased to have authority in areas such as Yukon, a Canadian territory. It has been replaced with Self-Governing Yukon First Nations (SGYFNs). SGYFNs are autonomous, recognised government bodies with rights and benefits, and power over the land, resources, and management. [Ref 10] Beginning in 1995, this system has been thriving in many First Nations communities, mainly in the Yukon territory. Those who participate report pride in having the ability to determine their futures through their principles, values, language, and overall traditional government. It is an opportunity to become self-sufficient and thus sustainable, in creating and restoring a strong cultural community while sitting at the same table as federal and provincial governments. [Ref 11] Conclusion Colonialism, though often treated as history, has had lasting impacts in both Canada and India. Although the experience is distinct not only between these two nations, but also within the diversity each of these nations houses, it nonetheless has contributed significantly to a spiritual disenfranchisement with the impo-sition of Christianity, capitalism and the overarching dominant knowledge system. Because this knowledge system remains dominant, the impacts of colonialism continue to be realities. It is thus evident that reparations should occur to address these lasting impacts. The Self-Governing Yukon First Nations (SGYFNs) provide an example of a means in which reparations can occur: they must occur from the people and for the people. Self-determination is crucial if colonial impacts are to be equitably addressed in working toward meaningful, sustainable solutions. It is evident that many issues that have been raised concerning colonial capitalistic exploitation such as climate change are due in part to clashing mindsets and the location of humankind outside the network of Earths environment. Sustainability is thus a spiritual issue, and through reparations where self-determination and self-governance is allowed, social and spiritual capital can be restored to those who have been disenfranchised by colonial exploits. References Expression of Christianity with a focus on India, Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan Trust, 2006 The environmental crisis is not environmental. It is spiritual., NC Interfaith Power and Light, October 25, 2017, https://ncipl.org/environmental-crisis-not-environmental-spiritual/ Vombatkere, S.G., Pollution: Causes, Effects, Solutions, A Presentation at Vivekananda Institute of Indian Studies, May 31, 2018. The Bible. New Revised Standard Version. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1&version=NRSV Stimson, Adrian A., Two Spirited For You: The absence of Two Spirit people in Western culture and media, West Coast Line; Burnaby Vol 40, Iss. 1 (2006): 69-79, 119 Woynarski, Lisa. Locating an indigenous ethos in ecological performance, University of Reading, Performing Ethod, 5 (1&2), pp. 17-30 Huggan, Graham and Tiffin, Helen, Postcolonial Ecocriticism: Literature, Animals, Environment Routledge, 2010 Tharoor, Shashi, Britain must pay reparations to India. July 22, 2015. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-33618621 Iyer, Lakshmi, Direct versus Indirect Colonial Rule in India: Long-term Consequences, Harvard Business School, October 2008. https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/05-041_1feff996-f50e-4e5a-b057-e0119cd19a62.pdf Government of Canada: Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, Building The Future: Yukon First Nation Self-Government, http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1316214942825/1316215019710 GovCanIndigenous Peoples Setting Our Course: Yukon First Nations Self-Government, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e3ea0wmc30 Ava Isobella Maria Sturm grew up on Cape Breton Island, Canada. She is currently completing a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Mount Allison in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada, with a major in Religious Studies and minor in Biology. Her interests are focused on intersections of spirituality and healthcare in differing knowledge systems and how this informs healthcare practices and ideas of health. She attended a course on Science, Technology and Sustainable Development for academic credit at the Vivekananda Institute of Indian Studies, Mysuru, as part of the University of Mount Allison Study Abroad Programme on Indian Culture and Civilisation, in June 2018. She can be contacted at: aisturm[at]mta.ca Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2019 > Imran Khan Breaks Silence on Pulwama If Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khans televised address in the afternoon of February 19, breaking his silence on the fedayeen attack in Pulwama, is to be succinctly captured in a single pithy sentence, it is that he has thrown the gauntlet down at PM Narendra Modi. The real political thrust of the speech lies in taunting, challenging and threatening Modi in turn. It is a call to political duel where Imran Khan is confident that he holds the advantage. Imran Khan failed to condemn the Pulwama attackalthough Jaish-e-Mohammed had claimed credit for it. Imran Khan directly addressed Modi twice in his address. He first taunted Modi as a politician who is stuck in the past who still seemed to think that, as in the times of Mian Musharraf, he could get away by treating Pakistan as a whipping boy. Imran Khan reminded Modi that on the contrary, he is dealing with an adversary whose grit and vile will prove more than a match for him. In fact, he exuded a confident tone throughout and spoke resolutely without at any time getting agitated or indulging in any theatrical outburst. Secondly, Imran warned Modi not to venture into the dangerous path of ratcheting up tensions with Pakistan deliberately with an eye on the upcoming parliamentary poll in India in April-May. In particular, he put Modi on notice that any violation of Pakistans sovereignty and territorial integrity will draw forth retaliation. Imran Khan also warned Modi that a war will not necessarily be fought on the latters terms. In a chilling remark, he said Modi can start a war alright, but wont be able to end that war. Equally, in which direction this (war) will go, Allah know better. He may have reminded Modi that Pakistan is a nuclear power. Ironically, by doing so, Imran Khan also taunted Modi to live up to his recent inflammatory public remarks in the downstream of Pulwama attack to the effect that he would teach Pakistan a lesson. Bring em on!Imran Khan seemed to say with an amused look, while also patronisingly cautioning Modi at the same time that better sense... intelligence and wisdom should prevail. The dangerous thing here is that it is a call to duel from which Modi also cannot afford to be seen pulling back lest it marred his reputation for toughness and dented his credibility. Imran Khan spoke like a poker player who has nasty surprises in store. This is dangerous brinkmanship. Part of the reason could be the near-certainty that India will no longer be able to substantiate its allegation regarding Pakistans involvement in Pulwama. The Pakistani side should be quietly pleased that the bloody encounter in Pulwama on February 18 based on intelligence tip-off also would have removed the last definitive traces of any direct Pakistani involvement. Imran Khans speech contained three key elements. First and foremost, his pointed reference to the situation in Jammu and Kashmir is highly significant. He implied that India has virtually lost Kashmir due to the disastrous policies pursued during the last five yearsthe Modi Governments approach of one dimensional (state) oppression, torture and resolving issues through military. Imran Khan underscored in essence that Indian policies are at a dead-end in the face of a mass upheaval in the Valley. Curiously, Imran Khan did not even bother to repeat the usual mantra that Pakistans support for the Kashmiri people will be by way of extending political, moral and diplomatic efforts. Nor did he care at any point to appeal to the international community. There was a tone of triumphalism throughout in his remarksthat it is check-and-checkmate for India in J&K. Without doubt, the victory in sight in Afghanistan gives Pakistan a free hand now to turn to the Kashmir Valley. Significantly, Imran Khan twice brought in the analogy of Afghanistan. He hinted at the defeat staring the US in the face in the 17-year old Afghan war and the grudging admission by Washington lately that only through talks and negotiations with the Taliban can the Afghan problem be resolved. Of course, Imran Khan didnt say what brought about the military stalemate for the Americans and NATO in Afghanistannamely, Pakistans sustained backing for the Taliban insurgency. But his message is that a similar fate awaits India in the Kashmir Valley where also a stalemate is steadily developing on the ground. The stark implications of this reference to Afghan war shouldnt be lost sight of. Simply put, Imran Khan has just stopped short of threatening that Pakistan will fuel the insur-gency until fatigue sets in for the Indian side, which will then be compelled to come to the negotiating table to sue for peace and an honourable retreat by the Indian Army. In fact, right at the beginning of his speech Imran Khan reminded Modi that it is dealing with a new Pakistan with a new mindset and a new thought process. Interestingly, Imran Khan also concluded his speech by drawing the analogy of the Afghan warWe hope that like Afghanistan, this issue (Kashmir) will also be resolved through dialogue. No doubt, Imran Khans speech goes far beyond the Pulwama incident. The verbose MEA reaction picking holes in Imran Khans arguments is inadequate. There has to be a political response. Imran Khan does not expect talks with India before the end of this year at the earliest. Meanwhile, he estimates that the Modi Government has lost the plot in J&K and Kashmir has become Indias Achilles heel. We should expect much bloodshed during the coming months. Kashmir surges once again as the centre piece of Indias foreign policy. This is exactly the Pakistani game-plan, too. We could have anticipated such a turn of events politically, militarily and diplomatically. Ambassador M.K. Bhadrakumar served as a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service for over 29 years, with postings including Indias ambassador to Uzbekistan (1995-1998) and to Turkey (1998-2001). Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2019 > International Scholars Decry Attack on Freedom of Speech in (...) International scholars, including Noam Chomsky, James Petras, Angela Davis, Fredric Jameson, Bruno Latour, Ilan Pappe, Judith Butler amongst others, have signed a statement castigating the Modi-led government for creating an environment of fear through arrests, intimidation and violence. Under the aegis of Fresh Perspectives, USA, the academics from mostly the US and UK have expressed deep concern about the current environment in India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the alarming clampdown on every form of dissent in India. The full text of the statement, which appeals to all students, workers, educationists, writers, social justice activists, and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to take a stand on these human rights violations and demand immediate release of all imprisoned rights activists, reads: Since Narendra Modi took the Prime Ministers office in 2014, there has been an alarming clampdown on every form of political dissent in India. In recent months, the Maharashtra Police arrested several prominent human rights activists including Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha and others in the Bhima-Koregaon case. In a similar way, several years ago, Delhi University Professor G.N. Saibaba and political activist Kobad Ghandy were imprisoned on fabricated charges. All these social activists have a long history of challenging state violence and human rights abuses through democratic and constitutional means. Through their civil and human rights activism, they have become the voice of the voiceless, be it socially and economically marginalised communities, indigenous people, religious minorities, and victims of all kinds of oppressions in society. As public intellectuals, writers, and poets they took the responsibility to develop political awareness, critical thinking, and the notion of social justice among the general public. In Modis India, appalling attacks on Dalits (the so-called untouchables), Adivasis (the aboriginals of India), rationalists, Muslims and other religious minorities, and rights activists including human rights organisations like Amnesty International have continued and intensified. The Modi Government, as part of its long-term political agenda to establish the Hindu nation, has been using its authority to silence any voice that challenges its domination and repression. The government has been using legal and extra-legal methods to suppress democratic, rational, and secular forces. In recent years, the vigilante groups associated with the ruling party have killed several rationalists, journalists, and secularists. Moreover, the ruling party, by using its legal methods, has coercively detained and imprisoned public activists who are defending the fundamental rights of the people. To put them in prison the state first used its friendly media outlets to propagate the lie that these civil rights activists were conspiring to over-throw the Indian state. By concocting a series of conspiracy stories, both the Indian state and the Maharashtra Government worked together to put civil rights activists behind the bars under draconian colonial sedition law. These human rights violations raise questions of the responsibility of the international community and the global civil society in times of crisis. When the Supreme Court is unable to check the abuse of constitutional power and the judicial system cannot deliver justice to victims of state violence, then what should citizens do? With all these undemocratic and authori-tarian activities, the Indian state appears to be bulldozing its own Constitution that upholds fundamental democratic rights and secular values. Using all kinds of oppressive methods, the Modi Government is creating fear and appre-hension among the people who challenge its neoliberal economic policies and ultra-nationalist agenda. These are pressing questions that we, as civil/human rights activists, are very con-cerned about. We sincerely appeal to all students, workers, educationists, writers, social justice activists, and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to take a stand on these human rights violations and demand immediate release of all imprisoned rights activists. As citizens and immigrants, your voices play an important role in shaping public opinion in the campaign to free these wrongfully impri-soned activists. Your support to democracy, justice and free speech will help boost the morale of rights activists and democratic struggles in India. We invite all of you to actively participate in this global campaign and extend your solidarity with democratic rights activists. Signatories 1. Noam Chomsky, Laureate Professor of Linguistics, Agnese Nelms Haury Chair, University of Arizona, USA. 2. James Petras, Professor Emeritus, Department of Sociology, Binghamton University, USA. 3. Angela Y. Davis, Distinguished Professor Emerita, History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA. 4. Fredric R. Jameson, Knut Schmidt-Nielsen Professor of Comparative Literature, Duke University Literature Program, Duke University, USA. 5. Bruno Latour, Emeritus Professor, Sciences Po Paris, France. 6. Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor, University of California, USA. 7. Goran Therborn, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Cambridge, UK. 8. Donna Haraway, Distinguished Professor Emerita, Department of History of Consciousness, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA. 9. Mary Frances Berry Geraldine R. Segal, Professor of American social thought, and the Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania, USA. 10. Henry Veltmeyer, Professor Emeritus, Inter-national Development Studies, Saint Marys University, Canada. 11. Leo Panitch, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, York University, Canada. 12. James C. Scott, Sterling Professor of Political Science and anthropology, Yale University, USA. 13. Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics (emeritus), University of Ottawa; Director, Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), Montreal, Canada. 14. David McNally Cullen, Distinguished Professor of History and Business Department of History, University of Houston, USA. 15. Michael Burawoy, Professor, Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, USA. 16. Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Duncan Mellichamp Distinguished Professor Global studies and Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. 17. Erik Swyngedouw, Professor, Department of Geography The University of Manchester, UK. 18. Philip David McMichael, Professor, Department of Sociology, Cornell University, USA. 19. Enzo Traverso Susan and Barton Winokur, Professors in the Humanities, Department of History, Cornel University, USA. 20. Gordon Laxer, Professor Emeritus, Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, Canada. 21. Sourayan Mookerjea, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, Canada. 22. Jens Lerche, Reader in Agrarian and Labor Studies, SOAS, University of London, UK. 23. Cristobal Kay, Emeritus Professor, International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Hague, The Netherlands. 24. Stephanie Luce, Professor of Labour Studies, School for Labor and Urban Studies/CUNY, USA. 25. Christopher Chase-Dunn, Professor of Sociology, University of California-Riverside, USA. 26. Ruth Milkman, Professor of Sociology, CUNY Graduate Centre, USA. 27. Ronald H. Chilcote, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Political Science, University of California, Riverside, USA. 28. Jan Breman, Emeritus Professor, University of Amsterdam, theNetherlands. 29. Martin Doornbos, Emeritus Professor, Inter-national Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands. 30. Immanuel Ness, Professor of Political Science, City University of New York, Brooklyn College, USA, and Senior Research Associate, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. 31. Paul Le Blanc, Professor of History, La Roche College, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. 32. Krishna Rao Maddipati, Associate Professor, Department of Pathology, Wayne State University, USA. 33. Joy James F.C. Oakley, 3rd Century Professor of Humanities, Williams College, USA. 34. Roger Jeffery, Professor of Sociology of South Asia; Associate Director, Edinburgh India Institute, University of Edinburgh, UK 35. Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Distinguished Professor, Womens and Gender Studies and Deans Professor of the Humanities, Syracuse University, USA. 36. Paul Gilroy, Professor of American and English Literature Kings College London Strand Campus, London, UK. 37. John Hall James, McGill Professor of Sociology, McGill University, Canada. 38. Ronaldo Munck, Head of Civic Engagement, Dublin City University, Ireland. 39. John Harriss, Professor of International Studies, Simon FraserUniversity, Canada. 40. Richard Sennett, Centennial Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics, London, UK. 41. Gerardo Otero, Professor of International Studies and Sociology, Simon Fraser Uni-versity, Canada. 42. John Foran, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. 43. Marcel van der Linden, Senior Researcher, History, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 44. Deepa Kumar, Associate Professor, Media Studies, Rutgers University, USA. 45. Lise Vogel, Emerita Professor of Sociology, Rider University, USA. 46. Robin D. G. Kelley, Distinguished Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles, USA. 47. Mike Gismondi, Professor, Sociology and Global Studies, Athabasca, Canada. 48. Mukoma Wa Ngugi, Associate Professor of English, Cornell University, USA. 49. Raul Delgado, Wise Professor and Director of Development Studies at Universidad Auto-noma de Zacatecas, Mexico 50. Adam Hochschild, Author; Lecturer, Graduate School of Journalism, University of California at Berkeley, USA. 51. Alf Gunvald Nilsen, Associate Professor, Department of Global Development and Planning, University of Agder, Norway. 52. Jenny Bourne, Joint Editor, Race and Class, London, UK. 53. Radha DSouza, Reader, Westminster Law School, University of Westminster, UK. 54. Alfredo Saad-Filho, Professor of Political Economy, Department of Development Studies, SOAS University of London, UK. 55. Subir Sinha, Senior Lecturer, Department of Development Studies, SOAS University of London, UK. 56. Ilan Pappe, Professor of History, Director of the European Center for Palestine Studies, University of Exeter, UK. 57. David F. Ruccio, Professor of Economics, University of Notre Dame, USA. 58. Craig Calhoun, University Professor of Social Sciences, Arizona State University, USA. 59. Sitaramayya Ari, Professor, Biomedical Sciences, Oakland University, USA. 60. Afsar Mohammad, Associate Professor, Uni-versity of Pennsylvania, USA. 61. VR Veluri, Writer and Scientist, USA. 62. Suresh Kolichala, Writer and Linguist, USA. 63. Chandra Kanneganti, Writer (Poet and Short Story writer), USA. And others (Courtesy: www.thecitizen.in{) Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2019 > Pollution Threatens Villages, Saryu River COMMUNICATION Several villages in the Kesarganj block of Bahraich district (Uttar Pradesh) and nearby areas are seriously threatened by effluents released in a nullah by a sugar factory. Villagers said that this nullah later merges into the Saryu river which flows towards Ayodhya and is considered a very sacred river. The affected villages include Jhoparva, Itauwan, Lalpur, Jalalpur, Semripur, Parsonda and several other villages as well. Villagers said that several of their farm and dairy animals have died as a result of consuming this water. In addition they have observed several cases of many fishes in the nullah dying due to this pollution. When this writer went to see the nullah from as close a place as possible, the water was completely black from pollution. At first glance, it was clear that the pollution level was very high. The people in some of these villages already suffer from water contamination. The high levels of water contamination in the nullah will invariably have an adverse effect on their groundwater also and hence the problem of water pollution will worsen in this village. In addition a foul smell often comes from the factory which has been adversely affecting the health of people of villages like Jhoparwa adversely. People here say that their pleas for reducing the pollution caused by the sugar factory have been ignored so far and they are deeply worried by the possibilities of adverse effects on the health of people and farm animals. Hence the administration should take urgent steps to reduce the pollution hazards of this factory. If this is done, then the pollution of the sacred Saryu river will also be reduced. Bharat Dogra C-27 Raksha Kunj, Paschim Vihar, New Delhi-110063 Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2019 > Eighth March this year on a Different Note Eighth March is a day for women across the worldnot merely a day for celebration as is generally considered in the corporate sector, but a day to express solidarity with all the toiling and grassroots women, a day to protest against the discrimination and exploitation of women, a day to campaign for their rights for employment, livelihood, forest rights of adivasi women and, most importantly, for their security. However, this year in an ambience of violence, conflict, terrorism and warmongering, women in India feel more insecure as they are the worst victims of any kind of violence and war situation. The Pulwama terrorist attack on our CRPF jawans on February 14, 2019 (that killed 40 of them) has been condemned by peace-loving people the world over. Terrorism has no religion, it is a weapon to destabilise the country. What is the way to combat state-sponsored terrorism?that is a difficult question. There is no short answer for that, definitely the whipping of passions by screaming anchorpersons in television channels is not the sane way to react. Anti-Kashmir tweets by Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy or the Bajrang Dal activists asking the Islamic seminary, Darul Uloom, to expel Kashmiri students or creating an atmosphere of war through war-cries, talking and screaming of war on TV make us feel how correct is the US journalist, Molly Ivins, who said: Polarising people is a good way to win an election, and also a good way to wreck a country. That is why Pulwama has suddenly become the RSS number one poll issue, not the Ram temple. (The Times of India, February 22, 2019) The surgical strike by the Indian Air Force at Balakot has been projected as a strategy of revenge for our lost jawans. Revenge against revenge has become the war-cry. How have the women a reacted to such developments in the last few days? The women, who lost their near and dear ones, felt insecure and traumatised. On February 26, after the memorial service of her martyred husband, Bablu Santra, in West Bengal, his widow Mita spoke to the press with such restraint that exposed the heart and deep concern of a woman. She said that the air attack that was being planned should not lead to escalation of war. In that case there will be more widows like me on both sides of the border. However, instead of public praise for her for such a mature and courageous observation, she faced obnoxious trolls from people who foment jingoistic passions and she was accused of being disloyal to her martyred husband. When political parties are asking for evidence about the Balakot casualties, supposed to be around 300 according to some govenment and BJP sources, the wife and mother of a martyr of the Pulwama terror attack have openly cast aspersions on the exact number of casualties among the Pakistanis. (The Times of India, March 6, 2019) Geeta Devi, the widow of Ram Vakeel, one of the 40 CRPF jawans killed in the Pulwama blast, said: As evidence, we have received the bodies of our jawans after the Pulwama attack, but there is no such evidence of the airstrikes in Pakistan. Ram Vakeels sister, Ramraksha, even questioned the airstrikes in the following words: If there are claims that over 300 people were killed, then some evidence should be provided. How do we believe that the strikes occurred and the terrorists died? Similarly, Sharmistha Devi, a widow of another martyred jawan, Pradeep Kumar, expressed her dissatisfaction with the governments claims on the Balakot airstrikes on terror camps. Basically these observations make it clear that the suffering women do not want more sufferings, and realise that escalation of war does not solve the problem of terrorism, which is intended to create provocation for war. It needs courage for women across the world to sayNo war, we want peace! The moment women will talk about peace and Gandhian non-violence, they will be accused of being anti-national and unpatriotic. But the fact remains that women are the worst sufferers of violence, conflict, communal riots and war. They eventually lose their husbands, fathers, sonsthey are the greatest loser in such a frenzy of revenge. When in India women resolve to strengthen democracy, then the Right-wing ultra-nationalist jingoistic vision fails to differentiate between the Pak military forces, the powerless Pak Government and the Pak people at large who have been suffering due to the lack of proper democracy in their country. Who are the sufferers of terrorist attacks and bomb blasts within Pakistanin Lahore, Karachi and other places, resulting in deaths of hundreds of innocent children, men and women? They are the countless common people. Therefore women across borders must raise their determined voice to fight terrorism. But war is not the way to do so; it may help the political outfits but it devastates the economy and the lives of innocent citizens. It is in this ominous backdrop that the message for Eighth March this year must beNo War, Women Want Peace! The author is a Vice-President of the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW). Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2019 > Defence and Personality Cult From N.C.s Writings In the wake of the possibility of another Indo-Pak war breaking out shortly and the rise in jingoistic outbursts in the electronic media in particular, it is instructive to note what N.C. had written in his New Delhi Skyline in this journal following the 1965 Indo-Pak war. We are thus reproducing the New Delhi Skyline by N.C. written on November 16, 1965 that appeared in Mainstream (November 20, 1965). The many facets of the Shastri Raj provide a fascinating study in light and dark. If Sri S.K. Patil has returned from Washington with more pronounced bias for the Prime Ministers meeting with Mr Johnson, Sri T.T. Krish-namachari has just concluded a fruitful round of aid talks in Moscow. And both seem to have the blessings of Sri Shastri himself. The sudden collapse of the resistance to PL-480, so conspicuous in the Congress Parlia-mentary Party, is believed to have been due to the grim realisation that without imports from outside, and that too in large quantities, the food crisis cannot be staved off. The crucial significance of the coming year for every Congress leader is the overriding compulsion of the next General Elections, and none of them would like to face the electorate under the shadow of near-famine conditions, particularly when there would no longer be any Nehru to pull their chestnuts out of the fire. It is mainly on the strength of this pragmatism that Sri S.K. Patil could win the day and disarm opposition to PL-480 as impractical: more than that, he was able to convince the Prime Minister that without an openly friendly reference to the PL-480 deals, the US authorities might not relent from their present practice of month-to-month quota. In terms of political careers, this new approach to PL-480 has badly tarnished the image of the Food Minister himself. His help-lessness in implementing the oft-repeated assurances to catch the big food hoarders had already weakened his standing in the public eye. Now, his sudden volte face on PL-480 has further reduced his stature; for, even a large section of his partymen would ascribe it to his fear of being made a scapegoat in the coming hard days of food shortage. The humiliating way Sri Subramanian had to eat his words in Parliament about Sri Patil not having the brief to negotiate a long-range PL-480 deal in Washington has no doubt lowered him in the esteem of his party ranks, not to speak of the Opposition. Meanwhile, the question of Sri Shastris going to Washington in the near future is getting in-extricably interlinked with what the govern-ment would decide on the political future of Kashmir. Despite his assertion in Parliament that the government would not budge from its basic stand on Kashmir, Sri Shastri has left the door open by implying that he might discuss details connected with the case. It is clear that Sri Shastri will soon have to finalise his blue-print on Kashmir in consultation with his colleagues. While the foreign policy aspect of the Kashmir question will soon have to be re-defined, there has come up a sizable demandnot confined to the Swatantra or Left Communist circlesthat there should be rethinking on the internal structure of the Jammu and Kashmir State. It is understood that one of the proposals under the active consideration of the government has been put up by Dr Karan Singh, the present Governor of the State. According to this proposal, Jammu should be merged with Himachal Pradesh to form a new State of Vishal Himachal; Ladakh should be a Centrally-administered area; and the Kashmir Valley should form a strictly Kashmiri-speaking State. Working on this, some of those who are inclined to accept Sri Jayaprakash Narayans guidance, feel that a liberal dose of autonomy to the projected State in the Kashmir Valley might help to win over the moderate section of the Plebiscite Front leadership. In their opinion, this may be the only means by which a certain amount of politcal stabilitybadly shattered in the recent crisiscould be regained in the trouble-tossed Valley. While such issues regarding the Kashmir set-up are being discussed in New Delhi, there is as yet a conspicuous absence of urgency in the official quarters regarding the proposed Tashkent Summit. It is pointed out here although Sri Shastri was prompt in accepting Mr Kosygins offer of mediation, the prospect of such a move was considered remote at that time. The issue has once again become a live one with Mr Bhuttos announcement of Pak acceptance of the Soviet mediation: it is learnt in this connection that Rawalpindis readiness to go to Tashkent was conveyed to Moscow more than a week before Mr Bhuttos public announcement. Sri Shastris announcement that he would not go to Tashkent to discuss Kashmir but would do so if the entire Indo-Pak relations are taken up is interpreted by careful observers as a hint that he would not be averse to discussing some aspects of the Kashmir issue as part of an Indo-Pak package deal. Whatever be the outcome of the Pak Foreign Ministers trip, New Delhi is confidentparticularly after the experience of Sri Krishnamacharis missionthat Moscow would not hesitate to honour its commitment of large-scale defence aid to this country. Hence the handsome tribute paid to Indo-Soviet amity by the Prime Minister in Parliament. The report about the present Chief of the Army Staff getting an extension of service by one yearput out by a very responsible news agencyand its prompt official contradiction the very next day has touched off a fairly wide-spread discussion in the Capital as to the correct approach to the entire question of the role of the leadership of the armed forces in the recent conflict with Pakistan. In the height of the excitement of the war, it was but natural that the armed forces as a wholethe jawans as well as the Generals were praised in abundant measure, and quite rightly too: in fact, the popular admiration was so great that even the Left Communist leader, Sri Namboodiripad, expressed his exhilaration at the feat not only of the jawans but of the Generals as well as the political leadership directing them all. The feeling however is gaining ground in New Delhi today that after eight weeks of the Cease Fire, there should be a balanced assessment of the exploits of the armed forces, particularly of its leadership, during the three weeks of full-scale war. For, it is recognised as a sign of the robust health of a democracy that it can take a self-critical view of its own record, whether in the matter of diplomacy or of defence. While the armed confrontation with Pakistan could not be avoided and the full-scale Pak attack in the Chhamb sector of the frontier had to be warded off by our armed forces going into action, there were at the time genuine doubts even in responsible quarters about the desirability of making a counter-attack towards Lahore and the subsequent developmentsnot only political but military as wellhave only strengthened those doubts about the wisdom of such a strategy insisted upon by the Army command. Taking an overall picture, the impression is very strong in New Delhi that while our armed forces have been able to wipe off the shame of 1962, it would be a jingoistic exaggeration to claim that our Army leadership has put up a brilliant performance completely outshining the adversary: the capture of Lahore was not our military objective but that of Sialkot most certainly was; and Pak forces have not yet been dislodged from the Chhamb sector. Knowledgeable circles, not necessarily unfriendly foreign critics, believe that purely from the point of view of military strategy there was plenty of room for improvement. It is therefore natural that the mood in the Capital is that instead of making a hero out of the Chief of the Army Staff, what is necessary is a sober, sternly objective review of the performance of the entire command during the operations, assessing both the achievements of the collective leadership and the contribution of individual personalities placed in command. The recent award of Presidential honours to the military leaders is correctly regarded here as a token of the nations appreciation of the valour and sacrifice of the armed forces as a whole rather than as tributes to the merits of the individual officers so awarded: for, if anybody can be singled out for the unstinted gratitude of all sections of the nation it is the undaunted jawan and the intrepid IAF pilot. A noticeable feature of recent weeks has been a certain amount of personality build-up of the Chief of the Army Staff. While some in New Delhi think that this is perhaps inevitablethough not wholesome in the prevailing mood in the country, others have the feeling that General Chaudhuri himself should have scotched it. For instance, the almost infantile reference to him as one of the six leading tank warriors in the world, ludicrously doled out in the press, has never been contradicted by him, a point which could not possibly have escaped the notice of foreign observers. The decision on the part of the government to let two Service Chiefs meet the world press on the morrow of the Cease Fire to make a review of the entire war did strike many here as extraordinary; obviously such a job is normally the prerogative of the Defence Minister himself. Those who attended that news conference could not but carry back the impression that in marked contrast to the restraint and modesty displayed by the Chief of the Air Staff, General Chaudhuri seemed to be conscious of the kudos he should collect. It is but natural for New Delhi observers to be extra-sensitive on this score of personality build-up by the Army leadership. For, they have not yet forgotten the rather uncomfortable experience of 1962 when General B.M. Kauls craving for self-advertisementhypnotising a senior foreign correspondent into ranking him in the top ten who would succeed Nehruended up in the ignominious anti-climax with his historic flight from Bomdila. Perhaps the sobriety gained from that experience has prevented the spread of the fairy tale that some of the unsophisticated admirers of the Chief of the Army Staff have innocently been selling that he should be made a Field Marshal. No doubt, such fulsome tributes must be embarrassing to the General himself. A point which New Delhi has learnt under Nehru is that the boosting of the leaders of the armed forces does not necessarily strengthen our defence. Even today the defence equipment this country has been getting from friendly powers is on the strength of her political leadership and the policies they adhere to, and not because of the standing of the military leaders. If India has got the MIG and the submarine, it was not because of the standing of the chiefs of her armed forces but because of the prestige that her political stand could command abroad. Alternatively, one has only to recall that Pakistan could be lured into the Western military-alliance network thanks mainly to the machinations of its Army Chief who now rules that country. It is not without reason that Sri Krishna Menons very timely warning against the danger of militarism has been echoed in the most unexpected quarters, by no means friendly to Sri Menon himself. It is important to bear this in mind, because the country is not yet out of the woods, and a false sense of security bred by the glamour of the Top Brass may lead to complacency in the matter of defence. What New Delhi circles seem to prefer today is not the build-up of any militry figure but greater assertion of the political leadership over defence and of collective functioning of the leadership of the armed forces. If the lessons of the three weeks of war against Pakistan are to be properly learnt, it is that the fearless dedication of the jawan must not be allowed to be used as the capital for investment in any Personality Cult. (Mainstream, November 20, 1965) A man checks the wreckage of the airplane of Ethiopian Airlines (ET) which crashed earlier near Bishoftu city, about 45 kms southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 10, 2019. All 149 passengers and eight crew members aboard ET 302, bound for Nairobi, Kenya, are confirmed killed, the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) said. (Xinhua/Ethiopian Airlines) ADDIS ABABA, March 10 (Xinhua) -- All 157 people on board the Ethiopian Airlines (ET) flight that crashed earlier Sunday are confirmed dead, Ethiopian state television reported. All 149 passengers and eight crew members aboard ET 302, bound for Nairobi, Kenya, are confirmed killed, the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) said. The Boeing 737-800 MAX took off at 08:38 a.m. local time from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport and lost contact at 08:44 a.m., the airline said in a statement. Ethiopian Airlines has released telephone numbers for family or friends of those who may have been on the flight to call. In a statement, the Ethiopian Prime Minister's Office has expressed "deepest condolences to the families of those that have lost their loved ones" on the flight. The plane crashed near Bishoftu city, about 45 km southeast of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, the ET said in a statement. "Ethiopian Airlines staff will be sent to the accident scene and will do everything possible to assist the emergency services," the statement added. "We are currently confirming the details of the passenger manifest for the flight," the airline said. Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2019 > War is No Solution: It only Causes Loss of Near and Dear Ones by Purusottam Bhattacharya The terror attack carried out by the Pakistani outfit, Jaish-e-Mohammed, on the CRPF convoy on the Jammu-Srinagar highway at Pulwama in south Kashmir on February 14 is unprecedented. Forty CRPF jawans lost their lives. It is said that the Pulwama incident has taken the largest toll of lives of all the terrorist attacks made in Kashmir for the last 30 years. This attack has again highlighted the total failure of the Modi Governments Kashmir and Pakistan policy. What pains most is the fact that the jawans who were killed belonged to almost all States of India (twelve in all). The State that suffered the greatest loss is Uttar Pradesh (12), Rajasthan (5), and Punjab (4). Two jawans from West Bengal also lost their lives. All these forty soldiers are the sons of their families, or happen to be the husband, brother or father of someone. This tragedy brings back to mind the chain of events of the last thirty years. The two brave jawans of West Bengal who laid down their lives are Sudip Biswas of Nadia and Bablu Santra of Howrah. Their death is particularly painful to us, though the self-immolation of the other 38 are no less heart-rending. The question that naturally arises is: Was this blood-letting during the past thirty years really necessary? No doubt, Pakistans covert role is mainly responsible for these terror attacks in Kashmir. It was Jaish-e-Mohammed which immediately owned up the responsibility for the Pulwama attack. They were also involved in the attack on Pathankot airbase in January, 2015. And it is no secret that Jaish is nurtured by Pakistan. The United Nations has already dubbed Jaish as a terrorist organisation. India has been demanding for the last thirty years that the UN declare Jaish leader Masood Azhar a terrorist. But this has not been possible due to the opposition of China. Besides Jaish, two other active terror outfits, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, are also supported and helped by Pakistan. The role of Pakistan in terrorism in Kashmir has been widely discussed. It is further well known that Pakistan, especially its intelligence agency ISI, is carrying on a proxy war in Kashmir for the last three decades. It is also no secret that in the unremitting skirmishes between the security forces and terrorists, both sides are suffering casualties in thousands. Usually, after every incident like Pulwama there is a demand that strong steps be taken against Pakistanboth diplomatic and military. At Uri in Kashmir nineteen jawans lost their lives in a Jaish attack on an Army camp on September 19, 2016. The terrorists used both firearms and grenades. India retaliated by its surgical strike on September 29, 2016. This time, after Pulwama, India conducted an air attack crossing the Line of Control. But how far has it been effective? After Uri, it was claimed by the Modi Government that an all-out diplomatic offensive would reduce terrorist activities in Kashmir and, at the same time, Pakistan would be branded and blamed as a state promoting terrorism. The same trend is visible after the Pulwama incident. India is sharpening its attack on Pakistan, both bilaterally and internationally, against Pakistan. Globally, there is a storm of criticism against Pakistan. Especially, the Trump Administration has again made a strident demand that Pakistan control and ban the terror outfits and stop their activities. So, what next? Indias Kashmir and Pakistan policy is again facing a question. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his five years in office has failed to formulate a consistent policy on Pakistan. It has been a hesitant policy. The main problem is: India has to decide what its attitude should be toward Pakistan, what should be the direction of its policy. The internal politics of Pakistan is also a complicating factor. Add to this, the Modi Governments tit-for-tat policy on terrorism in Kashmir. India holds Pakistan responsible for endangering Indias national security and challenging her sovereignty and territorial integrity by its proxy war through the terrorists. From this position flows New Delhis policy on Pakistan, namely, that as long as terrorism continues there will be no talk with Pakistan. The previous UPA Government had made the separatist Hurriyat a party to Indo-Pak talks. But the NDA Government has clearly stated that inclusion of Hurriyat in the talks will endanger national security. The real danger, however, is the Modi Governments refusal to admit that Kashmir is a problem and it is a political problem. The government is trying to hide this truth and sidetrack the main issue behind the smokescreen of sovereignty, territorial integrity and nationalism. But what is necessary now is to begin talks anew with all stakeholders in Kashmir. The government can stick to its position that Kashmir is an inalienable part of India and still open dialogue with the Kashmiri people, treat them respectfully and seek a solution. The Pulwama incident reminds us of the necessity of realising that a merely military approach will not unravel the complex problem of Kashmir and bring a solution. This realisation is absolutely necessary after so much of blood-letting. To come back to Nadia again. In the midst of the charged atmosphere when revenge is being loudly demanded, one hears the voice of the widow of Bablu Santra, one of the martyrs of Pulwama. Hers is the voice of sanity which says: War cannot bring a solution. War can only make more mothers lose their children. Rather, the government should try to find a solution. But this cannot be through war. This is also nothing new. Near and dear ones of martyred jawans have expressed such senti-ments before. It is time to realise that by closing all the doors of negotiation and relying only on muscle power, more blood will flow. [Courtesy: Anand Bazar Patrika (Bengali)] Dr Purusottam Bhattacharya is a retired Professor and former Head of International Relations as well as erstwhile Director, School of International Relations and Strategic Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. ABS-CBN Integrated News and Current Affairs head Ging Reyes, and ABS-CBN Integrated Creative Communications Management head Robert Labayen From being previous winners at the New York Festivals (NYF), ABS-CBN executives Ging Reyes and Robert Labayen are taking on new roles in the prestigious contest as members of the 2019 Grand Jury for the NYF Television & Film Competition.Reyes, head of ABS-CBN Integrated News & Current Affairs, and Labayen, the head of ABS-CBN Integrated Creative Communications Management (CCM), join other award-winning industry experts from all over the world in judging the entries to the NYF. Reyes also sits in the 2019 NYF Advisory Board with 18 other esteemed leaders in media. A seasoned news executive, Reyes has more than 30 years experience as a broadcast journalist. She joined ABS-CBN in 1986 as a production assistant, rose from the ranks to become executive producer and head writer of the award-winning The World Tonight and other special events, and eventually, director for news production. Prior to her appointment as the news chief of ABS-CBN, she also headed ABS-CBNS North America News Bureau from 2002 to 2010. A premier news personality in the Filipino community in the US, she expanded the news operations of ABS-CBN in the US and Canada, contributing to the global content needs of ABS-CBN. Labayen, meanwhile, is a Lifetime Achievement awardee in Philippine advertising with over two decades of experience in the industry before joining ABS-CBN in 2004. He started as a copywriter and rose to the rank of managing partner and executive creative director. He also served as president of the Creative Guild of the Philippines.The TV executive, whos also a writer, painter, and songwriter, is also famous for being the creative genius behind ABS-CBNs iconic station IDs like Bro, Ikaw ang Star ng Pasko and 2018sFamily Is Love. Under his watch, CCM has won top awards in the NYF and Promax-BDA, among many others. After taking home three medals - one gold, one silver, and one bronze in 2018, ABS-CBN is up for three more awards this year at the NY Festivals. Its current affairs program Mission Possible, with its episode Kapit Lang Anak, made it as finalist in the Best Public Affairs Program Category. The episode tells the story of Elsa Badilla, a single mother blind from glaucoma, and her daughter Sarah, who has Down Syndrome. Anchor Julius Babao takes viewers for a day in their shoes, showing the mother and daughters dedication to each other, and their resilience despite their present conditions. The television plug for the same episode titled Elsa and Sarah, produced by ABS-CBN CCM, also earned a nomination in the Station/Image Promotion category, while, ABS-CBN DocuCentrals Local Legends also made it to the final round of judging in the Biography/Profiles category. The award-winning documentary series won a nomination for its episode Karne Norte, which puts the spotlight on traditional corned beef-makers in Masbate. The New York Festivals Worlds Best TV & Films competition honors programming in all lengths and forms from over 50 countries with categories that mirror todays global trends and encourage the next generation of storytellers and talent. Are You Ready for the Next Big Move in Gold? If you were following our research, you would have known that Gold had reached a short-term peak in February. On Feb 19th the day gold posted a huge gain for the day and everyone was bullish and feeling like million bucks I did a radio show with HoweStreets Jim Goddard and said that strong day and overly positive sentiment was the going to be the top, which it was Listen Here. We had been advising our members that Gold would likely retrace below $1300 possibly beeper by and mid-April. Our advanced Adaptive Learning price modeling systems had warned us that Gold would likely setup a price rotation before the next move higher back in January 2019. This is what you need to know about the next 4+ weeks in Gold. First, this downside price move is not over yet. It will likely continue through early April attempting to establish a price base and new momentum bottom. Our opinion is that $1260 is currently the ultimate low price objective although this is a soft target. Meaning, the price could retrace below this level (possibly towards $1240) before establishing a true price bottom. Be prepared for a low price near or below $1265 at some point in the near future. Second, this downside price move in Gold will likely create opportunities for skilled traders over the next 3~6+ months. Our longer-term predictive modeling systems suggest that Gold will rally towards $1500 or higher near May/June of 2019. Thus, this downside move in an opportunity for skilled traders. Third, we believe global economic and political news cycles are prompting a shifting capital across the planet at the moment. Global capital is likely shifting into safety in the US Stock market and away from high-flying technology and biotech stocks. Because of this, the fear that would typically drive a rally in Gold has been partially abated. The strength of the US dollar and the willingness of investors to shift capital into larger Blue Chips and Mid-Caps helps to reduce the true fear hedge that would drive Gold prices higher. Lastly, we believe this trader psychology will change in late April or early May of this year. Our predictive modeling systems suggest a strong price advance in Gold will take place in May/June of 2019. Our cycle analysis suggested that April 21~24, 2019 are key dates for a cycle bottom or some type of news event that could change the dynamics of the precious metals markets. Pay attention. This means that we need to be prepared for the downside price rotation in Gold and be aware that April 21~24 are likely to be a major inflection point in the precious metals markets. Skilled traders would be looking for opportunities before these dates and positioning themselves for the upside move. Our research team, at Technical Traders Ltd., believes the $1260 level is true support although we believe $1245 or so maybe an ultimate washout low price level to watch for. At this time, we are waiting for a clearer basing formation to establish new long positions and we are watching the US Dollar as well. There is still plenty of time for this base/bottom to setup. Remember the April 21~24 date range and plan for key opportunities to setup 7~10 days before this key date. The next move higher in Gold should push prices well above $1400 with a high price target near $1540 for the longer term. If you are a gold-bug and/or want to find some real opportunity in the markets, then you wont want to miss this next move. If you want to join a group of professional traders, researchers, and friends, take a look at our trading newsletter to learn how we can help you find and execute better trades each month. We believe 2019 and 2020 will be incredible years for skilled traders and we are executing at the highest level we can to assist our members. In fact, we are about to launch our newest technology solution to better assist our members in creating future success. Our team has 53 years of experience in researching and trading makes analyzing the complex and ever-changing financial markets a natural process. We have a simple and highly effective way to provide our customers with the most convenient, accurate, and timely market forecasts available today. Our stock and ETF trading alerts are readily available through our exclusive membership service via email and SMS text. Our newsletter, Technical Trading Mastery book, and 3 Hour Trading Video Course are designed for both traders and investors. Also, some of our strategies have been fully automated for the ultimate trading experience. Chris Vermeulen www.TheTechnicalTraders.com Chris Vermeulen has been involved in the markets since 1997 and is the founder of Technical Traders Ltd. He is an internationally recognized technical analyst, trader, and is the author of the book: 7 Steps to Win With Logic Through years of research, trading and helping individual traders around the world. He learned that many traders have great trading ideas, but they lack one thing, they struggle to execute trades in a systematic way for consistent results. Chris helps educate traders with a three-hour video course that can change your trading results for the better. His mission is to help his clients boost their trading performance while reducing market exposure and portfolio volatility. He is a regular speaker on HoweStreet.com, and the FinancialSurvivorNetwork radio shows. Chris was also featured on the cover of AmalgaTrader Magazine, and contributes articles to several leading financial hubs like MarketOracle.co.uk Disclaimer: Nothing in this report should be construed as a solicitation to buy or sell any securities mentioned. Technical Traders Ltd., its owners and the author of this report are not registered broker-dealers or financial advisors. Before investing in any securities, you should consult with your financial advisor and a registered broker-dealer. Never make an investment based solely on what you read in an online or printed report, including this report, especially if the investment involves a small, thinly-traded company that isnt well known. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report has been paid by Cardiff Energy Corp. In addition, the author owns shares of Cardiff Energy Corp. and would also benefit from volume and price appreciation of its stock. The information provided here within should not be construed as a financial analysis but rather as an advertisement. The authors views and opinions regarding the companies featured in reports are his own views and are based on information that he has researched independently and has received, which the author assumes to be reliable. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any content of this report, nor its fitness for any particular purpose. Lastly, the author does not guarantee that any of the companies mentioned in the reports will perform as expected, and any comparisons made to other companies may not be valid or come into effect. Chris Vermeulen Archive 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. Chinese Economic Data Shakes the Global Stock Markets March 8th, 2019 may gain some level of infamy over the next few decades. There were two big numbers released on this day, the current Chinese economic data and the US Jobs data for February 2019. Both numbers fell drastically lower than analysts expected and the global stock markets dropped in pre-market trading by more than 1%. Yet, something very interesting transpired through the trading day a recovery rally. The Chinese economic data was particularly devastating. It leads our researchers to ask a very critical question, is this going to be an orderly contraction or is this contraction going to extend into more chaos? Our research team believes the economic contraction in China will extend out into much of Asia and nations participating in the Belt Road Initiative (BRI) over the next 3~6+ months. We believe a natural progression of protectionist processes will begin to take place throughout many of these nations as the money spigot from China dries up. We believe this credit contraction and economic downturn will result in an extended repositioning of priorities, assets, and valuations throughout most of SE Asia and India. It could extend into certain areas in Europe and Arabic nations. (Source: Bloomberg Finance L.P.) The economic data released by China points to a very real and excessive economic contraction. YoY Exports reported as -16.6% vs. expected +6.6%. YoY imports reported at -0.3% vs. +6.2%. Trade Balance reported as $4.12B vs expected +26.20B. Think about these numbers. In some cases, these values represent a -300 to -700% decrease from expected levels. A recent Bloomberg article suggests the China GDP levels were inflated for the past 9 years or more (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-08/china-s-gdp-growth-pace-was-inflated-for-nine-years-study-finds) As these new economic numbers work through the news cycle, were confident that a fairly large group of global investors are going to catch quite a few investors/traders off guard. The recent rally in the Asian/Chinese equity markets has prompted a bit of complacency and upward price expectations by investors. The rally, shown below, from early 2019 till now resulted in a +17.7% increase over a period of about 60 days. We are confident this upside move attracted the attention of many global investors who likely piled into the trade expecting a US/China trade deal over the past 2 weeks to relieve any upside pricing pressures. Now that the data is showing greater risk in the Chinese markets and how that may extend out to other regional markets becomes the top consideration for these investors. The fact that the Chinese markets may contract by at least 8~15% over the next few weeks must concern larger investment firms and traders. Depending on their leverage, this could be a complete disaster for some. Any extended protectionist move by China and/or additional pressures on the credit/debt balance could push a new wave of defaults and extended downward pricing pressures. Our researchers believe a move targeting recent October/December 2018 lows is not out of the question. Custom Index Custom Index chart by TradingView As weve been suggesting in our recent research posts, we believe a new capital shift is taking place. We believe investors were willing to take a risk to jump back into certain market segments where new valuation levels presented some clear opportunities (China, Europe, and others). Yet, we also know that extended risks could quickly change this stance. As renewed fear enters the global markets, it is very likely that a renewed revaluation event will take place and investors will start to scramble for safety. This is the capital shift that we have been warning about a dramatic shift of investment capital away from emerging markets and foreign opportunities move into US Blue Chips and Mid-Caps because of the true US Dollar based safe-haven investments. Should our expectations of this dramatic capital shift accelerate over the next few months, well likely see the current downward price rotation in the US stock market end sometime in early April as global capital resettles into the US equities. In the next segment of this research post, well share some critical data that may become a catalyst for the capital shift that we believe is currently taking place. If you want to join a group of professional traders, researchers, and friends, take a look at our trading newsletter to learn how we can help you find and execute better trades each month. We believe 2019 and 2020 will be incredible years for skilled traders and we are executing at the highest level we can to assist our members. We recently close some nice positions UGAZ 30%, NIO 21.6%, ROKU 13%, GDXJ 10.5%. In fact, we are about to launch our newest technology solution to better assist our members in creating future success. In fact, we are about to launch our newest technology solution to better assist our members in creating future success. Our team has 53 years of experience in researching and trading makes analyzing the complex and ever-changing financial markets a natural process. We have a simple and highly effective way to provide our customers with the most convenient, accurate, and timely market forecasts available today. Our stock and ETF trading alerts are readily available through our exclusive membership service via email and SMS text. Our newsletter, Technical Trading Mastery book, and 3 Hour Trading Video Course are designed for both traders and investors. Also, some of our strategies have been fully automated for the ultimate trading experience. Chris Vermeulen www.TheTechnicalTraders.com Chris Vermeulen has been involved in the markets since 1997 and is the founder of Technical Traders Ltd. He is an internationally recognized technical analyst, trader, and is the author of the book: 7 Steps to Win With Logic Through years of research, trading and helping individual traders around the world. He learned that many traders have great trading ideas, but they lack one thing, they struggle to execute trades in a systematic way for consistent results. Chris helps educate traders with a three-hour video course that can change your trading results for the better. His mission is to help his clients boost their trading performance while reducing market exposure and portfolio volatility. He is a regular speaker on HoweStreet.com, and the FinancialSurvivorNetwork radio shows. Chris was also featured on the cover of AmalgaTrader Magazine, and contributes articles to several leading financial hubs like MarketOracle.co.uk Disclaimer: Nothing in this report should be construed as a solicitation to buy or sell any securities mentioned. Technical Traders Ltd., its owners and the author of this report are not registered broker-dealers or financial advisors. Before investing in any securities, you should consult with your financial advisor and a registered broker-dealer. Never make an investment based solely on what you read in an online or printed report, including this report, especially if the investment involves a small, thinly-traded company that isnt well known. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report has been paid by Cardiff Energy Corp. In addition, the author owns shares of Cardiff Energy Corp. and would also benefit from volume and price appreciation of its stock. The information provided here within should not be construed as a financial analysis but rather as an advertisement. The authors views and opinions regarding the companies featured in reports are his own views and are based on information that he has researched independently and has received, which the author assumes to be reliable. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any content of this report, nor its fitness for any particular purpose. Lastly, the author does not guarantee that any of the companies mentioned in the reports will perform as expected, and any comparisons made to other companies may not be valid or come into effect. Chris Vermeulen Archive 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. The failure of the 23 February humanitarian aid provocation on the Venezuelan border was a serious blow for Trumps ongoing coup attempt. There were mutual recriminations between self-appointed Guaido, Colombian president Duque and US Vice-President Pence. The US could not get a consensus from its own Lima Cartel allies in favour of military intervention. The coup was losing momentum. Then, on 7 March, just days after Guaidos anti-climactic return to Caracas, the country was plunged into a nationwide blackout from which it has not yet fully recovered. What caused it? How is it related to the regime change attempt? And, most importantly, what are imperialisms plans and how can they be fought? 23 February was supposed to be the coups D-Day. The idea was never to actually deliver humanitarian aid into the country, but rather to create a peoples power moment, where large crowds of opposition supporters on both sides of the border defied the Venezuelan armed forces, which, when faced with a large crowd of peaceful demonstrators, would then switch sides and join Trumps puppet Juan Guaido. On the day, however, things did not go according to Washingtons plan. The crowds of opposition supporters did not materialise in the expected numbers. Aid trucks did not cross the border and by the end of the day, Rubio, Abrams and Guaido were left with egg all over their faces. They made a big story about Maduro burning the aid trucks at the Santander bridge on the Colombian border. US officials even insisted this justified military intervention under the Geneva Convention. Never mind the fact that the Convention only applies in cases of war, the fact is that the aid truck that was burned was set on fire by a peaceful opposition supporter throwing a molotov cocktail at the Venezuelan border guards. Several media outlets (TeleSur, RT) explained that this was the case right from the beginning and even produced video footage to prove it. That did not stop US officials like Marco Rubio and John Bolton from blaming Maduro and the chorus of the worlds bourgeois mass media from parroting the lie: Each of the trucks burned by Maduro carried 20 tons of food & medicine. This is a crime & if international law means anything he must pay a high price for this. #23FAyudaHumanitaria https://t.co/IrGzrOUX09 Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 23, 2019 Masked thugs, civilians killed by live rounds, and the burning of trucks carrying badly-needed food and medicine. This has been Maduros response to peaceful efforts to help Venezuelans. Countries that still recognize Maduro should take note of what they are endorsing. pic.twitter.com/KlSebd2M5a John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) February 23, 2019 Now, two weeks too late, even the New York Times has been forced to admit that one [Venezuelan government] claim that appears to be backed up by video footage is that the protesters started the fire. The same NY Times investigation also concludes that the Venezuelan government was right in saying the US and the opposition were lying about the trucks containing medicine: the claim about a shipment of medicine, too, appears to be unsubstantiated, according to videos and interviews. The admission by the NY Times, though it is unlikely to be covered as widely as the initial, false, reports, is very significant. We knew the US was lying, right from the beginning, as there was proof. Now it has been forced to admit it. This should provide a salutary lesson for the next time the US or its Venezuelan opposition make any outrageous claims about the Maduro regime. The lesson is: question everything Washington and the mass media tell you about a government they want to overthrow. That evening, as if on cue, the Venezuelan opposition social media operation started to explode with the hashtag #IntervencionMilitarYA (#MilitaryInterventionNOW), aimed at putting pressure on the US and its allies to launch a military intervention in the country. The campaign is very revealing as to the character of the opposition (pro-imperialist and traitors to their own country), but also as to the morale of their ranks (they do not think they are the agents of change but rather invest all their hopes in Trump). Having been defeated on 23 February, the meeting of the Lima Group of countries in Bogota the following morning was a further setback. Let us remember that the Lima Group (more accurately known as the Lima Cartel) is an ad-hoc group of countries created with the explicit aim of overthrowing the Venezuelan government when the US could not get enough votes at the Organisation of American States for its bellicose resolutions. Before the meeting even started, there were public statements by Chile, Brazil and Paraguay explicitly ruling out military intervention. The case of Brazil is noteworthy because there is a major split within Bolsonaros cabinet, and between him and the Armed Forces. Under pressure from the generals and his own vice-president, General Hamilton Mourao, the far-right president has been forced to retreat from several of his public statements; specifically, support for the transfer of the Brazilian embassy to Jerusalem, and granting the US army access to a military base in Brazil. When the Lima Group decided in January to cut off all contact with the Venezuelan armed forces, the Brazilians kept communication lines open. The Brazilian army went as far as vetoing the presence of US soldiers in the border with Venezuela as part of the so-called humanitarian aid operation on 23 February. Contrary to the attitude of the Colombian state, which turned a blind eye and even helped the opposition rioters on the border with Venezuela, the Brazilians contained them and prevented clashes. The reason is not that the Brazilian generals are in any way progressive, nor that they stand by the principle of sovereignty, but rather they understand that any major conflict in Venezuela, including the possibility of a civil war, could have a major impact on Brazil, with which it shares a large and inhospitable border. The last thing the Brazilian generals want is accidentally getting sucked into a major armed conflict in Venezuela, which they know would not be a simple affair. Faced with such reluctance, the Bogota meeting on 25 February ended with a statement that used strong words of condemnation and issued unspecified threats, but did not contain any serious commitment to the next steps in the regime change operation. The US announced the inclusion of a few more Venezuelan officials on their sanctions list, including three regional governors. Hardly the military intervention now that the opposition demanded. Media reports have talked of recriminations from Mike Pence (who had cut off his trip to South Korea to attend the meeting) to Guaido. According to one report, Pence told Guaido that everything was failing in the offensive against the chavista regime, the biggest complaint was because of the continued loyalty of the armed forces to Maduro. Apparently, Guaido had promised the US that if they were to get the main world leaders to recognise him at least half of the high ranking officers would defect. It didnt happen. The other main criticism was regarding the Venezuelan oppositions appraisal that Maduros social base had disintegrated. The crisis revealed that support for the government has in fact diminished, but is not inexistent. Of course, one should take such reports with a pinch of salt as sources are not quoted. However, the general frustration of the US with the Venezuelan coup is very real and makes this particular report plausible. Another report in the Wall Street Journal talked of Chilean president Pinera and Colombian president Duque also being angry at Guaido at the meeting: The opposition had publicly sold the plan by promising that an outpouring of Venezuelans on both sides of the border would link up, Mr. Maduros security forces would back down and truckloads of aid would enter for hungry Venezuelans. I think they built up expectations that werent carried out, said an opposition operative who was familiar with the discussions. They built up that there was going to be more aid, that it would get in. And that the military would rise up. And it didnt happen that way. The WSJ article is quite detailed: As time passed, [Pinera] kept asking Guaido where are the people who are coming from the other side? said the person. The responses werent satisfactory, he added. Everything failed: coordination, information, organization, said a senior Latin American official. The picture painted here is of an angry exchange in which all blamed Guaido, when in reality Washington is responsible for the whole design of the coup. The US officials in charge of the coup were so frustrated that they started a completely ridiculous polemic against the media (CNN included), which had started to described Guaido as self-proclaimed or leader of the opposition as opposed to giving him the title of the interim president, a title that Washington had worked so hard to create: Must watch exchange betwee @StateDeputySPOX Palladino who complains media calls Guaido "self-appointed" or "opposition leader" instead of "interim president", and @APDiploWriter who points out only 50 countries out of the UN's 190 have recognised him pic.twitter.com/g0iIJzPnGR Jorge Martin (@marxistJorge) March 6, 2019 The hawks in Trumps administration - Bolton, Pompeo and Abrams - made a series of fatal miscalculations. First, they assumed Maduro had no support whatsoever, underestimating the strength of anti-imperialist feeling in the face of a brazen US coup attempt, and the fact that, while support for chavismo has diminished, it still managed to get over 30 percent of the census to vote for Maduro a year ago. Moreover, in the last few weeks, there has been a series of impressive, anti-imperialist mass rallies led by Diosdado Cabello in all states in the country. Second, they thought that the opposition was able to mobilise large numbers of people who are prepared to go all the way in an open clash with the government. In fact, the opposition ranks, having been betrayed by their own leaders in 2017 and defeated in their previous attempts in 2013 and 2014, are distrustful of the opposition leaders and sceptical about their own ability to remove the government they hate. They have put all their illusions and hopes in a US-led military intervention and that is a state of mind which can produce a large rally (for instance on 23 January) but not a sustained mobilisation to overthrow Maduro. The failure of 23 February furthermore left Guaido abroad, in Colombia. He thought he would come back victorious, at the head of a US convoy of humanitarian aid, but found himself having violated a court order not to leave the country and stranded in Bogota. He started a short tour of Latin America, on board a Colombian plane, but soon the US called him to order. He discarded a plan to continue his tour in Europe and was told in no uncertain terms that he had to return to Venezuela as he was losing momentum. Again, Abrams, Bolton and Rubio attempted to build up Guaidos return as another D-Day, baiting Maduro to arrest him on arrival in order to build a casus belli for foreign intervention. It resulted in another flop. Guaido returned on 4 March, the assembled EU ambassadors received him at the airport and then he went to a rally in the east of Caracas But to his disappointment and that of his minders in the US, he was not arrested (although he should have been arrested, there were plenty of reasons to do so). Blackout Then came the blackout. Starting on Thursday, 7 March, just before 5pm, a major power failure affected 18 out of the countrys 24 states. In Caracas, the Metro stopped working and tens of thousands had to walk their way home, in the dark. After a few hours it became clear that this was a major incident and power would not be restored quickly. The government decreed Friday a national holiday. The countrys main electricity generator, the Simon Bolivar Hydroelectric plant, known as El Guri Dam, had crashed. El Guri produces about 80 percent of the countrys electricity and restoring it is a delicate operation. It is now more than four days since the initial incident and power is only slowly being restored in many parts of the country. Over the weekend, on several occasions, electricity was returned to different parts of the country, only to be switched off again. The situation is serious. The government has decreed another holiday for today, 11 March. Back-up electricity generators keep power supply to essential installations, like hospitals, but there are serious problems with public transport. Shops do not accept card payments and many have increased prices and resorted to only accepting payment in dollars. There are also problems with the water supply, telecommunications (phone and internet) are very intermittent, and food stored in fridges and freezers risks being lost, etc. The government has blamed the blackout on sabotage at El Guri and of course Washington and the opposition have been quick to reject such idea, blaming the power cut on a wildfire affecting the 765Kv power line between El Guri and the Malena substation. This would have brought down the power line and then in turn triggered a security stoppage at the El Gury Hydro plant. However, the opposition have produced no actual evidence of such a fire and the New York Times correspondent Anatoly Kurmanaev has rejected this hypothesis: There are also three parallel 765 KV lines running at a distance from each other. Unlikely the fire wouldve affected them all. Anatoly Kurmanaev (@AKurmanaev) March 11, 2019 The governments claim is that there was a cyberattack against the system that controls the El Guri turbines and regulates power generation and supply down the 765KV line to Malena. The government has also declared that, when power was restored on Saturday 9 March, there was another such attack, and that these attacks have been carried out by US imperialism. For those tempted to dismiss these accusations as a conspiracy theory, let us look at the following facts. First, the US and the mass media blatantly lied about the burning of the aid truck just two weeks ago. Furthermore, what credibility has Marco Rubio got? Yesterday, he tweeted there had been an explosion at a German Dam, when in reality a Venezuelan opposition journalist by the name of German Dam had reported an explosion at a power substation. Sen. Marco Rubio tweets about "explosion at German Dam" causing blackout... Doesn't realize "German Dam" is a human reporter. https://t.co/iq3Kd5gXUL pic.twitter.com/ZiyrLyXrf1 Newsweek (@Newsweek) March 10, 2019 In an even more callous twist, Rubio reported 80 babies having died at a hospital in Maracaibo due to the blackout, only to be corrected by the chief of the Wall Street Journal South America Bureau: the hospital had recorded no neonatal deaths. None. Zero. Ninguna. Why should we believe anything these people say? and another one: @marcorubio denounces 80 babies have died in a hospital in Venezuela due to the blackout ... to be corrected by the head of the Wall Street Journal Latin America: no babies died, none #HandsOffVenezuela pic.twitter.com/oseVKcrLZB Jorge Martin (@marxistJorge) March 11, 2019 Secondly, such an attack is possible and has been carried out before, even on Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems that are not online. For those interested, just look up the US-and-Israeli-made Stuxnet virus, which was used to attack Irans nuclear power programme in 2010. That virus specifically attacked Siemens control systems, like many of those that run the El Guri turbines. An article in Forbes by a specialist admits: In the case of Venezuela, the idea of a government like the United States remotely interfering with its power grid is actually quite realistic... Given the U.S. government's longstanding concern with Venezuelas government, it is likely that the U.S. already maintains a deep presence within the country's national infrastructure grid, making it relatively straightforward to interfere with grid operations. The countrys outdated internet and power infrastructure present few formidable challenges to such operations and make it relatively easy to remove any traces of foreign intervention. Widespread power and connectivity outages like the one Venezuela experienced last week are also straight from the modern cyber playbook [my emphasis]. While the article in the end says a different scenario is highly likely, it nevertheless highlights the inability to definitively discount U.S. or other foreign intervention. Third, there is the matter of timing. The coup was stalling. Guaido had returned to the country but was clearly losing momentum. What better time to implement a major attack on the electricity grid, to demonstrate that the government is not in control, turn the population against the government and further intensify the propaganda about humanitarian crisis and chaos? Minutes after the outage was reported, Rubio, Bolton and Guaido were already furiously and callously tweeting blame for the government and almost gloating at peoples suffering. The blackout has also taken place just days before the arrival of the EU International Contact Group mission which is to investigate in situ whether there is a humanitarian crisis or not. How convenient! Of course, to any explanation of the blackout, its severity and its prolonged nature, we must add several other factors. One is the fact that the Venezuelan grid has been starved of investment and maintenance for several years, something the left wing of the Bolivarian movement has discussed openly. The US is quick to point out this as the main cause, forgetting that sanctions have prevented the country from re-negotiating its foreign debt, which has sucked in an increasing amount of the countrys foreign reserves. We must add that the Maduro government has chosen to pay the foreign debt and hand over preferential dollars to the capitalists rather than use these reserves differently. This means that sabotage is taking place in a system that has already been weakened and therefore can be more easily damaged. Another is the fact that thousands of workers have left their jobs in the industry as a result of the economic crisis which has destroyed completely the purchasing power of wages. The first to leave were the more experienced and highly skilled, precisely those who will be needed most now when it comes to bringing back a very delicate and finely tuned system. This process of abandonment was aggravated after the last currency conversion in August 2018, when the government destroyed collective bargaining and wage differentials in the public sector. A third is that some of these problems would have been alleviated, or perhaps prevented, had the workers in the industry maintained the levels of workers control introduced during the Chavez government. Let us not forget that electricity workers at one point were at the forefront of the struggle for workers control, which was undone by the bureaucracy. Finally, the more recent US sanctions on PDVSA have prevented Venezuela from importing and producing the fuel needed for the thermoelectric plants that should have provided a back up when El Gury Hydro went down. What next for imperialism? The situation in Venezuela depends greatly on factors that are developing behind the scenes. It is impossible to say what is actually happening in the military barracks and in the officers quarters. The whole policy of US imperialism is designed to put pressure on them, by making the situation in the country unbearable, so that the generals perhaps draw the conclusion that their interests might be best served by removing Maduro from power. This is achieved by sanctions designed to hurt the economy. The latest development on this front are the threats issued by Bolton and Abrams to punish, not only US companies trading with PDVSA or the Venezuelan government, but also financial institutions in third countries. The aim is clear: to completely strangle the Venezuelan economy until it chokes the government into giving up. This is a criminal policy that is hurting the poor and workers of Venezuela first and foremost, completely discrediting the idea that Washington is at all concerned about an alleged humanitarian crisis. As we have argued before, this ongoing imperialist coup attempt can only be fought back with revolutionary measures, striking blows against the coup plotters at home and their puppet masters abroad / Image: Flickr, The White House As for the possibility of military intervention, it is clear that the US would like Latin American countries to front it, but there is no appetite in the Lima Group for military adventures, which can prove costly and damaging. That leaves the US with very few options, the main one being to increase the pressure, through sanctions, sabotage, provocations, etc. This much was admitted by Elliot Abrams in a conversation with two Russian pranksters when he thought he was talking to the Swiss president. He said: "We think it is a mistake tactically to give them endless reassurances that there will never be American military action. But I can tell you this is not what we are doing. What we are doing is exactly what you see, financial pressure, economic pressure, diplomatic pressure." To this we have to add the ideas likely harboured by some in the US administration about the creation of a Free Venezuelan Army and their president getting control of some territory (preferably close to the border, perhaps in Tachira), in a repeat of operations used in Syria and Libya. An article in Bloomberg has revealed that renegade Venezuelan former general Cliver Alcala had a group of 200 armed men in Colombia ready to cross the border on 23 February, but he was stopped by the Colombians. Rubio has also played up the issue of military defectors and Guaido met with a group of them in Cucuta, praising them for defecting and warning that we will have to cross back. There is also a sense of urgency for the likes of Bolton, Pompeo, Abrams and Rubio. They hoped for a quick resolution in this push for regime change back in January, but they failed. They probably calculate that they need a resolution well before the 2020 election in the US. Frustration and impatience only make them more dangerous and ready to deploy tricks they have not yet used. As we have argued before, this ongoing imperialist coup attempt can only be fought back with revolutionary measures, striking blows against the coup plotters at home and their puppet masters abroad. That means arresting them and putting them on trial. Expropriating the coup-plotting oligarchy as well as the multinationals. Above all, the revolutionary organisation of the people from below needs to be strengthened by arming and developing the militias in every working-class neighbourhood, introducing workers control in all factories and workplaces and generally unleashing the revolutionary initiative of the masses. Internationally, we need to continue and strengthen the campaign against our own imperialist governments in the US, the EU and the Lima Group countries, all of whom are, to one degree or another involved in this reactionary plot. Baidu CEO and national political advisor Robin Li (Photo/Chinanews.com) BEIJING, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Baidu CEO and national political advisor Robin Li has called for government-led top-level design and research into the ethic issues concerning artificial intelligence (AI) "Only by establishing a sound set of ethical norms in AI and properly dealing with the new relationship between machines and humans, can we reap more benefits from AI," Li said Sunday in his speech at a plenary meeting of the second session of the 13th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee. The integration of personal information and behavior data with AI technology could provide people with better service in the daily life, but if improperly used, it could lead to leakage of privacy and personal data, he said. China is an international leader in the research and application of AI, yet the discussion on related ethic issues has just started, and a broad consensus has yet to be reached, Li said. He thus called for intensified research to identify the ethical principles in AI development, strengthen the responsibilities of leading enterprises in the business to accelerate the implementation of the principles, and enhance international exchanges to seek consensus. A Malagasy journalist has won the African Media Agency media competition that was seeking to reward outstanding work from an African reporter. Andriatsitonta Mamy Ny Aina Lynda is from Madagascar and works for the Online media www.jmada.com (Journal Mada) an entity that belongs to Olondia Corporation. She boasts of five year experience in journalism. Lynda has a keen interest in investigative journalism having acquired the skills from UNESCO and Cooperation Media special training in 2017. Lynda was excited for her accomplishment noting that despite having made unsuccessful entries into other media award competitions, she never gave up and just kept polishing her writing skills. I always had a positive belief in my work and this is the motivation that keeps me going in this profession. Journalism is more than a career to me. I hope that this golden opportunity will be a turning point to my work As part of the prize, Lynda will be awarded a fully paid trip to cover the 7th edition of the African CEO Forum due to take place in Kigali, Rwanda from 25-26 March 2019. The Africa CEO Forum (ACF) is the leading international conference dedicated to the African private sector and hosts the continents top CEOs, international investors, experts and high-level policy makers every year. Since its inception in 2012, ACF has attracted over 120 heads of state and ministers and hosted over 3000 leading African and international companies. The CEO of African Media Agency (AMA) Eloine Barry noted the importance to reward best talent in media since this breeds excellence. We can only shape our positive African narrative by motivating talent growth through avenues like this that seek to celebrate the best writers in the media industry, Eloine explained. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 1 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. Eight Chinese nationals, including one from Hong Kong, were confirmed aboard the crashed Ethiopian Airlines plane, according to the Chinese foreign ministry. "We extend our profound condolences to the victims and deep sympathy to the bereaved families," the ministry's spokesperson Lu Kang said late Sunday night in a statement. After learning the crash, the ministry ordered China's embassy in Ethiopia to launch the emergency response and immediately contact the Ethiopian government and Ethiopian Airlines for further information, Lu said. China hopes that the Ethiopian side will find out the cause of the air crash as soon as possible and keep China updated the investigation developments, he said. The foreign ministry and the Chinese embassy in Ethiopia will keep a close watch over the developments and go all out to help the families of the victims to deal with the aftermath, Lu said. Ethiopian Airlines confirmed that a Boeing 737-800 MAX, bound for Nairobi, Kenya, crashed shortly after taking off from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa Sunday morning local time, killing all 157 people on board, including eight crew members. Journalists work during the third plenary meeting of the second session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 10, 2019. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing) [March 11, 2019] ReadyCloud CRM for Ecommerce is Now Available for Magento 2 LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK and PHOENIX, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ReadyCloud ( https://www.ReadyCloud.com ), the CRM suite built for ecommerce, now supports Magento versions 1 and 2. ReadyCloud CRM seamlessly integrates to show customer activity across multiple sales channels while connecting the organization with shipping, messaging and Amazon-like product returns. Were excited to announce that ReadyCloud CRM is now available for Magento 1 and 2 users, commented Michael Lazar, an Executive at ReadyCloud CRM. Getting started is fast, easy and painless. Just create your free ReadyCloud CRM account and add the desired Magento integration from the App Store during sign-up. No credit card is required, and the first two weeks are on us! ReadyCloud CRM gives retailers a competitive advantage. Its packed with powerful, relationship-building, team management and reporting tools that give e-tailers better insight into their cross-channel customers. This includes: Profiles, Trends and Filters, Tasks, Orders, Shipping and even Returns. Each customer profile features a detailed purchase history, complete with individual order lifecycles. Are you tired of manually entering customer and order data? ReadyCloud is not that kind of CRM," Lazar infers. "Rather, it creates customer profiles based on new and existing orders from across all your sales channels. These are the customers you never meet, who buy from you online. Now you can connect and market to these customers in a meaningful way thats focused on their specific interess! Retailers can use this data to improve customer relationships as well as sync and create email marketing campaigns using the available Constant Contact and MailChimp integrations. For retailers that are looking to make the switch to Magento 2 but are hesitant to do so over fear of data loss, ReadyCloud CRM has the answer: Order data is the heart of any business. ReadyCloud CRM connects and syncs with the merchants shopping cart to preserve customer order data and make it portable, explains Lazar. E-tailers are no longer tethered to their store. If you want to switch, then switch. ReadyCloud CRM connects to the new store to pick up where the old one left off, and the results are amazing! Built-in integrations include: Magento 1 and 2, Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Amazon, and more!" ReadyCloud is available now with a 14-day free trial. To get started, go to www. R eady C loud.com . New merchants will start seeing results within a few minutes of synching. For questions or a demonstration, please contact: [email protected] . Or call: (877) 818-7447. Learn more about ReadyCloud CRMs Magento 1 and 2 integrations here: https://www.readycloud.com/lp/magento-crm-software About ReadyCloud CRM #ReadyCloud CRM is rocket fuel for customer loyalty and sales in todays ecommerce world. A cross-channel ecommerce CRM solution, ReadyCloud CRM features robust customer order timelines complete with shipping and return information, customer-focused notes, invoice and tracking number, group calendar, tasks and team management, tagging, email marketing integrations, detailed reporting, shipping profitability reports, and so much more. New features are being added every month. ReadyCloud CRM can be further expanded with premium plugins like #ReadyShipper , a hybrid-cloud shipping software solution, and #ReadyReturns , an automated online product returns solution that adds Prime-like returns to the pages of virtually any website. [ Back To www.mobilitytechzone.com/wimax's Homepage ] We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro holds a small copy of the constitution as he gives a speech during the presidential inauguration ceremony in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 10, 2019. (Xinhua/Andrea Romero) CARACAS, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelans were hit with a prolonged nationwide blackout that capped a week of continued strife between the ruling socialist party and the right-wing opposition and its international backers. The power outage, which the government blamed on sabotage at a central hydroelectric plant, brought cities around the country to a standstill, including the capital Caracas. Schools and offices were closed. Only vital services such as airports and hospitals kept functioning with emergency generators. Electricity was restored Friday afternoon in at least 10 Caracas districts after 20 hours' outage, and also in several eastern states. However, the capital was hit by another blackout on Saturday. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday denounced the new attack on Venezuela's electricity system at a massive rally in Caracas. He said the government has stepped up efforts to free the national electric company from infiltrators and coup plotters and protect the company from cybernetic and electromagnetic attacks directed by the United States. ONGOING TENSIONS The power outage is amid the country's ongoing political tensions, as the West continued to prop up the opposition in a bid to oust Maduro from power. Political tensions between the government and opposition groups in Venezuela came to a head after Maduro was sworn in to a new term on Jan. 10. The opposition, which largely boycotted the presidential elections in May last year, refuses to recognize Maduro's re-election victory and anointed a president of its own. On Wednesday, Venezuela declared German ambassador Daniel Martin Kriener persona non grata and gave him 48 hours to leave the country after the envoy demonstrated his allegiance to the opposition. Kriener was among a handful of ambassadors who went to the airport on Monday to welcome opposition leader and self-proclaimed "interim president" Juan Guaido on his return from a tour of Latin American countries that support Venezuela's Washington-backed opposition. A day later, the White House's special representative for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, announced the U.S. plans to "expand the net" of sanctions designed to choke off the government's access to financial resources, targeting banks handling transactions for the state. MILITARY INTERVENTION Military intervention in Venezuela poses quite a challenge, at least initially, according to Reinaldo Iturriza, Venezuela's former minister of culture. Despite worsening political and economic woes, the government has so far enjoyed the civilian and military support it needs to withstand the pressure. "There is a military operation against Venezuela in the works, and it failed in its initial stage," Iturriza said. While "the scenario of a U.S. military intervention or one carried out through the government of Colombia has lost momentum, the option is not off the table yet," he warned. One of the reasons why direct military intervention lost steam was that the fracture within the Lima Group of hemispheric countries advocating regime change in Venezuela. "The Lima Group has been rapidly unraveling ... as it is now public that some of the countries that had a very interventionist stance have since distanced themselves from the option of a direct military intervention," said Iturriza. Still, the Lima Group will probably cooperate with the imposition of economic sanctions. "It is quite likely that they are going to continue to strangle the national economy in this way," he said. DIALOGUE HOLDS KEY Venezuelan political analyst Luis Quintana, who teaches at the Bolivarian Military University of Venezuela, said the key to breaking the impasse would be to give voice to those willing to compromise and mediate. Quintana highlighted the Montevideo Mechanism for mediation promoted by Uruguay, Mexico and Bolivia, a "regional initiative the government is betting on" to forge a peaceful way out of the crisis. "The international community must demand that sanctions be lifted and the parties meet for talks, for negotiation," said Iturriza. "The important thing now is to return to the path of democracy, the path of political dialogue and, fundamentally, let Venezuelans themselves resolve their internal affairs," he added. The main "challenge that faces all Venezuelan society, including its government, is tackling the economic situation," Iturriza said. Judge rules compressor air quality permit appeal should be decided by state board By By: Dr. Francis R. Souder, 85, formerly of Telford, died Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007 in the skilled nursing unit of Peter Becker Community, Franconia Township. He and his wife Marion R. (Parker) Souder celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary in July. Born in Souderton, he was a son of the late Elvin B. and Mary (Rittenhouse) Souder. A 1938 graduate of Souderton High School, he received his undergraduate degree in 1941 from the University of Pennsylvania where he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa. Dr. Souder went on to receive his medical degree from Hahnemann Medical College in 1944 and completed his internship at Hahnemann Hospital from Oct. 1944 July, 1945. He served with the U.S. Navy Medical Corps for 30 months in San Diego and Long Beach, Calif. during WW II and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant prior to his discharge. He entered his second tour of duty during the Korean War where he served in Panama City, Fla. as the medical officer for the Panama City Naval Air Station and the Tyndal Air Force Base. Dr. Souder owned and operated his family practice on Main Street in Telford from 1947-1989. He served on the staff of Grand View Hospital, and as its president, and taught at the Grand View Hospital Nursing School. He was a member of the Pa. Medical Society, the Bucks County Medical Society, Diplomat American Academy of Family Practices, and served on the board of trustees at Grand View Hospital, Sellersville. He was a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Telford, where he sang in the church choir. He was also a member of the MacCalla Lodge #596 in Souderton, the Raja Shrine, and Lehigh Consistory. In addition to his widow, he is survived by a son, Dr. Ronald L. Souder, and his wife Susan L. of Green Lane; a daughter, Susan J. Souder, and her husband Stephan Russo of New York, N.Y.; five grandchildren: Jennifer A. Souder of Philadelphia; Emily E. Souder of Philadelphia; Kathryn A. Souder of Washington, D.C.; Noah Russo of New York, N.Y., and Rebekah Russo of New York, N.Y., and two brothers: Attorney Elvin B. Souder of Souderton and Dr. Lawrence Souder of Souderton. Memorial services will be held on Saturday, Nov. 10 at 12 p.m. in Trinity United Church of Christ, 101 S. Main St., Telford, with calling hours following the service. Interment will be private in Trinity UCC Cemetery Telford. Memorial contributions may be made to Grand View Hospital, 700 Lawn Ave., Sellersville, Pa. 18960. Arrangements are by Sadler-Suess Funeral Home, Telford. Photo taken on March 10, 2019 shows the manned submersible Shenhai Yongshi (Deep Sea Warrior) at a port of Sanya, south China's Hainan Province. China's science ship Tansuo-1 loaded with the manned submersible Shenhai Yongshi (Deep Sea Warrior) returned to its home harbor in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, on Sunday, after finishing its first expedition in the Indian Ocean. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng) HAIKOU, March 10 (Xinhua) -- China's science ship Tansuo-1 loaded with the manned submersible Shenhai Yongshi (Deep Sea Warrior) returned to its home harbor in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, on Sunday, after finishing its first expedition in the Indian Ocean. The manned submersible can reach a depth of 4,500 meters. The 121-day expedition trip organized by the Chinese Academy of Sciences began Nov. 10, 2018. Scientists from 10 Chinese and foreign research institutes were invited to join the deep-sea research trip. The ship traveled 17,000 nautical miles on the expedition during which scientists surveyed five deep-sea hydrothermal areas and collected a trove of samples for ecological environment research. The submersible Shenhai Yongshi conducted 62 dives. Scientists succeeded in retrieving it in a variety of conditions including stormy waves and during the night. The development of the submersible took eight years and involved over 90 Chinese organizations and companies. It conducted deep-sea testing missions in 2017 and 2018. The economic growth target set by China, its declaration to further relax controls over market access, and a series of new moves to deepen reforms have made headlines of foreign media after the government work report was delivered to the annual legislative session on March 5. The topics they covered include Chinas announcement to shorten the negative list for foreign investment, permit wholly foreign funded enterprises to operate in more sectors, as well as its decision to deepen reforms in sectors including power, oil and gas, and railways, and make the competitive aspects fully market based. Things are always changing and developing. Reforms with keen determination and effective actions will enable a country to keep abreast with the times and grasp opportunities at the first moment. It is recognized worldwide that Chinas improved quality in economic growth is resulted from its unremitting efforts to comprehensively deepen reform, whose contribution can be better understood if observing Chinas eye-catching economic performance in 2018 against the global landscape. After the outbreak of the global financial crisis, some developed countries were clouded by widening wealth gap, decline of traditional industries, unemployment of blue-collar workers and other contradictions due to sluggish reforms. In China, with a strong commitment to push ahead with a supply-side structural reform, the worlds second largest economy maintained a medium to high-speed growth, realized a more sustained development and created more sense of gaining to its people. At the time when the world economy was testified by multiple risks including rising tide of protectionism, tight liquidity and gloomy market demands, China is busy with translating the risks into opportunities by solidifying its domestic strength. It boosted global market confidence by trying hard to drive a high-quality growth with greater reforms and higher-level opening up, and releasing more reform dividends. In the eyes of Stephen Perry, chairman of the UK-based 48 Group Club, comprehensively deepening reforms is an engine driving the growth of Chinese economy. He attributed what China made today to a persistence in its own development path amidst the complicated international environment, to the solid steps in comprehensively deepening reforms, and to its commitment to build an open world economy. Reforms provide energy for development, while development creates precondition to reform. Chinese President Xi Jinping has also offered a description to the relationship between reforms and development by saying that reform is able to inject strong impetus into development process. According to him, the reforms have been accompanying Chinas development in the whole journey of its progress. Following the philosophy, China has made a series of epoch-making reforms to escort its course for high-quality development, and speed up Chinas marches towards growth. The country has tried hard to raise the efficiency of resource utilization by eliminating ineffective supply and weeding out outdated production capacity, accelerate economic restructuring by fostering new drivers and upgrading traditional engines, as well as seek green growth by discarding growth rate fetish. China will continue to pursue reforms at its own pace and in its own way, an article published on Project Syndicate previously decoded the secrets to Chinas success. A functioned governance system and sound administration capacity can back up the country to reform as planned in a steady pace. Structural factors are still standing on the way to hinder the worlds medium- and long-term growth, which means that structural reform is still a key agenda faced by the whole world. When pushing ahead with reforms, Chinas strong leadership and ability to act has provided reference for policy-makers in worldwide. As the world is undergoing unprecedented changes in centuries, Chinas endeavor to continue comprehensively deepening reforms will help the country renew its miracle. Its steps along the course not only keep abreast with historic trend, but also lead development in the era. How many of you celebrate Easter with a Honey Baked Ham? Did you know that your ham purchase can else make a difference in our community? You dont have to spend any extra money, just buy a Honey Baked gift card online and 20% of your purchase will be donated to the Junior League of Dayton (JLD). You can then use your gift card to make the purchase you normally would at Honey Baked Hams. Youve got until April 30th to buy gift cards that will benefit the JLD. The Dayton chapter of Junior League held its first meeting on Oct. 31, 1919, at the Dayton Womans Club. Officially chartered in February 1920, it was admitted to membership in the Junior Leagues of America (now AJLI ) that same year, making Dayton the second League in Ohio. From its original 10 founding members. the Junior League of Dayton has grown to 300 members today. Then, as now, their purpose is to foster interest among women in social, economic, educational, civic, and cultural conditions of the community and to make their volunteer service efficient and effective and it open to women 22 years of age or older. Funds raised will help JLD with promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women, and improving their communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. I have the blueprint to the ... WALLINGFORD The warrior pose and downward dog under black light gives a new twist to classic yoga classes. At Rise Yoga on Route 5, participants are encouraged to wear glow-in-the-dark clothing, and yoga turns into a mini-party complete with loud music designed to block out the outside world. The Record-Journal met up with Kelsey Sperl, owner and instructor at Rise Yoga, to talk about the activity. Health benefits Since last year, Sperls studio has been hosting several black light events with all-levels of Vinyasa yoga, a rapid-flow type of yoga that cycles through movements at a faster pace. Sperl said Vinyasa works well with the loud music and vibe of black light yoga. The lights are low, the music is loud, so it really helps you to actually focus on the present moment, she said. The American Council on Exercise suggests using black lights to bring new life to workouts. Youre really only focused on yourself, your body, your breath and whats going on on your own mat, Sperl said of the added benefits. The music The black light sessions use loud, body-pumping music during the class. At Rise Yoga, Sperl and instructors like Kallie Meade use different genres each time for a unique experience. Its really fun, I taught the last one which was a hip-hop yoga class, Meade said. Just different types of music than youd usually experience at a yoga class. The next class later this month will be Caribbean-themed with reggae music. Up to 16 songs are played during the class, all related to the overall theme. Instead of distractions around you, the music can really help you tune into the present moment, Sperl said. The class The all-levels Vinyasa black light class is 90 minutes long and begins with floor and seated positions that work on connecting to the breath. From there, the instructor picks up the pace and leads the class into standing positions. Youre moving at a pretty steady pace the whole time, Sperl said. The class flows to the music using a similar arc as the poses. Yoga mats are provided by the studio for the classes. Participants are encouraged to wear white or fluorescent comfortable clothing. Participation The next black light yoga event at Rise Yoga will be March 22 at 7 p.m. Similar events can be found at The Breathing Room Yoga Center in New Haven and Hartford Sweat in Hartford. akus@record-journal.com 203-317-2448 Twitter: @KusReporter A union representing Stop & Shop employees from several area towns unanimously voted Sunday to reject the employers latest contract proposal and authorize a strike. More than 700 members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 919 voted to authorize the strike during a meeting Sunday in Hartford. UFCW Local 919 is headquartered in Farmington and represents Stop & Shop employees in Meriden, Berlin, Cheshire, and Wallingford. The vote means a strike of employees can be called but isnt necessarily guaranteed to take place. Contract negotiations are expected to resume Wednesday and Thursday. In a letter sent to union members Monday, president Mark A. Espinosa urged employees to continue working as scheduled unless a strike is called. Remember, you have authorized your union leadership to threaten and call for a strike when its deemed absolutely necessary, Espinosas letter said. Until then, continue to report for your shifts as scheduled. Continue to work hard for your employers, and most importantly, continue to service your customers as you do so well daily, for it is their support we need also! The contract between Stop & Shop and five United Food and Commercial Workers local unions expired on Feb. 23. Negotiation sticking points have included cutbacks in hours, elimination of Sunday premium pay, decreased health and pension benefits and increased automation, according to a union update to members. In a statement Monday, UFCW said the companys latest contract proposal would severely cut health care and retirement benefits. The company is trying to put many of its workers in a position now where they have to choose between going to work sick or not being able to pay their bills, the statement said. Stop & Shop said it is the only large fully unionized supermarket remaining in New England, and our full-time associates are among the industrys highest paid. "A fair, new agreement also must reflect the rapid changes and increasing competition that are reshaping our industry," the company said in a statement on its website. The chain said it also remains committed to working diligently and in good faith with the union locals to reach new agreements. The vote by Local 919 follows a similar vote by Westport-based UFCW Local 371 last week. In total, five unions representing more than 31,000 employees in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island have voted to authorize a strike. mzabierek@record-journal.com 203-317-2279 Twitter: @MatthewZabierek By Anne Teigen In April of 2018, the last boy was moved out of the Connecticut Juvenile Training School in Middletown after Governor Dannel P. Malloy ordered the school closed by June of 2018. It placed young boys in a prison-like facility, making rehabilitation, healing and growth more challenging, Malloy told the Hartford Courant. The fact remains that this isn't a celebratory moment, but a time to reflect on the past mistakes made when it comes to juvenile justice, and an opportunity to create a system that better serves our young people and society as a whole." Many other states are closing or considering closing facilities in their states. In January 2019, Gavin Newsome, Californias newly elected governor, unveiled his proposed budget, which included plans to shift control of youth prisons from corrections officials to California's Health and Human Services Agency, and to eventually close youth prisons. The Wisconsin Legislature last year unanimously approved a bill shutting down the Lincoln Hills School by 2021 and replacing it with smaller state- and county-run facilities. (The new governors priorities could delay the schools closure by a few more years.) In 2015, South Dakota enacted SB 73, which focused on the use of out-of-home placements (such as correctional facilities) on serving youth who pose the greatest threat to public safety, while redirecting resources toward community programs for those charged with less serious offenses. South Dakota subsequently closed the State Training and Rehabilitation Academy, its only remaining secure juvenile facility, a year later. Kristi Bunkers, the director of Juvenile Services in South Dakotas Department of Corrections said, The decision on facility closure was made in the context of reform as opposed to a negative event. It was a positive outcome of our reform efforts. The number of youth committed to our care had been steadily declining so the need for a large state-run correctional facility no longer existed Closing the facility created substantial savings, allowing youth in state custody to receive treatment in smaller facilities closer to home. Additionally, the funds that previously supported the large state-run facility were reinvested into community-based services and grants for counties to help divert youth charged with low-level offenses from the justice system. Closing large, state-run juvenile justice facilities is not without challenges. A recent report by the Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators provides advice, resources and tools to help juvenile justice agencies close facilities responsibly. Specifically, the guidance is intended to help policymakers and agency leaders who are closing facilities to: Meet the needs of youth, families, and staff, while maintaining public safety. Take advantage of changes in placements, staffing and funding to improve care, practice and conditions of confinement. Preserve and reinvest resources required to meet the needs of young people and achieve the agencys mission. The report suggests working with all stakeholders, creating a realistic timeline and early planning about selling or repurposing decisions. It also suggests prompt, accurate and frequent information sharing with youth, families, staff and other stakeholders about how the closure is proceeding. The report contains entire chapters on meeting staff needs and meeting youth and family needs before, during and after closure. It also provides advice about redirecting resources to services in the community. As states consider closing large state-run juvenile facilities, such resources can aide a smooth transition and ensure closures are a component of broader efforts to change juvenile justice systems. Anne Teigen is the program director for NCSL's Criminal Justice Program. Email Anne By Express News Service As the Election Commission formally announced the dates for Lok Sabha polls on Sunday, the India Inc has released its own election manifesto to provide an economic roadmap for the political parties. Industry body Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) on Sunday released a Suggested Election Manifesto for political parties, covering a range of subjects including agriculture, education, health, infrastructure, manufacturing, technology and environment to achieve an average growth rate of 8 per cent per annum in the next five years. After extensive discussion with industry members and experts from various fields, we have evolved key suggestions to make an India of economic strength, technological vitality and moral leadership towards India@75 in 2022. We believe that political parties will consider these suggestions and include them in their manifesto, said Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General at the CII. The CII said it has shared the manifesto with all the major political parties, national and regional, for their consideration and inclusion in their party manifesto.The manifesto envisages a continued high pace of reforms, enabling India to take a lead in a world of multiple transformations in the global and technology environment, Banerjee said. The industry body has called for compressing Goods and Services Tax rate slabs to 2 or 3 per cent and lowering corporate income tax to 18 per cent with no exemptions to make Indian tax rates globally competitive. The CII advocates that for strategic PSEs, government stake should be lowered progressively in phase 1 to 51 per cent, in phase 2 to 26 per cent and in phase 3 to Nil. For other PSEs, the government should exit from business within five years, the manifesto said. Among others, it has suggested raising public expenditure on education to 6 per cent of the GDP, making vocational training part of curriculum and incentivising better performance of teachers with upgraded digital school infrastructure, especially, in rural schools. The CII-suggested manifesto highlights administrative, judicial and police reforms. We also recommend the highest priority on education, health care and infrastructure, among other sectors, Banerjee added. On electoral reforms, the CII suggests devising a model for simultaneous elections of Parliament and state legislatures from 2024. CII manifesto Tax Compressing of GST rate slabs to 2 or 3 per cent Lowering of corporate income tax to 18 per cent Divestment Government stake should be lowered progressively in Phase 1 to 51 per cent; in Phase 2 to 26 per cent and in Phase 3 to nil. For other Public Sector Enterprises, the government should exit from business within five years Social spending Raising public expenditure on education to 6 per cent of the GDP Raising of public spending on health 3 per cent of GDP Funding for Research and Development must be raised to 1 per cent of GDP By PTI NEW DELHI: Gulf carrier Etihad Airways is likely to infuse around Rs 1,600-1,900 crore into cash-strapped Jet Airways under a proposed deal wherein Naresh Goyal would step down as chairman of the domestic carrier, according to sources. Jet Airways, a full-service airline, has been grappling with acute financial crunch that has also forced it to ground many planes as well as delay payment of salaries and loan repayments. Under the proposed deal, Goyal would step down as chairman and director of Jet Airways but can nominate two persons to the airline's board. ALSO READ | Naresh Goyal seeks Rs 750-crore lifeline from Etihad, warns delay may ground Jet Airways Goyal would be designated as chairman emeritus while his son Nivaan Goyal would be offered an appropriate executive position subject to certain conditions, the sources said. By infusing Rs 1,600-1,900 crore, Etihad's stake in Jet Airways would rise to 24.9 per cent, the sources said citing a memorandum of understanding between the two airlines. Currently, Etihad has 24 per cent stake in the domestic airline. Besides, a new investor is likely to pump in around Rs 1,600-1,900 crore into the domestic carrier. Lenders are expected to infuse Rs 1,000 crore wherein their shareholding would be around 29.5 per cent, as per the sources. In the revamped board, there would be a total of 12 members, including two nominees each of Goyal and Etihad, they added. Anuradha Shukla By Express News Service After dragging on for 583 days against the prescribed 270-day resolution period delineated under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) ArcelorMittal finally won the Rs 42,000 crore bid for Essar Steel. While the wait has been a bit longer for Mittal, experts feel that in the next few weeks, they may several similar cases coming to a logical end, facilitating recovery of Rs 1 lakh crore for financial creditors by March-end. Last week, we saw some of the cases finally seeing closure. In the coming few weeks, there will be speedy decision in many such pending cases. We expect the banks to recover Rs 1 lakh crore by the end of this month, a senior Corporate Affairs Ministry official told this publication. On Friday, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) asked Essar Steels Committee of Creditors (CoC) to reconsider the distribution pattern of dues. It suggested the lenders to give 15 per cent of the total offer to operational creditors. The Essar Steel case is one among the 12 large cases admitted early on under the newly formed insolvency code. Similarly, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal also directed the Delhi bench of NCLT to decide on JSW Steel Ltds bid for the debt-ridden Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd by March 31, 2019, another high-profile case. We expect adjudicating authority (NCLT) to decide the case at an early date to ensure that the matter is decided before the end of this financial year, the appellate tribunal said. Sources in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs said that while the government had kept a distance from the resolution process, a communication was sent to the tribunal to resolve the cases earlier. The IBC is finally settling down. Professionals are trying to work on the chinks in the code, which became visible in many long-drawn cases. While the ministry maintains a safe distance, it had, however, communicated (that) quick resolution of some cases, which are dragging for long (must be made). The creation of new benches will enable faster disposal of cases, the MCA official further added. Currently, there are 14 NCLT benches in the country, including the Principal Bench at New Delhi, and three recently added benches at Jaipur (Rajasthan), Kochi (Kerala) and Cuttack (Odisha).The government last week had approved establishment of two new benches of NCLT, one at Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh and the other at Indore in Madhya Pradesh. Earlier this month, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code has so far brought close to Rs 3 lakh crore back into the banking system. The prospering border trade of China is a reflection of the great vitality of the countrys opening up, as China has just celebrated the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up at the end of last year. Railway port of Erenhot, Inner Mongolia conducts transshipment, January 8, 2019. (Photo from Peoples Daily online) The convenient custom clearance services at ports in Heilongjiang province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, as well as the changes taking place in border areas all indicate what Chinese leaders has proposed Chinas door of opening-up will not be closed and only open even wider, one of the most powerful lines made by China in recent years. The average customs clearance time in Heilongjiangs Suifenhe Port has been cut by over a third after an expansion project, and the handling capacity has also been enlarged to 38.5 million tons at this port located in a key development and opening-up zone. The reduced custom clearance time has brought huge benefits to Wang Yingdong, a senior manager of the Suifenhe Lanyang International Cargo Transportation Co.,Ltd. Time is everything for vegetable and fruit exporters like us. It was not easy for us to preserve the products as we had to spend a whole day clearing customs, but now we enjoy instant services for customs clearance, and its very convenient, she told Peoples Daily. Besides, highway crossing points also adopted the one-stop checking and clearance system that only takes 20 seconds to pass through. Last year, the State Council approved the establishment of an experimental zone for border tourism in Dongxing, Fangchenggang of Guangxi. Starting from exit & entry facilitation, all-for-one tourism promotion, and tourism cooperation expansion, the local government is pushing forward the restructuring and upgrading of local tourism. Dongxing is the only Chinese port city that borders by sea and land with a country in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The city and Vietnams Mong Cai are neighbors facing each other across a river. Thanks to a renovation project of the port city, the capacity of daily personnel exchange between the two cities has improved to 50,000 from the original 20,000. In addition, it only takes 6 seconds for each person to cross the border. An official from local immigration inspection station introduced that over 1.63 million tourists entered or exited China via Dongxing from Jan. 1 to Feb. 14 this year. The number of tourists travelling to Vietnam exceeded 0.4 million, up 58.4 percent over the previous year, hitting a record high, the official added. Erenhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, also witnessed the rapid development of border trade, as loads of commodities were exported to Belt and Road countries by China-Europe freight trains via the city after the Spring Festival. With the in-depth promotion of the Belt and Road construction and the continuous expansion of trade among China, Mongolia and Russia, logistics business at the ports of Erenhot is gaining increasing vitality. The citys railway port handles more than 70 percent of the transportation between China and Mongolia and customs transit between China and Russia, seeing increasing imports and exports year by year. The port has gradually developed into a comprehensive logistics system that integrates transportation, storage, processing, and information management, serving as a hub of the Silk Road on the grasslands. From Heilongjiang, Guangxi to Inner Mongolia, border trade ports are thriving under the reform and opening-up policy, just as what President Xi Jinping pointed out in his New Years speech - China, as a country of people on the move, is energetically pursuing prosperity. By PTI NEW DELHI: Key policymakers from India and African nations will brainstorm on strategies for scaling up bilateral trade volume to $150 billion in the next few years at the India-Africa Project Partnerships Conclave to be held here between March 17-19. "The event will mark the deepening of India-Africa economic and business ties and pave the way for a whole range of cross-border project partnerships," the Commerce and Industry Ministry said. The conclave coheres into the Indian government's broader vision of long-term engagement with Africa and its unflinching commitment to expanding the canvas of India-Africa economic partnership which is evident from the increase in bilateral trade between India and Africa by nearly 22 per cent from touching $ 62.66 billion in the year 2017-18, it added. Senior ministers from 21 African nations will participate in the 14th CII-EXIM Bank Conclave, which will also see the presence of India's Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu. Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President of Republic of Ghana, Dr.Ibrahima Kassory Fofana, Prime Minister of Republic of Guinea, MonyaneMoleleki, Deputy Prime Minister of Kingdom of Lesotho will be present in the conclave. The deliberations at the Conclave will be guided by long-term goals and objectives including encouraging Indian exporters to access the African countries and increase their presence in the region. Other key areas of discussions are enabling geographical and product diversification of Indian exports to Africa, enhancing manufacturing exports of Africa by optimal utilisation of Duty Free Tariff Preference scheme and capacity building support from India; expanding Indian investments in areas like infrastructure, agriculture and food-processing, energy, services, IT and knowledge industries. "The Conclave will mark the pre-eminence of India-Africa partnership in the area of 'South-South Cooperation', at a time when the global economy is faced with intractable challenges that stem from rising protectionism and trade conflicts," the Commerce and Industry Ministry said. The India-Africa bilateral partnership is augmented by India's ascendency as the fastest growing major economy, as well as Africa's new economic dynamism illustrated by some of the Sub-Saharan economies which are among the top 10 fastest growing economies in the world. The annual Conclave, since its inception in 2005, brings senior Ministers, policy makers, officials, business leaders, bankers, technologists, start-up entrepreneurs and other professionals from India and Africa on a common platform in a spirit of partnership. The knowledge sessions at the Conclave will focus upon the potential areas for bilateral economic and business partnerships, core capabilities of Indian and African enterprises and opportunities for joint ventures thereof, innovative financing of significant development projects, skill development and capacity building. The conclave is expected to see the participation of 400 plus delegates from Africa and around 300 delegates from India. The B2B meetings at this conclave are expected to be held on more than 500 project proposals from Africa. Rajas Kelkar By Express News Service In India, we love things we can cling to. Gold, essentially, becomes a natural asset most Indians like to own. We import nearly a 1,000 tonnes of gold each year as a country. However, gold is not an investment. Warren Buffett, the legendary American investor, who oversees Berkshire Hathaway at 88, never misses an opportunity to hit out at the idea of investing in gold. Late last month, he wrote in his annual letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway that an investment in gold would be worth only a fraction of that in an index fund over his 77-year-old lifetime. People buy gold when there is uncertainty. The fear of the unknown makes people pick safety over risk. In America, if people were scared of uncertainty after a dramatic surge in the government deficits and worried about a potential fall in value of the US dollar, they would have bought gold. Budget deficits did balloon dramatically. They are high even today in America. However, there was no collapse of the US dollar. Stock markets in the US surged to record highs, and foreign investment into America continued unabated. The US dollar became the world reserve currency. Every country wants to trade and use dollar-denominated assets. The US Federal Reserve estimates that the American household wealth around $104 trillion. That is a good 40 times higher than Indias economy measured by gross domestic product. We cannot even imagine a number that big. American households did not hoard gold to create that wealth. They owned financial assets to get there. Index investing in the 70s and 80s channelised retirement savings into financial assets like equities. That gave the necessary depth to US stock markets. American companies could easily go public and expanded businesses in the US around the world over several decades. It created a cycle that continues to keep the American dream alive. It attracts many immigrants even today. What is our problem We certainly do not believe in the power of financial assets. Less than 23 per cent of Indian households own financial assets like fixed deposits, mutual funds or stocks, according to an RBI survey published two years ago. One can safely say that the number may not have changed much now. Mutual funds continue to languish at less than 2 crore unique folios while the number of demat accounts hovers around 2.5 crore. In a country of 130 crore people, these are pretty small numbers. All this is pretty much after the push financial assets got after demonetisation. Gold is primarily a hedge against potential risk. If you ask financial planning experts, they would say that it should not be more than 5-10% of your overall investments. However, most of the gold in India is owned through jewellery. That is treated as an investment. People buy gold coins, biscuits or bars. It is understandable if you are buying gold for your religious belief and rituals. They are more emotionally driven decisions. Your investments have to be rational. Gold prices have moved to `32,000 per 10gm today from `28,000 per 10gm in 2014. In the meantime, the BSE Sensex has grown to 36,000 from 21,000. If you take a period of 30 years, gold has moved to the current level from `3,140, a gain of only 10 times since 1989. The Sensex in 1989 was 770. What can you do You may want to have a serious conversation with everyone in the house. It may be a good idea to decide the quantity of gold that is good enough to own. It may not be easy as you are disrupting a way of investment or savings. However, simply discussing investments that do not include gold is a good beginning. You must speak to a financial advisor on the concept of asset allocation. This is a method to decide on the allocation of your investment every month or through any period. It is based on your dreams, goals, income and your ability to take the risk. The historical evidence is in front of you. Equity assets outperform any other form of an asset over the long-term. An index fund over the past 30 years that mirrored the performance of the Sensex would have easily done much better than gold. Such funds did not exist in India then. But they do now. You can ask your financial advisor to help you identify the right one. Yathiraju By Express News Service BENGALURU: Keeping in view the present condition in the country after the Pulwama attack, a special court in Bengaluru has dismissed separate applications filed by two suspected terrorists seeking permission to visit their native places in Kerala to see their ailing mothers for a period of five days and return with police escort at the cost of the State. Judge Sadashiva S Sultanpuri, the XLVIII Additional City Civil and Sessions Court, recently dismissed the applications of the accused Ibrahim Moulvi (Accused No.17) and Shafaz (Accused No.19). They were among 31 accused, including Abdul Nasser Madani, allegedly involved in the 2008 Bengaluru serial blast cases. They are facing trial for the offences punishable under the provisions of Explosives Substances Act, Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. In all, nine cases were registered for placing bombs in nine places in Bengaluru. The court can take judicial note of the fact that terrorist activities have taken place in the country. On February 14, 2019, there was an attack by a terrorist on Indian soldiers at Pulwama. More than 40 soldiers were killed in the bomb blast. Indian armed forces also launched a pre-emptive attack on Pakistan. Therefore, there is a law and order problem in India and Pakistan caused due to the said terrorist attack, the special court said while dismissing the applications. Keeping in view these present conditions in the country and the allegations made against the accused of being involved in terrorism, the court said that it was not just and proper on its part to permit them to visit their native places, even under police escort, because there may be apprehension that other terrorists may attack or may make an attempt to free these accused persons from the custody of the police. The court also stated that the Government of India had declared high alert throughout India and that Indian armed forces were trying to prevent terrorist activities. It said, The documents produced by the accused show that their respective mothers are discharged from their hospitals and are residing in their respective houses. And no documents show that they are totally bedridden as claimed by them.The public prosecutor has filed separate objections to both applications. The court considered them. Court View All 9 cases have reached the stage of finality. At this stage, this court cannot take the risk of permitting them to go to their native places even with the aid of police. Dia Rekhi By Express News Service CHENNAI: When you order something online be it clothes, food or any other essentials it is always reassuring to track the order. The same applies to large corporations to plan their inventory accordingly. FourKites is a Chennai-based end-to-end supply chain visibility solutions provider. It was founded in 2014 by Chief Executive Officer, Mathew Elenjickal and co-founder Arun Chandrasekharan, the Chief Technology Officer who realised that there was a desperate need for visibility to locate a product along the supply chain so that companies could prepare better and thus, maximise business. Bad forecasting led to large companies losing out on a lot of business, said Neeraj Sharma- Senior Director of Human Resources. For instance, during a Black Friday sale, due to delays they may have been short of stock. We help companies with load tracking and tell them why there is a delay if it is the weather, traffic or something else. Earlier, it was all done manually. This is a fully automated system that is nearly 100% accurate. He said that as part of its innovation, the company has also introduced temperature tracking for perishable goods like dairy products or fruits. The platform provides real-time visibility and execution for Fortune 500 companies and third-party logistics firms. Some of their clients include giants like Unilever, Walmart, Nestle, Cargill, Pfizer, Perdue, Kraft Heinz and many more. Using a proprietary algorithm to calculate shipment arrival times, FourKites enables customers to lower operating costs, improve on-time performance, and strengthen end-customer relationships. With a network of more than four million GPS/ELD devices, FourKites covers all modes including ocean, rail, parcel and over-the-road. The platform is optimised for mobile and equipped with market-leading end-to-end security. We started off small with only 15-20 clients in the first two years and went on to add 58 more clients or logos as we call it in 2017, 60 in 2018 and are looking to take that forward to 108 logos this year, Neeraj said. Our clients are mainly in North America but we are looking to expand to other countries soon. We do not service any Indian clients right now as our technology is priced at a premium and requires a certain infrastructural support that is more suited for larger multinational corporations. India and China are major explosion markets and we will start working in the Indian market in a couple of years. FourKites consists of a team of 200 people in India and 150 people in the US. There are about 30-40 core engineers who along with the team of developers and operations professionals innovate incloud solutions, data science, predictive capabilities, and integrations for customers. Recently, the company was recognised as a Great Place to Work among start-ups in India. In a nutshell FourKites is an end-to-end supply chain visibility platform that major global companies use to track and manage their freight. Founded in 2014 by Mathew Elejickal Funding Status: Late Stage Venture Last Funding Type: Series C Total Funding Amount: $101.5 million Number of Employees: 350 Samuel Merigala By Express News Service CHENNAI: Its either sewage, garbage or encroachments which choke lakes in the metropolitan area. However, all three together are effecting a slow death on Veeraraghavan Lake at Chromepet. A thick layer of hyacinth covers the entire water spread, indicating the high level of pollution and water toxicity. However, repeated requests of local residents to reclaim this waterbody has fallen on deaf ears. This is an important waterbody which can boost groundwater reserves of nearby areas, but officials are least bothered about reclaiming it. It is sad that people are forced to buy water from nearby areas though Chromepet has lots of lakes, said V Santhanam, president of the Federation of Civic and Residents Welfare Association of Pallavaram Municipality. While the lake has become a dumpyard for locals, all stormwater drains emptying into the lake are carrying sewage. Residential encroachments on the lake also empty their sewage into the lake.Chromepet is supposed to be completely covered with underground sewage scheme. This emptying of sewage into the lake shows that it is a myth, Santhanam said. While PWD recently tried cleaning parts of Thiruneermalai lake which the Veeraraghavan Lake empties into, locals claimed that the latter had not been desilted in over a decade. When contacted, an official of Thiruneermalai Panchayat cited lack of funds for desilting Veeraraghavan Lake. We are in talks with local NGOs and welfare associations to clean the lake as a temporary measure, the official said. Rochana Mohan By Express News Service CHENNAI: Reaching into his bag, GV Vinoth Kumar pulls out his 19 certificates from school and college, exuding pride. He spreads them out on the table. Each commends the 21-year-old for perfect attendance. For the last 17 years, Vinoth has not missed a single day of school or college. Be it sickness or stormy weather, Vinoth has been determined to attend school and college, in order to set a record with the India Book of Records and Guinness Book of Records. After completing class 12, my school gave me a certificate for perfect attendance all through my schooling at Kalaimagal Vidyalaya Matriculation Higher Secondary School. That was when I got the idea to set a record because the current record is only 14 years, which is from LKG to class 12. I have completed three years of undergraduate without missing a class. It puts my current record at 17 years, he says. He hopes to complete 19 years of perfect attendance. The journey was not easy for the MCA student at Measi Institute of Information and Technology. My parents motivated me a lot. They were the ones who told me that I should go to school every day. My father, who is also a teacher, used to drop me at school every day, says Vinoth. But the situation became tricky when he was completing his undergraduate course in Computer Science at Hindustan College of Arts and Sciences. I live in Royapuram. From there to Padur takes two and a half hours each way. I used to reach home at 7.30 pm every day. I took the bus for the first two years, and went on my bike during my third year, he says. In his third year of college, one day, Vinoth recorded a temperature of 102 degrees, but still drove to college and back. In 2015 and 2016, when the floods and Vardah cyclone hit the city, Vinoth remained focused on his goal, and still went to college every day until it was shut down, and was often the only student in his class. Years of work isnt worth being broken by just one day. Everyone accomplishes something in their lifetime. I wanted to accomplish something unique, and so I decided that I will set this record, he says. Of course, such dedication comes with a price. I feel bad when my friends go on trips without me and come back with great stories. Once, they went to a forest near Thiruporur and cooked food out there. They made chicken 65, prawn 65, parotta and curry. However, they went again with me on an off day, says Vinoth, smiling. He admits that although missing this quintessential part of college life is difficult, he keeps strong through the support of his friends and teachers, head of departments and principals. Future plans Vinoth hopes to clear the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission exam and feels that his dedication towards the award will translate into an admirable work ethic. By Express News Service KOCHI: A karate instructor was arrested on charges of molesting minors at an apartment in Vaduthala. Jibin, 39, a native of Vypeen, was arrested following the complaint lodged by the parents of the victims before the police. As per the complaint, the accused arrived at the apartment to impart training to the children on February 28. He sexually abused the children during the training. Hence the children kept away from further classes despite three classes being scheduled to be held every week. When the parents enquired about the issue the children narrated the ordeal to them, who lodged a complaint with the police, said an officer. The parents of the three children aged 10, 13 and 14 approached the police. Besides, the officers received the CCTV visuals of the incident from the apartment. According to the officers, the accused confessed to his crime. He was earlier also booked for abusing students at a school in Palluruthi. The accused was arrested under relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. He was produced before the court which remanded him to judicial custody. An inquiry is on to ascertain whether the accused was have involved in more such crimes, said Ernakulam ACP P S Suresh. By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: With the Election Commission announcing the dates for the general elections on Sunday, the Model Code of Conduct (MCC)came into force in the State. Vijayawada city Commissioner of Police (CP) Ch Dwaraka Tirumala Rao said called upon all the political party leaders and their supporters to strictly adhere to the MCC. Addressing the media here on Sunday, Rao said Vijayawada city police commissionerate holds the responsibility of six Assembly constituencies and two Lok Sabha constituencies including some polling stations in Gannavaram, Penamaluru and Pamarru. He said 1,483 polling stations were allotted in 505 locations in the above limits, of which 873 polling stations were declared problematic. We have already inspected all the problematic locations in the city and taken measures to ensure a peaceful election, said Rao. Explaining the security measures being implemented for the election, he said 161 armed mobile forces, 15 flying squads, 12 monitoring teams, 14 check posts, 34 pickets at problematic locations, 44 SI striking forces, seven ACP special striking forces, five ADCP special striking forces, six DCP special striking forces are in place. As many as 430 security cases have been registered and bind-over has been imposed on 1043 people in the city based on the cases filed in previous elections, he added. Giving instructions to political leaders, the police commissioner said those leaders who are campaigning in their constituencies should get permission for vehicles from the returning officer. Social media monitoring cell In view of the social media war among political parties, Tirumala Rao said that every district and unit will have a social media monitoring cell. It will monitor every post and comments of political parties. Anybody caught indulging in using abusive language against any political leader/party will be arrested after filing cases under the IT Act. By Express News Service Hollywood star Samuel L Jackson, known for his roles in Avengers, Django Unchained, Pulp Fiction, and the latest film, Captain Marvel, is a big fan of the Indian film Industry. Recently in an interview, Samuel Jackson has expressed his desire to act in the next installment of SS Rajamoulis acclaimed war-drama franchise, Baahubali. ALSO READ | Playing young Nick Fury without the eyepatch was a challenge: Samuel L Jackson As a part of the promotional activities of Captain Marvel, the 70-year-old actor was asked if he was planning on visiting India at any point, to which he said he would want to visit but only if they gave him a job. When quizzed about the film he would like to work in India, he replied, I want to be in Baahubali 3. He further added, No, I am just kidding. I would come into a movie. I cant sing or dance but I can fake it.Captain Marvel, meanwhile, has opened on March 8 to mixed reviews. Director SS Rajamouli is currently shooting of his upcoming film, RRR, reportedly based on the epic Ramayana, starring Jr NTR and Ram Charan Teja. Prasanta Mazumdar By Express News Service GUWAHATI: The alliance between Assams ruling BJP and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) hangs in the balance. The BJPs central leadership is likely to take a decision on the alliance in New Delhi on Tuesday in consultation with party leaders from Assam. However, the state leaders, including Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, are said to be not so keen on the alignment. Our national leaders will take a call on the alliance. We are a national party and such a decision is taken only at the national level, BJP spokesman Rupam Goswami said. AGP president Atul Bora said no decision had been taken yet on the alliance. We havent yet discussed the issue with BJP, he said. He was recently in Delhi which gave rise to speculation about alliance. Amidst the uncertainty, the AGP on Sunday had declared a list of probable candidates in 13 of the states 14 Parliamentary seats. Many viewed it as an attempt to mount pressure on the saffron party for alliance. Bora said the declaration of the names of probable candidates was part of the regional partys preparation for the polls. Alliance and the resultant seat-sharing arrangement had done wonders for both parties in the 2016 Assam elections. The BJP had grabbed 60 of the states 126 seats to form the government with allies AGP, which had won 15 seats, and Bodoland Peoples Front. However, two-and-a-half-year later, the BJP and the AGP had fallen apart on the issue Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 which the Narendra Modi government had sought to pass in Parliament to grant Indian citizenship to immigrants belonging to six persecuted non-Muslim communities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who migrated till December 31, 2014. For a party that was born out of the anti-immigrants agitation of early 1980s, the AGP could not endorse the Modi governments move. So, it first staged a series of protests against the Bill to try and dissuade the BJP from going ahead with the Bill. As the BJP remained stuck to its gun, the AGP severed its ties with the saffron party and pulled out of the Sonowal government in January this year. The grassroots workers of both parties are seemingly opposed to the alliance given their straining of ties over the Citizenship Bill. There is a perception that non-alliance will hurt the AGP more than the BJP. The BJP state leadership is confident the party will do well even without alliance. The confidence stems from the partys success in last years panchayat election where it had grabbed nearly 42 per cent of the votes to emerge as the single largest party. Only time will tell whether or not there is an alliance between the two parties. But for now, the AGP can propose an alliance to old foe Congress. The Congress, possibly, will not reject it. Hong Kong: Student programmes enhanced The Education Bureau today announced enhancements to two projects for primary and secondary students. The bureau said the Understanding Adolescent Project (UAP) and the Enhanced Smart Teen Project (ESTP) have been bolstered to improve students resilience. Since its launch in the 2004-05 school year, the UAP has been implemented in 95% of eligible public-sector primary schools. The project provides comprehensive support to help students acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes for facing adversities, the bureau said. Starting from the 2019-20 school year, additional student group activities and training for parents will be provided for the intensive programme under the project. The programme provides a series of small group, adventure-based and parent-child activities for Primary 4 students who need more guidance. The group size for the programme will also be lowered to provide more services to students in need, the bureau said. For secondary schools, the bureau has been running the ESTP in collaboration with various disciplinary forces to enhance students self-discipline, self-confidence, team spirit and relationship with teachers. The bureau said it started increasing the training quota for the project in phases from the 2018-19 school year to benefit more students. Public-sector schools are encouraged to actively participate in the two projects on personal growth, it added. This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Financial support for micro and small, as well as private enterprises is the most important part of supply-side structural reform in the financial sector, according to Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC). Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission receives an interview after the opening meeting of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Mar. 5. (Photoby Peoples Daily Online) Guo made the remarks when giving an interview after the opening meeting of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Mar. 5. Calling the financing difficulty and the high financing cost for micro and small enterprises a tough challenge of the world, Guo made high evaluation on Chinas efforts in this regard. There are 4,588 financial organizations in Chinas banking industry, he introduced, adding that major banks share in the industry was reduced to around 38 percent from over 50 percent over the past decade. The fall of share of major banks was a synchronous process with the expanding number of small- and medium-sized banks whose businesses were more tailored for micro and small enterprises, Guo noted. In addition, major banks, including five largest State-owned commercial banks and 12 joint-stock commercial banks, have all established inclusive finance departments to provide financial services specifically for micro and small enterprises, he said. Reports confirmed that by the end of 2018, China witnessed a 21.8-percent growth from the year beginning in the inclusive loans for micro and small enterprises with a total credit line not exceeding 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) for each borrower. Its indeed a high growth, Guo noted. According to this years government work report, state-owned banks are requested to grant 30 percent more of the loans to small and micro businesses, which is an approachable target in Guos view. Chinese banks have made effective explorations on how to acquire sufficient information before offering loans to private, as well as micro and small enterprises, a big challenge for many financial institutions, Guo introduced. Thanks to the application of big data and internet, some banks are able to respond quickly to lending demands and keep a low ratio of non-performing loans (NPL). For instance, the NPL ratio of China Construction Bank was kept at only round 1 percent. In addition, the leading online private commercial bank MYbank was also keeping a low NPL ratio, Guo said. We will further share and promote these experiences among banks of all sizes, and take more measures to support the development of the private, as well as micro and small businesses, Guo remarked. As supply-side structural reform deals with many aspects, insurance and security sectors also need to carry out bold innovation to offer more financial support for the private sector, and micro and small enterprises, Guo stressed. Manish Anand By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Four states Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka and West Bengal which together have 190 Lok Sabha seats, are likely to emerge as the key battlegrounds in the elections that will impact the overall outcome. The NDA had a rich haul of 123 Lok Sabha seats in these states in the 2014 elections. But unlike 2014, the BJP doesnt have the advantage of a fragmented Opposition in these states this time.In the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh which sends the maximum 80 MPs, political churning appears to have changed the scenario from last time. The BJP, continuing its winning streak of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, decimated its rivals to nearly sweep the state in the 2017 Assembly polls, wresting power from the Samajwadi Party (SP). But this time, the BJP is seemingly up against double anti-incumbency, against the Centre as well as the state government, and is faced with the daunting challenge of defending a whopping 71 seats. Furthermore, the party will be up against the combined might of the SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) even while the Congress, besides the breakaway faction of the SP headed by Shivpal Singh Yadav, are toiling hard to make the contest multi-cornered. The BJP is sensing a consolidation of minority vote base in Uttar Pradesh with the SP-BSP tie-up, which could negate the gains made out of the division of Muslim votes. In Bihar, the BJP in alliance with the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) had a runaway success in 2014, bagging 31 out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats. With the Congress-RJD combine and the JD (U) contesting separately, the saffron party benefitted from the multi-cornered contest. This time, with the BJP, JD (U) and the LJP bracing up to battle it out against the RJD-Congress combine, the state is staring at a largely bipolar contest. The BJP has in recent years poured maximum energy in West Bengal where it had bagged just two Lok Sabha seats last time to emerge as a key challenger to the Trinamool Congress, which had won 34 of the 42 constituencies. Karnataka, which had provided 17 out of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in BJPs kitty, is also setting up for a bipolar contest, with the Congress-JD (S) challenging the saffron outfit. While the BJP is principally banking on former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa to swing the formidable Lingayat vote base, the party is likely to miss out on the services of former Union minister Ananth Kumar, who passed away recently. By UNI NEW DELHI: The death of Indians and their family members in the Ethiopian plane crash has gone up. "I have spoken to son of Mr Vaidya in Toronto. I am shocked you have lost six members of your family in air crash. My heartfelt condolences. I have asked Indian envoys in Kenya and Ethiopia to reach you immediately. They will provide help and assistance in respect of all your family members," External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted on Monday. On Sunday late evening, Ms Swaraj had tweeted to say - "India Embassy in Ethiopia has informed me that the deceased Indian nationals are Vaidya Pannagesh Bhaskar, Vaidya Hansin Annagesh, Nukavarapu Manisha and Shikha Garg". Meanwhile, Indian ambassador in Ethiopia Anurag Srivastava tweeted to inform External Affairs Minister that he has spoken to Mr Vaidya's son in Toronto and reassured him of all assistance through the Embassy. "I am trying to reach the family of Shikha Garg who has unfortunately died in the air crash. I have tried her husband's number many times. Please help me reach her family," Ms Swaraj tweeted. Indian embassy in Ethiopia has informed that for any assistance by families of Indian nationals who have died in the air crash, people may contact V Suresh, Second Secretary (Consular) Mobile: 251 911506852 and Mohan Lal, Head of Chancery, Mobile 251 911506851. In a twitter missive tagging to Ms Swaraj, Ms Hiral wrote - "Hello, I am daughter in law of Vaidya family. Correct names are Pannagesh Bhaskar Vaidya and Hansini Pannagesh Vaidya. Also tried reaching two officers but no luck. Please reach us at 14377727702". Ms Swaraj also directed Rahul Chhabra, Indian High Commissioner in Nairobi to provide all help and assistance to the concerned people. Among the deceased include Shikha Garg is a "Consultant with Ministry of Environment and Forests". "She was traveling to attend UNEP meeting in Nairobi. I am trying to reach the families of other Indian nationals," the External Affairs Minister said. According to media reports, Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed Sunday morning shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. The plane had 149 passengers and eight crew members on board, the airline said. There were no survivors. The cause of the crash remains unknown. The US National Transportation Safety Board said it will send a team to help with the investigation. The plane was carrying passengers from more than 30 countries, media reports said. In a tweet, Union Science and Environment Minister Harshvardhan said - "My condolences to the families of four Indian nationals who have died in an unfortunate crash of Ethiopian Airlines. Sadly, a UNDP consultant attached to my ministry Ms Shikha Garg also died in the crash. My prayers for the departed souls." By PTI NEW DELHI: In a real-life plot resembling the Sanjay Dutt starrer film Munna Bhai MBBS, a medical college in Bhopal allegedly admitted fake and ghost patients to comply with minimum requirements of Medical Council of India, a CBI inquiry has found. On the basis of the findings of the agency, the Supreme Court has barred RKDF Medical College Hospital and Research Centre from admissions in its first-year MBBS course for the next two years 2018-19 and 2019-20. The apex court has also directed its Secretary-General to initiate prosecution against the Dean of the college S S Kushwaha and imposed a penalty of Rs 5 crore for playing fraud on it. The apex court has directed the college to refund the fee paid by the students for the academic year 2017-19 along with a compensation of Rs one lakh to each student. The inquiry found that the college misled the Supreme Court by manipulating and filing of fabricated records. "The assertion made by the college regarding the genuineness of the patients in the hospital turned out to be false in the enquiry conducted by the Committee which was comprised of the officers of the CBI and medical experts," an official said. The Central Government and Medical Council of India had highlighted before the Supreme Court gross mal-practices in the college and inadequate infrastructure and patients to impart education to MBBS students. This was contested by the college which had challenged the report of the Government and the MCI. In order to verify the allegations against the college, the Supreme Court in 2017 had constituted a committee headed by a senior officer deputed by the CBI Director and two doctors of the AIIMS recommended by the AIIMS Director. The CBI registered a preliminary enquiry and submitted its report before the Supreme Court last year which included an opinion of AIIMS doctors. "The Committee exposes the evil design of the college in resorting to deceitful methods to cheat the authorities concerned and this court to secure permission for admission of students. Apart from the prosecution of the Dean, the college is liable to be suitably punished for committing perjury," the court said. The MCI in its inspection in 2015 had found that the college, for the purpose of granting admission for 2014-15, admitted fake patients and others who were without any significant illness. The matter went to a number of litigations in various courts before the Supreme Court constituted a committee under the CBI to look into the claims of the hospital in 2017. The allegation was corroborated by the Supreme Court-appointed committee comprising CBI officer and AIIMS doctors which went through medical sheets of 436 patients shown to be admitted in the hospital in September 2017 when it carried out inspection. During inspection, it found that the number of patients was abysmally low while medical files were not in conformity with the actual number of patients. Going through records collected by the committee, Surgical disciplines Professor in AIIMS went through 96 medical sheets of the patients on bed in 2017 and raised serious doubts over "genuineness of the patients actually admitted". Similar views were expressed by AIIMS experts in Gynaecology, Oral surgery, Ophthalmic sciences, dermatology, Paediatrics, General medicine, orthopaedics and ENT departments. The experts found the spectrum of patients shown to be admitted by the college as inadequate for MBBS education. After the report was filed before the Supreme Court, the college gave an unconditional apology to the apex court requesting to give a quietus to the matter. "The brazen manner in which the college has indulged in relying upon manipulated records to mislead this court for the purpose of getting favourable order deserves to be dealt with a serious manner," the Supreme Court said. The court said it has noticed a disturbing trend of some medical colleges in projecting fake faculty and patients for obtaining permission for admission of students. By PTI RAIPUR: A woman Railway Protection Force inspector was arrested for allegedly shooting at and injuring her husband following a marital dispute in Chhattisgarh's Balodabazar-Bhatapara district, police said Monday. RPF Inspector Sunita Minj (39) was on duty at her post at Bhatapara railway station, over 80 kilometres from here, Sunday night when the incident happened, an official said. "The accused's husband Dipak Shrivastava (42), a railway employee, suspected that she was having an extra-marital affair and this caused frequent quarrels between the couple ever since they married two years ago. On Sunday night he arrived at her workplace to confront her," the official informed. As tempers flayed between the two, Minj pulled out her service revolver and after firing a warning shot in the air, discharged the next two bullets at Shrivastava, the official said. "He took a hit on the hips and was rushed to a nearby hospital from where he was shifted to a medical facility in Raipur. Doctors have said he is currently out of danger," the official said. Minj has been arrested and further probe into the incident is underway, he added. By PTI AHMEDABAD: A day ahead of the Congress Working Committee meeting here, Jamnagar (Rural) MLA Vallabh Dharaviya Monday quit the party, tendered his resignation from the Gujarat Assembly and joined the BJP. Dharaviya's is the third resignation of a Congress MLA in the past four days. "Dharaviya has resigned as Jamnagar (Rural) MLA. He told me he is resigning voluntarily," Speaker Rajendra Trivedi confirmed. It was a homecoming for Dharaviya who was with the BJP earlier before switching over to the Congress ahead of the 2017 Assembly polls and winning on the opposition party's ticket. "I am originally a BJP soldier. I had worked under PM Modi and BJP president Amit Shah earlier. I am leaving Congress because of infighting. I have realised that only BJP can ensure people's well-being," he said after joining the party. "After the recent (February 26) air strikes on Pakistan (terror camp), I have realised that Modi must be re-elected as Prime Minister. Congress does not have such leadership," he further said. Dharaviya belongs to the Sathwara community, part of the Other Backward Classes, which has a strong electoral presence in Jamnagar district. A little while before Dharaviya quit Monday afternoon, his former party colleague Parsotam Sabariya, who had resigned as Dhrangadhra MLA on March 8, joined the ruling BJP in the presence of its senior leaders I K Jadeja and KC Patel. Sabariya was arrested in October last year in connection with an irrigation scam and was granted bail by the Gujarat High Court in February. FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE Sabariya said he was not under pressure to join the BJP and claimed he was making the switch to develop his constituency. "I am joining the BJP to develop my constituency. I was not under any pressure and have resigned from the Congress voluntarily. As far as the FIR is concerned, the law will take its own course. The BJP has to do nothing about it. I am not joining BJP to get any post or for other benefits," he told reporters. On March 8, Jawahar Chavda, Congress MLA from Manavadar, too had resigned from the Assembly and was promptly inducted into the BJP. He was made a cabinet minister in the Vijay Rupani government on March 9. The total number of desertions of MLAs from Gujarat Congress ranks in the past few months now stands at five. Apart from these five, the Congress lost another MLA when Bhagvan Barad was disqualified from the membership of the House on March 5 following his conviction and two-year jail sentence in an illegal mining case. In July last year, senior Congress MLA Kunvarji Bavalia had resigned as a legislator and was later made a cabinet minister in the state government. He then won the bypoll on a BJP ticket. Last month, the first-time MLA from Unjha seat in Mehsana, Asha Patel, had resigned from the House and the Congress and joined the ruling BJP. The BJP now has 100 MLAs in the 182-member House while the Congress has 71 MLAs. Fayaz Wani By Express News Service SRI NAGAR: The Election Commissions decision not to hold simultaneous parliamentary and assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir came in for a lot of flak, with almost all the political parties in the state, barring the BJP, hitting out at the Centre. National Conference vice-president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah blamed the Centre in a series of tweets. First time since 1996 Assembly elections in J&K are not being held on time. Remember this the next time you are praising PM Modi for his strong leadership Omar said. He said in 2014, the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections were held on schedule despite the most devastating floods. Shows how badly the BJP & earlier the BJP-PDP mishandled J&K, Omar tweeted. In a dig at PM Narendra Modi, he said that with the amount of international attention elections in J&K attract, he never thought the Prime Minister would be confess his failure on a global stage, but we all make mistakes & that was mine. Balakote & Uri are not symbols of PM Modis handling of national security, J&K is and look at the mess he has made there. The abject surrender to anti-India forces is a crying shame, he added. Another former CM, Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti, said the decision to hold only parliamentary elections in J&K confirmed the sinister designs of Government of India. Not letting people elect a government is antithetical to the very idea of democracy. Also a tactic of buying time to disempower people by pushing an agenda that suits their ulterior motives, she said. State Congress vice-president Ghulam Nabi Monga accused the EC of acting at the behest of the BJP. Every party had favoured simultaneous Assembly and parliamentary polls in the State. But at the behest of the BJP, the EC deferred state Assembly polls. The ECI has been influenced by BJP, he said.Monga said additional security forces are needed for parliamentary polls and same could have been utilised for state polls. CPI(M) state secretary Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami also termed the decision to not hold simultaneous polls as disappointing and said it would send a wrong signal. When panchayat and ULB polls could be held, what is the logic for deferring the Assembly polls? he asked. However, BJP spokesman Sunil Sethi defended the EC saying it may have deferred state polls on the basis of the feedback received from security agencies and administration.The Governor administration, however, claimed it had not sought deferment of Assembly polls but wanted adequate security arrangements. We were ready for simultaneous polls if certain number of paramilitary forces personnel were provided for holding the elections, Security Advisor to J&K Governor K Vijay Kumar said. By Express News Service CHENNAI: Pakistan failed to act against terrorism on its soil and so we did, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said here on Sunday. She was speaking at the Womens Day celebrations organised by Chennai chapter of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), FLO Chennai.The government decided to hit at the nerve centre based on intelligence that it was being used to train, fund and capacitate fidayeen (suicide bombers), she said. We kept giving them (Pakistan) dossiers, giving them proof and we kept requesting for action, ever since the time of the earlier government. But, concrete action was not available, she said, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visits to numerous countries, had urged the global community to isolate Pakistan because of its failure to take concrete action against terror. We have taken efforts to isolate (Pakistan), identify terror camps and bring it to the notice of the global community. As a result of this, after Pulwama and February 26, all countries have stood by India, except one, which also did not overtly support Pakistan, she said. Speaking on the challenges and achievements of women in this country, she urged more women with law and chartered accountancy background to take up arbitration on account of their natural flair for negotiation. She said India was poised to become one of the biggest arbitration hubs, but arbitration for Indian corporations happen outside the country. She urged women to fill these gaps. Speaking on the Modi-led governments push for women, she said data indicated that 70 per cent of Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency Ltd. (MUDRA) loans were availed of by women. She also highlighted the fact that data on unorganised sector remains elusive and the need to document the struggles and victories of women from the grassroots who have shattered stereotypes and made their marks. FICCI FLO has this year conducted vocational skill programmes, legal and health awareness programmes benefitting over 2000 women, said Anupama Shivaraman, Chairperson, FICCI FLO. By PTI NEW DELHI: The BJP Monday latched on to Rahul Gandhi's reference to terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammad's head as "Masood Azhar ji" to throw "Rahul loves terrorists" barb at the Congress chief, as the opposition party hit back accusing its rival of deliberately twisting his comments made with sarcasm. Addressing a meeting of Congress workers here, Gandhi attacked the BJP, saying, "These people with 56-inch chest, you would recall, in their previous government, the current National Security Advisor Ajit Doval went in an aircraft with Masood Azhar ji and handed over Masood Azhar there in Kandahar." Gandhi noted it was Azhar who was responsible for the killing of 40 CRPF soldiers in Pulwama in Kashmir on Feb 14. Azhar's group JeM has claimed responsibility for the attack. ALSO READ: Tell families of jawans who freed Masood Azhar, Rahul Gandhi asks PM Modi; BJP hits back Targeting the Congress chief, BJP leader and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "Come on Rahul Gandhi Ji! Earlier it was the likes of Digvijay Ji who called Osama Ji and Hafiz Saeed Sahab. Now you are saying 'Masood Azhar Ji'. What is happening to Congress Party?" Prasad said Gandhi has caused huge pain to families of martyrs and embarrassed the country with his comments. FOLLOW OUR ELECTION COVERAGE HERE Gandhi's remarks showed the Congress can go to any extent for votes, he said. "The Congress, on one hand, insults our armed forces and Indian Air Force by seeking evidence of their valour but honours a murderer, a terrorist like Azhar," Prasad said. The BJP leader added India is working to have Azhar declared a global terrorist but Pakistan will now say even Indian leaders are giving the JeM chief respect. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala accused the BJP and a section of media of deliberately twisting Gandhi's remarks. ALSO READ: Choose between Mahatma's India and Godse's India: Rahul Gandhi's jibe at PM Modi "Two questions to BJP & select Bhakt Media, who deliberately seek to twist the 'Masood' sarcasm of Rahulji- 1) Did NSA Doval not escort & release terrorist Masood Azhar in Kandahar? 2) Did Modiji not invite Pak's rogue ISI to investigate Pathankot terror attack?". Another Union minister Smriti Irani also took a swipe at Gandhi. "What is common between Rahul Gandhi and Pakistan? Their love for terrorists. Please note Rahul ji's reverence for terrorist Masood Azhar - a testimony to #RahulLovesTerrorists," she tweeted. In turn, Surjewala used the hashtag "BJP loves terrorists". Azhar and two other terrorists, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, were released from an Indian prison in 1999 by the then BJP-led government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in exchange for the passengers held hostage on board IC-814 flight hijacked to Kandahar in Afghanistan. Azhar formed JeM after his release from jail. Since then, JeM, based in Pakistan, has been involved in terrorist attacks in India. The group was responsible for the attack on Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001, in which nine security personnel and officials were killed. On January 2, 2016, a heavily armed group of JeM attacked the Pathankot air base in which seven security personnel were killed. JeM also carried out the attack on Uri brigade headquarters on September 18, 2016, killing 17 soldiers and injuring 30 others. And the latest Pulwama attack. By ANI NEW DELHI: The Rajasthan Congress party leaders including chief minister Ashok Gehlot, deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, in charge of state Avinash Pande held a meeting in the wee hours of Monday to discuss poll strategy for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. After the meeting Pilot told the media, "This meeting was called to decide the candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Screening committee meeting headed by the party's secretary KC Venugopal will be held tomorrow. A broad consensus on all seats has been formed. We had a discussion on all aspects, the final decision will be in favour of the party." Pande claimed that a broad consensus on all 25 seats has been made. "We will go with only one name to the CEC. All aspects were discussed during the course of the meeting. Winnability, of course, is the most important criteria," he added. The Election Commission on Sunday said that Rajasthan will vote in Lok Sabha elections in two phases on April 29 and May 6. While 13 seats will go to the polls in phase four on April 29, the rest 12 will vote in phase five on May 6. The general elections will be held in seven phases across India and the final counting of votes will take place on May 23. Richa Sharma By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The Opposition has been wanting to put up a united face against the BJP but differences persist over regional alliances, the leadership issue and the crafting of a common minimum programme (CMP). With dates for the general elections announced, the Opposition will have to scramble to put its house in order. Later this month, the opposition is likely to meet to discuss its CMP, which Congress president Rahul Gandhi was assigned to draft. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been insisting on a pre-poll alliance so as to stake their claim for government formation if the elections throw up a hung Parliament. State compulsions The biggest roadblock in putting together state-specific alliances is strong regional parties in key states like UP with 80 seats and West Bengal with 42. The BSP-SP-RLD has already announced its seat-sharing arithmetic, leaving two seats for the Congress. In West Bengal, talks are still on among various parties on possible alliances. While the Congress state unit is against any seat sharing understanding with both the CPI (M) and Trinamool Congress, the Left party has already proposed no mutual contest on four Lok Sabha seats held by the Congress in the state. CPI (M) has already announced candidates on two seatsRaiganj and Murshidabadwhich the Congress wanted as part of any understanding with the party. Alliances have been firmed up in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Jharkhand. In Bihar, another key state, talks are still on seat sharing among the mahagathbandhan that has the RJD, Congress and many smaller parties, including the Left Front. In Delhi, Congress is up for a triangular fight against AAP and BJP. On delay in alliances, RJD spokesperson Manoj Jha says even the NDA hasnt come up with any seat-sharing list in Bihar. All alliances will in place soon. Wait for 72 hours, he said. Common Minimum Programme While Mamata Banerjee and Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu have put their weight behind the CMP, the Left parties have expressed concerns over it.The CMP is idea of Banerjee, Naidu with Rahul Gandhi entrusted upon with the drafting task. There would be non-CMP opposition parties which being part of the opposition grouping would not be party to the CMP. This is likely to give more bargain powers (non-CMP parties) after the results are announced. In 2004, the UPA came into being after the election results, said a senior CPI (M) leader. Leader of the grouping There has always been a vacuum on who will lead the opposition grouping as Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee and BSP chief Mayawati harbour prime ministerial ambitions. It is about working collectively now. If you weave your things around any individual, then it becomes hero worshipping and you will only find a dictator. Let me assure you Mr Modi is not coming back, added Jha. Dissonance on CMP too While West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Andhra counterpart Chandrababu Naidu have put their weight behind the CMP, the Left parties have expressed concerns over it China to cut mobile internet rates by over 20 percent this year: minister The average rates for mobile internet services in China will be further reduced by more than 20 percent this year to better meet the growing consumption demands of the people, said Miao Wei, Minister of Industry and Information Technology. Workers search for topics of their concerns in the government work report at a textile factory in a high-tech development zone of Haian, east Chinas Jiangsu province. (Photo by Peoples Daily Online) Miao made the remarks during an interview after the opening meeting of the second session of the 13th National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 5th, citing a government work report delivered on the meeting. The average broadband service rates for small and medium enterprises will be lowered by another 15 percent, Miao added. He introduced that this year the country would carry out demonstration projects of gigabit broadband services across the country. In addition, subscribers will be allowed to freely switch networks by the end of 2019, which means mobile users will be able to shift from one operator to another without changing numbers if they are dissatisfied with the original services. Facilitating faster and more affordable internet connection has been incorporated in Chinas government work reports for years, attracting high attention from the Chinese citizens. The country has over-fulfilled its targets on internet facilitation it raised in the 2018 government work report ahead of schedule. Last year, the coverage of optical fiber network was expanded to 98 percent among all villages in China. Over 70 percent of Chinese households had access to megabit optical fiber networks by the end of 2018, and the number of mobile phone users of the country has hit 1.56 billion as of the end of this February. Manish Anand By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Two-and-a-half months from now, on May 23, the nation would deliver its verdict on the charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that was sought to be blunted by a joint Opposition front. After the Pulwama attack in J&K and the Balakot bombing by the air force in Pakistan, Modi has added nationalism to his basket of talking points that included development, performance and a big welfare push. The Congress though is gunning away at the Rafale deal, with juicy details emerging frequently to strengthen its narrative. It is also counting on doles, such as unemployment allowance and farmers loan waiver that helped it in three Hindi-speaking states a few months ago. With the field wide open, leaders of powerful regional parties too fancy their chances, hoping to call the shots at the Centre if they do well in their respective states. As for Modi, he has a reputation to protect. The BJP has never lost an election under his watchnot in Gujarat when he was chief minister and not at the national level. In Gujarat, he piloted the party to power in three consecutive elections. His party sees him as politically astute, who lays the foundation for a long reign in power. He carves out constituencies and cultivates new support bases with sustained focus. The NDA government with its garib kalyan agenda has remained focussed on targeted welfarism, which could help the BJP make inroads into vote bases of regional outfits, said a senior BJP functionary. The party also hopes to make Modis counter-terror credentials its most potent swing factor. Against an aspirational plank in 2014, the BJP now has an emotive narrative in nationalism to dwarf all other issues, noted another BJP functionary. The BJP is contrasting Modis leadership with that of Congress president Rahul Gandhi to make it a presidential-style election. Modi versus anarchy is the BJPs slogan. The issue of leadership will, indeed, find resonance. While the Vajpayee government lost the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the demography has substantially changed now. So, trying to draw comparisons with 2004 would not be proper, the BJP functionary said. Yet, Modi has cautioned BJP workers against the 2004 experience. Also, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) has already gone on an overdrive. Unlike 2004, BJP workers are already in battle mode in tandem with RSS functionaries. The cost of a repeat of the 2004 verdict is too high for the organisation, added the BJP functionary. Will basket of goodies deliver? The government loosened its purse strings with direct cash transfer for farmers, I-T rebates for the middle class, besides announcing welfare schemes for the poor. However, the the job losses on account of demonetisation and the GST rollout remain thorns in its aspirations BJP hopes to improve 2014 tally in Assam The Lok Sabha polls in the Northeast will be fought in the backdrop of protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016. The entire region had erupted over the Centres attempt to get the Bill passed in Parliament. Assam, which accounts for 14 of the total 25 seats in the Northeast, including Sikkim, had been on the edge for weeks over the issue. But despite that, the BJP comfortably won the panchayat and autonomous council polls in Assam. The party is hopeful of similar support in the LS polls. Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is optimistic about improving upon BJPs 2014 tally of seven seats to 12 this time. Cong banks on Bill to retain lost ground The BJPs alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) could be the key. Alliance and seat-sharing arrangement had benefitted both parties in 2016 Assembly elections as it prevented the split of anti-Congress votes. But the alliance had fallen apart last month on the issue of Citizenship Bill. For the Congress, the polls will be an opportunity to regain the lost ground. It had ruled Assam thrice on the trot from 2001-2016. The Congress is expected to try and capitalise on the issue of Citizenship Bill. The other issues that it is likely to play on are alleged corruption in job appointments, hooch tragedy that claimed 150 lives, and unemployment, among others. Local issues to rule in other N-E states In other states of the Northeast, the polls will be fought on local issues. Arunachal, Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura have two seats each while Nagaland, Mizoram and Sikkim have one seat each. The fight in these states is expected between regional parties and the BJP and/or the Congress. In Arunachal, the Congress is trying to cash in on ruling BJPs failed attempt to grant permanent residence certificate to six non-tribal communities which sparked off protests resulting in the deaths of three persons recently. In Tripura, it will be an opportunity for Left parties to make a mark after being drubbed by BJP in 2018 state elections. By PTI SURAT: Six members of an NRI family from Canada, who were killed when an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed, were originally from Surat and Vadodara and were on their way to Mombasa in Kenya, their family members said here Monday. People from 35 countries, including India, died in the Sunday morning crash six minutes after the plane took off from Ethiopia's capital en route to Nairobi, Kenya. According to the parents of Prerit Dikshit, who was killed in the crash along with his wife Kosha, the couple along with their daughters Ashka and Anushka, his father-in-law Pragnesh Vaidya and mother-in-law Hansiniben Vaidya, were going to Mombasa to meet Pragnesh Vaidya's old friend. The NRI family had been living in Toronto, Canada since the last 18 years, they said. Prerit Dikshit's wife Kosha was born in Mombasa and was eager to visit her birthplace during their tour of the Kenyan town, they said. "I last spoke to them on March 9 before they boarded the plane. They said they wanted to visit Africa and will return to Toronto on March 19," said Prerit Dikshit's mother Parindaben, who lives in Surat with her husband Virendra Dikshit. "My daughter-in-law was accompanied by her parents, Hansiniben Vaidya and Pragneshbhai Vaidya (who originally hailed from Vadodara)," she said. "They were going to meet their old friend named Prakashbhai as he was planning to return permanently to India," she said. "My daughter-in-law also wanted to accompany them as she wanted to go to her birthplace. She was born in Mombasa in 1981," Parindaben Dikshit said. As many as 157 people --149 passengers and eight crew members -- were killed in the crash, according to the airline. The Indian government had said Sunday that four Indian nationals also died in the crash. "I am sorry to know about the unfortunate crash of Ethiopian Airlines plane ET 302. We have lost four Indian nationals in the air crash," External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had tweeted. "I have asked Indian High Commissioner in Ethiopia to provide all help and assistance to the bereaved families," she had tweeted. By Express News Service VISAKHAPATNAM: Jana Sena party (JSP) has speeded up a selection of party nominees for General Elections as the schedule was announced by the CEC on Sunday. Party convener Kona Tata Rao told TNIE that the party had already short-listed names for 140 Assembly constituencies in the State. He said Jana Sena, in alliance with CPI and CPM, will contest all seats in the State. Party president Pawan Kalyan will decide on the candidates after the party Avirbhava Sabha to be held at Rajahmundry on March 14. He said since the election schedule was announced, the party was planning to convert the Rajahmundry meeting as a launch pad for elections. He said Jana Sena would contest all seats in North Andhra. He said the party leaders requested Pawan Kalyan to contest from Gajuwaka. They were holding discussions with CPI and CPM regarding seats and a clear picture will emerge in a day or two. Left parties were seeking Araku, Paderu, Gajuwaka and Visakhapatnam West. The left parties may be given Araku Lok Sabha seat. Former minister P Balaraju said he wanted to contest from Paderu Assembly segment and conveyed the same to the party president. JSP activists take out motor rally Jana Sena acitivsts, led by party Veera Mahila wing, took out a motor rally in association with NRI Janasena Uttarandhra (Trishul), Jana Jagruti, Voice of Janasena, Team Akshara, Team California, Team New Zealand and Houston Janasainyam in the city on Sunday. P Ushasri, State chairperson of the Jana Sena publicity and campaign committee, said the rally was first of the series planned by the Jana Sena Vera Mahila Ramachandra Reddy Patil By Express News Service BENGALURU: Even as actress Sumalatha's entry into the political arena in Mandya added a new dimension to Lok Sabha poll battle in the JD(S) bastion, a 'chance' meeting between the JDS, Congress and the BJP leaders created a buzz in the political circles in the state capital. On Monday, Mandya JD (S) MP LR Shivarame Gowda, Congress leaders N Chaluvarayaswamy and Balakrishna and BJP leaders MLA Dr Ashwatnayaran and CP Yogeshwar met at a hotel in the city. Though the leaders termed it as a 'chance' meeting, it gave credence to the theory that leaders from the Congress and JD(S) are not happy with the JD(S) decision to field Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy's actor son Nikhil Kumaraswamy from Mandya LS seat, and the BJP's plans to exploit the situation for its advantage by extending its support to Sumalatha. Sumalatha, who has been actively campaigning in the district since last few days, however, has not made her plans public. She is waiting for the Congress to formally announce its seat-sharing arrangements with the JD(S), before announcing her decision. Many Congress leaders, including former CM Siddaramaiah, have made it clear that Mandya will be given to JD(S), as the constituency is represented by the JDS MP. FOLLOW OUR FULL ELECTION COVERAGE HERE According to sources, the local Congress leaders, who have urged their party leaders to retain the constituency and field Sumalatha as the party candidate, are concerned over supporting the JD(S) candidate as that would completely erode the party's base. In 2018 assembly elections, the Congress had lost all seven assembly segments in the district to the JD(S). Since the party may find it difficult to get Mandya in the seat-sharing arrangement, the local leaders would still like to retain their own hold by extending support to an independent candidate. Stating that there was nothing political about Monday meeting, Shivarame Gowda said they had all come here for lunch and met by chance. "I am a member of Deve Gowda family and there is no change in the decision on Nikhil contesting from Mandya. We have faced several election and we are confident of Nikhil's victory," the JDS leader said. He refused to comment on Sumalatha's candidature. Congress leader Chaluvarayaswamy said minister DK Shivakumar had called a meeting of the party leaders at his residence on Sunday, but nothing has been finalised. The minister had assured them of discussing all issues again, he said. By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Election Commission has warned political parties against using Sabarimala for election campaigning. "Using Sabarimala topic for poll campaigning is a violation of the election code of conduct. Specific directions will be issued after the consultation with political parties scheduled on Tuesday," said Teeka Ram Meena, Chief Electoral Officer, Kerala. Campaigning on the grounds of religion or caste is a gross violation of the poll code. Criticism on the SC verdict will not be permitted, he added. This year, candidates will have to file an affidavit on their criminal antecedents in the revised Form 26. The revision was in the backdrop of the SC direction. Candidates should also publish a declaration on the criminal background in print and electronic media. Political parties should release statewide advertisements on the criminal antecedents of their candidates. The EC will implement a green protocol for campaigning. There are plans to impose a blanket ban on flex materials. This will also be discussed in the meeting with political parties. Use of loudspeakers is allowed only between 6 am and 10 pm. For the first time, EC will arrange transportation facility for the differently-abled persons to cast vote. Disabled-friendly facilities including ramps will be available in booths. Over 750 polling booths have found place in the provisional list of vulnerable booths. This may go up as the candidates are finalised by different parties. Kerala will go to polls on April 23, in the third of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections. Counting of votes is on May 23. IMPORTANT DATES Issue of notification - 28 March Last date for filing nominations- 4 April Scrutiny of nominations- April 5 Last date for withdrawal of candidature- April 8 Date of poll- April 23 Counting of votes- May 23 What is the model code of conduct? The Model Code of Conduct is a set of rules that all contending political parties have to follow. They define how and what the candidates can do to woo voters till the election results are announced. All the candidates are expected to follow certain restraints while conducting public meetings failing which they may be disqualified and their deposits will be withheld with the elections. Restrain on Language All the candidates are required to refrain from making any personal comments referring to private life, not connected with the public activities of the leaders or workers of other parties and are advised to strictly keep it limited to criticising policies. By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: More than 2.54 crore eligible voters of Kerala will go to polls on April 23, in the third of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections. The notification for the single-phase polling in the state will be issued on March 28. The last date for filing nominations will be April 4 while scrutiny and withdrawal of nominations are to be made on April 5 and 8 respectively. Counting will be on May 23. Polling in Lakshadweep has been scheduled for April 11. The political parties in the state welcomed the Election Commissions decision as the third-phase date will allow them enough time to campaign. As per the final electoral roll brought out a month ago, the state has 2,54,08,711 voters, which is an increase of 1.37 per cent. Of that total, 1,31,11,189 are women and 1,22,97,403 men. The list has around 119 third genders. As many as 2,61,780 young voters have been newly enrolled. Malappuram continues to be on the top with 30,47,923 voters followed by Thiruvananthapuram (26,54,470). The number of polling booths in the state has been increased from 24,460 to 24,970.The state is set for triangular contests in many of its 20 constituencies. In the backdrop of the Sabarimala fiasco, the ruling Left front is a bit cautious and has already begun its campaign. The Congress is confident of making it big while the BJP-led NDA is eager to open its account in the state. Last time, the UDF had won 12 seats. In the LDF, the CPM will contest 16 seats and CPI the rest four. Having announced its candidates already, the Front launched its election convention on Sunday. In the UDF, the Congress will contest 16 seats while two has been given to IUML, and one each to Kerala Congress (Mani) and RSP. While the UDF is yet to come out with its list of candidates, the NDA has not finalised its seat sharing. By Express News Service BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday reiterated the demand for revision of rate of royalty on coal and hinted that Central apathy is likely to be a campaign issue for the ruling BJD in the upcoming General Elections, the dates of which were also announced on the day. It is once again requested that the Central Government may expedite decision on this critical issue duly taking into account the long pending claim of the State Government to revise rate of royalty on coal from the present 14 per cent to 20 per cent, Naveen said in a letter to Union Minister for Railways and Coal Piyush Goyal. Expressing unhappiness over the issue, the CM said, It is disheartening to learn from your February 25 letter that the final recommendation of the study group on coal royalty revision submitted on February 5 last year is still under consideration of the Centre. While the rate of royalty on coal has remained unchanged for the last six years (though the MMDR Act permits its revision every three years), the rate of clean energy cess levied on coal by the Centre was raised from `50 per tonne to `400 per tonne during this period, said Naveen. The CM said since the introduction of clean energy cess on coal from 2010-11, the Centre has collected about `17,300 crore up to March, 2018 whereas during this period, the royalty received by the State is only around `11,000 crore. As the State Government has been requesting for a share of at least 60 per cent of such funds to deal with negative externalities, the demand may be considered by the Centre early, he said. Besides, Naveen raised the issue of non-payment of compensation of `8297.77 crore by Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) towards the cost of about 180 million tonne of coal extracted in excess of the permissible limits under environment clearance and demanded that the Central PSU should be asked to make the payment urgently. The CM also requested that the MCL should be advised to complete sand stowing of two closed underground mines which pose the threat of soil subsidence. MCL has already utilised about 10,000 hectare of land under CBA Act for mining activities.In its two underground mines closed since 1998 and 2006 respectively, MCL has completed sand stowing work of 5.38 lakh cum against the total requirement of over 9.15 lakh cum. By Express News Service JAGATSINGHPUR: All attempts to remove the scourge of casteism from society come to naught when the vulnerable are forced to live in fear. One such incident has been reported from the district where around 22 Dalit families of Repurpatana village under Tirtol police limits are living in fear of ostracisation by people belonging to upper caste. The Dalit families comprising 200 members were recently restricted from entering the Lord Shiva temple in the village by some upper caste people. Police inaction has prompted the Dalits to knock the doors of the State Human Rights Commission. Sources said the Muketeswar Mahadev temple was established in the village on February 5 this year. As per the decision of the village committee, all villagers, including Dalits, had paid `1,500 for performing rituals at the temple. However, the Dalit families were prohibited from performing Kalasi Puja and other rituals. A few Dalit women tried to offer prayers at the temple but some people belonging to upper caste, including one Khetrabasi Swain, misbehaved with them. The Dalits were also threatened and told not to enter the temple. Bhanj Kishore Sethy, a Dalit leader, said the upper caste people do not allow the Dalits to perform rituals at the temple. When some of our women objected to this, they were abused by the upper caste people, he said. The Dalits opposition to the directive was met with threats of ostracisation. Sethy said he had lodged an FIR in Tirtol police station on February 13 but no case has been registered by the police yet. He said police are trying to suppress the matter under the influence of some upper caste leaders. The Dalits agony does not end here. On the advice of local police, the villagers have now decided to construct a separate gate at the temple for the Dalit families. Another Dalit leader, Debendra Kumar Mallick, said caste-centric discrimination or untouchability was banned in India in 1955, but centuries-old feudal attitudes persist in many parts of this district and Dalits still face prejudice in every sector. Meanwhile, Phule Ambedkar Bikash Parishad working president Manoj Patra has sought the intervention district Collector, SP, State Human Rights Commission and authorities of SC and ST department to ensure that the Dalits of Repurpatana village are given justice. By Express News Service CHENNAI: Even with our old fighter jets, we have shot down Pakistans F-16. If they had access to modern equipment, our air force would have scaled greater heights, said Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman accusing the previous government of its lackadaisical approach in procuring modern defence equipment. She was speaking at the Tamil Nadu NaMo warriors conclave 2019 at YMCA grounds on Sunday. She said this was the first such conclave in the country, barring a brief session in Bengaluru.The BJP has been transparent in taking in registered volunteers as part of its Information Technology campaign unlike other parties who are said to have paid workers to peddle false propaganda, she said. In social media, the golden hour is one hour- within the one hour, our volunteers should be able to counter disinformation and false propaganda spread in the social networking platforms, she said. Several young volunteers in bright orange tees bearing NaMo again slogans, distributed pamphlets of the schemes rolled out by the BJP government. The State convenor of IT/social media R Nirmal Kumar said the social media teams are able to reach 30 lakh people everyday. Booth level WhatsApp groups are to be created in addition, he said. In two weeks, we will have 500 Twitter warriors in every district, he said. BJP state president Tamilisai Soundararajan urged the social media volunteers not to indulge in mudslinging and to not stoop down to the levels of their counterparts in rival parties. Responding to Stalins reported questions on what the BJP has done for Tamil Nadu and that Modi had no right to invoke former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Kamarajs name, Tamilisai said, Im ready to list out BJPs welfare schemes for the State; Im ready to debate it with Stalin on the same stage if he is ready. Will he be able to do the same? 500 Twitter warriors The State convenor of social media said the BJP will have 500 Twitter warriors in every district. They will also create booth level WhatsApp groups S Kumaresan By Express News Service CHENNAI: The year 1999 was the most memorable politically for two reasons: firstly, a regional party ensured the fall of Central government formed by a national party and secondly, the DMK, well-known for its anti-religious character, joined hands with the BJP, raising several eyebrows. While the Congress which boasted of 141 MPs brought down the I K Gujral government in 1998, a year later, the AIADMK with just 18 seats in the Lok Sabha brought down the BJPs A B Vajpayee government, catapulting Jayalalithaa onto the national stage. Vajpayees second stint as Prime Minister in 1998 might have been beneficial for the BJPs other partner in the State - the PMK - which got its first Cabinet berth. However, the AIADMK was not happy with its alliance partner refusing to fulfil its demands. It was no secret that Jayalalithaa was pushing for dissolution of the DMK government in Tamil Nadu. On winning the 1996 State election with a thumping majority, the Karunanidhi-led DMK had booked many corruption cases against Jayalalithaa. With the BJP refusing to comply with Jayalalithaas direction by dissolving the State government and refusing to remove certain ministers from the Cabinet, she decided to teach her national ally a befitting lesson by withdrawing support. Taking advantage of Subramanian Swamys discontent with Vajpayee, she held a meeting with all opposition leaders. It is at this tea party that she met Sonia Gandhi, the then president of the AICC and pledged allegiance to the Congress in the elections that would ensue following her breakup with the BJP. While the withdrawal of support of 18 AIADMK MPs seemed to be a clear death blow, the BJP managed to find a few last-minute ally, before the trust vote, in the DMK. But the Tamil Manila Congress refusal to offer support cost the BJP power by just one vote (270-269). However, Jayalalithaas break-up with the BJP did not bring the Congress back to power in the 1999 general elections. The crushing defeat that Pakistan faced in the Kargil in the months before the election created a sense of patriotism that worked in the BJPs favour. The DMK-BJP alliance won 26 seats in the 1999 general elections in Tamil Nadu which witnessed the VCK making its debut. The BJP won a total of 182 seats in the Lok Sabha and formed government with help of its allies and allowed Vajpayee to complete his first full term as PM. 1999 parliament election results DMK won: 12(23.13%) AIADMK won: 10(25.68%) BJP won: 04(7.14%) MDMK won: 04(5.95%) PMK won: 05(8.21%) INC won: 02(11.10%) MGR ADMK: 01( 1.46%) CPM: 01(2.35%) Total seats: 39 Seats won / Vote share Members of Qixiannv are chatting on Fengyu Bridge, a unique architecture of the Dong ethnic group. (Photo/Global Times) What's the key word about "poverty alleviation" in your mind? Farming, animal husbandry, or migrant workers? Now a post-1980s village official has explored a modern way to help fight poverty by exploiting online resources. Wu Yusheng, a poverty alleviation official in Gaibao village, Liping county, Southwest China's Guizhou Province, assists villagers to fight poverty with his team Qixiannu (seven fairies) through livestreaming and shooting short videos of the food, life, and culture of the Dong ethnic group. Wu started his poverty alleviation work in February 2018. Since he has failed in traditional businesses including farming and animal husbandry in his first month, the 31-year-old official noticed the emergence of short video apps and decided to cater to the trend. In the beginning, without any experience of video shooting and management, Wu learned from photographers in the county and the internet independently. However, Wu's project did not run effectively. The team's name Qixiannu originates from a legend. "There is a Dong-style song in Gaibao village, which was brought to the Dong women by seven fairies and carried forward until now," Wu said. The legend gave Wu inspiration. In Wu's eye, women in Dong villages are fairies in reality, who can be chosen as the brand's image to promote Dong culture and help villagers sell local products on video apps. However, when he determined to pick up women to join him, nothing went smoothly. Wu Mengxia, now one of the members of Qixiannu, was found by Wu Yusheng when she was livestreaming on Kuaishou, a popular short video app in China. "She thought I was a cheat. I had invited her twice, but she never responded," Wu Yusheng said. Besides, due to conservative minds, nobody believed that web hosting could be a decent job. "Nobody was persuaded the first time," Wu said. The situation turned better when Wu Lanxin, who then worked in an art troupe in Li Ping's Zhaoxing township, joined the team. "I accepted to join Qixiannu without hesitation when Mr Wu invited me since I am also fond of shooting videos via short video apps," Wu Lanxin said. After Qixiannu published several videos about Dong culture and harvesting followers, Wu Mengxia and another five women were persuaded to join the team. Wu Yusheng and his team have published 286 video clips on short video platform Kuaishou, amassing 150,000 followers so far. Their fame brought them business opportunities to help other villagers sell local products online, such as Dong clothing, home-made food, and tea to their followers, and the whole village is leaving poverty step-by-step. Wu and his team have achieved success. Now Gaibao village has removed the label of poverty, keeping the number of low income families in the whole village below 3 percent in line with the national standard. In addition, as for Qixiannu members themselves, their monthly income improved from 1,500 yuan to 5,000 yuan. "We hope more people will know Guizhou as well as Dong culture by our efforts," Wu Lanxin said. Wu Yusheng's success also lightened up villager's passion of self-employment. "Villagers have freed their minds and realized it is necessary to keep up with times to alleviate poverty," Wu said. Now Wu is preparing to establish a "wanghong (internet celebrity) college" in Liping county, and plans to train all web hosts in the county. "There are over 400 villages in Liping county, and all of them can duplicate the methods of Gaibao village to alleviate poverty," Wu said. "I hope more grassroots web celebrity will spring up, like Qixiannu, promoting our culture and local products to fight poverty," he said. By AFP WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will seek $8.6 billion in fresh funding for a wall on the US-Mexico border in the 2020 budget request, likely triggering another fight with Congress, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Sunday. The request, which is to be unveiled Monday, would far exceed the $5.7 billion Trump demanded last year, which led to an impasse that resulted in a 35-day partial shutdown of the US government, the longest ever. Democratic congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer decried the move, warning Trump that another legislative defeat would await him. Kudlow, interviewed on "Fox News Sunday," conceded that the new request would likely mean a renewed fight in Congress over wall funding. ALSO READ | US National security advisor John Bolton says Donald Trump would be 'disappointed' by a North Korea test "I suppose there will be," he said. But he said Trump "is going to stay with his wall. He is going to stay with his border security. I think it's essential." 'Expensive and ineffective' In a joint statement, Pelosi and Schumer charged that Trump "hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos when he recklessly shut down the government to try to get his expensive and ineffective wall." "Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again. We hope he learned his lesson," they said. The Washington Post reported that the president's request for wall funding will come in the form of $5 billion from the Department of Homeland Security and another $3.6 billion from the Pentagon. That will be on top of the $6.7 billion in wall funding that Trump has ordered redirected from other government programs under a national emergency he declared last month. He declared the emergency after the Congress approved only $1.375 billion for construction of 55 miles (90 kilometers) of barriers along the border in Texas. On a separate issue, Kudlow expressed optimism that US economic growth will surpass three percent "in 2019 and beyond," adding that the 2020 budget anticipates a five percent reduction in government spending. By Associated Press ADDIS ABABA: An Ethiopian Airlines jet has faltered and crashed shortly after takeoff, carving a gash in the earth and spreading global grief to 35 countries that had someone among the 157 people who were killed. There was no immediate indication why the plane went down in clear weather while on a flight to Nairobi, the capital of neighbouring Kenya. ALSO READ | Late by two minutes, Greek man saved from Ethiopian airlines flight crash The crash was strikingly similar to that of a Lion Air jet in Indonesian seas last year, killing 189 people. Both accidents involved the Boeing 737 Max 8, and China ordered a temporary grounding of those planes for Chinese airlines Monday. The crash shattered more than two years of relative calm in African skies, where travel had long been chaotic. It also was a serious blow to state-owned Ethiopian Airlines, which has expanded to become the continent's largest and best-managed carrier and turned Addis Ababa into the gateway to Africa. "Ethiopian Airlines is one of the safest airlines in the world. At this stage we cannot rule out anything," CEO Tewolde Gebremariam told reporters. He visited the crash site, standing in the gaping crater flecked with debris. Black body bags were spread out nearby while Red Cross and other workers looked for remains. As the sun set, the airline's chief operating officer said the plane's flight data recorder had not yet been found. Around the world, families were gripped by grief. At the Addis Ababa airport, a woman called a mobile number in vain. "Where are you, my son?" she said, in tears. Others cried as they approached the terminal. Henom Esayas, whose sister's Nigerian husband was killed, told The Associated Press they were startled when a stranger picked up their frantic calls to his mobile phone, told them he had found it in the debris and promptly switched it off. Shocked leaders of the United Nations, the UN refugee agency and the World Food Program announced that colleagues had been on the plane. The UN migration agency estimated some 19 UN-affiliated employees were killed. Both Addis Ababa and Nairobi are major hubs for humanitarian workers, and many people were on their way to a large UN environmental conference set to begin Monday in Nairobi. The Addis Ababa-Nairobi route links East Africa's two largest economic powers. Sunburned travelers and tour groups crowd the Addis Ababa airport's waiting areas, along with businessmen from China, Gulf nations and elsewhere. A list of the dead released by Ethiopian Airlines included passengers from China, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Israel, India and Somalia. Kenya lost 32 citizens. Canada, 18. Several countries including the United States lost four or more people. Ethiopian officials declared Monday a day of mourning. At the Nairobi airport, hopes quickly dimmed for loved ones. ALSO READ | Ethiopian Airlines grounds Boeing 737 MAX fleet after crash "I just pray that he is safe or he was not on it," said Agnes Muilu, who had come to pick up her brother. The crash is likely to renew questions about the 737 Max , the newest version of Boeing's popular single-aisle airliner, which was first introduced in 1967 and has become the world's most common passenger jet. China's civil aviation authority on Monday ordered a nine-hour grounding of that model plane for safety reasons and said it would consult with Boeing and others further. The Ethiopian Airlines CEO "stated there were no defects prior to the flight, so it is hard to see any parallels with the Lion Air crash yet," said Harro Ranter, founder of the Aviation Safety Network, which compiles information about accidents worldwide. The Ethiopian plane was new, delivered to the airline in November. The Boeing 737 Max 8 was one of 30 meant for the airline, Boeing said in July. The jet's last maintenance was on February 4, and it had flown just 1,200 hours. The plane crashed six minutes after departure, plowing into the ground at Hejere near Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) outside Addis Ababa, at 8:44 am local time. The jet showed unstable vertical speed after takeoff, air traffic monitor Flightradar 24 said. The senior Ethiopian pilot, who joined the airline in 2010, sent out a distress call and was given clearance to return to the airport, the airline's CEO told reporters. In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration said it would join the National Transportation Safety Board in assisting Ethiopian authorities with the crash investigation. Boeing planned to send a technical team to Ethiopia. The last deadly crash of an Ethiopian Airlines passenger flight was in 2010, when a plane went down minutes after takeoff from Beirut, killing all 90 people on board. African air travel has improved in recent years, with the International Air Transport Association in November noting "two years free of any fatalities on any aircraft type." Sunday's crash comes as the country's reformist young prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, has vowed to open up the airline and other sectors to foreign investment in a major transformation of the state-centered economy. Speaking at the inauguration in January of a new passenger terminal in Addis Ababa to triple capacity, the prime minister challenged the airline to build a new "Airport City" terminal in Bishoftu -- where Sunday's crash occurred. By Online Desk China, the "all-weather friend" of Pakistan, will not take any side if war breaks out between India and its western neighbour. Instead, Beijing will play the role of a mediator with an aim to ease the two countries' conflicts, according to Chinese media linked to the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC). "China will not pick sides in India-Pakistan disputes. Aiming at easing the two countries' conflicts and improving the anti-terrorist situation, China will play the role of a mediator and facilitator amid the ongoing tensions," read an op-ed published by Global Times. China's consistent policy has been political consultation, the op-ed says, adding nothing will change Beijing's stand in promoting peaceful negotiations between India and Pakistan. ALSO READ: 'Responsible solution' can only come through talks: China on UN banning Masood Azhar "Although China supported Pakistan in alleviating poverty and wiping out terrorism, Beijing is not an enemy of New Delhi. Just the opposite: China proposed and launched the BRI, which not only meets India's needs for infrastructure construction but also helps ease India-Pakistan tensions. India should overcome its prejudices against the BRI as the initiative will boost cooperation and help bring stability to the region," op-ed furter read. However, some Indian experts hold China responsible for the impunity to terrorists who were allegedly based in Pakistan and planned the Pulwama terror attack in February with many regarding China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as a geopolitical threat. ALSO READ| India can't stop water flow to Pakistan, says Islamabad China believes that such allegations are baseless. Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi met his Russian and Indian counterparts at the 16th trilateral meeting where they vowed to eradicate breeding grounds of terrorism and extremism. The Chinese government believes that if both India and Pakistans meet, a mutual trust can be built and a foundation for peaceful negotiations can be laid to strengthen the fight against terrorism together with China. Recently, China threw up the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), in which both India and Pakistan are member countries, as a possible forum for the resolution of the India-Pakistan dispute. The statement that 'China will not pick sides' by a state-run media house is likely to deal a blow to the confidence of Pakistan which has held that its 'iron brother' would not allow India to run over it. By PTI ISLAMABAD: India cannot stop the flow of water into Pakistan under the Indus Water Treaty, a top Pakistani official said on Monday, asserting that Islamabad will move the International Court for Arbitration if New Delhi halts the water from the Ravi, Sutlej and Beas rivers. The official of the Permanent Commission for Indus Waters alleged that India had "continuously been involved in water aggression". Last month, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said in New Delhi that India had decided to "stop" the flow of its share of water to Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF soldiers. Pakistan responded to his remarks, saying it was not concerned over India's plan to stop the flow of its share of water. "The Ministry of Water and Power is reviewing India's move to stop water from flowing into Pakistan. As per the Indus Water Treaty, India cannot stop water from flowing into Pakistan and if they do so then we will move the International Court for Arbitration," Geo News reported, quoting an official as saying. "India's Indus Water Commission did not apprise Pakistan regarding the move to stop the flow of water," the official said. It will take India several years to change the direction of the water to keep it from flowing into Pakistan, the official said. Under the Indus Water Treaty signed in 1960, the waters of the western rivers - the Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab - was given to Pakistan and those of the eastern rivers - the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej - to India. By Online Desk NEW DELHI: With an aim to resurrect a $44 billion (Rs 3.08 lakh crore) refinery project, India has invited Saudi Arabia to invest in the former's strategic oil reserve. Saudi energy minister Khalid Al Falih, on his second visit to India in three weeks, discussed with its Indian counterpart Dharmendra Pradhan on the 60 million tonne (MT) a year mega oil refinery cum petrochemical complex in Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district. The initially allocated land was denotified by the state government earlier this month, as part of the electoral understanding between the ruling BJP and Shiv Sena. "The (two) ministers reviewed various Saudi investment proposals in the Indian oil and gas sector, including the urgent steps to be taken to expedite the implementation of the first joint venture West Coast Refinery and Petrochemical Project in Maharashtra, estimated to cost $44 billion, which will be the largest greenfield refinery in the world," an oil ministry statement said on Sunday. While an alternate site of the project hasn't been identified, the statement did not mention the steps to be taken for implementing the project which will have a 50 per cent stake of Saudi Aramco and its partner ADNOC of UAE. The remaining is held by public sector oil firms - IOC, BPCL and HPCL with Pradhan inviting Saudi Arabian government to invest in the oil reserves. Invited HE @Khalid_AlFalih to partner in Indias Strategic Reserves Program and further enhance Saudi investments in Indias refining & Petrochemical sectors. Strategic engagements in Energy will mutually benefit both our countries and further bolster our bilateral ties. pic.twitter.com/qN8Qy7EfSu Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) March 9, 2019 The official statement said: "Saudi Arabia's participation in Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) program was also discussed." India has built 5.33 million tonne of emergency oil storage enough to meet needs for 9.5 days, in underground rock caverns in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Foreign oil companies have also been permitted to store oil in the storages on the condition that India can use the stock during an emergency. Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has hired 3.25 million tonne of storage from the facilities in Karnataka. India also plans to build an additional 6.5 million tonne facilities at Chandikhol in Odisha and Padur in Karnataka, which is expected to take the emergency cover against any supply disruption by another 11.5 days. India also has the first right to deny to sell the stored crude oil in case of an emergency. The statement said that the visit of the Saudi Oil Minister was a follow up to the first State visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud last month. "Both the ministers agreed to take concrete steps for early implementation of the decisions taken in the oil and gas sector during the visit of His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to India last month," it said, further adding that the visit shows the "intensifying engagement between the two countries in the hydrocarbon sector." (With inputs from PTI) By PTI WASHINGTON: India and the US on Monday agreed that Pakistan needs to take "concerted action" to dismantle terrorist infrastructure as Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale called on US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and discussed major foreign policy and security-related issues after the Pulwama terror attack. Gokhale arrived in the US on Sunday for the bilateral Foreign Office Consultation and Strategic Security Dialogue with his American counterparts, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson. Gokhale and Pompeo expressed satisfaction over the significant progress and the quality of the India-US Strategic Partnership since the Secretary of State Pompeo's visit to India in September 2018 for the first-ever Ministerial 2+2 Dialogue, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. The foreign secretary conveyed the appreciation to the US Government and to Pompeo personally for the firm support that India received from the US in the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir. Secretary Pompeo expressed his understanding of India's concerns regarding cross -border terrorism. ALSO READ | China will not take sides in India-Pakistan dispute, says state media "They agreed that Pakistan needs to take concerted action to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure and to deny safe haven to all terrorist groups in its territory. They also agreed that those who support or abet terrorism in any form should be held accountable," the statement said. The talks are considered significant in view of the escalated tension between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of India's preemptive air strike on the largest terrorist training camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in Balakot in Pakistan and the subsequent developments. Tensions between India and Pakistan flared up after a suicide bomber of the Pakistan-based JeM terror group killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district. India has provided a dossier to Pakistan, detailing the role of JeM in the Pulwama terror attack. India has also said that Pakistan has failed to take any credible action against JeM and other terrorist organisations, which continue to operate with impunity from Pakistan. State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino, during his bi-weekly news conference last Tuesday, said Secretary of State Pompeo played an "essential role" in de-escalating tensions between India and Pakistan. ALSO READ | Indian national who mistakenly crossed into Pakistan released after seven years "Secretary Pompeo led diplomatic engagement directly, and that played an essential role in de-escalating the tensions between the two sides," he had said. Protocol-wise, it is quite unusual for Pompeo to meet Gokhale, but over the last few years, the US Secretary of State has met the Foreign Secretary, including his predecessor S Jaishankar. The foreign office consultation and strategic security dialogue with the US are regular high-level dialogue mechanisms to review bilateral relations, exchange views on major foreign policy and security-related developments and coordinate respective positions on issues of common interest, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. Gokhale's visit comes as India intensifies its efforts to declare Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist by the United Nations Security Council. Last month, the US, the UK and France made a fresh bid at the UN to ban Azhar. JeM is already a UN-designated terrorist organisation. During his visit, the Foreign Secretary is also likely to meet with senior leaders in the US administration and the US Congress. By PTI TEHRAN: Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Monday described ties with Iraq as "special", as he prepared to travel to Baghdad on his first official visit to the neighbouring country. Rouhani's three-day visit comes as Iraq has been under pressure from Washington to limit ties with its neighbour, particularly after the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and hit Tehran with sanctions. ALSO READ | If Iran can't export oil from Gulf, no other country can, Iran's president Hassan Rouhani threatens "Iran-Iraq relations are special," Rouhani said at Tehran's Mehrabad airport, state television reported. "Whenever the people of the region had a problem and asked Iran for help, the people and government of Iran rushed to their help with all their power," he added. Iran has close but complicated ties with Iraq, with significant influence among its Shiite political groups. The two countries fought a bloody war from 1980 to 1988 and Tehran's influence in Baghdad grew after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. Iran was the first country to respond to Iraqi calls for help after Islamic State group jihadists captured Mosul in 2014 and threatened to overrun Baghdad and Kirkuk. Tehran dispatched "military advisors" and equipment overnight along with the famous Revolutionary Guards elite Qods Force commander Qasem Soleimani to prevent IS jihadists from approaching its western borders. Following the defeat of IS in Iraq, Iran is trying to position itself to gain a prime role in rebuilding the war-ravaged country. "Iran-Iraq relations are not comparable with (Iraq's relations) with an aggressor country like America," Rouhani said. "America is despised in the region. The bombs that the Americans dropped on Iraqis, Syrian people and other countries cannot be forgotten and," he said. Rouhani's visit to Iraq will be the first since he became president in 2013. He is set to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, President Barham Saleh and the country's chief Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, according to the Iranian government's website. Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif arrived Sunday in Baghdad to prepare for the visit. By PTI ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's former Prime Minister Raja Parvez Ashraf and six others were indicted by an anti-corruption court on Monday over alleged corruption in granting approval to a power generation project that caused losses worth billions of rupees to the national exchequer. Accountability court judge Mohammad Arshad Malik indicted Pakistan Peoples Party leader Ashraf and six others including Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Babar Awan in the Nandipur power project corruption case. The court framed the charges, which include causing delay in according approval to project, which caused losses worth billions of rupees to the national exchequer. All the accused in the case have pleaded 'not guilty'. The court also summoned the first witness on March 19 when the formal trial of the accused will start, as Judge Malik announced to conclude the trial at the earliest. The case was filed by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on September 5 last year and is based on delay in the execution of the project and hurdles created by the Ashraf while serving as minister of water and power and Awan who was then minster of law. The project was approved on December 27, 2007 at a cost of USD 329 million. Its contract was signed on January 28, 2008 to Dong Fang Electric Corporation, China and two consortiums including Coface and Sinosure. The auditor general of Pakistan (AGP) later on found irregularities of over Rs 8000 crores in the project, including over Rs 1700 crores losses due to the delay. Ashraf was Prime Minister of Pakistan from June 22, 2012 until March 16, 2013. Earlier, he served as minister of water and power in the Yousaf Raza Gillani-led government from March 2008 to February 2011. By PTI ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday briefed US National Security Advisor John Bolton about the measures taken by Islamabad to de-escalate tensions with India following the Pulwama terror attack. Tensions flared up between India and Pakistan after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPF personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14. Amid mounting outrage, the Indian Air Force carried out a counter-terror operation, hitting the biggest JeM training camp in Balakot, deep inside Pakistan on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured Indian pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1. The Foreign Office (FO) said that Qureshi and Bolton, during their telephonic conversation, discussed regional security situation following the Pulwama incident. "The purpose of the call was to provide him Pakistan's perspective on the recent regional developments," the FO said. Qureshi's call to Bolton came ahead of Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale's meetings with top Trump Administration officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in Washington. ALSO READ | 23-year-old electrician Mudasir Ahmed Khan, brain behind Pulwama terror attack identified Qureshi said the Indian "aggression" of February 26 was a violation of Pakistan's territorial integrity and sovereignty as well as the UN Charter. He also said that Pakistan's response on February 27 was "purely in self-defence against external aggression". The FO said the foreign minister "informed Bolton about the de-escalatory measures taken by Pakistan". Qureshi said that Prime Minister Imran Khan decided to hand over the Indian pilot as a gesture of goodwill towards India. Pakistan wished peace and stability in the region. He said Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Sohail Mahmood has returned to Delhi after consultations. Islamabad would send an official delegation to India on March 14 to discuss the modalities for the operationalisation of the Kartarpur Corridor, also was ready to continue with the weekly meeting at the level of the Directorate General of Military Operations, the Pakistan foreign minister said. ALSO READ | Pak military contradicts foreign minister, says Jaish does not exist in country Ambassador Bolton said that he and Secretary of State Pompeo, despite being actively engaged in talks with North Korea in Hanoi, monitored the developments between India and Pakistan and kept contact with the leadership of two countries to ensure that the security situation in the South Asia region did not deteriorate, the statement said. Bolton appreciated Pakistan's measures which had helped lowering the tension and urged continued restraint on both sides, it said. "The need for dialogue between Pakistan and India to find peaceful resolution to all outstanding disputes was also emphasized," the FO statement said. "The Foreign Minister cautioned against any Indian misadventure, keeping in view the forthcoming elections. Ambassador Bolton concurred," it said. It said that Ambassador Bolton also appreciated Pakistan's important role in the Afghan peace process. Both leaders agreed to work together to pursue the process. By PTI COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's main Tamil party TNA and Marxist party JVP on Monday held a rare meeting here and decided to work together towards abolishing the executive presidency in the country. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which represented diagonally opposed political stands, came together during the political crisis in the island nation when President Maithripala Sirisena sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The TNA and JVP put up a broad front to force Sirisena backtrack through court action. The Supreme Court's intervention made Sirisena to reinstate Wickremesinghe as the prime minister. The meeting between the two parties on Monday came as part of JVP's consultations on the need to abolish presidency. The two parties held discussion on the 20th Amendment to the Constitution which aimed at abolishing the executive presidency. JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake told the media they discussed mustering support for the 20th amendment to the Constitution in Parliament and working in tandem on matters of mutual interest. He said the JVP discussed with the TNA about a model to get all communities involved in governance. He said the decision on the implementation of the proposed 20th amendment must be vested with the people. "Those who attempt to defeat the amendment in Parliament are the ones who are afraid of the people, " Dissanayake said. TNA leader R Sampanthan said they discussed how the two parties could work together for the country and the people. He said they briefed the JVP on matters recently discussed with the President and the Prime Minister on devolution of power. Both parties said their coming together was to preserve the island's Constitution and it was not an action in personal favour of Wickremesinghe. "We have decided to work with the JVP for the betterment of the country. If we need to bring the main political parties onto the right track, the TNA and the JVP must work in unison in this regard," the veteran TNA leader said. "We are open to working with the TNA based on equal participation," Dissanayake said. The JVP in 2004 branded the TNA a proxy party of the LTTE who ran a bloody separatist campaign to carve out a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east regions of the country. Dissanayake said the TNA was supportive of the idea to abolish the presidential system of government through the JVP's move to introduce amendment to the Constitution. The 20A seeks to abolish the executive presidency, the main feature in the existing 1978 Constitution. The nationalist opposition led by the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa accuses the government of relying on the TNA's support for its survival. A student is on his way home after school in Dingkye county, Shigatse prefecture of southwest Chinas Tibet Autonomous Region. Reducing poverty through education and improving peoples livelihood are equally important during the process of Chinas poverty alleviation. The Tibet Autonomous Region has always worked hard to ensure adequate education for children. (Photo/Peoples Daily) 85 percent of Chinese people living below the poverty line - a per capita annual income of 2,300 yuan ($342), have been lifted out of poverty, said Liu Yongfu, director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development. Liu made the remarks at a press conference during the second session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) held on March 7 in Beijing. China has made remarkable achievements in poverty alleviation. It lifted 80 million people out of poverty in the past 6 years, with the impoverished population down from 98.99 million at the end of 2012 to 16.60 million at the end of last year, according to the director. An average of over 13 million people was lifted above the poverty line each year during that period. A farmer dries black fungus at a planting base in Jiulongshan township, Xinyu, east Chinas Jiangxi province, March 4, 2019. In recent years, Xinyu has launched 217 projects with local features through corporation-impoverished household cooperation, demonstration zones of industry-driven poverty alleviation and professional cooperatives. These projects largely increased the endogenous power for growth. In 2018, the city lifted 2,620 people out of poverty and eliminated poverty in nine provincial-level impoverished villages. (Photo/Peoples Daily Online) It has been six years since the country carried out targeted poverty alleviation in 2012 and three years since the campaign to eradicate poverty in 2015. By 2020, the rural population living below the current poverty threshold and impoverished counties will all be lifted out of poverty. In addition, regional poverty will also be eliminated by that time, according to the target set by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). By the end of 2015, there were still 832 impoverished counties in China. 28 were lifted out of poverty in 2016 and 125 in 2017. Around 280 impoverished counties are expected to get rid of poverty last year. The final number would soon be declared after assessment, Liu introduced. In 2013, there were 128,000 registered impoverished villages and the number dropped to 26,000 by the end of last year. Over 10 million people and around 300 counties are expected to be lifted out of poverty this year. By 2020, the impoverished population will be reduced to less than 6 million, and the number of impoverished counties to about 60. China has full confidence to win the battle against poverty, Liu noted. By AFP KABUL: Taliban founder Mullah Omar lived within walking distance of US bases in Afghanistan for years, according to a new book that suggests embarrassing failures of American intelligence. US and Afghan leaders believed the one-eyed, fugitive leader fled to and eventually died in Pakistan, but a new biography says Omar was living just three miles from a major US base in Zabul province, where he died in 2013. The Afghan government has vehemently denied the claims in "Searching for an Enemy", by Dutch journalist Bette Dam, -- but the Taliban, who are currently in talks with Washington in Doha, told AFP the book's claim that Omar remained in Afghanistan is "true". This handout photograph taken in 1978 and obtained from the Afghan Taliban on October 12, 2015 shows the late Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar posing for a portrait when he was a student at a madrassa in Kandahar. (Photo | AFP) Dam -- who spent years reporting in Afghanistan and has also written a book about former Afghan president Hamid Karzai -- described the Taliban chief as a virtual hermit, refusing visits from his family and filling notebooks with jottings in an imaginary language. ALSO READ | Senior Taliban leaders in Qatar for talks with US envoy She spent more than five years researching the book and interviewed Omar's bodyguard Jabbar Omari, who claimed to have hid and protected him after the Taliban regime was overthrown. Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001 which led to the fall of the Taliban, the US put a $10 million bounty on Omar and he went into hiding in a small compound in the regional capital Qalat, Dam wrote. The family living at the compound were not told of the identity of their mystery guest, but US forces almost found him twice. At one point, a US patrol approached as Omar and Omari were in the courtyard. Alarmed, the two men ducked behind a wood pile, but the soldiers passed without entering. A second time, US troops even searched the house but did not uncover the concealed entrance to his secret room. Omar decided to move when the US started building Forward Operating Base Lagman in 2004, just a few hundred metres from his hideout. He later moved to a second building but soon afterwards the Pentagon constructed Forward Operating Base Wolverine -- home to 1,000 US troops, and where American and British special forces were sometimes based -- close by. He dared not move again, Dam says, rarely going outside and often hiding in tunnels when US planes flew over. Though he listened to the BBC's evening Pashto-language news broadcasts, even when Omar learned about the death of al-Qaeda supremo Osama Bin Laden he rarely commented on the outside world, the book says. It says he delegated Taliban leadership after 2001, acting more as a spiritual leader to the group. The book claims that Omar became ill in 2013 and refused to travel to Pakistan for treatment, later dying in Zabul. Piles of evidence The Afghan government said it "strongly" rejected the "delusional" claim. "(W)e see it as an effort to create and build an identify for the Taliban and their foreign backers," tweeted Haroon Chakhansuri, a spokesman for the Afghan presidency. "We have sufficient evidence which shows he lived and died in Pakistan. Period!" Former CIA director and US military commander in Afghanistan David Petraeus also appeared sceptical. "I would be very surprised if Mullah Omar would have taken the risk that we could come calling some evening," said Petraeus, according to the Wall Street Journal. "I have piles & piles of evidence which shows he lived & died in Pakistan," tweeted Amrullah Saleh, who was head of Afghan intelligence from 2004-2010. Afghan officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of harbouring Taliban insurgents. For their part, the Taliban -- who at times have been criticised in Afghanistan for their alleged links to Pakistan -- said the claim was accurate. "This is true," militant spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP. "The late Mullah Sahib was in Zabul province all along, and there was an American base nearby, the Americans did carry out a raid there, and he passed away there." Omar's Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, and has waged an insurgency since then. The US and Taliban have remained tight-lipped about the most recent round of talks in Doha, which have been ongoing for two weeks, sparking expectations that they may be inching closer to a deal that could see Washington exit the nearly 18-year conflict. By PTI DHAKA: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday assured her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi that her government would never allow the country's soil to be used by any terrorist organisation under its "zero tolerance policy". Dhaka was firmly committed to stamp out terrorism from the South Asian region through bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation, she said after jointly inaugurating four projects in Bangladesh with Prime Minister Modi through video-conferencing. Terming the spread of radicalism as a "grave threat" not only to the two countries but to the entire region, India and Bangladesh last year resolved to step up anti-terror cooperation. "We remain steadfast in our resolve to root out the scourge of terrorism from our region and beyond through bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation," Hasina said. The Bangladesh premier said her government would never allow Bangladesh soil to be used by any terrorist organisation under its "zero tolerance policy" against terrorism "in all its forms and manifestations". Hasina also expressed her "utmost sympathy" for the family members of the Indian paramilitary police personnel who were killed in last month's terror attack in Pulwama in Kashmir. "We reiterate our strong condemnation of this dastardly act," she said. A suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed killed 40 CRPF personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14, the incident led to flaring up of tensions between India and Pakistan. Hasina said that the relations between Dhaka and New Delhi is now a "role model" of good neighbours for the rest of the world as a result of multi-faceted and multi-dimensional cooperation. "I strongly believe this momentum will continue," she said. The Bangladesh premier said over the last decade, two countries have witnessed remarkable progress on cooperation in different conventional and unconventional areas like security, power, trade and commerce, energy, connectivity, infrastructure development, environment, renewable energy, education, culture, people-to-people contact and health. She said at the same time, the two countries have expanded cooperation in new areas like blue economy and maritime cooperation, peaceful uses of the nuclear energy, cooperation in outer space, internet bandwidth sharing, cyber security etc. The two prime ministers joined the video-conferencing from their offices in Dhaka and New Delhi and jointly inaugurated the four projects by unveiling the e-plaques. The four projects launched on Monday include, supply of Double Decker and Single Decker AC and Non-AC Buses and Trucks to Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (under the second Line of Credit); 36 Community Clinics in five north and northeastern Bangladesh districts bordering India with an aid from Indian government; setting up of 11 Water Treatment Plants in two southwestern cities and the extension of India's National Knowledge Network (NKN) to Bangladesh. The NKN is a multi-gigabit National Research and Education Network (NREN) which provides a unified high speed network backbone for educational institutions in India. Apart from Hasina and Modi, Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen and his Indian counterpart Sushama Swaraj also spoke through video-conferenceing. Reporter Noelle McGee is a Danville-based reporter at The News-Gazette. Her email is nmcgee@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@n_mcgee). Contrary to some of the more gruesome headlines, Chen Liang's small company, which specializes in magnetic materials, is doing rather well. Orders are still coming in and profits swelling, he said. But when it comes to the future, there's a problem, says Chen, general manager of Dongguan Jinconn New Material Holdings Company in South China's Guangdong Province. The company is coming under heavy pressure from foreign competitors and needs funding to upgrade and expand. "We're doing OK now, but to survive, we need to change. We need better products and that means better technologies, better equipment and more skilled workers," Chen told the Global Times on March 7. "But that costs a lot of money." Companies like Chen's are at the center of the Chinese government's master plan unveiled during the two sessions to rekindle growth in the world's second largest economy. The huge demand for fuel, which has caused supply challenges and spawned fuel queues across the country, is testimony that economic activity has expanded significantly over the past year or so, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Dr John Mangudya said last week. Dr Mangudya, however, allayed fears of continued widespread fuel shortages in the country saying the situation should start improving before end of this month on the back of interventions the bank and Government had put in place. The Reserve Bank, Dr Mangudya said, had released funding for fuel imports through letters of credit over the last two months, which are enough to import required amounts of fuel into Zimbabwe. He said the fuel shortages reflected time lags between bank processes and actual deliveries. This is because the process of establishing a letter of credit (LC) with a local bank, getting confirmation from the international bank (Afreximbank, which guarantees LCs) through to getting confirmation from the foreign bank, which advises the fuel supplier up until the supplier gives notification for release of fuel, takes two weeks on average. The fuel is usually already in the country at NOICs Msasa storage facilities, but needs to be paid for first prior to release. All fuel imports into Zimbabwe are now paid for through LCs, which are financial instruments used to securitise and finance imports, due to challenges around hard currency. LCs need to be guaranteed by an international bank to be acceptable as value for money and in Zimbabwes case this is done by Afreximbank. The central bank chief made the comments when he appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Energy and Power on Thursday last week, which is chaired by Uzumba Member of Parliament Simbaneuta Mudarikwa. Responding to an enquiry by Magwegwe MP, Anele Ndebele, on whether Zimbabwe was now in a lurch regarding the fuel situation, Dr Mangudya dismissed the notion that the country was between a rock and a hard surface. Dr Mangudya said shortages of fuel being witnessed in the country driven by increased demand due to the growing economy were only transitory and not due to shortage of foreign currency needed to import the precious commodity. The demand for fuel in Zimbabwe has increased because the economy has been expanding. So, an expanding economy requires more fuel. Let us look at the other side of the story, the other side of the story is that the economy has been expanding and that is why the demand (for fuel) has been going up, he said. Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said in his Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) policy blue print (2019-2020) that Zimbabwe could soon be joining the six fastest growing economies in the world (from 2020), which are all in Africa. Last year, the Treasury chief said Zimbabwe was much bigger than we think and re-based (establish a new base level) the countrys gross domestic product (GDP) from US$18 billion to US$25,8 billion. We used to spend about US$60 million or so per month to US$80 million per month, but now we are on US$90 million to US$100 million per month. So, where is all this fuel going to? The fuel is going into the economy, and this economy is expanding, Dr Mangudya said. Dr Mangudya said most of the firms that were closed prior to 2016 had reopened, activity in town was high and you can even see it by these traffic jams, which were never there at some point in Zimbabwe. This justifies the high demand for fuel in Zimbabwe. So the evidence on the ground suggests to us that the demand is genuine and its fair to say that the economy has expanded and all we are saying is that let us not lose hope because of what we are seeing on the ground, he said. Dr Mangudya said the shortage of fuel was a transitory issue the apex bank and other arms of Government were working on to resolve, adding he expects the fuel situation to improve starting this month. We are going to make sure that we improve the lag between payment and supply; we are promising that we will do all we can so that we go into a better season. We need to clear the fuel queues in our country. The RBZ governor said while the bank had spent a cumulative US$170 million to import fuel amounting to 285 million litres in January and February, only 208 million had been released into the market while some of the balance was starting to be released now. Consumption of fuel in Zimbabwe has, however, decline due to prize elasticity, from about between 160 million litres and 165 million per month in December last year to between 120 million litres and 120 million litres per month after the recent price hike. Zimbabwes economy is estimated to have grown by 4 percent last year while finance and economic development Minister Mthuli Ncube projected in his 2019 national budget that the economy will grow by 3,1 percent this year. Zimbabwe registered faster economic growth in 2018 compared to the average growth for the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa, despite battling a myriad of challenges besetting the economy, chief among them critical shortage of foreign currency. While the domestic economy is expected to have grown by 4 percent last year the average annual economic growth for the rest of the sub-region, generally considered to have relatively more stable economic jurisdictions, came in at an average 3,2 percent. Herald Study Finds 'All Our Efforts' on Vaccines Not 'Trash' After All (Newser) Freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar has been at the center of controversy over remarks she recently made that some call anti-Semitic, but a Fox News host's comments on Omar have themselves earned what CNN Business calls a "rare rebuke" from the network. On her program Saturday, Jeanine Pirro wondered where Omar's "anti-Israel sentiment" arises from, noting, per Politico: "Think about it. Omar wears a hijab. ... Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?" Critics quickly took notice on social media, going after Pirro for targeting Omar's religious wear as somehow being un-American. "What is an American Jew wearing a yamaka (kippah) and an American nun covering her head/body 'indicative' of?" one detractor pointed out. One of Pirro's co-workers issued her own complaint on Twitter. story continues below "@JudgeJeanine can you stop spreading this false narrative that somehow Muslims hate America or women who wear a hijab aren't American enough?" Hufsa Kamal, who says she's an online producer at Fox, wrote on Twitter. "You have Muslims working at the same network you do, including myself." Pirro's employer also responded. "We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirro's comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar," Fox said in a statement. "They do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly." (Fox also "rebuked" Pirro late last year, along with Sean Hannity, for appearing with President Trump at a Missouri campaign rally.) Pirro's take? "I did not call Rep. Omar un-American," she said in a statement. "My intention was to ask a question and start a debate, but of course because one is Muslim does not mean you don't support the Constitution. I invite Rep. Omar to come on my show any time to discuss all of the important issues facing America today." (Read more Jeanine Pirro stories.) (Newser) There's no money, no sex, and nothing illegal happened. This is what passes for a scandal in Canada. US President Donald Trump has been engulfed in allegations involving possible collusion with Russia and secret payments to buy the silence of a porn star. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing a controversy that seems trivial by comparison, but it could topple him in elections later this year, the AP reports. Two high-profile women ministers in Trudeau's Cabinet, including Canada's first indigenous justice minister, resigned in protest, and his top aide and best friend quit too. "People south of the border would be astonished to think that this is the type of scandal that they have in Canada," says Eddie Goldenberg, a former adviser to former Prime Minister Jean Chretien. story continues below The former justice minister and attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, says Trudeau and senior members of his government pressured her in a case involving a major Canadian engineering company accused of corruption related to its business dealings in Libya. Trudeau reportedly leaned on the attorney general to instruct prosecutors to reach the equivalent of plea deal, which would avoid a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, because he felt that jobs were at stake. Many countries would be jealous of a scandal that went no further than a PM asking another minister to do something she is legally entitled to do, Goldenberg says, and one professor of Canadian history says the whole thing is "a pseudo-scandal" and the people involved, including Wilson-Raybould, "delusional." Wilson-Raybould was demoted from her role as attorney general and justice minister in January as part of a Cabinet shuffle by Trudeau. She has testified that she believes she lost the justice job because she did not give in to "sustained" pressure. (Much more on the issue here.) (Newser) An ex-cop in Florida is accusing of abusing the Driver and Vehicle Information Database for his own sleazy purposes. Leonel Marines is being investigated by the FBI for allegedly treating the database like a dating website, using it to find and contact women, WBTW. Bradenton Police Chief Melanie Bevan told reporters that Marines appears to have made hundreds of improper queries, and contacted at least 150 women. "He was not utilizing this data for law enforcement whatsoever, she said. Instead he was using it in a variety of waysfrom social media, cold telephone calls, visits to their home under the guise of being there for police business, you name ittrying to get dates with these women. He was very persistent and successful at times in his efforts to do so." story continues below Marines, a 36-year-old who had been on the Bradenton force for 12 years, was placed on leave after the investigation began in October and later resigned, reports WVLT. Marines, who was briefly suspended in 2012 for misusing the database, was investigated again after the parent of a young woman complained that he had followed her home and asked to speak to her about a "domestic incident," the Washington Post reports. Feeling that something was strange, they refused to let him speak to her. He left after refusing to give them his name or his supervisor's name. The parents then contacted the station. "They were heroes, as far as Im concerned," Bevan says. (Read more Florida stories.) Workers in a clothing factory exchange experiences in Aksu prefecture, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on February 19. Photo: Liu Xin/GT Editor's Notes: Global Times reporter Liu Xin recently paid a visit to Aksu Prefecture in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and talked to local residents. Many women shared impressive stories of starting their own businesses or working with their family members to get out of poverty. With the global community marking International Women's Day on Friday, we published some of their stories to celebrate not only these beautiful and diligent women from Xinjiang and other regions in China, but also from the whole world. Gulikzi Yasen, 24, stands in her beauty salon in Qiaogetiereke village of Shaya county in Aksu Prefecture, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Photo: Liu Xin/GT Gulikzi Yasen, 24, is from Qiaogetiereke village, Shaya county in Aksu Prefecture, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. She opened her beauty salon in February 2018. Due to the lack of land, Gulikzi and her mother used to live in poverty and survived on subsidies from the local government. With the help of the local women's association, Gulikzi applied to rent a shop built by the county government and took out a loan to buy equipment for the salon. "After repaying the loans, the yearly rent of 2,000 yuan, the salary for another barber in my shop, I can earn more than 1,000 yuan a month. My family is no longer poor," Gulikzi said with a smile on her face. Gulikzi said that brides in the village come to her salon to get their hair and make-up done for their weddings. "The cost for a bride's makeup and hair is between 300 yuan and 400 yuan. I'm very good at dyeing hair!" she said. Ayixianguli Niyazi, 38, a resident of Hailou town in Shaya county, sits beside a sewing machine. Photo: Liu Xin/GT Ayixianguli Niyazi in Hailou town, Shaya county is 38 years old and a mother of two. Her family used to live in poverty, since the only income was from her husband's unstable job as a mason. She sometimes sewed clothes for people to make some extra money, but this was not enough for the life she wanted to give her children. She began to work for a local clothes workshop in February 2018. The flexible working hours gave Ayixianguli the time to take care of her children before and after school and also brought her a monthly salary of over 1,000 yuan. "Frugality used to be the key word for me in running the house, since every penny had to be used properly to save money. My husband and I also had arguments over money," she said. "But with the increase in the family's earnings, I can buy more and better food for my children. There's no more arguing about money in the house," Ayixianguli remarked. "It's really good for us women to earn money." Ayixiemu Younusi, 20, works in a clothes factory in Shaya county. Photo: Liu Xin/GT Twenty-year-old Ayixiemu Younusi is thrilled about her upcoming trip to Beijing in March. Living in her hometown of Shaya county for almost all her life, the farthest place she had ever gone was downtown Aksu. The clothing factory Ayixiemu works at has chosen her and one of her colleagues as representatives to go to Beijing. This free trip is a reward for their good work performances. "I never thought I'd be so lucky! I want to see the flag-raising ceremony at Tian'anmen Square and visit the Palace Museum," Ayixiemu said. Talking about her future plans, Ayixiemu said that she wants to learn more skills from her colleagues in the factory to boost her salary. Amanguli Wufuer, 36, stands besides mannequins that display clothes she designed. Photo: Liu Xin/GT Amanguli Wufuer works in a clothing factory in Shaya county with 30 other women from a nearby village. They are trying to complete an order to make 10,000 woolen coats worth 1 million yuan. "The profits from this order could reach 200,000 yuan, and we'll complete it within four months," Amanguli said. Amanguli owns a clothes shop and likes to design clothes herself. The local government in Shaya invited her to jointly run the clothes factory at the beginning of this year. She and three other women, who each specialize in designing, sewing and marketing, run the factory's business. "I used to see many women in villages cover their face and dress conservatively under the influence of extremism, although many of them told me that deep in their hearts, they love fashionable clothes," Amanguli said. But now women in Shaya are dressing however they like, following efforts in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to eradicate extremism. "Whether they are from urban or rural areas, the women I've met are dressing fashionably. With less influence from extremism, more women are choosing to wear what they like. I'm so happy to see this." Amanguli said. Thats why she is optimistic about the future of the factory. Ajiranmu Aimaiti, 37, a single mother in Tuowanke Maigaiti village in Wushi county in Aksu, has her pictures taken with the bread she baked. Photo: Fan Lingzhi/GT Ajiranmu Aimaiti has a bakery workshop named after her in Tuowanke Maigaiti village in Wushi county in Aksu, which makes her very happy. The village has offered different vocational skills for villagers who wanted to start their own business since 2017 and rented out training workshops at low prices to villagers with outstanding performances. Driven by the desire to open a bakery by herself, Ajiranmu completed the training and now has 12 apprentices learning how to make various types of bread in the workshop. "I can teach them how to bake as well as run my business. My income from selling cold noodles was about 1,500 yuan a month and now the earning of selling bread has increased to 5,000 yuan," Ajiranmu said. "I want to work hard to earn more money and offer a better education to my children," she said. (Newser) It was a marriage proposal familiar to anyone who's attended enough sporting events or similar public outings. In this case, it happened at a mall, where a young man proposed to his girlfriend in front of a crowd of cheering shoppers, reports the BBC. She said yes and gave her husband-to-be a hugwatch it here. The only problem is that this all occurred in Iran, and the couple was soon arrested on charges of "outraging public decency." A police official in Markazi province blamed the influence of "degenerate Western culture." Both were detained but have since been released on bail. story continues below It is unacceptable for young people "to do whatever is common in other places of the world and disregard mores, culture, and religion" in Iran," says the deputy police chief in the city of Arak, per the AP. The "offense is very clear and there is no need for explanation," he added. The couple was not identified, and it's not clear what punishment they might face. However, the semi-official Fars News Agency called for a "harsh" penalty for the "shameful" act. (Read more Iran stories.) (Newser) Questionable content often finds its way onto Facebook, but viral videos of humans attacking animals generally don't go over well. A Maryland man is finding that out after he posted a clip Thursday from Key West, Fla., in which he's seen apparently luring a pelican over to the side of a dock with what looks to be a piece of fish, then leaping into the water and on top of the pelican. The man, identified by the Baltimore Sun as Hunter Hardesty of Davidsonville, Md., holds the pelican for a few seconds, while someone can be heard laughing off camera (ostensibly the person taping the incident); a woman can also be heard yelling at him while he still has a grip on the bird: "Excuse me, if you don't get out of there right now I'm going to call security." The pelican then nips at the man's face and swims out of his reach. story continues below The Miami Herald notes Hardesty doesn't seem sorry for his alleged actions, and "even seems to enjoy the attention." The next day he posted, "The book blowin up on a Friday !! Sheesh"; on Sunday he joked, "I'm so hungry I could eat a pelican!!!" He may not be laughing for long, and not just because of the angry comments under his posts: A rep for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, who notes the incident seems to have taken place at the Key West Historic Seaport, says the bird was a brown pelican, a protected species that isn't allowed to be fed or touched. On Monday, Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay announced "good news regarding the idiot who jumped on the pelican," noting that FWC was getting a warrant for two criminal charges, and that the feds are "investigating him for molesting" a key deer, also protected. (Read more pelican stories.) (Newser) Update: A South Dakota woman has been convicted in the death of her newborn son, found alone in a cornfield 40 years ago. Theresa Bentaas, 60, of Sioux Falls, entered what's known as an Alford plea to manslaughter charges, a move in which she technically admits no guilt, reports the New York Times. Mrs. Bentaas, you stand convicted of manslaughter in the first degree, the judge told her after the plea. An autopsy determined "Baby Andrew," found in the field near Sioux Falls on Feb. 28, 1981, had died of exposure. But a doctor consulted by the defense determined the death was likely the result of birth complications and a lack of medical care, per the Argus Leader. Bentaas faces up to life in prison at her Dec. 2 sentencing. Our original story from March 2019 follows: story continues below A community's 38-year quest for "justice for Andrew," a newborn who was left in a South Dakota cornfield to die, has led to an arrest. Police say DNA tests show Theresa Rose Bentaas, 57, was the infant's mother, the Argus Leader reports. She now faces murder and manslaughter charges. Sioux Falls police exhumed the child's body a decade ago to obtain DNA samples. No matches were found in a state database, but a private genealogy company had more luck, which helped detectives to build a family tree that led them to Bentaas. The affadavit says she told police she was "young and stupid" at the time. She hid the pregnancy, she said, gave birth alone at home, then drove to the cornfield. Police said the infant "slowly succumbed to exposure." Bentaas and the child's father, who is not charged in the case, have two adult children. Sioux Falls residents came together to give Andrew, as newspapers at the time called him, a funeral in March 1981. About 50 people attended the funeral, and children left stuffed animals at the casket. A church, lawyer, funeral home, and cemetery donated their services, per KELO. Among the mourners was Lee Litz, who found the child's body. He was driving by with friends when he spotted a blanket in the field. "It's just like fresh in my mind yet," he told KSFY, "like it happened yesterday." Litz still visits the cemetery. He's glad an arrest has been made, but he's still troubled that he didn't find the child sooner. "He needed somebody," Litz said. (Read more cold cases stories.) (Newser) Gal Gadot is going all Wonder Woman on Israel's prime minister. As NBC News explains, the issue started with Israeli model and actor Rotem Sela calling for equal rights for Israel's Arab minority. Benjamin Netanyahu responded by taking to Instagram to address the "slightly confused people" who don't understand that "Israel is not a state for all its citizens. According to the nation-state law that we passed, Israel is the state of the Jewish peopleand belongs to them alone." Gadot responded on her own Instagram account Sunday, per the AP: "Love thy neighbor as yourself. It is not a matter of right or left, Arabs or Jews, secular or religious. It is a matter of dialogue, of dialogue for peace, and of our tolerance for each other. It is our responsibility to shine hope and light for a better future for our children. Rotem, my sister, you're an inspiration to us all." story continues below The "Jewish nation" law to which Netanyahu refers is quite controversial; passed last year, critics say it marginalizes the 20% of Israel's population that is Arab. Sela's post criticized what the AP calls Netanyahu's "fearmongering election campaign against the country's Arab minority"; he is in a tight race, and is telling his base that the other side will form a coalition government with Arab political parties if he loses. In his response, Netanyahu added to Sela, "As you wrote, there's no problem with the Arab citizens of Israelthey have the same rights as us all and the Likud government has invested in the Arab sector more than any other government." On Monday, Israel's president also weighed in during a speech: "There will be no second-class citizens and second-class voters," Reuven Rivlin said. "All of us will all be equal, all of us, Jews and Arabs, all citizens of Israel." (Read more Gal Gadot stories.) (Newser) Democrats picked Milwaukee on Monday to host their 2020 national convention, setting up the party's standard-bearer to accept the presidential nomination in the heart of the old industrial belt that delivered Donald Trump to the White House. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez chose Milwaukee over Houston and Miami after deliberations lingered longer than party leaders or officials from the three finalist cities had expected, the AP reports. "This choice is a statement of our values," Perez said in a statement. "The Democratic Party is the party of working people, and Milwaukee is a city of working people." The convention is scheduled for July 13-16, 2020. Republicans are set to gather in Charlotte, the largest city in battleground North Carolina, on Aug. 24-27, 2020. story continues below It will be the first time in over a century that Democrats will be in a Midwest city other than Chicago to nominate their presidential candidate. Instead, the political spotlight will shine for a week on a metro area of about 1.6 million people. Once dubbed as "The Machine Shop of the World," the famously working-class city also is known for its long love affair with beer and as the birthplace of Harley-Davidson motorcycles. "A lot people feel that we lost (in 2016) because this area had been ignoredwhether it's from a political standpoint or whether it's from a governing standpoint," says the state's first black lieutenant governor, Mandela Barnes, one of the members of the convention bid committee. Holding the convention in Milwaukee, Barnes added, says "we are ready to reinvest in the Midwest, that the Midwest matters again." (Read more Democratic National Convention stories.) Fairbanks, AK (99707) Today Snow will taper off and end this morning but skies will remain cloudy this afternoon. High 11F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 80%. Snow accumulations less than one inch.. Tonight Cloudy skies. Low 4F. Winds light and variable. A teacher of sinology scans the QR code on a textbook to play an audio clip of a Chi-nese classic for students of a primary school of Hefei, eastChinas Anhui pProvince, April 14, 2017. (Photo by Zhang Hongjinfrom Peoples Daily Online) The scale of online education in China continues to expand as the government takes further efforts to promote technology integration in the education sphere. China had over 200 million online education users as of the end of 2018. The figure rose 46.05 million from 2017, up nearly 30 percent, according to a report on the coun-trys internet development. Around 96.5 percent of the total user accessed online education via mobile phones, up 63.3 percent compared with 2017, according to the 43 Statistical Report on the Internet Development in China released by China Internet Network Information Center on Feb-ruary 28. Applications such as WeChat have become important channels for Chinese students to get online education, said the report. The prosperity of online education industry is indispensable from technological innova-tion. Faster broadband speeds, artificial intelligence and mobile internet technologies such as live streaming, have brought great changes to the industry. Nowadays, artificial intelligence plus education has become the technological foun-dation for online education. Artificial intelligence technologies, such as intelligent homework correction, facial recognition, and personalized recommendation have been applied to the diverse scenarios of online education, offering more convenience to us-ers. Voice recognition and cloud computing achieve breakthrough, providing more real-istic and lively learning experiences for students, as well as more diversified teaching content. In the future, technology will further drive the development of online education and training. According to a white paper, the number of Chinas online education users is estimated at 296 million with the market value of 433 billion yuan by 2020. The Ministry of Education said in its development plan for 2019 that it will promote deep integration of information technology and education, and work to ensure that over 97 percent of Chinese primary and secondary schools have access to internet with broadband speeds of above 100Mbps. The ministry also plans to build a mechanism to supervise the utilization of digital re-sources at schools and promote the building of Internet Plus Education platform. It will also roll out measures to open up and manage online resources, help more Chinese university launch their courses on platforms of internationally renowned massive open online courses (MOOC). Chen Jiangjun, a primary school teacher in Hefei, east Chinas Anhui Province shows students and their parents how to register and sign up online, June 4, 2018. (Photo by Ge Yinian from Peoples Daily Online) As online education industry continues to expand, some prominent issues have aroused concerns. "Online education has met people's need for personalized learning, but problems such as inconsistent education quality have set back the development of the industry," said Hu Wei, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consul-tative Conference. Education regulations and policies should be enacted to improve the system of granting qualifications to online education services providers, increase the sectors ability to dis-cipline itself, and combine efforts from various management organizations to realize healthy and orderly development of the industry, Hu suggested. Like Hu, many Chinese lawmakers and political advisors have contributed their wis-dom to regulate online education during the sessions of the countrys top legislative body and top political advisory body being held in Beijing. A communications satellite ChinaSat-6C was sent into preset orbit from southwest Chinas Xichang Satellite Launch Center by a Long March-3B carrier rocket at 0:28 a.m. Beijing Time, March. 10. It was the 300th mission of the Long March carrier rockets and an important historical moment for China's aerospace development. The "ChinaSat-6C" satellite is launched by a Long March-3B carrier rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, southwestern China's Sichuan Province, March 10, 2019. The satellite has entered the target orbit. (Photo/Guo Wenbin) The first carrier rocket of the Long March family was launched on April 24, 1970, and the 100th rocket Long March-3A carrying the satellite SinoSat-3 was sent into space on June 1, 2007. It took China 37 years to complete the first 100 rocket launches and each year 2.7 launches on average took place. The countrys 200th rocket launch took place on Dec. 7, 2014, as the Long March-4B carrier rocket was sent into space, carrying a ChinaBrazil Earth Resources Satellite. It was seven and a half years for the country to complete the second 100 rocket launches. In this period, 13.3 launches on average took place per year. The 300th launch, the latest one, is only less than five years from the 200th launch. In this period, 23.5 launches on average took place. The cycle for each 100 launches has become shorter and shorter, which not only indicates that frequent launches of the Long March carrier rockets have become regular acts, but also reflect the rapid development of the countrys aerospace industry, science and technology, and comprehensive national strength. The Long March carrier rockets, developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, are responsible for 96.4 percent of Chinas launch missions. Since the first flight in 1970, the rocket family has put 506 spacecrafts into preset orbits, or 99.2 percent of the countrys total spacecrafts in orbit. The country has been upgrading the structure and carrying capacity of its launch vehicles over the years. From satellites, manned spacecrafts to lunar probes and from active carrier rockets to the new-generation carrier rockets, China has led the world in lifting capability and orbit injection accuracy. Statistics showed that Chinas success rate of 300 launches stands at 96 percent. Compared with the first 50 launches, the success rate of the rest 250 is higher and more stable. The Long March carrier rockets has put 225 spacecrafts into orbit in the third 100 launches, pushing the success rate up to 97 percent, which is an extraordinary performance even in the world. In 2018, China sent 37 rockets into space in a row, topping the world for the first time. The figure was also a global record for almost 20 years regarding the number of consecutive successful launches in a single year. Reports confirmed that China is now proceeding smoothly as scheduled with the research and manufacturing of new-generation medium-lift launch vehicles, including Long March-6A, Long March-7A, and Long March-8. Long March-5B, a new-generation carrier rocket with the biggest low-Earth orbit carrying capacity, is under test. It will send modules in orbit for building the countrys space station. China has carried out a comprehensive debate on the implementation of the launch of a heavy-lift carrier rocket, which is expected to have a maiden flight by around 2030. In the future, the country will innovate the way carrier rockets reach and leave space, as well as space transportation, through developing a reusable space transportation system, and combining space transportation with space operations. The All Progressive Congress (APC) in Delta State has called for the cancellation of the result of the March 9 elections held in the Sta... The All Progressive Congress (APC) in Delta State has called for the cancellation of the result of the March 9 elections held in the State, citing various reasons. The APC in the State called on the Independent National Electoral Commission to cancel the governorship election result, accusing the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of ballot snatching, over voting, buying of votes and impunity during the Saturday election. The Delta State APC Campaign Council and the governorship candidate of the party, Great Ovedje Ogboru had also condemned the conduct of the governorship and state assembly elections. In a statement, the party Chairman, Prophet Jones Erue said the election was marred by violence, he said led to the death of three persons. Erue said the March 9 election was the worst election ever conducted in the State, he alleges PDP thugs armed with weapons snatched and burnt ballot papers and result sheets in APC strong-holds. He also alleges that from Delta North to South and Central, PDP thugs had exhibited a rapacious thirst for blood and an eerie appetite for violence as they left many innocent voters in a pool of blood, accusing security agents of aiding PDP thugs to cart away ballot boxes at the unit, wards and collation centers. The object of their gory adventure was to tilt the election results in favour of the PDP. This unpatriotic and satanic objective was indeed achieved but not without exposing their unabashed criminality to grab power so they can subject Deltans to another four years of exploitation and crude pillage of our collective patrimony. Indeed the disparity between the INEC card readers and records of accreditation and the votes being declared at the Collation Centers across the state exposed their crass breach of the electoral process and villainous infringement of the law, since the INEC Chairman, Prof. Yakubu had stated that where there are more voters than the number recorded by the card readers, the results in that area shall be annulled. Delta APC condemns and rejects in totality the result of the governorship election held in Delta state on Saturday, March 9, 2019 and call on the INEC Chairman to instantly annul the result and to re-conduct same in the nearest date possible in line with extant laws and with all necessary logistics put in place to ensure a free and fair election. The Central Naval Command, Nigerian Navy, Yenagoa, has clarified that the rating officer that died in the command last Saturday was not ... The Central Naval Command, Nigerian Navy, Yenagoa, has clarified that the rating officer that died in the command last Saturday was not due to violence during the State Assembly election in Bayelsa. Flag Officer Commanding the Central Naval Command, Rear Admiral Saidu Garba, made the clarification in a statement on Monday in Yenagoa. Garba, in the statement signed by Commodore Joseph Akpan, Officer Commanding the Central Naval Command, said the deceased did not die in Brass Local Government Area of the state as being speculated. The flag officer commanding said that though the command lost a rating officer, his death was not related to either any violence or politics related. He disclosed that the late naval rating was on escort duty onboard a ship at the sea which unfortunately came under an attack offshore Brass. The flag officer commanding said the officer suffered a fatal gunshot wound and later died in a hospital in Brass town. He said: the command wishes to state unequivocally that personnel of the Nigerian Navy remains apolitical, resolutely neutral and will continue to adhere strictly to its professional code of conduct. Chinas comprehensive technology system to explore the mysterious deep sea has taken initial shape, after the countrys three marine geological survey vessels completed their first expeditions in the recent two years, said an official with the China Geological Survey (CGS), an institute under the Ministry of Natural Resources on March 6. Chinese research ship Haiyang Dizhi 9 left a port in Qingdao, eastern China's Shandong province, on Feb. 25, 2019, for a voyage to East China Sea, South China Sea and the western Pacific Ocean. (Photo by Zhang Jingang and Zhang Shusheng from Peoples Daily Online) China's marine geological survey vessel Haiyang Dizhi-10, or Ocean Geology No 10, returned to Guangzhou on Feb. 26 after Chinese and Pakistani scientists completed a joint expedition in the Indian Ocean. During its first ocean expedition, the vessel voyaged for 91 days for a distance of 26,100 kilometers. Independently designed and built by China, the multifunctional ship is able to garner information about marine geology, geophysics, and hydrological environment. The ship is seaworthy in all kinds of waters. It is Chinas first vessel having a small tonnage but able to drill at great depths. In Dec. 2018, Chinese research ship Haiyang Dizhi 9, the only Chinese ship able to carry out seismic, geological and geophysical study simultaneously, finished its maiden expedition. In August of the same year, Haiyang Dizhi 8, which is towed by 6 cables, set sail to the northern waters of the South China Sea for its first marine resources survey. It is Chinas first ship for geophysical exploration that can provide high-resolution three-dimensional images. The three ships, which were all designed and built by China, are younger and have multiple functions compared with other CGS vessels, said the official, adding that theyve optimized the function complementarity of the research ships and fixed-wing aircraft in marine exploration. China has achieved continuous breakthroughs in marine research vessel construction as the country becomes stronger. Back to the mid-1950s, the country transformed fishing boats, tugboats into marine research vessels. In the 1960s, it became one of the worlds first countries to design and build such vessels exclusively for marine research. In the 1970s and early 1980s, China started to design and massively build such vessels by itself. In the 21th century, the country brought the construction to a fastigium by building ships like the Haiyang-6 scientific research vessel, research vessel Kexue, or "Science", and research vessel Zhang Qian. The maiden expeditions of the Haiyang Dizhi-10, -9 and -8 research vessels marked a step forward of the countrys equipment and technology, and also sent China to the first echelon of the world in terms of research capabilities in marine geology, geophysics, and drilling. The PDP Lagos Central senatorial candidate Chief Sunbo Onitiri has condemned the INECs role in the last Governorship and state Assembly... The PDP Lagos Central senatorial candidate Chief Sunbo Onitiri has condemned the INECs role in the last Governorship and state Assembly elections. In a statement made in Lagos yesterday, Chief Onitiri said INEC has got it all wrong and lost its remaining credibility. INEC has lost it all with the last Presidential and National Assembly elections which made people stay away from the Governorship and State Assembly elections. This is a clear indication of silent protest by Nigerian voters in the sanctity of the election and a loss of faith in INEC. The voter apathy experienced in the Governorship elections last Saturday is a vote of no confidence in INEC and our democratic process. Its now an indisputable fact that our votes will never count, Chief Onitiri alleged. He called on all patriotic Nigerians to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently organise a National Referendum on our Democratic process. I wish to condemn the hounding and arbitrary harassment and arrests of the opposition whereas members of the ruling party continue to violate the electoral laws with impunity and ignominy. By the two elections of Presidential and Governorship elections, INEC has succeeded in wasting our huge resources, bastardise our democratic process and insulted our collective intelligence as a Nation. INEC has lost its remaining credibility, Chief Onitiri decried. Sunbo Onitiri said the last Governorship and state Assembly elections were characterised with ballot box snatching, killing and maiming of particular party agents, the militarization of voting process, over -voting etc. He alleged that the elections were predetermined by the ruling party before it was held. What a shame of a Nation! Our elections do not deserve the blood of innocent Nigerian people. We should borrow from the exemplary lesson of our patriotic former President, Goodluck Jonathan that conceded victory willingly before the process was concluded. This country belongs to us all and no one is greater than Nigeria. Nobody can freely suppress the will of the people and rule Nigerians by force. Nigeria we hail thee! Onitiri, therefore, called on the chairman of INEC Prof. Mahmud Yakubu to honourably resign his position and apologise to the country for giving Nigerians the most fraudulent, compromised and scandalous elections Nigeria ever had in the history of her democracy. Christian Ogbuagbu, returning officer for Imo state elections, has ordered the arrest of Christian Ehirim, the collation officer o... Christian Ehirim, the collation officer of Ohaji Egbema local government area (LGA), for allegedly altering the results of the LGA. Christian Ogbuagbu, returning officer for Imo state elections, has ordered the arrest ofChristian Ehirim, the collation officer of Ohaji Egbema local government area (LGA), for allegedly altering the results of the LGA. Ogbuagbu, who apparently had the results from the field, announced that the figures Ehirim presented were doctored. Immediately he gave the order, security operatives moved in and led Ehirim away. Ogbuagbu, a professor, is the vice chancellor, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia state. The suspect is also a professor. Earlier, Francis Otuana, the resident electoral commissioner (REC), had said he was not under pressure to declare any politician winner of the election. I want to assure you Im not under any pressure to declare anybody winner. We just want to speed up the process, he had said. During the presidential and national assembly elections, some returning officers said they were forced to declare some candidates winners. More to follow Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the house of representatives, says the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to ... Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the house of representatives, says the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to cancel the Tafawa Balewa local government governorship election results in Bauchi state lacks substance and is a clear departure from the provision of the law. Speaking during a media briefing in Bauchi, Dogara said it is absurd that the electoral body would order a cancellation of the results of an election that was conducted in a free, fair and transparent manner. He said save for the issue of computation of the final results which was caused by the carting away of the result sheet by agents of the sitting governor, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar, who is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the exercise was smooth. There was no problem at all in Tafawa Balewa. The only problem they had was the final collation. If that was the only problem, one will think that the worse decision that can be taken is for them to provide the relevant collation sheet to her (collation officer) and say go and complete the collation and bring it in the proper sheet. But in law, anybody who is a lawyer knows that the issue of form does not defeat the issue of substance, he sad. Now, the substance is that there was a fair, free and credible election, which nobody is challenging. The only issue is that it wasnt conveyed in the proper form and that can be cured and so, as it is, this election has been won and lost, no matter how you look at it and the PDP, Kauran Bauchi is, by the grace of God, the sitting governor-elect. boys went and invaded the local government collation centre and carted away some result sheets. As it is now, there is no problem, absolutely no problem with the votes from Tafawa Balewa. The chairman of INEC has told the world that elections begin and end at the unit. If they had cancelled any result at the level of unit collation or ward collation, it would have stood cancelled but for there to be peaceful elections, free and fair as attested to by the local government returning officer, Mrs Dominica Anosike, for there to be very peaceful, transparent collation of all the results across the eleven wards in Tafawa Balewa and the only challenge we had was that the Governors thugs andboys went and invaded the local government collation centre and carted away some result sheets. Thereafter, the returning officer who collated it on a separate paper, and then wrote a letter, an explanatory memoranda to the state returning officer and the Resident Electoral Commissioner to say that this was the situation in which they found themselves and that was why they had to use another result sheet to do the computation. Dogara said that the thugs who invaded the local government collation centre were identified as agents of the governor when apprehended yet the governor will still be made the beneficiary of the action by cancelling the result in his favour. If you look at it carefully, the thugs that invaded the collation centre in Tafawa Balewa are agents of the governor, the sitting governor of Bauchi State, he said Their names were read out, it is not a rumour, they were apprehended by the army, including the vehicle they used for the operation and they have been handed over to the police. Now, if they were acting for a disclosed principal, which is the governor of Bauchi State, the point is that in the law of agency which we read and it hasnt changed, the principal is responsible for the acts of his agents. So, if they were acting as agents of the sitting governor, will the governor now take benefit of the crimes committed by his agents? That is one big question that INEC must answer. Secondly, I want to say that the chairman of INEC is a citizen of Bauchi State, just like all of us and they say that charity begins at home. Will he therefore sit down in Abuja and watch or preside over this brazen rape of the mandate of Bauchi State? Will he sit down and sleep in peace when he sees that the decision of his own people here in Bauchi State is being upturned by agents of the agency over which he superintends? That is the question that Professor Mahmood Yakubu, my namesake, will have to answer and the people of Bauchi State are watching. We want to see whether he will cast his vote with the people of Bauchi State or with those who are seeking to oppress the people of Bauchi State. The Speaker also advised the governor to take the honourable path of conceding the election. Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, is about to return to office having secured the highest votes in the gubernatorial poll. ... Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, is about to return to office having secured the highest votes in the gubernatorial poll. In the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), el-Rufai of the All Progressives Congress (APC) won in 15 out of the 23 local government areas, while Isah Ashiru, his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won 8 in eight LGAs. Mohammed Bello, vice-chancellor of Bayero University, Kano (BUK) who is the returning officer, has adjourned the announcement of the final results till 11am to enable me study the provisions of the law regarding the announcement. More to follow The Jigawa state government has banned rallies and celebration by supporters of winners of the just-concluded state house of assembly ... The Jigawa state government has banned rallies and celebration by supporters of winners of the just-concluded state house of assembly and governorship elections in the state. Governor Muhammad Badaru Abubakar stated this shortly after the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared him of Saturdays election. Governor Badaru won the election with clear margin over his two major opponents of the Peoples Democratic party PDP and Social Democratic party SDP. Badaru, who is seeking a second term in office, polled the total of 810,933 votes as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Aminu Ibrahim Ringim scored 288,356 while the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Bashir Adamu Jumbo scored 32894 votes. Governor Badaru also commended the Jigawa state people for giving him their mandate for the second time, and assured to maintain the existing policies and programs in order to move the state forward. While stating that seventy per cent villages in Jigawa state under his administration benefited from dividends of democracy, he assured that the second tenure is a consolidation of what was achieved in the first tenure. Jigawa people have confirmed to the world that they appreciated what we have done in the last four year, he said. He urged APC supporters to stay away from any rally celebration, but pray for Allahs guidance for those elected to discharge their responsibilities. The Lagos State Governor-elect, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has reacted to his victory in the Saturdays governorship election in the state. ... The Lagos State Governor-elect, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has reacted to his victory in the Saturdays governorship election in the state. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had announced Sanwo-Olu winner of the Lagos State governorship election. Speaking at a press conference, the governor elect promised to create a first class economy in Lagos State. He also promised to run a government that would have all on deck irrespective of party affiliation or political differences. According to Sanwo-Olu: INEC has announced the final result for Lagos meaning the people have spoken and I accept the mandate given me and bestole the responsibility on me. In the next few days I will thank each one of you personally. This victory belongs to all Lagosians, I thank party members both state and national levels. To the National chairman, Adams Oshiomhole thanks for you support, to our energetic and victionary leader, Bola Tinubu thank you. To our leader, President muhammadu Buhari, thank you and we will continue to contribute to ensure a great Nigeria. Let be frank and honest so as to clear our political space, those who try to use ethnicity to bring discord have been disappointed, our people are fair our people exist on a space that is honest. To all those who competed and those who tried to sow discord, the day has emerge as a day of reconciliation, whatever was done I hold no grudges. Im humbled that the people elected me to be governor for the next for years, my eyes are to fix on where we are going to look back to where we are coming from. The Cleen Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) says Nigerias elections are still far from international best practice goi... The Cleen Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) says Nigerias elections are still far from international best practice going by happenings at just concluded general poll. Dr Benson Olugbuo, Executive Director of the foundation disclosed this in a statement on Monday in Abuja. He said it was disturbing that the elections were characterised by widespread violence and called for a concerted effort to stop the trend. It was gathered that the foundation is one of accredited observes for the 2019 general elections. Olugbuo, however, said that the elections, in spite of the violence, could be regarded as another important step in Nigerias experience with democracy. We must strive to get things right in subsequent elections because for our democracy to continue to grow and flourish we must conduct elections devoid of violence. We commend the majority of Nigerians that have demonstrated a commitment to the electoral process, by going out to vote and largely conducted themselves in a peaceful manner, he said. Olugbuo called on the federal and state governments, as well as security agencies, civil society organisations (CSO) and well-meaning Nigerians to think of measures that would ensure free, fair and violence-free elections in the country. He said democratic elections would only thrive when the security of lives and properties as well as the safety of electorate, electoral officials, materials and national critical infrastructure are guaranteed. He said Nigeria cannot afford to continue having violence featuring in its elections at all levels. He said it was quite unfortunate that Rivers State, for example, has continued to experience violence in almost all elections in the country. Rivers State is only a sad example of what happens in other places during elections. The country as a whole needs to take a serious view of election violence with a view to bringing it to an end. We call upon the traditional and religious leaders, political leaders, business owners and professionals, civil society leaders and government to come together and find lasting solutions to violence that mar elections in that state, he said. Olugbuo posited that if politicians do not become desperate in their quest for power, the level of violence would be minimised greatly, adding that some politicians have turned a civil way of acquiring power into war. If politicians abide by the rules and respected the wish of the people to freely and peacefully choose their representatives, the level of violence in the elections will be curtailed. It is time that political parties and politicians commit themselves to peaceful participation in elections beyond the ceremony of key contestants signing peace accords, he said. He expressed sadness that the unhealthy culture of electoral violence could hinder speedy development, adding that widespread insecurity in the country negatively affects general elections. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bauchi State has claimed victory in Saturdays governorship election in the state and has berated ... The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bauchi State has claimed victory in Saturdays governorship election in the state and has berated the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for declaring the election in the state inconclusive. Speaking at a press briefing held in the state capital on Monday morning, the chairman of the party in the state, Hamza Akuyam, stated that the party will use or legal options available to it to expeditiously return the peoples mandate within the shortest time possible. In the early hours of the day, the states returning officer, Mohammed Kyari, declared the result of the gubernatorial election inconclusive. Mr Kyari explained that the margin between the two leading parties, the PDP and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of 4,059 votes was less than the 45,312 cancelled votes. He, therefore, stated that according to Section 26 part 53 of the Electoral Act, supplementary elections would be held within 21 days in areas where election were not held before a winner would be announced. But before the making the declaration, Mr Kyari had rejected the votes from Tafawa Balewa local government following violence at the local government collation centre. Tafawa Balewa is a stronghold of the PDP and is one of the three local governments that make up the constituency of the speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara. From the result announced by collation officer, Dominion Anosike, at the local government collation centre, the PDP had the largest votes with 40,010 followed by the APC with 29,862 votes. But this vote was rejected by Mr Kyari for the reported violence at the collation centre despite the claim by Mrs Anosike that there was no violence at the polling units. She, however, said she was made to announce the results at the local government collation centre under duress. The opposition PDP was in the lead after scoring 469,512 votes while the APC had scored 465,453 votes from 19 out of the 20 local governments that were announced at the state collation centre. Unconstitutional decision Describing decision of INEC to declare the election inconclusive as arbitrary and unconstitutional, Mr Akuyam said the national leadership of the commission should compel the collation officer at Tafawa Balewa, Mrs Anosike and the state returning officer, Mr Kyari, to declare his party the winner of the poll. We demand that the chairman of INEC should immediately compel the two officers to return to the state collation centre at once and complete the process of return of the Bauchi State governorship election. They are without an iota of doubt a party to the sadistic plan orchestrated by Governor MA Abubakar designed to return to office at all cost, he said. Let me reassure the general public that the PDP will spare no effort to reclaim that mandate which was freely given to us by the people of Bauchi on 9 March 2019, he added. Attack by thugs The chairman alleged that the thugs affiliated to the APC broke into the collation centre at Tafawa Balewa and stole the uncompleted result sheet (Form EC 8C 1) meant for the collation of the governorship election result from 11 wards of the local government. He said the police stood by and refused to arrest the thugs and when they were accosted by youth in the area they abandoned a 4WD Jeep with registration number AAA 769 EW belonging to the APC House of Representative candidate for Tafawa Balewa. He said the youth later discovered 30 machetes and sticks in the vehicle. He said having lost the original result sheet to the thugs, a duplicate copy of the form was used to collate the result and that the collation officer and electoral officer of the local government informed the state returning officer of the decision, but he refused to accept the result on the ground that it was written on the wrong form. The decision of the state returning officer declaring the Bauchi State governorship election as inconclusive and issuing order of supplementary election within twenty-one days is unwarranted and illegal as no any condition precedent for such directives had existed. Worst still is that the Bauchi State returning officer lacks the legal competence to cancel an election duly conducted by various presiding officers and validly collated at ward and local government level devoid of any opposition by any political party, he said. Mr Akuyam, who had earlier accused the states police commissioner, Ali Janga of collaborating with Mr Abubakar to intimidate and abduct supporters of the party, also demanded that Mr Janga, the head of the police Rapid Response Squad and the states resident electoral commissioner be removed from their positions unconditionally saying his party has lost confidence in their ability to treat the opposition parties with civility and respect. The PDP chairman also demanded the prosecution of some supporters of the APC such as Sarkin Lere, Khalid Musa, Saddique, Suleiman Mado and Bala Burga, who he accused of orchestrating the attack on the Tafawa Balewa collation centre for electoral malpractice. Similarly, he said Mrs Anosike, who he claimed was a card-carrying member of the ruling APC, should be prosecuted for giving false information and perjury. Also, speaking at the press briefing, the speaker of the House of Representative, Yakubu Dogara, asked the national chairman of INEC, who is also from the state, to do the right thing and not be a party to stealing of the mandate of his people. The Peoples Democratic Party in Bauchi has rejected INECs declaration of the states governorship election as inconclusive. The ... The Peoples Democratic Party in Bauchi has rejected INECs declaration of the states governorship election as inconclusive. The Returning Officer of the elections in Bauchi, Prof. Mohammed Kyari, on Sunday declared that the election in Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of the state was inconclusive. According to him, the PDP candidate, Senator Bala Mohammed, got 469,512 votes to defeat his closest rival, the incumbent governor, Mohammed Abubabakar of the All progressives Congress, who got 465,453 votes. He had said that the margin between the two candidates were 4,059 votes, having cancelled the votes of Tafawa Balewa LG which had been 139,240. Kyari added that the number of cancelled votes in the elections, even without that of Tafawa Balewa LGA, was 45,312 and had declared: I, therefore, based on Section 26 (53) of the Electoral Act, declare the elections in Bauchi State as inconclusive. He also directed INEC to conduct a re-run elections in the affected LGA within the next 21 days. But speaking at a Press conference at the NUJ Secretariat, Bauchi on Monday, the PDP chairman, Hamza Akuyam, said the election had confirmed their earlier claims that the APC was planning to rig the elections. Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai has thanked the people of Kaduna State for reelecting him. He called on the people ... Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai has thanked the people of Kaduna State for reelecting him. He called on the people to end the manipulation of religion for personal gains saying religion should be a private matter and identities should not become barriers to common humanity. The governor in an acceptance speech over his reelection said his government is committed to uniting the state around common values, anchored on equal citizenship, law and order, and protection of constitutional rights. We are not the only diverse place on Earth. Let constructive endeavours replace the bickering and suspicion. Let us all see and value each other as human beings descended from Adam and Eve, he said. The governor said though he ran for election as APC candidate, he is back to leading the entire state. He said there is so much to do to make Kaduna State a better place, to tackle poverty, to improve health among others. Our duty is to work diligently for our people. We shall not disappoint you. You have invested your hope in us. We shall not deliver despair. It is a new day in our state. Let us work together to make it the start of a better future, he said. The governor said Kaduna State has made history by electing a woman as Deputy Governor and the first to be elected in the far north of Nigeria. Chinese icebreaker Xuelong, also known as Snow Dragon, is on its way back home from the 35th Antarctic expedition, a fruitful journey during which crew members made a series of scientific research advances in spite of harsh natural conditions and various difficulties including the collision with an iceberg. The research icebreaker Xuelong carrying members of Chinas 35th research mission to Antarctica sails on the South China Sea, March 6, 2019. It is expected to arrive at the port of Polar Research Institute of China in Shanghai on March 12, 2019. (Photo by Xinhua) In Taishan station, one of Chinas research bases in Antarctica, the expedition team built supporting facilities for power generation, heating supply, snow melting, sewage treatment and fire monitoring under snow. This is also Chinas first under-snow project on the icy and snowy land. They have also achieved key technological breakthroughs in new energy applications of photovoltaic cell, wind turbines, refrigerating unit and special material for the research station in Antarctica. During the four-month-long mission, the research team found the potential breeding ground of krill, a key species for the ecosystem of Antarctica, around Peter I Island located at the east side of the Amundsen Sea, providing an important clue for the scientific community. The breakthroughs made by researchers reached both basic studies and core technologies. A set of indicator buoy was also deployed in key waters of the westerlies by China for the first time, which will help Chinese scientists better monitor the water dynamics in the Southern Ocean. It also means China has swirled to a global leader in terms of the technologies to deploy an indicator buoy in extreme environment. China's self-developed polar drilling equipment obtained samples of ice core and bedrock core, making China the worlds third country in grasping such technological advantages. This was the first time for the equipment to be used in Antarctica, which would boost Chinas scientific study for Antarctic ice sheet movement and evolution, as well as the subglacial environment and geology. The icebreaker carrying Chinas 35th Antarctic expedition team departed from Shanghai on November 2 last year, and is expected to arrive at the port of Polar Research Institute in Shanghai on March 12. A frontline chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State, Prince TJT Princewill, has said that not even the Independen... A frontline chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State, Prince TJT Princewill, has said that not even the Independent National Electoral commission, INEC, can save the state Governor, Nyesom Wike. Wike is the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state. The APC chieftain was reacting to the suspension of electoral process in Rivers State as contained in a press release signed by Festus Okeye Esq. the National Commission and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee. In a press release he forwarded on Monday, Princewill faulted INECs decision to suspend election in Rivers State, saying, INECs decision is illegal because it is not supported by law. Section 26 of the Electoral Act cited in the INEC Press Release is not even applicable because that section deals with a situation where a date has been appointed for the holding of an election, and there is reason to believe that a serious breach of the peace is likely to occur if the election is proceeded with on that date or it is impossible to conduct the election as a result of natural disasters or other emergencies, then the commission may postpone the election. You can see that this provision does not apply to a situation where an election has already been conducted or held, which is the present position in Rivers State. Since the elections in Rivers State have been held Saturday, INEC is bound by virtue of section 27 of the Electoral Act to announce the results. Having admitted in paragraph one of the Press Release that it has conducted elections on the 9th of March in Rivers State, INEC must by virtue of section 27 of the Electoral Act, announce the results. INECs decision to postpone the already held elections is ultra vires, illegal and unconstitutional. Such an unlawful decision can now be challenged in court by virtue of section 26 subsection 5 of the Electoral Act. The challenge can be launched by any of the many contestants at a court or tribunal of competent jurisdiction and on such a legal challenge, the decision of INEC shall also be suspended until the matter is determined. Our concerns about INEC and our lack of faith in the REC are continually validated. This was same way they suspended a by-election we held a few months ago when it was clear we were winning. Now, the AAC candidate and several house of assembly candidates supported by APC are cruising to victory and they do it again. Can they not just step out of the way and let the will of Rivers people prevail? Rivers state was largely peaceful. Why not deal with areas where you say you have violence and leave the other results to go through? Soldiers on Monday morning reportedly laid siege on Ex-Niger-Delta militant leader, Asari Dokubos residence Femi Fani-Kayode, a f... Soldiers on Monday morning reportedly laid siege on Ex-Niger-Delta militant leader, Asari Dokubos residence Femi Fani-Kayode, a former minister of Aviation, disclosed this on his Twitter page on Monday morning. According to Fani-Kayode, Dokubo is about to be arrested by the soldiers. The former minister, however, did not reveal the reason for the arrest, warning President Muhammadu Buharis administration that no form of injustice must be meted on Dokubo. Fani Kayode wrote: I have been informed that over 200 soldiers have laid siege on the home of Asari Dokubo in Rivers state and they are set to arrest him. Why is the Buhari regime so jittery? Let it be clearly understood by all: Asari Dokubo must not be subjected to injustice and he must not die! Walter Onnoghen, suspended chief justice of Nigeria (CJN), appeared before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) on Monday as his trial r... Walter Onnoghen, suspended chief justice of Nigeria (CJN), appeared before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) on Monday as his trial resumed. The federal government is prosecuting Onnoghen over alleged failure to declare his assets, between June 2005 and December 2016, as prescribed by the law. He had pleaded not guilty to a six-count charge filed against him by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), during the last sitting. Shortly after his arraignment, Chris Uche, Onnoghens lawyer, applied for his client to be granted bail on self recognition. The case was subsequently adjourned till March 11, for hearing of all pending applications. Onnoghen arrived at the tribunal alongside the parties in the suit, on Monday. The defence counsel, who listed about five applications, sought the CCT to strike out the charge against him. He also prayed for an adjustment to enable the National Judicial Council (NJC) to reach a decision on the matter before Onnoghen can be tried. Hong Kong: Edward Yau visits Kwai Tsing Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Edward Yau today toured a social enterprise and a training centre for the fashion and textile industry in Kwai Tsing. Mr Yau first visited the Hatch, a social enterprise funded and run by Social Ventures Hong Kong and learned about its operation and vision. The Hatch works with local enterprises in rebuilding Made in Hong Kong brands and provides employment opportunities with a family-friendly and flexible working environment for women from grassroots families in the district. Mr Yau chatted with its employees to learn about their work and praised the Hatch for its innovative business concept that brings social enterprise and industry together. He then visited the Pro-Act Training & Development Centre (Fashion Textiles). Mr Yau toured workshops for woven and knitted fabric and fabric inspection and spoke with trainees to learn about the latest technologies in the industry. He was pleased the centre provides diversified courses to groom talents and said the Government is committed to promoting the fashion industry's development. Mr Yau also met District Councillors. This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Chinas long-established brands, or "laozihao" in Chinese, have begun to revitalize their previous honor with the assistance of policy support, e-commerce platforms and innovative ideas, as many of them have been struggling amid a rapidly changing domestic market. There are currently 1,128 time-honored brands that have obtained official recognition from the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) of China, and the companies date back about 160 years on average. They engaged in 22 sectors including food, catering, handicraft and textile. The time-honored brands represent a kind of reunion and companionship, said Zhang Chuan, producer of a documentary over the old brands, illustrating that for citizens in northern Chinas Shanxi Province, it is almost a tradition to have sauced pork from LiuWei Zhai restaurant on their table in each festival and holiday. On the table of Beijing residents, there would be Liubiju Pickles and Daoxiangcun Pastry, which are both traditional brands, he added. Despite of their century-old history, reliable techniques and good reputation, many of the time-honored brands face a survival crisis since they have limited popularity, run in small-scale workshops and barely keep afloat. In todays world where the production and operation models have undergone dramatic changes, these old brands have been sticking to their traditions and trying hard to protect their brand image. A shoemaker in Neiliansheng, a handmade cloth shoe brand created in 1853, needs about five days to finish a pair of shoes. To make a Hu Brush, one of the prestigious writing brush types in traditional Chinese writing and painting art, the workers in the Daiyuexuan, a famous old brand, have to pick up those qualified hair one by one in the lamplight. About one year is required by the embroiderer to hand-make an exquisite cheongsam sold at the time-honored Ruifuxiang silk and fabrics shop. These old brands represent not only the traditional craftsmanship and ingenuity, but also Chinese peoples business philosophy to keep with, or even run ahead of the times, said Zhang, in a belief that the core of these brands is Chinese peoples business spirit. Given the pressure and challenges the long-established brands face amid the rapidly-evolving business models and fierce competition, Chinese authorities have offered policy support to bring them new life, to preserve and improve traditional techniques, and to strengthen brand protection. The country, at the beginning of 2017, listed the protection of those laozihao into a program on inheriting traditional Chinese culture. In February of the same year, the MOC and 15 other central authorities published a guideline to encourage the old brands to carry out reforms and innovations. By bold and decisive transformation like opening stores on e-commerce platforms and launching online and offline marketing campaigns, some laozihao have found ways to restore their former glory. Nearly 150 Chinese time-honored brands set their booths at a fair in the Palace Museum during the Spring Festival for the first time. The fair kicked off on January 28, and visitors can be free to visit with the entrance ticket of the Palace Museum. After Daoxiangcun, the renowned bakery in Beijing, launched a new gift package of pastry to woo customers by cooperating with the Palace Museum, the product gained considerable popularity because of its delicate design. Last August, Neiliansheng opened a store in Sanlitun shopping district of Beijing, making it the first century-old brand that set up a branch in this dynamic and stylish street. It is believed to signify old brands potential to regain vitality. Some old brands quit the market in 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century, but most of them survived thanks to their bravery and innovation spirits, Zhang explained, adding that their non-stop efforts to innovate are one of the most valuable treasures they pass down from generation to generation. Tourists visit Mount Fortress in Macao on Jan. 23, 2019. Visitor arrivals in China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) made a record of 35.80 million in 2018, increasing by 9.8 percent year-on-year and hitting a record high, the SAR's statistics service told a press conference on the same day. The opening of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and some other factors contribute to the satisfactory performance of its tourism industry. (Xinhua/Cheong Kam Ka) The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area provides new and great opportunities and platforms for Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) to board on the fast train of national development and to seek better growth by breaking bottlenecks and broadening space, Chui Sai On, chief executive of the region said in an exclusive interview with Peoples Daily. The bay area will enable Macao to pursue a moderately diversified and sustainable economy, improve living environment and better peoples livelihood, he added when asked about the plan for developing the bay area. His remarks also came as local residents are now active in contributing their suggestions after Chinese authorities recently unveiled the outline development plan for the area, with the aim to develop the region into "a role model of high-quality development." With 49 items related to Macao, the guideline charts a course for Macao to join in the construction of the bay area, Chui said, promising that the government of the Macao SAR will take active steps to implement the plan and put those strategic designs into effect. A working committee chaired by myself on the construction of the bay area was set up by the government of Macao SAR at the end of last year, he said, adding that it will design, deploy and study on how Macao will integrate into the construction of the bay area in the short, medium and long run. Defined by the outline as one of the core cities in the cluster, Macao should play its role as a core engine and strengthen its radiating effect in leading the development of nearby regions, the chief executive said. This is not only an honor, but a major responsibility for Macao, he added. Departments at all levels under the government of the special administrative region, according to Chui, will study on the outline and make sure an effective and high-quality implementation of the national strategy. Macao will innovate on its cooperation with other cities in the cluster, said Chui, adding that based on the rich experience it has accumulated over the past 40 years from the collaboration with southern Chinas Guangdong province, the special administrative region will beef up cooperation with other sister cities within the bay area by giving play to its advantages. Such cooperation will be based on the principle of "one country, two systems" and put national interests first, said Chui. The guideline has made clear that the cluster will base on the sound foundation of cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao to explore a new model for coordinated growth and also serve as a model for closer collaboration between mainland cities and the two special administrative regions. Chui pointed out that peoples interests will be prioritized when implementing the outline in a planned and step-by-step manner. Those fields closely related to the livelihood will be given more weight, so as to enhance peoples sense of gaining, win more support from local residents and secure a good startfor the construction of the bay area, he elaborated. One year before Chinas ambitious goal to lift all rural residents living below the current poverty line out of poverty by 2020, Chinese officials from across the nation expressed their determination to secure a decisive victory in the battle against poverty at the ongoing Two Sessions. Chen Quanguo, a National Peoples Congress (NPC) deputy, also the Party chief of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China, said at the Two Sessions that the region lifted some 537,000 people in 513 villages out of poverty, bringing the poverty incidence rate down to 6.51% in the region in 2018. Chen noted that the region has come up with precise policies and funds targeting those under the poverty lines, such as educational or vocational skills training, to motivate the population. In central Chinas Hunan province, similar policies have been readied to help the remaining population of more than 800,000 people who live under the poverty line, according to Du Jiahao, NPC deputy and also Party chief of Hunan. The province will also encourage households to pair up in the combat against poverty, which will help poor families find strength and learn from relatively better-off people. In addition, southwest Chinas Guizhou province has vowed to guarantee schooling, medical services, and accommodation to local residents, as they are the tree main reasons families fall into poverty, said Sun Zhigang, NPC deputy and Guizhou provinces Party chief. To realize the 2020 goal, China has vowed to continue to work vigorously to reduce poverty and lift no less than 10 million people out of poverty in 2019, Xinhua reported. President Xi Jinping has repeatedly pushed for increased efforts on poverty alleviation. The president stressed the importance of precision in the battle against poverty, saying that poverty alleviation should target certain people and industries and the right tools should be used to produce results, Xinhua reported. Fighting poverty is the fundamental task in building an all-round moderately prosperous society, Xi said. Photo via tourism authority of Chengguan District of Lhasa The tourism industry in southwest Chinas Tibet Autonomous Region has reached a new height and the region is now reaching out to the world travelers. On Feb. 9, the tourism authority of Chengguan District of Lhasa, the regional capital of Tibet, sent out a message on its official WeChat account to inform people that spring-time weather is about to dawn on the plateau. Photo via tourism authority of Chengguan District of Lhasa During the Spring Festival holiday, about 310,000 tourists visited the region, an annual increase of 7.9 percent, and tourism revenue rose 9.3 percent year-on-year to 259 million yuan ($38 million) during the busy travel period, according to the regions tourism development commission. The local government plans to promote the regions tourism further to attract more than 30 million visitors by 2020, when annual tourism revenue is expected to exceed 55 billion yuan, Xinhua reported. Local authorities in Tibet have rolled out a raft of preferential policies to develop tourist attractions, hotels, tour buses, and air routes. Furthermore, Tibet plans to offer more convenient and friendly services for foreign visitors, such as cutting time for issuing travel permits to overseas travelers by half in 2019, according to China Daily. (Photo/www.cnqjw.com) Students majoring in crayfish studies at a vocational college in Qianjiang, Hubei province, have already secured employment in time for graduation. These new employees will enjoy an average monthly salary of more than 10,000 yuan ($1,488), a teacher at the school told Beijing Youth Daily on March 10. The two-year crayfish studies major in Jianghan Art Vocational College was established in 2017, offering three courses in crayfish marketing, cooking and restaurant management. All 130 students have already been recruited as chefs or restaurant managers for star hotels or chain restaurants. This year, the crayfish school plans to accept another 200 students. The candidates have to be under 40 years old, and the tuition is 5,000 yuan per year. Besides learning professional skills applicable to the restaurant industry, students also study English, IT and other public courses. Experts in crayfish studies and famous Chinese chefs are invited to give guidance to students in this field. According to the government work report 2019, China has a new target of enrolling one million students on vocational education courses this year. Poverty alleviation amazing victory for Chinese people and model for rest of world: Sri Lankan ambassador Sri Lankan Ambassador to China Dr. Karunasena Kodituwakku accepts an interview with Xinhuanet in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 28, 2019. (Xinhuanet/Xu Xin) BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Poverty alleviation in China is an amazing victory for the Chinese people and a model for the rest of the world, said Sri Lankan Ambassador to China Dr. Karunasena Kodituwakku during an exclusive interview with Xinhuanet recently. Official figures show that over the past 40 years, China has lifted more than 700 million rural residents out of poverty. "It's a remarkable achievement of China, because there is a population of 1.4 billion (people)," said the ambassador. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, a politically important milestone, he said. The ambassador stressed that the political developments, economic transformation and technological innovations over the past 70 years have entirely changed the outlook of China. With the rapid transformation of economy, China is not only able to accelerate the development, but also able to distribute the wealth fairly among the community with social justice, he stressed. Besides, the ambassador mentioned that China is playing an important role on the international stage. Through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China is now sharing the achievements made during the last 40 years with the rest of the world, he said. He further noted that many projects have been implemented in Sri Lanka in the economic cooperation between the two countries during the last five years. The ambassador expressed his expectation of strengthened cooperation with China in the fields of construction, investment and technology transfer. As China is to open wider to the world, Sri Lanka is eager to conclude a free trade agreement with China this year, he added. On China's scientific innovation, the ambassador said the recent successful landing on the moon is a remarkable achievement. "We hope this is only the beginning of a long scientific journey," he noted. He said the development of scientific innovation will help China participate in international cooperation in various fields and share the achievements with other countries. At the end of the interview, the ambassador conveyed his best wishes to the ongoing annual sessions of China's national legislature and political advisory body. Environmental protection has been a crucial topic for Chinas Two Sessions, the annual meetings of the countrys top legislators and political advisers. For the past few years, China has pushed forward pollution control and environmental protection, and has already made a good start in the fight against pollution. Attending a panel discussion with deputies from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at the second session of the 13th NPC, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed efforts to maintain strategic resolve in enhancing the building of an ecological civilization. The president and General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee called for intensified protection of the ecological system, urging people to fight resolutely against pollution. According to the latest statistics from Chinas Ministry of Ecology and Environment, in 2018, the average fine particle density (PM2.5), a key indicator of air pollution, dropped 9.3 percent across 338 major Chinese cities when compared with the previous year. Statistics showed that water quality also improved significantly, with an increase in surface water of relatively good quality and a slight drop in surface water of the poorest quality. Although the country has secured a strong start, China still faces many difficulties and challenges regarding environmental protection. The country should explore a new path of high-quality development that prioritizes ecology and highlights green development, Xi said. Li Ganjie, the countrys Ecology and Environment Minister, explained during the two sessions that in the next stage, China will focus on seven major areas. These are: the control of air pollution, pollution caused by diesel-fueled trucks, protection and restoration of the Yangtze River ecological environment, comprehensive treatment of pollution in the Bohai Sea, cleaning up the water bodies within cities, protection of water sources, and combating pollution in agriculture and rural areas. The concept of emptinessshunyatain Mahayana Buddhism is perhaps a subject best avoided in casual conversation. It so vexes everyone not least because of issues of translation: emptiness, many scholars think, hardly suffices as a substitute. In English it has a more distinctly nihilist flavor than was intended. Yet emptiness is so indispensable that it can hardly go unmentioned when the practice and purpose of meditation come up in Buddhist thought. Leave it to Zen to put things in such succinct and down-to-earth ways: the practice of meditation is to develop no mind, says Suzuki Roshi. It is to have no gaining idea. The reason is to have no reason. But from the same point of view, there is a point: the point we should make clear in our practice, the Zen master tells us: we should put more emphasis on big mind rather than small mind. If you need more clarification, you might turn to another Zen popularizer who also began to draw audiences in California in the 50s: Alan Watts. Watts came to San Francisco not with a lifetime of monastic training in Japan, but through his training as an academic, Episcopal priest, and Zen enthusiast in Britain. He is wordier, less poetic, and more essayistic in his delivery, but in discussing the purpose of meditation, you will find him saying the very same things as the Zen masters: Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment. And therefore, if you meditate for an ulterior motive that is to say, to improve your mind, to improve your character, to be more efficient in life youve got your eye on the future and you are not meditating! As for Suzukis big mind, Watts has his own version: The art of meditation is a way of getting into touch with reality our basic inseparability from the whole universe. These are not necessarily synonyms for emptiness, but the idea of having no idea maybe comes close to summarizing the concept. Not knowing, as the koan says, is most intimate. Maybe its hair-splitting and belabors the comparison, but Suzuki Roshi did not talk about meditation as a way to stop all thinking. This is futile, he would argue. Watts seems to suggest otherwise when he says that we become interiorally silent and cease from the interminable chatter that goes on inside our skulls. Because you see, most of us think compulsively all the time. Most honest people will tell you they think compulsively during meditation as well. But in his guided meditation above, Watts acknowledges just this fact. Indeed, his matter-of-fact way of recognizing the ever-presence of thought is what makes the instructions he gives so useful, even if they are also, ultimately, pointless. Hear the original fifteen minute guided meditation at the top of the post and an edit, with some, maybe distracting, background music, just above. To let thinking recede into the background, we must engage our other senses, letting every sound and sensation come and go and the autonomous nervous system take over. How to let go of thinking about thinking? Let Watts guide you in an exercise and see what happens. Then listen to Suzuki Roshi describe the Buddhist philosophy of emptiness. As far as meditation, or zazen practice, goes, he says, our zazen practice is based on the teaching of shunyata or emptiness, which is not an idea but an experience of letting go of fixed ideas, writes another Zen master who brought his practice to the U.S., in order to go beyond them. via Big Think Related Content: Alan Watts Dispenses Wit & Wisdom on the Meaning of Life in Three Animated Videos How Meditation Can Change Your Brain: The Neuroscience of Buddhist Practice Stream 18 Hours of Free Guided Meditations Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness For whom is the Fine Watch Club intended ? As its name implies, for all those attracted to Fine Watchmaking, starting with lovers of luxury watches and watchmaking enthusiasts all over the world. The Fine Watch Clubs mission is to bring them closer to brands and give them an inside glimpse of the watch industry. This will particularly appeal to men and women keen to get a backstage view and benefit from regular exclusive offers ; I invite them to become members without further delay. What are the benefits for members ? While the Fine Watch Club has its own gallery in Geneva and organizes monthly meetings with watch brands, it also offers a very comprehensive private sales program. Luxury watchmaking remains a closed universe for which we provide them with an open sesame. Members have access to a very rich and varied program, from which they can draw as they wish. Sometimes they will need to react quickly, because offers will be limited in time and quantity. Each week, they will have access to a type of offer, such as exclusive limited-edition watches created with a luxury watch brand for members of the Fine Watch Club. We are currently working with several major brands celebrating the 50th anniversary of a legendary caliber or iconic collection. Only members of the Fine Watch Club will be able to acquire one of the rare examples of models issued in conjunction with these flagship brands. In addition, we prepare event-type offers such as factory and trade show visits in VIP mode or previews, as well as special sales and offers on accessories designed exclusively for them. Platinum members are the clubs super VIPs. How does one join ? Simply by registering on the www.fine-watch-club.com website. We offer three types of membership: Three-Hands, Manufacturer and Platinum, which provide access to various benefits depending on the status chosen. Passionate watch enthusiasts will undoubtedly opt for Platinum status, which offers a fast-track to receive offers before others, and above all the possibility of influencing the creation process of future limited series. Whats in it for luxury watch brands ? The Fine Watch Club offers brands a real bridge between lovers of fine watches and their favorite brands, clearly identified during registration. I know of few brands that would not be interested in thousands of qualified potential customers from all over the world who are looking for a closer relationship. The Fine Watch Club already has more than 3,000 members and this number should triple by the time it is operational on a weekly basis. Above and beyond this segmentation, along with our professionalism and a certain discretion towards the distribution network, our team creates specific content for each offer so as to increase the desirability of the brand and its emotional bond with our members. Brands thus benefit from our expertise and our role as an influencer, as well as the assurance of working with a trustworthy partner. You were previously yourself the CEO of a watch brand ; how does your international watch industry experience prove valuable in your current role ? In a rapidly changing watchmaking sector, where consumer habits and distribution are undergoing substantial shifts, it is essential in a project like the Fine Watch Club to have a good vision and understanding of what a watch brand is today, with all its challenges and issues. Knowledge of the product, markets, end-customer requirements and manufacturing processes is as important as communication in order to meet the expectations of our members and partner brands. What are the next steps ? Currently in the launch phase with a first test event at Baselworld, the Fine Watch Club is opening its gallery and organizing its first activities in the spring, and plans to have completed the roll-out of its operations by fall 2019. The first factory visits and events with partner brands are scheduled for May, June and July. We have made a good start on the process of creating limited series with our designer and the product management teams of the most dynamic watch brands, which will occupy our production schedule until early 2020. They correspond to several aesthetic trends and are positioned at different price levels. Luxury is by nature rare, so it is preferable to opt for the Manufacture or Platinum status to be one of the lucky buyers ! Breitling and Britains Bentley Motors enjoy the longest-ever partnership between a watch brand and an automobile manufacturer. In fact, it dates back to 2003, when Bentley, the worlds most admired luxury car brand, launched the very first Continental GT and chose Breitling to design the onboard clock. At the Geneva International Motor Show, Bentley celebrated its 100th anniversary with the introduction of the Centenary Limited Edition Continental GT Number 9 Edition by Mulliner. On the same day, Breitling launched the Breitling Premier Bentley Centenary Limited Edition which celebrates the partnership and 100 years of luxury motoring excellence. Presentation of the Bentley Centenary Limited EditionContinental GT Number 9 Edition by Mulliner, with Georges Kern, CEO of Breitling and Adrian Hallmark, CEO of Bentley Motors Breitling The wooden dials that contribute to the allure of the Premier Bentley Centenary Limited Edition watches are an important link to the wood inserts in the new Continental GT Number 9 Edition and, by extension, to the days in which the original Bentley Boys and Girls attracted so much attention with their successes on the track and their headline-making antics when they were not racing. The Breitling Premier Bentley Centenary Limited Edition is a member of Breitling Premier collection. It is produced in 18 k red gold (200 watches) and stainless-steel versions (100 watches). On the left-hand side of the 42-millimeter stainless-steel case is a plate with an engraved Bentley inscription, whose design is based on the dashboard of the historic supercharged 1929 Blower Bentley. The Breitling Premier Bentley Centenary Limited Edition has an elegant, unique brown elm burl dial with black subdials (a chronograph minute counter at 3 oclock and a small-second subdial at 9 oclock). The dial features a white tachymeter scale on a black inner bezel around the dial, with a red tachymeter inscription. Premier Bentley Centenary Limited Edition, red gold Breitling The Breitling Premier Bentley Centenary Limited Edition is a COSC-certified chronometer, housing Breitlings flagship automatic Manufacture Caliber 01, which delivers an impressive power reserve of approximately 70 hours. The movement is visible through a unique transparent caseback featuring a Bentley logo and engraved with the number of the watch. Breitling The Breitling Premier Bentley Centenary Limited Edition in 18 k red gold is presented on a brown leather strap whose pattern and stitching were inspired by the seats in a Bentley. The stainless-steel version will be available on the brown Bentley-inspired leather strap as well or on a stainless-steel bracelet. The Paillon Awakens The Paillon Awakens Stamped out of sheets of gold finer than a strand of hair, then set in grand feu enamel for near-eternity. Welcome to the fascinating... Stamped out of sheets of gold finer than... 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. Political Briefing: Why is Donald Trump So Fixated On a Meaningless Misstatement? By Dustin Rowles | Politics | March 11, 2019 | Pete Buttigieg, otherwise known as Mayor Pete, is not particularly well known outside of Indiana and represents a huge long shot as a candidate for the Democratic nomination next year. However, hes making some noise now and drawing positive attention to himself for comments like this one, made during last nights CNN Town Hall. South Bend, Indiana mayor and 2020 hopeful Pete Buttigieg on Mike Pence: "How could he allow himself to become the cheerleader of the porn star presidency? Is it that he stopped believing in scripture when he started believing in Donald Trump?" pic.twitter.com/VSDXhSSqIH Axios (@axios) March 11, 2019 Hes not likely to win the nomination, but Mr. Buttigieg may have given himself a better shot at debating Mike Pence during the VP debate next year. Speaking of 2020, the DNC has picked Milwaukee as the city to host the Democratic Nominating Convention, in an apparent effort to lock Wisconsin back down as a blue state. Meanwhile, over the weekend, Donald Trump gave a speech to RNC donors and, predictably, said a lot of insane and untrue things, though this statement, in reference to Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, raised the most eyebrows: The Democrats hate Jewish people. Trump also noted that, were he to run for Prime Minister of Israel, hed receive 98 percent of the vote. Thats not true, but he actually probably would do fairly well in Israel, where one poll suggested that Israelis overwhelmingly prefer Trump to Obama (to my recollection, Israel is one of two countries in the world that prefers Trump to Obama). Meanwhile, Trump has a 75 percent disapproval rating among American Jews , which is another reminder that Israelis and American Jews do not always share the same political beliefs. It would behoove those in both political parties not to conflate the two. An attack on Israeli policies is not an attack on Judaism; on the other hand, its also not OK to use Israeli policies as a cover for anti-Semitic beliefs. This has been my TED Talk. I wonder if its a big deal that the founder of Blackwater and the brother of Betsy DeVos, Erik Prince, failed to disclose to the House of Representatives that he and Don Jr. met with foreign officials at Trump Tower? Because he just admitted it, and also lied and said he had already told the House about it. Thats a perjury! Hey! Remember when the Miami Herald showed photos last week of Li Yang at Donald Trumps Super Bowl viewing party? Shes the woman who founded the massage parlors where Patriots owner Bob Kraft was busted for getting a happy ending. Well, it also turns out that Li Yang runs an investment business, where she sells access to President Trump, and the website for that business shows that Yang has found some success in that regard. Finally, youd think with all the controversies, corruption scandals, and indictments surrounding the Trump Administration that the President wouldnt get fixated on something so small and insignificant. However, Trump has apparently been obsessed with reporting that accurately stated that he called Apples Tim Cook Tim Apple. I dont know why Trump is so defensive about this misstatement (because even Tim Cook was good-natured about it), but he cant get it out of his head. He tried to correct it in a speech over the weekend, and this morning, he took to Twitter to address it. At a recent round table meeting of business executives, & long after formally introducing Tim Cook of Apple, I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words. The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 11, 2019 Dude. Literally, no one cares. No one. Unless its strong evidence of a senior moment, no one really understands why Trump is fixated on it, either. No better way to show you dont have brain problems than to need five days to think of a comeback https://t.co/RtWNVRoOxU Jess Dweck (@TheDweck) March 11, 2019 So it seems the Tim Apple story really got under Trump's skin. Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 11, 2019 Trump is pulling focus from his own budget proposal so he can make an excuse on Twitter for why he briefly misspoke a week ago. Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 11, 2019 In an appearance w @ChrisCuomo after we wrote about the Kelly memo saying Trump ordered a security clearance for Kushner, @GovChristie said Trump has chosen at times to lie about things that he hasn't needed to lie about. https://t.co/V97RjIbeY4 Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) March 11, 2019 Jose Canseco Accuses Alex Rodriguez of Cheating On Jennifer Lopez | Showtime Cancels 'SMILF,' While HBO Cancels 'Crashing' Dustin is the founder and co-owner of Pajiba. You may email him here, follow him on Twitter, or listen to his weekly TV podcast, Podjiba. Header Image Source: Getty Images Popularity is relative, and especially in the digital age. You could have hundreds of thousands of followers online, but be completely unknown in the streets massively famous on Instagram, YouTube or Twitter, but lack any kind of real, authentic cool in person. For our new series, Coolest Person in the Room, New York-based photographer Megan Walschlager pinpoints all the people whose energy is contagious regardless of their following count or celebrity. Meet NYC-based stylist Marta Del Rio, a rising stylist and creative assistant to fashion star Nicola Formichetti. What is your job? I am working with Nicola Formichetti day to day. I assist with everything from production to styling. Sometimes I get to consult a little bit with clients, which is really fun. And, of course, we got to work on [Lady] Gaga's Enigma [Vegas Residency], and spend almost a month in Vegas. That seems like a weird experience. It's a strange place to spend Christmas and New Years. The first time I met her was doing the Enigma poster, which we did with Inez and Vinoodh. It was my first time working with them what an incredible photography duo. And I had never met Gaga's entire team like the dancers and the band. I had met Sandra [Amador] and Tom [Eerebout] who are her incredible stylists, but it was so amazing to watch such a big team that is genuinely family. They have traveled so much together and some of them have been with her for like 10 years. It's beautiful to watch how people have grown together. That's a bit how I feel with Nicola I'm getting to grow with him. I used to be an intern at Nicopanda, then I moved up little bit by little bit and now I'm in [Studio Formichetti]. Are you working on anything independently? I'm trying little by little to do my own solo projects. I just did my first ever solo runway styling: BCALLA's show [at NYFW], which was super fun. Brad [Callahan] texted me asking if I would be interested in helping out, and I was like, "Of course, I love you!" I had the pleasure of pulling from him in the very beginning. And at parties he would come in incredible looks and be like, "Oh, I just made this in 2 hours." So, he told me, "This is what my collection is going to be. It's mainly black and gold," and he added a few other things I immediately knew what he was talking about and threw a bunch of ideas out. I remember on our first phone call I was like, "What if we do somebody's head just completely covered in leopard print." And in the show we had someone's head who was completely shaved with leopard print. We were completely on the same page. That's how I wish every project was. That's amazing. It's so amazing, but every project is so different. You get to meet so many new people. It's opened up New York so much for me. Especially when you're working in a studio by yourself, you forget that there's more things going on. Related | BCALLA Brought Ballroom to Fashion Week I wanna hear more about your month in Vegas. Is there anything cool happening in Vegas? Or are you just walking laps on the strip? Actually Vegas has incredible thrift stores. They're more in the older part of the city. There's also a Liberace Foundation. I didn't have time to go there, but I will on my next trip. When I was in Vegas, since I wasn't going home for Christmas, my parents and sister decided to come and visit. I bought them tickets to the Gaga show as a Christmas present. It was really fun to have my parents watch something that I helped out on because it somehow validates what you do. Photo by Megan Walschlager Especially when you have a creative job, your parents don't always get it when you're not working a typical 9-5. No, especially with styling. They understand more when I do production or when I support Nicola in other areas. But when it's styling, they're like, "So, are you just choosing clothes? Are you just picking them up?" And I'm like, "No, it's a bit more than that." And they're like, "So you guys just dress people? Can people not dress themselves?" Obviously they've had no exposure to the fashion world except me having gone to fashion school. So I had to explain a big chunk of my job is working with PRs and designers and pulling things it's a lot of logistics. The creative side is a part of it, but oh my god the logistics! The creative is just the tip of the iceberg. The rest of it is production. But now my parents completely understand it. And whenever they see articles about fashion in the newspaper, they'll literally send me a photo of it. You're from Spain, right? Yes, I'm from the very south a small, very-touristy town called Marbella. It is by the seaside and also right next to a mountain so it has one of the world's best microclimates. It's not too hot, not too cold, beautiful summers, great beach clubs, amazing food. I hope one day I can retire there, but there isn't much for me to do there right now. I grew up in a very small town called San Pedro and my family's been working there all their lives, so the town knows us. We're a big family. Whenever I go back, I'll go to the pharmacy where my mom works and they'll be like, "Oh my god the New York girl is back! Show us your shoes! Show us your hair!" They're so sweet. At the beginning they were like, "Oh my god, Marta, you've changed!" But now they're so fun and they'll be like, "Oh what's your next hair color? Do you have beach sandals that are platforms as well?" How long have you had the iconic Marta pink and green hairstyle? Whenever I watch a Nicola video I can always spot your head boppin' around in the background. Depending on how stressed I am it will be bobbing or more of a flash! Then you'll hear my big platforms clumping around in the back. I've had green and pink almost a year. Originally it was yellow and purple. Then yellow and blue. Then yellow and pink. Then green and purple. Then green and pink. And I did the green and pink because it was summer and I decided I wanted to be a watermelon for the summer. And I thought that was hilarious, but it kind of stuck. I've been thinking I need to change it soon, but it's starting to become so recognizable. "The sky's the limit with [Nicola Formichetti]. I've learned so much from him and I've learned that to be a fashion designer you don't have to follow the traditional route." How did you go from Parson's student to working on Enigma? Walk me through your journey. Honestly it was thanks to Nicola. When I was at Parson's I interned at different places. I had this idea in my head that since I was studying fashion design and that's what I was going to do all my life, I didn't want to intern doing fashion design. I wanted to intern anywhere else in fashion. So, I thought to be better prepared I would learn production or styling. One of my first internships was at this company called Defacto Inc. They represent photographers, stylists, manicurists all across the board. The day I went in to interview I was probably 19 or 20 and back then I had long brown hair and used to dress more conservative for interviews especially. And I had one outfit for interviewing. I had a black pencil skirt, an electric blue blouse, little black work pumps everything was from Zara. And I showed up, they interviewed me, and we clicked immediately. They were like, "When can you start?" And I was like, "I can start tomorrow if you want." That's one thing I think I've done well in every interview. When they ask me how soon I can start I'm like, "I can start in an hour if you need." So, I started there and was there for like 6 months and I learned so much on the backside of fashion. Basically everything that builds up to sell what a fashion designer is. Like getting a hairstylist and a manicurist, doing a campaign, doing a runway. Just seeing how many departments come together to build the image the mass audience gets to see. After that I was like, I've done agency, what if I try production/styling? So my next internship was Moda Operandi. I actually had a great time and that was the first time I got to be on set every day at work. We were doing the boutique ecomm images so we were shooting every day. I got to see a lot of production and a lot of ecomm styling and that taught me so much. Photo by Megan Walschlager Yeah they do it so fast, it's like a machine. While I was doing all that, I was working on my fashion thesis at Parsons, which was completely outrageous comparatively. And a friend of mine from Parsons Vasilis Loizides, who actually now has his own collection and presents in fashion week we were at an open studio one day and talking about what we were doing, and he was like, "Actually i just finished an internship at this place and now that I see your work I think it would be the perfect place for you. It's called Nicopanda it's Nicola Formichetti's brand." And that's how I met Gerlan Marcel, who did Gerlan Jeans and worked at Jeremy Scott before. I interviewed with her [for an internship] and we really hit it off. That internship was incredible. I was sketching and moodboarding. I was completely invested in design and doing Photoshop and I learned so much. When my internship was over they asked me to stay on as freelance. Little by little I started helping out more, and I started meeting Nicola more often and we just got along, and it snowballed to three years later. I'm still in America because of him and I'm his assistant. He's always up for a new project. The sky's the limit with him. I've learned so much from him and I've learned that to be a fashion designer you don't have to follow the traditional route. I feel like there's a big overlap between fashion and nightlife has that been true for you? The first party I went to, I decided to just wear a bra with a chain I bought at home depot, panties and fishnets. I went all out and wore my massive platforms. Then that night someone introduced me to Nicky Ottav and immediately we started talking. That night he asked me if I would like to host, and I was like, "Well what do I have to do?" And he was like, "Just tell people to come to my party and dress fabulous." And I was like, "Sounds like I can do that." So for about a year I was doing club kid looks and building these massive feather mohawks going to On Top at Le Bain, Flash Factory, Holy Mountain. I actually bumped into Nicola at my first Holy Mountain I did like a whole costume and I was dancing and I felt someone tap my shoulder and I turn around and it was my boss! But he was super nice and was like, "You look great!" That's so funny. Once I went to Holy Mountain and it was around Valentine's Day, but I had forgotten I had had so much work. And I freaked out because I didn't know what to wear. I had a bunch of liquid latex at home, so I ran to Duane Reade and they had a bunch of roses on sale so I bought like three bouquets, took off all the petals and glued them all over my body. Very baby Marta. I didn't know what I was doing. I thought it was okay to go out in red panties with petals glued all over my body and my long hair that covered my tits. That's basically a shirt. Do you have any specific getting ready routines when you go out? When I used to go out more often, I had this drag queen friend from Chile. Her name was Annabelle Monica and she was new to New York she was here for like 4 months studying English and staying in New Jersey at her uncle's house. I met her one night out and we got along because we both speak Spanish. She had made out with someone so her lipstick was no longer there, so I lent her my lipstick and we got to talking. I got worried when she was like, "Oh it's my first time going out, and I have to take the train back to New Jersey at 4 AM in full drag." And I was worried about her safety, so I convinced her to crash at my house. After that we became really good friends. A few days later I was like, "Why don't you come to my house and we can get ready together?" She was like, "I need 5 hours to get ready." And I'm like, "Don't worry! I will get beer, sangria, shots, and we can watch old Drag Race episodes while you get ready and I finish hot gluing things." We got into the habit of getting ready at my house. At the time, I was living in FiDi and my housemates were lovely they would let us take over the entire living room. They thought it was so fun to watch. And she would take over the bathroom for 4 hours, just powdering and contouring. Then we'd get into our looks and our friends would come over as the night progressed. Then by 11 we would all leave for the club together. A couple of times we had issues getting into the cabs because our headpieces were too big, so we needed to lay horizontal. Photo by Megan Walschlager What do you think are some of the coolest places in New York? I love Decibel. They have loads of sakes and their kitchen is open late. You can get good ol' rice bowls with beef and they make it in the tiniest kitchen it's incredible. I've been coming here the 7 years I've been in New York. This is the first place I went on a date back when I was living in the dorms at Parsons. I saw the guy for a couple of months after that and when we decided to go our ways, I got this spot in the divorce. It was the only thing I asked for. I also live two blocks from Bar 169 and one of my really good friends Roman [Darkholme] works there. Whenever I don't feel like going out and he's working, I'll go there and wait for an open spot at the bar and we'll talk all night while he works. Also Beverly's and Clockwork more because of convenience. I love Pies N Thighs and this place called Little Mo in Bushwick. It's a Pho place. And Shigure has amazing Japanese food and an amazing sake selection. I also go to Baby Brasa a lot. And K-Town for a BBQ and karaoke. What's next for you? I don't think I can tell you that. But what I am super excited about right now is Nicola's YouTube channel because it's such a different medium than we're used to. It's really fun because I don't think the big audience on YouTube is very well-versed in fashion. And of course Nicola is well-known in New York and the fashion industry, but for a lot of people they don't know who is working behind the scenes, so it'll be cool to show the world the guy behind all these iconic moments. What builds an image isn't just the talent dressed it's the photographer, the stylist, the designer so I'm really excited to help give a glimpse of what our world is to other people. And it will give my parents another example of what I do when they see my bun running around in the background. Don't let them tell you stanning your favorite artist isn't a worthwhile endeavor: For 20-year-old model Jazmyne Joy, her love for Bad Bunny led to a major career break. Tagging the acclaimed Puerto Rican artist in Instagram posts showing off her shaved head designs something he's known for actually worked in getting his attention. Now she's a Bad Bunny video star, playing the female version of El Conejo Malo himself in his "Caro" video. That was only a month ago, and the breaks keep coming: This week she announced her signing to Miami-based agency Next Models. This summer, Joy says, she'll move to New York. Born in Connecticut to a Latinx mom, her family relocated to Puerto Rico when Joy was five years old. And while she may not have been born on the island, she says she still considers herself Boricua and credits the island's fashion industry with giving her a start. But that start wasn't always easy. At 15, Joy alleges she encountered a sexually predatory photographer who was expelled from Puerto Rico's fashion industry and may now face charges, thanks to women like Joy and Miss Universe Puerto Rico 2018 contestant Yuanilie Alvarado coming forward to share their stories of abuse. Joy recently opened up to us about these experiences and why she decided to speak out now along with sharing more of the Bad Bunny back story and where she's hoping her career will take her next. So how did your role with "Caro" come about? I did some pictures inspired by him in the summer. They kind of went viral over here; everyone was loving it and they were tagging him. He saw them it was pretty crazy because I wanted him to see them, but I thought he'd see them in, like, a week, and he sent me a message the following day. I had just taken a flight to Texas, so I was super tired and it was literally when I was going to go to sleep, because I had to rest. I got a message and I was like, Oh my god! And I could not sleep. What did he say? He told me he loved [the pictures], and that he would love to work with me. I was like, oh my god, and then we talked a little bit and [he said he was] going to keep in touch. I was like, OK. And then I didn't hear from him, so I thought he forgot about me. Then he was on the island for a few weeks, and I wrote to him, like, "Look, I'm still down for whatever, let me know." He said he hadn't forgotten, that he was just getting everything together, and that they'd be calling me soon. That was in September, and then in November they called me. That's great you took the initiative by reaching out. I didn't want to it felt weird doing it, writing someone so big. But I was like, "Well, you gotta do what you gotta do." It's extra sweet because you're such a big fan. I find him so interesting. His mind is so ahead of ours; he thinks of so many things. When I worked with him, it was like I'd talk to him but I could tell he was maquinando [scheming], like you could tell he was thinking about what would be best for the final product while you're talking. Just him and his whole crew are just, wow. I noticed in your posts you wear a third eye necklace Bad Bunny's current trademark. Did you get that after working on the video? I did. My best friend who went with me to record the music video bought it for me for my birthday, and I've been wearing it every day. You've mentioned that you appreciate the song's message of equality, that "todxs somos caro." Can you elaborate on what that means for you? The video kind of says it itself. It's showing us that we're all equal, and we should all love each other, no matter our sexuality or color or economic status. Todos somos igual, todos somos bellxs [we are all equal, we are all beautiful], and everything else doesn't matter. I felt grateful to be part of such a big message. One of the reasons why I had shaved my head was because I wanted to create more diversity in the modeling industry. Being able to be a part of a music video that's so diverse, and it's giving everyone such a great message it was very important to me. "One of the reasons why I had shaved my head was because I wanted to create more diversity in the modeling industry." When you say creating more diversity, do you mean in terms of feminine beauty standards? Yeah. Because we all know how many beauty standards there are, and how many beauty rules we feel like we're supposed to follow. We're supposed to have a skinny figure, a tiny waist, clean skin, long, luscious hair, and it's supposed to be a nice brown or a light blonde. And that having hair makes you more of a woman I don't believe that. Girls think that you have to have hair to be beautiful, and that's not true. I think it all depends on how you treat others and your personality. What have your experiences in Puerto Rico's fashion industry been like? I've had pretty good experiences I've met great people, I've worked with very talented photographers, great designers. But you know, I've had those bad encounters also. You've been vocal about the alleged mistreatment you faced from a photographer who's now being pushed out of Puerto Rico's fashion industry. I met him when I was 15 and I was doing my first magazine [shoot]. He told my mom not to stay at the shoot. Mami had nowhere else to go; we're not from this area, we don't have family over here. But he said that the owner of the magazine didn't want her at the shoot. I'm like, "Okay, that's fine." You were only 15 that's crazy. It was. But I told mami, "They want the shoot to be more private, they feel like you being here is going to make me nervous. Could you go somewhere to eat or the mall and I'll call you when we're done?" She said, "Yeah." We finished seven, eight hours later, so she was alone all that time with nothing to do. [Initially] everything was fine. I wasn't getting uncomfortable, nothing bad was going on, but I put on a dress, and I went to change in the bathroom after, and the bathroom had two doors. I closed one and he came in through the other. I was like, "What are you doing?" He was like, "I came to help you change." I said, "Don't worry about it, I know how to change myself, I can do it." He's like, "No, this is my job, I'm just going to help." I'm like, "Really, it's OK I can do it." He's like, "No, no, no, no I'll do it." Since I was new to all of this, I thought, maybe that's normal, maybe this is his job. He would give an impression that he wasn't interested in women, so it makes you feel a little more comfortable, but you find out later that he is, and he's doing that on purpose. So I took my dress off and I'm covering up my chest the whole time, and he's like, "Why are you covering up?" I'm like, that's not normal. I just stared at him like, what? He's like, "Why do you cover up if you have a beautiful body?" and all this, and I was like, stuck. I was just shocked. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if this was, as I said, normal, so I didn't know if I could talk to the other people in the crew. I felt alone, like anything I said would have been used against me. So I didn't do anything in the moment, and when I went to put on another dress, I had to let go of my chest. And he stared right at my breasts. I was like, oh my god. I couldn't move. He was like, "I don't know why you cover up, they're beautiful." I was like, that's not normal. That's not okay. And he's like, "You're going to have to do things when it comes to modeling that you're not going to like to do, but that's what you have to do to get to a bigger name." He made me feel like shit. He's done other things to girls. With me [it wasn't as bad]. With other girls, he would [allegedly] say that he's a photographer and that he had a whole crew, he was going to get them in Vogue or in huge magazines and they were going to be big if they took pictures with him, and they'd get to the shoot with him and it'd be with his phone he'd take pictures of them with his phone and he'd tell them to be half-naked. It was really bad. That's so predatory, the way he isolated you, the things he said. And we were all young. He was always backstage in all of the fashion shows at San Juan Moda that's like a tiny New York Fashion Week, the island's fashion week, and he was always back there. All of us were like, "Why is he here? We hate him, get him out of here." It was really weird because he'd disappear during the day, and when we were changing he'd come back. He was always there to change us. He was always asking, "Let me change you." I was like, "No. I have someone already that's going to change me. Don't worry about it." Really bad. Wow. Well, the collective effort to get him out and hold the industry accountable for keeping him out was major. It was incredible to see. We didn't expect to have so many people with us. I got so many messages from girls I have never even seen. He didn't only affect models, he affected girls out of the industry who were trying to be models or girls that were just at the wrong place. It's really brave of you to speak out. I had wanted to talk about it for a long time, but my friend, Yuanilie Alvarado, spoke up about it first, and I guess I was like, OK, so we're all going to do this now. It was because of her mostly that I was like, "You know what? I'm talking now too. I'm not going to be silent about it anymore." And Puerto Rico's fashion industry is so small, too, so in a way, fewer opportunities means the stakes are higher. That's why we never said anything, because he has a lot of connections. And if it was one of us, without anyone's support, we could lose our jobs because of him. I think he's effectively been banned from the industry now, right? Oh yeah. He's not allowed to go if he shows up, I don't even know what would happen. But we have a case against him. We're working on a case. That's another very brave thing to do, to take legal action. It's a long process. We were hoping it would be something that could happen [fast], but they explained it to us since there's so many girls involved, it takes longer than their usual court thing. Wow. Well, there's no good segue here what's next in your career? Are you looking to get more video and acting work? I would love to do more videos. My plan this year is to be able to move to New York, [because] I love everything about the high fashion that is happening in New York and Fashion Week and all the designers over there. "We're supposed to have a skinny figure, a tiny waist, clean skin, long, luscious hair, and it's supposed to be a nice brown or a light blonde. And that having hair makes you more of a woman I don't believe that." I'm excited to see what you do next. I imagine great things. I hope so. They say hard work pays off, and I've been working hard! I hope everything I have planned works out. I appreciate that, whatever you do, you'll be carrying a message of respect. I don't know why a lot of people don't think of that. When I see people [being disrespectful], I'm like, how can you think of a person in that way? How are you going to tell me that you're better than that person? How are you better than anyone else? We're all the same. We're all human. Follow Jazmyne Joy on Instagram (@jazmynejoy_), and stream "Caro" by Bad Bunny, below. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Iran's President Rohani Kicks Off First Official Visit To Iraq, Hails 'Special Relations' 03/11/19 Source: RFE/RL Iranian President Hassan Rohani has arrived in Baghdad for his first official visit to Iraq, state television reported, as Iraq is under pressure from the United States to limit ties with its neighbor. Speaking at Tehran's Mehrabad airport on March 11 before departing for his three-day visit, Rohani hailed the "special" relations between Iran and Iraq. "We are very much interested to expand our ties with Iraq, particularly our transport cooperation. We have important projects that will be discussed during this visit," he also said. Iraq, which receives financial and military support from Washington, has attempted to balance its relations with the United States and Iran, which carries significant influence with members of Iraq's Shi'ite population. Tehran does not have an official military presence in Iraq. But the government supports powerful Shi'ite paramilitary groups operating in the country, with estimates of the number of fighters ranging up to 150,000. The United States has some 5,200 troops stationed in Iraq, mostly focused on training and support missions. U.S. President Donald Trump last year announced he was pulling out of the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran signed with six world powers and began reimposing sanctions against Tehran that were eased under terms of the accord. The sanctions target Iran's energy, shipbuilding, shipping, and financial sectors. Iraq was granted limited waivers to continue buying Iranian electricity and the natural gas needed to generate it, although the United States has called on Baghdad to form partnerships with American companies to become energy independent. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who arrived in the Iraqi capital earlier in the day, thanked Baghdad for having "refused the unjust and illegal sanctions imposed on the Iranian people," in reference to the U.S. sanctions. "Iran and Iraq are neighbors and no country can interfere in their relations," he also said. Rohani, accompanied by a high-ranking political and economic delegation, was received by a guard of honor on landing in Baghdad, where he was welcomed by Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Ali Al-Hakim. He proceeded for a stop at a Shi'ite shrine in the Iraqi capital and later met with President Barham Salih. "We have the right conditions for cooperation in all areas, including trade and investment...energy, electricity, and gas, banking ties, and cooperation on roads and railways," Rohani said after the talks. "Iraq is an important state in the region and it can play a bigger role in providing security," he told journalists, without elaborating. Rohani is expected to also meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Abdel Abdul Mehdi and the country's chief Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, in the city of Najaf. During the visit, a series of agreements will be signed in energy, transport, agriculture, industry, and health, Iran's state news agency IRNA reported. Rohani has previously visited Iraq as a private individual but not as his country's leader. Iran and Iraq have come a long way since the 1980s, when under dictator Saddam Hussein Iraq waged a bloody eight-year war against Iran, a conflict that left nearly 1 million killed on both sides. In 2018, Iran's exports to Iraq came to about $9 billion, while an estimated 5 million religious tourists create some $5 billion a year in economic benefits as Iraqi and Iranian citizens visit Shi'ite holy sites in the two countries. Meanwhile, Rohani is suffering difficulties at home because of an economic crisis, much of it related to U.S. sanctions. The troubles have led to occasional flareups of street protests in Tehran and elsewhere. With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and AP Tehran theater group to host Woody Allen's "Old Saybrook" 03/11/19 Source: Tehran Times TEHRAN - A group of Iranian actors will perform a reading of Woody Allen's "Old Saybrook" at Shahrzad Theater in Tehran on March 15. Sajjad Qatei is the director of the reading performance in which he will also play a role, and Mahmud Rashidi is the producer of the production. Bahman Vakhshur, Tima Pur-Rahmani, Ashkan Delavari, Hoda Fallah, Ramtin Meqdadi and Dorsa Hakimelahi are the other members of the cast. The absurdist play is about Max, a writer who has left his play unfinished. Characters in the play finally get bored and a fight breaks out between the characters and the writer. "In 'Old Saybrook', Mr. Allen indulges that side of himself that occasionally gets out of Manhattan like a Manhattanite with a summer rental," the New York Times wrote in a review published in 2003. "Set in the opulent living room of a Connecticut beach house, the play begins with... the kind of literary, self-deprecating and neurotically screwy jokery that is pure Woody Allen. The clear reference is to Chekhov, whose bored, affluent characters, in Mr. Allen's contemporary translation, are less pretentious than proudly shallow." South Africa: SA, World Bank work to boost investment climate South Africa and the World Bank have signed an agreement that will boost the local business environment while also helping to enhance foreign direct investment into the country. Signed on Monday in Johannesburg, the Advisory Services Agreement was signed between the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) and the World Bank Group. The partnership is aimed at improving the business environment for domestic entrepreneurs and undertaking policy and institutional reform to enhance foreign direct investment inflows. Business regulation, investment policy and promotion, and market regulation and competition policy are the focus areas of the partnership. The advisory agreement formalises the partnership between the Government of South Africa and the World Bank Group to support the national reform effort led by the dti, the Department of Economic Development and National Treasury. World Bank support to South Africa will be provided in partnership with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs and the Prosperity Fund of the UKs Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The project will deploy a Country Private Sector Diagnostic, a standard World Bank Group tool to identify industry sectors that can attract significant domestic and foreign investments and deliver positive development impacts in the near term. Director General at the dti, Lionel October, said the department will gain insight into best practice from the partnership. Support from World Bank Group and its development partners promotes South Africas growth agenda. The dti and InvestSA hope to gain insights into best practice from the partnership. I would like to assure you that we are committed to addressing the employment deficits that we face, and this will start with providing the right environment for the private sector to flourish. The four-year programme will be led and coordinated by InvestSA, said October. Delivering the State of the Nation Address (SONA) in February, President Cyril Ramaphosa committed government to ensure business competitiveness and an enabling business environment as a cornerstone of the drive for both domestic and foreign direct investment and the jobs that they are expected to generate. Improving investment Government has set the target of improving its current rank of 82/190 in order to be, within three years, among the top 50 economies in the annual Doing Business Report published by the World Bank Group. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is a member of the World Bank Group, expressed its commitment to help South Africa in its efforts. IFC is committed to working across the World Bank Group to help South Africa achieve best practices and real impact in its reform efforts. The target set by President Ramaphosa of generating investment of $100 billion within five years is important. It sets the tone for the policies needed to attract foreign direct investment, said Kevin Njiraini, IFC Regional Director for Southern Africa. Early deliverables under the support programme will be inputs into South Africas Investment strategy. Meanwhile, British High Commissioner to South Africa, Nigel Casey said the UK is keen on supporting South Africa to attract an additional $100 billion of investment into South Africa. The UK is the largest investor in South Africa, but were determined to build on that here and elsewhere in Africa. We also strongly support President Ramaphosas ambition to attract an additional $100 billion of investment into South Africa. Todays announcement is part of how we are going to support governments ambitions and deliver on our own ambition about the role that UK investors should play. The UK, Casey said, will make use of its R900 million Prosperity Fund in South Africa. - SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. A number of Egyptian rights advocates have called on the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to form an international committee to investigate what they said is Qatar's violation of Libya's sovereignty by supporting armed terrorist organisations in the war-stricken country. In a statement, the Egyptian delegation charged Qatar with providing support to the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood group in Libya, which it said is a violation of the UN's Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, which was adopted in 2006. The call was made during a meeting held by the Egyptian delegation in Geneva on the sidelines of the 40th session of the UNHRC, which runs till 26 March. Members of the delegation include Said Abdel-Hafez, representing the Forum for Development and Human Rights Dialogue (Moltaka), and Aida Nour, from the Women and Development Association. The UN strategy stipulates a commitment by world leaders to non-interference in sovereign countries, respecting their territorial integrity and political independence, and not funding or supporting terrorist and armed groups, the statement added. Abdel-Hafez said that the Egyptian state is confronting since 2013 extremist groups that have threatened the stability of the state and its institutions and the fundamental rights of Egyptian citizens. He added that Egypt has been confronting lies and fabrications from "politicised organisations" regarding the reality of conditions in Egypt. "I call on the international committee to assume their responsibilities in confronting these militias and their violation of citizens' rights in Egypt, Libya, and Yemen," he said, calling on the community to support the legitmacy of the institutions that confront extremist groups. Nour said that this year's motto for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women should be "stop funding terrorism," asserting that both funding and incitement of terrorism violate UN accords. She said "terrorism is the most severe form of violence against women." Wednesday's gathering is among the first in a series of meetings held by the delegation to clarify facts to the international community about the situation in Egypt on the sidelines of the UNHCR session. Search Keywords: Short link: Three leading German companies have indicated their intention to set up factories in Ghana to boost the local economy. The decision to invest in Ghana was announced during the successful 3rd German-African Business Summit (GABS) held last month in Accra. The three firms are B-Braun, providers of healthcare solutions; Knauf, manufacturers of building materials and Lapp Group, a Stuttgart-based provider of integrated solutions and branded products in the field of cable and connection technology. Knauf products, particularly plasterboards, cement boards are in high demand in Ghana, and the company is eyeing Takoradi for its base. Ghanas Ambassador to Germany, Gina Ama Blay, announced this at the 62nd Independence Day anniversary held in Berlin on Saturday. The event was held on Saturday to allow Ghanaians living in Germany to participate in the annual event. Previously, the ambassador hosted foreign diplomats to a cocktail with little participation of Ghanaian residents. Ambassador Blay said the GABS was successful, with Ghana reaping the benefits currently. The event attracted over 750 high-profile business and political leaders both from Germany and Africa who converged in Accra to explore opportunities for building economic partnerships, seeking new markets and business trends. Three leading German firms announced their intention to establish in Ghana, Ambassador Blay said amidst applause from the gathering. In the case of Knauf, the company expressed its readiness to build a plant in Ghana to produce these materials at West Park, a 405-acre commercial, industrial and residential development in a strategic location in Takoradi, Mrs. Blay stated. She commended the Ghanaian community in Germany for supporting her during her short and successful stay in the European country. The ambassador appealed to the residents to be guided by the theme of the anniversary peace and unity and live in oneness. She said their contributions to the development of the country cannot go unnoticed, especially their remittances. President of Union of Ghanaian in Germany, William Nketia, commended Ambassador Blay for changing the face of Ghanas mission. He was particularly happy that Ghanaians in Germany took part in the event for the first time and lauded the initiative of the envoy. Deputy Minister for Tourism & Creative Arts, Dr. Ziblim Iddi, who was the guest of honour, acknowledged the contributions of Ghanaians in the diaspora in the development of the country and changes championed by them. He said ROPAA, for instance, was championed by Ghanaians living abroad, which would soon be implemented. Dr. Iddi assured Ghanaians living abroad that the Electoral Commission (EC) was working to ensure its full implementation per the court orders. Ghanaians across Germany travelled to attend the event and expressed their excitement Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video An international industrialist has asked Ghanaian law enforcement agencies and investment promotion bodies to immediately address the rise in the use of dud cheques in local business transactions. Sethi Brothers Group of Companies, Mr. Charanjeet Sethi, Chairman, said high profile businessmen are getting more involved in the financial fraudulent act which used to be the preserve of hustlers who needed a quick fix in life. I have been a victim of this heinous financial crime on many occasions. In one instance, the person who is a trusted businessman gave me more than four cheques which all bounced. He was buying my property, he said. According to him, cheques cannot be avoided especially in business transactions involving huge sums of money which cannot be carried adding that cheques should be as good as cash in any enlightened financial system. Carrying cash or keeping cash in the home or office is a very risky activity. Tema for instances has witnessed armed robberies and even the murder of victims who were carrying money that they have withdrawn from the bank." Some may argue that the banking sector does not make transactions facilitated by cheques convenient but I know that new measures put in place by the Bank of Ghana have drastically reduced delays in cashing cheques, according to him. Mr. Sethi said investors are always assessing middle income countries like Ghana and would want do business in Ghana but when such criminalities go unchecked, they could stay away. It is not just a criminal issue but a huge national image issue which could define rather unjustifiably, Ghana as a bad destination for business. Ghanaians are great people. They must get rid of those who seek to put them in the negative light, he opined. Source: The Independent 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 Many Ghanaians are at their wits end over the failure of the Ministry of Finance to scrape the luxury vehicle tax, which is obviously a nuisance tax. By definition, a thing is said to be a nuisance if it causes inconvenience or annoyance to society. According to the books, some notable synonyms of the word nuisance include irritation, inconvenience, bother, difficulty, trouble, burden, thorn in the flesh, pain in the neck, menace, etc. And it was for this reason that government, in March, 2017, announced the abolition of eleven taxes it considered nuisance, and reviewed four others that were negatively affecting businesses in the country. According to Kenneth Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance, the move was aimed at lessening the burden on consumers and businesses and boosting the private sector, which he referred to as the engine of growth. The eleven abolished taxes included the 1% Special Import Levy, 17.5% VAT/NHIL on financial services, 17.5% VAT/NHIL on selected imported medicines that were not produced locally, import duties on raw materials and machinery for production within the context of the ECOWAS Common External Tariff (CET) Protocol and 17.5% VAT/NHIL on domestic airline tickets. The rest were the 5% VAT/NHIL on Real Estate sales, Excise duty on petroleum, Special Petroleum tax rate from 17.5% to 15%, duties on the importation of spare parts, Kayayei levies and taxation on gains from the realisation of securities listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange. The government further reduced the national electrification scheme levy from 5% to 3%, public lighting levy from 5% to 2%, replaced the 17.5% VAT/NHIL rate with a flat rate of 3% for traders and implemented tax credits and other incentives for businesses that hire young graduates. Interestingly, no sooner had Ghanaians started jubilating over those abolitions than a new regime was introduced by the same ministry. The government, in August, 2018, introduced the vehicle luxury tax, in which vehicles with engine capacities above 2950 Cubic Centimetres are required to pay various punitive taxes ranging from GH1,000, to GH2,000 per annum. Even though the essence of the tax was to generate revenue, it is not clear of that mission was being achieved. At a demonstration in Accra last week, the industry players, including the Vehicle and Asset Dealers Association of Ghana (VADAG), National Concerned Spare Parts Dealers Association, True Drivers Union, Concerned Drivers Association, Ghana Committed Drivers Association and Chamber of Petroleum Consumers, disclosed that over 5,000 supposed luxury vehicles had since been parked in various garages across the country because prospective buyers, in an attempt to avoid the levy, had refused to buy them. If these figures are true, then we think something needs to be done as soon as possible about the situation. THE PUBLISHER is tempted to agree with many Ghanaians who think that the tax was not well thought through before it was introduced. In our view, selective taxes such as the luxury vehicle tax, can only survive if the demand for the commodities on which they are placed are inelastic. Unfortunately, it does not look like high engine vehicles are in the category of such commodities. The paper thinks that, apart from killing local business, the levy is giving political impetus to the opposition, who would use it for as long as it would serve their interest. As it stands now, many New Patriotic Party (NPP) businessmen are getting disillusioned with certain decisions from the Finance Ministry, and Ken Ofori-Atta must take note. This Nuisance Tax Must Also Go! Source: The Publisher Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video There is no absolute doubt that, Manasseh Azure Awuni is a top-notch when it comes to striking with the pen as well as his hardcore investigative work(s).He has contributed immensely in the fight against corruption. This doesnt mean that, any work he brings to the public for consumption shouldnt be subjected to scrutiny. WHen you are taking a meal, you dont just take it, you look at the very meal you are consuming for your safety. Let it also not be miscontrued by readers that, this article seeks to scorn his recent documentary which has offered the NDC an opportunity to make noise in an attempt to water down the heat on their party chairman who is still battling the CID for his leaked tape. I am only seeking to proffer an opinion on the subject matter. Even before we were told that, joynews was going to show a documentary of a party militia group under training, we were also informed that, their training was ahead of 2020 election by a publication on myjoyonline.com. We were glued to our television set monitoring the ongoing AWW commission of inquiry where joynews had to pause for a breaking news with shocking headlines. The host of the show made it clear that, the government in power was connected to the activities of DE- EYE group believed to be a paramilitary organisation. Some of us didnt get the opportunity to watch it that very day but watched it the following day. At the time i was watching the film ,i was confused because, the full documentary didnt match the catchy and sensational headlines we saw as a publication on myjoyonline. It was after watching the footage i got to realise that, the documentary failed to capture the headline which might have been the reason why everybody decided to abandon his or her work purposely for the show in the evening. People who were going to make love with the wives that very moment had to put it in abeyance just to appreciate how the drama was going to unfold, bearing in mind Nana Akufo Addo's firm stance on "party militia" grouping whose work is to engage in setting confusion during by election(s). In the documentary, ladies and gentleman were seen training without fire arms. The training was described as a military training because, ex military men were leading the parade. Again ,nowhere in the documentary was it established that, the group had the blessing of the government contrary to the initial publication before the documentary was aired. Let it also be known that, Ghana is not a country where citizens would only swallow any piece hook,line and sinker and for that matter, when one picks his camera and says,he is going undercover to unearth, the commission of crime in the dark, he should expect that ,people will definitely raise legitimate issues and such attempt should be seen as healthy intellectual discourse and not the opposite. Some of us were expecting to see the documentary capture training by the invisible forces or any of the "party militia" publicly associated with the New Patriotic party as admitted by John Boadu when he appeared before the Emile shot commission. The documentary inadvertently failed to feed us any substantial prove to back the claim that, those in the parade were actually being trained ahead of 2020 by this government In absence of the above, how do we conclude that, De-eye group belongs to the ruling government when in actual fact,no one in the parade or any of their leaders had the chance to be interviewed by manasseh Azure Awuni to know whether or not it is a new party militia branch of the New patriotic party. I have heard claims on the minority calling on the president to resign because of this documentary which never showed the president direct /indirect involvement in their activities. I wasnt surprised they failed to raise any legal issue to back their alcoholic claim with respect to their demand i consider unconscionable and unconstitutional so to speak. If today manasseh Azure Awuni is telling us that, the training we saw in the video which is not different from how the cardet trains in our secondary schools is an activity of a "party militia" group, then every cardet training in our jhs/shs is also a party milita activity for want of a better expression in the queen's language. #Ghana is still at peace and not at war, lets stop the fear and panic and the war mongering# Dawda Eric(Equity) Citizen Vigilance for Justice 9th March,2019 [email protected] Source: Dawda Eric/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The government of Ghana is obviously outraged due to the recent CNNs documentary that exposed child trafficking in Ghana. This is not the first time the government has been angered by a foreign media documentary. In the year 2000 or thereabouts, there was a landmark documentary done by a foreign media that exposed deep seated child Labor in Ghanas cocoa industry. That documentary, as obnoxious as it was perceived, resulted in a massive investment in the cocoa sector, with the government of Ghana as the biggest beneficiary. The consumer protection community in the west had been offended by the discovery that the chocolates they were eating was tainted with the sweat of children. They had therefore threatened to boycott the consumption of chocolate, if the cocoa producing countries did not take steps to address the issue of child Labor. Threatened by the consumer threats, the global chocolate manufacturing companies came together to invest large sums of money, both in Ghana and in Ivory Coast, aimed at removing children from the cocoa production processes. My friend, Senator Tom Harkin, who was then a Democratic Senator from IOWA, together with a Congress Man, Engel, took the lead in saving the chocolate industry, by working actively, basically serving as a mediator between the cocoa production countries, and the chocolate manufacturing companies. This move resulted in the establishment of the Harkin-Engel protocol, which was a form of an international treaty that provided a framework for the elimination of child labor in cocoa. Industry players such as Mars, World Cocoa Foundation, Verite, all jumped in, resulting in the undertaking of a number of industrial research, child labor remediation efforts, a cocoa production certification process, and the establishment of a National Plan of Action for the Elimination of Child Labor in Cocoa. The coordination secretariat of all those efforts was wrongly placed under the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations, and later profusely abused, resulting in the collapse of the program. Challenging Heights was one of the few organizations selected to help address the issue. We removed 240 children from child Labor situations, in two districts (Agona West and Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa), and supported those children with education. We formed and trained 40 child protection committees, and 40 child rights clubs, and trained hundreds of women to get them ready for income generating activities. The government of Ghana took the money from their partners, but refused to pay Challenging Heights for the work they themselves had asked us to do. The indebtedness stayed on our books for years, until our board took a decision to write it off. In the year 2009, the same CNN carried out a documentary on child trafficking in fishing, and profusely featured Challenging Heights, and some government officials. When the program was aired, government officials came after Challenging Heights, accusing us of conniving with the foreign media to tarnish the image of the country. They saw nothing wrong with the government officials involvement in the documentary. They only saw Challenging Heights. A couple of years ago the BBC did another documentary and featured Challenging Heights. The Child Labor Unit of the Ministry of Employment was featured. This one too Challenging Heights was attacked, ignoring the involvement of the child Labor unit. I was not in Ghana last week when the latest CNN documentary on child trafficking in Lake Volta was released, so I have had a very limited chance to comment on the issue. Thankfully Challenging Heights was not featured in this documentary. It is my friend, George Achibra, whose organization, PACODEP, was featured, and I feel sorry for George. I feel sorry because I know the pressure he might be going through, both in the hands of his MP, and in the hands of the District Assembly. Such documentaries are usually done under the CNN Freedom Project. The CNNs Freedom Project has been running for nearly a decade, and it has featured several countries and several human trafficking situations across the world, including the United States of America. It is in Africa and parts of Asia that we fight human trafficking exposures instead of seeing such exposures as opportunity to address the problem. As expected, the government of Ghana has reacted to the documentary. Pleasantly, I have seen a more reasonable reaction, this time, from government. Kojo Oppong Nkrumahs reaction is more collaborative, transparent and honest than any previous government reactions I have seen. I am therefore not surprised that the CNN has welcome the honest gesture, and readied itself to collaborate with government. I still do not understand why we dont want to be utterly honest about this issue of child trafficking on Lake Volta. Government officials, in the last two decades, have worked with international partners in creating laws, policies and institutions to address the issue. If the problem did not exist, then what could have been the reason for those legislative and institutional frameworks we used the tax payers and donor monies to create? In the year 2013, the ILO in collaboration with the government of Ghana, conducted a research that revealed that there were over 21,000 children engaged in worst forms of child Labor on Lake Volta alone. Subsequently in the year 2015 the government of Ghana signed 5 million US Dollar Child Protection Compact with the government of the United States of America, supporting local efforts at addressing the issue of child trafficking in Ghana. This agreement was recently stretched to result in a government of Ghana collaborating with the International Organization for Migration, to publish a Standard Operations Procedures aimed at ensuring good practices in the course of providing services to victims of trafficking. The government of Ghana itself, recently launched a five year strategic plan aimed at rooting out the menace. We do all these, making hundreds of thousands in expenditures, and hundreds of human hours in hotels and conferences, and yet we still want to publicly deny that we have a problem? Today the Harkin-Engel protocol has resulted in several hundreds of ex child laborers accessing school. The resultant Harkin-Engel protocol programs are the active investments by companies such as Cargill, Nestle, and COCOBOD itself, in ensuring sustainable cocoa production, and in many cases, government of Ghana and its partners establishing cocoa schools, and cocoa roads, all in the bid to making cocoa production a child-Labor free enterprise. Like it happened in the cocoa industry, we just have to acknowledge that we have a problem in the fishing industry as well, and we should be honest enough to ask for help, and we will have people coming to help us root out this problem. If we continue to fight with ourselves, and with those who tell us that we have a problem, we will remain in the same fight with ourselves till all of our children waste away, then we will know that we have acted irresponsibly. Still, the battle is the Lords! Source: James Kofi Annan/[email protected] 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 There were no Ghanaians on board the Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed on Sunday morning. A release by the management of the airline indicates that Kenyans were the majority in the flight. Flight ET302 which was heading to Nairobi, Kenya from Ethiopias capital Addis Ababa crashed about 6 minutes after it took off, killing all 149 passengers and eight crew members onboard. Officials of Ethiopian Airlines in the release indicated that there were 32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians and 9 Ethiopians. The other killed passengers were from China, Italy, France, Egypt, UK, Morocco, Nigeria and Togo. The Boeing 737 Max-8 plane, which was added to the airlines fleets a month ago. The aircraft returned from Johannesburg, South Africa hours earlier before embarking on the Nairobi trip. CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, Tewolde Gebremariam who traveled to the crash site said it is too early to speculate the cause of the accident and further investigation will be carried out to find out the cause of the accident in collaboration with all stakeholders including Aircraft Manufacturer Boeing, Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority and other international entities to maintain the international standard and information will be provided once the cause is identified. Source: citi 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 More than 200 days since the first of three young ladies were kidnapped in Sekondi/Takoradi, distraught family members of the victims say their patience is running out. They expressed surprise at the silence of the government and the police on how far the rescue efforts had gone. According to them, they had endured excruciating mental torture, anxiety and desperation and, therefore, wanted the authorities to save the situation. The kidnapping Between August and December 2018, three kidnapping cases were reported to the police from Kansaworodo, Diabene and West Fijai in Sekondi/Takoradi in the Western Region. The first victim, Priscilla Blessing Bentum, 21, a third-year student of the University of Education, Winneba, was kidnapped at Kansaworodo on August 17, 2018. The second, Ruth Love Quayson, 18, a senior high school graduate living with her parents at Diabene, was kidnapped at the Butumegyabu Junction, popularly known as Bu Junction, on December 4, 2018. The third, Priscilla Mantebea Koranchie, who turned 16 years on March 3, a student of the Sekondi College (SEKCO) who lived with her parents at West Fijai, a suburb of Takoradi, was kidnapped at a spot near Nkroful Junction in Takoradi on December 21, 2018. Priscillas parents paid a ransom of GH1,000 to the alleged kidnappers but they failed to release her. A Nigerian, Samuel Udoetuk Wills, 28, who was arrested as a prime suspect is still in custody. In all the three instances when Wills allegedly kidnapped the three girls, the police said the suspect struck acquaintances with the victims for some time. The kidnapper then contacted the victims several times through mobile phone communication and promised Blessing and Ruth jobs, while he promised the third victim a mobile phone. We feel neglected Speaking to the Daily Graphic yesterday, some family members of the victims said at the moment the mere mention of the names of the girls, every knock on their doors and every telephone call to them increased their level of anxiety since they did not even know if the girls were alive. They said they felt neglected by the state, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and the police, since those institutions had kept them in the darkness for long. The initial eagerness attached to the issue, the families said, had gone down drastically and regular updates on investigations had not been forthcoming. A fathers pain Priscillas father, Mr Alexander Koranchie, said the families of the victims were aware that the suspect was in court on the charge of escaping from lawful custody, which was not really helping matters. In a voice full of helplessness and anger, he said: The level of anxiety is too much. I went to court the last time, knowing very well that the substantive case [kidnapping] has not been called, but I just wanted to hold the suspect and ask him the whereabouts of my child and the two others. Probably he would understand our pain and tell me as a parent. He called on the authorities to do everything possible to save the situation. The police should get the suspect to tell me where my daughter and the other two are; whether they are still alive and to direct us to where we could pick them. The hauling of the Nigerian up and down in the name of escape from custody increases our pain and anger, he said. He said what they wanted currently was a sustained campaign to recover the children. The pictures are out there. If they are in Ghana, we appeal to the public to help trace our children, for we are running out of patience, he said. The ransom In the quest to secure the release of the girls and before reporting to the police, the parents were made to pay ransoms of GH4,500 and GH1,300 to the alleged kidnappers, in the hope of getting their daughters back, but to no avail. The escape On December 22, 2018, the police arrested Wills from his hideout on the outskirts of Kansaworodo. A number of calls between Wills and the victims were analyzed and the police established his connection to the three kidnapped cases. On his arrest, he gave several leads to the police which turned out to be wild goose chases and he was processed for court on December 24, 2018, and remanded in police custody to reappear on 9 January 2019. However, about 6.25 p.m. on December 30, 2018, he managed to escape through one of the ventilation windows of the cell after allegedly using a hacksaw blade to cut the iron rods used to secure the windows. The situation led to a 10-day ultimatum to seven policemen to produce the suspect. He was, however, recaptured in an uncompleted building at Kansaworodo on January 3, 2019. A search conducted around the building where he was recaptured revealed the dress, the headgear, and rubber slippers the third victim wore when she was kidnapped. That clue gave the police a strong belief that the accused was connected to the crime. He has been in court on the charges of escaping from lawful custody, causing unlawful damage to the police cell and resisting arrest, to all of which he had pleaded not guilty. 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 Mr Eric Odoi-Anim, Ghanas High Commissioner to Zimbabwe said, one of the tasks given him by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was to ensure that the High Commission works in harmony with all Ghanaians and to promote investment to Ghana. This he said was to ignite and strengthen a communal and solidarity spirit of Ghanaians to finding great strength in coming together to harness the countrys untapped potential. Mr Eric Odoi-Anim said this at a reception held for the Ghanaian and Diplomatic Community to mark Ghana's 62nd Independence Anniversary Celebrations in Harare, Zimbabwe. The event was attended by International Organizations accredited to Zimbabwe, Senior Government Officials, Officials from the host Foreign Ministry and Heads of public and private institutions in Zimbabwe. It provided the opportunity for a re-stock of the achievements of Ghana-Zimbabwe relations, as well as a projection of the bilateral ties in the years ahead. The occasion also created an opportunity for the Ghanaian Community to fraternize amongst themselves and aired some of their concerns for possible solutions. He assured that the two countries will work towards developing a renewed bilateral partnership between their private and public sectors. Mr Odoi-Anim recalled the longstanding strong ties between Ghana and Zimbabwe, which is traceable to the early years of the Zimbabwean liberation struggle. He underscored the need for both countries to expand further existing relations to include economic cooperation and partnership, with emphasis on trade and investment. The High Commissioner who is also accredited to Mozambique indicated that both countries have begun preparatory works on the establishment of a Permanent Joint Commission for Cooperation (PJCC) between the two countries, which would allow for the pursuit of economic and investment endeavours. He stated further that the new dispensation in Zimbabwe was open for business, and that the steps Ghana was taking to move Beyond Aid, would give enough impetus for an expansion of trade and economic ties between the two sides. Mr Odoi-Anim urged the Ghanaian Community to be active participants in the drive of making the Missions work progressive and stressed the importance of adhering to the laws of the land of Zimbabwe. He outlined some policies of President Akufo-Addo government including; the One District-One Factory, One Village One Dam, the Planting for Food and Jobs, Digitisation of Cities, the National Identification Card, the Paperless Ports Operations and the implementation of the Free Senior High School. Mr Odoi-Anim called on Ghanaians in Zimbabwe and Mozambique to position themselves strategically and take advantage of these policies and assured them of the Mission and governments readiness to support Public - Private - Partnerships (PPP). He said the PPP would not only impact positively on the Ghanaian economy, but also the partner country and thanked the Ghanaian Community for honouring the invitation. I encouraged you (the Ghanaian Community) to form a cohesive union and avail yourselves for relevant developments updates information in Ghana and form a Business Association. Mr Odoi-Anim stressed the government of President Akufo-Addo commitment to creating an enabling environment for business to thrive and boost Ghanas economy in all sectors to increase productivity, promote development and uplift the living standards of the citizenry. Alice Mageza, the Director for Africa, Asia and Pacific Department of the host Foreign Ministry, Zimbabwe expressed appreciation for the opportunity to join the celebration of Ghanas 62nd Independence Anniversary. She acknowledged the excellent relations between the two countries and the need to compliment the cordial political ties by cultivating socio-economic, technical and scientific cooperation. Alice Mageza expressed the hope that both countries would soon convene the Ghana-Zimbabwe PJCC, a platform which would create avenues for considering newer areas of cooperation for the mutual benefit of the two peoples. She encouraged trade and investments in each others economies and deeper engagements between the private sectors of Ghana and Zimbabwe. The High Commission use the occasion to display Ghanaian savouries such as plantain chips, roasted groundnuts, chocolate, pebbles, choco milo and local Ghanaian beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic). Source: Peacefmonline.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 We, members of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) of the Kumasi campus of the University of Education, Winneba, wish to express our gratitude to the President of the Republic of Ghana, HIS EXCELLENCY NANA ADDO-DANKWA AKUFO ADDO, the King of the Ashanti Kingdom, HIS ROYAL MAJESTY OTUMFOUR OSEI TUTU II, the Minister of Education, HON. DR. MATTHEW OPOKU PREMPEH, the Minister of State in Charge of Tertiary Education, HON. PROF. KWESI YANKAH, the Ashanti Regional Minister, HON. SIMON OSEI- MENSAH and many other stakeholders for the steps taken so far to make the Kumasi and Mampong campuses of UEW a full-fledged autonomous University for the training of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) teachers for Ghana and Africa. It will be recalled that on 31st August. 2018, the Minister of Education announced to the Principals of Colleges of Education during their annual meeting of the governments intention to make the Kumasi and Mampong campuses of the University of Education, Winneba together with eight other Technical and Vocational oriented Colleges of Education autonomous University to specialize in training teachers for (TVET) sector in Technical Institutions and Master Craftsmen. To increase our confidence in the governments commitment in making the Kumasi and Mampong campuses of the University of Education, Winneba, autonomous, the Ashanti Regional Minister on 28th November, 2018, at the 23rd Congregation of the University of Education, Winneba held at the College of Technology Education, Kumasi (COLTEK), stated unequivocally his support and commitment for the governments decision to make the Kumasi and the Mampong campuses of the UEW an autonomous University. In keeping faith with the governments commitment to quality TVET and in line with the public statements of the Minister of Education, the President through the Minister of Finance has made provision for the yet to be created University in the 2019 budget statement. It is also heart-warming to note that the Minister of Education and his team of experts have been working tirelessly towards the realization of the autonomous status of COLTEK. We, members of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAGCOLTEK) wish to express our sincere gratitude to the government for the steps taken so far to upgrade these two campuses to an autonomous status. UTAG-COLTEK wishes to state that we are very much prepared to support and make this vision of government a reality. UTAG-COLTEK wishes to further state that we have kept faith with our mandate of training highly professional Technical and Vocational Teachers who occupy responsible positions in society. We are ready to cooperate with government to see to the attainment of our highly anticipated autonomous University for the training of TVET teachers. We, members of the University Teachers Association (UTAG-COLTEK), wish to reiterate the point of the Ashanti Regional Minister (Hon. Simon Osei Mensah) that the autonomy of the two campuses is long overdue. YARHANDS DISSOU ARTHUR CHAIRMAN (UTAG COLTEK) 0244071973/0554672613 Source: Peacefmonline.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 1882: British troops occupy Egypt at the behest of Khedive Tawfik whose throne is threatened by military commander Ahmed Orabis revolution and by foreign control of Egypt. Orabi is defeated by British forces and, to avoid a repeat of the Orabi scenario, the Egyptian army is reduced and the bulk of its forces stationed in Sudan which had been conquered by Mohamed Ali in 1820. The British cancel recently enforced laws establishing an elected legislative assembly to which the cabinet was accountable. A new law introduces a two-chamber consultative legislative assembly. 1899: The Anglo-Egyptian condominium effectively places Sudan under British imperial rule. It will be administered by a governor-general, appointed by Egypt but only with British consent, undermining Mohamed Alis 1820 conquest of Sudan. 1913: An 83-member Legislative Assembly is elected. It is a consultative body with no authority over the cabinet. Prominent judge and statesman Saad Zaghloul who wins elections in two constituencies in Cairo becomes vice president of the assembly. 1914: Britain enters WWI, declares Egypt a protectorate and enforces martial rule. The Legislative Assembly is frozen. 13 November 1918: Two days after the Armistice ends WWI three prominent nationalist figures, Saad Zaghloul, Abdel-Aziz Fahmi and Ahmed Shaarawi, meet with British High Commissioner Reginald Wingate and inform him of their wish to represent Egypt at the 1919 Paris peace conference and make the case for self-determination and national independence. Britain subsequently rejects their request to travel. By evening the delegation the Wafd launches a campaign to secure legal endorsement from the Egyptian people in support of their plans to represent Egypt in Paris. The campaign to collect signatures continues for months at fever pitch. Print houses refuse commercial work and shift to printing templates for the tawkeelat the power of attorney allowing the Wafd to represent Egyptians in Paris. 8 March 1919: Alarmed by the impact of the Wafds activism and Zaghlouls popularity British forces arrest and exile Zaghloul and other nationalists to Malta, triggering nationwide protests. The following day the 1919 Revolution begins: students, women, farmers, clergymen, teachers and workers take to the streets in massive numbers. The Wafd calls for a total boycott of the British occupation, including any cabinet formed by the British. The pressure forces two premiers to resign. 17 April: After Egypts civil servants strike early in April and the Hussein Rushdi government resigns, the British allow Saad Zaghloul and his associates to attend the Paris conference. Egypt, says British High Commissioner Edmund Allenby, is impossible to govern. But the Egyptian delegation is snubbed by world powers busy dividing the spoils of war between themselves. Instead of independence Egypt is officially recognised as a British protectorate, fuelling the revolution back home. December 1919: Britain forms a mission of inquiry into events in Egypt chaired by Colonial Secretary Alfred Milner. It is boycotted by nationalists who, in a demonstration of the Wafds influence, oppose the continuation of the protectorate. Milner leaves Cairo after three months, his mission a failure. Britain reluctantly recognises Saad Zaghloul as the key figure in negotiations. May 1920: Talaat Pasha Harb, a prominent industrialist who participated in the 1919 Revolution, founds the first Egyptian bank Banque Misr, owned by Egyptian shareholders. It is the first step in Egyptianising the economy. 6 June-November 1920: The Zaghloul-Milner talks last five months and end in deadlock, with both sides rejecting the proposals presented. The Egyptians want a clear end to the protectorate and a process that leads to independence; the British offer concessions that perpetuate the protectorate and retain sovereignty over legislation, the judiciary, the economy, the administrative authority and the military. Cracks emerge within the Wafd: moderates pivot towards Adli Yakan, a statesman who supports the British proposals for nominal independence. February 1921: The Milner report is published. It recommends an end to the protectorate and the negotiation of a treaty between Egypt and Britain. It is rejected by the British government and Milner resigns. 17 March 1921: The Adli Yakan cabinet is formed. Its programme pledges to reach an agreement that secures Egypts independence. An assembly is formed to write a constitution. 4 April 1921: Saad Zaghloul returns from exile via Alexandria for the first time in two years. He is greeted by thousands of Egyptians. The crowds that gather in Alexandria and on the streets of Cairo are described as unprecedented. Emboldened by the show of support Zaghloul attacks Yakan in the press and at public rallies. He argues the government will be worthy of confidence only if it ends the protectorate and secures internationally recognised independence for Egypt. He famously says that Egypts prime minister is appointed and dismissed at a signal from the British High Commissioner and that Yakans would-be negotiations with Britain amount to George V negotiating with George V. Massive protests, which result in casualties, erupt against Yakan and his government. The moderates defect from the Wafd. 12 July 1921: Yakans delegation and British secretary of state George Curzon start talks that end after four months. Curzons proposals are more stringent than Milners and leave Yakan with no option but to reject them. He returns to Cairo and resigns. 23 December 1921: After refusing orders to quit politics Zaghloul, his nephews, Wafdist leaders Mustafa Al-Nahhas and Makram Ebeid and other Wafdists are arrested and exiled to the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean. 28 February 1922: Britain unilaterally announces an end to its protectorate over Egypt and grants nominal independence with the exception of four reserved areas foreign relations, communications, the military and Sudan. The move is rejected by the Wafd. From his exile Zaghloul calls it a deceptive ruse. 19 April 1923: Egypts first Constitution is promulgated. It adopts a parliamentary system based on the separation of, and cooperation between, authorities. Despite the Wafds denunciation of the 28 February declaration and the constitution its positions influence the debate within the drafting committee. The constitution that emerges is considered modern even revolutionary by the standards of the time. It reflects the tensions between progressive (revolutionary) and regressive (the monarchy, occupation and feudalists) forces in society. In other words, it mirrors the balance of power prevailing in Egypt. The document stipulates that the monarch is at the helm of the executive branch; he is granted legislative power in participation with parliament; the nation is the source of all powers; its bicameral legislature consists of an elected house of representatives and a partly appointed senate; the government is accountable to parliament. It enshrines equality, civil rights, guarantees freedoms and the principle of a free press and right to assembly within the limits of the law. 17 September 1923: Saad Zaghloul is allowed to return to Egypt from exile and receives a heros welcome. His and the Wafds popularity is at its peak. Zaghloul continues his attack on the 28 February declaration, calling it treason and the greatest catastrophe in the country. 27 September 1923-January 1924: Zaghloul and the Wafd Party contest the elections which are held in two stages and win 90 per cent of the seats. 26 January 1924: Majority leader Zaghloul becomes the first elected prime minister under the 1923 Constitution. He forms a new government which lasts only eight months, setting a pattern for Egypts new parliamentary system. Until his death in 1936 King Fouad consistently attempts to undermine parliament and the constitution with British support. Parliament is dissolved ten times during his reign. 1930: King Fouad suspends the 1923 Constitution and promulgates a new constitution that grants him absolute power and limits the role of parliament to an advisory body. Opposition to the move forces Fouad to restore the 1923 Constitution five years later. 26 August 1936: The Anglo-Egyptian Treaty requiring Britain to withdraw its troops from Egypt, with the exception of the Suez Canal and its surroundings, is signed with Mustafa Al-Nahhas Pashas Wafd government. 27 August 1937: Saad Zaghloul dies at the age of 70. He is succeeded by Mustafa Al-Nahhas as leader of the Wafd. March 1950: The Wafd Party wins elections. The new government, under Al-Nahhas, enters talks with the British to renegotiate the 1936 treaty, seeking to annex Sudan and terminate the British military presence in Egypt. The talks fail. In response Al-Nahhas abrogates the agreement in 1951. 23 July 1952: The Free Officers overthrow the monarchy. The 1923 Constitution is abrogated five months later by the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), whichpromises a new constitution. January 1953:the RCC bans all parties. * A version of this article appears in print in the 7 March, 2019 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: 1919 Revolution: A timeline Search Keywords: Short link: The Consul General of the Consulate General of Ghana in New York has advised Ghanaians living abroad to come together individually or as a group to effectively and productively deal with their respective city and state institutions. He made this call when he was addressing section of Ghanaians and others, who had come to witness the Flag Raising of Ghana at the City Office in Newark, New Jersey on March 7th 2019, to commemorate the 62nd Independence Day of Ghana. Ghana Flag Raising is an event organized by The Newark Municipal Council, Office of the Mayor International Relations and Diaspora Affairs in collaboration with the Ghanaian Community each year to commemorate the Independence of Ghana. The Mayor of Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka in his opening remarks, expressed his happiness to be part of the celebration because of his belief in diversity and his affinity with Ghanaians and Ghana. The Mayor is married to Linda Jumah, daughter of Maxwell Kofi Jumah, CEO of GIHOC Distilleries, former MP of Asokwa and former mayor of Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly. He revealed that his reelection campaign message, Forward Ever Backward Never was inspired by a statement from Kwame Nkrumah, first President of Ghana. He called for Ghanaians to come together and understand that his office is opened to them always. The Consul General of the Consulate General of Ghana in New York, Professor Samuel Amoako in his address admonished the people to be united, we need unity at home and in the diaspora. In the diaspora, we need unity among individuals, we need unity among Associations and we need unity among our Chiefs. If we unite it will be easy and extremely efficient and productive to deal with State and City Institutions and access the help and support that we need and deserve as Ghanaians. It will equally be easy to interact with our Missions, Embassies and Consulates General. With Unity, we will speak with one voice. The Consul General said. He also used the occasion to end the feud that ensues in organising this event and said, today will be the last time the Flag raising ceremony will be initiated by any individual or organization. Flag raising is a political activity. Henceforth, this political ceremony will be the responsibility of the new Council, The United Ghanaian Council of New Jersey. I will hold the executives of the Council who will be elected responsible for this ceremony among others, and I know they will not let me down. The event was well attended by traditional and opinion leaders in the Ghanaian Community in New Jersey. Source: Peacefmonline.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 The headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service is following a couple of leads that could enable detectives to apprehend the assassin(s) of Mrs. Josephine Asante, former Marketing and Public Affairs Manager of the Ghana Ports and Habours Authority (GPHA). Mrs. Asante was murdered in the early hours of January 13, 2019 in her home at the Emef Hillview Estate near Afienya, in the Ningo Prampram District of the Greater Accra Region. At least, two persons, Amos Apeku, her official driver, and Christina Adjei, her houseboy, who were picked up just after the incident, have since been remanded into custody. The Director of CID Operations, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Mr. Joseph Gyamerah Oklu, disclosed this to The Chronicle in a telephone conversation. According to him, the house at Emef Hillview Estate, where the murdered occurred and was declared a crime scene, had been handed back to the occupants since 27th of February, 2019, and that the house is no longer a crime scene. According to him, all evidence the police needed from the house to aid their investigations are in the hands of detectives and properly secured. Mr. Joseph Gyamerah Oklus pronouncement came at the back of reports from the public that the polices loud silence on the murder has become a cause for worry. ACP Oklu stated that police had interrogated a number of persons, and assured the public of diligent work being done by detectives to unravel the mysterious death. The late Josephine Asante and her brother, Robert, were two children of their mother who hails from Larteh on the Akwapim Ridge in the Eastern Region. Their father, Mr. Tandoh (also of blessed memory), married other women with whom he had several children and was endowed with prosperities such as West Coast Dye in the Tema Heavy Industrial Area, the Celebrity Gold Club and adjoining lands, all in Sakumono. Some of Mr. Tandohs properties are parcels of land situated in Tema Community Six, on which the GPHA has put up the Director Generals official residence and the authoritys Senior Staff Club House respectively. During the tenure of office of Mr. Ben Owusu-Mensah as Director General of the GPHA, Miss Josephine Tandoh secured employment with the authority as the boss personal secretary. Along the line, Josephine obtained leave to enable her pursue a course in Port Management in Australia, but took seed with Kofi Adu-Twum, who is also domiciled in Australia, a situation which truncated her dream of completing her studies. Upon her return, she was sent to the Golden Jubilee Terminal (GJT), and later on to the Welfare Department. In August 2014, she got married to Mr. Kwame Asante, a former General Manager of Finance of GPHA, at a colourfu ceremony at the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA). After the event, the couple went to the Accra Mall to take pictures, and whilst Josephine was at the studio, her husband stepped out to catch some fresh air. The Chronicle gathered that whilst outside, Mr. Asante felt a tap on his shoulders, and when he turned, the person introduced himself and complained about the custody of the child that his newly-wedded wife had from her previous marriage. About two years ago, Mrs. Asante was made head of Marketing and Public Affairs of GPHA. Meanwhile, her father, Mr. Tandoh, in his will prior to his death, did not make any of his children nor their mothers to inherit his vast properties, except one woman with whom he had no child. The said wife later died intestate, and the floodgates literally opened for the indiscriminate sale of the late Mr. Tandohs lands by some of the siblings. On the night of the party, which took place at the GPHA Towers, and before joining her driver to go home, Mrs. Asante saw off some of her former school mates who also attended the Senior Staff party. She reportedly used a remote control to access the house when she got home in the night. Our investigations revealed that apart from her remote control, the house boy and husband, Mr. Asante, also had their respective ones. Mr. Asante had then travelled to the United Kingdom (UK), but left his keys behind. The installers of the automatic gate, in the course of police investigations, demonstrated the inability of anyone to access the house without somebody activating the remote control device. The million-dollar question is how did the assailant(s) enter the well fortified house? Was the killer in the house before she entered or vice versa. Keep reading The Chronicle, the Spear of the Nation, for more stories on the mystery surrounding the death of the lady who would be buried this weekend. Source: The Chronicle 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 Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Hon. Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey (MP), has recounted the tremendous constraints that Ghana has faced and the remarkable progress it has experienced across sectors, since independence, acknowledging the numerous friends and partners who have supported the country in this journey. She was addressing a section of the Ghanaian community as well as the diplomatic and business communities at the anniversary celebration of Ghanas 62nd Independence in London. The Minister, was particularly enthusiastic about gains made in the trade and investment sector, applauding growing relations between Ghana and the United Kingdom saying, "it is transitioning from aid dependence to one of trade and economic partnership." The growing relations between the two countries has seen the inauguration of the United Kingdom/Ghana Business Council, informing the signing of a communique. This, according to her, would "further boost the trade and investment relations" between the two countries and prepare the grounds for improved relations as the Brexit negotiations approaches closure. On tourism, Hon. Ayorkor Botchwey encouraged Ghanaians in the diaspora, people of African descent and all well-wishers and lovers of freedom to support the commitment of ensuring that the bolts on Ghanas history would never recur. She encouraged Ghanaians to take advantage of the 2019 Year of Return Celebrations and to see at first hand, developments taking place in the country. I am hopeful that participating in this event will enable many of our compatriots to take the bold step of moving back home and contributing to the development of our motherland, she said. Hon. Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey used the occasion to announce the decision of Government of Ghana to review downwards, Passport Fees in the United Kingdom (UK), a move that is expected to take effect in due course. On his part, Ghanas High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Papa Owusu Ankomah, said his outfit has taken steps to reduce to the barest minimum the involvement of Ghanaians in criminal activities in the UK, emphasizing the importance of strengthening the bonds of friendship between the two countries. The UKs envoy to the Commonwealth, Philip Parnham, could not agree more, when he took his turn to address the gathering. He was full of praise for Ghanas role in supporting not only the UK but the Commonwealth values of democracy and good governance as well as peace, mutual understanding and reconciliation which underscores the theme for the 2019 Independence celebration. Ghanas 62nd Independence celebration as commemorated in the United Kingdom (UK), also showcased the rich Ghanaian culture through food, performances and regalia. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video *Tunisia's health minister resigns after the sudden deaths of 11 newborn babies at a state maternity hospital Tunisias health minister, Abderraouf Cherif has resigned after the sudden deaths of 11 newborn babies at a state maternity hospital sparked an outcry in the country. Prime Minister Youssef Chahed accepted Abderraouf Cherifs resignation, the premiers office said on Facebook late on Saturday. Those responsible for any negligence will face legal proceedings, the prime minister said at the maternity hospital in the capital late Saturday, according to a video released by his office. Leading newspaper Essafa on Sunday cried foul and compared the deaths of the babies to a state crime. A medical association said the sudden deaths could have been caused by a food product that had gone bad. The babies died on Thursday and Friday at the Rabta clinic in Tunis, which is part of a large medical centre in the capital. Since then authorities have launched several investigations, including medical and hygiene checks by the health ministry, which was also probing the management of the hospital pharmacy. Prosecutors said they had opened a judicial inquiry into the deaths. The Tunisian pediatrics society wrote in a statement on Facebook that elements of the ongoing investigation pointed to an infection caused by a food product given by gastric tube. The association called on the authorities to shed light on the situation and recalled the precarious conditions in which health professionals work. The health ministry said in a statement that preventive measures and treatment have been taken to avoid other victims and to ensure the health of other babies in the maternity ward. The independent Tunisian Forum of Economic and Social Rights had called on the health minister to resign over the deaths. The public health system, once a source of pride in Tunisia, has been hit by management and financial problems that lowered standards and caused drug shortages. Source: dailysabah 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 Ghanaian actor, Adjetey Anang and his wife celebrated their 12th Wedding Anniversary on Sunday 10th March 2019. He posted the message below on social media Its our 12th Wedding Anniversary today! I cant believe how far weve come seeing how clueless we were about so many things 12 years ago!! Marriage been so many things! Weve had fun, tears, joy, laughter, pain, hope, faith, tight friendship; but above all weve had God with us! And that has kept us growing closer and closer to each other. So we are firmly convinced that after 12 years, our marriage is just beginning! Over the next 12 days, @elom_anang and I will share 12 lessons we have learnt over the last 12 years! Enjoy our posts! But to u @elom_anang its been humbling, an honourthe difference u have made in my lifeI know the next 12yrs will be another journey worth spending with u. Thank u.my super owlett Source: Peacefmonline.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 One of Ghanas foremost Movie Director and producer was on Saturday, March 9, 2019, honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the movie industry in the country. The PAN African Executives Awards Summits 2018 recognises and honours Africans who have made a great impact in media and the business world. The award show was held at the Accra International Conference centre with a tall list of the connoisseurs from different business backgrounds, Chief Executive Officers and more. Mr Roger Quartey, CEO of Roger Q Productions was honoured as the Pan African Personality in Film Making. Roger Quartey ventured into mainstream movie production in 1990 after starring in over 30 movies and working behind the scenes as a Production Manager. The first movie from the stables of Roger Q Productions was the hit maker Turn Me On. It featured Jackie Appiah, John Dumelo, Kofi Adjorlolo, Yvonne Nelson, Roselyn Ngissah, Beverly Afaglo, Ben Kwadey, Vivian Achor, Eddie Nartey, Omar De 1st, etc. It did so well on the market that Roger returned to the set very quickly. A number of first time producers are not able to return on set because their movies do not do well on the market, but Roger overcame that unfortunate mark. His "Turn Me On" movie was described as an ultimate game of wits with different themes. It explored love, greed, blackmail, hatred, betrayal, treasure and deceit, but at the end, goodness ruled. Its storyline was not just interesting, but perfect. His second, an emotive tale of tragedy, pain and sorrow was titled "Death After Birth", and starred Jackie Appiah, Eddy Watson, Roselyn Ngissah, John Dumelo, Akorfa Ejeani Asiedu and Amanorbea Dodoo, among others. He was intrumental in the Ghanaian-Nigerian collaboration which took the Ghanaian monvie industry by storm. As an ardent movie producer, Mr. Quartey has worked some industry palyers like Abdul Salam Mumuni, Ramsey Noah, Jim Ikes, Emeka Ike, Genevieve Nnaji, RMD, and some well known and world acclaimed Nigerian movie actors. With his experience in the movie industry and having done some production work with some giant movie producers like Alexiboat and Venus films, he also the brain behind some local and international Television commercials and adverts. With his interest in the movie industry, Mr Roger Quartey travelled to Europe to continue with his movie production just have the face of the Ghanaian movie industry Changed. whilst abroad, he worked with the likes of Eddy Nartey, Kareema and a host experienced actors across the globe. Having carved a nitch for himself in the movie industry and TV production, Mr. Roger Quartey was in 2013 whilst domiciled aborad invited to join the new born baby of the Despite Group, United Television to bring his knowledge to bear as the head of productions. With hard work he has now risen to the top as the Head of Programmes for the most watched Televsion station in the country, United Television. Mr. Roger Harold Quartey is married to Sherifa Quartey, together they have four (4) Children Source: Isaac kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected] 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 Wreckage lies at the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed shortly after takeoff at Hejere near Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Addis Ababa, in Ethiopia Sunday, March 10, 2019. The Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed shortly after takeoff from Ethiopia's capital on Sunday morning, killing all 157 on board, authorities said, as grieving families rushed to airports in Addis Ababa and the destination, Nairobi. (AP Photo) We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form In 2014, I was off to Myanmar via Singapore when my first flight was delayed for two hours due to Tropical Storm Fung-wong (Philippine code name: Mario). My layover was also for two hours so you do the math. If I missed my connecting flight, I would have to stay overnight until the next available flight, which would be the following day at my own expense, since it was not the airlines fault. That would mean that before I had even reached my final destination, my wallet could potentially get drained. Mercifully, as soon I landed in Singapore, an electric airport cart was waiting to zoom me to the boarding gate of my next flight. Copyright photo: Meldie Diente and PFN While doing some last-minute shopping before flying home the following day, I received a text message from Cathay Pacific informing me that my flight was cancelled due to Typhoon Hato and that I could rebook it free of charge. Copyright Photo: The Paranoid Traveler and PFN Although my picture shows Signal 3, it went up to . For a Filipino like me who is used to to mean life as we know it stops for now, you could just imagine my mind going bonkers, Signal 10?! It turns out that Hong Kong has a different . I then went to the supermarket to stock up on food but the entire city of Hong Kong had already beaten me to it. There was nothing, as in nothing, literally left. (See photo above) The following day came with the promised strong winds where anything that could not hold on to gravity was blown away. I braved the weather to look for breakfast as nothing was offered at the hotel. I spent all my energy fighting against the 185 km/h wind, while trying not to get hit by any flying objects. Only 7-11 and McDonalds were open so I stocked up on extra food. Eventually, it came time to check out of my original hotel and into the new one which was just 2.5 kilometers away. Because of the danger posed by the storm, walking was not an option. There were no taxis, buses, and trams. I crossed my fingers and tried Uber. I was so relieved when I was able to make a booking that I thanked the driver profusely for accepting my trip. Safely tucked in at my new hotel, I spent the day online (the connection was still fast and reliable), keeping myself updated with news, while informing my bank about the travel insurance I had available for my situation. They advised me to keep all receipts that I incurred and would be incurring for transportation, food, and clothes. Clothes? I echoed. In case you run out of clothes or you need an outfit apt for the weather. Prada, here I come! The bank chuckled and reminded me that not only do I have to justify my expenses but there was also a cap. I had never filed an insurance claim of any kind so this was all new to me. Following my telephone call with the bank, a friend who works for the bank affiliated with my credit card company reminded me how because I used their credit card to pay for my airfare, I was automatically insured and that I could file a claim. Holy guacamole, I can be compensated twice! So I emailed both insurance companies and was given the following instructions and qualifications: 1. That I, the claimant should be a holder of a valid unexpired qualified credit card and in good credit standing; 2. The credit card was used to purchase a round trip ticket (origin: Philippines) and the full purchase amount was charged to it. 3. To verify my eligibility, I must submit the following: a. copy of my airline ticket b. the actual boarding pass c. proof of purchase using the credit card d. the first six (6) digits and last four (4) digits of my credit card number e. the type of card (e.g. Gold, Platinum, Titanium) and if its Mastercard or Visa In addition, I was asked for a certificate from the airline to verify the cancellation of my flight. This took a few days to secure so in the meantime, I sent the companies links to news articles although I dont think they helped much. After meeting all the requirements, I was told to complete a travel claim form and attach all necessary receipts. All in all, it took at least a month for both companies to reimburse me after some back and forth emails. I wasnt compensated for all my expenses like my Uber ride. They reasoned I could have taken a cheaper mode of transport. I would if I could, like a rickshaw. I dont think these people watch the news. I wasnt also reimbursed for my 7-11 purchases of chips and drinks for reasons not explained to me, just my McDonalds but no complaints here. At least, I was compensated twice. But of course now that I know my credit card offers free travel insurance, I stopped paying for it and have been on a crusade telling my traveling friends to check if their card offers it for free. In other words, you may not need to buy travel insurance because you may already have it for free! Check yours now! - The Paranoid Traveler - Even though I have been traveling for more than 30 years, I never bothered with travel insurance, typically because I was too cheap until I learned my lesson---almost the hard way. If you are trying to decide whether you need travel insurance, then this article is for you!That experience taught me that peace of mind is more cost-efficient so I started paying for travel insurance. For the next uneventful three years, I just contributed to the coffers of the insurance companies and found myself backsliding into thinking that maybe I shouldnt bother anymore until an event made me a full-fledged convert for life. A typhoon was about to hit Hong Kong and nothing like its speed and strength had been seen in the last 50 years and I was smack right in the middle of it.I immediately looked for another hotel to stay at for that unexpected night because my current one was already fully booked. At first, I was worried whether I could find one and if I did, how much it would cost. At that point, I remembered that I was insured, which helped me to breathe easier. At least, I knew I would be reimbursed. Luckily, I was able to find a nearby hotel easily and even at a regular rate. Last Sunday, an Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet crashed minutes after take-off killing all 157 people on board and it was the Boing 737 Max 8. This is the exact same model of the tragic crash of Lion Air Flight JT610 which killed all 189 people on board last October. Two airlines accidents involving the same plane model prompt China to suspend all flights with Boeing 737 Max 8. We never flew with Boeing 737 Max 8 but only with Boeing 737 800. We know everyone is curious on which airlines are flying with Boeing 737 Max 8. With that, we listed down all 40 airlines that are flying with Boeing 737 Max 8 as below: 1.Norwegian Air 2.Air China 3.SpiceJet 4.Southwest Airlines 5.Icelandair 6.FlyDubai 7.Air Italy 8.TUI 9. LOT Polish Airlines 10.AeroMexico 11. Oman Air 12. SmartWings 13. Aerolineas Argentinas 14. Lion Air 15. Corendon Airlines 16. China Southern 17. Ethiopian Airlines 18. Air Canada 19. Garuda Indonesia 20. United Airlines 21. American Airlines 22. Xiamen Airlines 23. WestJet 24. Turkish Airlines 25. SCAT Airlines 26. China Eastern 27. Shanghai Airlines 28. Shenzhen Airlines 29. Jet Airways 30. Okay Airways 31. GOL 32. SilkAir 33. S7 Siberia Airlines 34. Copa Airlines 35. Lucky Air 36. Sunwing Airlines 37. Hainan Airlines 38. Mauritania Airlines International 39. Shandong Airlines 40. 9 Air Some of the airlines that operates in KLIA includes Silk Air, Lucky Air, Garuda Airlines, Lion Air, Oman Air, China Eastern, Turkish Airlines and more. We are unable to confirm whether some of these airlines are flying Boeing 787 Max 8 to Malaysia. We flew almost at least once a month and these plane crashes do gives us the chill to be honest. However, flying is still safer than other transportation modes as it is incidents are very small number if you compare to other mode of transportation. Just travel safe everyone. Wilson Ng A Father and traveler who enjoys to eat, shop, travel and taking pictures with Samsung S21 Ultra. Im a full time blogger, youtuber and father for two. I used to travel around 17 International trips per year but now staying at home. Remember to follow us at www.instagram.com/placesandfoods and www.youtube.com/placesandfoods. For advertisements or features, contact me at [email protected] See author's posts El-Sisi said Sunday that planned projects to improve the transportation sector, amounting to EGP 4 trillion, would be ready by June 2020 Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi announced officially on Sunday that the head of the Armed Forces Engineering Authority, Kamel El-Wazir, will be appointed Egypt's new minister of transportation. The announcement came during the 30th cultural symposium of the Armed Forces on the occasion of Martyr's Day at Al-Manara International Conference Centre in the 5th Settlement district of New Cairo. El-Sisi said that the appointment of El-Wazir is awaiting approval by parliament, and that the new minister will be provided with all the necessary manpower, including specialists from the Armed Forces, to fulfil his duties. El-Sisi highlighted ongoing efforts to develop the ailing sector, which he said need major financing. The president said that around 102 stations have been developed, and that 32 others are undergoing development that will be competed in the upcoming year-and-a-half. Egypt has signed deals to purchase 1,300 new carriages and 200 tractors. The country has also contracted for six new air conditioned trains and 300 railway cargo carriages. El-Sisi then urged El-Wazir to address Egyptians with a few words. El-Wazir responded, saying: "We will work on developing all sectors of the transportation ministry. We will prove to all Egyptians that their country has strong leadership with political awareness." "My colleagues and I are ready to work constantly to develop this sector," the newly appointed minister added. Ramses incident El-Wazir's appointment comes nearly two weeks after his predecessor Hisham Arafat resigned following a deadly train crash in Cairo's Ramses station. El-Sisi also promoted the newly appointed minister, who is also an army officer, to the rank of lieutenant general. Referring to the deadly incident, El-Sisi said, "The new civil service law we have been working on aims to regulate the situation," adding that anyone in the transportation sector proven to be taking drugs "will be immediately dismissed." "All drivers will undergo medical checks, not only in the railway sector but in all other sectors," El-Sisi said. The president explained that officials have been planning projects in the sector worth EGP 4 trillion, due to be ready by 30 June 2020. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Minister of Defence and Military Production Mohamed Zaki, House of Representatives Speaker Ali Abdel-Aal and a number of ministers and senior state officials attended the symposium on Sunday. Every year, the Armed Forces celebrate Veteran Warrior and Martyrs' Day on 9 March, marking the anniversary of the death of Lieutenant General Abdel-Moneim Riad, who, along with several of his aides, were targeted by an Israeli mortar attack in 1969 during the War of Attrition (1967-1970) with Israel. Search Keywords: Short link: Prior to my meal at Atas Modern Malaysian Eatery I was recommended the cured ocean trout with puffed tapioca and sambal dressing . As a true hot-blooded Malaysian with an extremely high-tolerance for spicy food, I naturally needed no further convincing. For my non-Malaysian readers, sambal is a chili paste typically made from a mixture of a variety of chili peppers. From fajitas to quesadillas, a taste of Mexico was the 2019 theme for the Dearborn Heights D-7 School District qualifying round March 5 for the Sodexo Future Chefs National Challenge. Winning at the local level, with a chicken fajita pasta bake, is fifth grader Janetta Riggins, 11, of Bedford Elementary School. The taste of the competition also was tempting, with two students from Pardee Elementary School and four from Polk Elementary School kicking up the kitchen competition, which was held from 4 to 7 p.m. March 5 at O.W. Best Middle School. Pardee contestants include Harley Brendle, 10, a fourth grader, who made a quick and easy Mexican pizza, and Mariam Yousif, 10, a fifth grader, who made Baja fish tacos. Polk chefs include Christopher Diedrich, 11, a fourth grader, who made pulled pork loin with cilantro lime rice; Annabelle Silverthorn, 8, a third grader, who made burrito swirls; Allie Garris, 8, a third grader, who made Mexican unfried ice cream; and Charissa Harris, 11, a fifth grader, who made chicken avocado quesadillas. The challenge, now into its eighth year, was designed by Sodexo to encourage elementary-age students in third, fourth and fifth grades, and their parents, to make healthy and creative food choices while learning to cook. The annual Future Chef Challenge takes place in 256 school districts across 30 states, during February and March. The winner in each district is considered for the regional finalist awards, and the chosen regional finalists compete to become one of five national finalists. The winner is selected from the five nationalist finalists April 23 to 29 by a public vote. Sodexo Chef Fred Marinucci said the newness and creativity that the children bring into the kitchen is inspiring. It makes me feel alive in the kitchen that there is this much action going on, to see their smiles, and the way they are interacting, Marinucci said. When I was their age, I didnt cook nearly as much as this with my parents. To see that they are able to do it, to me, is wonderful. Marinucci, a former teacher, said he knows not everyone will go to college, but there is always a demand for good chefs. People want to eat, so there is always a need for people within the kitchen, he said. These are healthy cooked meals at home. They are good for the family, and not only are they healthy for the kids, but they are healthy for the family relationships because they stay in the kitchen and cook for themselves and their family members. Marinucci said the goal is to make healthy food choices that are creative and flavorful. Sometimes healthy food can be misconstrued as flavorless food, but there are creative ways with which we try to get the food to not only look good and taste good, but be good for them, he said. Marinucci said Sodexo staff members Cindy Cook and Charleen Cotton of Dearborn Heights, Chris Lenihan of Allen Park and Jeremy Shay of Northville helped with this years district competition. Its hard work, but its rewarding, exciting and fun, Marinucci said. Cotton said Sodexo purchases the ingredients for the submitted recipes, which the staff sets up at a station for the students to select and measure what they need. She said they also go over kitchen safety training before the competition begins. The Sodexo employees do some of the preparation requiring knife use, but students are allowed to use knives, as needed, to prepare their recipe, and they wear special protective gloves while cutting. Cotton said Sodexo has the kitchen for three hours, but sometimes something must be started sooner. This year, one of the contestants had pulled pork, which needed to cook for six hours, so the staff put it in a crockpot that morning. The student chefs said they enjoyed cooking, especially with their families, and they liked eating what they prepared together. Yousif said she practiced making her Baja fish tacos at home prior to the competition. I liked making it, and tasted good for me and my family, Yousif said. Garris made unfried ice cream, which actually uses yogurt instead of the title ingredient. You take frozen yogurt, cherries, whipped cream, cinnamon, Special K cereal, and you have to mash up the cereal, she said. Then you have to let the yogurt freeze. Then you have to pick it up and roll it into balls. Then you roll it in the recipe ingredients. Then you add chocolate sauce, Garris said. Silverthorn said the best part about making burrito swirls was the mushing. I love the tasting, she said. Silverthorn said food tastes better when you make it from scratch, and her favorite kitchen pursuit is baking apple pie. Riggins said she practiced making her winning chicken fajita pasta bake at home two days before the competition, and said she cooks often at home. To me, cooking is my personality, and if I am bored, I go in the kitchen and I cook something for dinner, she said. On the weekends, I cook breakfast or lunch. Riggins said her mother taught her to cook, but she is a big fan of Mexican food, so she learned to cook Mexican dishes. She said she also likes to prepare chicken, macaroni, greens, lamb and shrimp. My favorite would be chicken and dumplings, Riggins said. Harris, who made chicken avocado quesadillas, said she enjoys cooking. I cook because it calms me, and I just like to do it, she said. I started cooking when I was 7 or 8. I was sitting there, watching my mom and dad cook, and it just interested me. Harris said her favorite food to prepare is egg rolls. Its really simple once you actually do it, she said. My mom buys the wraps and the coleslaw mix, and then you just have to have eggs and your choice of meat. Harris said cooking and watching peoples reactions when they taste her cooking brings her pleasure. To learn more about the Sodexo Future Chefs National Challenge, go to sodexoinsights.com. If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El Sisi spokes with his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni by phone on Sunday, and discussed how to promote developmental cooperation among Nile Basin countries. In an official statement, El-Sisis spokesman Bassam Rady said the Egyptian president reiterated his keenness on boosting coordination and consultations on issues of peace, security and development in Africa under Egypt's chairmanship of the African Union in 2019. Museveni hailed the friendly and brotherly ties between Egypt and Uganda, extending thanks to the Egyptian people and leadership, according to Rady. Search Keywords: Short link: Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Forty-six "extremely dangerous" terrorists have been killed in northern and central Sinai during operations by Egypt's armed forces, according to a military statement on the latest developments related to Operation Sinai 2018. In the 32nd statement on the comprehensive counter-terrorism operation, which was launched in 2018, the Egyptian armed forces said the terrorists were killed following shootouts in northern and central Sinai. Around 15 hideouts and four vehicles used by the terrorists in the north-east were destroyed by the air forces. Three army soldiers were martyred in those operations, the statement said. The timeframe of events was not specified. Seventeen vehicles used for smuggling across borders were destroyed, as were ten other vehicles and a hideout by terrorists, in the southern and western area. Forces discovered and demolished a number of hotbeds occupied by the terrorists in northern and central Sinai, seizing weaponry and ammunition and highly explosive material used to prepare improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Around a hundred criminal elements and suspects were arrested. A total of 204 IEDs were found and detonated by the military. A number of RPGs and mortars, used by the extremist elements to attack security checkpoints, were confiscated. Around ten tunnel openings located at the international borderline with Rafah were destroyed. The statement added that naval forces have continued to secure coastal borderlines to block smuggling attempts through both the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Border guards, in cooperation with the police and military, discovered and destroyed 244 feddans of poppies, two tonnes of cannabis, and 1 million narcotic pills, as well as black powder used for IEDs. They were able to seize 117 vehicles used in smuggling activities across borders, as well as confiscating an amount of ammunition and weaponry in different strategic locations. The armed forces launched Operation Sinai 2018 in February last year to target terrorist and criminal organisations in northern and central Sinai, parts of the Nile Delta and the Western Desert. The operation involves the army, navy, border patrol, air force and police. Hundreds of terrorists have been killed as part of its activities. Search Keywords: Short link: Posted by Chris on at 09:27 PM CST We are pleased to reveal ourCelebration Chicago badge celebrating the 20th Anniversary ofbeing produced exclusively for our Forum Members! If you're planning to attend and have had an account prior to 10:00pm (Eastern) on Saturday, March 9th, your eligible to request one for the show. Head to our Celebration Chicago forum right here to sign up now! This article originally appeared in CONCEALMENT Issue 12 KINDER EGG CARBINE: The Fire Control Unit X01 has a Surprise Inside It all started with the SIG SAUER P250. First introduced in 2007, and then largely abandoned merely a few years later, the P250 was one of the first, if not the first modular chassis system released by a major manufacturer. A chassis system refers to a design in which the receiver (the serialized gun part of a gun) is separate from both the slide and the grip. Ostensibly this means you could hot swap a chassis from grip to grip, from slide to slide, from caliber to caliber. But this wasnt to be with the P250. SIG revised the grip in 2009, and previous magazines that worked no longer functioned with the new grip style. While some caliber and grip conversions exist, the platform never took hold like SIG originally intended. Ultimately wed call the P250 a commercial failure, but a step in the right direction for modular chassis. The idea of how modular a SIG P250 could be inspired the owners and engineers of Fire Control Unit to start daydreaming. Sure, grips and calibers are nice by why not go further? After many design iterations, and the availability of consumer 3D printers, FCU was born. Just five years earlier this venture wouldve required an investment in the seven-figure range, only available to large companies. But now? Manufacturing is on its head. If you peruse the FCU webpage, you can see that all of the first models were 3D printed, though the production models are injection molded. Some small parts like the charging handle and grip stops are still currently made on rapid prototyping machines. Design Functionally, what separates the FCU X01 from other pistol-to-carbine conversions is that a complete pistol isnt needed to insert inside a frame a la the CAA Roni, Hera Arms Triarii, or FAB Defense KPOS. With that said, you do currently need a P320 slide, chassis, and barrel (at least for now more on this later). The X01 is designed to accept a SIG MCX collapsible stock or brace, though you can order one without. Any stock that can attach to a Picatinny rail will work, and though were not saying we modified a Micro Uzi stock to fit one, we were able to modify a Micro Uzi stock to fit the FCU. Admittedly, the complete X01 looks a skosh like a Beretta Storm and a SIG MCX had a weird baby. But its far more modular than either. The X01 is a two-piece design consisting of the lower frame and stock, and the upper receiver with a continuous Picatinny rail and push-button rear latch. The front takedown pin features a neat captive pin (we broke one, of course. But a replacement was sent out the same day). There are two integral QD sockets where the stock attaches to the X01, opening up a plethora of support options that arent available with a stock P320. The X01 is compatible with full-size, compact, carry, tacops, or X-Five P320 and P250 firearms chambered in 9mm, .40, or .357 SIG (the last if youre weird AF). Whats in the Box The package we received from FCU included the chassis itself, a collapsible brace, instruction manual, pre-cut grip tape, and some goodies from Springer Precision including a magazine extension and an extended magazine release. First, we must admit that we lost the grip tape. Its probably somewhere behind a cabinet, along with a couple socks and buffer retaining pins. Later, we cut some 3M ladder tape which served its purpose well. Hooray for Harbor Freight heat guns making the process easier. Normally, wed just dive right in without reading the manual, but in this case we implore you to read the manual. Theres a continuously updated manual online as well, to incorporate revisions and lessons learned in the future. Conversion Assembly Fire Control Unit has a video showing you can swap everything over from a pistol to a carbine in under 20 seconds, though they dont advocate performing the switch in the field. In reality, itll take you some more time, so please dont imagine you can convert your duty gun while on the scene of an active shooter scenario. The largest pain in the ass is the fault of SIG SAUER and not FCU. While its easy as hell to pull out the SIG chassis compared to other chassis guns like the Beretta APX, its the magazine release we found the most troublesome. Removal of the P320 magazine release requires the use of a paper clip or other small item to depress a plastic tab for disassembly and removal. Why everyone doesnt just go the route of the 1911 and only require a screwdriver is beyond us. Either way, if you purchase an FCU, do yourself a favor and just buy a second complete mag release for dedicated carbine use. You may run into another quirk of conversion a dead trigger. In order to fix this, pop up your top cover, lock your slide to the rear, and push forward on the trigger bar tab. After that, it should be smooth moving. If your trigger isnt resetting on your X01, this is probably the culprit. Weve gone so far as to include this as part of our assembly process, since it was a problem that regularly plagued us. Configuring & Controls Given the closet-quarters nature of a short-barrel pistol-caliber carbine, we felt A-OK popping an EOTech right on top, though any red dot will find a happy home on the FCU X01. Though real estate is certainly at a premium, we knew wed need a white light. While the new 1,000 lumen SureFire X300U certainly fits the bill, we found the bayonet-type mount to be less secure than the thumbscrew B-models. The 1,000-lumen SureFire XH35 found a home, working well within the performance envelope we desired. Theres an M-LOK channel in the bottom of the X01, but we couldnt put a stubby vert grip there because it would make this pistol an illegal SBR. Those outside the United States wont have such worries. Regardless, the standard grip and accentuated handstop make it easy to activate the light from either shoulder with no undue risk. In the standard configuration, the X01 has nearly ambidextrous charging handles. While either 3D printed nub can be used to rack in a round, with the Gen1 X01 only the left-hand side can be used to slap-down the bolt, HK style, or manually lock the slide to the rear. As far as manual safeties? Unless youre using the FCU designed for the M17, no dice (and we dont care either). Suppressed Our motto is to put a can where we can, so of course we wanted our FCU to be suppressor-ready. Unfortunately, you cant take just any silencer, slide, and barrel combination and make it work. In order to run a silencer with the X01, you need a Compact/Carry chassis, P320 Compact slide, full-size threaded barrel, and a pistol suppressor and booster assembly thats very small in diameter (1.3 inches is what we were told). The suppressor/booster diameter matters for two real reasons, namely the limitations of the opening of the chassis itself and interference with the charging handle (the latter being the reason why you need to use a full-size barrel and a compact slide). And then, youll still have some problems. We obtained a full-size P320 threaded barrel from SilencerCo; SIG not only threads their barrels in weirdo metric, they simply do not currently make a threaded barrel for their full-size pistols. This wasnt an issue. Finding a silencer that worked? Well, that was a larger problem. The first thing you need to do is configure this barrel/slide combo in a regular P320 setup. Yes, itll look weird as hell. Chances are, if you can find a suppressor with an appropriately meager diameter, it still wont run very well. This is because the P320 uses a tilt-barrel action the further forward the weight of a silencer, the harder it is to run. FCU recommended ensuring the booster assembly is impeccably clean and properly lubricated. We still ran into some issues but found a way to make it work. Firstly, we ran the slimmest silencer we know: The Dead Air Odessa-9; despite some claims, we had size/charging handle clearance issues with nearly every other suppressor we tried. Even then we ran into problems until we started to use very heavy ammunition such as 158-grain Israeli ball and 165-grain HUSH from Freedom Munitions. Moreover, the Odessa-9 has to be configured as a different size for each load. So we got 80s with it. That is to say, we started playing mucky muck with the recoil spring assembly. While there are a couple of interchangeable-spring RSAs for the full-size (both Springer Precision and GrayGuns came highly recommended), much like the barrels, it was harder to source an assembly for the compact. To the internet we went, coming upon DPM Systems Technology Ltd. This Greece-based company was the only source we could find. After waiting a couple weeks for our overseas package, we cut open the box to reveal a non-captive recoil spring assembly and three different springs to choose from. At the end of the day, we still had to cut some springs like when Bruce Springsteen topped the charts, but we were about to make the FCU X01 run reliably with the Odessa-9 in the short configuration with ammunition that was at least 147 grains. Persnickety. Thats what well call running this firearm suppressed. At the Range Aside from our suppressor troubles, we had few issues at the range. The collapsible brace made for a compact package that was far more accurate and easier to shoot than its pistol version. The one issue we did have didnt have anything to do with the X01 itself, but with the garbage ProMag stendo we obtained. Of course and as usual, it was a subpar product. It looks really cool though! Unless youre looking for likes on the gram, stick to OEM 21-rounders and extensions from companies worth a damn. Were not saying theyre incapable of making a great product we just havent seen one yet. Due to the SIG M17 being picked up by Big Army, you can expect a whole boatload of mag options to drop in the near future. When the stock/brace is fully collapsed, the rods interject themselves into the same area as the ejection port, but we had no issues shooting with the stock in the smallest position. The Future Running a silencer would be far, far easier if the barrel were fixed. Were told the next generation, the FCU X02, will feature a dedicated bolt and a fixed barrel. Instead of a chassis/slide/barrel combo, all you would need to add is the chassis itself. But in the words of the now-deceased, coke-fueled Billy Mays, But wait theres more! The 5.56 FCU AR320. Yes, you read that right. Coming down the pipe is a 5.56 AR platform that runs on you guessed it: a SIG P320 chassis. Loose Rounds The FCU X01 is certainly a Gen1 system. There are many small changes and refinements that would make it a better carbine, but all isnt lost theyre very receptive to criticism and fast to implement changes; the advent of the internet and 3D printing means that they can be very responsive. Were sure not even SIG SAUERs engineers considered the possibilities when they designed their first chassis pistol, but the aftermarket has certainly answered. Pardon us while we dream about a belt-fed version. And a select-fire chassis. Because reasons. Visit https://firecontrolunit.com/ THE FUTURE OF THE FCU The word disruptive is overused, especially in the technology sector, but Fire Control Unit is proof positive you dont have to have $500,000 to make industry waves. This is just the first act of Fire Control Unit. The fixed barrel FCU X02 should eliminate most of the problems with running suppressed provided that the opening is large enough. Theoretically, itd be more accurate too. But what really got our juices flowing? A 5.56 AR that accepts a P320 chassis. While we dont know all of the details (we should know more by the time this makes it to print), our best guess is that it will, at minimum, require a proprietary bolt carrier group. So whats the point when you can simply buy an AR lower for next to nothing at this time? Because we can, thats why. We anticipate more chassis systems in the future, and already you dont have to own a SIG P320 to play. Theres at least one 80% kit out there, and stripped pistol chassis are routinely sold for as little as $25 a pop. Winnipeg, MB -- (ReleaseWire) -- 03/11/2019 --Project Whitecard Digital announces today that it has officially signed a significant contract with the Canada Media Fund to create and deliver a new virtual reality game to people around the world. Project Whitecard Digital's idea to create content for older adults was first funded by On Screen Manitoba in 2017, and received a significant first investment in 2018 from private investors Paul Thiessen and Mark Evans, who as directors joined CEO/founder Khal Shariff and mentor Greg Loader in bringing VR for older adults to life. The resulting concept was submitted in September 2018 to the Canada Media Fund for consideration, and won, expanding Manitoba's leadership in VR content development. "DoVille," created by Project Whitecard Digital, is an immersive virtual reality game with engaging vacation mysteries to solve, set in exotic VR locales. DoVille is especially designed and written for older adults, who will need only the standalone and affordable Oculus Go VR headset and a swiveling chair to spend a day at the beach, ski down mountains, or chase dinosaurs. Created by a team that includes Winnipeg researchers and scientists, DoVille is based on broadening knowledge of specific video game activities that the team is hopeful may positively affect the hippocampal brain volume of adults of any age. It is hoped players will reap the benefits therein. One such scientist is Dr. Bruce Bolster at the University of Winnipeg, with whom Project Whitecard has signed a collaboration agreement. The team is currently working with MITACS, a scientific participation program in Canada, to bring another famed University of Manitoba research team on board. The development team at Project Whitecard (locally-renowned for having created the popular Manitoba Public Insurance VR simulation for teens: DRIVR-X) has set as its first goal a release sometime in 2020. DoVille will also run on other VR headsets. Find out more about DoVille's development at the http://doville.fun website. Some pictures from the prototype are below (those interested in joining the beta research should send an email to doville@projectwhitecard.com). An early video trailer can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTvf9pVIL-w About Project Whitecard Project Whitecard Digital Inc. is spin-off from Project Whitecard Inc., a world leading developer of games and interactive immersive 3D virtual environments, with clients such as the Canadian Space Agency and NASA. Project Whitecard uses leading 3D technologies, including Virtual Reality. We simply believe in creating apps that do good while being entertaining. Website: http://www.projectwhitecard.com The Egyptian foreign ministry announced on Monday the names of the six Egyptians who were killed when an Ethiopian Airlines crashed minutes after take off fromAddis Ababa on Sunday, killing all 149 passengers and eight crew members. In an official statement issued on Monday, the foreign ministry identified the victims as Ashraf Turki, Doaa Atef Abdel-Salam, Abdel-Hameed Farag, Suzanne Abu Farag, Esmat Taha Aransa and Nasser Fathy El-Azb. The ministry said that it is following up on the matter with Ethiopian authorities, and is helping the victims' families identify their relatives through DNA testing. Egypt's Agricultural Professions Syndicate has said that three agricultural researchers who were members of the union were among those killed in the crash. The victims were Ashraf Turki, the head of the classification department at the Institute Of Plant Protection, and assistant researchers Doaa Atef Abdel-Salam and Abdel-Hameed Farag from the animal production research department at the Desert Research Institute. The syndicate said that the researchers were on a scientific mission to Nairobi to study improving animal and plant genetic production. Minister of Agriculture Ezz El-Din Abu Steit released a statement on Monday mourning the researchers. Two of the other victims, Suzanne Abu Farag and Esmat Taha Aransa, were veteran freelance translators who had worked with regional and international organisations like the League of Arab States and the African Union. Friends of the victims have said online that Abu Farag and Aransa were heading to Nairobi to participate in a UN conference. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypt's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry told MPs that Egypt has been able to achieve many foreign policy successes on the international and regional levels in recent years. "As Egypt has been able to greatly recover security and stability, largely thanks to the efforts of the military and police forces. The foreign ministry has been keen to use this to restore Egypt's influence and prestige on both the international and regional levels," Shoukry said, adding that "the fact that Egypt was unanimously elected to be the chair of the African Union in 2019 clearly attests to this fact." "The last Arab-European summit at Sharm El-Sheikh and the keenness of most Arab world and European leaders to attend this summit also provides added evidence that Egypt now enjoys tremendous respect and appreciation in international circles," he said. Shoukry, addressing a meeting with members of parliament's foreign affairs committee on Monday, said "Egypt's foreign policy is mainly based on having balanced relations and mutual respect with all countries, and President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi's instructions in this respect are that our foreign policies should be as transparent and clear as possible," he said. "In most of his foreign visits, President El-Sisi has always been keen to find common ground and give a clear and transparent account of Egypt's internal conditions and its foreign policy objectives." However, Shoukry indicated that "despite the great successes achieved in the area of foreign policy in recent years, Egypt still has a lot of challenges ahead." "We are still being targeted by terrorist organisations and some foreign countries, and both are trying their best to isolate Egypt and disrupt it in the same way they did in Libya and Syria," he said, adding that "these hostile elements focus on targeting Egypt in particular because they take it as the great prize in disrupting the entire Arab region and spreading chaos there." "These terrorist groups and some foreign elements are doing their best to isolate Egypt at the international and regional levels," Shoukry said, adding that "the foreign ministry has been closely following this malicious scheme to thwart it." "This, of course, goes in tandem with the efforts of the military and police forces in fighting terrorism and other national security threats facing the country," he said, indicating that "Egypt's ambassadors are under instructions at all times not to interfere in the affairs of other countries, and show others that we are against double standards in foreign relations." The Egyptian foreign minister said that the country's ambassadors are also tasked with giving an honest account of the recent progress in the country's internal stability and economic conditions. "They are keen to show the country's great investment opportunities, and the recent legislative developments which have led to big economic growth," he concluded. Search Keywords: Short link: Member of SPC al-Nuaimi sends condolences cable over death of Egyptian expert Mohamed Bondak [11/March/2019] ANAA, March 11 (Saba) - Member of the Supreme Political Council Mohammad Saleh al-Nuaimi sent on Sunday a cable of condolences and condolences on the death of expert and Egyptian regulatory world, Mohamed Ali Al-Sayyid Bondak, who passed away after a long life in Yemen for more than forty years. Al-Nuaimi praised in his cable of condolences sent to his sons Bondak's contributions to conveying his expertise and scientific and practical capabilities which reflected the institutional plans and programs provided by the Central. Organization for Control and Auditing. He pointed out that the deceased contributed to the development of the audit work and the profession of accounting and auditing in accordance with the best international means of accountability, control and transparency, the fight against corruption and disclosure of practices. AA Saba PM stresses culture of tolerance, non-discrimination toward all society's segments [11/March/2019] ANAA, March 11 (Saba) - "The educated and enlightened woman is the decisive factor in the development of any society, which is the conclusion of many educational researches in Yemen and in many countries of the world, "said on Sunday Prime Minister Dr. Abdulaziz bin Habtoor. This came when the Prime Minister participated in the event organized by the Ministry of Human Rights today on the occasion of International Women's Day and the seminar on the presentation of a report on the status of Yemeni women. He added "Women are the most sensitive segment of society and the most responsible towards family issues and we find them standing at many times to face the challenges facing all her family life." Dr. Bin Habtoor considered the annual celebration of women a kind of reminder of the world's responsibilities towards women. He considered it important to meet with different political, social and cultural circles to celebrate such a day and to discuss what happened to women and especially the consequences of aggression and war on this segment in particular. He stressed that women are the largest segment affected in any war not in Yemen, but in the world because they are responsible for arranging the affairs of her home and its children and disabled persons whether they are male or female. The Prime Minister pointed out that the Yemenis can be constantly praised in their positive historical presence towards the women who ruled before and during Islam. He pointed out that despite the complexities and nature of the traditional society in Yemen, women have managed to attain good leadership and political positions, both in the Shura Council, in the government and in other institutions, in order to make a space for wider participation for women and taking into account the issue of empowering them. AA Saba Just two weeks after the departure of its head honcho Greg McKee, San Diegos oldest startup accelerator Connect has appointed a new president. To lead the helm, the nonprofit chose Silvia Mah, a prominent angel investor and business accelerator executive in San Diego. Mah will join Connect full time as president on April 1. In her role, she will oversee Connects Springboard program, along with the organizations business development and financials. Mah will also oversee all programs and operations at their new diversity-focused Connect All incubator set to open this spring in Chollas Creek. Mah is best known locally for her support for women entrepreneurs. Shes the founder of Hera Labs, a San Diego-based startup accelerator for women-owned businesses, and has been serving as its executive director since 2012. Shes moving into a business advisory role at Hera, Mah said, and the organization is now on the hunt for a new executive director. Mah said shes staying on as a partner of Ad Astra Ventures, a startup accelerator and venture fund she co-founded last year with Allison Long Pettine and Vidya Dinamani. Advertisement Through her various roles, Mah said shes helped more than 500 women launch or grow their startups, and has helped female founders raise more than $5 million in growth capital. Silvia is a respected and passionate leader in the entrepreneur community in San Diego and beyond, and her experience and commitment to innovation will be a significant asset to Connect, said Tim Scott, executive chairman at the nonprofit. Her varied experiences, from earning a Ph.D. in marine molecular biology to the founding of Ad Astra Ventures, make her an excellent fit for Connect. I know she will substantially benefit the growing leadership team and be a wonderful champion for increasing Connects support of entrepreneurs all over San Diego County. Mah said Connects deep history in San Diego was an appealing factor in her move. San Diego has a strong history of innovation in the high tech and biotechnology sectors and Connect has been an integral part of this equation for over three decades, Mah said. I look forward to working with the Connect internal team and board of directors to continue its legacy with a lens of collaboration, innovation and inclusion. Last month, Connects former president and CEO McKee announced his departure after five years leading the nonprofit. McKee went on to found a $50 million investment fund called Torrent Ventures, which plans to invest in San Diego-based software companies. Mah wont be the only new recruit at Connect, however. The organization said it will continue to add executive leadership positions to complement Mahs role as president. Related Reading: CEO exits startup accelerator Connect to launch $50M tech fund Calling all minority and low-income entrepreneurs: this startup accelerator needs you Startup accelerator for women emphasizes revenue, capital Business brittany.meiling@sduniontribune.com 619-293-1286 Twitter: @BrittanyMeiling Shameless is nothing without its outrageous moments. Every week I focus on a singularly eye-popping one in each episode of the shows ninth season on Showtime. Last weeks penultimate episode was titled Lost and now we arrive at this weeks finale, Found, wherein we bid farewell to actress Emmy Rossum, whose performance as Fiona Gallagher has long been the heart and soul of the show, even if that wavered a bit these past couple of years. How do you feel about the fact that we know nothing about where Fiona is going? Or what she plans to do when she gets there? Does she even have a plan? Theres that $50,000 to get her started I just wish the show gave us an inkling of how she intends to use it. What we do know: She left a check for the other $50,000 in an envelope back home for her siblings. Thats a huge gesture and Im hoping the show actually follows through on what that means for the Gallaghers next season, instead of the more typical the moneys up in a puff of smoke that weve seen whenever Frank finds himself cash rich. (I mean, he went through that $10,000 Ingrid payoff quick.) Advertisement An awkward goodbye between Fiona (Emmy Rossum, left) and Frank (William H. Macy). (Paul Sarkis/Showtime) Frank, of course, has never been one for emotional vulnerability, so all he could muster in parting words to his oldest as she wheeled her suitcase out the door was a patronizing acknowledgement that she helped raise the Gallagher kids. Helped, she repeats, dead-eyed. I did it all, Frank. True! Which is why Im genuinely surprised that among the meaningful sibling conversations Shameless does so well and gave us this episode (Ian!) Fiona left before saying goodbye to Debbie, Carl or Liam. Speaking of Liam, Im glad the show has finally acknowledged a least one elephant in the room: With neither a black parent or any black siblings in that household, hes been navigating his blackness not only how the world responds to him but his connection to black culture on his own. Now, its possible he wasnt invested in staying at the Thompsons long-term anyway; in typical Gallagher fashion, his threat to move out permanently might have just been leverage to score a bigger bedroom at home. Either way, as the James Baldwin quote on his T-shirt puts it: Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced. Thank you, Shameless, for kinda sorta facing this. Is Liam (Christian Isaiah, right) home for good? Only time will tell. Maybe Showtime will provide more than the occasional photo of the character for each episode next season or maybe the network will continue to pretend he barely exists. (Paul Sarkis/Showtime) And now to this weeks outrageous moment: Whats weird and maybe the irony is intentional? is that at the exact moment Debbie walks in the house armed with Liams list of 46 demands for black (stuff) she also brings along with her a character weve never met before named Seamus (played by Dean Sharpe) who is black and is now apparently going to be Franks home health care worker for free in exchange for meals? Sorry, give me a sec while I pull my jaw off the floor, because white people expecting a black person to work without pay literally cleaning Franks stinky rear (though Frank insists on doing the front himself) and casually reassuring themselves that Seamus is thrilled for the opportunity is bad. Please tell me this was specifically juxtaposed with Liams storyline to underscore how ignorant the Gallaghers remain when it comes to anything concerning race. Because this was one helluva outrageous moment to close out on. Until next season: Be sure to bone up and learn the difference between perpetual and periodic inventory. nmetz@chicagotribune.com Twitter @Nina_Metz Shameless: Fiona finally faces the truth shes a bad drunk Shameless: Churning through stories yet again A man who was shot by police in San Bernardino late Sunday after authorities said he charged at an officer has died, officials said Monday. San Bernardino police were called to 4th and Allen streets about 11:20 p.m. after they received a report of a domestic disturbance. When officers arrived, they spoke with a man who had a weapon and tried to calm him, police said. Authorities said a sergeant fired nonlethal shotgun rounds at the man after he refused to put down a weapon. Authorities have not specified what type of weapon the man was carrying, but witnesses told reporters at the scene it was a knife. Police said the man continued to refuse to throw down his weapon, so they used a stun gun on him. Advertisement Cellphone video of the incident shows a shirtless man yelling at officers to shoot him and repeating a racial epithet. At some point during the exchange, an officer opened fire. At least four shots can be heard in the video over the course of a few seconds. The man, who has not been identified, was taken to a hospital in an ambulance. He was pronounced dead at 12:25 a.m. hannah.fry@latimes.com Twitter: @Hannahnfry The warnings have been ominous for motorists winding their way to and from San Diego along a busy stretch of Interstate 5 in South Orange County a future of crushing gridlock unless something drastic is done. Transportation planners have been trying to sell skeptical residents for more than a decade on an extension of the Highway 241 toll road to help ease traffic. To win public support for the extension or an alternative solution, the toll road agency has turned to consulting firms to wage a multimillion-dollar public outreach campaign. But that spending is sparking questions about how the public agency is using the money. Advertisement San Clemente officials, fierce opponents of a proposal to extend the toll road through the beach town, obtained the consultants billings through a public records lawsuit and have sharply criticized the payments to the high-priced, politically connected consultants. Billing records reviewed by The Times show a consultant at one firm was paid for working 28 hours in a single day. Another consulting firm received nearly $230,000 for more than 1,300 hours spent reading emails of news from transportation stories; evaluate reporter perspectives at up to $185 an hour, the records show. Meanwhile, the authority paid yet another consultant more than $3,000 a month to compile news stories at $90 an hour, according to the bills. Some digital media experts questioned a $380,000 budget in one year to produce content for two small websites and social media accounts for the tollway authority, as well as marketing to specific audiences, saying such work should cost far less. San Clemente City Manager James Makshanoff said some of the charges the lawsuit unearthed defy belief and called for an independent outside audit to determine how much these consultants have been overpaid and why there appears to have been little to no oversight of these bills by the management. Jeff Corless, chief executive and president of the firm that has received the most money, Venture Strategic Inc., said some costs were incurred from tracking and responding to misinformation put out by San Clemente and a flood of emails he said the city had encouraged people to send. Their method is to tear down and destroy and spread misinformation and create confusion, Corless said. His colleague, Alex Avetoom, said the source of the problem was an antagonizing campaign waged by San Clementes own consulting firm, Los Angeles-based Englander, Knabe & Allen, which had lost out to Venture Strategic in bidding for the tollway agencys contract. The firms strategic proposal to San Clemente invoked Sun Tzus The Art of War in explaining how it would battle the toll road extension, and mentioned filing public records requests for consultants fees as one of its weapons. City records show the firm in late 2017 was paid nearly $100,000. Adam Englander, a partner, said the firm didnt start working for the city until early 2018 so it cant be blamed for the tollways spending before then. He called it pathetic to point the finger at his firm for helping uncover lobbyists who appear to have been ripping off a public agency. Late last month, after The Times asked about the spending, the Transportation Corridor Agencies announced that a routine audit had identified some double-billings, but that the lead consultant had actually underbilled, leaving the agency owing more than $4,500. The joint authoritys chief strategy officer, Mike Chesney, defended the consultants work as essential to help us navigate the controversies that have plagued the project. He said the firms have been effective in engaging the public in the agencys planning. The spending, Chesney said, reflects a tremendous amount of work that were coordinating with them on. He said he reviews the invoices and has caught duplicate billings but couldnt recall specific examples. The tollway agency oversees the toll roads network that spans from South Orange County to Yorba Linda and the Riverside freeway. It is funded by a mix of housing developer fees and the roughly 325,000 daily tolls paid by the roads drivers. Its board of directors is made up of elected council members from more than half of Orange County cities, as well as a majority of county supervisors. A long-running proposal to build the extension through San Onofre State Beach was abandoned in 2016 after the agency settled lawsuits with a coalition that included the state attorney generals office. Alternative plans for the road to cut through San Clemente have drawn intense backlash from city leaders and residents. In 2015, the tollway agency approved a nearly $500,000 eight-month contract with Corless firm for public relations that include enhancing support for extending the 241. Corless was a political consultant to the successful 2014 election campaign of County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett, who sits on the authoritys board of directors. In 2016, the tollway contract with his business, Venture Strategic, grew to up to $1.8 million annually. The firm is subcontracting some of its strategic planning to Curt Pringle & Associates, which has a separate contract with the tollway agency for overall long-range visioning. Pringle, a Republican political consultant, served as assembly speaker and Anaheims mayor. It was his daughter, Katie Pringle, who was listed on a 2016 invoice from Venture Strategic charging for 28 hours she supposedly worked in a single day. Amy Potter, the tollway agencys chief financial officer, said the audit found that the firm had double-billed for 14 hours worked by Pringle that day. Curt Pringle said he was surprised to see the double-billing and that his firm had not been reviewing Venture Strategics invoices to make sure his staffs time was being reflected accurately, but would do so from now on. Proposals to extend the 241 toll road through San Clemente. (Transportation Corridor Agencies) Invoices reviewed by The Times cover December 2015 through December 2018. Venture Strategics fees start with a flat $21,000 a-month retainer for some general tasks, including strategy meetings and real time planning for specific stakeholder outreach. The firm charges between $100 and $185 an hour for additional tasks, though its general descriptions for many of those hours such as meetings about stakeholder outreach appear similar to the type of work covered by the retainer agreement. Corless and Chesney said the consultants conduct a lot of work under the agreement without seeking hourly payments. Pressed about specific bills, Chesney said he was unsure of the exact work that was described as review TCA emails of news from transportation stories; evaluate reporter perspectives. He disputed that consultants were being paid to read news stories under that billing entry. I know thats not what it is, Chesney said. But Venture Strategic consultant Nico Melendez said it was. He said he needed to keep abreast of transportation news from around the country. Still, he struggled to explain some of his own billing. In a single day in 2017, he worked seven hours reading news at $175 an hour, according to one invoice. But Melendez said in an interview that his time sheet showed he spent only two hours that day reading news. Corless later said the seven hours were for Melendez reading news all week. But the same invoice charged $1,050 for six hours of reading news on another day earlier that same week. Corless said he saw no problems with the invoices. Clearly [the Transportation Corridor Agencies] agrees as they approved the time, he said. Many of the bills submitted by his firm were for consultants talking to fellow consultants. One eight-hour meeting of 10 Venture Strategic consultants cost nearly $14,000. The firms contract allowed up to $380,000 in fiscal year 2017-18 for digital communications that includes micro targeting to specific audiences, maintaining social media pages on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and updating two existing websites affiliated with the tollway agency howsthedrive.com and getmovingoc.com. Nadeem Mazen, chief executive of a boutique digital content creation firm, said there can be wide variances in the industry but the contract price appeared to be highly inflated and that the only way to defend it would be billing many hours for tasks not specified in the budget. The most popular tollway social media account run by Venture Strategic has fewer than 7,800 followers. Mazen said a six-figure contract should buy social media pages that rise to social influencer status somewhere in the neighborhood of 150,000 followers. Unless youre just pouring money into the ocean, he said. Marcy Rye, founder of the Marina del Rey website design company Wire Media, said she reviewed the content on the two websites and their social media. She said it was all simple stuff. The price seems quite excessive to me, Rye said. Erik Brown, president of DMI Direct, the subcontractor that created the digital content, said a tremendous amount of planning went into designing the content and that numerous tasks were done beyond the two websites and social media. We have provided good value and good service, Brown said. Any claim to the contrary is unfounded. A toll roads spokesperson said more than 1,300 hours billed for digital work between August and November 2017 a total cost of more than $173,000 was spent writing responses to hundreds of people who commented at a public forum and posting answers to common questions online. Ultimately, spending on digital communications for the fiscal year totaled nearly $338,000, the records show, below the $380,000 budget cap. The current contract has a digital budget of $225,000, according to the bills. When the contract was up for renewal at the boards June meeting last year, San Juan Capistrano Mayor Brian Maryott, who also sits on the tollway agencys board of directors, said the team of consultants was being paid a pretty sizable sum but had failed to quell opposition to the 241 extension. Its an absolute failure, Maryott said. Irvine Councilwoman Christina Shea chastised Maryott and others for their criticism. I think its just inappropriate that were publicly trying to humiliate our consultants, Shea said. The contract was approved in a single voice vote, with no roll call. Adam.Elmahrek@latimes.com @adamelmahrek A USC student who is the son of an Oakland city councilwoman was shot and killed in an apparent robbery attempt about a mile from the campus early Sunday, officials said. The victim was first identified by campus media as Victor McElhaney, who was studying at USCs Thornton School of Music, USC Annenberg Media reported on its Twitter page. Oakland Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney confirmed in a statement Sunday night that the 21-year-old is her son. I miss my baby. Please keep me, my family, and all of my sons friends in your thoughts and prayers, she said. We are beginning a new chapter in this reoccurring circle of violence. And it will take all of us together to make it through this tragedy. Advertisement RELATED: Slain USC music student Victor McElhaney was a bright light, dedicated to helping others Three or four men in their 20s approached the victim at the corner of Maple Avenue and Adams Boulevard shortly after midnight in what appeared to be a robbery attempt, said Officer Mike Lopez of the Los Angeles Police Department. The victim was shot and the men fled in a vehicle, police said. The victim was in critical condition when he was taken to a hospital, where he died, Lopez said. Victor McElhaney was pronounced dead at 11 a.m. Sunday, Annenberg Media reported. It was unclear if anything was taken during the robbery. No arrests had been made in connection with the shooting as of Sunday afternoon. McElhaney transferred to USC from Cal State East Bay in the fall of 2017, according to USC Annenberg Media. The jazz studies major was an active member of USCs Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs. Before moving to Los Angeles, McElhaney was an instructor at Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, Annenberg Media reported. McElhaney was an extraordinarily talented drummer, said USC jazz professor Peter Erskine, who gave the young man private lessons for a year. He was a bright light, Erskine said, describing McElhaney as quiet and dignified. He was someone I was expecting to hear a lot of music from in the future. Im so sad that his voice has been silenced. USC interim President Wanda Austin wrote in a letter to students and faculty that McElhaney believed in the power of music to touch lives, to heal, and to bring hope. Victors loss will affect all of the faculty and students who knew him, she said. In 2015, Councilwoman McElhaney lost a close family friend whom she considered a grandson, she told the East Bay Times to gun violence. The 17-year-old boy, Torian Hughes, was shot during a robbery in West Oakland. Since then, the councilwoman has used her platform to speak out against gun violence in Oakland. She helped to pass laws such as Measure Z, a public safety measure that funds investment in community policing and violent crime prevention strategies. Security has long been an issue at USC, in an area south of downtown L.A. that has historically experienced significant crime problems. Crime has dropped there as it has in the rest of the city over the last decade, and the neighborhoods around USC have gentrified. But safety remains a concern in the area. In the six-month period ending Jan. 20, 93 violent crimes were recorded in University Park, according to city data, giving the neighborhood a higher rate of violent crime than in downtown L.A. during the same time period. Several high-profile incidents in recent years have sparked debate about the best ways to keep students safe. On Friday, 22-year-old Alberto Ochoa was sentenced to life in prison in connection with the 2014 beating death of a USC graduate student from China. The student, 24-year-old Xinran Ji, was walking home from a study group near the campus when Ochoa and three others robbed and attacked him. Prosecutors said Ochoa, the fourth and final person sentenced in the murder, hit Ji with a bat. Jis death followed the killing of two Chinese graduate students in 2012 during a botched robbery near campus. Six months later, a man fired gunshots in the middle of campus outside a Halloween party and four people were injured. None were USC students. USC improved security after those incidents and added unarmed ambassadors in off-campus neighborhoods. Coming into USC, sophomore Anuva Mittal, 19, said people repeatedly warned her the campus was in a crime-ridden area. That was one of her parents biggest concerns. But during her freshman year orientation staff reassured her security was robust on the streets around campus. Shes living off campus but still close enough that she can see USC Department of Public Safety officers patrolling from her window. Honestly so far its been fine. I feel safe, Mittal said. I personally havent felt it but I know getting all these emails constantly from DPS about crime, I know its an issue. Christina Yuan, 18, agrees that the presence of security officers makes her feel safe. She said she actively thinks about safety the moment she steps off campus, and its always a concern in the back of her head. As an eighth grader hearing Attorney General Robert Kennedys presidential campaign speech at a little park in San Ysidro, Lilia Garcia was inspired. At that age, youre really open to ideas, Garcia recalled. He was such an idealist. I knew he was attorney general, a prosecutor. So I decided Id become a prosecutor. Garcia, a San Diego County deputy district attorney, has followed that career path for 38 years and, as a dedicated mentor and teacher, inspires others to chart their course in the legal profession. Garcias work training attorneys on both sides of the border and supporting other Latinas in the law was recognized last week as she was inducted into the San Diego County Womens Hall of Fame. Advertisement The Hall of Fame, in its 18th year, honors women for their efforts as professionals and volunteers to help other women advance and to improve the quality of life for all. Honored with Garcia at a March 3 ceremony at the Joe and Vi Jacobs Center were Dorothy L. W. Smith, former president of the San Diego Unified School District board, and Bridget Wilson, LGBT activist and former judge advocate with the California State Military Reserve. Also honored were Colleen OHara, founder of the Oceanside Womens Resource Center, and the late Ruth Goldschmiedova Sax, a survivor of three Nazi concentration camps who promoted human rights and the creation of a Holocaust education center in San Diego. Co-hosts of the event were the Womens Museum of California, located at Liberty Station, the local Commission on the Status of Women and Girls, San Diego State Universitys Department of Womens Studies and UC San Diegos Womens Center. Past Hall of Fame inductees include astronaut Sally Ride, San Diego Zoo ambassador Joan Embry and Balboa Park landscape designer Kate Sessions. I feel very honored to be included in the group inducted this year, Garcia said in an interview last week. She recalled the year 1968 when her teacher at St. Charles School in Imperial Beach took the class to hear Kennedy in what would be one of his last speeches before being assassinated in Los Angeles on the eve of the California primary election. In 1967, 1968, you didnt have people like me who were trial attorneys. Mexican and a woman, Garcia said. But she persevered, earning a full scholarship to University of San Diego School of Law and graduating in 1981 with just two other Latinas. That year Garcia became the first Latina hired in the state Attorney Generals San Diego office criminal division. She later cross-trained into the San Diego County District Attorneys Office. In the early 1980s, few women were doing trials in Superior Court. I did, for six months, then I went back to the AGs office, she said. Garcia fell in love with appellate work, going on to argue seven times before the California Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. But, she said, after 32 years, she decided it was time to do something different. She was hired as a San Diego county deputy district attorney in 2013 in the appellate division. I always told myself if I had the opportunity to mentor and help, I would do so, Garcia said. She has done so in myriad ways over the years. In 2005, she co-founded Latinas in Law, a support group, with federal judge Irma Gonzalez and attorney Anna Jauregui-Law. Garcia has taught oral advocacy and trial skills in Mexico and around the Southwest, served as 2004 president of San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association and mentored law students at her alma mater. I share a lot of my personal struggle and obstacles I overcame, Garcia said. I advise the students on what courses to take in their second year, what internships to take. She said in her early career, she was met with the implicit bias of male colleagues and judges who would take her for a courtroom translator, not an attorney. I tell younger women to go for a higher position and learn on the job, like men, Garcia said. We think were never prepared enough. Women know how to help, but we dont know how to ask for help. We have to do both. pauline.repard@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @pdrepard Japanese ambassador in Cairo Masaaki Nuki stressed on Monday that many Japanese companies are looking forward to investing more in the Egyptian market. Masaaki made the remarks during a speech before the Egyptian-Japanese Business Forum, which kicked off on Sunday with the participation of 50 Japanese companies and a large number of Egyptian companies. The ambassador invited Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to the G20 Osaka Summit expected to take place on 28-29 June in Osaka, Japan. He also invited the president to participate in the 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 7) scheduled for 28-30 August in Yokohama, Japan. In light of Egypt's current chairmanship of the African Union, Japan is trying to capitalise off its good ties with Egypt to expand Japanese investments in Africa, the ambassador said. Masaaki noted that the Grand Egyptian Museum project, undertaken by Egypt's government in cooperation with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), is one of the most significant areas of cooperation between the two countries. The ambassador also voiced his country's commitment to furthering mutual cooperation in similar national projects in the period ahead. For his part, Chairman of the Egyptian-Japanese Business Council Ibrahim El-Araby lauded the visit paid by President Sisi to Japan in 2016, adding that it has remarkably helped bolster bilateral cooperation. He called upon the Japanese government and entrepreneurs to play an active role in the economic development Egypt has been witnessing, emphasising the council's willingness to remove any challenges investors might face in targeted projects. Search Keywords: Short link: The University of San Diego has raised its annual tuition above the $50,000 level for the first time, placing the campus among a relatively small number of private liberal arts schools nationwide who charge at least that much money. USD will charge $50,450 in tuition and fees during the 2019-20 academic year, a $1,700 increase over the current year. If you add room, board and related expenses, a full year at USD will cost $67,211. Thats an increase of $2,282 over this year. The price increase places USD among the roughly 100 private colleges and universities nationally that charge a minimum of $50,000 in tuition. The schools include such large research universities as the University of Southern California, and small campuses, including Pomona and Pitzer colleges. USDs new $50,450 tuition figure represents the so-called sticker price. The actual cost, for most students, is significantly less after financial aid and scholarships are factored in. Advertisement Even so, USD has been concerned about tuition, which has recently risen about 3 percent at private schools. The university said last fall that it would attempt to reduce operating expenses by at least $15 million over the next five years so that it could avoid making big tuition hikes. Tuition is only part of the story, said Lissette Martinez, a USD spokeswoman Due to strong growth in our endowment and judicious cost control measures, USD students graduate with less debt than the national average. The total cost of attendance at USD for the most recent academic year is the lowest among our Catholic peer institutions. The average undergraduate student receives nearly $38,000 in financial assistance per year. The $50,000 mark needs to be put into perspective, say analysts. $50,000 is not a magic threshhold, especially since including the price of room, board, and other expenses, the cost had already been close to $65,000, said Lynn Reaser, an economist at Point Loma Nazarene University. It is also comparable to the tuition charged by a number of other prominent private colleges and universities. Many lower-income students are able to access loans and grants, while demand from foreign students remains strong. Reaser is on the faculty of Point Loma Nazarene University, a private school that currently charges $35,100 in tuition and fees. The school hasnt announced if an increase is imminent. The University of California system announced last week that it will not raise tuition on California students this fall. However, the system has proposed raising non-resident tuition by $762, pushing it to $29,754. The change would have a significant impact at UC San Diego, where about 23 percent of the enrollment is composed of foreign students. The campus has just under 8,800 international students, more than half whom as from China. They pay roughly twice what a California resident lays out for tuition and fees. The California State University system which includes campuses in San Diego and San Marcos has said it does not plan to increase tuition this fall. ICYMI Soaring growth stirs pride, promise at Cal State San Marcos Huge surge in foreign students helps UC San Diego diversify and pay the bills Heavy recruiting failed to get UCSD on Forbes list of best schools for foreign students Nursing supervisor Mary Prehoden was on the eighth floor of Scripps Mercy Hospital when she heard a man screaming obscenities. As a supervisor, it was her job to investigate. But when she stepped into the doorway of the patients room, a 25-pound chair came flying right at her. She managed to dodge the four-legged projectile, but it was quickly followed by the man who threw it. He delivered a punch to the side of her head that sent her to the ground, her glasses flying. We ended up on the floor face-to-face in an alcove, Prehoden said. He had hold of my hair, he bit me, he punched me, he kicked me. I couldnt open my eyes because he was trying to gouge out my right eye. It took at least nine people to restrain him so that I could get away from him. Advertisement Today, she said, she has a permanent bite mark on her chest and a scarred sense of trust. The attack last summer occurred on the oncology ward of the Hillcrest hospital. Had it taken place outside the medical center, the jail time served by her attacker likely would have been significantly longer. A firefighter, a paramedic, an EMT, a lifeguard, a process server, a dog catcher if theyre in the course of their work and they get assaulted, thats an automatic felony, said Prehoden, who has worked as a nurse for 39 years. People who work inside of health care facilities, all of us, are not protected by the same law. We need to be treated the same as far as the law goes. Others agree. On Jan. 31, state Assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez, D-Pomona, introduced Assembly Bill 329. The legislation mandates up to one year of jail time and up to $2,000 in fines for anyone who assaults or batters a health care worker inside a hospital. Current law extends those penalties only to doctors and nurses working outside hospitals in emergency situations. Though the bill has not yet had its first independent state analysis, Scripps Health is already planning to testify on behalf of the legislation in Sacramento as it moves through the hearing process. Chris Van Gorder, Scripps chief executive officer, said Prehodens incident is just one example of a rising tide of violence in hospitals that requires action. We see violence escalating, Van Gorder said. I think we need to increase the penalties to protect our people. A retired Los Angeles area police officer injured in the line of duty who worked for a time as a hospital security officer, the executive makes it clear that this is not a new problem. He himself was stabbed in the arm by a patient in the 1970s. Legislation mandates up to one year of jail time and up to $2,000 in fines for anyone who assaults or batters a health care worker inside a hospital. And its not the first time that the Legislature has attempted to bolster penalties for hospital workers. In 2015, a similar bill, also introduced by Rodriguez, was vetoed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown. The governors veto message, which expressed great respect for health care workers, took an extremely skeptical tone stating: If there were evidence that an additional six months in county jail would enhance the safety of these workers or serve as a deterrent, I would sign this bill. I doubt that it would do either. But Brown is no longer in office. Gov. Gavin Newsoms first act in office was to expand health care coverage, encouraging a second attempt. Van Gorder said he is convinced that passing AB 329 will give hospitals meaningful new tools despite the former governors skepticism. It would allow, he noted, hospitals to post notices on their walls informing patients that assault is a crime punishable with significant jail time. Under current law, such postings are not allowed. I hope that it will create a deterrent, Van Gorder said. I also think it sends a message to our people: If you are a health care worker, we are prepared to do everything we possibly can to protect you. Van Gorder said he has also decided that some Scripps security officers will be armed with Tasers, the non-lethal weapons capable of subduing attackers with a powerful jolt of electricity. That measure, he said, has been preceded by extensive de-escalation training of all patient-serving staffers. Today, a new protocol has front-line workers marking the rooms of patients assessed to potentially become violent with peace signs, signaling in a discreet way to all who enter that extra caution is warranted. A survey of local hospitals showed that Scripps is not the first to arm its security guards. Both Sharp Grossmont Hospital and UC San Diego Medical Center already use Tasers and those at Palomar Health hospitals in North County can choose to carry pepper spray if they are certified. Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside and Prime Healthcare, which operates Paradise Valley and Alvarado hospitals, did not respond. Grossmont, with the busiest emergency department in the region, has been at the forefront of security changes, implementing a similar de-escalation training program about four years ago when it also introduced tasers and the use of metal-detecting wands for most emergency patients and their families. Chief Executive Officer Scott Evans said the multi-faceted security upgrade has not only stopped weapons such as knives and guns from entering the hospital, but has made staff more pro-active in preventing violence. In 2015, according to Sharp Healthcare, Grossmont saw 67 combative injuries compared to just 21 in 2016 and 2017. Scott noted that violence is not always visited on hospital workers by patients. Family members also throw punches. Sometimes, its the dynamic within the family itself that explodes over onto the staff, Evans said. Across the Scripps system last year, Van Gorder said, 23 assaults by patients on staff were severe enough that they caused an employee to miss work, the litmus test for whether they must be reported to the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Sharp reported 70 such incidents to the CalOSHA in 2018. Palomar, which transmits information to CalOSHA on all injuries it records regardless of whether they were severe enough to cause a worker to miss work, tallied 225 worker injuries last year. Kaiser Permanente San Diego, which has not armed its workers, has not recorded any assaults. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys all workplaces with more than 10 workers every year to gauge overall worker injury rates. In 2017, the most recent year for which data is available, the BLS survey reports 10.7 intentional injuries per 10,000 hospital workers committed by patients. According to BLS records, that number was 7.5 injuries per 10,000 workers in 2007, suggesting that patient-on-caregiver violence is indeed on the rise. But the movement to stiffen penalties for assaults on health care workers is about protection and justice, Prehoden said. Her experience, she said, has led her to believe that society should see assaulting workers who are just doing their jobs the same way whether those assaults occur inside or outside of a hospital. I didnt realize the fear that this would cause, Prehoden said. Its life changing. I couldnt leave my windows open in my house for months. Still, if somebodys walking too close behind me, I find myself turning my head to see if I can see out the corner of my eye. While her assailant was charged with a felony because he used a chair as a weapon and thus did receive a longer sentence than he otherwise would have, the nurse manager said most assaults that are similarly vicious dont involve a weapon and, because they happen in hospitals, result in little jail time, usually only a few months. Of course, what happens inside hospitals is complicated. In Prehodens case, the man who hurt her so badly had been diagnosed with mental illness in the past. In 2015, an organization called Legal Services for Prisoners with Children formally opposed the first bill to take up increasing hospital violence penalties, arguing that it was misguided because the vast majority of assaults on health care workers are caused by individuals who are severely mentally ill, suffering from dementia or undergoing significant psychological stress. The organization did not respond to a request for more information on whether it intends to oppose AB-329 this year. Van Gorder said he agrees there are cases where a mental illness can mean a person is not truly responsible for their actions. Those that are truly unavoidable, he said, would not be charged by the local district attorney in the location where the assault occurred. I can tell you right now there are a lot of the assaults that take place here (where) the individuals knowingly assaulted the people. It wasnt that they didnt know what they were doing, Van Gorder said. Prehoden said that her assailant made a decision not to take any of his prescribed medications. That decision, she said, should come with consequences if it results in an injury to another person. I think its a balance of, at what point is public safety the greater need, Prehoden said. His actions that day were willful. He knew very clearly how to fight. I didnt have any time to defend myself. I didnt know what was coming until he was already on top of me. AB-329 is currently in the legislatures Public Safety Committee. Its first hearing has not yet been scheduled. Health Playlist On Now Video: Why aren't Americans getting flu shots? 0:37 On Now Video: Leaders urge public to help extinguish hepatitis outbreak On Now San Diego starts cleansing sidewalks, streets to combat hepatitis A On Now Video: Scripps to shutter its hospice service On Now Video: Scripps La Jolla hospitals nab top local spot in annual hospital rankings On Now Video: Does a parent's Alzheimer's doom their children? On Now Video: Vaccine can prevent human papillomavirus, which can cause cancer 0:31 On Now 23 local doctors have already faced state discipline in 2017 0:48 On Now EpiPen recall expands On Now Kids can add years to your life paul.sisson@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1850 Twitter: @paulsisson The number of people arrested in parts of downtown San Diego on the month of the annual point-in-time homeless count was about double the number from the previous month, records obtained from the city of San Diego show. The high number of arrests for infractions for which homeless people are often detained aroused suspicion that the city had been trying to influence the annual count of homeless people to make the number appear to have decreased. City and police officials have denied the claim. The January spike does not appear to have been a trend over the past five years. The number of arrests in January 2018, in fact, was lower than the previous month, and records dating back to 2015 also showed no significant change from December to January. This years count was conducted throughout San Diego County on Jan. 29. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires the count at least every other year in communities that receive federal funding for homeless programs, and the results are used as part of HUDs funding formula. Advertisement Its unclear what effect, if any, the arrests would have had on funding. The 139 people arrested in downtown areas with the most-dense homeless populations in January was just 1.6 percent of the countys homeless population of 8,576 in 2018, or 2.8 percent of the unsheltered population of 4,990. Its also unknown how many of the people arrested in January were still in jail on the night of the count. The Regional Task Force on the Homeless includes in its report inmates who were homeless when arrested, but HUD does not include them in its funding formula. The most-common infraction homeless people are cited or arrested for are encroachment onto public right-of-ways and illegal lodging. Arrests for those two infractions jumped in January in East Village and Sherman Heights, two downtown neighborhoods with high populations of homeless people. According to data released by the city after public records requests, there were 92 arrests for encroachment and 47 arrests for illegal lodging last January in the two neighborhoods for a total of 139 arrests. Homeless advocate Michael McConnell, who often monitors police activity regarding homeless people, was first to notice the arrests, which he tweeted about the week before the count. McConnell suggested the activity could have been intended to get people off the street on the night of the count, making it appear that the citys efforts at reducing homelessness had been successful. Attorney Scott Dreher, who has represented homeless people in lawsuits against the city, suggested the same. Regional Task Force on the Homeless CEO Tamara Kohler did not go as far, but did say she would like better collaboration with police regarding enforcement in the weeks leading up to the count. Greg Block, senior press secretary to San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, strongly denied that the arrests were in any way intended to influence the count. San Diego police Capt. Scott Wahl, who oversees the neighborhood policing division that deals with homeless people, said the arrests were in response to a number of complaints about tents on the street that had been put up during rains in early January. Wahl said no arrests were made during the rain, but enforcement began after the tents remained in the following weeks and complaints about them came in. Leading up to the January arrests, the 2018 data shows there were 95 arrests in October, 78 arrests in November and 73 arrests in December before jumping to 139. That number was far greater than in any January over the past five years. The second-highest number of arrests in January was 53 in 2018. The January jump did not appear to be a trend over the past five years. In 2017, the number of arrests for the infractions was 99 in October, 45 in November and 61 in December. The number of arrests then dropped to 53 in January 2018. The number of arrests did increase slightly in January in previous years. In 2016, there were 29 arrests in October, 16 arrests in November, 15 arrests in December and 23 arrests the following January. In 2015, there were 15 arrests in October, six arrests in November and 19 arrests in December followed by 26 arrests in January 2016. Last January, the bulk of arrests occurred before the count, but also continued after it. On Jan. 24 alone, there were 24 arrests for the two infractions. On Jan. 19, there were 20 arrests. There also were days when San Diego police made only one or two arrests for those infractions. Five arrests were made Jan. 30, the day after the count, and two were made Jan. 31. Police also made six arrests the day before the count and four arrests on the day of the count. 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 760-529-4939 More than a dozen naturalists came to this remote canyon last weekend to hunt for animals and plants of all kinds: tree frogs, prickly pear cacti, side-blotched lizards, snapdragon vines and the elusive elegant trogon bird. Taylor Edwards started the morning hike with a wish only a herpetologist could make: Hope well find some rattlesnakes. From San Diego County to Texas Rio Grande Valley, the citizen-scientists deployed to 20 border-area sites for the second annual Border BioBlitz, a two-day volunteer effort to record as many species of flora and fauna as possible along roughly one-kilometer stretches on each side of the U.S.-Mexico line. Last year, working at about half as many sites, volunteers recorded 868 species. This year, they hoped to find more to highlight the regions value as a unique habitat instead of a national security crisis. Volunteers at Sycamore Canyon downloaded the free iNaturalist app to their cellphones, snapped photos and either identified what they saw or left it to other volunteers who would later scan their findings online. Advertisement Before they had even left the trail parking lot that Sunday, a volunteer photographed a red bird as it darted from the canopy of a massive oak a vermilion flycatcher. A few steps down the grassy trail, another volunteer spotted Sisymbrium irio, also known as London rocket greens, and took a photo. Is anyone getting these grasses? shouted organizer Julia Rowe, an invasive species research specialist at Tucsons Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. They photographed several stands of the grass, including one Rowe identified as hairy grama, a name that made Edwards 10-year-old daughter, Amira, laugh. The government has secret dossiers on border journalists, lawyers and activists It was still chilly enough for the volunteers to wear fleeces as they followed the trail along a small creek that burbled in the shade of the canyons craggy walls. The trailhead was 30 miles west of Nogales, about 10 miles north of the border and far from the nearest ranger station. At times, the only sounds came from the creek, the breeze rustling the oaks and the chirps of the yellow warbler and cactus wren, Arizonas state bird. Each species identified through telltale evidence was recorded: ringtail tracks; a Coues deers leg bone, coyote scat and a canyon wren peep-peeping behind the scaly trunk of an alligator juniper. Red-headed quail with black and white speckles leaped from the brush too quickly to be identified or photographed. But volunteers had time to pause and examine thistle, verbena and desert spoon or sotol (the key ingredient in the Mexican drink of the same name). Julie Kiker crosses Sycamore Creek during Border BioBlitz. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) As the day warmed, the volunteers shed their fleeces, rolled up their pants and waded across the creek to examine crevices thick with ferns and musky-smelling moss. They lifted binoculars to spy a red-tailed hawk soaring overhead in the cloudless sky. They listened for the elegant trogons dog-like call but only heard a bird they were unable to identify that sounded, as one volunteer put it, like a rotary telephone. They ventured farther into the wilderness and noticed identifiers they didnt record most likely of migrants. Heres a backpack. No one else leaves their packs, said Julie Kiker, 63, a retired special education teacher. The crumpled bag had a camouflage pattern. They would see two more backpacks before the hike was over, as well as abandoned clothing, unopened containers of tuna and mayonnaise labeled in Spanish. Should activists aid migrants in the desert, or leave their fate to the Border Patrol? Many of the volunteers were accustomed to seeing migrants during past border research trips. Edwards, 49, an associate staff scientist at the University of Arizona, surveys for snakes at night. He said he has encountered Border Patrol and Drug Enforcement Administration agents during his surveys, as well as migrants. I run into migrants and I give them water without question, Edwards said. Edwards is planning to study the impact of increased border security on academic field research. His daughter said her biggest fear was not migrants or snakes, but wasps, which hovered by the creek. Food and clothing apparently left behind by migrants at the Sycamore Canyon trailhead, just six miles up the canyon from the Mexican border. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Unlike other stretches of Arizona, especially near border crossings, there were no armed Border Patrol agents in the canyon, no National Guard or active duty troops, no razor wire, bright lights, security towers or fencing. I feel safer here than where theres a wall, said Anthony Mendoza, a researcher at the University of Arizona herbarium. By hikes end, the group had not seen any Border Patrol agents, smugglers or migrants. But they had cataloged more than 55 species, including a bullfrog tadpole, a tarantula hawk wasp, a canyon tree frog, a pipevine swallowtail butterfly and a bridled titmouse. The elegant trogon remained elusive. Border-wide, 1,004 volunteers participating in the event had reported spotting 2,156 species by Sunday evening. Carianne Campbell, 44, a restoration biologist who participated in the Sycamore Canyon hike, said she feels safe even if shes hiking alone. She wishes more people explored the border wilderness. It is beautiful. It is special. It is unique. It is irreplaceable, a treasure, she said. La Mesa has joined a growing number of police agencies across the country that are partnering with a smart doorbell surveillance system. More than 1,000 residents in La Mesa already own Ring devices and many more have signed up for Rings Neighbors app, a kind of digital neighborhood watch where residents can share photos and videos about crime and security concerns in their area. Oceanside became the first city in San Diego County to partner with Ring last December and Carlsbad joined soon after. Ring, which is owned by Amazon, said La Mesa is the seventh agency in California to partner with the company, according to company spokeswoman Morgan Culbertson. She said the company wont release the exact number of police agencies nationwide that have joined with them. Advertisement La Mesa police Sgt. Jeff Raybould said officers are especially interested in the opportunity to look at videos captured by residents surveillance cameras as they investigate various crimes. One of the hardest things is getting videos, Raybould said. Culbertson said police can ask Ring to send out an email to app users in a certain area and request they share videos shot during a certain time frame. Residents can then decide if they want to share it with police in response to the requests. Theres no direct engagement between device users and police, Culbertson said. Ring devices cost between $99 and $499. The app, which is free and available to download for Android and iOS devices, allows users to access crime and safety information within a 5-mile radius of their homes. Officers dont have the ability to turn on cameras or review video in real time, but they can see videos that have been posted and search specific time frames to see if anyone posted a video on a certain date in their city. Police also can send a request to Ring to ask residents to check if they have videos not yet shared for certain time frames. Even if the cameras dont catch a crime in progress, Raybould said, they might see a suspect heading into or leaving a crime scene. Because of the agreement with Ring, we will be able to access a lot more videos, Raybould said. As part of the partnership, the city also is being given 10 devices that will be handed out to city residents at community events and possibly through the citys Neighborhood Watch program. The big push, Raybould said, is an attempt to get more community members to sign up for the app. Even those who dont have Ring devices can join and help keep an eye on neighborhoods. You can upload still photos. If a resident has a surveillance video camera (that isnt a Ring device), you can upload that to the portal as well, the sergeant said. Police employees also will routinely review videos posted on the app that residents indicate are criminal acts, such as package thefts. As a Police Department, we are always looking for innovative and new ways to reduce crime and the fear of crime, La Mesa Police Chief Walt Vasquez said in statement. Through our new partnership with Ring and the Neighbors app, we hope to make our citizens feel safer in their homes and community while improving our abilities to bring criminals to justice. Twitter: @karenkucher (619) 293-1350 karen.kucher@sduniontribune.com A person was seriously injured when the car she was a passenger in collided with a truck in Mira Mesa on Sunday, police said. The crash happened at the Avenida Del Gato and Calle Cristobal intersection about 6:20 p.m, San Diego police Officer John Buttle said. A 35-year-old man was in a 2011 Ford truck headed west toward the intersection where a 40-year-old man and his passengers in a 2003 Acura were stopped at a red light, said Buttle. One of the motorists disobeyed their traffic signal and drove into the intersection, police said. The two vehicles collided. Advertisement A female passenger in the Acura was taken to a hospital with serious injuries. Her age was not released. The other people were not seriously hurt, Buttle said. Neither alcohol nor drugs were suspected factors in the crash. Twitter: @LAWinkley (619) 293-1546 lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.com County authorities have identified the two men who died in a paragliding collision at the Torrey Pines Gliderport in La Jolla last weekend as a 43-year-old from North San Diego County and a 61-year-old from Orange County. Glenn Johnny Peter Bengtsson of Carlsbad and Raul Gonzalez Valerio of Laguna Hills were fatally injured in the incident Saturday afternoon, according to the county Medical Examiners Office. The solo pilots crashed into each other about 35 feet in the air, became entwined and plummeted onto the steep cliff face, about 45 feet below the edge, San Diego Lifeguard Lt. Rich Stropky said. Valerio was certified to fly on his own. Bengtsson was working on his certification and had flown 20 to 25 times, Stropky said. Advertisement The incident occurred at 2:41 p.m. at the popular cliffside launching point for paragliders and hang gliders off Torrey Pines Scenic Drive. Stropky said the less experienced pilot was flying south when he made a hard right turn, into the path of the northbound pilot. The lines leading from their harnesses to their canopies entangled. One canopy kept some air in it for moments, but the men fell straight down for 75 feet, Stropky said. They caught on a knoll on a vertical section of north-facing cliff, stranding them in a precarious position. Authorities did not know whether the fatal injuries were caused by the initial impact or the cliff crash. Lifeguards were assisted by a San Diego Fire-Rescue Department helicopter. One medic rappelled down the slippery, deeply gorged sandstone. The helicopter then hoisted the medic and one body at a time to the top of the cliff. Medics and firefighters carried the bodies on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance. Bengtsson was declared dead at 3:20 p.m. Valerio was declared dead at 3:25 p.m., the Medical Examiners Office reported. Staff writer Lyndsay Winkley contributed to this report. pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com The announcement last week by Attorney General Xavier Becerra that no charges would be filed against two Sacramento police officers involved in the shooting death of Stephon Clark nearly a year ago touched off another round of debate over deadly police shootings. Becerras conclusion that the officers were justified when they shot Clark, 22, who was unarmed has focused attention on the state law that allows police to use deadly force and two competing bills in the Legislature that address the issue. Both bills attempt to allay growing outrage among criminal justice reform advocates, civil rights groups and others over controversial shootings of civilians by police that rarely result in criminal sanctions and are excused by prosecutors as justified. But the remedies proposed in each bill, including one by San Diego Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, are different and experts differ on how effective each would be. California law for the use of deadly force by police dates to 1872. Essentially, it allows peace officers to use deadly force when they have a reasonable fear that they or someone else will be harmed. That standard makes it rare for officers to be charged after a shooting and rarer for one to be convicted at any trial. Advertisement Webers bill would alter that standard. It says deadly force could only be used when necessary to prevent death or injury when there is no other reasonable alternative such as de-escalating a situation, backing off or using non-lethal methods. Weber, a Democrat, tried to get a similar bill passed last year just after Clark was killed, but fierce opposition from police unions sank it. This year there is a competing bill supported by police groups, SB 230, sponsored by state Sen. Anna Caballero (D-Salinas). That bill would keep the same reasonable standard in place and focuses on changing police training and practices not the law of deadly force. Among other things, that law requires departments to have guidelines on use of force, more training and emphasizes requiring officers to attempt to de-escalate an encounter before using deadly force. For Michael Marrinan, a longtime San Diego civil rights lawyer who has represented numerous clients over the years in excessive-force cases, the Weber bill would be a welcome change. Anything that would make the use of deadly force less likely when it is not necessary is a good thing, he said. I think the idea the Legislature is trying to communicate to law enforcement is you should not be killing people unless it is absolutely necessary. But he was unsure how much of an effect changing the standard to using force only when it is necessary would have, either on the beat or in the courtroom. Ed Obyashi, a use-of-force expert who is a deputy sheriff and legal adviser in Plumas County, said that Webers approach would not have much impact. He said a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court case, Graham v. Connor, laid out that police use-of-force actions should be judged under a standard of whether it was objectively reasonable, and that officers could not be judged with 20/20 hindsight. That would not change even under the Weber bill, he said. The primary factor in use of force under Graham v Connor is whether there is an immediate threat to the officer or to others, he said, adding that officers are already trained to shoot only when it is necessary. Reasonableness and necessity are the same standard, he said. There is no such thing as it was unreasonable, but unnecessary. Controversy over the bill has focused on changing the standard from reasonable to force used only when necessary. But Peter Bibring of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which supports Webers bill, said another part of the bill would also have great impact. That portion says that deadly force incidents should be examined by considering the totality of the circumstances including the time leading up to the moment of shooting. That opens the door to examining not just the seconds of the fatal encounter but all the steps that led up to it or as the bill puts it ,the tactical conduct and decisions of the officer leading up to the use of deadly force. Bibring said in Clarks case, police were responding to a call of someone breaking car windows and ended up chasing Clark into the backyard of the home where he was shot. The report of Becerra and the Sacramento District Attorney, who also deemed the shooting justified, said police believed Clark had a weapon and was threatening them. Many of questions about the Stephon Clark shooting arise from the conduct of police before the shooting, he said. The police decision to pursue him into a dark yard and not identify themselves, Bibring said, are part of the totality of the circumstances of the shooting. Those facts could be considered under Dr. Webers bill, he said. But they cant be under current law. It is unclear which bill will prevail, if any. Caballeros bill calling for more training and no change in the legal standard is being backed by police organizations. But opponents like the ACLU said the bill emphasis on training standards does not go far enough. Twitter: @gregmoran greg.moran@sduniontribune.com Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry highlighted on Monday Egypt's support for peace and stability in South Sudan during a meeting with a delegation of the South Sudanese National Pre-Transitional Committee (NPTC) headed by Tut Kew Gatluak. The meeting reviewed the latest developments in South Sudan, as well as means of boosting bilateral relations in different fields. During the meeting, Shoukry said that his country is pleased to be chosen as an observer state in the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), which monitors the implementation of the peace agreement in South Sudan, said foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed Hafez. "Egypt is ready to transfer its expertise to South Sudan in the field of drafting constitutions and laws," Shoukry said, voicing Egypt's continued support for the South Sudanese people in all fields. Gatluak expressed his country's appreciation for the efforts exerted by Egypt to support peace and stability in South Sudan. Search Keywords: Short link: President Donald Trump unveiled his 2020 budget Monday that basically has no chance of getting enacted. Even Republicans balk at some of Trumps proposed cuts. But the 150-page budget reveals a lot about Trumps top priorities as his reelection campaign gets into full swing, and he looks to make it clear there are big differences between his vision for America and that of his Democratic rivals. In short, Trump wants more spending on the military and veterans and less spending on education, housing, welfare, transportation and science. Heres are the top 10 takeaways from Trumps Better America budget: 1. Big deficits are here to stay. Despite proposing the most spending reductions ever sent to Congress, as one of Trumps top aides put it, the deficit is expected to hit $1.1 trillion this year and stay above the trillion mark every year through at least 2022. This is unprecedented in good economic times and is occurring because Trump and Congress are spending more at the same time the GOP tax cuts drive down government revenue. (Trumps budget shows small increases the next few years in tax revenue, but that might be a stretch given what is occurring so far this fiscal year). Advertisement 2. Trump predicts no recession - for a decade. No president likes to predict a downturn, but Trump is being exceptionally rosy in his outlook. His budget predicts about 3 percent growth for a decade. In contrast, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts growth of slightly below 2 percent. To achieve Trumps projection, the economy would have to grow at A-plus potential for years with no recessions, something the United States has not achieved before. Consider just this year and next: Trumps budget forecasts 3.2 percent growth this year - almost a full percent above the Federal Reserves 2.3 percent prediction. In 2020, the vast majority of economists think growth will be around 2 percent (and some even say the United States will dip into a recession), but Trumps budget predicts 3.1 percent growth. 3. The biggest winners: military and veterans. Trumps budget gives the Defense Department a nearly 5 percent raise and the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Homeland Security (which includes border policing) each get about a 7.5 percent hike. NASA also sees a small increase as Trump looks to start a military space force and do more development in space. 4. The biggest losers: Under Trumps budget proposal, 10 major departments and agencies would see their budgets slashed by 10 percent (or more) in the next year alone: Agriculture, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, State, Transportation, Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency. The Trump administration likes to refer to a 5 percent cut in non-defense spending, but some agencies get far bigger chops than others. The EPA and Corps of Engineers would lose almost a third of their current funding. 5. Hot button issues: Trump wants $8.6 billion for border wall and fewer people on welfare. As expected, the president requested a substantial amount of money for expanding the border wall between the United States and Mexico. In fact, he asks for even more money in this budget than the $5 billion he wanted in December and ended up partially shutting down the government for over a month to try to get. Trump also wants to implement controversial policies to require more people receiving government benefits such as Medicaid, SNAP and housing vouchers to find work or actively search for jobs. Many advocates for the poor say stringent regulations are already in place, but the Trump administration wants to go further and its calculating it can save a lot of money by doing so (e.g. saving $220 billion over the next decade on SNAP and over $20 billion on TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families). 6. Cut Medicare by more than $500 billion. Trump promised on the campaign that he would not touch Social Security or Medicare, but he uses this budget to propose a major cut to Medicare for the first time. Trump wants to reduce wasteful spending on Medicare by expanding the list of treatments that require prior authorization before the procedure can be done and putting medical providers on notice who charge more than others. The administration argues these cost savings will help ensure Medicare can last for many years to come, but some argue it will result in people who need treatment having it delayed or not receiving it because of extra paperwork and hurdles. 7. Child care and paid parental leave. Trump touts his plans to help working parents by providing more money to make child care affordable and to start the first paid parental leave policy in the United States. He proposes a one-time $1 billion competitive fund to help underserved populations and spur more companies to launch child-care programs of their own. As for paid parental leave, the budget includes no detail of this plan. A senior administration official told reporters that was deliberate to allow Congress to craft the best policy and send it to the president. The budget includes just $1 billion a year in federal dollars for paid parental leave, a fraction of what most say it would cost to launch a viable program. 8. States would have to take more responsibility (and pick up some costs). Under Trumps plan, state governments would play a larger role in crafting policies. For example, much of Medicaid, the low-income health program, would become block grants so states get a lump sum amount from the government and then have to figure out how to spend it effectively. The net result would be a $241 billion reduction in Medicaid spending over the next decade for the federal government. 9. Lots of higher fees. Trump would like to double the H-1B visa fee (among other immigration fees), increase customs fees, create a spectrum license user fee, create a new e-cigarette user fee, create and increase various USDA inspection fees, etc. Many of these revenue streams go to support other programs Trump wants or to update computer systems. 10. Major changes to student loans. Trump wants to do away with the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program that pays off student loans for people who enter various government jobs. His budget calls for streamlining the student loan repayment system and having colleges and universities share a portion of the financial responsibility associated with student loans. The details are thin on how all of that would work, but Trump banks on his various changes to student loans saving the federal government $207 billion over the next decade. First published in the Washington Post Its that time of year again, when fatigue is brought on by daylight saving time and the endless debate over it. This year, though, theres something different about the debate over the merits of switching most of the nations clocks an hour ahead in March and then an hour back in November. This year, there are legislative pushes coast to coast to end the practice, and even President Donald Trump is weighing in. All but two U.S. states switched to daylight saving time at 2 a.m. on Sunday as required by federal law, and it will stay that way until the first Sunday of November. However, some states like California and Florida are taking active steps to walk away from a tradition that has been in place for decades. How likely are these efforts to succeed? Could daylight saving time ever stick around all year? Heres what you need to know. Advertisement What is daylight saving time? Since 1966, most U.S. states have advanced their clocks an hour ahead of the standard time of each time zone for about eight months from March to November. The intent of daylight saving is to conserve energy, prevent traffic injuries and reduce crime, according to the Department of Transportation. Not repeat, not to keep young students in bed longer and frustrate the lives of their parents. How can it be changed? There are two ways to end daylight saving time, once and for all. States could stick with the standard time all year, or switch to daylight saving time all year. The first option is already legal. Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and most of Arizona all but the Navajo Nation have opted out of daylight saving time. The opposite move, a switch to year-round daylight saving time with more sunlight in the evening literally takes an act of Congress; thats whats needed to change the Uniform Time Act of 1966. Tell me more about the Uniform Time Act of 1966. What does it do? The law set up the system we have today for adjusting the nations time zones one-hour to save daylight unless states within those zones opt to exempt themselves from the time adjustment. So what are states considering now? A number of U.S. states are passing laws that set them up to switch to year-round daylight saving time if Congress makes it legal. Californians embraced this approach last year, with about six in 10 voters choosing to adopt Proposition 7 RELATED: Daylight saving time California proposition passed. Heres what happens next The passage of Prop. 7 set up a multi-step process to adopt year-round daylight saving time. It would require a majority support from congressional leaders to pave the way for the change and two-thirds support from California lawmakers to pass legislation allowing year-round daylight saving time. Florida also passed a similar law in 2018 to put it on a comparable path to a change. At a national level, two Florida Republicans Marco Rubio in the Senate and Vern Buchanan in the House introduced legislation last week to make daylight saving time permanent in all states. Rubio called the time change obsolete, confusing and unhealthy shortly after it took place on Sunday. People across America are waking up this morning grumpy at losing an hour because of springing forward to daylight saving time. This week I once again filed my bill to end this obsolete, confusing and unhealthy practice. https://t.co/zwmOGBFJpj Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 10, 2019 How likely is a change to happen? While the presidents tweets dont always indicate a clear policy path, his tweet from Sunday would seem to indicate that hed sign a bill passed by Congress to make daylight saving time permanent. Given Trumps tendency to tweet a lot and change his mind, its tough to read too much into the tweet, but heres what it said: Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is O.K. with me! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 11, 2019 Rubio has explained that it was the Florida legislatures decision to pass a state law that spurred him to try the same things on the national level, so thats at least one sign theres new momentum to a change this year. On the other hand, many Americans still support sticking with standard rather than daylight saving time all year, meaning there wouldnt be a fall back or spring forward time change twice per year. A recent YouGov poll found that 54 percent of Americans surveyed support ending daylight saving time. A House Bill introduced this year in the state of Michigan would keep the clocks there in the standard time if passed. At least 26 state legislatures have introduced bills this year proposing to either make daylight saving time permanent or keep the standard time year-round, according to a county by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Want more from The Conversation? Subscribe to our podcast The Conversation with Abby & Luis is a podcast that slows down the news cycle to make sense of issues and stories that matter to listeners in San Diego and beyond. We talk to news makers, experts and others to offer interesting, in-depth conversations that will keep you up to date and informed. Check out some of our most recent episodes below, or subscribe on Apple or Stitcher. Email: abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @abbyhamblin ALSO Letters: Daylight Saving? Would we rather not save all that daylight? Your Opinions: Daylight saving time, living in cars and more in Top Comments Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/11/2019 -- Carpal tunnel syndrome is a medical condition of numbness, weakness, and tingling in the hand due to compression of the median nerve in the wrist. The median nerve is located on the palm side and also known as the carpal tunnel. This nerve is responsible for sensation in the thumb, the index finger, the middle finger, and part of the ring finger. The key work of the median nerve is to supply the impulse to the thumb muscle. Excess pressure in the wrist and the median nerve causes swelling. Some other frequent conditions associated with carpal tunnel syndrome are thyroid dysfunction, high blood pressure, diabetes, and autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis. The most common signs and symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome are tingling, numbness, pain in the thumb, pain and burning that travels up to the arm, weakness in the muscles of the hand, and the wrist pain at night that interferes with sleep. Health care specialists recommend nerve conduction studies, physical examination, and other tests to confirm the presence of carpal tunnel syndrome. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH), more than 230,000 procedures are performed for carpal tunnel surgery every year. Approximately 23% of people with carpal tunnel syndrome are able to resume their profession after the surgery. Usually, women are more affected by carpal tunnel syndrome than men. More than 8.3 million people are diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome every year. View Report: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/carpal-tunnel-syndrome-treatment-market.html Increasing research and development activities, introduction of innovative therapies, rising demand for effective therapies among patients, and growing disease prevalence are projected to fuel the global carpal tunnel syndrome treatment market in the near future. Lifestyle factors such as smoking, high body mass index (BMI), sedentary lifestyle, and high salt intake may increase the risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome. Jobs that involve repetitive movement of the wrist such as manufacturing, keyboard operating, assembly line work, and construction work raise the risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome. Increasing health care insurance coverage is another factor likely to drive the global carpal tunnel syndrome treatment market during the forecast period. The global carpal tunnel syndrome treatment market can be segmented based on treatment type, distribution channel, and region. In terms of treatment type, the market has been categorized into medications, physical and integrative therapies, and surgery. Based on distribution channel, the market has been classified into hospital pharmacy, retail pharmacy, and online pharmacy. In term of revenue, the hospital pharmacy segment dominated the carpal tunnel syndrome treatment market in 2016. Request a Brochure of the Report @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=39290 Geographically, the global carpal tunnel syndrome treatment market has been segmented into five regions viz. North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is the leading market for carpal tunnel syndrome treatment. In terms of revenue, the U.S. holds a major share of the North America market. The market in Europe is expanding rapidly, due to high prevalence of carpal tunnel syndrome in the region. The market in Asia Pacific and Latin America is projected to expand significantly in the near future. Developing economies such as China and India are anticipated to contribute to growth of the Asia Pacific market between 2017 and 2025, due to better health care infrastructure, economic growth, increase in the number of insurance payers, growth of the private health care sector, and rise in awareness among people in these countries. Brazil dominates the Latin America market for carpal tunnel syndrome treatment. South Africa, Turkey, and other developing countries in Middle East & Africa contribute to growth of the MEA market. Request TOC @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=39290 Key players operating in the global carpal tunnel syndrome treatment market are Pfizer, Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc, Novartis AG, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Company, Wockhardt Ltd., Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, Johnson & Johnson, Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Aurobindo Pharma Ltd. About Transparency Market Research Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge. Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMR's syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement. Contact Us Transparency Market Research 90 State Street, Suite 700 Albany, NY 12207 Tel: +1-518-618-1030 USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com Website: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/11/2019 -- Around 10% of the global population is affected by chronic kidney disease (CKD) and over 2 million people suffer from end-stage renal disease (ESRD), which has to be treated by dialysis or kidney transplant. Health care spending on kidney in general and specifically on ESRD is on a rise. In 2014, overall Medicare spending on the treatment of ESRD was over US$ 32 Bn, while the National Health Service (NHS) spends around 3% of its budget on kidney failure services. The burden of kidney diseases is rising in developing countries as well, with nearly half a million patients in China undergoing dialysis (Source: National Kidney Foundation, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, NHS). View Report: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/dialysis-centers-market.html Rise in prevalence of ESRD is driven by increase in prevalence of diabetes and geriatric population. According to the International Diabetes Federation, globally, the number of adults with diabetes (diagnosed or undiagnosed) is projected to increase from 415 million in 2016 to 642 million by 2040, while people aged 60 years and above are expected to account for 17% of the global population by 2030, up from 12% presently (Source: WHO and International Diabetes Federation). Based on type of services, the global dialysis centers market can be classified into in-center dialysis, in-center nocturnal dialysis, home hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, and other services such as disease management and emergency services. Home dialysis offers benefits such as better outcome and higher level of flexibility over in-center dialysis. However, global statistics indicate that over 85% of the patients prefer in-center dialysis even when health care professionals believe that home dialysis could be a better option for ESRD patients. Preference for home dialysis is lower in the U.S., with over 93% of patients choosing in-center hemodialysis. Request a Brochure of the Report @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=39254 In terms of region, the global dialysis centers market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Presently, majority of the dialysis centers are located in developed economies such as the U.S., Germany, Japan, Italy, and the U.K. More than 2,200 of the 3,600 dialysis centers operated by Fresenius Medical Care are located in the U.S. In India, less than 30% of the ESRD patients undergo dialysis due to factors such as high cost and lack of access to dialysis centers. Moreover, developing economies such as India and China are expected to present significant opportunities in the market due to rise in affordability among the population and government initiatives to improve access to dialysis services. Nephroplus, the largest chain of dialysis centers in India, plans to use the US$ 15 Mn raised through Series-C funding in 2016 to expand from 100 centers to 500 centers in five years. Key players in the global dialysis centers market are Fresenius Kidney Care, DaVita, Inc., U.S. Renal Care, Inc., Diaverum, NephroCare (part of Fresenius Medical Care), B. Braun Melsungen AG, Yueda Group, NephroPlus, Apex Kidney Care, Deep Chand Dialysis Center, and Kaikoukai Healthcare Group, among others. The market is expected to continue to consolidate, as larger players such as Fresenius and DaVita acquire smaller companies to reduce price competition and increase market share. In May 2018, DaVita acquired ten dialysis centers of Purity Dialysis, a player based in the U.S. Request TOC @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=39254 About Transparency Market Research Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge. Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMR's syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement. Contact Us Transparency Market Research 90 State Street, Suite 700 Albany, NY 12207 Tel: +1-518-618-1030 USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com Website: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/11/2019 -- Exanthema (exanthem) is rash that affects several areas of the skin. It is generally referred as viral exanthema more common in children. Determining of the exact cause of rashes is difficult as look similar in most of the cases. Hence, other symptoms (such as headache, severe abdominal pain, diarrhea vomiting etc), facilitate the physicians in identifying the type of virus responsible for onset of the disease. This condition is also termed as roseola infantum and is positioned as a sixth rash causing disease in children since, this condition is caused by human herpesvirus 6 (HHV 6). Similar condition is caused by other viruses as well resulting in development of rashes all over the body. These rashes are visible from head to toe and are red and blotchy in appearance. Infants suffering from common viral infections such as cold and sore throat are at the highest risk of acquiring viral exanthems. Several symptoms of exanthem such as severe abdominal pain, stiff neck, diarrhea needs timely treatment. Medication such as acetaminophen (tylenol), penicillin and tetracycline are prescribed for treatment of exanthema. However, certain temporary medications such as NSAIDs can be taken for pains, headache, and others. For instance, Acetaminophen and ibuprofen are prescribed against headaches, fever and body pain. Cool sponge baths are also recommended to reduce the fever to certain extent. Report Overview @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/exanthema-market.html Increasing research activities for development of drugs for viral exanthema and increase in incidences of exanthema among the infant are the major driver that drives the growth of exanthema market. In addition, growing awareness of exanthema disease treatment among end user and rising government initiatives for vaccination for infants are anticipated to contribute the growth of the market. However, lack of standard diagnosis procedure for exanthema and lengthy drug development procedure with high cost for research are restraining the growth of the exanthema market. Request Brochure @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=3063 The exanthema market has been segmented by type of disease and by geography. In terms of disease type, the exanthema has been categorized into rubella, roseola, measles, and erythema infectiosum. Geographically, the market is segmented by four major regions namely, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America and European countries represent large market share of the total exanthem market. This is attributed to high awareness levels and favorable government support. Regulatory policies pertaining to drug safety and efficacy play an instrumental role in commercialization and approval of the drugs. Furthermore, strategies such as in licensing and out licensing strategies adopted by the major market players also plays a significant role in drug development process. These market growth can be attributed to the investments done by leading players to develop new products, which will enhance the growth of the exanthema in the developing countries, such as China and India. Latin American countries such as Mexico and Brazil are expected to have considerable potential for driving the market growth due to evolving medical structure, and incidences of exanthema. The major players operating in this market include C.H. Boehringer Sohn AG & Ko. KG, Winston Pharmaceuticals, Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Johnson & Johnson, and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., among other significant players worldwide. Request for TOC @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=3063 The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications. About Transparency Market Research Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge. Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMR's syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement. Contact 90 State Street, Suite 700 Albany, NY 12207 Tel: +1-518-618-1030 USA Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com Website: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/09/2019 -- The Top key vendors in Fire Elevator Market include are Jas Enterprises, Guidetti S.r.l., Stedman, Union Process, Inc, Paul O. Abbe, Hockmeyer Equipment Corp., MPE - Modern Process Equipment, Inc., Retsch, NEUE HERBOLD Maschinen, GEBR?DER JEHMLICH GMBH, Nara Machinery Co. Ltd, IMS Maschinen, IKA-Werke GmbH & Co. KG, Dec USA Inc, Swiss Tower Mills, Guilin Hongcheng Mining Equipment. Trend Insight Report - Access the insights Free PDF Sample Copy of Fire Elevator Market at https://www.marketgrowthinsight.com/sample/16467 Apart from this, the valuable document weighs upon the performance of the industry on the basis of a product service, end-use, geography and end customer. The industry experts have left no stone unturned to identify the major factors influencing the development rate of the Fire Elevator industry including various opportunities and gaps. A thorough analysis of the micro markets with regards to the growth trends in each category makes the overall study interesting. When studying the micro markets the researchers also dig deep into their future prospect and contribution to the Fire Elevator industry. A high focus is maintained on factors such as demand and supply, production capacity, supply chain management, distribution channel, product application and performance across different countries. The report not only offers hard to find facts about the trends and innovation driving the current and future of Fire Elevator business, but also provides insights into competitive development such as acquisition and mergers, joint ventures, product launches and technology advancements. A quick look at the industry trends and opportunities The researchers find out why sales of Fire Elevator are projected to surge in the coming years. The study covers the trends that will strongly favor the industry during the forecast period, 2019 to 2025. Besides this, the study uncovers important facts associated with lucrative growth and opportunities that lie ahead for the Fire Elevator industry. #Learn how the best companies avoid overstretching and understretching to improve performance. Learn how to build the strategy and business case to implement Order Here@ https://www.marketgrowthinsight.com/checkout/16467 On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, and market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into - Hammer Refiner - Vertical Refiner - Medium-speed Trapezoidal Refiner On the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, including - Food & Beverage - Mining - Others Region wise performance of the Fire Elevator industry This report studies the global Fire Elevator market status and forecast, categorizes the global Fire Elevator market size (value & volume) by key players, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top players in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia India and Other regions (Middle East & Africa, Central & South America). Key points from TOC 7 Global Fire Elevator Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis 7.1 Jas Enterprises 7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors 7.1.2 Fire Elevator Product Category, Application and Specification 7.1.2.1 Product A 7.1.2.2 Product B 7.1.3 Jas Enterprises Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018) 7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview 7.2 Guidetti S.r.l. 7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors 7.2.2 Fire Elevator Product Category, Application and Specification 7.2.2.1 Product A 7.2.2.2 Product B 7.2.3 Guidetti S.r.l. Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross argin (2013-2018) 7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview 7.3 Stedman 7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors 7.3.2 Fire Elevator Product Category, Application and Specification 7.3.2.1 Product A 7.3.2.2 Product B 7.3.3 Stedman Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018) 7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview Continue.. Browse Full RD with TOC of This Report @ https://www.marketgrowthinsight.com/16467/fine-grinder-market This Fire Elevator market report holds answers to some important questions like: - What is the size of occupied by the prominent leaders for the forecast period, 2019 to 2025? What will be the share and the growth rate of the Fire Elevator market during the forecast period? - What are the future prospects for the Fire Elevator industry in the coming years? - Which trends are likely to contribute to the development rate of the industry during the forecast period, 2019 to 2025? - What are the future prospects of the Fire Elevator industry for the forecast period, 2019 to 2025? - Which countries are expected to grow at the fastest rate? - Which factors have attributed to an increased sale worldwide? - What is the present status of competitive development? About Market Growth Insight Market Growth Insight is a one stop solution for market research reports in various business categories. We are serving 100+ clients with 10000+ diverse industry reports and our reports are developed to simplify strategic decision making, on the basis of comprehensive and in-depth significant information, established through wide ranging analysis and latest industry trends. We are striving to provide the best customer friendly services and appropriate business information to accomplish your ideas. Contact 502, Sai Radhe, Kennedy Road, Behind Hotel Sheraton Grand, Near Pune Station, Pune 411 001, Maharashtra, India Contact No- + 91 8956 049 020 Sales@marketgrowthinsight.com Website- https://www.marketgrowthinsight.com Los Angeles, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/08/2019 -- Global High Performance Polymers (HPP) market report is first of its kind research report that covers the overview, summary, market dynamics, competitive analysis, and leading player's various strategies to sustain in the global market. This report covers five top regions of the globe and countries within, which shows the status of regional development, consisting of market value, volume, size, and price data. Apart from this, the report also covers detail information about various clients which is the most significant element for the manufacturers. Request a Sample of this report: https://www.qyresearch.com/sample-form/form/984737/global-high-performance-polymers-hpp-industry The following manufacturers are covered: Celanese Corporation Daikin Industries Evonik Industries Solvay Sumitomo Chemical Arkema DIC Corporation DuPont Kuraray RTP Company Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) Unitika Segment by Regions North America Europe China Japan Checkout link: https://www.qyresearch.com/settlement/pre/5dde1399a83954f2857ee20d224a6bc7,0,1,Global%20High%20Performance%20Polymers%20(HPP)%20Industry%20Trends%20and%20Forecast%20to%202025 Regions Covered in the Global High Performance Polymers (HPP) Market: The Middle East and Africa (GCC Countries and Egypt) North America (the United States, Mexico, and Canada) South America (Brazil etc.) Europe (Turkey, Germany, Russia UK, Italy, France, etc.) Asia-Pacific (Vietnam, China, Malaysia, Japan, Philippines, Korea, Thailand, India, Indonesia, and Australia) Ask our Expert if You Have a Query at: enquiry@qyresearch.com Strategic Points Covered in TOC: Chapter 1:Introduction, market driving force product scope, market risk, market overview, and market opportunities of the global High Performance Polymers (HPP) market Chapter 2:Evaluating the leading manufacturers of the global High Performance Polymers (HPP) market which consists of its revenue, sales, and price of the products Chapter 3:Displaying the competitive nature among key manufacturers, with market share, revenue, and sales Chapter 4:Presenting global High Performance Polymers (HPP) market by regions, market share and with revenue and sales for the projected period Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9: To evaluate the market by segments, by countries and by manufacturers with revenue share and sales by key countries in these various regions Hershey, PA -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/11/2019 -- Kelly Mahler, MS, OTR/L, a Pennsylvania-based Occupational Therapy scholar and author, is excited to announce the release of her new guidebook and instructional resource, The Interoception Curriculum: A Step-by-Step Framework for Developing Mindful Self-Regulation. The curriculum is available for purchase on the recently redesigned https://www.kelly-mahler.com/product-category/publications/. Of particular interest to educators and parents, especially of learners with challenging behaviors or conditions such as autism, anxiety, depression, trauma or ADHD, The Interoception Curriculum features 25 evidence-based lessons that use the latest information about interoception, the emotional highway between our bodies and brains, to teach self-regulation skills in a developmental progression from start to finish. Meticulously researched and practically applied with many clients over the years, the curriculum is designed to be adapted for a wide range of learners, both children and adults. "I want to change the way we view what is often called 'challenging, disruptive or purposeful' behavior. I want to inspire people to think differently, dig deeper, and discover what is at the root cause of the behaviors we may observe," says Mahler. She continues, "If we can do this, I believe that we can provide more effective, meaningful supports so that our clients, students, and loved ones can flourish. That's why I'm so excited to share my discoveries about interoception with professionals and families. I want to help them gain a better understanding of behavior. To learn how to dig deep. To ask the right questions. To implement an interoception-based approach to behavior and self-regulation." With a foreword by Ira Glovinsky, Ph.D., The Interoception Curriculum seeks to reveal the complexity of being human whether an individual has a diagnosis or not. Glovinsky notes, "Working on the body-emotion-action connection will move us away from thinking that we can fit humans into categorical boxes. Kelly's thinking about the importance of interoception is brilliant and a gift to all of us." Connect with Kelly Mahler: Facebook| YouTube| Twitter About Kelly Mahler Kelly Mahler MS, OTR/L, earned an MS in Occupational Therapy as well as a Post-Professional Pediatric Certificate from Misericordia University, Dallas, PA. She is currently a doctoral student at Misericordia University. Kelly has been an occupational therapist for 17 years, serving school-aged children and adults. Kelly is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Occupational Therapy at Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA. She is actively involved in several research projects pertaining to interoception. Kelly is an international speaker and frequently presents on topics related to the seven books she has authored: The Interoception Curriculum: A Step-by-Step Framework for Developing Mindful Self-Regulation Interoception Activity Cards Interoception: The Eighth Sensory System The Comprehensive Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness Sensory Issues and High Functioning Autism (with Myles and Robbins) winner of National Parenting Publications Bronze Medal Destination Friendship: Developing Social Skills for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders or Other Social Challenges (with Benton, Hollis, and Womer) Hygiene and Related Behaviors for Children and Adolescents With Autism Spectrum and Related Disorders winner of Mom's Choice Awards Gold Medal Iranian President Hassan Rouhani sharply criticised U.S. military intervention in the Middle East on Monday as he began a first official visit to Iraq, aimed at shoring up Tehran's influence and expanding trade ties. The visit also sends a strong message to Washington and its regional allies that, in the face of U.S. sanctions, Iran still plays a dominant role in Iraqi politics. Prior to his departure, Rouhani said Shia Iran was determined to strengthen brotherly ties with its neighbour, Iranian state television reported on Monday. Those ties "cannot be compared to Iraq's relations with an occupying country like America, which is being hated in the region," the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted him as saying before he left. "One cannot forget the bombs that Americans dropped over Iraq, Syria and other regional countries." During the three-day visit a series of agreements will be signed in energy, transport, agriculture, industry and health, Iran's state news agency IRNA said. "We are very much interested to expand our ties ... particularly our transport cooperation," Rouhani said at Tehran's Mehrabad airport. He will visit a Shia Muslim shrine in Baghdad's Khadhimiya district prior to a welcome ceremony, the offices of Iraq's president and prime minister said. A senior Iranian official accompanying Rouhani told Reuters that Iraq was "another channel for Iran to bypass America's unjust sanctions ... This trip will provide opportunities for Iran's economy." The sharp downturn in Iran's economy since U.S. President Donald Trump's decision last May to pull out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers has pushed the country's leaders to try to expand trade ties with neighbours. The agreement lifted sanctions that had been imposed by the United States, European Union and United Nations in return for Iran curbing aspects of its nuclear programme. The Trump administration said the accord was too generous and failed to rein in Iran's ballistic missile capabilities and its involvement in regional conflicts in Syria and Yemen. Other signatories to the deal have been trying to salvage the pact, but U.S. sanctions have largely scared off European companies from doing business with Iran. The Europeans have promised to help firms do business with Iran as long as it abides by the deal. Iran has itself threatened to pull out of the 2015 deal unless EU powers demonstrably protect its economic benefits. Search Keywords: Short link: Sellbyville, DE -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/11/2019 -- North America is expected to hold a major share of the Network Management Systems (NMS) Market due to the widespread deployment of management systems to monitor attacks on mission-critical communication networks. According to the Identity theft Resource Center (ITRC), the U.S. recorded 1,579 breaches in 2017, indicating a 44.7 percent increase over the record figures reported for 2016. As the U.S. federal agencies suffer the significant data breaches, it becomes very crucial for them to deploy security solutions. For instance, in February 2017, the U.S. Army used InterMapper, an NMS solution from HelpSystems, enabling them to monitor devices in real-time and send alerts to the administrators about unusual traffic. Request for an in-depth table of contents for this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-toc/upcoming/2981 Factor fueling the growth of the Network Management Systems (NMS) Market is the explosive growth of data traffic with a surge in smartphone penetration and improved network connectivity. As the increasing volume of data packets in networks reduces the efficiency and predictability of the networks, operators implement NMS to manage network resources more efficiently. The market is also driven by intent-based networking, which incorporates AI and machine learning to automate administrative tasks across a network. With the profound growth of data centers and cloud IoT platforms, the demand for self-managing networks will increase over the forecast timeline, thereby leading to a swift increase in the market growth. However, the increasing use of virtualization technology adds to the complexity of next-generation networks, which impedes the market growth. The network virtualization technology eliminates the relation between traffic and physical network components, making it difficult for the operators to manage virtual network components. It becomes important for them to use comprehensive network management tools to track virtual networks. The demand for Network Management Systems (NMS) in banks and financial institutions is expected to increase over the forecast period as these institutions have a highly-interconnected network infrastructure to offer a wide range of services to customers. As banks have increasingly become targets for hackers and DoS attacks, it becomes crucial for banking institutions to adopt NMS to monitor the banking systems. To ensure that these institutions are operating more securely and efficiently, IT professionals use these management solutions to increase performance and improve the security of the banks' IT infrastructure. Request for customization @ https://www.gminsights.com/roc/2981 A rapid growth of the telecom industry in Asia Pacific, particularly in China and India, backed up by significant investments from government agencies will accelerate the adoption of Network Management Systems (NMS). For instance, in January 2017, the Chinese government reduced the subsidies and eased the rules to attract more private investments to bolster its internet services. According to the IBEF, the increasing penetration of smartphones and a decline in data costs are expected to add 500 million new internet users in India over the next five years. A significant surge in networks generates the demand for network management solutions, enabling telecom operators to track and control the networks. Major companies operating in the Network Management Systems (NMS) Market are BMC Software, Cisco, CA Technologies, AppNeta, Extreme Networks, Accedian, HelpSystems, Ipswitch, Kentik, Micro Focus, NETSOCUT, Nokia, Riverbed Technology, SolarWinds, VIAVI Solutions, Flowmon Networks, Paessler, Colasoft, and Cubro Network Visibility. About Global Market Insights: Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology. Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/11/2019 -- According to a report on the global probiotics market by TMR, the market was valued at US$6,762.2 mn in 2018. TMR predicts that the global probiotics market will expand at 8.3% CAGR during 2018-2026. The market is anticipated to reach US$12,753.4 mn in valuation by 2026 end. Bottled packaging is expected to remain popular with consumers in the global probiotics market. It is expected to garner 8.7% CAGR growth during 2018-2026 period. The global probiotics market in North America region is also expected to register significant growth. Its appealing and convenient qualities make it a popular offering. Request For Report Brochure For Latest Industry Insights @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=386 Growing Awareness about Consumption of Probiotics to Fuel Growth of Market Antibiotics are increasingly used in various medical ailments around the world. Additionally, disposable income is on the rise in emerging countries. Growing awareness regarding side-effects of antibiotics is expected to boost the global probiotics market. Probiotics such as lactobacillus acidophilus are believed to lower cholesterol, and also help with diarrhea and bacterial vaginosis. On the other hand, increased use of antibiotics can result in imbalance in microbiota and reduces the healthy bacterial activity as well. This is especially significant for small children who have low resistance to ailments like diarrhea. The global probiotic market is expected to chip in to meet the demand for healthy bacteria activity with heavy investments in promotional activity during the forecast period. Additionally, antibiotics are in high demand in BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries. As the awareness about antibiotics is still limited in these markets, some antibiotics are easily available over the counter. To counter the influx of antibiotics, probiotics manufacturers have adopted a task-driven approach to chase consumers. Growing advancements in tracking consumer activity online and large penetration of smartphones in the BRICS markets are expected to drive growth of the global probiotics market. Europe Market Presents a Challenge to Overall Growth The global probiotics market also faces considerable challenges during the forecast period. The EU has banned the word 'probiotic' from promotions. This is a major setback to the global probiotic market during the forecast period. However, the market is expected move towards emerging economies with high capital investments. The rise of e-commerce offers more promotional and distribution opportunities for players in the global probiotics market. Obtain Report Details @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/probiotics-market.htm The global probiotics market is a competitive and robust business landscape. The market is increasingly driven by changing consumer preferences and intense rivalries among top players, reports Transparency Market Research (TMR). Prominent players in the global probiotics market are Probi AB, Chr. Hansen Holding A/S, DowDuPont Inc., Nestle S.A, and BioGaia AB. Key players in the global probiotics market are focused on improving distribution channels as online sales grow and offer potential to reach new consumers in the market. Additionally, these players are investing in promotions in emerging countries as the awareness about probiotics in these markets is still in its nascent stages. The key players in the global probiotics market are also investing in research and promotions to further the cause of probiotics as a health supplement to appeal to consumers. Harrisburg, NC -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/11/2019 -- "Global Salmon Fish Market: Industry Analysis & Outlook (2018-2022)", provides an extensive research and detailed analysis of the present market along with future outlook. Key players i.e. Marine Harvest Group, Bakkafrost P/F, Grieg Seafood ASA and Norway Royal Salmon ASA are being profiled along with their respective financials and growth strategies. Purchase A Copy of this Report (USD $1000) at: https://www.marketinsightsreports.com/report/purchase/03071138836?mode=su?source=releasewire&Mode=07 Essential points covered in Global Salmon Fish Market 2019 Research are:- - What will the market size and the growth rate be in 2022? - What are the key factors driving the Global Salmon Fish market? - What are the key market trends impacting the growth of the Global Salmon Fish market? - What are the challenges to market growth? - Who are the key vendors in the Global Salmon Fish market? - What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the Global Salmon Fish market? - What are the key outcomes of the five forces analysis of the Global Salmon Fish market? This independent 89 pages report guarantees you will remain better informed than your competition. With tables and figures examining the Salmon Fish market, the report gives you a visual, one-stop breakdown of the leading products, submarkets and market leader's market revenue forecasts as well as analysis to 2022. Furthermore, the report provides a detailed analysis of the Global Salmon Fish market with analysis of market size by value and volume. Along with this, an analysis of penetration rate and the average revenue generated per user (ARPU) in the market has also been done. Request a Sample Copy of this Report at: https://www.marketinsightsreports.com/reports/03071138836/global-salmon-fish-market-industry-analysis-outlook-2018-2022/inquiry?source=releasewire&Mode=07 Salmon fish is one of the most popular seafood, which is widely consumed by the people all around the world. This fish species is highly rich in protein and provides some of the essential nutrients which are associated with a healthy profile in customers and therefore considered as one of the functional food. Presently, the overall industry is experiencing growth with the growing research & development (R&D) activities conducted by the key fish breeding corporations to improve their respective smolt (young salmon fish) harvest volume. The global industry growth is expected to augment by the escalating fast-casual restaurants, mounting smolt releases, booming tourism industry and increasing healthcare awareness. The market is trending with the intensifying demand for smoked salmon, progressing salmon fish harvesting projects, rising penetration of online to offline food delivery channels in China and technological advancement. However, there are some growth hindering factors in the industry such as the growing carbon dioxide emissions and outbreak of salmon induced disease. Regionally, Europe rules the overall salmon industry as a result of decline in the occurrence rate of marine animal diseases such as Sea Lice, Pancreas Disease & Salmonid Rickettsial Septicaemia in key revenue contributing areas and high adoption of the recirculation aquaculture system by the seafood companies. Browse Full Report at: https://www.marketinsightsreports.com/reports/03071138836/global-salmon-fish-market-industry-analysis-outlook-2018-2022?source=releasewire&Mode=07 The research includes historic data from 2013 to 2019 and forecasts until 2022 which makes the report an invaluable resource for company executives, marketing executive, sales and product managers, consultants, analysts, and stakeholders looking for key industry data in readily accessible documents with clearly presented tables and graphs. The report will make detailed analysis mainly on the development environment, market size, and development trends of Salmon Fish market on the basis of current situation of the industry in 2019 so as to get a holistic understanding of the competition in Salmon Fish Market Carrier. The study was conducted using an objective combination of primary and secondary information including inputs from key participants in the industry. The report contains a comprehensive market and vendor landscape in addition to a SWOT analysis of the key vendors. About MarketInsightsReports MarketInsightsReports provides syndicated Market research reports to industries, organizations or even individuals with an aim of helping them in their decision making process. MarketInsightsReports has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain. Contact Us: Irfan Tamboli (Head of Sales) Market Insights Reports Phone: + 1704 266 3234 | Mob: +91-750-707-8687 sales@marketinsightsreports.com | irfan@marketinsightsreports.com New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/11/2019 -- Seaweed is species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae, which are found in oceans and seas across the globe. The hydrocolloids such as alginate, agar, and carrageenan, gelatinous substances are extracted from seaweed. Seaweed is beneficial to health to fight against illness and diseases. Seaweed is used in food, medicines, cosmetics and organic fertilizers and feed additives. The red seaweed is a source for carrageenan hydrocolloid, which is highly used in food industry owing to its improved gelling and thickening property. The red seaweed segment is anticipated to dominate among the product type segment, due to the increasing demand for agar and carrageenan from the food industry. The brown seaweeds is expected to follow red seaweeds owing to the growing use of brown seaweed in animal feed additives and fertilizers. On the basis of form type, the liquid form seaweed is expected to account for larger market share in terms of value and volume, this is owing to rising demand from agriculture and pharmaceutical industries across the globe. On the other hand, the human food segment is expected to hold significant market share among the application segment, this is due to increase in seaweed consumption in human food coupled with increasing demand for seaweed derived snacks. The global seaweed market is anticipated to witness significant CAGR during the forecast period. Global Seaweed Market: Drivers, Restraints, and Trends Increasing consumption of seaweed as a food extract, medical use, and for bio-refining is expected to drive the demand for seaweed. Furthermore, growing consumer awareness regarding nutritional benefits of seaweed, rising demand for alginate in food, pharmaceutical industries is expected to boost the growth of global seaweed market. In addition, increasing demand for seaweed derived snacks is anticipated to fuel the demand for seaweed. However, lack of awareness of harvesting various species of seaweed among the manufactures is expected to hinder the growth of global seaweed market. A sample of this report is available upon request @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/12370 Key trends are observed in the production of seaweeds are, the manufacturers are implementing growth strategies such as merger and acquisition, partnership, and agreement. Global Seaweed Market: Segmentation The global seaweed market is segmented on the basis of product type, form type, and application. On the basis of product type, the global seaweed market is segmented into: Red Seaweed Brown Seaweed Green Seaweed On the basis of form type, the global seaweed market is segmented into: Liquid Powdered Flakes On the basis of application, the global seaweed market is segmented into: Food and Beverages Agriculture Animal Feed Additives Pharmaceutical and Biotechnological Other (Aquaculture, Biomass for Fuel, and Wastewater Treatment) Global Seaweed Market: Regional Outlook Based on the geographies, the global seaweed market is segmented into five key regions, namely North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. Owing to the increase in harvesting and consumption of seaweed in China, Japan and Indonesia, the Asia Pacific seaweed market is anticipated to hold major revenue market share. North America and Europe is anticipated to collectively, contribute in the global seaweed market, this is due to increasing seaweed harvesting coupled with consumption in US, Germany, UK and France. Also, rising demand for seaweed in food industries coupled with increasing investments in R&D activities by key manufacturers in US, and increasing popularity for seaweed baths coupled with increasing use of seaweed in German beer (contains agars, carrageenans and alginates) in Germany and UK are making these regions as favorable regions. Owing to growing consumer awareness regarding medical and other benefits of seaweeds in Brazil, GCC countries and South Africa, the Latin America and MEA are expected to witness modest growth rate. To view TOC of this report is available upon request @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/12370 Global Seaweed Market: Key Players Some of the major players identified in the global seaweed market include Cargill, Incorporated DuPon Acadian Seaplants Limited (ASL) Biostadt India Limited Brandt Consolidated, Inc. COMPO Expert GmbH Gelymar Lonza Group Ltd. Marinalg International Ocean Harvest Technology Ocean Rainforest Sp/F Qingdao Bright Moon Group Co., Ltd. Groupe Roullier Seasol TBK Manufacturing Corporation W Hydorcolloids Inc. CP Kelco High Hope Foods (Nanjing) Co., Ltd. Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/11/2019 -- The world stationary catalytic systems market is prophesied to achieve impetus from the need to control the emission of pollution. For instance, oxidation catalysts can be adopted to reduce the pollutant emission due to the operation of gas turbine power generators. Countries such as the U.S. are taking to strict norms such as the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for managing the emission of industrial pollutants and greenhouse gases. In the wake of the surging demand for electricity in residential, commercial, and industrial industries, power plant stationary catalytic systems have been commonly adopted. Read Report Overview @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/stationary-catalytic-systems-market.html With a view to offer a decisive insight into the international stationary catalytic systems market, the report offers a comprehensive study of segmentation on the basis of different classifications. The global market could be segmented according to technology and application. The authors of the report have compiled conclusive information on the global stationary catalytic systems market with a perfect blend of trends analysis and quantitative forecasting. Our seasoned research team have put in painstaking efforts and quality skills to offer the most reliable data that is vitally important for sustaining an enduring business growth. Global Stationary Catalytic Systems Market: Trends With a bossing nitrogen oxide reduction capability, the selective catalytic reduction technology is anticipated to exhibit a powerful growth in the near future as it had dominated in the recent past. With the help of ammonia, this technology is capable of metamorphosing nitrogen oxide into harmless nitrogen gas and water. The catalytic oxidation segment by technology is also predicted to showcase dominance with a substantial advancement during the course of the forecast period 20162024. It can be said that the global stationary catalytic systems market can gain traction on the back of the progress of catalytic oxidation. Metal oxides such as manganese dioxide, nickel oxide, chromium oxide, and copper oxide can be used during the application of solvent evaporation for oxidizing volatile organic compounds with the help of catalytic oxidation. This technology also finds a number of applications in polymers and rubber production, organic chemicals production, and resin production. Request to view Sample Report: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=19493 Global Stationary Catalytic Systems Market: Geography North America is foretold to receive assistance from the plans to replace aging infrastructure in the years to come. In order to better the socioeconomic outcomes and bolster the middle-income population, the Canada government has made a considerable amount of investment in green and social infrastructure. These efforts are deemed to optimistically impact the business growth in North America. Europe could invite a decent growth as it looks to ride on the steady rise of the France market due to rigorous industrial emission standards chalked down by the government. Amongst the emerging nations of Asia Pacific, India will to take advantage of its over the top investment in the infrastructure industry. The government has already reserved a sizable amount of funds for the development of roads on a large scale. Owing to the presence of a significant number of power plants, China could hold its leading position in the global stationary catalytic systems market for a stronger growth. A coal fired power plant of almost 200,000 MW is under construction in China since 2016. Sellbyville, DE -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/10/2019 -- U.S. baghouse filters market from veneer applications may witness gains at over 3.5% by 2024. They are widely used in doors & windows, composite panels and cabinetry. Increasing number of producers in domestic as well as international market engaged in manufacturing low end furniture & fixtures may favor industry growth. California Baghouse Filters Market size from architectural woodworking may witness above average gains over the forecast timeframe. Increasing consumer spending in interior and renovation projects due to changing lifestyle should drive industry growth. Request for a sample copy of this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/1672 U.S. Pulse Jet Baghouse Filters Market for woodworking applications is poised to surpass USD 25 million by 2024. They are especially designed equipment for fine dust applications, widely used in veneer, and furniture manufacturing industries. They are suitable for high volume air owing to low cost and easy maintenance should fuel product demand. Baghouse filters maintenance include leak detection process, bag washing, vacuum transfer systems and high temperature precautions. The cost incurred on purchase and operation depends on type, whether it's made from mild steel or stainless, or insulated. Additionally, standardized modular baghouses are less expensive than custom built units. Company profiled in this report based on Business overview, Financial data, Product landscape, Strategic outlook & SWOT analysis: 1. Camcorp 2. Donaldson Company 3. Imperial systems, 4. Nederman Mikropul 5. Mac Process, 6. Clarcor Industries 7. Staclean 8. Griffin Filters. Make an Inquiry for purchasing this Report @ https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/1672 U.S. reverse air baghouse filters market size for woodworking industry may exceed USD 45 million at the end of 2024. Increasing fire explosion incidences along with growing awareness regarding industrial safety norms and NFPA standards for dust control in industries should stimulate industry growth. Pennsylvania remains a key avenue for the industry. Increasing awareness about harmful effects of dust along with high amount of dust generation through woodworking process may propel industry growth in the future. Increasing lumber production owing to favorable government initiatives along with technological innovations in milling, cutting, and sawing technique will lead to industry growth in the region. Utah baghouse filters market size from furniture & fixture application should witness gains at over 4%. Increasing demand for smart and affordable furniture to fit in changing living standards should drive industry growth. Increasing infrastructural spending along with rise in use of furniture in residential & commercial buildings owing to availability of skilled labors and flexibility in design may fuel product demand. Browse Report Summery @ https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/US-baghouse-filters-market U.S. Baghouse Filters Market size for woodworking industry should surpass USD 85 million by 2024. Growth in lumber industry along with increasing commercial & residential infrastructure development and presence of various high-quality furniture makers should drive U.S. baghouse filters market size for woodworking applications. Stringent regulations by OSHA and NFPA on account of limiting dust exposure of workers along with potential risk of dust explosion may contribute towards industry growth. U.S. baghouse filters market share for woodworking industry is competitive and consolidated. Key market players include Camcorp, Donaldson Company, Imperial systems, Nederman Mikropul, Mac Process, Clarcor Industries, Staclean, and Griffin Filters. Globular clusters are densely packed, spherical collections of hundreds of thousands or even millions of stars. They are among the oldest known objects in the Universe. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured an amazing photo of one of these ancient objects Messier 28. Messier 28, also known as M28 and NGC 6626, is located 17,900 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. This globular cluster was discovered by French astronomer Charles Messier on July 27, 1764, who catalogued it incorrectly, referring to it as a [round] nebula containing no star. While today we know nebulae to be huge clouds of interstellar dust and gas, until the early 20th century a nebula represented any astronomical object that was not clearly localized and isolated. Any unidentified hazy light source could be called a nebula. In fact, all 110 of the astronomical objects identified by Messier were combined under the title of the Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters. He classified many objects as diverse as star clusters and supernova remnants as nebulae. This includes Messier 28, which is actually a star cluster. Whilst Messier 28 is easily recognizable as a globular cluster in this image, it is far less recognizable from Earth. Even with binoculars it is only visible very faintly, as the distorting effects of the Earths atmosphere reduce this luminous ancient cluster to a barely visible smudge in the sky. One would need larger telescopes to resolve single stars in Messier 28. Fortunately, from space Hubble allows Messier 28 to be seen in all its beauty far more than a faint, shapeless, nebulous cloud. Insomnia is a common disorder linked with adverse long-term medical and psychiatric outcomes. It affects 10-20% of adults, and several twin and family studies suggested that about a third of the risk of insomnia is inherited. Now a team of scientists from the University of Exeter and Massachusetts General Hospital has identified 57 new gene regions associated with symptoms of insomnia. Insomnia has a really significant impact on millions of people worldwide. Weve long known theres a link between insomnia and chronic disease. Now our findings suggest that depression and heart disease are actually a result of persistent insomnia, said study co-author Dr. Samuel Jones, a researcher at the University of Exeter Medical School. All of these identified regions are possible new therapeutic targets for insomnia, and 16 of these regions contain known drug targets. The new causal relationships indicate the potential usefulness of insomnia therapeutics as possible treatments for coronary artery disease and depression, said study lead author Dr. Jacqueline Lane, from Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Lane, Dr. Jones and their colleagues analyzed data from more than 450,000 UK Biobank participants, 29% of whom reported frequent insomnia symptoms. The analysis associated 57 gene sites with self-reported insomnia, associations that were not affected by known risk factors such as lifestyle, caffeine consumption, depression or recent stress. The genomic regions identified include genes involved in ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis a process by which proteins are tagged for destruction and those expressed in several brain regions, skeletal muscles and the adrenal gland. While some of these genes imply connections between insomnia symptoms, restless leg syndrome and coronary artery disease, the identified regions did not include neurotransmission genes known to be involved in sleep regulation. To test whether the UK Biobank results generalize to other populations, the team analyzed data from the HUNT study and from the Partners HealthCare Biobank. The comparisons of 15,000 HUNT study participants who reported insomnia symptoms with more than 47,600 controls, and of 2,200 Partners HealthCare Biobank participants with clinical diagnoses of insomnia with 14,240 controls confirmed the findings. Data from a subset of almost 85,000 UK Biobank participants who had worn motion-detecting devices called accelerometers for up to seven days suggested that the insomnia-associated gene regions lowered sleep efficiency, a measure of the quality of sleep, and the duration of sleep and increased day-to-day variations in sleep duration. An analysis technique called Mendelian randomization, which can reveal whether one of two traits present in individuals may cause the other, indicated that increased insomnia symptoms were causative of coronary artery disease (almost doubling the risk), symptoms of depression and a reduced sense of well-being. There are problems with current treatments for insomnia including issues with accessibility, addiction and side effects, said co-author Dr. Michael Weedon, a researcher at the University of Exeter. We hope that understanding more about the underlying processes involved in insomnia will pave the way for better and more personalized treatments, which in turn could reduce the number of people suffering from insomnia and improve the long-term health of those that do. Next comes the hard work of figuring out how we get from genetic changes to insomnia, added study senior author Dr. Richa Saxena, from Massachusetts General Hospital. The results were published in the journal Nature Genetics. _____ Jacqueline M. Lane et al. 2019. Biological and clinical insights from genetics of insomnia symptoms. Nature Genetics 51: 387-393; doi: 10.1038/s41588-019-0361-7 RTHK: UK's May seeks Brexit breakthrough in Strasbourg British Prime Minister Theresa May will travel to Strasbourg later on Monday in a bid to "finalise" her Brexit deal ahead of a crucial vote in the British parliament on Tuesday, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said. "The British prime minister is travelling to Strasbourg this evening, I understand, to try to finalise an agreement if that's possible to be able to put that to a meaningful vote in Westminster tomorrow," Coveney told reporters in Dublin. Top EU officials are meeting in Strasbourg this week for the European Parliament's plenary session. The British pound sankto a near three-week low under US$1.30, as traders fretted over Brexit. The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said on Monday that negotiations to break a deadlock on a deal to leave the bloc are now between May and members of her parliament. "We held talks over the weekend and the negotiations now are between the government in London and the parliament in London," Barnier said as he arrived at EU headquarters in Brussels to discuss Brexit with envoys from the other 27 member states. Two months ago, parliament overwhelmingly rejected the withdrawal agreement May struck with the European Union, and sent her back to Brussels to renegotiate. As MPs prepare to vote again on the deal on Tuesday, the prime minister has little to show for her efforts, prompting warnings of another humiliating defeat. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. The Arab Movement for the Protection of Human Rights Organisations, the first Arab mechanism to monitor the performance of human rights organisations, has monitored the work of some international rights organizations on the region and found some serious violations that have affected their work, it said in a statement released on Monday. The UN Charter affirms that the principle of the independence of the work of civil society organisations is one of the main axes towards fulfilling the role of these organisations in terms of their capacity and function to promote democratic space, freedoms and respect for human rights and influence legislation and laws to support the interests of the most marginalised and poor social groups of the community. It is no secret that the human rights movement was affected by the political conflict between Qatar and the Arab quartet countries of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, reads the statement. Unfortunately, that conflict reached the use of human rights tools in international forums and the exchange of distortion and misinformation about the human rights situation in the Arab region. The movement, which is composed of several Arab organisations, has applied the criteria of independence and professionalism in terms of their monitoring, so that its ruling is built on the basis of universal rights and analysis of the content of their statements and activities in the international human rights institutions during the previous sessions. Its names recorded violations of the criteria of independence, professionalism and integrity and the criteria for granting consultative status by insisting on providing a cover for the rights of extremist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Houthi militia and issuing reports lacking a methodology for research on the human rights situation in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE. It also played a political role, with a focus on criticising the human rights situation in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE for Qatar, which is accused of financing terrorism and interfering in the sovereignty of the Arab countries. Therefore, the Arab movement found it imperative to warn Arab societies and international mechanisms of those organisations by issuing a blacklist of the names of these organisations so that their movement will be noticed in the international human rights forums and in Arab and international public opinion. The Arab Movement for the Protection of Human Rights Organisations also calls on the Swiss authorities to review the activities of the organisations in Switzerland and their sources of funding and monitor their expenditures. Blacklist 1. Al-Karama Foundation (funded by the State of Qatar and founded by Abdel Rahman Al-Naimi, listed on the Global Terrorist Lists and operating in Geneva) 2. Cometti Four Giestes (a Swiss organization run by the Ahmad Farah brothers) 3. The International Center for Transitional Justice, based in New York 4. The Arab Organization for Human Rights in London 5. Liberty in London 6. Organization of Islamic Human Rights 7. International Foundation for the Defense of Human Rights Defenders 8. The Global Coalition for Rights and Freedoms and its headquarters in Geneva, Paris, Washington and London 9. Egyptians Abroad Organization for Democracy 10. Arab Organization for Criminal Reform 11. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies 12. Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms 13. Adalah Center for Rights and Freedoms 14. My Center for Rights and Freedoms 15. The Freedom Initiative 16. Arab Foundation for Civil and Political Rights - Nidal 17. Al-Shehab for Human Rights 18. Human Rights Monitor Search Keywords: Short link: Airlines in Ethiopia, China and Indonesia grounded Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets Monday as investigators recovered the black boxes from a brand-new passenger jet that crashed outside Addis Ababa a day earlier, killing all 157 people on board. The Nairobi-bound plane -- the same type as the Indonesian Lion Air jet that crashed in October, killing 189 passengers and crew -- smashed into a field just six minutes after takeoff as the pilot alerted controllers of "difficulties". Hopes were raised Monday of finding answers for the deaths of people from 35 countries, including two dozen UN staff, that prompted Ethiopia to declare a day of mourning. "After tedious search by the rescue and investigation team... Ethiopian Airlines announces that the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of ET302 have been recovered," the state-owned carrier said in a statement, using the flight number. The airline, Africa's largest, added it had grounded its fleet of six remaining Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes pending information "assumed to be found from the black box data." This followed on the heels of China, which ordered domestic airlines to suspend commercial operation of the Boeing 737 MAX 8. There were eight Chinese nationals among the 149 passengers and eight crew on board the ill-fated flight. Indonesia, which has 11 of the planes, said it would "carry out inspections and temporarily prohibit Boeing 737 Max 8 from flying." Boeing has described the MAX series as its fastest-selling airplane ever, with more than 5,000 orders placed to date from about 100 customers. State-owned Ethiopian Airlines had ordered 30 MAX 8 jets in total, and China has received 76 from an order of 180. The plane that crashed Sunday was less than four months old. It had been delivered on November 15, Ethiopian Airlines said. Plane on fire The jet fell near the village of Tulu Fara, some 60 kilometres (40 miles) east of Addis Ababa. Witness Tegegn Dechasa told AFP "the plane was already on fire when it crashed to the ground. The crash caused a big explosion." Another, farmer Sisay Gemechu, said: "The plane seemed to be aiming to land at a nearby level open field, but crashed before reaching there." As inhabitants of the remote part of Ethiopia looked on from behind a security cordon, inspectors pursued their search for plane debris, passenger belongings and human remains Monday. The single-aisle Boeing left a deep, black crater at the impact site, which was being dug up with a mechanical excavator. As Ethiopia prepared to receive loved ones seeking victims' remains and belongings, a UN gathering in Nairobi opened under a shadow. At least 22 staff from different UN agencies were on the flight, many headed for an annual assembly of the UN Environment Programme. Delegates arrived with the UN flag flying at half-mast, hugging and comforting one another as they wondered who among the staff may have been on the plane. Nairobi hosts the global headquarters of UNEP and UN-Habitat, and is the regional seat of other UN agencies. "Let us reflect that our colleagues were willing to travel and to work far from their homes and loved ones to make the world a better place to live," UN-Habitat head Maimunah Sharif told some of those gathered. Author, student, humanitarians Pope Francis added his voice Monday to the global outpouring of condolences from the UN, Western and African leaders, offering "prayers". Ethiopian Airlines said the pilot was given clearance to turn around after flagging difficulties to airport authorities before the plane disappeared from radar. Carrier flydubai said Monday it would not ground its MAX 8 Boeings, with a spokesperson saying: "We remain confident in the airworthiness of our fleet." South Korea said it had sent a team of four inspectors to low-budget airliner, Eastar Jet, that runs two B737 MAX 8 planes, and Royal Air Maroc said its sole MAX 8 was undergoing maintenance. A committee comprising Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority and Ethiopian Transport Authority was set up to led the investigation, in which American experts will also take part. Details of the passengers, including tourists, business travellers and humanitarians, have started to emerge. Among them was Cedric Asiavugwa, a Kenyan third-year student at Georgetown University Law School in Washington, visiting home ahead of his graduation in the spring, his university said. Kenya had the highest death toll with 32, according to the airline. Canada followed with 18 victims, including Nigerian-born author Pius Adesanmi, who directed the Institute of African Studies at Carleton University. Nine Ethiopians were among the victims, with eight each from Italy and the United States. The airline said Britain and France each had seven people on board, Egypt six, and Germany five. France, however, put its death toll at nine. Ethiopian Airlines CEO said the plane had flown in from Johannesburg early Sunday, spent three hours in Addis and was "despatched with no remark", meaning no problems were flagged, before taking off again. Search Keywords: Short link: SDF fighters are moving slowly into Islamic State group's final pocket in eastern Syria to avoid losses in the face of sniper fire and landmines, one of their commanders said on Monday. Warplanes flew above Baghouz, a cluster of houses on the banks of the Euphrates at the Iraqi border where Islamic State fighters still hold out, and smoke rose from the area along with the sound of intermittent clashes. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has made "modest advances" since resuming its assault late on Sunday, killing and wounding many jihadist fighters said Adnan Afrin, a senior commander. SDF military operations continued on Monday along with coalition airstrikes, but Afrin said advances were slow because the SDF wanted to complete the campaign with minimal losses. It has held off from a full-blown assault for most of the past few weeks as many thousands of people poured from the enclave, including surrendering fighters, Islamic State group supporters, other civilians and some of the group's captives. The defeat of Islamic State group at Baghouz will mark a milestone in the campaign against the jihadist group, ending its control of populated territory in the area straddling Iraq and Syria where it suddenly expanded in 2014 and declared a caliphate. However, it has already shown it will continue to mount a potent security threat, with a string of insurgent attacks in both countries. Search Keywords: Short link: Chinas largest acrylic acid and acrylates manufacturers, Zhejiang Satellite Petrochemical, ordered six 93,000 cu m very large ethane carriers (VLEC) is entering into the shipowning sector with the takeover of the contracts from Delos Shipping at HHI and SHI. The company booked three VLECs at each of the two Korean yards, totalling in the price of RMB5bn ($734.8m). The vessels are the worlds largest ethane carriers. The company initially planned to co-operate with US marine shipping industry investment firm Delos Shipping for the long-term chartering of three plus three VLECs. Last year, Delos Shipping ordered six VLECs at the two Korean yards, however, the contracts were cancelled as Delos Shipping was unable to complete payments. The two Korean yards re-signed the contracts with Zhejiang Satellite Petrochemical for the construction of the six VLECs. Last year, Zhejiang Satellite Petrochemical signed "Ethane Supply Agreement" and "Ethyl Transport MOU" with American Energy Transportation Company and the British Voyager Gas Transportation Company. It will import about 3m tons of ethane per year, with a total trade volume of nearly RMB100bn. The company is also investing in a hydrocarbon project at Lianyungang which is scheduled for putting into operation in 2020. We're open for business, like we haven't been in the past. The Kingdom has relied on the fact that it was, is and will remain the largest economy in the region. We probably did not focus on the importance of efficiency in the past, Minister Nabil Al Amoudi said, speaking exclusively to Seatrade Maritime News on the sidelines of the Saudi Maritime Congress (SMC). We are now are focusing heavily on efficiencies, especially in import-export processes, digitalisation, and ensuring that the infrastructure that we've already installed is being utilised properly, he said. Besides maritime, we're working on land transport as well and are going to be expanding our rail network as well. And in the near future we will announce major projects. The Kingdom is looking to logistics as a key enabler of growth in its economy. All of this requires private sector participation, especially under the auspices of a Saudi Aramco. There's the King Salman International Complex for Maritime Industries and Services being constructed as we speak [in Ras Al Khair]. And I think that shows the commitment of the Kingdom to delve deeply into this sector and invest. Al Amoudi said it was a mistake to see the oversight of the Saudi Port Authority, which he earlier headed up, as implying that ports were a public sector asset in the Kingdom. The west coasts King Abdullah Port (KAP) is the only privately-owned facility in Saudi Arabia, but not the only one that is privately-operated. No, that's a misconception. Operations in the ports in the kingdom have been privatized for over 20 years. There have been long-term concession agreements. We have DP World, Hutchison Ports, and PSA International under a joint venture with [Saudi sovereign wealth fund] the Public Investment Fund. All of that has been [driven by] PPP relationships for over 20 years. We have Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) relationships in Dammam and Jeddah. Saudi Global Ports and PSA International are with local companies. The private sector has invested in ports for a long time now in the kingdom. This is not a new thing. What's different is the amount of investment, but KAP is not the only privately-operated port in the kingdom. He agreed that the Kingdoms logistics center of gravity was moving to the west coast given the increasing competition between KAP and Jeddah Islamic Port. In the eastern province, obviously there are a lot of exports through Jubail, while on the west coast, we see a lot more imports and transhipment, given the location. We see the transhipment specifically increasing quite a bit. That is due to the natural geographic location, as well as centers of consumption and centers of industry and development. Al Amoudi said he foresaw progress on the Saudi Landbridge, the rail project linking Jeddah to Dammam, via Riyadh, that has been on the drawing board for almost a decade. That's going to be a key project for us to execute on the next few years. We signed an MOU with China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, a unit of China Railways Corporation and a Saudi company, to look at how to develop that. The opening ceremony was attended by high level government officials and key players in the maritime and logistics industry, with H.R.H. Princess Sarah Al Saud, Director of Maritime Business Development, International Forum for Maritime Transport, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport and Eng. Abdullah Aldubaikhi, Chief Executive Officer of Bahri, also addressing the delegates and attendees about the industry in the second session of the day. In his speech at the opening ceremony, H.E. Dr Nabel Bin Mohammed Al Amudi, Saudi Minister of Transport, said, "The 2nd Saudi Maritime Congress is strategically important and remains an interactive platform for exchanging information, transferring experiences and exploring investment opportunities available to develop the maritime sector with the participation of experts, pioneers and decision-makers. The Kingdom has provided a pioneering model in the development of the maritime sector, accompanied with unlimited support and unprecedented attention of our wise leadership, which translates to a quality-focused shift in facilities, operational and logistical mechanisms, to position Saudi ports among the ranks of the most important regional ports and an ideal destination for major global navigation lines. Al Amudi added: "We confidently look forward to the conference, which represents an important step towards keeping pace with developments in the global maritime and logistics sector. We seek to continue fruitful cooperation with the public and private sectors to promote this vital sector, successfully connect bridges with three continents and make the Kingdom a global logistics center." Other speakers during the opening Keynote Session include H.E. Dr Rumaih bin Mohammed Al Rumaih, President, Public Transport Authority, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, H.E. Eng. Saad Bin Abdulaziz Alkhalb, President, Saudi Ports Authority (MAWANI), and Suleiman Bin Abdullah Al-Tuwaijri, Vice Governor, General Customs Authority, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who are all invested in speaking to delegates. Chris Hayman, Chairman of Seatrade, said: It was an honour and a pleasure to welcome all attendees on behalf of Seatrade to the 2nd Saudi Maritime Congress 2019. During the first event, held in Dammam in 2014, the message was clear: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was committed to the major development of its maritime and logistics sector. "Four years on that forecast has been overwhelmingly fulfilled in the Saudi Vision 2030 programme. The world is watching with admiration the unfolding of a strategy that will position the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a global hub, delivering connectivity between Asia, Europe and Africa. "In 2014, there were 17 countries represented at this event. This year we have 36 countries, the exhibition booth area has doubled in size, and we are expecting more than twice as many attendees. "I would like to express our sincere thanks to His Excellency Dr Al Amudi, the Minister of Transport for being here today and for delivering the keynote address. "I would also like to thank our patron MAWANI, and its president, His Excellency Engineer Saad bin Abdulaziz Alkhalb, and our strategic partner, Bahri, and their CEO, Engineer Abdullah Aldubaikhi, for their great support and participation in this event. The opening of the congress was led with a high-level keynote session At the Heart: The Powerhouse, The Hub, which explored the growing contribution from the private sector to the national economy and foreign direct investment opportunities in the Kingdom. The panelists have also discussed the further integration of the Saudi Arabia into the regional and global economies as a global logistics hub connecting three continents. Other sessions that took place were Infrastructure, Logistics and Supply Chain Development, which reviewed KSAs strategic location in the development of trade, expansion and modernization, port investment strategies for new economic cities, public and private partnership for the ports sector; Harnessing Smart Technology and Automation, discussed the adoption of digital technology for the maritime and supply chain sectors and the need for a cyber secure environment for the logistics sector; and Regulation and Sustainability, which examined the importance of green issues, including the 2020 sulphur deadline, in the 2030 plan. Concluding tomorrow at the Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh, Kingdom Centre, the Saudi Maritime Congress enables sector professionals to network, do business and build and enhance relationships whilst discussing industry topics within detailed conference sessions. The topics to be discussed on the second day of seminars as part of the conference include Ship Building, Fleet Expansion and Diversification session, which will highlight the Kingdoms move into large scale rig and ship construction and repair and the diversification of the fleet into the dry cargo market; Creating Industry Expertise and a Highly qualified Saudi Workforce session, which will discuss the new initiatives to support maritime education in the Kingdom and the latest initiatives undertaken by the government and the industry to help to improve its workforce. The Congress will close with the Offshore Marine: The Road to Recovery session, to review consolidation in the offshore drilling sector, the outlook for rig operators in the Middle East and what firmer oil prices will mean for the offshore marine sector. Complete details of the event are available at www.saudimaritimecongress.com Press Release March 11, 2019 ANGARA: QUALITY EDUCATION BEGINS WITH QUALITY TEACHERS WHO ARE PAID WELL LUCENA CITY--Reelectionist Senator Sonny Angara said the government should pay teachers more if it wants to improve the quality of education in Philippine public schools. "Quality education begins with quality teachers. And to have good quality teachers in our public schools we need to pay them well," Angara said, as he reiterated his appeal to the government to give teachers a reasonable pay increase. He added: "I am sure money is not the overriding motivation for educators because many of them are dedicated and they love what they are doing. But teachers are not martyrs; they should be valued by society and compensated accordingly." Angara issued the statement while campaigning in Lucena City with fellow senatorial candidates of Hugpong ng Pagbabago, the regional political party chaired by presidential daughter and Davao City Sara Duterte. Lucena City has a total of 157 elementary and secondary educational institutions--88 elementary schools, 38 junior high schools and 31 senior high schools-- 63 of these are public schools, making it one of the educational centers in Southern Tagalog. Earlier this year, President Rodrigo Duterte announced that his promise to increase the take-home pay of public school teachers could finally happen this year. He, however, did not mention how much the increase would be, but it was definitely on top of the fourth and last tranche of salary increases for all government workers to be implemented this year. Last year, the President also vowed to raise the salary of teachers after the basic pay of military and police personnel had been doubled. Angara expressed hope that the teacher's pay adjustment would be equivalent or close to the rate he has been pushing since 2016 when he filed Senate Bill 135. Under the bill, the minimum salary grade level of teachers will be adjusted from Salary Grade 11 to 19, or double their current monthly base pay of P20,179 to P42,099. According to Angara, the relatively low pay for teachers discourages many from entering the profession, and the pay hike would attract more qualified and competent educators to teach in public schools. He also said that dedicated teachers in public schools, especially those experiencing teacher shortages, would not be compelled to leave the classroom in order to support their family. "Our teachers are considered to be the heart of the educational system. The government needs to give priority to their welfare and interests," Angara pointed out. "Definitely, this would lead to an improvement in the quality of education in our public school system," he added. Press Release March 11, 2019 Dispatch from Crame No. 482: Sen. Leila M. de Lima on Comelec's denial of Otso Diretso's request to organize debates 3/11/19 The COMELEC should reconsider its decision not to organize debates for the senatorial candidates. As the constitutional body mandated to conduct clean and honest elections, one of its tasks is also to assure a well-informed electorate by the time the ballots are cast on election day. It cannot leave the people's decision-making to the mass media advertisements and propaganda of the individual candidates. Such forms of campaigning do not substantially contribute to the education of the voters insofar as the track record, platform, and program of government of the candidates are concerned. An organized debate is one of the more reliable way for the candidates to show their readiness for public office, and for the voters to test the candidates' qualifications for the position they are running for. Contrary to its own pronouncement, it is not impossible for the COMELEC to come up with the energy and the resources to organize senatorial debates at this point. The constitutional body is composed of hard-working and competent officials and rank-and-file employees who do not usually shirk from the challenges and demands of running nationwide elections. Surely, something as essential as organizing senatorial debates is not beyond COMELEC's capabilities. In the end, it comes down to the question of how important organized senatorial debates are to the COMELEC in the fulfillment of its mandate of educating the voters. The COMELEC should realize that now, more than ever, organized debates among national candidates are important to expose the lies and fake credentials being peddled in social media by unscrupulous candidates. In the age of fake news and historical revisionism, those with a record of dishonesty, corruption or incompetence, and who have come to rely on the short memories of the Filipinos to forget, should not be allowed to succeed. Instead, they must be exposed, opposed and rejected. They must be brought before the people on a national stage, not to sing and dance or act like clowns, but to defend their track records and platforms of government. Each one of them should pass through the proverbial eye of the needle in a competition of integrity and intelligence. Once the COMELEC realizes that national elections, especially the senatorial elections, should not be reduced to a song-and-dance popularity contest, it might start giving importance to sponsoring and organizing the debates among the candidates. It should recognize that one of its foremost mandate is to make sure not to leave the people's decision-making to the vagaries of political campaigns that cannot be assured to be nothing more than a carnival of performing clowns. Turkey has summoned the Belgian ambassador in Ankara to protest a Brussels appeals court decision that said a Kurdish rebel group cannot be considered to be a terrorist organization. A Turkish Foreign Ministry official said Monday that Turkey ``conveyed its unease'' over the decision to Ambassador Michel Malherbe. The decision relates to a case under which Belgian federal prosecutors were seeking to try around 30 suspected member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, who allegedly recruited young Kurds in Belgium and elsewhere in Europe, and then took them to combat training camps. A Brussels appeal court however, ruled Friday that ``insufficient elements were provided to conclude that the PKK is guilty of terrorist offenses.'' The PKK is considered a terror organization by Turkey, the United States and the EU. Search Keywords: Short link: Press Release March 11, 2019 Transcript of Interview with Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon SFMD:The leadership in the Senate met, Senate President Sotto, myself, Senator Legarda and Senator Lacson. We discussed this. There was indeed a report from the Senate Committee on Finance that P75 billion is being realigned. In other words, the House of Representatives is rearranging the furniture. I have asked the committee to furnish the senators with the details of this supposed P75 billion realignment. It is not only an itemization of a lump-sum, but our information is that, the items are being realigned so that those who appear to be sympathetic to former Speaker Alvarez and former Majority Leader Farinas were deprived of the allocation or their allocation were reduced. Those in who are favor of the present leadership are favored with additional allocation. I have talked to two congressmen, one from the Visayas and one from Luzo. They asserted that 62 congressmen are affected by these realignments, not only itemization. This is the allocation of the HoR. The allegation is that, these items were in the National Expenditure Program, were carried in the General Appropriations Bill, were approved in bicam, and the ratified version of the bicam contained these allocations. So, I would request the chairman of the committee to furnish the senators of the details of this, because you cannot alter what was approved in the bicam, contained in the bicam report and ratified by each chamber. If the HoR would want to realign and change certain allocations in the HoR, my suggestion is that, when we reconvene on May 20, we reconsider the ratification of the bicam report on the budget and reconvene the bicam and correct the alleged revisions in the final bicam report. After the bicam report is ratified by both chambers, hindi na pwedeng palitan ito, because that would constitute unauthorized alterations of legislative records. You cannot change, even if you are the speaker of senate president, what was approved by the chambers. The senate president and the house speaker are not superior to their respective chambers. It is the chambers which approved this and therefore, any revision must be approved by the chambers. Q: Once you have the list, what are you going to do? SFMD:We will compare it with what was approved in the bicam and confirm that indeed alterations and realignments are being made, not only itemization. I'm confident that our staff can figure this out. Q: Printed na raw yung budget. SFMD:Even if it is printed, what should be printed is what was approved. If what is printed is not the one approved, we have advised Senate President Sotto not to sign it. Q: If it's already printed, you can still go back to the bicam? SFMD:Of course, as long as it has not been signed. We have done that before in the case of the coco levy fund. We revised it after it has been approved by the bicam; recalled it. Of course ultimately the President vetoed the bill. We can reconsider our approval of the bicam report. The printing of the budget is immaterial. Q: What will happen if congressmen insist that they just tinkered on typographical errors? SFMD:The Senate President will not sign the enrolled copy. Then there will be no budget. I suggest the solution is, if they really want to do this and say, we are realigning our share of the pork barrel - let's call a spade a spade - let's reconsider the approval of the bicam report, reconvene the bicam, come up with a new ratified report, and have it printed. You cannot just revise and alter what was approved in the bicam. Q: Ano po yung risks kapag reenacted budget yung umiral during election? SFMD:Wala naman. The items that were already utilized can no longer be utilized. Q: Yung ibalik sa bicam ang best remedy? SFMD:That's the only remedy. Q: Sir, admission iyon na maraming lump-sum nan a-approved sa budget? SFMD:The way I understand it is it is not only an itemization of lump-sum items; it is really a revision of individual items that were included in the bicam report. For example, if a bridge is in District 1 of Province A and has a budget of P100 million, this P100 million is removed and placed in another district. Q: Ang agreement daw po kasi during the meeting with Sen. Loren and Cong. Abaya, the agreement is framework lang iyon and saka na mags-submit ng after ma-ratify. SFMD:They can agree on that basis but it is not consistent with the Constitution. That is not correct. That agreement is wrong if there is that agreement, because it is not the chairs of the committees who would decide this; it is the chambers that will decide. Q: Some senators daw po submitted items after the ratification? SFMD:Then it should be rejected. As simple as that. Q: May kaunting liability ba si Sen. Legarda? SFMD:I would not impute any liability at this point. Q: Yung likelihood of an archived budget? SFMD:I am making a proposal to solve the deadlock. Q: What if the HoR does not agree with your proposal, are you looking for a reenacted budget for the rest of the year? SFMD:If they will not agree to that proposal, then you have a reenacted budget for the whole 2019. Q: Paano yung HFEP? SFMD:Then you cannot fund that because it is on the 2019 budget. Q: So, hindi tapos yung maraming hospital? SFMD:That's the effect. Q: Aware kayo na may senador na nag-submit after the ratification? SFMD:That should not be allowed. I'm not aware. Q: Ano pa yung mag-suffer aside from the HFEP? SFMD:Well, one-fifth of the gross domestic product of the country is dependent on public expenditures. If there are no new appropriations, then that share of the GDP will be affected, because public spending will be less than what was budgeted. Q: And the BBB? SFMD:In general, there will be a reduction in public expenditure, which constitutes one-fifth of the country's GDP. New Zealand needs to get its renewables build underway if it is to maximise the economic benefit of shifting industry and transport to lower-carbon energy, Refining NZ chief executive Mike Fuge says. The country has the engineering capability to deliver new projects everything from wind farms to hydrogen but risks being held back by policy uncertainty. Firms, including the refinery, are ready, willing and able to invest to help meet the countrys 2050 climate change targets and have the skilled staff to deliver on that, he says. The Marsden Point refinery has a strong cadre of process engineering but there is a generation of younger skilled workers there and around the country that need more challenge. Without a sustainable level of on-going development activity the country risks further erosion of its specialist technical capabilities. We must excite that next generation, Fuge told BusinessDesk. If we dont provide them that excitement then they will go overseas. If we dont, we are going to lose them. Refining NZ is the countrys only oil refinery. It employs about 650 staff and contractors and produces about three-quarters of the petrol, diesel and jet fuel used here. It is a major electricity and gas user and is also the countrys biggest maker, and user, of pure hydrogen. The firm last year signalled its interest in increasing its hydrogen production, potentially tied to solar or other renewable generation, either for local transport use or export. It is aiming to detail that in a strategic plan expected mid-year. Fuge joined the company in August, having spent four years running Melbourne-based Pacific Hydro. The firm, acquired by Chinas State Power Investment Corp in 2015, has developed wind, solar and hydro projects in Australia, Chile and Brazil. Fuge has seen the premium that Australias energy policy debacle has added to sovereign risk there. And hes worried that constant changes to the business playing field in New Zealand risks doing the same. The governments offshore exploration ban came out of left field and has spooked investors, he says. Nor does he believe the Electricity Authoritys transmission pricing reform is worth the delay it has already caused to renewable development or the risk premium he believes it has probably added in the minds of international investors. A potentially drawn-out reform of the Resource Management Act risks further delay to projects the government needs to be getting underway to meet its long-term climate change targets, Fuge said. They need to focus less on 2050 and focus more on actually making a start, he said. If they want to get things underway here they are going to have to make some significant bets, of which one or two may not pay off. New Zealand has more than two gigawatts of consented wind, geothermal and marine energy projects available for development. Two gas-fired power stations have been shut since 2015, but demand has been flat the past decade and the latest big wind farm was the Mill Creek project Meridian Energy completed in 2014. Genesis Energy says the 100 MW wind farm it is planning with Tilt Renewables at Waverley will be the next. Meridian is reworking consents so it can deploy larger turbines at its Maungaharuru project north of Napier. Contact Energy says it can build modules of new geothermal production at its Tauhara geothermal field near Taupo to replace gas-fired plant or meet contracted demand from industry wanting dedicated renewables supplies. Fuge says most of that 2 GW of consented capacity is controlled by incumbent generators who have little incentive to develop new plant. If industry doesnt move fast enough, he says the government could invite tenders for a new block of renewable generation as Victorias state government did in 2017. That initiative will see almost 930 MW of solar and wind generation commissioned in the state by late 2020. If they want to get renewable projects off the ground they may have to incentivise new entrants, Fuge said of the Labour-led coalition here. A power purchase agreement from the government could seek 500 MW of renewable capacity and require a minimum local content of 60 percent. They will be pleasantly surprised by what they get. Fuge is a fourth-generation Northlander and worked as a student at the refinery. He is unashamedly ambitious for the plant which has continued to innovate to stay competitive with Asian plants that are 10-times its size. But Refining NZ isnt the only one who can see hydrogen potential. Ports of Auckland and TIL Logistics are eyeing its use in straddle carriers, tugs and trucks respectively. Pouakai NZ has also sought a loan of up to $20 million from the Provincial Growth Fund to test the feasibility of a combined power, hydrogen and fertiliser plant in Taranaki. Fuge says the refinery would need a bit of a leg up to expand its hydrogen activities. But the long-term export potential through neighbour Northport is strong. And New Zealand firms be they at Culham Engineering in Whangarei or Fitzroy Engineering in New Plymouth have the skills to deliver the renewable energy required to make it happen. Will we build the next 9 GW of renewable generation - or is it 18 GW and we support a hydrogen export industry? The big thing is to do something. Not acting, he says, risks further erosion of the countrys technical capability and will see more of the countrys renewable energy designed, supplied and built overseas. Build this or watch the Chinese build it for you. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: Pacific Edge Limited (NZX: PEB) PEB Announces Agreement with Northern Health in Australia AFT Pharmaceuticals Limited (NZX: AFT) AFT welcomes Australian Federal Court appeal success 9th December 2021 Morning Report Ebos Group Limited (NZX: EBO) Acquisition of LifeHealthcare, Equity Raising Livestock Improvement Corporation Limited (NZX: LIC) Special Dividend 8th December 2021 Morning Report New Zealand King Salmon Investments Limited (NZX: NZK) Market Update Scales Corporation Limited (NZX: SCL) Market update Delegat Group Limited (NZX: DGL) $333 million syndicated bank facilities 7th December 2021 Morning Report Finaccess Capital has cleared the final hurdle to secure control of Restaurant Brands New Zealand in the final day of its partial takeover bid. The Mexican suitor has secured 61.7 percent of acceptances in the $9.45 per share offer for up to three-quarters of the fast food franchise operator. The shares last traded at $8.75. Finaccess targeted a 75 percent stake but was able to declare the offer unconditional if it secured more than 50 percent. If Finaccess ends up with more than 75 percent, selling shareholders will be scaled. Under the Takeovers Code, an offer with a minimum acceptance condition can be extended for another 10 working days if that condition is met or satisfied in the five days before the offer closes. Restaurant Brands shareholders left their run late in accepting the offer, with Finaccess ending last week with about 41 percent acceptances, up from 28 percent the week before that. The offer values Restaurant Brands at $1.18 billion and was a 24 percent premium to the $7.60 share price the company was trading at before the bid emerged. Director Stephen Copulos agreed to sell his 8.6 percent stake at the get-go and the independent directors threw their backing behind it after the independent adviser valued Restaurant Brands at $1.02-1.11 billion. Chief executive Russell Creedy and chief financial officer Grant Ellis also elected to sell into the offer. Finaccess has already secured Overseas Investment Office approval and consent from the Yum! Franchisors. It has yet to declare the offer unconditional. The Mexican firm has said it will keep Restaurant Brands' dividend policy unchanged in the near term and promised not to de-list the company in the following 12 months unless it mounted a full takeover. If it does seek to mop-up the remaining shares, it has promised not to offer a lower price, subject to wider movements on the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 Index. Finaccess has told Restaurant Brands that it doesn't envisage raising new equity in the near to medium term, while noting that could change if there was a larger deal couldn't be funded from existing cash flow. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: Pacific Edge Limited (NZX: PEB) PEB Announces Agreement with Northern Health in Australia AFT Pharmaceuticals Limited (NZX: AFT) AFT welcomes Australian Federal Court appeal success 9th December 2021 Morning Report Ebos Group Limited (NZX: EBO) Acquisition of LifeHealthcare, Equity Raising Livestock Improvement Corporation Limited (NZX: LIC) Special Dividend 8th December 2021 Morning Report New Zealand King Salmon Investments Limited (NZX: NZK) Market Update Scales Corporation Limited (NZX: SCL) Market update Delegat Group Limited (NZX: DGL) $333 million syndicated bank facilities 7th December 2021 Morning Report The Reserve Bank realised the banks were not expecting higher capital requirements of the scale the central bank has decided to impose and it warned the government to expect intensive lobbying from the big four banks. In a memo dated Dec. 6 to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi, the Reserve Bank said the banks did know it was likely to require them to hold higher levels of capital. However, we do not believe the banks are expecting increases of the scale we are proposing, says the memo, which was released along with other similar memos after a request under the Official Information Act. Our advice is to anticipate intensive lobbying from the large banks once they become aware of what we are proposing in the consultation paper due to be released in mid-December. On Dec. 14, the Reserve Bank announced proposals to double the minimum amount of tier 1 capital that the four major banks have to hold from 8.5 percent to 16 percent of risk-weighted assets and to lift total minimum capital from 10.5 percent to 18 percent. The central bank is also proposing to reduce the advantage the four major banks have enjoyed since 2008 over smaller banks because they are allowed to use their own internal models for calculating their capital requirements rather than the standardised model the other banks have to use. The Reserve Bank plans to limit that advantage to no less than 90 percent of the capital required using standardised models. Figures the central bank released in February showed New Zealands largest bank, ANZ Bank, currently has to hold just over half the amount of capital that Kiwibank is forced to hold to back every $100 of mortgage lending. That gives the Australian-owned bank a huge cost advantage over its smaller government-owned rival. The large banks effectively the four Australian-owned banks operate under a capital calculation framework that currently gives them an unjustifiably large capital advantage over the other banks in the system that are subject to our capital requirements, the memo says. International regulators are also grappling with the uneven playfield such rules have created, it says. The Reserve Bank is proposing to follow the international approach but is proposing to go further in closing the gap than other countries including Australia and indeed further than the international standards suggest. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority is also requiring Australian banks and Australias big four banks own New Zealands big four banks to lift their total capital to 19.5 percent from 11.5 percent currently, but it is leaving its tier 1 capital requirement at 6 percent, where it already sits. Another major difference is that New Zealands Reserve Bank will limit tier 1 capital to equity only, no longer accepting quasi-equity or hybrid securities that normally function as debt instruments but which can be converted into equity if required. APRA will still allow quasi-equity to count towards tier 1 capital and it expects most of the additional capital will be satisfied by such instruments which cost about a fifth of the cost of equity. An earlier memo to Robertson dated June 26, 2018, the Reserve Bank explained in detail how the internal models give the major banks an unfair competitive advantage and also noted the sector as a whole has argued that it is well-capitalised by international standards. Another memo to Robertson dated Feb. 12, says media commentary has been both sceptical and supportive and that we are getting more submissions from the general public than we would normally expect for a consultation such as this, and most have been supportive. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: Pacific Edge Limited (NZX: PEB) PEB Announces Agreement with Northern Health in Australia AFT Pharmaceuticals Limited (NZX: AFT) AFT welcomes Australian Federal Court appeal success 9th December 2021 Morning Report Ebos Group Limited (NZX: EBO) Acquisition of LifeHealthcare, Equity Raising Livestock Improvement Corporation Limited (NZX: LIC) Special Dividend 8th December 2021 Morning Report New Zealand King Salmon Investments Limited (NZX: NZK) Market Update Scales Corporation Limited (NZX: SCL) Market update Delegat Group Limited (NZX: DGL) $333 million syndicated bank facilities 7th December 2021 Morning Report Mumbai/New Delhi: Assets of the erstwhile South Korean global automobiles giant, Daewoo Motors India Ltd., which were taken over in 2008 by a newly-formed Pan India Motors, would again go under the hammer on April 11 and DRT Mumbai aims to recover around Rs 2,250 crore from the auction. Significantly, the auction comes more than 15 years after the company shut its Indian operations in 2003-04. According to a recent notification issued by the Debt Recovery Tribunal's (DRT) Mumbai, the online auction will be held in two lots. The Lot-1 of the e-auction would include the 204-acre of land at Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, which would also include the structures, furnitures and so on, for which the minimum reserve price has been set at Rs 528.61 crore. In addition, the successful bidder would be required to clear out pending dues of the Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Corporation's dues, estimated to be around Rs 66.58 crore. In Lot-2, "all other properties on the same (204 acres) plot of land" would be put up for sale, with a minimum reserve price of Rs 83.01 crore. People who have worked with Argentum Motors said that the auctions might be separately held for the land and the equipments installed. Industry sources said Delhi-based auctioneer, C1 India has been assigned for the task. Despite repeated attempts, the company declined to comment on the developments and has not replied to an email questionnaire sent by IANS on the auction details. An activist of the Daewoo Motors employees union, Ravinder Kumar, said there were seven lenders to the company including ICICI Bank, IDBI, Yes Bank and State Bank of India, and others. This is not the first time that Daewoo Motors India's assets have gone up for sale. The previous auction process by DRT Mumbai started in 2006 culminating with a company named Pan India Motors taking over the assets. The shareholders of Pan India Motors included FirstRand Bank, a South African banking major, D. E. Shaw, a global investment and technology development company, infrastructure lending major IL&FS (interestingly it is also cash strapped now), Ajay Singh, the co-founder and Chairman of SpiceJet and B.V.R. Subbu, the former President of Hyundai India. Ravinder Kumar told IANS that the new company took over the Indian assets of the bankrupt South Korean company for around Rs 765 crore under a condition that it would turnaround the company and continue with the automobile business. "There were higher bidders but the court gave it to Argentum as it was the only company which said it would restructure or restart the business of automobile and the workers also said whosoever comes he should retain them and start the factory. So Argentum got it," he said. Argentum Motors was the operating company while Pan India Motors was the holding company, said another former employee of that company. The promoters initially planned to manufacture automotive components and then gradually produce electric vehicles (EV). They also started as per the plan and made an EV model in tie-up with Reva and a French company. Industry sources said that although the company had started with a primary target of manufacturing automobile and components, some of the promoters including IL&FS later reportedly wanted to use the company's property to earn revenue which eventually led to differences among the promoters. B.V. R. Subbu who left Hyundai Motors to start Argentum was the first one who parted ways and sources said he was averse to the idea of diverting the company's objective. He did not remain a shareholder after 2010. When contacted, Subbu refused to comment on the reasons behind his departure, but said: "When Pan India bid for it, our strategy was to start the power generation business, use the resultant cash flows to refurbish the components capacities, and then develop EVs. The EV developed at the plant was displayed at the Paris Motor Show. But things didn't quite pan out eventually..." The company also had tie ups with General Motors (GM) and manufactured components for the American company, but later GM withdrew from the partnership owing to some accounting differences, people in the know said. The employees of the company have so far not received their dues and according to Ravinder Kumar the salary dues stand at around Rs 250 crore. The workers had moved both the Delhi High Court and the Bombay High Court but they did not receive any compensation. However, in a favourable order, the Bombay High Court had declared the employees as the primary creditors, bringing them at par with the banks, Kumar said. Kumar, who currently runs his independent property business, hopes that when the outstandings are recovered after the auction in April, "even the employees would get their pending dues". Algerians took to the streets in celebration on Monday evening after ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced that he had abandoned his decision to seek a fifth term, bowing to weeks of mass demonstrations against his 20-year rule. Tens of thousands of people from all social classes have been demonstrating almost daily against Bouteflikas decision to stand in the election, rejecting a stale political system dominated for nearly 60 years by veterans of an independence war against France. After the announcement, a crowd of demonstrators took to the streets waving a huge Algerian flag. Hundreds of people, young and old, joined the throng, jumping up and down with excitement. Cars beeped their horns in approval. Our protests have borne fruit! We defeated the supporters of the fifth term! said taxi-driver Mohamed Kaci, 50. Bouteflika, 82, has ruled for 20 years but has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013. His opponents say they do not believe he is in a fit state to run the country, one of Africas biggest oil producers, and suspected he was being kept in place to protect the grip of the military and business elite. In a series of announcements on Monday evening, the presidency said the election, previously set for April, would now be postponed. It did not set a new date. A new constitution would be submitted to the public for a referendum. He also promised political and economic reforms. Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia resigned and Interior Minister Noureddine Bedoui, who is not known as a member of Bouteflikas inner circle, was named as the new prime minister. Ramtane Lamamra, a diplomatic advisor to Bouteflika, was named deputy prime minister. Bouteflika also met his army chief of staff, Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Gaed Salah. The veteran leader, who returned to Algeria on Sunday after medical treatment in Switzerland, has watched one long-time ally after another join mass demonstrations calling on him to step down. More than 1,000 judges said on Monday they would refuse to oversee the election if Bouteflika stood. Clerics said they would not accept government orders about what to preach. The protests have shattered years of political inertia and unsettled Algerias opaque but powerful security establishment. The demonstrations have been the biggest in Algeria since an election was annulled by a military coup in 1991, triggering a decade of civil war against Islamists in which 200,000 people were killed. Bouteflika oversaw the end of the war but his rule saw power concentrated in the hands of a secretive military-based establishment known to Algerians as le pouvoir the powers-that-be. The security forces have been mostly restrained during the demonstrations, a signal of the establishments eroding willingness to keep the president in power through force. Search Keywords: Short link: A U.S. citizen held in Iran has been sentenced for an unspecified crime, Iranian news agencies reported on Monday, in a case likely to worsen already terrible relations with the United States. Michael White, a 46-year old U.S. Navy veteran, was arrested last July while visiting his Iranian girlfriend, the New York Times has reported. The arrest - the only known one of a U.S. citizen since President Donald Trump took office - was confirmed by Iran only in January. On Monday, the prosecutor in the northeastern city of Mashhad, Gholamali Sadeqi, said White had been sentenced, the Fars news agency reported. He said White had been accused of a security-related charge but did not specify if that was what he had been convicted of. Iranian officials have never said why he was being held. Trump withdrew from an international agreement on Irans nuclear program and re-imposed crippling economic sanctions last year. He warned in 2017 Tehran would face new and serious consequences unless all unjustly held U.S. citizens were freed. Whites sentencing comes days after Iran appointed a new head of the judiciary - Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric who is a protege of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The appointment is seen as weakening the political influence of President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate. Also on Monday, an Iranian court handed a new sentence to renowned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh which her husband said was 38 years in prison and 148 lashes. The official Islamic Republic News Agency said she had been sentenced to seven years. Search Keywords: Short link: The United States has told Germany that it will share less intelligence with its security agencies if the countrys wireless network uses Chinas Huawei Technologies Co to upgrade to 5G, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday in the first explicit U.S. warning to Germany of consequences for declining to shun Huawei. The U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, issued the warning in a letter dated Friday, the newspaper said. In Germany, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said on Thursday on a ZDF talk show that Germany did not want to ban Huawei but said that Berlin will change the law to ensure that all components used in the 5G networks will be secure. Grenell said in his letter that Chinese companies, under Chinese law, can be required to support Chinas security agencies and that inspections of Huawei software could not ensure there were no vulnerabilities, the newspaper said. The battle with Huawei is one of many conflicts in Washingtons disputes with China. The United States and China spent most of 2018 slapping import tariffs on billions of dollars worth of each others goods. The year ended with the arrest of Huaweis chief financial officer in Canada at U.S. request, to the consternation of China. Search Keywords: Short link: During their meeting, the two leaders also agreed to work together for "irreversible, verifiable and credible steps against all terrorists without any discrimination." Saudi Arabia Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al Jubeir on Monday called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and briefed him about "the follow up of the outcomes of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salmans historic visit to India last month." According to a statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs, the Saudi Foreign Minister conveyed greetings of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) to Prime Minister Modi, who in return also reciprocated the wishes warmly. Prime Minister Modi thanked the leadership of Saudi Arabia for expressing full solidarity with India in the fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, the statement read. India and Saudi Arabia have taken significant steps including to boost trade and investment and to achieve US $100 billion investments from Saudi Arabia into India, which was announced during the visit of the Saudi Crown Prince, the statement said. Later in the day, Foreign Minister Jubeir held discussions with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj on the entire gamut of bilateral relations. Both Jubeir and Swaraj took note of significant developments after the visit of the Saudi Crown Prince to India. During the meeting, Swaraj reiterated that an immediate irreversible and verifiable action to dismantle terror infrastructure is essential to fight the menace of terror, the statement read. It was further agreed to set up the Strategic Partnership Council at the earliest. The gesture from the Saudi side to increase the Hajj Quota to 2,00,000 and Royal pardon to 850 Indian Prisoners was highly appreciated, the statement added. India and Saudi Arabia enjoy warm, close and multifaceted relations underpinned by historical, cultural, religious and economic linkages which stand elevated to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Saudi Arabia is Indias fourth largest trading partner and second largest supplier of our crude oil needs. Saudi Prince Salman visited both India and Pakistan last month. In his bilateral talks with Indian Prime Minister Modi, the former described terrorism as a common concern. Page Content The closure will take place around 10.00PM for about 15-minutes. The closure is in connection with the lifting of utility cables. Motorists are advised to pay close attention when driving along the work area along the Juancho Yrausquin Boulevard. The public is advised that tampering by removing barricades or any Government property is punishable by law. Ministry VROMI apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause. Ministry of Public Housing, Environment, Spatial Development and Infrastructure (Ministry VROMI), announces that there will be a temporary closure of the Juancho Yrausquin Boulevard every day starting on Monday, March 11 to Friday, March 15. Germanys Bosch engineering and electronics company is eyeing establishing a major factory as part of its investment plan in Egypt. The factory will be a regional hub for the company in the Middle East and Africa, Bosch's Head of Operations in MENA and Africa Konrad Pagenstert, told Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly during a Cairo meeting on Sunday. The German official added that the corporation looks forward to exporting some 60% of the factorys production abroad, hailing Egypts potentials and special location. Madbouly stressed that the Egyptian government completely supports the new investments of Bosch here, said Spokesman for the Cabinet Nader Saad. The Egyptian Prime Minister also tasked Nassar with following up talks with Bosch on the proposed location of the new factory. Search Keywords: Short link: System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28: 29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe6ab3ac8)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe6a6e118)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe6ab3ac8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe6a6e118)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe6ad9cc8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe6a6e118)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe6a6e118)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe61256c0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe6a77728)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe6a77728)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe6a500d8)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe6a21b88)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe6a500d8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe6a21b88)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe6a48118)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe6a21b88)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe6a21b88)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe6124450)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe6a4fc28)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe6a4fc28)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe667d598)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe6b1cc50)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe667d598)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe6b1cc50)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe664f410)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe6b1cc50)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe6b1cc50)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe611b5c0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe6ba55c0)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe6ba55c0)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:951 /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 129 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe6a7d118)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe694fb70)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe6a7d118)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe694fb70)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fe6b6fb40)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe694fb70)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe694fb70)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fe61256c0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe6a8c760)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fe6a8c760)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 A high-profile Japanese business delegation has said that Tokyo looks forward to strengthening cooperation with Cairo through investment in several projects, notably those related to basic infrastructure and renewable energy. In a meeting with Investment Minister Sahar Nasr, the delegation added that Japanese companies seek to increase their investments in Egypt, which stand now at USD 360 million. Japanese investments in Egypt saw a surge by 74% in 2018, the delegation said. The group comprises a number of representatives of major Japanese companies, including Hiroyuki Ishige, Chairman and CEO of Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), Yoshifumi Omura, Chief Representative of JICA Egypt Office, and Yasushi Hasegawa, a senior managing director at Japan Bank for International Cooperation, as well as members of the Egypt-Japan Business Council. Following the meeting, the Japanese delegation members made a tour around the investor services center, as they expressed their admiration of facilitation offered by the center to investors. For her part, Nasr told the Japanese group the center is responsible for issuing all related-investment licenses in an automated way and in just one day, in addition to responding to investors' inquiries. Around 23,000 companies have been established, with a total capital of EGP 60 billion, since President Abdel Fattah El Sisi inaugurated the center in February 2018, Nasr said. Those new companies secured more than 90,000 jobs, she noted. Egypt has a successful business climate, as it is considered the gateway to a huge regional market of 1.2 billion African consumers and 400 million Arab consumers, she said. The state is working on giving a greater space to the private sector to contribute to achieving development and economic growth, as well as luring further investments into ongoing mega national projects, Nasr added. Also, the investment minister lauded economic and development cooperation with the Asian country over the past years, especially in light of current rapprochement between the Egyptian and Japanese political leaderships. Nasr called on Japanese companies and investors to pump more investments in Egypt, given its recent reforms at the legislative and institutional levels. The Egyptian government is keen on transferring Japan's successful experience in the fields of education, energy and communications and information technology, Nasr told the Japanese group. On his part, Hiroyuki Ishige said JETRO will work on attracting Japanese investments into Egypt, lauding recent improvements witnessed by the country's investment climate. Ishige added that Japanese companies target raising their investments in Egypt, noting that this is the best time for investment in the country. Moreover, the JETRO CEO called on the investment minister to take part in the seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7), which will be held from 28th to 30th August 2019 in Yokohama Search Keywords: Short link: Nvidia buys Israeli chipmaker Mellanox for $6.9 bn Washington, March 11 (AFP) Mar 11, 2019 US computer graphics giant Nvidia said Monday it is acquiring Israeli data center firm Mellanox for $6.9 billion, to expand its presence in the high performance computing segment. The combined firm will have the capacity to "optimize data center" performance for applications in cloud computing and artificial intelligence, according to a statement by the firms. "The emergence of AI and data science, as well as billions of simultaneous computer users, is fueling skyrocketing demand on the world's data centers," said Jensen Huang, founder and chief executive of California-based Nvidia. "Addressing this demand will require holistic architectures that connect vast numbers of fast computing nodes over intelligent networking fabrics to form a giant data center-scale compute engine." The all-cash deal is expected to close later this year subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. The deal will expand the offerings of Nvidia, which produces chips and other technologies for video games, facial recognition systems and autonomous vehicles. The companies have previously collaborated in building the world's two fastest supercomputers, Sierra and Summit, operated by the US Department of Energy. Eyal Waldman, co-founder and CEO of Mellanox, told a news conference in Tel Aviv he believes the tie-up can "build the future architecture of the future computing rooms." "Together we will be able to create much more efficient systems of computing, of connectivity and of storage," Waldman said. rl/jm SpaceX Dragon capsule splashes down in Atlantic Ocean: NASA Washington (AFP) March 8, 2019 The SpaceX Dragon capsule successfully splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday after more than six days in space, completing its demonstration mission for US space agency NASA. Launched on Saturday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a mission to demonstrate that it could carry astronauts to the International Space Station, Dragon docked at the station the following day before detaching early Friday for its return to Earth. Live footage from NASA showed the capsule's four main parachutes opened without a hitch, and it splashed down at 8:45 am (1345 GMT). ... read more 'Major changes' will be made to the next edition after many journalists and critics attending the event complained about poor organisation The Sharm El-Sheikh Asian Film Festival screened 58 films from 26 Asian countries during its run last week, but despite the quality of many films, the organisers faced criticism by a number of attending journalists and critics for poor organisation. A lack of attendance by locals and foreigners, the poor quality of cinemas where films were screened, and the absence of any Indian or Russian representation came in for criticism. Additionally, the makers of the Egyptian documentary film The Crew withdrew from the festival after a screening of their film at the opening ceremony was rescheduled after organisers decided the ceremony would be too long. The filmmakers later reportedly filed a police complaint against the festival after the film was screened on a subsequent day. In addition, the House of Setnakht, the Egyptian entry in the festivals feature film contest, was booed by critics during its screenings who found it to be subpar. Some of the cast members in the audience also appeared shocked after watching the film for the first time. The attending media also faced accommodation troubles; journalists were housed 30km away from the main activities, and several journalists went home in protest. Critic Nader Adly, who attended the festival, told Ahram Online that he has always supported holding various and different types of festivals in Egypt, and praised the quality of many of the movies. Many great things occurred in this edition. For example, I appreciate the honouring of [actors] Lotfy Labib and Hala Sedky. Its one of this festivals great moves, which started with Hassan Hosni, to honour real talents in supporting roles, he said. However, I really wanted to see the public attend the festival, and I suggest it be expanded to include African cinema as well, as I really didnt find a fulfilling representation of Asian cinema in the festival, except for two or three films. Change is necessary On Thursday, the day before the festival closed, the head of the Egyptian NGO which organised the event, Noon Foundation for Culture and Arts, announced that the next edition will see major changes in visions, targets and the organising team. New policies and strategies will be applied in the next edition to avoid repeating mistakes, journalist Gamal Zayda, the foundations chairman, told Ahram Online on Thursday at the festival. In a statement released earlier on Thursday, Zayda had said that the NGOs board of trustees will meet in Cairo to evaluate the third edition. Zayda told Ahram Online he valued the effort made by the organising team and expressed gratitude for the great support of the ministries of culture and tourism, the governor of South Sinai, the Higher Committee for Festivals and the festivals sponsors, but noted that change is necessary. We are looking forward to clarifying our objectives for the next edition to avoid the mishaps that occurred in the festivals current edition, to continue out role in helping deepen Egypts cinema and cultural relations with the rest of the world, Zayda told Ahram Online, adding that the evaluating meeting is a standard procedure. He praised a number of elements of this years festival, including the critics consensus on the quality of films, the high profiles of the jury, successful scheduling, filmmaking workshops good output, interaction between local filmmakers and foreign guests and the tendency towards Asian cinema. The Noon foundation, co-founded by late filmmaker Mohamed Kamel Kaliouby, has run six different editions of this festival, which has had several different iterations. Lack of funds to blame The director of this edition of the festival, Magdi Ahmed Ali, said he was satisfied with the festivals artistic quality, but his management team apologised repeatedly to attendees about the logistic issues, and made efforts to help solve the problems. I am happy with the experience and the cooperation with Noon. The next edition will definitely see changes, he told Ahram Online, explaining that the reported problems were only about the logistics and expressing satisfaction over the programme that was artistically very successful and unique. A lack of funds is the key reason why these troubles occurred. I want to use this opportunity to urge authorities open more cinemas in Sharm El-Sheikh, said the filmmaker. An evaluation meeting is essential but it must be attended by the full board of trustees and the managing team of the festival, Ali said. Noon trustees include directors Magda Wassef and Daoud Abdel Sayed and critics Yousef Sharif Rizkallah and Magda Maurice. The festivals artistic director Mohamed Sayed Abdel-Rahim echoed Alis satisfaction with the artistic aspects of the festivals, telling Ahram Online festivals are about screening movies, and we made a satisfactory programme. We made a great effort but we dont have government support unlike the Cairo Film Festival, or generous sponsorship like Gouna, commented managing director Mostafa El-Kilany, adding that the Noon foundation changes its organising crew for each edition. Due to lack of funds, the closing ceremony on Friday was held outdoors on a small bridge at the Porto resort, where the winners of the different contests were unveiled. Rona Azims Mother, directed by Jamshid Mahmoudi from Afghanistan, won best feature film, while The Oblivion by Fatemeh Mohammadi from Iran won best short film. The best actor award was won by Huang Jing-Yi for The Rib (China), best actress by Kim Si-Ah for Miss Baek (South Korea). The award-winning Chinese director Xie Fei, the third editions guest of honour, was head of the festival's jury. For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture Search Keywords: Short link: Iran's Rouhani hails 'special' ties with Iraq ahead of visit Tehran, March 11 (AFP) Mar 11, 2019 Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Monday described ties with Iraq as "special", as he prepared to travel to Baghdad on his first official visit to the neighbouring country. Rouhani's three-day visit comes as Iraq has been under pressure from Washington to limit ties with its neighbour, particularly after the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and hit Tehran with sanctions. "Iran-Iraq relations are special," Rouhani said at Tehran's Mehrabad airport, state television reported. "Whenever the people of the region had a problem and asked Iran for help, the people and government of Iran rushed to their help with all their power," he added. Iran has close but complicated ties with Iraq, with significant influence among its Shiite political groups. The two countries fought a bloody war from 1980 to 1988 and Tehran's influence in Baghdad grew after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. Iran was the first country to respond to Iraqi calls for help after Islamic State group jihadists captured Mosul in 2014 and threatened to overrun Baghdad and Kirkuk. Tehran dispatched "military advisors" and equipment overnight along with the famous Revolutionary Guards elite Qods Force commander Qasem Soleimani to prevent IS jihadists from approaching its western borders. Following the defeat of IS in Iraq, Iran is trying to position itself to gain a prime role in rebuilding the war-ravaged country. "Iran-Iraq relations are not comparable with (Iraq's relations) with an aggressor country like America," Rouhani said. "America is despised in the region. The bombs that the Americans dropped on Iraqis, Syrian people and other countries cannot be forgotten and," he said. Rouhani's visit to Iraq will be the first since he became president in 2013. He is set to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, President Barham Saleh and the country's chief Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, according to the Iranian government's website. Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif arrived Sunday in Baghdad to prepare for the visit. Iran's Rouhani arrives in Iraq on first official visit: state TV Baghdad, March 11 (AFP) Mar 11, 2019 Iran's President Hassan Rouhani arrived in Iraq on Monday for his first official visit, state television said, as Baghdad is under pressure from Washington to limit ties with its neighbour. Before leaving Tehran Rouhani hailed the "special" relations between Iran and Iraq, saying they could not be compared to Baghdad's ties "with an aggressor country like America". His visit to Iraq is the first since he became president in 2013. "Iran-Iraq relations are special," Rouhani said at Tehran's Mehrabad airport before flying to Baghdad, Iranian state television reported, adding that Tehran was always ready to help its neighbours. "America is despised in the region. The bombs that the Americans dropped on Iraqis, Syrian people and other countries cannot be forgotten," he added. Baghdad has been under pressure from Washington to limit ties with its neighbour, particularly after the United States last year withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and hit Tehran with sanctions. Iraq was given limited waivers to continue buying electricity and natural gas from Iran, with Washington calling on Baghdad to partner with US companies to become energy independent. After Turkey, Iran is the top supplier of imported goods to Iraq, including cars, gas, home appliances and vegetables. Iran has close but complicated relations with Iraq, with significant influence among its Shiite political groups. The two countries fought a bloody war from 1980 to 1988 and Tehran's influence in Baghdad grew after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. Iran was the first country to respond to Iraqi calls for help after Islamic State group jihadists captured second city Mosul in 2014 and threatened to overrun Baghdad and Kirkuk. Tehran dispatched "military advisors" and equipment overnight along with the famous Revolutionary Guards elite Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani to prevent IS jihadists from approaching its western borders. Following the defeat of IS in Iraq, Iran is trying to position itself to gain a prime role in rebuilding the war-ravaged country. During the visit, Rouhani is set to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi and President Barham Saleh, as well as the country's chief Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, according to the Iranian government's website. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif preceded Rouhani to Iraq to prepare for the visit. Hong Kong: Cap on optometry claims proposed The Government has proposed to cap the maximum usage of Elderly Health Care Vouchers on optometry services at $2,000 for every two years. Holding press conference today, Secretary for Food & Health Prof Sophia Chan said the decision was made after a review on the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme. In the review by the Department of Health, we have noticed the abnormal high amount of usage of this service both in terms of the claim, per claim, in terms of the money and also the total expenses in terms of using this service. According to the review, there were almost 700 optometrists enrolled in the scheme last year and they claimed $760 million, accounting for 27% of the total voucher amount claimed by all types of healthcare professionals. The median voucher amount per claim by optometrists last year was $1,951, while each eligible senior was given a $2,000 voucher annually. In the context of hoping the elderly can make better use of their Elderly Health Care Voucher and not concentrating or over concentrating on one particular service, I think it is appropriate for the Government to look into the situation and thats why we have suggested this cap. Prof Chan added the Government will monitor the situation after the suggested measure has launched. The Department of Health will actually have their elderly service outreach team do more education for the elderly as to how they can make better use of the Elderly Health Care Vouchers so that they can actually look into their own situation or health situation. The Government also proposed to regularise the scheme at the University of Hong Kong - Shenzhen Hospital, enabling the elderly to keep using vouchers there. This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. N. Korea 'missile launch' plans under scrutiny as concern mounts Seoul, March 11 (AFP) Mar 11, 2019 South Korea's military said Monday it was closely monitoring North Korean facilities after a series of satellite images triggered international alarm that Pyongyang might be preparing a long-range missile or space launch. Any launch would send the stuttering talks on denuclearisation into disarray, after a high-stakes second summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un collapsed last month without a deal. But some analysts suggest the North might be stage-managing activity at certain key sites, to stoke concern and secure "better terms" when the two sides next meet. Washington wants what administration officials have called a "big deal", with the complete elimination of weapons of mass destruction in return for the dropping of sanctions that have strangled the isolated North's economy. North Korea favours a more step-by-approach, with Kim proposing dismantling its Yongbyon nuclear complex in exchange for lifting the main sanctions -- a notion Trump refused in Hanoi despite the vaunted "chemistry" between the pair. "The North could be trying to show the US it can always turn back to aggressive posture by rebuilding missile sites in order to gain leverage in future talks, but without actually firing a missile or rocket," said Cheong Seong-Chang, a senior researcher at the private Sejong Institute. "It is hard to rule out the possibility of a rocket launch at the Sohae station at this point as North Korea has proven time and time again it can do unexpected things." - 'All possible scenarios' - Satellite analysis now indicates increased activity at two key sites -- the Samundong missile research facility and the Sohae rocket launch centre. Located on the outskirts of Pyongyang, Samundong was built in 2012 to support development of long-range missiles and space-launch vehicles. As well as developing the Hawsong-15 ICBM, which analysts agree is capable of reaching the whole US mainland, Samundong constructed the long-range rockets that were then transported and successfully launched from the Sohae satellite launch station in 2012 and 2016. Images of Samundong taken on February 22 showed cars and trucks at the site, as well as rail cars and cranes at a yard, US news outlet NPR has reported. South Korea is "closely tracking and looking into all activity for possible scenarios including a missile launch" across the border, said Kim Joon-rak, spokesman of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff. Experts are divided over Pyongyang's plans, but whatever its intentions, a launch would shatter the fragile US-North Korea relationship and revive the angry language that had stoked fears of a military conflict at the start of the Trump presidency. "This is North Korea's classic brinkmanship on display again," said Lim Eul-chul, professor of North Korean studies at Kyungnam University. "The North's intention is clear. It wants early resumption of talks with the US, but on better terms." Veteran North Korea watchers said that any activity is likely to be finely calibrated and could also be intended to send a clear message within the isolated regime. "Kim could use a launch to demonstrate at the 14th Supreme People's Assembly, probably in mid-April, that he has not been cowed by sanctions," said former US negotiator Joel Wit, now the director of the respected 38 North website. - 'Pretty disappointed' - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed last year to shut the Sohae site at a summit with the South's President Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang. Satellite pictures in August suggested workers were dismantling an engine test stand there. But the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies suggested last week that rebuilding was progressing quickly at the facility. A moving structure that had been used to carry vehicles to a launch pad on rails has been restored, said 38 North, adding that the work had started before last month's failed meeting in Hanoi. Chun In-bum, a North Korea expert and a retired three-star general, said it was "too early" to conclude the North was preparing for another rocket launch at Sohae. However, he said that if the North went ahead, the US would be "forced to react" whether it turned out to be a missile test or a satellite launch. North Korea has been banned by the UN Security Council from carrying out space launches, as some of its technology was similar to that used for intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs. John Bolton, President Donald Trump's hawkish national security adviser, said Sunday the US sees "exactly what they are doing" in regard to possible launch moves by the nuclear-armed state. "We see it unblinkingly, and we don't have any illusions about what those are," he warned, adding his boss would be "pretty disappointed" if a nuclear-armed state conducted a new missile test. Year on, Egypt still locked in Sinai battle with jihadists Cairo, March 11 (AFP) Mar 11, 2019 One year after Egypt launched a large-scale operation against jihadists in North Sinai, security forces remain locked in deadly battles against affiliates of the Islamic State group. Around 50 suspected Islamic militants were killed in the restive region on Monday, the army said. - What is North Sinai? - The Sinai peninsula covers 60,000 square kilometres (23,000 sq miles) in northeast Egypt bordering the Gaza Strip and Israel. The arid desert expanse is divided into two governorates, with the south popular among tourists for its beach resorts on the Red Sea. The north is at the centre of a long-running insurgency that has gained strength since the military's 2013 ouster of Egypt's Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. Residents of the turbulent region largely belong to Bedouin tribes with a history of tensions with Egyptian authorities. With a media blackout in place, the beleaguered residents often resort to social media to tell of their situation amid the battles between security personnel and militants. Journalists and independent investigators are barred from entering North Sinai but the Egyptian government has organised rare visits closely supervised by the military. - What is jihadist threat? - Leading the insurgency in North Sinai is a local affiliate of the Islamic State (IS) group known as "Sinai Province". The group, formerly called Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, had links with Al-Qaeda before pledging allegiance to IS in 2014. After IS suffered heavy territorial defeats in Syria and Iraq in 2017, Egypt went on the alert to prevent it from setting up a new stronghold in the Sinai. There are no reliable figures on the number of IS-linked militants in Sinai, but experts give estimates of around 1,000. Jihadists have stepped up attacks on security forces and also targeted civilians, mainly Egypt's minority Coptic Christians, killing hundreds of people. "Since 2016, terrorist attacks in Egypt have primarily been carried out by the IS affiliates," says Allison McManus of the Washington-based Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP). Smaller groups and others affiliated with Al-Qaeda have carried out sporadic attacks across the country. "Particularly in North Sinai, many attacks are carried out anonymously," says McManus. In late 2017, North Sinai was the scene of the deadliest attack in Egypt's modern history when militants killed more than 300 worshippers at a mosque, without any group claiming responsibility. In response, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered security forces to use "all brute force" to restore stability to Sinai within "three months". - Response? - On February 9, 2018, Egypt mobilised land, sea and air forces in a nationwide offensive dubbed "Sinai 2018" against militants. The operations are focused on North Sinai but also cover parts of the Nile Delta region and the porous western border with Libya. In their long-running battles in North Sinai, Egyptian security forces have cooperated with local tribes as well as neighbouring Israel. "We have a wide range of coordination with the Israelis," President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said in an interview with the US network CBS last month. It remains unclear how much longer the offensive will run. The Tahrir Institute says the average monthly rate of reported attacks in North Sinai increased between the first and the second half of 2018 from 15 to 21 attacks. "Today, despite years of military campaigns of which 'Sinai 2018' is the most recent and most important, the terrorist threat remains in Egypt," says McManus. - What are results?- Some 600 suspected militants and around 40 soldiers have been killed in the offensive, according to official figures. Some analysts say the conventional army tactics of air strikes and ground operations may weaken IS but will not necessarily wipe it out. "Remnants of the group continue to shift around the northeast of the Sinai Peninsula while the military operates more statically," says Zack Gold, Middle East analyst at the CNA think-tank. "Worse, given that Egypt has disrupted but not destroyed militant infrastructure, the group is in a position to rebound as soon as forces redeploy." This "is perhaps why the military has been unable to declare a conclusion to the operation", he says. Egyptian forces have destroyed hundreds of cross-border tunnels with Gaza and created a buffer zone to prevent militant infiltration and weapons smuggling. In the face of the prolonged campaign, Sisi told CBS that the battle against militants requires patience. "Why hasn't the US eliminated the terrorists in Afghanistan after 17 years and spending a trillion dollars?" he countered when asked about the Egyptian army's inability to quell the insurgency. aem/emp/mz/ff/hc Iran's Rouhani seeks to counter US pressure on first Iraq visit Baghdad, March 11 (AFP) Mar 11, 2019 Iran's President Hassan Rouhani hit back Monday against pressure from the "aggressor" United States on Iraq to limit ties with its neighbour, during his first official visit to Baghdad. Shiite-majority Iraq is walking a fine line to maintain good relations with its key partners Iran and the United States which themselves are arch-foes. It has been under pressure from Washington not to get too close to the Islamic republic next door, particularly after the United States last year withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and hit Tehran with sanctions. Baghdad was given limited waivers to continue buying electricity and natural gas from Iran, but Washington has urged Iraq to partner with US companies to become energy independent. Rouhani, who is on his first trip to Iraq since becoming president in 2013, hailed his country's "special" ties with its neighbour. These relations could not be compared to Iraq's ties "with an aggressor country like America", he said before flying Monday to Baghdad for the three-day visit. "America is despised in the region. The bombs that the Americans dropped on Iraqis, Syrian people and other countries cannot be forgotten," he added. Iran is always ready to help its neighbours, he said, in a nod to the role Tehran played to help Iraq battle the Islamic State group (IS). Iraq's President Barham Saleh, at a joint news conference with Rouhani in Baghdad, thanked Iran for its "support" and said he was "lucky" to have it as a neighbour, without making any reference to the US. Rouhani, who is heading a large political and economic delegation, said relations between the two countries should be further "reinforced and developed". After Turkey, Iran is the top supplier of imported goods to Iraq, including cars, gas, home appliances and vegetables. - Shiite bonds - Iran was the first country to respond to Iraqi calls for help after IS jihadists in June 2014 captured the main northern city of Mosul as they threatened to overrun the capital Baghdad and the oil-rich region of Kirkuk. It dispatched "military advisors" and equipment along with the famous Revolutionary Guards elite Quds Force commander General Qassem Soleimani. Rouhani on Monday said Iran has supported the Iraqi people "during difficult times" and would continue to back them "through times of peace and security". Relations between the two countries were not always close -- they fought a bloody war from 1980 to 1988. Tehran's influence in Baghdad grew after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. Iran now has significant leverage over Iraq's Shiite political groups. Rouhani is also set to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi as well as the country's chief Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who is also revered by many Iranians. The meeting in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf will be the first between the top cleric and an Iranian president. In 2013 the grand ayatollah refused to receive Rouhani's controversial predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Analysts say talks between Sistani and Rouhani are aimed at bolstering the ranks of Shiite Muslims in the face of Iraq's warming ties with Iran's Sunni-ruled rival Saudi Arabia. The meeting could "prevent Saudi Arabia and its allies from sowing discord" between Iran and Iraq, a Shiite cleric from the Iranian holy city of Qom was recently quoted as saying in Iran's Ebtekar newspaper. Saudi Arabia is keen to develop relations with Baghdad to counter the influence of Iran in Iraq, which is seeking economic benefits to rebuild after the defeat of IS. - 'Circumventing' US sanctions - Iraqi political analyst Hisham al-Hashemi said Rouhani is seeking to bolster trade with Baghdad and discuss ways "to circumvent US sanctions". "In addition, there are electricity, water and other files," he said. Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who travelled to Iraq ahead of Rouhani, on Sunday thanked Baghdad for having "refused the injust and illegal (US) sanctions imposed on the Iranian people". Trade between Iran and Iraq now stands at around $12 billion a year -- tilted toward Iran with gas and energy exports -- and Rouhani has said he would like to see it rise to $20 billion. Iran's Rouhani seeks to counter US pressure on first Iraq visit Baghdad, March 11 (AFP) Mar 11, 2019 Iran's President Hassan Rouhani hit back Monday against pressure from the "aggressor" United States on Iraq to limit ties with its neighbour, during his first official visit to Baghdad. Shiite-majority Iraq is walking a fine line to maintain good relations with its key partners Iran and the United States which themselves are arch-foes. It has been under pressure from Washington not to get too close to the Islamic republic next door, particularly after the United States last year withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and hit Tehran with sanctions. Baghdad was given limited waivers to continue buying electricity and natural gas from Iran, but Washington has urged Iraq to partner with US companies to become energy independent. Rouhani, who is on his first trip to Iraq since becoming president in 2013, hailed his country's "special" ties with its neighbour. These relations could not be compared to Iraq's ties "with an aggressor country like America", he said before flying Monday to Baghdad for the three-day visit. "America is despised in the region. The bombs that the Americans dropped on Iraqis, Syrian people and other countries cannot be forgotten," he added. Iran is always ready to help its neighbours, he said, in a nod to the role Tehran played to help Iraq battle the Islamic State group (IS). Iraq's President Barham Saleh, at a joint news conference with Rouhani in Baghdad, thanked Iran for its "support" and said he was "lucky" to have it as a neighbour, without making any reference to the US. Rouhani, who is heading a large political and economic delegation, said relations between the two countries should be further "reinforced and developed". The Iranian president later had a meeting with Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, during which he highlighted the political, trade and energy links between the two neighbours. After Turkey, Iran is the top supplier of imported goods to Iraq, including cars, gas, home appliances and vegetables. - Shiite bonds - Iran was the first country to respond to Iraqi calls for help after IS jihadists in June 2014 captured the main northern city of Mosul as they threatened to overrun the capital Baghdad and the oil-rich region of Kirkuk. It dispatched "military advisors" and equipment along with the famous Revolutionary Guards elite Quds Force commander General Qassem Soleimani. Rouhani on Monday said Iran has supported the Iraqi people "during difficult times" and would continue to back them "through times of peace and security". Relations between the two countries were not always close -- they fought a bloody war from 1980 to 1988. Tehran's influence in Baghdad grew after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. Iran now has significant leverage over Iraq's Shiite political groups. Rouhani is also set to meet Iraq's chief Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who is revered by many Iranians. The meeting in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf will be the first between the top cleric and an Iranian president. In 2013 the grand ayatollah refused to receive Rouhani's controversial predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. - Warming Saudi ties - Analysts say talks between Sistani and Rouhani are aimed at bolstering the ranks of Shiite Muslims in the face of Iraq's warming ties with Iran's Sunni-ruled rival Saudi Arabia. The meeting could "prevent Saudi Arabia and its allies from sowing discord" between Iran and Iraq, a Shiite cleric from the Iranian holy city of Qom was recently quoted as saying in Iran's Ebtekar newspaper. Saudi Arabia is keen to develop relations with Baghdad to counter the influence of Iran in Iraq, which is seeking economic benefits to rebuild after the defeat of IS. Iraqi political analyst Hisham al-Hashemi said Rouhani is seeking to bolster trade with Baghdad and discuss ways "to circumvent US sanctions". "In addition, there are electricity, water and other files," he said. Trade between Iran and Iraq now stands at around $12 billion a year -- tilted toward Iran with gas and energy exports -- and Rouhani has said he would like to see it rise to $20 billion. The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2018 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement Optimization Are you frustrated with a slow pc or a hard disk not performing as it should? Try SLOW-PCfighter to speed up boot time on a slow PC, or try a free scan of FULL-DISKfighter to recover space on a full disk. The latest offering is DRIVERfighter to update your driver updater. Get complete PC optimization and extend the life of your PC with these must-have software tools. House of Hope Battling the Devastation of America's Opioid Crisis The U.S. has failed to get it's burgeoning opioid crisis under control, with the number of newborns suffering from withdrawal having multiplied fivefold in the last decade. One family in New Hampshire is doing what it can to help. New York, March 10, 2019 (SPS) - UN Special Envoy for Western Sahara Horst Kohler will invite the parties to the conflict and neighboring countries for a new round table in Geneva, scheduled for 21-22 March, said Saturday sources close to the issue. Like the previous round table, held in December in the same Swiss city, the second meeting will also last two days. The parties havent received yet the invitations confirming officially the date and place of this meeting, according to the sources. Kohler organized in December 2018 a first round table after six years of deadlock in negotiations on the status to Western Sahara. The last time where the Polisario Front and Morocco sat at the same negotiating table dates back to March 2012 in Manhasset (near New York). Since then, the peace process is at standstill. (SPS) 062/SPS/APS Norwegian State Secretary (State Minister) Ms. Marianne Hagen concluded a successful visit to Sri Lanka. During her official visit, she announced that Norway will assist Sri Lanka with NOK 60 million (approx. USD 7 million) over the next three years to achieve the important goal of becoming mine-free by 2020. The contribution to mine action was launched at a meeting between Hon. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Ms. Marianne Hagen in Colombo on 5 March. Thereafter, Ms. Hagen visited Muhamalai minefield in the North where Norwegian funds will be utilized. The funding provided by Norway will be channeled through two mine clearance organizations, Halo Trust and Mine Advisory Group (MAG). During the visit, Ms. Hagen also called on Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana, Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera and the Governor of the North Dr. Suren Raghavan and discussed ways to build partnership in areas of common interest. The State Secretary acknowledged the achievements towards implementing the recommendations in UN Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1, and underlined the importance of continuing the process of democracy and reconciliation. Ms. Hagen also met with representatives of several civil society organizations in Colombo and Jaffna, the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission and the Office of Missing Persons. Ms. Hagen visited SLASSCOM in Colombo and expressed Norways intention to continue support for its initiatives like Kids Can Code. Norway will also encourage further fruitful cooperation between the Sri Lankan and Norwegian ICT sectors and other key sectors for sustainable growth and jobs. The situation became different after 1977 with the changeover to a presidential system, proportional representation and the establishment of provincial governments and their elections. by Rajan Philips By any measure, Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera is Sri Lankas man for all seasons in politics. He has been in opposition to both UNP (1989-1994 and 2002-2004) and SLFP (2007 to 2014) governments. Equally, he has been a Minister in both SLFP (1994-2007) and UNP (2015 - ) governments. He has been a Minister, as well, under every President after 1994, and has had more than a hand in ending the presidency of two of them and is about to play the same role for the third and the current President. However, in the spirit of social camaraderie that cuts through political acrimony in Sri Lanka, all three Presidents and the Prime Minister showed up to concelebrate Mr. Samaraweeras 30 years in politics at the BMICH. Quite simply, there is no one to match Mangalas versatility and his political peer-popularity. In the matter of inter-communal politics, or national reconciliation, Mangala Samaraweera is the most popular Sinhalese minister among the Tamils just as Lakshman Kadirgamar was the most popular Tamil minister among the Sinhalese. The elusive common ground is lying somewhere in between. The common ground that Mangala Samaraweera (MS) is now more urgently looking for is in the realm of the economy, to offer the largest amount of goodies to satisfy the largest number voters and their families or businesses in the hope garnering votes for the UNP and its allies in the upcoming elections. Which one? Economic commentators have advised the Minister against producing an election budget, cautioning about the long term economic pains involved in going after short term electoral gains. But no government or Finance Minister can ignore electoral and political realities in presenting an election year budget. The conventional economic wisdom of short term pain for long term gain, while it will not find any political traction in an election year, is also becoming questionable in light of the frequent ups and downs in national and global economies. What is more, austerity and belt-tightening are almost always undertaken targeting the more vulnerable in society, whereas the more consequential businesses who time and again trigger economic collapses are protected by governments from self-destruction because they are deemed too big to fail for the good of everyone else. This tautology is not applicable to Sri Lanka, where the private sector is not a big shaker of the economy and its role in the economy is defined more by fits and starts than by consistent policy framework of the government or by coherent responses of the private sector to market forces. The good and the bad In his new budget, the Finance Minister chose to differentiate the good segment of the private sector from its bad segment. The good ones are represented by "the genuine entrepreneur" competing in a "fair market", the "small and mid-size businesses that embody the spirit of Sri Lankan trade and commerce, and the Sri Lankan companies that compete on the global stage and win." The reprobates are the Rajapaksa favourites and the "beneficiaries of crony capitalism walls of tariff (and) inflated Government contracts." In a bit of bravado, the Minister declared: the latter group "is not the private sector that we want to see as the engine of economic growth, but (is) a vestige of a bygone era." The elections will determine who will be gone and who will return to power. But which election and that is the question. The next one and a half years are going to see a presidential election, a parliamentary election, and potentially quite a few or all nine provincial elections. We do not know if the Finance Minister and his advisers prepared a budget for any particular election, or for any and all elections. While an electorally appealing budget might tip the scales in favour of a reasonably popular government, no amount of budgetary inducements will be enough to help a chronically unpopular government win a national election. It is fair to say that until 1977, when we had the parliamentary system and the elections were based on the first-past-the-post method, no finance minister was able to produce a magical budget that could help a sitting government win an election. With the exception of the sitting UNP government winning the 1952 election, every sitting government was thrown out of office in spite of or regardless of the election year budget. So the argument that Sri Lankas economy has stumbled and stalled because of election budgeting does not hold much water. The situation became different after 1977 with the changeover to a presidential system, proportional representation and the establishment of provincial governments and their elections. Budgets became of even less significance as governments in power manipulated the timing of elections and blatantly abused the resources of the state to win any and all elections for the governing alliance. In contrast to the fate of sitting governments before 1977, the governments after 1977 have been able to extend their stay in office beyond a single term simply by electoral manipulations and abuses of power. Their economic performance had very little to do with their relative longevity in office. Thus the UNP government elected in 1977 stayed on till 1994. And its SLFP successor lasted even longer from 1994 to 2014. The present government is in a peculiar pickle. It is a divided government. There is President Sirisena who is pre-occupied with staging his own nadagama and seeking his own re-election. Then there is the parliamentary government of Prime Minister Wickremesinghe that includes Mangala Samaraweera as Finance Minister. In a presidential election, Sirisena and Wickremesinghe might be contenders, and while Prime Minister Wickremesinghe goes about claiming credit for whatever he considers as economic success, President Sirisena will be denouncing UNP economic policies and claiming that it was he who protected the country from being sold out by the UNP. Mr. Samaraweeras budget will be criticised by his President who is also the Head of the cabinet of ministers. Which election? Whether it is the presidential election or parliamentary elections, the real contest will be between the UNP and the SLPP of the Rajapaksas. President Sirisena and his shrinking band of SLFPers will be put in their place even before the nominations are closed. The Samaraweera budget is full of ammunition to be used against the Rajapaksas in an election campaign. Without naming names, the budget blames the political crisis triggered by the Sirisena-Rajapaksa constitutional misadventure on 26 October 2018 for the countrys failure to take advantage of global economic changes towards the end of last year. But the October crisis also gave a political advantage to the Prime Minister and the UNP allies. The advantage has since been lost mostly. And the budget attempts to recapture some of that advantage by distributing generous handouts to please different sections of the population through 15 program avenues ranging from "Gamperaliya Accelerating Village Development" to "Reconciliation through economic development". One of the 15 avenues is "Public Sector Service Delivery," which is nothing more than a euphemism for providing salary increases in the public sector, continuing the trend that was started in the present governments first budget in 2015. The measure was ridiculed then as a ploy to win votes in the August parliamentary election. In that election the momentum was clearly with the UNP and the salary ploy may or may not have played any significant part. In fact, in the assessment of some UNP insiders the UNP failed to win a clear majority because of the Central Bank bond scandal. 2019 is a different political world entirely, and the salary increases are more likely to end as more money down the drain than assured votes in the ballot box. The fundamental challenge facing this government or any other government is not about finding a mix of economic measures to facilitate steady economic growth. It is about putting in place structures and institutions of governance to implement the different policies and programs for economic growth and social welfare. That was supposed the biggest purpose of this government. It has now become its biggest failure. The budget envisions an "Enterprise Sri Lanka Empowering the People and Nurturing the Poor." Ideologically, this is trying to be all things to all people. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with it so long as there will be as many things as possible available as many people as possible. The budget may not have the long life it needs to test its own success or failure. The budget will soon become secondary to the main question about the sequence of elections that our political leaders will foist on the country. There seems to be growing interest among President Sirisena, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to modify the existing presidential system along the lines of the JVPs 20th Amendment proposal. That will eliminate the presidential election this year and will advance the parliamentary election from next year to this year. Provincial elections will have to slip through the gap one more time. The ideas around this move have been there for years. Only now they are germinating because it suits the selfish needs and political constraints of the three leaders. Each one has a major handicap in being a presidential candidate. So why not get rid of the damn presidency itself. That seems to be the motivation. Mahinda Rajapaksa is barred from running again. Gotabhaya Rajapkaksa is a problem candidate in many ways. Maithripala Sirisena cant find anyone who will trust him as a candidate again. And after so many defeats, Ranil Wickremesinghe must surely be overburdened with self-doubt about his own chances again as a presidential candidate after 14 years. So it must make awful sense to them, cynically and severally, that it is best to modify the presidential system and get rid of the direct presidential election. Should these developments take place, Miathripala Srisena could have another term as President, but only as the Head of State and not the head of government. Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mahinda Rajapaksa will be left to duke it out in a parliamentary election. The budget and its effects may be forgotten by then. What might loom larger than any other spectre is what is going on in the courts - how the political actors will position themselves in response to what the police are finding and what cases are brought to trial. All three leaders have long thought that such a day of reckoning may never come. It may yet come and no one knows how that will impact any and all elections. Venezuela is unlikely to be different. Conflict with the US began with the election of President Hugo Chavez in 1998. Chavez nationalised oil and steel production and challenged the domination and control of US companies. by Anwar A Khan There is not a nation in the Western Hemisphere that has not at one time or another found itself caught in the far-reaching tentacles of US imperialism. Venezuela is certainly no exception. Washington has been meddling in its internal affairs since the 19th century and it continues to do so to this very day, when the specter of yet another US-backed coup, or even a direct American military intervention, looms larger by the day. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro told Euronews the US has tried to impose a puppet government in Venezuela, but that the coup d'etat... has already failed. Washington has used all its political, diplomatic and economic power to try to impose a puppet government in that country. The US last month blatantly violating the international rules slapped sanctions on the country's state oil firm, which is a key source of foreign income in Venezuela, to overthrow the Maduro government. "Since Venezuela has the world's main certified oil reserve, we are certifying the world's main gold reserve, the fourth gas reserve, strategic mineral reserves such as coltan... Venezuela has always been in the geopolitical interest, Maduro said. Juan Guaido declared himself interim president calling Maduro's re-election last year a sham which bears no iota of truth. Many European countries - the client states of Whitehouse and the US have recognised Guaido as the legitimate president but Maduro is backed by Russia, China, and Venezuela's military. At the instigation and pumping money illegally to the people in Venezuela by US administration, it has arranged a good number of people to demonstrate protests demanding that Maduro allow humanitarian aid into the country. The protests came after the US and Colombia sent an aid convoy to the Colombian border town of Cucuta last week, where it is being held in warehouses. But Venezuela's military barricaded a key bridge between Venezuela and Colombia in an apparent attempt to prevent aid from entering the country.Maduro told Euronews the aid was contaminated, citing information he claimed came from Colombia.Why do we seem to think US rule the world? Why should they decide who other nations have for leaders or what their economic structure will be? No one elected the Whitehouse mischief-maker, but this is what they arrogantly are doing right now in Venezuela. The people of Venezuela will suffer for their interference. US has a long history of intervening in the internal affairs of other countries. Their meddling often has resulted in unspeakable suffering for the people of those countries. Supporting military dictators and overthrowing democratically elected leaders has led to people dying, disappearing, and becoming refugees. Local economies have been destabilised by economic sanctions. Civil wars have been prolonged by their taking sides. Guatemala in 1953, Chile in 1973, Nicaragua in 1979, El Salvador in the 1970s and '80s, and Honduras in 2009 are just a few of the more-disastrous US interventions in Latin America. Never has their interference brought freedom, democracy, or prosperity. Venezuela is unlikely to be different. Conflict with the US began with the election of President Hugo Chavez in 1998. Chavez nationalised oil and steel production and challenged the domination and control of US companies. He used oil revenues to fund health, education, housing, and social programs. The United States has never tolerated left-leaning governments in Latin America. Socialist leaders who limited foreign business interests, tried to control their natural resources, or shared the profits with the population were targeted for sanctions and covert actions. The US is now orchestrating regime change in Venezuela. Venezuela is a political and economic mess because of the US establishments undue disturbances. Chavez's successor, Nicolas Maduro, is a good politician. Though lower oil prices have dried up government revenues, it is not that it will not sustain liberal social policies. Political and social unrest has become violentprompted by US administration. Moreover. US imposed economic sanctions and covert support for opposition groups also have contributed to the problems. It is not Whitehousebusiness to interfere, nor do they have the credibility to be an impartial arbiter. Their meddling is also illegal under international law, and it violates their own values of national self-determination. As a member of the Organization of American States, the US is required to respect the sovereignty and independence of other states. The Organization of American States charter also says member countries can choose, without external interference, its political, economic, and social system. They would not tolerate other nations interfering with their affairs. Why do they interfere in others? Veterans for Peace works to restrain their government from interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. Having learnt from the tragedies of Vietnam, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan, Veterans for Peace works believe that violence, whether by military intervention or by economic sanctions, is not the way to resolve conflicts. It is worthful to mention here during most of the 20th century, US interference in Venezuela was mostly about oil, but that was not always the case in earlier times. Washingtons involvement in the 1895 boundary dispute between Venezuela and Britain was a key event in the emergence of the United States as a world power as the Grover Cleveland administration, invoking the Monroe Doctrine prohibition against European colonisation of the Americas, successfully sided with Venezuela. The Cleveland administration, which noted that today the United States is practically sovereign on this continent, issued thinly veiled threats of war against Britain, which eventually acquiesced to US demands. Later, during the Dutch-Venezuelan crisis of 1908, the US Navy helped Venezuelan Vice President Juan Vicente Gomez seize power in a coup. Gomez, known as The Catfish, would rule the country either directly or through puppet presidents, until his death in 1935. His regime was one of inconceivably medieval brutality. His enforcers were fond of shackling political prisoners in grillos, leg irons that rendered many victims permanently disabled and those were the lucky ones. The unlucky ones were hanged to death by meat-hooks through their throats or testicles. Gomez was fantastically corrupt. He was believed to be worth a staggering US$200 million, or more than US$3.6 billion today, at the time of his death. However, he endeared himself to Washington and Wall Street by granting highly lucrative concessions to foreign oil companies including Standard Oil (ExxonMobil today) and Royal Dutch Shell. Romulo Betancourt, who served two presidential terms in the mid-20th century and is considered the founding father of modern democratic Venezuela, wrote that Gomez was the instrument of foreign control of the Venezuelan economy, the ally and servant of powerful outside interests. The exploitation of Venezuelas tremendous petroleum resources has been the constant objective of US policy and action toward the South American state for over a century. This meant backing the viciously repressive dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez (1948-1958), whose regime forces subjected political prisoners to tortures every bit as horrific as those committed during the Gomez era. Jimenez was as generous to transnational corporations as he was cruel to his own people. The United States, which cared about the former far more than the latter, counted the despot as a close ally, even awarding him the military Legion of Merit for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements and providing his dreaded Directorate of National Security (DSN) with invaluable assistance as it imprisoned, tortured and murdered thousands of innocent Venezuelans. A few years after Venezuela shifted to democracy in 1958, most other South American nations began falling under the iron-fisted rule of US-backed military dictatorships. The military and security forces of these repressive coup regimes were often trained by the United States, at the US Army School of the Americas and elsewhere, in kidnapping, torture, assassination and democracy suppression. As US-backed death squads trained from US-authored torture manuals murdered, tortured and terrorised innocent men, women and children from Central America to Argentina, Venezuelans enjoyed decades of peace and prosperity. However, the US never stopped meddling in Venezuelas affairs, and after the free and fair election of Hugo Chavez in 1998 and the subsequent launch of the Bolivarian Revolution, US meddling would reach levels that would shock the conscience of the world. Venezuela's political crisis intensified after the National Assembly was replaced with the Constituent Assembly in August 2017, which was criticised as a move undermining democracy and prompted some Western countries to impose sanctions on Venezuela leading to more economic hardships for the country.Washington-Caracas conflicts intensified after Donald Trump assumed office as US president in January 2017 and imposed stricter sanctions on Venezuela. The US banned several Venezuelan officials from conducting trade with US individuals and organizations, and froze their assets in the US. The US also banned dividend payment, debts and assets transactions with the Venezuelan government and the state-run oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. And US citizens and permanent residents were prohibited from buying any bonds related to Venezuelan state-owned enterprises. Trump also said that he could take military action against Venezuela.Therefore, to prevent being marginalized and win more international support, the Maduro government should make greater efforts to explain the situation in Venezuela. For example, Venezuela can reinforce relations with the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America that supported Venezuela in 2017. Besides, cooperation with Russia may help Venezuela win strong political and economic support. Russia firmly opposed US interference in Venezuela's internal affairs during Maduro's visit to Russia in October 2017, and the wheat imports from Russia have helped reduce Venezuela's dependence on the US and Canada for the food grain.As for China, it has cooperated with Venezuela in different fields, including port construction, and oil and gas. More important, China sticks to the principle of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs and so it is opposed to any foreign intervention in Venezuela. US government should stop meddling in Venezuela in no time. They should support dialogue and negotiations initiated by President Maduro with the opposition political group in Venezuela. We believe citizens of the US cannot be silent when their government does what is wrong. We urge them to contact the representatives in Venezuela to support a peaceful resolution to the conflict in that country. -The End- The writer is a senior citizen of Bangladesh, writes on politics, political and human-centred figures, current and international affairs. English10/03/2019 GENOCIDE DID NOT OCCUR IN SREBRENICA BEOGRAD, MARCH 10 /SRNA/ - It was not a genocide but a war crime in Srebrenica 1995, and before that crimes against Serbs in Srebrenica villages had been committed by Naser Oric's units, whose release in The Hague he considers shameful, said the Former Commander of UNPROFOR in BiH Lewis MacKenzie . The units of Naser Oric were coming out the enclaves under UN protection and were committing an atrocity over the Serb people, stressed MacKenzie. "This is a war crime. About the genocide over Bosniaks cannot be said, because the Serb forces evacuated all civilians, women, children, and old people from the area of combat activities", MacKenzie told to Serbian newspaper "Vecernje novosti". He believes that the release of Naser Oric confirmed the partiality of the court in The Hague forever. Commenting on the resignation of the Hague Prosecution from some counts of the indictment in the case of "Markale" or "Vase Miskina", the Canadian General assessed that the shelling of Sarajevo was a war crime for which bear responsibility General Ratko Mladic, but on the other side "some sniper and infantry ambushes and bombings in Sarajevo are extremely suspicious and undefined". On the occasion of 20 years since NATO's aggression against Serbia, MacKenzie said that it was the biggest NATO mistake, because in 1998 and 1999 Kosovo was an internal conflict between legitimate security forces and terrorists. Those terrorists were advertised as freedom fighter by American PR Company. "Before, the same agency has been practicing working for the needs of the BiH government against the Serbs. That 1999 was the 50 years NATO anniversary but was without any enemy in sight. Your country was bombed for that reason", MacKenzie explained. He pointed out that Serbs had lost media war during the nineties, because Yugoslavia and Serbia have never tried to make a serious media campaign and proved the correctness of their attitudes in the West. "It turns out that Serbia, the most credible ally of the West in the two world wars, is defamed in propaganda and on TV around the world", MacKenzie said. /End/bo The 5.7 million Stamp It Out initiative was launched by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) last summer in a bid to eradicate Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD). Within six months the project which is being delivered by SAC Consulting, part of Scotlands Rural College (SRUC) has recruited 120 veterinary practices across England to offer the programme to farmers on the ground. To have allocated all of the money only six months into delivery is fantastic, said Neil Carter of SAC Consulting. It shows that the industry has a real desire to control and eradicate the disease from our national herd. BVD costs UK farmers an estimated 61 million a year in lost performance. Under the Stamp It Out scheme, funded by the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE), farmers can access up to 530 of their vets time to investigate the disease both on a one-to-one basis or through a series of cluster meetings with like-minded keepers. They can also access 61.80 for preliminary testing work, and up to 440 where there is evidence of persistently infected animals. Vets who have signed up to the scheme have made a commitment to engage 8,000 farmers in active BVD control by 2020 with 3,000 signed up so far. A further 2,000 farmers have asked to join the BVDFree England initiative, an industry-led scheme which will take the momentum generated by Stamp It Out and continue with the ambition to eradicate BVD in England. WCC Mourns Lost Staff Member in Ethiopian Airlines Crash NEWS PROVIDED BY GENEVE, March 11, 2019 / Standard Newswire / -- After 157 people perished when an Ethiopian Airlines crashed on 10 March soon after taking off near Addis Ababa, the World Council of Churches (WCC) expressed deep sympathy and extended prayers for those who lost loved ones. Photo: Rev. Norman Tendis, WCC consultant for Economy of Life. Credit WCC/Marcelo Schneider The plane was on its way to Nairobi, Kenya, where the UN Environment Assembly began Monday. Environmental advocates and UN staff members were among those who died, including Rev. Norman Tendis, WCC consultant for Economy of Life. Tendis was instrumental in helping local churches invest their resources to make a better planet. WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit expressed great sadness on behalf of himself and the WCC fellowship. "We express our deepest condolences on the passing of the all the people on board the aircraft, and we have particular anguish upon the loss of our own Rev. Norman Tendis, who was passionately carving out a path for economic and environmental justice." Memorial service at the chapel of the Ecumenical Center, in Geneva, 11 March Moment of prayer held at the chapel of the Ecumenical Center, 11 March. Photo: Ivars Kupcis/WCC Tveit said Tendis, who was on his way to the UN Environment Assembly, had worked very hard together with colleagues to develop a "Roadmap for Congregations, Communities and Churches for an Economy of Life and Ecological Justice," which he was to present Monday morning. "This had been his compassion and vision for years. He was particularly inspired to do this as a local Lutheran pastor in Austria," said Tveit. Tveit said that Tendis was a light for those supporting and practicing small-scale, life-giving agriculture. "Norman promoted climate-friendly mobility, ethical investments and other practices which led to sustainable living for all." The WCC joined grieving people around in praying for the families of the victims, said Tveit. "May God strengthen you and your people in this time of sorrow," he said. "We hope that the ministry of the churches across the world can also be instrumental in comforting the families and all those who mourn the sudden death of this group of people." Prof. Isabel Apawo Phiri, WCC deputy general secretary, reflected: "Norman walked his talk. He was deeply rooted and committed to his congregation, and was committed to share his experiences and vision with the wider ecumenical family. His focus and enthusiasm was how each local church can contribute to the economic and ecological justice, in the marketplaces, in the communities, among the nations, and with the earth." Tveit added: "We learn that there were many on board from other organizations, the UN and non-government organizations, headed for the same Environment Assembly. The loss of Norman is a great loss for his family, his church, for the WCC colleagues and fellowship, and for the urgent work to protect and care for God's creation. This tragic accident is also a great shock for many colleagues in organizations we work closely with. We have lost many experts committed to work for the sustainability of the whole world." Tveit offered prayers for today as well as for the sad days to come: "We will pray for the healing of this deep loss, felt across the entire world," he said. SOURCE World Council of Churches (WCC) Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money. Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists. A 55-year-old British man resident in Estepona is in custody after his wife, Gloria, 58, was found stabbed to death in the couple's home on Saturday night. The victim was found dead in the bedroom when police broke into the house in Forest Hills after a neighbour raised the alarm at around 11.30pm. Her husband, Geoffrey, had apparently tried to commit suicide after the fatal stabbing. He was found next to her on the bed with cuts to his wrists. Residents held a minute's silence on Sunday. / C. M. The couple's son, 15, was outside the house, trying to get in when the police arrived on the scene. He had apparently been literally thrown out of the house by his father during an argument that started before the stabbing. When police entered the house they found Gloria already dead but called an ambulance for her husband who was still alive. He was taken to the Costa del Sol and hours later transferred to a police cell. The autopsy revealed on Sunday that Gloria had received more than ten stab wounds to her back and chest as well as several cuts to her hands and arms, as a result of her attempts to defend herself. The victim, originally from Montejaque, had not previously reported her husband for domestic violence. She is the second fatal victim of violence against women in the province of Malaga in 2019. On 12 January Leonor, 47, was killed in Fuengirola. Estepona town hall declared three days of official mourning. Local residents joined two gatherings on Sunday to hold a minute's silence. The International Women's Day march last Friday evening brought together more than 50,000 people in Malaga city centre. There was a festive atmosphere as women and men called for real equality with placards and slogans carried along a route that took them more than two hours to cover. Smaller marches took place around the region, with hundreds gathering in Marbella. Meanwhile in Madrid, some 350,000 people join the city centre march. The march culminated a day of demonstrations and actions to mark International Women's Day. The strike, which all women were encouraged to join, was followed in Malaga by the majority of older secondary school and university students. The trade union UGT reported that workers in large firms in the agro-food industry, public administration and the aeronautical and health sectors had joined the strike. Rolake Odetoyinbo featured in a January 2015 video from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "Love, family, and community. That's what I'm most proud of," said Rolake (pronounced raw-lah-ke) Odetoyinbo on a cold January night in New York State's North Country region. It's a long way from Lagos, Nigeria, where she is from. But this world-renowned AIDS activist has found a home in rural America. "I'm proud of watching my child learn, grow, and thrive in a new culture and of the connections and friendships that my spouse and I have found in the Canton-Potsdam, New York, area," she said. "In Nigeria, I'm proud of the work we're sustaining through the growing advocacy group Positive Action for Treatment Access (PATA) and through Mary's Home for Adolescent Girls in Lagos." Odetoyinbo smiled, and throughout the remaining conversation, she showed all of the traits she has been famous for during her past 20 years as a leading African HIV activist -- warm humor, sharp wit, and a driving courage and strength to make the world a better place. In Nigeria in 2002, recognizing the need for African women to advocate for HIV treatment access for all, Odetoyinbo stepped into the fight against HIV as one of the founding organizers of the Treatment Action Movement Nigeria, the Pan-African Treatment Access Movement (PATAM), PATA, and the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC). She then converted her childhood home into a 20-bed home for orphaned adolescent girls, and registered and licensed the program as a Lagos state orphanage called Mary's Home. She named it in honor of 13-year-old Mary, the first person to test positive for HIV in Nigeria. Odetoyinbo became a powerful global voice for HIV treatment access and women's sexual and reproductive health and rights. She has served on advisory committees for the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. In 2011, she was named by Women Deliver as one of the world's top 100 people delivering for women and girls globally. Then, in 2013, Odetoyinbo moved with her son to upstate New York to attend graduate school at St. Lawrence University. She got married in 2016 and now works full-time as a mental health counselor at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. She is also an associate instructor at St. Lawrence University, teaching a course on global advocacy for women's sexual and reproductive health and rights. "The transition from Lagos, a fast-paced, business-centered megacity of 18 million people, to Canton, with 6,000 inhabitants, has been an interesting experience," she said. "I failed my first driving test in Canton, and it was too funny to be offensive. I had been warned not to drive like a Lagos girl, so I strictly followed all the rules in my DMV handbook. As a result, the instructor, who knew nothing about my Lagos driving skills, failed me because she thought I lacked road confidence!" "On some days, I want to take my son back home to learn the resilience of an African, the arrogance and pride of a Nigerian, and the wisdom and creativity that comes from making a little go a long way." Health activists and service providers like Odetoyinbo who have experience both in Africa and the U.S. are a valuable resource to the public health movement and specifically to the fight against HIV. The dual experience across countries gives people who have migrated a unique perspective about the commonalities and differences in advocating for health and serving people in need. "Things are, of course, vastly different in urban Nigeria and rural New York!" Odetoyinbo said. "But there are similarities and lessons to be learned across borders. In Nigeria, we led and won our national fight for free HIV treatment, and we set up community-based services for people in very poor communities. In the U.S., there were and still are similar efforts to push for affordable health care and treatments and to provide services for those in need. Health advocates are not so different from country to country. Our contexts and strategies are different, but our cause is the same." For example? "Whether in rural New York State or a neighborhood of Lagos, homeless adolescents need support over a timeframe that goes beyond a grant funding cycle. At Mary's Home in Lagos, we take in orphaned girls and provide them with a safe home, clothing, counseling, mentoring, and support for getting through high school and university. That's a long-term effort. Who will fund this? Mary's Home is struggling to survive, and I see similar organizations in New York's North Country struggling to piece together a full long-term program." "This is outrageous," she explains. "Nigeria is a rich country, and Lagos has a lot of wealthy, well-educated people. New York State has an economy that's over four times the size of all of Nigeria, and there are lots of wealthy people here too. We can do a lot more in both places to meet people's health needs in the communities where they live." In the remaining time of the interview, Odetoyinbo talked more about the work of Mary's Home, which includes the girls' home in Lagos, as well as helping adolescent boys and girls get through school, graduate from university, take on state and national youth leadership roles, and establish their own independent lives. And for parting words, what does Odetoyinbo miss about Lagos? "Along with Nigerian dance, music, and foods, I miss the hot sun. Here, I am still learning that the appearance of the sun in the sky does not translate to heat," Odetoyinbo laughs. "But with my wife and child, other close friends and family members, and an amazing North Country community, I have more than enough to keep me warm." Its Jodie Comers birthday and, although Ill probably never get over how utterly robbed she was of an Emmy nomination, Im hoping I can do her some justice by proving to you how the character she brought to life - the one and only Villanelle - has changed fashion forever. Who wouldve thought it, eh? A coldblooded professional assassin with a talent for accents becoming a style icon. The world works in funny ways, but if youre still unconvinced let me show you why if theres any trend you should be following this coming year, its the one Villanelle is initiating. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Killing Eve (@killingvillanelleru) on Mar 3, 2019 at 11:53pm PST She is single-handedly responsible for that Molly Goddard moment View this post on Instagram A post shared by British Vogue (@britishvogue) on Oct 6, 2018 at 10:13am PDT Was any fashion moment on television in 2018 more iconic than Villanelle standing in the centre of Paris dressed in a huge pink tulle dress by Molly Goddard and tough black biker boots by Balenciaga? Honestly, no. It cant be a coincidence that in the UK, according to Google Trends, the term Molly Goddard experienced a huge spike in searches on September 16th, the day immediately after Killing Eve first aired here. Equally as notable is that one of the topics most commonly searched alongside Molly Goddard is Jodie Comer, and one of the most related queries is pink dress. Suddenly, Villanelle is seeming pretty damn influential, an assumption further proven by the sheer volume of pink tulle dresses that found their way to the Oscars red carpet. it looks like the dress code for tonight's oscars is villanelle pic.twitter.com/WedYzm7B6r ellie (@eleanorbate) 24 February 2019 She wears an eye-catching Dries Van Noten suit a) to a nightclub and b) to stab someone View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jodie Comer Fan (@jodiecxmer) on Mar 1, 2019 at 4:30am PST Villanelle is really no different to your average girl; when theres a special occasion, she likes to rock an outfit that lives up to it. The only difference is that for us said occasion may be our friends birthday party, whereas for Villanelle it just so happens to revolve around killing your arch nemesis colleague in the middle of a Berlin nightclub. Aside from the fact this Dries Van Noten suit is fabulous in its own right (the brocade detailing, the metallic sheen, the tailoring!), when it comes to fashion nothing is more admirable than unabridged confidence and nothing screams self-assured like wearing one of the most conspicuous outfits to commit one of the most punishable crimes. She wears fluted sleeves and a pussy bow to go on yet another killing spree View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jodie Comer Fan (@jodiecxmer) on Mar 3, 2019 at 12:24pm PST Jodie Comers perfectly timed facial expressions add a comedic element to Killing Eve that is only heightened when we think in greater depth about the wardrobe choices that accompany said expression. In Tuscany, Villanelle is back again with the tough boots and dainty top (by Chloe, no less) and we cant help but admire someone who knows damn well that todays agenda may involve a lot of blood and yet still opts for thigh-grazing Daisy Dukes and a floaty blouse in one of the most difficult fabrics to wash: chiffon. She takes an undercover staple and makes it fashion Villanelle in Berlin wearing a JW Anderson leather jacket (worn with a black leather tiered skirt but this was not shown) #KillingEve pic.twitter.com/Ay40Y1muxd Laroceht (@laroceht) 26 January 2019 Forget the weird plastic frames attached to a moustache that weve been led to believe are the go-to uniform of any undercover spy/assassin/agent; as weve now established, Villanelle is never one to let business get in the way of pleasure and her choice of facial concealment is no exception. These sunglasses wouldnt look out of place at an exclusive resort in the south of France, but obviously Villanelle sees a quiet afternoon of sinister stalking as the perfect opportunity to give them the public presentation they deserve. She knows a classic when she sees one Villanelle walking along a street in Paris #KillingEve pic.twitter.com/cPddErMUb3 Laroceht (@laroceht) 19 February 2019 Yes, pink tulle is great. Of course, who wouldnt want a metallic brocade power suit? But, whilst we celebrate her slightly quirkier choices, lets not forget that when all is said and done Villanelle knows her way around the classics - as demonstrated by this rose pink trench coat. With the open collar, double-breasted fastening, and cinched in waist this timeless piece makes even the neon plastic carrier bag Villanelles clutching look chic. What a skill. Villanelle from Killing Eve in THE pink Molly Goddard dress is an icon pic.twitter.com/p7ztKw9PVR soph (@xosophiek) 7 November 2018 This piece, lets not forget, is to celebrate Jodie Comer- without whom the Villanelle we know (and, weirdly, kinda love) wouldnt exist. Because its not just what Villanelle wears, its how she wears it: unapologetically and confidently. Whether shes sitting on a sofa at home or standing in the centre of Paris, Jodie Comer has injected Villanelle with the nuance and subtlety so intrinsic to allowing a figure to leave the realm of mere clothes horse and become a style icon. A King's College London student society are accusing their peers of cancelling tickets 'on a racist basis.' Last Sunday, King's Action Palestine Society posted a statement alleging that the Israel Society 'actively' discriminated against and racially profiled ticket holders with Muslim or racially marginalised names. Whilst denying accusations of racism, a spokesperson for KCL's Israel Society told TNS that they did cancel tickets of those "likely to disrupt." The event in question - discussing whether Israel ignores international humanitarian law - took place the following Monday with Colonel Eli Baron, the former Deputy Military Advocate General for the IDF as a guest speaker. KCLAP described it as a 'very shallow attempt' at impartiality since Baron, the only external speaker present, has a 'vested interest in denying the abuse of Palestinian human rights.' The group expressed their disappointment at King's for allowing the former general onto campus. KCL Israel Society claimed on the email sent out to students that tickets to the event were cancelled 'due to an overcapacity issue.' However, KCLAP refutes this statement, saying the Eventbrite page remained open for more bookings. They published screenshots of the booking confirmation email received on the 22nd of February. A few days later on February 24th and 26th, KCL Israel Society advertised remaining spaces on their Facebook page. Eight days later, cancellation emails were sent out to students citing overcapacity issues. Members of KCLAP allegedly went on to successfully purchase additional tickets via the Eventbrite bookings page some sixteen minutes after the cancellation email was received. In their statement, KCLAP accused the Israel Society of using "blatant racial profiling... to invalidate the tickets of predominantly Muslim and racially marginalised students, despite these students having booked their tickets long in advance and prior to others who have been allowed to attend. "Simon Moos, President of KCL Israel Society, has stated that this is due to "an overcapacity issue," yet the Eventbrite page to book tickets remained open even after students had their tickets taken from them, with other students successfully being able to book tickets at this time. "It is undeniably clear based on name alone, KCL Israel Society has chosen students that they do not want to participate in their event. "This discriminatory practice has equated these names with criticisms of Israel that the society wishes to ignore, and has assumed that having a traditionally Muslim name is inherently synonymous with being an opponent of the society." Speaking exclusively to TNS, Simon Moos denied accusations of racism but said he profiled social media pages of students and cancelled tickets of those he deemed likely to disrupt." He told TNS that some ticket holders were Irish, some of them English, some of them were Asian. The vast majority of the people in the group we judged and were likely to disrupt were Arabs, but that is not our fault. "I opened the ticket list and saw that many people started to buy tickets and many were from KCL Action Palestine. I knew that these people dont even want their supporters to talk to us. They didn't take tickets to listen peacefully to the colonel of the IDF. I had to be a bit careful with this. "I started to profile check every single attendee of the event through Facebook, looking at what pages every ticket-holder liked, to evaluate the preferences of every ticket holder. If they liked Antifa group among other worrying things, I knew that people were going to disrupt from KCL Action Palestine. They were buying a lot of tickets. "Many people bought tickets at the same time and that meant to me that there was a plan and the plan was not to listen peacefully to a colonel of the IDF but the plan was to disrupt the event. Simon says he made a list of every person he deemed 'problematic.' In total, close to 60 tickets were cancelled. A spokesperson for the Israel Society confirmed to TNS that King's security team allegedly 'recommended' that they cancel tickets. Due to the apprehension of violence and hostility, the event location was not released beforehand. Ticket holders were informed of the location on the day of the event. The relationship between the two societies remains strained because of past hostilities. In 2015, police were called to a KCL Israel Society event after protestors broke windows and threw chairs. The Israel Society discovered protest plans when Vice-President Albert Tamman attended an open meeting held by KCL Action for Palestine and was later added into the Whatsapp group chat. He used his nickname Al at the door but insists that at no point did he 'lie to anyone to get into the groupchat or the meeting.' Albert informed TNS that half an hour of the meeting was spent 'talking about tactics and strategies to disturb our event. When a student proposed engaging in a peaceful dialogue, the rest of the committee quickly silenced her idea.' Messages on the Whatsapp group named KCLAP action 4th of March revealed plans to 'smuggle' people into the event and hand out leaflets. Members asked each other whether anyone had 'links in SU' in order to find out which room KCL Israel Society had booked. The group also discussed filing a discrimination claim against KCL Israel Society with one asking whether the society only cancelled holders with 'ethnic names.' However, Simon categorically argues that 'there was no discrimination on the basis of names, there was only discrimination on the basis of the nature of their preferences, our personal experience and on their membership of a group that was meant to disrupt the event." Responding to Simon's statement, KCLAP said it simply "sums up their point." They told TNS that considering the disproportionate amount of people of colour and Muslims who had tickets revoked its clear racial profiling was a factor, especially when we know for a fact that Muslims and people of colour who werent in our group chat also had their tickets cancelled. The KCL Action Palestine admitted the existence of the Whatsapp group and meeting, saying they made it clear that disruption was specifically aimed at challenging the speaker, with plans to quote human rights violations before walking out of the event. They called the event unacceptable and an insult to Palestinian students. For the KCL Israel Society to imply that this question requires further discussion is shameful." They said Muslim students who attended the event were made to feel unwelcome with one female attendee allegedly getting access because her name on the ticket wasnt indicative of her religion. Another attendee, who allegedly did not use her full name whilst booking the ticket, was allegedly asked to remove her Keffiyeh (a checkered cultural scarf) "for no apparent reason" according to KCLAP. However, Simon claims that the event had a strict clothing policy specified in the email sent out to attendees. Simon says hostile dialogue was encouraged and denied any racism, justifying ticket cancellations on the basis of past difficulties with the group. Unfortunately at Kings College, it is impossible to have a debate with a student-led society that represents the interest of the Palestinian Arab identity, he said, adding he would like the current society to be dismantled and replaced. KCL Israel Society's Vice-President said that whilst he knows 'that group of people can be violent' he still feels 'comfortable' on campus. He believes the problem is that KCLAP's goal is to "disturb our events and you cannot base a society on this. Although I think it's important to have a society that helps the Palestinian cause, I don't think that removing KCLAP would be good." Albert suggested that KCLAP should be "sanctioned" until they "stop disturbing and actually do proper events." KCLAP, however, says they challenge the Israel Societies problematic events but dont see the point in a relationship between the two. Both societies have said they will or already have reported the other to the university. A Kings College London spokesperson said: We can confirm that Colonel Eli Baron spoke last week at an event at Kings focussed on the Israeli army. We promote Freedom of Expression within the law as a university which is one of our core purposes even when debate and points of view are controversial. This includes protecting the right to protest, but not to disrupt the ability of others to express a different view. Prior to the event the university received credible evidence of a plan to disrupt this event, and we consequently took the exceptional step of making the event a closed rather than public event, with final control over admittance delegated to the organising student society. This was an exceptional measure but justified in the circumstances, in order to ensure that both the event and protests could take place in a safe and secure manner. Image credit: KCL Israel Society, KCL Action Palestine and Poppet with a Camera More to follow At student unions across the country, it is once again election season. Campus walls fill up with posters, Facebook timelines are cluttered with candidate endorsements and videos, and the common areas on campus are packed with candidates and their teams, all jostling for the student vote. A similar mood will soon prevail across campuses as the race to the top of the National Union of Students begins. Candidates were announced just last week, and I have no doubt that the phones of politically active students everywhere are buzzing with WhatsApp group chat notifications. The election machines of the NUSs various factions, old and new, are awakening from their year-long slumber, and they are raring for a fight. This year, the stakes are higher than ever before. The NUS, facing a 3.5m deficit, is in a fight for its future. Full-time officer positions and campaigns, which represent students from marginalised groups and sections, are being cut - eight full-time officer roles will not return in the 2019/20 academic year, including officers representing the international and trans student communities. The NUS is also selling its headquarters in London, and has confirmed that 54 staff are leaving or have left the organisation. A Reform Motion, which is going to be voted on at this years National Conference, will potentially see an end to the National Executive Council, all Liberation Officers and two-year officer terms with no possibility of losing an election. Image Credit: McElspeth // Pixabay Students, of course, are fighting back. A Defend Liberation campaign has been started, calling on the NUS to stop cuts to its liberation campaigns, while another campaign has been started by a group of international student sabbatical officers to oppose cuts to the International Students Campaign, which no longer has a full-time officer. Student unions, disillusioned with the chaotic state of affairs, are attempting to disaffiliate, with the University of Plymouth Students Union voting to leave last December. With the future of the NUS hanging in the balance, delegates to this years National Conference should consider what, exactly, the NUS needs from its leadership. It is often said that most non-political students only know of the NUS because of its NUS Extra card; with even that being rebranded as the garishly-coloured TOTUM (powered by NUS Extra, in small print), it is entirely possible that the wrong set of leaders will almost completely alienate students from their only form of national representation. This could lead to an intensification, in 2019/20, of the trend of disaffiliations and disillusionment, costing the NUS valuable income and diminishing its ability to fight for students on a national level. The question for this year is not what the NUS has done, but what it hasnt done. I remember the UCU strikes from last year. I kicked off a UK-wide campaign for a strike refund, bringing angry students together and gathering over 100,000 signatures on petitions across the country. Student anger was also channelled into a wave of demonstrations, occupations and pickets at affected universities in solidarity with their striking lecturers, and there was a strong student bloc at a UCU march through London. Throughout this whole process, apart from a lukewarm joint statement with the UCU, the NUS was disappointingly silent. Despite the overwhelming support for both refunds and lecturers from lay students, often at the same time, there was no official support for a strike refund (which may now soon be a reality), or support on the picket lines. This year, whilst the NUS has made big strides in fighting for student welfare, many of the same problems persist. Where the NUS is making itself felt is where it engages with the concerns of actual students - rent, mental health, LGBT+ healthcare and safety, racism on campus - rather than fighting on high-level boards for esoteric policy changes that students dont hear about or feel. The NUS needs to be the voice for students, instead of speaking over them, and this means savvy leadership that actually knows how to engage students, not just student union officers and salaried staff. This means exceptional leadership that disrupts the tired, cliquey politics that seem to rule the day at NUS, and goes straight to students where they are on campuses and social media. This means fearless leadership thats unafraid to take innovative and entrepreneurial action to secure funding for the NUS so it can serve the needs of the students and unions it represents. To the delegates headed to Glasgow this year: the wrong leaders might sink the NUS, but the right leaders will use the next year to reshape it from the ground up, bringing new ideas to the forefront, and build something brilliant from the ashes of the old. Its up to you now. Lead Image Credit: McElspeth // Pixabay Chinese tourists keep flocking to the University of Sydney because they think it was the location of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter film franchise. Plot twist; it wasnt. J.K Rowlings Harry Potter has a global fanbase with people from all around the world in love with its quirky mix of magic and quintessential British charm. When Warner Brothers transformed the books to the big screen devoted fans turned filming locations into buzzing tourist hot spots. Photo by Ester Marie Doysabas on Unsplash Englands Goathland railway station , in the tiny Scarborough village, now sees thousands of visitors posing for photos and waving their wands there each year after it served as the location of Hogsmeade railway station. However, some tourists have been getting their magic in a muddle, mistakenly visiting places that were never featured as locations in the films. The University of Sydney, Australia, is nearly 10,000 miles away from where Harry Potter was filmed and yet Potter-heads have been visiting the campus because it bears a slight resemblance to Hogwarts. Photo: University of Sydney by KittySaturn~commonswiki Whatsmore, some Chinese tour guides have actually been telling visitors it was filmed there. Our tour guide told us this is where one of the scenes of Harry Potter was filmed, one tourist told SBS news. Dr Jamie Fraser a curator at the Universitys Nicholson Museum says hes noticed a huge increase of tourists. Talking to SBS he claims theres been more than a 4000 people increase since 2017 to 2019. He also says, people come to the front desk of our museum and ask us can you please show us where Harry Potter was filmed." View this post on Instagram Welcome to Harry Potter wizard school! #sydneyuniversity A post shared by Vincent Huang (@gcbio45) on Sep 9, 2018 at 9:03am PDT One tour guide company actually lists the University of Sydney as being the real version of Hogwarts. With its neo-Gothic architecture, quadrangle and well manicured lawns, there is certainly a resemblance to Hogwarts and when combined with the fake tourist information its hardly surprising so many Chinese visitors are being so easily duped. RTHK: Democrats plan convention for battleground state US Democrats have chosen Milwaukee as the site of their 2020 election convention, in an effort to win back swing voters in the American "Rust Belt" who helped elect Donald Trump. In announcing the decision Monday, the Democratic Party emphasised it is the first time a Midwestern city other than Chicago has been chosen to host a party convention in more than 100 years. Midwestern states where steel, automobile and other manufacturing industries have withered in recent decades, were crucial to Trump's unexpected victory in the 2016 presidential election. He won the upper Midwestern state of Wisconsin, a crucial battleground where Milwaukee is located, by a mere 23,000 votes out of nearly three million cast. Many blue collar voters in struggling "Rust Belt" towns switched allegiance to vote for Trump, counting on his promises to revitalise American manufacturing. "The Democratic Party is the party of working people, and Milwaukee is a city of working people," Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said in a statement announcing the choice. Democrats had been considering three cities for their convention, which will be held July 13 to 16 Milwaukee, Houston and Miami. "This choice is a statement of our values," Perez said. Week-long conventions by both Democrats and Republicans are held at the height of the election campaign, after primary contests in each state vote on the parties' nominees. Although the candidate are virtually certain to be known by then, the televised nominating conventions are considered crucial for introducing candidates to general election voters. Republicans last year announced their convention would take place in Charlotte, North Carolina. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Unfortunately, The Content Is Not Here You have arrived at this page because the page or post you were looking for no longer exists. Please check our main navigation pages for other content: Home Page The Perspective Atlanta, Georgia March 11, 2019 Early hours of last week, Liberia woke up to the most-talked-about 16B report. Though it's ludicrous to believe such quantity of local currency (Liberian Dollar-LRD) filled in a container would go missing without a single trace, yet only an independent investigation could unearth the truth. For some, it's a snapshot of fun and unique opportunity to score political goals against the incumbent while others saw it as a perfect moment to save the tainted image of the country via truthfulness to power. Flipping through the pages of the detailed report backed by citizens reactions, something interesting grabbed my attention on the new normal of our body politics. The new normal we've seen in the public domain mainly from political actors and supporters is what I allude to as the Blame-game theory. Blame-game theory, I mean, owning the good and disowning the bad. This mirrors my mind to the words of my late mother Stubborn orphan is extremely unlikely to attract legal adoption. Good is good and bad is bad regardless who's involved. Good governance denotes priding in the good and taking full responsibility for the wrong with corrective measures. Now, let's switch to the synopsis of the USAID sponsored Kroll's investigative report covering the period of January 1, 2016, to December 7, 2018. Kroll has identified discrepancies at every stage of the process for controlling the movement of banknotes into and out of the CBL during the Independent Review, including the Legislature approval for printing new banknotes; the procurement and contracting of Crane AB; the shipping of new banknotes to Liberia; the delivery of new banknotes to the CBL, and; the movement of funds within and out of the CBLs vaults. These are strong words of Kroll Associates, Inc., painfully pointing to gross abuse of vested authority, systematic bias, internal and external controls breaches, monetary deficiencies and financial mismanagement manly within the monetary powerhouse (CBL). In subtleties of the report, there're 10 grieved findings outlined by the independent forensic investigative firm ranging from control mechanisms, legislative approval, procurement and contracting of legal tender(LRD), and movements of currency. These are material findings strictly levied against fellow Liberian citizens not the normal politics of incumbent versus opposition, so what's vital now is to judiciously and impartially dispense justice against political and social interests. In the context of zero win and gain, I join from afar in demanding speedy and fair justice, as well as inject the following points: The Perspective Atlanta, Georgia March 11, 2019 Friday, 8 March, 2019, Monrovia, Liberia: The Movement for Justice In Africa (MOJA) is not surprised to hear President George Weahs faulty, disingenuous or deceptive explanation of wealth accumulation: If you know book but you do not own a house or bicycle, etc, you are stupid. Interestingly, his view of equating someone accumulating wealth to his/her smartness or intelligence is close to the views of Monrovia elites who continue to dictate Liberias economic arrangement, through Liberian officials, the powerful media, and prominent institutions. For instance, instead of big business encouraging past and present leaders of the country to punish individuals who steal properties of society, it deceptively despises Liberians who decline to enrich themselves at the expense of society. In fact, nowadays, some Liberians considered a person to be stupid because he/she did not steal properties of government when he/she was in government. And this explanation is based on a long-held false belief that properties of society are in steal yours share whenever you have access. After local and international experts along with anti-corruption advocates identified corruption as one of the root causes of chaos in Liberia, sympathizers of corruption argued that individuals who invested their ill-gotten wealth in Liberia are honorable. Additionally, many Liberians accepted the rumor, although, without proof, that people with fewer properties were dishonest, while Liberians with more wealth were less corrupt and honest. Again, this belief is grounded in the false assertion that white-collar employees (chief executives) are honest, but blue-collar employees are not. Predictably, President Weah, faced with bad economic news and unable to explain how he is financing his commercial and personal built in less than a year, wants to change the different corruption stories that continue to remind people of what every incumbent fears, inconvenient truth. Therefore, he has attacked members of MOJA, hoping to remind businesses that its arch-rival (MOJA) might enter the 2023 presidential race. Monrovia elites do not only dislike MOJA because of its fights to institute anti-poverty programs, but President Weah is protecting the interest of the Monrovia elites. For example, president administration has concluded that the Sirleaf administration awarded concessionary agreements that met internationally best practices, exonerating investors who were purported to have given bribes in exchange for 66fraudent concessionary agreements. What is the Movement for Justice in Africa: after William V. S Tubman regime ended in 1971, many progressives organized themselves into The movement for justice in Africa (MOJA). The All Peoples Alliance (APFA), The Progressives Alliance of Liberia (PAL), The Committee Against Political Repression in Liberia (CAPRIL), SUSUKU. MOJA and SUSUKU headed by Comrade Togba Nah Tipoteh provided legal services to the poor, organized workers education programs, and gave agricultural and managerial advice. In the case food self-sufficiently, MOJA and SUSUKU launched the rice production project, which compelled the Liberian government to declare war on poverty. Also, it was MOJAs advocacy about racist apartheid policy and Southern Africans Liberation Struggle that encouraged William R. Tolbert Administration to launch funding raising project to support the African liberation struggle. In another example of the efforts to change minds of Liberian citizenry, MOJA launched The Sawyer for Mayor Campaign in order to expose the clause within the 1847 Liberian constitution which deny a citizen to vote if he/she did not own a real estate property. Now that President Weah has raised the issue of accountability wealth, legally or illegally, which usually increases income inequality, MOJA is compelled to part-take. So, let us ask the million-dollar question. Is wealth accumulation a good or bad idea? Should there be a limit? Well, some of the billionaires in the world such as Warren Buffett, Bill and Malinda Gates, etc. are indicating that there should be limit. Therefore, some of them are donating portion of their wealth to society. Additionally, some governments, in order to reduce chaos, distribute cash or pay for social programs. Distributing some of the excessive wealth is noble, but why takes more wealth away from society in the first place? Liberias Albert Porte, etc. did not accumulate wealth but contributed a lot of good things to society. Other Liberians continue to abhor dishonest benefits or unearned rewards even though an opulent lifestyle and the high taste for material things continue to tempt them. Parents insist that the love for material things is equivalent to be a weak person and/or a person that is gullible to manipulation. Decline offer from a stranger because it was difficult to determine a true angel from a devil dressed in sheep clothing, parents admonished. Many of these people who abhor the accumulation are guided by the good book, the Holy Bible. For example, religious literature says wealth accumulation, legally or not, should not be excessive, according to St. Matthew of the Holy Bible. Chapter 6 verse 24 of Matthew states For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. No one can serve two masters You cannot serve God and Money If President Weah is guided by the scripture of the Bible, why is he equating someone accumulating wealth to his/her smartness or intelligence? Speaking at the ceremony of the installation of the officers of the Federation of Liberian Youth (FLY) on 22 January 2019, President George Weah spoke about members of the Movement for Justice in Africa and Book People, specifically Comrade Togba Nah Tipoteh his uncle. He admonished the audience not to follow the Liberian Book People who are not successful in anything, even though they have been around for sixty years. If educated people (i.e the 70s progressives) do not even own a bicycle and/or office, you should not follow the old progressives, he, added. So, if members of MOJA were/are advocating for a democratic and prosperous society, why are elites uncomfortable with MOJA? Or, why is President Weah making derogatory remarks about members of MOJA? This is because President Weah and Monrovia elites want to accumulate more wealth without anti-corruption crusaders demanding an end to corruption. It is disheartening that people President Weah will forget so soon that Comrades Togba Nah Tipoteh, Amos Sawyer, Gabriel Baccus Matthews, Oscar Jaryee Quiah, Dew Tuan Wreh Mayson, Henry Boima Fahnbulleh, Tiawan Gongloe, and other progressives had not stoop up against one-party rule, misuse of public resources, and other vices in our society today he Weah and his cheering squad would have been where they are? Today, you have the Flomos, Wessehs, Koffas, Yarkpawolos, Grupees, and Dagosehs all in the Legislature because Togba Nah Tipoteh and the Progressives brave the storm to fight against ill-gotten wealth, injustice and one-party rule. The progressives paid the hard price to get this country free from one-party rule to multiparty democracy which charlatans and the like George Weah are benefiting from. Yes, Mr. Weah is one Liberian who subscribes to the view that working for Government should be an opportunity to steal and if you do not then you are stupid so people like Comrade Togba Nah Tipoteh are stupid that is why they have no home, no bicycle. Let George Weah know that Tipoteh is living very well and happily going about his business not hiding from no one and not hunted from misdeeds that are hunting the like of George Weah. George Weah should be concern with his task of building a nation and do not look for enemies all over the place. Mr. Weah should not run away from the public on the following things. The people want to know the status of this partial list that President Weah is hoping to keep away from the public: 1. Documents to show the source of the funds to build President Weahs properties 2. President Weah Asserts Declaration 3. Report of the L$16 billion-dollar saga 4. Documentations of the $17 million infusion into the economy; 5. The illegal and unconstitutional amendment of the 2018/2019 national Budget; 6. Evidence of the ownership of the private jet; 7. Authorization to appropriate US$500k for the First Lady of Liberia, Mrs. Claire Weah; and etc Most importantly, President Weah, having the support of unscrupulous Monrovia elites, wants to run the affairs government without check and balances. Remember, even in advanced countries, leaders usually seek to create such an environment. Therefore, it is the responsibility of every institution to discourage its leadership from paving the way dictatorship. MOJA on to this belief and it prepared to fight for it. Contact 0778-029-496 The Perspective Atlanta, Georgia March 11, 2019 Response of Tiawan S. Gongloe, President of the Liberian National Bar Association to the Opening Address of His Honor Francis S. Korkpor, SR. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Liberia at the Opening of the March Term, 2019, on March 11, 2019 Mr. Chief Justice and Associates Justices of the Supreme Court Mr. Speaker and members of the Legislature The Minister of Justice and Dean of the Supreme Court Bar; Former Chief Justices and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court; Mr. Minister of State for Presidential Affairs The Doyen and Members of the Diplomatic Corps The Resident Coordinator and the heads of United Nations missions in Liberia Judges of Circuit and Specialized Courts; The Dean, Faculty, and students of the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law The Executive Council and members of the Liberian National Bar Association The President and Members of the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia The President and members of the Association of Public Defenders The President and members of the Association of Prosecutors Association The Court Administrator and members of the clerical and ministerial staff of the Judiciary Members of the Fourth Estate Leaders and members of the Civil Society Organizations Other distinguished ladies and gentlemen: We bring you warm greetings from members of the Liberian National Bar Association and welcome you back from your presumed restful vacation. Your honors, we join you in thanking God for completing the October Term of the Supreme Court and pray along with you for God to give you increased strength, courage and higher degree of cooperation and oneness of purpose as you resume your judicial functions, during the March Term, 2019. We are pleased to hear that during the last term of Court, four Circuit Judges and one Debt Court Judge were appointed by the President of Liberia to fill existing vacancies within the judiciary. We are aware that these vacancies were created by the deaths of three judges and the retirement of two of the judges that were replaced by these new judges. As we congratulate our former colleagues of the bar for their elevation to the bench, we pray that God will give them good health, wisdom, and strength to perform their duties without fear or favor in all cases that come before them. As new judges, we pray that their judicial actions will inspire more public confidence in the judiciary as a forum for the peaceful resolution of all disputes based on equal treatment of all parties. The Bar will always emphasize this point because its mission of promoting adherence to the rule law is not possible if there is doubt about the ability of the judiciary to deliver justice to all on an equal basis. On behalf of members of the new administration of the LNBA, we thank your honor, for your words of felicitation and the information provided by your honor on the history of the mutual support and cooperation that have existed between the bar and the bench, over the years. We assure your honors and the entire judiciary of our administrations willingness and preparedness to support and cooperate with the Bench and the entire judiciary in its effort to execute its constitutional mandate of doing justice to all parties without any form of discrimination. In this effort, we see no alternative or option. We are aware that the bar is meaningless without the bench and we have no doubt that Bench is equally aware that without the bar, the bench cannot effectively function. With this symbiotic relationship between the Bench and the Bar, mutual support, cooperation, and respect are necessary conditions that both the bench and the bar must remain mindful of at all times. In disregard, we plead with the bench to curtail the frequent threats of detention of lawyers by some judges of the lower courts, most often, in the performance of their duties as lawyers. We wish to publicly remind those judges that lawyers are protected by article 21(i) of the Constitution of Liberia which provides, no lawyer shall be prevented from or punished for providing legal services, regardless of the charges against or the guilt of his client. Such threats and intimidation demean, not only the lawyer that is the subject of the threat and intimidation, but tend to cast aspersion on the entire legal profession. A lawyer should be referred to the Grievance and Ethics Committee where his/her conduct is considered by a judge to be contrary to any provision of the Code of Ethics Governing the Practice of Law in Liberia. Most often, due process is shortened or undermined by judges who hold lawyers in contempt. The Supreme Court has over the years, fined, suspended or disbarred lawyers from the practice of law, most often, based on reports of the Grievance and Ethics Committee. We urge judges of the lower courts to do the same and we seek the support and cooperation of the Bench in this regard. We assure the Bench that we will make every effort to encourage lawyers to uphold the honor of the legal profession in the manner required by the oath of office of lawyers and the Code of Professional Ethics. We express sympathy with the judiciary and members of the family of judges and other judicial officers who made their transitions during the last term of court. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in perfect peace and may light perpetual shine upon them. We pray that during this March Term of Court all members of the bench, judges of subordinate courts and the entire staff of the judiciary will experience good health and protection from death. We are pleased to hear that all courts throughout the Republic are fully functioning as demonstrated by the number of cases disposed of at all levels of the Judiciary from the magistrate sitting program up to the Supreme Court. We applaud such achievement and encourage the Judiciary with the support of the other two branches of government, not only to maintain the current reported level of performance but to do more in providing access to justice throughout Liberia. While applaud the performance of the Judiciary we are compelled to bring to your attention that many lawyers and party-litigants complain about the delay in the disposition of cases at all levels of the judiciary. There is a problem with the calendaring of cases and making decisions on cases that have been heard by the Supreme Court and subordinate courts. There are some cases before the Supreme Court, currently, in which arguments took place more than two years ago and yet this court has not delivered any opinion in those cases. Justice delayed is justice denied. This Court must set the standard for speedy dispositions of matters that come before it so that the courts below can do the same. We join your honor in expressing gratitude to the Governments of Sweden and Ireland for their contributions to the strengthening of the public defenders program of the Judiciary by providing through the United Nations Development Program financial and logistical support for the employment and deployment of additional public defenders, as well as, the support given by the two governments for the opening of two Gender-based Violence Courts in the Eighth and ninth Judicial Circuits, Nimba County and Bong County, respectively. The contributions of the Governments of Sweden and Ireland will definitely go a long way in improving the capacity of the judiciary to more speedily dispose of criminal cases, especially those involving sex and gender-based violent crimes. Your honors, the information provide by his honor, Mr. Chief Justice Korkpor, regarding the progress that has been made in increasing the capacity of the judiciary through the Professional Magistrate Training Program (PMTP) for the recruitment and appointment of associate magistrates is laudable. We are grateful to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Legal Professional Development and Anti-Corruption Program (LPAC) for the support given the judiciary. The increase number of associate magistrates produced through the Magistrate Training Program has improved access to justice in many parts of the country. But, it is obvious that that program is an interim arrangement to fill the gap between the number of attorneys-at-law available to serve as stipendiary magistrates and the number of magistrate courts in the country. There is a need for the government to begin to recruit young attorneys-at-law to serve as stipendiary magistrates. In this regard, we wish to point out that the judiciary should take note of the magistrates whose commissions have expired in order to recommend a renewal of their commissions or replace them, by attorneys-at-law, where their records suggest the necessity for such decisions. According to section 7.5 of the Judiciary Law, the commission of a stipendiary magistrate in Liberia is for four years and may be renewed. It is not legal for a magistrate whose commission has expired to continue to perform as a magistrate. Your honors, we applaud you for the initiative taken, thus far, in the construction of judicial complexes in various parts the country, the latest of which was done in Grand Gedeh and Grand Kru Counties. We hope and pray that such efforts will be shortly extended to other counties, including River Cess County. We applaud the judiciary for the increased exposure of members of the judiciary through local and external training programs, conferences and workshops. These opportunities have the potential of increasing the knowledge of members of the judiciary. We are extremely happy, as members of the legal profession in West Africa, about the information on the planned outreach program of the ECOWAS COMMUNITY COURT OF JUSTICE to be conducted in Liberia from March 16 to23, 2019. We call upon all members of the Bar to fully participate in the outreach program of the ECOWAS COMMUNITY COURT OF JUSTICE. The program will provide Liberian lawyers the opportunity to learn more about the procedures that obtain at this sub-regional court. The Liberian lawyers who participate in the outreach program will realize that the existence of the ECOWAS community court of justice amplifies the avenues for seeking justice for their clients. The court does not require exhaustion of local remedies as is done by other international tribunals and courts. It also has a rather progressive jurisprudence on matters of public interest. Relying on the doctrine of actio popularis, it allows persons and institutions not directly affected by any issue of human rights violation to file an action before it, once, it can be shown that said violation of human rights is a matter of public interest. Also, the Court provides an opportunity for non-governmental organizations, for example, to help communities that cannot help themselves in carrying their cases before the Court. The LNBA will work with the advance delegation of the ECOWAS COURT in order to ensure the success of the Courts outreach program. Associate Justice Kabineh M. Janeh Your honors, we agree with Mr. Chief Justice Korkpor that the court is going through a challenging period and we emphasize, a very challenging period, due to the efforts by some members of the House of Representatives to impeach his Honor Mr. Justice Kabineh M. Janeh. The impeachment of Justice Janeh is the second time that a member of the Supreme Court bench has gone through an impeachment proceeding. The member of the Supreme Court Bench to ever be impeached, since 1847, was Chief Justice Chea Cheapo in 1987. For the jailing of Judge Harper Bailey, the Chief Justice was impeached almost unanimously by the Senate. The only Senator who voted to acquit him was Senator David Menyongai of Margibi County. Although Chief Justice Cheapo tendered in his resignation, President Samuel K. Doe rejected his resignation and rather chose to impeach him. It was a challenging moment for the Supreme Court, as it is today. But what makes it more challenging this time, is that the bill of impeachment on which Justice Janeh is being tried is a product of defiance by some members of the House of Representatives, of the alternative writ of prohibition issued by a Justice of the Supreme Court sitting in Chambers, acting under the authority of the law. It is also challenging because the full bench of the Supreme did not consider this defiance of the presiding Justices order as a defiance of the entire Bench. In our view, the failure of any individual, group of individuals, or any department or branch of government to honor an order of this Court undermines the rule of law and threatens the peace, security and development of this country. Here lies the real challenge. Another challenge is the fact that the impeachment of Justice Janeh began with the listing of actions or conducts which do not qualify as impeachable offenses. Two of the actions listed have direct links to this Court. In one case Mr. Justice Janeh was a party in a case decided by the Supreme Court. In the other, he was performing a judicial duty in which his decision was subject to review by the entire Bench. Yet, Justice Janeh is being subjected to a hearing for matters that both the bench and a justice in chambers are protected by the Constitution of Liberia for. Further, the ongoing impeachment hearing is challenging because this court avoided, refused, failed and neglected to interpret article 43 of the Constitution of Liberia regarding the procedure for impeachment. Further, the proceeding is challenging because the history of Liberia will record that the Chief Justice whose bench was disrespected by some members of the House of Representatives chose to preside over an impeachment proceeding which was based on a total disregard for the authority of the Supreme Court. Further, the proceeding is troubling because the presiding officer over the impeachment rules on some issues and on others he refuses to rule on the ground that he lacks the authority to do so. A better procedure was what Chief Justice Rehnquist adopted at the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. For example, Chief Justice Rehnquist referred the motion to dismiss to the members of the Senate who denied same by a vote of 56 to 44. In this case, this very important motion was not referred to the Senate to decide whether or not the case should be proceeded with. This impeachment trial is not only challenging, but troubling because it has the potential of bringing the bar of impeachment so low, that it may serve as a precedent for the easy impeachment and removal of elected and other high officials of government, not excluding the Chief Justice and other members of the bench, who can only be removed by impeachment. It is challenging because it promises future instability in government. We can only hope that the Senate will save this country where this Court failed on this matter. Your Honors, this Court is the only source of hope for the survival of our democracy and the sustenance of peace and security in our country. The LNBA will support and cooperate with your honors as long as you perform your duty as the custodian of our democracy, peace, and security. We must always remind ourselves, that this Court shares the blame for the more than 250,000 people that were killed in Liberia during the civil conflict. Had this Court play its part well, in the past, Liberia would not have descended into conflict. We urge the current bench not to allow itself to be similarly judged in the future. Your honors we note that there are 310 cases on the trial docket and 15 cases on the motion calendar. We urge the court to assign these cases in sequence, instead of each lawyer coming to ask for the assignment of his/her case. In that case, the Court and the parties will know which lawyer is not ready for a case and the blame will not go to the Court or its clerical staff. We wish Honors a successful March Term of Court, 2019. I thank you. Montreal, CA (H4T1V6) Today Some lingering morning flurries or snow showers. Some early morning breaks in the overcast, otherwise cloudy. High -4C. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Cloudy with light snow developing after midnight. Low -8C. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 80%. Snow accumulations less than one inch. 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. MBABANE - Kukhanya Civil Engineering Contractors (Pty) Ltd has been stopped from removing any property from the premises where they are renting offices. This comes after Swaziland Property Services SEEF (Pty) Ltd moved an urgent application at the High Court where it is demanding a sum of E115 772.80 which is in respect of rentals. Judge Nkosinathi Maseko, who presided over the matter, issued the interim order and further called upon the respondent to show course why the above order should not be made final. The giant construction company has also been called upon to show course why the order for the cancellation of the lease agreement between the parties, which was signed in August 2018 should not be cancelled. When the matter returns to court on March 15, 2019, Kukhanya Construction is also expected to justify why the order for its ejectment from the premises being House No. 78, Nkonyeni in Manzini, should not be made final by the court. SEEF is a limited liability company carrying on business as an estate agent in Ezulwini. Agreement In his founding affidavit, the Director of Swaziland Property Services SEEF (Pty) Ltd, Anthony Mcquire, said on or about August 2017, Lynette Mogaza (who is the landlord of the property) and Kukhanya Civil Engineering Contractors (Pty) Ltd concluded a lease agreement. During the signing of the lease agreement, the landlord was represented by the applicant (SEEF), while the respondent was represented by Hansie Van Der Walt. Mcquire said the initial lease agreement was for 12 months and it lapsed in July 2018. He said on August 1, 2018, at Ezulwini, they concluded a new lease agreement with the respondent. According to Mcquires submissions, Kukhanya Civil Engineering Contractors (Pty) Ltd was to pay a monthly rental of E19 033.30 and it was to be deposited to the applicants banking account. All amounts due by the tenant to the landlord in terms of this agreement, be paid in advance or on the first day of each and every month in cash and free of exchange in Mbabane, reads in part the submissions of the applicant. Mcquire further contended that for the duration of the lease agreement, Kukhanya Civil Engineering Contractors (Pty) Ltd, had to maintain the premises by supplying all light bulbs and replace them from to time while also paying costs of all electric current, fuel and water consumed at the leased premises. He also had to keep sewage pipes, waste pipes and drains in or upon the premises free from obstruction, and in a clean and sanitary condition. Kukhanya Civil Engineering Contractors (Pty) Ltd was also not to cause damage to the premises or create a disturbance or cause any nuisance to occupants of neighbouring premises. Fails In the event the lessee fails to pay the monthly rentals within seven days of the date it falls due or commits any other breach of the conditions of the lease, the lessor shall be entitled forthwith to cancel the lease without prejudice to the lessors right to claim payment of any rent arrears, and of any other recoverable damages by the lessor. According to Mcquires submissions, if the rent was three days late, a daily late fee of E100 per day should also be charged to the lessee, until such time as all delinquent monies were paid in full. The director of Seef further submitted that on or about August 2018, Kukhanya Civil Engineering Contractors (Pty) Ltd took reoccupation of the leased premises on the strength of the new lease agreement. MBABANE - Embracing your natural hair can get you awarded. Make-up artist Busi Johnson has been awarded by the annual #AfriKinkyRepYourCountry competition for embracing and showing off her natural hair. She was unveiled as position two on Sunday. She won with 1 013 votes which were casted by people from all over the world since last week Wednesday when the voting lines were open online. Johnson was one of 13 women from the different African countries to join. She was competing against women from Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, South Africa, Namibia, Angoal, Uganda, Malawi, Chad, Zambia and Congo. The finalists from the listed countries were selected after they submitted their pictures in natural hair to the #AfriKinkyRepYourCountry website. The competition is an initiative by AfricansGoneNatural, where natural hair divas from Africa are brought together to share information and style on keeping natural hair. In an interview with this publication, Johnson said her love for natural hair motivated her to join the competition. Natural I am a lover for natural hair, so joining this competition seemed like the right and expressive thing to do, said Johnson. She said she was grateful for the support she received. I would not have done this had it not been for the thousand plus people who felt I was worthy. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, she said. She forwarded her sincere gratitude to the people of Eswatini, United States of America, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho and Zimbabwe for voting for her. Johnson encouraged Eswatini women to join the competition in future. Embracing your African nature and being awarded for that is pure bliss, she said. SIPHOFANENI - The troubled church of the pastor who is allegedly bisexual has been temporarily shut down. As such, congregants have no place to worship the Lord and some reportedly remained home yesterday while others attended services in nearby churches. According to some congregants, the bishop of the church ordered that the house of God should halt all operations while elders attempt to solve the leadership squabbles. The bishop issued this order following an incident last Sunday, whereby police were called after a reportedly heated argument between the allegedly bisexual pastor and the church committee chairman. We have been told to stop attending services at the church while the leadership addresses the issues troubling the house of the Lord. In the meantime, congregants have been advised to fellowship in nearby churches, said one of the church members. He added that the bishop was expected to visit the church on March 16 (next Saturday) to meet the church committee, including the allegedly bisexual pastor. The chairman of the church confirmed that there were currently no Sunday services or any other religious activities at the church pending the arrival of the bishop. He said they were hopeful though that following the arrival of the bishop, the church would resume operations again. Meanwhile, the allegedly bisexual pastor declined to comment when he was asked to confirm if indeed the church had temporarily shut down. Ngicela kungasho lutfo (May I please not say anything), he said before ending the conversation. The bishop of the church did not respond to calls made to his mobile phone but he later sent a text message and explained himself. He explained, through the text message, that he was currently in neighbouring South Africa, adding that he could not respond to calls because of inadequate airtime. He then referred questions to another elder of the church who is in the kingdom. However, the elder flatly declined to respond to questions from this reporter, stating that it would be wrong and inappropriate to discuss the matter in the media while it was still with traditional authorities of the area. Furthermore, he wondered who had given this reporter the full details of the matter. I suggest you get a comment from the people who gave you the story in the first place, he stated. LUDZIDZINI - The President of the League of the Churches Bishop Samson Hlatjwako said Their Majesties tried everything in their powers to save the life of Inkhosikati LaDube (Nothando). Hlatjwako was speaking during the vigil held at Ludzidzini Royal Residence when introducing Their Majesties, who were represented by Prince Fipha. However, Hlatjwako said Inkhosikati responded to the Lords call because God knew when He would take His servant. The bishop said even though losing a loved one was painful, there was a need to celebrate the life of loyal servants when they responded to the Lords call. This is not a loss only to Their Majesties but to the whole nation as Inkhosikatis good work has been mentioned, he said. The late Inkhosikati LaDube was described as a charitable woman. The good work of the late Inkhosikati was revealed by Ngabisa Dlamini, who said she was close to her since she joined the royal family. Respect Dlamini of Lozitha told the thousands of mourners, who had gathered to pay their last respects to Inkhosikati during the vigil held at Ludzidzini Royal Residence over the weekend, that the Inkhosikati watched television and read newspapers solely to identify orphaned and vulnerable children in the country. She said it was for that reason the late Inkhosikati reached out to many OVCs in the country. Many people are at work because of her generosity. I recall one day when she asked me to assist an OVC to open a bank account so that she could deposit money monthly. This was after she saw the needy child while watching the news on television, Dlamini said. On another note, Dlamini told the mourners of how the late Inkhosikati was open to her about her illness since she fell ill. She told me that she was aware that people would speculate about her death when she went for an operation in the Republic of China (Taiwan). Operation This, she said was because the operation was going to touch on her heart. As time went on, Inkhosikati asked me if I would look after her children as their sister. I wondered what she meant because the children were members of the royal family. MBABANE It would take 21 years for a teacher to earn the value of benefits awarded to the ex-DPM, Paul Dlamini. The ex-DPM was procured a new vehicle by the Central Transport Administration (CTA) worth E1 727 858.80 and he received E833 724 as gratuity upon exiting office. For these benefits alone, the taxpayer forked out E2 561 582.80. To accumulate what Dlamini received upon exiting office, an ordinary teacher, with a diploma in primary teaching, would have to work 256 months which is about 21 years and three months. The teacher would have to earn approximately E10 000 and not pay the pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) tax. Meanwhile, on top of the exit benefits, the ex-DPM earns a monthly salary of E55 581.60 following his exit from office. This amount, according to Finance Circular No.2 of 2013, has been paid to the ex-DPM since his retirement from office, with effect from the day he vacated office. It is equal to 80 per cent of the monthly basic salary Dlamini enjoyed while still in office. Such pension benefit (is) to be increased annually in line with approved civil service salary adjustments, reads the circular in part. On the other hand the exit packages enjoyed by the ex-ministers would take the teacher used as an example above 154 months, which is about 13 years to accumulate. This is because the ex-ministers took home vehicles that were bought at E800 000 and further received gratuity worth E741 095.04. This means their benefits are to the tune of E1 541 095.04. Worth noting, government said the vehicles were depreciating at 20 per cent annually which is why when they left office they took them home without paying a cent. This was despite that the ministers had for sometime used government vehicles (Chevrolet Trailblazers) for a better part of their term as they complained that the BMW X5s were not good for unpaved roads. However, the other government fleet is auctioned to the public when the CTA has concluded that they had exhausted their lifespan. To this, human rights lawyer, Sibusiso Nhlabatsi said government should either pay the Executive gratuity or offer them vehicles when they exit office. He said it was unfair to the taxpayer who had to fund a lifestyle of opulence to the politicians while they were living below the poverty line. A total review has to be implemented as this is not fair to the people who are funding a lifestyle of opulence while they cant support their lifestyle. Meanwhile, the 20 members of the Executive, who are Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, Deputy Prime Minister Themba Nhlanganiso Masuku and 18 ministers, are still beneficiaries of Finance Circular No.2 of 2013. This circular was implemented when members of the 10th Parliament took office. It stipulates that the taxpayer foots the bill for the politicians five-year stay in office, pays them gratuity when they exit office and also offers them vehicles. However, this circular is under review; as the Phil Mnisi-led Royal Commission was, about year ago, assigned to review the terms and conditions for politicians. In the about 11 months they have been in office, consulting on the pay structure that shall be accorded to the 11th Parliament, nothing has come forward and to date, the 2013 circular is still being used to remunerate the current politicians. Provides This circular provides that politicians upon exiting office, should be paid the ex-gratia. The ex-gratia payment is a grant that is payable to former parliamentarians to assist with the costs of adjusting to non-parliamentary life. The ex-gratia payment is available to all parliamentarians who fail to be re-elected or re-appointed into the new Parliament. The ex-gratia will be paid as once-off payment equal to 12 months (one year) basic salary before taxation for all parliamentarians. An Indonesian woman accused in the 2017 killing of the North Korean leader\s half-brother was freed on Monday, as a Malaysian court dropped the murder charge against her in a case that drew suspicions of being a political assassination. As the court gave its decision, Siti Aisyah, 26, turned to her Vietnamese co-defendant Doan Thi Huong, 30, in the dock and the two women, who had been facing the death penalty together, embraced tearfully. They stood accused of poisoning Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with liquid VX, a banned chemical weapon, at Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017. Following the dramatic decision to release Siti Aisyah, a defense lawyer asked for an adjournment in the case against Huong, in order to submit a request that charges be dropped against her too. Defense lawyers have maintained that the women were pawns in an assassination orchestrated by North Korean agents. Interpol had issued a red notice for four North Koreans who were identified as suspects by Malaysian police and had left the country hours after the murder. During the trial, the court was shown CCTV footage of two women allegedly assaulting Kim Jong Nam while he prepared to check-in for a flight at Kuala Lumpur\s international airport. Siti Aisyah, who had worked as a masseuse at a hotel in the Malaysian capital, and Huong, who described herself as an actress, had maintained that they believed they had been hired to participate in a reality TV prank show. Once the court released her, Siti Aisyah wearing a black traditional Malay dress and headscarf, was rushed to the Indonesian embassy, where she spoke briefly with journalists. "I feel so happy. I did not expect that today I would be released," Siti Aisyah said, adding that she was healthy and had been treated well in prison. Prosecutors told the court on Monday that they had been instructed to withdraw the charge against Siti Aisyah. No reason was given for the application. While the court discharged Siti Aisyah from the case, it rejected her lawyer\s request for a full acquittal, as it said that the trial had already established a prima facie case and she could be recalled if fresh evidence emerged. The defense had disputed whether the CCTV footage was clear enough to identify the Indonesian woman as an assailant, or establish what she had done to the victim. Gooi Soon Seng, Siti Aisyah\s lawyer, expressed happiness with the outcome, but said his client was "a scapegoat". "I still believe that North Korea had something to do with it," Gooi said. Kim Jong Nam had lived in exile in Macau for several years before the killing, having fled his homeland after his half-brother became North Korea\s leader in 2011 following their father\s death. Some South Korean lawmakers said the North Korean regime had ordered the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, who had been critical of his family\s dynastic rule. Pyongyang has denied the accusation. NOT OVER FOR HUONG Left to stand trial by herself after Siti Aisyah\s release, Huong was still sobbing as she prepared to take the stand on Monday at the start of her defense. But, the court agreed to resume proceedings on Thursday, pending a reply from the attorney-general to a request that charges against her also be withdrawn. "Where is the principle of equality? Both of them were charged on the same evidence, the defense was called on fairly the same grounds," said Salim Bashir, one of Huong\s lawyers. "Until today, we do not know what were the exceptional circumstances that were needed for the attorney-general to review the charge against Siti Aisyah. The prosecution never advanced a single ground for the withdrawal." Although the two women were being tried together, the cases against them were separate, and the court had asked the Indonesian woman to present her defense first. Siti Aisyah\s trial was suspended in December as her lawyers argued with prosecutors over access to statements made by seven witnesses. Prosecutor Muhammad Iskandar Ahmad told Reuters the decision to withdraw the charge against her was made based on "several representations", without elaborating. Indonesia\s law minister, Yasonna H. Laoly, said Siti Aisyah\s release was the result of high-level diplomacy by his government, adding that she would board a flight home later on Monday. Yasonna had earlier written to Malaysia\s attorney-general, laying the blame on North Korea. "Miss Aisyah was deceived and had no awareness whatsoever that she was being used as an intelligence tool of North Korea," Yasonna wrote. SOURCE: REUTERS Prime Minister Theresa May scrambled to win last-minute changes from the European Union to her Brexit deal Monday, a day before a crucial vote in Britain\s Parliament that could derail the country\s withdrawal from the EU and cost May her job. May flew by Royal Air Force jet to Strasbourg, France, for talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, seeking a way to get reluctant British legislators to back a deal that they resoundingly rejected in January. The House of Commons is due to hold a second vote on the plan Tuesday, but there are few signs either British lawmakers or EU leaders are prepared to make big shifts to stave off another defeat. The EU is unwilling to reopen an agreement it spent a year and a half negotiating, while British legislators remain split over whether to leave the bloc and, if so, on what terms. Britain is due to pull out of the EU in less than three weeks, on March 29, but the government has not been able to win parliamentary approval for its agreement with the bloc on withdrawal terms and future relations. The impasse has raised fears of a chaotic "no-deal" Brexit that could mean major disruption for businesses and people in Britain and the 27 remaining EU countries. "This is a government in chaos, with a country in chaos because of this mess," Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said. May has staked her political reputation on securing an exit deal with the EU and is under mounting pressure to quit if it is defeated again. She survived a bid to oust her through a no-confidence vote in December. As a result, she cannot be forced from office for a year. The EU is frustrated at what it sees as the inability of Britain\s weak and divided government to lay out a clear vision for Brexit. It is irritated, too, that Britain is seeking changes to an agreement that May herself helped negotiate. European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said that the EU is "open and willing" to hold talks but that Britain needs to present new proposals for the bloc to consider. "It is now for the House of Commons to take an important set of decisions this week," Schinas said. May\s spokesman, James Slack, insisted that talks were continuing and that there was "a shared determination by both sides to find a solution." British lawmakers\ concerns about the divorce deal center on a provision designed to keep an open border between Britain\s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland. The mechanism, known as the backstop, is a safeguard that would keep the U.K. in a customs union with the EU until a permanent new trading relationship is in place. Brexit-supporting lawmakers in Britain fear the backstop could be used to bind the country to EU regulations indefinitely. May wants to revise the deal to reassure opponents that the backstop would be only temporary. The EU is unwilling to reopen the 585-page Brexit agreement, though it has offered what it says are legally binding promises that the backstop will not be permanent. May has spoken by phone to eight EU national leaders since Friday, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, without any sign of a breakthrough. Merkel said Monday that Juncker and chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier had made "a multitude of suggestions" over the weekend on the backstop. "I think that an important offer has again been made to Britain, and now it is of course for Britain to respond to these offers," she said. If Parliament throws out May\s deal again on Tuesday, lawmakers will vote over the following two days on whether to leave the EU without an agreement an idea likely to be rejected or to ask the EU to delay Brexit beyond the scheduled March 29 departure date. May warned last week that any delay could mean "we may never leave the EU at all." Conservative lawmaker Nicky Morgan said May\s position will become "less and less tenable" if she suffers more defeats in Parliament this week. "If the votes go this week in a way which means that the prime minister\s policy as she has set out and stuck to rigidly over the course of the last two and a bit years is taken away, dismantled slowly by Parliament this week, I think it would be very difficult for the prime minister to stay in office for very much longer," Morgan told the BBC. Alan Wager, a Brexit expert at the U.K. in a Changing Europe think tank, said Parliament this week could decisively rule out both May\s deal and a no-deal departure. That, in turn, would make such options as a new Brexit referendum or a "softer" withdrawal from the EU lot more likely, he said. "Finally, the House of Commons is going to have to make a final judgment on what it wants in terms of Brexit," he said. SOURCE: Associated Press Venango County Commissioner Albert Abramovic and Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman listen to people express their concerns about and support of the legalization of recreational marijuana at Oil City High School on Sunday. This was part of Fettermans listening tour that will stop in each county in Pennsylvania. SWIFT, the worlds leading provider of secure financial messaging services, has launched a proof-of-concept (PoC) on e-Voting, using distributed ledger technology (DLT) to provide a more efficient and transparent management of the proxy voting process for shareholder meetings. SWIFT is conducting the PoC with leading securities software provider SLIB and the Singapore Exchange (SGX), along with Deutsche Bank, DBS, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank. The PoC will explore whether DLT can help simplify the currently in efficient management of shareholder meetings and the associated voting processes that are often time-consuming and resource intensive. Proxy voting in particular often results in avoidable complexity and errors that could be eliminated through greater transparency and automation. As a cooperative for the financial community, SWIFT will facilitate the PoC in its DLT sandbox testing environment with Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank joining as participants, while DBS and SGX join as both participants and issuers. The participants will reuse the SWIFT network and their existing SWIFT infrastructure and interfaces to access, test and validate the applicability of DLT. The PoC, which will run during the first half of 2019, is designed to: Test the deployment of a voting solution in collaboration with issuers and a Central Securities Depository (CSD), where the information is stored and managed on a permissioned private blockchain. Demonstrate the viability of hybrid solutions based on ISO 20022, combining messaging and DLT to foster interoperability and avoid market fragmentation. Test SWIFTs capacity to host third-party applications in its sandbox and reuse its security and interface stack. Confirm the use of ISO 20022 as the foundation for standardising for Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that expose DLT node contents to parties with direct access to the ledger. Lisa OConnor, managing director, Securities, Treasury &Standards, Asia Pacific at SWIFT said: The expression of shareholders rights is often limited today by non-transparent, complex and inefficient paper-based processes. The emergence of blockchain technology is a new opportunity to look at improving these processes. It is also an opportunity for SWIFT to offer flexibility in the adoption of this new technology through the re-use of ISO 20022 based solutions together with a high level of security and resilience that our industry requires. Onur Ozan, head of Mena and Turkey at SWIFT, said: The e-Voting PoC is a great example of advanced problem solving and of what SWIFT does best; helping the financial community to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape. The PoC will help improve efficiency, transparency and eliminate errors and could transform the way shareholder voting takes place in the future. Tony Lewis, head of Securities Services, HSBC, said:Shareholder voice in corporate decision-making is stifled by the existing paper-based voting process. Technology is the solution to enhancing shareholder say. e-Voting using DLT has the potential to create greater efficiencies, transparency and participation. Through collaboration amongst key market players, the PoC has a real opportunity to revolutionise security services in Singapore. As the worlds most innovative investment bank, we are delighted to be contributing to another project building on the Republics position as a global fintech hub. TradeArabia News Service Bahrain-based Dividend Gate Capital (DGC) has announced its backing for the Cofe app that promises to change global coffee consumption habits. DGC is a limited liability company targeting investment opportunities in the GCCs small and medium enterprise (SME) segment with a long-term view on international investment opportunities. Khalid Al Hammadi, chief executive officer, DGC, said: The Arab world created the coffee house culture which spread globally. We are now looking to evolution of coffee culture through Cofe. Forbes Magazine has highlighted Cofe as one of the Top 50 start-ups to watch in the Arab World, he said. The app which was conceptualised in Kuwait and developed in Silicon Valley, connects coffee house chains and independent coffee roasters with coffee lovers via a seamless, easy, and efficient user-interface, he added. The Cofe App founded in the summer of 2017 has already attracted venture capital investment from around the Arab World. These include Dividend Gate Capital (Bahrain), Towell Holding International (Oman), a joint fund established by KFH Capital (Kuwait) with Cedar Mundi (Lebanon), KISP Ventures, Takamul Capital, Nizar AlNusif Sons Holding and Arab Investment Company (Kuwait). Cofe App founder and chief executive officer Ali Al Ebrahim said: We are a group of coffee enthusiasts who - in the age of Tesla, Uber, and Airbnb - got frustrated with old-world ways of ordering coffee. So we set out to streamline the coffee ordering process and bring to our mobiles phones and everyone elses as well, aiming to bring the coffee culture and technology together in one unified platform, he said. Today, we have a fast-growing state-of-the-art app that enables customers to order their favourite coffee from their favourite coffee house, and an app that has the potential to transform and grow our vendors revenue streams, he added. The development of the Cofe App is set against a backdrop of an increase in global coffee consumption. Over $600 million was invested in coffee-related startups globally in 2018. Our Investment in Cofe is part of DGCs vision to ensure that capital from the GCC prioritises opportunities and entrepreneurial vision across the GCC, concluded Al Hammadi. TradeArabia News Service Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), one of the largest aluminium producers in the world, said it has achieved a major construction safety milestone by clocking 30 million working-hours without Lost Time Injury (LTI) at its Line 6 smelter. A ceremony was held on March 10 at the company premises to mark the occasion. It was attended by Albas deputy chief executive officer Ali Al Baqali, chief marketing officer Khalid Latif, chief power officer Amin Sultan, director Line 6 Smelter Project and Engineering Shawqi Al Hashimi and director safety, health and environment Mohamed Khalil, Line 6 Smelter Project team along with other contractor teams. Commenting on the feat, the chairman Shaikh Daij bin Salman bin Daij Al Khalifa said: "Alba believes in walking the talk on matters in relation to safety, health and environment. This achievement underlines Albas strong commitment to Safety and the Extreme Ownership of our Safety by both, our employees and contractors." "I applaud everyone for their contribution in achieving this milestone as we continue to ramp-up Line 6 safely and on time," he added.-TradeArabia News Service Bahrain has established the Sustainable Energy Centre (SEC) through a royal decree by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. The SEC will be affiliated to the Cabinet and supervised by the Minister of Electricity and Water, said a Bahrain News Agency report. The centre will undertake all tasks and responsibilities related to providing technical support for the relevant sides regarding the preservation of all kinds of sustainable energy sources, as well as enhancing their effective use, ensuring their secure use and encouraging investment in them, in cooperation with competent authorities, it said. The Sustainable Energy Centre will have a chief executive officer with the rank of assistant undersecretary, who will report to the minister in charge. The CEO will be appointed as per a royal decree, based on a proposal by the minister, for renewable four-year terms. But there are many possible explanations, Diehl said, including engine problems, pilot error, weight load, sabotage or bird strikes. He said Ethiopian has a good reputation, but investigators will look into the plane's maintenance, especially since that may have been an issue in the Lion Air investigation. Safety experts took note of the similarities but cautioned against quickly drawing too many parallels between the two crashes. Alan Diehl, a former National Transportation Safety Board investigator, said the similarities included both crews encountering a problem shortly after takeoff, and reports of large variations in vertical speed during ascent, "clearly suggesting a potential controllability problem" with the Ethiopian jetliner. In those circumstances, the accident is eerily similar to an October crash in which a 737 Max 8 flown by Indonesia's Lion Air plunged into the Java Sea minutes after takeoff, killing all 189 people on the plane. The Boeing 737 Max 8 operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed shortly after taking off from the capital of Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people on board. The plane was new. The weather was clear. Yet something was wrong, and the pilots tried to return to the airport. They never made it. Investigators rushed to the scene of a devastating plane crash in Ethiopia on Sunday, an accident that could renew safety questions about the newest version of Boeing's popular 737 airliner. By contrast, the Ethiopian Airlines CEO "stated there were no defects prior to the flight, so it is hard to see any parallels with the Lion Air crash yet," said Harro Ranter, founder of the Aviation Safety Network, which compiles information about accidents worldwide. "I do hope though that people will wait for the first results of the investigation instead of jumping to conclusions based on the very little facts that we know so far," he said. Boeing representatives did not immediately respond for comment. The company tweeted that it was "deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the passengers and crew" on the Ethiopian Airlines Max airplane. The Chicago-based company said it would send a technical to the crash site to help Ethiopian and U.S. investigators. A spokesman for the NTSB said the U.S. agency was sending a team of four to assist Ethiopian authorities. Boeing and the U.S. investigative agency are also involved in the Lion Air probe. Indonesian investigators have not stated a cause for the Lion Air crash, but they are examining whether faulty readings from a sensor might have triggered an automatic nose-down command to the plane, which the Lion Air pilots fought unsuccessfully to overcome. The automated system kicks in if sensors indicate that a plane is about to lose lift, or go into an aerodynamic stall. Gaining speed by diving can prevent a stall. The Lion Air plane's flight data recorder showed problems with an airspeed indicator on four flights, although the airline initially said the problem was fixed. Days after the Oct. 29 accident, Boeing sent a notice to airlines that faulty information from a sensor could cause the plane to automatically point the nose down. The notice reminded pilots of the procedure for handling such a situation, which is to disable the system causing the automatic nose-down movements. Pilots at some airlines, however, including American and Southwest, protested that they were not fully informed about a new system that could automatically point the plane's nose down based on sensor readings. Boeing Chairman and CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in December that the Max is a safe plane, and that Boeing did not withhold operating details from airlines and pilots. Diehl, the former NTSB investigator, said the Ethiopian Airlines pilots should have been aware of that issue from press coverage of the Lion Air crash. The 737 is the best-selling airliner in history, and the Max is the newest version of it, with more fuel-efficient engines. The Max is a central part of Boeing's strategy to compete with European rival Airbus. Boeing has delivered about 350 737 Max planes and has orders for more than 5,000. It is already in use by many airlines including American, United and Southwest. The Lion Air incident does not seem to have harmed Boeing's ability to sell the Max. Boeing's stock fell nearly 7 percent on the day of the Lion Air crash. Since then it has soared 26 percent higher, compared with a 4 percent gain in the Standard & Poor's 500 index. Boeing will begin offering airlines and operators the option of powering their new commercial jet with biofuel for the flight home in a move to spur the use of sustainable aviation fuels which cut emissions up to 80 per cent. The biofuel option will be available for customers accepting new airplanes at Boeings delivery centres in Seattle and Everett in the US state of Washington. The company also plans to use biofuel for certain flight tests at its Boeing Field facility, while working to offer the same option at its South Carolina Delivery Center. This is another step in our decade-long journey to encourage the adoption of sustainable fuels and help commercial aviation earn its license to keep growing, said Sheila Remes, vice president of strategy at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. We have great customers such as Alaska Airlines that have made good progress in adopting the use of biofuels. We hope this new option will make it easier for them and others to demonstrate our industrys commitment to reduce carbon emissions. Alaska Airlines, the first participant in the program, will use a blend of biofuel made by World Energy and traditional fuel when it takes delivery of three Boeing 737 MAX airplanes this year. Alaska takes seriously the responsibility to deliver for all those who depend on usemployees, guests, our communities and the environment around usfor the long term. Thats the definition of sustainability, said Diana Birkett Rakow, vice president of external relations at Alaska Airlines. We congratulate our partners at Boeing for operationalizing a drop-in sustainable aviation jet fuel option. Were excited to not only take advantage of the first biofuel delivery, but to continue working together to advance and scale mainstream adoption of sustainable fuel and other practices to enhance the aviation industrys ability to do good. World Energy produces the biofuel at its refinery in Paramount, Calif., the worlds first facility designed to commercially produce renewable jet fuel. Made from agriculture waste, the fuel is certified for commercial use and can be blended with traditional jet fuel without modifications to airplanes, engines or fuelling infrastructure. World Energy is here to serve any organization committed to leading the shift toward a low-carbon future, World Energy chief commercial officer Bryan Sherbacow said. Companies such as Boeing understand their obligation to the communities they serve and have taken meaningful action to transition to cleaner energy and reduce their carbon footprint. Our job is to manage the low-carbon fuel supply chain to provide the product these leaders need to efficiently operate and drive positive change. EPIC Fuels will ship the biofuel to Boeings delivery centres in Washington state. EPIC has supported Boeings evaluation of biofuels on its ecoDemonstrator flight-test program. Boeing has been a leader in fostering the development of biofuels, including supporting the first commercial aviation test flight flown by Virgin Atlantic in 2008. The companys extensive research, testing, and rigorous review - in collaboration with other airframe and engine manufacturers and aviation stakeholders - led to the approval of biofuel for commercial use in 2011. A decade after the first test flight, airlines around the world have flown nearly 170,000 passenger flights on a blend of biofuel and petroleum fuel. Boeing has worked with partners across the globe to develop sustainable biofuel supplies that can be scaled and priced competitively with traditional jet fuel. Projects have used feedstocks such as forestry and agriculture waste, Brazilian sugarcane, and plants irrigated by coastal seawater in the UAE. TradeArabia News Service Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh at Kingdom Centre, Saudi Arabia, has welcomed Guenter Gebhard as its new general manager. The appointment places Gebhard, a hospitality industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience, at the helm of one of Saudi Arabias most prestigious addresses. Gebhard joined Four Seasons in January, and is set to play a key role in overseeing a substantial renovation project at the stylish property in Riyadhs iconic Kingdom Centre. He will also be responsible for driving the hotels ongoing Saudisation efforts, which has been identified as one of the main focus points for the continued success of the property, in addition to exploring avenues for further expansion throughout the EMEA region. Simon Casson, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts president of hotel operations Europe, Middle East and Africa, welcomed the appointment, commenting: Guenters extensive international experience in the luxury hospitality sector makes him an ideal choice to lead Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh at Kingdom Centre. His successful track record in taking ownership of complex pre-opening and refurbishment projects speaks for itself, and I am confident hell be an outstanding addition to the Four Seasons EMEA team. Were delighted to welcome him on board and look forward to working together to further strengthen the Hotels reputation as one of the finest in the kingdom. Prior to joining Four Seasons, German-born Gebhard excelled in a variety of senior leadership positions across the globe with brands including Kempinski, Jumeirah, Marriott, Kerzner, and most recently Mandarin Oriental, who he represented in Turkey as general manager of the Mandarin Oriental Bodrum resort and then for development in the Middle East region from Riyadh. Its both a pleasure and a privilege to commence my journey with Four Seasons at this beautiful property, said Gebhard. The kingdoms hospitality sector is going through a period of rapid change and is poised to achieve tremendous growth, in line with the ambitious roadmap presented by Saudi Vision 2030. This makes it a very exciting time to join the Hotel I look forward to getting to know the team here and contributing to many more successful years ahead for Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh at Kingdom Centre as well expanding the footprint within the Kingdom and region." - TradeArabia News Service Avani Hotels & Resorts, one of Asias fastest growing contemporary hotel brands, is strengthening its relationship with Novaland Group in Vietnam, with the signing of three new properties in Ho Chi Minh City, Vung Tau, and Cam Ranh. So along with the two Avani hotels currently operating, Avani Quy Nhon Resort and Avani Hai Phong Harbour View, travellers can soon enjoy the authentic, balanced Avani style all across Vietnam. Avani Vung Tau Resort is located in the port city of Vung Tau, just two hours by car or hydrofoil from Ho Chi Minh City, making it a popular weekend getaway. An important trading port dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries, Vung Tau boasts some of Vietnams most scenic beaches and is host to many international meetings and conventions. The Avani Vung Tau is scheduled to open by the end of 2019 and will feature both oceanfront and hillside rooms, totalling 149 keys. Along with impressive views with each room, Avani Vung Tau Resort will offer a signature oceanfront dining experience. Scheduled for an opening at the end of 2021, Avani Saigon is located in the historic District 1 of Vietnams largest city Ho Chi Minh, surrounded by a blend of colonial and modern architecture with street-side cafes and coffee shops. Just a 30-minute drive from the Tan Son Nhat International Airport, the 217-key property will be part of a 38-story mixed-use complex that includes retail shops and residences and will feature an all-day dining restaurant and an AvaniSPA. Avani Cam Ranh Resort & Villas, opening at the end of 2022, sits right on the south-central coast of Vietnam. In contrast to its neighbour, the tourist hotspot of Nha Trang, which is also serviced by Cam Ranh International Airport, Cam Ranh is a low-key destination blessed with crystal-clear waters, jungle-shrouded mountains, and ancient pagodas. The resort will feature 300 well-appointed rooms and suites, as well as 315 private villas, an all-day dining restaurant, a specialty bistro, and a beach club, while 1,200-sq-m of meeting and banquet space will allow for beachfront events, Avani-style. Commenting on these developments, Dillip Rajakarier, CEO of Minor Hotels, the parent company of Avani Hotels & Resorts, said: Avani is one of our fastest growing brands, and we are pleased to be working with Novaland Group to develop three properties in Vietnam as part of Minor Hotels strategic expansion in Southeast Asia. Vietnam is one of the regions most dynamic economies with tremendous growth potential in both domestic and international tourism, thanks to a winning combination of cultural attractions and natural beauty. We look forward to expanding our footprint in Vietnam with Novaland Group and to creating an exceptional product for Avani guests. Avani currently operates 24 hotels and resorts in 15 countries. The brand recently debuted in Australia, New Zealand, and Laos. Avani currently has 15 new hotels in the pipeline, including a recent signing in Kota Kinabalu, Dubai, and a second Avani in Busan. - TradeArabia News Service Etihad Airways is gearing up for the Saudi International Airshow with displays of some of its aircraft, products and services, and a number of important partnership announcements. The airshow is the first aviation and aerospace exhibition of its kind to be held in the kingdom and will take place from March 12 14. Etihad will have its own chalet where visitors can visit the airlines striking Special Olympics liveried Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, Etihad Aviation Trainings Embraer Phenom 100E jet, and the airlines unique Mobile Exhibition Vehicle, showcasing a wide range of innovative products and services. Etihad will also welcome special guests from the Saudi Arabian Special Olympics team and Al Nassr FC. Last year, the airline signed an agreement to be the official shirt and main sponsor and partner of the Riyadh-based, Saudi Stars League team. Tony Douglas, group chief executive officer, Etihad Airways, said: The relationship between the UAE and Saudi Arabia is strong. The airshow is not only a platform for us to present what promises to be a spectacular display of some of our aircraft, products and services to the Saudi market, but is testament of how two countries can work together for greater benefits within the aviation industry and beyond. The Special Olympics liveried Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner demonstrates Etihad Airways commitment, as official airline partner, to the Special Olympics World Games Abu Dhabi 2019, and will also allow guests to tour the airlines award-winning cabins and products. The two-class version of the technologically advanced aircraft features next-generation Business and Economy cabins, configured with 299 seats - 28 Business Studios and 271 Economy Smart Seats. Etihad Aviation Training is the first flight school to offer Multi-Crew Pilot Licence (MPL) programme with twin jet training, and one of its Embraer Phenom 100E will be open for viewing with Etihad pilots available to highlight its capabilities. The unique 16-metre mobile exhibition vehicle (MEV) features full-size mock-ups of the airlines next-generation cabins including The Residence, the worlds only three-room cabin on a commercial airline, and the First Apartment - both on the Airbus A380 fleet, and the Boeing 787 First Suite. It will provide consumers, corporate and industry partners an understanding of the innovation and creativity which went into designing these industry-leading and award-winning cabins. The airlines deep-rooted relationship with Saudi Arabia will be further cemented by a partnership with Arab National Bank, a leading bank in the region, who will have a booth within the airlines chalet. Recently relaunched Etihad Holiday packages from Saudi Arabia will also be promoted and every day, prizes will be won including a trip for two to Abu Dhabi. Etihad Airways currently operates 84 flights per week to Saudi Arabia; three return flights a day to Riyadh, three return flights a day to Jeddah, four return flights a day to Dammam, and twice daily to Madinah. - TradeArabia News Service Ras Al Khaimah will be the official partner country of FESPO 2020, Switzerlands largest consumer travel fair. Haitham Mattar, chief executive officer of Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority, and Stephan Amstad, FESPO exhibition manager, signed the agreement last week at the Ras Al Khaimah stand during ITB Berlin in Germany. Mattar said: We are delighted to have the opportunity to be the partner country of FESPO 2020 and showcase all that Ras Al Khaimah has to offer to key international industry leaders and delegates from the travel and hospitality sector. With over 7,000 years of fascinating history and magnificent landscapes, Ras Al Khaimah is the perfect getaway for leisure, business and adventure travellers. Amstad added: We are very proud that Ras Al Khaimah is the first FESPO guest destination from the Arab world. The emirate will be presented to the travel-loving FESPO visitors as a hidden gem with a wealth of cultural and natural treasures. With Romania in 2018 and Mongolia in 2019, we already partnered with countries that are largely undiscovered as tourist destinations. With Ras Al Khaimah, the trend continues, and this is a great way to start our 30th anniversary year. In addition, this underlines that FESPO is a leading international European travel fairs. Our slogan The Whole World in One Place is a clear indicator of our strategic focus. FESPO 2020 will be taking place in Zurich from January 30 to February 2, 2020. Visitors of Switzerlands largest travel fair will be introduced to Ras Al Khaimahs diverse and spectacular beach, desert, mountain, and adventure offerings. Alongside the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority exhibitors will be Emirates Airline, hoteliers and other stakeholders from the emirate. - TradeArabia News Service Raffles Dubai, a landmark luxury hotel in the UAE emirate, has appointed Hassan Abdallah as executive chef. Abdallah brings an impressive track record of 30 years of expertise and knowledge on oriental and international cuisine. He started as a sous chef in Al Naser restaurant in Beirut, Lebanon, and then moved to one of the busiest districts in Cairo, Egypt, to prepare Lebanese specialties in Al Dabke restaurant for two years. He worked in the UAE between 1997 and 2006 in various roles at the Metropolitan Beach Hotel and Metropolitan Palace in Dubai before joining the Kempinski Ajman for five years as chef de cuisine in charge of banquets followed by Kempsinki Mall of Emirates as part of the pre-opening team as chef de cuisine for the all-day dining outlet. His career highlight was working at the Sharq Village & Spa Resort in Doha, Qatar, operated by Ritz Carlton for 11 years, where he joined the pre-opening team as a chef de cuisine in 2006 and was subsequently promoted to executive sous chef in 2008 and executive chef in 2011. During his time, he led a team of 90 colleagues and proved his expertise in handling banqueting operations, hosting some of the largest and highest profile events in the region for over 5,000 persons. The conceptualisation of new outlets is one of the things he is most proud of achieving in his career. It is always a great challenge and extremely rewarding," Abdallah said. He opened the first Iranian fine dining restaurant, building its concept from scratch, which was recognised with two awards following its launch. Another culinary achievement during his tenure is the best afternoon tea award which the lobby lounge received for three years in a row. He also participated in a global Culinary Art Event in Seoul, South Korea, representing the Middle East amongst the best chefs in the Ritz Carlton group worldwide. In 2017, Abdallah decided to take on a new challenge and open a family business restaurant in Malmo, Sweden, offering Lebanese and Mediterranean cuisine, catering to business lunches by day and fine dining by night. The restaurant is currently managed by his partner. His culinary journey continues at Raffles Dubai as executive chef, in charge of all the culinary operations and concepts, overseeing six unique dining venues and banquets. - TradeArabia News Service Human development is about expanding the richness of human life, rather than simply the richness of the economy in which human beings live. It is an approach that is focused on people and their opportunities and choices. France to assists Nepal in setting up security printing and satellite project Kathmandu, Mar 11 (UNI) In a move to enhance Nepals self-reliance, the Government of Nepal and France have signed two separate memorandums of understanding-one of which is aimed at setting up state-of-art security printing facilities in Nepal and second one related to satellite project where France will provide financial aid and technical support to operate and manage countrys own satellite. Bikal Poudel, Head of the Security Printing division under the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC), signed a MoU with a French Government undertaking INGROUPE on March 09, 2019. The facility will help Nepal print its own passports, currency notes, smart cards and all kinds of government material that the nation requires, saving billions of spending annually, Nepali Sansar reported. Japan inks pact with Sri Lanka, gives 30 billion yen loan for construction of LRT system Colombo, Mar 11 (UNI) The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on Monday signed an agreement with Sri Lanka by giving a soft loan to the tune of 30 billion yen (Rs 48 billion) for the construction of Light Rail Transit (LRT) system connecting the capital Colombos commercial centre with the Malabe suburb, which will cut travel time to about 30 minutes. The concessionary loan agreement for 30 billion yen between the government of Sri Lanka and JICA is for engineering services and construction of an LRT line between Malabe and Colombo Fort. According to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), "The entire rail track and stations will be on elevated via ducts to minimize requirement of land acquisition. "We see exactly what they're doing," he said. "We look every day at the intelligence. I don't want to get into speculation as to what they're doing." The Feb. 22 imagery seems to show new North Korean missile activity at an assembly operation, but Bolton said the U.S." relies on its own" satellite surveillance and draws its conclusions from those images. National security adviser John Bolton told ABC News the U.S. watches North Korea "constantly," but added, "I'm not going to speculate on what that commercial satellite imagery shows." The White House said Sunday it does not "have any illusions" about whether North Korea is preparing to resume missile testing, but refused to assess commercial satellite imagery suggesting Pyongyang is assembling a new rocket. After last month's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi, U.S. President Donald Trump said he trusted Kim's pledge to him that he would not resume nuclear or missile testing. Bolton said that Trump "is confident in his relations with Kim Jong-un." Asked about the commercial satellite images on Friday, Trump said he would be "very disappointed" if North Korea resumed nuclear testing. He said he has greatly improved U.S. relations with North Korea during his time in office. "Look, when I came in," he said, "under the Obama administration, North Korea was a disaster. You were going to war, folks, whether you know it or not... I inherited a mess." He continued, "Right now you have no testing, you have no nothing. Let's see what happens, but I would be very disappointed if I saw testing." North Korean state media said for the first time on Friday that the summit late last month made no advances and its people were blaming the U.S. for the lack of an agreement. Trump and Kim met in Vietnam in a summit meant to reach an agreement on North Korean denuclearization. But the meeting collapsed over an impasse over how many weapons sites North Korea would shut down and the extent of economic sanctions relief the U.S. would offer in return. Following the summit, South Korean newspapers reported there was evidence of new activity at the Sohae long-range rocket site, a site Kim agreed last year to shut down as part of confidence-building measures with the United States. New Delhi, Mar 11(UNI) Enforcement Directorate(ED) has provisionally attached immovable properties of Augusta Westland VVIP chopper case accused Gautam Khaitan, under Prevention of Money Laundering Act which include properties in New Delhi, Haryana and Uttarakhand. The book value of these properties is Rs 8.46 crore, while the present market value of these properties is much higher. The central financial probe agency move comes after the registration of a case by Income Tax Department under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) And Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, against accused Gautam Khaitan. The probing agency investigation under the provision of PMLA established that the accused had held the beneficial interest, ownership in foreign assets, company and account and had failed to disclose the same in his return of income filed before the Income Tax Authorities. "It was also revealed during investigation that he had been found laundering money in various personal and companies bank accounts in Singapore and Mauritius and that he willfully did not disclose the relevant information related to the foreign bank accounts and companies which are beneficially owned by him",the probe agency said. The investigation under the PMLA has revealed that as per KYC documents furnished by the banks, the accused maintained six foreign bank accounts in his name, in the name of companies owned by him through 100 percent shareholding and in joint name with his father and wife in three banks namely Barclays Bank, Singapore Bank and UBS Bank. On the analysis of these foreign bank accounts it was revealed that he received huge amounts in foreign currencies. "Documents from foreign banks through Letter of Requests were received from Singapore and Mauritius revealed that, in order to receive huge amount of beneficial interests, Gautam Khaitan in furtherance of criminal conspiracy structured, laundered and layered the proceeds of crime (black money) by concealing and routing the same through his foreign bank accounts of different entities. The accused Khaitan was arrested by ED on January 25 and remained in ED custody till February 8 ,later he is on judicial custody till date. Investigations conducted so far have revealed that Gautam Khaitan is involved in laundering the proceeds of crime for clients across the globe under the guise of providing legal consultancy, ED said. "For the same, he has been compensated and the said money has been siphoned off by the accused in his offshore bank accounts and Gautam Khaitan is a habitual offender and there are other pending cases of corruption and money laundering against him",the probe agency officials said. Investigation in the said cases had revealed his beneficial interest in undisclosed foreign entities and foreign bank accounts and further probe is continued to identify the remaining Proceeds of Crime are under progress, the official added. UNI AKS JW2223 New Delhi, Mar 4 (UNI) Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday embarked on an eight-day two-nation visit to Paraguay and Costa Rica, to strengthen bilateral ties with the two Latin American countries. He was seen off by Minister, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Paraguay in India, Ruben Dario Benitez Palma and CDA for Costa Rica Eduardo Salgado and other dignitaries were present at the departure. He is accompanied by Minister of State for Culture and Tourism Alphons Joseph Kannanthanam and Ram Kumar Kashyap, MP, an official release here said. This is the first ever visit of an Indian Vice President to Paraguay. Apart from pushing for strengthening bilateral cooperation in the areas of trade, culture and Science & Technology, Mr Naidu will during his visit seek the support of both two countries for Indias bid for permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council, On his arrival at Paraguay, the first leg of his visit, Mr Naidu will visit National Pantheon of Heroes and pay homage to fallen soldiers by placing a wreath. Later, he will hold discussions with Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benitez at Palacio de Gobierno. He is scheduled to have tete-a-tete with his Paraguayan counterpart Hugo Velazquez and also participate in a high-level delegation talks and attend the banquet lunch hosted in his honour. Mr Naidu will meet with National Congress President Silvio Ovelar and attend a reception organised for the Indian community in Paraguay. Before emplaning for San Jose on March 7, he will interact with the business community and see a presentation on Business and Investment Opportunities in Paraguay. Soon after arriving in San Jose, on the second leg of his journey, the Vice President will receive the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Honoris Causa) in International Peace & Conflict Studies conferred by the University for Peace in recognition of his contribution to the rule of law, democracy, sustainable development and peace. Later, the Vice President will call on his host, Costa Rica President Carlos Alvarado Quesada and also participate in high level delegation talks with him. On March 9, Ms Carolina Hidalgo Herrera, President of Congress of the Republic of Costa Rica, will call on him, followed by banquet lunch hosted by Ms Epsy Campbell Barr, the First Vice President. The Vice President will return to India on March 11. UNI SD ADG 1838 New Delhi, Mar 11 (UNI) Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modis charge that the previous UPA government was soft on terror, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday said that the Pulwama attack mastermind Jaish-e-Mohammad's Chief Masood Azhar was released by the BJP-led NDA government in 1999. Addressing a Congress booth level workers conference here, Mr Gandhi said, Jaish-e-Mohammad carried out the Pulwama attack in which 44 jawans were killed. It was current NSA Ajit Doval who handed over Masood Azhar at Kandahar. The BJP released Masood Azhar. The Congress never bows before terror. We have lost two prime ministers in fighting terrorism, the Congress president added. He also attacked the prime minister for holding a meeting with China amidst the Doklam standoff. When Doklam issue was on, the Prime Minister went to China and held a meeting without an agenda. He bowed before China with folded hands and said keep Doklam and that no one in India will come to know. Media will be tackled. Matter is over. This is the reality of Modiji, said Mr Gandhi. Attacking the PM over the Rafale deal with the French government, he said, The Chowkidar spoke for over 1.5 hours in Parliament and he did not mention Anil Ambani even once. Attacking the NDA for failure to create jobs, he said, The prime minister had promised for 2 crore jobs every year and in the night he announced demonetization. He also charged the government of waiving off of Rs 3.5 lakh crore of 15 industrialists which is equal to the amount allocated to MNREGA for a year. Enthusing confidence in booth level workers, the Congress chief said, If we come into power, we will give a minimum income guarantee to all. A minimum income level would be decided and if anyone would get below of it, the government will bear the gap amount. He was referring to minimum income guarantee scheme and said if the Congress government comes in power it will implement it. MORE UNI ASH AR 1830 Srinagar, Mar 10 (UNI) Three militants were killed by security forces in a fierce encounter which ensued during a Cordon and Search Operation (CASO) in Tral area of south Kashmir district of Pulwama on Sunday. The troops of Rashitriya Rifles (RR), Special Operation Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir police and CRPF launched a joint search operation at Pinglish, Tral in Pulwama following a tip off about the presence of militants, a Defence Ministry Spokesperson Col Rajesh Kalia told UNI. All exit points were sealed, he said and when the house to house searches were launched militants hiding there opened fire. Security forces also retaliated ensuing in an encounter. Three militants were killed, Col Kalia informed adding that the operation was still going on. Meanwhile, authorities suspended mobile internet in Tral as a precautionary measure to prevent spread of rumours. UNI BAS JTS 2339 Two Tanzanian women nabbed with heroin Phillaur, Mar 11 (UNI) Local Police have arrested two Tanzanian national women drugs peddlers, presently residing in Dwarka Colony New Delhi, and recovered 200 grams of heroin from their possession here on Monday. Inspector General of Police Naunihal Singh and SSP (Rural) Navjot Singh Mahal said that Golden (26) resident of Winfrida Tanzania and Maria Salum (28) resident of Sumbawanga in Tanzania were nabbed near a check point of Satluj River Bridge high tech naka by the cops when both accused were coming on foot on the bridge from Ludhiana side. Both foreign nationals have confessed that they brought the drugs from Delhi on cheaper rates and selling in various parts of Punjab. New UW Study Offers Insights on Wind Development Costs, Taxes A new UW report finds Wyoming is the fourth-lowest-cost state for wind farm development in the West. (UW Photo) A new analysis of state taxation policies regarding wind energy in the West shows New Mexico is the lowest-cost state for wind farm development, followed by Montana, Colorado and Wyoming. The study, released by the University of Wyomings Center for Energy Economics and Public Policy, takes into account wind resource estimates, construction and labor costs, and tax policies, concluding that those four states have a significant advantage over other Western states regarding the cost of wind development. But the difference between the cost of development between New Mexico and Wyoming is 10 percent, and that gap would grow to 21 percent if Wyoming were to raise its wind generation tax from $1 to $5 per megawatt hour, as some legislators have proposed. The research is intended to provide policymakers with information on the potential economic development and tax revenue trade-offs associated with wind development. The report may be found on the UW School of Energy Resources website at www.uwyo.edu/ser/research/. Communities have grappled with trying to decide whether to welcome large-scale wind development and whether to reduce its tax burden in an effort to competitively attract projects, or to take advantage of such development as it occurs to tax it, either to compensate for the local costs wind facilities impose or to supplement local, county and state revenues -- especially in regions where traditional revenue sources have been declining, wrote the authors, UW economists Rob Godby and Ben Cook. It is important to understand the capital, operating and tax structure of wind developments to appreciate how, for a given tax revenue or incentive change, different cost consequences may occur that affect the attractiveness of a state to wind development. Wyoming is the only state that taxes generation of wind energy, but wind developers pay a number of taxes in Western states, including business, property and sales taxes. Taxes paid by wind energy companies, taking into account incentives, range from $1.57 per megawatt hour in Colorado to $5.34 per megawatt hour in Washington. Taking into account Wyomings potential wind generation given modern technology, as well as the existing taxes in Wyoming, wind energy companies building new facilities in the state may be expected to pay as little as $3.05 per megawatt hour in taxes, the study shows. Existing wind facilities using technology from 2008-2010, when most facilities in the state were built, currently pay an estimated tax burden of closer to $4.05 per megawatt hour. Increasing the wind generation tax to $5 per megawatt hour, as has recently been proposed by some legislators, would more than double the total tax load to $6.62 per megawatt hour at new facilities and raise the tax burden to over $7.77 per megawatt hour at existing facilities, making the tax burden in Wyoming the highest of all Western states. Our conclusion is that this cost change could have a significant negative impact on wind developers willingness to consider Wyoming, and undermine the potential use of wind development as an economic diversification strategy, the economists wrote. Noting the fixed nature of a wind production tax -- which causes the tax burden on the overall cost of wind development to increase as the cost of wind energy production declines -- they suggest Wyoming consider moving to taxes assessed on a percentage basis, such as income, gross receipts, property and sales taxes. Another problem the economists note is the states reliance on a sales tax assessed on wind equipment in Wyoming, even though most other industries choosing to locate in Wyoming would be exempt from such a tax. This raises the cost of development in the state. The economists include an example tax change to show that it is possible to increase taxes collected over the life of a wind farm and reduce the cost of developing wind in Wyoming simply by changing the types of taxes assessed on a wind project. Wyoming relies on a sales tax for a significant portion of the taxes collected on wind generation in Wyoming and, because the majority of this tax is assessed during construction before facilities are producing output, the tax cost has to be financed with debt. This drives up developers costs, because they not only have to pay the tax, but also interest on that tax, Godby says. The economists show that charging a gross receipts tax -- a tax on the production value of electricity generated over the life of a facility -- and rescinding the sales tax would lower the cost of wind development by avoiding the debt developers must undertake to pay sales taxes, while increasing the total taxes the state collects. They note their example is not the only way this type of cost and tax revenue improvement could be made. Increases in property taxes or the use of a gross receipts tax on wind in Wyoming could be preferred to a wind production tax as currently imposed in Wyoming, and could reduce disincentives to wind development while increasing wind tax revenues, they wrote. Overall, greater consideration of how tax changes will affect development costs in Wyoming should be seriously considered before new policies are implemented to avoid any unintended consequences of such tax changes. Seven Korean tourists were injured and their local driver killed when their tour bus rolled off the side of a road in Vietnam on Saturday. According to the Foreign Ministry here, the bus fell 6 m after veering off road in Phan Thiet, about 200 km from Ho Chi Minh City. The cause of the crash is under investigation. The ministry is helping to bring the tourists home safely. Spencer Consolvo is the St. Thomas sales manager for Orlando, Fla.-based Caribbean Sol. The company plans to branch out to St. John soon. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed to improve the economy and living conditions in his impoverished country, the official [North] Korean Central News Agency reported Saturday. At a Workers Party rally that brought together the lowest echelons of propaganda officials across the country, Kim expressed hope that North Koreans will become affluent enough to "eat white rice and meat soup," a common formula in such pledges from North Korean leaders. The comments came after U.S. President Donald Trump walked out of a summit with Kim in Hanoi late last month and suggest Kim is trying to contain potential public unrest amid continuing international sanctions. The formula "white rice and meat soup" was first used by Kim Il-sung in October of 1962, but in five decades since then no North Korean leader has managed to fulfill the pledge as the command economy proved an unmitigated disaster, culminating in the great famine of the 1990s that killed hundreds of thousands. The world's No. 1 and 2 shipbuilders, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, have merged. State-run Korea Development Bank, the main shareholder in Daewoo, signed a deal on Friday to sell its 56-percent stake to Hyundai Heavy. A new holding company will be established with the two firms as separate subsidiaries. KDB will receive equivalent shares to the Daewoo stake in the holding company, which will make the bank its second-largest shareholder. Hyundai Heavy will have to spend W2.5 trillion to pay off Daewoo's debts (US$1=W1,137). The merger creates the world's biggest shipbuilder as Hyundai already has Samho Heavy Industries and Hyundai Mipo Dockyard under its wings. KDB and Hyundai Heavy say the merger will make Korea's shipbuilding industry more efficient and competitive. "At present, Chinese and Singaporean shipyards are catching up quickly and there was a sense of desperation that a failed deal would cause Korea's shipbuilding industry to follow the deterioration of Japanese rivals," KDB chairman Lee Dong-geol said. Daewoo has been in the hands of KDB for 20 years, but many obstacles lie ahead. Industry watchers say due diligence and reviews by rival countries will take another year. Another problem is the possible backlash from unionized workers. Hyundai Heavy, Daewoo and KDB pledged management freedom, job stability and the retention of existing subcontractors, but 500 Daewoo workers and around 100 workers from Hyundai Heavy held a protest rally in front of KDB headquarters in Seoul on Friday. The new giant also faces a tough road as rival countries review whether it constitutes a monopoly. The merged company accounts for more than 21 percent of global order backlogs and 50 percent of the global market for lucrative LNG transport vessels. Japan has already filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization claiming that the Korean government unfairly supports shipbuilders in violation of treaty rules. The Continental Inaugural Conference of the EU-WCO Programme for the Harmonized System (HS) in Africa was held on 27-28 February 2019 at the headquarters of the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Conference marked the launch of an unprecedented capacity building endeavour, funded by the European Union and implemented by the World Customs Organization (WCO). This Programme, which complements other EU and WCO contributions to the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area, aims at providing African countries and other stakeholders involved in the HS implementation process with the required organizational capacities and resources to apply future HS versions in a timely and coordinated manner throughout the entire continent. The conference was attended by over 70 representatives from 38 African member administrations, the African Union Commission (AUC) and African Regional Economic Communities (RECs), as well as representatives of international organizations and the private sector. The conference was a unique opportunity for stakeholders contributing to the implementation and application of the HS to exchange views on ways to streamline the migration to the next version of the HS entering into force on 1 January 2022. In their opening remarks, senior representatives of the EU, the AUC and the WCO welcomed this collaboration reiterating the importance of this initiative and the benefits it has for regional integration as well as other socio-economic benefits resulting from increased trade flows such as job creation and poverty reduction. Mrs. Anna Burylo, Deputy Head of EU Delegation to the AU, stressed the potential that this programme has in reinforcing African integration and moving towards efficient implementation of the AfCFTA, which is one of the main axes of the EU-Africa partnership. Mrs. Treasure Maphanga, Director of Trade and Industry at the AUC, corroborated the timeliness of the conference held before the eve of the entering-into-force of the AfCFTA, the momentousness of the programme for African countries and their citizens as well as the impact it will have in increasing intra-African trade and Africas trade with the rest of world. Both the EU and the AUC emphasized the role that the WCO plays in trade facilitation in Africa, restating their confidence in the unique experience and expertise of the WCO to implement this programme at the highest standards. Mr. Ping Liu, Director of Tariff and Trade Affairs Directorate at the WCO Secretariat, welcomed the engagement of more than 66% of African countries and of many RECs to the Programme and encouraged more to join. He stressed that the reality check is that weve got a lot of work to do. To date, 49 of the 54 African countries have ratified the HS Convention but only 29 apply the HS 2017. He is confident that the programme would support not only individual African countries but also regional integration through the RECs and the AfCFTA towards building an African market connecting trade within the continent and beyond. The outcomes of the different discussions held at the conference confirmed the importance of timely and coordinated application of the HS versions, outlining the relevance and the strategic timing of the Programme. Over 30 Member administrations and eight Regional Economic Communities have expressed interest in the Programme. The Programme management team will, in the next phase, conduct diagnostic missions for selected countries and RECs, and prepare country/region profiles that will feed into the development of work-plans and targeted actions. For more information on the Programme please contact the Programme management team at: wcoHSAfrica@wcoomd.org. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 11, 2019 | PADUCAH By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 11, 2019 | 10:42 AM | PADUCAH McCracken County Schools has named Heath Cartwright as Interim Superintendent. The McCracken County School Board held an emergency meeting Monday at noon. After returning from an executive session, the board voted on a motion to appoint Cartwright, and it passed by a vote of 4-1. After the meeting, Board Chairman Steve Shelby was asked why he didn't call the meeting. "It was called by board members for noon. I wanted to hold the meeting at 4:30 pm, so teachers and staff could attend," Shelby said. He said he wanted the meeting held later for the sake of increased transparency to everyone. Cartwright has been employed by McCracken County Schools for several years as Assistant Superintendent. He will serve in the role until June 30. The school district accepted the resignation of Superintendent Brian Harper on Friday. They hope to hire a permanent replacement for a term beginning July 1. RTHK: Algeria's veteran president pulls out of election Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced his withdrawal on Monday from a bid to win another term in office and postponed an April 18 election, following weeks of protests against his candidacy. Bouteflika, in a message carried by national news agency APS, said the presidential poll would follow a national conference on political and constitutional reform to be carried out by the end of 2019. The veteran leader, who has been in power since 1999 but whose rare public appearances since a stroke in 2013 have been in a wheelchair, returned on Sunday from hospital in Switzerland. Demonstrations against his bid for another fifth term in office have brought tens of thousands of protesters onto Algeria's streets. This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. The World Trade Organization is expected to side with Japan in a complaint filed against Korea for banning seafood imports from Fukushima after the nuclear plant meltdown there. The WTO already found in favor of Japan in a first ruling in February of 2018, but Korea appealed. diplomatic source in Seoul said the WTO set April 11 as the final ruling date and added, "There is a strong chance of Korea losing." If it does lose, Korea has three to 15 months before it has to lift the ban. The ruling would add to conflict between the scrappy neighbors, which are already at loggerheads over a mountain of historical issues and a recent spat over flybys by Japanese surveillance aircraft. Japanese media reported that Tokyo is considering slapping punitive tariffs on Korean exports if Korean victims of forced labor by imperial Japan move to sell seized assets of Japanese businesses in Korea. By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 11, 2019 | 08:26 AM | PADUCAH A Livingston County woman has been jailed on sex abuse charges. According to Kentucky State Police, Troopers received a complaint last week which led to an investigation. Police charged 22-year-old Megan M. Harris, of Salem, with two counts of 1st degree sexual abuse-victim under 12, two counts of use of a minor under 16 in a sexual performance, and two counts of 1st degree distribution of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor. Harris was lodged in the McCracken County Regional Jail. She is scheduled for an arraignment on March 14. Kentucky State Police was assisted by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Email To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required. Your Full Name: (optional) Your Email Address: Your Email Address is required. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 11, 2019 | PADUCAH By West Kentucky Star Staff Mar. 11, 2019 | 01:45 PM | PADUCAH A Barlow man was arrested, and authorities are looking for a Trigg County man in a McCracken County theft case. The McCracken County Sheriff's Office said that on Feb. 20 detectives began investigating several thefts from property in the 3000 block of Carolina Street. Detectives said they later learned that on at least three occasions someone had entered the property and taken several vehicles and sold them for scrap. Another vehicle was sold to an individual in Graves County, and was ultimately recovered. Ballard County deputies arrested 41-year-old Michael Pollard of Barlow on March 5. Deputies said Pollard admitted to participating in the thefts during questioning. He's charged with felony theft. A second suspect, 35-year-old William "David" Calhoun of Trigg County, is also being sought by Law Enforcement for his alleged involvement in this case. Calhoun's last known addresses were in Trigg County. Anyone with information about his location is asked to contact law enforcement. Pfizer says their booster effective against omicron Advertisement By Jim Waters Mar. 10, 2019 | LEXINGTON By Jim Waters Mar. 10, 2019 | 07:59 PM | LEXINGTON An invective hurled at school-choice supporters by Lexington Democratic Rep. Kelly Flood during a recent legislative committee hearing to consider a bill that would make Kentucky the 19th state to implement a scholarship tax credit program offers a clear demonstration of the Urban Dictionary's description of "ad hominem" as "an attack upon an opponent in order to discredit their argument or opinion" exploited by people "unable to counter their opponent using logic and intelligence." Flood was frustrated after hearing parents' powerful testimonies about how their children's lives were changed when scholarships opened the door to private, often parochial, schools when public schools they originally attended were providing an inadequate education. So, this progressive politician launched an ad hominem attack filled with religious bigotry at Heather Huddleston who runs a Louisville organization that raises money to provide scholarships to students and was sitting at the testimony table alongside bill sponsor Rep. John "Bam" Carney, R-Campbellsville, and with three parents who had told their stories. Huddleston's School Choice Scholarships program not only has helped rescue hundreds of poor children in Jefferson and Oldham counties from a system failing to meet their needs, but the 6,000 students on the jamming the program's waiting list answer critics' charges that there isn't enough demand for options among Kentucky parents. Plus, the academic turnaround for these kids is undeniable. Grade-level proficiency rates for children attending private or parochial school thanks to School Choice Scholarships increase after three years in the program, on average, from 28 to 81 percent in math and 40 percent to 96 percent in reading. If we can get such powerful results from a relatively small program that raises the money to fund its own scholarships for a few hundred students in just a couple of Kentucky counties, what could happen statewide if individuals and businesses were allowed to contribute to such scholarship programs in exchange for easing their state tax burden? It would make it possible for thousands of our neediest and most at-risk children to get what wealthy people already can afford an effective education. It just so happens that many of the School Choice Scholarships children have made their improvements while attending parochial schools. This was too much for Flood, though, who blurted out accusations and bigoted statements at the hearing, all while these parents were still seated at the testimony table. "Effectively you are asking the state to become your next major donor to raise approximately $25 million to reimburse donors who have a crisis of faith in contributing currently for the past 20 years, specifically in this state to private institutions that are funding schools that are religious, that have been in the headlines for two decades now with chronic, systemic child abuse," Flood sneered. Flood's outburst was an old trick where ad hominem is launched as a distraction designed to avoid acknowledging the truth of the testimony just offered. However, it's a new low to allege that a program in which individuals and businesses voluntarily donate to nonprofit tuition organizations so the poorest and neediest among us will have better opportunities in life somehow is aimed at aiding and abetting the sex-abuse scandal involving immoral priests in the Roman Catholic church. Such a statement is ugly, despicable and reaches a level of intolerance unworthy of our legislature even in its most partisan moments and well worthy of censure. There's good news here for school-choice supporters. This volley of ad hominem attacks by progressive politicians and their ideological brethren in the teachers' unions signal that school-choice detractors have run out of ideas and are unable to defend their opposition to educational liberty. All of which is good news for many students who could soon be emancipated from failing schools and hopeless futures through scholarships of their own. Jim Waters is president and CEO of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, Kentucky's free-market think tank. Read previous columns at www.bipps.org. He can be reached at jwaters@freedomkentucky.com and @bipps on Twitter. Over two-thirds of Americans want an end to talks with North Korea if it carries out a long-range missile test, according to a recent survey. Scott Sagan at Stanford University and Benjamin Valentino at Dartmouth College wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal that they commissioned a YouGov poll of 3,000 people on what they think about North Korea. About 65 percent also said the U.S. should attack North Korea if North Korea attacks South Korea. The hardline approach seems to have been triggered by the collapse last week of the Hanoi summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. "Most Americans aren't interested in a military solution to the threat -- but also overestimate the U.S. ability to counter it," the authors added. But "no scenario prompted a majority to endorse disarming North Korea through a large-scale military operation." Respondents were largely unfazed by a warning that North Korea could use nuclear weapons and cause hundreds of thousands of American casualties. Why corruption in South Africa isnt simply about Zuma and the Guptas Corruption in South Africa isnt simply a matter of bad morals or weak law enforcement. Its embedded in processes of class formation specifically, the formation of new black elites. This means corruption is primarily a matter of politics and the shape of the economy. In a recently published paper, I attempt to shed fresh light on the unconvincing narratives that have been presented in the media, NGOs and academic circles about the events of the past 10 years. These narratives generally depict events as a struggle between two opposing forces. On the one side are a network of politicians, officials, brokers and businessmen centred on former President Jacob Zuma and the Gupta family. All are bent on looting, state capture and self-enrichment. On the other are a band of righteous politicians and citizens. This group is seen as drawing together the old ANC, activists, good business and citizens in general. They are intent on rebuilding institutions and good governance, the rule of law, international credibility and fostering growth and development. I argue that a much deeper set of social forces underlies and shapes the struggles within the governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), and the society more broadly. These political struggles are inseparable from struggles over the shape of the economy. Limited access The primary process to change the economy has been the drive to accelerate the emergence of new black elites. But institutional interventions, such as black economic empowerment, have been insufficient. Already, during the Thabo Mbeki period as well as the presidency of Nelson Mandela, an alternative informal political economic system was emerging at national, provincial and local levels. Through this, networks of state officials, ambitious entrepreneurs as well as small time operators, were rigging tenders or engaging in other kinds of fraud so as to sustain or establish businesses, or simply to finance self-enrichment. Because of a number of factors there was little alternative for channelling the aspirations and burning sense of injustice of black elites and would be elites in post-apartheid South Africa. These factors include the property clause in the Constitution, the conservative strategies adopted by the ANC government and the fact that large corporations and white owned businesses dominated the economy. This means that opportunities are few, demand is high and competition is fierce. In this context, the state is where people who are locked out are most likely to gain some access. This links to the issue of violence. The emergence of new elite classes is often a ferociously contested, ugly and violent affair. South Africa is no different from many other post-colonial countries or indeed the histories of the Euro-American elites that currently dominate the globe. In South Africa this violence takes the form of burning down homes and state facilities, intimidation, assault, the deployment of the criminal-justice system to protect some and target others, and, increasingly, assassination. I argue that this set of practices constitutes an informal political economic system. By a system I dont mean a structure which is centrally coordinated or planned. What Im referring to is a pervasive and decentralised set of interlocking networks that reinforce and compete with one another in mutually understood ways, and include the use of violence as a strategic resource. Former South African president Jacob Zuma in court on corruption charges. EPA-EFE/Rogan Ward / Pool This system preceded Zumas presidency, and extended far beyond the Zuma-Gupta network. The recent revelations about corruption at the Zondo commission into state capture, VBS mutual bank or in the book, How to steal a city by Crispian Olver, make this abundantly clear. It should also be abundantly clear that the informal political-economic system necessarily entangles President Cyril Ramaphosas core network of institution builders. Ramaphosas challenge Ramaphosas key challenge is to build a stable coalition within the ANC so as to embark on his project of institution building. His trajectory, and the future shape of corruption in South Africa, will be determined by the character of the coalition he can forge or that will be forced on him among party barons within the ANC. For the purpose of building institutions and attracting investment, it will be necessary to establish as stable a coalition as possible. This means it will have to be a broad coalition. One thing is sure: the coalition will include corrupt figures. It already does. The informal system of patronage politics will remain pervasive. Even so, Ramaphosas power is precarious in the ANC. The odds are stacked against success in establishing stability. For the medium-term the trajectory of politics is likely to be characterised by multiple contestations over material opportunities, political power and symbolic representation. This will give rise to an increasingly volatile, unstable and violent political space. To return, then, to the prevailing narrative and its misreading of the politics of corruption. Deep structural issues The problem with the narrative is that it assumes its possible simply to remove some rotten apples, and it sets standards Ramaphosa cannot possibly match. Perhaps, though, it is a useful fiction for the mobilisation of civil society, journalists and judges, which at the very least may contribute to containing corruption? There is some validity in this. Yet it fails to direct attention to the deep structural issues which give rise to corruption as an aspect of class formation. The only long-term and stabilising solution would be to draw into the formal system some of the purposes of the informal system. This would require a much more fundamental redistribution of assets and wealth, which could be deployed in the large-scale formation of a new black business class, primarily located in manufacturing and agriculture, as well as to fixing the education crisis. The result would be the formation of professional, scientific and technical middle classes. This kind of solution will not emerge from the Ramaphosa administration, which is much more fixed on reproducing the policies of the Mbeki era. The problem is that these were what created the opportunity for the rise of Zuma in the first place. Karl von Holdt, Senior Researcher, Society Work and Politics Institute, University of the Witwatersrand. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, joins deliberation with deputies from Fujian Province at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 10, 2019. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] President Xi Jinping on Sunday afternoon joined deliberation with deputies from Fujian Province at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress, China's national legislature. "[We] should create a favorable development environment for innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity," said Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission. China should seek momentum from reform and opening up, unleash to the maximum the whole society's power for innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity, and keep improving the country's influence and competitiveness in a world that is undergoing profound changes, Xi said. Xi stressed creating favorable conditions for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and young people, and establishing an acceleration mechanism for high-tech companies. He urged solid implementation of the policies and measures to encourage, guide and support the development of the private sector. Fujian must leverage the combined strengths of the special economic zone, pilot free trade zone, comprehensive experimental zone and the core zone of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and keep exploring new approaches, Xi said. Xi called for efforts to explore new ways for integrated development across the Taiwan Strait. The two sides of the Taiwan Strait should enhance economic and trade cooperation, infrastructure connectivity, energy and resource exchanges, and shared industry standards, he said. Cross-Strait cooperation and cultural exchanges should be strengthened, he added. Xi stressed the importance of implementing the people-centered development concept in the work on Taiwan, urging efforts to benefit Taiwan compatriots in the same way as people on the mainland are served. He encouraged listening to the voice of Taiwan compatriots and research on what other policies and measures can be introduced to bring them benefits. Xi said that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China, and it is necessary to ensure that no one in the country's old revolutionary base areas falls behind in the process of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. He called for adherence to targeted poverty alleviation and efforts to identify the root causes of poverty to enhance the effectiveness of anti-poverty measures. More efforts should be put into coordinating economic development with ecological protection, Xi said. Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning and Zhao Leji, all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, also joined deliberations with different delegations. Li, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, said formulating the foreign investment law is a major legislative task set by the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core. Deliberating with the delegation from Jiangsu Province, Li said the legislation is conducive to creating a first-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based and international, providing an even stronger legal guarantee for high-level opening up. Deliberating with the delegation from Tibet Autonomous Region, Wang Yang, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, called for efforts to further maintain law and order, improve the quality of poverty alleviation work, guarantee stability and peace of the plateau region, and ensure that people of all ethnic groups live and work in contentment. Wang Huning, a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, underlined the overarching goal of social stability and enduring peace in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region when he joined the delegation from the region for deliberation. He required earnest efforts to safeguard and improve people's wellbeing. Joining the delegation from Hainan Province, Zhao Leji, secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, called on efforts to accelerate developing the pilot free trade zone and explore building the free trade port with Chinese characteristics. He also demanded improving Party and state oversight systems to make sure various tasks are well implemented. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, joins deliberation with deputies from Fujian Province at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 10, 2019. [Xinhua/Ju Peng] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, joins deliberation with deputies from Fujian Province at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 10, 2019. [Xinhua/Ju Peng] (Source: Xinhua) Bai Lan works at her office.[Women of China] Bai Lan became head of Jinuoshan, an ethnic Jino township in Jinghong, a city in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, in southwestern China's Yunnan Province, in 2012. Bai became the first woman to head the township. She has dedicated her heart and soul to helping ethnic Jino people escape poverty and live better lives. Helping Locals Solve Problems The Chinese Government in 1979 officially recognized the Jino people as the country's 56th ethnic group. Jino is one of the smallest ethnic groups in China, and the Jino people mainly live in Xishuangbanna. The people speak Jino, but the language does not have its own ethnic characters. The Chinese Government dispatched working teams to Jinuoshan after 1949, to publicize and promote the country's ethnic policies, and to help locals both develop agricultural production and improve their level of education. The Jino people have continually improved their lives throughout the years. Bai became head of Jinuoshan Township at the end of 2012. At that time, many people in the township still lived in poverty. So, Bai decided to help the locals live better lives. She often told the villagers to ask her for help at any time. Every week, she went to villages (within the jurisdiction of the township) to help the villagers solve their problems. Many of the villages did not have paved roads; as a result, she often had to traverse rugged mountain roads to reach the villages. In 2013, Bai visited three villages that did not have paved roads. She had to walk 10-plus kilometers to reach the villages, just so she could learn about the locals' production and living conditions. She organized a group meeting so she could talk to the villagers about their problems. Her sincerity touched the villagers, and they shared their difficulties, one after another. "If I did not go to the villages, how could I learn about the difficulties of the villagers? If I did not become integrated with the villagers, and make friends with them, they could not trust me and tell me their troubles," Bai says. A Great Leap Bai has explored many methods of helping the locals escape poverty and become rich. She borrowed 1.927 million yuan (US $279,275), which was used to repair irrigation ditches, pave roads, and plant trees along the roads, in the township. She believed more travelers would be attracted to the township and more businesspeople would invest in local enterprises if the environment of the township was improved. She allocated money for solar street lamps, after she learned the street lamps were not bright enough along the route to the school. "Over the past six-plus years, the most satisfying thing that I have done was establishing the Market Day. The tradition of the Jino people is equal division. So, I established Market Day. The fair is held twice a month. The villagers sell home-grown products and handmade crafts along the roads in the township. They can make more money and live better lives through their hard work, which encourages them to make more efforts to grow high-quality products and/or make more exquisite crafts. Now, the streets are bustling on Market Day. Many travelers go to the fairs," Bai says. The committee of Xinsitu Village established an online shop in June 2016, with the help of Bai. The Party branch of the village runs the shop. The villagers can sell their tea, honey, dried food and handmade embroideries via the shop. "The agricultural products of the township are sold to customers directly via the online shop, which has helped boost the development of the township's economy. The economy has achieved great-leap-forward development in the past two-plus years. Tea, rubber and fructus amomi (a kind of traditional Chinese medicine) are the three mainstay industries of the township. The high-quality fruits and nuts planted by the locals also sell well," says Bai. In the past, the quality of the locally produced tea leaves was bad. The locals used excess pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and the tea leaves were produced in a rough way. So, the price of the tea was always low, and tea planters lost their initiative to plant tea. Bai established Youle old tea festival several years ago. A tea competition is held during the festival. Tea experts, invited by the township's government, taste and appraise the tea leaves during the competition. The experts select high-quality tea leaves, and the local government helps promote the high-quality tea leaves. "Now, tea planters in our township sell organic, high-quality tea that tastes mellow. The tea sells for more than 4,000 yuan (US $580) per kilogram. The tea planters always strive to improve the quality of the tea," says Bai. "In the future, I hope more people will understand and support the work of the local government. We should unite all efforts to help the local people live happy lives," Bai continues. Protecting Folk Culture Folk culture is the foundation of the Jino ethnic group. Bai has done her best to protect and promote the ethnic group's folk culture since she became head of the township. She has organized various activities to promote the group's traditional handmade embroideries and folk songs. She also helped establish cooperatives to make and sell handmade embroideries, traditional drums and other crafts. "Jino people do not have their own ethnic characters. The Jino culture is disappearing, slowly, as many elderly people of the ethnic group pass away. So, I helped establish a museum about the Jino ethnic group in 2017. The two-story museum covers an area of nearly 1,500 square meters. Many exhibits in the museum were donated by the villagers. The museum introduces the songs, dances, musical instruments and agricultural culture of the Jino ethnic group. It also introduces the development of the ethnic group," says Bai. Tremendous Achievements The Jino people have made tremendous achievements since China's reform and opening-up. In 1978, the per capita income of the villagers in the township was nearly 106 yuan (US $15). The total income of the township was 964,000 yuan (US $139,710). The locals still lived in thatched cottages, and they did not have electricity and running water. In 2018, the total income of the township exceeded 255 million yuan (US $37 million). The per capita income of the villagers was 11,757 yuan (US $1,704). More than 570 people have escaped poverty. All of the families in the township have electricity and running water. In the past, many young people of the ethnic group migrated to big cities for work. Few university graduates were willing to return to the township from other cities. However, with the development of the local economy, many young people have returned to their hometown for work. Bai encourages young people to return to the township and use their advanced ideas to make contributions to the township's development. Bai was elected to be a delegate to the 12th National Women's Congress of China, held in 2018 by the All-China Women's Federation. "As a representative of the Jino ethnic group, I was proud to take the wishes of Jino women to the congress. In the future, Jino people will unite with people of all ethnic groups in our country, to strive for the realization of the Chinese Dream of achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation." Jino people sell handmade crafts on Market Day.[Women of China] Bai Lan [Women of China/Zhang Jiamin] (Women of China English Monthly January 2019 issue) Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, joins deliberation with deputies from Jilin Province at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 9, 2019. [Xinhua/Liu Bin] Senior Chinese leaders on Saturday stressed reform, legislation and poverty alleviation at the annual legislative session. Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu and Zhao Leji, all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks when they separately joined deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC) in group deliberations. Premier Li Keqiang called for efforts to deepen reform and opening up, improve business environment, unleash the vitality of state-owned and private enterprises, and strengthen the real economy to promote stable and healthy economic development. Li Zhanshu, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, called for high-quality legislation to promote high-quality development. He said legislation should better contribute to economic and social development and help accomplish major reform tasks. Zhao Leji, secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said disciplinary inspection and supervision organs should strengthen efforts to deal with corruption and misconduct in poverty alleviation, so as to provide a strong guarantee for winning the battle against poverty. Li Zhanshu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, joins deliberation with deputies from Chongqing at the second session of the 13th NPC in Beijing, capital of China, March 9, 2019. [Xinhua/Pang Xinglei] Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, joins deliberation with deputies from Guizhou Province at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 9, 2019. [Xinhua/Zhang Ling] (Source: Xinhua) Do you tune in and watch council TV? Councillors to discuss future funding for service This article is old - Published: Monday, Mar 11th, 2019 The latest Council TV viewing figures have been released, showing that meetings where certain exchanges are highlighted by Wrexham.com get the bigger numbers. The Democratic Services Committee will this week examine viewing figures and are asked to consider whether to continue webcasting council meetings and recommend accordingly to Council (if required) to enable a procurement exercise to be undertaken during 2019 and to determine any funding requirements. The recommendation is another slip back to officer led recommendations, as after a scrutiny shambles in 2017 things appeared to consistently change so recommendations read: That Members of the Committee formulate their conclusions and recommendations based on the information in the report and the discussion at the meeting and made councillors do the work themselves. A total of 623 people tuned in to watch the March 3rd planning committee, which saw councillors debate plans to develop the secure unit in Gwersyllt. At the meeting a Councillor referred to the low secure unit plan noting: There is a railway line. Right by the side of it. We covered the comments with a link to the webcast. Since the meeting mental health training with councillors has been undertaken. The second most watched meeting of the past six months included a furious exchange of words between Council Leader Mark Pritchard and Plaid Cymru Group Leader Marc Jones over proposals to mark the RAF centenary with civic honour the episode had 526 viewers (exchange top picture). Webcams have been rolled out into scrutiny meetings however the uptake in views seems slow, with just 19 people watching a Lifelong Learning Scrutiny Committee in February this year and another 19 watching the Employment, Business and Investment Scrutiny Committee in January. The report before councillors summaries the figures: The data highlights the number of actual viewers (reach) who have watched a webcast. It should be noted that viewing by Council Officers is also captured in the data and it is not possible to produce separate figures for officers/public viewings. An increased level of viewers is likely to reflect greater public interest in the items of business transacted, similar to the varying levels of public attendance in the Council Chamber gallery, prior to the introduction of webcasting. The meeting kick offs and councillor clangers are tactfully avoided in the explanations of the highest viewership: Historically the items which have attracted the most viewers include scrutiny of the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board by the Safeguarding, Communities & Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee, Budget Consultation and recommendations regarding the Revenue Budget by the Executive Board, Revenue Budget and Council Tax setting by the Council and site specific applications considered by the Planning Committee. The current webcasting contract ends in January 2020 and councillors need to decide whether they wish to continue broadcasting meetings beyond that date and on what basis. This could prove tricky as the concept of webcasting was given some start up cash from Welsh Government, and then funded by the council however only for the period of the existing contract. The report notes Any increase in the current level of service/cost will require budget to be identified/compensating savings to be made. However previously the Leader of the Council Mark Pritchard said the committee should challenge him to find the cash to fund the wider rolling out and renewal of any webcasting of the council. Leaked Future TV Listings Back in 2014 we celebrated the launch of Council TV by publishing the listings of the programmes on WCBC 1 that day. By enormous coincidence we have seen an email containing future Council TV listings ideas for an unspecified date, however we cannot vouch for its accuracy CRIMEWATCH ROADSHOW North Wales Police are without a permanent town centre base so are out and about in various cafes. FLOG IT! A live look at the latest Pugh Auctions to see what local authorities are selling off across the UK. BARGAIN HUNT The teams scour council departments looking for savings as they expect another poor final settlement. CASH IN THE ATTIC As Chief Exec says there is no cash in the bank, Officers look higher up. DOCTORS Limited availability in some areas. JUDGE RINDER Cllr Bithell judges on an issue with the bins WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE Cllr Jenkins hosts again, how much does he want council tax to rise? A 5.5% B 6.5% C 9.5% or D 12%. GAME OF JONES Special edition of hit series, feat. all six Joness on Wrexham Council LOST IN TRANSLATION Film 1hr 45mins. Council officers face an epic fight to successfully translate anything correctly into Welsh as the matrix goes missing. BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY In this adaptation of Jay McInerneys novel, Ian Bancroft (Michael J. Fox) moves from small-town Flintshire to Wrexham City. DIY SOS Documentary as new arts and cultural centre opens, will it be completed on budget and on time? NIGHTCOPS (repeat) Brook St, Wrexham 2002. THE GREEN GREEN GRASS Only Fools and Horses spin off, limited episodes as soon to be replaced with a housing development approved by Planning Inspector from Cardiff. UFC 236 PRESS CONFERENCE LIVE Conor Mcgregor asks who is that guy? to various councillors with lower attendance records. THE LOWEDOWN Magazine programme, hosted by Geoff and Joan. POINTS OF VIEW Thirty minutes of Facebook users asking why Cats Protection are spending cash on cats rather than homeless veterans. I, DAVID BITHELL Film. PRESS GANG Kids set up news website thing, accidentally becomes only ones left in town. MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE Cllr King has Cllr Pritchard to his right, but to his left Cllr Davies tries to keep a lid on his jibes WALLICE AND GROMIT Documentary following Cllr Wallice tackling dog mess in Borras. DRAGONS DEN (repeat) Executive Board decide not to fund Citizens Advice service, however new Christmas Lights and town centre paving ideas get cash. RUNNING WILD WITH BEAR GRYLLS ep. 22 Bear goes potholing on the Tesco Roundabout and survives for a week underground PFI-NAL DESTINATION Horror film. Lots of extra cash is needed, but which PFI deal will really wipe the budget out? ROCKY Italian-American fighter is trained by Cllr Adrienne Jeorrett as he takes on Apollo Creed. STRIKE IT LUCKY Councillors get another pay rise from the IRPW CLOSE Some services, next year, probably. (Click for large) Police Chief Prison Lock Up raises over 7000 for Tenovus Cancer Care This article is old - Published: Monday, Mar 11th, 2019 A Prison Lock-Up event has raised over 7000 for a Wales-based cancer charity. North Wales Police Chief Constable Carl Foulkes was amongst those taking part in the sponsored Lock-Up at Mold police station on Saturday evening. Some breaking news. the Chief Constable of North Wales Police has been arrested! (For charity ) https://t.co/Ne7I4vib0h Wrexham.com (@wrexham) March 9, 2019 Chief Constable Foulkes was joined by North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood and around 16 other volunteer prisoners getting a unique opportunity to experience life behind bars while raising money for Tenovus Cancer Care. During the event, prisoners had their fingerprints and mug shots taken, handed prison clothing to wear and had all home comforts taken from them, including their mobile phones. Prisoners were put into cells at Mold Police station by officers and staff who had all volunteered their time for the event. They were questioned by the police officers for made-up charges, fed infamous microwaved prison food and put through their paces in a dingy exercise yard at the station. It was up to individuals to entertain themselves however, all participants were moved around the cells to get meet the other prisoners throughout the evening. Upon his release, Chief Constable Carl Foulkes said: After a fantastic effort we raised over 7000 tonight and a huge thank you once again to those who sponsored me I raised over 700 pounds in the end. We have all been released a great job by the cadets, staff and officer who made tonight what it was. (Click for large) As she heard the court announcement, Aisyah, 26, hugged her co-defendant Doan Thi Huong, a 30-year-old Vietnamese woman, and cried. Immediately after, she was rushed to an elevator and escorted to an Indonesian Embassy car waiting outside the courthouse. Her lawyers said she is expected to fly to Jakarta soon. The Shah Alam High Court, outside Kuala Lumpur, discharged Siti Aisyah without an acquittal after Malaysian prosecutors withdraw the murder charge without giving a reason. An Indonesian woman held in Malaysia since 2017 on suspicions of assassinating the North Korean leader's half-brother was released from detention Monday. Indonesian Ambassador Rusdi Kirana thanked the Malaysian government for Aisyah's release and said: "We believe she is not guilty.'' Meanwhile, the trial of Huong was put on hold. The court had scheduled to hear Huong's defense on Monday after months of delay. The two women were accused of smearing VX liquid nerve agent on Kim Yong-nam's face in an airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13, 2017. They were the only suspects in custody after four North Korean suspects fled the country the same morning Kim was killed. Lawyers for the women has said they were pawns in a political assassination in which the North Korean Embassy in Kuala Lumpur was involved. Aisyah had been working as a masseuse in Kuala Lumpur, while Doan was an entertainer. Kim Jong-nam was the eldest son of North Korea's ruling family. He had been living abroad for years but could have been considered a threat to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's rule. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 01:28:26|Editor: yan Video Player Close ADEN, Yemen, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Forces loyal to Yemen's internationally-backed government thwarted an attack launched by the Houthi rebels in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah on Sunday, killing 13 rebels, a military official told Xinhua. "Scores of Houthi fighters launched an attack against government forces in Durayhmi district of Hodeidah, sparking fierce clashes in the deserted area," the Hodeidah-based official said on condition of anonymity. "Well-armed government forces backed by local fighters managed to thwart the Houthi attack, leaving 13 rebels killed and several others injured," the source added. The Houthis fighters wanted to carry out simultaneous attacks to besiege government forces in Durayhmi district, he revealed. The incident came just hours after intense armed confrontations in various areas of Hodeidah including the 50th Street and Yemen Mobile roundabout, causing casualties from both warring sides. The warring forces have so far failed to withdraw from Hodeidah and its southern districts in accordance with the UN-sponsored Stockholm Agreement reached last December. The deal was aimed to avert an all-out offensive on the lifeline port city, which is the key entry of Yemen's most commercial imports and international aid. The Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after Houthi rebels forced him into exile and seized much of the country's north, including the capital Sanaa and Hodeidah. The four-year civil war has killed more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, displaced 3 million others, and pushed the country to the brink of famine. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 01:43:29|Editor: mingmei Video Player Close Yao Tandong of the Chinese Academy of Sciences receives an interview with Xinhua during a session of the United Nations Science, Policy, and Business Forum on the Environment in Nairobi, Kenya, March 10, 2019. (Xinhua/Zhang Yu) by Ronald Njoroge and Lu Duobao NAIROBI, March 10 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese scientist on Sunday called for stronger international collaboration in combating climate impacts in the Pan-Third Pole region. Tandong Yao, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told a session of the United Nations Science, Policy, and Business Forum on the Environment in Nairobi that global warming has led to melting of glaciers, resulting in extreme weather events that have affected livelihoods of millions of people in the region. "Urgent international cooperation is required to study and find solutions to reverse the environmental changes," he said. Yao noted that the Chinese government has taken measures to combat effects of global warming on the Pan-Third Pole region. The Third Pole region is centered on the Xizang Plateau and extends over 5 million square kilometers with an average elevation of over 4,000 meters. It is regarded as the Water Tower of Asia. Yao said the environmental changes being witnessed in the Third Pole region and the surrounding areas have been linked with global climate systems. Chinese scientists are already cooperating with their peers in the affected central Asian region as well as those from United Nations agencies, the United States, Germany, France and Sweden. The degradation of the Pan-Third Pole region is a global concern, given that it extends over 20 million square kilometers and is home to over 3 billion people, Yao said. The Pan-Third Pole region is exposed to drastic climate change, with the melting of glaciers causing environmental disasters associated with extreme weather events like floods, droughts and ice avalanches, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 01:53:32|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (R) meets with Mohammed Shtayyeh after appointing him as new prime minister in the West Bank City of Ramallah, March 10, 2019. Mohammad Shtayyeh expressed hope on Sunday to form his government soon through his consultations with Palestinian factions as well as social and political powers, official Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) reported. (Xinhua/Office of the Presidency) RAMALLAH, March 10 (Xinhua) -- The newly appointed Palestinian prime minister expressed hope on Sunday to form his government soon through his consultations with Palestinian factions as well as social and political powers, official Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) reported. Mohammad Shtayyeh made the remarks right after he received the letter of nomination from President Mahmoud Abbas to form a new government. "I am fully aware of the situation we are going through politically, economically and financially," he said. "We will work to embody the sovereign and independent state of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital on 1967 territories and continue our struggle for the right of return," Shtayyeh vowed. In his address to Abbas, the new prime minister hailed Abbas' engagement "in the battle of protecting Jerusalem and al-Aqsa Mosque." He also promised to work to serving the Palestinians, lift injustice and restore their dignity and honor. "It is not bread alone that animates human beings, but freedom, dignity, self-respect, tolerance, constructive criticism and positive spirit in dealing with people's problems and concerns, especially in Gaza, Jerusalem and the Diaspora," Shtayyeh said. Earlier in the day, 60-year-old Shtayyeh was assigned by Abbas to form a new Palestinian government that succeeds the former consensus government of Rami Hamdallah. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 03:33:52|Editor: ZX Video Player Close Chinese sci-fi writer Liu Cixin speaks during a meeting with his readers at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), on March 8, 2019. Liu Cixin, author of Chinese sci-fi bestseller "The Three-Body Problem," said here in a recent interview with Xinhua that science fiction "opens our minds to everything that we might see in the future." (Xinhua) by Xinhua writer Su Xiaopo DUBAI, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Liu Cixin, author of Chinese sci-fi bestseller "The Three-Body Problem," said here in an recent interview by Xinhua that science fiction "opens our minds to everything that we might see in the future." Liu came to Dubai to participate in the meeting with readers in Emirates Airline Festival of Literature during which the hall was filled up. Liu said that science fiction makes readers interested in science, especially young people, which broadens their horizons as well as promotes their imagination and creativity. Young readers should read various kinds of literature in order to find what they are truly interested in, he added. Liu noted that he has read a lot of works of Leo Tolstoy and Arthur Charles Clarke. "Reading all those books made what I am today." To gain international influence and recognition in the world, Chinese science fiction should involve good stories, expressing the irreplaceable part of science fiction to give foreign readers new experience, Liu said. Science fiction trilogy "The Three-Body Problem," which made Liu the first Asian writer to win the Hugo Award in 2015, has been translated into almost 20 different languages. "I hope that there will be an Arabic edition of 'The Three-Body Problem' in the near future," Liu said. Talking about the recent Chinese sci-fi hit film The Wandering Earth, which is based on a novella of the same name by Liu, he thought this success was mainly the result of diligent work of the movie's team. In Liu's view, the movie gains an unexpected success, but still has a big gap with the U.S. sci-fi movies in terms of technology and quality. "As the first Chinese sci-fi movie, I should say that it's very exciting and encouraging. I saw a lot of progress in special effects, sci-fi ideas and how to tell a story with Chinese sentiments and values," Liu said. Liu pointed out that though The Wandering Earth earned a success, it is impossible for Chinese sci-fi movies to copy the same way with big investment and producing. He expected that the Chinese sci-fi movies will be more diverse in the future. "But now we lack a complete industry of sci-fi movies ... we also lack specialists in special effects and screenwriters of sci-fi field," he added. Liu considered that sci-fi movies will have a bright future especially in China where such movies will likely flourish. However, Liu thought science fiction's future is gloomy. He said the reasons may be complicated. The reality is that the number of readers and writers are decreasing and there is a lack of influential sci-fi books as well. "Science fiction just displays all kinds of possibilities in the future. As for which possibilities will come true, it can not be predicted by sci-fi writers," the Chinese writer said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 03:38:53|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close An excavator works at the crash site of an Ethiopian Airlines' aircraft, some 50 km east of Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, on March 10, 2019. All 157 people aboard Ethiopian Airlines flight were confirmed dead as Africa's fastest growing airline witnessed the worst-ever incident in its history. The incident on Sunday, which involved a Boeing 737-800 MAX, occurred a few minutes after the aircraft took off from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport to Nairobi, Kenya. It crashed around Bishoftu town, the airline said. (Xinhua/Wang Shoubao) ADDIS ABABA, March 10 (Xinhua) -- All 157 people aboard Ethiopian airlines flight were confirmed dead as Africa's fastest growing airline witnessed the worst-ever incident in its history. Prior to the latest deadly incident, an Ethiopian airline flight had also encountered similar catastrophe in 2010, when a jet carrying 90 people plunged into the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Lebanon, leaving all the passengers aboard dead. The victims include 32 from Kenya, 18 from Canada, nine from Ethiopia, eight each from China, Italy and the United States, seven each from Britain and France, six from Egypt, and five from the Netherlands, the airline said. They also include four each from India and Slovakia, three each from Austria, Russia and Sweden, two each from Israel, Morocco, Poland and Spain, and one each from Belgium, Djibouti, Indonesia, Ireland, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Norway, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovenia, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Uganda and Yemen. The incident on Sunday, which involved a Boeing 737-800 MAX, occurred a few minutes after the aircraft took off from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport to Nairobi, Kenya. It crashed around Bishoftu town, some 45 km from the capital Addis Ababa, the airline said. The aircraft, which was obtained by the Ethiopian airline last November, has only been in service for four months, flying more than 1,200 hours until Sunday's crash, according to the airline. Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said that "today is a very sad and tragic day for all of us." "At this stage, we cannot determine the cause of the accident," Gebremariam said. "It just came this morning from Johannesburg and arrived in Addis Ababa with no remark and it was dispatched with no remark," said Gebremariam. "It was a clean airplane. It is a brand-new airplane... there is no problem on technical side," Gebremariam said. "The routine maintenance check didn't reveal any problem." Kenyan government has formed two emergency centers to counsel those affected by the tragedy, as the East African country records highest number of causalities from the tragic incident. Kenyan cabinet secretary for transport and infrastructure, James Macharia, said that the centers will offer privacy and information to relatives of crash victims as the government waits for the plane's manifest from the Ethiopian carrier. "The purpose of these centers is to provide the relatives, who we call meeters and greeters, with information as much as we have and, at the same time, to provide them with an environment of privacy because until we know what has happened there will be a lot of anxiety," he told a news conference in Nairobi. Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Mahboub Maalim, also said that "the whole IGAD region and the world are today mourning." "It is always shocking and sad news to hear of such an accident. It's even more deeply affecting when it occurs in a country within our region and a flight route all familiar to us," the IGAD executive secretary said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 03:43:53|Editor: yan Video Player Close JERUSALEM, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Israeli and U.S. researchers have developed a method to assess the "age" of patients' immune system, thus predicting mortality in elders, Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) reported on Sunday. During life, everyone undergoes slow and constant functional weakening of the immune system, with an increase in inflammatory processes. Aging of the immune system has devastating consequences, including an inability to cope with infections and an increased risk of chronic diseases such as cancer. The quantification of the immune system's aging is a complex challenge that requires multidimensional monitoring over time. The Technion scientists, along with scientists from Stanford University, California, have been able to quantify the changes in the immune system that happen over the years. In nine years, they characterized once a year the immune systems of 135 healthy people of different ages and built a model that quantifies these changes in a specific person. The data enabled the researchers to quantify the immune age in an index called "IMM-AGE score," which provides information that the chronological age can't tell. Using the new method, the researchers quantified the immunization age of more than 2,000 elders and showed that high immune age predicts mortality in older people, beyond the known risk factors. According to the researchers, the immune age is a kind of biological clock that will help identify an early weakening of the immune system, and now they are trying to define preventive measures to reduce disease and mortality. The researchers believe that with the new method, they will also be able to characterize genes that affect immunization age, and even identify lifestyle, habits and medications that affect the "age." Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 07:54:27|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close AUSTIN, the United States, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Handheld ultrasound device, robot duck that keeps sick children company, plants grown on a human body -- innovative and sometimes almost "bizarre" tech developments are reshaping ways of life and visions of the future. At the ongoing South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference and Festivals, 65 of 2018's most innovative digital projects are sweeping attendees off their feet, vying for top honors of the 22nd annual SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards. Guru Sundar's booth was one of the most packed at a showcase Saturday when he demonstrated how to use Butterfly iQ, a lightweight, handheld whole-body ultrasound device to take medical images of his heart within seconds. The device connected directly to a smartphone and soon offered AI interpretation and augmented reality (AR) tele-guidance for patient care. "There are 19 different applications, everything from abdomen to bladder, the cardiac, lung, all the way down into the carotid," Sundar, director of marketing of Butterfly Network, Inc., told Xinhua. The project, he said, was launched to "democratize health care by bringing access to medical imaging" to those who have long been denied. The devices are being shipped to thousands of doctors, nurses and physician assistants across the United States, Sundar said. "We are expanding globally this year, likely to start with Europe and Australia." China is also a target market, he added, as one of their largest investors is a Chinese pharmaceutical company. "We're talking to them and working with other people in terms of how to bring this technology to China... Hopefully next year." Butterfly iQ is a champion hopeful in the category of health, med and biotech. There are 12 other categories, with five finalists in each of them. The awards will be given out Monday night. In the category of robotics and hardware, a robot duck that supports children through cancer treatment is poised to win. My Special Aflac Duck is developed to interact with children with cancer who are going through chemotherapy, and help them express feelings better to caregivers through the treatment process. The goal is "focused on how we might be able to deliver comfort and joy to kids," and every single feature that the duck has is driven by this goal, said Aaron Horowitz, CEO and co-founder of Sproutel, which partnered with Aflac Inc. in creating the social robot. "Children can give chemotherapy to their ducks. They can use the feeling cards that come along with the ducks to communicate to their caregivers how they feel," Horowitz explained. Aflac has made a commitment to donate one such duck to every child, aged 3 to 13, who is newly diagnosed with cancer across the United States. The ducks are produced in China. "We work with our partners there incredibly closely. They do this because they are just as committed to the cause as we are. And that's something that I feel is really special about the collaboration that we have," Horowitz said. Other mind-blowing projects at the finalist showcase included plants grown on the human body, "a vision of the future" and "a speculation," as the designer put it, which responds to impending food and water scarcity, as well as Furhat Robot that can change faces with the touch of a button. The showcase "gives attendees the best opportunity to have a hands-on experience with the latest developments not only in the consumer categories but also with radical new ideas that will transform the world around us," said Hugh Forrest, SXSW chief programming officer. The 10-day SXSW 2019, which kicked off Friday, is a platform that gathers innovators and entrepreneurs from across the globe to breed and fund new ideas. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 09:04:36|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close ACCRA, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Sunday sent a message of condolences to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed over the Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed the 157 people onboard. According to a press release, like all Ghanaians, the president has been deeply saddened by Sunday's news of the tragic loss of 157 lives, who perished on board an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, Kenya. Akufo-Addo, on behalf of the government and people of Ghana, extended deep condolences and sympathies to the families of the deceased, and to Abiy Ahmed, the government and people of Ethiopia in these difficult times. "May the souls of the departed rest in peace," the release said. According to Ethiopian Airlines, the aircraft Boeing 737-800 MAX took off in the morning from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport and crashed minutes later around Bishoftu town, some 45 km from the capital Addis Ababa. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 09:24:39|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close SYDNEY, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Another man has been shot to death in the Australian city of Melbourne, where last weekend four people were killed in suspected gang related violence, taking the death toll to five people in 10 days. The latest incident occurred on Sunday with police attending the suburb of Springvale just before midnight following reports of a single gunshot. Paramedics were unable to revive a man who died at the scene. On March 1, a young father was shot dead in a street attack which left two other people injured. Two days later a man in his 50s was found dead in his car with gunshot wounds, and last Monday, two men were shot dead. Victoria Police said in a statement there is nothing else yet to link the deaths. "At this stage of the investigation, police don't believe this incident is linked to the other shootings in Melbourne this month," police said in a statement. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 09:44:43|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close SAN FRANCISCO, March 10 (Xinhua) -- A San Francisco-based non-profit organization is working hard to look for as many families of Chinese American World War II veterans as possible to honor their service to the country. Edmond Gor, Past National President of Chinese American Citizens Alliance (CACA), said over the weekend that more people should be mobilized to collect information about Chinese American WWII veterans or their families so that the veterans' service could be recognized and honored by U.S. Congress with a gold medal. He said time is running out as the awarding ceremony is likely to take place in Washington, D.C. in October or November this year, and hoped every veteran eligible for the award would be honored to receive the medal. He urged the public to help locate as many WWII veterans as possible because some of the records about the Chinese American WWII veterans were lost for some reasons and there was no centralized database when they were enlisted during the wartime. Gor, who is also National Veterans Project Coordinator, said he intended to organize a three-day tour to Washington, D.C. for all the veterans to attend the ceremony. "We want you to enjoy meeting your other World War II veterans and the families that you will convene with. I think that's a little bit exciting to know that some of these people who made it (survived the war) this far," he said. Gor noted that the honoring of the Chinese American WWII veterans is of special significance because at least 40 percent of them were denied U.S. citizenship under the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was in effect during WWII. The act, which was enacted in 1882, prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers. It was the first U.S. law implemented to prevent all members of a specific ethnic or national group from immigrating to the country. However, as many as 20,000 Chinese Americans, nearly one in five Chinese American men who served in the military, were fighting in every WWII theater during the war. The number of living Chinese American WWII veterans is less than 300 at present, said Nelson Lum, commander of Cathay Post No. 384 of American Legion based in San Francisco, which provides service to retired servicemen and war veterans. Gor said the Chinese Americans were treated unfairly and discriminated against during the war period when they were even fighting for the United States. "It's a good thing for us to recognize our Chinese American veterans ... We serve the country just like anyone else despite the fact that we were not even citizens," he said, adding that it's important "our children or grandchildren would know this part of history." The Chinese American World War II Veteran Congressional Gold Medal Act was signed into law by President Donald Trump last year to present the medal, the highest civilian honor in the United States, to Chinese American veterans. The legislation was a result of a CACA-led national campaign known as the Chinese American World War II Veterans Recognition Project seeking to honor and recognize the Chinese American WWII veterans for their sacrifices to the country. Exhibit shows progress of human rights in Xinjiang From:ChinaDaily | 2019-03-11 07:13 Romain Perez, a member of the secretariat of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, was taking a break on Friday morning when he stopped in a hall of the UN Geneva Office to see an exhibition about human rights development and other progress in China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. The 84 photos on display covered a wide range of subjects-from people's daily lives, cultural diversity, freedom of religion and ethnic unity to grassroots democracy, economic modernization and infrastructure upgrades. Perez was absorbed by several photos of bullet trains, livestock and manufacturing. "It seems to be very modern. I saw a lot of installations, and I'm very impressed. There is a lot of development," said Perez, a Frenchman who visited Shanghai in 2001, but not Xinjiang. "China is changing quickly." Brahim Laghzal, a Moroccan, has worked at the UN Geneva Office for eight years. He has not been to China but said he knows that today it's very different from decades ago. He said people from Asia to Africa to the Americas need to exchange their experiences on human rights. The exhibit, sponsored by China's mission to the UN Geneva Office and the China Society for Human Rights Studies, was held during the 40th session of the UN Human Rights Council at the Palace of the Nations, home of the UN Geneva Office. Tuerxun Wujiahamaiti, 41, head of the College of Xinjiang Uyghur Medicine in Hotan, Xinjiang, described himself as the best example of how human rights have advanced in Xinjiang. He said on Friday that the development of Xinjiang has provided everyone with opportunity, lifting him from poor beginnings to become the head of a medical college. Wujiahamaiti credited the improved situation of security and stability in Xinjiang for the booming night market, tourism and the fact that many high-tech companies have come to the region in recent years. "The exhibition shows amazing progress by the people of Xinjiang," Nikita Zhukov, deputy permanent representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Geneva Office, wrote in the guestbook after visiting the exhibit on the opening day. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 10:29:54|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close WASHINGTON, March 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump's top economic advisor said Sunday that the president plans to cut domestic spending "across the board" by 5 percent in its proposed 2020 budget. "The president is proposing roughly a 5 percent across-the-board reduction in domestic spending accounts," Larry Kudlow, who is also director of the National Economic Council, said in an appearance on "Fox News Sunday." Trump is due to send the 2020 budget blueprint to Congress on Monday. "It will be a tough budget," Kudlow added. "We're going to do our own caps this year and I think it's long overdue." Kudlow said that recent budget deals "have not been favorable towards spending," and that curbing spending in domestic programs is "exactly the right prescription." "If you want to deal with budget deficits, you've got rapid growth which means keep the tax cuts in place," Kudlow said. "We believe the 3 percent growth rates of 2018 will continue in 2019 and beyond 2020 and so forth." The Trump administration's 2017 corporate tax cuts have been blamed for expanding the deficit, which is now approaching 1 trillion dollars, and the measure's effect on economic growth is waning. Asked by host Chris Wallace why he seemed to no longer care about deficit and debt as much as he did during the Ronald Regan era, Kudlow replied, "I don't think good growth policies have to obsess necessarily about the budget deficits and so forth." The presidential advisor said he expected the country's deficit to be around 4.5 to 5 percent of the gross domestic product. "That's a very modest number compared to even the recent past." Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 11:20:01|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close WASHINGTON, March 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump is open to a third summit with Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), National Security Adviser John Bolton said on Sunday. In an interview with ABC on Sunday, Bolton said that President Trump had invested a lot of time in trying to develop a personal relationship with Kim, and Trump is confident in that relationship. "He said he's open to a third summit, none has been scheduled, and some time they have to go by," Bolton added. When asked about some reports on imagery analysis of activities in the DPRK, Bolton said that he would not speculate on what that particular commercial satellite picture shows. Bolton also noted that Washington had not asked Pyongyang about the images of DPRK's rocket launch facility, while he revealed that he would speak with his South Korean counterpart on this matter Monday morning. U.S. media widely reported that the DPRK appeared to have started "rapid rebuilding" of the long-range rocket site at Tongchang-ri Launch Facility, citing an imagery analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. "I would be very disappointed if that were happening. It's a very early report ... We'll take a look," Trump told reporters on Wednesday regarding the imagery analysis. Bolton earlier said it was premature to make a judgment on the reports of the activities of DPRK rocket launch site. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior State Department official on Thursday told the press that Tongchang-ri facility is "not a critical part" of DPRK's nuclear infrastructure at this point, and the United States has not "reached any specific conclusion" on those reports. The official confirmed that Washington would seek clarifications on the purposes of those activities. Trump and Kim Jong Un held their second summit in Hanoi, Vietnam on Feb. 27-28, without reaching an agreement. Nevertheless, the White House said the two leaders had "very good and constructive meetings" and discussed various ways to "advance denuclearization and economic driven concepts." Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also repeatedly expressed that Washington would continue the conversation with Pyongyang. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 11:30:03|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's first parliament session of the year convened on Monday amid changes in the balance of the ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition and the opposition. The session, which will last till April 11, is expected to see Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM), as a member of the PH coalition, having a stronger presence after a series of defections since last year. The party now holds 22 seats in the lower house of the parliament, a significant increase from the 12 seats in the general election last May. The latest increase were seven former members of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), including a former minister, who were accepted into PPBM in February. The opposition coalition Barisan Nasional (BN), of which UMNO is the largest in the group, has seen its numbers dwindle from 54 in the general elections last year to 37. The BN has rebounded with recent victories in two recent by-elections, with an UMNO candidate keeping its Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat in January and gaining one state assembly seat in early March. The party also announced an informal pact with the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) last week, a move which is believed to help it tap into the country's ethnic majority Malay-Muslim voters. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 12:25:24|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close SAN FRANCISCO, March 10 (Xinhua) -- The 15th Chinese Bridge Cup Contest ended here Sunday after two days of fierce competition among students from various schools in Northern California. The annual contest, jointly hosted by the Confucius Institute at San Francisco State University (SFSU) and San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), drew more than 1,000 young people from kindergarten kids to 12-graders in Northern California. The students, including American kids and the second generation of Chinese Americans born in the United States, demonstrated their talent in Chinese calligraphy and painting, as well as their language proficiency in the contests of Chinese language composition and poem recital. A program coordinator for the competition, who preferred not to be identified, said about 400 students appeared for Sunday's contests of poem recital in Mandarin and Cantonese on the second day of the two-day event. Many of them chose ancient Chinese poems to try to impress judges, while others recited modern Chinese poetic literature to highlight their unique literary taste. Jiaxin Xie, director of Confucius Institute at SFSU, told Xinhua on Sunday that the contest is part of Confucius Institute to promote Chinese education and culture for U.S. students and the general public. "Teachers from Confucius Institute offered free non-credit programs on the Chinese language for students and staff members of SFSU, which received a warm response from the participants," Xie said. Such programs catered to the needs of U.S. students who have a strong interest in the Chinese language and culture, he added. David Wong, assistant superintendent of SFUSD, called the contest a new platform for middle and high school students to expand their horizon and the reach of their academic study. "It's an opportunity for the students to express themselves to their peers from other schools, which could be an incentive to deliver their cultural dreams," he said. Christine Facella, assistant superintendent of Educational Services at Riverbank Unified School District in Central Valley of California, made a special trip to the contest site to observe the competition on Saturday. She said cooperation with Confucius Institute would help her school district obtain necessary resources to improve Chinese language training and teaching where Chinese education was relatively weak compared to other regions of Northern California. The final results of the contest will be released in a few weeks, an organizer said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 12:30:25|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close CARACAS, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Classes and all work activities will be suspended on Monday due to a prolonged national power outage, Venezuela's Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez said on Sunday. "We'd like to inform that President Nicolas Maduro has decided that all classes and work activities will be suspended on Monday, March 11," the minister told the state-run television station VTV. Venezuela, a country plagued by an intense political and economic crisis, has been undergoing a large-scale power outage since Thursday after what authorities called a sabotage at the country's central hydroelectric plant. The government will make sure "that all Venezuelan people regain their tranquility which has been affected by the criminal and selfish actions that pursue nothing but the political ends of the extreme right," Rodriguez said. He asked citizens to remain calm and said that "the most important thing is solidarity among neighbors, among community councils" and above all among organized people. He reiterated the condemnations made by his government that the electrical disruption was due to a "brutal and devious attack" directed by the U.S. government. Currently, at least 18 of the 23 states remain blacked out. In the capital Caracas power has been partially restored but remains intermittent. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 12:40:28|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close HAVANA, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Sunday reiterated his condemnation of the "brutal aggression" against Venezuela and accused the United States of the actions. "The U.S. empire intensifies its criminal and brutal aggression against Venezuela," Diaz-Canel wrote on his Twitter account Sunday, referring to a prolonged national blackout in Venezuela. "The attempt against the electrical system brought the lies and cynicism of the false humanitarian discourse of the empire to light. We condemn the aggressions against the homeland of Chavez. Hands off Venezuela," he wrote. In a Saturday Twitter post, Diaz-Canel called the power outage "a dirty terrorist act" to "crush the resistance of the Venezuelan people and encourage military intervention." Since Thursday afternoon, Venezuelans have been hit with a prolonged nationwide blackout, which the authorities blamed on sabotage at a central hydroelectric plant. Electricity was restored Friday afternoon in at least 10 Caracas districts after 20 hours' outage, and also in several eastern states. However, the capital was hit by another blackout on Saturday. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 12:40:29|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close CARACAS, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela's Health Minister Carlos Alvarado on Sunday denied the deaths of hospitalized people as a direct result of the power outage affecting the country. "I want to deny outright the biased news of deaths due to the electricity issue. News that spread minutes after the criminal attack occurred, talking about the number of dead are absolutely false," Alvarado told state radio. The health minister said when the outage happened "90 percent of the electric generators in the health centers kicked in, this prevented a huge catastrophe, given that 200 patients were in intensive care or the operating room." Thanks to a contingency plan which was immediately activated in more than 298 hospitals that make up the country's public health system, "we managed to avoid any event that we would regret," he said. According to Alvarado, now more than 96 percent of the electric generators at hospitals are working and critical medical services are operating well. The minister reiterated that although some patients who were in critical condition might have died during the blackout, "there has been no reported death as a direct result of the outage." "The government is in permanent supervision and control of the national hospital situation," Alvarado said. Since Thursday afternoon, large parts of Venezuela have been left without power due to what the authorities called a sabotage of the country's central hydroelectric plant at the Guri Dam in southeastern Venezuela, which supplies up to 65 percent of the country's hydroelectric energy, according to 2015 government data. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 13:55:48|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close SEOUL, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Hyundai Motor, South Korea's biggest automaker, was in talks with potential investors for billions of U.S. dollars of project to jointly develop its headquarters complex in the country's capital Seoul. "Hyundai Motor Group is in talks with various potential investors for joint development project for its Global Business Center to be established in southern Seoul," Hyundai said in a statement Monday. Showing interests in the project were pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and other global investors, according to the statement. Hyundai purchased the property in the Gangnam district of Seoul at 10.55 trillion won (9.3 billion U.S. dollars) from the state-run power supplier Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) in 2014. Nearly half of the purchase cost was shared by Kia Motors and Hyundai Mobis, affiliated with Hyundai. Additional cost for the mega-development project was estimated at about 3.7 trillion won (3.3 billion U.S. dollars). It can increase financial burden for Hyundai Motor Group, the country's second-biggest conglomerate. "The joint development is expected to alleviate the group's direct investment scale and enhance the group's overall brand image," said the South Korean carmaker. Hyundai aims to complete the construction of its headquarters complex by 2023. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 14:10:52|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- A total of 43.9 million college students in China received financial support in 2018, according to China Education Daily Monday. About 53 billion yuan (7.9 billion U.S. dollars) was provided by government funds, which accounted for 46.1 percent of the total amount. The rest mainly consisted of student loans provided by banks and higher educational institutions, while donations from individuals, social organizations or enterprises accounted for nearly 1.4 percent. The support came in three forms: scholarships, financial aid and student loans. About 9.2 million students were awarded a total of 25 billion yuan worth of scholarships in 2018, which took up 21.8 percent of all the subsidies. Financial aid worth 32.8 billion yuan and student loans worth 32.6 billion went to 9.7 million students and 4.5 million students, respectively. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 14:10:52|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close SEOUL, March 11 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's export posted a double-digit fall for the first 10 days of this month, after continuing a downward trend for three months through February, customs office data showed Monday. Export, which accounts for about half of the export-driven economy, amounted to 11 billion U.S. dollars during the March 1-10 period, down 19.1 percent from the same period of last year, according to the Korea Customs Service. The daily average export reduced 5.6 percent to 1.83 billion U.S. dollars in the cited period. The country's export continued to fall since December last year on weak demand for semiconductor and oil product. Exports for chip and oil product plunged 29.7 percent and 39 percent each during the 10-day period, with shipment of telecommunication devices, such as smartphone, shrinking 4.1 percent. Export to China, South Korea's biggest trading partner, tumbled 23.9 percent for the first 10 days of March compared with a year earlier. Those to the United States and the European Union slumped 17 percent and 10.2 percent, respectively. Import shrank 15.4 percent over the year to 11.6 billion U.S. dollars in the March 1-10 period, sending the trade balance to a deficit of 0.6 billion U.S. dollars. China should boost basic research in AI From:ChinaDaily | 2019-03-11 06:57 The Government Work Report that Premier Li Keqiang delivered to the national legislature on March 5 emphasized that artificial intelligence (AI) technology be strengthened in emerging industries to improve the core competitiveness of the sector and improve the science and technology industries. Since 2006, a group of scholars, represented by Geoffrey Hinton, a cognitive psychologist and computer scientist, has optimized neural network models, with the focus on AI and characterized by deep learning technology, inspiring a new wave of developments in the science and technology sectors. Countries work out AI strategies based on their own national situations to deal with future scientific and technological competition. For example, Canada issued the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy in 2017, which focuses on basic theoretical research and a pool of talents to strengthen its international reputation as a cultivator of AI talents. The Declaration of Cooperation on Artificial Intelligence signed by the European Union states in 2018 emphasizes the moral code and legal framework of AI, with the aim of enhancing the technological and industrial capability of the EU to prepare for the social and economic changes brought about by AI. And in 2019, the United States announced that the American AI Initiative will focus on five major aspects of research and development-science and technology; data resources; policy standards; personnel training; and international cooperation-in order to ensure its leadership in the field of AI. As for China, it formulated the Development Planning for a New Generation of Artificial Intelligence in 2017 with the aim of becoming a leader in AI theory and application, as well as an AI innovation center through thorough research. AI technology development relies on good quality resources. New York and Boston, for example, depend, to a large extent, on leading financial institutions and excellent scientific research from institutions such as the Cornell University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to develop AI. No wonder the two cities account for one-fifth of all AI enterprises in the United States. The San Francisco Bay Area, on the other hand, has about 2 million workers employed in onethird of all AI enterprises in the US thanks to the support of Silicon Valley, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and other institutions. China, on its part, has built three AI development areas in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. But when it comes to AI development, the traditional internet giants are still the leaders. The companies include Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and IBM in the US, and Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei and JD.COM in China. In terms of AI research institutes, the MIT, the University of California, Berkeley, the University College London, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University and Tsinghua University and others lead the way. Google's DeepMind, though, is a typical example of focused AI research, and notably AlphaGo, a computerized go program developed by Google DeepMind in 2016, triggered a heated public debate over human-machine intelligence game. Given these facts, China and the US have become two important players in AI technology and research. China has devised an all-around plan for industrial development and research into cutting-edge technology. But China is still relatively weak in terms of basic AI theory. For instance, the network structural models such as convolutional neural network, generative adversarial network, and government neural network, and algorithm frameworks like TensorFlow and PyTorch are dominated by foreign institutions. Although China has had some success in advancing fundamental research, it lacks original results. Therefore, to break through the basic AI theories and core technology barriers built by foreign countries, China needs to develop a model that is concentrated on two aspects. First, it should make more efforts to propel basic research, boost core capabilities, and build innovation centers to strengthen the basic capability of its research in AI. And second, it should combine the real and virtual industries to boost new technology and AI application in the domestic market. It also should cultivate a group of AI enterprises that will have a global impact such as HBAT, and introduce world-class AI talents to help the country become an AI power. Jiang Changjun is vice-director of Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence, and Zhao Peihai is a lecturer at the School of Computer Science and Technology, Donghua University. The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 14:10:52|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- China's steel and iron industry will embrace a bullish outlook thanks to the country's further tax cuts, urbanization and downstream demand, the Economic Information Daily reported Monday. The country will reduce the current value-added tax (VAT) rates from 16 percent for manufacturing and other industries to 13 percent, which will lower the cost and burden for steel and iron companies, said the newspaper. The logistics expenditure will fall as the VAT rates for industries including transportation and construction will be cut. The reduced tax rate will also help strengthen the competitiveness of China's steel exports, according to the newspaper. China's expanding infrastructure investment is the other contributor to the booming industry. The country will invest more in infrastructure construction this year as it pursues a new type of urbanization and the renovation of shanty towns. The newspaper predicts that the growth of investment will see a 10-percent rise in 2019, which will drive up the demand for steel by 1 percent or 2 percent. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 14:20:54|Editor: Yurou Video Player Close BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- A total of 32.2 billion yuan (4.79 billion U.S. dollars) worth of subsidies went to the nationwide nutrition improvement program in 2018, benefiting 37 million rural students, said a report by China Education Daily on Monday. The central government earmarked 20.09 billion yuan for the program last year. The remaining funds were provided by local governments, according to the report. The nutrition improvement program started in 2011 in a bid to provide safe and nutritious meals for students taking nine-year compulsory education in China's vast rural areas. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 14:25:55|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close HANOI, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam imported 617 million tons of fertilizers worth 184 million U.S. dollars in the first two months of this year, up 17.9 percent and 29.7 percent on-year respectively, while spending 149 million U.S. dollars importing pesticides, up 12.1 percent. In February alone, Vietnam poured 74 million U.S. dollars in importing 250,000 tons of fertilizers, mostly urea, Ammonium Sulfate, Potassium, Diammonium Phosphate and Nitrogen-Phosphorous-Potassium fertilizers, up 4.7 percent and 15.1 percent, respectively, according to its Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on Monday. The country also spent 60 million U.S. dollars importing pesticides in the same month, up 1.4 percent from January. In 2018, Vietnam imported over 4.1 million tons of fertilizers valued at nearly 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, posting respective decreases of 12.8 percent and 6.8 percent on-year, mainly from China and Russia. Meanwhile, the country's import of pesticides, mainly from China, India, Germany and Thailand, saw a slight drop of 2.2 percent in value against 2017, said the ministry. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 15:06:03|Editor: ZX Video Player Close BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- China's civil aviation regulator Monday ordered domestic airlines to suspend commercial operations of all Boeing 737-8 airplanes by 6 p.m. local time after a crash of one of the planes in Ethiopia. This came after an Ethiopian Airlines airplane bound for Nairobi, Kenya, crashed minutes after take-off Sunday, killing all 157 people aboard. It was the second crash of the new aircraft after one operated by Indonesia's Lion Air crashed in October. "Given that two accidents both involved the newly delivered Boeing 737-8 planes and happened during the take-off phase, they had some degree of similarity," the Civil Aviation Administration said on its website, adding that the move was in line with the principle of zero tolerance for safety hazards. The administration said it will notify airlines when they can resume flying the planes after contacting the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing to ensure flight safety. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 15:21:06|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close An excavator works at the crash site of an Ethiopian Airlines' aircraft, some 50 km east of Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, on March 10, 2019. All 157 people aboard Ethiopian Airlines flight were confirmed dead as Africa's fastest growing airline witnessed the worst-ever incident in its history. The incident on Sunday, which involved a Boeing 737-800 MAX, occurred a few minutes after the aircraft took off from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport to Nairobi, Kenya. It crashed around Bishoftu town, the airline said. (Xinhua/Wang Shoubao) ADDIS ABABA, March 11 (Xinhua) -- An Ethiopian Airlines aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from the capital here on Sunday Morning local time, killing all 157 people on board. The shock plunged the world into grief. Ethiopian Airlines "has decided to ground all B-737-8 MAX fleet effective yesterday March 10, 2019 until further notice," the airline tweeted Monday, adding that it didn't yet know the cause of the accident. Ethiopian House of People's Representatives has declared a national day of mourning for victims of the tragic accident, the office of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed tweeted Sunday. Ahmed "assured that the cause of the accident will be investigated by technical experts and communicated promptly to the public as updates come in," according to the office's twitter post. The United Nations (UN) and its agencies on Monday will fly flags at half-mast as 19 UN staff members were among those dead in the crash, said the UN migration agency. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "was deeply saddened at the tragic loss of lives in the airplane crash," said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the secretary-general, on Sunday. "He conveys his heartfelt sympathies and solidarity to the victims' families and loved ones ... as well as sincere condolences to the government and people of Ethiopia." Obtained by the Ethiopian Airlines last November, the aircraft, a Boeing 737-800 MAX, has only been in service for four months, flying more than 1,200 hours until Sunday. En route to the Kenyan capital Nairobi, the flight crashed around Bishoftu town, some 45 km from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Among the victims, 32 are from Kenya, 18 from Canada, nine from Ethiopia, eight each from China, Italy and the United States, seven each from Britain and France, six from Egypt, and the remaining from more than 20 other countries, said the airline. Kenya has sent a team to Ethiopia to deal with the aftermath of the crash. Its government was focusing more on the welfare of the victims' relatives and friends who are now within the vicinity of the airport, said James Macharia, cabinet secretary for transport and infrastructure, on Sunday. "I am deeply saddened by the terrible plane crash," said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a statement on Sunday. He offered condolences to "those who have lost family, friends, and loved ones as a result of this tragedy." China ordered its embassy in Ethiopia to launch an emergency response and immediately contact the Ethiopian government and Ethiopian Airlines for further information, said the Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Lu Kang late Sunday night in a statement. "We extend our profound condolences to the victims and deep sympathy to the bereaved families," Lu said, adding that the ministry and the Chinese embassy in Ethiopia will keep a close watch over the developments and go all out to help the families of the victims to deal with the aftermath. The United States "extends our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those killed in the tragic crash," said the Department of State on Sunday in a statement. "Our teams in Addis Ababa, Nairobi, and Washington, DC are working tirelessly to provide all appropriate consular assistance to families of the victims at this difficult time." Boeing said Sunday that it has delayed the roll-out of its new 777X aircraft, which had been scheduled for March 13. The widebody aircraft, according to Boeing's official website, "will be the largest and most efficient twin-engine jet in the world." Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 15:51:10|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close ULAN BATOR, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia's Civil Aviation Authority said on Monday that it had ordered the country's national air carrier MIAT to temporarily suspend its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft operations. The move came a day after an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after take-off, killing all 157 people onboard. The accident was the second crash involving the 737 MAX in the last four months. In October, Indonesia's Lion Air plane crashed into the sea off the country's capital of Jakarta, killing all 189 people onboard. "We decided to suspend operations of MIAT's Boeing 737 Max 8 plane from Monday until further notice," the Mongolian Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement. The national carrier of Mongolia received a Boeing 737 Max 8 jet on Feb. 21. The delivery was first of four 737 MAX ordered by the MIAT. Ethiopian Airlines has grounded its Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet on Sunday after the accident. Boeing said Sunday that it has delayed the roll-out of its new 777X aircraft, which had been scheduled for March 13. The widebody aircraft, according to Boeing's official website, "will be the largest and most efficient twin-engine jet in the world." Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 15:51:10|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Siti Aisyah, an Indonesian woman, leaves the court in Shah Alam, Malaysia, March 11, 2019. Malaysia released Siti Aisyah on Monday after prosecutors withdrew the murder charge against her for the death of a man from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) at a Malaysian airport in 2017. (Xinhua) SHAH ALAM, Malaysia, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia released Siti Aisyah, an Indonesian woman, on Monday after prosecutors withdrew the murder charge against her for the death of a man from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) at a Malaysian airport in 2017. Aisyah has been charged alongside Vietnamese national Doan Thi Huong for killing the DPRK man by smearing VX nerve agent on the man's face at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in February 2017. In his request to withdraw the charge at a court in Shah Alam, the public prosecutor did not give a reason for the move in court but said she was free to leave the country. The judge then ordered Aisyah's release without an acquittal. Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia Rusdi Kirana told reporters, "We are pleased with the court decision. We will try to fly Siti back to Indonesia today or as soon as possible." Aisyah's lawyer Gooi Soon Seng said he was grateful that the prosecution had come to the conclusion, as his team had repeatedly stated that there was only minor circumstantial evidence linking her to the case. After the court released her, Aisyah, wearing a black traditional Malay dress and headscarf, left the court in an Indonesian embassy car, as she was visibly overjoyed and waved with both hands to reporters. She later reappeared at a brief press conference with Indonesia officials and diplomats at the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur. "I feel so happy. I did not expect that today I would be released," Aisyah said, adding that she was healthy and had been treated well in prison. In a statement, the Indonesian embassy noted that diplomatic efforts to secure Aisyah's release had been on-going since her arrest, with Indonesian President Joko Widodo having requested that Indonesian authorities coordinate their efforts. "In line with the president's orders, this issue was raised at every bilateral meeting between Indonesia and Malaysia, from the president, his representative, and at regular meetings with the foreign minister and ministers with their Malaysian partners," it said. According to the correspondences released to the media by the Indonesian embassy, Indonesia's Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly had written to Malaysian Attorney-General Tommy Thomas, seeking the release of Aisyah. In reply, Thomas wrote in a letter dated March 8 that he had instructed the prosecution to drop the charges, after "taking into account the good relations between our respective countries." Both Aisyah and Doan were supposed to start their defense on Monday after the judge ruled in favor of the prosecution's case last year. After Aisyah's release, Doan's trial was adjourned until Thursday, pending a request by her counsel Hisyam Teh Poh Teik that the charge against her to be dropped as well. "On behalf of Doan, we ask for the Attorney-General to review the case and for the charge to be withdrawn on the same grounds as Siti Aisyah," he told the court. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 15:51:11|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Hakim (R) shakes hands with his Iranian counterpart Mohammed Javad Zarif in Baghdad, Iraq, on March 10, 2019. Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Hakim said on Sunday that Iraq is looking forward to boosting ties and promoting cooperation in various fields with neighboring Iran. Al-Hakim's comments came during his meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mohammed Javad Zarif, who is in Iraq to prepare for the visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Monday. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood) BAGHDAD, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrived in Iraq's capital Baghdad Monday on an official visit aimed at boosting bilateral ties, the Iraqi official television reported. The state-run Iraqiya channel said that Rouhani arrived at Baghdad international airport and he will meet with top Iraqi officials and other political and religious leaders. Rouhani's three-day visit came at the invitation of his Iraqi counterpart Barham Salih to discuss bilateral ties and promote cooperation. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif arrived in Baghdad on Sunday, preparing for Rouhani's official visit. The visit comes as the United States has been exerting sanctions on Iran's oil industry and its banking and transport sectors, after Washington pulled out from the 2015 nuclear deal last May. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 16:01:12|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close GAZA, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip announced the death of a Palestinian on Monday from wounds sustained last month by the Israeli army. "Bassam Sami Osman Safi, 22, died of wounds sustained on February 22 by the Israeli army in the east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip during the weekly protests," the Ministry Spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said. The Great Marches of Return, organized by the High Commission for Return and Breaking the Siege, are aimed at lifting the Israeli blockade of the territory since 2007 and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their lands. More than 260 Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers and more than 29,000 others wounded since the start of the protests on March 30, 2018 along the border with Israel, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 16:36:18|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Malaysia's new King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah reviews the honor guard during a ceremony at the parliament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, March 11, 2019. Malaysia's new King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah called for national unity on Monday during his first parliamentary address. Abdullah, who was sworn in as Malaysia's 16th king in January, urged Malaysians to work towards unity in a meaningful way, which he said was especially important in a multicultural and multiracial country. (Xinhua/Chong Voon Chung) KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's new King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah called for national unity on Monday during his first parliamentary address. Abdullah, who was sworn in as Malaysia's 16th king in January, urged Malaysians to work towards unity in a meaningful way, which he said was especially important in a multicultural and multiracial country. "Various efforts have been undertaken to strengthen unity among the multiracial population of the country," he said. "In this regard, calls for unity must not remain mere slogans but have to be followed through by sincere actions." Abdullah also urged the government to ensure the country was not left behind in terms of new technology and new economic opportunities, especially in a challenging global economy. "I hope the government will continue to increase the numbers of entrepreneurs, inventors and innovators who are capable of creating new wealth, " he said. "Besides, the small and medium enterprises must increase their productivity using the latest technology and automation to add to the value chain, to be able to compete at the global level." The new parliament will convene from Monday until April 11, with several new committees being expected to begin their work including the consideration of bills, rights and gender equality, major public appointments, defense and home affairs and federal-state relations. Illegal fishing method simply shocking From:Shanghai Daily | 2019-03-11 07:29 Chongming police have cracked four illegal electro-fishing cases and detained seven suspects this month, the districts police said. Electro-fishing is widely used by scientists to sample fish populations. Performed correctly, it results in no permanent harm to fish. But people fishing illegally increase the voltage to kill or stun fish. Other animals in the waterways may also be killed by the electric shock. Rivers and waterways in Chongming have been closed to fishing since February 16. The district police sent out officers to patrol the rivers and also organized inspections with the district fishery administration. On March 2, officers found two men, surnamed Li and Chen, were electro-fishing in a river. The officers seized their tools. No damage was caused to local wildlife, thanks to their quick action. The next day, police were informed that three people were electro-shocking fish in a river in Chengqiao Town. The police caught one suspect, Ge, with tools and 3.7 kilograms of fish. Another suspect, surnamed Li, turned himself in later, while the last suspect remains at large. Electro-fishing, blast-fishing and poison-fishing are forbidden by Chinese law. Those who violate the law can be sentenced to no more than three years of fixed-term imprisonment. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 16:51:22|Editor: ZX Video Player Close BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Xiang, former deputy chief of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Logistics Department, passed away in Beijing due to illness at the age of 100 on Jan. 22, 2019, an official statement said Monday. Zhang, whose former name was Zhang Huanmo, joined the military in 1930 and became a member of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1937. Zhang was also an alternate member of the 12th CPC Central Committee and a member of the Standing Committee of the Seventh National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 17:06:25|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close HOHHOT, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, lying at the forefront of China's fight against desertification, has mobilized 76.6 million volunteers to plant trees over the past seven years, local authorities said Monday. The campaign has planted 445 million trees to guard north China against sandstorms and desert encroachment in the period, the autonomous region's forestry and grassland bureau said ahead of China's Arbor Day on March 12. The bureau said Inner Mongolia has since 2012 beefed up its tree-planting efforts with measures such as assigning afforestation targets to local officials and encouraging volunteer participation. The autonomous region has planted over 1.7 billion trees on about 400,000 hectares of lands since 1981, when China started to encourage the public to plant trees. Inner Mongolia is home to several large deserts such as Badain Jaran, Tengger, Ulan Buh and Kubuqi. Its success in taming desertification in recent decades has been credited to the decrease of sandstorms in northern China. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 17:16:29|Editor: mingmei Video Player Close DAMASCUS, March 11 (Xinhua) -- At least 50 people were killed on Monday by U.S.-led airstrikes on the last Islamic State (IS) stronghold in eastern Syria, state news agency SANA reported. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 17:16:31|Editor: mingmei Video Player Close KABUL, March 11 (Xinhua) -- More than 40 fighters, majority of who were anti-government militants, have been killed in Afghanistan over the past 24 hours, officials said Monday. In the latest showdown between security forces and the Taliban, at least four Taliban militants have been killed in Azon Kotal area in Rustaq district of the northern Takhar province on Monday, leaving four militants dead, a local pro-government militia commander Mohammad Qasim told Xinhua. Qasim also confirmed that one of his comrades had been injured in the fighting, which broke out on Monday morning. Government forces' aircraft targeted Taliban positions in Chian and Khanaqa neighborhoods in the outskirts of Tirin Kot city, capital of southern Uruzgan province on Sunday, destroying seven Taliban hideouts and killing 23 militants, said an army statement released Monday. Moreover, Jamshid Shahabi, the spokesman for western Badghis provincial government told Xinhua that fighting in Bala Murghab district of the restive province has left 14 dead including 10 militants and four security personnel since Sunday. Four more security personnel and more than a dozen other were injured. Both the Taliban fighters and government forces have intensified actions amid peace efforts. The Taliban and the United States started direct talks in November 2018 and the fifth round of the tough talks have been continuing in Qatar's capital Doha behind closed door over the past two weeks. According to local observers, both the government and the Taliban group have been in a hard bid to gain more ground for dialogue. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 17:21:32|Editor: mingmei Video Player Close by Zeynep Cermen ISTANBUL, March 11 (Xinhua) -- A man, wrapped in a shawl and wearing women's high-heel boots with red lipstick on his face, was tied up in the hands on a pole by a woman. A thrilled audience stood up and gave enormous applause when Vanda, the female character, slapped twice in the face of the man and left the stage. It is a scene from a private theater play on show in Istanbul, which was adapted from the Austrian writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's 1870 novel "Venus in Furs" that highlights gender inequality by revealing the most hidden desires of a man through an encounter with a woman. The two-person play has been granted several awards in Turkey, getting significant appreciation from intellectuals, writers and the audience in terms of bringing to light gender labeling and sexuality so explicitly in a conservative society. "The narrative is, of course, a bold one for Turkey, for a strong patriarchal country, where there is tremendous pressure on women and LGBT members," said Ersin Umut Guler, the actor and the director, referring to the groups of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. "The story is a striking one as it also displays a psychological journey toward the darker side of the psychology of our male protagonist, Thomas Novachek, exposing his suppressed intimate passions," he told Xinhua. Known as father of masochism, Sacher-Masoch depicted in his book a man getting sexual pleasure from the feeling of pain, exposing his feminine side through the humiliation by a woman. In the first episode of the play, Thomas lowers women and lesbianism in sexist dialogues. But later the traditional societal codes of women being slaves and men being masters shift places, said Guler. And, Vanda, as a woman, starts to confuse Thomas's mind. In the view of Pervin Bagdat, the actress, gender roles in Turkey define all the characteristics of individuals in classifying them as being feminine or masculine. "Society casts a role for each of us, determining how to behave, what to do and not to do, or what to wear," she told Xinhua. In her opinion, people sometimes are obliged to give up their own needs and desires to be in line with the societal codes and consume their lives without ever truly discovering themselves. "So the play could be regarded as rule-breaking in that sense," she said. The reactions of the audience, meanwhile, vary depending on their genders, according to the performers. "I met with old ladies who squeezed my cheeks after the play, telling me that I have taken the revenge of suppressed women in society," said Bagdat. For young women, they were impressed significantly by the dialogues, which forced them to think twice on the gender issue and on tapping the power within themselves. The actress argued that women in the country are socially trapped, oppressed and constrained, subjected to sexist treatment in terms of language, work and families. "And we are bored, as both men and women, we are bored from the fact that we are told how to behave, how to dress, and how to talk," Bagdat said. In Guler's view, women could easily reach the power within themselves, but "for men it is a complicated process." "They cannot comfortably reveal what they feel in deep down their personalities," he said, noting men are not ready to face with the notion of being humiliated by women or revealing their feminine energy. Burak Coskun, an Ankara-based journalist, said the audience in Istanbul, the most populous city in Turkey, is more ready and open for such matters as revealed in a theater play than the rest of the country. "Even in the capital Ankara, we do not see such bold topics in plays," Coskun said. According to Guler, the reason is the scarcity of private theaters in Ankara and other cities. "There is growing pressure from the government over the state theaters in the selection of plays and also costumes," Guler explained. "Censorship and most importantly self-censorship are increasingly on the agenda," he stressed, highlighting the bans imposed currently by the state authorities on several theater plays and players in Turkey. Guler noted that private theaters, numbering more than 200 in Turkey, are mostly in Istanbul and have more independence. He established the private Yolcu Theather in 2013, and since then he has been staging plays which question wars, the exploitation of workers, and rape and torture in prisons. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 17:21:32|Editor: mingmei Video Player Close COLOMBO, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Over 250,000 tourists arrived in Sri Lanka in February, posting a 7-percent growth year-on-year, statistics from Sri Lanka's Ministry of Tourism showed Monday. India, Britain, China, France and Germany were Sri Lanka's top five international tourist-generating markets while Russia and the United States also recorded a significant growth. The ministry said 28,039 out of 252,033 tourists arrivals were from China in February. In the first two months of this year, Sri Lanka welcomed over 490,000 tourists. Tourism Development, Wildlife and Christian Religious Affairs Minister John Amaratunga said it was on the right track to achieve the target of 3 million tourists this year. Amaratunga said the ministry aims to attract at least 300,000 Chinese tourists this year, with ongoing publicity campaigns in several cities across China. The ministry expects to earn a revenue of 5 billion U.S. dollars in the tourism industry this year. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 17:26:34|Editor: mingmei Video Player Close LOS ANGELES, March 10 (Xinhua) -- An American ice cream parlour has said it has reached out to a Chinese company after the success of a wildly popular flavor raised accusations of intellectual property theft. The White Rabbit candy-flavored ice cream at Wanderlust Creamery in Los Angeles has been a social media sensation, leading to long queues outside the shop beginning in February. The parlour began selling the White Rabbit candy-flavored ice cream on Feb. 1 and intended to serve it until Feb. 28, but based on the overwhelming reaction from customers, it decided to continue serving the flavor until the end of March. The popularity of the ice cream caught the attention of Shanghai-based Guan Sheng Yuan Group (GSY), the company that had made the iconic White Rabbit candy for the last 60 years. The candy is a household name in China. In a statement sent to Xinhua on the weekend, GSY said the American parlour is not authorized to use the candy flavor in its product. Some media reports say the Chinese company has asked some IP protection organizations to investigate the issue. The sudden success of the ice cream "reflects the consumers recognition and love for the White Rabbit brand, and on the other hand, we think it's an interesting innovation to make ice cream with White Rabbit candies as ingredients ... which for the time-honored brand White Rabbit is worth thinking and learning from," GSY said in the statement. In its own statement last Thursday, Wanderlust said, "Our representatives have reached out to Guan Sheng Yuan to discuss forming a mutually beneficial relationship in an effort to further introduce the iconic White Rabbit Candy to the American consumer through our artisanal ice cream." GSY started to make White Rabbit milk candies in 1959, which became a flagship product of the Shanghai-based company and a household name in China. In its Facebook post, Wanderlust Creamery said the White Rabbit candy-flavored ice cream "encapsulates childhood reminiscence for many Asian Americans." "This obviously mobilized a significant Asian American population in the US alongside non-Asians who had never heard of or had the White Rabbit candy," said Adrienne Borlongan, the chef and co-founder of the parlour, in a statement emailed to Xinhua. The parlour started serving the special flavor to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year and photos of its ice cream wrapped with White Rabbit candy paper went viral on social media, raising concerns of IP infringement. In a Facebook post on Sunday, the American parlour continued to promote the special flavor. "Childhood on a cone. Yes, we still have 'The White' through March. Made from Shanghainese White Rabbit candies, milk & cream ... while supplies last. Limit 1 scoop per customer at Smorgasburg La." The creamery posted with a photo of a white toy rabbit placed beside a melting ice cream cone on the floor. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 17:46:39|Editor: mingmei Video Player Close CAIRO, March 11 (Xinhua) -- At least 46 militants were killed in the exchange of fire in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in the past few days, the Egyptian armed forces said in a statement on Monday. "During anti-terrorist raids, the national security forces have killed 46 highly dangerous terrorists in North and Central Sinai in several desert areas in the Sinai Peninsula," said Tamer al-Refai, spokesperson of the armed forces. During the shootout, three soldiers were killed. Some 100 wanted criminals and militants were arrested in the raids. The statement added that 38 vehicles, 14 motor bikes and two arms warehouses were also stormed. The air forces have also stricken 15 terrorist hideouts, the statement added. The security forces have detonated 204 explosive devices that have been planted for targeting the soldiers in Sinai, it added. Egypt has been battling terrorists since the ouster of the former President Mohamed Morsi in 2013 in response to mass protests against his rule. Sinai Peninsula is the stronghold of terrorist groups in Egypt, the severest of which is Sinai State, an Egyptian branch of the Islamic State. More than 850 militants and over 35 soldiers have been killed in the "Sinai 2018" anti-terror campaign since February 2018. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 17:51:40|Editor: mingmei Video Player Close NEW DELHI, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina on Monday jointly unveiled e-plaques for development projects in Bangladesh via video conference, said an official statement issued in New Delhi. Both leaders unveiled e-plaques for the supply of buses and trucks, inauguration of 36 community clinics, 11 water treatment plants and extension of "National Knowledge Network" to Bangladesh, said the external affairs ministry's statement. Speaking on the occasion, Modi said the projects will boost not only transport connectivity, but also in the area of knowledge. The "National Knowledge Network" will connect scholars and research institutes in Bangladesh to India and the world, he stated. He further said that these projects would assist efforts towards affordable public transportation, help supply clean water, and benefit about 200,000 people in Bangladesh. Modi added that these projects show that India-Bangladesh relations play a key role in improving people's quality of life. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 18:11:52|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close TOKYO, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks closed higher Monday, bringing an end to the Nikkei's four-day losing streak, as investors bought back issues deemed cheap after their retreat last week on concerns over the global economic outlook. The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average added 99.53 points, or 0.47 percent, from Friday to close the day at 21,125.09. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, meanwhile, lost 9.00 points, or 0.57 percent, to finish at 1,581.44. Local brokers said that following the Nikkei relinquishing almost 4 percent during its four-day losing streak ending Friday, the market was lifted as investors bought back issues deemed comparatively cheap following their slide. They added that the market mood was also buoyed by solid performances on other major Asian bourses, including those in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Shingo Ide, chief equity strategist at the NLI Research Institute, said that previous concerns over the outlook of the global economy did not factor into play as much during trading hours on Monday. "Excessive concerns over a possible slowdown in the world's economy somewhat receded in tandem with a firm rebound in Shanghai and Hong Kong shares," Ide was quoted as saying. Gains were capped, however, as investors opted not to chase the market higher ahead of key economic data due out later this week, including U.S. retail sales and China's industrial output data. By the close of play, electric power and gas, pulp and paper, and real estate-linked issues comprised those that gained the most, and issues that rose outpaced those that fell by 1,335 to 730 on the First Section, while 69 ended the day unchanged. On the main section on Monday, 1,045.96 million shares changed hands, dropping from Friday's volume of 1,672.83 million shares. The turnover on the first trading day of the week came to 1,841.8 billion yen (16.56 billion U.S. dollars). Integration of Delta region should be green From:Shanghai Daily | 2019-03-11 07:29 THE integration of the Yangtze River Delta region should be green, Shou Ziqi, head of the Shanghai Bureau of Ecology and Environment, told the National Peoples Congress. The integration of the region for environmental protection starts with unified planning, standards and law enforcement, he said. Hopefully, this will be showcased in the future demonstration zone for the integration. In terms of unified standards, Shou said the environmental authorities of the region are considering introducing unified standards for business approval regarding the emission of volatile organic compounds. There are national and local standards in environment-related issues, but no regional ones, he said. At this stage, were comparing standards and trying to agree on rectifications which will be binding for all. Also, starting from July 1 this year, motor vehicles which do not meet the latest emission standards on light-duty vehicles, announced in 2016, will be banned in the region, Shou said. To combat water pollution, the three provinces Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui and Shanghai have almost completed work to identify boundary rivers. Next, they will map the rivers that flow through the provinces and Shanghai. We will first push for neighboring cities, towns and counties to coordinate on the prevention and management of river pollution, he said. Authorities also plan to share information about mobile sources of pollution in the region and work together on law enforcement. The cooperation of the Yangtze River Delta provinces and Shanghai gathered speed in 2015, and the parties have been working more closely under the mechanism. This resulted in a new measure last year which requires all vessels using seaports in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces and Shanghai to use low sulfur oil, which means oil containing sulfur under 5,000ppm. Shou said this measure will contribute to the alleviation of air pollution. The three provinces and Shanghai also share registration information of motor vehicles with the lowest emission standards, forecast air quality together and have a joint research center with quarterly meetings on the bureau level, he said. Legislators and political advisers from the three provinces and Shanghai have also brought themselves together in supervising environmental matters. In Shanghai, Shou said the bureau will keep up the effort to reduce air pollution by addressing industrial emissions, even though the emission standards of power plants in the city, for example, are already lower than those in many developed countries. But a great contributor to air pollutants in the city is emission from motor vehicles a problem that many big cities in the world face, he said. In terms of the air quality index, PM2.5 and O3 are two major pollutants affecting the air quality in Shanghai. O3 is exceeding PM2.5 as a top pollutant and its source is very complicated, Shou said. Were addressing the problem of O3 by reducing active substances of VOCs. Shou also revealed that the bureau will work to apply artificial intelligence to air quality predictions, which will enable longer-term forecasting of air quality. He also said the bureau is leading efforts for a more detailed census of sources of pollutants and the environmental impact of them. The bureau is joined by other government institutions with authority in certain matters. Through this effort we can expect to work out more precise solutions for certain pollution problems, and react more efficiently to environmental emergencies, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 19:22:06|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close Aerial photo taken on Feb. 28, 2019 shows the Yunqi poverty alleviation settlement in Yuping Dong Autonomous County of Tongren, southwest China's Guizhou Province. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin) BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- When Lei Jinyu went to college 12 years ago, she never expected to return to her home village of Houmenping. The mountainous village in east China's Fujian Province barely had any modern facilities. A narrow, old pebble trail was the only road leading to the nearest town. "When I was a little girl, I had to trek along the muddy mountain road for more than two hours to go to school in the town," said Lei, 32, head of Houmenping Village. Since the late 1980s, local officials in Ningde, which administers Banzhong Township, have been working to modernize the village by building roads in the township, helping lift villagers out of poverty. In recent years, as the Chinese government continues to pump more funds into rural infrastructure, Lei's hometown, which used to be one of the poorest areas in the country, saw more cement roads and a rising number of cars. These days, villagers are making a fortune by selling online local specialties such as tea leaves, cane sugar and traditional Chinese medicine. Lei is currently in Beijing attending the annual session of the national legislature. The deputy's suggestion this year is boosting tourism by developing local ethnic culture. Casting off poverty is only the first step, she said. "Our goal is to step toward an all-round well-off society." The amazing transformation is part of a broader picture across the nation, where a successful government campaign to build an all-round well-off society has seen countless people get rid of poverty and lead prosperous lives. In 2012, at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), China vowed to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020, when the gross national product and average income per capita of urban and rural areas will double the amount of 2010. Since 2012, a series of systematic reforms have been implemented across areas such as the economy, politics, culture, society and ecology. FROM POVERTY TO PROSPERITY In the 40 years since the reform and opening-up policy was introduced, the Chinese government has revised its goal of "building a moderately prosperous society," to "building a moderately prosperous society in all respects," and to "securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects," indicating that the goal is gradually becoming a reality. In China, building a moderately prosperous society in all respects covers a variety of objectives in many areas, including economic growth, democracy and the rule of law, culture, people's lives and the environment. As China gets closer toward its goal, major changes have taken place in the country over the past few years thanks to almost 2,000 reforming guidelines since a road-map and a timetable were laid out at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in 2013. Since then, the impoverished population in the country's rural areas decreased from 98.99 million to 16.6 million, meaning more than 82 million people were lifted out of poverty, almost the entire population of Germany. China's economic growth model also shifted from high-speed growth to high-quality growth. The country's economy exceeded 90 trillion yuan (13.4 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2018, accounting for 15 percent of the world's total and contributing more than 30 percent to the world's economic growth. Meanwhile, the average annual income growth stood at 7.4 percent among urban and rural residents, higher than the national economic growth. Social endowment insurance has covered more than 900 million people, and basic medical insurance reached more than 1.3 billion people. In addition, more than 90 percent of disabled children are entitled to an education, and nutritious meals for rural students have covered all poor counties on the national level. In Mabian Yi Autonomous County of southwest China's Sichuan Province, for example, average annual education expenses have reached 200 million yuan in a place with just 220,000 people and a government revenue of less than 400 million yuan. All schools in the county provide free education and rural children are given free nutritious meals at school. These are the changes brought about by equality in China's education system. In 2017, national education investment topped 4 trillion yuan. In the past six years, the government has provided over 1 trillion yuan worth of aid to 620 million students. STABLE GROWTH, TAX CUTS Despite huge success, building an all-round well-off society in all respects is never without challenges. "We will face a graver and more complicated environment as well as risks and challenges, foreseeable and otherwise, that are greater in number and size," according to a government work report delivered by Premier Li Keqiang at the opening meeting of the annual legislative session. 2019 is regarded as a pivotal year for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and the country is on the fast track toward that goal. China has set its GDP growth target at 6-6.5 percent for 2019, according to the report. This is the second time in four years that the country has set a range instead of a specific target for economic growth. "The target is realistic for China's development, and it is a reflection of high-quality growth," said Bai Chong'en, a national political advisor and dean of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University. Maintaining economic growth will not only be good for employment but also provide a sound macro environment for building an all-round well-off society, Bai said. China has continued to boost vitality in the market by streamlining government functions and cutting taxes and administrative fees. This year's report on the work of the government showed that China will reduce the current 16 percent tax rate in manufacturing and other industries to 13 percent, and lower the share borne by employers for urban workers' basic aged-care insurance. The government will also reduce the tax burdens on and social insurance contributions of enterprises by nearly 2 trillion yuan. Zeng Qinghong, a deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of Guangzhou-based carmaker GAC Group, said the new tax policy would lower the group's taxes by about 5 billion yuan. A series of favorable policies will create a better environment for the development of the real economy. TOUGH BATTLES, UNIQUE ROAD The Chinese government has listed three tough battles that determine the success of building an all-round well-off society, including preventing and defusing financial risks, targeted poverty alleviation, and pollution control. To prevent a local debt crisis, the National Development and Reform Commission re-evaluated subway projects in local cities based on their GDP, government revenue and population, and halted some projects in western inland cities such as Baotou and Lanzhou, due to the incompatibility between government revenue and the amount of money needed for the projects. "China's de-leveraging policies since 2016 have shown an initial effect," said Chen Yulu, deputy head of the People's Bank of China, China's central bank. Macro leverage ratio in 2018 was down by 1.5 percentage points, Chen said. Another key to all-round prosperity is poverty relief. In 2017, Chinese localities waged war on extreme poverty, with additional funds, projects and favorable policies for extremely poor areas. In 2018, with governmental help, Liu Fuyou, a resident of Zhaojiawa Village in north China's Shanxi Province, moved into a new house in the county of Kelan, which administers Zhaojiawa, and became a cleaner. With a variety of subsidies and a pension, his family managed to make almost 30,000 yuan last year. In the southwestern municipality of Chongqing, Yang Qingfu's life on the Yangtze River also saw a big change. Yang used to run a boat restaurant on the Yangtze. Despite its popularity, a lack of pollution-treatment facilities spilled wastewater into the river. To prevent the situation from worsening, the local government subsidized Yang and more than 100 of his peers and encouraged them to go onshore to start other businesses. The change was a result of a meeting on the Yangtze River Economic Belt in January 2016. The meeting required that the development along the river must prioritize ecology and "green development" to respect natural, economic and social rules. The meeting led to the complete stop of polluting projects along the Yangtze. The ongoing legislative session in Beijing also highlighted the need to step up efforts to protect and restore ecosystems. That, in addition to a series of environment-related policies in recent years, including an environmental tax, has displayed China's strong resolve to win the war against pollution. "Building a moderately prosperous society in all respects will be a great achievement on the way toward national rejuvenation," said Liu Shangxi, with the Ministry of Finance and a national political advisor. Liu said that it will be a miracle in human history to enable more than 1 billion people to completely get rid of poverty and enter common prosperity. "It will show that a developing country like China can modernize in a way different from Western countries," he said. (Video reporters: Ren Chao, Zhang Mocheng, Pan Lijun, Yu Shuaishuai; Video editors: Luo Hui, Wang Junfeng) Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 19:22:07|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close GAZA, March 11 (Xinhua) -- A Qatari diplomat on Monday observed the distribution of financial aid to impoverished families in the Gaza Strip as part of the second installment of the Qatari grant to help poor people. The cash grant of 5.5 million U.S. dollars will be distributed to 55,000 families all over the coastal enclave with each receiving 100 dollars, according to a statement of the Hamas-run Ministry of Social Development. Qatari Ambassador to Palestine Mohammed al-Ammadi arrived in the Gaza Strip on Sunday night and immediately held a meeting with Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh, according to Haniyeh's office. The two discussed the Qatari funds, the situation with Israel and ending the Israeli siege imposed on the Gaza Strip since 2007, according to Haniyeh's office statement. The Qatari grant started in November 2018 after Egypt and the UN brokered a calm understanding in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and Israel. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 19:42:15|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close Photo taken on March 11, 2019 shows the opening ceremony of the fourth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi, Kenya. UNEA opened in Nairobi on Monday with a rallying call for adoption of technologies and innovations to boost green and inclusive growth. More than 4,700 delegates, including presidents, ministers, business leaders, scientists and innovators, will be attending the gathering that is expected to adopt resolutions that will help leapfrog societies to a more sustainable future. (Xinhua/Li Yan) NAIROBI, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The fourth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) opened in Nairobi on Monday with a rallying call for adoption of technologies and innovations to boost green and inclusive growth. More than 4,700 delegates, including presidents, ministers, business leaders, scientists and innovators, will be attending the gathering that is expected to adopt resolutions that will help leapfrog societies to a more sustainable future. "We know we can build more sustainable, prosperous and inclusive societies with sustainable consumption and production patterns that address our environmental challenges and leave no one behind," said Siim Kiisler, Estonia's minister for environment and president of the fourth session of UNEA. "But we will need to create the enabling conditions for this to happen," Kiisler said in his opening remarks."We will need to do things differently." The theme of this year's UNEA that runs through March 15 is "Innovative solutions for environmental challenges and sustainable consumption and production." French President Emmanuel Macron, his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta and other world leaders will on Thursday headline the One Planet Summit that focuses on innovative measures to promote climate resilience. Other landmark events expected at the five-day assembly will be the launch of the sixth edition of Global Environment Outlook, which will shed light on the status of the planet's health. Keriako Tobiko, Kenya's cabinet secretary in the ministry of environment and forestry, said adoption of cutting-edge technologies and innovations is key to tackling pressing environmental challenges like plastic waste and degradation of habitats. "Innovations are urgently needed to tackle pollution and adverse impacts of climate change on our planet," he said. "We must also give priority to cleaner production and promote resource-use efficiency as a prerequisite to achieve sustainable development," Tobiko added. Joyce Msuya, acting executive director of United Nations Environment Program, said that policy and regulatory incentives are required to boost uptake of innovations to reduce carbon emissions and restore degraded ecosystems. "The potential of innovations to address poverty and environmental challenges cannot be under-estimated," she said. "We therefore require good policies to foster innovations and sustainable practices." Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 19:47:16|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close PARIS, March 11 (Xinhua) -- France's Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed late on Sunday that nine French people are among the victims of Ethiopian Airlines crashed plane near Addis Ababa. "... It is confirmed that nine passengers of French nationality died in the accident," the ministry said in a press release. "We send our most sincere condolences to the relatives of the victims," it added. A crisis unit was opened following the incident to inform the families about the situation and help them to deal with the aftermath, according to the ministry. Furthermore, Paris prosecutor office opened a probe into the crash of the Boeing 737-800 MAX which lost contact shortly after it took off at 08:38 a.m. local time on Sunday from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport. In a Twitter message, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed "sincere condolences to the families and friends of the Ethiopian Airlines flight's victims ..." "We share their sorrow. France stands by the people of Ethiopia and Kenya, and expresses its full solidarity," he wrote. All 149 passengers and eight crew members from 32 countries, aboard the flight ET 302 bound for Nairobi, Kenya, were confirmed killed, according to the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC). The cause of the crash of was not immediately identified. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 19:52:17|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close JERUSALEM, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Israeli researchers have developed a genetic basis for the cultivation of advanced wheat varieties with higher yields, said a report by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Monday. In the study, which was published in the scientific journal "PNAS" and conducted jointly with German and Japanese researchers, the team identified wild wheat genes that no longer exist in modern wheat. Wild wheat is one of the first plants to be domesticated about 10,000 years ago. Over the years, many essential traits in the wild species have disappeared from the modern ones. The study began with hybridization between wild and modern wheat, trying to get back vital alleles, which are important genetic variations that were "lost" during the modernizing process. By genetically mapping the traits of wild wheat affecting the crop components, the researchers identified a unique gene mutation, which causes the development of more grains of wheat in each oatmeal. It was also found that wild wheat has a gene that controls the number of seeds to develop, whereas during cultivation, the mutation was able to prevent its activity. The focus of the research is the need to develop wheat varieties that are more resistant to water shortage, with the wheat being less adapted to the environment than wild wheat. At the same time, ways are being explored to increase yields. According to the researchers, there are many genes that can be used to improve modern wheat. Finding new ways to improve genetically modified crops will help ensure future worldwide food security. Chinese sci-fi writer Liu Cixin (L) speaks during a meeting with his readers at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), on March 8, 2019. (Xinhua) DUBAI, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Liu Cixin, author of Chinese sci-fi bestseller "The Three-Body Problem," said here in an recent interview by Xinhua that science fiction "opens our minds to everything that we might see in the future." Liu came to Dubai to participate in the meeting with readers in Emirates Airline Festival of Literature during which the hall was filled up. Liu said that science fiction makes readers interested in science, especially young people, which broadens their horizons as well as promotes their imagination and creativity. Young readers should read various kinds of literature in order to find what they are truly interested in, he added. Liu noted that he has read a lot of works of Leo Tolstoy and Arthur Charles Clarke. "Reading all those books made what I am today." To gain international influence and recognition in the world, Chinese science fiction should involve good stories, expressing the irreplaceable part of science fiction to give foreign readers new experience, Liu said. Science fiction trilogy "The Three-Body Problem," which made Liu the first Asian writer to win the Hugo Award in 2015, has been translated into almost 20 different languages. "I hope that there will be an Arabic edition of 'The Three-Body Problem' in the near future," Liu said. Talking about the recent Chinese sci-fi hit film The Wandering Earth, which is based on a novella of the same name by Liu, he thought this success was mainly the result of diligent work of the movie's team. In Liu's view, the movie gains an unexpected success, but still has a big gap with the U.S. sci-fi movies in terms of technology and quality. "As the first Chinese sci-fi movie, I should say that it's very exciting and encouraging. I saw a lot of progress in special effects, sci-fi ideas and how to tell a story with Chinese sentiments and values," Liu said. Liu pointed out that though The Wandering Earth earned a success, it is impossible for Chinese sci-fi movies to copy the same way with big investment and producing. He expected that the Chinese sci-fi movies will be more diverse in the future. "But now we lack a complete industry of sci-fi movies ... we also lack specialists in special effects and screenwriters of sci-fi field," he added. Liu considered that sci-fi movies will have a bright future especially in China where such movies will likely flourish. However, Liu thought science fiction's future is gloomy. He said the reasons may be complicated. The reality is that the number of readers and writers are decreasing and there is a lack of influential sci-fi books as well. "Science fiction just displays all kinds of possibilities in the future. As for which possibilities will come true, it can not be predicted by sci-fi writers," the Chinese writer said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 19:57:18|Editor: ZX Video Player Close BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- With both production and sales continuing to jump, the market of new energy vehicles (NEV) in China remained vigorous last month, a bright spot amid a lackluster automobile sector. About 52,900 NEV cars were sold in February, up 53.6 percent year on year, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said Monday. The production also saw rapid expansion, with an over-50-percent increase. China has intensified efforts to promote the use of NEVs to ease pressure on the environment, offering tax exemptions and discounts on car purchases. The government also encouraged carmakers to build more NEV factories and improve technology. For years, China has remained the world's largest NEV market, with around 1.26 million cars sold in 2018. Monday's data also showed the broader automobile sector maintained the downward trend as total sales decreased 13.8 percent from a year ago and 37.4 percent from January. The production in February also declined. Chen Shihua, an assistant to the secretary general of the CAAM, attributed the drops in part to the week-long Spring Festival holiday falling at the beginning of February. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 20:12:24|Editor: ZX Video Player Close BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- With a draft foreign investment law submitted to the ongoing annual session of the 13th National People's Congress for review, China has been making consistent efforts to optimize its business environment and embrace investors worldwide. The following are major moves China has taken in the past year to reach out to overseas investors and ensure fair competition between domestic and foreign players. -- March 7, 2019: The China Securities Regulatory Commission allowed the International Monetary Fund to access the country's capital market via the RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors program. -- March 5, 2019: China pledged in its government work report to further relax controls over market access, shorten the negative list for foreign investment, and permit wholly foreign funded enterprises to operate in more sectors. -- Dec. 25, 2018: China rolled out a nationwide shorter negative list for market access, with the number of items down to 151, which is 177 items fewer than that in the previous pilot version. -- Dec. 3, 2018: China's securities regulator approved UBS AG's plan to gain a majority stake in its mainland securities joint venture, with the company's stake in UBS Securities Co. rising to 51 percent. -- Nov. 25, 2018: China approved the German insurer Allianz Group's preparatory establishment of the country's first ever wholly-foreign owned insurance holding company. -- Oct. 16, 2018: China rolled out a plan for establishing Hainan as a pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ), the 12th and largest among its peers. -- Oct. 10, 2018: The Shanghai FTZ issued the country's first negative list in the service trade field. -- June 28, 2018: China unveiled a shortened negative list for foreign investment, with the number of items down to 48, from 63 in the previous version, following an experiment in pilot FTZs. Last year, China saw a record foreign direct investment of 135 billion U.S. dollars despite a global economic downturn and rising protectionism. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 20:17:27|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BERLIN, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Two-thirds of German voters would like to see Chancellor Angela Merkel govern until the end of the legislative period in autumn 2021, according to a poll conducted by Forsa Institute and published here on Monday. Voters of all political parties in Germany except the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) would like Merkel to stay in office, Forsa said. Only 29 percent of all respondents polled on behalf of German television stations RTL and n-tv wanted Merkel, the head of Germany's government, to resign early. Merkel has been German chancellor for 13 years. She resigned as leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) back in October but expressed her intention to remain chancellor until 2021. The Forsa poll showed that her popularity has since increased, with 67 percent of Germans wanting Merkel to remain in office until 2021, compared to 55 percent in 2018. At 80 percent, Merkel's highest approval ratings came from supporters of her CDU party and potential voters for the Green Party. Unlike the government coalition, many German cities and states are already ruled by so-called black-green coalitions (CDU and Greens). Support for Merkel to finish her final term as German chancellor was almost equally strong among supporters of the German Social Democrats (SPD), the Christian Social Union (CSU), traditional voters of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and even Germany's Die Linke (Left Party). Meanwhile, a huge majority of AfD supporters -- 75 percent -- were in favor of Merkel's premature replacement as chancellor. The Forsa poll also found that if Merkel were to resign before the end of her term, 56 percent of Germans would be in favor of new national elections. However, the respondents were uncertain about what result they would seek from early elections. Only 12 percent would want a continuation of the current governing coalition, while 17 percent would support a coalition made up of the CDU-CSU, the FDP and the Greens. Merkel's announcement last year that she was resigning as leader of the CDU led to much discussion among Germany's political parties about who should lead the country in future, particularly if Merkel were to resign earlier as chancellor. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 20:22:31|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close Iraqi President Barham Salih (R) and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani attend a ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Baghdad, Iraq, March 11, 2019. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrived in Iraq's capital Baghdad Monday on an official visit aimed at boosting bilateral ties, the Iraqi official television reported. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood) BAGHDAD, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi President Barham Salih Monday said that common security in Iraq and Iran and other countries in the Middle East region needs further cooperation. "We confirm that common security between us and Iran and the regional countries requires further cooperation to confront the reemergence of terrorism in our (Middle East) region," Salih said at a joint press conference with visiting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. "We want create a system built on common economic interests among the peoples of the region to get rid of conflicts that engulfed the region," Salih said after an official reception at the presidential palace in Baghdad Green Zone. Salih said that Rouhani's visit is important for Iraq, as the two sides discussed "issues of borderline, water and establishing railroad between the two countries and joint oil wells, in addition to other issues of trade, oil and gas." Salih also expressed thanks to Iran on its support to Iraq in its fight against the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, asserting that "the victory against terrorism is not complete and the countries of the region must cooperate to achieve that." For his part, Rouhani said that Iraq can play an important role in solving the problems of the Middle East region, asserting that the two countries can boost their cooperation in various fields. He said that holding better relations between Iraq and Iran is for the benefit of the two peoples. Earlier in the day, Rouhani and his accompanying delegation of officials and businessmen arrived in Iraq's capital Baghdad for an official visit aimed at boosting bilateral ties. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif arrived in Baghdad on Sunday, preparing for Rouhani's official visit. The visit comes as the United States has been exerting sanctions on Iran's oil industry and its banking and transport sectors, after Washington pulled out from the 2015 nuclear deal last May. Home Just In Nepali Congress cadre killed in Rupandehi Butwal, March 11 A cadre of Nepal Tarun Dal, the youth wing of the main opposition party Nepali Congress, has been found dead in Bhulahi of Rupandehi district in western Nepal on Sunday night. Police say he was murdered by an unidentified group. The victim has been identified as Anish Puri, 20, a resident of Devdaha Municipality-5 of the district. DSP Dil Bahadur Malla of the Butwal Area Police Post says the group attacked Puri, who was on a motorbike on his way to Bhaluhi from Khaireni. Seriously injured in the attack, he was taken to the Devdaha Medical College for treatment. But, he was pronounced dead upon arrival. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 20:52:43|Editor: mingmei Video Player Close JAKARTA, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi confirmed on Monday that an Indonesian citizen was killed in the crash of the Ethiopian Airlines plane. Retno said the killed Indonesian national in Sunday's crash was a female employee of World Food Program (WFP) and she was on a trip to Nairobi to attend UN Environment Assembly in Kenya. She added that several Indonesian delegations are also scheduled to attend the assembly to be held in Nairobi from March 11 to 15. The minister conveyed Indonesian government's deepest condolences to the families of those killed in the crash. "On behalf of Indonesian government, I convey our deepest condolence related to the crash of Ethiopian Airlines' flight serving Addis Ababa to Nairobi," the minister said. The crash of Boeing 737 Max 8 plane operated by Ethiopian Airlines took place a few minutes after the plane took off from an Addis Ababa airport. The Ethiopian Airlines plane crash killed 157 people on board from at least 35 countries and regions. Reports said that at least 22 of the victims were employees of UN institutions. Another Boeing 737 Max 8 jet, flown by the Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air, crashed in October last year killing all 189 people on board. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 20:57:46|Editor: ZX Video Player Close CHANGSHA, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Bending over a tiny wooden table, Long Jitang rolls his graver with one hand on a silver collar, and hammers with the other. In a few minutes, a delicate bird image appears. Born into a silversmith's family, Long, 80, learned how to carve silver decorations during his childhood in Debang Village in central China's Hunan Province. The village is in Fenghuang County, part of Xiangxi, an autonomous prefecture for Miao and Tujia ethnic groups. Miao women have the tradition of wearing silver accessories. When they get married, a set of silver decorations is an indispensable dowry. According to Long, to make a silver accessory, one has to complete dozens of procedures, including designing, silver melting, carving, hammering, inlaying and polishing. "A whole set of silverware, covering the head, the face, the chest, shoulders, ears and hands, takes seven to eight silversmiths at least one week," said Long. Making silver accessories was listed as a state-level intangible cultural heritage in 2006. Long's family has passed on silver carving skills from generation to generation. When Long was young, he followed his father to several provinces in west China to work as a silversmith. They carried a shoulder pole, and offered door-to-door services. The traveling experience enabled him to learn regional craftsmanship skills, which enhanced his work. Because of his outstanding carving skills, Long had many apprentices after he returned to the village. "My grandfather is a carving master and can instantly carve whatever he wants with no need for pre-drawn lines," said Long Jianping, his grandson who is among his apprentices. Apart from manually carving traditional accessories like his grandfather and father, the junior Long, 23, uses molds and machines to produce teapots, bowls and chopsticks. "People are getting richer and richer with a rising taste for beauty, and their expanding spending capacity has inspired us to be creative," he said. The young man said products from factory assembly lines with more diverse designs and lower prices have challenged the manual craftwork, forcing many silversmiths to give up the skills and find other jobs in cities. "Therefore, catering to modern customers is vital if we hope to preserve the cultural heritage," he said, adding that he receives orders mainly from wholesalers. Supported by the local government, Debang Village has developed into an integrated base for silver accessory exhibitions, production and manual workshops. Development of the industry has also brought other benefits. The village has concrete roads that allow farming machines to reach farmland, and every household has access to running water. The village is now considering developing its tourism industry, trying to entice tourists with their ecological resources and silver carving culture, according to village cadres. Currently, there are some 200 silversmiths and more than 10 silver workshops, and the skills have become a tool to fight against poverty. All the villagers are expected to be lifted out of poverty in 2019. Wu Jinnan, an impoverished farmer, has been learning how to carve silver accessories for more than two years. "Under the guidance of the elderly craftsmen, I'm a quick learner," Wu said. "I hope I will become a skilled silversmith in the future." Long junior said he was not planning to force his child to become a silversmith, but would teach him anyway. "We must pass our heritage on to the next generation," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 21:15:26|Editor: mingmei Video Player Close A farmer checks the growth of maize in drought-hit fields in Macheke, Mashonaland East Province, Zimbabwe, March 10, 2019. A disaster is looming in Zimbabwe following a severe drought that has left most of the planted maize crop for the current season either moisture-stressed or being declared a write-off. The government is still to come up with its own crop assessment for the 2018/19 season, but projections from farmers put the yield as about half the 2017/18 yield. (Xinhua/Shaun Jusa) Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 21:22:51|Editor: ZX Video Player Close BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Following are the schedules for the second session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) and the second session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) on Tuesday. NPC: -- NPC deputies will hold a plenary meeting in the morning, when Chief Justice Zhou Qiang will deliver a report on the work of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), and Zhang Jun, procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP), will deliver a report on the SPP's work. A chairpersons' meeting will take place afterwards. -- NPC delegations will hold plenary meetings in the afternoon to deliberate the revised draft foreign investment law and the work reports of the SPC and the SPP. -- At 3:00 p.m., officials with the SPC and the provincial higher people's courts of Fujian and Jiangxi will give a press conference. CPPCC: -- Members of the CPPCC National Committee will observe the NPC plenary meeting in the morning. -- In the afternoon, national political advisors will hold panel meetings to deliberate draft resolutions and reports, and discuss the work reports of the SPC and the SPP. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 21:22:51|Editor: ZX Video Player Close BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday sent messages of condolence respectively to his Ethiopian and Kenyan counterparts, Sahle-Work Zewde and Uhuru Kenyatta, over the plane crash that killed 157 people on Sunday. In his messages, Xi said he was shocked to hear about the crash of the Ethiopian Airlines plane and the massive casualties it caused, including Ethiopian, Kenyan and Chinese victims. On behalf of the Chinese government, the Chinese people and in his own name, he expressed deep mourning for the victims and extended his condolences to the bereaved families. Xi said that he believes the Ethiopian government is capable of properly handling the aftermath of the tragedy. He added that China would provide any necessary support and assistance. Also on Monday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang sent a message to his Ethiopian counterpart, Abiy Ahmed, offering his condolences over the plane crash. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 21:22:51|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BEIRUT, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdel Karim Ali said on Monday that Syria is ready to cooperate with Lebanon at all levels, but Lebanon must show real intentions to do so. "Syria has never closed its doors to any country especially Lebanon. We have agreements of cooperation between the two countries, but Lebanon did not work on activating these agreements. There should be initiatives by Lebanon in this direction," Ali told Xinhua. Ali assured that Syria is always keen to cooperate with Lebanon which falls in the interests of both countries. "The security situation in the region necessitates close cooperation between the two countries whether to face Israel or terrorists," Ali said. Ali added that Lebanon has a great interest to open up to Syria to facilitate the export of its produce to the country or through Syria to other countries in the region. "This will strengthen import-export activities in favor of both countries," he said. Ali's remarks came in parallel to announcements by the Lebanese ministers Monday about the need to conduct direct dialogue with Syria to facilitate trade and increase business between the two countries. Minister of State for Foreign Trade Hassan Mourad said in a tweet Monday that it is in the interest of Lebanon to cooperate and communicate with Syrian authorities to increase the export of goods from Lebanon to Syria. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 21:32:55|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close HELSINKI, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Finnish national highway No. 4 in Kempele, south of the northern city of Oulu, was clogged on Monday morning for several hours due to consecutive accidents. There were 26 cars, two heavy trucks and one bus involved. Thirteen people were taken to hospital, local newspaper Kaleva reported. The nationalities of the injured were not reported. The driving conditions were affected by snow, but the situation was not unusual taken the time of the year and the northern location, national broadcaster Yle said. Newspaper Kaleva reported that the cluster of accidents was the largest since 2013 when 40 automobiles were involved. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 21:48:00|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close HARARE, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's 2019 tobacco marketing season will open on March 20 with growers retaining 50 percent of their net export proceeds, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor John Mangudya said Monday. He said the central bank and farmers will hold further discussions on the period that farmers should keep their retained forex earnings after the central bank last month gave the exporters only 30 days after which the unutilized money will be put on the market. The governor said this after being quizzed by the parliamentary committee on public accounts on why the central bank had given farmers such as short time, considering that some may want to keep proceeds to prepare for the next season. The governor said the central bank had put this requirement so that it can have resources to import essential commodities such as fuel and drugs considering the ongoing shortage of foreign currency in the country. He said the tobacco farmers had asked for the retention period to be extended to between 90 and 180 days. Chair of the parliamentary committee Tendai Biti also urged the central bank to have a re-look at the exchange rate it will use to exchange the retained forex, saying the prevailing 2.50 against the U.S. dollar will be "unjustified" when black market rates are hovering around 3.60. Tobacco is Zimbabwe's second biggest export earning commodity after gold, and the opening of the marketing season is expected to improve the country's foreign currency inflows. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 21:53:02|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close LUSAKA, March 11 (Xinhua) -- A Zambian jeweler said on Monday that China offers a huge market for Zambian gemstones which must be explored. Jewel of Africa, one of the Zambian firms which participated at the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai last year, said Zambian jewels has a huge market in China. Rashmi Sharma, the jeweler's Director of Marketing and Sales, said participating at the expo provided an opportunity for her firm to showcase Zambian gems and also afforded the Chinese people to appreciate what Zambia has to offer. Zambia, she said, has one of the best gems in the world with 64 different colors and expressed optimism that China had the potential to become Zambia's biggest market because of the high population. She further revealed that her firm was talking to the Zambian embassy in China to consider arranging a private exhibition in Beijing where it could showcase its gems. Established over 25 years ago, Jewel of Africa, has acquired a reputation as an exclusive jeweler and currently has seven outlets, including one in the United States. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 21:53:03|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close ATHENS, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Greeks celebrated the end of the three-week carnival season and the first day of Lent on Monday, with family picnics, singing, dancing and kite flying. Clean Monday (Kathara Deytera in Greek) is a public holiday in Greece, marking the 40-day countdown to Easter for Greek Orthodox Christians. Until then traditionally they will not eat dishes containing meat, eggs and dairy products. The purpose according to tradition is to "clean their body and soul" for the Easter feast. In recent years most Greeks do not observe the 40-day fasting, but on Clean Monday the overwhelming majority enjoy traditional delicacies based on shellfish and a type of bread named "lagana" which is baked only on this day. The average cost of Clean Monday's picnic snacks was by 7.8 percent higher than last year, according to the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism. Most Greek children are eager for Clean Monday for another reason. It is the day of filling the skies with kites. According to some scholars, the custom of kite flying arrived in Greece from the East. Others claim that its origin in the Mediterranean is traced back to the experiments of ancient Greek mathematician Archytas (428-347 BC). Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 21:53:04|Editor: mingmei Video Player Close MOSCOW, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The strength of the Russian Armed Forces was notably increased by more modern weapons between 2012 and 2018, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Monday. "In the last six years, the armed forces received 109 intercontinental Yars ballistic missiles and 108 submarine-based ballistic missiles," Shoigu said at an expanded meeting of the State Duma Defense Committee. Meanwhile, the armed forces received 57 spacecraft, three Borey-class strategic missile submarines, seven diesel submarines, 161 surface ships and vessels, 3,712 new and upgraded tanks and armored vehicles, over 1,000 airplanes and helicopters. The number of land-, sea- and air-based carriers of long-range high-precision weapons rose 12 times in 2012-2018 and that of high-precision cruise missiles increased more than 30 times, Shoigu said. In the six years, 38 military units were formed and armed with more than 2,000 modern drones, Shoigu said, adding that this year medium-range reconnaissance and strike drones will start to be commissioned. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 21:53:05|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close A logo of Mellanox Technologies is seen on its building in Yokneam, Israel, on March 4, 2019. Mellanox Technologies, an Israel-based chip maker, said on March 11 that U.S. computer giant Nvidia Corporation agreed to buy it for about 6.9 billion U.S. dollars in cash. The deal marks the biggest exit yet for an Israeli high-tech company in 2019 and the third largest-ever acquisition deal of an Israeli high-tech company. (Xinhua/JINI) JERUSALEM, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Mellanox Technologies, an Israel-based chip maker, said on Monday that U.S. computer giant Nvidia Corporation agreed to buy it for about 6.9 billion U.S. dollars in cash. "Nvidia and Mellanox today announced that the companies have reached a definitive agreement under which Nvidia will acquire Mellanox," Mellanox said in a statement. The expected acquisition will unite two leading companies in the field of high-performance computing. "Together, Nvidia's computing platform and Mellanox's interconnects power over 250 of the world's TOP500 supercomputers and have as customers every major cloud service provider and computer maker," Mellanox said. According to Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, the deal unites "Nvidia's accelerated computing platform with Mellanox's world-renowned accelerated networking platform under one roof to create next-generation datacenter-scale computing solutions." "We share the same vision for accelerated computing as Nvidia," Eyal Waldman, founder and CEO of Mellanox, said in the statement. "Combining our two companies comes as a natural extension of our longstanding partnership... This combination will foster the creation of powerful technology and fantastic opportunities for our people," he added. Founded in 1999, Mellanox is headquartered in Yokneam, a town in northern Israel. The company is a supplier of computer networking products for the high-performance computing market, data centers, cloud computing, and financial services. The deal marks the biggest exit yet for an Israeli high-tech company in 2019 and the third largest-ever acquisition deal of an Israeli high-tech company. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 21:58:06|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BERLIN, March 11 (Xinhua) -- On average, sales of skilled trades in Germany rose by 4.9 percent year-on-year in 2018, in particular because of Germany's booming construction industry, preliminary figures by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) show on Monday. Across all sectors of skilled trades in Germany, the number of employees increased by 0.5 percent on average over the previous year. The strongest growth of employees was recorded in the health sector with a plus of 1.2 percent, while the largest decline of minus 1.7 percent was in services for private consumers. In its outlook for 2019, the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH) already asserted that "the upward trend in the domestic economy, which is important for the skilled trades sector, should remain intact in 2019." According to the figures, the strongest increase in sales of 10.7 percent was recorded in the booming German construction industry. "Thanks to ongoing investments in infrastructure and residential construction, the economic locomotive of construction is now moving full steam ahead for the seventh year in succession," Peter Huebner, president of the construction industry association said in January. German companies in the construction industry achieved revenues of 127 billion euros (142.8 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018, according to the German construction industry association. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 21:58:06|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Brunei and South Korea are looking to further explore their collaboration in the sectors of oil and gas and renewable energy. A joint statement released here on Monday in conjunction with South Korean President Moon Jae-in's visit to Brunei said the two countries are eyeing opportunities to cooperate in both the upstream and downstream oil and gas sectors. They are also looking to re-establish cooperation in additional areas such as liquefied natural gas value chain, said the statement. Moon is currently in Brunei on a state visit from March 10 to 12. During Moon's meeting with Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah at Istana Nurul Iman, both leaders also said they looked forward to joint capacity building activities in renewable energy. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 21:58:06|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close WINDHOEK, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Namibia has recorded nine poaching incidents since January this year, six involving rhinos and three involving elephants, a government spokesperson said on Monday. Romeo Muyunda, of the Environment and Tourism Ministry, said the poaching incidents mainly occurred in private and custodian farms; no poaching was recorded in the national parks. In 2018, 57 rhinos and 26 elephants were poached, with 120 suspected poachers being arrested. The ministry is lobbying for harsher punishment for those found guilty of poaching. Last year, the ministry established an Anti- Poaching Unit to help curb poaching. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 22:08:10|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close LUSAKA, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Zambian President Edgar Lungu on Monday called for increased development of alternative energy sources to meet growing demand for electricity in the country. The Zambian leader said there is an urgent need to increase electricity generation and that the area of renewable energy gives the country greater hope, adding that increased power generation using alternative sources of energy will attract investments to all parts of the country. Speaking when he commissioned a solar photo-voltaic plant in Lusaka, the country's capital, a joint venture between Neon of France and the state-run Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), Lungu said the record-low tariffs achieved for the project is a clear demonstration of efforts aimed at improving affordable electrification rates, one of the hindrances to the growth of the energy sector. He said the commissioning of the project is the culmination of a directive he made in 2015 when the country was experienced severe energy shortage due to over-dependence on hydroelectric power. The 56 million U.S. dollar solar power plant is expected to generate about 54 megawatts of electricity. The project, Lungu said, will uplift the welfare of people and enhance productivity of businesses as electricity from the plant will power nearly 30,000 households across the country. He commended the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank for the technical and financial support for the project. Lungu directed the IDC to accelerate all other renewable energy projects that are in the pipeline to increase access to energy. Ina Marlene-Ruthenberg, World Bank country representative, said the project will enable the Zambian government to save about 40 million dollars over the 25 years of the concession. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 22:13:13|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close TUNIS, March 11 (Xinhua) -- A total of 12 cases of neonatal deaths have been recorded in the Rabta Hospital so far, Tunisian Interim Minister of Health Sonia Ben Sheikh announced Monday. "The death of the 12 newborns is due to a nosocomial infection that occurred during their hospitalization," Ben Sheikh said at a press conference held in Tunis, adding that the risk of death is 40 percent. The interim minister of health emphasized that this incident will not pass without any reaction. She denied rumors that the death of these newborns was caused by the existence of drugs or expired serum at the obstetrics and neonatology departments in the Rabta Hospital. "Every effort will be made to disclose the whole truth," said Ben Sheikh, adding that there is a political manipulation taking advantage of this tragedy for partisan interests. "The former health minister Abderraouf Al Sherif should not be alone in assuming responsibility. It is a combination of several years of bad governance of the public health sector," she concluded. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 22:23:14|Editor: xuxin Video Player Close LUSAKA, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The Zambian government's decision to lift a ban on export of maize and maize products has received mixed reaction from the society. Some have welcomed the move, saying it will allow Zambia to take advantage of demands in some neighboring countries and earn some foreign exchange, others have questioned the rationale, especially at a time when drought fall armyworms are ravaging some parts of the country. Still others feel that the government should have first waited before lifting the ban because the move may affect food security. When announcing the lifting of the ban, Minister of Agriculture Michael Katambo said the decision was made after consultations with key stakeholders and that the ministry will apply a regulated export regime to ensure that there is no rampant exports. Only 120,000 tons of maize and maize products will be allowed to be exported, he said. Zambia, with an excess of 700,000 tons of maize grain stocks, is food secure, the minister said. His views have been backed by President Edgar Lungu, who said over the weekend the country has enough maize grain, despite the current prolonged dry spells that have adversely affected maize production, especially in the southern Zambia. The decision to allow exports, authorities say, will allow room for enough storage when new crop is harvested in the next few months. Critics, however, insisted the government should have waited before allowing the exports of maize. Hakainde Hichilema, the country's leading opposition figure and a farmer himself, urged the government to rescind the decision, in view of the drought in some parts of the country. "It is only logical for the government to rescind their decision of exporting maize and mealie meal until such a time when we will be certain that our people have and will have enough food to even export the surplus," he said in a release. Nason Msoni, another opposition leader, concurred, saying drought is a clear threat to Zambia's food security. It would be illogical to rush into selling the maize and later source it from other countries at a very high cost, Msoni said. Such fears have been exacerbated by the findings of government survey that over 300,000 households and about 200,000 hectares of maize fields have been affected by fall armyworms in the 2018/2019 farming season. In a ministerial statement to parliament, the Zambian agriculture minister said the spread of the fall armyworms has affected 93 out of the country's 115 districts. James Bok Wong (Front), a Chinese American veteran of the Flying Tigers, visits the exhibition of Flying Tigers relics in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, Nov. 9, 2010. Flying Tigers, also known as the American Volunteer Group, were a group of American and Chinese pilots serving in the Chinese Air Force who fought against Japanese invading troops during World War II. (Xinhua/Lin Yiguang) SAN FRANCISCO, March 10 (Xinhua) -- A San Francisco-based non-profit organization is working hard to look for as many families of as possible to honor their service to the country. Edmond Gor, Past National President of Chinese American Citizens Alliance (CACA), said over the weekend that more people should be mobilized to collect information about Chinese American WWII veterans or their families so that the veterans' service could be recognized and honored by U.S. Congress with a gold medal. He said time is running out as the awarding ceremony is likely to take place in Washington, D.C. in October or November this year, and hoped every veteran eligible for the award would be honored to receive the medal. He urged the public to help locate as many WWII veterans as possible because some of the records about the Chinese American WWII veterans were lost for some reasons and there was no centralized database when they were enlisted during the wartime. Gor, who is also National Veterans Project Coordinator, said he intended to organize a three-day tour to Washington, D.C. for all the veterans to attend the ceremony. "We want you to enjoy meeting your other World War II veterans and the families that you will convene with. I think that's a little bit exciting to know that some of these people who made it (survived the war) this far," he said. Gor noted that the honoring of the Chinese American WWII veterans is of special significance because at least 40 percent of them were denied U.S. citizenship under the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was in effect during WWII. The act, which was enacted in 1882, prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers. It was the first U.S. law implemented to prevent all members of a specific ethnic or national group from immigrating to the country. However, as many as 20,000 Chinese Americans, nearly one in five Chinese American men who served in the military, were fighting in every WWII theater during the war. The number of living Chinese American WWII veterans is less than 300 at present, said Nelson Lum, commander of Cathay Post No. 384 of American Legion based in San Francisco, which provides service to retired servicemen and war veterans. Gor said the Chinese Americans were treated unfairly and discriminated against during the war period when they were even fighting for the United States. "It's a good thing for us to recognize our Chinese American veterans ... We serve the country just like anyone else despite the fact that we were not even citizens," he said, adding that it's important "our children or grandchildren would know this part of history." The Chinese American World War II Veteran Congressional Gold Medal Act was signed into law by President Donald Trump last year to present the medal, the highest civilian honor in the United States, to Chinese American veterans. The legislation was a result of a CACA-led national campaign known as the Chinese American World War II Veterans Recognition Project seeking to honor and recognize the Chinese American WWII veterans for their sacrifices to the country. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 22:28:15|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- China's draft foreign investment law is well received among foreign investors, who believe it will further improve the country's business environment. A new draft of the law was submitted to China's national legislative session for a third reading last week, and has been deliberated by lawmakers and discussed by political advisors over the past few days. The draft aims to improve the transparency of foreign investment policies and ensures that foreign-invested enterprises participate in market competition on an equal basis. Stephan Kothrade, president functions Asia Pacific of German chemicals giant BASF, said the company welcomes the draft law, with the belief that it will help effectively address issues foreign investors face in China. "For foreign companies in China, I think everyone is waiting for the draft law to be passed, as the law will create a level playing field where everyone can participate," said Harley Seyedin, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in South China. With unified provisions for the entry, promotion, protection, and management of foreign investment, the law is "a new and fundamental law" for China's foreign investment and an innovative improvement of China's foreign investment legal system. The draft stresses more investment promotion and protection than the three existing laws, a positive signal for foreign firms in China, said Ma Zheng, vice president of the China subsidiary of the agricultural commodities trader Cargill. Ma believes the law would provide stronger legal guarantees for foreign investors and companies to safeguard their interests. "It's going to make China's business environment more open, equitable and transparent for foreign firms," he said. By the end of 2018, about 960,000 foreign-invested enterprises had been set up in China, with the accumulated foreign direct investment exceeding 2.1 trillion U.S. dollars. China advanced to a global ranking of 46 in terms of ease of doing business last year, up from 78 in 2017, according to a World Bank Group report released last year. "This shows the constant improvement in our business environment, and greater progress might be made this year," said He Lifeng, head of the National Development and Reform Commission. The new law will boost foreign investors' confidence in China since their rights and interests will be legally protected, said Cai Hua, a national legislator and director of Wisely Law Office in Tianjin. "A country with a relatively complete legal system will be an ideal destination for foreign investment," Cai said. "It will give more people confidence in China," said Adam Dunnett, secretary general of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China. "If you're a foreign investor, and you're going to read a law about China, probably the first one you're going to read is the foreign investment law." Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 22:33:17|Editor: yan Video Player Close BEIRUT, March 11 (Xinhua) -- An official with the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Monday called on all parties with influence to make peace and put an end to the suffering of Syrian children in their country. "We call once again upon all parties and anyone with influence to make peace happen now and not tomorrow," said Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF's Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa. Cappelaere said that around 5 million Syrian children were born since the beginning of the war in Syria in 2011. "These children have a bleak future with the absence of a political solution to a senseless war," he said. Cappelaere said that many of these children were born from families associated with extremists, but "these children are not terrorists. They are entitled to childhood and they deserve a fair chance in life." Cappelaere said that the UNICEF will continue providing support to Syrian children inside Syria and in hosting countries. Cappelaere's remarks came during an event held by UNICEF to launch its first children's songs album, marking eight years since the start of the war in Syria. The songs are all-time regional favorites written and composed by the world-famous composer Elias Rahbani during the war in Lebanon. With generous support from the EU Trust Fund in response to the Syrian crisis, the EU "Madad" Fund, UNICEF and Jad Rahbani, son of Elias Rahbani, held workshops for nearly 300 children, including children with disabilities, to record the re-arranged version of the songs. The workshops included Jordanian, Iraqi, Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian and Turkish children. Cappelaere said that the 11 songs for children are meant to bring a little of childhood back for 8 million Syrian children who are in dire need of basic humanitarian assistance. Meanwhile, Jad Rahbani, who is also a composer and producer, said that the songs ideas were meant to create for Syrian children a space for love, peace and happiness. "We contributed with a small thing to create hope and happiness for these children and a kind of a new excitement for these kids," he told Xinhua. Rahbani explained that he went along with a team to camps hosting Syrian refugees to teach them these songs. "We picked some of the best voices and we sent them to studios all over the world to record these songs. They did it naturally and the result was above expectations," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 22:38:18|Editor: yan Video Player Close BAKU, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Azerbaijan's armed forces kicked off large-scale military exercises on Monday, according to the country's Defense Ministry. The five-day military drills will involve up to 10,000 military personnel, nearly 500 tanks and armored vehicles, about 300 missiles and artillery systems, multiple launch rocket systems and mortars, and up to 20 army and front-line aviation units. The exercises will see troops carry out a wide range of tasks, including offensive operations and strikes on imaginary enemy targets from several directions. The troops will also test new weaponry systems, the ministry said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 22:58:23|Editor: yan Video Player Close HONG KONG, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong stored value payment operator Octopus Cards Limited and Mastercard launched a new virtual prepaid mastercard for online shopping on Monday. Unlike credit cards, the virtual card, under the name of O!ePay Mastercard, requires users to top up the Octopus e-wallet payment account O!ePay which is tied with the virtual card with credits before shopping online. Rita Li, Octopus Sales and Marketing Director, said Octopus users can get the virtual card in the Octopus App without the need to submit any proof. The cardholder can turn on or off the virtual card, depending on their needs. Besides, a one-time password is required during the transaction, said Li. As an easy, assured and managed payment means, the virtual card will appeal to younger customers with growing global online shopping needs, as well as those who prefer not to use their credit cards online, said Sunny Cheung, CEO of Octopus. Octopus card is a contactless stored value card, with around 99 percent of people in Hong Kong using Octopus cards to travel, shop and dine without the hassle of cash. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 23:03:24|Editor: yan Video Player Close DUBAI, March 11 (Xinhua) -- United Arab Emirates (UAE) Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan met on Monday with Togo President Faure Gnassingbe to discuss cooperation and joint investments. They discussed bilateral relations and cooperation in the economic and investment fields, said the state-run news agency WAM. According to an agreement signed by the two sides, the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development will finance the small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Togo. Up to 15 million U.S. dollars will be provided by the Khalifa Fund to support projects in Togo. Khalifa Fund has provided financial support to SMEs in 1,400 projects in the UAE and more than 14 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa via financial programs. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 23:13:29|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close URUMQI, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Senior diplomats from seven countries and an international organization visited Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from Feb. 28 to March 2 at the invitation of the regional government. During the trip, the diplomats from Myanmar, Algeria, Morocco, Vietnam, Hungary, Greece, Singapore and the mission of the League of Arab States in China, visited various places across the region and interacted extensively with local residents. They said they were impressed by Xinjiang's openness, inclusiveness, ethnic unity, as well as its achievements in improving people's livelihoods. The trip offered a lot of insights into the region, said Mahmoud Hassan Elamin, head of the Mission of League of Arab States in China, adding that the mode of development here is aimed at allowing everyone in the region to enjoy the benefits of the development in an equitable manner. At the Grand Bazaar in the regional capital Urumqi, Aziz Mekouar, Morocco ambassador to China, said that he felt at home. With similar shops and commodities, it is as if they were in Marrakech of Morocco, the ambassador said, noting that it shows that Xinjiang is a passage linking Europe and Asia and the cultures of commerce are connected. After visiting a number of local communities and high-tech companies, Pham Thanh Binh, deputy chief of mission of the Embassy of Vietnam in China, said local people of various ethnic groups enjoyed the equal benefits of social welfare and social harmony and stability. This speaks volume that Chinese government's policies in regions of ethnic minorities are effective, the Vietnamese diplomat said. At the Xinjiang International Convention & Exhibition Center, the diplomats watched an exhibition on major terrorist cases in the region. No religion or moral codes would allow such despicable acts, said Elamin. He said he believed the Chinese government has the right to use all means necessary to combat violent terrorist crimes. Elamin added that he was pleased to hear that no violent terrorist activities had happened in Xinjiang for over two years. In recent years, Xinjiang has focused on the prevention of terrorism by striking at the root and source of the problems. It aims to forestall terrorist attacks by providing a platform to the people who have been influenced by extremist thoughts and committed minor crimes so that they can transform their thoughts, learn the Mandarin language, boost legal awareness and master vocational skills. At a vocational education and training center in Kashgar, the senior diplomats and their spouses spoke with students who were attending a law class. Myanmar ambassador to China Thit Linn Ohn said the teaching facilities were complete and better than expected. Through interaction with the students, he said he could tell they were having a good time in the center. Terrorism is the common enemy of the world, the Myanmar ambassador said, adding they support China in choosing the most effective way it deems to counter terrorism. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 23:13:30|Editor: yan Video Player Close RIYADH, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced on Monday the launch of the Helicopter Company, the first national commercial helicopter operator in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Press Agency reported. The company with an initial budget of around 150 million U.S. dollars will provide private transportation services within the main cities of Saudi Arabia as well as tourist trips to various attractions around the Kingdom. It will cater to emerging demand in luxury tourism as well as untapped existing demand for urban aerial transportation. It will be instrumental in meeting demand for helicopter transportation within major cities in Saudi Arabia as well as supporting the development of the wider aviation sector. In addition, it will provide access to remote destinations and a high-end experience on a par with other global destinations. The launch of the company is in line with the fund's strategy to generate sustainable returns, to establish and develop new sectors in Saudi Arabia, as well as to support the realization of Vision 2030 by acting as a catalyst for Saudi Arabia's nascent tourism sector. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 23:18:32|Editor: yan Video Player Close HONG KONG, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Le French May arts festival, an annual cultural event in Hong Kong, is expected to create a "cultural staycation" for Hong Kong audience this year, with over 120 art and cultural programs and activities, organizers announced Monday. This year's Le French May arts festival, with the theme of "Voyage", will lead the audience into a journey "through time and space, from the East to the West" with a series of dance, music, photography, design and theatre performances, organizers said at a press conference on the highlights of this year's festival. The festival, to be held in May and June, will be kicked off by French female artist Niki de Saint Phalle's exhibition, and will stage the Asian debute of music performance "Invitation to the Voyage" by Paris Mozart Orchestra. The festival aims at reaching a wider audience in Hong Kong, allowing more people, in particular the younger generation, to enjoy cultural programs and develop their art appreciation. Andrew Yuen, chairman of the board of Le French May, said at the press conference that 27 years after its establishment the art festival "has confirmed its role as a prime event for local and visitors alike to discover, enjoy, and learn about art and culture; a platform for the communities to dialogue, exchange and grow; a source of aspiration and inspiration". Cherry Tse, permanent secretary for home affairs of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government, said that the HKSAR government strives to promote Hong Kong, "a unique city where East meets West", as an international cultural metropolis. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 23:18:33|Editor: yan Video Player Close MAPUTO, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi said here on Monday that corruption in local authorities has been the biggest obstacle to the development of districts, and he advised municipal officials to build integrity and regain the trust of the people. Nyusi was speaking during the opening of the 10th National Meeting of Local Authorities, which brought together presidents of local municipalities from all over the country, members of the central government and cooperation partners. "There is a lot of corruption in the local authorities," he said. "The lawsuits are many and we do not have enough space in jails." Misapplication of funds has tarnished the governance of local authorities and made people lose trust in the leaders, Nyusi said. "The provision of basic services should not represent additional costs to citizens because of unlawful collection of money," he said. Transparency and integrity, accountability, participation and inclusion are essential prerequisites for the consolidation of national unity and peace, as well as the deepening of participatory democracy, good governance and the promotion of integrated development, Nyusi said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 23:23:34|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close A man checks the wreckage of the airplane of Ethiopian Airlines (ET) which crashed earlier near Bishoftu city, about 45 kms southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 10, 2019. All 149 passengers and eight crew members aboard ET 302, bound for Nairobi, Kenya, are confirmed killed, the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) said. (Xinhua/Ethiopian Airlines) ADDIS ABABA, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Officials from the Ethiopian Airlines Group and Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday briefed envoys of countries whose nationals were killed in Sunday's plane crash. The 157 people aboard the ET 302 flight from Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to Kenyan capital Nairobi, included 149 passengers and 8 crew members. The victims were of 35 nationalities, including 32 from Kenya, 18 from Canada, eight each from China, Italy and the United States, seven each from Britain and France, six from Egypt, and five from Germany, among others, according to the airline. Briefing envoys of countries whose nationals were involved in the deadly jet crash, Deputy CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Group Esayas Woldemariam said that concerted efforts are underway so as to find out the major cause of the plane crash. Woldemariam, noting "the devastating impact of the tragic accident," further expressed Ethiopian Airlines' commitment "to support and facilitate relatives and families of victims as they lost their loved ones." Nebiat Getachew, spokesperson at the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that the Ethiopian government is closely following ongoing investigations on the crashed aircraft. He also vowed to disclose findings of the investigation to the diplomatic community promptly. Ethiopian Airlines disclosed earlier on Monday that both data and voice recorders on the crashed aircraft have been recovered. The Nairobi-bound Boeing 737-8 MAX crashed Sunday near Bishoftu town, about 45 km from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, just minutes after take-off from Bole International Airport, killing all 157 people on board. "Ethiopian has continued monitoring the situation closely with all stakeholders and is providing all the necessary support to the families of the deceased in its temporarily established family assistance centers in Addis Ababa and Nairobi Airports," the airline said. Earlier on Monday, the company also announced its decision to suspend commercial operations of all Boeing 737-8 Max aircraft. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 23:23:34|Editor: yan Video Player Close BEIRUT, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Saroj Kumar Jha, regional director for World Bank Middle East Department, said on Monday that the World Bank will increase its support for the health sector in Lebanon. "We will support the health sector in Lebanon with projects that cover a greater number of the population," Jha was quoted as saying by the National News Agency. Jha's remarks came during his meeting with Health Minister Jamil Jabak. Jha insisted that the World Bank's money which will be given to the ministry must be spent properly while calling upon the minister to accelerate the projects that will be implemented with the World Bank. Meanwhile, Jabak asked the World Bank for support in equipping public hospitals with new medical equipment. "We will be working in close cooperation with the World Bank which can continuously supervise our work," the minister said. Rainfall changes for key crops predicted even with reduced greenhouse gas emissions Even if humans radically reduce greenhouse gas emissions soon, important crop-growing regions of the world can expect changes to rainfall patterns by 2040. In fact, some regions are already experiencing new climatic regimes compared with just a generation ago. The study, published March 11 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, warns that up to 14 percent of land dedicated to wheat, maize, rice and soybean will be drier, while up to 31 percent will be wetter. The study uses four emissions scenarios from low to high to predict time of emergence (TOE) of permanent precipitation changes, meaning the year by which precipitation changes remain permanently outside their historical variation in a specific location. The research shows that quick action on emissions - in line with 2015's Paris Agreement - would push TOE projections deeper into the future or reduce the size of affected areas. Drier regions include Southwestern Australia, Southern Africa, southwestern South America, and the Mediterranean, according to the study. Wheat cropland in Central Mexico is also headed for a drier future. Wetter areas include Canada, Russia, India and the Eastern United States. The four crops in the study represent about 40 percent of global caloric intake and the authors say that, regardless of how much mitigation is achieved, all regions - both wetter and drier - need to invest in adaptation, and do so urgently in areas expected to see major changes in the next couple of decades. However, in the scenarios with low greenhouse gas emissions, most regions have two-three decades more to adapt than under high-emission scenarios. Low-emission scenarios, the authors stressed, likely imply less need for potentially costly adaptation to new rainfall regimes. Wheat under heat Drier conditions are expected for many major wheat producers. In Australia, about 27 percent of wheat-growing land will see less precipitation, under a mid-emissions scenario. Algeria (100 percent), Morocco (91 percent), South Africa (79 percent), Mexico (74 percent), Spain (55 percent), Chile (40 percent), Turkey (28 percent), Italy (20 percent) and Egypt (15 percent) are other major producers that will be affected. Higher emissions mean a larger amount of land will become dry sooner, the study found. "These are definitely countries that will need to think rather quickly what they'd like to do with their wheat production," said Maisa Rojas, the study's lead author and climatologist at Universidad de Chile. Colleagues at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, the University of Leeds, Chile's Center for Climate and Resilience Research, and Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (UC) co-authored the study. "What we're predicting are probably conservative years for time of emergence," said Rojas. "Detectable precipitation changes are of course not only important for agriculture, but for water resource management more in general, so our results are relevant for other sectors as well." Speed of change One stunning aspect of the study is how quickly global precipitation is changing. The baseline for comparison is 20 years spanning 1986-2005. A handful of regions already have crossed that "historical" average into an entirely new rainfall regime, including Russia, Norway, Canada and the parts of the East Coast of the United States. The study projects that up to 36 percent of all land area will be wetter or drier under a high-emission scenario. "Farmers growing crops in those areas are going to experience significantly different conditions than what they are used to," said Julian Ramirez-Villegas, a scientist with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). "They're going to be completely outside their normal historical environments and many farmers are already struggling with historic variability." Areas not reflected in the study are likely to have precipitation changes as well, said Rojas. But because natural variation in those areas is high, extreme change is needed before researchers can detect their times of emergence. "Other studies have examined time of emergence in global temperature and precipitation," said Fabrice Lambert, a UC professor and co-author. "The interesting thing about this study is that we overlay the climatic results with spatial cropland distribution and growing seasons to show which agricultural production regions will be impacted by precipitation changes, and how much time they have to prepare." The world's most populous countries - China and India - are among those that will have much wetter fields for the four crops included in the study, under any emission scenario. Percentage of cropland that will extend into high double-digits. Asia's other big rice producers, including Japan, Korea and the Philippines will have TOEs for increased rainfall. Wheat fields northern Europe, the United States, Canada and Russia will have higher precipitation. More precipitation may mean higher production, but when coupled with rising sea levels, higher temperatures and increased potential for flooding, higher production is not assured, said the authors. "The precise nature of the changes is impossible to predict," said Andy Challinor, a co-author and Professor at the Priestley International Centre for Climate at the University of Leeds. "What this study tells us is that adaptation needs to be agile. For the first time, we can tell what changes to be ready for - and when they are expected - in our major crop-growing regions. Prior to this study, the rainfall changes experienced by crops were thought to be so unpredictable that no real advice could be given." ### Funding and partners The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) contributed funding to this project, which is carried out with support from CGIAR Fund Donors and through bilateral funding agreements. For details, please visit https:/ / ccafs. cgiar. org/ donors . The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) is a CGIAR research center. CIAT develops technologies, innovative methods and knowledge that enable farmers, especially smallholders, to make agriculture more competitive, profitable, sustainable and resilient. Headquartered in Cali, Colombia, CIAT conducts research for development in tropical regions of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. https:/ / ciat. cgiar. org CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. Its science is carried out by 15 research centers in collaboration with hundreds of partners across the globe. https:/ / www. cgiar. org Funding was also provided by the Center for Climate and Resilience Research, (CR2), a center of excellence of the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT) of Chile. Its objective is to deepen the understanding of the processes and impacts of the climate system in Chile and globally from an interdisciplinary perspective. It also aims at contributing to the definition of adaptation and mitigation measures for climate change that contribute to social resilience. http://www. cr2. cl The University of Leeds is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK, with more than 38,000 students from more than 150 different countries, and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. The University plays a significant role in the Turing, Rosalind Franklin and Royce Institutes. http://www. leeds. ac. uk This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 23:28:36|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- After its breakneck economic growth based on cheap labor and demographic advantages, China is now looking to tap its vast innovation potential to spur high-quality growth. China was once a center of innovation with its epoch-making inventions of paper, gunpowder, the compass and printing. But its creativity seemed sagged for a long time until the founding of New China in 1949. Four decades of reform and opening up since 1978 has greatly stimulated the Chinese people's vitality and creativity, and prepared the hard and soft ware for China to make major scientific and technological breakthroughs. China's economic growth over the years has been mainly based on the large scale consumption of unrenewable natural resources, which has led to severe environmental pollution and is apparently unsustainable. To pursue sustainable growth, China feels an urgency to transform its economy into one driven by innovation, to strengthen the country's scientific and technology prowess and competitiveness in the world. The Chinese government has strengthened protection of the legal rights and interests of entrepreneurs, ensuring fair competition and stronger protection of intellectual property rights, to encourage innovation. China's recent efforts to encourage innovations have paid off. According to a report released in 2017 by INSEAD business school, Cornell University and the World Intellectual Property Organisation, China has broken into the top 20 of a global list of the most innovative economies for the first time. China has been the world leader in applications for patent for invention for years. It received about 1.54 million applications of invention patents in 2018, according to the annual statistics of the National Intellectual Property Administration (NIPA). China has made tremendous achievements in intellectual property rights protection in recent years. Multiple intellectual property laws in line with international rules have been passed or amended, specialized courts have been set up in major cities including Beijing and Shanghai. China's image as an innovation powerhouse is also underpinned by the birth of a batch of "unicorn" tech companies like Tencent and Didi Chuxing. China's innovation and entrepreneurship drive is not a solo show, foreign companies will continue to tap the vast potential of the Chinese market. The ongoing review of the draft Foreign Investment Law showcases China's resolve to improve the business environment for foreign companies in China, which are an indispensable part of the country's economic and innovation activities. The draft law addresses major concerns of foreign companies in China, including protection of intellectual property rights, making its investment climate more equitable for domestic and foreign capital, and creating a level playing field. China's consistent efforts in improving the business environment have produced positive results. According to the World Bank, China ranked 46th globally for ease of doing business in 2018, up from 78th in 2017. In the future, China will introduce more reform measures and favorable policy to create a better environment for innovation and development, to transform innovation into real productivity. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 23:33:37|Editor: yan Video Player Close RIYADH, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia is ready to launch its second phase of the renewable energy program with seven solar photovoltaic energy projects, Saudi Press Agency reported on Monday. According to the report, the projects would generate 1.52 gigawatts and direct investments of 1.51 billion U.S. dollars. The new phase kicked off after the Saudi Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources announced the evaluation of bids for the new projects. In January, 256 companies, including 100 local ones, expressed interests in taking part in those projects. They would generate energy that can serve 226,500 families and create more than 4,500 job opportunities. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 23:33:38|Editor: yan Video Player Close YAOUNDE, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Cameroon's Minister of Defense, Joseph Beti Assomo on Monday held a meeting with senior military and police officers to evaluate security measures in the country in the wake of "growing violence". "The security situation in the country now is marked by violence sparked by secessionists and criminal gangs in the Northwest and Southwest regions. This has led to suffering," Assomo said at the start of the meeting in the capital, Yaounde. "Fortunately this is being fought by defense and security forces with courage, determination and professionalism in strict respect of laws," he said, while expressing his regret over the dissemination of "fake news" about the conflict in the regions, which is detrimental to the army's image. "In any case, defense and security forces, will not fall into the traps of fake news. They (forces) will sanction any undisciplined soldiers going against military rules." Assomo said. The meeting is expected to establish a blueprint that will ensure a return to normalcy "in violent parts of the country", officials of the army told reporters. Cameroon is facing growing insecurity in its two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest where separatists want to create a new nation called "Ambazonia". Government forces are also engaged in battles with kidnappers in the mountainous region of Adamawa and Boko Haram terror group in the Far North region of the country. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 23:38:39|Editor: yan Video Player Close SHANGHAI, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese carmaker SAIC Motor Corporation Limited saw auto sales fall 16.9 percent year-on-year in the first two months of 2019 amid a wider sales slump in the world's largest auto market. In a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange late Monday, SAIC Motor, partners of General Motors and Volkswagen, said vehicle sales in January and February totalled 974,447 units. Sales at SAIC Volkswagen and SAIC General Motors fell 10.4 percent and 14.7 percent to 301,017 units and 277,674 units, respectively. SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle Company, which churns out its self-owned brands, saw sales down 16.7 percent year-on-year to 100,008 units. Sales at SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile, a leading mini van maker, declined 27.1 percent to 259,012 units. China's passenger car market remained sluggish in February, with sales down 18.5 percent year on year, according to the China Passenger Car Association. China sold 1.19 million passenger cars last month, falling for the ninth straight month. The decreased rate in February expanded sharply from a 4-percent year-on-year drop in January. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 23:48:42|Editor: yan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The UN General Assembly and the Security Council on Monday separately observed a minute of silence for the UN staff members who lost their lives in Sunday's air crash in Ethiopia. At the beginning of a Commission on the Status of Women meeting at the General Assembly, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made a brief statement to mourn the deaths of the UN staff members before delegates observed a minute of silence. Guterres said at least 21 UN staff members were killed in Sunday's crash. An undetermined number of other victims were working "close to" the United Nations. The UN Security Council, at the beginning of its first meeting since the crash, also observed a minute of silence for the victims. Flags at UN Headquarters in New York as well as other agencies across the world are flying in half staff on Monday in memory of the dead. Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed six minutes after takeoff from the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi, Kenya. The route was frequented by UN staff. The World Food Programme, a UN agency, lost seven of its staff members in the crash that killed all 157 people aboard. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 23:48:42|Editor: yan Video Player Close BERLIN, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The German Federal Foreign Office confirmed on Monday that five German people died in Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed near Addis Ababa on Sunday. "The Federal Foreign Office regrets to confirm that, according to the information available to us at the present time, five German nationals were among the victims of the plane crash in Ethiopia," the Federal Foreign Office said in a statement. It added that the "Foreign Office and the relevant German missions are in contact" with the victims' families. German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday night sent a message to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, expressing Germany's sincere condolences to the families and relatives of the victims and the Ethiopian people. An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 MAX aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa on Sunday morning local time, killing all 157 people on board. Flight ET 302 was bound for Nairobi, Kenya. The cause of the crash was not immediately known. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 23:53:44|Editor: yan Video Player Close JERUSALEM, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Israel's security agency said on Monday it had arrested a Palestinian "terrorist," more than two years after he allegedly carried out a stabbing attack in the West Bank. The Shin Bet security agency said in a statement that its investigation revealed that Ayman Muhammad Ali Fughara, 27, was behind a stabbing attack that took place in the settlement of Efrat, south of Jerusalem. In the incident, which occurred in December 2016, knife-wielding Fughara allegedly entered the settlement and stabbed a settler outside his home before fleeing the scene. The victim sustained light injuries. According to the Shin Bet, Fughara, a resident of the village of Jurat ash-Shama, south of Bethlehem, is a supporter of Islamic Hamas movement. Fughara is expected to be indicted by Israel's military prosecution, the Shin Bet said. "The Shin Bet, together with the rest of the security forces, will continue to thwart and investigate into unsolved terror attacks and will not rest until the people involved are brought to justice, even years after the attack," the statement read. The stabbing took place amidst a wave of individual attacks, mainly in the occupied West Bank, amidst a years-long impasse in the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 23:53:45|Editor: yan Video Player Close BISHKEK, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Chingiz Aidarbekov said on Monday that his country attaches great importance to developing relations with China. Aidarbekov made the remarks when meeting with China's new Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Du Dewen, who presented her credentials to the foreign minister on Monday. Expressing welcome to Du to assume her new post in Kyrgyzstan, the foreign minister said that deepening the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership has always been a foreign policy priority for Kyrgyzstan. For her part, Du said "China and Kyrgyzstan are good neighbors, good friends and good partners. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties 27 years ago, bilateral relations have enjoyed sustained, steady and sound development," according to the Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan. "Both sides have actively carried out pragmatic cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative and achieved fruitful results," Du noted. She assured Aidarbekov she would make every effort to deepen the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries during her tenure. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-11 23:58:47|Editor: yan Video Player Close CAPE TOWN, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The South African Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) agreed on Monday to investigate alleged contravention of the electoral code of conduct by the ruling African National Congress (ANC). The IEC promised to refer the matter to the Directorate of Electoral Offenses for investigation. IEC deputy chief electoral officer Masego Sheburi said the matter has been handed over to their legal team. "Once we have received the independent evaluation, the commission will review and decide on a proper course of action which may also include referral to the electoral court if it finds there is merit to the complaint," Sheburi said. This came after the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) lodged a complaint last month that the controversial African Global Operations, also known as Bosasa, spent millions of rand to set up ANC election "war rooms" at its headquarters in Krugersdorp, Gauteng Province, over the past three elections. The DA alleged that these rooms have been used by the ANC to campaign ahead of the 2011, 2014 and 2016 elections. The facilities included a screen wall to track results, computers, cubicles with phones and 70 volunteers. This, the DA said, constitutes contravention of the Electoral Code of Conduct, which states: "No registered party or candidate may abuse a position of power, privilege or influence, including parental, patriarchal, traditional or employment authority to influence the conduct or outcome of an election." Bosasa, believed to be closely linked with the ANC, recently went into voluntary liquidation due to business irregularities. As most of Bosasa's contracts are still alive, the ANC continues to use Bosasa-funded "war rooms" to campaign ahead of the next general election, scheduled for May 8 this year, according to the DA. "It is high time that the ANC pays back every cent of the money it has received from Bosasa," DA leader Mmusi Maimane said. The IEC needs to assure South African voters that these ANC-Bosasa "dirty tricks" will not play out in the run-up to the election, he said. "We trust the IEC will investigate without fear or favor, and await the outcome of such investigation," Maimane said. The ANC has refrained from commenting on the allegation. The upcoming election is expected to be the most contesting since the end of apartheid in 1994. The ANC, which has remained dominant since 1994, is facing growing challenge from the opposition parties, particularly the DA and the Economic Freedom Fighters. A poll conducted by the South African Institute of Race Relations in February shows a decline in support for the ANC nationally and especially in Gauteng Province. According to the poll, only 54.7 percent of those surveyed support the ANC nationally, down from the 62.1 percent the party garnered in 2014. In Gauteng Province, the poll puts the ANC's support at 41 percent, down from the 53.6 percent it won in the last general election. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 00:13:52|Editor: yan Video Player Close BERLIN, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Europe's largest aerospace company Airbus has launched a testing project for an electrical-powered passenger aircraft drone in the German city of Ingolstadt on Monday. The so-called City-Airbus, presented by Airbus as a life-sized demonstration model for the first time, is designed for urban transport and can carry four people over a distance of up to 50 km. The City-Airbus is set to be tested on the airfield in Manching near Ingolstadt starting in the middle of the year. "Looks pretty cool, now it just has to fly," commented Germany's minister of transport Andreas Scheuer, during the presentation of the Airbus test project on Monday. As part of the European research program Urban Air Mobility (UAM), several companies and institutes are researching and testing urban passenger drones in Ingoldstadt, including the technical university of Ingolstadt, the Fraunhofer research institute as well as Ingolstadt-based car manufacturer Audi. Other German car manufacturers have started their own research. Daimler is cooperating with the startup Volocopter and recently announced to test a similar autonomous passenger aircraft at Germany's largest airport in Frankfurt. In February, German Transport Minister Scheuer announced a 15 million euros (16.9 million U.S. dollars) governmental funding program for the development and testing of drones and aircraft for urban transportation. The aim of the project was to promote innovative aviation concepts and applications in Germany, according to the German transportation ministry (BMVI). "We want to bring drones and flying taxis from the laboratory into the air," said Scheuer while adding that such aircraft would be the "takeoff into a new dimension of mobility" and a "huge opportunity" for local authorities, companies and start-ups that would already "driving development very concretely and successfully". However, Europe's largest aircraft manufacturer Airbus is not expecting the necessary legal regulations for urban passenger aircraft to be adopted in Europe before 2025. "Only then can air taxis be used commercially," said Gregor von Kursell, press spokesman of Airbus. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 00:23:55|Editor: yan Video Player Close KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in is set to make a three-day state visit to Malaysia to boost bilateral ties, the Malaysian Foreign Ministry said on Monday. Moon is scheduled to meet with Malaysian King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah and Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on March 12-14, the ministry said in a statement. Among issues to be discussed will be the upcoming 60th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between the two countries in 2020 and the enhancement of ties between South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). "This state visit is expected to further reinvigorate Kuala Lumpur-Seoul ties and lay the new groundwork for the bilateral relations to flourish," it said. Moon, together with Mahathir, will witness the signing of four Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) involving industrial cooperation, transportation, the development of a smart city in Malaysia and the halal food industry. Bilateral trade between the two countries has grown from 15.76 billion U.S. dollars in 2017 to 17.98 billion U.S. dollars last year, with South Korea becoming Malaysia's 8th largest trading partner globally, the Malaysian Foreign Ministry said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 00:23:57|Editor: yan Video Player Close NAIROBI, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to put in place incentives to promote alternative packaging materials to plastic, an official said on Monday. Geoffrey Wahungu, director general of the National Environmental Management Authority said on the sidelines of the fourth session of the UN Environment Assembly that the ban on single use plastic in 2017 created a huge gap in the market. "We are looking at a series of tax incentives to catalyze the private sector to develop alternative materials for packaging from materials such as cotton," Wahungu. He noted that since the plastic ban, Kenya has seen a drastic reduction in plastic menace in the country but there are still challenges. He said that as a result of the ban, there have been increased incidences of smuggling of single use plastics from neighboring countries that still permit use of them. He noted that the proposed fiscal incentives are supposed to ensure that local consumers have alternatives to plastics so as to enhance the success of the plastic ban. The environmental watchdog added that since the ban, there has been limited local production of alternative packing materials and hence the need for government support. Wahungu said there are also plans to regulate use of plastic bottles for packaging beverages through a framework of cooperation agreement between the government and the Kenya Association of Manufacturers. He said that under the agreement, producers of plastic bottles will be required to take back and recycle used bottles so that they don't pollute the environment. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 00:28:57|Editor: Xiaoxia Video Player Close David Firestein (L), inaugural executive director of the University of Texas at Austin's China Public Policy Center, speaks at an event during the ongoing South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference and Festivals in Austin of Texas, the United States, March 10, 2019. Innovation will be an important engine that drives forward U.S.-China cooperation in the future, David Firestein has said. (Xinhua/Wang Ying) AUSTIN, the United States, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Innovation will be an important engine that drives forward U.S.-China cooperation in the future, a former U.S. diplomat has said. Innovation is going to be "a really important area in the overall economic, trade and investment relationship between the United States and China as we go forward," David Firestein told Xinhua on Sunday on the sidelines of the ongoing South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference and Festivals. China, from the top leadership right down the line, has placed great emphasis on the importance of innovation to the Chinese economy, said Firestein, inaugural executive director of The University of Texas at Austin's China Public Policy Center. He served as a U.S. diplomat from 1992 to 2010. The China hand underscored the importance of an innovation ecosystem that could help create the most conducive environment and context for innovation in order for China to become an innovation powerhouse. "Innovation really matters. Every country has to judge for itself what that right, comfortable innovation ecosystem looks like. And I think China has to make a judgment that meets its needs in this regard," he said. Firestein applauded the contributions that events like SXSW 2019 have made to facilitating innovation exchanges and cooperation between the two countries. The SXSW serves as "a platform for bringing innovators together in one of the most innovative cities in the world," he said, in reference to the southern U.S. city of Austin. The 10-day SXSW, which kicked off Friday, has gathered innovators and entrepreneurs from across the globe to breed and fund new ideas. Chinese companies, such as e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, have sent innovators to inspire others and get inspired. In addition to innovation, Firestein said, energy is another area that is going to be "vitally important to helping get the United States and China back on track again." "We will get back on track. And when we do, energy is going to be a really big part of that as well," he said. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 00:38:59|Editor: yan Video Player Close KIEV, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The credit rating agency Fitch Ratings has affirmed Ukraine's long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating at "B-" with a stable outlook, local media reported Monday, citing the agency's report. In its report, Fitch said that the main negative factors affecting Ukraine's rating are weak external liquidity, high external financing needs driven by sovereign external debt repayments, weak banking sector, institutional constraints and political risks. Among the positive factors, the agency named improving macroeconomic stability, declining government debt and obtaining fresh aid from the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the World Bank. Fitch forecasted that Ukraine's gross domestic product growth will slow down to 2.6 percent this year from an estimated 3.2 percent in 2018 due to tighter monetary and fiscal policies, weaker global demand conditions and commodity prices, and more moderate wage increases. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 00:39:00|Editor: yan Video Player Close JOHANNESBURG, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Former South African president Jacob Zuma said a panel review, which found him making use of the intelligence service to fight political battles and spy on President Cyril Ramaphosa, failed to get his views during the probe. At the weekend, Ramaphosa released a report by a high-level review panel on the State Security Agency which stated that intelligence was used to fight factional battles in the past ten years. The report said that there's been political malpurposing and fractionation of the intelligence community over the past decade that resulted in an "almost complete disregard for the constitution, policy and legislation." The report also said that leading up to the ANC's 2017 elective conference, intelligence service was used to spy on Ramaphosa. Ramaphosa was elected as the president in the conference. Responding to the accusation, Zuma said "I have never been asked any questions by this committee. This committee has two well-known Apartheid spies." "I feel nothing when apartheid spies call me corrupt. I hope people are not opening a can of worms which they might regret," he said. He did not specify the two "apartheid spies" though. The Congress of South African Trade Unions on Monday urged Ramaphosa to take actions against those implicated in the report. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 00:44:01|Editor: yan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, March 11 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday warned that there is a "pushback" on women's rights globally. "Around the world, there is a pushback on women's rights," the UN chief said while addressing the opening of the 63rd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63), noting "that pushback is deep, pervasive and relentless." "We witness increased violence against women, especially human rights defenders and women running for political office," he added. "We see online harassment and abuse of women who speak out," said the UN chief, adding that "in some countries, homicide rates are going down - but murders of women are going up." "In others, we see a rollback of legal protection against domestic violence or even female genital mutilation," said Guterres. CSW63 kicked off at UN headquarters in New York on Monday and will last until March 22. Its theme is: Social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. Representatives of UN member states, UN entities, and the Economic and Social Council accredited non-governmental organizations from all regions of the world will attend the session. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 00:54:03|Editor: yan Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, March 11 (Xinhua) -- United Nations staff in Ethiopia on Monday paid tribute to the 19 UN personnel killed in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash on Sunday. The solemn gathering at the UN Conference Center in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa remembered all the 19 UN staff who perished as the Nairobi-bound Boeing 737-8 MAX crashed near Bishoftu town, about 45 km from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Sunday. "It is a very sad day," Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), said during the mourning gathering. "The tragedy impacted on many across different nationalities and international organizations. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families, close friends and colleagues of all the victims of this crash," said Songwe. Representatives from all the UN agencies resident in Ethiopia were present at the flag raising ceremony on Monday at the ECA compound. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 00:59:04|Editor: yan Video Player Close ISLAMABAD, March 11 (Xinhua) -- At least four personnel of the counter-terrorism department of police were injured Monday evening in a bomb blast in Pakistan's southwest city of Quetta, police said. Deputy Inspector General of Quetta Abdul Razzaq Cheema said that the blast hit a police vehicle when it was patrolling in Mian Ghundi area of Quetta, the capital of the Balochistan province. Police, security forces and rescue teams rushed to the site and shifted the wounded to a hospital in the city. A hospital official told media that two of the injured, including the vehicle's driver, are in critical condition. The blast which was heard miles away from the site had destroyed the vehicle completely. An improvised explosive device was planted at a motorbike and it was detonated with a remote-controlled device, police said. No group claimed the attack yet. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 00:59:06|Editor: yan Video Player Close BAGHDAD, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi on Monday held a meeting with visiting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to discuss promotion of bilateral relations and the developments in the region. A statement by his office said that Abdul Mahdi received Rouhani and his accompanying delegation and the two sides discussed "cooperation in combating terrorism and promoting security and stability efforts." They also discussed cooperation in the fields of economic and trade, as well as oil, reconstruction, investment, industrial zones and border crossings, the statement said. The meeting was attended by a number of ministers and high-ranking officials from both sides, including Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Hakim and Oil Minister Thamir al-Ghadhban, in addition to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, according to the statement. Earlier in the day, Rouhani arrived in Baghdad on a three-day official visit heading a delegation of officials and businessmen and held a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart Barham Salih who told a joint press conference that common security in Iraq and Iran and other countries in the Middle East region needs further cooperation. "We want to create a system built on common economic interests among the peoples of the region to get rid of conflicts that engulfed the region," Salih said after an official reception at the presidential palace in Baghdad Green Zone. Salih also expressed thanks to Iran on its support to Iraq in its fight against the Islamic State (IS) group, asserting that "the victory against terrorism is not complete and the countries of the region must cooperate to achieve that." For his part, Rouhani said that Iraq can play an important role in solving the problems of the Middle East region, asserting that the two countries can boost their cooperation in various fields. The visit comes as the United States has been exerting sanctions on Iran's oil industry and its banking and transport sectors, after Washington pulled out from the 2015 nuclear deal last May. Protesters gather near the freedom plaza in Washington D.C., the United States, Jan. 19, 2019. Thousands of women gathered in Washington D.C. on Saturday for the third Women's March, supporting women's rights while denouncing racism and violence against women. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) UNITED NATIONS, March 11 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday warned that there is a "pushback" on women's rights globally. "Around the world, there is a pushback on women's rights," the UN chief said while addressing the opening of the 63rd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63), noting "that pushback is deep, pervasive and relentless." "We witness increased violence against women, especially human rights defenders and women running for political office," he added. "We see online harassment and abuse of women who speak out," said the UN chief, adding that "in some countries, homicide rates are going down - but murders of women are going up." "In others, we see a rollback of legal protection against domestic violence or even female genital mutilation," said Guterres. CSW63 kicked off at UN headquarters in New York on Monday and will last until March 22. Its theme is: Social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. Representatives of UN member states, UN entities, and the Economic and Social Council accredited non-governmental organizations from all regions of the world will attend the session. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 01:39:17|Editor: yan Video Player Close KUNMING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Mi Jinkang, 57, was proud to show her stitchwork to a group of political party officials from several Asian countries on a recent trip to her village. Mi grew up in the Manyuan village of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in southwest China's Yunnan Province. Born an ethnic Dai, she has learned to make folk costumes since she was very young. "Traditionally every Dai girl must learn to sew her own dress. As more girls are attending schools now, many don't have time to learn the craft," Mi said. As the government launched projects to protect ethnic culture and customs, the tradition is coming back, Mi said. The Xishuangbanna prefecture established a culture and tourism bureau in February this year to further promote the development of the Dai culture and its integration with tourism. "We all wear traditional Dai clothes on important occasions such as the Water-Splashing Festival. The dresses are beautiful, and they are very practical," she said. Mi and her husband used to cut rubber and grow rice for a living. The local government has scaled back rubber farming and committed the local development to more sustainable ways of living, said Yan Wenbing, head of the village. "We are prioritizing the Dai clothes industry and the planting of organic mangoes," Yan said. Manyuan has been hailed as a successful model of maintaining natural sceneries, preserving tradition and investing great efforts in the environment. In front of the foreign visitors, Mi presented a hand-sewn sachet to Aizaz Asif, deputy secretary general of the Pakistan Movement for Justice. Aizaz Asif was among some 20 officials from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal to visit Yunnan, at the invitation of the Communist Party of China, for learning and exchanging experiences on the development of ethnic regions. Bordered by Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos, Yunnan boasts dozens of ethnicities with diverse cultures. After visiting the Manyuan village, home to 436 people, Chandra Prakash Mainali, general secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), said he was impressed by ethnic unity in China, as well as rapid economic and social development in areas inhabited by ethnic groups. For Mi, the good thing is that young women in the village are learning the craft from elderly women. "Young people are quite innovative. I hope more people will come and see our craft," said Mi. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 02:19:28|Editor: yan Video Player Close KIEV, March 11 (Xinhua) -- A severe windstorm hit several regions in central, southern and northern Ukraine on Sunday and Monday, claiming the lives of at least three people and injuring four others, the State Service for Emergencies said. An 11-year-old girl and a 28-year-old woman were killed by falling trees in two separate incidents in Vinnytsya region in central Ukraine, it said. Besides, a woman died and her daughter was critically injured in the town of Korosten in northern Zhytomyr region after they were struck by a dislodged part of the roof of a local supermarket. In southern Mykolayiv region, two children and an adult were injured after a tree uprooted by the windstorm fell on a passenger bus with 15 people on board. The State Service for Emergencies issued an orange alert, the second highest in the country four-tier warning system, for 15 regions in different parts of Ukraine, saying they could be hit by a windstorm by the end of Monday. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 02:29:31|Editor: yan Video Player Close Demonstrators stand outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, March 11, 2019. British Prime Minister Theresa May is likely to face another Brexit vote defeat in the parliament on Tuesday amid her failure to find a breakthrough in talks with the European Union (EU). (Xinhua/Joe Newman) by Xinhua writer Gu Zhenqiu LONDON, March 11 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May is likely to face another Brexit vote defeat in the parliament on Tuesday amid her failure to find a breakthrough in talks with the European Union (EU). Downing Street on Monday admitted that talks with the EU are in "deadlock," thus reducing the prime minister's options on Brexit. The prime minister is fighting to save her Brexit deal while she was not able to report any progress in the Brexit talks with the EU. There are speculations here that the Tuesday vote could be postponed or downgraded, but Downing Street said that the vote will go ahead as planned. The British government is expected to publish its own motions later Monday. Almost all sides are piling pressure on the prime minister at a time when the EU said that there would be no more high-level backstop talks and senior MPs began preparing to strip the prime minister of key Brexit decisions. Brexiteers in the parliament hardened their position that the withdrawal agreement will suffer an "inevitable" heavy defeat without binding changes that would allow Britain to end the backstop in future. It is known to all that only major compromise from the EU can help the prime minister in her painstaking efforts to ensure her victory in the crunch parliamentary vote. The Brussels-based European Commission said it was offering nothing more to help the prime minister. Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, but MPs rejected May's withdrawal deal in January and demanded major changes. So far, May has failed to secure significant concessions from Brussels. Some senior Conservative MPs urged the prime minister to postpone the Tuesday vote with no major compromises from the EU. In late February, May pledged to hold another meaningful vote by Tuesday, and if that fails, MPs will be given a chance to decide both on pursuing a no-deal Brexit and an extension of Article 50. The prime minister has reportedly no plan for her last-minute travel on Monday to Brussels, less than 24 hours before the vote in the House of Commons on the deal. However, Down Street said that May was ready to fly to Brussels to agree a revised deal with President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker. In other words, she will kick off the Brussels trip with a condition: if sufficient concessions can be negotiated, according to British media. But the current development suggests that such a condition is not available at this stage against the unyielding EU. Under the circumstances, the prime minister faced mounting pressure to quit as Tory Eurosceptic rebels asked May to announce her plans to resign to win the support of Conservative Brexiteers. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned Eurosceptics that failing to back May's deal meant there was "a risk and a possibility that we end up losing Brexit in the next couple of weeks." One more pressure is from Brussels, which is preparing to charge Britain billions of pounds and impose a number of other punitive conditions as its price for agreeing a Brexit delay. With no signs of a breakthrough in the Brexit negotiations, the House of Commons is expected to reject the Brexit deal for a second time on Tuesday. In January, May has sustained the heaviest parliamentary defeat of any British prime minister in the modern era after MPs rejected her Brexit deal by a resounding majority of 230. If May's deal is voted down on Tuesday in the parliament, she then faces a possible defeat on a second vote on Wednesday to prevent a no-deal Brexit on March 29, and a third vote on Thursday to extend the Article 50 divorce process, likely until the end of June. However, there was also uncertainty about the status of the next two binding parliamentary votes promised by the prime minister if her deal was rejected on Tuesday. It was unclear if the votes would go ahead this week or even if the prime minister would try to whip Tories one way or the other. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 02:49:37|Editor: yan Video Player Close GENEVA, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Flags flew at half-mast on Monday at the United Nation's European headquarters in Geneva as staff from UN agencies and associated organizations mourned the loss of colleagues aboard the Ethiopian Airlines flight which crashed on Sunday. An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 bound for Nairobi, Kenya, crashed shortly after taking off from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa Sunday morning local time, killing all 157 people on board, including eight crew members. "Yesterday's terrible air crash in Ethiopia took the lives of all those on board -- including at least 21 of our UN colleagues, according to the latest information, not to mention an undetermined number of people that have been working closely with the UN," the UN said in a statement. Those killed in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 included UN staff, delegates, and others, many of whom were on their way to the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi, said the UN. According to Michael Moller, director-general of UN Geneva, those working in the UN building observed a minute of silence at noon on Monday to show solidarity with the victims, including the UN colleagues in the UN system. The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, said it was mourning the loss of three colleagues, two mothers, and a father, killed in the crash, while a staff member of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) was also killed. "We've been struck by a sudden and terrible loss," said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, cutting short a visit to the Middle East and urgently returning to UNHCR headquarters in Geneva. "This is devastating for all families who lost their dear ones in yesterday's crash. Our thoughts are with them." Among the victims, 32 are from Kenya, 18 from Canada, nine from Ethiopia, eight each from China, Italy and the United States, seven each from Britain and France, six from Egypt, and the remaining from more than 20 other countries, said the airline. Rescuers work beside the wreckage of an Ethiopian Airlines' aircraft at the crash site, some 50 km east of Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, on March 10, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Shoubao) SAN FRANCISCO, March 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. top aircraft manufacturer Boeing has postponed the debut of 777X airplane previously planned for this week, local media reported on Sunday night. The company has decided to delay the unveiling ceremony of the 777X originally slated for Wednesday and will look for another opportunity for its debut, a Boeing employee responsible for media affairs, who preferred to remain anonymous, confirmed to Xinhua on Monday. Boeing tweeted on March 4 that "our very first #777X flight test airplane will officially debut to the world on March 13th! " The Boeing's rescheduling of the 777X rollout came after a deadly air crash of Ethiopian Airlines Sunday, killing all 157 passengers and crew members aboard a Boeing 737 MAX 8. It was the second crash of the same type of aircraft after one operated by Indonesia's Lion Air crashed in October last year. Boeing said in a short statement the same day that it was deeply saddened to learn of the death of the passengers and crew on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 (ET 302). "We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the families and loved ones of the passengers and crew on board and stand ready to support the Ethiopian Airlines team," it said. Boeing added that a technical team would travel to the crash site to provide technical assistance to the Ethiopian authorities. Since the deadly Sunday air crash, several countries have grounded Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft over safety concerns. The Boeing 777X aircraft is installed with the largest jet engines ever made by the aerospace industry, with a length of 77 meters from nose to tail, the longest passenger jet that Boeing has manufactured in its 102-year history. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 03:59:48|Editor: yan Video Player Close Workers prepare the copies of Volume 1 of U.S. President Donald Trump's budget for Fiscal Year 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., the United States, on March 11, 2019. U.S. President Donald Trump presented to Congress on Monday a budget proposal for fiscal year 2020 that contained stiff spending cuts across non-defense federal agencies, and a hike in defense money. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) WASHINGTON, March 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump presented to Congress on Monday a budget proposal for fiscal year 2020 that contained stiff spending cuts across non-defense federal agencies, and a hike in defense money. According to the 4.7-trillion-U.S.-dollar budget proposal, the Trump administration plans to cut domestic spending by 5 percent over the next year, or a nearly 30-billion-dollar reduction, involving programs on education, health care and environment protections, among others. The budget blueprint, designed for fiscal year 2020 that starts on Oct. 1, proposes 2.7-trillion-dollar spending cuts over the next decade, including 1.9 trillion dollars in cuts to mandatory programs, a senior administration official told a briefing Monday. The official said the budget "will have more reductions in spending than any president in history has ever proposed." The budget plan foresees a 1.1-trillion-dollar deficit in 2019, 2020 and 2021, and a 1-trillion-dollar deficit in 2022. The Trump administration predicts that the United States will return to budget balance in 2034. In addition, the U.S. national debt has exceeded 22 trillion dollars, according to the budget document, which said "Washington must fix its longtime spending problem." The White House projected that the government will pay 482 billion dollars on interest payments for the debt next year. "If nothing is done, interest payments alone on the Federal Government's debt will double by 2023 and exceed spending on the U.S. military by 2024," the budget document asserted. The budget roadmap would increase defense spending by nearly 5 percent to 750 billion dollars from 716 billion in fiscal year 2019. It also seeks 8.6 billion dollars for constructing additional sections of a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico -- 5 billion dollars in funding for the Department of Homeland Security and 3.6 billion dollars for the Department of Defense's military construction funds. The administration official said the White House believes it is important to engage the appropriators in the national defense authorization process in a transparent manner, and "to be able to transparently put forward money that we would anticipate being drawn down from military construction accounts." Other highlights of the budget proposal include making the Republican tax cuts permanent, and a 200-billion-dollar funding for infrastructure that, according to the official, involves not only surface transportation but also broadband. The budget also requests 6.1 billion dollars for the Environmental Protection Agency, down 2.8 billion dollars, or 31 percent, from the estimate for fiscal year 2019. The administration official said that "6 billion dollars at a time of 1-trillion-dollar deficit is something that is affordable for the country." The Trump administration will provide a federal tax credit of up to 50 billion dollars over 10 years for donations to scholarship programs elementary and secondary students seeking state-level public or private education. It is part of the "school choice initiative." The budget proposes a welfare reform setting more stringent work requirements for working-age individuals, a move the administration said would save 327 billion dollars. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 04:19:53|Editor: yan Video Player Close AMMAN, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The Jordan Atomic Energy Commission said on Monday that Saudi Arabia has started a program to train its staff and cadres in Jordan in uranium mining. Under the one-year program, which is conducted in cooperation with the Jordanian Atomic Energy Commission and Jordanian Uranium Mining Company, Saudis will be trained in exploring uranium ore, developing uranium oxide and feasibility study. The first batch of Saudi trainees includes 13 specialists, the commission said in a statement obtained by Xinhua. In 2017, Jordan and Saudi Arabia signed agreements on cooperation in uranium exploration and a joint feasibility study into the construction of two small modular reactors (SMRs) in Jordan. Saudi Arabia and Jordan also signed a nuclear cooperation agreement in January 2014. Jordan is working on a national program to create nuclear reactors for power generation and has launched a major nuclear research reactor that benefits the Middle East. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 04:39:58|Editor: yan Video Player Close SKOPJE, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The parliament of North Macedonia adopted on Monday the law on the prevention and protection against discrimination after long debates between the ruling coalition and opposition parties. The law was passed with 52 votes in favor and three abstentions. The lawmakers of the ruling coalition parties discussed and had clashes with the opposition parties on the benefits arising from the law. They expressed their belief that the law is a democratic European law promoting human rights and freedom, whereas the opposition said the law could cause the redefinition of the family category and marriage cancellation. North Macedonia's Minister of Labor and Social Policy Mila Carovska told the lawmakers that the law complied with European and international standards for the protection of citizens against any discrimination. The adopted law prohibits any discrimination based on race, origin, nationality or ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, political beliefs, or any other grounds. Civil society representatives rallied in Skopje in front of the parliament during the plenary session to ask for the lawmakers to adopt the law. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 04:49:59|Editor: yan Video Player Close MOGADISHU, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) top envoy in Somalia on Monday mourned the death of an AU mission senior official in the deadly plane crash in Ethiopia. Francisco Madeira, special representative of the chairperson of the AU Commission for Somalia, said he learned with shock and sadness of the sudden death of Christine Alalo who was until her demise the acting police commissioner of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). Madeira said in a statement issued in Mogadishu that Alalo, a Ugandan, was among the 157 people killed aboard Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi which crashed six minutes after taking off from Bole International Airport on Sunday. He said Alalo will be remembered for her dedication, commitment and professionalism with which she led the AU police component in Somalia since 2015 and for the very positive results she was able to obtain in that capacity. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 05:15:04|Editor: yan Video Player Close By Eric J. Lyman ROME, March 11 (Xinhua) -- In an attempt to help jumpstart Italy's moribund economy, Italian Minster of Economic Development Luigi Di Maio has announced a one-billion-euro plan to help support startup companies and boost economic innovation. The funds, equivalent to 1.12 billion U.S. dollars, will be used for business loans, research and development, tax relief, refining ideas and in many ways helping stand in for a venture capital sector largely absent in Italy. Unveiling the plan, Di Maio called the initiative "a bet on the future" that will help make the economy more dynamic while stemming the tide of educated young Italians leaving the country in search of work. "This is the first act," Di Maio said. "Everything we do from here on out will revolve around this these. It will be at the center of future policies." A GOOD START Flavio Notari, a John Cabot University professor and a fellow with think tank Competere, said it was too soon to judge the long-term implications of the proposal. "We don't know the specifics of how the money will be used and some might argue that the amount is low," Notari, who specializes in start-up companies, told Xinhua. "But it's a good start. It won't resolve problems on its own but it's a good start." Europe has long trailed the U.S. in terms of spending on new ideas, according to Stefano Denicolai, an innovation management professor at the University of Pavia. Denicolai said Germany, France and Italy, the three largest economies in the eurozone combined have less venture capital available for startups than that of Silicon Valley, California, the high-tech hub near San Francisco that gave birth to hundreds of tech companies including Apple, Google, Cisco Systems, and Hewlett-Packard. But Italy even trails lower European levels in high tech business development. In recent years, only 178 of the 5,600 European Union startups were based in Italy, according to Italian media reports. Similarly, only 1.3 billion euros (1.5 billion U.S. dollars) of the 81 billion euros (91 billion U.S. dollars) was spent on Italian companies. Those figures translate to 3.2 and 1.6 percent of the European Union total, respectively, in a country with a gross domestic product worth around 12 percent of the total EU economy. EFFICIENCY MATTERS Furthermore, in Italy, most of the funds available for startups come through slow-moving and often risk-adverse institutions like the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, an investment bank controlled by Italy's Ministry of Finance. That could be a flaw in Di Maio's plans, Denicolai said, because much of it appears to depend on the existing infrastructure of the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti to evaluate potential startups and to distribute funds. "This plan addresses a real problem, but it would be better if the plan would also reduce the bureaucracy new companies face, and to encourage risk takers," Denicolai said in an interview. "But something has to be done and I would argue that it is better to do something that is imperfect than it would be to wait for the perfect plan and do nothing until it is ready." One idea Denicolai suggested was using the money as a kind of matching fund for private investments. "With this idea, private investors do the research and evaluate and if they like what they see, the money they invest is matched by the state's money," Denicolai noted. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 05:25:06|Editor: Shi Yinglun Video Player Close A Saudi woman raises a question during a meeting on women's career in civil aviation at Prince Sultan University campus in Saudi Arabia's capital of Riyadh, on Feb. 26, 2019. A recent meeting, as part of a "Let's Talk Aviation" campaign organized by Flynas in conjunction with Prince Sultan University, attracted women from across the industry. Flynas and Flyadeal, two Saudi low-fare airlines, have shattered the big blue ceiling, graduating their first class of female Saudi flight attendants and putting them on their first flights earlier this year. (Xinhua/Centre for International Communication) RIYADH, March 11 (Xinhua) -- It did not take long for Saudis to get used to female cashiers at local supermarkets in 2010, nor saleswomen explaining the differences of electronics a couple of years later. Then came women behind the wheel in 2018. Next up: Saudi women will be working at an altitude of 30,000 feet as cabin crew to ensure the safety and comfort of airline passengers. Flynas and Flyadeal, two Saudi low-fare airlines, have shattered the big blue ceiling, graduating their first class of female Saudi flight attendants and putting them on their first flights earlier this year. It is another sign of the Saudi drive to empower women in the workplace and in a society that, until recently, curtailed most moves to put women on an equal footing with men in the country. With aviation earmarked as a main component in the campaign for economic diversification, privatization and increased employment of women, Flynas has taken the initiative to pursue those goals through the establishment of its "Future Pilots" and "Flight Attendants" programs, both of which proactively encourage the participation of women. Until now, passengers on Saudi airlines were attended to by foreigners. Flyadeal, which had begun posting jobs for Saudi women to work as flight attendants in the second half of 2018, graduated its first cadre of female Saudi flight attendants earlier this year, and started working soon afterward. "Saudi women are as competent as their male counterparts when it comes to working as flight attendants and ensuring the safety and comfort of travellers," said Mashael Muteb, Flynas' first female Saudi flight attendant who had been trained as a dentist before entering Flynas' flight attendants program. Muteb, who has a degree in dentistry and public health without background in aviation, said her love for flying and aviation arose when her sister graduated from the flight school. "But there were no jobs for her in this field in Saudi at the time. I continued studying health as there were no aviation tracks or courses offered at universities in Saudi yet. But that all changed last September on hearing Flynas' announcement of introducing more jobs in aviation for women," she said. Her first experience of flying as a stewardess was on the Flynas Airbus A320. She recalled the first flight as "an opening eye experience on dealing with different personalities". There does not seem to be much dispute about the abilities of Saudi women to play valuable roles in aviation. According to Flynas, some 300 women and men are expected to attend its flight attendants' program over the next two years, and the airline expects to begin employing Saudi female co-pilots in the near future. In January 2018, Eqbal Darandari, an assistant professor of psychology at King Saud University in Riyadh and one of the first female members of the Shura Council, the consultative assembly of Saudi Arabia, called for the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) and Saudi airline companies to support employing Saudi women as pilots, co-pilots and flight attendants. Empowering Saudi women in business and integrating them into a predominantly male job market is a substantial part of fulfilling the country's Vision 2030, which also intends to increase women's participation in the workforce from 22 percent to 30 percent by the end of the next decade. A recent meeting, as part of a "Let's Talk Aviation" campaign organized by Flynas in conjunction with Prince Sultan University, attracted women from across the industry. Raghda Al-Sulaimani, corporate communications manager at Nesma, a small Saudi airline, began her professional life as a copywriter before receiving a job offer from the airline. In addressing her female cohorts working in aviation, Al-Sulaimani stressed the importance of creating a balance and a culture of equality between men and women in the workplace. She also urged all aviation companies to create more opportunities for women. And it is not just the private sector that is opening its doors to women. The GACA hired Maha Al-Yamani, a specialist in risk management, as its first female employee. According to Al-Yamani, an abundance of positions are available in the aviation sector for Saudi women and the future looks bright in the light of the recent doubling of the number of Saudi women working in the field. A series of reforms in the country over the past two years has focused largely on empowering women. Notable among these reforms was a Royal Decree issued in September 2017, which lifted the ban on women driving from June 24, 2018. Recently, Saudi women broke down the gender barriers across public sectors. According to Saudi Press Agency, there are 220 women working at the Ministry of Justice which has granted law practice licenses to 418 female lawyers and trained 3,140 others. In February, Princess Reema bint Bandar bin Sultan was appointed as the ambassador to the United States, making history by becoming the first Saudi woman to take such position. "Whether on the ground or in the air, the sky's the limit for us," said Esraa Alem, 31, communication representative at the Saudi Ground Services Company (SGSC). Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 05:40:08|Editor: yan Video Player Close LAGOS, March 11 (Xinhua) -- A new attack by the armed men killed 16 people on Sunday in a village in Nigeria's northern state of Kaduna, local police said Monday. Yakubu Sabo, a state police spokesperson, who confirmed this to reporters in Kaduna, said the armed men entered Barde village under Maro town in Kajuru area and started shooting sporadically which led to the death of 16 people. He said upon receiving information, the police mobilized teams of operatives alongside military personnel with a view to apprehending the perpetrators and restoring normalcy to the area. The spokesperson added that operation was ongoing and the situation has been brought under control. Sabo appealed for calm and extended his heartfelt condolences to the families of those who were affected by the recent carnage. Local police have launched an investigation into the incident, he added. Kaduna state is one of the states witnessing a number of attacks recently. Unidentified gunmen attacked eight villages in Kajuru area of Kaduna on Feb. 15, leading to more than 130 deaths. Local authorities confirmed on Feb. 27 four villages in the same area were attacked by gunmen, with 29 people killed, including a policeman. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 05:50:10|Editor: yan Video Player Close KHARTOUM, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The Sudanese government on Monday extended condolences to Ethiopia over the crash of an Ethiopian plane. "Sudan's Ministry of foreign affairs extends the sincere condolences of Sudan government and people to brotherly Ethiopia over the crash incident of the Ethiopian Airlines plane," said Sudan's foreign ministry in a statement. "The ministry also extends its condolences to the families, friends, countries and peoples of the victims," the statement added. The ministry also voiced Sudan's full solidarity with Ethiopia during the difficult times. An Ethiopian Airlines plane, Boeing 737, crashed on Sunday, shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa airport en route to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, killing all 157 aboard. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 05:55:12|Editor: yan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, March 11 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Democratic Party announced Monday that it will hold its 2020 national convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, determined to take back a crucial state it lost in 2016. "We're going to Milwaukee for the 2020 Democratic national convention," the Democratic Party said on social media, adding that Fiserv Forum will be the venue for the event. The national convention, which will yield the Democratic contender for the 2020 presidential election, is scheduled on July 13-16, leaving 16 months for a crowded group of Democratic presidential hopefuls to fight over party nomination. So far a number of Democratic figures have entered the race for a chance to beat President Donald Trump in 2020, notable figures include U.S. Senators Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kirsten Gillibrand and Representative Tulsi Gabbard. Former Vice President Joe Biden is expected to announce his bid in the near future. The Democratic Party said this is the first time that a Midwest city other than Chicago had been selected to host the quadrennial event since 1916, a move viewed by many as a gesture underscoring the the party's emphasis on the state of Wisconsin, which Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton lost in 2016. The Republican Party has selected the city of Charlotte in North Carolina for its national convention next year. Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-12 06:05:14|Editor: yan Video Player Close RABAT, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Two Moroccans and five sub-Saharan Africans were arrested on Monday in the Moroccan city of Oujda for their suspected links to illegal immigration networks, the Moroccan police said in a statement. The arrest came after a joint and simultaneous operation by the security authorities in different locations in Oujda, according to the statement. The operation also resulted in the arrest of 81 people for attempted illegal immigration from sub-Saharan Africa, including 26 women and seven children. In addition, four vehicles used to transport these people, knives, mobile phones and passports belonging to victims of the criminal networks, were seized. Investigations are underway to determine the national extensions of the criminal networks, reveal their possible links outside Morocco and arrest all participants involved. Roamingul in UE, eliminat pana in 2032, in urma unui acord incheiat cu Parlamentul European Statele membre ale Uniunii Europene (UE) si negociatori ai Parlamentului European (PE) au anuntat ca au ajuns la un acord, in noaptea de miercuri spre joi, in vederea unei prelungiri - cu zece ani - a anularii [citeste mai departe] As of Monday morning, pro-Russian militants have not opened fire in the combat area in eastern Ukraine. The Joint Forces Operation HQ reported this on March 11. It appears that none of the warring sides violated the armistice on that day. The Joint Forces keep the situation under control. Earlier, the Armed Forces of Ukraine detained the fighter of the Luhansk Peoples Republic on March 9, the detainee expressed willingness to fight for the Ukrainian army. The Joint Forces Operation (JFO) HQ reports this. On March 9, the soldiers of one of the units of the brigade of the Joint Forces operation, which carries combat missions in the direction of Severodonetsk, noticed a man heading along the forest line towards our position. When the four soldiers went closer to him and let him go down the trench, then our defenders detained the unknown man, the report said. The detainee had a Kalashnikov AK-74 machinegun, a military ID of the 'Luhansk People's Republic', issued in Alchevsk, as well as the banknotes of the Russian bank, a vacation ticket, a certificate of medical treatment of the military unit L 74347 and other similar documents. The detained man appeared to be a citizen of Ukraine, Y. was born in Mykolayiv in 1976, and his passport was issued in Stakhanov city in 1992. The registration of traitors passport is also Stakhanov city of Luhansk region," the report said. The detainee can get up to five years imprisonment if the court finds him guilty One Ukrainian soldier was detained in Kherson region, he is suspected of deserting Ukrainian army and changing side to the aggressor one after the Crimea annexation. The National Police of Crimea reports this. The police officers of the Criminal police of Crime found a serviceman, who is suspected of siding with the occupant state. 34 years old man was serving in the Ukrainian Navy of Ukraine. After the occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, he sided with the aggressor, where he was serving by the contract, the report said. The man was transferred to the military prosecutor office of the Southern region in Odesa post. He is suspected under article 408 part 2 (Deserting) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. In case of finding his guilt, he can get up to five years imprisonment. Earlier, Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) detained Ukrainian serviceman who deserted from Ukraines Armed Forces with the intention to serve in the Russian Army. The deserter was hiding in one of the apartments in Zaporizhia city. He had weapons and falsified documents that hide his involvement in the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) in Donbas. Open source The presence of a television comedian-turned-political interloper in Ukraine's presidential race has eerie parallels to Donald Trump's candidacy in the 2016 US election. The main difference is that a country like the United States can probably survive its choice, whereas Ukraine cannot. If life imitates art, Nikolai Gogol, who had a keen grasp of the delusional and demented, could have scripted many of the key political events of recent years. Consider a story that begins with a woman announcing her presidential candidacy and quickly becoming despite her flaws the favorite to win. But out of nowhere appears another candidate: a television star with no qualifications for public office. In short order, this buffoonish interloper goes for the jugular, heaping one big lie after another on his opponent, while spouting absurd promises about social policy and security matters. His proposals fall apart under the slightest scrutiny, but it doesnt seem to matter. More citizens drift into his camp, attracted by his vow to drain the swamp and lock up his crooked opponent. The world is taken aback as he bamboozles his way to victory. This black comedy describes the 2016 US presidential election, when Donald Trump came to power in one of the worlds most powerful countries and its oldest democracy. But while America might well recover from electing a louche carnival barker, Gogols birthplace, Ukraine, is another matter. A country whose independence always seems to be hanging by a thread, Ukraine is reprising the same bizarre story that brought Trump to power in 2016. Recent opinion polls show a surge of public support for Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian who once played a naive president on TV and is now running for that office in real life, despite not knowing anything about politics or public policy. Unlike the United States, Ukraine has no margin for error in politics. It is mired in an undeclared war with Russia that has taken some 15,000 lives and turned over one million people into refugees in their own land. Having been invaded by its mighty neighbor and witnessed the illegal annexation of Crimea, Ukraine is in no position to have its all-powerful presidency placed in the hands of a political ingenue. By pretending that he is capable of managing Ukraines many complexities, Zelensky, like Trump, betrays a contempt for the country he says he loves. He is certainly unfit to confront Ukraines warring oligarchs, who are eager to loot the states coffers under the absent supervision of a useful idiot. One can only wonder why Zelensky has thrown his jesters cap into the ring. Most likely, he recognizes that the other two leading candidates, current President Petro Poroshenko and two-time former Prime Minister Yuliya Timoshenko, each have a lot of political baggage. And so, like Trump, he has presented himself as a new broom that will sweep out all of the corrupt politicians. Poroshenko, for his part, has presided over the past five years of unacknowledged warfare with Russia, while carrying out some important reforms (particularly to the gas-transmission system). But he has done little to improve the Ukrainian armys readiness or prevent cronies and ministers from plundering its budget. Poroshenko himself has become much wealthier while serving as president, raising serious concerns about his fitness for another term. As for Tymoshenko, her story, too complicated for satire, is more akin to something from Tolstoy than from Gogol. Though she was a divisive figure in the 1990s and during her premierships, she proved effective in negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end a gas dispute in 2009, sparing Kyiv and much of Europe from the shivering cold. For that, Victor Yanukovych, the Kremlin puppet who was then Ukraines president, put her on trial for abuse of power after his own election in 2010. Tymoshenko challenged Yanukovych and his cronies to dig into her past. Her opponents spent millions of dollars searching for evidence of corruption, with help from the best American private investigators money could buy. Yet in the end, they found none from either of her two terms as prime minister. One of Tymoshenkos nemeses from this period was Paul Manafort, former chairman of Trumps 2016 campaign, who is now facing a long prison term for crimes related to his work in Ukraine on behalf of Yanukovych. Manaforts involvement in this story it was he who funneled millions of dollars to smear Tymoshenko should tell Ukrainian voters all they need to know. In a political system systematically distorted by oligarchic interests, Tymoshenko is probably the only candidate who would even try to deliver on the promise of stemming corruption. Against this backdrop, Zelensky is posing as an outsider who is untainted by the countrys culture of swindling. In fact, he is a plant for Ihor Kolomoisky, one of Ukraines most unprincipled oligarchs (which really is saying something.). Kolomoisky just so happens to own the television station that made Zelensky a star, and he has used his private army to try to intimidate Poroshenko. Among other things, he seems to want to regain control of PrivatBank, now that Ukrainian taxpayers have had to foot the bill to clean up its debts. When asked about his ties to Kolomoisky, Zelensky simply feigns ignorance. Navigating Ukrainian politics is nothing like walking over the countrys glorious black-earth steppe. Put your foot down in the wrong place and you will plummet into the abyss. That is why Ukraine cannot afford to take a Trump-size risk with someone like Zelensky. But nor should Ukrainians have to put up with another five years of Poroshenko, whose primary focus is on feathering his own nest. That leaves Tymoshenko. Despite her faults, she is the only realistic choice for Ukrainians. And, having survived an unjust prison sentence, she has already proved her willingness to make hard choices on behalf of her country, despite the personal consequences. Whereas a win for Tymoshenko would offer Ukraine its best chance in these tumultuous times, a victory for Zelensky would turn Marxs famous dictum on its head: Americas farce would reappear as Ukraines tragedy. Read the original text at Project Syndicate. The events of 2018 in the Black and Azov Seas have clearly demonstrated the urgency for Ukraine on issues related to maritime security. As a result, the presentation at the end of November 2018 of the Ukraine fleet's development strategy through 2035 and its publication in January 2019 is an antithesis to the assertion that no attempts are being made to systematically address the issue of maritime security. Its possible, of course, to try to argue that the corresponding efforts should have been done since 2014. However, such criticism is an attempt to look at Ukraines maritime security in isolation from the general strategic situation. With the onset of Russian aggression, the military-political leadership of Ukraine was forced to solve the national Armed Forces general readiness crisis, and not only the Navys, during 201416. At the same time, the Russian Federation continues to represent the main military threat to Ukraine on land from deploying its combined arms armies near our borders and the constant pressure from powerful concentrations of Russian offensive groups during Moscows annual strategic exercises. Therefore, the Ukrainian leaderships decision to focus on reviving and strengthening the Land and Air Forces capabilities is the strategically right one, and the needs of the Navy took second stage. However, today this imbalance is being addressed not only through the development of a Neptune cruise missile. Recently, KRAZ introduced a TEL to be used in a ground anti-ship complex based on this cruise missile. Consequently, one way or another, the appropriate work is underway, and the appearance of a strategy for the development of the Ukrainian fleet until 2035 is just another milestone of this work. Strengths of the Strategy The first thing that is striking is the structure of the document. The Ukrainian fleets strategy through 2035 corresponds to the best practices of the documents in this area. It contains the main elements of strategic documentsa clear definition of the role and place of the fleet in Ukrainian national security and defense, analysis of the operational environment, a realistic step-by-step action plan, and financial calculations. Several strengths in the Ukrainian Navys strategy are apparent: A Comprehensive Approach to the Maritime Security The proposed vision to develop the fleet by 2035 shows that the Ukrainian Navys command has a comprehensive view of what needs to be done to safeguard the interests of country in the Black and Azov Seas. The strategy clearly lists all the elements of sea power that together enable the state to influence the situation at sea. The document mentions not only the equipment component, but also the need for appropriate staffing, infrastructure and procurement in general. A prioritized step-by-step increase in the capacity of the fleet The strategys implementation involves three stages201925, 202530 and 203035. At each of these stages, a qualitative strengthening of the fleet capabilities is foreseen. At the same time, realization of the goals of one stage will be the basis for successful work in the next stage. Initially, the Navys strategy implies protecting Ukraine's interests in the coastal zone (up to forty nautical miles). For this purpose, the Navy is planning to first install a system of intelligence and reconnaissance assets on the sea surface. This should help to better identify threats, which in turn would reduce the critical time between detection and response. Coastal multiple rocket-launched rocket systems (MRLS) and barrel artillery, as well as mines would help to counteract the corresponding threats. In addition, during 2019-2025, the gradual acquisition of anti-ship missile systems of various typesground, air and sea-basedis envisaged. Realizing the first stages tasks will guarantee the safety of the rivers deltas and ports, prevent the enemy from entering and operating at coastal zone, and even acquire the potential to fight off a blockade. The second stage envisions the ability to operate in the exclusive economic zone (up to two hundred nautical miles). For this purpose, a system for monitoring the surface, underwater and air conditions at the appropriate range will be established. At this stage, the Navy should have the potential to be physically present in the exclusive economic zone and strike at the enemy primarily with anti-ship cruise missiles. Thus, it is precisely at this stage that the so-called mosquito fleet will enter gamesmall boats of little tonnage (up to five hundred to six hundred tons) that are capable of striking enemy assets with high-precision weaponry. The third stage prescribes the ability of the Ukrainian fleet to operate in the open ocean and to be a contributor to global security. During the period of 203035, the Ukrainian fleet should be able to operate outside the two-hundred-mile zone at a considerable distance from its own bases. In this way, Ukraine will be able to participate in NATO/EU joint operations if needed. In addition, at that time, Navy ships will need the capability to hit both sea and ground targets. To perform all the above mentioned, the Ukrainian fleet will have to acquire its first multi-purpose corvettes. Thats why its possible to see that the Navys development will be a step-by-step enterprise, without sharp moves that can put into question the whole process. A thorough calculation of the financial side of the strategy It is critically important that Naval Forces command has not only clearly outlined a step-by-step plan for developing the capabilities of the national fleet with priorities at each stage, but also assessed how much it will cost. Strategy realization in terms of equipment will cost between $7090 million annually in the first stage, $100250 million in the second phase, and $150-400 million in the third. The fact that appropriate calculations were made is a necessary element because a strategy that does not take into account fiscal realities is doomed to failure from the beginning. This is especially important in Ukraine, which is able to allocate only $3.5 billion a year to the armed forces and $576600 million for equipment in particular. The course for NATO integration The Naval Strategy itself was developed during 2018 with the involvement of such countries as the United States, the United Kingdom and Sweden, which are either members of NATO or are partners of the alliance. The fact that the document appeared to be so elegant is due to the involvement of foreign specialists. But no less important is that the Navys strategy for 2035 was developed on the basis of NATOs doctrine AJP-3.1 that concerns the alliances naval operations. The Ukrainian Navys strategy stipulates that by 2025 Ukrainian sailors will be prepared to act on the basis of this doctrine in cooperation with NATO forces. In essence, it is about implementing the key goal of Ukrainian foreign policynamely joining the North Atlantic Alliance, including through increased interoperability. This development will be based on the experience and skills that have already been acquired within the framework of the international Sea Breeze exercises with NATO forces. Also, the Navys strategy provides for assistance from international partners in developing the fleet. In this context, it should be noted that the Pentagons budget for fiscal years 2018 and 2019 envisages the possibility of financing projects to enhance Ukraine's maritime capabilitiesincluding purchases of radars for monitoring the situation at sea. Weaknesses of the Strategy However, in cannot be said that the Navys basic document is deprived of weaknesses. There are at least four: Financing The strategys financial calculations are both a strong and a weak point. There is an open question whether Ukraine will be able to allocate $100250 million a year for equipment at the second phase and $150400 million as foreseen at the third stage. In 2019, the entire budget for the Ukrainian Armed Forces equipment amounts to $576 million, which is directed to the needs of the Land Force, Air Force, Navy, Airborne Assault Force and Special Operations Forces. If Ukraine's economy does not start to grow at least 6-10 percent a year, or it will not be decided to increase the budget of the Armed Forces in absolute terms at current rates of growth, then Ukraine will not be able to fully finance its Naval Forces strategy in its later stages. Since the military threat posed by the Russian Federation to Ukraine will continue to be primarily land-based, the priority will continue to go to the Land and Air Forces. In the coming years, the question may arise about the replacement of Soviet high-tech systemsfighter jets (Su-27, MiG-29) and air defense systems (S-300 PS/PT, Buk M1). This may hinder the financing of Ukraines fleet projects. The contradictions in stipulated priorities in different sections of the strategy. Related: Ukrainian Navy aviation held drills over Azov Sea Analyzing the Navys strategy shows some contradictions and inconsistencies regarding the practical moments of work at various stages. In the section titled OARS AND SAILS: STRATEGIC APPROACH AND REQUIRED CAPABILITIES OF THE FUTURE NAVAL FORCES, the description of the first stage does not mention that the fleet should receive anti-ship missile systems of different types. This is mentioned in the description of the fleet development second stage of the same section. While in the section MAPS AND SEXTANT: WAYS AND MEANS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STRATEGY its stated that corresponding anti-ship complexes shall be procured in the first stage. There is also a certain discrepancy in the issue of obtaining missile systems for long-range ground strikes. In the section on OARS AND SAILS, this should take place in the third stage, and in the section titled MAPS AND SEXTANT, on the second. The Ukrainian Navy will only be able to fully and effectively respond to the current strategic reality in the Black and Azov Seas at the third stage of development. Another weakness of the strategy is that, even if it is successfully implemented at the first and second stages, the Ukrainian fleet will still not be able to effectively deal with all threats at sea that are already present in case of all-out war with Russia. Russias occupation and annexation of Crimea in 2014 was not only a loss of Ukrainian territory, but a loss of a central geostrategic position in the Black Sea. Russia systematically deploys weapons systems on this territory that make it possible to influence the situation on the sea and in the air above the sea. These include anti-ship missile complexes BAL (at least four launchers of eight missiles each) and Bastion (at least four launches with two missiles each), two regiments of S-400 air defense systems (not less than 128 missiles for one-shot volley), and Russias 27 th mixed air division (including not less than eight Su-30SM fighters, which can carry X-35 anti-ship missiles). Such forces allow Russia to control the air and surface space over a large part of the Black and Azov Seas. After all, these capabilities in the occupied Crimea pose a greater threat that Russian Black Sea fleet and Coast Guard Forces themselves. The Ukrainian Navy will be able to effectively address this problem only after acquiring the capabilities for precision ground strikes. The Ukrainian naval command understands that, by concentrating only on military actions at sea, it is thereby leaving Russia with a powerful trump cardthe ability to influence the situation at sea through land-based anti-ship missile systems, air defense systems and aviation. However, getting capabilities for precision ground strikes is a matter of time and considerable resources. Meanwhile, some supporters of the mosquito fleet, who say that acquiring four-five missile boats of the Lan-class will solve all the problems at sea are misleading people. These boats will be only able to attack surface maritime targets with anti-ship missiles. But the same task can be performed by the land and air variants of anti-ship complexes based on the Neptune missile, which would also be less vulnerable than missile boats. Thus, mosquito fleet itself cannot solve the problems created by Russian anti-access area-denial (A2/AD) forces stationed in Crimea, which can greatly (negatively for Ukraine) affect the situation at seas. This, in turn, raises doubts as to how successful Ukraines navy will be in its ability to control certain parts of the surface, underwater and air spaces in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in 2030 as stated in strategy. Until the Ukrainian Navy acquires the capability to strike ground targets in militarized Crimea there will be the approximately zero possibility of establishing control over parts of the EEZ. Actions in this part of the sea will continue to be associated with significant risksespecially for surface platforms. Do we need to allow the Navy to develop a separate potential for precision long-range ground strikes? As mentioned above without adequate capacity, it will be difficult for Ukraine to counter the Russian military capabilities of militarized Crimea, which in turn have the potential to seriously affect the situation at Black and Azov seas. But there is open question on whether Ukraines fleet should be allowed to create separate capabilities for precision long-range ground strikes. Indeed, navies of major powers are trying to maximize their operational latitude in order to operate separately from other types of armed forcesas seen in the U.S. Navy having Tomahawk cruise missiles for ground attacks. However, it is doubtful that Ukraine's political leadership should give consent to the Navys aim to proceed in the same way, given the countrys limited resources. Geography and relatively small distances make it possible to strike Crimea from the Kherson region and not necessary from sea. For this purpose, the Armed Forces will be able to use the potential of missile systems Vilkha in the future and the operational-tactical missile complex Grim/Thunder-2, which might cover the entire Crimean Peninsula. This approach will require the Navy to learn to coordinate its actions with other branches of armed forces in the process of conducting operations. However, this will be a significant step in Ukraines ability to conduct joint operations, allowing Ukraine to save its relatively limited resources. A central element in the current political environment is a conflict between voters expectations and frustrations with their current situation and the need for Ukraine to transform into a resilient and better-off country Ukraines post-Maidan political arrangement has delivered on some transformations but proved disappointing on others. Regardless of who wins the presidential polls, which begin on 31 March, tough questions should be asked about the viability of campaign promises, the provenance of candidates funding and the influence of vested interests. A central element in the current political environment is a conflict between voters expectations and frustrations with their current situation and the need for Ukraine to transform into a resilient and better-off country. Resistance from a mix of powerful interest groups, as well as Russias aggressive stance and record of meddling in elections, aggravate this clash. The leading candidates There are over 40 candidates for president but realistically, the choice has narrowed down to three leading options. Petro Poroshenko, the incumbent president, is running on a platform framed around state-building and stability, resistance to Russia, integration with the West and the record of what Ukraine has accomplished since the Maidan, mostly in building a strong national identity. Some of his far-fetched promises include Ukraines application to join the EU and NATO by 2023. Reform accomplishments have come at a cost, especially for average Ukrainians. Whats worse, people associated with President Poroshenko have featured in many corruption scandals. In the latest one, investigative journalists revealed a scam whereby a group led by the son of Oleh Hladkovsky, first deputy secretary of the National Defence and Security Council appointed by Poroshenko, bought defective parts for military equipment from Russia at inflated prices and pocketed the margin. The scandal is likely to deal a serious blow to Poroshenkos campaign just a month ahead of the election. Yulia Tymoshenko, ex-premier and the leader of Batkivshchyna (Fatherland), offers an overhaul of everything, from the constitution to the way Ukraine will work with international partners to approach the conflict with Russia. When it comes to explaining how exactly she will implement the promises, inconsistencies arise. For example, Ukraine has no law on referendums, since the Constitutional Court ruled a 2012 law governing them unconstitutional. So how exactly would Tymoshenko run a referendum, as she is promising, to change Ukraine into the parliamentary republic if elected president? There are many more: Tymoshenko pledges to halve utility prices for households while keeping Ukraines cooperation with the IMF running; cut taxes while increasing public spending; and liberalize the energy market while making sure that domestic gas production covers the needs of households, to name a few. Volodymyr Zelenskiy builds his campaign around the idea of people power and contrasts himself with the political establishment, coating this in a smart media campaign. His election promises include a mechanism whereby the people of Ukraine will shape the key tasks for the government through referenda and other forms of direct democracy, as well as popularly elected justices of the peace to deal with simple disputes. He has a list of changes for many other areas, from taxation to pension insurance to the abolition of immunity for politicians. The big questions While they reflect what voters and activists complain about, these tactics raise some serious questions. Firstly, what will the candidates do, step by step, to implement such unrealistic promises? For now, neither Tymoshenko nor Zelenskiy have provided any credible explanation of how they would deliver institutional transformation of the judiciary, taxation or energy, or proceed to break up monopolies and regional fiefs. In their recent rhetoric, both candidates promised to put Poroshenko in jail after the election for corruption in wartime. However, it is the courts, not the president, that would make such decisions. All have pledged to ensure the establishment of an independent High Anti-Corruption Court to complement two other agencies in the fight against top-level corruption. But they have yet to explain how they would clean up other levels of the judicial system, or to turn the fight against corruption from an election slogan into an institutionalized framework. Secondly, how will the candidates deliver on their promises without having the powers to do so? What both Tymoshenko and Zelenskiy pledge to do goes far beyond the presidents portfolio. This means that the candidates are de facto running for a majority in the legislature, the Verkhovna Rada. Ukraines parliament does need a serious renewal. But none of the current candidates seem likely to receive an overwhelming majority in the October 2019 parliamentary election. The next Verkhovna Rada is likely to be more fragmented, and any winning party will have to build a coalition. Finally, how are the candidates funding their campaigns? Tymoshenko and Zelenskiy promote themselves as a better alternative to the incumbent. But Tymoshenkos party statements reveal a pattern of dodgy donations and Zelenskiys offices are sprouting across the country without a clear source of funding. It would serve his image well to report on this campaign infrastructure, especially as oligarchs begin to give him rhetorical support and allegations surface of money transfers between the accounts of PryvatBank and Kvartal 95, Zelenskiys comedy show. A dismal campaign Ukraine needs politicians that could marry the expectations of voters to the harsh reality of changes the country must go through over the next few years. Instead, the campaign is being driven by reckless criticism of the incumbent president, personality cults and populism. While delivering quick electoral gains, these tactics promise neither strategic thinking nor the new politics the country needs. Read the original text at Chatham House. Christian Wehrschutzj Open source The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Austria summoned Olexandr Shcherba, the Ukrainian ambassador, over the entry ban Ukraine imposed on Christian Wehrschutz, a correspondent for public broadcaster ORF. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Austria reports this on its website. The Ukrainian ambassador was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a conversation with Johannes Peterlik, the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Peterlik calls for lifting the ban imposed on entry by the Ukrainian authorities, as well as for accreditation of ORF correspondent Christian Wehrschutz in Donbas conflict zone, the report said. In addition, the diplomat requires proof of allegations against Wehrschutz. "We are deeply concerned about the actions of the Ukrainian government, which are an unacceptable act of censorship, incompatible with the values and principles of the Association Agreement with the EU," Peterlik said. Peterlik has also pointed out that Arlem Desir, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, called for the lifting of the ban as well. "We are determined that Christian Wehrschutz could continue to broadcast from Ukraine as an ORF correspondent without unacceptable restrictions," he said. Earlier, Vienna sharply criticizes the decision of the Ukrainian authorities to ban the Austrian TV journalist from entering Ukraine for one year. Austrian journalist Christian Wehrschutz has not yet received any official documents on his banning of entry to Ukraine. He told about this to the 112 Ukraine journalist. "Here in Ukraine I still have a residence permit until the end of June of this year. Its generally interesting how the rule of law works in Ukraine, when on the one hand I have only the oral information (regarding the ban, - ed.), on the other hand, I have a document for temporary residence because I have an office in Kyiv," he said. The construction works on the borderline wall are supposed to be complete in 2020 The wall on the Latvian-Russian border Open source Latvia has finished construction of the 93-kilometer-long section of the fence with the barbed wire on the border with Russia. Kristina Petersone, the press secretary of Latvian State Border Guard said that as quoted by Diena. The draft project, which stipulates building the 183.6-kilometer-long fence, also includes an entire system of wooden sidewalks, patrol huts and water pipes. The fence's height makes 2.7 meters. The overall price of the construction works is 21,168 million Euros. The construction works on the borderline wall are supposed to be complete in 2020. The border guards indicate that the violations' rate has dropped in the sections, where the fence was set. Currently, the authority insists that the additional funds are needed to build another 100 kilometers of the fence. The money has not been allocated yet. The Latvian government also plans to build the fence on the border with Belarus, which is supposed to be instrumental in combating the inflow of illegal migrants. Minsk Agreements are the only plan for the solution of the Donbas conflict Thomas Greminger, the OSCE Secretary-General OSCE OSCE Secretary-General Thomas Greminger stated that countries members of Minsk Agreements do not have the political will for their implementation. He thinks that Normandy Format gave impetus for the implementation of the measures for a short period of time but it does not work anymore as Interfax-Ukraine reported. All sides-signatories do not have sufficient will for the implementation of different measures on security or measures of political nature. Normandy Four gave impetus for the implementation of the measures for a short period of time but it does not work anymore. I think there is not enough agreement between Normandy Four. We observe the stagnation in the fulfillment of Minsk Agreements and all sides accuse each other of it, he stated. Greminger proposes to solve this issue by the implementation of particular measures. They should begin to restore some credibility and confidence by the implementation of particular measures on the strengthening of the credibility along the contact line. Obviously, it is also necessary to reach some progress in the fulfillment of the political aspects of Minsk Agreements, he is sure. Greminger thinks that deep deficit of the credibility between Ukraine and Russia is the reason for sufficient will for the implementation of Minsk Agreements. I think it will be very hard to reach the progress in the implementation of Minsk, solve other issues on Kerch Strait, Azov Sea until the improvement in the bilateral relations. I think we as the international organization can offer our tools and services for facilitation but it will be very difficult to do until there is no desire to improve the relations, begin a real dialogue between the heads of two states, he explained. OSCE Secretary-General emphasized that Minsk Agreements are the only plan for the solution of the prolonged conflict. Their fulfillment needs more efforts; however, the participation of the political leaders in real dialogue is needed. Earlier Russias Foreign Minister stated that the amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine, which stipulate the country's membership in the EU and NATO, 'are supposed to destroy Minsk agreements'. Besides, he stated that demand of the EU to Russia to fulfill Minsk Agreement is unsustainable. 142 criminal cases have been launched since the beginning of the election campaign Open source The majority of criminal proceedings on vote buying are launched against presidential candidates Yulia Tymoshenko and Petro Poroshenko. Maksym Tsutskiridze, the Deputy Chief of the Main Investigation Department of the National Police, said this during the session, as 112 Ukraine reports. 21 criminal proceeding are launched because of the vote-buying attempts in favor of Yulia Tymoshenko, the presidential candidate, 16 criminal proceedings are launched against the president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, two against Taruta (Serhiy Taruta, Ukrainian oligarch and wannabe prez, - ed.), one against Lyashko, Sadovyi, Zelensky, and Shevchenko, the report said. Tsutskiridze outlined that he declared the surnames deliberately, as they appear in claims, telephone messages and other sources of information used by law enforcement officers. 15 criminal proceedings have already been closed, the information that law enforcement officers have received was not proved, the Deputy added. According to Tsutskiridze, 142 criminal cases have been launched since the beginning of the election campaign. 2,786 claims and messages were registered concerning the electioneering process. Criminal proceeding against Viktor Medvedchuk was opened after the presentation of a concept plan on settlement of the crisis in the south-east of Ukraine at the Congress of Opposition Platform For Life political party The political party Opposition Platform For Life demands that people involved in possible falsification of the criminal case against the Chairman of the Political Council of the party Viktor Medvedchuk should be brought to justice. The statement mentions such facts as an attempt to conduct expertise of not the politicians speech, but of the protocol the investigator made, and also haste and confusion with determining of the subjects of the expertise. Vasyl Nimchenko, Ukrainian MP, Opposition Platform For Life Frauds towards a certain person as political repression point to the fact that there was an appeal of the investigation bodies, which asked the court to entrust the expertise to them an organization or an institute of expertise of Ukraines Security Service, which deal with inspection of these materials related to the speech and concept of Viktor Volodymyrovych (Medvedchuk, - ed.). Criminal proceeding against Viktor Medvedchuk was opened after the presentation of a concept plan on settlement of the crisis in the south-east of Ukraine at the Congress of Opposition Platform For Life political party. Direct talks in a quadrangle Kyiv - Donetsk - Luhansk - Moscow - Donbas autonomous status enshrined in the Constitution are the key elements of the plan. Medvedchuk is convinced that this way Ukraine can return Donbas. Viktor Medvedchuk, the Chairman of the Political Council of Opposition Platform For Life political party I have expressed myself when I was presenting a peace concept plan on settlement of the situation in Donbas. On January 29, during the Congress of Opposition Platform For Life, we have discussed main provisions of this plan, we pointed out that negotiations should form the basis of the plan. As I have said then and I can repeat it now: this is direct talks between Kyiv and Donetsk, Luhansk and Moscow. I do think so, drawing upon the experience of the negotiation process, and I have been dealing with this since May, 2014. Therefore, I believe that such statement might change the situation in terms of a peaceful settlement, if there is a political will from all the sides. Yet, it might appear if it is effective in this quadrangle, through direct negotiations. The members of the political party stress that the authorities behavior, including opening of a criminal proceeding for statements of Medvedchuk, and absence of an adequate response of the Ukrainian special services to the information about assassination attempt, is a reaction to a firm and consistent position of Medvedchuk regarding peaceful settlement of the conflict in Donbas and obligation of Minsk Agreements. Viktor Medvedchuk, the Chairman of the Political Council of Opposition Platform For Life political party I consider myself a person with common sense, thats why, of course, I take it seriously, but I understand that this is a result of the fact that many people in our country and primarily the authorities are not comfortable with my political activity, my position, including my plan on peaceful settlement of the situation in Donbas, on restoration of economic relationships with Russia. Certainly, it doesnt work for the current authority and many radical nationalists. Have a story idea or tip about something happening in the East Village? Or maybe a photo? Or several photos? Or video! We'd love to hear about it. Or see it. Or something. Please go here to submit a tip. However, Kyiv has been bringing up this issue on every international meeting at every possible level, the Ukrainian leader says It is unlikely that Russia sets Ukrainian seamen free before the presidenial election in Ukraine is over. The press service of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko reported that, quoting him. 'Unfortunately, I do not expect any positive news before the presidential electiosn. Putin has clearly said he would not be making a single step [for that to happen],' Poroshenko said. However, Kyiv has been bringing up this issue on every international meeting at every possible level, the Ukrainian leader says. On November 25, the coast guard ships of the Russian Navy attacked the ships of the Ukrainian Navy, which have been carrying out a scheduled transition from Odesa port to Mariupol port in the Sea of Azov. Ukrainian ships were rejected passage via the Kerch Strait, Russian coast guards opened aimed fire on them. All 24 sailors on board were captured and delivered to Moscow 21 of them were delivered to Lefortovo remand center, the rest came to the hospital of Matrosskaya Tishina prison. Facing an extension of the sentence term, Ukrainian POWs detained in the Kerch Strait refused to testify in Lefortovo court. Sailors were distributed into six groups, four people in each. On January 15, 2019, Moscow's Lefortovo district court decided to keep 20 Ukrainian sailors in remand until April 24. On January 16, the court extended the detention term for another 4 sailors. Open source The U.S. is preparing to impose the sanctions against European companies, which participate in the financing of Russias Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, as EU observer reported. It is specified that the sanctions risk heightening tensions amid an ongoing dispute on US tariffs on German cars. However, America states that the pipeline poses a strategic risk of Russian energy dependence. Earlier Richard Grenell, the U.S. Ambassador to Germany stated that German companies constructing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline can face sanctions. Besides, the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress unanimously adopted the resolution, which stands against completion of the Russian gas pipeline Nord Stream 2. Moreover, U.S. State Department stated that EU should say 'no' to the Nord Stream 2 project, with the gas pipeline running along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, because of the recent act of the Russian aggression in the Kerch Strait. Gazprom and its partners intended to begin the realization of the Nord Stream 2 project, which costs ten billion dollars. It is expected that the 1,200-km gas pipeline will be laid through the Baltic Sea, and will connect Russia and Germany bypassing Ukraine, Poland, and Baltic countries. The capacity of the gas pipeline will be twice increased compared to that of the first Nord Stream. The construction is estimated to be completed by the end of 2019. Ukraine is adamantly opposed to the construction by calling it politically motivated and suggesting the EU to create a consortium with the involvement of European companies to manage the existing more efficient transportation route through Ukraine. A number of EU countries have expressed their disagreement with the Nord Stream 2 project in particular Poland and Lithuania. Related video: Russia has enhanced command in occupied Crimea, as Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoygu during the session of State Duma Committee, TASS reported. The troop composition in Crimea, which provides security of the peninsula and Russias interests in the Black Sea was enhanced, he stated. As Shoygu said since 2012 Russian Armed Forces have received 109 RS-24 Yars (thermonuclear armed intercontinental ballistic missile, - ed.) and 108 submarine-launched ballistic missiles. It was also specified that 38 military units were formed over this period, which received over 2000 drones. Medium-range drones will be sent on arms in 2019. As it was reported, in late 2019, the UN General Assembly supported that resolution On the issue of militarization of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol (Ukraine) and parts of Black and Azov Seas. The document urges Russia to withdraw its forces from Crimea and stop illegal occupation of Ukraine. Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014. Crimea was declared a temporarily occupied territory. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine officially announced February 20, 2014, the beginning of the temporary occupation of Crimea and Sevastopol by Russia. On October 7, 2015, Ukraines President Petro Poroshenko signed the relevant law. International organizations recognized the occupation and annexation of Crimea illegal and condemned Russia's actions. The West introduced a series of economic sanctions. Russia denies the occupation of the peninsula and calls it a "restoration of historical justice." Related video: The locals should leave their houses only in urgent cases A row of events on counteracting the terrorist acts threats and sabotages will be held in Mariupol, Donetsk region, on March 13-14. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) stated this, as Joint Forces Operation (JFO HQ) reports on Facebook. JFO press office urges the habitats of Mariupol leave their houses only in case of urgency, abide by the rules of personal security, and not to touch suspicious things and explosive substances. If there is a necessity to go to other regions or cities, people should have ID with them (passport, driving license, student ID, etc.). Serhiy Nayevyi, the Commander of the Joint Forces operation and lieutenant general, sanctioned all the events. The situation with the terroristic threat is under our control, the report said. In case of getting any information on the involvement of unknown persons in the diversion intelligence group or terrorist military divisions, the citizens should call local SBU department or the police. The locals should not panic and to abide by the rules. The officers have launched the pre-trial investigation on possible power abuse cases in Berdyansk colony 77 Open source The State Bureau of Investigation investigates the possible cases of power abuse by the workers of Berdyansk colony 77, as the press service of the State Investigation Bureau reports. The officers have launched the pre-trial investigation on claims of the representatives of NGO Alliance of Ukrainian Unity concerning possible abuses of power by the officers of the Berdyansk penalty colony 77. Thus, the officers of the State Bureau of Investigation have launched the pre-trial investigation on criminal violations under the articles 127 part 2 (torture by a group of persons), 365 part 2 (abuse of power or official authority by a law enforcement officer), 364 part 2 (abuse of power), 189 part 2 (extortion, repeated power abuse, or committed by a prior conspiracy by a group of persons, or using official position) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine on February 26, 2019. The officers of the State Bureau of Investigation will check the messages of the complainants, who are being destined in the penal institution, regarding the particular persons. Earlier, the prisoners of Arbuzynska colony in Mykolaiv region did not have access to fresh water, and the convicts were forced to use holes instead of toilets. According to the report, despite the consistent examination, no medical treatment was provided. Besides, the prisoners practically have no opportunity to spend the means they get for their work within the colonys territories. At that time, there are 386 convicts serving their sentences. Car driver and passenger tried to escape then, but the servicemen took them in Open source Ukraine's border guards detained two local men in Zakarpattya region. They threatened the officers on duty. The law enforcers took in a 31-year-old local man who approached Dilove entry-exit checkpoint on his jeep, along with his friend. The border guards tried stopping the men, but they rushed. The law enforcers managed to detain them several minutes after that. The detained driver appeared to be drunk. The respective criminal violation was recorded. There were the attempts to legalize the Russian mercenaries from the descendants of North Caucasus and countries of Central Asia in Ukraine as the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reported. The Russian special services use people, who passed training in the terrorist camps for the provocations and legalization of the militants. They tried to legalize the mercenaries who fought in Syria as part of the ISIS and were involved in the illegal armed formation on the east of the state, in Ukraine. Open source Amsterdam Court will consider the appeal of the Crimean museums on the case of Scythian gold on March 11, as Ukrinform reported citing Justice Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Petrenko. We expect the violent court debates; Ukrainian state possesses the right to speak first. According to the preliminary schedule, the session will last until 17:00, March 11, 2019, he specified. The minister also emphasized that Ukraine provided additional evidence to the court on February 15. Ukraine has filed the additional evidence including expert opinion on the use of 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transport of Ownership of Cultural Property of Professor Francesco Francioni and expert opinion on international public international law important for consideration of the case of Professor Niko Shreiwer, Petrenko specified. The occupation authorities of Crimea have filed a complaint against the decision of the Amsterdam Court to return a collection of Scythian gold to Ukraine. This was stated by Arina Novoselskaya, the "Minister of Culture" of the occupied Crimea. Scythian gold has been kept in the Netherlands since February 2014 and was brought to the exhibition "Crimea - the golden island in the Black Sea." By the end of February 2014, the Crimea was annexed by Russia, and the Dutch couldnt decide where to return the Scythian gold. So-called Crimean museums are not legal persons and exist only on the documents just for the goals of this process Registered in Russia Crimean museums, which have sued to the court on the return of Scythian gold, have nothing to do with the structures, which passed the jewelry to the Netherlands, as Serhiy Petukhov, Ukraine's Deputy Justice Minister, reported. It is, as we understand, improper claimant and we draw the attention of the court to it. The special cynicism of the position of the representatives of the so-called Crimean museums is that they refer to the Ukrainian legislation in their arguments and think that they have the right to store these objects according to the Ukrainian legislation, Pastukhov explained. At the same time, the claimants, who represent Russia, are not legal persons and exist only on the documents just for the goals of this process. They have nothing to do with the Ukrainian museums, which existed in Crimea before the occupation. Their demands contradict the points of the international law, particularly, the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transport of Ownership of Cultural Property and points of the Ukrainian legislation, which establish the property right of the state for the controversial museum objects, the Justice Ministry said. The Culture Ministry has already defined by its order that the jewelry should be stored in Kyiv to provide their safety until the de-occupation takes place, Petukhov specified. The occupation authorities of Crimea have filed a complaint against the decision of the Amsterdam Court to return a collection of Scythian gold to Ukraine. This was stated by Arina Novoselskaya, "Minister of Culture" of the occupied Crimea. More than 565 museum items from Ukrainian museums in Crimea went to the Netherlands as part of an exhibition in February 2014. By the end of February 2014, the Crimea was annexed by Russia, and the Dutch couldnt decide where to return Scythian gold since they do not recognize Crimea as part of Russia. Amsterdam Court will consider the appeal of the Crimean museums on the case of Scythian gold on March 11. Open source Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov is suspected of violating the law due to the fact that he did not declare the property his wife owns, as Pravda reported referring to the resources in the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutors Office (SAP). The law enforcers are investigating the case related to the declaration of Trukhanov. Odesa Mayor did not include information about his wifes property in the declaration of 2015-2017. He might be fined an amount equal to 2,500 to 3,000 times the minimum non-taxable income, public work for 150-240 hours or imprisonment for up to two years with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or conduct some activities for up to three years. Earlier, Olga Bogomolets (former counselor on humanitarian issues to the President of Ukraine, Ukrainian MP and the chairman of the Committee of Verkhovna Rada on Health Issues, - ed.) became an involvant in the criminal proceeding opened amid including false information into the declaration. As it was reported, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau has opened three criminal proceeding against the Ombudsman of Ukraine Lyudmyla Denisova. According to the article, the case was opened on February 18. This happened after finding violations in the Ombudsmans declaration. Amsterdam Court decided in December 2016 that Scythian gold should be returned to Ukraine The appeal of Crimea on the case on Scythian gold will be considered on March 11 in Amsterdam. The issue is about hundreds of valuable items of the Scythian epoch, exhibited in the Netherlands in 2014 before the annexation of Crimea by Russia. The exhibition was called: Crimea the golden island in the Black Sea. The Scroll of Honour for ancient historian Sirisk and Scythian tented on top in the form of the Griffin. More than 565 museum items from Ukrainian museums in Crimea went to the Netherlands as part of an exhibition in February 2014. By the end of February 2014, the Crimea was annexed by Russia, and the Dutch couldnt decide where to return Scythian gold since they do not recognize Crimea as part of Russia. As a result, the Amsterdam Court decided in December 2016 that Scythian gold should be returned to Ukraine. Occupation authority of Crimea appealed the decision of the court in January 2017. Ukraine provided additional evidence to the court in February 2019. . , . "The Notorious" . 2022 . , ... Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of Batkivshchyna Party and oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi Open source The record of the private phone talk, supposedly, between leader of Batkivshchyna Party (Fatherland) Yulia Tymoshenko and oligarch Ihor Kolomoysky was published, as Glavkom reported specifying that the record dated February 2019 was published on March 7 on Liveleak British service. According to the record, Tymoshenko called to congratulate Kolomoyskiy on his birthday. Hello, birthday boy! Happy birthday! I want to thank for everything on your birthday. You are a real friend and a real partner in all most important cases, the voice similar to the voice of Yulia Tymoshenko said. She wished the oligarch to be left alone and the worst things to be left in the previous year. Kolomoyskyi said in the response: We will not settle down until we reach the goal. Indeed, the politician responded approvingly. I appreciate the things you do. Really, Tymoshenko concluded, expressing the hope that they will see soon. Then the parties said goodbye: Bye. I send a warm embrace to you, Tymoshenko said. Oligarch said Kiss you in the response. This record is not the first material about Kolomoyskyi leaked on the internet. Earlier the video of the meeting of Kolomoyskyi and Tymoshenko were published as the photos of the meeting of Kolomoyskyi and Prosecutor General Yury Lutsenko. As we reported, Yulia Tymoshenko has officially launched her third campaign for president. The Congress of the Batkivshchyna party has nominated its candidate for the post of head of state. Earlier, the Central Election Commission of Ukraine closed all polling station in Russia, particularly, Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk. The presidential campaign in Ukraine began on December 31, 2018. The list of the confirmed candidates includes 39 candidates. 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!) Dr. Matt Kaeberlein to present at the 6th Aging Research for Drug Discovery Forum Basel Monday, March 11, 2019 - Insilico Medicine, a Rockville-based company developing the end-to-end drug discovery pipeline utilizing the next generation artificial intelligence, announces the presentation of Matt Kaeberlein, Ph.D., Department of Pathology, University of Washington, at 6th Aging Research, Drug Discovery, and AI Forum during the Basel Life Congress, September 10-12, 2019, Basel, Switzerland. Advances in geroscience are allowing scientists and clinicians, for the first time, to consider interventions aimed at directly targeting the hallmarks of aging. Unlike disease-specific approaches, such interventions have the potential to prevent multiple diseases of aging simultaneously, thereby greatly enhancing healthspan for most individuals. Drugs that inhibit the mTOR pathway, such as rapamycin, are currently among the leading candidates for delaying aging in humans and companion animals. The presentation will focus on recent progress on preclinical and clinical application of mTOR inhibitors to slow aging and maximize healthy longevity. "It's an exciting time for the field. We've made great progress in understanding the biological mechanisms of aging, and now, for the first time, we are starting to see clinical application of these discoveries. Unlike traditional medical approaches, which wait until people are sick before trying to "cure" their disease, 21st Century Medicine involves targeting aging directly in order to keep people healthy much longer and later into life," said Matt Kaeberlein, Ph.D., Department of Pathology, University of Washington. "Over the last 5 years, the "Aging & Drug Discovery" and "AI for Healthcare" forums have been leading events at BaselLife, attracting hundreds of delegates from over 50 countries. This year, we are combining the 2 platforms into a 3 day-event titled "the 6th Aging, AI and Drug Discovery Forum" to explore the convergence of these 2 cutting edge disciplines. Under the program leadership of Professor Morten Scheibye-Knudsen and Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov, with distinguished scientists and industry experts in the field, we look forward to exploring breakthroughs for this great healthcare need for the planet," said Dr. Bhupinder Bhullar, Chair, Innovation Forum program committee, Basel Life 2019. "The 6th annual Aging Research, Drug Discovery, and AI Forum at Basel Life will have a fresh program featuring some of the most prominent scientists and industry players in aging and longevity research covering the theory, applications and convergence of these three exciting areas," - said Alex Zhavoronkov, Ph.D., Founder, and CEO of Insilico Medicine, Inc. The 6th Aging Research for Drug Discovery Forum Basel will bring together leaders in the aging, longevity, and drug discovery field, to describe the latest progress in the molecular, cellular and organismal basis of aging and the search for interventions. Furthermore, the forum will include opinion leaders in AI to discuss the latest advances of this technology in the biopharmaceutical sector and how this can be applied to interventions. This event intends to bridge academic and commercial research and foster collaborations that will result in practical solutions to one of humanity's most challenging problems: aging. The Forum will be held in Basel, Switzerland, September 9-12, 2019. ### Contact: Ola Popova ola@pharma.ai Website: http://insilico. com/ About Insilico Medicine, Inc Insilico Medicine is an artificial intelligence company headquartered in Rockville, with R&D and management resources in Belgium, Russia, UK, Taiwan, and Korea sourced through hackathons and competitions. The company and its scientists are dedicated to extending human productive longevity and transforming every step of the drug discovery and drug development process through excellence in biomarker discovery, drug development, digital medicine, and aging research. Insilico pioneered the applications of the generative adversarial networks (GANs) and reinforcement learning for generation of novel molecular structures for the diseases with a known target and with no known targets. In addition to working collaborations with the large pharmaceutical companies, the company is pursuing internal drug discovery programs in cancer, dermatological diseases, fibrosis, Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease, ALS, diabetes, sarcopenia, and aging. Through a partnership with LifeExtension.com, the company launched a range of nutraceutical products compounded using the advanced bioinformatics techniques and deep learning approaches. It also provides a range of consumer-facing applications including Young.AI. In 2017, NVIDIA selected Insilico Medicine as one of the Top 5 AI companies in its potential for social impact. In 2018, the company was named one of the global top 100 AI companies by CB Insights. In 2018 it received the Frost & Sullivan 2018 North American Artificial Intelligence for Aging Research and Drug Development Award accompanied with the industry brief. Brief company video: https:/ / www. youtube. com/ watch?v= l62jlwgL3v8 . About Basel Life 2019 Forum description: In this symposium, leaders in the aging, longevity, and drug discovery field will describe the latest progress in the molecular, cellular and organismal basis of aging and the search for interventions. Furthermore, the forum will include opinion leaders in AI to discuss the latest advances of this technology in the biopharmaceutical sector and how this can be applied to interventions. This event intends to bridge academic and commercial research and foster collaborations that will result in practical solutions to one of humanity's most challenging problems: aging. A panel of thought-leaders will give us their cutting edge reports on the latest progress in our quest to extend the healthy lifespan of everyone on the planet. Conference Official Website : https:/ / www. basellife. org/ 2019. html About the University of Washington Founded 4 November 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest state-supported institutions of higher education on the Pacific coast. The primary mission of the University of Washington is the preservation, advancement, and dissemination of knowledge. The University preserves knowledge through its libraries and collections, its courses, and the scholarship of its faculty. The University fosters an environment in which its students can develop mature and independent judgment and an appreciation of the range and diversity of human achievement. The University cultivates in its students both critical thinking and the effective articulation of that thinking. University Website: http://www. washington. edu/ About the University of Copenhagen With over 40,000 students and more than 9,000 employees, the University of Copenhagen is the largest institution of research and education in Denmark and among the highest ranked universities in Europe. The purpose of the University - to quote the University Statute - is to 'conduct research and provide further education to the highest academic level'. Approximately one hundred different institutes, departments, laboratories, centres, museums, etc., form the nucleus of the University. University Website: http://introduction. ku. dk/ presentation/ This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. RTHK: Ethiopia hunts for clues, UN mourns its colleagues Ethiopian investigators will continue search for bodies and clues into the crash of a Nairobi-bound Boeing minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa, as United Nations officials said that a number of their colleagues were among the 157 killed. A Hong Kong resident was among the dead, the Immigration Department had said overnight. UN officials said at least 19 of their colleagues died when Flight ET 302 ploughed into a field near Tulu Fara village outside the town of Bishoftu, some 60 kilometres southeast of Addis Ababa. Both Addis Ababa and Nairobi are major hubs for humanitarian workers, and many people were on their way to a large UN environmental conference set to begin on Monday in Nairobi. Ethiopian Airlines said it will work with Boeing, the national civil aviation authority and international experts in trying to unravel what caused the brand new plane to come down just six minutes into its flight. A witness told AFP on Sunday the plane came down in flames. "The plane was already on fire when it crashed to the ground. The crash caused a big explosion," Tegegn Dechasa recounted at the site, littered with passenger belongings, human remains, and airplane parts around a massive crater at the point of impact. "The plane was in flames in its rear side shortly before the crash. The plane was swerving erratically before the crash." A local farmer, Sisay Gemechu, said: "The plane seemed to be aiming to land at a nearby level open field, but crashed before reaching there." At the Nairobi airport, hopes quickly dimmed for loved ones. "I just pray that he is safe or he was not on it," said Agnes Muilu, who had come to pick up her brother. The crash is likely to renew questions about the 737 Max , the newest version of Boeing's popular single-aisle airliner, which was first introduced in 1967 and has become the world's most common passenger jet. The Ethiopian plane was new, delivered to the airline in November. The Boeing 737 Max 8 was one of 30 meant for the airline, Boeing said in July. The jet's last maintenance was on February 4, and it had flown just 1,200 hours. Indonesian investigators have not determined a cause for the October crash, but days after the accident Boeing sent a notice to airlines that faulty information from a sensor could cause the plane to automatically point the nose down. The Lion Air cockpit data recorder showed that the jet's airspeed indicator had malfunctioned on its last four flights, though the airline initially said problems had been fixed. (AFP, AP) This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. An international study co-led by CNIO identifies a 'sensor' that activates cell migration The cytoskeleton is a structure that not only helps cells maintain their shape and internal organisation, but also enables them to perform functions like movement and migration, that is to say, the movement that takes cells far from the place where they are initially located. Migration forms an essential part of the spread of cancer cells from the place where they first formed to another organ or tissue (metastasis). So far, this association is not fully understood: how is the mechanical force generated by the cytoskeleton transformed into a biochemical signal that controls cell migration? During his work at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), Daniel Lietha (who has now moved to the Biological Research Center, CIB-CSIC) led an international study that has answered this question. He worked jointly with the teams headed by Hermann Gaub (Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Germany) and Frauke Grater (Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, Germany). The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), has found that the protein FAK is one of the key molecules that respond to the forces generated by the cytoskeleton, activating biochemical signals regulating cell adherence and migration. These findings can help broaden the knowledge of how tumor invasion and metastasis are initiated. Focal adhesion kinase, or FAK, is present in the cytoskeleton and the cell anchorage to the components of its external surroundings. "It is a signaling molecule that is key in a structure activated by forces that are generated by the contraction of the actin filaments in the cytoskeleton," explains Lietha, co-corresponding author of the study. "Until now, it was unclear whether FAK can act as a sensor to these forces required for cell movement. Based on the hypothesis that FAK is such a sensor, we carried out our study," he adds. A force activating cell movement The researchers who took part in the study used atomic force spectroscopy to simulate the forces generated by the contraction of actin filaments in the cytoskeleton. They found that FAK changed as a response to these forces. One of these changes was related to the shape that FAK adopts when it activates the biochemical signaling involved in cell migration. Atomic force spectroscopy is a technology that allows to study the behaviour of various specimens under force, from intact cells to single molecules. "Actually, we have used a specific configuration of this technology pioneered by Hermann Gaub's team at the LMU, whose sensitivity and precision provide measurements of a single molecule with a high degree of accuracy," says Lietha. Thanks to this technology, researchers have obtained detailed mechanical information on FAK which together with knowledge of its atomic structure, previously described by Lietha, can be interpreted in terms of how force induces changes in the structure to activate FAK. The Molecular Biomechanics group at HITS has simulated this process on high performance computers to obtain a fully dynamic view of these events. "We successfully uncovered key steps in FAK activation in great detail", says group leader Frauke Grater. "We could show that this signaling protein not only gets activated by force but also stays active while being further stretched out." The mechano-environment of a cell influences its behavior. The focal adhesion kinase acts as sensor for changes in the extracellular and intracellular framework. "In single-molecule atomic force microscopy experiments and steered molecular dynamics simulations, we could show a force-mediated opening of the auto-inhibitory complex of FAK and, consequently, the activation of the kinase," describes Magnus Bauer, first author of the publication and graduate student in the group of Hermann Gaub at the LMU, the experimental approach in Munich. In cells, the mechano-activation of FAK is triggered upon stress between the cytoskeleton and the extracellular matrix. "With FAK it seems we found the first non-muscle enzyme to be directly activated by mechanical force," highlights Bauer. "Transferring our data into cellular systems, we assume that translation of physiological forces into the biochemical signals could be one way to trigger the migration of cancer cells." These are key findings to go deeper into the study of tumor invasion and metastasis. "In tumors, stiffening of the stroma results in increased forces that activate signaling pathways via FAK, that strongly promote tumor invasion and metastasis," says Lietha. The stroma is a tissue that surrounds cancer cells in tumors and affects their progression. Understanding how stroma stiffening and its implication in the activation of adhesion signaling are related to tumor invasion, may provide the basis for the development of therapies targeting this mechanism. Now that it has been found that the forces generated by the cytoskeleton prompt conformational changes in FAK, further studies are needed to directly measure the biochemical signals in response to mechanical forces. ### The study has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the European Regional Development Fund, the Volkswagen Foundation, Worldwide Cancer Research, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Klaus Tschira Foundation, the State of Baden-Wurttemberg (Germany) and the European Research Council. Reference article: Structural and mechanistic insights into mechanoactivation of Focal Adhesion Kinase. Magnus Sebastian Bauer, Fabian Baumann, Csaba Daday, Pilar Redondo, Ellis Durner, Markus Andreas Jobst, Lukas Frederik Milles, Davide Mercadante, Diana Angela Pippig, Hermann Eduard Gaub, Frauke Grater, Daniel Lietha (PNAS, 2019). DOI: https:/ / www. pnas. org/ cgi/ doi/ 10. 1073/ pnas. 1820567116 This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Within this framework, State ministers have traveled to diverse national regions in order to support the efforts geared towards a good start of the school year. Thus, Ministers Daniel Alfaro ( Education ) and Edmer Trujillo (Transport and Communications) visited northern Lambayeque region. Likewise, Foreign Affairs Minister Nestor Popolizio visited Andean Ayacucho region, Health Minister Zulema Tomas traveled to Piura in the north, and Labor Minister Sylvia Caceres inaugurated the academic year in Southern Andean Puno region. Lima Furthermore, First Lady Maribel Diaz and Metropolitan Lima Regional Director of Education Katherine Alva opened the 2019 school year at Republica de Costa Rica School in the nation's capital city. , they participated in an educational session with preschool children. From the total students enrolled in public schools, 5,824,869 receive Regular Basic Education , followed by 146,237 (Alternative Basic Education ), and 18,416 (Basic Special Education ). A group of diverse but like-minded individuals, the members of ARC have come together in their common desire to fight hatred, bigotry, intolerance and violence because of the harm these antisocial behaviors cause to our society. In that effort, we will not use or sanction the use of illegal actions (such as violence or intimidation) in pursuit of our desired aims and if we learn of anyone who does use these unethical methods we will report those individuals to the authorities. Instead, we will use the guarantees found in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that ensure freedom of legal speech and expression. YEREVAN, MARCH 11, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan on March 11 received Co-Chair of the Armenian Assembly of America Anthony Barsamian, the Parliament told Armenpress. The meeting was also attended by the Assemblys regional director Arpi Vardanyan. Speaker Mirzoyan highly valued the Assemblys role on strengthening the Homeland-Diaspora ties, as well as its long-term activity contributing to the Fatherland. Ararat Mirzoyan expressed confidence that the Assembly will continue its patriotic activity for the benefit of Armenia and all Armenians. Anthony Barsamian introduced the programs and works being carried out by the Assembly. The sides also touched upon the dynamically developing Armenian-American relations, the opportunities to strengthen and deepen them, as well as exchanged views on the ways to make the cooperation more effective. Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, MARCH 11, ARMENPRESS. Lt. general Igor Kirilov, commander of the Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) Protection Troops of the Russian Armed Forces is in Yerevan on a working visit March 10-13 for bilateral discussions with Armenian counterparts. The defense ministry said Kirilov was received on March 11 by Major General Onik Gasparyan, the First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces. Radiation, chemical and biological security issues, as well as the Armenian-Russian cooperation situation in the direction and prospects of joint activities were discussed. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, MARCH 11, ARMENPRESS. Armenias Ambassador to Iraq Hrachya Poladyan held a meeting on March 10 with Minister of Transportation Abdullah Luaibi Bahedh, the foreign ministry said in a news release. Poladyan congratulated the Iraqi minister on taking office, wishing productive work. The sides addressed the agenda of the current cooperation in transportation of the Armenian-Iraqi bilateral relations. In particular, the Armenian ambassador pointed out the necessity of implementing the agreements and clauses that have been reached during the 2nd Armenian-Iraqi intergovernmental commission meeting that took place in Yerevan, highlighting the opening of land connections for shipments through Iran towards several border checkpoints in Iraq, which can boost the volumes of bilateral trade. The sides agreed that soon specialists from both countries will have the opportunity to negotiate on the matter. They also discussed the possibilities for opening regular direct flights between Yerevan and Baghdad, and agreed to carry out concrete steps in this direction. Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, MARCH 11, ARMENPRESS. The NATO clearly understands the political and humanitarian incentives of Armenia for sending a humanitarian group to Syria, ARMENPRESS reports James Appathurai, NATO Secretary General's Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia said in a press conference on March 11. The NATO has no official position on this issue. We discussed that issue the Foreign and Defense Ministers of Armenia. I listened to their argumentation over the situation. We clearly understand the political and humanitarian incentives of Armenia to lend a helping hand to that community, James Appathurai said. A group consisting of humanitarian de-miners, doctors and specialists ensuring their safety, a total of 83 people, departed from Armenia for Syrias Aleppo on February 8 aimed at providing professional humanitarian support to the locals. Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan YEREVAN, MARCH 11, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan received newly appointed Ambassador of the USA to Armenia Lynne Tracy. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of Mher Grigoryan, the Deputy PM congratulated Lynne Tracy on assuming the position of the Ambassador, wishing her success in the implementation of her diplomatic mission in Armenia. Highly appreciating the US assistance to Armenia, the Deputy PM noted that the Republic of Armenia attaches great importance to the future deepening and development of relations between Armenia and the USA. Deputy PM Mher Grigoryan presented to the Ambassador the priorities of the Governments Action Plan and highlighted the cooperation with the partners for the implementation of the reforms. Thanking for the reception, Ambassador Lynne Tracy said, Mr. Grigoryan, I am confident that by today's meeting with you, a series of straightforward, open and effective dialogue that will allow Armenia and the United States to build stronger ties of partnership and cooperation is launched. During the meeting the sides exchanged views on the opportunities of creating favorable investment environment in Armenia and prospects for the development of the Armenian-U.S. cooperation. Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan YEREVAN, MARCH 11, ARMENPRESS. Head of the Information and Public Relations Department of the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Artsakh Artak Nersisyan commented for ARMENPRESS on the recent statements regarding the restoration of the full format of negotiations. -On 9 March, the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group issued a statement urging the sides to refrain from demanding unilateral changes to the format of negotiations without consent of the other party. Earlier, on 6 March, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry made a comment on the impossibility of changing the negotiation format approved by the 1992 Helsinki decision of the OSCE Ministerial Council, without reaching consensus of the OSCE participating States. In addition, according to official Baku, the decision provides that Armenia and Azerbaijan act as parties to the conflict, while the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of Nagorno-Karabakh do so as interested parties. How would you comment on these statements? -It is not the first time that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan demonstrates a lack of institutional memory and complete ignorance of the process of peaceful settlement of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict, as well as the documents adopted within this framework. First, the decision of 24 March 1992 of the CSCE Helsinki Additional Meeting does not mention any communities. The document lists as interested parties elected and other representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh. Secondly, the issue of the format and status of the parties to negotiations has been the subject of lengthy discussions that went through a certain path of development. As early as in 1993, in the documents discussed within the framework of the Minsk process, Nagorno Karabakh was indicated as a full party to the conflict. Final clarity on this issue was introduced at the CSCE/OSCE Summit in Budapest in 1994. According to the concluding document of the Summit, the parties to the conflict are those who confirmed the cease-fire agreed on 12 May 1994. The agreement on full cease-fire and cessation of hostilities was concluded between Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan and Armenia. On 26-27 July 1994, Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed an additional agreement, in which they confirmed their commitments to the cease-fire until the conclusion of a large political agreement. After the Budapest Summit, in response to attempts by the Azerbaijani side to speculate again on the topic of the parties to the conflict, the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs made a special statement at the meeting of the OSCE Senior Council in Prague on 31 March 1995, where he confirmed previous OSCE decisions on the status of the parties, i.e. the participation of the two State parties to the conflict and of the other conflicting party (Nagorno-Karabakh) in the whole negotiation process, including in the Minsk Conference. The Prague Summary of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office is very clear and leaves no room for arbitrary and tendentious interpretations by the Azerbaijani side of OSCE decisions regarding the negotiation format. The authorities of both the Republic of Artsakh and the Republic of Armenia do not raise an issue of creating a new, non-agreed format of negotiations. It is about restoring the full-fledged negotiation format as set out in the OSCE Budapest Summit decision of 1994. This decision was approved by consensus by Heads of State and Government of the OSCE participating States, including Azerbaijan and the Minsk Group co-chairing countries. We have repeatedly pointed out that the issue of restoring the trilateral format of negotiations is a kind of litmus test, demonstrating the degree of readiness for real progress in the peaceful settlement of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict. Opposition to restoring the most effective negotiation format can be interpreted as a commitment to the status quo. It is regrettable that the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group do not show due principledness to restore the trilateral negotiation format consistent with the decision of the OSCEs highest body. YEREVAN, MARCH 11, ARMENPRESS. Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan held a meeting in Stepanakert with Premier of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan on March 11. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the ARtsakh Presidents Office, a wide range of issues concerning the cooperation between the two Armenian republics were on the discussion agenda. The meeting subsequently continued in an enlarged format with participation of the secretaries of the Security Councils and foreign ministers. Various issues related to the security sphere and foreign policy were touched upon during the meeting. Both sides emphasized the importance of cementing and expanding closer cooperation between Armenia and Artsakh, timely and proper implementation of the envisaged strategic programs. YEREVAN, MARCH 11, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, who is in Artsakh on a working visit, met with President of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister of Armenia, during the conversation various issues referring to the partnership between Armenia and Artsakh, referred to the measures for implementing joint strategic projects in social-economic sphere. Afterwards, the meeting continued in an expanded format. The interlocutors exchanged views on the domestic and foreign policies of the two Armenian states, security issues and cooperation in these areas. Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan Mum (Mary Lou) and Dad (Alf) occasionally picnicked and plotted their life together on the Beehives and one such visit produced the accompanying photo of the bride-to-be an emblematic image of their romance and 56 years of wedded bliss. The other great symbols of Rabaul are the Beehives, or Dawapia Rocks - two rocky volcanic outcrops in one of the worlds most spectacular harbours. It became a symbol of resilience for the town after poking stubbornly through the volcanic ash and re-flowering after the historic double eruption devastation of 1937. The frangipani had been introduced to Papua New Guinea by Alfs anthropologist-botanist grandfather Richard Parkinson in the 1880s. It was at the Frangipani Ball in 1951 that the romance between Mary Lou Harris and her future husband Alfred Max Parkinson Uechtritz blossomed. SYDNEY - Mary Louise Uechtritz passed away on Holy Thursday at Brigidine House, Randwick in Sydney. She was surrounded by children and grandchildren, her room festooned with Papua New Guinean memorabilia, flag and flowers. Frangipani flowers. Mary Lou at the Beehives in Rabaul with harbour and volcanoes in the background Alf Parkinson Uechtritz and Mary Lou at their engagement party in Rabaul They were married in Rabauls St Francis Xavier cathedral in April 1952. After the reception, the couple was taken by great family friend Jack Thurston on his boat to Sum Sum plantation on the south coast of New Britain. Sum Sum had been gifted by Alfs grandmother Phebe Parkinson to his mother Dolly Parkinson Uechtritz. It holds a special place in the collective family soul to this day. The first six of their 10 children were born in the shadow of the volcano at Namanula hospital and after a suitable time in Rabaul, known once as the Pearl of the Pacific the babies were taken back to idyllic Sum Sum. English-born Mary Lou - with a blend of Swedish/Irish/Scottish - had come to New Guinea aged only 10 months in 1929. Her parents Gordon and Ursula Harris owned Biwa plantation on Djaul Island in New Ireland. She went to boarding schools in Wales and England then graduated from City University, London. Her first job was teaching English to Czech blue bloods at the British Council in Prague but in 1951 she returned to Rabaul with her mother and became a teacher at the Chinese school in Rabaul one of the most rewarding roles in her career. She was also head of the local girl guides and, to her delight, the guides formed a guard of honour at her wedding. Mary Lou swears in a Guide leader The guides movement would become a vocation for Mary Lou. On return to PNG in 1968 after eight years farming in Queensland the family moved to the government agricultural station at Erap in the Markham Valley outside Lae. Mary Lou re-joined the guides and became provincial commissioner and then the PNG Girl Guides Association Deputy Commissioner. As the associations International Commissioner, she travelled to Kenya to represent PNG at the guides World Conference in 1987. At Government House in Port Moresby in 1988, Mary Lou was awarded the Bird of Paradise, the highest award for national and international service to the Girl Guides Association, as well as the Independence Medal. In the Markham Valley, Mary Lou continued her teaching. She was the principal at Zifasing and then later at Adzera near Leron Plains. As in New Britain, she and Alf became immersed in the Markham Valley and Lae communities. They also had house at Salamaua. Moving to Australia in 1990, they started a rare fruits orchard and cattle property near Innisfail named Kuradui in memory of the Parkinson plantation near Kokopo. Mary Lou continued her community service with Innisfails St Vincents de Paul Society and was delighted to be sent by the society as an emissary to PNG. The pair continued to have a close relationship with their beloved PNG, returning many times to Rabaul and Kokopo. The Phebe Parkinson Study Centre at Kuradui (run by Darusila Watangia) is special to the family and the adjacent Parkinson family matmat (cemetery) is sacred soil. It was there in 2004 that Alf and Mary Lou presided over the reburial of granny Phebe Parkinson whose remains were finally discovered in a jungle grave on New Ireland 60 years after her death in a World War II Japanese prison camp. Mary Lou and Alf (1929-2008) requested that when they went to the afterlife their ashes would be taken by their children back to New Britain. An only child herself, Mary Lou is survived by 10 children, 32 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren. Their love, admiration and respect for our Matriarch is infinite, as is the legacy she has left. A funeral service for Mary Louise Uechtritz will be held at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church at Randwick at 10am on this coming Saturday 7 April. In a wonderful gesture the Tolai and East New Britain communities of Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra have kindly volunteered to provide a church choir for the service. In recent months, Ruston has been at the sharp end of trying to fix that - jetting to-and-fro between Australia and far-flung Pacific Islands, as part of prime minister Scott Morrison's "step-up" in the region. "We have perhaps not put as much attention and effort into our own region as we should of." "I think we would have to accept some criticism," Australia's minister for international development and the Pacific, Anne Ruston, told AFP on Friday. SYDNEY - Australia has admitted it had not focused enough attention on its Pacific backyard but vows to make "long overdue" amends amid growing Chinese influence in the region. The policy includes more aid, more security assistance, more diplomats working in the region and, crucially, more face-to-face contacts. It is, in large part, a response to Beijing's growing economic, political and military activity in the region. While Australia was more focused on Fallujah than Fiji, China has been doling out loans and investment in the region and scooping up natural resources and telecoms contracts. Still, Ruston rejected suggestions that Australia, by moving to develop security facilities in Papua New Guinea and Fiji is causing the type of militarisation many complain China is embarking on. "This is our region, this is our area, this is where we live," she said. "However you see the security and sovereignty of our region the Pacific is extremely important to Australia." Australian re-engagement has been hampered by deep disagreements with Pacific nations over the conservative government's sceptical stance on climate change -- an existential threat to many island nations. Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has been among those accusing Australia of putting its coal industry above the welfare of Pacific peoples. "It is a very, very real issue for them," Ruston acknowledged. In places like Kiribati -- where the average height of the land is a few feet above sea level -- it is "singularly the biggest issue that they have at the moment". Canberra diplomats have tried to separate climate policy from day-to-day work to temper its impact. The mitigation and infrastructure needs are enormous, "we talking tens of billions of dollars to be able to get the Pacific up to the kind of development standard, that I think Pacific aspires to have for itself", said the minister. "I think it is the challenge of the job," said Ruston of balancing domestic and international issues, admitting that Australians have not been totally won over by the idea of long-term development assistance. "I think one of the things that we've probably failed to do is to sell the message to the Australian public about why it is so important for Australia to assist, particularly our close neighbours in the Pacific." He has a bankers knack for financing, whether its from working the various government tax subsidies for affordable housing or seeking overseas cash. (Related has raised over $600 million for Hudson Yards through the controversial EB-5 visa program, which gives foreign investors residency status.) Graphic: Wall Street Journal About 20% of the current EB-5 investment in U.S. real estate comes from Vietnam, trailing only the 25% from India and 30% from China, according to estimates by Nicholas Mastroianni II, chief executive officer of the EB-5 regional center U.S. Immigration Fund. These centers pool money from investors and invest it in real-estate projects. Because the program's main draw is a green card, these foreign investors are often willing to accept lower returns, making it a cheaper source of financing. The surge in Vietnamese participation couldn't come at a better time for U.S. developers, which have bemoaned the decline of cheap funding as Chinese investors pull back. And then there is the uncertainty over the program itself. One reform proposal would raise the minimum investment from $500,000 to $1.35 million. "That," Mr. Thompson said, "could shut down the whole industry." From the article:Well, it's not just controversial because of the concept--essentially trade public assets (visas) for private investments--or that the calculation of a required ten jobs for investor comes via an economist's report, far more generous than a head count.It's controversial because, as Eliot Brown of the Wall Street Journal reported 9/9/15, the prosperous Hudson Yards area was linked with "adjacent" public housing in West Harlem in order to game the EB-5 system, to establish a Targeted Employment Area (TEA), a zone of high unemployment.That ensured that the minimum investment was $500,000, rather than $1 million, and allowed Hudson Yards to compete with similarly situated projects on the EB-5 market.Such gerrymandering is common in the EB-5 world; with Atlantic Yards, I've reported on the "Bed-Stuy Boomerang " and the "Fort Greene Finger," odd maps that connect the Atlantic Yards sites with zones of poverty--though surely few people from those census tracts got hired.Too often it's ignored, especially when EB-5 is a footnote in a tale of a hard-driving real-estate hero. Real-Estate Developers Look to Vietnam for Cheap Financing , the Wall Street Journal's Konrad Putzier (ex-Real Deal) reported 3/15/19, citing new efforts from those marketing EB-5 projects.The problem for real estate developers is that there's a per-country cap, which means EB-5 investors from China now face enormous delays--some 14 years for those who invested last year, according to the article, which notes:The U.S. Immigration Fund's offshoots have managed the second and third round of fundraising for Atlantic Yards, which were in 2014. Now Related, seeking investors for another phase of Hudson Yards, is looking to Vietnam.From the article:In other words, the developers--and middlemen like the regional centers--gain from marketing a public asset. From the article, which has a distinctly investment-centered perspective:The close:Of course, given that the minimum investment hasn't risen in decades, maybe it's time for a change. Airlines in various countries have grounded the Boeing 737 Max 8 jetliner, once touted as the most reliable aircraft in the world, after the second devastating crash in five months. The Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 plunged into farmland minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa for Nairobi on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board. The plane tried to climb but failed, then swerved sharply with witnesses describing seeing flames, white smoke and various objects trailing the plummeting aircraft. The disaster came just months after a jet of the same model came down in Indonesia killing 189 people, and prompted a global aviation safety scare. Rescuers work at the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines flight crash near Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, south of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Monday. Source: AP Airplane parts lie on the ground at the scene of the crash near Bishoftu. Source: AP While some safety experts have cautioned against drawing too many comparisons between the two crashes, airlines in Ethiopia, China, Indonesia and elsewhere have now grounded the Boeing 737 Max 8 jetliner pending further investigation. Comair, the operator of British Airways and Kulula flights in South Africa, said it has grounded its 737 line while it consults with Boeing, other operators and technical experts. Its unusual for authorities to take the step of grounding planes, and its up to each country to set standards on which planes can fly and how those planes are maintained, said aviation safety analyst Todd Curtis. If there is a suspicion that theres not only something inherently wrong with 737 Max 8 aircraft, but there are no procedures in place to cure the problem, then yes, they should either ground the plane, or there are several levels of things they could do, Mr Curtis said. A scorched passenger passport lies on the ground at the scene of the crash. Source: AP People from 35 countries died, including 32 from Kenya, the most from any one nation. Canada, Ethiopia, the US, China, Italy, France, Britain, Egypt, Germany, India and Slovakia all lost four or more citizens. Ethiopian Airlines said the senior pilot issued a distress call and was told to return, but all contact was lost shortly afterward. I heard this big noise, local resident Tsegaye Reta said. The villagers said that it was a plane crash, and we rushed to the site. There was a huge smoke that we couldnt even see the plane. The parts of the plane were falling apart. Story continues Ethiopian Airlines said its pilot Yared Getachew, a dual Ethiopian-Kenyan national, had a commendable record and more than 8,000 hours of flying experience. Black Box recorders found in horrific wreckage Rescuers work at the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines flight crash near Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, south of Addis Ababa. Source: AP Investigators seeking to find the cause of the crash discovered the black box with both the cockpit voice recorder and digital flight data on Monday, Ethiopian state TV said. An airline official, however, said one of the recorders was partially damaged and we will see what we can retrieve from it. At the crash site, local villagers watched as men in Red Cross jackets and masks picked through a large crater, stacking clothes in a heap and wrapping corpses in white body bags. The dead included aid workers, doctors, professors of literature and botany, a law student, a newly wed woman, a father soon expecting a child, and a couple who just had a baby. In Nairobi, a major hub for aid workers and diplomats, a summit opened with a moment of silence and tears for the UN members killed. In New York, the 15-member UN Security Council also stood to remember the dead. Boeing stock prices plunge Boeings share prices have plummeted in the wake of a horrific crash. Source: AP Boeings share price dropped 10 percent in early trading on Monday at the prospect that two such crashes in such a short time could reveal flaws in its new plane. The 737 line, which has flown for more than 50 years, is the worlds best selling modern passenger aircraft and viewed as one of the industrys most reliable. The new MAX 8 variant, with bigger engines designed to use less fuel, entered service in 2017. By the end of January this year, Boeing had delivered 350 of the new jets to customers, with another 4,661 on order, and they could become the workhorses for airlines around the globe for decades. Boeings stock price fall, if maintained through normal trading hours, would be its biggest in nearly two decades, halting a surge that has seen it triple in value in just over three years to a record high of $631 last week. Framed photographs of seven crew members are displayed at a memorial service. Source: AP with AP and Reuters Do you have a story tip? Email: y7newsroom@yahoo7.com.au. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter and stay up to date with the latest news with Yahoo7s daily newsletter. Sign up here. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who on Monday announced he is pulling out of a bid for a fifth term, is Algeria's longest-serving president and a veteran of the independence struggle who held on to power during years of ill health. His presidency survived the Arab Spring uprisings that toppled other leaders in the region. But Bouteflika's bid this year for a fifth term in office sparked public anger and brought tens of thousands onto the streets demanding he step down after two decades in power. Dubbed Boutef by Algerians, he had helped foster peace after a decade-long civil war in the 1990s. "I am the whole of Algeria. I am the embodiment of the Algerian people," he said in 1999, the year he became president. Bouteflika has had a history of medical problems and often flew to France or Switzerland for treatment. A stroke in 2013 affected his mobility and speech, and he has used a wheelchair ever since. Known for his three-piece suit even in the stifling heat, Bouteflika is respected by many for his role in ending the 1990s civil war, which official figures say killed nearly 200,000 people. But he has also faced criticism from rights groups and opponents who accuse him of being authoritarian. When Bouteflika came to power with the support of an army battling Islamist guerrillas, nobody expected him to stay in office for so long. After his election he addressed critics who saw him as another puppet of the military, saying: "I'm not three-quarters of a president." Paradoxically, it was only after his stroke that Bouteflika was able to consolidate power in a country where the shadowy intelligence service has long been viewed as a "state within a state". In early 2016, he dissolved the all-powerful DRS intelligence agency after dismissing its previously immovable leader General Mohamed Mediene, better known as Toufik, after a quarter century in the post. - Long spell in exile - Bouteflika was born in Morocco on March 2, 1937 to a family from western Algeria. At the age of 19 he joined the National Liberation Front (FLN) in its struggle against the French colonial rulers. When independence came in 1962, he was appointed minister of sport and tourism at the age of just 25, under Algeria's first president, Ahmed Ben Bella. He became foreign minister the following year, a post he held for more than a decade, but was sidelined after the death of president Houari Boumediene in 1978 and went into self-imposed exile. While he was abroad the military-backed government cancelled the 1991 elections, which an Islamist party had been poised to win, sparking a decade of bloodletting. Bouteflika returned from Switzerland in 1999 to stand for president with the backing of the army which saw in him a potential figure of reconciliation. He initially faced six rivals, but when the opponents dropped out, crying foul, he found himself the only candidate. He proposed an amnesty for rebels who laid down their arms and twice secured public endorsement for "national reconciliation" through referendums. The first, in September 1999, was a major gamble but paid off, leading to a sharp decrease in violence that helped propel Bouteflika to a second term in 2004. His third term in 2009 followed a constitutional amendment allowing him to stand again. His supporters argue that under his stewardship public and private investment created millions of jobs and dramatically lowered unemployment. But a lack of opportunity continues to drive many Algerians abroad as youth unemployment remains high. When the Arab Spring erupted in January 2011, Bouteflika rode out the storm by lifting a 19-year state of emergency and using oil revenues to grant pay rises. For political commentator Rashid Tlemcani, Bouteflika "should have left office at the end of his second term, after securing national reconciliation and conquering the hearts of a large part of the population". - Out of public eye - In April 2013, Bouteflika was rushed to hospital in France after his stroke, and spent three months recovering. He had already been hospitalised in Paris in 2005 because of intestinal problems from which he never fully recovered. Bouteflika's decision to seek a fourth mandate in 2014 after 15 years in power sparked both derision and criticism from those who questioned his ability to rule. He did not even campaign and voted from a wheelchair, but still won an official 81 percent of the vote. But it was Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term in elections due to be held in April that proved the last straw for many Algerians. His candidacy was formally submitted on March 3 while he was in Switzerland for what the presidency described as another round of routine medical tests. His pledge not to serve a full term if re-elected failed to quell public anger and protests continued as his office announced his return from Geneva a week later. He finally announced his decision to withdraw his candidacy on Monday, saying he was responding to "a pressing demand that you have been numerous in making to me". Bouteflika's tenure has been overshadowed by the bloody repression of protests in the Kabylie region in spring 2001 and corruption scandals, while major challenges remain, including regular jihadist attacks. "Bouteflika failed to turn Algeria into a modern country, with real institutions," according to Myriam Ait-Aoudia, a professor of political science. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, shown here in 2009, helped foster peace in Algeria after a decade-long civil war in the 1990s Algeria's Abdelaziz Bouteflika came to power in 1999 with the support of an army battling Islamist guerrillas Abdelaziz Bouteflika, shown here in 1973, served as Algerian foreign minister for more than a decade Abdelaziz Bouteflika casts his ballot on 16 September 1999 in Algiers Fidel Castro and Abdelaziz Bouteflika attend a ceremony in Havana, Cuba on April 15, 2000 during an official visit by the Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika is pushed in a wheelchair next to his nephew before casting his ballot at a polling station in Algiers while running for re-election on April 17, 2014 A diver who was nearly swallowed by a whale has told of what happened inside the creatures mouth. Incredible photos of the moment Rainer Schimpf, 51, found himself scooped up by the Brydes whale off Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in February emerged this week. The whole event when the whale grabbed me took about two seconds, Mr Schimpf told Sky News in the UK. So once I felt something had grabbed me on the hip, I knew instantly it was a whale. Rainer Schimpf, 51, was diving in waters off Port Elizabeth, South Africa in February when he found himself nearly swallowed by a Brydes whale. Source: Heinz Toperczer/ Barcroft Media My next thought was that it cant swallow me because its too big, so that was kind of [an] instant relief. Also I realised that the pressure didnt increase it actually stopped at a certain point. So my next thought was that the whale may take me down into the ocean and release me further down. I instantly held my breathe. Obviously he realised I was not what he wanted to eat so he spat me out again. Mr Schimpf speaks about what happened while he was inside the whales mouth. Source: Sky News The moment was captured by photographer Heinz Toperczer, who was with the diver on board a nearby ship, said he noticed the water churn up before a whale appeared and grabbed him (Mr Schimpf). The largest measured Brydes whale was 15.51m off Saldanha Bay, South Africa in 1977. Fortunately for Mr Schimpf, Brydes whales dont eat people either and largely feast on fish, planktonic crustaceans and cephlapods. Guinea-Bissau voted Sunday in legislative elections it is hoped will end a protracted leadership deadlock in a country renowned for drug trafficking and instability. Polls closed at 1700 GMT and voting passed off without incident with Kadre Desire Ouedraogo, head of the ECOWAS observation mission, noting "calm and discipline on the part of voters and a strong turnout". Earlier voter Victor Pereira, 42, said he cast his ballot because he wanted to see "the development of my country". The one-time Marxist ruling party PAIGC, which has run the poor West African state of two million for most of the 45 years since winning independence from Portugal, fielded candidates along with 20 opposition parties. Among them were the main opposition Party of Social Renewal and the Movement for Democratic Change (Madem-G15), made up of dissidents from the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC). The latest crisis arose in August 2015 when President Jose Mario Vaz, elected a year earlier, sacked his prime minister, Domingos Simoes Pereira who was head of the PAIGC, after a falling out. The country's instability has attracted drug traffickers, with senior government and military officials implicated in the trade. The UN has praised progress in the fight against drugs under Vaz, but in a reminder of the scale of the trade in the informal economy, authorities Sunday seized nearly 800 kilograms (1,700 pounds) of cocaine, the biggest drugs haul in more than a decade. First results from the polls are expected on Tuesday evening. Vaz said he was happy to see the vote going ahead. "It has not been easy but I am happy today because since democracy was introduced in 1994, no parliament has served out a full term," he said after casting his vote. Vaz has appointed a series of prime ministers, but none garnered sufficient support to achieve a parliamentary majority. Finally in April 2018, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) brokered an agreement leading to the designation of a consensus prime minister, Aristide Gomes, and the resumption of work by the 102-seat parliament. Gomes was given the caretaker task of preparing for parliamentary polls, in which 36 percent of candidates must be women for the first time. Initially set for November 18, the polls were postponed to March 10 mainly for technical reasons. - Crunch polls - The party that wins should appoint the future prime minister, who could once again be Vaz's rival Simoes Pereira. "These are the most contested elections in the history of Guinea-Bissau. We are coming out of a near four-year political crisis and no government has been able to complete its term," said political analyst Rui Landim. The UN Security Council noted in a resolution late last month that "the armed forces have remained neutral and have not interfered with the constitutional order" -- in a country that has seen 16 coup attempts since independence of which four were successful. International sanctions remain in place since 2012, after the last violent power seizure. Guinea-Bissau's porous coastline and chronic instability have made it a target for Latin American drug lords trafficking cocaine to Europe. Cashews, the main export, accounted for nearly half of the national budget in 2017. Some 760,000 people were eligible to vote but the opposition has contested the accuracy of the electoral roll for Sunday's polls, which are being closely watched by international observers. Another election is on the horizon, as Vaz's five-year term ends on June 23. The one-time Marxist ruling party PAIGC, which has run the poor West African country of some two million for most of the 45 years since winning independence from Portugal, is fielding candidates along with 20 opposition parties Guinea Bissau's President President Jose Mario Vaz appointed a series of prime ministers, but none has garnered sufficient support to achieve a parliamentary majority Map of Guinea-Bissau where legislative elections are under way Cashew nuts are Guinea-Bissau's main export A young Newcastle woman is considering launching legal action against NSW Police after she was strip searched at a Sydney music festival despite carrying no drugs. Lucy Moore, 19, attended Hidden Music Festival at Sydney Showgrounds last weekend. She told Seven News she was forced to undress in view of police and festival goers after being targeted for a drug search. Ms Moore added it came after she had one drink and a police sniffer dog sat beside her. Lucy Moore, 19, said she feels humiliated after she was strip searched at Hidden Music Festival in Sydney. Source: Facebook/ Lucy Moore and Hidden Music Festival As I was getting undressed she told me that I needed to squat and cough, the teenager said. They said well why did the dog sit next to you? And I said that I didnt know, because I honestly didnt and they told me it wouldnt fly and then told me to get undressed even though she hadnt even closed the door yet. She said she was interrogated for an hour but no drugs were found. She was handed a six-month ban from Sydney Olympic Park and now claims shes been left traumatised by the experience. Im not going to say that Im definitely fine, because it is going to be a long mental recovery as it was quite traumatic and humiliating to me, Ms Moore said. Between 2016 and 2017 strip searches in New South Wales nearly doubled. Nearly two thirds of sniffer dog tests have proven to be wrong according to police statistics. Source: 7 News In the first six months of 2018 there were 735 strip searches, yet police statistics reveal sniffer dogs falsely detect drugs in two thirds of cases. Five festival goers have died in the last six months of suspected drug overdoses. Police have refused to comment while they conduct an internal review. Authorities have been forced to step up operations at music festivals due to the five deaths, triggering a political war over maintaining civil liberties and preventing the senseless deaths of more young people. Ms Moore and her mother are taking legal advice. Do you know more or have a story tip? Email: y7newsroom@yahoo7.com.au. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter and stay up to date with the latest news with Yahoo7s daily newsletter. Sign up here. Kurdish-led forces on Monday pounded the last scrap of land held by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria after hundreds more people surrendered. The jihadists once ruled over millions in a swathe of Syria and Iraq, but they have since lost all that territory except for a riverside slither of land near the Iraqi border. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces paused its months-old offensive against the shrinking holdout multiple times for thousands of dust-covered women, children and men to flee, including suspected jihadists. The Kurdish-led SDF late Sunday warned remaining IS fighters that time was up for any surrenders and they were going in. Around 400 men, women and children, mostly jihadists and their relatives, have since handed themselves over to the SDF, field commander Ahmed Qasser told AFP. Fierce shelling resumed Monday evening for the second night in a row, interrupting a brief lull in fighting that had taken hold during the day. Flames ravaging the makeshift encampment lit up the night sky. The crackle and thud of gunfire and shelling filled the air as plumes of thick black smoke rose over the bombed-out village. At an SDF position around two kilometres (1.2 miles) away from the front line, fighters stood with their backs against the wall, watching a deluge of fire raining down on the bombed-out IS bastion. "Now it gets serious," said one SDF fighter smiling, after an air strike pummelled the IS holdout. - Heavy fighting - The SDF launched the renewed assault on Sunday after no civilians were observed to remain in the riverside encampment. "The clashes were heavy" overnight, SDF unit commander Aras Orkeish told AFP, with IS launching "suicide bombers" and "car bombs" at them. "The operation slowed down after midnight," he said. The warplanes of a US-led coalition and mortar fire overnight pounded weapons caches, and tank fire targeted IS positions, a spokesman said. It was unclear how many people remained inside the pocket on the banks of the Euphrates, SDF spokesman Mustefa Bali said late Sunday. "We expect there to be from 1,000 to 1,500 terrorists inside," he said. "During the advance, if our forces notice the presence of civilians, our special units... will do the necessary to bring them away from the clashes or even work to evacuate them." Since December, nearly 59,000 people have left the last IS redoubt, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, around a tenth of them suspected jihadist fighters. The last IS fighters are clinging on to an area that includes a dismal camp of vehicles and cloth-covered trenches by the reedy banks of the Euphrates. The SDF pushed into the IS encampment some 10 days ago, discovering spent ammunition, pots and pans lying between hastily dug trenches and berms. - Humanitarian crisis - At the height of its brutal rule, IS controlled a stretch of land in Syria and Iraq the size of Britain. The total capture of the Baghouz camp by the SDF would mark the end of the cross-border "caliphate" it proclaimed in 2014. But beyond Baghouz, IS retains a presence in eastern Syria's vast Badia desert and sleeper cells in the northeast. The jihadists have continued to claim deadly attacks in SDF-held territory in recent months, and the US military has warned of the need to maintain a "vigilant offensive". The United States is expected to keep 200 "peace-keeping" troops in Syria after the end of the offensive, despite President Donald Trump's shock announcement in December that all 2,000 American soldiers would leave. The exodus from Baghouz in recent months has sparked a humanitarian crisis, leaving aid organisations struggling to cope. Those fleeing Baghouz have emerged exhausted and hungry after a prolonged siege. Dozens of young children have died along the way or shortly after arriving at a Kurdish-run displacement camp in northeast Syria, according to the International Rescue Committee aid organisation. Syria's Kurds hold hundreds of foreigners accused of fighting for IS as well as members of their families. But their home countries have mostly been reluctant to take them back, with Britain stripping several women of their nationalities. Morocco said it had repatriated from Syria on Sunday eight of its nationals suspected of belonging to IS. The United Nations' Children Fund said the fate of foreign children fleeing IS territory should not be ignored. "The message that these children are not wanted is growing stronger and stronger," said Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF's Middle East director. "There is a solution for these children. It requires political courage, political commitment. These children are children, they are not terrorists," he said. The Islamic State group has lost all its territory in Syria except for a besieged pocket of land near the Iraqi border Map locating the last pocket of territory held by the Islamic State group in Syria. A fighter with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) takes aim with his Kalashnikov assault rifle after seeing a man walking towards his position in the town of Baghouz, in the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor, on March 9, 2019 A Syrian Democratic Forces fighter sits on a motorcycle at a makeshift Islamic State group camp in eastern Syria The World Health Organization on Monday launched a strategy to protect people worldwide over the next decade against the threat of influenza, warning that new pandemics are "inevitable". Influenza epidemics, largely seasonal, affect around one billion people and kill hundreds of thousands annually, according to WHO, which describes it as one of the world's greatest public health challenges. WHO's new strategy, for 2019 through 2030, aims to prevent seasonal influenza, control the virus's spread from animals to humans and prepare for the next pandemic, WHO said. "The threat of pandemic influenza is ever-present," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. The world has suffered through a number of devastating influenzas pandemics, including the Spanish Flu, which in 1918 killed tens of millions of people globally. Three pandemics have occurred since -- in 1957, 1968 and in 2009 -- when the H1N1 swine flue pandemic claimed around 18,500 lives in 214 countries. "Another influenza pandemic is inevitable," the UN health agency said, adding that "in this interconnected world, the question is not if we will have another pandemic, but when." Launching the new strategy, the WHO chief stressed the need for vigilance and preparation. "The cost of a major influenza outbreak will far outweigh the price of prevention," he said. While pandemic preparedness is estimated to cost less than $1 per person per year, WHO said responding to a pandemic costs roughly 100 times that amount. The new strategy called for every country to strengthen routine health programmes and to develop tailor-made influenza programmes that strengthen disease surveillance, response, prevention, control, and preparedness. - Not prepared enough - WHO recommends annual flu vaccines as the most effective way to prevent the spread of the disease, especially for healthcare workers and people at higher risk of influenza complications. It also called for the development of more effective and more accessible vaccines and antiviral treatments. Due to its mutating strains, vaccine formulas must be regularly updated and only offer limited protection currently. But Martin Friede, WHO's vaccines coordinator, urged broader use of seasonal vaccines, which help protect vulnerable populations but also help prepare countries to rapidly deploy vaccines in the case of a pandemic. "In a perfect world, everyone would be vaccinated," Friede told reporters in Geneva. Tedros said progress in recent years had made the world better prepared than ever for the next big influenza outbreak. "But we are still not prepared enough. This strategy aims to get us to that point," he said. WHO said it would expand partnerships to increase research, innovation and availability of new and improved vaccines and other tools to fight influenza. It insisted its new strategy would also have benefits beyond the fight against influenza, since it would also increase detection of other infectuous diseases, including Ebola. WHO recommends annual flu vaccines as the most effective way to prevent the spread of the disease, especially for healthcare workers and people at higher risk of influenza complications At least 19 affiliated with the United Nations were among those killed in the crash Sunday of an Ethiopian Airlines jet near Addis Ababa, according to the UN migration agency chief. Authorities said all 157 people on board were killed when the Boeing 737 crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa on a flight to Nairobi, where the UN conference was being held. "Early indications are that 19 staff members of UN affiliated organizations perished," said International Organization for Migration head Antonio Vitorino. "Numerous other staff members from at least five UN and affiliated organizations are understood to have also perished," he said. Along with the IOM, the World Food Program, UN Refugee Agency, World Bank, UN Environment Agency and others lost colleagues, he said. Among the IOM staff on the plane was Anne Feigl, who worked for the agency's mission in Sudan. Mission chief Catherine Northing remembered Feigl as "an extremely valued colleague and popular staff member, committed and professional." Meanwhile World Food Program director David Beasley, who confirmed seven of his staff had died, said: "As we mourn, let us reflect that each of these WFP colleagues were willing to travel and work far from their homes and loved ones to help make the world a better place to live." In a statement, Geneva-based UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, did not confirm the number of colleagues among the dead -- but said his agency had suffered a "huge loss." A UN source had earlier added that that freelance interpreters traveling to a UN conference on the environment might also be among the dead. Establishing the exact number of UN personnel on the flight was complicated by the fact that some had informed the United Nations of their travel plans while others had not, and not all were using their UN passports to travel, the source said. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "deeply saddened at the tragic loss of lives." "He conveys his heartfelt sympathies and solidarity to the victims' families and loved ones, including those of United Nations staff members, as well as sincere condolences to the government and people of Ethiopia," the statement said. "The United Nations is in contact with the Ethiopian authorities and working closely with them to establish the details of United Nations personnel who lost their lives in this tragedy." "Early indications are that 19 staff members of UN affiliated organizations perished," said International Organization for Migration head Antonio Vitorino An international bribery watchdog on Monday said it was "concerned" by accusations of political meddling in the prosecution of engineering giant SNC-Lavalin that have dogged Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Working Group on Bribery said it has "sent a letter to the Canadian authorities confirming its concerns." It added that it was "encouraged" by two independent probes by Canada's ethics commissioner and the House of Commons justice committee into the matter. For weeks, Trudeau's government has been rocked by the accusations from his former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould of "consistent and sustained" political pressure to shield the company from a trial. The prime minister addressed the allegations head-on last week, telling reporters in Ottawa that he had learned "lessons" from the crisis -- but denying any wrongdoing. Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin, which was charged with corruption over alleged bribes paid to secure contracts in Libya, had openly lobbied Ottawa for an out-of-court settlement that would result in a fine and agreeing to compliance measures, saying a conviction would lead to job losses. But Wilson-Raybould refused to ask prosecutors to settle, and the trial is set to proceed. She later testified to lawmakers, after resigning, that she had received "veiled threats" over her stance. The OECD said the Anti-Bribery Convention, to which Canada was a founding member, "requires prosecutorial independence in foreign bribery cases." "In addition, political factors such as a country?s national economic interest and the identity of the alleged perpetrators must not influence foreign bribery investigations and prosecution," it said. Opposition leader Andrew Scheer, who has called on Trudeau to resign, commented on Twitter that "our allies are now flagging Canada for corrupt practices." Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government has been accused of meddling in a federal criminal investigation of SNC-Lavalin, a major Candian engineering firm College campuses are thinking about lactation spaces -- but could be doing more A college campus may not seem like a place that requires extensive lactation support. But while most undergraduates don't have children, several populations within these higher-education environmentsgraduate students, faculty, staff, visitorsmay need access to breastfeeding and pumping spaces. Diane Spatz of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has been advocating for and researching the needs of breastfeeding moms for nearly two decades. Most recently, she and colleagues from the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and the Center for Public Health Initiatives, both at Penn, and the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) turned their attention to the availability of such a resource on college and university campuses. In a study published in the journal Breastfeeding Medicine, the researchers found that nearly all of the 105 institutions surveyed had a least one dedicated lactation space. About two-thirds reported having a policy for creating such spaces, but only about a quarter included them in campus construction standards. "There are many different types of women who may need to access lactation space when they're on a university campus. That's why this work is really cool and so important, because there is definitely a need," says Spatz, a perinatal nursing and nutrition professor at Penn who also runs CHOP's lactation program. "Beyond that, we're getting these ideas into the hands of the people making the decisions about space on campus. On the majority of campuses, no one is thinking about this as a standard." The project emerged after a student of Spatz's asked 139 universities across the country whether they had lactation policies in place for their students. Just five percent did. So in 2015, when Dare Henry-Moss joined the Penn master's in public health program as a student, the issue was already top of mind for Spatz. The two began working together. At around the same time, Spatz met Joyce Lee, an architect who teaches at PennDesign and is a faculty advisor at the Wharton School Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership. Lee also works closely with SCUP, which expressed interest in pursuing research on the subject. Lee connected everyone and the project came to life, spurred by a mutual excitement for what all parties saw as a crucial yet unexplored topic. "For so long this type of gender-specific space has not been in any best-practice standards," says Lee, president of design firm IndigoJLD Green Health. "Now we're creating an environment where presidents, provosts, real estate managers, planners, designers can discuss it as a network of health-promoting spaces. An interdisciplinary collaboration is critical to getting this work done." So, too, are solid numbers, so the research team created a survey that asked participants who on campus was involved in planning for and funding lactation spaces, how many there were, and whether the institution tracked use of the space. They also went further in depth, asking what percentage of the campus population lived or worked within a seven-minute walk of a lactation space, and how many of the rooms had features such as a locking mechanism, a hospital-grade pump, or personal storage for users. Across the country, representatives from every campus size"small" schools with fewer than 5,000 undergrads to "very large schools" with more than 30,000responded. They came from public schools and private, some with graduate divisions, some without. Their responses painted a clear picture about how universities and colleges across the U.S. think about this issue. Some do more than others, yet even those places already moving forward have room to grow. SCUP and the researchers hope to help in that regard, not simply by publicizing the statistics their work revealed, but also with a resource page they created that lives on the SCUP website. "Now there's a place where a campus administrator interested in doing more can go," Spatz says. "This is often looked at from a human resources standpoint, as an employee benefit, but it's not just that. It's a bigger-picture item." It's all in the name of making the process a little simpler for breastfeeding moms. "I've said this before. I've said it a million times. All the onus is on the woman to figure it out herself," Spatz says. "Moms shouldn't have to work so hard to be able to meet their personal breastfeeding goals. We need to make it easier." ### Diane Spatz is a professor of perinatal nursing and the Helen M. Shearer Professor of Nutrition at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. She is also a nurse researcher and manager of the lactation program at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dare Henry-Moss is an adjunct fellow at the Center for Public Health Initiatives. She was formerly a research coordinator for the Perelman School of Medicine and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and earned her master's in public health from the University of Pennsylvania in 2017. Joyce Lee is president of design firm IndigoJLD Green Health and has taught at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a faculty advisor at the Wharton School Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership. Kathleen Benton of the Society for College and University Planning also collaborated on the paper. This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Safety doubts over Boeing's best-selling 737 MAX 8 drove several carriers to ground the aircraft Monday after a new jet crashed in Ethiopia, killing all 157 people on board. Investigators recovered the black-box flight recorders from the Nairobi-bound jet that went down early Sunday near Addis Ababa, the carrier Ethiopia Airlines said. Flight ET302 crashed into a field just six minutes after takeoff as the pilot alerted controllers of "difficulties". There were people from 35 countries on board, including some two dozen UN staff. Ethiopia decreed Monday a day of national mourning. The aircraft was the same type of jet as the Indonesian Lion Air plane that crashed in October, killing 189 passengers and crew. Airlines in Ethiopia, China, South Africa, Indonesia and the Cayman Islands said Monday they were suspending operations by their 737 MAX 8 fleets. The move caused Boeing shares to tumble around 12 percent earlier in the day, before recovering about half its losses in mid-afternoon New York trading. - Jets grounded - Ethiopia Airlines said investigators had found the plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders on Monday. It said it had grounded its fleet of six remaining Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes pending analysis of the black box data. "We assume we will find out the cause of the crash in the black box data," the airline said. China also ordered domestic airlines to suspend commercial operation of the MAX 8. There were eight Chinese nationals among the 149 passengers and eight crew on the Ethiopia flight. Indonesia, which has 11 of the MAX 8 model planes, said it would "carry out inspections and temporarily prohibit Boeing 737 Max 8 from flying." South Korea ordered an inspection of two MAX 8 planes flown by low-cost Eastar Jet. Some other airlines said they were not cancelling MAX 8 flights, including Oman Air, flydubai, Turkish Airlines and Russia's S7. Boeing has described the MAX series as its fastest-selling aeroplane ever, with more than 5,000 orders placed to date from about 100 customers. State-owned Ethiopian Airlines, Africa's largest carrier, had ordered 30 MAX 8 jets in total, and China has received 76 from an order of 180. The plane that crashed on Sunday was less than four months old. Ethiopian Airlines said it was delivered on November 15. - Plane on fire - The jet went down near the village of Tulu Fara, some 60 kilometres (40 miles) east of Addis Ababa. "The plane was already on fire when it crashed to the ground. The crash caused a big explosion," one witness, Tegegn Dechasa, told AFP. Another, farmer Sisay Gemechu, said the plane seemed to be aiming to land on an open field, but crashed before reaching it. Inhabitants of the remote area looked on from behind a security cordon as inspectors searched the crash site and excavated it with a mechanical digger. The single-aisle Boeing jet left a deep, black crater at the impact site. Ethiopian Airlines said the pilot was given clearance to turn around after indicating problems shortly before the plane disappeared from radar. The airline's chief executive Tewolde GebreMariam said the plane had flown in from Johannesburg early Sunday, spent three hours in Addis and was "despatched with no remark", meaning no problems were flagged, before leaving for Nairobi. A committee comprising Ethiopian Airlines, aviation and transport authorities was set up to lead the crash investigation. US experts and Boeing will also take part. The US plane manufacturer cancelled the scheduled presentation Tuesday of its new long-haul jet, the 777X. - Author, student, aid workers - The crash cast a pall over a gathering of the UN Environment Programme, which opened in Nairobi on Monday. At least 22 staff from several UN agencies were on the doomed flight. Delegates hugged and comforted one another as they arrived at the meeting with the UN flag flying at half-mast. Details of the passengers, including tourists, business travellers and humanitarian workers, have started to emerge. Among them was Cedric Asiavugwa, a Kenyan third-year student at Georgetown University Law School in Washington. He was heading for a visit home ahead of his graduation in the spring, the university said. Kenya had the highest death toll among the nationalities on the flight with 32, according to Ethiopian Airlines. Canada was next with 18 victims. There were nine Ethiopians and eight each from Italy and the United States. The airline said Britain and France each had seven people on board, Egypt six, and Germany five. France, however, put its death toll at nine. Britain also put its death toll at nine, including two dual nationals travelling on other passports. Italian archaeologist Sebastiano Tusa, 66, died in the crash, his wife Valeria Patrizia Li Vigni was quoted as saying by the Corriere della Sera newspaper. On Sunday, "the friends I met at mass said I shouldn't worry because bad news travels fast," she said. "In the end it arrived anyway, and it destroyed my life. I felt the disaster coming... He hadn't even wanted to go." burs-mlr/rlp/dcr/boc Debris of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane was strewn over the crash site 60 kilometres from Addis Ababa Ethiopian Airlines says it will work with Boeing, authorities and international experts to investigate the crash Graphic showing flight data on the altitude and speed of Ethiopian Airlines ET302 before it crashed on Sunday shortly after takeoff. Locals watched as investigators combed the crash site, where the plane left a deep black crater Delegates at the assembly of the UN Environment Programme held a minute's silence for the victims Sudan's parliament on Monday approved a nationwide state of emergency of six months instead of one year as ordered by President Omar al-Bashir to quell protests against his iron-fisted rule. Bashir declared a year-long state of emergency from February 22 after an initial crackdown failed to suppress the demonstrations that have rocked his administration for nearly three months. "A six-month state of emergency has been approved by a majority," the speaker of parliament Ibrahim Ahmed Omer said after lawmakers voted on the presidential decree. Deadly protests erupted on December 19 after a government decision to triple the price of bread. The demonstrations quickly escalated into nationwide rallies against Bashir's administration, with analysts calling it the biggest challenge to his rule stretching back three decades. Officials say 31 people have died in protest-related violence so far, while Human Rights Watch has given a death toll of at least 51 including medics and children. Monday's vote by lawmakers backed a recommendation from a parliamentary committee to shorten the state of emergency to six months. Activists and rights groups have slammed the measure as curbing freedoms in the country. "The parliament didn't want to reject Bashir's decree, so it came out with a compromise by keeping the state of emergency for six months," said prominent Sudanese human rights defender Nabil Adib. "But to me it's not about six months or one year. The measure violates human rights that are permitted in the Sudanese constitution." Sudan's Minister of Justice Mohamed Ahmed Salim defended the state of emergency in parliament, which is overwhelmingly dominated by lawmakers from the ruling National Congress Party. "What we have is a soft state of emergency and still people are complaining," he said. - Protesters jailed - Bashir has also issued a slew of tough measures to end the protests, banning unauthorised rallies and setting up special emergency courts to investigate offences. He has also given sweeping powers to security forces to carry out raids and searches. Scores of protesters have appeared before the emergency courts already and several have been jailed, while nine women have received sentences of 20 lashes each for joining rallies. On Sunday, a top opposition leader was sentenced to a week in jail as she tried to participate in a march on parliament to challenge the state of emergency. Mariam al-Mahdi, the deputy chief of the main opposition Umma Party, said she will spend a total of three weeks in jail after refusing to pay a fine of 2,000 Sudanese pounds ($42). Bashir swept to power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989 that toppled the government of Sadiq al-Mahdi, chief of the Umma Party and father of Mariam. Although the protests erupted after the rise in bread prices, anger had been mounting across the country for years amid a growing economic crisis. Bashir, 75, has defied protesters' calls for him to step down but has dissolved the federal and provincial governments. The president also handed over his powers as chief of the ruling National Congress Party to his deputy, Ahmed Harun. Bashir has appointed 16 army officers and two security officers from the feared National Intelligence and Security Service as governors of the country's 18 provinces, a move criticised by the United States and others as "return to military rule". Sudanese lawmakers on Monday cut the country's state of emergency from a year to six months Lawmakers backed a recommendation by a parliamentary committee to shorten the state of emergency Deadly clashes have rocked Sudan since December after a government decision to triple the price of bread sparked public anger A world forum on addressing the planet's environmental crisis opened in Nairobi on Monday, the mood darkened by the Ethiopian Airlines tragedy that killed 157 people a day earlier, including at least 22 UN staff, many headed for the event. Delegates arrived at the sprawling compound to see the UN flag flying at half-mast and the usually colourful display of national flags removed. As they wondered aloud who among their colleagues may have been on board the ill-fated Boeing, some hugged and comforted one another. According to Maimunah Sharif, head of UN-Habitat, at least 22 UN employees were among those who died when the Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines jet crashed early Sunday just six minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa. "I stand before you on the first day of the UN Environment Assembly, which has officially commenced today in the wake of this tragedy," she told delegates. "We will not forget this tragedy, nor those who perished. Let us reflect that our colleagues were willing to travel and to work far from their homes and loved ones to make the world a better place to live." Kicking off a sombre opening plenary, UN Environment Assembly president and Estonia's environment minister, Siim Kiisler asked delegates, many dressed in black and some in tears, to observe a minute's silence. A member of the UNEP secretariat told AFP it was "still trying to consolidate" the number of staffers who died. Among the UN employees on the downed Ethiopian Airlines flight were some who worked for the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN refugee agency UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "The environmental community is in mourning today," said Joyce Msuya, a Tanzanian scientist who is the UN's acting environment head. "We lost UN staff, youth delegates travelling to the Assembly, seasoned scientists, members of academia and other partners." It is the second time in less than five years that delegates have died in a plane disaster on their way to a major global conference. In July 2014, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 passenger jet, flight MH17, was shot down over eastern Ukraine en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 on board, most of them Dutch citizens. Among the victims were six delegates to the 20th International AIDS conference in Melbourne, including top Dutch expert Joep Lange. - 'Critical time' - The annual UNEP assembly gathers heads of state, ministers, business leaders and civil society representatives to work on ways to slash pollution and build a greener global economy. Delegates in Nairobi have been briefed by a string of UN reports outlining in stark terms the damage mankind is doing to its home, from climate change to acidification of the oceans and species loss. The meeting comes at a "critical time for action to protect and reverse the degradation of our planet," Kiisler warned. One briefing on the eve of the summit said the cost of ecosystems loss through agriculture, deforestation and pollution since 1995 was as much as $20 trillion (17.7 trillion euros). A major topic in Nairobi is plastic waste. Mankind currently produces more than 300 million tonnes of plastics each year, and there are at least five trillion plastic pieces floating in our oceans. Delegates are expected to work towards a deal on the lines of the 2015 Paris Agreement that would see each country vow to slash plastic waste by 2030. Delegates observed a minute's silence at the meeting's start UN staff held their own ceremony for the victims of the Ethiopian Airlines disaster Anger: Protesters from Extinction Rebellion activists group, pictured outside the main venue of London Fashion Week last month Spoiled paradise: Plastic waste in Lampung Bay, Indonesia World map showing marine areas where plastic rubbish and microplastics are collected by circular currents. Flags flew at half-staff at the United Nations on Monday after 21 UN employees were killed in an Ethiopian Airlines plane crash that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said marked a "sad day" for the world body. Guterres led delegates at the opening of the annual gathering on women's rights at the General Assembly in observing a moment of silence in honor of the victims. "A global tragedy has hit close to home ? and the United Nations is united in grief," he said at the Commission on the Status of Women. UN ambassadors opened a Security Council meeting on Afghanistan by standing in silence for the victims of Flight ET302, which crashed Sunday shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa. All 157 people onboard were killed. Among the dead were many traveling to a UN environment conference in Nairobi. The World Food Programme lost seven staff in the crash while three employees of the UN refugee agency UNHCR were killed. Three others worked for the UN office in Nairobi and there were also victims from the International Organization for Migration, the UN Environment agency, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Telecommunication Union, the UN office in Somalia, the UN Development Programme and the World Bank. - WFP suffers loss - WFP released the names of the seven killed, many of whom were based in the agency's Rome headquarters including Zhen-Zhen Huang from China, Michael Ryan from Ireland and Harina Hafitz from Indonesia. The other four were: Ekta Adhikari from Nepal, whose duty station was Addis Ababa, Maria Pilar Buzzetti and Virginia Chimenti from Italy and Djordje Vdovic from Serbia. "As we mourn, let us reflect that each of these WFP colleagues were willing to travel and work far from their homes and loved ones to help make the world a better place to live. That was their calling, as it is for the rest of the WFP family," said WFP director David Beasley. UNHCR said it mourned the loss of Nadia Ali, Jessica Hyba and Jackson Musoni. "We've been struck by sudden and terrible loss," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi who cut short a visit to the Middle East to return to headquarters in Geneva. "We are doing everything we can to help Nadia?s, Jessica?s and Jackson?s families at this most difficult and painful time." UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the tragedy ranked among the worst for the United Nations. In 2011, a UN-chartered plane crashed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing 32 people who worked for the United Nations and non-governmental organizations. Twenty-one UN staff members were among those killed when Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 crashed into a field just six minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa A moment of silence was held for victims of the Ethiopia Airline crash before the start of a UN environment meeting in Nairobi A top US envoy said Monday Washington's goal is the complete denuclearization of North Korea by the end of Donald Trump's first term, insisting it will not settle for incremental disarmament. "We are not going to do denuclearization incrementally," said Stephen Biegun, the special US envoy for North Korea. While stressing he was not bound by an artificial calendar, Biegun said the administration wanted to accomplish the complete and verified denuclearization of North Korea by the end of Trump's term in January 2021. "We stand by the expectation that if we fully mobilize our resources... we could align ourselves in a manner sufficient to achieve this in something approaching a year," he said. "We do have to have a complete declaration," from Pyongyang, he went on. "We will not lift these sanctions until NK completes the process of denuclearization." The US side has included North Korea's chemical and biological weapons in the negotiations with Pyongyang. The envoy said there could be no comprehensive agreement with the North without agreement on each point, adding that there was "complete unity" in the administration on that approach. Speaking at a conference organized by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Biegun said progress had been made despite the failure of Trump's second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, held in Hanoi last month. "The door remains open" for further negotiations, he said, adding, however, that "the North Koreans have to be fully invested." "Nothing can be agreed until everything's agreed," he stressed, while adding that confidence-building measures between the countries could still take place. The outcome in Hanoi last month fell far short of hopes that the meeting would build on the leaders' summit in Singapore in June 2018, which marked a historic first but resulted only in a vague commitment to "work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula." After weeks of building expectations and with a signing ceremony ready to go, Trump abruptly ended the summit, saying: "Sometimes you have to walk and this was just one of those times." North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho later said his side had offered to "permanently and completely dismantle all the nuclear production facilities" at its main complex in Yongbyon if the US dropped sanctions "that hamper the civilian economy and the livelihood of our people." Biegun repeated the US position that sanctions would not be lifted "until North Korea completes the process of denuclearization." The US special envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun says the US won't settle for incremental denuclearization in its talks with Pyongyang Lake Ontario's water levels decreased slightly last week, but it's likely not enough to allay concerns about flooding along the shoreline. The Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board, a panel established within the International Joint Commission, announced Friday that the lake's level dropped 1.6 inches last week. The board attributed the decline to dry weather, evaporation and high outflows. Despite the small drop, the lake is still at a high level for this time of year. As of Friday, the lake was at 245.93 feet, more than a foot higher than its March 7 average. In response to rising waters, the board has increased outflows at the Moses-Saunders Dam near Massena. According to the latest update, outflows stand at 307,000 cubic feet per second, the fifth-highest level since 1960. Last week, the board revealed that outflows have been increasing since October. It also explained why the high outflows are necessary. "The Niagara River, which connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, is a major contributor to the amount of water that drains into Lake Ontario," the board wrote. "Under extreme conditions, precipitation on the lake and within its local drainage basin can also be a major contributor of water into Lake Ontario. "These uncontrolled, natural water supply conditions are the primary factor that determines Lake Ontario water levels. As a result, regulation of outflows cannot control the water levels of Lake Ontario, only influence them, and conditions throughout the St. Lawrence River must also be considered." New York elected officials have called on the board to maximize outflows. In February, state Sen. Pam Helming and Assemblyman Brian Manktelow expressed concern about rising water levels. They wanted Cayuga County's federal representatives to help avoid a repeat of 2017, when severe flooding affected several shoreline communities. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and U.S. Rep. John Katko urged the International Joint Commission to take action to prevent flooding. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Two New York lawmakers want to prohibit pet stores from selling certain animals, including cats and dogs. A bill sponsored by state Sen. Michael Gianaris and Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal would impose the ban on the sale of cats, dogs and rabbits in pet stores. Under the measure proposed by Gianaris, D-Queens, and Rosenthal, D-Manhattan, pet stores would be allowed to encourage adoption. Pet stores could provide space for shelters to feature animals customers could adopt. The main motivation for the bill is to end the link between animal mills and pet stores. Mills, especially puppy mills, profit off breeding animals that are sold in pet stores. Mills have been long criticized due to poor living conditions for the animals. Some pet stores, especially major chains, don't sell cats and dogs. Petco and Petsmart, two of the largest pet store chains, don't sell cats and dogs. Instead, the companies encourage adopting animals. However, not all pet stores encourage adoption. Others sell cats, dogs and other animals to consumers. "We must end the pet mill-to-pet store pipeline," Rosenthal said in a statement. "There is absolutely no reason that anyone should spend thousands of dollars on an often-unhealthy pet that was bred in abject horror when shelters and rescues statewide are bursting at the seams with healthy and innocent animals in need of 'fur-ever' homes." Most animals sold in pet stores were bred by mills. The lawmakers explained that before the animals arrive at a pet store, they likely lived in poor conditions, received inadequate medical care and lacked access to food or water. Customers who purchase animals at pet stores are unaware of these conditions, the legislators added. For animals that require significant veterinary care, it could cost thousands of dollars. The legislation has been endorsed by animal advocacy groups, such as the ASPCA, Humane Society of the United States and the New York State Animal Protection Federation. Bill Ketzer, senior director of state legislation for the ASPCA's Northeast region, believes the bill proposed by Gianaris and Rosenthal will protect animals and consumers. "Time after time, the pet industry has demonstrated that it is not interested in ensuring the welfare of the dogs it churns out, nor is it interested in transparency or public accountability," Ketzer said. The New York proposal would go further than a new law in California. The law in California bans pet stores from selling non-rescue animals. The stores can continue to sell animals, but they must come from rescues or shelters. Online producer Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 (Warning: Minor "Captain Marvel" spoilers below.) For most who saw "Captain Marvel" this weekend, the biggest question on their minds walking into the theater was simply whether the movie would take flight. Would Marvel Studios, 21 movies into its portfolio, manage yet another critically appreciated blockbuster? Would the Academy Award-winning Brie Larson anchor the studio's first woman-led superhero movie? Would indie filmmakers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck ("Half Nelson," "Mississippi Grind") successfully make the jump to the biggest franchise in the industry? The answers are "yes," "very much yes," and "yes." "Captain Marvel" is a decidedly good, if not great movie. It hews tightly to the Marvel Studios formula, sure, but that formula has been printing money for 11 years for several reasons. What generates hit after hit for the studio is a combination of genuine chemistry among its actors, stories that honor and occasionally subvert Marvel Comics canon, serviceable action and, maybe most definitively, a lot of humor. "Captain Marvel" has all of them, and all of them make the movie work frictionlessly well. But "Captain Marvel" has two things separating the movie from the rest of Marvel Studios' resume. The first, obviously, is a female hero. As a man, though, I'm not in any position to say how meaningful women will find the sight of Carol Danvers soaring through the atmosphere and socking bad guys. Many women have written insightfully on the subject, and I suggest you read their thoughts instead. The second unique thing about "Captain Marvel," however, speaks to me more directly: The movie is set in 1995. And for this '90s kid, that made the biggest question on my mind walking into the theater Thursday whether "Captain Marvel" would do my formative decade justice. The answer is "not really." Let's start with the soundtrack, which makes the Marvel Studios formula look like outsider art in comparison. From TLC's "Waterfalls" and Garbage's "Only Happy When it Rains" to No Doubt's "Just a Girl" during Carol Danvers' empowering final beatdown of her enemies, almost every musical selection in the movie is the most mainstream of alternative, edgy for its time but safe among focus groups 25 years later. The most left-field pull is Elastica's "Connection," but even if most don't know the song by name, they surely recognize the robotic crank of its guitars. But where are the weird, dangerous fringes that helped define '90s music? The obscure Buzz Bin one-and-dones? The gangster rap that ruled the conversation? The nightmare fuel industrial of Bjork's "Army of Me," which would have been perfect for the movie based on its title alone? Meanwhile, where are the hits that were safe even in 1995? The Boyz II Men, the Hootie and the Blowfish? (This all is to say nothing of the movie's use of Hole's "Celebrity Skin," which was released in 1998 and therefore puts almost the whole decade, from Michael Jackson to Backstreet Boys, into play.) The movie's surface-level treatment of the decade extends past the soundtrack, though. It includes a lot of the proper nouns, sure Blockbuster Video, Troll Dolls, Windows '95 but they feel like cheap signifiers, gimmickry even, like Larson et al. are seconds away from breaking the fourth wall and yelling, "Hey! Guess which decade this movie takes place in?" Perhaps the best way to pinpoint where "Captain Marvel" goes wrong with its treatment of its setting is to compare it to the other period Marvel movie: "Captain America: The First Avenger." There, the 1940s simply felt like the 1940s. No musical selection was too obvious, no name drop too conspicuous. Unlike "Captain Marvel," it was transportive in a way that felt effortless. There are a few explanations for that. First, given the recency of the '90s, it seems mainstream storytelling has yet to develop the vocabulary for depicting the decade the way it has the '40s, or even the '80s. "Captain America," for instance, has the clothes, the speak and the austere color key we've come to associate with its time. "Captain Marvel," however, lacks the equivalents: Carol Danvers may don a shirt with the iconic Nine Inch Nails logo, but why aren't SHIELD Agents Fury and Coulson wearing the billowing suits and garishly patterned ties of the day? It's also strange that those agents didn't encounter the government paranoia fed by everything from "The X-Files" to Waco. In fact, I don't recall any '90s vernacular in the script, and in 1995, it was pretty damn hard to get through a conversation without at least one catchphrase from "Beavis and Butthead" or Hartman-era "Saturday Night Live." And when it comes to cinematography, maybe Boden and Fleck could have sampled the color saturation in the music videos of Hype Williams and Floria Sigismondi? Or the dirty textures of the latter and early David Fincher? The other explanation for "Captain Marvel's" struggle to evoke the '90s for me is, well, me. It's the first full decade I lived. So for me and audiences my age, faithfully representing that decade and encompassing all its idiosyncrasies musical, sartorial and otherwise may just be impossible. Maybe it's unfair of me to expect a movie to stuff all the cultural diversity of 10 years into two hours. Maybe we '90s kids, we implacable early millennials, really are products of our time. Lake Life Editor David Wilcox can be reached at (315) 282-2245 or david.wilcox@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @drwilcox. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Stay up-to-date on what's happening Receive the latest in local entertainment news in your inbox weekly! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The Cultural Italian American Organization of Auburn will host its annual St. Joseph's Day Feast Celebration at 5 p.m. Sunday, March 31, at the Springside Inn, 6141 W. Lake Road, Fleming. Brought to the U.S. by immigrants from southern Italy, the celebration includes a traditional table dinner with Italian antipasto, romaine/oranges salad, garlic pizza, zeppoles, cannoli and more. The zeppoles and bread, shaped like a shepherd's hook, will be prepared by CIAO members, and all attendees will receive them. A small religious ceremony relating to the custom of the Tavola di San Guiseppe will precede the dinner: The statue of St. Joseph will be carried and placed on an altar, which will be decorated with traditional food items for the feast. The Rev. Lou Vasile will lead the ceremony. The event will also include several prize drawings. Tickets are $30. Guests asked to bring a nonperishable food item to donate to the St. Alphonsus Food Pantry, and to wear something red, the color of St. Joseph. Tickets are available at Tesoro's Apparel, the Flower Shop and Gusto Italiano in Auburn, or by calling (315) 406-2417, (315) 252-7778 or (315) 406-4859. Tickets will not be sold at the door. For more information, visit cayugacountyciao.org. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 As Unitarians, we follow seven principles that acknowledge the worth of every person, encourage personal spiritual growth and a search for truth and meaning and strive for a world united by peace, liberty and justice. On a local basis we welcome people of all races, religions, political convictions and sexual orientations into our congregation. As a companion to that effort, we are actively working to participate in community events such as the Central New York TomatoFest and Founders Day in Auburn. Our next community-oriented event may literally save lives. March is Red Cross Month, and we are hosting a blood drive for the Central New York Chapter of the American Red Cross. I have been a blood donor for decades, and for the last five years I have been donating platelets. I see this as my way of giving back to my community. Many of us know of someone who has needed blood in an emergency and who is alive today because someone donated their blood. When our Auburn Unitarian Universalist Society Board of Directors was trying to identify ways we could provide a benefit to the Auburn community, the idea of a blood drive came to me and we all agreed it may become an annual event. Where to find a blood drive in the Cayuga County area The following blood drives are scheduled to take place in the Cayuga County area: The need for blood is constant, and blood drives offer an easy opportunity for members of the community to be of service. We also consider this event an ideal way for our members to make new connections with the public and a way for the public to see that we are willing and eager to offer our assistance to the community. Every 30 seconds, someone is in serious need of blood. The Red Cross is continuously taking blood donations to meet the demand, but emergencies frequently tax the system. This is just one element of their work. They also provide support to victims of fires, natural disasters and other life-threatening events. Every eight minutes, the American Red Cross responds to an emergency, and 90 percent of Red Cross workers are volunteers. The Auburn Unitarian Universalist Society has designated Saturday, March 30, as our first Red Cross blood donation day. It will begin at 9 a.m. and continue until noon. We are located at 607 N. Seward Ave., Auburn. Our building is accessible to people with mobility limitations, and there is plenty of free parking. Appointments are encouraged but not required. Walk-ins are welcome. To schedule an appointment or for more information, call the church at (315) 253-9029 or call me at (315) 635-6762. I would like to thank the members of the Central New York Chapter of the Red Cross for their assistance in organizing this event and for partnering with us on such an important cause. Lent began on Wednesday, March 6; why not donate the gift of life instead of giving up candy! Better yet, why not do both? We invite you to join us for our worship service Sunday mornings at 10:30. If you would like to receive our free monthly newsletter, please contact auusoffice@gmail.com. Don Ives is a member of the Auburn Unitarian Universalist Society, which was founded in 1833 and is located at 607 N. Seward Ave., Auburn. Services are held at 10:30 a.m. Sundays. All men, women and children of every race, religious creed, political conviction and sexual orientation are welcome. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The 2019 Lake Ontario Fisheries Symposium will come to Fingerlakes Mall in Aurelius Saturday, March 23. The event was previously held in Canada. The goals of the event are to raise awareness about the lake's fisheries and fishing opportunities, provide new and useful information to anglers of all backgrounds, and appeal to aspiring anglers to support recruitment and retention in sustainable fisheries. Silviya Ivanova, a Ph.D. student at the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research at the University of Windsor, will deliver the keynote address at 3 p.m. There will also be sessions all day with experts from the state Department of Environmental Conservation, fishing organizations and more. The day will also include door prizes, children's activities, fish tanks and displays, vendors and more. The event takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the mall, 1579 Clark St. Road, Aurelius. Admission is free and open to the public, but registration is required. For more information, visit ilovenyfishing.com or nyseagrant.org/losportfish. For vendor inquiries, email jml78@cornell.edu. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 AUBURN Auburn's New York State Equal Rights Heritage Center was packed Sunday with a hearty crowd for the center's first Harriet Tubman Day program. A large gathering similar to size of the crowd the center managed to pull in at its November opening day came to honor Harriet Tubman, the famous abolitionist and former Auburn resident Sunday, on the 106th anniversary of her death. Mayor Michael Quill presented Pauline Copes Johnson, the great-great-grandniece of Tubman, a city proclamation honoring the "conductor" of the Underground Railroad. As she paid tribute to Tubman, "a woman who helped change the outcome of these United States," Copes Johnson called attention to a racial divide that continues to exist. She then stressed the need for a plan to eradicate racism. Many other guests also spoke in memory of Tubman. 'It's Harriet Tubman!': National park in Auburn hires first permanent ranger AUBURN The Harriet Tubman National Historical Park didn't need to look far for its first f Kate Clifford Larson, author of "Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero," said she's been studying Tubman's life for 25 years, and even though her book came out in 2004, she still researches Tubman's life every day. Martha Swan, founder and executive director of John Brown Lives!, a nonprofit organization that supports freedom education, social justice and human rights, spoke of the importance of educating children, particularly on the history of the American Civil War. "Why should (children) not be the center of everything we do as we try to write the course of our country?" Swan asked. Swan's work has been doing just that. She's the creator of the "Harriet Was Here, In My Backyard: Geographies of Slavery and Freedom" project, which has brought music educators Greg Artzner and Terry Leonino of the duo Magpie to schools in New York state, including Auburn's Genesee Elementary School. Students from that school were also part of Sunday's celebration. Genesee Elementary School students performed songs including "Bridge to Freedom" and "Oh, Harriet the Brave," a song written by Auburn students as part of the "Harriet Was Here" project in 2014. Recordings of the students performing are part of the heritage center's exhibits, and officials there say it's the one most played by visitors to the downtown Auburn building. In addition to the events at the center, Sunday's celebration included tours at the Seward House Museum and the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park, as well as a Harriet Tubman Day MLK Jam at Auburn Public Theater. Staff writer Dan Orzechowski can be reached at (315) 282-2239 or dan.orzechowski@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @OrzechowskiDan. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. City Casey J. Drake, 34, 101 Quill Ave., Apt. C15, Auburn, was picked up on a indictment warrant March 7 and charged with two counts of fourth-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. Tyrone S. Davis Jr., 23, 402 Ivy Ridge Road, Apt. 16, Syracuse, was charged March 7 with petit larceny. Riley F. Milton Jr., 33, 142 Fulton St., Auburn, was picked up on two bench warrants March 8. Oscar O. Blay Jr., 58, 56 Walnut St., Auburn, was charged March 8 with first offense driving while intoxicated and aggravated driving while intoxicated. Kayla R. Kopecki, 21, transient, Auburn, was picked up on a bench warrant March 9. County Seth David House, 22, 10033 Jordan Road, Cato, was charged Feb. 11 with second-degree offering a false instrument to file and tampering with evidence. Ariana M. Harrison, 26, 293 Seymour St., Auburn, was charged Feb. 14 with fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and first-degree falsifying business records. Eric M. Dailey, 29, 19 Franklin St., Apt. 2, Auburn, was charged Feb. 14 with third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, operating a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content of .08 of one percent and driving while intoxicated. Andrew B. Simonds, 30, 528 RT 38, Locke, was charged Feb. 15 with third-degree menacing and criminal obstruction of breathing/blood circulation. Alyssa Renee Bort, 25, 44 Clark St., Auburn, was picked up Feb. 16 on an executive bench warrant. Michael R. Warren, 21, 134 Clymer St., Auburn, was charged Feb. 19 with third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. Jeffrey Eric Hemingway Jr., 34, 208 Woodlawn Ave., Auburn, was picked up Feb. 19 on an executive bench warrant. Christopher Wayne Johnson, 53, 582 RT 104A, Oswego, was charged Feb. 20 with operating a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content of .08 of one percent and driving while intoxicated. Kaleb A. Maginn, 19, was charged Feb. 21 with third-degree criminal tampering. Daniel Scott Graf, 30, 14 Hazelhurst Ave., Owasco, was charged Feb. 21 with operating a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content of .08 of one percent and driving while intoxicated with a previous conviction of a similar offense within 10 years. Sarah E. Bray, 35, 2731 Center Road, Scipio, was charged Feb. 22 with third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. Alexandria M. Ferguson, 25, 157 Cayuga St., Union Springs, was charged Feb. 24 with endangering the welfare of a child, driving while intoxicated and aggravated driving while intoxicated. Craig Johnson Kilborne, 55, 36 Franklin St., Auburn, was picked up Feb. 24 on an executive bench warrant. Lisa M. Hurley, 39, 965 Connors Road, Springport, was picked up Feb. 25 on an executive bench warrant. Stefan J. House, 56, 10033 Jordan Road, Cato, was charged Feb. 26 with tampering with evidence. Mark J. Harrison, 35, 37 Morse Drive, Locke, was charged Feb. 26 with second-degree criminal contempt. Justin Michael McDeid, 28, 44 Wallace Ave, Auburn, was picked up Feb. 27 on an executive warrant. Lynn C. Hafl, 30, 2271 RT 38A, Moravia, was picked up March 1 on an executive bench warrant. Arthur E. Johnson IV, 36, 2831 Stout Road, Romulus, was picked up March 5 on a police officer executive warrant of arrest. Jessica L. Willett, 28, 8894 Pump Road, Brutus, was charged March 8 with third-degree grand larceny, third-degree welfare fraud, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing and misusing food stamps in a value greater than $1,000. Heather Lynn Simpson, 37, 12908 Church St., Wolcott, was charged March 8 with second-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. State Renee J. Pedersen, 47, of Auburn, was charged March 8 with first-degree falsifying business records. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 As the famous playwright Arthur Miller once said, A newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself. A local newspaper invites a community to have a conversation. The newspaper publishes news and opinion and provides a forum through which members of the community can share their news and opinions with one another. A local newspaper enables its charities, schools and churches to invite community members to gather together to make the community a better place. Its volunteer fire departments send in notices about the pancake breakfasts that support their rescue work, and its animal shelters send in photos of cats and dogs who need new homes. When fire destroys a familys home or a childs bicycle is stolen, the newspaper tells the story and its readers open their hearts and wallets. When its local government is about to sell a persons home to pay a long-overdue tax bill, or a bank plans to foreclose on an unpaid mortgage, it is required to notify the entire community by placing a public notice in a local newspaper. Sometimes, the persons home is saved because a neighbor or relative notifies the homeowner and the overdue bill is paid. Newspapers save their readers money, by offering local businesses a way to tell readers about sales, and helps its readers sell items by placing classified ads. Newspapers also help residents save money on their taxes. A study by the Brookings Institution and the Brandeis International Business School in July 2018 revealed that the cost of government borrowing in communities with newspapers was significantly lower than in communities without local newspapers. When there is no newspaper to keep watch over government spending and efficiency, both decline. Newspapers can also help their readers improve their own finances, through publication of advice columns on personal finance. In 2018, newspapers reported on the implications of federal tax law changes which altered the deductibility of state and local income and property taxes, directing readers to online resources to check their own payroll deductions in time to avoid surprise tax bills. Newspapers help maintain political balance and reduce the corrosive effect of political polarization, which drives a wedge of distrust between members of a community. Research by Louisiana State University, Colorado State University and Texas A&M University in 2018 showed that voters in communities with local newspapers tended to vote in a less partisan fashion, often basing their decisions on local issues and impact rather than national partisan disagreements. Newspapers offer local candidates a forum to explain policy proposals, which will then be examined by knowledgeable reporters and editors. Many of the stories the newspaper tells are controversial or upsetting to some readers, but it is often the nature of news that it is a recounting of what takes place that is out of the ordinary. Readers need to know that a beloved teacher has been arrested for abusing children, or that a government official has stolen taxpayer funds. Journalists help readers navigate the flood of information emanating from the world around them, by selecting and evaluating news of current events, filtering out information that cannot be adequately verified. Journalists are trained to view information with a skeptical eye, and to demand confirmation of its accuracy. Newspaper editors insist upon documentation to back up stories and seek out multiple sources of information whenever documentation is difficult to acquire. Journalists attend many government meetings and request government documents in order to provide their readers with vital information. Newspapers report on the criminal justice system, where judges and juries decide a local persons freedom or safety. The simple knowledge that an impartial observer is recording events helps keep everyone honest, and thats good for the newspaper and its community. Diane Kennedy is the president of the New York News Publishers Association. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Asdas head of bakery Ian Cummings is to speak at the British Society of Bakings (BSBs) spring conference, which is themed around driving healthy profits. Cummings will be joined on the speaker line-up by Mike Holling of Birds Bakery, Derby; health guru and chairman of Action on Sugar Professor Graham MacGregor; James Astor of waste management firm Regen Holdings; and Chris Head of Toast Ale; as well as members of Campden BRIs team. The event takes place at Campden BRI in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire on Wednesday 10 April. Health is among the trends up for discussion, as well as healthy profits, with both covered from three angles retail, manufacturing and waste management. Asda was named Supermarket Bakery Business of the Year at the 2018 Baking Industry Awards, so following that, Cummings will tell delegates how the company is driving success in its in-store bakery offering, with a focus on variety and quality, as well as new trends plus training and merchandising. Holling, meanwhile, will be discussing how Birds Bakerys forward focus is stronger than ever as it celebrates its 100th anniversary this year as well as his views on investment, sugar reduction and how to maintain healthy profits in a time of uncertainty. Here is the full list of speakers and the topics they will be covering: Gary Tucker, head of baking and cereals processing, Campden BRI As the company kicks off its centenary year, Tucker will outline the important events throughout its history. Professor Graham MacGregor, chairman of Action on Sugar As part of his mission to make everyone else more sugar aware, MacGregor wants to encourage everyone, from consumers to manufacturers, to reduce sugar consumption. James Astor, chairman, Regen Holdings Efficient waste management can help manage profits. Astor will discuss how organic waste can be recycled to farmland and used to help generate electricity. Chris Head, partnership manager, Toast Ale Another use for surplus bread is to make beer from it. Head will talk about how local bakeries and breweries can work together, and even support local charities while doing so. Mike Adams, bakery science section manager, Campden BRI Clean label and what it means for bakers will be up for discussion by Adams, who will also highlight the challenges the baking industry faces in delivering clean-label products, including maintaining quality and shelf life. Martin Whitworth, senior scientist, Campden BRI Looking at bubble structure formation in bread and cakes, Whitworth will discuss how the cell structure is created and how this can be recorded using high tech equipment. Conference fees are 110 for BSB members and 125 for non-members. Uber Eats has announced that Franco Manca will now be available to order on the app. Since starting out in Brixton Market, London, in 2008, sourdough pizzeria Franco Manca has opened stores in many areas of London, as well as multiple other towns and cities in the UK. Its menu is built around simple, authentic and good value food, and includes a range of sourdough pizzas, small bites and salads. Franco Manca joins Greek restaurant The Real Greek and burger operator Meat Liquor in signing with Uber Eats. The trio join an expanding portfolio of restaurant partners offering dishes delivered straight to their customers doors through the Uber Eats app. At Uber Eats we are always striving to offer the best selection of restaurants for our customers, and are excited to be working with Franco Manca, The Real Greek and Meat Liquor, said Toussaint Wattinne, general manager of Uber Eats in the UK. The addition of this fantastic trio of much-loved restaurants is great for Uber Eats, and were delighted to be able to offer our customers their incredible dishes at the touch of a button. We also want to ensure that our restaurant partners have the best experience, [so we are] continually looking at expanding our offerings and relationships [and] being the best food delivery app on the market. Last week, Gov. Roy Cooper and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger laid out contrasting visions for North Carolina state government. Cooper's vision was of an active government raising taxes to spend more on broadband, school construction, free community college, and Medicaid expansion. Berger offered a government of more limited ambition and cost. Larger Democratic minorities in the North Carolina House and Senate will test the ability to find common ground between these two visions.In his State of the State address , Cooper complimented the General Assembly for their willingness to put money toward roads, hurricane recovery, and incentives for large employers to locate in North Carolina. He chided legislators for cutting taxes as he called for still higher spending of state and federal taxes for Medicaid, broadband, school construction, tuition-free community college, and other programs. In their response, Republicans complained the governor had opposed farm assistance multiple times and had been slow to spend available money for recovery efforts dating back to Hurricane Matthew in 2017.There were no grand new initiatives in the State of the State address. Part of this is due to Cooper's lack of success moving his high-price agenda through the legislature the past two years. His top priorities are still unfulfilled, particularly higher taxes and a massive $1.4 billion expansion of Medicaid that would entail new federal borrowing and new taxes on health care providers. Perhaps that is why his theme for the evening was "determined," which he said in some variation 17 times in his 39-minute speech.Gov. Cooper's legislative director Lee Lilley said the legislative session will endbut Sen. Berger made clear in his response to the State of the State that he is just as determined to keep spending and taxes low and to block Medicaid expansion.For his part, Berger used his own story to emphasize the importance of education for people to thrive in a dynamic economy. The quality of one's education should not be limited byhe said, which is why the General Assembly has passed a series of teacher raises and expanded the choices parents have for their children.Berger highlighted some statistics both political parties and everyone in North Carolina can be excited about in education:That said, there is still much left to do to reduce the rate at which African American boys and men end up in the criminal justice system and to increase the rate at which all men enter the workforce. North Carolinians also care about those who may be willing but physically or otherwise unable to work and earn enough to provide their own needs. Many people even consider providing such assistance to be part of what makes a successful life. A half-century of government programs to fill this need, however, has proven that assistance is beyond the reach of policy.What is within the realm of policy is to keep taxes low, spending in check, and regulatory burdens from becoming excessive. Sen. Berger said as much in his response. Gov. Cooper's speech is a reminder he is refusing to admit that there are limits to government's proper role in society or its ability to accomplish the tasks it sets for itself if it can just raise enough money through taxes.The budget battle will be the next act in this conflict of visions. I will discuss Gov. Cooper's proposed budget and the Republican response in part two. Have Sheriff Offices in North Carolina, possibly even Beaufort County's Sheriff Office, become too political in the discharging of their sworn constitutional duties? No, the sheriff is a constitutional officer. Yes, the Sheriff Office, on strong occasion, often reverts back to political patronage in the dispensation of their sworn constitutional duties. Sen. Bernie Sanders' perspective on the world is deeply wrong. He has spent his career defending oppressive socialist regimes across the planet while criticizing the supposed predation of the United States; he has generated no legislation of significance in decades of public service. His platform currently advocates for tax rates that mirror those of the Nordic countries, spending tens of trillions of dollars on various government-provided entitlements, and the destruction of well over 150 million people's private health insurance plans.But there is one area in which Bernie Sanders represents the better angels of the Democratic nature: race.Sanders is currently being excoriated by a radical segment of the Democratic Party for his racial views. Despite the fact that Sanders marched with Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement, he is now viewed as retrograde in his racial viewpoints. That's because he believes that socialism is a cure-all for racial discrimination. For example, Sanders refuses to endorse racial reparations, stating instead that broad-based governmental programs ought to benefit those who are lowest on the income ladder. He has likewise stated that candidates ought to be judged based on their ideas rather than their intersectional characteristics. In 2016, Sanders stated,Sanders, in other words, separates people by class rather than race. That's wrong, too: In America, we're all individuals who move between classes with remarkable rapidity. We are not the 1 percent and the 99 percent; in fact, a huge number of those in the top 1 percent every year were not in the 1 percent in prior years, and will not be again in future years. We do not have a stable hierarchy of income in the United States. Sanders, by his own statement, grew up in a lower-middle-class household in Brooklyn; he now has two vacation homes despite never having worked a serious job.But if we're going to talk about damaging divisions in America, class divisions take a back seat to racial divisions. That's because America doesn't actually have a real history of class divisions - we've been an overwhelmingly middle-class country for centuries, as Alexis de Tocqueville noted. But our racial divisions have been all too real, marking the greatest blot on America's history.Proponents of intersectional politics point this out, suggesting that those racial divisions continue to dominate American life. But that's simply not true. In reality, America is less racist now than it ever has been; laws that discriminate on the basis of race are unconstitutional; racial politics has been relegated, for the most part, to mind-reading the supposed motives of political opponents. Sanders implicitly acknowledges that truth when he calls for solutions that do not take into account race as a key factor.And for that sin, Sanders is being othered by many in the Democratic Party. He's viewed as old-fashioned, hopeful, naive - Trumplike in his view of race, a proponent of a hackneyed baby-boomer "Green Book" mentality. He's outdated and wrong.Thus Sanders must be ousted for his failure to conform to the intersectional politics that now dominate the Democratic Party. But here's the thing: At least when it comes to his implicit treatment of race, Sanders is closer to the truth than his Democratic opponents. And if Democrats don't recognize this, they'll be abandoning the possibility of a broad-based coalition that crosses racial lines in favor of a racially polarized one that exacerbates them. Corey Robin has contributed an interesting essay to the Boston Reviews forum Economics After Neoliberalism. I am reluctant to enter into debates on, Neoliberalism, a term so nebulous and variegated in its usage as to render it useless as anything other than an all-purpose cudgel with which to browbeat others in middlebrow magazines (See Phil Magness on its pejorative origins). Robins contribution, Uninstalling Hayek, however, makes a bold case for removing economics from our moral and political discourse. Robin argues that Hayek was instrumental in turning free market advocacy away from technical economic arguments and towards moral and political ones: Far from resting neoliberalism on the authority of the natural sciences or mathematics (forms of inquiry Hayek and Mises sought to distance their work from) or on the technical knowledge of economists (as Naidu and his co-authors claim), Hayek recognized that the argument for capitalism had to be won on moral and political grounds through the political arts of persuasion. I would submit that economics itself arose as a discipline out of a tradition of moral and theological reflection on the institutions, ethics, and law of early modern Europe (See Alejandro Chafuens Faith and Liberty: The Economic Thought of the Late Scholastics or any of the volumes in the first or second series of Sources in Early Modern Economics, Ethics, and Law). Lord Acton argues similarly in his inaugural lecture of the liberal political tradition as a whole, [T]he greater part of the political ideas of Milton, Lock, and Rousseau, may be found in the ponderous Latin of Jesuits who were subjects of the Spanish Crown, of Lessius, Molina, Mariana, and Suarez. Hume began his inquiry into economics within the context of institutions of private property, contract, and consent. Adam Smith, the founder of modern economics, was himself a moral philosopher. Hayeks interest in moral and political arguments was not, as Robin supposes, something new for economists or advocates for the free society but deeply rooted in the traditions of both. Robin also sees Hayek as innovative in his view of the relationship between morals and the material, Morals are not really morals if they are not material, Hayek believed. Outside the constraining circumstance of the economy, our moral claims are so much wind. Inside the economy, they assume force and depth, achieving a revelatory clarity and profundity. This seems to me another way of saying that, Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. (James 2:17) This means that an integral part of moral action is the virtue of prudence. St. Thomas Aquinas approvingly cites St. Isidore of Seville in the Summa Theologiae saying, A prudent man is one who sees as it were from afar, for his sight is keen, and he forsees the event of uncertainties. Prudence is the ability to see, as Bastiat might say, What is Seen and What is Not Seen. This is the central task of economics. These prudential concerns, put forward by both Hayek and the long tradition of economic thinking, constrain our political discourse in ways that trouble Robin, Hayek translated moral and political problems into an economic idiom. What we need now, I would argue, is a way to uninstall or reverse that translation. Robin is no stranger to chaffing at constraints, but they cannot merely be wished away. Paul Heyne in his essay, Christian Theological Perspectives on the Economy, put it best: I do not know all that Christian love requires. But if it should require that we cooperate, through an extensive division of labor, in producing for one another food, clothing, shelter, medical care, prayer books, kneeling cushions, and other such material goodsthen love requires that we interact extensively with one another on the basis of impersonal, monetary criteria. If we were all god-like, both in knowledge and impartial benevolence, we could do directly and personally for one another all that love requires. It is irresponsible, however, to argue on behalf of a moral vision that denies our humanity by insisting that we be gods. Until we have transcended the human condition, we had better learn to cherish the economy and to nurture the conditions that are prerequisites for its successful functioning. Economics does not replace the need for moral reflection but is rather an essential tool for acting prudentially in the world. Questions of costs and constraints cannot be divorced from questions of human action. There can be no morality or politics divorced from economics. Faith without works is dead. Tomorrow is Constitution Day, a holiday celebrated in America every year on September 17, the anniversary of the day the framers signed the document. Here are five facts you should know about the U.S. Constitution: 1. The Constitution contains 4,543 words, including the signatures and has four sheets, 28-3/4 inches by 23-5/8 inches each. It contains 7,591 words including the 27 amendments. It is the oldest and shortest written Constitution of any major government in the world. 2. Thomas Jefferson did not sign the Constitution. He was in France during the Convention, where he served as the U.S. minister. John Adams, who at the time was serving as the U.S. minister to Great Britain during the Constitutional Convention, also did not attend the signing. The only men who both became presidents and signed the Constitution were George Washington and James Madison. 3. There was a proposal at the Constitutional Convention to limit the standing army for the country to 5,000 men. George Washington sarcastically agreed with this proposal as long as a stipulation was added that no invading army could number more than 3,000 troops. 4. The Constitutions iconic opening line was not included in early drafts of the document. The preamble originally started with individual states listed from north to south: We the people of the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts et al. The five-person Committee of Style is considered to have been responsible for composing much of the final text, including the revised preamble. 5. More than 11,000 amendments have been introduced in Congress. There were no amendments added to the Constitution from 1804 to 1865. This was the longest period in American history in which there were no changes to our Constitution. (The first to come after that period was at the end of the Civil War the Thirteenth amendment, which abolished slavery.) Overall, the Constitution has only been changed by amendment seventeen times since 1791. In the midst of celebrating LGBTQ Pride the U.S. Supreme Court rained on our virtual parade by ruling in favor of the Catholic Social Serv... After establishing new trade surplus record with the U.S. in December, Chinese exports are collapsing. Statistics released on Fridaynumbers released by China, not the United Statesshow that the expected realignment is underway. China's politically sensitive trade surplus with the U.S. narrowed sharply, to $14.72 billion, in February, from $27.3 billion in January. Now, these are numbers reported by the Chinese government, so some skepticism is in order. Dollar-denominated exports [by China] plunged 20.7 percent for the month of February from a year ago, missing economists' expectations of a 4.8 percent decline, according to a Reuters poll, reports CNBC. CNBC continues, Dollar-denominated imports [by China] fell 5.2 percent in February from a year ago, missing economists' forecast of a 1.4 percent fall. The unemployment rate held steady at 3.8%. The latest employment statistics in the United States for February show non-farm job growth at a near standstill, according to the Labor Department; this may be an aberration, but it bears watching. U.S. Census Bureau statistics are still lagging due to the month-long government shutdown, so the best government sanctioned balance of trade numbers available are months old. Bottom line: the supply chain in the United States remains healthy, logisticians appear to have realigned in anticipation of a collapse in Sino-U.S. trade, manufacturers seem to have found new sources of supply, and employment remains strong. And China is getting nervous. A woman flying from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia over the weekend insisted the plane turn back mid-flight when she realized she had forgotten something important at the airport: her baby. Following protocol, the pilot had to first get permission from an air traffic controller before making an about-face. According to IBT, in an audio recording you can hear the pilot say, "May God be with us. Can we come back or what?" Then you can hear someone on the air-traffic control side saying to a co-worker, "This flight is requesting to come backa passenger forgot her baby in the waiting area, the poor thing." Air traffic control then asks the pilot to confirm what he saying. "We told you, a passenger left her baby in the terminal and refuses to continue the flight." And so the plane returned to King Abdul Aziz International Airport where the mother was able to retrieve her child. Sure, leaving things behind at airports is common. News.com.au claims that Brisbane Airport finds up to 1,000 items a month, including passports, glasses, belts, phones, laptops, hearing aids, and even, strangely enough, "body parts" such as dentures and prosthetic legs. But babies? This has got to be a first. Here's an audio recording between the pilot and air traffic controller. A bit of English is tossed in at around :35. Image: Shadman Samee/Flickr 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 The Human Rights Day South Africa is celebrated every year on the March, 21st. This day was affirmed as a public holiday following the inauguration of the late president Nelson Mandela in 1994. But, what is Human Rights Day in South Africa and what facts surround this day? Read on to find out! Image: instagram.com, @lebanonembassysa Source: Instagram Why is March 21st an important date in South Africa? March 21st is a significant date in SA because it not only commemorates the sacrifices by its heroes to attain democracy but also venerates the new constitutional directive that recognizes and guarantees equal rights to all its citizens. As citizens get ready to celebrate the Human Rights Day South Africa 2019, we take a look at 10 facts that you ought to know about this holiday. READ ALSO: 7 powerful Steve Biko quotes on oppression, apartheid, education and freedom 10 facts on Human Rights Day history What happened on Human Rights Day in South Africa? Here are 10 amazing facts about this special day, as well as Human Rights Day pictures that answer this question as well as others. 1. Human Rights Day pays tributes to the events at Sharpeville One Monday on March 21st, 1960, a group of about 5000 to 7000 protesters gathered at the Sharpeville police station with the aim of protesting the pass laws. These laws required black people to carry passbooks (also referred to as Dompas) at all times and show it to any police officer when requested. So, on this fateful day, all the black people agreed to show up without their passbook in what seemed like a peaceful protest. 2. Several were injured and killed during the Sharpeville Massacre During the protest at Sharpeville, the police, without being given any official orders, decided to open fire on the protesters, killing 69 and maiming/wounding 180 others. Various sources were at loggerheads on the behavior of the crowd during that day. Some sources claimed that that the shooting began when the protesters hurled stones at the police officers, while other sources state that the crowd was peaceful. The Sharpeville Bloodbath became the biggest single massacre of black individuals during the apartheid regime of the National Party. Even though it took South Africa nearly 3 decades before Apartheid was permanently abolished, the events of Sharpeville became pivotal in the fight for freedom for most South Africans. Ian Berry was one of the photographers of the Massacre and with Humphrey Tyler from the Drum, they recount that, at first, they thought the police were only firing blanks to disperse the crowds. Here are some of the Sharpeville massacre pictures as obtained from Twitter. Click the link to view the Sharpeville massacre video. 3. Human rights day goes beyond answering the ten questions about the pass law Image: instagram.com, @realsarahkate Source: Instagram The Pass laws were formalized by the National Party via the Native Laws amendment ACT of 1952. According to this law, blacks and whites were segregated in different cities and towns. Lawfully, a black South African could not move from a rural area to an urban center without obtaining a permit from the local government. The permit also was known as a passbook or a reference book that had the holders picture and other details like residence, tax payments, criminal records, and employment records. Blacks were required to obtain the passbook within three days before seeking out work in the urban areas. The Passbook evolved into a humiliating experience for the black who were required to be in possession of it at all times. Failure to produce the document will result in arrest and detainment on spot. As such, the events on March 21st were more than a protest against the Dompas laws as it led the movement for South Africans to claim their human rights and put an end to apartheid. Image: instagram.com, @mbwewumovement Source: Instagram 4. Human Rights Day spearheaded the creation of the Bill of Rights which is the foundation of democracy in SA What is the meaning of Human Rights Day in South Africa? Because of March 21st, the state must safeguard, promote, honour and fulfil all the Bill of Rights. Such rights include the right to equality, human dignity, freedom, security, political rights, freedom of expression, personal privacy, freedom of association, right to education, freedom from slavery, servitude and forced labour, right to citizenship, and the right to protest, picket, and petition. 5. The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) under its leader Robert Sobukwe instigated the anti-pass movement It was Robert Sobukwe who urged crowds of men, women, and children to stand against the pass law. The protesters were to show up without their reference books and present themselves for arrest. Following an order to disperse from the police officers, they started firing at the crowds. Mr. Robert who was 34 years at the time was a professor at Wits University. Sobukwe was leading a march to the Orlando Police station when news of the massacre at Sharpeville reached him. 6. Why is Human Rights Day celebrated on the 21st of March? The African National Congress inaugurated March 21st as the National SA Human Rights Day. Is Human Rights Day a public holiday in South Africa? In 1994, after Nelson Mandela was elected as the first democratic president of South Africa, he included March 21st as one of the public holidays in the country. It then became a date when citizens are urged to reflect on their rights and be conscious of how to safeguard themselves from such violations. Awareness of the National Human Rights Day has led to a number of Human Rights Day quotes such as the one shown in the image below. 7. What was Human Rights Day called before? Human Rights Day was also referred to as Sharpeville Day because it remembers the 69 who were murdered and 180 who were injured while fighting for their human rights in 1960. Additionally, this special day commemorates anti-apartheid activists like Steve Biko and Olive Tambo that fought and died for the countrys democracy. 8. South Africas Human Rights Day coincides with the UN International Day for the elimination of racism 9. The fate of the leader of the anti-pass law movement After the events at Sharpeville, Sobukwe was imprisoned on Robben Island. He was later released and expelled to Kimberley where he died in 1970 after being diagnosed with cancer. 10. When did human rights start in South Africa? The 26-year struggle from March 21st, 1960 culminated the end of Apartheid in 1986. As a result, March 21st came to be Human Rights Day as it was the day when black South Africans became aggressive of their rights. Immediately after the Sharpeville Massacre, Hendricks was prompted to ban ANC and PAC. How is Human Rights Day celebrated in South Africa today? There are various ways to mark this date. South Africans can travel with their loved ones if the day falls on a Friday, they can go eat meals at their favourite restaurants, watch a movie, visit a library, tour a wine field among other activities. READ ALSO: List of famous South Africans With the Human Rights Day South Africa, citizens are free to move around and celebrate the day any way they deem fit unlike six decades ago when the movement between rural and urban areas was restricted. Share with us how you will be celebrating this public holiday in 2019 in the comments section below. READ ALSO: Inspiring Nelson Mandela quotes on education, leadership and life Freedom Day South Africa 2019: History in pictures Unfair dismissal: how to deal with it in South Africa 2019? Retrenchment South Africa: strategy, procedure and compensation 2019 How to get free education in South Africa in 2019? Source: Briefly.co.za How long is a life sentence in South Africa? Spending a lifetime behind bars is arguably traumatising and profoundly frightening to those facing the law. Different factors come into play when sentencing offenders for life, among them the nature of criminal cases. But that is not all. Some recent cases review will help you understand factors that determine the length of a life sentence in SA. Image: instagram.com, @christo_gunawan (Modified by the author) Source: Instagram What is life sentence meaning in South Africa? While a life sentence should ideally stretch for the rest of a persons life, some sentences are fair enough and may see offenders reclaim their freedoms. An excellent example of such rulings includes a sentence of about three decades to life with parole chances. Court ruling often attracts applause or outrage depending on the side of the ruling one finds themselves. Such reactions proceed from the satisfaction or disappointment that accompanies a crime in the measure of justice. In the current standing, a life sentence in South Africa is not static but rather a product of critical factors in the realms of the case. READ ALSO: Crime in South Africa: rate and statistics How many years is a life sentence? Before disclosing the exact period of life sentence imprisonment in South Africa, it is important to note that the severity of a crime in itself does not entirely inform the length of a life sentence. Instead, judges take into account the relevant personal circumstances surrounding the case given into account that the offenders are also humans. Another important consideration is the public interest, which determines not only the final ruling but also the span of a life sentence. This will be discussed in length later, but first things first, how long is life sentence? South African life imprisonment has an undetermined length, which may last as long as the offenders remaining life. Some of the actions that may attract life sentencing include gang rape, premeditated murder, farm murder, gang and serial rape, especially when the offender had prior consent about their positive HIV status. It is also a matter of concern especially when the victims were mentally disabled or underage at the time the offence was committed. Other circumstances that can as well attract a mandatory life sentence include hijacking and robberies. Section 51 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1997 provides the following varying periods of sentencing options in South Africa. Murder offenders: about 25 years Rape offenders: about 15 years Robbery offenders: about 10 years Recent cases review of life sentences in SA Some special cases attract life imprisonment extending to long periods of 1,000 years with no possibility of parole. Moses Sithole case is a perfect example of a ruling that gives no room for pardon. Parole meaning in this application encompasses temporary or permanent releases of offenders ahead of completing their sentence term on grounds of improved behaviours. Here is a review of 2019 criminal cases South Africa that ended up or could end up in life imprisonment. 1. Thoriso Themane's case One of the most recent cases in South Africa is the ongoing Thoriso Themane case. Mr Themane was murdered during a mob violence incidence in Limpopo. The 27 year old victims case took shape when videos of three suspects dragging him through Flora Park streets went viral on social media. The video caused a public outrage prompting police to release consistent reports on the progress of the case. The mob justice case also involved three adults aged 36 and 37, and a group of Capricorn High School pupils. With mob justice instances that end up in death of the victim treated as murder in South Africa, the suspects in this case could face the full first or second degree murder sentence if proven guilty. This particular case has seen police arrest 10 suspects by 9th of March 2019 with the majority being students. Like any other case, it is the work of the state prosecutor to build a strong case that will indict the suspects captured in the video. With so many people in the case, it is normal for them to be arraigned in court at different times. It is not unheard of for a murder case to be dropped if the prosecution does not have enough evidence against the suspect. This has happened in this case too, with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) dropping charges against one of the three suspect adults. While murder cases easily get prosecution and the suspects end up getting the full or recommended minimum sentence, never before have cases proceeded with same ferocity and it is all thanks to the fact that the video went viral and everyone is watching what the police and prosecutors will do about the murder. If found guilty, will the suspects face life imprisonment? 2. Henri Van Breda Henri Van Breda verdict released recently on axe murder convictions is an example of a life sentence case that has attracted several concerns. The offender was determined guilty for murdering his brother and parents. Further, Breda sought to kill his sister, a trial that rocked both local and international news headlines. On another contextual ground, Breda faced obstruction of justice charges for staging the scene of the crime and inflicting deliberate wounds on himself to gain victimization advantage in the court of law. 3. Ferdinand Barnard A few days ago, Justice Minister Michael Masutha of Cape Town, approved the parole release of Ferdinand Barnard, apartheid-era hitman, that is to happen on April 2nd, 2019. This decision was arrived at after it was established that the convict met the requirements of parole, including serving over 20 years of his life sentence. Mr. Bernard will be handed to the Community Corrections Office that will oversee as well as monitor him because he will be serving the rest of his life imprisonment sentence in the society for the remaining days of his natural life. 4. Lungisani Mdlolo To completely remove him from the society, Mdlolo, the notorious rapist in Soweto, dubbed One Man, was sentenced to 3 life terms as well as 240 years by Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng. Between July and December 2012, Mdlolo single-handedly committed the heinous acts on 39 innocent victims, most being minor girls. One Man was found guilty of a total of 22 crimes including 3 rape cases, 1 murder, 10 housebreaking with the intention of committing armed robbery, 5 armed robbery cases, and 1 for possessing an illegal firearm. Factors that determine the length of life imprisonment in South Africa As aforementioned, South African trial courts are responsible for sentencing criminal offenders. For this reason, they establish the type of crime and its weight before proving the verdict based on discretion. Various principles are acceptable and suitable for determining appropriate punishment and sentences. The three central tenets commonly applied are called Triad of Zinn include public interest, the gravity of the offence, and circumstances confronting the offender as further discussed. i. The severity of the crime The court takes a comprehensive approach in determining the seriousness of the offence on trial and its resulting impacts. Of interest also are mitigating and aggravating factors. Fairness of the punishment concerning the crime is core in establishing a ruling on the length of a life sentence. Cases that involve violent crimes require that the court considers the extent of violence, the brutality, weaponry used, and level of harm on attack victims among other relevant factors. One of the countrys recent murder cases involve Sibusiso Khwinana, who was allegedly attacked at Pretoria for his phone. Image: instagram.com, @rallincanews Source: Instagram ii. Offenders circumstances Courts have an understanding that offenders have human characteristics such as age, criminal record, health status, employment status, and motives. It is also of importance to the courts regarding if the offender has dependents. Bredas case cites that he had no prior convictions or arrests and was still a young person. Findings suggest that Breda was vulnerable to depression, myoclonic epilepsy, and anxiety. However, much he has not shown remorse for killing three family members, Breda is emotional about his actions but not necessarily sympathy. iii. Public interest Courts are keen to render useful community sentences purposely to serve as a warning and deterrent to criminals. Sometimes, increased punishment aims to teach a lesson to the public without necessarily implying the proportion of crime. However, social and economic costs that accompany long incarcerations are significant before arriving at a verdict. Parties that believe that the decision was disproportionate can always appeal for remedies. Questions on whether there are minimum sentences for ordinary crimes remain unanswered for most parts. Judges can deviate from these fixed minimums only when the offender is underage, or there is a circumstance compelling enough to validate such a verdict. Another cause of interest is the unpredictability of the law contrary to public expectations. It is for this reason that court processes drag in an attempt to include as many factors as possible ahead of a fairly delivered verdict. READ ALSO: How to get police clearance South Africa? Concerns on how long is a life sentence in South Africa continue to overwhelm the nation as crimes literary occupy courts with severe lawsuits. It is for the fact that the length of a life sentence is undetermined and not fixed, but subject to laws and conditions. READ ALSO: Firearm licence: how to apply, renew and get one in 2019 Bosasa scandal and arrest - everything you need to know What happened to Jussie Smollett? Is prophet Bushiri arrested? Freedom Day South Africa 2019: History in pictures Source: Briefly.co.za Corita Kent Was A Pop-Art PioneerAnd A Catholic Nun Imagine a crowd of young women wearing vividly-colored clothing with flowers in their hair, converging under a sea of signs and banners with bright, colorful images and slogans inspired by supermarket products Fresh Eggs, God Likes Canned Peacheswaving under a bright blue sky. Acoustic guitars strum folk songs while people sing and dance along. Now, imagine that this celebration is also full of Catholic nuns in traditional habits, wearing flower garlands over their black-and-white wimples. The year is 1964, the occasion is Marys Day, the Catholic holiday of the Assumption of Mary, and the celebration was organized by a nun known as Sister Corita Kent, who also made the banners. The Marys Day signs are just one example of the way that Kent used the language of advertising to create pop art with a religious, spiritual, or moral message. A nun and artist based in Los Angeles, Kent rose to fame in the 1950s and 60s and continued to create art until her death in 1986. Though she isnt as well-known today, she was covered widely in the 1960s and 1970sshe even appeared on the cover of Newsweek. The media latched onto the fact that these playful reimaginings of advertisements came from an unlikely source: a devout Catholic nun. ADVERTISEMENT Corita Kent, "Tiger," 1965, Serigraph, reprinted with permission of the Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles Corita Kent, "That They May Have Life," 1964, Serigraph, 35 3/4 X 30 IN, Corita Art Center, Photograph by Arthur Evans Born in 1918, Frances Elizabeth Kent was the fifth of six children. She was born in Iowa, but her family soon moved to Hollywood, California, where they settled during the glory days of silent film. Kent was interested in art from a young age. I can remember always making things, like designing things, paper dolls and their clothes, and then drawing, she said in a 1977 interview for a UCLA oral history project. Catholicism also played a large role in her life and her family very early on. Kents older sister Ruth and brother Mark both entered the religious life. Ruth joined an order called Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM), the largest religious community in Los Angeles. IHM had been focused on providing education soon after its 1848 founding; the nuns taught both at IHMs own college and in local Catholic schools, including the middle and high schools that Kent attended. By the time Kent graduated high school, she was sure she was going to become a nun herself. As she recalled in the UCLA interview, when a friend asked her, When did you make up your mind? she answered, I dont know. I think I just always have wanted to be. Corita Kent C. 1965 Image Courtesy of the Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles Kent joined the convent in 1936, shortly after graduating high school, and took the name of Sister Mary Corita (Little Heart). For the next 30 years, she lived and taught in the IHM community. At first, she taught elementary school during the dayoften incorporating artistic activities in her lessonsand studied at night. She earned her bachelors degree in 1941, and in 1944 was sent to teach at a school for indigenous children in Canada. Three years later, she was called back to L.A. The Immaculate Heart College was going through the process of accreditation, and it was recommended that the art department hire a second teacher. With her obvious talent (not to mention a few art credits), Kent was the natural choice. Taking the position meant that Kent had the opportunity for further education, and she embarked on the slow process of earning her masters degree in art history while continuing to teach. At one point, she picked up a DIY screen-printing kit to teach her students. One saw her struggling with it, and introduced her to a woman he knew: Maria de Sodi Romero, the widow of Mexican muralist Alfredo Ramos Martinez. Romero had learned screen printing so that she could reproduce her late husbands work. Under her tutelage, Kent picked up the basics of the form, and then taught herself everything from that point forward. She brought her enthusiasm into the classroom, and shared her knowledge with her students so they could create their own screen prints, too. Kent took a class in screen printing to earn credits towards her masters, but I dont think I really learned anything new, she said in the oral history. It was just a time to be able to make prints. Corita Kent, "The Lord Is With Thee," 1952, Serigraph, reprinted with permission of the Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles Corita Kent, "The Juiciest Tomato Of All," 1964, Serigraph, reprinted with permission of the Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles Kent completed two prints during that class. The following summer, in 1952, she looked at one of the prints with fresh eyes and new ideas. It was really so bad that I started adding colors on top of it, making a completely new print, she recalled in the UCLA interview. It turned into a completely different picture because underneath it was a picture of the Assumption, with a very, as I remember it, kind of fashion-modelish lady in the center. It was a very unwholesome picture. Titled the lord is with thee, Kents image showed Jesus and the Apostles layered in shades of blue, green, yellow, tan, and brown, vibrating with the solemn intensity of a German Expressionist paintingvery different from the sedate religious art of the time. Kent entered the piece in a competition sponsored by a museum in Los Angeles, and it won first place there, as well as in many later contests. But Kent discovered that her image was either loved or reviled. It would either win a first prize or not be accepted in the show, she explained in the oral history. Corita Kent (center right) at Immaculate Heart of College Mary's Day Celebration, 1964. Image Courtesy of the Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles With the lord is with thee, Kent began to gain notice in the art community. She spent her summer school breaks creating art, and went on speaking tours during Christmas breaks. These tours allowed Kent to visit art museums around the country, but it was in her own Los Angeles that she encountered the artist who would change the direction of her work. In 1962, Kent attended an exhibition of Campbells Soup Cans by the then-unknown Andy Warhol. After seeing the paintings, she began incorporating the language of advertising and pop lyrics into her work. One month after seeing the Warhol exhibit, she began creating pieces that combined the familiar Wonderbread packaging with images of the Host, the circular wafers used during the Catholic sacrament of the Eucharist. By taking bread out of its ordinary form, and presenting it as his body, He [Jesus] originated pop art, she explained in a 1966 lecture, as quoted in Corita Kent and the Language of Pop, edited by Susan Dackerman. Kent saw the hand of God in the vernacular language of everyday life. She took the Exxon catchphrase, Put a tiger in your tank, and used it as a channel to the higher sprit. Put a tiger in your tank, I really think of as saying [that] the spirit , whatever the spirit means to us, is inside of us, Kent said in the oral history. In 1964, Kent created a response to the soup-can paintings after harvesting a few words from a Del Monte advertisement and declaring, Mary mother is the juiciest tomato of all. I was aware of how tomato was used colloquiallyan even-then outdated slang term for an attractive womanbut I felt [that] language was taking a turn, you could hardly use a word without it having some other meaning, she explained in the oral history. Determined to discover just what it all meant, Kent researched the word and found a connection between the tomato and the mystical rose, a symbol for Mary. Corita Kent in her apartment c. 1970. Image Courtesy of Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles In the mid- 60s, the tenets of Vatican IIthe 1962-1965 council that made many changes to modernize the Catholic Churchinspired the IHM sisters to ally their religious order and its work with the outside world, according to Corita Kent and the Language of Pop. In so doing, the nuns embraced contemporary themes, such as world hunger, and utilized forms and practices common to avant-garde artists and progressive educational theorists. Under Kents direction, the college became a renowned center of the avant-garde, hosting events with some of the most groundbreaking artists of the times including Alfred Hitchcock, Josef von Sternberg, John Cage, Buckminster Fuller, and Charles and Ray Eames. The art she created in this period often had an activist message. In 1967, she urged America to stop the bombing of Vietnam in a piece that read just that. In 1969, she incorporated the title of Pete Seegers anti-war song Where Have All the Flowers Gone? into a piece. That same year, she made the piece love your brother, featuring images of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1971, she created the largest copyrighted image in history: the Boston Gas Companys storage tank, known as The Rainbow Swash, which still stands in the Dorchester neighborhood. Though some saw a hidden portrait of Ho Chi Minh, Kent denied it, insisting that the rainbow was a symbol of hope. Corita Kent, "Manflowers," 1969, Serigraph, 23 X 12 IN., Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles But not everyone was happy with Kents growing fame and the IHM sisters progressive approach. In particular, it infuriated Cardinal McIntyre, a conservative and powerful leader in the Catholic church. McIntyre saw Kents art as sacrilegiousespecially the tomato screen printand went on the attack, refusing to accept the orders plans to modernize. Do you want to look like a floozy on Hollywood Boulevard? he asked in response to the nuns decision to update their habits. The Vatican backed McIntyre up, and by 1970, 350 of the 400 sisters had chosen to take leave of their vows rather than conform to McIntyres demands and formed their own community outside the Catholic Church. The Immaculate Heart Community still continues today, describing themselves as formed by insights from eco-feminist and justice spiritualities. Kent did not join the new community; she had left the Church two years earlier. She was angry at McIntyres hostility towards IHM; she was overworked; she was suffering from insomnia and depression; and she was experiencing a loss of faith. Im really frightened to say this but everything appears different to me, even God, and Im so afraid that I am losing the foundation of my belief, she wrote to her friend and sometime collaborator, priest and poet Father Joseph Pintauro, as quoted by Sister Rose Pacatte in Corita Kent: Gentle Revolutionary of the Heart. Celia Hubbard, an artist friend of Kents, wrote to the president of IHM college, I think Corita may have an exhaustive breakdown if she doesnt take some time off. Kent was granted a sabbatical, but she never returned. She was dispensed from her vows in November 1968. Corita Kent, "Love Is Hard Work," 1985, Serigraph, 24 X 18 IN., Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles She moved to Boston, where she embarked on a new phase of her work. Instead of directly religious, her art became more abstractly spiritual. In a 1980s interview quoted by Pacatte, she explained, I came to feel that there is no distinction between religious art and secular art. Religious means to bind together. Religion is defined as a deep sense of connection to the whole cosmos so that we know we are related to everything and everyone. In 1983, she created a series of billboards titled, we can create life without war, commissioned for the Physicians for Social Responsibilities. According to the Corita Art Center, she considered the piece the most religious work shed ever done. Kent was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1974, at the age of 56. After her diagnosis, she began spending more time working with watercolors; though they never received the reception her screen prints did, she found comfort in the softness, notes Pacatte. In 1986, the cancer spread to Kents liver and was diagnosed as terminal. Kent continued creating art for as long as she could, noting both her work and her pain levels on her calendar: March 26: Pain. March 27: Washed out. March 28: Painting. She died on September 18, 1986 at the age of 67. One of the last pieces she created is also her best-known: the Postal Services rainbow-striped Love stamp. With 700 million in sales, her message continues to be spread across the nation. By Miss Rosen This piece originally appeared in the March/April 2019 print edition of BUST Magazine. Subscribe today! Top Photo: Immaculate Heart College Art Department C. 1955; Corita Kent Pictured on the opposite page, in the center, pointing. Photograph by Fred Swartz. Image courtesy of the Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles More from BUST Mother Jones Was A Hell-Raising Trailblazer In The Fight For Workers' Rights These Kung Fu-Trained Buddhist Nuns Teach Nepalese Girls Self-Defense This Artist Turns Weird State Laws Into Mind-Boggling Photos - T. S. Eliot Thoughts After Lambeth "The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide." Photo: Reuters Ever since Britain voted to leave the European Union on June 2016, banks and businesses have warned that they would move operations and jobs to other EU states, in order to safeguard against the ramifications of Brexit. According to a new report by think tank New Financial, 275 firms have moved or are moving some of their business, staff, assets or legal entities from the UK to the EU to prepare for Brexit. The reports authors said: These moves are the inevitable consequence of Brexit. The political uncertainty since the referendum and failure to reach a deal has forced firms to prepare for the worst and put their contingency plans into action. Much of the damage has already been done and for many firms, Brexit happened sometime last year. READ MORE: Why now is the most crucial time for Brexit Britain This shift will chip away at Londons position as the dominant financial centres in Europe; increase cost, complexity and risk in European financial services; reduce the UKs influence in the banking and finance industry at a European and global level; and hit tax receipts and exports in financial services. The cities that have supped up those relocations are: Dublin, Republic of Ireland (100) Luxembourg, Luxembourg (60) Paris, France (41) Frankfurt, Germany (40) Amsterdam, the Netherlands (32) New Financial say this has resulted in 5,000 expected staff moves or local hires and that figure is expected to rise in coming years. This falls neatly in line with other reports that have recently scaled back estimates over jobs lost to Brexit. Investment bank Nomura said in a major Brexit note sent to clients: The largest investment banks continue to decrease the amount of projected employee relocations. In total, Nomura said it now expects 10,000 UK financial services jobs to be at risk of relocation due to Brexit. That is double the Bank of Englands estimate for Day One job losses but well below earlier estimates from consultancies such as Oliver Wyman and EY. Reuters estimated in September that just 630 roles had been relocated as a result of Brexit. Story continues READ MORE: Over 50s Brexiteers looking forward to fewer terrorist attacks and pension values rising While some may think the number of jobs being lost to Brexit do not seem that big of a deal, its the shift in underlying business that is more significant than headlines about the number of staff, said New Financial. Our conservative estimates show that banks and investment banks are moving around 800bn in assets; asset managers have so far transferred more than 65bn in funds; and insurance companies have so far moved 35bn in assets, the authors of the report said. There is a wide range in how different sectors have responded: for example, nearly half of asset managers, hedge funds and private equity firms in our sample have chosen Dublin, while nearly 90% of firms moving to Frankfurt are banks or investment banks. When Jocelyn Demetre couldn't bring himself to speak about his experiences in the Afghan war, his therapist suggested writing it down instead. "It was like therapy for me," he said. "I feel better today, really better. It was like night and day." Demetre, 42, was deployed for two eight-month tours in Afghanistan in 2007-2008 and 2010-2011. When he returned to civilian life in Gatineau, he started to suffer from intermittent explosive disorder, a conduct and impulse disorder that makes it difficult to manage aggression. Martin Robert/Radio Canada After seven months of writing his experiences down, the retired Canadian Armed Forces captain said he started to notice a difference. "Without the writing, I don't think I would have gone as deep as I did," he said. "I passed through. It's over now. It's behind me." But his therapist seemed to think his writings could help others as well. "At the end of my therapy, my therapist told me 'You just wrote a book.'" Helping other veterans Demetre resolved to publish his writings and use the funds to help other veterans. The book, Sunray 21, a reference to his military call sign, was launched in September and has sold 10,000 copies at Canadian Tire stores in the region of west Quebec. All proceeds have gone toward the Canadian Tire's Jumpstart Foundation for families in need and to Demetre's own Hero Foundation, which supports veterans. Demetre said he hopes the book enables other veterans to open up about their experiences and helps Canadians to understand the Afghan War. Martin Robert/Radio Canada "It's not my book. It's a Canadian book. It is part of the Canadian story," he said. "I think they will realize how hard it was on people overseas." He pointed to the fact that nearly as many veterans have committed suicide since returning from the war as have died in actual combat in Afghanistan. "It's hard to read. I advise people it is not an easy book," he said, adding that he has refused to sell it to young people during promotional events. The book has now been published in English and he hopes to start selling it in Ontario soon. Oil production has been steadily growing every year in Canada, but the International Energy Agency isn't fully convinced the trend will continue in 2019. The IEA pointed to the lack of spare export pipeline and rail capacity as key factors, as well as the Alberta government's decision to curtail production, in what it sees as a sluggish outlook for Canada's oilpatch. "We were expecting some growth in 2019. Now with production cuts and rail capacity not keeping pace, that's in question," IEA oil analyst Toril Bosoni told journalists at CERAWeek, an international energy conference in Houston. Kyle Bakx/CBC The constant delays in construction of new pipelines are especially worrisome and the main reason why Bosoni said "the outlook for Canada is less optimistic, perhaps, than it was" when compared to last year Bosoni said there is considerable uncertainty when new pipelines, such as the Trans Mountain expansion and Enbridge's Line 3 project, can be expected. As a result, "we're seeing very little investment going into further development" of new oil production, she said. The outlook for Canada is a stark contrast to the situation south of the border, where tax cuts, relaxed regulations and new technology have promoted growth. Oil production growth continues to surge in the U.S., and the IEA expects American oil exports to surpass Russia and nearly reach Saudi Arabian levels in the next five years. "Ladies and gentlemen, the second wave of shale revolution is coming," said Fatih Barol, executive director of the IEA. "The U.S. [is] emerging as a major energy exporting country and as such, will be very influential in terms of the flows of trade of energy in the next years to come with several implications for the geopolitics of energy." Kyle Bakx/CBC The U.S. is attracting investment from around the world as the use of hydraulic fracturing to drill for oil in shale rock has unlocked vast amounts of crude in places like Texas. The fracking technology is why the U.S. experienced the highest oil production growth of any country in 2018. Story continues U.S. oil output will climb to 19.6 million barrels per day by 2024 from 15.5 million last year, the IEA said in its annual five-year oil outlook report. Some analysts still expect Canadian oil production to increase, including Kevin Birn with IHS, who said more than 100,000 barrels per day of growth is possible. In 2018, Canada produced about 4.3 million barrels per day. "I think there's a lot of confusion about what Canada will be able to muster," he said, in part because of the Alberta government's curtailment policy. The government has eased back on the limit since it was introduced in January. Birn says there is "a lot of capacity being pent up in Canada" and the oil production growth will occur as the curtailment policy is reduced and new oilsands expansion projects are completed. Facebook promised to open a data centre in Canada to create jobs, in exchange for the federal government offering assurances that it would not impose its jurisdiction over the company's non-Canadian data. Documents show that Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg was negotiating this deal with the previous Conservative government, namely then-industry minister Christian Paradis. The documents were leaked to journalists in the United Kingom. CBC News has not independently verified the contents. They show a global lobbying operation carried out by Facebook targeting legislators around the world, including in countries like the U.K., United States, Canada, India and Brazil. In Canada's case, they threatened to withhold investment and job creation opportunities unless Canada adopted data policies that favoured Facebook. "They were trying to get Canada to give them what they called a letter of comfort which would take a Canadian data centre out of Canadian regulation," Duncan Campbell, a U.K.-based freelance investigative journalist who helped uncover the story, said. "So they said, you know, 'if you guys want our data centre you have to make special laws that we are uncovered by a normal Canadian privacy standards.'" The memos leaked to journalists detail what went on during lobbying efforts in Canada when the government expressed discomfort with the media giant's request. Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press Marne Levine, Facebook's former vice-president of global public policy wrote in one memo, first reported by Computer Weekly and the Guardian, who have seen the documents: "Sheryl [Sandberg] took a firm approach and outlined that a decision on the datacentre was imminent. She emphasised that if we could not get comfort from the Canadian government on the jurisdiction issue we had other options." After this pressure, Paradis allegedly agreed to give Facebook a letter guaranteeing the independence of non-Canadian data by the end of that day. Story continues The documents also show Levine complaining to her colleagues about an unnamed minister's aide, and explaining how Facebook officials made their way to a government reception to "cut the awful staff person out of the way" and give Levine direct access to Paradis. The dates in question are unknown, but Paradis was a minister from 2007 to 2015. Paradis and the current government's Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould did not immediately respond to CBC News's requests for comment. Facebook rejected the notion they held the data centre over the government as leverage. "Before we commit to opening a data centre anywhere in the world, we want to make sure we fully understand the country's laws and privacy protections. This is not a threat to withhold investment, but part of our duty to protect people's data," a Facebook spokesperson said in an emailed statement. The spokesperson also confirmed the data centre in question was never built. 'A real eye-opener' The lobbyist registry shows no meetings formally reported between Facebook and federal cabinet ministers during the time Paradis was in the role. "It's a real insight, a real eye-opener into how they operate," Carole Cadwalladr, one of the authors of the Guardian article, told CBC News on Sunday. After the letter was promised to Facebook by the Canadian government, Cadwalladr said the documents show Facebook was still debating whether to put the data centre in Canada or Iowa. She says they don't know who leaked the documents, but they appear to have originated from a release under legal discovery rules from an ongoing U.S. court case against Facebook. Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith said the revelation that Facebook tried to meddle with the government is "unsurprising." "There have been a number of interactions we've had as a parliamentary committee with Facebook in their early days. They were very clear that they did not want new privacy rules. They even intimated to us in a meeting in Washington when we were studying how some of these privacy rules in Canada ought to be improved." One media expert said it's time to take a closer look at companies like Facebook. "This should give us pause to how we address these companies now and how we push for the increased privacy reforms," Taylor Owen, Beaverbrook Chair in Media Ethics and Communication at McGill University, told CBC News. Facebook has come under fire for its privacy and data policies, especially after it was revealed last year that Cambridge Analytica had harvested the data of millions of users without their consent for political purposes. By Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq and Iran signed several preliminary trade deals on Monday, Iraqi officials said, as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani began his first visit seeking to bolster Tehran's influence and expand commercial ties to help offset renewed U.S. sanctions. The deals, among them a plan to build a railway linking the neighbors, emerged soon after the start of Rouhani's visit, meant to underline that Tehran still plays a dominant role in Iraq despite U.S. efforts to isolate the Islamic Republic. Iran and Iraq fought a devastating 1980-88 war but the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that ousted Saddam Hussein prompted a long Sunni Islamist insurgency during which Iran's regional sway rose at the expense of the United States. Rouhani and Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Mahdi signed several memorandums of understanding, Abdul Mahdi's office said in a statement. They included agreements on oil, trade, health, and a railway linking the southern Iraqi oil city of Basra and the Iranian border town of Shalamcheh. They had also agreed on measures to make it easier for businessmen and investors to obtain visas, Abdul Mahdi's office said. The Iranian state news agency IRNA said it was agreed that travel visas would now be free of charge. Prior to his departure, Rouhani said Shi'ite Muslim Iran was determined to strengthen ties with its Shi'ite-led Arab neighbor, Iranian state television reported. Those ties "cannot be compared to Iraq's relations with an occupying country like America, which is hated in the region," the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Rouhani as saying before he flew to Baghdad. "One cannot forget the bombs that Americans dropped on Iraq, Syria and other regional countries." Rouhani was due to visit the Shi'ite holy cities of Kerbala and Najaf on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. He will meet top Iraqi Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, Iranian state media said. A senior Iranian official accompanying Rouhani told Reuters that Iraq was "another channel for Iran to bypass America's unjust sanctions ... this trip will provide opportunities for Iran's economy". Iraq relies on Iranian gas imports to feed its power grid and has asked for extensions to a U.S. waiver to continue importing Iranian gas since U.S. President Donald Trump restored sanctions on Iran's vital energy sector in November. IRANIAN ECONOMY SUFFERING The slump in Iran's economy since Trump's decision last May to pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers has pushed the Islamic Republic to try to expand commercial ties with neighbors. The 2015 agreement lifted sanctions that had been imposed by the United States, European Union and United Nations in return for Iran curbing aspects of its nuclear program. The Trump administration said the accord was too generous and failed to rein in Iran's ballistic missile capabilities and its involvement in regional conflicts in Syria and Yemen. Other signatories to the deal have been trying to salvage the pact, but U.S. sanctions have largely scared off European companies from doing business with Iran. The Europeans have promised to help firms do business with Iran as long as it abides by the deal. Iran has itself threatened to pull out of the agreement unless EU powers demonstrably protect its economic benefits. (Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed ith additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Dubai, John Davison and Ahmed Aboulenein in Baghdad, Babak Dehghanpisheh in Geneva; Editing by Mark Heinrich) The bodies of a missing British man and his Italian climbing partner have been found by rescuers on a mountain in Pakistan. Tom Ballard, 30, from Derbyshire, and Daniele Nardi, 42, from near Rome, were reported missing on Nanga Parbat, nicknamed killer mountain, more than a week ago. The pair had set off on the third stage of their expedition of the world's ninth-highest mountain on 22 February - and last made contact two days later while at about 6,300 metres (20,700ft). Earlier, Alex Txikon, who was leading the Spanish-Pakistani search team, reported spotting "two shapes" on the Mummery Spur that Mr Ballard and Mr Nardi had taken. Stefano Pontecorvo, the Italian ambassador to Pakistan, later said the team had confirmed the silhouettes on the mountain were the bodies of the missing climbers. He tweeted: "With great sadness I inform that the search for @NardiDaniele and Tom Ballard is over as @AlexTxikon and the search team have confirmed that the silhouettes spotted on Mummery at about 5,900 meters are those of Daniele and Tom. R.I.P." Mr Pontecorvo said the bodies had been located in a place that was difficult to reach but everything was being done to recover them. Military helicopters were used to fly the group of rescuers - including a physician - up the mountain to search for Mr Ballard and Mr Nardi. The pair had been accompanied by two Pakistani mountaineers, but they turned back because they thought the bad weather was too dangerous. Mr Ballard had been documenting his efforts on Instagram before going missing. He and Mr Nardi reached the first camp at 15,400ft (4,700m) on 7 January and the second camp at 17,000ft (5,200m) just over three weeks later. Mr Ballard moved to the Scottish Highlands in 1995. That same year, his mother Alison Hargreaves died on K2 when she was 33 - just months after becoming the first woman to conquer Everest unaided. The adventurer has been dedicated to climbing some of the toughest mountains in the world since the death of his mother. Story continues Mr Ballard became the first person to solo climb all six major north faces of the Alps in one winter. Mr Nardi had attempted the Nanga Parbat summit in winter several times in the past. His team said they were "heartbroken" in a tribute on their official Facebook page. They wrote: "We're heartbroken; we inform you that the research of Daniele and Tom has ended. A part of them will always remain on the Nanga Parbat." They added: "The family remembers Tom as a competent alpinist and brave friend of Daniele. Our thoughts are with him. "Daniele will remain a husband, a father, a son, a brother and a friend lost for a dream that we have always accepted, respected and shared. "We like to remember how you really are: in love with life, adventurous, scrupulous, courageous, loyal, attentive to detail and always present in times of need." For all Australians, 2019 is when we will be heading to the polls to elect who we want to represent us in Federal Parliament. Some states this year will also have an election as well. It seems that every year, there is an election of sorts to be held. Whether a local council election, state election, a by-election or a Federal election. With elections come the debate and discussion of policies, and in turn, politics. Whenever political topics are brought up, they come with emotion, debate and controversy. Some people may be deeply passionate about certain issues, and others can be very vocal about them. It seems sometimes we are forced to make a choice between one side or the other, especially when we are being told some things are issues of morality. A lot of us might be clueless or just havent had the time to read, learn more and investigate on some key topics or issue. How does one, who might not have enough understanding or awareness of political issues, navigate these debates and elections in order to make an informed decision of who to vote for? Should we even bother trying to learn more about this, when it seems quite complex and difficult? Should Christians participate in society? To approach this, we should first look at the question of should Christians participate in society? and what the Bible says about it. The Bible talks about the concept as Christians being the salt and light of the world and shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew chapter 5 verses 14-15). This concept of light that Jesus is referring to is the message of Gods grace for us in the Gospel that has been given to us. It carries the greatest gift of bringing people from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. This light is not something that we should keep for ourselves, but rather something to display and share with others. Pauls letter to the Ephesians emphasises this and explains that Christians should Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. (Ephesians chapter 5 verses 8 to 12). It implies that the role of the Christian is not necessarily only to share the Gospel with others, but also to expose darkness wherever God has placed us in our lives. We do this to bring the grace of God to others and for Gods glory. It means that we cannot simply isolate ourselves from the rest of society, but rather, we should be as active in society as our circumstances allow. The goal should be bringing the message of the Gospel to the lost so that they may be saved. Our unique opportunity Many churches are correctly focused on the task of telling their friends and communities about Jesus. However, I wonder if there is something some of us can do more when it comes to our participation in the public, and in turn, political sphere. The Australian government is a representative democracy which has a system for citizens to voice concerns of issues happening in our local societies. This is different in each country, and by Gods grace, we are blessed to be able to meet freely without worry of persecution from our government authorities. In other countries that do not have a Judeo-Christian influence or laws based on Judeo-Christian philosophy, Christians are either persecuted or not permitted to meet in public locations and tell others about Jesus. What we have in Australia is a very unique opportunity in history! It should not be something that we waste. To participate in our government, our P & C or local communities, it does require us to be well read and thought out on the issues being discussed, and unfortunately, we cannot simply read the news to be informed as they might not always cover every key aspect or perspective about the issue. Navigating the minefield When we are presented with an issue on the news or in our conversation with friends and family, we should first be honest with ourselves about whether or not we really know about the topic. If we do not, it is better to acknowledge this and potentially commit to reading and learning more before engaging further in conversation. When engaging in conversation and debate, we should seek to be loving and respectful in how we convey ourselves and make every effort to be quick to listen and slow to speak. At the same time, we should also not compromise when it comes to core Biblical principles as they are our foundation to faith and how we live our lives in this world. Where possible, we should also seek to find common ground because a lot of the time our differences only lie in the execution of an idea. Over time, let us build our knowledge in different areas of politics and societal issues. Whether it is on economic management, mental health, immigration, housing affordability, energy, climate change or whatever hot topic issue of the day, let us become all things to all people so that by all possible means, we may save some to Christ. (1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 20-22). Brandon Tsang is a Sydney-based writer currently working in IT. He studied Marketing and Economics at UNSW and loves to spend his spare time hiking, playing volleyball or watching Netflix. Brandon Tsangs previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/brandon-tsang.html Ahna Ziegler/Unsplash A teacher in Utah has apologized to a fourth-grade student whom she ordered to remove the ash cross that was on his forehead for Ash Wednesday. William McLeod of Bountiful, Utah, went to school Wednesday with an ash cross on his forehead that he had received earlier that morning at church. "A lot of students asked me what it is. I said, 'I'm Catholic. It's the first day of Lent. It's Ash Wednesday,'" McLeod told local news outlet FOX13. He was the only one in his class with the ashes on his forehead. William attempted to explain what it meant to his teacher but she required him to wipe it off and handed him a disinfecting wipe. After hearing about what happened, the school's principal phoned McLeod's family to apologize. "I was pretty upset," said Karen Fisher, McLeod's grandmother. "I asked her if she read the Constitution with the First Amendment, and she said, No," Fisher said, recounting the conversation she had with the teacher who had ordered her grandson to remove the cross from his forehead. The school district has also apologized, saying every student should be welcomed regardless of their faith. "Why that even came up, I have no idea," said Chris Williams, a school district spokesperson. "When a student comes in to school with ashes on their forehead, it's not something we say 'Please take off.'" The teacher, who gave a handwritten apology to McLeod along with some candy, also might face disciplinary action. "I hope it helps somebody and I hope it never happens again," Fisher said. "I don't think it will." The imposition of ashes is an observance celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church and in other liturgical churches to mark the beginning of the 40 days of Lent. As the ashes are imposed on each forehead the priest will say something like "remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return." As The Christian Post reported this week, worshipers usually choose to leave the ashes on their foreheads for the remainder of the day as an outward sign and symbol of grief, as well as purification and sorrow for sins. In the Old Testament, the prophet Daniel speaks of seeking the Lord for the release of His people from Babylonian exile with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes (Daniel 9:3). In some churches, palm branches from the previous Palm Sunday service are saved, and then burned to produce the ashes for the Ash Wednesday service. Courtesy of The Christian Post This month Altadis U.S.A. will release a new addition to its Henry Clay line known as the Henry Clay War Hawk. The cigar is intended to be the first of a three-part series of cigars called the Immortal Trio. The Henry Clay War Hawk will introduce an Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade wrapper offering to the Henry Clay brand. In addition to an Ecuadorian Connecticut wrapper, the Henry Clay War Hawk features a Broadleaf binder and Honduran filler. The cigar is available in three sizes. The name War Hawk stems from a movement spearheaded by Henry Clay that led to the War of 1812. Clay had served as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in the early 1800s, gaining a reputation as a U.S. nationalist. In his role in Congress, he put pressure on President James Madison to declare war against Great Britain in 1812. The term War Hawk is a term used to describe someone who favors war to resolve a conflict or dispute. The cigars are expected to reach retailers later this month. Blend and Origin Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade Binder: Broadleaf Filler: Honduran Country of Origin: Honduras Factory: Flor de Copan Vitolas Offered Corona: 5 1/2 x 44 (SRP $7.00) Robusto: 5 x 54 (SRP $7.50) Toro: 6 x 50 (SRP $8.00) Photo Credits: Altadis U.S.A. Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the 50th Raising Day celebrations of Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF), at Indirapuram in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Lauding the role of CISF in building New India by providing security to the vital institutions of the country, Prime Minister suggested the idea of starting digital museums at airports and metros, showcasing the work of CISF. Central Industrial Security Forces Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF) came into existence in 1969 with three battalions, to provide integrated security cover to the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) which, in those years, occupied the commanding heights of the economy. Over the years CISF has grown several folds to reach one lakh forty-eight thousand and three hundred seventy-one personnel today. With the Indian economy opening up for globalisation, CISF is no more a PSU centric organisation. It has carved a niche for itself as a premier multi-skilled security agency of the country, mandated to provide security to major critical infrastructure installations of the country including those in the private sector. Together with manning critical and vital installations of the country, CISF has also emerged as a force to reckon during disasters. CISF had played a key role during the during Kerala floods and also during Nepal and Haiti earthquake. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the European Union has made an 'important offer' to Britain to unblock an impasse over the UK's withdrawal agreement as the country prepares for its most critical Brexit vote to date.British lawmakers' opposition to the deal centres on concerns over arrangements for the Irish border.Theresa May's government has been seeking changes since her negotiated deal suffered a historic defeat in January, but the EU refuses to reopen the agreement after long negotiations.Ms Merkel said in Berlin overnight it was 'very welcome' that European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier had made 'a multitude of suggestions' over the weekend on how to define the so-called 'backstop' meant to keep open the border between EU member Ireland and the UK's Northern Ireland.'I think that an important offer has again been made to Britain, and now it is of course for Britain to respond to these offers,' she said.It comes amid reports Mrs May will fly to Strasbourg, France in the coming hours in a last-minute bid to save her foundering Brexit divorce deal before it is voted on again on Tuesday local time (Wednesday morning AEST).Ireland's deputy prime minister says Mrs May is flying to the seat of the European Parliament 'to try to finalise an agreement, if that's possible', though 10 Downing Street would not confirm the trip.Just 18 days before the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU on March 29, Mrs May is scrambling - so far unsuccessfully - to secure last-minute changes to an EU exit treaty before the new vote on the deal.If the treaty, which was voted down in January, is defeated again then lawmakers will vote on Wednesday on leaving without a deal on March 29 and, if they reject that then they will vote on Thursday on delaying Brexit.Nigel Dodds, deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) which props up May's minority government, and Steve Baker, a leading figure in the large eurosceptic faction of her Conservative party, warned that May's deal would be defeated.European officials said there had been no breakthrough in talks over the weekend and expressed frustration with May's attempts to secure concessions just weeks before Britain's exit.'May has boxed herself even deeper into a corner, it seems the second meaningful vote will go ahead on Tuesday but it also seems like it won't be the last meaningful vote on this,' one EU official said.'We really want to be over with it now. It's not going anywhere so even an extension is unlikely to break the impasse. There is not much patience or good will left on our side.'The UK's labyrinthine crisis over EU membership is approaching its finale with an extraordinary array of options including a delay, a last-minute deal, no-deal Brexit, a snap election or even another referendum.The ultimate outcome remains unclear, though most diplomats and investors say Brexit will define the United Kingdom's prosperity for generations to come.Brexit could be reversed if lawmakers reject the government's exit deal, British foreign minister Jeremy Hunt said on Sunday.'We have an opportunity now to leave on March 29 or shortly thereafter and it's important we grasp that opportunity because there is wind in the sails of people trying to stop Brexit,' Hunt told the BBC. 'We are in very perilous waters.'Michael Gove, who campaigned for Brexit in 2016, said that if May lost Tuesday's vote then it would effectively lose control of Brexit.Parliament rejected May's deal by 230 votes on January 15, prompting her to return to Brussels in search of changes to address the so-called Irish backstop - an insurance policy designed to prevent the return of a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.Many British lawmakers object to the policy on the grounds that it could leave Britain subject to EU rules indefinitely and cleave Northern Ireland away from the rest of the country. Air pollutionin South Korea has reached a new high with the ultrafine dust levels described as "very bad concentrations" by the National Institute for Environmental Research.The situation continues to worsen as the thick, black smog covering the skies in South Korea's capital Seoul and other provinces won't go away.The recorded dust level concentration in the past week was at 136 micrograms per cubic meter, which is four times higher than the recommended health levels by the World Health Organization.Cloud Seeding OperationsThis dangerous situation has prompted a joint project between South Korean and China to curb the rising air pollution through the use of artificial rain or cloud seeding. The goal is to create artificial rainover the Yellow Sea that separates South Korea and China.Cloud seedinginvolves seeding or spraying the clouds with specific chemicals to attract the formation of water droplets. The rain created through cloud seeding will wash away the polluting aerosol particles out of the sky as it falls."High density of ultrafine dust continued recently because weather conditions caused air over the Korean Peninsula to be stagnant and delayed diffusion of pollutants originating within the country and from abroad," saidShin Yong-Sueng of Korea's Research Institute of Public Health and Environment.The artificial rain project is the latest effort to solve the fine dust problem in the region.How Bad Is Fine Dust Pollution In Korea?Starting March 1, the Korean government started emergency measures to reduce the ultrafine PM2.5 dust or particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter.The size of this ultrafine particle is smaller than a single hair strand. The PM2.5, which is categorized as a class 1 carcinogen, can enter the lungs and cause severe illness.In Seoul, extremely fine particles in the air averaged from 162 to 237 micrograms per cubic meter, nearly five to 10 times than the recommended safe limit. The average hourly level of ultrafine dust was measured at 180 micrograms per cubic meter in Seoul, 176 in Gyeonggi Province, 155 in Incheon and 147 in Gangwon Province. Emergency measures are in place in 14 cities."When I breathe these days, I feel like my life expectancy is declining every day," saidJin Cho, a banker in her 40s.Emergency measures allowed local governments to ban old diesel cars and restrict the operations of coal power plants and other facilities that produce emissions.The South Korean government ordered the permanent shut down of coal power plants that are in operation for than 30 years. Additional public funds will also be made available to ensure that government buildings, schools and, daycares have more air purifiers to mitigate the threats of air pollution.Coming From ChinaMore than 70 percent of the fine dust particles clogging South Korea's atmosphere is believed to have originated from China's highly-industrialized cities. According to WHO, almost 93 percent of children under the age of 15 are breathing polluted air. A federal jury says Royal Caribbean Cruises owes $A4.8 million to the family of a passenger who died during an Alaskan cruise.The jury returned its verdict Thursday in Miami federal court.Court records show Richard Puchalski was with his family on the Explorer of the Seas in 2016.A civil complaint says the 70-year-old Wisconsin man visited the ship's infirmary with shortness of breath and later collapsed after being treated and sent back to his cabin.The complaint successfully argued the ship's medical staff made errors that led to Puchalski's heart attack being fatal.Jurors found Royal Caribbean to be 70 per cent at fault for the approximately $A48,000 in medical expenses and $A6.8 million in loss of companionship and pain and suffering.'Until the cruise line industry makes the long-overdue, necessary changes to the standard of care, more families will suffer these life changing tragedies, and we will continue to file these lawsuits and present to juries these obvious cases of negligence,' the family's lawyer told Miami HeraldRoyal Caribbean representatives say they plan to appeal the decision.'We respectfully disagree with the outcome of this case. We are considering our legal options, and we intend to appeal the decision,' a spokesman said.- With AP Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin congratulates Elon Muskfollowing the successful test flight of SpaceX's commercial astronaut capsule Crew Dragon.Also known as the Dragon 2, the capsule carried out its first unmanned test flight to the International Space Station last week. It ended with a safe splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean near Florida.Roscosmos Chief Congratulates SpaceX CEOThe apparently impressed Russian space agency chief took to Twitter to congratulate SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and NASA chief Jim Bridenstine."Dear colleagues... On behalf of Roscosmos I congratulate you on the first successful test flight of a new spacecraft," Rogozin tweeted.He believes that building alternative space transportation systems that will transport cargo and astronauts ensure the safety and stability of international teams working at the ISS."Thank you on behalf of SpaceX! We have always admired your rocket/spacecraft technology," the SpaceX CEO repliedto return the favor.Elon Musk Praises RussiaEarlier this week, Elon Musk praisedRussia via Twitter for its excellent rocket engineering and best engine, referring to the RD-180 liquid-fueled engine. The Russian-built RD-180 liquid-fueled rocket engine is used to power the first stage of the US Atlas V rocket. The SpaceX chief also added that a reusable version of the Angara rocket would be great.Musk's tweet was his response to an article publishedby Ars Technica about Russia's reaction regarding the successful test flight of the Crew Dragonand its docking to the ISS. The uncrewed mission of Crew Dragon capsule, which means no human onboard, is the first American spacecraft to reach the orbital station since the shutdown of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.Since then, American astronauts were sent into orbit on the Soyuz spacecraft that takes off from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. Crew Dragon is built by SpaceX under the guidance of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, America's space agency.The Angara rocket family is designed to carry between 3.8 and 24.5 tonnes into low-Earth orbit. It was the first orbit-capable rocket developed by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center in Moscow.In August last year, Rogozin said that the third launch of the Angara rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome for Russia's Defense Ministry will be this year. The Russian Federal Space Agency, which is also known as Roscosmosand abbreviated as FKA and RKA, is Russia's equivalent of the United States' NASA.Photo: Dan Taylor | Flickr 13 : 26 View Posts by Date December 2021 (8) November 2021 (30) October 2021 (31) September 2021 (30) August 2021 (31) July 2021 (31) June 2021 (30) May 2021 (31) April 2021 (30) March 2021 (31) February 2021 (28) January 2021 (31) December 2020 (31) November 2020 (30) October 2020 (32) September 2020 (30) August 2020 (31) July 2020 (31) June 2020 (30) May 2020 (31) April 2020 (30) March 2020 (31) February 2020 (29) January 2020 (30) December 2019 (31) November 2019 (30) October 2019 (31) September 2019 (30) August 2019 (31) July 2019 (31) June 2019 (30) May 2019 (31) April 2019 (30) March 2019 (32) February 2019 (28) January 2019 (31) December 2018 (31) November 2018 (30) October 2018 (31) September 2018 (30) August 2018 (31) July 2018 (31) June 2018 (30) May 2018 (31) April 2018 (30) March 2018 (31) February 2018 (27) January 2018 (31) December 2017 (31) November 2017 (30) October 2017 (31) September 2017 (30) August 2017 (32) July 2017 (31) June 2017 (30) May 2017 (31) April 2017 (30) March 2017 (31) February 2017 (28) January 2017 (31) December 2016 (31) November 2016 (30) October 2016 (31) September 2016 (28) August 2016 (31) July 2016 (31) June 2016 (30) May 2016 (31) April 2016 (30) March 2016 (31) February 2016 (29) January 2016 (31) December 2015 (31) November 2015 (30) October 2015 (31) September 2015 (30) August 2015 (31) July 2015 (31) June 2015 (29) May 2015 (30) April 2015 (30) March 2015 (31) February 2015 (28) January 2015 (31) December 2014 (31) November 2014 (30) October 2014 (31) September 2014 (30) August 2014 (32) July 2014 (32) June 2014 (30) May 2014 (31) April 2014 (30) March 2014 (31) February 2014 (28) January 2014 (31) December 2013 (31) November 2013 (30) October 2013 (31) September 2013 (30) August 2013 (33) July 2013 (31) June 2013 (30) May 2013 (32) April 2013 (30) March 2013 (31) February 2013 (28) January 2013 (31) December 2012 (33) November 2012 (30) October 2012 (31) September 2012 (30) August 2012 (31) July 2012 (31) June 2012 (30) May 2012 (31) April 2012 (30) March 2012 (33) February 2012 (29) January 2012 (33) December 2011 (33) November 2011 (32) October 2011 (31) September 2011 (31) August 2011 (31) July 2011 (31) June 2011 (30) May 2011 (31) April 2011 (31) March 2011 (31) February 2011 (29) January 2011 (31) December 2010 (35) November 2010 (30) October 2010 (32) September 2010 (30) August 2010 (32) July 2010 (31) June 2010 (30) May 2010 (33) April 2010 (32) March 2010 (33) February 2010 (31) January 2010 (40) December 2009 (35) November 2009 (34) October 2009 (32) September 2009 (30) August 2009 (32) July 2009 (34) June 2009 (30) May 2009 (31) April 2009 (31) March 2009 (34) February 2009 (29) January 2009 (32) December 2008 (41) November 2008 (46) October 2008 (41) September 2008 (31) August 2008 (32) July 2008 (31) June 2008 (30) May 2008 (32) April 2008 (30) March 2008 (33) February 2008 (37) January 2008 (33) December 2007 (23) India: After the end of GSP, shrimp exporters apprehend new duty by America by Nirmalya Behera March 11,2019 | Source: Business Standard With United States of America announcing the end of preferential trade treatment status to India, currently being extended under its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) programme, exporters of shrimp are apprehensive that America may levy a new duty which will have a cascading effect on exports of this perishable item. The US imported 695,723 tonnes of shrimp in 2018 and India accounted for about 35 per cent share of that. It is the largest market for Indian exporters. India seafood exports sector is valued at $7 billion. "India is unable to export shrimps to China because of high duties imposed by the latter. If the US puts any sort of duty in addition to anti-dumping duty, after the withdrawal of preferential treatment, it will be a big setback for Indian shrimp exporters. With the levy of any new duty, the (US) market will be as restrictive as the Chinese market," said Rajen Padhi, Director General of Utkal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a seafood consultant. Anti-dumping duty was imposed on Indian frozen warm water shrimps since 2004-05. US did not repeal duty on Indian frozen water shrimps during the first five years and further extended it to another five years. In 2017, America had extended the levy for another five years. If the US comes up with any new duty on Indian marine products, it will be a major blow for exporters as America has recently introduced Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) regulations for Indian shrimps. SIMP requires traceability information on imported seafood from point of capture to the point of first sale in the US in order to thwart Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing activity. It is mandatory for foreign shrimp products to be accompanied by harvest and landing data and for importers to maintain chain of custody records for shrimp imports entering the USA. Shrimp processors in the US have been continuously accusing Indian counterparts of dumping contaminated shrimps in their country. We are expecting that a new duty will be there on Indian shrimps after the withdrawal of GSP. Indian exporters will lose competitiveness. Efforts should be made for capturing the worldwide markets instead of depending on one country. If US imposes any kind of levy, things in the aquaculture sector will go from bad to worse, said an exporter. Tamil Nadu: Lack of mobile connectivity for fishermen at sea a concern: experts March 11,2019 | Source: The Hindu The lack of mobile connectivity for fishers in the Bay of Bengal has been a cause for concern to the Fisheries Department and NGOs alike. Many fishermen are unable to use mobile apps such as Fisher Friend and Thoondil that can help in times of distress, said experts at a State-level stakeholder consultation on upscaling Fisher Friend Mobile Application (FFMA), organised by the M.S. Swaminathan Foundation on Wednesday. Fisheries Department Director G.S. Sameeran said the department was in talks with telecom providers asking them to extend their coverage over the sea too. There are lakhs of fishermen who are also their subscribers and they need connectivity to use such apps to ensure their safety. We have asked telecom companies to turn their coverage towards the sea too. At present, mobiles can be used only up to a few kilometres in the sea, he said. Agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan said like small farmers and forest dwellers who got their own space and rights following the Centres intervention, fishers too must get their due recognition. The tsunami taught coastal residents, including fishers, the importance of mangroves. People had destroyed them in the name of tourism and development. But now efforts are being taken to protect them, he explained. Velvizhi, FFMA project head, said the application had even led to a behavioural change among fishers. Many of them have shifted from trawling to hook and line fishing, she said, adding that the app was available in nine languages. About running and life in the DC area. It is unfortunate that the Iranian regimes human rights violations are attracting little attention from international media outlets. When President Hassan Rouhani was running for re-election, he famously criticized the human rights situation in the country and promised to improve it. But, since he won the election, the president evades discussing it. Based on the latest developments, a report published by Amnesty International last month indicated that human rights abuses have reached a new high. This is happening while some world leaders and governments continue to label the Iranian president as a moderate political figure. Irans Penal Code allows executions to be carried out by many different methods, such as hanging, stoning, and firing squad. And, according to the Oslo-based non-governmental organization Iran Human Rights, at least 273 people were executed in Iran in 2018. This made Iran second in the world when it came to the number of people it executed last year, and first in terms of the number of executions per capita. Due to a lack of transparency, the official number of people executed is believed to be higher. It is not only the number of executions that is appalling, but also the nature of some of them. The executions involved juveniles, women and individuals from ethnic and religious minority groups, including Ahwazi Arabs, Kurds and Sunnis. Iran continues to be a leading executioner of children, as the number of juveniles executed increased in 2018. Although Iran has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Rouhanis government has made no effort to alter the countrys Penal Code, which allows girls as young as nine to be executed. In addition, at the discretion of the judiciary or the Islamic Revolutionary Court, many people are arrested on ambiguous charges, such as spreading moharebeh (corruption on earth), waging war against God, or endangering the countrys national security. Lack of due process, forced confessions and physical or psychological torture are prominent in the process through which the judiciary sentences defendants to the death penalty. As Iran Human Rights indicated: In 2018, the Iranian authorities once again displayed their systematic violations of due process and the rule of law. Televised confessions, unfair trials, and reports of torture are reminders of the fact that sustainable improvements in the status of human rights and serious steps toward abolition of the death penalty are not possible without fundamental changes in Irans judicial system. Another issue is related to the deterioration of ordinary citizens basic freedoms, including freedom of expression, assembly, association, and religion. Due to the increasing disaffectedness of the public with the regime, the theocratic establishment has increased its censorship of the media, restrictions on journalists, arbitrary arrests, inhumane punishments, the jamming of foreign satellite television channels, and the detention of human rights defenders. Many prominent human rights lawyers, including Nasrin Sotoudeh and her husband Reza Khandan, who defended or supported social movements, such as opposition to the forced wearing of the hijab, have been unfairly prosecuted. Despite pressure from some human rights organizations, a group of eight environmentalists who were arrested more than a year ago are still in detention. On March 2, several Members of the European Parliament from a wide range of political parties wrote a letter to Rouhani stating: We understand that the Iranian judiciary has accused the activists of using environmental projects as a cover to collect classified strategic information, but a committee established under your authority has found no evidence of these allegations. In its annual report, Amnesty International acknowledges that the human rights situation has severely deteriorated in Iran. The report details some of the inhumane punishments carried out by the regimes forces, including floggings and amputations, as well as inhumane prison conditions and the shooting of Kurdish citizens by Iranian guards. For example, the report states: In July, a man known as M.R. was tied to a tree in Razavi Khorasan Province and flogged 80 times. He had been convicted a decade earlier of consuming alcohol when he was 14 or 15 years old In January, authorities amputated the hand of a man, referred to as A.Kh., in Mashhad, Razavi Khorasan Province, reportedly for stealing livestock and other valuables. Instead of appeasing the regime, the EU must pressure Iran for its excruciating human rights record. It is also incumbent on the international community, particularly the UN, to hold the Islamic Republic accountable for allowing such egregious human rights violations. Source: arabnews.com , Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, March 10, 2019. Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. He is a leading expert on Iran and US foreign policy, a businessman and president of the International American Council. | 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 Iran Human Rights; March 9, 2019: A prisoner was executed for murder charges on February 13, 2019, at Qazvin Central Prison (Also known as Chubin-Dar Prison). According to a report published by Kurdistan Human Rights Network, a man identified as Ali Shakouri, was executed at Qazvin Central Prison on February 13, 2019. Ali was from Tarzilu village, near Urmia city in northwestern Iran. Five years ago, "Ali, who is a Kurdish Iranian citizen, fought with someone and injured him. He took the injured person to hospital but made an accident while driving. He was panicked and ran away. The injured person died and Ali was arrested later for his murder," a well-informed source said, "Ali was 21 at the time of the crime." The aforementioned execution has not been announced by Iranian media or authorities so far. According to the Iran Human Rights statistic department, the majority of executions in 2017 and 2018 in Iran was for murder charges. At least 188 prisoners were executed for murder charges in 2018. There is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results in issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and intent. | 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 sentencing of prominent Iranian human rights lawyer and womens rights defender Nasrin Sotoudeh to 33 years in prison and 148 lashes in a new case against her is an outrageous injustice, said Amnesty International today. The sentence, reported on her husband Reza Khandans Facebook page on 11 March, brings her total sentence after two grossly unfair trials to 38 years in prison. In September 2016, she had been sentenced in her absence to five years in prison in a separate case. It is absolutely shocking that Nasrin Sotoudeh is facing nearly four decades in jail and 148 lashes for her peaceful human rights work, including her defence of women protesting against Irans degrading forced hijab (veiling) laws. Nasrin Sotoudeh must be released immediately and unconditionally and this obscene sentence quashed without delay, said Philip Luther, Amnesty Internationals Middle East and North Africa Research and Advocacy Director. Nasrin Sotoudeh has dedicated her life to defending womens rights and speaking out against the death penalty - it is utterly outrageous that Irans authorities are punishing her for her human rights work. Her conviction and sentence consolidate Irans reputation as a cruel oppressor of womens rights. This is the harshest sentence Amnesty International has documented against a human rights defender in Iran in recent years, suggesting that the authorities emboldened by pervasive impunity for human rights violations are stepping up their repression. Nasrin Sotoudeh was arrested at her home on 13 June 2018. This week, she was informed by the office for the implementation of sentences in Tehrans Evin prison where she is jailed that she had been convicted on seven charges and sentenced to 33 years in prison and 148 lashes. The charges, which are in response to her peaceful human rights work, include inciting corruption and prostitution, openly committing a sinful act by... appearing in public without a hijab and disrupting public order. During her sentencing, Article 134 of Irans Penal Code was applied, which allows judges to use their discretion to impose a higher sentence than the maximum statutory requirement when a defendant faces more than three charges. In Nasrin Sotoudehs case, the judge, Mohammad Moghiseh, applied the maximum statutory sentence for each of her seven charges and then added another four years to her total prison term, raising it from the statutory maximum of 29 to 33 years. Jailing a human rights defender for her peaceful activities is abhorrent but the fact that the judge in Nasrin Sotoudehs case used his discretion to ensure that she stays locked up for more than is required under Iranian law compounds the outrageous injustice of her sentence, said Philip Luther. The international community, notably the European Union, which has an ongoing dialogue with Iran, must take a strong public stand against this disgraceful conviction and urgently intervene to ensure that she is released immediately and unconditionally. Governments with influence over Iran should use their power to push for Nasrin Sotoudehs release.The international community, notably the European Union, which has an ongoing dialogue with Iran, must take a strong public stand against this disgraceful conviction and urgently intervene to ensure that she is released immediately and unconditionally. Today, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported that judge Mohammad Moghiseh told journalists that Nasrin Sotoudeh has been sentenced to seven years in prison: five years for gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security and two years for insulting the Supreme Leader. The report did not provide further details or clarify whether the judge was referring to a separate case. If the report was referring to the same case, Amnesty International cannot currently explain why the information appears to contradict that provided to Nasrin Sotoudeh by the office for the implementation of sentences in Evin prison. Iran: 33 Years Prison Term for Human Rights Lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh Iran Human Rights (IHR); March 11, 2019: Prominent lawyer and human rights defender, Nasrin Sotoudeh, is sentenced to 33 years of imprisonment and 148 lashes for seven charges, all related to her human rights advocacy. Nasrin Sotoudeh has been informed about the verdict in the Evin prison two days ago, according to her husband Reza Khandan. Since she was sentenced to five years of imprisonment for another case in August 2018, her total jail sentence would be 38 years. Iran Human Rights (IHR) strongly condemns the Iranian authorities intensified crackdown on the human rights defenders exemplified by the grossly unfair prison and flogging sentence issued against Nasrin Sotoudeh and calls for an immediate reaction by the International community. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of IHR said: We specifically call on the EU to act. The situation of the human rights defenders in general and Nasrin Sotoudeh, in particular, must be resolved before any other dialogue and negotiations between the Islamic Republic and the EU can continue. Nasrin Sotoudehs new court verdict was notified to her in Evin prison on Saturday, March 9, 2019. Branch 28 of Tehrans Revolutionary Court has issued the verdict in absentia. Her charges were: assembly and gathering against national security, propaganda against the system, being an effective member of an abolitionist movement called LEGAM (Step to Step to Stop the Death Penalty), encouraging immorality, appearance without proper hijab, and spreading misinformation to affect public opinion. At the same time, Judge Moghiseh, head of branch 28 of Tehran Revolutionary Courts, announced a 7 years verdict for Nasrin Sotoudeh, according to the official Iranian news agency IRNA. However, Sotoudehs husband Reza Khandan told IHR in this regard, perhaps there is a third case which we are not aware of! He emphasized that Nasrin is convicted to 38 years imprisonment for the two aforementioned cases. | 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 Indonesian woman accused of killing Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korea's leader, has been freed after charges against her were dropped. Siti Aisyah had been accused of smearing VX nerve agent on Mr Kim's face in Kuala Lumpur airport in 2017. She and her co-accused, Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong, deny murder and say they thought they were part of a TV prank. The brazen killing at an international airport left observers stunned and gripped international headlines. After several months of delay, the defence phase of the trial was set to begin Monday, with testimony from Ms Huong. However, the prosecutor in the case requested the murder charge for Siti Aisyah be dropped, without giving a reason. In a letter to the Indonesian law minister though, Malaysia's attorney general explained the decision was taking into account considerations Jakarta raised about the case as well as the good relations between the two countries. The judge approved the request, saying "Siti Aisyah is freed", according to AFP news agency. However, this does not amount to an acquittal. Ms Aisyah could have faced the death penalty if convicted. "I feel happy. I did not know this will happen. I did not expect it," AFP cites Ms Aisyah saying as she left the court. BBC correspondent Jonathan Head, who is at the court in Kuala Lumpur, says there appears to have been less evidence against her than against her Vietnamese co-defendant. Ms Huong had initially been expected to read a statement in court, which would have been the first time either of the two gave testimony. However, her case has now been adjourned at the request of her lawyers. How did the murder happen? Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un, had been waiting to board a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Macau on 13 February 2017 when two women approached him in the departure area. CCTV footage showed one of them placing her hands over his face, then both women leaving the scene. Mr Kim died on the way to hospital from what was later found to be exposure to the nerve agent VX, one of the most toxic of all known chemical agents. North Korea has fiercely denied any involvement in the killing, but four men - believed to be North Koreans who fled Malaysia on the day of the murder - have also been charged in the case. They remain at large despite an Interpol "red notice", equivalent to an international arrest warrant. What is the women's defence? The two women have said they were innocent victims of an elaborate North Korean plot. According to their lawyers, in the days before Mr Kim's death the women had been paid to take part in pranks where they wiped liquid on people at airports, hotels and shopping malls. They thought the airport was just another prank. Their lawyers had expressed confidence that the court would see they had no motive to kill Mr Kim. After the court's surprise decision on Monday, the Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia told reporters they would "try to fly Siti back to Indonesia today or as soon as possible," according to AFP. Who was Kim Jong-nam? Kim Jong-nam was the older half-brother of North Korea's authoritarian ruler, Kim Jong-un. He was once seen as a future leader of the isolated country, but when his father Kim Jong-il died, was bypassed in favour of the younger Kim. He was largely estranged from the family, and spent most of his time overseas in Macau, mainland China and Singapore. He had spoken out in the past against his family's dynastic control of North Korea, and in a 2012 book was quoted as saying he believed his half-brother lacked leadership qualities. | 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 PM Mahathir bolsters credentials by signing up to ICC after abandoning death penalty Malaysias accession to the International Criminal Court (ICC) will further enhance its global standing after its decision to abandon the death penalty and should add weight to efforts to prosecute six generals in Myanmar for genocide. The government of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad signed the Rome Statute governing the ICC on March 5 and immediately notified the United Nations, noting the courts objective was to end impunity namely genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Since ousting the scandal-ravaged Najib Razak in elections last year, Mahathir has pushed his country towards international norms in regard to humanitarian issues. He was widely praised in November for abolishing the death penalty but his agenda struck a snag and he was forced to back down from signing on to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) after heated debate from religious groups. The Rome Statute Of the 138 signatories to the Rome treaty, 123 before Malaysias decision to join are parties to what is often considered the court of last resort where referrals are made by national governments or the United Nations Security Council. Seven U.N. members voted against the statute in 1998, but the U.S. is now a signatory though not a party. Only crimes committed since the Rome Statute came into force on July 1, 2002, are considered and only countries that are a party to the statute can refer or be prosecuted by the ICC, although legal arguments have been made to extend the courts jurisdiction. Malaysia was hurt by its absence. The ICC could have provided legal recourse and some kind of justice for the victims and families of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, shot down by a missile over eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing all 298 people on board. That stung many at home, increasing pressure to sign. To date, 36 ICC arrest warrants have been issued with convictions secured against just six people, mostly from Africa, leading to criticism that the ICC is too costly and ineffective, but its immediate future is not in jeopardy. Malaysia stands ready to work together with all state parties in upholding the principles of truth, human rights, rule of law, fairness and accountability, foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah said after the signing. Testing times That stand will test neighborly relations. Malaysia is one of the few Southeast Asian countries to challenge Myanmar over its bloody crackdown on the Rohingya that forced about 730,000 people to flee across its northern border into Bangladesh. Six generals have been cited by the U.N. for genocide with charges referred to the ICC. They are army chief Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, vice commander-in-chief Soe Win, Lt. Gen. Aung Kyaw Zaw, Gen. Maung Maung Soe and Brig. Gen. Than Oo. Myanmar is steadfast in its refusal to join the ICC. Bangladesh, however, is a member and because those alleged crimes against humanity crossed into its territory, lawyers have argued that genocide charges do fall under ICC jurisdiction. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has also been referred to the ICC for the arbitrary slaughter that has resulted from his war on drugs. Human rights groups say more than 12,000 people have been killed and the ICC referral prompted Duterte to withdraw his country from the Rome Statute. But again, there are legal loopholes. Lawyers argued that decision does not exclude Duterte from prosecution of crimes committed before the decision to leave was implemented in March last year. A similar story is emerging in Phnom Penh where a coterie of military, police and business people tied to the long-ruling Cambodian Peoples Party are also in the ICCs cross-hairs, in regard to land grabbing, which can constitute a crime against humanity. Finding justice Under Najib, Malaysia suffered from chronic corruption like the 1MDB scandal that ensnared the likes of Hollywood, New York investment banks, Saudi Arabia and Singapore. Nor was he helped by a dreadful diplomatic playbook that isolated his nation. But Malaysia is a country that has traditionally sought to prove itself in the international arena, often using its Muslim credentials and its influence in the Organization of Islamic Conference with great effect. Myanmar, the Philippines, Cambodia and Malaysia are also members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has a long-standing doctrine of non-interference in other members affairs. Its a policy that has led to one absurdity after another. Only after some prodding did Muslim-dominated Malaysia and Indonesia speak out about the plight of the Rohingya Muslims, while others remained deafeningly silent. Mahathir is a shrewd politician, a proven diplomatic player and a genuine statesman, but he does not always get his way, as with the ICERD. Opposition political parties protested against that signing, claiming it would strip native Malays of their privileges and compromise Islam as the official religion. That was all a bit much for Gun Kut, a Turkish delegate on the ICERD committee who recently left Malaysia dumbfounded by arguments against that international treaty. He also said Malaysia was now grouped with Nauru and North Korea as countries that failed to ratify without good reason. However, despite that setback, Mahathirs decision to sign onto the Rome Statute deserves applause, and perhaps he will provide some much-needed political backbone for the ICC, which it will need if it is to do its job properly in Southeast Asia. Source: ucanews.com , Luke Hunt, March 11, 2019. Luke Hunt is a senior opinion writer for ucanews.com. | 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 Activists have put up posters in public places in cities like Colombo opposing the introduction of the death penalty in Sri Lanka, 40 years after the last state-sanctioned execution in the country. Sri Lankan President Maithripana Sirisena believes that reinstating the death penalty is the best deterrent to the country's growing drug problem, but a priest-run center and other rehabilitation facilities in Colombo are trying to show that therapy works better. Sirisena's sanity was questioned recently after he fired a former ally, dissolved parliament, and threw the country into chaos, but the Court of Appeal voided a petition in January seeking to have him face a panel of psychiatrists. Regardless of the soundness of his decision-making, Sirisena said on Feb. 7 he would authorize implantation of the death penalty within two months for those convicted of serious drug offenses. With nearly 1,300 people on death row in Sri Lanka, religious leaders have rallied against the move, especially after adverts seeking to hire two hangmen appeared in local newspapers, attracting over 100 applications. Cannabis and heroin have become the top two narcotic scourges in the country, which authorities fear could soon become a major transit point for international traffickers. Basil Alwis, a local businessman and father of three, knows how drugs can ruin lives: he tried to commit suicide after his second son was arrested on a drug charge in August, with two packets of heroin in his pocket. The younger man, whose name is being withheld, underwent therapy with the guidance of priests in the capital, but failed to be rehabilitated. The son also lost his white-collar job and faced disciplinary action. Now Alwis and the rest of the family are concerned about what will happen to the young man as he could face the death penalty if he trips up one more time.They do not believe it serves as an effective deterrent. Human rights activist Niruddi Senaviratne concurs. She said there is no evidence from any country in Asia or elsewhere supporting the hypothesis that the death penalty reduces crime. "There are serious deficiencies in our criminal justice system, including a lack of easily accessible, good-quality legal aid," she said, citing what she considers to be more pressing concerns. "The death penalty is an irreversible form of punishment that grants no space to consider new evidence, which may emerge after a conviction is made, for example through new technology, indicating a wrongful conviction. "Sirisena reaffirmed his support for the policy on March 5, when he argued that capital punishment was necessary to "save" the younger generation. Amnesty International disagreed. It wrote an open letter to the government urging it to choose a different path and shelve plans to execute at least 13 people for drug offenses. The human rights organization also sought a review of the cases that had put people on death row, and asked the authorities to consider commuting their sentences to life imprisonment. The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) joined this chorus of disapproval by requesting the death penalty be removed, on the basis that it is degrading and inhumane. The ICJ also asked the government to sign an international covenant on civil and political rights, which would obligate it to abolish this form of punishment. The European Union chimed in to similar effect while the Catholic Bishops' Conference said that stringent security measures would serve to better clamp down on the drug trade. Sirisena proved stubborn, however, saying the nation's customs officials, police and coastguard would work together to eradicate drug smuggling, with the death penalty as a needed stick. Even though, capital punishment remains on the country's statute books, no executions have taken place there since 1976. In 2004, the government moved to reinstate executions for offenses like rape, murder, and drug trafficking, but none were carried out amid widespread opposition. In the wake of his visit to the Philippines in January, Sirisena said he wanted to emulate President Rodrigo Duterte's tactics in dealing with drug pushers and users. Duterte has allegedly sanctioned hundreds if not thousands of extrajudicial killings during his war on drugs.Since 2017 he has also called to revive the death penalty in the Philippines, setting him at odds with the Church and much of the Catholic population. Duterte has described capital punishment as the only way to instill fear in people, while Pope Francis has called it unacceptable in all circumstances. Yet as the Sri Lanka president has found, recruiting people for the job was not as easy as the government presumed. In 2014, a newly hired hangman resigned in shock after seeing the gallows, which came after several days of training. Three more recruits abandoned the job that same year. However the tide may have turned recently, as the Ministry of Justice and Prison Reforms claims to have received around 100 applications for its two recent postings. The deadline for the 36,310 rupees (US$200) a month job was Feb. 25. The ministry said it would not disclose the short-listed candidates or interview dates for security reasons. | 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 campaign for Ann Roe, who is running for Congress against Lyin' Bryan Steil has come out with the best one-liner of this cycle so far: I can't argue... 5 weeks ago I am a retired newspaperman. I live in Poca, WV, with my wife of 44 years, Lou Ann. I grew up in Cleveland. Three kids. Grandfather. Report all errors to DonSurber@GMail.com OHIO study: Information literacy can combat 'fake news' ATHENS, Ohio (March 11, 2019) - It's not difficult to verify whether a new piece of information is accurate; however, most people don't take that step before sharing it on social media, regardless of age, social class or gender, a new Ohio University study has found. A new study conducted by Ohio University professor Dr. M. Laeeq Khan found that several factors can be used to predict someone's ability to detect misinformation, otherwise known as "fake news," on social media. Additionally, the study found that, by looking at certain factors, it is also possible to predict if someone is likely to share misinformation based on the same factors. The study, titled "Recognise misinformation and verify before sharing: a reasoned action and information literacy perspective," was published in the journal Behaviour and Information Technology. "This is a pioneering study that helps understand why individuals would share misinformation on social media using a theoretical lens and information literacy factors," Khan said. The idea for the current study came from a larger research project in which Khan investigated the spread of misinformation on social media during past U.S. elections. In this study, Khan wanted to take a look at misinformation as a whole. "Fake news and misinformation could be rightly termed as the major issues of our time. Almost every other study in this realm falls short of highlighting the vital role of individuals in halting the spread of misinformation," Khan said. To test the research hypotheses that predict the sharing of misinformation, Khan decided to extend his work from a U.S. framework to gather data in Indonesia. Indonesia is not only one of the largest social media markets in the world, the country has caught news headlines for fighting misinformation and hoaxes, especially during its election season. The study asked participants to rate their perceived internet skills, self-esteem and internet experiences as well as their attitudes towards fact-checking online information, belief in reliability, and how often participants shared information without fact checking. There were 396 participants in the study, which found that age, social class and gender did not play a huge part, but rather media and information literacy was found to be the biggest factor in recognizing misinformation. "The important role of information literacy is often taken for granted. It was found that information verification skills such as simply Googling some new piece of information and not sharing it right away could prove beneficial in halting the spread of misinformation," Khan said. "In addition, information verification attitude greatly mattered." Those who have a strong belief in the reliability of the information are more likely to share information online without verification. "Online users must possess an attitude of healthy skepticism when any information comes their way. Such an attitude of information verification by individuals can prove to be a major counterweight to the rising misinformation online," Khan said. While many respondents said that they felt it was important to share verified information, some do not have the media or information literacy to accurately assess whether information they are sharing is in fact correct. The study found that people from lower education levels, lower income and those newer to the internet would benefit most from learning additional information literacy. ### This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Massachusetts' 8th district starts at Beacon Hill and downtown Boston and heads south-- into South Boston, the heart of the district, and into the suburbs and small towns south of the city-- many of them more blue collar than other Boston suburbs. The 8th includes Milton, Braintree, Quincy, Weymouth, Brockton, and Bridgewater before swinging west into Dedham, Walpole and north to Jamaica Plain. It's a very Irish district and a very Democratic one. The PVI is D+10, the third bluest in the state. Obama won both times, 59-39% against McCain and 58-41% against Romney. In 2016, Hillary beat Trump by an even bigger margin-- 60.4% to 34.4%. Did I mention the district is 76% white and that the median income is the 44th highest among congressional districts-- $75,359. A third of the population lives in Boston and two-thirds in the suburbs. Conservative Democrat Stephen Lynch, an iron-worker-turned-lawyer, has held the seat since 2001. Throughout his tenure, despite being a Democrat, he has consistently fought against progressive initiatives. He was an ardent supporter of the Iraq War, and is one of only 3 remaining Democrats in the House to have voted against the Affordable Care Act, a law he continually criticized in the years following its passage. Ominously, he has decried the Democratic party's focus on climate change, voiced support of the Keystone pipeline, and voted in the previous term counter to the rest of the Massachusetts delegation to weaken sustainable fishing rules. He voted with the GOP on refugee issues-- even supporting ICE's odious practices. Most tellingly, he voiced his feelings on Trump by telling talk radio during the last term "I don't think he's been treated fairly by the media, I really don't, I have to say that." Lynch's views and votes generally lie to the right of Massachusetts' recent Republican governors. Needless to say, ProgressivePunch, gives his overall voting record a solid "F." The only way to hold a bad congressman like Lynch accountable in a district as blue at the 8th is, is through a primary. And this cycle he has one-- Dr. Mohammad Dar (MoDar) of Jamaica Plain. He's worked at the V.A. hospitals in Boston and Brockton, and before that, served as Medical Director at Massachusetts Medicaid where he led reforms to make the system focus on patients instead of profits. DWT readers. If you like what you hear, please consider contributing to his campaign by clicking on the Blue America Primary Thermometer on the right. MoDar is a product of public schools. As a student activist, he started the Student Association of Michigan as an undergraduate which defeated a $150 million funding cut to public universities orchestrated by the Michigan Republican party. While in medical school, he was a White House intern and helped to implement the Affordable Care Act. In 2014, MoDar came to Boston for his residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital and made Jamaica Plain his home. While working as a physician, MoDar saw first hand how those who cannot afford to keep warm, cannot afford their medications, cannot afford food, cannot get a job with a livable wage "all end up coming to a medical system which patches their wounds but cannot not heal the systems that made them sick to begin with." He tied us he is running for Congress to fix these failing systems. He adamantly believes that the only way to do this is with bold progressive action-- more than status quo, more than the incremental change that has left so many behind. I asked MoDar to introduce himself toreaders. If you like what you hear, please consider contributing to his campaign by clicking on the Blue America Primary Thermometer on the right. A Democratic Vision That Reflects The Hopes And Dreams Of My District-- What We Can Do To Continue To Improve The Lives Of People In MA-08 by Mohmmad Dar My name is Mohammad Dar and I am a doctor, an activist, and a son of immigrants. My story is rooted in my parents and their struggle for the American Dream. Immigrants from Pakistan, my parents made tough choices to support our family. They worked blue collar jobs hoping to give their children the best. Mom was a janitor in my schools. Dad drove a big-rig trucker. Though we didn't have much, they were willing to sacrifice anything so that their kids could have a better life. For my dad though, he would end up sacrificing everything. When I got into college, the tuition bill was more than we could afford. But Dad wanted me to go, so he went without his health insurance coverage to help cover the cost. That meant he couldn't afford to see a doctor when he started feeling run down. His cancer diagnosis came all too late because of it, and we lost him when I was 19. My father's sacrifice anchored me in the belief that everyone deserves a fair shot at the American Dream. In the richest nation on Earth, a tragedy like his should have never happened. In those final days with him, I promised Dad that I would always fight so that others would not have to suffer like our family had. Throughout my life, I have sought to keep that promise. I followed that promise when I united students across Michigan and defeated Republican-led funding cuts against our universities. As a medical student at the University of Michigan, I paused my studies to become an intern in the Obama White House to help implement the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in the Office of Health Reform. I followed that promise visiting those in jail struggling with opioid addiction, seeking to give them a new chance at success. My father's promise led me to become a doctor at the Veteran's Affairs hospitals in Massachusetts. I served the most vulnerable populations-- serving those who have served this nation, who are still failed by our current systems. I could patch their wounds, but I could not heal them from the systems that continued to injure them outside of the hospital walls. I'm running for Congress because we need more than incremental change. Too many have been left struggling, left poorer, waiting for broken promises. We need to fight for big ideas worthy of our incredible nation. Bold progressive change is not new. Our forebearers turned a decade of Depression into a New Deal. Our fathers struggled for social security, our mothers made Medicare real, our brothers and sisters marched for Civil Rights, our children dreamed of Marriage Equality. All of these things in the few years before they happened were thought completely impossible, until they were made possible. Throughout our history, progressives have lifted generations out of poverty and brought dignity to so many. We can do that again-- but not if we focus on incremental change tactics. Let's be bold. Let's build an America that reignites and reaffirms our best ideals. An America that welcomes you, loves you, and fights for you regardless of your wealth, your orientation, your religion, your skin color, your gender, your party, or where you came from. An America that is bold in its social, economic, and environmental justice. An America that our next generation will be proud of. We're building that here in the 8th District of Massachusetts. I hope you'll join us. Google will support Vietnamese startups with cloud services worth up to $100,000 each to help them go global. This offer was made public at the Google Cloud for Startups workshop held recently in HCMC with the participation of hundreds of entrepreneurs. Qualified startups can sign up for one of three support packages, with value ranging from $3,000 to $100,000 a year. The packages include Google G Suite, a cloud computing brand of tools and software that allows startups to test and improve their digital products. Vietnamese startups that qualify for the support are those that are less than five years old and have received no more than Series A funding, or the first round of financing that a startup receives form a venture capital firm. They should also be developing their products and services digitally. Vietnam is among six countries in Southeast Asia that Google has offered this support to. The country has had a vibrant startup industry in recent years. Last year, investment in Vietnamese startups tripled from 2017 to $889 million, according to startup accelerator program Topica Founder Institute. A scene from the The Tap Box. Photo acquired by VnExpress Vietnamese entry The Tap Box has won the Samir Farid Prize and Best Director award at an Egypt film fest. The Tap Box was the only Vietnamese film to participate and compete for awards at the third Sharm El-Sheikh Asian Film Festival (SAFF) held in Sharm El Sheikh city, Egypt, from March 2 to 8. Competing with 12 other entries, the Vietnamese film claimed the Samir Farid Prize, and Leon Quang Le won the Best Director award. Sharm El Sheikh Asian Film (SAFF) is an annual event hosted by the Noon Foundation for Culture and Arts in Sharm El-Sheikh City, Egypt. This is the only film festival for Asian films in Egypt. This year, SAFF administered awards in nine categories, including feature films, documentaries, animation, short film and student films. A total of 58 films from 26 different countries jointed this years festival. The Tap Box (2018), titled Song Lang in Vietnamese, centers around the relationship of a cai luong artist (Vietnamese reformed theater art performer) and a debt collector in the 1980s in Ho Chi Minh City. Leon Quang Le, 42, had been a Broadway musical theatre actor in New York before turning to directing films. The film has participated in various international film festivals including the Tokyo International Film Festival where the films main actor, Lien Binh Phat, won the Tokyo Gemstone award for new actors. The film is set to be screened at the San Diego Asian Film Festival held from April 12 to 17 and the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival in May 2019. Con Dao Islands off Vietnam's southern coast wants to impose a fee on tourists to finance its waste treatment. Photo by Banh He The Con Dao Archipelago, overwhelmed with garbage, plans to levy an entrance fee on all visitors to finance waste management. Authorities in Con Dao, a 16-island archipelago off Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, and the provincial tourism department have agreed on a plan to collect an entry fee from all tourists. Trinh Hang, the departments director, told local media that residents of Ba Ria-Vung Tau will be exempt from the fee. The plan will be submitted soon to the provincial government, he said. Con Dao already has admission charges for some of its destinations, including the national park and some historic sites, and the plan is to include all those in the entry fee. Explaining the motivation for the plan, director Hang said Con Dao has lured more and more tourists in recent times, resulting in more waste. Hang said the plan was not new and had been on the table for discussion since 2000. The province had decided not to follow up then, but it was high time that it did so now, he added. "There are tourists who only visit the island for one day and but leave a certain amount of trash behind. Con Dao District does not earn anything from them. Those tourists need to be responsible for maintaining the islands ecosystem," Hang was quoted by Tuoi Tre as saying. Provincial authorities had last month accepted Con Dao District's proposal to have trash taken to the mainland for treatment and disposal. As of March last year, Con Dao had 70,000 tons of garbage stuck at its sole landfill. The archipelagos largest island is the 52 square kilometers (20 square miles) Con Son, which is also the only one that is inhabited. Over the past two decades, domestic waste on the island has been collected at a landfill that measures 3,800 square meters (4,544 square yards). The landfill, which has only one incinerator, is overloaded and has only 300 square meters left for storing trash. On average, the island generates 15 tons of trash a day, while at full capacity, the incinerator can only deal with five tons. As a result, trash, mostly plastic bags and bottles, has been piling up at the landfill. Last year, Con Dao received more than 286,000 visitors, up 17.3 percent against 2017, including 32,000 foreign tourists. Con Dao served as a prison for political prisoners during the French colonial era, and in later years, the U.S.-installed puppet regime in Saigon, which imprisoned in the infamous cells known as "tiger cages." The old prison buildings still stand and are open to public viewing at a museum tracing Con Dao's history. The islands also boasts pristine natural beauty with forested hills, sandy beaches and extensive coral reefs, and this is threatened by the waste problem. Vietnam is the fourth-largest contributor to marine plastic pollution globally, according to a 2015 study by the University of Georgia. The country discharges around 18,000 tons of plastic waste every day, according to the Da Nang Center for Consultancy on Sustainable Development in central Vietnam. Cham and Be Islands in the region are two places in country that have banned the use of plastic. Phu Quoc, Vietnams biggest island, is also working with the World Wild Fund Vietnam to map out a plan to be plastic free by 2020. From a height of 72m, the Buddha in Son Tay, Hanoi, will soon radiate a serene smile over Southeast Asia. Gigantic Buddha to smile over Southeast Asia from Vietnam Gigantic Buddha to smile over Southeast Asia from Vietnam The construction of the great statue of Buddha Amitabha started in 2015 at the Khai Nguyen temple, Son Tay, Hanoi, 43 km west of downtown Hanoi. At a height of 72m (236 feet), the statue will become the tallest Buddha statue in Southeast Asia, potentially attracting large numbers of devout Buddhists as well as tourists for many years to come. The 13-storey Buddha statue, of which 12 floors will be dedicated to Bodhisattva worship, is being built on the Buddhist perspective on reincarnation. Work on many inner parts of the statue is still underway and expected to take four or five more years to complete. Small statues of the Buddha on the roof of the Khai Nguyen pagoda. In the temple area stands another, much smaller statue of Buddha Amitabha in deep meditation. The Khai Nguyen Pagoda, dating back to the first half of the 16th century, has undergone a lot of restoration work over the years. The current ceiling of the pagoda has been elaborately painted by many artists for over one year. A total of 1,975 statues were all cast by monks in the pagoda. Many visitors write their prayers and wishes and hang them on branches of the banyan trees in the pagoda. The abbots at the pagoda hope that the positive energy from the Great Statue would contribute to peace in the country and the world. Citizens of the Thanh Da Peninsula resort to fishing and planting crops on their land instead of building houses, which they are not allowed to since 1992. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran Ho Chi Minh City plans auction the work of building an eco-urban area project that had been abandoned since 1992. Five companies have already registered with the citys planning and investment department to bid on building the Thanh Da Eco Urban Area in Thanh Da Peninsula, Binh Thanh District, not far from downtown HCMC. The city is looking at establishing criteria for holding an auction to find investors and also reviewing the detailed project plan to make adjustments as the old plan prepared by the projects former investor is "no longer suitable," says Vo Van Hoan, the city's chief of staff. The municipal authorities will also revise the boundary of the project to leave more households out of the plan area, which would free them from construction regulations that have prevented them from building new houses on their land. Previously, following a proposal from the construction department, the city had allowed locals in the project site to repair and upgrade their houses instead of completely banning them from doing so. These decisions are a game changer for 3,400 people who have been living in limbo for the past 27 years in downgraded houses, not knowing what will happen next. Approved by the Peoples Committee in 1992, the Binh Quoi-Thanh Da Urban Area project, referred to as "super project" by many locals, is estimated to cost VND30 trillion ($1.32 billion). In 2004, the city repossessed land in the Thanh Da Peninsula and allocated it to the Saigon Construction Corporation, which was supposed to be the investor. After the corporation failed to begin implementing the project, the city asked another company to step in, but this did not work, either. The project was forgotten for another decade until late 2015 when the city appointed Vietnam's Bitexco Group and the UAE's Emaar Properties PJSC as joint investors with a capital of over VND30 trillion ($1.28 billion). Under this arrangement, the project was supposed to be implemented over 50 years, with primary construction work being completed within five years from the date of signing. In mid-2017, Emaar Properties PJSC withdrew from the project and the city has asked the government to approve Bitexco as the project's sole investor. But it took another six months to assess the ability of Bitexco and seek approval from higher authorities. Eventually, the PM wrote to HCMC, concluding that it was very difficult for Bitexco to go on with the project on its own. In this situation, thousands of Thanh Da people have been caged in confusion and misery, living in slum-like conditions, unable to repair their own house or build new homes on their own land, or even sell parts of their property. At a meeting of the city council in July last year, chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong promised that the city would deal with the project thoroughly and not let any more delays to happen. People travel around a lake in the Central Highlands resort town Da Lat. Photo by VnExpress/Quoc Dung Da Lat police have detained two men who snatched a handbag from a British tourist last week. On Friday, Vu Manh Hung, 19, and Do Quoc Tuan, 20, drove their motorbike alongside the one being driven by a British couple on Ho Tung Mau Street in downtown Da Lat. Kathy Marie Harrod was riding pillion with a handbag that contained a smartphone and identification papers. Tuan snatched the bag from her hands, local media reported. Local police managed to capture the thieving duo the same day, after the British tourists reported the incident. The police did not say how they found the culprits. They said the two men sold the stolen phone for VND11 million ($473) and split the money among themselves. Vietnamese law treats theft as a criminal offense if the stolen property's value exceeds VND2 million ($87). Da Lat, which serves as a cool-climate retreat, is a top holiday destination in the tropical country, welcoming more than 485,000 foreigners last year, up 21.3 percent from a year ago. Hundreds of thousands of women from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar have gone to China to wed, activists say. Photo by Shutterstock/antoniodiaz Thousands of Cambodians fallen prey to criminal matchmakers who scour the poorest pockets of Southeast Asia for young brides to send to China. On the Chinese messaging service WeChat, Ol En scrolled back through time. Call unanswered. Call unanswered. Call declined. The last she'd heard from her teenage daughter was a voice message on February 10. "Mum - they don't give me a penny. They just keep me in the house. Maybe things will change when I give them a baby," it said. Sitting stonefaced in her one-room shack in rural Cambodia, chickens clucking and wind kicking up red dust, the mother of ethree recalled how her first-born was trapped in China. "She escaped once and the brokers almost beat her to death," En said. "If she dares to run again, there are no guarantees." The 16-year-old is one of thousands of Cambodians fallen prey to criminal matchmakers who scour the poorest pockets of Southeast Asia for young brides to send to China. Some 40 million men in China will need to look abroad for a wife by 2020, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences think tank - the legacy of Beijing's one-child policy, which has seen families abort female foetuses for decades. Hundreds of thousands of women from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar have gone to China to wed, activists say. Some end up happily married; others speak of violence and forced labour. With few employment avenues for young women and ballooning debt levels, rural Cambodian families make soft targets for brokers who ensnare the relatives of potential brides in their schemes, blurring the lines between victims and accomplices. The matchmakers are near impossible to track down, police say, hiding behind nicknames and throwaway "burner" phones while employing a network of local elders to coax young women out of the village by offering huge sums of cash to their families. In En's case, it was a neighbour - and distant relative - who paved the way to China. She received $2,100 in cash, and promises that her daughter would find love, work and wealth in China to funnel back to debtors threatening to repossess her house and land. But it was all a ruse. The girl was sold, then held as a sex slave and servant by a man she had never met. "Day and night, he demands sex from her," En said. "I cannot live in peace - the one who sent her lives freely in this village but my daughter is lost in China." Bounties Thol Meng has been working to stop human trafficking for 16 years, now as deputy chief of a specialised police bureau in Kampong Cham province - one of the nation's hardest-hit regions. He has seen waves of Cambodians being tricked, from men sold on to Thai fishing boats to women held as domestic slaves in Malaysia. But "brides to China" is the biggest concern, he said. "A few years ago, it was about $500 for one girl," he said. "Now families can get up to $3,000." Prices have skyrocketed along with rising awareness of the dangers and penalties for human trafficking. But in a country where the average annual income is $1,200, the bounties on offer prove hard to turn down. "Human trafficking starts with the parents," Meng said. "The mothers control everything ... (they) receive the benefits." "In fact, we can say that they sell their daughters." While the mothers are culpable, they are victims, too, according to Meng - preyed upon by sophisticated networks running a criminal enterprise worth millions of dollars. "We mostly arrest the small fish, the locals. The big fish cut off communication, leaving the locals with no details." As such, trafficking stories in the media often feature photos of police apprehending middle-aged women wearing pyjamas. A Cambodian 'bride' in China made a fresh cry for help every other day in 2018, said five charities working to end the trade. Helping them escape is another matter. Most victims do not know their whereabouts in China, cannot read or speak the local language, and have limited access to phones and internet. "Without an address, it is almost impossible to help," said Teng Seng Han, a monitor with the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, which works to repatriate 'brides'. Those who make it home - some with stories of being raped by multiple men or being sold from one house to another - rarely go to the police, as immediate relatives are usually complicit. Kompong Cham had four trafficking convictions last year - down from 20 in 2015 - despite the demand for Cambodian brides in China "rising sharply" in recent years, according to Meng. Outstanding loans, Seng Han said, are the main reason families send their daughters to China - and brokers know this. "The brokers look for people who are in debt. First they try to convince the daughters, and then they influence the mothers," he said. "It's always about money." In 2016, the Cambodian government said 6,900 undocumented women had been identified in China. The real number ensnared by the bride trade could easily be double that, campaigners say. No remorse In rural Cambodia, the demand for 'brides' in China is tearing apart families - and not just those of the victims. Sim Chhom used to spend his waking hours labouring on building sites in town. He would earn $6 on a good day. Now he spends his time looking after his children and the child of his oldest daughter, who is happily married in China. "I have no time to go to work," he said, looking frail and ill. "So I just stay here and catch fish to feed my family." His wife, Chhieng Ly, was arrested in May and charged under human trafficking laws for assisting a relative who had heard of the good life in China and wanted to send their daughter. "I have not seen my children since I was arrested," Ly told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview at the provincial prison. "I only shared a phone number - is that so wrong?" While Ly has seven years to lament her decision, the woman who helped En's teenage daughter reach China shows no remorse. Phorn Sokneng went to China in 2016 and married a 44-year-old farmer - twice her age - who she said treats her well. The following year, during a visit home to Cambodia, she was approached by En's mother, who was desperate for fast money. Sokneng helped En's daughter move to China, she said, but relations turned sour when En filed a complaint with Cambodian police after realising her daughter's fate. The next time Sokneng returned to Cambodia, in September, she was arrested and charged under human trafficking laws. "I feel like I am the victim - I helped them and now I am in trouble," the bride-turned-broker said, sitting next to her mother just a few hundred metres from En's house. Free on bail ahead of an October court date, Sokneng said she had nothing to say to En, her cousin by marriage. "I have not been to talk to them," she said of En's family. "Why would I? They are the ones who filed the complaint that will send me to prison." The cityscape of the Beijing Central Business District, or Beijing CBD, is reflected in a pond during sunset, China October 17, 2018. Photo by Reuters/Thomas Peter China's "zombie" enterprises are impeding the country's economic transformation, said the country's biggest state aluminium producer. There are three difficulties when it comes to getting rid of zombie firms, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing Ge Honglin, chairman of Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco). Local governments, financial institutions, stakeholders and suppliers are keeping such zombie firms alive to protect their own interests, said Ge, who is also a member of China's top political advisory body. The land assets of such firms also lack value, and resettlement of workers is costly, he said. China plans to eliminate thousands of zombie firms by 2020 after thousands of such unprofitable and indebted state-owned firms have been eliminated. For years, such enterprises have survived on bank loans and local government backing, robbing more deserving companies of financial resources that could have otherwise contributed to local growth. So far, China has disposed of more than 1,900 zombie firms and heavily-indebted companies, the head of the state assets regulator said on Saturday. With the 2020 target looming, China says it would speed up the disposal. But that effort could be complicated by a slowing national economy and concerns about social unrest. To ensure a smooth exit and to avoid unemployment and political instability in struggling regions, China's state planner in December ordered local governments to help broker deals between zombie firms and their creditors, and to draw up restructuring plans within six months. The central government could set up a supervisory group to ensure that the disposal process is completed on schedule, Ge said on Saturday during a session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). The CPPCC and the National People's Congress (NPC), or parliament, were gathered in Beijing for their annual meetings to discuss economic and social concerns. Beijing could allow local governments to issue off-budget bonds to finance acquisitions of land from zombie firms to expedite the process, Ge said, adding that those special-bond issuances should not be included in local governments' debt assessment. The central government can also give out subsidies to support the resettlement of workers, while social insurance fees can also be reduced to lighten the burden of the firms, Ge said. Earlier in January, President Xi Jinping warned that China must be on guard against "grey rhino" events, or highly obvious yet ignored threats. Zombie firms would be properly resolved, Xi said. Ukraine Army official specifies demand for Russian spare parts for military hardware The situation with helicopter rotor blades and warplane spare parts is most critical. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter If innovation stopped 200 years ago, there would be no automobiles, no electric lights and no Amazon Prime to deliver our purchases. The inspiration of innovation is why we, here at SARSEF, are honored to have Tucson Electric Power as our partner and title sponsor of our regional science fair once again this year. Like SARSEF, TEP knows that new ideas must not only be encouraged, but flourish, for our community to grow and our children to thrive. Rather than stand idly by, TEP recognizes that behind each innovation is an innovator. There's someone who once had a dream; a dream that was inspired, nurtured and encouraged - and overcame challenges - until it grew to fruition. So TEP takes action to support the youngest of our community's future innovators - those who can see a problem to be solved in our world and the way to solve it. TEP helps SARSEF grow the workforce of the future for Southern Arizona by supporting SARSEF's education and outreach to 66,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grades. Together, we recognize the top 6,000 students from across Southern Arizona at the SARSEF Science and Engineering Fair every March at the Tucson Convention Center. When TEP employees volunteer at events, such as the Arizona STEM Adventure each November, they show 1,000 students some of the careers in science and technology that might await them. And TEP employees actively serve as board leaders and publicize events that the public can attend free of charge. TEP knows that when young people are supported and encouraged, they can accomplish miracles. Among Arizona's children are future Benjamin Franklins, Marie Curies, Albert Einsteins, or innovators of technology that we cannot yet even imagine. Not every child needs to become a scientist of engineer, but they all do need to think critically. So, TEP employees serve as leaders, volunteers, board members and more - all to encourage our children so that innovation in our community, our state and our world continues. Come see for yourself how TEP supports our community. Join us as TEP sponsors SARSEF's free Future Innovators Night on Friday, March 8 from 5:30-8 p.m. at the Tucson Convention Center. The public is invited to come learn what fun innovations and careers are out there now and may be awaiting us the future! We are fortunate that innovation in Southern Arizona is still growing. After all, it is powered by TEP! By: Kathleen A. Bethel, Chief Executive Officer of Southern Arizona Research, Science and Engineering Foundation Read the full story. The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess the proposed acquisition of Innogy by E.ON under the EU Merger Regulation. The Commission has concerns that the proposed acquisition may reduce competition in retail markets for electricity and gas in several Member States. Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: "European households and business customers should be able to buy electricity and gas at competitive prices. Our in-depth investigation aims to ensure that the acquisition of Innogy by E.ON leaves sufficient competition in the market to allow for this and does not lead to price increases." E.ON and RWE, which controls Innogy, are both energy companies based in Germany. They are active across the energy supply chain, from generation and wholesale to distribution and retail supply of electricity and gas. The two companies are engaged in a complex asset swap. Following this asset swap, E.ON will focus on the distribution and retail supply of electricity and gas, whereas RWE will be primarily active in upstream electricity generation and wholesale markets. As part of the asset swap, E.ON would acquire the distribution and consumer solutions business and certain electricity generation assets of RWE's subsidiary, Innogy. The Commission approved on 26 February 2019, under the EU Merger Regulation, another part of the asset swap, namely RWE's acquisition of certain generation assets held by E.ON (case M.8871). The Commission's competition concerns The Commission's initial investigation has shown that the parties have a strong combined market position in several retail markets on a national or sub-national level in Germany, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary. The proposed acquisition will remove a significant competitor in the retail supply of energy in these four Member States. At this stage, the Commission is concerned that the remaining competition would be insufficient to constrain the market power of the combined entity and avoid price increasesfor consumers. The transaction was notified to the Commission on 31 January 2019. E.ON and Innogy have decided not to submit commitments during the initial investigation to address the Commission's preliminary concerns. The Commission now has 90 working days, until 23 July 2019, to take a decision. The opening of an in-depth inquiry does not prejudge the final result of the investigation. Companies and products E.ON, based in Germany, is an energy company currently active across the whole energy chain. Following the completion of the asset swap with RWE, E.ON will focus on the distribution and retail supply of electricity and gas. E.ON is active in several European countries. Innogy, controlled by RWE and based in Germany, is also an energy company active across the energy supply chain, including distribution, retail supply and energy-related activities. Innogy is active in several European countries. Merger control rules and procedures The Commission has the duty to assess mergers and acquisitions involving companies with a turnover above certain thresholds (see Article 1 of the Merger Regulation) and to prevent concentrations that would significantly impede effective competition in the EEA or any substantial part of it. The vast majority of notified mergers do not pose competition problems and are cleared after a routine review. From the moment a transaction is notified, the Commission generally has a total of 25 working days to decide whether to grant approval (Phase I) or to start an in-depth investigation (Phase II). In addition to the present transaction, there are currently three other on-going phase II merger investigation:the proposed acquisition by Vodafone of Liberty Global's business in Czechia, Germany, Hungary and Romania, the proposed acquisition of Whirlpool's refrigeration compressor business by Nidec and the proposed creation of a joint venture by Tata Steel and ThyssenKrupp. More information will be available on the Commission's competition website, in the public case register under the case number M.8870. Under sale and purchase agreements ("SPAs") with Centrica plc and Total Gas & Power North America, Inc., the date of first commercial delivery is expected to occur in August 2019, upon which the term of each of these SPAs commences. Cheniere Partners and Bechtel have now declared Substantial Completion on five liquefaction trains at the SPL Project ahead of each train's guaranteed completion date and within project budgets. With the achievement of Substantial Completion, financial results of LNG sales from Train 5 going forward will be reflected in the statement of operations of Cheniere Partners and its applicable affiliates. About Cheniere Partners Cheniere Partners, through its subsidiary, Sabine Pass Liquefaction, LLC ("Sabine Pass Liquefaction"), is developing, constructing, and operating natural gas liquefaction facilities at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal located in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, on the Sabine-Neches Waterway less than four miles from the Gulf Coast. Cheniere Partners, through Sabine Pass Liquefaction, plans to construct six Trains, which are in various stages of development, construction, and operations. Trains 1 through 5 are operational and Train 6 is being commercialized and has all necessary regulatory approvals in place. Each Train is expected to have a nominal production capacity, which is prior to adjusting for planned maintenance, production reliability, potential overdesign, and debottlenecking opportunities, of approximately 4.5 mtpa of LNG and a run rate adjusted nominal production capacity of approximately 4.5 to 4.9 mtpa of LNG. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Sabine Pass LNG, L.P., Cheniere Partners owns and operates regasification facilities at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal, which includes pre-existing infrastructure of five LNG storage tanks with aggregate capacity of approximately 16.9 billion cubic feet equivalent, two marine berths that can each accommodate vessels with nominal capacity of up to 266,000 cubic meters and vaporizers with regasification capacity of approximately 4.0 Bcf/d. Cheniere Partners also owns a 94-mile pipeline that interconnects the Sabine Pass LNG terminal with a number of large interstate pipelines through its wholly owned subsidiary, Cheniere Creole Trail Pipeline, L.P. For additional information, please refer to the Cheniere Partners website at www.cheniere.com and Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain statements that may include "forward-looking statements." All statements, other than statements of historical or present facts or conditions, included herein are "forward-looking statements." Included among "forward-looking statements" are, among other things, (i) statements regarding Cheniere Partners' financial and operational guidance, business strategy, plans and objectives, including the development, construction and operation of liquefaction facilities, (ii) statements regarding expectations regarding regulatory authorizations and approvals, (iii) statements expressing beliefs and expectations regarding the development of Cheniere Partners' LNG terminal and liquefaction business, (iv) statements regarding the business operations and prospects of third parties, (v) statements regarding potential financing arrangements, and (vi) statements regarding future discussions and entry into contracts. Although Cheniere Partners believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties, and these expectations may prove to be incorrect. Cheniere Partners' actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including those discussed in Cheniere Partners' periodic reports that are filed with and available from the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Other than as required under the securities laws, Cheniere Partners does not assume a duty to update these forward-looking statements. If Long John Silver had got his hands on the first inventory of Spanish shipwrecks in America, he would promptly have deserted Treasure Island and headed for the Caribbean, map in hand. He would then have made his way to the spot where Christopher Columbuss ship, the Santa Maria, went under. He would also have managed to locate the ships lost by Hernan Cortes when he led expeditions in modern-day Mexico or those commanded by Francisco Pizarro or Vasco Nunez de Balboa; all this plus the coordinates showing where the sea swallowed up vast troves of gold, silver, emeralds and exquisite pearls. It would have taken Robert Louis Stevensons bounty hunter several lifetimes to raid the 681 ships documented by the Sub-Directorate General of Historical Heritage of the Culture Ministry over a period of five years. But at the end of it, he would have known a great deal about the history of Spain between 1492 and 1898. The vast project was coordinated by marine archeologist Carlos Leon, along with his colleague Beatriz Domingo and the naval historian Genoveva Enriquez. An expert explores documents from the General Archive of the Indies Carlos Leon Hundreds of pages from the General Archive of the Indies in Seville and Madrids Naval Museum have been scrutinized, along with 420 old maps in order to create the most extensive guide to Spanish shipwrecks and treasure to date, and which is part of the National Plan for the Protection of the Cultural Underwater Heritage of Spain, developed according to the UNESCO Convention of 2001. The Spanish empire was founded on two pillars: the army and the navy. But behind both was a silent but effective army of civil servants whose job recording the details of each expedition now allows for the location of ships that went under in waters off Panama, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, the Bahamas, Bermuda and along the US Atlantic coast. Rather than rescuing these ships from the depths, the aim is to protect them from treasure hunters or from damage, in cooperation with authorities from the corresponding countries. The first ship to sink off the coast of the Americas was the Santa Maria, which went under on Christmas Day, 1492. Not having slept for two days, Christopher Columbus had shut himself in his cabin and gone to sleep, handing over the command to the steersman, who also decided he was tired and in turn handed the ship over to the cabin boy. With the boy at the wheel, currents carried the ship onto a sand bank off the coast of Haiti where it sank the next day. Furious, Columbus ordered the crew to strip the ship and use the timber to build a fort, enlisting the help of the local Taino Indians. He called the fort Navidad because the ship had sunk on Christmas Day. 681 shipwrecks from 1492 to 1989 The Indians wore small pieces of gold around their necks, which they quickly exchanged with the explorers for trinkets of little value. What at first had seemed like a disaster, turned into what would become the first Spanish foothold in America. Columbus left some of his men behind on the island while he returned to Spain to inform the Catholic Kings of his discovery, and in the meantime these men were soon massacred. As the ship was not entirely stripped for the construction of the Christmas fort, remnants of its wreck are still evident. Only 23% of the 681 ships have been explored so far for archeological purposes. Most of the wrecks can be found off Cuba (249), followed by the US Atlantic (153), an area famous for its pirate islands, and Spanish Florida (150), an area that stretched throughout what is now the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia and Alabama. Panama, for example, has 66 wrecks and the Caribbean island of Hispaniola has 63. But why were so many ships sinking during that period? Carlos Leon explains that 91.2% of the vessels that went down were struck by bad weather and only 1.4% were sunk on account of conflict 0.8% as a result of run-ins with pirates. The stuff about pirates is little more than myth, he says. The Spanish ships were fearsome and armed to the teeth and would be carrying dozens of cannon. They would have scared off the pirates rather than the other way around. Carlos Leon studies the remains of a wreck in the Royal Atarazanas Museum in Santo Domingo If these enormous ships went under, the death toll could be up to 1,000. Five ships from Juan Menendez de Aviles fleet sank in 1563 in Bermuda, with 1,250 fatalities. Six hundred more died when the Conde de Tolosa was wrecked in 1724 off the coast of Dominican Republic. In this case, there were only seven survivors who lived for 33 days on pumpkin and seawater while hanging on to the main mast for dear life. There are wonderful tales of survival connected to these shipwrecks, some of which could put Treasure Island in the shade. In 1584, the survivors of the Santa Lucia, which was under the command of Juan Lopez, used rafts to reach the coast of Bermuda where they found seven other shipwrecked Spaniards who had been living there for two years. Together they built a vessel and crossed the Caribbean in a straight line for 900 kilometers, which brought them to Puerto Plata, in modern-day Dominican Republic. The inventory of the Culture Ministry pinpoints the exact location of each shipwreck, gives the name and style of the ship, the name of the captain, the weapons aboard and the number of crew and passengers. Besides Christopher Columbus, who also lost the Vizcaina in Panama, other famous names include Vicente Yanez Pinzon who lost two ships in 1500 in Abrojos, Dominican Republic; Juan de la Cosa and Nunez de Balboa, who lost two ships in Haiti in 1501, Francisco Pizarro, who lost one ship in Nombre de Dios, Panama, in 1544; Panfilo de Narvaez, who lost two ships in Trinidad in 1527, and Alvaro de Bazan, who lost two ships in Santo Domingo in 1553. A cannon from Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes found during an excavation. Ministerio de Cultura Even inside the ports, royal fleets also sunk by the dozen. In 1768, 70 ships were wrecked by a hurricane in the port of Havana, and 60 more were sunk at the same spot in 1810. Spanish ships carried a varied cargo. Experts talk about gold, silver, emeralds, ivory, but also Ming pottery, tobacco, sugar, vanilla and cocoa, not to mention slaves, arms, books and religious relics from Jerusalem. So much wealth aboard caused skirmishes with the English and the Dutch. Such conflicts were responsible for the sinking of the Nuestra Senora del Rosario and Nuestra Senora de la Victoria in 1590 off Cape San Antonio, Cuba. And El Neptuno, Nuestra Senora del Pilar and Nuestra Senora de Loreto were toppled during a spat with the English, who were trying to access the port of Havana. Suffering a similar fate were the destroyers Christopher Columbus, the Furor, the Almirante Oquendo, the Infanta Maria Teresa and the Vizcaya, which were sunk by the US fleet in the battle of July 3, 1898 in the Spanish-American war. Few wrecks from pirate attacks have been found, though there are several in Camaguey, Cuba, from 1603 and three ships from 1635. Also documented is the cargo thrown overboard by Juan de Benavides to avoid it being robbed by Dutch pirates in Matanzas, Cuba. The wretched Benavides never lost a single ship in battle but the Dutch stole 14 of his vessels, for which Felipe IV ordered him to be beheaded when he returned to Spain. Many of those on board sinking vessels simply drowned, but reaching land or keeping afloat did not always guarantee salvation either. In 1548, the entire crew of a ship that had been wrecked in the Florida Keys survived but were captured, used as slaves and killed by the Calusa, a Native American tribe. There was just one survivor: Hernando de Escalante, 13, who lived for another 17 years among his captors until he was rescued by Pedro Menendez de Aviles in 1565. Cutlery salvaged from the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes. Ministerio de Cultura In 1605, the Santisima Trinidad left Cartagena, Colombia, only to be destroyed by a storm near Santa Isabel, Cuba. There were 36 survivors who got in a longboat along with the gold and silver cargo, which subsequently sunk from the weight. Two years later, a ship ran aground on Tienderropa beach in Panama. There were 13 survivors who reached the coast only to be killed by the Cimarrons, African slaves who had fled the plantations. The Culture Ministry has only finished part of what will become the Spanish empires treasure map. Still left to cover are the wrecks in the Pacific, the South Atlantic and the Philippines, which will give a better idea of the integral volume of Spanish maritime traffic between the 15th and 19th centuries and the exact number of ships that were lost. The importance of Florida The Spanish monarchy spent enormous amounts of money in Florida, an area devoid of gold, silver, or indeed any natural resource. In fact, Felipe II became exasperated by the huge investments he was advised to make there by the military command. But the strategic importance of Florida resided in the fact that the peninsula created fast-moving currents that whisked ships loaded with precious goods back to Spain. If the British or French were to seize it, Spanish vessels would have a far harder time getting home. So they established a colony there in 1565 and built forts of stone to replace those of wood, which can still be seen today, though the territory was ceded to the US in 1819. Besides carrying officially recorded cargo, these ships were also used to smuggle goods into Spain, which makes it hard to be precise about what exactly was on board. In the Nuestra Senora de la Pura y Limpia Concepcion, there are pieces of silver fashioned to look like cork tops and in the Guadalupe that sailed in 1724, a collection of more than 600 decorated glasses have been found. If the contraband was discovered on arrival, the ships captains would offer excuses, ranging from not realizing that goods had been smuggled on board, to having lacked the time to record everything. One Franciscan monk claimed that as he hadnt planned to come to Spain he did not think to register the gold and silver he was carrying. English version by Heather Galloway. Matthew Caruana Galizia, son of murdered journalist. Alvaro de la Rua Ann Demarco, 58, carries a backpack filled with candles and posters to the center of La Valeta, the capital of Malta. When she reaches the courthouse, she lights the candles and lays them with the posters in front of a nearby monument in a bid to keep alive the memory of murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed by a car bomb on October 16, 2017. Demarco is a member of Occupy Justice, a small protest group made up of 20 women that formed shortly after the attack. We cant just return to normality as if nothing had happened, she says. On the posters are the words: A murdered journalist: there is no justice. Placing them by the monument along with the candles is a ritual that is repeated several times a day. If they are not taken down by an ordinary citizen during the day, they are swept up at dawn by the street cleaners. Daphne Caruana Galizia. AP Caruana Galizia was 53 when she was killed. On an island of 475,000 inhabitants, she was an outstanding journalist, dubbed by US journalism company Politico as a one-woman WikiLeaks, and whose potent, uncomfortable voice would not be silenced by threats as she worked to expose corruption scandals involving businessmen and politicians on her blog Running Commentary. Her murder reverberated throughout Europe, where exposing the truth is assumed to carry no death penalty. As the investigation took shape, the European Parliament and other institutions began to question the rule of law on the island with regard to the police force, judges and the separation of powers. Outside Daphne Caruana Galizias home, a policeman sits in his vehicle keeping an eye out. It is a rural area, surrounded by olive groves, half-an-hours drive from La Valeta. A couple of portraits of Daphne, piles of magazines and family photos are scattered around the living room. Matthew, 32, her eldest son, heard the explosion from the dining room table. He was aware of the music playing from inside his mothers car as it drove off and several minutes later, the bomb. He ran out barefoot and immediately grasped what had happened. They want people to forget my mother and forget that we still dont know who was behind her murder Matthew, 32, oldest son of Daphne Caruana Galizia Its been almost a year-and-a-half since her murder and we still have no idea who was behind it, he says. And the police dont know either. From where we are standing, it doesnt look as though anyones making much effort to find out either. Three men, all with criminal records, have been accused of detonating the bomb, but they are believed to have acted as mere foot soldiers. According to Matthew, it is very probable that whoever was behind the murder has links to the Maltese government or works in it. Matthew adds that no members of Joseph Muscats labor government mentioned in relation to corruption in his mothers blog have been questioned, not even the minister who was seen in a bar with one of the accused after the explosion. Matthew is now demanding a public investigation, which involves a commission that has to be authorized by the government. It would establish the circumstances in which the murder took place and whether or not the state could have prevented it. When Caruana Galizia was murdered, she was facing 46 defamation suits, which her children have inherited According to Dutch Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Sophia Int Veld, there was concern among her colleagues about Malta, but few were aware of the extent of the problem until Daphne Caruana Galizias murder. At the end of March, the European Parliament is due to submit a proposal to the plenary session, backing the request of the family to open a public investigation into the journalists death and send a strong political message to Malta. Int Veld led the second mission of MEPs to the island to investigate the murder and the extent to which the rule of law was being upheld. The result was an alarming report that forms the basis of the draft resolution. She criticizes the Maltese authorities for not using all the resources at their disposal in the murder investigation. For example, they claim to have asked for the information from Caruana Galizias computer from Germany but the German police have received no such official request, she says in a phone interview. Other aspects of the case have also alarmed Strasbourg. We are seeing corruption, the sale of passports, money laundering, conflicts of interest, adds Int Veld. A lot of illegal, suspicious and shady activity connected in some way to government circles. In the draft resolution, the Maltese government is being asked to open an investigation into the connection between the head of the Cabinet and the tourism minister with a Dubai company called 17 Black. This is a story Caruana Galizia had started investigating, and which has since been taken up by Reuters and other news organizations as part of the Daphne Project, a group that was formed to finish her stories in progress. They turned her into a scapegoat, someone to laugh at, because if you discredit the journalist, it is very easy to say everything she wrote was a lie Pia Zammit, member of Occupy Justice and Republika A Maltese government spokesman has stated that a public investigation into the murder will be opened once the criminal investigation is concluded to avoid the latter being compromised. He also insists that the police are already investigating 17 Black, though does not specify whether this covers its links to the government. The draft resolution also contains a request to the Maltese government by the European Parliament to dispense with the controversial program of investment in return for citizenship, which opens the gates of Europe to all kinds of shady characters, as Int Veld puts it. The Dutch MEP believes it is immoral that Europe is returning migrants adrift in the Mediterranean to Libya while allowing for the purchase of European citizenship if you are a Russian criminal. But the influence of Strasbourg is limited. We dont have all the power we need but we can keep up the pressure, says Int Veld. Its essential that we create a control system at a European level, a mechanism that can evaluate the democratic situation, the basic laws and the rule of law in each member state every year. Hate campaign All this focus on Malta and the murder of Caruana Galizia from Europe contrasts sharply with the abuse reported by those asking for justice on the island. Both Occupy Justice and Il Kenniesa, a small youth organization, organize vigils, apply pressure and take flowers and candles to the monument in front of the courts. Both groups criticize the hate campaign directed against the journalists memory as well as abuse against those who are trying to keep it alive, both online and on the street. Although there are only a handful of them, these activists believe they have the tacit support of many people who are scared to be identified in a country where everyone knows everyone and where the politics are deeply polarized. They turned her into a scapegoat, someone to laugh at, because if you discredit the journalist, it is very easy to say everything she wrote was a lie, says Pia Zammit, a member of Occupy Justice and Republika, an NGO that aims to broaden the scope of the fight for the rule of law in Malta. The European Parliament is backing the request of the family to open a public investigation into the journalists death When Caruana Galizia was murdered, she was facing 46 defamation suits, which her children have inherited. One lawsuit was filed by the prime minister, who refuses to withdraw it until the family publicly states that what Caruana published that his wife had a company in a tax haven was untrue. The government spokesman insists that an official investigation has discredited the journalists accusations and that Muscat has the right to clear his and his familys name. The battle of the flowers and candles is just one example of the toxic atmosphere surrounding the case on Malta. The activists claim the justice minister has ordered the street cleaners to sweep the tributes away and that this has encouraged others to follow suit. They also insult us and shout at us. They even hit my wife, says Manuel Delia, a recognized blogger and founder of Republika. But the government takes a very different view. According to the spokesman, the posters and candles have apparently caused great offense to some of La Valetas citizens, placed as they are at the foot of a monument dedicated to the victims of the 1565 Ottoman siege. And it is they, not the street cleaners, who have taken it upon themselves to remove them. The spokesman adds that the government is not opposed to a memorial to Caruana Galizia but permission needs to be sought. In order for the rule of law to reign, he says, you have to comply with the law. All this speaks volumes about the government and the states attitude, says Matthew. They want people to forget my mother and forget that we still dont know who was behind her murder. English version by Heather Galloway. Ministers Josep Borrell and Carmen Calvo at a press conference on March 1. ULY MARTIN With four elections coming up in April and May, the Spanish government has set up a special unit to fight hybrid threats including cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns. Experts from the National Security Department, the Office of the State Secretary for Communication, and several Spanish ministries are leading the effort. We are asking high-level companies to work on detection programs, but it is not easy Source at La Moncloa The initiative is inspired by the European Unions own drive against disinformation ahead of the European parliament elections of May 26. In December, the European Commission announced more funds and prevention measures, including a rapid-alert system to help member states recognize and deal with disinformation campaigns. Spain is holding local, regional and European elections on May 26 and a general election on April 28, and authorities are aware that this will provide fertile ground for manipulation attempts. While the scope of the challenge is vast, there have been inter-ministerial meetings in recent weeks in a bid to at least identify the threats. Officials in charge of internal, defense, presidential and foreign affairs have met to discuss the issue, said sources at La Moncloa, the seat of government. A congressional report talks about citizens critical sense as the best tool to deal with the digital world The fact that the National Security Department is involved in the effort underscores how the government views disinformation as a national threat. European authorities have already asked for proof that the computer systems to be used in the elections have been protected against outside threats. Madrid has explained to Brussels that the vote count is done by hand (even if the data is collected in a computer system) and that companies delivering election-related services must first be certified by the National Encryption Center, which specializes in computer security. Still, cyberattacks remain one of the main risks that Spain faces, according to the most recent national strategy against organized crime drafted by the Interior Ministry. And dealing with disinformation will be even more complex. We are just getting started, said one source at La Moncloa who is familiar with this matter. For now there are no computer tools that can guarantee the detection of fake news. We are asking high-level companies to work on detection programs, but it is not easy. Searching the web A reduced group of people working under the guidance of La Moncloa has begun searching the internet to identify falsehoods and distorted facts. Each ministry involved in the effort has been given a similar task, and told to communicate any findings for urgent analysis. For now there is no fixed protocol on how to proceed. Theres an analysis on a case-by-case basis. Occasionally it might be best not to say anything, to prevent a snowball effect. In other cases we might choose to issue a press release or to contact the traditional media, which has a very important role to play in all this, said sources consulted on the matter. Spanish society is concerned about disinformation, polls show. Eight out of every 10 Spaniards view it as a problem for democracy in general and for Spain in particular, according to the latest Eurobarometer survey released last week. The EUs unit against disinformation, created in 2015 and focusing mostly on campaigns coming from Russia, has already debunked 5,014 falsehoods, 1,166 in the last year alone, according to the database available on Euvsdisinfo.eu. A small share of those cases around 10 in the last 18 months concern the conflict in Catalonia. One of the hoaxes picked up by the EUs disinformation service claimed that the Balearic Islands want to secede from Spain, a claim that was disseminated in 2017 by Sputnik, a Russian media outlet that receives public funding. It is difficult to estimate the impact of these messages. WhatsApp Authorities are concerned about social media, because they provide an easy channel for falsehoods. But their biggest concern is the instant messaging service WhatsApp. Spain is one of the countries where people use this app the most. Besides the fact that messages are encrypted, the problem is that the message gets sent by a personal contact or a group that you belong to, which lends it greater credibility than information that is distributed through other channels, said sources at La Moncloa, the seat of the Spanish government. The Spanish parliament is also showing concern. The mixed committee on national security in Congress recently concluded a report in which it asks the government to address from a legislative viewpoint issues such as online crime, cyberterrorism and threats against economic or political stability. The report talks about citizens critical sense as the best tool to deal with the digital world. English version by Susana Urra. Some of the accused terrorists during the Supreme Court trial. EFE Fifteen years after the 2004 Madrid terrorist attacks that killed 193 people and left around 1,700 injured, eight of the 18 men sentenced by the Spanish Supreme Court for the massacre remain in prison. Of this group, three have been given improved conditions thanks to good behavior, including Otman El Gnaoui, an actual perpetrator of the bombings, according to penitentiary sources. The other five remain in the most restrictive prison regime. Bouharrat can enjoy up to 36 days of prison leave a year because he has served a quarter of his sentence El Gnaoui, along with Jamal Zougam, was sentenced to 42,922 years in prison for being a direct perpetrator of the massacre, and was not expected to be released until March 19, 2044. El Gnaoui was sent to a prison in A Lama in Pontevedra in northwestern Spain, and classified in Grade 1 otherwise known as the closed prison regime the most restrictive level reserved for extremely dangerous inmates or those who are unable to adjust to prison life. This classification, which is given to most inmates sentenced on terrorism charges, means they cannot request parole and enjoy fewer recreational hours in the outdoor area than other prisoners. But these measures have been softened for El Gnaoui, with the application of Article 100.2 of the prison system, according to penitentiary sources. El Gnaoui is now allowed more time in the recreational area and has been given a cell in module 12 of the prison, where Grade 2 inmates are held. Penitentiary sources have told EL PAIS that this decision was made because El Gnaoui has shown good behavior since he entered prison. Two other inmates charged for their involvement in the bombings which targeted commuter trains headed for Madrids central Atocha station have also improved their prison conditions due to good behavior. Mohamed Bouharrat, who was sentenced to 12 years, was classified as a Grade 2 prisoner in 2012. Under this classification, Bouharrat can enjoy up to 36 days of prison leave a year because he has served a quarter of his sentence. The prison authority, however, has not granted the inmate parole up until now. Bouharrat, who is expected to be released on October 30, 2022, is in a cell in module 3, which holds inmates who have been given jobs within prison because of their good behavior. In Bouharrats case, he will be in charge of the sporting center at the penitentiary. Prison sources say that in all the years he has been at the center, he has never once been disciplined. Otman El Gnaoui and Jamal Zougam were both sentenced to 42,922 years in prison A third inmate, Antonio Toro Castro, has been able to request parole for several years now. The brother-in-law of Jose Emilio Suarez Trashorras, the former miner who provided the terrorist with explosives, Toro was sentenced to four years by the Supreme Court. He has served this sentence but remains in prison after accumulating another 18 years of prison time for drug trafficking and possession of explosives in other cases. He is not expected to be released until March 30, 2022. Toro is being kept in a cell in the so-called respect module for non-confrontational inmates who agree to peacefully live side by side one another. Penitentiary sources say he takes part in training courses given at the prison. Grade 1 prisoners The remaining five inmates charged for the train bombings are classified as Grade 1 and are being kept in maximum security conditions. Hassan El Haski, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison, is being held in Albocasser prison in Castellon, in the eastern Spanish region of Valencia. He was set to be released this year on June 2 but was accused of belonging to a radicalization network, which was dismantled by the Spanish Civil Guard in October. Jamal Zougam is also being investigated for belonging to the same network. The perpetrator of the Madrid attack is being held in a prison in Teixeiro in A Coruna in the west of Spain. Like El Gnaoui, he was sentenced to 42,922 years in prison. Abdelmajid Bouchar, nicknamed by the police as El Gamo (The Buck) after he tried to escape an earlier arrest, is being detained at the same prison. Bouchar was sentenced to 18 years in prison and is not expected to be released until September 12, 2023. Rachid Aglif received the same sentence, and is serving his time at the Albocasser Penitentiary Center. His release date is set for Abril 1, 2022. Lastly, Jose Emilio Suarez Trashorras, who was sentenced to 34,725 years in prison for providing the explosives for the deadly attack, remains behind bars at La Moraleja prison in Duenas in Palencia. He was transferred to the center in northwestern Spain at the end of 2018, after threatening a prison worker. The former miner had been classified as Grade 2 and had even met with survivors of the attack to ask for forgiveness. But since the incident involving the worker, he has once again been placed under the most restrictive prison regime. Suicide bombing Four of the terrorists involved in the Atocha bombings committed suicide on April 3, 2004. Cornered by the authorities, the men detonated explosives inside an apartment in the Madrid satellite town of Leganes. A police officer was also killed in the blast, and several other officers were wounded. Radicalization in Spanish prisons According to prison authorities, there are 139 individuals behind bars for jihadist terrorism. This is three times as many as in 2012. And then there are the petty criminals who are becoming radicalized. The Interior Ministry has identified 49 inmates who are in this category and who additionally perform recruitment work, and another 81 who show signs of harboring increasingly radical ideas. In the last six months, the Civil Guard and National Police have broken up two networks that were operating inside Spanish prisons, where their job was to radicalize Muslim prisoners in jail for ordinary crimes. The latest raid, conducted in February, brought down a network inside Madrid's Valdemoro penitentiary, where the ringleader Suleiman E. M. was offering between 500,000 and 1 million to any prisoner willing to commit suicide attacks after their release from prison. It is the same amount that ISIS gives the families of terrorists who commit suicide in Syria. The funds come from international drug trafficking, according to the investigation. English version by Melissa Kitson. Carles Puigdemont (r) and MEP Ramon Tremosa in the European Parliament. EFE Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan premier who fled Spain to avoid arrest after the unilateral independence declaration of October 2017, will run as a candidate in the May 26 European parliament elections. Puigdemont, who now lives in Belgium, will be the candidate for Together For Catalonia (Junts per Catalunya), a political platform that includes members of his own Catalan European Democratic Party (PdeCAT) and independents. It is unclear whether Puigdemont can serve as an MEP, as he would have to be sworn in to the role Spain, where he would be arrested on charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds. But members of his platform view the move as a good way to internationalize the process, in reference to the ongoing secessionist drive. Meanwhile, the former premier has also imposed his views over the more pragmatic sector of the party with a view to the Spanish general election that has been called for April 28. On Sunday, PdeCATs national council approved the candidacies of several politicians and civil society leaders who are currently standing trial in Madrid over their role in the secession attempt of late 2017. Jordi Sanchez, the former head of a pro-independence association called ANC, will run for the province of Barcelona; former Catalan government spokesman Jordi Turull for Lleida, former territorial affairs chief Josep Rull for Tarragona, and Puigdemonts lawyer, Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, for Girona. Joaquim Forn, the former Catalan interior chief, will run for mayor of Barcelona in the municipal elections, which, like the European parliament elections, will also take place on May 26. The Catalan separatist deputies who are elected will likely follow a hard line aimed at securing support for the right to self-determination Most of these individuals are being tried for rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds in connection with the secession attempt, which led the central government in Madrid to use constitutional powers to sack the entire Catalan government and suspend self-rule for seven months using Article 155 of the Constitution. The majority are in prison awaiting the end of the trial and a verdict, which means that their potential seats in Congress could be left empty after the elections. And the Catalan separatist deputies who do take up a seat in Spains lower house of parliament will likely follow a hard line aimed at securing support for the right to self-determination. The debate is, what are we going to do in Madrid? said Carles Campuzano, a PdeCAT deputy, at a party meeting last Thursday. The question is whether Catalan separatist deputies with congressional representation should attempt to engage in politics with the central government, or systematically block the working of the institutions to the point of collapse in a bid to secure Catalan independence. An early indication of separatist parties inclination for this latter line of politics is their recent refusal to negotiate a budget plan that raised funding for the region. Their position forced the minority Socialist Party (PSOE) government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to call a snap election for April 28. The Catalan Republican Left Catalan business leaders are wary about the new turn taken by PdeCAT, formerly known as the Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC). Some of them now feel that the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), another separatist party, seems more trustworthy than the old Convergence, said one business association leader. ERC chief Oriol Junqueras, who once served as Puigdemonts deputy and is now on trial for rebellion, will also be running on the candidate list in the upcoming general election. And the far-left CUP, a small separatist, anti-capitalist party that has played the role of kingmaker in the Catalan parliament, is now considering running in the general election for the first time, attracted by the idea of helping block national politics. English version by Susana Urra. U.S. Jabil to launch second electronics manufacturing site in Zakarpattia region U.S. Jabil Circuit is building a second electronics manufacturing site in the village of Rozivka, Zakarpattia region. According to the company, with the expansion of manufacturing in Uzhgorod the facilities of the Ukrainian division of the company would double. Mobile phones, media players and PCs for exports to the European Union will be assembled at the new site. Jabil Circuit is among top three global leaders among companies offering supply chain solutions. Electronics for Nespresso, Ceragon, Sagemcom, SIAE Microelettronica, DUCATI Energia, SIT and TeleTec brands is assembled at the Uzhgorod site Jabil is an electronic product solutions company providing comprehensive electronics design, production and product management services to global electronics and technology companies. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said he hopes that Russia will set free the Ukrainian sailors, who are detained as a result of the Kerch incident, after the Ukrainian presidential election. "Unfortunately, I am not expecting positive news before the presidential election. Putin has made it clear that he will not take a single step. But [...] we are expecting you to return home as soon as the victory is won," Poroshenko told the television channel ICTV in an interview aired on Sunday. The Ukrainian presidential election will take place on March 31. Russian border guards opened fire on November 25, 2018, to detain Ukraine's Yany Kapu tugboat and Berdiansk and Nikopol artillery ships en route from Odesa to Mariupol through the Kerch Strait. The ships were escorted to Kerch. Kyiv called the conduct of Russian border guards unlawful. In its opinion, Russia breached the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Russian-Ukrainian Agreement on Cooperation in the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait. Twenty-four crewmembers, including two officers of the Ukrainian Security Service, were indicted on counts of "illegal crossing of the border by a group of conspiring persons or an organized group, with the use of violence or with a threat to use violence." The offense is punishable with up to six years in jail. The Ukrainian sailors were transferred to Moscow in late November. The court put them under arrest until April 24. Kyiv defined the sailors as prisoners of war. The highest executive body of the Kurultai (national congress) of the Crimean Tatar people - the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people - decided to support the incumbent President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in the upcoming presidential elections of the country. "1. To express support for the incumbent President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and urge Ukrainian citizens to support Petro Poroshenko's candidacy to be elected as the President of Ukraine for a new term of office during the March 31, 2019 elections," the Mejlis decision of February 27, 2019 says, published by Ukrainian MP (Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction), Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov on Facebook on Sunday. In addition, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people decided to call on the citizens of Ukraine, who live in the territory of Crimea, which is temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation, to take part in the presidential elections in Ukraine at the polling stations located in mainland Ukraine. Also, the highest executive body of the Kurultai of the Crimean Tatar people decided to call on the Executive Council of the World Congress of Crimean Tatars, public organizations of the Crimean Tatar Diaspora and their associations in different countries to facilitate the organization of voting by citizens of Ukraine at foreign polling stations created by Ukraine's Central Election Commission (CEC). The decision of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people "On the presidential elections of Ukraine on March 31, 2019" was considered and adopted "as a basis" at a meeting of the Mejlis on January 27, 2019, Chubarov wrote on Facebook. "After the official registration of Petro Poroshenko as a candidate for the presidency of Ukraine (February 7, 2019), the decision taken earlier as a "basis" was sent to members of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people for possible amendments and changes to them. It was adopted and signed on February 27, 2019," he said, adding that the decision had been published for the public to familiarize with it. OSCE General Secretary Thomas Greminger has supported the idea of sending a United Nations peacekeeping mission to eastern Ukraine. He believes its mission is to fulfill the Minsk agreements. Greminger elaborated his view in an exclusive interview with the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency. Noting that the implementation of the Minsk agreements is now "stagnant," Greminger said: If the peacekeeping operation helps to overcome the impasse and implement the Minsk agreements, I will be in favor. The OSCE was an organization that responded very positively to this idea. Greminger said it was the OSCE that came up with the idea of joint UN-OSCE mission in eastern Ukraine. However, now we see that there is no common understanding of what such an operation will be in terms of size, scope and mandate. I would like to emphasize one thing: such an operation will have to perform what we achieved - the Minsk agreements. The peacekeeping operation will not be directed to anything other than this. I am afraid that as long as there is no appetite for the realization of Minsk, we will also not be able to come to a common understanding of what such an operation may be like, he said. Greminger said, everything is in favor of the OSCE and we would be happy to contribute. But we are far from a common understanding. If you create a common understanding, it will be doable. The Minsk Agreements are a set of documents aimed at resolving the situation in the east of Ukraine: the Minsk Protocol, signed in Minsk on September 5, 2014, which provides for a cease-fire in Donetsk and Luhansk regions and the second Minsk Agreement, agreed at the Summit in Minsk on February 11-14, 2015 by leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France - the so-called "Normandy Four" and signed by the Contact Group by representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the OSCE and the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics ('LPR'/'DPR'). The last meeting of the Normandy Four at the level of heads of state and government was held in Berlin on October 19, 2016. OSCE General Secretary Thomas Greminger has expressed regret and concern in connection with the ban on Russian citizens to officially observe upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine. I share the regret and concern of the director of the ODIHR (OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights), because not strictly following the observation methodology is not very good, Greminger said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine news agency. He added that the OSCE would do everything it can. Of course, there will be one participating state (Russia - OSCE member), which will especially criticize the fact that there are no Russian observers. At present, I will refrain from further comment. A lot has been said, and now let's focus on doing everything possible to create conditions that allow for free and fair elections, Greminger said. The OSCE Secretary General said he is following with interest what is happening in Ukraine. He refrained from assessing the events, arguing that it is better to talk about this with long-term observers who arrived in the country in February. At present, the most important OSCE event with regard to elections is an observation operation. This is the main priority, and we want to do everything possible to ensure that these elections are free and fair, he said. As reported, on February 7, 2019 Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada adopted a law that prohibited citizens of the Russian Federation and persons proposed by the Russian side to be official observers at the presidential, parliamentary and local elections in Ukraine. On February 11, ODIHR Spokesman Thomas Rymer said the invitation to participate in the observation mission was sent to all OSCE member states. He said ODIHR adheres to the same established practice and methodology for the presidential elections in Ukraine as for all other election observation missions. Russia's Foreign Affairs Ministry said Moscow would send its candidates to the short-term OSCE/ODIHR mission in Ukraine in accordance with the invitation received on February 12. Presidential elections in Ukraine will be held on March 31. Kyiv District Administrative Court has opened proceedings in a case against Ukraine's Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman regarding the failure to submit to the Verkhovna Rada a motion to dismiss Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. The court's press service said, "The plaintiff asks to recognize Avakov's actions as unlawful, namely the violation of the provisions of Article 7 of the law "On the Cabinet of Ministers," as regards demands on government members.. At the same time, the claimant asks the court to recognize the activities of the Prime Minister regarding the non-implementation of control over the activities of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the failure to submit a motion to parliament on Avakov's dismissal as unlawful and also requests the court to oblige the head of the Cabinet (of Ministers) to submit an appropriate motion to parliament. The court will consider the case according to the rules of the simplified action proceedings without notifying (calling) of the parties. The simplified claim proceedings are intended for consideration of cases of minor complexity and other cases for which quick resolution of the case is the priority. According to the Code of Administrative Justice of Ukraine, the court considers cases according to the rules of simplified action proceedings within a reasonable timeframe, but not more than sixty days from the date of commencement of the proceedings. Counterintelligence agents from Ukraine's SBU State Security Service have received further evidence of the involvement of the Russian Armed Forces in hostilities in the territory of the temporarily occupied territory of Luhansk region. The information was provided by the former Russia-led fighter who decided to return to Ukraine-controlled territory. "Agents established that at the beginning of 2016 a resident of Stakhanov joined the ranks of Russia-led armed groups. The man first served in the so-called engineer-sapper company stationed in occupied Luhansk, and then in the 4th separate motorized rifle brigade. The defector said commanders of both units were Russian military officers," the SBU's press service said on Monday. According to the defector, Russian military officers personally supervised the military exercises of Russia-led fighters in the occupied Lutuhynsky district of Luhansk region and were responsible for moving Russian special equipment from Taganrog of Russia's Rostov region to Luhansk. "Ukrainian soldiers detained the man near the contact line and handed him over to the SBU," the press service said, adding that a criminal case under Part 1 of Article 258-3 of Ukraine's Criminal Code (creation of a terrorist group or a terrorist organization) has been opened. It said the defector is actively cooperating with the investigation and providing testimony about the crimes of the Russian military and their puppets in eastern Ukraine. The Crimean museums registered according to Russian legislation, which are the plaintiffs in the "Scythian gold" case, have nothing to do with the legal relations in which the artefacts were moved to the Netherlands, officials from the Ukrainian Justice Ministry said. "We believe this is an improper plaintiff, which we pointed out to the court immediately. The lawyers for the so-called Crimean museums are especially cynical because they rely on Ukrainian legislation in their arguments and they believe they have the right to store these artefacts under Ukrainian legislation," the Justice ministry's press service quoted Ukraine's Deputy Justice Minister Serhiy Petukhov as saying. The deputy minister said he believes the plaintiffs in the case who represent Russia's position are no longer legal entities. The hearing of the case involving artifacts from the exhibit 'Crimea the Golden Island in the Black Sea' from the collections of four Crimean museums the Historic-Cultural Reserve in Kerch, the Taurida Central Museum, the Historic-Cultural Reserve in Bakhchisarai and the Khersonesus Tavrichesky National Reserve began in a court of appeals in Amsterdam on Monday, March 11. According to Ukraine's Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko, there are more than 565 museum items from Ukrainian museums in Crimea in the territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. They are mostly archaeological finds. The insured value of the collection is EUR10 million. Since the Netherlands has refused to recognize Crimea's annexation by Russia, the question of whom the collection should be returned to arose after the closure of the exhibition in August 2014. In their lawsuit against the Allard Pierson Museum, the Crimean museums sought the return of the "Scythian gold" collection, which comprised 2,000 objects, from the Netherlands to Crimea. On December 14, 2016, a district court in Amsterdam ruled in Ukraine's favor. On January 16, 2017, the four Crimean museums appealed the decision made by the Amsterdam district court. Greminger: Let us focus on making our utmost to create an environment that will allow free and fair elections Exclusive interview with OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger for the Interfax-Ukraine news agency Talking about the upcoming presidential election in Ukraine, what kind of information are you gathering, do you have any reason already to worry? Of course, we follow what is happening with interest. For a time being, the most important OSCE engagement regarding the elections is observation operation. This is a top priority. We want to contribute from our side to the maximum extent possible that these elections are going to be free and fair. And so far? You have to talk to our long-term observers. Im not in a position to give an assessment at this point in time. Talking about short-term observation mission if Russians, who are a part of the observation mission, will be not allowed to enter into the country, what could be the consequences? I share ODIHR (the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights) Directors regret and also concerned because not following strictly the observation methodology is never a good thing. But I think we will do our best under the given circumstances. Of course, there will be one participating state (member of the OSCE, Russia) that will particularly criticize the fact that there are no Russian observers present. For the time being, I would not further comment on this. A lot has been said, and now let us focus on making our utmost to create an environment that will allow free and fair elections. Talking about Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) and Minsk group (platform for negotiation to resolve the situation in Donbass with participation of the representatives of Ukraine, OSCE and Russia), can we expect any changes within your staff? The SMM to Ukraine will continue its important work in margin the conflict, in preventing that ceasefire violation spin out of control and in assuring that we need to do all this urgent repair works on the civilian infrastructure in the area of the line of contact. An Thanks to the support and facilitating work of SMM last year, it has been more than a thousand windows of silence that allowed repairing water, electricity, and gas infrastructure. We are talking about several millions of people who are depend on it. We have currently around 800 monitors, entire operation more than 1300 staff. By far, it is our biggest operation. It is our flagship operation and we will continue these efforts. The Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) that is the platform where all signatories of the Minsk agreement meet in Minks on weekly bases. I hope that we will manage again to create more enabling for dialog environment. It is very important to establishing a cease-fire. It will solve the most structural issues, such as withdrawal of heavy weapons, separation of forces and means in areas we have agreed upon, creation of a protective zone around civilian infrastructure, creation of safer corridors at checkpoints. The title of your recent interview for German newspaper was there is no will for a peace. Can you, please, elaborate on it? What do you mean? You see, there are Minsk agreements which do not work Because there is no will to implement measures of the Minsk agreement. From all sides? From all signatories there is no sufficient will to implement the different types of measures - security related measures, politically related measures. Normandy Four (France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia) for a while managed to give an impulse to this implementation but not anymore. I think there is a lack of agreement among Normandy Four. We observe a standstill in the implementing, and all sides blame each other in a lack of progress. They need to start to rebuild some trust and confidence by implementing very concrete confidence building measures along of the line of contact. Obviously, at some point there also need for a progress when it comes to political aspects of Minsk agreements. Do you have an understanding for yourself what is the reason for not having the will for peace? There is a profound gap of confidence between Ukraine and Russia. I think, as long as there is no improvement in bilateral relations it will be very, very difficult to make progress on implementing Minsk, to tackle other issues related to Kerch Strait, to the Sea of Azov. I think we as a multilateral organization can offer our tools, our facilitation services but as long as there is no will to improve, to enter into a genuine dialog among the leadership of two countries, I think it will remain very difficult. Try to repair and to rebuild what was destroyed in terms of confidence. My advice will be: why dont you start by sorting out the situation in the Donbass because there we have a blueprint and this is Minsk agreement? I know it is a demanding blueprint but we have something and for this, there is a need for a genuine commitment by the political leadership to reengage in genuine dialog. What do you think about the UN peacekeeping mission for Ukraine? If peace operation would help to overcome this impasse and implement Minsk agreement I will be all for. The OSCE has been an organization that reacted very positively when this idea came out. However, what we see right now is that there is no common understanding of what such an operation would be in terms of size, scope, mandate. One thing I would like to underline is that such an operation still have to implement what we have and that is Minsk agreements. A peace operation would not do something different but that. Im afraid as long as there is no appetite for implementing Minsk we will also not get to a common understanding of what such operation could look like. But again, from an OSCE prospective we all for, we would be happy to contribute, we have put an idea of a joint mission on the table, UN-OSCE led joint operations. But for the time being, we are miles away from a common understanding. If you will create a common understanding it will be doable. What could be from your point of view the possible way to solve crises with Hungary created by the law on education, and what can be your recommendation regarding draft law on language what do not to do or to do to avoid other possible problems. Talk to linguistic minorities have a close dialog with all stakeholders, majority and minority. I came from Swiss, a country with four national languages. I think it is all about dialog and respect. Dont rush. Dialog, respect that is what I would call for. This would also facilitate a lot with Hungary. On Thursday, March 21, at 11.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a press conference entitled "Renovation of Dilapidated Housing in Kyiv and Resettlement of Residents - First Experience of Private Developer." Participants include Commercial Director of the Intergal-Bud construction company Hanna Layevska, head of the project management team of the Intergal-Bud company Roman Lioshenko, executive director of the Ukrainian Confederation of Builders Vitaliy Hrusevych, members of the initiative group of the house on 1 Makarovska Street (8/5a Reitarska Street). Registration requires press accreditation by phone: (066) 635 3718, (067) 263 9969 (Natalia). KYIV. March 11 (Interfax-Ukraine) The National Corps Party has said it plans to continue holding protest rallies against corruption in the defense sector and calls on all Ukrainians to participate. "Our actions are a mass peaceful protest and will continue until all our four demands are fully met. We invite all not indifferent Ukrainians to join these protests. On Saturday (March 16, 2109), we intend to hold a rally without party flags," National Corps Party leader and parliament deputy (unaligned) Andriy Biletsky said at a press conference at the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency. Biletsky said the National Corps demands law-enforces arrest and seize the assets and property of ex-First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Oleh Hladkovsky, his son Ihor Hladkovsky, Vitaliy Zhukov, Andriy Rohoza, managers of state-run Ukroboronprom concern and the directors of all state-owned defense sector enterprises being investigated for corruption. He called for maximum jail sentences and confiscation of property of all those involved in stealing Ukraine's defense budget funds. Biletsky said all materials of criminal proceedings related to the theft of defense budget funds should be made public, with the exception of information with limited access. "No one heard about the Svynarchuk-Hladkovsky case in the country, but it existed since 2016. Hundreds of such cases are "tucked away" at the military prosecutor's office, at the Prosecutor Generals' Office (PGO), Interior Ministry, with the heads of Ukraine's Special Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office, National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the State Bureau of Investigations," he said. Another demand is that Ukraine's Prosecutor General (Yuriy Lutsenko) regularly, every week, report on the progress of investigations into criminal proceedings related to the theft of defense budget funds. Two hundred members of Irans parliament have sent a letter to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei welcoming the appointment of Ebrahim Raeesi (Raeisi) as head of the countrys Judiciary. These lawmakers represent the reformist Omid (Hope) faction, as well as conservatives and independents. Such a united move was initially unexpected as Mr. Raeesis appointment was deemed by many as controversial. Raeesi was member of a judicial committee that decided on the execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988. Human rights organizations estimate that more than 5,000 prisoners, most serving jail terms, were killed. He is on the list of individuals sanctioned by the European Union. In the letter the lawmakers praise the khameneis decision as a worthy appointment, adding that it has brought hope and joy to society. They also praised Raeesis judicial experience. The reformists are the biggest faction with 110 lawmakers in the 290-member parliament. President Hassan Rouhani has also congratulated Raeesi. Meanwhile, 100 Iranian political and civic activists have issued a statement calling the appointment "salt on the wounds" of the survivors of the prison killings and a "bonus to criminals". The activists say that this decision shows Khamenei's "indifference" and "pertinacity". Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 Trend: On March 5 the Ministry of Education, Bakcell and AzEdunet companies have signed a protocol on cooperation during a dedicated signing ceremony. The protocol was signed by deputy minister of education Idris Isayev, Bakcell CEO Nikolai Beckers and director of AzEduNet Natiq Yahyayev. The main purpose of the signed document is the provision of up to 700 general education institutions located at remote villages with access to internet and network services by means of the Azerbaijan Education Network. Within the frames of this cooperation, Bakcell will provide complimentary monthly internet traffic and Data-card to the general education institutions for the period of 3 years, while AzEduNet, being the operator of Azerbaijan Education Network is to provide unlimited access to the networks resources and technical support services. The parties also agreed to reinforce joint measures within the frames of CSR projects of Bakcell in the area of education. Speaking at the signing ceremony, deputy minister of education Idris Isayev indicated that provision of educational institutions with network infrastructure is one of the factors required for successful implementation of modern education concept. From this standpoint, expansion of the Azerbaijan Education Network bears great significance, since it enables wide opportunities for application of innovative approaches in the educational process being the countrys largest internal education network. Deputy Minister also mentioned that in recent years, intensive works are implemented for provision of internet and intranet services, along with electronic educational resources and management systems at academic institutions, as well as digitalization of the teaching and decision making processes. Bakcell CEO Nikolai Beckers pointed out a strategic nature of this cooperation from the standpoint of development of education and application of innovative technologies in the country. Nikolai Beckers stated that within the frames of its large-scale corporate social responsibility program, the company keeps the education and professional development of Azerbaijani youth under constant spotlight and aims to contribute largely to the development of education in the country. Bakcell CEO expressed his confidence in successful future of joint activities with the ministry. The event participants also commended the provision of free-of-charge network possibilities by Bakcell and AzEduNet at academic institutions located in remote villages. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 Trend: Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have 23 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said March 11, 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. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 Trend: The Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson, in accordance with its mandate, plans to conduct the next ceasefire monitoring on the line of contact (LOC) on March 12 in the direction of the Fizuli district, Trend reports referring to the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan. The Personal Representative's field assistants Simon Tiller and Martin Schuster will carry out the monitoring on the territory of Azerbaijan. The Personal Representative's field assistants Mihail Olaru and Ghenadie Petrica will carry out the monitoring on the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan occupied and controlled by the armed forces of Armenia. 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. A snowflake covered with rime, little pellets of ice. Lots of rime is known as graupel or soft hail. (Courtesy Kenneth Libbrecht, snowcrystals.com) As another erratic winter draws to a close, its time to consider a lesser-known possible effect of climate change: misshapen snowflakes. Last winter, WNYC first reported on the scientists at Columbia Universitys Earth Institute who are studying how warmer winter air is changing the way snowflakes form, but rather than wallow in sadness and nostalgia, we spent the interim period developing a snowflake photography and snowpack measurement kit that anyone can use to help contribute to the research project. The scientists need way more data than they can conceivably collect on their own. Thats where you come in. Citizen scientists unite! We partnered with two local high schools, Bronx Science and the New York Harbor School, to make sure our kit was, in fact, easy to use, and to offer the teachers a hands-on project to help students learn more about climate change. It works, it fits perfectly with what were talking about right now, and just how this might just be an indicator of some kind of climate shifting, said Ed Wren, a science teacher at Bronx Science. For those of you who missed the story last year, heres the situation. As we can all attest, climate change is creating more fluctuating temperatures. Normally, snowflakes form high up in the atmosphere, and crystallize into their pretty structures as they pass through cold layers of air. But with warmer temperatures, snowflakes can partially melt on their way down. Theres more water in the air these days, and it acts like a glue that can glom onto the snowflakes, covering them with little ice pellets. Add in the wind and the snowflakes can smash together, turning into mega snowflakes. See for yourself: Partially melted snowflakes in the Catskills last winter. (Clarisa Diaz, WNYC/Gothamist) To add insult to injury, after these snowflakes land they melt faster because theyre less able to reflect light. This has serious implications for flooding and hydrology as well as spring vegetation. When melting occurs normally, the nutrients in the snowpack are absorbed into the soil. Not so when it melts away really fast. The contents of our X-Snow Kit. The tools are very similar to the ones used by scientists to measure snow properties. (Clarisa Diaz, WNYC/Gothamist) Our snowflake photography kit comes with everything you need to take your own pictures of snowflakes and measure the snowpack near you, including a microscope that attaches to your smartphone! (You also get a handsome red WNYC fanny pack!) Maybe youll be traveling to a frozen tundra soon? Maybe youll grab your kit now and practice photographing sugar crystals so youll be ready next winter? Heck, it may snow tomorrow. Its hard to tell these days. Despite the gravity of the situation, its actually really fun to photograph snowflakes. Bronx Science students Daniel Huang and Brian Wong take photos of snowflakes using the kit. (Clarisa Diaz, WNYC/Gothamist) Its pretty fun, because we are an environmental science course, its more interactive, said Lucy Jin, a senior at Bronx Science. Lucys classmate Ellen Ren added, It really makes you aware of your environment. And to see it before our eyes, its even better. A rare 12-pointed snowflake. (Robert Markuske, New York Harbor School) According to Dr. Jared Entin, a manager for the Terrestrial Hydrology program at NASA, scientists use satellite footage and drones to get a high-level view of snow, but they also need data about whats happening on the ground. We need people out there taking all sorts of different observations, he said. What NASA is doing at this point is trying to move beyond just Is snow on the ground or not? and start to answer deeper questions like How much water is actually stored in the snowpack? WNYC worked with Dr. Marco Tedesco, a polar scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and his team to design the kits and the training materials. For the past couple of years the team has been involved in several field experiments to look at snow properties in the New York region. I think it's very important for New Yorkers to understand the importance of snow not only for recreational purposes, but also for other purposes. Studying snow can tell you a lot about the history of the snowpack, can tell you a lot about where the snowflakes come from, what happened when they were falling, Tedesco said. Patrick Alexander, a member of Dr. Marco Tedescos X-Snow team, takes field measurements of snow in the Catskills. (Clarisa Diaz, WNYC/Gothamist) We made a website with Columbia that includes how-to videos and instructions for contributing your photos and data to the project. You can purchase your kit here. Now get out there and contribute to science! A Diamond Dust Crystal Snowflake (Md Meheraj Hassan, New York Harbor School) For more on this project, listen to reporter Clarisa Diazs segment on WNYC: Clarisa Diaz is a designer and reporter for WNYC / Gothamist. You can follow her on Twitter @Clarii_D. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Exclusive interview of Trend with President of Albania Ilir Meta on the occasion of the 7th Global Baku Forum Question: How do you see the significance of the Global Baku Forum as a platform for addressing issues of global importance? How does it affect Azerbaijans image and how does this forum benefits Albania? Answer: The Baku Global Forum has created an internationally well-known profile and comes as an important global platform featuring prominent personalities of politics, business, academic bodies and youth forums. In the spirit of the 12th-century Azerbaijani poet and philosopher Nizami Ganjavi for the seventh edition, this platform is making an extraordinary contribution to building and strengthening dialogue and understanding at the regional and global level. The theme selected in this 7th edition: A New World Order; it expresses this contribution very clearly. In particular, I would like to appreciate the inclusion of the Balkan region in a separate panel, bringing to the attention of the Forum and today's analytical thinking the importance of this region in the context of the various political and geopolitical developments in the world. I am convinced that during the three days of the Forum, many ideas and valuable thoughts will be launched and addressed, which can positively influence the various world developments. Today more than ever, the world needs to build bridges of cooperation and the creation of inclusive societies. Q.: How do you assess the current level of cooperation between Albania and Azerbaijan in various spheres? In which fields the two counties need to develop their ties? A.: Relations between Albania and Azerbaijan are very good in all aspects. Undoubtedly, the potentials of bilateral but also multilateral cooperation are really huge and still not enough explored. I think that the potentials are really very big. At present, the key dimension in bilateral economic relations is considered to be cooperation in the energy sector. We have a very good and close cooperation in the framework of the TAP project (Trans Adriatic Pipeline), which has an extraordinary impact on energy field and which supplies alternatively with gas the South of Europe. Of course, besides the energy field, I am sure that economic cooperation can be extended to other areas such as tourism, where Albania is one of the most attractive countries in the Balkans, but also other areas of mutual interest. Q.: Albania is one of the countries through which the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) runs. How would you describe the overall development of the project on Albanian territory? What is the significance of this project for Albania? A.: The TAP project is one of the most strategic projects that Albania has ever had, because the fact that for the first time my country is included in the world map of gas corridors. Through this project, Albania has reshaped its geostrategic position in the region by becoming one of the main transit countries of Azerbaijani gas from Caspian to Europe. The role of Azerbaijan is key in diversifying Europe's gas resources and supply routes, as in the case of Albania, it will diversify our energy resources by creating the premise that in the medium term natural gas be consumed as a pure alternative source and of low cost by the business and by Albanian families. Energy security is a prerequisite for the country's economic development, and in this respect the contribution of the Azerbaijan through SOCAR's investment is irreplaceable, especially for its assistance in drafting the Gas Master Plan that will precede investments in the gas distribution network in the country. With the implementation of the TAP and IAP (Ionian Adriatic Pipeline) projects, all the conditions and opportunities for extending cooperation in the field of gasification of Albania and other countries of the Balkan region are created. Q.: How do you assess the process of mutual investment making between Azerbaijan and Albania? In which spheres are Albanian companies more interested in Azerbaijan? A.: Aside from the energy and tourism, we are looking forward to investing in the road infrastructure, airport, harbors or rail infrastructure. Another important sector contributing over 20 percent to the GDP of the country is Agriculture, which has an export potential, especially in the agro-industry sector. Having one of the youngest population in the Europe and well-educated young people, the financial services sector and ICT have a dynamic development and with even greater potential to attract foreign investors. Industrial sector also is quite attractive, especially in the framework of the Free Economic Zones and Industrial Zones, considering Albania's favorable geographic position as an "entry gateway" to the EU market. There is a need for intensifying of bilateral contacts, and not just at political or diplomatic level, but above all between the business communities of both sides, in order to better explore the opportunities for mutual investment, which then would quickly affect the increase of the trade volume between us. I am confident that an Albanian-Azerbaijan Business Forum in Tirana or here in Baku, with the presence of our business representatives in priority areas such as energy, infrastructure, tourism and manufacturing, would serve the recognition of both countries and the strengthening of economic co-operation through projects and concrete investments. Q.: Which measures need to be taken to even more improve the tourism relations between the two counties? A.: As above mentioned, we are very much interested that Azerbaijani companies and Azerbaijani citizens, come to invest and enjoy the wonderful tourist assets Albania offers. It is necessary to encourage investors and tour operators of our two countries to share concrete ideas on how to co-fund projects in this area. Albania has over 270 sunny days per year creating facilities for an elite coastal tourism as well as exceptional potential for the development of mountain tourism. I must point out that the responsible institutions of our two countries need to do more to facilitate cooperation between the respective business community and their visa-free travel. Tourism is one of the most priority sectors of the Albanian economy, and so has recently been finalized a fiscal stimulus package for investments in tourist resorts with 5 stars. Albania remains an impressive and unexplored "oasis" of the stunning Mediterranean beauties and businesses and Azerbaijani citizens are invited to see and enjoy them. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 Trend: NATO held training courses in Baku, Trend reports with reference to Azerbaijans Defense Ministry. In accordance with the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) between the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan and NATO for 2019, a mobile training team of the Alliances Joint Forces Command in Brunssum held training courses on "Exercise Planning Process at a Strategic Level in NATO". The course participants were informed about the NATO structure, military partnership and the training process. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 Trend: First Deputy Defense Minister of Azerbaijan Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Colonel General Najmeddin Sadikov has left for Sofia on an official visit, Trend reports March 11 with reference to Azerbaijans Defense Ministry. The visit will take place at the invitation of Chief of the General Staff of Bulgarias Armed Forces General Andrey Botsev. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 Trend: First Vice-President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva, who is on a visit in the French Republic, has met with Chairman of the Rothschild Global Financial Advisory David Rene de Rothschild. The First Vice-President noted that the Rothschilds, who were very famous in Azerbaijan in the 19th century, established The Caspian-Black Sea Oil Industry and Trade Society in 1883. Azerbaijan-Baku was the center for oil industry at that time, and the Rothschild Brothers made great investments in Baku, all of which led to the revival of the oil industry in Baku, said Mehriban Aliyeva. Saying the Rothschild Brothers were engaged in charity, and built a great number of beautiful buildings in Baku, the First VP added that the cooperation also continued after Azerbaijan restored its independence. She underlined the importance of agreement on strategic cooperation to be signed between the Central Bank of Azerbaijan and the Rothschild Global Financial Advisory. Mehriban Aliyeva invited Rothschild to pay a visit to Azerbaijan. Rothschild said he is happy to meet with First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva, pointing to the historical roots of the Rothschilds activities in Azerbaijan. Hailing his familys activities in Azerbaijan, David de Rothschild accepted with pleasure the invitation to visit the country. The sides also exchanged views on bilateral cooperation. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 Trend: First Vice-President of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva, who is on a visit in the French Republic, has met with Executive Vice-President of SUEZ for International Development Eric Ghebali. The sides discussed prospects of cooperation between Azerbaijan and SUEZ Group in environmental, ecological and other areas. They also exchanged views on the development of the bilateral relations on various fronts. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 Trend: President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received credentials of the newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of India Bawitlung Vanlalvawna. Ambassador Bawitlung Vanlalvawna reviewed a guard of honor. Bawitlung Vanlalvawna presented his credentials to President Ilham Aliyev. President Ilham Aliyev then spoke with the ambassador. They exchanged views on prospects for economic, trade, transport, and tourism cooperation between the two countries. Ambassador Bawitlung Vanlalvawna said that he will spare no efforts to contribute to the development of bilateral cooperation between the two countries during his diplomatic tenure. President Ilham Aliyev wished the ambassador success during his tenure in Azerbaijan. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 Trend: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has expressed condolences to President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Sahle-Work Zewde. I am saddened by the news of heavy casualties as a result of the crash of a passenger plane of Ethiopian Airlines, President Aliyev said. On the occasion of this tragedy, on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I extend my deep condolences to you, families and loved ones of those who died and the whole people of Ethiopia, he said. President Aliyev has also expressed condolences to President of the Republic of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta. I am deeply saddened by the news of casualties among your compatriots as a result of the crash of a passenger plane of Ethiopian Airlines, President Aliyev said. On the occasion of this tragedy, on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I extend my deep condolences to you, families and loved ones of those who were killed and the whole people of Kenya, he said. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 Trend: Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov received the delegation of the Kuwait-Azerbaijan Interparliamentary Friendship Group of the Kuwait National Assembly headed by Khalid al-Utaybi, Trend reports with reference to Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry. Greeting the guests Minister Elmar Mammadyarov highly appreciated the current level of bilateral political relations between two states. He stressed the importance of holding the meeting of the Joint Commission for Cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of Kuwait to explore opportunities for economic cooperation. Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said that Azerbaijan applies a simplified visa regime for the citizens of Kuwait, and expressed his confidence that the existence of direct flights between the two states boost the flow of tourists. Expressing their satisfaction on visiting Azerbaijan, Khalid al-Utaybi said that bilateral relations have a profound historical background and stressed the importance for further expansion of trade relations. Speaking about the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, he emphasized that Kuwait supports the just position of Azerbaijan on the conflict resolution. Expressing his gratitude for Kuwait's fair position and support on the conflict settlement, Minister Elmar Mammadyarov highly appreciated the humanitarian assistance of Kuwait to Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs during the early years of our independence. At the meeting the sides also discussed the other issues of mutual interest. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 Trend: Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov received the newly appointed Ambassador of the United States of America Earle Litzenberger, Trend reports with reference to Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry. At the meeting the sides exchanged their views on the current level of relations between the two countries. Foreign Minister informed the Ambassador on the important energy projects implemented and initiated by Azerbaijan, including the Southern Gas Corridor, and highly appreciated the United States support for the implementation of these projects. Praising the contribution of Azerbaijan to providing energy security Ambassador Earle Litzenberger reiterated support of the USA to the energy projects implemented by Azerbaijan. He also underlined the importance of the Azerbaijani support and contribution to international fight against terrorism. Ambassador Earle Litzenberger presented the copy of his credentials to Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov. Minister Elmar Mammadyarov wished the newly appointed U.S. Ambassador every success in his diplomatic activities. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 Trend: Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov received Vladislav Kanevski, the newly appointed Ambassador of Ukraine to the Republic of Azerbaijan, Trend reports with reference to Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry. At the meeting, the sides expressed their satisfaction with the current status of relations and stressed the importance of high level mutual visits in terms of expanding cooperation between the two countries. It was underlined that Azerbaijan and Ukraine always support each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity and stand for the resolution of the conflicts in the region within the framework of internationally recognized borders of states. Ambassador Kanevski noted that Ukraine is keen on development of cooperation with Azerbaijan in all fields and mentioned that he would spare no efforts on further enhancement of bilateral relations during his diplomatic mission. Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov wished to Ambassador Kanevski Vladislav every success in his diplomatic activities. During the meeting Ambassador Vladislav Kaneski presented a copy of his credentials to Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov. Good Records has been hawking an impressive (and affordably-priced) selection of records, many of them original pressings, in the East Village since 2005. Sadly, the eclectic store will close on March 24th, as EV Grieve reports. It's not all bad, though. As owner Jonathan Jonny Sklute wrote in an Instagram farewell post, the majority of staff, as well as the East 5th Street store's prized crates of new and used records, will stay put. That's because the Bay Area mainstay Stranded Records is moving into the locale, and will open up shop on April 1st. The shop is the outpost of Superior Viaduct, an archival and experimental record label that counts the likes of Alice Coltrane, Suicide, and Julius Eastman within its catalogue. It's not as though business wasn't goodSklute told Gothamist that the store had their best sales year ever in 2017. "It was just time," he told us over the phone. Originally from the west coast, he moved back there with his family two years ago after over two decades in NYC. He said he was "burnt" from 14 years of keeping the shop open, also noting high rents in the area. "Eventually it just became way too costly and way too difficult to try and run a small little shop," he said. "Thats all I ever really wanted to do: I didn't want to scale, I didn't want to franchise. I just wanted to have a cool, communal space to sell and discover new music and interact with the community and thats just really impossible in todays New York City." Sklute met the owners of Stranded, who happened to be looking to expand in New York, while out in the Bay Area. The serendipitous agreement came together several months ago, he told us. "That is kind of a real lock stock and barrel deal, we all wanted it to be this way," he said. "[Stranded] wanted to be able to hit the ground running with a fully-trained staff, I think that was a huge selling point as far as the stores intrinsic value. Its not just a box, its got years and years, over a decade of customer goodwill and interactions, and the staff is a big part of that." While most of the records will stay put in the new store, Sklute said he's going to pick up Good's more collectible offerings and bring them to WFMU's upcoming Record Fair in late April. Crate-diggers, you know what to do. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 Trend: The leading mobile operator of the country Azercell Telecom LLC, puts a special accent on social projects in its course of activity. Hence, Mobile Eye Clinic established on June 1, 2011 with the support of Azercell, to carry out examination and treatment of children who are deprived of parental care provides the free service to elderly, low-income families and the intendly displaced people as well. This year, in february, the doctors of the clinic visited Rehabilitation and Sociological Center N 5, under Mushfig Public Union for Assistance to Disabled Children located in Sahil settlement of Garadagh district. 25 children received ophthalmological check-up within the framework of the project. Kids who needed were assigned prescriptions and provided with eyeglasses as well. Notably, all the examination and treatment services within the project are conducted by Caspian Compassion Project Public Union. Mobile Eye Clinic visited most of the boarding-schools and houses for the elderly people located not only in capital city, but also in most districts of Azerbaijan. It is worth to mention that, during 2018, Azercells Mobile Eye Clinic provided free medical check-up to 1368 people. Since its establishment, approximately 7500 people have benefited from the free medical service of the clinic. For more information, please contact [email protected] The leader of the mobile communication industry, the largest taxpayer and the biggest investor of the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan Azercell Telecom LLC was founded in 1996. With 49 percent share of Azerbaijans mobile telecom market Azercells network covers 99.1 percent of the territory (excluding the occupied territories) and 99.8 percent of population of the country. Currently, 4.5 million subscribers choose Azercell services. Azercell has pioneered an important number of innovations in Azerbaijan, including GSM technology, advance payment system, mobile internet services, Metro coverage, 24/7 call center service, 7 day/week Front Office service, M2M services, one-stop-shopping approach Azercell Express offices, mobile customer services, Online Customer Care and Social Media Customer Care services, mobile e-signature service ASAN Imza etc. Azercell deployed first 4G LTE services in Azerbaijan in 2012. According to the results of mobile network quality and wireless coverage mapping surveys by international systems, Azercells network demonstrated the best results among the mobile operators of Azerbaijan. Azercell is the only company in Azerbaijan and CIS region which has been awarded Gold Certificate of International Investors in People Standard. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 Trend: The Baku Grave Crimes Court continued the trial proceedings on the criminal case of the former head of the International Bank of Azerbaijan Jahangir Hajiyev, his relative Ismayil Hidayetzade, ex-MP Dunyamin Khalilov, also Jamal Hasanov, Sarkhan Rasulov, Natig Imanov, Samir Hajiyev, Tabriz Abdulhamidov, Mahir Gafarov, Sadikh Murtuzayev, Tarlan Maharramov, Fakhraddin Heybatov, Ramin Ahmadov, Fariz Muradov, Salahaddin Gadirov, Erkhan Javad, Arif Ramazanov, Navai Shirinov, Svetlana Asadullayeva, Arif Madatov, Adil Mikailov and Ramiz Karimov accused of embezzlement, Trend reports. Mansur Zeynalov testified as a witness at the trial chaired by judge Faig Ganiyev. At the trial, it was noted that Zeynalov was previously accused together with Dunyamin Khalilov, and the Baku Grave Crimes Court sentenced him to five years in prison. The Baku Court of Appeal reduced this period to 4 years, and the Supreme Court reduced it to 2.5 years. During the testimony, Zeynalov said that he worked as a lawyer in the company General Construction owned by Dunyamin Khalilov. My job was to translate contracts, Zeynalov noted. In 2007, Khalilov created Kondor Qrup LLC and appointed me as a founder and executive director. Then loans were taken under my name. I just signed documents and all instructions were given by Khalilov. Responding to questions, Zeynalov said that he is not a lawyer by profession. I am familiar with some of the defendants sitting in the hall, he said. They were formally the leaders of the company. Then Farhad Amiraslanov testified as a witness. He was also charged along with Dunyamin Khalilov, and the Baku Grave Crimes Court sentenced him to five years in prison. The Supreme Court reduced this period to two years. Amiraslanov said he worked as a construction specialist at the company General Construction. Then Dunyamin Khalilov created Aqora LLC under my name, Amiraslanov noted. At his request, I signed several loan documents. My management position in the company was formal. At the trial, it was said that Amiraslanov signed seven loan agreements of the IBA, and about 10 million manats were taken under his name. The accused Khalilov said that the money allocated to Aqora LLC was spent on projects. Another witness, Seyfulla Seyfullayev, in his testimony said that he was previously convicted along with Khalilov, and the court sentenced him to five years in prison. By the decision of the Supreme Court, he was sentenced conditionally and released. He added that he was the general director of Sabail Mebel OJSC. I received 9 million manats in loans under my name from the IBA, he said. A man from the bank called me and told me to come to the bank. I signed documents at the bank, but never saw the money. They said that the money would be spent on the companys development. The rebar had to be bought for this money, but nothing was bought. The next witness, Rafig Mammadov, in his testimony noted that he had previously worked as a manager at Sabail Mebel OJSC, and transferred the company to Seyfullayev in 2006 by power of attorney. He said that the shares of the company belonged to Seyfullayev. The purchase and sale was formalized under my name, he added. A break was announced in the court. According to official information, during investigations there were reasonable suspicions that contracts for the purchase and sale of promissory notes in the amount of $3.4 billion and 987 million euros were concluded with some legal entities in various countries and illegal transactions were carried out by using promissory notes in 2001-2015 upon Jahangir Hajiyevs instructions, who was the chairman of the Board of the International Bank of Azerbaijan. Moreover, there were reasonable suspicions that Khalilov, 20 more people, as well as other people, caused damage to the bank, misappropriating 4.7 billion manats. Moreover, Hajiyev declined to pay taxes to the budget in the amount of 1,752,000 manats from the profit of Aztorg LLC, jointly led by Hajiyev and Khalilov in 2011-2014. The Baku Grave Crimes Court previously sentenced Hajiyev to 15 years in prison, Dunyamin Khalilov to 13 years, and Ismayil Hidayetzade to 7 years in prison. Khalilovs sentence was reduced from 13 to 12 years and 9 months by a decision of the Baku Court of Appeals; Hidayetzades sentence was reduced to five years by the Supreme Court. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 Trend: Azerbaijani Army started a large-scale exercises on March 11, Trend reports referring to the country's Ministry of Defense. The exercises involve up to 10,000 military personnel, up to 500 tanks and other armored vehicles, up to 300 missiles and artillery systems of different caliber, multiple launch rocket systems, and mortars, up to 20 army and front-line aviation for various purposes. The exercises will last until March 15. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 Trend: Azerbaijans Agency for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and the Azerbaijan Industrial Corporation (AIC) OJSC have signed a memorandum of cooperation, Trend reports March 11. The memorandum was signed by Chairman of the Board of the Agency Orkhan Mammadov and AIC Director General Kamran Nabizade. The document was signed as part of the conference Support for SMEs: development of industrial enterprises in the non-oil sector held under the organization of Azerbaijans Agency for the Development of SMEs and the AIC. In accordance with the memorandum, the parties will cooperate in the implementation of joint projects, encourage youth to engage in entrepreneurship with the aim of supporting SMEs, implement innovative initiatives, etc. Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 11 By Matanat Nasibova Trend: Azerbaijans Freshair company, specializing on designing and installing ventilation and central air conditioning systems, plans to sign a contract with one of the foreign companies in Oman, as stated by the company, Trend reports. According to the source, the parties are currently in the process of active negotiations. "We have been negotiating with our foreign partners in Oman since the beginning of the year, and there are positive results in this direction. Just today, we returned from Oman; the negotiations with our new foreign partners were successful, and we discussed the details of the upcoming joint work. We hope that in the coming months, we will consolidate our cooperation with contracts and relevant agreements," the company said. Freshair will take part in a construction project in Oman. "In the project proposed to us, our company will provide the installation of a central air conditioning system, ventilation system, and security cameras. Besides this, we are also engaged in the installation of all types of external and internal communication systems, mini PBX, information networks, fan coils, chillers, as well as the installation of various systems on the roofs," as highlighted by the company. Follow the author on Twitter: @MatanatNasibova Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 11 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Georgia is to import basalt from Turkey for the construction of the port of Anaklia, Trend reports referring to the Turkish media. It is reported that Georgia will import basalt from the Turkeys Trabzon Province. According to media reports, basalt from Turkey will be sent to Georgia by sea. The construction of the first deep-water port in Georgia began in December 2017. It is being implemented by the Anaklia Development Consortium (ADC), which was founded by Georgias TBC Holding and the US Conti International LLC, a well-known real estate development company engaged in projects in the fields of infrastructure and capital construction. Within the framework of the Tbilisi Belt & Road Forum, the management of the port of Anaklia issued memorandums of cooperation with the ports of Baku (Azerbaijan) and Kuryk (Kazakhstan) in order to develop a regional transport corridor and increase its competitiveness. A similar agreement will be signed with the port of Constanta (Romania) in the near future. Tehran, Iran, March.11 Trend: Afghanistan's Deputy Minister of Transportation Imam Muhammad Varimach has announced that Afghan investors have no worries over security issues in Iran and continue to invest in the country. "Our friends in Iran are increasing the security in the region with special measures and they would not face serious problems," said the official. "Our current policy is to invest in Chabahar Port," he said, Trend reports citing ILNA. "Our discussion is over technical issues and the challenges should be resolved, so businessmen are encouraged to invest in Chabahar and utilize the transportation capacities. He further spoke on Afghanistan's investment in Shahid Behesthi port in Irans southeastern port city of Chabahar. "More than 100 Afghan companies have invested around $60 million in Chabahar port and there are more investments to come," he said. "Security in the region is a big challenge for all the countries and there have been unpleasant incidents in recent months in Iran, Afghanistan and India. There's no other way but to fight terrorism, and cooperation among regional states is important in this matter," said Varimach. He said that creating new facilities in Iran can encourage other investors to invest in Chabahar, the volume of foreign investment depends on the efforts of Iran, Afghanistan and India. Varimach also stated that construction and completion of Chabahar-Zahedan railway is very important for Afghanistan. "The country has not invested in this rail track, but there are possibilities for Afghan investors," he noted. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11, By Fakhri Vakilov-Trend: Marrybrown, largest halal (food allowed to Muslims) fast-food chain in Malaysia, can enter the Uzbek market, Trend reports with reference to the press service of Uzbek Foreign Ministry. Ambassador of Uzbekistan to Malaysia Ravshan Usmanov negotiated on this topic with Financial Director of Marrybrown David Liew during the meeting. "David Liew expressed his readiness to establish cooperation with Uzbek entrepreneurs to open a network of catering points on the basis of franchising. It was also noted that the conditions and the cost of transferring the company's trademark will be discussed when determining a specific partner from the Uzbek side," the press service of the Foreign Ministry noted. Following the negotiations, an agreement was reached on the organization of visit of Marrybrown representatives to Tashkent in April of this year for a detailed discussion of the possibility of establishing cooperation in the sphere of restaurant business. Marrybrown is the largest Malaysian fast-food restaurant chain certified to be halal. The company works with more than 138 restaurants in Malaysia and over 350 restaurants in 20 countries of the world. This brand is one of the most recognizable in Southeast Asia and Middle East countries, and thus, can attract tourists from these countries to Uzbekistan. Follow author on Twitter:@vakilovfaxri Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 11 By Azad Hasanli Trend: Azerbaijan has submitted data on the country's daily oil production for February 2019 to the Joint Technical Commission (JTC) of the OPEC monitoring committee, Trend reports referring to the Energy Ministry. The daily oil production in Azerbaijan amounted to 806,000 barrels last month, including 722,000 barrels of petroleum, and 84,000 barrels of condensate, the ministry said in its message. About 572,900 barrels of petroleum, 84,000 barrels of condensate and 18,000 barrels of oil products were exported daily. The average daily oil production made up 793,000 barrels in January, and 792,600 barrels last year. In particular, Azerbaijan produced an average of 814,600 barrels per day in January 2018, 806,000 barrels in February, 794,000 barrels in March, 785,700 barrels in April, 801,000 barrels in May, 792,000 barrels in June, 773,000 barrels in July, 774,000 barrels in August, 796,000 barrels in September, 783,000 barrels in October, in 801,000 barrels November, and 790,000 barrels in December. The JTC was established on January 22, 2017 under the monitoring committee, created to monitor the countries' fulfillment of their commitments to cut oil production. On December 7, 2018, an agreement was reached at the fifth ministerial meeting of the non-OPEC member and non-OPEC countries in Vienna to cut daily oil production by 1.2 million barrels. As part of the agreement, Azerbaijan has reduced daily production by 20,000 barrels since January 1, 2019. It's been nearly a decade since the United States began allowing people with HIV from abroad to enter the country as immigrants. But the U.S. has never provided data on the number of HIV-positive refugees or asylum seekers admitted since the immigration law changed in 2010, despite efforts from groups including the Center for American Progress and Immigration Equality. Aaron Morris, executive director of Immigration Equality, noted that persecution against people with HIV, as well as those who are LGBT, is common in parts of Central America, Africa and Eastern Europe. This is why the public deserves to know whether these asylum-seekers are having success. It's hard to know exactly what is happening in different regions of the United States and different parts of the border, he explained. And it's in everyone's best interest to be transparent to provide that information so we can make necessary reform. Some immigration advocates hope this issue gets more attention following a case highlighted by WNYC involving activist Ana Batiz and one of her daughters, Susan. The two women have HIV and claim they were fleeing persecution in Honduras. They were separated at the border in July of 2018 because Susan was 18, the age at which Customs and Border Protection considers a migrant to be an adult. As a result, they were given separate credible fear interviews to determine whether they could enter and apply for asylum. Batiz passed but Susan did not, and was ultimately deported last November. A Texas-based attorney who tried to help Susan, Elizabeth Caballaro, has wondered if the teen was discriminated against for having HIV because of the speed with which she was deported. They didnt want her here, she said. Theyre just as ignorant as the people who discriminate against her over there, in her home country. U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services has said it cant comment on individual cases. But a spokesperson noted the 2010 law that allowed people with HIV to enter the country. She also said the agency reviews each case on its own merit, with decisions based on relevant laws and evidence. But Morris said breaking down the data on asylum seekers would help determine whether asylum officers and immigration judges are, in fact, being fair, when deciding who can enter the U.S. to pursue a claim. I think we've had a lot of success in expanding to adjudicators why HIV is related to an asylum claim, he said, referring both to the asylum officers and judges. It's hard to know what prejudice or stigma those adjudicators have without harder numbers to track the trends of their adjudications. He also noted allegations that people with HIV are treated poorly in detention centers. A transgender woman with HIV died last year in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. People can be granted asylum if theyre persecuted for their race, religion, political opinion, nationality or particular social group. Such a group could include people with HIV and those who are LGBTQ, because they often face severe discrimination. Ana Batiz said people threatened her life once she became a well-known HIV positive activist and her daughter, Susan, said she was beaten by classmates at school. The Executive Office for Immigration Review, which runs the immigration courts, does not track in its case database any grounds for asylum claims, said spokesman John Martin. Morris said he hopes the new Democratic congress will help groups like his obtain any data the government has for people with HIV, and LGBT asylum seekers. There are certainly members of Congress who are in leadership positions who have made the ask very recently for this information, he said. If that doesn't work and subpoena power doesn't work, because the government may just come back and say we don't have this information, it might require legislation later on. Beth Fertig is a senior reporter covering courts and legal affairs at WNYC. You can follow her on Twitter at @bethfertig. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Malaysias Petronas oil and gas company prioritizes support for the efforts to maximize the value of the Shah Deniz asset in Azerbaijan, the company told Trend. As a partner in the Shah Deniz Consortium, our priority is to support the Operator of Shah Deniz Exploration, Development and Production Sharing Agreement in efforts to maximize the value of the Shah Deniz asset, said Petronas. The company said that 2018 was a successful year when Shah Deniz Consortium achieved 1st Gas from Shah Deniz Phase 2 project, in which PETRONAS holds 15.5 percent participating interest. Regarding the prospects for expanding its business in Azerbaijan, the company said that as a normal course of business, PETRONAS regularly reviews its business portfolio group-wide, globally and continues to look at opportunities. It is part of the Groups endeavour to remain commercially competitive, said the company. PETRONAS currently holds 15.5 percent participating interest in Shah Deniz Exploration, Development and Production Sharing Agreement (SD EDPSA), 12.4 percent in the Azerbaijan Gas Supply Company Limited (AGSC) and 15.5 percent in the South Caucasus Pipeline Company Limited (SCPC). PETRONAS is a Malaysian oil and gas company that was founded on 17 August 1974. Wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia, the corporation is vested with the entire oil and gas resources in Malaysia and is entrusted with the responsibility of developing and adding value to these resources. The group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Dr. Khaled Ali Mohammad Al-Fadhel, Minister of Oil and Minister of Electricity and Water of Kuwait, and chairman of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, will visit Azerbaijan on March 17-18, Kuwait embassy in Baku told Trend. Leading a Kuwaiti delegation, he will take part in the Joint OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) that will be held in Baku March 18, said the embassy. The program of the visit hasnt been disclosed yet, according to the embassy. It should be noted that Baku will also host the Joint Technical Committee meeting on March 17. OPEC and its partners decided to extend its production cuts till the end of 2018 in Vienna on November 30, as the oil cartel and its allies step up their attempt to end a three-year supply glut that has savaged crude prices and the global energy industry. The 5th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting was held in Vienna, Austria, on December 7, 2018. The meeting participants decided to adjust the overall production by 1.2 million barrels per day, effective as of January 2019 for an initial period of six months. The contributions from OPEC and the voluntary contributions from non-OPEC participating countries of the Declaration of Cooperation will correspond to 0.8 million barrels per day (2.5 percent), and 0.4 million barrels per day (2 percent), respectively. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak will visit Azerbaijan on March 17-18, a diplomatic source told Trend. Novak will take part in the Joint OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) that will be held in Baku March 18, said the source. The source noted that the visit program is still to be determined. It should be noted that Baku will also host the Joint Technical Committee meeting on March 17. OPEC and its partners decided to extend its production cuts till the end of 2018 in Vienna on November 30, as the oil cartel and its allies step up their attempt to end a three-year supply glut that has savaged crude prices and the global energy industry. The 5th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting was held in Vienna, Austria, on December 7, 2018. The meeting participants decided to adjust the overall production by 1.2 million barrels per day, effective as of January 2019 for an initial period of six months. The contributions from OPEC and the voluntary contributions from non-OPEC participating countries of the Declaration of Cooperation will correspond to 0.8 million barrels per day (2.5 percent), and 0.4 million barrels per day (2 percent), respectively. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 By Kheyraddin Nasirzade - Trend: Financial Market Supervisory Authority of Azerbaijan (FIMSA) has limited the license of the insurance company AXA MBASK, Trend reports with reference to the financial regulator. In particular, AXA MBASK wont be able to provide services on compulsory insurance of civil liability of motor vehicle owners. The regulator made such a decision because the insurance company violated the Law on Insurance Activity when concluding contracts on compulsory insurance of civil liability of motor vehicle owners. The decision will be valid until the company eliminates shortcomings in its work. MBASK Insurance Company has been operating since 1992. It is one of the first private insurance companies in Azerbaijan. In 2010, one of the largest insurance companies in the world - AXA Group acquired a controlling stake (51 percent) of MBASK insurance company through its subsidiary 'AXA Seguros Generales, S.A., De Seguros Y Reaseguros' (Spain). AXA Group owns 100 percent of AXA MBASK's shares. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 Trend: Microsoft held a workshop on Cyber Security Solutions on March 11 within the framework of the International Cyber Security Week organized by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, Trend reports referring to the ministry. The objective of the workshop is to enhance the level of awareness of cyber security specialists and expand the security capabilities through the use of Microsofts advanced cloud solutions. Detailed information was provided about Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 products and their security criteria during the event. The workshop was attended by authorized representatives of business, diplomatic corps, academia, civil society and internet community. Speaking at the event, Deputy Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies Elmir Velizade said that in Azerbaijan as one of the rapidly developing countries of the world, widespread use of modern information and communication technologies (ICT) has led to the implementation of sustainable cyber security measures in this area. The Deputy Minister noted that Azerbaijan has joined international conventions and programs with the view of forming a legal framework in this area, and further improved its own legal framework. Protection, stability and continuity of information processes in the republic, protection of information resources of government agencies, prevention of threats in this area, and risk management in cybersecurity are carried out in a coordinated manner. Taking this into consideration, the first international Cyber Security Week was launched in our country with the involvement of other relevant structures, said the Deputy Minister. Director of cyber security, licensing compliance and management of Microsofts software assets in the countries of the CIS Dmitry Beresnev said that today critical security issues for cyber security, online security, and network reliability are regarded as one of the most important priorities. Various activities are implemented for the effective international cooperation in this area, multilateral dialogue, adoption of successful decisions and their implementation. In general, cyber security is a very broad and pressing issue. Having timely assessed the existing vulnerabilities and threats in this area, the Azerbaijani government has taken appropriate actions in that area, he said. Then Microsofts analytical report on cyber security was presented. Specialists made extensive presentations on centralized monitoring of cyber security, cybersecurity of corporate mobile devices, logins and passwords, as well as protection methods from unwanted applications and online services. Within the framework of the forum, local participants shared experiences with international specialists, discussed the current situation in this area, the tasks assigned in this area and the integration into relevant foreign institutions. It should be noted that Cyber Security Week will be held in Azerbaijan on March 11-15 this year by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies with the support of Microsoft in order to increase the level of efficiency and awareness and improve technical training in the field of cyber security. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 By Azad Hasanli - Trend: Azerbaijan's State Committee on Property Issues has announced a tender to purchase consulting services as part of issuing a number of state objects for privatization. The tender participation fee is 500 manats. Those willing to participate in the tender must submit applications before 17:00 on Apr. 15, 2019, and tender offers until 17:00 on Apr. 25, 2019. Opening of tender packages will be held at 15:00 on Apr. 26. Address: 50 Yusif Safarov street, Baku (room 810) Phone: (+994 12) 490 24 08 (ext.191) Fax: (+994 12) 490 33 59 Contact person: Nurlan Verdiyev (1 USD = 1.7 AZN on March 11) --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Hasanli_Azad Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 11 By Rashid Shirinov Trend: Kazakh SCAT Airlines is going to launch a direct flight between Astana and Prague, Trend reports via Kazakh media. The press service of the Civil Aviation Committee of Kazakhstans Industry and Infrastructural Development Ministry informed that the flights will be carried out from June 2 with a frequency of 2 times a week (Thursdays and Sundays). The flight duration will be 5 hours and 30 minutes. "The opening of the direct flight will contribute to the expansion of ties and contacts between the business circles of the two countries, enhancing of investment, trade and economic cooperation, as well as tourist exchange," the press service said. It should be noted that every year about 100,000 Kazakh tourists visit the Czech Republic, and more than 2,000 students from Kazakhstan study at Czech universities. Presently, SCAT Airlines, which is one of the largest airlines in Kazakhstan, operates passenger flights within Kazakhstan, as well as to Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkey, Georgia, Lithuania, China and Armenia. The airline's fleet consists of 15 Boeing and 6 Bombardier aircraft. Annually SCAT Airlines opens up to 10 new flights, with an average increase in passenger traffic by 40 percent. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @ShirinovRashid Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 11 By Elnur Baghishov Trend: A ruling has been given on the detained US citizen in the city of Mashhad in Irans northeastern Razavi Khorasan Province, Gholam Ali Sadeqi, prosecutor of Mashhad, told journalists, Trend reports referring to ISNA. Sadeqi did not comment on the details of the ruling. The prosecutor said the case on Michael White, the detained US citizen, is not an unfounded one, as complaints were made from both officials and ordinary citizens. Sadeqi has confirmed the state security accusations made against the US citizen. In early January, the US Department of State announced that US Navy veteran Michael White had been detained in Iran. According to a CBSNews report, White worked as a cook for the Navy but left the service about a decade ago, according to a spokesman for his family. Both his family and U.S. officials have insisted White is not and never has been a spy. The spokesman, Jonathan Franks, said White had recently worked as a janitor. Tehran, Iran, March 11 Trend: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will visit neighboring Iraq on March 11 at the official invitation of his Iraqi counterpart to discuss bilateral ties. The Iranian consulate in Karbala Mir Masoud Hosseinian has announced that the purpose of the visit is to boost bilateral trade to $20 billion. "Given that Iran and Iraq are neighboring countries and have a long common border and good relations, this visit is important for the development of bilateral relations in trade," Hosseinian told Trend. Now, we have $12 billion worth exchange of goods with Iraq, which we plan to increase to $20 billion. It will be Rouhani's first official visit to Iraq during his tenure and after the slap of the US sanctions against the Islamic Republic last year. "The president's visit to foreign countries has certain conditions; the head of the judiciary, speaker of parliament, and the ministers had already traveled to Iraq during Rouhani`s term, but at the presidential level, certain conditions had to be prepared, he said. He noted that ahead of any trip of the president, bilateral agreements must reach the final stage. The initial MoUs have been signed at the ministerial level, so the president has to sign the final agreements, noted Hosseinian. On Feb. 5, the governor of Iran's central bank, Abdolnaser Hemmati, announced that Iranian traders could open accounts in Iraqi banks to carry out their transactions under a new payment system agreed between the two neighbors. The deal, signed in Baghdad by Irans Abdolnasser Hemmati and Iraqs Ali Mohsen Al-Allaq, mainly focuses on a payment channel that is to facilitate the settlement of the Arab countrys debts to Tehran over gas and electricity imports, among others. In addition to natural gas and electricity, Iraq imports a wide range of goods from Iran, including food, agricultural products, home appliances, and air conditioners. Tehran, Iran, March.11 Trend: Former Iranian business advisor in Lebanon and Syria Sajjadnejad hopes that the relations between Iran and Syria would strengthen and improve further. "The relations between two countries are based on hundreds of years, hopefully it could be common cooperation and expansion of political and economic ties during this important time, despite various conspiracies in the region," he said, Trend reports via ILNA. Speaking at the meeting, attended by member of Iran's Chamber of Commerce members and Syrian businessmen, he said that currently 88 items (goods) are exported from Iran to Syria, and this volume should increase. "The level of relations could be improved. The free trade plan with Syria has been signed and we hope the current 4 percent customs tariff would reduce to zero," said Sajjadnejad. "Hopefully the relations of two countries in private sector would increase and reach the targets, in transportation field we are negotiating to reduce the transportation costs to minimum," he added. An aircraft coming into JFK from Istanbul hit a rough patch on Saturday evening, battering passengers who found themselves suddenly vaulted from their seats. According to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, 30 of the 347 people onboard had to be hospitalized due to turbulence-related injuriesmostly minor complaints like "bumps, bruises, and cuts," although one flight attendant did break a leg. That casualty count does not do justice to the fully fledged pandemonium that unfolded inside the cabin, though. As Mohammad Hoque described it to the NY Post: Suddenly the plane was going down very fast, turning right and left. For 20 minutes it was shaking. People were upside down. People were falling. Everyone was screaming. We thought this is the end. We were praying. WATCH: passengers with bloodied faces; blood smeared on overhead cabin. 29 injured from severe turbulence on Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul landing at JFK Airport tonight; gashes on heads to a broken leg. 10 people taken to hospital. Video courtesy Sead Nikaj pic.twitter.com/6SbhkGuqkp CeFaan Kim (@CeFaanKim) March 10, 2019 The Port Authority says that the chaos cropped up about 45 minutes before Turkish Air flight 001 managed to pull off a safe landing around 5:35 p.m. Passengers were evaluated for injuries upon arrival, and the nightmare did not snarl plane traffic. It did, however, traumatize everyone trapped onboard, as well as their loved ones. Florian Brulaj watched a fleet of ambulances descend on Terminal 1 as the flight arrived, and got a bad feeling about the situation even before his father, Zef Brulaj, was wheeled off the plane on a stretcher. Florian conveyed his dad's account of the ruckus to the NY Post: "All of a sudden the plane just started going up and down," he said. "Anyone who didn't have their seat belt on, their head hit the ceiling." Turkish Airlines flight #TK1 to New York(JFK) declared an emergency after the aircraft encountered severe turbulence. FDNY has downgraded the number of patients being treated to 29. (@Van_Tieu)pic.twitter.com/4ej26aUezE Flight Alerts (@FlightAlerts_) March 10, 2019 Another traveler, Sead Nikaj, told the NY Times that he saw his neighbor jettisoned from her seat while oxygen masks dropped from overhead. Although the nightmare lasted only 10 to 15 minutes, it was sufficient to put him off flying for life: "I'm done with it, I'm definitely done with it," Nikaj said. "Until we parked [the plane], I couldn't believe we were alive." In a statement to the Times, Turkish Airlines said it was "deeply saddened by this unfortunate experience." According to the Federal Aviation Administration, however, this kind of thing is not exactly unheard-of. If shooting yourself across the sky in a tin tube raises your baseline anxiety levels to begin with, then turbulence is probably the thing you should fear most: It injures more airborne travelers than any other form of non-fatal flight accident, with 234 turbulence incidents creating nearly 300 injuries between 1980 and 2008. The moral of the story: keep your seatbelt fastened at all times, when the light is on but also when it's not, because you never know when a rocky patch might jolt you into the overhead bins. Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 11 By Elnur Baghishov Trend: Irans Minister of Economy and Finance Farhad Dejpasand will visit Azerbaijan, a diplomatic source told Trend. The Iranian minister will attend the 13th meeting of Azerbaijan-Iran State Commission for Economic, Trade and Humanitarian Cooperation on March 14. The 13th meeting of the State Commission will begin on March 13 and the working groups of Azerbaijan and Iran will discuss the agenda of the meeting. Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 11 By Elnur Baghishov Trend: By using national currencies in trade, Iran and Iraq will not need to use foreign currencies, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said during his meeting with Iraqi President Barham Salih in Baghdad, Trend reports referring to ILNA. According to Rouhani, the Central Banks of the two countries should be strengthened and trade cooperation should be developed in this direction. The Iranian president noted that Iran and Iraq can vastly broaden their relations in various fields, including energy, transportation, commodity transit, maximum utilization of the resources of the border Arvandrud river (known in Iraq as Shatt al-Arab), uniting the railways of both countries, and pilgrimages. According to Rouhani, the necessary conditions should be formed for customs, border and quality standards for the development of economic and trade relations between the two countries. "Establishment of industrial parks on the borders of both countries and the strengthening of border markets can prove to be effective in the development of bilateral relations," he said. Rouhani added that Iran is ready to encourage Iran's private sector to transport its technical and engineering services to Iraq and invest in Iraq. Rouhani added that Iran is ready to provide Iraq with its technical and engineering services, and is ready to encourage its private sector to invest in Iraq. An explosive expert affiliated to the Iraqi paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces was killed and six paramilitary members were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in Iraq's north central province of Salahudin, a security source said, Trend reports referring to Xinhua. The incident took place in the evening when a roadside bomb, apparently planted by Islamic State (IS) militants, detonated while an explosive expert was trying to defuse it near the town of Baiji, some 200 km north of Baghdad, Mohammed al-Bazi from the provincial police told Xinhua. The paramilitary fighters were on a search operation near Baiji when the incident occurred, the source said. The areas near Baiji have been the scene of IS militant attacks on civilians and security personnel, al-Bazi added. In December 2017, Iraq declared full liberation of its territories from the IS after security forces and Hashd Shaabi, backed by an anti-IS international coalition, recaptured all areas once seized by the extremist group. IS remnants, however, have since melted in urban areas or resorted to deserts and rugged areas as safe havens, carrying out guerilla attacks from time to time against security forces and civilians. Algerian leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika returned to the North African country Sunday after two weeks in a Swiss hospital undergoing routine medical checks, said the presidency, quoted by the official APS news agency, Trend reports referring to Al Arabiya. The 82-year-old president had departed for Geneva on February 24, two days after tens of thousands demonstrated against his bid for a fifth term in office. The presidencys confirmation follows Algerian media reports that Bouteflikas plane had landed at the Boufarik military base south of Algiers. Earlier in the day, several Algerian media outlets were quoting Bouteflikas campaign manager as saying that the president was committed to early elections and holding a national forum. He was also quoted as saying that Bouteflika announced his intention to change the regime. Militants have shelled settlements in several Syrian provinces over the last 24 hours, Major General Viktor Kupchishin, chief of the Russian Center for reconciliation of the conflicting sides in Syria, told reporters on Monday, Trend reported citing TASS. Kupchishin said that in the past day militants have opened fire at several settlements in the provinces of Latakia, Hama, Idlib, and Aleppo. The general added that in order to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe at the Rukban camp in Syria, a humanitarian corridor and a mobile checkpoint in the Jleb area have been established. "The Syrian government guarantees safety of temporarily displaced persons and a simplified document restoration process. Temporary accommodation centers have been established," he noted. Within days of the failure of the health care reform, which resulted in the resignation of the Finnish coalition government, key figures of two ruling parties have distanced themselves in public from the business interests of the commercial health sector, Trend reports citing Xinhua. On Sunday, the executives of the big three private health conglomerates, namely Terveystalo, Pihlajalinna and Mehilainen, demanded in the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper that current legal restrictions for them to take over municipal primary health facilities should be lifted, now that the reform had failed. The unsuccessful governmental reform plan had envisioned an opening-up of the tax-financed public health care system to be for profit. The idea was first proposed by conservative National Coalition Party and won support of the Center Party. Finland's public primary care is currently in the hands of municipalities. The reform had expected the provinces to take over and both commercial companies and public entities to act as providers paid by the provinces. Local commentators have attributed the failure of the reform largely to the constitutional problems related to the entry of the for-profit operators. With the parliamentary election a month away, few politicians want to be seen as a promoter of the commercial health sector. Annika Saarikko, minister for family affairs and social services in the current caretaker cabinet, reacted strongly to the private conglomerates, accusing them of having a "poor understanding of the social climate". Also the conservative party chairman Petteri Orpo said on Sunday the commercial companies should now "consider what they say". He said the restrictions on outsourcing to commercial operators should remain valid. Saarikko said the commercial companies are trying to expand their business and benefit from the financial plight of small municipalities. She said the companies show unbelievably poor ability to understand the public opinion. Slovak Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed on Sunday that four Slovaks are among the victims of Ethiopian Airlines crashed plane near Addis Ababa, Trend reports citing Xinhua. "According to official information, four citizens of the Slovak Republic were killed by airplane accident in Ethiopia. Representatives of our diplomatic missions in Ethiopia and Kenya as well as our diplomatic service in Bratislava are approaching this tragedy with full deployment and in line with consular practice," stated the ministry. An Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa on Sunday morning. Airline representatives confirmed the death of all 157 people on board. The 157 people aboard ET 302 en route to Nairobi, Kenya, included nationals from over 30 countries, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Group Tewolde Gebremariam told a press conference. The cause of the crash of the new Boeing 737-800 MAX plane was not immediately known. The spokesman for leading Rwandan opposition politician Victoire Ingabire has been found dead, a government official said on Sunday, Trend reports citing Reuters. It was not immediately clear how 30-year-old Anselme Mutuyimana had died. Twenty-five years after a genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, Rwandan President Paul Kagame has won international praise for presiding over a peaceful and rapid economic recovery. But he has also faced mounting criticism for what human rights groups say are widespread abuses, a muzzling of independent media, and suppression of political opposition. He denies those charges. Several dissidents have been found dead inside Rwanda and in exile in unsolved cases in recent years. Rwandan authorities said they were investigating the death. The investigation has started. No suspects so far, said the spokesman for the Rwanda Investigation Bureau, Modeste Mbabazi. Mutuyimanas elder brother Augustin Tubanambazi told Reuters that the body had no visible wounds, but had blood in its mouth. In 2010, the Democratic Green Partys vice president, Andre Kagwa Rwisereka, was found dead. In 2014, exiled former Rwandan intelligence chief Patrick Karegeya was found murdered in a Johannesburg hotel room. Ingabire, who returned from the Netherlands to contest a presidential election in 2010, had previously served six years of a 15-year sentence for inciting insurrection. She said another official from her FDU-Inkingi party, Jean Damascene Habarugira, had been found dead two years ago and the crime had never been solved. Protesters, police clash in Venezuela blackout We need justice, Ingabire said. She said witnesses had described men in police uniforms in a red car detaining Mutuyimana in the western Mahoko area. Police did not return calls seeking comment on that report. Russia is not planning to be the first to deploy intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles to the regions not hosting similar US weapons, including to Europe, Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) Defense Committee Chairman Vladimir Shamanov told a briefing for military attaches on Monday, Trend reports referring to TASS. Russia reserves the right to respond in kind in terms of development, production and deployment of intermediate-range and shorter-range ground-based missiles and Russian President Vladimir Putin had signed a decree on suspending Russias participation in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, Shamanov recalled. "But we are not planning to be the first to deploy these advanced weapons to the regions, including Europe, where there are no similar US systems," he said. Shamanov also said that the breakdown of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty could signify the risk of returning to the Cold War for Europe. "Anyway, the collapse of the treaty on medium-and shorter-range missiles could deal a severe blow to the international security and stability system. For Europe, that would mean the risk of returning to the worst times of the Cold War, while the Americans themselves will remain out of reach," Shamanov said. According to Shamanov, the United States may deploy about 1,200 warheads excluded from the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty). "Last year, the United States unilaterally excluded about 100 allegedly converted Trident II SLBM launchers on submarines, 41 B-52H bombers and four so-called training mines from the Treaty," he said. "They [the Americans] claimed to have converted them for non-nuclear use," Shamanov noted, adding that Russia was unable to verify that information. "It is about no less than 1,200 warheads, this is serious," the senior Russian lawmaker pointed out. The INF Treaty, signed by the Soviet Union and the United States on December 8, 1987, took effect on June 1, 1988. It applies to deployed and non-deployed ground-based missiles of intermediate range (1,000-5,000 kilometers) and shorter range (500-1,000 kilometers). Washington on many occasions had accused Russia of violating the accord, but Moscow vehemently dismissed all accusations and, in its turn, expressed grievances over Washingtons non-compliance. On February 1, US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced the suspension of Washingtons obligations under the INF starting February 2. Washington is determined to withdraw from the treaty in six months unless Russia returns to "real and verifiable" compliance. On February 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow was also suspending the agreement. He handed down instructions to refrain from initiating talks with Washington on the issue and stressed that the US needed to show willingness for an equal and substantive dialogue. Putin signed a decree suspending Moscows compliance with the Treaty on March 4. The trade turnover between Russia and the EU grew by 20% in 2018, Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said during a meeting with representatives of European business in Moscow, Trend reports referring to TASS. The volume of accumulated investments from the EU countries to the Russian Federation amounted to 300 billion euros last year, the minister added. "This is a lot. This shows that the European business is interested in coming to our country, investing its funds in the development of its business," Manturov said. A 16-year-old boy was kissed and groped by a man in a Brooklyn subway station earlier this year, and police are still looking for the assailant. The incident took place at around 7:45 p.m. on January 8th, at the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center station. According to the NYPD, the victim was waiting on the northbound B platform "when he was approached by an unknown male individual who attempted to engage the victim in a verbal discussion before he kissed the victim on the mouth and physically touched the victim about his body and groin." The boy was able to push the man away before boarding a B train, police say. The suspect remained on the platform and then allegedly fled on foot. Authorities released video of the suspect, who is described as being about 20-30 years old, 5'6" tall and 160 pounds; he was last seen wearing and dark cap and all dark clothing. Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, on Twitter @NYPDTips or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on March 14, presidential spokesman Reinhard Pickl-Herk informed TASS on Monday, Trend reported. "This Thursday [March 14], a short working meeting will take place between the minister [Sergey Lavrov] and the president [Alexander Van der Bellen]," Pickl-Herk noted. According to him, Lavrov and Van der Bellen will discuss "bilateral economic relations, the EU and Russia, other international issues, including the Middle East issue." "They will also discuss the role of Vienna as the headquarters of international organizations," the spokesman added. Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova informed that on March 14, Lavrov would participate in the session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna. Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signed a decree abolishing the import duty on potatoes, Trend reports March 11 with reference to the newspaper Resmi Gazete. The duty wont be applied when importing potatoes in the volume of not less than 200,000 tons. In February 2019, potato prices in Turkey increased by 6.7 percent. President Erdogan has repeatedly stated that measures to combat entrepreneurs who artificially create shortage of potatoes in the markets will be strengthened. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: Istanbul Ataturk Airport will stop operating April 6, Trend reports with reference to Turkish media March 11. The last flight from the Ataturk Airport will take place April 6 at 02:00 (GMT +3). It was earlier reported that the process of dismantling and removal of equipment from Istanbul's Ataturk Airport to the new airport in Istanbul was postponed due to technical reasons until March 2019. The opening ceremony of the new airport in Istanbul was held October 29, 2018. The third airport was built near the Lake Terkos in northern Istanbul. Limak-Kolin-Cengiz-MaPa-Kalyon consortium of companies won the tender for construction of the airport. The first airport in Turkey was built in 1912 and was used for military purposes. In 1953, Istanbul airport was opened for international flights for the first time, and in 1985 it was renamed in honor of the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 11 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Turkey has sent a note of protest to Belgium, Trend reports referring to the Turkish media. According to media reports, the protest was caused by a ban put on the arrest of the members of the European wing of the PKK, namely Remzi Kartal, Zubeyir Aydar, and 30 other supporters of the organization. It is reported that a note of protest was handed over to Michel Malherbe, Ambassador to Belgium in Ankara. The conflict between Turkey and the PKK, which demands the creation of an independent Kurdish state, has lasted more than 25 years, claiming more than 40,000 lives. The PKK is recognized as a terrorist organization by the UN and the EU. Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu A joint US-Norwegian mission will carry out an observation flight over Russia under the Treaty on Open Skies this week, while Russian experts will accomplish a similar mission over the territory of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, Acting Head of the Russian Defense Ministry's National Nuclear Risk Reduction Center Ruslan Shishin has told reporters, Trend reports referring to TASS. "The joint US-Norwegian mission will carry out an observation flight over Russias territory aboard a OC-135B US observation aircraft from Khabarovsk (Novy) Airport on March 11-16," he said. For its part, Russia plans to carry out an observation flight over Benelux aboard an An-30B observation aircraft on March 11-15, which starts from Hungarys Kecskemet airport, with the maximum flight range of 945 kilometers. "The Russian observation aircraft will fly along the route agreed on with the observed party, and Benelux specialists on board will monitor the use of observation equipment and compliance with the Treatys provisions. Observation flights under the treaty are carried out to promote greater openness and transparency in the states parties military activity and strengthen security through confidence-building measures," Shishin stressed. This is Russian experts fifth observation flight over the the territories of the Treatys states participants in 2019. The U.S. ambassador for religious freedom on Monday again urged China to give its people religious freedom, a move he said could help gain trust from self-ruled Taiwan, an island China considers its own, Trend reports referring to Reuters. Sam Brownback on Friday said in a speech in Hong Kong that China was waging war with faith and that it needed to respect the sacred right of people to worship, especially Muslims locked up in internment camps in Xinjiang. On Monday, he addressed the issue of Taiwan which China considers a wayward province and has pledged to unite, by force if necessary. If they want to build some confidence in Taiwan, they should give religious freedom to their own people, he told Reuters. If they would give religious freedom to their own people, that would be noticeable. Chinese President Xi Jinping sought to reassure people in Taiwan in January that religious and legal freedom on the island would be respected under a peaceful reunification. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has in return rejected Xis call and instead urged China to embrace democracy. Brownbacks visit to Taipei was viewed by some in Taiwan as a sign of support from the Trump administration amid growing friction between Taipei and Beijing. The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, acknowledging that China takes the position that there is one China and Taiwan is part of it. But the United States is also Taiwans biggest ally and arms supplier and is duty-bound by legislation to help the island defend itself. In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China opposed any kind of official contact between the United States and Taiwan. China was strongly opposed to the envoys wrong comments about religious freedom and had lodged stern representations with the United States, Lu said, adding that China protected religious freedom. China opposes the United States using the issue of religion to interfere in its internal affairs and urged it to stop, he said. China runs vocational training centres in Xinjiang that meant to carry out de-radicalisation and prevent terror, Lu said. They are absolutely not, as the United States exaggerates, so-called re-education camps. A U.S. Department of State official on Monday said she thinks there will be a third summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but no date has been set, Trend reports referring to Reuters. Trump and Kims second summit in Vietnam last month collapsed over differences on U.S. demands for Pyongyangs denuclearization and North Koreas demand for sanctions relief. Trumps national security adviser, John Bolton, said on Sunday that the president was open to another summit with Kim but more time may be needed. Trump and Kim first met in Singapore last June. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the president have been very clear that they remain open to the dialogue. They havent got a date on the calendar but our teams continue to work towards that, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson said when asked if there would be a third meeting. Is there a next summit? Well, I think there will be, said Thompson, who spoke at the Carnegie Nuclear Conference in Washington. Thompson said it was incredibly important that all countries continued to maintain United Nations sanctions on North Korea until it gave up its nuclear weapons. We are not letting the foot off the gas. We are going to continue with the pressure campaign. she said. We are going to continue to hold those sanctions and we are going to continue to work with the team abroad to make sure those stay in place. Trump said on Friday he would be disappointed if Pyongyang were to resume weapons testing and reiterated his belief in his good relationship with Kim despite the collapse of the summit. Trump commented after U.S. think tanks and Seouls spy agency said that North Korea was rebuilding a rocket launch site. Non-proliferation experts have said satellite images indicate North Korea could be preparing to launch a missile or a space rocket in spite of a freeze in testing that has been in place since 2017. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has put into motion a tri-services inquiry into the helicopter crash. Initial reports indicate that poor visibility might be a reason for the crash. The city's Department of Education staff have been visiting homeless shelters as part of a push to help families apply to what is perhaps the signature achievement of Mayor Bill de Blasios administration: free pre-kindergarten for all 4-year-old New Yorkers. New York City families have until March 15th to apply for a pre-K seat. This is another stage in the rollout of universal pre-K which started in 2014. There are now about 70,000 students enrolled in free pre-K across the city, compared to only 19,000 students in New York City who were enrolled in 2013. At the same time, the last few years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of students living in temporary housing, approximately 105,000, with about 15,000 of them living in homeless shelters. Connecting those students to schools is especially challenging as they move through various shelters and neighborhoods. According to researchers, children facing housing instability experience higher stress, and need a stable school experience. Sean Torres, a supervisor with the DOE outreach team, said connecting pre-schoolers in temporary housing to the citys programs was critical. The children are at the crux of their personality development, theyre learning a lot social skills, making new friends and that has a lot of implications for their academic future and careers, he said. Zakeila Claborne said her daughter has been thriving at her pre-school in Harlem. Shes learned shapes, colors, and numbers and has made a lot of friends. She loves to get up in the morning, Claborne said. She has a good bond with the teachers and the students. Its very nice. But when her family moved to a transitional housing facility in East New York, Claborne said the commute to school went from a couple blocks to an hour-long subway ride. So, on a recent afternoon, she was hunched over a computer at the Win Family Residence as DOE staff walked her through how to find nearby programs. In addition to pre-kindergarten, the city is expanding opportunities for 3-year-olds, increasing from 5,000 seats this year to 20,000 seats next fall. Were pushing it out hard and fast and we can accommodate a lot of people this year, Torres said. The pre-K deadline is this Friday, March 15; the 3-K application deadline is May 3rd. Families looking to apply can visit schools.nyc.gov or call 718-935-2009. Jessica Gould is a reporter in the newsroom at WNYC. You can follow her on Twitter at @ByJessicaGould. Washington: On Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale during which the two officials are likely to discuss bilateral, regional and global issues of common interest. Gokhale arrived in the US on Sunday in connection with the bilateral Foreign Office Consultation and Strategic Security Dialogue with his American counterparts, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson. also read The world gets its oldest person, recognised by Guinness World Records According to Pompeo's schedule for Monday released to the media, the State Department said the meeting between the US Secretary of State and Gokhale is scheduled at about 9 am local time or 6.30 pm IST. the State Department said "Secretary Pompeo meets with Indian Foreign Secretary Shri Vijay Gokhale at the Department of State,". Protocol-wise, it is quite unusual for Pompeo to meet Gokhale, but over the last few years, the US Secretary of State has met the Foreign Secretary, including his predecessor S Jaishankar. It is to be noted that while his US trip was scheduled much before the February 14 Pulwama terrorist attack, Gokhale's meeting with Pompeo and his counterparts here this week is expected to gain media spotlight in view of the escalated tension between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of the air strike at a terrorist camp deep inside Pakistan and subsequent developments. Tensions between India and Pakistan flared up after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror group killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district. also read Khalistanis attack British Indians gathered outside Indian High Commission in London However, these are regular high-level dialogue mechanisms to review bilateral relations, exchange views on major foreign policy and security-related developments and coordinate respective positions on issues of common interest, according to an Indian official.During his visit, the Foreign Secretary is also likely to meet with senior leaders in the US administration and the US Congress. He had then said "Secretary Pompeo led diplomatic engagement directly, and that played an essential role in de-escalating the tensions between the two sides," Here, India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 and captured its pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, who was handed over to India on Friday. State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino, during his bi-weekly news conference last Tuesday, said Pompeo played an "essential role" in de-escalating tensions between India and Pakistan. Massive twin star discovered snuggling close to its stellar sibling Astronomers have discovered a binary star system with the closest high-mass young stellar objects ever measured, providing a valuable "laboratory" to test theories on high mass binary star formation. An international team led by the University of Leeds has determined the distance between the massive young star PDS 27 and its orbiting stellar companion to be just 30 astronomical units away or 4.5 billion km. That is roughly the distance between our Sun and Neptune, making them the stellar companions with the closest proximity ever determined for young high mass stars in a binary system - a star system with two stars in orbit around a centre of mass. Study lead author, Dr Evgenia Koumpia, from the School of Physics and Astronomy at Leeds, said: "This is a very exciting discovery, observing and simulating massive binaries at the early stages of their formation is one of the main struggles of modern astronomy. With PDS 27 and its companion we have now found the closest, most massive young stellar objects in binaries resolved to date. "There is a shortage of known young massive binary systems in charted space. High mass stars have comparatively short lifespans, burning out and exploding as supernovae in only a few million years, making them difficult to spot. This limits our ability to test the theories on how these stars form." As part of their study the team has also identified a companion object for another young massive star referred to as PDS 37. The analysis revealed a distance between PDS 37 and its companion to be between 42 to 54 astronomical units -comparable to the distance between the Sun and Pluto. While further apart than PDS 27 and its companion, it is still a significant discovery given the need for confirmed massive young stellar binaries in astronomical research. Dr Koumpia continued: "How these binary systems form is quite a controversial question with several theories having been put forward. Observational studies of binaries in their early stages are crucial to verifying the theories of their formation. "PDS 27 and PDS 37 are rare and important laboratories that can help inform and test the theories on the formation of high mass binaries." PDS 27 is at least 10 times more massive than our Sun, Dr Koumpia explained, and about 8,000 light years away. To determine the presence of stellar companions for PDS 27 and PDS 37, the team used the highest spatial resolution provided by the PIONIER instrument on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). This instrument combines light beams from four telescopes, each of which is 8.2 metres across, and mimics a single telescope with a diameter of 130m. The resulting high spatial resolving power allowed the team to resolve such close binary systems despite their huge distance from us and their close proximity to each other. Study co-author Professor Rene Oudmaijer, also from the School of Physics and Astronomy at Leeds, said: "The next big question - which we have tended to avoid so far because of observational difficulties - is why so many of these massive stars are in binary systems?" "It has become increasingly clear to astronomers that massive stars are almost never born alone, with at least one sibling for company. But the reasons why that is the case are still rather murky. "Massive stars exert significant influence on their cosmic environment. Their stellar winds, energy and the supernova explosions they generate in turn can impact the formation of other stars and galaxies. The evolution and fate of high-mass stars is quite complex but previous studies have shown that they can be influenced to a large degree by their binary properties. "The discovery of massive young binary stars provides a crucial step forward in being able to answer many of the questions we still have about these stellar objects. These discoveries were only possible thanks to the exquisite resolving power provided by the PIONIER instrument on the VLTI." This research is published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics: Letters. ### Further information: The study "Resolving the MYSO binaries PDS 27 and PDS 37 with VLTI/PIONIER" is published in Astronomy & Astrophysics: Letters 11 March 2019 (DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201834624) Full list of authors: E. Koumpia, K. M. Ababakr, W. J. de Wit, R. D. Oudmaijer, A. Caratti o Garatti, P. Boley, H. Linz, S. Kraus, J. S. Vink, J.-B Le Bouquin Further information relating to PIONIER can be found on the ESO website. For any additional information please contact University of Leeds Media Relations Officer Anna Harrison on a.harrison@leeds.ac.uk or +44 (0)113 343 4196. Images: PDS27 (attached) Caption: 2MASS observations (background image) revealed a highly reddened source back in 2003 indicating the massive young nature of PDS 27. PIONIER on VLTI provides 2000 times higher angular resolution making it possible to resolve PDS 27 as a binary system for the first time in 2019. Credit: Evgenia Koumpia, University of Leeds Binary formation figure (recommended image, available for download: https:/ / public. nrao. edu/ gallery/ binary-star-formation/ ) An artistic view illustrating one of the main theories on how orbiting pair stars form. A young star is surrounded by a rotating disk of gas and dust, with its companion forming within the fragmenting disk. Credit: B. Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF VLT Unit Telescopes (recommended image, available for download: https:/ / www. eso. org/ public/ images/ potw1139a/ ) All four VLT Unit Telescopes working as one Credit: G.Hudepohl (atacamaphoto.com)/ESO The PIONEIR instrument (recommended image, available for download: https:/ / www. eso. org/ public/ images/ ann1081a/ ) Credit: ESO & B. Lazareff (LAOG) Acknowledgements: S.K. acknowledges support from an ERC Starting Grant (Grant Agreement No. 639889). A.C.G. has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 743029). University of Leeds The University of Leeds is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK, with more than 38,000 students from more than 150 different countries, and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. The University plays a significant role in the Turing, Rosalind Franklin and Royce Institutes. We are a top ten university for research and impact power in the UK, according to the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, and are in the top 100 of the QS World University Rankings 2019. The University was awarded a Gold rating by the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework in 2017, recognising its 'consistently outstanding' teaching and learning provision. Twenty-six of our academics have been awarded National Teaching Fellowships - more than any other institution in England, Northern Ireland and Wales - reflecting the excellence of our teaching. http://www. leeds. ac. uk Follow University of Leeds or tag us in to coverage: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Instagram About DIAS Dr Alessio Caratti o Garatti is a researcher from the School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS). As the world's second, and Ireland's only, Institute for Advanced Studies, DIAS is a globally embedded institution that attracts scholars and academics from around the world. It conducts and publishes advanced research across three disciplines: Celtic Studies, Theoretical Physics and Cosmic Physics (encompassing Astronomy, Astrophysics and Geophysics). DIAS also leads Ireland's participation in a number of international research endeavours that focus on big unanswered questions for mankind. Further information is available at http://www. dias. ie . Follow DIAS on social media: Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) The Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg is an institute of the Max Planck Society, Germany's largest organization for fundamental research. The two science departments at MPIA address cardinal questions of cosmic evolution: How do stars and planets form, and what can we learn about planets orbiting stars other than the Sun? How do galaxies form, and how have they changed in the course of cosmic history? Furthermore, MPIA hosts a versatile instrumentation department that is involved in building cutting-edge instruments for the VLT(I), LBT, and the E-ELT, as well as for space-borne missions like JWST, EUCLID, and WFIRST. http://www. mpia. de | @mpi_astro This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. A United Nations worker was arrested this weekend for sexually abusing a teenager, after allegedly entering the boy's hotel room under the guise of needing to charge his phone, authorities said. [Update below.] Gregory Connor, a 46-year-old coordination specialist for the United Nations Development Program, was apprehended by police at 1:30 a.m. on Saturday and charged with forcible touching of intimate parts, police said. The victim is a 17-year-old boy, who was reportedly visiting New York City on a class trip from Italy. According to police, Connor approached the teenager and asked if he could use his iPhone charger, then followed him up to his room at the Hilton Hotel in Midtown. Soon after, he allegedly undressed and began groping the victim, touching his chest and his crotch. Connor left a few minutes later, but briefly returned after forgetting his bag in the room, a police spokesperson added. Sources told the Post that police were notified of the abuse by hotel security and school chaperones, and that Connor was still at the hotel when he was arrested hours after the incident. Unlike many United Nations officials accused of misconduct in the city, Connor does not have diplomatic immunity. He was released without bail following his arraignment on Saturday. In a statement to Gothamist, a spokesman for the United Nations Development Program said, UNDP takes all allegations of sexual misconduct extremely seriously and has zero tolerance for this behavior. UNDP is aware of these allegations, has been in touch with the relevant U.S. authorities and is actively following up on the matter." Prior to working at the United Nations, Connors held a series of development jobs in New York City, Washington D.C., and Europe, according to his LinkedIn page. His resume includes senior level positions at the World Bank, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the EastWest institute. He currently resides on the Upper West Side. Update, June 24, 2020: According to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, the case involving Connor has been sealed. The NYPD has arrested a driver who fatally struck an elderly pedestrian in a Bushwick crosswalk this weekend, according to authorities. Evaristo Mercado, an 82-year-old Bushwick resident, was struck on Saturday while attempting to cross Maujer Street, police said. According to a preliminary investigation, the driver of a Ford van struck the pedestrian as he was making a left turn from Bushwick Avenue just before 6 p.m. Mercado was transported to Woodhull Hospital where he was pronounced dead. The driver, 57-year-old Mark Smith, was arrested on Sunday and charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care, a misdemeanor and a violation, respectively. Police also found a small amount of marijuana in the Virginia resident's van, and charged him with misdemeanor possession. Mercado's death comes amid an uptick in pedestrian and cyclist fatalities in the first few months of 2019. Another Brooklyn senior, 85-year-old Stella Clinton, was killed while walking on the sidewalk in Marine Park on Wednesday. There have been no arrests in that case, and an investigation is ongoing, police said. A preservation group is asking the city to grant landmark designation to the interior of the White Horse Tavern, the legendary New York literati gathering spot that was recently sold. In what is a relatively rare landmarking request, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (also known as Village Preservation) urged the Citys Landmark Preservation Commission in a March 8th letter to consider preserving the interior of 567 Hudson Street. The exterior of the building, a wood-frame house which dates back to 1880, falls under the Greenwich Village Historic District and is already protected as a landmark. Landmarking requests for the interiors of buildings occur much less frequently than those for exteriors. All told, there are only about 10 interior-landmarked properties in the neighborhood and 120 across the city. In order to be awarded interior landmark status, the space must be open to the public. It cannot be a place of worship. This is really exactly what interior landmark designation is meant to protect, says Andrew Berman, Village Preservations executive director. Its a place where incredibly an important piece of New York history has taken place. And its largely intact from the time period. Over the years, the famed guest list has included James Baldwin, Anais Nin, Norman Mailer, John Ashbery, Frank OHara, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Bob Dylan, and Jim Morrison. In his letter, Berman said bars like White Horse Tavern were "modern-day versions of 19th century literary saloons." Berman said the request was spurred by the sale of the building. Last week, Jeremiahs Vanishing New York reported that the building had been sold to Steve Croman, one of the citys most notorious landlords. Last year, Croman was ordered to pay $8 million in restitution as part of a settlement of the states biggest tenant harassment case. Croman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A rep for restaurateur Etan Sugarman, who has been tapped as the bars new operator, confirmed the sale to Croman, according to Eater. As news of the sale spread, White Horse Tavern regulars bemoaned the sale of the beloved establishment, expressing concerns that the bars new management will do away with its low-cost menu. Sugarman, who is best known for Hunt & Fish Club, an upscale Times Square steakhouse, has not yet disclosed any plans for the bar. We are only focused on preserving the rich history and legacy of this iconic institution for New Yorkers, he told Eater. Sugarman posted about his new role on his Instagram page, writing, "This place his been deemed a historic landmark, and I consider it an absolute treasure. People are writing me, asking if I intend to maintain it as The White Horse Tavern...My friends, I wouldnt have it any other way. Im privileged to take the reigns on this true piece of New York history. I will preserve and maintain this wonderful piece of old New York. Youve got the right man for the job. This is going to be a great project." Berman said he is hoping the citys Landmarks Commission takes up his request soon. There is no deadline for the commission to respond. The first step in the public review process would be to calendar the interior of the building, a sign Berman said that would indicate that the commission is very seriously considering landmarking. Its important to do this now, he said, adding, Before its possibly too late. Vietnams potential for AI application is huge VietNamNet Bridge Le Anh Son, who is currently working as Assistant Professor in Institute of Innovation for Future Society, Nagoya University, Japan, talks to Thoi bao kinh te Sai Gon (Sai Gon Economic Times) about how Vietnam can catch up with the global trend in applying Artificial Intelligence. Le Anh Son Developed countries have made gains in Artificial Intelligence (AI), but not easily. Developing countries like Vietnam face more challenges. What is your view on this? What is the potential for AI in Vietnam? Artificial intelligence has spread into the daily lives of people in the developed world like Japan. You can easily find simple AI applications like facial recognition, or robots that are able to talk outside commercial centers. The modern world is now connected, and thats a good thing. Previously, developing countries often had to wait for technology transfers from more developed countries. Now we can actually catch up with the trend and work together from the very first stage. In 2014, when the application of AI was still moderate I started my PhD in Mechatronics Engineering Technology and also completed two Toyota projects on driver support systems. At that time, I conducted more in depth research into AI after I understood the importance of this area. In just a few years, AI has developed dramatically and impacted on various fields. Thats an indication that we wont have time to wait. We can start at simple stages, because AI applications can be divided into many levels. A complete AI application is one that has consciousness and is able to process information like a human brain, but thats something for the future. Do you believe such a thing is possible? Of course it would take a lot of time and effort to make something similar to the human brain. Scientists will also need more time to work on producing extremely accurate sensors that can be used in all situations, just like human senses. They will also need to work on algorithms that imitate a human way of thinking. I think its totally possible because the application of AI will be huge, and scientists wont give up. How can AI applications be used in Vietnam? In agriculture, we can use AI to identify crops species and diseases that may affect them. This can also be done in health services, like the early detection of strokes via information about heartbeats and images. AI can also be applied effectively in transportation, especially in self-driving vehicles by recognizing subjects inside and outside the vehicles. In production, AI can be used to maximize the transportation of goods. What does Vietnam need to develop its own AI field and what might be the challenges? To create AI applications in any field, we need to have ideas, experts in the field, databases and a team of coding staff. Vietnam does not lack ideas and talents in addressing its problems, but we do lack experts in certain fields. AI applications in Vietnam are mostly developed spontaneously by people who are not experts in the fields the applications are being used in. The involvement of experts is of crucial importance because they will be able to identify the core problems in the field before going into coding detail. Databases are also another important factor in developing AI. Currently we can use some open databases and big data available around the world. But if we continue to do that in the long run, Vietnams AI will only be able to develop moderately. In fact, we need to develop sensors to be able to collect data ourselves in order for AI to develop in Vietnam. What is the potential for Vietnam in this field? Its interesting that many AI applications in other countries are actually developed and coded in Vietnam. Many AI companies have been heading to Vietnam as a potential market with high quality coders. AI applications in Vietnam, however, are still modest, mainly in facial recognition, writing recognition and vehicle recognition. As an expert in driver support systems, I think Vietnam has the potential to do more than that. With a huge resource of high quality coders, Vietnams potential for AI application is huge. Source: VNS New Braunfels, TX (78130) Today Cloudy early with peeks of sunshine expected late. Near record high temperatures. High near 80F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 64F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Scientists at Aarhus University in Denmark studying the effects of climate change on weather-dependent electricity systems have found a silver lining in Earth's otherwise fraught future outlook. Temperatures may climb and seas may rise, but the lights (and, undoubtedly, the air conditioning) will still be on in nations with high capacities for wind and solar energy. The research, published March 6 in the journal Joule, suggests that these electricity systems should work almost equally well in both historical and future European climates despite changing weather patterns. Using data from weather models and climate time series, the team developed models that predict wind turbine and solar panel output for all European countries under the most common global warming scenarios through the year 2100. In order to compare how a European weather-dependent electrical grid functions in these projections with how it functioned historically, the scientists selected five key metrics: need and capacity for dispatchable electricity (which can be stored and used on demand by power grid operators), benefit of electrical transmission, benefit of electrical storage, and variability of electricity production and consumption. These metrics measure the most important aspects of a large-scale renewable-heavy electricity system and are abstract enough that the team could use them to draw general conclusions without focusing on a specific technology mix. "Most other energy system studies assume a number of technologies and seek to combine them in a cost-optimal way to cover the demand," says Smail Kozarcanin, a PhD fellow in the Department of Engineering and the first author of the study. "In this study, we seek to understand, for example, how climate change affects the system independent of which technologies are used to cover the demand that remains unmet by wind and solar. To the best of our knowledge, this technology-independent focus in combination with high-resolution data on climate change projections is unique to our study." Despite the new weather extremes predicted by future climate scenarios, the study didn't find a large difference in the key metrics for renewable electrical systems, suggesting that system designs based on historical weather should perform similarly in future climates. Kozarcanin and his colleagues believe this is because current systems are designed to withstand extreme weather events--they simply don't have to withstand them now as often as they will in the future. The team also notes that European demand for electrified heating and cooling will actually dip slightly as the climate warms, since the demand for air conditioning is much less than that for heating at European latitudes. This relaxed demand will counterbalance the slight decrease in wind and solar energy output their models predict. "Extreme weather might require changes to the renewable generators and other parts of the system," says Kozarcanin. "For example, future wind turbines may require new types of storm protection and solar panels could need protection against super hailstorms. But our study shows that large-scale infrastructure choices, such as back-up power plant capacity, are relatively unaffected by the level of climate change." However, the team does believe that the European electrical grid will still require some tweaking to operate efficiently in the future. Transmission capacities are well developed within most nations, but the massive interconnected electrical system spanning 24 countries across Central Europe will need a boost to effectively transmit renewable energy between nations. "The main challenge for future grids will most likely be political and societal will to make the investments and proper planning for a grid topology that provides most of the potential benefit from smoothing renewable energy production between countries," says Kozarcanin. If humans fail to mitigate the apocalyptic heatwaves and superstorms to come, at least it seems probable that we can hole up in our climate-controlled living rooms and watch HBO Nordic. Indefinitely. ### The authors were funded by the Aarhus University Research Foundation, the China Scholarship Council, the Idella Foundation Denmark, and the RE-INVEST project, which is supported by the Innovation Fund Denmark. Joule, Kozarcanin et al.: "21st Century Climate Change Impacts on Key Properties of a Large-Scale Renewable-Based Electricity System" http://www.cell.com/joule/fulltext/S2542-4351(19)30050-9 Joule (@Joule_CP) published monthly by Cell Press, is a new home for outstanding and insightful research, analysis, and ideas addressing the need for more sustainable energy. A sister journal to Cell, Joule spans all scales of energy research, from fundamental laboratory research into energy conversion and storage up to impactful analysis at the global level. Visit: http://www.cell.com/joule. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com. Erdemir recognized for his distinguished contributions to the science of interacting surfaces. Distinguished Fellow Ali Erdemir from the U.S. Department of Energys (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has been elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), one of the highest professional distinctions accorded to engineers. The NAE recognizes Erdemir for his distinguished contributions to the science and technology of friction, wear and lubrication. Erdemir, a program lead in Argonnes Applied Materials Division, develops new materials, coatings and lubricants with his research team to reduce friction and wear, maximizing efficiency and durability in moving mechanical systems. The discoveries and innovations stemming from his work have earned him six R&D 100 Awards and 23 U.S. patents. This honor reflects the power of the national laboratories. Argonne is full of dedicated scientists and engineers whose consistent and pioneering research has long been advancing the frontiers of science and making a positive impact on our society. Ali Erdemir I feel honored to be recognized alongside such innovative and accomplished engineers from industry, academia and the government, said Erdemir. ?This honor reflects the power of the national laboratories. Argonne is full of dedicated scientists and engineers whose consistent and pioneering research has long been advancing the frontiers of science and making a positive impact on our society. Erdemir has authored or co-authored more than 300 papers. In collaboration with the national laboratories, academia and industry, his research is improving technology for fields including manufacturing and transportation. He is the President of the International Tribology Council and was 2016-2017 President of the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers. The NAE, a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, cultivates a strong community of engineers who provide engineering leadership and insight to the nation. The organization elected the new members on Feb. 7, and the induction ceremony for the NAE Class of 2019 will take place on Oct. 6, during the NAE Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nations first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance Americas scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energys Office of Science. The U.S. Department of Energys Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit the Office of Science website. ### The Research Center for Functional Molecular Systems presents the Netherlands Awards for Supramolecular Chemistry 2019. This year's laureates, Chad A. Mirkin and Helma Wennemers, have been inspired by nature biological tools to increase structural complexity in supramolecular materials. The Netherlands Award for Supramolecular Chemistry is awarded to Chad A. Mirkin. In 1996, he conducted the first DNA-based method for rationally assembling nanoparticles into macroscopic materials. Since then, he has pioneered the synthesis of colloidal crystals with DNA that are now routinely used for many medical diagnostic, therapeutic and materials applications. He is the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and the director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology at Northwestern. The Netherlands Scholar Award for Supramolecular Chemistry is awarded to Helma Wennemers. Triggered by the understanding of nature at the molecular level, she combines the activity of peptides and the power of organic synthesis to achieve functionalities fulfilled in nature by large macromolecules. She is actively involved in the rational design and the development of peptide-based asymmetric catalysts and bioinspired molecular scaffolds for applications in supramolecular and biological chemistry. She is professor of organic chemistry at the ETH Zurich. Chad A. Mirkin is the third recipient of the Netherlands Supramolecular Award, with Jean-Marie Lehn and Sir Fraser Stoddart. Helma Wennemers is the forth recipient of the Netherlands Supramolecular Scholar Award with Rafal Klajn, Hanadi Sleiman and Kenichiro Itami. Their contributions to science are inspiring to many chemists in the exciting field of supramolecular chemistry. Chad A. Mirkin and Helma Wennemers will receive the awards during ICMSE 2019, the International Conference on Molecular Systems Engineering, August 18-20, in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. They will also be invited to do a lecture tour of The Netherlands and present their work at several universities. The faculty board of the Research Center FMS is composed of Bert Meijer (Eindhoven University of Technology), Ben Feringa (University of Groningen), Roeland Nolte and Wilhelm Huck (both Radboud University Nijmegen). The link to the Research Center for Functional Molecular Systems is: https://fmsresearch.nl/ The link to the Netherlands Awards for Supramolecular Chemistry is here: https://fmsresearch.nl/netherlands-award-for-supramolecular-chemistry/ The link to the ICMSE conference where the laureates will be awarded is here: https://icmse2019-nijmegen.nl/ ### New data released by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) shows there were nearly a quarter million more cosmetic procedures performed in 2018 than the previous year. According to the ASPS annual plastic surgery statistics report, there were more than 17.7 million surgical and minimally-invasive cosmetic procedures performed in the United States in 2018, a number that has risen steadily over the past five years. The statistics also reveal a rise in new trends in body-shaping procedures, with a spike in non-invasive fat reduction, as well as surgeries such as breast augmentations and liposuction. Top 5 Cosmetic Surgical and Minimally-Invasive Procedures: Of the more than 1.8 million cosmetic surgical procedures performed in 2018, the top 5 were: Breast augmentation (313,735 procedures, up 4 percent from 2017) Liposuction (258,558 procedures, up 5 percent from 2017) Nose reshaping (213,780 procedures, down 2 percent from 2017) Eyelid surgery (206,529 procedures, down 1 percent from 2017) Tummy tuck (130,081 procedures, about the same as 2017) Among the 15.9 million cosmetic minimally-invasive procedures performed in 2018, the top 5 were: Botulinum Toxin Type A (7.44 million procedures, up 3 percent from 2017) Soft Tissue Fillers (2.68 million procedures, up 2 percent from 2017) Chemical Peel (1.38 million procedures, up 1 percent since 2017) Laser hair removal (1.1 million procedures, down 1 percent from 2017) Microdermabrasion (709,413 procedures, down 4% from 2017) Year of the Body: Three of the top five surgical procedures focus on the body, and in 2018, there was an increase in all three. In fact, there were more than 12,000 more liposuction procedures performed in 2018 than in 2017, while breast augmentations increased by four percent. There were also surges in other body-sculpting procedures like buttock augmentations and thigh lifts. "Liposuction continues to be the gold standard in body contouring because of its versatility, efficiency and effectiveness," said ASPS President Alan Matarasso, MD. "With liposuction, one treatment may be all you need to reshape problem areas. A plastic surgeon can treat more areas--and larger areas--in one procedure. Liposuction also provides a more consistent and predictable result than non-invasive treatments, but new non-surgical fat reduction machinery continues to evolve and play a role in reshaping areas of the body." While the two facial surgical procedures in the top five--nose reshaping and eyelid surgery--both decreased slightly, patients are now choosing among more options than ever before, particularly with emerging non-surgical nose reshaping and eyelid puffiness improvement. Specialized procedures for different areas of the face and neck, such as a neck lift procedure that can be performed without the need for a full facelift, may also account for some of these changes. How Surgical and Non-Surgical Options Work Together: Whether you're interested in surgical or non-invasive procedures, a board-certified plastic surgeon can help you explore all of your options. Oftentimes, this includes marrying surgical and non-surgical procedures together--for example, performing a facelift but also using fillers in conjunction with the procedure--to achieve optimal results. ASPS member surgeons' extensive and ongoing training enable them to offer a full range of procedures to meet their patients' goals. "Board-certified plastic surgeons are on the cutting edge of developing emerging technology and creating the newest advancements in both surgical and non-surgical techniques," said Matarasso. "Our board-certified plastic surgeons take into account each patient's specific objective and anatomy to come up with the best course of action to achieve the natural look they want." ### About the ASPS Annual Procedural Statistics: ASPS members may report procedural information through the first online national database for plastic surgery procedures, Tracking Operations and Outcomes for Plastic Surgeons (TOPS). This data, combined with an annual survey sent to American Board of Medical Specialties' certified physicians most likely to perform these procedures, results in the most comprehensive census on plastic surgery. STATS REPORT: 2018 National Clearinghouse of Plastic Surgery INFOGRAPHIC: 2018 Trends in Cosmetic Plastic Surgery About ASPS: The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) is the world's largest organization of board-certified plastic surgeons. The Society is a leading authority and information source on aesthetic and reconstructive plastic surgery. ASPS comprises almost 93 percent of all board-certified plastic surgeons in the United States. Founded in 1931, the Society represents physicians certified by The American Board of Plastic Surgery or The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Since most of the microbes in our gut are bacteria, they tend to hog much of the microbiome research limelight. But, lurking amongst the bacteria are other microbes such as single-cell eukaryotes (SCE) and viruses, which have been largely ignored until now. If doctors and scientists think of Blastocystis (one the most common gut SCEs) at all, they often regard it as a harmless commensal organism, peacefully co-existing with its bacterial neighbors. However, that could change with the publication of a new study from NUS Medicine (online in Microbiome on March 11, 2019), which shows that a subtype of Blastocystis isolated from Singapore can actually harm its neighbors and its home in an insidious way. Associate Professor Kevin Tan and Associate Professor Zhang Yongliang from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at NUS Medicine, together with postdoctoral research associates John Yason and Chin Wen Png, demonstrated that Blastocystis subtype 7 (ST7) selectively caused the death of Bifidobacterium (one of the "good" bacteria in the body) in cell culture and in vivo. The ST7 strain of Blastocystis appeared to induce oxidative stress mechanisms, which involve the release of reactive oxygen species (ROS). These killer molecules caused the death of the good Bifidobacterium. Interestingly, the Blastocystis ST7 organisms also reduced the population of Lactobacillus (another good bacteria) in vivo, although the mechanism of killing is still unknown. Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus are considered good bacteria because they maintain the integrity of the intestinal lining by supporting tight junctions, which act like cement between the cells that make up the lining. They are also commonly used as probiotics to promote gut health. Besides killing Bifidobacterium directly, Blastocystis ST7 can also gang up with E. coli in the gut to kill even more of these protectors. Ironically, Bifidobacterium and E. coli both help Blastocystis grow better. In other words, Bifidobacterium promotes the growth of its own killer. To make matters worse, Blastocystis ST7 injures the gut lining directly as well as indirectly by triggering an inflammatory response (Figure), causing lesions (ulcers) and a disordered structure of the intestinal lining in vivo. Add to this the loss of the protective good bacteria, an infection with Blastocystis ST7 could be a recipe for long-term damage to the gut lining, possibly contributing to inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, as well as gastrointestinal and colon cancers. Part of the reason for the unclear role of Blastocystis in disease is that previous studies did not consider the Blastocystis subtype that was being investigated. Some subtypes are likely to be harmless, but this study shows that ST7 is uniquely different. Not only does ST7 have harmful effects, it is also resistant to metronidazole, the typical treatment for Blastocystis. Like other Blastocystis subtypes, ST7 is transmitted through eating food that has been contaminated with feces from infected animals, especially birds. Although ST7 has been reported mainly in Singapore, it has also been described in Japan and at least one Danish study. Thus, this pathogenic Blastocystis subtype could be found in other ethnicities and geographic locations as it becomes more widely studied. Assoc Prof Tan is already developing tools to study the mechanisms by which Blastocystis cause disease in greater depth. He and his team have established a genetic modification system for Blastocystis, whereby foreign genes can be introduced into and expressed in Blastocystis and the effects of these changes can be studied. They hope to use this system to illuminate how Blastocystis interacts with its host to cause disease and to explore ways to combat the microbe. As Assoc Prof Tan describes it, "This is the first detailed study to show a causal link between Blastocystis, a common single cell eukaryote of the human gut, and the host microbiota. We reveal how it reduces the numbers of beneficial bacteria, which may in turn lead to an unbalanced gut microbiome and poorer gut health." The detrimental effects of Blastocystis on Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus could facilitate the development of inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome, in which the good bacteria play a protective role. Based on these results, clinicians could also consider whether to exclude fecal transplants that contain specific subtypes of Blastocystis during fecal microbiota transplantation. ### References Yason JA, Liang YR, P'ng CW, Zhang Y, Tan KSW. Interactions between a pathogenic Blastocystis subtype and gut microbiota: in vitro and in vivo studies. Microbiome 2019;xxx Li FJ, Tsaousis AD, Purton T, Chow VTK, He CY, Tan KSW. Successful genetic transfection of the colonic protistan parasite Blastocystis for reliable expression of ectopic genes. Sci. Rep. 2019;9:3159. Independent research has shown that a safer, smarter corrosion inhibitor can protect products for up to ten times longer, plugging the performance gap for an effective, chrome-free inhibitor. The product was developed by Hexigone, a start-up company formed by Swansea University researchers and students. Corrosion costs the world economy 2.5 trillion dollars every year, and last month, the EU banned its most effective inhibitor, hexavalent chromate. Hexigone Inhibitors' disruptive technology - Intelli-ion - swaps chromate for 'chemically intelligent' pigments, offering a completely unique approach to tackling corrosion. The result? Coatings that can protect end-products for up to ten times longer than chrome-free alternatives. The research was carried out by a global leader in industrial coatings, and following 1,000 hours of aggressive prohesion, salt spray and humidity (4000 hours) testing, the Intelli-ion product displayed 1mm of corrosion versus 10mm in the control sample (see figure 2). CEO and Founder of Hexigone Inhibitors, Patrick Dodds, commented: "Following really exciting results in the labs, these were the results we were anticipating from our industry partners. We moved our research away from mainstream thinking, and as a result, can use chemicals that were previously incompatible with coatings. Now, we are offering a potentially game-changing inhibitor to the coatings industry; a higher performing product that can be easily added to existing production processes, at a price that matches the market." Intelli-ion uses intelligent micro reservoirs that make the coatings responsive to the environment, triggering the release of the inhibitor 'on demand.' This method of protection could deliver significantly longer life spans to end products, which would in turn, have a huge impact on the construction, automotive and aerospace industries. The company has not gone unnoticed; they have recently secured investment from Development Bank of Wales and angel investors, Phil Buck and Andy Lewis, as well as an innovation loan from Innovate UK; totalling over 1 million. The team is already working with 20 industry partners across 4 continents and the extra financial boost; along with support from investment expert Owen Sennet and AgorIP; will allow them to accelerate scale-up and provide the coatings industry a safer, smarter way to tackle corrosion. Phil Buck, former CEO of Spencer Coatings Group, commented: "In my forty years in the industry we have been looking for a comparable performance from an anti-corrosion pigment that we previously enjoyed when we used lead and chromate complexes. None of the new developments have given that. Now at last we have a corrosion inhibitor that provides the level of performance that our clients need to protect their assets from premature failure. Hexigone is now able to offer the corrosion industry what they have been looking for - a search which has spanned a generation." ### Notes to Editors: Contact: Ella Newington, Marketing Manager marketing@hexigone.com | 07983336705 Links: Website: http://www.hexigone.com Twitter: @hexigone_ltd Linked In: Hexigone Inhibitors Media: Link to Intelli-ion video: https://vimeo.com/312113587 Image 1: CEO and founder, Patrick Dodds & Product Development Manager, Calvin Richards. Image 2: Test results demonstrating areas of 1mm (Intelli-ion) vs. 10mm (control) creep in samples Image 3: Paddy Dodds, Calvin Richards and Alex Neilsen at the Active Office at Swansea University. Other info: It monitors a person's time of use and weight-bearing while walking, in a nonintrusive way for users and at low cost Robot-aided rehabilitation represents a step forward for patients with walking difficulties. However, its high price, together with some adaptation and transfer problems, keep limiting its use at present. In this regard, the Embedded Systems Engineering Group of the University of Malaga, specializing in the design of physical devices to aid users, such as a smart wheelchair, has developed a mechanized cane that can measure patients' rehabilitation process without any impact on them. This is a low cost device, adapted to users and accessible to anyone, since the researchers have uploaded its designs, algorithms and electronic diagrams of its pieces to the Internet under an open license. This cane monitors users' weight-bearing while walking, providing individualized information on their progress, by means of two embedded pressure sensors placed at two different depths in the tip of a regular cane so that they don't affect cane ergonomics. Likewise, so as to simplify its use, it includes a wireless charger, and data can be collected by a mobile phone via Bluetooth. "We seek a minimal interaction with patients, to avoid any cognitive load and prevent any impact on their daily routine", explains Cristina Urdiales, Head of the Department of Electronic Technology. Furthermore, promoting direct transfer to the industry is another objective of this project, shared under an open license and published in the scientific journal Sensors. "We have managed to keep the cost of manufacturing the cane below 100", says Joaquin Ballesteros, the designer, who adds that, thus far, it has been downloaded by more than 150 researchers, from the USA and France mainly. Experts explain that, in contrast to smart bracelets or watches already on the market which are based on statistics for healthy users, this device developed at the UMA, in collaboration with ESS-H Profile at Malardalens University (Sweden), adds real measurement of step parameters. But apart from its medical applications, which enable specialists to control each patient, the cane is also aimed at promoting active ageing. In fact, it is already being tested in the so-called Active Participation Centers. Adding intelligence by developing a neuronal network, capable of processing and interpreting data collected in the cane, to predict more complex indicators, is the next stage of the project, which represents a step forward in the functionality of walking aids. ### Bibliographic reference: Ballesteros Joaquin, Tudela Alberto, Caro-Romero Juan Rafael, Urdiales Cristina. 'Weight-Bearing Estimation for Cane Users by Using Onboard Sensors'. Sensors. 2019 Jan; 19(3), 509 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/s19030509 Open license design: https://github.com/joaquinballesteros/Smart-Cane Scientists in the Emergent Photonics Lab (EPic Lab) at the University of Sussex have made a breakthrough to a crucial element of an atomic clock - devices which could reduce our reliance on satellite mapping in the future - using cutting-edge laser beam technology. Their development greatly improves the efficiency of the lancet (which in a traditional clock is responsible for counting), by 80% - something which scientists around the world have been racing to achieve. Currently, the UK is reliant on the US and the EU for the satellite mapping that many of us have on our phones and in our cars. That makes us vulnerable not only to the whims of international politics, but also to the availability of satellite signal. Dr Alessia Pasquazi from the EPic Lab in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Sussex explains the breakthrough: "With a portable atomic clock, an ambulance, for example, will be able to still access their mapping whilst in a tunnel, and a commuter will be able to plan their route whilst on the underground or without mobile phone signal in the countryside. Portable atomic clocks would work on an extremely accurate form of geo-mapping, enabling access to your location and planned route without the need for satellite signal. "Our breakthrough improves the efficiency of the part of the clock responsible for counting by 80%. This takes us one step closer to seeing portable atomic clocks replacing satellite mapping, like GPS, which could happen within 20 years. This technology will changes people's everyday lives as well as potentially being applicable in driverless cars, drones and the aerospace industry. It's exciting that this development has happened here at Sussex." Optical atomic clocks are at the pinnacle of time measuring devices, losing less than one second every ten billion years. Curently though, they are massive devices, weighing hundreds of kilograms. In order to have an optimal practical function that could be utilised by your average person, their size needs to be greatly reduced whilst retaining the accuracy and speed of the large-scale clocks. In an optical atomic clock, the reference (the pendulum in a traditional clock) is directly derived by the quantum property of a single atom confined in a chamber: it is the electromagnetic field of a light beam oscillating hundreds of trillions of times per second. The clock counting element required to work at this speed is an optical frequency comb - a highly specialised laser emitting, simultaneously, many precise colours, evenly spaced in frequency. Micro-combs bring down the dimension of frequency combs by exploiting tiny devices named optical microresonators. These devices have captured the imagination of the scientific community world-wide over the past ten years, with their promise of realising the full potential of frequency combs in a compact form. However, they are delicate devices, complex to operate and typically do not meet the requirement of practical atomic clocks. The breakthrough at the EPic Lab, detailed in a paper published today (Monday 11 March) in the journal, Nature Photonics, is the demonstration an exceptionally efficient and robust micro-comb based on a unique kind of wave called a 'laser cavity soliton'. Dr Pasquazi continues: "Solitons are special waves that are particularly robust to perturbation. Tsunamis, for instance, are water solitons. They can travel unperturbed for incredible distances; after the Japan earthquake in 2011 some of them even reached as far as the coast of California. "Instead of using water, in our experiments performed by Dr Hualong Bao, we use pulses of light, confined in a tiny cavity on a chip. Our distinctive approach is to insert the chip in a laser based on optical fibres, the same used to deliver internet in our homes. "The soliton that travels in this combination has the benefit of fully exploiting the micro-cavities' capabilities of generating many colours, whilst also offering the robustness and versatility of control of pulsed lasers. The next step is to transfer this chip-based technology to fibre technology - something that we're exceptionally well-placed at the University of Sussex to achieve." Professor Marco Peccianti from the University of Sussex EPic Lab adds: "We are moving towards the integration of our device with that of the ultra-compact atomic reference (or pendulum) developed by Professor Matthias Keller's research group here at the University of Sussex. Working together, we plan to develop a portable atomic clock that could revolutionise the way we count time in the future. "Our development represents a significant step forward in the production of practical atomic clocks and we're extremely excited by our plans, which range from partnerships with the UK aerospace industry, which could come to fruition within five years, through to portable atomic clocks that could be housed in your phone and within driverless cars and drones within 20 years." ### The full paper is published in can be accessed here from that time: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41566-019-0379-5 Across North America, coyotes are moving into urban environments, and regardless of how they feel about it, urban residents are having to get used to some new animal neighbors. A big question for wildlife researchers is how coyotes habituate to humans, which can potentially lead to conflict. A study led by a University of Washington Tacoma faculty member, recently published in Ecology and Evolution, suggests coyotes can habituate to humans quickly and that habituated parents pass this fearlessness on to their offspring. "Even if it's only 0.001 percent of the time, when a coyote threatens or attacks a person or a pet, it's national news, and wildlife management gets called in," said first author Christopher Schell, an assistant professor at UW Tacoma. "We want to understand the mechanisms that contribute to habituation and fearlessness, to prevent these situations from occurring." The study, done as part of Schell's doctoral work at the University of Chicago, focused on eight coyote families at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Predator Research Facility in Millville, Utah. The research center was founded in the 1970s to reduce coyote attacks on sheep and other livestock. Until the 20th century, Schell said, coyotes lived mostly in the Great Plains. But when wolves were hunted almost to extinction in the early 1900s, coyotes lost their major predator, and their range began to expand. With continuing landscape changes, coyotes are now increasingly making their way into suburban and urban environments -- including New York City, Los Angeles and cities in the Pacific Northwest -- where they live, mainly off rodents and small mammals, without fear of hunters. The new study seeks to understand how a skittish, rural coyote can sometimes transform into a bold, urban one -- a shift that can exacerbate negative interactions among humans and coyotes. "Instead of asking, 'Does this pattern exist?' we're now asking, 'How does this pattern emerge?'" Schell said. A key factor may be parental influence. Coyotes pair for life, and both parents contribute equally to raising the offspring. This may be because of the major parental investment required to raise coyote pups, and the evolutionary pressure to guard them from larger carnivores. The new study observed coyote families at the Utah facility during their first and second breeding seasons. These coyotes are raised in a fairly wild setting, with minimal human contact and food scattered across large enclosures. But during the experiment researchers occasionally placed all the food near the entrance of the enclosure and had a human researcher sit just outside, watching any approaching coyotes, from five weeks to 15 weeks after the birth of the litter. Then they documented how soon the coyotes would venture toward the food. "For the first season, there were certain individuals that were bolder than others, but on the whole they were pretty wary, and their puppies followed," Schell said. "But when we came back and did the same experiment with the second litter, the adults would immediately eat the food -- they wouldn't even wait for us to leave the pen in some instances. "Parents became way more fearless, and in the second litter, so, too, were the puppies." In fact, the most cautious pup from the second-year litter ventured out more than the boldest pup from the first-year litter. The study also looked at two hormones in the coyotes' fur -- cortisol, the "fight or flight" hormone, and testosterone. The second litter of pups had mothers who experienced more stress during pregnancy, due to the researchers' presence during the experiment, so that may have affected their development in the womb. But hormonal changes do not seem to have been passed down in that way. Instead, the fur samples showed that the bolder pups had higher cortisol levels in their blood, meaning they ventured to the food despite their fear of humans. Further work would confirm whether, as Schell suspects, the cortisol levels would decline over time as the coyotes began to discount the human threat. "The discovery that this habituation happens in only two to three years has been corroborated, anecdotally, by evidence from wild sites across the nation," Schell said. "We found that parental effect plays a major role." ### Since arriving at UW Tacoma, Schell has begun working with Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium to launch the Grit City Carnivore Project, which will use infrared motion-capture cameras to track coyotes and raccoons throughout the region. It's part of the Chicago-based Urban Wildlife Information Network, studying urban wildlife across the country. Other co-authors of the recent paper include Julie Young at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Predator Research Facility in Utah; Elizabeth Lonsdorf at Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania; Rachel Santymire, who has a joint appointment at the University of Chicago and Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo, and Jill Mateo, the latter two serving as Schell's doctoral co-advisors at the University of Chicago. The study was supported by the University of Chicago, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For more information, contact Schell at cjschell@uw.edu or 253-692-5838. TWEET ME DISCLAIMER *COMMENTS, LINKS, AND CUT AND PASTE ARTICLES, ARE NOT ALL ENDORSED BY THE PUBLISHER. THIS BLOG claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to its respectful owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed. MORE DISCLAIMERS This is a commercial free blog. Money is nice, but being able to speak my mind is better. "Real talk: Daniel Rubin has a great little piece up wherein he chats with The Field Negro, the Philly-based blogger who sharply ponders all things black on a daily basis. (Seriously, if youve never checked in with TFN, you should: Its author, Wayne Bennett, is a fantastic read who can cut through bullshit like a hot knife through butter, which is a far grosser analogy than I wanted to make, but there you have it.)" ~Philebrity~ "One of the most precocious and hilarious Black political minds on the net. Ive been a long-time fan!" ~Asad Malik~ "..While most of what he writes is tongue-in-cheek, his space is a safe house for candid discussions about race, especially in the comments section, where people of all colors meet." ~~Daniel Rubin, "The Philadelphia Inquirer"~~ "To white people, Bennett's musings are like kitchen-table talk from a kitchen they may otherwise never set foot in. To African Americans, he is part of a growing army of black Internet amateurs who have taken up the work once reserved for ministers and professional activists: the work of setting a black agenda, shaping black opinion and calling attention to the state of the nation's racial affairs." ~~Richard Fausset, "L.A. Times"~~~ ~Erik Hare, "The Twin Cities Daily Planet"~ "That's why I love the blog " Field Negro " so much. Field, as he's known to his fans, has the sense of reality that it takes to call out the ( CowPuckey ) of blame beating by those who are in positions of power and their lackeys. Because of his handle and his unabashed way of writing about racial issues, Field is often cited as a "Black blogger." What he is, however, is a first-class detector of blame deflection and an excellent student of history. If you want to write about the past and future of repression there's really no other perspective to take - which is why everyone should read Field."~Erik Hare, "The Twin Cities Daily Planet"~ 411 On The Field field negro Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Raised in the house, but field certified. Jamaica is the land of my birth, but I consider myself a citizen of the world. I currently practice law in the city of "brotherly love". View my complete profile "Half a century after Little Rock, the Montgomery bus boycott and the tumultuous dawn of the modern civil rights era, the new face of the movement is Facebook, MySpace and some 150 black blogs united in an Internet alliance they call the AfroSpear. Older, familiar leaders such as Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton and NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, are under challenge by a younger generation of bloggers known by such provocative screen names as Field Negro, thefreeslave and African American Political Pundit. And many of the newest struggles are being waged online." ~Howard Witt-The Chicago Tribune~ "I had no idea, for example, of the extent of the African-American blogging world out there and its collective powers of dissemination.But now, after reading thousands of anguished, thoughtful comments posted on these blogs reflecting on issues of persistent racial discrimination in the nation's schools and courtrooms, what's clear to me is that there's a new, "virtual" civil rights movement out there on the Internet that can reach more people in a few hours than all the protest marches, sit-ins and boycotts of the 1950s and 60s put together." ~Chicago Tribune Reporter, Howard Witt~ IF YOU ARE BRAVE ENOUGH TO FLAUNT IT. Come visit my store on CafePress! Boeings stock plunged 8 per cent Monday morning as aviation authorities in China, Indonesia and Ethiopia ordered airlines to ground their Boeing 737 Max 8 planes (The Associated Press) As the list of countries and airlines grounding the Boeing aircraft involved in the Ethiopian Airline crash continues to grow, Canadas Transport Minister said the government has no plans to ban the plane from its airspace. According to the Canadian Press, Transport Minister Marc Garneau said Tuesday that Canada has no plans to ban the countrys fleet of Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, despite several European countries doing so. I've canceled all my meetings and public events today in order to meet with my Civil Aviation Expert Panel. All evidence is being evaluated in real time and we're considering all potential actions. Marc Garneau (@MarcGarneau) March 12, 2019 On Tuesday, the U.K., Germany, France, and Ireland joined the list of nations banning the plane from their respective airspaces, intensifying pressure for other countries to ground the aircraft. Garneau had previously said in a press conference on Monday that it would be a bit premature to ground the jets before the cause of the crash is determined. Air Canada and WestJet Airlines Ltd. are still flying the aircraft. The U.K. was the first European nation to ban the plane on Tuesday, releasing a statement saying it would be banning the aircraft as a precautionary measure. The U.K. Civil Aviation Authority has been closely monitoring the situation, however, as we do not currently have sufficient information from the flight data recorder we have, as a precautionary measure, issued instructions to stop any commercial passenger flights from any operator arriving, departing or overflying UK airspace, the statement said. The U.K. Civil Aviation Authoritys safety directive will be in place until further notice. Speaking to reporters in Montreal on Monday, Garneau sought to provide assurances to Canadians concerned about the safety of the aircraft. Story continues First of all, we have to determine the cause of the accident before we take further steps, Garneau said through a translation. But I want to reassure Canadians that I wont hesitate to take the necessary steps as soon as we get information which will guide us in our decision. Garneau said his office has been in contact with the United States authorities on Monday, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which are investigating the crash as the MAX 8 is a U.S.-certified jet. Eighteen Canadians were among the 157 passengers and crew who died when an Ethiopian Airlines plane went down shortly after departing from Bole Airport in Ethiopias capital Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi, Kenya. Investigators are trying to determine the cause of the deadly crash. It was a sunny day, (with) an experienced pilot, the plane was brand new, but we know very little else about the actual cause of it, Garneau said of the crash. It is important to let the professionals, in this case the FAA and NTSB to determine the cause and then, if necessary, take any remedial action. Both Air Canada and WestJet Airlines Ltd. count the Boeing 737 MAX 8 among its fleet. Air Canada currently flies 24 MAX 8s while WestJet flies 13. Neither airline said whether they are considering suspending use of the aircraft. Sunwing also has four MAX 8s in its fleet. Air Canada and WestJet both offered statements of condolences to the victims of the crash, while at the same time stressing the safety and reliability of the aircraft. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the passengers and crew of Ethiopian Airline Flight 302, which was lost while en route to Nairobi this morning, Air Canada spokesperson Isabelle Arthur said in a statement. These aircraft have performed excellently from a safety, reliability and customer satisfaction perspective. WestJet said it is monitoring the situation surrounding the investigation of the Ethiopian Airlines crash and that it will not speculate on the cause of the incident. WestJet sends its heartfelt condolences to those friends and family whose loved ones were on board Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, WestJet spokesperson Morgan Bell said in a statement. WestJet remains confident in the safety of our Boeing 737 fleet, including our 13 MAX-8 aircraft first introduced in 2017. The Calgary-based airline currently has 13 MAX-8s in the fleet of 121 Boeing 737s. It has flown five different versions of the 737 aircraft since 1996, and currently operates about 450 daily departures using 737s. Ethiopian Airlines has since decided to ground its fleet of Boeing 737 MAX 8 until further notice. Although we dont yet know the cause of the accident, we had to decide to ground the particular fleet as extra safety precaution, the airline said in a statement. Chinas aviation regulator also grounded nearly 100 MAX 8 aircraft on Monday, representing more than a quarter of the worlds fleet of the jet. Indonesia also said it would temporarily ground the model for safety inspection. The same model, flown by Lion Air, crashed off the coast of Indonesia in October, killing all 189 on board. Still, Garneau told reporters Monday that he would board a MAX 8 without any hesitation. The FAA released a statement Monday saying it was on site with the NTSB investigating the crash. We are collecting data and keeping in contact with international civil aviation authorities as information becomes available, the FAA statement said, adding that it will issue a Continued Airworthiness Notification to the International Community later today. The FAA continuously assesses and oversees the safety performance of U.S. commercial aircraft. If we identify an issue that affects safety, the FAA will take immediate and appropriate action. A U.S. official told Reuters there were no plans to follow suit, as the jet had a stellar safety record in the United States and there was a lack of information on what caused the Ethiopian crash. With files from the Canadian Press and Reuters. By Alexander Cornwell and Tim Hepher DUBAI/PARIS (Reuters) - Airlines from North America to the Middle East kept flying the 737 MAX 8 on Monday after Boeing said it was safe, in stark contrast with a slide in the planemaker's shares on worries over Sunday's Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed all 157 on board. It was the second such incident involving the latest model of the plane since October, when all 189 people on board a Lion Air 737 MAX 8 died in Indonesia, putting the jet under the safety spotlight and prompting questions from passengers. Low-cost giants including Southwest of the United States and Gulf airline flydubai, which rely on short trips and fast turnarounds, said they would continue to fly 737s. "We remain confident in the safety and airworthiness of our fleet of more than 750 Boeing aircraft," said Dallas-based Southwest, which is the largest MAX 8 operator with 31 in its fleet from an order of nearly 300 MAX aircraft. The support came despite China ordering its own airlines to ground the jet, the latest version of the industry's most-sold model, a move followed promptly by Indonesia and Ethiopia. Most others said they had no plans to ground the aircraft, which analysts said would be costly and disruptive for carriers that rely on them to fly directly to specific destinations or to feed customers to hubs for profitable long-haul flights. Boeing, which had up to $25 billion wiped off its share price on Monday, said that it so far had no basis to issue new guidance to operators. Analysts said this also implied airlines would be unable to recoup any losses from grounding the jet. "As long as the aircraft is viewed as airworthy by the certification process - which in this case primarily means the Federal Aviation Administration -- airlines will continue to fly it," said James Halstead, managing partner at Aviation Strategy. American Airlines also backed the jet, which sells for $112 million at list prices or a net value of about $50 million after typical discounts, according to industry sources. "At this time there are no facts on the cause of the (Ethiopian) accident other than news reports," it said. Story continues Industry sources said pressure could however grow on U.S. authorities to respond to any early findings from a crash probe and U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said Washington was reviewing 737 MAX 8 crashes "very seriously". INDUSTRY WORKHORSE India's regulator ordered additional maintenance checks but stopped short of grounding 737 MAX 8s as it had found "no significant concern" in a review. Comair, a small South African airline, suspended flights of the plane. It is unusual to ground a plane type unless a specific mechanical issue has been identified and can be inspected, said Association of Asia Pacific Airlines head Andrew Herdman. Some airlines were forced to address concerns from passengers. Southwest said it was responding to customers individually, citing a "friendly, no-change fee policy". However, it told one Twitter user, "If you would like to change your flight, there would be a difference in fare that would need to be collected for doing so". The decades-old 737 family is the workhorse of short- to medium-haul travel alongside the Airbus A320. Over four fifths of air transport is on routes that fit the range of both jets. There are still unanswered questions about the cause of the Lion Air crash 13 minutes after take-off from the Indonesian capital of Jakarta and officials and safety experts said it was too soon to draw links with the Ethiopian incident. Lion Air declined to comment on the Ethiopian crash. A different type of 737 operated by flydubai crashed in Russia in 2016, killing all 62 people on board. That incident remains under investigation though a preliminary report suggested pilot error was to blame. (Reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Dubai, Brenda Goh in Shanghai, Stella Qiu in Beijing, David Shepardson in Washington, Jamie Freed in Singapore, Tracy Rucinski in Chicago, Tim Hepher in Paris, Ilona Wissenbach in Frankfurt and Aditi Shah in New Delhi; writing by Alexander Cornwell) By Pamela Barbaglia LONDON, March 11 (Reuters) - Bank of America has appointed James Robertson and Peter Luck as co-heads of UK investment banking as part of its push to win business from large corporate clients in Britain. These latest appointments show the U.S. bank's commitment to build up its business in the country despite Brexit. The newly created roles, detailed in a memo seen by Reuters, follow departures from the bank in the past few months, including that of Bank of America's head of global investment banking Diego De Giorgi and his boss Christian Meissner. The Wall Street bank appointed Matthew Koder last year to succeed Meissner and revitalise its corporate and investment banking business after a slide in fees. De Giorgi was replaced by Jack MacDonald and Thomas Sheehan who are co-heads of global investment banking out of the United States. Robertson is joining Bank of America from UBS after a 22-year career at the Swiss bank where he recently headed its UK advisory business. Luck worked closely with Robertson at UBS where he spent 13 years before moving to Bank of America to help to build its corporate broking franchise in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. He is currently heading the bank's corporate broking business and will retain these responsibilities in addition to his new role. The two bankers also served in the same British Army regiment - the Royal Dragoon Guards - in the mid 1990s, before starting their respective careers in investment banking. They will report to Matt Cannon and Richard King who are co-heads of UK & Ireland Corporate and Investment Banking and Luigi Rizzo, head of EMEA Investment Banking. Bank of America has won some lucrative business recently from some of Britain's biggest companies, including Vodafone where the bank led a 3.4 billion pound mandatory convertible bond - the largest ever UK equity-linked offering and largest ever European mandatory convertible bond. It also advised drugs group GSK on its $4.9 billion acquisition of Tesaro and helped Unilever with its $4.6 billion purchase of Horlicks India from GSK. Bank of America has also been expanding its team in Paris ahead of Brexit and transferring London-based executives, including Rizzo to the French capital. On Feb. 8, it named Sanaz Zaimi as head of its new Paris-based European Union broker-dealer unit BofA Securities Europe. (Reporting By Pamela Barbaglia. Editing by Jane Merriman) (Bloomberg) -- Biotechnology investors popping corks at the slew of deals opening 2019 can thank a fourth-quarter slump for reigning in bloated valuations. And market watchers dont see the volume of activity slowing down any time soon. As the biotech sector tumbled more than 25 percent from its peak -- notably underperforming the broader market -- stock valuations began to look more palatable for large-cap companies looking to take a dip into cutting-edge technologies like gene therapies. That has helped push across a string of deals like Roche Holding AGs $4.8 billion bid for Spark Therapeutics Inc. and Biogen Inc.s $877 million offer for Nightstar Therapeutics Plc. When we saw the market correction it was like, okay, these large-cap companies should take advantage of it and I think it will continue, BNP Paribas Asset Management portfolio manager Christian Fay said by telephone. Management teams from larger companies are still talking about M&A as a huge part of their DNA going forward and they need to when you look at their pipelines. At the crux of those deals which have been announced as well as those anticipated is the need for drugmakers to diversify. For Biogen, that meant not relying on crucial Alzheimers data due next year. For Roche, it was about complementing its hemophilia franchise. Audentes Therapeutics Inc., UniQure NV, Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc., and Voyager Therapeutics Inc. are among gene therapy names that have seen shares rally after the deals as investors positioned for who may be next. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index rose as much as 0.6 percent Monday, led by Axovant Sciences 64 percent gain after gene therapy results. The uptick in deals comes from the increasing desperation on the large-cap side to find innovation and potentially revenue driving, Baird analyst Brian Skorney said in a telephone interview. Investors and analysts are still looking for large companies to make a bigger splash. Many who follow the space have mentioned Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. as an attractive target with its blockbuster treatment for two very rare blood conditions. That medicine, Soliris, could have an immediate impact for a needy company, according to those on the Street. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. and its cystic fibrosis drugs could also be a good option, Skorney said. Story continues Companies have to look to something the size of an Alexion to move the scale, he said. You want something like a Soliris or a company like a Vertex to move the needle. Some drugmakers facing heightened investor scrutiny have remained passive. AbbVie Inc., the worst-performing large-cap biopharma stock of 2019, is one of the companies feeling the heat. The shares have shed a third of their value in the last 12 months amid research woes and mounting concerns for top-selling Humira. Earlier this year, the company said it would take a $4 billion charge on its $5.8 billion takeover of Stemcentrx Inc., and that it could write down an additional $1 billion. As much as they have done a lot to diversify away from Humira, thats still such a big part of their story given that the drug makes up close to two-thirds of their revenue, Piper Jaffray analyst Chris Raymond said by telephone. The problem is, not every deal works out and I think investors are not going to be assigning the benefit of the doubt for the next deal that they do. (Updates sector performance in fifth paragraph.) To contact the reporter on this story: Bailey Lipschultz in New York at blipschultz@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, Morwenna Coniam For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2019 Bloomberg L.P. (Adds details from Anfavea press conference) SAO PAULO, March 11 (Reuters) - Automobile production in Brazil rose 29.9 percent in February from January, while sales slipped 0.6 percent, the national automakers' association said on Monday. Automakers in Brazil produced around 257,200 new cars and trucks last month, while sales totaled about 198,600 vehicles, according to industry group Anfavea. Compared with a year ago, auto output rose 20.5 percent and sales grew by 26.6 percent. Production grew even though Ford's plant in Sao Bernardo do Campo was shut for several days last month due to workers' protests after the company announced it would exit its truck business in South America and close its plant in the town. Exports, which have been falling due to the economic crisis in neighboring Argentina, slumped 38.9 percent compared to last year, but rose 61.8 percent compared to January. Antonio Megale, Anfavea's president, said that a tax incentive plan announced on Friday by the state of Sao Paulo in response to Ford's announcement was positive for the industry, although he cautioned that its potentially positive impact would not come in the short term. "Anything that will reduce taxes is positive," he told reporters. Brazil was one of the world's five biggest auto markets until a recent downturn and remains a major base of operations for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, Volkswagen AG , General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co. (Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun Editing by Phil Berlowitz) By Huw Jones LONDON, March 11 (Reuters) - More than 275 financial firms are moving a combined $1.2 trillion in assets and funds and thousands of staff from Britain to the European Union in readiness for Brexit at a cost of up to $4 billion, a report from a think tank said on Monday. UK lawmakers are due to vote on Tuesday on an EU divorce settlement. But with less than three weeks to go before Brexit day on March 29, it is still unclear whether the deal will be approved, whether departure from the EU will be delayed, or whether it will happen without agreement. The report by the New Financial think tank, one of the most detailed yet on the impact of Brexit on financial services, said Dublin alone accounted for 100 relocations, ahead of Luxembourg with 60, Paris 41, Frankfurt 40, and Amsterdam 32. The independent think tank said half of the affected asset management firms, such as Goldman Sachs Investment Management, Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Vanguard, had chosen Dublin, with Luxembourg the next port of call, attracting firms like Schroders, JP Morgan Wealth Management and Aviva Investors. Nearly 90 percent of all firms moving to Frankfurt are banks, while two-thirds of those going to Amsterdam are trading platforms or brokers. Paris is carving out a niche for markets and trading operations of banks and attracting a broad spread of firms. New Financial identified 5,000 expected staff moves or local hires, a figure that is expected to rise in coming years. A better measure of Brexit's impact is the scale of assets and funds being transferred, it said. Ten large banks and investment banks are together moving 800 billion pounds of assets from Britain - or 10 percent of banking assets in the country. A small selection of insurers have shifted a combined 35 billion pounds in assets, and a handful of asset managers have moved a total of 65 billion pounds in funds. William Wright, founder and managing director of New Financial, said the hit to London was bigger than expected and would get worse. "Business will continue to leak from London to the EU, with more activity being booked through local subsidiaries," Wright said. Story continues "This will reduce the UK's influence in European banking and finance, reduce tax receipts from the industry, and reduce financial services exports to the EU." A 10 percent shift in banking and finance activity would cut UK tax receipts by about 1 percent, the report said. Relocations have cost firms $3 billion to $4 billion, which will be passed on to customers and shareholders, the report said. But the breadth and depth of relocations so far, combined with pacts between regulators in Britain and the EU, mean the industry is well prepared for whatever form Brexit takes, New Financial said. London will remain the dominant financial centre for the foreseeable future, but other European cities will chip away at London's lead over time, it added. ($1 = 0.7659 pounds) (Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Mark Potter) Motley Fool Thursday morning brought modest pullbacks in most major stock indexes, as market participants turn their attention to economic data over the next couple of days to guide their longer-term strategies. As of 8:15 a.m. ET, futures on the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) were down 54 points to 16,338, giving back just a small portion of the index's advance since early Monday. Biotech stocks have been a key driver of the Nasdaq's advance over the past year and a half. Brown & Brown Insurance Services of California, Inc., a subsidiary of Brown & Brown, Inc. BRO, has purchased substantially all the assets of Austin & Austin Insurance Services. The transaction will enable the acquirer to enhance its product and service portfolio. Additionally, the deal will provide an excellent opportunity to fetch in superior quality talent to the existing team at the insurance brokers Lafayette office. Established in 1987, Austin & Austin Insurance was formed to cater to the insurance needs of real estate professionals in the Bay Area. The company mainly focuses on offering errors and omissions insurance coverage to real estate brokers across California. The firm boasts generating annual revenues of about $2 million. Post completion of the buyout, the entire team will shift to Brown & Browns California-based Lafayette office and will function under Matt Sitzmanns leadership. From the standpoint of Austin & Austin Insurance, this move will lend an impetus to the firms objective of offering the best products and services to its clients while promoting an enjoyable yet challenging work experience for the team. Apart from diversifying the insurance brokers product and service portfolio, the latest consolidation will help ramping up the companys inorganic growth profile and boosting its margin expansion. The above-mentioned inorganic ploy is expected to brace the company in fueling growth and broadening its scope of operations. Also, these strategic attempts will facilitate Brown & Brown to increase its commissions and fees, which in turn, is likely to aid revenue growth. The year 2018 marked the insurance brokers most important phase for pursuing acquisitions with the takeover of Hays Companies emerging as the most significant transaction. Per the companys projection, this particular purchase is estimated to deliver revenues in the range of $210-$220 million during 2019. Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) insurance broker have gained 4.8% year to date, underperforming its industrys rally of 12%. Nonetheless, we expect the companys sustained operational performance, higher commissions and fees plus a solid capital position to push the stock higher in the near term. Story continues Other Insurers Following Suit Considering the insurance industrys extensive capital at disposal, there has been an array of significant acquisitions in its domain of late. Recently, Cincinnati Financial Corporation CINF closed the previously announced (Oct 12, 2018) buyout of MSP Underwriting Limited, a reputed global specialty underwriter and a unit of Munich Re. Cincinnati Financial stands to benefit from MSP Underwritings experienced underwriting team while supporting its business lines. Also, this month, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. AJG inked a deal to acquire the global aerospace operations of Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc. The transaction is expected to strengthen the acquirers position in the aviation and aerospace sector. The buyout, subject to European Commission approval, is estimated to be completed this spring. Further, this closure is in connection with the completion of the Jardine Lloyd Thompsons purchase by Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. MMC. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Zacks' Top 10 Stocks for 2019 In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-holds for the year? Who wouldn't? Our annual Top 10s have beaten the market with amazing regularity. In 2018, while the market dropped -5.2%, the portfolio scored well into double-digits overall with individual stocks rising as high as +61.5%. And from 2012-2017, while the market boomed +126.3, Zacks' Top 10s reached an even more sensational +181.9%. See Latest Stocks Today >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (MMC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (AJG) : Free Stock Analysis Report Brown & Brown, Inc. (BRO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Cincinnati Financial Corporation (CINF) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research STOCKHOLM, March 11 (Reuters) - Canadian IT consultancy CGI Inc. said on Monday it had made a 4.32 billion Swedish crown ($459 million) cash offer for Swedish peer Acando . CGI said Acando's board unanimously recommended the 41.45 crown per share offer, which represented a 44.2 percent premium on the closing price for Acando shares on Friday. "CGI believes that the offer represents an attractive opportunity to execute on its growth strategy and strengthen its capabilities in Northern Europe and Germany," it said in a statement. The deal requires regulatory approval. Assuming the offer was declared unconditional no later than around April 18, the setttlement was expected to begin around April 25, CGI said. Acando said in a separate statement that owners holding shares equal to 30 percent of votes in the company had agreed to the offer. ($1 = 9.4101 Swedish crowns) (Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; editing by Niklas Pollard) ConocoPhillips COP recently received a favorable ruling from the World Banks International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes for the seizure of its assets by the Venezuelan government in 2007. Per the ruling, Venezuela has to pay $8.7 billion to ConocoPhillips, making it one of the largest arbitration settlements ever. Earlier in 2013, the international arbitration panel ruled that the country violated one of its bilateral investment treaties as it seized the companys stakes in three oil projects in the Orinoco Belt. The government is ordered to pay around $4.5 billion and $3.4 billion for ConocoPhillips' respective stakes in the Hamaca and Petrozuata projects, two heavy-oil programs in the Orinoco Belt. Moreover, Venezuela has to pay more than $562 million for seizing ConocoPhillips' Corocoro projects, located in the southwestern Gulf of Paria. The total amount of the award reflects around 40% of the companys original claims. ConocoPhillips may have to fight for collecting the payments, as the country has previously shown reluctance in paying up in other similar cases. Notably, the company was awarded $2 billion by the International Chamber of Commerce from PDVSA, the state-run energy company of Venezuela, for an arbitration process. While PDVSA was unwilling to pay up in the beginning, the U.S. energy major secured a court order, which slated an alternative way for collecting the amount. Is Venezuela in a Position to Pay Up? The oil-rich country is already under tremendous financial and political difficulties. Hence, the huge compensation amount can strain its financial position. Notably, Venezuela, a major OPEC member, has witnessed production plunge to a seven-decade low over the past few years. Lack of proper investments and inefficient management resulted in the downslide. The financial sanctions imposed by Washington added to the countrys economic crisis. Venezuelas former socialist leader, Late Hugo Chavez, brought a nationalization wave that has hit the country financially and led to more than 20 international arbitration claims. Most of these claims are still unpaid and pending. Hence, the mode of payment for the recent ruling in favour of ConocoPhillips is yet to be decided. Story continues Price Performance ConocoPhillips has gained 19.5% in the past year compared with 1.5% collective growth of its industry. Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider ConocoPhillips currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Investors interested in the energy sector can opt for some better-ranked stocks as given below: Denver, CO-based Antero Resources Corporation AR is an upstream energy company. Its top line for 2019 is expected to increase 11.8% year over year. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Austin, TX-based Jones Energy, Inc. JONE is an exploration and production company. For 2019, its bottom line, which has witnessed one upside revision over the past 60 days, is expected to grow 19% year over year. The company currently holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Lonestar Resources US Inc. LONE is a Fort Worth, TX-based exploration and production company. Its top line for 2019 is expected to increase 6.4% year over year. It currently has a Zacks Rank #2. Zacks' Top 10 Stocks for 2019 In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-holds for the year? Who wouldn't? Our annual Top 10s have beaten the market with amazing regularity. In 2018, while the market dropped -5.2%, the portfolio scored well into double-digits overall with individual stocks rising as high as +61.5%. And from 2012-2017, while the market boomed +126.3, Zacks' Top 10s reached an even more sensational +181.9%. See Latest Stocks Today >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Antero Resources Corporation (AR) : Free Stock Analysis Report Jones Energy, Inc. (JONE) : Free Stock Analysis Report Lonestar Resources US Inc. (LONE) : Free Stock Analysis Report ConocoPhillips (COP) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. (Adds Delta comment) March 10 (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines Inc stock could jump into the mid-$60s per share from around $50 now if it can hit its earnings target of $6 to $7 a share this year, up from $5.65 in 2018, according to an analyst in a Barron's article on Sunday. Atlanta-based Delta is the leader in fare segmentation, international alliances, and technology, as well as maintenance and repair, Ross Margolies, who heads Stelliam Investment Management, said in the article. The article noted rumors that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc could be interested in buying an airline, noting Berkshire already owned about 10 percent of each of the four major U.S. carriers: Delta, Southwest Airlines Co, United Continental Holdings inc, and American Airlines Group Inc. The article said that "Buffett appears to be most enamored" with Delta. In a filing on Friday, Berkshire disclosed it recently lifted its stake in Delta by 5.4 million shares and now holds 70.9 million shares, a 10.4 percent stake. Officials at Delta said the company did not have any comment on the Barron's article beyond Delta Chief Executive Ed Bastian's quotes in the story. Bastian told Barron's that investors want to see our margins expand." Delta aims to boost margins this year and increase earnings per share by 15 percent, he said. As for the potential Berkshire Hathaway interest, Bastian said: Were open for sale every day of the year. We think the future is bright and our valuation is cheap. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Peter Cooney) Deutsche Bank shares were up by over 2 percent in early deals, while Commerzbank was up nearly 4 percent. Several media reports from over the weekend suggest that Deutsche Bank has agreed to hold merger talks with its rival after CEO Christian Sewing dropped his opposition to the deal. Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment. Shares of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank CBK-DE surged Monday after reports that the two have agreed to hold merger talks. Several media reports over the weekend suggested Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing had dropped his opposition to the deal. Sewing was reportedly forced to reconsider his stance following investor pressure over the bank's declining performance. The German government, which still owns 15 percent of Commerzbank, is understood to be backing a tie-up between the country's two largest lenders. Reuters reported that Berlin is pushing for a deal, even though it could cause a multi-billion euro financial hole, because it would force the re-valuation of the lenders' assets. Deutsche shares were up by over 2 percent in early deals Monday, while Commerzbank was up nearly 4 percent. Over a 12-month period, shares of both companies are down by around 40 percent. A banking industry source with knowledge of the matter, who preferred to remain anonymous, told CNBC there's not massive support for the merger within Deutsche Bank. "The general feeling is that the merger is not a great idea since Commerzbank doesn't have the same amount of credibility on the street as Deutsche Bank when it comes to clients and this can impact future trades." Another concern is the German government's stake in Commerzbank. "There is skepticism that a merger could mean a bigger say from the government in (the) bank's dealings," the source added. A spokeswoman from Commerzbank declined to comment. Deutsche Bank did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment. However, both the companies declined to comment on the merger of a prospect to Reuters. Story continues 'No sound economic reason' Reports of the possible merger have garnered reaction from across the industry, with some cautioning against the move. "I am not too optimistic on the merger synergies. There is some room but I don't think it will have any major impact on stock prices of either banks because it's still to be proven that there are synergies. The situation is still very fluid," Michael Huenseler, head of credit portfolio management at Assenagon Asset Management, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Monday. "First of all, there is no sound economic reason from my perspective. There is no immediate need as there is no concern of the liquidity position ... And therefore it all boils down to whether you could create a strong bank out of the two," he said. Huenseler added that if a merger becomes more concrete it could give a boost to both company's shares, but said there would be no great benefit in the long or medium term. Meanwhile, the former chairman of Barclays, Gerry Grimstone told CNBC Monday that it would require a lot of "hard work" in putting together these two big banks. "I think Germany probably wants a banking champion, but gosh, putting two big banks together is hard work," Grimstone told CNBC's Dan Murphy in Dubai. "It's good for the competition. I think you need strong banks. If it's going to make it a strong bank it makes sense. But as I said before these aren't easy things to get right." Speculation about a merger has been rife for months, heightening under the tenure of German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, who has spoken out in favor of strong lenders for the European nation. Both banks have struggled to return to sustainable profitability since the global financial crisis. Germany lends 'political support' While the government has made no official statement on the potential merger, speaking to CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said he is willing to lend "political support" to Deutsche Bank in its recovery path. "Deutsche Bank ... suffered some setbacks in the past, but it is basically sound and it can recover and so the question is what are the details of such strategy. And as we discussed with the CEO and the board and all the people concerned, I trust in Deutsche Bank and I will lend my political support to Deutsche Bank, " he said. In the past few years, Deutsche Bank has made headlines for all the wrong reasons from settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice, to management reshuffles, weak earnings, constant restructuring and steep stock price falls. Sewing, the bank's current CEO who took the helm in April 2018, has been making efforts to turn around the bank's ailing strategy. - Reuters contributed to the story. More From CNBC U.S. Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM) A small circle of attorneys well versed in the Foreign Agents Registration Act have been predicting that the once-obscure statute is not about to exit the limelight. News last week out of the Department of Justice suggests that they are on target. At a conference in New Orleans Wednesday on white-collar fraud, John Demers, head of the DOJ's national security division, said the agency was overhauling its FARA team in order to treat it as an enforcement priority. Brandon Van Grack, a former prosecutor on special counsel Robert Mueller's team, will now lead the unit. The FARA statute, which mandates that individuals acting on behalf of foreign entities periodically disclose these connections, emerged as a pressing consideration for law firms with foreign clients after Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom came under the DOJ's microscope. The firm ultimately agreed to pay a $4.6 million penalty for work done with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort Jr. on behalf of Ukraines government. Manafort, who was sentenced to 47 months in prison on a financial fraud conviction in Virginia federal court Thursday, faces sentencing in Washington, D.C., next week on two additional counts, one of which includes FARA violations. "Some people may think it could be going away once Manafort is locked up and the Mueller investigation ceases," said Wiley Rein attorney Tessa Capeloto. "But I think the heightened focus on FARA enforcement is here to stay." Between 1966 and 2015, the Justice Department only brought seven criminal FARA cases, according to a 2016 DOJ inspector generals report. But the dust has clearly been swept off the statute. "This puts an exclamation point behind what weve been seeing," King & Spalding partner Thomas Spulak said of Wednesday's announcement. "Anybody who cares about compliance has been reaching out to us. I know others in the area are busier, not only with existing but also new clients." Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, is another high-profile name whose time in the headlines highlights the increased visibility of FARA. After his 2017 ousting from the Trump administration, Flynn registered as a foreign agent for lobbying work involving the Turkish government and later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI over a separate matter. Flynn's attorney, Covington & Burling partner Robert Kelner, has been proclaiming that the push toward increased FARA enforcement will extend beyond the Mueller probe. "The announcement by the assistant attorney general for the national security division should be persuasive for anybody who doubted those predictions," he said. Kelner compares the shift to the surge in attention paid during the mid-2000s to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits the payment of bribes to foreign officials. "That was a statute that was also rarely enforced and there was a sudden decision by the department to start treating it as a criminal enforcement priority," he said. "It might not be too much of an exaggeration to suggest that FARA is on the cusp of being the FCPA." Story continues Lawyers, Listen Up For law firms that represent entities linked to foreign governments, the time to start paying attention to the FARA statute was when Skadden's name first showed up in the news, months before the firm agreed to register retroactively and pay the civil penalty. Now, the prospect of greater criminal enforcement under the direction of Van Grack, who led the prosecution against Flynn, may prove worrisome to a group of longtime Washington advisers that includes former Skadden partner Gregory Craig. Once White House counsel for President Barack Obama, Craig, who led the firm's work for Ukraine, reportedly still faces a criminal investigation over his unregistered advocacy. In the past, Craig's attorney, William Taylor of Washingtons Zuckerman Spaeder, has argued that Craig did not have to register under FARA. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. Attorney Bryson Morgan of the law firm Caplin & Drysdale, which has doubled down on the new focus on FARA with a website dedicated to compliance, acknowledged that there is an exemption under the law for legal representation. "That oftentimes gets translated in lawyers' minds and in law firms that you are completely exempt," he said. "But under FARA, you're only eligible if what you are doing is activity before a court of law. That's a narrow set of activities." Not included in the list: efforts to influence U.S. public policy or promote a foreign government or foreign political party. The key for law firms, Morgan suggested, is multiple levels of due diligence. First, figure out who the client actually is, particularly if it's a foreign nonprofit or consultancy that likely has further backing. Follow that with an assessment at intake of the scope of the representation, and whether the activity falls within FARA. Then, it's critical to monitor the work actively, to make sure the nature of the representation hasn't evolved. Morgan noted that while most of the work that Skadden's attorneys were handling for Ukraine was exempt from FARA, there is no "de minimis" exemption. "It could be one nonexempt phone call to a reporter or one nonexempt phone call to a government office that brings with it registration and transparency requirements," he said. An Untested Statute If the DOJ is indeed pivoting toward bringing more criminal prosecutions under FARA, it's by no means a slam dunk for the agency. That's in part because of the vagueness of the law. "Because there are so many terms in the statute that are not well defined, and other terms that are extremely broad in scope, there are many grounds on which targets of FARA investigations can defend themselves," Kelner said. That same lack of definition also makes it easier for an energized FARA unit with a new mandate to bring cases they haven't touched in the past, relying on novel interpretations of the law. But defense attorneys will also be able to take advantage of this open slate. "The more cases that are brought, the likelier it is that at some point defense counsel will challenge the ways in which the statute is being interpreted by the DOJ and even its constitutionality," Kelner added. A further wrinkle comes from several bills pending in the U.S. Senate that seek to repeal some of the exemptions to FARA and also enhance the enforcement tools in the hands of the DOJ. One element of this change would enable authorities to issue civil investigative demands to compel the production of documents relevant to FARA investigations before initiating criminal or civil proceedings. That tool would aid prosecutors in navigating whether to bring charges. But even now, one area where lawyers need to be more cautious is in answering to voluntary requests from the authorities. "In the past, some have responded quickly without a full due diligence review," Morgan said. "Now you need to treat that letter more seriously, with a full internal investigation of the activity." And lawyers are also realizing that it's never too late to complete the core act of registering with FARA. Wiley Rein has been representing the husband of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko since 2011. But only this week did partner Jim Slattery file a FARA notice for his work on behalf of Oleksandr Tymoshenko. Read More: Washington's FARA Frenzy Spurs New Legal Business Registering as a 'Foreign Agent'? Why Law Firms and Lobby Shops Might Demur. Amid Manafort Mess, Skadden's Brand Shows Resilience Dunkin Donuts store in Atlanta. Photo by John Disney/ALM Dunkin Donuts store in Atlanta. Photo by John Disney/ALM Dunkin' Brands Group Inc. announced Monday that it has hired a former Marriott in-house attorney to become its next senior vice president and chief legal officer. David Mann will lead the legal team at the Canton, Massachusetts-based parent company of Dunkin', formerly Dunkin' Donuts, and Baskin-Robbins. He will report directly to Dave Hoffmann, the companys U.S. president and CEO. I am pleased to welcome David Mann to Dunkin' Brands and our leadership team, Hoffmann said in the press release. A seasoned legal executive with extensive global management experience, David's legal acumen, dedication to talent development and deep understanding of the franchised business model will be invaluable to us as we continue to drive our brands forward around the world. Mann will replace Richard Emmett, who plans to retire from Dunkin' as the chief legal and human resources officer effective March 16. Emmett said in an interview with Corporate Counsel that he will continue his role as a member of the board of directors for a few different organizations. Emmett joined Dunkin' as the chief legal and human resources officer and corporate secretary in 2009. He previously worked as the executive vice president and chief legal officer of Quiznos and as general counsel and chief human resources officer at Papa John's. It was a great run at a wonderful company, Emmett said of his time at Dunkin'. We accomplished a lot and I believe the company is teed up to accomplish even more in the years to come. Emmett also said he is happy to know that Mann is taking over the job as the companys top lawyer. Im pleased we were able to find David Mann, Emmett said. "We are turning the legal department over to a very good general counsel. Hes a good lawyer and will be a great general counsel. According to his LinkedIn profile, Mann most previously worked as the senior vice president and deputy general counsel for Marriott International. He joined the hotel company in 1995. From 2000 to 2007, Mann worked as the general counsel for Marriotts Ritz-Carlton division. While at Marriott, Mann helped lead the legal team during the companys $13 billion acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts in 2016. Mann was an associate at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld from 1988 to 1995. He graduated from the University of Michigan Law School. I am delighted to be joining Dunkin' Brands, a company with two of the world's best-loved brands and premier franchising concepts, Mann said in the press release. I look forward to working with the leadership team, the members of the legal department and the franchisee community to better serve our customers around the world. Mann could not be reached for additional comment on Monday and it is unclear when he will be starting. HEJERE, Ethiopia (AP) Airlines in Ethiopia, China, Indonesia and elsewhere grounded the Boeing 737 Max 8 jetliner Monday after the second devastating crash of one of the planes in five months. But Boeing said it had no reason to pull the popular aircraft from the skies. As the East African country mourned the 157 victims of the Ethiopian Airlines plane that went down in clear weather shortly after takeoff Sunday, investigators found the jetliner's two flight recorders at the crash site outside the capital of Addis Ababa. An airline official, however, said one of the recorders was partially damaged and "we will see what we can retrieve from it." The official spoke on condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to speak to the media. A witness to the crash told The Associated Press that smoke was coming from the back of the plane before it hit the ground. "Before falling down, the plane rotated two times in the air, and it had some smoke coming from the back then, it hit the ground and exploded," Tamrat Abera said. "When the villagers and I arrived at the site, there was nothing except some burning and flesh." Ethiopian authorities are leading the investigation into the crash, assisted by the U.S., Kenya and others. The crash was similar to that of a Lion Air jet of the same model in Indonesian seas last year, killing 189 people. The crash was likely to renew questions about the 737 Max 8, the newest version of Boeing's single-aisle airliner, which was first introduced in 1967 and has become the world's most common passenger jet. Safety experts cautioned against drawing too many comparisons between the two crashes until more is known. Besides the groundings by airlines in Ethiopia, China and Indonesia, Aeromexico, Caribbean carrier Cayman Airways, Comair in South Africa and Royal Air Maroc in Morocco temporarily grounded their Max 8s. Ethiopian Airlines decided to ground its remaining four 737 Max 8s until further notice as "an extra safety precaution," spokesman Asrat Begashaw said. The carrier had been using five of the planes and awaiting delivery of 25 more. Story continues But Chicago-based Boeing said it did not intend to issue any new recommendations about the aircraft to its customers. It plans to send a technical team to the crash site to help investigators and issued a statement saying it was "deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the passengers and crew" on the jetliner. Among the airlines still using the plane are Southwest, American and Air Canada. In Washington, Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao said passenger safety was the first priority for the administration. "I want travelers to be assured and that we are taking this seriously and monitoring latest developments," she said. It's unusual for authorities to take the step of grounding planes, and it's up to each country to set standards on which planes can fly and how those planes are maintained, said Todd Curtis, an aviation safety analyst who directs the Airsafe.com Foundation. "If there is a suspicion ... that there's not only something inherently wrong with 737 Max 8 aircraft, but there are no procedures in place to cure the problem, then yes, they should either ground the plane, or there are several levels of things they could do," Curtis said. People from 35 countries died in the crash six minutes after takeoff from Ethiopia's capital for Nairobi. Ethiopian Airlines said the senior pilot issued a distress call and was told to return but all contact was lost shortly afterward. The plane plowed into the ground at Hejere near Bishoftu, scattering debris. "I heard this big noise," resident Tsegaye Reta told the AP. "The villagers said that it was a plane crash, and we rushed to the site. There was a huge smoke that we couldn't even see the plane. The parts of the plane were falling apart." Kenya lost 32 people, more than any country. Relatives of 25 of the victims had been contacted, Transport Minister James Macharia said, and taking care of their welfare was of utmost importance. "Some of them, as you know, they are very distressed," he said. "They are in shock like we are. They are grieving." In Addis Ababa, members of an association of Ethiopian airline pilots wept uncontrollably for their dead colleagues. Framed photos of seven crew members sat in chairs at the front of a crowded room. The flight's main pilot, Yared Getachew, issued a distress call shortly after takeoff and was told to return, but all contact was lost. Canada, Ethiopia, the U.S., China, Italy, France, Britain, Egypt, Germany, India and Slovakia all lost four or more citizens. At least 21 staff members from the United Nations were killed in the crash, said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who led a moment of silence at a meeting where he said "a global tragedy has hit close to home." Both Addis Ababa and Nairobi are major hubs for humanitarian workers, and some had been on their way to a large U.N. environmental conference set to begin Monday in Nairobi. The U.N. flag at the event flew at half-staff. The crash shattered more than two years of relative calm in Africa, where travel had long been chaotic. It also was a serious blow to Ethiopian Airlines, which has expanded to become the continent's largest and best-managed carrier and turned Addis Ababa into the gateway to Africa. The state-owned carrier has a good reputation and the company's CEO told reporters no problems were seen before Sunday's fight. But investigators also will look into the plane's maintenance, which may have been an issue in the Lion Air crash. The plane was delivered to Ethiopian Airlines in November. The jet's last maintenance was on Feb. 4, and it had flown just 1,200 hours. China's Civil Aviation Administration said that it ordered airlines to ground all 737 Max 8 aircraft as of 6 p.m. (1000 GMT) Monday, in line with the principle of "zero tolerance for security risks." It said it would issue further notices after consulting with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing. China Southern Airlines is one of Boeing's biggest customers for the aircraft. Comair, the operator of British Airways and Kulula flights in South Africa, said it has grounded its Boeing 737 Max 8 while it consults with Boeing, other operators and technical experts. The statement did not say how many planes are affected. Wrenelle Stander, executive director of Comair's airline division, said that Comair "remains confident in the inherent safety of the aircraft." An official with Royal Air Maroc said the carrier in Morocco has halted the commercial use of its sole operational model, pending tests and examinations. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with departmental rules, said the plane was scheduled to fly on Monday from Casablanca to London but was replaced. The 737 is the best-selling airliner in history, and the Max, the newest version of it with more fuel-efficient engines, is a central part of Boeing's strategy to compete with European rival Airbus. "Safety is our No. 1 priority and we are taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this accident, working closely with the investigating team and all regulatory authorities involved," Boeing said in a statement. Boeing's stock fell 7 percent to $391.80 in afternoon trading. ___ Meseret reported from Addis Ababa. Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and AP Airlines Writer David Koenig in Dallas, Texas, contributed. ___ Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa Every day, it seems like people are quitting social media for one reason or another including fatigue and privacy concerns. Recently, one of my coworkers even told me he had stopped using Instagram because he believed it was listening in on his conversations. His proof? He had been talking to a friend about classic cars, a topic he never normally discusses, and, a day later, saw an ad for those cars on Instagram. Surely, my colleague thought, that meant Instagram, and its parent company Facebook (FB), were secretly spying on him. His suspicions are not unique. For years, consumers, wary of Big Tech's already-intimate knowledge of their comings and goings, likes and dislikes, have thought their smartphones, smart speakers, or social networks are secretly listening to their conversations. The goal? To target them with advertisements with pinpoint accuracy. A quick Google search will point you to any number of articles and discussions about whether your devices are acting as digital spies for advertising companies. Check out Reddit and youll find a litany of threads talking about whether devices are listening to target ads at consumers. But the truth is, tech companies can target us with ads using something far simpler than surreptitiously recorded conversations: our personal data. And we willingly give it to them every time we use their services. Is your phone listening to you? Source: Nazar Abbas Photography/Getty How it works Say you're talking to a friend about traveling to Hawaii to escape the frigid cold that has gripped much of the U.S. The next day, you're browsing Facebook, checking your email or surfing the web, and you see an ad for deals on flights to, you guessed it, Hawaii. That can't be a coincidence, right? Your phone, or the Amazon (AMZN) Echo in your living room where you were chatting with your friend, or your Facebook or Instagram apps, had to be listening the entire time. But they weren't. In a recent study of popular Android apps, David Choffnes, assistant professor at Northeastern University's Khoury College of Computer Sciences, said he couldn't find any apps that were secretly recording conversations and sending them off to corporate servers to be processed and stored. Story continues "We went into the study thinking that we would find cases of apps listening when they shouldn't or recording video or pictures when they shouldn't, and our study, at least, didn't uncover any evidence of that," Choffnes told Yahoo Finance. Why we believe the myth If tech companies aren't listening to us, then why do so many people see ads for topics they were only recently talking about with friends or family? The answer to that is actually a bit more disconcerting than having your devices listen to you all the time. You're seeing those ads because companies like Facebook, Google (GOOG, GOOGL), and Amazon already know so much about you. Yes, your Echo is listening for the appropriate wake word to connect to the internet, but it's not recording your daily conversations. (image: Reuters/Elijah Nouvelage) Facebook and Google, for example, likely know where you live, your age, gender, relationship status, your interests, or your political affiliation. Heck, they even know if you're a dog person, cat person, or if you prefer living in a place not constantly covered in pet hair. Those two companies categorize everything they know about you to better serve you ads. If you're a dog lover, you'll invariably see ads for dog food. Big fan of cats? Then you'll see ads for scratching posts. But it's not just you these companies categorize. Your friends who use the services are also categorized. Facebook, for instance, can make a link between you and friends you often interact with. So if your friend was recently traveling to Hawaii, liked a page about Hawaii or even visited a web page related to Hawaii with Facebook's code embedded in it, the social network might connect that back to you and start serving you ads about Hawaii. Basically, companies that thrive on our information, like Google, Facebook and, increasingly, Amazon, are able to thoroughly understand our likes and interests based on the data we give them. Theyve become so effective at doing this that we've created elaborate conspiracy theories to rationalize how powerful their services truly are. Heck, if you looked at how much tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter know about you, you might consider ditching them entirely. I recently looked into my own Google history and found the company's mapping data has recorded everywhere I've been while navigating with Google Maps for years. I last went to Germany six years ago, but Google still had it stored. This is the category screen that Facebook uses to target users with ads. (image: Daniel Howley) It doesn't help that Americans have become less trusting of Big Tech in recent years. It seems as if tech companies have stepped into one problem after another when it comes to voice assistants. In 2017, the website Android Police found that early versions of Google's Home Mini were defective and recorded everything around them until Google fired off a software update to fix the problem. It's important to note that consumer versions of the Home Mini were never impacted by the issue. Then there are the high-profile issues involving Amazon's Alexa-powered Echo, including the time an Amazon customer in Germany requested all of his voice data from Amazon, only for it to be accidentally sent to another, unrelated person. And, of course, there's Facebook, which, in 2018, was plagued by scandal after scandal including the Cambridge Analytica debacle. What would happen if companies were listening? It's also not too absurd to think that our devices are listening to us at all times. In fact, devices like Apples (AAPL) iPhones, Android smartphones, and smart speakers with voice assistants are always technically listening. But they are only listening for a wake word or phrase. In the instance of the iPhone, it's "Hey, Siri." For Google's devices, it's, "Hey, Google." And for Amazon, it's "Alexa." But until you say those wake words, nothing you say around your devices is recorded, stored, or beamed up to the cloud. In the case of Google and Amazon, things you say after activating your devices using the wake word can be used to serve you ads, but that's no different than those companies using searches you perform in their apps to serve you ads. If tech companies were actually listening in on us without our consent, they'd be in for some serious legal pain. "There is also a federal statute called the Wiretap Act, which prevents people from eavesdropping on oral communications, and that could be a cause of action for a potential plaintiff against the company that was eavesdropping on them," said Kendra Albert, clinical instructional fellow at the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard Law School. If a company were eavesdropping on consumers without their knowledge, it would also have to contend with state laws against recording conversations without a person's knowledge or consent. In other words, the potential benefit of selling you ads related to your conversation about Hawaii would likely not outweigh the risk of a company being charged with violating consent and wiretapping laws. So feel free to chat around your devices as much as possible. Just, maybe stay off of them a little more, too. More from Dan: Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@oath.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley. Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.finance.yahoo.com/ By Greg Roumeliotis March 10 (Reuters) - U.S. construction and building materials supplier GCP Applied Technologies Inc is nearing a deal over the composition of its board with activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday. The agreement would come after Starboard amassed a 4.6 percent stake in GCP and put forward five nominees to stand for election to the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company's nine-member board of directors. GCP has agreed to appoint at least two of Starboard's nominees to its board, the sources said. If the negotiations are concluded successfully, the agreement could be announced this week, the sources added. GCP has said it is exploring strategic alternatives, a move that Starboard, which would like to see the company sell itself, supports, the sources said. The sources asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. GCP and Starboard declined to comment. GCP, which was spun off W.R. Grace & Co in 2016, is a provider of specialty construction chemicals, focusing on concrete admixtures and cement additives, as well as specialty building materials that protect structures from water, air and fire damage. It has a market capitalization of $2.1 billion. In July 2017, GCP sold its Darex packaging business to Germany's Henkel AG & Co KgaA for about $1.1 billion. GCP's shares are now valued almost as much as they were two years ago, as the company has faced intensifying competition from larger rivals, including RPM International Inc, BASF SE and Sika AG. GCP told its shareholders in an open letter last month it had taken "decisive steps" to make its business more efficient, and announced a restructuring plan focused on its supply chain strategy, including its manufacturing, purchasing, logistics, and warehousing operations. Starboard is one of the most prominent and prolific activist hedge funds. It is currently seeking to break up drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's $74 billion deal to buy Celgene Corp. It is also pushing for changes at discount retailer Dollar Tree Inc, and has put forward nominees to challenge the board of healthcare plan and pharmacy benefits manager Magellan Health Inc. (Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier) Comparable kittens - ideal for identifying F/RAND licence terms? "The case in respect of the 268 Patent involves the application of settled principles of law to complex facts. The case in respect of the 430 Patent is more unusual, in that TQ Delta accepted that once the problem addressed by the patent is known, the claimed solution is obvious. However, it contends that invention lay in perceiving the problem at the priority date." "Insofar as this submission suggests that hindsight cherry-picking from the prior art is impermissible, then I agree. Insofar as it suggests that the skilled person will not assimilate the contents of long and complex documents which are cited as prior art, and relevant documents which are incorporated by reference in the prior art, then I disagree. The skilled person is deemed to read and assimilate a prior art document properly and with interest. Having done so, she or he may conclude that it is in fact of no interest, or of no relevance to the problem with which she or he is concerned, but that is a different question. This was explained by Laddie J in Inhale v Quadrant 2002 RPC 21 at [47]....[and] in Ashai Medical v Macopharma [2002] EWCA Civ 466 (as per Aldous LJ at [21])." "[a] patent specification is addressed to those likely to have a real and practical interest in the subject matter of the invention, and the relevant person or persons must have skill in the art with which the invention described in the patent is concerned. I accept ZyXELs submission that the skilled person to whom the Patent is addressed is interested in error reporting and management. That skilled person would be specifically interested in the impact of ADSL2 on error reporting and management, as that is the field in which the 430 Patent claims to have made an improvement." (see [227]-[228]) "However, I agree with the logic of the Board of Appeal in the case law referred to above. In a field where the person skilled in the art regularly confronts technical problems and is used to solving them, if a real problem exists, she or he is likely to be aware of it. " "it was common ground that the allegedly inventive solution of the 430 Patent was acknowledged to be obvious, once the problem was known. It contended that, insofar as there was a real problem at the priority date, it required no invention to perceive it. On the contrary, it would have been evident to the skilled person from consideration of ADSL2/02, when read in the light of common general knowledge." "The invention in the present case is said to lie in the perception of a problem, and not in its solution. If there was no problem worth solving at the priority date, then I would have concluded that the 430 Patent had made no technical contribution to the art. However, in my judgment, the evidence demonstrated that it was widely known by the priority date that a general increase in the range of PERp [i.e. the period of the CRC computation or "period of the overhead channel") was going to be introduced. . . This analysis does not show any longstanding, unresolved problem. The 15-20ms range existed between 2002 and January 2005. No normalisation was carried out. In January 2005, it was amended in the new version of the G.992.3 Standard. Table 7-8 introduced a possible PERp range from 1.875 to 160ms where online reconfiguration had taken place. Normalisation of the CRC count was introduced simultaneously with this change, but not in relation to the 15-20ms period for which the count remained as before. There was no period of long-felt want." and in the early part of 2020. One of those cases is the battle between TQ Delta and ZyXEL concerning two of TQ Delta's patents which they claim to be essential - EP 1 453 268 Multicarrier communication with variable overhead rate (the 268 Patent); and EP 1 792 430 CRC counter normalisation (the 430 Patent). In his decision handed down this morning - [2019] EWHC 562 - Mr Justice Carr found the 268 Patent valid and infringed and the 430 Patent obvious in light of ADSL2/02 (but infringed if valid). The patents are two of TQ Delta's patents from a large portfolio of patents that relate to digital subscriber line ("DSL") technology. In 2012 they acquired these patents from Aware Inc. DSL technology will be familiar to readers as it is used to provide fixed lined broadband internet to your home and office.The AmeriKat was only able to quickly scan the decision over the briefest of lunches. But finding what was of interest in today's technical decision was not too difficult as Mr Justice Carr, himself, quickly identified that the interesting issue on law related to the 430 Patent. At paragraph 2, he stated:The 430 Patent, with a September 2004 priority date, related to cyclic redundancy checksums ("CRCs"). CRCs are used to detect errors in a received bit-stream. CRCs are counted in DSL in order to identify problems with a DSL line, such as noise and accuracy. The CRC failure rate is one of a number of line diagnostics information that can be used by operators of DSL networks to identify problems in their networks. Errors are tolerated to a certain extent, but if too many errors are being generated then action needs to be taken. To know when that point arises, the recording of each Severely Errored Second ("SES") is conducted on a counter.When SES was first introduced, the number of measurements would be about 59 computations per second. Over time, the period of CRC computations became variable. The 430 Patent concerned a method for normalizing a CRC anomaly counter, namely by incrementing the CRC anomaly counter by a value of M wherein the value of M is equal to PERp/K (where PERp is the value for a CRC computation period and K is a positive integer). As noted above, TQ Delta admitted that this solution was obvious, just that the problem wasn't. Thus the extent to which the problem to be solved by the 430 Patent would have been known to the skilled addressee was a matter of dispute, as was the skilled person's ability to assimilate the prior art, their interest in any particular aspect of the prior art and whether it was appropriate to consider a skilled person working for an ISP, who is therefore interested in SES reporting and management.After setting out the key legal principles on identifying the skilled person and their attributes at [220], Mr Justice Carr dealt with the assimilation of complex documents. Here, as in several telecoms cases, the cited prior art was a standard - the ADSL2/02 standard. Standards are comprehensive and often very long documents. This standard ran into 312 pages. TQ Delta argued that the law requires that the skilled person's real life attributes be taken into account (which the Judge agreed), but ZyXEL's approach was to treat the skilled addressee as having exceptional powers of assimilation and ability to hold detail in their mind throughout the reading. Mr Justice Carr at [224] and [225] stated:Mr Justice Carr held that although the prior art was a very long document which was concerned with the entire implementation of ADSL2, the 430 Patent is not concerned with the entire implementation of ADSL2 - just the limited issue of error reporting and management. This issue of error reporting and management was, itself, a known field at the priority date. It therefore followed that, because:After a trot through the case law on "perception of the problem" (including[2010] FSR 18,[1999] FSR 683 and the Case Law of the Boards of Appeal), Mr Justice Carr recognized it was possible to have a case where the invention was the identification or perception of the problem (even if the solution was obvious). However, at [245] he also noted that:At [256], he concluded that a "superhuman ability [was not] required to identify the problem from the standard", nor did it require any "cherry picking". He accepted ZyXEL's submissions which relied on the fact that:After discussion, at [265-266] and [270], Mr Justice Carr held:With one patent held as valid and infringed, this means the parties are headed to the RAND trial this September before Mr Justice Birss (with an estimate of 10 days in trial, with two days pre-reading). The date of this RAND trial was subject to intense debate and an interim hearing before Mr Justice Carr last month (see [2019] EWHC 353 ), which resulted in a clear message to litigants in telecoms disputes to be sensible and stop wasting time fighting over trial dates or lengthening F/RAND determinations longer than is really necessary.In the RAND trial, TQ Delta has pleaded that it will adopt a comparable licence approach, relying on two licences - one which is referred to as "the Zhone licence" and another which is referred to as "the confidential December licence". ZyXEL's case is based on a "economic benefits" or "profits available" approach, in that it argues that the terms of the licence for one of more SEPs should reflect the economic value of the patented technology. The licence fee should therefore be assessed by reference to the share of its profits relating to the manufacture of the equipment at issue, then apportioning a fraction of that to DSL functionality. This fraction is then representative of TQ Delta's share in the overall patent pool that is essential to the DSL standards in issue.We will have to wait until September to see how these arguments play out in practice. In the meantime, the AmeriKat recommends that you read Mr Justice Carr's interim decision in TQ Delta as it sets out some interesting practice and procedural points for how to handle FRAND determinations. BERLIN, March 11 (Reuters) - The readiness of Germany's weapons systems stood at about 70 percent in 2018 overall, but its submarines, heavy-lift helicopters and Tornado fighter jets faced continued challenges, the German Defence Ministry told lawmakers on Monday. For instance, Germany had zero submarines that were ready for operations for five months in the first half of 2018, although three of its six submarines were now ready for action, the top uniformed officer in the German military told lawmakers in a letter accompanying the ministry's annual readiness report. He said there had been no improvement in the low readiness of the air force's ageing CH-53 heavy-lift helicopters and its Tornado fighter jets, which face a shortage of spare parts, obsolescence of other parts, and long maintenance times. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal Editing by Tassilo Hummel) (Reuters) - China and Indonesia have grounded Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft operated by their airlines in reaction to the fatal crash of a plane of the same type operated by Ethiopian Airlines on Sunday. Ethiopian Airlines has also grounded its MAX 8 jets. Boeing has said the investigation into the crash remains in its early stages and it has no basis to issue new guidance to operators. Other airlines continue to operate the narrowbody jet. Here is what airlines and regulators have said so far: AIR CANADA "We have offered our assistance and are following closely the investigation. We have operated this aircraft type since 2017 and currently have 24 in our fleet. These aircraft have performed excellently from a safety, reliability and customer satisfaction perspective." AMERICAN AIRLINES The company said it remained fully confident in the aircraft and that it was closely monitoring the investigation. BAMBOO AIRWAYS The Vietnamese airline, which announced last month it was in talks to buy 25 Boeing 737 planes, declined to comment. BRAZIL'S AIR TRAVEL REGULATOR The regulator said it was not grounding the aircraft and that it was following the investigation. CAYMAN AIRWAYS The airline said it had grounded both of its MAX 8 jets until it got more information on the crash. CHINA'S AVIATION REGULATOR The regulator grounded 96 MAX 8s including those operated by Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Hainan Airlines. COMAIR The South African airline said it would monitor investigations into Sunday's crash. It has ordered eight models of the aircraft and took delivery of the first one last month. FIJI AIRWAYS The airline said it was confident in the jet. FLYDUBAI "We are monitoring the situation and continue to be in touch with Boeing. We remain confident in the airworthiness of our fleet. The safety of our passengers and crew is our first priority." INDIA'S DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF CIVIL AVIATION Story continues The regulator said it would issue additional safety instructions to Indian carriers operating the MAX 8. Jet Airways and SpiceJet Ltd operate the plane. SOUTH KOREA TRANSPORT MINISTRY South Korea is conducting an emergency inspection on Eastar Jet's two MAX 8 jets, a ministry official said. The airline could not immediately be reached for comment. SOUTHWEST AIRLINES The airline said it remained fully confident in the aircraft and was closely monitoring the investigation SPICEJET The Indian airline said all 13 of its MAX 8s were currently flying. TUI "From our experience we can operate the aircraft safely." TURKISH AIRLINES We are in contact with Boeing, the aircraft producer, on the operations of the Boeing 737 Max," CEO Bilal Eksi tweeted. "Flight safety is our priority. We are closely monitoring developments. We are carrying out all our operations by keeping flight safety at the highest level. WESTJET "We are monitoring the situation closely and will not speculate on the cause of the incident at this time. We have 13 MAX aircraft in our fleet of 121 Boeing 737s." (Compiled by Alexander Cornwell in Dubai; Editing by Mark Potter) (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has failed to protect consumers in its policing of companies such as Alphabet Inc.s Google and Facebook Inc., Republican Senator Josh Hawley told the agencys chief. The FTC, which has a mandate to enforce antitrust and consumer protection statutes, has taken a toothless approach to these platforms, Hawley wrote in a letter to FTC Chairman Joseph Simons dated Monday. These companies have harmed consumers by conditioning participation in the modern public square on giving away enormous -- and growing -- amounts of personal information and by leveraging scale to cripple emerging competitors in their infancy, Hawley wrote to Simons. There is substantial evidence that Facebook violated a 2011 agreement with the agency, Hawley said. The social networking website is under investigation by the FTC over alleged violations in the scandal involving Cambridge Analytica, in which the British political consultancy tied to Donald Trumps 2016 presidential campaign obtained the data of millions of the sites users without their consent. The companies, which once enjoyed a cozy relationship with Washington, are facing increasing scrutiny by Congress and agencies amid data lapses, controversial content and accusations that they abuse their dominance and exhibit political bias. Hawley, who represents Missouri, has emerged as a top GOP critic of the companies. He listed what he called alarming behaviors, including the contention that Google has consistently misinformed users about its use of geolocation data. Hawley sits on the Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to hold a hearing on Tuesday on privacy laws as Congress considers legislation on the topic. A Google executive will testify in the hearing, the committee announced Monday. To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Brody in Washington at btenerellabr@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net, Gregory Mott For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2019 Bloomberg L.P. (Bloomberg Opinion) -- On March 7, Huawei Technologies Co. held a press conference to announce its suing the U.S. government, arguing that a law passed last year barring the Chinese companys equipment from certain networks is unconstitutional. A week earlier, its CFO Meng Wanzhou sued Canadian authorities alleging wrongful detention. Meanwhile, the Shenzhen-based telecom equipment maker has sought to recruit foreign journalists for its public-relations team, taken out advertisements in overseas media to press its case, and intensified its activity on Twitter to include criticism of the U.S. legal system and a call for truth and justice for the good of global citizens. The irony is that no foreign organization could dream of attempting the same in China. This imbalance has worked in Huaweis favor. A months-long PR and lobbying campaign overseas has softened the stance of foreign governments and regulators, helping combat the perception that the company is a conduit for espionage by Beijing. Thats moved it toward the companys likely end goal: winning more business with telecom operators. The dichotomy isnt unique to Huawei. Chinas government has also leveraged the openness of developed-nation democracies to push its message, while refusing the same opportunities at home. China blocks its citizens from accessing Twitter, yet the countrys state-controlled media and government agencies have dozens of accounts with the U.S. social media service that they use to spread Beijings agenda. One editor-in-chief even regularly criticizes foreign governments on his personal timeline, a practice that would probably land him in detention if it was directed at his own government. Huawei and Meng may have credible arguments to make against U.S. and Canadian authorities, but the real victory for them is in being able to make them at all. Its unlikely a foreign company in China would be afforded similar opportunities to appeal directly to public opinion or battle the government in court. Story continues U.S. President Donald Trump has focused much effort on rebalancing trade with China, decrying what he sees as the countrys manipulation of their bilateral relationship. Hes also criticized Beijing for intellectual property violations and theft of technology. His decision to raise tariffs on Chinese goods may have forced Beijing to the negotiating table, with the eventual goal of striking a more favorable trade accord. Yet in his dealings with Beijing there's been little recognition of how China is exploiting democratic values for its own gain. When an open society with free speech and rule of law engages with one that has neither, that relationship is invariably lop-sided. Chinas Communist Party sees control of information as an issue of survival. Its unlikely that Washington will be able to easily redress the balance by persuading China to adopt freedom of speech, open access to foreign media, or the rule of law. But neither should the U.S. play into Chinas hands by conflating policy with legal due process, which is exactly what Trump did when he suggested last year that he might intervene in the Meng case if it helps him to win a trade deal. (Last year, Trump reversed sanctions on another Chinese company, ZTE Corp., after citing trade negotiations and his "personal relationship" with President Xi Jinping.) This muddying of the waters has come back to hurt both the U.S. and Canadian governments by emboldening Huawei to launch these two legal attacks, as outlined by a tweet the company sent when announcing the U.S. lawsuit. We should celebrate Huaweis right to utilize Canadian and U.S. freedoms and due process to argue its case against those governments. The contrast with China highlights the inherent strength of open democratic systems, and shows why these liberal values are too important to be used as a bargaining chip. As the U.S. president seeks to rein in China and strike a better deal, he will need to remember that you cant put a tariff on freedom. To contact the author of this story: Tim Culpan at tculpan1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Matthew Brooker at mbrooker1@bloomberg.net This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Tim Culpan is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. He previously covered technology for Bloomberg News. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion 2019 Bloomberg L.P. When we invest, were generally looking for stocks that outperform the market average. Buying under-rated businesses is one path to excess returns. For example, the Orange Belgium S.A. (EBR:OBEL) share price is up 57% in the last 5 years, clearly besting than the market return of around 8.8% (ignoring dividends). On the other hand, the more recent gains havent been so impressive, with shareholders gaining just 13%, including dividends. See our latest analysis for Orange Belgium To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term its a weighing machine. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time. During five years of share price growth, Orange Belgium actually saw its EPS drop 18% per year. This means its unlikely the market is judging the company based on earnings growth. Because earnings per share dont seem to match up with the share price, well take a look at other metrics instead. The revenue reduction of 1.5% per year is not a positive. So it seems one might have to take closer look at earnings and revenue trends to see how they might influence the share price. Depicted in the graphic below, youll see revenue and earnings over time. If you want more detail, you can click on the chart itself. ENXTBR:OBEL Income Statement, March 11th 2019 Orange Belgium is a well known stock, with plenty of analyst coverage, suggesting some visibility into future growth. If you are thinking of buying or selling Orange Belgium stock, you should check out this free report showing analyst consensus estimates for future profits. What About Dividends? When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and share price return. The TSR incorporates the value of any discounted capital raisings, along with any dividends, based on the assumption that the dividends are reinvested. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. In the case of Orange Belgium, it has a TSR of 63% for the last 5 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. And theres no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence! Story continues A Different Perspective Its good to see that Orange Belgium has rewarded shareholders with a total shareholder return of 13% in the last twelve months. And that does include the dividend. That gain is better than the annual TSR over five years, which is 10%. Therefore it seems like sentiment around the company has been positive lately. In the best case scenario, this may hint at some real business momentum, implying that now could be a great time to delve deeper. Before forming an opinion on Orange Belgium you might want to consider these 3 valuation metrics. We will like Orange Belgium better if we see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying. Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on BE exchanges. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. RTHK: Boeing ordered to modify 737 Max after crashes US federal aviation authorities said on Monday they would order Boeing to modify its 737 Max 8 aircraft, including anti-stalling software and maneuvering system updates, after the second deadly incident involving one of those planes in five months. The Federal Aviation Administration said it "anticipates mandating these design changes... no later than April," although it did not ground the fleet. A Hong Kong man, United Nations worker Victor Tsang, was among the 157 people who died in Sunday's Ethiopian Airlines crash. A number of countries, including China, grounded Boeing's medium-haul workhorse jet in response to the crash. The Nairobi-bound plane was the same type as the Indonesian Lion Air jet that crashed in October, killing 189 passengers and crew. Noting "similarities" between the two accidents, China's Civil Aviation Administration said operation of the model would only resume after "confirming the relevant measures to effectively ensure flight safety". There are some 350 of the 737 MAX 8 planes currently in service around the world and while some countries and airlines have opted to ground the planes, others are continuing to fly the aircraft pending an investigation into the crash and possible guidance from Boeing itself. Boeing has sent experts to assist in the Ethiopia probe and said safety was its "number one priority". (AFP) This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Meet the woman who trains dog owners just as often as she trains dogs For Abhilasha Sharma, dogs arent just pets; they are friend, family, companion and protector. Butlike with most animals, including humansthey need to be trained. And Sharma, one of Kathmandus most popular dog trainers, is the one to do it. Former Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich doubled down on his calls for a bipartisan, free-market solution to climate change on Monday, days after he touted his ownership of a Tesla electric vehicle and outlined his views on the divisive issue during an appearance at the South by Southwest. Kasich, who is mulling a presidential run in 2020, said the Green New Deal championed by progressive Democrats such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is provoking a more vigorous level of public debate on climate change, but could dangerously centralize federal government power. Instead, he called for moderates on both sides of the aisle to embrace market-driven policies to combat climate change, such as a carbon emissions tax and the return of subsidies for electric vehicles. I am convinced that conservatives and moderates, including many Democrats, can agree on a commonsense set of policies, Kasich wrote in an op-ed for USA Today. They would be based on responsible economic principles of free-market capitalism and personal choice, not coercion. Kasich proposed the possibility of a cap-and-trade program that would place a limit on emissions, but allow companies to purchase emissions capacity from other firms that havent hit the upper benchmark. He also called on U.S. officials to attempt to rein in carbon emissions from India and China, the worlds two most populous countries. The former Ohio governor spoke at length about climate change during an event at Austin City Limits Moody Theater for South By Southwest, the annual tech conference in Austin, Texas. Kasich disclosed that he drives a Tesla and said it was ridiculous that the U.S. government is curbing tax incentives for customers who buy electric vehicles. Kasich also aimed some criticism at President Trumps administration during the event, arguing that it was boneheaded for the United States to opt out of the Paris Climate Agreement, a sweeping international accord to limit emissions. Story continues If were not at the table, how are we supposed to seize the higher moral ground? Kasich said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP Kasich said he hasnt reached a decision on whether to run for president again in 2020, noting that the deadline is not here yet. Related Articles FILE - This Sept. 12, 2008 file photo, shows the U.S. embassy in Caracas, Venezuela. The U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced on Monday, March 11, 2019, that it will withdraw all remaining U.S. personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela this week. (AP Photo/Howard Yanes, File) CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) The latest on Venezuela's political and economic crisis (all times local): 7:10 a.m. Russian state oil company Rosneft has rejected accusations by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that it is violating sanctions on Venezuela. Pompeo said Monday that Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin "continues to throw a lifeline" to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. He said Rosneft was buying crude oil from Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA "in defiance of U.S. sanctions." Rosneft disputes what it calls "groundless accusations" and says any contracts it has for oil purchasing in Venezuela pre-date the introduction of U.S. sanctions. Rosneft is a major foreign investor in Venezuela as a partner of state-owned PDVSA, which is under U.S. sanctions. Sechin was personally sanctioned by the U.S. in 2014 shortly after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine. ___ 12:20 a.m. Tuesday U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the United States is withdrawing the last of its staff from its embassy in Venezuela, citing the deteriorating situation. Pompeo announced the decision late Monday as Venezuela struggles to restore electricity following four days of blackouts around the country and a deepening political crisis. The U.S. has led an international effort to oust socialist President Nicolas Maduro and replace him with opposition leader Juan Guaido, who vows to hold new a presidential election. Guaido is backed by some 50 countries, while Maduro maintains support from countries such as China, Russia and Cuba. Maduro ordered U.S. diplomats to leave in late January but then backed off. Pompeo says the remaining diplomats in Venezuela will be removed by the end of the week. ___ 6:15 p.m. The widespread blackouts in Venezuela have brought oil exports to a halt, and financial experts say that is costing the cash-strapped country millions of dollars a day. Story continues Russ Dallen is a Miami-based partner at the brokerage firm Caracas Capital Markets Dallen and he said Monday that Venezuela hasn't shipped $358 million in oil since the nationwide power failures hit Thursday evening. He said that "the whole system is grinding to a halt." Dallen says two large tankers are sitting empty at the Jose offshore oil-loading dock because of the nationwide power failure and at least 19 other ships are waiting their turns there. The socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro contends the outage was caused by a cyberattack launched from the United States, which seeks to replace him with opposition leader Juan Guaido. ___ 5:55 p.m. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is lashing out at Cuba and Russia for continuing to support Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, saying they are contributing to his country's economic crisis. Pompeo says Cuba and Russia are directly responsible for the suffering of the Venezuelan people. He says that Cuba is the "true imperialist power" in Venezuela. Cuba has made the same accusation against the United States, alleging that the U.S. is after Venezuela's oil. But Pompeo told reporters at the State Department on Monday that the U.S. is interested only in the welfare of the Venezuelan people. Pompeo also rejected allegations that the U.S. is responsible for crippling power outages that have hit Venezuela since Thursday. ___ 1:10 p.m. Spain's airline pilots union has asked for Spanish airline Air Europa to stop flying to Venezuela after one of its crews was attacked at gunpoint in Caracas. The Sepla union said Monday that two pilots and eight more crew members of a flight from Madrid were assaulted on Saturday while going from the airport to their hotel in the Venezuelan capital. The crew told the union that their van was surrounded by men on three motorbikes who later fled after an exchange of gunfire with a person the crew believed to be a plainclothes police officer. None of the crew members was injured. The union says Air Europa responded to the attack by ordering the crews of flights to Venezuela to not spend the night in the country. ___ 12:30 p.m. Witnesses say an explosion occurred at a power station in the Venezuelan capital as days of nationwide power cuts imposed increasing hardship on the country. Flames rose from the electrical facility in the Baruta area of Caracas early Monday, contributing to a sense of chaos among Venezuelans already struggling with an economic crisis and a bitter political standoff. Opposition leader Juan Guaido says three of four electricity transformers servicing the area were knocked out and that state engineers are unable to fix them. The U.S.-backed leader of the National Assembly has blamed the blackouts that began Thursday on alleged government corruption and mismanagement. President Nicolas Maduro, meanwhile, has accused Guaido and the United States of staging a "cyberattack" on Venezuela's power grid. The U.S. dismisses the allegation. ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) The Latest on Ethiopian Airlines crash (all times local): 11:50 p.m. A team of U.S. aviation experts has arrived at the site where an Ethiopian Airlines jetliner crashed, killing 157 people on a flight to Kenya. A Federal Aviation Administration statement said the American agency's people were at the crash site outside Ethiopia's capital on Monday with representatives of the National Transportation Safety Board. They are joining an Ethiopian-led investigation that includes authorities from neighboring Kenya and elsewhere. The new Boeing 737 Max 8 jetliner went down six minutes after takeoff from the airport in Addis Ababa in clear weather on Sunday. The FAA says it plans to soon issue an update to operators of that Boeing model. Boeing will be part of the investigation. ___ 11:20 p.m. A witness to the Ethiopian Airlines crash says smoke was coming from the rear of the plane before it hit the ground, killing 157 people on board. Tamrat Abera tells The Associated Press the plane rotated twice before crashing and exploding. Smoke rose high into the sky. An international team of investigators led by Ethiopian authorities is looking into the cause of Sunday's crash. Several countries and companies grounded their Boeing 737 Max 8 fleets out of caution. ___ 9:50 p.m. A U.N. official says thousands stood in silent tribute to victims of the Ethiopian Airlines crash at the opening of the U.N. Environment Program's Assembly in Nairobi on Monday. Some people who had been traveling to the meeting were among the 157 dead. Assistant Secretary-General Satya Tripathi tells reporters that "there's a lot of grief that's not just for the U.N. colleagues but ... because there have been losses on the side of member state delegations, the civil society community and others as well." Tripathi said there is a "renewed resolve" to do what more than 4,700 attendees had come to do: "preserve the cause of the environment and the planet." Story continues The U.N. secretary-general and presidents of France and Kenya are expected to attend this week. ___ 9:05 p.m. An official at Royal Air Maroc says Morocco has halted the commercial use of its sole operational Boeing 737 Max 8, pending tests and examinations of the airplane after the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday. The official, who spoke anonymously in line with his department rules, said the plane was scheduled to fly on Monday from Casablanca to London but was replaced. The official said the plane, in use since December, was undergoing an "inspection and verification" procedure by a Moroccan team and would be operational after tests are done. The official said Royal Air Maroc received a second Boeing 737 Max 8 airplane a few days ago, part of a deal with Boeing for acquiring a total of four. A number of airlines have grounded the planes. ____ 8:10 p.m. Comair, the operator of British Airways and Kulula flights in South Africa says it has grounded its Boeing 737 Max 8 while it consults with Boeing, other operators and technical experts. A statement does not say how many planes are affected. It says the decision was made without intervention from regulatory authorities. Comair joins a number of other airlines in grounding the planes after Sunday's deadly crash in Ethiopia. Wrenelle Stander, executive director of Comair's airline division, says in the statement that Comair "remains confident in the inherent safety of the aircraft." ___ 6 p.m. The United Nations secretary-general says at least 21 U.N. staff members died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday along with an undetermined number of people who had worked closely with the world body. Antonio Guterres spoke at the opening of the annual meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women, which began with hundreds of delegates standing in silent tribute to the 157 victims. The U.N. Security Council also began its meeting on Afghanistan with diplomats standing in honor of those who perished. Guterres said that "a global tragedy has hit close to home and the United Nations is united in grief." He said the U.N. staff members came from all corners of the globe and that "they all had one thing in common a spirit to serve the people of the world and to make it a better place for us all." ___ 5 p.m. A Greek man who narrowly missed the Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed near Addis Ababa on Sunday says he argued with ground staff to try and board after reaching the gate minutes too late. "I saw the last passengers going through but the gate had already closed. I complained, in the usual way when that kind of thing happens. But they were very kind and placed me on another flight," Antonis Mavropoulos told Greece's private Skai Television, speaking from Nairobi. Mavropoulos, who runs a recycling company and lives in Athens, was traveling to Kenya to attend an environmental conference. "I'm slowly coming to terms with what happened and how close it came. On the other hand, I'm also very upset I'm shattered for those who were lost," he said in the interview Monday. "To be honest, I didn't get much sleep last night." Mavropoulos put his survival down to luck. "I didn't check my suitcase because I knew the gap between connecting flights was tight. If I had checked the bag in, they would have waited for me," he said. "This is a very difficult moment one that can change your life." ___ 4:45 p.m. Ethiopia's state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate cites the United States ambassador as saying a six-member team of U.S. aviation experts are on their way to the site of Sunday's crash. Ambassador Michael Raynor visited the crash site on Monday. He told the broadcaster that the experts from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were expected to arrive at the site on Tuesday. He says that "Boeing and Interpol will also assist the Ethiopian government in the investigation. Interpol will assist in identifying the victims." The flight data recorder and voice cockpit recorder have been found. ___ 4:35 p.m. Ugandan authorities say a senior police officer is among the dead in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash on Sunday. Ugandan police say they are mourning Christine Alalo, who served as police commissioner under the banner of the African Union mission in Somalia. The statement calls her "a highly respected member of the force who loved her job." Alalo was returning from a trip to Italy. She is the lone Ugandan who died in the crash. All 157 on board were killed. ___ 4:20 p.m. A German pastor and an aid worker from Germany are among the victims of the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday. The World Council of Churches says Rev. Norman Tendis was traveling to a U.N. environment summit in Nairobi. The 51-year-old worked in Villach, Austria. The German development aid organization GIZ confirms that a staffer was on the plane. Spokeswoman Tanja Stumpff tells The Associated Press that the woman was on a business trip. Germany's Foreign Ministry has confirmed that at least five German citizens died in the crash. ___ 4:05 p.m. Catholic Relief Services announces "with heavy hearts" that four of its Ethiopian colleagues died in Sunday's plane crash outside Addis Ababa. The aid group in a statement says Sara Chalachew, Getnet Alemayehu, Sintayehu Aymeku, and Mulusew Alemu had been traveling to Nairobi for training. The four had worked with the organization for as long as a decade. They worked in procurement, logistics and finance. All 157 people on board were killed. They came from 35 countries. ___ 3:30 p.m. There are scenes of agony as members of an association of Ethiopian airline pilots cry uncontrollably for colleagues killed in Sunday's crash near Addis Ababa. Framed photographs of seven crew members sit in chairs at the front of a crowded room. One pilot says he had planned to watch a soccer game between Manchester and Arsenal with the flight's main pilot, Yared Getachew. It was Getachew who issued a distress call shortly after takeoff and was told to return. But all contact was lost. Another pilot says he flew with Yared several times and said they even lived together before becoming senior pilots. ___ 3:15 p.m. Pope Francis has sent his condolences to the families of the victims of the plane crash in Ethiopia. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, said in a statement Monday that the pope was sad to learn about the crash and "offers prayers for the deceased from various countries and commends their souls to the mercy of Almighty God." The statement said, "Pope Francis sends heartfelt condolences to their families, and upon all who mourn this tragic loss he invokes the divine blessings of consolation and strength." ___ 3 p.m. Shares of Boeing are tumbling before the opening of U.S. markets following the crash in Ethiopia of a Boeing 737 Max 8, the second deadly crash since October. All 157 people on board were killed on Sunday. A Lion Air model of the same plane crashed in Indonesia last year, killing 189 people. Shares of Boeing Co. plunged more than 9 percent in premarket trading Monday. If that trend holds, it could be one of the company's worst trading days in about a decade. Indonesia and China have grounded all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. Ethiopian Airlines and Cayman Airways are doing the same. ___ 1:35 p.m. Ethiopia's state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate reports that the black box has been found from the crashed Ethiopian Airlines plane. An airline official, however, tells The Associated Press that the box is partially damaged and that "we will see what we can retrieve from it." The official spoke on condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to speak to the media. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa on Sunday en route to Nairobi. ___ 1:20 p.m. China says two United Nations workers were among the eight Chinese nationals killed on the Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed shortly after takeoff Sunday. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang says the other Chinese passengers included four who were working for a Chinese company and two who had travelled to Ethiopia for "private matters." All 157 people on board the flight to Nairobi died. Lu said Chinese President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders have sent condolence messages to their Ethiopian counterparts. China has extended condolences to victims' families. China has ordered its airlines to ground their Boeing 737 Max 8 aircrafts by 6 p.m. ___ 12:45 p.m. The United Nations migration agency said that one of its staffers, German citizen Anne-Katrin Feigl, was on the plane en route to a training course in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya and the plane's destination. Germany's foreign ministry has officially confirmed that five victims of the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash that killed 157 people were German citizens. The ministry said in a statement Monday that it was in contact with the families of the victims. It did not reveal any information on the identity of those who died in the crash Sunday. All in all, 35 countries had someone among the 157 people who were killed. All people on board died minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa. ___ 12 p.m. The U.N. office in Nairobi is joining Ethiopia in mourning the 157 dead in Sunday's Ethiopian Airlines crash shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa. A moment of silence and U.N. flags at half-staff marked the deaths that included several workers with U.N. and affiliated organizations. The U.N. resident coordinator in Nairobi, Siddharth Chatterjee, says that "This has taken us by shock. ... But it also goes to reinforce the mortality of human life and therefore reinforces the need for humanity." He says U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sent "a poignant message of condolences to everybody, not just the U.N. staff but the crew of the flight and all other nationalities which were on the plane." People from 35 countries died. ___ 10 a.m. A spokesman says Ethiopian Airlines has grounded all its Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft as a safety precaution, following the crash of one of its planes in which 157 people were killed. Asrat Begashaw said Monday that although it is not yet known what caused the crash on Sunday, the airline decided to ground its remaining four 737 Max 8 planes until further notice as "an extra safety precaution." Ethiopian Airlines was using five new 737 Max 8 planes and was awaiting delivery of 25 more. Begashaw said searching and digging to uncover body parts and aircraft debris will continue. He said forensic experts from Israel have arrived in Ethiopia to help with the investigation. By Stine Jacobsen COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Tattooed models in mustard robes replaced the usual gray-suited bankers at Nordea Bank's Copenhagen headquarters recently, as the Danish bank strutted out its latest attempt to woo young talent. Hosting a fashion show is just one way companies like Nordea, the largest financial group in Nordic countries, are trying to attract twentysomething and thirtysomething employees. As financial services have moved online, banks have to battle with tech giants like Google and Amazon, which boast offices with features like massage rooms, to sign up tech-savvy millennials skilled in areas like artificial intelligence and programming. "Banks today are not really banks like they were years ago," Danske Bank's head of real estate, Christian Ronn Osteraas, said in an interview. "Banks are more and more IT companies, so the fact that we compete for the same talents also means that we have to offer the same or better physical benefits and services." Workplace ambience is becoming increasingly crucial for banks in the quest for talent among youth who care about the environment and not just a juicy paycheck. "Seventy-seven percent of millennials say that the workspace is more important than salary," said chief operating officer Troels Bjerg at ISS, a top facility services firm whose customers include most of Europe's 25 biggest banks. Chief executives see attracting and retaining talent as their No. 1 challenge, according to data from ISS World, a Danish provider of facilities management, security, catering and other support services to companies globally. "It has moved from being on the janitor's agenda to the CEO's agenda," Bjerg said. THAT START-UP FEELING Nordea is also looking at places like Disney and Silicon Valley for inspiration to shed banking's dusty image. "It is important that you have something you can talk about when you get home," said Trine Thorn, Nordea's head of workplace management in Denmark. "We have to create something attractive and different. I want to have this start-up feeling." Story continues At Danske Bank in Vilnius, Lithuania's capital where it has 700 IT employees, you can nap in a booth in 'The Library' relaxation area or challenge colleagues at ping pong or PlayStation in another room. Danske's shared services center in Vilnius will stay when the bank pulls out of the Baltic countries and Russia in the wake of one of the largest-ever money laundering scandals. Video games and flexible seating may not suit everyone, though. "Everybody wants an inspiring workplace and the challenge might be that millennials have been highlighted so much lately," Osteraas of Danske said. "It is important to attract talents of the future, but it should not remove focus from other types of employees." FROM CLEANER TO EXPERIENCE MANAGER Nordea has been working closely with ISS to create a workplace that feels both like a bank and a tech start-up. ISS, mainly known for its cleaning and catering services, said its new business for workplace experiences has been one of its fastest-growing areas in recent years. "Experience managers" create initiatives like a pop-up car wash in an office parking lot or a tour around the company to support knowledge sharing. "My role is to help create a culture that's more relevant to generation Z," said Dino Portelli, an ISS experience manager contracted by a big global bank in New York. Portelli is behind initiatives like a shuttle bus to the bank's remote site, with a host onboard who can help employees book a meeting room, provide replacement pantyhose if needed, or pre-order coffee to be ready upon arrival. "Banks are very corporate, but here it feels like you are in a Google (office)," he said of the site, which also includes a manicure salon and works with a local farm to supply greens. "They arrive in their suits on Monday. By Wednesday they're in slacks. And by Friday they're playing ping-pong." (Reporting by Stine Jacobsen; Editing by Lauren Young and Richard Chang) Microsoft MSFT recently filed a lawsuit against Foxconns parent company Hon Hai.Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd.,is an electronics contract manufacturing company. The tech giant in a court filing with United States District Court for the Northern District of California stated that the Taiwan-based Foxconn didnt abide by the patent-licensing agreement inked in 2013. Per the filing, Foxconn is accused of defaulting on twice-yearly royalty payments. Per CNBC, Microsoft is suing for royalty repayment with interest, a review of Hon Hais books and attorney fees. Additionally, Foxconn is alleged to have not furnished the required documents as requested by third party audit firm, Deloitte. Reportedly, in 2017, Foxconn had approved a deal to comply with the audit terms of Deloitte. Into the Headlines Per the terms of the pact inked in 2013, Hon Hai is supposed to pay royalty payments to Microsoft on gaining Chrome and Android patent licenses. Although the content covered in Microsofts patent portfolio has been kept confidential from public domain, the copy of the agreement has been reportedly attached with the lawsuit. It is to be noted in this regard that several Android device makers including LG, Samsung SSNLF, HTC, to mention a few, are part of Microsofts patent licensing program. Microsoft Rides on R&D Microsofts research and development (R&D) initiatives set it apart from its peers. On an annual basis, the company invests around 13% (fiscal 2018) on R&D for reaping the high growth and high-value opportunities. Microsoft Corporation Revenue (Quarterly) Microsoft Corporation Revenue (Quarterly) | Microsoft Corporation Quote In fact, in December 2003, Microsoft introduced IP (intellectual property) licensing program with an aim to offer licensing partners access to its considerable R&D investments and expanding IP and patent portfolio. The company has inked almost 1,200 licensing agreements per latest data. Additionally, the company has so far issued approximately 60,000 U.S. and international patents and has 36,000 patents pending. The patents represent inventions in artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, and other strategic growth areas. We believe Microsoft is well poised to benefit from its active stance in protecting its IP. Zacks Rank & Key Picks Microsoft currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Computer and Technology sector are Synopsys, Inc.SNPS and Symantec Corporation SYMC, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Long-term earnings growth rate for Synopsys and Symantec is projected to be 10% and 7.9%, respectively. Zacks' Top 10 Stocks for 2019 In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-holds for the year? Who wouldn't? Our annual Top 10s have beaten the market with amazing regularity. In 2018, while the market dropped -5.2%, the portfolio scored well into double-digits overall with individual stocks rising as high as +61.5%. And from 2012-2017, while the market boomed +126.3, Zacks' Top 10s reached an even more sensational +181.9%. See Latest Stocks Today >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Symantec Corporation (SYMC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Synopsys, Inc. (SNPS) : Free Stock Analysis Report Samsung Electronics Co. (SSNLF) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research * Abu Dhabi stocks hurt by selling in banks * Saudi loses early gains amid lower oil prices * Egyptian stocks up, supported by IPOs By Nafisa Eltahir DUBAI, March 10 (Reuters) - Gulf markets ended lower on Sunday, weighed down by weak global markets and a drop in oil price, but Egyptian stocks defied the trend, gaining on the back of positive momentum generated by the initial public offering of a state-owned company. Abu Dhabi's stock index lost 0.9 percent, hurt mainly by First Abu Dhabi Bank, which was down 1.6 percent, while other banks were also lower. FAB's shares were hit partly by technical factors, as the stock fell through its fifty-day moving average on Thursday and also below its 100 day moving average, an analyst said. The Abu Dhabi index has had a weak March, falling 5.2 percent since the start of the month. Dubai's stock exchange was down 0.6 percent , weighed down by Emaar Properties , which was down 0.8 percent and Dubai Islamic Bank, down 0.8 percent. "Dubai is basically just giving up the funny little rally it had in the second half of February," the analyst said. "The rally was triggered by Aldar's super-duper dividend, and everyone got excited and (then) everyone realised there wasn't a reason to get excited." Egypt's stock index was the only gainer on Sunday, up 0.5 percent. This was due to the initial public offering of state-owned cigarette maker Eastern Company last week, as well as another upcoming IPO, Karim Abdelaziz, general manager of brokerage Miracle for Securities Transactions, said. Saudi Arabia's main index was down 0.2 percent, hit by a weak performance among banking stocks. Banque Saudi Fransi was down 1.4 percent, while Samba Financial Group was down 0.7 percent. Banks had gained in early trading after Saudi authorities said on Friday they had no current plans to increase Islamic tax levels on the private sector. The Saudi market is anticipating the Tadawul exchange's impending entry into the FTSE Russell emerging market index next week, which could bring billions of dollars of fund inflows. Qatar's index lost 0.1 percent, trading at its lowest in more than five months, weighed down by Qatar National Bank , and Qatar International Islamic Bank, which were down 0.7 percent and 2.5 percent respectively. Story continues Qatar was one of 2018's best-performing markets globally, with stocks gaining 21 percent, helped by a lifting of limits on foreign ownership of shares. But it has lost 5.2 percent this year. "Qatar was overdue for a small correction that would let the valuation catch up with the price. And that decline is healthy," said Talal Samhouri, head of asset management at Amwal LLC. SAUDI ARABIA The index slipped 0.2 pct to 8,466 points DUBAI The index was down 0.6 pct at 2,578 points QATAR The index fell 0.12 pct to 9,769 points ABU DHABI The index lost 0.9 pct to 4,872 points EGYPT The index was up 0.5 pct at 14,979 points KUWAIT The index was down 0.4 pct at 5,577 points OMAN The index lost 0.6 pct to 4,090 points BAHRAIN The index dropped 0.2 pct to 1,406 points (Reporting by Nafisa Eltahir. Editing by Jane Merriman) Chand party owns up to Fridays blast in Basundhara The central committee of the Youth Organisation of Nepal, a sister-wing of Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal, claimed responsibility for the explosion in Basundhara, Kathmandu, on Friday night, stating that it was only a warning attack. (Updates to identify official in paragraph 10) By Mica Rosenberg and Kristina Cooke March 10 (Reuters) - Christian Mejia thought he had a shot at getting out of immigration detention in rural Louisiana after he found a lawyer to help him seek asylum. Then he was quarantined. In early January, a mumps outbreak at the privately run Pine Prairie U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Processing Center put Mejia and hundreds of other detainees on lockdown. "When there is just one person who is sick, everybody pays," Mejia, 19, said in a phone interview from the Pine Prairie center describing weeks without visits and access to the library and dining hall. His attorney was not allowed in, but his immigration court case continued anyway - over a video conference line. On Feb. 12, the judge ordered Mejia deported back to Honduras. The number of people amassed in immigration detention under the Trump administration has reached record highs, raising concerns among migrant advocates about disease outbreaks and resulting quarantines that limit access to legal services. As of March 6, more than 50,000 migrants were in detention, according to ICE data. Internal emails reviewed by Reuters reveal the complications of managing outbreaks like the one at Pine Prairie, since immigrant detainees often are transferred around the country and infected people do not necessarily show symptoms of viral diseases even when they are contagious. Mumps can easily spread through droplets of saliva in the air, especially in close quarters. While most people recover within a few weeks, complications include brain swelling, sterility and hearing loss. ICE health officials have been notified of 236 confirmed or probable cases of mumps among detainees in 51 facilities in the past 12 months, compared to no cases detected between January 2016 and February 2018. Last year, 423 detainees were determined to have influenza and 461 to have chicken pox. All three diseases are largely preventable by vaccine. Story continues As of March 7, a total of 2,287 detainees were quarantined around the country, ICE spokesman Brendan Raedy told Reuters. Ten Democratic members of Congress sent a letter on Feb. 28 to ICE acting Director Ronald Vitiello seeking more information about viral diseases at immigration detention centers in Colorado, Arizona and Texas. Lawmakers did not mention the Pine Prairie outbreak. Pablo Paez, a spokesman for the GEO Group, the private prison operator that runs Pine Prairie under government contract, said its medical professionals follow standards set by ICE and health authorities. He said medical care provided to detainees allows the company "to detect, treat and follow appropriate medical protocols to manage an infectious outbreak." 'UNPRECEDENTED NUMBERS' The first cases at Pine Prairie were detected in January in four migrants who had been recently transferred from the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Mississippi, according to internal emails. Tallahatchie, run by private detention company CoreCivic Inc, has had five confirmed cases of mumps and 18 cases of chicken pox since January, according to company spokeswoman Amanda Gilchrist. She said no one who was diagnosed was transferred out of the facility while the disease was active. Tallahatchie houses hundreds of migrants recently apprehended along the U.S.- Mexico border, ICE said. On Tuesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told reporters that changing demographics on the southwest border, with more immigrants from Central America traveling long distances, overwhelmed border officials and raised health concerns. "We are seeing migrants arrive with illnesses and medical conditions in unprecedented numbers," McAleenan said at a press conference. However, vaccination rates in the countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are above 90 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ICE detainees come from countries all over the world, with varying degrees of vaccination coverage. 'HIGH-PROFILE REMOVAL' At Pine Prairie, staff members were at times at odds with the warden about how to manage the mumps outbreak, internal emails show. The warden decided not to quarantine 40 new arrivals from Tallahatchie in February despite concerns raised by the medical staff, one email showed. The warden, Indalecio Ramos, who referred questions about the outbreak to ICE and the GEO Group, argued that quarantining the transfers would keep them from attending their court hearings, the facility's health service administrator wrote in a Feb. 7 email. In a Feb. 21 email, ICE requested that medical staff members at Pine Prairie clear a detainee quarantined for chicken pox and mumps for travel, calling him a "high-profile removal scheduled for deport." In an email to staff later that day, warden Ramos wrote that medical staff had wanted to exclude the detainee from transfer but "ICE wants him to travel out of the country anyway ... Please ensure he leaves." ICE spokesman Raedy said that travel is restricted for people who are known to be contagious but those exposed to diseases who are asymptomatic can travel. Since January, the 1,094-bed Pine Prairie facility has had 18 detainees with confirmed or probable cases of mumps compared to no cases in 2018, according to ICE. As of mid-February, 288 people were under quarantine at Pine Prairie. Mejia said his quarantine ended on Feb. 25. Detention centers in other states also have seen a rise in outbreaks. There have been 186 mumps cases in immigration detention facilities in Texas since October, the largest outbreak in centers there in recent years, said Lara Anton, the press officer for the Texas Department of State Health Services. In Colorado, at the Aurora Contract Detention Facility near Denver, run by the GEO Group, 357 people have been quarantined following eight confirmed and five suspected cases of mumps detected since February, as well as six cases of chicken pox diagnosed since the beginning of January, said Dr. Bernadette Albanese from the Tri County Health Department in Colorado. Civil rights attorney Danielle Jefferis said court hearings for quarantined immigrants at Aurora were largely canceled. At Pine Prairie on Feb. 12, Mejia said he felt confused and hopeless during his video hearing, with no attorney by his side. After Mejia's lawyers complained, attorneys were allowed to visit quarantined detainees on Feb. 13 - one day too late for Mejia. While he is appealing his case, his lawyers say he could be deported at any time. (Reporting by Mica Rosenberg in New York and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; Editing by Julie Marquis, Paul Thomasch and Lisa Shumaker) Indonesian Siti Aisyah smiles during a press conference upon returning home from Malaysia at Halim Perdanakusumah Airport in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday, March 11, 2019. The Indonesian woman held two years on suspicion of killing North Korean leader's half brother Kim Jong Nam was freed from custody in Malaysia Monday after prosecutors unexpectedly dropped the murder charge against her. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana) SHAH ALAM, Malaysia (AP) One of two women accused of killing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's half brother by smearing VX nerve agent on his face was freed after two years of detention Monday when Malaysian prosecutors unexpectedly dropped the murder charge against her. Indonesian Siti Aisyah and her Vietnamese co-defendant, Doan Thi Huong, have said they thought they were taking part in a prank for a TV show. Prosecutors did not give any reason for the remarkable retreat in their case against Aisyah in the killing of Kim Jong Nam at a busy Kuala Lumpur airport terminal. Indonesia's government had lobbied repeatedly for her release. Vietnam has pushed less hard on behalf of Huong, and recently hosted leader Kim Jong Un for an official visit and a summit with President Donald Trump. Aisyah cried and hugged Huong before leaving the courtroom and being ushered away in an Indonesian Embassy car. She told reporters that she had only learned Monday morning that she would be freed. She flew back to Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, later Monday and thanked the president and other officials for their help. "I feel happy, very happy that I cannot express in words," she told reporters at Jakarta's airport. "After this I just want to gather with my family." Huong, who remains on trial, was distraught. "I am in shock. My mind is blank," she told reporters after Aisyah left. The two women had been the only suspects in custody after four North Korean suspects fled the country the morning of Feb. 13, 2017, when Kim Jong Nam was killed. The trial is to resume Thursday, and prosecutors are expected to reply to a request by Huong's lawyers for the government to withdraw the murder charge against her as well. The High Court judge discharged Aisyah without an acquittal on Monday after prosecutors applied to drop the murder charge against her. Prosecutor Iskandar Ahmad said that means Aisyah can be charged again if there is fresh evidence, but there are no such plans now. Aisyah's release comes just a month before Indonesia's general election and is seen as a boost to President Joko Widodo, who is seeking re-election. Story continues Aisyah, surrounded by government officials and a mob of reporters at Jakarta's arport, struggled for words as journalists shouted questions. After a prompt from Indonesia's law and human rights minister, she thanked the president and Cabinet ministers. Indonesia's government said its continued high-level lobbying had resulted in Aisyah's release. Its foreign ministry said in a statement that she was "deceived and did not realize at all that she was being manipulated by North Korean intelligence." It said Aisyah, a migrant worker, never had any intention of killing Kim. The ministry said that over the past two years, Aisyah's plight was raised in "every bilateral Indonesia-Malaysia meeting," including at the presidential level, the vice presidential level and in regular meetings of the foreign minister and other ministers with their Malaysian counterparts. Huong's lawyer, Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, said after Monday's court session that Huong felt Aisyah's discharge was unfair to her because the judge last year had found sufficient evidence to continue the murder trial against both of them. "She is entitled to the same kind of consideration as Aisyah," he said. "We are making representation to the attorney general for Doan to be taken equally ... there must be justice." A High Court judge last August had found there was enough evidence to infer that Aisyah, Huong and the four missing North Koreans engaged in a "well-planned conspiracy" to kill Kim Jong Nam. The defense phase of the trial had been scheduled to start in January but was delayed until Monday. Lawyers for the women have previously said that they were pawns in a political assassination with clear links to the North Korean Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, and that the prosecution failed to show the women had any intention to kill. Intent to kill is crucial to a murder charge under Malaysian law. Malaysian officials have never officially accused North Korea and have made it clear they don't want the trial politicized. Kim was the eldest son in the current generation of North Korea's ruling family. He had been living abroad for years but could have been seen as a threat to Kim Jong Un's rule. ___ Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report. My sister, Nancy, had an amazing career in the Marine Corps...[she] achieved what very few Marines achieve and what only a handful of female Marines achieve. She has earned the respect of many! LINTHICUM, MD / ACCESSWIRE / March 11, 2019 / NFM Lending is pleased to honor Sergeant Major Nancy Ainsworth, USMC, Ret. as the NFM Salute for March 2019. SgtMaj Ainsworth served on active duty in the Marine Corps from Dec. 1981 through Aug. 2007. She attended boot camp in January and February 1982. She recalls, "Back then, women did not qualify with the service rifle! We also received classes on how to properly wear makeup. I believe after I left boot camp, I never wore makeup again!" Her first duty station was on the island of Okinawa, Japan. She met her husband while in Okinawa and they were married the following year by the Justice of Peace in Jacksonville, NC, over 35 years ago. Together they were stationed on Camp Lejeune from 1983 to 1986. Both were meritoriously promoted to Sergeant on the same day. They received orders to Parris Island, SC to be drill instructors in 1986 and were both meritoriously promoted to Staff Sergeant while serving there. They transferred back to Camp Lejeune together in 1989 and had their first son, RJ, in 1990. SgtMaj Ainsworth received orders back to Okinawa in 1991 when RJ was just nine months old. She took RJ with her and spent a year on Okinawa while her husband prepared to deploy with his unit. She returned to Camp Lejeune in 1992 and had her second son, Charlie, that year. She was promoted to Gunnery Sgt in 1993 and received orders to Headquarters Marine Corps in Arlington, VA in 1994 - the same year her husband was medically retired from the Marine Corps. SgtMaj Ainsworth served at Headquarters Marine Corps for two years until she was selected to go to college on the Staff NCO degree completion program. She attended Campbell University from 1996-1998, graduating with a BS degree in Psychology. While completing her degree, she was selected to the rank of First Sergeant. SgtMaj Ainsworth served at the Marine Corps' School of Infantry, Marine Combat Training Battalion from 1999 to 2001. She was promoted to Sergeant Major in 2001. While a Sergeant Major, she deployed to Kuwait in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and to Iraq in 2005. Upon return from Iraq, she became the Sergeant Major of Marine Corps Combat Service Support Schools, Camp Johnson, NC. She retired as a Sergeant Major in 2007. Story continues SgtMaj Ainsworth's service awards include: Legion of Merit, Combat Action Ribbon, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (3d awd), Meritorious Service Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Sea Service Deployment ribbon (3d awd), Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, National Defense Service Medal (2d awd), Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation (2d awd), Navy Unit Commendation (3d awd), and Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal (7th awd). Upon retirement from the Marine Corps, SgtMaj Ainsworth began working for the Marine Corps Engineer School as a contractor. She has been working as the Operations Chief for the Defeat the Device Branch, Counter- Improvised Explosive Device, Mobile Training Cadre for nearly 12 years. She believes it was the perfect transition from the Marine Corps. SgtMaj Ainsworth was nominated by her sister, Susan Dewar. "My sister, Nancy, had an amazing career in the Marine Corps. She retired at the rank of Sergeant Major the highest enlisted rank one could achieve after 26 years of active duty service. Nancy achieved what very few Marines achieve and what only a handful of female Marines achieve. She has earned the respect of many!" NFM Salute is an initiative in which one military member or Veteran is chosen each month to be honored as the "Salute of the Month." Salutes are chosen from nominations on the NFM Salute website, www.nfmsalute.com. The "Salute of the Month" will be featured on the website with a biography and information about his or her service, and NFM Lending will make a $1,000 donation to a military or Veteran non-profit in the Salute's name. Selected NFM Salutes may choose from one of the following three non-profits: Platoon 22, AnySoldier, and the Gary Sinise Foundation. SgtMaj Ainsworth chose the Gary Sinise Foundation to receive this month's donation. Explaining her decision, she stated, "This foundation supports and honors active duty military, veterans, as well as first responders. My son is a Raleigh, NC police officer. He was recently critically injured in the line of duty and is recovering at the Wake Med Hospital in Raleigh. A donation to the Gary Sinise Foundation would not only recognize my service but also the service of my son, whose job as a police officer seems exponentially more dangerous than my 25+ years in the Marine Corps!" NFM looks forward to the opportunity to continue to honor military and Veterans through the NFM Salute initiative. About NFM Lending NFM Lending is a mortgage lending company currently licensed in 37 states in the U.S. The company was founded in Baltimore, Maryland in 1998. They attribute their success in the mortgage industry to their steadfast commitment to customers and the community. NFM Lending has firmly planted itself in the home loan marketplace as "America's Common Sense Residential Mortgage Lender." For more information about NFM Lending, visit www.nfmlending.com, like our Facebook page, or follow us on Twitter. CONTACT: Email: pr@nfmlending.com Phone: 443-451-3439 SOURCE: SgtMaj Nancy Ainsworth View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/538626/NFM-Lending-Salutes-Nancy-Ainsworth (Bloomberg) -- Nvidia Corp. is nearing an agreement to buy Israeli chipmaker Mellanox Technologies, which would help it gain technology used to speed the flow of information around data centers, people familiar with the matter said. The sale of Mellanox, which has a market value of about $5.9 billion, could be announced as soon as Monday, the people said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private. Nvidia is the leading bidder ahead of rivals including Intel Corp., though no final decision has been made and the outcome could still change, the people said. Representatives for Nvidia, Mellanox and Intel declined to comment. Speculation that it would be acquired has sent Mellanoxs stock surging. The stock gained as much as 14 percent in pre-market trading in New York on Monday. Shares of the company, which is based in Yokneam, Israel and Sunnyvale, California, have risen 66 percent from a low in October and 18 percent just this year through Friday. Israeli newspaper Calcalist reported earlier Sunday that Nvidia and Intel were bidding for Mellanox, without saying where it got the information. Hot Technology Mellanoxs technology is crucial in transferring information from one component to another both within and between computers. The rate at which chips direct that traffic has become increasingly important as corporate computer networks and cloud service providers try to make sense of the growing flood of data being generated. Multiple companies have an interest in adding such capabilities to their own array of products as they try to make themselves more attractive to major buyers of computer infrastructure, such as Alphabet Inc.s Google, Amazon.com Inc.s AWS and Microsoft Corp.s Azure. Nvidia is the largest maker of graphics chips used by computer gamers. The company has been pushing its technology into new areas, arguing that it has the best solution to the tougher requirements of processing data related to artificial intelligence. Its already won over data center owners: The unit that serves that market has tripled sales in the last three years. Story continues Mellanoxs revenue surged 26 percent in 2018, topping $1 billion for the first time. Chipmaker Consolidation The deal may signal a restart of consolidation in the $470 billion semiconductor industry which has been reshaped over the past five years as companies have increasingly combined to add scale amid rising costs and shrinking customer lists. The transaction will still have to win approval from regulators. That process has become more complicated due to the U.S. trade stand-off with China. The U.S. is the worlds largest producer of chips, while China is the biggest consumer. The Trump administration has blocked deals over concerns about Chinas ambitions to acquire new semiconductor technology. China in turn has made it harder to secure its approval for transactions. (Updates with Mellanox early trading in fourth paragraph.) --With assistance from Yaacov Benmeleh. To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Ed Hammond in New York at ehammond12@bloomberg.net;Scott Deveau in New York at sdeveau2@bloomberg.net;Olivia Zaleski in San Francisco at ozaleski@bloomberg.net;Nabila Ahmed in New York at nahmed54@bloomberg.net;Ian King in San Francisco at ianking@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Aaron Kirchfeld at akirchfeld@bloomberg.net, Amy Thomson For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2019 Bloomberg L.P. Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 601 Commonwealth Ave #1600, Harrisburg. Photo: Google In its final round of ratings for potential Superior Court candidates, the Pennsylvania Bar Association has issued ratings of three additional contenders, with one receiving a "highly recommended" rating and two receiving ratings of "not recommended." The three hopefuls include a Philadelphia judge who before her election to the Common Pleas Court served as chief counsel to Sen. Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia, and a Pittsburgh attorney who caused concern at the bar association's Judicial Evaluation Commission over her handling of social media content that was allegedly plagiarized. The newly rated contenders come in addition to the five that the bar association rated in January, all of whom are vying for two open spots on the intermediate appellate court. The only candidate to receive a "highly recommended" rating in the latest round was Philadelphia Judge Timika R. Lane. Lane has presided over criminal cases after she was elected to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas in 2013. Before taking the bench, she worked in private practice handling family law cases, and later handled major trials at the Defender Association of Philadelphia. In 2009, she became chief counsel to Williams. In its release explaining the ratings, the commission said Lane's colleagues describe her as "fair, even handed, highly ethical, hardworking and knowledgeable." "She demonstrates a commitment to public service and has extensive community involvement," the commission said. "Due to her background, attributes and experience, the commission is confident the candidate would serve with distinction as a Superior Court judge." The rating makes Lane and fellow Philadelphia Judge Daniel McCaffery as the only two candidates to receive "highly recommended" ratings. Pittsburgh attorney Elizabeth Tarasi, who focuses on personal injury and real estate, was rated as "not recommended" over concerns stemming from alleged plagiarism. According to the commission, Tarasi had the "requisite legal knowledge, ability and writing skills" needed to become a Superior Court judge, and her record of community involvement also showed she had "the appropriate temperament and character for the judiciary." However, the commission said it had concerns about her social media content. "During her interview with the commission, it was revealed that she failed to exercise oversight of plagiarized content on her social media website," the commission said. "When questioned, she failed to accept full accountability for the matter, leaving the commission with concerns about her character and integrity." As a result the commission rated her as "not recommended." Tarasi did not immediately return a call seeking comment. McKeesport attorney Ryan James also received a "not recommended" rating by the commission. According to the commission, James has been practicing since 2012, and, after working as an associate for three months, he opened his own firm as a solo practitioner with a general practice. The commission noted James has never held a judicial clerkship. "Although known for his good temperament and diligent work ethic, the commission finds the candidate has not had the breadth or depth of experience necessary to take on the role of the Pennsylvania Superior Court," the commission said. Along with McCaffery, the three newly rated contenders join candidates Catherine Kate Harper, Megan Lee King and Cumberland County Judge Christylee Peck, who each received a "recommended" rating, as well as Amanda Green-Hawkins, who received a "not recommended" rating. James did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Government scrambles to explain what jana abhimat meansand what it does notin deal with CK Raut Two days after an 11-point agreement was signed between the government and CK Raut, a long-time Free Madhes campaigner, the government was scrambling to explain the meaning of jana abhimat, a phrase in the second point of the agreement. The headquarters of Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) is seen in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia April 19, 2016. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser/Files By Rania El Gamal, Davide Barbuscia and Alex Lawler DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco's board is set to meet this week in Saudi Arabia where it will approve a bond issuance plan that will likely help finance a potential acquisition of a strategic stake in Saudi petrochemicals maker SABIC, industry sources said. Aramco, the world's top oil producer, plans to issue its first international bonds in the second quarter of 2019 and the planned issuance will probably be around $10 billion, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih has said. The company's representatives are expected to meet fixed-income investors in a bond "roadshow" in April, two sources familiar with the matter said. The deal is expected to involve the purchase of all or nearly all of the 70 percent stake in SABIC held by the Public Investment Fund, the kingdoms top sovereign wealth fund. That implies a deal value of roughly $70 billion, though the acquisition price has not been made public yet. The Aramco board of director, which plans to meet on Monday, according to two sources, will also approve the 2018 financial results for the company, which is likely be included in the bond prospectus along with the firm's oil and gas reserves. "The board will approve the bonds. SABIC (deal) is progressing but any project of this size takes a long time," said one of the sources. Aramco did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Senior Aramco officials have traveled to the United States and Britain in recent weeks to gauge investor appetite for the planned bond, the sources said. Aramco had already picked a group of banks including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Citi, HSBC and Saudi Arabia's National Commercial Bank to help arrange the planned bonds. When Aramco approached banks formally for the bonds sale earlier this year, it asked them to submit proposals for the bonds and potential commitments for bank debt financing, banking sources said. Story continues The sources said the acquisition payment is likely to be staggered, allowing Aramco to tap debt investors in various phases - a move which would avoid straining banks that are not ready to commit large sums through a single loan facility. Banks have pitched hard over the past months for this high-profile bond mandate, hoping to be rewarded by Aramco with future mandates for capital markets transactions and other banking business. JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, along with other banks, were working on the planned stock market listing of Aramco before the move was put on hold due to the SABIC acquisition. The new planned listing date is 2021, Saudi officials said. (Reporting by Rania El Gamal and Davide Barbuscia in Dubai, Dmitry Zhdannikov, Alex Lawler, Tom Arnold in London; Editing by Sam Holmes) Abducted trader freed An unidentified group abducted a trader near Bodebarsain Bazaar in Saptari on Saturday night. CHILLIWACK, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 11, 2019 / Auld Phillips Ltd. ("Auld Phillips" or the "Company") today announced that Stephen J. Bowen will be retiring as Chief Executive Officer of Auld Phillips and assuming the role of Board Chair, effective April 30, 2019. In order to prepare and position Auld Phillips for the next phase of its growth, Sherry Johnston is being appointed President of Auld Phillips, effective immediately. The Company is also initiating a search for a General Merchandising Manager. Steve has been with Auld Phillips since 2001. He initially worked in a real estate capacity for Rod Cooper (co-President/Owner) and Jim Gilbert (co-President/Owner) before progressing to CEO/Owner shortly thereafter. Under Steve's leadership, the company doubled its number of retail outlets and became a leading contemporary women's fashion retailer across Western Canada. The expansion allowed the Company to thrive by buying reputable Canadian brands in volume at better margins, adding novelty styles from smaller Canadian manufacturers and producing its own product. "After ten plus years of ownership, three years ago, I sold a majority interest in the Company to the Stern Group, which owns several retail banners as well as a multitude of other businesses," Steve said. "I did this knowing that the business of retail is ever changing, and that the business was beginning to present challenges that required me to partner with a group that knows retail and more importantly knows where the retail landscape is going. The Stern Group certainly does. Now is the right time for me to sell my remaining interest to the Stern Group. They have been great partners with me and will be great custodians of Auld Phillips for many years to come." "I would like to express our sincerest thanks to Steve Bowen for his tireless dedication and leadership in building an outstanding company and for partnering with us over the past three years. Steve's visionary leadership has positioned the Company for future long-term success. We are grateful that he will continue to help guide Auld Phillips in his new role." said Ronald N. Stern, Founder and President of Stern Partners. Story continues Sherry has been with Auld Phillips since 1998 and has been Vice President Store Operations since 2006. Since joining Auld Phillips, Sherry has been directly involved with many key responsibilities and initiatives, including front end operations, implementation of KPI management, store planning and design, merchandising, real estate and strategy. Sherry brings operational expertise and a wealth of executive and institutional knowledge to the role, and the Board of Directors is excited about Sherry's appointment and looks forward to her leading Auld Phillips through its next stage of growth. About Auld Phillips Founded over fifty years ago in Chilliwack, B.C., Auld Phillips is a successful women's fashion retailer across Western Canada. The Company operates 61 retail stores under the brands Suzanne's, Jenny's, Suzanne's and Jenny's, and Top Shop, offering affordable, unique, quality contemporary women's fashions. For more information about Auld Phillips, see www.suzannes.biz. About Stern Partners Founded approximately thirty-five years ago in Vancouver, B.C., Stern Partners is a leading Canadian investor with a diverse range of operating companies and significant multi-location retail investing experience with, in addition to its interest in Auld Phillips, interests in five national retailers: Bootlegger, cleo, Ricki's, Urban Barn and Warehouse One. For more information about Stern Partners, see www.sternpartners.com. CONTACT INFORMATION: For more information, please contact: Steve Bowen Chief Executive Officer Auld Phillips (604) 793-6101 sbowen@auldphillips.com SOURCE: Auld Phillips Ltd. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/538619/Stephen-J-Bowen-Retires-as-CEO-of-Auld-Phillips-and-Sherry-Johnston-is-Appointed-as-President By Geoffrey Smith Investing.com -- European stock markets have started the week brightly, taking their lead from a surprisingly strong Asian market performance and an interview at the weekend with U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell that underlined the central banks reluctance to tighten monetary policy in the near term. At 04:00 AM ET (0900 GMT), the benchmark Euro Stoxx 600 was up 0.6 points, or 0.2% at 371.18. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 was up 0.6% while Germany's Dax was up 0.2%. With no one story dominating the news, banks are leading the way higher after a torrid last week. Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) was up 2.8% and Commerzbank (DE:CBKG) up 4.8% after reports at the weekend said Deutsches executive board has given CEO Christian Sewing a mandate to pursue a merger with its smaller rival. To make the math work, Sewing is insisting on much sharper cost cuts than current agreements with the two banks labor unions would permit, according to German newspaper Handelsblatt. Analysts are still skeptical that the combination of two banks with chronically low profits will actually make a stronger one. Is this the type of stuff that people in 15 years time will say it sounded good at the time? Stefan Gerlach, chief economist with EFG Bank in Zurich, said via Twitter. The market earlier shrugged off a surprise drop in German industrial production in January, which were offset by more upbeat trade data a rare instance of German hard data beating expectations in recent weeks. Elsewhere, Boeing (DE:BA) depositary receipts in Frankfurt fell over 7% on the news that China had grounded its 737 MAX airliners after a second fatal crash involving the 737 MAX at the weekend. Frances Safran (PA:SAF), which supplies engines for the airliner, fell 1.6%. Meanwhile, oil and gas stocks were broadly higher after reports saying Saudi Arabia would continue through April to pump less oil than it is allowed to under an OPEC-led supply restraint deal. The reports suggest the kingdom is stepping up its efforts to support prices which remain under pressure as U.S. supply continues to grow faster than global demand. Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSa) is 0.7%, while BP (LON:BP) is up 0.5% and Frances Total up 0.6%. Europes majors are also benefiting from the fact that Norways government recommended on Friday to leave them off a list of stocks that its sovereign wealth fund should divest from. Story continues Related Articles U.S. judge rules Qualcomm owes Apple nearly $1 billion rebate payment British investor group warns laggards over lack of boardroom mix TPG Rise founder leaves firm in wake of U.S. college admissions scandal Georgia Supreme Court and Court of Appeals Building. Photo credit: John Disney/Daily Report. Georgia Supreme Court and Court of Appeals Building. (Photo: John Disney/ALM) The Supreme Court of Georgia has unanimously affirmed the suppression of evidence obtained from the mobile phones and other electronic devices of a former law student charged with murder in the death of a foster child. In an opinion handed down Monday, the high court agreed with a trial judge who last year suppressed the electronic evidence because of the unreasonable delay in obtaining search warrants for communications and other information from the seized mobile phones and computers. The devices belong to defendants Jennifer Rosenbaum, who was a third-year law student at Emory University when she was arrested, and her husband, Joseph Rosenbaum, according to prosecutors appellate brief. Both Rosenbaums have pleaded not guilty. Before her arrest, Jennifer Rosenbaum interned at the Henry County Juvenile Court, with the Henry County district attorney and at the Georgia General Assembly, according to news reports. She also was a candidate for the Henry County Commission, prosecutors said in their brief. Joseph Rosenbaum was a correctional officer at the Spalding County Correctional Institute. Mondays ruling, written by Justice Michael Boggs, marks the first time a Georgia appellate court has considered whether a defendants constitutional rights are violated by delays in obtaining search warrants for data contained in electronic devices seized in a warrantless yet legal manner by police. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta has issued a number of opinions over the question of unreasonable delay, which the Georgia high court adopted as persuasive authority. Boggs said the state made no showing of particular complexity, difficulty in drafting the warrant or competing demands on a limited number of officers to explain a delay of more than 500 days to obtained warrants to review data on the Rosenbaums devices. The last of seven warrants to search the devices was not secured until nearly two years after the couples arrest. Instead, the trial court found multiple errors, failures, and oversights on the part of the state with respect to investigating or even accounting for the devices, Boggs wrote. The trial courts conclusion that the state did not diligently pursue its investigation as it relates to the content of these devices is amply supported by the record. Story continues Justice Michael Boggs, Supreme Court of Georgia. (Photo: John Disney/ALM) Although prosecutors argued the evidence should be admitted because police acted in good faith, Boggs said the good-faith exception would not apply to an unreasonable delay in obtaining a search warrant because a well-trained officer is presumed to be aware that a seizure must last no longer than reasonably necessary for the police, acting with diligence, to obtain a warrant. Corinne Mull, counsel for the Rosenbaums, argued the warrants were not obtained until after she made multiple requests stretching over a year-and-a-half to get the devices back, claiming they were needed for the couples defense. We are very pleased about the results and that the high court had decided to abide by the body of law established by the Eleventh Circuit, Mull said Monday. The lower court ruling last year delayed the Rosenbaums trial in the death of 2-year-old Laila Daniel and the alleged physical abuse of her 4-year-old sister, whom the Rosenbaums were fostering, according to the opinion and appellate briefs filed in the case. Rosenbaum, a former foster child, first met Laila when she was interning with the Henry County district attorney, according to news reports. Laila died after Rosenbaum summoned emergency personnel to the house, claiming the toddler had choked on a piece of chicken, according to appellate briefs. But EMTs who responded to the call and hospital personnel said the child had significant bruising and abrasions all over her body, the briefs said. Mull has said the childs abdominal injuries may have happened when Rosenbaum administered the Heimlich maneuver and CPR. In appealing the trial judges ruling, prosecutors said evidence obtained from the Rosenbaums devices included their communications with each other and with other witnesses via phone, email, messages and social media on the day of Lailas death and during the entire time Laila and her sister were in their custody. The data also included communications with the childrens biological family, social workers and witnesses that had previously observed injuries Laila suffered, prosecutors argued. The DeKalb and Cobb County district attorneys offices were appointed to jointly prosecute the Rosenbaums after the Henry County DA recused. DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said they are not deterred by the ruling. "At this juncture, we are awaiting the return of the case to the trial court for further instructions regarding scheduling," Boston said. "We look forward to proceeding in the interest of justice for our victim. Michael B. Gerrard and Edward McTiernan Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who has rocketed to such fame that she is now widely known simply as AOC, and Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), co-father of Waxman-Markey, the cap-and-trade bill that narrowly passed the House in 2009 but died in the Senate, have introduced identical resolutions to create a Green New Deal. H. Res. 109, S. Res. 59. A December 2018 survey found 81 percent of registered voters liked the basic concepts. No one expects todays Republican President and Republican Senate to adopt this resolution (which well call AOC-Markey); its more of an effort to shine light on the climate crisis and to look toward the possibility of a Democratic sweep in the November 2020 elections. In Albany, however, Democrats now firmly control the Assembly, the Senate and the Governors office, and thus climate legislation might well pass this year. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has introduced his own version of what he labels the Green New Deal (which well call the Cuomo plan), portions of which are incorporated in the Governors budget bill, A2008/S1508. In addition, 45 members of the Assembly and 28 members of the Senate are co-sponsoring a proposed New York State Climate and Community Protection Act (CCPA), which has much the same spirit and overlapping content. A3876/S2992. Prior versions passed the Assembly in 2016, 2017 and 2018, and the Senate (whose new leadership is supportive) is now holding hearings on it. This column compares and contrasts these three proposals. AOC-Markey This resolution begins by reciting the terrible consequences of unchecked climate change, and of the phenomena of wage stagnation, deindustrialization, and antilabor policies, income inequality, and systemic racial, regional, social, environmental, and economic injustices. It recalls how the Federal Government-led mobilizations during World War II and the New Deal created the greatest middle class that the United States has ever seen, and finds that a new national, social, industrial and economic mobilization in a similar scale could create millions of good, high-wage jobs provide unprecedented levels of prosperity and economic security and counteract systemic injustices. AOC-Markey calls for a 10-year national mobilization to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. This would be accomplished through goals and projects that include meeting 100 percent of the power demand in the United States through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources, upgrading of all buildings for energy efficiency, and the widespread electrification of vehicles and heating systems. It also calls for removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and reducing pollution by restoring natural ecosystems through proven low-tech solutions that increase soil carbon storage, such as land preservation and afforestation. Additional goals include providing all people of the United States with high-quality health care, affordable, safe, and adequate housing, and economic security. The resolution is non-binding. It says nothing about how achieving its goals would be funded, enforced, or implemented, except that a Green New Deal must be developed through transparent and inclusive consultation, collaboration, and partnership with frontline and vulnerable communities, labor unions, worker cooperatives, civil society groups, academia and businesses. Story continues CCPA The CCPA also begins by describing the adverse impacts of climate change. It calls for statewide anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to ramp down every five years until they reach zero in 2050. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is given the job of devising a scoping plan to outline the methods to achieve the CCPAs objectives. (This resembles a task given the California Air Resources Board by that states landmark Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.) DEC would receive advice from the existing Environmental Justice Advisory Group, a new 29-member State Climate Action Council, and a new Climate Justice Working Group. DEC is directed to promulgate rules and regulations to ensure compliance with the statewide emissions reduction limits, including legally enforceable emissions limits, performance standards, or other requirements. DEC may consider the use of market-based compliance mechanisms such as a price on greenhouse gas emissions, or the sale of emission allowances with a declining cap. At least 40 percent of any funds collected must be invested in a manner which will benefit disadvantaged communities. The Public Service Commission is directed to require that at least 50 percent of statewide electricity demand be met by renewable sources by 2030. (It is now about 30 percentmostly hydroelectric.) The bill has extensive provisions regarding wages, labor and job standards and worker protection. The CCPA expands the ability of citizens to sue by providing: Review under this act may be had in a proceeding under article 78 of the civil practice law and rules at the instance of any person aggrieved. Cuomo Plan Governor Cuomo announced his plan on Jan. 17, 2019 as part of his proposed 2019 Executive Budget. It includes a new Climate Leadership Act. It would statutorily mandate that 70 percent of statewide electricity demand be met by renewable sources by 2030, and 100 percent of New Yorks electricity be carbon free by 2040 (thats now 65 percent, including nuclear), and that as soon as practicable, the state must sequester or offset a greater quantity of atmospheric greenhouse gases than are emitted within the state. A new Climate Action Council would develop a roadmap of ways to achieve the objectives, such as a fee per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent emitted, and beneficial electrification of personal and freight transport, and of water and space heating in buildings. Verifiable, enforceable, and voluntary emissions reduction measures are to be set forth. The existing Environmental Justice and Just Transition Working Group would be codified. DEC would promulgate a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit for 2030 of a 40 percent reduction from 1990 levels. DEC would issue regulations to support compliance with this limit. They may include legally enforceable emissions reduction measures or greenhouse gas emission levels. Though not in the bill, Governor Cuomos announcement said that the states implementation of his plan will include a quadrupling of New Yorks offshore wind target to 9,000 megawatts by 2035; doubling distributed solar deployment to 6,000 megawatts by 2025, deploying 3,000 megawatts of energy storage by 2030, and other measures. Assessment A goal of 100 percent of U.S. electricity from clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources within 10 years, as suggested by AOC-Markey, is more ambitious than the most aggressive scenario that has been widely discussed, a proposal by Stanfords Mark Jacobson for 80 percent renewables by 2030 and 100 percent renewables by 2050 (a proposal that several prominent experts have questioned). Achieving a goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in 10 years is probably impossible, given the multiplicity of non-electricity sources of greenhouse gases. However, the wording in AOC-Markey is somewhat ambiguous about whether these goals must be finished or merely advanced by the 10-year national mobilization. The Cuomo plan would have 70 percent of New York electricity coming from renewables in 2030, and 100 percent from carbon-free sources (presumably including nuclear) by 2040. The CCPA plan is the least ambitious on this count50 percent of New York electricity from renewables in 2030, with provisions to suspend the requirement if necessary. With respect to the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions in New York, the Cuomo plan would have levels down to 60 percent of their 1990 levels in 2030, with carbon neutrality as soon as practicable. Some emissions could continue but they would be sequestered or offset. The CCPA would ramp them down from 50 percent of 1990 levels in 2030, progressively to zero in 2050. The only explicit exclusion is emissions from livestock. Achieving zero greenhouse gas emissions in New York by 2050 seems to be physically impossible. For example, even if New York could require all New York-based vehicles to be electric (which current federal law does not allow), the state cannot exclude out-of-state vehicles. There is little prospect of zero-emission commercial aircraft by 2050. Though significant strides could be made in the electrification of space heating and industry by 2050, the complete conversion of all systems by 2050 also seems beyond reach. Moreover, there is no allowance for sequestration or offsets, making the goal even harder to achieve. However, some flexibility may be found in the language in the CCPA allowing DEC to exclude sources that it deems cannot be monitored for compliance or whose participation in the program will not enable DEC to effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Both the CCPA and Cuomo plan would give DEC rulemaking and enforcement powers, and allow for imposition of a carbon tax or similar charges. Only CCPA specifies where some of the proceeds would go. Clearly bold action is needed to meet the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement to achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century. Of the three plans, Cuomos is the most specific in how its objectives would be met; AOC-Markey the least, as it does not purport to be binding legislation, only a statement of aspirations covering a broad array of social issues. AOC-Markey and CCPA call for the swiftest reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but few specifics on how to do that. If AOC-Markey passes the House, it will be the most significant federal legislative action on climate change since the Waxman-Markey bill of a decade ago. Regardless of the high cost of meeting the Paris goal, recent scientific studies establish that the cost of failure to meet it would be immensely higher. Michael B. Gerrard is a professor and Faculty Director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School, and Senior Counsel to Arnold & Porter. Edward McTiernan is a partner with Arnold & Porter, and former General Counsel of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Prithvi Man Shrestha is a political reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering the governance-related issues including corruption and irregularities in the government machinery. Before joining The Kathmandu Post in 2009, he worked at nepalnews.com and Rising Nepal primarily covering the issues of political and economic affairs for three years. By Humeyra Pamuk WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's 2020 budget on Monday proposed a 15 percent cut for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, calling its subsidies to farmers "overly generous" at a time when they are going through the worst crisis in decades because of depressed commodity prices and Trump's trade tariffs. The Republican president's budget requested $20.8 billion for the USDA, a cut of $3.6 billion, or 15 percent, from the 2019 estimate, according to the proposed budget text. It proposes reducing premium subsidies for crop insurance, limiting the number of producers who would be eligible and tightening commodity payment limits. "The budget also proposes that USDA responsibly and efficiently use taxpayer resources by making targeted reforms to duplicative programs and overly generous subsidy programs," the document said. Democrats slammed the move as "short-sighted," while the crop insurance industry, which will see the deepest cut, said it would undermine a key financial safety net for farmers at a time when they need it the most. Trump's budget is expected to be rejected by Congress, where Democrats control the House of Representatives. The American rural heartland helped carry Trump to victory in 2016 and remains largely supportive of his hard line on trade, but is urgently calling for a deal with China to end the trade dispute with that country. "The Presidents budget request is a road map for how to make things worse for farmers, ranchers and those who live in rural communities," Collin Peterson, Democratic chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, said in a statement. He added that the cuts to crop insurance totaled $26 billion. Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow said the budget cut would jeopardize the USDA's ability to implement the farm bill at a time when farmers are struggling with economic instability and trade uncertainty. WEAKENING POLICIES Story continues The farm bill, crop insurance and commodity programs serve as a safety net for farmers, shielding them from the financial damage of unforeseen natural disasters and helping them manage their risk. A new farm bill was passed at the end of 2018. The budget proposes to reduce the average premium subsidy for crop insurance to 48 percent from 62 percent and limit subsidies to producers that posted an adjusted gross income of half-a-million dollars or less. "In the midst of a prolonged rural recession and crop damage from devastating weather events, we should be having a conversation about how to strengthen and improve crop insurance, not weaken the policies that so many of Americas farmers rely on," a coalition of seven crop insurance groups said. The proposal also requests tightening commodity payment limits, including eliminating an "unnecessary and separate" payment limit for peanut producers and limiting eligibility for commodity subsidies to one manager per farm. The budget also proposes tightening around the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which feeds roughly 40 million Americans and is administered by the Agriculture Department. The budget text said it included proposals to help able-bodied adults enter the job market. Food stamps were at the heart of a bitter partisan debate last year. The administration unveiled plans to curb them through a proposed rule after Republican efforts to do so failed in the Congress. (Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Additional reporting by Mark Weinraub; Editing by Bill Trott and Peter Cooney) (Bloomberg) -- Uber Technologies Inc. is already delivering billions of dollars worth of food for local restaurants. Soon it could be taking over their kitchens, too. The ride-hailing giant is testing a program where it rents out fully equipped, commercial-grade kitchens to serve businesses selling food on delivery apps like Uber Eats. Last year, Ubers food delivery team began quietly leasing real estate in Paris, according to a person familiar with the project. It has been stocking the space with ovens, refrigerators, sinks, stoves and other appliances, and renting them out to restauranteurs planning eateries that cater exclusively to delivery customers, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the pilot program hasnt been disclosed publicly. While the virtual restaurants program is early, the undertaking would put Uber in direct competition with a business owned by its polarizing co-founder and board member, Travis Kalanick. The former Uber chief executive officer, who was ousted after a series of scandals, has largely tried to keep his second act under wraps. He hasnt granted interviews to reporters since taking over a real-estate company, City Storage Systems. But as his startup expands its main business of renting kitchen space, its becoming harder to hide. Kalanick is plotting an aggressive growth strategy to support the burgeoning kitchen rental service, called CloudKitchens, people familiar with the plans said. He has been hiring former employees from Uber and drawing the companys attention in the process. Uber issued a warning to Kalanick last year, instructing him not to recruit its staff, two of the people said. As Uber approaches an initial public offering and considers changes to its board, the potential competitive threat from Kalanick could throw his directorship at Uber into question. The existence of Ubers virtual restaurant project, the confrontation with Kalanick and many of the details around his new venture havent been previously reported. An Uber spokesman declined to answer questions about the pilot program but played down the conflict with Kalanick. Its been encouraging to see all the innovation happening in the food spaceparticularly how commercial kitchens have made it easier for restaurants to get started, the spokesman wrote in an email. The more restaurants there are, the more selection Uber Eats customers can enjoy, and we believe that the growth of CloudKitchens and others like it will be great for both the food industry and for consumers. Story continues A spokesman for City Storage Systems, also known as CSS, said Uber was instrumental in helping get its kitchen-rental business off the ground and that more than 90 percent of tenants offer their fare through Uber Eats. CSS is proud to develop real estate for the food industry at large, and Uber is an important partner in that effort, the spokesman said. Kalanick led Uber for seven years, transforming it from a startup directing a small fleet of black cars in its hometown of San Francisco to a global transportation network connecting millions of people with drivers and dinners on demand. But Kalanick made a series of disastrous errors, which included spearheading a deal that led to a trade-secrets lawsuit, overseeing an office culture defined by its HR violations and engaging in a heated argument on camera with a longtime Uber driver. Kalanick made his financiers very rich by building Uber into a business valued at about $70 billion, but some of those investors forced his resignation as CEO in 2017 after the protracted period of turmoil. It didnt take him long to stage a comeback. Less than a year later, Kalanick purchased a controlling stake in City Storage Systems for $150 million. The company buys buildings or plots of land, making a bet that the gig economy will forever alter the value of real estate in major cities. Kalanick particularly embraced one business idea, for so-called smart kitchens. It would allow people to open pseudo-restaurants when they couldnt otherwise afford a location of their own or where doing so would be impractical. After Kalanick unveiled the effort, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi praised it on Twitter as a super-interesting partner of Uber Eats today. CloudKitchens is now working with various restaurants and food brands in Los Angeles, including the fast-casual chain Sweetgreen and Canters Deli. Humphry Slocombe, a popular California ice cream shop, has also been leasing space in Los Angeles from CloudKitchens. Customers can order flavors like Secret Breakfast (bourbon ice cream with cornflakes) or Matchadoodle (snickerdoodle cookies with Japanese green tea) through Uber Eats or one of its many competitors, Caviar, Grubhub or Postmates. Humphry Slocombe only has one store in Los Angeles, but CloudKitchens enables the brand to reach customers in a much wider area. Once a week, Humphry Slocombe workers drop off pints of ice cream, and CloudKitchens does most of the rest. It stocks products in freezers, monitors orders from delivery apps, bags the ice cream and hands each package off to couriers. CloudKitchens provides Humphry Slocombe an app for the restaurant to track sales and takes a cut from each order, on top of a monthly fee for the space, said Claire Koerschen, the wholesale and e-commerce manager for the San Francisco-based ice cream chain. Its easier to get that reach without having to create a new location, she said. It does really well for us, and theres not much effort thats put into it. CloudKitchens has taken off in Los Angeles and is aiming for rapid expansion. It has plans to operate in San Francisco and Chicago soon. And the South China Morning Post reported last month on City Storage Systems intention to open in China, where homegrown alternatives have already sprung up. Similar kitchen-rental businesses exist in London, Paris and beyond. Kalanick recently went on a world tour where he met with many former Uber employees. Some decided to join their old boss. Unlike Uber, which benefited from a steady drumbeat of news coverage to help attract customers, Kalanick has taken a far more secretive approach with his new startup. Employees are asked to keep City Storage Systems off their LinkedIn profiles, people familiar with the requests said. Several former Uber employees now living in Los Angeles list their current employer as a stealth startup, a real estate startup or simply x. Its unclear how many Uber veterans Kalanick hired, but it was enough for his old company to put him on notice last year. Ubers virtual restaurant project is nascent, but food delivery has become an important business. Gross bookings for Uber Eats represented 17 percent of the companys total in the third quarter. (Uber didnt disclose the number the following quarter.) Ubers CEO plans to make it a core part of his IPO pitch to investors. The early success of CloudKitchens has demonstrated the promise of the model. That leaves Uber with a dilemma: Should it invest in its own virtual restaurants on a worldwide scale or partner with a company like CloudKitchens and avoid another conflict with its co-founder? Theres a good argument to partner. Uber could avoid the risks associated with buying or leasing real estate and focus on using its drivers to deliver meals. Theres even a scenario where Ubers kitchen-rental service and Kalanicks can coexist. Other Uber insiders have conflicting interests. SoftBank Group Corp., the largest Uber shareholder, is a major backer of a competing food delivery business, DoorDash Inc. But its also possible Kalanicks position with the company could become a subject of contention. Uber has privately discussed plans to shake up its board after going public, a person familiar with the deliberations said. Unlike Lyft Inc., the U.S. ride-hailing rival thats giving founders outsized voting rights as part of its IPO, Uber will be ruled by common shareholders, who will have power to reshape the board. Directors like Kalanick have seats contractually assigned to them while the company remains private, but those agreements dissolve once its public. To contact the author of this story: Eric Newcomer in New York at enewcomer@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Milian at mmilian@bloomberg.net, Anne VanderMey For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com 2019 Bloomberg L.P. By Alun John HONG KONG (Reuters) - UBS Group AG and Standard Chartered PLC have agreed to settle a case of alleged misconduct related to a 2009 IPO in Hong Kong, in a move expected to end uncertainty about the Swiss bank's ability to lead stock listings in the city. While StanChart closed its equity business in 2015, UBS was expected to appeal an unprecedented 18-month ban on sponsoring initial public offerings (IPOs) in the Asian financial hub, which was imposed, sources say, because of its role in the listing of a firm that subsequently collapsed. StanChart and UBS banker Cen Tian were scheduled to also appeal against disciplinary action by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) over alleged misconduct during the listing of a now defunct Chinese timber company, which the two banks led. But the banks reached a settlement ahead of the appeals, a counsel for SFC, Jat Sew-Tong, told a three-member Securities and Futures Appeals Tribunal on Monday, adding that details of the settlement would be released at a later date. The high-profile case, one of many being investigated by the SFC, is seen as a test of mounting scrutiny of IPO practices in a city where helping firms list is big business for banks. "The settlement is good news for UBS, as at least now it knows what its capabilities are," said Benjamin Quinlan, CEO of consultancy Quinlan & Associates. A ban on leading IPOs, if implemented, would begin once the appeals process has been exhausted, but the uncertainty around whether or when it might come into effect has already hurt UBS' ability to pitch for sponsor work in Hong Kong. Last year, UBS, which was also fighting a HK$119 million ($15 million) fine from the 2009 IPO case, sponsored just one IPO, according to Dealogic, though it advised on ten in total. UBS and Standard Chartered in Hong Kong declined to comment on news of the settlement. An SFC spokesman said the regulator had nothing more to add. While UBS has not identified the IPO in question and the SFC has not confirmed it, people with knowledge of the matter have said it was that of China Forestry. Story continues The timber merchant raised $216 million in its IPO, but 14 months after listing, trading of its shares was suspended when its auditor, KPMG, discovered irregularities. The company was subsequently liquidated. REGULATORY ACTION In the wake of a slew of scandals among newly traded firms earlier this decade, the SFC has been cracking down on banks not properly carrying out their duties as sponsor. In October, the SFC said it had issued nine IPO sponsors with "decision notices" informing them of intended enforcement measures. Hong Kong IPOs need at least one sponsoring bank, which typically takes the lead in running the IPO and collects a larger proportion of fees than banks listed only as bookrunners. Sponsors must conduct due diligence to assess the company being listed, and are responsible for assuring potential investors that its IPO prospectus is accurate. Last year, the SFC imposed a $7 million fine on Citigroup for due diligence failures during its sponsorship of Real Gold Mining's 2009 IPO and $3 million on China Construction Bank International over its sponsorship of the failed 2014 IPO of seafood company Fujian Dongya Aquatic. "We expect to see a number of the SFC's sponsor actions reach a conclusion during the course of 2019," law firm Freshfields said in a recent report. ($1 = 7.8497 Hong Kong dollars) (Reporting by Alun John and Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Himani Sarkar) Brits can get around the controversial UK porn block using cryptocurrency, tech experts have warned. In April of this year, porn websites will be blocked by UK internet providers and users will have to verify their age using a drivers licence, passport, or credit card to access X-rated content a move many see as an attack on privacy. But a Virtual Private Network (VPN) hides the websites surfers visit and even the country they live in, rendering the age check useless, as reported by a Coin Rivet article for the Express. And using anonymous cryptocurrency to buy a VPN can add an extra, virtually impenetrable level of privacy. It can even protect them from sextortionist hackers. Tech firm Letheo is Brits can get around the controversial UK porn block using cryptocurrency, tech experts have warned. In April of this year, porn websites will be blocked by UK internet providers and users will have to verify their age using a drivers licence, passport, or credit card to access X-rated content a move many see as an attack on privacy. But a Virtual Private Network (VPN) hides the websites surfers visit and even the country they live in, rendering the age check useless, as reported by a Coin Rivet article for the Express. And using anonymous cryptocurrency to buy a VPN can add an extra, virtually impenetrable level of privacy. It can even protect them from sextortionist hackers. Tech firm Letheo is urging Brits to use the high-tech solution to beat the ban. DON'T BE LET THE UK STOP YOUR PORN! It's time you took a look at The Lethean Project! VPN and Proxy Services using an anonymous cryptocurrency! Gain your internet freedom back!#crypto #cryptocurrency#altcoin $VPN #porn Lethean.io (@LetheanIO) March 7, 2019 A spokesman said: Unlike traditional methods, theres no credit card payment or verification needed to run. Its all about privacy and anonymity. We really want to help people regain their internet freedom globally. The Digital Economy Act 2017 is an attempt to prevent kids from seeing inappropriate content, but it has been slammed as ineffective and even dangerous. Story continues The governments own impact assessment found that: Adults (and some children) may be pushed towards using ToR (a platform for accessing the dark web) and related systems to avoid age verification, where they could be exposed to illegal and extreme material that they otherwise would never have come into contact with. Database fears The Open Rights Group has previously warned the Digital Economy Act could lead to porn companies being required to create a database of what everyone has watched. Experts fear a database could be targeted by cyber criminals looking to blackmail those on it. Jim Killock, the director of Open Rights Group, told Sky News: This could go horribly wrong, exposing people to blackmail, fraud, and career-damaging data leaks. The issue was recently highlighted when a gang of sextortionists targeted 89,000 people on sites including LinkedIn, according to UK cybersecurity firm Digital Shadows. They are believed to have raised nearly 255,000 across 92 Bitcoin addresses. Sextortion-based email campaigns seek to extort victims by threatening to publicly embarrass them for engaging in a sexually explicit act. They often claim to have footage of the intended victim watching porn. For more news, guides, and cryptocurrency analysis, click here. The post UK porn block: Can cryptocurrency help Brits to dodge controversial sex website law? appeared first on Coin Rivet. Following a deadly Ethiopian Airlines crash involving a 737 Max 8 jet over the weekend, some airlines and countries have at least temporarily grounded flights involving the Boeing aircraft however, the U.S. has not. A number of U.S. carriers operate the Boeing Max series aircraft, including the Max 8 model, which was also involved in the Lion Air crash less than six months ago. In a statement released on Sunday, Boeing expressed its sympathies for the families of the victims and said technicians will be traveling to the crash site to provide assistance as an investigation into the cause of the crash ensues. Meanwhile, the 737 Max has orders for more than 5,000 aircraft, according to Boeing. More than 330 were delivered as of January. The average list price for the Max 8 is $117.1 million. Southwest Airlines Southwest Airlines operates 34 Boeing 737 Max 8 jetliners, the airlines confirmed to FOX Business in a statement. Southwest Airlines was the first flight operator in North America to receive a 737 Max 8 delivery. Shares of Southwest started Mondays trading session in the red. A spokesperson for the company said it is in contact with Boeing, but remains confident in the safety and airworthiness of our entire fleet of more than 750 Boeing 737 aircraft. It does not have plans to change its 737 Max operations. American Airlines American Airlines has 24 737 Max jets in its fleet. The airline said it is closely monitoring the investigation, but remains fully confident in the aircraft and its staff. Following the Lion Air crash, in which the jet is believed to have abruptly dived after incorrect readings from angle-of-attack sensors, American said in November it was unaware of issues related to new functions of Boeings 737 Max 8 jetliners. United Airlines The number of 737 Max jets in United Airlines fleet is 14 though they are Max 9. United has no Max 8 aircraft in its fleet. The company has made clear that the aircraft is safe and that its pilots are properly trained to fly the jet. Story continues Air Canada Air Canada has 24 737 Max jets in its fleet, which are available for select flights within North America and international routes, according to its website. The company did not immediately return FOX Business request for comment regarding its plans to continue operating those aircraft. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP Other airlines that operate the jetliners are FlyDubai, Norwegian and WestJet. China and Indonesia grounded all 737 Max 8 jets meaning Air China, Lion Air and China South will not be flying theirs. Related Articles Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela's president, center, waves a Venezuelan flag during an anti-imperialist rally outside of Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, on March 9, 2019. Photo: Adriana Loureiro Fernandez/Bloomberg Dealing with state-owned Russian financial institutionsalready a risky proposition for many U.S. companiesis even riskier now in the wake of the Treasury Departments announcement Monday that it had sanctioned a Russian bank for allegedly attempting to sidestep U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, according to a former U.S. sanctions official. The Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control added Moscow-based Evrofinance Mosnarbank to the U.S. sanctions list after finding the bank had continued to maintain its significant relationship with the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Russian and Venezuelan state-owned companies control Evrofinance, which was founded in 2011 to finance joint Russia-Venezuela oil and infrastructure projects, according to the Treasury. Evrofinance did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the bank has stated it will unconditionally fulfill all its obligations to customers and partners in full, according to Bloomberg. MichaelDobson, former senior sanctions policy adviser for the Office of Foreign Assets Control, described the Evrofinance sanction as a two-for-one move that ratchets up the pressure on Maduro and shows that dealing with state-owned Russian financial institutions is a high-risk proposition. The main takeaway for U.S. companies worried about potential sanctions violations is that the Treasury isnt focusing solely on Venezuelan entities, Dobson said: Theyre also looking at non-Venezuelan parties who are helping prop up the Maduro regime. He added companies and their legal departments need to ask, "Is this a risky entity to be dealing with and also is this entity active in a sanctions hot space?" Dobson, now of counsel at Morrison & Foerster in Washington, D.C., believed that the Trump administration was trying to signal that there are others who should take notice that the U.S. isnt going to continue to tolerate actors meddling in the Western Hemisphere, and Venezuela in particular, without fear of repercussions. So far, theyve targeted corruption networks around the Maduro regime, he said. Dobson added the action shows the breadth of OFACs sanctions authority, which he said allows OFAC broad discretion to go after anyone that they view as, and can make a legally defensible case of, supporting the Maduro regime. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a prepared statement that sanctioning Evrofinance demonstrates that the United States will take action against foreign financial institutions that sustain the illegitimate Maduro regime and contribute to the economic collapse and humanitarian crisis plaguing the people of Venezuela. The Treasury asserted that Evrofinances net assets increased by more than 50 percent during 2018, when the bank allegedly financed Venezuelan cryptocurrency Petro as part of an effort to help the country circumvent U.S. sanctions. Evrofinance also is accused of assisting Venezuela state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, the parent company of Citgo and several other subsidiaries. The United States announced new sanctions against PDVSA in January as part of an effort to pressure Maduro to resign. Read More: Could Venezuela Sanctions Bring New Opportunities for US Businesses? Venezuelan Opposition Targeted by Countrys Internet Censors US Sanctions on PDVSA Look Like a De Facto Oil Embargo Death of a transgender woman raises alarm among Kathmandu's trans community Members of the LGBTI community say the death of Junu Gurung is the latest reminder of just how perilous living as a trans person can be in Nepal. FILE PHOTO: Tim Sloan, CEO and President, Wells Fargo & Co., speaks at the Milken Institute's 21st Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S. April 30, 2018. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson By Imani Moise (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co Chief Executive Tim Sloan will tout the scandal-plagued bank's progress in repaying wrongly charged customers and highlight changes to its risk management in testimony to U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday, according to prepared remarks. Since 2016, Wells Fargo has reviewed 165 million accounts, contacted more than 40 million customers and payed out millions in compensation stemming from sales practices issues, Sloan said in an opening statement to the House Financial Services Committee that was posted on the bank's website on Monday. The remarks detailed other steps the bank has taken to improve its culture and interactions with customers in order to move past a series of sales practices scandals. But Sloan will likely face tough questions on Tuesday from House Democrats like U.S. Representatives Maxine Waters and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who are seeking to ramp up oversight of big banks. Wells Fargo's remediation efforts have also faced scrutiny from U.S. regulators who say the plans were not thorough enough. The bank has improved risk management controls by centralizing oversight and restructuring its board in order to prevent new problems from developing, the remarks said. Last year, the Federal Reserve imposed a consent order on the bank, preventing it from growing its balance sheet until it proves it has improved its risk management controls. Sloan said the bank has thousands of employees working to satisfy the Fed's requirements and that Wells Fargo executives and board members have been meeting regularly with U.S. banking regulators to address their concerns and seek input. Earlier this year the bank said it expects to operate under the asset cap until the end of 2019, pushing back prior guidance by six months. (Reporting by Imani Moise; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli) STORIES YOU MIGHT LIKE (Reuters) - India will hold a general election in seven stages starting on April 11, the election commission said, in what will be the world's biggest democratic exercise with Prime Minister Narendra Modi likely to benefit from tensions with Pakistan. About 900 million citizens will be eligible to vote, 15 million of them aged between 18 and 19, in a mammoth exercise lasting more than a month, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said at a press briefing in the capital New Delhi on March 10. Until a few weeks ago, a shortage of jobs and weak farm prices were seen denting Modi's popularity. But pollsters say his ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) now has a clear advantage after India's armed forces clashed with those of arch-rival Pakistan last month, triggering a wave of patriotic fervor across the country of 1.3 billion. Of the 543 parliamentary seats up for grabs, 241 could go to Modi's ruling alliance, compared with 141 to the Congress party-led opposition alliance, according to a nationwide survey of 50,000 people by the CVoter polling agency conducted over the past four weeks. The Hindi heartland -- barring Uttar Pradesh -- has charged up due to the Pakistan issue, said Yashwant Deshmukh, founder of CVoter, referring to the northern state of Uttar Pradesh that sends the largest number of lawmakers to Indias lower house of parliament and is a key battleground for the election. Earlier surveys released in January, before the most recent tension with Pakistan, showed the BJP and its allies emerging as the largest group in the election but falling short of a majority. In 2014's general election, the BJP won 282 out of 543 contested seats - the strongest showing for any political party in three decades. However, the main opposition Congress party, which late last year ousted the BJP from power in three largely rural states, is trying to band together with regional and caste-based parties to oust Modi. Congress, controlled by the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that ruled India for most of its post-independence history, is banking on voter resentment to propel the opposition alliance to victory. Political Gains The recent clashes between India and Pakistan were triggered after a February 14 suicide bombing that killed 40 Indian paramilitary police in the northern region of Kashmir claimed by both countries. A Pakistan-based militant group claimed responsibility for the attack and India accused Pakistan of complicity - a charge Pakistan denies. Aerial confrontations between the nuclear-armed nations ensued and, although questions have been raised about how effective the Indian military action actually was, Modi's approval rating soared. "For the first time I will vote for Narendra Modi, because I like what he has done against Pakistan," said Anjali Tivari as she was picking up her son from school in Mumbai. I'm impressed. He gave the right answer to Pakistan." HSBC Securities and Capital Markets said in a note that national security and nationalism could trump economic issues in determining voters preferences. Arora, the chief election commissioner, said three special observers would be deployed in the northern Jammu and Kashmir state, where India is battling multiple insurgencies and where elections are usually marred by violence. Votes will be counted on May 23, he said. He also said Facebook, Twitter, Google and WhatsApp have committed to cracking down on fake news by deploying fact checkers and grievance officers. There has been mounting concern in India that political party workers could spread false news on the social media platforms to sway voters. WhatsApp has in particular become a key campaign tool used widely by both leading parties. The commission has also set up a separate team to monitor expenditure of political parties after a record spend in the 2014 election. Many parties understate their expenses and monitoring has been difficult in the past. Yes, I found a better job Yes, but I'm still looking for a new job Yes, I retired Yes, I started my own business No, I like my current job No, but I'm currently looking for a new job Vote View Results Drawing parallels The Ncell case is reminiscent of the Vodafone scam in India Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. BALTIMORE In states where medical marijuana is legal, researchers reported a reduction of pain and an increase in worked hours by residents Retired after 34 years in law enforcement in Texas, Lee Reed assesses landfills for NecroSearch International. The organization is currently looking for the body of Kelsey Berreth, who is believed to have been murdered in her Woodland Park townhome by her fiance, Patrick Frazee. Jorayal launches campaign to end maternal and infant deaths Jorayal Rural Municipality in Doti district has launched a campaign to end maternal and infant deaths in the municipality. The U.S.-led global order has a distinct aversion to authoritarianism, and with good reason. The centralization of political power in the hands of a single individual or political party offends liberal democratic sensibilities. It also often leads to political regimes that are oppressive at home and aggressive abroad. But thats not always the case. There is nothing stopping authoritarian regimes from maintaining peace or ensuring the equitable application of the rule of law any more than a democratic government can guarantee that a particular country will be peaceful or ensure the liberty of all of its citizens equally. Critics of authoritarianism are actually thinking of something more sinister: totalitarianism, an authoritarian regime in which the leadership wants total control over not just the state but the individual. Totalitarianism is supposed to be virtually impossible in the 21st century. The totalitarian regimes of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia came of age in the first half of the 20th century while television was in its infancy and well before the advent of the internet. These regimes were able to completely control the information their citizens consumed, which played a major role in their ability to ensure, if not domestic legitimacy, then at least the populations slavish compliance with government directives. North Korea is the one truly totalitarian state left standing today and the cost of maintaining this system has been its almost complete isolation from the international economic order, leaving most North Koreans brainwashed, poor and malnourished. The rising tide of economic growth was supposed to lift all boats, and the widening availability of information via the internet was supposed to be an inoculation against the re-emergence of such regimes. It isnt quite working that way. Last week, the RBK Group, a Russian media firm, reported that the Russian government is preparing to temporarily disconnect the country from the internet to test the resilience of Russias internet space should an external aggressor sever Russias connection with the global internet. The test, expected to take place sometime before April 1, is the latest in a series of Russian moves to build an independent, distinctly Russian internet infrastructure. Russia portrays the development of this infrastructure as a defensive necessity, forced upon it by an increasingly aggressive United States, which, along with its allies, could manipulate the internet to damage Russian interests. Russia is not wrong about that, but theres more to what Moscow is doing than just planning for contingencies. Russia has made strengthening its internet infrastructure a national priority since at least 2014, when its Communications Ministry simulated the effects of being disconnected from the internet and relying on a domestic backup system. In October 2017, the Security Council of Russia urged the government to develop an independent internet infrastructure, and President Vladimir Putin mandated its creation by August 2018. In December 2018, a bill was proposed in the Russian State Duma that would create the Digital Economy National Program and introduce significant changes to Russias internet infrastructure, internet providers and telecommunications firms. The cutoff experiment is meant to provide Russian lawmakers with information to modify the proposed law on its second reading. Some aspects of the bill are indeed aimed at making Russias internet a more self-reliant system. The bill includes a requirement that Russia develop a national domain name system. If you are reading this article on Geopolitical Futures website, you got here because the internets domain name system correctly interpreted the characters you typed into your web browser to direct you to our internet protocol address. What scares Moscow is that none of the 12 organizations that oversee the root servers for the DNS are in Russia; if Russia were cut off from the DNS, its access to information outside the country would be severed, and the effects would be disastrous. (In 2018, 5.1 percent of Russias gross domestic product came from the digital economy, a sector thats bec0ming more and more critical as Russia tries to wean itself off oil.) One key aspect of the internet cutoff test will be how well Russia has managed to copy the information onto its domestic servers and how effectively the internet can work in Russia if relying on its own databases. But there are other aspects of the Digital Economy National Program that are scarcely related to defending Russias cyber interests. All internet traffic in Russia will now be routed not by established network operators but by Russias Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, or Roskomnadzor which will also be given authority to take over the entire system if a threat to the Russian internet emerges. All Russian network operators will have to install unidentified special technical means provided by Roskomnadzor that, when activated, will enable Roskomnadzor to block traffic from abroad. In effect, Russias new independent internet infrastructure is being constructed by authoritarian design and with totalitarian potential. The changes could have a huge effect on how Russians use the internet. Currently, neither Roskomnadzor nor Putin himself can decide to ban Russians access to any given website. Only Russias courts have the authority to decide if a particular website or internet service is illegal. This draft law not only has the potential to change that hierarchy it also mandates the technical and infrastructural changes necessary for Roskomnadzor to block certain websites or services with ruthless efficiency. Last year, for example, a court ordered the messaging app Telegram blocked for use in Russia because the service wouldnt hand over its encryption keys to the Federal Security Service. Not only was Roskomnadzor unable to prevent Russians from using the app but, in attempting to do so, the agency inadvertently blocked access to everything from academic journals to Russian search engines like Yandex. The measures Russia is testing are meant to make such efforts more effective. Russia is an authoritarian state largely by necessity. Its brief experiments with popular rule were short-lived and often resulted in chaos, violence and rampant corruption. Because of Russias size and diversity, authoritarianism has often been accompanied by totalitarian impulses, carried out by the Tsars Okhrana or the Soviet Unions NKVD. Russia under Putin has, by and large, not succumbed to such heavy-handed tools. It was enough that Putins regime was seen as returning order and security to Russian society after the Soviet Unions collapse, and then restoring Russias rightful place in the world as a major global power. But as Russias challenges have grown starker, and its governments ability to meet them has lagged, there is less tolerance for dissent and perhaps even less tolerance for Russian citizens to send messages or visit websites as they choose. Russia is just the most recent example of a country restricting internet access. China, for instance, has been cracking down on the internet for decades. (Indeed, Russias steps to gain the power to block Russian citizens from accessing certain information mirror those taken by China.) Yet even with the Great Firewall in place, people in China have found ample ways to get around some of the Communist Partys restrictions. In the years before Xi Jinping became president in 2012, many Chinese citizens were becoming more active on social media, at times even using the internet to criticize their government. Its a sign of how much China has changed in the seven years since Xi came to power that such online criticism is becoming unimaginable. Xi has taken a number of steps to police both how Chinese individuals behave online and what kind of information they can access. Soon after coming to power, Xis government issued the seven baselines a set of regulations that provide internet users with guidelines for creating a healthy online environment. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Chinese accounts on various Chinese social media websites were eliminated. In 2015, China cracked down on providers of virtual private networks, which allow users to visit websites that the Great Firewall blocked. In 2017, Bloomberg reported that China had ordered three major state-owned telecommunications firms to bar individuals from using VPNs. The government denied releasing the order, but Xi has not been bashful about his objectives, telling the World Internet Conference in 2015 that he would not allow anyone to threaten Chinas cyber sovereignty. But the very idea of cyber sovereignty is strange. The internet is by definition not sovereign at all it is a global network of computers connected by undersea cables and satellites in space. The internet is powerful because it belongs to no country in particular. Never before have human beings had such fast and easy access to information. And it is precisely that kind of freedom that Chinas government fears. Xi is facing the extremely difficult task of simultaneously overhauling Chinas economy and reinvigorating the Communist Partys legitimacy and to do so, Xi thinks he must control how average Chinese citizens think and what they believe. From northwestern Xinjiang province to Beijings most prestigious universities, from newspapers to the internet, Xis crackdown has been wide-ranging and part of a strategy to exert total control. In the end, Xi is not just blocking Chinese citizens from seeing certain websites. Because of how important the internet has become, he is controlling what information Chinese citizens know and using the internet to define what it means to be Chinese in the first place. One should not take comfort in the notion that this is happening only in authoritarian countries like Russia and China. The kind of thought homogenization that these countries are pursuing does not only happen from the top down; it can just as well spring from the bottom up. In the U.S., the National Security Agency can monitor most of what U.S. citizens access on the web a 2013 Wall Street Journal report estimated that 75 percent of U.S. internet traffic can be monitored by the NSA. Unlike in Russia or China, there is no political impetus for U.S. institutions to control what American citizens can access through the internet in such a heavy-handed way. But that doesnt necessarily eliminate the underlying problem. The Chinese and Russian governments are policing what their people can access on the internet out of fear of independent thought, which might lead to opposition to their regimes. In the United States, the problem is not a would-be totalitarian dictator barring independent thought, but the lack of such thought altogether. When an internet user in the U.S. searches a topic on Google, the search engine often produces thousands or even millions of results. Most of the time, users dont actually go through all of them; a website called Advanced Web Ranking, which keeps track of what U.S. users click on when they Google something, found that 75 percent of users click on one of the first five things the search engine spits out. In a sense, the information that the average American consumes on Google is not necessarily the most accurate or insightful it is the information that Googles algorithm has decided is most useful. The same goes for Facebook, Twitter or any other social media sites. What users consume is defined by algorithms designed by coders holed up on their corporate campuses. What good is access to everything if no one ever accesses it? The internet has democratized information, not knowledge. What information Americans seek out is determined by preconceived notions about how things should be rather than by a rigorous search for what is. On the left, Americans want safe spaces to avoid those with whom they disagree. On the right, anyone who disagrees is simply fake news. In 2006, the British-American scholar Tony Judt gave a remarkably prescient speech at New York University. It was the same year that Twitter was founded and just a year before the first iPhone was sold. Yet, even without these now-ubiquitous tools of American society tools that allow Americans to access the internet at will and tweet vile things to each other he seemed to see quite clearly that the United States faced a daunting problem: What is at issue in America today is not the will to power of an abusive state, but the will to ignorance of society. Judt invoked the great British historian Edward Gibbon and his study of the decline of the Roman Empire when he said Emperor Augustus knew that the people would submit to slavery provided that they were repeatedly assured that they enjoyed all their ancient freedom. The internet has not prevented successive U.S. presidents from repeatedly deploying U.S. military might abroad without Congressional approval. It has not stopped successive U.S. presidents from using executive orders to pursue issues far outside their purview. If anything, the internet has nurtured the kind of factions in the U.S. whose effects the government is supposed to control, not amplify, with the powerful in Washington slaves to whichever faction put them there. The internet, like any technology, is a tool. It can be used by dictators to control thoughts and beliefs. It can be used by demagogues to whip up the prejudices of the masses. It can be used by countries to attack one another. It can be used by scientists to share important research and data. And it can be used to connect different people from different parts of the world. When used to weaponize information, the internet can construct 21st-century cults of personality. In its passive existence, the internet can lead to a kind of groupthink, a herd mentality that dulls ones sense of the real world. Why, after all, should one seek out uncomfortable truths when there are so many cat videos and Larry Bird highlight reels to peruse on YouTube? The greatest source of political power has always been information, and the internet is the greatest tool for transmitting information since the printing press was invented. For better or for worse, individuals cannot live without it and states are learning new ways to use it for old, familiar purposes. Donald Trumps ill-timed rift with Europe There is an opportunity for a new transatlantic alliance to benefit both US and EU Rana Foroohar Donald Trump may be about to fight the wrong trade war again. Even as the US president claims to be making real progress with trade negotiations in China, the commerce department is set to give him confidential recommendations on his Section 232 auto investigations, which could allow him to use national security as cover for new tariffs on foreign vehicles. Mr Trump has 90 days to act on them, but many insiders believe theres a good chance he will act sooner than that and launch auto tariffs on the EU and Japan. It is hard to overstate what a disaster this would be. Mr Trump is touting a breakthrough on China trade because he wants to be seen as a dealmaker. But this is an unconvincing feint the tensions between the US and China are big, existential, and will last for decades. He has reason to take the economic heat off both countries: Chinas slowdown has hit US companies including Apple. Meanwhile, Mr Trump may be about to use steel and cars as an awkward way to stumble into a free trade agreement negotiation with Europe, possibly to try to get rid of longstanding transatlantic trade issues, such as EU agricultural subsidies, which he sees as unfair. While there is never a good time for a trade war with allies, this timing is particularly bad. Europe has its subsidies and industrial favourites, as does the US. But there is actually a huge opportunity at this moment for a new transatlantic alliance in a number of areas that would benefit both the US and the EU particularly in relation to China, which is the real existential threat to the global trading system. Take the auto industry of the future. While Mr Trump wants to slap tariffs on old-line cars and trucks, the automobile industry in both America and Europe is desperate to create common 5G standards for smart cars, and an autonomous vehicle industry that can compete with either Google or Waymos efforts. That will almost certainly require an industry-wide global partnership to be established between the US, the EU and Japan, since no single producer can go it alone. While Mr Trump is making such an alliance harder, China moves ahead in the race to set standards. Then there is the common ground on Big Tech. There is plenty of evidence that private and public interests on both sides of the Atlantic are desperate to create clear, common rules. This includes the German Facebook ruling which links privacy and competition in ways that are of interest to US regulators, and the state of Californias calls for data dividends in which people get paid by big technology companies for their personal data. Multinational companies supporting Europes General Data Protection Regulation have called for a US version of the same. A common rule book would be a huge boon for industry in both regions. While trade in traditional goods and services has been flat for several years now, cross-border data flows grew a whopping 148 fold from 2005 to 2017, according to a new McKinsey Global Institute Analysis. Amazingly, the only World Trade Organization rules governing data flows are for financial services. That is one reason why Australia and Japan are pushing negotiations to create some cross-border rules. This offers yet another opportunity for the US and Europe (both of which are involved in the negotiations) alongside many other liberal democracies, to set the ground rules for the digital age. The alternative is allowing Chinas own brand of surveillance state capitalism to gain ground. There are, of course, legitimate points of trade tension between the US and Europe. But there is so much more common ground, particularly when compared to China. I recently spoke to a French diplomat who was preparing a list of ways in which he felt that the US and Europe were actually converging. This was part of an effort to convince both his own government and the EU bureaucracy in Brussels that they should ignore Mr Trumps boorishness and be open to the benefits of joining forces with the US to control the high-growth markets of the future before China claims them. Among the items on the list was increasing support among US politicians and the public for the idea of a Green New Deal to cut the countrys greenhouse gas emissions and create jobs. Staffers to newly elected Democrat congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the deals most prominent advocate, have met with Germanys resurgent Green party politicians to discuss common ground. Then there are the moves towards Big Tech regulation and digital taxation (both the US and the EU want to find a better way to tax intangibles). Even in healthcare, typically a point of transatlantic difference, there is growing common ground. Americans said it was the most important voting issue in last years midterm elections and young people in the US realise that some EU countries have designed health systems that are both better, and cheaper. As polarised as the US and Europe seem, you can make a case that this is actually as good a moment as we have had in years to forge a new transatlantic alliance. But it is likely that Mr Trump is going to bungle it by turning a trade war that has been limited to China and the US into one that includes the worlds three major regions. And as we know, menages a trois rarely end well. 1. Fill in your name or an alias. Do not leave blank or use the name 'guest' or 'anonymous'. 2. No Nivul Peh. Profanity will be deleted. " " Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) addresses the 2017 convention of the California Nurses Association in San Francisco about his about his Medicare for All Act of 2017 bill. The "Medicare for All" health plan has gained popularity with some Democratic politicians. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images In the 2016 presidential race, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) was the first candidate to float the idea of "Medicare for All," a massive expansion of the popular government-funded health program to cover all Americans, not just those 65 and older. While hailed by Sanders' progressive supporters, the proposal failed to gain traction with mainstream Democratic voters and was ridiculed as a wildly expensive "socialist" takeover by Republican critics. But as the crowded field of 2020 Democratic hopefuls dwindles from 20 to 11 official candidates (including the 78-year-old Sanders), Medicare for All may be getting a wider hearing. According to a January poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation, 56 percent of Americans (including 24 percent of Republicans) supported the creation of a "national health plan." These percentages are virtually unchanged since June 2017 but Sanders is no longer the only congressperson trying to pass comprehensive Medicare for All legislation. In February 2019, Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) and progressive colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives released their own Medicare for All Act of 2019, which goes even farther than Sanders' original 2017 bill. Not only would the Jayapal proposal do away entirely with private health insurance and require absolutely no premiums or co-pays of any kind, it would significantly extend Medicare to cover comprehensive dental, vision and long-term care. "Our bill will cover everyone. Not just those who are fortunate enough to have employer-sponsored insurance. Not just children. Not just seniors. Not just those who are healthy," wrote Jayapal in a statement. "It's time to ensure that health care is a right and not a privilege, guaranteed to every single person in our country. It is time for Medicare for All." (Subcommittee hearings on this bill were held in December.) Advertisement What 'Medicare for All' Is Medicare was created in 1965 as a safety net health insurance program for older Americans. All Americans over 65 years old qualify for Medicare health coverage regardless of preexisting conditions, and Medicare covers a significant portion of the costs of doctor's office visits, treatments and surgeries, and prescription medications, although Medicare recipients also pay annual premiums and out-of-pocket costs. Medicare for All proposals like Jayapal's would make three monumental changes to the current Medicare system: First, there would be absolutely no age limit every American from newborns to centenarians would be covered by the same government-funded health insurance. Second, private health insurance carriers would be barred from offering plans that compete with Medicare for All. That potentially spells doom for the $1.2 trillion private health insurance industry. Third, patients would pay absolutely nothing no premiums, deductibles, co-pays, co-insurance for all covered health care services, which under the Jayapal bill include just about everything under the sun, including expensive long-term care insurance to cover nursing home stays. Karen Pollitz, who studies health care reform and private health insurance for the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), jokes that Medicare for All would put her out of business. "The 'Medicare for All' proposals that have been discussed are very comprehensive, would cover everything you're used to having covered in private health insurance today plus dental, vision, hearing, long-term care, nursing home care," says Pollitz, who co-authored a 2018 policy brief on competing Medicare for All schemes. "You would get this red-white-and-blue Medicare for All card, show that when you go to the doctor, and you'd get taken care of. Simple." Advertisement What 'Medicare for All' Isn't Medicare for All is not "socialized medicine" like the United Kingdom's National Health Service. Under that system, the government is not only the sole insurer, but it also runs most of the medical clinics and hospitals. That's not the case under any of the proposed Medicare for All plans, which more closely resemble Canada's health care system (also called Medicare). Doctors and hospitals would remain private businesses, but all insurance coverage and therefore all reimbursements paid to doctors and hospitals would be provided through Medicare. Canada's health care system, by the way, doesn't cover vision, dental, prescription drugs or long-term care. Those are covered by private insurance. Advertisement And Who's Paying for This? Medicare for All is what's also known as a single-payer health care system. Technically, the single payer will be the federal government, but where will the government get its money? New taxes, of course. Not only income taxes, but also payroll taxes, corporate taxes, excise taxes, etc. In 2018, Medicare alone cost American taxpayers $605 billion, or 15 percent of the entire $4.1 trillion federal budget. The projected cost of Sanders' 2017 Medicare for All bill, which didn't include expensive add-ons like long-term care, is $32 trillion over 10 years. "That's a lot of money," says Pollitz. "Right now, the federal government and states together are paying almost half of the nation's health care bill. But if we all stop paying premiums and deductibles and co-pays, there would have to be a new way to raise revenue." When Americans learn that the switch to Medicare for All would almost certainly mean higher income taxes, support for the national health care scheme drops by 23 percent. But while the exorbitant cost of Medicare for All is a favorite talking point of its critics, the numbers are deceiving. Americans will certainly pay more in taxes under such a plan, but they will pay absolutely nothing in premiums and other out-of-pocket health care costs. "[American households and the government combined] are currently spending $3.5 trillion a year on health care, more than any country on the planet," says Pollitz. If you multiply that out by 10 years, it's $35 trillion, even greater than the cost of Sanders' Medicare for All proposal. So a switch to a single-payer system could actually save money overall. Advertisement Will 'Medicare for All' Mean Worse Health Care? There's no doubt that a massive overhaul of the U.S. health care system like Medicare for All would be hugely disruptive. Most private insurers would go out of business. Pharmaceutical companies would lose profits as drug prices are capped. And since Medicare typically reimburses doctors and hospitals at lower rates than private insurers, there would be "winners and losers" in private medical practices, says Pollitz. That said, there's no indication that switching to a Medicare for All system would result in fewer covered treatments in fact, Jayapal's proposal promises the opposite or that the new insurance scheme would result in long waits for life-saving procedures and medications. "We don't currently have that in Medicare," says Pollitz. "You don't see senior citizens queuing up for doctor's appointments and prescriptions. It's all quick and easy. The key question is what will those payment rates be for doctors and hospitals. The Jayapal bill doesn't really say. That's still a key question to be addressed and debated." Currently, a growing number of doctors don't accept Medicare patients because of the low reimbursement rates and large amount of paperwork required for reimbursement. The Medicare for All Act of 2019 does allow doctors and patients to opt out of the single-payer system and simply pay in cash for medical services. Learn more about Medicare in "Medicare: The Clear, Concise, Self-Educating Guide" by Mario Robertson. HowStuffWorks picks related titles based on books we think you'll like. Should you choose to buy one, we'll receive a portion of the sale. Now That's Interesting Jayapal's plan is only one type of universal health coverage being proposed in Congress. Other versions include keeping the current system but adding a public option based on Medicare as well as allowing older people not yet eligible for Medicare to buy into the system. Two-thirds of Americans in a January 2020 poll favored adding a public option, in contrast to the 56 percent who favored Medicare for All. Kailali authorities express concerns over vector-borne diseases Authorities in Kailali have expressed concerns over the fight against various vector-borne diseases like malaria, kala-azar (black fever) and dengue in the district. Ok everyone, you have to read this very short short story. Firstly because it is good, (check out the Bligh story within it too), but also because I'm ... 7 months ago Land offices should provide compensation for service delayno ones claiming it It has been nearly six years since the Department of Land Management and Archive implemented the Citizen Charter with Compensation, a system under which the concerned public entity have to pay compensation for delay in service delivery, but not a single claim for compensation has been made so far. My names Will Capers. For almost nine years, Ive blogged on various topics. I blogged as Blaque Ink first, and as Brotha Wolf second. The latter had a mu... 2 years ago What's Special About Illinois Honors? College students can excel in different ways. Sometimes their special strengths and enthusiasms are brought to life when they find a major. Other students thrive in interdisciplinary seminars and co-curricular activities; in interactions and friendships with distinguished scholars and scientists; in adventurous and intellectually challenging experience abroad; or in independent research, leadership, and service. It's not unusual for Illinois students to reach their own academic "high gear" later than their first semester. Young people on our campus change, and as a cooperating confederation of programs, Illinois Honors can be there for you when you're ready for honors-level work. Your Freshman Honors Experience When you are admitted as a James Scholar or Chancellor's Scholar, your first year will include special opportunities and events with the following objectives: To help build friendships with other students who share a special interest in intellectual adventure and professional growth; To introduce the vast variety of resources and events at Illinois, the worlds of learning and culture just beyond the classroom door. As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100In recognition as their work as LGBTQ allies, Beyonce and JAY-Z will be honored jointly with the Vanguard Award at the 30th annual GLAAD Media Awards, scheduled for March 28 in Los Angeles. The Vanguard Award is presented to allies who've promoted acceptance of LGBTQ people. Previous winners include Jennifer Lopez, Whoopi Goldberg, Janet Jackson, Cher, Demi Lovato, Kerry Washington and Britney Spears. As GLAAD notes, Beyonce has spoken out against discriminatory laws, and celebrated the passage of marriage equality, saying, "Everyone has the right to love who they love." She's also supported LGBTQ youth on her social media, and has featured LGBTQ couples and individuals in the videos for "Formation" and "All Night," and dedicated a live performance of "Halo" to the survivors of the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting. In addition, the promos for her Ivy Park athleisure clothing line featured transgender actress Laverne Cox. As for JAY-Z, he received a GLAAD Special Recognition Award last year for his song and music video, Smile, which detailed his mother Gloria's coming out as a lesbian. In addition, he featured LGBTQ leader Janet Mock in his video for "Family Feud," which opens with a quote from gay writer James Baldwin. And, like Beyonce, JAY-Z also supported the passage of marriage equality, noting it was the right thing to do as a human being. "Beyonce and JAY-Z are global icons and passionate defenders of human rights and acceptance for all people, said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis in a statement. When Beyonce and JAY-Z speak, the world becomes inspired and when it comes to LGBTQ people, their voices of acceptance have been heard loud and clear." Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Nepal Communist Party leader held on murder charge Police have arrested a Nepal Communist Party leader from Belbari Municipality in Morang district on a murder charge. Nepal, France sign memorandum on setting up security printing facility Just ahead of the second Investment Summit, Nepal and France have signed two separate memorandums of understandingone of which is aimed at setting up state-of-art security printing facilities in Nepal with the French assistance. In fact, the Regime could not survive without their sexist laws, which include: considering women the property of their closest male relative having the marriageable age for girls being set at just nine forcing women to wear the hijab banning women from dancing or singing on social media considering a womans testimony in a legal trial worth half that of a mans not being able to accuse a man of rape without four credible witnesses banning women from riding bikes Thankfully, there is another way. There is an organised and democratic resistance force led by the popular Maryam Rajavi. For the past 26 years, Maryam Rajavi has led the Iranian Resistance and increased its global standing through increased cooperation with the West, even despite all of the abuse hurled at her and the Iranian Resistance by the Regime and its allies. Maryam Rajavi knows that Iranian women are so much more than obedient wives and baby making machines. She knows, through experience, that Iranian women are capable of leading protests, taking office, and, eventually, overthrowing the theocratic Regime that holds them down. Maryam Rajavi has seen that the most recent Iranian uprising, which began in December 2017, is being led by women; with female teachers, medical staff, students, factory workers, and pensioners all taking to the streets in all 31 provinces to demand change from the Regime. They are not only asking for better pay but also an end to discrimination, repression and the Regimes aggressive military adventurism across the Missile East. This is not a new phenomenon. Iranian women have been the driving force behind protest movements in Iran since at least the 1979 Revolution, which was later usurped by the mullahs, and they will continue to be so. Thats why Maryam Rajavi made sure that women make up half of the senior leadership of the Iranian Resistance. These women are strong and they are led by a lioness, so soon they will cut down the mullahs. Maryam Rajavi is not merely popular amongst the Iranian people but has a lot of support from political figures across the world, from monarchs to presidents to parliamentarians. Some of her biggest supporters include US National Security Advisor John Bolton, Donald Trumps personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and former first lady of Algeria Anissa Boumediene. Boumediene pledged her public support to Maryam Rajavi and the Iranian Resistance recently and urged others to do the same. She said: Yes, we stand with you [Maryam Rajavi], as we stand with all our Iranian sisters in your fierce fight seeking to free Iranian women from what enchains and imprisons them. All Western women should make a similar pledge to Maryam Rajavi and Iranian women because none of us is free until all of us are free. However, scratching below the surface, youll find that Iranian women are incredibly vulnerable to abuse under the misogynist theocratic rule of the mullahs, with escalating poverty, inadequate governmental programs, and increasing cultural and religious pressures actively harming the living conditions of Irans women and girls. Many young girls are forced into prostitution and child marriages, deprived of an education and employment, and assaulted or raped for breaking modesty laws. At least 40 girls and women in Iranshahr, which has a large population of ethnic Baluch-Iranians, reported being sexually assaulted last year, although that number is likely higher due to the number of girls who did not feel they could report because of shame, stigma, or fear of being arrested for the crime of raising public anxiety. Violence against women is not taken seriously, with women often brutally assaulted, sprayed with acid, or flogged for violating the Islamic dress code, which, to be clear, is not an invitation to rape or assault. While, in a desperate attempt to escape poverty, many women are turning to (or being forced into) prostitution, with some parents even selling their young daughters virginities. The Regime is failing to address the underlying systemic issues that caused widespread poverty and instead lowering the marriageable age of girls to nine so that their parents can legally sell their daughters virginities without fear of being legally deemed child abusers. Women are also widely discriminated against in the legal system, with their testimonies not believed and their cases rarely brought to trial, in education, where they can be prevented from entering a male course, the family, where they are often prevented from having custody of their children or from inheriting property. This is why so many women turn to self-harm or suicide. M. Greenblatt, the founder of the Alliance for Rights for All Minorities (ARAM-Iran), wrote: The pain and suffering endured by the women of Iran are agonizing and realBut by and large, women of Iran are living a dark and harrowing life that most are keeping quiet Unless the repressive and systematic persecution of women is eliminated and their urgent needs are addressed, women and girls will continue to grapple with questions of life and death rather than worrying about college entrance exams. Nepali among 157 killed in Ethiopian plane crash A Nepali working for the World Food Programme was among the 157 people killed in a plane crash in Ethiopia on Sunday. 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. Monday, March 11, 2019 NM Pot Watch: House Approves Legal Weed; What's the Rush? Feds May Do It Soon Enough, Plus: This Session's Feel Good Bill It was a historic vote when the state House A growing list of Democratic presidential contenders want the U.S. government to legalize marijuana, reflecting a nationwide shift as more Americans look favorably on cannabis. Making marijuana legal at the federal level is the smart thing to do, says California Sen. Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor whose home state is the nations largest legal pot shop. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a prominent legalization advocate on Capitol Hill, says the war on drugs has been a war on people. The go slow pot crowd says having a federal regulatory umbrella for pot distribution--one with decades of experience dealing with alcohol and drugs--makes much more sense than leaving it to a state that has been hapless in trying to deal with an epidemic of drug abuse that, among other things, has precipitated a years-long ABQ crime wave. Several anti-legalization lawmakers say one of the more misleading (and perhaps nonsensical) arguments heard in favor of legalization during the House debate was that it would somehow break up the international drug cartels. But the cartels have already beefed up We were quizzical when NM GOP Chairman Steve Pearce decided to pen an anti-legalization op-ed recently, but with three GOP state Senators lobbying R's on the Senate Finance Committee to get the bill through in the final days, maybe Pearce chose the right topic after all. Simple decriminalization of marijuana, as proposed by State Senator Joe Cervantes, would address a chief concern that legalization advocates say they have--putting a halt to the arrest and jailing of low income people of color for possession of small amounts of cannabis. But Joe's plan is ridiculed as old-fashioned, even as the national marijuana advocates dismiss the unique drug culture in NM that has been embedded for generations and has caused untold human suffering and loss of life. It is indeed different here than in the more wealthy states that are taking the dive into legalized marijuana. Much different. The population here is much more vulnerable. Maybe the Senate Finance Committee will get that. A final note on this from Albuquerque Dem liberal state Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino who has long supported legalization but says this bill will not achieve the goal of preventing the arrest of people for possessing small amounts of pot: This bill creates a state-run store - which is fine, but not so fine is that you can still be arrested for growing or possession without a receipt on hand. In other words, barring a related decriminalization bill getting signed into law, New Mexico will continue to fill prisons with people arrested for a non-violent crime. I know this bill is a compromise, but I was hoping the whole point was to keep people from going to jail, especially people of color who are incarcerated at higher rates than Anglos, for an illegal act that should never have been made an illegal act. Like weve said, Jerry. Do the Cervantes decriminalization bill this session, see how that works and then take it from there. THE FEEL GOOD BILL Opponents of what they call "raiding" the nearly $18 billion Land Grant Permanent School Fund for very early childhood programs have a new skirt to hide behind. It's called the Early Childhood Education and Care Department It was a very easy vote to take since its main task is to place under one roof administration of early childhood education programs that are scattered among various agencies. Tellingly, it does not increase funding for those programs, just leaves the impression that there is some kind of unspecified mismanagement going on with the programs and that this bureaucratic shift will solve the imagined problems. As we said, what an easy vote to take. It was approved 39-2 in the Senate, revealing the toothlessness of the feel good gesture. Such overwhelming "bipartisanship" is often Santa Fe's code word for a "nothing burger" and that description aptly fits this bill. The issue is not fraud and/or bungling in early childhood programs (as some supporters of the new department The state's early childhood education programs remain minuscule. For example, the Home Visiting program, for children prenatal to 3, presently serves 3,500 kids out of total client population of 70,000. Numerous studies have found that home visiting gets the biggest bang for the buck, particularly for "at risk" children, such as the 82% of NM births which are Medicaid qualified. In short, ECE needs to be dramatically expanded if we hope to address the state's economic, education, and social crises. Hmm. Nothing about that in all the hype over the early childhood department. What you get instead is a new and unnecessary cabinet secretary (#23!) along with some kind of ambiguous "streamlining" and "consolidation" of early childhood efforts. It is an inexpensive deception that is useful for relieving the guilty conscience of lawmakers over their reticence to directly attack the ongoing societal wreckage in the state. This is a well-intentioned measure. Several lawmakers and their supporters worked hard, but in the end it backfired because it takes the heat off. We explain. . .Opponents of what they call "raiding" the nearly $18 billion Land Grant Permanent School Fund for very early childhood programs have a new skirt to hide behind. It's called the Early Childhood Education and Care Department approved by the Legislature and headed to the Governor's desk.It was a very easy vote to take since its main task is to place under one roof administration of early childhood education programs that are scattered among various agencies. Tellingly, it does not increase funding for those programs, just leaves the impression that there is some kind of unspecified mismanagement going on with the programs and that this bureaucratic shift will solve the imagined problems.As we said, what an easy vote to take. It was approved 39-2 in the Senate, revealing the toothlessness of the feel good gesture. Such overwhelming "bipartisanship" is often Santa Fe's code word for a "nothing burger" and that description aptly fits this bill.The issue is not fraud and/or bungling in early childhood programs (as some supporters of the new department outlandishly imply ) it is access to them. As education expert and blog reader Stephen Spitz pointed out here last week:Hmm. Nothing about that in all the hype over the early childhood department. What you get instead is a new and unnecessary cabinet secretary (#23!) along with some kind of ambiguous "streamlining" and "consolidation" of early childhood efforts.It is an inexpensive deception that is useful for relieving the guilty conscience of lawmakers over their reticence to directly attack the ongoing societal wreckage in the state. Thanks, Santa Fe, but we'll take a pass. If you change your mind, meet us at Blake's and we'll be glad to talk about the real deal. THE BOTTOM LINES While the state dawdles, the Millenials depart. Now it's even easier for them to get out of here: Options to and from the Albuquerque International Sunport are again on the rise, most recently with Southwest Airlines announcement of expanded service from Austin, Texas. The airline, which currently offers weekend-only options from Austin, is expanding to daily offerings beginning August 6. This is the home of New Mexico politics. Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here. ( c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2019 What you get is a Secretary Feel Good, but what you don't get is the requisite cash to bring ECE to the tens of thousands of children who need it. That opportunity is being lost as the Senate again moves to kill the constitutional amendment to use a small portion of the Permanent Fund to finally fund programs that are true game changers. Instead we get the Nothing Burger.Thanks, Santa Fe, but we'll take a pass. If you change your mind, meet us at Blake's and we'll be glad to talk about the real deal.While the state dawdles, the Millenials depart. Now it's even easier for them to get out of here:This is the home of New Mexico politics. E-mail your news and comments. (jmonahan@ix.netcom.com) Welcome back. Let's catch up.It was a historic vote when the state House approved legalization of recreational marijuana Thursday night on a narrow 36-34 vote and sent it to the Senate. But there's still plenty of skepticism that state government is equipped to get into the marijuana distribution business, as the bill mandates. They cite state agencies like the Children Youth and Families Department (CYFD) and MVD that struggle to get their jobs right and wonder how state-run marijuana shops would fare in a state where bureaucracy so often goes awry. Why not wait? The federal legalization of marijuana appears, if not around the corner, at least happening in the foreseeable future The go slow pot crowd says having a federal regulatory umbrella for pot distribution--one with decades of experience dealing with alcohol and drugs--makes much more sense than leaving it to a state that has been hapless in trying to deal with an epidemic of drug abuse that, among other things, has precipitated a years-long ABQ crime wave.Several anti-legalization lawmakers say one of the more misleading (and perhaps nonsensical) arguments heard in favor of legalization during the House debate was that it would somehow break up the international drug cartels. But the cartels have already beefed up their distribution of much more dangerous drugs like meth, heroin and fentanyl as more states legalize weed. Do we want to legalize those as well?We were quizzical when NM GOP Chairman Steve Pearce decided to pen an anti-legalization op-ed recently, but with three GOP state Senators lobbying R's on the Senate Finance Committee to get the bill through in the final days, maybe Pearce chose the right topic after all.Simple decriminalization of marijuana, as proposed by State Senator Joe Cervantes, would address a chief concern that legalization advocates say they have--putting a halt to the arrest and jailing of low income people of color for possession of small amounts of cannabis.But Joe's plan is ridiculed as old-fashioned, even as the national marijuana advocates dismiss the unique drug culture in NM that has been embedded for generations and has caused untold human suffering and loss of life.It is indeed different here than in the more wealthy states that are taking the dive into legalized marijuana. Much different. The population here is much more vulnerable. Maybe the Senate Finance Committee will get that. Links HOME E-MAIL ME About Joe Google News Real Clear Politics Huffington Post Drudge Report The Politico NM TV stations Gov. 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Private sector rues foreign direct investment in dairy industry The private sector has urged the government to come up with a clear policy to balance the small and sensitive domestic businesses with foreign investment as the government prepares for an investment friendly policy by amending the Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act. Just adding interesting stuff to the blog in my spare time, so pardon the miscellany and lack of any organization. If you need to email about something (not hood ornaments) that isn't relevant to the comment section, e mail me at jbohjkl@yahoo.com, which will be responded to pretty fast on weekdays Images used IAW Title 17 U.S. Code 107 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/107 This is under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non commercial and is otherwise in compliance with the license.See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/legalcode Thank you for responding to this Weblog (blog). We wish to maintain a high level of integrity and responsibility among our participants. In the spirit of camaraderie of the blogsphere, interested parties are welcomed to reproduce or quote materials published in this weblog WITH THE CONDITION that they are credited to akadirjasin.blogspot.com/akadirjasin.com to avoid misunderstanding.Thank you. - Alden Richards had a shocking encounter with a Sunday Pinasaya audience member - The audience member asked Alden how he felt about being left by Maine Mendoza for Arjo Atayde - Ai-Ai delas Alas also got shocked by the question PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Alden Richards got into an awkward and uncomfortable encounter with an audience member of the GMA-7 program Sunday Pinasaya. KAMI learned that the girl confronted Alden about being left by Maine Mendoza for Arjo Atayde. "Anong feeling na pinagpalit ka ni Maine?" the girl asked. The Kapuso actor got shocked by the question, as he smiled and put his hand over his mouth after hearing it. PAY ATTENTION: 15 Traits That Meghan Markle Has In Common With Princess Diana Even his co-host, Ai-Ai delas Alas, got shocked by the audience members question to Alden. She said that Alden should not answer the question. Here is the video of the shocking moment: PAY ATTENTION: Using free basics app to access internet for free? Now you can read KAMI news there too. Use the search option to find us. Read KAMI news while saving your data! In a previous report by KAMI, Maines manager denied that the actress will transfer to ABS-CBN in order to be with Arjo. Maine Mendoza, or Nicomaine Dei Capili Mendoza in real life, is a Filipina actress, host, comedienne, and entrepreneur, born on March 3, 1995. She was hailed as the most googled female personality in the Philippines in 2015 and the most tweeted Filipino celebrity in the world in 2017. The Kapuso star is currently dating Arjo Atayde, an actor from the Kapamilya network. This caused some fans of Alden Richards to hate on her and Arjo. POPULAR: Read more news about Alden Richards! Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news! Happy International Women's Day, Dear Ladies! International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8. HumanMeter team joined the celebrations by congratulating beautiful Filipino ladies who had no idea what we are up to. Check out all of our exciting videos on KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel! Source: Kami.com.ph - Atty. Jesus Falcis opened up during an interview with Kami on how their family was affected because of the war against Kris Aquino - He identified his brother and his mom as those who were really affected by the controversy - The lawyer also emphasized how the incident with Kris has affected him professionally PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed! KAMI was given an opportunity to do an exclusive interview with Atty. Jesus Falcis, the brother of Nicko Falcis. He opened up his family's struggles amidst the controversy surrounding his brother and Kris Aquino. According to Atty. Falcis, in terms of his personal life, he was really disturbed. He didn't want his brother to have a sword hanging over his head. The lawyer emphasized that nobody wants to have a case where you can get imprisoned. PAY ATTENTION: The Amazing Cast Of Game Of Thrones In Then And Now (PHOTOS) He also emphasized that since the controversy broke out, his mother had anxiety nights, palpitations and also paranoia. She would keep on asking what Kris Aquino will be posting next. What really got to him was the statement of Kris regarding "ipapapatay ka ng pamilya ko." PAY ATTENTION: Using free basics app to access internet for free? Now you can read KAMI news there too. Use the search option to find us. Read KAMI news while saving your data! According to Atty. Falcis, Kris allegedly made threats using her family. He stressed that the statement of Kris went against her father's legacy. Take a look at KAMI's exclusive interview with Atty. Falcis. Kris Aquino is the youngest sister of former Pres. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino. She has been with ABS-CBN for so many years and it was in 2016 when her stint with the Kapamilya network ended. The actress has two sons, Josh and Bimby, with Phillip Salvador and James Yap respectively. She is also the Queen of All Media of the Philippines. POPULAR: Read more about Kris Aquino Source: Kami.com.ph - It was already announced that Nadine Lustre teamed up with an international clothing brand, H&M, for a swimsuit collection - H&M Philippines has already released the advertisement, where Nadine confidently sported the swimsuits with different designs - The video of the ad immediately went viral and netizens are going gaga over Nadine's hotness PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Nadine Lustre undeniably sizzles in H&M swimwear advertisement, featuring her as its first ever Filipino ambassador. KAMI learned that the video which was uploaded by H&M Philippines, instantly went viral, as it already garnered more than 280,000 views, as of this writing. The Kapamilya actress donned several swimsuits with stunning designs and she has flawlessly flaunted her 'morena' skin. A lot of people got allured by her oozing charm and admirable confidence. Here are some of the comments from netizens, proving how effective Nadine is as an endorser. "She's sooooo deym hoootttt and looks like Kylie Jenner here!!! This ad she proved that you have to love your flaws, body, color, and size no matter what.. I am so in love... You GO GIRL!!!" "Naintindihan ko na kung bakit malayo layo na rin narating ng batang to" "Not a fan nor a hater pero ang ganda ni nadine dito pinay na pinay ang dating" "Comment na mga bashers! Laking sampal sa inyo yan! Take note international ito not locally release!" "Woaaah! The swimsuits she selected are really great! Yung mapapabili ka talaga! And the campaign really suits her well. Congrats Lady Luster!" "Congrats to the creative team for such an amazing commercial shoot. Thanks for choosing Nadine to be your ambassadress. It surely empowers more a ladies that they too will look hot in a swimwear" Watch it here: PAY ATTENTION: The Amazing Cast Of Game Of Thrones In Then And Now (PHOTOS) In a previous report by KAMI, Nadine Lustre got emotional as she reveals how James Reid helped her to heal. Born on October 31, 1993, Nadine Lustre is a famous Filipina actress and commercial endorser. She already starred in several films and teleseryes such as Never Not Love You, Para sa Hopeless Romantic, and Diary ng Panget. On February 11, 2019, she and James celebrated their third anniversary. Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news! Happy International Women's Day, Dear Ladies! International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8. HumanMeter team joined the celebrations by congratulating beautiful Filipino ladies who had no idea what we are up to. Check out more of our videos - on KAMI HumanMeter Youtube channel! Source: Kami.com.ph Province 2 to have its own officials to check chief district officers authority Vexed at the federal governments plan to not only continue with the chief district officers but also to empower them, Province 2 has prepared its own bill with the provision of having its own district administratorsa position parallel to CDOsin a move that could further escalate Centre-province conflict. Your tax-deductible gift today powers our reporters and keeps us independent. We rely on you, our reader, not paywalls to stay funded because we believe important news and information should be freely accessible to all. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe Don't call Derek Boonstra a hero. The Angelino Heights / Echo Park resident just saw a chance to improve the sad state of parking in his neighborhood -- and he knows how to use Photoshop. A few weeks ago, the 36-year-old posted his own custom parking sign on West Kensington Road near Laveta Terrace. It read: "YO: Please maximize parking. Park 2-3 feet from other vehicles; park close to the ends of curbs." Parking woes aren't unique to his neighborhood, but Boonstra said he and other community members have been voicing their concerns about the density problem for a while now, which gets particularly bad during Dodger home stands. That included reaching out to Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch O'Farrell's office to recommend diagonal parking or permits as possible solutions, but that didn't really go anywhere. Boonstra, who's lived in the neighborhood for 13 years, said it was the kind of idea a lot of Angelenos have probably had before. "I just happened to follow through on it first," he said. Angelino Heights / Echo Park resident Derek Boonstra designed this custom parking sign as a way to encourage drivers to be mindful when they pull up to the curbs in his neighborhood. (Courtesy Derek Boonstra) He posted a version of his design on his neighborhood Nextdoor page "to get buy-in from my neighbors and see if they had any objections." After constructive feedback and no objections, he put his plan into action, ordering his message and placing it on a pole under the city's parking sign. It has the basic design scheme of the standard municipal parking signage, but was done in black (Boonstra said red would have made it seem more "angry and official"). "Anyone who sees that hopefully understands that it's not an official city sign," he said. "I wanted it to be something that would clearly be kind of a joke, but also communicate an idea that was helpful, theoretically, in a non-aggressive way." After about three weeks, Boonstra posted two more signs on nearby streets, where they were soon shared on social media. Someone posted a photo of one of the signs in a community Facebook group, so Boonstra outed himself as the sign maker in a comment. He also shared the design and the website he used to have them made, empowering his neighbors to create their own. And while there's no scientific way to know if the signs made a difference, Boonstra said he did notice some instances of more considerate parking on the curb across his street. "It's reasonable to park four cars there, but a couple of times ... while I had the one sign up, there were five cars parked there," he said. Angelino Heights resident Derek Boonstra said after he posted his unauthorized parking sign, he noticed more courteous parking on the curb across his street. (Courtesy Derek Boonstra) But the resulting local media attention was "the beginning of the end," Boonstra explained. After a write-up in Los Angeles Magazine, local TV news picked up the story, and Boonstra suspects that's what alerted the city to the signs, which were taken down Friday morning. "I find it all kind of absurd," he said, but clarified that he wasn't angry at the city for removing his signs. "I kind of hoped... if they felt the need to take them down, that they would still respect that it came from a place of just trying to contribute to a solution of some kind," he said. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation enforces parking in the city, and while they did not confirm to LAist that their workers removed the signs, they did send us a section of city code, which states: "The Department may, without notice, remove every unofficial sign, signal or device placed, maintained or displayed upon any City street contrary to the provisions of the Vehicle Code or of this chapter." Councilman O'Farrell's office did not respond to a request for comment regarding the signs and parking problems in the neighborhood. Boonstra said he's not planning to post his custom signs again ("don't want to poke the bear too much"), but he hopes the tools and design he made publicly available could inspire others to make their neighborhoods parking positive. "It'd be cool if someday I'm driving around the the city and see somebody else did their own thing with it," he said. Your tax-deductible gift today powers our reporters and keeps us independent. We rely on you, our reader, not paywalls to stay funded because we believe important news and information should be freely accessible to all. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe (Maya Sugarman/KPCC/Image filter by Prisma) Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva scored his upset victory last year on the promise he'd bring greater transparency to the historically troubled agency, which holds the tremendous power to accuse and arrest and is responsible for the wellbeing of those in its jail system. But when KPCC/LAist sought records about those activities, a pattern emerged: routine delays or fees for records often provided more quickly and cheaply by other agencies. KPCC/LAist sought records on people booked into county jail, the largest jail system in the nation. We asked the sheriff's department for data on how long individuals are kept in jail and on what charges. The question we're trying to answer: How might justice differ depending on who you are and where you live? We've found that people accused of very similar crimes, can end up in different situations depending on where they are arrested. Some get released. Others are taken to jail. We also sought data documenting arrests. THE FEES The sheriff's department's response: Pay $1,099.66 for the booking records and another $2,385 for information about arrests. The first fee was initially assessed before Villanueva took office. These records are electronic and department officials said the fees covered "data compilation, extraction or programming." California law allows agencies to recoup certain production costs - a process that's changing in the digital era. Jim Ewert, general counsel at the California News Publishers Association, explained those charges use to pay for paper, ink and perhaps the time of the staffer manning the copier machine. "With electronic data that should be even easier and should be much less expensive," Ewert said. The Los Angeles Police Department charged $60 to extract its arrest data for KPCC/LAist. The Los Angeles County District Attorney and the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office each supplied their own massive datasets of prosecutions and outcomes free of charge. When asked for comment on the radically different rates, Nicole Nishida, spokeswoman for the sheriff's department, said in an email "some agencies possess software that collects the data in the manner that is requested and other agencies may elect to waive the fees." KPCC/LAist asked for a detailed breakdown of costs. The sheriff's department said one of the fees covered a staffer, working to extract booking data 12 hours for $91/hour. We tried to negotiate. The department didn't budge. Last week, a staffer emailed to say since KPCC/LAist had declined to pay the assessed fee, our request would be canceled. The sheriff's department is not alone in charging fees. The San Diego County Sheriff's Department asked KPBS for $354,524.22 to review and redact records from 48 use-of-force cases, according to the public media station. A reputation for secrecy has long plagued the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, still in the shadow of a corruption scandal that ensnared its highest officials, including former Sheriff Lee Baca. That scandal, which resulted in criminal convictions, led to a push for more accountability. L.A. County has since created a new oversight commission and appointed an inspector general for the sheriff's department. A 'DIFFERENT LEVEL' Yet, some watchdogs say access to records has remained a slog, one they worry will slow even more under the new regime. Priscilla Ocen, a member of the Los Angeles County Civilian Oversight Commission, said access under former Sheriff Jim McDonnell "was not perfect." "But under the new sheriff we're experiencing a different level of inability to access information," said Ocen, who is pushing for the commission to gain subpoena power, which would mandate access to the information it wants. "We feel a bit rejected...we've been placed on the outside," Ocen said. At least some of the delays are tied to the departure of a particularly productive woman in the discovery unit, Nishida acknowledged. The discovery unit processes public records requests. That woman, who has since retired, previously confided to KPCC that she had taken a leave because of the stress of requests piling up and the pressure of being one of few employees to service them. In recent months, KPCC/LAist sought information about traffic violations for a story about a rarely-enforced law that requires cars to stay 3 feet away when passing bicyclists. We requested identical data from LAPD, the Long Beach Police Department and sheriff. L.A. and Long Beach police responded in a couple weeks. The Sheriff's Department took 79 days. THE LAW The Public Records Act provides that public records are open to inspection at all times during the office hours of the state or local agency. If copies of the records are requested, the Act gives an agency 10 days to determine and notify the requester if it possesses disclosable records. Under certain circumstances the Act allows for a 14-day extension. Nishida said the department is working on adding personnel to handle public records requests. The burden isn't likely to lighten anytime soon. Recent legislation, SB 1421, requires law enforcement to disclose records of use of force investigations and findings of sexual assault and lying. Unions representing law enforcement officers have filed more than 20 lawsuits across California trying to block release of those records that predate the law taking effect Jan.1. Union attorneys argue older records should continue to be shielded in keeping with the expectation of privacy members held at the time of the incident. They have asked courts to restrain agencies from disclosing the records to the public. KPCC/LAist and the Los Angeles Times opposed the unions' attempts in L.A. and O.C. winning decisions in both Los Angeles and Orange County superior courts. In another case, KPCC/LAist is seeking to intervene in the Downey Police Officer's Association request for a temporary restraining order to prevent release of records there. The union has petitioned a court to demand the city of Downey destroy records older than five years, which they argue is in line with the city's five-year retention schedule. California's Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra has been under fire for refusing to turn over older records, saying he wanted more clarity before releasing records in cases that predate Jan. 1. The First Amendment Coalition is suing Becerra over his position. Aside from challenges to the scope of the law, Villanueva contends costs are an issue to fulfilling requests. "When everyone asks for everything back to when Sherman Block was a deputy, it becomes very, very labor intensive, and it would require an enormous amount of manpower," said Villanueva, referencing the sheriff whose death in office in 1998 cleared the way for Baca to be elected. Villanueva made those comments last month at a briefing for reporters at the Hall of Justice in downtown Los Angeles. He acknowledged public records requests were "stacking up." "People are asking for the world," he said. Your tax-deductible gift today powers our reporters and keeps us independent. We rely on you, our reader, not paywalls to stay funded because we believe important news and information should be freely accessible to all. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe After closing down last week following the death of 21 horses in under three months, Santa Anita Park reopened its main, one-mile track on Monday morning for training. According to a statement on the track's website, the track will be available only to joggers and gallopers, and is still not open for racing. In a statement released Saturday announcing the park's reopening, trackman Dennis Moore -- who has been retained by the park to lead an investigation of the main track -- said that "we've been able to do a great deal in terms of amending the soil and inspecting it." In an interview with KPCC, the park's director of publicity, Mike Willman, did not use the word "death" in reference to the problems the track has been having, and declined to confirm with one hundred percent certainty what was causing so many horses to sustain fatal injuries. He instead noted that the "whole situation is multi-factorial," but is probably, at least in part, a result of the recent heavy rains. "There is no magic bullet...in terms of findings," he said. "You try and go at it from every which way. That said, it just has to be that the leading indicator with this recent unacceptable spike in issues has been the inordinate amount of rain in a short period of time." The rain, Willman explained, can cause silt and sand to "leech out of the soil," leaving a disproportionate amount of clay. That, in turn, can cause the soil to become compacted, which can be dangerous to horses who are running on it at top speed. To test the track, Moore and his team used a machine that simulates the impact of a thoroughbred's forelegs -- the limbs that typically take the most trauma during racing and training, said Willman. The team also tested samples of the soil, and used techniques such as harrowing, rototilling and churning to remix the soil. In February, the park's main track was evaluated and was deemed "one hundred percent ready" for training and racing. At least one horse was fatally injured in the weeks following that announcement. The track will institute new safety protocols when racing resumes. Those include requiring trainers to apply for permission to engage in high-speed training exercises with horses at least 24 hours in advance, hiring a director of equine welfare and requiring complete transparency with regard to veterinary records. The park expects to reopen for racing within the next few weeks. Three years on, storage sheds at Sirsiya Dry Port still incomplete The construction of storage sheds at Sirsiya Dry Port in Birgunj has still not been completed even though the completion deadline lapsed two years ago. The delay in completing the storage sheds has been causing storage difficulties at the dry port. On that Ethiopian crash that snuffed out so many lives among them had been Cedric Asiavugway's. A third-year student in a joint program at Georgetown Law School, Asiavugwa had been flying because of a death in his fiancee's family. He is a native of Kenya. The Georgetown Law community is honoring his legacy. Here are more details of his accomplishments from Abovethelaw.com. The universe can bestow many gifts. Too often, though, longevity is not one of them. Monday, March 11, 2019 Alexandr Svetlicinii, University of Macau - Faculty of Law has written on The Judicial Review of the Standard of Proof in Cartel Cases: Raising the Bar for the Croatian Competition Authority - Case Comment to the Judgment of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia No. U-III-2791/2016 of 1 February 2018 (Sokol Maric). ABSTRACT: The Security agencies case represents another example of the procedural diversity among Member States in applying national competition rules that mirror Articles 101 and 102 TFEU. In its infringement decision the Croatian NCA specified that the presence at the meeting with competitors and participation in the discussion concerning minimum prices was sufficient to impute to the parties participation in an anti-competitive agreement prohibited under the national equivalent of Article 101 TFEU. As the Croatian NCA investigated an agreement by object, it considered itself relieved of the burden to demonstrate the anti-competitive effects. The Constitutional Court has taken a different approach and held that the fact that the participants of the meeting have not publicly denounced the results of the meeting, cannot serve as evidence of an anti-competitive agreement. The court also found that the Croatian NCA did not manage to provide a reasonable explanation why the hourly cost of service apparently discussed by competitors is the same as hourly price of service that appears in the NCAs decision. As a result, the Constitutional Courts approach deviated from several substantive presumptions developed by the EU Commission and the EU courts when applying competition rules in relation to anti-competitive agreements. This places a heavier burden of proof on the Croatian NCA in cartel cases when compared to its own preceding practice or the enforcement practices of the EU Commission or other European NCAs. https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/antitrustprof_blog/2019/03/the-judicial-review-of-the-standard-of-proof-in-cartel-cases-raising-the-bar-for-the-croatian-compet.html Monday, March 11, 2019 The Georgia Supreme Court has denied admission to a bar applicant, concluding that his lack of candor at an informal conference justified the denial. In Certions application, he disclosed that he was arrested in August 2015, after his second year of law school, for assault and false imprisonment in Charlotte, North Carolina. His explanation for the incident was that, in July 2015, he and the victim were hanging out one evening and that, when he told her that they were just friends, not boyfriend-girlfriend, she became upset. In his application, he explained that, after that discussion, he and the victim were play wrestling/fight[ing] like [they] always did and she spent the night and left in the morning. The victim obtained a temporary protective order and later brought criminal charges. Certion stated that he was found guilty of assault and false imprisonment and that, at the time of the application, he was appealing the decision[;] the case is pending. Based on this information in Certions application, the Board requested an informal conference. The informal conference with the Board [ to Determine Fitness of Bar Applicants] was held on May 2, 2017. Members of the Board asked Certion whether there was any truth to the victims allegations in her TPO application that Certion grabbed her, threw her down, and punched her and that, when she attempted to leave, he dragged her by the hair to the bed and choked her for several seconds to prevent her from leaving. Certion responded that there was some truth, but he denied nearly all of the allegations of violence, saying he never dragged her, never punched her, and never choked her. Certion acknowledged, however, that the victim received bruises from his actions during the incident, although he had no bruising. Certion averred that the victim lied to the police when she applied for a protective order after the incident because she was jealous of his involvement with another woman. Certion stated that, after being found guilty, he appealed and, on advice of counsel, took an Alford plea to resolve the case. A Special Master was appointed A Special Master, Delia Crouch, conducted the formal hearing on February 15, 2018. At the hearing, Certion stated with regard to the July 2015 incident that, after his relationship with the victim became sexual, he let his emotions get the best of him, and he admitted that he had gotten on top of the victim, held her down, and hit her on the arm, causing bruising. He admitted that in material respects the victim was telling the truth in her reports to law enforcement. He admitted that he had not been completely candid in his informal conference with the Board regarding his role in the incident. Certion also called a character witness, who observed that Certion had matured in the three years since the assault charge, showed remorse for his conduct then, never blamed the victim, and was committed to giving back to the community. The findings of the Special Master were very favorable The Special Master found that Certions testimony revealed that he had been unprepared for the interview before the Board, that he had not sought any legal advice before appearing, and that he did not understand that his first appearance before the Board was his opportunity to express his remorse for his actions and to demonstrate his rehabilitation. He would have responded differently when questioned about his role in the incident that resulted in criminal charges had he understood the purpose of the interview. The Special Master found that, when confronted with the possibility that he would be denied the opportunity of a career for which he had trained, it was not unreasonable to expect that Certion would try to present himself in the best possible light before the Board, particularly since he was unprepared for the experience. She found that Certion was nervous at the interview and answered the Boards questions about the July 2015 incident defensively, out of shame, not in an attempt to deceive anyone and that his lack of candor before the Board was not necessarily the result of an innate lack of integrity. The board was less forgiving After reviewing the record and the Special Masters recommendation, the Board concluded that Certion did not carry his burden of establishing that he possessed the character and fitness requisite to be a member of the Bar of Georgia. The primary basis for the Boards decision was Certions admitted lack of candor before the Board at his informal conference about his conduct that led to criminal charges being brought against him for assault and false imprisonment, along with its underlying concerns related to that criminal conduct. The Board found that Certions conscious decision to make untruthful statements during the informal conference reflected deficiencies in the honesty, trustworthiness, and judgment required for admission to the Bar. Based on these findings, the Board issued an order denying Certions application on April 16, 2018. The court Here, Certion chose to minimize, rather than own up to, his relevant criminal conduct both in his application for certification of fitness and in his informal conference with the Board. While the Special Master may have been persuaded by the changes in Certions demeanor and forthrightness between the informal conference and the formal hearing, the Board was entitled to reweigh the evidence and come to its own conclusions. To the point, the evidence authorized the Board to find that Certions lack of candor during the earlier stages of the bar application process was more indicative of his true character than his acceptance of responsibility at the eleventh hour. We conclude that evidence supports the Boards conclusion that Certion has not carried his burden of establishing that he has the requisite honesty, trustworthiness, and judgment required for admission to the Bar. Consequently, we affirm the Boards decision to deny Certions application for a certificate of fitness. (Mike Frisch) https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2019/03/the-georgia-supreme-court-has-denied-admission-to-a-bar-applicant-in-certions-application-he-disclosed-that-he-was-arres.html Bread has now joined the list of goods in short supply in Zimbabwe. The lack of bread has caused its price to increase. Now, citizens are forced to look for replacements to this simple food source. Bread now costs $2 or higher, about twice as costly as the usual price. Many people are getting used to having their tea -- a favorite morning drink of Zimbabweans -- without bread. Gibson Nhema now sells goods such as sweet potatoes and corn in place of bread. He told VOA, "If we can get bread once a week that will be it. But we no longer miss it because it is now expensive. If the government would push the price of bread and flour down that would go well with our way of living. We have no cash. If it remains expensive, I will not able to buy dinner if I buy bread." Food sellers like Nhema are doing well. But these are very hard times for those who mostly sell bread, like Alwyn Mutero. Mutero said, "There used to be lots of bread, but these days, people no longer buy like they used to do, because prices are going high. We used to sell this bread for about a $1, now it costs about $2.50. So people cannot afford it." Mangaliso Ndlovu is Zimbabwes Minister of Industry and Commerce. Recently, he said he found a company that could make bread using local ingredients to help ease the shortage and control the price. But farmers say they do not have a way to produce wheat that is cost effective. They are calling on President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government to help. Ben Gilpin is with the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union. He says that, among other things, farmers must have a fair price to cover their production costs. He adds that farmers must have the knowledge and tools to help the farming industry grow. Government and industry officials continue their search for an answer to the shortage. Meanwhile, Zimbabweans like Gibson Nhema keep thinking of other foods to take the place of something as simple as their daily bread. Im Jonathan Evans. Columbus Mavhunga reported this story for VOA News. Jonathan Evans adapted it for Learning English. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story afford v. to be able to pay for something expensive adj. costing a lot of money ingredients n. the things that are used to make a food or product An airplane carrying 157 people crashed shortly after takeoff from the Ethiopian capital Sunday, killing everyone on board. The crash was similar to last years crash of a Lion Air plane in Indonesia. Both crashes involved the new Boeing 737 Max 8. And both happened minutes after takeoff. It was not clear what caused the Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 302 to go down in clear weather. The plane was on its way to Nairobi, the capital of neighboring Kenya. People from 35 countries were among the dead. Ethiopian Airlines said "the pilot mentioned that he had difficulties and that he wanted to return" to Addis Ababa airport. The crash caused the plane to break into small pieces. Searchers could be seen loading black plastic bags into trucks. At the end of the day, the airline said it was still searching for the planes flight-data recorder. Renewed questions about Boeing 737 Max The accident is likely to renew questions about the Boeing 737 Max. It is the newest version of the worlds most popular passenger airplane, first introduced in 1967. Indonesian investigators have not determined a cause for the October crash of the Lion Air plane. The data recorder, recovered from that crash, showed the planes airspeed indicator had not worked properly on its last four flights. However, the airline said the problems had been fixed. Days after the Lion Air crash, Boeing sent a notice to airlines that incorrect information from a sensor could cause the plane to automatically point the nose down. The notice reminded pilots of the process for handling such a situation. Safety experts warned against comparing the two crashes until more is known about the Sunday crash of the Ethiopian Airlines plane. Ethiopian Airlines calls itself Africas largest carrier and is widely considered the best-managed airline in Africa. The Ethiopian 737 Max airplane was new. It was delivered to the airline last November and had flown just 1,200 hours. The pilot was a senior aviator, joining the airline in 2010, the airline said. The airline chief executive Tewolde Gebremariam added, Ethiopian Airlines is one of the safest airlines in the world. At this stage we cannot rule out anything. On Monday, Ethiopian Airlines announced that it will stop flying the remaining four Boeing 737 Max airplanes "as an extra safety precaution." And China's aviation official also ordered all Chinese airlines to ground nearly 100 planes. In the U.S., the National Transportation Safety Board said it will assist Ethiopian officials with the crash investigation. And Boeing planned to send a technical team to Ethiopia. The airline said 149 passengers and eight crew members were thought to be on the plane. Among the dead were 32 Kenyans and 18 Canadians. Others came from China, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Israel, India and Somalia. The United Nations estimated that 19 people connected to the organization were killed in the crash. They were thought to be traveling to a major U.N. environmental meeting scheduled to start Monday in Nairobi. Hai Do adapted this story for Learning English based on Associated Press, Reuters and VOA news reports. Documenta is one of the most respected art events in the world. The art program is held every five years in Kassel, Germany. Recently, organizers chose a group of Indonesian artists to curate the next program. They asked ruangrupa, an Indonesian art collective, to serve as the shows artistic director. This is the first time documenta has picked a group of people, instead of an individual, as its curator. The announcement has helped bring attention to Indonesias lively yet struggling art scene. Documenta is now preparing for its 15th show, which will open in June 2022. The art program was launched in 1955 to crush support for Germanys Nazi Party after the end of World War II. In a statement, the committee said it chose ruangrupa for its ability to interest many communities. Ruangrupa was founded in 2000. The group is known for making art in many forms, such as paintings and installations. The collectives work has been shown around the world, including art biennials in Singapore and Istanbul. The group also curated an art show in the Netherlands in 2016. At the last documenta event, ruangrupa worked on part of a radio project called Every Time a Ear di Soun. The next event is called documenta 15. Two ruangrupa members said in a statement the show might explore things like new forms of education and the importance of art in social practice. Another member, Argus FS, told VOA he hopes their curation will improve peoples understanding of modern art. He added ruangrupa is one of few art groups supporting art scenes in cities like Yogyakarta and Jakarta. Argus explained that many Indonesians do not understand modern art and said there are few art collectors in Jakarta. Art and government He thinks the Indonesian government is not doing enough to help the countrys contemporary art scene. Slamet Aji Pamungkas is with the Creative Economy Agency, a government organization in Indonesia. He told VOA that the agency has always supported the contemporary art scene. He said it offers guidance, improves performance spaces and helps artists get the technology they need. Tubagus Andre Sukmana is a former head of the National Gallery of Indonesia. He now heads the media art department at the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture. Sukmana told VOA that the ministry is ready to offer ruangrupa financing if the group requests it. Sukmana said the government has put together a plan that will support 10 cultural projects, including contemporary art. He said it also plans to give financial aid to artists outside major cities. Indonesian art scene The Indonesian contemporary art scene has grown in places like Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Bandung in West Java. In a 2014 book, Yvonne Spielmann describes Indonesias art movements, such as the New Art Movement in the 1970s. It was born from protest against the narrow understanding of art at the nations academies. Today, artists like Heri Dono and Handiwirman Saputra have received attention, both international and local. Handiwirman has been chosen to represent Indonesia at the Venice Biennale in Italy in 2019. Argus says there are still issues for Indonesian artists, such as overdependence on private museums to show their work. But, he said, Indonesia has the potential to be the leader of contemporary art in Southeast Asia. Im Alice Bryant. And I'm Jill Robbins. Stanley Widianto wrote this story for VOA News. Alice Bryant adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story curate v. to select a number of things for presentation, such as for an art show scene n. a particular area of activity (such as art or music) that involves many people practice n. the action of doing or using something installation n. a work of art that usually has several parts (such as a sculpture, lights and sound) biennial n. any event that happens every two years; most commonly used to describe large international art shows contemporary adj. happening or beginning now or in recent times academy n. an organization of people who work to support art, science, or literature potential n. a chance that something will happen or exist in the future The United States and China are seeking to be the worlds leader in artificial intelligence, or AI, and other fast-developing technologies. But this high-tech competition has been affected by U.S. concerns about some Chinese investments in American businesses. For years, cooperation has grown between China and Californias Silicon Valley, home to many of the worlds top technology companies. But the current U.S. administration has increased scrutiny of Chinese investments in Silicon Valley. This has caused some U.S. startups to turn down Chinese investments. Michael Wessel heads the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. The U.S. government organization investigates whether U.S.-China economic and trade relations are affecting U.S. national security. Wessel recently told a Congressional hearing that China is currently very active in many areas of technology innovation. China wants to be a global innovation leader and is doing all that it can legally and illegally to achieve its goals, he said. The U.S. has accused China of carrying out cyberattacks on U.S. businesses in an effort to steal company secrets. U.S. officials have also raised concerns about rules that require American companies to turn over their technology to Chinese partners. The issues have also complicated ongoing trade talks between the U.S. and China. Accusations against Huawei One major company facing U.S. accusations is Chinese technology company Huawei. The companys chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, faces fraud charges in the United States. Meng is being held in Canada after being arrested in December, and U.S. officials are seeking to bring her back to the U.S. to face the charges. U.S. government lawyers have said Huawei violated U.S. restrictions against sales to Iran. In addition, they accuse the company of stealing trade secrets from technology company T-Mobile. Huawei is currently working on building 5G systems the next generation in wireless technology - in countries around the world. The 5G development has caused tensions between the U.S. and China. U.S. officials have long suspected the Chinese government could use Huawei network equipment to help carry out spying activities. Huawei has rejected such accusations. U.S. restrictions The U.S. government has urged American companies not to use Chinese technology in its communications systems because of security concerns. It has also pressed other countries to ban Huawei from building 5G networks. U.S. officials want to put restrictions on several kinds of technology including AI and robotics - because it sees them as possible threats to national security. But many in the tech industry say such restrictions could end up harming U.S. businesses. Tim Draper operates a major investment company in Silicon Valley. He told VOA he was one of the first U.S. investors in Chinese technology company Baidu. I think we should be open and sharing, Draper said. Both countries benefit so much by having a very open communication lane. I believe we have a problem that we are putting up barriers where they dont benefit us. It remains unclear how long the current investment environment will last in Silicon Valley. But for now, it seems many investors and startup companies have accepted a cooling off period for Chinese-related investments. Im Bryan Lynn. Michelle Quinn reported this story for VOA News. Bryan Lynn adapted her story for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story artificial intelligence n. the ability of a machine to use and analyze data in an attempt to reproduce human behavior scrutiny n. careful examination of something innovation n. a new idea or method that is being tried for the first time, or the use of such ideas or methods achieve v. to succeed in doing something good complicate v. make something more difficult benefit v. something that helps you or gives an advantage lane n. a route regularly used by vehicles, boats, etc. 1. Yes. The Schlueter Group has extensive experience and contacts. Its a good investment. 2. Yes. The firms namesake has a background as a legislator and knows Killeen well. 3. No. The expenditure is a waste of money. Our lawmakers should be doing that work. 4. No. The contract should be shorter, incentivized and based on performance benchmarks. 5. Unsure. Its not always easy to quantify the outcomes of lobbying efforts. Vote View Results China over-reported its economic growth between 2008 and 2016 by an average of 1.7 percentage points, according to a recent study by researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Chicago. The discrepancy came from local governments who are rewarded for meeting growth and investment targets, the authors say in a draft paper published by the Brookings Institution. The Beijing-based National Bureau of Statistics, knowing such manipulation well, has been adjusting the local numbers but hasnt done so sufficiently since 2008, authors Wei Chen, Xilu Chen, Chang-Tai Hsieh and Zheng Song wrote. Local statistics increasingly misrepresent the true numbers after 2008, but there was no corresponding change in the adjustment made by the NBS, they wrote. They instead use numbers such as tax revenue, satellite night lights, electricity consumption, railway cargo flow, exports and imports less likely to be fudged, to predict the actual gross domestic product of the worlds second largest economy. The revised numbers indicate that the slowdown in Chinese growth since 2008 is more severe than suggested by the official statistics, they wrote. Chinas NBS didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. Chinas GDP has long been criticized for either over- or under- estimating growth, or for smoothing out the fluctuations in real economic activities. Local authorities, eager to achieve economic growth goals so as to improve their own chances of promotion, used to report regional GDP figures that when summed would be more than 10 percent larger than the official national figure. In recent years, the national authority has cracked down on fudging statistics by collecting data directly from firms, naming and shaming officials as well as setting up a specific inspection arm. The head of the statistics bureau claimed last year that the problems were all in the past, and from 2019, it will start to compute GDP for the 31 domestic regions. Tom Orlik, chief economist for Bloomberg Economics and author of Understanding Chinas Economic Indicators says he is cautious about the papers conclusions. The NBS has made determined efforts to squeeze out the impact of local exaggeration since the 1990s, and the argument that local officials have overstated investment is hard to square with the well-known narrative that Chinas capital spending rose too much, he wrote. The authors base their estimate of the true rate of GDP on tax revenue, but that may have reflected a larger services sector, and should not be taken as more accurate than other official indicators, according to Orlik. Bloomberg It has taken more than a century, but Japanese banks are finally parting ways with a piece of technology that hasnt felt cutting edge since the shogun reigned. Hanko, the personal stamps required for even simple transactions in Japan since the 1800s, are getting phased out at some of the countrys biggest financial institutions. Lenders have begun allowing customers to transfer money or make payments with their smartphone or a tablet, instead of pressing wood to ink and paper like their ancestors. For millennials in Japan, one of the most tech-obsessed places on Earth, the change is long overdue. Its too much work to bring hanko and do the paperwork just to withdraw money at branches, said Tomoyuki Shiraishi, a 24-year-old construction worker in Kurashiki, western Japan. After arriving late to the fintech revolution, Japanese banks are racing to catch up as they try to slash paperwork, boost efficiency and appeal to younger generations. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., the countrys biggest lender, is a case in point. The bank has started offering accounts that dont require hanko or passbooks and is overhauling its branch network to replace rows of tellers with tablet computers and video booths. The goal is to help customers adapt to digital platforms so they can eventually do more banking on their own devices. As many as 100 of MUFGs 500-plus domestic outlets will convert to the new format by 2024. The Tokyo-based lender plans to halve the number of branches with traditional counters over the same period. MUFG isnt alone. Resona Holdings Inc. last year started allowing customers to open accounts without hanko at about 600 branches. The shift to digital has support from Prime Minister Shinzo Abes administration, which has drafted a bill to make more government services available online. Winning over Japans bureaucracy hasnt been easy. It took MUFG two years to convince 450 local governments to begin processing tax payments electronically, said Takayuki Ogura, a director at the groups main banking unit. In other areas of Japanese officialdom, hanko are firmly entrenched. Small businesses use them for many contracts, and theyre still required for things like marriage and home ownership. Parents often buy hand- crafted hanko for their children when they come of age, and tourists take them home as souvenirs, said Keiichi Fukushima, a licensed carver and fourth-generation owner of a shop that sells the stamps in Tokyos historic Ueno district. Hanko-making is a USD1.5 billion-a-year industry, said Fukushima, who is vice chairman of the national trade group. There are still lots of occasions where we need to use hanko in our lives, Fukushima said. MDT/Bloomberg A prominent activist campaigning for the release of ethnic Kazakhs caught in a sweeping crackdown on Muslims in China has been arrested in the Kazakh city of Almaty, his wife and a lawyer said yesterday. Leila Adilzhan told The Associated Press by phone that her husband, Serikzhan Bilash, head of the advocacy group Atajurt, called her yesterday morning from a policemans phone saying he had been arrested and had been taken to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. When he called me I was so shocked, I couldnt say a single word, Adilzhan said. Im afraid our government will give him to China. Adilzhan said Atajurts offices were also being searched in a further sign Kazakhstan is cracking down on the group. The detention of possibly more than a million Uighurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities into Chinese internment camps has been a touchy issue in neighboring Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country of 18 million people. China is a major trading partner, and Kazakhstans state-restricted media had generally avoided reporting on the camps. Bilashs group, Atajurt, became prominent last year for supporting the relatives of those who had been detained. They provided financial support, wrote letters to embassies and the United Nations, and taped hundreds of testimonies by relatives looking for their loved ones missing in Chinas far western region of Xinjiang. In a video circulated online yesterday afternoon, Bilash said he had been accused of inciting ethnic hatred and was being held by Astana police. Aiman Umarova, a lawyer advising Atajurt, said she was on her way to Astana to represent Bilash in court and called the case politically motivated. Bilashs arrest is connected with his actions against Chinese camps, and his support for Kazakh people and other Muslims in the camps, Umarova said. Our government doesnt want to spoil relations between Kazakhstan and China. The Kazakh Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A man answering a phone for a police handler said Bilash was being held temporarily before hanging up without further comment, according to an audio recording provided by Bilashs wife. Bilash had been facing increasing pressure from Kazakh authorities in the past few months. An Almaty court last month found Bilash guilty of illegally leading an unregistered organization and fined him USD656, though his wife said he was planning to appeal. On Saturday, Bilash sent a video saying four strangers donning earpieces showed up to Atajurt offices and said he was concerned he was in danger. Yesterday morning morning, bloodstains were found at his downtown Almaty hotel room, said Atajurt member Tilek Niazbek. Bilash has been appointed a lawyer by the state, his wife said. It is unclear what specific charges he faces or when he will appear in court. Dake Kang, Beijing, AP Chinas foreign minister promised all necessary measures to defend Chinese companies and citizens abroad amid legal clashes between tech giant Huawei and Washington. Recent legal action against Chinese companies and individuals is deliberate political suppression, said Wang Yi at a news conference. Wang was responding to a question about Beijings stance on Canadas arrest of a Huawei Technologies Ltd. executive on U.S. criminal charges and the companys lawsuit in an American court aimed at overturning restrictions on sales of its telecom equipment. Recent actions against specific Chinese enterprises and individuals are not simply judicial cases, but deliberate political suppression, said Wang. Beijing will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises and citizens, he said. We also support companies and individuals using legal weapons to protect their rights and interests and not to be silent lambs. Chinas government has demanded Canada release Huaweis chief financial officer. She is fighting U.S. efforts to extradite her to face charges of lying to banks about dealings with Iran. Wang gave no details of what Beijing might do, but a Canadian former diplomat and a businessman have been arrested in China in what is widely seen as an effort to pressure Canada. Authorities also have slowed imports of Canadian canola, an oilseed crop, by imposing more stringent inspections. Meanwhile, Huawei faces charges including theft of trade secrets in a case in federal court in Seattle. The company pleaded not guilty this month. Last week, Huawei announced it filed a lawsuit asking U.S. federal court to throw out a portion of this years American military appropriations bill that bars the government from using its technology or dealing with contractors that do. Huawei argues the measure improperly singles out the company for penalties without giving it a chance to defend itself. AP Local women between 26 and 35 years old have a lower inclination to want to have children than their male counterparts, according to a recent survey by the Macau Womens Association. The association interviewed 1,309 local women between 26 and 35 years old in January. Most of the respondents were married, with two children or fewer. Most respondents felt that the lack of living space was primarily responsible for the decline in childbearing intentions, followed by economic and personal factors such as high childrearing expenses, occupational demands, insufficient time for taking care of children and parenting problems. The survey concluded that womens childbearing intentions were significantly lower than those of men. Women believed they faced obstacles such as having insufficient time to live, increased social competition, a lack of parent-child facilities, concerns about having children, loss of freedom, among other factors. The results also showed 70 percent of respondents thought the government was providing insufficient support for families with children. Respondents thought the government should increase housing supply. More than 65 percent of respondents believe that having two children is the most ideal situation. Overall, childbearing intention is at a low to moderate level, the association concluded. JZ Credit: Ben DugganFollowing the death of frontman Keith Flint last week, The Prodigy canceled all of their upcoming tour dates, including several scheduled sets at U.S. festivals this spring. Those festivals have now announced that Papa Roach, The Cult and The Crystal Method as fill-in acts. Papa Roach will play Sonic Temple in Columbus, Ohio, The Cult will fill in at Chicago Open Air, The Crystal Method have been tapped for Welcome to Rockville in Jacksonville, Florida and Epicenter in Rockingham, North Carolina. "We're honored to step in for our brothers in The Prodigy at Sonic Temple," says Papa Roach frontman Jacoby Shaddix. "They are such an influential band for us. We're gonna celebrate, it's gonna be a great night. We love you guys and we CAN'T WAIT to see you out there." Flint was found dead last Monday, March 4. He was 49. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. By Ritah Kemigisa. The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga has lashed out at government officials who have intentions of frustrating the Buy Uganda, Build Uganda policy (BUBU). Kadaga who was opening the BUBU Expo Women in Business conference at Kololo Independence Grounds accused officials of blocking the National Local Content Bill on grounds that it is in breach of provisions in the East African Community (EAC) protocol. She however says the bill guarantees priority and exclusive use of locally manufactured goods and services as opposed to those from other countries in the region. She has now called for attitude change about locally manufactured goods. Related Stories.. Trade ministry makes great strikes with BUBU Germanys decisions on Chinas Huawei, Russias Nord Stream 2 & now Iran-backed Hezbollah # geopolitics That is a tweet from Velina Tchakarova. Germany will not list Hezbollah as a terrorist group, in case you missed that piece of news. And the country will not ban Huawei infrastructure as a potential piece of its communications networks. Furthermore: The projections peg the [German] military budget to be several billion euros short of the trajectory to meet the governments goal of reaching 1.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2024. Analysts even see the current spending curve unable to sustain 1.35 percent in the years ahead. NATO members in 2014 agreed to boost their defense spending to 2 percent of GDP within 10 years. Italy, by the way, just endorsed Chinas One Belt, One Road initiative, the only G7 member to do so. For all the talk about Brexit, these may end up being the relevant exits of our time. And if anyone is working hard to make Brexit seem like a somewhat less bad idea, I suppose that is Germany and Italy, not anyone in British politics. Dr. Anthony Jerant is testing a multi-media program designed to encourage men to talk with their doctors about suicidal thoughts. Credit: UC Regents / UC Davis Health Fear of psychiatric hospitalization is one of the primary reasons that older menan age and gender group at high risk for suicidedon't talk about suicide with their physicians. Researchers discovered this finding as part of a pre-launch, stakeholder assessment of a multimedia program designed to encourage men to open up to their primary care providers about suicidal thoughts. Called MAPS, for Men and Providers Preventing Suicide, the program will eventually be integrated into doctors' office waiting areas. The MAPS assessment was led by Anthony Jerant, chair of family and community medicine at UC Davis Health, and is published in the journal Patient Education and Counseling. "Our overall goal is to initiate comfortable conversations with men about mental health and its treatment in outpatient primary care settings," Jerant said. "Fear of hospitalization wasn't really on our radar, proving that stakeholder interviews are crucial to shaping the development of suicide-prevention interventions like ours." Stakeholders who participated in the evaluation included 44 suicide survivors, prevention advocates, and family members of those who attempted or died by suicide. Jerant and his team created MAPS because 80 percent of suicide deaths occur in men, with the biggest increase in the past two decades among men between the ages of 35 and 64. In addition, nearly half off all adults who die by suicide saw a primary care clinician within the month prior to their deaths. "Those statistics led us to ask, 'Is there something primary care providers might be able to do or say in office visits with men to change that outcome?" Jerant said. "In answering that question, MAPS was launched." Interviewees provided helpful feedback on the overall program such as the need to focus more on visuals, use plain language, reinforce male identity in the content and ensure that primary care providers are prepared to respond to suicidal-thought disclosures. They also expressed the strong fear that disclosing suicidal thoughts to a physician always results in immediate hospitalization. As a result, the researchers have added a video vignette to the intervention clarifying that hospitalization is typically not necessary and emphasizing treatment options. Jerant has also been evaluating the program as part of a randomized, controlled trial. If the results show that the intervention is effective, he hopes to integrate it throughout UC Davis Health and, potentially, other health systems. He also hopes that MAPS themes make their way into suicide interventions beyond doctors' offices as well. "Reducing suicides will take a united effort that extends beyond the primary care provider's office," Jerant said. "Our insights could be useful to prevention efforts worldwide." The study is titled "Stakeholder Views Regarding a Planned Primary Care Office-based Interactive Multimedia Suicide Prevention Tool." Explore further Study shows many preteens screen positive for suicide risk during ER visits More information: Anthony Jerant et al, Stakeholder views regarding a planned primary care office-based interactive multimedia suicide prevention tool, Patient Education and Counseling (2018). Anthony Jerant et al, Stakeholder views regarding a planned primary care office-based interactive multimedia suicide prevention tool,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.pec.2018.09.007 Credit: CC0 Public Domain Federal officials required hospitals nationwide this year to post their "list" prices online. But it's not yet clear how many are doing it, even as the government has taken the rare step of asking consumers to monitor hospital compliance. Most hospitals appear to be complying with the rule, according to hospital officials and a small sampling of websites. However, the federal officials acknowledge that they are not yet enforcing the rule, industry groups are not monitoring compliance, many hospitals are burying the information on their websites and debate continues about whether the price lists are creating more confusion than clarity among consumers. The rule took effect Jan. 1, after a yearlong controversy about its necessity and usefulness. It requires every hospital in the countryabout 6,000to post its full price list online. The lists, known in the industry as "chargemasters," present prices for the thousands of individual services and products for which a hospital may bill. The problem is that services and products are identified in obscure abbreviations, billing codes and medical terminology that even doctors or nurses often don't understand. Additionally, the lists rarely reflect final billed charges because insurers and the government generally negotiate significantly lower prices. In most cases, the posted rates are the highest a hospital would ever charge per service. Even so, officials at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said full public disclosure was a logical first step in a transparency initiative aimed at eventually encompassing physician and prescription drug prices. The CMS contends that the listings will help patients compare facilities, spur competition among hospitals to lower prices and prompt software developers to build tools that consumers can use to comparison-shop. "We think this information will empower patients," said Seema Verma, the CMS administrator. "And we look forward to seeing consumers continue to drive the demand for hospitals to provide greater price transparency." Verma has enlisted the public in an unusual effort to monitor whether hospitals comply. In appearances, opinion pieces and through social media, she has urged consumers to check their local hospitals' websites to see if chargemaster lists are posted and let the agency know if they are not. While putting off enforcing the law, CMS has instead invited hospitals and the public to weigh in on possible enforcement mechanisms and suggest future price transparency measures. Hundreds of comments have been submitted. Under the agency-initiated Twitter hashtag #WheresthePrice, a dialogue has ensued. In one case, a Texas man, Matt Kleiber, checked 31 hospitals and medical centers in Houston and found one health system, Memorial Hermann, which operates 16 hospitals, not in compliance. After a reporter's inquiry, Kathryn Williams, a spokeswoman for Memorial Hermann, said in early February that the hospital system was complying She said they interpreted the government's rule as allowing a shorter, easier-to-understand price list to be posted. Subsequently, in late February, the hospital posted its full chargemaster list, as the regulation requires. "What we posted (initially) was much easier for our patients to understand," Williams said. "We don't think the chargemaster list is helpful ... and we stand by our position that the information we have had posted on our website since Jan. 1 is consistent with CMS' guidance." Other reports of noncompliance at #WheresthePrice appeared to be the result of incomplete website explorations by consumers. A check of the websites of six cited hospitals showed that the price lists were posted. On all but one of the sites, however, the information was not prominently displayed. About a dozen hospital websites reviewed by Kaiser Health News included an accompanyingand often prominentdisclaimer saying the information doesn't reflect typical final charges and is difficult to understand. Accompanying its chargemaster list, for example, Saline Memorial Hospital in Benton, Ark., says: "The amount listed [for each service] is not necessarily reflective of your actual financial responsibility. ... We recommend that all patients contact their insurer or Saline Health System to discuss their individual situations and determine the potential out-of-pocket costs of their care." Ariel Levin, senior associate director of state issues at the American Hospital Association, said hospitals have been reluctant to draw too much attention to their price lists. "Most hospitals think this information will not help patients," Levin said. "And many think it only confuses people." Levin said the AHA is not monitoring its members' compliance, and she doesn't think other hospital trade groups are either. "But all the hospital websites we have checked so far have been in compliance, and we believe the vast majority are abiding by the rule," Levin said. Small rural hospitals may take longer to comply, she said. The CMS and the AHA said a few hospitals offer consumer-friendly price transparency that goes significantly beyond the chargemaster price lists. St. Luke's University Health Network, a 10-hospital system with 300 outpatient clinics in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, several years ago introduced an online tool with two features, "PriceLock" and "PriceChecker." Francine Botek, the hospital's senior vice president for finance, said PriceLock allows patients to get an all-inclusive price for 80 percent of the hospital's outpatient services even if a patient doesn't enter insurance information. PriceChecker permits people to enter insurance information and other data to help calculate their out-of-pocket costs. The tools are only slowly gaining traction among consumers, Botek said. In 2018, 35,200 people used PriceChecker, averaging about 2,500 a month. Over the past three years, about 3,600 have used PriceLock. The University of Utah, which owns four hospitals, has a similar online out-of-pocket cost estimator for about 600 common (mostly outpatient) services and proceduresgiving a single price that lists the charges for each. People with or without insurance can use the tool. Those without insurance get an across-the-board 30 percent discount off the list price, and larger discounts are sometimes available. Kathy Delis, who oversees billing at University of Utah Health, said the hospital system plans this year to market the tool to the public more aggressively. "It's going to take time to engage patients," Delis said. "We have urged CMS to move beyond the chargemaster rule as soon as possible." A few states require hospitals to give consumers price estimates. The laws are limited in scope, however. In 2018, Colorado became the latest state to enact such a law. It mandates that hospitals post "self-pay" prices for the 50 conditions that yield the most revenue from Medicare. Doctors must also post prices for their 15 most popular procedures. An older California law requires hospitals to disclose prices for the top 26 outpatient services by revenue. A spokesperson for the CMS said the agency plans to issue its next regulation on hospital price transparency this year. Explore further Need hospital care or tests? Some ways to get cost estimates 2019 Kaiser Health News Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. By Moses Kyeyune. President Yoweri Museveni has written to the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, asking her to ensure an expeditious pass the $ 397 million (shs 1.4tn) promisory note for the construction of an International Specialised Hospital. KFM has obtained a copy of the letter date February 25, 2019, in which the president emphasizes his support for the facility, which critics say is inflated. Museveni based his argument on four grounds; the need to cut government expenditure on treatment abroad, the need to boost the national health system with modern facilities and opening Ugandas doors to medical tourism as well as reducing brain drain. The hospital, if approved will be constructed in Lubowa, a Kampala suburb by an Italian firm FINASI International in partnership with Roko Construction Company. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Mental health amongst university students could be improved by introducing mindfulness training. These are the findings from the first UK study, published in Education Research International, to measure the efficacy of mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT) on students. Recent evidence suggests that university students are more likely to develop mental health problems when compared with the general population. The University of Bristol-led study aimed to establish whether mindfulness could be effective at improving mental health and wellbeing in medical students who are considered more at risk of developing a stress-related illness. Researchers recruited 57 medical students, who had been referred to a mindfulness group either by their GP or student advisor, to take part in an eight-week mindfulness programme. Students were required to attend the training for two hours each week and commit to 30-minute daily home practice in between sessions. The training, which took place between Autumn 2011 and Spring 2015, taught participants how the mind works, how stress impacts one's life, an awareness of stress triggers and signs of stress symptoms, coping techniques, meditation practice, and the importance of self-care. At the end of each programme students completed a survey that included a free text response. The researchers also conducted six qualitative interviews lasting between 60 and 90 minutes. The students reported mindfulness training went further than learning a set of tools for coping with emotional difficulty. Students described improved empathy and communication skills when with patients through their newly learnt ability to notice their own thoughts and feelings. Students reported an improved ability to manage their workload better as well as a new ability to notice automatic judgmental thinking (such as not being good enough) without identifying with these thoughts. Students described how mindfulness had helped enhance their relationship to learning by using the mindfulness practices to refresh and regain concentration during long days of study as well as using the mindfulness practices to steady themselves during stressful situations in clinic or during exams. The researchers concluded that more research is needed but these initial findings suggest that mindfulness training had helped students at Bristol reduce anxiety, excessive worry, negative thought patterns and improve resiliency to stress as well as improve emotional wellbeing and professional development. Dr. Alice Malpass, Research Fellow in the Bristol Medical School: Population Health Sciences (PHS) and co-author, said: "At Bristol, we are continuing to increase efforts to find solutions to improve mental health among the student population. Out aim is to find effective new ways of supporting students who may be suffering from stress and anxiety. "This study has shown how mindfulness can help students who might be struggling, in particular medical students, find new ways of relating to the difficulties that arise in their clinical work, studying and wellbeing. "We have developed a theoretical model of the medical student 'stress signature', mapping how mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) can break the cycle of specific vulnerability through the development of new coping strategies." In Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA, mindfulness training is part of the medical curriculum but has yet to be implemented in the UK. Policy recommendations from the General Medical Council (GMC), the body responsible for improving medical education in the UK, recommend the use of mindfulness training to increase wellbeing and resilience to stress. The researchers suggest a UK wide survey should be carried out to find out how other medical schools in the UK are implementing GMC mindfulness training guidelines and how this compares to what medical schools are delivering in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA. More information: 'Medical Students' Experience of Mindfulness Training in the UK: Well-Being, Coping Reserve, and Professional Development' by Alice Malpass, Kate Binnie, and Lauren Robson in Education Research International (From left) ORNL Associate Laboratory Director for Computing and Computational Sciences Jeff Nichols; ORNL Health Data Sciences Institute Director Gina Tourassi; DOE Deputy Under Secretary for Science Thomas Cubbage; ORNL Task Lead for Biostatistics Blair Christian; and ORNLs TOP Project Lead Ioana Danciu were invited to the White House to showcase an ORNL-developed digital tool aimed at better matching cancer patients with clinical trials. Credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory A team of researchers from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory Health Data Sciences Institute has harnessed the power of artificial intelligence to better match cancer patients with clinical trials. The researchers were one of ten teams to develop a digital tool to address complex challenges relevant to medical conditions such as cancer and Lyme disease as part of The Opportunity Project (TOP) Health Sprint, a 14-week effort sponsored by the Census Bureau, coordinated by the Department of Health and Human Services, and led by two Presidential Innovation Fellows. The TOP tools rely on emerging technologies and were built using open data from governmental agencies such as the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The sprint was intended to strengthen collaborations between technologists, issue experts, and community leaders to address real-world challenges and improve patient lives. "One of the major obstacles facing cancer trial eligibility is the unstructured nature of the data," said ORNL's TOP Project Lead Ioana Danciu. "Artificial intelligence and natural language processing tools refine and advances the process of matching cancer patients to promising clinical trials." The team, which includes Health Data Sciences Institute Director Georgia Tourassi and ORNL researchers Blair Christian and Shamimul Hasan, developed a novel knowledge graph that presents information in a way that tools can be constructed to extract meaningful information from vast reams of unstructured text. By applying unsupervised machine learning and large-scale graph analytic methodologies, approaches similar to what Netflix uses to recommend programs and movies to customers, the team aims to find clinical trials with related goals. ORNL's "SmartClinicalTrials" capability builds upon an existing NCI-DOE collaboration in which ORNL researchers lead a pilot effort to expand cancer surveillance capabilities and build statistical models capable of predicting the clinical course and outcomes for different types of cancer. The TOP team added clinical trial data to an exascale knowledge graph that connects data from disparate sources such as electronic health records, medical ontologies, and public datasets. "These tools make it possible to store the information and continuously add new information in a manner that allows for computational analysis and knowledge discovery down the road," Danciu said. "Through the Health Data Sciences Institute, ORNL is building scientific capabilities to address nationally relevant problems in biomedical science and the healthcare delivery space," said Tourassi. "Exercises such as the TOP sprint allow us to have a focused problem on which to catalyze research while simultaneously showing the power of cross-agency collaboration in enabling new insights from government data. This sprint illustrated that to democratize science, accelerate discovery, and create a useful product for the cancer community, we need a collaboration that unites open healthcare data, domain expertise and compute resources." The research was also informed and enabled by ORNL's AI Initiative, which harnesses the laboratory's unique suite of expertise, compute capabilities, and user facilities to accelerate scientific breakthroughs and enhance national security. The Initiative has already demonstrated new capabilities in materials science, engineering design, accelerated learning, and scalability. For example, ORNL researchers have shown that machine learning algorithms can be used to extract information from signals with low signal-to-noise ratios; developed algorithms capable of accelerating modeling and simulation with very little training data; and designed novel biomimetic neuromorphic devices capable of detecting epileptic seizures. "ORNL's investment in AI, together with its expertise in science, computing, and engineering and its world-class facilities, positions the lab to continue its leadership in science and national security," said ORNL's Director of Artificial Intelligence Program David Womble. The TOP team's work represents the first "health challenge" issued under the Census Bureau-Department of Health and Human Services partnership and is a demonstration of ORNL's AI capability in the space of health data science. "This was an exploratory project," said Danciu. "Ultimately, we are interested in unleashing the power of the unique computing resources and data science expertise available within ORNL to find end-to-end solutions to big problems with broad societal impact, and clinical trial patient matching certainly fits that description." She added that other challenge participants were large commercial companies, and the team would like to collaborate with industry to further realize the potential of AI in revolutionizing cancer trials, and cancer management more broadly. "Being able to draw from ORNL's pool of scientific expertise and build on existing research pieces to enable progress highlights the imperative nature of the local, federal, and global AI initiatives," Tourassi said. Explore further Researchers design novel method for energy-efficient deep neural networks Regional quota students of the School of Medicine, Hiroshima University measure the blood pressure of elderly patients in Akiota Hospital, a rural hospital in Hiroshima prefecture. The exercise, overseen by the Director of the Hospital is a rural-dispatch clinical training session for regional quota students. Credit: Taken and owned by the Department of Community-Based Medical Education, School of Medicine, Hiroshima University. An ambitious health economics study from a consortium of five Japanese universities has shown that different university programs to promote the equal geographic distribution of physicians increases the number of graduates practicing in rural areas in Japan. Graduates from these programs were on average 24 percent more likely to work in non-metropolitan areas than those not involved these programs. Access to healthcare in rural or low-population areas is a problem that affects countries worldwide, not limited only to developing nations. Many developed nations have an aging population, which in countries like Japan and Germany, is putting pressure on their healthcare systems and services for both rural and urban populations. Ease of access to healthcare in rural communities is an important global challenge that must be tackled and is one of the priorities of the World Health Organization (WHO). "I believe that here at Hiroshima University has a destiny to improve this problem," asserts Professor Matsumoto of the Department of Community-Based Medical System in Hiroshima University. "This sort of research is very important to me because I am part of Hiroshima University researchers [sic]". Japan has an urgent problem concerning access to healthcare. This barrier to access has become a long-lasting social problem due to the uneven distribution of doctors, says Matsumoto. Article 25 of the Constitution of Japan states that everybody has a right to be healthy regardless of region or income level. This article was drafted in 1945 by Tatsuo Morito, the founding President of Hiroshima University. "Unfortunately, in the real-world, the access is not at all equal," says Matsumoto. Japan does not currently have any government policies to allocate doctors to areas experiencing shortages. Matsumoto recounts a story of how a rural town in northern Hiroshima did not have a local obstetrician for 13 years, so there was no choice for pregnant women except to move to another area to give birth. "In Japan, the poor access to healthcare is largely derived from geographic barriers rather than economic barriers," concludes Matusmoto. To overcome these barriers to healthcare, current actions are targeting physicians early, implementing policies that focus on medical school students. Japan has admissions programs integrated in each university with a medical school, which either obliges or encourages medical school graduates to practice in rural areas. There are three types of programs: the regional quota program, in which a certain number of incoming high school students in a medical course must be from a local region; the scholarship program, in which the medical students benefit from a scholarship for six years in exchange for practicing in designated areas after graduation; and a combined quota and scholarship program. This combined program is unique to Japan, as is the scale of its implementation. Canada, Thailand and the U.S. all have similar programs, but none of this scale or as a combined regional quota with scholarship, says Matsumoto. In this study, a project of the Japanese Council for Community Based Medical Education sent out surveys to 77 medical schools and 47 prefectures across Japan, targeting graduates who were admitted through the regional quota system and/or benefited from scholarship admission programs. Location data about graduates was acquired from the Physician Census compiled by the Ministry of Health, resulting in the study examining almost 24,000 graduate physicians. "The proportion of those working in rural areas is the most important outcome of this study," states Matsumoto. The result was satisfactory for Matsumoto. Not only were the graduates of the programs more likely to work in rural areas, the population density of those areas was vastly lower than 'usual' medical graduates. "We are recommending the government continue this system. Otherwise we don't have any other solution to solve the unequal distribution of doctors," says Matsumoto. Explore further International medical graduates care for Medicare patients with greater health care needs More information: Masatoshi Matsumoto et al. Geographic Distribution of Regional Quota Program Graduates of Japanese Medical Schools, Academic Medicine (2019). Journal information: Academic Medicine Masatoshi Matsumoto et al. Geographic Distribution of Regional Quota Program Graduates of Japanese Medical Schools,(2019). DOI: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000002688 Professionally, I am an associate professor. I blog about current events, politics, higher education, the economy and whatever else interests me. I believe in free markets. I live in West Shokan, New York, near Woodstock, NY. All material on this blog copyright 2003-2012 Mitchell Langbert. Samsung Pay will soon be available to Investec and Discovery Bank customers, Samsung South Africa has announced. This follows FNB recently launching support for the Samsung Pay app, allowing clients with compatible devices to make payments at terminals across the country. Users who bank with Investec and Discovery Bank will receive support in the near future, although Samsung did not state exactly when the service would launch for these customers. The company said the addition of these banks customers will make Samsung Pay as ubiquitous as any other form of payment in South Africa. Were excited to offer this innovative technology to more South Africans and are confident that the nation will continue to embrace the convenience of Samsung Pay with great enthusiasm, said Samsung South Africa integrated mobility director Justin Hume. As a human-centred company, Samsung is pleased to introduce a product that defies barriers and makes everyday tasks like the grocery run so much easier. Now read: Nedbank launches personal assistant and concierge service Crime is already devastating South Africas economy and society, and is now preventing many important infrastructure projects from progressing. The latest large construction project to be halted because of criminal activity is the Mtentu bridge in the Eastern Cape. The Aveng Strabag joint venture (ASJV) has stopped working on the bridge and terminated its contract with the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) following safety concerns. The 1.1km bridge, which is expected to cost around R1.6 billion, forms part of Sanrals N2 Wild Coast road project. However, ASJV stopped working on the project in October 2018 because of community unrests, which created a dangerous working environment. According to Aveng, the intimidation and chaos caused by armed protestors prevented them from executing work safely and in accordance with international best practice. An overview of the project is provided in the video below. Criminals damaging railways Earlier this year, Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) announced that it was partnering with the police to set up a war room to combat criminals damaging and stealing its infrastructure. According to the company, criminal activity is affecting its operations and has led to trains being derailed. In one of the incidents in December 2018, a 200-wagon coal train derailed near Richards Bay after a portion of the line was damaged. Transnet Freight Rail GM Caesar Mtetwa told Engineering News Online that they view it as sabotage as they could not see any commercial motive for the crime. Hundreds of train carriages have also been vandalised or set alight in South Africa in recent years. According to the Sunday Times, a dispute between the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) and unions is behind most of the arson attacks that have destroyed 60% of commuter trains. This vandalism is causing big problems for workers who rely on these trains as an affordable method to get to work. Telecoms networks targeted Copper theft is a major problem in South Africa and has seriously damaged Telkoms fixed-line infrastructure over the last decade. In 2016, Telkom revealed that copper theft cost it over R200 million in repair costs and security services. It reached such high levels that Telkom stopped replacing copper in many areas and used fixed-line-lookalike infrastructure with wireless networks. It is, however, not only copper networks which are targeted. Criminals are wrecking mobile networks without any concern for the damage they cause. Criminals are after anything which can be sold, including diesel, batteries, copper, and telecoms equipment. These criminals rip base stations apart to get what they want, and the damage caused take a long time to repair. MyBroadband has received information that up to 60 mobile sites are vandalised per month on MTNs network alone. The video below shows the damage caused by criminals at a base station despite strong security measures at the site. Fibre network rollouts stopped by criminals Criminals are also targeting fibre operators who are either rolling out fibre networks or are trying to repair damaged fibre infrastructure. In 2017, the FTTH Council Africa said crime targeting South African fibre installers had reached a critical point. The council said fibre contractors were being robbed at gunpoint, hijacked, and having their equipment taken. Additionally, in August 2018 Vumatel had to stop work in KwaZulu-Natal due to intimidation and threats against workers. This means that until the issues have been resolved, the contractors will be unable to attend to civil work or reinstatements, Vumatel said. Openserves restoration of a major fibre route in Bishop Lavis was also stopped recently after technicians and their security escorts were forced out of the area by residents. The work only continued after the police gave the green light that it is safe. The video below shows two members of a fibre installation team being held up at gunpoint while thieves make off with their belongings. Now read: See how criminals are wrecking mobile networks in South Africa Comair, which operates Kulula.com and British Airways in South Africa, has stated it remains vigilant on plane safety following a fatal Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday. Ethiopian Airlines stated there were no survivors following one of its four-month-old Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft crashing shortly after takeoff. 157 passengers and crew were killed when the Ethiopian Airlines flight to Kenya went down. The accident followed a two-month-old Boeing 737 Max 8, operated by Lion Air, crashing into the Java Sea shortly after takeoff in October 2018. All 189 on board were killed. Poor safety procedures and the inability of pilots to gain control of a malfunctioning aircraft may have contributed to the Lion Air crash, state initial investigation reports. Anti-stall system Concerns have been raised by aviation experts that the Boeing 737 Max 8s Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System also called the automated anti-stall system was a contributor to the Lion Air crash, however. The new feature relies on equipment measuring the position of the nose of the plane, and if the plane is detected to be climbing too quickly and may stall, it points the nose down. This system is not meant to engage when the pilot is manually flying the plane, however. According to CNN, data from the Lion Air planes flight recorder shows that the pilots fought to override the automatic safety system, which pulled the planes nose down more than two dozen times. Kulula and BA in South Africa The Boeing 737 Max 8 has been ordered and delivered to scores of customers across the world, including Comair in South Africa. Comair, which operates Kulula.com and British Airways flights locally, has ordered eight Boeing 737 Max 8 planes one of which was delivered in February 2019. Wrenelle Stander, Executive Director of Comairs Airline Division, said their sympathies are with those affected by the heartbreaking Ethiopian Airlines tragedy. Stander said they cannot speculate on the causes of the accident, or the Lion Air accident in October 2018, at this time. Comair will continue to monitor the various investigations by the relevant authorities and are in close contact with both Boeing and the SACAA. The 737 Max 8 is one of the most commonly-used aircraft in many airlines today and by November 2018, 330 737 Max 8 aircraft were in operation globally, said Stander. Our highly-trained and experienced flight crew and engineers remain vigilant. If we receive information that requires us to reassess the situation, please be assured we will take appropriate action in the interests of the safety of our staff and customers. Safety remains our foremost priority and we will not compromise on the safety of our crew and our customers. Boeing has stated it is aware of the Ethiopian Airlines crash and is monitoring the situation. Grounding in China In China, authorities have taken a more strict approach and grounded Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. Local carriers have to ground the 96 Boeing 737 Max 8 planes that they operate, according to Chinese government statements. Now read: Why top ICT executives love South Africa Engel & Volkers recently expanded into St. Helena and Napa, facilitated by the brands largest North American brokerage led by license partner Paul Benson. Stefan Jezycki, Will Densberger, Agi Smith and Pavi Mitchell, who joined Compass as part of the Pacific Union acquisition in 2018, along with Michael Muters and eight additional agents, formerly of Bradley Real Estate Group, will establish Engel & Volkers Napa and St. Helena presence, bringing more than $200 million in annual sales volume to the company. With a boutique feel backed by a global infrastructure and network, the Napa and St. Helena real estate markets will greatly benefit from a brand that values local community in every region it represents worldwide, said Benson. The exceptional market expertise and talent this announcement entails sets an entirely new level of service standard in these key California markets. Its just the beginning. Jezycki and Muters will oversee the brands Napa presence, while Densberger, who is a leader in Napas Upvalley market for vineyard acquisitions and sales, will oversee St. Helena operations. Engel & Volkers operates a global network of more than 11,000 real estate advisors in more than 30 countries. For more information, visit evusa.com. The tiny article inside The Washington Post on Jan. 13, 1979, read like something from a cartoonishly sinister spy show: "CIA documents released yesterday show the agency once considered using drugs, shock treatments and even removal of parts of the brain to 'dispose of blown agents, exploited defectors and defecting trainees.' " The CIA wanted to cut out parts of people's brains? The Post article says the agency memo makes it clear that "lethal methods were ruled out." By then, the American public had read countless stories about investigations into Langley's infamous program code-named "MK-Ultra," which carried out mind-control drug experiments in the 1950s and 1960s on U.S. and Canadian citizens. But this small wire story in The Post seemed to add a new, more menacing allegation in the saga of the CIA's once-top-secret efforts. How exactly did this scoop come to light? Courtesy of a group whose anodyne name, American Citizens for Honesty in Government, masked its financial backers: The Church of Scientology. The religious organization, itself a secretive entity known for mind-control and spying, would go on to spend the remainder of 1979 releasing embarrassing CIA documents it obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests and multiple lawsuits - a campaign that was part of the church's war with the U.S. government. Founded in the early 1950s in Los Angeles by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the church for decades has fought against constant scrutiny from all corners: The FBI, the media, and more recently, the internet collective of hackers known as "Anonymous." The religion, which wasn't given official tax-exempt status by the IRS until 1993, preaches that people are immortal spiritual beings who live in an endless number of lifetimes. Scientologists, among them many Hollywood celebrities such as Tom Cruise, often participate in expensive sessions with counselors known as "auditors" who try to "clear" them of their most troubling experiences. Scientology seems to always come under the media microscope. In recent years, the church became the focus of an HBO documentary, "Going Clear," based on an investigative book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright. A Washington Post review of Wright's book summed up the church's theology as being "built on the nuttiest of founding myths, involving incidents that Hubbard said occurred 75 million years ago in something called the Galactic Confederacy, in which an evil overlord named Xenu sent human souls (thetans, in Scientology jargon) to Earth in space planes resembling DC-8s." But the church faced a surge of scrutiny in the late 1970s, so it fought back by trying to pry secrets out of the U.S. government. Less than a month after the brain-removal story in 1979 came another Post article based on an American Citizens FOIA release: "The CIA once proposed mind-control experiments in which hypnotized subjects would have an uncontrollable impulse to 'commit a nuisance' on Groundhog Day in 1961." Then, in March, another American Citizens disclosure, publicized in the pages of The Post: "Central Intelligence Agency experimenters in search of offbeat weapons designed an electric net to shock enemy agents into submission and set off explosions near cadavers to develop a better blackjack device to induce brain concussion." American Citizens also ran newspaper ads seeking out people used in the 1960s as guinea pigs for the Army's testing of a powerful hallucinogenic drug so that they could tell their stories to the news media. In 1977, federal agents had raided the church's offices in Washington and Los Angeles, searching for documents that church spies had allegedly stolen from the government's files on Scientology. Authorities accused the church of burglarizing the Justice Department, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. attorney's office in Washington. The next year, The Post published a front-page story revealing that government investigators found the church kept files on five Washington federal judges, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the American Medical Association. Some of the Scientology files were marked "Eyes Only," "Enemy Names" and "Battle Plans" and contained coded terms such as "Operation Big Mouth" and "Operation Cut Throat." Also found in the Scientology offices: Secret CIA documents, original IRS papers and private letters between Cabinet members. By August 1978, 11 senior Scientology officials and agents, including Mary Sue Hubbard, wife of the founder, were charged in connection with an alleged conspiracy to spy on the government. The next year, nine were convicted, including Mary Sue Hubbard. Most of them were sentenced to four or five years in prison, including Hubbard. But they appealed and were allowed to remain free on personal bond while they awaited an outcome Meanwhile, the church wasn't done with its campaign to wrest information from the government. A week after sentences were handed down, the church's American Citizens organization struck back. On Dec. 17, 1979, The Post ran yet another wild story based on findings from the group: "The CIA may have conducted open-air tests of whooping cough bacteria in Florida in the mid-1950s, when state medical records show a whooping cough outbreak killed 12 persons, according to a Church of Scientology analysis of agency records." Did the CIA have a response to the article? It sure did. Most of its chemical and biological test files, the agency told The Post, were destroyed in 1973 at the order of Richard Helms, the agency's director. Now it was the government's turn to strike back. In late 1980, two more Scientologists, high-ranking officials extradited from England, were convicted and sentenced in the same sweeping conspiracy case as the nine others on burglary charges. A year later, the church finally buckled: It removed Mary Sue Hubbard - whose husband had not been seen publicly since March 1980 - as top officer. Finally, in early 1983, a judge ordered her to prison. During her court hearing, according to a Washington Post account, Hubbard cried as she told the judge that she "sincerely and publicly apologized" for her behavior. Adrian Madrigal faces more than three decades in state prison following his sentencing for a 2013 home break-in that left a 62-year-old Napa man dead. Monday morning in Napa County Superior Court, Judge Mark Boessenecker sentenced Madrigal to 33 years and four months for voluntary manslaughter, robbery and burglary in the stabbing death of Don Buffington. Madrigal, 30, had pleaded guilty to the charges Feb. 7 in a deal that included the dismissal of a first-degree murder allegation. Madrigal also was ordered to pay $6,626 in restitution to the family of Buffington, a Vietnam War veteran and retired union laborer. Dressed in a dark blue suit, a calm and composed Madrigal said little during the 20-minute hearing, other than to answer yes when Boessenecker asked him whether he understood he would not receive any credit for his time already served behind bars. After hearing the sentence while standing in a glass-walled chamber on the right side of the courtroom, Madrigal stuck his right hand through a vertical slot to shake hands with his two attorneys. Later Monday, Assistant District Attorney Paul Gero said the plea agreement that dropped the murder charge was based on Madrigals history of mental illness and the desire to secure a lengthy prison term. Court records indicate Madrigal was treated at Napa State and Atascadero State hospitals before being declared competent to stand trial. Our office and the victims family wanted to ensure he did not escape justice and possibly be committed to a state hospital to be released in the near future, Gero said. The finality of him serving a lengthy sentence in state prison was our preference. Police said Madrigals arrest stemmed from an attempted burglary at Buffingtons bungalow in the 1100 block of Hayes Street. Sometime before 4 a.m., on June 21, 2013, Madrigal, then 24, entered through an unlocked back window of the stucco-sided house before getting into an altercation with Buffington, authorities said at the time. Buffington suffered several stab wounds and died of his injuries. Afterward, Madrigal took jewelry from the home and fled in the victims Chevrolet TrailBlazer, according to police. The next day, California Highway Patrol officers who stopped the SUV for a traffic violation near Lake Berryessa discovered it did not belong to Madrigal, and Napa Police officers were sent to Buffingtons house where his body was found. Madrigal was arrested and charged with the first-degree murder of Buffington, as well as robbery, burglary and vehicle theft. He pleaded not guilty in August 2013. The case followed a period filled with mental illness and run-ins with police, according to defense counsel and law enforcement. At the time of the slaying, Madrigal was on probation for a November 2011 incident in which he scaled the 140-foot-tall Coombs Street water tower at the former Sawyer Tanning Mill, stayed six hours and dropped various items from the tower, according to police. He was convicted the following year and served jail time for assault with a deadly weapon in connection with that incident. Madrigal was arrested again in April 2013 on suspicion of stealing clothes from the Kohls store in downtown Napa, according to court documents. He was released from the Napa County jail and ordered to receive a mental health assessment, going free on June 5 less than 2 weeks before Buffington was killed. 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. Millions of Californians could end up with higher water bills after the Trump administration on Friday announced that federal emergency officials aren't going to reimburse the state for $306 million in repairs to Oroville Dam stemming from the 2017 spillway crisis. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said federal taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for problems that existed prior to a massive hole forming in the dam's concrete spillway in February 2017, eventually prompting the two-day evacuation of 188,000 downstream residents and a $1.1 billion emergency response and repair job. Oroville Dam -- the nation's tallest -- is operated by a state agency, but it was built and maintained using funds from agricultural and urban water agencies that store water at Lake Oroville, such as the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.Metropolitan supplies water to more than 19 million people, whose water bills could rise if the federal government decides not to pay. In total, Oroville Dam water for 27 million Californians. Since the 2017 crisis, the state and water contractors such as Metropolitan had hoped the federal government would cover up to 75 percent of the repair costs. So far, the federal government has only agreed to pay about a third of the total bill. In a brief statement, Federal Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Brandi Richard said her agency wouldn't reimburse California for costs related to the "upper gated spillway" because of pre-existing problems on the giant concrete structure. The state plans to appeal the decision that repairs to the upper spillway aren't ineligible for federal funds. "We believe otherwise and will work with FEMA to submit additional supporting information through the appeal process," said Lisa Lien-Mager, a spokeswoman for the California Natural Resources Agency, the parent agency of the dam's operator, the Department of Water Resources. The decision suggests the rift is widening between Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration and the White House. President Donald Trump's administration is also trying to make the state return $2.5 billion in federal funding for the high-speed rail project, and cancel a $928 million federal grant for that project. FEMA said Friday that did approve another $205 million in funding for the Oroville Dam repairs this week, bringing the total funding so far to $333 million. And it added that it is reviewing requests for additional reimbursements. But it said the cost of fixing the upper spillway won't be covered. "Two separate independent engineering reviews indicate that a variety of problems existed at the dam prior to the February 2017 floods. FEMA's Public Assistance can only fund work directly linked to the declared disaster, and so the grant assistance request of $306.4 million was not approved for the upper gated spillway," Richard said in an emailed statement. Jennifer Pierre of the State Water Contractors, which represents the local agencies that would have to bear the cost if FEMA's decision stands, said in a prepared statement: "We support (the Department of Water Resources) and recognize the agency has worked tirelessly to protect public safety and to successfully repair the Oroville spillways. We understand that DWR worked directly with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and multiple independent experts to determine the appropriate actions necessary to repair the facilities and ensure the structure could operate as originally intended. "That is why we support DWR's decision to appeal the partial FEMA reimbursements. We firmly believe that federally-required repairs to Oroville after a federally-declared emergency should qualify for full federal assistance." U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, who represents the Oroville area in Congress, said the Department of Water Resources has itself to blame for FEMA's decision. "FEMA's decision not to fully reimburse DWR for Oroville Dam spillway repairs should not come as a total surprise," he said in a prepared statement. "The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Independent Forensic Report have both cited insufficient maintenance and initial design flaws as playing a part in the failure of the spillway. FEMA has reimbursed the state for eligible emergency repairs, but repairs due to maintenance failures as well as the new structures being built are ineligible for federal reimbursement legally." In early 2018 a panel of independent forensic engineers concluded that the Oroville crisis was the result of poor design, construction and maintenance. It cited a "long-term systemic failure." The dam's 3,000-foot-long main spillway fractured in two during a heavy rainstorm in February 2017. Hoping to minimize the damage, dam engineers limited water releases on the spillway. Water levels rose to unprecedented heights, and the dam had to release water from the adjacent emergency spillway, a concrete lip sitting atop an unlined hillside, for the first time ever. A day later engineers spotted dangerous erosion on the hillside and feared the spillway would crumble and release a "wall of water" into the Feather River below. That led to the evacuation. Fixing the two spillways, which have yet to be used since the repairs, has cost about $1.1 billion. In response to recent rains, DWR increased releases from the Hyatt Powerplant to 7,000 cubic feet per second from 1,750 cfs two weeks ago. At 9 a.m. Friday, the lake's level was at 825.91 feet elevation, or 71 percent of capacity. While that's above the 813 feet needed to operate the spillway, DWR said last week it has no plans to use it anytime soon. The agency said in a news release Tuesday that "it's anticipated that some water will seep through the gates onto the spillway as the gates are not designed to be water tight." Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. It all started with one cane and one wheelchair. Thats how Rosalba Valencia de Correa described the beginning of her nonprofit, Los Abuelos de Arteaga Michoacan. Also known as The Happy Grandparents, Valencia de Correa created the nonprofit to benefit needy seniors in her hometown. Called Arteaga, the small town is in Michoacan, Mexico. Valencia de Correa, who lives in American Canyon and is a senior caregiver by trade, said she felt compelled to help the elders in the town who live alone. Some had no food. Others could not walk or get out of bed. I feel for seniors. When I see seniors that need help, I need to help them. Gathering that first cane and wheelchair, which she bought at a garage sale, Valencia de Correa sent the items with some of her family members who were traveling to Arteaga in 2010. The idea clicked and Valencia de Correa began to collect more durable medical equipment. By March 2015, shed gathered up 26 items including wheelchairs, walkers, crutches and transport chairs. After a trucking company offered to subsidize the shipping, the items were wrapped on four pallets and driven to Arteaga. Some two dozen people in Arteaga, including two disabled children, were the grateful recipients, she said. Valencia de Correa then started the long and complicated process of registering as a legal nonprofit in both the U.S. and Mexico. This is more than a hobby, she said. I wanted to do it right. Los Abuelos de Arteaga Michoacan and the Happy Grandparents have since earned official nonprofit status. By July 2017, Valencia de Correa and volunteers had assembled their biggest donation haul yet: 1,200 items including hospital beds, canes, crutches, walkers, bath chairs, wheelchairs and more. We never realized how complicated such a large delivery would become, she admitted. The shipping container became stuck at a port in Mexico and it took four months of pleas and negotiations to release the delivery. It was a big achievement, she recalled. Since then, Valencia de Correa has gathered up more than 2,300 items, all currently stored in a rental unit in American Canyon. She and her nonprofit board are trying to raise some $4,800 to pay for the shipping of those items to Michoacan. At the same time, the nonprofit has also begun to fund a meal delivery service in her hometown. Similar to Meals on Wheels in the U.S., it provides one meal a day to some 70 seniors who are homebound. For just $150 a week, the group can rent a kitchen area and buy and prepare hot meals including soup, tortillas, rice and beans and vegetables. About 15 volunteers in Arteaga help cook and deliver the food. Photos in a scrapbook she has created show the seniors receiving their meals. On Mothers Day, special baskets were distributed to those seniors. She hopes to create a senior center including a farm and nursery where the elders can be involved. A benefactor has already donated 5 acres for the land. Its my dream to build such a home, she said. Shed also like to expand the service to other smaller towns similar to Arteaga. I feel blessed, Valencia de Correa said. Its a great privilege to help these seniors. 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. As Californias housing shortage deepened in the last decade, Jerry Brown made only token efforts to address it. However, his successor as governor, Gavin Newsom, promises to confront it head-on, even pledging during his campaign to build 3.5 million new units in six years, which would require annual production to quadruple. Thats patently impossible to achieve, but hes taking a stab at making good on his promise with a carrot-and-stick approach. Newsom has targeted local opposition to new housing, often dubbed not-in-my-backyard, or NIMBY, as the main obstacle. As he unveiled his new budget in January, he both offered cities and other local governments more money to ramp up housing construction and threatened to take state transportation aid away from those that failed to meet new and more ambitious state housing quotas, particularly money from the new fees and gas taxes that the Legislature passed in 2017. You dont reach those goals, were going to take SB 1 money from you, Newsom said, referring to Senate Bill 1, the gas tax measure that raises about $5 billion a year. Later, Newsom underscored his more aggressive assault on local NIMBYism by suing one city, Huntington Beach in Orange County, for failing to zone enough land to meet its housing quota. His administration also identified several dozen other cities it said were dragging their feet. Understandably, Newsoms threat to withhold transportation money has riled local government officials who had been counting on allocations to fix their roads and streets. Theyve been giving their local legislators many of whom are former city council members an earful, as a state Assembly hearing last week demonstrated. One by one, Newsoms fellow Democrats criticized the punishment plan, which is still being refined. Im taken aback right now, Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, a Democrat whose district includes Napa, told Department of Finance officials who outlined the plan, because going after (transportation) funding is not something I think should be on the table. While there was opposition to the entire concept, legislators were especially critical of tying transportation funding to actual housing production and not merely zoning enough land to meet housing quotas. Youre tying SB 1 money to the production, where cities are only accountable for planning for it, Assemblywoman Tasha Boerner Horvath, an Encinitas Democrat, said. Theres a flaw in that logic. She made a valid point, and it may be the Achilles heel of Newsoms carrot-and-stick approach. Cities can and should encourage housing through land use planning processes, but ultimately whether planned-for housing is built depends on factors out of their control. By necessity, the vast majority of housing investment comes from the private sector and cities cant force developers and their lenders to build. And even in cities that have zoned enough land and approved specific development proposals, production often lags because builders cannot find enough carpenters, electricians and other construction workers. The state has immense shortages of those workers and non-construction workers as well, such as auto mechanics and has short-sightedly neglected what used to be called vocational education. Nor are we seeing the migration of workers from outside California to close the gap. Meanwhile, the resistance to Newsoms approach displayed during the legislative hearing may take a more direct form. Local government officials are talking about writing a ballot measure that would protect the transportation financing that SB 1 promised, and that voters ratified last year by rejecting a ballot measure to overturn it. This could get ugly. CALmatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how Californias state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary. President Donald Trump's crude performance last Saturday at an annual gathering of conservatives - he physically embraced the American flag,called the Mueller probe "bullshit" and referred to Rep. Adam Schiff as "shifty" - was an affront to the decorum we expect from presidents, and there was no shortage of critics to point this out. Trump was "not merely undignified as a leader; he is committed to stripping away the dignity possessed by others," Michael Gerson wrote in The Washington Post. One Twitter commenter described the speech as "an undignified mess of slop" and another labeled Trump "the most undignified President in history." But this was the same Trump who as a presidential candidate referred to the size of his manhood during a Republican debate. He said about protesters at his campaign events, "In the good old days, this doesn't happen, because they used to treat them very, very rough." He asserted that "Islam hates us" and that Mexicans are "rapists." Not only did he get away with them, but those offenses somehow made him stronger. And he's gone even further as president. After each episode, Trump's critics have been as scandalized as they have been ineffective, just as they were after the speech at last weekend's Conservative Political Action Conference. During the campaign, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called Trump "the most vulgar person to ever aspire to the presidency," and see how far that got Rubio. In fact, demagogues like Trump are almost always undignified. That is a feature, not a bug, of their politics. When Hillary Clinton infamously described his supporters as a "basket of deplorables," Trump swiftly converted the comment into a badge of honor. It turned out that he wanted his followers to trumpet themselves as "Les Deplorables" - because that was already his argument. While their critics think demagogues hurt themselves politically by violating the standards of polite society, they're doing the opposite: They're doubling down on an unorthodox but potent politics. In other words, we must understand why Trump's performance at the Conservative Political Action Conference was rational from his perspective before we can begin to understand how to deal with it. And that means taking Trump, his supporters and his "undignified" performances seriously. A textbook demagogue meets four tests, as I wrote in a history of them. First, he identifies as a man of the masses, usually by attacking elites. Second, he creates great waves of passion. Third, he uses that passion for political benefit. Fourth, he tests or breaks established rules of governance. Taken together, this approach enables the demagogue to create a state within a state - a massive cult - that follows him alone. Trump is the first demagogue to actually become president, but American history has seen a lot of them, from the segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace to the Wisconsin senator and communist-chaser Joseph McCarthy, from the Louisiana governor and senator Huey Long to the Detroit "radio priest" Father Charles Coughlin. World history has seen Mussolini and Hitler and, more recently, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus. All of these figures were called undignified by critics who thought their antics could not succeed because they should not succeed. For Chavez, for instance, vulgar language and insults were a trademark, not a flaw. He talked to national audiences about having sex with his wife, called Americans an obscene term, described his bowel movements on television and named the first cellphone made in Venezuela after a popular slang term for penis. Opponents said his talk was crude and made them ashamed. In 2009, a 70-year-old Venezuelan social worker lamented to a reporter, "A president needs to project a good image." But Chavez's power merely grew. Only cancer stopped his political career. Whether you call it decency or decorum or dignity, these old-fashioned standards provide cold comfort when they are the very things demagogues want to blow up as they seek domination. The fact is that demagogues thrive at the lowest common denominator. That is why they relish their status as political bad boys, vulgarians who say things they really shouldn't. That "Oh, no he didn't" sense of daring lets them play the hero in a drama in which they take on the naysaying establishment. This renegade behavior easily satisfies the demagogue's four tests: attacking elites, stirring massive emotional power, converting that emotion into politics and, most important, obliterating the rules that allow normal governance. Put another way, what so many critics of demagogues have trouble getting their minds around is also the most necessary to understanding them: It's rational for a demagogue to seem irrational. What I saw last weekend was Trump methodically, over a period of two hours, intensifying his support among his base through a series of precise inflammations while carefully steering his audience toward the new norms and institutions he's creating. It's the same as when he delights in leading his supporters to angrily chant, "CNN sucks!" The United Nations' human rights chief called those attacks on the press "close to incitement to violence." The accused Florida mail bomber, charged with sending potential bombs to Democratic and media figures who have criticized Trump, was pictured holding up a sign at one of those Trump rallies. Most normal people would assume that vulgar, crude people would fail in politics. So how do they succeed, practically speaking? In the ancient world, they were still fairly new, so philosophers were interested in studying them. Aristotle observed that it was easier for demagogues than statesmen to use enthymemes - proofs or analogies dependent on collective past experience - because they shared more in common with the people they were addressing. While educated speakers used "commonplaces and generalities," Aristotle observed, demagogues "speak of what they know and of what more nearly concerns the audience." What Trump understands is that millions of Americans feel left behind by our politics. They are frustrated by everything about conventional politics, including the expectation that traditional rules like decency and dignified behavior will help solve their problems. They are ripe for a demagogue. The problem of how elite critics miss the demagogue's strategy, hiding in plain sight, is as old as democracy itself. In ancient Athens, the well-born playwright Aristophanes attempted to undermine a demagogue named Cleon through a series of satirical plays, staged before thousands. Cleon was a colorful figure who said, "As a general rule states are better governed by the man in the street than by intellectuals." After a generation of statesmanlike leaders, Cleon took joy in demolishing decorum. While making speeches, he would do things like suddenly shout, dramatically throw open his tunic and slap his thighs for emphasis. So Trump was following an old playbook when he wrapped his body around an American flag - or when he mimicked a disabled reporter during the presidential campaign.For his followers, these antics are intoxicating. Aristophanes depicted Cleon in his plays as a vulgar sausage-seller. He mocked the "pig's education he has had." He wrote, "You possess all the attributes of a demagogue: a screeching, horrible voice; a perverse, cross-grained nature; and the language of the market-place." None of this worked. Athenians continued to elect Cleon as general. The plays may have heightened his celebrity. This pattern has also played out in American history. Consider how the ruling class mocked Long, the folksy Louisiana governor, as he rose to the U.S. Senate. H.L. Mencken dismissed him as a "backwoods demagogue of the oldest and most familiar model - impudent, blackguardly, and infinitely prehensile." In 1931, the new senator cheerfully greeted a visiting German naval commander in a pair of green silk pajamas and a bathrobe. After the German consul's office issued statements of outrage and protest, Long met the commander the next day in a formal striped suit and tails. Long's antics created a sensation of nationalistic defiance, and one historian wrote that Long learned the "value of buffoonery in winning national publicity" and would continue to "cultivate a reputation as a country bumpkin and a clown." This "bumpkin" was also described by a woman in 1935 as an "angel sent by God." Before he was assassinated by the son-in-law of a political rival in 1935, Long created hundreds of nationwide chapters of his Share Our Wealth Society. He very well could have defeated Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1936 Democratic primary for president. Chavez, too, adopted tactics that were so outrageous, so unthinkable, that they seemed impossible just up until the moment they became successful. As president, Chavez became so audacious in his demagoguery that he made a speech that was literally 10 hours long. But there was method to his madness. He was taking over the state, in plain view. Demagogues have been with democracy from the beginning. It's not overstating things to say the demagogue represents the battle between darkness and light - between our prejudices and our reason - that's at the heart of democracy itself. After all, Alexander Hamilton worried in the very first of the Federalist Papers about those who would pay "obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants." In his CPAC speech, Trump told the crowd: "I'm in love, and you're in love, we're all in love together. . . . There's so much love in this room, it's easy to talk." Faced with the threats of impeachment from Congress and evidence of lawbreaking in the Mueller report, he wants his supporters to choose sides. As Democratic presidential candidates debate whether to "go low" or "go high" in countering Trump, I'm not one who believes in mirroring Trump's indignities. That won't work for any non-demagogue. After their ruinous experience with demagogues like Cleon, Athenians ultimately addressed the reign of demagogues not through plays but through constitutional punishments. Under a system called graphe paranomon, enacted several years after Cleon's death, a politician charged with "having proposed a measure contrary to democratic principles and to Athens' laws" could be ostracized by a majority of the voters for 10 years. It's not a far leap to the "high crimes and misdemeanors" included in our own Constitution. It's not that Trump is undignified. It's that he's anti-democratic. That's the real issue. Those are the real stakes. Michael Signer, an attorney and a lecturer at the University of Virginia, is the former mayor of Charlottesville, Va., and the author of Demagogue: the Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies. He wrote this for The Washington Post. Squawking parrots fly tree to tree, waking up the little village of Drake Bay on Costa Ricas Osa Peninsula. Theyre right on time, shortly after 5 a.m., a fine hour to get up and enjoy the cool of morning before heat and humidity set in. I throw on shorts and tennies and hit the nearby jungle path that heads south along the coast, stepping carefully, trying not to make noise: heel first, roll the sole, shhhh. They know Im there. I can feel their eyes on me as I move, see bits of them through trees: a footlong, spiky iguana regarding me with a prehistoric stare; a white-faced capuchin monkey throwing an inquisitive glance from a tree; a macaw, in primary reds and blues and yellows, rolling a hooded eye from on high. Venomous vipers hide in undergrowth, spiders in tree bark. A morpho butterfly flashes Avatar blue. I am surrounded by animalsnot tourists, whose voices are happily missing from the symphony of sawing katydids, chirping frogs and singing birds. Here, Im species .000001. The sensation is lush, primordial, an eco-immersion in one of the great untamed wildlife kingdoms of the world. National Geographic has described the remote Osa Peninsula as one of the most biologically intense places on Earth. It hosts more than 50 percent of the countrys animal and plant species, while covering only 3 percent of Costa Ricas land area. Here, animals rule, nature-lovers drool. And locals struggle to find a balance between making money off nature and protecting it. Theyve seen too many other dreamy green eco-destinations undone by development and rampant tourism. Theres a fear that this place may get ruined, like so many beautiful places in Costa Rica, says a longtime resident who has watched wealthy developers grabbing properties up and down the coast in recent years. The areas best protection may be its isolation. Drake Bay can be challenging to get to. Driving on the rough 4x4 dirt road that leads to Drake Bay is dicey in bad weather, and car-rental companies may not allow it. River crossings can flood and become impassable. A few buses make the trip, but the ride can be scary. I wasnt sure we were going to make it, said one intrepid European traveler arriving by bus at the end of the rainy season. Flying in a prop plane from San Jose to Drake Bays small domestic airport is relatively easy. But most people come by boat from the docks of Sierpe, a small, sleepy town a little more than an hours boat ride north. Its cheaper, and the breathtaking boat journey, with a wet-exit finale, offers a proper introduction to this wild corner of the world. We arrive an hour early at the docks, find our captain and check out the hulking 400-horsepower outboard on the stern of our canopied boat. A nearby boat has twin 250s. The trip to Drake Bay was nearly impossible before the advent of these high-powered brutes, a crew member tells us. The captain cruises through the calm, mangrove-lined Rio Sierpe, stopping to check out baby crocs on the shore, then it revs and heads into the tricky intersection where river meets sea. It is a mass of confusion today, water headed every which way, with black rocks jutting up through swells and surf. Our captain navigates expertly outside the river mouth and inside the break. Despite a few soakings when the boat goes airborne and slaps back down, we arrive safely at our destination, exiting the boats stern and wading ashore in knee-deep water to be greeted warmly by local ticos, as Costa Ricans call themselves. Weve come to Drake Bay from Manuel Antonio, whose national park and easy access from the capital of San Jose make it one of the most visited spots in Costa Rica. Tourists jam beaches and souvenir stands and queue up to get into the park, where some animals have become habituated to humans. Raccoons and monkeys are known to grab backpacks, unzip them and steal snacks and body wipes. (A guide told us that clever capuchins love to clean themselves with the wipes.) Its cute but sad. Definitely not natural behavior. Drake Bay is a 180-degree contrast, a quiet kickback place with a climbing, rocky dirt road for a main drag, two little grocery stores on opposite sides of it, and a sprinkling of hostels, no-frills cabins, private rentals and small restaurants. The fancier lodges and eco-resorts, including luxurious all-inclusives, are tucked farther away in the jungle. There is no disco here, no museum, no boutique shops or galleries, just one or two beach vendors and a tiny souvenir store. Dont expect to use a bank or ATM: There arent any. Bring a good stash of U.S. dollars or Costa Rican colones; locals accept both and might not take credit cards. The up-and-down jungle trail I hike in the morning is a jewel. It leads across a short suspension bridge to a string of pretty coves and beaches. Well-prepared hikers (Sunscreen! Water! DEET!) can trek the path for hours one way. I smile when I spot a large steppingstone along the trail that reads: Costa Rica, un pais de paz y amor. Its perfect. Costa Rica, the enlightened nation with no standing army, a literacy rate over 97 percent and about a quarter of its land under protection, is a country of peace and love. Yes! The pace in Drake Bay is easy, evident in a hand-lettered sign advising visitors: Go slow. You already are in paradise. Slow is easy to do on the beach below, a long, uncrowded crescent of sand backing up on jungle. The protected water of Drake Baynamed for a 16th-century visitor named Sir Francis Drakeis warm, the surf gentle. Friendly town dogs wander the beach, greeting old friends and new, rolling in the sand, splashing in the surf and chasing horses that, freed from saddles and reins, break into a full gallop across the open expanse. Popping up everywhere around town are signs advertising tours for whale and dolphin watching, fishing, horseback riding, kayaking, birdwatching, hiking, and snorkeling and diving on nearby Cano Island. (Unfortunately for us, its December, and waters are still too murky to snorkel.) One of the most unusual tours happens by night. We meet up with Tracie the Bug Lady at dusk along the jungle trail. Tracie Stice has a degree in biology, with a specialty in entomology. Her husband, Gianfranco Gomez, who joins us, is a naturalist and photographer. For years, theyve been documenting the nocturnal creatures of Drake Bay and introducing tourists to the animals wonderfully weird ways. They give us headlamps, and we head down the familiar path into an unfamiliar world of glow-in-the-dark fungi and spider eyeshine. We see pygmy rain frogs the size of a fingernail, giant walking sticks, millipedes that give off cyanide, gladiator tree frogs that fight to the death to protect their nests and a creepy tailless whip scorpion that Stice handles like a dear old friend. Gomez charts the activity of bats with a detector that tracks their echolocation. They swoop above our heads like gray shadows as he explains that there are three species of vampire bats in the worldand all three are here. A delicious chill runs down my spine. This, I think, is nightlife at its finest. The ultimate, must-do tour here is an excursion to nearby Corcovado National Park, a pristine primary rain forest that occupies almost half the Osa Peninsula. The isolated park provides refuge for multitudes of animals and plants that might otherwise be extinct, including jaguars and pumas, Bairds tapirs, giant anteaters and harpy eagles. It is, says one tour guide, a different planet. Reservations are a must, made through hotels or private operators. You cant go without a certified guide, and the number of daily visitors is strictly, thankfully, limited to protect wildlife. We choose a $90 one-day excursion with a guide, lunch at a rangers station and boat transportation. Our boat picks us up at 6 a.m. on the beachabout 45 minutes after the parrot alarm clock goes off in town. Ninety minutes later, were wading ashore at Corcovado, changing water shoes for hiking shoes and meeting our guide, a biologist with a long spotting scope, keen eye and quick wit. Lets go see whatever wants to say hello this morning, he says in his lilting Spanglish. The first thing he shows us are tapir tracks in the sand, the next a stern committee of redheaded turkey vultures, drying wings spread 5 feet wide on the beach. A raccoonlike coatimundi pops up from the scrub, and lizard eyes follow us as we exit the sweltering beach and enter the shaded jungle, searching trees for toucans and macaws and exquisitely painted little birds, such as the black-throated trogon with its yellow breast and swanky, black-and-white patterned tail. The rumble in the jungle begins as a distant, deep-throated roar. We follow the sound to a tree full of howler monkeys. The leaves shudder as they jump from branch to branch, mamas carrying their young on their backs, papas hooting and whooping. Excited visitors clump below, pointing up and mesmerized. Before the day is done, with our guides trained eye, we will have seen all four species of Costa Rican monkeys: the howlers, white-faced capuchins, squirrel monkeys and spider monkeys that stage an attempted takeover of a toucan tree. The birds shriek in protest. Its a raucous day in the wild. Some seven hours after we came ashore, we splash back into the water and board the boat home, happy and tired. Soon, frigates and kites are wheeling above us and flying fish with wings like glass leap along the boats sides. I study Corcovados protected shores as we pass: all those empty beaches, all that crazy life teeming in the jungles behind them. The scene stretches on for mile upon mile. I close my eyes, overcome with a sense of relief and gratitude. For here, on this untrampled peninsula, in a country of love and peace, in a world slowly paving over, there is still a place for the wild things. Lyke is a writer based in Washington state. Her website is marylynnlyke.com. "You'll know yours by the shine," said Shady Dell Vintage Trailer Courtmanager Brad Hardy. He was escorting me to my home for the night, a 1955 Airstream. Even though it was built during the Eisenhower era, its polished aluminum exterior gleamed like it had rolled off the factory floor yesterday. The Airstream was the only model of its kind in a fleet of 10 travel trailers, all dating from 1947 to 1959 and nested under trees and beside tiki statues at the Bisbee, Arizona, resort. Yet even the less iconic trailers were so meticulously renovated, I half expected Frank Sinatra to pull up in a Cadillac and ask me to join him for an egg cream in the Shady Dell's 1950s-style diner. My overnight stay was the second of two visits to vintage travel trailer resorts, a road-trip sampling of destinations that feature restored Airstreams and other trailers. They cater to people who are captivated by quirky chic or midcentury design, want to reminisce about bygone Americana or crave a nomadic lifestyle but don't have the budget or space for their own RV. In a recent informal tally, I counted nearly 20 retro resorts in nine states from California to Tennessee, with more on the way. Some are rustic, with basic amenities, offbeat themes and kitschy art. Other higher-end retreats provide flat-panel TVs and luxury mattresses, linens and toiletries. Many offer communal spaces: wine bars, pools, bathhouses, fire pits and lawn games. The first resort I visited is in coastal Seaview, Wash. The Sou'wester Historic Lodge and Vintage Travel Trailer Resort boasts 25 trailers, from a compact Shasta that sleeps one to the African Queen, a tri-level colossus that sleeps eight. The resort also offers cabins, lodge suites, campsites and bring-your-own RV hookups across its three-acre grounds. During our trip to the Sou'wester last spring, my husband Andrew and I stayed in a 1950s Airstream that reminded me of a metal cocoon. Our friends Margo and Tom joined us with their RV and six rescued Chihuahuas. Our trailer packed two twin beds, a kitchen, dining table and chairs, half-bathroom and personality into its 30-foot length. A vibrant orange ceiling, walls and floor enveloped the living area, and flower-flecked curtains framed its windows. An original stove promised convenient meal preparation, and wooden cabinets provided more storage than we needed. It felt spacious and supremely livable. The Sou'wester makes it spectacularly difficult to decide what to do. A tiny blue trailer named the Q-Tea holds an organic teahouse. Wellness activities include meditation, yoga and lectures. Massage and quarterly art exhibitions are available in two trailers. Guests can take art classes including writing workshops, waltz and embroidery. The Sou'wester has even hosted more than 500 artists-in-residence through a nonprofit organization that administers its arts, music and wellness programs. "We're more than a hotel," said Thandi Rosenbaum, who has owned the resort for seven years. "Our heart and soul is the quirkiness of the trailers and the other lodging, but our arts and wellness programs infuse life into what we're doing." We surveyed the shelves inside the Sou'wester's honor-system thrift store, which was housed in a creamy white 1960s Kenskill trailer with panoramic windows, before hitting the clothing-optional Finnish sauna. We opted for swimsuits - a wise choice, as similarly clad guests sat shoulder to shoulder inside the steamy cedar building. On the lodge's wraparound porch, we browsed another store that offers local art, handmade goods and groceries. We stocked up on treats and hosted a little dinner party for Margo, Tom and the dogs. Afterward, we headed back to the lodge, where the Sou'wester hosts live music most Saturday nights. The four of us squeezed into the room where Lenore, a band based in Portland, Oregon, was playing. We stayed for a few songs before snuggling into our respective pods, dry and warm during a nighttime squall. The next morning, Andrew and I picked our way through the puddles to Margo and Tom's RV. Margo opened the door, and a furry ball of barking Chihuahuas tumbled onto the grass. It was time to burn some energy. Like other vintage trailer resorts, the Sou'wester is a prime base for outdoor exploration. With dogs in tow, we walked a couple blocks until we popped over Pacific coastal dunes onto a 28-mile stretch of sand that flanks Southwest Washington's Long Beach Peninsula. The dogs ran until they were so tired, we had to carry armfuls of zonked Chihuahuas back to our trailers and regretfully pack up. My reluctance to pry myself out of the Airstream isn't uncommon. The Sou'wester is meeting growing demand by rolling out two new additions, a 1969 Silver Streak Continental and a 43-foot-long Bluebird bus with a cedar-clad sunken tub. About 15 additional trailers await makeovers and deployment. "At this point, we don't have to look for trailers. They find us," Rosenbaum said. "The restoration requires a master of all trades: mechanical, plumbing, electrical, woodwork, metalwork and design." After one night in the Airstream, I was infected with enthusiasm for renovated trailers. In late December, I took a solo trip to Arizona's Shady Dell, the country's oldest travel trailer resort, which has been accommodating road-trippers since 1927. Here, Hardy led me to my second Airstream, a 22-foot-long model. He pointed out its kitchen and new vintage-style refrigerator, then opened the door to a tiny nook that contained a toilet and sink. "Your bathroom is so small, it's almost comical," he said. "But you'll appreciate it in the middle of the night." The Western-themed trailer was filled with character. A cactus cookie jar graced the four-burner gas stove. Mexican blankets covered the two twin beds. Cowboy tchotchkes adorned the shelves. A red velvet couch and record player underscored the vintage flair. Crunching along a gravel path past the other trailers, I admired a bus parked next to its own tiki bar and a permanently moored yacht, both built in 1947. I stepped onto the diner's classic black-and-white tiles, and sat down on one of the 10 sparkly pink stools alongside a chrome-trimmed counter. Although the diner is only available for guests' food preparation, the Shady Dell plans to reopen it as a pop-up restaurant that showcases local and regional chefs. Five minutes down historic Highway 80, I walked through Bisbee's downtown, nestled in a valley in Southeast Arizona's Mule Mountains. Bisbee was once famous for mineral and copper mining; the Shady Dell sits across the highway from one of the old mines. I peered into window after window of art galleries, restaurants and specialty shops, including a vegan general store. By the time I returned to my trailer, the temperature had dropped to below freezing. I turned on a portable heater that warmed the space before I finished cooking dinner, then tucked myself into bed with a pile of blankets. Midway through the night, I awakened with Hardy's promised appreciation for the small bathroom. The next morning, I visited the Shady Dell's two newest acquisitions: a mammoth, 45-foot-long 1955 Kropf and a curvy, red 1950 Alma. Both awaited the painstaking work necessary to transform these neglected hulks into alluring abodes. When I spoke with the Shady Dell's owner, Justin Luria, a few weeks later the rejuvenated trailers were available for overnight stays. "The Kropf was a time capsule," Luria said. "Everything was the original design. It sat in its first owner's backyard for 70 years." Both of these resorts, and others like them, rescue trailers that might otherwise decay or be discarded. "We restore castoff trailers and keep them going instead of letting them go into the dump," Luria said. "And we preserve a piece of American highway history that might otherwise be lost." I'm ready to do my part to help maintain it, one retro slumber party at a time. NEWS.am daily digest: 09.12.21 Zakharova: Moscow hopes Armenia and Azerbaijan leaders reaffirm commitment to implementing agreements Zakharova on Aliyev's statement and murders of Armenian peaceful civilians Ex-chief advisor to Armenia PM Hakob Simidyan appointed Minister of Environment Joe Biden's Summit for Democracy kicks off, Armenia PM is also participating Armenia environment minister sacked Residents of Armenia's Vardenis shut down Martuni-Vardenis road in support of opposition alliance's leader (PHOTOS) Armenia MOD: Azerbaijan opened intense fire toward Gegharkunik Province military positions Armenia President meets with Emir of Qatar Azerbaijan opened fire on Artsakh village tractor operator, says Machkalashen mayor Parliament ruling majority obstructs decriminalizing severe insult in Armenia Armenia deputy defense minister: No group has come from Moscow for demarcation Armenia parliament approves several amendments to laws in first reading Ambassador: American Studies center at YSU will play important role in deepening relations with Armenia Armenia Parliament Speaker receives IFRC Secretary General-led delegation Armenia PM receives IFRC Secretary General Dollar still gaining more value in Armenia Armenia Parliament Speaker sues opposition MP Aregnaz Manukyan for previous allegations Law will lead to positive changes in Armenia universities administration, says US ambassador Georgia formally refuses attending '3+3' regional cooperation platform meeting Armenia MFA officials pay tribute to innocent victims of genocides 2 Azerbaijanis killed in mine explosion near Karabakh's Karin Tak village MFA: Armenia will continue to work diligently to raise awareness of genocides American Studies center to open at Yerevan State University Gerasimov: Russian military in Karabakh working to restore peaceful life in region Armenia opposition MP: Authorities present at household level establishment technical furnishing on frontline Bomb threat in Yerevan building Armenia: 6,500 people in border communities to receive cash for winter needs Armenia government restricts access to open information from gov.am, govtravel.am 1 more person dies of coronavirus in Karabakh Armenia envoy, US congresswoman discuss situation after 44-day Artsakh war All Azerbaijan soldiers captured in Karabakh have been returned, says Rustam Muradov Armenia legislature approves 2022 draft state budget Armenia wounded soldier undergoes surgery 300 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Turkey MFA: First meeting of 3+3 format on South Caucasus to be held Friday, Armenia will also participate Armenia parliament to convene special session on December 15 MOD: Azerbaijan army opened fire on Armenia positions late Wednesday night Newspaper: Number of deaths in Armenia rise sharply this year Newspaper: Armenia PM asks for political, propaganda support from extra-parliamentary political forces Meta plans to fully reopen its US offices in January Armenia MOD: Soldier wounded from shot fired by fellow serviceman Raisi, Erdogan discuss cooperation in many fields Armenia's Pashinyan blames parliamentary opposition for delivering Nagorno-Karabakh, threatens to present evidence Armenia PM: Even today I am ready to deliver my son in exchange of Armenian POWs Armenia Parliament Speaker: We haven't stopped and won't stop efforts for our boys to return safe and sound Opposition 'Armenia' faction: All statements made in parliament need to be explored and investigated comprehensively Armenia PM: Mutual understanding was reached during meeting with Russian and Azerbaijani presidents in Sochi Frank Pallone: Azerbaijan continues to threaten Armenia's safety and sovereignty Karabakh Ombudsman: 21-year-old resident of Martuni region was subjected to violence by Azerbaijanis Armenia PM: Several circumstances behind loss of Karabakh's Khtsaberd and Hin Tagher contain state secret Nikol Pashinyan: Armenia will have railway communication with Iran and Russia via Azerbaijan's territory Lavrov underscores need to launch demarcation of Armenian-Azerbaijani border during talk with Mirzoyan PM: Armenia will participate in initial meeting in '3+3' format Joe Biden: Putting American troops on the ground in Ukraine is 'not on the table' Armenia PM: Final status of Nagorno-Karabakh doesn't imply its independence Assistants to deputies of opposition 'Armenia' parliamentary faction summoned to National Security Service Armenia Parliament Speaker's meeting with relatives of Armenian POWs and missing servicemen is over Armenia, Russia FMs discuss Karabakh issue, November 26 agreements and '3+3' format Armenia's Pashinyan rules out possibility of provision of corridor to Baku through Armenian territory Putin says Iran's President might pay visit to Russia Armenia Parliament Speaker in meeting with relatives of Armenian POWs and missing servicemen Armenia Parliament Speaker to move to governmental mansion in Yerevan district soon Armenia MOD has new General Secretary Armenia MOD: Azerbaijani army fires at water truck of Armenian military unit in border's southeastern direction NEWS.am daily digest: 08.12.21 Armenia MOD refutes Azerbaijan's statement that Armenian side fired at Azerbaijani army Armenia PM refutes opposition MP's statement that government is implementing verbal agreements Armenia President travels to Qatar ARARAT Museum initiated an inclusive project #FeelwithYourHeart (PHOTOS) Armenia opposition MP asks finance minister about operation of Amulsar gold mine Minister briefs UK envoy on details of justice sector digitalization Armenia opposition new MP is sitting with her back to parliament sessions hall Armenia MFA draws OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanships attention to UN International Court of Justice orders Dollar continues to rise steadily in Armenia Armenia frontline furnishing in progress (PHOTOS) 10 captives who were returned to Armenia from Azerbaijan 4 days ago are questioned Elnur Mammadov: Azerbaijan to file two lawsuits against Armenia in 2022 Azerbaijani MFA: Yerevan transmitted mine maps to Azerbaijan 3 days before ICJ's decision Iran is ready to connect electric networks to Azerbaijan and Russia Armenia parliament holding secret ballot for election of Audit Chamber member Yerevan law enforcement manages to reopen Marshal Baghramyan Avenue Russia Prosecutor General congratulates Armenian counterpart on his birthday Armenia revenue committee chief meets Iran customs service head at Meghri border checkpoint Yerevan police apprehending protesters who are blocking Marshal Baghramyan Avenue Parents of missing and captured Armenian servicemen shut down road near parliament (LIVE) Azerbaijan, Turkey FMs discuss 3+3 cooperation platform with participation of other regional countries Attachment imposed on Armenia ex-defense minister Ohanyan, ex-President Sargsyan's former security chiefs properties Film about Artsakh is submitted for competition at Golden Globe Awards US congressmen approve about $ 770 billion draft defense budget for 2022 Russia reports 30,752 new COVID-19 cases Chile parliament approves same-sex marriage bill 168.am: Border demarcation, delimitation commission members arrive in Armenia on board Russia MOD plane Joint statement: Armenia officials statements on captives pose obstacles to human rights activities Armenia parliament continues 2022 draft state budget debates Copper price remains almost unchanged 1 more person dies of coronavirus in Artsakh Legislature adopts amendments to law on Armenia citizenship Armenia National Assembly passes bill on amendments, addenda to Civil Code 410 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia By Park Hyong-ki Linde Group in Munich, Germany / Courtesy of Linde Group For the first time ever, U.S. military attaches accredited in Moscow havent shown up to the briefing that Head of the Defense Committee of the State Duma Vladimir Shamanov is holding on Monday, reports RIA Novosti. No, they didnt come. This is the first time. However, there had been an invitation, Shamanov told journalists, responding to the question as to whether the U.S. attaches had shown up to the briefing or not. Earlier, Shamanov had told journalists that on Monday he was going to hold a briefing with military attaches accredited in Moscow and that the briefing was going to be devoted to certain issues related to the global situation, including the state of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and U.S.-NATO relations. The event has gathered nearly 150 representatives of about 90 countries. YEREVAN. The last statement, which the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs have made on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict, represents the position of solely the mediators. Vladimir Vardanyan, an MP from the ruling My Step Alliance, stated the aforesaid during Mondays press briefing at the National Assembly of Armenia. The deputy noted that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has already expressed the countrys position on this matter, and added that, during the negotiation process, the parties to the conflict can express their views and positions on this matter. At the same time, Vardanyan assessed the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs statement as a unique attempt at summing up the results under the agenda formed in Armenia prior to the velvet revolution in the country. The My Step parliamentary faction member stressed that the provisions of this statement do not hamper the protection of the rights of Artsakhs citizens, and noted that this statement needs to be viewed in the context of maintaining the current format of the negotiation process within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group. Also, Vladimir Vardanyan assessed this statement as rather positive positive because, in his view, its aimed at the Karabakh conflicts solely pacific settlement based on the precepts enshrined in the UN Charter. OSCE Minsk Group prepared to meet with Armenia and Azerbaijan leaders at any time The recent press statement by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs sparks concerns. This is what leader of Bright Armenia Party and head of the Bright Armenia Partys parliamentary faction Edmon Marukyan said during a conventional briefing held at the National Assembly on 11 March. In my opinion, the most disturbing statement in the Co-Chairs press statement is that future determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh is possible through a legally binding expression of will. This, in essence, contradicts the fundamental approach of the Armenian party according to which citizens of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic became self-determined on 10 December 1991 and the referendum has legal force. The Armenian party has insisted that the referendum is already a fact, and the requests for a similar referendum mean once again that the results of the already held referendum will be de facto overlooked, Marukyan said. Marukyan also stated that he supports the incumbent Armenian authorities policy to bring Nagorno-Karabakh back to the negotiating table as one of the parties to the conflict and emphasized that the Armenian government, represented by Premier Nikol Pashinyan, as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, must continue to insist that the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic also participate in the negotiation process. I believe everyone clearly understands that nobody in Armenia is preparing to surrender lands. Moreover, there is still nobody in Azerbaijan who is ready to recognize Karabakhs independence. In this situation, it is extremely important to continue the negotiations process since any kind of negotiation is much better than shootings from both sides, the political party leader said. Two hundred and fifty young, Jewish professionals gathered in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY last week for a weekend dubbed Encounter: Crown Heights. The group, most in their 20s and early 30s, belong to Chabad Young Professional (CYP) chapters in forty-five cities across North America and Europe, and even Kiev, Ukraine. The three-day event was a chance to maximize on the social, professional and spiritual programming that local CYPs provide, while encountering the heartland of Chabad Headquarters. The visitors toured the neighborhood, tasted her food, met with leaders of global Chabad activitiesas well as community members and entrepreneursand visited local institutions. A highlight was touring the iconic 770 Eastern Parkway, visiting the Lubavitcher Rebbes office as well as his home and resting place, and a spirited study session at Chabads world headquarters. For the thousands of Chabad emissaries around the world, Crown Heights is the place where they studied, their source of inspiration and the place to which they return for annual conferences, states the weekends program guide, The Rebbe is the inspiration for all of the above, and the reason why there is a vibrant Jewish community in Crown Heights. A Shabbat immersed in the atmosphere of this one-of-a-kind community, and filled with riveting talks on an eclectic mix of topics, culminated with a musical havdalah ceremony and party, where the young professionals mingled and met CYP leaders from around the world. For me it was a Shabbat spent with my Chabad family from around the world, set on the backdrop of the warm embrace of an incredibly welcoming community, was how one participant from Boston summed it up. This was the second annual CYP International Shabbaton. Hundreds of women light the Shabbat Candles Some of the crowd at the musical havdalah ceremony and post-Shabbat party The group visited the resting place of the Lubavitcher Rebbe where they requested blessings Encounter: Crown Heights participants visit the Razag Ballroom and learn about Chassidic weddings YEREVAN. The National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee on Foreign Relations should form a group and send it to Syria to visit the members of the Armenian humanitarian mission there. Edmon Marukyan, Chairman of the Bright Armenia Party and head of the Bright Armenia faction in parliament, stated the aforementioned during Mondays press briefing at the NA. Also, he noted that even though his respective proposal was rejected at Mondays closed meetings of the NA Standing Committees on Foreign Relations and on Defense and Security, an arrangement was made with respect to the use of some other levers of parliamentary oversight. [But] by and large, I cant picture it, Marukyan added. If there is no such a visit, then I dont even know what we should do. I know Im demanding you to do something that is almost impossible, but you are obliged to get serious. This is what Spokesman of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) Eduard Sharmazanov wrote on his Facebook page. He particularly stated the following: Since May 2018, I have publicly expressed my concerns about the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. When Aliyev and Erdogan were receiving a parade in Baku and making anti-Armenian statements, I said that Baku and Ankara are joining forces, but Pashinyan was dividing the nation into blacks and whites. Aliyev was making declarations about the return of territories, but Pashinyan was impressed with Aliyevs courteousness and normal behavior. Ambassador Mills was talking about territories for peace, but Pashinyan considered it a statement by an outgoing ambassador. I sounded the alarm when Bolton was in Yerevan and was suggesting that Armenia renounce its historical cliches. In response, in the National Assembly, Nikol declared that that statement wont lead to damages. I sounded the alarm when Aliyev and Mammadyarov were declaring the year 2019 as a year of progress. Our government still kept silent. Nikols administration even kept silent when, on 17 December, Aliyev openly said that he didnt rule out the perspective of a military solution. I was calling on the government to come to its senses, join forces and realize the danger of a potential military clash, but Pashinyans administration was talking about peace. The OSCE Minsk Group has made a troubling statement, but Nikols administration is disregarding it and says it is yet another statement. Since May 2018, Azerbaijan has become more and more active with its anti-Armenian actions, but Pashinyans administration is busy taking selfies, going live and giving flowers to ladies and women. Guys, get serious! I know Im demanding you to do something that is almost impossible, but you are obliged to get serious!" The government has a monopoly over submission of proposals in regard to its structure, and this is why parliamentarians werent able to submit their versions for reforms in the structure of the government. This is what leader of Bright Armenia Party and head of the Bright Armenia faction Edmon Marukyan said during briefings at the National Assembly on 11 March. The MP informed that the political party is preparing an alternative proposal that will be aimed at maintaining several ministries. The National Security Service, the Police and the State Revenue Committee need to be included in the governments structure as ministries. We have also considered the possibility of including the agriculture sector within the Ministry of Economy. However, we are leading negotiations with experts since many of them claim that that is not the right thing to do, Marukyan clarified. He stated that members of the Bright Armenia Party are also holding discussions on maintenance of the ministries of culture and energy. Touching upon optimization of the public administration system, the political party leader stressed the fact that the economy cant grow when everything is optimized. He also stated that there have been specialized systems for years and the reduction of those systems and transmission of functions to other authorities wont allow for the solution to the problems. Moreover, in the future, it might turn out that there may be serious problems, if the government decides to restore the eliminated institutions because the longstanding specialists will either emigrate or find jobs in other countries. According to Marukyan, all this may lead to a serious shortage of professionals. 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Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe One of the regular charity programs of Armenias trade banks is geared towards technical rearmament of educational institutions in the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic). The cooperation between the Union of Banks of Armenia and the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Artsakh has helped shape the demand for computer technologies required for educational institutions, and this has led to the provision of relevant accessories by banks of Armenia. According to the preliminary demand, more than 40 schools of the Martuni, Askeran, Hadrut, Shushi, Martakert, Kashatagh and Shahumyan regions of the Republic of Artsakh were in need of computers. The 13 banks that participated in this strategically important initiative for the development of schools in the Republic of Artsakh and increase of learners computer literacy have provided over 100 computers and monitors, nearly two dozens of printers, as well as projectors and other related equipment. As a result of the support provided by Armenias banks, educational institutions of Artsakh have received equipment exceeding the previously established demand. On 7 March, the equipment provided by the trade banks was transferred to the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Artsakh to be allocated to the relevant schools, and several banks directly delivered their donations to various educational institutions in Artsakh. An Armenian man died and three others were wounded Sunday during an exchange of fire between Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Dagestanis in Frolovo town, in Volgograd Oblast (province) of Russia. The shooting had occurred during a mass brawl because of an argument over a Dagestani. Six Dagestanis had arrived to settle the matter, and entered a store that belongs to an Armenian-Azerbaijani mixed family. An Armenian, who was a businessman, died in the exchange of fire. At the invitation of President Armen Sarkissian, Georgias President Salome Zurabishvili on Wednesday will arrive in Armenia on a two-day official visit. The above-said is noted on the Facebook page of the Office of the President of the Republic of Armenia. Karabakh President Bako Sahakyan and his wife, Anahit Sahakyan greeted on 11 March Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and his wife, Anna Hakobyan at the airport in Stepanakert. Pashinyan is on a working visit to Artsakh along with Director of the National Security Service Artur Vanetsyan. Details about the visit will be properly notified. These events are especially important from the perspective of providing the public with more in-depth information about NATO and its operations. This is what Head of the NATO Liaison Office in the South Caucasus Rosaria Puglisi said during a March 11 press conference devoted to the launch of NATO Week in Armenia. According to Puglisi, the conduct of NATO Week in Armenia has already become a good tradition. We refer to this as a public diplomacy event through which we want to inform the public at large about the broad partnership between NATO and Armenia, Puglisi stated. NATO continues to be an important partner of Armenia, Levon Ayvazyan, head of the Department of Defense Policy at the Ministry of Defense (MOD), noted at Mondays press conference devoted to the start of NATO Week in Armenia. In his words, Armenia-NATO cooperation continues to develop quite productively in numerous domains. We have several directions in which NATO gives us [Armenia] expert advice, Ayvazyan explained. An Ethiopian Airlines jet has crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa, killing all on board. The airline said 149 passengers and eight crew members were on flight ET302 from the Ethiopian capital to Nairobi in Kenya. It said 32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians, eight Americans and seven British nationals were among the passengers. The Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, on Monday sent a letter of condolences to President Sahle-Work Zewde of Ethiopia. In his message, Pashinyan extended his commiseration in connection with the plane crash near Addis Ababa. I dont believe the latest statement by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs is addressed to any one of the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This is what Director of the Caucasus Institute Alexander Iskandaryan said in an interview with NEWS.am. According to him, this was simply a reminder to all the parties to the conflict that the parties have no other document on the negotiating table. The Madrid Principles are on the table. They might be a little different in terms of the options, but the philosophy and principle of the negotiation process is as it is, and its not worth referring to the Madrid Principles as principles. A principle is something that all parties agree with, but the situation is different, he explained. He emphasized the fact that the work of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in this format has been frozen since 2016 and that the latest statement is the Co-Chairs attempt to restart the process. The negotiation process in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs is not one that can help resolve the Karabakh issue. The last attempt to take a real step on the path to resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was made in Kazan, Iskandaryan said. However, the expert also declared that the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs are actually dealing with management of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and are trying to increase mutual trust, establish mechanisms for investigations into incidents, increase the number of monitoring visits and enlarge the group of Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Anjey Kasprzik. Iskandaryan mentioned that it is impossible to resolve the conflict through these methods, but these methods help reduce tension on the line of contact. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Head of the Information and Public Relations Department of the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Artsakh Artak Nersisyan commented for Armenpress on the recent statements regarding the restoration of the full format of negotiations. On 9 March, the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group issued a statement urging the sides to refrain from demanding unilateral changes to the format of negotiations without consent of the other party. Earlier, on 6 March, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry made a comment on the impossibility of changing the negotiation format approved by the 1992 Helsinki decision of the OSCE Ministerial Council, without reaching consensus of the OSCE participating States. In addition, according to official Baku, the decision provides that Armenia and Azerbaijan act as parties to the conflict, while the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of Nagorno-Karabakh do so as interested parties. How would you comment on these statements? It is not the first time that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan demonstrates a lack of institutional memory and complete ignorance of the process of peaceful settlement of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict, as well as the documents adopted within this framework. First, the decision of 24 March 1992 of the CSCE Helsinki Additional Meeting does not mention any communities. The document lists as interested parties elected and other representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh. Secondly, the issue of the format and status of the parties to negotiations has been the subject of lengthy discussions that went through a certain path of development. As early as in 1993, in the documents discussed within the framework of the Minsk process, Nagorno Karabakh was indicated as a full party to the conflict. Final clarity on this issue was introduced at the CSCE/OSCE Summit in Budapest in 1994. According to the concluding document of the Summit, the parties to the conflict are those who confirmed the cease-fire agreed on 12 May 1994. The agreement on full cease-fire and cessation of hostilities was concluded between Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan and Armenia. On 26-27 July 1994, Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed an additional agreement, in which they confirmed their commitments to the cease-fire until the conclusion of a large political agreement. After the Budapest Summit, in response to attempts by the Azerbaijani side to speculate again on the topic of the parties to the conflict, the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs made a special statement at the meeting of the OSCE Senior Council in Prague on 31 March 1995, where he confirmed previous OSCE decisions on the status of the parties, i.e. the participation of the two State parties to the conflict and of the other conflicting party (Nagorno-Karabakh) in the whole negotiation process, including in the Minsk Conference. The Prague Summary of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office is very clear and leaves no room for arbitrary and tendentious interpretations by the Azerbaijani side of OSCE decisions regarding the negotiation format. The authorities of both the Republic of Artsakh and the Republic of Armenia do not raise an issue of creating a new, non-agreed format of negotiations. It is about restoring the full-fledged negotiation format as set out in the OSCE Budapest Summit decision of 1994. This decision was approved by consensus by Heads of State and Government of the OSCE participating States, including Azerbaijan and the Minsk Group co-chairing countries. We have repeatedly pointed out that the issue of restoring the trilateral format of negotiations is a kind of litmus test, demonstrating the degree of readiness for real progress in the peaceful settlement of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict. Opposition to restoring the most effective negotiation format can be interpreted as a commitment to the status quo. It is regrettable that the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group do not show due principledness to restore the trilateral negotiation format consistent with the decision of the OSCEs highest body. The requested page is currently unavailable on this server. Back to [RTHK News Homepage] Pro-IS Newspaper "Liwa al-Ansar" Warns Group "Will Burn the Lands of the Cross" Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. For years most investors largely ignored the fees they paid to invest. And it was easy to do because they look so smalljust 1 percent or less of your portfolio. But today more investors are catching on to the benefits of low fees, with many shifting their savings to less expensive options, such as index funds. More than $450 billion was stashed in index funds last year, according to Morningstar, the fund data firm. That trend has sparked a price war among major fund companies to reduce investing fees. Among the latest cost-cutting moves, Fidelity has launched no-fee index funds. Vanguard, Schwab, and Fidelity also recently expanded their menus of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that can be bought and sold without a transaction fee. The impact of trimming your investing costs might not seem that important, but it could make or break your retirement success, says John Scott, director of the retirement savings project for The Pew Charitable Trusts. As Pews free online calculator shows, a 20-something investor who saves in funds that charge low annual fees over 40 years will retire with $300,000 more than someone with the same portfolio who is charged higher fees. Still, not all investors are taking advantage of lower costs. A recent Consumer Reports survey found that 4 in 10 investors werent sure how much they paid in fees. And among those who knew the costs, many said they were unhappy with the amounts being charged. If you havent reviewed your portfolios fees lately, or if youre a beginning investor, its time to figure out what youre payingand whether youre paying too much. Its never been easier to build a low-cost investing strategy, says Rick Ferri, a financial adviser in Georgetown, Texas. To find the right low-cost options, follow these five guidelines: Story continues Get Control of Management Fees Its a wonky-sounding financial term, but your funds expense ratio is a key number to know. This is the annual fee that is charged by mutual funds and ETFs for investment management and operating expenses, which is calculated as a percentage of assets. This cost is deducted from your investment return. The average annual expense ratio these days is 0.52 percent, according to Morningstar, which means that someone with $10,000 invested would pay $52. But theres a wide range. Some mutual funds charge 1 percent or more, and very low-cost index funds and ETFs charge just 0.10 percent or less. You can check to see whether your fund or ETFs expense ratio is high or low by plugging it into FINRAs free fund analyzer tool. If possible, stick with funds that charge less than 0.20 percent, such as broad index funds, Ferri says. If you are saving in a company-sponsored retirement plan, such as a 401(k), look for funds with the lowest expense ratios. (For more advice on 401(k) fees, see our article here.) Say No to Sales Charges A generation ago it was common to have to pay a fee, once as high as 8.5 percent, to buy and sell investments. Today its easy to avoid these commission costs, especially if you work with an online brokerage, because most offer a wide array of no-transaction-fee mutual funds and ETFs. But if youre working with a broker, be waryyou may still get a recommendation for a so-called A-share mutual fund, which will have the letter A at the end of its name. These funds typically charge an upfront sales load of 2 to 4 percent, and the expense ratio can be 10 times higher than a low-cost index fund, according to Morningstar. If you want help from a financial expert, you have more cost-efficient choices, as we explain next. Pay Only for Advice You Need Many financial advisers levy an annual charge of 1 percent of your assets to manage your portfolio, as well as provide financial advice. (Thats in addition to fund expense ratios.) Typically you must have an sizeable investment portfoliooften $250,000 or more. But there are cheaper, more accessible alternatives. So-called robo-advisers, such as Betterment and Wealthfront, charge just 0.25 percent to oversee a portfolio of low-cost ETFs for you that are based on your age and appetite for risk. These computer-driven services automatically rebalance your portfolio to keep the right mix of stocks and bonds. You can get started with $500 or less. You can pay even less for professional portfolio help by choosing a low-cost target-date retirement fund, says Allan Roth, a financial adviser in Colorado Springs, Colo. These funds provide a diversified mix of stocks and bonds that gradually shift to become more conservative as you approach your desired retirement date. If you want personalized advice, consider hiring a fee-only certified financial plannermany are are available for an hourly fee or a flat fee. Use the search tool on the websites of Garrett Planning Network or the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors. The XY Planning Network offers advisers that charge an annual retainer. (For more tips on choosing an adviser, see this article.) Avoid Firms with Add-On Fees You can save money by sticking with major online brokerages, which dont typically charge the account maintenance fees that are common at full-service (sometimes called traditional) brokerages. For instance, Edward Jones charges an annual account fee of $40 for one IRA, and $20 for each additional IRA account. Morgan Stanley charges an annual account maintenance fee of $175 that is cut to $150 if you agree to e-delivery of your statements; an additional IRA account maintenance fee ranges from $50 to $100. By contrast, Schwab and TD Ameritrade charge no account maintenance fees. Be a Buy-and-Hold Investor The ease and low cost of online trading often tempts investors to buy and sell more frequently in an effort to outguess the market, says Meir Statman, a professor of finance at Santa Clara University in California, who specializes in behavioral investing. That kind of strategy is bound to undermine the benefits of your low-fee portfolio because the average investor is unlikely to outmaneuver investment pros, Statman says. You may also be tempted to chase high-flying, high-cost investments at just the wrong time. Still, you do have a key advantageunlike investment pros seeking short-term profits, you can afford to be patient. Following a buy-and-hold approach tends to produce bigger account balances over the long term, studies show (PDF). As boring as it sounds, a buy-and-hold strategy is how you avoid letting your emotions get in the way of your long-term goals, Statman says. And you are more likely to achieve them. Thats especially true if you keep your fees low. More from Consumer Reports: Top pick tires for 2016 Best used cars for $25,000 and less 7 best mattresses for couples Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright 2019, Consumer Reports, Inc. 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. The Hill The U.S. Navy seized 171 surface-to-air missiles, eight anti-tank missiles and 1.1 million barrels of petroleum products worth $261 million from two Iranian ships in the Arabian Sea in three separate instances since 2019, the Department of Justice said in a press release on Tuesday.The Navy seized the weapons in November 2019 and August 2020 during what is called routine operations in the sea. The arms shipments were headed to Iran-backed... In this February 21 file photo, Jussie Smollett leaves George N Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago - FR136454 AP Jussie Smollett, an actor in US series "Empire" has been indicted on 16 felony counts by a grand jury in Chicago after being accused of staging a racist attack on himself. Smollett, 36, who is considered one of America's leading black television actors, was accused by police late last month of "exploiting the pain and anger of racism" in a "shameful" attempt to boost his own profile. He was charged with making a false statement to police, which carries a sentence of up to three years in jail. The 36-year-old appeared to be facing even greater legal trouble on Friday when a grand jury returned 16 counts of disorderly conduct against him. Jussie Smollett knew that at the time there was no reasonable ground for believing that such offenses had been committed, the indictment states. Prosecutors have accused the actor of staging the attack on himself in January as a "publicity stunt" to boost his $65,000-an-episode salary. Jussie Smollett was suspended from working on US TV series 'Empire' Credit: Getty Smollett told officers he was attacked on January 29 by two white men who put a noose around his neck and yelled "This is MAGA country," a reference to Donald Trump's campaign slogan "Make America Great Again". The actor, who is gay, also claimed his attackers hurled homophobic insults at him during the incident at 2am in downtown Chicago. According to Chicago Police, Smollett paid $3,500 to a pair of Nigerian brothers - Abel Osundairo and Ola Osundairo - who had previously appeared as extras on Empire to carry out the fake attack. Friday's indictment expands the case against the actor and focus on false statements he allegedly made to two different Chicago Police officers. Each count relates to separate acts he falsely described to the officers, including being beaten by two men, that they yelled racial and homophobic slurs and poured a chemical on him. Smollett, who has denied the charges, is scheduled to appear in court on March 14. Smollett's attorney, Mark Geragos, blasted the indictment in a statement as "redundant and vindictive," adding that his client "adamantly maintains his innocence even if law enforcement has robbed him of that presumption." He also said that leveling charges in an indictment spares prosecutors the need to submit evidence and witnesses to defense cross-examination in a preliminary hearing, where a judge decides if sufficient cause exists for the case to proceed to trial. (This March 8 story has been refiled to correct amount of alleged payment by Smollett to $3,500 instead of $35,000 in paragraph 8) By Suzannah Gonzales CHICAGO (Reuters) - Television actor Jussie Smollett, arrested last month on a single charge of perpetrating a hate-crime hoax, has been newly indicted on 16 felony counts of falsely reporting to police that he was assaulted by two strangers shouting racist and homophobic slurs. The indictment, returned by a Cook County grand jury on Thursday and made public on Friday, greatly expands on the legal jeopardy faced by Smollett, whose story of being attacked in Chicago by supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump has drawn suspicion since it first surfaced in late January. Smollett, 36, who is black and openly gay and plays a gay musician on the Fox network hip-hop drama "Empire," was charged last month in a single-count criminal complaint with making a false report to police, defined under Illinois law as a form of disorderly conduct. The new indictment in the case contains 16 similar counts: eight related to his interview with one police officer on the day of the purported attack and eight more stemming from his interview with another officer the same day. Each count carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $25,000 fine. Smollett's attorney, Mark Geragos, blasted the indictment in a statement as "redundant and vindictive," adding that his client "adamantly maintains his innocence even if law enforcement has robbed him of that presumption." He also said that leveling charges in an indictment spares prosecutors the need to submit evidence and witnesses to defense cross-examination in a preliminary hearing, where a judge decides if sufficient cause exists for the case to proceed to trial. At the time he was initially charged two weeks ago, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Smollett had paid two brothers $3,500 to stage an assault on him in a hoax orchestrated to somehow further his acting career. NO FURTHER ARREST Smollett has remained free on $100,000 bond since his release hours after surrendering to authorities on Feb. 21. He already was scheduled to return to court on March 14. In the meantime, there is no warrant for his arrest in connection with this week's indictment "because it's the same case," Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told Reuters. No mention is made in the indictment of Smollett's claim, according to police, that his attackers yelled, "This is MAGA country," referring to Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan, as they accosted him. But the 16-page document includes other elements of the account that Smollett had stood by for weeks. According to previous police recitations of Smollett's story, he reported that two masked men approached him on the street in the early hours of Jan. 29 shouting racial and homophobic slurs, struck him in the face, doused him with an "unknown chemical substance" and wrapped a rope around his neck before they fled. News of the assault spread quickly on social media, with many expressing outrage while others wondered whether the story was fabricated even as Chicago police insisted their detectives were treating the matter seriously. In an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" days before he was charged, Smollett said he was angry that some people questioned his story, and he suggested the disbelief might come from racial bias. His attorneys said after his arrest on Feb. 21 they were conducting a thorough investigation for purposes of mounting the actor's defense. Smollett himself, according to reports in media citing unnamed sources, apologized last month to the cast and crew on the set of "Empire" but maintained his innocence. The release of the indictment came after the Chicago Police Department said it started an internal investigation into how information about the alleged hate crime against Smollett was anonymously leaked to reporters. Geragos said the indictment was designed, in part, "to distract from the internal investigation." "Empire" debuted on Fox in 2015 and has earned multiple Emmy nominations. Smollett plays the character Jamal Lyon, a member of the family that is the focus of the drama. Producers said in February they were removing his character from the final two episodes of the show's current season. (Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago; additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee and Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; writing by Steve Gorman; editing by Leslie Adler and James Dalgleish) Allegiant Travel Company ALGT received a piece of encouraging news on the labor front when it inked a tentative deal with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) a labor union in the United States and Canada. Notably, this agreement in principle with the union pertains primarily to wage hikes, retirement benefits for the 34 flight dispatchers of this Las Vegas, NV-based company. However, there is still some way to go before the deal becomes effective and dispatchers clinch the long-awaited contract. It is important to note that tentative pacts do not necessarily mean that the deal will be operational. In fact, the union representing Allegiants flight dispatchers had inked a provisional deal last year too. However, the deal did not materialize then as the outcome of the ratification voting procedure was not favorable. Following this failure, negotiations resumed between the parties in January 2019, leading to the current agreement in principle. Allegiant will be hoping that the contract gets through this time. The ratification procedure is expected to take place by Apr 30, 2019. Successful ratification would result in the first collective bargaining agreement for the flight dispatchers since they joined IBT. The union has been the sole representative of Allegiants flight dispatchers since Oct 26, 2016. Moreover, a favorable outcome of the ratification process would imply a happy ending to the negotiations between the dispatchers and Allegiant, which initially began in 2017. Shares of Allegianthave outperformed the industry over the past six months. The stock has gained 2% against its industrys 8.3% decline. Six-Month Price Performance On successful ratification of the provisional deal, the stock is expected to be boosted further. Naturally, we expect investors to keenly await further updates on this relevant issue. Zacks Rank & Other Stocks to Consider Allegiant carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Investors interested in the airline space may also consider some other top-ranked stocks like SkyWest SKYW, Azul AZUL and China Southern Airlines Company Limited ZNH, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Story continues Shares of SkyWest, Azul and China Southern Airlines Company have gained 1%, 10% and 14%, respectively, in the past six months. Zacks' Top 10 Stocks for 2019 In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-holds for the year? Who wouldn't? Our annual Top 10s have beaten the market with amazing regularity. In 2018, while the market dropped -5.2%, the portfolio scored well into double-digits overall with individual stocks rising as high as +61.5%. And from 2012-2017, while the market boomed +126.3, Zacks' Top 10s reached an even more sensational +181.9%. See Latest Stocks Today >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Allegiant Travel Company (ALGT) : Free Stock Analysis Report SkyWest, Inc. (SKYW) : Free Stock Analysis Report China Southern Airlines Company Limited (ZNH) : Free Stock Analysis Report AZUL SA (AZUL) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research An unidentified gun-control activist was expelled from a hearing on the subject at the Connecticut state capitol on Monday, after she threatened a pro-Second Amendment state lawmaker and NRA officials in a text message spotted by fellow attendees. If I had a gun, Id blow away Sampson and a large group of NRA, the draft text message reads in a photo tweeted by a local reporter. The woman was presumably referring to Connecticut state senator Rob Sampson, a pro-gun-rights Republican who once earned the NRAs Defender of Freedom Award. Woman expelled from gun hearing after being seen sending this text about a state lawmaker. pic.twitter.com/ySVc9Zm9x5 Mark Davis (@markdavisWTNH) March 11, 2019 The woman reportedly drafted the text during a hearing before the states Joint Committee on the Judiciary committee, in which activists on both sides of the issue were set to discuss pending legislation that would tighten state laws governing the home storage of guns. The legislation was introduced in response to the death of 15-year-old Ethan Song, who was killed after accidentally shooting himself in the head with a gun that belonged to his friends father. The gun had been secured with a lock, but left in a container with the key and accompanying ammunition. As a result, state prosecutors said they could not charge its owner, because state law requires only that loaded guns are properly secured. Under the new legislation, which has been dubbed Ethans Law by his parents, owners would be required to lock loaded and unloaded guns alike. Ethans death was completely preventable, if only the father had securely stored his guns, Ethans mother, Kristin Song wrote in an email to the Associated Press. Thats why Im fighting to pass Ethans Law, to strengthen Connecticuts safe storage requirements. Story continues Connecticuts largest gun-rights organization has not opposed the legislation but has raised concerns about restricting the ability of gun owners to quickly access their firearms should the need arise. No matter what a persons position is on guns or the 2nd Amendment, we all obviously agree we want children safe and protected, Connecticut Citizens Defense League president Scott Wilson told the Connecticut Post. Law abiding gun owners still need to have the ability to retrieve a firearm in the event of a home invasion or other warranted events to defend family members from harm without fear of prosecution. Activists and legislators were also expected to debate legislation that would require residents licensed to openly carry firearms to produce a permit when asked to do so by a police officer and another that would limit the ability of local governments to establish their own gun-control laws. More from National Review Southwest and American airlines, the biggest U.S. operators of the Boeing 737 Max 8, say they stand by the new plane despite two fatal crashes in less than five months. Their continued support comes as more of the new planes are being grounded by other airlines and aviation authorities. Ethiopian Airlines grounded its four remaining 737 Max 8s until further notice "as an extra safety precaution'' in the wake of the crash and Cayman Airways said it was temporarily grounded its two Max 8s. In addition, China and Indonesia ordered airlines there to ground the plane. And it comes despite a barrage of questions and concerns from worried passengers since the Sunday crash. A California woman with tickets on Southwest Airlines to Portland, Oregon, in May asked the airline on Twitter how she can find out what type of plane will be used on the route. "I don't want to be on a Boeing Max 8,'' she said. More: Boeing 737 Max: What you should know if you're booked on a flight Morning Andrea, Southwest Airlines focus on the Safety of our operation is constant and unwavering. Our fleet of Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft are operating as planned today and we plan to operate those aircraft going forward. -Dillon Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) March 11, 2019 A passenger who recently purchased tickets on Southwest had similar concerns, telling the airline on Twitter that nobody in the family wants to fly the Boeing 737 Max. Morning, We remain confident in the Safety of our fleet of more than 750 Boeing aircraft. Southwest has operated approximately 31,000 flights utilizing the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, and we plan on operating those aircraft going forward. -Dillon Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) March 11, 2019 Southwest has a variety of responses to concerned travelers, but they all make the same general point: We're standing by the plane. Story continues "We remain confident in the safety of our fleet of more than 750 Boeing aircraft,'' the airline said in one response Monday morning. "Southwest has operated approximately 31,000 flights utilizing the Boeing 737 Max, and we plan on operating those aircraft going forward.'' Rescue and recovery personnel use an earth mover to recover debris from a crater where Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed in a wheat field just outside the town of Bishoftu, 62 kilometers southeast of Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Flight 302 was just 6 minutes into its flight to Nairobi, Kenya, when it crashed killing all 157 passengers and crew on board. The cause of the crash has not yet been determined. Southwest Airlines has 34 175-seat Max 8s in its fleet and plans to more than double that number this year as well as add its first Boeing Max 7s. Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz said the airline is in contact with Boeing and will stay close to the investigation as it progresses. "We remain confident in the safety and airworthiness of our fleet of more than 750 Boeing aircraft,'' he said. More: "A punch in the nose for Boeing'' Photos: 157 dead in Ethiopian Airlines plane crash Southwest is telling passengers who ask how they can find out what type of plane they are due to fly to check back a day before their trip to see the type of aircraft as they aren't assigned far in advance. American, which has 24 Max 8s in its fleet of nearly 1,000 planes, is also standing by the Max 8. The airline is telling travelers who raise questions about it on Twitter that it has "full confidence'' in the aircraft and the ability of its flight crews. We have full confidence in the aircraft and our crew members, who are the best and most experienced in the industry. American Airlines (@AmericanAir) March 11, 2019 The airline is also getting questions about whether it's going to ground its fleet. Its response: "We will closely monitor the (crash) investigation via Boeing and the National Transportation Safety Board.'' We will closely monitor the investigation via Being and the National Transportation Safety Board. American Airlines (@AmericanAir) March 11, 2019 American is not allowing travelers concerned about the plane to change their travel plans without penalty, as it does ahead of winter storms and other major flight disruptions. One New York traveler, posting on Twitter, called it a "customer service failure,'' especially since other airlines are grounding the plane. .@AmericanAir I called & was told waivers are not available as I have a non-refundable fare as do the majority of passengers. This is NOT ACCEPTABLE esp. when some airlines are grounding the 737 Max 8 due to safety concerns. This is a American Airlines customer service failure. https://t.co/ifMmPpJHdp Sandy (@nycsandygirl) March 11, 2019 Southwest hasn't changed its policies either, Mainz said. Unlike its competitors, Southwest does not charge a ticket change fee. However, passengers have to pay the prevailing fare at the time they change their ticket, which usually means paying more money unless it was a last-minute ticket purchase. United Airlines doesn't operate the Max 8 but it does have 14 Max 9s. It is telling passengers on Twitter that it will try to find alternative travel arrangements for those who prefer not to fly it. Your safety is our first priority. We completely understand. We don't fly 737 Max 8 but we fly 737 Max 9. There are 14 in our fleet. If you prefer not to fly on one we completely understand and will do what is best in our capabilities to find alternative travel arrangements. ^DP United Airlines (@united) March 11, 2019 This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'I don't want to be on a Boeing Max 8': Travelers worry as U.S. airlines stand by Boeing plane Australia's attorney-general Monday defended a register meant to track the role of foreign agents in local politics, saying it was already changing behaviour despite only a handful of declarations. Growing fears of political influence from foreign states, particularly China, saw Canberra pass a raft of new laws last year to curb potential meddling. The Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme register was operational from December, with a grace period ending Sunday. But only nine institutions or individuals have so far declared their foreign links. They include lobbyists such as former defence minister Brendan Nelson declaring his "foreign principal" as French defence giant Thales, and a 9/11 conspiracy theorist declaring interests for a US group. So far only one individual -- Warwick King, the head of Australian coal seam gas producer APLNG which is one-quarter owned by China's Sinopec -- has declared his "foreign principal country" as China. Attorney-General Christian Porter said there were around 18 more lodgements not yet processed or made public and he expected the list to lengthen as national elections, due by mid-May, draw closer. Failure to register could result in penalties of up to five years' jail. Porter said a recent flurry of departures of former Australian politicians from roles at Chinese-owned or linked organisations was proof the register was already having an impact. "So it's likely that the register is also changing behaviour and contractual arrangements between individuals in the Australian political system," he told national broadcaster ABC. The departures include former senior politicians departing roles with China's Landbridge Group and Chinese tech giant Huawei. Huawei told AFP that as a private firm, it did not need to register with the scheme. Former foreign minister Bob Carr also recently stepped down as director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, which was founded by controversial Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo. Story continues Huang was a prominent donor to Australia's two major parties before he was blocked from re-entering the country last month -- with his permanent residency visa revoked and a citizenship bid rejected. Huang himself has not signed up to the register. Also missing from the public list is Chinese-Australian billionaire businessman Chau Chak Wing, who has denied links to China's Communist Party and last month successfully won a defamation suit against a newspaper that alleged he was a co-conspirator in a UN bribery plot. Australian National University security expert Rory Medcalf said the laws were designed to have a deterrent effect. "An ideal outcome, which is what we're probably heading for, is if we as a country can normalise transparency about this issue." "Then I think we're well on the way to raising public awareness and well on the way to raising a public willingness for covert influence to be penalised," he told AFP. Credit: Tim CadienteTool has announced a batch of U.S. headlining tour dates for the spring. The newly added dates begin May 7 in Birmingham, Alabama, and conclude May 17 in Des Moines, Iowa. Tickets go on sale this Friday, May 15 at 10 a.m. local time via ToolBand.com. Perhaps the new dates will coincide with the release of new music. Frontman Maynard James Keenan tweeted last month that Tool's much-anticipated new album, the long-awaited follow-up to 2006's 10,000 Days, would finally arrive between mid-May and mid-July. In addition to the headlining dates, Tool will be hitting a number of U.S. festivals this spring, including Welcome to Rockville, Epicenter and Chicago Open Air. Here are Tool's headlining tour dates: 5/7 -- Birmingham, AL, Legacy Arena at the BCC 5/8 -- Louisville, KY, KFC Yum! Center 5/10 -- Hampton, VA, Hampton Coliseum 5/13 -- St. Louis, MO, Enterprise Center 5/14 -- Kansas City, MO, Sprint Center 5/16 -- Lincoln, NE, Pinnacle Bank Arena 5/17 -- Des Moines, IA, Wells Fargo Arena Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. 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By combining their operations in the southwestern U.S. state, which is home to one of the world's largest gold-producing areas, Barrick and Newmont hope to save more than $5 billion over the next 20 years. Toronto-based Barrick will control 61.5 percent of the venture, giving it slightly less oversight than it initially wanted even as it gains full operational control over mines that produce more than 4 million ounces of gold annually. The agreement comes amid a pickup in deals across the gold industry, which has struggled with a loss of investor confidence and financing constraints in recent years. "This is one of those rare transactions that really does create demonstrable value for everyone involved," Barrick Chief Executive Officer Mark Bristow told Reuters on Monday. "It shows that people, if you put your mind to it, can deliver transactions in a very short while." Shares of Barrick were up about 0.9 percent at $13.05 on the New York Stock Exchange and up 1.1 percent at C$17.53 on the Toronto Stock Exchange in early afternoon trading. Newmont shares were down 2.3 percent to $32.92 in New York. Colorado-based Newmont rejected Barrick's all-stock zero-premium hostile takeover, which was launched last month, and proposed instead the Nevada joint venture, which both companies have tried to form for years. The deal seems to wash away, for now, vestiges of a long-simmering feud between the companies. Bristow, on the same day Barrick launched its bid, called Newmont CEO Gary Goldberg a "loser" in a Reuters interview. Goldberg, for his part, had told Reuters that Bristow's "credibility and experience" and performance at Randgold, which Bristow had led until two months ago when it was acquired by Barrick, was "anemic." Story continues Yet both men flew to Nevada on Monday to announce the deal, a step designed to underscore collaboration. Even the companies' social media accounts played nice: Barrick's Twitter profile "liked" Newmont's announcement of the Nevada JV. As part of Monday's agreement, Barrick will also withdraw several shareholder proposals for Newmont's annual meeting later this year. "Through this joint venture, the whole is going to be worth a lot more than the sum of its parts," said Newmont Chief Operating Officer Tom Palmer, who will take over as CEO when Goldberg retires at the end of 2019. Newmont and Barrick share many investors, and some had been unenthusiastic about the hostile takeover bid. The VanEck International Investors Gold Fund, the largest Barrick shareholder and one of the top three in Newmont, urged the companies last week to focus on the Nevada venture and expressed skepticism about a full takeover of Newmont. BACK TO THE TABLE Newmont can now move forward on its own planned takeover of Canada's Goldcorp Inc, a deal that will help it leapfrog Barrick to become the world's largest gold producer. Barrick and Newmont had discussed a 50-50 joint venture in Nevada late last year but could not agree on who would control it, according to sources familiar with the matter. Newmont then turned its attention to the Goldcorp deal, and in the eyes of Barrick executives, put off the Nevada talks for months, sources said. Barrick's hostile offer brought Newmont executives back to the table. The joint venture Newmont proposed early this month, in which it would control 45 percent and Barrick 55 percent, was a starting point for renewed talks that were serious for the first time in decades. Bristow responded in press interviews that he wanted closer to 66 percent control. Now focused on the joint venture, Goldberg and Bristow met in New York last Tuesday, and again in Toronto two days later, sources said. The companies' boards agreed to the deal over the weekend, and both management teams traveled to Elko, Nevada, for Monday's announcement. The deal will lead to cuts at the oversight level but not in operations, although the number of reductions is yet to be determined, Bristow said. (Reporting by Nichola Saminather in Toronto and Debroop Roy in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Liana Baker in New York; Editing by Ernest Scheyder and Paul Simao) TOKYO (Reuters) - Bells rang and sirens sounded on Monday as Japan observed a moment of silence to commemorate the eighth anniversary of a massive earthquake and tsunami that left more than 20,000 people dead or missing, and triggered triple nuclear meltdowns. The quake of magnitude nine on March 11, 2011 struck north of the Japanese capital, unleashing a tsunami that engulfed large swathes of the Pacific coast and caused the world's worst nuclear accident in 25 years. "Even now, 14,000 people are enduring protracted, inconvenient lives in such places as temporary housing," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a memorial service in Tokyo. "We will provide seamless support ... and accelerate reconstruction." At the ceremony, Yuki Takahashi, who lost his mother in the tsunami, said, "Keeping in mind precious lives that were lost, I'll keep on going to pass on lessons learned from the disaster." In a message to the dead, Takahashi, 41, added, "I'll no longer shed tears. Please watch over us as we move toward reconstruction."The dismantling of Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, the decontamination of affected areas, and compensation are estimated to cost 21.5 trillion yen ($193.3 billion). Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas, situated on the "Ring of Fire" arc of volcanoes and oceanic trenches that partly encircles the Pacific Ocean. (Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) Cotonou (AFP) - Thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets in Benin's biggest city on Monday to accuse President Patrice Talon of seeking to exclude them from forthcoming legislative elections. An estimated 20,000 protesters took part in the march in Cotonou, where crowds, including politicians, union leaders, women, students and traders, brandished placards reading "Repeal rogue laws" and "Save Beninese democracy in danger". They also chanted slogans denouncing Talon, who has been accused of authoritarianism since he was elected in March 2016. Several political opponents have been subjected to legal proceedings in recent months as part of a fight against corruption which critics have described as a witch-hunt. The latest demonstration follows a controversial decision by the national electoral commission (CENA) preventing five opposition parties from standing at parliamentary elections due on April 28. More than five million people are expected to vote for all 83 seats in the National Assembly. CENA last week ruled that only two parties -- which both officially support the president -- had fulfilled the conditions required by the new electoral code adopted last year, tightening the rules governing political parties. The decision sparked outrage in Benin, leading Talon to call a meeting of representatives from all parties where he proposed finding a solution in parliament to "break the deadlock". But the main opposition parties boycotted the meeting, instead calling for mass protests which they have said reflect widespread frustration with the president. Monday's march was organised by the Cowry Forces for an Emerging Benin (FCBE) of former President Thomas Boni Yayi and businessman Sebastien Ajavon's Social Liberal Union (USL). "The people are out in the streets because they want to tell the president that they are fed up," Donklam Abalo, a USL leader, told AFP. Parliament needs to act to "let the people express themselves to freely choose their representatives", he added. Story continues The parliament's deputy leader Eric Houndete, who was at the protest, vowed: "There will be no election without the opposition." Victor Topanou, the former justice minister of ex-president Boni Yayi, said the CENA decision to ban the opposition from elections was the final straw. "For three years, there has been a feeling of an almost constant violation of individual and collective freedoms," he said. China has had a strange relationship with Bitcoin and blockchain. For many years, the threat of a government ban on Bitcoin has affected the price. There is no doubt that there is an interest in the technology however, with many entrepreneurs in the industry hailing from China. Blockchain in China is expanding, and the country could become world leaders if the government pursues an aggressive strategy. Entrepreneurs Some of the biggest names in the crypto industry hail from China. The first to make his mark was Jihan Wu, the founder of Bitmain. Bitmain is the largest Bitcoin mining company in the world. Indeed, the power that Bitmain managed to accumulate was such that Wu became a dangerous element. The relationship between Jihan Wu and the rest of the community soured further during the scaling crisis of 2017. Since then, there have been rumours of severe financial difficulty Wu allegedly went all in on Bitcoin Cash, and since then the price has collapsed. He has since been ousted from the company he founded. Jihan Wu wasnt the only Chinese businessman to focus on mining Bitcoin. The country became a Bitcoin mining hub, although it has since cracked down on many of these companies, allowing for newcomers to challenge its dominance. Justin Sun and Changpeng CZ Zhao are two others making waves in the cryptocurrency industry. CZ is the founder of one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world Binance. Justin Sun is the founder of Tron, a top ten cryptocurrency. Both are good friends and partnered together for the recent BitTorrent launch. The token was launched on the Tron blockchain using Binances Launchpad service. Justin Sun is fond of telling people he is the first millennial graduate of Hupan University, the university founded by one of Chinas biggest entrepreneurs Jack Ma. The size of Alibaba shouldnt be underestimated think of it as Chinas Amazon. Jack Ma and Alibaba have also been investigating blockchain technology with many patents filed, highlighting that it isnt just new and upcoming entrepreneurs on the blockchain scene in China. Story continues Peoples Bank of China Like many banks around the world, the largest Chinese bank the Peoples Bank of China is also investigating blockchain technology. The bank recently tested a blockchain-based trade finance and account receivables platform. The test wasnt just solely completed by PBoC though, with the partnership extending to at least three other Chinese-based banks including the Bank of China. Blockchain but not cryptocurrency? As mentioned above, the Chinese government has had a love-hate relationship with Bitcoin. For the Chinese state, there are in fact many advantages of having its citizens use Bitcoin now that there is technology that can trace the blockchain accurately. China is one of the more authoritarian states in the world. This is highlighted by the new social credit system that it has implemented in an attempt to make citizens behave correctly. President Xi has gone as far as to talk about blockchain as a revolutionary technology. The harsh measures could theoretically be improved through blockchain technology, as the government could keep a ledger on good and bad citizens that cannot be changed. This snooping capability is one way blockchain could be useful. At the same time, there are cryptocurrencies that could subvert this power. In particular, privacy-based coins such as Monero or Zcash would make it extremely difficult for the Chinese state to trace and follow payments. Herein lies the dilemma for the Chinese government. The technology could theoretically be used for both good and bad, which perhaps shows why the country has had a love-hate relationship with it. Ambitious government China as a nation has advanced rapidly since the 1980s. Whilst the nation used to be content with being a powerhouse in Asia, it is now eyeing a bigger prize that of a global superpower replacing the USA. One such example of this ambition is the One Belt One Road project. This gigantic infrastructure project aims to reignite the old Silk Road from Europe to Asia. New roads, new bridges, and masses of infrastructure will be built in an attempt to reduce trade frictions between the nations involved. Conclusion Whilst Malta is known as the blockchain island, its economic and geopolitical strength is not comparable to China. Once known as the sleeping dragon, under President Xi, the country is rising. As the USA continues to put up barriers, China is attempting to break them down through projects such as One Belt One Road. Should China invest heavily in the blockchain industry, there would be little doubt about the countrys capabilities. Already the nation has shown its prominence in creating industry leaders in the space. Were it to aggressively pursue a blockchain-based strategy, it could become a world leader in a matter of years. The post Blockchain in China: How China could dominate the blockchain space in the next five years appeared first on Coin Rivet. Causes of two fatal Boeing 737 MAX 8 passenger jet crashes in less than six months, both now under investigation, are expected to amount to hundreds of millions in liability for Boeing Co. (BA), and could escalate if the company failed to properly disclose new features concerning the aircrafts controls. The economic impact on Boeing is just absolutely devastating if they don't fix this immediately, Arthur Rosenberg, a partner with the law firm Soberman & Rosenberg who specializes in aviation liability, said. In all my years of doing this, I have never seen anything like this, he said of the two crashes having nearly identical fingerprints. Sundays Ethiopian Airlines crash of a MAX 8 jetliner that killed all 157 passengers on board, followed an October crash of the same model operated by Lion Air, resulting in the deaths of all 189 passengers. Questions over the Boeing 737s autopilot system Early questions surrounding two crashes center on an autopilot system new to Boeings 737 line in the MAX 8. The feature automatically tilts the nose of the aircraft down as a method to prevent aerodynamic stall. Rescuers work at the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines flight crash near Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, south of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Monday, March 11, 2019. A spokesman says Ethiopian Airlines has grounded all its Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft as a safety precaution, following the crash of one of its planes in which 157 people were killed. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene) While causes of the two crashes have not been fully investigated, Rosenberg said the MAX 8s new autopilot system is suspected because of the close similarities between that crash and the one involving Lion Air. In every crash sequence there's kind of a fingerprint. In both the Lion Air and the Ethiopian Air crash, the planes took off and within six to 12 minutes both planes with similar altitude excursion profiles gained and lost altitude, which is strong evidence of pilots struggling with this MCAS system, he said referring to the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, the planes autopilot system. Another possible sign that the autopilot feature could have caused the pilots to fully lose control of the aircraft, according to Rosenberg, is the impact site. What was really striking to me is the impact crater of this Ethiopian Airlines plane looked to me like it came straight down, Rosenberg said. A lot of times when planes crash, the pilots do have partial control, so there's still a lot of forward movement and when the plane hits with all that momentum and inertia they break apart and pieces [are] strewn all over the place. Story continues Tom Routh, a partner with the Nolan Law group, a firm that specializes in aviation litigation, said Boeing, in his experience, typically carries enough insurance coverage for catastrophic crashes caused by manufacturing defects. Rouths firm currently represents multiple families whose loved ones were killed in the Lion Air crash. Boeing deferred to its customers and regulators for discussions concerning aircraft operations and decisions, in a statement issued Monday. Safety is our number one priority and we are taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this accident, the statement said. The investigation is in its early stages, but at this point, based on the information available, we do not have any basis to issue new guidance to operators. Source: David Foster Questions over whether carriers that have placed orders for MAX 8 aircraft that have not been delivered can cancel their contracts is another issue. Both Rosenberg and Routh say cancellation would depend on the provisions of each contract, though most contracts have provisions covering airworthiness, Rosenberg said. I havent seen the contracts so I cant say specifically. I'm sure if they can't get out of it, there's probably some de minimis liquidated damages clause to get out of it, Rosenberg said. According to the Capa Fleet Database Boeing has delivered 378 MAX 8 aircraft, globally. Another 5,526 are on order. In 2018, list price for the MAX 8 was $117.1 million. Routh said his firm successfully won a case on behalf of crash victims in the Asiana Flight 14 crash, based on a showing that pilots were not made aware of aircraft features. Did pilots know about features of the new autopilot? Even when the autopilot is disengaged on this airplane, this MCAS still operates to prevent a stall...this feature lowers the nose of the airplane without the pilot knowing about it, Rosenberg said. Whether pilots knew about the new autopilot feature in the Max 8 is disputed. According to Boeing, Rosenberg said, the feature was included in the aircrafts pilot manual and in a bulletin following the Lion Air crash of a Boeing 737 in October. Thats not enough, critics argue, explaining that part of the reason Boeing slipped past more stringent pilot training requirements for the MAX 8 is based on information the company passed along to the FAA. It's our position in the Lion Air case that Boeing should have should been required to and should have sought a new type certificate, rather than the amended type, Routh said. The MAX 8 aircraft had other significant changes from its predecessor, aside from the MCAS autopilot, including new engines, new avionics, and different aerodynamic characteristics. Aviation authorities in China, Indonesia and the Cayman Islands joined Ethiopian Airlines in temporarily grounding all Boeing model MAX 8 aircraft. Turkish Airlines and Korean officials are said to have similar measures under consideration. So far, no American carriers have grounded their fleets. Alexis Keenan is a New York-based reporter for Yahoo Finance. She previously produced live news for CNN and is a former litigation attorney. Follow her on Twitter at @alexiskweed More from Alexis: Teslas move to close stores puts dealer franchise debate in the spotlight How the legal fight over Trumps border wall could hurt the economy Weed consumers no longer stoner that lives in his moms basement: CEO NYPD: Waze users who post sobriety checkpoints may be committing crimes How legalized cannabis changed Colorado in the past five years By Eric M. Johnson SEATTLE (Reuters) - Boeing Co's top executive told employees on Monday he was confident in the safety of the U.S. manufacturer's fastest-selling 737 MAX aircraft in the wake of two deadly crashes since October. An Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after take-off on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board and raising questions about the safety of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 model. The same type flown by Lion Air crashed off the coast of Indonesia in October, killing all 189 on board. "We are confident in the safety of the 737 MAX and in the work of the men and women who design and build it," Boeing Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg told employees in an email seen by Reuters. "Since its certification and entry into service, the MAX family has completed hundreds of thousands of flights safely." Muilenburg said Sunday's crash was "especially challenging" coming only months after the loss of Lion Air Flight 610. Boeing rolled out the fuel-efficient MAX 8 in 2017 as an update to the already redesigned 50-year-old 737. That family of single-aisle aircraft is the cash cow of the world's largest planemaker, competing against European rival Airbus SE's A320neo family. Boeing has delivered more than 370 MAX Airplanes to 47 customers, Muilenburg said. In the wake of Sunday's crash, China ordered its airlines to ground the jet, a move followed by Indonesia and Ethiopia. Other airlines, from North America to the Middle East, kept flying the 737 MAX 8 on Monday after Boeing said it was safe. Southwest Airlines Co, which operates the largest fleet of 737 MAX 8s, said it remained confident in the safety of all its Boeing planes even as it received a rush of queries from customers wanting to know if they were booked to fly on a 737 MAX 8. There are still unanswered questions about the causes of the Lion Air crash, and officials and safety experts said it was too soon to draw links with the Ethiopian incident. Story continues Muilenburg said Boeing was fully supporting the crash investigation and providing technical assistance under the direction of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and Ethiopian authorities. Muilenburg also said Boeing was "further strengthening" support to the 737 team, manufacturing operations and customer service. He urged employees to "stay centered on the facts and avoid speculation" while the investigation unfolds. "Speculating about the cause of the accident or discussing it without all the necessary facts is not appropriate and could compromise the integrity of the investigation," Muilenburg said. (Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by James Dalgleish) BGR Rian Johnson has had one of the more interesting careers of any director currently working. Back in 2005, he announced his presence with the noir thriller called Brick, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. 12 years later, he was behind the camera on Star Wars: The Last Jedi directing Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Daisy Ridley. Few modern The post This action-packed sci-fi movie on Netflix has everyone glued to their screens appeared first on BGR. By Kylie MacLellan, Alistair Smout and Gilbert Reilhac LONDON/STRASBOURG (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May won legally binding Brexit assurances from the European Union on Monday in a last ditch attempt to sway rebellious British lawmakers who have threatened to vote down her divorce deal again. Scrambling to plot an orderly path out of the Brexit maze just days before the United Kingdom is due to leave on March 29, May rushed to Strasbourg to agree additional assurances with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Brexiteers in May's party have accused her of surrendering to the EU and it was not clear if the assurances she agreed would be enough to win over the 116 additional lawmakers she needs reverse the crushing defeat her deal suffered on Jan. 15. "Today we have secured legal changes," May said in a late night news conference in Strasbourg beside Juncker, exactly 17 days before the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU. "Now is the time to come together to back this improved Brexit deal and to deliver on the instruction of the British people," May said. May announced three documents - a joint instrument, a joint statement and a unilateral declaration - which she said were aimed at addressing the most contentious part of the divorce deal she agreed in November - the Irish backstop. The backstop is an insurance policy aimed at avoiding controls on the sensitive border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland, though some British lawmakers worry it could trap the United Kingdom in the EU's orbit indefinitely. On news of the breakthrough, sterling, which has see-sawed on Brexit headlines, jumped 0.8 percent to $1.3250 in Asian trade and rallied to the strongest against the euro since mid-2017. LAST CHANCE? After two-and-a-half years of haggling with Britain over Brexit, Juncker cautioned that this was the last chance for Britain. "There will be no third chance," he said. "There will be no further interpretations of the interpretations; no further assurances of the re-assurances if the meaningful vote tomorrow fails." "It is this deal or Brexit might not happen at all," he said. He said in a letter to EU summit chair Donald Tusk that if Britain didn't leave by the May 23-26 elections, it would have to elect its own EU lawmakers. The United Kingdom's tortuous crisis over EU membership is approaching its finale with an extraordinary array of outcomes still possible, including a delay, a last-minute deal, a no-deal Brexit, a snap election or even another referendum. The country voted to leave the EU in a 2016 plebiscite. The British parliament on Jan. 15 voted to reject May's deal by 230 votes, the biggest defeat for a government in modern British history. BREXIT VOTES May has promised lawmakers a vote on her deal on Tuesday. The motion put forward by the government said that the joint instrument "reduces the risk" that the United Kingdom would be trapped in the backstop. The immediate reaction was cautious from Brexit-supporting lawmakers in her own party and from the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party which props up her minority government. After Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington, who May's de facto deputy, updated the British parliament on the talks, Brexit supporting lawmaker Steve Baker told BBC Radio: "It's not for the first time that David has had to put a very good gloss on something which falls short of what was expected." Lidington said that Britain and the EU had agreed an instrument to prevent the EU seeking to "trap" Britain in any backstop, work to replace the backstop by December 2020 and confirming pledges Britain has made for a lock on new EU laws applying to Northern Ireland. He also said that they had agreed a second document, a joint statement to expedite the negotiation of the future relationship. The DUP said it would study the documents. May was instructed by lawmakers to replace the backstop with alternative arrangements. The opposition Labour Party said she had fallen far short of her promises to parliament. If the backstop comes into force and talks on the future relationship break down with no prospect of an agreement, May said the unilateral declaration would make clear there was nothing to stop London from moving to leave the backstop. BREXIT IN PERIL? The British government's top lawyer, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, is due to set out his legal analysis of the assurances ahead of Tuesday's vote. Many pro-Brexit lawmakers will wait to see that before deciding how to vote. If she loses the vote, May has said lawmakers will get a vote on Wednesday on whether to leave without a deal and, if they reject that, then a vote on whether to ask for a limited delay to Brexit. Senior British government ministers have warned rebellious lawmakers that if May's deal is voted down then there is a chance that Brexit could be thwarted. Brexit will pitch the world's fifth largest economy into the unknown and many fear it will serve to divide the West as it grapples with both the unconventional presidency of Donald Trump and growing assertiveness from Russia and China. Supporters of Brexit say that while the divorce might bring some short-term instability, in the longer term it will allow the United Kingdom to thrive and also enable deeper EU integration without such a powerful reluctant member. (Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper, William James, Alistair Smout, William Schomberg and Andrew MacAskill in London; Padraic Halpin in Dublin and Alastair MacDonald, Gabriela Baczynska and Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge) Can you spot the knife? Source: Greater Manchester Police Police tackling Britains knife epidemic today issued a chilling warning about blades being hidden in plain sight so criminals can grab them in seconds. Greater Manchester Police have urged the public to open your eyes to the knives as they released images of the everyday public locations where weapons are stashed for easy access. These places are often in bushes, parks, gaps in walls, and other areas where normal people would not normally think of. This warning came after an alarming increase of stabbings this year with 17 people murdered in London alone. The answer to the first picture. Source: GMP A recent victim was Jodie Chesney, who was playing music with her friends when she was stabbed in the back. Senior officers met with Home Secretary Sajid Javid last week to talk about the surge in knife crime and the number of police officers in England and Wales, which have dropped by more than 20,000 since 2010. GMPs Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts said: Its a sad fact that people are not only carrying knives, but are now also hiding weapons in and around public places and that can be very worrying for members of the public. The more knives that are on the streets only leads to one outcome more people getting hurt and we are determined to act to stop these implements getting into the wrong hands. To ensure police and partner resources are targeted in the communities where they are needed most, we are asking the public to be aware and report any knife sightings to us reduce the circulation of weapons in our communities. Can you spot the knife? Source: GMP Patrick Green, CEO of the Ben Kinsella Trust, a charity helping to tackle knife crime, told Yahoo News UK: The work being done by the GMP is great. It is making proactive efforts and taking knives off the street. If we are going to tackle knife crime we need more education and early intervention programmes, take a stronger stance and teach young people the risks of carrying them. The hiding place of the knife. Source: GMP Knife crime has been increasing in England and Wales for the last five years, but not in Scotland. Story continues This is because they already have successful early prevention programmes and strong enforcement, so we should emulate them. The trust was started in 2008, when Ben Kinsella was stabbed to death in Islington, London, aged only 16. Were urging members the public to #openyoureyestoknives Knives are often hidden in public places and used for crime purposes. Can you spot the hidden knife in the attached image? Check back later today for the reveal. Read more: https://t.co/g3oWDiREg3 pic.twitter.com/UXc4CLkJKm G M Police (@gmpolice) March 11, 2019 If you have concerns about someone you know or care about carrying or hiding a knife, or if you are aware that knives are being concealed in your community call the Police on 101 or talk to the police via LiveChat on the GMP website. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK Pius Adesanmi Pius Adesanmi (Photo from the Canadian Press) There were 18 Canadians among the people aboard an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 jetliner en route to Nairobi when it crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa on March 10. Officials confirmed that day all 157 passengers from more than 30 countries died in the crash. The Canadians on board include a mother and daughter from Edmonton, a Carleton University professor from Ottawa and several people affiliated with the United Nations. Heres what we know so far about the Canadian victims of the crash. Pius Adesanmi Carleton University graduate Halima Sogbesan described the Nigerian-born professor in a social media post as someone who made the campus feel like home to his students, and who told them they were capable of great things. Adesanmi taught in the Ottawa universitys Department of English Language and Literature and the Institute of African Studies, and was a well-known writer in Nigeria, reports the Globe and Mail. According to Benoit-Antoine Bacon, the schools president and vice-chancellor, he was a towering figure in African and post-colonial scholarship. On the day before the crash, Adesanmi shared a photo of himself with his passport on Facebook, along with the bible verse, If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. Amina Ibrahim Odowa and her daughter Sofia Faisal Abdulkadir Odawa, 33, and Sofia, 5, were both from Edmonton, where CBC reports Odawas two surviving daughters are in the care of their grandmother. Odawas bother said the Somalian-born mother flew out of Toronto with her daughter on Saturday. They were on their way to visit family in Kenya, where Odawa grew up. The Toronto Star reports Odawa immigrated to Canada in 2006. Derick Lwugi Derick Lwugi was an accountant for the City of Calgary who leaves behind a wife and three children, aged 17, 19 and 20. According to multiple reports, the family has lived in Calgary for 12 years. Story continues Lwugi was on his way to western Kenya to visit his and his wifes parents when he became a victim of the crash. His mom was not feeling well, Lwugis wife, Gladys Kivia, told the Canadian Press in an interview from Calgary. In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Kivia described him as someone who loved people, and could be relied on to help a friend in need. If people had any needs or problems, he was there to, you know, organize people around that family or whatever they needed, she said. In a tweet on March 10, Calgarys Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he was absolutely crushed to learn of Lwugis death. Danielle Moore Danielle Moore had been invited to attend the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi and was on her way there on the Ethiopian Airways jet when it crashed. Over the next week Ill have the opportunity to discuss global environmental issues, share stories, and connect with other youth and leaders from all over the world, she wrote on Facebook a day before the crash. I feel beyond privileged to be receiving this opportunity, and want to share as much with folks back home. Born in Toronto, she was living in Winnipeg, where CBC reports she worked for the charity Canada Learning Code. Moores brother David Moore described her in a message to CBC via Facebook. She always strived to make the world a better place, he said. Peter DeMarsh Peter DeMarsh was chair of the International Family Forestry Alliance and former chair of the Taymouth Community Association in New Brunswick, where he lived. A post on the Kenya Forest Service Facebook page said DeMarsh was travelling to Nairobi to attend a workshop on access to international climate finance for small holder farmers. David Coon, leader of the Green Party of New Brunswick, offered his condolences to DeMarshs family on social media. My deepest sympathy to Jean and their son Luke, he said. Goodbye old friend. You gave so much of yourself in service to the common good. Jessica Hyba Jessica Hyba has been identified by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees as one of its Canadian-born employees. According to the UNHCR, she was working as its senior external relations officer. In a social media post, Gillian Barth with CARE Canada identified Hyba as a former colleague and friend. She was a devoted humanitarian and cherished mother, Barth said. The world has lost an irreplaceable human being. Stephanie Lacroix Stephanie Lacroix had just graduated from the University of Ottawa in 2015, and by 2018 she was working as a project officer with the United Nations Association in Canada. According to her LinkedIn profile, her job involved engaging young Canadians in national service projects through the UNs Canada Service Corps. She was also a board member of the African Community Fund for Education Canada and a former volunteer with Free the Children. In a post on Facebook, her uncle, Gille Lamarche, described Lacroix as a young beautiful service leader. Lamarche said Lacroix was living her dream after completing an honours degree in international studies. RIP my beautiful niece. You are loved and will always be. You leave an exceptional legacy of love and service, and will be missed by thousands, he said. You left your mark without a doubt and made a BIG difference. Earth lost an angel, and heaven gained one more. CBC reports Lacroix grew up in Timmins. Micah Messent Micah Messent, an Indigenous relations analyst with the BC Public Service and environmentalist, described the aim of his work as constructively deconstructing the status quo. It was that work that called him to Nairobi, when he was invited by the United Nations Association of Canada to attend the fourth session of the UN Environment Assembly. In a post to Instagram, he said attending the assembly would provide him with a chance to meet with other passionate youth and leaders from around the world and explore how we can tackle the biggest challenges that are facing our generation. According to his LinkedIn profile, Messent graduated from Vancouver Island University with a bachelor in indigenous studies in 2017. Dixit-Vaidya family Six members of a Brampton, Ont. family were among the victims of the crash that killed 18 Canadians. Spanning three generations, they are being remembered within their Brampton community as loving people. Sisters Anushka Dixit, 13, and Ashka, 14, were on the jet with their mother, 37-year-old Kosha Vaidya, their father, 45-year-old Prerit Dixit, and Indian grandparents Pannagesh and Hansini Vaidya. The family was travelling to Kenya for a safari, CP reports. Although the grandparents were originally from India, they lived in Kenya for several years before moving back to India, and Kosha was born there. This would have been her first trip back to her birthplace in decades. It was not immediately clear if Pannagesh Vaidya and Hansini Vaidya were Canadian citizens, but they are not. Angela Rehhorn Like so many other victims of the deadly Ethiopian Airlines crash, Angela Rehhorn was on her way to Kenya with the United Nations Association of Canada to attend the UN assembly in Nairobi. The Canadian Wildlife Federation confirmed March 11 that Rehhorn, one of the organizations Canadian Conservation Corps participants, died in the plane crash. According to a statement by the federation, Rehhorn was a recent graduate of Nova Scotias Dalhousie University but had already made tremendous contributions to the future of conservation. The release said she had just completed volunteering her time to do species surveys in Canada and was developing a citizen science project on bat conservation. It said she planned to gain more experience studying marine environments. Angela shared the excitement and optimism of volunteering and working to improve our world. Her life is an inspiration to us all, said Rick Bates, CEO of the Canadian Wildlife Federation. Darcy Belanger Darcy Belanger helped found environmental non-profit Pavarti.org, and it was the organization that confirmed his death with deep grief in a statement on March 11. At the time of his death, Belanger had been working to spread awareness about an initiative called the Marin Arctic Peace Sanctuary. Belanger had taken time off from his job as director of professional development at construction company PCL to travel to Nairobi for the UN Environment Assembly, the statement said. Admired for his courage, outstanding achievements, and noble qualities, Darcy was a hero in every sense of the word. He was passionately devoted to the protection of all life through the realization of MAPS, the Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary, the statement said. Darcy was truly a champion and a force of nature, one whose passing leaves an unimaginable gap in this work as well as in the lives of his family, friends and colleagues. Ameen Ismail Noormohamed Ameen Ismail Noormohamed was a 72-year-old Canadian citizen who lived in Nairobi and Toronto and travelled between Kenya and Canada. Global reports he had been in Toronto visiting his sister and was on his way back to Kenya when he became a victim of the Ethiopian Airlines crash. Rubi Pauls One of the youngest victims of the plane crash was nine-month-old Rubi Pauls, a Canadian, who was on her way to meet her grandfather for the first time in Kenya. Grandfather Quindos Karanja says Rubis grandmother, 60-year-old Ann Wangui Karanja, her mother, 34-year-old Carolyne Karanja and her seven-year-old brother Ryan, and sister Kerri, who was four were also on the flight. Only Rubi was a Canadian citizen. Dawn Tanner Dawn Tanners son, Cody French, described her in a Facebook post as an extraordinary woman who made her sons proud with her acts of kindness and compassion toward others. You have played a major role in shaping who we have become, he said, addressing his late mother. We are both so fortunate to have had you as a Mother and we can both live the rest of our lives knowing, wholeheartedly, that Hunter and I were your world and that you were extremely proud of both of us. Tanner was a 47-year-old Hamilton-area teacher, whose death was confirmed by the Grand Erie District School Board, CBC reports. With files from the Canadian Press. Brie Larsons Captain Marvel connects to the MCU in a big way (REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni) Warning: This article contains spoilers from Captain Marvel Captain Marvel might be set in the 1990s but therea a lot linking it to the modern movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In fact, the superhero film provides a lot of backstory to the events and characters who have appeared in the MCU over the last ten years. So in case, you missed some of these key points watching the movies, here we explain just how the Brie Larson-led movie connects to the Avengers and beyond. The Tesseract The Space Stone (otherwise known as the Tesseract) has had the most MCU screen time so far There was a collective intake of breath when the Tesseract was revealed to be the power source Mar-Vell was trying to protect in Captain Marvel. The Tesseract first appeared in a Thor post-credit scene but played a more significant part in Captain America: The First Avenger where it was found by Johann Schmidt (AKA the Red Skull) in 1942, years after the Asgardians hid it there on Earth for safe-keeping. By the end of that film, it was deep in Arctic waters until Howard Stark recovered it and handed it over to S.H.I.E.L.D. for safe keeping. Though it seems that in-between then and Loki stealing it in Avengers: Assemble, the Tesseract ended up in the hands of Mar-Vell, who used her government access to steal it and experiment with it to create a lightspeed engine. When Carol acquires the Tesseract, Goose swallows it whole and she decides it should remain on Earth under Fury and the Flerkens protection. However, the end credit scene explains how it became more available for Loki to steal decades later. It also appears that the Tesseract gave Carol Danvers her powers as she absorbed its energy that was used to power the lightspeed engine when she blew it up. Weve known for a while that the Tesseract is an Infinity Stone and in Infinity War, Thanos crushes it to reveal that it is the Space Stone and adds it to his Gauntlet. The fact that this powerful stone is the source of Captain Marvels powers could have major implications for how she might be able to defeat Thanos in Avengers: Endgame. Story continues Read more: Guardians Vol. 3 Will Not be Directed by Taika Waititi Furys eye Fury loses the use of his eye in this movie Looks like the story about how Fury lost his eye isnt as dramatic as he has had people believing over the years. Actually, he loses the use of his right eye because Goose scratches him but because the cat isnt a cat, rather a Flerken, it does far more damage. The Avengers Initiative Avengers Initiative starts with Carol (credit: Marvel Studios) The Avengers Initiative wasnt originally going to be called that by Fury, it was actually going to be called The Protector Initiative. However, he renames it Avenger after seeing Captain Carol Avenger Danvers is written on the side of her plane. Ronan the Accuser and Korath the Pursuer Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace, second from left) meets Captain Marvel. (Photo: Marvel Studios) Weve known for a while that Lee Pace and Djimon Hounsou would be returning to the MCU via Captain Marvel and they didnt disappoint. They first appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy, but in this film, the characters are far less fanatical. Paces Ronan is the leader of the Kree military faction, the Accuser Corps, while Hounsous Korath is a member of the same Star Force as Carol Danvers. Read more: Chan says Captain Marvel will shake up Phase 4 Coulson and Furys friendship Clark Gregg return to the big screen MCU in Captain Marvel as Agent Coulson The movie shows the beginning of Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Nick Furys (Samuel L. Jackson) camaraderie. Coulson is a new recruit at S.H.I.E.L.D. who accompanies Fury to check out the story of a woman crash landing in a Blockbuster video store. Coulson later earns Furys respect when he comes to his aid during a tense scene at an underground government facility. By the films end, its clear the twos friendship and trust in each other has been cemented. Quinjet An early Quinjet appears in Captain Marvel (Credit: Marvel Studios) The spaceship Carol and Nick commandeer at the underground research facility looks a lot like an early model of the Quinjets first seen in Avengers: Assemble. In fact, its apparently a Quadjet, the Quinjets predecessor. This particular ships upgrades (courtesy of the Skrulls Science Guy) may have been taken on by S.H.I.E.L.D. in order to make later models become the most advanced airships on built on Earth. Read more: Brie Larson responds to smile criticism Furys pager Nick Furys pager in Captain Marvel (credit: Marvel Studios) At the end of Infinity War, we saw Nick Fury get out his pager and send a message to Captain Marvel and in this movie we see where it came from. Fury had been using the two-way pager but after doing something a little naughty, Carol confiscated it. When she returned it she explained the upgrades she had made to allow him to contact her a few galaxies away for emergencies only. In the mid-credit scene, the remaining Avengers are monitoring the pager and soon find out who Fury sent his final page to before getting dusted. Captain Marvel is in cinemas now Captain Marvel post-credit scenes explained (credit: Marvel Studios) Warning: This article contains spoilers from Captain Marvel Captain Marvel doesnt disappoint when it comes to post-credit scenes as there are two to stick around for. The first occurs mid-credits and sees a still-bearded Steve Rogers, Black Widow, War Machine and Bruce Banner in the Avengers HQ checking the fatality numbers for the world after Thanos Snap now known in the MCU as The Decimation. Theyre also in possession of Nick Furys pager from which he sent a message to Captain Marvel, just before turned to dust at the end of Infinity War. It looks like the remaining Avengers have been keeping an eye on it, but their concern grows when it suddenly switches off. Their confusion soon turns to shock when Carol Danvers suddenly appears demanding to know where Nick Fury is. It then cuts to a message reminding us that Captain Marvel will return in Avengers: Endgame. It should be noted though that this scene might not begin the next Avengers movie, as the Doctor Strange mid-credit scene with Thor ended up taking place midway through Thor: Ragnarok, as did the Ant-Man mid-credit tease for Civil War. Read more Chan says Captain Marvel will shake up Phase 4 Goose plays a significant role in the movie (credit: Marvel) The very end credit scene concerns Goose (the cat-looking Flerken) coughing up the Tesseract like a hairball onto Nick Furys desk. Fury has been tasked by Carol to look after the Tesseract on Earth though at this point nobody knows that it is the Space Stone. Its appearance suggests that Mar-Vell used her position with PEGASUS and the government to get her hands on it. Howard Stark handed it over to S.H.I.E.L.D. for sake-keeping after retrieving it from Arctic waters at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger. There is also a Stan Lee cameo that is far more meta than his previous appearances. The late Marvel Comics co-creator, who passed away on 12 November 2018, made one of his final MCU outings in the Brie Larson-led superhero movie in a train sequence with Carol Danvers. Story continues He can be seen reading a movie script and running lines when the hero checks to see if he is the Skrull she is looking for. They look at each other, she gives a knowing smile before moving on and he continues reading lines. Read more Mark Hamill complains about Star Wars again The funny thing is, the script in his hand is for the 1995 Kevin Smith film Mallrats, which Stan had a cameo in as himself. However, hes not reading one of his own lines so it could mean that the late Marvel icon wasnt playing himself in Captain Marvel. Kevin Feige confirmed that he is playing the same character who pops up all across the MCU in different jobs, but a fan theory goes further by suggesting that he is actually Uatu The Watcher. Uatu is a member of an ancient alien race tasked with watching over Earth and keeping an eye on the heroes rising up. Sadly we might not see Uatu after The New Mutants hits cinemas this August Captain Marvel is in cinemas now. A sizeable part of portfolio returns can be produced by dividend stocks due to their contribution to compounding returns in the long run. Historically, China Mobile Limited (HKG:941) has paid dividends to shareholders, and these days it yields 4.2%. Lets dig deeper into whether China Mobile should have a place in your portfolio. Check out our latest analysis for China Mobile How I analyze a dividend stock If you are a dividend investor, you should always assess these five key metrics: Is it the top 25% annual dividend yield payer? 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? Is is able 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? SEHK:941 Historical Dividend Yield, March 10th 2019 How does China Mobile fare? The company currently pays out 50% of its earnings as a dividend, according to its trailing twelve-month data, which means that the dividend is covered by earnings. Going forward, analysts expect 941s payout to increase to 58% of its earnings. Assuming a constant share price, this equates to a dividend yield of around 4.3%. However, EPS is forecasted to fall to CN5.65 in the upcoming year. Therefore, although payout is expected to increase, the fall in earnings may not equate to higher dividend income. If you want to dive deeper into the sustainability of a certain payout ratio, you may wish to consider the cash flow of the business. A company with strong cash flow, relative to earnings, can sometimes sustain a high pay out ratio. If dividend is a key criteria in your investment consideration, then you need to make sure the dividend stock youre eyeing out is reliable in its payments. Although 941s per share payments have increased in the past 10 years, it has not been a completely smooth ride. Shareholders would have seen a few years of reduced payments in this time. Story continues In terms of its peers, China Mobile produces a yield of 4.2%, which is on the low-side for Wireless Telecom stocks. Next Steps: Considering the dividend attributes we analyzed above, China Mobile is definitely worth keeping an eye on for someone looking to build a dedicated income portfolio. Given that this is purely a dividend analysis, I urge potential investors to try and get a good understanding of the underlying business and its fundamentals before deciding on an investment. Below, Ive compiled three relevant factors you should further research: Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for 941s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for 941s outlook. Valuation: What is 941 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 941 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. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. Julie McCartt was heading out for some takeaway food when she found herself witnessing a deadly gunfight between police and an alleged car thief in Roseburg, Oregon on Saturday, March 9. Well last night was crazy, went for Chinese food and saw high speed chase that didnt end well for the bad guy, McCartt said on Facebook. Officers from Douglas County Sheriffs Office and Oregon State Police chased the allegedly stolen car into a nearby ranch, reported local broadcaster FOX12 . This video shows the alleged car thief exchanging shots with police just before the car bursts into flames. When the shootout ended human remains were found inside the vehicle, FOX12 reported. No officers were injured during the incident. Police said the stolen car reportedly had multiple weapons and ammunition inside, including a semi-automatic rifle. Credit: Julie McCartt via Storyful Cayenne (AFP) - A former British marine arrived in French Guiana early Monday after a two-month row across the Atlantic, becoming the first physically disabled person to make the solo crossing from mainland Europe to South America and also smashing the able-bodied record, according to his team. Lee Spencer, 49, set out on January 9 from Portimao, in southern Portugal but was forced to stop for a few days in Las Palmas, in Spain's Canary Islands, to repair his navigation system before continuing on to South America in his specially-designed ocean rowing boat called Hope. The very first record set for a physically disabled solo ocean rower was in 2004, when Britain's Stuart Boreham left from the Canary Islands and reached Barbados 109 days, 12 hours and nine minutes later. The first able-bodied person to row across the Atlantic solo from mainland Europe to South America was Norwegian Stein Hoff, who made the voyage from Portugal to Guyana in 2002 and holds the current record at 96 days, 12 hours and 45 minutes. "HE'S ONLY JUST GONE AND BLOODY DONE IT! Lee has smashed the able-bodied record for rowing the Atlantic, solo, from mainland Europe to mainland South America, by a whopping 36 days," Spencer's Twitter account said as he arrived in French Guiana after his 5,600-kilometre (3,500-mile) journey. Spencer served 24 years as a Royal Marine commando and completed three operational tours of Afghanistan, returning to Britain unscathed only to lose his right leg below the knee in 2014 after being hit by flying debris while helping a motorway crash victim. "He stopped in Las Palmas on January 21 for four days, which does not affect the world record and he did not need to make another stop after that," said Isobel Carmier, who was in charge of communications for his crossing. It was actually his second time rowing across the Atlantic, having crossed it in 2016 as a part of a four-man team of injured soldiers who had just three legs between them. He hoped his journey would challenge perceptions of disability as well as raise money for the Royal Marines Charity and the Endeavour Fund, which support the recovery of wounded, injured and sick British military personnel. "If a disabled man can go out and smash an able-bodied record in something as physical as rowing then that is a massive statement. That is what it is all about," Spencer said before he set off. If you own shares in Beijing Beida Jade Bird Universal Sci-Tech Company Limited (HKG:8095) then its worth thinking about how it contributes to the volatility of your portfolio, overall. In finance, Beta is a measure of volatility. Modern finance theory considers volatility to be a measure of risk, and there are two main types of price volatility. First, we have company specific volatility, which is the price gyrations of an individual stock. Holding at least 8 stocks can reduce this kind of risk across a 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 see their prices move in concert with the market. Others tend towards stronger, gentler or unrelated price movements. Beta can be a useful tool to understand how much a stock is influenced by market risk (volatility). However, Warren Buffett said volatility is far from synonymous with risk in his 2014 letter to investors. So, while useful, beta is not the only metric to consider. To use beta as an investor, you must first understand that the overall market has a beta of one. Any stock with a beta of greater than one is considered more volatile than the market, while those with a beta below one are either less volatile or poorly correlated with the market. Check out our latest analysis for Beijing Beida Jade Bird Universal Sci-Tech What we can learn from 8095s beta value Zooming in on Beijing Beida Jade Bird Universal Sci-Tech, we see it has a five year beta of 1.47. This is above 1, so historically its share price has been influenced by the broader volatility of the stock market the market. If this beta value holds true in the future, Beijing Beida Jade Bird Universal Sci-Tech shares are likely to rise more than the market when the market is going up, but fall faster when the market is going down. 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 Beijing Beida Jade Bird Universal Sci-Techs revenue and earnings in the image below. Story continues SEHK:8095 Income Statement, March 11th 2019 How does 8095s size impact its beta? Beijing Beida Jade Bird Universal Sci-Tech is a noticeably small company, with a market capitalisation of HK$1.4b. Most companies this size are not always actively traded. It takes less money to influence the share price of a very small company. This may explain the excess volatility implied by this beta value. What this means for you: Since Beijing Beida Jade Bird Universal Sci-Tech tends to moves up when the market is going up, and down when its going down, potential investors may wish to reflect on the overall market, when considering the stock. In order to fully understand whether 8095 is a good investment for you, we also need to consider important company-specific fundamentals such as Beijing Beida Jade Bird Universal Sci-Techs financial health and performance track record. I highly recommend you dive deeper by considering the following: Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for 8095s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for 8095s outlook. Past Track Record: Has 8095 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 8095s historicals for more clarity. Other Interesting Stocks: Its worth checking to see how 8095 measures up against other companies on valuation. You could start with this free list of prospective options. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. WASHINGTON President Donald Trump says he didn't make a mistake when he referred to Apple CEO Tim Cook as "Tim Apple," but did so as a time-saving measure even though video clearly shows he simply mangled the name. "I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words," the president tweeted early Monday. "The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story!" The video indicates Trump simply misspoke during a Friday event with business owners at the White House. Cook responded in a joking manner, changing his Twitter name to "Tim Apple," compete with an emoji of the eponymous fruit. President Donald Trump talks to Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook during a White House event last week. President Donald Trump called Apple CEO Tim Cook "Tim Apple" during a meeting at the White House on Wednesday pic.twitter.com/B6z3tzeBeO TIME (@TIME) March 7, 2019 At a recent round table meeting of business executives, & long after formally introducing Tim Cook of Apple, I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words. The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 11, 2019 Axios reported that, during a Florida fundraiser over the weekend, Trump claimed he did say "Tim Cook Apple" really fast, but the "Cook" part was said softly the video indicates otherwise. The news coverage annoyed Trump and his tweeted explanation Monday drew ridicule from his critics on social media. "NARCISSISTIC MADMAN has logged on," tweeted Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump claims he called CEO Tim Cook 'Tim Apple' to save time The Hague (AFP) - Former DR Congo vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba is demanding 68 million euros in compensation from the International Criminal Court following his war crimes acquittal last year, his lawyer said Monday. Lawyers said Bemba's assets -- including seven planes and three villas in Portugal -- were "simply allowed to rot" by the court while he spent a decade behind bars in The Hague. Last June, Bemba was acquitted of charges of murder, rape and pillaging committed by his private army in the neighbouring Central African Republic in 2002-3. A conviction for bribing witnesses was upheld. "An innocent man lost 10 years of his life," lawyer Peter Haynes said in a document sent to the ICC. "The aim is to try to repair some of the damage done to this man and his family by his arrest, his detention and the related actions by the court and certain parties," Haynes added. Bemba returned to his homeland after his acquittal but was barred from running for the opposition in Congolese elections because of the bribery conviction. The compensation demand adds to the troubles of the ICC, which was set up in 2002 to try the world's worst crimes but has faced recent setbacks including the acquittals of Bemba and, in January, former Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo. Haynes pointed out that the demand for 68 million euros ($76.5 million) "is just less than half the annual budget of the court". But Haynes said Bemba was willing to donate 22 million euros -- should he be awarded the full compensation -- "to provide reparations to the people of the Central African Republic." This amount would come from the compensation claimed "for the loss of 10 years of his life." "For 10 years Mr Bemba's assets, which includes amongst other things seven aeroplanes, three villas in Portugal and three parcels of land in the Congo and two boats were simply allowed to rot," said Haynes. Asked about who would foot the bill, Haynes said his client was entitled to compensation as stated in the ICC's founding document, the Rome Statute. "I would hope, and I'm sure the taxpayer would hope, that they sort out some insurance for that. It's not Mr Bemba's fault or my fault if they run their business in a way that they don't try and get insurance for their liabilities," he added. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex celebrated Commonwealth Day over "maple taffy" with young Canadians. The royal couple visited Canada House to mark the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the modern Commonwealth, speaking to young people about their experience as expats. Before marrying Prince Harry, Meghan Markle lived in Toronto, Canada, as she worked on legal drama Suits. During their visit to Canada House, the Duke and Duchess watched a demonstration of making maple taffy, a Canadian spring tradition in which maple syrup is cooled on snow to make sweets as part of a traditional Cabane a sucre or a Sugar Shack. Does anyone want one? the Duchess asked the 30 children vying to see how many they could eat of the sweets, which are made by pouring hot maple syrup on ice and then rolling it onto a stick. How many have you had? she asked one little boy. Seven? Oh my goodness. She gave her taffy to a nine-year-old girl, Elodie-Rose Duguay-Inegbese, from Shippagan, New Brunswick, who had only eaten two. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Canada House Credit: Getty It was really fun and Meghans really pretty. She was very kind and I liked talking to her, the little girl, whose mother Sylvie works at the high commission, said. The Duke and Duchess, who wore an outfit by the Canadian fashion firm Erdem, spent more than a hour at Canada House, meeting mostly young people from among the 500,000 strong Canadian expatriate population in Britain. The royal couple, whose first child is due at the end of next month, were escorted around the grand Greek Revival building on Trafalgar Square by the Canadian High Commissioner Janice Charette, who said she kept dropping hints about them visiting Canada soon but got no firm commitment. I think their priority is the baby first, she said. The High Commissioner told the royal couple: We trust that your visit to Canada House today has served as a reminder of happy times spent in Canada. We do kind of claim you," she told the Duchess. Story continues Ill take that! said Meghan, laughing. She reminisced about her time in Toronto, asking all the young people she met where they came from and which districts if they were from the city. Everyone here seems to be from Toronto, Harry said. Its such a great place," his wife replied. The Commonwealth Day Youth Event at Canada House Credit: Getty The couple, who have been given special responsibility to focus on young people in the Commonwealth, met young entrepreneurs, academics, and others working in the arts, telling them all how important their work was. When they met Michelle Keller-Hobson, who works for a Canadian investment firm, Wealthsimple, that encourages people to save and invest with as little as 1, Meghan asked what proportion of customers were women. Ms Keller-Hobson said 38 per cent in the UK but explained the figure was higher in Canada. She said women in Britain often had less money to invest because of the gender pay gap and other factors. The Duchess told her: Its so important what you are doing. Keep it up. She and Harry were given an outfit for their baby before they left as a present from the high commission. The gift set included a Hop and Moo organic maole leaf design baby bodysuit, Manitobah Mukluks leather moccasins, and a hat and mittens from the Hudsons Bay company. Father-to-be Prince Harry made staff laugh by sniffing inside the moccasins. Im sniffing the insides to check if they are leather or not, not because they are smelly, he said. Thank you to the young Canadians at @CanadianUK@CanadienRU for sharing the Canadian spring tradition of making maple taffy with The Duke and Duchess of Sussex!#CommonwealthDay#ConnectedCommonwealthpic.twitter.com/bjywgfQrjZ Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) March 11, 2019 Later today, the Queen, senior members of the royal family and leading figures from national life will attend the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey. In her message to mark Commonwealth Day, the head of state has praised how the family of nations inspires its member states to find ways of protecting the planet and its citizens. Millions of people are "drawn together" because of the collective values shared by the institution, the Queen says in her address to the 53 countries of the Commonwealth. The written message is featured in the order of service for the annual Commonwealth Day service being held at Westminster Abbey. The Queen, who is head of the Commonwealth, says in her message: "In April last year, I welcomed the leaders of our 53 nations to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, and we all witnessed how the Commonwealth vision offers hope, and inspires us to find ways of protecting our planet, and our people. The Duke of Sussex and Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Janice Charette (second right) attend a Commonwealth Day Youth Event Credit: Getty "We are able to look to the future with greater confidence and optimism as a result of the links that we share, and thanks to the networks of co-operation and mutual support to which we contribute, and on which we draw. "With enduring commitment through times of great change, successive generations have demonstrated that whilst the goodwill for which the Commonwealth is renowned may be intangible, its impact is very real." The Queen has shared her Commonwealth Day message Credit: Reuters The Queen will be joined at the Commonwealth Day service by the Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the Duke of York. Other guests among the 2,000-strong congregation will include Prime Minister Theresa May, the Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Scotland, alongside high commissioners, ambassadors, faith leaders and more than 800 schoolchildren and young people. Commonwealth Day has a special significance this year, as 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth - a global network of 53 countries and almost 2.4 billion people. The theme for this year's service is "A Connected Commonwealth" which highlights the co-operation between the culturally diverse family of nations who work together in friendship. Commonwealth Day 2018 Credit: Paul Grover Highlights of the service include performances by Grammy-winning group Clean Bandit and tenor Alfie Boe. A reflection will be given by Lewis Pugh, an endurance swimmer, ocean advocate and the UN Patron of the Oceans. Later in the evening, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall will be guests of the Commonwealth Secretary-General at the annual reception which traditionally takes place on Commonwealth Day at Marlborough House, the home of the Commonwealth Secretariat, the institution's civil service. Boeing and the FAA should ground the U.S. fleet of 737 MAX 8 jets after one of the innovative planes crashed in Ethiopia, killing 157 and raising safety concerns about thousands of new planes on order around the globe, a former NTSB chairman said Monday. The MAX 8 is at the vanguard of a new generation of jets being manufactured and sold to many countries. But two of the jets have now crashed - an Indonesian jet plunged into the Java Sea five months ago - and it's vital to find out what went wrong before too many of the planes are in the sky, said Jim Hall, who headed the National Transportation Safety Board from 1994 to 2001. With 74 MAX 8s flying in the U.S. and 387 flying worldwide, Hall said the key is to find any potential major problems with the relatively new aircraft because 4,661 more of the planes are on order. I felt the responsible thing for the manufacturer Boeing to do is to ground the aircraft until we know exactly what occurred, Hall told USA TODAY. "It would seem to be that it would be the responsible thing for the Boeing Co. to pause and take a very close look at these two accidents to find a determination what the cause was, so if theres anything systemic or related to the computer operations of the aircraft, that it can be addressed. Thats the prudent thing to do. Hall noted that Boeing suffered two fatal crashes in the early 1990s due to a rudder problem. United Airlines flight 585 crashed March 3, 1991, in Colorado Springs and USAir flight 427 crashed Sept. 8, 1994 in Pittsburgh, after rudders on each of the planes failed. An NTSB investigation into those crashes led Boeing to redesign the rudder system for the entire 737 fleet. Each country's civil aviation authority has its own authority to ground planes. But the FAA has tremendous global influence in affecting the decisions of individual nations and the grounding of planes, so a decision to ground in the U.S. would likely mean a worldwide grounding of the MAX 8. Story continues More than a dozen airlines around the world have already grounded the jets as investigators pore over the shattered remains of the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday. Boeing, based in the U.S., and the NTSB sent teams to the crash site to help determine why the Nairobi-bound Boeing 737 MAX 8 nosedived to the ground minutes after takeoff from the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. Michael Raynor, the U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia, visited the accident site Monday and said the NTSB team would arrive early Tuesday. The airline said the "black box" voice and data recorders had been found. The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement Monday afternoon that it is working with the NTSB to gather information. The agency also said it will assess any safety concerns with the Boeing 737 MAX 8 and will take "immediate and appropriate action" if problems are found. U.S. senators Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., echoed Hall's call for a grounding of the MAX 8. Until the cause of the crash is known and its clear that similar risks arent present in the domestic fleet, I believe all Boeing 737 MAX 8 series aircraft operating in the United States should be temporarily grounded, Senator Feinstein wrote. This aircraft model represents only a small fraction of the domestic fleet, and several other countries have already taken this important step, including China and Indonesia. Blumenthal called on the FAA and the airline industry to "act quickly and decisively to protect American travelers, pilots and flight attendants. These planes must be grounded immediately." U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., told Fox News that he doesn't trust the MAX 8. "I would think twice about getting on the plane, truthfully," said DeFazio, who heads the House Transportation Committee. "I'm not going to be dishonest here." The 737 MAX is the newest version of the 737, the best-selling airliner ever. Since debuting in 2017, dozens of airlines around the world have embraced the plane for its fuel efficiency and utility for short and medium-haul flights. They carry list prices from $100 million to $135 million, although airlines routinely get deep discounts. The senior pilot in the Ethiopia crash, identified as Yared Getachew, issued a distress call moments after takeoff and was told to return to the airport, Ethiopian airline officials said. All contact was lost shortly afterward. A witness said smoke was coming from the rear of the plane before it hit the ground. Tamrat Abera told the Associated Press that the plane rotated twice before crashing and exploding, sending smoke high into the sky. The plane was delivered to the airline in November and had flown only 1,200 hours. The plane underwent a "rigorous" maintenance check Feb. 4. Getachew had more than 8,000 flight hours of experience, the airline said. The crash came less than five months after an Indonesian Lion Air 737 MAX 8 crashed into the Java Sea, killing all 189 passengers aboard. Both flights experienced drastic speed fluctuations during ascent, and both pilots had tried to return to the airport after takeoff. As a result, the MAX 8 and its anti-stall system are drawing renewed scrutiny. The plane uses a system called MCAS Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System to stabilize the aircraft in flight. If sensors feed faulty data to the MCAS, the system can force the aircraft into a dive, according to a Boeing service bulletin Nov. 6. Flight data recovered from the Lion Air crash showed pilots repeatedly tried to get the nose up. Boeing issued a statement saying it was "deeply saddened" by the tragedy and would provide technical assistance to the Ethiopia Accident Investigation Bureau and the NTSB. Ethiopia, China and Indonesia grounded their Boeing 737 MAX 8s on all airlines. Some airlines in India and South Korea also grounded them, and Cayman Airways parked its two MAX 8s. U.S. carriers Southwest and American fly the plane, and both expressed confidence in their fleets. Southwest, which has 34 of the planes and is adding more, said on Twitter that the airline had flown 31,000 flights on 737 MAX planes and plans on "operating those aircraft going forward." United Airlines doesn't fly the MAX 8 but does count 14 MAX 9s in its fleet. "If you prefer not to fly on one we completely understand and will do what is best in our capabilities to find alternative travel arrangements," United told a concerned customer on Twitter. Elaine Chao, the U.S. secretary of transportation, said federal officials are keeping a close eye on the investigation in Ethiopia. "I met with the acting FAA administrator on latest developments and what are our possible paths forward," Chao said. "I want travelers to be assured and that we are taking this seriously and monitoring latest developments. Mike Slack, a pilot and lawyer who has represented victims and their families in plane crashes, said U.S. airlines should ground the 737 Max models until more is known. He said he believes having two fatal crashes in such short succession on a new type of aircraft is unprecedented. This to me is a very alarming circumstance, said Slack, who is also a former NASA engineer. Do you gamble, continue to operate and gamble that you can figure it out before another one happens, but, at the current rate, it may not be that long, and do you really want to put the traveling public in a position where theyre having to make travel decisions based upon the fact that neither the regulators nor the airlines have opted to ground these aircraft? Slack noted that the number of 737 Max planes currently in use is relatively low compared to airlines overall fleets. Its a hard decision for regulators because the regulators are going to get lobbied by the airlines not to do it. Its a hard decision for the airlines because theyre going to lose revenues. But at what point does the safety of the traveling public comes ahead of that? he said. The victims in the Ethiopia crash came from 35 countries. Ethiopia declared a national day of mourning, and the U.N. flag flew at half-staff. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the dead included at least 21 U.N. staff members along with others who worked with the organization. Addis Ababa and Nairobi are vital hubs for humanitarian workers, and some had been on their way to a U.N. environmental conference in Nairobi. "A global tragedy has hit close to home, and the United Nations is united in grief," Guterres said. Start the day smarter: Get USA TODAY's Daily Briefing in your inbox Kenya lost 32 people, more than any country. Kenyas transport minister, James Macharia, said the welfare of their stunned families was a primary focus. Some of them, as you know, they are very distressed, he said. They are in shock like we are. They are grieving. Dozens of MAX aircraft crisscrossed the skies over the United States on Monday, and passengers continued to board them and fly without incident. Passengers interviewed at Houstons Hobby Airport were keenly aware of the crash in Ethiopia. They expressed concern but no panic. I drive in Houston every day, said Brian Browder, who was waiting for a flight to Washington, D.C. Thats the place to be worried. Still, Browder, who works for a construction-industry trade group and flies several times a month, said he would be a bit apprehensive about getting on a 737 MAX. They need to explain exactly what happened and why, he said. Kelly Wells, a health care worker from Austin, believes a catastrophic accident is less likely to happen in the United States. Those pilots are very well trained to handle an emergency. Im in capable hands, she said before a flight on Southwest, which operates the Max, although her flight was not among them. Contributing: Jorge L. Ortiz and Dawn Gilbertson, USA TODAY; The Associated Press More: 'A punch in the nose for Boeing': Second fatal crash raises questions More: 8 Americans among 157 dead after Ethiopian Airlines flight crashes This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Former NTSB chief: Hundreds of Boeing jets should be grounded in wake of Ethiopia crash Addis Ababa (AFP) - Ethiopian Airlines, whose jet crashed on Sunday after takeoff from Addis Ababa, has grown into Africa's largest airline as it has used its modern fleet to serve destinations across the continent. Founded in 1945, it has in recent years outgrown its continental rivals South African Airways and Kenya Airways, both of whom are losing money while Ethiopian has ordered new planes and opened new routes. The state-owned carrier serves 119 international destinations with a fleet of more than 110 planes based in its Addis Ababa hub, including the ultra-modern Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Ethiopian's website said it operates the youngest fleet of aircraft in Africa. Besides serving global hubs like Beijing, Paris, London and Washington, Ethiopian flies to smaller African cities with few international connections like Enugu in Nigeria, Nosy Be in Madagascar and Mbuji-Mayi and Lubumbashi in DR Congo. The strategy has paid off, with revenue hitting $2.7 billion (2.4 billion euros) in 2017-2018 and Addis Ababa overtaking Dubai last year as the main transit airport for people arriving in sub-Saharan Africa. Addis Ababa airport has recently undergone a large-scale revamp to serve as major transit hub, with a $345 million passenger terminal wing opening earlier this year. With around 65 aircraft on order and new routes announced regularly, Ethiopian has made expansion its goal. The Sunday crash of Flight 302, which plunged into the ground and killed all 157 onboard minutes after take-off to Nairobi, is a setback for the carrier. In response, it's grounded all six of its Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, the model involved in the disaster. Boeing has faced questions over the 737 MAX 8 since last October, when that same model operated by Lion Air crashed after takeoff in Indonesia, killing all 189 people onboard. The Sunday crash was the first fatal incident for Ethiopian since February 2010, when 90 people were killed after a flight to Addis Ababa from Beirut crashed off the coast of Lebanon. Story continues The airline has seen less severe security incidences in recent years. In 2014, the co-pilot of an Ethiopian flight hijacked the plane and forced it to land in Geneva so he could claim asylum. An Ethiopian court later sentenced him to more than 19 years in prison for the takeover in which no one was injured. In 2015, the three-person crew of an Ethiopian cargo jet was injured when the plane skidded off the runway after landing in Accra, Ghana. (Corrections & Clarifications: This story has been updated to clarify the vacation travel of Melvin and Bennett Riffel.) As officials identify the 157 people killed when an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed shortly after takeoff Sunday, family, friends and communities are sharing details about their lives. Citizens of at least 35 countries died, the airline said, including eight Americans. The 4-month-old Boeing 737-8 MAX plane leaving Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi, Kenya, carried 149 passengers and eight crew members. There were no survivors. Some of the victims: Cedric Asiavugwa, Georgetown Law student A third-year law student at Georgetown, Asiavugwa was heading to Nairobi after his fiance's mother died, the university said in a statement. Born and raised in Mombasa, Kenya, he studied international business and economic law. Before going to Georgetown, the university said, he worked to support refugees in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. "Beyond his many commitments and contributions, Cedrics friends and faculty in this community remember him as a kind, compassionate and gentle soul, known for his beautifully warm and infectious smile," the statement said. Pius Adesanmi, Canadian professor Adesanmi was on his way to meet with the African Unions Economic, Social and Cultural Council in Nairobi, said John O. Oba, Nigerias representative to the panel. The professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, previously taught comparative literature at Pennsylvania State University. Pius was a towering figure in African and post-colonial scholarship and his sudden loss is a tragedy, said Benoit-Antoine Bacon, Carletons president and vice chancellor. Adesanmi won the the inaugural Penguin Prize for African non-fiction writing in 2010. Joanna Toole, British United Nations worker The 36-year-old from Exmouth, Devon, was heading to Nairobi for the United Nations Environment Assembly. Her father described her as a "very soft and loving woman" and said she traveled to the remote Faroe Islands to prevent whaling. Story continues Manuel Barange, the director of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations fisheries and aquaculture department, tweeted he was profoundly sad and lost for words." More: 'A punch in the nose for Boeing': Second fatal crash raises questions about plane's safety More: 8 Americans among 157 dead after Ethiopian Airlines flight crashes after takeoff Paolo Dieci, co-founder of an Italian NGO Dieci helped found the International Committee for the Development of Peoples, a group that works with the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in Northern Africa. The world of international cooperation has lost one of its most brilliant advocates and Italian civil society has lost a precious point of reference, the group wrote on its website. Abiodun Oluremi Bashu, retired Nigerian ambassador Contracted with the United Nations Economic Commission of Africa when he died, Bashu had served as secretary to the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. He joined the Nigerian Foreign Service in 1976 and served in cities including Tehran, Iran, and Vienna, Austria. The Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it "prayed that the Almighty God grant his family and the nation, the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss. Bashu's son, Lekan Bashu, said in a Facebook post that his father spent his time working on nuclear non-proliferation, climate change, refugee work and many other causes. Bashu described his father as an intelligent and fearless man who "made friends everywhere he went." "My father's life was cut short today while still in his prime," Lekan Bashu said in the post. "He was still very energetic, traveling as he had done for as long as I can remember. He was not old man by far." Rescuers remove body bags from the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed shortly after takeoff at Hejere near Bishoftu in Ethiopia. Michael Ryan, Irish aid worker, engineer One of the seven victims with the United Nations World Food Programme, Ryan was believed to be married with two children. He has worked on projects creating safe ground for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and assessing the damage to rural roads in Nepal blocked by landslides. "Michael was doing life-changing work in Africa with the World Food Programme," Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said in a Twitter post. "Deepest sympathies to family, colleagues & friends." Family of Slovak lawmaker Anton Hrnko, a legislator for the ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party, said he was in deep grief over the loss of his wife, son and daughter. Their ages were not immediately available. His son's employer said he was traveling for a vacation in Kenya. President Andrej Kiska offered his condolences to Hrnko. Melvin and Bennett Riffel, brothers from California The Riffel brothers of Redding, California, were on vacation, first visiting Australia before traveling to Africa. Melvin and his wife, Brittney, were expecting their first child this spring. Jake Mangas, a friend of the Riffel family, said the brothers were enjoying their last trip before Melvin became a father. Brittney Riffel joined the brothers for the first part of their vacation but returned home early, Mangas said. "Our family is devastated for Ike and Susan (the brothers' parents) and certainly for Melvin's wife, Brittney," Mangas said. "They are wonderful, faith-filled people and if there is any encouragement to me, it's in this difficult circumstance, I know they are surrounded by a community that loves them very much." Hussein Swaleh Mtetu, football commissioner Mtetu was returning home after serving as a commissioner for the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champions League match in Egypt on Friday. He had been appointed to served as match commissioner from 2018-2020. The CAF said in a statement that it sends its "condolences to our dearest Hussein Swaleh Mtetu family, his relatives and to the Kenyan Football Federation." Debris at the crash site of Ethiopian Airlines Flight Contributing: David Benda, Redding Record Searchlight; Associated Press This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Georgetown Law student among 157 victims of Boeing 737 Max crash in Ethiopia ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- A spokesman says Ethiopian Airlines has grounded all its Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft as a safety precaution, following the crash of one of its planes in which 157 people were killed. Asrat Begashaw said Monday that although it is not yet known what caused the crash on Sunday, the airline decided to ground its remaining four 737 planes until further notice as "an extra safety precaution." Ethiopian Airlines was using five new 737 planes and was awaiting delivery of 25 more. He said searching and digging to uncover body parts and aircraft debris will continue. He said forensic experts from Israel have arrived in Ethiopia to help with the investigation. By Duncan Miriri, Maggie Fick and Aaron Maasho NAIROBI/ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - An Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after take-off on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board and raising questions about the safety of the Boeing 737 MAX 8, a new model that also crashed in Indonesia in October. Sunday's flight left Bole airport in Addis Ababa at 8:38 a.m. (0538 GMT), before losing contact with the control tower just a few minutes later at 8:44 a.m. "There are no survivors," the airline tweeted alongside a picture of Chief Executive Tewolde GebreMariam holding up a piece of debris inside a large crater at the crash site. "The pilot mentioned that he had difficulties and that he wanted to return," Tewolde told a news conference. Passengers from 33 countries were aboard, said Tewolde. The dead included Kenyan, Ethiopian, American, Canadian, French, Chinese, Egyptian, Swedish, British, Dutch, Indian, Slovakian, Austrian, Swedish, Russian, Moroccan, Spanish, Polish, and Israeli citizens. At least four worked for the United Nations, the airline said, and the U.N.'s World Food Program director confirmed his organization had lost staff in the accident. Weeping relatives begged for information at airports in Nairobi and Addis Ababa. "We're just waiting for my mum. We're just hoping she took a different flight or was delayed. She's not picking up her phone," said Wendy Otieno, clutching her phone and weeping. The aircraft, a 737 MAX 8, is the same model that crashed into the Java Sea shortly after take-off from Jakarta on Oct 29, killing all 189 people on board the Lion Air flight. The cause of that crash is still under investigation. A senior U.S. government official said it was too early to tell if there was any direct connection between the two accidents, but that reviewing the issue would be among the top priorities for investigators. The 737 is the worlds best selling modern passenger aircraft and is seen as one of the industrys most reliable. A preliminary report into the October crash focused on airline maintenance and training and technical questions about the response of a Boeing anti-stall system to a recently replaced sensor. Boeing is working on a software patch on the system, while insisting cockpit procedures were already in place to deal safely with problems the Lion Air crew experienced. Ethiopian's new aircraft had no recorded technical problems and the pilot had an "excellent" flying record, Tewolde said. We received the airplane on November 15, 2018. It has flown more than 1,200 hours. It had flown from Johannesburg earlier this morning," he said. "UNSTABLE SPEED" Flight ET 302, registration number ET-AVJ, crashed near the town of Bishoftu, 62 km (38 miles) southeast of the capital Addis Ababa, with 149 passengers and eight crew aboard, the airline said. The flight had unstable vertical speed after take off, the flight tracking website Flightradar24 tweeted. Data released by the Sweden-based service suggested the aircraft had climbed almost 1,000 feet after taking off from Addis Ababa, a hot and high-altitude airport whose thinner air requires extra effort from an aircraft's engines. It dipped about 450 feet before rapidly climbing another 900 feet until the point where satellite tracking data was lost. The aircraft had shattered into many pieces and was severely burnt, a Reuters reporter at the scene of the crash said. Clothing and personal effects were scattered widely over the field where the plane came down. There was no immediate indication of what caused the crash and safety experts said it was too early to speculate, adding most accidents are caused by a cocktail of factors. They said investigators would examine the wreckage and bodies for any signs of burns or unusual forces and study the shape and size of the wreckage field. An urgent priority will be to find the two crash-protected cockpit recorders - one for data and the other for pilots' voice recordings. Boeing said it was sending a technical team to help with the Ethiopian-led investigation. ANGUISHED RELATIVES At Nairobi airport, many relatives were left waiting at the gate for hours, with no information from airport authorities. Some learned of the crash from journalists. Robert Mutanda, 46, was waiting for his brother-in-law, a Canadian citizen. "No, we haven't seen anyone from the airline or the airport," he told Reuters at 1pm, more than three hours after the flight was lost. "Nobody has told us anything, we are just standing here hoping for the best." Kenyan officials did not arrive at the airport until 1:30 p.m. James Macharia, the cabinet secretary for transport, said he heard about the crash via Twitter. Nineteen staff from at least five U.N. and affiliated organizations died, including the World Food Program, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, the International Telecommunications Union, the U.N. Environment Program, the World Bank and the International Organisation on Migration, the IOM said. ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES Under international rules, responsibility for leading the crash investigation lies with Ethiopia but the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will also participate because the plane was designed and built in the United States. Representatives of Boeing and Cincinnati-based engine-maker CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric and General Electric Co and Frances Safran SA, were expected to advise the NTSB. Ethiopian is one of the biggest carriers on the continent by fleet size. The plane was among six of 30 Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets the rapidly expanding carrier has ordered. The fleet will continue flying since the cause of the crash is not clear, the CEO said. Its last major crash was in January 2010, when a flight from Beirut went down shortly after take-off, killing all 90 people onboard. The Lebanese blamed pilot error, which was disputed by the airline. North American airlines that operate the 737 MAX 8 said they were monitoring the investigation. Southwest Airlines flies 31 MAX 8 jets while American Airlines and Air Canada each have 24 in their fleet. Southwest said it remained confident in the safety of its more than 750 Boeing jets. (Additional reporting by Hereward Holland, Omar Mohammed and Katharine Houreld in Nairobi; Tiksa Negeri in Bishoftu; Tim Hepher in Paris, Jamie Freed in Singapore, Allison Lampert in Montreal and David Shephardson in Washington; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Jane Merriman) By Francesco Guarascio BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union finance ministers are set to add the British overseas territory of Bermuda and the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba to the bloc's blacklist of tax havens on Tuesday, according to EU documents and officials. The United Arab Emirates are also on the draft new list, but Italy and Estonia are opposing the listing of the emirates, a document seen by Reuters shows. The largest review of the list since its adoption in Dec. 2017 is expected to see the number of listed jurisdictions triple from the current five. The Caribbean island of Barbados and the Arab Sultanate of Oman are also on the expanded draft list, EU documents show. Other jurisdictions in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean are set to complete the updated list. The 28-nation EU set up the blacklist after revelations of widespread tax avoidance schemes used by corporations and wealthy individuals to lower their tax bills. Blacklisted jurisdictions face reputational damage and stricter controls on their financial transactions with the EU, although no EU sanctions have yet been agreed by European states. Britain had pushed other EU states not to include Bermuda on the list, but has lifted its objections after the European Commission argued that the island has "been playing games" to dodge EU requirements, according to minutes of a meeting of EU envoys on the matter. Jurisdictions are added to the tax haven blacklist if they have shortfalls in their tax rules that could favour tax evasion in other states. They are removed from the blacklist if they commit to reforms by set deadlines. Bermuda was required to change its tax rules by the end of February, but added new loopholes in revised legislation and did not provide a final text by the deadline, the Commission said according to the document. UAE-ITALY The draft list prepared by EU tax experts also includes the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a financial centre for the Middle East, but Italy and Estonia are blocking its inclusion, the document shows. A final decision will be made by finance ministers at a meeting on Tuesday. The Netherlands would veto the listing of its overseas territory of Aruba if the EAU was removed from the draft list, according to the document and two European officials. Last week EU states blocked the adoption of another blacklist of countries that show deficiencies in countering money laundering and terrorism financing, after pressure from Saudi Arabia, the United States and Panama. At a closed-door meeting on Friday, the Italian representative said the UAE should be given until the end of this year to change its rules and comply with EU tax standards, a document shows. Italy said the UAE -- a federation of emirates, which include the top financial hubs of Dubai and Abu Dhabi -- had "constitutional constraints" that justified its delay in changing rules. Most of over 60 jurisdictions monitored across the world by the EU were given one year, until the end of 2018, to comply with EU standards and avoid being blacklisted. The EU blacklist originally comprised 17 jurisdictions, including the EAU, but shrank to five after most listed states committed to change their tax rules. The list currently comprises Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, and three U.S. territories: American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Catherine Evans) Strasbourg (France) (AFP) - The Council of Europe on Monday criticised Russia for failing to halt police torture of detainees in Chechnya, after an investigation found "credible allegations" of mistreatment of people in custody. A delegation of the council's anti-torture committee (CPT) to the Russian Caucasus republic was told of an array of ill-treatment in interviews with people accused of terrorism offences, drugs suspects and homosexuals, who face discrimination in the region. "For the CPT, it is of grave concern that, notwithstanding the efforts it has made over the last 20 years, torture of detained persons in the Chechen Republic has remained a deep-rooted problem," said Mark Kelly, who led the group's mission in late 2017. "This speaks not only to a dereliction of duty at the level of the republic's authorities, but also to a failure of effective oversight and control at the federal level," he said in a statement. It was the committee's third visit in little over a decade to Chechnya, which was ravaged by two separatist wars in the 1990s and early 2000s. Reports of disappearances are widespread, as well as allegations of involvement in torture and kidnapping by the security forces of Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, who has led the Muslim-majority region since 2007. Interviews uncovered "a considerable number of credible allegations" of mistreatment while in custody, the committee said in its report. Detainees spoke of abductions and beatings, threats of execution, electric shocks to the toes, ears or genitals, and asphyxiation with plastic bags or gas masks. The committee noted that torture of detainees has also been "repeatedly highlighted" elsewhere in the Russian-controlled North Caucasus region, including the republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and North Ossetia. "Effective investigation of any such allegations is a core human rights obligation for the Russian Federation or indeed any other Council of Europe member state under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)," the committee said. Story continues "Regrettably, the CPT's ongoing dialogue with the Russian authorities on this subject has reached an impasse." The report comes as Russia remains in a standoff with the council, which promotes democracy and the rule of law among its 47 members, which include Turkey and Ukraine. Russia was stripped of its voting rights after its annexation of Crimea in 2014, prompting Moscow to halt its financial contribution to the Strasbourg-based council. Brussels (AFP) - Eurozone ministers on Monday held back granting Greece debt relief because the government failed to implement reforms promised during the massive bailout that ended last year, officials said. Greece exited its third and final international bailout in August, a turning point in its progress out of the catastrophe that engulfed the country during the financial crisis. The Greek government has still failed to complete housing insolvency rules that have raised fears in Greece for families threatened with foreclosure on their homes. European officials however played down the delay, not wanting to rekindle memories of the eurozone debt crisis that nearly destroyed the Europe's single currency. "It's too early to decide formally on the disbursement today," said EU Economics Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici ahead of a Eurogroup meeting of eurozone finance ministers. "The signal given to the markets is decisive, the message of today's Eurogroup will be and must be positive," he added. The debt relief measures are mainly profits made by the European Central Bank (ECB) and other EU central banks on Greek government bonds during the bailout period. Greece could receive just short of one billion euros from its eurozone partners in the debt relief scheme. The delay comes days after Greece issued a 10-year bond, the country's first since its 2010 debt crisis. The bond was hailed as a major milestone marking Greece's return to normalcy after almost a decade of being avoided by the markets. The country hopes to raise a total of around nine billion euros in the markets this year to boost investor confidence in the Greek economy. Growth is expected to reach 2.4 percent in 2019 after an estimated 2.1 percent in 2018, according to the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) projections. By Tim Kelly and Sudip Kar-Gupta TOKYO/PARIS (Reuters) - A Tokyo court rejected ousted Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn's request to attend a board meeting this week, denying him a seat at the table even as the carmaker looks set to bolster an alliance he built over two decades. Prosecutors submitted a document to the Tokyo District Court from Nissan stating its opposition to Ghosn attending Tuesday's board meeting, Ghosn's lawyer, Junichiro Hironaka, told reporters. "Nissan's strong opposition to Ghosn's attendance is very regrettable," Hironaka said outside his law office. The defense team still had time to appeal the decision, he added, and the lawyers later duly filed an appeal, according to Kyodo News. Ghosn was released on a $9 million bail only last week after more than 100 days in detention. He faces charges of under-reporting his salary at Nissan by about $82 million over nearly a decade - charges he has called "meritless". The Tokyo District Court on Monday declined to temporarily suspend a condition of Ghosn's bail that stops him from meeting people linked to his case, blocking what would have been a dramatic face off between the once-feted executive and the colleagues he has accused of fomenting a coup. The court did not give a reason for its ruling. Nissan could not be reached immediately for a comment outside business hours. The court's decision came as French automaker Renault SA, Nissan's top shareholder, confirmed it was in talks with Nissan Motor and Mitsubishi Motors about setting up a new alliance body to improve their collaboration. Ghosn's dramatic arrest in November has caused concerns about the future of the three-way alliance, the world's largest maker of automobiles excluding heavy trucks. "The proposed arrangement will have no impact on the existence of the (alliance agreement) and the cross-shareholding structure, which will both remain in place," Renault said. Story continues JOINT BOARD MEETING Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi plan to set up a joint board meeting structure under which Renault's new chairman, Jean-Dominique Senard, is likely to take the chair, people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. That would replace Dutch-based companies currently linking Nissan and Renault and, separately, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, the people said. The heads of the partners will hold a press briefing at Nissan's Yokohama headquarters on Tuesday, Nissan said. Hironaka said Ghosn would meet the press at an "opportune time", but that it would not be on Tuesday. Some at Nissan had been unhappy with Ghosn's push for a deeper tie-up, including possibly a full merger. One of the world's best-known auto executives, Ghosn was sacked as chairman of Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi, and resigned as chief executive of Renault after his arrest. However, he remains on the boards of all three, given a shareholder vote is required to remove a board member. If his request to attend the board meeting had been approved, he would have been expected to dial into the meeting via teleconference, given the conditions of his bail, according to a person familiar with Nissan's thinking. Hironaka said Ghosn had received an invitation to the meeting with details of a time and location, and that there had been no discussion on whether he would attend in person or not. (Reporting by Aina Tanaka, Maki Shiraki, Tim Kelly, Ritsuko Ando and Kaori Kaneko in Tokyo and Sudip Kar-Gupta in Paris; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Himani Sarkar) TOKYO (Reuters) - Ousted Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn is seeking permission from the Tokyo District Court to attend the company's board meeting on Tuesday, Yomiuri newspaper reported on Monday. The Tokyo District Court is expected to decide whether it will give permission as soon as Monday, the report said. Renault SA, Nissan Motor Co and Mitsubishi Motors Corp plan to set up a joint board meeting structure to discuss issues related to their alliance in a step toward integration of operations, TV Tokyo reported on Sunday. (Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Sam Holmes) By Marianna Parraga (Reuters) - The top U.S. buyers of Venezuelan oil are in the unusual position of trying to return millions of barrels of crude they need but cannot accept because of U.S. sanctions on the South American nation and its state-run energy firm PDVSA. PDVSA's U.S. refining subsidiary Citgo Petroleum Corp and Valero Energy are proposing to return 2 million barrels of crude loaded before sanctions, while a third U.S. oil company, Chevron Corp, has sought so far unsuccessfully to legally pay for 4.3 million barrels, according to an internal PDVSA document seen by Reuters. In effect, more than 6 million barrels of Venezuelan crude remain in limbo as a result of U.S. sanctions imposed on Jan. 28 by Washington in an effort to oust President Nicolas Maduro. The United States and dozens of other nations recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the nation's legitimate leader. To comply with U.S. sanctions, Valero, Citgo and others are not allowed to pay PDVSA. Guaido's administration has yet to establish its own bank accounts to receive proceeds from oil sales to U.S. customers, leaving those shipments stranded. Overall oil exports from the OPEC member state dropped by about 40 percent in the first full month of sanctions, as the U.S. sought to cut oil revenue to Maduro, who presides over a nation beset by a years-long economic crisis, with millions fleeing for a lack of food and medicine. PDVSA, Citgo and Valero did not reply to requests for comment. Chevron does not comment on supply and trade matters, a spokesman said. STRANDED TANKERS The standoff has stranded some 6.4 million barrels of Venezuelan heavy crude onboard 11 tankers originally destined for the United States, as they have not been authorized to set sail. The vessels fell into limbo because PDVSA demanded prepayment for the cargos after sanctions were imposed, which U.S. firms cannot do. Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil firm by market value, wanted to take the oil shipments in lieu of loans and dividends stemming from joint ventures with PDVSA, a person close to the matter said. The cargoes were loaded at Venezuelan ports ahead of sanctions, but they remain undelivered, according to the document, and it is unclear if PDVSA would accept that offer. Story continues Valero proposed to pay PDVSA for 1.05 million barrels of Venezuelan oil, but that request was rejected by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which oversees sanctions, the documents said. The Houston-based Citgo cut ties with its parent company in compliance with U.S. measures that halted its purchases of PDVSA's oil, the documents said. A U.S. Treasury spokesperson declined to comment on the requests to pay PDVSA for the cargoes. As of March 8, the 11 loaded vessels remained anchored off ports in Venezuela. Two other Chevron-chartered cargoes were stuck off the U.S. Gulf Coast and a third was returned to Venezuela's Amuay terminal, according to Refinitiv Eikon vessel-tracking data. PDVSA does not expect Citgo or Valero to accept the cargos and intends to "commercially reallocate the volumes onboard so tankers can be freed," a Feb. 21 trade and supply document showed. The same document expressed worry over demurrage fees - the daily cost for storing the oil on tankers - which have been accumulating for over a month. PDVSA SCRAMBLES TO AVOID EXPORT SHORTFALL Separately, a days-long blackout across the country has halted exports from Jose port, the nation's primary crude export terminal. PDVSA on Monday was trying to restart operations. The Venezuelan company has been forced to redesign its production and export logistics in recent weeks to avoid halting operations, including formulating new crude blends, swapping a large portion of its oil for imported fuel, selling through intermediaries and finding new customers. But the efforts have not been enough to avoid an export decline. The OPEC-member country's oil shipments fell to some 920,000 barrels per day (bpd) in February according to Refinitiv Eikon data. PDVSA exports could fall further due to a lack of imported naphtha, a light distillate, needed to dilute its extra heavy oil as the company has been able to secure only two 500,000-barrel cargoes versus 2-3 million barrels per month needed, according to the document. If it cannot import enough naphtha to formulate its oil for export, PDVSA plans to start mixing other domestic fuels to ready oil for export. Lack of maritime crews to take PDVSA tankers idled due to unpaid shipping fees is also hampering oil deliveries between domestic ports and to the Caribbean, where PDVSA stores and ships much of its export barrels. Some shipping firms' reluctance to work in Venezuela after sanctions have stopped PDVSA from using leased tankers to ease storage bottlenecks at its Orinoco Belt's joint ventures. The ones willing to work with PDVSA are charging high prices and extra fees, the document added. On March 4, PDVSA completely shut output at its Corocoro oilfield, which was producing some 12,000 bpd, due to lack of storage capacity. Its Pedernales oilfield could follow due to similar issues, according to the report. The four Orinoco upgraders were working at minimum on Monday. (GRAPHIC: Venezuelan crude exports to U.S. refiners link: https://tmsnrt.rs/2t4ullS). (Graphic: Top importers of Venezuelan crude link: https://tmsnrt.rs/2RYGk2E). (Reporting by Marianna Parraga; additional reporting by Leslie Wroughton in Washington and Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Marguerita Choy) The black box from the crashed Ethiopian Airlines plane has been recovered, the country's state-affiliated broadcaster reported. One Irishman and seven Britons were among the 157 passengers and crew on board the Boeing 737 Max-8 jet which came down shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. South Korea is now conducting special inspections of two planes of the same model in the fleet of one of its budget carriers. In Britain, holiday operator Tui Airways has ordered 32 Max aircraft as part of a major fleet overhaul and took delivery of its first Max 8 in December. Scandinavian airline Norwegian, which serves London Gatwick, Manchester and Edinburgh in the UK, has 18 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. On Sunday, a grieving father said he had never wanted his soft and loving daughter to be on the doomed plane, as it emerged there were no survivors. Joanna Toole was one of seven Britons and an Irish citizen who perished when the plane, which was only months old, crashed just six minutes after take off. The family of Joanna Toole, who grew up in Exmouth, have been informed that she was on board an Ethiopia Airlines plane which crashed shortly after take off en route to Nairobi in Kenya. The US aircraft giant launched an investigation amid growing concern over the passenger jets design. The same model had crashed in Indonesia less than five months ago, killing all 189 people onboard. The cause of Sunday's crash is still unclear but the pilot of Ethiopia airlines flight ET302 reported difficulties shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa en route to the Kenyan capital Nairobi. It has also emerged that the US Department of State had released a security alert on March 8, advising all US government travellers not to arrive or depart [Addis Ababas] Bole International Airport on March 10 although this advice was rescinded a day later. Ms Toole, 36, from Exmouth in Devon, was due to attend the United Nations Environment Assembly starting in Nairobi. She was, her father said, a committed environmentalist and animal lover who worked for the UNs Food and Agriculture Organisation. Story continues Joanna was a very soft and loving person, said her father Adrian Toole, speaking to DevonLive website. She had never really wanted to do anything else but work in animal welfare since she was a child. Somehow that work took her into the international sphere... That involves a lot of travelling around the world - although personally I never wanted her to be on a single one of those planes... Up until now she had been lucky. Ms Tooles partner, who lived with her in Rome, had telephoned her father to inform him she was on the flight while her employers described her as a wonderful human being. China 'grounds Boeing 737 Max jets' The crash raises serious questions over the design of the Boeing aircraft and in particular its anti-stall mechanism. Within the first few minutes after take-off the planes vertical speed, the rate of climb or descent, varied dramatically. Its unstable vertical speed, according to data from the flight-tracking website flightradar24, went from 2,624 feet per minute to -1216, suggesting the plane rose and fell rapidly in the minutes before it plunged into scrubland. Vertical speed should remain stable - or else increase - after take off. As the aviation industry reeled from the latest tragedy, China's aviation regulator has ordered domestic airlines to suspend their Boeing 737 Max aircraft. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said local carriers had until 6 pm local time to ground the 96 jets of that model that they operate. Ceremony marking 1st delivery of Boeing 737 Max 8 airplane to Air China in Zhoushan Credit: Reuters The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive in November last year, in relation to one of the flight systems on the Boeing 737-8 and 737-9 series of aircraft. That was published following the crash of the Lion Air flight 610 - another Boeing 737 Max 8 - on October 29. The FAA directive warned that an "angle of attack" censor, which is supposed to help to prevent a plane from stalling, could lead to an excessive nose-down attitude, significant altitude loss, and possible impact with the terrain. This unsafe condition... is likely to exist or develop in the Boeing 737-8 and 737-9 designs, the directive concluded. Photographs from the scene showed the devastation caused by the crash with harrowing images of body parts covered up by plastic bodybags scattered in the wake of the crash at 8.44am local time. Boeing announced it would send a technical assistance team to the site of the crash. It said it is postponing the external debut of its 777X model and related media events scheduled for this week because of the accident. There is no change to the planes schedule or progress, Boeing said. French-British woman among the victims Kenyas transport secretary James Macharia told reporters there were nationals from at least 35 different countries on board, including the seven British passengers. It is thought to be the biggest loss of life of Britons in a passenger jet crash since the shooting down of MH-17 over Ukraine in 2014. A French-British polar tourism expert has been named in Norwegian media as one of those to have died in the crash. Sarah Auffret was an environmental agent for the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators. "Words cannot describe the sorrow and despair we feel. We have lost a true friend and beloved colleague," a statement from the Norwegian firm said. Among the 32 Kenyans who lost their lives was Joseph Kuria Waithaka, 55, who had lived in Hull for more than a decade working for the probation service and was travelling back to the region after visiting his wife and children, who still live in the UK. Joseph Waithaka has been identified by the WFP as a victim of the Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 His son Ben Kuria said: My dad was a private man but he also had a pastoral heart. He really championed people... he really rooted for his children. His daughter Zipporah Kuria tweeted that her father was the first man I ever loved. Believed in my dreams more than I ever could. Rest in peace daddy. There were also eight Americans and 18 Canadians among the dead. Theresa May said she was deeply saddened to hear of the devastating loss of life following the plane crash in Ethiopia. In a statement, the prime minister said: At this very difficult time my thoughts are with the families and friends of the British citizens on board and all those affected by this tragic incident. As many as 50 people onboard were thought to be heading for the same UN conference. The UN confirmed a number of its staff had died while the World Food Programme said it was "mourning" the loss of its employees. Those included the one Irish victim who was named as Michael Ryan. Among those killed were the wife and two children of the Slovakian MP Anton Hrnko while hospitality company Tamarind Group said its chief executive Jonathan Seex, a Kenyan national, also died. Lucky escape A Greek man said he would have been the 150th passenger on the plane, except he arrived two minutes late for the flight. "I was mad because nobody helped me to reach the gate on time," Antonis Mavropoulos said in a Facebook post entitled "My lucky day" in which he includes a photo of his ticket. Mavropoulos, president of the International Solid Waste Association, a non-profit organisation, was travelling to Nairobi to attend the annual assembly of the UN Environment Programme, according to Athens News Agency. Members of the search and rescue mission carry dead bodies at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash, near the town of Bishoftu Credit: Reuters He was supposed to board the plane but he reached the departure gate just two minutes after it was closed. He booked a later flight but was then prevented from boarding by airport staff. "They led me to the police station of the airport. The officer told me not to protest but to pray to God because I was the only passenger that didn't board the ET 302 flight that was lost," Mavropoulos said in his post in which he admits being in shock. The airport authorities explained that they wanted to question him because he was the only passenger booked onto the doomed flight who wasn't on board. "They said they couldn't let me go before cross-checking my identity, the reason I hadn't boarded the plane etc." Ethiopian Airlines CEO, Tewolde Medhin, visited the scene of the crash where emergency worker Lenora Ayana told The Telegraph that officials were having a hard time locating bodies with so much debris. 'Everything is burnt down' The plane had taken off at 8:38am (0638 GMT) from Bole International Airport but lost contact six minutes later near Bishoftu, a town 37 miles southeast of Addis Ababa. The plane came down near the village of Tulu Fara. The pilot had sent out a distress call and was given the all clear to return. A massive crater could be seen at the crash site, with belongings and airplane parts scattered widely. An eyewitness told the BBC there was an intense fire when the plane crashed. The blast and the fire were so strong that we couldnt get near it, he said. Everything is burnt down. At Nairobi airport, anxious relatives waited for news, many in tears and in distress. Devastated family members of the victims involved in a plane crash at Addis Ababa international airport Credit: AP I am still hoping that all is fine, because I have been waiting for my sister since morning and we have not been told anything, said Peter Kimani, who was waiting in the arrivals lounge for hours after the plane had been scheduled to land at 10:25am local time. His sister is a nurse who he said had been in the Congo. We are still expecting our loved one from Addis... we have just received news that there is a plane that has crashed. We can only hope that she is not on that flight. Ethiopian Airlines confirmed it had bought the plane in November and it had undergone a rigorous first check maintenance in February 2018. A statement from Boeing said the company was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the passengers and crew on Ethiopian Airlines flight 302, adding: We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the families and loved ones of the passengers and crew on board and stand ready to support the Ethiopian Airlines team. Safety experts cautioned against drawing too many comparisons between the two crashes until more is known about Sunday's disaster. The Ethiopian Airlines CEO "stated there were no defects prior to the flight, so it is hard to see any parallels with the Lion Air crash yet," said Harro Ranter, founder of the Aviation Safety Network, which compiles information about accidents worldwide. Ethiopias Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed tweeted his deepest condolences to the families of those that have lost their loved ones. Kenyas President Uhuru Kenyatta said: My prayers go to all the families and associates of those on board. A spokesman for Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General, said: The Secretary-General was deeply saddened at the tragic loss of lives in the airplane crash. He conveys his heartfelt sympathies and solidarity to the victims families and loved ones. The crash came on the eve of a major, annual assembly of the UN Environment Programme opening in Nairobi. Rescue teams work at the site of the crashed plane, watched by hundreds of bystanders Credit: EWELDE Source: What do we know about the airline? The last major accident involving an Ethiopian Airlines passenger plane was a Boeing 737-800 that exploded after taking off from Lebanon in 2010, killing 83 passengers and seven crew. The state-owned Ethiopian Airlines, widely considered the best-managed airline in Africa, calls itself the Continent's largest carrier and has ambitions of becoming the gateway to Africa. It has been expanding assertively, recently opening a route to Moscow and in January inaugurating a new passenger terminal in Addis Ababa to triple capacity. Speaking at the inauguration, the Prime Minister Ahmed challenged the airline to build a new "Airport City" terminal in Bishoftu - where Sunday's crash occurred. Read more: The world's safest and least safe airlines for 2019 Sign up for your essential, twice-daily briefing from The Telegraph with our free Front Page newsletter. Designed to provide broad exposure to the European Equity ETFs category of the market, the First Trust STOXX European Select Dividend Index Fund (FDD) is a smart beta exchange traded fund launched on 08/27/2007. What Are Smart Beta ETFs? The ETF industry has long been dominated by products based on market cap weighted indexes, a strategy created to reflect the market or a particular market segment. Investors who believe in market efficiency should consider market cap indexes, as they replicate market returns in a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way. On the other hand, some investors who believe that it is possible to beat the market by superior stock selection opt to invest in another class of funds that track non-cap weighted strategies--popularly known as smart beta. This kind of index follows this same mindset, as it attempts to pick stocks that have better chances of risk-return performance; non-cap weighted strategies base selection on certain fundamental characteristics, or a mix of such characteristics. The smart beta space gives investors many different choices, from equal-weighting, one of the simplest strategies, to more complicated ones like fundamental and volatility/momentum based weighting. However, not all of these methodologies have been able to deliver remarkable returns. Fund Sponsor & Index The fund is managed by First Trust Advisors, and has been able to amass over $347.80 M, which makes it one of the larger ETFs in the European Equity ETFs. Before fees and expenses, this particular fund seeks to match the performance of the STOXX Europe Select Dividend 30 Index. The STOXX Europe Select Dividend 30 Index consists of 30 high dividend-yielding securities selected from the STOXX Europe 600 Index. Cost & Other Expenses Investors should also pay attention to an ETF's expense ratio. Lower cost products will produce better results than those with a higher cost, assuming all other metrics remain the same. Story continues Operating expenses on an annual basis are 0.60% for FDD, making it one of the most expensive products in the space. FDD's 12-month trailing dividend yield is 4.73%. Sector Exposure and Top Holdings Even though ETFs offer diversified exposure which minimizes single stock risk, it is still important to look into a fund's holdings before investing. Luckily, most ETFs are very transparent products that disclose their holdings on a daily basis. When you look at individual holdings, Sse Plc (SSE.LN) accounts for about 5.88% of the fund's total assets, followed by Glaxosmithkline Plc (GSK.LN) and United Utilities Group Plc (UU/.LN). The top 10 holdings account for about 46.7% of total assets under management. Performance and Risk The ETF has added about 6.70% so far this year and is down about -4.42% in the last one year (as of 03/11/2019). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $11.69 and $14.44. FDD has a beta of 0.71 and standard deviation of 14.04% for the trailing three-year period, which makes the fund a medium risk choice in the space. With about 31 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers. Alternatives First Trust STOXX European Select Dividend Index Fund is not a suitable option for investors seeking to outperform the European Equity ETFs segment of the market. Instead, there are other ETFs in the space which investors should consider. IShares MSCI Eurozone ETF (EZU) tracks MSCI EMU Index and the Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (VGK) tracks FTSE Developed Europe All Cap Index. IShares MSCI Eurozone ETF has $6.30 B in assets, Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF has $13.38 B. EZU has an expense ratio of 0.47% and VGK charges 0.10%. Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the European Equity ETFs. Bottom Line To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report First Trust STOXX European Select Dividend Index Fund (FDD): ETF Research Reports Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (VGK): ETF Research Reports iShares MSCI Eurozone ETF (EZU): ETF Research Reports To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research By Rupam Jain KABUL (Reuters) - A biography of one-eyed former Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar says he lived near a U.S. base in Afghanistan for years, not in Pakistan as U.S. officials have said, exposing Western failure to track him down, but a spokesman for the Afghan president described the claim as "delusional". In her book "Op Zoek Naar De Vijand (Searching for an Enemy)", Dutch journalist Bette Dam says Omar never hid in neighbouring Pakistan. He lived in hiding just three miles from a major U.S. military base in his home Afghan province of Zabul, said Dam, who says she spent five years interviewing Taliban members for the book. Omar's hardline Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, and has waged an anti-government insurgency since then. Omar, who delegated effective Taliban leadership after 2001, appears to have acted as more of a spiritual leader, according to the book, and the militant movement kept his death in 2013 secret for two years. He was wanted in the United States for providing a safe haven for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who masterminded the 9/11 attacks on the United States and lived in hiding in Pakistan, and Washington had placed a $10 million bounty on his head. U.S. forces even searched his accommodation on one occasion, but failed to find Omar's hiding place, Dam told Reuters. "The book underlines the failure of Western intelligence at a time when U.S. and Taliban officials are holding peace talks to end the 17-year-old war in Afghanistan," she said. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The United States has halted the disbursement of Coalition Support Funds to Pakistan due its perceived failure to take decisive action against Afghan Taliban militants operating from Pakistani soil. Haroon Chakhansuri, a spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, "strongly rejected" the book and it was a "delusional claim" that Omar lived in Afghanistan. Story continues "We have sufficient evidence which shows he (Omar) lived and died in Pakistan. Period!", he said in a Tweet. Amrullah Saleh, a former Afghan intelligence chief running in upcoming vice presidential polls, also dismissed the book. "The so-called investigative report claiming Mullah Omar lived and died in Afghanistan is nothing but a manipulative piece of propaganda," he Tweeted. In July 2015, the Taliban officially confirmed Omar had been dead for more than two years. Omar's eldest son, Mohammad Yaqoob, said in an audio tape released in September 2015 that his father had been suffering from hepatitis C and died in Afghanistan. Dam has previously published a book on Afghanistan and is a guest lecturer on Afghanistan at Sciences Po in Paris. Dam's book was published in Dutch last month, and will be available in English shortly. (Reporting by Rupam Jain; Editing by Nick Macfie) Username: Password: or Register Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread Thread Rating: 3 Vote(s) - 3.67 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Page: 1 2 3 4 5 ... 8 The Book "World in Peril" Available on Ebay. Ominous Warning From Author. Skippy Enough Already User ID: 402368 03-11-2019 04:13 PM Posts: 9,556 Post: #1 The Book "World in Peril" Available on Ebay. Ominous Warning From Author. Advertisement "Be Prepared" It's later than you think! Ken White You can buy it now for $850. (Reserve price not met.) https://www.ebay.com/itm/192848893057 You can buy it now for $850. (Reserve price not met.) Skippy Enough Already User ID: 402368 03-11-2019 04:19 PM Posts: 9,556 Post: #2 RE: The Book "World in Peril" Available on Ebay. Ominous Warning From Author. From the Ebay description: EXTREMELY RARE BOOK NOTE: ~ Condition is Very Good or better. Outside shows small signs of wear. (white areas along spine, etc. are reflected photo lights, not wear). Inside is pristine. Signed by the Author. This is an extremely rare book which not only covers the fascinating but little-known story of this brave aviation group and the work they did in the arctic for our national defense but also their eye-opening scientific findings about past and future Earth changes and what it means for our civilization. This information was suppressed by the government but released in this fascinating book in 1994. It is next to impossible to find a copy only 15 years later. Not sure if that is due to further suppression efforts or not. Here is your opportunity to own a rare copy of this important work. As the author wrote when signing this book, Be Prepared Its later than you think! Skippy Enough Already User ID: 402368 03-11-2019 04:20 PM Posts: 9,556 Post: #3 RE: The Book "World in Peril" Available on Ebay. Ominous Warning From Author. Reviews According to Civil and Military leaders: General Colin Powell, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote that World in Peril is "a fascinating account of the significant contributions of the 46th/72nd Reconnaissance Squadron during those critical, early days of the Cold War." As Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, General Andrew J. Goodpaster, called World in Peril "...a magnificent bit of history...". General David C. Jones, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said of the book that it was "a most fascinating story; well researched and written ... I am impressed!" Donald Spooner, the Executive Director of the USAF Scientific Advisory Board, said that the book was "a fine piece of work...based on solid research." The Director of the Center for Air Force History, Jacob Neufeld, asserted that World in Peril was "a truly superb job" and "a proud achievement." Jeff Ethell, the late renowned aviation historian, called the book "THE definitive reference source for this period of history." The book was also acknowledged by Zbigniew Brzezinski as "an important issue." The Administrator of NASA, Daniel S. Goldin, stated that World in Peril was "an insight into some very interesting and significant investigations..." In addition, Leonard A. Fisk, the Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications, NASA, wrote to the author that "your book raises some interesting concepts regarding the nature and stability of the Earth's magnetic field. My congratulations on your contributions to science and research." Skippy Enough Already User ID: 402368 03-11-2019 04:21 PM Posts: 9,556 Post: #4 RE: The Book "World in Peril" Available on Ebay. Ominous Warning From Author. Biography Kenneth W. White Kenneth W. White was born at Ladd Field, Fairbanks, Alaska; the son of Major Maynard and Elizabeth White, on March 28, 1947. He attended schools throughout the United States and in England, graduating from McLean High School in Virginia in 1965, and from the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, in 1970. In 1973, Ken spent two tours of duty flying out of Guam and U-Tapao, Thailand during the Vietnam Conflict. Upon return from Southeast Asia in 1974, Ken upgraded to B-52H Aircraft Commander. In 1975, he became a controller in Minot's SAC Command Post, soon becoming the Senior Aircraft Controller. After his retirement from the Air Force, Ken wrote a letter to President George Bush (Sr.), suggesting that American volunteers be sent to emerging democracies and formerly communist countries to teach them the fundamentals of democratic/free-enterprise systems. Within a month, the President announced the formation of the Citizens Democracy Corps (CDC), with the same aims as those outlined in Kens letter. Within a few short years, the CDC had succeeded in making an indelible imprint on our nations foreign policy worldwide; having trained hundreds of people from foreign lands both in the United States and abroad in fields ranging from agriculture, to building infrastructure, to running governments. Kens first book, "World in Peril," significantly referring to the state of the world at the beginning of the Cold War, was about the achievements of the 46th Reconnaissance Squadron, the first operational B-29 unit in the then-infant Strategic Air Command (SAC), which was commanded by Kens father, the late Maynard E. White, and which was formed to assess the Soviet threat in the Arctic. In order to do so, they developed what is now universally known as the Grid System of Navigation, which enabled SAC to become the global deterrent force that kept the peace throughout the Cold War; preventing a third world war, and possibly a new Dark Age. The units scientific findings remain today on the cutting edge of geophysics and portend a potential global cataclysm, possibly within the near future. Kens second book, "Evolution of a Spirit; One Mans Journey," is primarily of poetry about faith, marriage, divorce, fatherhood, and various other topics. It also chronicles Kens recuperation from combat-related PTSD, incurred during the Vietnam Conflict. This book details Kens spiritual awakening and growth from death into Life. Kens latest book, titled "We Wore Sterling Wings," is the story of his fathers remarkable careers from his Air Corps days through his experiences as a Director in NASA during the exciting, early lunar-landing phase of the Apollo Program. A part of the books story is about how his father assembled the military computer systems and networks that gave the United States the technological edge that helped our nation win the Cold War, (and which led to the Internet). Ken currently is enjoying life in Northern Virginia and looks forward to starting his next project. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 492644 03-11-2019 04:31 PM Post: #5 RE: The Book "World in Peril" Available on Ebay. Ominous Warning From Author. Should I buy it or did you already post the only important parts? Skippy Enough Already User ID: 402368 03-11-2019 04:39 PM Posts: 9,556 Post: #6 RE: The Book "World in Peril" Available on Ebay. Ominous Warning From Author. LoP Guest Wrote: (03-11-2019 04:31 PM) Should I buy it or did you already post the only important parts? I wouldn't buy it at that price. I will look through the book some more and post anything else I find that is relevant to the pole shift. The seller also wondered if the book was being suppressed. I wonder if the ones buying this book for $800+ are people that have a budget to do so.... I wouldn't buy it at that price. I will look through the book some more and post anything else I find that is relevant to the pole shift.The seller also wondered if the book was being suppressed.wonder if the ones buying this book for $800+ are people that have a budget to do so.... LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 492644 03-11-2019 04:41 PM Post: #7 RE: The Book "World in Peril" Available on Ebay. Ominous Warning From Author. Skippy Wrote: (03-11-2019 04:39 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (03-11-2019 04:31 PM) Should I buy it or did you already post the only important parts? I wouldn't buy it at that price. I will look through the book some more and post anything else I find that is relevant to the pole shift. The seller also wondered if the book was being suppressed. I wonder if the ones buying this book for $800+ are people that have a budget to do so.... I have a budget to do so... but not if there isnt anything new or different to add. I have a budget to do so... but not if there isnt anything new or different to add. Skippy Enough Already User ID: 402368 03-11-2019 04:46 PM Posts: 9,556 Post: #8 RE: The Book "World in Peril" Available on Ebay. Ominous Warning From Author. LoP Guest Wrote: (03-11-2019 04:41 PM) Skippy Wrote: (03-11-2019 04:39 PM) I wouldn't buy it at that price. I will look through the book some more and post anything else I find that is relevant to the pole shift. The seller also wondered if the book was being suppressed. I wonder if the ones buying this book for $800+ are people that have a budget to do so.... I have a budget to do so... but not if there isnt anything new or different to add. When I mentioned budget, I meant a government budget.... If you can afford it, go for it. If it is a suppressed book, you could always sell it years later for more money. But I will scan more pages if they pertain to the Earth cycle. Most of the rest of the book doesn't pertain to it but there could be more to be found in there. I have more reading to do. When I mentioned budget, I meant abudget....If you can afford it, go for it. If it is a suppressed book, you could always sell it years later for more money.But I will scan more pages if they pertain to the Earth cycle. Most of the rest of the book doesn't pertain to it but there could be more to be found in there. I have more reading to do. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 492648 03-11-2019 04:52 PM Post: #9 RE: The Book "World in Peril" Available on Ebay. Ominous Warning From Author. Maybe Ken White is trickling them out of his authors stash making a small fortune. Skippy Enough Already User ID: 402368 03-11-2019 04:52 PM Posts: 9,556 Post: #10 RE: The Book "World in Peril" Available on Ebay. Ominous Warning From Author. Sounds like the next book someone would would write if they knew there was a major cataclysm coming. Also, what about his warning, "It's later than you think." "Kens second book, "Evolution of a Spirit; One Mans Journey," is primarily of poetry about faith, marriage, divorce, fatherhood, and various other topics. It also chronicles Kens recuperation from combat-related PTSD, incurred during the Vietnam Conflict. This book details Kens spiritual awakening and growth from death into Life.Also, what about his warning, "It's later than you think." Skippy Enough Already User ID: 402368 03-11-2019 04:54 PM Posts: 9,556 Post: #11 RE: The Book "World in Peril" Available on Ebay. Ominous Warning From Author. LoP Guest Wrote: (03-11-2019 04:52 PM) Maybe Ken White is trickling them out of his authors stash making a small fortune. All the book sales I have found have been from different bookstores in Canada, England, Japan, Ebay sellers... It was something I wondered though. Doesn't appear to be the case. All the book sales I have found have been from different bookstores in Canada, England, Japan, Ebay sellers... It was something I wondered though. Doesn't appear to be the case. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 492648 03-11-2019 04:54 PM Post: #12 RE: The Book "World in Peril" Available on Ebay. Ominous Warning From Author. Skippy Wrote: (03-11-2019 04:52 PM) "Kens second book, "Evolution of a Spirit; One Mans Journey," is primarily of poetry about faith, marriage, divorce, fatherhood, and various other topics. It also chronicles Kens recuperation from combat-related PTSD, incurred during the Vietnam Conflict. This book details Kens spiritual awakening and growth from death into Life. Sounds like the next book someone would would write if they knew there was a major cataclysm coming. Also, what about his warning, "It's later than you think." I thought about that as well as why move to Virginia if he thought his theory was correct. But if I was selling doom books Id come up with a scary signature line too. I thought about that as well as why move to Virginia if he thought his theory was correct.But if I was selling doom books Id come up with a scary signature line too. Skippy Enough Already User ID: 402368 03-11-2019 04:57 PM Posts: 9,556 Post: #13 RE: The Book "World in Peril" Available on Ebay. Ominous Warning From Author. LoP Guest Wrote: (03-11-2019 04:54 PM) Skippy Wrote: (03-11-2019 04:52 PM) "Kens second book, "Evolution of a Spirit; One Mans Journey," is primarily of poetry about faith, marriage, divorce, fatherhood, and various other topics. It also chronicles Kens recuperation from combat-related PTSD, incurred during the Vietnam Conflict. This book details Kens spiritual awakening and growth from death into Life. Sounds like the next book someone would would write if they knew there was a major cataclysm coming. Also, what about his warning, "It's later than you think." I thought about that as well as why move to Virginia if he thought his theory was correct. But if I was selling doom books Id come up with a scary signature line too. Most of the book isn't about "doom". There's just a few chapters about the pole shift and some warnings to the world. I was surprised he didn't write more chapters about it. Most of the book isn't about "doom". There's just a few chapters about the pole shift and some warnings to the world. I was surprised he didn't write more chapters about it. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 492648 03-11-2019 05:00 PM Post: #14 RE: The Book "World in Peril" Available on Ebay. Ominous Warning From Author. Bought the creature from Jekyll island when it was out of publication for over $200 because it was suppressed then it was republish and you can get it for $20- 30. Been there done that. LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 485330 03-11-2019 05:01 PM Post: #15 RE: The Book "World in Peril" Available on Ebay. Ominous Warning From Author. Do not buy this book at high prices. I was able to get the book though my local library using ILL inter-library loan. It took two weeks to get the book and they said I could keep it for a month and then recheck it out for another month if I wanted to. I did not recheck it out but returned it after 3 weeks. I made one copy of Chp. 27 28 29 30 and front and back cover info. - that is all. I made those copies for my own purpose and to use as notes, and not to sell. Anyone can do the same. Advertisement Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread There are plenty of choices in the Sector - Health category, but where should you start your research? Well, one fund that you should consider investigating is Franklin Biotechnology Discovery A (FBDIX). FBDIX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance. Objective We note that FBDIX is a Sector - Health fund, and this area is also loaded with various options. Sector - Health mutual funds give investors an opportunity to focus on one of the largest sectors of the American economy, healthcare. Funds in this category can include everything from for-profit hospitals to pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers. History of Fund/Manager FBDIX is a part of the Franklin Templeton family of funds, a company based out of San Mateo, CA. Since Franklin Biotechnology Discovery A made its debut in September of 1997, FBDIX has garnered more than $947.78 million in assets. Evan McCulloch is the fund's current manager and has held that role since September of 1997. Performance Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 3.75%, and it sits in the middle third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 7.09%, which places it in the middle third during this time-frame. When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. Over the past three years, FBDIX's standard deviation comes in at 22.82%, compared to the category average of 11.39%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 25.11% compared to the category average of 11.17%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade. Risk Factors One cannot ignore the volatility of this segment, however, as it is always important for investors to remember the downside to any potential investment. In FBDIX's case, the fund lost 25.67% in the most recent bear market and outperformed its peer group by 7.57%. This could mean that the fund is a better choice than comparable funds during a bear market. Story continues Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 1.51, so it is likely going to be more volatile than the market at large. Because alpha represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which is the S&P 500 in this case, one should pay attention to this metric as well. Over the past 5 years, the fund has a negative alpha of -9.07. This means that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns. Expenses Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, FBDIX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1% compared to the category average of 1.29%. FBDIX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost. This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $1,000, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment. 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James Arg Argent has said his bags were thrown out of the flat he shares with Gemma Collins after he shared a video of the reality star snoring in bed. The Only Way Is Essex star was ejected from their home after posting the clip to his Instagram story. He told ITVs Good Morning Britain he had been inspired by the post Joe Swash had shared of Stacey Solomon sleeping, but that it had backfired. LONDON, ENGLAND JANUARY 22: James Argent and Gemma Collins attends the National Television Awards held at the O2 Arena on January 22, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images) He said: She was furious, I was kicked out of the flat, we didnt get physical with each other but my bags were chucked out, we did get a bit personal. Read more: Jason Gardiner apologises for fridge comment Argent admitted he sent Collins unpleasant texts about her weight during the row, saying: It was pot, kettle, black, Im a hypocrite. I struggle with my weight, Im the biggest Ive ever been. Gemma has lost weight doing Dancing On Ice, she looks the best shes ever been. We both started cussing each other, that doesnt excuse anything. It was very childish, it wasnt in my nature, we both were cussing each other and it was silly. Gemma Collins thanks Holly Willoughby for her support amid Jason Gardiner drama as she prepares for Dancing on Ice return However, Argent confirmed the couple are now back together, saying: Im absolutely on (with Collins), we are OK. We have had a bit of a tough time recently, but we are on. Asked by Piers Morgan if he had ever proposed to Collins or would consider proposing, he said: Ive never proposed to Gemma, I think if we remain stable and we are in a healthy place, its definitely something I would consider. Read more: GC threatened to quit DOI four times Argent also confirmed he would like to take part on Dancing On Ice after Collins participated this year. He said: Nothing has been signed but Im a big big fan of the show. I did feel part of it because I was there most weeks. Ive had a little go on the ice. Reporting by PA By Joseph Nasr BERLIN (Reuters) - The main takeaway from German conservative leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer's response to French President Emmanuel Macron's call to reinvigorate the EU is that she is different from Chancellor Angela Merkel only in style, not in substance. Kramp-Karrenbauer, the woman most likely to succeed Merkel, is more outspoken than the prudent chancellor and does not hesitate to make provocative demands from France. In a newspaper article titled "Doing Europe Right", the leader of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), suggested France's permanent seat at the U.N. Security Council should become an EU seat and that the European Parliament should scrap its seat in the French city of Strasbourg and move to Brussels. Both ideas are opposed by France. But Kramp-Karrenbauer, know as AKK, said France and Germany could nonetheless find common ground on many of Macron's proposals, including on security and defense, asylum and climate policy, as well as boosting technological innovations in the EU. Just like Merkel, she rejected the idea of debt mutualization in the euro zone, reflecting entrenched resistance to any measures that could make German taxpayers liable for debts of their poorer peers. She has also rejected Macron's call for an EU-wide minimum wage. Macron's proposals, unveiled in an open letter to citizens of Europe that was published last week in newspapers across the EU, aim to protect and defend Europe's citizens while giving the 28-nation bloc new impetus in the face of global competition. "INVITATION TO TANGO" "AKK has taken Macron's opening as an invitation to tango," said Ulrich Speck of the German Marshall Fund in Berlin. "On the euro zone France wants more integration and centralization, Germany wants to keep things as they are. On security, Germany is willing to do more: AKK's call for a joint European aircraft carrier signals her readiness to invest in joint European power projection," he added. Asked about Kramp-Karrenbauer's comments, a French government spokesman said the German conservative leader appeared to have only three points of disagreement with Macron: the EU-wide minimum wage, scrapping the EU parliament's Strasbourg seat and turning France's Security Council seat into an EU one. "It was indeed the goal, in publishing this column, that each and every one can make their own comments," said the spokesman, Benjamin Griveaux. Speaking to Reuters TV on Monday, Kramp-Karrenbauer rejected suggestions that her ideas for Europe differed from those of Merkel and said she sees no appetite among either the conservatives or their Social Democrat (SPD) junior coalition partners to unseat Merkel, whose final term ends in 2021. "It is the right approach, as we have a chancellor and we want that Angela Merkel remain chancellor, and this is also what I want," Kramp-Karrenbauer said. ELECTION CHALLENGE Merkel, who was criticized by some SPD ministers and media commentators for leaving it to AKK to respond to Macron, on Monday backed Kramp-Karrenbauer's positions on Europe. "I think it is important for the CDU to make clear where it thinks we are headed," she told reporters. France and Germany have been criticized for making slow progress on reforming the euro zone since Macron's speech in September 2017 in which he highlighted his far-reaching plans for the single currency bloc and wider EU. Merkel has said she will step down at the end of her term in 2021. But her CDU and the center-left SPD might be forced to rethink their alliance after four regional elections this year, in which they are expected to lose voters to a far-right party. The first test is the election in May in the northern city-state of Bremen, where the SPD has ruled since 1946 and where a loss to the conservatives would increase pressure on the party to end its tie-up with the conservatives. Opinion polls show the SPD 1 percentage point behind the CDU in Bremen. If the SPD pull out of the coalition, the most likely scenario would be a new election. Polls show the CDU emerging as the biggest party, and Kramp-Karrenbauer is the most likely candidate to lead the conservatives and become chancellor. She is expected to broadly follow in Merkel's careful footsteps, albeit her tone will be different. "On substance, the text by Kramp-Karrenbauer shows a lot of continuity with the current stance of the chancellor," said Lucas Guttenberg, deputy director of the Jacques Delors Institute Berlin. "Her difference to the chancellor seems more a matter of method than of substance." (Additional reporting by Michelle Martin and Andreas Rinke in Berlin, and Michel Rose in Paris; Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Alison Williams) BERLIN (Reuters) - Two German journalists left Turkey on Sunday after authorities there rejected their press accreditations, a step that drew condemnation from Germany's foreign minister and revived diplomatic tensions. The departure of Joerg Brase, a correspondent for ZDF television, and Thomas Seibert, who works for newspaper Tagesspiegel, came a day after Germany warned its citizens they risked arrest in Turkey for expressing views Ankara may not like. "This is not acceptable to us," Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said of the journalists being stripped of their credentials. "It has nothing to do with our understanding of press freedom," he told broadcaster ARD. ZDF confirmed Brase had arrived back in Germany on Sunday afternoon and Tagesspiegel said Seibert had also arrived back in Germany. The increase in diplomatic tensions follows a period of relative calm since September last year, when Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan came to Germany on a state visit aimed at repairing relations after bitter disputes. Ankara has been smarting at what it sees as Europe's slowness to condemn a failed coup against Erdogan in 2016, while Germany and other EU countries are concerned about the mass arrests that followed, Turkey's clampdown on press freedom and Erdogan's influence over Turkish diaspora communities in Europe. Before leaving Istanbul, Brase told ZDF: "The Turkish government has managed to more or less silence the national media. They are now trying to do it with international media. And we should not submit to that." Seibert added: "Turkey will not succeed in muffling our media. We will keep reporting about Turkey from wherever that might be." ZDF director Thomas Bellut said Brase had reported from Turkey factually and knowledgeably, adding: "ZDF will continue to report about this important country extensively, impartially, factually and critically." Maas also expressed alarm at comments made by a Turkish minister threatening those in Germany who supported the Kurdish PKK guerrilla group, fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey, while at home, then spent vacations in Turkey. Story continues Both sides are eager to avoid a severe deterioration in ties with Turkey's economy in crisis and Germany, home to 3 million people of Turkish origin, reliant on Turkey to help contain a Syrian migrant crisis beyond Europe's borders. In February last year, a Turkish court freed German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel pending trial after indicting him for alleged security offences - a move that helped ease tensions between the two NATO allies for a period. Asked about the rejection of the accreditations on Friday, Turkish Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said Germany and Turkey could have disagreements but "these are not impossible to solve ... What will remain is the Turkish-German friendship". (Reporting by Reuters TV and by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ece Toksabay in Ankara; Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Kirsten Donovan) BERLIN (AP) German Chancellor Angela Merkel is endorsing the idea of developing a joint European aircraft carrier, as suggested by her party's leader. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who succeeded Merkel in December as leader of the Christian Democratic Union, made the proposal in a weekend response to French President Emmanuel Macron's proposals for European Union reform. She noted that Germany and France are already working together on a future European combat aircraft. She said that "the next step could be to start on the symbolic project of building a common European aircraft carrier" to underline the EU's global security role. Merkel said Monday that "it's right and good that we have such equipment on the European side, and I'm happy to work on it." But she added that "we have to do other things as a priority." By Noor Zainab Hussain, Carolyn Cohn and Suzanne Barlyn (Reuters) - Boeing Co's insurers face big claims from families of the victims of the Ethiopian Airlines crash, coming less than six months after the crash of the same type of Boeing aircraft in Indonesia, insurance and aviation sources said. An Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after take-off on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board, raising questions about the safety of the Boeing 737 MAX 8, a new model that also crashed in Indonesia in October. While the initial insurance payments will be made by Ethiopian Airlines' insurers, they may look to recoup their money from Boeing's insurers if they can prove that the aircraft was faulty, the sources said. Initial payments to the passengers' families are bound by the Warsaw and Montreal conventions, but those payouts could be much higher if families pursue legal claims, particularly through U.S. courts, said Clive Garner, head of law firm Irwin Mitchell's travel litigation group in London. "If there were to be anything defective in terms of the plane or any of its components, then it would be possible to bring a claim against the manufacturer as well as the airline," he added. Insurers typically form a consortium to share the risks of large claims, with the lead insurer taking a larger proportion of the risk. The insured value of the plane itself was likely around $50 million, according to industry sources. Willis Towers Watson was the insurance broker for Ethiopian Airlines, while Chubb was the lead insurer, a Willis spokeswoman said on Monday. A Chubb spokesman declined to comment. Britain's Global Aerospace was the lead insurer for Boeing and also for Lion Air, which operated the plane that crashed in October, said Global Aerospace Chief Executive Nick Brown. Marsh was Boeing's insurance broker, two sources told Reuters. None of the sources gave financial details of the policies. Story continues Boeing shares fell 5.6 percent on Monday. U.S. LAWSUITS POSSIBLE Boeing self-insures an initial layer of coverage before the Global Aerospace coverage kicks in, said Justin Green, a New York-based aviation lawyer who has represented families in cases against Boeing. Boeing declined comment on its insurance cover. It is not uncommon for the planemaker, which is headquartered in Chicago, to face lawsuits in the United States, where legal compensation payments for the crash victims could run around $2 million to $3 million per person, depending on the law applied, compared to about $200,000 in Ethiopia, said Green. U.S. courts often throw out such lawsuits, given the difficulty of finding witnesses overseas, but the fact that eight U.S. citizens were killed in the Ethiopian Airlines crash increases the likelihood that litigation on behalf of all victims' families could be heard by a U.S. court, Green said. Initial compensation costs for all 157 passengers who died on the flight could be around $25 million, according to Reuters calculations based on the terms of the Montreal convention. The Montreal convention provides for a maximum of 113,100 special drawing rights, currently worth $1.39, for death or injury of each passenger, although not all countries are joined up to the convention. (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Carolyn Cohn in London and Suzanne Barlyn in New York; Editing by Rachel Armstrong and Bill Rigby) Caracas (AFP) - Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido called for mass demonstrations throughout the country on Tuesday to protest against a blackout that has left millions without power for the past four days. "Tomorrow at three o'clock in the afternoon, all of Venezuela will be on the streets," Guaido -- recognized as interim president by more than 50 countries -- said in a speech to the National Assembly. The 35-year-old National Assembly leader has challenged President Nicolas Maduro by calling on the opposition-dominated assembly to decree a "state of alarm" in the country. Describing the situation in Venezuela as a "catastrophe," he said the blackout had claimed "dozens" of lives since it began on Thursday. He said the continuing power outage meant water supplies were scarce, food had rotted and transportation and communications had either been interrupted or were unreliable. "There is no normality in Venezuela and we will not allow the tragedy to be normalized," he told lawmakers. "That is why we have the decree," said Guaido. Venezuela's blackout problems, he said, was "the product of the corruption and ineptitude of the regime." In the decree, which is expected to be approved by the opposition-dominated assembly, Guaido calls for "international cooperation" to overcome the crisis, and orders the 10 diplomatic representatives he has appointed abroad to coordinate that support. He also called on the military and security forces to "refrain from preventing or hindering" Tuesday's protests. The opposition-dominated National Assembly has no political power, having been sidelined by Maduro's creation of a Constituent Assembly in 2017 which is stacked with his supporters. London (AFP) - Britain's long goodbye to the European Union often seems to be spoken in unintelligible code. Most know the process as Brexit -- a child of the term Grexit that was coined by economists when it looked like debt-laden Greece would exit the eurozone in 2012. Greece stuck around but Britain is leaving the EU after a 2016 referendum that soon spawned its own lexicon. Here is a look at some of the terms -- both real and invented -- politicos are using to describe a split that could very well run past its March 29 deadline. - Article 50 - The basics begin with the 2007 Lisbon Treaty that updated the bloc's governing rules. Article 50 provides a "withdrawal clause" -- a two-year notice that Prime Minister Theresa May sent to European Council president Donald Tusk in 2017. The problem is that most British lawmakers have serious issues with May's version of Brexit. If they reject her plan for a second time on Tuesday, they are expected to vote on Thursday whether to request an extension of Article 50. This must be unanimously backed by the remaining 27 EU presidents and premiers. - Withdrawal agreement - May and the EU member states crowned nearly two years of mind-numbingly complex negotiations by putting their names in December to a 585-page tome spelling out the legal fine print of the divorce. UK lawmakers voted against it by a historic margin on January 15, sending May back to Brussels to renegotiate. But the EU has refused to amend the text, saying it is the "best deal" London can get. - Single market, customs union - These are the dry economic essentials of how the European Union works. The existing bloc is part of a "single market" -- an even broader area that also includes non-EU members such as Norway and Iceland. It removes internal borders so that goods and money can move around freely and people can live and work where they please. One set of consumer safety standards governs everything from chicken wings to washing machines. Story continues The EU also forms a "customs union" -- a body that applies a single set of quotas and tariffs on non-members such as China and the United States. - Backstop - Now comes the tricky bit where the customs union and single market come into play. Brexit creates an EU frontier between bloc member Ireland and Britain's Northern Ireland. But the troubled province is governed by a 1998 peace agreement that removed a physical border between Ireland and the North. The "backstop" tries to get around this -- and keep the peace -- by making all of Britain part of the customs union until a new EU-UK trade deal is reached. Northern Ireland additionally adopts most parts of the single market. This lets it trade freely with Ireland while remaining part of Britain. But May's Northern Irish coalition partners hate the backstop because it treats their region differently from the mainland. - Hard and soft Brexit - Exhausted Britons sometimes joke that Brexit comes in every which way but scrambled. A hard version of Brexit is championed by EU haters -- the so-called Brexiteers -- who say that fears of a clean break from the bloc are overblown. This is the "no-deal" scenario many businesses dread. A soft Brexit would only nudge Britain partially out of Europe. Some want to copy the arrangement Norway reached with Brussels that keeps it in the single market. Others want both that and the customs union -- a Norway "plus" option that looks a lot like what Britain has now. - BRINO - The acronym arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg adopted for May's strategy in January 2018. It means "Brexit in name only" and implies that the UK will leave the EU on paper only. - BOBs - Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt admitted to the BBC in November that "many people are bored of Brexit" and want the whole thing to go away. The acronym BOB struck a nerve in a tired nation that has been debating the same points about Brexit for the best part of three years. - Maybot - The nickname a scoffing reporter from The Guardian assigned May for invariably using the same stock phrases. Her favourites include "Brexit means Brexit" and "no deal is better than a bad deal". The moniker's use jumped when May suddenly broke out some stiff dance moves during an August tour of Africa. The robotic hand motions and thumping footsteps returned when she sauntered on stage to ABBA's "Dancing Queen" at an October party conference. Username: Password: or Register Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread Thread Rating: 3 Vote(s) - 3.67 Average 1 2 3 4 5 Page: 1 2 Democrats Commit The Ultimate Crime- Criticizing Israel Natura Naturans Registered User User ID: 480998 03-11-2019 06:16 PM Posts: 13,155 Post: #1 Democrats Commit The Ultimate Crime- Criticizing Israel Advertisement Saying anything negative about Israel has long been the third rail of US politics and media. Israel is our nations most sacred cow. Any questioning of its behavior brings furious charges of anti-Semitism and professional oblivion, Margolis wrote. He added that a number of US senators and congressmen lost their positions after rebuking Israel for its mistreatment of Palestinians or daring to suggest that Israel had far too much influence in the US. The analyst pointed out that journalists were not even allowed to write there was an Israel lobby. Now, young Democratic stars Tulsi Gabbard, Kamala Harris, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a feisty congresswoman from Minnesota, Ilhan Omar, have suddenly broken the taboo and said what dared not be said: there is too much rightwing Israeli influence and there must be justice for Palestine, he wrote. Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have come to the defense of Ilhan Omar against the usual charges that she is anti-Semitic. So have black groups and smaller liberal Jewish groups, he noted. The Democratic Party, that once received half its financial support from Jewish sources, is badly split over the Palestine crisis, he revealed. https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/03/1...-of-Israel The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free. --Baruch Spinoza Young Democratic stars like Tulsi Gabbard, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar have broken Americas biggest taboo - calling out Israel for its oppression of Palestinians - according to Eric S. Margolis, an American journalist and writer.Saying anything negative about Israel has long been the third rail of US politics and media. Israel is our nations most sacred cow. Any questioning of its behavior brings furious charges of anti-Semitism and professional oblivion, Margolis wrote.He added that a number of US senators and congressmen lost their positions after rebuking Israel for its mistreatment of Palestinians or daring to suggest that Israel had far too much influence in the US.The analyst pointed out that journalists were not even allowed to write there was an Israel lobby.Now, young Democratic stars Tulsi Gabbard, Kamala Harris, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a feisty congresswoman from Minnesota, Ilhan Omar, have suddenly broken the taboo and said what dared not be said: there is too much rightwing Israeli influence and there must be justice for Palestine, he wrote.Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have come to the defense of Ilhan Omar against the usual charges that she is anti-Semitic. So have black groups and smaller liberal Jewish groups, he noted.The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free. --Baruch Spinoza LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 464826 03-11-2019 06:24 PM Post: #2 RE: Democrats Commit The Ultimate Crime- Criticizing Israel Natura Naturans Wrote: (03-11-2019 06:16 PM) Young Democratic stars like Tulsi Gabbard, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar have broken Americas biggest taboo - calling out Israel for its oppression of Palestinians - according to Eric S. Margolis, an American journalist and writer. Saying anything negative about Israel has long been the third rail of US politics and media. Israel is our nations most sacred cow. Any questioning of its behavior brings furious charges of anti-Semitism and professional oblivion, Margolis wrote. He added that a number of US senators and congressmen lost their positions after rebuking Israel for its mistreatment of Palestinians or daring to suggest that Israel had far too much influence in the US. The analyst pointed out that journalists were not even allowed to write there was an Israel lobby. Now, young Democratic stars Tulsi Gabbard, Kamala Harris, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a feisty congresswoman from Minnesota, Ilhan Omar, have suddenly broken the taboo and said what dared not be said: there is too much rightwing Israeli influence and there must be justice for Palestine, he wrote. Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have come to the defense of Ilhan Omar against the usual charges that she is anti-Semitic. So have black groups and smaller liberal Jewish groups, he noted. The Democratic Party, that once received half its financial support from Jewish sources, is badly split over the Palestine crisis, he revealed. https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/03/1...-of-Israel Did you know Press t.v. us an Uranisn news orgsnization? Quote: DescriptionPress TV is a 24-hour English- and French-language news and documentary network affiliated with Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting. Press TV is headquartered in Tehran and is extensively networked with bureaus in the world's most strategic cities. Wikipedia Owner: Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Founded: July 8, 2007 Can you say, bias? Shove it. Did you know Press t.v. us an Uranisn news orgsnization?Can you say, bias? Shove it. Natura Naturans Registered User User ID: 480998 03-11-2019 06:28 PM Posts: 13,155 Post: #3 RE: Democrats Commit The Ultimate Crime- Criticizing Israel LoP Guest Wrote: (03-11-2019 06:24 PM) Natura Naturans Wrote: (03-11-2019 06:16 PM) Young Democratic stars like Tulsi Gabbard, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar have broken Americas biggest taboo - calling out Israel for its oppression of Palestinians - according to Eric S. Margolis, an American journalist and writer. Saying anything negative about Israel has long been the third rail of US politics and media. Israel is our nations most sacred cow. Any questioning of its behavior brings furious charges of anti-Semitism and professional oblivion, Margolis wrote. He added that a number of US senators and congressmen lost their positions after rebuking Israel for its mistreatment of Palestinians or daring to suggest that Israel had far too much influence in the US. The analyst pointed out that journalists were not even allowed to write there was an Israel lobby. Now, young Democratic stars Tulsi Gabbard, Kamala Harris, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a feisty congresswoman from Minnesota, Ilhan Omar, have suddenly broken the taboo and said what dared not be said: there is too much rightwing Israeli influence and there must be justice for Palestine, he wrote. Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have come to the defense of Ilhan Omar against the usual charges that she is anti-Semitic. So have black groups and smaller liberal Jewish groups, he noted. The Democratic Party, that once received half its financial support from Jewish sources, is badly split over the Palestine crisis, he revealed. https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/03/1...-of-Israel Did you know Press t.v. us an Uranisn news orgsnization? Quote: DescriptionPress TV is a 24-hour English- and French-language news and documentary network affiliated with Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting. Press TV is headquartered in Tehran and is extensively networked with bureaus in the world's most strategic cities. Wikipedia Owner: Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Founded: July 8, 2007 Can you say, bias? Shove it. Instead of killing the messenger you might try refuting the article. It is 100% truth. You don't like anything but Israeli and US lies and you will NOT be able to refute the article. Instead of killing the messenger you might try refuting the article. It is 100% truth. You don't like anything but Israeli and US lies and you will NOT be able to refute the article. The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free. --Baruch Spinoza LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 492523 03-11-2019 06:31 PM Post: #4 RE: Democrats Commit The Ultimate Crime- Criticizing Israel State of Israel = Rainbow Flag Israel = Rainbow LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 464826 03-11-2019 06:33 PM Post: #5 RE: Democrats Commit The Ultimate Crime- Criticizing Israel Natura Naturans Wrote: (03-11-2019 06:28 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (03-11-2019 06:24 PM) Did you know Press t.v. us an Uranisn news orgsnization? Can you say, bias? Shove it. Instead of killing the messenger you might try refuting the article. It is 100% truth. You don't like anything but Israeli and US lies and you will NOT be able to refute the article. How do you know it's 100% truth? It's up to you to find a source reporting this news, that does not originate from a country that wants to bomb Israel back to the stone age. Not me. Just so you know, for a time, Press t.v. links were bannned here because some guy from Iran was spamming them, relentlessly. How do you know it's 100% truth? It's up to you to find a source reporting this news, that does not originate from a country that wants to bomb Israel back to the stone age. Not me.Just so you know, for a time, Press t.v. links were bannned here because some guy from Iran was spamming them, relentlessly. Natura Naturans Registered User User ID: 480998 03-11-2019 06:36 PM Posts: 13,155 Post: #6 RE: Democrats Commit The Ultimate Crime- Criticizing Israel LoP Guest Wrote: (03-11-2019 06:33 PM) Natura Naturans Wrote: (03-11-2019 06:28 PM) Instead of killing the messenger you might try refuting the article. It is 100% truth. You don't like anything but Israeli and US lies and you will NOT be able to refute the article. How do you know it's 100% truth? It's up to you to find a source reporting this news, that does not originate from a country that wants to bomb Israel back to the stone age. Not me. Just so you know, for a time, Press t.v. links were bannned here because some guy from Iran was spamming them, relentlessly. hasbara much? hasbara much? The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free. --Baruch Spinoza loNe-RPT Registered User User ID: 450073 03-11-2019 06:39 PM Posts: 2,982 Post: #7 RE: Democrats Commit The Ultimate Crime- Criticizing Israel Natura Naturans Wrote: (03-11-2019 06:16 PM) Young Democratic stars like Tulsi Gabbard, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar have broken Americas biggest taboo - calling out Israel for its oppression of Palestinians - according to Eric S. Margolis, an American journalist and writer. Saying anything negative about Israel has long been the third rail of US politics and media. Israel is our nations most sacred cow. Any questioning of its behavior brings furious charges of anti-Semitism and professional oblivion, Margolis wrote. He added that a number of US senators and congressmen lost their positions after rebuking Israel for its mistreatment of Palestinians or daring to suggest that Israel had far too much influence in the US. The analyst pointed out that journalists were not even allowed to write there was an Israel lobby. Now, young Democratic stars Tulsi Gabbard, Kamala Harris, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a feisty congresswoman from Minnesota, Ilhan Omar, have suddenly broken the taboo and said what dared not be said: there is too much rightwing Israeli influence and there must be justice for Palestine, he wrote. Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have come to the defense of Ilhan Omar against the usual charges that she is anti-Semitic. So have black groups and smaller liberal Jewish groups, he noted. The Democratic Party, that once received half its financial support from Jewish sources, is badly split over the Palestine crisis, he revealed. https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/03/1...-of-Israel = PTB tree of good&evil tactic goal is to let christians cling to [PTB's] 'right (wing)' = PTB tree of good&evil tacticgoal is to let christians cling to [PTB's] 'right (wing)' LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 492656 03-11-2019 06:40 PM Post: #8 RE: Democrats Commit The Ultimate Crime- Criticizing Israel Natura Naturans Wrote: (03-11-2019 06:16 PM) Young Democratic stars like Tulsi Gabbard, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar have broken Americas biggest taboo - calling out Israel for its oppression of Palestinians - according to Eric S. Margolis, an American journalist and writer. Saying anything negative about Israel has long been the third rail of US politics and media. Israel is our nations most sacred cow. Any questioning of its behavior brings furious charges of anti-Semitism and professional oblivion, Margolis wrote. He added that a number of US senators and congressmen lost their positions after rebuking Israel for its mistreatment of Palestinians or daring to suggest that Israel had far too much influence in the US. The analyst pointed out that journalists were not even allowed to write there was an Israel lobby. Now, young Democratic stars Tulsi Gabbard, Kamala Harris, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a feisty congresswoman from Minnesota, Ilhan Omar, have suddenly broken the taboo and said what dared not be said: there is too much rightwing Israeli influence and there must be justice for Palestine, he wrote. Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have come to the defense of Ilhan Omar against the usual charges that she is anti-Semitic. So have black groups and smaller liberal Jewish groups, he noted. The Democratic Party, that once received half its financial support from Jewish sources, is badly split over the Palestine crisis, he revealed. https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/03/1...-of-Israel Do you want to know why? AOC and Ilhan Omar are puppets of Justice Democrats. And the brains behinf them pulling this strings follows the political ideologies of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose... What ideology does Netaji espouse??? By this time, Netaji seems to have liked Nazism more than facism. In a speech to students of Tokyo University in 1944, Netaji said India needs to have a philosophy that should be a synthesis betweent Nazism and Communism". Read more at: https://m.timesofindia.com/india/Netaji-...aign=cppst Do you want to know why? AOC and Ilhan Omar are puppets of Justice Democrats. And the brains behinf them pulling this strings follows the political ideologies of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose... What ideology does Netaji espouse???By this time, Netaji seems to have liked Nazism more than facism. In a speech to students of Tokyo University in 1944, Netaji said India needs to have a philosophy that should be a synthesis betweent Nazism and Communism".Read more at: LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 464826 03-11-2019 06:44 PM Post: #9 RE: Democrats Commit The Ultimate Crime- Criticizing Israel Natura Naturans Wrote: (03-11-2019 06:36 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (03-11-2019 06:33 PM) How do you know it's 100% truth? It's up to you to find a source reporting this news, that does not originate from a country that wants to bomb Israel back to the stone age. Not me. Just so you know, for a time, Press t.v. links were bannned here because some guy from Iran was spamming them, relentlessly. hasbara much? Not at all. Find another link, if you can. Islamic bias is just as bad as if you posted a link from Haaretz News on this. Not at all. Find another link, if you can. Islamic bias is just as bad as if you posted a link from Haaretz News on this. loNe-RPT Registered User User ID: 450073 03-11-2019 06:54 PM Posts: 2,982 Post: #10 RE: Democrats Commit The Ultimate Crime- Criticizing Israel the breitbart chgannel devised by PTB for 1-dimensional christians [all millions of 'em..] https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2019...spiracies/ proof ;the breitbart chganneldevised by PTB for 1-dimensional christians[all millions of 'em..] Fu King Registered User User ID: 430765 03-11-2019 07:06 PM Posts: 3,346 Post: #11 RE: Democrats Commit The Ultimate Crime- Criticizing Israel "IF YOU WANT TO FIND OUT WHO RULES OVER YOU, SIMPLY FIND OUT WHO IT IS YOU CANNOT CRITICIZE" JEWS/ISRAEL LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 451870 03-11-2019 07:10 PM Post: #12 RE: Democrats Commit The Ultimate Crime- Criticizing Israel Isreal is not reconized because it was created by zionist men. The belfore declaration Now trump is gonna get isreal estabished world wide by getting whole world to establish isreal Only way world will recognize isreal. Is if we deal harshly with zionist agenda Im ok with this Zionist are trash manipulative evil ppl LoP Guest lop guest User ID: 451870 03-11-2019 11:32 PM Post: #13 RE: Democrats Commit The Ultimate Crime- Criticizing Israel Skippy Enough Already User ID: 402368 03-11-2019 11:33 PM Posts: 9,556 Post: #14 RE: Democrats Commit The Ultimate Crime- Criticizing Israel There is no Israel, it's occupied Palestine. GrimShaw Asinus Asinum Fricat User ID: 492485 03-11-2019 11:46 PM Posts: 32,704 Post: #15 RE: Democrats Commit The Ultimate Crime- Criticizing Israel Skippy Wrote: (03-11-2019 11:33 PM) There is no Israel, it's occupied Palestine. The same argument can be made vice-versa. There is no Palestine, only Roman-occupied and renamed Judah. BUT, I'm no historian or history revisionist. So I won't make the claim that the Kingdom of Judah actually existed. The same argument can be made vice-versa. There is no Palestine, only Roman-occupied and renamed Judah.BUT, I'm no historian or history revisionist. So I won't make the claim that the Kingdom of Judah actually existed. Advertisement Back to Forum Reply to This post Post New Thread Containers at a loading terminal in Hamburg. Photo: Reuters/Fabian Bimmer Data out today showed that industrial output in Germany fell by 0.8% in January, a bigger-than-expected drop, and was down by 3.3% year-on-year. Export figures were flat for the month. However, Decembers output was revised up from a 0.4% drop to a 0.8% increase. The headwinds from abroad are hitting the German economy particularly hard, Sophia Krietenbrink from the DIHK Chambers of Industry and Commerce told Reuters. Industrial production is hard data and it is really cementing the impression that the European economy is slowing down, said Antoine Bouvet, a rates strategist at Mizuho. It is lending credibility to the view that the slowdown is not temporary. However, despite narrowly avoiding falling into recession at the end of 2018, and a gloomy start to this year, the latest industrial data from Germany may show that things are bottoming out, according to ING chief economist Carsten Brzeski. Strong revisions of monthly data, tentative signs of domestic orders stabilising, and still solid fundamentals suggest that the current volatility is merely a sign that the slump in German industry is reaching a nadir, Brzeski said. Trade tensions with the US, Brexit uncertainty, a slowing Chinese economy, and, for carmakers, adapting to new EU emissions regulations, and investing in the switch to e-mobility are all weighing on the German economy. Car production was down by more than 9% in January. However, Brzeski sees some reasons for optimism in the coming months, pointing to the growth in domestic orders in January, robust private consumption, and high capacity utilisation. It has become increasingly difficult to explain the current industrial slump in Germany by temporary factors alone, Brzeski said. In fact, it is the combination of several one-off factors and increasing global uncertainty which is behind the ongoing disappointment. WASHINGTON After debates and delays over the wording of the text, the House on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a resolution that broadly condemned hate. The resolution which was crafted after freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, made comments critical of Israel that detractors said played to anti-Semitic tropes passed 407 to 23. All Democrats voted in favor of the resolution, including Omar. Republicans were the only to oppose it, with one member voting as present. The resolution was broadened from its original version, which focused solely on denouncing anti-Semitism, to condemning other forms of bigotry against minorities. The original effort received pushback from progressive Democrats including New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who said it was unfair to single out Omar although a draft version of the initial resolution obtained by USA TODAY did not mention Omar by name. They pointed out that Omar, who is Muslim, has herself been the subject of offensive attacks, such as a poster displayed in West Virginia's statehouse implying she was linked to the 9/11 attacks. The Democrats compromised by drafting a resolution that condemns both anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim discrimination, as well as general "bigotry against minorities." The resolution does not mention Omar by name. "Its not about her," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Thursday. The passed resolution condemns "anti-Semitism" and "anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry against minorities as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contrary to the values and aspirations of the United States." After voting in favor of the item, Omar released a joint statement with Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Andrew Carson praising it. The statement did not address Omar's remarks, which sparked the anti-Semitism debate and calls for a resolution in the first place. The members said the vote marked the first time the House voted to condemn anti-Muslim bigotry and noted the increase of crimes against Muslims. Story continues "We are tremendously proud to be part of a body that has put forth a condemnation of all forms of bigotry including anti-Semitism, racism and, white supremacy," the statement said. "Our nation is having a difficult conversation and we believe that is great progress." But the resolution did not appear to satisfy some Democrats. "Why are we unable to singularly condemn anti-Semitism?" asked Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Florida, in a speech Thursday from the House floor. Trump: Rep. Ilhan Omar should be 'ashamed' over 'anti-Semitic' tweet condemned by Dem leaders Omar punches back at Trump: 'You have trafficked in hate your whole life' House Democrats were anxious to push ahead with the resolution ahead of a vote on an important Democratic-led initiative on Friday. Democrats feared Republicans would offer a last-minute amendment and put Democrats in the awkward position of appearing to have to choose between condemning their colleague or looking soft on anti-Semitism. Omar has generated controversy since taking office just over two months ago. House Republicans quickly objected to her appointment to the House Foreign Affairs Committee because of her past statements criticizing Israel's treatment of Palestinians. They cited a 2012 tweet in which she said Israel had "hypnotized the world." On Feb. 10, Omar was roundly criticized for tweets implying the influence of pro-Israel lobbying groups was stifling debate about Israel and Palestine. Critics said the comments played into enduring stereotypes about Jewish money controlling politics. Omar "unequivocally" apologized for the tweets and said the comments were "not intended to offend my constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole." She later deleted the posts, along with the one from 2012. Just as the uproar over the tweets was subsiding, Omar appeared at a town hall event in Washington, D.C., where she suggested Israel demands "allegiance" from American lawmakers. Critics said that comment invoked another anti-Semitic trope questioning the loyalty of American Jews. "Weve had lots of conversations about foreign policy, but the fact is that using anti-Semitic tropes like the dual-loyalty charge, which I take so personally, both as a member of Congress and the son of a World War II veteran, that language is unacceptable and must be condemned," Deutch said Thursday on Fox Business Network's "Mornings with Maria." After her town hall remarks, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-New York, issued a statement denouncing Omar's "vile, anti-Semitic slur" and demanding that she apologize. So far, Omar has not apologized for those remarks. When asked if she thought an apology from Omar was necessary, Pelosi said, "Its up to her to explain. But I do not believe she understood the full weight of the words." But, Pelosi said she was "confident that her words were not based on any anti-Semitic attitude" and that Omar "didnt have a full appreciation" of the "cultural impact" of her words and their offensive historic connotations. More: Elliott Abrams bristles at Rep. Ilhan Omar's 'attack' for his Iran-Contra role More: Rep. Omar starts furor with tweets on 'compromised' Sen. Graham, Israel 'evil doings' The resolution specifically addresses the anti-Semitic tropes Omar has been accused of invoking. "Accusing Jews of being more loyal to Israel or to the Jewish community than to the United States constitutes anti-Semitism because it suggests that Jewish citizens cannot be patriotic Americans and trusted neighbors," the proposed resolution says. "Accusations of dual loyalty generally have an insidious and pernicious history." Republicans pounced on the Democratic infighting and criticized them for not being able to unite in opposition to anti-Semitism. "This is shameful and unacceptable," tweeted Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida. "@SpeakerPelosi has shown that Democrats like @Ilhan can make anti-Semitic comments with no real consequences. She continues to sit on the Foreign Affairs Committee and now Dems cant even muster the courage to officially condemn anti-Semitism." Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-South Carolina, in defending Omar to The Hill on Wednesday, said her experience escaping violence in her birth country of Somalia is "more empirical and powerful" than those of people years removed from Japanese internment camps and the Holocaust. "Im serious about that. There are people who tell me, 'Well, my parents are Holocaust survivors.' 'My parents did this.' Its more personal with her," Clyburn told The Hill. "Ive talked to her, and I can tell you she is living through a lot of pain." The progressive group CREDO defended Omar in a statement Thursday, calling the resolution a "dangerous waste of time." "Democrats should be spending their time in Congress investigating the purveyors of hate in the Trump White House, not pushing platitudes in order to implicitly condemn one of their own," said CREDO Action Co-Director Heidi Hess. The pro-Israel organization J Street welcomed the resolution and urged lawmakers to pass it "immediately." "We believe it is an important step forward in the fight against anti-Semitism for the Jewish community to stand together with Muslim-Americans and other vulnerable communities of color and faith that are subjected to discrimination and attack on the basis of their religion, race, ethnicity or other status," the group said. Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, was less enthusiastic about the compromised resolution. "At the Anti-Defamation League, we have fiercely opposed hate and bigotry in all forms for more than 100 years," he wrote in an op-ed for USA TODAY. "However, at the end of the day, words matter. When prominent people or members of Congress spout anti-Semitic rhetoric, it gives a green light to others to repeat that rhetoric." "We will continue to call out elected officials in both parties when they spew hate, and now is the time for Congress to send a clear, unambiguous message: There is no place for anti-Semitism in the United States." See the full House resolution here: This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: House overwhelmingly passes resolution condemning hate after Rep. Ilhan Omar's comments WASHINGTON (AP) The executive board of the International Monetary Fund on Monday approved a $4.2 billion fund to support Ecuador over the next three years. The arrangement was reached last month at staff level and required a final approval by the board. It allows an immediate disbursement of $652 million. Ecuador's finance minister, Richard Espinosa, said the agreement "rebuilds confidence so local and foreign investors can expand their investments in the country." The IMF has said the agreement is part of a broader effort by the international community that totals $10 billion and includes financial support of almost $6 billion over the next three years from the Development Bank of Latin America, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Latin American Reserve Fund and the World Bank. "The aim is to reduce debt-to-GDP ratio through a combination of a wage bill realignment, a careful and gradual optimization of fuel subsidies, a reprioritization of capital and goods and services spending, and a tax reform," IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said after the board discussion. Ecuador's government faces a fiscal deficit of $10 billion, which has caused delays in paying government employees and suppliers. Lagarde said that protecting the poor is another objective of the program, and that work is underway to increase benefits under Ecuador's social protection programs and to improve the targeting of those programs. The agreement ends an estrangement that began with the South American nation in 2007, when then President Rafael Correa kicked out the IMF mission shortly after taking office. Indonesian national Siti Aisyah (C) smiles while leaving the Shah Alam High Court, outside Kuala Lumpur on Monday - AFP An Indonesian woman accused of assassinating North Korean leader Kim Jong-uns half-brother arrived back in Jakarta on Monday after a Malaysian court suddenly dropped the murder charges and released her. A smiling Siti Aisyah, 26, who had been facing the possibility of a death penalty sentence in Malaysia in the morning, by the evening was welcomed by Indonesian officials and rushed through Jakartas main airport to her emotional parents, who wept and hugged their youngest daughter on sight. Ms Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong, 30, from Vietnam, had been charged with killing Kim Jong Nam, the estranged relative of the North Korean leader, at Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017. The pair were accused of smearing lethal VX nerve agent on his face, but both claimed that they were duped into believing they were taking part in a reality TV prank show and knew nothing of the audacious plot to kill him. Four North Koreans, believed to be the masterminds of the conspiracy, fled Malaysia after the murder and remain at large. Both women had been in custody for more than two years before Mondays shock twist when judge Azmin Ariffin told the Shah Alam High Court that Ms Aisyah would be granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal. No reason was given. The young woman, who had first arrived in Kuala Lumpur as an impoverished migrant worker, told reporters that she was overwhelmed at the news. "I am surprised and very happy, she said. I didnt expect that today will be the day of my freedom. She later thanked Joko Widodo, the Indonesian president, his government and her lawyers for securing her release. It has since emerged that Indonesia lobbied the Malaysian authorities intensively on her behalf at the highest levels. The foreign ministry said in a statement that Siti Aisyah was deceived and did not realise at all that she was being manipulated by North Korean intelligence. Story continues Their efforts finally paid off. Tommy Thomas, the Malaysian attorney general, announced his decision to free Ms Aisyah in a letter to Indonesias minister of law and human rights, revealing that the judgement was made taking into account the good relations between the two countries. Siti Aisyah hugs her relieved father, Asria, and mother, Binah Credit: Achmad Ibrahim/AP In her home district of Serang, Ms Aisyahs relatives, who had been praying for her freedom, were thrilled. Her aunt, Darsinah, the sister of her mother, Binah, told the Telegraph that the local community was preparing a religious festival to give thanks for her homecoming. Binah had cried every day and night for her daughter, until the good news was broken to the family on Sunday, she revealed. Ms Aisyah was a simple and naive girl who had only tried to improve her familys income by moving to Malaysia, she said. She spoke to her family but never allowed her mother to see her during the trial, fearing that she would collapse. I dont really understand why the court didnt believe that Aisyah was only a simple villager who doesnt understand the game that is played by, whoever they were, she said. My sister and I are only villagers from a remote place who dont understand law. But we are honest and we know who Aisyah is. So those people have to believe us: Aisyah would not kill anyone, not even a cat. Ms Aisyahs release raises difficult questions about the fate of the remaining defendant, Doan Thi Huong, also from a modest background in rural Vietnam. Ms Doan was due to testify on Monday after months of delay but the trial was adjourned after her lawyer said she had been traumatised to learn that she now faced the charges alone. The two women hugged in the dock as Ms Aisyah left, but a distraught Ms Doan later told reporters that I am in shock. My mind is blank. Mr Hisyam added: Doan was obviously disappointed as there was no equal treatment given to her, no fairness displayed to her, and she is in no position to testify. He said her legal team had been upset about the decision to release one woman and not the other, adding that they would apply to the Attorney General for a full acquittal. We hope that the AG will seriously consider our representation and come up with the right decision and that is the same decision as Siti Aisyah withdraw the charge against her, he said. The trial will resume on Thursday. Mr Hisyam told the Telegraph last week that he was very confident his client would win as she had no knowledge of the elaborate conspiracy. Kim lived in exile in Macau and it is widely believed he was targetted as a perceived threat to the isolated regime. South Korea has accused the North of ordering the hit, which Pyongyang denies. Additional reporting by Selva Mariappen. Sign up for your essential, twice-daily briefing from The Telegraph with our free Front Page newsletter. DES MOINES, Iowa Most registered Republicans think President Donald Trump is doing a good job, but they are split over whether another GOP candidate should challenge him for their partys nomination in 2020, a new Iowa Poll shows. The Iowa Poll, sponsored by the Des Moines Register, CNN and Mediacom, also finds 90 percent of registered Republicans want Trump to run a positive re-election campaign, focusing on the good things hes done for the country. Just 4 percent want him to focus on attacking opponents one of the presidents trademarks. The poll asked registered Republicans how they view Trumps performance and prospects. Eighty-one percent approve of the job he is doing as president. Thats the same level of approval as in a December Iowa Poll. Just 12 percent of Iowa Republicans disapprove of the job hes doing, and 7 percent are unsure. Loading... March 9: Iowa Poll: Not even in the race, Joe Biden leads Democrats; Sanders close behind Dec. 16: Iowa Poll: Trump has big fan base among Iowa Republicans, but they welcome challengers Several other Republicans nationally have indicated they might challenge Trump for the partys 2020 nomination. The new Iowa Poll shows registered Republicans in the state are split on hoping for a challenger: 40 percent hope there will be one, and 41 percent hope there won't. Nineteen percent are unsure. A handful of possible challengers tested in the poll remain unknown quantities to many Iowa Republicans. The poll of 400 registered Iowa Republicans has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points. It was conducted by Selzer & Co. from March 3-6. Big GOP majorities like Trump, plan to vote for him President Donald Trump signs a Bible as he greets people at Providence Baptist Church in Smiths Station, Ala., Friday, March 8, 2019, as he tours areas where tornados killed 23 people in Lee County, Ala. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) The president has gained in popularity since registered Iowa Republicans were last polled in December. Eighty-two percent now view him favorably, up 5 percentage points, and 15 percent view him unfavorably, down 3 percentage points. Sixty-seven percent of registered Iowa Republicans definitely plan to vote for Trump in 2020, the poll finds. Eighteen percent say they would consider voting for someone else, 9 percent say they definitely will vote for someone else, 3 percent are unsure and 2 percent dont plan to vote. Story continues Poll participant Eileen Thurman said she plans to vote for Trumps re-election and pretty much approves of the job hes doing as president. "I think he is trying to do stuff that should have been done years ago" especially on illegal immigration and on getting fair trade with other countries, Thurman said. "I think hes trying to make our country better for us," she said. She said his opponents have often blocked him from accomplishing his goals. Dec. 15: Iowa Poll: Biden, Sanders top early look at possible Democratic hopefuls in 2020 caucuses Thurman, 71, said she wishes Trump would focus more of his energy on promoting his ideas and less of it on attacking his opponents. "I dont really care for the way he spouts off about things," she said. "I dont think he always thinks things through beforehand." Poll participant William Horning, 73, also supports Trump but would like the president to tone down his approach. "I wish he would quit tweeting as much as he does," Horning said. "I think if he would keep his mouth shut more, he might do better." But Horning said Trumps combative manner seems to be part of who he is. "Its a typical New York attitude," he said. Loading... Most support emergency powers use to fund wall Trump invoked emergency powers last month after Congress declined to approve the $5.7 billion he demanded for a border wall. The decision sparked legal challenges, and the House of Representatives, led by Democrats, voted to block his declaration. The Senate is expected to vote on the issue soon. The new Iowa Poll shows 63 percent of Iowa Republicans believe that Trump had the right to use emergency powers to obtain border-wall money and that it was the right thing to do. Six percent believe that he had the legal right to do so, but that it was the wrong thing to do. Twenty percent think he did not have the right to use emergency powers that way; and 6 percent are unsure. Loading... Possible GOP primary challengers? The new Iowa Poll also asked Iowa Republicans how they feel about former Starbucks leader Howard Schultz, who is considering an independent run for president. Sixty-one percent say theyre unsure about Schultz. Nearly three times as many respondents have an unfavorable view of him as have a favorable view (28 percent to 10 percent). Among potential Republican challengers tested, former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who ran for president in 2016, is best known, the poll suggests. Twenty-seven percent of Iowa Republicans have a favorable view of Kasich, but about just as many, 28 percent, have an unfavorable view. Forty-five percent are unsure. Most Iowa Republicans dont know what to make of two other potential Republican challengers to Trump, the poll shows. Eighty-four percent say theyre unsure how to feel about Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. Twelve percent have an unfavorable view of Hogan; 4 percent have a favorable view. Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld is in a similar position with Iowa Republicans, the poll shows. Eighty-one percent say they are unsure how to feel about Weld; 15 percent have an unfavorable view; and just 4 percent have a favorable view. Those who hope no Republican challenges Trump are more likely to say the president is doing a good job. Ninety-seven percent of them approve of his job performance. Just 63 percent of Iowa Republicans who are rooting for a GOP challenger approve of the job Trump is doing. Eighty-two percent of Iowa Republicans who dont want a GOP challenger say they are almost certain or fairly confident Trump will win re-election. Among Iowa Republicans who want to see a primary election challenger, just 37 percent are almost certain or fairly confident Trump will win re-election. Loading... Loading... About this poll The Iowa Poll, conducted March 3-6, 2019, for The Des Moines Register, CNN and Mediacom by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, is based on telephone interviews with 401 registered voters in Iowa who say they will definitely or probably attend the 2020 Democratic caucuses and 400 registered Republicans. Interviewers with Quantel Research contacted 1,618 randomly selected active voters from the Iowa secretary of States voter-registration list by telephone. The sample was supplemented with additional phone number lookups. Interviews were administered in English. Responses for all contacts were adjusted by age and sex to reflect their proportions among active voters in the list. For the registered Republican sample, responses for the 418 registered Republican contacts were adjusted by age and sex to reflect their proportions among active registered Republicans in the voter registration list. Questions based on the sample of 401 voters likely to attend the 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses have a maximum margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points, as does the sample of 400 registered Republicans. This means that if this survey were repeated using the same questions and the same methodology, 19 times out of 20, the findings would not vary from the true population value by more than plus or minus 4.9 percentage points. Results based on smaller samples of respondents such as by gender or age have a larger margin of error. Republishing the copyright Iowa Poll without credit to The Des Moines Register, CNN, and Mediacom is prohibited. Follow Tony Leys on Twitter: @tonyleys This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa Poll: Registered Republicans like Trump but 40 percent want a GOP challenger Tehran (AFP) - The commander of the Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, a key figure in the battle against the Islamic State group, has received Iran's highest military award, the country's supreme leader announced Monday. The major general, whose unit runs foreign operations, is regarded as the mastermind of Iran's military strategy in the region. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei awarded him with the "Order of Zulfaqar", the leader's office tweeted. Soleimani became the first to receive the award since the 1979 Islamic revolution, according to Tasnim news agency. The general has been the public face of Iran's support for the Iraqi and Syrian governments in their battles with Islamic State group jihadists. He reportedly landed in Baghdad only hours after IS captured Iraq's second city Mosul in 2014 and threatened to overrun the capital. In Islamic tradition, Zulfaqar is the name of the double-pointed sword said to have been given by Prophet Mohammed to his son-in-law Ali. Baghdad (AFP) - Iran's President Hassan Rouhani arrived in Iraq on Monday for his first official visit, state television said, as Baghdad is under pressure from Washington to limit ties with its neighbour. Before leaving Tehran Rouhani hailed the "special" relations between Iran and Iraq, saying they could not be compared to Baghdad's ties "with an aggressor country like America". His visit to Iraq is the first since he became president in 2013. "Iran-Iraq relations are special," Rouhani said at Tehran's Mehrabad airport before flying to Baghdad, Iranian state television reported, adding that Tehran was always ready to help its neighbours. "America is despised in the region. The bombs that the Americans dropped on Iraqis, Syrian people and other countries cannot be forgotten," he added. Baghdad has been under pressure from Washington to limit ties with its neighbour, particularly after the United States last year withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and hit Tehran with sanctions. Iraq was given limited waivers to continue buying electricity and natural gas from Iran, with Washington calling on Baghdad to partner with US companies to become energy independent. After Turkey, Iran is the top supplier of imported goods to Iraq, including cars, gas, home appliances and vegetables. Iran has close but complicated relations with Iraq, with significant influence among its Shiite political groups. The two countries fought a bloody war from 1980 to 1988 and Tehran's influence in Baghdad grew after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. Iran was the first country to respond to Iraqi calls for help after Islamic State group jihadists captured second city Mosul in 2014 and threatened to overrun Baghdad and Kirkuk. Tehran dispatched "military advisors" and equipment overnight along with the famous Revolutionary Guards elite Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani to prevent IS jihadists from approaching its western borders. Story continues Following the defeat of IS in Iraq, Iran is trying to position itself to gain a prime role in rebuilding the war-ravaged country. During the visit, Rouhani is set to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi and President Barham Saleh, as well as the country's chief Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, according to the Iranian government's website. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif preceded Rouhani to Iraq to prepare for the visit. Israels market regulator the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) has made a recommendation to the Israeli government to create a platform where cryptocurrencies can be traded under enhanced regulation, according to Reuters. Although the platform will be subject to enhanced regulation, it would allow companies to raise money by issuing digital tokens to investors. The ISA has been studying the field for roughly two years. ISA chair Anat Guetta commented: The excitement that defined the field in 2017 has cooled off, but the technology is here to stay. Guetta was referring to distributed ledger technology (DLT), which underpins cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Reportedly, the number of companies trading in Tel Aviv has fallen in the last decade. The ISA is now looking for a new, alternative method to attract more investors and raise initial public offerings. Guetta believes that technological innovation can be streamlined and increase competition in the capital market. However, the challenge is to find the balance between increased competition and protecting investors. In tandem with establishing a crypto trading platform, the committee has suggested applying securities law to cryptocurrencies. The law would need to be altered to incorporate unique disclosure demands for companies and businesses looking to issue cryptocurrencies. The committees report also referenced other exchanges based in London and Australia that it is studying as examples. The report did not offer a deadline for a final decision to be reached. Guettas comments seem to advocate for blockchain and crypto tech in Israel. This should come as positive news for the country after Bitmain closed its blockchain development centre in Raanana last year, which saw 23 members of staff lose their jobs. Interested in reading more crypto-related news from Israel? Discover how Coinmama founded the first crypto ATM in the country. The post Israels market regulator has recommended a national crypto trading platform appeared first on Coin Rivet. By Dan Williams JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli appellate court deferred a ruling on Monday over the deportation of the director of the local office of Human Rights Watch, accused of promoting pro-Palestinian boycotts of Israel, which Israel has banned. The judge said she wanted more time to study the Twitter history of Omar Shakir, who is contesting the revocation of his work permit last year. The New York-based rights watchdog has cast the case as a bid to suppress global criticism of Israel's treatment of Palestinians. Israel says that Shakir, a U.S. citizen, supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Israel has criminalized BDS and has lobbied Western powers to follow suit. The case hinges in part on Shakir's pro-BDS tweeting before he became Human Rights Watch's director for Israel and the Palestinian territories in 2016, and whether his statements after the appointment also constitute such support. Human Rights Watch says it does not support boycotts of Israel. It has defended Shakir's statements since joining the rights group, including a tweet backing Airbnb's delisting of homes in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Right-wing advocacy groups represented in court argued that Israeli law does not distinguish between boycotts of the settlements and boycotts of Israel itself. One advocate, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of the Shurat Hadin-Israel Law Centre, said Israel should consider barring Human Rights Watch entirely. Shakir's Israeli lawyer, Michael Sfard, said that was what the case boiled down to, as "deporting the appellant means deporting the organization". The case should not hinge on trying to determine Shakir's personal views, as "the question is not what he thinks, but what he does, and whether he calls openly for a boycott," Sfard said. The state's representative, Jerusalem District prosecutor Moran Brown, was circumspect about Human Rights Watch's status. "The organization is not defined by us as a boycott group, but it takes part in activity that supports boycotts," he said. (Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Peter Graff) Post: #2 RE: U.S. Warns Germany To Drop Huawei Or Risk Losing Intelligence Sharing With the increasing propaganda wars, we thought a reminder of just how naive many Westerners are when it comes to their news-feed. As Arjun Walia, of GlobalResearch.ca, notes, Dr. Ulfkotte went on public television stating that he was forced to publish the works of intelligence agents under his own name, also adding that noncompliance with these orders would result in him losing his job. He recently made an appearance on RT news to share these facts: "Ive been a journalist for about 25 years, and I was educated to lie, to betray, and not to tell the truth to the public. But seeing right now within the last months how the German and American media tries to bring war to the people in Europe, to bring war to Russia this is a point of no return and Im going to stand up and say it is not right what I have done in the past, to manipulate people, to make propaganda against Russia, and it is not right what my colleagues do and have done in the past because they are bribed to betray the people, not only in Germany, all over Europe." https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-2...ll-lie-cia I know it's getting annoying for the US to reveal the fact that it constantly blackmails the EU into following US orders. We know already that the EU news is controlled by the CIA, a German newsman revealed after he retired that the CIA wrote his scripts for 30 years:With the increasing propaganda wars, we thought a reminder of just how naive many Westerners are when it comes to their news-feed. As Arjun Walia, of GlobalResearch.ca, notes, Dr. Ulfkotte went on public television stating that he was forced to publish the works of intelligence agents under his own name, also adding that noncompliance with these orders would result in him losing his job.He recently made an appearance on RT news to share these facts:"Ive been a journalist for about 25 years, and I was educated to lie, to betray, and not to tell the truth to the public.But seeing right now within the last months how the German and American media tries to bring war to the people in Europe, to bring war to Russia this is a point of no return and Im going to stand up and say it is not right what I have done in the past, to manipulate people, to make propaganda against Russia, and it is not right what my colleagues do and have done in the past because they are bribed to betray the people, not only in Germany, all over Europe." The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free. --Baruch Spinoza MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, urged Milan's La Scala opera house on Monday to reject an offer from Saudi Arabia to pump funds into the theater. The Saudi culture ministry has offered a five-year partnership deal with La Scala worth 15 million euros ($17 million). The proposal has set off a furious row, with human rights groups and some politicians arguing that one of Italy's most prestigious cultural institutions should shun money from Saudi Arabia, a deeply conservative Muslim kingdom accused of repeated rights abuses. Salvini told reporters he did not want the partnership to go ahead. "I would prefer for some people not to be there and for La Scala to be free, independent and autonomous," he said. "If the Swiss want to invest in La Scala, we would not have a problem." It is the second time this year that Salvini, who heads the far-right League party, has taken aim at Saudi Arabia. In January he condemned as "disgusting" restrictions imposed on women hoping to see the final of the Italian Supercoppa, which was staged at the start of the year in Saudi. The La Scala board is due to discuss the Saudi proposal at a meeting on March 18. ($1 = 0.8900 euros) (Reporting by Sara Rossi; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) On Thursday, February 28, the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) delivered a statement to the OSCEs Permanent Council in Vienna about reports of torture of Jehovahs Witnesses at the hands of Russian law enforcement. The issue has been met with equivocation by Russian president Vladimir Putin, but it sheds light on a serious problem: Jehovahs Witnesses are being persecuted and driven out of Russia. The report states that the United States is gravely concerned by the behavior of the Russian authorities who conducted early-morning raids on the homes of Witnesses in the Russian town of Surgut on February 15. They arrested 19 Witnesses and opening criminal cases against them for organizing an extremist organization. The victims described beatings, electrocution, and suffocation; they also report that the authorities stripped the men naked, put bags over their heads, tied their hands behind their backs, and began smashing their fingers, electrocuting them, and pouring water over them. This incident is especially gruesome, but its yet another violent blot on Russias record of treatment of Jehovahs Witnesses. They have been subject to raids on their homes and worship centers, physical violence, property confiscation, and classification as an extremist organization among the ranks of terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIS despite being pacifists. In Russia, heightened tensions with the West have brought hostility to foreign religions, and in July 2016, Putin supported legislation that made missionary work by Mormons and Baptists illegal. Less than a year later, the Russian supreme court would classify Jehovahs Witnesses as extremists because they were a threat to public order and public security. There are 170,000 Jehovahs Witnesses in Russia. Of the 480 organizations classified by Russian authorities as extremist and/or terrorist, 404 are Jehovahs Witnesses. Out of 303 properties owned by Jehovahs Witnesses organizations, 20 have been confiscated by the Russian government. On March 1, Russia confiscated a $30.4 million property in St. Petersburg belonging to the American-based Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. According to Jarrod Lopes, the communications representative of the Office of Public Information for the World Headquarters of Jehovahs Witnesses in New York City, despite the aforementioned U.S.-based group having paid $3 million in property taxes to the Russian Federation, the Russian government schemed to steal this former administrative campus by claiming that ownership was invalid. The tax money was never returned. Story continues Despite the daily transgression toward Witnesses that has spanned years, at the Presidential Human Rights Council meeting in December, Putin called the classification of Jehovahs Witnesses complete nonsense. It is true that we should treat representatives of all religions the same, he said, but it is also necessary to take into account the country and the society in which we live. Some cases, such as that of Dennis Christensen, who was sentenced in February to six years in a penal colony for violating Russias extremist-organization law, have drawn plenty of attention. But there are hundreds of lesser-known cases of Jehovahs Witnesses fleeing Russia for neighboring Finland due to the persecution they face at home, out of fear that they, too, could be doomed to a fate similar to Christensens. According to the Finnish Immigration Service, there was an increase from five applications from Russian Jehovahs Witnesses in 2016 to over 100 in 2017 and 2018, after the extremism laws targeting Jehovahs Witnesses were enacted. Applications for asylum seekers grew from 193 in 2016 to 309 in the first eight months of 2018. Today, people such as Evgenii Chusovitin and Sergey Kotelnikov live in refugee camps in Finland, forced to leave their homes in Russia out of fear of being the next victims of raids on their homes, torture, and criminal charges for practicing their faith. Kotelnikov, 32, says that belief in God became a part of his life at an early age. In April 2017, he says, the mass persecutions of Witnesses began while he and his wife were living approximately 30 miles from the Finnish border with Russia. When they learned they were to be expecting a child, they fled Russia to seek asylum in Finland in September 2017, and they have spent the past one-and-a-half years there as refugees alongside refugees from war-torn countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan while awaiting a Finnish court response for their asylum case. We want to save our family, we want to protect our child, Sergey tells me. Now if we return to Russia, I face up to ten years in prison, my wife will be left without a husband, and the child without a father for such a long time. While Sergey and his family would like to return to Russia someday, their return is entirely dependent on the status of Jehovahs Witnesses persecution, which Sergey notes is only becoming more frequent and more violent. Evgenii, 43, also fled Russia with his family after Jehovahs Witnesses were classified as extremists. He initially lived in a refugee camp until they could afford a small apartment in Finland. An experience with Russian police in 2011 suggested to him that conditions were worsening for Witnesses, and that staying in Russia would put him and his familys safety at risk. While he was serving as head of a religious organization for Witnesses that arranged activities such as Bible readings, performances, and discussions about God, Russian police pressured him to cooperate with them in their searches of Jehovahs Witness gatherings, which Sergey refused, thinking that they werent serious. After police returned with a search warrant, he realized that they were serious and that staying in Russia could mean a long prison sentence for practicing his faith. Because of belonging to the wrong religion, a person may lose his job, face a search, humiliation, arrest, and more, he tells me. In any civilized country, a citizen, when he is in danger, seeks help from the state. But where do you look for protection when the state itself has made you its enemy? How do you live in a country where there is a war against you? You just live and wait for trouble to knock on your houses door. The infringement of the most basic right to freely worship in Russia does indeed warrant grave concern. The raids of Jehovahs Witness homes which are available online to watch are reminiscent of what Putin suggests is a bygone era and are a de facto example of the Kremlins repressive regime. It is especially harrowing that Jehovahs Witnesses, a denomination known for their refusal to engage in war and their devotion to non-violence, are being sadistically tortured under the expectation that they will not retaliate. Evgenii and Sergey are skeptical that they will return with their families to Russia anytime soon; and this is a reasonable prediction, given that Putin has given statements that suggest his opposition to the extremist status of Witnesses in Russia, while his security forces continue to raid homes in the middle of the night and torture innocent Russians behind closed doors. The U.S.s human-rights groups should continue pressing him on this topic, and not accept mendacity as a response. More from National Review Kate first wore the Catherine Walker coat in New Zealand in 2014 (right) [Photos: Getty] The Duchess of Cambridge gave royal watchers a case of deja vu with her outfit for todays Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in London. Kate chose a red Catherine Walker double breasted coat dress, which reminded fans of a sweet moment with her eldest son Prince George. The duchess, 37, first sported the ensemble as she arrived in New Zealand on her and Williams royal tour in April 2014. She stepped off the plane in the striking red number with a matching Gina Foster hat, carrying a then eight-month-old George. Fast forward five years later and shes a mum-of-three to George, Charlotte, now three, and baby Louis, who will celebrate his first birthday next month. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive at the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey [Photo: Getty] Today, Kate teamed her red coat with new grey suede court shoes (425) and a matching clutch bag (350) by Emmy London. She also appeared to be wearing new earrings for the service. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were joined by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for the afternoon event, as well as the Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duke of York and the Queen. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth a global network of 53 countries and almost 2.4 billion people, a third of the worlds population, of whom 60 percent are under 30 years old. Pregnant Meghan, who is due to give birth in April, wore a chain print dress by Victoria Beckham, while Camilla and the Queen wore outfits in co-ordinating shades of purple. READ MORE: Meghan wears Erdem for Commonwealth Day event Kate, William, Harry and Meghan at the Commonwealth Day service [Photo: Getty] Earlier today, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex attended a Commonwealth Day youth event at Canada House, where they met youngsters from a range of sectors. Meghan donned a dark green coat by Canadian-born, London-based designer Erdem for the engagement. Tomorrow (Tuesday 12 March), the Duchess of Cambridge is visiting Henry Fawcett Childrens Centre to learn more about the work being done by local organisations in Lambeth and their partners to support young children and their families. Story continues That night, Kate will also attend the Portrait Gala 2019, so expect to see her in a glamorous evening gown. ALMATY (Reuters) - Kazakh police have detained a Chinese-born activist who has campaigned on behalf of ethnic Kazakhs in China, fellow activists said on Sunday. Serikzhan Bilash, a naturalized Kazakh citizen who was born in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, is a de facto leader and public face of Atajurt, a group that has worked for the release of ethnic Kazakhs from "re-education" camps where activists say more than 1 million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims are held. A fiery orator fluent in Kazakh, Chinese and English, Bilash has become a prominent figure on the Kazakh political scene. Atajurt said security forces had broken into Bilash's hotel room in Almaty in the early hours of Sunday, detained him and quickly flown him to Astana, the capital of the former Soviet republic. Bilash's lawyer, Aiman Umarova, posted a video on Sunday saying she had just arrived in Astana and was going to visit him at the police department where he was being held. Astana's police department had no immediate comment. In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he had noted the reports about Bilash, and said he had illegally entered Kazakhstan in 2018. "According to what is understood he may have some debt problems in China," Lu said. "This kind of person has ulterior motives to make things up. I think the aims behind this need no explanation," he added, without elaborating. The government of the Central Asian nation has avoided criticizing China's Xinjiang policies, but negotiated the release of some two dozen people with dual Kazakh and Chinese citizenships detained in China. (Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Additional reporting by Tamara Vaal in Astana, and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Richard Borsuk) Doan Thi Huong will testify in the Kim Jong Nam trial on Monday - AP The trial of two women accused of killing Kim Jong-uns half-brother will resume in Malaysia after months of delay on Monday, with a Vietnamese suspect in the case taking to the stand for the first time. In a brazen plot resembling a spy thriller, Doan Thi Huong, 29, from Vietnam, and Siti Aisyah, 25, from Indonesia, are suspected of assassinating Kim Jong Nam, 45, by smearing lethal VX nerve agent on his face at Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017. The women were ordered to testify in an August ruling by High Court Judge Azmi Ariffin, who said that it could be inferred from evidence presented in court that there was a "well-planned conspiracy" between them and four North Korean suspects to kill Kim. The North Koreans remain at large. He said he "cannot rule out that this could be a political assassination" but noted there was no concrete evidence to support this. The two young women, both from impoverished backgrounds but with aspirations for stardom, have claimed since their arrest shortly after the murder that they were duped by North Korean agents into believing that they were actors in a TV prank show when they wiped the toxic substance on Kims face. Siti Aisyah, from Indonesia, will also stand trial Credit: Reuters Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, one of Ms Doans lawyers, told The Telegraph that she was well and fine ahead of the trial, but added that there is definitely a bit of anxiety. His clients main line of defence would be that she had no knowledge of the audacious conspiracy, he said. She will take the oath and testify the truth as per her police statement that she gave when she was arrested. Mr Hisyam said he was very confident that his client would be acquitted based on the evidence and her statement. However, the trial is set is expected to require several hearings. The pair of women have been on trial since October 2017 but proceedings have been hit by repeated delays, and Ms Aisyah's defence - which was originally due to start last year is currently on hold due to a row over witness statements. Story continues Last year prosecutors presented their case, calling 34 witnesses. Some described how the victim died in agony when his body quickly seized up as the substance took effect. Kim was the estranged relative of the North Korean leader and it is widely believed he was targetted for being a perceived threat to the isolated regime. South Korea has accused the North of ordering the hit, which Pyongyang denies. The women are the only two suspects in custody, after four accused North Koreans - the alleged masterminds of the plot fled Malaysia and went into hiding. A murder conviction currently carries a mandatory death penalty in Malaysia, although plans are afoot by the Malaysian government to abolish capital punishment for all crimes. If you want to know who really controls China Construction Bank Corporation (HKG:939), then youll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Generally speaking, as a company grows, institutions will increase their ownership. Conversely, insiders often decrease their ownership over time. Companies that have been privatized tend to have low insider ownership. China Construction Bank has a market capitalization of HK$1.7t, so its too big to fly under the radar. Wed expect to see both institutions and retail investors owning a portion of the company. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), its seems that institutional investors have bought into the company. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about 939. See our latest analysis for China Construction Bank SEHK:939 Ownership Summary, March 11th 2019 What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About China Construction Bank? Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once its included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing. China Construction Bank already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own 14% of the company. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of China Construction Bank, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too. SEHK:939 Income Statement, March 11th 2019 China Construction Bank is not owned by hedge funds. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future. Story continues Insider Ownership Of China Construction Bank The definition of company insiders can be subjective, and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO. Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances. Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of China Construction Bank Corporation. However, its possible that insiders might have an indirect interest through a more complex structure. It is a very large company, so it would be surprising to see insiders own a large proportion of the company. Though their holding amount to less than 1%, we can see that board members collectively own HK$3.2m worth of shares (at current prices). It is good to see board members owning shares, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying. General Public Ownership The general public, with a 27% stake in the company, will not easily be ignored. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies. Next Steps: Its always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand China Construction Bank better, we need to consider many other factors. I always like to check for a history of revenue growth. You can too, by accessing this free chart of historic revenue and earnings in this detailed graph. 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. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin will not reply to a letter from the son of a woman killed by a suspected Russian nerve agent near the English city of Salisbury last year because Russia's ambassador to Britain has already done so, the Kremlin said on Monday. Ewan Hope called on Putin in a letter publicized by the Daily Mirror earlier this month to allow Britain to question two Russian nationals London suspects of trying to murder former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter last year. Moscow has denied involvement in the attack. Hope's mother, Dawn Sturgess, died after coming into contact with the same nerve agent used in the attack, which her partner found in a discarded perfume bottle, police said. The suspects are now thought to be in Russia. When asked on Monday whether Putin would respond to Hope, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he would not, saying it was a job for Russia's ambassador to Britain. "No, he (Putin) is not obliged to reply at all," said Peskov. The Russian embassy in London said on Wednesday it had received Hope's letter and that the Russian ambassador had offered his condolences to him. It said in a statement that the ambassador had offered to meet Hope and answer any questions he had. (Reporting by Tom Balmforth; editing by Andrew Osborn) Baghouz (Syria) (AFP) - Kurdish-led forces on Monday pounded the last scrap of land held by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria after hundreds more people surrendered. The jihadists once ruled over millions in a swathe of Syria and Iraq, but they have since lost all that territory except for a riverside slither of land near the Iraqi border. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces paused its months-old offensive against the shrinking holdout multiple times for thousands of dust-covered women, children and men to flee, including suspected jihadists. The Kurdish-led SDF late Sunday warned remaining IS fighters that time was up for any surrenders and they were going in. Around 400 men, women and children, mostly jihadists and their relatives, have since handed themselves over to the SDF, field commander Ahmed Qasser told AFP. Fierce shelling resumed Monday evening for the second night in a row, interrupting a brief lull in fighting that had taken hold during the day. Flames ravaging the makeshift encampment lit up the night sky. The crackle and thud of gunfire and shelling filled the air as plumes of thick black smoke rose over the bombed-out village. At an SDF position around two kilometres (1.2 miles) away from the front line, fighters stood with their backs against the wall, watching a deluge of fire raining down on the bombed-out IS bastion. "Now it gets serious," said one SDF fighter smiling, after an air strike pummelled the IS holdout. - Heavy fighting - The SDF launched the renewed assault on Sunday after no civilians were observed to remain in the riverside encampment. "The clashes were heavy" overnight, SDF unit commander Aras Orkeish told AFP, with IS launching "suicide bombers" and "car bombs" at them. "The operation slowed down after midnight," he said. The warplanes of a US-led coalition and mortar fire overnight pounded weapons caches, and tank fire targeted IS positions, a spokesman said. Story continues It was unclear how many people remained inside the pocket on the banks of the Euphrates, SDF spokesman Mustefa Bali said late Sunday. "We expect there to be from 1,000 to 1,500 terrorists inside," he said. "During the advance, if our forces notice the presence of civilians, our special units... will do the necessary to bring them away from the clashes or even work to evacuate them." Since December, nearly 59,000 people have left the last IS redoubt, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, around a tenth of them suspected jihadist fighters. The last IS fighters are clinging on to an area that includes a dismal camp of vehicles and cloth-covered trenches by the reedy banks of the Euphrates. The SDF pushed into the IS encampment some 10 days ago, discovering spent ammunition, pots and pans lying between hastily dug trenches and berms. - Humanitarian crisis - At the height of its brutal rule, IS controlled a stretch of land in Syria and Iraq the size of Britain. The total capture of the Baghouz camp by the SDF would mark the end of the cross-border "caliphate" it proclaimed in 2014. But beyond Baghouz, IS retains a presence in eastern Syria's vast Badia desert and sleeper cells in the northeast. The jihadists have continued to claim deadly attacks in SDF-held territory in recent months, and the US military has warned of the need to maintain a "vigilant offensive". The United States is expected to keep 200 "peace-keeping" troops in Syria after the end of the offensive, despite President Donald Trump's shock announcement in December that all 2,000 American soldiers would leave. The exodus from Baghouz in recent months has sparked a humanitarian crisis, leaving aid organisations struggling to cope. Those fleeing Baghouz have emerged exhausted and hungry after a prolonged siege. Dozens of young children have died along the way or shortly after arriving at a Kurdish-run displacement camp in northeast Syria, according to the International Rescue Committee aid organisation. Syria's Kurds hold hundreds of foreigners accused of fighting for IS as well as members of their families. But their home countries have mostly been reluctant to take them back, with Britain stripping several women of their nationalities. Morocco said it had repatriated from Syria on Sunday eight of its nationals suspected of belonging to IS. The United Nations' Children Fund said the fate of foreign children fleeing IS territory should not be ignored. "The message that these children are not wanted is growing stronger and stronger," said Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF's Middle East director. "There is a solution for these children. It requires political courage, political commitment. These children are children, they are not terrorists," he said. London (AFP) - British MPs voted Thursday to ask the EU for a Brexit delay and to hold a third vote on the divorce agreement but a no-deal hard Brexit still remains the default outcome. With just over two weeks to go until the scheduled departure day on March 29 and the political sands shifting, here are the potential Brexit scenarios: - Brexit delay - MPs on Thursday authorised Prime Minister Theresa May to request a postponement of the formal Brexit date from March 29 to June 30. The move aims to give her time to pass legislative changes necessary for a smooth departure. But if her divorce deal is rejected for a third time, she believes any extension would have to be far longer and would involve Britain taking part in European Parliament elections on May 23-26. For any extension, she will need to convince leaders of all the 27 other EU states at a Council summit in Brussels on March 21-22. European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker tweeted on Monday that Britain's exit should be completed by the European elections. Dutch foreign minister Stef Blok warned Wednesday that Britain would need to convince "each and every" EU country to grant any delay. - No deal - After rejecting May's deal for a second time on Tuesday, British MPs voted on Wednesday against leaving the EU without a formal agreement -- the so-called "no-deal Brexit" -- although it still remains the default option. May had promised a vote to rule out this perilous outcome -- for the time being -- if her deal failed to pass through parliament. MPs went even further, backing an amendment that ruled out a no-deal in any scenario down the line. They fear the prospect of trade routes clogging up, the UK pound crashing and tension over the Irish border in the event of no deal. The parliamentary vote is only advisory as the EU must agree unanimously to any alternative. But it signals to EU officials that the one thing MPs can agree on is an orderly divorce. Story continues - May's deal - The idea of May's deal with Brussels making a comeback after Tuesday's defeat seemed far-fetched. But Thursday's vote opened the door to one more go at it -- and several factors continue to play in May's favour. One is that Brexit backers could decide that May might be offering their best -- and quite possibly last -- chance to split from the bloc. And EU officials would like to see Britain's status settled before the European Parliament elections. The two factors prompted May to propose yet another vote on her 585-page pact with Brussels. - Second referendum - MPs on Thursday voted massively against delaying Brexit in order to hold a second referendum, dealing a blow to "People's Vote" campaigners who see it as their best route towards keeping Britain in the EU. Some 84 MPs voted in favour and 334 against -- more than half the total number of MPs. The main opposition Labour party, which supports another referendum in theory, ordered its MPs to abstain. But the MP who brought forward the vote said she would try again next week. Two forces are expected to spring into action: groups backing a much closer EU-UK union -- and ones that simply want to call the whole thing off. A second referendum would take time to organise -- and would require the decisive result of Thursday's vote to be overturned. An Indonesian woman accused of assassinating the North Korean leader's half-brother was freed Monday after Malaysian prosecutors dropped a murder charge against her, in a shock decision that delighted her friends and family. Siti Aisyah smiled as she was ushered into a car outside the court, where she had been on trial for a year and a half alongside a Vietnamese woman for the 2017 murder of Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur airport. "I feel happy. I did not know this will happen. I did not expect it," said the 27-year-old, who earlier hugged her tearful Vietnamese co-accused, Doan Thi Huong, in the dock when the news was announced. Indonesian officials mounted a major diplomatic effort to free Aisyah, which included pressure from the president. The Indonesian justice minister had written to Malaysia's attorney general seeking her release, citing problems with the case, and he agreed last week. The women had always denied murder, saying they were tricked by North Korean spies into carrying out the Cold War-style hit using VX nerve agent, and believed it was a prank for a reality TV show. Their lawyers presented them as scapegoats, saying that authorities were unable to catch the real killers. Four North Koreans -- formally accused of the murder alongside the women -- fled Malaysia shortly after the assassination. The trial, which began in October 2017, had been due to resume Monday with the defence stage of proceedings after a break of several months. But at the start of the hearing at Shah Alam High Court, prosecutor Muhammad Iskandar Ahmad requested that the murder charge against Aisyah be withdrawn and she be given a discharge, without providing a reason. The judge agreed to a discharge not amounting to an acquittal, and ordered Aisyah's immediate release. This means Aisyah has not been formally cleared of the charge and could, in theory, be re-arrested. The news was a surprise as the court had only been scheduled to hear Huong testify Monday, and the Vietnamese woman was left in shock that she was not released alongside Aisyah. Story continues "I do not know what will happen to me now. I am innocent -- please pray for me," the 30-year-old said. Her testimony was adjourned Monday as her lawyers said they would also apply to get the charge against her dropped. - Homecoming party - Aisyah arrived later Monday in Jakarta, where she was reunited with parents. In her hometown of Sindangsari on Java island, there was shock and delight as word spread of her release. "We've heard the news and we're so happy. We're getting a celebration ready!" her aunt Darmi, who goes by one name, told AFP. Indonesia often makes concerted diplomatic efforts to free its citizens detained overseas, particularly those who may face the death penalty. Speaking at the Indonesian embassy in Malaysia, Indonesian Justice Minister Yasonna Laoly reeled off a list of figures in government -- from President Joko Widodo to the foreign minister -- who had pushed for Aisyah's release. A murder conviction carries a mandatory penalty of death by hanging in Malaysia. The government vowed last year to abolish capital punishment but has yet to amend the law. There does not appear to have been any such aggressive lobbying effort from Vietnam for Huong, however. Vietnam generally does not get publicly involved in individual criminal cases overseas, and foreign affairs officials did not respond to AFPs request for comment Monday. In the first stage of the trial that ran until August last year, prosecutors presented their case. Witnesses described how the victim -- the estranged half-brother of Kim Jong Un and once seen as heir apparent to the North Korean leadership -- died in agony shortly after being attacked. Prosecutors said Aisyah and Huong were well-trained assassins but their lawyers argued the four North Koreans were the masterminds, and provided them with poison on the day of the murder. South Korea has accused the North of ordering the hit, which Pyongyang denies. Malaysia had been one of the nuclear-armed North's few allies but the assassination badly damaged ties, and led to the countries expelling each other's ambassadors. burs-sr/fox By Rozanna Latiff KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - An Indonesian woman accused in the 2017 chemical poison murder of the North Korean leader's half-brother was freed on Monday after a Malaysian court dropped the charge in a case that drew suspicions of being a political assassination. As the court announced its decision, Siti Aisyah, 26, turned to her Vietnamese co-defendant, Doan Thi Huong, 30, in the dock and the two women, who had been facing the death penalty together, embraced in tears. They had been accused of poisoning Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with liquid VX, a banned chemical weapon, at Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017. Following the dramatic decision to release Siti Aisyah, a defense lawyer asked for an adjournment in the case against Huong in order to submit a request that charges be dropped against her too. Defense lawyers have maintained that the women were pawns in an assassination orchestrated by North Korean agents. The North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur was defaced with graffiti just hours before the trial was to resume, authorities said. Interpol had issued a red notice for four North Koreans who were identified as suspects by Malaysian police and had left the country hours after the murder. During the trial, the court was shown CCTV footage of two women allegedly assaulting Kim Jong Nam while he prepared to check in for a flight. Siti Aisyah, who had worked as a masseuse at a hotel in the Malaysian capital, and Huong, who described herself as an actress, had maintained that they believed they had been hired to participate in a reality TV prank show. Once the court released her, Siti Aisyah, wearing a black traditional Malay dress and headscarf, was rushed to the Indonesian embassy, where she spoke briefly with journalists. "I feel so happy. I did not expect that today I would be released," Siti Aisyah said, adding that she was healthy and had been treated well in prison. Prosecutors told the court that they had been instructed to withdraw the charge against Siti Aisyah. No reason was given. While the court discharged Siti Aisyah from the case, it rejected her lawyer's request for a full acquittal, as it said that the trial had already established a prima facie case and she could be recalled if fresh evidence emerged. The defense had disputed whether the CCTV footage was clear enough to identify the Indonesian woman as an assailant, or establish what she had done to the victim. Gooi Soon Seng, Siti Aisyah's lawyer, said his client was "a scapegoat". "I still believe that North Korea had something to do with it," Gooi said. Kim Jong Nam had lived in exile in Macau for several years before the killing, having fled his homeland after his half-brother became North Korea's leader in 2011 following their father's death. Some South Korean lawmakers said the North Korean regime had ordered the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, who had been critical of his family's dynastic rule. Pyongyang has denied the accusation. NOT OVER YET FOR HUONG Left to stand trial by herself after Siti Aisyah's release, Huong was still sobbing as she prepared to take the stand on Monday at the start of her defense. But the court agreed to resume proceedings on Thursday instead, pending a reply from the attorney-general to the request that charges against her also be withdrawn. "Where is the principle of equality? Both of them were charged on the same evidence, the defense was called on fairly the same grounds," said Salim Bashir, one of Huong's lawyers. "Until today, we do not know what were the exceptional circumstances that were needed for the attorney-general to review the charge against Siti Aisyah. The prosecution never advanced a single ground for the withdrawal." Although the two women were being tried together, the cases against them were separate, and the court had asked the Indonesian woman to present her defense first. Siti Aisyah's trial was suspended in December as her lawyers argued with prosecutors over access to statements made by seven witnesses. Prosecutor Muhammad Iskandar Ahmad told Reuters the decision to withdraw the charge against her was made based on "several representations", without elaborating. Siti Aisyah flew back to Jakarta on Monday, accompanied by Indonesian Law Minister Yasonna H. Laoly. Laoly said Siti Aisyah's release, after over two years in prison, was the result of high-level diplomacy by his government, including meetings with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and the attorney-general. "After studying the case thoroughly, we sent letters to the Attorney-General of Malaysia and met with him and Prime Minister Mahathir last August," Laoly told reporters with Siti Aisyah shortly after landing in Jakarta. Laoly had written to Malaysia's attorney-general, laying the blame on North Korea. "Miss Aisyah was deceived and had no awareness whatsoever that she was being used as an intelligence tool of North Korea," he wrote. (Additional reporting by Agustinus Beo Da Costa in JAKARTA; writing by Joseph Sipalan; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Nick Macfie) The Hague (AFP) - Dutch police arrested a man carrying two knives and an axe close to an election rally by anti-Islam leader Geert Wilders, the politician and officials said Monday. The suspect was detained as the far-right leader handed out leaflets in Heerlen, in the southwest of the Netherlands, ahead of provincial polls on March 20. "The man held on Saturday in Heerlen before leafletting in Heerlen had -- so NCTV tells me today -- two knives and an axe on him," Wilders tweeted, referring to the Dutch national anti-terrorism service. "Compliments to the police and the NCTV for their vigilance -- a lot of misery was avoided," added Wilders, who heads the Freedom Party (PVV). The NCTV confirmed to AFP that the details given by Wilders were correct but refused to give further information on the identity of the suspect, his aims or how he was arrested. Police have launched an investigation, the Dutch news agency ANP reported. Wilders is widely seen as a successor to the far-right populist Pim Fortuyn, who was assassinated in 2002. Wilders himself has faced several threats, especially after recent tweets about Islam on his Twitter account. He is currently appealing a Dutch court ruling finding him guilty of discrimination for calling at a 2014 election rally for "fewer Moroccans" in the Netherlands. The PVV is the largest opposition party in the Netherlands, with 20 seats in the lower house of parliament and nine in the senate. But while it is hoping to boost its share in the provincial elections, which determine the make-up of the senate, the party risks losing ground to the newer populist, eurosceptic Forum for Democracy, led by Thierry Baudet. Strasbourg (France) (AFP) - Prime Minister Theresa May said Monday she has secured "legally binding" guarantees from the EU designed to get the Brexit deal through the British parliament and avert a chaotic withdrawal. She announced the move after a late evening dash to Strasbourg to hammer out the changes with top European officials, as the clock ticked down to Britain's scheduled divorce from the bloc on March 29. European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker warned that the stakes were increasingly high, ahead of a vote by British lawmakers on the deal on Tuesday. "The choice is clear: it is this deal, or Brexit may not happen at all. Let's bring the UK's withdrawal to an orderly end," the former Luxembourg premier told reporters, sitting next to May at a late-night press conference in the French city. "There will be no third chance." The three-part package of changes effectively aims to resolve a key sticking point for British MPs over the so-called backstop plan to keep open the border between EU member Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland. "Today we have secured legal changes," May told reporters after the talks with Juncker and the European Union's chief negotiator Michel Barnier. "Now is the time to come together, to back this improved Brexit deal, and to deliver on the instruction of the British people." UK lawmakers will study the new proposals before holding a vote on the divorce deal Tuesday, with just 17 days remaining before Britain's planned split from the bloc after 46 years. Britain's House of Commons overwhelmingly defeated the deal in January and was expected to do so again on Tuesday without meaningful change. - 'Incompetence or contempt?' - Another defeat in parliament could see Britain sever ties with its closest trading partner on March 29 with no new arrangements, causing huge disruption on both sides of the Channel. Story continues It would also raise the possibility of postponing Brexit, after May promised to allow MPs a vote later this week on whether to accept a "no deal" scenario or request a short delay from the EU. Juncker said he recommended the deal to the EU Council, which represents member states, and that Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar was prepared to back the changes on the backstop. Brexit-supporting MPs reacted cautiously to news of the agreement, but said they wanted to examine the detail. "We will certainly analyse that very, very carefully," said Nigel Dodds of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), part of May's coalition government. The DUP's support is crucial if the deal is to pass the House of Commons. May's trip to Strasbourg caused concern among some MPs, who had complained they may not have enough time to scrutinise what May agreed before being asked to vote. "Is this incompetence or is this just contempt for parliament?" said opposition Labour MP Yvette Cooper. - 'Harder to leave the backstop' - May's initial deal was struck after 18 months of tough negotiations, and covers Britain's financial settlement, expatriate rights, the Irish border and plans for a transition period. But MPs rejected it in January by a massive 432 votes to 202, with many of May's Conservatives rebelling against her. The Commons later sent her back to renegotiate the backstop. This would keep Britain in the EU customs union and parts of its single market until and unless another way -- such as a trade deal -- is found to avoid frontier checks. Juncker said May and he have agreed a "legal instrument" to ease British concerns over the backstop. Many MPs fear it is a "trap" to keep them tied to EU rules, but Brussels has rejected calls for a time limit or unilateral exit clause. "It is harder to leave the backstop than it is to leave the EU," claimed Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, an influential Brexiteer. May has promised Britain will leave the EU whatever happens on March 29, but many MPs fear that a "no deal" exit would wreak economic havoc. In the face of a cabinet revolt, she promised that if her deal is defeated again then MPs will vote on "no deal" on Wednesday and then on Thursday, on delaying Brexit. Any postponement would have to be approved by the leaders of the other 27 nations, who are next meeting at a Brussel's summit on March 21 and 22 -- a week before Brexit day. Nigel Farage, who spearheaded the campaign that led to Britons voting in the June 2016 referendum to leave the EU, held firm. "This is all words and twisted meanings. Nothing has changed. Reject. Reject. Reject," Farage tweeted. Britain's main opposition Labour Party also came out against the agreement. "This evening's agreement with the European Commission does not contain anything approaching the changes Theresa May promised parliament," Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said. burs-lc/dc/txw Who knew a Facebook post could cause this much trouble? Administrative charges were filed against San Pascual, Batangas Mayor Roanna Conti at the Office of the Ombudsman in Quezon City today because she allegedly went on a vacation to California and Nevada without securing the approval of the provincial governor. Proof of this vacation was found in her husbands Facebook page. The charges were filed by the towns Vice Mayor Antonio Dimayuga, who alleged that the members of the municipal council were also not informed that Conti was in the US from Dec. 20, 2018 to Jan. 5, 2019, ABS-CBN reported. Dimayuga was formerly the towns mayor and is from a different political party. However, Conti has denied that she traveled without authority and said she secured the approval of the provincial Governor Hermilando Mandanas. In his complaint against Conti, Dimayuga presented alleged photos of the trip that were posted on Facebook by Contis own husband and a certain Lala Ilao-Dingalasan, reported GMA News. The photos allegedly show Conti and her family spending Christmas and New Years in Las Vegas and La Canada Flintridge in Los Angeles, Remate reported. The vice mayor alleged that Contis application for leave was not signed by him nor Mandanas. As the vice mayor, he said he should have been informed because he would have to assume the mayors post until Conti returned from her vacation. The Department of Interior and Local Government states that mayors have to secure the approval first of the provincial governor before traveling anywhere. Dimayuga also alleged that the municipal offices Human Resource Management Officer and Acting Administrator Ronaldo Gonzales Jr. acted in conspiracy with Conti by hiding the fact that she went out of town. With the aid of her conspirators including but not limited to the municipal administrator, respondent Conti intentionally and purposely concealed her overseas travel to the Sangguniang Bayan for political reasons in order not to let the vice local chief executive at such time to assume her temporarily vacated post in lieu of her leave,' Dimayuga said in his complaint. Story continues The vice mayor also said that if a calamity struck the town during the days that Conti was in the US, there were certain decisions that only she could have made since he did not assume her post. This scenario would have put the town in limbo. In a statement posted on Facebook, however, Conti rejected Dimayugas accusations and called them baseless. She also promised that she will file a perjury case against him. She also attached a document signed by Mandanas that authorized her to travel to the United States. Referring to Dimayuga, she wrote: Perhaps the old politician, who is the real person facing graft charges before the Office of the Ombudsman, is growing senile and wants to make a return as Mayor even if the recent elections showed that people preferred a new leadership. This article, Mayor in trouble for allegedly unauthorized US trip after husband posts photos on Facebook, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company. Want more Coconuts? Sign up for our newsletters! Piers Morgan thinks Meghan Markle has turned Prince Harry into a robot. According to reports, the Duchess of Sussex has banned Prince Harry from drinking alcohol and anything with caffeine in it, including tea and coffee. The heir to the throne also reportedly quit smoking after meeting his future bride-to-be, but it was a speech that Harry gave at a WE Day UK event that provoked Morgans ire on Good Morning Britain today. The former Daily Mirror editor lambasted Meghan for making the prince boring. I preferred him when he was playing naked billiards in Vegas, Morgan said, referencing naked photos of the prince that were leaked to the press in 2012. Piers Morgan the Royal Wedding matchmaker: fans call for presenter to play Cupid after setting up Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Im not being funny, but what has happened to him? He cant have a drink, he cant have caffeine, hes reading out this guff. Morgans co-host Susannah Reid defended the prince, interrupting Morgans rant to tell him: He doesnt have to give up alcohol and caffeine, he has his own mind. Morgan responded: He doesnt have his own mind, hes reading like a robot. LONDON, ENGLAND MARCH 06: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex on stage at We Day UK at SSE Arena on March 06, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Jo Hale/Redferns) The outspoken TV host then went on to question whether Harry had even written the speech hed read at the charity event which aims to inspire young people be a part of positive social change around the world. Harry gave the speech last week, before being joined on stage by his pregnant wife. In it he gave young people a to do list for the future. You know that if you dont stand for something youll fall for anything. So let that be your true north, let that be your call to actionto inspire those who stand for nothing, to stand for somethingand to stand with you. So whats next, whats on your to-do list starting now Be braver. Be stronger. Be kind to each other. Be kind to yourselves. Have less screen time, and more face to face time. Exceed expectations. Eliminate plastics. Conserve water. Protect wildlife and their unique habitat. Keep empathy alive. Ask your friends how they are doing and listen to the answer. Be honest. Take risks. Change your thoughts and change the world. Dare to be the greatest generation of all time. I am with you, we are with you! Get to work. Read more: Meghan sad at loss of royal aide Meghan and Harry married in May 2018. The couple are expecting their first baby together this Spring. Berlin (AFP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday backed key European reform ideas from her presumptive heir, including a single EU seat in the UN Security Council and a joint aircraft carrier. Merkel was asked about an essay by her anointed successor, CDU party chief Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, that diverged from many of the EU reform ideas of French President Emmanuel Macron. AKK, as she is known, had argued in an article on Saturday for steps toward greater European unity, including on security, but rejected some of Macron's visions, especially on social issues. Merkel, Germany's veteran leader who has said she will not seek re-election when her current term ends in 2021, lent her weight to many of AKK's core ideas. Having spoken in favour of greater European defence cooperation, Merkel said that a joint aircraft carrier would be a good idea in future, even if it was not the bloc's first priority. She also said that a single European seat in the UN Security Council was "a very good concept for the future" and would help "to gather the European voices" in the world body. Germany has for years campaigned for a permanent seat on the UNSC alongside World War II victor nations the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France. "The fact that France is sceptical about a European seat at the UN is well known," added the chancellor, speaking at a press conference with Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins. AKK's response to recent proposals from Macron included a call for a strengthened EU border force, a pan-European climate pact and a common market for banking. But she made other proposals that diverged from the Paris vision, suggesting that the European Parliament should sit only in Brussels and scrap its second seat in the French city of Strasbourg. AKK also disagreed with Macron's idea for Europe-wide coordination on minimum salaries, arguing that the "Europeanisation of social services and the minimum wage would be the wrong way". Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert stressed at a news conference Monday that AKK's plans for Europe "harmonise with the thoughts of the chancellor". Berlin (AFP) - Less than two months after celebrating a new Franco-German treaty, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron are diverging on the future of Europe in the run-up to European Parliament elections in May. Germany's Chancellor Merkel on Monday backed key European reform ideas from her presumptive heir, CDU party chief Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, that are at odds with Macron's vision. Most controversial among them are a call for a single EU permanent seat in the UN Security Council (UNSC), where France is among the five permanent members. Merkel said that a single European seat was "a very good concept for the future" and would help "to gather the European voices" in the world body. Germany has for years campaigned for a permanent seat on the UNSC alongside World War II victor nations the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France. "The fact that France is sceptical about a European seat at the UN is well known," added the chancellor, speaking at a press conference with Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins. Kramp-Karrenbauer, or AKK as she is known, had argued in an article on Saturday for a series of steps toward greater European unity, including on security where she also suggested that Europe operate a joint aircraft carrier in future. But AKK, Merkel's hand-picked successor who hopes to contest the next German election for the Christian Democrats, also rejected some of Macron's positions, especially for a pooling of European debt and on harmonising policy on social welfare. She also suggested that the European Parliament should sit only in Brussels and scrap its second seat in the French city of Strasbourg, an arrangement she called an "anachronism". - 'We do not move forward'- Germany and France are traditionally seen as the twin engines of the European project, and in late January they signed a major new cooperation treaty. But the two leaders, Macron and Merkel, are also from political blocs that are rivals in the upcoming European elections. Story continues While Macron's Republic on the Move party will take a common front with the liberals, Merkel's CDU is campaigning with the conservative European People's Party. Merkel, Germany's veteran leader who has said she will not seek re-election when her current term ends in 2021, on Monday broadly lent her weight to AKK's core ideas. Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert stressed at a news conference that AKK's plans for Europe "harmonise with the thoughts of the chancellor". AKK had also disagreed with Macron's idea for a Europe-wide coordination on minimum salaries, arguing that the "Europeanisation of social services and the minimum wage would be the wrong way". French government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux sought to play down the discord, speaking of only "three points of difference" -- the UN seat, the minimum wage, and the European Parliament issue. European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau was clearer in her criticism, speaking to Le Monde daily and other French media. "When I continue to hear that we should not pool risk, it means we do not move forward, we do not change anything," she said. Midwives are trialling new home birth delivery bags to help improve safety [Photo: Getty] Midwives are trialling new delivery bags to help improve the safety of home births. The move comes following a national survey revealing that 40% of current home birth bags and equipment dont meet their needs. The survey of frontline community midwives, by mother and baby charity Baby Lifeline, found that 35% of respondents had to buy their home birth bag themselves, 30% felt the bag/container they used wasnt safe, and 27% felt that they dont carry all the equipment they need. More concerning, is that 40% of those polled said their bag didnt meet all their needs. READ MORE: BBC presenter describes accidentally giving birth to Firestarter by The Prodigy Commenting on the findings, Baby Lifeline Founder and Chief Executive Judy Ledger said: Frontline community midwives reiterated the same thing that nationally, there is no standardisation in what equipment is carried to community births. Baby Lifeline believes that every woman who gives birth in the community, no matter where in the country she is, should have access to the same essential equipment through her midwife. Equally, every midwife should have access to the equipment needed to deliver safe and effective care. This is what we are working to achieve through this project. The new bags are to be trialled in April by sis NHS trusts [Photo: Lifeline.org.uk] Starting next month, and funded by Fawsley Birth Centre, 42 new home birth bags will be trialled by frontline midwives in six UK trusts; Barts Health NHS Trust; Hywel Dda University Health Board; Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Medway NHS Foundation Trust; North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust, and partners City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust and South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust. READ MORE: What is a hands off birth? The rucksack style bags all have adjustable straps and optional wheels and are compartmentalised and colour coded to make it easier for midwives to identify equipment quickly. The bags include everything from scissors to cut the cord, to a hat and towels to dry and warm the newborn baby, as well as equipment for emergencies that, although rare, can occur. Story continues Following a successful trial the bags will be available to buy later this year. READ MORE: Why the Duchess of Sussex could have a home birth According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) around 2.3% of women opt to give birth at home. For women who have a straight forward pregnancy and both mum-to-be and baby are well, the NHS says women might choose to give birth at home. In England and Wales, just over 1 in 50 pregnant women give birth at home. They cite some of the advantages of home birth as being in familiar surroundings, where you may feel more relaxed and better able to cope, not having to interrupt your labour to go into hospital, not needing to leave your other children, if you have any and having an increased likelihood of being looked after by a midwife you have got to know during your pregnancy There is also a lower likelihood of having an intervention, such as forceps or ventouse, than women giving birth in hospital. Milwaukee City Hall. MILWAUKEE Milwaukee will host the 2020 Democratic National Convention, edging out two large and deep-pocketed rivals over a months-long campaign waged behind the scenes through phone calls, contract negotiations and quiet lobbying by some of the most powerful political figures in the country. The official announcement came Monday during a news conference at Fiserv Forum, which will serve as the centerpiece for the event that will be held July 13-16, 2020. "Don't forget folks, 490 days and this place will be hopping," Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said. "Four hundred ninety days and we will have a discussion about how to retake our democracy in the city of Milwaukee. That discussion will not only ripple across Lake Michigan, it will ripple across the world." Perez, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Alex Lasry, the Milwaukee Bucks senior vice president who leads the local bid committee, signed the contract that was accidentally and perhaps appropriately sealed with a splash of Wisconsin beer during a ceremonial toast. Relying on Midwestern grit to overcome glitzier rivals, Milwaukee snagged the event over Houston and Miami. The Fiserv Forum before the Milwaukee Bucks game at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019. Photo by Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "We had a dilemma, an enviable dilemma," Perez said about a bid process that effectively went into overtime. It will mark the first major-party convention in Milwaukee's history, and it will be the first Midwestern convention for Democrats since 1996 in Chicago. "Where you hold a convention is a statement of your values," Perez said, calling Milwaukee a diverse and "proud union town." Perez's connections to Milwaukee have always been part of the backdrop to the competition. His wife is from Wauwatosa, they were married in Milwaukee and one of their daughters attends the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But his decision wasn't personal it was political. Winning Wisconsin and other Midwestern states is critical if the party is to unseat President Donald Trump. Story continues Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett got the official call that Milwaukee had been chosen to host the event shortly after delivering his "State of the City" address early Monday at Fiserv Forum. He was back in the afternoon to lead the celebration. "As a city, we could not be more proud," Barrett said. "As a state, we could not be more proud." "We all know that competition for conventions like this is fierce," he added. "There's competition from the East Coast, there's competition from the West Coast, there's competition from the Gulf Coast. And I am here today to welcome all of America to America's fresh coast." Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez talks to supporters Monday in front of El Rey market on Milwaukee's south side. The Milwaukee Common Council, by a 9-0 vote Monday, approved a resolution on the city contract for the convention. The city won't be on the hook for costs related to the convention, the document said. Separate contracts were to be signed between the DNC and the local bid committee and the DNC and the arena. Barrett and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, both Democrats, said no city or state taxpayer money will be used to fund the convention. It's up to the local bid committee to raise the cash, up to $70 million. Perez said the local committee has already received firm fundraising commitments for $11 million. In addition, the local committee has secured a $10 million line of credit, a backstop that would be used only in the event organizers fall short of the fundraising goal. For Milwaukee and the area, the payoff could be huge, with local organizers saying the convention could bring in up to $200 million in economic impact. Up to 50,000 people are expected to attend, including delegates and their families, media from around the world and tourists. Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales said Monday that the force will be up to the task in helping secure the convention. The U.S. Secret Service oversees the security operation and the federal government provides a $50 million stipend. "It's huge because this is going to be one that's not just the Milwaukee Police Department," Morales said. "The surrounding jurisdictions are going to play an important role again local, state and federal are going to be involved." Volunteers will also play a key role. Barrett said organizers are looking for "12,000 of our closest personal friends to volunteer at the convention." In their winning campaign, Milwaukee's organizers accentuated the city's heartland location, political importance as a swing state and mild summer weather. Recent Democratic history also may have helped Milwaukee's bid. The candidates: Who is running for president? Here's a list of the candidates who have declared so far In 2016, the party's presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, failed to campaign in Wisconsin during the general election and the state went to President Donald Trump. As the 2020 campaign shapes up, Wisconsin is in the line of swing states from Pennsylvania through Iowa that probably will help determine the winner of the presidential race. Barrett, Lasry and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore of Milwaukee spearheaded the city's effort. The leadership group was expanded to include Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Evers and Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes. "This is our chance to reintroduce the city on the international stage," Lasry said. "The next time somebody tries to say Milwaukee can't handle something, Milwaukee is too small, not capable, this is our punch back," Lasry added. "We can do anything we want when we reach for it. We will no longer be defined by our limitations. We'll be a city that dreams big." Through the long, drawn-out campaign, local officials had to assure Democrats they could handle the event. Were there enough hotel rooms? Milwaukee secured 15,000 rooms in the area. Could they raise the cash needed? The $11 million in firm commitments did a lot of talking. Was the city fancy enough, a jibe launched at Milwaukee from others? Turns out it could just be itself. "Milwaukee is a brand that we are rolling out and introducing and reintroducing," Moore said. "People know us as the place where Laverne and Shirley came from." But Moore put the emphasis on the art museum, the lakefront and Summerfest. "We have a bronze Fonz," Barnes added. "And as they say, the Cream City always rises to the top." For Democrats, the road to Milwaukee will certainly be crowded, with more than a dozen candidates likely vying for the party's presidential nomination. Milwaukee was among eight cities originally in the running for the event. In June, the field was cut to a final four. Denver quickly dropped out, leaving Milwaukee, Miami and Houston. Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett speaks as the Milwaukee 2020 Convention Bid Committee held a press conference Tuesday, August 28, 2018, at the Fiserv Forum Atrium to preview the Democratic National Committees site visit to the city as they consider where the 2020 Democratic National Convention should be held. Also pictured are (from left to right) Jess OConnell, chair, DNC selection director for the Technical Advisory Group, U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, Jaime Harrison, DNC associate chair, and Alex Lasry, Chair of the Milwaukee 2020 DNC Convention Bid Committee. The DNCs Technical Advisory Group is visiting the three finalist cities Milwaukee, Houston, and Miamifor the political convention slated to be held July 13-16, 2020. Milwaukees bid has bipartisan support; the convention is estimated to bring some 50,000 visitors to the city and have a $200 million economic impact. - Photo by Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Wisconsin Republicans have supported bringing the Democratic convention here because it will boost the state's economy. Scott Walker backed the idea when he was governor and tweeted congratulations to Milwaukee when news of the decision broke Monday. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, a Republican from Rochester, last month told reporters he wanted to see the convention come to Milwaukee. "I hope that they bring lots of limousine liberals who have all kinds of dollars to spend and that they do it in Milwaukee if theyre going to do it anywhere," he said. "If you look at the pure economics, it's good to have any convention of any size come to our state and have people spend their money here." The Republican Party of Wisconsin pointed out Milwaukee's distant past of electing socialist mayors. The GOP is trying to portray Democrats as out of the political mainstream. "No city in America has stronger ties to socialism than Milwaukee," RPW Executive Director Mark Jefferson said. "And with the rise of Bernie Sanders and the embrace of socialism by its newest leaders, the American left has come full circle. Its only fitting the Democrats would come to Milwaukee." Republicans will hold their national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, Aug. 24-27, 2020. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Democrats head to Midwestern battleground in 2020 for national convention in Milwaukee By Mica Rosenberg and Kristina Cooke (Reuters) - Christian Mejia thought he had a shot at getting out of immigration detention in rural Louisiana after he found a lawyer to help him seek asylum. Then he was quarantined. In early January, a mumps outbreak at the privately run Pine Prairie U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Processing Center put Mejia and hundreds of other detainees on lockdown. "When there is just one person who is sick, everybody pays," Mejia, 19, said in a phone interview from the Pine Prairie center describing weeks without visits and access to the library and dining hall. His attorney was not allowed in, but his immigration court case continued anyway - over a video conference line. On Feb. 12, the judge ordered Mejia deported back to Honduras. The number of people amassed in immigration detention under the Trump administration has reached record highs, raising concerns among migrant advocates about disease outbreaks and resulting quarantines that limit access to legal services. As of March 6, more than 50,000 migrants were in detention, according to ICE data. Internal emails reviewed by Reuters reveal the complications of managing outbreaks like the one at Pine Prairie, since immigrant detainees often are transferred around the country and infected people do not necessarily show symptoms of viral diseases even when they are contagious. Mumps can easily spread through droplets of saliva in the air, especially in close quarters. While most people recover within a few weeks, complications include brain swelling, sterility and hearing loss. ICE health officials have been notified of 236 confirmed or probable cases of mumps among detainees in 51 facilities in the past 12 months, compared to no cases detected between January 2016 and February 2018. Last year, 423 detainees were determined to have influenza and 461 to have chicken pox. All three diseases are largely preventable by vaccine. As of March 7, a total of 2,287 detainees were quarantined around the country, ICE spokesman Brendan Raedy told Reuters. Ten Democratic members of Congress sent a letter on Feb. 28 to ICE acting Director Ronald Vitiello seeking more information about viral diseases at immigration detention centers in Colorado, Arizona and Texas. Lawmakers did not mention the Pine Prairie outbreak. Pablo Paez, a spokesman for the GEO Group, the private prison operator that runs Pine Prairie under government contract, said its medical professionals follow standards set by ICE and health authorities. He said medical care provided to detainees allows the company "to detect, treat and follow appropriate medical protocols to manage an infectious outbreak." 'UNPRECEDENTED NUMBERS' The first cases at Pine Prairie were detected in January in four migrants who had been recently transferred from the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Mississippi, according to internal emails. Tallahatchie, run by private detention company CoreCivic Inc, has had five confirmed cases of mumps and 18 cases of chicken pox since January, according to company spokeswoman Amanda Gilchrist. She said no one who was diagnosed was transferred out of the facility while the disease was active. Tallahatchie houses hundreds of migrants recently apprehended along the U.S.- Mexico border, ICE said. On Tuesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told reporters that changing demographics on the southwest border, with more immigrants from Central America traveling long distances, overwhelmed border officials and raised health concerns. "We are seeing migrants arrive with illnesses and medical conditions in unprecedented numbers," McAleenan said at a press conference. However, vaccination rates in the countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are above 90 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ICE detainees come from countries all over the world, with varying degrees of vaccination coverage. 'HIGH-PROFILE REMOVAL' At Pine Prairie, staff members were at times at odds with the warden about how to manage the mumps outbreak, internal emails show. The warden decided not to quarantine 40 new arrivals from Tallahatchie in February despite concerns raised by the medical staff, one email showed. The warden, Indalecio Ramos, who referred questions about the outbreak to ICE and the GEO Group, argued that quarantining the transfers would keep them from attending their court hearings, the facility's health service administrator wrote in a Feb. 7 email. In a Feb. 21 email, ICE requested that medical staff members at Pine Prairie clear a detainee quarantined for chicken pox and mumps for travel, calling him a "high-profile removal scheduled for deport." In an email to staff later that day, warden Ramos wrote that medical staff had wanted to exclude the detainee from transfer but "ICE wants him to travel out of the country anyway ... Please ensure he leaves." ICE spokesman Raedy said that travel is restricted for people who are known to be contagious but those exposed to diseases who are asymptomatic can travel. Since January, the 1,094-bed Pine Prairie facility has had 18 detainees with confirmed or probable cases of mumps compared to no cases in 2018, according to ICE. As of mid-February, 288 people were under quarantine at Pine Prairie. Mejia said his quarantine ended on Feb. 25. Detention centers in other states also have seen a rise in outbreaks. There have been 186 mumps cases in immigration detention facilities in Texas since October, the largest outbreak in centers there in recent years, said Lara Anton, the press officer for the Texas Department of State Health Services. In Colorado, at the Aurora Contract Detention Facility near Denver, run by the GEO Group, 357 people have been quarantined following eight confirmed and five suspected cases of mumps detected since February, as well as six cases of chicken pox diagnosed since the beginning of January, said Dr. Bernadette Albanese from the Tri County Health Department in Colorado. Civil rights attorney Danielle Jefferis said court hearings for quarantined immigrants at Aurora were largely canceled. At Pine Prairie on Feb. 12, Mejia said he felt confused and hopeless during his video hearing, with no attorney by his side. After Mejia's lawyers complained, attorneys were allowed to visit quarantined detainees on Feb. 13 - one day too late for Mejia. While he is appealing his case, his lawyers say he could be deported at any time. (Reporting by Mica Rosenberg in New York and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; Editing by Julie Marquis, Paul Thomasch and Lisa Shumaker) Washington (AFP) - US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday extended a rare invitation to the head of NATO to address a joint meeting of Congress in early April to mark the alliance's 70th anniversary. "During this critical time for the United States, NATO and the European Union, the US Congress and the American people look forward to your message of friendship and partnership, as we work together to strengthen our critical alliance and advance a future of peace around the world," Pelosi wrote the 29-member organization's secretary general Jens Stoltenberg. The top Democrat said the invitation was made on behalf of Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Washington is scheduled to host a NATO ministerial meeting on April 3 and 4. The invitation comes amid trans-Atlantic tensions. Trump has been unstinting in his criticism of NATO's European members, accusing them of freeloading on the protection offered by the US military while not spending enough on their own armed forces. A NATO summit last July jangled nerves when Trump reportedly threatened to "go it alone" unless allies boosted their spending. Before taking office Trump called NATO "obsolete" and soon after July's summit he questioned whether the US would honor the alliance's founding principle of mutual defence for newest member Montenegro. By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican and Democratic U.S. congressional leaders on Monday invited NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to address lawmakers next month, offering a rare honor to the head of an organization often derided by President Donald Trump. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi invited Stoltenberg to speak to a joint meeting of the House of Representatives and Senate on April 3, as the alliance celebrates its 70th anniversary. Trump has questioned the value to Washington of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and many lawmakers see honoring Stoltenberg as a chance to reaffirm the American commitment to the alliance. "During this critical time for the United States, NATO and the European Union, the U.S. Congress and the American people look forward to your message of friendship and partnership, as we work together to strengthen our critical alliance and advance a future of peace around the world," Pelosi said in a letter to Stoltenberg on Monday. Pelosi, a Democrat, consulted Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, as well as Kevin McCarthy, the top House Republican, and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer as she planned the invitation. She sent the letter on behalf of all four congressional leaders. In February, Pelosi led a delegation of U.S. lawmakers to Brussels, where they sought to reassure European allies that differences over Trump's policies were mere "family squabbles" and transatlantic ties remained strong. Pelosi met with NATO's leadership during that visit. The European Union and United States have traditionally been the closest of allies, also working together through NATO. Trump, however, has called NATO obsolete and lambasted his European peers for not spending enough on defense, raising doubts among many in Europe about his commitment to the Western military alliance and Europe's broader security. Some of Trump's fellow Republicans see Stoltenberg's speech as an opportunity for the NATO leader to address U.S. concerns such as Trump's desire for European governments to raise defense spending to 2 percent of economic output, an alliance goal. The opportunity to address a joint meeting of Congress is one of the highest honors Washington affords foreign dignitaries. There have been 120 such addresses since the first, by King David Kalakaua of Hawaii in 1874. The most recent was by French President Emmanuel Macron in April 2018. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Alistair Bell and Peter Cooney) A NatWest bank in Spinningfield, Manchester. Photo: Martin Rickett/PA Archive/PA Images NatWest will begin trialling biometric bank cards that allow customers to verify their identity via fingerprint, the bank has announced. The bank will pilot its new cutting-edge technology with 200 customers in the coming weeks as part of a national trial. Customers will be able to use their fingerprint to verify transactions over 30, according to NatWest. The bank said it hopes the new cards will increase security and make paying at tills easier for customers, as no PIN number will be required. We are using the very latest technology across our business to make banking easier for our customers, and biometric fingerprint cards are one of the many technologies we are exploring further. This is the biggest development in card technology in recent years and we are excited to trial the service, David Crawford, head of Effortless Payments at NatWest, said. READ MORE: British banks commit to investing more in women entrepreneurs NatWest said it is working closely with digital security company Gemalto, along with Visa and Mastercard, to bring the service to customers in the UK. Using a fingerprint rather than a PIN code to authorise transactions has many advantages, primarily enhanced security and greater convenience. Cardholders can pay quickly and easily with just a simple touch, and they no longer need to worry about the limit on contactless payment transactions, Howard Berg, UK managing director for Gemalto, said. More details on the pilot are set to be released soon. READ MORE: Banks suffering major IT shutdowns every day, Which? reveals In June 2018, it was reported that fingerprint sensor developer IDEX Biometrics had been working with Mastercard to develop a system to produce biometric bank cards. Stan Swearingen, chief executive of IDEX, claimed at the time that multiple banks were set to roll out up to 100,000 of the cards in 2019, but this has not yet materialised. Lets be clear: creatives deserve to be paid adequately for their work. However, a lot of people dont seem to know this, like this cafe thats offering gift vouchers for original designs. The erring company is The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Philippines (CBTL) and the hullabaloo started when the cafe announced a contest on Thursday where artists can send in their original designs. The winners artworks will be used for CBTLs upcoming tumbler. Today, however, the company announced that they will postpone the contest. In their caption for the first announcement of the contest, they wrote: Calling all artists! Create an artwork showing off the wonders of the Philippines and get a chance to see it on our next Klean Kanteen merchandise! The announcement has since been taken down but below is a screenshot of the post. Photo: CBTL Philippines Facebook account. Instead of getting people mighty excited, their announcement drew outrage from netizens because they offered only gift certificates to the winners. And they would not be given even a lot just a measly PHP5,000 (US$95.68)! To make it even worse, the winning artworks would have become CBTLs property (the post has also been taken down). Their first announcement drew almost 650 angry reactions, while their post explaining the mechanics of the contest received more than 1,000 angry reactions. Majority of the comments were critical of the company, such as Anna Raneses who told CBTL that they should respect artists. She also added that the prize money is an insult to artists who would rather have their pride and dignity intact than work with them. Photo: Screenshot from CBTL Philippines Facebook page Arra Jorge explained to those who couldnt understand why there was so much outrage over CBTLs contest. The last number [of the mechanics which said], Winning designs will be the property of CBTL. Thats a serious issue because they will make money out of the design which you should be earning from. Legally, youre giving them the copyright of a legitimate asset. If you had copyright, they should pay you for it, in this case, every time they sell the merchandise, she said. Story continues She added: Theres value in working in graphic design. This contest perpetuates taking advantage of and degrading the value of such work (graphic design). Photo: Screenshot from CBTL Philippines Facebook page Cynthia Arre was equally outraged and wrote that a PHP5,000 payment for illustration work was exploitably low. She added that giving them in the form of gift certificates was just rubbing salt to the wound. Photo: Screenshot from CBTL Philippines Facebook page Kristine Padagdag said that an artists copyrighted work is worth more than PHP5,000 and that since CBTL doesnt plan on giving the winners royalties, they should at least give a substantial cash prize instead. Photo: Screenshot from CBTL Philippines Facebook page To their credit, CBTL said today that netizens comments encouraged them to rethink the contest. They wrote: Your comments and suggestions on our latest contest have been heard. We created this initiative, like the many we have done in the past, to involve our community members in programs where their various talents are discovered and celebrated. This is not the first time that someone tried to get design work for cheap. In July last year, actor Jameson Blake asked netizens for a banner design in exchange for a shout out, an act which Blake was overwhelmingly criticized for. Coconuts Manila called CBTL several times for comment but have not heard back. This article, Netizens fume after Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf offers PHP5,000 gift certificates in exchange for original artwork, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company. Want more Coconuts? Sign up for our newsletters! People pose with their dogs during the Brexit Dogs Dinner protest outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain March 10, 2019. Photo: REUTERS/Henry Nicholls There is less than three weeks to go until Britain is set to leave the European Union, but it is still highly unclear what a post-Brexit Britain will look like. This week is arguably one of the most crucial weeks in giving more concrete guidance over how the divorce deal between the UK and the remaining 27-nation bloc will proceed and therefore determine the course of Brexit. On Tuesday (12 March), UK parliament will vote on whether to accept Mays Brexit deal or not. Remember, in November last year, the EU approved Mays Brexit deal but her agreement with the bloc was unceremoniously rejected by members of her own party, as well as the opposition. If, as expected, politicians again reject Mays deal, members of parliament (MPs) will have to vote again on 13 March on whether to delay Brexit. Delaying Brexit would mean extending Article 50 the notification that Britain will leave the EU. If that extension is approved, it means that Britain will have more time to negotiate with the EU, even though there has been very little movement between the UK and the bloc since the initial deal was agreed in November last year. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said in its report, The Economic Effects of the Governments proposed Brexit Deal, that her agreement with the bloc will leave the UK 100bn ($128.3bn) worse off by 2030. The report highlights included: GDP would contract by 3.9% Tax revenue would fall 18-23bn ($23-29bn) Foreign direct investment (FDI) would fall by 21% UK/EU total trade would fall by 46% GDP per head would fall by 3%, worth around 1,000 per annum This led to a vote of no-confidence in her leadership by her own Conservative party as well as a vote of no-confidence by parliament. While she won both votes, parliament voted that she return to the negotiation table with the EU. The EUs chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier also said at the time that the bloc stood by the agreement. But as recently as 4 March, Barnier said that its looking more likely that Britain will delay Brexit so it has more time to talk. Story continues More crucial meetings, speeches, and talks Meanwhile, as Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets pointed out Tuesdays vote could dictate what Chancellor [Philip] Hammond can announce in Wednesdays UK Spring Budget [technically the Spring Statement], where he can boast favourable public finances. Will he be able to splash the cash or will he have to maintain a Brexit war chest? Elsewhere today, the Bank of Englands (BoE) Jonathan Haskel will speak at the University of Birmingham at 1pm local time while there is the Eurogroup meeting of eurozone finance ministers where Brexit is expected to dominate discussions. Tomorrow, an Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) meeting of all EU finance ministers will take place. READ MORE: Over 50s Brexiteers looking forward to fewer terrorist attacks and pension values rising The National Rifle Association has launched a scathing attack on Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, branding the congresswoman a self-absorbed socialist darling. Grant Stinchfield, who is a host on the TV channel of the largest gun lobbying group in America, said Ms Ocasio-Cortez made him sick. Mr Stinchfield, a self-described firearms enthusiast, hit out at the Democrat for criticising the war in Afghanistan. AOC thinks the war was disastrous and wrong, he said on NRA TV. The woman whose Green New Deal promises to figure out a way to handle cows that pass gas, is now crapping on patriotism and of course national security. He accused Ms Ocasio-Cortez, who represents New Yorks 14th congressional district and is the youngest ever US congresswoman, of not caring about the September 11 attacks. What is troubling is AOC is from New York too but she clearly doesnt care, because she is so self-absorbed, she cant feel the impact of a horrific terrorist attack, he said. His comments came after Ms Ocasio-Cortez, a self-avowed socialist from the South Bronx, said that both the Republican Party and Democrats led her generation into a disastrous and wrong war. She also called for an end to the Authorisation for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) law, which was passed three days after the September 11 attacks. It gives the president authority to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organisations, or persons he determines planned, authorised, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept 11, 2001, or harboured such organisations or persons. Mr Stinchfield, who cites his love of guns on his website, then veered off-piste, mentioning Ms Ocasio-Cortez having to wait for her congressional salary to kick in before she could rent a flat in Washington DC. She focuses on a fake tragedy, like having to wait a few weeks for her paycheck when she got elected to office and moved to Washington DC, he said. Story continues Ms Ocasio-Cortez worked as a bartender before thrashing Democrat stalwart Joe Crowley the 10-term representative and then-fourth-ranking Democrat in the House last year. Last August, she said the transition period would be very unusual because I cant really take a salary. She said: I have three months without a salary before Im a member of Congress. So, how do I get an apartment? Those little things are very real. Ms Ocasio-Cortez has worked as a waitress, childrens book publisher, community activist, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and volunteered for Bernie Sanders during his 2016 presidential campaign. Mr Stinchfield also attacked Ms Ocasio-Cortez earlier in March likening her to the Venezuelan president and referencing her Instagram account where she has 2.7 million followers. Nicolas Maduro with a ponytail and an Instagram account, he said. Social media users have argued comparisons between Ms Ocasio and Mr Maduro, the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, are racist. The Republican National Committee branded her the mini-Maduro of the Democratic party last summer. Ms Ocasio-Cortez supports abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and the creation of a universal healthcare system. This year, she has asserted that Donald Trump is no question a racist, and beaten back a manufactured controversy over a video of her dancing while in university. The NRA donated more than $30m (21.4m) to Mr Trumps presidential campaign, meaning he received the most gun lobby funding of any presidential candidate. Ottawa (AFP) - An international bribery watchdog on Monday said it was "concerned" by accusations of political meddling in the prosecution of engineering giant SNC-Lavalin that have dogged Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Working Group on Bribery said it has "sent a letter to the Canadian authorities confirming its concerns." It added that it was "encouraged" by two independent probes by Canada's ethics commissioner and the House of Commons justice committee into the matter. For weeks, Trudeau's government has been rocked by the accusations from his former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould of "consistent and sustained" political pressure to shield the company from a trial. The prime minister addressed the allegations head-on last week, telling reporters in Ottawa that he had learned "lessons" from the crisis -- but denying any wrongdoing. Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin, which was charged with corruption over alleged bribes paid to secure contracts in Libya, had openly lobbied Ottawa for an out-of-court settlement that would result in a fine and agreeing to compliance measures, saying a conviction would lead to job losses. But Wilson-Raybould refused to ask prosecutors to settle, and the trial is set to proceed. She later testified to lawmakers, after resigning, that she had received "veiled threats" over her stance. The OECD said the Anti-Bribery Convention, to which Canada was a founding member, "requires prosecutorial independence in foreign bribery cases." "In addition, political factors such as a countrys national economic interest and the identity of the alleged perpetrators must not influence foreign bribery investigations and prosecution," it said. Opposition leader Andrew Scheer, who has called on Trudeau to resign, commented on Twitter that "our allies are now flagging Canada for corrupt practices." Having a mentor gives you a 20% higher chance of getting promoted, according to one study. Those with mentors are also more productive and more satisfied at work, and stay at jobs longer than those without a mentor. According to a mentorship study, three out of four employees said a mentorship helped their career development. And according to Mentoring.org, those who have a mentor starting as early as high school are 130% more likely to take on leadership positions throughout their careers. But for women in the workplace, finding a mentor isnt always easy. While 71% of Fortune 500 companies offer mentorship programs to employees, just 54% of women have access to senior leaders who can act as mentors. Because there are fewer women in positions at the top, there are fewer women to help pull others up. For Yara Shahidi, star of Grownish, finding a mentor is crucial to building a network of support throughout your life. Her non-profit, Yaras Club, provides mentorship to young women in the New York City high school system. Mentorship represents support networks of people who can not only give you advice about how to excel in a certain area of your life, but provide context, Shahidi says. It propels our ability to excel when you have those people behind you versus having to do it by yourself. Shahidi says her mentor is Michelle Obama, who she worked with on the Let Girls Learn education initiative. While we cant all have the former first lady as a mentor, there are ways to make a connection with women in our professional lives. You can start by asking your human resources department about mentorship programs or affinity groups within your company. If there isnt one already established, you can ask to be connected with someone within your organization who mentors others. If thats not an option, consider joining an industry association or group that offers mentorship programs to their members. Women can also tap online communities like Ladies Get Paid, which offers free career development through their virtual community of over 20,000 members that communicates via Slack, as well as networking events and other opportunities to find a mentor in your field. Story continues What Women Want Now Women are demanding to be heard and represented more than ever, but not all women want the same thing. HuffPost, Yahoo, MAKERS and other Verizon Media brands partnered with CARE to poll 1,000 women across America about the future they want and the changes that still need to come. We're dedicated to giving the millions of women in our audience a real voice. #WhatWomenWantNow. WATCH MORE The key reasons why women don't negotiate their salary 3 ways women can help close the gender pay gap 3 strategies to help you bounce back from burnout Derry (United Kingdom) (AFP) - For 20 years, William Lynch has farmed oysters in disputed waters along the Irish border. With Brexit looming, a convenient grey area which has allowed him to flourish could be coming to an end. "If everybody would leave us alone we'd have a great business here," he said, watching the tide creep up over cages of shellfish installed on dozens of trestles. "The oysters are doing well but there always has to be something to put you down," the 64-year-old said. Lynch's Foylemore Oysters is based on the shores of Lough Foyle -- the estuary out of the Northern Irish city of Derry/Londonderry. Rich with nutrients and dark silty sands that give his oysters a trademark "nutty" taste these are prime waters -- allowing him and his employees to export 500 bags a week. Britain claims the entire waterway, including land to the high tide mark on Irish shores to the west, said Lynch -- pointing to the waters where he makes his living. The Republic of Ireland, an EU member state, is not so sure. "The issues involved are complex and involve a range of different actors," an Irish foreign office spokesman said in a statement to AFP. While the claim remains unsettled, legislation cannot be brought forth to regulate the fishing. Lynch said he adheres to the "best practice" required anyway. But post-Brexit he fears the conflict could boil over from a disagreement between two EU member states to a lopsided power struggle between one nation and the 27 remaining EU members, with potentially conflicting aquaculture policy. The outcome is hard to predict -- but uncertainty and disruption seem likely. "The agenda will be totally changed," he said. "I think it would be a pity to let politics ruin a very good fishery here." Lynch's business is perhaps one of the most exposed to Brexit along Ireland's 500 kilometre (310 mile) border -- currently vexing Britain's bid to leave the EU on March 29. Story continues In addition to the territorial dispute, Lynch faces potential cross-border checks moving between his sites -- requiring him to travel by road from Northern Ireland to the Republic at least six times a day. He also exports primarily to France where his oysters are processed before most are sent on to big export markets such as China, Dubai and Hong Kong. That means he also faces being considered a "third country" exporter when Britain leaves the EU. "I know I have a good product here, I know I have a good workforce, and I know I have good customers in Europe," said Lynch. "All I want to do is grow oysters." Pakistan promises to crack down on militant groups attacking Indian rule over Kashmir, President Donald Trump's national security advisor John Bolton said Monday. Bolton tweeted that he had spoken with Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and "the FM assured me that Pakistan would deal firmly with all terrorists and will continue steps to deescalate tensions with India." India has long accused Pakistan of covertly backing attacks by guerrillas in Kashmir. In February, JeM, or the Jaish-e-Mohammed group, claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed 40 Indian paramilitary members, triggering cross-border air raids and a surge in political tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors. Bolton said that during his talks with Qureshi he'd set out "to encourage meaningful steps against JeM and other terrorist groups operating from Pakistan." The latest Pakistani reassurances came as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met in Washington with the Indian foreign secretary, Vijay Gokhale, and urged Pakistan to take "meaningful action against terrorist groups operating on its soil," Pompeo's spokesman said. Pompeo's spokesman said that during the secretary of state's talks with Gokhale they "discussed the importance of bringing those responsible for the (February) attack to justice." Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas appointed long-time ally Mohammad Shtayyeh as prime minister on Sunday, a senior official said, in a move seen as part of efforts to further isolate Hamas. Abbas asked Shtayyeh, a member of the central committee of the Palestinian president's Fatah party, to form a new government, Fatah vice president Mahmoud al-Aloul told AFP. Official Palestinian news agency WAFA also reported the move. Some analysts view bringing in Shtayyeh to replace outgoing prime minister Rami Hamdallah as part of Abbas's efforts to further isolate political rival Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip. Shtayyeh, 61, is a long-term Abbas ally, while Hamdallah was politically independent. The previous government was formed during a period of improved relations and had the backing of Hamas. This government is instead expected to be dominated by Fatah, though other smaller parties will be represented. Hamas will not be included. Hamas said the appointment reflected "Abbas's unilateralism and monopoly of power". "Hamas stresses that it does not recognise this separatist government because it was formed without national consensus," spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement. Shtayyeh has been part of a number of Palestinian negotiating teams in US-brokered talks with Israel, and is a former government minister. He is also an academic and economics professor. - No public successor - Hamdallah's government submitted its resignation in late January, though it has continued on an interim basis. Abbas remains the primary decision-maker and interlocutor with the international community. Palestinian politics has essentially been paralysed since 2007, when Islamist group Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas's forces in a near civil war, a year after winning parliamentary elections. Since then Abbas's governments have maintained limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank, while Hamas has led a rival administration in Gaza. Story continues Abbas has recently been in conflict with US President Donald Trump's administration, which is expected to release its long-awaited peace in the coming months. Abbas froze ties with the White House after Trump declared Jerusalem Israel's capital in 2017. Trump has since then taken a series of steps against the Palestinians, including cutting some $500 million in aid. Palestinian leaders call it an attempt to blackmail them into accepting a plan that they believe will destroy their hopes for independent statehood. They view Trump's administration as blatantly biased in favour of Israel. Abbas won a four-year term as president in 2005, but he has since remained in office without further elections. The 83-year-old who has had recent health issues has not publicly lined up a successor and the move to name Shtayyeh could put him among the potential candidates. Others mentioned as possible successors include Al-Aloul, Palestine Liberation Organisation secretary-general Saeb Erekat, senior Fatah official Jibril Rajoub and head of Palestinian intelligence Majid Faraj. Polls show the most popular Palestinian leader is Marwan Barghouti, but he is serving five life sentences in an Israeli jail for allegedly organising and authorising a series of killings of Israelis. French police working in Paris - REUTERS A Paris taxi driver who allegedly stabbed a Manchester United fan in the chest after the clubs victory over Paris Saint-Germain last week has been charged with attempted murder, a judicial source said on Sunday. Mike Jackson, 44, from Bolton, said in a Facebook post that he is slowly recovering after a traumatic four days. He was travelling in a taxi with friends to central Paris after watching his teams dramatic Champions League victory over PSG on Wednesday evening when the driver reportedly took offence at their boisterous celebrations. After they started singing loudly, the driver stopped the car and ordered the four passengers to get out. He then allegedly pulled out a knife, threatening the woman in the group and stabbing Mr Jackson in the chest when he stepped in to try to protect her. He was left lying on the pavement fighting for his life. His friends managed to flag down a passing car to rush him to hospital. He required emergency surgery to remove blood on his lung at the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris. On Saturday, Mr Jackson put up a statement on Facebook: "From going from [a] jubilant evening watching Manchester United pulling off the unthinkable result against PSG to one hour or so later to be fighting for my life these have been a traumatic four days. "I'm slowly recovering in a hospital in Paris. Your support, well wishes have been truly amazing, each and every message means more than you could ever imagine. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Manchester United sent their support to the fan. We were shocked to hear about the incident with one of our fans who was stabbed while in Paris for the Champions League game, United said in a statement. Everyone at the club wishes him well during his recovery. ABC/Randy HolmesLamb of God frontman Randy Blythe organized a demonstration Monday in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia against the Westboro Baptist Church. Blythe led people in a "counter-party" to "drown out" the group, which was protesting the election of Danica Roem to the Virginia House of Delegates. Roem is the first openly transgender person to be elected to U.S. state legislature. The Westboro Baptist Church is notorious for its anti-gay demonstrations, and some consider it to be a hate group. "I'm not interested in arguing with these morons, getting upset, yelling at them," Blythe said, regarding the demonstration. "I'm interested in having a good time at their expense." You can watch footage of Blythe's counter-party, featuring people playing kazoos and banging on plastic drums, now via social media. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Johannesburg (AFP) - A pilot who worked for South African Airways for more than 20 years was arrested on Monday, police said, over allegations he flew large passenger jets without an advanced commercial flying licence. William Chandler was recently forced to resign after the airline said he had been flying without the proper documentation. "His attorneys handed him over (to the police) this morning," national police spokesman Vishnu Naidoo told AFP. Police said Chandler was charged with forgery. He was granted 5,000 rand ($350) bail and ordered to appear in court on May 15. South African Airways (SAA) has said Chandler claimed to possess an Airline Transport Pilot License -- an advanced licence permitting him to fly large passenger planes. But he only had a commercial pilot license, which is for small aircraft and requires far less training and experience. SAA has not revealed how long he had flown under false pretences, the number of passengers he flew or the types of aircraft he had piloted. But according to media reports Chandler had been employed at the national carrier since 1994. SAA has said the falsehood came to light last November when an Airbus A340-600 plane he was co-piloting to Germany encountered turbulence and he had to perform a recovery manoeuvre. The crew were grounded and evaluated in line with safety procedures, and at that point the subterfuge was discovered, the airline said. SAA has said it will seek to recover "millions of rand" in wages from Chandler. Nairobi (AFP) - Countries from around the world set their sights Monday on a pivotal deal to curb plastic waste, a source of long-term pollution and worsening contamination of the ocean's food chain. Thousands of delegates, business leaders and campaigners are in Nairobi for the five-day UN Environment Assembly, the top annual forum on the planet's environmental crisis. The UN wants individual countries to sign up to "significantly" reduce plastic production, including a phasing out of single-use plastics by 2030 -- a goal inspired by the 2015 Paris Agreement on voluntary reductions of carbon emissions. "In the field of (plastic) pollution we don't have such agreements," Siim Kiisler, UN Environment Assembly president and Estonia's environment minister, told journalists as the gathering got underway. "This is the first time (we have) to convince member states to make international commitments." A landmark report due out this week is expected to ram home the warning of the threat to ecosystems from rampant plastic and chemical waste. The world currently produces more than 300 million tonnes of plastics annually, and there are at least five trillion plastic pieces floating in our oceans, scientists have estimated. Microplastics have been found in the deepest sea trenches and high up Earth's tallest peaks, and plastic consumption is growing year-on-year. "Plastic is a very good material, it's durable, flexible and light," Kiisler said. "This means we should make the best out of it for as long as possible instead of disposing of it." The conference started on a sombre note after an Ethiopian Airlines jet crashed on Sunday, killing all 157 on board, many of whom were heading to the event. The Nairobi meeting comes against the backdrop of series of UN reports outlining in stark terms the damage mankind is doing to the planet, much of it due to reckless consumption. Story continues "These things are all linked: climate, the environment, waste," one delegate told AFP. One briefing on the eve of the summit said the cost of ecosystems loss through agriculture, deforestation and pollution was a much as $20 trillion (17.7 trillion euros) since 1995. Acting UN environment chief Joyce Msuya said the world needed to "transform the way our economies work... break the link between growth and increased resource use, and end our throwaway culture." The One Planet Summit on Thursday will bring together heads of state including French President Emmanuel Macron and Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta to lend political clout to the process. Kiisler said it was a "critical time for action to protect and reverse the degradation of our planet. "We are not going fast enough," he told reporters. "Today we are talking about declarations and commitments but I believe in the future we need some international legislation in place." The UN on Monday also warned that the global scale of chemical production was likely to double between now and 2030. A study it commissioned found that worldwide chemical production capacity stands at 2.3 billion tonnes and is growing despite repeat warnings from environmental groups of the dangers hazardous materials pose to ecosystems. By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House senior advisers Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt discussed Middle East peace prospects with Jordan's King Abdullah on Monday in Washington, an American source familiar with the meeting said. The 45-minute meeting took place at the Jordanian ambassador's residence in Washington, the source said. Kushner and Greenblatt returned recently from a tour of Gulf states during which they sought support from Arab leaders on the economic portion of a Middle East peace proposal that U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to unveil in coming months. That trip, however, did not include a stop in Jordan. Release of the Trump peace plan has been delayed repeatedly, particularly after Palestinians erupted in anger when Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017. The current thinking among White House officials is that the plan will be unveiled sometime after Israel holds elections on April 9 that will decide the fate of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. King Abdullah also met Vice President Mike Pence on Monday. Pence's office said he and the king discussed the fight against Islamic State militants and Trump's decision to maintain a residual U.S. presence in Syria. The king is to meet lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, including a coffee with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The king also met on Monday with U.S. acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan to discuss military and defence cooperation between Jordan and the United States. "The meeting covered the latest developments in the Middle East, efforts to reach political solutions to regional crises, and efforts to fight terrorism within a holistic approach and Jordanian-US cooperation in this regard," the Jordanian embassy said in a statement. (Reporting by Steve Holland and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by David Gregorio and Meredith Mazzilli) Meghan and Harry arrive at Canada House in London [Photo: Getty] The Duchess of Sussex chose an apt fashion label as she and the duke attended a Commonwealth Day youth event at Canada House in London on Monday morning. Meghan, who is around seven months pregnant, chose a forest green embroidered coat by Canadian-born, London-based Erdem from his autumn/winter 2019 collection. The duchess has long been a fan of the Montreal-born designer, as have the Duchess of Cambridge and Princess Eugenie. California-born Meghan, 37, has a close affinity with Canada, having lived in Toronto while filming legal drama Suits for six years. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex met with young Canadians at the event [Photo: Getty] The Duke and #DuchessofSussex have arrived at Canada House for the #CommonwealthDay Youth Event. pic.twitter.com/twCbWuTfvH Danielle Stacey (@daniellestacey1) March 11, 2019 Meghan and Harry met with groups of young Canadians living in London, from a wide range of sectors including fashion, the arts, business and academia, about their experiences as expats as well as opportunities for young people working in the Commonwealth. The couple also got involved in a maple taffy making session (maple syrup cooled on snow to make sweets) with youngsters and watched a musical performance. The couple got involved in a maple taffy making session [Photo: Getty] The duchess teamed her coat with a matching dress, her classic Aquazzura Deneuve bow pumps and her black satin Givenchy clutch bag. Shes expected to give birth to their first child at the end of April/beginning of May. READ MORE: The Royal Family isnt ready for Meghan Markles feminist comments Later today Harry and Meghan will join the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at a Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey. Story continues Its Meghans first attendance as a member of the Royal Family. Last year she accompanied her then-fiance Harry to the service, just a couple of months before their May 18 wedding. The Duke of Sussex couldnt resist bopping along to Clean Bandits performance at the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey on Monday afternoon. Harry, 34, grinned as he was caught by the cameras nodding his head to the electronic music band as they played their hit single Symphony from the Nave. His pregnant wife Meghan, 37, smiled as she realised what he was up to, as they joined senior members of the Royal Family at the annual service including the Queen, the Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. As the royals departed from Westminster Abbey, they spoke to each of the performers from the service, which also included Alfie Boe and didgeridoo player William Barton. Harry, Meghan and the Duke of York at the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey [Photo: Getty] Prince Harry grins as he realises hes been caught nodding his head to the music [Photo: BBC] READ MORE: Kate reminds fans of sweet memory in red Catherine Walker coat This year marks the 70th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth a global network of 53 countries and almost 2.4 billion people, a third of the worlds population. Meghan wore a cream chain print dress by Victoria Beckham for the event, while sister-in-law Kate donned a repeat red Catherine Walker coat. Harry and Meghan talk with Grace Chatto, part of the group Clean Bandit after the service [Photo: Getty] Earlier on Monday, Harry and Meghan attended a Commonwealth Day youth event at Canada House, where they met youngsters from various sectors. The couple got involved in making maple taffy, a sweet treat which is made by syrup being cooled on snow. The duchess wore an apt green coat by Canadian-born, London-based fashion designer Erdem for the engagement. She is expected to give birth at the end of April and is yet to announce when her last duties will be before she heads off on maternity leave. Harry will attend a Veterans Mental Health Conference at Kings College London on Thursday 14 March. Port Harcourt (Nigeria) (AFP) - Several thousand people on Monday protested against the suspension of governorship elections in Nigeria's volatile Rivers state following widespread disruption to the vote. The All Progressives Congress and African Action Congress marched with civil society groups in the state capital, Port Harcourt, calling for results to be announced. The Independent National Electoral Commission halted the count on Sunday, citing violence at polling stations, kidnapping of staff, confiscation and destruction of results. "As a stakeholder in peace, we are not happy that this process was aborted mid-way," protest organiser and APC member of the Rivers state parliament Victoria Nyeche told AFP. "INEC should conclude the elections by announcing results. If there are issues the election tribunal is there to resolve them. "What INEC has done is illegal and an invitation to crisis." AFP reporters in Port Harcourt said the atmosphere was tense, and soldiers manned roadblocks throughout the city, which has long been a flashpoint for political violence. The APC of President Muhammadu Buhari -- which is in power nationally but in opposition in Rivers -- had no candidate in the governorship election because of irregularities in its primaries. It urged supporters to back the AAC's candidate. Many of those protesting on Monday chanted slogans against the incumbent governor Nyesom Wike, of the Peoples Democratic Party. The PDP has described the suspension of the count as a "barefaced assault... akin to a coup d'etat" and condemned the use of soldiers to "ambush the electoral process". "Army, police and INEC are working with APC to subvert the will of Rivers people," added Wike. But the military said it had "credible intelligence" that armed thugs in army uniform had impersonated soldiers to commit electoral crimes for their political paymasters. Situation Room, an umbrella group of more than 70 civil society organisations monitoring the vote, renewed its call for an independent inquiry into the entire election. Story continues It said Saturday's vote, and the presidential and parliamentary polls of February 23, failed to meet the threshold for credible polls. Dozens of people have been killed, including in Rivers, where it said since 2011 the "environment for elections feels like a war, disenfranchising citizens who want to participate". "This has gravely undermined governance and security in the state," it added, calling for an end to the impunity enjoyed by those who orchestrate the unrest. AC Energy Inc., Ayala Corp.s energy platform, plans to spend $1 billion for three projects with a combined capacity of 800 megawatts in three countries. AC Energy president and chief executive Eric Francia said these renewable energy projects include a 350-MW solar project in Australia, a 400-MW to 500-MW win facility in Vietnam and a 100-MW solar plant in the Philippines. All in all, thats about 800 MW that were hoping to reach financial close in the next 12 to 18 months across these three markets, Francia said. Estimated project cost is around $1 billion for the projects in the three countries. Not all of that is equity, there is also debt. Approximately, debt is over $600 million to $700 million, he said. Francia said the company was expecting to get a financial closing for the first half of its 700-MW solar project in Australia in the first semester. For Vietnam, I think we are hoping to do another probably around 400 to 500 MW of wind. We are also hoping to do in the Philippines over 100 MW of solar, he said. Francia said a lot of the equity raised from AC Energys green bonds amounting to $410 million could be used for the three projects. Once we were successful in deploying that, I can argue that it would be the primary use of the green bonds. The 800 MW will basically account for the majority, if not all the green bond usage. The green bond can also finance some of the past green projects, Francia said.Two of the worlds largest multilateral institutionsthe International Finance Corp. and the Asian Development Bankinvested in the AC Energy green bonds totaling $95 million. The bonds were issued through AC Energys wholly-owned subsidiary AC Energy Finance International Ltd. and guaranteed by AC Energy. IFC provided an anchor investment of $75 million to complete the public placement of AC Energys five-year green bond. The additional $75 million of five-year bonds with a coupon of 4.75 percent will be listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. The initial $225-million issuance was listed on Jan. 30. AC Energy also completed the $110-million private placement of ten-year bonds with a coupon of 5.25 percent with ADB as one of the main investors with an investment of $20 million. The ten-year bonds will also be listed on SGX-ST. Both the 5-year and 10-year bonds totaling $410 million are the first Climate Bond certified, publicly listed US dollar green bond in Southeast Asia. A woman tries on a saree bearing the image of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi - AFP The saree is being deployed as the latest political weapon in Indias elections as the worlds largest democracy prepares to go to the polls. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unveiled a collection of political sarees, hoping the womens garments will act as mobile billboards for voters making up their minds in coming weeks. Indias election commission announced on Sunday that the countrys electorate, numbering over 900 million, will go to the polls in seven phases between 11 April to 19 May, with results due on 23 May. So the first big campaigning stunt by the incumbent BJP was to launch the new line of sarees, featuring pictures of Indian soldiers, fighter jets and Narendra Modi, the prime minister, printed on them. They were unveiled on Sunday at the state BJP headquarters in Jaipur, Rajasthan, hoping a recent rise in nationalism after the recent conflicts with Pakistan would spur party supporters to literally wear their loyalties. Mr Modi will be seeking a second term in office Credit: INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images Last week air-strike sarees, in shades of cream, saffron and green, as well as camouflage ones, became popular as the Indian governments fiery rhetoric saw jingoistic tendencies soar. However several patriotic saree vendors were left embarrassed after tweeters pointed out that their garments bore images of American forces, not Indian. The sarees however may end up falling foul of the model code of conduct that exists during election periods - similar to purdah in Britain. The election commission on Saturday asked to keep the military out of campaigning, saying the armed forces are "apolitical and neutral stakeholders in a modern democracy". Narendra Modi heads the BJP Hindu nationalist party Credit: AP Photo/ Rajesh Kumar Singh The memo, which was sent to all parties, was issued after billboards featuring BJP leaders such as Mr Modi and its president, Amit Shah, along with the Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, appeared around Delhi. "Everything is possible under PM Modi," the billboards read. Just after the election dates were announced, Mr Modi tweeted: The festival of democracy, Elections are here." Story continues I urge my fellow Indians to enrich the 2019 Lok Sabha [Indian parliament] elections with their active participation. I hope this election witnesses a historic turnout. I particularly call upon first time voters to vote in record numbers. The Prime Minister had kept an intense schedule of launches and openings in the last fortnight as his administration tried to announce several policies and schemes before the code of conduct period was triggered. (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it approved expanded use of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Sanofi SA's eczema drug Dupixent to include patients aged between 12 and 17, a boost for both the companies in the world's largest market for drugs. Shares of Regeneron closed up 2.3 percent at $412.05 on Monday. The FDA first approved the drug in 2017 and it has since been launched as a treatment for adults with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis, or eczema, as well as a drug for some asthma patients. The companies estimate that there are about 300,000-400,000 adults in the United States who are most in need of treatment, and that the number of adolescent patients is about half of this population. The new approval allows Dupixent to be prescribed to adolescent patients whose atopic dermatitis cannot be adequately managed with topical prescription medicines, or when such therapies are not advisable, Regeneron said in a statement. The biologic therapy, delivered as a shot, targets two key proteins that may play a central role in the inflammation underlying certain allergic diseases. The drug represents an important growth driver for both the companies which are testing its use in patients with conditions like eosinophilic esophagitis as well as food and environmental allergies. In recent years, Regeneron's investors have been focusing on newer drugs such as Dupixent, as the company's flagship drug, Eylea, faces increased competition. Sanofi has been placing hopes on continued upswing for the drug as it faces weakness in its diabetes business due to generic rivals. The drug, which brought in $922 million in revenue for Sanofi in 2018, gained a U.S. FDA nod last year for use as a maintenance therapy in patients with two forms of asthma. Piper Jaffray analysts, before the approval, said they expected U.S. sales of $661 million in 2021 from Dupixent's use in treating adolescents alone. (Reporting by Manas Mishra and Tamara Mathias in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel) Tulu Fara (Ethiopia) (AFP) - Safety doubts over Boeing's best-selling 737 MAX 8 drove several carriers to ground the aircraft Monday after a new jet crashed in Ethiopia, killing all 157 people on board. Investigators recovered the black-box flight recorders from the Nairobi-bound jet that went down early Sunday near Addis Ababa, the carrier Ethiopia Airlines said. Flight ET302 crashed into a field just six minutes after takeoff as the pilot alerted controllers of "difficulties". There were people from 35 countries on board, including some two dozen UN staff. Ethiopia decreed Monday a day of national mourning. The aircraft was the same type of jet as the Indonesian Lion Air plane that crashed in October, killing 189 passengers and crew. Airlines in Ethiopia, China, South Africa, Indonesia and the Cayman Islands said Monday they were suspending operations by their 737 MAX 8 fleets. The move caused Boeing shares to tumble around 12 percent earlier in the day, before recovering about half its losses in mid-afternoon New York trading. - Jets grounded - Ethiopia Airlines said investigators had found the plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders on Monday. It said it had grounded its fleet of six remaining Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes pending analysis of the black box data. "We assume we will find out the cause of the crash in the black box data," the airline said. China also ordered domestic airlines to suspend commercial operation of the MAX 8. There were eight Chinese nationals among the 149 passengers and eight crew on the Ethiopia flight. Indonesia, which has 11 of the MAX 8 model planes, said it would "carry out inspections and temporarily prohibit Boeing 737 Max 8 from flying." South Korea ordered an inspection of two MAX 8 planes flown by low-cost Eastar Jet. Some other airlines said they were not cancelling MAX 8 flights, including Oman Air, flydubai, Turkish Airlines and Russia's S7. Boeing has described the MAX series as its fastest-selling aeroplane ever, with more than 5,000 orders placed to date from about 100 customers. Story continues State-owned Ethiopian Airlines, Africa's largest carrier, had ordered 30 MAX 8 jets in total, and China has received 76 from an order of 180. The plane that crashed on Sunday was less than four months old. Ethiopian Airlines said it was delivered on November 15. - Plane on fire - The jet went down near the village of Tulu Fara, some 60 kilometres (40 miles) east of Addis Ababa. "The plane was already on fire when it crashed to the ground. The crash caused a big explosion," one witness, Tegegn Dechasa, told AFP. Another, farmer Sisay Gemechu, said the plane seemed to be aiming to land on an open field, but crashed before reaching it. Inhabitants of the remote area looked on from behind a security cordon as inspectors searched the crash site and excavated it with a mechanical digger. The single-aisle Boeing jet left a deep, black crater at the impact site. Ethiopian Airlines said the pilot was given clearance to turn around after indicating problems shortly before the plane disappeared from radar. The airline's chief executive Tewolde GebreMariam said the plane had flown in from Johannesburg early Sunday, spent three hours in Addis and was "despatched with no remark", meaning no problems were flagged, before leaving for Nairobi. A committee comprising Ethiopian Airlines, aviation and transport authorities was set up to lead the crash investigation. US experts and Boeing will also take part. The US plane manufacturer cancelled the scheduled presentation Tuesday of its new long-haul jet, the 777X. - Author, student, aid workers - The crash cast a pall over a gathering of the UN Environment Programme, which opened in Nairobi on Monday. At least 22 staff from several UN agencies were on the doomed flight. Delegates hugged and comforted one another as they arrived at the meeting with the UN flag flying at half-mast. Details of the passengers, including tourists, business travellers and humanitarian workers, have started to emerge. Among them was Cedric Asiavugwa, a Kenyan third-year student at Georgetown University Law School in Washington. He was heading for a visit home ahead of his graduation in the spring, the university said. Kenya had the highest death toll among the nationalities on the flight with 32, according to Ethiopian Airlines. Canada was next with 18 victims. There were nine Ethiopians and eight each from Italy and the United States. The airline said Britain and France each had seven people on board, Egypt six, and Germany five. France, however, put its death toll at nine. Britain also put its death toll at nine, including two dual nationals travelling on other passports. Italian archaeologist Sebastiano Tusa, 66, died in the crash, his wife Valeria Patrizia Li Vigni was quoted as saying by the Corriere della Sera newspaper. On Sunday, "the friends I met at mass said I shouldn't worry because bad news travels fast," she said. "In the end it arrived anyway, and it destroyed my life. I felt the disaster coming... He hadn't even wanted to go." burs-mlr/rlp/dcr/boc Seoul (AFP) - South Korea's military said Monday it was closely monitoring North Korean facilities after a series of satellite images triggered international alarm that Pyongyang might be preparing a long-range missile or space launch. Any launch would send the stuttering talks on denuclearisation into disarray, after a high-stakes second summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un collapsed last month without a deal. But some analysts suggest the North might be stage-managing activity at certain key sites, to stoke concern and secure "better terms" when the two sides next meet. Washington wants what administration officials have called a "big deal", with the complete elimination of weapons of mass destruction in return for the dropping of sanctions that have strangled the isolated North's economy. North Korea favours a more step-by-approach, with Kim proposing dismantling its Yongbyon nuclear complex in exchange for lifting the main sanctions -- a notion Trump refused in Hanoi despite the vaunted "chemistry" between the pair. "The North could be trying to show the US it can always turn back to aggressive posture by rebuilding missile sites in order to gain leverage in future talks, but without actually firing a missile or rocket," said Cheong Seong-Chang, a senior researcher at the private Sejong Institute. "It is hard to rule out the possibility of a rocket launch at the Sohae station at this point as North Korea has proven time and time again it can do unexpected things." - 'All possible scenarios' - Satellite analysis now indicates increased activity at two key sites -- the Samundong missile research facility and the Sohae rocket launch centre. Located on the outskirts of Pyongyang, Samundong was built in 2012 to support development of long-range missiles and space-launch vehicles. As well as developing the Hawsong-15 ICBM, which analysts agree is capable of reaching the whole US mainland, Samundong constructed the long-range rockets that were then transported and successfully launched from the Sohae satellite launch station in 2012 and 2016. Story continues Images of Samundong taken on February 22 showed cars and trucks at the site, as well as rail cars and cranes at a yard, US news outlet NPR has reported. South Korea is "closely tracking and looking into all activity for possible scenarios including a missile launch" across the border, said Kim Joon-rak, spokesman of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff. Experts are divided over Pyongyang's plans, but whatever its intentions, a launch would shatter the fragile US-North Korea relationship and revive the angry language that had stoked fears of a military conflict at the start of the Trump presidency. "This is North Korea's classic brinkmanship on display again," said Lim Eul-chul, professor of North Korean studies at Kyungnam University. "The North's intention is clear. It wants early resumption of talks with the US, but on better terms." Veteran North Korea watchers said that any activity is likely to be finely calibrated and could also be intended to send a clear message within the isolated regime. "Kim could use a launch to demonstrate at the 14th Supreme Peoples Assembly, probably in mid-April, that he has not been cowed by sanctions," said former US negotiator Joel Wit, now the director of the respected 38 North website. - 'Pretty disappointed' - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed last year to shut the Sohae site at a summit with the South's President Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang. Satellite pictures in August suggested workers were dismantling an engine test stand there. But the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies suggested last week that rebuilding was progressing quickly at the facility. A moving structure that had been used to carry vehicles to a launch pad on rails has been restored, said 38 North, adding that the work had started before last month's failed meeting in Hanoi. Chun In-bum, a North Korea expert and a retired three-star general, said it was "too early" to conclude the North was preparing for another rocket launch at Sohae. However, he said that if the North went ahead, the US would be "forced to react" whether it turned out to be a missile test or a satellite launch. North Korea has been banned by the UN Security Council from carrying out space launches, as some of its technology was similar to that used for intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs. John Bolton, President Donald Trump's hawkish national security adviser, said Sunday the US sees "exactly what they are doing" in regard to possible launch moves by the nuclear-armed state. "We see it unblinkingly, and we don't have any illusions about what those are," he warned, adding his boss would be "pretty disappointed" if a nuclear-armed state conducted a new missile test. A lady who was on her way to do a kind deed of feeding stray cats got a shock when a middle-aged lady confronted her publicly about her misdeed. Humaira Abdul Rahman shared her story on the Sayang Our Singapores Community Cats (SOSCC) Facebook page on Thursday and has been receiving hundreds of supportive comments over the weekend from netizens who egged her on to continue doing the right thing. (Photo: Humaira Abdul Rahman / Facebook) Humaira said that she had been feeding stray cats for the past two years and would not leave food overnight, always staying put to watch the kittens finish the food. One particular day, she was chided by a middle-aged lady who accused her in full public view of attracting all kinds of pests and spreading diseases around by feeding them. The lady said that the cats poop everywhere and that the environment is dirty because of her kind act to feed the cats. The lady warned Humaira that she would report the matter to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority or the nearby town council management and told her not to come again to feed the pets. (Photo: Humaira Abdul Rahman / Facebook) Humaira noted that she had to clean up after messes left after some other stray cat feeders who left cat kibbles laying around on the floor. I will still continue to feed them because I am aware myself that I didnt do anything wrong, she said. Humaira was worried that she would not know how to swat off the middle-aged lady in future interactions but fortunately, commenters quickly jumped in with advice. Jenny Ong pointed out that feeding a stray cat is not illegal but littering is, according to a mediation flyer by the Cat Welfare Society. (Photo: Facebook screengrab) Other commenters who jumped in told Humaira to ignore the middle-aged lady and continue on with her good deed. (Photo: Facebook screengrab) (Photo: Facebook screengrab) Members of the public who would like to learn more about responsible cat-feeding in Singapore can visit the Cat Welfare Society website. This article, Should stray cats be fed? Cat-feeder gets shamed by middle-aged lady but gets support from netizens, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company. Want more Coconuts? Sign up for our newsletters! HELENA, Mont. (AP) Officials said Monday that a copper mine proposed along a tributary of one of Montana's most popular recreational rivers would cause the river no harm, a conclusion that conservationists question and say will reinvigorate opposition to the plan. The state Department of Environmental Quality released its draft environmental impact statement of the Black Butte Copper Project for public comment, a significant step forward for the proposed mine more than three years after developers applied for a permit. The proposed underground mine is on private land and would extract 15.3 million tons (13.8 million metric tons) of copper-laden rock and waste over 15 years roughly 440 tons (400 million metric tons) of copper-rich concentrate a day. It is located in central Montana near Sheep Creek, a waterway that feeds into the Smith River some 19 miles (31 kilometers) away. The Smith River, a blue-ribbon trout fishery that passes through stunning limestone canyons as it flows to the Missouri River, is so popular with boaters that it is the only river where a permit is required for a three- or four-day float. Permits are in such high demand that a lottery is held annually to distribute them. Conservation groups have strongly opposed the mine since Tintina Resources filed its application in December 2015, saying mining pollution would threaten the river system and could lower water flows so much the trout fishery would be harmed. Tintina, which was later bought owned by Australian mining company Sandfire Resources, says water resources will be protected and that more than a mile will separate Sheep Creek from the facility that will process mine waste. The environmental review looked closely at the potential effects to the Smith River because of the immense public interest in the project, said Kristi Ponozzo, DEQ's public policy director. Everything in Sandfire Resource's proposal complies with state law, she said. In addition, tunnels and access openings would be filled with mine waste that has been thickened with cement into a paste, which would cut off any new potential paths for groundwater to flow. Story continues "That's something we think adds water quality protections above and beyond what we think is required to comply with state water quality laws," Ponozzo said. Mining operations would use groundwater and reduce water flows by 70 percent to nearby Coon Creek, but that effect would be countered by pumping water into the creek from a planned reservoir, according to the analysis. Less than 1 percent of the Sheep Creek watershed area would be affected. Sandfire Resources America CEO and Vice President of Project Development Rob Scargill said in a statement that the analysis is a key step toward the completing the project "which will set new standards for mine developments globally." Derf Johnson, the Montana Environmental Information Center's clean water program director, said he has not yet reviewed the newly released analysis, but he questioned any finding that the mine won't affect the Smith River. The waterways that feed the Smith River are all part of a very interconnected system, and Sheep Creek in particular is important for the Smith River's water quality, water quantity and fishery, he said. "This is the wrong mine in the wrong basin at the wrong time," he said. "It's just an incredible risk for the DEQ to even consider permitting. It's shocking." Johnson's organization is part of the Save Our Smith coalition that formed in opposition to the mine. He said he believes the conclusions in the environmental analysis will breathe new life to that opposition. "I think that this is really going to cause a lot of people to get involved," he said. Public meetings on the environmental impact statement are planned for April 29 in Livingston and April 30 in White Sulphur Springs. DEQ officials plan to hold two additional online public meetings, and they will eventually issue a final environmental analysis before deciding whether to issue the project permits for mining, water discharge and air quality. The Luntiang Pilipinas Party-list has welcomed Senate President Vicente Sotto IIIs support behind the group that seeks to be the first green party in the House of Representatives. The groups first nominee Michael Ubac confirmed that Sotto, chairperson of the Nationalist Peoples Coalition, had endorsed his group, a movement founded by Senator Loren Legarda to advocate the protection and preservation of our environment. We are grateful for the support of the Senate President, and we hope that the endorsement of a national leader with his stature can help us convince other leaders of the need for champions of the environment in the Legislature, said Ubac. Luntiang Pilipinas is vying for seats in the House of Representatives under the party-list system. Over 120 party-list groups have been accredited by the Commission on Elections. Ubac said that Luntiang Pilipinas is a legitimate green party that has a deep understanding of the environmental issues facing the country, a clear program of action to address these issues, and a track record that shows that we can deliver.Established in 1998 as a movement, Luntiang Pilipinas is responsible for planting and growing two million trees in 33 provinces, 28 cities, and 84 municipalities across the country. The groups platform is founded on its four pillars: Regreening (forest parks and mangrove growing); ecological solid waste management; coastal and marine resource management; and disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. According to Ubac, he expected more political leaders to extend their support for Luntiang Pilipinas, as more and more of those in elective officeor vying for elective officerecognize the importance of protecting the environment. As we saw in Yolanda and Boracay there are serious consequences when we fail to address environmental issues... AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) Drivers Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell were summoned to the NASCAR hauler after they were involved in a post-qualifying fight before practice Saturday for the Cup Series race at ISM Raceway. Suarez was upset that McDowell impeded his fastest qualifying lap, stalking him after both were eliminated in the first qualifying session Friday. Suarez then hopped a concrete barrier and scuffled with McDowell, spinning and throwing him to the ground. It took several crew members to separate them. Suarez and McDowell downplayed the morning meeting, saying NASCAR officials just wanted to ensure the animosity would not spill over to the track practice or during the race. "Which, honestly, it's my style," Suarez said. "If I wanted to wreck him I would have done that yesterday. That's not my style. I wouldn't use my race car as a weapon." The trouble began when drivers waited until the final minutes of the 10-minute qualifying session to take the track. That led to chaos at the end of pit road and plenty of traffic on the race surface, and it was McDowell's slower car that Suarez claimed impeded his best lap. McDowell acknowledged getting in the way, but he also took umbrage with Suarez retaliating on the track by getting in his way. McDowell's qualifying effort was similarly scuttled, both drivers missed the cutoff for the second round of qualifying and they will start deep in the field. The poor qualifying result also means they will have poor pit stall selections. "Like I said yesterday, it's an emotional sport. We both have a lot on the line," McDowell said. "We're trying to do the best we can for our partners and teams, and emotions come out. That's what racing is all about. What it's always been about." Suarez and McDowell will have another opportunity to discuss their issues: McDowell will start 27th and Suarez 28th, and that means they will share a convertible for the driver introductions. Story continues "It's not fixed. I'm not ready to fix something like that," Suarez said. "I just made my point clear, why I was mad. He had his point. I don't think it's as good as mine. But I mean, we're not going to fight each other. But we're not best buddies, either." ___ Full AP NASCAR coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/NASCAR Photo credit: Andia/UIG via Getty Images - Getty Images From Popular Mechanics Last month, electric car company Tesla announced that it was saying goodbye to brick-and-motor stores and would try to sell its cars completely online. Now, in a blog post, the company has announced that it's not quite done with physical stores after all. "Over the past two weeks we have been closely evaluating every single Tesla retail location," the statement reads, "and we have decided to keep significantly more stores open than previously announced as we continue to evaluate them over the course of several months." Ten percent of the company's stores have already been shuttered, and another 10 percent are "under review," but that's as far as the cuts will go for now. Most of the company's 378 stores and services centers will stay open. The saving grace will also mean that Tesla "will need to raise vehicle prices by about 3% on average worldwide," the blog post reads, with an exception on its mass-market Model 3, whose lowered price has been a priority for the California-based company. Tesla calls this a trade-off: "We will only close about half as many stores, but the cost savings are therefore only about half." Tesla's plan to shutter most of its physical stores was met with resistance, most notably from landlords. The company's move was a surprise to many: It had been negotiating and signing leases well into the 2020s right up until the announcement. The shift means that Tesla will have physical spaces to market its newest vehicle, a small crossover SUV known as the Model Y. Tesla stores will still operate differently than other car dealerships. When inside, customers are instructed in how to buy a car through their phones. But being able to physically see a car before a purchase still has a psychological effect for customers, one apparently that Tesla has not found a way around yet. Source: WSJ ('You Might Also Like',) (Reuters) - Tesla Inc is in discussions with Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL) for ordering rechargeable batteries to power its Model 3 cars, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. CATL has been in talks with Tesla officials about the required specifications for the batteries, according to the Bloomberg report, which added that there was no guarantee that an agreement would be reached. In January, sources told Reuters that Tesla had signed a preliminary agreement with China's Tianjin Lishen to supply batteries for its new Shanghai car factory. Tesla declined to comment and CATL did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report. (Reporting by Mekhla Raina in Bengaluru and Yilei Sun in Beijing; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta) By Alexandria Sage Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk has until the end of the day on Monday to explain why he should not be held in contempt for recent tweets that U.S. securities regulators say violated a September fraud settlement. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission asked a federal court in Manhattan to hold Musk in contempt after he tweeted about Tesla's production volume, saying he breached the agreement requiring him to get company approval before sharing any material information on social media. The renewed public battle between Tesla's CEO and the SEC adds pressure on Musk, the public face of the electric vehicle-maker who is struggling to make it profitable after cutting the price of its Model 3 sedan to $35,000. Tesla has backed off a plan to close all its U.S. stores and will instead raise prices of its higher-end vehicles by about 3 percent on average. Musk on Feb. 19 tweeted to his more than 24 million Twitter followers that Tesla would make around 500,000 cars in 2019. He corrected the tweet four hours later to say the annualized production rate at year-end 2019 would probably be about 500,000, with deliveries of about 400,000. A lawyer for Tesla and Musk told the SEC that the CEO believed the substance of the tweet had been pre-approved and disseminated when the company released fourth-quarter earnings in January. The September settlement between Musk, Tesla and the SEC resolved an SEC lawsuit over claims Musk made on Twitter in August that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private at $420 per share. The SEC called those tweets "false and misleading" and a go-private deal never materialized. As part of that settlement, Musk stepped down as the company's chairman and he and Tesla agreed to pay $20 million each in fines. Musk had called the regulator the "Shortseller Enrichment Commission" after the settlement, and tweeted that "something is broken with SEC oversight" just one day after the SEC started pursuing the contempt order. Hours later, U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan set a March 11 deadline for Musk to respond. Story continues On Monday morning, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton declined to comment when approached by Reuters at an event in Washington on what penalties the agency planned to pursue against the billionaire. Legal experts have said the SEC could try multiple avenues, including a higher fine, imposing further restrictions on Musk's activities or removing him from Tesla's board or helm. Tesla published a new communications policy in December for executives as part of the settlement. It called for Tesla's general counsel and a newly designated in-house securities law attorney to pre-approve any written statements about Tesla that could be material. A disclosure controls committee, made up of board members Brad Buss, Antonio Gracias and James Murdoch, was tasked with overseeing compliance with the new policy. (Reporting By Alexandria Sage in San Francisco and Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli, Bernard Orr) Prime minister Theresa May faces a pivotal week of Brexit negotiations and votes (Picture: PA) Prime minister Theresa May should stand down after Brexit, a Conservative MP has said. The call came as Mrs May confirmed MPs will be given a vote on her Brexit deal on Tuesday. George Freeman, the MP for Mid Norfolk, said the Tories needed a new leader to head the party after Britain leaves the European Union. I think we are in a very, very serious crisis, he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme on Monday. I hope the prime minister can get withdrawal through and then I do think we need to choose a new leader for a new generation with a new vision of a conservativism that can make sense of Brexit and reinspire and reunite the nation. I hope we can do that having secured a sensible Withdrawal Agreement. A panicked change of leader now will solve nothing, we have got to get this through. I hope colleagues this week will recognise that: vote for the deal and then we can change. On Monday, Mrs May confirmed the meaningful vote on her withdrawal deal will go ahead this week as planned, despite reports it would be delayed again. But the prime ministers official spokesman said the vote would go ahead as scheduled on Tuesday. George Freeman said Mrs May should step down as Tory leader after Brexit (Picture; PA) Mrs May is battling to save her Brexit strategy as negotiations with the EU remain deadlocked, amid warnings she is heading for another crushing defeat in Tuesdays crunch Commons vote. Tory Brexiteers said rejection of the Withdrawal Agreement is inevitable unless Mrs May is able to secure significant changes to the Northern Ireland backstop. Technical talks between officials took place in Brussels over the weekend and the PM spoke to European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on Sunday night. But a Downing Street source said the negotiations remained deadlocked. A plane was reported to be on stand-by at RAF Northolt to fly Mrs May to Brussels to clinch an agreement if there was any sign of a deal after talks over the weekend. But the EUs chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier did not appear to be expecting further talks on Monday morning, telling the AFP news agency in Brussels: We held talks over the weekend and the negotiations now are between the Government in London and the Parliament in London. Story continues Some senior Conservatives said on Sunday that the PM should postpone the meaningful vote rather than risk another damaging reverse. Read more Seven Britons and one passenger from Ireland among 157 dead in Ethiopian Airlines plane crash In pictures Parts of Britain hit by snow as country battered by strong winds Jeremy Hunt warns Tory MPs: Back Theresa Mays deal or risk losing Brexit altogether Instead, she was being urged to table a conditional motion setting out the terms for dealing with the backstop issue which Parliament would be prepared to accept. Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the pro-Brexit Tory European Research Group, told the Times that it would not be a foolish way to proceed. He added: I think a meaningful vote with an addendum saying this House will support a deal if such and such is done might be a way of uniting the party or limiting the scale of the defeat. Former chief whip Andrew Mitchell told the paper: Anything that avoids what looks like a massive defeat on Tuesday is worth considering. This week could see a flurry of Brexit votes in the House of Commons (Picture: PA) Meanwhile, Public Health Minister Steve Brine has warned that he will resign unless Tory MPs are given a free vote in a vote expected later in the week on whether Britain should leave the EU without a deal. I think a free vote would be very smart, he told BBC Radio 4s The Westminster Hour. I would find it very difficult, actually impossible to be part of a policy that was pursuing actively no-deal. Environment secretary Michael Gove one of the leaders of the official Leave campaign in the referendum became the latest Cabinet minister to urge MPs to vote for Mrs Mays deal. In an article for the Daily Mail, he said: I hope that everyone who believes in our democracy in the importance of delivering Brexit, but also in the critical need to unite our country will come behind the prime ministers deal this week. The calls for a postponement came after former Cabinet minister Nicky Morgan warned that Mrs Mays position would become untenable if Parliament dismantled her Brexit policy in a series of votes during the course of the week. Nevertheless, delaying the meaningful vote would have been another humiliation for Mrs May after senior ministers spent the weekend insisting it would go ahead as planned. Mrs May had already postponed it once from December, only to see it resoundingly defeated the following month by a majority of 230. With less than three weeks to Brexit Day on March 29 when Britain is due to leave the EU any delay would raise renewed questions as to whether there was any way she could get her deal through the Commons. Mrs May has said if she loses the vote on Tuesday, there will be further votes on Wednesday on whether the UK should leave with no-deal and on Thursday on whether they should seek an extension to the Article 50 withdrawal process. Many at Westminster believe that in that event MPs would vote to delay Britains departure to the fury of Brexiteers. Tony Blair is reportedly advising the French president about how to keep the UK in the European Union (Picture: PA) Tony Blair has been advising Emmanuel Macron about how to keep Britain in the European Union, it has been reported. The former prime minister has been briefing the French president on how to fight Brexit, The Telegraph said. The newspaper said sources in Paris had confirmed that Mr Blair has been talking to Mr Macron about Brexit. Mr Blair is reported to have told Mr Macron to hold firm while events play out in the UK. Parliament is set to vote on prime minister Theresa Mays Withdrawal Agreement on Tuesday. Mr Blair is reported to have told Mr Macron that Parliament may eventually accept a customs union or grant the British public a second referendum on Brexit. Frances president Emmanuel Macron has reportedly been taking Brexit advice from Tony Blair (Picture: PA) Eurosceptic Tory MP Peter Bone told The Telegraph: It is totally unacceptable for a former prime minister to go around the heads of European countries and undermine the governments position. Im not sure we could find another time in modern history when this has happened. Tony Blair has to realise he has had his time as prime minister and Im surprised and disappointed he has done this. Read more Seven Britons and one passenger from Ireland among 157 dead in Ethiopian Airlines plane crash In pictures Parts of Britain hit by snow as country battered by strong winds Jeremy Hunt warns Tory MPs: Back Theresa Mays deal or risk losing Brexit altogether I doubt he would have liked it if his predecessors had done this to him. Mrs May was working down to the wire to find a Brexit breakthrough before Tuesdays crucial vote by MPs on her Withdrawal Agreement, with speculation mounting of last-minute talks with Jean-Claude Juncker. Irelands foreign minister Simon Coveney said he understood that the Prime Minister will travel to Strasbourg on Monday evening in a final bid to secure changes that will allow MPs to back her Withdrawal Agreement the following day. But sources in London said the Tanaiste was getting ahead of himself and there were no confirmed plans for Mrs May to fly to the continent. Story continues Neither Downing Street nor the European Commission would confirm plans for a face-to-face meeting between Mrs May and Mr Juncker, who spoke by telephone on Sunday evening and again on Monday. Pro-Brexit demonstrators with banners, placards and flags protesting outside the Houses of Parliament (Picture: PA) Time is running out for any new assurances or clarifications to the deal which was resoundingly rejected by a 230-vote majority by MPs in January. The Government must table its motion for Tuesdays debate by the end of the day, alongside the publication of any relevant documents including Attorney General Geoffrey Coxs legal advice on the deal. Downing Street insisted following Mondays phone call that talks continue, despite admitting the process was deadlocked after negotiations over the weekend failed to produce agreement. European Union chief negotiator Michel Barnier said the talks happening now were between the Government in London and the Parliament in London, rather than the UK and Brussels. At Westminster, speculation has centred on the prospect of the Prime Minister watering down her commitment to hold a vote on her Brexit deal following the failure of talks to provide suitable concessions over the Northern Ireland backstop. But Mrs Mays official spokesman confirmed it remains the plan to stage the second meaningful vote on the Brexit deal on Tuesday. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK A streetcar in Toronto. (Photo from Getty Images) Despite the utter chaos that is driving in Toronto, the citys transit system has been ranked the best in Canada. Redfin, a tech-powered real estate brokerage, released the results of its first national Transit Score study ranking Canadian cities by their transit services on March 11. Toronto is highly populated and growing all the time, said Blair Anderson, market manager for Redfin in Toronto. The influx of people from all over the world to Toronto puts a strain on all aspects of transportation in regards to road infrastructure and traffic in and out of the city, which is nothing less than gridlock. Here is how Redfins 2019 transit score study ranked 15 Canadian cities. (Table from Cision/Redfin) In spite of the citys famed gridlock, Torontos score of 78 actually ranks it higher than several large U.S. cities, including Boston. Vancouver and Montreal claimed the second and third spots in Canada, with Vancouver also ranking higher than Boston, and Montreal tied with Philadelphia. Hamilton and London, Ont. brought up the rear for Canadian cities, in 14th and 15th place. Transit Score works similarly to the Walk Score system, which Redfin purchased in 2014. It ranks regions in terms of how easy they are to navigate using public transit. Redfin looked at ease-of-use and frequency of buses, subways, light trail transit, ferries and more when calculating the Transit Score for 15 Canadian cities with populations over 300,000. Specifically, the Transit Score algorithm factors in the distance of transit routes from a given location, the frequency of routes and the types of transit vehicles used. For example, in weighing the criteria, more weight is awarded to heavy and light rail transit than to bus service. Some people moan and complain about public transit, but Torontos system is one of the better transit systems in the world, Anderson said. Its highly ranked, runs well on a timely basis, and doesnt have many problems. And without it, the city would shut down. Not everyone in Canada agrees with Andersons assessment of the list and Torontos spot on top. Story continues Some on social media used the story to take shots at Toronto for having set the bar low. As a ttc operator and someone who has traveled internationally, something is definately wrong with this carrigan mc queen (@kc_ery) March 11, 2019 Others took a more pragmatic view. Fault can always be found if you look for it, wrote Facebook user Suzy Symes. TTC does a great job of getting you where you need to go. Want to complain- try using a transit system somewhere else. What do you think? Do you agree with Redfins ranking of Canadian transit systems? Let us know by responding to the poll above or have your say in the comments below. RIYADH (Reuters) - The trial of Loujain al-Hathloul, one of nearly a dozen prominent Saudi Arabian women's rights activists detained since last year, will begin on Wednesday, her family said on Twitter. Activists claim some detainees, including 29-year-old Hathloul, were held in solitary confinement and subjected to mistreatment and torture, including electric shocks, flogging, and sexual assault. Saudi officials have denied those allegations as "false." The arrests have intensified international criticism of Saudi Arabia after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last October in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul sparked global outrage. Three dozen countries, including all 28 EU members, called on Riyadh last week to release the activists, the first rebuke of the kingdom at the U.N. Human Rights Council since it was set up in 2006. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his British counterpart have also said they had raised the issue with the Saudi authorities during recent visits. The Saudi government communications office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the public prosecutor's office said earlier this month it had completed its investigations of the detainees and was preparing their trials. "My sister @LoujainHathloul will be having her first trial session next Wednesday at 8am at the specialized court in Riyadh. This is the court (that) deals with terrorism cases," her brother Walid wrote on Sunday. He said she was not allowed to have a lawyer and had not been provided a list of indictments. The public prosecutor said last June that five men and four women had been arrested and held on suspicion of harming the country's interests and offering support to hostile elements abroad. Saudi media widely denounced them as traitors. It was unclear if the other detainees will also stand trial this week. Hathoul, who has advocated an end to a ban on women driving and the kingdom's male guardianship system, was previously detained for 73 days in 2014 after she attempted to drive into Saudi Arabia from the UAE. Story continues The driving ban was lifted in June, weeks after she was rearrested. The guardianship system, which requires women to obtain the consent of a male relative for major decisions, remains intact. Dozens of other activists, intellectuals and clerics have been arrested separately in the past two years in an apparent bid to stamp out opposition to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has consolidated power including with a sweeping anti-corruption campaign. (Reporting By Stephen Kalin; Editing by Marguerita Choy) A municipal mayor from Batangas is facing an administrative complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman over four Facebook posts of her Christmas vacation in the United States in December last year to January this year. In a complaint-affidavit, San Pascual Vice Mayor Antonio Dimayuga appealed to the Ombudsman to look into the supposed grave misconduct, gross ignorance of the law and violation of the Local Government Code. As far as the accusedMayor Roanna Contiis concerned, she said: I deny the allegations and find all the charges made by Mr. Antonio Dimayuga both amusing and baffling. Also included in the complaint was municipal human resources management officer Ronaldo Gonzalez Jr. for allegedly making it appear that Contis overseas travel had the proper authorization. In a statement, Conti said Dimayuga seemed to be the only one who was out of the loop, adding the vice mayor was not aware of her authority to travel and leave the country as approved by Gov. Hermilando Mandanas. She said the vice mayor was the one facing graft charges before the Ombudsman since he was growing senile and wants to make a return as mayor.She said the administrative complaint was totally baseless, and a waste of time and energy of our good prosecutors in the Ombudsmans office. She threatened to file a perjury case against the vice mayor. Dimayuga claimed members of the municipal council did not know Conti was in the US for a vacation with her husband, Nick, and their children from Dec. 20, 2018 to Jan. 5, 2019. Attached to the complaint were FB posts with pictures of Conti spending Christmas and New Year in Las Vegas, Nevada and La Canada Flintridge, California. Donald Trump has rounded on former ally Ann Coulter, branding the right-wing commentator a wacky nut job over her criticism of his inability to secure funding for a border wall. The president defended the apparent lack of progress on his signature policy during a string of tweets on Saturday, taking aim at Coulter in particular. Wacky Nut Job @AnnCoulter, who still hasnt figured out that, despite all odds and an entire Democrat Party of Far Left Radicals against me (not to mention certain Republicans who are sadly unwilling to fight) I am winning on the Border, he wrote. Major sections of Wall are being built and renovated, with MUCH MORE to follow shortly. Tens of thousands of illegals are being apprehended (captured) at the Border and NOT allowed into our Country. Wacky Nut Job @AnnCoulter, who still hasnt figured out that, despite all odds and an entire Democrat Party of Far Left Radicals against me (not to mention certain Republicans who are sadly unwilling to fight), I am winning on the Border. Major sections of Wall are being built... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 9 March 2019 With another President, millions would be pouring in. I am stopping an invasion as the Wall gets built. #MAGA Coulter, who had at one time been a supporter of the president, has been outspoken in her criticism of his unsuccessful attempts at striking a deal in Congress to fund a wall on the US border with Mexico. She has previously described Mr Trump as a gutless president in a wall-less country. After he agreed to end the record-breaking government shutdown caused by a dispute with Democrats over funding for the wall in January, Coulter said Mr Trump was now the biggest wimp to serve as president. Despite the presidents promises to construct a barrier running the 1,954-mile length of the border, little progress has been made on the ground. Story continues Work has almost been completed to replace 40 miles of existing structures in multiple locations, while a construction of a 14-mile barrier in the Rio Grande Valley began last month. Mr Trump will again make a significant request for border wall funds in the White House budget being released next week, an administration official said. For the first time, the president plans to stick with the strict spending caps imposed years ago, even though lawmakers have largely avoided them with new budget deals. The budget will propose serious cuts in safety net programmes, which are used by many Americans, and other non-defence accounts. Those measures will likely trigger a showdown with Congress. It is unclear how much more money the president will seek to build the wall with Mexico. The request is coming on top of the $8.1bn (6.2bn) Mr Trump already has access to, which includes some $3.6bn hes trying to shift from military accounts after declaring a national emergency. The president invoked the emergency declaration last month after Congress denied his request for $5.7bn (4.4bn). Instead, Congress approved nearly $1.1bn for the border barriers, far less than he wanted. Additional reporting by AP WASHINGTON The White House proposed on Monday eliminating a tax credit worth up to $7,500 on the purchase of new electric vehicles, a move it says would save the U.S. government $2.5 billion over a decade. Major automakers have been lobbying Congress to extend the credit that phases out after companies hit 200,000 vehicles sold. They are hopeful Congress could expand the benefit by including it in a package of extended tax provisions that would otherwise expire that could win approval this year. Tesla Inc and General Motors Co both hit the 200,000 figure last year, but other major automakers are far from that figure. The credit consumers receive for buying Teslas fell to $3,750 on Jan. 1 and will drop to $1,875 for six months starting July 1. The credit for GM vehicles will fall to $3,750 on April 1, and then drop to $1,875 in October for six months. It will completely disappear for Tesla buyers in January 2020 and in April 2020 for GM. In November, a congressional report said 57,066 taxpayers claimed $375 million in electric vehicle tax credits in 2016. Congress previously estimated the cost of the credit at $7.5 billion between the 2018 and 2022 fiscal years. The credit enjoys strong support among Democrats in Congress, but Sen. John Barrasso, a Republican with petroleum industry ties who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has proposed legislation to end it entirely. In December, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the administration of President Donald Trump wanted to end subsidies for electric cars and other related items, including renewable energy sources. "As a matter of our policy, we want to end all of those subsidies," Kudlow said. "And by the way, other subsidies that were imposed during the Obama administration, we are ending, whether it's for renewables and so forth." Trump last year threatened to eliminate subsidies for GM in retaliation for the company's decision to close five North American plants and cut 15,000 jobs. Story continues The Trump 2020 budget also proposes ending funding for a Energy Department loan program that aided automakers building more fuel-efficient models, including Tesla, Ford Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co. But the program has not funded a new loan since 2011. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is seeking $14.2 million for the deployment and development of self-driving car technologies, including testing and research to address regulatory issues. Trump's $4.7 trillion budget, which seeks to slash funding for foreign aid and the State Department and increase spending for the military and a border wall, is expected to be rejected by Congress. Donald Trump will reportedly ask Congress for $8.6bn (6.6bn) to build his southern border wall on Monday under proposals for his 2020 fiscal budget, a $3bn (2.3bn) increase on his last estimate for the job. The White House is proposing $2.7trn (2trn) in spending cuts for the year beginning 1 October, a reduction of 5 percent across all non-defence agencies while military funding is boosted to $750bn (577bn). Senior Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer were quick to shoot down the proposals, saying the president had hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos with the recent 35-day government shutdown and warning: Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load Donald Trump will reportedly ask Congress for $8.6bn (6.6bn) to build his southern border wall on Monday under proposals for his 2020 fiscal budget, a $3bn (2.3bn) increase on his last estimate for the job. The White House is proposing $2.7trn (2trn) in spending cuts for the year beginning 1 October, a reduction of 5 percent across all non-defence agencies while military funding is boosted to $750bn (577bn). Senior Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer were quick to shoot down the proposals, saying the president had hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos with the recent 35-day government shutdown and warning: Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again. As Washington reacted to the budget proposal, the country's capital prepared for the anticipated report from special counsel Robert Mueller's office, which has dived into potential coordination between the Trump campaign, the president, and Russian interests during the 2016 election. It is not clear when that report will be released, but observers say that the investigation is likely imminent. The week ahead itself will contain several high level updates that could set the stage for how the report is received, and what happens afterward. But, with no specific word on whether the special counsel report will include recommendations to indictments against the president, leading Democrats are holding back from support for impeachment. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, for instance, told The Washington Post on Wednesday that she is worried about the divisive impact that impeachment proceedings would have on the American public. "He's just not worth it," Ms Pelosi said of impeaching the president. That said, it appears unlikely that Democrats in control of the House would not pursue impeachment if a damning Mueller report were delivered to them form the attorney general's office. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load Washington (AFP) - Widely mocked for calling Apple CEO Tim Cook "Tim Apple" to his face, President Donald Trump came up with an explanation Monday: it wasn't a gaffe, he was just being succinct. Trump said his apparent slip-up at a White House roundtable with business leaders last Wednesday had been on purpose. "I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words," Trump explained on his Twitter feed. "The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story!" During remarks at the roundtable, Trump raised eyebrows when -- with Cook sitting to his right -- he said: "We appreciate it very much, Tim Apple." Cook took the stumble humorously, later changing his Twitter profile to Tim with the Apple logo. But Trump, rather than let the matter rest, appears to be trying to have the last word. According to Axios news site, he came up with a different explanation during a private meeting of Republican donors in Florida on Friday. The report said that he had told puzzled Republicans that he'd really said "Tim Cook Apple," but that "Cook" was said very quietly, then ignored by the media. Video recordings of the president speaking on Wednesday clearly show he did not say "Cook." During call-ins to a radio show years ago, now Fox News host Tucker Carlson defended a convicted sex criminal and made a series of misogynistic comments for which he has refused to apologize. In audio published by Media Matters on Sunday evening, Carlsons discussions with the Bubba the Love Sponge radio program between 2006 and 2011 included a defense of Warren Jeffs, among other topics. Jeffs, the leader of a polygamous offshoot of Mormonism, spent time on the FBIs Most Wanted List in 2006 for charges of sexual assault of minors. Tunis (AFP) - A dozen newborn babies whose deaths at a Tunisian state hospital sparked public outrage are believed to have been killed by an infection acquired in the clinic, the acting health minister said Monday. Sonia Ben Cheikh told a news conference that a 12th infant had died at the Rabta state hospital in Tunis on Sunday. According to the preliminary findings of the ongoing investigation, a nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infection caused the deaths, she said. "The whole health sector is in a state of emergency," she told a news conference. Reforms were needed to restore confidence, added Ben Cheikh, whose predecessor resigned Saturday in the face of a growing outcry over the deaths. Prime Minister Youssef Chahed swiftly vowed that "those responsible for any negligence" will face prosecution. Officials launched medical and judicial investigations after the premature babies began dying on Thursday at the Rabta state hospital in Tunis. The public health system, once a source of pride in Tunisia, has been hit by management and financial problems that lowered standards and caused drug shortages. Senator Richard Gordon has asked Health Secretary Francisco Duque to look into the unjust practices of both government and private hospitals and medical facilities in the country and end such practices. Gordon renewed his call To the department following complaints posted on social media against some hospitals. Among the unjust practices committed are imposing excessive fees, collecting deposits before admission, requiring blood retesting for blood coming from the Philippine Red Cross and banning the purchase of medicines outside the hospital, among others. As I have stressed multiple times in the past, medical facilities practice of charging retesting fees for PRC blood units and other unjust practices such as imposing exorbitant fees and demanding deposits before a patient is admitted, among others, are unnecessary and only add to the burden poor Filipinos who are already financially stressed, said Gordon, also the Philippine Red Cross chairman. These hospitals are clearly violating laws, rules, and regulations, said Gordon, adding they should not aggravate the sufferings of patients and their families. The hospitals cited in the complaints are the following: Philippine General Hospital, National Kidney Transplant Institute, Philippine Heart Center, East Avenue Medical Center, Lourdes Hospital, Labor Hospital, James L. Gordon Hospital in Olongapo City, Community Hospital in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, Medical Center in Dagupan City, Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital, MCU Hospital, Aklan Provincial Hospital, Manila East Medical Center in Taytay, Rizal, and Paranaque Doctors Hospital, among others.In one complaint, a patient lamented that its so expensive to get sick in the Philippines. Another complainant posted that Sad and true. My father was dead in (sic) arrival but we still paid P24k and another P1,500 to calm down [my]mother who then turned hysterical. Plus sa confinement days ni papa habang naggagamot na dinischarge dahil kaya na daw ng oral medication. Pero after 3 days namatay sa bahay. Tapos everyday may billing na kelangan mong bayaran, di bibigyan ng gamot pag di pa bayad at sobrang mamahal pa ng gamut, a Facebook user complained in a mix of Tagalog and English. Ang anak ko po, dinala namin sa isang private hospital kaso hinihingan kami ng 50K pangdeposit eh wala akong ganung kalaking pera at that timeTalamak sa pgh at labor hosp. Tamad din mga doctor Pero sa totoo lang mas mahal pa sa lourdes, other complainants said. NEW YORK (AP) Severe turbulence tossed terrified passengers and crew around a Turkish Airlines plane cabin as it passed over Maine on Saturday, with 30 people suffering bumps, bruises, cuts and a broken leg before the flight landed safely at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, officials said. Dozens of ambulances lined up in front of a terminal to quickly treat the injured coming off the flight that left Istanbul for the 10-hour trip. Spokesman Steve Coleman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey told The Associated Press that 28 people were taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens after the plane touched down at 5:35 p.m. Two went to Queens Hospital Medical Center. A flight attendant suffered a broken leg, Coleman said. Turkish Airlines Flight 1 hit the turbulence about 45 minutes before landing at JFK, Coleman said. The crew declared an emergency while the Boeing 777 was still in the air, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. "Nobody announced it or anything like that so we figured out something was wrong," passenger Sead Nikaj told ABC News. "Then I see people start flying on the plane. Then seeing blood all over. I had one of the ladies next to me, she really fell down from her seat on the floor and all her back was completely bloody, while someone that was working in the airplane, she cracked her leg I think completely." Passenger Amir Mehrbakhsh said he saw one man frantically screaming. "I think he was like doing a religious chant. I kept hearing him say 'Jesus,' like he was visibly distraught." "There was like one or two seconds when it was subtle, but then it really started to pick up," Mehrbakhsh said. "... Just because the drop was so sudden, a lot of people got lifted up and hit their head either on the ceiling or on the side of the plane, and so there were a lot of injuries pretty quickly." The Port Authority spokesman said other airport operations were not affected. Story continues Turkish Airlines officials in a statement early Sunday confirmed the flight carrying 326 passengers and 18 crew members "encountered an unusual turbulence about 40 minutes before landing" in New York. The airline said it is "deeply saddened by this unfortunate experience, and closely monitors the health status of injured passengers, and is making resources available to them." It was the second mishap on Saturday involving a plane in the New York metropolitan area. Earlier in the day, Newark Liberty International Airport temporarily closed its runways after a flight from Montreal to Fort Lauderdale made an emergency landing with smoke in its cargo hold . The National Weather Service had issued advisories on Saturday warning pilots of expected turbulence. The body of Trinity Love Jones was found in a duffel bag near an equestrian trail Two people have been arrested after the body of nine-year-old girl was found inside a duffel bag near an equestrian trail in Los Angeles last week. Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department said the body found in a partially-zipped rollaway duffel bag on March 5 was Trinity Love Jones, who lived in the city. The bag, with Trinitys head and upper body protruding, was found by workers in the Hacienda Heights area but police initially said it could have been duped sometime between Sunday, March 5 and when it was discovered. Police previously released a sketch of Trinity as they tried to identify her (Picture: Los Angeles County Sheriff) Police initially released a sketch of Trinity to identify her, as well as pictures of the clothing she was found in and a picture of a bag like the one she was found in. She has since been named and the sheriffs department said investigators had arrested two people of interest but are continuing their investigation. CNN also reported that the sheriffs department said: Although the Coroners Office determined the death to be a homicide, the cause of death is being withheld. READ MORE Royal Navy rescue Italian crew from blazing ship Two schoolboys injured in stab attack Donald Trump denies calling Tim Cook Tim Apple The sheriff was previously reported as saying investigators would spare no efforts to find out what happened. According to CNN affiliate KTLA, Trinitys father Antonio Jones described her as full of character, full of life, full of joy, saying: Words cant explain what Im feeling right now. I just want answers. I just want justice. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK By David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chief U.S. envoy for North Korea said on Monday that "diplomacy is still very much alive" with Pyongyang despite a failed summit last month, but cautioned that Washington was closely watching activity at a North Korean rocket site and did not know if it might be planning a new launch. Stephen Biegun told a conference in Washington that although U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un parted on good terms after their Feb. 27-28 summit in Hanoi, big gaps remained between the two sides and North Korea needed to show it was fully committed to giving up its nuclear weapons. Biegun, the U.S. special representative for North Korea, stressed that U.S.-led sanctions, which Pyongyang wants dropped, would stay in place until North Korea completed denuclearization. He rejected an incremental approach sought by Pyongyang, and said that easing sanctions for partial steps would amount to subsidizing North Korea's weapons programs. As Biegun spoke at the Carnegie Nuclear Conference, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank issued a new report on activity at North Korea's Sohae rocket launch site, in which satellite images from Friday showed possible preparations for a launch. In the course of a nearly a year of diplomatic engagement with the United States, North Korea has maintained a freeze on missile and nuclear tests and space rocket launches in place since 2017. Trump has repeatedly stressed this as a positive outcome of the diplomacy. Biegun said Washington did not know what the activity spotted in North Korea meant. He said the Trump administration took it "very seriously" but cautioned against drawing any snap conclusions. "What Kim Jong Un will ultimately decide to do may very much be his decision and his decision alone," Biegun said, adding that Trump had made clear last week he would be "very disappointed" if North Korea were to resume testing. An authoritative U.S. government source familiar with U.S. intelligence assessments said they did not conclude that a launch was imminent, given North Korea's apparent desire to keep negotiations going with the United States. However, the source said Pyongyang appeared to want to make clear it retained the capability to resume launches at any moment. "Diplomacy is still very much alive," Biegun said. He offered no specifics on when new talks might be held and did not say whether any talks had taken place since the summit, which collapsed over differences on U.S. demands for Pyongyang's denuclearization and North Korea's demand for sanctions relief. ENGAGEMENT "It's certainly our expectation that we will be able to continue our close engagement," Biegun said. The State Department has declined to say whether there has been any direct engagement between the two sides since the summit. Trump has said he remains open to more talks with Kim. U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson told the conference she thought there would be another summit, but no date has been set. Asked if there would be a third meeting, she said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Trump had "been very clear that they remain open to the dialogue. They havent got a date on the calendar but our teams continue to work toward that." Thompson said it was "incredibly important" that all countries continued to maintain U.N. sanctions on North Korea until it gave up its nuclear weapons. "We are not letting the foot off the gas. We are going to continue with the pressure campaign." she said. At the White House on Monday, spokeswoman Sarah Sanders scoffed at reports that China was wary of holding a summit with Trump on trade after he walked out of his meeting with Kim without a deal. "We'll see what happens with North Korea the same way we're going to see what happens in the negotiations with China. They're ongoing," she said. Trump on Friday stressed again his belief in his personal rapport with Kim. The CSIS report said commercial satellite images acquired last Wednesday and Friday showed North Korea had continued preparations on the launch pad at its Sohae launch facility and at the engine testing stand there. "Based on past practices, these activities could be consistent with preparations for the delivery of a rocket to the launch pad or engine to the test stand; or they could be North Korean coercive bargain tactics," it said. Trump said after his first summit with Kim in Singapore last June that Kim had promised to dismantle the test stand, a pledge the North Korean leader reiterated and expanded on at a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in September. Pyongyang has used Sohae to launch satellites into space since 2011, and Washington says its work there has helped develop missile technology. A satellite launch in April 2012 killed off an Obama administration deal for a freeze in North Korean nuclear and missile testing reached weeks earlier. (Reporting by David Brunnstrom, Mark Hosenball, Matt Spetalnick, Arshad Mohammed and Doina Chiacu; editing by Grant McCool and Sonya Hepinstall) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has told Germany that it will share less intelligence with its security agencies if the country's wireless network uses China's Huawei Technologies Co to upgrade to 5G, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday in the first explicit U.S. warning to Germany of consequences for declining to shun Huawei. The U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, issued the warning in a letter dated Friday, the newspaper said. In Germany, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said on Thursday on a ZDF talk show that Germany did not want to ban Huawei but said that Berlin will change the law to ensure that all components used in the 5G networks will be secure. Grenell said in his letter that Chinese companies, under Chinese law, can be required to support China's security agencies and that inspections of Huawei software could not ensure there were no vulnerabilities, the newspaper said. The battle with Huawei is one of many conflicts in Washington's disputes with China. The United States and China spent most of 2018 slapping import tariffs on billions of dollars worth of each other's goods. The year ended with the arrest of Huawei's chief financial officer in Canada at U.S. request, to the consternation of China. (Reporting by Diane Bartz; editing by Chris Sanders and Grant McCool) STRASBOURG, France (AP) Britain and the European Union emerged from last-minute talks late Monday to announce they had finally removed the biggest roadblock to their Brexit divorce deal, only hours before the U.K. Parliament was due to decide the fate of Prime Minister Theresa May's hard-won plan to leave the EU. On the eve of Tuesday's vote in London, May flew to Strasbourg, France, to seek revisions, guarantees or other changes from European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that would persuade reluctant British legislators to back her withdrawal agreement with the EU, which they resoundingly rejected in January. At a joint news conference, May and Juncker claimed to have succeeded. May said new documents to be added to the deal provided "legally binding changes" to the part relating to the Irish border. The legal 585-page withdrawal agreement itself though was left intact. "In politics, sometimes you get a second chance. It is what you do with this second chance that counts. Because there will be no third chance," Juncker warned the legislators who will vote late Tuesday. "Let's be crystal clear about the choice: it is this deal or Brexit might not happen at all," he said. May said the changes should overcome lawmakers' qualms about a mechanism in the deal designed to keep an open border between Britain's Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland. The mechanism, known as the backstop, is a safeguard that would keep the U.K. in a customs union with the EU until a permanent new trading relationship is in place. Brexit-supporters in Britain fear the backstop could be used to bind the country to EU regulations indefinitely. May said the new wording "will guarantee that the EU cannot act with the intent of applying the backstop indefinitely." "Now is the time to come together to back this improved Brexit deal and deliver on the instruction of the British people," she said. Story continues But the changes appear to fall well short of Brexiteers' demands for a unilateral British exit mechanism from the backstop. Pro-Brexit U.K. lawmakers said they would read the fine print and wait for the judgment of Britain's attorney general before deciding how to vote on Tuesday. Announcing the breakthrough in Britain's House of Commons, Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington said lawmakers faced "a fundamental choice ... to vote for the improved deal or to plunge this country into a political crisis." And Juncker warned Britain "there will be no new negotiations" if lawmakers rejected the deal again. Britain is due to pull out of the EU in less than three weeks, on March 29, but the government has not been able to win parliamentary approval for its agreement with the bloc on withdrawal terms and future relations. The impasse has raised fears of a chaotic "no-deal" Brexit that could mean major disruption for businesses and people in Britain and the 27 remaining EU countries. "This is a government in chaos, with a country in chaos because of this mess," Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said. May has staked her political reputation on securing an exit deal with the EU and is under mounting pressure to quit if it is defeated again. She survived a bid to oust her through a no-confidence vote in December. As a result, she cannot be forced from office for a year. The EU is frustrated at what it sees as the inability of Britain's weak and divided government to lay out a clear vision for Brexit. It is irritated, too, that Britain is seeking changes to an agreement that May herself helped negotiate and approve. May has been working frantically to save her deal, speaking by phone to eight EU national leaders since Friday, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. If Parliament throws out May's deal again on Tuesday, lawmakers will vote over the following two days on whether to leave the EU without an agreement an idea likely to be rejected or to ask the EU to delay Brexit beyond the scheduled March 29 departure date. Conservative lawmaker Nicky Morgan said May's position will become "less and less tenable" if she suffers more defeats in Parliament this week. "It would be very difficult for the prime minister to stay in office for very much longer," Morgan told the BBC. Alan Wager, a Brexit expert at the U.K. in a Changing Europe think tank, said Parliament this week could decisively rule out both May's deal and a no-deal departure. That, in turn, would make such options as a new Brexit referendum or a "softer" withdrawal from the EU lot more likely, he said. "Finally, the House of Commons is going to have to make a final judgment on what it wants in terms of Brexit," he said. ___ Casert reported from Strasbourg, France. Danica Kirka in London, Lorne Cook in Brussels and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this story. ___ Follow AP's full coverage of Brexit at: https://www.apnews.com/Brexit Nairobi (AFP) - A world forum on addressing the planet's environmental crisis opened in Nairobi on Monday, the mood darkened by the Ethiopian Airlines tragedy that killed 157 people a day earlier, including at least 22 UN staff, many headed for the event. Delegates arrived at the sprawling compound to see the UN flag flying at half-mast and the usually colourful display of national flags removed. As they wondered aloud who among their colleagues may have been on board the ill-fated Boeing, some hugged and comforted one another. According to Maimunah Sharif, head of UN-Habitat, at least 22 UN employees were among those who died when the Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines jet crashed early Sunday just six minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa. "I stand before you on the first day of the UN Environment Assembly, which has officially commenced today in the wake of this tragedy," she told delegates. "We will not forget this tragedy, nor those who perished. Let us reflect that our colleagues were willing to travel and to work far from their homes and loved ones to make the world a better place to live." Kicking off a sombre opening plenary, UN Environment Assembly president and Estonia's environment minister, Siim Kiisler asked delegates, many dressed in black and some in tears, to observe a minute's silence. A member of the UNEP secretariat told AFP it was "still trying to consolidate" the number of staffers who died. Among the UN employees on the downed Ethiopian Airlines flight were some who worked for the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN refugee agency UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "The environmental community is in mourning today," said Joyce Msuya, a Tanzanian scientist who is the UN's acting environment head. "We lost UN staff, youth delegates travelling to the Assembly, seasoned scientists, members of academia and other partners." Story continues It is the second time in less than five years that delegates have died in a plane disaster on their way to a major global conference. In July 2014, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 passenger jet, flight MH17, was shot down over eastern Ukraine en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 on board, most of them Dutch citizens. Among the victims were six delegates to the 20th International AIDS conference in Melbourne, including top Dutch expert Joep Lange. - 'Critical time' - The annual UNEP assembly gathers heads of state, ministers, business leaders and civil society representatives to work on ways to slash pollution and build a greener global economy. Delegates in Nairobi have been briefed by a string of UN reports outlining in stark terms the damage mankind is doing to its home, from climate change to acidification of the oceans and species loss. The meeting comes at a "critical time for action to protect and reverse the degradation of our planet," Kiisler warned. One briefing on the eve of the summit said the cost of ecosystems loss through agriculture, deforestation and pollution since 1995 was as much as $20 trillion (17.7 trillion euros). A major topic in Nairobi is plastic waste. Mankind currently produces more than 300 million tonnes of plastics each year, and there are at least five trillion plastic pieces floating in our oceans. Delegates are expected to work towards a deal on the lines of the 2015 Paris Agreement that would see each country vow to slash plastic waste by 2030. An unvaccinated boy almost died after falling seriously ill with the first case of tetanus in one US state for more than 30 years. The six-year-old spent two months in hospital with the bacterial illness after suffering a deep cut while playing in a farm in Oregon, according to a case study published by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). His care cost nearly $1m (770,000), about 72 times the average for a paediatric hospitalisation in the US, noted the paper, in a case that has alarmed preventative medicine experts. The unidentified child received an emergency dose of the tetanus vaccine in the hospital, but his parents declined to give him a second dose or any other childhood immunisation injections after he recovered. "When I read that, my jaw dropped. I could not believe it, said William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Tennessee. That's a tragedy and a misunderstanding, and I'm just flabbergasted. He added: This is an awful disease, but ... we have had a mechanism to completely prevent it, and the reason that we have virtually no cases anymore in the United States is because we vaccinate, literally, everyone." Cases of tetanus have dropped by 95 per cent since widespread vaccination began in the US in the 1940s. Judith Guzman-Cottrill, the paediatrician who treated the Oregon child, said she had never seen tetanus in a patient before the 2017 case, details of which were made public on Friday. The boy was rushed to Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland with muscle spasms so severe he could not talk, could not open his mouth and was struggling to breathe. He was unable to drink liquids for 44 days and subsequently required weeks of rehabilitation before he was able to walk, run and ride a bike. "We had a hard time taking care of this child watching him suffer and it is a preventable disease," Dr Guzman-Cottrill said. Story continues Doctors who treated the boy declined to provide any further information about his family, citing medical privacy laws. Details of the case emerged as politicians in Oregon and Washington consider bills that would end non-medical exemptions for routine childhood vaccines. The debate comes as the northwest states weather their third month of a measles outbreak. Seventy people, most of them unvaccinated children, have been diagnosed with the highly contagious viral illness in southwest Washington this year. There have also been a handful of cases in Portland. Unlike measles, which is a virus, a patient who has survived a case of tetanus is not immune and can get the illness again if they remain unvaccinated. Tetanus is transmitted by bacterial spores found in soil, household dust and human or animal faeces, rather than person-to-person through sneezing or coughing. Symptoms including muscle spasms, lockjaw, breathing difficulties and seizures typically begin within three to 21 days. The disease can cause severe disability or death. About 30 people contract tetanus in the US each year, according to the CDC, and 16 people died of the disease between 2009 and 2015. It is rare among children, with those over 65 the most vulnerable. The CDC recommends a five-dose series of tetanus shots for children between the ages of two months and 6 years, and a booster shot every 10 years for adults. Health bodies around the globe have voiced concerns about parents refusing to get their children immunised, as well as about myths peddled on social media about the supposed risks of vaccinations. In January, the World Health Organisation listed the anti-vaccine movement one of the worst threats facing humanity in 2019. Additional reporting by agencies Former Vice President Jejomar Binay on Monday lauded a court decision dismissing the attempted murder case filed by a police officer against a University of Makati student and her family. Binay, head of the UMak School of Law Center for Legal Aid, represented the accused Romalyn Gumapos, her sister Marleen Gumapos, stepfather Anselmo Degamo, and brother-in-law George Fernandezwith the assistance of lawyers Bernardine Madamba and Precious Pingol of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Manila-II Chapter and Angel CGI Valero-Nunez and Jewel Bulos from the UMak School of Law. In a two-page decision dated March 5, 2019, Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina, of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 32, ordered the release of the accused after the prosecution manifested that it could not establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt. The private complainant PO3 Jegson Galang testified, among others, that he is now retracting his testimony given before this Court and that the incident subject matter of this case arose out of misapprehension of facts and misunderstanding between him and all the accused, the decision said. In view of the tenor of the testimony of the private complainant, the public prosecutor manifested that the prosecution will not be able to establish the guilt of all accused beyond reasonable doubt and moved for the dismissal of the case. Finding the said motion to be well taken, the same is hereby granted, the court order said. Binay, who had his services for free, said when he accepted the case, the family had been in jail for seven months because they could not afford to hire a lawyer to represent them in court. He added the family were also afraid because the principal complainant is a policeman. One of the defendants, Romalyn Gumapos, is a student of the UMak College of Business and Financial Sciences.Binay said the college secretary of CBFS sought the help of the UMak School of Law Center for Legal Aid after being informed by one of Romalyns professors of her detention. The case is the first case handled by the UMak Legal Aid Center in partnership with the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Manila-II Chapter. I am glad that our first case was a success but more than that, I am happy that we are finally realizing our vision of having a Legal Aid center, Binay said. Through the UMak School of Law Center for Legal Aid, we hope to provide free legal help to people in need. Napakarami po ng gaya ni Roma na nakukulong kahit walang sala dahil lamang wala silang abogado na magtatanggol sa kanila, he added. Binay said aside from the Center of Legal Aid, the UMak School of Law also had other academic research centers each with its own focus and areas of expertise. These centers are the Center for Human Rights, Center for Local Governance and Public Policy, Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution, Center for Energy Studies, and Center for Law and Technology. We envision these centers as hubs of knowledge and practice so we can continue to provide relevant programs to our students, and even to our external stakeholders, Binay said. Chicago (AFP) - Democrats have chosen Milwaukee as the site of their 2020 election convention, in an effort to win back swing voters in the American "Rust Belt" who helped elect Donald Trump. In announcing the decision Monday, the Democratic Party emphasized it is the first time a Midwestern city other than Chicago has been chosen to host a party convention in more than 100 years. Midwestern states -- where steel, automobile and other manufacturing industries have withered in recent decades -- were crucial to Trump's unexpected victory in the 2016 presidential election. Many blue collar voters in struggling "Rust Belt" towns switched allegiance to vote for Trump, counting on his promises to revitalize American manufacturing. He won the upper Midwestern state of Wisconsin, a crucial battleground home to Milwaukee, by a mere 23,000 votes out of nearly three million cast. "Where you hold a convention is a very strong statement of your values," Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez told a news conference. "It's a very strong statement of who we are as a party, and who and what we're fighting for," he said, emphasizing the unionized working-class roots of the city. Democrats had been considering three candidates for their convention, which will be held July 13 to 16 -- Milwaukee, Houston and Miami. "Milwaukee is a smart choice for (Democrats)," David Axelrod, the chief campaign strategist for former President Barack Obama, said on Twitter. "(Trump) must have the upper Midwest again to be re-elected. If (Democrats) block him there, he's done." Weeklong conventions by both Democrats and Republicans are held at the height of the election campaign, after primary contests in each state vote on the parties' nominees. Although the candidates are virtually certain to be known by then, the televised nominating conventions are considered crucial for introducing candidates to general election voters. Story continues Republicans last year announced their convention would take place in Charlotte, North Carolina. The southern city hosted the Democrats' convention in 2012, when Obama kicked off his successful re-election bid. Trump carried North Carolina by 2.6 percentage points in 2016, although the predominantly Democratic city of Charlotte supported his rival Hillary Clinton that year. Taipei (AFP) - US envoy for religious freedom Sam Brownback defended his remark that China is "at war with faith" after the Chinese foreign ministry issued an angry statement condemning the envoy's words as a "malicious attack and slander on China's religious policies". Brownback criticised the Chinese government in a speech on Friday in Hong Kong, saying the Chinese government is engaged in the persecution of Muslim Uighurs, Tibetan Buddhists, Christians and Falungong practitioners. He described China's "war with faith" as "a war which they will not win". The speech prompted a sternly worded response from the Chinese foreign ministry office in Hong Kong saying "we ask the US to respect the facts, stop the arrogance and prejudice and cease using religious issues to interfere in China's internal affairs". Speaking to reporters in Taiwan on Monday during a forum on religious freedom, Brownback said his office has a list of hundreds of names of individuals in China who were missing and allegedly persecuted for their faith. "Where are they? What is happening to them? Why can't their family members hear from them?" Brownback asked, challenging the Chinese government to respond to questions regarding the whereabouts of these individuals. "The United States has designated (China) in its most problematic category of countries that persecute people of faith ... since 1999. And the situation has gotten notably worse in the last two years," he added. "We are calling on alliances of countries and individuals to step up and to oppose these things when they take place." According to UN experts, nearly one million Uighurs and other Turkic language-speaking minorities are being held in detention centres in Xinjiang. Beijing denied the claim saying they are in "vocational education centres". Around half of China's 100 million Christians encounter persecution, "the worst it's been in more than a decade" following "new laws seeking to control religious expression," said Open Doors, a global advocacy group in a January report. Story continues Brownback was in Taiwan for a two-day forum on religious freedom jointly sponsored by Taiwan and the United States. President Tsai Ing-wen in her opening address said Taiwan will always choose to stand with "those who were oppressed and whose religious rights were taken away by authoritarian regimes". "Taiwan knows how it feels when someone tries to take away your rights, wipe out your identity, and challenge your way of life," Tsai said in an apparent reference to Beijing's political and military pressure towards Taiwan. Washington (AFP) - US federal aviation authorities said Monday they will order Boeing to modify its 737 MAX 8 aircraft, including anti-stalling software and maneuvering system updates, after two of the planes crashed in five months. The Federal Aviation Administration told international civil aviation authorities that it "anticipates mandating these design changes... no later than April," although it did not ground the fleet. Boeing is also set to update its training requirements and flight crew manuals to reflect the changes. "The FAA continuously assesses and oversees the safety performance of US commercial aircraft," it said earlier. "If we identify an issue that affects safety, the FAA will take immediate and appropriate action." The FAA has notified other global civil aviation authorities that it may soon share safety information concerning Boeing's 737 MAX 8, the statement said. One of the aircraft, operating as Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302, crashed Sunday southeast of Addis Ababa shortly after takeoff, killing all 157 passengers and crew members aboard. The same model -- a more fuel-efficient version of the 737 -- crashed in late October in Indonesia during a flight operated by Lion Air, leaving 189 people dead, also just moments after takeoff. It is especially rare that a new aircraft model is involved in two deadly incidents over such a short period of times. An FAA team is currently in Ethiopia participating in a probe into the latest crash with investigators from the US National Transportation Safety Board. The cause of the crash remains unknown, but the airline says investigators have recovered the black box flight recorders from the Nairobi-bound jet. Paris (AFP) - A renowned undersea archaeologist, an MP's entire family and a top peacekeeper were among the victims of Sunday's plane crash in Ethiopia, along with many people working with the United Nations on development, aid and the environment. Here are some of their stories: - 'Cursed March 10' - Italian archaeologist Sebastiano Tusa, 66, spent years exploring the seabed off the Egadi islands near Sicily, finding Roman amphora in wrecks and according to Italian media reports, a bottle of wine dating back 1,000 years or more -- believed to be the oldest in the world. His great passion was the decisive Battle of Egadi between the Mediterranean powers of the Roman Republic and Carthage on March 10, 241 BC. "Dad is a man that loves great battles. He never gave up. Two years ago he defeated a very aggressive tumour. Everybody thought he was a gonner, but he never gave up because he's a strong, determined man. He's my role model," his son Andrea Tusa told the Repubblica newspaper. Tusa was on his way to Kenya to give keynote address at a UNESCO conference when the plane went down. "He called from (Rome's) Fiumicino airport to say he'd ring me as soon as he landed and wake me up. Instead on Sunday there was silence, not even a message," his wife, Valeria Patrizia Li Vigni, a museum director in Sicily, told the Corriere della Sera. "I had a terrible feeling, even though the friends I met at mass said I shouldn't worry because bad news travels fast. In the end it arrived anyway, and it destroyed my life. I felt the disaster coming. I felt alone. Why wasn't he calling me? He hadn't even wanted to go. For the first time it was a sad goodbye. "But he had a profound sense of duty, he believed that archaeology was a message of peace, the cement between peoples and their histories." - A brother's gift - Slovak MP Anton Hrnko lost his entire family in the crash. Story continues "It is with deep sorrow that I announce that my dear wife, Blanka, son Martin and daughter Michala, died in the air disaster in Addis Ababa this morning," Hrnko wrote on his Facebook page. Hrnko is vice-chairman of the Slovak National Party (SNS), a junior member of the governing coalition. The family's trip to Africa was arranged by Martin as a gift to his sister Michala, according to media reports in Slovakia. Hrnko's wife was a lawyer specialising in real estate while his 34-year-old daughter worked as an IT specialist at a Bratislava-based film production company. Martin, 39, worked as a travel guide and had booked a safari for his sister and mother. A fourth Slovak victim, Danica Olexova, 42, was a teacher and humanitarian aid worker with Dobra Novina (Good News). She was travelling to Kenya to manage a project the organisation was setting up there for children. - The near miss - A Greek man said he would have been the 150th passenger on the plane, but he arrived two minutes late for the flight. "I was mad because nobody helped me to reach the gate on time," Antonis Mavropoulos said in a Facebook post entitled "My lucky day" in which he included a photo of his ticket. Mavropoulos, president of the non-profit International Solid Waste Association, was travelling to Nairobi for the the annual assembly of the UN Environment Programme, according to the Athens News Agency. But he reached the departure gate two minutes after it closed. He booked a later flight but was then prevented from boarding and taken to the airport police station. Airport authorities explained they wanted to question him and check his identity because he was the only passenger booked on the doomed flight who wasn't on board. "The officer told me not to protest but to pray to God because I was the only passenger that didn't board the ET 302 flight that was lost," Mavropoulos said in his post. - 'Like a bird' - Two researchers, Doaa Atef and Abdel Hamid El Farag, from the Cairo-based Desert Research Centre took the flight on their way to a training course in Kenya. "I remember Doaa being so excited the night before travelling, that's the last time I saw her. She was so happy she was like a bird flying," Atef Abdelsalam said of his 29-year-old daughter. "Last week we attended her cousin's wedding and she said to me happily 'what do you think Dad? you will get to celebrate my wedding soon'. Now she's gone." - 'A generous man' - Joseph Waithaka, 55, was a Kenyan-British dual national who moved to the UK in 2004 before returning to live in Kenya in 2015, according to reports. His son Ben Kuria told the BBC his father was a "generous" man. Waithaka was returning to the region after visiting his family in Britain last week. "I gave him a hug and shook his hand... and I said we'll probably see you at some point soon," Ben Kuria said their farewell on Saturday. While living for a decade in Britain, Waithaka had worked for a probation service in the northeast English city of Hull. "He helped so many people in Hull who had found themselves on the wrong side of the law," his son told the Hull Daily Mail. - Police peacekeeper - Christine Alolo was working with the African Mission in Somalia (AMISON), a peacekeeping force that is battling to keep security in the troubled country where Al-Shabaab Islamist extremists launch frequent attacks. Alolo, a Ugandan national and mother of two who was serving as the mission's acting police commissioner, was returning to Mogadishu from Italy. She had joined the police in Uganda as a cadet in 2001 and served in various command positions. "She was a highly respected member of the force who loved her job," Uganda's police force said in a statement. The White House on Monday defended President Trumps assertion that the Democratic Party has become anti-Israel and anti-Jewish, with press secretary Sarah Sanders sparring with reporters who challenged the presidents claim. The president has been an unwavering and committed ally to Israel and the Jewish people, Sanders said at a press briefing, her first in more than a month. And frankly the remarks that have been made by a number of Democrats and failed to be called out by Democrat leadership is frankly abhorrent and its sad and its something that should be called by name. It shouldnt be put in a watered down resolution. Last week, the House overwhelmingly passed a broad resolution condemning hate, an expanded version of an earlier draft that focused on anti-Semitic implications in remarks by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. The wording was changed to meet demands from the Congressional Black Caucus and other progressive groups that it cover all forms of bigotry. The Democrats have become an anti-Israel party. Theyve become an anti-Jewish party, Trump told reporters on the South Lawn Friday. And I thought that vote was a disgrace. Axios, quoting attendees at a Republican dinner at Mar-a-Lago, said Trump later summarized his view as: The Democrats hate Jewish people. All nine of the Jews in the United States Senate are Democrats, and all but two of the 36 members of Congress. Jews overwhelmingly supported Democrat Hillary Clinton over Trump in 2016. Sanders drew a contrast between the Democratic response to Omar and how the Republican caucus treated Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, last year. It should be done the way Republicans did it when Steve King made terrible remarks, Sanders said. We called him out by name. We stripped him of his committee memberships. And wed like to see Democrats follow suit. In January, King was banned from committee assignments for the next two years after lamenting in an interview that white supremacy and white nationalism have become offensive terms. Trump himself did not condemn the remarks, as ABCs Jon Karl pointed out to Sanders. Story continues The president, correct me if Im wrong, has not condemned Steve King, Karl said. Sanders maintained that Trump has renounced Kings views, but in private. I speak on behalf of the president on a number of topics, and Ive talked about that a number of times, she said. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders at Monday's press briefing. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) Later in the briefing, Sanders was asked by MSNBCs Hallie Jackson whether Trump believes Democrats hate Jews. Sanders refused to answer directly. The president has had and laid out clearly his position on this, she said. Thats a question frankly I think you should ask Democrats. Youre not answering the question is there a reason? Jackson asked. You didnt say yes or no. Does he really believe Democrats hate Jews? I think thats a question you ought to ask the Democrats, Sanders replied. On Thursday night, the resolution condemning hate passed with the support of 234 Democrats and 173 Republicans. Twenty-three Republicans voted no. King voted present. CNNs Jim Acosta asked Sanders whether imputing hatred of an entire religion to political opponents is beneath the office of the presidency and whether the American people should expect to hear more of it as Trump ramps up his reelection campaign. Sanders refused to reply directly, but as she has done in the past when facing a question she doesnt want to answer, attacked Democrats on an unrelated issue, in this case abortion. I think the real shame in all of this is that Democrats are perfectly capable of coming together and agreeing on the fact they are comfortable ripping babies straight from a mothers womb or killing a baby after birth, Sanders said. But they have a hard time condemning the type of comments from congresswoman Omar. Acosta pushed back. Democrats dont hate Jewish people. Thats just silly, he said. Its not true. I think they should call out their members by name, Sanders replied. _____ Read more from Yahoo News: Kimberley went on a date with a guy she met via Tinder. Photo: Facebook/Kimberley Latham-Hawkesford A woman has shared an almost unbelievable set of tips she received from a guy she met through Tinder three months after their disaster date. Kimberley Latham-Hawkesford took to Facebook to share screenshots of a message she received from a guy she had matched with on the dating app. The 24-year-old, from the UK, had gone on one date with the man lets call him Jim and revealed he came across as a snob and just generally a horrible person. She told LADbible that the date was a disaster. And when she received a list of tips three months later, she was absolutely mortified. READ MORE: Friends wake up in Barcelona after night out It killed my confidence, but the more I read it the funnier it became, she told the publication. I couldnt understand how a guy could say such things to a woman. Three months after the disaster date he messaged her with tips, including to lose weight. Photo: Facebook/Kimberley Latham-Hawkesford Posting the shocking message on social media she wrote, Imagine being so far up your own a** youd send this to a girl three months after a date. Hello Kimberley, I know we went on a date quite a while ago now but Id like to explain why I havent messaged you, Jim started off. I feel like you could have made the date much better, heres a few reasons why. I apologise if I offend you. The ensuing list of 15 tips makes us not surprised in the slightest that Jim is still single. Many of them focus on her physical appearance, and he first tells Kimberley she needs to lose some weight, use fake tan, and show more cleavage. I think you need to wear clothes that suit your figure and maybe update your style slightly. Just so Im not embarrassed to be seen with you, the advice continued. READ MORE: Man describes nightmare catfisher-turned-stalker Then things get a little confusing as he tells her to dye her hair a more natural colour but use hair extensions because long hair is more attractive, but she needs to look more natural and stop wearing make up, before suggesting cosmetic procedures. Your lips have gone down so you should think of getting more filler. I know you said you regretted it but filler would make you sexier, he said. Story continues He goes on to say she needs to be more confident and more sensitive to others feelings. That she is a prude and needs to get a sense of humour. Obviously of the belief that he is using MAFS Cyrells apt term King-ding-a-ling, he goes on to say that if she heeds his advice he might even consider a second date. If you take these on board I might consider another date. I will give you a month and get back in touch to see if this made a difference. Good day to you Kimberly. I apologise if I offend you seriously?! Photo: Facebook/Kimberley Latham-Hawkesford Understandably, the reaction to the messages was one of outrage, shock, and sheer disbelief, with many commenting on ways she could get revenge on Jim. Id agree to another date and once he turned up Id order the biggest, most expensive meal on the menu, ask for it in a take away container and leave him with the bill, leaving without a goodbye. A**hole deserves his time wasted, was one suggestion. READ MORE: 19-year-old marries man 43 years her senior Is this bloke for real, one person asked. Me: Hello [Jim], I know we went on a date quite a while ago now but Id like to explain why I havent messaged you either. 1) youre a piece of s***thats all. Since sharing the post online Kimberley has received thousands of comments in support. Wow what a d***. No girl should have to change anything for a man. Youre beautiful how you are and hes just too dumb to see that, one person wrote. Kimberley, who has been on Tinder since November 2018, told Yahoo UK she is baffled by her dates decision to get in touch months after their original date. I genuinely do not know [why he contacted], Id like to know myself as he could have sent it straight after the date. However, the incident has not put Kimberley, who has been on Tinder since November 2018, off dating. She said: It hasnt put me off as Ive had a couple of really nice dates since so I know it isnt all bad. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo Jerusalem (AFP) - Hollywood star Gal Gadot has leapt to defend a fellow actress who was chided by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for challenging his party's treatment of Arab citizens. Netanyahu and his Likud party have been accused of using scare tactics and demonising Israel's Arab population ahead of April 9 elections in a bid to motivate their right-wing base. "Love your neighbour as yourself," Israeli-born Gadot wrote on Instagram late Sunday after popular Israeli model and television actress Rotem Sela received online abuse from the public and a personal reprimand from Netanyahu. "This isn't a matter of right or left. Jew or Arab. Secular or religious," the "Wonder Woman" star posted. "It's a matter of dialogue, of dialogue for peace and security and of our tolerance of one towards the other." Sela fired off an angry Instagram post late Saturday after watching right-wing firebrand culture minister Miri Regev on television. Regev stated the Likud's line, warning voters in the April election not to choose its main opponents because if elected it would form an alliance with Israeli Arab parties in parliament -- a highly unlikely scenario. "When the hell will someone in this government convey to the public that Israel is a state of all its citizens and that all people were created equal?" Sela wrote. "Even the Arabs -- believe it or not -- are human beings, and the Druze and the gays, by the way, and the lesbians and -- shock -- leftists." Netanyahu answered with an Instagram message of his own, addressed to "Dear Rotem". "Israel is not a state of all its citizens," he wrote. "According to the basic nationality law we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people -- and only it." - Controversial law - He was referring to a deeply controversial law passed last year declaring Israel the nation-state of the Jewish people and downgrading Arabic's status as an official language. Story continues He returned to the theme at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, where he called Israel a "Jewish, democratic state" with equal rights, but "the nation-state not of all its citizens, but only of the Jewish people". Israeli Arabs make up around 17.5 percent of the population but would be extremely unlikely to be part of any coalition government after elections. Netanyahu has continually warned that his opponents will receive the support of Arab parties and that they will make significant concessions to the Palestinians. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, himself a former Likud lawmaker, took a swipe at the politicians on Monday. "Lately, when political thinking is turning all reason on its head, we hear entirely unacceptable remarks about Arab citizens of Israel," he said in a speech marking 40 years since Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty. "I refuse to believe that there are political parties that have surrendered the character of Israel as a Jewish and democratic, democratic and Jewish, state," he said. Arab Israelis are Palestinians who remained on their land after the 1948 creation of Israel and are largely supportive of the Palestinian cause. Gadot's message showed a re-post of Sela's comment in the background. "Rotem, sister, you're an inspiration to us all," she wrote. Askamaya Records first signee Obiorah Ezenduka popularly known as Spider Rider releases his debut single IJE-EJO Obiorah Ezenduka was born in June 22nd 1990. Hes a Nigerian by Nationality who hails from Anambra state, Aguata Local Government Area. IJE-EGO audio was produced by Blacknote and the video directed by TG Omori, Spider Rider is a lover of good music. Download & share!!! DOWNLOAD Home | News | General | INEC declares APC candidate Dapo Abiodun as winner of Ogun governorship election - APC candidate, Dapo Abiodun, has been declared by INEC as the winner of the 2019 governorship election in Ogun state - Abiodun scored a total of 241, 670 votes to clinch victory while the APM candidate, Adekunle Akinlade, scored 222, 153 votes - The total number of registered voters was 2, 375, 003 while the total number of accredited voters was 708, 807 The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Dapo Abiodun, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), winner of Saturdays governorship polls in Ogun state. The state Returning Officer for the governorship poll, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, announced in Abeokuta at about 12.45am on Monday that Abiodun scored a total of 241, 670 votes to clinch victory. Olayinka, who is Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan, explained that Abiodun beat his closest rival, Adekunle Akinlade of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) who came second with 222, 153 votes. READ ALSO: LIVE UPDATES: Official INEC collation of governorship results He said that the candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) came third with 110, 422 votes while the Peoples Democratic Party Candidate, Senator Buruji Kashamu, who scored 70,290 votes, was fourth. A breakdown of the results on local government basis as announced by local government collation officers showed that Abiodun won in 11 council areas and scored over 25 per cent of total votes cast in 16 out of 20 local governments in the state. The councils won by Abiodun are Ijebu-Ode, Odogbolu, Odeda, Ijebu north-east, Sagamu, Abeokutasouth, Ijebu-east. Others are Remo-north, Ogun Waterside, Obafemi-Owode and Ikenne, Akinlade of the APM won in six council areas which are Abeokuta North, Egbado- South, Ewekoro, Ipokia, Ifo and Ado Odo- Ota. Isiaka of the ADC won in Imeko-Afon and Egbado-North local governments while Kashamu of the PDP won in the Ijebu-North local government area. According to Olayinka, the total number of registered voters was 2, 375, 003 while the total number of accredited voters was 708, 807. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app He said that the number of valid votes was 680,947 while 20,969 votes were rejected. Olayinka added that the total number of votes cast was 701,916. The Returning Officer, who noted that the margin of lead between Abiodun and Akinlade was 19,517 votes said that the figure is more than the total cancelled votes which he puts at 7,100. Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that INEC on Monday declared as inconclusive, outcome of the governorship election held in Bauchi state. Professor Mohammed Kyari, Returning Officer, who made the declaration, said that apart from the cancellation of the result from entire Tafawa Balewa local government area because of irregularities, the outcome of the exercise in some other polling units also suffered the same fate. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have upgraded to serve you better Election not a do or die affair - Sanwoolu - on Legit TV [embedded content] CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General The Department of Social Welfare and Development on Monday vowed to facilitate the release of the second tranche of financial assistance allotted for the immediate relatives of the 44 policemen who were killed in the botched operation to neutralize two terrorists in Mamasapano, Maguindanao in 2015. The DSWD issued the statement after relatives of the 44 commandos complained that they have yet to receive the financial assistance promised by the Aquino administration. In a statement, the agency said the first tranche of the Special Financial Assistance amounting to P11,378,338.59 was released to 71 dependents in 2015. The Presidents Social Fund of the previous administration under the Social Services Program for the Families of the Armed Forces of the Philippines [AFP] and Philippine National Police [PNP] Personnel killed in Military and Police Operations, was used, the DSWD said. Two SAF companies were sent to Barangay Tukanalipao in Mamasapano in January 2015 to neutralize Malaysian bomb maker Zulkifli Bin-Hir, alyas Marwan, and Filipino terrorist Bassit Usman. Marwan was killed during the initial fighting. However, the policemen were ambushed by Moro Islamic Liberation force and other gunmen in the area leading to a daylong fighting.Army troops led by several generals who were deployed near the area at that time refused to reinforce the beleaguered policemen, raising suspicions that the army troops in the area were protecting the Malaysian terrorist. In the fallout after the operation, several charges have been filed against former President Benigno Aquino III, former National Police chief Alan Purisima, and former SAF director Getulio Napenas. Early this year, the families of the commandos complained that they have yet to receive the entire aid package promised by the Aquino administration. The DSWD said it would assist the dependentsthe recipients of the first tranchein liquidating the funds released to them in the first tranche. Home | News | General | Fayose mocks as Amosuns candidate reportedly suffers defeat in Ogun The immediate past governor of Ekiti state, Ayo Fayose, has mocked the outgoing governor of Ogun state, Ibikunle Amosun, over the reported defeat of his candidate in the Ogun state governorship election. Ibikunle Amosun is of the APC but is supporting for his political protege, Adekunle Akinlade, of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in the election. But despite his support, the APM governorship candidate appears to be struggling in the poll. Reacting to the political intrigues in Ogun state, Fayose in a tweet on Sunday, March 10, congratulated Amosun for losing the election of his political son. READ ALSO: Plateau lawmaker Ezekiel Afon dies hours after winning election Though INEC has not made any official announcement about the Ogun governorship election, the former governor stated that Amosun was welcome to join the club of those heading to the tribunals to challenge election results. "I congratulate Gov ibikunle Amosun for LOSING the guber election of his political son, Adekunle Akinlade of APM. He can now join our club, having forcefully supervised & funded the rigging of Ekiti 2018 election by the same Prof Abdulganiyu Raji who served as REC in both states," Fayose tweeted. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app "YE Ibikunle Amosun, pls join us as we battle our orchestrated 'loss' at the tribunal. What goes round has come round. You "Ja Ekiti Gba!", they have "Ja Ogun Gba." YE, please remember to congratulate HE. Dapo Abiodun o." Meanwhile, the governor of Lagos state, Akinwunmi Ambode, has congratulated the APC governorship candidate in the state, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, for emerging victorious in the Lagos governorship election. Ambode in a congratulatory message sent via Facebook on Sunday, March 10, also congratulated Sanwo-Olus running mate, Obafemi Hamzat, over the result of the election. The governor described the win of both candidates as a victory for continuity of governance in Lagos state and for the people of Lagos. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng upgrades to serve you better. 2019 elections: Do you still trust INEC to conduct fair elections? - Nigerians speak| Legit TV [embedded content] CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | INEC declares Governor Emmanuel winner of Akwa Ibom governorship election - Governor Udom Emmanuel of Peoples Democratic Party has been declared winner of Akwa Ibom guber election - Emmanuel cruised to victory by winning 30 out of the 31 LGAs in the state - The governor defeated the APC candidate, Nsima Ekere, who got one LGA Governor Udom Emmanuel of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been declared the winner of the March 9 governorship election held in Akwa Ibom state. Emmanuel coasted to victory having won 30 out of the 31 local government areas in the state and was subsequently declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) state, Daily Trust reports. READ ALSO:LIVE UPDATES: Official INEC collation of governorship results Legit.ng gathers that Nsima Ekere, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), won in only Essien Udim local government area of the state. PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest news update Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had been declared the winner of the Lagos state governorship election. Sanwo-Olu scored 739,445 votes to defeat Jimi Agbaje of PDP, who polled 206,141 votes, according to official results declared by the electoral commission, INEC. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) upgrades to Legit.ng to serve its readers better Protect your vote to make it count - PDP Guber Candidate | Legit TV [embedded content] CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | Updated: Governor Bello of Niger secures second term, wins in all 25 LGs The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of Saturdays governorship election in Niger state. The result was announced on Sunday night, March 10, in Minna at the state collation centre by the returning officer, Prof. Angela Miri. Miri who is the vice chancellor Federal University Lokoja, said Gov.Bello of APC scored 526,412 votes, while Umar Nasko of PDP polled 298,065 votes. Abubakar Sani Bello of APC, having satisfied the requirement of the law and scored the highest votes is hereby returned elected and declared the winner of the March 9, Saturday governorship election in the state, she said. Niger state has 2,387,734 voters registered. But 925,518 voters were accredited for the governorship election, with total valid votes put at 900,817. The number of votes cast was 920,480, while 19,609 votes were rejected. Prof.Samuel Egwu, Niger Resident Electoral Commissioner(REC) commended stakeholders for the peaceful conduct of the election in the state. He lauded the Niger state police command and other security agencies for providing the ambience to enable a peaceful and transparent poll. READ ALSO: LIVE UPDATES: Official INEC collation of governorship results Similarly, Professor Tanko Kua of the Federal University of Technology Minna, also announced that Bello had polled 19,105 votes while Umar Nasko of of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), scored 14,975 votes in Suleja LGA. While Professor UK. Apkan of the Federal University of Technology Minna, who announced the results in Kacha LGA said APC scored 20,171 votes PDP polled 9,800 votes. In Bosso LGA, the collation officer, Professor Gana Cicila of the Federal University of Technology Minna, announced that APC had polled 19,601 votes, as against 11,470 votes scored by PDP. Also in Paikoro LGA, the collation officer, Dr JIbril Alhassan of the Federal University of Technology Minna, said APC scored 21,571 votes while PDP polled 13,600 votes. Similarly, Dr Yahaya Taiyo of the Federal University of Technology Minna and also the collation officer in Wushishi LGA, said APC scored 13,199 votes while PDP scored 8,309 votes. Professor Solomon Bankole of the Federal University of Technology Minna ,who is also the collation officer in Rafi LGA, announced that APC had scored 28,289 votes as against 13,372 votes polled by the PDP. Professor Sadiq Suleiman of the Federal University of Technology Minna, who is also the collation officer in Edati LGA, said APC had scored 19,200 votes as against 10,152 votes scored by PDP. Dr Mustapha Alhaji of the Federal University and Technology Minna, who is also the collation officer in Rijau LGA announced that APC had polled 22,111 votes as against 9,566 votes scored by PDP. Professor Ayo Aremu ,Federal University of Technology Minna, who is also collation officer in Lavun LGA announced that APC had scored 27,345 votes while PDP polled 15,335 votes. Professor A. Amadi of the Federal University of Technology Minna, who is also the collation officer in Chanchaga LGA announced that APC had scored 27,764 votes while PDP polled 21,779 votes. Dr Samaila Idris of Federal University of Technology Minna, and the collation officer in Gbako LGA announced that APC had scored 24,836 votes while PDP polled 10, 623 votes. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, the Kwara state APC governorship candidate, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, has won the governorship election held on Saturday, March 9. He polled 331,546 votes to emerge as the winner of the highly anticipated election. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: Same great journalism, upgraded for better service! Protect your vote to make it count - PDP Guber Candidate | Legit TV [embedded content] CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | INEC postpones announcement of Taraba governorship election results - INEC has postponed the announcement of the Taraba state governorship election result - INEC's returning electoral officer, Professor Adamu Iya, made this known at the INEC state headquarters in Jalingo - Iya said announcement of the governorship election results was postponed, giving no reason The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has postponed the announcement of the Taraba governorship and House of Assembly election result to Monday, March 11. The commission's returning electoral commissioner, Professor Adamu Iya, made this known at the INEC state headquarters in Jalingo at about 8.40pm on Sunday, March 9. READ ALSO: LIVE UPDATES: Official INEC collation of governorship results Legit.ng gathers the the announcement was expedient following the delay in the result of some local government areas in the state. Iya gave no reason other than the delay in the election result expected from ssome LGAs. PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest news update Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had been declared the winner of the Lagos state governorship election. Sanwo-Olu scored 739,445 votes to defeat Jimi Agbaje, who polled 206,141 votes, according to official results declared by the electoral commission, INEC. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) upgrades to Legit.ng to serve its readers better Protect your vote to make it count - PDP Guber Candidate | Legit TV [embedded content] CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Nasiru Gawuna, Kano state deputy governor, was arrested arrested by the police on Monday for alleged electoral misconduct. Mutari Sule Garo, commissioner for local government, was also arrested for the same offence. They were accused of disrupting the collation of governorship election results at Nassarawa local government area of the state. Garo and Gawuna were reportedly rescued from an aggrieved mob before they were subsequently picked and detained. But what does the law say about a public official in deputy governor capacity? In Section 308 (1, 2, 3) of the constitution, it is clearly stated that no civil or criminal proceedings shall be instituted or continued against a person to whom the section applies during his period of office. The section reads in part; a person to whom this section applies shall not be arrested or imprisoned during that period either in pursuance of the process of any court or otherwise; and (c) no process of any court requiring or compelling the appearance of a person to whom this section applies, shall be applied for or issued: Provided that in ascertaining whether any period of limitation has expired for the purposes of any proceedings against a person to whom this section applies, no account shall be taken of his period of office. (2) The provisions of subsection (I) of this section shall not apply to civil proceedings against a person to whom this section applies in his official capacity or to civil or criminal proceedings in which such a person is only a nominal party. (3) This section applies to a person holding the office of President or Vice-President, Governor or Deputy Governor; and the reference in this section to period of office is a reference to the period during which the person holding such office is required to perform the functions of the office. As of the time this report was filed, Frank Mba, spokesman of the police, had not responded to inquiry of if Gawunas arrest was in line with the law. Before their arrest, results from 43 of Kanos 44 local government areas had been announced and Abba Yusuf, governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was leading Abdullahi Ganduje, incumbent governor and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Nigeria governorship elections 2019 - #NigeriaDecides - #Nigeriadecides2019 Home | News | General | Berlin wall of autocratic politics in Kwara has fallen - Lai Mohammed - The leadership of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Kwara has expressed its joy over its recorded victory in the general elections - Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the minister of information and culture, said that the victory means end of dictatorship in the state - Mohammed said that the APC in Kwara has swept away all traces of autocratic politics that he said took over the state in the past Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the minister of information and culture, has said that the Berlin Wall of autocratic politics in Kwara has finally crumbled due to the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 general polls in the state. In a statement made available to Legit.ng, Mohammed said that the APC's brooms have rid Kwara of all traces of hegemony politics, after the party won all the state Assembly seats, senatorial seats, House of Representatives seats, the governorship and the presidential polls in the state. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda He said: "The result is 35-0! Our brooms have swept the state clean." He traced the long battle for the freedom in Kwara to 2018, when the APC won the by-election for the Ekiti/Oke-ero/Irepodun/Isin federal constituency. He commended the people of Kwara for their hard work, sacrifices and determination that culminated in the victory, after they rallied under the 'O To Ge (enough is enough) movement, adding that never again will anyone enslave Kwarans under the guise of dynasty or hegemony politics The minister further said that God made the massive victory possible, and thanked the security agencies, the leaders of the party at state and national levels as well as President Muhammadu Buhari whose leadership and unflinching support, he said, propelled the APC to victory. He said: ''It is a victory for all advocates of good governance everywhere. It is the triumph of good over evil, no matter how long it takes...and a hard blow to those who willfully turn the public treasury into their personal piggy banks.'' He said, however, that with the victory, the real work has just begun in view of the high expectations of the people. The minister said: ''We cannot afford to disappoint our people. We must ride on the wave of their enthusiasm and determination to deliver to them the dividends of democracy, for which they have been yearning. All our leaders, both elected and otherwise, must come together to channel the energy and vibrancy of our people to positive goals.'' PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet! He urged APC members and supporters in the state to be magnanimous in victory, saying there is no room for vindictiveness or hatred in the new Kwara. Mohammed stated: "The massive 'victory in Kwara State came on a peaceful note. We must maintain that and banish all the vestiges of violence from our state.'' Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that the Kwara APC governorship candidate, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, had won the governorship election held on Saturday, March 9. He polled 331,546 votes to emerge as the winner of the highly anticipated election. It was previously reported that the APC candidate won in all the 16 local government areas in the state announced earlier, leading his PDP's opponent, Honourable Abdulrazaq Atunwa, with a margin of 216,792 votes. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: Same great journalism, upgraded for better service! 2019 Election: Nigerians react to Saraki's loss as INEC releases more results | Legit TV [embedded content] CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | Buhari reveals 1 legacy he wants to be remembered for after leaving office - President Muhammadu Buhari has revealed one of the legacies he wants to be remembered for in Nigeria - The president said he would like to live a legacy of free and fair election in the country - Buhari made this known on Monday, March 11, when he received Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina state at his private residence in Daura President Muhammadu Buhari has declared that he would want to be remembered as a leader who kept his word that elections in Nigeria must be free, fair and credible. Legit.ng reports that the president made this known in a statement issued by his senior special assistant on media, Malam Garba Shehu, when he received Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina state at his private residence in Daura, on Monday, March 11. READ ALSO: I bear no grudges against Amosun - Dapo Abiodun Masari was in Daura to formally inform the president of his election victory on Saturday, March 9 governorship poll. President Buhari commended Nigerians who heeded to his pre-election appeal to cast their votes peacefully. The president, who described the governorship and state Assembly elections across the country as largely successful said: I have maintained a position that elections must be free and fair and people have the right to make their choices and vote their conscience. I am happy they understood the message and did just that. Power is a public trust that belongs to the people. Power is not by strength or wisdom but by Providence. Elected persons must be fair and just. This is the legacy I want to leave behind. A leader must be fair and just. All leaders should strive to do that.'' Masari, who was accompanied by officials of the All Progressives Congress (APC) party in the state, thanked the president and the party for the support which led to his decisive victory at the polls. The governor pledged to work for the good of the people of the state in line with the vision of the Next Level government at the centre. (NAN) Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Governor Aminu Masari as winner of Saturday, March 9, governorship election in Katsina state. The Returning Officer for the governorship election, Prof Abdullahi Abdu Zuru, Vice Chancellor, Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto, said that Masari polled 1,178,864 votes to defeat PDPs Senator Yakubu Lado, who scored 488,621 votes in the election. He said that the state had a total of 3.2 million registered voters. READ ALSO: LIVE UPDATES: Official INEC collation of governorship results NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have upgraded to serve you better Election not a do or die affair - Sanwoolu - on Legit TV [embedded content] CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | News | General | The kind of relationship I want with the new National Assembly - Buhari - President Muhammadu Buhari reveals that he hopes to have a mutual working relationship with the next National Assembly - Buhari says such relationship would help to improve the budgetary process in the country - The president promises to ensure his government promotes transparency and accountability President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, March 11, said he looked forward to a mutual working relationship with the ninth National Assembly, which would commence its session later in 2019. Buhari said such relationship was necessary towards improving the budgetary process and restoring the country to the January-December fiscal cycle. The president said this in a statement released by his senior special assistant on media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in Abuja. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda The statement quoted Buhari as saying this when he received his old schoolmates, who came to congratulate him on his re-election for a second term, at his residence in Daura, Katsina state. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the president recounted how the delay in the passage of budgets hindered timely execution of projects across the country. President Buhari expressed the hope that with the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the presidential election and majority seats in the ninth assembly, the efficiency of the process would be achieved. According to the statement, the president also told his classmates in the 1953 set of Katsina Middle School, Daura, led by Senator Abba Ali, that it was on record that the proposed 2018 budget submitted to the National Assembly on November 7, 2017, was passed after seven months. Buhari assured his guests that the executive arm of government, under his watch, would strive towards effective implementation of national budgets, while promoting transparency and accountability. He commended his old school colleagues for the reunion, and commended their interest and useful suggestions on advancing Nigerias prosperity and stability. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Ali, who congratulated Buhari on his re-election, added that majority of Nigerians believed in his purposeful leadership and resoundingly renewed his mandate. Senator Ali wished the president more success in his second-term, noting that the country will benefit more when the executive and legislative branches of government work in unison on national interests. Legit.ng earlier reported that as celebrations over the achievement of his second term ambition continue, President Buhari on Monday, March 11, received on courtesy visit his classmates in the 1953 set of Katsina Middle School in Daura, Katsina. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better. Protect your vote to make it count - PDP Guber Candidate | Legit TV [embedded content] CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General Home | World | Africa | Chamisa has a direct line to Donald Trump OPPOSITION MDC leader Nelson Chamisa has once again claimed, US President Donald Trump. In the run-up to last year's general elections Chamisa was called out after claiming he had been promised US$15 billion bail-out by Trump. The 41-year-old opposition leader, told cheering supporters at a rally in the eastern border city of Mutare, Saturday, that he had a direct line to the US leader. "I can see change. I can see new towns and cities. Those things only come through dialogue. I told you sometime back that it is not a problem for us to engage President Trump. "It's a matter of picking the phone and tell him; Mr Trump our agenda is to save people of Zimbabwe.' It (crisis) will be over," said Chamisa. In a thinly veiled attack on Zanu-PF leader President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Chamisa said Zimbabwe needs a leader without a dark past. "You should have a leader who is trusted. (A leader) with confidence. (One) without a track record of killing people and stealing people's funds," the MDC president said to applause. Mnangagwa was a key figure in former President Robert Mugabe's 38 year-rule before the latter was toppled by a military coup in November 2017. The new Zanu-PF leader has been linked to the post-independence atrocities commonly known as Gukurahundi and is believed to have been the power behind the bloody campaign in the 2008 run-off that left at least 300 people dead and from which the late MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out citing State sponsored violence. As regards claims he was receiving support from Mugabe, Chamisa said leaders do not choose their followers. "In the history of this country I don't think president Mugabe will vote for anyone serve for me. Then you hear some people saying I'm being supported by Robert Mugabe. Leaders don't choose supporters, supporters do choose leaders," he said. The MDC leader said he is humbled by Mugabe's endorsement. "I am humbled that Mr. Mugabe went publicly and said he will vote for me. It's an endorsement to say the history is saying we are passing the baton to the future and I receive that baton. "Some of you don't see that he left his rotten party, saying he was now following a party lead by a young leader. It shows the capacity being given in that party. Please don't take it as a problem," said Chamisa adding he was considering visiting the former Zanu-PF leader now confined to his plush Harare home. "We need to get his views because each and every person knows where he made a mistake in life. He should reflect so that when we lead, we don't repeat the same mistakes. I have to hear from him. That is the focus we are taking as a party," the MDC leader added. Chamisa said his government will root out corruption which he described as a "religion." After his Trump meeting claims last year, Chamisa was forced to recant this and a number of other claims he made at rallies during an interview on the BBC current affairs program, Hardtalk hosted by anchor Steven Sackur. Sackur described Chamisa's promises at the time as "nonsensical" and bordering on "fantasy". CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: Africa Home | World | Africa | Chamisa gets Congress endorsement boost MDC President Nelson Chamisa has secured another major boost on his congress campaign for election as party President after another high ranking official Jacob Mafume threw his weight behind the candidature of the 41-year-old leader. Speculation is that Chamisa might face a challenge from Secretary General Douglas Mwonzora who has said he is still consulting on which position to contest at the Congress. Speaking during an interview with Larry Kwirirai on ZiFM Mafume said, "I am backing Nelson Chamisa for the position of President of MDC." Mafume also ruled out the position of a split in the MDC but said if anyone wants to leave the party if they are aggrieved and lose during the congress, no one will be forced to remain. "We will not force anyone to remain in the MDC if they lose and want to leave. Congress is not just about elections. It is about policy and dialogue among other issues." Contrary to what Mwonzora said last week, Mafume said not all positions may be contested at Congress. "There is a possibility that not all 16 positions will be up for grabs as a penultimate national council will decide on that and it will be crystalised at Congress." On the name of the Party, he said, "It is not called the MDC Alliance. It is called MDC (Movement for Democratic Change). The Alliance was for the election." CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: Africa Panelo flip-flops on Balutan case posted March 12, 2019 at 01:45 am by Vito Barcelo March 12, 2019 at 01:45 am COMMENT DISCLAIMER: Reader comments posted on this Web site are not in any way endorsed by Manila Standard. Comments are views by manilastandard.net readers who exercise their right to free expression and they do not necessarily represent or reflect the position or viewpoint of manilastandard.net. While reserving this publications right to delete comments that are deemed offensive, indecent or inconsistent with Manila Standard editorial standards, Manila Standard may not be held liable for any false information posted by readers in this comments section. Home | World | Africa | WATCH: Patson Dzamara speaks on Itai Dzamara Activist Patson Dzamara says the Dzamara family is not in a position to put closure on the missing journalist-cum-activist Itai Dzamara until they see him alive or see his body. In an exclusive interview with Daily News, Dzamara said if Zimbabwe was a normal country investigation into statements by Chegutu West MP Dexter Nduna that he has killed people would have been investigated. Dzamara insists that his brother was abducted by the military intelligence at the behest of ZANU PF. Exiled Professor Jonathan Moyo said Itai Dzamara was abducted by the Military Intelligence under Brigadier General Mike Sango who is now Ambassador to Russia. Watch the video below: [embedded content] CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: Africa A whisky expert examines a bottle of The Macallan Valerio Adami 60 year-old 1926. (Photo credit: Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty Images) A new Knight Frank report details how some alternative assets are more lucrative than others. The global real estate firms annual The Wealth Report revealed that some of these alternative investments made by the really rich those with a net worth upwards of $1 million excluding their primary residence have fared quite well in the last year. Top performing alternative asset classes. (Source: Knight Frank) Heres the top 5: Whiskey The best-performing asset within this category was rare whiskey up 40% year-over-year the report showed. Rare whiskey was also up a staggering 582% over the past decade. The best-selling whiskey last year based on auction sales was a bottle of The Macallan 1926, the report highlighted, which was hand painted by Michael Dillon. It was sold by Christies for $1.5 million. The private jet of Jack Ma, the founder of Chinese tech giant Alibaba, has been spotted at Aberdeen airport, while whisky tourism was apparently one of the drivers behind the launch of a new non-stop flight from Edinburgh to Beijing in 2018. Coins Collectors may be delighted to hear that coins have also been a lucrative investment opportunity with the asset class up 12% year-on-year, and 193% over the past decade. The most expensive coin auctioned off was a gold Polish 100 ducat coin from 1621, sold by the Classical Numismatic Group for $2.2 million. This coin, one of the largest European gold coins ever minted, was struck to commemorate Polands victory over the Ottoman Empire" in what is now western Ukraine, according to a February 2018 report. Co-heir and co-manager of the estate of La Romanee Conti, Aubert de Villaine, his nephew and chief of the cellars taste wine in a cellar on January 9, 2018 in Vosnes Romanee (Burgondy). (Photo credit: ERIC FEFERBERG/AFP/Getty Images) Wine Wine also performed well according to the report, with the asset class up 9% over the past 12 months and 147% over the past decade. The biggest sale was made in October at auction house Sothebys where a single bottle of La Romanee-Conti 1945 fetched $558,000. That was somewhat higher than its upper estimate of $32,000, the report noted, which highlighted the potential premium the market is prepared to pay for impeccable provenance. However, the report noted, this was a one-off incident and overall, its hard to predict where the top end of the market will go from here. Story continues Nevertheless, Knight Frank expects this pattern of polarization favoring blue chip wine from top producers will continue, with prices accelerating, in particular as the wines approach their drinking windows. A crowd of people attend the Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale where David Hockney's Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) is displayed at Christie's in New York November 15, 2018. (Photo credit: DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images) Art Art an alternative investment choice of many high-brow investors also saw some love, with the asset class up 9% year-on-year and 158% over the last 10 years. The most expensive work auctioned last year was a painting by David Hockney, called the Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) as seen in the picture above which was sold by auction house Christies for $90 million. It was also the biggest sale of art by a living artist. The report noted the auction houses reported record-breaking sales last year, and expects this trend is likely to continue. Watches The last alternative asset class rounding off the list watches. Sales of watches were up 5% over the past 12 months and 73% over the past decade. The most expensive watch sold last year was the 1970 Rolex Daytona Unicorn, which raked in $5.9 million. The report also found that Middle East investors were most likely to collect watches, while most investors preferred collecting art as seen in the table below. (Source: Knight Frank) Aarthi is a writer for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @aarthiswami. Read more: Highly unusual investment: Own part of this world-class cocktail bar Follow Yahoo Finance onTwitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit. The Duchess of Cambridge and Duchess of Sussex were together for Commonwealth Day celebrations. Photo: Getty Theyve been dogged by rumours of a deep-running feud for months now, but when appearing together for Commonwealth Day celebrations in London, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle put on a very united front. The two duchesses accompanied their husbands to Westminster Abbey on Monday where they were photographed sharing a kiss and exchanging knowing glances. Kate, 37, was dressed in a red Catherine Walker double breasted coat dress, the same one she wore in New Zealand on her and Williams 2014 royal tour. Meanwhile her heavily pregnant sister-in-law went for a chain print dress by Victoria Beckham, and a pillbox hat. They were joined by all the senior royals, aside from Prince Philip, with the Queen, Prince Charles, Camilla Parker-Bowles and Prince Andrew, all in attendance. The royals sat in order of succession, with the Queen, Charles, William and their respective partners in the front row, and Harry and Meghan sitting behind. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth a global network of 53 countries and almost 2.4 billion people, a third of the worlds population, of whom 60 percent are under 30 years old. The sisters-in-law appeared to be chatting across their husbands. Photo: Getty Reunited in public Rumours of a feud between the Cambridges and Sussexes began swirling back in November last year when Harry and Meghan announced they would be moving out of Kensington Palace where Kate and Wills live with their family in favour of a country estate in Windsor. William and Harrys plans to split Kensington Palace into two separate households also added to the narrative, as did the fact that until last week, Kate and Meghan hadnt been seen together in public since Christmas Day. But that changed last Tuesday when the pair and their husbands joined Prince Charles to celebrate 50 years since he became the Prince of Wales. Aboriginal didgeridoo player William Barton performed for the royals. Photo: Getty Body language expert Kirsty Milligan tells Yahoo Lifestyle, The Fab Four are definitely well versed in how to maintain a professional/regal presence in public. If there is a rift, theyre very practiced in not allowing that to show. We can usually see this in facial expressions and guarded or protective body movements that show discomfort. Story continues Analysing their behaviour last week, she added, What we can see of their facial expressions is very composed. This could certainly be masking many other feelings and emotions. We do see a very polished and practiced public appearance, but its what we dont see that might be more telling. Expert weighs in Speculation has been rife that the supposed rift among the fab four was sparked by William questioning Harrys decision to marry Meghan, meanwhile another report claimed Kate was left in tears during a dress rehearsal for Meghan and Harrys May wedding. Kate had just given birth to Prince Louis at the time and was said to be feeling quite emotional when she saw daughter Princess Charlotte all dressed up, a source said at the time. There has been no response from the palace as to whether theres any truth to the reports, however royal editor and author Robert Jobson, who has spent over 30 years covering the royal family, believes that there has been some confrontation between Meghan and Kate. Whether or not there were reports Kate cried over the way her daughter, I dont know if thats true or not, but theres clearly been some confrontation, he told Yahoo UKs The Royal Box. I think that most of the stories that have been written have probably been true or Kensington Palace would have come down on them with a ton of bricks, so I think most of its probably true. Got a story tip? Send it to lifestyle.tips@verizonmedia.com Want more lifestyle and celebrity news? Follow Yahoo Lifestyle on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Or sign up to our daily newsletter here. *trivia according to IMDB* Tom Hanks was reluctant to hire Tom Everett Scott because he felt Scott looked too similar to Hanks' younger self. Rita Wilson, Hanks' wife, convinced him to change his mind because she thought Scott was cute.* Steve Zahn was best man at Tom Everett Scott's wedding.* During his scenes with Pennywise, Jack Dylan Grazer (Eddie) would cry and gag while Bill Skarsgard was in his face. "Skarsgard was genuinely concerned for Grazer and after the scene ended, asked him if he was okay. Grazer looked right at him and said 'Love what you're doing with the character!'"* shipped to movie theaters as "Pound Foolish" GET IT???* The crew got used to having to deal with a train that stopped at a nearby intersection at the same time every night. In full make up (with half his face missing) Bill Paxton caught one of the train workers leaving the engine and said "Hey, man, there's been an accident... and if you think I'm bad, wait 'til you see the other guy!"* In the background of one scene, a billboard can been seen that says BILL + LOUISE. Bill Paxton's wife was Louise who he married that same year.* Alicia Silverstone incorrectly pronounced Haitians. Directer Amy Heckerling loved it though and told the crew not to correct her.* Mr. Hall was based on a real debate teacher named Herb Hall who was a friend of the director Heckerling. Herb Hall was given a part as the school principal.* Bob Hoskins (Eddie Valiant) claimed his son wouldn't speak to him for 2 weeks after he saw the movie. He was upset that his father worked with Bugs Bunny and didn't let him meet the rabbit.* Tim Curry auditioned for Judge Doom but his performance was thought to be too scary.SOURCES 1 STOP Reply Thread Link i dont know why im lol at this gif Reply Parent Thread Link MTE Angela. Reply Parent Thread Link "Im glad this tweet invoked conversation." Oh hi Mark. I see you and hear you. Oh hi Jessica. No one has a problem with someone being empathetic sis. What you said was just weird. Reply Thread Link I read Oh hi Mark in Tommy Wiseaus voice lmao Reply Parent Thread Expand Link lol same Reply Parent Thread Link me too lol Reply Parent Thread Link Also same lol Reply Parent Thread Link same lol Reply Parent Thread Link Omg same lmao Reply Parent Thread Link I swear to god any form of this makes me go feral-invoking conversation, starting a discussion, maybe its time to talk about this. Like, shut the fuck up oh my god. Reply Parent Thread Link Wait was it Mark Ruffalo who said something like, Im glad were having this conversation after saying something boneheaded? I cant remember exactly what happened, I just know its become an ONTD meme Reply Parent Thread Expand Link This is what happens when you maximize the voices of straight allies and silence the rest of us. Pretty soon the entire community is going to be just a bunch of hets who never shut the fuck up. Reply Thread Link Pretty soon feels like now. Like, a bunch of hets and people smugly patting themselves on the backs for being such great allies just by being ok with our existence in the world. Reply Parent Thread Link This purely has to do with your username and icon. I was walking my dog the other day when we got to a corner and had to cross. I looked down and there was a corgi who had started following us. I have no clue how long she had been there. Probably not long because my dog loves other dogs and def would have been trying to to play with her had he known. We ended up turning around and finding her owners down the block. She was a cutie. Reply Parent Thread Link Aw, I love that! I'm glad her owners were close by. Reply Parent Thread Link a fucking men. you really hit it on the head w/ this comment. Reply Parent Thread Link it's kinda happening though. Reply Parent Thread Link shes annoying she randomly caped for the klan the other day and black twitter came for her. it was hilarious tbh Edited at 2019-03-11 07:31 pm (UTC) Reply Thread Link WHAT [2] Reply Parent Thread Expand Link wait what now?? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link this cliffhanger smh Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Lolol Reply Parent Thread Link Shes a privileged white woman that thinks she can get away with this shit and sadly, usually does. Reply Thread Link she sees and hears you lol @ this bullshit Reply Parent Thread Link She'd look at you and tell you shes a cat, too. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Straight white women are a trip. They will be the first ones to "cancel" straight white men, but they always show their asses and prove to us that they aren't any better when it comes to race and sexuality. And then the tears come out. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link She's glad you're having this conversation. Reply Parent Thread Link Alyssa Milano and Terry Crews need to seriously logoff for a year. Reply Thread Link That was my first thought too, lmao. And my default, The Book of Mormon's "I am Africa." Reply Parent Thread Link this, too Reply Parent Thread Link Having not seen the musical, can I assume that it's mean to be a joke? Like, it's ridiculous and they know it, or...was this serious. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link The response to this was ICONIC Reply Parent Thread Link Omg. That's what it reminded me of. It was driving me crazy. Reply Parent Thread Link god I hate her Reply Parent Thread Link weird how she gets dragged (rightly) for this but no one ever mentions Reply Parent Thread Link ...this is a very 1960s high as fuck hippie approach to equality. Reply Thread Link Omg yup. Reply Parent Thread Link Everyone wants to be a victim or a part of a minority or marginalized group. Including rich actresses. I bet she thinks she should get reparations for Slavery, too. Reply Thread Link she thought she was being poetic and edgy you can just say stuff without being OTT like that Reply Thread Link "I am an extraterrestrial... " Reply Parent Thread Link lol excellent reaction gif Reply Parent Thread Link I love him. Reply Parent Thread Link This is the best gif! Reply Parent Thread Link i'm glad we're having this conversation. Reply Thread Link Polling shows that the majority of United States citizens want the Trump administration to honor the countrys Obama-era commitment to the Paris Agreement to combat global climate change. Under the agreement, from which President Trump withdrew in June of 2017, the United States would have to cut its carbon emissions to 26 percent less than their highest documented levels by 2025. Even if the federal government were to pivot on Paris and recommit to the agreement, meeting this target would not be an easy feat. In order to meet the target set by the Paris Agreement, the United States would have to reduce their carbon footprint by 2.6 percent each year over the next seven years, a lofty goal that the country has never come close to meeting in any semblance of a sustained way. Difficult in no way means impossible, however. Look no further than France, which managed to pull off the impressive feat of cutting their carbon emissions from 1979 to 1988 by an average rate of 2.9 percent annually while still growing their economy. How did they achieve this? The answer is so simple it can be distilled into a word: nuclear. Nuclear holds a lot of promise for a greener energy future in the United States, and recently pundits on both the right and the left alike have taken up the cause in various public forums, from think pieces by center-right commentator Andrew Sullivan calling for a massive nuclear energy program in New York Magazine to Time Magazine Hero of the Environment Michael Shellenberger urging the green energy community to give up on renewables entirely in favor of far more energy-dense nuclear power. Despite the ever-increasing number of voices calling for nuclear as a catch-all solution to climate change, however, there are still a lot of drawbacks to nuclear power to consider as well. Building new nuclear plants is extremely expensive, nuclear accidents--while very, very rare--are both expensive and difficult to remediate, and there is still a lot of public mistrust and political adversity when it comes to nuclear. As much as we would all love to have a silver bullet solution for climate change, and as much promise as nuclear energy holds, no single solution is so simple. Although nuclear power plants are capable of producing massive quantities of completely carbon-free energy and ramping up the United States nuclear capacity would directly lead to a drop in carbon admissions (as in the example of France), nuclear energy simply cant meet all of the energy demands of the worlds biggest economy. Related: Why Oil Markets Cant Find A Solid Footing Nuclears potential is stymied by a number of logistical limitations. While nuclear can massively reduce emissions within the power sector, it cant be used in many industrial sectors. Nuclear wont work as a green solution for transportation or for emissions-heavy industrial necessities like smelting steel. As executive director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago Sam Ori was quoted in The Atlantic, the energy system is bigger than just electricity [] While I think nuclear has real potential as a means to decarbonizing electricity, you still have a lot of sectors to worry about. Emissions from the U.S. power sector are already on a downward trend, falling 28 percent since 2005. Meanwhile, the industries that would not benefit as directly from nuclear are the ones that need the most help. Since 2005 carbon emissions from transportation, agriculture, and industrial sectors have fallen by just 5 percent. All this is not to say that the expansion of the United States nuclear energy sector isnt a worthwhile endeavor. It would undoubtedly make and immediate and considerable positive impact on the nations carbon emissions. But it wont fix all of the other myriad ways that the national economy contributes to climate change. If the U.S. has any hope of meeting that target set by the Paris Agreement, or even coming close, it will require a much more multi-faceted and expansive approach. By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Less than a year ago, IHS Markit predicted that stunning growth in the Permian would result in the basin doubling its oil production to 5.4 million bpd between 2017 and 2023. That 5.4-million-bpd output would be more daily production than in any member of OPEC except for Saudi Arabia, the business information provider said in June 2018. Nine months later, the Permian production is set to break the 4-million-bpd mark as early as in this month, as per EIA estimates. The Permian production is now roughly one third of the total U.S. crude oil output of 12 million bpd. Analysts expect the Permian production could double from the current levels through 2023, and the basin to pump as many as 8 million bpd in four years. Thats roughly the total current oil production from the seven key shale regions in the United States, as per EIAs Drilling Productivity Report. The growth in the Permian oil production is also set to boost U.S. crude oil exports, analysts have told CNBC. American crude exports hit a record 3.607 million bpd in one week in February, and have been above 2 million bpd in most of the weeks in recent months. Permian oil production currently just shy of 4 million bpdjumped by around 1 million bpd from a year ago and is set to jump by another 1 million bpd, to 5 million bpd, by early 2020, Eric Lee, energy analyst at Citigroup, told CNBC. Were happy to look out to 2023, when it gets to 8 million. ... They figured out how to access it at very low break-evens, like $30/$40, according to the analyst. Not enough pipelines to transport the Permian crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast has led to takeaway constraints in the fastest-growing oil producing region in recent months. But midstream operators and oil majors have laid out plans to significantly raise pipeline capacity over the next two years. Several new crude oil pipelines expected to come on line at the end of this year and in 2020 and 2021 are set to alleviate bottlenecks and reduce the price discounts of the oil in the Permian to the oil priced at Cushing or the U.S. Gulf Coast. Related: Is This A Precursor For Peak Oil Demand? Were going to triple pipelines going into the market from 3 to 9 million in three years, from last year to late 2021, Francisco Blanch, head of commodities and derivatives at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, told CNBC. In a sign that new pipeline capacity has started to somewhat ease the bottlenecks, crude oil inventories in West Texas dropped to a four-month-low in February, according to data from market intelligence provider Genscape cited by Reuters. Analysts have singled out pipeline capacity and the profitability of Permian drilling, especially for smaller players, as the key factors that would determine the pace of growth in the basin. While pipeline constraints are expected to significantly ease in 2020 and 2021, the price of oil and the breakevens of wells in the Permian are the bigger unknowns. According to an analysis of wells economics in the Permian Delaware basin, Rystad Energy has concluded that large-scale drilling and large players will be the key beneficiaries in the basin. Size matters, even more so when drilling for shale oil in the Permian Basin, Rystad Energy senior partner Per Magnus Nysveen said last month, noting that large operators with vast acreage positions would get handsome returns, even if WTI Midland oil price is at $45 a barrel, while smaller operators might struggle to make profits. U.S. supermajors Exxon and Chevron both announced last week increased targets for their Permian production. Chevron now sees its Permian unconventional net oil-equivalent production rising to 600,000 bpd by the end of 2020, and to 900,000 bpd by the end of 2023. Exxon revised up its Permian growth plans to produce more than 1 million oil-equivalent barrels per day by as early as 2024, which would be an increase of almost 80 percent. Related: Two Largest Oil Price Benchmarks Are Set To Diverge The shale game is now a scale game, as Chevron Chairman and CEO Michael Wirth put it. The big thing that I think has changed is the shale game has become a scale game, and so people that can do things at large scale and bring the capabilities to bear that a company like Chevron has are the ones that really can take this to the next level, Wirth told CNBC last week after the company announced its latest Permian growth targets. As for oil prices, currently OPEC looks set to continue supporting prices with the ongoing production cuts, instead of fighting for market share, despite the fact that the higher the price, the more incentive U.S. oil producers have to continue setting production records. As pipeline constraints start to clear in the second half of 2019, U.S. exports will also rise, John Driscoll, chief strategist at JTD Energy Services, told CNBC at the end of February. The U.S. is spoiling the OPEC party. They are now the wild card and they dont have a seat at the table in Vienna, Driscoll said. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: READ: El Nino manageableLGUs READ: El Nino impact heats up early, drought in 22 provinces seen READ: Agriculture prepares to cushion El Nino READ: El Nino threatens food security, senator warns READ: Philippine-wide alert as El Nino sears North Luzon, Cotabato Despite higher requests from customers, Saudi Arabia will be keeping its April crude oil exports at below 7 million bpd, a Saudi official told Reuters on Monday, signaling that OPECs biggest producer is set to do whatever it takes to rebalance the market and support oil prices. Saudi Aramco will be keeping its crude oil exports this month and next at below 7 million bpd, the Saudi official said, noting that despite requests for more than 7.6 million bpd of Saudi oil for April, the state oil giant will ship below 7 million bpd to clients next montha deep cut of 635,000 bpd from customer requests for its crude oil. The lower allocations by Saudi Aramco will also mean that the Kingdoms oil production will be well below 10 million bpd in April, the official told Reuters. Under the OPEC/non-OPEC deal for a total of 1.2 million bpd cuts between January and June, Saudi Arabias share is a cut of 322,000 bpd from the October level of 10.633 million, to reduce output to 10.311 million bpd. Saudi Arabia pumped 10.1 million bpd of crude in February, a Saudi official told S&P Global Platts on Friday, in yet another sign that OPECs largest producer and de facto leader is cutting much deeper than it had pledged under the OPEC+ production deal. Related: Is Norways Oil & Gas Selloff A Mistake? In an interview with the Financial Times in February, Saudi Arabias Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said that the Saudis would further cut production to around 9.8 million bpd in March, some 500,000 bpd below the commitment in the OPEC+ deal. Al-Falih also said that Saudi Arabia would be cutting its crude oil exports to near 6.9 million bpd in March, slashed from 8.2 million bpd just three-four months ago. Speaking to Reuters over the weekend, al-Falih said that April would be pretty much the same as March in terms of the Kingdoms production and exports, with production in April expected to be kept at the March level of 9.8 million bpd. In their push to rebalance the oil market and firm up oil prices, the Saudis are also significantly reducing exports to the most transparently reported oil market, the United States. Saudi Arabias crude oil exports to the U.S. are falling sharply, with shipments standing at just 1.6 million barrels near the end of February, according to U.S. customs data compiled by Bloomberg, versus 5.75 million barrels a year ago. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Qatars Minister of Commerce and Industry said on Sunday that the countrys trade surplus reached $52 billion in 2018. This amount comes as the gas-rich kingdom pushes back against a Saudi-led boycott put in place in 2017 over allegations that Qatar has funded terrorist groups and over claims it is seeking better ties with Saudi arch-rival Iran to underline Riyadh. Doha vehemently denies both claims. Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain have also taken part in the boycott. Qatar has also sold bonds worth $12 billion, its finance ministry said last Thursday. Media in the region said the kingdom was still attracting strong demand despite the economic and diplomatic boycott by its former Gulf allies. In 2018, Qatar raised $12 billion in its first dollar bond sale in two years, bypassing Saudi Arabias $11 billion bond issue the same year. Tenacious Qatar Both developments point to the tenacity of Qatar against geophysical headwinds that might have caused more severe problems for other nations. However, with its back against the wall in the region, Qatar has expanded its trade relations after the blockade effectively cut its access to an estimated 60 percent of the goods it imported, according to a CNBC report. Trade between Qatar and Pakistan increased more than 230 percent in 2018, while trade between Iran and Turkey, both countries that often find themselves on opposite sides on numerous issues in the region with Saudi Arabia, also increased - a dynamic likely not lost on leaders in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, in December the Guardian reported that the rift among Gulf states was exposed when Saudi Arabias allies rounded on Qatar for snubbing a personal invite from King Salman and sending a relatively junior foreign minister to the annual Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) meeting in Riyadh. Bahrains foreign minister openly criticized Qatars emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, in a tweet at the time for his no-show. Qatars emir should have accepted the fair demands [of the boycotting states] and attended the summit, he said. Related: Is This A Precursor For Peak Oil Demand? Other areas of conflict between Qatar and Saudi Arabia include Dohas support of the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, its criticism of Saudi Arabias role in the ongoing battle in Yemen, as well as Dohas open criticism of Saudi Arabia over the alleged murder of Saudi dissident journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Turkey in October. Qatars ace in the hole However, Qatars ability to fend off the Saudi-led boycott has one crucial advantage, its LNG sector. Qatar is the worlds largest LNG exporter, though briefly bypassed by Australia recently, with some 77 million tons per annum (mtpa) of liquefaction capacity in place. Within the next five years, amid new gas production, Qatars LNG liquefaction capacity will reach a staggering 110 mtpa - likely putting its top slot out of reach for both Australia and the U.S., as both countries also continue to develop their respective LNG sectors. Qatar has also been flexing its muscles with a significant oil and gas investment push abroad. In December, news broke that Qatar was aiming to invest billions in the North American energy patch, including a new deal with Italian energy company Eni for three oil fields in Mexico, as well as making an investment decision by the end of the year or January on the Golden Pass LNG project proposal in Texas. State-run Qatar Petroleum is the majority owner of the Golden Pass LNG terminal, while U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil and U.S.-based independent oil company ConocoPhillips hold smaller stakes. In February, Qatar and ExxonMobil formally announced that they had made a final investment decision (FID) on the Golden Pass project. Construction will begin in the first quarter of 2019, and the facility is expected to start up in 2024. By Tim Daiss for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Venezuela suffered a sweeping blackout last week, which threatens to cut off oil exports from the country. U.S. sanctions have already severely impacted oil operations, leaving cargoes stranded off the coast as well as leaving ships idling in the Gulf of Mexico unable to complete sales to U.S. buyers. However, Venezuela has entered a dangerous new phase, with an electricity blackout gripping most of the country. Argus Media reported on Sunday that Venezuelas main oil export terminal and its heavy crude processing complex in Jose are shut down. Three heavy crude upgraders and a blending operation that national oil company PDVSA operates with foreign minority partners, as well as petrochemical plants run by Pequiven in Jose, are suspended, sources told Argus. These projects include the PetroPiar joint venture with Chevron, the PetroMonagas with Rosneft, and the PetroCedeno with Total and Equinor. Combined, the projects ostensibly have a capacity of 450,000 bpd. The joint ventures had weathered the multi-year economic and political crisis better than some of PDVSAs operations, but now nothing is immune to a widespread blackout. New York Times journalist Anatoly Kurmanaev posted on a twitter a rather dire analysis of the blackout. He said that some of the evidence suggests that the blackout may have been the result of damage to turbines at a hydroelectric complex, which he said is a scary thought because if they are damaged, they will be very hard to replace or repair due to a lack of money or skilled people. So, while Venezuela has suffered from repeated blackouts in recent years, this one might be much more serious. The governments lack of explanation has only fed fears that the situation is acute. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro blamed a cyberattack by the U.S. while American officials deny involvement. Venezuelas hydroelectric dams and transmission lines suffer from chronic underinvestment and lack of maintenance, so its hard to avoid the conclusion that the decrepit state of the facilities themselves are to blame. Related: Is Norways Oil & Gas Selloff A Mistake? To be sure, though, some events have been confused in the fog of the crisis, while arguably others have been deliberately obfuscated. The New York Times reported that the widely cited burning of an American aid convoy by Maduros henchmen probably wasnt accurate. An errant Molotov cocktail thrown by an anti-Maduro protestor was probably to blame. That may seem like a minor detail, but top U.S. officials including coup leaders Senator Marco Rubio and national security advisers John Bolton repeatedly blamed the incident on Maduro, providing yet another justification for regime change. The reason this matters is that the current blackout creates not only another pretext to escalate the pressure against Maduro, but also provides a vast backdrop of confusion onto which more plans of overthrow can be hatched by the opposition and its American backers. You have every right to be very angry, but now is the time to take action, opposition leader Juan Guaido told supporters. We all know who is responsible and we need to find solutions. We need to take action together in the street. The lack of electricity also means that Maduros grip is slipping, and while he has held on this long, a persistent blackout could threaten to bring on complete societal chaos. The effect on Venezuelas oil production is unclear. Scenarios range from steeper declines in a best-case scenario, to more abrupt and acute outages due to the blackout in a worst-case scenario. How that impacts oil prices is also uncertain. Oil posted gains at the start of the week, but any hypothetical outages in Venezuela may be somewhat offset by news that Libya is restarting oil production at its largest field, which has been offline since December. By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The Sharara crude oil field in Libya will recover its daily rate of production to 300,000 bpd within two weeks, Reuters reports, quoting a field engineer. The countrys largest field could produce more than 315,000 bpd but has been plagued by outages, the latest among which lasted almost three months. The field was originally closed for production in December, when clashes between militant groups forced the National Oil Corporation of Libya to institute a force majeure, which was only lifted last week. Originally, locals occupied Sharara in early December with demands for better economic conditions and power supply security. The occupation lasted until early February, when the Libyan National Army, a group affiliated with the eastern Libyan government, took control of the field. The force majeure remained in place as the NOC refused to yield to the locals demands for payments, deeming them ransom demands and warning this would set a dangerous precedent. Then, making the situation more complicated, the LNA faced the Petroleum Facilities Guard, an old adversary and a group loyal to the UN-recognized Libyan government. The situation was resolved only at the end of February with mediation from the United Arab Emirates. According to NOCs chairman, Mustafa Sanalla, the three-month blockade of the field had cost it US$1.8 million and 20,000 bpd in lost production capacity as a result of vandalism and looting. Last week NOC said it was working to restore the 20,000 bpd in lost capacity at the field. Sharara has become the main reason Libya was exempted from the latest round of production cuts and also the main reason the North African country is widely seen as a wild card in global oil price forecasts. Since it accounts for around a third of the countrys total oil output, Sharara, like the export terminals in the Oil Crescent, has become a natural target for various groups vying for power and control over Libyas oil wealth. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The United States has pressed India to stop buying Venezuelan crude oil as a means of accelerating President Nicolas Maduros removal from office, which Washington has made its top priority in Latin America recently. We say you should not be helping this regime. You should be on the side of the Venezuelan people, the U.S. envoy for Venezuela Elliott Abrams told Reuters in an interview. Washington has been quick to throw its support behind the president of the National Assembly in Caracas, Juan Guaido, who declared himself interim president in late January and called for new, transparent elections. India is not the only one that the Trump administration has been pressing to cut off oil ties with Venezuela as a way of cutting the Maduro governments access to money, but it may be the most important yet. India, Reuters recalls, is the second-largest buyer of Venezuelan crude after the United States itself, and that stream has dried up as a new account was set up in the U.S. to process payments for Venezuelan crude oil imports into the country and make the money available to the Guaido camp. Yet India may be a lot less willing to comply with what Washington asks it to do: the United States now wants India to stop importing Iranian oil and just last week President Donald Trump signaled a new trade war might be in the making, this time with India. I am taking this step because, after intensive engagement between the United States and the Government of India, I have determined that India has not assured the United States that it will provide equitable and reasonable access to the markets of India, Trump wrote in a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and President of the Senate. Meanwhile, India is negotiating a sanction waiver extension for Iran, so it can continue importing Iranian crude at the rate it is doing currently, 300,000 bpd. This is much less than what it used to import from Iran before the U.S. sanctions snapped back last November but is, apparently, indispensable. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: As the Brexit saga continues unresolved and apparently unsolvable, people's minds are starting to think through the consequences of the chaos and incompetence that this government has brought to their project.We have already seen the way that the car manufacturing industry is being devastated by the uncertainty around our leaving the EU, and even more damage to our economy is being posed by the financial sector. The Telegraph reports that banks, asset managers and insurers have already moved nearly 1 trillion of assets out of the UK and to other European countries ahead of Brexit, with more likely to be shifted in coming months, according to new research.They say that New Financial, a think tank, has identified more than 275 firms that have moved or are moving some of their business, staff, assets or legal entities from the UK to the EU in preparation for Brexit. Of the assets that have already been shifted, around 800bn have been moved by banks and investment banks; 65bn in funds have been relocated by asset managers; and 65bn in assets have been shifted by insurance companies.And these figures only account for those companies that have been open about the moving of assets. A lot more money may well have been moved abroad under the radar. The paper adds that Dublin is by far the biggest beneficiary on the moves, with 100 firms relocating to the Irish capital, followed by Luxembourg with 60, Paris with 41, Frankfurt with 40 and Amsterdam with 32. More than 40 firms are moving staff or business to more than one EU financial centre:Deal or no deal, this trend looks like it could cripple the UK economy in the short to medium term. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who on Monday announced he is pulling out of a bid for a fifth term, is Algeria's longest-serving president and a veteran of the independence struggle who held on to power during years of ill health. His presidency survived the Arab Spring uprisings that toppled other leaders in the region. But Bouteflika's bid this year for a fifth term in office sparked public anger and brought tens of thousands onto the streets demanding he step down after two decades in power. Dubbed Boutef by Algerians, he had helped foster peace after a decade-long civil war in the 1990s. "I am the whole of Algeria. I am the embodiment of the Algerian people," he said in 1999, the year he became president. Bouteflika has had a history of medical problems and often flew to France or Switzerland for treatment. A stroke in 2013 affected his mobility and speech, and he has used a wheelchair ever since. Known for his three-piece suit even in the stifling heat, Bouteflika is respected by many for his role in ending the 1990s civil war, which official figures say killed nearly 200,000 people. But he has also faced criticism from rights groups and opponents who accuse him of being authoritarian. When Bouteflika came to power with the support of an army battling Islamist guerrillas, nobody expected him to stay in office for so long. After his election he addressed critics who saw him as another puppet of the military, saying: "I'm not three-quarters of a president." Paradoxically, it was only after his stroke that Bouteflika was able to consolidate power in a country where the shadowy intelligence service has long been viewed as a "state within a state". In early 2016, he dissolved the all-powerful DRS intelligence agency after dismissing its previously immovable leader General Mohamed Mediene, better known as Toufik, after a quarter century in the post. - Long spell in exile - Bouteflika was born in Morocco on March 2, 1937 to a family from western Algeria. At the age of 19 he joined the National Liberation Front (FLN) in its struggle against the French colonial rulers. When independence came in 1962, he was appointed minister of sport and tourism at the age of just 25, under Algeria's first president, Ahmed Ben Bella. He became foreign minister the following year, a post he held for more than a decade, but was sidelined after the death of president Houari Boumediene in 1978 and went into self-imposed exile. While he was abroad the military-backed government cancelled the 1991 elections, which an Islamist party had been poised to win, sparking a decade of bloodletting. Bouteflika returned from Switzerland in 1999 to stand for president with the backing of the army which saw in him a potential figure of reconciliation. He initially faced six rivals, but when the opponents dropped out, crying foul, he found himself the only candidate. He proposed an amnesty for rebels who laid down their arms and twice secured public endorsement for "national reconciliation" through referendums. The first, in September 1999, was a major gamble but paid off, leading to a sharp decrease in violence that helped propel Bouteflika to a second term in 2004. His third term in 2009 followed a constitutional amendment allowing him to stand again. His supporters argue that under his stewardship public and private investment created millions of jobs and dramatically lowered unemployment. But a lack of opportunity continues to drive many Algerians abroad as youth unemployment remains high. When the Arab Spring erupted in January 2011, Bouteflika rode out the storm by lifting a 19-year state of emergency and using oil revenues to grant pay rises. For political commentator Rashid Tlemcani, Bouteflika "should have left office at the end of his second term, after securing national reconciliation and conquering the hearts of a large part of the population". - Out of public eye - In April 2013, Bouteflika was rushed to hospital in France after his stroke, and spent three months recovering. He had already been hospitalised in Paris in 2005 because of intestinal problems from which he never fully recovered. Bouteflika's decision to seek a fourth mandate in 2014 after 15 years in power sparked both derision and criticism from those who questioned his ability to rule. He did not even campaign and voted from a wheelchair, but still won an official 81 percent of the vote. But it was Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term in elections due to be held in April that proved the last straw for many Algerians. His candidacy was formally submitted on March 3 while he was in Switzerland for what the presidency described as another round of routine medical tests. His pledge not to serve a full term if re-elected failed to quell public anger and protests continued as his office announced his return from Geneva a week later. He finally announced his decision to withdraw his candidacy on Monday, saying he was responding to "a pressing demand that you have been numerous in making to me". Bouteflika's tenure has been overshadowed by the bloody repression of protests in the Kabylie region in spring 2001 and corruption scandals, while major challenges remain, including regular jihadist attacks. "Bouteflika failed to turn Algeria into a modern country, with real institutions," according to Myriam Ait-Aoudia, a professor of political science. BECAUSE Filipinos are price-sensitive, low cost carriers in the country continue to earn high revenues in the airline industry, an official of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) said on Monday, March 11.Lawyer BECAUSE Filipinos are price-sensitive, low cost carriers in the country continue to earn high revenues in the airline industry, an official of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) said on Monday, March 11. Lawyer Carmelo Arcilla, CAB executive director, said low cost carriers (LCC) in the country has the biggest penetration in the market. "The global penetration of LCCs is 31 percent but in the Philippines, in domestic, it's 64 percent penetration while international is at 32 percent. The Philippines is only second to India in being the most attractive to the LCC markets," he said in an interview during a Routes Asia 2019 session. Arcilla said low fare promos are popular among travelers in the country so LCCs have the advantage in luring in passengers compared to high cost ones. "Filipinos are price sensitive so the LCCs are able to stimulate traffic. We have so many first time travelers because of the LCCs," he said. (JOB) READ: Andaya slams senators over parked pork READ: 'Budget probe not over' A lawmaker on Monday accused Senator Panfilo Lacson of holding the 2019 national budget hostage to put down Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. President Rodrigo Duterte said late Monday he will not sign a budget that is not conforming to the requirements of the Constitution, as the two chambers of Congress grapple with the passage of the already-delayed budget for 2019. "I will not sign anything that will be an illegal document," he said, warning that the economy will contract if it continues to operate on a reenacted budget. "Our GDP (gross domestic product) will slide if we are going to reenact the budget. Everybody will suffer, including the law enforcement," he said. Senator Panfilo Lacson is holding the budget hostage because of [a] personal vendetta.. [against] our speaker, said Deputy Minority Leader and Coop-Natco party-list Rep. Anthony Bravo at a news conference. He has not said anything good about the speaker from the very start of her leadership...and in fact even before the change of leadership in the House. Bravo said Lacson was seeing ghosts when he claimed that Arroyo funneled P95 billion in infrastructure funds to the districts of her House allies even after the P3.8-trillion budget was passed by the bicameral conference committee. He does not want the speaker to be successful, Bravo said of Lacson. Echoing a statement released by House appropriations committee chairman, Bravo said President Rodrigo Duterte could veto any portion of the national budget he finds objectionable. Bravo also warned that the stand-off over the budget could stall the administrations Build, Build, Build infrastructure program.they endorsed for implementation in their amendments to the bicameral conference committee-ratified report on the 2019 general appropriations bill. Andaya said the Senate only submitted its list of projects on Feb. 11, 2019 or three days after both Houses of Congress ratified this years P3.757-trillion national budget on Feb. 8. Andaya said as agreed during the bicameral conference committee meeting, both the Senate and the House submitted details itemizing projects that would be funded by the lump sum funds after the budget was ratified., because that referred to changes made to the budget after the President had signed it into law. At the same time, Andaya said the Senate failed to identify from its submitted list of an estimated P21 billion worth of infrastructure funds the names of senators who requested the projects.On the contrary, Andaya said House members identified themselves in the detailed-list of infrastructure projects also worth P21 billion. Andaya said the House submitted four books of the 2019 national budget to the Palace on Monday through the Department of Budget and Management. He said he hoped the Senate would sign the budget as well. But Senate President Vicente Sotto III warned again of a reenacted budget, saying that the senators insisted on the version of the bill ratified by the bicameral conference committee with no changes. The possibility is really looming now that it would be reenacted if they will not return to the original budget that we passed, Sotto said. He said the reenacted budget would not have to be for the entire year, because it could be changed in July with the passage of a supplemental budget for the rest of the year. Sotto also denied Andayas claims that the senators amended the budget after it was passed by the bicameral conference committee. He also denied that the senators had parked P25 billion in realigned funds with the Department of Public Works and Highways. Sotto also said that itemizing the lump sum funds should have been done before the budget was ratified by the bicameral conference committee. Despite the continuing squabbles over the budget, the Palace said it remained hopeful that the country would not be operating under a reenacted budget until August, which would delay key infrastructure projects. He also said the President would not interfere in the squabble between the House and the Senate. An activist arrested following a relentless campaign for victims of China's repression in Xinjiang was released Monday by a Kazakh court to house arrest pending trial, his lawyer told AFP. Serikjan Bilash, who has led an awareness drive centred on ethnic Kazakh victims of China's crackdown in the region, was arrested in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, and flown to the capital Astana on Sunday. He was charged with inciting inter-ethnic hatred. But a court in Astana ruled Monday to release him from detention and spend two months under house arrest, his lawyer Aiman Umarova told AFP by telephone. The terms of the ruling mean he will be unable to engage in activism. The arrest of Bilash, a popular figure among Chinese-born repatriated Kazakhs, generated a whirlwind of media coverage. His informal Ata-Jurt rights group had been a key source for international reporting on what Beijing calls vocational education centres but former detainees say are re-education camps. Police on Sunday sealed Ata-Jurt's office, carting away computers and other equipment activists said contained data about victims of Chinese polices in Xinjiang, where around 1,500,000 ethnic Kazakhs are thought to live. Activists told AFP that police had promised them the key to the office that has hosted regular press events themed on Xinjiang but had so far refused to give it to them. Oil-rich Kazakhstan, which shares a border with the Xinjiang province, has been on diplomatic tiptoes since major trading partner China began to forcibly send ethnic Kazakhs to internment camps under its anti-extremism policy. MALACANANG on Monday, March 11, pledged to look into the unprecedented water service interruption in Metro Manila that affected hundreds of thousands of Filipino families.Speaking to Palace reporters, MALACANANG on Monday, March 11, pledged to look into the unprecedented water service interruption in Metro Manila that affected hundreds of thousands of Filipino families. Speaking to Palace reporters, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the Duterte administration was "concerned" about the water shortage in the metropolis amid El Nino. "Siyempre (Of course), we're always concerned with respect to any problem affecting the welfare of people," the Palace official said. "We will look into that," he added, when asked if the government will check on the supposed lack of preparations in anticipation of El Nino phenomenon, which is associated with dry spells and droughts. The state weather bureau has warned that El Nino would go "full-blown" by the end of February or in March. Several parts of Metro Manila experienced water service interruption over the weekend, after Manila Water implemented operational adjustments as the water level at La Mesa Dam continued to fall. On March 8, the water level in La Mesa Dam was at 69.16 meters, reaching its lowest in 12 years and may go down to its critical level of 69 meters in the next few days, based on the state weather bureau's dam monitoring. The normal reservoir water level of the dam, which is part of the important Angat-Ipo-La Mesa water system, is at 80.15 meters. Panelo promised to improve the dissemination of information on the scheduled water information so the public can prepare. "Maybe we will improve on that, on the information and notices to the people so they will be prepared," he said. Panelo assured the public that the government would act swiftly on the water crisis. He said the administration may also consider cloud seeding operations, a move seen as a remedy for the hot weather. "We will respond to that. Pero ang problema ata yung tubig manggagaling sa langit. Walang ulan. Pag walang ulan paano? Baka mag-aantay tayo (We will respond to that. But the problem is the water will come from clouds. There's no rain. If there's no rain, what will happen? We will wait)," Panelo said. "[Cloud seeding], that's a possibility. In fact, 'yan 'yung naiisip ko kung bakit hindi gumagawa ng cloud seeding. 'Di 'ba usually ,'yan ang ginagawa (In fact, I've thought of it. Why don't we do cloud seeding? That's the usual thing we do)," he added. (SunStar Philippines) Researchers conducting fieldwork in Namibia as part of a previous study. Credit: Rachel Wood Scientists are rethinking a major milestone in animal evolution, after gaining fresh insights into how life on Earth diversified millions of years ago. Bursts of evolutionary activity that increased the number and variety of animals began earlier, occurred over a longer timeframe, and were more frequent than previously thought, researchers say. Their findings challenge a long-held theory that suggests the huge expansion in the types of animals on the planet more than 500 million years ago was triggered by a single, rapid surge of evolutionknown as the Cambrian Explosion. Geoscientists from the University of Edinburgh re-assessed the timeline of early animal evolution by analysing records of fossil discoveries and environmental change. Until now, the Cambrian Explosionwhich took place between 540 and 520 million years agowas thought to have given rise to almost all the early ancestors of present-day animals. Scientists say, however, that it was probably just one in a series of similar events, the first of which took place at least 571 million years ago during the late Ediacaran Period. These bursts of evolutionary activity may have coincided with dramatic fluctuations in the levels of oxygen and essential nutrients in the oceans, the team says. The review is published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. It was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council. The research also involved the Universities of Bristol, Cambridge and Helsinki, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, and Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada. Professor Rachel Wood, of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, who led the study, said: "Integrating data from the fossil record with that of environmental changes that affected the whole planet is revealing the patterns and drivers of the rise of complex life on Earth. We used to think early animals emerged rapidly following a single evolutionary event, but our findings suggest it actually happened in stages." More information: Integrated records of environmental change and evolution challenge the Cambrian Explosion, Nature Ecology & Evolution (2019). www.nature.com/articles/s41559-019-0821-6 Journal information: Nature Ecology & Evolution Integrated records of environmental change and evolution challenge the Cambrian Explosion,(2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-019-0821-6 The European Red List categorises 77 bee species as under threat, out of 1,942 species on the continent. The Xylocopa cantabrita is not under threat. Credit: Curro Molina Ecosystems that contain only a few bee species underperform in terms of plant production whereas those with many different species thrive, according to research which highlights the importance of bee diversity to securing the world's food supply. Wild bees are hugely important not only to natural environments, but also to our very way of life. They are vital for pollinating wildflowers, as well as many of the crops we rely on for our everyday daily vegetables and fruit. "One out of every three mouthfuls of food that you consume relies on the pollination activity of bees and other insects," said Mark Brown, professor in evolutionary ecology and conservation at Royal Holloway, University of London in the UK. "It's essential for Europe that we have a sustainable bee population." But as climate change continues to warm the world and humans impact local environments through farming and the use of chemicals, pollinators such as bees are struggling. The European Red List categorises 77 bee species as under threat, out of a total of 1,942 species in Europe. And this may well be an underestimate, because for more than half of all European bee species 1,101 there is not enough data to evaluate their risk of extinction. As a result, researchers are carefully monitoring the bees around the world and the dangers they face. The hope is that by understanding the major challenges to their survival, and which species are most at risk, scientists can help ensure the survival of these vital pollinators. Dr. Ignasi Bartomeus is a researcher at the Donana Biological Station in Seville, Spain. "We are already losing a few species that are most vulnerable," he said. "And there are a few others that are clearly declining. If we change grasslands and forests into cities and crops, a lot of those bees cannot live in that new environment. These are the ones I'm concerned about, that are terribly important for the functioning of natural ecosystems." 150 species To assess which species of bee are most at risk, Dr. Bartomeus and his team observed 150 bee species in the Donana National Park near Seville from 2014 to 2018 as part of the BeeFun project. Also using data from other researchers around the world, the goal was to see which species were adapting to changes in their environment, and which were struggling. They found that some species, known as winner species, adapted well to environmental changes. These included the white-tailed bumblebee, which could survive on a variety of plants. But loser species like Flavipanurgus venustus depended on a single plant, and struggled if that plant disappeared. Bees pollinate wild species as well as a lot of our plant-based food such as these rosemary flowers. Credit: Curro Molina This has important consequences for an ecosystem as a whole, the researchers found, because different bee species collaborate by focusing on different plants. Ecosystems with a lot of different species thrive in terms of plant production, while those with many similar species underperform by comparison. "For the ecosystem to function, it was very important to have (bee) communities that were complementary," said Dr. Bartomeus. "Some bee species would focus on (certain) types of plants, while other bee species would focus on other plants." Prof. Brown, meanwhile, is investigating three major threats to bee health across the world the use of chemicals such as pesticide and fertiliser, a loss of food, and parasites and pathogens in a project called PoshBee. Using a combination of laboratory work and field experiments, one goal is to produce a bee health card, which can be used to assess the health of different bee species. The project is taking place across eight countries in Europe, where the researchers will study the impact of these factors on two crops used by bees oilseed rape and apple orchards. The team will monitor how the different bees react to changes to these crops, such as the introduction of chemicals. Agrochemicals Agrochemicals used in industrialised farming that can pose a danger to bees include neonicotinoids, an insecticide used on crop seeds to kill certain pests. But in 2018, after it was discovered they were harmful to a wide range of bees, the EU imposed a ban on their use. Prof. Brown and his team will be examining similar chemicals to identify which ones can be used without harming bees. They aim is to help advise any future policy or regulation changes. '(It) is one of the largest assessments of exposure of a range of bee species to these threats that has ever been done anywhere in the world," said Prof. Brown. "So hopefully it will be of value not just to Europe, but more broadly." Explore further Foreign bees monopolize prize resources in biodiversity hotspot Credit: University of Minnesota University of Minnesota Crookston researchers, aided by students, are shedding light on freshwater sponges in Minnesota, which may be indicators of water quality. Freshwater sponges have been filtering the waters of the northland for millennia. For the most part, their presence has escaped any attention, much less serious scientific scrutiny, but researchers at the University of Minnesota Crookston are in the process of changing that. Since 2016, four faculty membersKarl Anderson, Anthony Schroeder, Venuopgal Mukku, and Timothy Dudley (two biologists and two chemists)have been examining these non-moving invertebrates and what their presence might mean for Minnesota waters. And they've enlisted the assistance of students, including a grad student from the Twin Cities campus and undergraduates from Crookston, to aid in their research. Their collective work could even lead to the discovery of new species of sponges. (Approximately 200 species have been identified worldwide, with 32 of those in North America.) But more important is the contribution the faculty and student scientists are making to the DNA sequencing of freshwater sponges. Their work will enhance the understanding of the sponges and their habitat, the role they play in the evolutionary cycle, and their role as a possible bio-indicator of a healthy ecosystem. Credit: University of Minnesota "We're excited to take a new look at freshwater sponges using molecular biology and other modern research techniques," says Schroeder, assistant professor in U of M Crookston's Math, Science, and Technology Department. The last documented study of Minnesota freshwater sponges was in the summer of 1970, when a University of Minnesota graduate student collected sponge specimens in Itasca State Park near Bemidji. Today, scientists are capitalizing on 21st-century technology to generate more robust data. Biologists Anderson and Schroeder collect the specimens for labeling and documenting and conduct immediate testing on site. Once they have a specimen and a sample from its water, they record location, pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and conductivity readings. Credit: Steve Woit Back at the lab, the samples are separatedsome for storage and archiving and some for genetic analysis using molecular biology and other research techniques. Chemical residue is studied by chemists Mukku and Dudley. They test to see if chemicals filtered by the sponge are absorbed in its cells, since this could enable those chemicals to move up the food chain. The chemical analysis will help determine if there are hazardous organic compounds harbored by the sponges. Earlier research suggests that freshwater sponges tend to locate in pristine waters; therefore, they may serve as indicators of the quality of water in the lakes and rivers they inhabit. The researchers plan to investigate freshwater sponge species in each of the 10 major watersheds in Minnesota. They'll collect sponges from two lakes or rivers in each watershed, identify the sponges, and map their distribution across the state. The goal, Schroeder says, is to eventually integrate sponge research into the curricula for students in selected science courses at Crookston. The work has already involved students in other areas of science, as well as communication, making the research an interdisciplinary effort. Credit: Steve Woit Explore further Why the world needs the humble glass sponge Some countries have grounded Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, but most are keeping them in the air A number of countries have banned Boeing's 737 MAX 8 medium-haul workhorse jet from their airspace in response to the Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed all 157 people on board. Several individual airlines have grounded their B-737 MAX 8 aircraft but many others are continuing to fly the plane pending an investigation into the crash and possible guidance from Boeing itself. The Nairobi-bound plane was the same type as the Indonesian Lion Air jet that crashed in October, killing 189 passengers and crewand some officials have detected similarities between the two accidents. There are some 350 737 MAX 8 planes currently in service around the world with more than 5,000 on order. Countries banning B-737 MAX planes Australia: Australia barred Boeing 737 MAX planes from its airspace. Fiji Airways is the only 737 MAX operator affected by the Australian ban, according to Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority, as Singapore-based SilkAir's planes were already covered by a ban imposed by the city-state. Britain: In Britain, the authorities said that "as a precautionary measure" on the plane, they had decided "to stop any commercial passenger flights from any operator arriving, departing or overflying UK airspace". China: Beijing Monday ordered domestic airlines to suspend operation of the Boeing 737 MAX 8, citing the two crashes. Noting "similarities" between the two incidents, China said operation of the model would only resume after "confirming the relevant measures to effectively ensure flight safety". France: The French civil aviation authority banned B-737 MAX aircraft from French airspace "as a precautionary measure". Germany: Germany banned all Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes from its airspace. "Safety comes first. Until all doubts have been cleared up, I have ordered that German airspace be closed to all Boeing 737 MAX aircraft with immediate effect," Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer said. There are currently no 737 MAX planes registered in Germany. Indonesia: Indonesia said it was grounding 11 jets of the 737 MAX 8 type. The planes would remain grounded until they were cleared by safety regulators, Director General of Air Transport Polana Pramesti said. Ireland: Ireland banned "all variants" of the Boeing 737 MAX from its airspace. Malaysia: Malaysia banned the plane from its airspace. No Malaysian carriers currently operate the model, the aviation authority said. Mongolia: The Mongolian Civil Aviation Authority said on Facebook it had ordered the state carrier MIAT Mongolian Airlines to ground the sole Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft in its fleet. Oman: Oman suspended Boeing 737 MAX flights "until further notice". Singapore: Singapore banned the aircraft from its airspace. The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said it was "temporarily suspending operation of all variants of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft into and out of Singapore" in light of the two recent accidents. Airlines grounding B-737 MAX jets Aerolineas Argentinas: Argentina's flagship carrier suspended operation of its five 737 MAX 8s pending the result of investigations into the crash of the Ethiopian Airlines plane. Earlier its pilots had refused to fly the jet. Aeromexico: Aeromexico, which has six 737 MAX 8s in its fleet, grounded the aircraft. Cayman Airways: Cayman Airways CEO Fabian Whorms said it would suspend flights for its two 737 MAX 8 planes "until more information is received". Comair: South African airline Comair said it had "decided to remove its 737 MAX from its flight schedule". Eastar Jet: Eastar Jet, the only South Korean airline owning the aircraft, was told by the country's government to ground them. Ethiopian Airlines: Ethiopian Airlines said Monday it had grounded its Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet "until further notice". "Although we don't yet know the cause of the accident, we have to decide to ground the particular fleet as an extra safety precaution," said the state-owned carrier, Africa's largest. Gol Airlines: Brazil's Gol Airlines said it was temporarily suspending use of the plane. Icelandair: Icelandair suspended its Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes. Norwegian: Low-cost airline Norwegian Air Shuttle said it would suspend flights of its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft "until advised otherwise by the relevant aviation authorities". TUI: German carrier TUI fly, owned by Germany's TUI travel group, said it would ground its 15 aircraft of the B-737 MAX type which are stationed in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. Turkish Airlines: Turkish Airlines said it was suspending flights using its fleet of 12 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Currently no ban on B-737 MAX planes Dubai: Airline Flydubai said it was "monitoring the situation" and it was "confident in the airworthiness of our fleet". India: India's aviation regulator said Monday that it had imposed additional "interim" safety requirements for ground engineers and crew for the aircraft, but stopped short of ordering their grounding. Indian airline SpiceJet, which flies 13 B-737 MAX 8 planes, jumped to the defence of the plane, calling it "a highly sophisticated aircraft". Italy: Air Italy said it would follow all directives "to ensure the maximum level of safety and security". In the meantime, its planes remain in the air. Russia: Russian airline S7 said it was closely following the crash investigation and was in contact with Boeing, but had received no instructions to stop flying the 737 MAX 8. US: The US Federal Aviation Administration said it would not make any decision until it has more evidence. "No updates so far. We continue to be involved in the accident investigation and will make decisions on any further steps based on the evidence," FAA spokesperson Lynn Lunsford told AFP. Boeing, which has sent experts to assist in the Ethiopia probe, said safety is its "number one priority". "The investigation is in its early stages, but at this point, based on the information available, we do not have any basis to issue new guidance to operators," it said in a statement. Southwest Airlines, which operates 34 of the 737 MAX 8 planes, said: "We remain confident in the safety and airworthiness of our fleet of more than 750 Boeing aircraft." A source told AFP that American Airlines planned to continue operating its two dozen 737 MAX 8s. Explore further Boeing 737 MAX safety record questioned after two tragedies 2019 AFP The study was conducted at the Predator Research Facility in Millville, Utah. This 2011 photo courtesy of the USDA National Wildlife Research Center. Credit: Christopher Schell/National Wildlife Research Center Across North America, coyotes are moving into urban environments, and regardless of how they feel about it, urban residents are having to get used to some new animal neighbors. A big question for wildlife researchers is how coyotes habituate to humans, which can potentially lead to conflict. A study led by a University of Washington Tacoma faculty member, recently published in Ecology and Evolution, suggests coyotes can habituate to humans quickly and that habituated parents pass this fearlessness on to their offspring. "Even if it's only 0.001 percent of the time, when a coyote threatens or attacks a person or a pet, it's national news, and wildlife management gets called in," said first author Christopher Schell, an assistant professor at UW Tacoma. "We want to understand the mechanisms that contribute to habituation and fearlessness, to prevent these situations from occurring." The study, done as part of Schell's doctoral work at the University of Chicago, focused on eight coyote families at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Predator Research Facility in Millville, Utah. The research center was founded in the 1970s to reduce coyote attacks on sheep and other livestock. Until the 20th century, Schell said, coyotes lived mostly in the Great Plains. But when wolves were hunted almost to extinction in the early 1900s, coyotes lost their major predator, and their range began to expand. With continuing landscape changes, coyotes are now increasingly making their way into suburban and urban environmentsincluding New York City, Los Angeles and cities in the Pacific Northwestwhere they live, mainly off rodents and small mammals, without fear of hunters. These 7-week-old coyote pups walk through the research facility in Utah. Their mother, in front, carries a bone in her mouth. Photo courtesy of the USDA National Wildlife Research Center. Credit: Steve Guymon/National Wildlife Research Center The new study seeks to understand how a skittish, rural coyote can sometimes transform into a bold, urban onea shift that can exacerbate negative interactions among humans and coyotes. "Instead of asking, 'Does this pattern exist?' we're now asking, 'How does this pattern emerge?'" Schell said. A key factor may be parental influence. Coyotes pair for life, and both parents contribute equally to raising the offspring. This may be because of the major parental investment required to raise coyote pups, and the evolutionary pressure to guard them from larger carnivores. The new study observed coyote families at the Utah facility during their first and second breeding seasons. These coyotes are raised in a fairly wild setting, with minimal human contact and food scattered across large enclosures. But during the experiment researchers occasionally placed all the food near the entrance of the enclosure and had a human researcher sit just outside, watching any approaching coyotes, from five weeks to 15 weeks after the birth of the litter. Then they documented how soon the coyotes would venture toward the food. Five-week-old coyote pups eat food rations during the experiment. These second-litter pups were born in 2013 to more-experienced parents, and were more likely to approach a human. Photo courtesy of the USDA National Wildlife Research Center. Credit: Christopher Schell "For the first season, there were certain individuals that were bolder than others, but on the whole they were pretty wary, and their puppies followed," Schell said. "But when we came back and did the same experiment with the second litter, the adults would immediately eat the foodthey wouldn't even wait for us to leave the pen in some instances. "Parents became way more fearless, and in the second litter, so, too, were the puppies." In fact, the most cautious pup from the second-year litter ventured out more than the boldest pup from the first-year litter. The study also looked at two hormones in the coyotes' furcortisol, the "fight or flight" hormone, and testosterone. The second litter of pups had mothers who experienced more stress during pregnancy, due to the researchers' presence during the experiment, so that may have affected their development in the womb. But hormonal changes do not seem to have been passed down in that way. Instead, the fur samples showed that the bolder pups had higher cortisol levels in their blood, meaning they ventured to the food despite their fear of humans. Further work would confirm whether, as Schell suspects, the cortisol levels would decline over time as the coyotes began to discount the human threat. "The discovery that this habituation happens in only two to three years has been corroborated, anecdotally, by evidence from wild sites across the nation," Schell said. "We found that parental effect plays a major role." Explore further Coyotes becoming problem for urban areas More information: Christopher J. Schell et al, Parental habituation to human disturbance over time reduces fear of humans in coyote offspring, Ecology and Evolution (2018). Journal information: Ecology and Evolution Christopher J. Schell et al, Parental habituation to human disturbance over time reduces fear of humans in coyote offspring,(2018). DOI: 10.1002/ece3.4741 Ellie, a four-year-old labradoodle, enjoys many pats from students as part of the Building Academic Retention through K9s program (B.A.R.K.) at the University of British Columbia. Credit: Freya L. L. Green The interaction always played out the same way. I'd leave my office and make my way across campus in search of coffee, my dog Frances by my side, and I would be besieged by students who, for the most part, would ignore me and lose themselves in Frances. They would eventually look up with tear-filled eyes and say: "As much as I miss my parents, I miss my dog more." Now, seven years later, I run a large dog therapy program at the University of British Columbia. With 60 therapy dog teams, we offer programs to reduce stress and boost students' wellbeing. The B.A.R.K. programBuilding Academic Retention through K9screates opportunities for students and community members to spend time with therapy dogs. We offer a weekly drop-in program on Friday afternoons. For students who can't attend that session, we have therapy dog teams stationed throughout the campus strategically near the coffee shop and in the library at other times. The 60 therapy dogs we have in B.A.R.K. are mostly male, are all around four years old. Thirty-six per cent of them are mixed breeds, thus challenging the prevailing stereotype that only golden retrievers make good therapy dogs. We work closely with a local rescue group, Paws it Forward which rescues dogs from high-kill shelters in the United States and elsewhere. Once these dogs are adopted, many of them find their way into our program. We also build leadership skills in children from the Okanagan Boys & Girls Club, and provide stress reduction opportunities for police constables at the Kelowna Royal Canadian Mounted Police Detachment. It's rewarding work for sure. Why dogs on campus? Life as a university student is usually thought of as an exciting and engaging time of one's life. But for many it can feel not dissimilar to moving into a seniors' home, in the sense of living away from home, leaving family and pets behind and adjusting to a potentially impersonal institution. In fact, this transition sees first-year university students, especially in the first semester, experience heightened levels of homesickness. Providing students with access to therapy dogs helps fill a void caused by this upheaval and helps to ease the transition from high school to university. Dash, a six-year-old golden retriever, is one of 60 dogs who helps ease the transition from high school to university. Credit: Freya L. L. Green These first-year university students are adjusting to increased academic expectations and figuring out how to establish new social networks. Once they are suddenly free from the watchful eye of parents, they can thrive in their new environment or feel as if they are drowning in it. Universities are increasingly seeking ways to support those students who need assistance with the transition from high school. No longer concerned only about students' academic success, modern universities also strive to support their social and emotional wellbeing. Students who fail to make the transition from high school to university are at risk for compromised mental health and potentially dropping out, which comes at a cost to not just the student, but the university too. This is where therapy dogs come in on campuses. A 2015 study identified more than 925 canine therapy programs across U.S. college campuses and programs, but to date, no known comprehensive research is available about the number of canine therapy programs at Canadian post-secondary institutions. After seven years, here's what I've learned about supporting university students through canine therapy. 1. Dog welfare is key Exposing a group of therapy dogs to stressed university students is no small undertaking and efforts must be made to safeguard the welfare of therapy dogs working in sessions. You can't have human stress decrease at the expense of therapy dog wellbeing, so dogs in our program are carefully monitored for signs of distress. As part of their orientation, handlers learn to recognize the indicators of canine stress. 2. Being with dogs reduces student stress Over the course of three semesters, we documented how 1,960 students confidentially assessed their stress levels upon arriving at a dog program and when departing. We found students' stress reduced significantly from an average arrival rating of 4.47 on a five-point-scale to 1.73 on the same scale after being with dogs. B.A.R.K. poster. Author provided 3. The half-hour sweetspot Some programs will set limits on how long students can visit with dogs. However, we identified that when given the option to stay until they felt their stress was sufficiently reduced, university students stay, on average, 35 minutes. 4. Dog therapy can be low-cost Although a therapy dog program can provide a number of logistical challenges, structured properly it can be relatively low-cost. The costs associated with running a program are borne largely upfront in the screening, training and assessment of therapy dogs and their handlers. As these programs run predominantly on the efforts of community volunteers, once dog-handler teams are identified, the costs are not prohibitive. 5. Programs must be flexible There can't be too many barriers impeding students' access to dogs. Students, especially stressed students, don't like to wait. Providing access to enough dogs to meet the demand can be a challenge. 6. It's not just for first-year students Although first-year students account for the bulk of our student visitors, we see students from across the undergraduate years. Generally, more female than male students seek to interact with therapy dogs. We also see faculty, staff and community members make use of our programs. Although post-secondary faculty in particular experience heightened occupational stress, we have not yet assessed the effects of therapy dogs on faculty or staff stress. At our drop-in space, you'll find snacks, friendly dog handlers trained in facilitating interactions, and therapy dogs eager to comfort students who admit to missing their dog back home a little more than their parents. Explore further Study finds therapy dogs help stressed university students This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The insurance industry has enabled and invested in the fossil fuel industry. Credit: Matt Artz/Unsplash The dire climate change situation continues to make headlines and inspire actions like the Sunrise Movement. Recently, United States congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey pushed the debate about addressing climate change forward by introducing resolutions for a Green New Deal to transform the American economy. The Green New Deal is supported by politicians currently seeking the Democratic Party's 2020 presidential nomination, including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Proponents of the proposed deal, like Ocasio-Cortez, rightly point out the pressing urgency to implement policy to reduce the impact of climate change. She likened this effort to other massive undertakings in U.S. history, such as the moon landing and the civil rights movement. The Green New Deal represents an endeavour on a similar scale aimed at addressing climate change. But despite all the climate change buzz, its impact on the insurance industry has been largely absent from discussion. This is especially significant considering the importance of insurance in managing risk. It's surprising that media coverage on the Green New Deal has not included some mention of insurance especially because insurers, and particularly American insurers, enable and invest in the fossil fuel industry. All of the largest U.S. insurance companies, including AIG and Berkshire Hathaway, continue to invest in and underwrite the coal industry. The intersection of insurance and climate A recent report from Cambridge University has underlined just how necessary it is to have conversations about the intersection of insurance and climate in the context of the Green New Deal. The Cambridge report was produced in partnership with top global insurance and reinsurance firms. Alarmingly, the report highlights that increasingly severe losses for insurers due to climate change could result in a global financial crisis. Given the historical precedent for economic crises caused by insurance losses, the industry is justifiably concerned. The history of insurance is in fact the history of crisis. Since its inception, the insurance industry has had to grapple with its exposure to catastrophe. The traditional way it's done so is by transferring catastrophic risk to reinsurance companies firms that specialize in providing insurance coverage to insurers and spreading the risk globally so as to dilute its impacts. However, these efforts are not always successful, and massive catastrophes continue to result in the bankruptcy of insurers. As I discussed in a previous article written in the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, significant changes have occurred in the insurance industry in an attempt to better insulate primary insurance companies from catastrophic risk. These changes have largely been focused on increasing the amount of what's known as reinsurance capital available to cover insurers' exposure to catastrophe. New strategies involve the introduction of alternative sources of reinsurance capital provided by bringing capital market investors into the insurance sector. This process has been accomplished through the packaging of risk into insurance-linked securities, and then selling those securities to institutional investors like sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and dedicated hedge funds specializing in catastrophic risk. Pattern repeating The scenarios raised in the Cambridge report about a global financial crisis brought on by the collision of climate change and insurance fit the historical pattern of the industry. Changes to the insurance industry since the mid-1990s, along with the proliferation of alternative reinsurance sources through the integration of capital markets and institutional investors, are significant. That's why initiatives like the Green New Deal must take into account the changes occurring in the insurance industry. The primary source of systemic risk outlined in the Cambridge report stems from rising global temperatures and untenable losses to insurers as a result. For example, the authors warn that if climate change is left unchecked, the world will witness the tripling of catastrophic losses on property investments over the next 30 years. Eerily reminiscent of 2008 While this is a shocking and extremely disturbing finding, there are other equally troubling ways that the intersection of insurance and climate change could produce global financial systemic risk. That's due to the transformation of risk into securities which are then sold to capital market investors. The creation of insurance-linked securities to increase the availability of reinsurance capital to primary insurers and better protect them from catastrophic risk creates at the same time a perverse incentive structure. It's very similar to the mortgage-backed securities that formed the underlying risky assets that caused the 2008 crisis. With the growth of alternative reinsurance capital in the sector and massive government programs, as well as global institutions turning towards the securitizationof catastrophic risk in response to climate change, another global financial crisis is certainly a possibility, just as the authors of the Cambridge report warn. While massive and courageous transformations to our economies and societies like the Green New Deal are necessary in the face of climate change, we must broaden our conversations to include the increasing integration of insurance and finance. If we don't, strategies adopted to address climate change, like the buying and selling of catastrophic risk, could produce calamitous outcomes themselves. Explore further Study says insurance industry dangerously unprepared for extreme weather This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Our federal government and many state and local governments have been promoting energy efficiency for decades. It is hard to argue against efficiency. Why would anyone want to waste something that costs money, like energy? If I can drive a car forty miles on a gallon of gas, why would I want to spend twice the money if the same car got twenty miles to the gallon? If I can heat my home for 2/3 the price with insulated windows, why wouldn't I want to install those windows if I could? While the goal of energy efficiency is not controversial, the means of achieving efficiency can be a subject of debate. Energy utilities all over America are encouraging their customers to adopt energy efficiency measures. Some states like California and New York tax energy use to generate funds that are invested in energy efficiency. Let's assume that you might want to install those insulated windows, but it will take several years for the windows to pay off, and you don't have the money in the bank to pay for new windows. State energy taxes, often administered by utilities, can provide the funding needed to loan you the money for installing new windows. After a few years, the cost of the windows can be recovered in lower energy bills. For some, this is government intrusion in the marketplace; for others, it is common sense public policy. State and local governments continue to move aggressively on energy efficiency. One goal is to avoid the capital expense of new power plants. Another is to make the local economy more competitive. When we make the current energy system more efficient, we can increase energy use without generating additional power. The federal government under the Trump Administration seems to be retreating on energy efficiency. They are trying to roll back automobile fuel efficiency standards and are even going back on light bulb regulation. According to Nadia Popovich of the New York Times: "Over the past decade, traditional incandescent bulbs, those distinctive glass orbs with glowing wire centers, have been rapidly replaced by more energy-efficient lighting. The shift has driven down electricity demand in American homes, saving consumers money and cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The energy savings are expected to grow as highly efficient and increasingly inexpensive LED bulbs continue to replace older lights. But energy efficiency advocates worry that the Trump administration could slow the pace of this lighting revolution. Last month, the Department of Energy said it would withdraw an Obama-era regulation that nearly doubled the number of light bulbs subject to energy-efficiency requirements. Industry groups are also pushing back on new lighting efficiency requirements slated to go into effect next year. After climbing for decades, electricity use by American households has declined over the past eight years." The more efficient bulbs are getting cheaper and it may be that government regulation will eventually be superfluous, but at the moment it helps push them and in a small way helps maintain the momentum behind energy efficiency. Energy efficiency is a growing business. According to the National Association of State Energy Officials: "2.25 million Americans work in Energy Efficiency, in whole or in part, in the design, installation, and manufacture of Energy Efficiency products and services." I am on the board of directors of a company called Willdan, which is a rapidly growing firm in the energy efficiency business. At Willdan I am observing first-hand the increasing technological sophistication of the effort to reduce energy waste. One of the companies that Willdan recently merged with works with utilities to ensure that the time of day they generate electricity matches the time of day it is used. There is a growing level of expertise being developed and deployed to reduce the use of energy, while continuing to produce the same output. In our homes we continue to use more energy-dependent technology every day, but our energy use per capita is going down rather than up. Opponents of climate policy argue that combating global warming could raise the cost of energy and force changes in our lifestyle. I believe that the opposite is true and cite the example of energy efficiency. A more efficient use of energy is an effort to use less energy to produce the same output. We have seen that more energy efficient technologies can be invented if we put our minds to it. Refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and automobiles have all become more energy efficient over the past several decades. When engineers are given energy efficiency as a design parameter, we soon start to see products that use less energy than they once did. The price of the new technology is rarely higher than the old one; it's just that saving energy wasn't a priority and now it is. I continue to believe that the use of price to influence behavior is not an effective strategy for climate change policy. It works for transportation in a crowded city with congestion pricing because you have the alternative of using mass transit or travelling at a different time of day. However, much use of energy is too central to daily life and its use is largely nondiscretionary. If you don't have access to mass transit (like most Americans) you have no choice but drive to work. And you can't turn off your refrigerator, your climate control or stop charging your smartphone. A more effective strategy than taxing carbon is to create an effective public-private partnership to modernize the energy system and make it more efficient and renewable with the aim of lowering the price of energy. It is clear that if you can encourage or subsidize the capital required for energy efficiency, you can lower the consumer's cost of electricity. Even paying back the cost of capital, consumer energy bills can go down. Energy efficiency policy in America is in place at the state and local level and starting to work. A similar logic can be applied to renewable energy: Through technological innovation you can lower per capita cost of energy. The theory is straightforward. The cost structure for fossil fuels, even without charging for its environmental impact, can only rise. First, you must extract fossil fuels from the earth, then transport them to where they are needed, and then burn them. Each of those steps not only pollutes the planet but is bound to rise in price over the long run. They are called fossil fuels because they were only created once in our planet's history and they are a finite resource. Eventually they will become scarce and as that happens they will rise in price. The cost of transport will not go down much, and the cost of combustion is also relatively fixed. In contrast, the costs of renewable energy will continue to go down as solar cells and battery technology advances and as wind energy achieves economies of scale. The cost of the basic fuel, the sun, will remain zero for longer than our species will probably exist. The problem is that this dynamic may take too long to save us from negative impacts of climate change. While the logic of fossil fuels vs. renewable energy pricing is clear to most advocates of climate policy, the political unpopularity of increasing energy prices seems to elude them. The popularity of energy efficiency and the illogic of opposing it is a clue that lowering energy prices is more politically popular and less controversial than increasing them. The only politically feasible way of combatting climate change is to invest in research and development and infrastructure that makes our energy system more efficient and less dependent on fossil fuels. The goal is to build a more efficient, modern and lower-cost energy system. We need an energy system based on lower-cost renewable energy, widespread energy storage and distributed generation of energy, and a system that uses energy as efficiently as possible. Even though the Trump folks want to move backward on light bulbs and fuel standards, if consumers believe they can get the same quality light and transportation they now have but pay less for it they will do it with or without the federal government. A climate policy that focuses on energy efficiency is already in place and is politically popular. A similar approach to renewable energyone that emphasizes technological innovation designed to lower price while maintaining reliabilitycan drive fossil fuels from the marketplace and ease the climate crisis confronting our planet. Explore further Light bulbs in the crosshairs of Trump administration's environmental rollbacks Provided by Earth Institute, Columbia University This story is republished courtesy of Earth Institute, Columbia University http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu. Def Jam Recordings2 Chainz and Ariana Grande rule the nightclub scene in the new music video for their collab, Rule the World. The clip begins with Ariana taking the stage at a glamorous Los Angeles jazz club in a white feathered coat and her signature high pony. As she sings, club patrons hit the chandelier-lit dance floor. We then see 2 Chainz as he gets ready backstage and eventually joins Ariana on stage. The video ends with a shot of an autographed photo of Ariana and 2 Chainz hanging on the venues wall. Prior to this collab, 2 Chainz hopped on the remix of Arianas hit 7 Rings, after he initially called her out for copying his track I Spend It. Rule the World appears on the rapper's new album Rap or Go to the League. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. The Philippine government will take the advice of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on acquiring loans from China, Malacanang said Monday, adding its economic managers have given an assurance that the country will not be at a disadvantage as a result of it. Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo made the remark after the Malaysian leader said the Philippines should be wary about securing loans from China. Mahathir said the Philippines should learn from the mistakes of other countries that suffered from unsustainable debt by accepting Beijings infrastructure investments. If you borrow huge sums of money from China and you cannot payyou know when a person is a borrower he is under the control of the lender. So, we have to be very careful with that, Mahathir told ANC in an interview on Thursday. Mahathir, recognized as the most senior statesman in Asia, recalled Malaysias own experience with the China-funded infrastructure projects, scrapping them in the process as he viewed them as unfair. Meanwhile, Panelo said the Palace welcomed Mahathirs advice. Of course, we will take his advice and the economic managers are evaluating all kinds of loans that we are having with the Chinese government, Panelo told reporters.He said the economic managers had assured them that the Philippines remained very careful in accepting loan offers from China. I think the economic managers have already explained that we are not at a disadvantage, Panelo said. Just last week, the Palace defended the countrys 20-year loan deal with China to finance the Chico River Pump Irrigation Project. Critics said the deal with Beijing was onerous in its entirety and had a dangerous component that highly favored Beijing. But Panelo said the economic team had studied the matter at length and ignored the concerns over the deal. The Department of Finance says the Philippines has already executed nine loan agreements with other countries, two of which are from China. Credit: CC0 Public Domain A group of international experts has developed a much-needed framework to significantly improve the monitoring of status and trends of species worldwide. This finding comes after a multi-year collaboration under the auspices of the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON). Their report is now published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Changes to biodiversity are already happening with severe potential consequences to all species, including humans, the researchers say. The loss or invasion of a single species can dramatically alter the function of an entire ecosystem, explained Walter Jetz, lead author and Yale professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and of forestry and environmental studies. Yet, current information about how and where species populations are changing on the planet remains "woefully inadequate," according to study co-author Melodie McGeoch of Monash University, Australia. It lags far behind scientists' monitoring of other aspects of environmental change, she explained. Following in the footsteps of a similar approach in climate science to characterize core information, the researchers first identified "essential variables" for addressing species populations. These are standardized measures that with the aid of other informationsuch as that gathered by satellite-based remote sensingand models integrate the often gap-ridden raw species data to give a clear picture of the distribution and abundance of species. The experts then laid out recommended practices that support this framework, such as better data sharing across national borders and enhanced collaboration between the varied parties involved in relevant data collection, from amateurs to government agencies. "We hope that the presented concept and framework for global species monitoring will lay an important foundation for the collection and use of biodiversity data in support of conservation and resource management worldwide. Any agencies, businesses, conservation organizations, or international bodies concerned with the management of our lands and oceans would benefit from more reliable and representative information about the status and trends of species," said Jetz. The study's suggestions also have the potential to help researchers themselves, he said. Improved global species monitoring would help close knowledge gaps that hinder present research that requires spatial biodiversity information, especially information about parts of the world and the tree of life that are hard to document through current practices. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Two leading Australian digital media experts have backed proposed tougher regulations for digital platforms, saying the public has lost faith in tech giants like Facebook and Google. QUT's Professor Terry Flew and University of Sydney's Associate Professor Tim Dwyer were among 86 people and organisations to make submissions to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in response to its recent Digital Platform Inquiry. The submissions to the inquiry's preliminary report have now been made public. "Digital platform companies are increasingly like media companies that share news and they need to be regulated as such," Professor Flew said. "The 'techlash' we are seeing from the general public shows there is growing community concern and we welcome the ACCC's regulatory proposals." The submissions also included one from Google, which argued it didn't need any extra regulating. But Professor Flew and Professor Dwyer disagree. In their submission to the ACCC, the pair highlighted a "failure of trust" and provided four main arguments for regulatory changes: Digital platform companies are increasingly acting as 'media-like' companies. There's a regulatory imbalance between traditional media companies and digital platforms. A new unified and regulatory framework will provide regulatory certainty for new players and existing ones. A united platform-neutral regulatory framework is in the public interest and will give greater confidence to the public in areas including the accuracy of news and ethical standards. "There is a growing awareness of the possibilities, and indeed need, for regulating digital and social media platforms," Professors Flew and Dwyer wrote. "A steady stream of scandals in relation to Facebook and Google sharing personal data with third parties, the growing evidence of Russian hacking of the 2016 US Presidential elections, and the role of the boutique data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica, contributed to this shift in awareness of the role these platforms are playing in our lives. "There's a pervading sense that the 'Tech Giants' have betrayed our trust arising from their role in spreading misinformation and the manipulation of breaking news. This failure of trust has been seen most acutely in algorithmic news provision and its implications for media pluralism. Examples include the ways in which third party actors are involved in online news manipulation and strategies of disinformation in the context of elections, or the more prosaic practices of news recommender algorithms, including YouTube's 'Up Next' recommender." Explore further Australia watchdog tips tough rules to curb power of Google, Facebook More information: Digital Platforms Inquiry: Preliminary report: Digital Platforms Inquiry: Preliminary report: www.accc.gov.au/system/files/ACCC %20Digital%20Platforms%20Inquiry%20-%20Preliminary%20Report.pdf Platform Governance: Rethinking Internet Regulation as Media Policy. research.qut.edu.au/dmrc/proje platform-governance/ Credit: CC0 Public Domain Note: This post was scheduled just as news came in that the Fair Isle Bird Observatory had been destroyed by fire on Sunday, 10th March 2019). Thankfully, nobody was injured in the fire. Plans are already afoot to rebuild, but that will take time and money. Richard Butler of Strathclyde Business School at the University of Strathclyde, in Glasgow, UK, is worried about the impact of niche tourism, specifically birdwatching, on the well-being of a remote island and its residents. Writing in the International Journal of Tourism Anthropology, he explains how birdwatching has been the predominant form of tourism on Fair Isle, the most remote of the inhabited British islands since tourism began there in 1905. The research analyses data collected in two surveys of the resident population that were carried out half a century apart. "The information obtained allows a longitudinal examination of the impact of tourism on the well-being of island residents and resident attitudes towards, and involvement with, tourism, and reveals that attitudes have remained positive throughout the half-century of study," Butler reports. Moreover, the numbers, location, and nature of tourists and tourism are identified as key factors in the positive relationship between residents and visitors. Tourism has benefited Fair Isle in terms of environmental, sociocultural, and economic well-being. Fair Isle has a world-famous bird observatory and represents something of a pilgrimage site for keen birdwatchers. Aside from resident species, the position of the island halfway between Shetland and Orkney at about seven degrees south of The Arctic Circle makes it a likely place for migrants and vagrant bird species from other continents to pass through on their various travels. Even if many of the human residents departed the island there would likely still be enthusiastic ornithologists and amateur birdwatchers who would take to the see in order to reach the observatory. "While it would be naive to claim that the current nature of tourism is completely sustainable or perfect, it is closer to sustainability than in most tourist destinations, and overall achieves a measure of symbiosis with both the human and non-human environment with positive effects upon resident well-being," Butler concludes. Explore further Poor employment in tourism threatens sustainability More information: Richard W. Butler et al. Niche tourism (birdwatching) and its impacts on the well-being of a remote island and its residents, International Journal of Tourism Anthropology (2019). Richard W. Butler et al. Niche tourism (birdwatching) and its impacts on the well-being of a remote island and its residents,(2019). DOI: 10.1504/IJTA.2019.098097 Senior Research Fellow, Dr Phillippa Carnemolla. Credit: Andy Roberts A new report looks at how construction is portrayed and perceived by high-school girls as a potential career option. Dr Phillippa Carnemolla, Senior Research Fellow at UTS School of Built Environment also examined the pathways that young women are taking when they do choose to pursue a construction career. Despite modest improvements, construction remains Australia's most male-dominated industry with the lowest representation of women of all industry sectors. At every career stage - recruitment, retention and progression - men vastly outnumber women. The report "Why Would I Want to do That for a Career?", was commissioned in 2018 by the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) as part of a $20,000 scholarship to Dr Phillippa Carnemolla, sponsored by CULT design. Over the one-year study, Dr Carnemolla investigated perceptions of the construction industry by examining existing research, interviewing female high school students, and analysing UTS enrolment data for the Bachelor of Construction Project Management. "In interviewing the students, it was clear that they had little knowledge of the construction industry and its potential career options," said Dr Carnemolla. "The fact that it is a growth industry and one of Australia's three largest industries was also unknown." None of the interviewed students could recall speaking to a successful woman with a career in construction and felt they could not visualise themselves in a construction role. The research also revealed a lack of understanding about the diverse scope of jobs and careers that comprise the construction industry. "One of the most revealing aspects of the research was that many girls didn't believe they would be respected or heard in the construction industry. Nor could they visualise what achievement might look like for them, or how they could make a difference." said Dr Carnemolla. "In fact, construction was not seen as a viable or aspirational career path like law, business, medicine or engineering despite engineering being a part of the construction industry." While, the interviews demonstrated that few girls had a comprehensive understanding of what it means to work in construction, the research showed that females from all-girls schools were significantly more likely to choose to study construction at university. 55% of girls offered placements in the UTS Construction Project Management degree as school-leavers came from all-girls high schools while only 9% of schools NSW are all-girls. Professor Heather MacDonald, Head of the UTS School of Built Environment says that Dr Carnemolla's research gives valuable insight into the challenges universities face in attracting a more diverse range of students to Construction Project Management programs. "Many young women don't understand the range of skills and knowledge entailed in the field, nor the significant opportunities to be part of major projects that transform the built environment," said Professor MacDonald. "One of the key messages we hear from our industry partners is the importance of expanding the recruitment base for Construction Project Managers not only to ensure that the industry reflects the diversity of Australian society, but also to ensure project managers bring a wide range of skills and experiences to construction in the 21st century." As a result of her research findings, Dr Carnemolla has made recommendations that will enable NAWIC, employer groups, leading companies and broader construction networks to better engage with high school girls and to communicate the potential for a construction career. Explore further Artifacts discovery halts some work at Marine base on Guam More information: Girls' Perceptions of the Construction Industry: Building a Picture of who isn't Interested in a Career in Construction and Why Girls' Perceptions of the Construction Industry: Building a Picture of who isn't Interested in a Career in Construction and Why www.nawic.com.au/Web/IWD_Schol larship_Archive.aspx Credit: Fotolia Researchers from IMDEA Nanociencia and other European centres have discovered that the combination of graphene with cobalt offers relevant properties in the field of magnetism. This breakthrough sets the stage for the development of new logic devices that can store large data amounts quickly and with reduced energy consumption. One of the latest technologies for digitally encoding information is spin orbitronics, which not only exploits the charge of the electron (electronics) and its spin (spintronics), but also the interaction of the spin with its orbital motion, offering a multitude of properties that are relevant in magnetism. This technology is applied in certain materials to generate magnetic configurations that are very stable but which can be controlled and moved quickly with very small electrical currents. The resulting structures are considered very promising for future spin-orbitronic devices, as they provide high processing speed and a high capacity for storing data, with low energy consumption. Now, a European team led by the IMDEA Nanociencia Institute has developed a methodology to prepare such a system. It consists of a device made of stacked graphene films (a single atomic graphite layer) placed on ferromagnetic cobalt, arranged in turn on a platinum layer with a certain crystallographic orientation. The details are published in Nano Letters. The main author of the study, Paolo Perna from IMDEA Nanociencia, explains the advantages of this configuration: "On the one hand, the exceptional properties of graphene make it possible to obtain a homogeneous, flat and protected magnetic layer, which is also atomically perfect. However, what matters most are the two magnetic properties that are achieved: an improvement in the magnetic anisotropy of cobalt (its spines are preferably oriented in a certain direction), and a strong interaction called Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya, which allows the presence of chiral magnetic structures, as they do not overlap with its specular image." Skyrmions for carrying binary information These chiral magnetic structures of nanometric size are called skyrmions. They are very stable and act as carriers of binary information as they travel through graphene. "By passing through two electrical contacts, each skyrmion produces a change in the electrical response that can be decoded into zeros and ones," explains Perna. "In this way, in the near future, it will be possible to produce spin-orbitronic magnetic devices such as magnetic memories or sensors that are much faster and denser than current ones, and with much lower energy consumption," the researcher says. In order to detect the properties, the authors have used combined spectroscopy and microscopy techniques, including some with light at the ALBA synchrotron near Barcelona. Researchers from the Complutense and Autonomous Universities of Madrid, together with the Neel Institute of Grenoble (France), have also participated in the study. As the basis of the device, the authors have used oxide insulating substrates. In order to obtain high-quality graphene, metallic substrates are usually used in laboratories, but they are very expensive for the industry and, as conductors, they would not allow the electrical insulation of the device with the chip. "We have proven that it is feasible to prepare high quality magnetic structures based on graphene and on oxide insulating substrates, which can be implemented in current manufacturing processes," Perna notes. Explore further Magnetic graphene switches between insulator and conductor More information: Fernando Ajejas et al. Unraveling DzyaloshinskiiMoriya Interaction and Chiral Nature of Graphene/Cobalt Interface, Nano Letters (2018). Journal information: Nano Letters Fernando Ajejas et al. Unraveling DzyaloshinskiiMoriya Interaction and Chiral Nature of Graphene/Cobalt Interface,(2018). DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b00878 Credit: University of Pennsylvania When a big technology company moves to town, it often promises eco-friendly infrastructure and encourages a sustainability ethos to go along with it. That was the idea when Amazon announced plans to bring its headquarters to Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood a decade ago. It coincided with low-carbon investments the area had already been makinga new light rail between downtown and the airport, more protected bike lanesand the company's desire to promote a climate-friendly lifestyle. But as well-paid tech workers arrived in South Lake Union and adjacent neighborhoods, moving physically close to the headquarters building and public transit options, the area's demographics started to shift in what University of Pennsylvania sociologist Daniel Aldana Cohen and colleagues describe as "carbon gentrification." Beyond that, instead of a resulting in a lower carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions and overall consumption there likely increased. According to a new paper in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research from Cohen, Jennifer Rice of the University of Georgia, Joshua Long of Southwestern University, and Jason Jurjevich of Portland State University, what happened with Amazon in Seattle isn't unique. Rather, it's an unforeseen and unfortunate trend that will likely continue and requires more granular data to fully understand. "There's clear evidence that the arrival of tech companies is causing a significant migration of lower-income and non-white populations out of urban cores where firms locate. Then more affluent residents are taking their place," says Cohen, an assistant professor and member of the Population Studies Center (PSC) at Penn. "From the carbon analysis so far, when density results from more high-income residents, the low-carbon benefits of that density get wiped out. We believe the carbon emissions in these neighborhoods are staying the same or increasing." Residential densityin this context the concentration of peopleliving near mass transit can play an important role in lowering carbon emissions. "The core issue is what kind of density," Cohen says. "The data are telling us that the kind led by tech companies and tech workers causes social displacement and has no climate benefit. On the other hand, density anchored by affordable housing would yield climate and social benefits at the same time. And it could be pursued all across urban and suburban areas, led by public planning and public investment." The research began after Cohen, a sociologist focused on Sao Paolo and New York City, and Rice, a geographer focused on Seattle, were co-panelists at a conference. Rice has researched governance in Seattle for more than a decade, allowing her to observe firsthand the changes Amazon brought. "As wealthier people arrived," she says, "I suspected that was counteracting the city's climate-related goals." Teaming up with Long and Jurjevich, they began studying links between big tech, gentrification, and carbon emissions there. They looked at what are currently the best zip code-level carbon footprint data in the United States, and conducted a demographic analysis of Seattle, then did a deep dive into how housing advocates perceived the changes since Amazon arrived. "Many of the activist groups I work with in Seattle feel you can't have climate justice without housing justice," Rice says. "We agree." Understanding the true societal cost of this relatively new problem requires data that either haven't yet been collected or aren't yet analyzed. Part of the challenge lies in how cities currently count emissions. Right now, according to Cohen, most do so territorially. In other words, they consider what happens within the city limits as emissions coming from that city, then add in energy that urban residents use. But territorial accounting ignores any production or transportation beyond city limits that goes toward producing goods and services distributed within that city. That can lead to a skewed representation of carbon footprints. "For affluent, post-industrial cities, this is a convenient measure to use. But it's necessary to have even more granular data on carbon emissions," he says. "All the evidence we have so far strongly suggests that gentrification, when you bring wealthier people into dense neighborhoods, will maintain or even raise the carbon footprint of those areas, particularly when you're displacing low-income residents." A changing consumption pattern is likely at fault, since more affluent people tend to have higher carbon footprints due to higher consumption. Previously, consumption centered on places where people spent time together, like rec centers and churches. In the new model, luxury condo towers and high-end malls move in, closing off people from one another yet putting expensive purchasing opportunities next door. This move, from shared to private consumption, is already seen in places like Seattle and New York and increasingly, Philadelphia, happening in tandem with gentrification. But it's not too late to reverse course. "We need massive investments in affordable housing paired with serious support to ensure that density does not displace people, but rather that everyone can benefit from it," Cohen says, adding, "Sustainability interventions need to be holistically deployed at the regional scale." A Penn project called the Socio-Spatial Climate Collaborative, or (SC)2 aims, to help in that endeavor. With Kevin Ummel, a PSC research affiliate, and graduate student Nick Graetz, Cohen is leading an effort to analyze neighborhood-level carbon footprints and a range of other social public health data across the United States. It won't conclude for at least a year, but once complete should better explain factors like the root causes of climate change and vulnerabilities from it, the true influence of green spaces, and who uses the amenities that they live near. The recent research is one step toward that broader goal. "Our aim with this paper is provocation," Cohen says. "High-tech development is high carbon and is not giving the benefits that it promises. We think there's strong circumstantial evidence to support the case, and we want people to be aware of it." Explore further Carbon footprint maps reveal urban-suburban divide More information: Jennifer L. Rice et al, Contradictions of the Climate-Friendly City: New Perspectives on Eco-Gentrification and Housing Justice, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (2019). Jennifer L. Rice et al, Contradictions of the Climate-Friendly City: New Perspectives on Eco-Gentrification and Housing Justice,(2019). DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.12740 Schematic diagrams of two setups for in-plane coherent control of plasmon resonances. a Fiber-waveguide interferometer. b Dark-field (DF) confocal microscope, where quarter illumination can be satisfied by blocking 3/4 area of the annular aperture. Credit: Light: Science & Applications, doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-019-0134-1 Light incident on metallic nanoparticles can initiate the collective motion of electrons, causing a strong amplification of the local electromagnetic field. Such plasmonic resonances have significant roles in biosensing with ability to improve the resolution and sensitivity required to detect particles at the scale of the single molecule. The control of plasmon resonances in metadevices have potential applications in all-optical, light-with-light signal modulation and image processing. Reports have demonstrated the out-of-plane coherent control of plasmon resonances by modulating metadevices in standing waves. In optical devices, light can be transferred along the surfaces for the unprecedented control of plasmons. When oscillations in conducting electrons are coupled with light photons, localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPR) can act as information carriers for nano-sized optical sensors and in computers. In a recent study, Liyong Jiang and co-workers at the Nanjing University of Science and Technology demonstrated two methods for in-plane illumination of LSPRs as a proof-of-principle in gold nanodisks. The results of their work showed that the LSPRs could be switched into different states by adjusting the incident light to encode logical data into chains in a manner that was hitherto not possible with out-of-plane illumination. The results are now published in Light: Science & Applications. Significant efforts in the past decade were devoted to study light-matter interactions at the nanoscale in plasmonic systems. The ability to control LSPR has led to many practical applications, including pioneering examples such as: In-plane coherent control of plasmon resonances in gold nanodisk monomers. a, b Calculated normalized absorption spectra of gold nanodisk monomers with a diameter ranging from 140 to 200 nm for s-polarized in-plane plan wave coming from the right side (dashed line) or both sides (solid line) without phase delay, or with a phase delay of . F and H represent fundamental and high-order plasmon resonances. ce The corresponding spatial distributions of electric-field amplitude |E|, real part Re(Ez), and imaginary part Im(Ez) for the F and H modes (square and circle signs) of the representative gold nanodisk monomer (D = 160 nm) under asymmetrical and symmetrical in-plane illumination. Under symmetrical in-plane illumination, we can observe phase delay-dependent destructive/constructive interference for the F and H modes. Credit: Light: Science & Applications, doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-019-0134-1 During the initial stages of development, scientists focused on controlling LSPR by designing configurations of the plasmonic nanostructures. They understood the size- and shape-dependent LSPR of single plasmonic nanoparticles and coupled plasmonic systems based on the classical Mie theory and well-established plasmonic hybridization models. Additionally, the light beam typically illuminated the sample surface from one direction in conventional optical studies of single and coupled nanoantennas. Although the ability to control plasmon resonances via out-of-plane illumination has opened a new path to modulate signals, the process has shown limitations. As a result, Jiang et al. reported on in-plane coherent control of plasmon resonances in typical metallic nanoantennas. The scientists provided a proof-of-principle demonstration of plasmonic switching and encoding applications for single and coupled gold nanodisks. To accomplish in-plane coherent control of plasmon resonances in the lab, the scientists proposed two possible experimental setups. One was based on a fiber-waveguide interferometer, which faced challenges during experiments. In comparison, the second method included a more convenient, widely used dark-field confocal microscopy setup. In this, the condition of completely symmetric in-plane illumination could be satisfied early when the input light focused onto the center of the sample. To construct asymmetric in-plane illumination, the scientists blocked three-fourth of the area of the annular aperture. Jiang et al. showed that the setup was suited to study plasmonic nanostructures with sizes comparable to the focused spot size of the incident light beam. Demonstration of electrical-field distribution rule for the 200 nm gold nanodisk monomer and dimer by s-SNOM. a Schematic of the s-SNOM measurement for ss and sp excitationcollection configurations. The wavelength of the excitation laser is 633 nm and the incidence angle with respect to the plane of the substrate is 30. b Calculated normalized absorption spectra of 200 nm gold nanodisk monomer and dimer at incidence angle 30 under asymmetrical (dashed line) or symmetrical (solid line) illumination without phase delay. The gap size in the dimer is 30 nm. c Atomic-force microscopic (AFM) images of gold nanodisk monomer and dimer for ss and sp measurements. The red arrow represents the incidence direction of the laser and the blue dashed line represents the central axis of the nanodisk. d, e Experimental and simulated spatial distributions of the amplitude |A|, phase , and real part of electric-field component Ey in ss measurement and Ez in sp measurement for 200 nm gold nanodisk monomer and dimer. Credit: Light: Science & Applications, doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-019-0134-1 To engineer the gold nanodisk samples on silicon dioxide/silica (SiO 2 /Si) substrates, Jiang et al. used electron-beam lithography (EBL) alongside a lift-off process. They completed the fabrication process by coating the substrate surface with a gold film and an underlying chromium (Cr) adhesion layer using electron-beam evaporation. The scientists then studied in-plane coherent control of plasmon resonances in the gold nanodisks and calculated the absorption spectra of gold nanodisk monomers ranging from diameters of 140 to 200 nm; fabricated on the SiO 2 /Si substrate surface. In the work, they established and experimentally verified the distribution rule of electrical-field components to realize destructive and constructive plasmon resonances in an axisymmetric plasmonic nanostructure. They showed how the in-plane coherent control of plasmon resonances strongly relied on the configuration and symmetry of plasmonic nanostructures, compared with out-of-plane coherent control. This feature can allow freedom in tailoring and engineering multiple plasmon resonances in other axisymmetric plasmonic structures, which include nanospheres, nanorod, nano bowtie and nanostructure polymers. Demonstration of plasmonic switching by dark field (DF) scattering measurement of gold nanodisk monomer and dimer. a Normalized DF scattering spectra of gold nanodisk monomer with a diameter of 200 nm (SEM image) under full and quarter illumination. b The corresponding normalized simulated scattering and absorption spectra. c, d Normalized measured and simulated DF scattering spectra of gold nanodisk dimer with a diameter of 200 nm and a gap size of 30 nm (SEM image) under full and quarter illumination. The red solid curves in c are the smoothing results. The scale bar in SEM images is 200 nm. e, f Polarization diagrams of full and quarter illumination in the DF scattering measurement and simulation for gold nanodisk monomer and dimer. In both experiment and simulation, the excitation is s- or p-polarized and the collection is unpolarized. The black and red double-headed arrows represent the initial polarization and the polarization after focusing, respectively. Credit: Light: Science & Applications, doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-019-0134-1 To image the plasmon resonance modes in gold nanodisks the scientists used a polarization-sensitive s-SNOM technique, which can detect light at the nanometer scale regions directly beneath the tip of the atomic force microscopic (AFM) probe. The scientists used an s-s/s-p geometry scheme and engaged a dielectric (Si) tip for measurements. They illuminated the sample using laser radiation with an incident light of 300 relative to the plane of the substrate. Jiang et al. measured the amplitude and phase of the scattered signal based on the fourth harmonic of the tip-tapping frequency of the AFM tip. They used an analyzer in front of the detector to select the s- or p- polarized component of the scattered light. Demonstration of plasmonic switching by dark field (DF) scattering measurement of gold nanodisk monomer and dimer. a Normalized DF scattering spectra of gold nanodisk monomer with a diameter of 200 nm (SEM image) under full and quarter illumination. b The corresponding normalized simulated scattering and absorption spectra. c, d Normalized measured and simulated DF scattering spectra of gold nanodisk dimer with a diameter of 200 nm and a gap size of 30 nm (SEM image) under full and quarter illumination. The red solid curves in c are the smoothing results. The scale bar in SEM images is 200 nm. e, f Polarization diagrams of full and quarter illumination in the DF scattering measurement and simulation for gold nanodisk monomer and dimer. In both experiment and simulation, the excitation is s- or p-polarized and the collection is unpolarized. The black and red double-headed arrows represent the initial polarization and the polarization after focusing, respectively. Credit: Light: Science & Applications, doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-019-0134-1 Jiang et al. also demonstrated plasmonic switching with dark field (DF) scattering measurements of a gold nanodisk monomer or dimer. In the experimental setup they used a confocal Raman microscopy system to measure the scattering spectra. They then used commercially available software packages to conduct numerical simulations in the study. The simulations included electrical-field distributions, absorption and scattering spectra for gold nanodisks. They simulated the complex electromagnetic parameters for gold and chromium incorporated in the experimental setup, based on previous publications. Plasmonic encoding in gold nanodisk chains. a Calculated absorption spectra of gold nanodisk chains consisting of different numbers of nanodisks illuminated by the s-polarized in-plane plan wave coming from right side (dashed line) or both sides (solid line). The diameter of the nanodisk is 140 nm and the separation distance is 30 nm. The destructive and constructive plasmon resonances are represented by green and red colors, respectively. b Spatial distributions of electric-field amplitude |E| for the F plasmon resonances (peak position) under symmetrical illumination. c Sliced electric-field amplitude distributions along the chains edge (the white dashed line in b). dg Corresponding spatial distributions of real and imaginary part of Ez when the s-polarized in-plane plan wave comes from the left side (d, f) and right side (e, g) respectively. Credit: Light: Science & Applications, doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-019-0134-1 In this way, Jiang et al. demonstrated proof-of-principle plasmonic switching and encoding in the study. They expect more potential applications based on the demonstrated ability for in-plane coherent control of plasmon resonance. For instance, scientists can use the method to study selective surface-enhanced spectra, where the photoluminescence or Raman signal of multiple molecules can be selectively enhanced. This will allow control of the on/off state of multiple plasmon resonances in a common nano-antenna. The scientists propose extending the plasmonic encoding scheme demonstrated in the study to plasmonic imaging, nano lasing and optical communication in nanocircuits. For instance, scientists can combine plasmonic nanostructure chains with different encoding characteristics to build logic gates (for Boolean logic operations) as well as design multichannel waveguides for all-optical information storage and processes. Explore further Researchers publish first review of plasmonic surface lattice resonances 2019 Science X Network Stacy Torres enjoys coffee with an older friend in a North Beach cafe in San Francisco. Credit: Elisabeth Fall Ethnographer Stacy Torres, assistant professor at the UC San Francisco School of Nursing, is shedding a unique light on how we think about social ties and social relationships among older people how places affect social interactions, particularly in areas where gentrification is changing the character of neighborhoods. In addition to publishing in academic journals and mainstream periodicals, including the New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle, Torres is also working on a book examining social relationships among older people experiencing aging-related changes. She grew up in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, the daughter of an immigrant from Chile, and was the first in her family to go to college. Some of her research was inspired by what she observed in the mom-and-pop places that have long served as informal community gathering spots for neighborhood elders, but that are increasingly threatened by gentrification in urban areas like New York and San Francisco. We recently spoke with Torres about the genesis of her work, what she's discovered and what she hopes to achieve. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. How did you come to sociology? I fell into sociology through one of my general education courses when I was in college at Fordham University in Manhattan. I was a comparative literature major, but my adviser, Jeanne Flavin, was a sociology professor, and she took me under her wing, and I ended up taking a lot of sociology classes. It was very important for me, as the first person in my family to go to college, to have somebody who was excited about a topic and saw something in me that I didn't. I had to figure out if sociology was something I was interested in or if I was just enamored of this professor, but over time, I came to understand and appreciate how sociology helped me make sense of my own life and of some of the things I observed around me and my family. My mother passed away when I was just a teenager, so things were difficult, which runs contrary to this happy American narrative where everybody is like you and if you put in the effort, you're supposed to just shoot up to the top of the social ladder. Studying sociology helped me to feel like it wasn't just me, that I was part of larger historical and social trends, that it wasn't just about blaming someone for being poor or having difficulty in their family. So that's where it started, and from there, I was able to branch out to larger things that I was concerned about that were beyond my personal experience. How did that lead to a research career? Jeanne gave me a window into what it was like to be a professor. At the time, I thought my options were business school or being a doctor or a lawyer. I thought I wanted to be a lawyer I was very social justice oriented but I did an internship in a Bronx family court one summer, and I decided afterwards that law was not for me. I got to know Jeanne, and she had what looked to me like a cool life. She taught, which I really wanted to do, and she worked at a university. She told me a little about the process of writing research articles. I went into my Ph.D. program at New York University a little naive, as many people do, really focused on the idea that I wanted to teach at a university. Over time, I learned that research is a big part of the whole endeavor, and I fell in love with it. Prior to entering the Ph.D. program, I completed an MFA in creative nonfiction writing at Columbia University, and I saw creative writing and qualitative research as complementary. Since then, I've been trying to figure out how to marry the two approaches to understand social life. What led you to study neighborhood gathering places and older adults? My dissertation focused on older adults in New York City and how they are dealing with a two-pronged set of challenges. First, how do they manage daily life and the crises that come up when you're over age 60. For example, how do you deal with health problems when you've lost your partner or your children have moved away? And then, second, there are the challenges that occur in the context of New York City and the changing neighborhood demographics and gentrification. If you've lived in the neighborhood for several decades, or for your entire life, and it's suddenly very different in character and very expensive, how do you deal with that? The study started in a little bakery I'd been going to that had been there since 1962. Everybody else there was decades older than me in their late 60s to their 90s. And I started to think about what the place meant to these people and how it formed their routines. When I found out that the bakery only had about six months left on its lease and the owner wasn't going to be able to renew it, the question that emerged was, what's going to happen now to all these people? What are their relationships, and how does it all figure into their larger social lives? Did you reach any conclusions? I'm still writing them up now, in several articles and for the book with the University of California Press. One interesting thing was to observe what happened with people as they had to find alternate locations. It was challenging for them because they were never able to exactly re-create the conditions they found in the little bakery, which had become a de facto senior center for people who didn't want to go to senior centers. It was important for them to get out of the house and have some social contact, but they didn't want to be in a space that was set aside just for people over 65. That was an important finding because I think it's going to be more and more a feature of the later parts of the life course, especially with the baby boom cohort that don't identify with the older generation and often have different family compositions, and who want more choice in their spaces. Another of the study's important contributions that's become clearer is that, like millennials, a lot of older adults want to live in urban environments that are public transit rich, where you can walk to places. It's very expensive [to live in such cities], and gentrification is happening not just in the big coastal cities, but across the country. We don't know much about the experience of older adults in gentrifying areas, so this study has provided insight into that experience. Even among study subjects that had secure housing in rent-controlled apartments or affordable housing, there was a feeling of displacement due to commercial gentrification, and it took its toll. You get attached to places and people, and it only takes a few small establishments in your neighborhood closing, and your whole routine could be turned upside down. I discovered that the relationships created in these places were much more complex than I had thought. Even though I was observing a lot of things that people who study social networks by conventional measures would say indicate that people are really close they confide in each other and help each other when problems come up when I talked to them, they would not list these neighborhood connections as the most important people in their lives, even though they were spending several hours a day or a week with them. I found that a lot of them were hesitant to say, "This is my friend; we're so close." That was fascinating. I think my study offers important insights into these ambiguous but very important relationships and how they develop and are sustained. If you just surveyed them about their relationships, you might not pick up on these other connections that turn out to be important. I call them "elastic ties." That seems analogous to the relationships millennials form within online communities. We sometimes don't think these relationships are real and important, but they are. I think there are a lot of comparisons. We have different points in our lives, like moving to a new city or another big transition like a divorce or retirement, where we have to create a new network. The question is, who are these people in our lives? What do we call them? There have been a couple of studies looking at people who have become very close quickly they have accelerated intimacy. Matthew Desmond, who wrote the book Evicted, had a paper on disposable ties, where he found that people who had been newly evicted could suddenly be very close with someone they met at a bus stop. They might end up sharing an apartment or helping each other, but they didn't have much information about each other. What I found with my group was sort of the inverse: They could be very close, but there was always an effort to keep some distance. Sometimes it was conscious, and sometimes it was less conscious. People might spend a lot of time together for years and not have each other's addresses or phone numbers or last names. Sometimes they didn't even have each other's first names. Where are you in your work, and what impact do you hope it will have? I'm wrapping up a series of academic articles and a book on the study. Each paper and part of the book looks at different aspects. There's a chapter and a paper describing these relationships. A recently published paper examines how gossip served as a form of social support. Another part looks at the features of the spaces where people spend time. I'm working on a paper with a graduate student as a co-author that looks at some of the translational implications of these informal spaces for people's care and their caregivers. One finding I've stumbled upon in the course of the study is all the dissatisfaction people had with the idea of going to a senior center. Maybe they went and had a negative experience, or they felt there was a stigma attached to certain spaces that serve older adults. They also felt there was a lot of ageism in these spaces and in medical settings people didn't take the time to go over information. The older adults would use the informal settings to supplement those interactions or figure out what the doctor said or what they should do with the information. They discussed it with other people to make sense of those interactions. I would hope the book reaches a broad enough audience, not just academics. My goal is to write it in a way so that curious laypeople could engage with the material and understand it. I think about my mother, who was a voracious reader and worked as a secretary. She had only graduated high school, and I would never want to write something my mother wouldn't be able to understand. I do hope the book increases our understanding of what it's like when you're older and in a changing neighborhood environment, and how important these informal spaces are. They're precious, but they're threatened, especially in highly gentrified cities. If there are policy people and social service providers out there who read the book, maybe they'll know a bit more and be able to use that information to develop better policies that improve people's lives. Explore further Examining the link between neighborhoods and schools Credit: CC0 Public Domain New University of Liverpool research, published in PLOS ONE, highlights the positive impact jurors' note taking has on evidence recall and, crucially, trial verdicts. During trials, jurors need to encode the evidence, legal arguments, and judicial instructions presented to them, store these in memory throughout the trial, and recall them during deliberation to reach a fair verdict. Jurors' recall of trial evidence, however, has been found to be incomplete and inaccurate. These memory failures can influence verdicts, such that jurors who forget incriminating evidence are less likely to find a defendant guilty than those who remember it. Note taking during trials has been shown to be an effective memory aid, with jurors recalling a similar amount of trial information irrespective of whether they can or cannot access their notes during a memory test. However, little is known about whether individual differences in note taking underpin this effect. Individual differences in handwriting speed, working memory, and attention may influence juror's note taking. This, in turn, may influence their recall. It may also be the case that if jurors note down and recall more incriminating than non-incriminating evidence (or vice versa), then this may predict their verdict. Verdicts Researchers from the University's School of Psychology, led by Ph.D. student Joanna Lorek, conducted tests to examine the associations between the aforementioned individual differences, the amount of critical evidence jurors noted down during a trial, the amount of critical evidence they recalled, and the verdicts they reached. Jury eligible participants had their handwriting speed, short-term memory, working memory, and attention assessed. They then watched a video of a real murder trial (some took notes), reached a verdict, and recalled as much trial information as possible. The researchers found that jurors with faster handwriting speed, higher short-term memory capacity and better sustained attention capacity remembered a greater amount of critical trial evidence which was achieved by writing down a greater amount of critical trial evidence during the trial. They also remembered the information better from all these personal factors even when they didn't have access to their notes during recall. In relation to jury decision making, the researchers found that jurors who recalled more incriminating evidence were more likely to find the defendant guilty, and those who recalled more non-incriminating evidence were less likely to find the defendant guilty. Recollection Of the study Joanna Lorek, said: "Our findings identify individual differences that are key predictors of the positive relationship between note taking and recall. This is particularly important given that the type of evidence jurors recollect from trials is likely to affect their verdicts." "In summary, our results suggest that the act of note taking plays a central role in enhancing jurors' recall of trial information and this in turn influences the verdict they reach. Therefore, all jurors should be permitted to take notes during trials." Explore further Taking notes boosts memory of jurors, new study finds More information: Joanna Lorek et al, The impact of individual differences on jurors' note taking during trials and recall of trial evidence, and the association between the type of evidence recalled and verdicts, PLOS ONE (2019). Journal information: PLoS ONE Joanna Lorek et al, The impact of individual differences on jurors' note taking during trials and recall of trial evidence, and the association between the type of evidence recalled and verdicts,(2019). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212491 A map showing the average review ratings for various neighborhoods in New York City based on reviews on Niche.com during the study period, with 5 being the highest rating possible. Credit: Yingjie Hu Every day, people share a dizzying amount of information about local communities online. They talk about whether their neighbors are friendly, how well the buses run, what kinds of restaurants are in an area, and much, much more. A new study by University at Buffalo researcher Yingjie Hu shows how we can sort through this vast trove of digital data to improve cities and people's quality of life. The research, published on March 8 in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, analyzed neighborhood reviews from more than 7,600 unique users who posted about New York City on the website Niche.com. The goal was to efficiently sort through thousands of opinions to learn about people's perceptions of their communities. The study combined spatial analysis, machine learning and natural language processing techniques to identify features of neighborhoods that people talked about online, and what reviewers' general feelings were about those attributes. This kind of research could help urban planners spot problems they might otherwise miss, Hu says. "It takes a lot of time to learn about neighborhoods by surveys or face-to-face interviews. So although the data from surveys or interviews are highly valuable, if you are a planner, you may not be able to collect this kind of data frequently or for large geographic areas," says Hu, Ph.D., an assistant professor of geography in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences and an expert in the field of geographic information science (GIScience). "In contrast, the online data we are researching is updated constantly," Hu adds. "People are always posting new neighborhood reviews. We want to use this resource to discover new information that can support a variety of applications." Co-authors on the study included Chengbin Deng, Ph.D., and Zhou Zhou, both at Binghamton University. Online reviews give planners access to thousands of opinions The researchers' analysis found that in some cases, people's perceptions of a community did not align with the picture presented by other data. For example, while reviewers' feelings about safety generally matched up with crime statistics, other categories did not correlate so neatly, Hu says. Discrepancies occur for many reasons, and some can be revealing. When it came to employment, neighborhood reviews discussed the quality of jobs in an area, a problem that isn't captured by broad statistics like the unemployment rate. Likewise, when it came to public transportation, people were concerned about reliability: Were buses on time or late? Planners might miss this issue if they are focused on metrics like the number of bus lines or transit hubs in a neighborhood. Hu cautions that online reviews should not be used in isolation: People who post are self-selected, so they may not represent the views of all the people in a neighborhood. Still, Hu says data harvesting can complement surveys, face-to-face interviews and other existing methods for learning about neighborhoods. Analyzing online data can give planners access to the insights of many individuals quickly. "One advantage of online neighborhood review data is that it becomes relatively easy to get access to the opinions of many peoplein the case of our study, more than 7,600," Hu says. "If you think about what it takes to interview even 100 people, it takes a lot of time and resources. The neighborhood review data is far from perfect, but it can help to complement other types of data we already have." Explore further Can machine learning deliver critical market insight on consumer needs faster and cheaper? More information: Yingjie Hu et al, A Semantic and Sentiment Analysis on Online Neighborhood Reviews for Understanding the Perceptions of People toward Their Living Environments, Annals of the American Association of Geographers (2019). Yingjie Hu et al, A Semantic and Sentiment Analysis on Online Neighborhood Reviews for Understanding the Perceptions of People toward Their Living Environments,(2019). DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2018.1535886 The Duterte administration will not interfere in the legal problem of the news website Rappler, the Palace said on Monday following the Court of Appeals ruling that the media outfit was not fully Filipino-owned. As we said, any case that has been filed before the courts, we will not interfere. We will let the law take its course, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo told reporters. He said he was convinced from the start that Rapplers case was not a press freedom issue. Well, definitely [not]. Its not related, Panelo said. In a ruling dated March 5, the court denied Rapplers appeal to reverse a previous order from the Securities and Exchange Commission revoking the online media outfits business articles of incorporation for allegedly violating the restrictions on foreign ownership. The court stood by its earlier position that Rappler was not 100-percent Filipino-owned, adding the news website had failed to raise any new arguments about its ownership. The grant of control to a foreign entity over a mass media entity, regardless of Duterte the actual exercise of such foreign control, is already considered a violation, the court said in its ruling. A motion for reconsideration grounded on arguments already submitted to the court and found to be without merit may be denied summarily, as it would be a useless ritual for this Court to reiterate itself.In January last year, the SEC decided to revoke Rapplers certificate of incorporation for its supposed violations of foreign ownership restrictions. The SEC said the online media outfit accepted more than $1 million worth of donations from Omidyar Network. Rappler then challenged the SEC decision before the CA. The CA, however, said in its Feb. 21 ruling that Rappler was not 100-percent Filipino-owned and rejected the media outfits motion for reconsideration. The court said Omidyar Network earned some foreign control when it acquired Philippine Depositary Receipts from the company. Meanwhile, in a statement, Rappler maintained that it remained completely Filipino-owned, expressing confidence that the rule of law would be observed. We expect the SEC to now review its order and we continue to trust that the rule of law will be followed under a democratic government, Rappler said. Over the course of 3,000 years of Egypt's history, six women ascended to become female kings of the fertile land and sit atop its authoritarian power structure. Several ruled only briefly, and only as the last option in their respective failing family line. Nearly all of them achieved power under the auspices of attempting to protect the throne for the next male in line. Their tenures prevented civil wars among the widely interbred families of social elites. They inherited famines and economic disasters. With the exception of Cleopatra, most remain a mystery to the world at large, their names unpronounceable, their personal thoughts and inner lives unrecorded, their deeds and images often erased by the male kings that followed, especially if the women were successful. In her latest National Geographic book, When Women Ruled the World, Kara Cooney, professor of Egyptian art and architecture and chair of the UCLA Department of Near East Studies tells the stories of these six women: Merneith (some time between 30002890 B.C.), Neferusobek (17771773 B.C.), Hatsepshut (14731458 B.C.), Nefertiti (13381336 B.C.), Tawroset (11881186 B.C.) and Cleopatra (5130 B.C.). As we ponder Women's History Month, and look forward toward a U.S. presidential primary campaign that includes more women candidates than ever before, we asked Cooney about themes of female power and what Egypt can illuminate for us. Your book illustrates that Egyptian society valued and embraced women's rule when it was deemed necessary, but these are not instances of feminism. Their attempts to rule was really about keeping the set structure in place. Studying Egypt is a study of power, and specifically of how to maintain the power of the one over the many. That story also always includes examples of how women are used as tools to make sure the authoritarian regime flourishes. This is the most interesting part to me because then the whole tragedy of the study, of the book, is that this is not about feminism at all. It's not about feminists moving forward, it's not about the feminist agenda. It's not about anything but protecting the status quo, the rich staying rich, the patriarchy staying in charge and the system continuing. We still do this, us women. Women work for the patriarchy without thinking about it, all the time. In the end, did women rule the world? Yes, they did rule the world but did it change anything? No. I want to look at our world the same way. It doesn't matter if we have a female president. What matters is how people rule and whose agendas are served. People who have been to Egypt probably know the name Hatshepsut and maybe Nefertiti, but clearly the most pervasive female cultural Egyptian reference is Cleopatra. Why is she the one? Do we just have more materials related to her? No, it's because when you are successful, you can very easily be erased. Cleopatra failed in her efforts to hold on to power and hold onto native rule in Egypt. When you are a failure, it's aberrant, strange and it spins a good tale. It's a great story, failure. Whereas success is doing what everyone did before you and what everyone will do after you. It's the same and nobody cares. It's the same as being a successful female in a meeting or a successful female who shares a great idea with her boss and her boss takes that idea into the meeting while she sits there meekly, letting the boss take it for his or her own because it's a successful, great idea. So it's the women who are the greatest successes in the story who are the most successfully erased. The women who did it all wrong and didn't leave their land better than when they found it, who are remembered as cautionary tales. That's our cultural memory. That's why everyone can pronounce the name Cleopatra and no one has any idea how to pronounce Hatshepsut. She is not in our cultural memory. It doesn't serve our patriarchal system to add her to it. But remember, in the Egyptian mindset Cleopatra wasn't a failure. She fought Rome and lost, but in the Arabic sources Cleopatra is remembered as an adherent to Egyptian philosophy, a freedom fighter against Rome and as a learned patriot to her people. How does the framework of Egypt's long and relatively well-documented history and culture inform our perspectives on power as American citizens, a country of such a comparatively short history and governance? Egypt is such a gift. When I get askedand I do"Why bother devoting your life to this place that's been gone for 2,000 years and studying people that are as old as 5,000 years?" the answer is that Egypt provides me with 3,000 years of the same cultural system, religious system, government system and language system. I can follow them through booms and busts, through collapse and resurgence and see human reactions to prosperity and pain. That's really useful. We are in this infancy of 250 years and we think we are so smart, we think we are post-racial, post-sexist and all of these things. But we're not. Egypt is a huge gift to compare the situation that you are in to the past to see how you might better face the future. It must be difficult to unearth women's stories because of the ways in which historical records from around the world largely excluded information about them. That's the frustration of working with Egypt. We can't forget that this is an authoritarian regime. It's not a competitive place where I can get a speech from a competitor and try to understand a different viewpoint and agenda. It's my responsibility as a historian of this regime to try and break it down and see what the truth is between the lines. For these women in power it's even harder because so many of them were erased when their stories did not fit the patriarchal narrative. My job is to be a historical reconstructionist without being a revisionist. I'm interested in seeing how people work within a system and why we are so opposed, even hostile, to female power. Why are we so hostile to female power? The stereotype is that the female is going to use emotionality, her own and others, to manipulate and lie, to shame and guilt people into doing something. The man somehow won't do that. He will be a straight shooter. There is the idea that there is the masculine emotionality and a female emotionality. This female emotionality, which many men also bear, is the reason we don't allow them to wield power because they're happy, sad, up, down. They feel too many emotions that cannot be allowed. The men that we ask to lead must suppress those emotions and show this even-keeled strength or only anger and no other softer emotions and then only strategically. We demand a kind of emotionality from our leaders that I find quite stunted and I want to know what the evolutionary biology of that is because a lot of this is a knee-jerk reaction to what serves us better in a short-term, acute time of crisis. I think we all need to discuss what it is about that female emotionality, of connecting with our own emotions and others or even manipulating our emotions for our own gain, that is so problematic. As of now, six women have announced Democratic presidential campaigns for 2020. What does our historical knowledge of what happens to women when they seek power bode for the coming election season? I get rather cynical about it, to be honest. Already I see the dialogue revolving around deceit and not being a straight shooter. Again, it's that double standard that you wouldn't necessarily get with a man. It's interesting to see how people are judging women based on emotionality and how much of that they show, how ambitious they seem to be and how duplicitous they may or may not be. That possibility for deceit is something we are quite obsessed with for female candidates. The possibility of lies by the female is that much more powerful than the outright, absolute fact of deceit by a male candidate or leader. That is very interesting to me. The female is assumed to be a liar, but when a man lies he's doing it for a reason and he's on my side so I'm cool with it. We've been discussing racism for some time but we do not discuss our hostility towards females in power. Unless we start to talk about it and openly discuss it, it won't change. Explore further Egypt seeks tougher penalties for female circumcision From left -- Professor Andrew Dzurak (UNSW), Dr. Bas Hensen (UNSW), Anderson West (UNSW), Dr. Alexis Jouan (USYD), Professor David Reilly (USYD). Credit: Nyasha Nyakuengama, UNSW Research collaboration between UNSW and the University of Sydney has overcome a fundamental hurdle to building quantum computers in silicon, opening the way to further develop the machines at scale. The two groups, led by Professor David Reilly at the University of Sydney and Professor Andrew Dzurak at UNSW, have demonstrated that the state, or value, of a quantum bit (qubit) in silicon can be read out in a way that removes the need to have readout sensors alongside the qubits. The result is published today in Nature Nanotechnology. Professor Dzurak said: "This paper has combined using a single-gate electrode technique to read-out informationa method developed by David Reilly's group in 2013 - with the requirement for single-shot readout of qubits that can be manufactured using existing silicon chip technologya capability we developed in 2014. This mix is very important for scalability." Qubits are the building blocks for quantum computers. Billions of them will need to be built in complex arrays before these futuristic machines can be applied to solving important challenges facing humanity, including the design of new medicines or assisting the development of machine learning. This presents complex design problems. By removing the need for parallel readout sensors, the joint result allows for a computing architecture that is much simpler, meaning many more qubits can be built alongside each other. Professor Dzurak said demonstrating the single-shot readout of a qubit in silicon is a result whose time had come. "Four research teams across the world have developed very similar read-out techniques in silicon basically at the same time, all based on David's single-gate technique," Professor Dzurak said. "Two of them in Australia, one in France and one in the Netherlands." "This is a great result that shows that scientific collaboration is key to achieving a fault-tolerant, universal quantum computer," said Professor Reilly, who holds a joint position at the University of Sydney and is Director of the Microsoft Quantum Laboratory. "Such a machine will not be built in a single laboratory or a single institute. It will require cooperation on a global scale, working with some of the biggest technology companies in the world." Professor Reilly, also a Chief Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, said: "Our result is real evidence that the critical mass of people in Sydney is creating something greater than the sum of its parts. It's not just parallel activity at different institutions." Professor Dzurak, who led the project at UNSW, is Director of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) at UNSW and a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation & Communication Technology. He said that Sydney has one of the world's strongest quantum research ecosystems. "I can't think of another city in the world with as many people doing quantum computing," he said. "We have teams at UNSW, Sydney, Macquarie and UTS working across the spectrum: on hardware, quantum control, quantum measurement right through to quantum software. It's all here in Sydney." Professor Reilly said that this research is being done in parallel with the commercialisation of the technology. "I have a position with Microsoft and Andrew leads a project with Silicon Quantum Computing. By working together, we are showing strong academic collaboration alongside an emerging quantum economy," he said. Professor Dzurak said: "One of the great things about this result is it has been put together by people coming to Sydney from across the world, attracted to the strong quantum science ecosystem we have built here." The paper's lead author and UNSW Ph.D. student, Anderson West, said: "I was attracted to working with Professor Dzurak and his team from the US as I was really impressed by what they were doing with silicon qubits." Corresponding author Dr. Bas Hensen joined UNSW from the Netherlands, where he had already made a name for himself by experimentally demonstrating a fundamental principle of quantum mechanics using entangled qubits in diamond. He said: "I was keen to get involved with qubits in silicon and UNSW was clearly the place to be for that." Dr. Alexis Jouan from the University of Sydney, who contributed to the research, is originally from France where he studied two-dimensional superconductors at high frequency. He said: "I am very glad to be in the Reilly group at Sydney, which is one of the best places to continue exploring the quantum world." Credit: Henri Koskinen, Shutterstock DNA damage occurs in all cellular organisms. In human cells, it can be caused by the body's normal metabolic activities, by environmental factors or by chemotherapy. During the crucial phase when cells replicate their genetic content, they are susceptible to lesions damaged sections of a DNA molecule. Common lesions known as DNA-protein cross-links (DPCs) can prevent the cell from replicating itself and may lead to genome instability, a cause of cancer and ageing. Despite the major health implications of DPCs not much is known about how they are repaired. Important research conducted by a team of scientists during the EU-funded project DPC_REPAIR may now shed light on this process. In a recent study published in the journal Molecular Cell the team revealed some of the pathways that cells follow to repair DNA damage. For their experiments, the researchers used protein extracts from frog eggs. The extracts were taken from Xenopus frogs, a genus widely used in biological studies. Because of their ability to repeat the principal phases of DPC protein degradation during cell replication, these extracts are a good model for studying such lesions. Using these valuable tools, the team discovered two pathways that cells use to mend DPCs the enzyme SPRTN and the proteasome. They further identified how these repair processes are triggered by DNA replication. Implications for cancer research When DNA is damaged the cell prevents division as a way to minimise the effects on the cell. Many types of chemotherapy use this principle to kill cancer cells. Understanding how this damage is repaired is key to future cancer and chemotherapy research. "Most chemotherapeutic agents deliberately induce these kinds of damages" says study co-author Julien Duxin in an article posted on the research news website 'Futurity'. "If we are able to understand how the damages are repaired, we can use that knowledge to develop a form of combination treatment, where we induce damage, on the one hand, and inhibit the cancer cells' repair hereof, on the other. This would give us a more efficient way of killing cancer cells," explains Duxin, who is an associate professor at project coordinator University of Copenhagen. Further research into additional repair pathways is however crucial, since cancer cells often find a way to repair themselves. "Cancer cells divide faster than normal cells and therefore require more DNA replication. They are therefore very sensitive to damages that disturb the replication process. However, DNA replication can also trigger damage repair," Duxin reports. This is often the reason why chemotherapy that is initially effective may stop working after a few months: the clever cancer cells have found a way to remove or repair their lesions. Next, DPC_REPAIR (Mechanism of DNA-protein cross-link repair in S phase) will focus on identifying more pathways through which these lesions are repaired. The focus will be on DNA damage and repair in the course of chemotherapy. Explore further Frog eggs help researchers understand repair of DNA damages In quantum measurement cooling, the heat current is powered by energy provided via invasive measurements on an appropriate measurement basis fjkig, without performing feed- back control. Solid arrows represent flow of energy. Credit: Campisi et al. Researchers at the University of Florence and Istituto dei Sistemi Complessi, in Italy, have recently proved that the invasiveness of quantum measurements might not always be detrimental. In a study published in Physical Review Letters, they showed that this invasive quality can actually be exploited, using quantum measurements to fuel a cooling engine. Michele Campisi, one of the researchers involved in the study, has been studying quantum phenomena for several years. In his recent work, he investigated whether quantum phenomena can impact the thermodynamics of nanoscopic devices, such as those employed in quantum computers. "Most colleagues in the field were looking at coherence and entanglement while only few were looking at another at genuine quantum phenomenon, i.e., the quantum measurement process," Campisi told Phys.org. "Those studies suggested that you need to accompany measurements with feedback control, as in Maxwell's demon, in order to exploit their potential. I started thinking about it, and eurekasince quantum measurements are very invasive, they are accompanied by energy exchanges, hence can be used to power engines without the need to do feedback control." The second law of thermodynamics states that heat naturally flows from hot bodies to cold ones. Past studies found that there are two ways to reverse this natural flow of heat: using work supplied by an external, time-dependent driving force or by implementing a Maxwell demon, which steers the heat via a feedback control loop. In their study, Campisi and his colleagues showed that there is, in fact, a third method to reverse the flow of heat, which is based on quantum mechanics. This technique entails the use invasive quantum measurements as a fuel that powers refrigeration, without any feedback control. The researchers refer to this mechanism as quantum measurement cooling (QMC). "The general mathematical framework is standard quantum mechanics, but we had to use a mix of advanced numerical and analytical methods to investigate all facets of quantum measurement cooling," Lorenzo Buffoni, another researcher involved in the study, told Phys.org. "For example, in order to assess its the robustness to experimental noise we used extensive Monte Carlo sampling of the high-dimensional space of possible measurement projectors, and used machine learning techniques to analyze and visualize the data." Campisi and his colleagues illustrated QMC by means of a prototypical two-stroke two-qubit engine. This engine interacts with the measurement apparatus employed by the researchers, as well as with two heat reservoirs set at different temperatures. "We also embarked on the task of finding the optimal thermodynamic performance by analytical methods, which was very challenging," Andrea Sofanelli, another researcher who carried out the study, told Phys.org. "We employed Birkhoff theorem to express the so-called transition matrix (containing all relevant information about the energy exchanges in our problem) in terms of permutations, which simplified the problem. But we remained stuck with that until we found a little-known theorem of linear algebra dating back to the early 1990s, which finally led to the solution." Campisi, Buffoni, Cuccoli, Solfanelli and their colleague Paola Verrucchi demonstrated that the invasiveness of quantum measurements can be used to fuel a cooling engine via the QMC mechanism they have reported. QMC does not require feedback control, but entanglement must be present in the measurement projectors. The researchers calculated the probability that QMC will occur when the measurement basis is randomly selected. They found that this probability can be very large compared to the probability of extracting energy (i.e. operating the heat engine), yet it is smaller than the probability of the least important operation (i.e. dumping heat in both baths). "Showing that measuring a quantum system made by two qubits can produce by itself (i.e. without feedback control) useful thermodynamic effects surely represents the most meaningful outcome of our research," Alessandro Cuccoli, another researcher involved in the study, told Phys.org. "This follows from looking at the quantum measurement process from a wider perspective, where both the system and its environment, and the energy exchanges accompanying the measurement, are considered." According to Cuccoli, the two-quibits thermal engine developed by the researchers could easily be engineered to work as a cooling device. This would, among other things, enable the fabrication of a quantum computer's processing units to be integrated with auxiliary devices that can keep them at the required low temperature, as both can be achieved using qubits. "A further insightful observation is that in order to get useful thermodynamic effects, the measurement process has to involve 'entangled' states, i.e. peculiarly quantum correlated states of the two qubits, thus revealing the intimate connection between information and energy exchanges," Cuccoli added. "Deepening our understanding of such relationship in nanoscopic quantum engines is one of the major challenges driving our current and future research in the field of quantum thermodynamics." The study carried out by Campisi, Buffoni, Cuccoli, Solfanelli and Verrucchi introduced an entirely new mechanism that can reverse the natural flow of heat, intervening with the second law of thermodynamics, without feedback control requirements. In the future, their findings could have many applications, for instance, aiding the development of devices to cool quantum computers. The team of researchers involved in this study is part of a collaboration consortium that involves 12 world-class research groups, including experimentalists and theorists from eight E.U. countries. They are currently seeking the resources necessary to support their work in the forthcoming years. "We are looking forward to collaborating with experimental groups that might be interested in building a functioning quantum-measurement cooler," Campisi said. "The full understanding and mastering of the energetics of quantum systems and devices is urgently needed, and calls for a joint international effort in order to speed up technological development." Explore further Maxwell's demon extracts work from quantum measurement More information: Lorenzo Buffoni et al. Quantum Measurement Cooling, Physical Review Letters (2019). Journal information: Physical Review Letters Lorenzo Buffoni et al. Quantum Measurement Cooling,(2019). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.070603 2019 Science X Network Hand-harvested rice is moved for threshing, near Sangrur, SE Punjab, India. Credit: Neil Palmer/CIAT Even if humans radically reduce greenhouse gas emissions soon, important crop-growing regions of the world can expect changes to rainfall patterns by 2040. In fact, some regions are already experiencing new climatic regimes compared with just a generation ago. The study, published March 11 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, warns that up to 14 percent of land dedicated to wheat, maize, rice and soybean will be drier, while up to 31 percent will be wetter. The study uses four emissions scenarios from low to high to predict time of emergence (TOE) of permanent precipitation changes, meaning the year by which precipitation changes remain permanently outside their historical variation in a specific location. The research shows that quick action on emissionsin line with 2015's Paris Agreementwould push TOE projections deeper into the future or reduce the size of affected areas. Drier regions include Southwestern Australia, Southern Africa, southwestern South America, and the Mediterranean, according to the study. Wheat cropland in Central Mexico is also headed for a drier future. Wetter areas include Canada, Russia, India and the Eastern United States. The four crops in the study represent about 40 percent of global caloric intake and the authors say that, regardless of how much mitigation is achieved, all regionsboth wetter and drierneed to invest in adaptation, and do so urgently in areas expected to see major changes in the next couple of decades. However, in the scenarios with low greenhouse gas emissions, most regions have two-three decades more to adapt than under high-emission scenarios. Low-emission scenarios, the authors stressed, likely imply less need for potentially costly adaptation to new rainfall regimes. This infographic shows a selection of areas and crops that will be affected by reduced rainfall in coming decades due to climate change, according to a 2019 study in PNAS. Percentages refer to area of land currently dedicated to cultivation of the specified crops. Credit: Lucelly Anaconas / International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) Wheat under heat Drier conditions are expected for many major wheat producers. In Australia, about 27 percent of wheat-growing land will see less precipitation, under a mid-emissions scenario. Algeria (100 percent), Morocco (91 percent), South Africa (79 percent), Mexico (74 percent), Spain (55 percent), Chile (40 percent), Turkey (28 percent), Italy (20 percent) and Egypt (15 percent) are other major producers that will be affected. Higher emissions mean a larger amount of land will become dry sooner, the study found. "These are definitely countries that will need to think rather quickly what they'd like to do with their wheat production," said Maisa Rojas, the study's lead author and climatologist at Universidad de Chile. Colleagues at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, the University of Leeds, Chile's Center for Climate and Resilience Research, and Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (UC) co-authored the study. "What we're predicting are probably conservative years for time of emergence," said Rojas. "Detectable precipitation changes are of course not only important for agriculture, but for water resource management more in general, so our results are relevant for other sectors as well." Speed of change One stunning aspect of the study is how quickly global precipitation is changing. The baseline for comparison is 20 years spanning 1986-2005. A handful of regions already have crossed that "historical" average into an entirely new rainfall regime, including Russia, Norway, Canada and the parts of the East Coast of the United States. The study projects that up to 36 percent of all land area will be wetter or drier under a high-emission scenario. This infographic shows a selection of areas and crops that will be affected by increased rainfall in coming decades due to climate change, according to a 2019 in PNAS. Percentages refer to area of land currently dedicated to cultivation of the specified crops. Credit: Lucelly Anaconas / International Center for Tropical Agriculture "Farmers growing crops in those areas are going to experience significantly different conditions than what they are used to," said Julian Ramirez-Villegas, a scientist with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). "They're going to be completely outside their normal historical environments and many farmers are already struggling with historic variability." Areas not reflected in the study are likely to have precipitation changes as well, said Rojas. But because natural variation in those areas is high, extreme change is needed before researchers can detect their times of emergence. "Other studies have examined time of emergence in global temperature and precipitation," said Fabrice Lambert, a UC professor and co-author. "The interesting thing about this study is that we overlay the climatic results with spatial cropland distribution and growing seasons to show which agricultural production regions will be impacted by precipitation changes, and how much time they have to prepare." The world's most populous countries, China and India, are among those that will have much wetter fields for the four crops included in the study, under any emission scenario. Percentage of cropland that will extend into high double-digits. Asia's other big rice producers, including Japan, Korea and the Philippines will have TOEs for increased rainfall. Wheat fields northern Europe, the United States, Canada and Russia will have higher precipitation. More precipitation may mean higher production, but when coupled with rising sea levels, higher temperatures and increased potential for flooding, higher production is not assured, said the authors. "The precise nature of the changes is impossible to predict," said Andy Challinor, a co-author and Professor at the Priestley International Centre for Climate at the University of Leeds. "What this study tells us is that adaptation needs to be agile. For the first time, we can tell what changes to be ready forand when they are expectedin our major crop-growing regions. Prior to this study, the rainfall changes experienced by crops were thought to be so unpredictable that no real advice could be given." Explore further Slowing climate change could reverse drying in the subtropics More information: Maisa Rojas el al., "Emergence of robust precipitation changes across crop production areas in the 21st century," PNAS (2019). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Maisa Rojas el al., "Emergence of robust precipitation changes across crop production areas in the 21st century,"(2019). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1811463116 Provided by International Center for Tropical Agriculture Credit: CC0 Public Domain Students of color who attend schools with a culture that emphasizes the value of diversityspecifically schools whose mission statements mention goals such as serving a diverse student body and appreciating diversity and cultural differencesshow better cardiovascular health than peers whose schools do not express such values, according to a new collaborative study done by researchers at Northwestern and Stanford universities. This same pattern did not emerge among white students. Using a diverse sample of eighth-graders who attended more than 100 different schools in the greater Chicago area, the researchers categorized schools as emphasizing diversity if they had mission statements that mentioned: the goals of respecting or valuing diversity serving a diverse student body, including racially or culturally diverse perspectives in the curriculum, offering bilingual instruction and helping students develop an awareness of other racial, ethnic or cultural groups meeting students' cultural needs or preparing students to live in a multicultural or global world Cynthia Levine, lead author of the study, said some people might wonder whether schools whose mission statements emphasize the value of diversity are really different environments from schools whose mission statements do not, or is this just rhetoric. "We used another sample of schools in Chicago to check this, and we showed that schools whose mission statements mention diversity are schools where students of color are more academically successful and less likely to be disciplined," said Levine, who conducted the research at Northwestern as a postdoctoral student and is now an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Washington. "For students of color, these schools that emphasize diversity are different environments in concrete ways," she added. "They may feel more supported and valued there, in a way that matters for their health. "There's research showing that when schools and workplaces recognize and appreciate diversity, people of color are more engaged and successful. Our work suggests that similar environments also can be good for health." There's research showing that people who report they have experienced racial discrimination have worse health, Levine said, adding that their work suggests that it's not only experiences of poor treatment that are linked to the health of people of color, but also potentially whether diversity is valued and explicitly recognized in their environments. Levine and her co-authors looked at multiple biomarker outcomesinflammation, insulin resistance and metabolic syndromethat previous research has prospectively linked to the development of cardiovascular disease later on in life. Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of disability and death in the U.S., and there are racial disparities in its prevalence and mortality rates. "In our work, it's not just that students of color are being discriminated against," Levine said. "In fact, we statistically control for students' self-reported experiences of discrimination." Going forward, the researchers would like to understand more about what is happening in schools that emphasize diversity that makes them healthier environments for students of color. They have established that these are environments where students of color are more academically successful and disciplined less harshly. Levine thinks that "these schools may also have more teachers of color, have the perspectives of people of color represented in the curriculum to a greater degree, or have teachers who otherwise treat students of color in a more positive, supportive and inclusive manner." "These findings are innovative in suggesting that a positive school climate around diversity can promote better cardiovascular health among students of color," said Greg Miller, senior author of the study, professor of psychology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern and faculty fellow with the University's Institute for Policy Research. "They need to be replicated, of course, but if they are, there may be implications for mounting preventive interventions in the school context around diversity and inclusion and studying how such efforts affect children's lifestyle and physiology." "Students of color show health advantages when they attend schools that emphasize the value of diversity" will be published next week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Explore further Separate but unequal: NYU Metro Center Report examines segregation in NYC schools More information: Cynthia S. Levine el al., "Students of color show health advantages when they attend schools that emphasize the value of diversity," PNAS (2019). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Cynthia S. Levine el al., "Students of color show health advantages when they attend schools that emphasize the value of diversity,"(2019). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1812068116 Male and female Asian elephants differ in their personality. Credit: John Jackson Scientists from the University of Turku, Finland, have found that male and female Asian elephants differ in their personality. Previous work on a timber elephant population from Myanmar has shown that Asian elephants have three personality factors: Attentiveness, Sociability and Aggressiveness. The new study demonstrates that male elephants score higher on the Aggressiveness trait than females, whereas female elephants score higher on the Sociability trait than males. Personality in humans has been a well-known concept for long, but during the last two decades science has shown us that also other animals express personalities, for example, in sociability. Differences in personality between the sexes is also a topic in behavioural biology, but besides primates, little is known about personality differences between sexes in long-lived highly social mammals, as studies tend to focus on shorter lived species. The researchers of the University of Turku studied a semi-captive population of timber elephants in Myanmar. Even though a previous study showed that male and female elephants do not differ in their personality structure, the new study offers evidence that there are still differences in how strongly each personality trait is expressed in males and females. "We found that males scored higher on the aggressiveness personality trait compared to females. Males also tended to be rated as less sociable than females, scoring lower on the Sociability personality trait than females. We found no sex difference in the Attentiveness personality trait or in variances of any of the personality traits examined," says Postdoctoral Researcher and the lead author of the study Martin Seltmann from the Department of Biology at the University of Turku. The researchers used questionnaires to find out about the elephants' personalities. The questions were directed to mahouts, or elephant head riders, and they scored how often the elephant displayed each of the 28 different behaviours on a 4-point scale. The surveys were conducted in Myanmar in 20142017 on over 250 timber elephants living in their natural habitat. "The elephants work in the timber industry, pulling logs from one place to another. This is a very unique research environment and population, enabling us to study several hundreds of elephants," says Dr. Seltmann. An Asian elephant and its mahout working in Myanmar's timber industry. Credit: Martin Seltmann Sex-specific differences in personality and their link to species life-history Female Asian elephants live in small, strongly bonded family units and group cohesion is of high importance. Exhibiting consistent and predictable personalities could further improve the resolution of a conflict within the group, with different personalities adopting different social roles. "Higher female agreeableness seems to be a common pattern in long-lived, highly social mammals. These sex-specific differences in elephant Sociability could be explained by the different social lives of the sexes," says researcher Mirkka Lahdenpera who participated in the study. Higher aggressiveness in male elephants might be explained by their need to assess each other's dominance status by less aggressive sparring bouts or by more aggressive interactions during musth. Higher aggression is important in maximising reproductive success in male elephants as older, larger and more aggressive males are more successful in mate guarding than the less aggressive males. "Attentiveness includes behaviours that are generally associated with the response of the elephant towards its mahout, like attentiveness, obedience, and vigilance. Since both sexes work and live under similar conditions and similar work regulations apply to them, it is not surprising that those behaviours are not significantly influenced by sex," explains Dr. Seltmann. The study contributes to the growing literature on the existence of sex differences in animal personality. Males and females of the same species can experience different selection pressures and follow different life-history strategies, which in turn can be reflected by sex-specific personality differences. "Personality studies sometimes focus only on male or female individuals of a species, even though behaviour and life-history can differ substantially between the sexes, leading to different selection pressures on male and female personality," concludes Dr. Seltmann. Explore further Asian elephants have different personality traits just like humans More information: Martin W. Seltmann et al. Males have more aggressive and less sociable personalities than females in semi-captive Asian elephants, Scientific Reports (2019). Journal information: Scientific Reports Martin W. Seltmann et al. Males have more aggressive and less sociable personalities than females in semi-captive Asian elephants,(2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-39915-7 An infant rhesus macaque plays on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico. Credit: Tara Mandalwayala Shorter intervals between primate births are associated with higher mortality rates in offspring, finds a new study of macaque monkeys. The results are consistent with previous research on human birth intervals, suggesting that this is a pattern of evolutionary origin. "Despite the extensive body of research showing a relationship between short birth intervals and high offspring mortality in humans, we have lacked studies outside of humans, especially in non-human primates," observes James Higham, an associate professor in New York University's Department of Anthropology and the senior author of the study, which appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "This new research helps fill the gap by clarifying the biological link between birth intervals and offspring mortality in a general evolutionary framework." "We provide some of the first such data, from free-ranging rhesus macaques, and show that the risk of a short birth interval to an offspring is contingent on the survival of its older or younger sibling, who may constrain the maternal resources available for the offspring," adds Susie Lee, a doctoral candidate in NYU's anthropology program and one of the paper's co-authors. The study also included Angelina V. Ruiz-Lambides, associate director of the Cayo Santiago field station of the Caribbean Primate Research Center at the University of Puerto Rico. Adult female rhesus macaque in the mating season on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico. Credit: Constance Dubuc Short birth intervals have long been linked to adverse child outcomes in humans. However, it had been unclear the extent to which the birth interval has a direct influence on offspring mortality in generalthat is, independent of the effects of environment and human sociocultural practices on reproductive behavior. To address this question, the researchers examined rhesus macaque monkeys on Cayo Santiago, which is off the coast of Puerto Rico. Here, monkeys roam free on this natural tropical island, but also are so familiar with humans that they can be the subject of up-close and personal researchallowing researchers unprecedented access into their daily lives, which scientists have extensively recorded. This microcosm of monkey society has shed light on questions as diverse as how they think, choose friends, and choose mates as well as on the genetic underpinnings of their complex social behaviors. For the PNAS study, Lee, Ruiz Lambides, and Higham examined approximately 9,000 birth records from about 1,400 free-ranging rhesus macaque mothers. Their analysis revealed that short birth intervals preceding or succeeding the birth of an offspring were both associated with higher offspring mortality. "This finding suggests that trade-offs between offspring quantity and quality on offspring survival determine variation in birth intervals and provide an evolutionary framework in which to consider the data on human birth intervals," observes Lee. Explore further Study finds variation of the interval between first and second pregnancy More information: D. Susie Lee el al., "Higher offspring mortality with short interbirth intervals in free-ranging rhesus macaques," PNAS (2019). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences D. Susie Lee el al., "Higher offspring mortality with short interbirth intervals in free-ranging rhesus macaques,"(2019). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1817148116 As record rains have poured down on California's coasts, sending thousands of gallons of runoff into the ocean and dumping debris and trash onto the beaches, dozens of sickened marine mammals have been turning up along the state's shores this winter. Rescues of unhealthy seals and sea lions have nearly tripled for this time of year in Orange County, according to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, which this week took in its 41st pinniped since the year began. "It's been a little bit of a whirlwind," said Krysta Higuchi, a spokeswoman for the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach. "We're going through fish, funds and medical supplies faster than we expected. It is a strain on all of us here." The center says it's normal for the number of stranded pinnipeds to go up near the end of March, but this year the organization has rescued a large number of sea lions along with three elephant seals much earlier than usual, and most are 8-month-old pups. Sea lion pups are typically beached because their mothers are unhealthy and cannot properly feed them, or they were strong enough to wean early and then are unable to find food on their own, according to Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The pups rescued have been dry, malnourished and emaciated, weighing half as much as they should, the marine center said. While the exact reason for the increase in the number of strandings this year is unknown, Higuchi said it could be tied to warmer ocean waters caused by an El Nino weather pattern or excess stormwater runoff from all of this winter's rains. After months of flirting, conditions for El Nino came together in the central Pacific in mid-February, but forecasters say the pattern is weak. For an El Nino to be declared, a certain atmospheric circulation pattern has to form over warm ocean-surface temperatures. The ocean temperatures have been elevated for months, but the circulation pattern hadn't caught on until last month, said Michelle L'Heureux, a meteorologist with the National Weather Services' Climate Prediction Center. Warm waters often reduce the amount of bait fish in the ocean, such as sardines and anchovies, which larger marine mammals eat. The smaller forage fish tend to swim in cold water, so during an El Nino event the fish may be diving deeper or farther out than usualout of the reach of young sea lions, said Melin, who studies the overall population of sea lions in the state. She recently returned from a trip to the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California and found a strong population of healthy sea lion mothers there, which seems to indicate the newly weaned pups aren't finding enough food, leading to their strandings. In addition to the higher-than-normal pinniped rescues, researchers are seeing an increase in the number of stranded dolphins. The Pacific Marine Mammal Center recently enlisted the help of NOAA and several universities to help determine why so many dolphins have washed up along the state's beaches. Last month, 20 dead dolphins were found along the California coast, a much higher number than experts have seen compared with past years, said Justin Viezbicke, a stranding coordinator with NOAA. That's higher than the total number of dead dolphins found statewide in 2017 and 2018 combined. In Orange and Los Angeles counties, nine dolphins have been found dead or dying since the beginning of the yearthree in the past week. Reports of the stranded dolphins and sea lion rescues have come as the state is experiencing an unusually wet year, with consecutive storms washing trash and toxins into the ocean. Necropsy results have yet to come in, but Viezbicke thinks the dolphin beachings have something to do with this year's rain, which has pounded the state in recent months with a series of atmospheric river-fueled fronts. It's possible the storm runoff that washes waste into the ocean has caused a stronger bloom of poisonous algae, which produce a toxin responsible for neurological disorders, Higuchi said. Sickness caused by the algae blooms can cause seizures, which affected two of the dolphins found recently in Southern California. "They were flailing around" when rescuers arrived, Higuchi said. "It was a very heartbreaking experience. These dolphins are such majestic creatures. To see them suffering was very difficult." Whale-watching groups have reported an unusually high number of dead dolphins along the coast this season. Rather than any unusual illnesses, it's possible onshore winds and waves from strong storms could be washing the carcasses ashore, making the dead animals more visible, Viezbicke said. But as to why there are so many stranded sea lions this winter, the answers are less clear. "It's getting hard to give good answers because the ocean is getting more unpredictable," said Douglas McCauley, a professor of marine biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "The ocean is just getting weirder. So much is changing (in terms of climate)." Although the El Nino conditions are weak, McCauley says the weather pattern may be throwing the ocean temperatures off just enough to impact marine life. Orange and Los Angeles county coasts tend to see stranded sea lion pups sooner than other parts of California because the animals breed at the nearby Channel Islands, Melin said. During the same two-month span in 2018, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center rescued 15 animals, compared with 41 from this year, said Peter Chang, the center's chief executive. In 2017, the group had rescued 18 pinnipeds by this time of the year. The Marine Mammal Centera separate entity from the Pacific Marine Mammal Center that rescues animals on 600 miles of beaches between Mendocino and San Luis Obispo countieshas not seen an uptick in rescues this winter, spokesman Giancarlo Rulli said. The organization is currently housing 18 sea lions, a normal number for this time of year, he said. "There's been nothing out of the ordinary, but things could change," Rulli said. "That could mean something could head up the coast. We're keeping a close eye on things." To the south, Sea World in San Diego has also seen an average number of rescues, with a total of 45 sea lions, spokesman David Koontz said. The last time California had a major increase in stranded sea lions was between 2013 and 2016, when a strong El Nino caused what experts called an "unusual mortality event." In 2015, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center rescued 600 animals, while the Marine Mammal Center in Northern California rescued 1,800. After 2016, the sea lion population began to recover, but Melin said she expects there will be more large mortality events, given the changing climate. While El Nino leads to temporary shifts in marine mammals' movements and population, general ocean warming is causing more permanent damage to all sorts of sea creatures. In February, UC Santa Barbara researchers found an elusive hoodwinker sunfish that had washed ashore in Goleta, far from its usual home in the waters of Australia and New Zealand. Last week, a dead humpback whale ended up in Brazil at the mouth of the Amazon River. "The waters we've seen in the last decade are probably what we'll be seeing in the future," Melin said. "It will be more common for large stranding events. We've seen it coming, really." Explore further More sick sea lion pups washing up on California beaches 2019 Los Angeles Times Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Sugarcane at Meringa research station. Credit: University of Queensland Gene-editing sugarcane for use in renewable energy and bio-plastics could help secure the industry's future. The University of Queensland's Professor Robert Henry said sugarcane's reinvention as an "energycane" crop could sustain the industry in the face of falling global demand for sugar. "The industry must think beyond just producing sugar, to also producing electricity, biofuels for transportation and oils to replace traditional plastics," he said Professor Henry, Director of the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) at UQ, is conducting the first gene-editing experiments to tailor sugarcane production to effectively produce biofuels and bioplastics. "It's about reinventing sugarcane as a crop with a wider range of end uses, and sugarcane is ideal for renewables because it is fast-growing with abundant biomass," he said. He is working with a global team to sequence the sugarcane genome as part of a US Joint Genome Institute project. "Sugar is the last major cultivated plant to have its genome sequenced, and we expect to see it fully decoded by 2020," Professor Henry said. "Having sugar's genetic template will allow us to look at growing sugarcane as a biofuel and a source of 100 per cent recyclable bioplastic, making it a substitute for petroleum in the production of countless items from cosmetics to car parts," he said. Professor Henry's call to rethink sugarcane is supported by Cooperative Research Centre for Developing Northern Australia Chair Ms Sheriden Morris. Credit: University of Queensland "Gene-editing of the sugarcane genome will allow the sugar industry to explore adaptations that will reduce environmental impacts, especially on the Great Barrier Reef," Ms Morris said. "It will help the industry to broaden the potential of a sugar crop to a wider range of uses. Biofuels and bioplastics will be important to the long-term future of the industry," she said. Professor Henry, who has helped lead genomic breakthroughs in decoding the sugarcane genome, said the science was quickly developing to allow growers to tap into the commercial opportunities in renewables. "Australia's sugarcane growers are facing a falling sugar price driven by declining world demand and increased competition in India and Brazil. "The industry must look to the future." QAAFI researchers supported by the US Joint BioEnergy Institute and Sugar Research Australia through an Australian Research Council Linkage grant are testing a range of sugarcane varieties to identify which types produce ethanol most effectively and efficiently. Researchers are also collaborating with the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi to investigate processes that break down sugarcane fibre to make bioplastics. "Drink bottles made from sugarcane bioplastics are just one product on the agenda from this collaboration," Professor Henry said. "Economics is the key. Now that we understand more about the genetics of sugarcane, these sorts of products are becoming commercially realistic." Explore further The highly complex sugarcane genome has finally been sequenced BeijingChina on Monday ordered domestic airlines to suspend commercial operation of the Boeing 737 MAX 8, citing the Ethiopian Airlines crash and another deadly accident of that same model in Indonesia. Noting the similarities between the two accidents, Chinas Civil Aviation Administration said domestic airlines had until 6:00 pm local time (1000 GMT) to ground all 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Operation of the model will only resume after confirming the relevant measures to effectively ensure flight safety, the administration said in a statement. The aviation authority will contact the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing, it said. The statement cited the Kenya-bound Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board, including eight from China.It also mentioned the Indonesia Lion Air flight, which crashed after takeoff from Jakarta in October, killing all 189 people on board. China is an important market for the US aircraft company, accounting for about one-fifth of worldwide deliveries of Boeing 737 MAX models. The company has delivered 76 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to Chinese airlines, which have ordered another 104, according to data from the aircraft makers website updated through January. Boeing and joint venture partner Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) operate a plant in the eastern city of Zhoushan that completes the interiors of 737 MAX planes for Chinese airlines. The factory delivered its first MAX 8 plane to Air China in December. The planes are assembled in Renton, Washington state, and taken to Zhoushan to finish the interior work, according to Boeing. Under ambient conditions or visible light (left side), the polymer is crystalline and has a high thermal conductivity. Once exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light (right side) it transforms to a low thermal conductivity liquid. Imaging performed using polarized optical microscopy; crystals appear bright, and liquid dark. Inset images show schematic illustration of crystalline and liquid polymer in each state. Credit: University of Illinois Materials Research Lab Polymers are regularly used as thermal insulators for everything from keeping beverages hot to keeping sensitive electronics cool. In some cases, polymers can even be used as thermal conductors to enable efficient heating or cooling. In a new study, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have designed and demonstrated a novel type of polymer demonstrating a switchable thermal conductivity controlled by light. The material has the potential to route the conduction of heat on-demand and enable new, smarter, ways to manage heat. The findings are reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Polymers are used extensively in engineered systems, but these materials have almost always been considered thermally static. Discovery of polymers that can be optically triggered to quickly switch between thermally conducting and insulating states will open up entirely new opportunities in thermal engineering," explained Paul Braun, a materials science and engineering (MatSE) professor and director of the Illinois Materials Research Laboratory. "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first observation of a light-triggered reversible crystal-liquid transition in any polymeric material. The particularly notable finding in this study is the fast, reversible 3-fold change in thermal conductivity associated with the phase transition," explained Jungwoo Shin, a MatSE Ph.D. student at Illinois. The thermal switching polymer developed by the Illinois research team demonstrates a powerful control of the thermophysical properties of a polymer in response to light. This ability originates from a photo-responsive molecule,azobenzene, which can be optically excited by ultraviolet (UV) and visible light. "We synthesized a complex polymer functionalized with light-responsive azobenzene groups. By illuminating with UV and visible light, we could change the shape of the azobenzene group, modulate interchain bonding strength and drive a reversible transition between crystal and liquid," said Jaeuk Sung, a MatSE Ph.D. student at Illinois. To capture the thermal conductivity transitions of azobenzene polymers under light illumination, the Illinois research team used a technique called time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) developed by David Cahill, a MatSE professor at Illinois. "The way heat is carried in polymer is related to the diffusion of vibrational modes. In ordered crystals, these vibrational modes travel much further than what is observed in disordered liquids. As a result, an extreme change in molecular ordering of the polymer can significantly alter the thermal conductivity," David Cahill said. This extreme change in macromolecular ordering, e.g., crystal-to-liquid, is rare in nature, and has not been reported previously for any polymer system in response to light. Thus, unravelling the mechanism of the light-triggered phase transition was critical to understand the polymer's unique behavior. "We could observe that, upon light exposure, this material quickly switches from one state to another with dramatically distinct heat transport properties. We used synchrotron-based X-ray scattering to elucidate the structure associated with each state during the transformation, closing the synthesis-characterization-function loop for this sophisticated polymer," added Cecilia Leal, a MatSE professor at Illinois. "Keeping an electrical device warm is as equally important as keeping it cold. Materials with such switchable thermal conductivity would enable ways to keep electrified systems safe, reliable and efficient even under extreme condition." explained Andrew Alleyne, the director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored Engineering Research Center for Power Optimization of Electro-Thermal Systems (POETS) which supported this work, and a professor in Mechanical Science and Engineering at Illinois. "The ability to rapidly switch the thermal properties of a polymer by exposure to light opens up exciting new routes for control of thermal transport and energy conversion at the molecular level," added Nancy Sottos, a MatSE professor at Illinois. This finding provides a striking example of how light can be used to control the thermal conductivity of polymers. A better understanding of the physical relationship between thermal conductivity and macromolecular ordering would also help push the limits of traditional polymers. Explore further Photoreversible molecular switch changes the physical property of thermoresponsive polymer The experimental setup for a newly developed technique: ultrafast surface X-ray scattering. This technique couples an optical pump with an X-ray free-electron laser probe to investigate molecular dynamics on the femtosecond time scale. Credit: Haidan Wen Discovery allows scientists to look at how 2-D materials move with ultrafast precision. Using a never-before-seen technique, scientists have found a new way to use some of the world's most powerful X-rays to uncover how atoms move in a single atomic sheet at ultrafast speeds. The study, led by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and in collaboration with other institutions, including the University of Washington and DOE's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, developed a new technique called ultrafast surface X-ray scattering. This technique revealed the changing structure of an atomically thin two-dimensional crystal after it was excited with an optical laser pulse. "Extending [surface X-ray scattering] to do ultrafast science in single-layer materials represents a major technological advance that can show us a great deal about how atoms behave at surfaces and at the interfaces between materials," said Argonne scientist Haidan Wen. Unlike previous surface X-ray scattering techniques, this new method goes beyond providing a static picture of the atoms on a material's surface to capture the motions of atoms on timescales as short as trillionths of a second after laser excitation. Static surface X-ray scattering and some time-dependent surface X-ray scattering can be performed at a synchrotron X-ray source, but to do ultrafast surface X-ray scattering the researchers needed to use the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray free-electron laser at SLAC. This light source provides very bright X-rays with extremely short exposures of 50 femtoseconds. By delivering large quantities of photons to the sample quickly, the researchers were able to generate a sufficiently strong time-resolved scattering signal, thus visualizing the motion of atoms in 2-D materials. "Surface X-ray scattering is challenging enough on its own," said Argonne X-ray physicist Hua Zhou, an author of the study. "Extending it to do ultrafast science in single-layer materials represents a major technological advance that can show us a great deal about how atoms behave at surfaces and at the interfaces between materials." In two-dimensional materials, atoms typically vibrate slightly along all three dimensions under static conditions. However, on ultrafast time scales, a different picture of atomic behavior emerges, said Argonne physicist and study author Haidan Wen. Using ultrafast surface X-ray scattering, Wen and postdoctoral researcher I-Cheng Tung led an investigation of a two-dimensional material called tungsten diselenide (WSe 2 ). In this material, each tungsten atom connects to two selenium atoms in a "V" shape. When the single-layer material is hit with an optical laser pulse, the energy from the laser causes the atoms to move within the plane of the material, creating a counterintuitive effect. "You normally would expect the atoms to move out of the plane, since that's where the available space is," Wen said. "But here we see them mostly vibrate within the plane right after excitation." An experimental station at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source X-ray free-electron laser, where scientists used a new tool they developed to watch atoms move within a single atomic sheet. Credit: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory These observations were supported by first-principle calculations led by Aiichiro Nakano at University of Southern California and scientist Pierre Darancet of Argonne's Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), a DOE Office of Science User Facility. The team obtained preliminary surface X-ray scattering measurements at Argonne's Advanced Photon Source (APS), also a DOE Office of Science User Facility. These measurements, although they were not taken at ultrafast speeds, allowed the researchers to calibrate their approach for the LCLS free-electron laser, Wen said. The direction of atomic shifts and the ways in which the lattice changes have important effects on the properties of two-dimensional materials like WSe 2 , according to University of Washington professor Xiaodong Xu. "Because these 2-D materials have rich physical properties, scientists are interested in using them to explore fundamental phenomena as well as potential applications in electronics and photonics," he said. "Visualizing the motion of atoms in single atomic crystals is a true breakthrough and will allow us to understand and tailor material properties for energy relevant technologies." "This study gives us a new way to probe structural distortions in 2-D materials as they evolve, and to understand how they are related to unique properties of these materials that we hope to harness for electronic devices that use, emit or control light," added Aaron Lindenberg, a professor at SLAC and Stanford University and collaborator on the study. "These approaches are also applicable to a broad class of other interesting and poorly understood phenomena that occur at the interfaces between materials." A paper based on the study, "Anisotropic structural dynamics of monolayer crystals revealed by femtosecond surface X-ray scattering," appeared in the March 11 online edition of Nature Photonics. Other authors on the study included researchers from the University of Washington, University of Southern California, Stanford University, SLAC and Kumamoto University (Japan). The APS, CNM, and LCLS are DOE Office of Science User Facilities. Explore further Laser pulses light the way to tuning topological materials for spintronics and quantum computing More information: Anisotropic structural dynamics of monolayer crystals revealed by femtosecond surface X-ray scattering, Nature Photonics (2019). www.nature.com/articles/s41566-019-0387-5 Journal information: Nature Photonics Anisotropic structural dynamics of monolayer crystals revealed by femtosecond surface X-ray scattering,(2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41566-019-0387-5 During the workshop, the BioMonitor team oriented the participants about the project and its goals. They later discussed on the indicators stakeholders wish to see, and the training they need in order to make the most out of the BioMonitor system. Participants included people from industries, governmental and research organisations who are involved in the collection of statistical data. Policy makers and business representatives who need such data to monitor the bioeconomy were also present in the workshop. The event was organised by NOVA Institute, a partner in the BioMonitor project; they are coordinating a work package regarding the "Methodology development and creation of the BioMonitor Data Platform". The main results of the workshop have been summarised in D7.2 "First Stakeholder Workshop", which has been released in January 2019 (click here to download the full report). Below is an interview we did with Stephan Piotrowski from NOVA Institute. During the workshop, he gave a presentation on indicators for the monitoring of the bioeconomy. Q: At this first workshop the BioMonitor team has collected valuable input from key stakeholders. How will the project take on board the outcome of the discussion held? SP: Our project is currently busy in developing the framework for measuring the bioeconomy to establish which indicators should be covered in BioMonitor. The workshop participants stated which indicators are important to them. Based on the outcome of the discussion a new set of indicators will be developed. Moreover, the workshop gave us an opportunity to identify what the training needs of the different categories of stakeholders are as the training element is an important pillar of the project. Q: Did the workshop participants have any expectation with regards to BioMonitor? SP: One remark was made very clearly at the workshop: it is important that the monitoring system that will be developed by BioMonitor is meaningful and useful. In other words, it must be actionable and must be able to address the needs of the policy makers, enterprises and NGO. Operators expect from our project an outcome they can work on immediately and nothing too "academic" and far removed from their real demands. Q: From the conversation you had with the stakeholders, what will be the main benefit brought by BioMonitor? SP: It is necessary to structure the massive bundle of data available to understand what drives the bioeconomy and how policymaking can speed up its development. Nowadays there are all sorts of official statistics and data collected from different industry associations on different purposes. Their providers work independently and use different methodologies to calculate monitoring data which, as a result, are often contradicting. This usually leaves users of statistical data confused. Take as an example fundamental indicators like turnover or employment in the bioeconomy: several analyses have been conducted which lead to different conclusions, and nobody knows which data set is the most accurate. This is a problem, particularly for policy makers: those who operate at a top level might not have the necessary scientific background to choose the best data sources for their decision making and do not dig deep and check every detail that goes on in the scientific methodology behind data sets. However policy makers need guidance and clearly understandable results i.e. indicators in order to implement the most effective strategical objectives for the EU in the future. BioMonitor will be tackling these issues by offering them the monitoring systems being developed as of the moment. Q: According to some participants in the workshop, "BioMonitor should try to base everything on available data or use "innovative" ways to collect new data, because collection of new official data is always difficult". How will BioMonitor implement this recommendation? SP: The collection of new data on bio-based products is one element we are developing in BioMonitor. On one hand, there is a need to expand statistical classification to include new biobased products. Realistically speaking, such classification cannot be expected to cover all products partly because there are tons of data on products that have never been gathered. Filling in this gap would then be a burden for industry and statistical offices, who are expected to collect such data. BioMonitor will come up with solid methodologies that calculate new statistical data based on existing ones. We start by looking back at an established methodology that has been developed by JRC and NOVA, which is based on expert estimates. In BioMonitor we will further develop and improve this methodology so that we increase accuracy in measuring the bioeconomy while keeping the workload linked to data collection acceptable for providers. Click here to download the report D7.2 "First Stakeholder Workshop" Provided by iCube Programme The global temperature is predicted to rise 1.5 C above the pre-industrial level until 2050. This might sound small but will have an extreme impact on our planet. Latest studies state that 46% of greenhouse gas emission in Europe are from generating heat for homes and businesses. To lower this impact, an old concept experiences a comeback : district heating. Paul Voss, managing director of Euroheat & Power, Brussels-based network of district energy organisations working on sustainable heating and cooling methods in Europe, says: "Cities have power plants or industrial facilities that produce waste heat. It makes sense to use it rather than burning something else and heat our buildings in a sustainable way. District heating networks take all the different heat sources that are available in a community, and channel them from where they are to the buildings where they're needed, through a system of pipes and water." In the last few years researchers, architects and engineers working under the EU project Cityfied, have successfully tested different sustainable district heating networks in Sweden, Turkey and Spain. In Lund the researchers explored the impact of the combined use of waste heat from a power plant and biomass as energy sources. District heating used this way covers 25,000 single-family dwellings. They found, that by using district heating this way, Lund could be fossil fuel free already by 2020. First steps have been also been made in Turkey, where a power plant in Soma has been converted for the use of waste heat. The Municipality built a transmission line to transport it into buildings. About 4,000 homes are already connected to the system and the numbers are growing. The researchers estimate that this system will reduce CO 2 emissions by 20%. Mustafa Soyoral, supervisory director of the Soma power plant, says: "This solution provides nearly 90% efficient heating. Burning coal in stoves at home provides only 50% efficient heating." It also improves the air quality of the city, by reducing the smoke coming from wood and coal based residential heating. In Laguna de Duero, one of the municipalities surrounding the metropolitan area of the city of Valladolid in Spain, the project tested a modern heating system that is run by biomass and natural gas, providing warm water and heat to the residents. A new building was built to place the biomass boiler room and biomass silo. Before the retrofitting works, the two heating systems run autonomously. Both district heating systems were therefore joined into one in order to harmonise the district overall consumption. Thanks to this refurbishment, the share of energy savings is increased from 40% to 50%. Javier Martin Sanz, engineer of the energy service company Veolia, one of the developers of the biomass boiler, explains: "We have a mixed heat production system, where 80% is done with biomass and another 20% with natural gas. This mixed production reduces the CO 2 emissions already to more than 70%." According to Sofia Lettenbichler, from Euroheat&Power,"what we will see in the future is cities that use all kinds of renewable sources that they already have in place, for example using waste heat from the metro system or from data centers. And by exploiting all the local energy sources that you already have in a city you can heat all of Europe." Today only 13% of the heating demand of Europeans is covered by district heating. Reducing the environmental and economic impacts of traditional, individual heating systems will need bolder action from governments, while research works on improving technology. Watch the video here : www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhxfPX9YN88 More information: The CITyFiED project aims to develop a replicable, systemic and integrated strategy to adapt European cities and urban ecosystems into the smart city of the future. Provided by Youris.com One of my all-time favorite guilty pleasures is indulging in productivity porn. Productivity porn (or, for those really in the know, productivity pr0n") consists of techniques, tactics, and tricks for maximizing personal productivityor, as they say, getting things done. Having enjoyed such fine purveyors of prodporn as Merlin Mann, Danny OBrien, Gina Trapani, David Allen, and Tim Ferriss, Id like to return the favor with the following: the Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity. The techniques that follow work together as an integrated set for me, but they probably wont for you. Maybe youll get one or two ideasprobably out of the ideas I stole from other people. If so, I have succeeded. And here we go: Lets start with a bang: dont keep a schedule. Hes crazy, you say! Im totally serious. If you pull it offand in many structured jobs, you simply cantthis simple tip alone can make a huge difference in productivity. By not keeping a schedule, I mean: refuse to commit to meetings, appointments, or activities at any set time in any future day. As a result, you can always work on whatever is most important or most interesting, at any time. Want to spend all day writing a research report? Do it! Want to spend all day coding? Do it! Want to spend all day at the cafe down the street reading a book on personal productivity? Do it! When someone emails or calls to say, Lets meet on Tuesday at 3, the appropriate response is: Im not keeping a schedule for 2007, so I cant commit to that, but give me a call on Tuesday at 2:45 and if Im available, Ill meet with you. Or, if its important, say, You know what, lets meet right now. Clearly this only works if you can get away with it. If you have a structured job, a structured job environment, or youre a CEO, it will be hard to pull off. But if you can do it, its really liberating, and will lead to far higher productivity than almost any other tactic you can try. This idea comes from a wonderful book called A Perfect Mess, which explains how not keeping a schedule has been key to Arnold Schwarzeneggers success as a movie star, politician, and businessman over the last 20 years. Want to meet with Arnold? Sure, drop on by. Hell see you if he can. But you might want to call first. Sorry, he doesnt schedule appointments in advance. As a result, for 20 years he has been free to work on whatever is most important in his life at any time. Those of you in California may recall how, once Arnold decided to run for Governor, he went into a blaze of action and activity that resulted in a landslide victory. The book attributes this in part to the fact that his schedule was completely clear and he could spend all day, every day on his new political career, without having to worry about distractions or commitments. If you have at any point in your life lived a relatively structured existenceprobably due to some kind of job with regular office hours, meetings, and the likeyou will know that there is nothing more liberating than looking at your calendar and seeing nothing but free time for weeks ahead to work on the most important things in whatever order you want. This also gives you the best odds of maximizing flow, which is a whole nother topic but highly related. Ive been trying this tactic as an experiment in 2007, as those of you who have emailed me to suggest we get together or that I go to a conference or to a meeting will attest. And I am so much happier, I cant even tell you. I get so much more time to focus on the things that really matterin my case, my two companies, my nonprofit boards, and my lovely wife. The other great thing about this tactic is that it doesnt have to be all or nothingthere are quite a few things that still sneak onto my calendar that I really cant get out of. But one is still able to draw the line between must do and sounds interesting but Im not keeping a schedule. Keep three and only three lists: a Todo List, a Watch List, and a Later List. The more into lists you are, the more important this is. Into the Todo List goes all the stuff you must docommitments, obligations, things that have to be done. A single list, possibly subcategorized by timeframe (today, this week, next week, next month). Into the Watch List goes all the stuff going on in your life that you have to follow up on, wait for someone else to get back to you on, remind yourself of in the future, or otherwise remember. Into the Later List goes everything elseeverything you might want to do or will do when you have time or wish you could do. If it doesnt go on one of those three lists, it goes away. Each night before you go to bed, prepare a 3x5 index card with a short list of 3 to 5 things that you will do the next day. And then, the next day, do those things. I sit down at my desk before I go to sleep, pull up my Todo List (which I keep in Microsoft Words outline mode, due to long habit), and pick out the 3 to 5 things I am going to get done tomorrow. I write those things on a fresh 3x5 card, lay the card out with my card keys, and go to bed. Then, the next day, I try like hell to get just those things done. If I do, it was a successful day. People who have tried lots of productivity porn techniques will tell you that this is one of the most successful techniques they have ever tried. Once you get into the habit, you start to realize how many days you used to have when you wouldnt get 3 to 5 important/significant/meaningful things done during a day. Then, throughout the rest of the day, use the back of the 3x5 card as your Anti-Todo List. This isnt a real list. And the name is tongue firmly in cheek. What you do is this: every time you do somethinganythinguseful during the day, write it down in your Anti-Todo List on the card. Each time you do something, you get to write it down and you get that little rush of endorphins that the mouse gets every time he presses the button in his cage and gets a food pellet. And then at the end of the day, before you prepare tomorrows 3x5 card, take a look at todays card and its Anti-Todo list and marvel at all the things you actually got done that day. Then tear it up and throw it away. Another day well spent, and productive. I love this techniquebeing able to put more notches on my accomplishment belt, so to speak, by writing down things on my Anti-Todo list as I accomplish them throughout the day makes me feel marvelously productive and efficient. Far more so than if I just did those things and didnt write them down. Plus, you know those days when youre running around all day and doing stuff and talking to people and making calls and responding to emails and filling out paperwork and you get home and youre completely exhausted and you say to yourself, What the hell did I actually get done today? Your Anti-Todo list has the answer. By the way, in order to do this, you have to carry a pen with you everywhere you go. I recommend the Fisher Space Pen. Its short and bullet-shaped so it wont poke you in the thigh when its in your pocket, its wonderfully retro, it helped save the Apollo 11 mission, and it writes upside down. Whats not to like? Structured Procrastination. This is a great one. This one is lifted straight from the genius mind of John Perry, a philosophy professor at Stanford. Read his original description, by all means. You even get to see a photo of him practicing jumping rope with seaweed on a beach while work awaits. Outstanding. The gist of Structured Procrastination is that you should never fight the tendency to procrastinateinstead, you should use it to your advantage in order to get other things done. Generally in the course of a day, there is something you have to do that you are not doing because you are procrastinating. While youre procrastinating, just do lots of other stuff instead. As John says, The list of tasks one has in mind will be ordered by importance. Tasks that seem most urgent and important are on top. But there are also worthwhile tasks to perform lower down on the list. Doing these tasks becomes a way of not doing the things higher up on the list. With this sort of appropriate task structure, the procrastinator becomes a useful citizen. Indeed, the procrastinator can even acquire, as I have, a reputation for getting a lot done. Reading Johns essay was one of the single most profound moments of my entire life. For example, I hate making phone calls. Hate it. Love sending emails, enjoy seeing people face to face (sometimes), but I hate making phone calls. I can get so much done while I am avoiding making a phone call that I need to make, I can barely believe it. In fact, thats whats happening right now. The other key two-word tactic: Strategic Incompetence. The best way to to make sure that you are never asked to do something again is to royally screw it up the first time you are asked to do it. Or, better yet, just say you know you will royally screw it upmaintain a strong voice and a clear gaze, and youll probably get off the hook. Of course, this assumes that there are other things that are more important at which you are competent. Which, hopefully, there are. Organizing the company picnic, sending faxes or Fedexes, negotiating with insurance brokers, writing in plain English... the list of things at which one can be strategically incompetent is nearly endless. Do email exactly twice a daysay, once first thing in the morning, and once at the end of the workday. Allocated half an hour or whatever it takes, but otherwise, keep your email client shut and your email notifications turned off. Anyone who needs to reach you so urgently that it cant wait until later in the day or tomorrow morning can call you, or send a runner, or send up smoke signals, or something else. Or, more likely, find someone else who can do whatever it is that needs doing. (If you communicate with your spouse or key family members via email during the day, then just set up a separate email account just for them and leave that open all day, but keep your primary email closed. And never give out the family email address to anyone noncriticalincluding your boss.) Only doing email twice a day will make you far more productive for the rest of the day. The problem with email is that getting an email triggers that same endorphin hit I mentioned abovethe one that a mouse gets when he bonks on the button in the cage and gets a food pellet. Responding to an email triggers that same hit. The pleasure chemical hits your neocortex and you go ahhh" inside and feel like youve done something. So you sit and work with your mail client open and you interrupt your work every time an email comes in and you answer it and you send another email and you feel great in the moment. But what youre really doing is fracturing your time, interrupting your flow, and killing your ability to focus on anything long enough to get real high-quality work done. This one is far easier to say than do. And it wont be feasible during projects where lots of updates during the day really are importantraising money, for example, or closing a big deal. Me, Im just trying to get down to checking email only a half dozen times per day. When you do process email, do it like this: First, always finish each of your two daily email sessions with a completely empty inbox. I dont know about you, but when I know I have emails in my inbox that havent been dealt with, I find it hard to concentrate on other things. The urge to go back to my email is nearly overpowering. (I am apparently seriously addicted to endorphins.) Second, when doing email, either answer or file every single message until you get to that empty inbox state of grace. Not keeping a schedule helps here, a lot, if you can pull it offyou can reply to a lot of messages with Im sorry, Im not keeping a schedule in 2007, I cant commit to that. Third, emails relating to topics that are current working projects or pressing issues go into temporary subfolders of a folder called Action. You should only have Action subfolders for the things that really matter, right now. Those subfolders then get used, and the messages in them processed, when you are working on their respective projects in the normal course of your day. Fourth, aside from those temporary Action subfolders, only keep three standing email folders: Pending, Review, and Vault. Emails that you know youre going to have to deal with againsuch as emails in which someone is committing something to you and you want to be reminded to follow up on it if the person doesnt delivergo in Pending. Emails with things you want to read in depth when you have more time, go into Review. Everything else goes into Vault. Every once in a while, sweep through your Action subfolders and dump any of them that you can into Vault. (And do the same thing for messages in your Pending foldermost of the things in there you will never look at again. Actually, same is true for Review.) Thats it. You can get away with this because modern email clients are so good at search (well, most of themand you can always move to GMail) that its not worth the effort to try to file emails into lots of different folders. Obviously you may need some additional permanent folders for important things like contracts, or emails from your doctor, or the like, but these are exceptions and dont change your standard operating procedure. Dont answer the phone. Let it go to voicemail, and then every few hours, screen your voicemails and batch the return calls. Say, twice a day. Cell phones and family plans are so cheap these days that I think the best thing to do is have two cell phones with different numbersone for key family members, your closest friends, and your boss and a few coworkers, and the other for everyone else. Answer the first one when it rings, but never answer the second one. Hide in an IPod. One of the best and easiest ways to avoid distractions in the workplace is to be wearing those cute little IPod earbud headphones (or any other headphones of your choice). People, for some reason, feel much worse interrupting you if you are wearing headphones than if youre not. Its greata lot of the time, people will walk up to you, start to say something, notice the headphones, apologize (using exaggerated mouth motions), and walk away. This is greathalf the time they didnt actually need to talk to you, and the other half of the time they can send an email that you can process at the end of the day during the second of your two daily email sweeps. Heres the best part: you dont actually have to be listening to anything. Hell, you dont even have to have the headphones plugged into anything. Im not going to talk a lot about getting up early or going to bed late or anything else related to the course of a typical day, because everyones different. Personally I go back and forth between being a night owl (99% of the time) and a morning person (1%Im going to try to push it to 2%). But the thing that matters almost more than anything in determining whether Ill have a happy, satisfying day is this: no matter what time you get up, start the day with a real, sit-down breakfast. This serves two purposes. First, it fuels you up. Study after study have shown that breakfast is, yes, the most important meal of the day. Its critical to properly fuel the body for the days activities and its also critical to staying lean or losing weight. (People who dont have breakfast tend to eat more, and worse, at lunch.) Second, it gives you a chance to calmly, peacefully collect your thoughts and prepare mentally and emotionally for the day ahead. This works whether you do it with kids and/or a partner, or youre solo. Personally I think its worth whatever effort is involved to go to bed early enough to wake up early enough to have a good solid 45 minutes or an hour for breakfast each morning, if you can pull it off. Only agree to new commitments when both your head and your heart say yes. This one is from the great Robert Evans. (Hold out for the audiobooktrust me.) Its really easy to get asked to do somethinga new project, a nonprofit activity, a social eventand to have your head say yes and your heart say no, and then your mouth says yes. The next thing you know, youre piled up with all kinds of things on your schedule that sounded like a good idea at the time but you really dont want to do. And distract you from the things that really matter. And make you angry, and bitter, and sullen, and hostile. (Oh, wait, Im projecting.) In my experience, it takes time to tell the difference between your head saying yes and your heart saying yes. I think the key is whether youre really excited about it. If you get that little adrenaline spike (in a good way) when you think about it, then your heart is saying yes. The corollary, of course, is that when your head says no and your heart says yes, your mouth should generally say yes as well :-). But not when your head says yes and your heart says no. SeoulSouth Koreas military said Monday it was closely monitoring North Korean facilities after a series of satellite images triggered international alarm that Pyongyang might be preparing a long-range missile or space launch. Analysis indicates increased activity at two key sitesthe Samundong missile research facility and the Sohae rocket-testing facility. Any launch could send stuttering talks on denuclearisation into disarray. South Korea is closely tracking and looking into all activity for possible scenarios including a missile launch across the border, in close coordination with the US, said Kim Joon-rak, spokesman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Satellite images of Samundong taken on February 22 showed cars and trucks at the site, as well as rail cars and cranes at a yard, US news outlet NPR reported. When you put all that together, thats really what it looks like when the North Koreans are in the process of building a rocket, Jeffrey Lewis, a researcher at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, was quoted as saying. Located on the outskirts of Pyongyang, the Samundong facility was built in 2012 to support development of long-range missiles and space-launch vehicles. As well as developing the Hawsong-15 ICBM, which analysts agree is capable of reaching the whole US mainland, Samundong constructed the long-range rockets that were then transported and successfully launched from the Sohae satellite launch station in 2012 and 2016. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed last year to shutter the Sohae site at a summit with the Souths President Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang. Satellite pictures in August suggested workers were dismantling an engine test stand at the facility.But the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies suggested last week rebuilding was progressing quickly at the facility. A moving structure that had been used to carry vehicles to a launch pad on rails has been restored, said respected research website 38 North project. It added the work had started before last months failed meeting on denuclearisation between Kim and US President Donald Trump. John Bolton, President Donald Trumps national security adviser, said Sunday the US sees exactly what they are doing in regard to possible missile or rocket launch moves by the nuclear-armed state. We see it unblinkingly, and we dont have any illusions about what those are, he warned, adding his boss would be pretty disappointed if a nuclear-armed state conducted a new missile test. North Korea has been banned by the UN security council from carrying out space launches, as some of its technology was similar to that used for intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs. Since the collapse of the Hanoi summit, Trump has been cautious in his forecasts, continuing to suggest a deal remains possible. Trump said Kim promised he would carry out no more missile or nuclear testing, adding, I take him at his word. "This is an executive who likes to make sure that whatever she started will get done." Although the House is already in recess, many congressmen are still putting in long hours as members of various oversight committees deployed by House Speaker Arroyo to make sure various Executive agencies are also doing their jobs. Arroyo herself is making the rounds of the country to follow up on the status of important initiatives launched during her presidency. Although her trips are being billed as a sentimental journey, as she nears the end of yet another chapter in her political life, they are also working visits by a former chief executive who likes to make sure that whatever she started will get done.A key initiative of Arroyos presidency was her program to assist informal settlers in Metro Manila and other urban areas to acquire titles to the land on which they may have lived for decades. Through over a dozen different proclamations and executive orders, she sought to convert home owners into landowners. This allows informal settlers to finally acquire real assets, secure their stability of domicile, and improve their access to utilities and other basic social services. One of her biggest projects in Metro Manila involves around 8,000 informal settlers in the National Government Center (NGC) property near the Batasan, Quezon City. Despite coverage by R.A. 9207, the land titling process was delayed by issues of land grabbing and land reblocking failure. Speaker Arroyo tabled the project with the House oversight committees for both R.A. 9207 and R.A. 10023 (Free Patent Law) and requested a Ps 350-M budget to fund the distribution. Another project goes all the way back to former President Ramos Proclamation 458, issued for the benefit of some 6,000 settlers along the Manggahan Floodway in Pasig. The Speaker went ahead to file HB 8255 to address the delays experienced in distributing titles to these settlers. In 2002, then-President Arroyo issued Proclamation 234 for the benefit of some 8,000 settlers in Southville Subdivision, Poblacion, Muntinlupa. The National Bureau of Prisons enjoys usufruct rights over this property owned by the Madrigal family. This usufruct will now have to be extended for another 50 years, unless the Madrigals can be persuaded to sell their property for redistribution. In 2004, Arroyo also issued Proclamation 581 to distribute land owned by government corporations GSIS and the Philippine National Railways (PNR) to some 5,000 beneficiaries in Parola, Tondo. As Speaker, she has convened an oversight committee to resolve delays in this project. Outside Metro Manila, Arroyo had issued Proclamation 409 in 2003 for the benefit of 3,200 settlers in Brgy Apas Lahug, Cebu City. A land dispute that delayed the distribution process for up to 15 years is now nearing a compromise agreement. In Isla Puting Bato, some 2,000 settlers may be displaced by the Manila Bay clean-up project. At the Speakers request, the Philippine Port Authority (PPA) is donating 5 hectares plus P1 million cash for their benefit. Other outstanding land distribution projects initiated by the former president may be found in Sitio Pajo Baesa, QC (1,300 beneficiaries under her EO 58); Tambo, Paranaque (400 beneficiaries under her EO 116); Brgy Escopa, Cubao, QC (Proclamation 6); Brgy Valencia Homeowners Association, Area 1 (83 beneficiaries under Proclamation 543); Brgy NBBS Proper, Navotas (Proclamation 225); Brgy Katuparan, Taguig (Proclamations 133 and 523); and Maricaban III and Barrio Putol, Pasay City (Proclamation 391).A better-known legacy of the erstwhile president was her famous RoRo program. With roll-on, roll-off vessels, Arroyo was able to roll out three nautical highways: two from north to south on both sides of the archipelago, the third from east to west through the Visayan islands. These highways have become indispensable for logistics and distribution throughout the country, as well as fixtures for travellers who now routinely hop from one island to another. After Arroyo left the Palace in 2010, and in the infinite wisdom of her successor, the RoRo port construction program was suspended in 2011 on allegations of corruption. This was the same rationale behind PNots cancellation of many other infrastructure programs, from flood control to roads to the Laguna Bay dredging project, thereby reducing government spending and leaving behind nearly a trillion pesos in savings. I cant imagine why those savings are still being bragged about even today by PNots hand-picked Otso Diretso senatorial slate. Creditors and credit rating agencies would have been ecstaticas they would be over any borrower whos suddenly flush with cashbut at the expense of millions of Filipinos who were denied the benefits of all those foregone projects. The recurrent problem with PNot was that he often forgot whom he was working for. When he was gunning for a Nobel Peace Prize, he forgot to look after the SAF troopers massacred in Mamasapano. When he was courting U.S. support for his OJT presidency, he pushed the country to the brink of armed confrontation over maritime disputes with China, regardless of how ill-prepared we might be for such a fight. And even in a prosaic area like infrastructure spending, he threw his countrymen under the bus in order to keep his investment-grade ratings and the bankers happy.President Duterte fixed the first problem by pushing the new Bangsamoro Organic Law through Congress. And hes still working on the second one with his foreign policy tilt towards China. Even an irascible nationalist like Malaysias Mahathir opined during his visit here that he would prefer China over the U.S. as his long-term economic partner. As for the third item, the working Speaker is doing her share by using Congressional oversight powers to make sure that her RoRo program is back on track, now within the general parameters of Dutertes Build Build Build infrastructure initiative. The Maritime Industry Authority recently inaugurated eight new RoRo routes: Daanbantayan, Cebu to Calbayog City, Samar 2. Tabuelan, Cebu to Ajuy, Iloilo 3. Laoay, Bohol to Cagayan de Oro 4. San Juan, Batangas to Calapan, Oriental Mindoro 5. Iloilo City to Cuyo, Palawan 6. San Pascual, Burias Island, Masbate to Pasacao, Camarines Sur 7. San Andres, Quezon to Pasacao, Camarines Sur 8. Lucena, Quezon to San Fernando, Cebu. These eight are missionary routes, under which shipping operators will enjoy a five-year route exclusivity or protection of investment, as well as a 50-percent discount on government processing fees. The new routes join another twelve that were opened earlier, in January, to service the following destinations: Basco, Batanes-Currimao, Ilocos Norte 2. San Juan, BatangasAbra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro 3. Real, QuezonPolillo Island, Quezon 4. Lucena, QuezonBuyabod, Marinduque 5. Pantao, AlbaySan Pascual, Masbate 6. Calbayog City, SamarCataingan, Masbate 7. Cuyo, PalawanSan Jose de Buenavista, Antique 8. Oslob, CebuDumaguete, Negros Oriental 9. Punta Engano, Mactan Island, CebuJetafe, Bohol 10. Poro, Camotes, CebuIsabel, Leyte 11. Lipata, Surigao del Norte Dapa, Surigao del Norte 12. Siaton, Negros OrientalDipolog City MARINA has already called on shipping operators to propose even more new RO-RO routes to expand the existing list. As PNot failed to learn from his former economics professor: Public money should be spent on the public, not hoarded for brownie points with the bankers. 2 hours ago Is Now The Time To Be Brave With Peloton (NASDAQ: PTON)? A 10% move higher during Wednesdays session meant shares of the interactive exercise bike company Peloton (NASDAQ: PTON) were among the best performing of US equities. The jump comes after a torrid couple of weeks for the New York-headquartered company, whove had to watch their shares fall more than 50% since their earnings last month. Read Article 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 Despite the growing reach of social media, people can feel distant and removed from many issues dominating the headlines these days. For example, while many issuesChinese incursion into the West Philippine Sea, or the political bickering among the senatorial candidates, their champions and their supporters, deplorable traffic or public transportation, or even the on-again, off-again attacks by the President on members of the Catholic clergyare deemed important, they stand at various points along the urgency continuum. Solutions to these problems could take months or even years, requiring careful planning, constant dialogue, or even implementation. Meanwhile, there are some issues that are both important and urgent. One day longer is one too much. They have the potential to anger or inflame the people they affectsentiments that can translate into strong opinion in the poll surveys, or in the polls. One such issue is the water shortage now being experienced in Metro Manila. That there could be a shortage is not far-fetched. After all, summer has crept in, and we are told the El Nino phenomenon promises considerable damage not only to lifestyles but livelihoods. What most Metro Manilans were surprised about, however, was the suddenunannounceddrop in the water level at the La Mesa Dam. As of Monday morning, that level has dropped to 68.93 meters Monday morning, lower than the 69.02 meters the previous day, and the lowest it has gone in 12 years. Normal water level is 79.30 to 79.60 meters.This led to unannounced water service interruptions across the metro, leaving residents desperateand angry. Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo says the government will swiftly act to address the problem, possibly through cloud seeding over the affected areas, and marvels at how nobody but him seems to have thought of this. But more than the inducing rain, the government must take charge of the situation by providing information to residents on projected water levels, service interruption schedules, and regularly fielding water trucks to help restore a semblance of normalcy and predictability to affected communities. It should hold the water service providers accountable for their failure to act in a timely manner to help residents deal with the shortage. Water is not just any product or commodity. It is as intimately linked with daily life, perhaps more than any other utility. If water stops flowing from people's taps, it won't be long before patience drains, as well. The US State Department Sunday welcomed Moroccos move to repatriate eight Moroccan citizens held in Syria by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-Backed Kurdish-Arab Alliance. Repatriating foreign terrorists to their countries of origin is the best solution to prevent them from returning to the battlefield, said Robert Palladino, State Department deputy spokesman in a statement. Rabats actions should encourage other nations to repatriate and prosecute their citizens who have traveled to fight for ISIS, the deputy spokesman added. The US official also hailed the North African countrys commitment in the fight against terrorism, saying Morocco is a highly capable partner in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, and we appreciate its commitment to countering terrorism. The Moroccan interior ministry on Sunday announced the repatriation of the eight Moroccan nationals operating in conflict zones in Syria on humanitarian grounds. In a statement, the Ministry indicated that the humanitarian operation enabled the Moroccans to return to their country of origin safely. The statement said the returnees will be the subject of judicial investigations for their alleged involvement in terror-related cases under the supervision of the public prosecution. In 2015, Morocco adopted a law that criminalizes traveling to conflict zones and terrorist training camps. The eight were held by the US-backed SDF who said they handed the detainees to Moroccan authorities. Our forces have handed a group of people with Moroccan nationality who were in the camps in northern Syria over to the Moroccan government, SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali told Reuters. A blog dedicated to the discussion of topics relating to the history of Sandusky and Erie County, Ohio, the Lake Erie Islands, and nearby communities; inspired by the collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center and Follett House Museum. A service of the Sandusky Library. After two suspected gang-related shootings already this month including one that took the life of a teenager who was believed to have been a With his sprawling gangster epic melodrama Ash Is Purest White opening this Friday in New York, Jia Zhangke, the master chronicler of changing China, was in town and I was lucky enough to snag an interview. Spanning 17 years, Ash is a culmination of all of Jia's work, once again, starring his wife/muse, the great Zhao Tao in a performance that gathers more power and poignancy as the story goes along. The film ended up near the top of my favorite list for 2018 and everyone needs to see it. So without further ado: Screen Anarchy: It seems you are going back to long-form storytelling with ASH IS PUREST WHITE, harkening back to your old films like PLATFORM or UNKNOWN PLEASURES, rather than episodic storytelling of your past two films, A TOUCH OF SIN and MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART. Jia Zhangke: So first, thinking about doing a film about underworld (Jianghu), not only as a subject but as a genre. What attracted me about those jianghu films, is about the philosophy and their codes of conduct into personal relationship, cultivation of sense of loyalty. These are the values that I wanted to examine but didt want to somehow pinpoint one particular era or one particular time pertaining my youth or contemporary time. What I wanted to examine was how these values and philosophy of the underworld evolved and changed and eroded in these long stretch of time, so I can explore the connections between these: how it had changed and shifted to pursue wealth and power in the mainstream society. Thats the reason why I decided to not only narrate this particular underworld genre and motif but also to consider a long time-span of 17 years in order for me to do so. And another point of departure is I remember that when I was young and growing up in Shanxi Province, there was a big brother character, like a Brother Bin (Liao Fan of Black Coal Thin Ice) in the film in my own neighborhood. I remember that he was strikingly handsome and very masculine and well versed in cultivating that kind of personal bond and resolving conflict. He made a huge impression on me growing up. Later when I went back home from College I saw him middle aged, squatting by the street eating a bowl of noodles. All his underlings and brothers were gone. So I think that not only examining this particular underworld genre portrayal of how they evolved and how the values have been eroded, I also wanted to see how time change and change an individual such as this particular case the head of the gang and how this person changed internally but also externally in terms of appearance. How this face aged through time. Those are the two elements I wanted to examine. Its interesting you say that, because the big part of the film belong to Zhao Taos character. In some strange magic she hasnt changed, not only physically but she also had this inner strength and its her who goes to jail for and rescues Brother Bing at the end. She was the only one who was loyal to him all throughout those years. How did you come up with that character? I wanted to make a comparison gender-wise in jianghu and also society in general. China is a very male oriented society and that kind of principles we used to have have changed. Male population seems to be more inclined to pursue those wealth and power and lose themselves in it. And on the other hand, the female population ironically are the ones holding on to those traditional values and cultures and those principles they didnt lose. I wanted to create those contrast in current society. Im not saying that the past was better. Im just showing what is changed in society. The film is a French co-production. How was working with the French crew? In terms of collaboration with my French partner MK2, the distribution company which I worked with past three films, so I do think that gave me more options in terms of finding the talents and the people I can work with from the French side. For this particular film, the cinematographer was Eric Gautier collaborating with me for the first time. Sound mixers and also the hair and makeup were all French artists. In the past I tend to have a very close-knit crew from China. It was not so much about the funding and investment on the film that was important. It was more to do with creative team that I can pull from French side. I enjoyed a lot more that collaboration. Was it a challenge to create that period in terms of production design? The challenge was how to recreate this period that was seen in 2001. Because the people back in the day the way they look and their faces were completely different from how people look now. When doing the casting process I needed to make sure that I find the faces that had a bit of wear and tear, that show the ravages of time and hard work. They tended to have darker complexion and so on. Todays young people, even if they are from the same province, same county, same hometown, they have a lighter skin tone with smoother surface -- hamburger face that I constantly joke about -- well-fed, well- nurtured and well protected in terms of sunblock and all that. So how Im going to choose the right faces, actors and actresses and extras? When I was actually positioning my main characters with all the makeup and movie magic, I was very concerned about how they would look believable, so people will say, yes these are indeed from 2001. So restaging of it was pretty challenging. Whats interesting to me is that you are retracing your steps of your previous films, be it Shanxi Province or Three Gorges Dam. How much have they changed since then? In terms of revisiting those places I previously shot my films in, instead of change of scenery that I witnessed that astonished me, it was how much it hasnt changed for 17 years. For example, a lot of public spaces that were there are still standing, shockingly, compared with most of the 1st tier and 2nd tier mega cities, which tend to demolish everything and restart completely. So the skyline would be completely different. Places like Datong and Three Gorges Dam, 17 years ago and when I made Still Life, many of the buildings and public spaces are still there and still very much the same. So many feels that as a country, China is a fast changing society and of progress. At the same time, its not balanced in urban city and in rural areas. So a lot of people are left behind and they never had a chance to catch up with mainstream progress thats been so visible to the world. Qiao (Zhao Taos character) in the first part of the film, when she bid farewell to her father at the train station and also the workers dormitory in the background; those were already there when I made Unknown Pleasures in 2001, so I was so shocked. You see it a little weathered and can see the traces of time, but they are still there! The question I had about Qiao is that she had a chance to leave everything behind and go West (Xinjiang) with this venture capitalist that she met on the train. But she doesnt. I wonder about the choices that she made. I think after breakup with her longtime lover, she decides that its time to make a change, to break away from that past relations and trying to find the new one. It just happens to be this chance encounter with that person. It was almost like a very very short fling. But after that experience that she realizes that to go with him, to Xinjiang in this case, she would be removing herself completely from the underworld that she still very much see herself a member of. So she at the end makes the final decision. At the end of the film she says I am jianghu and you are not. She is actually telling this to Bin. Its that spirit of jianghu she is abiding by, not any men. You told me in 2014 that you might be doing a period piece about Chinese journeymen traveling West first, Europe and then South America. Is it still happening? If not, whats next for you? Its not anywhere in preparation stage. Its still one of the films I very much want to make. The next film we are preparing for is a period piece set in the late Qing dynasty. Its going to be Wu Xia genre film. I am very much looking forward to that! Dustin Chang is a freelance writer. His musings and opinions on everything cinema and beyond can be found at www.dustinchang.com Dueling portraits are drawn with wit and empathy in Aurora, which takes a snapshot of modern-day Finland from a refreshing angle. The feature debut by writer/director Miia Tervo checks off several tropes in the broadly romantic genre in which it operates. Yet its focus on amiable characters stumbling through life in search of something better builds a gentle, pleasing momentum that is enhanced by increasingly confident visual storytelling. Twentysomething Aurora, played with an insouciant attitude by Mimosa Willamo (Lake Bodom, Deadwind), finds herself at loose ends. Facing eviction from her family home, along with her alcoholic layabout father, she checks dad into rehab for the umpteenth time and bunks in with her best buddy, Kinky (Oona Airola). Kinky and Aurora spend their days and nights together, working and playing, but Kinky is getting serious about her boyfriend and wants a change. One drunken night, Aurora makes impromptu plans for them to move from their native Finland to Norway and then must figure out how to pay for the trip. Enter Darian (Amir Escandari). A single father, he is a refugee in flight from Iran, fueled by a desperate desire to provide for his daughter. He meets the drunken Aurora at a fast-food joint one night, and proposes marriage the next time he sees her so he can secure residency. Instead, Aurora proposes that she find him a more suitable mate, since she is heading to Norway and wants to be paid for her efforts. What makes the film far more appealing than its general narrative trajectory are the spices that filmmaker Tervo adds. Set during wintertime in the Finnish countryside and shot by cinematographer Arsen Sarkisiants with rough beauty, it's somewhat surprising how warmly the film plays against its chilly landscape. It's an engaging and funny talkfest initially, as Aurora interacts with the people in her life and interviews for a new temporary job as a care provider for a tart older woman. Aurora is sharply observant to the brink of fatalism about everyone around her as well as her own lot in life, and continually presses forward, somewhat blindly but in a winsome manner. Meanwhile, Darian and his daughter are introduced as they stay overnight in the home of kind-hearted doctor Tiina (Ria Kataja) and her less-than-welcoming husband Juha (Chike Ohanwe). The opposite of Aurora's careless expressive behavior, Darian is overwhelmed by the weight he carries and consumed by his polite, responsible nature. The film puts its own distinctive spin on events that unfold, such as how the ice between Juha and Darian begins to thaw after an incident at a sauna. As the film becomes more dramatic than comic, Antti Reikko's editing showcases the images that make the points more eloquently than words alone. Feeling very much like the work of a first-time filmmaker, Aurora rises above its 'meet awkward and then fall in love' premise to dig into the meaning of love. Do romantic feelings for another person spur you to make real and lasting changes? How does putting someone else's interests above your own affect your own life? Ah, these are the mysteries of life, and they are explored very kindly and gently in Aurora. More films from Miia Tervo, please. The film enjoyed its North American premiere at SXSW last night. It will screen at the festival again on Tuesday, March 12, and Friday, March 15. Rounding up some of many thoughts about Paul Manafort's (first) federal sentence | Main | In praise of Collateral Consequences Resource Center for new major study of non-conviction records March 11, 2019 Making (belated) case for a Prez to "choose nominees who will help dismantle mass incarceration" James Forman has this notable new New York Times op-ed about Supreme Court nominations and the field of potential challengers to Prez Trump under the full headline "The Democratic Candidates Should Tell Us Now Who Theyll Put on the Supreme Court. And they should choose nominees who will help dismantle mass incarceration." I recommend the piece in full, and here are excerpts: In a country that locks up more of its citizens than any other, we should demand that candidates for president have a plan for how they will confront mass incarceration and repair the harms it has caused. While most of the action in our criminal system takes place at the state and local level almost 90 percent of prisoners are incarcerated in state, county, or local prisons or jails the federal government still has an important role to play. As Rachel Barkow, a law professor at N.Y.U., argues in her important new book, Prisoners of Politics: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration, judicial appointments are one of the most powerful ways that a president can influence criminal justice policy. Federal judges make rules that govern nearly every aspect of our system, from police at the beginning of the criminal process to sentencing and prison at the end. Over the past 50 years, those rules have facilitated mass incarceration. Judges have held that the Fourth Amendment doesnt prohibit police from racially profiling drivers during traffic stops, that the Sixth Amendment permits trials with underfunded defense lawyers who present little evidence or argument, and that the Eighth Amendment is no bar to outrageous sentences like life without parole for drug possession. How did our legal landscape become this anti-defendant? In part because so many federal judges are former prosecutors. Ms. Barkow reports that 43 percent of federal judges have been prosecutors, while 10 percent have been public defenders. A judges career background doesnt always predict her rulings Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a former prosecutor, often stands up for the accused. But she is the exception. Federal judicial opinions typically read as if their authors have given little thought to how an excessively punitive criminal justice system can ruin lives, decimate families and lay waste to entire communities. To upend this dynamic, Democratic presidential candidates must commit themselves to appointing federal judges who will work to challenge mass incarceration. This will mean going beyond anything President Barack Obama attempted. When Mr. Obama wrote a 55-page law review article on what a president could do to push criminal justice reform, he made no mention of judicial appointments. Worse, his appointments displayed almost the same pro-prosecution bias as his predecessors: About 40 percent of his judicial nominees had worked as prosecutors, while some 15 percent had been public defenders. Democratic candidates should promise to eliminate this bias by reshaping the federal bench so that it has as many former public defenders as it does former prosecutors. The Supreme Court is a good place to start. Remember when Donald Trump courted the conservative right by announcing the names of possible nominees several months before the 2016 election? Any Democratic candidate who wants to win the votes of a Democratic electorate increasingly focused on criminal justice reform should make a similar announcement and populate the list with lawyers who have seen the criminal system from the standpoint of the accused. There is no shortage of quality names. High on my list would be Bryan Stevenson, a career death penalty opponent, consummate Supreme Court litigator and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Alabama. Or Michelle Alexander, former law clerk for Justice Harry Blackmun, civil rights lawyer and author of the canonical The New Jim Crow. (Ms. Alexander is also an opinion columnist for The New York Times.) Or Sherrilyn Ifill, a voting rights expert and head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the civil rights firm founded by Thurgood Marshall in 1940. These arent the names that typically appear on Democratic short lists. They arent sitting judges, and unlike many who now serve on the federal bench, theyve taken unpopular stands, sometimes at great risk. As a result, my list might sound unconventional, even outlandish, to those accustomed to the traditional approach to judicial selection. But it shouldnt. With impeccable credentials, unassailable legal acumen and a fierce determination to take down mass incarceration, these are the future nominees whose names should start rolling off the tongues of Democratic candidates who want to be taken seriously as criminal justice reformers. I am very pleased to see this issue getting attention as the 2020 race starts to heat up. But, as long-time readers know, I think this issue should have been a focal point for reformers for more than a decade and should lead to distinctive analysis of the work of recent Presidents. I am pleased to see some very justified criticisms of Prez Obama on this front (though the failure to mention the Garland appointment blunder is telling), but how about also criticizing Hillary Clinton for not creating a nominee list to compete with the one put out by candidate Trump? How about noting, though this does not play to political bases, that Justice Neil Gorsuch had a smidgen of defense lawyering experience in law school and he has already show a willingness to vote for more defendants' rights than his conservative colleagues? I could go on and on, but I mostly want to praise Prof Forman for elevating these issues, issues that I hope all the Prez candidates feel bound to engage. March 11, 2019 at 11:01 AM | Permalink Comments Your animus for Democrat politicians is telling. Posted by: whatever | Mar 11, 2019 1:37:09 PM My animus runs, whatever, to whomever disregards or is ineffectual in pursuing criminal justice reforms. Prez Obama talked a good game, but did not deliver as much as I had hoped he would. Prez Trump has talked about these issues in a lousy way, but he has delivered more than I had expected he would. Posted by: Doug B. | Mar 12, 2019 9:54:02 AM Post a comment Manasseh Karani Nyaga, best known by his alias The Captain, is one of the hosts of Switch Board, an interactive music show on Switch TV. The Captain also wears different hats as a commercial model, an emcee, and an actor. He talked to Buzz about how he does it all. Why do they call you The Captain? Because Im very confident and I like taking the lead. Its also the type of aura I give out. How did you end up on the show, and what is it about? I auditioned for the job after the head of programming at Switch TV called on talents she had worked with before at other stations to a screen test. I had been trying to be a TV host for four years, auditioning religiously, sending applications and even hosting for free, but no one had taken me on. I came in, did my thing and they loved it. I like the team that Im working with now. Switch Board is a show about music that also try to push local (East African) music as much as possible. It runs every Friday to Sunday evening. We started with Daniel Peters and I as the hosts, and Sami Flinch as the deejay. But the producers felt we needed a female voice. Anne Mwaura is another host. Was the chemistry instant with you guys? We have easy personalities and so we would meet before the show to kick it together. Its become our tradition to just hang out ever since. How do you prepare for the show? I used to be an always work hard enthusiast, but I found out resting helps you come back even better. Mondays are my off days. I meditate on these mornings, research by watching old school movies for my acting and then hit the gym. The rest of the week is unpredictable, but on Fridays Im researching about topics, music and guests who are to come on the show. Im usually in at 2pm and the show kicks off at 5pm to 7pm. Same goes for Saturday and Sunday. Is there anything about the show that makes you anxious? On Saturdays, we have Super Fan Saturday. We have a segment called Total Request where they even get to dare us to do stuff. There are some dares we have had to politely decline to do; it gets crazy! Where did your interest with media and acting start? My elder brother and sister have a 13-year and 10-year gap with me, respectively. Growing up in Meru Town, we would only listen to KBC English service. From 11 am to 2 pm, John Karani would host a show and I loved his voice and energy. I wanted to change my name to John too. I joined drama at Kanyakine Boys Boarding Primary School at 12. We went for three national drama competitions for three consecutive years and won nationals twice in 2004 and 2005. Our drama teacher, Liz Mutembei, helped me overcome stage fright. So you followed this into university? I studied PR at the University of Nairobi, even though I really wanted to study acting. I would go and hang out at Kenya National Theatre. My campus mate, Martha Ohenga, told me that she was in Muheshimiwa and I told her I was interested. She made a call and I got to be on it in 2012. How was that experience? I got to interact with seasoned actors and got to observe how they would deliver performances. It was quite interesting. Do you get acting jobs constantly? I was on My Two Wives and The Trap House last year. I had to focus on the show so I cant take on anything that is very demanding now. What would you say was your big break? In 2014, I was part of Mama Duka on Maisha Magic East. The episode I was on was submitted to the 2014 AMVCAs and won Best Indigenous Movie/ Series. That gave me the motivation to keep on chasing the dream. When it comes to ghosting the show, I was the face of My Safaricom App last year, after a random commercial audition. This was coming two years after my last job. The guys we got to the finals with are people I was watching on screen while I was in high school. Im still Hero, the character, with prospects of more projects promised. Still, last year, I got one of the leads in Basco Paints Make It Yours ad, got to work on IBMs worldwide campaign shot in Nyeri and Mombasa. These are the things that put my face out there. What do you enjoy most about the show? It is the most watched show on this station, despite starting a month later. Were going to DSTV and GoTV in the first quarter of the year so were excited that were going to connect with the other East African countries. The thing I like most about the show is that we are live; just have fun and no double takes. Were also very interactive. Are you different from what we see on TV? The Captain is a character. Manasseh is a person who has weaknesses and strengths and hes trying to be the best he can. Whats in store for Manasseh this year? I had planned to start emceeing mid this year because I wanted to research and practice a lot; which Im still doing. However, I got to emcee in Kisumu last month. They were adamant they wanted me. How different is it from studio? We live in a very metropolitan country and sometimes accents can detach from some audiences. Im glad to be able to mix it up in Swahili and English. I didnt know what reaction I would get. It gets more challenging depending on how your introduction is done. But you get instant feedback. What kind of support have you gotten through this? Nick Mutuma is a personal friend whos looked out for me, telling me the dos and donts. Were working on a project that will come up on Star Times soon. What about family? No one in my family knew anyone who was in media. They didnt really think media was something worth taking up. My mum was the only one who would ask me how auditions were coming up. I have been locked out of my house before and my sister took me in. Lets just say they were skeptical, but theyre my biggest fans now. QUICKFIRE: What one word would you use on each of your co-hosts? Daniel, unpredictable. Anne, positive free-spirit. Flinch, passionate. One word to describe you? Go-getter. How long do you take to get ready? I take a while; I need to stand out from everyone else. Are you single? No. What is your thought on relationships? Theres a better future when you build together and communicate. * MSCI, HKEX sign agreement on A-share futures launch * New product subject to market approval (Adds HKEX CEO comments, more context) SHANGHAI/HONG KONG, March 11 (Reuters) - Global index publisher MSCI and the Hong Kong stock exchange said on Monday they will launch futures contracts on the MSCI China A Index to provide a hedging tool as international investor interest in Chinese mainland shares surges. The license agreement between MSCI and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (HKEX), which will launch the new product, comes less than two weeks after MSCI announced it would quadruple the weighting of Chinese shares in its global benchmarks later this year. HKEX Chief Executive Charles Li said the agreement with MSCI provides "a key risk management tool for international investors who need to manage their A-share equity exposure". The new product is among a host of other derivatives launched by global exchanges in recent years to help manage exposure to mainland Chinese markets. Singapore Exchange Ltd's A50 Index Futures contract, for example, allows offshore investors to track 50 Chinese A-shares directly. Li said on a conference call on Monday the new HKEX futures contract will track the entire 421 large- and mid-cap A-shares included in the benchmark MSCI Emerging Markets Index. HKEX said in a statement it was yet to determine a launch date and that the product remains subject to regulatory approval and market conditions. China has also been opening up its domestic derivatives market as A-shares enter global indexes. Draft rules in late January said foreign institutions will have access to onshore derivatives, including financial futures, under the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) scheme and its yuan-denominated equivalent, RQFII. Fang Xinghai, deputy head of China's securities regulator, predicted in January that foreign capital inflows to Chinese stocks this year will double to about 600 billion yuan ($89.76 billion) from last year. Last week, Fang told local media that regulators were studying measures to further open the index futures market. (Reporting by Samuel Shen and Noah Sin; Editing by Sam Holmes and Darren Schuettler) VIETNAM, HANOI - Media OutReach - 11 March 2019 - On March 6 in the northern city of Hai Phong, the first VinFast Lux SA2.0 car rolled off the assembly line, marking the success of the "made in Vietnam" commercial automobile production test. TheLux SA2.0 vehicle has a beautiful design and powerful performance. It is equipped witha turbo-charged DOHC 2.0L four-cylinder engine, with a capacity of 228hp andmaximum torque of 350 Nm. The gearbox on the car is a ZF 8-speed automatictransmission and it has a two-axle vehicle drivetrain capable of providingtorque to all its wheels simultaneously with top safety features such as frontradiator disc brakes, rear disc brakes, an ABS system, electronic stabilitycontrol systems and parking assist sensors. This is the mostmodern car production cycle in the world. The first prominent step is theengine assembly line, capable of automatically manufacturing the body, machineface cover, plating cylinder and crankshaft machining. The second outstandingitem in the closed production cycle is the paint workshop with its modernmachinery and equipment using automation technology from Durr Group (Germany). The modern stampingand welding workshops are automated with up to 1,200 robots. VinFast is now thefirst automaker in Viet Nam with the ability to do self-stamping and welding atan international-standard quality. The entire cycle isconnected via automatic conveyor belts and managed by the Siemens ManufacturingExecution System. Le Thi Thu Thuy,Vice President of Vingroup and Chairwoman of VinFast, said: "We are on theright track and are always consistent with the goal of creating high-classproducts, contributing to bringing Vietnamese brand to an international leveland joining hands with domestic enterprises to promote the industry in generaland automobile production in particular." The first cars ofthe trial production phase will be transferred to many countries such asAustria, Australia and South Korea to verify the quality. Story continues It is expected thatthe first VinFast Fadil and VinFast Lux vehicles will be handed over tocustomers in the second and third quarter of this year, respectively. About VinFast VinFast has closely co-operated with hundreds of various partners andsuppliers in Viet Nam and aboard. The Company has reached importantco-operation agreements with leading names such as BMW, General Motors, MagnaSteyr, AVL, Bosch, Siemens, Pininfarina, Ital Design, GROB-WERKE, Eisenmann,Schuler, Durr, ABB, FFT and EBZ. Image by 2019 Google Maps The seven Filipino seafarers who were recently released in Libya are on their way back to the Philippines. According to the statement of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). The seven Filipino seafarers already left Tripoli with Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers Affairs, Abdullah Mamao who personally thanked the Libyan authorities, upon the instructions of Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. Secretary Locsin also expressed his appreciation to the Libyan authorities for ordering the release of the seven seafarers. The Libyan High Court ordered their release on February 28 after they were sentenced to four years of imprisonment for allegedly smuggling 16 million liters of oil.Aileen Cerrudo The post 7 Filipino seafarers detained in Libya to return home appeared first on UNTV News. Ride-sharing giant GrabTaxi Holdings Pte. Ltd. revealed on Wednesday, March 6, that it has secured USD1.5 billion in investment from a fund managed by Japans SoftBank. The monetary infusion will be used primarily to help Grab expand to Indonesia, where rival Go-Jek reigns. Grab has experienced significant growth in the Southeast Asian region after it bought US-based rival Uber in March last year. In return, Uber now owns a 27.5 percent stake in Grab. The new investment follows the USD2 billion funding that the ride sharing company received from Toyota and other big name brands such as Hyundai Motor, Microsoft and Oppenheimer Funds to finance its entry or expansion in Southeast Asian markets such as Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines. In contrast, rival Go-Jek counts Google, Chinese internet giant Tencent and Singapores sovereign wealth fund Temasek as its financiers. The company has recently launched in Singapore, where Grab is headquartered. Grab said it is expanding its food and parcel delivery service and financial services, with plans to add new offerings such as insurance, hotel bookings, digital healthcare, and video-on-demand. The post Grab Acquires USD1.5 Billion in Investment Funding appeared first on Carmudi Philippines. The people responsible for the atrocities that forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to flee from Myanmar's Rakhine state will be held to account, an International Criminal Court official said on Monday. Following a visit to Bangladesh refugee camps, the ICC's Phakiso Mochochoko said the fact that Myanmar is not a signatory to the Hague-based international court "will not in any way be a hindrance" to an investigation. "It may present a little bit of challenge for us in terms of investigation, but we have faced a situation like this in the past and we've been able to deal with them," the court's director of jurisdiction told reporters in the capital Dhaka. Mochochoko made the comments after leading a delegation to Bangladesh's southeastern Cox's Bazar district, home to around one million Rohingya refugees. The delegation, however, clarified that its visit to the camps was not a part of any investigation but to collect insights for an ongoing assessment of the office of prosecutor Fatou Bensouda whether to warrant a full investigation. "A preliminary examination is not an investigation, but an assessment of the Rome Statute criteria to decide whether an investigation into the situation at hand is warranted," he said. "Therefore during this mission, as is standard practice of the Office, the delegation did not collect evidence or perform any other investigative activities," Mochochoko said. About 740,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine state to Bangladesh since August 2017 following a brutal military crackdown that UN officials described as "ethnic cleansing". Thousands more arrived in previous years following earlier bouts of anti-Rohingya violence. Mochochoko said the preliminary probe would be "all about individual responsibility". "The people who are responsible, the people who gave instruction, the people who commanded, the people who did all the other things and facilitated the commission of this crime," he said. "The prosecutor is bound or intended to ensure that accountability for the suffering of the Rohingya people is met and those who are responsible for the atrocity that happened there are brought to account," he added. The visit came after judges last year ruled that even though Myanmar has not signed up to the Hague-based ICC, the court still has jurisdiction over crimes against the Rohingya because Bangladesh is a member. Last month Organisation of Islamic Cooperation -- of which Bangladesh is a member -- in a meeting in Abu Dhabi unanimously adopted a resolution to move at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for establishing the legal rights of the Rohingya and addressing the question of accountability and justice, Dhaka's foreign ministry said. Myanmar's army has denied nearly all wrongdoing, insisting its campaign was justified to root out Rohingya insurgents who staged deadly raids on border posts in August 2017. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani hit back Monday against pressure from the "aggressor" United States on Iraq to limit ties with its neighbour, during his first official visit to Baghdad. Shiite-majority Iraq is walking a fine line to maintain good relations with its key partners Iran and the United States which themselves are arch-foes. It has been under pressure from Washington not to get too close to the Islamic republic next door, particularly after the United States last year withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and hit Tehran with sanctions. Baghdad was given limited waivers to continue buying electricity and natural gas from Iran, but Washington has urged Iraq to partner with US companies to become energy independent. Rouhani, who is on his first trip to Iraq since becoming president in 2013, hailed his country's "special" ties with its neighbour. These relations could not be compared to Iraq's ties "with an aggressor country like America", he said before flying Monday to Baghdad for the three-day visit. "America is despised in the region. The bombs that the Americans dropped on Iraqis, Syrian people and other countries cannot be forgotten," he added. Iran is always ready to help its neighbours, he said, in a nod to the role Tehran played to help Iraq battle the Islamic State group (IS). Iraq's President Barham Saleh, at a joint news conference with Rouhani in Baghdad, thanked Iran for its "support" and said he was "lucky" to have it as a neighbour, without making any reference to the US. Rouhani, who is heading a large political and economic delegation, said relations between the two countries should be further "reinforced and developed". The Iranian president later had a meeting with Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, during which he highlighted the political, trade and energy links between the two neighbours. After Turkey, Iran is the top supplier of imported goods to Iraq, including cars, gas, home appliances and vegetables. - Shiite bonds - Iran was the first country to respond to Iraqi calls for help after IS jihadists in June 2014 captured the main northern city of Mosul as they threatened to overrun the capital Baghdad and the oil-rich region of Kirkuk. It dispatched "military advisors" and equipment along with the famous Revolutionary Guards elite Quds Force commander General Qassem Soleimani. Rouhani on Monday said Iran has supported the Iraqi people "during difficult times" and would continue to back them "through times of peace and security". Relations between the two countries were not always close -- they fought a bloody war from 1980 to 1988. Tehran's influence in Baghdad grew after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. Iran now has significant leverage over Iraq's Shiite political groups. Rouhani is also set to meet Iraq's chief Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who is revered by many Iranians. The meeting in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf will be the first between the top cleric and an Iranian president. In 2013 the grand ayatollah refused to receive Rouhani's controversial predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. - Warming Saudi ties - Analysts say talks between Sistani and Rouhani are aimed at bolstering the ranks of Shiite Muslims in the face of Iraq's warming ties with Iran's Sunni-ruled rival Saudi Arabia. The meeting could "prevent Saudi Arabia and its allies from sowing discord" between Iran and Iraq, a Shiite cleric from the Iranian holy city of Qom was recently quoted as saying in Iran's Ebtekar newspaper. Saudi Arabia is keen to develop relations with Baghdad to counter the influence of Iran in Iraq, which is seeking economic benefits to rebuild after the defeat of IS. Iraqi political analyst Hisham al-Hashemi said Rouhani is seeking to bolster trade with Baghdad and discuss ways "to circumvent US sanctions". "In addition, there are electricity, water and other files," he said. Trade between Iran and Iraq now stands at around $12 billion a year -- tilted toward Iran with gas and energy exports -- and Rouhani has said he would like to see it rise to $20 billion. Kenya Airways chief executive Sebastian Mikosz has dismissed claims on social media that he earns a monthly salary of over Sh8 million. In a statement sent to newsrooms, Mr Mikosz termed the claims as groundless and unjustified. He said his monthly salary was Sh2.7 million, which was subject to 29 percent income tax that he remits to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). Sebastian Mikosz also denied that the national carrier is dominated by foreign employees and consultants who take home a combined Sh70 million per month. The claims were reportedly made in a statement by the Kenya Aviation Workers Union (Kawu) secretary general Moss Ndiema. As of today, KQ employs 18 expatriates, including all secondments, out of the total number of more than 3,000 employees. This is approximately 0.6 percent of the entire KQ staff, said Mikosz. Of the 18 foreign employees, 5 are KLM managers seconded to Kenya Airways. Two of them are holding senior positions of chief operating officer and head of global sales. Although they work for KQ, they remain KLM employees. Their salaries and any other benefits are covered by KLM. This means that no one in KQ has access to that information. The amounts in the public domain are, therefore, purely fictitious and aimed at creating negative emotions in the working environment, he said. This means our company is run by a strong contingent of Kenyans who represent 86 percent of the highest positions in the company. The remaining seconded employees ensure knowledge transfer and address competency gaps in the areas of financial modelling, building business cases and coordinating the strategic projects. They leverage experience gathered in the restructuring of companies in Europe. This also relates to the team of seven consultants, commonly referred to as the polish team. Moreover, fees for their services are also much lower than of the consulting companies that supported KQ in the past, he said. The KQ boss also defended his wife, Magda Mikosz, against allegations that she sits in the board of Delloite Kenya that is claimed to audit KQ. My wife does not and has never worked for Deloitte Kenya. Magda worked as a partner for Deloitte Central Europe in the past. When we moved to Kenya, she decided to stop working, leave Deloitte and support me in my current role, he said. This deliberate action was done with the sole purpose of fueling negative public opinion towards myself, the KQ family, its management and employees, he said. The authors of this letter did not check the basic facts so as to mislead the public. I would like to assure you that I am not taking the efforts at misinformation and defamation lightly and Ive already taken legal action against individuals and groups spreading the defamatory statements. Let the courts objectively assess the facts and pass judgment, he added. SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 11 March2019 - Validus Capital (Validus), Singapore's leading SME financing platform, hassuccessfully raised US$15.2 million (S$20.5 million) in an oversubscribedSeries B funding round. Validus Co-founders (from left) Vikas Nahata, Ajit Raikar, Nikhilesh Goel Investment in Validus' Series B round was led by FMO ,Netherlands' public-private development bank. FMO has over 300 investments inbanking and financial services institutions (BFSIs). Its investment in Validusmarked FMO's first fintech investment in Southeast Asia, a region which sawover US$5.7 billion infintech investments in 2017 according to KPMG. Participating investors alsoinclude Taiwan's Cathay Financial Holdings, Singapore's Openspace Ventures(previously NSI Ventures), Temasek investment arm Vertex Ventures, Thailand'sAddVentures by SCG and Vietnam's VinaCapital Ventures. Founded in 2015 in Singapore, Validus brings together accreditedindividual and institutional lenders and SMEs. It obtained its CMS license fromMAS in December 2017. Since then, Validus has successfully topped US$133.1million (S$180 million) in business funding - a record for P2P business lendingplatforms in Singapore. Ajit Raikar, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Validus Capitalexpressed his confidence in the company's future and talks about the strongglobal interest in Validus' Series B fundraising, "Southeast Asia is one of thefastest growing economic regions globally, where there is a clear need foralternative financing platforms such as Validus to complement the traditionalbanking and financial infrastructures. Having a strong team, technology anddata science capabilities has allowed us to partner with strategic globalinvestors for our next growth stage. This reaffirms that we are well on trackto deliver on our strong growth forecasts, and our ambition to become a digital'bank-like' fintech for underserved SMEs is well supported with two leading sovereignfunds investing into Validus." Story continues According to Deloitte , SMEs contribute around 40per cent of Southeast Asia's gross domestic product (GDP) and employ 70 percent of the region's workforce. Despite the importance of SMEs regionally,support is generally lacking, particularly in terms of business financing. McKinsey Global Institute reportedthat 39 million Southeast Asian SMEs (or 51 per cent) lack access to credit. P2PLending has emerged as a popular alternative financing option for SMEs inSoutheast Asia to service this unmet business financing gap. Per EY , around 68 per cent of theregion's SMEs are receptive to tap into alternative financing options,including P2P Lending. "Validus is particularly well-positioned to lead the P2P Lendingindustry's change in Southeast Asia and spearhead financial inclusion among theunbanked and underserved businesses in the Region in a more digital way. Theirplanned expansion to Indonesia and Vietnam will strongly contribute to jobcreation by SMEs in these countries. We are excited to embark on this digital journeywith Validus and their very strong shareholder base, as they continue on theirsteady and sustainable growth trajectory," said Linda Broekhuizen, ChiefInvestment Officer, FMO. With fresh funding, Validusis looking to invest heavily in technology innovation, particularly aroundartificial intelligence and machine learning to help make business financingeven more convenient and safe for SMEs. It will also fund their Southeast Asiaexpansion, starting with Indonesia this year, followed by Vietnam. Nikhilesh Goel Co-Founderand Chief Operating Officer at Validus Capital, whose background is in privateequity shared, "Ourstrategic approach in fundraising goes deep beyond the size of the investment.We look for partners who share our vision in driving inclusive growth in theregion, who are able to offer the value-add and guidance needed. The strongpartnerships we've built with our investors will not only help us to strengthenour technology and regional expansion but also provide the deep-seated connections and valuable advice across areas like businessdevelopment, capital funding and recruitment, areas which are vital for thegrowth of the company." Over the past year, Validus has enjoyed atremendous series of successes where it has become Singapore's top SME P2P Lendingplatform. Two new products were introduced, namely Working Capital Financingand Purchase Order Financing. It experienced exponential growth in terms ofloans where almost 2,000 loans were disbursed in 2018, representing a 260 percent increase year-on-year (y-o-y) while disbursement volume increased 350 percent y-o-y. Overall, over 300,000 Singaporeans were directly and indirectly positivelyimpacted with the Validus platform and their growth numbers forecast a directimpact to the country's gross domestic product. Manned by an experienced SMElending team that looks beyond financial data, into behavioural patterns,Validus continues to be a beacon of support to growing SMEs across SoutheastAsia. About Validus Capital Founded in 2015 and backed by Netherlands' development bank FMO, aswell as Temasek Holdings' Vertex Ventures, Validus Capital is Singapore'sleading peer-to-business lending platform. Validus connects growing SMEs toaccredited investors and financial institutions. It acts as a catalyst ofsustainable growth for SMEs. Validus' online marketplace is powered by a proprietary platformwhich leverages a secure and robust cloud infrastructure as a deliverymechanism. In addition, Validus utilises a robust risk algorithm that leverageson artificial intelligence and machine learning to make more informed andresponsible lending decisions. Validus is also the first platform in the Regionto offer insurance cover for lenders (up to 90 per cent capital principalprotection for most invoice financing facilities). Its data-driven, collaborativeapproach to business lending has helped it to forge strong industrypartnerships with many established brands. One such partnership with Visalaunched a virtual card-based solution to help SMEs scale their business. A keydifferentiator for the company is its ability to lend at bank-like rates due toits institutional lenders, which include family offices and funds. Safety doubts over Boeing's best-selling 737 MAX 8 drove several carriers to ground the aircraft Monday after a new jet crashed in Ethiopia, killing all 157 people on board. Investigators recovered the black-box flight recorders from the Nairobi-bound jet that went down early Sunday near Addis Ababa, the carrier Ethiopia Airlines said. Flight ET302 crashed into a field just six minutes after takeoff as the pilot alerted controllers of "difficulties". There were people from 35 countries on board, including some two dozen UN staff. Ethiopia decreed Monday a day of national mourning. The aircraft was the same type of jet as the Indonesian Lion Air plane that crashed in October, killing 189 passengers and crew. Airlines in Ethiopia, China, South Africa, Indonesia and the Cayman Islands said Monday they were suspending operations by their 737 MAX 8 fleets. The move caused Boeing shares to tumble around 12 percent earlier in the day, before recovering about half its losses in mid-afternoon New York trading. - Jets grounded - Ethiopia Airlines said investigators had found the plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders on Monday. It said it had grounded its fleet of six remaining Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes pending analysis of the black box data. "We assume we will find out the cause of the crash in the black box data," the airline said. China also ordered domestic airlines to suspend commercial operation of the MAX 8. There were eight Chinese nationals among the 149 passengers and eight crew on the Ethiopia flight. Indonesia, which has 11 of the MAX 8 model planes, said it would "carry out inspections and temporarily prohibit Boeing 737 Max 8 from flying." South Korea ordered an inspection of two MAX 8 planes flown by low-cost Eastar Jet. Some other airlines said they were not cancelling MAX 8 flights, including Oman Air, flydubai, Turkish Airlines and Russia's S7. Boeing has described the MAX series as its fastest-selling aeroplane ever, with more than 5,000 orders placed to date from about 100 customers. State-owned Ethiopian Airlines, Africa's largest carrier, had ordered 30 MAX 8 jets in total, and China has received 76 from an order of 180. The plane that crashed on Sunday was less than four months old. Ethiopian Airlines said it was delivered on November 15. - Plane on fire - The jet went down near the village of Tulu Fara, some 60 kilometres (40 miles) east of Addis Ababa. "The plane was already on fire when it crashed to the ground. The crash caused a big explosion," one witness, Tegegn Dechasa, told AFP. Another, farmer Sisay Gemechu, said the plane seemed to be aiming to land on an open field, but crashed before reaching it. Inhabitants of the remote area looked on from behind a security cordon as inspectors searched the crash site and excavated it with a mechanical digger. The single-aisle Boeing jet left a deep, black crater at the impact site. Ethiopian Airlines said the pilot was given clearance to turn around after indicating problems shortly before the plane disappeared from radar. The airline's chief executive Tewolde GebreMariam said the plane had flown in from Johannesburg early Sunday, spent three hours in Addis and was "despatched with no remark", meaning no problems were flagged, before leaving for Nairobi. A committee comprising Ethiopian Airlines, aviation and transport authorities was set up to lead the crash investigation. US experts and Boeing will also take part. The US plane manufacturer cancelled the scheduled presentation Tuesday of its new long-haul jet, the 777X. - Author, student, aid workers - The crash cast a pall over a gathering of the UN Environment Programme, which opened in Nairobi on Monday. At least 22 staff from several UN agencies were on the doomed flight. Delegates hugged and comforted one another as they arrived at the meeting with the UN flag flying at half-mast. Details of the passengers, including tourists, business travellers and humanitarian workers, have started to emerge. Among them was Cedric Asiavugwa, a Kenyan third-year student at Georgetown University Law School in Washington. He was heading for a visit home ahead of his graduation in the spring, the university said. Kenya had the highest death toll among the nationalities on the flight with 32, according to Ethiopian Airlines. Canada was next with 18 victims. There were nine Ethiopians and eight each from Italy and the United States. The airline said Britain and France each had seven people on board, Egypt six, and Germany five. France, however, put its death toll at nine. Britain also put its death toll at nine, including two dual nationals travelling on other passports. Italian archaeologist Sebastiano Tusa, 66, died in the crash, his wife Valeria Patrizia Li Vigni was quoted as saying by the Corriere della Sera newspaper. On Sunday, "the friends I met at mass said I shouldn't worry because bad news travels fast," she said. "In the end it arrived anyway, and it destroyed my life. I felt the disaster coming... He hadn't even wanted to go." burs-mlr/rlp/dcr/boc ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) President Abdelaziz Bouteflika returned to Algeria on Sunday after two weeks in a Swiss hospital amid massive demonstrations demanding he withdraw his candidacy for a fifth term. The 82-year-old Bouteflika suffered a stroke in 2013 and has rarely been seen in public since. The decision to run for a new term in the April 18 election angered large swathes of Algerian society. The protests have also served as a reality check for a hard-to-read system that is an intrinsic part of the power structure. Protesters want to end that too. A coterie of people have grown rich under Bouteflika and are thought to exert pressure on the presidency. Bouteflika arrived at Boufarik military airport, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of the capital, and was shown in video by private television station Ennahar in a fast-moving convoy heading toward the Algiers suburb of Zeralda. He could be seen inside a car slightly bent over and with a cap on his head. Bouteflika resides in Zeralda, not in the presidential palace in the capital. Earlier, Bouteflika had departed from a Geneva airport. The official APS news agency confirmed that the president had returned home "after a private visit to Geneva ... during which he underwent periodic medical tests." The power structure has been shaken by the size of the unprecedented citizens' revolt, which has drawn millions into the streets of cities across the country to say no to a fifth term and to a system blamed for corruption and keeping Bouteflika in office despite ailments. A general strike Sunday was taking place as the president arrived, with numerous shops in Algiers and other cities closed. As if to lay the groundwork for change, the top Algerian party backing the beleaguered chief of state broke its silence Sunday over massive demonstrations demanding the end of the regime, saying it's ready to work with all parties to end the crisis. The National Liberation Front, or FLN, said in a statement that it wants to find a way out of the crisis "with the least cost to the country." Story continues Army Chief of Staff Ahmed Gaid Salah added his voice, saying Sunday that the army and the people "have the same vision of the future." Thousands of protesters in the Algerian diaspora protested Sunday in Paris and other French cities. Protests also were held in neighboring Rabat, Morocco. The protests trickled down to middle-schoolers and high-schoolers, with several hundred marching in the center of Algiers, also calling for Bouteflika to withdraw his bid for a fifth mandate. "Since I was born, the only (president) I've known is Bouteflika," said a young protesting girl Amina, asking not to give her full name. "These kids don't have any political calculations," said a mother on the sidelines of the protest, Karim Ziad. "They're just 13-year-old kids." Peaceful nationwide protests began Feb. 22 to protest Bouteflika's plan to run for a fifth term in April 18 elections. The protest movement also wants a change in the much-decried system that has kept him there and has a stranglehold on the power structure. Bouteflika, first elected in 1999, is the first civilian president of the North African nation except for a short term by Ahmed Ben Bella after Algeria won its independence from France in 1962. He was deposed in a bloodless military coup in 1965 that set the stage for a series of generals serving as presidents. In a third week of protests on Friday, hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of Algiers calling for change in the biggest demonstration yet against Bouteflika. Similar marches were held across the country. The government plane, which had been hidden away from view in a hangar, taxied onto the runway at Geneva airport as a rainbow came into view. Algerian officials had said days ago that Bouteflika was expected to return shortly. ___ Lotfi Bouchouchi in Algiers, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, and Elaine Ganley in Paris, contributed to this report. In a sleepy village bisected by the Irish border, the local post office is flooded with applications for Irish citizenship as the Brexit endgame looms. Pettigoe's Irish postmaster James Gallagher said the applications doubled soon after Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum in 2016. "Since then it seems to be doubling every year." "It's up even in the last few months. Since new year's we had another 40 or 50 percent on last year again," the 60-year-old told AFP as he greeted customers at the counter. Residents of the British province of Northern Ireland are entitled to citizenship of the Republic of Ireland under a 1998 peace accord that brought an end to three decades of sectarian violence in the region. Since that time, village life has brought Pettigoe's two halves together across an invisible border that could become a hard frontier once again if Britain crashes out of the EU on March 29. Gallagher's office -- twinned with a British Royal Mail office only open on Monday afternoons -- gets a third of its business from the other side of the village. The majority of his lottery tickets are sold to the British, he said -- a hangover from a time when Ireland offered the lottery but its northern neighbour did not. Such quirks are typical in the village. In the north the post boxes are red, to the south they stand green. The Irish side, by a stroke of luck, has all of the pubs. On its morning rounds, the red Royal Mail van crosses briefly into the Republic -- the quickest way to complete its British route. Surrounded by craggy outcrops and panoramic loughs, Pettigoe is bisected by the Termon River which flows along the territorial dividing line. One stone bridge is marked with a barely visible arrow -- the only demarcation of a border that has become the main point of contention between Britain and the EU. Village life was not always so calm. During the decades of sectarian violence known as "The Troubles" Pettigoe was bombed several times. Local mechanic Mervyn Johnston, 79, a specialist in tuning Mini Coopers for rally competitions, used to serve in the British army's Ulster Defence Regiment and had his garage blown up twice. "It was a bit hectic for a few years," he said. "I don't think it'll ever come back to as bad as it was." From battling a storm in the Solomon Islands to consulting a witch doctor in eSwatini, Ben Wu has trekked some of the world's less-trodden paths as he embarks on a quest to visit all of Taiwan's dwindling diplomatic allies. The list of countries he must visit is short -- just 17 nations still recognise Taiwan over mainland China, a vivid illustration of the democratic island's international isolation as Beijing uses its clout to woo Taipei's few remaining friends. In all practical ways Taiwan is a de facto independent country but both Taipei and Beijing insist they are the one true China and that other nations can recognise only one of them. Most have sided with China as its political and economic might has grown. Last summer Wu, 25, was having a meeting in Taiwan's foreign ministry on the day El Salvador just happened to become the latest country to switch its recognition to Beijing. He watched as the country's flag was removed from the ministry's entrance. "I think most young people only know about our allies when there is a termination of diplomatic relations and this is not good," Wu told AFP at his home in Taipei. "They should know about the allies in other ways." Using YouTube, Wu is trying to change that. He came up with the idea to visit the remaining allies while riding the Trans-Siberian Railway. Flicking through a news article about Taiwan's allies he realised he only recognised three -- Haiti, Tuvalu and the Vatican. "I love travel and some of Taiwan's diplomatic allies are less known and more difficult to reach. I hope to explore these countries that fewer people have travelled to and be a part of 'people diplomacy'," he said. So far Wu has ticked off five allies in the Pacific -- Tuvalu, Nauru, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and the Solomon Islands -- as well the only ally in Africa, eSwatini. This month, he sets out for Latin America and the Caribbean to visit Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Haiti, Belize, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines as well as St Kitts and Nevis. He will wrap up his quest with the Vatican and Palau in the summer. - Switching sides - Taiwan's diplomatic isolation was not always the case. After its split from the mainland in 1949 when the communists defeated Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists, it was the Republic of China that was recognised by the majority, not the People's Republic of China. The global reversal began in earnest in 1971 when Taiwan -- then in the grip of Chiang's military dictatorship -- was kicked out of the international club by the UN General Assembly, which recognised the PRC as "the only legitimate representative of China". Allies began falling like dominoes with Washington switching recognition in 1979 -- although it remains a key military backer and supplies Taiwan with most of its weaponry. Those nations that remained tended to be impoverished, smaller countries in the Pacific, Africa and Latin America who have since become easy pickings as China morphed from dysfunction and poverty into the world's second largest economy. After the 2016 election of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen -- who hails from an independence leaning party -- Beijing has launched a campaign to further undermine the island's sovereignty. Five allies have been poached, it blocked Taipei from attending major global gatherings and pressured a string of international companies, including airlines and hotels, to list Taiwan as part of China. - 'Speak up for Taiwan' - J Michael Cole, a Taipei-based expert at the University of Nottingham's Taiwan Studies Programme, said the remaining allies most at risk of switching are those in the Pacific. "Beijing is hard at work trying to sway those," he told AFP, adding China may try to lure further defections as Tsai seeks reelection in 2020. But he added that Taiwan under Tsai had made "substantial progress strengthening ties with unofficial allies that, in the end, are far more influential, both in terms of their diplomatic weight and size of their economies, than the small states with which it has official diplomatic relations." Wu said he wanted greater awareness of the those who have stayed loyal to Taiwan, even if somewhere like Tuvalu only boasts some 12,000 people. "These countries have a voice in international organisations. They can speak up for Taiwan and let more people know about Taiwan's difficult diplomatic situation," he said. Wu's YouTube videos on his channel "Ben's Adventures" have racked up tens of thousands of views and turned into a career. One shows him bashed by a storm in a rickety boat after seeing human skulls left by headhunters in the Solomon Islands. Others show him consulting a witch doctor in a dark room filled with bags of herbs in eSwatini, eating betel nuts in Kiribati and finding Taiwanese food in a Marshall Islands supermarket. Wu says he hopes other young Taiwanese might follow in his footsteps. "I hope to introduce the culture, tradition, custom and sightseeing of our allies in a relaxing way so people can get to know these countries. I am opening a window, a door and people can explore the rest." The very early months of the Democratic nominating race have been far from predictable. Kamala Harris shot up to the top tier pretty much overnight. Bernie Sanders revealed that hed spent the past four years building a small-donor ATM. Amy Klobuchar taught us you could eat salad with a comb. And just last week, Sherrod Brown proved it is actually possible for a politician to resist the siren song of glowing press coverage trying to lure him into the race. Advertisement The one major constant throughout: the looming presence of Joe Biden, who has been teasing a presidential run more or less since the day after the 2016 election. Biden would face many hurdles if he gets into the racehis age and his record chief among thembut its far from certain any are the deal breakers that some pundits and prognosticators have suggested. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To be clear, I do not think Biden should win the Democratic nomination; I simply fear that he will. Despite a record that looks conservative in hindsight, a worldview that is troubling in the present, and an identity that does little for the future, Biden appears to be too well-known, well-liked, and well-connected to be denied the nomination. Advertisement Lets begin with the polls. Biden has led nearly every hypothetical field in almost every single major survey taken since Election Day 2016, notwithstanding the usual caveats about polls. Polls cant predict the future, but they can tell us plenty about the presentand the present looks mighty good for Uncle Joe. He sits just shy of 30 percent in RealClearPolitics rolling average, roughly 10 points clear of a crowded field in which all but Sanders and Harris remain mired in single digits. More telling than the size of Bidens lead is the consistency of his support, which has not wavered even as a bevy of credible and compelling contenders has taken turns introducing themselves to the nation. Advertisement The common refrain this far out from the early nominating contests is that polling performances are driven largely by name recognition, which is true. But last I checked, name recognition is a requirement for electoral success, especially in a crowded field. Any candidate would love to be in Bidens position, which allows him to take press coverage as a given and would help him overcome his lack of a small-donor network. And more crucial than being well-known is being well-liked, and no one in the field is more beloved than Uncle Joe, even when you account for his national profile. According to the latest data from Morning Consult, which has been in the field daily since early January, a whopping 79 percent of Democrats have a favorable opinion of the former veep, compared with just 11 percent of Democrats who do not. Thats largely why Biden was also the most common answer when fans of Sanders, Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Beto ORourke were asked for their second choice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A lot of commentators believe that these good feelings wont last if and when Biden officially jumps in. He is, in his own words, a gaffe machine, and its easy to see him finding a way to fit both feet into his mouth shortly after kicking off a campaign. Hell face serious questions about a host of his past positions that look downright conservative by todays standards: He opposed school integration in the 1970s, he was a drug warrior and incarceration hawk in the 1980s, he mishandled the Anita Hill hearings and helped pass the Clinton crime bill in the 1990s, and he was a vocal supporter of the Iraq war in the 2000s. Biden isnt just an old, white dude on paper; hes an old, white dude who acts like one. Theres a lot Biden should have to reckon with, much of it having to do with race, but I am unconvinced that he will be forced to in any meaningful way. Take his opposition to busing in the 1970s, which the Washington Post highlighted last week by digging up some comments the then-freshman senator said in support of a position that he stands behind today. Biden said then that he did not buy the concept that in order to make up for centuries of racism that we must now give the black man a head start, or even hold the white man back, to even the race. He added: I feel responsible for what the situation is today, for the sins of my own generation. And Ill be damned if I feel responsible to pay for what happened 300 years ago. He went on to claim that the school integration plan being offered by his opponents was the most racist concept you can come up with. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Today, those comments arent just to the right of Harris and Elizabeth Warren, theyre to the right of David Brooks. Still, I can imagine a lot of Democratic voters, particularly white ones, halfpaying attention to the headlines and being turned off not by what Biden said then or even what he says tomorrow, but instead by the larger uncomfortable dialogue about racestarting as a legitimate debate about Bidens past positions and ending, at the other side of the outrage cycle, as some insinuation that he is racist. That will be unthinkable to many Democrats who watched Biden enthusiastically serve the nations first black president and heard President Barack Obama declare at the end of eight years that Biden was the best vice president America ever had. Biden, in effect, has the most famous black man in America vouching for him, and he already has strong support from black leaders in early nominating states like South Carolina. And while that wont stop him from talking awkwardly about issues of identity, anyone who watched last weeks debate on the House floor about an anti-hate resolution knows he has plenty of company in that respect in todays Democratic Party. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yes, Biden is an old, white dude at a time when his party has shown an increasing preference for candidates with the lived experience of anything but that. If you look at each of those three attributes in isolation, however, it is unclear they are liabilities. Age may be a legitimate concern, but its not a concern most Democrats seem to have at the moment; roughly half are currently backing either 76-year-old Biden or 77-year-old Sanders. Biden is white, but so too are nearly two-thirds of Democratic voters; the party includes roughly twice as many white voters without college degrees as it does black voters of all education levels. Being a man in 2020 likely wont be the electoral advantage it has been in the past, but it would be foolish to assume the refreshing success of female candidates in the 2018 midterms will supplant every election that came before it. Advertisement Although Biden will seem wildly out of place in the next iteration of the Democratic Party, hes right at home in the current one. Biden isnt just an old, white dude on paper; hes an old, white dude who acts like one. He loves to wax nostalgic for the bipartisan days of yore, seemingly unable to grasp that the friends he made back then were segregationists like Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms, or that Congress was so male-dominated when he first arrived in Washington that it would take another two decades before women got their own restroom off the Senate floor. But lets not pretend that the entire Democratic Party is wokeor even that it wants to be. Roughly half of the party self-identifies as either conservative or moderate. While those terms mean different things to different people, polls suggest that sizable slices of the party believe the barriers preventing women from getting ahead are largely gone and that blacks who cant get ahead these days are mostly responsible for their own condition. Furthermore, many liberal Democrats will give Biden the benefit of the doubt, since, in addition to his time by Obamas side, he also campaigned hard for the woman who tried to become the nations first female president. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, Bidens moderate record is at odds with where the grassroots left is pushing the party. But as much as Biden will seem wildly out of place in the next iteration of the Democratic Party, the former veep is right at home in the current one. Unlike his main rivals, Biden does not support Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezs Green New Deal or Sanders Medicare-for-all plan, but neither idea is Democratic orthodoxy yet. Establishment figures like Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi largely dismiss both as unrealistic, and support from the partys rank and file begins to fade when the conversation turns to cost. With other moderates like Brown, Deval Patrick, and Michael Bloomberg deciding against a presidential run, Biden will have the center lane largely to himself. Pragmatism doesnt make for the most compelling stump speeches, but Hillary Clinton was able to ride it to the Democratic nomination. Biden could easily do the same. Advertisement In campaigns, the perceptions of a candidate matter more than the reality of one. And the perception of Biden is that he was a happy warrior under Obama and that he has a special connection with the kind of working-class whites who helped put Trump in the White House. Biden believes himself so perfect for the job of defeating Trump that he is adamant not just that he can prevail in 2020 but that he also would have done so in 2016. The conversation about electability at this point is at best silly and is at worst harmful, as it can easily become a proxy for which candidates look like our past presidents, who with just one exception were all white men. But Democrats are unusually focused on winning in 2020, and Biden has perhaps the easiest story to sell: He looks the part and, whats more, was on the ballot the latest two times Democrats won the White House. Biden can make the case that electing him would roll back the clock to before Trumps 2016 victory. For many Democrats, that will be enough. President Trump will soon demand that any country hosting U.S. troops on its soil must pay for their full expensesplus a premium of 50 percent for the privilege. The new policy, reported in Bloomberg on Friday, provides another example of Trumps blinkered view of the world and his misconceptions about the sources of American power. Underlying his mistrust of allies and his humbug hostility toward spending even a shilling on their security is the notion that the United States has been deploying troops in other countries, for these past 70 years, entirely for their benefit and not at all for oursthat the foreigners have been shaking us down and that its time we get some of our money back. Its a view of alliances not as organizations formed to pursue mutual interests but rather as a protection racket. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump doesnt seem to realize five crucial facts about these relationships. First, these alliances serve to maintain and protect the international order that the United States created after World War II, not as an act of altruism but as a way to advance U.S. interests across the globe, politically, economically, and strategically. Some call this imperialism or globalism. Whatever its label, like it or dislike it, it has been a key source of Americas wealth and power all these decades. A case could be madeand respectable analysts have made itthat we should scale back or abandon the costly, sometimes deadly, commitments that come with this dominance. But Trump is not making this argument. If he truly wanted a retraction of Americas military presence, why is he requesting $750 billion for military spending in the budget that hes submitting to Congress on Tuesday, a 5 percent increase over the $716 billion that he approved last year? Only a small percentage of that sum goes to the defense of U.S. territory. The vast bulk is spent on troops, ships, aircraft, and other forces earmarked to deter or fight wars overseas. Advertisement Advertisement If defending allies is in U.S. interests, then overseas bases are too. And if its not in U.S. interests, then we can slash the defense budget by a lot more than $12 billion. The second thing Trump doesnt realize is that, given Americas global interests and given his willingness to spend more money than any president ever has to defend them, it makes sense to base some of those troops and weapons overseas. Advertisement Keeping troops abroad does cost more than keeping them in the United States. If all the overseas bases were closed, and all the troops, planes, ships, combat vehicles, and so forth were brought home, one cost analyst (who asked not to be identified because of the issues political sensitivities) estimates the savings would amount to about $12 billion. But that $12 billionjust 1.6 percent of the defense budgetdoes buy some things. If a war broke out and the troops, planes, ships, combat vehicles, and so forth had to be sent back to a war zone, they would need someplace to disembark, mobilize, set up logistics, do maintenance. It would also be useful for them to have trained with local troops so they could fight well together. Without bases, it would be impossible to do any of those things. Sending troops and weapons overseassay, from the United States to Europe or Asia or the Middle Easttakes a long time. The war would probably be over by the time a large number of the troops and their equipment would arrive. The whole point of alliancesto build confidence, promote training, deter adversaries, and stave them off if they attackcrumbles without overseas bases. If defending allies is in U.S. interests, then overseas bases are too. And if its not in U.S. interests, then we can slash the defense budget by a lot more than $12 billion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The third thing Trump gets wrong is that the United States benefits from foreign bases in ways that dont benefit the host country at all. For instance, Germany, which hosts more U.S. bases than any other country, is home to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, a top-notch hospital that has treated thousands of U.S. troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan; if their medevac flights had been forced to fly to hospitals stateside, many more soldiers would have died on the way. Germany is also home to Ramstein Air Base, a transit and refueling site for many U.S. combat planes traveling to and from missions in the Middle East and South Asia. Finally, Stuttgart is the home of the headquarters for U.S. Africa Command, which has greatly expanded operations against jihadi militants since Trump took office. Advertisement Advertisement Again, if Trump decided never to fight wars in the Middle East, South Asia, or Africa, these facilities wouldnt be needed. But he has decided to continue them, and so they are neededand for military operations that have nothing to do with the defense of Germany. Fourth, our largest alliesand the main sources of Trumps ireare already sharing the cost of U.S. bases on their soil. Together, Germany, Japan, and South Korea host three-fifths of our bases and nearly all of the larger ones. Japan pays the United States $5 billion a yearabout 75 percent of the total cost of maintaining the bases there. Germany pays $1 billion a year28 percent of the costs. South Korea just upped its annual reimbursement from $830 million to $924 million, just under half the total expense. Advertisement Advertisement Finally, for all their value, overseas bases hold only a small share of U.S. troops193,000, or about 15 percent of the 1.3 million active-duty military personnel. This is not a big drain. There may be too many overseas bases, and they may be inefficiently allocated. A 2013 report by the Rand Corporation presented some reshuffling plans that could save as much as $3 billion a year without harming national security. But if the United States wants to remain a superpower (a status that Trump doesnt want to give up), overseas bases are essential. That being the case, its in our interests for the hosts to feel like partners instead of shakedown clients. We already knew Fox News host Tucker Carlson had the uncanny ability to say some pretty awful things. But newly unearthed clips by Media Matters for America expose a whole new level of Carlson awfulness in which he regularly attacked women and even seemed to minimize the importance of statutory rape. The clips compiled by Media Matters for America were from 2006 to 2011, when Carlson was a regular call-in guest to Bubba the Love Sponge, hosted by the shock jock who was born Todd Clem. Fox News hired Carlson in 2009. Advertisement The extensive compilation by Media Matters is full of shocking and disgusting comments. Highlights include the time Carlson seemed to give a nod to fantasizing about girls who were the same age as his 14-year-old daughter in boarding school. If it werent my daughter I would love that scenario, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In another clip, Carlson also seemed to minimize the gravity of an adult marrying a child, saying it is not the same thing exactly as pulling a child from a bus stop and sexually assaulting that child. When the hosts countered that if anything it showed more premeditation to the crime and not less, Carlson protested. Wait, wait! Hold on a second. The rapist, in this case, has made a lifelong commitment to live and take care of the person, so it is a little different. I mean, lets be honest about it. Along the same lines, he defended Warren Jeffs, saying that charges against him were bullshit because arranging a marriage between a 16-year-old and a 27-year-old is not the same as pulling a stranger off the street and raping her. Advertisement Advertisement Carlson also had plenty of awful things to say about women in general. At one point, for example, he said he feels sorry for Justice Elena Kagan, who at that point had been nominated for the Supreme Court. I feel sorry for her in that way. I feel sorry for unattractive women. I mean its nothing they did. He also said women are like dogs because they hate weakness and theyre extremely primitive, theyre basic. He also called Britney Spears and Paris Hilton the biggest white whores in America. Advertisement Advertisement As many quickly began campaigns to target Carlsons advertisers, the Fox News host dismissed the report, writing on Twitter that he was caught saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago. The Fox News show doesnt apologize for the remarks, saying that if you want to know what I think, you can watch his show on Fox News. Advertisement South Africa: New beginnings for dispossessed families At the age of 67, July Malobola from Soshanguve vividly remembers the day his family was locked out from the land they had occupied since 1800, and attempts by his father to get it back were futile. Malobolas family was dispossessed of their right to land as a result of the 1913 Land Act. However, unlike 1967 when the familys eight households left their homes in tears, Saturday marked a new beginning for Malobola after receiving a title deed for their land at Klipkop in Tshwane, thanks to the governments Restitution and Land Reform Programme. President Cyril Ramaphosa handed over title deeds for 10 land claims in Gauteng that were lodged before 31 December 1998. The ceremony was held at Moretele Recreational Park in Mamelodi, Tshwane. Holding his title deed in his hands, a visible excited Malobola said he wished that his father was still alive to witness the fruits of a democratic government. He fought very hard to get his forefathers land back, and I wish he was still alive and able to walk on his land again. Im lost for words, but I thank the government for making this dream a reality, said an emotional Malobola. Another beneficiary, whose family was forcefully removed from Kilnerton in 1956, Fortune Zino, said he was happy to be alive and be part of the days celebration. Im happy about the government of today this will benefit our next generation who will be able to come and view the tombstone erected on our land. It is important for us to know our roots, said Zino. Land reform mandated by the Constitution Speaking at the ceremony, President Ramaphosa emphasised that land reform is mandated by the Constitution and necessitated by the countrys past. It is important that we approach this task in an integrated and comprehensive manner covering restitution, redistribution and tenure reform to ensure that the land can be shared among those who work it and among those who need it, President Ramaphosa said. He said that by restoring the land to people, government is determined that agricultural production should increase and food security should improve. The President said government is also working to ensure that an environment exists for sustained agricultural growth, especially through support to young emerging black farmers. We are working to ensure that where it is possible to return the land to claimants, and where they want to return to the land, that we provide the necessary support to enable them to make productive use of the land. This is an important part of correcting the extremely skewed pattern of land ownership and land use in this country. It is an important part of developing black farmers who can build viable businesses, create work and contribute to an agricultural revolution. Our policies recognise that the restoration of land is not always possible and make provision for compensation to be paid instead of land, the President said. This compensation, he said, should enable claimants to acquire other assets that can be used to retain and generate value, that can be part of our efforts over the last 25 years to address the dire levels of asset poverty among our people. As we accelerate the pace of land reform, the President added that government is also focused on improving the quality and the impact of the countrys interventions. Working faster to clear land claims backlog He said government is working to ensure that land claims are settled much faster, and that they clear the backlog in the shortest possible time. At the same time, we are working on better ways to ensure that the beneficiaries of restitution like the beneficiaries of land redistribution receive the necessary post-settlement support. We will never fully heal the wounds of dispossession and degradation, but we are making ever greater strides in redressing the injustices visited on our people in the past. He however, reminded that land reform, is ultimately about the future, it is about building a South Africa which belongs to all who live in it, and in which all South Africans belong. It is about creating new livelihoods in agriculture and ending rural poverty. Land reform is also about building cities and towns that are integrated, where the poor have decent housing in areas close to economic opportunities. Economic asset Meanwhile, speaking at the wreath laying memorial held in Kilnerton, ahead of the handing over ceremony, Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said it is important to share information on what the beneficiaries are doing with the portion of land, post land claim. Land is not only for agricultural use, but an economic asset and should be enjoyed by all South Africans, Nkoana-Mashabane said. The beneficiaries of restitution settlements are Dukathole community from Driefontein in Ekurhuleni and the Ebenezer Congregational Church in Johannesburg, Mathabe family from Boekenhoutskloof, the Franspoort community, the Msiza family from Hondsrivier, the Kafferskraal community, the Mahlangu and Ntuli families from Tweefontein, and the Rodman community from Vygeboschlaagte in Tshwane. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department (LOS ANGELES) -- When a young girl matching her missing daughter's description turned up dead in a duffel bag dumped near a rural trail in Southern California, Nefertirri Neal said her heart sank the day a homicide detective called her in an attempt to identify the body. "There's nothing worse than to not know where your baby is and a homicide detective calls you and asks you what color is her shirt and where are her scars," Neal told ABC station KABC-TV in Los Angeles. But on Saturday, just days after Neal received the dreadful call, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department announced Neal's daughter, Skylar Mannie, had been found alive. "We are happy to share that 13-year-old old Skylar Mannie, from Lancaster, has been found," the sheriff's office said in a statement Saturday evening. "Skylar is safe and being reunited with her family." Details on how Neal's daughter, who went missing on Valentine's Day, was found were not released. Sheriff's deputies located Skylar just hours after Neal tearfully pleaded with her to "come home." "She's here now. She's in her room," Neal told ABC News when reached by phone Sunday morning. She said the reunion with her daughter "was actually pretty crazy." "I think all the emotions that I just had bottled up so that I could function and look for her kind of just came out all at once," Neal said. Even before Skylar turned up alive, sheriff's officials said she was not the girl found dead March 5. The girl's body was bent and stuffed inside a black duffel bag, and dumped near an equestrian trail in Hacienda Heights, California, about 95 miles south of where Skylar Mannie went missing. Sheriff's investigators said there was no link between the cases. The still unidentified girl was discovered by Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation Department workers clearing landscape near the trail, the sheriff's department said. On Saturday, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office said an autopsy on the mystery girl's body was complete and her death had been ruled a homicide, though the cause and manner of her death were not released. The girl was believed to be between 8 and 13 years old, according to the sheriff's department. When her body was discovered, the girl was dressed in dark pants with panda prints on them and a pink long-sleeve shirt with the words "Future Princess Hero" written on the front. A spokeswoman for the sheriff's office told ABC News on Sunday morning that the girl still remains unidentified. Former FBI agent and ABC News contributor Steve Gomez, who lives in the Hacienda Heights area but is not involved in the investigation, said residents are in shock. Gomez added that, based on his experience, the girl likely did not live in the area. "She's not immediately recognizable to anybody," Gomez said last week. "What it leads me to believe is that this child is probably from an area not immediately near Hacienda Heights. She's probably from someplace outside of the general Los Angeles area, maybe even another state." Neal said the joy of authorities finding her daughter alive was tempered by the ongoing investigation into the unsolved death of the girl in the duffel bag. "My heart goes out to her and her family," Neal told ABC News. "I hope that they get some resolution and find some peace." Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Mark Zuckerberg would like you to think that winter is coming for Facebooks privacy invasive past. In a 2,237-word manifesto published on Facebook on Wednesday, Zuckerberg wrote that his company would be pivoting toward a privacy-focused messaging and social networking platform more interested in being the digital equivalent of the living room than the digital equivalent of a town square. The news comes about a month after it was first leaked that Facebook was in the early stages of integrating the messaging services of its disparate platformsFacebook proper, Instagram, and WhatsAppto create an interoperable, encrypted messaging system by the end of 2019 or early 2020. The logic behind the push, as Zuckerberg puts it in his post, is that people should be able to use any of our apps to reach their friends, and they should be able to communicate across networks easily and securely since many people prefer the intimacy of communicating one-on-one or with just a few friends. Zuckerberg says that privacy would be paramount in this digital living room, so much so that he mentioned the word privacy (and derivations thereof) 50 times in this most recent note. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On its face, some of his plans are positive. Ephemeral messaging, already deployed in Instagram, can give people more confidence to share. End-to-end encryption, already used on WhatsApp, helps to ensure that the only people who can decipher a message are the sender and receiver. Indeed, just giving privacy a seat at the table may seem like a good start for Facebook, whose track record protecting our data is dubious at best. And yet, Im concerned. Zuckerbergs post isnt just a way to gin up interest in some new Facebook features. Its a diversion, a magicians misdirection full of red herrings. When it comes to privacy, Facebook has been getting into trouble, deflecting, apologizing, and failing to deliver on promises of meaningful privacy protections for more than a decade. And its CEO wants to distract us from that record with a few well-placed changes so we miss his dangerous inaction elsewhere. Even taking him at his worda generosity Facebook certainly hasnt earnedZuckerbergs essay shows that he fundamentally misunderstands what privacy means. Read more cynically, the post seems to use a narrow definition of the concept to distract us from the ways Facebook will likely continue to expand its invasion of our digital private lives for profit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In his writing, it seems when Zuckerberg thinks about privacy, he thinks about encryption. He talks about people interact[ing] privately with a shift to private, encrypted services where [p]eoples private communications should be secure. But privacy is not the same as encryption. Encryption is about making data impossible for an outsider to read and understand. Privacy is a far broader concept, covering not only the flow of information among individuals and groups, but also personal, intellectual, and sexual autonomy, and the trust necessary for social interaction. In practice, privacy is about limiting data collection, placing restrictions on who can access and manipulate user data, and minimizing or barring data from flowing to third parties. Zuckerberg mentions none of that in his essay. When he talks about encrypting the messages users send to prevent anyoneincluding [Facebook]from seeing what people share on our services, he neglects to mention that Facebook will still be able to collect the metadata from these messages, like who individual users message and when. When he talks about interoperability, he glosses over whether the merger may require users to give up anonymity they may have on WhatsApp to comply with Facebooks real name requirements. When he talks about a new digital living room, he conveniently leaves out the advertisers that will be invited into these spaces, too. And all the new ways platform connections will allow our informationprofile data, messaging activity, clicks and hovers, interactions, GPS location, outside browsing history, and app useto be used to help Facebook target ads in even more invasive ways. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Zuckerberg knows the narrow definition of privacy hes advancing offers the company a convenient smokescreen for what is, essentially, a profit-minded business move. Whats more, despite professing to pivot toward privacy, theres no indication that, besides working to encrypt its merged messaging systems, the new Facebook would look any different from the old Facebook when it comes to these kinds of privacy-invasive practices. We can still expect it to surveil us wherever we go, even as we browse the internet outside Facebooks ecosystem. Zuckerberg said in an interview with Wired that the curated, democracy-killing public sharing on the news feed isnt going anywhere. It will still commoditize user data to make billions selling ads on Facebook, Instagram, and, soon, WhatsApp. That these much more substantial privacy issues were not included in Zuckerbergs vision isnt surprising. Based on interviews and surveys Ive conducted with current and former tech engineers as part of my research, Ive found that many of them seem to mistake privacy for security. They consider privacy as little more than encryption or cybersecurityprotecting against unauthorized access to user databecause thats what they learned in school and thats what they were hired to do. This makes a certain sense, since security issues allow for solutions uniquely suited to an engineers skill set. Security is something thats codeable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But privacy involves bigger questions, like what user data is collected in the first place and how it should or could be used. Because of this, meaningfully creating privacy-focused systems requires technology companies to make choices from the start of the design process. Yet, since engineers alone are often tasked with coming up with privacy fixes, we end up getting technocentric fixes rather than wholesale change. Zuckerbergs narrow vision of privacy likely comes, in part, from this engineering worldview. But, given Facebooks growth-at-all-costs history, I also think Zuckerberg knows the narrow definition of privacy hes advancing offers the company a convenient smokescreen for what is, essentially, a profit-minded business move. Facebook, after all, is hemorrhaging users. Messaging services like WhatsApp are the fastest-growing social networksand theres little doubt Facebook is looking to use its merged messengers to globally dominate competitors in this space like WeChat, iMessage, Signal, Skype, and even Venmo. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Then theres the other way publicly announcing their intention to pivot to a privacy-focused social network might benefit its bottom line: It might serve as an effective way of placating scandal-fatigued users with some evidence that Zuckerberg is actually taking action on our behalf. Messaging is one of the most visible parts of most peoples everyday experience online. Most of us regularly text, share photos, and participate in group chats. I have three group chats running simultaneously right now: one with professional colleagues, one with my family, and one with my boyfriend and his friends. We appreciate and understand this technology from a phenomenological, or physically experiential, perspective. When something changes about the way we send messageslike getting new options to send disappearing messages or getting a notification that our texts and images are now encryptedwe would likely see it, and notice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But many of the ways Facebook will likely continueor even expandinvading our privacy will remain out of view. Most of us would not notice if Facebook changed its metadata collection, restricted third-party access to our data, or limited advertisers from targeting us based on perceived race, ethnic origin, or gender expression. We wouldnt see if Facebook stopped using Facebook and Instagram photos to feed its facial recognition A.I. Nor would many of us be able to explicitly detect the ways in which this integration and expansion of these messaging services might make it easier to piece together new kinds of data about us and make it harder to quit or break up the company when the inevitable scandal arises out of it. Advertisement This is not to say that adding end-to-end encryption is a bad idea; it is, in fact, a great start. But it runs the risk of diverting our attention from two important facts: We need a lot more action to address privacy across these platforms, and Zuckerbergs purported pivot to privacy never mentioned any of it. Maybe this is the beginning of a new era for Facebook. Maybe protecting privacy will come to be seen as a competitive advantage in the market and maybe Facebook will become a leader in that market by challenging the behavioral advertising model, cutting its surveillance footprint, setting defaults to private, ending the news feed, erasing old user data, and more. But Zuckerbergs essay makes me think we are in for more of the same from Facebook for now: narrow, technocentric changes intended to distract us from a negligent and cavalier approach to protecting user privacy. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. Two Russian cybersecurity experts were sentenced to prison in late February for committing undisclosed acts of treason, leading to considerable speculation about whether they were involved in helping the United States investigate Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. The details of the case were kept so secret that only a few facts are absolutely certain, but the timing is certainly suspiciousthe two men were arrested just one month after the 2016 presidential election. The secretive treason trial is most significant, however, not for what it tells us about what went on during the 2016 election but instead for what it appears to reveal about the Russian governments willingness to let cybercriminals call the shotsand its unwillingness to continue even the small amount of cooperation with the United States on fighting cybercrime that it once allowed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What we do know: Sergei Mikhailov, a former intelligence officer at the Federal Security Service, or FSB, who helped coordinate anti-cybercrime partnerships with Western countries, including the United States, was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Meanwhile, Ruslan Stoyanov, who worked at controversial Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab, received a sentence of 14 years. Both men have maintained their innocence throughout the trial. The sentences were issued by a Russian military court following a completely closed court proceeding, but one of the defense lawyers revealed to CNN that the two men were being tried for committing treason against Russia on behalf of the United States. Its possible that they were tried for helping the United States investigate the data breaches directed at the Democratic National Committee servers and Hillary Clintons campaign. Whether or not thats the case, its not a good sign that Russia is going after the few people who were cooperating with the United States on cybersecurity matters in the public and private sectors. The Russia-U.S. relationship on cybercrime fighting was already strained. This wont help. Advertisement Advertisement But even more concerning is the strong suspicion hanging over the case that it was orchestrated largely by convicted cybercriminal Pavel Vrublevsky. Vrublevsky founded a company called ChronoPay that had a reputation for supporting spammers and malware distributors. In 2013, he was convicted of hiring botmasters to launch a distributed denial-of-service attack directed at one of ChronoPays competitors, the payment firm Assist. Mikhailov was an expert witness in that case, which ended with Vrublevskys conviction. The Russia- U.S. relationship on cybercrime fighting was already strained. This wont help. According to security reporter Brian Krebs, who has reported extensively on Vrublevsky and ChronoPay for years, the most likely explanation for Mikhailov and Stoyanovs prosecution was a long-running grudge held by Pavel Vrublevsky. This explanationlike the theory that Mikhailov and Stoyanov were involved in helping the United States investigate Russian interference in the 2016 electionsis purely speculative. But Krebs does have some fairly compelling evidence to back up his argument, including an interview he conducted with Vrublevsky in 2011 in which Vrublevsky accused Mikhailov of feeding information about ChronoPay to U.S. officials and threatened to hire someone to tear him [Mikhailov] a new asshole. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Back in 2010, when ChronoPay was being investigated, Vrublevsky also wrote an email to a co-worker accusing Mikhailov and Stoyanov of working with the FBI and Secret Service. And on top of all that, Vrublevsky himself told CNN in late February that he had testified in the case against Mikhailov and Stoyanov and that the two men are directly responsible for the cyber hysteria eventually going as far as election meddling scandal. Regardless of what Mikhailov and Stoyanov were accused of doing, its disconcerting that Vrublevskywho has himself been on the wrong side of the law and so obviously had it in for the two menwas responsible for, in his own words, confirming the substance of the accusations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Krebs writes that he would not put it past Vrublevsky to have somehow greased the wheels of this prosecution. Meanwhile, one of Stoyanovs defense lawyers, Inga Lebedeva, seemed to allude to the theory that Vrublevsky was somehow behind the prosecution when she told reporters that Stoyanov and Mikhailov think that with their activity aimed against hackers theyve stepped on someones toes. If he did in fact drive the prosecution of Mikhailov and Stoyanov, Vrublevsky would not be the first cybercriminal to have enjoyed a cozy relationship with the Russian governmentin 2017, the New York Times reported that Russian intelligence operations relied heavily on information provided by infamous cybercriminal Evgeniy Bogachev, the operator of the notorious Gameover Zeus botnet, which distributed the CryptoLocker ransomware and enabled the thefts of more than $100 million. But by siding with Vrublevsky against two men who dedicated their careers to fighting cybercrime, the Russian government seems to be taking an even stronger stance on its embrace of domestic cybercriminals over law enforcement. Advertisement Its no great surprise that the Russian government views Russian cybercriminals as closer allies right now than the people who are trying to aid international efforts to fight cybercrime. But its disheartening all the same. Russia has long held a radically different view of what constitutes cybercrime than the United States, and indeed most of the Western world. Instead of gradually reconciling those views and establishing stronger international partnerships to combat cybercrime, last months convictions make clear that Russia is pulling back even further from those partnerships by convicting the people who actually participated in them. Its a bleak but important reminder that if the United States and its allies want to make serious headway on fighting cybercrime, they will have to do it on their own without waiting for greater international cooperation. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies , click here. Environmentalists consider it a threat but the Agriculture Ministry does not consider it a conflict of interests. News: Receive favorite authors articles by email. Try the new feature and turn on the subscription. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Trnava-based businessman and the leader of several development projects in the Tatra mountains, Rastislav Hutta, will become the new head of the state-run forestry company in the Tatra National Park (TANAP). He will take up the post in mid-March, the Podpolianske Noviny newspaper reported. Hutta is, for example, behind the construction of one of the first big water parks in Slovakia: Tatralandia, situated near Liptovsky Mikulas (Zilina Region). The water park is currently owned by the Tatry Mountain Resorts (TMR) company. He also stands behind the Skilandia project, which is expected to be connected to the ski resort in Jasna, also controlled by TMR. However, the plans are currently stuck, the Sme daily reported. Im horrified that Hutta will become head of the state forests of the TANAP, environmentalist Karol Kalisky said, as quoted by Sme. Now, when were trying to stop the devastation of national parks, the ministry wants a developer to supervise the state forests in our mountains. No impact on nature protection? However, the Agriculture Ministry does not consider Huttas activities a problem. It refers to the law regarding work in the public interest, which stipulates that a public official who takes up a leading post has to stop other business activities within 30 days. Moreover, its spokesperson Vladimir Machalik said that the state forestry company is responsible for the management of the forests in the High Tatras. Any potential construction works or logging needs to be approved by the TANAP Administration, which is run by the Environment Ministry. The environment minister doesnt comment on the personnel politics in a state-run company managed by another ministry, but the Environment Ministry will continue using its powers to protect the most precious localities in Slovakia, its spokesperson Tomas Ferencak told Sme. The Agriculture Ministry chose the new head of the state forests relatively quickly. Its previous head Pavol Liska left the post in early 2018, after 15 years. He was replaced by Pavol Fabian, who was dismissed in late January 2019. It is not clear why the change was made, Sme wrote. It also informed that although two people applied for the selection procedure for the post, only Hutta was actually present. The selection committee evaluated his professional experiences and managerial skills, and he passed the proceedings, as the Agriculture Ministry informed on its website. Looking for an entry into the World Harness Handicapping Contest at the Meadowlands Racetrack on Saturday, April 6? Buffalo Raceway will give you that opportunity this Saturday night (March 16) by hosting a WHHC qualifying event. Contestants must be 18 years of age, have valid identification and be a member of the Hamburg Gaming Players Rewards Club, which is free to join. Entrance fee for the qualifier is $10 and the winner will receive $500 along with two night hotel accommodations and paid entry into the WHHC finals. A second-place finish will earn you $250 while third place will return $100. Contestants will receive an individually-numbered packet containing ten (10) mythical $200 win wager forms. A total of five wagers must be made on Buffalo Raceway's program on Saturday, March 16 and the other five have to be played at the Meadowlands. Registration will begin at 5 p.m. and will continue through 8 p.m. at the contest table located in the Buffalo Raceway clubhouse. Post time at Buffalo Raceway on Saturday is 6 p.m. while the Meadowlands has a 7:15 p.m. starting time. For more information and complete rules, head to buffaloraceway.com. (Buffalo Raceway) The 2019 harness racing season at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono will begin this Saturday night (May 16), as the first of 134 cards planned for the northeast Pennsylvania oval contains 14 races and a scheduled first post of 7 p.m. The two horsepeople that have been dominant in the training and driving rankings at Pocono over the last few seasons, driver George Napolitano Jr. and trainer Rene Allard, look likely to get off to a fast start again this season, at least by a look at the past performances for opening night. Napolitano, who will be looking to record his eighth consecutive year of having the most sulky success at The Downs, was named on no fewer than 40 of Saturdays 121 entrants nearly one in three and is slated to compete in every race. In three races he was put down on five horses and in three more he was listed on four entrants, so seeing which horse G-Nap decides to drive in those contests can go a long way in helping a players handicapping take a turn towards the profitable. Allard, leading trainer at Pocono in five of the last six years, will have eight entrants scattered throughout the program. Any regular Pocono player knows that Team Allard Rene and driver/brother Simon are often very tough when sending out a new acquisition to the barn, and amazingly, in every one of Saturday nights five claiming contests, a horse will be debuting for the Allards. In their last 25 starts combined (the last five races of each of the quintet), they show 12 wins, three seconds, and three thirds before moving into their new home. One such new member of Team Allard is Ruffle Up, who has drawn the rail in a field of nine in the top purse event on the card, a $20,000 contest for claimers valued between $30,000 and $35,000. Allard Racing Inc. and co-owner Earl Hill Jr. took the winner of over $200,000 after he recently posted two wins and a second in conditioned company at the Meadows, and he is entered back in for his $30,000 price of claim for the Pocono inaugural. Ruffle Up may make good use of his early speed from the rail but so may Polak A, an 11-year-old winner of $730,000 who will start just to the right of Ruffle Up for trainer Hunter Oakes, last years percentage champion in the Pocono training ranks. Polak A shows winning in Open company at Pompano Park, but the combined factors of a two-month absence and his adjusting to northern climes after wintering in Florida may weigh in the mind of George Napolitano Jr. who is named on the horse but also on four others, with good paper credentials, in the tenth race headliner. The top conditioned pace of the evening will be contested one race later, as $17,500 will be on the line for eight starters in Race 11. One of three horses George Napolitano Jr. is listed on is Epaulette A (Post 2), another Hunter Oakes trainee and another Florida climate changer, but this one at least does have one start under his girth since a recent mini vacation. The Allards are represented by Maxdaddy Blue Chip (Post 6), who took his lifetime mark of 1:49.1 at Pocono in 2017, and who would break the $250,000 plateau in lifetime earnings with a good finish in the tough grouping. After Saturday, Pocono will next race on Tuesday (March 19). The following week, the trotters and pacers will compete over the red surface on Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday. The week after that (March 30-April 2), Pocono will shift to its regular seasonal racing schedule of Saturday through Tuesday. Post times for 2019 will be 7 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, and 4 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays, looking to take advantage of the simulcast bridge gap between the end of daytime and nighttime simulcast cards. One more set of pre-season qualifying races will be held at Pocono, on Wednesday at 10 a.m.; at noon that day, they will be a gathering for the press to present a preview of the 2019 season at The Downs. (PHHA / Pocono) Fiction becomes fact once more convincing evidence emerges that China has indeed developed the technology to make the Big Brother type surveillance state a reality. The evidence was found by accident In February 2017 when a Dutch Internet security researcher found an unprotected (by password or encryption) database of live data being collected by a Chinese facial recognition network in the northwestern province of Xinjiang. The researcher found other such databases and realized he had stumbled across more evidence that Chinese facial recognition technology was indeed being successfully implemented on a large scale. These databases belonged to a commercial Chinese firm, SenseNets, which provides facial recognition and other tracking technology for commercial and security use. The Dutch researcher reported the situation to SenseNets, which promptly blocked access from anyone outside of China. SenseNets describes itself as an AI (Artificial Intelligence) firm that not only develops reliable facial recognition systems but also analysis software to interpret patterns in the billions of data points it collects. The databases uncovered were part of the surveillance and tracking system in Xinjiang. This surveillance network consists of thousands of vidcams found on streets as well as even more in businesses and government facilities tracks everyone who passes by (and can, in theory, deduce who is trying to hide their face in an area.) It turns out there are hundreds of these database systems used in Xinjiang to track its 2.6 million residents, about half of them Moslem and a million of those Moslems have been punished, usually by weeks or months in reeducation camps to impress on them that they are being watched and those who misbehave will be detected, identified and punished. The fact that such databases were unprotected is no surprise as Internet security for Chinese commercial firms, and many government operations has long been among the worst of any major industrial nation. That was the result of China tolerating the widespread use of pirated copies of the Windows operating system. Back before security updates became automatic for Windows, installing such updates on pirated copies was not popular with Chinese users because it put them at risk of having their operating system shut down. That forced the user to go through the hassle of obtaining and installing a new copy of the pirated version. The government has made an effort to address this problem by switching over to a Chinese version of Linux but that has not been entirely successful and sloppy Internet security habits are still a problem. In any event, SenseNets did not appear concerned about bad publicity from this sloppy database security being exposed because it was good advertising for them. It demonstrated to the world that their facial recognition did work. Such tech was also widely used by Chinese payment systems to allow users to quickly and securely pay for purchases instead of using a credit card or cash. The SenseNets operation in Xinjiang demonstrated that the facial recognition system was regularly tracking the adult population 24/7 as they went about their business and noted when it was illegal (or possibly legal) business and notified the police. The public tracking system has been under construction for several years and China plans to eventually implement it nationwide. In part, this is because Chinese governments tend to take the long view and by the late 1990s, the government had prepared itself for a long (several decades or more) struggle to regain control over the angry Moslem population of Xinjiang. The existing Chinese media control (censorship) effort eventually evolved into a huge data monitoring and data collection system. In the last few years, as their facial recognition via a growing network of high-resolution video cameras became a proven technology, it led quickly to the creation of a SCR (Social Credit Rating) system in which all the accumulated data on an individual can be analyzed to determine which patterns of behavior lead to criminal or anti-government behavior. China needed someplace to test all these new technologies together and over the last few years, China has used Xinjiang province, and its large Moslem minority, as the test site. In Xinjiang, China is discovering how well this cell phone, Internet and public (captured via vidcams) behavior and other forms of population monitoring can be used to exercise more control over large populations. It turns out that the degree of control (or at least personal information) is substantial. Because of the Xinjiang experience, the imagined police state described in the 1949 novel 1984 has quietly become a reality in China. While the SCR is near-total in Xinjiang province portions of it are already used nationwide. Over the last decade, China has built the words largest and most effective monitoring and censorship network. First, it was applied to text messages on the new cell phone networks and then, when the Internet became widely available in China during the late 1990s, to the more powerful Internet-based communications. China soon developed methods for influencing as well as controlling what people learned on the Internet. Russia had tried to do this before the Internet and had developed some new techniques for quietly influencing mass media it did not control. The Chinese had inherited these techniques from the Russians and perfected them using the Internet and other new technologies. In the West, the same techniques came to be used at the major Internet communications companies (Facebook and Google) who were under public pressure to censor objectionable material and discussions. Unlike in China, where the government gets to decide what is politically correct, in the West conflicting opinions are supposed to coexist (free speech) and evolve. But because of the centralized control over communications made possible by the media major information providers like Facebook and Google could and did take sides. The progress of all this is not a secret. By late 2018 the Chinese government boasted that nationwide fifteen million people have been banned from flying or riding the high-speed trains because of their low SCR. Chinese are beginning to understand that low SCR has major consequences. Low SCR makes it more difficult to get a good job, a bank loan or a passport. SCR scores depend on what the government sees, hears or reads via that growing network of sensors and informants. The government expects to have the Big Brother type monitoring and SCR systems operating nationwide by the early 2020s. Already local officials are finding SCR a useful tool in many different ways. Xinjiang province was the laboratory in which it was discovered what works and what does not. For example, Xinjiang factory workers who refuse to accept harsh working conditions and no pay increases can be assigned a low SCR and then told they must either improve their attitude towards bad working conditions or go to a reeducation camp for a while, perhaps a long while if they refuse to behave as ordered. Many Chinese have no problem with SCR and see it as an opportunity. One reason for that, which the government does not like to talk about, or even acknowledge, is that SCR has already been corrupted. Local officials and police have a lot of discretion in deciding which behavior is likely to lower an SCR. In other words, some well-placed or well-timed bribes can keep your SCR healthy. The government is aware of this but knows that despite the vulnerability to bribery the SCR is still a powerful tool for monitoring and controlling the population. For example, one way of boosting your SCR, and making some legal money (although usually less than $50 a month) is to agree to work for the secret police as a local informer. In some parts of the country, like the capital, there are a lot of these paid informants. In central Beijing, where nearly four million people live and even more work or pass through, about three percent of the locals are paid informants. That is in addition to the extensive network of security cameras and extensive surveillance carried out on the Internet. Exactly how the population will react to extensive and sustained use of SCR is an unknown. But at this point, we are beginning to find out, especially in Xinjiang province and some of the major cities. The cost of building and operating the SCR system is one reason why China spends more on internal security (secret police, riot police, coast guard and so on) than they do on the defense budget. While China appreciated that development, many in the West did not and now there are fears that the fictional 1984 type information control has become a reality everywhere, not just in dictatorships like China and police states like Russia. As this recent SenseNets databases incident demonstrated, the 1984 fiction has become fact for a growing number of Chinese. Firms like SenseNets offer these systems for sale to foreign customers, both commercial and government. Aleppo's ancient souk, which previously hosted over 50 stores, was severely damaged during the fighting in 2015 writes Asharq al-Awsat. On the domed roof of a historical market in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, architect Bassel Daher moves between workers painstakingly working to erase the scars of war. Men wearing vests and helmets repair parts of the roof still bearing visible traces of the four-year-long battle for the former rebel stronghold. They cover its charred surface with a fresh coat of white paint as part of a wider effort to rehabilitate the Saqatiya market, or souk in Arabic. Located in the old quarters of Syrias second city, the market dates back to the Ottoman period. I feel like Im redrawing history by restoring this souk, says Daher, 42, one of six architects overseeing its revival as the countrys conflict marks its eighth year next week. For me, its the project of a lifetime. The Saqatiya souk covers an area of more than 1,500 square meters (16,000 square feet) and used to house more than 50 shops before Syrias conflict landed in Aleppo in 2012. It is located near other landmarks of Aleppos Old City, a UNESCO-listed World Heritage Site that served as a frontline during clashes that ended in 2016. Russia-backed regime forces that year retook control of the eastern side of the city, much of which remains in ruins. The celebrated citadel, a jewel of medieval architecture whose surrounding wall was damaged by a blast in July 2015, is visible from the markets roof. The Umayyad mosque, an ancient site that dates back to the 11th century, is within walking distance. Clashes in April 2013 reduced the mosques minaret to an unrecognizable pile of blocks. UNESCO estimates that as much as 60 percent of the Old City was severely damaged. Saqatiya market fared better than most, with 30 percent battered during the fighting, says Daher. It shows signs of major damage but no sign of collapse, Syrias antiquities authority said in a report last month. Restoration works began on November 1 after Syrian authorities signed a partnership agreement with the Aga Khan Foundation in Syria. Renovations are expected to be completed in July, according to Daher. Workers are focusing on erasing all signs of war from the market and correct old construction violations. The broader aim is to bring merchants back to their shops, he says. Saqatiya market is one of around 37 souks surrounding the Aleppo citadel, the oldest of their kind in the world. They stretch from the western part of the Old City to the gates of the citadel in the east, covering an area of around 160,000 square meters. For centuries, they were the commercial heart of the ancient city and served as a key trading hub between the East and the West, says Alaa al-Sayyed, a historian and specialist on the Old City. The expert, who is also overseeing the restoration, says they are more than 2,000 years old. They are the longest and oldest covered markets in the world, he says. They consist of dozens of shops, schools, mosques, and bathhouses. In their long history, this is not the first time the markets have had to be restored. Over two millennia, they have weathered numerous earthquakes and conquests, but every time they were rebuilt, he says. Diyaa al-Issa, 38, wears a white helmet and uniform as he works on renovating a massive gate in the market. He is one of around 60 men involved in restoration works. Before the conflict, Issa used to work in renovation and maintenance of the citys ancient heritage. Renovations today are nothing like those we used to carry out in the past, he says. We used to restore stones affected by moisture, wind and time, he says. But today we are treating stones that have been charred and damaged by shrapnel, and we are rebuilding some domes that have been completely destroyed. Issa hopes the souk can be restored in a way that does not alter its historical character or dispense with too many of the original materials. His colleague, Mohammed Baqiya, 47, is looking forward to the market coming back to life. The stone will be restored, he says. But what is most important is the return of shop owners and people who used to bring life to the souk, he says. It does not matter how beautiful the souk will be, he says. It will mean nothing if it is empty of people. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Three killed in explosion, British jihadi bride looses child, Russia calls on the US to withdraw from al-Tanf and eight die from landmine. Catch up on everything that happened over the weekend. 1. Three people were killed when a motorbike exploded in Syrias northern city of Jarabulus, according to local sources. Anadolu News Agency reported that the bike exploded late Friday, as bomb-disposal exports were attempting to defuse it, the sources said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media. One person was also injured in the attack. 2. A spokesman for the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) told AFP that the newly born baby of a British woman who fled her home in east London to join the Islamic State (ISIS) had died, without giving further details. But the BBC said he had caught pneumonia, citing a medical certificate. The mother, Shamima Begum, 19, had asked to return home after giving birth to her son Jarrah last month in the camp in northeastern Syria, but the UK refused. Begum told the UK authorities she wanted to return home to save her baby, saying that her two other children had died, apparently from illness and malnutrition. Begum was 15 when she left for Syria with two other schoolgirls, and was found by journalists in the refugee camp after fleeing from fighting between the terror group and US-backed forces. 3. The Russian and Syrian Joint Coordination Committees on the repatriation of displaced Syrians, reiterated that the situation for the besieged civilians in the al-Rukban Camp in the al-Tanf area remains disastrous, adding that Washington should take steps to disband the camp and pull its forces out of the area. According to SANA, on Saturday, the committees said in a joint statement that US-backed terrorist organizations have been forcibly detaining thousands of civilians for 1,773 days, who are willing to leave the area occupied by the US troops. The situation in the camp remains disastrous, its residents have to survive in the most difficult conditions, facing militant violence on a daily basis, the statement read, adding, We once again call on the US to take steps to dismantle the al-Rukban camp and ensure the safety of those who are willing to return to their homes and leave the illegally occupied areas of Syria, the statement said. 4. On Saturday, eight civilians were killed and eleven others were injured when a landmine, left behind by ISIS terrorists in the area surrounding of Arek village in Tadmur (Palmyra) desert, exploded, SANA reported. The victims, The Syria Times reported, are people who work in raising livestock and who were being transported in a truck with their families in search of pasturage. The Director of Palmyra National Hospital, Dr. Walid Awdeh, told the reporter that 19 people arrived at the hospital; eight of them were dead on arrival, 5 women and 3 children, while 11 others sustained various injuries, including maiming, broken bones, contusions, and other wounds. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. A statue of Hafez al-Assad, which was pulled down when protests broke out, has be re-erected in Daraa, angering many local residents reports Hurriya Press. On Sunday, protesters went out in Daraa city in Daraa province in southern Syria calling for the downfall of the Bashar al-Assad regime and rejecting the return of statues of Hafez al-Assad to the province. Local sources in Daraa told Hurriya Press that, Hundreds of protesters peacefully demonstrated outside the Omari Mosque in Daraa city, calling for the downfall of the regime and criticizing the return of statues of Hafez al-Assad to the citys center. They also called for the release of prisoners and for the fates of the missing to be revealed. The sources added that, The protesters headed toward the graves of martyrs who died during bombardments by Assad forces, and renewed their loyalty to the Syrian revolution and stressed their, total rejection of re-erecting statues of the great criminal in Daraas center. The sources noted that, the protestors shouted chants from the first days of the revolution, such as, long live Syria and down with Bashar al-Assad, and Daraa is free, free, and Syria is ours and not Assads house, as well as other revolutionary chants of freedom and dignity. According to the sources, Daraa center witnessed a mobilization by Assad security forces after unknown figures shot at a pro-regime march that accompanied the erecting of the statue, which led to the march breaking up and the streets clearing, and a state of terror among members of the pro-regime partisan groups. Daraa city has seen anti-Assad protests since it took control over the city, the most recent of which was a protest in the Omari Mosque square in December, which called for the release of prisoners and criticized the regime for violating the deal signed with rebel groups in the area. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. During a meeting with President Assad, the Chinese Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs stated China's intention to participate in the reconstruction and bolster relations reports SANA. On Sunday, President Bashar al-Assad received the Chinese Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chen Xiaodong, and the accompanying delegation. During the meeting, the two sides affirmed the deep-rooted historical relations between Syria and China, and the need to bolster coordination and cooperation between the two countries on political, military, economic, cultural, and technological levels. President Assad said the war on Syria has started to take a new form, based on sieges and economic war, pointing out that the tools of international politics have changed, and that differences which were previously resolved through dialogue, are now being addressed in a different method based on boycotts, withdrawal of ambassadors, economic sieges, and the use of terrorism. He stressed that the war on terrorism in Syria is a part of a broad war on the international arena, and that terrorism cannot be confined in a specific geographical area, adding that distances, no matter how long, do not stand in the way of the spread of extremist ideology. He affirmed that combating terrorism is not only carried out via military action; but that what is more important is to combat it intellectually and ideologically. For his part, Chen said that China has a strategic long-term view regarding relations with Syria, stressing that thanks to the steadfastness of the Syrian leadership and people, the situation on the ground has started to improve. Chen voiced his countrys readiness to keep standing by Syria and provide it with all forms of support. President Assad stressed that combating terrorism will lead to a political solution in the end, and that any talk of political solutions while terrorism spreads is an illusion and a deception. In the same context, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Walid al-Muallem, met the Chinese Assistant Minister and the accompanying delegation . Muallem said that Syria welcomes Chinas participation in the process of rebuilding in Syria, asserting that Syria is committed to providing facilitations to Chinese companies in this regard. Muallem hailed the political support and the humanitarian aid that China has been providing to Syria to this day, and all they contributed to strengthen the steadfastness of the Syrian people over the past years. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Idleb is supposed to governed by a ceasefire deal that was brokered by Russia and Turkey in September of last year reports Al-Araby al-Jadeed. On Saturday, Russian airstrikes hit Syrias Idleb, despite reportedly reaching an agreement with Turkey hours earlier to reinforce a ceasefire across the opposition province. Syrias White Helmets reported that at least two people died, including a rescue worker, following a double tap bombing on al-Muntar in Idleb. The Syrian Civil Defence grieves the death of White Helmet Volunteer, Mahmoud Abdel Aal. He was killed and two others were wounded after a Russian double tap strike on al-Muntar town in western Idleb, the White Helmets said on Twitter. Abdel Aal was the 260th White Helmets rescue worker to be killed, according to the civil rescue team. Russia has been accused of using double tap bombings to kill and maim rescue workers and survivors, as well as targeting health centres, schools and bakeries. Activists and health workers reported that a White Helmets centre and a maternity hospital were hit in Saturdays airstrikes, while Syrian regime shelling on Idleb province continued, forcing more civilians to flee the area. The bombing comes despite Russian and Turkish troops beginning joint patrols in and around Syrias Idleb with hopes the agreement could ease shelling on the province. Today Russian patrols will start outside of Idleb in the border region and Turkish armed forces patrols will begin in the demilitarised zone, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said, according to AFP. There were restrictions on the use of Idleb and Afrin regions airspace but these have been lifted from today, Akar told Anadolu in an interview. It follows Moscows agreement in September to put on hold a planned regime offensive against the opposition province, with a demilitarised zone around the region. This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. The Redmi Note 7 is set to launch in Malaysia on the 19th of March. Now, were hearing that in China, the Redmi Note 7 Pro is set to be unveiled and with it, another product. Lu Weibing, President of Redmi confirmed this news on his Weibo account. Many are speculating that the device that may be revealed might be the Redmi 7 as information about the device has been floating around TENAA for quite some time now. Xiaomi CEO, Lei Jun, had teased the Redmi 7 as well, asking what users are expecting to see on the device. Earlier this year, he had revealed the pricing of the Redmi 7, claiming that is would be priced at 700 Yuan and 800 Yuan, which he had re-shared today. Besides that, he also revealed that the smartphone would have the much loved 3.5mm jack, a huge battery capacity and an infrared blaster. TENAA listings state that the Redmi 7 might feature a 6.2 IPS LCD display with a waterdrop notch with HD+ resolution. Tech specs of the device come in three variants which include 2GB RAM + 16GB internal storage, 3GB RAM + 32GB of internal storage and 4GB RAM + 64GB internal storage. Besides that, the listing mentioned that the Redmi 7 may come with a 8MP selfie camera and a dual rear camera setup with one of the sensors being 12MP. A rear fingerprint scanner can be seen in the back and the huge battery capacity is 4000mAh which is pretty decent for its price point but make sure you take this info with a grain of salt. There's no Malaysia price and Malaysia release date in sight yet which is pretty disappointing. So to reiterate Lei Juns question: What are your expectations of the Redmi 7? For the latest Redmi news, make sure you check out TechNave.com! Hospitals in highlighted regions have contributed data to the Global Open Source Severity of Illness Score, or GOSSIS. Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology A man with a history of cardiac arrhythmia is admitted to an emergency room in Virginia, with symptoms of chest pain and irregular heartbeat. Based on factors such as age, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and platelet count, doctors are able to determine the likelihood of his surviving under intensive care. They do this with the help of an intensive care unit (ICU) severity-of-illness score, the most common of which is the APACHE system. APACHEAcute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluationwas originally designed in the early 1980s as a tool for predicting, then presenting critical-care mortality risk in a simplified format. With vital signs and serum levels checked, the man is estimated to have a 7 percent risk, suggesting a relatively low probability of dying during his ICU stay. The hospital will use this score to later assess its own performance, and compare similar patients' outcomes with those of other hospitals. Yet had the patient been Australian and brought to a critical care unit in Perth, the U.S.-centric APACHE score might have proven less useful, with his chances of survival a more complex matter, says Jesse Raffa, a research scientist at the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) and lead developer of a new scoring system known as the Global Open Source Severity of Illness Score, or GOSSIS. "It would be difficult to say if a model developed on American patients is relevant to such a patient in Australia," Raffa says. "What we're trying to do is come up with something more internationally appropriate." With GOSSIS, Raffa and a group of collaborators are looking to collect and incorporate hospital data from a range of countries, thus creating a truly universal ICU severity-of-illness score to be used in a variety of settings. Raff and the group co-researchers Alistair Johnson, Tom Pollard, David Pilcher, and Omar Badawi, advised by Principal Research Scientist Leo Anthony Celi and part of the Laboratory for Computational Physiology, led by Professor Roger Mark at IMES, who along with participating hospitals are collectively titled the GOSSIS Consortium aims also to provide a better calibrated system than older models. Initial funding for GOSSIS was provided by Philips Healthcare and the National Institutes of Health. "APACHE's primary use is for hospitals to monitor how well they're doing," Raffa says. "And calibration is important for benchmarking, or comparing survival statistics against those of other hospitals, and then assessing relative performance." While hospitals generally have an idea of their own patient mortality rates, Raffa says, well-calibrated prediction models are often lacking, making comparison to their peers difficult. "When you have a systematic approacha validated algorithmthis leads to more accurate benchmarking of your center." Nearly 45 U.S. hospitals currently contribute data to APACHE IV, a recent iteration of APACHE. In contrast, as of early 2019, GOSSIS-ready datasets exist for critical-care units in Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Brazil, and 205 American hospitals. Combined with the international consortium members, the GOSSIS system will provide data from a total of more than 1,000 medical facilities. An additional proposed benefit of GOSSIS: its cost-effectiveness. Unlike pricey APACHE scores, often challenging to obtain for hospitals with fewer resources and which cannot be considered fully analogous to reports from other countries, GOSSIS can be accessed, as well as added to, free of chargea potential boon for the system, as with increased and more active participation, the algorithm itself has the unique opportunity to be regularly updated, and improved. "GOSSIS is an important initiative for numerous reasons," says Celi. "Foremost is its open-source nature, which allows for continuous evaluation and recalibration of the algorithm. This is difficult with proprietary scoring systems and would typically be accompanied by the vendors charging more for these services. The second reason is participation of a much larger number of countries that are traditionally left out from development of such scores. By having these countries contribute data to train the algorithm, it's more likely that the algorithm will perform well on their population." Although GOSSIS will be available to any hospital seeking access, the researchers encourage as many intensive care units as possible, worldwide, to upload their data. "By contributing their own critical care data, hospitals ensure they are well represented in the algorithm. Often hospitals are collecting all or part of these data elements anyway, particularly if they are using some other scoring system," Raffa says. He adds that homogeneity will not be a prerequisite for uploading data. "We recognize that not everyone will have perfect data, and we chose the approach we used with this in mind." Badawi, head of Health Data Science and AI at Philips Patient Care Analytics, is hopeful the system will have a major impact. "In 10 years' time, we would envision a large consortium of data contributed from every region around the globe, which would enable for a variety of open source risk models to be available across countries." In its initial stages of adoption, GOSSIS is already gaining wide attention from the medical community. On Feb. 19, Raffa and his colleagues were accorded the Silver Medal Award for their work by the Society of Critical Care Medicine in San Diego. Reflecting on the award, Raffa says he was honored, especially as a data scientist, to be acknowledged by an organization of medical professionals. "Having the team recognized with this award is an honor, and I think it illustrates well that data science, particularly when done collaboratively with clinicians, will have an important role in the future of clinical research," Raffa says. More information: For more information, see For more information, see gossis.mit.edu/ This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching. The Undead Archives I have finally salvaged my pre-Blogger TDR archives and added them into Blogger. They are almost totally in the form of one giant post for each month. And the formatting strayed from the originals. Sorry. But historians everywhere can rejoice that this treasure trove of my thoughts is restored to the world. Kevin is Just another X Ray Technician trying to get into blogging and help individuals interested in an amazing career for xray tech. Register for options trading expo to get the best stock market education.Learn about bettertrades mission,methods and pledge here. Please note. I welcome any and all comments from any political perspective. I will not stand or approve any swearing, and personal attacks will likely also not be approved. "While not confirmed, the FBI has advised that the hackers likely used a tactic known as password spraying, a technique that exploits weak passwords. Once they gained a foothold with limited access, they worked to circumvent additional layers of security," Citrix said in a blog post. "Based our recent analysis, the threat actors leveraged a combination of tools, techniques and procedures (TTPs) allowing them to conduct targeted network intrusion to access at least 6 terabytes of sensitive data stored in the Citrix enterprise network, including e-mail correspondence, files in network shares and other services used for project management and procurement." Popular enterprise software companythat provides services to the U.S. military, the FBI, many U.S. corporations, and various U.S. government agencies disclosed last weekend a massive data breach of its internal network by "international cyber criminals."Citrix said it was warned by the FBI on Wednesday of foreign hackers compromising its IT systems and stealing "business documents," adding that the company does not know precisely which documents the hackers obtained nor how they got in.However, the FBI believes that the miscreants likely used a "password spraying" attack where the attackers guessed weak passwords to gain an early foothold in the company's network in order to launch more extensive attacks.Although Citrix did not disclose many details about the breach, researchers at infosec firm Resecurity shed more light on the incident, claiming it had earlier alerted the Feds and Citrix about the "targeted attack and data breach."Resecurity said the Iranian-backedhit Citrix in December last year and again on Monday (March 4th) and stole at least 6 terabytes of sensitive internal files, including emails, blueprints, and other documents.IRIDIUM is an Iranian-linked hacking group that was also behind recent cyber attacks against more than 200 government agencies worldwide, oil and gas companies, technology companies and other targets.IRIDIUM proprietary techniques include bypassing multi-factor authentications for critical applications and services for further unauthorized access to VPN channels and SSO (Single Sign-On).The massive data breach at Citrix has been identified as a part of "a sophisticated cyber espionage campaign supported by nation-state due to strong targeting on government, military-industrial complex, energy companies, financial institutions and large enterprises involved in critical areas of the economy," Resecurity said in a blog post Resecurity President Charles Yoo told NBC news that IRIDIUM broke its way into Citrix's internal network about 10 years ago, and has been lurking inside the company's system ever since.The Florida-based company stressed that there was no sign that the hackers compromised any Citrix product or service, and that it launched a "forensic investigation," hired a top cybersecurity company, and took "actions" to secure its internal network.Like the OPM breach , the consequences of the Citrix security incident could affect a broader range of targets, as the company holds sensitive data on other companies, including critical infrastructure, government and Enterprises. Moroccan authorities announced Sunday the repatriation of eight Moroccans from war-torn Syria on humanitarian grounds, noting that this operation is part of Moroccos contributions to international counterterrorism efforts. Immediately after the announcement, the United States has commended the repatriation move, describing the North African Kingdom as a highly capable partner in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. We appreciate its commitment to countering terrorism, said on Sunday Mr. Robert Palladino, State Department Deputy Spokesperson. Moroccos actions should encourage other nations to repatriate and prosecute their citizens who have traveled to fight for ISIS, he added in a press release. Repatriating foreign terrorist fighters to their countries of origin is the best solution to prevent them from returning to the battlefield, underlined the State Department deputy Spokesperson. Morocco is member of the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. The 75-member Coalition, set up in 2014, is committed to tackling ISIS on all fronts, to dismantling its networks and to countering its global ambitions. Beyond the military campaign in Iraq and Syria, the Coalition is committed to: tackling ISISs financing and economic infrastructure; preventing the flow of foreign terrorist fighters across borders; supporting stabilization and the restoration of essential public services to areas liberated from ISIS; and countering the groups propaganda. As ISIS is defeated on the battlefield, the Coalition pledges to continue its stabilization efforts to facilitate the safe and voluntary return home of those who have been displaced by the violence. The Moroccan interior ministry, which announced the repatriation of the eight nationals, said the returnees will be investigated for alleged involvement in terrorism-related acts, under the supervision of the competent prosecutors office. In 2015, Morocco adopted a law that criminalizes traveling to conflict zones and terrorist training camps. According to official figures, there were around 1,700 Moroccans fighting with the Islamic State group (ISIS) in Syria, Iraq and Libya. Many of them had been killed in suicide bombings in Syria and Iraq and 242 had been arrested. The repatriation operation comes as the last jihadists of the ISIS terrorist group were surrounded in the village of Baghouz, near the Iraqi border, by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that are supported by the international coalition led by the United States. Western countries that have nationals who fought in the ranks of ISIS are very divided on the issue of those they now call ghosts. The United Kingdom has just stripped two sisters in refugee camps in Syria of their British citizenship. 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. The World Health Organization (WHO) has appointed Moroccan citizen Dr Jaouad Mahjour Deputy Director General of the organization. Mahjour was formerly acting WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean and has 30 years of experience in public health and project elaboration, and transmissible disease projects assessments. The Moroccan permanent mission at the UN office in Geneva welcomed the appointment of the Moroccan health expert. The appointment of the Moroccan in that high level position within this UN organization is a recognition of the commitment and the active role of Morocco, under the clear leadership of H.M. King Mohammed VI, within international organizations and specialized agencies of the United Nations, the mission said in a statement. This site focuses on Republican politicians and conservatives that rip off their constituency. We have the Tea Party, fundamentalist churches, the corruption of ALEC and other special interests groups. But the site also supports progressive Democrats and the local Democratic Socialist of America. We must have ideas on how to replace regressive and corrupt politicians with something better. For comments steveotto2001@yahoo.com or ottozero2001@yahoo.com. Ramblings of a badly aged Baby Boomer who went from Rebel Without a Cause to Bozo Without a Clue in, seemingly, the same afternoon. On Monday morning, the parliamentary commission on foreign affairs met to discuss the post-Brexit situation for Britons living in Luxembourg. This is an increasingly pressing issue as 29 March looms closer with no resolution as of yet. Specifically, MPs discussed the draft bill on amending the free movement of people in the EU in light of Brexit. The question predominantly concerns Britons who have made Luxembourg their home - how will they be affected by the United Kingdom's exit from the EU at the end of the month? The question is one that has been asked on many an occasion and Luxembourgish lawmakers have been limited in their responses by the lack of clarity surrounding the UK's exit. In this week alone, the Houses of Parliament are due to vote on three scenarios: a second meaningful vote on May's Brexit deal, a no-deal scenario, and a third vote on Thursday. This third vote depends on the outcome of the two previous votes: if a majority of MPs vote against the motions, then the third vote will concern extending Article 50 in order to resolve the outstanding issues. As a result, Luxembourg's lawmakers remain in limbo concerning resolving the status of Britons in Luxembourg after Brexit. As the project rapporteur LSAP MP Marc Angel explained, the draft bill that MPs are discussing would apply in the case of a Brexit with a deal. As Angel explained, the main point is to clarify how and when Britons can update their residential documents during the transition phase. Britons will not have to update their documents during this phase, but can do so - after the end of 2020, this will be obligatory for all British residents in Luxembourg. Angel also confirmed that the immigration directorate has hired eight additional employees to specifically work on British applications. After the meeting, CSV MP Viviane Reding stressed the need to give these residents assurances that they are entitled to stay in the country. She said it would be absurd for British residents to suddenly no longer have the right to live in the Grand Duchy because the UK would be viewed as a third country. If the UK deadlock leads to a hard Brexit, then Britons in Luxembourg will only keep their normal rights for another year. Both the Luxembourgish government and the opposition are unanimous: they do not want to let any of the Grand Duchy's residents suffer. The MPs highlighted that the legislation they are working on concerns people and families, who should not suffer as a result of politics. On the bright side, the government does have some clarity concerning British citizens working in the civil service. A specific draft bill is set to guarantee that these residents will keep their jobs, whether Brexit occurs with a withdrawal agreement or without. The Democratic Party's Gusty Graas explained that 42 Britons work in Luxembourg's civil service, the majority of which work as teachers in state schools. In theory, a no-deal Brexit could mean that these residents lose their jobs as of 1 April. The separate draft bill protects these individuals and their jobs whatever the Brexit scenario. However, Graas highlighted that MPs must vote on the draft legislation before 1 April in order for it to enter into effect. The police reported a number of break-ins over the weekend, including one at a bicycle shop. Burglars broke into a bicycle shop at the Cloche d'Or at 4.30am on Monday. Initially, the burglars attempted to break the glass windows at three separate points, but were unsuccessful and instead broke open a door. They stole a number of bikes and accessories. The police also reported a number of break-ins on construction sites and office buildings. A total of six break-ins occurred throughout Luxembourg City, with thieves stealing machines and other IT material. The construction sites targeted were on Boulevard Royal and Avenue de la Gare. The company buildings broken into were on Rue de Bitbourg in Luxembourg City, Rue de Bonnevoie in Verlorenkast, Rue de Luxembourg in Merl, and Route de Dippach in Mamer. The United Kingdom has announced new funding to give more people and companies across Africa access to affordable, clean energy. The announcement was made lately by UKs Minister for Africa, Harriett Baldwin. According to Ms. Harriett Baldwin, the new funding will see 30 million added to the Transforming Energy Access program, taking total UK investment to 100 million, and allowing it to continue until 2024. The Transforming Energy Access program is leading development of innovative technologies, business models, partnerships and skills that will accelerate access to affordable, clean energy services for households and enterprises in developing countries. Transforming Energy Access is using the UKs expertise in technology and finance to provide power for people across Africa and tackle one of the worlds biggest challenges, climate change, Baldwin said. The new funding is in partnership with the African Development Banks Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa and the World Banks Energy Sector Management Assistance Program. It will help fund technologies such as mini-grids, and solar and bioenergy initiatives in African countries. Since 2011, UK climate finance has helped provide 17 million people with improved access to clean energy. Electricity demand in Africa is projected to triple by 2030, offering huge potential for renewable energy deployment. The power sector requires investments of $70 billion per year on average between now and 2030. On Monday afternoon, the municipal council of Luxembourg City discussed the future of the capital's churches. The city's authorities will take over the management of 21 of the churches and the remaining two will fall under the jurisdiction of the Church fund. The two churches to be attributed to the Church fund will be the chapel on the Glacis and Kirchberg's Chapel of Notre-Dame. As the mayor of Luxembourg City Lydie Polfer explained, the municipal authorities are currently in the process of negotiation with the Church. The diocese wants to keep all the churches. In return, the municipal council proposed a future rent for religious buildings, which would be 1,500 per year. Larger religious buildings would have a rental cost of 2,000 per year and the cathedral, which also belongs to the city's authorities, would have an annual cost of 2,500. As for the unused rectories, Polfer proposed that the city would use them as social housing. An Israeli spacecraft on its maiden mission to the moon has sent its first selfie back to Earth, mission chiefs said on Tuesday. An Israeli spacecraft on its maiden mission to the moon has sent its first selfie back to Earth, mission chiefs said on Tuesday. The image showing part of the Beresheet spacecraft with Earth in the background was beamed to mission control in Yehud, Israel -- 37,600 kilometres (23,360 miles) away, the project's lead partners said in a statement. The partners, NGO SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, launched the unmanned Beresheet -- Hebrew for Genesis -- from Cape Canaveral in Florida on February 22. The 585-kilogram (1,290-pound) craft took off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the private US-based SpaceX company of entrepreneur Elon Musk. The trip is scheduled to last seven weeks, with the Beresheet due to touch down on April 11. So far, only Russia, the United States and China have made the 384,000-kilometre (239,000-mile) journey and landed on the moon. The Israeli mission comes amid renewed global interest in the moon, 50 years after American astronauts first walked on its surface. China's Chang'e-4 made the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon on January 3, after a probe sent by Beijing made a lunar landing elsewhere in 2013. For Israel, the landing itself is the main mission, but the spacecraft also carries a scientific instrument to measure the lunar magnetic field, which will help understanding of the moon's formation. It also carries a "time capsule" loaded with digital files containing a Bible, children's drawings, Israeli songs, memories of a Holocaust survivor and the blue-and-white Israeli flag. After China earlier this year, and now Israel, India hopes to become the fifth lunar country in the spring with its Chandrayaan-2 mission. It aims to put a craft with a rover onto the moon's surface to collect data. Japan plans to send a small lunar lander, called SLIM, to study a volcanic area around 2020-2021. As for the Americans, who have not been back to the moon since 1972, a return is now the official policy of NASA, according to guidelines issued by President Donald Trump in 2017. NASA, which has installed equipment on Beresheet to upload its signals from the moon, says it is inviting private sector bids to build and launch the US probes. The US space agency plans to build a small space station, dubbed Gateway, in the moon's orbit by 2026, and envisages a manned mission to Mars in the following decade. Wonder Caves: Ideal Spot for Hikers and Cave Explorers Equatorial Guinea hosts on April 2-5 in Malabo the African Petroleum Producers Organizations Cape VII Congress and Exhibition, set to bring together the continents leading energy ministers, top oil and gas executives as well as international policy leaders. In a press statement, the African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO) said the event will focus on policy reforms, Africas influence in energy geopolitics and increasing cooperation amongst African countries. The President of Equatorial Guinea, the Secretary General of OPEC and 20 African oil and gas ministers are expected to attend Africas most influential gathering for the energy industry. According to africaoilandpower.com news portal, Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum and President of the APPO, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, will present the foundational reforms of the APPO, and the organizations aim to create a strong unifier of African oil producers on the international stage. APPO CAPE VII will also set the agenda for African producers interactions with global producers and markets in 2019 and beyond. Earlier this year, the APPO president announced that the organization is to mobilize up to $2 billion of resources to fund critical areas of infrastructural collaboration in Africa. According to him, the whole idea is to mobilize between $1 billion and $2 billion of resources to fund all the essentials necessary for us to properly collaborate. A major reform, which would reposition APPO and make it relevant, had already been completed, he said, adding that part of the reforms was an increased synergy that would help to mobilize the investment needed to facilitate and deliver the major infrastructure required by the continent. Scores of African governments and business officials are expected in Hamburg on March 27 and 28 to take part in the 13th German-African Energy Forum. The meeting is expected to set the stage for German and African businesses as well as public enterprises to expand economic ties, strike deals, and combat energy poverty. Under the theme Realising & Financing Africas Energy Revolution, the forum will highlight the most promising areas for investment opportunities and energy cooperation between German companies and Africa, including smart energy systems, waste-to-energy, renewable energies, hybrid systems and energy financing. The conference will also focus on digitalization in the energy sector. According to the organizers, the forum will gather a very prestigious list of African participants, including ministers from Angola, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, The Gambia, Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, and South Sudan. African governments and companies will have a unique opportunity to network and discuss deals with leading German and European companies and investors. Germany is a key partner for Africa, and German technology and know-how will be key in addressing Africas energy challenges, said NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman at the African Energy Chamber. German companies are global leaders in renewable energy, off-grid solutions, gas-to-power and the development of power infrastructure, especially in the transmission & distribution area, said NJ Ayuk. Attracting further German investments into Africa will be very beneficial to meet capital requirements in energy infrastructure. Since 2006, the forum has attracted almost 4.000 participants and delegates from 52 African countries. Google announced Google Cloud Platform for Startups, a special supporting program for startups based in Vietnam, at a conference in Ho Chi Minh City that attracted hundreds of enterprises and developers last week. Google Cloud Platform for Startups is designed by the tech giant to help eligible early-stage startups take advantage of the cloud - where computing resources are hosted and accessed via the Internet. Participating startups can also get resources to quickly launch and scale their idea by receiving from US$3,000 to $100,000 in Cloud Platform credit, having 24/7 support, and accessing Googles technical solutions team. The offer is available to startups that have received no more than one Series A funding round, are less than five years old, are based in Vietnam and have not previously secured Cloud credit outside of the free-tier offering. Early-stage companies with products developed based on digital technology and the desire to reach out to the international market can apply directly for the program, with registration now open at g.co/cloudstartups. Startups can qualify for one of the three Start, Spark and Surge programs, depending on their needs and growth. The Start package is worth US$3,000 a year, the Spark package is worth $20,000 a year, and the Surge package is worth $100,000 a year. All three support packages include G Suite credits, access to online training and materials, and a $500 package of other products through Qwiklabs a hands-on learning platform for those who want to become more familiar with operating cloud environments and writing applications that run on them. In addition, the startups can also build, test and run their applications on Googles trusted platforms, while enhancing their products with Google Cloud AI (Artificial Intelligence) and creating immersive location experiences with Google Maps Platform. Google Cloud Platform for Startups was among Googles several community support programs for Vietnamese startups. The total value of Google Cloud packages in support for startups in Vietnam exceeded $1 million after six months in 2018, and is expected to continue increasing strongly in 2019. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! SHANGHAI -- Chinas aviation regulator has ordered Chinese airlines to suspend their Boeing 737 Max aircraft, media outlet Caijing reported on Monday, following a deadly crash of a 737 MAX 8 operated by Ethiopian Airlines. An Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8 bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after take-off on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board. It was the second crash of the 737 MAX, the latest version of Boeings workhorse narrowbody jet that first entered service in 2017. Caijing, citing industry sources familiar with the matter, said Chinese airlines, which operate some 60 such airplanes, had received orders from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and halted their use on Sunday. The CAAC said it would issue a statement on its website regarding the 737 MAX soon. Media said its Chinese airlines operates more than 90 of the planes. A source at one Chinese operator of 737 MAX jets told Reuters the airline had stopped operations after getting a notice early on Monday. The source was not authorized to speak to media about the matter. A Boeing spokesman declined to comment. The CAAC could not be immediately reached for comment. A U.S. official told Reuters the United States was unsure of what information China was acting on. The U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said there were no plans to follow suit given the 737 MAX had a stellar safety record in the United States and there was a lack of information about the cause of the Ethiopian crash. In October, a 737 MAX flown by Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air flying from Jakarta on a domestic flight crashed 13 minutes after take-off, killing all 189 passengers and crew on board. The cause of that crash is still being investigated. A preliminary report issued in November, before the cockpit voice recorder was recovered, focused on airline maintenance and training and the response of a Boeing anti-stall system to a recently replaced sensor but did not give a reason for the crash. Caijing, a state-run news outlet that covers finance and economics, said many flights scheduled to use 737 Max planes would instead use the 737-800 models. China Business News also reported on its website the 737 Max suspension, saying the regulators order had been issued orally. Safety standards According to flight tracking website FlightRadar24 there were no Boeing 737 Max 8 planes flying over China as of 0043 GMT on Monday. Most of Air China Ltds 737 MAX fleet of 15 jets landed on Sunday evening, with the exception of two that landed on Monday morning from international destinations, according to data on FlightRadar24. It did not list any upcoming scheduled flights for the planes, nor did China Southern Airlines Co, which also has its fleet on the ground. China Eastern Airlines Corp Ltd four 737 MAX jets landed on Sunday evening and no further flights were scheduled until Tuesday, FlightRadar24 data showed. Cayman Airways has grounded both of its new 737 MAX 8 jets until more information was received, the Cayman Islands airline said in a statement on its website. Fiji Airways said it had followed a comprehensive induction process for its new Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft and it had full confidence in the airworthiness of its fleet. We continue to ensure that our maintenance and training program for pilots and engineers meets the highest safety standards, the airline said. Singapore Airlines Ltd, whose regional arm SilkAir operates the 737 MAX, said it was monitoring the situation closely, without providing further details. Your browser does not support the audio element. A scrap dealer in Vietnams Mekong Delta is well known to many locals for her trustworthiness and kindness shown to other poor people. Nguyen Thi Hong Hoa rows a boat daily on a river in river-crisscrossed Hau Giang Province, giving her unmistakable cries. The 64-year-old woman goes with the nick name Ut Tieu (Little Ut) as she has a small build and bent back. Hoa looks quite healthy and strong despite her age. One of her frequent customers, Nguyen Thi Hong Vui, said she respects the way Hoa does business. Many dealers row past my house every day but I only wait for her just because shes honest in buying scrap, Vui said. Hoa said she had offered a lot of help to poverty-stricken people since the 1980s, when the area where she lived just came out torn by war. Wherever I rowed to buy scrap, I saw families living in the plight of poverty, she recalled of the period. Theyre poor. So was I. But I was willing to give them some money. Its not a big sum, but I knew its very valuable to them. The woman has also made donations to children so that they can have a chance at education, and the effort was officially recognized by the local government. One of the people helped by her, Nguyen Van Dung, said his family has received frequently money and rice from her over the past several years. She helped lift the livelihood burden off my family. My youngest children can now go to school. Im greatly grateful to her, Dung said. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! There have been positive developments in the defense relationship between Vietnam and the Philippines across the board, particularly in high-ranking delegation exchange, dialogue and consultation mechanisms, and naval cooperation, according to the Vietnamese minister of defense. Minister Ngo Xuan Lich hosted an official reception for Filipino Secretary of National Defense Delfin N. Lorenzana, who is on a visit to Vietnam from Sunday to Wednesday, at the headquarters of the Ministry of National Defense in Hanoi on Monday. The Vietnamese minister and his Philippine counterpart joined talks, conferring on world, regional, and national affairs following the welcome ceremony. The two officials also assessed the defense ties between their two countries. Vietnam and the Philippines have seen their defense relations develop in a positive manner in all fields, especially in high-ranking delegation exchange, dialogue and consultation mechanisms, naval cooperation, training, information exchange, and defense policy dialogue, among others since 2010, the two top military officials said. Both also agreed to further improve bilateral defense ties, maintain meetings, exchange, consultations, approve of their countries ideas at multilateral forums, and support Vietnam in organizing defense activities and conferences in 2020. The two sides would boost cooperation in new spheres like young officer exchange, defense industry, non-traditional security, air force, and military medicine, among others. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Three education officials in the northern province of Hoa Binh who were tasked with scoring exam papers in Vietnams National High School Exam last year received money from candidates to help alter answers on 140 test papers, police concluded on Monday after a months-long investigation. Results of the National High School Examination, held every year around June, are used to determine whether a student qualifies for graduation from high school and acts as a placement test for college and university entrance in Vietnam. In 2018, nearly one million candidates took part in the three-day exam, where they sat for tests in math, literature, foreign languages, physics, chemistry, biology, history, geography, and civics. When exam results were released in early July 2018, suspicion was quickly raised on whether cheating had occurred as test scores by some candidates from Ha Giang, Son La, Hoa Binh and Lang Son, all northern provinces, were unusually high. A police investigation was shortly launched and signs of test score manipulation were found in three of the provinces, with Lang Son being the only province cleared of suspicion. Between July 2018 and February 2019, criminal investigation was launched against 12 officials in Ha Giang, Son La and Hoa Binh on charges of abusing powers and positions while performing duties. Police officers search the headquarters of the Department of Education and Training of Hoa Binh Province in northern Vietnam. Photo: Than Hoang / Tuoi Tre Financial motivation In Hoa Binh, three education officials Nguyen Khac Tuan, Do Manh Tuan and Nguyen Quang Vinh were found to have abused their position as test scorers to manipulate candidates papers in exchange for money, provincial police said on Monday. They were arrested in August and September 2018 for investigation. Manh Tuan is vice-principal at a local boarding school, Vinh is the former head of testing and quality assurance at the Hoa Binh education department, while Khac Tuan was an official under Vinhs command. The trio was tasked with scoring multiple-choice exam papers for the 2018 National High School Examination in Hoa Binh. Police officers search the residence of Do Manh Tuan. Photo: Hoa Binh Police According to police investigation, the three suspects had formulated their cheating plan since May 2018 with Vinh being the mastermind. Abusing their positions, they made their way into the exam papers storage room and altered answers on 140 sheets that belonged to 56 candidates, one of whom was a relative of Vinh. The papers had their scores raised by 0.2-9.25 points out of ten after the manipulation, police said. Manh Tuan confessed to receiving VND550 million (US$23,800) for his involvement in the crime. Meanwhile, Khac Tuan admitted it was not the first time he had manipulated test scores of the national high school exam, having done so in the 2017. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! It will be as hot as 36 degrees Celsius in southern Vietnam this week while high salinity is forecast to harm freshwater plants, according to the southern weather service. The weather will be dry given the high temperature and low humidity in the air, the southern branch of the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said on Sunday. Temperatures will hover around 35 degrees Celsius in the southeastern and southwestern parts of the country, with mercury even hitting 36 degrees Celsius in Binh Phuoc, Dong Nai, and Tay Ninh. It will be as hot as 35 degrees Celsius in Ho Chi Minh City, Long An, Can Tho, and Vinh Long. The weather is forecast to be dry because of the heat and air humidity plummeting to below 50 percent. Southern Vietnam is approaching the dry season so unseasonal rain is not likely, Le Thi Xuan Lan, a meteorologist, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper. It has not rained in the region for the past two months, endangering local agriculture and forestry. Salinization has encroached on 40km along the estuaries in Ben Tre Province. The high salinity will be detrimental to most of the freshwater plants and aquatic products. Winds are forecast to push saline water deeper into the estuaries in Ben Tre, Soc Trang, Tien Giang, and Tra Vinh. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Moroccan Motorway Company, la Societe Nationale des Autoroutes du Maroc (ADM), signed Monday in Rabat an 80 million financing agreement meant to upgrade highway infrastructure in an around Casablanca. The amount will finance the tripling of the Casablanca-Berrechid highway lanes on 25.8 km and the construction of a 31.7 km long bypass of Casablanca. The project aims to relieve traffic congestion in the Greater Casablanca, improve transport conditions, develop mobility and strengthen road safety. At the signing ceremony, visiting Vice President of the EIB, Emma Navarro, said Morocco is a key partner of the European Union and the European investment institution. The EIB, which is celebrating 40 years of cooperation with Morocco this year, stands ready to support the long term ambitious plans and strategic investments of the kingdom, she said, adding that this loan responds to Europes desire to support the development of Moroccan infrastructure. She said her institution is eager to continue supporting the kingdoms competitiveness and helping it improve connections across the country, offering thus its population time savings, lower transport costs and increased road safety. ADM Director General, Anouar Benazzouz, on his part said this project will contribute to the development of the Casablanca metropolis, improve the flow of traffic and strengthen the security of users. The EIB vice president who is paying her first visit to Morocco this March 11-12 will meet Moroccan senior officials as well as representatives of diplomatic and business institutions. The financing agreement signed Monday is the 10th between the EIB and ADM. Since 2007, the EIB has invested almost 5 billion in new projects in key sectors of the Moroccan economy, such as urban transport, energy, water and sanitation, as well as youth education. Benefiting from 25% of the banks total investment in the region, Morocco is the second-largest recipient of EIB financing from neighboring southern European countries. Two moon bears were on Monday saved by local authorities and a wildlife charity after they had been held in captivity for around 15 years at a house in southern Vietnam. The adult mammals, one female and one male, were found to be raised in a cage by a family in Binh Duong Province, which borders Ho Chi Minh City. The rescue was a joint effort by the local authorities and Nuoc Viet a wildlife protection organization based in the northern province of Ninh Binh. The family consented to hand the animals, which belong to a species classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, in to authorities. Workers from the wildlife charity put the bears under anesthesia before performing a medical examination. They said the bears seemed to have experienced bile extraction and the female one lost many of her teeth as she had been excessively fed on flour. They animals are expected to be transported to a sanctuary for better care in Ninh Binh, around 1,500 kilometers away. Wildlife charity workers examine a bear that was cage-raised at a home in Binh Duong Province, southern Vietnam. Photo: Ba Son / Tuoi Tre Nuoc Viet said it would continue working with Vietnamese authorities to persuade farm owners nationwide to send bears to wildlife conservation centers. It estimates around 800 bears are being raised across Vietnam so that bile a substance in certain folk remedies can be extracted from them. In 2005 the Vietnamese government launched an initiative on micro-chipping bears to phase out the captivity of bears. In mid-2017, the government committed itself to shutting down all bear bile farms and sending the bears to sanctuaries by 2020. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Public hospitals in Vietnam are moving toward the self-financing model in an effort to cut government health expenditure, but some officials fear there can be drawbacks to the movement, as patients may have to bear the financial burden. Around 160, or 7.6 percent, of all public hospitals in Vietnam are now fully self-sustained financially, which helped lower yearly government spending on healthcare by some VND9 trillion (US$388.5 million) in 2018 compared to three years earlier, said Nguyen Nam Lien, director of the finance and planning department under Vietnams Ministry of Health. Nearly 1,400 more hospitals are now capable of self-supporting 80-90 percent of their operational costs, according to the same source. Vietnam is among countries with the highest government health expenditure in Asia, spending around six percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) each year on healthcare, according to Le Dinh Thang, chief state auditor of Vietnam. Vietnams GDP in 2018 was estimated at $240.5 billion, according to government data. This is an unreasonable spending level, Thang said. More than 25,000 redundant employees at 23 hospitals under the health ministrys management have been cut off from the public payroll as these medical institutions have been under pressure to cover their own costs. Patients queue to pay medical fees at a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: T.T.D. / Tuoi Tre The initiative has also driven the hospitals to push forward with the application of advanced medical techniques such as organ transplantation and early cancer screening to remain competitive professionally. Some hospitals have taken the opportunity to improve their service by hiring pianists to entertain patients or redecorating rooms with paintings and photos to create a cozy atmosphere, said Pham Van Tac, head of the human resource department under the Ministry of Health. Self-financing hospitals also enjoy freedom to invest on their equipment and facilities, which encourages the application of modern technology to medical checkups and treatment. Drawbacks Despite a growing number of public hospitals going financially self-sustained, the Ministry of Health has yet to release an official guideline and regulations on the dos and donts for those institutions adapting this model. This has raised officials concerns over hospitals abusing their autonomy to charge patients more than they should, Thang said. Doctors perform surgery using robotic arms at the 115 General Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: 115 General Hospital Vietnams state-run national health insurance program has even threatened to cancel its payments to some hospitals out of concerns about insurance fraud. Without the health ministrys regulations, hospitals might buy medical equipment for much more than its original costs, placing a financial burden on patients who indirectly pay for the equipment with their medical fees. This is an issue that requires close monitoring from the health ministry, Thang said. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Industry advocacy group Dame Changer will mark its first anniversary with prominent women speaking at a panel tonight in Sydney. Dame Changer provides opportunities in training and networking for women in the screen industry. Tonight a panel will feature director Gillian Armstrong (pictured), cinematographer Bonnie Elliott, actress Shari Sebbens, film & TV editor Dany Cooper, composer Caitlin Yeo and executive producer Que Minh Luu. The event will be compered by actress and writer Megan Wilding. Debra Richards, Advisory Board Member of Dame Changer and CEO of Ausfilm, said: We are more powerful together each and every day and we need to celebrate women who empower, inspire and keep us going each of those every days. 6:30pm tonight at Event Cinemas Bondi Junction. Stan has unveiled the official trailer for The Spanish Princess, a follow up to The White Queen and The White Princess. The series is drawn from the best-selling novels, The Constant Princess and The Kings Curse, written by Philippa Gregory and stars Harriet Walter, Laura Carmichael, Elliot Cowan, Angus Imrie, Georgie Henley and Richard Pepper. Catherine of Aragon has generally been depicted negatively, as an unwanted and burdensome wife, so this story of her early years as a strong, driven young woman and shrewd political player is a fresh and untold tale. We are also especially pleased to be able to bring into the light the inspiring story of people of colour in early Tudor England, said showrunners Emma Frost and Matthew Graham. It will premiere on May 5. Returning to the world of Tudor royal court intrigue, The Spanish Princess is a vivid and captivating story told uniquely from the point of view of the women, which also sheds light on a previously untold corner of history: the lives of people of colour, living and working in 16th century London. Catherine of Aragon (Charlotte Hope) is the strong-willed young Princess of Spain, who has been promised the English throne since she was a child. She arrives in a grey, rain-lashed England with her glorious and diverse court including her ladies-in-waiting Lina (Stephanie Levi-John) a Spanish noble of African Iberian descent and the sweet and free-spirited Rosa (Nadia Parkes). When her husband Prince Arthur dies suddenly, the throne seems lost to Catherine until she devises an audacious plan and sets her sights on the new heir, the charismatic and headstrong Prince Harry who will one day rule as King Henry VIII. The Spanish Princess also stars Aaron Cobham (Cold Feet, Coronation Street) as Spanish soldier Oviedo, Dame Harriet Walter (The Crown, Call the Midwife) as Margaret Beaufort, Laura Carmichael (Downton Abbey, Marcella) as Margaret Maggie Pole, Ruairi OConnor (Delicious) as Harry (who will become King Henry VIII), Elliot Cowan (Da Vincis Demons) as King Henry, Alan McKenna (Save Me, The Hitmans Bodyguard) as Richard Pole, Angus Imrie (The Kid Who Would Be King, Kingdom) as Prince Arthur, Alexandra Moen (Fortitude, Dickensian) as Queen Elizabeth, and Georgie Henley (The Narnia franchise, The Sisterhood of the Night) as Margaret Meg Tudor. Acclaimed writer Emma Frost (The White Queen and The White Princess, The Man in High Castle) and Matthew Graham (Life on Mars, Electric Dreams, Dr. Who) serve as showrunners and executive producers. Executive producing with Frost and Graham are Colin Callender (The White Queen, The Dresser, Wolf Hall) and Scott Huff (Howards End, The White Princess, The Missing) from Playground and Charlie Pattinson (The White Queen, Requiem, The Missing 1 & 2) and Charlie Hampton (Shameless, Wild at Heart, Inspector George Gently) from All3 Medias New Pictures. According to shadow chancellor John McDonnell, the Labour Party has been forced into supporting a second referendum. Speaking with Skys "Ridge on Sunday," McDonnell explained, we said we would respect the referendum but we also said we wouldnt allow... a reckless deal and we would not support no-deal. He went on to say weve been forced into this by Theresa May delaying, running down the clock and not coming up with a compromise we can all support. A party divided - Labour With eight Labour MPs splitting off to form the new Independent Group and more rumoured to follow, its clear Labour needs to do something to show solidarity and support the people they represent. Labour has previously been vocal in their unwillingness to support a second referendum as they made a promise to respect the outcome of the referendum, however with May announcing her plan to offer a vote on no-deal or a delay to the UKs withdrawal from Europe, the party also wants to avoid a catastrophic withdrawal outcome. McDonnell has discussed the possibility of seeing MPs whipped (forced) to support the partys policy of supporting a second referendum, but has also considered what this may mean for individual MPs in leave constituencies: youve got to respect peoples views and their constituency the whipping arrangement will be determined... in due course. In an opposing view, Labour MP Caroline Flint has urged Labour leadership to permit a free vote on the PMs deal on 12 March, hoping certain conditions such as promises regarding workers rights that she and other MPs had been working to secure would be met. Flint went on to appeal to Labour leadership to allow MPs a free vote on an improved deal, so those who want a second referendum can vote for that, but those of us who want to keep our promises to our electorate can also keep faith with those people. Flint claims she doesnt just speak for herself in opposing a second referendum, stating she believes there is something like 60 or 70 Labour MPs... against a second referendum, and that, if given a free vote, "would vote for an improved offer" against the alternative options including no-deal, delay of Article 50 or a second referendum. Similarly, the shadow business secretary, Rebecca Long-Bailey told BBCs "The Andrew Marr Show" she believes we have got to leave all options on the table to avoid an economic catastrophe for Britain, as well as going on to say Labour are not looking to overturn the result of the referendum. She truly hopes the party wont be forced into supporting a second referendum and can successfully push their own Brexit deal or a general election as a way to better uphold Labours vision following the 2016 referendum. The peoples opinion Despite Labours concerns about going against the will of the people, recent studies suggest that in fact, they might be doing just that if they refuse to support a second referendum or Peoples Vote. According to new research, 66 per cent of people in the North and Midlands who voted Labour in the last elections have said they are in favour of Labour on their new policy to back a second referendum, with only 21 per cent opposing this shift. Further to this, 35 per cent stated this change in policy made them feel more favourable towards Labour, with only 14 per cent saying it made them feel less positive and the rest not feeling affected. Labour voters in the Northeast, Northwest, Yorkshire and Humber, East Midlands and West Midlands polled by YouGov on behalf of the Peoples Vote campaign found Labour voters in areas which voted Leave in 2016 have now changed their minds and more than 3:1 would not back Remain if a second referendum was called. Furthermore, 69 per cent of people surveyed said they would back Remain in a new referendum rather than support Mays deal. This figure rises to 72 per cent when asked whether they would rather vote Remain or leave with no deal. Naturally, some MPs are worried that by backing a second referendum they will be going against the will of the people they represent, however Bridget Phillipson, MP for Houghton and Sunderland South which voted Leave by over 60 per cent, articulated this poll shows why Jeremy Corbyn has done the right thing by our country and our party Far from suffering in our heartlands if we back a peoples vote, we would have been badly damaged if we had not. By Lamine Chikhi and Hamid Ould Ahmed ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika abandoned his bid for a fifth term in power on Monday, bowing to weeks of mass demonstrations against his 20-year rule by people demanding a new era of politics in a country dominated by an old guard. The veteran revolutionary also postponed an election that had been set for April, and promised social and economic reform. Bouteflika's announcement brought crowds back onto the streets in celebration on Monday evening. Hundreds of people, young and old, some draped in the national flag, jumped up and down with excitement. Cars beeped their horns in approval. "Our protests have borne fruit! We defeated the supporters of the fifth term!" said taxi-driver Mohamed Kaci, 50. However, Bouteflika stopped short of immediately stepping down and will remain in power for some time yet, pending a national conference on political change. Tens of thousands of people from all social classes had demonstrated almost daily against his plan to run for re-election, rejecting a political system dominated for nearly 60 years by veterans of the independence war against France. Bouteflika, 82, has ruled for 20 years but has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013. His opponents said they did not believe he was in a fit state to run the country, an OPEC oil producer, and suspected he was being kept in place to protect the grip of the military and business elite. In a series of announcements on Monday evening, the presidency said the election, previously set for April, would be postponed. A new constitution would be submitted to the public for a referendum. Bouteflika said his last duty would be to contribute to the founding of a new system that will be in "the hands of a new generation of Algerians". An "inclusive and independent" national conference will oversee the transition, drafting a new constitution and setting the date for elections. Story continues The conference should finish its work by the end of 2019, with elections to follow, he said in a statement. The conference will be headed by an "independent, consensual and experienced national figure". Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia resigned and Interior Minister Noureddine Bedoui, not known as a member of Bouteflika's inner circle, replaced him. Ramtane Lamamra, a diplomatic advisor to Bouteflika, was named deputy prime minister. Bouteflika met Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Gaed Salah and veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi, the kind of widely respected figure the military might look to as a guarantor of stability. "The voice of the people has been heard," Brahimi, a former foreign minister and U.N. special envoy, said on state television after meeting Bouteflika. "Young people who took to the streets acted responsibly and gave a good image of the country. We must turn this crisis into a constructive process." Political sources said the military would almost certainly play a leading role in the transition process, and was assessing three or four civilians who could be eligible to become leaders. The army will likely rely on respected figures like Brahimi, and old friend of Bouteflika, to mediate. The protests have mostly been peaceful and Bouteflika's announcement should defuse the potential for a bloody showdown with security forces, as has been the case in several other Arab nations facing political upheaval in recent years. Former colonial ruler France welcomed Bouteflika's decision. "France expresses its hope that a new dynamic that responds to the aspirations of the Algerian people can get under way quickly," Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said. INERTIA SHATTERED "We have won the battle. This will be a sleepless night," said 25-year-old Abdelghani Hachi. Nearby, other young Algerians made V-for-victory signs. Some of those celebrating on the streets struck a note of caution, saying they wanted a complete overhaul of the leadership which has offered few opportunities to young Algerians. More than a quarter of Algerians under 30 are unemployed. Bouteflika, who returned to Algeria on Sunday after medical treatment in Switzerland, has watched one long-time ally after another join the demonstrations calling on him to step down. More than 1,000 judges said on Monday they would refuse to oversee the election if Bouteflika stood. Clerics said they would not accept government orders about what to preach. The protests have shattered years of political inertia and unsettled Algeria's opaque but powerful security establishment. The demonstrations have been the biggest in Algeria since an election was annulled by the military in 1991, triggering a decade of civil war against Islamists in which 200,000 people were killed. Bouteflika oversaw the end of the conflict but under his rule power was concentrated in the hands of a secretive military-based establishment known to Algerians as "le pouvoir" -- the powers-that-be. The security forces have been mostly restrained during the demonstrations, a signal of the establishment's eroding willingness to keep the president in power through force. (Reporting by Lamine Chikhi and Abdelaziz Boumzar in Algiers, Additional reporting by Tarek Amara in Tunis, Writing by Michael Georgy, Editing by Peter Graff, Robin Pomeroy and Angus MacSwan) By Stella Qiu and Josh Horwitz BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's aviation regulator on Monday grounded nearly 100 Boeing Co 737 MAX 8 aircraft operated by its airlines, more than a quarter of the global fleet of the jets, after a deadly crash of one of the planes in Ethiopia. However, a U.S. official said it was unclear what information the Chinese regulator was acting on because the investigation of Sunday's crash, the second involving the latest version of the narrowbody jet, was in the early stages. Speaking on condition of anonymity as the topic is sensitive, the U.S. official said there were no plans to follow suit, as the jet had a stellar safety record in the United States and there was a lack of information on what caused the Ethiopian crash. Boeing, whose shares dropped 9 percent in U.S. pre-market trade, said the investigation remained in its early stages and it had no basis to issue new guidance to operators. It was unusual to ground a plane type unless a specific mechanical issue or component failure had been identified and could be inspected, said Andrew Herdman, director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines. "In this case it is not clear what the action item is, having done the suspension," he said. "What is lacking now is what happened in this case. "That means finding the black boxes and piecing together other circumstantial evidence from air traffic control recordings and so on." Most other Boeing 737 MAX operators globally told Reuters their planes would keep flying and they had no plans to cancel orders. Sunday's crash, minutes after take-off, of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 bound for Nairobi, killed all 157 on board and prompted the carrier to ground the rest of its 737 MAX jets. In October, a 737 MAX 8 operated by Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air crashed 13 minutes after take-off from the Indonesian capital of Jakarta on a domestic flight, killing all 189 on board. The 737 MAX 8 first entered service in 2017. Story continues The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said it would notify airlines when they could resume flying the jets, after contacting Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ensure flight safety. "Given that two accidents both involved newly delivered Boeing 737-8 planes and happened during take-off phase, they have some degree of similarity," the CAAC said, adding the step was in line with its principle of zero tolerance of safety hazards. The 737 MAX 8 is sometimes referred to as the 737-8. The grounding was due to safety concerns and not related to trade friction between the United States and China, Li Jian, the deputy head of the Chinese regulator, told reporters, the Yangcheng Evening News said. "These are two separate issues," the newspaper, which is backed by the government of the southern province of Guangdong, quoted Li as saying on the sidelines of a parliament meeting in Beijing. CHINA'S FLEET Chinese airlines have 96 737 MAX 8 jets in service, the state company regulator said on Twitter-like Weibo, including Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Hainan Airlines. Chinese aviation data firm Variflight said at least 29 international and domestic flights on Monday had been cancelled and that airlines had swapped out the plane on 256 other flights that had been scheduled to use it. China Eastern's chairman, Liu Shaoyong, told financial publication Caixin on the sidelines of the Bejing meeting that it would only consider resuming 737 MAX 8 flights once Boeing issued a safety commitment for the jets and proved there was no aircraft design link between the two crashes. The cause of the Indonesian crash is still being investigated. A November preliminary report, before the retrieval of the cockpit voice recorder, focused on airline maintenance and training and the response of a Boeing anti-stall system to a recently replaced sensor but gave no reason for the crash. Ethiopian Airlines said it had grounded its 737 MAX 8 fleet until further notice as an "extra safety precaution" even though it did not know the cause of Sunday's crash. The airline has a remaining fleet of four of the aircraft, flight tracking website FlightRadar24 says. Cayman Airways said it had grounded both of its new 737 MAX 8 jets until it got more information. But no other airlines with 737 MAX 8s in their fleets or on order, or their regulators, told Reuters they were grounding the aircraft or cancelling orders. By January-end, Boeing had delivered 350 of the 737 MAX family jets to customers, with 4,661 more on order. Western industry sources say China has been at pains in recent years to assert its independence as a safety regulator as it negotiates mutual safety standard recognition with regulators in the United States and Europe. In 2017, it signed a mutual recognition deal with the FAA, but industry sources say it has struggled to gain approval from the FAA that would allow it to sell its self-developed C919 airliner to Western airlines. The grounding was "reasonable and justified", said Chinese aviation expert Li Xiaojin but added that he did not anticipate a major problem, as Chinese airlines operated fewer than 100 of the aircraft, among a combined fleet of more than 2,000 planes. (Reporting by Josh Horwitz and John Ruwitch; Additional reporting by Brenda Goh in Shanghai, Stella Qiu in Beijing, David Shepardson in Washington, Tom Westbrook in Sydney, Jamie Freed in Singapore, Cindy Silviana and Edward Davies in Jakarta, Heekyong Yang in Seoul, Tracy Rucinski in Chicago, Alexander Cornwell in Dubai and Tim Hepher in Paris; Writing by Brenda Goh and Jamie Freed; Editing by Robert Birsel and Clarence Fernandez) The homes of several outspoken critics of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro were defaced in late February in San Antonio del Tachira, a town located on the Colombian border. Unknown assailants used red spray paint to splash a circle with a diagonal line through it, similar to a "null" symbol, across each of the houses. Locals denounce what they say is an attempt at intimidation and blame the colectivos -- groups of Maduro supporters who are often armed. The homes were vandalised during the night of February 27, just days after a large protest was held in San Antonio del Tachira on February 23.On that day, hundreds of people headed to Simon Bolivar International bridge, one of the main crossing points between Venezuela and Colombia, to demand that Venezuelan authorities let in convoys of international humanitarian aid trapped at the border. Venezuelan soldiers used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters. There were no serious injuries. "Warning: Illegal groups in San Antonio del Tachira marked the homes of some of our leaders and teams on the night of February 27, 2019, as if to threaten them. We are afraid for their lives, wrote this opposition politician on February 28. The FRANCE 24 Observers team spoke to two people whose homes had been tagged, as well as a person whose neighbours were targeted.All three said they believed that the grattifi was connected to the demonstration held on February 23, since the homes targeted all belonged to people who either helped to lead this demonstration, or were well-known members of the opposition. They also said that this was the first time something like this had happened.Photo of a symbol spray-painted on the night of February 27 in San Antonio del Tachira. "Its clearly an attempt at intimidation"Jose Rozo, former president of the San Antonio del Tachira chamber of commerce, was one of the residents who found a symbol spray-painted on his home.> The door of my home was spray-painted around dawn. I didnt feel anything when I saw it. I wasn't even surprised, since I knew the authorities were keeping an eye on me because of my position as public figure who has always been critical of this government's economic policies. But it is clearly an attempt at intimidation. I covered up the tag the same day.> > I think that the colectivos are behind this graffiti because, during the protest on February 23, some of them fired shots. The authorities didnt do anything to stop the colectivos or to protect people. Its important to note that the mayor of the town belongs to the same political party as Maduro [Editors note: United Socialist Party of Venezuela]. Photo taken after a symbol was spray-painted on peoples homes on the night of February 27 in San Antonio del Tachira. "We felt targeted, a bit like Jewish people under the NazisJohana Eugenio is a member of Voluntar Popular (Popular Will), the party of self-proclaimed president Juan Guaido. Eugenios home was also defaced with the barred circle symbol.> I was away in Colombia when my home was tagged, so it was my family who saw it when they woke up. None of the other homes in our neighbourhood were defaced. Weve since covered up the graffiti.> > I was one of the so-called leaders of the protests and other people in my position also had these symbols painted on their homes.> > After the incident, several of my family members fled to Colombia because they were afraid. They felt like something much worse could happen. We felt targeted, a bit like Jewish people under the Nazis. I know two other families and two other individuals who also went to Colombia after their homes were targeted. Like Rozo, Eugenio thinks that the colectivos were the ones who painted the red circles on peoples homes. We also spoke to a third person, a resident of San Antonio del Tachira who also has ties to the opposition, who wanted to remain anonymous.> They know who is in the opposition and they know where they live. Back in 2017, when graffiti first started appearing around town, it was always the same image: a man in black firing a gun with a message saying that the colectivos were going to defend the revolution.This resident also confirmed that many people were very afraid when they discovered the graffiti left on their homes: "Some people didnt even cover it up or went to stay elsewhere because they were afraid of being attacked.Its hard to estimate how many homes had this symbol spray-painted on them. Rozo claimed that there were a hundred homes targeted, while Eugenio said she knew of about 20. The third person interviewed said that around 13 or 14 homes were targeted. Our team looked at the photos circulating online and counted at least a dozen different homes affected."Were flagging these images of homes marked by paramilitary groups in San Antonio del Tachira !" According to two opposition members of parliament, Karim Vera and Franklyn Duarte, this same symbol was spray-painted on homes in the towns of Rubio and Urena, also located in Tachira state. However, the three people who spoke to our team said they had only heard about this happening in San Antonio del Tachira. This story was written by Chloe Lauvergnier (@clauvergnier). Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said Ireland has been "very flexible and very reasonable" in helping the British government to resolve its problems. Irish premier Leo Varadkar says his government and the EU are happy to offer clarifications and assurances on the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, to help get the accord over the line. The Taoiseach said Ireland has been very flexible and very reasonable in helping the UK government to resolve its problems which, he said, are of their own creation. His comments come as Attorney General Geoffrey Cox and Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay prepare to return to Brussels on Tuesday to continue their efforts to secure legally-binding changes to ensure that the UK is not trapped permanently by backstop arrangements designed to keep the Irish border open. Speaking during a press conference with Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis, Mr Varadkar said: We are entering quite a sensitive phase now over the next week or two as we approach the next round of votes in the House of Commons and the European Council meeting the week after that. Welcomed Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis to Dublin this morning. We visited #dubw earlier and now holding meeting in Farmleigh to discuss bilateral relations, EU issues and #brexit pic.twitter.com/SVjZcSCWaJ Leo Varadkar (@campaignforleo) March 4, 2019 We are happy to offer further clarifications and further assurances if that can help the UK government get the agreement over the line. But from day one we have been very straight about a few things and among those is Brexit cannot lead, under any circumstances, to the emergence of a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. The backstop is a means to an end, but its a really important end and that is a legally-binding assurance that there wont be a hard border on the island. Story continues He said the backstop is the mechanism that will avoid a hard border. Tanaiste Simon Coveney said: There has been no application made for an extension to Article 50 and I dont think its likely theyll ask for a long extension. There may be a need for a technical extension but we need to see how the British parliamentary system responds. However if the British Parliament wants to avoid electing MEPs to seats in Europe there is an obvious end point at the end of June before they take their seats. On Monday, Mr Varadkar and the Lithuanian Prime Minister met with pupils from Hartstown Community School in Dublin which has the highest number of Lithuanians of any school in Ireland. There are some 40,000 Lithuanians currently living and working in Ireland. Mr Varadkar added: I am very happy with the corporation bilaterally we have between Lithuania and Ireland, but theres always opportunities to deepen that. Among things we talked about was working together on European issues after Brexit, I think Ireland will find common cause with the Baltic states and Nordic countries. Among the issues we have a similar view on is the (EU) common agricultural policy (CAP), maintaining funding for that and also making sure that cohesion funding is protected for central eastern Europe. Mr Skvernelis said: We also discussed the (Brexit) challenges and we fully support the position of Ireland on Brexit and we support the interests of Ireland. I would also like to invite Irish investors to come to Lithuania, we have excellent conditions for businesses. Our countries share very good and close relations, we are linked by shared values. Ireland used to have the number of its population decreasing at certain points of its history and currently Lithuania is experiencing the same problem, so we also talked about this with the Taoiseach and how we could share best practices in trying to increase the number of (our) population. Lynette Gibson McElhaney(LOS ANGELES) -- A 21-year-old student at the University of Southern California was shot dead near the Los Angeles campus this weekend, the university said, leaving his mother, an Oakland councilwoman, heartbroken. Victor McElhaney was a senior at USC's Thornton School of Music "where he was pursuing his lifelong love of music with some of the greats," his mother, Oakland Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney, wrote in a statement Sunday. Councilwoman McElhaney called her son's death a "senseless act of violence." The Los Angeles Police Department said a 21-year-old man was shot during a robbery shortly after midnight Sunday. The gunman and two or three other suspects fled the scene, which was east of campus, by Adams Boulevard and Maple Avenue, police said. The victim was taken to a hospital in critical condition. Police did not release the victim's name or confirm that he died. "Victor was a son of Oakland," his mother said. "He was a musician who drew his inspiration from the beat, soul, and sound of the Town and he belonged in every nook and cranny of Oakland." "I miss my baby," she said. "Please keep me, my family, and all of my son's friends in your thoughts and prayers." Victor McElhaney was a jazz studies student who "believed in the power of music to touch lives, to heal, and to bring hope," Robert Cutietta, Dean of the USC Thornton School of Music, said in a statement Sunday. "We honor Victor's life and send our thoughts and prayers to his family and friends in this time of grief and tragedy." USC Thornton faculty member Peter Erskine, who taught the 21-year-old privately for a year, said in a statement, "I just saw Victor a week or two ago walking across campus. His smile, even on that sunny day, lit up the whole place." "I had the pleasure of getting to speak with his mother Lynette at a student orientation meeting," Erskine said. "I asked, 'What does Victor want?' She replied, 'He wants to change the world.' And thats what he was doing with his music, trying to change the world. He made it a better place." "Victor was already playing at a professional level when he came to USC," Erskine said. "Speaking on behalf of the entire USC community, we are devastated by this loss, and we extend heartfelt and heartbroken condolences to all of his family, friends and colleagues." University officials added, "We appreciate the diligent and ongoing efforts of the Los Angeles Police Department to quickly identify and arrest those responsible for this senseless crime and extend our greatest sympathies to Victors family and friends." Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Moroccos flag carrier RAM has temporarily grounded its operating Boeing 737 max 8 airplane after a plane of the same type operated by Ethiopian airlines crashed killing 189 people. Morocco operates one Boeing 737 Max 8 and has received this year another plane of the same type, which is not in service yet. RAM received its first Boeing 737 Max 8 last December. The airplane has been operating since January 1 on trips to Barcelona, Paris, and London. RAM received its second Max-8 in mid-February. The airline will receive two other Boeing of the same type this year. Ethiopia, the Cayman Islands, and China have also suspended Max-8 flights. An Islamic State woman described as from the Philippines was recorded by a Kurdish womens organization defending the rape and enslavement of Yazidi women by the group. Women with Kongra Star, or Star Congress, a Kurdish womens movement, said the woman had traveled with her husband to Syria five years ago. After his death, she married a Bosnian jihadist, who has been captured by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. In a video posted on March 9, the woman calls Yazidis property and slaves. She says that Islam permits them to be used and that its not rape. When challenged to provide a support for this belief, the woman says, I dont know much about Quran. Islamic State killed thousands of men, and kidnapped thousands of women and children during an assault on the region of Sinjar, in northern Iraq, in 2014. A UN report in June 2016 said that Islamic State had committed genocide against the Yazidi population. Credit: Star Congress Diplomacy Rojava via Storyful French President Emmanuel Macron will embark on a four-day tour of East Africa on Monday evening, during which he will visit Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya. Macron's first overseas trip in over a month aims to strengthen his countrys diplomatic, economic and cultural ties in the region. He has been kept at home in France by his grand debate on national policy, which he launched in December in response to ongoing Yellow Vest protests across the country.The French president will kick off his tour with a 12-hour stop in Djibouti and a meeting with President Ismail Omar Guelleh. The two countries have been close since Djiboutis independence from France in 1977.Its an historic partner in the region, it would have been strange not to go there, the Elysee presidential palace told FRANCE 24s sister station Radio France Internationale.But Djibouti also has tremendous military value to France. Strategically located at the mouth of the Red Sea, the tiny country is host to more foreign bases than any other in the world. France has an especially strong presence there, with 1,450 soldiers at five operational facilities.Macron will be the first French president to visit Djibouti in nearly a decade. His trip may be partly motivated by concerns over Chinas growing influence in the region. In 2017, the Chinese military established its first overseas military base in Djibouti. Meanwhile, Chinese firms have invested heavily in infrastructure projects across the continent.Were also going to East Africa because its a competitive region, especially with China. Were coming with a different, more positive project that is perhaps a little less purely mercantile, the Elysee added.Culture and business in EthiopiaMacron's next stop will be neighbouring Ethiopia, still reeling after this weekends deadly plane crash outside of the capital Addis Ababa. All 157 people on board were killed, including seven French nationals.The French president will begin his visit with a trip to the northern town of Lalibela, known for its stunning 13th century rock-hewn churches that were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1978. Macron promised Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in October that he would propose plans to restore and renovate the churches, currently threatened by erosion caused by mass tourism.Lalibela locals hope that Macron and Ahmeds visit will result in a new plan, money and expertise for the complex's renewal.Macron will then meet with Ethiopias first female president Sahle-Work Zewde, and the only current female African head of state, elected in October last year. Sahle-Work has a longstanding personal relationship with France. She attended university in the southern French city of Montpellier before later serving as Ethiopias ambassador to France.While in Addis, Macron will be joined by a delegation of businessmen. Ethiopia has quickly risen to become Frances third market in sub-Saharan Africa, with the largest trade surplus in the region at 791.6 million in 2017.The French president will also visit the African Union (AU) headquarters, where he will discuss sustainable development.Climate action in KenyaThe final leg of Macrons tour will take him to Kenyas capital Nairobi, where he will attend the United Nations Environment Assembly.The event is expected to bring together more than 4,700 people, including heads of state, ministers and business leaders to explore creative solutions for environmental challenges and sustainable consumption and production.Macron and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta will also co-chair a summit of the One Planet Coalition on the sidelines of the assembly. The meeting will showcase innovative projects to accelerate the global shift to a low-carbon economy.Beyond climate action, Macron and Kenyatta are expected to discuss a range of issues, including funding for AUs mission to combat the Islamist militant group al Shabaab in neighbouring Somalia (AMISOM), as well as prospective transport and development projects. French President Emmanuel Macron will embark on a four-day tour of East Africa on Monday evening, during which he will visit Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya. Macron's first overseas trip in over a month aims to strengthen his countrys diplomatic, economic and cultural ties in the region. He has been kept at home in France by his grand debate on national policy, which he launched in December in response to ongoing Yellow Vest protests across the country. The French president will kick off his tour with a 12-hour stop in Djibouti and a meeting with President Ismail Omar Guelleh. The two countries have been close since Djiboutis independence from France in 1977. Its an historic partner in the region, it would have been strange not to go there, the Elysee presidential palace told FRANCE 24s sister station Radio France Internationale. But Djibouti also has tremendous military value to France. Strategically located at the mouth of the Red Sea, the tiny country is host to more foreign bases than any other in the world. France has an especially strong presence there, with 1,450 soldiers at five operational facilities. Macron will be the first French president to visit Djibouti in nearly a decade. His trip may be partly motivated by concerns over Chinas growing influence in the region. In 2017, the Chinese military established its first overseas military base in Djibouti. Meanwhile, Chinese firms have invested heavily in infrastructure projects across the continent. Were also going to East Africa because its a competitive region, especially with China. Were coming with a different, more positive project that is perhaps a little less purely mercantile, the Elysee added. Culture and business in Ethiopia Macron's next stop will be neighbouring Ethiopia, still reeling after this weekends deadly plane crash outside of the capital Addis Ababa. All 157 people on board were killed, including seven French nationals. The French president will begin his visit with a trip to the northern town of Lalibela, known for its stunning 13th century rock-hewn churches that were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1978. Macron promised Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in October that he would propose plans to restore and renovate the churches, currently threatened by erosion caused by mass tourism. Story continues Lalibela locals hope that Macron and Ahmeds visit will result in a new plan, money and expertise for the complex's renewal. Macron will then meet with Ethiopias first female president Sahle-Work Zewde, and the only current female African head of state, elected in October last year. Sahle-Work has a longstanding personal relationship with France. She attended university in the southern French city of Montpellier before later serving as Ethiopias ambassador to France. While in Addis, Macron will be joined by a delegation of businessmen. Ethiopia has quickly risen to become Frances third market in sub-Saharan Africa, with the largest trade surplus in the region at 791.6 million in 2017. The French president will also visit the African Union (AU) headquarters, where he will discuss sustainable development. Climate action in Kenya The final leg of Macrons tour will take him to Kenyas capital Nairobi, where he will attend the United Nations Environment Assembly. The event is expected to bring together more than 4,700 people, including heads of state, ministers and business leaders to explore creative solutions for environmental challenges and sustainable consumption and production. Macron and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta will also co-chair a summit of the One Planet Coalition on the sidelines of the assembly. The meeting will showcase innovative projects to accelerate the global shift to a low-carbon economy. Beyond climate action, Macron and Kenyatta are expected to discuss a range of issues, including funding for AUs mission to combat the Islamist militant group al Shabaab in neighbouring Somalia (AMISOM), as well as prospective transport and development projects. French President Emmanuel Macron kicks off a 4-day trip to Africa this Monday starting with Djibouti. On Tuesday 12th he will move on to Ethiopia and then to Kenya on Wednesday 13th. Since the beginning of the Yellow Vest movement protests last November, President Macron has considerably reduced his overseas trips, but he reportedy did not want to cancel this trip to Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya. After Ghana in 2017 and Nigeria in 2018, Macron's visit reaches further into "non-Francophone" Africa with Ethiopia and Kenya.Djibouti will be his first stop where he lands on Monday evening, to meet with President Ismail Omar Guelleh. While in the country, Macron will also visit France's largest military contigent based in Africa with its 1,450 troops.Macron will be the second French president to travel to Djibouti in 20 years, after Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010. Djibouti holds a strategic position in the Horn of Africa and hosts a number of foreign military bases including the United States, Japan, Germany, Italy and more recently China, which has established an army support base there.The Elysee Palace says that the Djibouti trip will serve to strengthten ties with a traditional ally and, apart from a defence cooperation treaty signed in 2011, there are a number of economic dossiers to examine.The rapprochement between Ethioipa and Eritrea, along with the increasing influence of China, have re-shuffled cards in the Horn of Africa. And France intends to consolidate, as well as increase, its influence in the region.In September of last year, following a visit to Djibouti, a group of French members of parliament stressed the need to reinforce France's presence in the country. They said Paris needs to focus on three sectors: military, economic and cultural.In an interview to Jeune Afrique magazine in 2015, President Guelleh deplored the absence of France. He said it was as if France had little consideration for the country, adding: "there has been little investment and no ministerial visit in years."Macron's visit, despite being a short one of only some 15 hours, aims to dispel this prevailing sentiment in Djibouti.French contribution to the preservation of Lalibela churchesOn Tuesday 12th, President Macron is expected to be in Ethiopia in the afternoon and then travel to Lalibela with Prime minister Abiy Ahmed.Lalibela was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1978. The site consists of 11 cave churches, constructed around the 13th century, carved into the rock of the Ethiopian Highlands.Lalibela is the largest Ethiopian cave site and also the most complex, with overlapping churches, underground galleries and open trenches, passageways and rooms carved into the rock. The churches are only reachabe by staircases and tunnels.Giant protective roofs supported by metal structures have been erected in 2008 to protect the churches, but they raise concern among Ethiopians who find them ugly and fear that they might collapse.During Prime minister's Ahmed visit to France last year, President Macron declared that France will contribute to the renovation and restoration of the Lalibela site.Macron is also expected to meet Ethiopia's President Sahle Work Zewde, appointed to that position last year by the cabinet. The career diplomat studied in the southern city of Montpellier and was Ethiopia's ambassador to France between 2002 and 2006.President Macron will travel with eight French business leaders as this visit also aims to facilitate economic partnership with Addis Ababa. Defence and security cooperation will also be tabled.Before leaving for Kenya on Wednesday 13th, President Macron is due to meet the chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat.One Planet Summit in KenyaAs the last leg of this Africa tour ends in Kenya, it will be the first time a French president has visited the country.Along with Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta, President Macron will chair the One Planet Summit this Thursday.Upon arrival on Wednesday, the two presidents are due to go to Nairobi's central railway station, where France intends to work on a rapid train service.Kenya's Foreign Affairs ministry described current relations between the two countries having reached an "all-time high".The French delegation of ministers and businessmen are also to conduct discussions on bilateral matters, including trade, manufacturing, infrastructure support, and peace and security."Two political meetings will reportedly take place on the sidelines of the One Planet Summit, with two recently elected Presidents. Talks are expected between President Macron and President Etienne Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Malagasy President Andry Rajoelina.Macron is then due to end this Africa tour with a meeting with students at the University of Nairobi, the sort of interaction the French president enjoyed during the Great Debates here in France, an open, public dialogue that was established to tackle the concerns of the French people on issues that have been raised by the Yellow Vest protest movement. French President Emmanuel Macron kicks off a 4-day trip to Africa this Monday starting with Djibouti. On Tuesday 12th he will move on to Ethiopia and then to Kenya on Wednesday 13th. Since the beginning of the Yellow Vest movement protests last November, President Macron has considerably reduced his overseas trips, but he reportedy did not want to cancel this trip to Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya. After Ghana in 2017 and Nigeria in 2018, Macron's visit reaches further into "non-Francophone" Africa with Ethiopia and Kenya. Djibouti will be his first stop where he lands on Monday evening, to meet with President Ismail Omar Guelleh . While in the country, Macron will also visit France's largest military contigent based in Africa with its 1,450 troops. Macron will be the second French president to travel to Djibouti in 20 years, after Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010. Djibouti holds a strategic position in the Horn of Africa and hosts a number of foreign military bases including the United States, Japan, Germany, Italy and more recently China, which has established an army support base there. The Elysee Palace says that the Djibouti trip will serve to strengthten ties with a traditional ally and, apart from a defence cooperation treaty signed in 2011, there are a number of economic dossiers to examine. The rapprochement between Ethioipa and Eritrea, along with the increasing influence of China, have re-shuffled cards in the Horn of Africa. And France intends to consolidate, as well as increase, its influence in the region. In September of last year, following a visit to Djibouti, a group of French members of parliament stressed the need to reinforce France's presence in the country. They said Paris needs to focus on three sectors: military, economic and cultural. In an interview to Jeune Afrique magazine in 2015, President Guelleh deplored the absence of France. He said it was as if France had little consideration for the country, adding: "there has been little investment and no ministerial visit in years." Story continues Macron's visit, despite being a short one of only some 15 hours, aims to dispel this prevailing sentiment in Djibouti. French contribution to the preservation of Lalibela churches On Tuesday 12th, President Macron is expected to be in Ethiopia in the afternoon and then travel to Lalibela with Prime minister Abiy Ahmed. Lalibela was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1978. The site consists of 11 cave churches, constructed around the 13th century, carved into the rock of the Ethiopian Highlands. Lalibela is the largest Ethiopian cave site and also the most complex, with overlapping churches, underground galleries and open trenches, passageways and rooms carved into the rock. The churches are only reachabe by staircases and tunnels. Giant protective roofs supported by metal structures have been erected in 2008 to protect the churches, but they raise concern among Ethiopians who find them ugly and fear that they might collapse. During Prime minister's Ahmed visit to France last year, President Macron declared that France will contribute to the renovation and restoration of the Lalibela site. Macron is also expected to meet Ethiopia's President Sahle Work Zewde, appointed to that position last year by the cabinet. The career diplomat studied in the southern city of Montpellier and was Ethiopia's ambassador to France between 2002 and 2006. President Macron will travel with eight French business leaders as this visit also aims to facilitate economic partnership with Addis Ababa. Defence and security cooperation will also be tabled. Before leaving for Kenya on Wednesday 13th, President Macron is due to meet the chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat. One Planet Summit in Kenya As the last leg of this Africa tour ends in Kenya, it will be the first time a French president has visited the country. Along with Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta, President Macron will chair the One Planet Summit this Thursday. Upon arrival on Wednesday, the two presidents are due to go to Nairobi's central railway station, where France intends to work on a rapid train service. Kenya's Foreign Affairs ministry described current relations between the two countries having reached an "all-time high". The French delegation of ministers and businessmen are also to conduct discussions on bilateral matters, including trade, manufacturing, infrastructure support, and peace and security." Two political meetings will reportedly take place on the sidelines of the One Planet Summit, with two recently elected Presidents. Talks are expected between President Macron and President Etienne Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Malagasy President Andry Rajoelina. By Mica Rosenberg and Kristina Cooke (Reuters) - Christian Mejia thought he had a shot at getting out of immigration detention in rural Louisiana after he found a lawyer to help him seek asylum. Then he was quarantined. In early January, a mumps outbreak at the privately run Pine Prairie U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Processing Center put Mejia and hundreds of other detainees on lockdown. "When there is just one person who is sick, everybody pays," Mejia, 19, said in a phone interview from the Pine Prairie centre describing weeks without visits and access to the library and dining hall. His attorney was not allowed in, but his immigration court case continued anyway - over a video conference line. On Feb. 12, the judge ordered Mejia deported back to Honduras. The number of people amassed in immigration detention under the Trump administration has reached record highs, raising concerns among migrant advocates about disease outbreaks and resulting quarantines that limit access to legal services. As of March 6, more than 50,000 migrants were in detention, according to ICE data. Internal emails reviewed by Reuters reveal the complications of managing outbreaks like the one at Pine Prairie, since immigrant detainees often are transferred around the country and infected people do not necessarily show symptoms of viral diseases even when they are contagious. Mumps can easily spread through droplets of saliva in the air, especially in close quarters. While most people recover within a few weeks, complications include brain swelling, sterility and hearing loss. ICE health officials have been notified of 236 confirmed or probable cases of mumps among detainees in 51 facilities in the past 12 months, compared to no cases detected between January 2016 and February 2018. Last year, 423 detainees were determined to have influenza and 461 to have chicken pox. All three diseases are largely preventable by vaccine. As of March 7, a total of 2,287 detainees were quarantined around the country, an ICE official who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters. Story continues Ten Democratic members of Congress sent a letter on Feb. 28 to ICE acting Director Ronald Vitiello seeking more information about viral diseases at immigration detention centres in Colorado, Arizona and Texas. Lawmakers did not mention the Pine Prairie outbreak. Pablo Paez, a spokesman for the GEO Group, the private prison operator that runs Pine Prairie under government contract, said its medical professionals follow standards set by ICE and health authorities. He said medical care provided to detainees allows the company "to detect, treat and follow appropriate medical protocols to manage an infectious outbreak." 'UNPRECEDENTED NUMBERS' The first cases at Pine Prairie were detected in January in four migrants who had been recently transferred from the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Mississippi, according to internal emails. Tallahatchie, run by private detention company CoreCivic Inc , has had five confirmed cases of mumps and 18 cases of chicken pox since January, according to company spokeswoman Amanda Gilchrist. She said no one who was diagnosed was transferred out of the facility while the disease was active. Tallahatchie houses hundreds of migrants recently apprehended along the U.S.- Mexico border, ICE officials said. On Tuesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told reporters that changing demographics on the southwest border, with more immigrants from Central America travelling long distances, overwhelmed border officials and raised health concerns. "We are seeing migrants arrive with illnesses and medical conditions in unprecedented numbers," McAleenan said at a press conference. However, vaccination rates in the countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are above 90 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ICE detainees come from countries all over the world, with varying degrees of vaccination coverage. 'HIGH-PROFILE REMOVAL' At Pine Prairie, staff members were at times at odds with the warden about how to manage the mumps outbreak, internal emails show. The warden decided not to quarantine 40 new arrivals from Tallahatchie in February despite concerns raised by the medical staff, one email showed. The warden, Indalecio Ramos, who referred questions about the outbreak to ICE and the GEO Group, argued that quarantining the transfers would keep them from attending their court hearings, the facility's health service administrator wrote in a Feb. 7 email. In a Feb. 21 email, ICE requested that medical staff members at Pine Prairie clear a detainee quarantined for chicken pox and mumps for travel, calling him a "high-profile removal scheduled for deport." In an email to staff later that day, warden Ramos wrote that medical staff had wanted to exclude the detainee from transfer but "ICE wants him to travel out of the country anyway ... Please ensure he leaves." The ICE spokesman said that travel is restricted for people who are known to be contagious but those exposed to diseases who are asymptomatic can travel. Since January, the 1,094-bed Pine Prairie facility has had 18 detainees with confirmed or probable cases of mumps compared to no cases in 2018, according to ICE. As of mid-February, 288 people were under quarantine at Pine Prairie. Mejia said his quarantine ended on Feb. 25. Detention centres in other states also have seen a rise in outbreaks. There have been 186 mumps cases in immigration detention facilities in Texas since October, the largest outbreak in centres there in recent years, said Lara Anton, the press officer for the Texas Department of State Health Services. In Colorado, at the Aurora Contract Detention Facility near Denver, run by the GEO Group, 357 people have been quarantined following eight confirmed and five suspected cases of mumps detected since February, as well as six cases of chicken pox diagnosed since the beginning of January, said Dr. Bernadette Albanese from the Tri County Health Department in Colorado. Civil rights attorney Danielle Jefferis said court hearings for quarantined immigrants at Aurora were largely cancelled. At Pine Prairie on Feb. 12, Mejia said he felt confused and hopeless during his video hearing, with no attorney by his side. After Mejia's lawyers complained, attorneys were allowed to visit quarantined detainees on Feb. 13 - one day too late for Mejia. While he is appealing his case, his lawyers say he could be deported at any time. (Reporting by Mica Rosenberg in New York and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; Editing by Julie Marquis, Paul Thomasch and Lisa Shumaker) The former work and pensions secretary was accused of spreading misinformation about the European Union. Former cabinet minister Esther McVey was taken to task on social media on Monday after tweeting and then deleting a false claim about the European Union. On Sunday the former Department of Work and Pensions secretary shared a tweet claiming all EU member states will have to adopt the euro after 2020 on her personal Twitter account, writing: Are the public aware of this? and the many other things the EU has planned for its member states after 2020? #trust #WatchOut. The tweet she shared, from the pro-Leave Brexit Central, linked to a 2014 opinion piece which argued that political union in the eurozone is an economic existential necessity. However, both Denmark and the UK have negotiated to remain outside the eurozone, in a similar way to how the UK is outside the Schengen zone of free movement and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Her tweet, which she has since deleted, caused uproar across the social network as Ms McVey was accused of spreading misinformation. Activist Femi Oluwole, who campaigns for a so-called Peoples Vote on Brexit, tweeted: Esther McVey published fake news saying the UK would have to join the Euro if we stayed in the EU. This is the same crap that floated around Facebook WEEKS AGO, and I debunked it BELOW, yet this former government secretary is still sharing lies. #McVeyFacts Esther McVey published fake news saying the UK would have to join the Euro if we stayed in the EU.This is the same crap that floated around Facebook WEEKS AGO, and I debunked it BELOW, yet this former government secretary is still sharing lies.#McVeyFacts https://t.co/ALPBoBjbGh Femi (@Femi_Sorry) March 11, 2019 The hashtag #McVeyFacts was trending across the UK on Monday as Twitter users tried to outdo each other with outlandish and imaginary facts. Story continues Are the public aware that after 2020 the first born male child must be named Ian and that because of their standardised EU birth certificate, shall henceforth be referred to as Europe Ian. #McVeyFacts, quipped one Twitter user. Are the public aware that after 2020 the first born male child must be named Ian and that because of their standardised EU birth certificate, shall henceforth be referred to as Europe Ian. #McVeyFacts Dean Capel (@deanscapel) March 11, 2019 Are the public aware that, by 2021, every school in every EU nation will be required to sing a song of allegiance to Jean Claude Juncker instead of holding an assembly? #McVeyFacts, joked another. Are the public aware that, by 2021, every school in every EU nation will be required to sing a song of allegiance to Jean Claude Juncker instead of holding an assembly? #McVeyFacts Martin Greenaway (@mgreenaw) March 11, 2019 Ms McVey told the Press Association: The truth is no one knows how the EU will change in the future and if the UK remains the changes it would undergo. For instance, if anyone said in the 1975 referendum on the common market this would lead to the EU with free movement of people and so many laws being decided by qualified majority voting, people would have said that was rubbish and untrue. Yet it happened. However, both free movement of workers and qualified majority voting were part of the European Common Market before the UK joined in 1973. Steve Peers, professor of EU, human rights and world trade law at the University of Essex, said: The basic framework of the EU cant be changed without the consent of all its member states. The changes since 1975 were all approved by Acts of Parliament. Ms McVey continued: In the EU referendum when people talked about an EU army it was said it was a lie and yet it is now seriously being discussed. No one could have predicted in 1975 the common market would have become the EU super state and equally no one knows the future of the EU now. Mr Peers added that every member state has a veto or opt out from EU defence co-operation. Ms McVey had earlier sought to backtrack on her initial tweet, writing: From reading the comments, even if you dont agree with the article I posted, I think we can all agree on one thing we never want the UK to join the Euro. True or false ? #true Theresa May will head to Strasbourg on the eve of a vote on her Brexit deal, according to Ireland's foreign minister. Simon Coveney said he "understands" the prime minister will travel to the French city on Monday night to "try to finalise an agreement" that will win over enough MPs to ratify the EU divorce deal. Downing Street said only: "We have not confirmed anything at this stage." Earlier it called talks with Brussels "deadlocked". Mrs May will face MPs in the Commons on Tuesday when she fulfils a promise to give them a second "meaningful vote" on her EU divorce deal. If she loses, the prime minister will be forced to give MPs further votes on ruling out no-deal and asking to delay Brexit. EU ambassadors have been told an agreement "seemed close" over the weekend but was rejected by the UK cabinet. They were also informed Mrs May revealed to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker over the phone she could make another proposal on Monday. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said an "important offer" had been made to Britain to unblock talks. Steve Baker, deputy chairman of the pro-Brexit Tory European Research Group, and DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds over the weekend described the situation as "grim". They warned an unchanged Brexit deal would be "defeated firmly by a sizeable proportion" of MPs. Mrs May suffered the largest ever Commons defeat on her deal when it was first put to parliament in January - losing by 230 votes. The UK is due to leave the EU on 29 March 2019 by default. Labour's shadow Brexit sectary Sir Keir Starmer said a short delay of around three months to avoid a no-deal divorce was "doable". Even if an agreement is ratified, the government has hinted it may need to extend Article 50 - the legal exit mechanism. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said on Sunday: "We have an opportunity now to leave on March 29 or shortly thereafter." Ben Maregedze Wins the 2019 GUKPT Manchester Main Event for 69,470 March 11 2019 Matthew Pitt The 2019 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) Main Event was the second-largest Manchester leg of the GUKPT with 308 entrants, narrowly missing out on the record of 309-entries back in Season 2. The 308,000 prize pool was shared among the top 30 finishers. 2019 GUKPT Manchester Main Event Final Table Results Place Player Prize 1 Ben Maregedze 69,470* 2 Richard Kellett 70,000* 3 Rob Bickley 34,110 4 Craig Drew 21,730 5 Ryan Plant 14,790 6 Mark Rubbathan 10,870 7 Paul Rigg 8,450 8 Chris Byrne 6,940 9 Harry Ross 5,740 *reflects a heads-up deal Some 101 players returned to their seats for Day 2 of the 200,000 guaranteed event, 92 players who made it through one of the two starting flights and nine players who decided to buy in before Day 2 for 1,110 despite only receiving 16 big blinds. Former European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona champion Tom Middleton was one of the players who made it through to Day 2 but he could not progress into the money. Neither could Steve Warburton, who has a second-place finish at EPT Barcelona, Triple Crown winner Niall Farrell, or Marc Foggin. The bubble burst whe Robert Boon busted in 31st place. Boon will have to continue waiting for his first GUKPT Main Event title, although the man with $632,965 does have three runner-up finishes. Boon exit cleared the way for the likes of Rehman Kassam, Keith Johnson, Team Grosvenors Rick Trigg, Team partypokers Ludovic Geilich, and Damien Wain to collect some prize money, the latter finishing in 21st place for 2,410. Play ended on Day 2 with only 14 players remaining. Those 14 returned to the fray on Mar. 10 and the final table was reached quite quickly. Dan Foskett busted early on and was followed by Richard Herbert, Ryan OSullivan and Mick Fletcher before Fraser MacIntyres 10-big blind shove with ace-eight fell foul to the pocket kings in the hand of Robert Bickley; the final table was set. 2019 GUKPT Manchester Main Event Final Table Seat Draw Seat Player Chips 1 Richard Kellett 1,140,000 2 Rob Bickley 725,000 3 Craig Drew 292,000 4 Paul Rigg 1,229,000 5 Chris Byrne 148,000 6 Ben Maregedze 1,063,000 7 Mark Rubbathan 508,000 8 Harry Ross 100,000 9 Ryan Plant 979,000 Short stack Harry Ross was the first casualty of the final table who collected 5,740 for his ninth-place finish, his largest live poker tournament cash to date. Ross was joined on the sidelines by Chris Byrne who moved all-in for nine big blinds with king-jack and lost a flip against Richard Kelletts pocket sixes. Byrne banked 6,940 for his eighth-place finish, a fantastic result considering he won his Main Event seat in a 22 satellite. Seventh-place went to Paul Rigg who entered a preflop raising war with Ryan Plant, eventually finding himself all-in with ace-queen against Plants kings. Plant flopped a set and saw his stack swell to 1,400,000 while Rigg headed to the cashiers desk to collect 8,450. The first player to win a five-figure prize was Mark Rubbathan whose ace-ten could not get there against the dominating ace-jack in the hand of Bickley, a finish worth 10,870, before Plant, who had been left nursing a short stack when his aces were cracked by Kelletts jacks, busted in fifth-place for a 14,790 score. Craig Drew then saw his tournament end in fourth-place when Bickley open-shoved with queen-jack to put Drew to the test for his last 18-big blinds. Drew called with ace-ten only to see Bickey pair his jack on the flop. Drew did have a straight draw and an overcard, but the turn and river were blanks and he headed into the cold Manchester night. Three-handed play ended when Bickley found himself on the wrong side of a cooler. Kellett raised and instantly called when Bickley three-bet shoved. Bickley turned over ace-king of diamonds, but Kellett held pocket aces! No miracle board for Bickley and he was gone. Kellett and Ben Maregedze then decided to split the remaining prize pool and play a solitary hand to determine where the trophy would call home. Kellett's all-in hand was ace-four, Maregedze's six-five with a six on the turn sealing the deal for Maregedze. This superb result comes less than three weeks after Maregedze finished fourth in Grosvenor 25/25 Series event in London that banked him 17,081 Next up for the GUKPT is a trip north of the border to Edinburgh from Mar. 31 to Apr. 7. The Grosvenor Casino Maybury is the venue for the third leg of the 2019 tour that includes a 560 buy-in 100,000 guaranteed Main Event. Win your way into this event online at Grosvenor Poker. Darius Neagoe Wins 2019 888poker LIVE Bucharest Main Event (62,300) March 11 2019 Christian Zetzsche The 2019 888poker LIVE Bucharest Main Event champion has been crowned and it was Darius Neagoe that followed into the footsteps of Andrei Racolta to keep the trophy on home soil in the Romanian capital after defeating Bogdan Nicolae in an all-Romanian heads-up duel. Hosted in cooperation with Pokerfest Romania at the five-star InterContinental Bucharest, the 888 Main Event surpassed the guarantee and created a prize pool of 387,638 thanks to 505 entries in total, also topping the 469 entries of the previous year. After cutting a deal in heads-up with Nicolae, Neagoe had locked up 62,300 for his efforts and Nicolae was secured a payday of 59,900 before they battled for the title, trophy and 2019 WSOP Main Event package worth $12,600, courtesy of WSOP sponsor 888poker. Both Neagoe (more than $563,000 in online MTT cashes) and Necolae (more than $1,860,000 in online MTT cashes) are accomplished online players, the latter also finished 13th in this very event one year right here in Bucharest. Six different nationalities were represented on the nine-handed final table and third-place finisher Zhiping Zeng, who hails from China, lives in Romania and speaks the language fluently. Among the notables to cash on the final day were Ran Shahar (7th place, 12,400), Aldo Monteleone (9th place, 7,020), Raoul Iancovici (11th place, 5,900), and Jose Manuel Planells Castillo (12th place, 5,070). The top 63 spots were paid and 888poker ambassador Sofia Lovgren finished in 22nd place for 3,140. Other well-known names on the European poker circuit that cashed include Toni Judet (13th place, 5,070), Radu Lungu (20th place, 3,540), Bogdan Berinde (25th place, 2,740), Sergiu Cornea (47th place, 1,840), Ozgur Arda (50th place, 1,840), Peter Jaksland (51st place, 1,840), Mihai Niste (61st place, 1,740) and Danut Chisu (62nd place, 1,740). Final Table Result 2019 888poker LIVE Bucharest Main Event Place Winner Country Prize (in EUR) Deal Prize (in EUR) Prize (in USD) 1 Darius Neagoe Romania 75,000 62,300 $69,972* 2 Bogdan Nicolae Romania 47,200 59,900 $67,277* 3 Zhiping Zeng China 33,960 $38,157 4 Mihai Gheonu Romania 26,900 $30,225 5 Helder Ferreira Portugal 21,070 $23,674 6 Nicolae Suciu Romania 16,550 $18,596 7 Ran Shahar Israel 12,400 $13,933 8 Derek Reid United Kingdom 8,800 $9,888 9 Aldo Monteleone Italy 7,020 $7,888 *Reflects Heads-Up Deal; Winner also receives 2019 WSOP Main Event package worth $12,600 courtesy of 888poker Action of the final day Only 12 players returned to ballroom of the InterContinental Bucharest at lunchtime and there were two commanding chip leaders in Zhiping Zeng and eventual champion Darios Neagoe, all other 10 finalists had fewer than 20 big blinds at their disposal. While Zeng pulled further away at the top of the counts, Neagoe had a rough start into the day and doubled up short stacks several times. Just when no player at risk could seemingly lose an all in, two players were sent to the rail in a matter of a minute. Jose Manuel Planells Castillo came up short with ace-seven against the king-queen of Bogdan Nicolae and Neagoe dispatched Raoul Iancovici with queens versus king-ten suited. However, Neagoe was suddenly thrown to the bottom of the counts when he doubled Aldo Monteleone (twice) and Mihai Gheonu. Over on the other table, Nicolae's kicker played with ace-eight versus ace-five to eliminate Cristian Matei and set up the nine-handed final table. Once the final nine moved to the feature table, Neagoe scored a crucial double against Monteleone and the Italian never recovered from that setback to finish in 9th place. Neagoe then won a big pot off Zhiping Zeng, who bluffed with queen-five suited on an ace-high board, and that propelled Neagoe into the top spot. He would not relinquish that position anymore until the final hand of the night. Derek Reid had nursed an enormous short stack for quite some time and eventually lost a flip with eight-six suited against the pocket deuces of Mihai Gheonu. Neagoe flopped top pair with king-nine suited and looked up Ran Shahar's jam, who had an open-ended straight draw. Shahar's outs increased significantly when he paired up on the turn and received an additional flush draw, but the player from Israel couldn't get there. Ran Shahar Down to the last six, it was an endurance challenge for the short stacks and Nicole Suciu jammed at the wrong time with ace-deuce, as Darius Neagoe had ace-ten one seat over. Suciu was drawing dead on the turn and Neagoe pulled further away at the top of the counts with more than half of the chips in play. Bogdan Nicolae then doubled through Neagoe and knocked out Helder Ferreira eighth after when spiking a two-outer with sixes versus nines. The rush didn't stop there just yet, as Nicolae also claimed the stack of Mihail Gheonu with queens versus ace-three and suddenly there were just three players remaining. Zeng and Nicolae traded the bottom position and clashed in a crucial all in with Nicolae at risk, holding the ten-nine. Zeng showed ace-deuce and the nine-four-deuce flop improved Nicolae. Zeng hit trip deuces on the turn only for Nicolae to hit a nine on the river for a dramatic roller coaster double. Nicolae doubled once more and Zeng then hit the rail against Neagoe with ace-seven versus queen-ten suited. Zhiping Zeng Heads-Up play lasted for just over half an hour and Nicolae doubled once to almost even out the stacks. Both players agreed on a deal to leave the trophy and package for Las Vegas up for grabs, and Nicolae never recovered from a failed bluff against two pair. It was over a few minutes later in classic coinflip fashion and Neagoe had the best of it with king-jack versus pocket tens thanks to a jack on the flop. That ends the PokerNews live reporting from the 888poker LIVE Bucharest festival and the next stop of the popular mid-stakes circuit will take place at the end of May, right before the 2019 World Series of Poker. Photos courtesy of Gema Cristobal / 888poker After two decades of autocratic rule, infirm President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced he is not running for a fifth term as protests continued for three consecutive weeks asking for genuine reform to the opaque regime running the oil-rich country. Bouteflika, 82, said elections that were set for April 18 will be postponed, but he did not set any new date, meaning he will stay in power as he initially planned. He promised last week that he will run for a fifth term only to step down after a year, time to prepare for a national conference that will bring political reform. In calling off elections, he is actually pursuing his plan. The Moroccan-born President returned from medical treatment in Switzerland on Sunday as protests intensified asking him to refrain from succeeding himself to the Presidency. Bouteflika is seen by protesters as an ailing facade of a corrupt regime that sapped Algerias oil wealth for decades without lifting the countrys dependence on oil and gas. The mass protests, unseen in Algeria since the 1990s when a military coup aborted a democratic process, gained momentum across the country calling for the President to backtrack from a fifth term and a reform of the whole regime. In a bid to defuse tension, Bouteflika or the ruling elite that pulls his strings issued a letter Monday promising no fifth term as well as a postponement of elections initially due on April 18. The letter also included promises of social and economic reforms as well as a constitutional reform that will be submitted to a referendum after a national conference. The announcement was followed by a replacement of unpopular Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahya by Interior Minister Noureddine Bedoui while Ramtane Lamamra was named deputy prime minister, foreign minister. Critics see in the postponement of elections a chance for the regime to gain more time before they find a successor that will safeguard their interest. The Algerian regime, commonly known as le pouvoir, includes Bouteflikas brother Said, ruling party FLN leaders, senior Army generals and business tycoons who all have a vested interest in the status quo. It is unclear how the Algerian political class, including the opposition, will react to these decisions, which were decided unilaterally by the ruling elite without any previous consultation. The protests demanded Bouteflika to cease a fifth term and asked for him to step down. Some demonstrations also demanded an end to the regime. None of these demands were addressed by Bouteflikas letter. Meanwhile, an influential imam said on TV that it would be a good farewell for Bouteflika if he inaugurates the great (and costly) mosque of Algiers then steps down. Cracks have also appeared in his entourage as many FLN leaders refrained from showing support for a fifth term. So far, seven prominent members of the ruling party resigned from the party to express support for the protesters, according to Algerian media. Earlier in the week, the powerful organization of former liberation-war combatants, the Moujahidin, saluted the civilized behavior of the anti-government demonstrators and denounced corruption at the heart of the power hierarchy. Several chief executives have resigned from the industry bosses league in support of the protest as well, though its head remains close to Mr. Bouteflika. El Djeich, the magazine of the countrys powerful army, published an editorial on Friday hinting at support for the mainly youthful protesters. Anyways, the Monday decision to postpone elections was one of the scenarios put forward by pundits following the latest developments in Algeria, but they were not expecting the moribund man announce that he is still in control at the helm of the state, that he has not accomplished his mission yet. So, are the Monday announcements a mere manoeuver to maintain himself president for life? No matter the circumstances of life, Adriana Zarate always knew she was going to college. Her parents almost mandated it. "For them, it was our biggest goal," the University of North Georgia (UNG) junior said. "They came to this country with very little education, so they wanted to make sure we had opportunities that they didn't." Zarate is reaching those goals for her parents and herself as she pursues a degree in kinesiology with plans to become an occupational therapist. The 21-year-old Gainesville, Georgia, resident also spreads the message about taking advantage of educational opportunities to new and potential UNG students through her work with orientation, the High School Equivalency Program, the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, and the Latino Student Association. Based on her work and leadership, UNG Dean of Students Dr. Alyson Paul nominated Zarate for a Newman Civic Fellowship. Zarate received the recognition March 6. "It was unreal in the beginning," the Alpharetta, Georgia, native said. "Then when I heard I was going to a conference to meet other individuals. That made it real." Zarate is one of 262 students named to the 2019-2020 cohort of Newman Civic Fellows. The one-year experience emphasizes personal, professional and civic growth for students who have demonstrated a capacity for leadership and an investment in solving public problems. Sponsored by Campus Compact, the fellowship provides learning and networking opportunities, including a national conference of Newman Civic Fellows in partnership with the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate. The fellowship also provides students with access to apply for exclusive scholarship and post-graduate opportunities. "We are proud to recognize each of these extraordinary student leaders and thrilled to have the opportunity to engage with them," said Andrew Seligsohn, president of Campus Compact, a Boston-based nonprofit that works to advance the public purposes of higher education. "The stories of this year's Newman Civic Fellows make clear that they are committed to finding solutions to pressing problems in their communities and beyond. Paul, associate vice president of Student Affairs, said she nominated Zarate because she recognizes the impact and influence of her own Hispanic culture and background. "Adriana exhibits an attitude of gratitude, but feels compelled to help others to remove barriers to their own success as well as to recognize their own potential," Paul said. Zarate works to help her fellow students, especially first-generation students and those of Hispanic heritage, before they enroll and during their first few semesters. As an orientation leader for the past two years, she has been a voice of encouragement to struggling students. "No one says college is easy," Zarate said. "But I tell them (incoming students) that people are here to mentor you and lead the way. I spread that message through the Latino Student Association and through the cultural connections that we share. I tell them, 'It's OK to ask for help.'" For more information, visit the Newman Civic Fellowship website. 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. On Thursday, social networking site Facebook announced that it had removed more than 137 fake pages, groups, as well as Instagram accounts in the UK and 31 in Romania for being involved in hate speech and for making hateful comments on the platform. For quite a while now, Internet organizations such as Facebook, Twitter, Google has been scrutinized by regulators around the world to tackle the matter of propaganda campaigns that are targeted at influencing elections by spreading disinformation. Crackdown on anti-vaccination news Facebook has also recently put out an official statement promising to tackle the issue of wrong information circulating out on the platform regarding vaccination by significantly reducing the distribution of such type of content and offering users reliable and trusted information on the matter. The social network giant has plans to put a definitive end to disinformation on the platform in terms of vaccination news by making sure that the groups and pages that are involved in such illegal practices are ranked absolutely nowhere in its news feed as well as search features. The firm is also thinking of rejecting ads that are distributing such information. Reducing hate speech and fake news According to Reuters, Facebook's head of cybercrime policy, Nathaniel Gleicher stated in a blog post that the people responsible for running these fake pages, groups, and accounts view themselves as anti-far-right activists in the United Kingdom. Most of the famous pages that were removed as a part of Facebook's worldwide initiative to substantially reduce hate speech on the platform mainly highlighted the part of the Muslim community in Britain. The pages constantly promoted unfriendly content related to Tommy Robinson, who was the erstwhile leader of the extremist group English Defense League popularly known as EDL. Facebook has been working for a while now with DMR, a small online forensics team based in Washington for enhancing its ability to investigate the interferences of foreign establishments. Discuss this news on Eunomia Around the time of last month, literally more than hundreds of Indonesia-based accounts, pages and groups were taken down by Facebook after finding out that they were tied to a famous online group popularly known for propagating hate speech and false news. In Romania, most of the people that are operating such groups, pages or accounts usually post about the basic general stuff such as political news that is normally in support of the Social Democratic Party also known as PSD. A brand new Boeing 737 MAX 8 belonging to Ethiopian Airlines on a flight from Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, to Nairobi in Kenya crashed. There were 157 people on board and the pilot reported to air traffic controllers about some technical difficulties. The pilot had adequate experience and asked for clearance to return to base. He got permission but within six minutes of takeoff, ground control lost contact with the aircraft and it crashed. New Zealand Herald reports Ethiopian Airlines had procured the aircraft only recently and the pilot had more than 8,000 hours flying experience behind him. This crash is similar to an earlier crash of October in Jakarta involving the same type of aircraft. It belonged to Lion Air and the crash killed all 189 people on board the aircraft. These have raised concerns about the safety aspects of the aircraft. The cause of today's Ethiopian Airlines crash was unclear, but a Lion Air flight using the same model of plane went down in Indonesia in October and killed 189 people. The crash in October raised questions about Boeing's 737 Max. https://t.co/Ym59s8Yvrf The New York Times (@nytimes) March 10, 2019 Loss of a second Boeing 737 MAX 8 is serious The new Boeing 737 is the latest from the Boeing family to join service and it first flew less than two years ago. However, two major disasters to Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines within two years is a matter of concern. Both the airlines had strong safety records and while the former crashed 13 minutes after takeoff, the latter crashed just six minutes into its journey. Efforts must be made to retrieve the black boxes (flight data recorders) and their data analyzed to establish probable reasons. Discuss this news on Eunomia Ethiopian Airlines says the crash victims were made up of more than 30 nationalities, including: 32 Kenyans 18 Canadians 9 Ethiopians 8 Americans 8 Italians 7 UK nationals 7 Frenchhttps://t.co/ZYWjXJrQzz CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) March 10, 2019 New Zealand Herald goes on to add that Tewolde GebreMariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines confirmed there were no problems noticed during routine maintenance checks. Hence, it will not be easy to assign any reason for the tragedy. He told reporters - "It is a brand-new aeroplane with no technical remarks, flown by a senior pilot and there is no cause that we can attribute at this time." In the opinion of experts, it is necessary to ground all fleets until the fault is established and rectified. Crash of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing According to BBC, the aircraft took off from Addis Ababa with 149 passengers and eight crewmembers on board. It was flight ET302 from the Ethiopian capital to Nairobi in Kenya and nobody survived the crash. During a news conference, CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said the passengers hailed from more than 30 countries and some of them were going to a session of the UN Environment Assembly slated to begin in Nairobi on Monday. Ethiopia declared Monday a national day of mourning and world leaders like Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, UK PM Theresa May, French president Emmanuel Macron and the UN secretary-general have sent their condolences. A major cybersecurity initiative that began as a state budget item and grew into a blueprint is becoming a reality. The Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI), a $25-million effort funded in the 2018-20 Virginia budget, calls on higher education institutions and industry to build an ecosystem of cyber-related research, education, and engagement. The goal is to position Virginia as a leader where cybersecurity meets data analytics, machine learning, and autonomous systems. An international search is being launched to recruit CCIs inaugural executive director. The search committee includes stakeholders from across the commonwealth who helped develop the CCI blueprint. Isaacson Miller has been retained to support the recruitment. The Commonwealth Cyber Initiative represents a major step toward making Virginia a leader in the new cyber economy, and its exciting to see it begin to take shape, said Theresa Mayer, vice president for research and innovation at Virginia Tech. Success will require partners from every corner of the state bringing their expertise to the table to help CCI reach its full potential. Members of the search committee are: Theresa Mayer, Vice President for Research and Innovation, Virginia Tech (chair) Charles Clancy, Executive Director, Hume Center for National Security and Technology, Virginia Tech Deb Crawford, Vice President for Research, George Mason University James Dyke, Sr. Advisor, State Government Relations, McGuireWoods Consulting LLC Todd Estes, Director, Career Education Programs & Workforce Partnerships, Virginia Community College System Luke Lester, Department Head, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Tech Michael Lewis, Chair, Computer Science, William and Mary Wenjing Lou, W.C. English Professor, Computer Science, Virginia Tech Gretchen Matthews, Professor, Mathematics, Virginia Tech Song Li, Assistant Professor, Crop and Soil Environmental Science, Virginia Tech Brian Payne, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Old Dominion University Melur Ramasubramanian, Vice President for Research, University of Virginia Jeff Reed, Willis G. Worcester Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Tech Sharon Simmons, Department Head, Computer Science, James Madison University Erdem Topsakal, Chair, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University Chris Yianilos, Executive Director, Government Relations, Virginia Tech The CCI provides for cyber-physical system security research and technology commercialization, as well as cybersecurity workforce development through a primary hub in Northern Virginia and a network of regional node sites across the state. Beginning in June, the first nodes will be certified by the Virginia Research Investment Committee. Groups across the commonwealth are building partnerships and programs that will form the foundation for CCI. The CCI is taking off at a time when digital technology is advancing by leaps and bounds, providing exponentially more opportunities for computer-savvy criminals to steal personal data, influence public opinion, and threaten critical infrastructure. Cyber and cyber-physical system security represents a major opportunity for economic growth and diversification in Virginia through investment in research, technology commercialization and workforce development, according to the Virginia Research Investment Committee, which will oversee CCI. The Commonwealth Cyber Initiative is building an ecosystem of cyber-related research, education, and engagement that will position the commonwealth as a leader in cybersecurity, said President Tim Sands. Were excited about the opportunities this will create for our students, researchers, and partners across Virginia. Charles Clancy, executive director of Virginia Tech's Hume Center for National Security and Technology and the Bradley Distinguished Professor of Cybersecurity in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, will serve as the interim executive director of the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative. Clancy is recognized internationally for his research at the intersection of wireless, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence due in part to his strong record of sponsored research, scholarship, and entrepreneurship. He has served as the principal investigator or co-principal investigator on $52 million in externally funded projects, and launched four university spin-off companies that have raised more than $120 million in venture capital. His expertise in wireless security has led to three invitations to testify at hearings on Capitol Hill since 2017. He serves as a key advisor to CTIA, the primary industry group for the U.S. wireless sector, as they engage with the FCC and other stakeholders on cybersecurity regulation. During CCI blueprint development, Clancy co-led a Research and Technology Commercialization working group, which focused on how CCI can build an ecosystem of cyber innovation across the commonwealth. Charles has been a key thought leader in Virginias approach to cybersecurity research and education, Mayer said. Im excited that he will lead CCI into its next phase. The fight over Brexit in Great Britain continues with no clear way of Prime Minister Theresa May at this point of ironing out a compromise with Parliament. The result could be more economic chaos at a time the EU, and World economy could be slipping into a recession. By James DiGeorgia The United Kingdom main opposition Labour Party Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell let it be known over the weekend that he and his partys members of Parliament intend to force a parliamentary vote this week. The vote will take no-deal Brexit options off the table, even if Prime Minister Theresa May and her Conservative Party weaken or possibly pulls a vote on the Brexit agreement. Prime Minister Theresa May and her team are trying to hold a meaningful vote on tomorrow, according to some analysts and journalists with insight on the matter. One approach would be to put forward for a vote an aspirational motion that would give members of Parliament they can support but is clearly a model of what Prime Minister Theresa May should be looking to negotiate with the EU before the absolute deadline in 3 weeks that would not risk defeat on the deal itself. Special: Imagine an options trading service that has delivered over 4,872% in winning trade recommendations over 11 years. That's 442% a year in winning trade recommendations. Check it out! Just $49 for the first 60 days! A vote of a no deal Brexit could be calamitous for Great Britains economy which is due to leave the EU on March 29. McDonnell said in an interview on Monday Parliament would take control of the process whatever decision May takes this week, meaning a no-deal exit remains an unlikely outcome. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said This week is about trying to get a vote on Mays deal out the way -- but that seems to have gone. Well be trying to force her then to at least have a vote on no deal. Leaving Brexit suddenly without a fair deal in place from the EU could even drive the world economy into a recession. So McDonnell said He and many members of Parliament may seek to hold Prime Minister May in contempt if she fails to deliver a vote on preventing a no deal Brexit. Also, he wants Parliament to vote for a humble address a legislative tactic that it used last year to get Brexit economic-impact studies released -- to retrieve the latest information on the negotiations. Meanwhile, the Labour party is also still considering holding another no-confidence vote in the government that would only be triggered when the Labour party believes it will prevail said, McDonnell. Labour is still focused on passing an amendment put forward by its lawmakers Phil Wilson and Peter Kyle that would force a second and binding second referendum one Brexit. The first vote was not binding. The pair of Labour lawmakers is redrafting the second referendum. Many political analysts and journalists are expressing the opinion that a second binding resolution would kill Brexit and keep Great Britain in the EU. Milwaukees new Fiserv Forum will host Democrats in 2020. Photo: Google The Democratic National Committee announced on Monday that it will hold the partys 2020 national convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which beat Miami in the final stages of the competition for this pricey but prestigious event. The convention will be held on July 1316, six weeks before the Republican convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Convention site decisions are complicated affairs, with logistical and financial feasibility being a threshold factor. Milwaukees limited hotel capacity (compared to Miami and the other semifinalist, Houston) was a concern. But in the end, politics likely trumped (so to speak) every other consideration. Wisconsin was one of the states that helped the 45th president win in 2016, the first time the state had gone Republican since the Reagan mega-landslide of 1984. And its part of the region that an awful lot of Democrats think will determine the general election of 2020. Indeed, Milwaukees convention win owed a lot to its becoming a midwestern regional candidate, as Politico notes: In August, a coalition of Midwestern senators from Minnesota to Indiana to Ohio signed on to a letter to the DNC calling for a Milwaukee selection. Democrats have not held a convention in the Midwest since 1996, and a Milwaukee convention would send a strong message to the nation that winning Americas heartland is a priority in the 2020 election cycle and beyond, the group of senators wrote. Theres actually at best mixed evidence that holding a national political convention in a particular place helps a party win it in the general election. Donald Trump did do very well in Ohio in 2016 (winning it by eight points), but the Democratic convention in Philadelphia didnt keep Hillary Clinton from losing Pennsylvania (nor did the 2012 Democratic convention in North Carolina win that state for Obama). Democrats did carry Colorado in 2008 after a Denver convention, but Obamas national margin of victory made that unsurprising. Recent Republican conventions in San Diego (1996), Philadelphia (2000), New York (2004), St. Paul (2008), and Tampa (2012) didnt flip any of the host states. One academic analysis of the general-election impact of convention siting concluded it might energize a partys voters in the immediate media market, but could also produce a backlash: Our research into the local effects of conventions suggests that the parties could help or hurt themselves depending on the city in which they choose to convene. The impact depends on the politics of the surrounding areas. The intense up-close experience of the convention should solidify the preferences of local voters who are predisposed to support the party, persuade some voters who would have otherwise voted for the other party, or create a backlash against the party with voters who support the other party. In other words, we suspect the increased information flow due to being in the conventions media market impacts low-information and politically disengaged voters who are the most susceptible to campaign stimuli. Therefore, the local effect will depend on the political composition of the area around the convention. Metropolitan Milwaukee is famously one of the most politically polarized (and racially segregated) urban-suburban areas in the country. So there could be a backlash effect within the local media market to four days of infanticide-mad socialist Democrats cavorting in the neighborhood. But thats unclear. This is the first national party convention to be held in Milwaukee, so local excitement may tilt positive. And without question, holding the confab in Wisconsin will produce a nice backdrop for whatever Rust Beltcentric messaging the Donkey Party can undertake. Though national party conventions are normally the most tightly controlled events of the presidential election cycle, sometimes things go wrong or get weird. Financial fears about convention costs or even local traffic disruptions can dull any feel-good effect. Republicans lost an entire day of their 2012 convention in Tampa to a tropical storm threat. And discord within a convention can occur despite the best efforts of organizers. Democrats planning Milwaukee may be fretfully looking at the large presidential candidate field and hoping the primaries produce a relatively quick winner. Theres no guarantee of that, particularly in a party that wont allow field-winnowing winner-take-all events. So Milwaukee 20 could provide a key local or regional boost for Democrats going into a general-election crusade to unseat Donald Trump, or have little net effect. But for the delegates, alternates, volunteers, activists, and media folk gathering there next July, the best news may be that the city boasts unusually temperate midsummer weather. If theres extreme heat, it may come from whats going on inside Fiserv Forum. This is the last thing Gillibrand needs. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images Senator Kirsten Gillibrands early support for the resignation of Senator Al Franken cost her the backing of some major Democratic donors. But the New York Democrat now faces a sexual harassment crisis of her own, and the reverberations could jeopardize her new presidential campaign. On Monday, Politico reported that Gillibrand continued to employ a male aide, Abbas Malik, after a female staffer reported him for sexual harassment. The female staffer eventually resigned. In a letter published by Politico, the woman told the senators top aides at the time that she had trusted and leaned on this statement that you made: You need to draw a line in the sand and say none of it is O.K. None of it is acceptable. But that doesnt comport with the treatment she received in Gillibrands office, she says. As I have long said, when allegations are made in the workplace, we must believe women so that serious investigations can actually take place, we can learn the facts, and there can be appropriate accountability, Gillibrand told Politico in a statement. Thats exactly what happened at every step of this case last year. I told her that we loved her at the time and the same is true today. The aide, Malik, has since been fired, but Politico says the termination occurred after its reporters presented additional misconduct complaints to Gillibrands office. At least one of those complaints came from a source that Maliks original accuser had told Gillibrands office to contact. Stmts from @SenGillibrand + comms director on this morning's @POLITICO story on harassment claims against a male employee The employee in question, Abbas Malik, was terminated last week after they learned of "never-before reported and deeply troubling comments" he allegedly made pic.twitter.com/FWAynS5LKX Johnny Verhovek (@JTHVerhovek) March 11, 2019 The senator is hardly the only prominent Democrat to be accused of ignoring sexual harassment within her office or campaign. Against the recommendations of her own staff, Hillary Clinton refused to fire a longtime aide whod been credibly accused of sexually harassing a younger female subordinate. Senator Bernie Sanders, who is running for president as a Democrat, apologized in January to former staffers who said that his 2016 campaign failed to address specific incidents of sexual harassment. Also in January, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee resigned as the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation after BuzzFeed News reported that she had fired a young woman who said she had been raped by the CBCFs former intern coordinator. Representative Elizabeth Esty of Connecticut left office over reports that she wrote a job recommendation for a male staffer whom shed fired for threatening to kill a colleague he used to date. Gillibrand, though, may be uniquely vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy. As Politico notes, shes used her campaign and her rising national profile to highlight issues of gender inequality. Her marquee policies, like paid family leave, link feminism to a left-leaning economic message. Thats a relatively recent shift for the senator, who once had a reputation for more moderate politics. She has that in common with many of her fellow Democratic candidates for president, who are now making overtures to the left. But even within this field, Gillibrands evolution stands out. Rather than try to recast her career as a corporate attorney in progressive terms or justify her previous centrism as necessary pragmatism she has admitted, openly, to her own failings. [My positions] certainly werent empathetic and they were not kind and I did not think about suffering in other peoples lives, she said of her anti-immigration votes, in a January interview with CNN. Despite her recent leftward turn, Gillibrand hasnt been leading the polls for president. 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winter, the gloom of an unraveling economy, topped by the ominous beating of war drums, spring arrived in Punjab and Lahores academies and activists put aside their concerns to celebrate Womens International Day on March 8. Amidst the blooming of flowers and the heady fragrance of newly sprouting jasminefeminism and feminist concerns and the doings of women suffused the air. There were reviews of achievements by Pakistani womenMalala, Sharmeen Chinoy, Mukhtaran Mai, Fehmida Riaz, Hina Khar were lauded. There was the womans march of sisterhood and solidarity. The Prime Minister wants to create an environment in which women can play their rightful role. Lively discussions were held on university campuses and in exclusive clubs. Television channels and talk shows competed to give more upbeat views of the whole woman question that included duties of women, responsibilities of women, rights of women, clothes of women as well as the pro-women actions undertaken and being planned. A female student of an elite university dared to attempt to wear shorts. Thankfully that is where it remained, a dare. We spoke of the hijab, the veil, its badness and goodness, and so on. All discussions ended with exhortations for womens empowerment. Ah, that word. What does it even mean? As many things as the number of people talking about it. To my mind the word empowerment brings the iron armor of medieval times. Is that the fix? As I grapple with this issue I find it complicated, complex and part of the darkness in lived reality of Pakistani womens lives. And how to engineer empowerment? No one is quite sure how to go about it, though we try. In spite of the many retrogressive laws pertaining to women that impact their daily life, such as the laws of inheritance, divorce, and age of marriage, and a general acceptance of womens worth less than that of mens, recent governments have tried to improve the situation for women. Centers to hear the complaints of women, special womens cells in all police stations, induction of women in the police force, additional places for women in colleges, in industry, in parliament are all worth noting. And, yes, women lap up all these advantages greedily. Qualified or not, they occupy the seats, take whatever they can get. Despite the effort, the reality for Pakistani women today is still bleak. The female literacy rate is barely 50 percent and just 5 percent in Baluchistan. The maternal mortality rate is the highest in South Asia. Malnutrition in girls is endemic, school enrollment low; domestic violence continues unchallenged, and public spaces remain limited. Newspapers report an honor killing every other day. But on this lovely balmy spring day it was possible to ignore reality, forget the numbers, and celebrate Pakistani womens achievements in art, education, politics, and human rights. It was possible to speak of brave and talented women who are doing us proudthe likes of Mukhtaran Mai, Sharmeen Chinoy and Malala Yousufzai. We participated via Skype in panel discussions in Singapore and New York. We sang songs of solidarity as we marched with sisters and some brothers. We celebrated women surgeons, engineers, writers, painters, teachers, actors, fashion designers, airplane pilots, and politicians. We patted ourselves on the back for forming a larger percentage of the student body in many universities, in Pakistans medical colleges, for doing better than boys in examinationsall achievements to be truly proud of. But the day did not end there. On the same day in Al-Falah colonya low-income makeshift housing development without adequate water supply or electricity, occupied by unskilled laborers and domestic workers, outside the cordon sanitaire of the Defense Housing Authority (DHA), the swanky upper-class suburb of LahoreWomens Day was being marked in its own way. Three women and a man knocked on forty-year-old Surraiyas door. Surraiya lives in a two-room shack, with her husband, a sixty-year-old out of work unskilled laborer, and three grown daughters; two are employed as domestic workers in faculty apartments of an elite university in DHA. The third afflicted with mental health problems stays at home. When Surraiya opened the door in response to the morning knock, a man, holding her by the wrist, dragged her out roughly on to the street. Surraiya recognized him as someone she had met the previous week. He handed her over to the three women accompanying him who proceeded to beat Surraiya with slaps to her head and face, one of them using her shoe for added impact. They tugged her hair, shook her, and abused her. When Surriya fell, they kicked her as she lay on the ground. All this while Surriyas husband stood by for being a man he could not lay his hands on unrelated women. So did some passersby who stayed to watch. The sick daughter cowered behind the junk piled in the far corner of the shack and whimpered, pulling her own hair. When they were done, the party of beaters dragged Surriya back into her room. Surraiyas husband brought them rickety chairs and a stool so they could sit and rest and gave them water for they were breathless and sweatythey were tired after the hard work. Surriaya had brought this upon herself it seemed. A week earlier, her twenty-five-year old brother had eloped with a young woman belonging to the invading party bringing shame and dishonor to the latters family and clan. The case was quite clear; the eloping womans family had been wronged. Being wronged, the owners of the eloping woman had arranged for a girl from the boys family, Surraiyas niece Rani, to be given to a man of wronged clan so that their honor could be restored. It took a day of deliberations. The elders on both sides had negotiated this mutually satisfactory agreement and felt it to be fair retribution. To this retribution, sixteen-year-old Rani s father, her mother being dead, had also agreed. No one thought of asking Rani if she was also in agreementthere was no need for that. The fact that the taken woman, an adult, had voluntarily and happily eloped with the fellow, that they were now happily married, the fellow had turned over a new leaf, found a job in a dhaba as a cooks helper, and was taking loving care of his new bride, none of that entered into the discussions. It was an irrelevant aspect of the story. Except for Surraiya who felt Rani was being penalized for something she was not a part of and that it was not for her to assuage the honor of the offended family. What does our girl have to do with their girl running off and marrying the man she loved? Surraiya was bold enough to ask. Since she questioned the decision of the elders, she had voiced dissent knowing full well as she did so that it would not change anything. Meanwhile, the sixteen-year-old savior of societal honor was hiding in her room, crying while busy putting henna on her hands in preparation for the wedding that was to happen that dayMarch 8, Womens International Day. Since all had been decided and Surraiya beaten into acceptance, salves and poultices applied to her bruises, her sprained wrist bandaged, the wedding ceremony was completed. There were festivities, buntings were put up, everyone dressed for the occasion, young girls bought colorful glass bracelets, scrawny children ran underfoot, sleepy cats came out of the shadows and emaciated dogs gleefully wagged their tails. Both parties, the wronged one and the other, sang happy wedding songs and danced together. There was party foodsweet yellow rice, chicken curry and naan, the special bread made on festive occasions. Rani was given in marriage to the uncle of the eloping woman. She left her home in Al-Falah colony to go live with her husbands family, their honor restored. They are good to her, I am told. They do not beat her and let her eat as many rotis as she wants. I am sorry this terrible thing happened in your house, I had said to Surraiyas daughter, Seema, an illiterate but quite articulate twenty-year-old, who had called citing an emergency, pulling me out of a seminar on empowerment of Pakistani women, to get medicine for her mothers painful bruises and broken wrist so she could be fixed up to participate in the wedding festivities. Seema appeared to give the matter some thought, then, holding her head high, said O it is not so bad. This is quite normal. In some ways my cousin is luckyhe is not an old man, and she gets to eat her fill. My mother, she talks too much so she gets into trouble What struck me was the normal. Normal? I found myself getting ready to fill up with indignation and then off a sudden felt deflated. Of course, it is. Pakistani women have internalized the violence directed at them in such a fashion that its manifestations appear normal. And that is the real heart of darkness of womens empowerment issues. In the lives of the vast majority of Pakistani women being used to settle family disputes and being beaten for daring to speak up seems as normal in 2019, as it must have been in 1919 and1819. How much longer will it continue to be normal? Pakistan is many countries with a spectrum of lived realities for its women. Surraiya and Rani and Seema coexist with upper class western-educated professionals. Though many of the latter also face covert discrimination every day, even from within their educated families, they would not be used us to settle a dispute or consider such an eventuality normal. The others have found their own creative ways to keep moving the business of living their lives. And yet it does not seem right. By focusing on Sharmeen and Malala, are we ignoring the fact that for the majority of Pakistani women little has changed over the past decades? Violence against women remains rampant after Mukhtaran Mai, the womens protection bill and other such legislations formulated thereafter. Has female literacy or school enrollment improved post-Malala? It does not appear so. Is feminism and womens empowerment only the preoccupation of middle-class professional women? Is it all right for two such incongruent normals to coexist inside and outside the boardrooms? The condition of Pakistani women has attracted concern for decades. The international communityThe World Bank, USAID, DFID, in particularhas been vocal and has supported the governments efforts with millions of dollars earmarked for Women-in-Development programs that morphed into Womens Empowerment and can now be encountered under the rubric of Gender Equity. Not much is visible in terms of outcomes. The World Banks $8 billion Social Action Program that had womens development as a major component failed to achieve its objectives according to its own evaluation. In 2010, the government launched $40 million USAID-funded Gender Equity Program. The impact is hard to discern four years after the funding ended despite many trainings on womens empowerment. Its like water on sand, normal for the fate of piecemeal activities spearheaded by donors. How can the situation for Pakistani women be improved? How can the horrible normal be displaced? How can gender equity be advanced? For a starter, we could learn from the experience of doing womens development and conclude that it might need be done differently. There is ample evidence that educationfor women as well as menis crucial to changing attitudes and behaviors. Peoples faith in the ability of state systems to redress wrongs and provide justice is also important. These are the basic rights of citizens. These are not available to citizens of Pakistan. In such a scenario what can feminist discussions and gender equity trainings do? On this Womens International Day, I find myself wondering about these brave women and their place in the celebrations of womens achievements. My hero is Surraiya Begum, a feminist of sorts who pushed her way to sit uninvited at the decision table and leaned-in. The little sixteen-year-old Rani deserves credit as well. She had to go off where her family decided to send her, but she went with henna on her hands, bells on her feet, and flowers in her hair. She went with the expectation of full meals for herselfa rarity in her fathers housein exchange for the hopeful possibility of producing sons for the family she was made a part of. All of them struggle on without support or acknowledgement. by Shawn Crawford In 1987, Anderson University, an Evangelical school in Indiana, acquired 140 works by the artist Warner Sallman, including Head of Christ. You may have never heard of Sallman, but in terms of sheer sales and presence, his Head of Christ makes him the most popular 20th Century artist in America. Exponentially more popular than Warhol or Wyeth. If you are a Boomer or Gen X Evangelical, Head of Christ provided the definitive image of Jesus, in a way that you can never shake. At my house, this was the only art hanging on the wall. Many of my friends could say the same. One of the wealthier families in our church also had a copy of Sallmans Christ at Hearts Door, with a heavy gilt frame and one of those fancy lights attached at the top to better illuminate Jesus trying to get in. The painting has obvious echoes to William Holman Hunts The Light of the World without thePre-Raphaelite theatrics. Our Jesus did not wear a cape. And that beard needs a trim. As a freshman in college I learned Hunt had also painted The Awakening Conscience, a painting so erotic to my sheltered sensibilities I could not reconcile the two. I also stared at the reproduction in my British literature anthology for hours on end. If you are wondering just how ubiquitous Sallmans picture is, over 500 million copies have been sold since he painted it in 1940. Thats enough for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. with plenty left for Justin Trudeau to pass out to his disillusioned base. Oh pretty, pretty Justin. The obvious question, why is it so popular? owes something to the Victorian borrowings from Hunt and Sallmans training as a commercial artist at the Art Institute of Chicago. Paul V. Marshall, while a professor at Yale, remembers someone juxtaposing Sallmans picture with the Breck Girl and suddenly understanding the appeal: That was an epiphany for me. You have to take your enlightenment where you can get it. For Evangelicals, I think one of the appeals of Head of Christ is that its just the head of Christ. We couldnt figure out how to deal with bodies, especially divine ones. So no shirtless Jesus, no bloody Jesus, no Jesus with naughty bits suited us just fine. If we all could have been disembodied heads, the world would have been a simpler, holier place. And that hair was to die for. Halfway over the ear was the limit of how far a boys hair could wander before whispers started in the youth group and parents contemplated an intervention. I circumvented this prohibition by going vertical; I got a perm and sported an enormous ginger fro. Righteous on so many levels. Handsome, white, otherworldly, Sallmans Jesus evokes the nostalgia and sentimentality that would come to dominate Evangelical thinking. Like Doris Day, we wanted our savior in soft-focus, and we desired all of existence to order itself perfectly while we gazed heavenward. In grade school, an art mobile came to town. We walked into a semi-trailer, and the length of one wall contained a reproduction of Picassos Guernica. The searing images protesting the Spanish Civil War and its violence overwhelmed me. The guide explained the origins of the painting, and we heard the story of a Gestapo officer entering Picassos apartment in Paris during WWII. Guernica was hanging there. The officer asked, Did you do that? and Picasso replied, No, you did. At the public library, I scoured the shelves for books about Picasso and also became enthralled by surrealism and da Vinci. The Head of Christ would never look quite the same to me. The Club for Growth finds Betos white innocence deeply problematic. Photo: Club for Growth via YouTube Donald Trumps allies have a message for the people of Iowa: Check Betos privilege. Beto ORourke is not (yet) an official candidate for the Democratic Partys 2020 nomination. But that hasnt stopped Republicans from buying airtime in the Hawkeye State to attack the former Texas congressman from the left. This week, Iowa TV viewers will be treated to a two-minute ad titled Pedigree, in which the Club for Growth expresses its outrage over the deeply problematic notion that Beto ORourke is the new Barack Obama. Specifically, the anti-tax group paints ORourke as the poster child for white male entitlement. In the spots telling, ORourke has spent his whole life falling steadily upward, as his race and class privileges transformed his failures into learning experiences. Obama and ORourke both earned undergraduate degrees at Columbia University, the narrator allows, but Obama went on to become the first African American editor of the Harvard Law Review, breaking barriers. Beto crashed into them; causing a collision while driving drunk, then fleeing the scene to avoid accountability. His charges were dropped as people of color languished behind bars for far less. Obama organized poor communities in Chicago, the conservative group notes (with affected admiration); ORourke let his wifes billionaire real-estate developer dad buy him a city council seat then, he voted to demolish a poor Hispanic community to make way for his father-in-laws downtown development projects. The ad concludes by casting the very concept of ORourkes presidential campaign as an expression of dudebro entitlement, asking why it is that narrowly losing statewide races didnt turn Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum into contenders. With a charmed life like Betos, the narrator explains, you can never really lose. Its a shrill little number. And in places, the ad betrays its authors contempt for their target audience; not least, by presuming that the most painfully woke pundits on the internet speak for the Democratic primary electorate, writ large. And yet, you cant say the Club for Growth doesnt have a point. It is hard to imagine someone who wasnt a (handsome) rich white guy evading charges for DWIs, getting his billionaire father-in-law to bankroll his political ambitions, and then casting his failed Senate campaign as a qualification for the White House. Still, if the substance of the Club for Growth ad could damage ORourke, the fact of its existence just might bolster him. Recent polling suggests a majority of Democratic primary voters want, above all, a candidate who will maximize their partys chances of evicting Donald Trump from the White House. By trying to kneecap ORourke before hes even entered the race, the GOP has tacitly signaled that they are afraid of the Texan. And in interviews with Politico, conservative operatives made this fear explicit: The decision to go after ORourke, whose spokesman didnt respond to a request for comment, reflects a fear that he would mobilize the millennial and suburban voters who powered the Democratic 2018 House takeover and imperil Trumps reelection. Republicans would be at risk of losing Texas if ORourke is the Democratic standard bearer, said Club for Growth President David McIntosh. McIntosh said his organization recently conducted a survey of battleground states and found ORourke running narrowly behind the president. An ORourke nomination, he warned, could complicate the electoral fortunes of Republicans up and down the ballot in 2020. We watched what he did in Texas in the race against Cruz and realized his potential within the Democratic primary system is enormously larger than what people are giving him credit for right now. We realized, here is a real potential threat because if he is the nominee then Texas suddenly is in play, McIntosh said. Politicos reporting suggests the GOP intends to meddle in the 2020 Democratic primary, early and often, as they recognize a prerequisite for reelecting their unpopular president is to have a Democratic nominee who will be as hated as Hillary Clinton was in 2016. Beyond ORourke, conservative operatives are also preparing to spotlight Joe Biden and Kamala Harriss heretical records on criminal justice, as a means of dampening liberal enthusiasm for their candidacies. ORourke, meanwhile, is apparently on the cusp of declaring his candidacy. Although he has yet to make a pilgrimage to early primary states or build up a campaign infrastructure, the New York Times reports the ex-congressman is moving toward a 2020 run. Whether Betos campaign gets defined by the Club for Growths message (that hes a lightweight coasting on unearned advantages) or its meta-message (that his exceptionally competitive performance in Texas has Republicans terrified of his appeal with independents) may well determine his fate. by Dwight Furrow It is fashionable to say that great wine is made in the vineyard. There is a lot of truth to that slogan but in fact wine is made by a complex assemblage with various factors influencing the final product. Last month I argued that the wine quality revolution in the U.S. was a result of a fascination with the French image of wine, new technology, a focus on varietal expression, and the benefits of California sun that enabled grapes to ripen more consistently. However, an additional factor influencing wine quality is the feedback from wine critics who influence consumer tastes as well as production styles. How much do critics influence wine styles and how is that influence transmitted? Any discussion of the influence of wine critics must start with the iconic Robert Parker who is widely credited with rousting wine production from its complacent slumber in the early 1980s. Yet, he is also widely blamed, rightly or wrongly, for making wine more homogeneous and less interesting by (1) encouraging more alcoholic, riper wines that lacked nuance while (2) introducing a scoring system for wine judging that made wine more accessible to consumers by suppressing its complexity. Regardless of which side of this fence youre on, Parker was no doubt extraordinarily influential, and its worth looking at the sources of that influence to better understand how wine styles change. Parkers main innovation was to change the authority structure of wine criticism. Prior to Parkers emergence in 1978, most wine writing was performed by people who were in the wine trade and was disseminated through newspapers and magazines such as Gourmet, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker. Parker, a lawyer by training and a wine lover, accused wine writers of being in cahoots with producers leading to complacent winemaking with little input from consumers. As he reports in an interview: When I started in 1978, there was little competition. The British dominated wine writing. But most of these writers were in the wine business. They were never truly objective. I was influenced by Ralph Nader and by attending law school during the Watergate era. I would be there for the consumeragainst corruption or conflict of interest. It caught on with my generationa consumer approach to wine, in contrast to the British approach. Truth be told, it was not only the British writers who had a financial interest in the wines they wrote about. Although there were exceptions such as the journalist Frank Prial at the NY Times, most of the other celebrated American wine writersthe Russian/ American Alexis Lichine, the legendary Frank Schoonmaker, the LA Times critic, Robert Lawrence Balzer, and Darrell Corti among many otherswere wine merchants who also wrote about wine. Of course, merchants are entitled to write the wines they sell but we cant expect objectivity out of such an arrangement. Furthermore, especially in the relatively small wine world of the mid 20th century focused mainly on a few regions in France, merchants and producers depended on each other for their business success and maintained personal relationships built over many years. There was little incentive to bite the hand that feeds or for the merchant/critics to express strong disapproval with producers. After all, there were only so many places to sell wine and only a limited number of places from which merchants could get their supply. Thus, producers could effectively police tasting practices and slap down any attempt to taste outside the box. Authority rested with producers and their spokespersons and the legitimacy of that writing was based on personal relationships. The readers were informed by someone on the inside, in the know, and the readers trust was based on those connections which the writer fostered. Robert Parker was not part of that cloister when he established his subscriber-based newsletter, The Wine Advocate, in 1978. He had no financial interest in the wines he wrote about and had fewer incentives to submit to policing by the producers. He disrupted that incestuous connection between producer and writer; it was his reputation for independence that was the key to his success. (Whether he maintained that independence throughout his career is a matter of some dispute.) As Parkers subscriber base and his influence grew, the merchant-writer/producer assemblage loses authority to an outsider who, it should be emphasized, also possessed tasting skill, a prodigious memory for wine, and the charisma to effectively communicate his skill and authority. The immediate result of this shift in authority was that new wines or wines that had been previously ignored were able to get publicity. Getting out from under the policing of the producers enabled Parker and the other critics who followed his model to more readily influence nascent trends. With this new publication model for wine reviews, he need only please his subscribers who were likely more adventurous than a general newspaper or magazine audience anyway. Thus, creative tastinga mode of appreciation that is alive to new developmentsbecomes permissible and expected. The second innovation introduced by Parker was his system of wine scoring. The Parker scoring system was a 100-point system modeled after the grading system found in U.S. schools. In reality it is a 50 point system. Wines start out with 50 points and he then adds points for merit15 points for the intensity, complexity and cleanliness of aromas, 20 points for flavor which includes balance, depth and length, and 15 points for overall quality and potential for aging. Although Parkers is not the only system of wine scoring available, it is the one most widely adopted in the U.S. and its appeal is obvious. It was a handy reference for the burgeoning market of busy, middle class consumers that did not require they know anything about producers, regions, or varietals. Of equal importance, the score lends itself to nonverbal communication. When I bring a wine to a dinner party, Im unlikely to bring tasting notes, and reporting them to the assembled (presumably non-geek) guests would, in any case, be tedious and invite ridicule. By contrast, reporting the score is instantly recognizable not as a descriptive statement but as a quality talisman that instantly confers importance on the wine. No doubt it misleadingly reduces the complexity of wine to a single dimension, but its utility as a communicative device has it firmly entrenched in wine culture as a marker of quality. The significance of Parkers disruptions is that, from this point on, all wines, to be looked upon favorably, must meet an independent standard that is no longer rooted in tradition. The origins of a wine no longer matterit is the judgment of independent experts armed with independent criteria that determines quality. The third line of influence was his alleged preference for ripeness and wines that were powerful and overtly hedonistic. There is no doubt that he advocated greater ripeness and enjoyed wines that were powerful and often flamboyant. However, I think his influence in this regard is often exaggerated since there are other factors that also played an important role in this change of style. The move to riper grapes and modern vineyard techniques was already in the works in France in the 1950s via the influence of prodigious researcher Emile Peynaud, Professor of Oenology at the University of Bordeaux. Furthermore, alcohol levels didnt substantially increase until several years after Parker becomes established, and the trend toward higher alcohol was initiated in new world wines, especially the U.S. and Australia, not in the French wines to which he devoted the most attention in his reviews. In fact, Parker continued to prefer the wines of Bordeaux, despite the fact that Bordeauxs climate is not conducive to consistent ripening. Sociology has long rejected the view that single, charismatic opinion leaders explain new trends which require visibility that extends well beyond the reach of one person and his team. I suspect the impetus driving the new world style of riper, more hedonistic wines with higher alcohol was the result of the natural terroir of the sun-drenched, new world wine regions that winemakers increasingly chose to express. They did so because of increased demand for these wines by a public under the sway of wines romantic image. While Parkers influence among connoisseurs was growing, much wine criticism was appearing in lifestyle magazines such as the Wine Spectator which began publishing in 1976 and the Wine Enthusiast, beginning in 1988, both of which appealed to a broader audience than the newsletters and put an emphasis on wine as a luxury product. When we imported the French image of wine, we imported the notion of wine as a symbol of luxury, heritage, romance, and the good life. The democratization of wine as a middle class symbol of aspiration was reinforced by a beverage that was lush, plump and sexy. Its easier to sell wine as a symbol of luxury when it has the texture of velvet and tastes of chocolate and nectar-like fruit. The promotion of this style of wine required exposure that extended far beyond the serious connoisseurs and industry trade people who subscribed to Parkers newsletter. Thus, the importance of Parkers influence was not that it led to a new style of winehe was only one of many factors contributing to new world styles. Instead, his influence began the process of reorganizing the culture of wine. Prior to the emergence of the independent critic armed with numerical scores, wine was thoroughly a cultural product woven into the social, historical, and agricultural fabric of the region in which it was produced and consumed. The shift in authority ushered in by this new style of criticism begins a process of what some social theorists call deterritorialization. (The term originates in the collaboration of French thinkers Deleuze and Guattari) The term only tangentially refers to geography. It is a process of de-contextualization in which something becomes isolated from its milieu and, freed from its function there, becomes available to form new relations. In the process, it begins to shed its identity losing the meanings and attachments formed in its original context. In other words, after the emergence of the independent critic who becomes the conscience of an international trading regime, the identity of a Barolo, for instance, is no longer defined by the common taste references of the people in the hilltop villages of Piemonte and their customers, and the standards for how it should be judged are no longer exclusively defined from within that relationship. A Barolo is now to be judged on a continuum that compares it with Napa Cabernet, right bank Bordeaux, and Shiraz from Australia. Its identity is stretched over multiple comparison classes and influenced by people who lack the historical and cultural resonances of its original context. Even in the short run before this shift in authority can influence winemaking, the meaning and significance of the flavors and textures are viewed from a new perspective contributing expressive code to the new relata and stealing code from them as well. The context of evaluation is no longer ones tradition but other wines from far and beyond. This disruption of local networks and local knowledge in the wine world had to happen. As global markets opened up and wine became more in demand as a beverage for the well-connected middle class, local networks and local knowledge were not up to the communicative task that was required to sell wine. If Parker had not existed we would have had to invent him. But to what degree do these changes reduce variation and complexity and contribute to greater homogeneity? The story of deterritorialization mentioned above is only part of the story. Anything that begins to shed its identity and open itself up to new relations is in danger of being captured by those new influences, reterritorializing around a new set of relationships. The move to establish an independent tribunal for evaluating wines disrupts local traditions and provides impetus for change, but that impetus can be slowed if the parameters of the new set of relationships are too constrained and not allowed to proliferate. Parker had all the advantages of being the first to solidify disinterestedness as a condition of authority, and for a significant stretch of time he sucked up all the critical oxygen in the room. Regardless of how skilled or eclectic he was, he represented only one perspective and his outsized influence crowded out other voices, although eventually those new voices were heard. In time, Parkers considerable influence began to shape how wineries conceptualized their wines. Some winemakers likely began chasing higher scores by making the wines they thought Parker would like rather than the wines they wanted to make. Yet some of the tendency to make similar wines was part of a natural process. When something is put in a new comparison class it inevitably pulls in these other influences. That is the point of deterritorialization. But that flow of affectivity can just as easily overwhelm what was originally distinctive about the objectchange effects both the distinctive and the hackneyed. If the new, independent standards and the sharing of techniques and methods across boundaries fail to acknowledge an organic development that preserves what is distinctive about a wine or wine region, homogeneity and mimicry can result from neglect rather than conscious intent. This is the source of the charge that so-called Parkerization led to an international style in which some wines seemed to taste the same regardless of where they came from. The problem is inherent in the development of independent standards which can shave off the rough edges of what is being evaluated in the interests of getting them to fit a mold. The problem of homogeneity is surely exacerbated by the context in which wines are often evaluateddozens of wines tasted over the course of a long tasting session with little time given to each wine. Intense, powerful wines are likely to show better in such tastings. Nevertheless, the use of quantitative measures in wine scoring is another source of worries about homogeneity. The suggestion is that the reduction of a wines complexity to a quantitative score inevitably misses the nuances that make a wine distinctive. However, this is true only if the score is in part a cardinal rather than a purely ordinal ranking. Any scoring system will be an ordinal ranking. A 90 point wine is in some sense better than an 85 point wine. The crucial question is how better is cashed out. The beauty of an ordinal ranking system is that the numbers can mean almost anything you want them to mean. In other words, the symbol 90 means of greater rank than the symbol 85. But what 90 or 85 refer togreater with respect to what quantityis up to the user. It is a very flexible system of ranking and highly deterritorializing because the identity of what is being ranked need not be specified. However, the way wine scores are typically used is not a pure ordinal system. Cardinality is introduced because the meaning of the score is specified in terms of a variety of dimensions of a wine. As noted above, Parker was measuring factors such as complexity, intensity, length, ageing potential, etc. The wine scoring system was an attempt to codify particular features of wine as markers of quality and thus begins to introduce a degree of standardization into the process of wine evaluation. Parkers system was only weakly codifiedhe did not specify precisely the relative value of the factors he was measuring within the various categories he used to assign points. There was ample room for judgment to influence scores. Furthermore, different wine critics could use different criteria and weight them differently. There are no enforcement mechanisms to dictate evaluation practices among independent wine critics. However, there has been a strong tendency in the wine community to want standardized meanings across critical perspectives so they can be compared. The ideal is that wine scores should measure the intrinsic quality of a wine and competent critics should largely agree about its quality. Notoriously, critics disagree widely about particular wines; the ideal of universal agreement is about as achievable as global justice and Christmas ponies for everyone, but its value remains an underlying assumption of much criticism of wine scores. (The question of why we make this assumption is a topic for another day) But we should keep in mind that this attempt to rigidly codify wine quality is strongly reterritorializing as it cancels differences that dont fit the moldthe upshot of a too rigidly codified account of wine quality would surely be greater homogeneity and fewer variations. Thus, the influence of Robert Parker was a mixed bag. He introduced remarkable changes in the practice of wine criticism that improved wine quality and recognized variations that previously had gone unrecognized. But the values he fosteredindependence and attempts to codify wine qualityintroduced new limitations that future wine criticism must overcome. For more on the philosophy of wine and food visit Edible Arts or consult American Foodie: Taste, Art and the Cultural Revolution by Joseph Shieber One of the philosophical tools that seems utterly obvious to me is the so-called use/mention distinction. Because it strikes me as so obvious, it is always baffling to me that people seem to have such trouble with it. Simply put, the use/mention distinction is this. Lets look at use first. In order to choose an easy case, lets say that the word Im using is a noun. If I use a noun, I utter or write the noun in order to refer to what the noun refers to. So if I write Neptune is the farthest planet from the sun in our solar system, the word Neptune in that sentence refers to the planet Neptune. If I mention a word, on the other hand, I am not using the word. Lets take the case of nouns again. If I mention the word Neptune, then Im referring to the word itself, rather than the object to which the word refers. So, for example, in the sentence Neptune isnt the only seven-letter planetary name, Im referring to the word Neptune rather than the planet Neptune. Simple, right? So why does it seem so hard for people to get it?! For example, there was the recent kerfuffle over an Augsburg University professor who, in discussing James Baldwins The Fire Next Time, had a student who quoted Baldwins use of the N-word. The professor, then, in discussing the students mentioning of the word, employed the word himself. Note: Baldwin used the word, but the professor, Phillip Adamo, did NOT; he merely mentioned the word by discussing the students quotation of Baldwin. Adamo himself was clear on this point. Hes quoted as saying I see a distinction between use and mention. To use the word, to inflict pain or harm, is unacceptable. To mention the word, in a discussion of how the word is used, is necessary for honest discourse. Ironically, however, the very article from which I take that quote a piece in Inside Higher Ed entitled Too Taboo for Class? discusses Adamos employment of the N-word in a ham-handed way that erases the use/mention distinction. Indeed, the first sentence in the tag-line under the title is, Professor is suspended for USING the N-word in class (emphasis mine). Now, although I dont think that Adamo should have been punished at all for mentioning the word, I actually think that hes wrong when he says, at the end of the brief quote, that mentioning the N-word the actual six-letter word that begins with n and ends with r is necessary for honest discourse. In fact, all thats necessary for honest discourse is some way of referring to the word so that we know which word were talking about. And to do that, the euphemistic N-word, though inelegant, is perfectly serviceable. And when it comes to actually employing the word itself, I agree with Jelani Cobb, the New Yorker staff writer and Columbia University journalism professor, who is cited at the end of the Inside Higher Ed piece as suggesting that the potential downsides of actually saying it are large enough, and the likelihood of derailing conversation high enough, that its not worth saying even if you have the most purely pedagogical motives. Thinking about why Cobb is right is helpful, and may be useful in explaining why, though the use/mention distinction is so simple, its nevertheless so tricky. It seems to me that the problem is that, even when you emphasize that you are merely mentioning the word, rather than using it, the violent, racist echoes of the word are too loud to ignore. Heres one way that Ive found helpful in making sense of this property that certain words have of being morally loaded, even when someone explicitly states that they dont intend to employ those words in a way that carries their morally loaded connotations. It involves the notion of quasi-realism, coined by the philosopher Simon Blackburn. Roughly, quasi-realism is a position regarding the nature of moral beliefs or moral claims. In order to describe it, lets first look at a view that is VERY different from quasi-realism, a naive moral realism. According to this naive moral realism, there are moral facts just like there are other sorts of facts, like facts about whether grass is green, or water is wet, or fire is hot. And since there are moral facts, we can have moral beliefs or make moral claims, and what makes those beliefs or claims true is that the beliefs (or claims) line up with the facts. So on the naive realist view moral beliefs or claims work exactly the same way as other beliefs or claims. My belief that grass is green or my claim Water is wet is true just in case grass really is green or water really is wet. And similarly, my belief that torturing puppies is wrong is true precisely because torturing puppies really is wrong. The naive realist view certainly is admirably simple. Unfortunately, for many philosophers, its also simply too naive. Many philosophers just dont see how there could be any such things as moral facts, nor do they think that speech acts that look, superficially, like moral factual claims are actually claims at all, when you drill down to their underlying logic. Lets call the philosophers who are skeptical about naive moral realism for these reasons moral anti-realists. The beauty of Blackburns quasi-realism is that he shares all of the anti-realists qualms about naive realism. However, Blackburn thinks that he can both deny that there really are moral facts AND still talk as if there are such facts. The reason Blackburn thinks that he can do this is that people treat discussions about moral facts as expressions of moral views. So, suppose I said something like, Torturing puppies isnt really wrong. People would think Im a monster! And my attempts to reassure them that I was simply trying to make a point about the metaphysics of morality probably wouldnt be terribly helpful. So suppose, like Blackburn (roughly!), you think that expressions of moral condemnation are really just expressions of negative emotions associated with the things youre condemning. According to the metaphysics of this view, what youre really doing when you say something like Torturing puppies is wrong is that youre saying something roughly like Torturing puppies: BOO! In other words, youre not in fact making a claim at all, but expressing an emotion. What makes Blackburns view quasi-realism, though, is that Blackburn thinks that its perfectly acceptable for anti-realists to talk as if realism were true. Thats because claims like Its true that torturing puppies is wrong or Its a fact that torturing puppies is wrong or Torturing puppies really is wrong are themselves understood as expressions of negative emotions associated with torturing puppies. Even though these are claims about language or about facts, theyre taken to be claims about the actions that are the subject of that language or those facts. And, conversely, if you were to try (correctly, in Blackburns view) to state the metaphysical facts by saying Its not true that torturing puppies is wrong or Theres no fact of the matter about whether torturing puppies is wrong or Its not the case that torturing puppies really is wrong, then people would think youre a moral monster with no regard for cute, little puppies, rather than simply an analytic philosopher. And again, thats because although youre trying to talk about a CLAIM the claim that torturing puppies is wrong people take you to be talking about the action that is the subject of that claim, the act of torturing puppies. We dont need to get too deep into the details of Blackburns theory. For our purposes, what weve done so far is enough. It seems to me that Blackburns theory of quasi-realism can be useful in discussing cases like Professor Adamos employment of the N-word. As the quote from Jelani Cobb noted, the problem with employing the N-word is that it risks derailing the conversation in which it appears even when the speaker has the purest of motives. The puzzle, though, is why that should be the case particularly when someone, like Professor Adamo, explicitly notes that they are MENTIONING the word, rather than using it. In the study of the pragmatics of language there is a phenomenon known as cancellability that refers to the possibility to retract some implications of what one literally says by explicitly noting that you dont intend your listener to draw those implications. Suppose, for example, somebody asks me, Is there a gas station nearby? If I say Yes, the implication is that not only is the gas station nearby, but it is also open and currently selling gas. I can cancel that implication, however, by saying, Yes, but theyre replacing the underground gas storage tanks, so you cant get gas there. What Blackburns discussion of quasi-realism suggests is that morally charged discussions have implied consequences that are often difficult to cancel. If I say Its not true that torturing puppies is wrong even if my intent is only to make an abstruse philosophical point about the fact (assuming it is a fact) that no moral claims are factual its difficult to keep my listener from attributing to me evil intent toward cute, cuddly puppies. Thats because when you make a claim like Its not true that torturing puppies is wrong, it sounds suspiciously like youre saying that its permissible to torture puppies even if thats not in fact what youre saying at all. I think something similar is going on in the N-word case. When someone like Professor Adamo even mentions the N-word, their listeners assume wrongly, in this case that the good professor is implying that its permissible to use the N-word. And because of the charged nature of the notions surrounding the word, its not easily possible for the professor to cancel those implications, even when he attempts to make clear that he is merely mentioning the word for pedagogical purposes. In a week that includes St. Patrick's Day, you can expect there to be a lot of drinking. In addition to an Irish mixology class and a St. Paddy's Day bar crawl, you can also drink all the wine at Taste of Yountville or grab a cocktail at the new Virgin Hotel's Commons Club. With booze comes foodthis week in the form of a pig roast and a specially priced midweek tasting at Eight Tables. Dance it all off at a Daft Brunch or a Sunday afternoon block party. Need something mellower? Head to a talk about holistic skincare, see Chip Conley expound the virtues of the modern elder, and see The Sleeping Beauty at SF Ballet. Have a great week! Monday, March 11th See on Instagram Town Hall with Mayor London Breed When: 6pm to 8pm Where: SF LGBT Center, 1800 Market St. (Duboce Triangle) The first in a series of town halls planned with the mayor this year, this neighborhood gathering welcomes residents of districts 5 and 8 for a convo on all things community. The event will also be live-streamed on YouTube. // Register in advance at eventbrite.com; and submit your questions at sfmayor.org/townhall. The Bachelor Finale Watch Party When: 7:30pm to 10:30pm Where: The Brixton, 2140 Union St. (Marina), brixtonsf.com Two words: guilty pleasure. Indulge it at The Brixton's special viewing party tonight with complimentary cheese boards from Cypress Grove, roses for all the ladies in the house, half-price bottles of wine, and J.J. Pfister vodka and gin cocktails. Be on the look out for appearances from previous cast members. // RSVP on eventbrite.com; reservations for tables are available on opentable.com. Pop-up Eats When: 7pm to 11pm Where: Last Rites, 718 14th St. (Castro), lastritesbar.com Stop by tiki hot spot Last Rites for some rum-infused concoctions and bites from weekly pop-up Feed Me Chula, with a mix of Mexican and Basque flavors. Think eats like deviled eggs, flatbreads, and tostadas. Menu is priced a la carte. Tuesday, March 12th See on Instagram Knit & Crochet Day When: 11am to 6pm Where: SCRAP, 801 Toland St. (Bayview), scrap-sf.org There are those of you out there who are obsessed with SCRAPthis one's for you. Head over to the Bayview's beloved junk store today for the first-ever Knit & Crochet Day where the price of admission ($15) includes two skeins of hand-dyed golden alpaca and wool blend yarn, hooks, knitting needles, and the attention of an instructor who will show you what the heck to do with all that. BYO snacks. // Tickets are available at eventbrite.com. Slurp! When: 5:30pm to 9:45pm, Tuesday through Friday Where: Hell's Ramen, 2193 Mission St. (Mission), hellsramen.com Like it hot? Head to the Mission for a brand-new ramen spot focused on the fiery versions of the stuff and experimenting with different ingredients and flavors. Expect a rotation of non-ramen Japanese eats including karaage, curry, gyoza, and octopus balls. Eat at Eight Tables for a song. When: Tuesdays through Thursdays Where: Eight Tables, 8 Kenneth Rexroth Lane (China Town), eighttables.com Find Eight Tables' $225 10-course meal a bit steep? Pop in mid-week for special pricing ($175) on a seven course dinner. Wednesday, March 13th See on Instagram The Sleeping Beauty When: 7:30pm, through Sunday Where: War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Avenue (Civic Center), sfballet.org Enjoy this timeless fairytale with a ballet twist, fabulous sets, and a beautiful symphonic score. The performance also includes a special pre-performance interview with the artists. // Tickets ($50-$339) can be purchase on sfballet.org. Chip Conley: The Modern Elder and the Intergenerational Workplace When: 7:30pm to 9pm Where: SFJazz Center, 201 Franklin St. (Hayes Valley) Long Now Foundation cofounder and octogenarian Stewart Brand is hosting this appearance from iconic SF hotelier turned tech-ish guy Chip Conley. For those of you young ones, we have Conley to thank for the TL's Phoenix Hotel (he is cofounder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality), though these days he may be better known for his role as the more seasoned adviser to the millionaire kids at Airbnb. Tonight Conley is in the house to talk about his fifth and latest book, Wisdom @ Work: The Making of a Modern Elder. // Tickets ($25) are available at eventbrite.com. Commons Club Opens When: Open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner Where: Commons Club at Virgin Hotel, 250 Fourth St. (SoMa), virginhotels.com Commons Club has just opened up in the new Virgin Hotel, showcasing California-style food from chef Adrian Garcia, who's worked at both Quince and Benu. The menu has next-level eats like caviar bites, duck confit agnolotti, albacore tartare tostada, and an "uncommon" burger. Keep an eye out for the rooftop bar to open at the property later this year. Thursday, March 14th See on Instagram Healthy Skin Q&A with Marie Veronique + Kristina Holey When: 5pm to 7pm Where: Credo, 2136 Fillmore St. (Pacific Heights) Two superstars of the Bay Area skincare worldMarie Veronique, creator of the much-loved eponymous brand, and the cult-followed aesthetician Kristina Holeyare hanging out at Credo tonight to talk about holistic skincare. // Tickets ($30) are available at eventbrite.com; ticket price may be used toward product purchases. Laugh for a Cause When: 8pm Where: Cobb's Comedy Club, 915 Columbus Avenue (North Beach), cobbscomedy.com There's nothing better than a belly-busting laugh seshthat is, unless it's for charity. Tonight comedian Bryan Callen (from ABC's The Goldbergs and the podcast The Fighter & The Kid) plays Cobb's for a fundraiser to benefit the Greater Bay Area Make-a-Wish foundation. // Tickets ($40) are available on sfwish.ejoinme.org. Shop a CBD Store When: Open daily Where: Sidewalk Wellness, 3186 21st St. (Mission), sidewalkwellness.com Local beverage company Sidewalk Juice is getting into the CBD game. Check out this new spin-off location with CBD-focused products like oils, chocolates, coffee, bath products, and gummies. Time to stock up on some goodies. Friday, March 15th See on Instagram Whole Hog Happy Hour When: 3pm till eats run out Where: Trailblazer Tavern, 350 Mission St. (SoMa), michaelmina.net Cut out of work early and post up on the outdoor patio at Trailblazer Tavern for a traditional pig roast. You'll do build-your-own bao stuffed with kalua pig and toppings including cucumber, scallions, and sriracha hoisin sauce. Other happy hour specials like the spam musubi and maitake mushroom tempura, along with cocktails like the Lilikoi Mule, will also available. // $4 per bun, or $10/three; drinks are available for purchase a la carte. Ocean-Bound: Plastic Waste and Why We Are Bound to the Health of Our Oceans When: 6pm till late Where: The Midway, 900 Marin St. (Dogpatch), themidwaysf.com In celebration of the Midway's new multidisciplinary watery exhibit, hear a talk with environmentally conscious organizations including the Surfrider Foundation and the Oakland As; chow dinner from Luke's Lobster; watch a short film about plastic; and then, of course, cruise through the art exhibit which features multimedia works including recycled water bottle sculptures. End the night with a performance by musician Lilly Hiatt. // Tickets ($20-80) can be found on eventbrite.com. You-Choose Vinyl Happy Hour When: 5pm to 7pm Where: White Rabbit, 3138 Fillmore St. (Marina) whiterabbitsf.com You made it to the end of the week! Reward yourself with a music-infused happy hour where you (and other guests) get to choose the tracks. Explore an awesome vinyl collection (classics like Jefferson Airplane to today hits from the likes of G-Eazy), and sip on $3 beers, $5 rose, and a $7 specialty cocktail. Saturday, March 16th See on Instagram Taste of Yountville When: 11am to 5pm Where: Downtown Yountville, yountvillelive.com Head to the culinary heart of Napa, Yountville, for an all-day tasting extravaganza with some of Wine Country's best restaurantsthink Bottega, La Toque, and Acacia House. Plus, sip delicious wine, of course. There will also be cooking demonstrations and performances by Grammy-nominated artists. // Tickets ($195) can be purchased on eventbrite.com. St. Patty's Day Bar Crawl When: 1pm to 6pm Where: Starts at the Dorian, 2001 Chestnut St. (Marina), doriansf.com Drink your way through the Marina, starting at the Dorian and then heading to Palm House, Brixton, Jackson, Hollow Cow, Sabrosa, Blue Light, Del Mar, Bar None, White Rabbit, and Silver Clouds. You can expect plenty of drink specials like St. Patrick's frose, mini car bombs, and Irish mules. If you manage to hit them all (and survive), the luck of the Irish is clearly on your side. // Tickets ($15) can be found on eventbrite.com. Daft Brunch When: 1pm to 7pm Where: The Great Northern, 119 Utah St. (SoMa), thegreatnorthernsf.com Get your day-party on with a Daft Punkthemed brunch. Beats will be flowing to the sounds of French Touch, Disco House, and plenty of Daft Punk spun by DJ's Starfari & PZB, of course, and eats will be available for purchase. // Tickets are free with RSVPs before 2pm, and $10 after; available at eventbrite.com. It was a chilly January night and the almost-empty 31 whirred down Market Street towards the Embarcadero. It's just a quick bite to eat, I told myself. A snack, really. An appetizer, a glass of wine, and then home. Besides, it wasn't my first visit to Angler. I'd eaten there a few weeks earlier, and knew the territory. No need to go overboard. I took a seat at the bar, between a fellow from Chengdu and another from Texas, both drawn to a place whose early notoriety was no doubt inspiring shudders of envy among restaurateurs from California to the coast of Maine. The buzz, which began long before the opening in late September 2018, was not unwarranted. Angler's founder, the chef Joshua Skenes, co-founded Saison, the 10-year-old San Francisco restaurant whose wood-fire cooking has earned three Michelin stars every year since 2014. Reflecting on a dinner I had at Saison two years ago, I struggled to recall an experience that's come close in terms of the purity, subtlety, and depth of flavor. Last July, Skenes announced that his friend, the French chef Laurent Gras, would be "joining the team at Saison." Gras, it turns out, would in fact be running Saison, leaving Skenes free to work on Angler and other projects. Museum-quality taxidermy gives Angler the feel of an upscale hunting lodge. (Bonjwing Lee) A "sea life-focused restaurant," Angler employs an array of wood-fired grills and other contraptions of the sort that Skenes designed for Saison. Since Saison served a fair amount of fish, crustaceans and mollusks under Skenes' tenure, I was curious about the distinction between the two restaurants. "It all came to be from the same ethos," Skenes explained, "which is just how I like to cook and eat food." "The only difference," he continued, "is in the amount of time it takes and the cost of the products. Saison typically took more labor for each item and costs much more. I just wanted a restaurant where I could go and get great products simply prepared and have a great time doing so, without any BS. That is Angler." At Angler's bar, which serves the full menu, my neighbors were putting away serious quantities of food. To sharpen my focus, I ordered a glass of rosea pale pink and ethereally tart l'Ile de Beaute from the Corsican winery Domaine Casa Rossaand admired the artistry of the taxidermist responsible for the remarkably lifelike marlin leaping defiantly above an assortment of top-flight liquors. Nearby, a museum diorama-quality shark glared across the dining room at the mounted heads of a trio of ungulates. The upscale hunting lodge aesthetic is all Skenes, an avid hunter and fisherman who extolls the virtues of wild fish and game. Oysters are another matter, and while I've tangled with wild oysters from Scotland and Norway, if I'm eating multiples, I prefer the more delicate flavors of their cultivated cousins, especially those from Tomales Bay. Marin Miyagis were on the menu that evening. I ordered a quartet, served on ice with a tiny bowl of mignonette, and another of a smoky-sweet cocktail sauce made from tomatoes cooked over a bed of glowing embers whose temperature is regulated by hand-held fansone of the 40 or so techniques in Skenes' wood fire repertoire. Why I had just four rather than the standard half-dozen, I'm not sure, but it left a craving I imagined would be perfectly satisfied by the amberjack crudo I so fondly remembered from the previous visit. Angler calls itself a "sea life-focused" restaurant. (Bonjwing Lee) The rose was long gone, and waiting for the crudo, I sipped a deliciously dry zibibbo from the Sicilian island of Pantelleria while Angler's sound system, which specializes in '80s New Wave, pumped out INXS's "I Need You Tonight." So slide over here And give me a moment Your moves are so raw Amberjack is a lean fish, a result, perhaps, of a life spent racing through the deep on the hunt for crab and squidits favorite delicacies. Its meat is dense, and has a muscular richness that was nicely complemented by the fine sweetness of Asian pear, the citric kick of Mexican lime, and the subtle tang of some cabbage that seemed to have been ever so gently fermented. At Angler, the preparation of vegetables tends to be more elaborate than that of the fish and game. Take the case of the Embered Ruby Beet that a friend and I enjoyed on the earlier visit. Cooked above a fire for three days at a very low temperature, rested in its juices for 48 hours, then grilled to order, its flavor resembled an amalgam of beet and barbecue sauce, with a hint of flame-broiled beef; its texture firm yet silken. Or the Angler Potato: cut up into paper-thin sheets, reassembled into something resembling a tuberous topographical map, then grilled, basted with butter, and served surrounded by a shallow moat of sauce seasoned with the delicately flavored washed rind cheese, Taleggio. An appetizer of pronghorn antelope, by contrast, was a study in minimalism, served a la tartare, dressed simply with egg yolk and citrus, and spiked with breadcrumbs crisped in the animal's fat. The flavor of the meat was intensely clean and pure and consequently somewhat difficult to describe, other than to say it tasted like health and vitality, and like an animal that had lived the kind of life that most of the animals we eat will never dream of. To my mind, the carbohydrate is a vital nutrient, and the longer I stayed, and strayed from the original plan, the beguiling whispers of Angler's Parker House Rollstheir browned and burnished tops swelling above the edges of handsome copper panscrescendoed to a siren song. Soon enough I was tearing into a phalanx of the things, but not before anointing them with loads of butter seasoned with seaweed, whose rich, umami flavor recalled a similarly tasty compound whipped up by the Saison alumnus Matthew Kammerer at the Harbor House Inn. Energized by the bread, I glanced at the vegetables section of the menu, where a favorite mushroomhen of the woodswas headlining. I hailed the bartender, and while I was at it, tacked on a spontaneously fermented nebbiolo from the Piedmontese winery Cascina Val del Prete. With 21 labels to choose from, Angler's by-the-glass list holds more than enough adventure for a night, or several. The bottle list, dominated by France but punctuated with intriguing selections from regions elsewhere in the Old and New World, runs north of 150 pages. The level of wine expertise among the staff is proportionally impressive. In addition to its wine director and director of wine programs, Angler employs the services of four sommeliers, one of whom proved to be as adept at filleting a petrale sole as he was versed in the finer points of Mosel riesling. The hen of the woods was a brilliant piece of work: seasoned with a concoction called Angler Saucewhich seems closely related to the Saison Sauce Skenes once described as "an elixir of seaweeds, little local fish, and Aspergillus oryzae"then cooked to a smoky succulence. Pretenses of self-restraint long abandoned, I closed out the night properly, with a Louis Michel Premier Cru Chablis, and some more sea life. When I asked Skenes about his preference for that term rather than "seafood," he replied with a question, and answer, of his own. "All the life in the oceans is just for our consumption? Of course not. We have to be aware of our impacts in the world and try our best to help in our own small ways." Like the crudi before it, the fishstriped bass from Southern Californiawas deliciously understated, seasoned with salt and pepper, fried to an outer crispness and an inner juiciness, and garnished with a little fried onion. Its simplicity spoke to a confidence on the part of Skenes, who takes issue with certain aspects of our food culture, and feels that "we shouldn't be looking for every course to be some magical proposition." It's a point worth considering, particularly since much of what passes for magic these days is chicanery, but when it comes to taste, true magic can take many forms, whether that of a humble root vegetable slowly transformed by the heat of a fire, the meat of an animal that lived as animals should, or an exquisitely fresh fish flavored by nothing more than salt, pepper, and the sea. // Angler, 132 The Embarcadero, anglerrestaurants.com Businesswoman Martha Stewart and AARP Chief Communications and Marketing Officer Martha Boudreau kicked off a series of talks at the South by Southwest (SXSW) music and media conference Monday with a lively discussion on technology, marketing and Stewarts role for nearly 40 years as a TV personality, publisher, e-commerce maven and, now, social media star. From the stage of a packed house at Stubbs Bar-B-Q, the two Marthas celebrated the particular joys of life after 50 a time for exploration, inspiration and innovation, they said. What I love about your approach at this stage in life is that you celebrate the new, Boudreau said, and Stewart agreed that at age 77, shes as busy growing and learning as shes ever been. Age for her is a mind-set. Youre aging the moment youre born, Stewart said. Thats what aging is. Its just growing up. Its living. And as we get older, we get more powerful. Age is powerful. Boudreau noted that 100 million U.S. consumers are over age 50, and the age group is the most economically robust cohort worldwide, generating $7.6 trillion in annual economic activity. The longevity economy, as its become known, would be akin to the third largest economy in the world, behind the U.S. and China. More than half of 65-year-olds are working, and it is an audience hungry for technology. Consumers over 50 are considered the most media-connected population of any age group. Stewart has always been an early adopter. Martha Stewart Living magazine is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year (Im planning a huge party because I want everybody who ever worked for me to be there, she said), and she now has a huge presence online, with 3.72 million followers on Twitter, around 3 million across two Instagram accounts, and 2.4 million on Facebook. Her latest TV hit, Martha & Snoops Potluck Dinner Party, which she hosts with rapper Snoop Dogg, is heading into its third season on VH1. Her latest venture: health care for aging populations. In June, she will open the second location of the Martha Stewart Center for Living at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan. The outpatient ward focuses on a holistic approach to geriatric health care that looks at everything from physical health to investing, spiritual and emotional support, and personal happiness. The goal is to help older people stay in their homes as long as possible. It is terribly important not to demean the future life of an older person by putting them in a room in a nursing home, she said. Patients heal much faster when they stay at home. On stage at SXSW, Stewart was as true to her brand as ever and characteristically outspoken. On technology: Older folks shouldnt just give up on tech. I gave my mother at 85 a computer course, and she learned how to do email, investigate on the internet and more. She drove her Volvo until she was 93. Getting older is not about giving in and giving up. On her bucket list: I dont believe in bucket lists. I have a list of things I havent done yet and places I havent been yet. Travel and sightseeing is so important. You get ideas. You get inspired. I want to take my grandchildren to western China, since they speak Chinese, and to Mongolia to see the eagles. I want to go on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, too, and I havent been to Petra yet. On the importance of saying no: A blender company wanted an endorsement to make juice, and I said no. Would you use this blender to make juice? No. If youre making juice, you use a juicer, not a blender. You have to read the fine print all the time. On her electric Tesla vehicle: I love electric cars. Its so nice never going to a gas station. So important to try out and learn about and embrace and discover as we age. I love my Tesla, but Elon [Musk] should keep his mouth shut and just make cars. Talking about the omnipresent white Apple earbuds at a festival like SXSW: I will not put those things in my ears. Hearing is important. All the senses are. As you get older, you need to protect your taste, your smell, your touch, your sight and your hearing. As the discussion wrapped, Boudreau asked whether anything about Stewarts brand has changed as her audience has aged to 50 and beyond. Stewart said, When I think about what the customer needs and wants, I remember I am that customer. Ive always put myself right at the center. I live a complicated, busy, frustrating, sometimes angst-ridden life. I do so much every day, but so many people are doing the same thing. Life is complicated. Its important to make things a little simpler and a little more beautiful, no matter what age you are. Photo: Luis Robayo/AFP/Getty Images On Twitter, Florida Senator Marco Rubio who has been called the architect of the American plan to intervene in Venezuela has been very concerned about the political and humanitarian crisis, tweeting about the state of the country some 16 times over the weekend. The number would be higher, but Rubio deleted a post from Sunday in which he claimed that a transformer at the German Dam in Bolivar State exploded, causing blackouts that reportedly killed critically ill patients. One journalist covering the power struggle in Venezuela responded with an embarrassing correction, explaining that a transformer did explode in Bolivar, but that it was not in a dam, much less german. My name is German Dam, I am one of the journalists who published the information. Electricity outages are fairly common is Venezuela critics cite years of official corruption and intermittent infrastructure updates for the problem. Last week, however, President Nicolas Maduro claimed that outages were caused by the electric war announced and directed by American imperialism against our people. In January, the Trump administration officially backed opposition figure Juan Guaido as the countrys legitimate leader, and last month, Trump said that all options are open regarding U.S. intervention. Rubio, the senator for the state where almost half of the U.S.-Venezuelan population lives, has taken a hawkish, interventionist stance in the leadership crisis in Venezuela, and was even drawn into the controversy over the power outages: Venezuelan Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez claimed that Rubio was involved in a cyberattack on the operating system of a different hydroelectric dam that blew up over the weekend. Rubio, not above an online beef, called Rodriguez the Baghdad Bob of Caracas. Class B Boys: With plenty of returning talent, De Smet eyes repeat Headed into the 2021-22 season, the De Smet Bulldogs earned the top spot in the media preseason poll. The Bulldogs won the title last year. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Melania Trump, the allegedly reluctant wife of the president, mistook Australias former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop for the wife of a politician, according to a story shared by Bishop on Saturday. In front of an audience at the Adelaide Festival, Bishop who served from 2013 to 2018 as Australias equivalent of Secretary of State said that Melania thought her partner was the Foreign Minister, after President Trump began talking to him at a UN event in 2017: Melania, standing by, assumed David was the foreign minister and she said to me: Julie, will you be coming to my ladies lunch tomorrow? And I said No, Davids going to the partners lunch. She thought about that for a while, thinking: Why would Australias foreign minister come to the partners lunch? So this went on for a while until the president explained that I was the foreign minister. Since leaving the foreign minister position last year, Bishop has advocated for a huge expansion of the role women play in Australian politics. In 2013, Bishop was the only woman of a 19-member cabinet. This isnt fine, this is not completely normal, she described the situation on Saturday. In 2018, Bishop said that female members of Parliament were forced to deal with appalling behavior. It is evident that there is an acceptance of a level of behavior in Canberra that would not be tolerated in any other workplace in Australia, Bishop said. Currently, Australias Parliament is 32 percent women. Thats slightly better representation than in America, where women make up one in four senators and 23.4 percent of the House. Considering the professional company her husband keeps, Melania Trump could be forgiven for her assumption regarding Bishop and her partner: there are only five women currently in Trumps cabinet. According to the Center for American Women and Politics, Trumps cabinet lags behind the last five presidents in gender representation. Even in the Year of the Woman, the number of Republican women in the House is at a 25-year-low: of the new and returning GOP lawmakers in the midterm class, only 13 are women. As you can see in todays Albuquerque Journal, this is a great day for ethics and ethical behavior in business. Two for-profit businesses, a non-profit organization and two individuals are being recognized for earning the esteemed distinctions of being 2019 New Mexico Ethics in Business Award winners. And the awards are even more special this year, since were also celebrating the 20th anniversary of these wonderful awards and the second year of CNM being the proud stewards of the program. First, I want to congratulate the awesome award winners who are featured in todays Journal. They were nominated by their peers and had to undergo a very thorough process of ethical evaluation to emerge as this years distinguished winners. Each of them has a unique, inspiring story. But the common thread among all five is their unwavering commitment to integrity, honesty, and a culture of ethical behavior. Today, and at the New Mexico Ethics in Business Awards ceremony on April 25, we will honor and celebrate their highly appreciated contributions to ethics in our states business community. When CNM decided to step up to manage this awards program more than a year ago, we viewed it as more than just an opportunity to keep a highly regarded, once-a-year celebration of ethics alive and well in our community. As an institution of higher education with a Vision of Changing Lives, Building Community and a Core Value of Be Ethical, we saw this as an opportunity to serve our state by helping to elevate discussions related to ethics year-round. We live in an increasingly complex world, and its not always as easy as we would hope for individuals and organizations to make the ethical decision in every situation for every stakeholder. It can be very challenging at times, even for the most well-intentioned, fair-minded people. Getting some advice from sage counsel somebody who has successfully championed, modeled and nurtured a culture of ethical behavior in their organization can be a precious resource. Thats why CNM has launched an Ethics Exchange that is now available to businesses and organizations year-round. Your organization can request a former New Mexico Ethics in Business Award winner to come to your location and facilitate an informal discussion with your employees about how to advance a culture of ethics. Whether you prefer a brown-bag lunch discussion, a round-table discussion or another type of session, we will connect you with a former Ethics in Business award winner to engage you and your employees in the ethics topic of your choice. That could range from developing an ethical code; how to avoid common unethical pitfalls in business; addressing environmental concerns in business; the importance of moral leadership; embedding ethics in customer service; and many other potential topics. At CNM, were very proud to provide this new service, and we believe it will help many organizations establish a stronger culture of ethics, which will contribute to a better New Mexico for all. You can submit an Ethics Exchange request year-round at ethicsinbusinessnm.com. The New Mexico Ethics in Business Awards program will also continue to benefit students. Our strong partnership with the University of New Mexico Anderson School of Management continues. Students in Business Ethics courses at the Anderson School remain involved in the evaluation process for the awards program, a highly valuable real-world experience with great exposure to ethical business cultures. CNM students also benefit. Proceeds from the annual awards event help fund scholarships in the CNM Foundation that are awarded to students who are dedicated to an ethical career. We continue to be very excited about these opportunities to help promote a more deliberate focus on ethical behavior in New Mexico. Not because CNM claims to have any ethical superiority, but because we care deeply about our communitys wellbeing and we believe we have the capacity and the partnerships to bring this important cause to a broader audience. As we try to advance the cause of ethics in business year-round, CNM will also continue doing our best to teach the importance of ethics to students in the classroom and instill a strong culture of ethics among our faculty and staff across the college. Making Albuquerque a better place whether through compassion, legal assistance, philanthropy or good food is the common thread among those who won this years Ethics in Business awards. The annual awards honor individuals, businesses and nonprofits that show a devotion to ethical principles. It may seem a little basic, but were looking for ethical practices that are put in place and a commitment to those ethical practices, said Eric Weinstein, chairman of the committee that made the selections. We also looked for commitment to the community and having demonstrated that over time. The 20th annual award presentations will be the focus of a banquet on April 25 at the Hyatt Regency Albuquerque. The program is hosted by Central New Mexico Community College. Those who were nominated for the awards went through extensive review by students from the University of New Mexicos Anderson School of Management and the committee headed by Weinstein. This years winners are: Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless in the nonprofit category; Mike Silva, individual excellence; Adriel Orozco, emerging leader; HB Construction, for-profit medium-sized business; Silver Leaf Farms, for-profit small business. Proceeds from the awards banquet benefit student scholarships at CNM, programs at the Anderson School and CNM Ingenuity, Inc. Weinstein, an executive vice president at Aon Risk Solutions, said the theme of ethics in business wont end after the awards ceremony. It will continue to be a topic in classes and curriculum at CNM, he said. Sponsors are the Albuquerque Journal, CliftonLarsonAllen, French Funerals and Cremations, Kirtland Federal Credit Union, PNM, Wells Fargo, Merrill Lynch, Admiral Beverage Corp. and New Mexico Gas Co. ALBUQUERQUE HEALTH CARE FOR THE HOMELESS Getting health care to homeless people on the streets, in shelters, at meal sites and elsewhere is the main mission of Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless, but it doesnt stop there. The circumstances of homelessness are not acceptable, said CEO Jenny Metzler. Thats the premise of our work. We really are trying to change the world. The 30-year-old organization, which serves about 7,000 clients a year in a variety of ways, has won a Hopkins Award for Excellence in Ethical Practice by a Nonprofit Organization. The group is on the forefront of innovation and is a leading partner in the discussion about collaboration, better services and a social net that allows for people to find hope and healing, said the letter nominating the group for an award. Internally, the organization stays consistent with its beliefs by paying a starting wage of $15 an hour, considered the amount workers need in Albuquerque to avoid the risk of losing their homes, Metzler said. Thats above the citys minimum wage of $8.20. If were about ending homelessness, we have to make sure employees are not homeless, she said. Its one of the priorities in the nonprofits budget $9.5 million this year. In deciding how to spend money, Metzler said, the organization has become very good at strategic planning and real-time strategizing. Some years are budgeted for quantitative growth, with new programming or additional staff, while other years the focus is backstopping to make sure any gaps are filled, Metzler said. We make sure were doing things well and doing the right things, she said. We cant afford to mess up because were serving a very, very vulnerable population. The organization provides high-intensity services as well as lighter touches that might involve buying someone a cup of coffee or giving information about available services. We use health care to connect with them, but we also help people get to housing, Metzler said. Ultimately, we want to end homelessness. MIKE SILVA Mike Silva, owner of several Albuquerque businesses, is passionate about his adopted city and tries his best to show it through generosity and philanthropy. Silva says he and his family fled Los Angeles when he was 8 because his mom didnt feel safe and wanted us to have a fresh start. Albuquerque is more than just a place to live for me, said Silva, 50. I view Albuquerque as a place that, in essence, changed our lives. So Im motivated to try to help the city in any way I can. Silva is the winner of the PNM Award for Individual Excellence in Ethical Business Practice. He started his first business, ABQ Trolley Co., in 2009 with co-founder Jesse Herron. The business expanded to other ventures, including Albucreepy Ghost Walk, Duke City Pedaler and LUX. Silva also owns Rude Boy Cookies, and recently he and Herron purchased ABQ in a Box. He says all of his businesses have a tremendous amount of community equity. Silva has a practice of giving free tours or cookies to help nonprofits. He holds fundraisers at his businesses, with a percentage of profits going to his favorite causes, especially those involving children. Done through Rude Boy Cookies, he calls these efforts Cookies for a Cause. One such event he is especially proud of was held in honor of Victoria Martens, the 10-year-old girl who was brutally raped and murdered in 2016. Silva sold purple ribbon cookies because, he says, purple was her favorite color. Half of the proceeds went to All-Faiths Receiving Home because I wanted to give to an organization that maybe helps kids in her situation, Silva said. The other half went to an organization for first responders, because they had to suffer the trauma of handling the case, he said. Michael has as a foundation in all things business a commitment to make a difference in the world, said the nomination form submitted on Silvas behalf. He is in business to grow his ability to make an impact on the Albuquerque community in which he lives and which he loves. ADRIEL OROZCO Adriel Orozco knew he wanted to get involved in the legal profession, but the only image he had of a lawyer was someone in an office always dealing with paperwork. Thats not the kind of career Orozco has shaped for himself, though. The 31-year-old Albuquerque native, associate director of the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, has won an Emerging Leader in Ethical Excellence award. Orozco developed a clearer vision of his legal future after working as a paralegal for a private firm in Boston specializing in personal injury, criminal defense and immigration law. He saw that some clients had deep problems going beyond their immediate legal situation they were poor and could not afford legal services, or they were criminalized for simple acts like driving without a drivers license, but werent legally able to attain a license. He also worked part time as an English as a Second Language teacher at a nonprofit in Boston, where he gave his students not only language lessons but information about their rights as immigrants. What came out of that experience was I wanted to work for my community if I was going to be doing this kind of work, Orozco said. So I came back to New Mexico. He graduated from the University of New Mexico law school in 2016 and got a fellowship working at the Immigrant Law Center. A goal of his two-year Equal Justice Works fellowship was to create more public interest opportunities in New Mexico and to help people from disadvantaged backgrounds get into law school, Orozco said. The issue in the legal profession was that it wasnt representative of the communities we were serving, he said. The fellowship ended last summer, but Orozco has stayed on, continuing his work. He also represents undocumented immigrants who might not be able to afford an attorney. As for his award, he said, I think its wonderful to recognize folks who are trying to do work in a different way, focusing on building power and changing systems that are oppressive, especially to immigrant communities. HB CONSTRUCTION HB Construction, which now has 235 employees, has won a Rust Award for Excellence in Ethical Business Practice by a For-Profit Business (medium). Its revenues have increased by nearly 1,000 percent since the dark days of the recession. The company stepped back, Harrington said, and decided in 2011 that its mission was going to be helping families and communities. It started hiring people and business partners based on their commitment to a higher purpose. For example, employees might come from other industries or nontraditional career paths. The company is constantly exploring new technologies to increase service to customers, Harrington said. He said he is most proud of the decision in 2011 to create the HB Endowment fund. Each year, the company sets aside a percentage of profits for the endowment, which gives to causes chosen by employees. Weve had a lot of success and growth as an organization, Harrington said. I think the main reason is that in 2011 we found our why. SILVER LEAF FARMS Silver Leaf Farms in Corrales had its roots a decade ago in Aaron Silverblatt-Busers backyard vegetable patch. Now, he and brother Elan farm on 12 acres with eight full-time employees, producing dozens of crops most of the year. Their bounty can be found at farmers markets, local restaurants, grocery stores and schools. Aaron and Elan Silverblatt-Buser have been given the Rust Award for Excellence in Ethical Business Practice by a For-Profit Business (small business). But Elan said they didnt set out to win any awards. Its not like we have to scratch our heads, Are we doing the ethical thing? he said. Its just being good stewards of the community. Our markets are all local, so were deep within the community. Food is the most common language, and so were just interconnected in so many ways. For example, the farm works with local chefs to develop and grow crops they want for restaurant menus, avoiding shipping costs and making sure the vegetables are fresh. The only way to get them before was to order them special from California, or they had to come off a big-service delivery truck, he said. Schools are getting some of the bounty, too last fall, the farms Silver Leaf snackers mini-cucumbers were a big hit among Bernalillo public school kids. The kids tried them and then came back for more, Elan said. The brothers rely heavily on research in their business, including detailed soil analysis so they know what kind of amendments are needed and how best to take care of the farm land they lease. Elan studied molecular plant genetics at Swarthmore College, while Aaron got a masters in business at the University of New Mexico. The goal was not to make a million dollars the first year, Elan said. The goal is to build Silver Leaf Farms into something more than a paycheck. We want to build it to become an integral part of New Mexico not only just as a grower and supplier of high-quality produce, but pushing the boundaries of what people think is possible in New Mexico and really embracing what we have here. For HB Construction, the Great Recession brought its share of misery, but it also gave us an opportunity, said CEO Jason Harrington. The Albuquerque firm, founded in 1991, was down to fewer than 10 employees in 2011, and the workload consisted of a single project. It was a challenging time, but it also gave us an opportunity, Harrington said in written remarks to the Journal. We were able to step back and ask ourselves, Why does this company exist? Who do we want to be?' Imagine a government decree requiring all Americans to carry electronic tracking devices at all times. The tracking device would have to be turned on all day and worn close to your body, in your pocket, purse or backpack. You would be required to send out signals dozens of times every day confirming your precise location while logging the identity of everyone you communicate with. That could never happen here! I can hear you say. Not without some killer apps. Does it have Candy Crush? We live in the age of private surveillance. Its big business. In December the New York Times reported that scores of companies receive anonymous, precise location data from apps whose users enable location services to get local news and weather or other information. The marketed information reveals peoples travels in startling detail, accurate to within a few yards and in some cases updated more than 14,000 times a day. Dont bother trying to hide. The tech site Motherboard demonstrated that a bounty hunter, armed only with a phone number, can easily locate a phones current location within a couple hundred meters by relying on real-time location data that ultimately originated from the telcos themselves, including T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint. Private surveillance extends beyond location tracking into the most intimate aspects of our lives. The Wall Street Journal found that the Flo Period & Ovulation Tracker sent information about users menstrual cycles and pregnancies to Facebook. BetterMes app told Facebook how much its users weighed and which problem area of their body most troubled them. The Realtor.com app passed along information about what houses its users were interested in. And so on. Deleting your Facebook account, or never opening one, wont protect you from Facebooks snooping. If youre online, youre in their files. Intimate data is worth a lot of money, as Mark Zuckerbergs spending habits reveal. Facebook accounts for a full 20 percent of the worldwide advertising market, thanks to its relentless accumulation of private information. Private surveillance even has national security ramifications. Last year a security analyst noted (on Twitter) that active-duty American service members who posted their workouts to Strava, billed as the #1 app for runners and cyclists, were inadvertently providing online maps of secure military installations in Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere. The Strava workout maps provided diagrams of every street and path the service members ran down. More recently, Russia banned the use of social media by military personnel stationed in sensitive areas, defined (it would seem) as any area where the Russian government denies their presence. The decree came after online sleuths at Bellingcat used the soldiers online activity to expose their combat role in eastern Ukraine. Harvard Business Schools Shoshana Zuboff, author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, told an Observer reporter that nearly every product or service that begins with the word smart or personalized, every internet-enabled device, every digital assistant, is surveilling you. But, the Observers reporter adds, while most democratic societies have at least some degree of oversight of state surveillance, we currently have almost no regulatory oversight of its privatized counterpart. That is slowly changing in Europe. The European Unions General Data Protection Regulation is a long statute written in the maximalist civil law tradition that severely limits the room for interpretation by judges. Its text, available on the EU website, can shock an American lawyer with its clarity. Despite its great length, it boils down to a handful of principles that shouldnt even be controversial, stated in the form of a bill of rights. Citizens of the EU have a right: To learn what personal data companies hold about them (personal data includes location tracking). To demand that errors be corrected and that personal data be erased when no longer needed. To restrict corporate use of their personal data, such that companies can no longer coerce consent by making blanket acceptance a condition of use. Furthermore, personal data revealing a persons racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership and data about a persons health, sex life or sexual orientation shall be allowed only where strictly necessary, subject to appropriate safeguards. All personal data, of whatever nature, can be stored for only a limited time. In effect, the EUs regulation adds standardized clauses to contracts for digital products, something American commercial law has long done for sales of physical goods. Its implementation in America would not mark a dramatic departure from our past legal practice. Clawing back even a small degree of control over our digital lives will require legislation at the national level. The EU has shown us how to start. Joel Jacobsen is an author who recently retired from a 29-year legal career. If there are topics you would like to see covered in future columns, please write him at legal.column.tips@gmail.com. SANTA FE A proposal that would bar New Mexico counties from enforcing local right-to-work ordinances is on its way to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. The state Senate voted 23-19 on Sunday to approve legislation stipulating that only the state government can establish a law barring labor unions from collecting fees from nonunion members in unionized workplaces. Approval comes after about 10 counties adopted their own right-to-work laws at least one of which has triggered a legal challenge. Sen. Joseph Cervantes, a Las Cruces Democrat who presented the bill Sunday, said local governments are already prohibited from adopting those ordinances. But the state legislation will make it clear to counties and cities that the state itself is the only authority on right-to-work proposals. This is about avoidance of litigation, Cervantes said. But opponents of the measure said its another example of state lawmakers ignoring elected officials in more-conservative, rural areas. Not everybody up here knows whats best for some of our communities, Sen. Gay Kernan, R-Hobbs, said. Our areas are sick and tired of it. The vote was largely along party lines. Three Democrats Clemente Meme Sanchez of Grants, Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen of Las Cruces and John Arthur Smith of Deming opposed the bill, joining all 16 Republicans. Sanchez said he was being consistent because he hasnt pushed to pre-empt local governments from setting their own minimum wages. I dont think Im above them or better than them, Sanchez said of the local officials in his district. Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, an Albuquerque Democrat who supported the bill, argued that she was being consistent, too, by supporting anti-poverty legislation. My consistency is doing everything we can to alleviate poverty in this state, she said, and thats what unions have done around the country and what they have done in this state. The proposal, House Bill 85, was cosponsored by Democratic Reps. Daymon Ely of Corrales and Andrea Romero of Santa Fe. It passed the House in February, and the Senate approval will send it to Lujan Grisham, a Democrat. Journal Capitol Bureau Chief Dan Boyd contributed to this article. In other action Sunday The Senate approved a bill that would prohibit people accused of murder or another violent crime from using the gay- or trans-panic defense. Senate Bill 159 now heads to the House. Sen. Jacob Candelaria, an Albuquerque Democrat and sponsor of the bill, said the legislation would bar defendants from arguing that the discovery of someones sexual orientation or gender identity sent them into such a fury that they cant be held fully responsible. The Senate approved a bill that would prohibit people accused of murder or another violent crime from using the gay- or trans-panic defense. Senate Bill 159 now heads to the House. Sen. Jacob Candelaria, an Albuquerque Democrat and sponsor of the bill, said the legislation would bar defendants from arguing that the discovery of someones sexual orientation or gender identity sent them into such a fury that they cant be held fully responsible. The Senate Rules Committee voted 6-1 to advance a bill that seeks to add New Mexico to a group of states in favor of using the national popular vote to decide presidential elections. The compact of states would only take effect if enough states join to represent a majority of the nations electoral vote. It has been approved by 12 states representing 172 electoral votes or 98 fewer than needed for a majority. The proposal, House Bill 55, has already passed the House and now goes to the Senate Judiciary Committee, its last assigned committee. The Senate gave final approval to legislation aimed at strengthening New Mexicos disclosure requirements for political spending by dark money groups. Senate Bill 3, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, now heads to the governor. No, no! said the Queen. Sentence first-verdict afterward. Stuff and nonsense! said Alice loudly. The idea of having the sentence first! Those lines may be from Alice in Wonderland, but they describe all too accurately the kind of justice system that many people would like. Why bother with troublesome things like investigations and trials? Just have the police throw people into the Metropolitan Detention Center and be done with it. After all, everyone knows a criminal just by looking at his or her picture in the paper. But do they? What if you are accused of a crime? What could happen to you? You could be taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center, have all of your belongings taken from you, get strip-searched and then put into custody with people who have already been convicted. You could stay there for weeks, months and even years before you get an opportunity to have your trial. And if the jury eventually finds you not guilty? Then you will get a bus ride to Downtown Albuquerque. You may lose your job. You may have been evicted from your residence, with your belongings God knows where. Your booking photo may have been all over the news. You are innocent, you always were, but do not expect a dime in compensation or even an apology as you try to pick up the pieces of your life. If you are lucky, you will have friends and family to support you. Many people are not lucky. How do the courts try to prevent innocent people from suffering such a travesty of justice? By setting high requirements before a person can be detained pretrial and by following the mandates of legal procedure. Contrary to what The Albuquerque Journal said in its March 1 editorial judges are not abdicating their discretion because they require prosecutors to present enough evidence to convince the judge that a defendant must be detained pretrial. As the United States Supreme Court stated in an important case, In our society liberty is the norm, and detention prior to trial or without trial is the carefully limited exception. The innocent pay the highest price for pretrial detention. The taxpayer also pays for pretrial detention. It is not cheap to keep a person locked up and supervised for 24 hours a day. Money spent on pretrial detention is money that is not available for the kinds of services that help keep people out of jail to begin with. Ironically, the guilty get the most benefit from pretrial detention. They get credit for their pretrial detention against their ultimate sentence. Keeping everyone locked up until trial is wrong, expensive and illegal. The methods in place to determine who needs pretrial detention are not perfect and probably never will be. Sometimes a person released prior to their trial will commit a noteworthy crime, and the media will be quick to capitalize with sensationalistic coverage. As the New Mexico Supreme Court has said, We are not oblivious to the pressures on our judges who face election difficulties, media attacks, and other adverse consequences if they faithfully honor the rule of law when it dictates an action that is not politically popular. Judges are under pressure to make pretrial detention something that it is not a cure for all of societys ills and the preferred method of dealing with people accused of crimes. If judges bend to that pressure, the result will be even more injustice and dysfunction in our criminal justice system. From time to time, a person on pretrial release will commit a newsworthy crime, but the only way to provide absolute security is to deny freedom absolutely. The whole point of our legal system is to prevent that. Last week, as the media focused on President Donald Trumps North Korea summit in Vietnam and the congressional testimony of his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, a largely overlooked news conference took place, announcing legislation that could save millions of lives. Seattle Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal introduced the Medicare For All Act of 2019, the latest attempt to pass single-payer health care. Jayapals bill has 106 co-sponsors, close to half of the Democrats in the House. Jayapal is the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the largest caucus in the House. Among the bills co-sponsors was Michigan Democrat Debbie Dingell. She replaced her late husband, John Dingell Jr., who was the longest-serving member of Congress in history, holding the seat since 1955. John Dingell, who died in February at the age of 92, was a stalwart backer of single-payer health care, introducing legislation yearly during his 60-year tenure. He was inspired by his father, John Dingell Sr., who held that same congressional seat for the 18 years before his son. Dingell Sr. first proposed single-payer health care in 1943. With the new Congress this year, the most diverse in history, the 75-plus-year-long effort to secure universal health care may be at a tipping point. Whether or not it passes considered unlikely with the Senate and White House under Republican control single-payer health care will undoubtedly be a central issue in the 2020 presidential race. Is this a bold and ambitious plan? Damn straight it is, because it has to be, Jayapal said as she announced the single-payer bill at a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol, standing in the cold, surrounded by colleagues and supporters. The scale of our health care crisis is enormous, and our plan has to tackle the deep sickness within our for-profit system. If we can end slavery, if we can give women the right to vote, if we can send a man to the moon, then, God, we can do universal health care for every American. Medicare, passed in 1965, is a single-payer national insurance program that pays medical costs for people age 65 and older. Poll after poll confirms its popularity. Simply expanding eligibility from age 65 and over to the day we are born would create a single-payer system comparable to those in most other industrialized countries in the world. On the rare occasions when Medicare-for-all advocates are interviewed on television, they are asked how much it costs. Fair enough, but what about the enormous costs of the current system? Speaking on the Democracy Now! news hour, Jayapal said, Our health care system today costs 18 percent of our GDP. In (the next) 10 years, were going to be spending $50 trillion on our current health care system. Its not like were spending all this money and we have better outcomes than the rest of the world. The United States is last among all of our peers in infant mortality rates, in maternal mortality rates, in terms of our life expectancy. Economist Robert Pollin at the University of Massachusetts and his colleagues recently released a comprehensive analysis of Medicare-for-all, confirming that not only would it not be too expensive, but it would actually deliver better outcomes for less money. Overall U.S. health care costs could fall by about 19 percent relative to the existing system, they write. The cost-savings factor in the increase in demand for health care, as close to 30 percent of people in the U.S. are either uninsured or underinsured and, as a result, simply dont seek medical treatment when they need it, or preventive care. Jayapal and her co-sponsors may have an unexpected ally in their quest for Medicare-for-all. In his book titled The America We Deserve, published in t2000, American businessman Donald J. Trump wrote, Im a conservative on most issues but a liberal on this one. We should not hear so many stories of families ruined by health care expenses. We must not allow citizens with medical problems to go untreated because of financial problems or red tape. The Canadian plan also helps Canadians live longer and healthier than America. We need, as a nation, to re-examine the single-payer plan, as many individual states are doing. The president endorsed single payer in 2000 but opposes it now. Whether or not he can be pushed to support it again, Jayapal is moving forward. She has support from Republican business owners and hospital executives, all who know the current for-profit health insurance system costs too much and fails the people of this country. For the increasingly large field of Democratic presidential hopefuls, Medicare-for-all has become a defining issue, embraced by many of the announced candidates. After 75 years of debate, with health care costs spiraling out of control and the quality of medical care falling short of that in single-payer countries, the time is right for Medicare-for-all. Its a matter of life and death. FRUITLAND After gaining national attention for their ride to the White House, the Cowboys for Trump are reuniting for a second ride. This ride will take them from the Santa Fe County Fairgrounds to the Roundhouse, where they hope to meet with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. The ride on Tuesday is the first stop of a nationwide tour the group plans to complete, according to organizer Couy Griffin. The cowboys plan to be on horseback by 10 a.m. and will ride more than five miles to the capital building, where they have planned a rally. Griffin said he does not know how many people will attend, however, he has gotten a lot of interest from people who want to participate. He said the Cowboys for Trump plan to ride to visit the capital buildings in each state. The goal is to increase the voice of the counties in the decisions made at the state level. This is just one more stick in a fire thats already burning, he said. Griffin said that fire started with the counties that passed Second Amendment sanctuary resolutions. His hope is the movement will cause a power shift in the state and at the national level. Griffin said the power is going to shift from the government to the people. The fire is going to be burning out of control in the very near future, he said. Fruitland hat maker Ramie Harper will once again join the Cowboys for Trump on the ride. This time he will carry a pink hat with him that he has made for Lujan Grisham. He said the hat will be the same quality as the one he made for President Donald Trump. Harper said it is tradition to bring a gift to people when visiting and the hat symbolizes respect. No matter who the governor is, the office still deserves all our respect, Harper said. He said people dont have to agree with the governors policies to respect her Neither Harper nor Griffin agree with the governors policies on undocumented immigrants, abortion or gun control. Harper said he hopes Lujan Grisham accepts the hat he has made. I think she has a lot of class and I really think it would be cool if she came out and showed how dignified and cool she can be, he said. Copyright 2019 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE With six days left in this years 60-day legislative session, two competing proposals to set up a first-of-its-kind New Mexico ethics commission are still in limbo in the Roundhouse. A key Senate committee heard testimony Sunday on a House-approved plan but did not vote on the bill. And the committees chairwoman suggested there could be a forthcoming effort perhaps by as soon as today to meld the bill with a separate Senate proposal that has drawn criticism from government transparency advocates. Were getting close, I think, said Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, during Sundays meeting of the Senate Rules Committee. However, she did not provide clues about what provisions might end up being in the reworked proposal and which might be left out. The ethics commission debate at the state Capitol is playing out after statewide voters resoundingly approved the creation of such a body in last Novembers general election. A string of high-profile public corruption scandals involving New Mexico elected officials fueled the passage of that constitutional amendment. But its up to legislators to determine how the seven-member commission will function, including whether it will have the power to issue subpoenas to obtain evidence and compel witnesses to testify. The bill passed by the House, which would grant that subpoena power to the commission, has the backing of several business groups and open government advocacy organizations, including the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government. However, the measure, House Bill 4, has been in the Senate Rules Committee for nearly a week and was only discussed Sunday after a slew of lower-profile bills were debated. Rep. Daymon Ely, D-Corrales, the bills sponsor, said he has worked with fellow Democrats and Republicans alike to try to craft a balanced approach to handling ethics complaints. I dont want this to be a politically charged commission, Ely said. Under his proposal, complaints would be made public once there is a finding of probable cause that the complaint should be investigated. Meetings of the commission would also be open to the public. In contrast, Senate Bill 619, the other proposal, would in its initial form allow those commission hearings to take place behind closed doors. In addition, it would impose stiffer penalties on people who violate the confidentiality provisions than it would on officials who violate ethical standards. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat who took office last month, has endorsed the need for a transparent ethics commission, though she has largely stayed out of the debate over the bodys specific powers and procedures. Under the terms of the voter-approved constitutional amendment, the ethics commission will have the authority to investigate claims of wrongdoing against legislators, lobbyists, elected officials and state employees. It will also be able to issue advisory opinions in response to questions about state laws covering campaign fundraising, financial disclosures, lobbyist regulations and the conduct of government officials. I think a big part of the commission is not just to be a prosecutorial body but to provide guidance, Ely said. While the Senate Rules Committee did not vote Sunday on his bill, at least some committee members expressed support for the House-approved approach. I think this is very much in keeping with what we passed, said Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces. DEMING In a departure from previous border security meetings that have convened periodically in Grant, Hidalgo and Luna counties, a meeting held in Deming on Saturday featured no representatives from the U.S. Border Patrol or other law enforcement agencies. There were also no congressional staff representatives present. Instead, the meeting at Demings First United Methodist Church was a venue for residents to express frustration over human trafficking, increased apprehensions of migrants at the border, and immigration policy broadly. Hundreds packed the churchs gymnasium. When asked to call out their places of residence, attendees named counties all over New Mexico, plus many from Arizona and El Paso. Outside the church, a lone demonstrator wore a sign that read, What would Jesus do with refugees? Inside, however, the talk was of illegals, with a consensus that border security is inadequate and immigration is out of control. The events organizer, Russ Howell, is the Luna County Republican Party chair. There were standing ovations following calls to build the damn wall and loud jeering of New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and the states congressional delegation, who are all Democrats. A staff representative for the state Republican Party drew applause after calling on the assembly to vote red. Speakers included 2018 Republican candidates Gavin Clarkson of Las Cruces, who ran for Secretary of State, and former state Rep. Yvette Herrell of Alamogordo, who has announced her second run for the U.S. House seat currently held by Rep. Xochitl Torres Small, D-N.M. State of emergency on the border At first, the three-hour meeting focused on public health and security concerns along the border. A recurring complaint was the governors February statement that she saw no overwhelming national security crisis at the border. In contrast, Luna County Commissioner Barbara Reedy celebrated the three-member commissions passage Friday of a resolution supporting President Donald Trumps declaration of a national emergency to obtain funding for a border wall. From the stage and the aisles, speakers expressed anger at the governor for withdrawing most of the National Guard personnel her predecessor deployed to the New Mexico border last year at the presidents request. Teresa Johnson, part of a cattle ranching family on the border in Luna County, reported dangerous encounters with drug traffickers, cattle lost to infectious diseases she attributed to illegals trespassing on her ranch, and frequent destruction of property including the scorching of hundreds of acres from signal fires. Speakers included GOP candidates Grievances soon migrated from border security to immigration laws, which several speakers said are exploited by narcotics traffickers and human smugglers. A few speakers suggested the federal government was more concerned for the rights of immigrants than for citizens who feel threatened. People are no longer the priority in this state, in this nation, Herrell said in her speech. This is about our sovereignty. This is about our constitution. This is about the future of our country and the future of generations to come. Stressing the necessity of guns for personal protection, speakers denounced proposed gun reforms in New Mexicos current legislative session, including the mandatory background check bill signed by the governor on Friday. Clarkson showed aerial footage to highlight areas of the border without physical barriers, while arguing that asylum laws are routinely abused by fraudulent claims. He also criticized the Deming Public Schools for permitting children living in Palomas, Mexico, who are U.S. citizens to attend schools in Columbus and Deming. He referred to the students as anchor babies and called the arrangement a waste of tax dollars. Suggestions for next steps ranged from lobbying representatives, to running for office, to tax resistance. Mick Rich of Albuquerque, who ran for U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrichs seat in 2018, called on citizens to pick a race and run for office or work on campaigns. Howell told the Sun-News that the four Democratic officials represented by empty chairs had been invited, but had either declined or not responded. She said Rep. Torres Small sent a letter to be read at the meeting, but it was not presented. (Torres Small told the Journal in an interview Friday she believes more customs and border patrol agents are needed. For the full story, go to abqjournal.com). Royal Dutch Shell is on the hunt for deals to bulk up its position in the Permian Basin, where it lags rivals Exxon Mobil and Chevron. We are definitely actively looking at opportunities, Wael Sawan, Shells deepwater boss, said in an interview on Monday. If none ever come up then thats a disappointing outcome. Sawan is set to lead the European companys upstream division in July. Shell is considering a bid for Endeavor Energy Resources LP, one of the Permians largest-private operators, people familiar with knowledge of the matter said earlier this year. Sawan declined to comment on that or any specific targets but said any purchase would have to afford our shareholders a very strong return on investment. Exxon and Chevron last week announced audacious plans to produce nearly 2 million barrels of oil between them from the Permian by the mid 2020s, more than OPEC member Nigeria. While the two U.S. explorers emphasized organic growth, Shell is looking for takeovers to take advantage of smaller drillers squeezed by cost pressures and investors hungry for returns. Shells Permian operations became cash flow positive in the second half of last year and will grow into a material position in the coming years, Sawan said. By contrast, Chevron has said its Permian business wont become cash-flow positive until next year while Exxon is targeting 2021. Were not going to jump into an opportunity because we need to bulk up the Permian, Sawan said. Theres a question mark on whether well find a deal that works for the buyer and the seller. Photo: Rich Polk/Getty Images for Politicon On Sunday evening, the watchdog nonprofit Media Matters for America published a montage of misogynistic and otherwise creepy quotes from Fox News Tucker Carlson, the host of the networks second most popular show. Between 2006 and 2011, Media Matters states that Carlson spent approximately an hour a week calling in to Bubba the Love Sponge, a popular shock-jock radio program, where he spoke with the hosts about a variety of cultural and political topics in sometimes-vulgar terms. Among the lowlights what the president might call locker room talk is a recording from 2009 of Carlson describing an instance in which teenagers at Carlsons daughters girls-only boarding school were having their first sexual encounters with each other: If it werent my daughter, I would love that scenario. You can listen to the audio here. In 2006, Carlson called for the end of rape shield laws: If Im alleging rape, I have the protection of anonymity. I can say whatever I want while hiding behind anonymity, while the person I accused, whether hes guilty or not, has his life destroyed. Thats totally unfair I mean, weve done a couple of shows on this, and we always had these feminists on who kind of, Well, because no one would ever report rape. Really? I dont know. Women seem to be adults to me. I mean, in other words, if you are grievously injured by another person, its not your fault. I dont understand why, if youre an adult, you just cant get up and say, This is what the person did to me. Over the years, according to the audio, Carlson had several ugly things to say about female politicians and other women in the public sphere. Arianna Huffington is a pig. TV host Alexis Stewart, the daughter of Martha Stewart, is cunty. Britney Spears and Paris Hilton are the biggest white whores in America. Carlson agreed with Bubba the Love Sponge when he said that the Fox News host wants to fuck Sarah Palin. Hillary Clinton is anti-penis and you know in your heart that if she could castrate you, she would. Carlson feels sorry for Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan in the way he feels sorry for unattractive women. Sex workers, at large, are slutty and pathetic. Women, in general, are extremely primitive. In a statement released on Sunday night, Carlson stated: Media Matters caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago. Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: Im on television every weeknight live for an hour. If you want to know what I think, you can watch. Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why. The non-apology suggests Carlson might not face much blowback at Fox News, the network that reportedly harbored sexual harassment for years under the dominion of the late Roger Ailes. If Carlson wants his audience to know what he thinks today, here are some of his opinions on women that hes shared on-air the last few years: In 2017, Carlson said sexual harassment is a concept made up by Democrats. Last year, Carlson said that rape survivors who dont immediately come forward are part of the problem. In January, he claimed women earning higher salaries are responsible for men in decline. And for International Womens Month, Carlson counterprogrammed his show with a charming series called Men in America. This post has been updated. CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. One person was killed and two others were injured by deep snow cascading off roofs in the southwestern Colorado resort town of Crested Butte. The incidents occurred Friday and Saturday amid an unprecedented wave of avalanches. One high mountain pass remained closed Monday for avalanche control work, and the risk of slides was rated as considerable in most of the states mountains. A mammoth avalanche southwest of Aspen over the weekend damaged an unoccupied house, but no injuries were reported. In Crested Butte, Stephan Michael Martel, 25, died and Blair Tulliver Burton, 37, was injured Saturday when snow slid off the roof of a commercial building, Mount Crested Butte Police Department spokeswoman Marjorie Trautman said. They were clearing snow from the roof at the time, Trautman said. On Friday, Alex Theaker, 28, was injured by snow sliding off the roof of a Crested Butte home, Trautman said. Details of that incident werent immediately known. Crested Butte is 125 miles (200 kilometers) southwest of Denver. U.S. Highway 550 over Red Mountain Pass was closed as crews triggered avalanches and cleared away snow. There was no immediate word on when the highway would open. The pass is about 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Durango and stands more than 11,000 feet (3,350 meters) above sea level. An avalanche estimated to be more than one mile (1.6 kilometers) wide swept down a mountain outside the Aspen Highlands ski resort either Friday or Saturday, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. It dropped 3,000 vertical feet (914 meters) and was so powerful that it reached about 200 feet (60 meters) up the opposite side of the valley, the center said. Authorities said the snow reached the second floor of the unoccupied house, destroying a chimney and shattering windows. This is a landscape-changing event, avalanche center deputy director Brian Lazar told the Aspen Times. Legitimate businessman Donald Trump Photo: Tom Brenner/Getty Images While Robert Muellers investigation is (probably?) approaching its conclusion, many other investigations into Trumps corrupt or illegal behavior are just getting started. Trump has long dismissed the Russia probe as a hoax and witch hunt, slogans his supporters have fleshed out with an elaborate conspiracy theory involving a deep state cabal working in tandem with the Clinton campaign to frame him. The task of dismissing all the other investigations is far more diffuse. Trumps strategy is to aggregate the broad category miscellaneous non-Russia investigations into a category he calls presidential harassment. This catch-all term encompasses investigations by the House of Representatives, the Southern District of New York, the New York attorney generals office, and others. His allies are only beginning to articulate a theory of what lies behind all these accusations. As usual, indefatigable conservative reporter Byron York is leading the way. Yorks latest column Yes, Trump is target of presidential harassment provides the state-of-the-art iteration of the presidents legal defense. The fact is, York writes, Trump has a point. This is actually an opinion, not a fact, but never mind lets proceed to his points, such as they are. York dismisses the demand that Trump release his tax returns as completely unfounded: The demand is based primarily on suspicion that Trump must have done something wrong with his taxes or he would have long ago released the returns. Of course, given the well-established norm of presidential candidates disclosing their tax returns, Trumps refusal to do so is definitely grounds for suspicion. But Yorks idea that this is the primary basis of suspicion is pretty wild. There is a vast body of public evidence that Trumps tax returns are concealing illegal or compromising relationships. Last fall, the New York Times discovered that Trump received more than $400 million from his father, most of its laundered to evade taxes utilizing a variety of fraudulent schemes. Since his fathers passing, the source of laundered funds has shifted to Russian oligarchs, though he has also engaged in suspicious deals with autocrats and gangsters across the world. York likewise complains that Trumps insurance broker was subpoenaed by the New York State Department of Financial Services. The subpoena came after Michael Cohen, Trumps former fixer turned states witness, testified that he committed insurance fraud. York deems this unfair, on the grounds that Cohen, who has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and faces serious questions about the truthfulness of his latest testimony, supplied no details. In fact, Cohens testimony is not the only evidence here. Just as with Trumps apparent history of money laundering and tax fraud, there is ample public evidence that he filed false insurance claims. But even if that evidence did not exist, it seems strange that York would complain that Cohens testimony spurred an investigation. Yes, Cohen has lied, because thats what you do when youre loyal to Trump. Now that hes not loyal to Trump anymore, theres much less reason to doubt his veracity. Cohen spoke under oath, thus carrying a penalty of perjury. Cohen has little apparent reason to make up charges against Trump, as evidenced by his decision to refute several charges against his former boss. One of the conservatives who as recently as a few weeks ago cited those comments and took them at face value is York himself. For York, the notion that Trump has done nothing wrong, or at least no more wrong than a typical president, is not the conclusion of his argument but the starting point. From this premise, he interprets all the investigations into his conduct as evidence of the unfairness or desperation of the presidents adversaries. York reports that he asked law professor Andrew Coan whether there is precedent for a U.S. Attorneys office conducting a wide-ranging, open-ended investigation of a sitting president. Coan replied, The short answer is no. I am aware of no comparable prior investigation. Thats true! But its not because hes being harassed. Its because, before Trump, the president of the United States has never been a career criminal. (CNN) - Grief and sorrow know no borders, but Sunday's Ethiopian Airline crash is truly an international tragedy. The Nairobi, Kenya-bound plane went down within minutes of taking off from Addis Ababa. The crash killed 157 people, seven of them crew members and one a security official, an airline spokeswoman said. The passengers were from 35 nations, the airline said, with the greatest share from Kenya. Nineteen United Nations staff members were among those killed, the UN said. The staffers worked for the World Food Programme, the Office of the High Commissioner on Refugees, the International Telecommunications Union, the Food and Agriculture Organization, International Organization for Migration in South Sudan, World Bank and UN Assistance Mission in Somalia, and the UN Office in Nairobi. Though it's not clear why UN employees were on the plane, the UN Environment Assembly is scheduled to begin Monday in Nairobi. Here's what we know about the names and nationalities of the passengers and the security official. The airline has not yet reported the crew members' home countries. Kenya -- 32 Cedric Asiavugwa was a third-year student at Georgetown Law and a member of Georgetown University's Campus Ministry, the school said. Born and raised in Mombasa, he was on his way home to Nairobi after the death of his fiancee's mother, according to the school. Tamarind Group CEO Jonathan Seex was on flight ET302, the hotel company said on its Facebook page. "It is with immense shock and grief to inform you of the tragic news that Tamarind CEO, Jonathan Seex, was on the ill-fated Ethiopian Airlines flight. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, the Tamarind community and all the others who have suffered unfathomable losses," the post read. Canada -- 18 Nigerian-born scholar and author Pius Adesanmi was the director of Carleton University's Institute of African Studies. The Ottawa university said he was among the 18 Canadians killed in the crash. "Pius Adesanmi was a towering figure in African and post-colonial scholarship and his sudden loss is a tragedy," said Benoit-Antoine Bacon, president and vice-chancellor. Ethiopia -- 9 China -- 8 China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that four of the victims worked for Chinese companies and two for the UN (including one Hong Kong resident). It said the two others were traveling for private purposes and were from Liaoning and Zhejiang. Jin Yetao, 32, had been stationed in South Sudan for four years and promoted the "Belt and Road Initiative" in Africa, his employer -- state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China -- said. The initiative "aims to help countries along the route achieve industrialized vision and to provide vocational skill training," AVIC said. Jin had been on a business trip to carry out education projects in Kenya, Uganda and Gabon in his role as a deputy manager in an AVIC-affiliated company, it said. The local Zheijang provincial newspaper Qianjiang Evening reported that a local college senior was also among the victims. It said she was a journalism major who would have turned 22 next month. She had been traveling to Kenya to watch giraffes. The woman's college said that she had been expected to graduate in June. Pear Video reports that she was meeting up with her boyfriend in Kenya and was traveling from there. Italy -- 8 USA -- 8 France -- 7 UK -- 7 Egypt -- 6 Germany -- 5 India -- 4 Slovakia -- 4 Slovakian lawmaker Anton Hrnko said on Facebook that his wife, Blanka, son Martin and daughter Michala were among the victims. Austria -- 3 Russia -- 3 The Russian Embassy in Ethiopia tweeted the names of three Russian citizens who were on the plane: Ekaterina Polyakova, Aleksandr Polyakov and Sergey Vyalikov. Sweden -- 3 Israel -- 2 Morocco -- 2 Poland -- 2 Spain -- 2 Belgium -- 1 Djibouti -- 1 Indonesia -- 1 Ireland -- 1 Mozambique -- 1 Norway -- 1 Rwanda -- 1 Saudi Arabia-- 1 Sudan -- 1 Somalia -- 1 Serbia -- 1 Togo -- 1 Uganda -- 1 Yemen -- 1 Nepal -- 1 Nigeria -- 1 Ambassador Abiodun Bashua, a retired Nigerian foreign service officer died in the crash, the Nigerian presidency and government confirmed. One passenger was traveling on a UN passport. CHICO, Calif. - Police arrested a suspect they say vandalized 14 cars in a Chico neighborhood. Authorities arrested Cameron Lacy, 19, of Chico, in connection to car vandalism in the area of Cinder Creek Drive and Ruby River Drive on Feb. 23. During the investigation, officers learned that Lacy had damaged 14 vehicles in the neighborhood. Police said that most of the damage to the vehicles consisted of tires which had been punctured. The cost to repair the damage totaled thousands of dollars. Lacy was booked into Butte County Jail on charges of felony vandalism. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Chico Police Department at (530) 897-4900. The surveillance video below was sent to Action News Now in February of a suspect vandalizing cars in the area of Cinder Creek Drive and Ruby River Drive. CHICO, Calif. - Kids impacted by the Camp and Carr Fires have some big help coming their way, thanks to a community of "mini-enthusiasts." Action News Now reporter Luna Nas visited those enthusiasts and local kids on Sunday at the Butte Creek Country Club where the "mini" family came together for the big cause. They had a car show fundraiser for the youth for the Camp and Carr Fires, with all the revenue geared to go to support the needs. "Mini" communities from Chico, Shasta and Sacramento produced the car show. They also added in a silent auction and raffle to raise even more money for the Camp and Sarr Fire kids. More than 60 minis and their owners were part of the car show, and some participants came from as far away as San Diego. Norm Nelson lost two minis in the Carr Fire. He said the fundraiser speaks volumes about the mini-Cooper family. The mini clubs hoped to raise more than $15,000. The money goes to the Golden Valley bank Community Foundation, who will make sure the funds will go directly to Camp and Darr Fire kids. You can click on this link to donate to the fundraiser. Shasta County Sheriff's Office investigating officer-involved shooting The Shasta County Sheriff's Offices is investigating an officer-involved shooting in Redding. Investigators say a male suspect was shot and killed at around midnight Monday morning outside of Bob's Liquor on Hartnell Avenue and Rockabye Lane. Camp Fire survivor missing out of Willows The search is on for a Camp Fire survivor who is missing out of Willows. The Glenn County Sheriff's Office says Robert Patrick Burman has been missing from Willows for a week. Relatives say he lived in Paradise before the Camp Fire and now lives in Willows. Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff's office at (530) 934-6431. More than 12 arrested in Redding on drug charges Over one dozen people in Redding were arrested on drug charges. Police say it all started Sunday morning with wanted felon Zackary Miller. Police say Miller sideswiped a car with his own vehicle and called the victim racial slurs. Police then arrested 14 people at Miller's home that night. Several bags of meth were found inside and hidden on the roof. Sheriff's office asks people to stop stealing "Road Closed" signs The Glenn County Sheriff's Office is asking people to stop stealing road signs. A number of signs, barricades and signal lights have gone missing from flooded roads. Once signs are removed it's dangerous for other drivers, but it also costs taxpayers. Investigation continues into Ethiopia plan crash Eight Americans are among the 157 people killed in a plane crash in Ethiopia. The plane, en route to Nairobi, lost contact with the control tower just minutes after take-off on Sunday. The investigation into what caused the crash is underway. Action News Now is working to learn the identity of the americans President Trump to release 2020 budget plans President Trump releases his 2020 budget on Monday. It's expected to include an increase in defense spending and five percent cuts across the board in domestic expenditures. Democrats are already resisting the President's effort to include border wall funding. Twitter is about serving the public conversation, highlighting whats happening in the world and enabling people to talk about it right now. As part of its youth engagement initiative #PowerOf18 , Twitter India unveils new research findings today specific to the youth sentiment in Tamil Nadu on social media and the elections at the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai. Panellists Sudarshan Ramabadran ( @sudarshanr108 ), Senior Research Fellow and Administrative Head, Center for Soft Power, India Foundation and Convenor, Tamil Nadu Young Thinkers Forum, and Arun Krishnamurthy ( @ArunEFI ), Indian environmental activist with Environmentalist Foundation India, join Twitter at the #PowerOf18 college dialogue session, sharing their perspective on what it means to turn 18 and the importance of voting in the upcoming elections. . @ACJIndia and @TwitterIndia present #PowerOf18 Dialogue on The Role of Youth in Shaping Indias Future on March 6. Catch the event live on @ACJIndia from 5:30 pm IST. pic.twitter.com/zKGTEGY0cg ACJ (@ACJIndia) March 6, 2019 Survey findings Twitter is where people can serve the public conversation; two in three (66.9%) of the youth on Twitter in Tamil Nadu surveyed believe that they are contributing to the public debate by posting on the platform. More than half (58.4%) of the Twitter users surveyed will actively engage with and raise concerns to the government on issues that affect them or their community, versus 30.8% of those not on the platform. In addition, 57.8% of the youth in Tamil Nadu surveyed use Twitter to express their opinions and be heard, while 56% will use Twitter to gather support for a cause or movement. Across the board, the population in India is politically active and the survey finds on average 98% of Tamil Nadu youth indicate that they would vote in the upcoming elections. This is the highest proportion of youth voter interest in comparison with all other states surveyed in the country. In comparison, Twitter users (99.4%) surveyed were more likely than those not on the platform (94.9%) to vote in the upcoming elections. Over 85% of Tamil Nadu youth surveyed will turn to social media to find out whats happening in India and around the world, according to the studys findings. The rising importance of social media for information consumption is reinforced as Tamil Nadu youth surveyed rank social media platforms as the most important source for understanding whats happening in India and around the world, in comparison to all other mediums including newspapers, TV, and public events. This study[1] is part of a larger nationwide survey conducted with 4,274 youth respondents from India between 24 September - 19 October 2018. The survey methodology qualifies the respondents as minimally secondary literate, aged between 18 - 35 years old. India is expected to have 34.33% share of youth (15 - 34 years old) in total population by 2020, according to the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation . University Dialogues Beyond the survey results, Twitter India invited Sudarshan Ramabadran, Senior Research Fellow and Administrative Head, Center for Soft Power, India Foundation and Convenor, Tamil Nadu Young Thinkers Forum, and Arun Krishnamurthy, Indian environmental activist with Environmentalist Foundation India to join in a panel discussion about the power of youth today and the importance of expressing their voice through voting, to be a part of the #PowerOf18 Dialogue sessions. "If you have to bring change, you have to be a part of this system, and that's why I write to change," says @sudarshanr108 #PowerOf18 @ACJIndia @TwitterIndia Rishabh Bhatnagar (@Rish_Bhat) March 6, 2019 https://twitter.com/Rish_Bhat/status/1103264045778391040 https://twitter.com/ThatUnitedLady/status/1103241662678032386 https://twitter.com/pusharma53/status/1103268657730187265 https://twitter.com/Rish_Bhat/status/1103253300109991936 https://twitter.com/sick_smasher/status/1103243738917339138 https://twitter.com/LilMissMathew/status/1103240545265082373 #PowerOf18 Content Curation Partners In order to effectively represent the diversity of issues, Twitter India has also identified key content partners to curate useful electoral information and offer different perspectives that will help the youth of India who are getting ready to vote see every side of the public conversation. Some of these partners include fact-checker @BOOM_Live , BBC Indias regional handles @BBCTamil , @BBCNewsPunjabi , among others. How do you stay clear of fake information this election season? @boomlive_in tells us one of the ways in this video. #FactVsFiction #PowerOf18 pic.twitter.com/P44bLALh6x Twitter India (@TwitterIndia) February 18, 2019 https://twitter.com/TwitterIndia/status/1096301303112785920 The #PowerOf18 campaign is aimed at encouraging more youth in India to participate in civic engagement, understand the significance of their right to vote and contribute to public debate on Twitter. The campaign launch is marked by an emoji activated by the hashtag #PowerOf18 available now until June 2019. India News Haryana today hosted another session of, Manch Haryana 2019 Mein Haryana Ka Mann a mega political conclave in Sonipat at the PM group of institutions, Kami Road. The conclave was attended by several political leaders of Sonipat, Haryana. The event of Haryana Manch was marked by multiple panel discussions and one-on-ones that sought and addressed several key issues including law and order, development and infrastructure, health and education, youth welfare, employment and agriculture and development in Sonipat, Haryana state. During the India News Haryana Manch Haryana 2019 Mein Haryana Ka Mann - Sonipat, in an exclusive session with Smt Kavita Jain, Women and Child Development Minister & Cabinet Minister, Haryana, during her session on How Smart is Sonipat, said that During our tenure, our BJP government has kicked-off more than 300 development schemes under Prime Minister Sh Narendra Modi regime. She further added on the development in Sonipat, that There was a severe issue of sewer problem in Sonipat and we have now rectified it, similarly we have constructed roads and highways across the state and have transformed Haryana while doing so many development works, also the problem of water crisis in Sonipat have now been resolved. She further added that We have also started online pension scheme in Haryana, the BJP government have initiated the Aayushmaan health scheme across the country, similarly ourBeti Bachao, Beti Padhao scheme benefitted so many girls of the state. In another session on Ten years vs Five Years, Sh Kuldeep Sharma, former Vidhan Sabha Speaker and Congress leader counters the BJP government and said that In the role of opposition, we have always questioned the BJP government on various issues and have always shown mirror the ruling party, on a question related to the differences within congress party, he said I believe that congress party members should come together and get ready for the upcoming elections while keeping all differences aside. In another session, Sh Rajiv Jain, Media Advisor to Chief Minister & BJP leader; Sh Ravi Purthi Congress Leader and Sh Surender Panwar, Independent candidate, Sonipat, the panelists discussed about the role of publicity and social media in todays political scenario and how political parties leverages that during elections. The panel also discusses about misuse of social media by political parties. While discussing, Sh Panwar alleges that BJP government in Haryana has not fulfilling any promises which were made during elections, while Sh Ravi Jain counters and talks about the development work and achievements of BJP government in Sonipat and nearby areas which previous government was unable to fulfill. In the last segment on How Safe is Sonipat, Sh Mukesh Narwal, BJP leader, Sh Raj Kumar, JJP leader and Sh Surender Chikara, INLD leader discusses on how the government has been able to control the crime in the state, while discussing on the same, BJP leader Sh Mukesh Narwal said that Our government has done so much of development work in the area, countering which JJP leader said that Sonipat is not safe at all. Haryana Manch is an initiative of India News Haryana, to foster a sense of citizenship and make political processes more transparent and accountable towards the people of the state. In the series, the conclave will be hosted across all seven constituencies of Haryana including, Faridabad, Gurugram, Sonipat, Hissar, Rohtak, Karnal and Kurukshetra. Netflix released the trailer of its upcoming police-procedural series, Delhi Crime, which will launch on the service in 190 countries on March 22. Delhi Crime is a seven-part anthology series written and directed by award-winning Indo-Canadian filmmaker Richie Mehta and stars Shefali Shah, Adil Hussain, Rasika Dugal and Rajesh Tailang. The story is a fictionalized depiction of the 2012 investigation into the incident and captures the complexities of the scrutiny, the emotional toll on the investigating team, and their determination to bring the perpetrators to justice in a fraught environment, seen through the lens of the investigation led by Varthika Chaturvedi (Shefali Shah), the police officer in charge. The series premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2019, and has been lauded and garnered stellar reviews from critics across the world. Produced by Golden Karavan and Ivanhoe Pictures, the first season of Delhi Crime premieres on Netflix on March 22, 2019. Fox News host Jeanine Pirro. Photo: Fox News On her show Saturday night, Fox News Jeanine Pirro, one of President Trumps faves, accomplished a rare feat: She said something so awful that the network had to publicly condemn her. In a segment about freshman Representative Ilhan Omar, Pirro said the Somali-American congresswoman is loyal to Sharia law over the U.S. Constitution. And how does Pirro know this? Because, she said, Omar wears a hijab. Fox host Jeanine Pirro says that Ilhan Omar's hijab may mean that she's against the Constitution. pic.twitter.com/yxGRVoYkQm John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) March 10, 2019 By Sunday evening, Fox News issued a statement denouncing Pirros racism. We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirros comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar. They do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly, it said. In her own statement, Pirro attempted to explain herself: My intention was to ask a question and start a debate, but of course because one is Muslim does not mean you dont support the Constitution. The decision by Fox News to rebuke Pirro for her incendiary comments is notable because it doesnt happen often. While the network has fired on-air personalities for off-air comments and other inappropriate behavior, it typically lets those on its opinion shows spout whatever nonsense they please (although there is a recent effort to change that). The latitude the network gives its biggest stars became clear as, just hours after its statement on Pirro, it remained silent on Tucker Carlsons recently unearthed misogynistic and creepy comments. A spokesperson for Fox News didnt respond to an email asking why the network condemned Pirro and not Carlson. So, what kind of offense rises to the level of an official Fox News rebuke? Here are some recent missteps that went too far even for Fox. When Geraldo Rivera criticized Laura Ingraham for attacking a high-school kid. Last April, Rivera took issue with Ingraham making fun of school shooting survivor David Hogg for getting rejected from a handful of colleges. After Rivera said Ingrahams comments were terrible and indefensible, Fox News publically distanced the network from him. Geraldo is out of the loop on this issue and speaks for no one but himself, a network spokesperson said. When Sean Hannity and Pirro appeared at a Trump rally. In the heat of last years midterms, Hannity and Pirro appeared alongside Trump at a campaign rally. Hannity, who had said earlier in the day that he wouldnt go onstage with Trump, used his moment in the spotlight to call the press corps fake news. Fox News responded with a statement that said, Fox News does not condone any talent participating in campaign events. We have an extraordinary team of journalists helming our coverage tonight and we are extremely proud of their work. And when Hannity appeared in a Trump ad. In September of 2016, Hannity appeared alongside other celebrity Trump supporters in an eight-minute video produced by the Trump campaign. We were not aware of Sean Hannity participating in a promotional video and he will not be doing anything along these lines for the remainder of the election season, Fox News said after the video was uploaded. When Rivera tweeted that news is a flirty business. Following NBCs firing of Matt Lauer, Rivera defended him as a real gentleman and wrote that news is a flirty business. Fox News found this defense of sexual harassment irresponsible. Geraldos tweets do not reflect the views of Fox News or its management, the network said in a statement. We were troubled by his comments and are addressing them with him. When David Bossie told a black Democrat he was out of his cotton-picking mind. A former deputy campaign manager for Donald Trump and Citizens United founder, David Bossie was working as a paid contributor at Fox News when he appeared in a segment with black Democratic strategist Joel Payne. The White House, Payne said, is using racist dog whistles. Youre out of your cotton-picking mind, Bossie shot back. That earned Bossie an on-air rebuke from host Ed Henry, who said, I want to make clear that Fox News and this show, myself, we dont agree with that particular phrase. It was obviously offensive. Bossie was also reportedly suspended for two weeks. When contributor Kevin Jackson called Kavanaugh accusers lying skanks. The conservative pundit and author was also a Fox News contributor, until he went on a Twitter rant in which he wrote, among other things: Leftist women are skanky for the most part. In statement, Fox News said: Kevin Jackson has been terminated as a contributor. His comments on todays hearings were reprehensible and do not reflect the values of Fox News. When Stacey Dash cursed about Obama. Stacey Dash, the Clueless star turned conservative pundit, enjoyed a brief run as a Fox News contributor from 2014 to 2017. In the middle of her tenure, she received a two-week vacation for her criticism of a President Obama speech on terrorism. Obama, she said, didnt give a shit about terrorism. Fox News responded in a statement, calling her comments inappropriate and unacceptable for our air. Dash was unrepentant. After the suspension she tweeted: Consequences. Some of us have to pay them. Gladly. Dr. Paul Offit, MD , is the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania, a chair funded by Merck & Co. He is also the Chief of the Division of Infectious Disease and Director of the Vaccine Information Center at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. Offit is a successful vaccine technician and an accomplished vaccine promoter. His vaccine for diarrhea, RotaTeq is manufactured and distributed by Merck & Co., and its affiliates worldwide. At the site, we have studies supporting Haley, and a list of over 180 more studies showing the extreme dangers of Mercury, especially when combined with Aluminum, as in shots, and other heavy metals, such as Lead or Cadmium from the general environment. We also made a video, Haley vs Offit: A Virtual Debate About Vaccines, The Greatest Medical Controversy Of Our Time, viewable at publicaffairsmediainc.blogspot.com. We interviewed Paul at his Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia office. Then transcribed the interview, and sent it out to a few of his critics, whose credentials and comments on his statements follow below. NOTE: We're bringing you this series, re-crafted for 2017, by Richard P. Milner of Public Affairs Media during Autism Action Month. Dr. Paul Offit has led the charge against any and all in our community, doctors, scientists, parents, educators, film makers, who question vaccine safety. ### Paul Offit has for many years been the go-to-guy whenever the mainstream media looks for a sound bite on vaccination. By presenting him with no counter, they give the impression that he has no critics beyond a few hysterical parents. However, in our research and investigation we found that he has many. He is co-author of the fifth edition of the medical textbook, Vaccines , together with over 130 scientific and general audience articles on vaccine issues. He appears frequently as a guest commentator on national radio, cable and broadcast television, while his writings are found in major US newspapers and magazines. He is author or co-author of several books, including Breaking the Antibiotic Habit , Vaccines: What You Should Know , The Cutter Incident: How Americas First Polio Vaccine Led to Todays Growing Vaccine Crisis , Vaccinated: One Man's Quest to Defeat the World's Deadliest Diseases , and Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine , The Search for a Cure , and most recently, Deadly Choices: How the Anti-vaccination Movement threatens Us All. Dr. Offit is a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and a former member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) at the CDC, which evaluates vaccines for CDC recommendation. These recommendations routinely become mandates approved by all US states and territories. Offit advocates for the complete elimination of all vaccine exemptions throughout the world. He claims to have no conflict of interest regarding his patronage by Merck, his profits from one of their best-selling vaccines, and his services in clearing the way for its CDC recommendation during his membership on the CDCs Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Dr. Boyd Haley, PhD, is Emeritus Professor of Chemistry/Biochemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center. In the past 23 years Dr. Haley has emphasized studies on the biochemistry of Alzheimers disease. His research in the biochemical aberrancies in Alzheimers disease also led to his identifying mercury toxicity as a major exacerbating factor, perhaps even a causal factor for this disease. He was one of the first to propose that the organic-mercury preservative, Thimerosal, in vaccines was the most likely toxic agent involved in Gulf War Syndrome and autism-related disorders. Dr. Sherri J. Tenpenny, DO, is an osteopathic medical doctor from Cleveland, Ohio. Her board certification is in Emergency Medicine and Osteopathic Manual Medicine. At her integrative medical clinic she focuses on Allergy elimination, including treatment of children with asthma and allergies, as well as womens health, using bio-identical hormones and breast thermography. Her clinic has restored the health of patients who have come from 38 states and 8 countries. Dr. Tenpenny has been a guest on National TV talk shows and syndicated radio programs. She is a regular speaker at national and international seminars on topics ranging from iodine and breast health to vaccines and vaccination injury. She has also written two books, FOWL: Bird flu its not what you think (what you need to know about flu shots) and Saying No to Vaccines: A Resource Guide for All Ages . David M. Ayoub, M.D, received his medical degree from University of Illinois College of Medicine, Peoria, Illinois. He did his residency in Diagnostic Radiology at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine Affiliated Hospitals, Springfield, Illinois. He is board certified in Diagnostic Radiology by the American Board of Radiology. He is currently a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Radiology at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, Illinois. He is also director of Prairie Collaborative, Ltd, an Illinois not-for-profit organization in Springfield, Illinois, compiling and assessing peer-reviewed medical literature relating to autism. Dr. Suzanne Humphries, MD, is a conventionally educated medical doctor board certified in internal medicine and nephrology, who was a participant in the conventional hospital system from 1989 until 2011. After leaving the hospital in good standing of her own volition in 2011, she has been furthering her research, lecturing in various parts of the world, writing books, and conducting her own private practice in Maine and Virginia. She is the author of two books on vaccination: Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines, And The Forgotten History, co-authored with Roman Bystrianyk, and Rising From The Dead . Brian S. Hooker, PhD, PE, is an Associate Professor of Biology at Simpson University in Redding, California, where he specializes in chemistry and biology coursework. Additionally, Hooker is the Senior Process Consultant at ARES Corporation, working closely on process design for the environment restoration industry. His design efforts focus on industrial biotechnology and chemical engineering principles. Brian dedicated over 15 years as a bioengineer and the team leader for the High Throughput Biology Team and Operations Manager of the DOE Genomics: Genomes to Life (GTL) Center for Molecular and Cellular Systems at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Dr. Hooker managed applied plant and fungal molecular biology research projects at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where systems biology researchers are focused on understanding gene and protein networks involved in individual cell signaling, communication between cells in communities, and cellular metabolic pathways. In 1985, Dr. Hooker earned his Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering, from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, California. He earned his Masters of Science degree in 1988 and his doctorate in 1990, both in biochemical engineering, from Washington State University, in Pullman, Washington. Dr. Hooker has many accomplishments to his credit including: co-inventor for five patents, recipient of the Battelle Entrepreneurial Award in 2001, and a Federal Laboratory Consortium Recognition Award in 1999, for his work on Reactive Transport in 3-Dimensions. The breadth of Hookers 60 science and engineering papers have been published in internationally recognized, peer-reviewed journals. He has a teenage son with autism. Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD, is a board certified neurosurgeon, author and lecturer. He attended the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans and completed his general surgical internship and neurosurgical residency at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina. For the past 25 years he has practiced neurosurgery in addition to having a nutritional practice. He recently retired from both practices to devote full time to nutritional studies and research. Dr. Blaylock has written four books: Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills (how they are related to diseases of the nervous system), Health and Nutrition Secrets That Can Save Your Life , Natural Strategies for Cancer Patients , and Cellular and Molecular Biology of Autism Spectrum Disorders. He has written major sections of three medical textbooks and has published over 30 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals. PART ONE MILNER: For example, if you saw a child with a concussion or you saw a child with some kind of brain injury, you wouldnt treat that, would you? OFFIT: No, itsin other words, what I am director of treatment of infectious diseases here at Childrens Hospital Philadelphia and so what we do atin the Infectious Disease division is we see children who are inpatients, who have severe or chronic or persistent or unknown infectious diseases, or we see children as outpatients who generally are referred by pediatricians in the community with an infectious disease that theyre having difficulty handling. HALEY: Dr. Offit has no training in toxicology or neurology, yet he feels it is okay for him to dismiss the potential toxicity of injecting thimerosal into infants on the day of birth, within the first 6 months of life. This is quite arrogant. OFFIT: Vaccines are the best of two worlds. What they do is they induce roughly the same immune response that are induced by natural infection without having to pay the price of natural infection. HUMPHRIES: I dont believe the literature or the immunology supports this idea of roughly the same immune response. How could it? Any immunologist will tell you that the immune system is not a rough one. It involves finely orchestrated highly specific responses, so that the right target is hit at the right time, especially after being immunized naturally so that the future response is accurate, rapid and does not cause autoimmunity. Now as for as his comment about vaccines doing the same thing as natural disease--that is easily refuted. For instance with the whooping cough bacteria you get a very different stimulation, intramuscular vs. inhaled which is exactly why an inhaled vaccine has been invented. With the currently used injection, you get a very limited array of specific responses to the toxins in the bacteria compared to the natural infection. Adenylate Cyclase Toxin is not in the vaccine, so you are totally inept to respond to that after injection because the fact of original antigenic sin or otherwise known as linked epitope suppression. The immunity is faulty as a result of original antigenic sin: from Cherry 2010: HUMPHRIES: And the same applies to influenza vaccines and possibly others as well. But whooping cough is a great example of how what he says here is simply rubbish. Yes, you pay a price for natural infection, but you get a great reward for it. And if you dont get the natural infection you get vaccines cradle to grave. Many parents are opting for the infection because they know it is easily manageable with high doses of vitamin C and because they know antibiotics do not treat it and that the vaccine is not protective guarantee and carries risk. This was occurring in the midst of a media and public health frenzy based on recent cases of measles in Washington State. The US House and Senate convened hearings to discuss mandating routine vaccination on the federal level and how to stop the spread of misinformation on social media. In addition, Representative Adam Schiff wrote a letter to the Chief Executive Officers of Google and Facebook calling on them to shutdown vaccine risk aware groups and postings on the companys platforms including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. He called for a modern-day book burning. In the days leading up to the Senate hearing, there was already evidence of a shift as people found it difficult to find previously available information missing from these sources and others. No mention that the recent measles clusters have remained in small religious communities who are comfortable with their children experiencing measles, who are glad for the acquired lifetime immunity, and all of whom are now recovering or are completely recovered. Not a single word was mentioned about mumps breaking out in fully vaccinated high school and college students. Not a word was mentioned about the utter failure of the pertussis vaccine to prevent infection, prevent the spread of infection, or that it increases lifetime susceptibility to infection. On Tuesday, March 5 th , more than five hundred parents who traveled from across the country to be present at a senate hearing were shut out. The Senate HELP Committee hearing was titled Vaccines Save Lives: What Is Driving Preventable Disease Outbreaks? The parents who showed up had the answers to that question, but they were shut out. They were shut out of the hearing, shut out of testifying, shut out of having experts testify on their behalf, and they were shut out by the media covering the event. In hopes of having the truth be heard, hundreds of parents, many of them with vaccine injured children, made arrangements to leave their families, spent hundreds of dollars in travel costs, and arrived in the wee hours of the morning to attend the Senate HELP Committee hearing. Parents were originally told there would be room for 100 and that no seats could be reserved in advance, and so in below-freezing biting cold, they lined up outside the Dirksen Senate Building in the hopes they would make it into the room to view a discussion that could have life-altering consequences for them regarding products which had already caused severe harm in their own children. In spite of the cold and seriousness of the subject, the mood outside was jovial as parents from across the country recognized each other from social media groups. Some lined up as early as 5:45 AM. Doors opened at 7:30 a.m. and the eager crowd entered the warmth of the building, complied with security screening, and rushed to the fourth floor to line up for the long wait until the 10:00 a.m. hearing. First ten, then fifty, then a hundred, then several hundreds of parents, buoyed by the feeling of fellowship, streamed in to take their place in line, sharing their personal journeys of vaccine injury, healing, recovery, and loss. Those early in line peeked into the hearing room and saw it was set for around 60 people. The first in line were excited to see they would, indeed, be upfront and close, able to observe testimony, and also be seen on C-SPAN as bearing witness on behalf of so many who have been harmed by current vaccine policies. They were also quick to realize there were several people in the front of the line who were unaware of the subject matter of the hearing and who were paid place holders. Place holders for who? As it got closer to the 10:00 AM start time, those placeholders left the line and were replaced by well-dressed cocky young professionals who refused to engage and were condescending in their exchanges. Later, parents noticed that Reserved Signs had been placed in the Hearing Room on the first two rows of seats directly behind where the speakers would sit. A hearing staffer confirmed those rows were reserved, saying that only 25 to 30 members of the public would be allowed in the room. Word quickly spread down the line and the mood began to change. Moms and dads who thought their place in the room was assured by their early arrival realized they would be relegated to an overflow room. Shut out. Urgent calls were made from constituents to their Senators offices, wanting those on the committee made aware of this. Capitol police arrived, at first a few, then one officer was placed every ten or so feet down the line. They had been placed on high alert. Zip-ties were evident at their waists. It was obvious they had been advised to expect trouble from the crowd of parents and children who had been promised 100 seats and were now learning theyd been shut out. Media approached parents and were given thoughtful interviews which included peer-reviewed scientific data and references to public healths own information. As parents thoughtfully and intelligently articulated their reasons for being there, the reasons for current outbreaks, and their concerns with vaccine safety learned through real life injury of their own children, they wondered if the interviews were in vain. Would the data and science be included in coverage of the event? Or would it once again be one-sided coverage spouting the CDC rhetoric that vaccines are safe and effective, vaccines save lives, and would these concerned parents words be spliced and diced in an effort to make them look like crazy anti-vaxxers? The experienced among them had been in this fight too long and suspected the outcome. Still, brave parents approached media and tried to register their concerns and educate. The doors finally opened and it became apparent that not only were there not 100 seats, not 60 seats, not the 25-30 seats promised, but that the room had literally been filled with what appeared to be staffers so that less than two rows in the back, behind the cameras, were still open to the public. Only fifteen seats available to the more than five hundred concerned parents of vaccine-injured children who had travelled many hours and many miles to attend this hearing. The fortunate fifteen grabbed their seats at the back of the room and couldnt help but feel this echoed the past when people were relegated to the back of the bus. They looked to see who had been given the majority of seats in the room. Were they experts, people interested in and important to the topic at hand? No, they appeared to be bored and disinterested young staffers who chatted and laughed and played on their phones throughout the hearing. They had been ushered in through a side door and their only purpose in being there was as seat fillers. Hundreds of grieving and worried parents who spent money, time, and energy to attend the hearing were shut out. Hundreds of parents whose lives had already been altered forever by vaccine injury were once again barred from the discussion. Shut out of the room and shut out of the conversation. Still reeling and incredulous at what had transpired, the select few who made it into the room squeezed together along the back wall and prepared for a difficult two hours. They looked to the Senators as they filed in and out of the room, hopeful they would ask intelligent questions in a true desire to learn the truth and understand. Police officers lined the room with zip-ties at the ready and their hands on their guns. If one of the fifteen activists sat up trying to see past the cameras in front of them or murmured too loudly or held up a small sign for the press, they were warned they would be arrested. Arrested. Arrested for reacting to the lies and ignorance and mistruths and threats. Those in the back row struggling to see past the cameras tried to rise slightly and were quickly warned by armed police to stay seated. Shut out. Senator Lamar Alexander opened the hearing by stating they had received copies of two reports the Health and Human Services (HHS) had given to Congress in 1988 and 1989 as required by the 1986 Act. This was clearly in response to the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) HHS notice which had been delivered to each committee members office the day before. In a two-hour hearing full of lies, this was one of only two highlights, and it was a highlight only because it revealed someone had been working behind the scenes in an attempt to counter the truth. Two reports and then not another word on vaccine safety for thirty years? Its astounding that this meager offering was meant as a counter to the eighty-eight page document from ICAN proving HHS has failed in their duties to perform vaccine safety oversight as required by the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. Parents had to sit silently as their elected officials spent two hours calling for censorship of parents and organizations, accusing them of disseminating misinformation for selfish and diabolical gain. Parents who have young adults in diapers had to sit through one senators bemoaning the dangers of polio and memories of how difficult it was for a parent to have to rub the legs of a toddler with polio. The parents relegated to the back of the room had children whose vaccine-injury include the inability to swallow, anaphylactic allergies, gastrointestinal disorders, and neurological and developmental injuriesall injuries acknowledged by the various agencies of HHS. It is the degree to which these injuries occur that is disputed, not that they occur. Only autism was mentioned by any of the senators or panel members, and then only to deny any connection with vaccination. The hundreds of other injuries acknowledged and compensated for by the HHS in the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program were shut out. Parents in the room from Washington state had to sit silently as Senator Cassidy attempted to retell the story of a measles death that occurred in Washington State. It is unclear how, or why, but the senator erroneously said a previously vaccinated immune-compromised child had been exposed to measles by an unvaccinated child in a school setting. This is absolutely false. The senator then asked Secretary Wiesman, Do I remember that correctly? and Wiesman replied, If we are thinking of the same child, yes. That child died a number of years later from a follow-up, um reaction. But here are the facts: The fatality case was a fully vaccinated immune-compromised adult woman. The woman was exposed to measles by another adult in a clinical setting sometime in early 2015. The outbreak of 11 cases statewide was started by a 53 year old adult male. The clinical staff knew the woman had been exposed to measles, but they did not administer measles immune globulin, which is standard of care treatment for those with compromised immune systems. The woman was never symptomatic for measles. There was no rash or any other measles symptoms. Measles virus was only isolated during testing after an autopsy. It is unclear if the measles virus contributed to this already ill womans demise. This scenario describes a fatal hospital acquired infection, a medical error that is part of the 3rd leading cause of mortality in the U.S. Since this was the only death potentially due to measles in Washington state in 29 years, and the only measles death in the entire country since 2003, it is implausible that Secretary Wiessman was confused. He should have corrected Senator Cassidy immediately. Senator Cassidy went on to say thisa non vaccinated child exposing an immune-compromised child to measles should be a criminal offense. He thinks the parents of the unvaccinated child in this imaginary situation which did not occur should be arrested and tried as criminals. Senator Cassidy also contradicted the usual messaging in addressing the teenager on the panel by stating, You dont have to be an MD or PhD or a masters of public health to understand these issues. Correct? You just have to bring a critical faculty to it and look at it and understand . . . That remark bewildered the parents in the room who have spent hundreds of hours researching this issue, who present peer-reviewed science to state boards of health, and who are repeatedly scoffed at because they lack the essential initials after their names. Why is this same sentiment not applied to them? Apparently, respect for individual research and critical thinking only applies to 18 year old high school seniors who have their moment of teen-rebellion captured by the media. In a hearing which included one false statement after another, and where the senators and witnesses used every opportunity possible to not only push for mandatory vaccination for measles, but to promote the HPV vaccine, flu Shot, and vaccinations for pregnant women and seniors, Senator Rand Paul was the only voice of reason. When he finished his statement that included caution for mandating vaccines that have the potential for injury, saying that force is not consistent with the liberty our forefathers came here for and that he does not favor giving up liberty for a false sense of security, the back row in the hearing room broke out in applause. Finally, one man had listened to their concerns. One man was open. One man was on the side of truth and freedom. The Capitol police looked around as if for direction, but they did not silence the applause or move to arrest those applauding. The moment was recognized for what it was, a spontaneous response to the only senator who had not shut them out. There were so many lies and untruths passed along as fact in these two hours that it took Herculean effort for the parents in the back row to maintain decorum. Those lies will be addressed one by one in a separate article. The most appalling moment came when a senator asked the panel if they believed vaccines cause autism. One by one, the panelists said no. There was no mention of Dr. Andrew Zimmerman. No mention of Hannah Poling. No mention of the families compensated in federal vaccine court for their childs autism being the result of injuries sustained from routine vaccination. That was expected. What was not expected was this senator continuing down the line and asking the 18 year old high student for his expert opinion on this important topic. This teen was asked for his opinion repeatedly at this hearing, from his thoughts on the causes of autism to how physicians can better address vaccine hesitancy to how to shut down misinformation on the internet. Really? The senators did not invite pediatric neurologist Dr. Zimmerman, or CDC whistleblower Dr. William Thompson, or neurologist and father to a vaccine-injured child Dr. Poling, or any of the many other doctors and scientist and researchers on the vaccine-risk aware side who have dedicated their personal and professional lives to this issue, but they listened to a teenager who told them when it came to vaccines, there is no debate, there are not two sides, the science is settled. Any questions must be shut down. The gavel dropped and the meeting was brought to an end. The few parents packed in to the back row stood up in a daze, incredulous at what they had just witnessed. While being closely followed by Capitol police as a potential threat, a petite mom from Washington State attempted to talk with Secretary of Health Wiesman about why he had not mentioned the failure of the DTaP vaccine, or the mumps vaccine, or that the flu vaccine does not prevent mucosal infection and so cannot contribute to herd immunity. She brought up science, not hyperbole, but Wiesman ignored her and was ushered out a side door. She was shut down and shut out. Several moms approached media who lined the rooms and offered to be interviewed, to provide scientific reasons for infection outbreaks and vaccine hesitancy. They were met with bowed heads and ignored. Shut out. It is not just courageous parents who are being ignored, marginalized, defamed, discriminated against, falsely accused, and shut out. It is the truth that is being shut out. It is scientific integrity. It is journalism. It is liberty. It is freedom of speech. It is critical thinking. It is the very foundation of our nation that is being shut out. We are losing not just our health, but our ability to be free and critical thinkers, our ability to question, our ability to stand up against tyranny and bullies. Everything we teach our children is being trampled in this current climate of hate, discrimination, derision, segregation, persecution, and censorship of the vaccine-risk aware movement. It is likely to get worse before it gets better. Yet while this tyranny and control may limit the ability of courageous parents to communicate, it will not stop them. It will not stop us. Had the internet been a tool during the Suffragette or Civil Rights movements of decades past, its use too would have been shut down by those in power. Such silencing would not have stopped those brave men and women of the past who fought for truth and justice. It will not stop those in the fight for vaccine policies based firmly on scientific integrity and informed consent. We will not stop fighting. We will not stop educating. We will not stop shouting the truth one person, one conversation, one study at a time. Our message is too important. It is vital that we continue our mission. The health and future of our nation depend upon it. We may be shut out. But we will not be shut down. @AirbusDefence #maritime #security #Casablanca Casablanca, 11 March 2019 Airbus, one of the worlds leading aerospace, defence and security manufacturers and systems providers, will be attending the World Border Security Congress for the third time. The event will be held at the Sheraton Hotel & Towers in Casablanca (Morocco) from 19 to 21 March 2019 and will be co-hosted by the Moroccan Ministry of Interior and the General Directorate for Migration and Border Protection. In the exhibition hall, the Airbus stand (number 9) will show visitors maritime and border security as well as coastal surveillance solutions. The booth will also display a demo of Styris, the Airbuss product family focusing on maritime safety and security, which includes Vessel Traffic Services (VTS), Coastal Surveillance Systems (CSS) and Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP). In addition, on Thursday, 21 March 2019, from 11.15 am (CET), Olivier Yvon, Maritime Program Manager of Airbus Defence and Space, will give a lecture entitled Integrated Coastal Surveillance System. Airbus is one of the worlds leading contributors when it comes to providing improved operational products and services to fulfil the defence and security needs of nations, thanks to its strong position as a producer of satellites, aircraft, intelligence and security solutions, including cyber protection. The company designs, develops and implements integrated, complex and holistic solutions, including platforms and services for the following business segments: land border protection, maritime monitoring and safety (coastal and Exclusive Economic Zone) and Critical National Infrastructure (CNI). The World Border Security Congress is the premier multi-jurisdictional global platform where border protection policy-makers, managers and practitioners meet annually with security industry professionals to discuss evolving international border security challenges. * * * About Airbus Airbus is a global leader in aeronautics, space and related services. In 2018 it generated revenues of 64 billion and employed a workforce of around 134,000. Airbus offers the most comprehensive range of passenger airliners. Airbus is also a European leader providing tanker, combat, transport and mission aircraft, as well as one of the worlds leading space companies. In helicopters, Airbus provides the most efficient civil and military rotorcraft solutions worldwide. kali9/iStock(IRVINE, Calif.) -- A Southern California college student was stabbed on campus while walking her dog Sunday night, and now the suspect is at large, according to school officials. The University of California Irvine student was attacked from behind around 10 p.m. along the 3300 block of Arroyo Drive, a block of student housing, university spokesman Tom Vasich told ABC News. The female victim, who was not named, was taken to a hospital in stable condition, said Vasich. The unknown attacker fled, Vasich said, and UCI police issued a campus-wide text and email telling students to stay in place. After a search, authorities believed the suspect had left campus and the shelter in place order was lifted, Vasich said. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Cindy Yang and President Trump in a photo signed by Trump, which Yang posted on Facebook. Photo: Facebook/Screencap via The Miami Herald The woman who founded the Florida spa where police allege Patriots owner Robert Kraft solicited prostitution appears to have also sold access to the president, according to investigations by the Miami Herald and Mother Jones. The reports not only raise another red flag about how political influence has been monetized during the Trump presidency, but provide new evidence of how Trump-branded properties have become magnets for corruption and grift and may soon lead to new investigations into what may have been illegal campaign donations to Trump and the RNC. Who Is Cindy Yang? At the center of this developing story is Cindy (Li) Yang, a 45-year-old entrepreneur and naturalized U.S. citizen from China who started fundraising for Trump in 2017. Yang and her family members founded a chain of Asian day spas in Florida, mostly under the Tokyo Day Spa brand. One of the spas Yang founded but later sold was the Orchids of Asia spa in Jupiter, Florida, where police say they filmed billionaire Robert Kraft paying for oral sex in late January as part of a multi-agency law-enforcement operation targeting human trafficking at spas in the state. Ten Asian day spas were ultimately raided and shut down as a result of that investigation, but Orchids of Asia was the only one associated with Yang. According to the Miami Herald, there is no indication that Yang was implicated in the sting. However, the Herald reports that many of the day spas she and her family have owned and operated, including the location which later became Orchids of Asia, at the time Yang still ran it, have earned reputations as so-called rub-and-tug parlors, where sexual services are sold to clients in addition to massage. Yang and her family members have opened at least six day spas as well as a massage school and several nail salons all in Palm Beach and Broward counties. The familys Tokyo Day Spa branches have attracted the attention of at least two local police agencies over allegations of prostitution, and are discussed online as places where men can pay for sexual extras, the Herald reported on Friday. The publication dug through Yelp and websites aimed at would-be patrons of rub-and-tug businesses, and noted allegations from former employees and customers: Online ads on obscure websites also raise flags about Yangs businesses. In an ad written in Chinese recruiting masseuses, Yang stated that anyone over the age of 45 need not apply. Phone numbers associated with members of the Yang family are connected to various apparently old online advertisements for more explicit sex services. The Herald reported on Friday that Yang denied that she or her family members had done anything illegal, but did not respond when asked whether they were aware of allegations that sexual services were being sold at their businesses. She also said she wanted to avoid negative press ahead of her upcoming move to Washington. From massage to MAGA If there is any evidence that Cindy Yang had an interest in politics before the 2016 presidential race, the Miami Herald couldnt find it. She hadnt voted in ten years, but then seemed to undergo some kind of political awakening. She made some small donations to Jeb Bushs presidential campaign in 2015 and talked about starting a new life in a Facebook post from a GOP womens event in 2016. But then, she started posting more and more about politics on social media as the general election played out. She also removed her name from the business records of the spas she founded, and had founded what the Herald characterized as a disorganized charity called the Overseas International Female Organization. Within a year of Trumps election, Yang was deep in the MAGA muck. She had been to Trumps inauguration, a fancy New York fundraiser, an elite lunch at Mar-a-Lago, and she had started fundraising for the president. She had also started amassing a large collection of photos of herself with Trump, Trump family members, Trump administration officials, Republican lawmakers, and conservative personalities. And still more. Here are photos of Cindy (Li) Yang with Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao and another of Chao with Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, both members of President Trump's cabinet. https://t.co/xrqjKVlL2n pic.twitter.com/hd2EMeJwck Christal Hayes (@Journo_Christal) March 9, 2019 Since 2017, Yang and family members have donated almost $60,000 to the Trump campaign and the Trump Victory super-PAC, and she has frequented Mar-a-Lago, where she recently took a selfie with the president during the clubs Super Bowl party. Shes also been to the White House, where she attended a meeting of Trumps Asian American and Pacific Islander Initiative in February 2018. She has apparently attended at least two other events hosted by the group in Washington, as well. Yangs Trumpmania may not have been all about MAGA, however, as she didnt just obtain access, but has tried to profit from it. Selling the presidential selfie in China A little more than a year after Trumps election, Yang and her husband started a consulting firm, GY US Investments, targeting Chinese businesses looking to expand their operations in the U.S. The companys website marketed Yangs connections to Trump, his administration, and his conservative allies. To prove that point, the site featured numerous photos of Yang posing with Trump, Trump family members, White House officials and various other Republicans and conservative personalities. Some more pics from Cindy (Li) Yang's consulting business site: Photo with President Trump, Trump's campaign manager Brad Parscale, Rep. Brian Mast and Adam Putnam, who was in the heat of campaigning for Florida governor at the time. https://t.co/xrqjKVlL2n pic.twitter.com/QExh7rcGFJ Christal Hayes (@Journo_Christal) March 9, 2019 According to Mother Jones, the overall message conveyed by the GY US Investments website seems clear: hire Yangs company and she can get you close to Trump and his government at Mar-a-Lago and in Washington. The GY site, which went offline after the Herald story broke but can still be seen in archived form, claimed that the firm had arranged attendance and photo opportunities for clients at the White Houses Asian New Year celebration in 2018, had gotten a number of guests into the annual New Years Eve bash at Mar-a-Lago this year, and teased more opportunities to come: The GY US Investments website lists upcoming events at Mar-a-Lago at which Yangs clients presumably can mingle with Trump or members of his family. This includes something called the International Leaders Elite Forum, where Trumps sister, Elizabeth Trump Grau, will supposedly be the featured speaker. Attendees, the site says, will include Chinese elites from various countries, including the US states, as well as elite leaders from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Australia, Europe and other countries and regions. Another event for which Yangs firm says it can provide access is Trumps annual New Years celebration at Mar-a-Lago. Elsewhere on the website, the firm boasts that GY Company arranged a number of guests to attend the 2019 New Years Eve dinner. All the guests took photos with members of Trumps family. This page displays photos of Chinese executives and a Chinese movie star with Donald Trump Jr., suggesting that these pics were arranged by the company, and also includes a photo of Yang with Elizabeth Trump Grau. Coupled next to a photo of Mar-a-Lago, here's how Cindy Yang's business consulting website describes some of its services and how it can help you connect with President Trump and his cabinet: Story - https://t.co/xrqjKVlL2n pic.twitter.com/Jrl43Gwa6j Christal Hayes (@Journo_Christal) March 9, 2019 The first Trump event Yang may have sold access to was in late 2017. On Saturday, the Miami Herald reported that Yang had attended a fundraiser on December 7 at Cipriani New York, and was accompanied by a group of Chinese business executives. She said the foreigners were her guests, according to one of the attendees: In the 11 days before the event, Yang gave $5,400 to Trumps campaign and $23,500 to the Trump Victory political action committee, according to a Miami Herald analysis of federal political contributions. [Yang] also claimed to have arranged the presence of a large group of business people from mainland China. Nearly 100 of the 400 or so guests at the New York fundraiser were Chinese, according to Chinese-language media reports at the time. Even Trump noted the disproportion at the event, according to the Herald: The source who attended the party said the president joked that the Chinese guests got all the good seats and would be omnipresent at future events if his American friends in real estate didnt start donating more. The source said admission started at $2,700, and photos with the president were offered for $10,000. Ten days after the event, Yang and her husband registered GY US Investments as a company in Florida and began marketing her access. Yangs company is promoting an upcoming event at Mar-a-Lago featuring Trumps sister, Elizabeth Trump Grau. The co. bills it as a once-in-a-lifetime publicity opportunity where "Chinese elites" will have the chance to mingle with Trump Grau and members of Congress pic.twitter.com/5iCxZXqkVA Daniel Schulman (@DanielSchulman) March 9, 2019 Did Yang break the law? Its not yet clear. Since U.S. election law only allows American citizens and permanent residents to contribute money to a U.S. politician, foreigners can only attend political fundraisers if they do not pay their way in. If Yang paid for a foreign citizens ticket, but was reimbursed by them thus acting as a conduit for foreign donations that would be illegal. Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor with the Southern District of New York, commented on Saturday that a law-enforcement investigation may now be an inevitability. She explained that there seemed to be a lot of potential criminal conduct in the reports, and the next step, she said, was to find out how and why Yang had access, predicting that, I see subpoenas in her future. Reached for comment about her businesses and Trump connections by the Miami Herald, Cindy Yang said she did not know the president personally or work for him, but has volunteered with the Trump campaign: I just come to some events. Theres nothing special, Yang said. Although she has claimed online to be a member of Trump clubs, she told the Herald she does not in fact belong to any. Is this a national security risk? Sam Vinograd, who served on President Obamas National Security Council, speculated on Saturday that it was very likely China, thanks to its counterintelligence strength, knew about Yangs access, and may have even directed it. Another national security expert, Lawfares Susan Hennessey made a similar point. On Sunday, Mother Jones reported that Yang was an officer in two groups with links to Chinas government, though stressed there was no evidence to suggest she was involved in espionage. According to the report, an online profile of Yang said she held senior roles in Florida local branches of the (American) Chinese Association of Science and Technology and the Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China (CPPRC). Both organizations have numerous U.S. chapters, and dont at all prove that Yang was some kind of government agent, but they are still organizations which are linked to Chinas Communist Party, and at least one, the CPPRC, is meant to help promote Chinese influence. Mother Jones also notes that Yang was once invited to attend a ceremony welcoming three warships as they docked in Florida an event which was also attended by Chinas ambassador to the U.S. and consul general. What about blackmail? Another potential security risk revolves around sex work that may have been performed at Yangs day spas, as well as their proximity to Trumps southern White House Mar-a-Lago. What if, as the Daily Beasts David Rothkopf loudly worried on Saturday, Trump or members of his inner circle have been customers at any of the spas operated by Yang and her family. Billionaire Trump friend Robert Kraft allegedly was. And billionaire Trump backer John Childs allegedly paid for sexual services at a different Asian day spa caught up in the same sting. You dont have to be a spy novelist to imagine the blackmail opportunities such a situation could create. There are no indications that any other Trumpworld figures were spa clients, but no one should be surprised if Trumps tabloid presidency gets somehow crazier, or sleazier. Is anyone else trying to sell White House access in China? Yang, of course, is only the latest specific example of the gold rush of influence seekers and peddlers who have tried to work their way into Trumps orbit since he was elected president. In the half-exploded ethical minefield of the Trump administration, concerns over executives and foreigners using Trump family businesses to gain access and influence within the White House have been repeatedly justified. Just this past week, ProPublica reported that a Mar-a-Lago member was able to get Trump to forward his personal policy idea to the head of the Veterans Administration hardly the first or last time that will happen before Trump leaves office. Just two weeks ago, Bolsonaro's son, a Congressman in Brazil, hung out at Mar-a-Lago where he celebrated @realDonaldTrump and said, "Build that wall! Brazilians are supporting you! Via @1100Penn: https://t.co/VNoooHQs1I https://t.co/rGvdDzsg8D Zach Everson (@Z_Everson) March 9, 2019 When it comes to obtaining access to Trump events, Yangs company has been just one of at least several options for interested parties in China. Last May, the Washington Post highlighted the rising number of well-off Chinese citizens who were attending Trump fundraisers. They reported that official-looking offer letters had made the rounds among wealthy businesspeople in China offering chances to meet Trump at a campaign fundraising event in Dallas for as much as $100,000. The Post even tracked down the source of that offer, and heard about tactics which seem somewhat similar to Yangs: In an interview with The Washington Post, a Beijing man who claims to be an organizer of the excursion to Dallas said he coordinated a previous U.S. trip, bringing members of the Chinese business elite to snap selfies and pose for photos at a swanky Manhattan fund-raiser headlined by Trump in December. As part of his promotional materials for the Dallas trip, the man circulated pictures of wealthy Chinese business leaders, including a businessman known as the countrys first owner of a Ferrari, standing shoulder to shoulder with Trump in formal wear and giving a thumbs-up. Suns invite claims that he and his associates have prior experience participating in three Republican president dinners in 2017, including the New York visit. The Post could not independently verify his involvement in any trips. In the interview, he said his Beijing-based company aims to raise the profile of Chinese entrepreneurs. The $100,000 per-person price tag includes airport pickup, lodging, meals and translator, the invitation says. The RNC, in their response to the Posts story, denied having any knowledge of the efforts to woo Chinese nationals and said they would not have endorsed them if they had. We maintain strict compliance with the law and have a zero-tolerance policy toward anyone who attempts to take advantage of the system in order to attend our events, an RNC spokeswoman said. There have also been suspicions about presidency leveraging in China from someone with the closest possible ties to Trump. Jared Kushner was reportedly aggressively pursued by Chinas government after Trump got elected, and his family business was caught, more than once, using his connection to Trump to attract investment in the country. Foreign citizens can spend as much as they want at Trump properties. At a typically Trump-attended event like the New Years gala at Mar-a-Lago, the money just goes to Trumps company, not his campaign or the GOP. Trump did not attend the New Years event at Mar-a-Lago this year, having decided to remain at the White House during his partial shutdown of the federal government. If hed gone, he may have run into Huachu Tang, the owner of an electric car company in China, who later told Yahoo Finance that hed made the trip from China with his wife in the hope of meeting Trump and raising the profile of his soon-to-be-public company. Its not clear if Tang was a client of Yangs firm or not. He said he had arranged the trip through a PR agency. Stood up by the president, Tang scored photos with Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and the presidents sister, instead. This is Huachu Tang, owner of a Chinese electric car co., who flew 17 hours to attend the New Year's celebration at Mar-a-Lago in hopes of promoting his company. pic.twitter.com/Ajz6zHfZsR Daniel Schulman (@DanielSchulman) March 9, 2019 Tangs company, when asked by Yahoo, declined to reveal how much he had paid to attend the event. According to the Palm Beach Post, Mar-a-Lago raised its prices for the party this year, and a pair of nonmember guests could expect to pay the Trump Organization as much as $2,500 to attend. We dont know who else was there, either. The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics watchdog group has sued to gain access to Mar-a-Lagos visitor logs, but so far to no avail. This post has been updated throughout to reflect new information and context. TUNIS, Tunisia Beleaguered Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has announced that he will extend his fourth term in office while sweeping changes are made to the country's constitution. Announcing the news on Monday evening, Bouteflika is reported to have said, "There will be no fifth term." The president added, "There was never any question of it for me. Given my state of health and age, my last duty toward the Algerian people was always contributing to the foundation of a new republic." News of the extension, essentially a partial reworking of his March 3 offer of only serving a limited term while overseeing reform, has angered many Algerians, with #Leave_means_leave trending on Twitter within hours of his initial announcement. Protests have gripped the country, paralyzing many of its major cities since Bouteflika's fifth run for the presidency was announced in February. Though gathering hundreds of thousands of protesters, the demonstrations have been marked by their peaceful nature, with the occasional clash with police largely amounting to little more than crowd control. However, as popular momentum has built, neither side has shown itself willing to compromise beyond the extent of Bouteflika's March 3 letter. On March 11, over 1,000 judges declared that they will not oversee the vote should elections proceed with Bouteflikas participation. On the ground, demonstrators initiated a general strike across the country, lasting for the remainder of the week should that be required. You have a date with history, the national syndicate for electricity and gas workers, which represents employees of the national gas company Sonelgaz, said in a statement, as it declared its intention to fall in behind the strikers. Now is the time for all free workers to participate in this movement, it added. On March 7, a statement attributed to the president praised the peaceful nature of the protests but urged vigilance and caution against any possible infiltration of misleading parties, either internal or external, in this peaceful expression. Such parties may cause discord and provoke chaos they may trigger crises and woes, before cautioning against a return to the dark decade of the 1990s, which saw the country ripped apart by a brutal civil war. Nevertheless, along routes lined by riot police and equipped with water cannons and helicopters circling overhead, protesters of all ages and classes took to the streets, calling upon the president to honor the spirit, if not the letter, of the two-term presidential limit he initially lifted in 2008 allowing him to run for a third term before reimposing it in 2016, theoretically paving the way for a stay in El Mouradia Palace stretching till 2024. Many had doubted that Bouteflikas health would even support a fifth term. The president has rarely appeared in public since he was paralyzed by a devastating stroke in 2013, with many believing his power is being exercised through his brother Said and operating in concert with a shadowy cabal of army officers, security officials, industrialists and trade unionists. Within Algiers, few appeared willing to even consider the limited concessions offered in early March. The proposal is ridiculous because they are just trying to make time to find a plan, a spokesperson for the youth-led No to a Fifth Term told Al-Monitor, before rejecting the notion that any further poll would take place ahead of the next electoral round in five years. In the two decades Bouteflika and his immediate circle have been in power, the spokesperson said, this system has only excelled in filling its pockets. Current concerns notwithstanding, Bouteflikas extended stay within the presidential palace has seen him transform the office of the presidency, imbuing it with enough power to offer any successor the ability to challenge the offices traditional support networks. So many of the high-ranking politicians are tainted by allegations of corruption and scandal in one way or another," Jessica Northey of Coventry University told Al-Monitor. Northey added, Theres very little consensus, so its hard to imagine anyone coming forward. This must be an incredibly tense time for them and the FLN [National Liberation Front]. In my experience, theres a whole new generation of politicians and civil society activists coming forward. But at the top, nothings moving. Its still this old generation of freedom fighters, [from the 1962 War of Independence], she added. On March 8, several members of the FLN resigned from the party in apparent sympathy with the protesters, one of the first signs of cracks beginning to form within a ruling elite whose surface typically remains untroubled by the tides of popular currents. Elsewhere, some of the better-known candidates in Aprils poll, including former Prime Minister Ali Benflis, the Islamist Abderrazak Makri and the leftist Louisa Hanoune, have dropped out of the election and joined the protesters. For days, Algeria has been witnessing an unprecedented peaceful revolutionary situation led only by the people, wrote lawyer Mokrane Ait Larbi, the retiring campaign manager for independent presidential candidate Ali Ghediri. "It would not be possible at this historic crossroads to achieve a breakthrough via elections, he said in a press release. But such rhetoric meant little to the people who crowded the country's streets in the hundreds of thousands over the weekend. Really, people are just looking for the rule of law," Northey said. "They just want the government to respect the [Algerian] Constitution they spent years writing. Its hardly surprising that theyve lost confidence in Bouteflika. Not just because hes so ill or that they hardly ever see him, but because the constitution keeps getting amended to keep him in power. Algeria has the capacity to do incredible things. Take a look at the current protests theres no factionalism, theres no Islamist presence, theres no regional rivalry. Women are at the forefront of the movement. All theyre really calling for is the rule of law and that they and the constitution be respected, she added. Seeking an efficient mechanism to utilize the states unused assets, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly issued regulations for the countrys first sovereign wealth fund March 2. The 200 billion Egyptian pound ($11.2 billion) sovereign fund, wholly owned by the government, is aimed at contributing to the countrys sustainable development in the long run. Minister of Planning Hala al-Saeed said March 3 that the fund is a sovereign investment entity, which is wholly owned by the Arab Republic of Egypt. The funds authorized capital totals 200 billion pounds, while the issued capital stands at 5 billion pounds ($280 million). It is designed to contribute to Egypt's sustainable development through the efficient management of its assets according to the world's top standards and rules for the maximization of their value for the nation's future generations, Saeed said. In addition to its paid-up capital, the fund will also acquire unused assets from ministries, authorities and other state-run agencies, according to the regulations approved by parliament. To this end, Saeed further explained that the fund is authorized to cooperate and partner with Arab and foreign funds. It can set up joint ventures and sub-funds in partnerships with the local private sector and foreign investors. From a macroeconomic perspective, the fund is in line with the government's drive to increase the nation's assets and resources for the best interest of the coming generations, Rashad Abdo, head of the Egyptian Forum for Economic and Strategic Studies, told Al-Monitor. The fund is well-aimed at the nations sustainable development. It will highly serve all sectors to realize this objective. Most importantly, it is an ideal treatment for Egypts state budget deficit, Abdo said. Egypts budget deficit narrowed to 3.6% of GDP in the first half of fiscal year 2018/19, which began July 1, from 4.2% in the same period a year earlier, according to Finance Ministry data. The funds idea dates to 2015, when the then-minister of planning, Ashraf al-Araby, said the fund under the name Amlak would be the states investment arm. However, it took three years for the Ministry of Planning to finalize the funds bill in March 2018. Egypts parliament passed the bill for launching the sovereign wealth fund July 16. Abdo said new projects resulting from the wealth fund would increase GDP, create jobs and improve the countrys financial resources. The fund may establish companies, partner in joint ventures, increase capital of existing firms, trade on listed securities on the stock market and invest in sovereign debt instruments, according to the law. An increase in the states revenues will definitely narrow the budget deficit. Through the injection of investments, GDP will increase in time. The fund is like a seed for sustained economic development, Abdo said, citing success stories in Saudi Arabia, China and Russia. In Arab countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, oil has been the main resource for financing the sovereign funds. In China and Russia, GDP surpluses have been the seed. In Egypt, unused assets, which are plenty here, will be the core funding resource, he said. There are unused public assets totaling 4,135 buildings in Egypt, Tahrir News portal cited Finance Minister Mohamed Maait as saying July 17. The fund will be fully authorized to lease, sell off and acquire any state-owned properties, which include buildings and land. Egypts untapped assets are worth between 1 trillion Egyptian pounds and 2 trillion Egyptian pounds (between $65.1 billion and $112.3 billion). This will provide the fund with mammoth funding in addition to its annual earnings, Abdo said. It is more like a family plan, according to Abdo, as the core principle is based on saving for future needs. Sovereign wealth funds save the future generations share in the presents boom. Oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have set up these funds for that objective, he said. Moreover, the fund may invest in the nations infrastructure projects in collaboration with the private sector. Tarek Metwali, a member of the parliaments industrial committee, says the fund can finance infrastructure projects, stressing the need to maximize gains from the states assets. The fund may invest in infrastructure projects. This will provide adequate funding for the nations investment needs, Metwali told Al-Ahram newspaper March 5. The state owns buildings worth billions of Egyptian pounds. These neglected buildings are not economically used. The wealth fund will use these assets well, Metwali added, calling for drawing on success stories in China, Singapore, Norway, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Various ministries own old administrative and apartment buildings, which could be sold off or refurbished for leasing. According to the World Bank, funding Egypts infrastructure projects will be a challenge in the coming years. In a December paper titled Enabling Private Investment and Commercial Financing in Infrastructure, the World Bank Group urged Egypt to rely on the private sector in its infrastructure projects. With limited fiscal space, relying on public resources to fund much-needed infrastructure investments will no longer be a viable strategy to meet the countrys needs. This constraint reaffirms the need for a shift in the development model, where the private sector plays a pivotal role in attracting substantial new investment across high potential economic sectors, the World Bank paper said. Egyptian security experts suspect that a wall being constructed by Libya will be ineffective in stopping terrorists and arms smugglers at Libya's porous eastern border with Egypt. Col. Miloud Jawad, the undersecretary general of the Interior Ministry of the Libyan Interim Government based in Tobruk, announced on Jan. 21 that the ministry had started building a wall at its eastern border crossing with Egypt, Mosaid, to preventing the infiltration of militants and combat drug trafficking and other smuggling operations across the border. The Libyan security directorate announced in a Jan. 20 statement that it signed a contract with Libyan company Al Noor & Al Amal to construct a wall just one kilometer long on its eastern border with Egypt. There is no coordination with the Egyptian authorities on the project. The chaos gripping Libya since the NATO-backed overthrow of its long-serving leader Moammar al-Gadhafi in November 2011, following an uprising against his regime, has posed a mounting threat to Egypt's national security. In the absence of a functioning Libyan state, Egypt's western border with Libya has become a hotspot for the smuggling of arms and the infiltration of militants across it. On Sept. 28, 2018, the Egyptian air force destroyed 10 vehicles loaded with arms and explosives that crossed into Egypt from Libya. Security experts in Egypt do not believe that the border wall can effectively curb these threats. Gen. Mohamed Rashad, an Egyptian former intelligence official, told Al-Monitor, Due to the prolonged state of chaos that has been engulfing Libya following the ouster of Gadhafi and the inability of the authorities there to develop a new and efficient security directorate and establish control over all of the country, militant groups started to gain a foothold there, especially in eastern Libya. Consequently, eastern Libya, which has become an incubator for jihadist groups, has become a hostile environment toward Egypt across the border. He added, After the ouster of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi on June 30, 2013, eastern Libya has become a safe transit point for Islamists wanted by the police who fled Egypt. It has also become a refuge for militants who are hostile to the post-June 30 Egyptian government. Rashad believes that it is impossible for a one-kilometer wall to stop the infiltration of militants and smuggling of arms across the 1,115-kilometer (693-mile) Egyptian-Libyan border. The border wall is being built by the Libyan side alone, without any coordination with Egyptian authorities. And it is only the Libyan authorities that bear its costs, Rashad added. For the border wall to be really effective in imposing security, it has to be at least 1,000 kilometers long. But building a wall with such a great length requires huge financing, which is above the capacity of the Libyan authorities. In addition, a border wall needs tight security on both sides of the border, and this is far from easy now in light of the current fragility of Libya's security agencies, he said. Rashad mentioned Tunisia's wall along half its border with Libya, built in 2016. But the wall Tunisia finished building along its border with Libya is long enough to better control the area, compared to the overall length of their shared border, he said. Gen. Hamdi Bakhit, a member of the Egyptian Parliament's National Security and Defense Committee, also believes that the idea of building an effective wall along the Egyptian-Libyan border is impossible due to the vast length of the border as well as the huge costs it would entail. Bakhit told Al-Monitor, Much of the terrain in the vicinity of the Egyptian-Libyan border is mountainous, and this makes the task of border security extremely complicated. But the Egyptian state, in the past four years under the leadership if its President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has significantly reinforced security along its western border with Libya with additional troops and armored vehicles. The UN Security Council imposed an arms embargo on Libya in February 2011, after the country became politically unstable. The trade ban forbids all UN member states from selling or supplying arms and any related materials including ammunition, military vehicles and other equipment to the country. Bakhit believes that the only viable solution to stop the threats Egypt faces from its western border with Libya is to support the re-arming of Libya so it can establish security. I hope that the Egyptian authorities can coordinate with regional and international powers to lift the ban on arms sales to the Libyan army, he said. CAIRO The south Sinai governorate has started building a 37-kilometer (23-mile) concrete barrier around the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh on the Red Sea, stretching from east to west, from Nabq National Park to Ras Mohamed Nature Reserve. This step coincides with the governments efforts to revive its tourism sector that has been affected by a Russian plane crash in the area in 2015, in what was classified as a terrorist attack that killed 224 people. Maj. Gen. Khaled Fouda, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisis son-in-law and governor of the south Sinai Peninsula, told Al-Monitor that construction of new gates and a fence began Feb. 1 as part of a 20 million Egyptian pound ($1.15 million) project carried out by the south Sinai governorate to beautify the tourist city. On Feb. 18, photos began circulating in the media, showing a 6-meter (roughly 20-feet) cement wall, sparking citizens fears of encircling the city, according to Fouda. The Egyptian government was planning to build a fence or concrete wall in 2005 during the days of deposed President Hosni Mubarak, to prevent Sinai Bedouins from infiltrating into the city of Sharm el-Sheikh and to curb terrorist operations. The Wafd Party objected to this step at the time, claiming that [a wall] would widen the gap between the government and south Sinai citizens. A wall would not ensure security or prevent terrorism. The amount of 20 million pounds to build the wall would be better invested in providing employment for Sinai citizens and building hospitals and schools, instead of squandering money on isolating them. The wall will fuel terrorism instead of curbing it. The fence raised the ire of citizens and tourists alike, claiming that it would prevent passersby from seeing the natural scenery. It also isolates Bedouins living and working in the city from tourist sites. The government neither denied nor commented on the construction of the wall. Fouda said, The aim [of the fence] is to beautify and secure Sharm el-Sheikh. We are doing this for the future [of the city]. The project will help Sharm el-Sheikh recoup lost tourism revenues, as it will reassure tourists to be surrounded by high walls that will prevent terrorist attacks from outside. He added that the project is composed of several high concrete barriers and at least 37 kilometers of a barbed wire fence, in addition to four gates to access the city. Sharm el-Sheikh is located on the southeastern Sinai coast. The area had been uninhabited throughout history until it gained international attention in modern times given its strategic location near the Gulf of Aqaba. Sharm el-Sheikh thus became one of the most popular tourist spots with many resorts that have access to the Red Sea. It also hosts several high-level meetings between local and international officials. The leaked photos and videos show that the fence, which will be monitored by cameras, will mostly be made of cement and stones. Areas adjacent to the mountains will only have barbed wire and army patrols to maintain a civilized appearance. Since the June 30 Revolution, terrorist attacks have escalated, killing hundreds of policemen, army officers and civilians. But these attacks never occured in south Sinai; they took place in northern Sinai instead, where most recently on Feb. 16, clashes with militants killed 15 Egyptian officers. The ban on direct flights from the United Kingdom to Sharm el-Sheikh has been in place since November 2015 following the attack on a Russian plane. Since then, the Egyptian authorities have stepped up security measures in Sharm el-Sheikh, setting up checkpoints on the borders of the city, in the hope that flights from the United Kingdom and Russia would resume. Head of the city council in Sharm el-Sheikh, Mahmoud al-Sawli, addressed the criticism and told Al-Masry Al-Youm Feb. 18 that the fence is a net that aims at blocking garbage flying in the direction of the sea, preventing the entry of cattle through Naama Bay and deterring plastics and papers from blowing toward the Gulf of Aqaba and the sea. Naama Bay is one of the most famous tourist areas in the city. Sawli added, The passage of cattle and camels into Hay El Nour and Naama Bay leads to accidents and creates an uncivilized view. He said that Saudi Arabia built a net from Mecca to Medina to prevent camels from causing road accidents. Mohammad Hakim, owner of a chalet in Sharm el-Sheikh, told Al-Monitor, I didn't know about the wall, and nobody told us about fences around the city until photos were posted on social media. When I asked around, I realized it was true but that it was still in the initial stages. I think the wall will hide Sharm el-Sheikhs beauty with its mountains and deserts and it will not make any difference at the security level. It will only annoy people more. Al-Sayed al-Sharif, a regular visitor to Sharm el-Sheikh who owns a shop in one of the resorts, told Al-Monitor, The fence constitutes an environmental, tourist and aesthetic crisis. It is turning our beautiful city into an ugly prison. Such a wall would cost millions while our country suffers from serious debts; the money could be invested in other projects. He said, The project will not stop terrorism. I think it is money squandering. Even foreign tourists criticized the wall, which they dubbed as racist. Sharif added, The wall gives tourists the impression that anywhere outside the city is unsafe, thus impacting tourism. It would also be sending a message to the Bedouins that they are outcasts who do not deserve protection from terrorism, or that they are terrorists themselves. Moscow is insisting that the sale of its S-400 missile defense system to Turkey despite harsh US opposition is going very smoothly and is just business. "This is a system that the Turkish government wants, and we want to [sell] it, Viktor Kladov, director for international cooperation and regional policy at the Russian defense firm Rostec told Defense News at a recent defense conference in Abu Dhabi. We are cooperating with partners and potential partners, regardless of who likes it and who doesn't like it. Asked whether Russia will step in with its own offer of Su-35 fighters should the United States retaliate by denying the delivery of F-35s to Ankara, Kladov added, "No, it doesnt work that way. In the first place, it will be decided by the [Turks]. Why it matters: The sale of the S-400 has driven yet another wedge into US-Turkey relations. Russia had initially seen the Turkish demand for the Russian air-defense system as a negotiating tactic by Ankara in its bid for the US-made Patriot system. But as talks between Turkey and the United States stalled, Moscow did what it could to make the deal economically and politically viable both in terms of widening the US-Turkey rift and strengthening its own partnership with Ankara. Moscow and Ankara have long argued over the price of the deal and over whether Russia would be willing to transfer sensitive technology. In December 2017, Rostec CEO Sergey Chemezov set the sale price at $2.5 billion. The first deliveries are scheduled for this fall. In a Feb. 10 interview with the Washington Post, Chemezov, who is also Putins longtime confidant and is under US sanctions, called the US reaction to the deal a simple example of unscrupulous competition. He insisted that Moscow wasnt concerned about its own security in terms of selling the system to a NATO member since the S-400 is not an offensive system; it is a defensive system. We can sell it to Americans if they want to [buy it], he said. Less than meets the eye: Russian military experts say the S-400 would give Turkey its first long-range anti-aircraft missile system. For now, Turkey only operates the US-made MIM-14 and MIM-23 mid-range systems and the British short-range Rapier. Col. Viktor Murakhovsky, editor-in-chief of a Russian military journal, said the military characteristics of the export version of the S-400 are significantly different from the domestic version. All the sensitive technology that the state considers classified is not in the export version, Murakhovsky said in 2017, rebutting reports that NATO could exploit the sale to gain valuable information that could be used against Russia. He pointed out that Greece, another NATO country, has long operated Russian S-300s. But another military analyst, Col. Mikhail Khodarenok, has said that even the reduced capacity system being sold to Turkey constitutes one of the most advanced defensive systems in the world able to put a countrys airspace under lock and key. Meanwhile, the head of the Russian Federal Service on military-technical cooperation, Dmitry Shugaev, said recently that Moscow understands Turkeys ambition to develop its own defense industry. He said Russia has made some concrete proposals on the projects that interest Turkey most on aviation technologies and engines, in particular. The terms of the S-400 contract imply further technological cooperation, he said. We are prepared to localize production of certain elements of the system [in Turkey]. Whats next: Washington has warned Ankara that buying the S-400 will result in a reassessment of Turkey's participation in the F-35 fighter jet program and even possibly sanctions. Last week, a defiant Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the purchase a done deal and said Ankara was even ready to consider purchasing the more advanced S-500 system in the future. Know more: Read more about Erdogans latest dismissal of US threats here and the latest on Russia-Turkey evolving ties here. -Maxim Suchkov Shortly after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneis call on officials to uproot corruption, the Iranian judiciary announced perhaps the largest embezzlement case in the countrys history involving some 6.6 billion euros ($7.4 billion). Similar to other major embezzlement scandals in recent years such as the one centered on businessman Babak Zanjani, who is now awaiting execution the current case relates to murky schemes to bypass sanctions imposed by then US President Barack Obama. Over a dozen executives and board members of petrochemical companies are accused of financial crimes dating back to 2010-13, the final years of previous President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Eleven of the main suspects are in custody, while three others are reportedly abroad and will be tried in absentia. To evade sanctions, the suspects allegedly set up outside of Iran companies that sold petrochemical goods to foreign customers. The suspects are accused of "disrupting Iran's economic system" by profiteering from the countrys multitiered exchange rate regime. A senior judiciary official stated at a March 7 hearing, "Despite the numerous letters [from] the Minister of Oil to the defendants that the foreign currency [proceeds] must be paid in full the defendants did not pay any attention and seized a portion of the foreign currency." Rather than handing over all hard currency proceeds, the suspects are said to have only transferred some of it but converted to Iranian rials at the official exchange rate. Meanwhile, the withheld foreign exchange was allegedly sold for up to three times that rate on the black market. Nemat Ahmadi, a prominent Iranian lawyer, told Al-Monitor, "The case is highly complex. Based on Iranian law, exporters must repatriate their foreign currency revenues to the Central Bank and then receive the rial equivalent. He added, The Central Bank currently has the same problem with a number of petrochemical exporters." Indeed, as the rial has tanked with the return of US sanctions, the Rouhani administration has struggled to compel petrochemical exporters to return their hard currency proceeds. Back in September 2018, Central Bank Gov. Abdolnasser Hemmati warned that such practices will be confronted by the government. He also lamented that non-oil exporters had in the preceding six months only sold $3.8 billion out of $27 billion in hard currency revenues via NIMA (the state-run secondary foreign exchange market). Petrochemical companies many of which belong to the so-called semi-state sector generated 80% of these revenues. The latter is greatly constituted by privatized enterprises whose shares are commonly owned by state investment companies all while their management is appointed through lobbying by the government, the parliament and third-party individuals. As recently as Feb. 25, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani lashed out at the semi-state sector, saying that an economy dominated by it is the worst kind and that no one dares to supervise it. While apparently five years in the making, the embezzlement case could be the result of pushback from the Rouhani administration against a consistent thorn in its side that has long been rumored to wreak havoc on the foreign exchange market while lobbying to sabotage the approval of anti-money laundering and other conventions that would permanently exit Iran from the blacklist of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF). In this vein, conservative Javan daily has referred to coverage of the case as a plot to deceive by those in favor of adhering to the FATFs hotly contested action plan. An unexpected twist Much of the outrage on Iranian social media and news sites is focused on one of the chief suspects: Marjan Sheikholeslami Aleagha. As CEO of two Turkey-based trading companies, Sheikholeslami has been described as the "partner" of prime suspect Reza Hamzelou, the former managing director of the Iranian Petrochemical Commercial Company (PCC). Most of the suspects were reportedly PCC managers at the time of the alleged offenses. Of further note, PCC was privatized in 2009. Court records allege that Sheikholeslami transferred proceeds from sales of Iranian petrochemical products to the accounts of her trading companies, earning almost $9 million in the process. As early as 2017, the conservative Bultan News claimed that Sheikholeslami had won a contract to evade sanctions from Sepanir Oil and Gas Company, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Khatam al-Anbia Construction Headquarters. The report also alleged that she had later fled for Canada with a lot of money." The uproar has also engulfed Sheikholeslami's spouse, Mehdi Khalaji the Libitzky Family Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Given Sheikholeslamis alleged profiteering from sanctions evasion on behalf of the IRGC, Khalaji has also become the target of a public backlash since he has long been a prominent sanctions advocate. Sheikholeslami was previously a political writer for Reformist daily Hambastegi. She also set up the Cultural Heritage News Agency in the early 2000s. Sheikholeslami reportedly ran as a Reformist in the 2000 parliamentary elections and as a conservative in the 2008 legislative polls. Amid the backlash, property records have been circulating on social media and news sites indicating that Sheikholeslami in 2013 and 2017 bought two homes in Canada and in 2016 purchased a $2.35 million house in Washington, DC. In addition to her Turkish trading companies, Sheikholeslami has also established several enterprises in Canada and the United States. One of them the US-based Idea Center for Arts and Culture LLC was set up in 2014. The company also funded a website and Persian-language magazine named "Ghalamro." One of the editors, Mohammad Izadi, confirmed the funding on March 9, writing that "this scandal has been shocking and regrettable." The Idea Center for Arts and Culture LLC was dissolved in 2017. Sheikholeslami has so far declined requests for comment by BBC Persian. However, in reaction to the wave of criticism, Khalaji released a statement March 9 condemning "character assassination" of him and his spouse and stating that the trial in Iran is "illegal." The case could end up having further dimensions. As some have speculated, the alleged sanctions evasion on the part of Sheikholeslami could spur legal action by Canadian and US authorities. Another chief suspect in the case, Amin Ghorashi Sarvestani who is being tried in absentia was arrested in the United States in 2012 and charged with helping export embargoed communications equipment to Iran. Sarvestani pled guilty and was sentenced to 30 months in prison and a $100,000 fine in August 2013. His lawyer later argued that the sentence ought to be revised since the exports were in line with US foreign policy goals of promoting internet freedom for Iranians. Sarvestani insisted in an email to the Associated Press in 2014 that he was neither an activist nor politically motivated, adding, I think it should be considered one of the strangest fraud cases if what we did was exactly in line with the US government policies and also it would be against the Iranian government policies! Six years earlier in 2008 a year before the Iranian governments sale of PCC Sarvestani, along with Hamzelou, had approached a Maltese businessman. They wanted to discuss ongoing privatization efforts in Iran that had given the two men and their partners the chance to buy state-owned PetroPars. Their idea was to look for European partners and financing for the venture. A leaked US Embassy cable relays how the Maltese businessman described Hamzelou and Sarvestani: reform-minded moderates who believed the current situation in Iran could be improved through the expansion of business ties to the West. Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has been sentenced to 38 years in prison and will receive 148 lashes, according to her husband, Reza Khandan. Khandan posted on Facebook that Sotoudeh was sentenced in two separate cases the first one resulting in a five-year prison sentence and the second in a 33-year sentence. There had been conflicting reports about her case. Iranian media initially reported that she had been sentenced to seven years in prison. Judge Mohammad Moghiseh spoke to reporters at the swearing in of the new judiciary chief, Ebrahim Raisi. Nasrin Sotoudeh has been sentenced to five years in prison for conspiring against the system and sentenced to two years in prison for insulting Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei], Moghiseh said. It is not clear why there has been such a discrepancy in the reported sentencing. Sotoudeh was most recently arrested in June 2018 and was told that she had already been sentenced in absentia to five years in prison, though her husband at the time said they had no idea what the charges were. Sotoudeh was previously arrested in 2010 and sentenced to 11 years for her work as a lawyer. She spent three years in prison and was released early. She called for the release of all lawyers upon her own release, saying their convictions had more to do with the critical security environment of the post-2009 elections when heavy sentences were being handed out. According to all international laws, lawyers have immunity in conducting their professional responsibilities, and this principle in general for lawyers in Iran has been trampled and violated, she said upon her release. Such a long sentence, even for someone as well known and outspoken as Sotoudeh, was surprising to many on social media. One person tweeted speculation that Sotoudehs crime is that she got into an argument with Hossein Shariatmadari in court, referring to the editor of Kayhan newspaper, who has a close relationship with and is appointed by Khamenei. In reaction to Sotoudehs 38 years, another Twitter user noted that after the chaotic 2009 elections in which millions protested the election results and the judiciary began handing out sentences that ranged from five to 10 years, some felt that the Islamic Republic would not even be around that long for anyone to serve their entire sentence. An Amnesty International employee noted that Sotoudeh was truly convicted of defending human rights, defending the rights of individuals, opposition to the inhumane punishment of execution, opposition to discriminatory laws [and opposition] to humiliating compulsory hijab. Other Twitter users noted that Sotoudehs sentencing coincided with the first day on the job of the new judiciary chief, putting to rest any hopes that this new judiciary would be any different from previous judiciaries. One Twitter user likened the sentence to Raisi establishing the playing field of the new judiciary. Iranian lawyer Seyyed Ali Mojtahedzadeh tweeted sarcastically, Certainly the timing of the starting of work of Mr. Raisi as the judiciary chief and the sentencing of human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh being together is a coincidence?! He continued, Optimistic friends can continue welcoming [Raisi]. The government that will stand following the April 9 election will quite likely be a national unity government joining a populist party with shades of liberalism and a right-wing party with shades of racism. Until the last-minute it will be hard to predict which one would win the necessary support to ensure the prime ministers office for itself. It depends on the partys ability to form a bloc of at least 61 mandates (a clear Knesset majority) to oppose granting the prime ministers role to the head of the other camp. A tie could also lead to a rotation between the leader of the Blue and White party, Benny Gantz, and the leader of the Likud. We can assume that this will not be Prime Minister and Likud head Benjamin Netanyahu. After all, Gantz had promised not to join a government with him in light of the attorney generals declared intention to indict him. The important milestones of the election cycle are already behind us: The political map was shaped when the parties submitted their list of candidates for the Knesset, and the attorney general announced his intention to bring Netanyahu to trial, following a hearing. Two large lists will vie in the political arena, and it is expected that Gantzs party will be slightly larger than the Likud, and that the election will be decided by the small parties that would or would not pass the vote threshold of four Knesset seats. The two large parties are deciding whether to undertake a wide effort to recruit every possible vote to their camp in order not to lose votes to the small parties, or whether to undertake an opposite effort, to accept a loss of mandates to the small parties in their bloc in order to ensure that they pass the vote threshold and would be partners in the next coalition. The question of who the president will charge with an attempt to form the next government the largest party or the leader that the greatest number of Knesset members recommends has become decisive. The answer is not so complicated. If 61 Knesset members recommend a certain person to President Reuven Rivlin, he will not have discretion and he will charge him with forming the government even if he heads the smallest party. But usually, not all the parties recommend a candidate and the president holds another round of consultations, during which other parties reveal their cards. The president can then decide which candidate has the best chance of successfully forming a government. If his decision does not make sense, the High Court can get involved, something that has never happened in Israels history. If one party receives significantly more votes than the runner-up, but the number of recommendations from each of the two camps is even, the president could charge the head of the largest party with forming the government. If he is not able to form a coalition, he would have to return the mandate to the president, who would then grant that task to his rival. Gantzs tactic to widen the gap over the Likud could cost him the prime ministers seat if he does so at the expense of his potential partners. Why? Some of the parties teetering on the vote threshold include right-wing voters and their entrance to the Knesset could in fact improve Gantzs chances, even if it is at the expense of his own partys size. If these teetering parties fail to enter the Knesset, then obviously they will not be available as coalition partners. Netanyahu is experienced enough to try to execute a gambit sacrificing a soldier in a chess game for the purpose of defense and give up the margins of the Likuds candidate list in order to bring in right-wing lists, among them extremists and crazies, to join his coalition after the election. But even if Netanyahu succeeds in these moves, he would find it very hard to maintain a coalition with a scant majority. These partners might abandon him if he does not categorically reject US President Donald Trumps diplomatic plan, or if he acts in a way that is interpreted as a moderate diplomatic move. And so, the Likud would prefer a broad coalition, and only Blue and White would present this potential. If Netanyahu cant convince Gantz to break his vow and join him at least until the attorney generals final decision following the hearing Israel would face another election or the Likud would oust Netanyahu. Gantz could not form a government without the Likud. If he insists that Netanyahu cant participate in his government, he would have two options: new elections or personnel changes in the Likud. If a national unity government does form, it could make economic reforms that narrow governments would have difficulty implementing, and it could help the secular public stand up to the trends of religious influence and religious coercion. However, the most significant challenge it would face will be how to relate to Trumps plan. Previous unity governments advanced economic moves, but did not dare advance moves in the realm of religion and state, and the diplomatic-security moves they undertook were very careful. On the other hand, they were politically stable and long-lasting. We can assume that Blue and White will demand to overturn some of the laws related to the expropriation of land in the West Bank and the imposition of Israeli law on the territories, and to fix other laws including the Nationality law (anchoring the Jewish nature of the State of Israel), the law damaging the nonprofit sector and the Nakba law. One cant overstate the importance of such moves, if they do happen. If Netanyahu does not head the Likud, implementing such changes will likely be easier. But the immediate and most important challenge a national unity government would face is how to react to the deal of the century, the peace plan formulated in recent years in the White House, led by Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and the team of Trumps private lawyers, who have become his trusted advisers on foreign affairs. A stable unity government with four years in power ahead of it could let go of the fear of the threats of the right, seriously examine the plan and not make do with a diplomatic response that centers on expecting the refusal of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. This will be its greatest challenge, and if it meets it successfully, the 2019 election would be remembered as a crucial one. Shashidhar Thakur, vice president of engineering for search at Google. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images Back in 2011, I was trying to land a job as a web editor for an alt weekly and wanted to prove I had some tricks up my sleeve. So in addition to a resume and cover letter, I bought an ad on Google that would appear with searches of my name, linking to a simple landing page with my resume and clips. (It was a very dumb trick.) I learned two important things. One, if youre not smart about setting a max daily budget in Google Ads, you can blow through $100 in a day. Two, old-school alt weekly editors dont Google candidates I got the job, and later learned that nobody involved in hiring me had seen the ad at all. But even while I was making poor choices in 2011, there was no question about where Id place my ad. That year, Google controlled about 80 percent of the search engine market in the U.S. If I were to try the same trick today, it would make even less sense to not use Google; it now controls about 91 percent of the search-engine market, with Yahoo and Bing fighting it out for single percentage points at the margins. For local businesses, having ads tied to Google search results can be a boon, but its not a necessity; the search engines organic results often do the trick, due to Google Maps or smaller aggregator sites like Yelp. But when it comes to branded advertising especially for direct-to-consumer brands that forgo retail space and depend entirely on online portals to move product buying ads on your own name is a table stake. Bloomberg looked into this phenomena, finding that pressure to buy for brands is especially intense on mobile, where search ads are placed directly underneath search results, and competitors often buy ads against each other. Bloomberg found that Uber was advertising against Lyft as of Friday, March 8. Ive stumbled across this naturally. While shopping for mattresses recently, I kept getting served ads on Google from Tuft & Needle, which had bought ads against its competitors, reading Do Not Buy That Mattress | Learn the Truth Why Overpay, complete with custom landing pages showing you how much you were going to overspend if you went with Leesa or Casper or Purple or Nectar or anything besides Tuft & Needle. This means that Tuft & Needle competitors are essentially locked in to buying a Google ad, because if they dont, they cede the top results to Tuft & Needles pages explaining why their competitors mattresses are overpriced hunks of junk. You have to buy the ads every day, said Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow Inc., speaking to Bloomberg. Google gets a piece of every single MyPillow sold and its wrong. Why should someone be able to bid on your own brand words and why do you have to buy your own just so people can see you online? Thats wrong. When MyPillow experimented with simply not advertising on Google, they found that others swooped in, directing people searching directly for their brands name to knock-off stores and other brands. Weve had to bid more to get back on there after we stopped, said Lindell. Decades ago, when the Yellow Pages were still the primary way people discovered local businesses, companies would use very simple hacks, such as trying to make themselves the first listing in the phone book thus the prevalence of AAA Plumbers and A1 Auto Repair shops in most metro areas. Business could also take out small ads in the Yellow Pages themselves, advertising their services or wares. What a business couldnt do, for example was buy an ad and ensure that it was placed directly next to the listing for their competitors business, announcing to all car owners that Jake Swearingens Auto Shop would offer you a better deal than A1 Auto Repair. But Google has fundamentally changed a lot of how we find information. The Yellow Pages were cumbersome and infrequently updated way to find a plumber or pizza place compared to what we have to today. Googles has not only made the world much more efficient for me as a regular customer, but its targeted advertising has allowed for businesses to find customers in a much more cost-effective way, and at a scale that has made the Yellow Pages seem quaint. But Googles free-for-all ad market and its complete dominance of the search engine market, combined with its ever-increasing ad prices up by 5 percent last year, per ad agency Merkle places many smaller businesses in a lose-lose situation. They can either pay more and more each year to buy ads for searches on their own brand name, or stop and see a competitors ad show up when people search for their brand (though their own homepage would still likely rank above any ad from a competitor organically). It may be a lose-lose for businesses, but its a win-win for Google, and one of the big reasons Googles stock has been so attractive to investors. But political figures on both the left and right, most prominently Elizabeth Warren, have started to make noise about breaking up larger tech monopolies. The businesses hurt most by tech monoliths smaller businesses without built-in brand recognition, fighting an uphill battle on nearly every front from entrenched incumbents are also the type that would be most sympathetic if called to testify in front of Congress. Googles dominance in both search and advertising has been a technological and business wonder for the past 20 years, and made it one of the richest companies in the world, but if the mood in Washington or among consumers starts to sour, that dominance may start to work against it. Politics provides practical solutions to problems; it is the art of the possible. But every so often the smell of these solutions is particularly vile. This was how a senior Likud party Knesset candidate described (on condition of anonymity) to Al-Monitor Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus involvement in the alliance between the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party of ultranationalist Rabbi Meir Kahanes disciples and the parties of the religious right. It is worth noting that Netanyahu actively promoted and supported this alliance in recent weeks in order to preserve the votes of the radical right from being lost in the April elections. Therein (in this description) lies the explanation of the March 6 vote by Likud representatives on the Central Election Committee against disqualifying candidates of the ultranationalist party over their anti-Arab invective. Attorney Aner Helman, representing Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, presented the panel, comprised of lawmakers from the outgoing Knesset, with examples of Otzma Yehudits statements. These included a particularly egregious one from August 2018 by Otzma Yehudit Chair Michael Ben Ari, No. 5 on the United Right-Wing Parties Knesset slate. We have to change the equation regarding anyone who dares to speak against a Jew. [Such a person] is a dead man. He must not come out alive. No expelling him, no stripping him of his citizenship. He does not live! A firing squad takes him out as the Arabs understand [best], Ben Ari said. However, the citations did not sway the Knesset representatives on the panel, among them members of the Yisrael Beitenu party who despise Otzma Yehudits racist language. Eli Avidar, No. 4 on the Yisrael Beitenu Knesset slate, said at a March 9 event that he does not want to breathe the same air that Otzma Yehudit members breathe in the same room. He cited, among other things, their rejection of military service by Israels Bedouin citizens. Otzma Yehudit member Itamar Ben Gvir, No. 8 on the United Right-Wing Parties list, tells Al-Monitor that although his partys leadership studied under Kahane, a distinction must be made between its views and those of their late leader. We have not and will not sponsor racist legislation of separation [between Jews and Arabs] on the beaches, as Rabbi Kahane preached, he said, adding, But we will demand full loyalty to the state of all citizens. Anyone who refuses should emigrate. Ben Gvir and Knesset member David Bitan of the Likud lambasted Mandelblit's representative at the committee hearing who refused to back the disqualification of Arab parties even though their rhetoric was much harsher than that of Otzma Yehudit. The equation they drew was clearly designed to divert fire from the partnership between Likud and the radical right. The petitions they presented against the Arab parties, which led to the disqualification of the Balad-Raam Knesset slate and the only Jewish candidate of the largely Arab Hadash party, Ofer Cassif, were meant to undermine the petitions against the ultranationalist Jewish party. If comments by Ben Ari whose children fulfill their mandatory military service are a cause to ban his candidacy, Bitan and Ben Gvir argue, then similar and often harsher comments by Arab lawmakers who do not serve in the military and harsh comments by Cassif must also generate disqualifications. According to the senior Likud official cited above, the Jewish people who have suffered more than any other people from racism and anti-Semitism find racism unacceptable. However, when terms such as security, terrorism and loyalty enter into the equation, even harsh, generalizing statements like those by Ben Ari become easier to digest. Indeed, the Election Committee rejected the petitions to disqualify Ben Ari. During the debate about the Arab parties and Cassif, Ben Gvir argued that the Balad-Ra'am slate had expressed support for terrorists and reminded his listeners that Palestinian flags were flown at a party conference and the Palestinian anthem was sung there. Attorney Hassan Jabarin, responding to petitions on behalf of the Arab parties, raised a philosophical argument against Otzma Yehudits petition. Any response to the petition with rational arguments, he said, provides Kahanes followers with legitimate standing. Jabarin likened the situation to one in which a Jew would start arguing with an anti-Semite. He added that disqualifying Arab parties running for the Knesset is ultimate racism since it prevents the countrys Arab citizens from representation in the Knesset and participation in the democratic process. In other words, the very act of submitting the petition is the ultimate proof of Otzma Yehudits racism, fully justifying its disqualification. Members of the centrist Yesh Atid party, who represented the newly minted Blue and White party before the committee, voted in favor of disqualifying Cassif and the Arab Balad-Raam slate. Cassif who has a Ph.D. in political philosophy and is a political science lecturer has a history of making provocative remarks. Even after being chosen as a Knesset candidate by the Hadash Party, he failed to tone down his rhetoric. In a Feb. 7 Haaretz interview, he labeled Netanyahu an arch-murderer and claimed Israel was carrying out creeping genocide against the Palestinians. He also said attacks on Israeli soldiers were legitimate and rejected their labeling as terror attacks. Yesh Atid representatives used Cassifs quotes to justify his disqualification, but their argument was particularly feeble given that such talk is not so rare in Israels political discourse. What was probably behind the vote was an attempt to prove to Israelis that Blue and White the Likuds greatest threat is more Catholic than the pope, meaning attentive to right-wing voters it seeks to shift to its side. Blue and White leader Lt. Gen. (res.) Benny Gantz and his people realized early on that defeating Netanyahu would not be feasible based only on the votes of the shrinking left-wing camp. This thinking is reflected in the decision to recruit distinct right-wing figures, such as former military chief Moshe Yaalon and two former Netanyahu aides, Zvi Hauser and Yoaz Hendel. Speaking with Al-Monitor, Knesset member Ahmad Tibi of the joint Israeli-Arab Hadash-Taal slate lamented developments in the Central Election Committee. Tibi said that although the conductor of the chorus of incitement is the racist prime minister, the neither left nor right party [as he called Blue and White] unfortunately opted to hook up with the radical right in a bid to pick up votes. Tibi also said he was not surprised that Gantz, who boasted in a clip at the start of his campaign of the number of Palestinians the army under his command had killed in the 2014 war with Gaza, was not a champion of human rights. Members of the Central Election Committee were aware of being pawns in a political game since the final say on disqualifying candidates rests with the Supreme Court, which will debate the panels rulings in the coming weeks. Given that the committees decisions were a mere formality, its members could afford to vote in favor of disqualifying political candidates despite the damage of such rulings to Israeli democracy and minority rights. The senior Likud official faithfully described the smell emanating from these votes. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited Iraq March 3. During meetings with Iraqi leaders, he sought to mobilize support for Palestinians and discuss the current political situation, the risks threatening the Palestinian cause, as well as bilateral relations and how to develop them on different levels. Chief of the General Intelligence Service Majid Faraj accompanied Abbas, as well as his economic affairs adviser Mohammad Mostafa, diplomatic affairs adviser Majdi al-Khalidi and his son Yasser. This is Abbas first visit to Iraq in seven years; he last went to Baghdad in March 2012 to attend the Arab Summit. Meanwhile, the Palestinian leader has made frequent visits to other Arab countries like Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Ahmad Akel, the Palestinian ambassador to Baghdad, told Al-Monitor, Iraqi-Palestinian relations have undergone fluctuation and instability since 2003, with the US invasion of Iraq and the fall of Saddam Husseins regime. But our relations are stable now, and we want to develop our relations with Iraq. Akel added, During the visit, the two sides agreed to hold an imminent meeting for the joint Iraqi-Palestinian ministerial committee formed in 2017 and to launch measures to form a council for businessmen of both countries. The visit aims at encouraging openness to all countries in the region rather than reshuffle our regional relations. Our rapprochement with Iraq and other countries like Syria should not anger any other country. The two-day visit included a meeting with Iraqi President Barham Salih on March 4, when they discussed bilateral relations and shared interests. On March 3, Abbas met with Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi and called for boosting communication between the two governments. He also sat down with Iraqi parliament's first deputy speaker, Hassan al-Kaabi, and several Iraqi members of parliament to fill them in on the political developments in the Palestinian territories. Abbas also held talks with members of the Council of Arab and International Relations (an independent, Arab international civil organization formed in Kuwait in 2009), that focused on Al-Aqsa violations committed by Israeli extremists and their attempts to destroy the identity of Jerusalem and change its cultural character. Ahead of his trip to Baghdad, Abbas met with Iraqi parliamentary speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi in Amman on March 2 to discuss bilateral relations. Raed Nueirat, a professor of political science at An-Najah National University in Nablus and head of the Contemporary Center for Studies and Policy Analysis, told Al-Monitor, Abbas visit carries several possible implications. It might be a matter of protocol without political ends as Iraq is no longer a pivotal country and is rather preoccupied with its internal issues. He continued, The visit might have also been dictated to Abbas by Saudi Arabia to mend ties with Iraq, rather than being a [purely] Palestinian-Iraqi bilateral visit. The Palestinian prime minister did not take part, which makes this theory plausible. Or Abbas might be pre-empting Hamas reconciliation with Syria, with his imminent visit to Syria. Former chief of Israeli military intelligence, Yoni Ben-Menachem, said Feb. 28 that Abbas upcoming visit to Damascus for which a date has yet to be announced pre-empts Irans mediation in the Syria-Hamas reconciliation. Hassan Asfour, the former Palestinian minister of civil organizations' affairs, said March 3 that since Abbas delegation only included the chief of intelligence, his economic adviser and his son Yasser, without any politicians, the visit might have had security and economic purposes. However, al-Modon newspaper reported on March 4 that Abbas met with US officials during his visit to Baghdad regarding a new Palestinian government although the meeting was not confirmed. It also involved talks about buying Iraqi oil, refining it in Jordan and storing it in Jericho to make up for Israels control of oil fields in the West Bank, in addition to discussions about inviting Syria to participate in the upcoming Arab Summit in Tunisia at the end of March. A Palestinian official close to Abbas told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, Abbas visit aims at expanding the Arab support to face US and Israeli pressure. In the past weeks, the US has tried to mobilize Arab pressure on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to accept the deal of the century. Abbas is trying to find parties in the region that have decisive stances against US efforts in the region. Iraq and Syria top that list because they are close to Iran. Saudi Arabia and Egypt do not like this, but we have balanced relations with them. During his visit, Abbas congratulated Iraqis on their victory against the Islamic State in 2017 and said he was ready to participate in rebuilding Iraq. But as the PA faces a financial crisis, it seems Abbas talk is just pleasantry, knowing that Iraq supported the PA with $28 million in January 2015. Abbas visit did not include a meeting with Palestinian refugees in Iraq, despite the organized killing campaigns against them and their displacement by armed Shiite militias in the past. In 2003, there were 43,000 Palestinian refugees in Iraq, but today there are only 4,000. On March 4, Iraqi Palestinian activists called on Abbas to include the issue of Palestinian detainees in Iraqi prisons since 2003 in his talks with Iraqi officials. Mohammed Meshinish, a researcher on the affairs of Palestinian refugees in Iraq, told Al-Monitor, Abbas visits to Iraq in 2012 and 2019 did not address Palestinian refugees in Iraq. After each visit, their situation remains the same, and Abbas behavior is killing their hopes and making way for more violations against them from Iraqi parties, without any comment from the PA. Despite Abbas packed agenda during his visit to Iraq, no bilateral agreements were signed, unlike other diplomatic visits. The Palestinian prime minister was absent, which makes the visit seem shady in terms of results, timing and causes, despite its importance. MANBIJ, Syria Russian forces will defend the contested majority-Arab town of Manbij in northern Syria against Turkey if and when US forces withdraw under the terms of a verbal agreement struck two days ago between Russian commanders and the Manbij Military Council, Al-Monitor has learned. Speaking exclusively to Al-Monitor at the military councils headquarters in northern Syria on March 11, the bodys co-chair Mohamed Mustafa said, Russian commanders told us exactly two days ago that the minute the Americans leave they will deploy their forces along the demarcation line [separating Manbij and the Turkish-controlled Euphrates Shield zone]. They said, 'If the US leaves tomorrow, we will take their place.' Mustafa, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Adel, said the switch would be easy because there was only a half a kilometer separating American forces deployed outside Manbij and the Russians who are in Arima together with the Syrian Arab Army. Al-Monitor was able to verify that claim. It took five minutes to drive from the American position to the regime's and Russian bases lying along the same road, all easily identified by their respective flags. Military council spokesman Sherwan Darwish, who was present at the interview, said, We prefer the Americans. We want them to stay and we told the Russians there was no question of them coming until the Americans leave. The Russian pledge comes amid continued threats from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to intervene militarily against the Manbij Military Council over its alliance with the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG). Turkey wants the military council and its civilian arm to be purged of all YPG elements, saying their continued presence is in violation of US pledges to ensure a full YPG withdrawal as soon as Manbij was wrested from the Islamic State in August 2016. The Manbij administration denies that the YPG and its affiliates continue to exert influence over its affairs. Sheikh Farouk al-Mashi, the co-chair of the Manbij Legislative Council, told Al-Monitor in a separate interview March 11, There is no YPG in Manbij. This is a lie. Turkey has been trying to sow [hatred] between our tribes and between Arabs and Kurds, to destabilize Manbij. But they will not succeed. Mashi continued, If they attack us, we will fight back. In a bid to de-escalate tensions, the United States agreed in June 2018 on a road map with Ankara that allows Turkish forces to carry out joint patrols with US forces along the demarcation line and to review the profiles of members of both councils to allay Turkeys concerns regarding the member's degree of closeness to the YPG. Turkey wants access to Manbij itself, and raising the Turkish flag in the town ahead of March 31 nationwide municipal elections would help Erdogan pull nationalist votes. But the Manbij government is viscerally opposed to letting Turkey and its Free Syrian Army (FSA) allies through its doors. They will bring nothing but chaos; we dont want them, Mashi said. In January, the Manbij leadership submitted the names and background information on all 171 individuals who sit on councils to the United States, who then relayed these to Turkey. Mustafa said Turkey demanded that 67 of them be kicked out over their alleged ties to the YPG. We were on that list, Darwish said, pointing to Mustafa. Both are ethnic Kurds. The United States vetoed Turkeys demands. They told the Turks, Manbij would simply collapse, Darwish said. The Turks came back with a list of 13 names, a mix of Arabs and Kurds, they wanted purged. Darwish and Mustafa were not on this list. But several key figures including Noufa Soleiman, an Arab, and Qassem Remo, a Kurd, who share the defense portfolio were. Ten of them have been relieved of their duties, including Soleiman and Remo, but Turkeys threats to intervene have not abated. During a campaign rally Sunday in the Turkish city of Iskenderun, which is near Syria, Erdogan vowed to clear Turkeys borders of all terrorists starting with Manbij. Turkey's Syrian rebel allies deployed along the demarcation line continue to fire at US and Manbij Military Council forces. Darwish confirmed that US forces fired back in one such incident last week after the rebels continued firing even after the US forces signaled their presence with a flare. He speculated that the constant harrassment is calculated to wear down US resistance and prompt a US withdrawal from Manbij. Darwish said Manbij is critical for several reasons. Whoever holds Manbij, holds Aleppo. It is critical for trade and for military strategy, he said. That is why everybody wants to control it. Fears of a Turkish invasion grew when President Donald Trump announced in December that US troops would be pulled out of all of Syria within 30 days. Around 300 Syrian regime forces deployed near Manbij in Arima in response to the YPGs calls to help them stave off a Turkish attack. Trump has since said around 400 US forces would remain in Syria and Mustafa said there were no signs of a US withdrawal from Manbij so far. But if they did leave, regime forces would definitely move in together with the Russians, he said. Given a choice, all of the Manbij leaders who spoke to Al-Monitor said that they would rather have the Syrian regime come than Turkey, but that the best outcome would be for the Americans to stay. Their views were echoed in Manbijs bustling souk. Hussam Abdul Latif, a 20-year-old Arab who sells home furnishings, told Al-Monitor, We are afraid of the regime because we will be forced to do our military service, but it's still better than the Turks and the FSA. If they come, we will leave Manbij. The fate of foreign fighters has become a thorny issue amid US preparations to withdraw from Syria most of its troops. Even though the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have officially denied it, they are apparently handing over dozens of captured Islamic State fighters and their family members from the IS-held village of Baghouz, the last besieged stronghold, to Iraqi security forces. They include European nationals as well as citizens from Arab states and former Soviet republics. The Kurds, who risk losing the current external backing and protection, are reportedly discussing the option of releasing 1,100 militants and 2,080 relatives of the groups members. The move may be a bargaining chip with the United States or other parties whose nationals are among the seized group of terrorists. Moreover, if the Kurds manage to secure Damascus cooperation on the issue, the matter may take on a new dimension. The Syrian special services are unlikely to miss the chance to compel the security forces of other states to establish contacts. In turn, Iraqs president has already mentioned 13 fighters of French origin who would be tried in a local court. Moreover, there are unconfirmed reports that the SDF has also handed over two French-born fighters to the Syrian regime. In the meantime, the Iraqi legal system has been subject to severe criticism. Human rights organizations have reported hasty court proceedings and scant evidence provided. Sometimes only rumors have corroborated the accusations, which creates tension in the already fragmented Iraqi society and may trigger another Sunni insurgency. The first public report on the transfer of eight fighters to Lebanese Military Intelligence by the United States in August 2018 has also sparked many questions since the detainees were transferred in total secrecy without basic legal protections. The European Union was sceptical about US President Donald Trumps ultimatum to its allies from the international coalition about taking nationals who have joined the IS ranks back from Syria. European leaders have favored the idea of putting jihadis on trial, but insist on holding criminal proceedings in the countries where the crimes have been committed. Heiko Maas, Germanys chief diplomat, told Trump that repatriation would be possible only if returning fighters could be immediately taken into custody, which would be extremely difficult to achieve without proper judicial information. The fears over the threat of IS returnees to Europe are not unfounded as repatriated nationals have but once committed terror attacks. The attack of Frenchman Mehdi Nemmouche, who had previously fought in Syria, was one of the first recorded cases. He opened fire on visitors at the Jewish Museum of Brussels in 2014. Theoretically speaking, all the interested parties could agree that fighters would go on trial on the ground while the sentence would be served at home. However, apparently militants can reproduce and disseminate radical ideas in prisons while summary trials along with scarce evidence can affect the domestic security of the foreign fighters native states. As a result, Europe is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea and is facing a serious legal precedent. It can refuse to accept a man albeit a former radical militant only if the person is deprived of citizenship. However, international law explicitly prohibits leaving a person without any citizenship. Russia is vocally critical of the United States and Europeans unwillingness to assume responsibility either for the prosecution of foreign fighters or for the repatriation of their wives and children. Talking heads appearing in the media propagate unsubstantiated claims that since the United States suffered what they see as a defeat in Syria it seeks revenge by opening fronts. For this reason, the argument goes, its military helps relocate terrorists to Africa and Afghanistan the latter to destabilize Central Asia. Trumps call on European allies has been interpreted by some in Moscow as a sign that the militants will go unpunished, and as a pardon offered by Trump "to any invader seeking to overthrow the legitimate government." For all the seemingly efficient mechanisms Russia employs against its own returnees, there are but a few problems with returning fighters in Russia as well. On the one hand, both state-owned media and private liberal media outlets recognize that Indonesia and Russia are the only two countries that have managed to repatriate a number of women and children from Syria, with other countries taking back their citizens only from Iraq. In a Feb. 25 interview for Russias Izvestia newspaper, Anna Kuznetsova, children's rights commissioner for the president of the Russian Federation, said that in Iraq it had already become possible to bring back children not born in Russia, thanks to DNA testing. In addition, she noted that her office had received repatriation requests from Syria, but it was still difficult to ensure law enforcement on the territories outside of government control. However, such episodes have taken place. Ziyad Sabsabi, special envoy for Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov for the Middle East and North Africa, is in charge of the repatriation program. The Syria-born Russian senator belongs to the mighty Quraysh tribe, of whom Prophet Muhammad was a member. Russias efforts to return its women and children from the Middle Eastern war zones began after Kadyrov posted an RT video on Instagram in early April 2017. It depicted Russia-born children stranded in a Baghdad-based orphanage as their parents had joined the IS ranks. In 2017, Al-Monitor reported the subsequent stories of evacuating Middle East-born Russian nationals. For all the positive developments, one should heed the following factors. First, even if one reproaches the Europeans for their failure to once prevent IS supporters from flocking to the Middle East, one should admit Russias responsibility for the group gaining recruits. Before the Sochi Olympics took place and after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a caliphate in Iraq and Syria in June 2014, the security forces started to drive Islamic clerics and activists out from the North Caucasus only for them to end up in the Syrian war. As Ekaterina Sokirianskaia, director of the Conflict Analysis and Prevention Center, quipped, Russian ultraradicals perfectly fitted in with the [Middle Eastern] militants. Moreover, they occupied high, if not dominant, positions in the hierarchy of terrorist organizations. Some Chechens, for instance, became IS commanders, others formed their own units or brigades such as Katibat al-Aqsa. Second, as Denis Kolchin, a journalist specializing in jihadism on Russian soil, told Al-Monitor, The handover of Russian fighters captured in Syria and Iraq had never been high on the agenda. Despite the Kabardino-Balkar Republics security forces reporting the return and trial of dozens of men, I suppose that these people are taken captive only to be executed shortly after. They started to come home long ago, but mainly one by one. The return in groups wasnt rare either, but it was an apparent infiltration into the country to be involved in guerrilla warfare, he said. Third, the practice of returning women and children from IS was launched before Kadyrov publicly boasted the campaign. Marina Ezhova, commissioner for Childrens Rights in Dagestan, acknowledged her off-the-record participation in the childrens repatriation from war zones before Chechnyas own efforts received the spotlight. Moreover, the adaptation of women and children who returned from Iraq and Syria is practiced differently in different regions of the North Caucasus. In Chechnya, for instance, the authorities mostly refused to prosecute the women who have been brought back from IS seeing their participation as a product of manipulation and brainwashing. These people are now allowed to live ordinary life. In Dagestan and Ingushetia, however, the vision of the situation is different, which is exemplified by the returnees getting arrested upon arrival in Dagestan while their surrender statements disappear from case materials. As Kolchin argues, none of those women and adolescents who have come back have been caught participating in jihadist operations in Russia so far. However, the rehabilitation mechanism has yet to emerge. Under such circumstances, there is a risk that we will lose them again, leaving them with their problems and psychological traumas. Alabama exports topped $21 billion for the second straight year in 2018, even as trade tensions rattled markets around the world. U.S. Commerce Department figures had Alabama shipping nine percent fewer automobiles than the year before, but higher amounts of chemicals, paper products and aerospace parts. In all, exports from Alabama totaled $21.3 billion in 2018, down from 2017s record tally of $21.8 billion, a two percent decrease. A look at Alabamas biggest trade partners shows the effects of last year, when duties on steel and aluminum, as well as talk of tariffs on foreign made car parts and Chinese goods, gave markets the jitters. Exports to China dropped 14.8 percent. Germany was down 14 percent. Mexico was down 12 percent, and Canada down 3 percent. Together, the four nations took in $12.2 billion in Alabama-produced goods. However, exports to Japan rose 17 percent to $821 million. In addition, exports rose 111 percent for Argentina, 64 percent for Austria, were up 67 percent for The Netherlands, and India and Brazil increased by more than 50 percent. Overall U.S. exports were up 7.6 percent. The states goods reached 191 countries in 2018. Alabama Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield said the state is continuing to see growth "within segments of the transportation industry, our No. 1 export sector, with increased exports in the aerospace sector moving from Alabama to world markets. While Alabama exports lagged a little last year, the $21.3 billion total is still impressive and signifies the importance of exporting as a key factor in Alabamas economy," Canfield said. Transportation equipment is still Alabamas No. 1 export category, totaling $10 billion, a 9 percent decrease from the prior year. Exports of Alabama-made motor vehicles dropped 18 percent to $6.4 billion as shipments to Canada, China and Germany declined. But Alabama is still the No. 3 auto-exporting state in the U.S. behind Michigan and South Carolina. Aerospace products and parts rose 28 percent to $2.4 billion, almost $1 billion higher than the figure just two years earlier. Chemical exports were $2.6 billion, up 13 percent; minerals, chiefly coal, were $1.7 billion, up 18 percent; paper was $1.2 billion, up 12 percent, and non-electrical machinery was $777 million, up 12 percent. However, tariffs and trade squabbles hit primary metal shipments, where were down 19 percent, and agricultural products, down 29 percent. Oilseeds and grains, a category that includes soybeans, plummeted 26 percent last year. The March 3 tornadoes that devastated parts of Alabama and killed 23 people also inflicted an estimated $5.8 million in damage to Alabamas timber industry. The Alabama Forestry Commissions preliminary assessment of timber damage found that 5,888 forested acres were damaged in Macon, Lee, and Barbour counties, with 149,130 tons of timber lost. The timber had an estimated value of $3.3 million and the estimated total cost for site preparation and replanting the area is $2.5 million, the commission stated in its new report. The amount of broken limbs, fallen trees and non-forest debris on the land will likely increase the cost of cleanup on affected property. And even for standing timber with no apparent damage, the report states, the bending, twisting, and moving of trees during the tornado may have caused structural damage to them. This could decrease the value of the timber left. The storm damaged pine, hardwood and mixed acreage, with Lee County baring the brunt. An estimated 4,407 acres of forestland there was affected, along with 1,194 acres in Macon County. Barbour County saw 287 acres. The commission is urging landowners to salvage their damaged timber as soon as possible, in hopes of avoiding the danger of wildfires or bark beetle infestation. Cost share assistance is available at local USDA service centers, as well as information on considerations when selling timber. The commissions survey happened last Thursday through an aerial assessment of Beauregard and Smiths Station in Lee County, and Eufaula in Barbour County. The numbers were then calculated using Forest Inventory and Analysis volume estimates and the current TimberMart-South price reports. The recovery costs were based on an average estimated total cost for site preparation and replanting a stand at approximately $425 per acre. Texas Roadhouse restaurants around Alabama will raise money on Monday for disaster relief in Lee County, where tornadoes recently killed 23 people and injured dozens more. All Alabama locations of the steakhouse chain will donate 100 percent of their profits from 4-10 p.m. on Monday, March 11, the company announced. The money will be donated to the Lee County Disaster Relief Fund of the Community Foundation of East Alabama. Texas Roadhouse has locations in the following Alabama cities: Florence, Decatur, Huntsville, Montgomery, Mobile, Tuscaloosa, Dothan and Pelham. Tornadoes in Lee County killed 23, injured 90 others and destroyed multiple homes and businesses on March 3. Full coverage of the deadly March 3 tornadoes A power-generating unit lost power at an Alabama nuclear plant over the weekend. The power loss did not result in a dangerous situation for the public or plant employees, TVA said Monday, but the federal utility is investigating the incident that occurred Saturday night at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant outside Athens. One of the plant's three units, Unit 3, lost power late Saturday night. TVA spokeswoman Malinda Hunter said emergency diesel generators activated as expected once power was lost. Power was restored at 1:10 p.m. Sunday. When a nuclear facility loses power for more than 15 minutes, a "notice of unusual event" is declared, which occurred at 11:12 p.m. Saturday. That event classification is the lowest of four Nuclear Regulatory Commission classifications for a nuclear event. Browns Ferry exited the NOUE once power was restored Sunday. Hunter said Unit 1 is operating at 100 percent capacity while Unit 2 is offline for scheduled refueling outage and Unit 3 is offline due to the investigation. Operators performed as trained, systems operated as designed and there was no safety impact to employees or the public, a TVA statement to AL.com said. The plant is located about 40 miles west of Huntsville. The Alabama Supreme Court agreed today to hear the appeal of former House Speaker Mike Hubbards convictions on ethics charges, Hubbard attorney Bill Baxley said. Baxley said the decision means that Hubbards lawyers will be able to present arguments to the court that Hubbards actions were not violations of the ethics law. At the end of the day, we say that what he did not only was no violation of the law, but he certainly had no intent to violate the law, Baxley said. A Lee County jury convicted Hubbard in June 2016 on 12 charges involving the use of his political office for personal gain. Lee County Circuit Judge Jacob Walker sentenced Hubbard to four years in prison. He has remained free on bond. Last year, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals upheld all but one of the convictions. Hubbard was one of the states most powerful politicians until the convictions. He led the effort by Republicans in 2010 that gave the GOP control of the Legislature for the first time in more than a century. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a statement about the Supreme Courts decision to hear the case, saying he expects the convictions to be upheld. Until now, the Alabama Supreme Court has only heard from Mike Hubbard," Marshall said. "Once my prosecution team has the opportunity to brief the issues and argue the case, we feel confident the result will be the same as with the lower court rulings and justice will prevail." A special grand jury in Lee County indicted Hubbard after an investigation in 2014. Hubbard was reelected after his indictment and remained House speaker until his conviction. Hubbard was convicted of receiving money from a principal, which is a business that employs a lobbyist; using his office for personal gain; lobbying state agencies for a business client; using state personnel to help a business client and soliciting business investments from principals. Hubbards lawyers did not generally dispute the actions in question in the case. They argued that those actions were not crimes. Most everything that they say he did as far as the actions, he did them, Baxley said. But he did not think he was violating the law. In fact, he went to great pains, Mike did, to try to get it pre-cleared from the Ethics Commission and thought he had. Hubbard sought advice from the Ethics Commission staff on his business activities but did not request a formal opinion from the commission, which would have provided some legal protection as well as public scrutiny. Baxley said the defense team has 14 days to file an appeal brief with the court. Baxley said he hopes the court will hold oral arguments. A visit to tornado-ravaged areas of Alabama by President Trump and the First Lady has reignited an old conspiracy theory. Social media began buzzing about Melania Trumps appearance after her visit to Lee County on Friday, tagging posts #FakeMelania. The conspiracy theory alleges that Mrs. Trump uses a body double to accompany her husband on trips and cites supposed differences in her appearance. This is not Melania. To think they would go this far & try & make us think its her on TV is mind blowing. Makes me wonder what else is a lie pic.twitter.com/JhPVmXdGit The Don of CBD (@JoeVargas) October 18, 2017 GUYS THAT IS NOT MELANIA pic.twitter.com/2kfo7QMU2x Red (@Redpainter1) March 8, 2019 The recasting of Melania is the worst I've seen since they recast Aunt Viv in Fresh Prince #fakemelania pic.twitter.com/HDIMi7FDAh James Corscadden (@jamescorscadden) March 9, 2019 While the White House hasnt responded to the latest claims, it has previously dismissed any idea the First Lady doesnt actually travel with her husband. Once again, we find ourselves consumed with a ridiculous non-story when we could be talking about the work the first lady is doing on behalf of children, including the opioid crisis that is gripping our nation, Stephanie Grisham said of the rumors in 2017. If youre after the ultimate vintage-inspired thermal, youre going to want to check out this one from the Real McCoys. The Japanese brand was mentioned by three of the people we spoke with, and the company is famous for its painstaking re-creation of archival clothing. It is definitely pricey, but its probably the closest youre going to get to the definitive thermal shirt, and can be hard to get your hands on because theyre woven in Japan on vintage machines and produced in very limited quantities. This thermal always sells out at Standard and Strange, according to Berrett. Its a reproduction of vintage U.S. military thermal shirts, just made much, much better than the originals, he explains. Its technically not a waffle knit, he adds, but rather a three-dimensional raschel knit, which ends up being warmer and a hell of a lot more expensive and difficult to make. An Alabama prison inmate has refused food and liquids since Thursday in protest of what his attorney says is the Alabama Department of Corrections unconstitutional placement of inmates in solitary confinement, according to a news release from his attorney. Robert Earl Council informed the warden at Holman Correctional Facility early Thursday that he would not eat or drink again until he is returned to the general population at the prison. Council, who is serving a sentence of life without parole for murder, was moved from the general population at St. Clair Correctional Facility in north Alabama to the segregated housing unit at Holman in south Alabama on Feb. 28, the news release says. The transfer came after the ADOC conducted a search for contraband at St. Clair with assistance from than 300 law enforcement officers from other agencies. Council claims there was no justification for the ADOC to place him in solitary confinement and that the practice violates due process and the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Council went on a hunger strike in 2016 during his involvement in efforts to coordinate prison work stoppages. Council spent 54 months in solitary from 2014 to 2018 because of those efforts to lead a peaceful work strike, the news release says. Councils attorney, David Gespass, said he was not aware of any other inmates taking part in the hunger strike. The ADOC issued a statement responding to Councils claim that he was placed in solitary without cause: "The Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) does not publicly disclose a persons level of confinement during incarceration because of security reasons. In addition, an inmates medical condition is safeguarded through the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA); therefore, ADOC cannot release the inmates current health information as protected by federal law." The ADOCs use of solitary confinement is an issue in a federal lawsuit over mental health care in Alabama prisons. A federal judge ruled in June 2017 that mental health care was horrendously inadequate and found that placement of mentally ill inmates in solitary confinement contributed to a rise in inmate suicides. Responding to a court filing last week alleging a sexually promiscuous lifestyle for Roy Moore accuser Leigh Corfman, her attorneys harshly criticized Moore in their own filing Monday morning. The first sentence of the Corfman filing: "Rather than honorably defend Plaintiff Leigh Corfmans claim that he defamed her by calling her a liar and accusing her of being part of a political conspiracy against him in 2017, Defendant Roy S. Moore has resorted to personal attacks against her and her family designed to attract media attention to these mean-spirited sideshows and divert public attention from the issues in the litigation." Attorneys for Moore leveled the accusations against Corfman in a motion seeking a foreign subpoena for Breitbart News and reporter Matt Boyle. On Sunday, Circuit Judge John Rochester denied Moores motion to dismiss Corfmans defamation lawsuit against him while granting Moores motion to obtain a foreign subpoena for Breitbart News and Boyle. In the motion from Moores attorneys last week, a deposition from Moore supporter Gary Lantrip is quoted. Lantrip was also a friend of Eddie Sexton, a Birmingham-area attorney who first represented Corfman in November 2017 when she made her charges against Moore in The Washington Post. According to that filing, Lantrip testified in his deposition that Sexton said he planned to drop Corfman as a client during a meeting Boyle, the Breitbart reporter, attended and recorded. In his deposition, Lantrip testified that Sexton said Corfman had fd everybody in Gadsden, including himself. Lantrip also said in his deposition that Corfmans dad was a doctor and they used to throw sex parties when she was young so she was put in with that as a young girl and hes known her whole life. Corfman's attorneys responded Monday, saying in the court filing that included the salacious details about their client was "specifically intended to embarrass Ms. Corfman, to turn public opinion against her, and to taint the jury pool with lewd allegations about her and her family." The Corfman filing also took exception to social media activity by both Moore and his wife, Kayla. The filing noted that both Kayla Moore and the Stand with Judge Roy Moore Facebook pages both posted links to an AL.com story about the Moore filing last week as well as other related reports. "As we have repeatedly said, Ms. Corfman is litigating this case in court, not in the press or social media," Neil Roman, one of Corfman's attorneys, said in an email to AL.com. In an interview with AL.com on Monday, Moore defended including the details about Corfman in the filing last week. Corfmans attorneys cant blame me because (Corfmans) lifelong friend and attorney said that she had had sexual intercourse with everybody in Gadsden to include himself, and that her own parents had had sex parties in her home when she was a young girl, Moore said. "She didnt mind falsely accusing me just 32 days before the election on national TV. Maybe the press should ask her what her own attorney said. "I'm just repeating what her own attorney said." Told that Corfman's attorneys were objecting in the Monday filing to the details about Corfman in Moore's filing last week requesting the foreign subpoena, Moore said, "We have to support a foreign subpoena with reasons why we need that subpoena. And the court has now granted it. So I'm not going to say my attorney was wrong for adding the (Lantrip) deposition in there. The press may think we're making this up if we filed a motion that didn't support our motion. We have to support our motion." The filing from Corfman's attorneys also shed new light on allegations that Sexton was offered money by Moore supporters to say he was dropping her as a client and to publicly state he did not believe her accusations against the then-U.S. Senate candidate. The Washington Post reported in March 2018 that Sexton said he was offered $10,000. In his deposition in the Corfman lawsuit against Moore -- which Mondays filing quoted -- Sexton said the possibility of a $100,000 payment was discussed. According to the filing, Lantrip and Sexton planned to meet Nov. 13 four days after The Washington Post article first outlining Corfman's allegations against Moore behind Sexton's law office. Also attending the meeting was Lantrip business partner Bert Davi. The purpose of the conversation, according to the Corfman filing and quoting Sextons deposition, was to discuss a desire by Steve Bannon then head of Breitbart News and a vocal Moore supporter for Sexton to publicly say he did not believe her story. Money was offered to Sexton as an inducement to make the statement against Corfman, according to the filing. They were actually talking about more than $10,000," Sexton said in his deposition. "They have actually saidreferenced a couple times $100,000, or whatever you want . . . According to his deposition as referenced in the court filing, Sexton said it would "neither be credible nor accurate" for him to make such a statement about Corfman. Sexton ultimately never made such claims. "Mr. Sexton testified that not only had Mr. Sexton made social media postings supporting Ms. Corfman, he believed herindeed, she had told Mr. Sexton of Mr. Moores assault on her multiple times since she was 15-16 years old," the Corfman filing said. During his deposition on Nov. 1, 2018, Davi cited 65 times his right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment, according to the filing from Corfmans lawyers. According to a transcript of Davis deposition entered into the court file, the only question Davi answered without pleading the Fifth Amendment was his home address. In the March 2018 report by The Washington Post detailing the allegation that Sexton was offered money to say he did not believe Corfmans allegations against Moore, both Davi and Lantrip denied any wrongdoing. Davi said that despite working to undermine Corfmans claims in November 2017, he told The Post four months later that they now believed her. Defense Department and NASA spending would remain strong in Huntsville next year if Congress approves an FY 2020 budget proposal released today by the Trump White House, but NASA would be told to focus on finishing its first Space Launch System (SLS) version to permit annual launches to the moon and put bigger Mars-capable versions on the back burner. Trumps proposal is the opening pitch in a budget game that will take much of the year to play. Congress isnt expected approve any spending without a serious fight over priorities, given last years election of a House dominated by Democrats and controversy over the presidents border wall. Republicans tell the Wall Street Journal even they consider the document released today a wish list. The budget released by the White House proposes $718 billion in overall defense spending. Thats an increase of 5 percent from 2019. The budget supports exploring promising new technologies, including in space and contains money to start Trumps United States Space Force. It also proposes a 3.1 percent raise for military members.. NASA gets an overall budget recommendation of $21 billion, a $283 million increase from 2019. The budget includes $363 million to support commercial development of a large lunar lander that can initially carry cargo and later humans to the lunar surface. However, the budget document says the budget focuses funding for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, a heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle, to ensure the rocket is operational in the early 2020s when it will be needed to carry astronauts to the vicinity of the moon. That means funding the basic version of SLS with no spending for a planned upgrade that would make the rocket capable of lifting more weight. The White House wants an SLS that can launch annually to support a return to the moon. SLS is being developed in Huntsville at the Marshall Space Flight Center, and center officials planned a briefing on the budget Monday afternoon. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine gave a strong defense of SLS in budget remarks at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida Monday, calling it a critical piece of Americas space future. Its not reusable, Bridenstine conceded, but the big rocket is a transformational, strategic piece of technology for Americas future in space. On the military side, programs led by Huntsvilles Redstone Arsenal enjoy broader bipartisan support because they deal with some of the militarys most-pressing challenges. For example, the Army is establishing a project office at Redstone this year to develop hypersonic or faster-than sound weapons. Those are missiles capable of precision maneuvers at incredible speeds, something Russia and China are pursuing aggressively. Maj. Gen. Neil Thurgood was named to head the new hypersonics office in February. Thurgood was previously in charge of testing for the Missile Defense Agency on the arsenal. The project office has been ordered to develop a Common Hypersonic Glide Body that the Army and other services can adapt to their needs. The Army is also planning to adapt a Navy hypersonic booster developed by Lockheed Martin for use on the ground in a mobile system, reports say. Lockheed Martin is a major Huntsville defense contractor and held briefings for the Secretary of the Army as recently as January. The budget supports the presidents commitment to expand and improve state-of-the-art missile defense systems as articulated in the recently released Missile Defense Review (MDR), the document released today says. The budget sustains deployed missile defense assets, improves system reliability against todays threats, increases engagement capability and capacity, and makes strides to rapidly address the advanced threat. (Updated at 12:30 p.m. CDT to add comments by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine) A woman pleaded guilty today to fatally shooting her husband nearly two years ago at their northeast Huntsville home. Ann Rene Oliver, 45, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the March 30, 2017 killing of 40-year-old Jason Daniel Oliver. It happened that morning at their Halsey Avenue home. Ann Oliver was charged with murder but reached an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to the reduced charge. There was a history of domestic violence, said Madison County Assistant District Attorney Sara Judah. The night before the shooting, the couple got into a fight and Ann Oliver suffered a gash to the head and bruises to the face, Judah said. Jason Oliver was sitting in a recliner when his wife shot him at close range with a semi-automatic pistol, Judah said. The husband walked to the bedroom and collapsed after suffering five gunshot wounds three to the back, one to the head and another to the side, the prosecutor told a judge. Alabama state court records dont list any prior domestic-violence charges against either of the Olivers. The year before the killing, Ann Oliver was a teacher at Lincoln County High School in Tennessee, according to the Elk Valley Times newspaper in Fayetteville. Circuit Judge Allison Austin will sentence Ann Oliver on May 9. The woman faces up to 20 years in prison. Her defense attorneys declined to comment. A man convicted of killing a minister in Fayette County is set to be executed next month. The Alabama Supreme Court set an execution date for Christopher Lee Price on Thursday, April 11. Price was at the center of a lawsuit in 2014 seeking to block the state from setting an execution date, because of what the inmate called a prolonged, excruciating and needless pain, caused by the three-drug lethal injection cocktail. The next year, the Alabama Attorney Generals Office asked the federal courts to dismiss Prices lawsuit. Price, 46, was convicted in the 1991 robbery and slaying of Bill Lynn. Lynn, a minister at Natural Springs Church of Christ, was fatally stabbed outside his home in the Bazemore community three days before Christmas. Court records state Lynn was putting together Christmas presents for his grandchildren, when the power went out. He walked outside to check the power box when he was attacked. His wife, Bessie Lynn, was wounded. Lynn died en route to a local hospital. Price was arrested in Tennessee several days later, and was convicted in 1993. Jurors sentenced Price to death by a vote of 10-2 and the trial judge upheld their recommendation. Prices execution date is the second set in 2019, following the execution of Domineque Ray in February. Ray was convicted of killing a teenage girl in Selma in 1995, and raised a legal battle shortly before his death regarding the issue of having his Muslim spiritual adviser, or imam, inside the execution chamber. The AGs Office and courts denied Rays request, and he was executed by lethal injection without his imam or the Christian prison chaplain at his side. Authorities have released the name of an east Alabama teen killed Friday in an accidental shooting in Georgia. The Paulding County Sheriffs Office on Monday identified the victim as Matthew Ryan Hubbard. He was 15 and lived in Heflin. Deputies were dispatched at 7:05 p.m. to 35 Legend Creek Way in Douglasville on a report that a teenager had been accidentally shot, said sheriffs Sgt. Ashley Henson. First responders arrived on the scene and tried to revive Matthew, but he was pronounced dead on the scene. According to detectives, Matthew and a 14-year-old friend were handling a .22-caliber rifle in a bedroom of the home. While the 14-year-old was handling the rifle, he accidentally discharged it. The projectile struck Matthew in the head. Henson said Matthew was in Georgia visiting his 14-year-old friend. The investigation is ongoing, and no arrests have been made. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab conducted the autopsy on Saturday. This young man was taken from the world way too soon, said Sheriff Gary Gulledge. Gun safety is everyones responsibility. Please remember to always keep guns and ammunition locked in a safe place and out of the reach of child, the sheriff said. God bless all the families involved in this tragic case. More than a month after Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced the Hoover police officer who fatally shot Emantic E.J. Bradford Jr. wouldnt face charges, the Bradford family sued the AG and Hoover Police Department. The lawsuit was filed in the Birmingham division of Jefferson County on Monday by Bradfords parents and their attorney Benjamin Crump, the ACLU of Alabama, and the Alabama NAACP. According to the lawsuit, the family is demanding release of all police body camera and surveillance footage of the incident, and of documents including the officers names. Bradford was fatally shot by a Hoover police officer after shots rang out in the Riverchase Galleria mall on Thanksgiving night. Brian Wilson, 18, and a 12-year-old bystander were injured in the incident, and police who responded shot 21-year-old Bradford. The day after the shooting, police said Bradford was likely not the person who fired the shots that injured the other two. Representatives from Marshalls office met with the Bradford family and their attorney in February and told them the Hoover officer was justified in the shooting and he would not be criminally charged. Marshall also shared a report with information from the more than two-month investigation. Hoover police have not released the officers name and his attorney told AL.com neither he nor the officer will be releasing any statement about the shooting. Marshalls options were to clear the officer, charge the officer, or send the case to a grand jury for indictment consideration. The investigation was led by the State Bureau of Investigation and involved witness reports, cell phone videos taken by shoppers, mall surveillance video, body cam video, text messages, and social media posts. According to the lawsuit, Marshall responded to the public records request saying he would not turn over the information requested. A press release by the ACLU said Marshall asserted, among other reasons, that disclosing any information would negatively impactthe personal safety of law enforcement officials. The lawsuit said Hoover police also declined to make those records public. The lawsuit claims: After the officer shot Mr. Bradford, he and one or more other officers approached Mr. Bradfords body. At or near Mr. Bradfords body, two or more officers then made a fist-bump gesture. On information and belief, they did not attempt to render first aid to Mr. Bradford before making this celebratory gesture. The complaint also states, In the wake of the police killing of E.J. Bradford, which has amplified the fear and mistrust that many black and brown Alabamians feel toward the police, such transparency and accountability is especially important. Crump said in a press release, Its ludicrous and insulting that the state of Alabama thinks we should simply take their word about what happened, without letting us see the full and unedited video footage and without releasing the officers nameIn a state with the racial history of Alabama, why would anyone believe their account of a white officer shooting a Black man, especially when theyre trying to hide some of the evidence? ACLU of Alabama Executive Director Randall Marshall said Bradfords family and the people of Alabama deserve transparency and accountability. He said in the same release, Its repugnant that Attorney General Marshall is hiding behind unfounded claims that transparency would endanger law enforcement when refusing to disclose the footage and documents we requested. Full coverage of the Galleria shooting Alabama NAACP President Benard Simelton said the group is very disappointed the Attorney General Marshall handled the case instead of Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr. The groups jointly filed a Public Records Request for information on implicit bias policies and training, use-of-force policies and training, and guidelines for active shooter situations. The ACLU press release said Hoover police has agreed to release that information. Specifically, the lawsuit asks for the court to deem the information requested as subject to public records laws, order that information available to the plaintiffs, waive all fees associated with the requests, and award the plaintiffs legal fees. The state has not responded to the lawsuit, according to court filings, and no court hearings have been set. A former Oneonta police sergeant pleaded guilty Monday to multiple child sex charges involving a teen boy. The trial for Nicholas Shane Osborn was set to begin in Blount County Circuit Court. He was initially arrested in 2017, first on a DUI charge and four months later on a six-count indictment charging him with electronic solicitation of a minor, enticing a child for immoral purposes, two counts of second-degree sodomy, second-degree sexual abuse and reckless endangerment. He had been with the Oneonta Police Department since 2001 at the time of his arrest. Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey said as prosecutors were getting ready to make their opening statement, Osborn entered a blind plea to electronic solicitation of a child, second-degree sodomy, reckless endangerment, and enticing a child for immoral purposes. Pursuant to Osbornes blind plea, the sentence to be imposed will be decided by the judge at a sentencing hearing to be scheduled for a later date. Electronic solicitation of a child and second-degree sodomy are Class B felonies each punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Enticing a child for moral purposes is a Class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Reckless endangerment is a misdemeanor. According to court documents, Osborne met a 15-year-old boy on the internet via the Grinder App in May 2017. Later that evening, Osborne met the boy while Osborne was on duty and drove him to a church parking lot in Osborns police cruiser where Osborn engaged in deviate sexual intercourse with the minor child. Osborne was 39 years old at the time. In September 2017, the incident was referred to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency for investigation. SBI Agent Justin Kinney was in charge of the investigation. Electronic solicitation of children is a continuously developing dangerous trend. I want to once again remind parents to check your childs phone, Casey said. Supervise their time on the computer. Do not leave your children exposed to the dangers presented by social media and the web. A woman shot to death in southwest Birmingham Sunday morning was about to walk into work when someone took her life for no obvious reason. She was a loving person inside and out, said Latevia Dortch, the victims identical twin sister. Everyone who knew her knew that. Octavia Dortch, 45, was killed about 7 a.m. Sunday outside Arlington Rehabilitation Center and HealthCare Center on Tuscaloosa Avenue. Birmingham police Officer Rod Mauldin said officers responded about 7 a.m. to 1000 block of Tuscaloosa Avenue after Shot Spotter, the citys gunfire detection system, indicated shots fired in that area. A 45-year-old nursing assistant was killed Sunday, March 10, 2019, as she parked at Arlington Rehabilitation and HealthCare Center where she had worked for six years. While they were in the area, they received a call about a person down in the same location. They found Octavia Dortch unresponsive in her vehicle. She was pronounced dead on the scene. She had worked at the rehabilitation facility for six years as a certified nursing assistant. My sister loved everyone on the job and off, her sister said. The family grew up in Fairfield and the twins graduated from Fairfield High School in 1992. The following year, they moved to Ensley. We were attached at the hip, her grieving sister said. We did everything together. Octavia Dortch had two daughters and two grandchildren. Her family is devastated by the loss. She didnt bother nobody, her sister said. Whoever did this took an innocent life. I pray they catch him. Less than two hours later, West Precinct officers responded just after 8:30 a.m. to the BP service station on Montevallo Road S.W. on a report of gunfire. Once on the scene, they found 28-year-old Gregory Snodgress unresponsive in his vehicle. Mauldin said Snodgress and another man, not believed to be acquaintances, got into some type of altercation just prior to the shooting. The suspect fled in a vehicle and is not in custody. A description for him has not yet been released. Police have not said whether the two deaths are possibly linked in any way. Its very unfortunate that were dealing with this on a Sunday morning, Mauldin said. Dortchs family is pleading for anyone with information to please let police know. Anyone with information in either case is asked to call Birmingham homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. Thanks to the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, Mobiles Exploreum Science Center is about to upgrade its IMAX dome to a laser projection system capable of showing Hollywood films. Don Comeaux, executive director of the Exploreum, said the project will take the museum from film projection equipment thats in danger of becoming obsolete, with fewer and fewer new films available, to a cutting-edge digital laser projection system that can show almost anything out there. The project is likely to cost well over $1 million and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians (PCI) will underwrite the entire cost, Comeaux said. Benefits the tribe will receive in return will include naming rights for the theater, he said. "We're proud of our partnership," Comeaux said. "We've had a partnership with PCI for some time." The Tribe is deeply committed to furthering innovative educational opportunities for the entire community," PCI Chief Government Relations Officer Robbie McGhee said in a statement released by the Exploreum. "And we are proud to be part of this noble endeavor that helps make the wonders of science accessible to everyone. Comeaux said the timetable for the project hasn't been finalized, but a general time frame may be announced in the next month or so. At some point, the work will require a 3-month shutdown of the theater. According to information released by the Exploreum, the project will involve "a near top to bottom overhaul" including a new sound system, seating and flooring. Comeaux said he also plans to improve the venue's handicap-accessible seating. When the theater reopens, the old 70mm film projection system leased from IMAX will be gone. In its place will be a D3D Co. system driving a trio of Christie projectors that work together to cover the entire dome with a sharp, vibrant image. Comeaux said that improvement alone will be like going from an antique cathode ray tube TV to a modern jumbo flat screen. A fourth projector will be added specifically to show commercial films on a portion of the dome. Comeaux said he thinks that 44 x 22-foot swath "is still larger than any screen you'll see in the Mobile area." Comeaux said the Exploreum will move carefully into the realm of popular film and won't compete for first-run showings of new releases. It's more likely to find a niche with special-event showings of select blockbusters, he indicated. He also said that he does not anticipate showing 3D films on the dome. A statement released by the Exploreum said the new system also will allow video conferencing and streaming broadcasts "from entities such as NASA as well as TED Talks." While the possibility of showing Hollywood blockbusters on the dome sparks a lot of attention, Comeaux said the new system will open up new possibilities for what he calls "mission films" as well. That means a bigger selection of scientific and documentary films, as well as more pairing options for special attractions such as the Exploreum's current exhibition on Genghis Khan. Whats nice about this is, there have been a ton of movies that we couldnt show because theyre digital only, he said. The OECD Observer online archive takes you on a journey through half a century of public policy and world progress. Since November 1962, the OECDs experts and leading guests offer insights on the questions facing our member countries with concise and authoritative analysis, and provide our audiences with an excellent opportunity to understand policy debates and consider solutions. Each edition of the OECD Observer reports on a core theme of the OECDs on-going work, from economics and society through governance, finance, and the environment, and articles are bolstered by tables and graphs. Protests have continued in Sudan despite President Omar al-Bashirs launch of year-long state of emergency last month. As hundreds of protesters took the streets of Sudans city of Omdurman, activists across the East African country called for sustained anti-government action to challenge emergency laws launched by President Omar al-Bashir last month. The one-year state of emergency announced on February 22 gives state authorities extended powers to detain protesters and crack down on public gatherings, but activists who have been protesting against Bashir for nearly three months say they are more determined than ever to take to the streets. Bashirs announcement has only escalated the situation and made us more insistent on protesting to make our voices heard, said Ahmed, an activist from Khartoum, whose real name was changed for his safety. We heard Bashirs announcement of the new laws while we waited in the streets so that we could react immediately. Sudans streets have been teaming with demonstrators since, added Ahmed, who has taken part in the protests since they began on December 19. Bashir's announcement has only escalated the situation and made us more insistent on protesting to make our voices heard. Ahmed, Sudanese activist Protests, sparked by a government decision to increase the price of bread, quickly developed into nationwide anti-government demonstrations calling for al-Bashir to step down. Al-Bashir has since acknowledged the protests and taken several steps, which included quitting his position as chairman of the ruling party, in an attempt to appease the demonstrators. But activists say their demands have still not been met. Extensive new powers The presidential decree announced last month bans protests, public gatherings and political activities. It also gives the police and security forces more power to monitor individuals and to carry out inspections. Under the new emergency laws, security forces are allowed to detain suspected individuals and seize private property if they believe it is being used to plan political activities. Sudans parliament is expected to vote on whether or not to continue the state of emergency. Analysts and human rights activists say the new laws are unprecedented in Sudan and can be used to stifle any resistance against the government. 190127061619964 The state of emergency only makes the status quo much worse than it already was. It augments the already-extensive powers of the state security apparatus, namely the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), in search, seizure and arrest, said Muhammad Osman, an independent Sudanese analyst. They [security services] can now arbitrarily detain people for any period of time, search any building they want, confiscate any assets. The state of emergency will also allow the government to try people for anti-government comments on social media and will set up emergency courts to hand down summary sentences of prison against protesters, explained Osman. Special emergency courts, established to prosecute people arrested for participating in demonstrations, have already seen more than 800 protesters placed on trial since al-Bashirs imposed state of emergency. More defiant protesters Ahmed, who was among a group of 69 protesters put on trial after being detained during a demonstration in Burri, east of Khartoum, on February 28, says these new measures have not intimidated him and his activist friends. I was arrested and detained for several days before being put on trial at a special court, and then released along with 66 others last Wednesday, Ahmed told Al Jazeera. Our immediate reaction to Bashir's announcement was to call on the Sudanese people to protest in the streets, and that's exactly what happened. Mohamed Asbat, journalist and SPA spokesperson The violence we experienced at the hands of the security forces was brutal and has definitely increased since the presidential decree. But our arrest has only made us more defiant to continue. According to Mohamed Asbat, a Sudanese journalist and spokesman for the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), an umbrella coalition that has led calls for nationwide protests and strikes, the new emergency powers will not stifle the protest movement. Our immediate reaction to Bashirs announcement was to call on the Sudanese people to protest in the streets, and thats exactly what happened, Asbat told Al Jazeera. The streets became filled with protesters within a few minutes of the announcement and the number and intensity of the demonstrations has only been on the rise since, he added. 190216130300295 Following al-Bashirs announcement of the new laws, protesters staged anti-government protests overnight in hospitals and universities to challenge the new powers. Several protests and a nationwide strike, which saw the participation of a large number of doctors, journalists, lawyers and pharmacists on March 5, have since been held across Sudan. While the state of emergency was aimed at weakening the protest movement, it has only worked in our favour, pushing us harder, said Asbat. Revised strategies? Despite al-Bashir ordering on Friday the release of female protesters detained in the nationwide demonstrations, nine women were sentenced a day later to 20 lashes and one month in prison for rioting. The move came after an emergency court sent on February 28 eight people to prison for protesting, sentencing four to five-year terms and the rest to three-year sentences. Following Saturdays court decision against the female protesters, the SPA released a statement on Sunday to condemn the move. The Sudanese people were shocked and deeply disappointed by the emergency courts decision to severely punish nine female protesters in Khartoum. We condemn the involvement of the judiciary with the emergency courts attempt to silence the Sudanese people and prevent us from practising our right to hold peaceful protests. Such prosecutions have led analysts to believe that although the immediate reaction of the protesters to the emergency laws has been to challenge them, the new powers may eventually weaken the movement. If the government prosecutes and sentences a large number of activists to lengthy periods in prison, the strength of the protests is likely to be affected, told Al Jazeera. That, in turn, will force the leadership organising the protests, the Sudanese Professionals Association, to explore other and less costly options of resistance. Jose de Eugenio Lopez has fled his El Salvador home three times. Last month, he received protection in Mexico. Tecun Uman, Guatemala & Tapachula, Mexico The first time Jose de Eugenio Lopez fled El Salvador, he was a teenager. It was the outset of a brutal 12-year civil war and US-backed military forces were forcibly recruiting youth and massacring civilians. The second time he left his country, he travelled up through Mexico on a freight train used by migrants. He fell off onto the tracks and the train severed his leg. The third time Lopez fled, he joined thousands of Central Americans heading north last year in a collective exodus. Months later, he is still just partway into the journey, with no plans to turn back. In our country, crime makes it impossible to live. There are too many gangs. There are too many death squads, said Lopez, now 53. When Al Jazeera first met Lopez in January, he was sitting on a bridge that spans the Suchiate River and the international border between Guatemala and Mexico. The last time he was on the bridge, Mexican federal police fired tear gas and anti-barrier projectiles, killing a Honduran migrant. This time was more peaceful. Lopez had been under consideration for asylum in Mexico since October, but because the outcome of cases was uncertain, some immigration officials recommended Lopez and others return to the border bridge in January while a new Mexican administration was offering humanitarian visas to migrants and refugees. Tens of thousands of Central American migrants and refugees have crossed into Mexico in recent months [Sandra Cuffe/Al Jazeera] {articleGUID} Lopez rested in the shade of a canopy tent, his crutches beside him on the pavement. He was ahead of most of the more than 15,000 Central Americans who applied for humanitarian visas at the border in the second half of January, but there were still several lines on the bridge, all moving slowly. When he first migrated north, Lopez was only 14. He left his village in the San Miguel department of El Salvador in 1980, fleeing a civil war between leftist guerrilla forces and military forces heavily funded by the US. Between 1979 and 1992, around 75,000 Salvadorans, most of them civilians, were killed during the conflict. As part of a scorched earth campaign against the rebel fighters, the army massacred and bombed villages. The United Nations estimated state forces were responsible for 85 percent of civilians murdered. The Salvadoran army also forcibly recruited youth, but Lopez was long gone. He made it all the way to the US and lived in California for a decade until 1990 when he decided to go back to El Salvador. I returned to be closer to my mother, said Lopez. The accident By then, Lopez was in his mid-20s. He started a new life back home. But just over a decade later, he was struggling to get by. He decided to head north again in search of work, and set off up through Mexico, travelling with a handful of other migrants. In some parts of the country we were treated well, but in some places it was bad, because it was not just immigration [agents] who treated us badly, but also police, soldiers, all of them, said Lopez, explaining that sometimes authorities would rob them or demand bribes in order to allow to keep going. {articleGUID} For more security, we travelled by train because we would run into fewer authorities, he said. A network of freight trains commonly referred to as La Bestia [The Beast] has long been used by migrants and refugees travelling north through Mexico. Riding atop freight cars and cargo containers, they switch lines along the way to arrive at points along the US border. Lopez was riding atop a freight train heading up through the state of Veracruz on October 8, 2003. I fell asleep on the train and I fell off, he said. Lopez fell onto the tracks and the train amputated his left leg, severing it at the upper thigh. He also sustained severe injuries to his right leg. Someone found him, then rail line workers arrived and provided first aid while they waited for an ambulance. The incident was far from one of a kind. Hundreds of migrants and refugees have lost limbs after falling from the freight trains in Mexico. Others have died. Lopez needed multiple surgeries to repair damage to his right leg and to make a more even amputation of his left leg to accommodate a prosthetic. He does not use one, however, since it aggravates the lasting damage to his right leg more than using crutches does. Overall, Lopez was hospitalised in Mexico for nearly a year. When I was about to be released, the hospital contacted immigration, and I was deported, he said. Better to travel as a caravan El Salvador has legislation addressing the rights of people with disabilities, including prohibiting discrimination by employers. But it is seldom enforced, and even basic accommodations for accessibility in city streets, on transportation, and to buildings for people with physical disabilities are severely lacking. Lopez settled back in El Salvador and had two daughters, now aged 12 and 13. But getting around and finding work to support his family was a constant challenge. When he heard about plans in October for collective group migration from El Salvador in a so-called migrant caravan, he decided to join. For safety, it is better to travel as a caravan, because if you enter Mexico alone, they quickly arrest and deport you, Lopez said. {articleGUID} Since mid-October, more than 25,000 Central American migrants and refugees have participated in the caravans, fleeing violence, poverty, persecution and unemployment. The overwhelming majority have been from Honduras, but thousands of Salvadorans have also been part of the exodus. Thousands of Central Americans have made it up to Tijuana and other points along the US border in recent months. Many have crossed into the US to seek asylum, both at and between official ports of entry, while others have stayed in Mexico, chosen to return, or have been deported. Lopez stay behind in Tapachula, just 35km from the border with Guatemala. He was issued a humanitarian visa after returning to the border to apply in January, but he stayed in Tapachula to await a resolution to his case from the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR). More than 15,000 Central Americans applied for Mexican humanitarian visas in the second half of January [Sandra Cuffe/Al Jazeera] Scraping by When the first waves of the Central American exodus entered Mexico last October and November, most migrants and refugees crossed the Suchiate River and kept going, making their way up to Tijuana. But many stayed behind in southern Mexico. More than 3,000 Central Americans remained in Tapachula for intake by both immigration authorities and COMAR. The 45-business-day refugee status consideration process was extended to 90 days, and caravan after caravan passed them while Lopez and thousands of others tried to scrape by on a stipend from the Mexican branch of Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). We have families in our countries that also need us to contribute. Sometimes we do not even have food for ourselves, much less a way to help our families, said Lopez. There has been no room in the shelters in Tapachula, job opportunities have been few and far between, and as the months passed, many began to despair. Like Lopez, many dropped down to the border when the Mexican government began issuing humanitarian visas. COMAR has been resolving cases this month, but not everyone waited. So many people who were in this process left with caravans heading north, said Lopez. Asylum seekers who have been in Tapachula since they fled Central America with the first waves of the exodus often congregate in the citys central plaza to catch up and to greet the subsequent waves of people passing through. A steady stream of migrants and refugees continues to flow through Tapachula, long after the closure of the two-week period for humanitarian visa applications. New arrivals often raft across the Suchiate River into Mexico, spend a night in the Tapachula plaza, then keep heading north, risking detention and deportation by Mexican authorities on the way to the US border where asylum seekers face a myriad of obstacles. {articleGUID} Lopez was never tempted to join any of the groups flowing through Tapachula.He plans to stay in Mexico to work, and has received assistance to line up a job in a city in central Mexico, he told Al Jazeera in the Tapachula plaza last month. Decades after he first fled war and four months after he sought refuge in Mexico upon entering with the mass exodus, Lopez can finally make concrete plans in peace. COMAR issued its decision in his case late last month, determining Lopez is in need of protection and granting him residency in Mexico. Paris, France Shouting Bouteflika has got to go, waving Algerian and Berber flags and brandishing signs demanding Algerias ailing president step down, some 10,000 people have rallied in the centre of Frances capital, Paris, on Sunday. This is our time; its the time for Algerian people, one of the protesters on Sunday said, echoing the growing calls against President Abdelaziz Bouteflikas plan to extend his rule in elections next month. As hundreds of thousands of Algerians have taken to the streets throughout the North African country over the past several weeks to protest against the 82-year-olds bid to seek a fifth term, the Algerian diaspora has expressed solidarity by also taking to the streets in large numbers. In France, which is home to hundreds of thousands of Algerian-born immigrants, protests have taken place in both Paris and Marseille. On Sunday, the capitals Place de la Republique was filled with Algerians and people of Algerian descent of all generations. It was also attended briefly by opposition political activist and Algerian businessman Rachid Nekkaz, who just days before was questioned by Swiss authorities for having attempted to enter the hospital where Bouteflika was being treated. The president returned to Algeria on Sunday after a two-week stay in a hospital in Geneva. Judges refuse to oversee Algerias April election if President Abdelaziz Bouteflika takes part in it. More than 1,000 judges have refused to oversee Algerias April 18 election if President Abdelaziz Bouteflika takes part in it. Coming more than two weeks after anti-Bouteflika protests broke out across the North African country, the judges said in a statement published on Sunday that they were forming a new association to restore the gift of justice. We announce our intention to abstain from supervising the election process against the will of the people, which is the only source of power, the statement read. The statement drew a sharp retort from Algerian Justice Minister Tayeb Louh, a member of Bouteflikas inner circle, who said judges should remain neutral. The independence and integrity of the judge must be consistent whatever the reasons, Ennahar TV quoted him as saying. Lawyers on Monday launched a 48-hour walkout to demand the Constitutional Council reject Bouteflikas re-election bid on the grounds of incapacity to carry out the role. The 82-year-old Bouteflika, who returned to Algeria on Sunday after undergoing medical treatment in Switzerland, faces the toughest fight of his 20-year rule. The ailing head of state has rarely been seen in public since a stroke in 2013. Stale system Bouteflika has offered to limit his term after the election and has vowed to change the system that runs the country. The promises, however, have failed to quell public anger, galvanising discontent among different sectors, particularly students and other young people. Algerians from all social classes have rejected his plan to secure a fifth term in next months elections, a move protesters feel would perpetuate a stale political system dominated by veterans of an independence war against France that ended in 1962. Algerias protests explained Bouteflika is back, we delivered a message, we need a response, and we need a response now, Mouloud Mohamed, a 29-year-old pharmacist, told Reuters news agency. The secretive military-based establishment known to Algerians as le pouvoir [the powers-that-be] appears to have stood aside while the demonstrations have taken place. In Algiers, tens of unionists staged a protest rally outside the headquarters of the main union, UGTA, calling on its leader Abdelmadjid Sidi Said, a Bouteflika ally, to resign. Young Algerians are desperate for jobs and angry about unemployment and corruption and complain that their leaders still dwell on the victory over France instead of improving living standards for the future. This time, its quite different. What we see now is a momentum that is building up across Algeria, Al Jazeeras Hashem Ahelbarra, who has covered the region extensively, said of the ongoing demonstrations. Many people believe if this momentum continues for the next two weeks, it could be a game changer, Ahelbarra added. Looking ahead, Ahelbarra said a key date for the country was going to be March 13, when Algerias constitutional committee is set to determine the legitimacy of the presented candidacies for next months elections. US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have made modest advances after resuming a major push against ISILs final holdout in eastern Syria, according to a commander of the Kurdish-led group. Amid sniper fire, suicide attacks and land mines, SDF fighters moved slowly on Monday towards a tent encampment in Baghouz, in Deir Az Zor province, senior commander Adnan Afrin told the Reuters news agency. The reported advance, which is backed by US-led coalition air raids, came hours after the restart of the offensive on the ISIL-held village, situated on the bank of the Euphrates River near Syrias border with Iraq. Mustafa Bali, an SDF spokesperson, said in a post on Twitter that dozens of ISIL fighters were killed during battles on Monday. 190311164503915 One SDF fighter was also killed and four others were wounded during the fighting, which saw four ISIL members commit suicide attacks using explosive belts without causing any casualties, Bali added. The ongoing offensive was launched after an earlier SDF-imposed deadline for ISIL fighters to surrender expired. It is unclear how many ISIL fighters are still holed-up in the village. Several thousand civilians are also estimated to be in the area. A senior US defence official told The Associated Press news agency last week that it would not be a surprise, based on current conditions, if it took another couple of weeks to finish mopping up the ISIL enclave. Fall of the caliphate Retaking Baghouz would mark a milestone in the campaign against the armed group, which once controlled almost one-third of Iraq and Syria under its self-declared caliphate after suddenly expanding in 2014. The SDF have been poised to advance into the village for weeks but have repeatedly held back to allow for the evacuation of thousands of civilians, many of them wives and children of ISIL fighters, to nearby displacement camps. Bali said on Sunday no further civilians had emerged from the enclave since Saturday and the SDF had not observed any more civilians in the area, prompting the decision to attack. Tens of thousands of people have streamed out of the shrinking territory held by the ISIL in recent months, with most of those fleeing Baghouz headed to the al-Hol camp, in northeastern Syria. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which is working in the camp, warned last week it had reached breaking point due to the influx of more than 55,000 people since the beginning of December. There is now an urgent need for thousands more family tents to get to al-Hol to help shelter the latest arrivals, as well as increased funding to support the health crisis unfolding at the camp, Misty Buswell, the IRCs Middle East advocacy director, said in a statement. On Monday, the United Nations childrens agency UNICEF said there were about 3,000 children from 43 countries living in al-Hol, along with many more Syrian and Iraqi children, in extremely dire conditions. Since January 1, 2019, every single day, a child has died fleeing the fight against ISIS [ISIL], UNICEFs regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, Geert Cappelaere, told reporters at a press conference in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Israeli prime minister admits the state is not one for all of its citizens in response to a critical Instagram post. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel is not a state of all its citizens, in a reference to the countrys Palestinian Arab population, adding that all citizens, including Arabs, had equal rights. However, in his comments on Instagram, Netanyahu referred to a deeply controversial law passed last year declaring Israel the nation-state of the Jewish people. Israel is not a state of all its citizens, he wrote in response to criticism from an Israeli actor, Rotem Sela. According to the basic nationality law we passed, Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people and only it. The law, passed last summer, downgraded the Arabic language from an official language to a language with special status, making Hebrew the only official language, and stipulated that Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and they have an exclusive right to national self-determination in it. It also states that an undivided Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Sela had posted on Instagram her criticism of an interview with right-wing Culture Minister Miri Regev, one of the Netanyahu cabinets most vocal critics of the Palestinians. When will anyone in this government tell the public that this is a country of all its citizens, and all people are born equal, Sela wrote. Arabs are also human beings. And also the Druze, and the gays, and the lesbians and gasp leftists. As the comments made waves in Israel, Netanyahu reiterated his point at the start of a cabinet meeting. He called Israel a Jewish, democratic state with equal rights, but the nation state not of all its citizens but only of the Jewish people. Netanyahu has been accused of demonising Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up about 17 percent of the population, in an attempt to boost right-wing turnout in elections due on April 9. The prime minister has continually warned that his opponents will receive the support of Arab parties and that they will make significant concessions to the Palestinians. Netanyahu, who may face indictment for corruption, is facing a tough challenge from a centrist political alliance led by Benny Gantz, a former military chief of staff, and Yair Lapid, a former finance minister. The alliances centrist positions and its security credentials it includes three former military chiefs of staff have helped it beat back Netanyahus claims that its leaders are weak leftists. It is extremely unlikely that Arab parties would be part of any coalition government after elections. Netanyahu leads what is seen as the most right-wing government in Israels history and says he wants a similar coalition after the upcoming polls. Questions being asked of manufacturer after two deadly plane accidents involving Boeing 737 MAX 8 just months apart. The latest version of Boeings best-selling 737 family has again been thrust into the spotlight after a fatal crash in Ethiopia, months after a deadly crash involving an identical brand-new jet in Indonesia. A Nairobi-bound Boeing 737 MAX 8 operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa, killing all 157 on board. The same model flown by Lion Air crashed off the coast of Indonesia in October, killing all 189 on board. There are still unanswered questions about the causes of the Lion Air crash, and officials and safety experts said it was too soon to draw links with the incident in Ethiopia. In a statement issued on Sunday, Boeing said it would send a technical team to the crash site to provide assistance. Boeings shares dropped 12 percent in the weeks following the Lion Air crash. They slid almost 10 percent in early trading on Monday. The share move, if maintained through normal trading hours, would be the biggest fall in Boeings stock in nearly two decades, halting a surge that has seen it triple in value in just over three years to a record high of $446 last week. Reliable aircraft Boeings 737 MAX is the newest version of a jet that has been a fixture of passenger travel for decades and the cash cow of the worlds largest aircraft maker, competing against the Airbus SEs A320neo family of single-aisle jetliners. The decades-old 737 family is considered one of the industrys most reliable aircraft. Boeing rolled out the fuel-efficient MAX 8 in 2017 as an update to the already redesigned 50-year-old 737 and had delivered 350 MAX jets out of the total order tally of 5,011 aircraft by the end of January. Former National Transportation Safety Board chairman Mark Rosenker said the catastrophic crashes of two new planes were highly unusual and both had broad similarities in that they went down soon after take-off. While it is unclear if there is a direct link, this is now an extraordinary issue for aviation safety officials to grapple with and will prompt a sweeping investigation to determine if there are common issues, Rosenker said. Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co is the biggest operator of the MAX 8, with 31 aircraft, followed by American Airlines Group Inc and Air Canada with 24 each. Southwest and American said on Sunday they remained fully confident in the aircraft and were closely monitoring the investigation. China and Ethiopia grounded all Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft while a number of airlines across the world are carrying out safety measures on the jets. Aviation analyst Scott Hamilton cautioned against drawing comparisons between the two crashes, especially before the flight recorders are recovered. Ethiopian Airlines has a strong reputation and good safety record, he said in a blog post. Still, the crash puts fresh pressure on Boeing just days before it had planned an event to debut another aircraft. Late on Sunday, Boeing said it would postpone the planned ceremonial debut of its 777x wide-body aircraft that had been set for Wednesday in Seattle and was to be live-streamed. The company said it is focused on supporting Ethiopian Airlines and will look for an opportunity to mark the new plane with the world in the near future. VIDEO: Search operation underway at the crash site of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 near Bishoftu pic.twitter.com/26kl1nylrX AFP news agency (@AFP) March 11, 2019 Flight manual Following the Lion Air crash, Boeing faced criticism from some US pilot unions for not having detailed in its flight manual a change in the way that software on the MAX reacts in a stall compared with a previous version. Boeing has insisted that cockpit procedures were already in place to deal with problems that the Lion Air jet experienced. A preliminary report into the Lion Air crash focused on airline maintenance and training, as well as the technical response of the anti-stall system to a recently replaced sensor, but did not give a reason for the crash. Since then, the cockpit voice recorder was recovered and a final report is due later this year. Boeing was expected to introduce a software patch to help address the scenario faced by the Lion Air crew in late March or April, government and industry officials told Reuters news agency in recent weeks. Boeing is already facing a string of lawsuits in the United States by families of the Lion Air crash victims, including five cases in the US federal court in Illinois where Boeing has its Chicago headquarters. The 737 MAX 8 uses LEAP-1B engines made by CFM International, a joint venture of General Electric Co and Safran SA. Many of the UN staff killed in Ethiopia Airlines crash were travelling to the UNEP assembly in Kenyas capital. An assembly of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has opened in Kenyas capital, Nairobi, under a dark cloud cast by the Sundays plane crash that killed 157 people, including 22 UN staff, many heading for the annual event. On Monday, delegates arrived at the event with the UN flag flying at half-mast, and the flags of the UN members that usually adorn the UNEP headquarters having been taken down. As they wondered aloud who among their colleagues may have been on board the ill-fated Nairobi-bound flight, the delegates hugged and comforted one another, and observed a minutes silence at the meetings start. According to Maimunah Sharif, the head of UN-Habitat, at least 22 UN employees were among the 157 killed when the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing jet crashed early on Sunday, just six minutes after the takeoff from Addis Ababa, the capital of neighbouring Ethiopia. 190310172051253 I stand before you on the first day of the UN Environment Assembly, which has officially commenced today in the wake of this tragedy, Sharif told delegates. We will not forget this tragedy, nor those who perished. Let us reflect that our colleagues were willing to travel and to work far from their homes and loved ones to make the world a better place to live. Regional seat Nairobi hosts the global headquarters of the UNEP and is the regional seat for many UN agencies. The annual UNEP assembly gathers heads of state, ministers, business leaders and civil society representatives to work on ways to slash pollution and build a greener global economy. In a statement before the conference, the UN said it was deeply saddened by the news of the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those affected. We are following developments closely, it said. A member of the UNEP secretariat told the AFP news agency on Monday it was still trying to consolidate the number of staffers killed. Among the UN staff were some who worked for the World Food Programme, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration, the agencies have said. Aerospace giants state-of-the-art control system has been implicated in two fatal crashes merely months apart. An advanced control system designed to stop Boeings top-selling 737 MAX 8 from stalling in mid-flight is coming under scrutiny following Sundays Ethiopian Airlines crash, which killed 157 people. The aircrafts state-of-the-art Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) was also implicated in the downing last year of Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX 8 in Indonesia, when all passengers and crew members also died. In both cases, the aircraft were just a few months old and crashed minutes after take-off. Both planes are reported to have flown erratically, climbing and descending steeply before finally crashing. We are hearing that the problem was similar to the Lion Air accident; unreliable airspeed and/or difficulty in controlling the aircraft, and both had asked to return to the airport, Gerry Soejatman, an aviation analyst based in Indonesias capital, Jakarta, told Al Jazeera. 190311092636067 An initial investigation in the Lion Air accident suggested a faulty sensor had triggered the planes automated MCAS system possibly resulting in the nose of the aircraft being pushed down. New planes do have issues, said Soejatman. But they are usually solved before delivery. These two accidents, potentially with similar causes, are definitely raising eyebrows within the industry. Planes grounded The similarity of the two accidents has also put the aviation industry into a tailspin, with a number of countries grounding their Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleets, even before the results of an investigation are known. China, a major buyer of the aircraft, was one of the first to ground its 737 MAX 8 aircraft until further notice. 190310082515738 Given that two accidents both involved newly delivered Boeing 737-8 planes and happened during take-off phase, they have some degree of similarity, Chinas Civil Aviation Administration said in a statement. Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at the Atmosphere Research Group, said Beijings move will carry enormous impact across the global airline community. Chinas decision may be premature, [but] its one that cannot be ignored, he added. China is an extremely important market for Boeing. Cayman Airways and Ethiopian Airlines have also grounded their 737 MAX 8 fleet. Boeing has delivered about 350 of the approximately $120m each aircraft to date, with more than 4,500 in total ordered since 2017, making it one of Boeings most important and profitable aircraft. What is MCAS? The MCAS, introduced with the launch the 737 MAX 8 in May 2017, was the result of an effort to equip the new model with larger and more fuel-efficient engines. These were placed further forward and higher on the wing, altering the aircrafts balance. This resulted in the planes nose pitching upwards in certain circumstances. 190310135230019 To solve the problem, Boeing added the MCAS flight-control system, which automatically pushed the aircrafts nose down when a sensor indicated the plane was at risk of stalling. The MCAS is designed to only activate when the wing flaps are retracted after take-off and the aircraft has gained altitude. However, it is speculated this system may have played a part in both accidents, with the climbing and diving behaviour of the flight the result of the pilots struggle to overcome the automated system. Pilots in the dark? Following the Lion Air crash in October 2018, which killed 189 people, it was reported that the addition of the MCAS flight-control system had not been adequately explained to pilots, possibly making them ill-prepared if it were to activate during flight. At the time, Boeing denied the company had intentionally withheld information about the new system. According to digital aviation publication Air Current, citing an internal Boeing memo, company CEO Dennis Muilenburg told staff the relevant function [of MCAS] is described in the Flight Crew Operations Manual. We routinely engage with customers about how to operate our airplanes safely, Muilenburg said in the memo, according to an Air Current report. But pilots flying the aircraft for Southwest Airlines were reported to have been told that it was likely they would never see the system at work as it operates in situations where the aircraft is under relatively high g load and near stall designed to assist the pilot during recover, and likely going unnoticed by the pilot. Air Current, citing a Q&A document provided to pilots at SouthWest Airlines, said staff were told this was why Boeing did not include an MCAS description in its Flight Crew Operations Manual. 157-190310172051253 In the wake of the Lion Air crash, Boeing stepped up its efforts to make pilots familiar with the new system, but the relations between to two companies soured, with Lion Air threatening to cancel billions of dollars of orders. Normally, manufacturers would be supportive of their customer in times of accidents, said Soejatman. This crash has raised questions on the real reason behind the breakdown in relations between Lion Air and Boeing. The US aerospace giant is also understood to be working on updated software for the MCAS system but it is unclear if the Ethiopian Airlines accident will delay this. Ongoing investigation As investigators from Boeing, Ethiopia Accident Investigation Bureau and US National Transportation Safety Board sift through the remains of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8, the focus now turns to understanding the cause of the accident. At the very least, this accident will dampen the Boeing 737 MAX 8 sales campaign from this point on, until the completion of the accident investigations, said Soejatman. For Boeing, a great deal hangs on the findings of those investigations. On Tuesday, the aerospace giants shares plunged in value by nearly 13 percent on the New York Stock Exchange. The dive left the company poised for their worst day of trading since September 17, 2001, when several aerospace firms saw their share prices plummet in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in the US. Former rebel leader and popular opposition figure seeks compensation from global court for legal costs, losses. Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former vice president and rebel leader in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), is seeking millions of dollars in compensation from the International Criminal Court (ICC), his lawyers have announced. The 55-year-olds legal team last week filed an application asking judges at The Hague-based court to award him a total of nearly 69 million euros ($77m) for what they called a miscarriage of justice over his former conviction for war crimes, his lawyers said in a statement on Monday. The sum includes damages for the 10 years Bemba spent in prison between from 2008 to 2018 for alleged murders and rapes committed by the fighters belonging to his Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) rebel group in the Central African Republic (CAR) during 2002-2003. In 2016, the ICC convicted him on two counts of crimes against humanity and three counts of war crimes over his role in events in the CAR. He was acquitted on appeal in June of last year and released from prison days later. Compensation for legal costs, losses Bembas lawyers said the payment sought from the ICC also included compensation for legal costs and losses in the value of assets frozen by the court while he was in prison. Mr Bembas property was left over a 10-year period to devalue, dissipate, or simply rot, their statement said. Among the devalued assets the lawyers listed was a Boeing 727 jetliner, a plane customarily used for commercial passenger flights. Bembas aircraft was impounded in Portugal in 2008. When he tried to get it back to help pay legal bills, he was informed that the prosecution was unable to find the keys, his lawyers said. The plane is now scrap. It still stands stranded on the tarmac at Faro Airport, they added. The lawyers said that if Bemba received compensation from the court, the money would be used to provide reparations to the people of the Central African Republic. The court made no comment on Monday on the substance of the request. It is a request submitted to the judges. We have to wait for the judges decisions, and we cant speculate on the outcome, court spokesman Fadi El Abdallah told the Associated Press news agency in an email. In September, the ICC handed Bemba a 12-month sentence and a $350,000 fine for tampering with witnesses during his hearing in 2016. The court said he did not need to return to jail, however, having already served time over the war crimes case. Bemba barred from DRC poll A popular opposition leader in the DRC, Bemba finished second to President Joseph Kabila in a 2006 election that sparked deadly clashes between the formers supporters and state troops on the streets of the capital, Kinshasa. Last year, Bemba was barred from running in the countrys December presidential election as a result of his conviction for witness tampering. The poll was won by Felix Tshisekedi, who defeated Kabilas hand-picked candidate Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary and rival opposition candidate Martin Fayulu, among others, in the ballot. Election observers reported a number of irregularities during the vote and there were widespread opposition allegations it was marred by fraud. Fayulu, meanwhile, rejected the result and accused Tshisekedi of making a secret deal with Kabila. The former president took office in December 2001 after the assassination of his father, Laurent-Desire Kabila, and later refused to step down when his second and final constitutional term officially expired in December 2016. Tshisekedi and Kabila issued a joint statement last week confirming their common will to govern together as part of a coalition government on account of Kabilas Common Front for Congo coalition holding 342 of the 485 seats in the DRCs parliament. About 100 suspects were arrested and more than 30 cars and scooters were confiscated or destroyed, military says. The Egyptian military says three troops and dozens of people suspected of belonging to armed groups have been killed in recent days during shootouts in the Sinai Peninsula. In a video recording on Monday, the armed forces said a campaign over the last period had resulted in the elimination of 46 very dangerous members of terrorist elements during exchanges of fire in north and central Sinai. The statement did not specify the dates or locations of the security operations. About 100 suspects were arrested and more than 30 cars and scooters confiscated or destroyed, it said, adding that the forces destroyed 10 tunnels on the border with the besieged Gaza Strip. The military also said Egyptian forces had destroyed 15 hideouts and dismantled 204 explosive devices during the operations. The statement did not give the identity or affiliation of the suspects it faced in Sinai, the Western Desert and southern Egypt. The armed forces said several hundred fighters have been killed since it launched a major campaign in February 2018 aimed at vanquishing the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and related groups in Sinai. Human rights organisations have accused Egypt of carrying out extrajudicial executions and of trying civilians in military courts as part of the crackdown. Schiff says Prince didnt disclose his August 2016 Trump Tower meeting in his testimony to the House Intelligence panel. US House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff told US media on Sunday that Blackwater founder Erik Prince was certainly not telling the truth in his interview on Al Jazeeras Head to Head. During that interview, which aired last week, Prince acknowledged a meeting that took place with members of the Trump campaign and others in August 2016. When pressed by Al Jazeeras Mehdi Hasan about why he did not disclose the meeting when he testified under oath before the House Intelligence Committee in November 2017, Prince said, I dont know if they got the transcript wrong, referring to a publicly available transcript from the hearing. He later also said that not all of the discussion that day was transcribed. He added that he certainly remembers discussing the meeting with investigators. Princes comments were the first time he or anyone from the meeting publicly acknowledged that it took place. The New York Times first reported the meeting in May 2018. According to the Times, it was attended by Prince, Donald Trump Jr, George Nader, a former Blackwater employee and emissary for the crown princes of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Stephen Miller, then a top aide to the Trump campaign and currently a senior policy adviser to the president and Joel Zamel, whose company Psy-Group employed former Israeli intelligence operatives and specialised in social media manipulation and was reportedly contacted by Rick Gates. Prince told Al Jazeera the meeting was to discuss Iran policy. Not telling the truth Speaking to NBCs Meet the Press on Sunday, Schiff said, Prince is certainly not telling the truth in that interview. Theres nothing wrong with our transcript, theres nothing wrong with the reporter who transcribed his testimony, he did not disclose that meeting to our committee, Schiff said. 180522050034343 A staff member of the House Intelligence Committee also told Al Jazeera that Prince was not asked about the August 3, 2016, meeting in Trump Tower during his testimony and any redactions that were made to that testimony were done to protect personally identifiable information. Schiff said given there were questions over the United Arab Emirates role in the Russian interference in the election, the meeting was directly relevant to the committee, which looked at Russias election meddling. This is another concealed meeting, this is another discussion that took place in the context of the meeting that he had in the Seychelles, Schiff said. There have been persistent questions about whether the UAE was playing a backchannel role to the Russians during the campaign and those were a lot of the questions we were asking him about, he added. So clearly, this meeting at Trump tower with these players was a direct interest to our committee, so why conceal it? Prince has been interviewed by both the US House Intelligence Committee and Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, about his ties to the current administration. Trump has called the investigation a witch-hunt and denied any collusion. Russia has denied US intelligence communitys finding that Moscow interfered in the US political arena. With additional reporting by Elizabeth Walsh from Washington, DC. Both recorders from Boeing 737 recovered but partly destroyed, airline official says, as search for bodies continues. In a previous version of this article, a quote was incorrectly attributed to Asrat Begashaw, a spokesman for Ethiopian Airlines. This has now been fixed by attributing the quote to Al Jazeera's Mohammed Adow. Investigators have recovered both flight recorders from the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 that crashed just outside Addis Ababa, killing all 149 passengers and eight crew, according to the carrier. The Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of ET302 have been Recovered, the state-owned airline announced on Twitter on Monday. An airline official, however, said that the so-called black boxes are partially damaged and that we will see what we can retrieve from it. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, which was bound for the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, came down minutes after taking off from Ethiopia on Sunday. Ethiopia, China, and Indonesia grounded their entire fleets of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft on Monday, while a number of airlines across the world are carrying out safety measures on the jets It was not immediately clear what caused the crash of the recently-acquired Boeing 737 MAX 8 model, which was involved in another aviation disaster in Indonesia last year. Shortly after take-off at 05:38 GMT, the pilot reported an unspecified issue and was given permission to return to the Ethiopian capitals Bole airport. Minutes later, communication was lost and the plane plunged to the ground near the city of Bishoftu. Al Jazeeras Mohammed Adow, reporting from the Ethiopian capital, said the discovery of the flight recorders would give investigators the possibility of getting a definitive conclusion on what might have caused the aircraft to crash and kill all those people. Ethiopian aviation experts and investigators have been assisted by Kenyan and US experts. Forensic experts from Israel also arrived on Monday in Ethiopia to help with the investigation, Ethiopian Airlines spokesman Asrat Begashaw said. All of them have been putting together efforts not only in the search for these voice recorders, but also the mission of collecting body parts that are strewn in an area several kilometres apart, Al Jazeeras Adow said. Ethiopian Airlines, which has got a good overall safety record, is promising a very quick investigation. Search for remains Air crash investigators and Red Cross workers spent Monday retrieving remains and personal items belonging to the 157 victims, of 35 different nationalities, who were on flight ET 302. The carrier spokesman said searching and digging to uncover body parts and aircraft debris would continue. 190310135230019 Among those killed were 32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians and nine Ethiopians, as well as United Nations staff. Relatives of Kenyan victims told Al Jazeera that government officials would give them more information on Thursday about whether some of them are going to travel to Ethiopia to follow developments from there, and when the bodies of their loved ones were going to be brought back home for burial. Families are being told that its a very difficult process just identifying some of these bodies that are badly charred, Al Jazeeras Catherine Soi, reporting from the Jomo Kenyatta International airport in Nairobi, said. ZDFs Brase and Tagesspiegels Seibert leave Turkey as Berlin warns citizens over risk of arrest there. Two German journalists have left Turkey after authorities rejected their press accreditation, a step that drew condemnation from Germanys foreign minister and revived diplomatic tensions. Sundays departure of Joerg Brase, a correspondent for ZDF television, and Thomas Seibert, who works for Tagesspiegel newspaper, comes a day after Germany warned its citizens they risked arrest in Turkey for expressing views Ankara may not like. This is not acceptable to us, Germanys Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said of the journalists being stripped of their credentials. It has nothing to do with our understanding of press freedom, he told broadcaster ARD. ZDF confirmed Brase had returned to Germany on Sunday afternoon and Tagesspiegel said Seibert returned as well. The increase in diplomatic tensions follows a period of relative calm since September 2018, when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan toured Germany on a state visit aimed at repairing relations after bitter disputes. Ankara has been smarting at what it sees as Europes slowness to condemn the 2016 failed coup against Erdogan, while Germany and other European Union countries are concerned about the mass arrests that followed, Turkeys clampdown on press freedom and Erdogans influence over Turkish diaspora communities in Europe. We will keep reporting The Turkish government has managed to more or less silence the national media. They are now trying to do it with international media. And we should not submit to that, Brase told ZDF before leaving Istanbul. Seibert added: Turkey will not succeed in muffling our media. We will keep reporting about Turkey from wherever that might be. 190303070253389 ZDF Director Thomas Bellut said Brase had reported from Turkey factually and knowledgeably, adding: ZDF will continue to report about this important country extensively, impartially, factually and critically. Maas also expressed alarm at comments made by a Turkish minister threatening those in Germany who supported the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey. Both sides are eager to avoid a severe deterioration in ties with Turkeys economy in crisis and Germany, home to three million people of Turkish origin, reliant on Ankara to help contain a Syrian migrant and refugee crisis beyond Europes borders. In February last year, a Turkish court freed German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel pending trial after indicting him for alleged security offences a move that helped ease tensions between the two NATO allies for a period. Asked about the rejection of the journalists accreditation on Friday, Turkish Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said Germany and Turkey could have disagreements but these are not impossible to solve What will remain is the Turkish-German friendship. During the three-day visit, agreements will be signed in fields such as energy, transport, agriculture and more. Irans President Hassan Rouhani has arrived in Baghdad on his first official visit to the nation that Tehran once fought a bloody war against and later backed in the battle with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) group. Rouhani was welcomed by Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohamed Ali al-Hakim on Monday. He will visit a Shia shrine in the Iraqi capital and then meet President Barham Salih and Prime Minister Abdel Abdul Mahdi, as well as visit other politicians and Shia leaders. Since Rouhanis election in 2013, Iraq has relied on Iranian paramilitary support to fight ISIL following the groups capture of the Iraqi city of Mosul and other territories in both Iraq and Syria. Now, with the armed fighters facing a final territorial defeat in the Syrian village of Baghouz, Iran is looking for Iraqs continued support as it faces a maximalist pressure campaign by President Donald Trump after his decision to withdraw the United States from Tehrans nuclear deal with world powers. Rouhanis visit is a strong message to the US and its regional allies that Iran still dominates Baghdad, a key arena for rising tension between Washington and Tehran. We are very much interested to expand our ties with Iraq, particularly our transport cooperation, Rouhani said at Tehrans Mehrabad airport before departing for Iraq. We have important projects that will be discussed during this visit. Speaking from the Iraqi capital Baghdad, Al Jazeeras Natasha Ghoneim said Rouhanis visit is a two-pronged message to both the US and inner Iranian dissent. Since the US reimposed sanctions last year the economy has continued to deteriorate, and [Rouhani] is facing pressure from within, she said. There have even been calls for his ouster. So he comes to Iraq with the hope of bolstering economic ties in Iraq and Iran and with the hope of sending a clear message to the US that this relationship between the two countries is unshakeable. During the three-day visit, a series of agreements will be signed in fields such as energy, transport, agriculture, industry and health, Irans state news agency IRNA reported. Iraq is another channel for Iran to bypass Americas unjust sanctions imposed on Iran. This trip will provide opportunities for Irans economy, a senior Iranian official, who is accompanying Rouhani, told Reuters news agency. Increasing trade ties The parlous state of Irans economy since Trumps decision last May to pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers has pushed the countrys leaders to try to expand trade ties with its neighbours. The agreement lifted sanctions that had been imposed by the US, European Union and the United Nations in return for Irans curbs on its sensitive nuclear programme. The Trump administration, which said the accord was too generous and failed to rein in Irans ballistic missile programme and its involvement in regional conflicts such as in Syria and Yemen, reimposed sanctions on Tehran. Other signatories to the deal have been trying to salvage the pact after the US exit, but the American sanctions have largely scared off European companies from doing business with Iran. The Europeans have promised to help firms do business with Iran as long as it abides by the deal. Iran has itself threatened to pull out of the 2015 deal unless the European powers demonstrably protect its economic benefits. Addressing a joint press conference with Iraqs top diplomat al-Hakim on Sunday, Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said they had held very good discussions. The Iranian foreign minister thanked Iraq for having refused the unjust and illegal sanctions imposed on the Iranian people in reference to the US measures. After Turkey, Iran is the top supplier of imported goods to Iraq, and Rouhani said his discussions with al-Hakim covered sectors including trade and health. Iran and Iraq plan to raise their annual bilateral trade to $20bn from the current level of $12bn, according to Rouhani. The bulk of the trade balance is tilted towards Iran with gas and energy exports. Rouhani is coming to discuss trade between the countries [and] the issue of easing trade exchanges in Iraqi local currency and finding other ways, like Germany and Britain, to adopt an alternative European currency to circumvent US sanctions, Iraqi political analyst Hisham al-Hashemi told the AFP news agency. US-based IT services firm DXC Technology has appointed former Infosys chief financial officer Rajiv Bansal as senior VP and head of finance, Americas. Last year, Rajiv Bansal won long-standing arbitration case against Infosys that allowed him to claim the entire Rs 17.38 crore of severance pay that was granted to him when he quit the company. Infosys, during the tenure of former CEO Vishal Sikka, had agreed to pay Bansal a severance package of Rs 17.38 crore, or 24 months of salary, at the time of his exit in December 2015. But, in April 2017, the company had suspended payments after handing out Rs 5 crore of the promised amount after the "excessive" contract became a bone of contention in the governance battle that Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy waged against the company's board. Bansal, a chartered accountant and cost accountant by profession, also served as the CFO of online transportation app Ola. He spent about 16 years in Infosys and held key positions as CFO and advisor to the CEO and board. After leaving Infosys in October 2015, he joined Ola and quit just over a year later. Before joining Infosys, Bansal has worked in different capacities at Tata Technologies, Cable & Wireless, and ABB. One of the highest paid executives in Infosys, Bansal took home a package of $770,858 for the year ended March 2015. The New York Stock Exchange-listed DXC Technology is an end-to-end IT services company formed after the merger of CSC (Computer Sciences Corporation) with the services business of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) in 2016. Also Read: Jet Airways share price gains on Rs 2,050-crore loan from Punjab National Bank Edited by Chitranjan Kumar Indonesian woman Siti Aisyah was accused of the killing of North Korean leaders half-brother in Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia An Indonesian woman accused of the killing of the North Korean leaders half brother was released after the prosecutor withdrew the murder charge. No reasons were given by the prosecution for its surprise decision on Monday to drop the murder case. An Indonesian diplomatic vehicle was seen taking Siti Aisyah, 27, away from the court after a judge dropped the charge. Sitis lawyer Gooi Soon Seng said the woman was grateful that she had been freed. She is very happy. Anyone who has been incarcerated for two years of course she cried. Tears of joy, he said. Vietnamese national Doan Thi Huong, 30, was also charged with Kims murder, but she remained in custody. 170427122806845 The women were accused of killing Kim by smearing a toxic agent, known as VX, on his face while he was at Kuala Lumpurs airport on February 13, 2017. He was the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who reportedly had a falling out with the regime and lived in exile. VX, or Venomous Agent X, is a deadly poison that was developed for chemical warfare and is considered a weapon of mass destruction. Suspicions have been raised that Kim was killed by North Korean agents who left Malaysia hours after the murder, and the two women were set up to appear to be the perpetrators. TV prank? The women had previously told the court they did not know they were participating in a deadly attack and their alleged North Korean coconspirators had led them to believe they were carrying out a prank for a reality TV show. Gooi said there was no direct evidence of the Indonesian womans involvement in the killing. We truly believe shes a scapegoat and she is innocent as we laid out [before], he said. I still believe that North Korea had something to do with it. 170301113624079 The prosecutor said the discharge not amounting to an acquittal means Sita can be recharged but there are no such plans for now. Indonesian Ambassador Rusdi Kirana expressed gratitude for the decision. We feel the court is fair. Shes our daughter. Every Indonesian is our children, Rusdi said. Traumatised Huongs fate remains unclear as her hearing was adjourned until Thursday. Hisyam Teh Poh Teik, Huongs lawyer, said he is applying for a full acquittal and his client was traumatised by the decision to free Siti but not her. We want Doan to be treated equally. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, Hisyam said. They withdrew the charge against one but not the other. What is the basis? We need to know. Unlike Huong, Siti had no traces of VX in her fingernails and suffered no symptoms of VX poisoning. Kim Jong Nam, the eldest son of late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, had spoken out publicly against his familys dynastic control of the isolated, nuclear-armed nation. He had been living under Chinas protection in the territory of Macau. The Malaysian government has avoided accusing North Korea of involvement and sought to de-politicise the case as much as possible. The last time the prime minister put her deal to parliament, it suffered a major defeat. Can she win this time around? London, United Kingdom British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to bring her Brexit deal back to Parliament on Tuesday for a second meaningful vote. The last time May put the deal to Parliament on January 16. It suffered a major defeat as 432 MPs voted against it and just 202 supported her plan. The lawmakers forced the prime minister to go back to EU leaders in Brussels to seek changes to the withdrawal agreement, particularly on the so-called backstop, the protocol to ensure an open border is maintained in the island of Ireland. May is expected to chair a cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning before the motion is debated in Parliament in the afternoon. A vote would then be held in the evening. The UK is due to leave the EU on March 29, in just two weeks time. After MPs gave her a mandate to go back to Brussels and renegotiate the deal, May gave herself until March 12 at the latest to bring a revised deal back to Parliament. The backstop, a backup mechanism that would come into place if no trade deal is agreed by the end of the withdrawal period, would keep Northern Ireland in the EUs single market for goods, while the UK would remain in a customs union with the bloc. But eurosceptic conservative MPs, as well as the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Mays ally in Northern Ireland, have been opposed to it, arguing it would tie the UK to the EUs trade rules indefinitely, or create a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. Late on Monday, the British leader said she secured legally binding changes with the EU on the backstop which she hoped would make the deal palatable to Conservative Brexiters from the hardline European Research Group (ERG). The compromise includes amendments that confirm Britains ability to exit the so-called backstop provision that guarantees an open Irish border. Now is the time to come together, to back this improved Brexit deal, and to deliver on the instruction of the British people, she said after the talks with EU leaders in Strasbourg. On Tuesday, opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn announced on Twitter that the lawmakers must reject the changed deal. Last nights agreement with the European Commission does not contain anything approaching the changes Theresa May promised parliament, he said. Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, said at a press conference with May on Monday that there would be no third chance. What is expected to happen? Mays deal is not expected to win enough support on Tuesday. If her deal is rejected, there will be two more votes this week to give MPs the final say on ruling out a no-deal scenario. If that is passed another vote will take place to decide on delaying Brexit. May has two strategies: threaten no Brexit, and threaten no deal, said Benjamin Martill, a Dahrendorf Forum researcher at the London School of Economics who studies UK-EU relations. Threatening no deal helps with leverage with the EU, but it hasnt really achieved much. Eurosceptics might be persuaded to vote for Mays deal if they believe that Brexit may be cancelled altogether. What youve seen recently is much more movement towards May credibly threatening no Brexit, which is reinforced by the Labour Party now endorsing, under certain conditions, a second referendum. Is Brexit going to be delayed? A Brexit delay appears to be a likely scenario. This could be the result of MPs voting for an extension, or, if Parliament does not get the opportunity to vote for an extension, May could still ask for a short technical delay to allow the UK to pass the necessary legislation to leave the EU. Regardless of the outcome this week, the EU would have to sign off the final agreement at the next EU summit, scheduled for March 21-22. If MPs vote for an extension of Article 50, the part of the Treaty on European Union that allows member states to withdraw from the bloc, it is unclear whether this will be a long or a short one. May wants to avoid a long extension beyond the end of June. EU elections are scheduled for May 23-26 and the new parliament has its first sitting at the beginning of July. Participating would put the UK government at odds with Brexiters. However, British citizens would have the right to have a say on who represents them at the EU Parliament while the UK is still part of the EU. All EU member states have to agree to an extension, and some EU leaders have expressed concern that it needs to have a specific purpose. Will there be a second referendum? Corbyn announced two weeks ago that he would back a second referendum, in what was seen as a major shift in party policy. That said, Labour looks set to abstain from putting forward an amendment in that direction this week, but individual MPs may decide to do so. With a number of Labour MPs against a second vote, it remains unclear whether it would find a majority in Parliament. There are reports May is under pressure to quit. Is she going to survive? There has been speculation that the beleaguered prime minister may be forced to resign. May has already survived a leadership challenge from within the Conservative Party, which means there cannot be another one before December. However, Parliament could choose to hold another vote of no confidence in her government, which they did after the last meaningful vote, said Maddy Thimont Jack, a researcher at the Institute for Government in London. It might be that at this stage some Conservatives will choose to vote against the government. The Civil Alliance is demanding the release of all political prisoners before talks can resume. Negotiations aimed at resolving an almost-year-long crisis in Nicaragua have stalled as countrys opposition walked out of talks on Sunday. The Civil Alliance is calling on the government of President Daniel Ortega to release of all political prisoners before talks can resume. In a statement on Sunday, the group which is made up of students, entrepreneurs and activists also demanded an end to repression and kidnapping, full observance of international standards for the treatment of political prisoners and that the government stop harassing detainees families. We reiterate the call to the government to show the political will necessary to create an atmosphere favourable to peace in the country, the statement read. 190228133621140 Nicaragua plunged into crisis in April, when protests against pension reform spawned into a widespread anti-government movement. Security forces responded with a brutal crackdown on dissent, targetting activists and journalists. More than 335 people have been killed, according to Amnesty International, while some 50,000 others have fled the country. In a press conference on Monday, Nicaraguas Foreign Minister Denis Moncada said the government is prepared to return to the negotiating table, stressing that the talks were based on trust, respect and goodwill. Controversial talks Talks reopened in late February, after Ortega said he would resume dialogue with opposition leader in the hopes of securing peace, saying the negotiation would be full of goodwill and compromise. Ortega has frequently blamed the unrest on thieves and coup mongers. 190227161045396 While some, including the United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, have greeted the talks with cautious optimism, others have been critical. Exiled opposition leaders say that not all sides are properly represented, particularly those of exiles afraid to return to their homes. Others have questioned the sincerity of Ortegas intentions, noting that the timing of his offer of talks coincided with increased pressure from the United States. Some demands met On Saturday, Ortega offered to free all political prisoners who had not yet been tried and to reexamine the cases of those who had. Dozens had already been released in advance the talks with the opposition. However, the 73-year-old said he would not organise early elections, which the opposition wants to see this year. 190222062656494 The Alliances withdrawal from the talks comes after the countrys influential bishops said on Friday that they would no longer participate. A representative of the Organization of American States (OAS) is due in Nicaragua on Monday to meet key players to determine if OAS should have a role in the negotiations. The opposition had asked OAS and the UN to act as guarantors of the peace process and ensure any agreements are upheld, a move the government opposed. Villagers near site of downed plane struggle to cope with trauma in aftermath of fatal Ethiopian Airlines accident. Adadi, Ethiopia It was just another Sunday morning for Atlaw Wihib. The 49-year-old was getting ready to attend Mass, as were many other residents in this small village of about 120 people in central Ethiopia. But all that was about to change. I was having breakfast before going to church when I saw a plane falling from the sky, says Atlaw, a father of three. On that very moment, at 8:44am, a burning Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet appeared in the clear blue skies above Adadi, plummeting towards the semi-barren hills beyond the village. I heard four large explosions. I have never heard anything that loud, says Atlaw, whose village lies about 500 metres from the site where flight ET 302 crashed. I was very scared but I ran to the field to check and I saw a shocking sight, he adds, shaking his head in disbelief. Body parts were everywhere. Some were even burning. There was a massive fire. Atlaw Wihib said body parts of the crashs victims were burning [Hamza Mohamed/Al Jazeera] Ethiopian Airlines, Africas largest air carrier, said everyone on board the flight was killed. The plane crashed six minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi. More people died in the crash 149 passengers and eight crew members than those living in Atlaws village. The debris from the accident is strewn across a farm that has now become the centre of global attention. Investigators from across the world have descended on Adadi, sifting through the crash site to identify the remains of the victims, who hailed from 35 countries. The news triggered an outpouring of grief and sadness worldwide, while Ethiopia, which lost nine people in the crash, declared a day of national mourning. Late on Monday afternoon, a white helicopter kicks up a bowl of dust before disappearing beyond the hills in the distance. At least five excavators are busy at work. Heavily armed security officers are keeping an eye on the 100 or so spectators gathered near the scene, making sure no one trespasses, as emergency workers comb through the site holding transparent sample bags. A flock of black and white crows hang in the thin air on the lookout for food. Accident investigators from across the world have descended on the crash site [Hamza Mohamed/Al Jazeera] There are children among the dead because we saw their clothes, says a 32-year-old operator of one of the excavators, who refuses to give his name because he is not authorised to speak to the media. What I saw will stay with me, until I die. It is too painful to even describe it, he adds. Dust, smoke and fire As the clock strikes 4pm, two ambulances with their lights flashing leave the site. Tears trickle down the face of Sisay Abera as she takes stock of the events unfolding before her eyes. Our children ran and hid for cover when the plane came down crashing, Abera says, as a group of other women join her, tears running down their faces. My son hid underneath the bed. There was a lot of dust, smoke and fire. We are all in shock and very scared, the 35-year-old adds, hugging her five-year-old son tightly. I cannot believe that many people died there. Sisay Abera said her children ran and hid for cover when the plane came down crashing [Hamza Mohamed/Al Jazeera] Earlier in the day, Ethiopian Airlines, China and other countries announced that they would ground the aircraft that was involved in the crash, the Boeing 737 MAX 8, the same type of aircraft that went down in Indonesia some six months ago, killing all 189 people on board. Following the tragic accident of ET 302/10 March B-737-8-MAX (ET-AVJ), Ethiopian airlines has decided to ground all B-737-8 MAX fleet effective yesterday March 10, 2019, until further notice, Ethiopian Airlines said in a statement on Monday. Although we dont yet know the cause of the accident, we had to decide to ground the particular fleet as extra safety precaution, the Ethiopian Airlines statement adds. Adadi is about 500m from where flight ET 302 came crashing down [Hamza Mohamed/Al Jazeera] Back in Adadi, Sunday church service seems to have taken on a whole new meaning for its few residents. I went to church and prayed for their souls. I also thanked God for saving us and our village, says Tewabech Gebrewold, a 50-year-old housewife. I pray God continues looking after us, the mother-of-six adds. As the sun sets, and all but the security officers start leaving the crash site, Atlaw hopes outsiders will visit his village in the future for other reasons. It is sad because all these people came here because of bad news, because of so many deaths, he says. I hope one day they come because of good news, he adds, before beginning to walk back to his home, just a few minutes away. Investigators from the International Criminal Court give hope to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Two Rohingya refugees have arrived in Geneva from Bangladesh to address a United Nations Human Rights Council meeting on Monday. The UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Yanghee Lee, will also deliver a report on her visit to Coxs Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh last month. The camp is home to almost a million Rohingya who have been forced to escape violence in neighbouring Myanmar. Al Jazeeras Stefanie Dekker reports from Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh. Al Jazeera speaks to one of the female protesters who has been released from prison in Sudan. A Sudanese court has sentenced the vice president of the opposition Umma Party, Mariam Sadiq al-Mahdi, along with some other female protesters, to a week in prison. Mariam happens to be the daughter of opposition leader Sadiq al-Mahdi. She has been calling for the resignation of President Omar al-Bashir, actively participating in anti-government demonstrations that continue in Sudan despite a crackdown by the state. Some women who were arrested for taking part in the protests have now been released on the orders of the president. Al Jazeeras Hiba Morgan met one of them in Khartoum. Loujain al-Hathloul is among a dozen womens rights activists jailed since last year amid allegations of torture. The trial of Loujain al-Hathloul, one of nearly a dozen prominent Saudi Arabian womens rights activists jailed since last year, will begin on Wednesday, her family has said. Dozens of other activists, intellectuals and clerics have been arrested separately in the past two years in an apparent bid to stamp out opposition to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has consolidated power, including through a sweeping anti-corruption campaign. My sister @LoujainHathloul will be having her first trial session next Wednesday at 8am at the specialised court in Riyadh. This is the court [that] deals with terrorism cases, her brother Walid wrote on Sunday on Twitter. He said she was not allowed to have a lawyer and had not been provided with a list of indictments. The public prosecutor said last June that five men and four women had been arrested and held on suspicion of harming the countrys interests and offering support to hostile elements abroad. Saudi media widely denounced them as traitors. It was unclear if the other detainees will also stand trial this week. Electric shocks, flogging Activists claim some detainees, including 29-year-old Hathloul, were held in solitary confinement and subjected to mistreatment and torture, including electric shocks, flogging, and sexual assault. Saudi officials have denied those allegations as false. The arrests have intensified international criticism of Saudi Arabia after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last October in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul sparked global outrage. Three dozen countries, including all 28 European Union members, called on Riyadh last week to release the activists, the first rebuke of the kingdom at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) since it was set up in 2006. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his British counterpart have also said they raised the issue with the Saudi authorities during recent visits. The Saudi government communications office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the public prosecutors office said earlier this month it had completed its investigations of the detainees and was preparing their trials. Hathloul, who advocated an end to a ban on women driving and the kingdoms male guardianship system, was previously jailed for 73 days in 2014 after she attempted to drive into Saudi Arabia from the United Arab Emirates. The driving ban was lifted in June, weeks after she was rearrested. The guardianship system, which requires women to obtain the consent of a male relative for major decisions, remains intact. US President Donald Trump is reviving his border wall fight, requesting $8.6bn from Congress for his signature project, imposing steep spending cuts to other domestic programmes and setting the stage for another fiscal battle. Budget documents like the one Trump released on Monday are often seen as just a starting point of negotiation. Fresh off the longest government shutdown in history, Trumps 2020 proposal shows he is eager to confront Congress again to boost defence spending and cut $2.7trillion in non-military spending over a decade. Titled A Budget for a Better America: Promises Kept. Taxpayers First, Trumps proposal embodies fiscal responsibility, said Russ Vought, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought said the administration has prioritised reining in reckless Washington spending and shows we can return to fiscal sanity. Trumps spending blueprint for the 2020 budget year begins on October 1. It would pay for hundreds of kilometres of new barriers along the border. Defence spending Trumps budget proposes increasing military spending to $750bn and standing up the new Space Force as a military branch while reducing non-military accounts by five percent, with cuts recommended to safety-net programmes used by many Americans. The plan sticks to budget caps that both parties have routinely broken in recent years and promises to come into balance in 15 years, relying in part on economic growth that may be uncertain. 181210211443443 While pushing down spending in some areas, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the proposal seeks to increase funding in others to align with the presidents priorities, according to one official, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonimoty ahead of Mondays budget release. The administration will invest more than $80bn for veterans services, a nearly 10 percent increase from current levels, including significant investments in rehabilitation, employment assistance and suicide prevention. It will also increase resources to fight the opioid epidemic with money for prevention, treatment, research and recovery, the administration said. And it seeks to shift some federal student loan costs to colleges and universities. By adhering to strict budget caps, Trump is signalling a fight ahead. The president has resisted big, bipartisan budget deals that break the caps threatening to veto one last year but Congress will need to find agreement on spending levels to avoid another federal shutdown in fall. To stay within the caps, the budget shifts a portion of the military spending to an overseas contingency fund, which some fiscal hawks will view as an accounting gimmick. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Trumps budget points a steady glide path towards lower spending and borrowing as a share of the nations economy. He also told Fox News Sunday that there was no reason to obsess about deficits, and expressed confidence that economic growth would top three percent in 2019 and beyond. Others have predicted lower growth. But the Democratic chairman of the House Budget Committee, John Yarmuth, called the proposed cuts to essential services dangerous. He said Trump added nearly two trillion dollars to deficits with the Republicans tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations, and now it appears his budget asks the American people to pay the price. Same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again The border wall, though, remains a signature issue for the president and is poised to stay at the forefront of his agenda, even though Congress has resisted giving him more money for it. Leading Democrats immediately rejected the proposal. 190226202114888 Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York. They said the money would be better spent on rebuilding America. In seeking $8.6bn for more than 300 miles (about 480km) of new border wall, the budget request would more than double the $8.1bn already potentially available to the president for the wall after he declared a national emergency at the border last month in order to circumvent Congress although theres no guarantee hell be able to use that money if he faces a legal challenge, as is expected. The standoff over the wall led to a 35-day partial government shutdown, the longest in US history. People gather during a protest against US President Donald Trumps declaration of a national emergency to build a border wall [Andrew Kelly/Reuters] Along with border wall money, the proposed budget also increases funding to increase the manpower of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Customs and Border Patrol at a time when many Democrats are calling for cuts or even the elimination of those areas. The budget also proposes policy changes to end sanctuary cities, the administration said. 190218180227203 The budget would arrive as the Senate readies to vote this week to terminate Trumps national emergency declaration. The Democratic-led House already did so, and a handful of Republican senators, uneasy over what they see as an overreach of executive power, are expected to join Senate Democrats in following suit. Congress appears to have enough votes to reject Trumps declaration but not enough to overturn a veto. Trump invoked the emergency declaration after Congress approved nearly $1.4bn for border barriers, far less than the $5.7bn he wanted. In doing so, he can potentially tap an additional $3.6bn from military accounts and shift it to building the wall. Thats causing discomfort on Capitol Hill, where even the presidents Republican allies are protective of their power to decide how to allocate federal dollars. Politicians are trying to guard money thats already been approved for military projects in their states for base housing or other improvements for the wall. The administration is promising to backfill those funds, senators said. The wall with Mexico punctuated Trumps campaign for the White House, and its expected to again be featured in his 2020 re-election effort. He used to say Mexico would pay for it, but Mexico has refused to do so. Island chosen to house 23,000 refugees may not be truly habitable, UNs special rapporteur on Myanmar warns. Bangladesh risks creating a new crisis for Rohingya refugees if it goes ahead next month with plans to relocate 23,000 refugees to an uninhabited island prone to cyclones, a United Nations human rights envoy has warned. Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur on Myanmar who visited Bhasan Char recently, told the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday that she was unsure if the Bay of Bengal island was truly habitable. She also warned ill-planned relocations without the consent of refugees have the potential to create a new crisis. Rohingya advocates say the refugees would effectively be trapped on Bhasan Char, a muddy, low-lying island that floods frequently during monsoon season and offers few livelihood opportunities. More than 730,000 Rohingya are confined to overcrowded camps in Bangladesh after fleeing a campaign of arson, murder and rape waged in Myanmar by the countrys military since late 2017. 190305201420729 Despite the objections, the Bangladeshi government hopes to eventually move 100,000 Rohingya to the island, arguing this would relieve pressure on the camps. Everyone will refuse Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist, said he believed the only way officials could get people to move to the island was by force. Everyone in the camps will refuse for sure, he told Al Jazeera. No one wants to be relocated to Bhasan Char. Lees remarks came as she delivered the findings of a report based on visits she made to Thailand and Bangladesh in January. The Myanmar government, led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, denied her access to the country during her trip and did not respond to her written questions about the human rights situation in Myanmar. In a December letter, the government told Lee her visits were counterproductive, claiming her previous reports lacked objectivity and impartiality. 190301012253046 Lee said in the recently released report that the UN must be allowed to conduct a full technical and humanitarian assessment of Bhasan Char and that Rohingya should be given go and see visits to determine if they wished to move there. Bangladesh has enlisted British and Chinese engineers to help prepare the island for the planned arrivals. The involvement of British firm HR Wallingford in the project has sparked criticism from UK-based campaigners. The advocacy group Burma Campaign UK in December named the firm on a dirty list of companies that it said were involved in projects related to human rights violations. The firm did not immediately respond to Al Jazeeras request for comment on Monday. A spokesperson has previously told The Guardian the company has no business inside Myanmar and has been engaged in Bangladesh to design flood defences on Bhasan Char to internationally recognised standards. Thousands flee Rakhine Lee also told the Human Rights Council on Monday that up to 10,000 civilians have fled their homes in Myanmars Rakhine state since November last year due to violence and a lack of humanitarian aid. While global attention has focussed on the plight of Rohingya inside Myanmar, many ethnically Rakhine people have been affected by clashes between the military and the Arakan Army, a Rakhine rebel group. 190215082052943 In her report, Lee said the clashes had led to the deaths of several civilians including of children. She also expressed serious concern at the Rakhine state governments decision to instruct aid agencies to suspend their activities in several areas of the state in January. The move was a violation of Myanmars international humanitarian obligation to allow access for aid agencies, she said. Citing medical reports, UN says 10 women and 12 children were killed in attacks in Hajjahs Kushar district. Yemens warring sides have traded blame after more than 20 civilians, including women and children, were killed in a village that has been gripped by fighting for weeks. The Houthi-aligned Al Masirah TV network said on Monday that air raids by the Saudi-UAE coalition killed 23 civilians in Hajjahs Kushar district, in northwestern Yemen. Meanwhile, the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV channel said the Houthis killed several members of the Hajour tribes who had begun an uprising against the movement. Citing medical reports, the UN said that 10 women and 12 children were among the fatalities over the past two days, with as many as 30 people wounded We condemn these deaths and injuries unequivocally, Lise Grande, the UNs humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said in a statement. It is outrageous that innocent civilians continue to die needlessly in a conflict that should, and can be solved. Were doing everything we can to reach the people who need help in Hajjah and throughout the country. Natural fortress Fighting has been raging in Kushar district for weeks as fighters from the Hajour tribe resist advancing Houthi rebels. The Houthis, who control large parts of Yemen, claim that elements of the Hajour tribe have been stockpiling weapons provided by Saudi Arabia and bringing fighters into the area, a breach of a six-year-old truce that had seen the Hajour remain neutral throughout the current conflict. The Hajour, however, claim that the Houthis have repeatedly shelled Kushar with heavy artillery, and are trying to wrest control of the mountainous region that it says forms a natural fortress. If the Houthis are unable to assert their control over the hitherto neutral area, they will struggle to sustain the fight against Saudi-backed Yemeni forces in other parts of the northern highlands, said a recent International Crisis Group briefing. If they (the Houthis) win, they will have demonstrated their dominance in northwestern Yemen and will further consolidate their control of territory in advance of any political settlement. The government and the Saudis hope that a Houthi loss in Kushar will prompt other tribes to take up arms against the Houthis, sparking a tribal uprising that they have long predicted, but which has failed to materialise. The war in Yemen has been at a stalemate for years, with the coalition and Yemeni forces unable to dislodge the Houthis from the capital, Sanaa, and most urban centres. According to the charity Save the Children, an estimated 85,000 children may have starved to death over the past four years of war. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) may soon get an all treatment, testing and care centre to help rape victims. The proposal mooted by AIIMS for a National One-Stop Sexual Assault Examination, Care and Research Centre has got "in-principle" approval from the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development and is being reviewed by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, according to sources. The unit will include physical examinations, forensic tests, injuries, DNA profiling, and psychological and psychiatric care, all under one roof at a new facility at the AIIMS, people familiar with the matter told Hindustan Times. "The women need a physical examination and psychiatric evaluation and counselling," Dr Sudhir Gupta, head of the department of forensic medicine, AIIMS told the daily. He also said that the centre will aid in helping lessen the burden of victimized women of brutal sexual crimes. Also Read: AIIMS MBBS 2019 Final Registration process begins; check how to apply, generate unique code The unit will be created at an operational cost of Rs 40 crore for the first five years and will employ 10 doctors, two scientists for the DNA lab, six lab technicians, eight women nurses, and two data entry operators and shall be located in the forensic department of the hospital with a 24x7 reception and examination room, the newspaper reported. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2016 data, six rapes and multiple molestations are reported in Delhi every day. Also Read: Modi lays foundation for AIIMS in Jammu, FM to address RBI board Once set, the AIIMS centre will also assume the role of a nodal agency for establishing similar units in other parts of the country, Gupta informed. The Delhi Police has welcomed this move by AIIMS and said that this kind of centre is the need of the hour. "We welcome such initiatives. Forensic evidence is crucial, and getting forensic reports soon would help in speedy investigations in cases of crime against women and providing justice to the complainants. Maximum attention is paid to solve the incidents of rape and other crimes against women. In such cases, about 63 per cent of the accused are arrested within the first week," said Anil Kumar, additional public relations officer, Delhi Police. A 2016 survey of nine government hospitals and 25 dispensaries in Delhi indicated that 60 per cent of doctors and a little more than 50 per cent of nurses were not aware of the protocols related to how to deal with the victims of sexual assaults. A gathering of supporters of the far-right Chetnik paramilitary movement in Bosnias eastern city of Visegrad, the site of past atrocities by the forces, has raised alarm among residents, as well as local and international officials. Some 200 followers of the ultra-nationalist movement on Sunday assembled in the city to commemorate the arrest of founder Draza Mihailovic by the erstwhile Yugoslavian forces in 1944. Mihailovic was a Yugoslav Serb general who formed Chetnik detachments during World War II, many of which collaborated with Nazi forces. After the war, he was convicted of high treason and war crimes and executed in 1946 in Belgrade. In 2015, however, he was rehabilitated by a Belgrade court, which ruled that the former trial was politically and ideologically motivated. 180816192109428 The Visegrad gathering, which saw uniform-wearing participants singing songs that included lines such as there will be hell, the Drina will be bloody, here come the Chetniks from the Serb mountains, provoked wariness and fear among Bosniak residents who survived some of the worst atrocities committed by Chetniks. During the war in Bosnia in the early 1990s, Serb forces identifying with the Chetnik movement killed around 3,000 Bosniak civilians in Visegrad as they claimed the area for a Greater Serbia. The line about Drina River refers to the massacres committed against Bosniaks in World War II as well as during the early 1990s, after which their bodies were thrown into the river. Its horrible, Bakira Hasecic, a rape survivor from Visegrad and head of the Woman Victim of War association told local media. [The group of Chetniks] cross the border [from Serbia] wearing the same or similar uniforms they wore when they committed atrocities against us. Dragan Mektic, Bosnias minister of security, condemned the gathering and called for the passing of laws that will precisely prescribe how and under which conditions different associations can be registered [as NGOs]. Dunja Mijatovic, the commissioner for human rights for the Council of Europe, was among international officials who denounced the event in Visegrad, and urged Bosnias authorities to take action. This unacceptable glorification of fascism&the ideology that caused attrocities,represents not only a blatant #humanrigts violation&a threat to returnees,but is a direct attack on democracy.BiH authorities need to take the responsibility&fight against such ideology & hate speech https://t.co/Hms0gtarEA Dunja Mijatovic (@Dunja_Mijatovic) March 10, 2019 OHR condemns today's shameful events in Visegrad. Authorities need to investigate and take actions against those responsible for hate speech. Todays events in Visegrad have no place in BiH society; reconciliation is the only path to a bright future. OHR BiH (@OHR_BiH) March 10, 2019 BiH society cannot move forward as long as there are those who only look back, glorifying xenophobia and racism and attempting to rewrite history. This behavior has no place in a modern, democratic society. Authorities must investigate.@N1info @OSCEBiH #Visegrad Bruce Berton (@BertonBruce) March 10, 2019 But Dusan Sladojevic, one of the organisers of the gathering, rejected the criticism as a consequence of unfortunate Communist brainwashing. Speaking to local media, he said, participants were seeking to commemorate the commander of the Yugoslavian army, a man who dedicated his life to freeing the Serbian people, as well as the development of democracy and defending the homeland from fascist aggressors. A threat to security In a 2016 report, Bosnias Ministry of Security identified Chetnik movements as posing a threat to security. Certain Chetnik leaders have called for national and religious intolerance during speeches, the report said, adding that the movements aggressively deny Bosnia and Herzegovinas legitimacy. 160425134050156 Their manifestations are at times violent and their goal is to unite all Chetnik movements, it warned. For Reuf Bajrovic, founder of Bosnias Civic Alliance political party, the Chetnik movements ideology is similar to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) group. Generally, there is no difference between ethno-nationalism and religious-fanaticism in the Balkans. They are one and the same, he told Al Jazeera. Chetniks are a perfect example of this as the Orthodox version of ISIS. We are talking about a group that has a very long history of genocidal acts. Exactly. Same here. 1921, 1924, 1942-43-45. 1992-93 family killed by Chetniks. Also, important to focus on fact that they were promising making the Drina river bloody again. I hope that is not what various Euro officials have in mind when they say that we should focus on future? https://t.co/jXsKEoFWwU Reuf Bajrovic (@ReufBajrovic) March 10, 2019 Activists, meanwhile, decried what they described as lack of concrete action against the movement, despite its dangerous ideology. Ismail Cidic, president of the Bosnian Advocacy Centre, stressed that a stronger reaction from international officials was needed. 180504093819428 The Office of High Representative abstains from any serious action, despite the fact that it has a mandate and executive powers to implement the Dayton Peace Agreement [that ended Bosnias war], preserve peace and ban those who threaten the security and peace of the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he told Al Jazeera. For Marko Attila Hoare, a historian and associate professor at the Sarajevo School of Science and Technology, gatherings such as the one in Visegrad coincide with the rise of ultra-nationalism in the region. Ustasha elements have become more vocal and aggressive in Croatia, Hoare said, referring to the World War II Croatian fascist nationalists. The neo-Nazi Golden Dawn has been a significant presence in Greece for years. The far right is increasingly active at a time when the liberal world is apparently under siege, Hoare said. These Chetnik gatherings, by mobilising men along fascist lines, with uniforms and bloodthirsty songs, and heightening tension between Serbs and Bosniaks, aim to keep nationalist sentiment on the boil among Serbs and to heighten tension between Serbs and Bosniaks. UNICEF says it verified 1,106 child deaths from fighting last year, the highest annual toll since the war began in 2011. Last year was the deadliest yet for children in Syria, the United Nations has said, issuing a dire warning as the devastating war is about to enter its ninth year. UNICEF, the world bodys childrens agency, said in a statement on Monday it had been able to verify 1,106 child deaths from fighting in 2018 the highest annual toll since the conflict broke out in 2011. It warned, however, that the true figure was likely to be even higher. Today, there exists an alarming misconception that the conflict in Syria is drawing quickly to a close; it is not, executive director Henrietta Fore said in a statement. Children in parts of the country remain in as much danger as at any other time during the eight-year conflict. The biggest cause of child casualties was unexploded ordnance, which accounted for 434 deaths and injuries last year, UNICEF said. Syrias war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven millions out of the country. Turkey and Russia, one of the Syrian governments staunchest allies, brokered a deal in September to create a demilitarised zone in the northwest Idlib region that would be free of all heavy weapons and fighters. The deal helped avert a government assault on the region, the last major bastion of opponents of President Bashar al-Assad. But Fore said she was concerned about the intensification of violence in Idlib, where 59 children have been reported killed in recent weeks. UNICEF again reminds parties to the conflict and the global community that it is the countrys children who have suffered most and have the most to lose. Each day the conflict continues is another day stolen from their childhood, said Fore. Since January, about 60 children have died trying to get to al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria, which is now home to more than 65,000 people fleeing the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) , according to the UN. Thousands have flooded al-Hol camp as the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) lay siege to the last vestige of ISILs territorial rule at the besieged village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border. Syria is still one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a child, with ongoing violence, insecurity and displacement, said Caroline Anning, spokeswoman for Save the Children. Even where conflict has subsided, the risk from explosive remnants of war like landmines and cluster munitions is growing. Tourists flock to the French capital for Christmas, but what is it like to live on the streets of the city of love? About the show A weekly programme that examines and dissects the worlds media, how they operate and the stories they cover. Watch The Listening Post every Saturday at 0830GMT The Enforcement Directorate has filed a fresh charge sheet against PNB scam accused Nirav Modi under the anti-money laundering law. The charge sheet has been filed under a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mumbai. Separately, a team of CBI and ED officials are all set to leave for London after the UK Home Office confirmed that the extradition file of Modi has been sent to the Westminster Court. Top sources within the ED confirmed the same. The agency received an email from the UK Home Office that said "the extradition request has been certified by Home Secretary and the same has been sent to the Westminster Magistrate Court." The UK Home Secretary has also said that Nirav Modi's case is one that is fit "for issuing arrest warrant". After the extradition order is examined, the Westminster Court might issue an arrest warrant against the diamantaire. In case an arrest warrant is issued, it will be served to Modi's Central London residence. A team of CBI and ED are to leave for London to arrest the fugitive businessman if an order is issued. Sources in the government claimed that ED had stepped up the pressure for Modi's extradition, to which the Home Office said that it would take action by February end. However, Modi can be given bail by the court but he will still have to face trial. Recently, intelligence agencies reported that Nirav Modi had changed his appearance. Nevertheless, Nirav Modi was spotted roaming on the streets of London on Friday, sporting a handlebar moustache and wearing what has since been learned as an ostrich leather jacket. Also read: Nirav Modi's new Avatar! Fugitive businessman lives in Rs 72-crore flat in London; runs new diamond business The ED had attached properties of Modi worth Rs 1,725 crore in India and abroad in connection with his Rs 13,000-crore PNB fraud. On Friday, his swanky bungalow on Kihim beach in Alibaug, Maharashtra was demolished using dynamites. The 33,000 sq ft structure was brought down from all possible points, the Raigad district administration said. The agency also revealed that substantial proceeds, fraudulently obtained by Nirav Modi-owned group of firms from PNB were diverted to Modi, his relatives and entities he controlled. The ED had registered a money laundering case against Nirav Modi and others on February 15, 2018 under the provisions of PMLA. The CBI registered an FIR under sections 120-B r/w 420 of IPC, 1860 read with Section 13(2) read with 13(1)(d) of PC Act, 1988. Also read: Sneak peak into Nirav Modi's swanky life! Fugitive wears Rs 9 lakh 'Ostrich leather' jacket, lives in Rs 72 crore house Also read: Nirav Modi in London: MEA says awaiting UK govt's response on extradition; PM Modi 'Poster Boy' of fraudsters, says Cong Years ago, a white friend told me her son came home from middle school in tears, overcome with guilt. He was taught that his white ancestors were responsible for horrible things done to native Americans, blacks, and women. Today, her son is a young adult communist. He hates America and believes white men are the greatest source of evil in the world. He actually said he will not have children because he does not want to bring more of his kind into the world. Leftists teaching children to hate the race that God made them is evil. White students as young as six years old are outrageously taught that they are born racist, should feel guilty for their white privilege and have a responsibility to pay back blacks. Black students have been taught the same leftist lies which has created in them victim mindsets, a sense of entitlement and hatred for fellow Americans who are white. Democrat presidential candidates further white guilt and the lie that blacks are still victims of racist America. They absurdly want to pay $100 billion in reparations to blacks as payback for slavery. As a black man who is proud to be an American, I say our country would be far better off if Democrats would stop exploiting race. Stop pandering to black voters and guilt-tripping white voters with the slavery of our past. I don't care what intellectual-sounding Democrat race-hustlers say. America is the greatest land of opportunity on the planet for all who choose to go for their dreams. Democrats continuing to infect people with a victim mindset is evil. The Bible says victim thinking weakens rather than empowers. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13) For decades, we have allowed leftists to hijack public education, usurping the authority to raise your child. Public schools are poisoning students against the religious and moral beliefs of their parents. Consequently, students are infected with the Democrats' anti-American and anti-Christian agendas. We've allowed public education and Saturday morning TV cartoons to teach our kids the lie that their parents are responsible for destroying the planet by barbecuing, driving cars, having babies, and using more than two squares of toilet paper. D emocratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her army of angry young zealots are the product of us allowing leftist educators to confiscate the hearts and minds of our kids. Sandy O is the face of leftists' movement to transform America from her founding, take down America as the world's superpower and kill as many American babies as possible. Sandy O represents every crazy evil leftist lie allowed to be instilled in our kids for decades. Totally brainwashed, Sandy Os army believes it is inarguable that childbirth destroys the planet. Therefore, they have moral authority to murder babies before and after birth. Meanwhile, Sandy O's army passionately defends the lives of sea turtles. God said, Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. (Genesis 1:28) We've allowed leftists to dumb down students regarding their constitutional rights and American history. Man-on-the-street interviews shockingly revealed that students from high school to college did not know George Washington was our first president. They thought Abraham Lincoln was a Democrat. Allowing public education to dumb down our yutes has produced numerous disturbing consequences. Four out of ten adults favor socialism over capitalism. Sadly, our kids are taught that we are the villains of the world. They believe the lie that other countries are suffering from having too little because America stole from them and consumes too much. The truth is countries are suffering because of their lack of capitalism. Sandy O and her army of extreme gung-ho radicals want to give Democrat House majority leader Nancy Pelosi the boot because they believe she is not anti-American and anti-capitalist enough. Based on their insane belief that the planet will be uninhabitable in twelve years if dramatic changes are not made, Sandy O's army believes Pelosi is not aggressively green enough. Over a glass of scotch at night, I wonder if some senior Democrats conclude that they have created a monster in Sandy O? So there you have it folks. Our decades of passivity have allowed leftists to create elected Democrats who boldly seek to bring down America as founded, end our American way of life and have government dictate our behavior. Allow me to remind you again of the insanity in Sandy O's Green New Deal. Within 10 years, Sandy O demands the end of air travel; the end of using fossil fuels; that every new job must be unionized; every nuclear plant must be closed; every building in America must be rebuilt for state-of-the-art energy efficiency and government will fund deadbeats who refuse to work. However, I see a light at the end of America's dark Democratic enemies-within tunnel. Finally, parents are pushing back against graphic and dangerous sex-ed programs in public school which promotes anal sex, BDSM, rimming, transgenderism, and more. Blexit is a movement of blacks exiting the Democrats' keep-blacks-stupid-and-needy plantation. The founder of Blexit is young, articulate black Candace Owens who believes the movement will impact the 2020 presidential election. Remarkably, despite all the years of public schools promoting abortion, young people are more pro-life than their parents. This is the pro-life generation. The Democrats' sudden sense of urgency in murdering as many babies as possible even after they are born is a blessing for the pro-life movement. Americans are finally realizing just how evil Democrat anti-childbirth zealots truly are. Public school poisoning made my white friend's son a self-hating communist, a passionate fighter in Sandy O's anti-American and anti-Christian revolutionary army. I envision him enraged with his pitchfork at the gate yelling, Down with whitey, capitalism, and America! Thank you, Democratic Party. Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American Help Lloyd spread the Truth: http://bit.ly/2kZqmUk Back in college, I participated in one of those summer-long, Koch-funded libertarian internship programs. During the final week of the program, clusters of us interns, fresh off working in the "real world" for two total months, were tasked with arguing an esoteric philosophical point of our choosing. One group of impish participants decided to argue against having children. The argument was fiendishly simple: the very act of existing invites pain, so it's morally questionable to bring young ones into a world guaranteed to harm them. With toothy grins, wrinkled slacks, and tousled hair, these students made their nihilistic argument, finely exercising their ability to, as F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." At the time, the arguers didn't believe their own position. The no-harm logic, while sound on the surface, meant human extinction when taken to its logical conclusion. A melange of college students hopped up on Leonard Read essays and overpriced beer understood the implications of eschewing childbirth. But what's Democrats' excuse? It turns out my puckish colleagues may have been prophets for the most visible newcomer in America's liberal party. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the socialist and de facto Democratic leader, questions the wisdom of having kids. During an Instagram livestream, the 29-year-old congresswoman explains, in her termagant, ditzo manner, that Millennials like her don't want to bring children into a world where China and India are pushing the global temperature a jot or tittle higher. "There's scientific consensus that the lives of children are going to be very difficult. And it does lead young people to have a legitimate question: Is it OK to still have children?" she asked her legions of followers from her kitchen, wearing a beige turtleneck sweater to warm her body against one of the coldest winters in years. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez posits the same ethical challenge my fellow interns did years ago: is it morally kosher to have children if they will, someday, possibly suffer harm? If you apply Ocasio-Cortez's thinking to any time in human history absent the short time period of post-World War II to the present, it doesn't stand up. Until the mid-twentieth century, many children had to contend with high infant mortality rates, slavery, sexual exploitation, hard labor, and a myriad of untreatable diseases like polio and hemophilia. What we think of as the relatively harmless lifestyle fit for children today mandatory schooling through 18 years of age, widespread immunizations, Sesame Street is so new to human existence that some grandparents alive today never experienced it. You wouldn't be reading this column in the year 2019 had earlier generations become conditioned to Ocasio-Cortez's paralyzing fear. Yet the longue duree of human survival is increasingly forgotten by liberals who share a skeptical view of the future. A duo of fretting Cassandras recently appeared on a BBC program touting something called "Birthstrike," a movement to withhold the gift of life in service to apocalyptic prediction. "The natural world is collapsing around us, and that's actually happening right now. And I'm so disappointed by the response by authorities to this crisis, and so freaked out by everything I've read that I've I've basically last year I came to the decision that I couldn't bring a child into that," Blythe Pepino, founder of Birthstrike, explained to an audience currently experiencing a record-low birth rate. Her partner in petrification, Alice Brown, concurs, ratcheting up the fear a notch: "We are destroying biodiversity so quickly that it threatens our food ... the U.N. have said that can lead to the risk of our own extinction." Brown explains that her decision not to have children "has come from not wanting to pass that fear on to someone else." Petrifying everyone else with world-ending divinations is perfectly fine, apparently. There's a name for this swearing off procreation: anti-natalism. The philosophy if self-imposed genocide can be called a philosophy is, at its core, a deadening of everything it means to be human. It is both anti-life and misanthropic. "Homo sapiens is the most destructive species, and vast amounts of this destruction are wreaked on other humans," writes anti-natalist philosopher David Benatar. How Benatar maintains the will to live with such a bleak view of himself isn't addressed. Like climate alarmists who pay thousands of dollars to travel around in carbon-emitting machines, Benatar doesn't seem to take his own philosophy seriously. The divide between anti-natalist liberals and conservatives is, as Russell Kirk said of all political problems, spiritual at heart. Conservatives view life as intrinsically valuable that all children are formed in the image of a loving God. Even if a baby will one day grow to harm someone else, he is still not denied his inner worth. Along with neoliberal types concerned that Africa's high birth rate puts too much of a strain on economic resources, anti-natalists commit the dangerous fallacy of putting sublunary concerns above higher values. The road to despotism is paved with such intentions. Then again, maybe that was the point all along. Presidents typically have the backing and support of their political party. Although all presidents have the bully pulpit to broadcast their messages, the presidency is a busy job, and the president must delegate messaging and branding to surrogates, including elected officials in the president's party. Barack Obama had legions of apologists and defenders. Every congressional Democrat and scores of leftovers from the Clinton administration were ready, willing, and able to defend all things Obama, as well as viciously pounce on any of his detractors. The Obamacare and Benghazi scandals were vociferously shielded from any criticism. Bill Clinton enjoyed the same support from Team Democrat, particularly when navigating his scandal-filled two terms in office and impeachment. His supporters attacked independent counsel Kenneth Starr incessantly, impugning his character and calling him a pervert. In addition, all Democrat presidents have the unwaveringly loyal support of the media, print and digital. News coverage of past Democrat presidents has mostly been favorable, overlooking negative stories and supplying an abundance of humanizing puff pieces. Democrat presidential candidates are routinely endorsed by most major newspapers in America. Then along came Donald Trump, previously a member of each political party at different times in his life when such party affiliations served his interests. The truth is that he was never a Democrat or a Republican, at least as they are defined today. Instead, he is a problem-solver, beholden to no one and not part of the political establishment. His loyalty is only to America and those who voted for him, not to the donor classes and globalist elites. Seeking the presidency, he understood the folly of running as a third-party candidate, at least officially, although in reality, he was very much a third-party candidate, joining the GOP as the lesser of two evils. He was not part of either party's ruling cabal, having never held elective office or political appointment. He did not campaign or arrive at the White House with an entourage of advisers and staff from previous stints as a governor or senator. Trump was an army of one. Official White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian. His past confidants from the Trump Tower days were his family and assorted lawyers and other fixer types, used as necessary when swimming through the shark-infested waters of New York City real estate development. President Trump entered the White House thin on trusted political aides and advisers. Few are still in his administration, while most are long gone, some quietly and at least outwardly supportive of Trump, while others departed noisily, making trouble for Trump in exchange for book deals or appearances on CNN. Very few were solidly part of Trump's army. Now, in the second half of his first term in office, he remains the king of a nonexistent political party, at least in Washington, D.C. His actual party is "yuuuge," with a political base that elected and likely will re-elect him in 2020. Trump hovers around 50 percent in the polls with 90-plus-percent support among Republicans. Those few Republicans, like John Kasich, making noise about a primary challenge, are Chihuahuas nipping at the hooves of a massive Budweiser Clydesdale. The "son of a mailman" had his lunch handed to him by candidate Trump. Facing President Trump in 2020, he will be irrelevant. Yet Trump is largely alone. Where are Republican members of Congress? Where are the pundits? Defenders are as scarce as moderate Democrats. Nancy Pelosi is on television more in one week than Paul Ryan was in two. Trump's army is small, with only a few congressional allies such as Mark Meadows and Lindsey Graham. Just a handful of media figures support President Trump while the rest call him a Nazi, a racist, a terrorist, or just a dolt. The remainder of the Republican Party is waiting patiently to stick a knife into Trump's back when the situation allows. Republicans controlled the House and Senate for two years. Other than a corporate tax cut, what did they accomplish? Obamacare wasn't repealed, despite endless promises to do so ahead of each election. The wall, Trump's signature issue, wasn't built. Planned Parenthood remained funded, as did sanctuary cities. Two Supreme Court nominees were confirmed, although the Kavanaugh process was a travesty, aided and abetted by a handful of squishy Republican senators. Even the president's emergency declaration for wall funding is likely to be rejected due to several Republicans voting against their party leader and one of the primary issues for their constituents. How many Democrats defected in the Obamacare vote, a key issue for their party leader? None. Despite being an army of one, Trump is more than willing to fight back with all his might. In his famous speech from October 13, 2016, he said, "But I take all of these slings and arrows for you. I take them for our movement, so that we can have our country back." Where is his army? Fortunately, Trump is a fighter. No other Republican could withstand the daily blistering barrage from the media and both political parties ganging up on him to destroy his presidency. Imagine how much more he could have accomplished in his first two years with solid support from the GOP, advancing his agenda and pushing back against spy-gate tricksters? On the plus side, he holds the keys to declassification and the pain that will bring to many, including potential indictments for conspiracy and treason. Huber and Horowitz are beginning to emerge from the shadows, bringing unpleasant surprises to many conspirators. As Trump told the N.Y. Post last fall, "I'm a counter-puncher and I will hit them so hard they'd never been hit like that." On the negative side, there could be 17 or so Republican senators willing to join with their colleagues across the aisle to vote for conviction on any of the inevitable impeachment charges passed by the hyper-partisan House. Murkowski, Collins, Romney, and others would be happy to see Trump removed from office, and after some theatrical handwringing and might vote to convict on any bogus articles of impeachment. Such defections were not a concern for Bill Clinton 20 years ago, but he was not a party of one; rather, he was Attila leading the Huns to battle. Trump has a fine line to straddle, bringing pain to the Deep State but keeping Republican senators, many of whom identify with the Deep State, from tossing him to the wolves. Trump is interfering with the globalist elite agenda, and both parties would rather see him back in Trump Tower, away from the levers of power. After all, he was never supposed to win. For his voters, the frustration mounts. We have but one vote to give to the president and only our voices on social media as his army. Our elected representatives serve not their voters, but instead their donors, as evidenced by the immigration standoff. His army of 60 millionplus is strong but with limited effect. Unfortunately, his political army in Washington, D.C. is largely against him. Yet he persists and perseveres, as an army of one. Despite being woefully outnumbered, he is the odds-on favorite to prevail. Brian C Joondeph, M.D., MPS is a Denver-based physician and writer. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. So many of us have tried to warn our liberal Jewish friends and family of the real dangers of anti-Semitism that began in earnest with the election of Barack Hussein Obama. We were met with derision, scorn, and outright antipathy. Yet we knew that this was the beginning, not the end of the resurgence of the oldest disease known to mankind. After all, Obama warmly welcomed the Muslim Brotherhood into the government. The Muslim Brotherhood made no secret of their wanting to become a political entity that rivals our constitutional one. Thus, it bears reiterating that "the Muslim Brotherhood, otherwise known as the Ikhwan believes that its purposes in the West are ... better advanced by the use of non-violent, stealthy techniques. In that connection, the Muslim Brotherhood seeks to establish relations with, influence and, wherever possible, penetrate government circles in executive and legislative branches at the federal, state, and local levels; the law enforcement community; intelligence agencies; the military; penal institutions, the media; think tanks and policy groups; academic institutions, non-Muslim religious communities; and other elites. The Brothers engage in all of these activities and more for one reason: to subvert the targeted communities in furtherance of the Muslim Brother's primary objective the triumph of shariah." Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar are just the most public of these jihadist plants who have now become the darlings of the Democratic Party. If all people, but particularly Jews, were to set aside hardened ideology and wake up, they would see the serious danger being inflicted upon the home of the brave. But perhaps G-d in His infinite wisdom has sent Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to awaken even the most naive and indifferent Jew to the fact that there are now in the halls of Congress a number of people who would make Hitler proud. If this hatred is not repeatedly called out, the country will continue to slide toward the undoing of every righteous reason for being the greatest country in the world. The mealy-mouthed "apology" that the Democrats shamelessly put forth should awaken even the most somnolent Jew to the Democratic Party's being overwhelmed by the enemies of America. By sidestepping the actual anti-Semitism of Omar, and writing that "white supremacists have targeted traditionally persecuted peoples, including African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other people of color, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, the LGBTQ community, immigrants, and others," the document has become a means to hide the virulent Jew-hatred of Omar. As usual, the Democrats are masters of camouflage and diversion. The Jew has always been the canary in the mine. How Jews are treated is the surest sign of the health of a country. Omar and Tlaib are the symptoms of a diseased state, and not enough people are unequivocally uniting to inoculate the country against the odium that not that long ago led to the murder of six million Jews in Germany. As of 2017, Jews constitute a little over 14 million people worldwide as compared to the burgeoning 1.5-billion-strong Muslim population. Crimes against Jews in America are on the rise, and militant Islam has penetrated every aspect of our country. The Democrats caved when Omar insisted that she wear her head covering even though it has been a rule that no head coverings be worn in Congress. Many innocently said, "Don't make a big deal and she looks so elegant." This was a first step toward dhimmitude. In Paterson, New Jersey, schools are now having to offer halal food so as not to offend their Muslim students. Why? Let Muslim parents prepare their own food and give it to their children. No other group makes these demands and expects a school to comply. It goes on and on. Jihadist Muslims continue to get away with discrimination against gays, misogyny, anti-Semitism, and murder, and it is now viewed as the "new norm." One cannot print a silly cartoon without Muslims rioting. Vicious knifing attacks result in the elimination of knives, but nary a word about slowing down the immigration of Muslims who think it is their holy duty to destroy the infidel. After all, their imams told them that it is part of being a good Muslim. As Bookworm has elucidated, even for all those Jews who were cavalier about Obama's actions toward Israel and his sleazy acquaintances such as Reverend Wright and Louis Farrakhan, the nonchalant remark that Obama made when Jews were murdered because they were Jews making a purchase in a French delicatessen hit home. Although they had given Obama a pass regarding his less than savory anti-Semitic bedfellows before, this attack was a bit too personal. Can the vast majority of American Jews who espouse liberal and left-wing ideas finally see that the American left has an endemic anti-Semitism problem? Can they finally perceive that the Democratic Party has been infiltrated by Muslim Brotherhood cohorts, whose sole aim is to destroy America by first singling out the Jewish American individual? Will they accept that the Democrats have no genuine backbone to counter hatred of the Jew? And for those Jews who would equivocate by bringing up Republican Steve King, they need to be reminded that ... unlike the Republicans' actions in stripping Representative Steve King (R-Iowa) of his House committee seats after he made remarks that appeared to defend white nationalism, Congresswoman Omar is still a member of the influential House Foreign Affairs committee, with no current intention by Democrat House leaders to remove her. Furthermore, the "Democratic House leaders also appear to be caving in to demands from Omar's supporters that a clear-cut House resolution against anti-Semitism, which would not have called out Omar by name even in its original version, be even further watered down by adding generic condemnations of hatred in all forms, including of so-called Islamophobia." But the tide may be turning. Jewish momentum is slowly building. Known as Jexodus, it is "a totally genuine grassroots movement started by young millennials who are just trying to galvanize young Jews across the country and get them involved in what's happening in politics." Per a press release from the Jexodus launch at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C., here is how the group self-describes: We are proud Jewish Millennials tired of living in bondage to leftist politics. We reject the hypocrisy, anti-Americanism, and anti-Semitism of the rising far-left. Progressives, Democrats, and far too many old-school Jewish organizations take our support for granted. After all, we're Jewish, and Jews vote for Democrats. Until today. We are determined and we are unafraid to speak for ourselves. As combatants and veterans of the campus wars, we know the threat progressivism poses to Jews. We've had front row seats witnessing anti-Semites hide behind the thin veil of anti-Zionism. We know the BDS movement harbors deep hatred not only for Israel, but for Jews. We're done standing with supposed Jewish leaders and allegedly supportive Democrats who rationalize, mainstream, and promote our enemies. We'd rather spend forty years wandering in the desert than belong to a party that welcomes Jew-haters like Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. May they be strong and of good courage. And may they be supported by people of good will of many religious convictions. Amen. Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com. Image: Lorie Shaull via Flickr. The U.S. oil boom at a $50 a barrel price continues to profitably accelerate, while Saudi Arabia oil production with an $80-85 a barrel break-even cost continues to shrivel. Reuters reported a 2018 average wellhead break-even price of $40.95 for America's five top shale oil production regions of Eagle Ford, Bakken, Permian Midland, Permian Delaware, and Niobara. Even adding a 10 percent corporate overhead cost, the break-even price of about $45 a barrel is still profitable on $50-a-barrel oil. With the price of West Texas Intermediate averaging $64.90 per barrel in 2018 and $56.07 currently, the U.S. Energy Information Agency reported that American production hit an all-time high of 12.1 million barrels per day (b/d) last week. EIA forecasts that the U.S. production average will grow to 12.4 million b/d in 2019 and 13.2 million b/d in 2020. But according to the International Monetary Fund director of the Middle East and Central Asia department, Jihad Azour, that the 2019 per barrel break-even price Saudi Arabia needs to balance its budget is "around $80$85." Azour forecasts that with Riyadh planning to increase entitlement spending by $20 billion this year, its break-even cost will move higher. Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih disclosed in a news conference last month that Saudi Arabia had targeted production of 10.31 million b/d in January, but falling prices forced the kingdom to cut production to an average of 10.20 million b/d. Standard & Poor's credit agency reported that Saudi officials revealed that production fell to 10.1 million b/d in February and is expected to go even lower in March. IMF's Azour commented that the price of Brent crude oil plunged from an average about $110 b/d between 2010 to 2013 to about $50 over the last five years. Saudi Arabia survived by increasing debt from 1.56 percent of GDP in 2014 to 19.39 percent in 2018. But Azour warns that the kingdom will face a huge financial crisis by 2022 if the price of oil does not go up substantially or the kingdom does not slash entitlement spending. But Saudi Arabia is in no position to implement severe austerity spending measures, because most citizens' standard of living is overwhelmingly due to government handouts. The kingdom imports 70 percent of its food and does not produce military hardware, cars, refrigerators, civil airplanes, ships, or consumer and industrial goods. Saudi Arabians tend to lack employable skills and are culturally not inclined to work. Of the 30 million residents, only 5.5 million work, and 3 million work directly for the government. The small private sector tends to employ only foreigners. The Saudi monarchy delayed the financial crisis with Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman's 15-month corruption crackdown that snared 200 princes and business moguls. The government collected over $100 billion and has another 56 cases that have not yet been settled as of January, according to the Jerusalem Post. Saudi Arabia planned to stimulate the economy by inviting foreign investment, but the murder of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi intelligence agents inside the kingdom's Istanbul, Turkey consulate caused a huge human rights scandal. Foreign direct investment plunged from $7.4 billion in 2016 to $1.4 billion in 2017, according to the U.N. World Investment Report 2018. The 2018 figures are not available, but multinationals with operations in Saudi Arabia are rumored to be withdrawing cash. The Democrats, the Deep State, and their media allies placed an enormous bet on the bespoke fantasy concocted by Fusion GPS that Donald Trump stole the 2016 election with the assistance of Russia. Now, like a poker player trying to fill an inside straight, they are concerned that the big pot they created with all that attention focused on the allegation might be lost. The many signals that the Mueller investigation soon will be public and has no evidence at all of collusion have got a lot of people worried. Will the mainstream media be able to avoid responsibility for peddling a fantasy? ABC TV's senior national correspondent Terry Moran, appearing on his network's Sunday morning political show This Week, predicted just such a "reckoning": Transcript via Grabien: RADDATZ: And I want to turn to the Mueller probe here quickly, Pierre. We've all heard that the investigation may be coming to an end. I feel like we've heard that before. So what can you tell us about that? THOMAS: Well, based on our sourcing, Mueller is nearing the end of his work. And we expect that in the coming days he will turn over his confidential report to Attorney General Bill Barr and then Barr will have one of the most momentous decisions that any attorney general has had in 30-some years, which is, how much of that report is made public and turned over to Congress? RADDATZ: And do you have a sense of that? THOMAS: You know, Barr has said during his confirmation hearing that he will he wants to be transparent, but he will abide by the standards of the Justice Department. That typically says where people aren't charged with crimes, that you don't do much talking about them. But there's so much in this investigation about the number of contacts between people associated with Trump and Russians that people will want to know and how Mueller chose to deal with these issues. RADDATZ: And the big topic, of course, Terry, collusion. The president said there was no collusion, there was no collusion. There are hints that that's certainly what Mueller may have been looking at. How big a deal is it if they don't find collusion for the president? MORAN: Huge. He's cleared. If Robert Mueller comes back Mueller became a folk hero in the United States. Robert DeNiro (ph) RADDATZ: Even if he finds all sorts of things? MORAN: Sure. No, but the central and most serious question in this investigation, the reason Robert Mueller started it is, did the current president of the United States assist the Kremlin in an attack on our democracy? And if Mueller, after two years, comes back and says "I don't have the evidence to support that charge," that's a reckoning. That's a reckoning for progressives and Democrats who hoped that Mueller would essentially erase the 2016 election, it's a reckoning for the media, it's a reckoning around the country if, in fact, after all this time, there was no collusion. RADDATZ: Pierre? THOMAS: Well, the fact is, if you look at all the charges so far, no one Mueller has charged so far has been charged with directly conspiring with the Russians. That's a fact. But the Mueller Report is shrouded in secrecy. There's just a lot we don't know and there's certain facts that Mueller has hinted to throughout the case. Like the fact that Paul Manafort allegedly gave polling data to a suspected Russian intelligence officer. Roger Stone, a confidant of the president, communicating with one of the Russian hackers. So, again, stay tuned. We have to see what the report says. RADDATZ: And and Terry, even if there's nothing there, the Hill will start several investigations into all kinds of things. MORAN: That's right. There are certainly other investigations about the Trump businesses, about Trump Tower Moscow which which may draw the interest of prosecutors and congressional investigators, and certainly these issues need to be brought to light. But that (ph) RADDATZ: And how about the attention of the American public? If if the Mueller that's a question. MORAN: It is a question. In fact, Democrats have to worry that they don't look like they're just throwing anything against the wall that'll and hope it'll stick and get back to the old kind of politics. If they want to beat Donald Trump, beat him. Beat him on the issues, beat him in politics, don't beat him on investigations. RADDATZ: It's great to have your perspective this morning. Thanks for coming in, guys. Might we finally get to the bottom of the dark forces that used the state in their relentless attempt to dislodge newly elected President Trump? Based on a new report about dark money rolling into Fusion GPS coffers, former House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes, a California Republican, seems to think so. Here is his tweet: This is actually important as we wait for the March 14 Steele and Cramer depositions to made public. https://t.co/Srz7SusezS Devin Nunes (@DevinNunes) March 11, 2019 Coming from him, it says something. Here is what the Daily Caller found: A dark money group based in California contributed $2 million to The Democracy Integrity Project, the organization that has contracted with Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele to investigate President Donald Trump. The Democracy Integrity Project's founder, a former staffer for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, has acknowledged to the FBI that the group provides information to the press, lawmakers and investigators. Fund for a Better Future is the second Democracy Integrity Project donor to have been identified. George Soros gave $1 million to the group. Bear in mind that Fusion GPS was the group paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign that simultaneously contracted with the Russians (and the Australians and the Brits) to bring the infamous "Steele dossier" full of invented kink about Trump to the attention of U.S. lawmen, and then had those lawmen, meaning the FBI itself, go investigate President Trump as they would any bad guy. The new report signals that Hillary wasn't the only one possibly paying for this; it may well have been an array of other deep-pocketed Democratic fat cats, none of whom wanted to reveal who he is. Look at this detail: TDIP was founded on Jan. 31, 2017, by Daniel Jones, a consultant who worked for Feinstein, a California Democrat, when she controlled the Senate Intelligence Committee. Jones has disclosed to the FBI that he hired Fusion GPS and Steele, the author of the anti-Trump dossier, to continue an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. He also told an associate that TDIP operated as a "shadow media organization helping the government." Jones suggested to the associate, Adam Waldman, that his TDIP team planted several anti-Trump articles. Feinstein? Same Democrat who pulled all those dirty tricks to discredit Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and employed an apparent Chinese spy on her staff for twenty years? Funny how the pattern repeats itself as news rolls out about the big bid to get Trump. Obviously, team Feinstein has had practice. In a few days, as Nunes notes, more depositions are scheduled to become public, from Steele dossier assembler Christopher Steele and another operative. In light of this report, one can only watch it more closely, Image credit: Torange.biz, CC BY-SA 4.0. President Trump has a gigantic opportunity to accomplish two goals via an executive order. James Varney pointed this out in the Washington Times: Since the dawn of the 21st century, the U.S. government has operated under mandatory translation rules for its documents and services, a pricey option that President Bill Clinton imposed via executive order near the end of his tenure in August 2000. In essence, the order meant that if a person with limited or no English language skills had a problem with accessing federal services, then that was the government's problem. Mr. Clinton's move "required federal agencies to examine the services they provide, identify any need for services to those with limited English efficiency (LEP), and develop and implement a system to provide those services so LEP persons can have meaningful access to them," according to the description provided at LEP.gov, a website created to help the process. There is no question that this massive translation effort costs billions of dollars a year: The last time federal officials took a look at the cost, during the first term of President George W. Bush, the Office of Management and Budget fixed it at $2 billion annually. If that price has held steady, then it would mean taxpayers have shelled out more than $30 billion on mandated translations of the government's business. Democrats are on the record celebrating the power of presidents to issue executive orders and change federal policies. Barack Obama's boast that "I have a pen and I've got a phone" was immediately preceded by a promise: "We're not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we're providing Americans the kind of help they need." And Bill Clinton, who issued the executive order requiring translations, was advised by Paul Begala, who celebrated that power with the immortal words, "Stroke of the pen. Law of the land. Kinda cool." I, for one, would greatly enjoy the spectacle of Progressives venting their outrage over such a move. They would hyperventilate over cruelty and being unwelcoming, but the fact is that by enabling people to avoid acquiring English proficiency, they condemn them to permanent second-class economic status. Moreover: Rasmussen has been asking about official English for years and said last April that the percentage approving the position has moved within a range of 83 percent to 87 percent since 2006, with only 12 percent thinking English should not the official language of the U.S. Photo credit: CGP Grey The ball is in President Trump's court. A third benefit awaits: stand by for Progressive heads exploding. What is it with the '90s class of so-called liberals? First we had John Kerry colluding with Iran's mullahs to advise them how to counter President Trump. We've also got evidence on assorted fronts of Hillary Clinton colluding with the Russians to get rich, sell influence, and undermine President Trump. Now we've got former British prime minister Tony Blair caught secretly sneaking around in meetings with France's Emmanuel Macron, advising him on how to cut Britain off at the knees in its bid to exit the European Union. The London Telegraph reports: Tony Blair has been accused of "unacceptable" behaviour after it emerged he has been briefing Emmanuel Macron on how to force Britain to stay in the EU. The former Labour prime minister believes that if the EU stands its ground over the Brexit deal, Parliament will cave in and accept a customs union which would keep Britain yoked to Brussels or a second referendum that could cancel Brexit altogether. Sources in Paris confirmed to The Telegraph that Mr Blair had been speaking to the French President about Brexit. He is reported to have told Mr Macron to "hold firm" and wait for events to play out in London that end in Britain staying in the EU. Breitbart has an additional summary of what went down if you don't have a subscription. Blair's sneakery is something he claims is just "meetings," and his staff told the Telegraph they "don't comment" on private meetings. But obviously, what he's doing is having some sort of effect. The E.U. is now vowing to extort billions more from Britain if it doesn't accept its already expensive terms for exit, something that has tied Britain in knots in Parliament as its wimpy prime minister, Theresa May, approaches members yet again with pretty much the same deal they rejected earlier. Way to go, Tony: Tax your countrymen and hand it to the Eurocrats. Could Blair's "advice" be why the Brexit is such a miserable and prolonged affair? Could May and her Tories actually be fighting a domestic battle against die-hard leftists who refuse to accept the will of the voters? It sounds like Deep State cubed, given that it involves European Union satraps on the continent who amount to the tool of coercion as well as the ultimate cause worth fighting for. It signals an amazing disloyalty to Britain, something not all that surprising in Blair, given his fanaticism for the soulless European Union no-borders internationalism. Oh, and notice the contemptuous view Blair has of the Brits, advising Macron that if he just keeps the unyielding stance, he can "break" them. To paraphrase Lady Thatcher, the lady's not for turning. Charles Moore writes in a separate commentary at the Telegraph that the British steadfastness on Brexit over these long years of inaction has been remarkable and signals the actual character of the British, writing: [M]y impression is not that people have become more (or less) ideologically pro-Brexit. It is rather than they are showing two traditional national virtues. The first is common sense. What is the purpose, people ask, of embarking on a major constitutional change which has been voted for and then half-cocking it? The performance of all the main parties seems shameful. Theresa May's idea that she should keep coming back to the House of Commons to ask the same thing seems almost babyish. The second is a dislike of being bossed around. Kipling caught it in his poem about Saxons and Normans: "When he stands like an ox in the furrow with his sullen set eyes on your own,/And grumbles, 'This isn't fair dealing,' my son, leave the Saxon alone." We have not had fair dealing from the European Commission. Instead we have been insulted. Our leaders have not been straight with us either. So let's just go: we were always independent before 1973 and we can be so again, though it may be tricky at first. In light of these observations, it just shows how unscrupulous and unethical Blair is. We have people like that here, too, and like Blair, they're also on the left his part of the left, which isn't even the crazy part. There's something about these people that views nationhood itself as a problem, not a place that citizens call home, and they will pursue what they want, against their fellow citizens' wishes, by any means necessary. Kerry, Hillary, Blair... The Brits should prosecute this to the fullest extent of their law if they can. If they don't, it's just going to get worse. Image credit: Cabinet Ministers of Ukraine via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. A carefully researched study by economists at the Brookings Institute estimates that the Chinese government inflates its gross domestic product by about 12%. The reason this is important is that even with the Chinese overestimating their national wealth, they still have a huge economy. And the current downturn in economic growth in China threatens to hurl the world into a serious recession. Zero Hedge: Since China managed to weather the fallout from the financial crisis without registering much of a slowdown in its "official" GDP figures, playing "guess the real growth rate" has become one of the most popular parlor games among the professional economist set. Whereas the stakes are much higher for academics on the mainland (one of whom was censored and threatened by government thugs after speculating that GDP growth on the mainland might be closer to 2%), researchers at American think tanks have freely offered estimates ranging from 2% to 4% (which, admittedly, would still put China well ahead of the US). But as investors and economists once again cast a wary eye toward China as signs of flagging growth are once again threatening to sink the whole world into a recession, a team of researchers from the Brookings Institute has published a carefully researched paper detailing the exact mechanism by which authorities in Beijing inflate the country's GDP figures, while estimating that China's economy is roughly 12% smaller than the official figures would suggest. Brookings published the paper on Thursday, just two days after Party leaders at the annual National Party Congress lowered their economic growth forecast to between 6% and 6.5% of GDP. Though the paper focused on the period between 2008 and 2016, it's the latest evidence that China's economic slowdown has been more severe than believed, and that the growth rate from last year China's worst since the early 1990s might, in reality, be just under 6% (compared with 6.6%). Inflating economic statistics is an old commie trick going back 100 years to the days of Lenin. Low-level bureaucrats at the local level inflate production numbers to make their regional bosses happy. The regional bosses inflate the numbers to make national party leaders happy. By the time the numbers are publicized, they are laughably overblown. According to Brookings, much of the manipulation in Chinese official government statistics takes place at the local level. In what the FT described as "a legacy of Maoist state planning", authorities in Beijing hand down growth targets to local officials, who use it to goalseek the official statistics they hand back. "China's national accounts are based on data collected by local governments. However, since local governments are rewarded for meeting growth and investment targets, they have an incentive to skew local statistics. China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) adjusts the data provided by local governments to calculate GDP at the national level," the study's authors said. Evidence of this is relatively obvious: Year after year, the sum total of China's provincial growth figures is larger than the unadjusted national figures reported by Beijing. Though central authorities accused three provinces of doctoring their data back in 2017, authorities have done little else to discourage the practice. There are a lot of people who think Brookings is lowballing the number-fudging. Some estimates put the actual GDP number at 50% of the "official" number. South China Morning Post: In a speech in Shanghai this week, Michael Pettis, professor of finance at Peking University, warned that China's debt is closely linked to the government's perceived overstatement of its gross domestic product (GDP). The government is accused of perpetuating the existence of "zombie companies", by granting loss-making companies loans. Banks in turn treat these companies as creditworthy, whereas in reality they should be written off as bad debt, Pettis said. "If you believe there is bad debt that has not been sufficiently written down, you must believe that China's GDP is overstated, relative to what it would be in any other country. That must be true," Pettis said. "If we are able to calculate GDP correctly, it would probably be half of the recorded number." "Zombie companies," indeed. China is experiencing a significant downturn. Exports have fallen 21% in the last year, and the government refuses to devalue the renminbi, fearing a run on its currency. This will probably lead to a continued fall in exports which threatens global stability. If people can't rely on the accuracy of economic numbers coming from the Chinese government, that lack of confidence will effect everything from the global monetary system to public policy. We might fall into a real recession because of fake Chinese numbers. While there are some efforts by the Chinese to reform this practice, it's generally believed that it's too little and maybe too late. Qantas Airways CEO Alan Joyce is winning praise for his response to a letter by a 10-year-old Australian boy. Alex Jacquot wrote to the Qantas chief executive seeking advice for starting his own airline. To this, Joyce replied with positive enthusiasm. The Sydney-based carrier recently shared the letter by Alex and Joyce's reply on its Twitter handle. "Our competitors don't normally ask us for advice, but when an airline leader reached out, we couldn't ignore it. Naturally, there was only one way to respond: CEO to CEO," Qantas wrote in its tweet. Our competitors don't normally ask us for advice, but when an airline leader reached out, we couldn't ignore it. Naturally, there was only one way to respond: CEO to CEO. pic.twitter.com/JTFpzn5a6Y - Qantas (@Qantas) March 11, 2019 In a handwritten letter undersigned CEO and co-founder of Oceania Express, Alex started by telling Joyce that he is ten years old, followed by "Please take me seriously". He goes on to tell that he has already "started some stuff" like the types of planes he will need, flight numbers, catering and more. "I like working on my airline. Do you have any ideas of about I can do? Seeing as you're the CEO of Qantas, I thought I'd ask you (sic)," Alex wrote in his letter. "First I should say that I'm not typically in the business of giving advice to my competitors. But I'm going to make an exception on the occasion, because I too was once a young boy who was so curious about flight and its possibilities," the reply from Joyce read. The second question in Alex's letter asked about tips on starting an airline. His third and last question was about sleeping on long-distance flights. "My number one tip for starting an airline is to put safety front and centre. And do everything you can do to make travel as comfortable and affordable as possible for your passengers," Joyce wrote in his reply. "Now, to your troubles thinking about sleep on 21-hour flights. This is something we are grappling with too, as we embark on Project Sunrise. To help with sleep, we're looking at different cabin designs that give people spaces to stretch out and exercise," Joyce further wrote. Project Sunrise is an initiative by Qantas under which the airline is planning to conduct non-stop flights between the east coast of Australia and London. Joyce even invited Alex to be the part of a Project Sunrise meeting. Joyce said that he will like to share notes with Alex on what it is like to run an airline. ALSO READ:Jet Airways share price gains on Rs 2,050-crore loan from Punjab National Bank ALSO READ:OLX elevates Sushil Kumar as General Manager for India It is tempting to laugh at the Democrats' Green New Deal. This reaction should be reconsidered, but not for the reason you might think. This thought occurred after exploring a report by Peter Wood and Rachelle Peterson titled "Sustainability: Higher Education's New Fundamentalism," published by the National Association of Scholars (NAS). Their report describes a brilliantly sophisticated and successful plan by the radical left to merge climate-change activism into the old cultural Marxism indoctrination strategy of the Frankfurt School, commonly known as "the long march through the institutions." The old strategy was quite successful in planting the seeds of socialism throughout academia, starting in earnest with the 1960s sexual revolution, but it needed revitalization by the end of the 20th century. By assimilating the new sustainability element, which includes Al Gore's radical antifossil fuel, prorenewable energy ideology, it now offers a much more virtuous appeal. Colleges and universities in all 50 states took the bait and now offer nearly 460 sustainability degree programs, including doctorates. I googled my own alma mater (Virginia Tech) and was stunned by the number of sustainability offerings. To a biology graduate who once sent resumes to NOAA and the EPA in the early 1970s, many of the degree programs seemed appealing. What young student would not be eager to earn a degree that will help save the planet? However, the degree requirements appeared a bit light on hard science and math and perhaps too heavy on the social justice side. A few observations from the NAS report summarize what is going on: To the unsuspecting, sustainability is just a new name for environmentalism. But the word really marks out a new and larger ideological territory in which curtailing economic, political, and intellectual liberty is the price that must be paid now to ensure the welfare of future generations. The movement ... extends well beyond the college campus[.] ... But the college campus is where the movement gets its voice of authority, and where it molds the views and commands the attention of young people. We ... see in the sustainability movement a hardening of irrational demands to suspend free inquiry in favor of unproven theories of imminent catastrophe. And we see, under the aegis of sustainability, a movement that often takes its bearings from its hostility towards material prosperity, consumerism, free markets, and even democratic self-government. The environmentalist movement of years gone by focused on getting people to take better care of the natural world. The sustainability movement ... focuses on convincing people to submit to a regime of nearly total social control. The Green New Deal was no doubt inspired by the sustainability movement. Both are a roadmap to a socialist utopia where all human conflicts, inequality, rising seas, and extreme weather will simply disappear. Unfortunately, this vision is built on a foundation of exaggerations and half-truths, including the fabricated consensus about CO2. Anthropogenic climate change is a minor worry compared to the accomplishment by the left to indoctrinate this fantasy into a massive and ever growing population of smart young adults who will not hesitate to vote for candidates supporting a Green New Deal a deal that will unintentionally set America on a fast path to national suicide. It may not happen until a Democrat wins the presidency, but it's coming. These true believers should ponder a 76-year-old quote from The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis. "Man's power over nature is really the power of some men over others with nature as their instrument." The horrific blackout that has engulfed all of Venezuela is not going away any time soon. Today is day four, and there will be more. New York Times has a good reporter on the case, Anatoly Kurmanaev, and he got pretty close to the bottom of it. He writes: I went to the heart of Venezuela's transmission system in Guarico to try to find out what's going on with the grid. Here's why partial blackouts are unfortunately likely to persist for a while. I sincerely hope I'm wrong. Here is his actual filed story, but his bloggy 18-tweet Twitter thread of some kind strung together here, with graphs showing transmission lines, and his own pictures of what a wasteland the power station is is more useful and easier to understand. The Caracas Chronicle has another useful piece by someone who seems to understand power grids, Rodrigo Linares, who comes to the same conclusions. We learn: That the most likely cause of the power blowout was some disaster in the turbines in the central generating station that supplies 80% of the country's electricity. That the problem cannot be fixed easily. The more they try to start the turbines, the more they blow out other elements of the power generation, and it's happening over and over. That what little power that is coming on in Caracas and a few other places is from a smaller substation that generates just over half the electricity that normally gets sent. That Caracas is getting a little bit of power, sporadically, but cities in western Venezuela, out on the Colombian border, are "at the end of the line" and get nothing. Their prospects for getting any anytime soon is bleak. As for what that means, Francisco Toro's essay in the Washington Post will blow you away: Venezuela watchers have been talking about the "collapse" of the country for a long time. They were mainly using the word metaphorically, applying it to statistical oddities such as fast declines in oil production, big spikes in infant mortality and skyrocketing prices. But since Thursday, Venezuela's collapse has taken a turn to the literal, as an all-encompassing nationwide blackout has brought the country close to a standstill. Without power, the country has seen a hard stop to all the basics of 21st-century life. In a country already trudging through a serious humanitarian crisis, the collapse of the electric grid is a final catastrophe. Venezuelans were already chronically hungry, with large numbers reporting they lost weight because they could not afford enough food. With food in such short supply, a power cut isn't just an inconvenience: Not being able to refrigerate food becomes life-threatening. The stories coming out of hospitals up and down the country have been harrowing. Only some had working back-up generators, and virtually none were designed to carry a whole hospital over many days. A video of a nurse using a hand pump to try to keep an infant alive has been circulating on social media. Thousands of kidney dialysis patients, unable to receive treatment, may face a slow and agonizing death. Kurmanaev reports that terror stalks the power infrastructure personnel, coming from the SEBIN secret police, which inhibits any recovery effort. Meanwhile, a Venezuelan writer for Toro's site, the Caracas Chronicles, Gabriela Mesones Rojo, reports that terror stalks the Venezuelan citizens. As if crime- and thug-infested Caracas isn't hellish enough with power, imagine what it's like without power: Since then, the country has turned into a ghost town. Survivors roam the empty streets looking for mobile signal, food, water, and a plug. Most stores remain closed; they say hundreds have died in public hospitals or at their homes, unable to contact anyone for help; fear has conquered the streets; looting and small protests have been reported across the nation; fires have gotten out of control. Every hour that goes by without electricity, everything gets harder to find, more expensive, scarier and sadder. Despair is in the air. "We have seen a lot of crazy shit these past 20 years," says Antonio, a 54-year-old butcher from Falcon. "But we had never experienced anything close to this. They turned off the lights and simply walked out the door. No help is coming. This is what losing a war must feel like. Aren't they going to help us with water? With food? How much longer until people start dropping dead in the streets?" Maria walks slowly with a cane, the last rays of sunshine warming her skin. "I am sad it had to happen like this, when we were so close to the end of this damned government. I have a knee problem. I have to walk 17 km to get home. I have a long way to go. When I get there, I won't have food or water. I don't even know if my family will be there. If they are, I won't know how to feed them. And if they aren't there, I won't know how to find them." As I argued the other day, it's an approximation of an EMP attack and, to my horror, it's extended. No access to money. No school. No food. No water. No phones. No internet. No lights. No gas. No dialysis. No incubators. No chemotherapy. No insulin. No subway. No democracy. It shows that socialism in the end takes everything there is from the citizens. And in Venezuela, it's a return to nature. In Mesones Rojo's piece, she finds that the locals are not blaming some generalized "incompetence" for the matter, but the socialist dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro itself. The locals say the dictatorship wanted this to happen, because it strengthens their grip on power. Take a look at her personal pictures posted with her piece. With a few tweets out, this is what the current power generator explosions look like. Large explosions can be seen from the exploding transformer in Caracas#Venezuela #SinLuz pic.twitter.com/qCsKe9xuHW Breakingg.news.worldtv (@newskurdishhy) March 11, 2019 Esta pasando! Hace unos minutos acaba de explotar estacion de Corpoelec en Terrazas del club hipico justo frente al centro comercial Humbolt y centro comercial Concresa pic.twitter.com/vOUYUzgysV DOLLYANGARITA (@DOLLYANGARITA) March 11, 2019 Here is a what it looks like: Socialism has literally returned Venezuela back to the dark ages.. #VenezuelaBlackout #SinLuz pic.twitter.com/aTjBj4GlvH Michael Welling (@WellingMichael) March 11, 2019 Here is a report from one of the hospitals. In the most important children hospital in Caracas Venezuela, Maduros colectivos (gangs) are preventing parents from entering or leaving the place to denounce that their kids are starving and thirsty. Kids are screaming through the windows for help. #VenezuelaBlackout https://t.co/vOoEBPv7Jt Lissette Kron (@libertylatina) March 10, 2019 Any doubts the flight of citizens will accelerate outward? The latest estimate is for 4 million more people to flee, making that more than 30% of the population. It's for the receiving countries to take care of these people and way past time for all of them, the U.S. included, to take care of this problem at the root. Image credit: Twitter screen grab. The new London Metal Exchange alumina cash-settled contract, which was launched on Monday March 11, will provide the market with a new hedging tool after a year of dramatic price movements. With Norsk Hydros Alunorte refinery in Brazil still producing at just 50% capacity, the alumina market is susceptible to more extreme volatility in the year ahead. The LME alumina contract is settled against Fastmarkets MBs benchmark daily fob Australia alumina index in a basket alongside CRUs alumina index. Equal weighting is given to each index. The contract will give traders a new opportunity to hedge their risk against price movements and to trade the alumina forward curve. The alumina market remains unstable due to Alunortes curtailment. A single deal can move the market price by $200 per tonne at a time. People need to cover themselves, a trader said. In March 2018, Hydros Alunorte alumina refinery declared force majeure after it was ordered by Brazilian national authorities to reduce output by 50%. It has been operating at 50% capacity since then, which has led to a large reduction in the number of available alumina cargoes. Consequently, Fastmarkets benchmark daily alumina index fob Australia reached $707.75 per tonne last April, the highest level since the index was launched in August 2010 and 75% higher than at the start of 2018. Liquidity indicator of the Fastmarkets fob Australia index Source: Fastmarkets Traders had to pay record fees to secure material, and aluminium smelters ran at a loss with margins squeezed. It hurt because people werent prepared, a consumer said. We were exposed to the price moves, and nobody in their wildest dreams at the start of 2018 thought that alumina would trade at $700 per tonne. Throughout 2018s rally in alumina prices, the LME aluminium price became disconnected from the market. Instead of rallying alongside raw materials, the three-month price remained flat, trading between $2,000 and $2,100 per tonne. On some occasions, alumina was trading at 30% of the outright aluminium price. Smelters report that when the alumina price trades at more than 19% of the aluminium price, they start to lose money. You can no longer look at the LME aluminium price for alumina. It is its own market, and the disconnect between the two made some people lose a lot of money, a second trader said. It caused a lot of trouble for smelters when they were paying $600 per tonne for alumina and aluminium was only selling at $2,000 per tonne. The math doesnt make sense, he added. Historically, the alumina market was priced as a percentage of the outright aluminium price on the LME, but physical contracts have since changed to being based on price-reporting agency (PRA) indices. Some companies, however, remain bound to long-term LME-based contracts, which have caused them to lose money. Rio Tintos most recent earnings report from February 17 said it has legacy contracts that are fixed to the LME price until 2030, which had a negative effect on its corporate results. We are exposed to approximately 2.2 million tonnes of legacy alumina sales contracts which have a fixed linkage to the LME price. These contracts date back to 2005 or earlier, and the majority expire between 2023 and 2030, Rio Tinto said. The negative effect on Ebitda [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] of these legacy contracts, following significant escalation in the alumina index due to industry supply disruptions, was $460 million in 2018. This was $300 million higher than in 2017, it added. A further escalation in the alumina index is not unlikely, with the timeline for Alunortes return still uncertain. The majority of the alumina market remains cautiously bullish. Everyone remains on edge. One announcement can change everything in either direction. There is a lot at stake, a third trader said. The new LME contract will also mean that traders can hedge themselves against downside risk should Alunortes return send alumina prices plummeting. September 2018 showed how quickly the alumina market can change. The fob Australia index hit a high of $652.92 per tonne on September 17 before dropping by 28% to a low of $468.40 per tonne on October 1, due to a number of cargoes trading lower. Price change percentage in the Fastmarkets fob Australia index Source: Fastmarkets The end of a workers strike at aluminium producer Alcoas operations in Western Australia and the repeated extension of the US deadline on sanctions against Russian producer UC Rusal helped to push the index higher alongside the Alunorte issues, adding to the bearish sentiment. The reality is that we could wake up tomorrow morning to a Hydro press release that says Alunorte is back at full capacity and things will fall off a cliff, a fourth trader commented. The index was assessed at $391.38 per tonne on Friday March 8, with the most recent 30,000-tonne tender from Nalco concluding at $390 per tonne. The year 2018 showed how quickly a market can change - due to sanctions, strikes or force majeures - and showed the need for further hedging tools. Last year was a learning curve for a lot of people, the first trader said. But now we have to be a bit more sensible, and look at the bigger picture, because one little thing can turn the market on its head. You can see the LME alumina contract specifications here. Fastmarkets will host a free webinar with the LME on March 18 to introduce the new Fastmarkets-settled alumina and European duty-unpaid aluminium contracts. You can register for this webinar here. Google is planning an unprecedentedly vast beta test for Android Q, the next iteration of its operating system expected to hit the stable channel in the second half of the year. Project Treble engineer Iliyan Malchev said as much in a recently aired podcast, albeit without providing many details on the matter. Whats certain is that more brands than ever will be participating in the experimental phase of the OSs development, which is already quite telling seeing how last years Android 9 Pie beta was quite extensive in its own right, whereas its timing and one other indication suggest Android Q is just around the corner. Besides Googles Pixel handsets, the test also encompassed Sony, HMD (Nokia), OnePlus, Essential, Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo. Whos joining the stock Android guard? Advertisement The remaining big names that could still join the effort include Samsung, Huawei, LG, and Motorola. Samsung is an extremely unlikely candidate seeing how its been avoiding anything resembling stock Android since the OSs inception; even its first Android Go device runs a reskinned version of the firmware, which goes against the very nature of the platform. LGs portfolio a part thereof, at least seems like a realistic possibility for the expansion of Androids beta platform seeing how the company has a rather recent track record with commercializing Googles stock OS within the scope of the Android One program. Huawei is another unlikely partner for Googles beta-testing endeavors for reasons similar to those that are likely to keep Samsung at bay. The Chinese technology giant leaped over Apple just several months back and now needs to be looking at ways to maintain that momentum and solidify its position of the second-largest smartphone vendor in the world. Advertisement Unfortunately for tech enthusiasts favoring stock Android over third-party implementations, running a vanilla version of the firmware isnt something most consumers care or are knowledgeable about. The advantages of such a setup hence elude the vast majority of Huaweis target audience, making any investments in supporting stock Android development a largely worthless affair seeing how near-term growth is what the company is presently focused on, especially as its future opportunities are now likely to become limited due to its many issues with the United States government. Motorola is an oddball on the aforementioned list of possibilities; the former Google unit isnt vehemently opposed to the idea of stock Android and only lightly modifies the latest version of the worlds most popular OS for its handsets but its also rather slow to react to latest firmware developments and is largely focused on the lower end of the mid-range bracket these days, which is hardly the portfolio you want to use to push cutting-edge mobile technologies that are yet to start being seriously optimized for efficiency. Ready for Android 10 Q to drop today? Advertisement The main piece of evidence pointing to the imminent release of the first developer preview of Android Q comes in the form of a new issue tracker segment spotted just several hours back that appears to have been created by Google engineers and doesnt hide the fact it exists for the sole purpose of supporting the development of the companys next major OS upgrade. A patent application discovered by LetsGoDigital in the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) database may have revealed how one of Samsungs future foldable devices will look like. While the Galaxy Fold is official and waiting for a market release, the patent applications have not stopped as the OEM attempts to push the foldable display technology further into the forefront. The easiest way to look at the recently patented design is to compare it with the existing foldable models. Unlike the Samsung Galaxy Fold, the new design has a single flexible display that wraps around the outside of the device, similar to the Huawei Mate X, but the hinge has a unique design complete with a locking mechanism. The patent application at hand doesnt necessarily reveal the final design of a new foldable device, but instead, it focuses primarily on this hinge and the overall form factor. Advertisement The hinge seems to have been created specifically to compensate for the fact that the panel sits on the outside, and folding the phone without a special hinge would stretch the display beyond the breaking point due to the difference in radius. Either that or it would result in wrinkles when unfolded. Samsung developed a special hinge for the Samsung Galaxy Fold as well. At the moment, the OEM is said to have a production capacity for its foldable display technology of around 2 million panels per year. Samsung is expected to gradually improve its manufacturing ability once there will be enough demand. In the meantime, the tech giant previously stated that the Galaxy Fold is only the beginning of a new era, and the research & development required for its creation have allows it to consider other even more ambitious designs, such as stretchable and rollable phones. Advertisement But in truth, the OEMs who have joined the foldable segment early on are simply testing the market with their early products. The adoption rate for the Galaxy Fold will not be that high and perhaps it would be better for Samsung if it would consider creating a lower-cost foldable device. One that would fit in-between the Galaxy S10 series and the Galaxy Fold, the latter of which will launch for $1,980. Increasing the adoption rate of early foldable devices by offering a lower-cost alternative to the Galaxy Fold would help to prove that the foldable concept as a whole is worth it and would further boost the production capacity. This alternative device might be the one envisioned in this latest patent application. It doesnt require a secondary screen, but then again it doesnt look much like a smartphone either. Maybe Samsung should look at one of its existing smartphone lineups for an answer, and that is the Galaxy Folder clamshell smartphone series sold in China. Advertisement Maybe going back to the older clamshell form factor and rethinking it with the help of foldable display technology would allow the OEM to create a compelling device that would not cost twice as much as a premium smartphone featuring the chocolate bar form factor. This type of design wouldnt require two screens or two batteries, the single panel would be smaller and thus cheaper to manufacture, and arguably its a familiar form factor that has enjoyed a lot of popularity in the past. Motorola appears to be considering reviving the Razer series with a foldable screen, and it might have the right idea for the emerging segment. Samsung will launch another flagship phone this year which will be cheaper than the ongoing Galaxy S10 models, according to a source of leaks from China who posted the information via Twitter. The source claims that Samsung will launch more than six flagships powered by the Snapdragon 855 chipset this year, including a cost-effective flagship which would presumably be priced lower than the Galaxy S10e. Up until now, Samsung was expected to release a total of six flagships this year, including the existing Galaxy S10 series, the upcoming 5G-enabled Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Fold, as well as the unannounced Samsung Galaxy Note 10. However, the source claims that there will be more than that. This year Samsung increased the launch price of its latest flagship phones, and the ongoing Samsung Galaxy S10e has a price tag of $749. This variant doesnt have some of the new technologies included in the Galaxy S10 and S10+, such as an in-display fingerprint sensor, or edge-to-edge display, and costs more than the Galaxy S9 did last year. Advertisement The launch prices for the new Galaxy S10 series have sparked mixed feelings from the Android smartphone community, and any hopes that Samsung would be capable of creating a cost-effective flagship phone like some of its rivals from China has been abandoned a long time ago. But if the latest claims from Star Universe on Twitter turn out to be correct then Samsung is going to release a flagship device powered by Qualcomms Snapdragon 855 chipset solution this year, and it will cost less than $749. The Samsung Galaxy S10e has already compromised on certain aspects so its unclear what this upcoming cost-effective model would have to give up for a lower price tag. The Galaxy S10e has a side-mounted fingerprint sensor instead of hiding one behind the display, it employs Gorilla Glass 5 instead of the 6th generation, and the smaller 5.8-inch display is flat and doesnt curve around the edges. Advertisement Perhaps this more cost-effective model would ditch one of its two rear-facing cameras, or it might employ a lower-cost body. Or it could have a display from the previous generation with thicker bezels as opposed to a Dynamic AMOLED panel with a punch-hole for the front-facing camera. On the other hand, the question remains whether this type of device would still be competitive in the cost-effective flagship market segment, where other OEMs do employ multi-sensor main cameras, impressive displays, and higher quality bodies. If Samsung would create a budget flagship phone that would be outperformed by its competitors on most or every aspect, would it still be a success on the brands reputation alone? And if Samsung will somehow create a device on-par or better than the Galaxy S10e for a lower price, wouldnt Galaxy S10e early adopters feel cheated? Advertisement Time will tell how the story will develop, assuming of course that the report is correct and Samsung does plan on delivering a cost-effective flagship by the end of the year. Right now, the OEM is shipping its latest series to customers and, officially, its preparing for the launch of the 5G-enabled Galaxy S10 and the Galaxy Fold. Posted on: March 11, 2019 4:19 PM The founder of the official Anglican Communion network Colleges & Universities of the Anglican Communion, Dr Linda Chisholm, has been awarded the organisations third Distinguished Fellowship. The network brings together further and higher education institutions from across the Anglican Communion. It was launched in Canterbury Cathedral in 1993, with Dr Chisholm as its first General Secretary. The honorary Distinguished Fellowship of the Colleges & Universities of the Anglican Communion is awarded to individuals who model exceptional and active service to Anglican higher education globally. Dr Chisholm received her fellowship last month during a ceremony in her parish church, Grace Church in Nyack, New York. Without her vision, energy, hard work and consummate skill it was doubtful that CUAC would have ever existed, the retired Bishop of Newcastle, Martin Wharton, a long-standing CUAC director, said. The Fellowships citation said that building on her pioneering work, co-founding with Howard Barry the International Partnership for Service Learning, she fashioned a network for Anglican colleges and universities optimising their global community. The current CUAC General Secretary, Canon James Callaway, presented Dr Chisholm with a certificate signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, CUACs patron. She was joined at the ceremony by her husband, Alan Chisholm, two of their three daughters and a grand-daughter. She is the third recipient of CUACs Distinguished Fellowship, following in the footsteps of Dr Maher Spurgeon, then chaplain at Madras Christian College in Chennai, India; and Dr Jeremy Law, Dean of Chapel at Canterbury Christ Church University in Canterbury, England. All three have travelled far and wide to strengthen and support Anglican colleges, James Callaway said. Posted on: March 11, 2019 10:53 AM The first Fijian chosen to lead the Diocese of Polynesia in its 110-year history, Fereimi Cama, was consecrated and installed on Sunday. In addition to being bishop of the diocese he is now also one of three equal-status Archbishops and Primates of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. Around 2,000 people were at Suvas Holy Trinity Cathedral yesterday (Sunday) to witness his ordination as the seventh Bishop of Polynesia and his consequent recognition as Archbishop. Hundreds wedged themselves into the cathedral itself, and onto into its broad verandas for the occasion while a multitude watched the televised action in a shelter erected in the grounds of the cathedral. Still more craned to catch glimpses from beneath the frangipani trees and coconut palms that shade those grounds. Among the many distinguished guests and visitors who attended the services at Holy Trinity Cathedral - where Archbishop Fereimi had previously served as Dean between 1999 and 2012 - was the President of Fiji, Jioji Konrote. A former President of Fiji, Ratu Epeli Nailatikau, currently the Speaker of the Fijian Parliament, was also present. Archbishop Don Tamihere who had served as the commissary of the electoral college held last October, and who continued, until yesterday, to exercise a responsibility for the Diocese of Polynesia, says that their presence was entirely understandable. We talk about an incarnational Christ: and from time to time, we should expect to be able to see ourselves in the leadership of the church, he said. So Fiji will now be leading Polynesia, in a sense. But there was also a very strong reminder for me in the service of the other parts of Polynesia. They too are part of the diocese, they too want to benefit from the service and the vision of this bishop. The official news source of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, Anglican Taonga, reported that ancient sounds echoed as the clergy processed into the service - the cathedral bells ringing, the conch shell sounding, both punctuated by the essential rhythm of Fiji, the beating of the lali, the hollow log drum. A number of guests from the Anglican Communion were present for the service, including the Dean of Lincoln in the Church of England, Christine Wilson, who delivered a message from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who described Polynesias history as being scarred by the depredations of foreign powers, yet lit by faithfulness in word and deed by its people to the good news of Jesus Christ. The Archbishop continued: Its Bishops have always been marked by courage, and frequently by holiness and heroism. My dear brother in Christ, I pray that inspired by those who have gone before you, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus who breathes over the waters, you will find the courage, faith, long suffering and perseverance to confront the great challenges before you. May you and all who serve Christ have the prophetic words that may challenge the world to love its creator by loving the creation, and to repent of the sins of greed and materialism which so threaten not only your climate but eventually the very land on which you stand. Other Anglican Communion guests included the Bishop of Wangaratta, John Parkes, who represented the Anglican Church of Australia; and Canon Bruce Woodcock, from the US-based Episcopal Church - Presiding Bishop Michael Currys , representative to the Anglican Churches in Asia and the Pacific. The sermon was given by Archbishop Philip Richardson, who paid tribute to the four previous Bishops of Polynesia that he had known including Archbishop Winston Halapua, who had travelled from his new base of Cambridge in the UK to see his successor ordained. Archbishop Fereimi would soon stand in that fine line of bishops of Polynesia, he said, but be of good heart and be confident in the call that God has placed upon you. Because when God calls, God does enable. And God does resource us, not least, he said, because of the intercession of thousands. He added: It still blows me away - it often brings me to the point of tears - when I hear the leader of the prayers of the people pray for Philip our Archbishop or Philip, our bishop. I'm so grateful for those prayers. Im constantly upheld by them; and you will be sustained this day, and into the future, by them. Two and a half hours after the service had begun, Archbishop Cama bestowed his blessing in the Fijian language, then processed from his cathedral to the sound again of the drumming of the lali. Since time immemorial, lali have been beaten in Fiji to announce war and peace, to announce death - and to announce new birth, Anglican Taonga said. As Fereimi Cama walked down that aisle for the first time as an archbishop, the drumming of the lali surely heralded a new era for the Diocese of Polynesia. The modernization project of the Leopard 2A4NO of the Norwegian Army seems abandoned. Norway would prefer the purchase of a new battle tank by 2025, reveals an annual report detailing the defense acquisitions of the country for the next eight years. Leopard 2A4NO (Picture source: Norwegian MoD) Formally abandoned last June, the 5050 Leopard 2 Upgrades Project concerning the some 30 units still operational among the 52 in the park, has not been followed by any decision on the future of this component, Nathan Gain reports on ForcesOperations. The only certainty is that a reduced armored capacity would be maintained until 2025, by which time Oslo should choose between acquiring a new tank or an interim solution. In the meantime, the Norwegian Defense would release from 7 to 20 M by 2024 to preserve its tank fleet. Nine months later, the first option seems to dominate: the Norwegian army will maintain three mechanized battalions, all equipped with a modern battle tank. A conceptual study is underway to assess, among other things, the number of vehicles required and their capabilities, says the Norwegian Defense. Barely mentioned in 2018, this project has a budget between 400 and 800 M . The date of implementation is set at 2025, enough to give continuity to the choice of a Leopard 2 of the latest generation. This solution is reinforced by the project to develop a new programmable fuze for the 120 mm shell and the replacement of the Leguan bridge-layer tanks with a more modern system mounted on Leopard 2 chassis. So, will the Norwegian army buy a new tank or not? The ground force remains the least well served in terms of investment by component, with 21% of total planned finances. The acquisition of Lockheed F-35 Lightning II fighters, submarines and a maritime patrol aircraft is a priority. Reductions in some projects offer the opportunity to invest in new modern and vital systems, says the report quoted above. Reductions that the document obviously does not detail and that will be subject to other budgetary uncertainties concerning land investments. Theatre can be magical, yes but if you work in the theatre,its easy to forget what compelled us into the profession in the first place. It can be lost amid the realities of the job at hand, chasing the next opportunity and our familiarity with the things that enthralled us once upon a time. It is also easy to forget what a personal experience theatre can be, where actors walk out of stage doors every night to waiting fans. Its an experience that cannot be replicated by movies and television. The Stage (UK) Jim Bennett/WireImage(AUSTIN, Texas) -- With over a dozen declared presidential candidates and several who are still considering running for president, several politicians on both sides of the aisle came to South By Southwest in Austin, Texas, to make their pitch to voters. Although the first official debate between the candidates isn't until June, several presidential hopefuls took jabs at each other in the Lone Star State. Starbucks founder Howard Schultz said he's still considering a presidential bid and took aim at progressives and democratic socialists alike. When asked to define socialism, Schultz drew silence and some boos by saying "if you want a good description of socialism, just look at Venezuela." He responded to the crowd's seemingly negative reaction by asking, "what, you don't like that?" Schultz's apparent indecision on running in 2020 as an Independent wasn't enough to keep an announced candidate, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, from saying Schultz shouldn't get in the race. On Sunday, during a panel at SXSW, Inslee said Schultz "needs to stay in private business." On Saturday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., declared that she was "not a democratic socialist" at a SXSW event. When asked if Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders urged her not to run in 2020, she confirmed having dinner with Sanders but did not reveal what they discussed, saying "Bernie and I had a private dinner and my view is that dinner stays private." Warren wasn't the only person to jab Sanders. Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro took aim at Sen. Bernie Sanders' remarks that there are better ways of helping the African-American community other than "just writing out a check" for reparations. Castro, during an appearance at SXSW, said when it comes to Medicare-for-all, "the response there has been we need to write a big check." Castro further jabbed Sanders when he asked if we can compensate for taking people's property, why we can't compensate people who were property. "Why wouldn't we be bold on reparations?" Castro asked. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. AfghanTaliban-US officials struggling to remove differences on certain key issues Afghan Taliban and the US officials are struggling to remove differences on certain key issues in the ongoing peace talks in Qatar as both sides have not yet reached any deal despite their earlier claims of progress, people familiar with the process said late Thursday. Taliban sources said that Abdul Manan Akhund, brother of Mullah Omar, reached Qatar on Wednesday and joined the Talibans 14-member negotiation team. Akhunds participation has further strengthened the Taliban team with six members from the powerful leadership council. The Taliban and the US are tight lipped about the difficulties in the talks and both sides have agreed not to share anything about the parley underway at Dohas posh Sharq neighborhood. The Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen is even kept out of most of the meetings to avoid any leak, a Taliban negotiator has said. The current round had started on Feb. 25 and the talks continued on 11th day on Thursday, Taliban sources said. There was a two-day break in the current round for internal discussions. The present round is the longest since the US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad opened talks with the Taliban in October. Both sides had first sitting in July when US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Ambassador Alice Wells met with the Taliban political envoys in Doha. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said this week that the talks are focused on the withdrawal of occupying forces and preventing Afghanistan from being used against others and that the talks are advancing on a step-by-step basis. Sources say the Taliban insist on the announcement of a timeframe for the withdrawal of all foreign troops, the US side wants all issues, including a ceasefire by the Taliban and their agreement to start negotiations with the Kabul administration. In a series of background interviews Daily Times understands the US is seemed unwilling to strike a deal on the Taliban terms as it would give an impression that they have surrendered to the Taliban. On their part, Taliban are reluctant to show flexibility on their demand for the withdrawal of the foreign troops. On the question of the talks with the Afghan government, the Taliban argue that they have already joined intra-Afghan dialogue with senior political leaders and parties in Moscow last month. A second meeting of the Moscows intra-Afghan dialogue is scheduled to be held in Qatar later this month, but lack of progress in the ongoing US-Taliban talks could delay the Moscows negotiations. As the Taliban interaction with the Afghan politicians gained momentum, Khlalizad is also now positive about Moscow led Afghan diaspora effort and he had discussions on the process with Russian special envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov in Istanbul last month. The US had earlier pursued solo flight, but now it is now involved in consultations with all stakeholders. The sense in Islamabad is: there cannot be a further development without involvement of the National Unity Government in Kabul and other Afghan groups. The impression here is the US and Taliban have already achieved whatever they could do together. On the other hand the Afghan govt has said it is in the process of the formation of a negotiation team with Taliban and has requested the Afghan political leaders to nominate members for the team. Presidential spokesman Haroon Chakhansuri has said in Kabul that the team will be announced after the parties share names of their representatives. Earlier, Afghan govt had announced a 12-member negotiation team for talks with the Taliban in November last year. Taliban, however; refused to meet the team that was headed by presidential chief of staff Salam Rahimi. As regional countries are showing interest in the peace process, Uzbekistan is seen active to play important role in political process. Uzbekistan Foreign Minister Abdul Aziz Kamolov and Uzbekistan Special Envoy to Afghanistan Ismatullah met the Taliban chief negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Qatar last week. The Taliban spokesman later said the Uzbek delegation showed willing that they are ready to lend every type of assistance regarding peace in Afghanistan. German investment in the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been increasing steadily and has the potential to grow further in the coming years. In the first part of this five-part article, we analyzed German investment in Brunei and Cambodia. We next look at Indonesia and Laos. Indonesia Indonesia represents the largest ASEAN country with a vast potential to accelerate into one of the major economies of the world. Ranked 30 on the Market Potential Index, Indonesia represents a large consumer market with a potential for increasing attractiveness for German products. FDI inflow in Indonesia somewhat dropped in 2016 due to both domestic and international factors. 2017 showed slight recovery with some US$268 million invested in Indonesia by German investors. German Indonesian Relations at a Glance Having exported US$3 billion worth of goods to Indonesia in 2017, the country represents the 52nd largest export partner of Germany. In the same year, Germany imported US$4.4 billion worth of goods from Indonesia. Germany mainly imports textiles and shoes, oil-based products, electronics and food products. Import-Export trade registered a modest 15 percent growth in 2017. Several major German brands have already established offices or production facilities in Indonesia. Adidas, Airbus, BASF, Bayer, BMW, Daimler, Bosch, Siemens and ThyssenKrupp are among the major German brands with a presence in Indonesia. Several others have recently established offices or facilities or are on the verge of doing so. In particular, German companies are attracted to Special Economic Zones in Indonesia, which offer the perfect infrastructure for foreign business to set up in the country. Investment Outlook Indonesias fast-growing middle class represents a huge consumer market for German products. Increasing disposable incomes make German products more affordable in the recent years. At present, food items still represents the largest consumer good segment for German exporters. With a stable annual growth rate of around 5 percent, Indonesia presents perfect opportunities for German exporters. With its large and cheap workforce, the country is also an ideal location for setting up of manufacturing facilities by German companies. Local resources make the production less dependable on global developments. A growing domestic market and a strategic location in Asia provides additional advantages. With an increase in their standard of living, Indonesians are also spending more on healthcare. Germany was the largest exporter of medical equipment to Indonesia in 2017 with a total export of US$138 million. Especially, German high-tech are in great demand and open up large opportunities for German high-tech producers in one of the largest and fastest growing healthcare markets in Asia. The automotive sector with an annual growth of over 5 percent also offers immense opportunities. Although the market is largely dominated by Japanese producers that sell small, eco-friendly and therefore less-taxed cars, increasing disposable incomes open up opportunities for German automotive companies. The construction sector also offers opportunities for German companies. With an annual growth rate of more than 10 percent in the last ten years, it represents a major market for future German investments. In 2017, the market grew 24 percent due to large investments especially in the tourism industry. The countrys infrastructure depends heavily on foreign machines and investments to back this development trend. The energy sector, which is built upon foreign investments and equipment as the local industry is not in the position to conclude complex energy projects, is another potential area for increased German investments. Most machines in Indonesia are imported. The recent ban on export of untreated resources opens the opportunities for large heavy-industry projects which will be extensively dependent on foreign know-how, including German technology. Risk analysis Indonesia represents a country with a large potential but also poses risks. Non-tariff barriers continue to hinder investments and trade. Rules around import requirements are subject to regular changes. Corruption also poses risks in the country. In the 2015 Corruption Perception Index, Indonesia was placed 88 out of 168 countries. The relatively unskilled workforce presents another obstacle for investments in Indonesia. Laos Located close to China, Laos opens up for German manufacturers opportunities for low-cost production to supply the Chinese market or factories in China. Low wages and good energy supply make this option increasingly attractive. FDI inflows into Laos have increased since 2012 and represent immense opportunities for further development of the country. German Laotian Relations at a Glance German imports from Laos have remained steady in recent years with US$89 million worth of goods imported in 2017. On the other hand, German exports to Laos decreased to US$33.8 million in 2017. German imports consists mainly of textiles at around 85 percent of total imported goods. However, German companies are not well represented in Laos. Investment Outlook Laos can position itself as an alternative for companies that formerly produced in China. Cheap labor, close proximity to the Chinese market and increasing infrastructural ties with China make Laos an attractive manufacturing location. The countrys annual growth rate has remained around 7 percent in the last five years. Textile industry can especially benefit in view of increasing wages in China. The nation can especially benefit from Chinese companies outsourcing their production for the Chinese market as it is closely tied to the country by infrastructure and Special Economic Zones. Tourism, particularly eco-tourism, present further market opportunities in Laos for German investors. Laos aspires to become a large producer of energy in the region. Often called the Battery of Southeast Asia, the country wants to export especially to Thailand and Vietnam, two fast growing and highly energy depending economies. With a capacity growth of approximately more than 30 percent in the first half of 2017, Laos is on its way to achieve this goal. Risk analysis Laos represents an interesting market, especially for machine and high-tech energy equipment exports by German companies. However, the Chinese dominance in this sector due to cheaper prices and closer location presents an obstacle. Overall the countrys dependency on Chinese FDI presents challenges for further investments by other countries as most infrastructural projects are being implemented with Chinese help and therefore directed towards the Chinese market. In the third part of this five-part article, we look at German FDI in Malaysia and Myanmar. Do it yourself if you can We accept in principle that private equity can deliver (somewhat) excess returns over most other asset classes. But there are a lot of qualifications attached to that, and most of them are very relevant to whether and how pension funds should invest in private equity. Govt to further implement NAP: COAS Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa Thursday ordered further efforts in line with decision of the government to accelerate implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) while rendering full assistance to other state institutions. COAS directed to further the efforts in line with decisions of the government to accelerate implementation of NAP while rendering full assistance to other state institutions, a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations after 219th Corps Commanders Conference read. The meeting held at the General Headquarters was chaired by the chief of army staff (COAS). The forum discussed progress on implementation of the National Action Plan. Pakistan is on the positive trajectory of peace, stability and progress. No one can make us budge through use or threat of use of force. Similarly, policy and the right of use of force shall remain the prerogative of the state alone, the COAS said at the meeting. While appreciating morale and performance of the forces, support from the nation and above all blessings of Almighty Allah, the army chief directed for continued state of vigilance and alertness so as to stay prepared for effective response to any threat. The army chiefs comments on NAPs implementation come a day after the federal government intensified an ongoing crackdown on Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Jamaatud Dawah (JuD), Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) and other banned outfits, arresting more than 120 activists and taking over nearly 200 seminaries besides hundreds of other facilities and assets associated with them across the country. The forum also reviewed the geo-strategic environment and situation in the wake of ongoing Pakistan-India standoff. It expressed strong will, resolve and determination to defend the motherland against any misadventure or aggression. The cross-border team advising Appen was led by Sydney finance partner Hai-Dang Nguyen and comprised associate Ryan Cho and US colleagues in Squire Patton Boggs New York and California offices. The lenders syndicate was represented by Minter Ellison partner Stewart Robertson and associate Bryce McCarthy. Global firm reaches new diversity milestone in latest promotions Linklaters has promoted 33 partners to its partnership and achieved a significant diversity milestone. A third of those making partner are women, beating the firms 30% target and meaning that from 1st May 2019, women will make up 20% of its partners for the first time. I am pleased to see that for the second year running as Senior Partner we have beaten our gender target again in electing at least 30% new So no, the husband wasnt actually dead; in fact, there might not have been a husband at all. It all happened in the Bavarian town of Berchtesgaden, the Washington Post reports, citing the national news agency dpa, and the woman was severely intoxicated. This explains why she thought filing a false police report would help her get the job done faster.The job in question was having a car that was blocking her garage towed. According to a spokesman for southern Upper Bavaria police, Stefan Sonntag, The woman thought, if she calls in a murder the police will get there faster.She was right, but only partially: the police did arrive at the address fairly quickly, but they didnt help her out with her towing issue. Instead, they took away her keys when she tried to get in the car and drive off, and then put her in handcuffs, before formally charging her.According to the report, the woman, whose identity has not been made revealed to the press, will face a hefty fine and possible jail time. Calling the cops to report a fake emergency is a crime, as she must know now.This isnt the first incident of the kind, and it wont be the last either. In the U.S., there have been several recent instances of reported kidnappings of children when a car was stolen that proved to be fake: the women thought police would work harder and recover the stolen cars faster if they thought a child was inside at the time when they were taken.Needless to say, lying to cops is a bad idea. Always. In addition to getting you in trouble, it also means wasting police resources on wild goose chases, while real, actual crimes (murder and kidnappings included) are happening elsewhere. But at last week's event, Suzuki Philippines executives let us in on something interesting: the new generation Suzuki Jimny is proving to be very popular with female customers. Perhaps the best proof of the popularity of the previous generation model is the fact that it has been manufactured and sold since 1998; that's a 2 decade tenure in showrooms. The Jimny, despite its diminutive dimensions, is very popular with a generally male demographic of customers, particularly with off-roaders who praise its lightness, maneuverability and capabilities on even the most challenging trails. On Friday last week, Suzuki Philippines announced the official pricing for the all-new Jimny All-Grip Pro, the successor to the very popular mini 4x4. Since the all-new Jimny was first previewed at the Philippine International Motor Show in September 2018, Suzuki Philippines, Inc. has been accepting reservations for interested customers. Based on the data, one executive said that while the Jimny is still popular with a male demographic, the model is also attracting reservations from women. We were told that 70% of Jimny reservations are from male customers, while 30% are women. Also, a significant number of lady Jimny customers also ordered the Kinetic Yellow, rather than the more neutral colors. We asked Suzuki executives, including their head for automobile operations, Keiichi Suzuki, regarding the Philippine allocation for the Jimny. Allocation and supply will be the main issue given the worldwide demand for the new mini 4x4 and the fact that only one Suzuki factory in Japan produces the vehicle; in fact, the Philippine launch was held back given the model's global appeal. While Suzuki Philippines, Inc. (SPI) executives declined to give official numbers, they did indicate to us that that they've received an good allocation from Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) in numbers that are significant. We'll have to wait and see if the supply can meet local demand, but by all indicators, Suzuki Philippines has a very strong model on their hands. Palmdale, CA (93550) Today Windy with rain likely. High 53F. Winds WSW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.. Tonight Mainly clear. Low 33F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. As concerns rise over the safety of Boeings 737 MAX series, China, Ethiopia and the Cayman Islands have grounded their MAX aircraft pending further investigation. China ordered all its airlines to ground their Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft by 6 p.m. Monday following the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on Sunday. In a letter to the airlines, which have dozens of the type, Chinas Civil Aviation Administration said it took the action in view of the fact that the two air crashes were newly delivered Boeing 737-8 aircraft and had certain similarities, according to a report in the Guardian. The British paper said Cayman Airlines had also grounded its two MAX aircraft. The FAA has not confirmed whether its considering a grounding. The FAA is closely monitoring developments in the Ethiopian Flight 302 crash early this morning, the agency said in a statement. We are in contact with the State Department and plan to join the NTSB in its assistance with Ethiopian civil aviation authorities to investigate the crash. All 157 people aboard the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 were killed early Sunday when the aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from Bole International Airport in the capital of Addis Abada. News agencies reported that the aircraft was en route to Nairobi and lost contact with air traffic control about six minutes after takeoff. The crash follows the loss of another 737 MAX in Indonesia that killed 189 people last October, a crash thats still under investigation. Both aircraft were relatively new airplanes, having been delivered within the last year. An airline spokesperson told CNN that the Ethiopian crash victims are believed to be of 32 different nationalities and included Kenyans, Canadians and at least eight Americans. The flight took off in good weather, officials said, but The New York Times reported that the aircrafts vertical speed was unstable, according to data published by FlightRadar24. Tewolde GebreMariam, the chief executive officer of Ethiopian Airlines, told news reporters Sunday that the flight crew had been given clearance to return to the airport in Addis Ababa after reporting difficulties. The Lion Air flight that crashed on Oct. 29, 2018, in Indonesia encountered similar pitch and vertical speed anomalies. Investigators are probing whether the MAXs unique autotrim system, called MCAS for Maneuvering Characteristic Augmentation System, may have played a role in the accident. MCAS automatically rolls in nose-down trim in certain flight conditions. Boeing had been criticized for not making operators aware of its existence on the new aircraft. Islamabad desires better bilateral relations with New Delhi: Shah Mehmood Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Thursday said Islamabad desires better bilateral relations with New Delhi and wants to de-escalate tensions with the countrys eastern neighbour, Radio Pakistan reported. FM Qureshi made the statement during his meeting with Pakistans High Commissioner to India Sohail Mahmood and added that direct contact is necessary to reduce the tension prevailing between the two countries. He further said that the two countries will hold discussion on March 14 in New Delhi. The high commissioner and the foreign minister also exchanged views on Pak-India relations during the meeting. Sohail Mahmood will depart for New Delhi after the meeting. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Wednesday thanked US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for timely intervention amid simmering tensions between nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India. Briefing the Pak-China Economic Cooperation Conference, Qureshi appreciated the advice offered by Chinese leadership post-Pulwama. China offered mediation and urged for dialogue, he elaborated. Qureshi said the recent tension between Islamabad and New Delhi is reducing and Pakistan has decided to send back its High Commissioner to New Delhi after consultations. He said Pakistan has increased the diplomatic efforts and Prime Minister Imran Khan was fully committed to conducting countrys foreign policy in honour, dignity, national interest and as per the aspirations of the people of Pakistan. Out tomorrow from longtime U.S. Ambassador Bill Burns, now president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, "The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal." Details: The book includes accounts of two unheeded warnings about Russia. The first is a sharp exchange Burns, then U.S. ambassador to Russia, had with Putin ahead of Russias 2007 national elections. Putin threatened: "Outside interference in our elections will not be tolerated ... dont think we wont react." is a sharp exchange Burns, then U.S. ambassador to Russia, had with Putin ahead of Russias 2007 national elections. Putin threatened: "Outside interference in our elections will not be tolerated ... dont think we wont react." The second, revealed in a newly declassified email from Burns in February 2008, warned the U.S. against offering a path to NATO membership to Ukraine and Georgia. The "prospects of subsequent Russian-Georgian armed conflict would be high," Burns, wrote, adding that it would "provide fertile soil for Russian meddling in Crimea and eastern Ukraine." Both fears were realized. Indonesia joined Ethiopian Airlines and China Monday morning in temporarily grounding all of its Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets. The big picture: The action comes after Sunday's Ethiopian Airlines plane crash that killed 157 people. Indonesia has offered Ethiopia assistance in the crash investigation, the Associated Press reports. The same model Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed in Indonesia in October. The causes of both crashes have yet to be determined. Given that two accidents both involved newly delivered Boeing 737-8 planes and happened during take-off phase, they have some degree of similarity" Civil Aviation Administration of China statement Boeing's reaction: The American multinational corporation said in a statement it was sending a team to provide technical assistance at the crash site. "The investigation is in its early stages, but at this point, based on the information available, we do not have any basis to issue new guidance to operators, a spokesperson for Boeing in China said in a statement, according to the FT. Boeing has postponed plans to launch its new 777X jetliner, which had been scheduled for this week, according to CNN. Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido told CNN 17 people had died in power outages, as he accused President Nicolas Maduro's Government of their "murder," in an interview broadcast Sunday night. What he's saying: "Venezuela has truly collapsed already," Guaido told CNN. "Imagine if in your country, you wake to the news that there's been four days without electricity because they steal from electricity plants and 17 people died. That's murder." The other side: Maduro accused the U.S. and opposition of sabotage over the power cuts, though Venezuelan authorities have provided no proof of this. What's next? Guaido plans to call for a "state of national emergency" in Venezuela's Parliament Monday. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's main political opponent Benny Gantz, who is heading the "Blue and White" party that leads in the polls, thinks President Trump could recognize Israeli sovereignty in the Golan Heights in order to help Netanyahu win the April 9 elections, three Gantz aides told me. Why it matters: Israel has occupied the Golan Heights from Syria since 1967. U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the Golan Heights would be a huge diplomatic win for Netanyahu no less significant than the moving of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. In the last year, Netanyahu and other Israeli politicians, including Gantz's political ally Yair Lapid, have started calling for U.S. recognition of the Golan Heights. Gantz's aides told me they think Trump could announce U.S. recognition of the Golan Heights during Netanyahu's visit to the White House two weeks from now. Gantz's aides told me that if Trump does this, it will give Netanyahu a huge achievement to campaign on. The big picture: Gantz's aides see Trump's support for Netanyahu's reelection as a fact and have even calculated it as part of their election campaign strategy. They said Trump's support for Netanyahu is obvious through his public statements, his sharing of Netanyahu's election billboards on his Instagram account, and the fact that he didn't ask Netanyahu to stop using him in Likud campaign ads. Driving the news: Netanyahu discussed the possibility of U.S. recognition of the Golan Heights during a visit to the territory on Monday with Sen. Lindsey Graham. U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman attended all of Netanyahu's talks with Graham. After the talks, Graham stood next to Netanyahu in front of cameras and said that once he arrives back to Washington, he will help push Sen. Ted Cruz's initiative to pass a bill in the Senate for U.S. recognition in the Golan Heights. The White House position on the issue is unclear, but nobody in the Trump administration pushed back on Graham's statement. The White House refrained from commenting and a State Department official told me there is no change to the U.S. position on the Golan Heights for the moment. Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg called Vice President Pence a "cheerleader for the porn star presidency" during a CNN townhall event Sunday. A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. Details: Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, made the comments after CNN host Jake Tapper asked him whether Former Indiana Gov. Pence would make a better commander-in-chief than President Trump. "Does it have to be between those two? Buttigieg replied. Buttigieg went on to talk about Trump's alleged affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels, which the president denies having had. Go deeper: Pete Buttigieg launches 2020 presidential campaign Venezuelas Nicolas Maduro is struggling to restore power to the countrys electricity grid after a devastating 96-hour nationwide blackout knocked out cellular, internet, and water services, resulting in at least 21 preventable deaths at hospitals. The big picture: Tottering from crisis to crisis has taken a heavy toll on Maduro. His regime hasn't yet reached a burnout point, but with social unrest erupting into lootings as the crisis-stricken country gradually regains power, he will likely face a reckoning for his failure to protect the grid. Details: Without evidence, Maduro blamed the power outage on the U.S., as the Chavista regime has since rolling blackouts began in 2009. The high command of the military, as well as the party hierarchy, have offered support, but Maduro has yet to convene his cabinet and top political lieutenants in public. The opposition-controlled National Assembly declared a state of alarm and drew attention to Maduros subsidized oil sales to Cuba to underscore the regimes criminal neglect of basic goods and services. Juan Guaido, named interim president by the Assembly, doubled down on his plan to oust Maduro, calling for street demonstrations and international humanitarian aid. That strategy has yet to break the regime, raising questions about whether the resistance could develop into an armed insurrection. What to watch: Venezuelans will take the next steps, but if clashes continue yielding a stalemate, both sides may soon turn to their international backers for renewed support. President Trumps commitment to regime change in Venezuela seems stronger than ever, and secondary sanctions to expand the scope of unilateral oil sanctions are being prepared. Support for the Guaido government is having material impact, with a new board appointed at Venezuela-owned CITGO a step that sets up a key legal battle over republic assets. For now, the U.S. strategy has stiffened China and Russias resistance, with the countries vetoing U.S.proposed resolutions at the UN Security Council, and expressing willingness to provide Maduro a degree of financial flexibility. Venezuelas neighbors have continued to work via the Lima Group, heightening the rhetoric about the security implications of the crisis but thus far rejecting military intervention. Michael McCarthy is a research fellow at American Universitys CLALS, an adjunct professor at George Washington University's Elliott School for International Affairs, and the founder and CEO of Caracas Wire. Republican donors in attendance called it one of Trump's weirdest lies ever. On Friday night, under a tent erected over the pool at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, President Trump claimed the media were spreading "fake news" when they said he called the CEO of Apple "Tim Apple." Trump told the donors that he actually said "Tim Cook Apple" really fast, and the "Cook" part of the sentence was soft. But all you heard from the "fake news," he said, was "Tim Apple." Two donors who were there told me they couldn't understand why the president would make such a claim given the whole thing is captured on video. Nobody cared, they said, and Tim Cook took it in good humor by changing his Twitter profile to Tim Apple. "I just thought, why would you lie about that," one of the donors told me. "It doesn't even matter!" Between the lines: This isn't the first time Trump has tried to persuade people not to trust video. As The New York Times first reported, Trump privately told a senator that the Access Hollywood tape, in which he talks about sexually assaulting women, was fake. (Trump had previously admitted the voice was his, and apologized for "locker room talk.") Presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) declined to call Syria's President Bashar al-Assad a war criminal during a CNN Town Hall interview with Dana Bash Sunday. What she's saying: I think that the evidence needs to be gathered, and as I have said before, if there is evidence that he has committed war crimes, he should be prosecuted as such." The big picture: Gabbard met with Assad when she made a secret trip to Syria in 2017. In February, she told MSNBC: "Assad is not the enemy of the United States because Syria does not pose a direct threat to the United States." But Gabbard told Bash she believed her past comments on Assad had been misunderstood. Biggest anecdote: "There have been reports showing that chemical weapons have been used in Syria, both by the Syrian Government as well as different terrorist groups on the ground in Syria," Gabbard told Bash. "The skepticism and the questions that I raised were very specific around incidents that the Trump Administration was trying to use as an excuse to launch a U.S. Military attack in Syria." A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted. Go deeper: Tulsi Gabbard: Everything you need to know about the 2020 candidate Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has arrived in Nagorno-Karabakh where he is to chair a meeting of Armenias Security Council planned for tomorrow, his press service said on Monday. According to the Armenian Governments Information and Public Relations Department, Bako Sahakian, the leader of Karabakh, will also be present at the meeting. Officials have not yet published details relating to the agenda of the Security Councils meeting, promising to do so later. It is also unclear why Prime Minister Pashinian has decided to hold the meeting of Armenias Security Council in Nagorno-Karabakh. David Babayan, a spokesman for the Nagorno-Karabakh president, promised to provide details after the meeting is held. Dont think that something extraordinary happened and thats why he [Pashinian] came. This is a planned working visit not focused on anything extraordinary, Babayan told RFE/RLs Armenian Service. Pashinian is visiting Stepanakert two days after international mediators seeking to broker a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict issued a statement ahead of planned Armenian-Azerbaijani summit talks. The United States, Russian and French co-chairs of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europes (OSCE) Minsk Group welcomed some initial steps being taken in the region to prepare the populations for peace and encourage the sides to intensify such efforts. At the same time, they reiterated the critical importance of reducing tensions and minimizing inflammatory rhetoric. In this context, the Co-Chairs urge the sides to refrain from statements and actions suggesting significant changes to the situation on the ground, prejudging the outcome of or setting conditions for future talks, demanding unilateral changes to the format without agreement of the other party, or indicating readiness to renew active hostilities, the mediating troika said. The statement came days after Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev traded accusations in their public statements in the context of their vision of the settlement of the protracted conflict. Also, OSCE Chairman-in-Office Miroslav Laichak is expected to arrive in Armenia on a two-day visit on March 12. Laichak already traveled to Baku last week, stating in the Azerbaijani capital that he considered the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to be one of the priorities of his chairmanship. Incidentally, on Monday the Azerbaijani army launched large-scale military exercises that will continue for five days and will involve up to 10,000 troops, 500 tanks, 300 missile systems, aircraft and other heavy materiel. According to an official statement, the troops will carry out an offensive plan, trying to defeat the conventional enemy in a number of directions. It is reported that new weapons acquired by Azerbaijan in recent years will also be used during the current military exercises. Armenias Foreign Ministry said the drills do not contribute to the creation of an environment conducive to peace. James Appathurai, NATO deputy assistant secretary general for political affairs and the secretary generals special representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, arrived in Armenia on Monday for an annual NATO Week event held this year on March 11-15. While in Yerevan the NATO representative also held meetings with a number of senior Armenian officials, including President Armen Sarkissian. At a meeting with Sarkissian in Yerevan, Appathurai described Armenia as a stable and trustworthy partner. Appathurai and Sarkissian also underlined Armenias effective participation in a number of NATO-Armenia projects, including in international peacekeeping missions, the Armenian presidents press service said. Matters relating to regional and international developments were also discussed, it added. While in Yerevan the NATO representative also met with Defense Minister David Tonoyan and Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian. During the meeting between Tonoyan and Appathurai a number of issues related to Armenia-NATO cooperation, in particular, the course of events planned for the Armenia-NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) and Planning and Review Process partnership, their summary and assessment, as well as planning for the coming years were discussed. According to the Armenian Defense Ministrys official website, the sides stressed the importance of Armenias participation in NATOs peacekeeping missions in Kosovo and Afghanistan as a major contribution to international security. Issues related to regional security were also discussed at the meeting, the official report added. Later, Armenian Foreign Minister Mnatsakanian and Appathurai discussed prospects of continued political dialogue between Armenia and NATO as part of the IPAP, the process of reforms in the defense and security areas, cooperation in emergency situations, science and a number of other areas of mutual interest. According to the Armenian Foreign Ministrys official website, Mnatsakanian and the NATO secretary generals special representative exchanged views on a number of regional and international issues. At the request of Appathurai, Minister Mnatsakanian presented Armenias foreign-policy priorities, the approaches and principle-based position of the Armenian side in the matter of peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. At a press conference later on Monday the NATO official said that during his meetings with Armenias defense minister and foreign minister they also addressed the recent sending by Armenia of a humanitarian mission to Syria, including sappers and medics. Appathurai said both ministers clearly presented the political and humanitarian reasons for the Armenian government to take that step. Pakistan intensified its crackdown against banned outfits Pakistan intensified its crackdown against banned outfitsPakistan intensified its crackdown against banned outfits on Thursday, with the government announcing it had taken control of 182 religious schools and detained more than 100 people. The interior ministry said law enforcement agencies have placed 121 people in preventive detention as part of the crackdown that began early this week. Provincial governments have taken in their control management and administration of 182 religious seminaries (madaris), the ministry said in a statement. It said institutions from different groups have been taken over, including 34 schools or colleges, 163 dispensaries, 184 ambulances, five hospitals and eight offices of banned organisations. Interior ministry is working closely with the provinces in crackdown on the banned outfits, the statement added. Many banned groups run seminaries, which counter-terrorism officials say are used as recruiting grounds for militant outfits. Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), which operates hospitals and a fleet of ambulances, is estimated to run about 300 madaris across the country. JuD called the crackdown unfair and said it would seek to counter the government action in courts. The whole nation is asking that what message the government wants to send by sealing welfare organisations and kicking students out, said JuD spokesman Yahya Mujahid. By Trend Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have 23 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said March 11, Trend reports. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Laman Ismayilova Supported by the Embassy of India, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) of India hosts the 2nd edition of Best of India Show at Baku Sport Palace on March 7-17. The Best of India - An Exclusive India Product exhibition involves 75 companies from India showcasing high quality products and services, including electronics, bicycle, rice, tea, spices, packaging, pharmaceuticals, gifts and handicrafts, stationery, home furnishing, textile and garments, jewelry, cosmetics. Best of India Show is also focused on portraying the rich Indian cultural heritage through cultural events, food and, Bollywood festival etc. all adding to "Best of India" Experience. Entry to the exhibition is free. The exhibition is being held as part of bilateral business cooperation between India and Azerbaijan. The event is supported by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of the Government of India, Trend reported. India and Azerbaijan enjoy close friendly relations based on historical links and growing bilateral cooperation. The two countries have increasing business and commercial cooperation in the fields of energy, pharmaceutics, agriculture, tourism, IT, science and technology, textile, garments and education sectors. In 2017, Indias export to Azerbaijan has grown by more than $37 million and total bilateral trade between India and Azerbaijan has reached around $463 million. India and Azerbaijan have growing cooperation in capacity building under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme which provides fully paid training programmes for Azerbaijani professionals and students in Indian institutions. PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry - one of the leading Industry Chamber of India, and ever since its inception in 1905 has been an active participant in the India growth story through its advocacy role for the policymakers of the country. As a true representative of the Industry with a large membership base of 130,000 direct and indirect members, PHD Chamber has forged ahead leveraging its legacy with the Industry knowledge across sectors. At a global level the Chamber has been working with the Embassies and High Commissions in India to bring in the International Best Practices and Business Opportunities. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Leman Mammadova Today, development of small and medium-sized businesses and improvement of womens role in entrepreneurship are considered important directions of Azerbaijani economic policy. Promotion of female entrepreneurship in the country is among the main activities of the Azerbaijan Micro-Finance Association (AMFA) in 2019, Jala Hajiyeva, the director of the association, told Trend. "We will also continue measures to improve financial literacy, as well as expand our activities in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. We will hold training sessions in Nakhchivan with the joint support of the U.S. and the UN," Hajiyeva said. She noted that training sessions will be held for those entrepreneurs who want to start their business, but do not know how and where to start. She further said that the association has begun operations in four economic zones, and the work in this direction will continue in 2019. Also, a fair for investors, which is held every two years, is planned to be held in October 2019, Hajiyeva said. "We hope that foreign investors will show a great interest in the fair," the director said. The growth of entrepreneurship in Azerbaijan is one of the priority directions of the economic policy and it is closely related to the development of small and medium-sized businesses, and in particular to the development of women's business in the country. Every day, the role of women in entrepreneurship and their number grows in the world. According to the State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan, the share of women among entrepreneurs is 21.5 percent. Azerbaijan in recent years has taken major measures to improve the entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, despite this, today there are a number of problems, such as high taxes, problems with the sale of entrepreneurs products, which greatly impede the development of entrepreneurship in general. Azerbaijan Women Entrepreneurs Association was established with the support of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs in October 2017, primarily aimed at strengthening the role of women in the field of entrepreneurship, as well as the dynamic development of small and medium-sized businesses in Azerbaijan. Microfinance organizations have always played a special role in the development of Azerbaijans economy, reducing poverty and supporting entrepreneurship. At present, the loan portfolio of microfinance organizations in Azerbaijan amounts to $273 million. Microfinance has been submitted to Azerbaijan in the mid-1990s as a strategy for repatriation of 1,000,000 IDPs and refugees who have been expelled during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenia. On December 19, 2001, a number of organizations signed the Memorandum of Understanding, incorporated the Azerbaijan Micro-Finance Association (AMFA). AMFA main mission is to strengthen the potential of microfinance organizations in the country and create conditions for joint rational activities within the interests of the microfinance community. AMFA currently includes 35 structures, including commercial banks, NBCOs, credit unions, insurance companies, leasing companies, and others. --- Leman Mammadova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @leman_888 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade An event entitled GUAM Products was held in the residence of The Washington Post, with the participation of the embassies of GUAM countries accredited in the United States, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani Embassy in the United States, on March 8. The GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development is a regional organization of four post-Soviet states: Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova which were established in 1997. The purpose is development of practical regional cooperation in the economic and political sphere with the participation of groups of states that have truly common interests and are seeking to deepen integration. So, Counselor at the Azerbaijani Embassy Orhan Zeynalov addressing the event together with representatives of Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova, spoke about business projects, developing industrial areas, trade relations and potential opportunities of the country and also stressed the importance of joint cooperation for the development of the region. The event featured the local wine products of the GUAM countries. The presented Azerbaijani wines of the local brand "Savalan" aroused great interest among the guests. Business representatives showed their interest about the distribution of Azerbaijani wines in the U.S. market. At the event, guests also got acquainted with national cuisines of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The guests with great interest familiarized themselves with the corner of Azerbaijan, where samples of the country's national culture were exhibited. The event was attended by representatives of diplomatic missions, companies and the local public. The event was organized by the Community Empowerment Association and the Global Chamber. As one the leading producers of wine in the Caspian Sea region, Azerbaijans contemporary wine-making ambitions developed during the 1970s by Soviet authorities who preferred to increase the wine production versus development of the grain industry. Azerbaijan is famous for its high quality grape varieties. Five major wine-growing regions of the country are Shamakhi, Ismayilli, Gabala, Ganja, Tovuz. Local grape varieties in Azerbaijan include White Shani, Derbendi, Nail, Bayanshire, Gamashara, Ganja Pink, Bendi, Madrasa, Black Shani, Zeynabi, Misgali, Khindogni, Agdam Kechiemdzheyi, Tebrizi, and Marandi. Currently, there are nearly 10 wineries and vineyards producing wine in the country. The largest one is Vinagro, created in 2006. It uses the Goygol Wine Plant near Ganja founded in 1860 by German immigrants. Exports to other countries are steadily growing due to good quality of Azerbaijani wine products. Moreover, Azerbaijan Wine Manufacturers and Exporters Association was established to coordinate activities between producers and exporters of wine and winery products with the support of the Export and Investment Promotion Foundation of Azerbaijan (AZPROMO) in 2016. Production of wine and wine-making products in Azerbaijan exceeded 1 million decalitres in 2017, of which 375,000 decalitres were exported. Thus, wine products from the country were mainly sent to Russia (338,000 decals) and China (27,000 decals). As an example of recent success, the winners of the "Prodexpo International Wine Competition and Guide" contest were wines from Goygol Wine Plant - "Karabagh Chardonnay" gold, "Karabakh saperavi" silver, "Karabakh rose" bronze medal. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Leman Mammadova Azerbaijani Trade Houses strive to present local Azerbaijani products to larger number of consumers abroad. The shop Azrbaycan nemtlri (Azerbaijani gifts) began operating in the capital of Russia, Moscow. The shop was opened with the support of Azerbaijan's Trade Representative in Russia and the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO) in the territory of "DEPO" grocery store. The shop contains more than 200 items of goods from 15 manufacturers. DEPO gastromarket was reconstructed in the building of the Mijus tram and trolleybus park, built in 1903 and listed as a cultural heritage. The quarter covers an area of 11,000 square meters. It is also expected that the restaurant of Azerbaijani cuisine will be launched in the newly opened gastronomic quarter. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the store, head of Azerbaijan's Trade Representative Office in Russia Ruslan Aliyev said that the new project can be regarded as the first step towards opening the Azerbaijan Trade House in Moscow. The Trade Representative Office has begun forming a system of distribution of Azerbaijani products in the Russian market for stimulation of export. The system Trading House of Azerbaijan includes 3 components. The first is the exhibition, which will represent the export, tourism and investment potential of Azerbaijan. The second is the creation of a specialized export company. Perhaps this will be based on private partnership as not all Azerbaijani manufacturers can afford to export their goods to Russia. A single company will be created for the delivery of export products to the Russian market. As private companies develop, they can deliver their products to Russia themselves. The third is the conceptual stores under the brand "Azrbaycan nemtlri ". It is planned to open such stores with the support of the Azerbaijani state through a trade mission. The shops "Azrbaycan nemtlri " will carry out activities with the involvement of local entrepreneurs, the Trade House of Azerbaijan will also help in supplying the stores with a wide assortment of Azerbaijani goods. Touching upon the contribution of Azerbaijani trade house, Aliyev named transportation of products from Azerbaijan, assistance in drawing up marketing and pricing policies, promotion of products through such stores, etc. In the near future, it is planned to open a large store Azrbaycan nemtlri in the food center Food City, on the Dorogomilov market and on Leningrad Avenue in Moscow. In addition, it is planned to open a specialized wine shop under the brand "Azrbaycan nemtlri " in Yekaterinburg in April. Negotiations are underway with entrepreneurs of St. Petersburg. Launched in 2016, the Made in Azerbaijan brand envisages a large-scale promotion of local non-oil products in foreign markets. The opening of Trade Houses is one of the important activities carried out within the expansion of the export of Azerbaijani products and promotion of the Made in Azerbaijan brand. At present, Azerbaijani trade houses are operating in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Poland and China. It is planned to open up to 10 Trade Houses in 2019. Promotion of export-oriented local products under the Made in Azerbaijan brand in a wider geographic area also helps to attract foreign investment. The export of non-oil products will stimulate the expansion of the production of these products and will further strengthen the non-oil sector's share in the structure of the GDP. --- Leman Mammadova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @leman_888 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Leman Mammadova Azerbaijan has been named a "number one investor in Georgia" in 2018. Last year, Azerbaijan invested $ 240 million in Georgia's economy, the preliminary report of the National Statistics Office of Georgia said, AZERTAC informs. Azerbaijan's share in direct investments in the economy of Georgia was 19.5 percent. Although it is 1.9 times less than in 2017, Azerbaijan has maintained its leadership. Among the countries most investing in the economy of Georgia, Great Britain holds the second place with $ 203.7 million and the Netherlands - the third place with $ 167.9 million. In general, the total amount of foreign investments in Georgia amounted to $ 1.232 billion last year, which is 34.9 percent less than in the previous year. The main reasons for the decline were the completion of major pipeline projects, the transfer of property rights from non-residents to residents and decline in liabilities of non-resident direct investors in some companies. In the reporting year, most investment in Georgia was made in the financial sector ($ 279.9 million), transport ($ 209.9 million) and energy ($ 157.2 million). Azerbaijan and Georgia maintain high-level relations in all spheres, especially in economic field. Two countries have already taken initiatives for global projects in the region together for a long time. Close bilateral ties play a key role in the development of regional cooperation. The trade turnover between Georgia and Azerbaijan amounted to $1.1 billion in 2018. The share of Azerbaijan in the total trade turnover of the neighboring country made 8.7 percent last year. Azerbaijan became the third largest trading partner of Georgia after Turkey and Russia in 2018. Georgian exports to Azerbaijan amounted to $ 502.7 million in 2018. In turn, Azerbaijan exported goods worth $ 586 million to Georgia. Georgian exports to Azerbaijan include cement, locomotives and other railway vehicles, mineral and chemical fertilizers, mineral waters, strong drinks, glass and glass wares, and pharmaceuticals, among other things. Azerbaijani mainly exports to Georgia oil and petroleum products, natural gas, electricity, plastic, cement, anhydrite and gypsum binders. The trade turnover between Georgia and Azerbaijan amounted to about $ 97.6 million in January 2019. In 1995-2018, Georgia invested $ 93.8 million in Azerbaijani economy and Azerbaijan invested $ 3 billion in Georgia. Since 2012, Azerbaijan is in the first place in terms of investments in Georgia. More than 300 Georgian companies registered in Azerbaijan, about 650 Azerbaijani investment companies, especially SOCAR, operate successfully in Georgia. Azerbaijan and Georgia have taken initiatives for global projects in the region together for a long time. Close bilateral ties play a key role in the development of regional cooperation. The both countries broadly cooperate in regional energy development, transportation and economic partnership projects such as Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline (BTC), Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum, Southern Gas Corridor, Kars-Tbilisi-Baku railway (BTK), the TRACECA and BSEC (Black Sea Economic Cooperation). --- Leman Mammadova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @leman_888 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Laman Ismayilova Maslenitsa folk festival has been celebrated in Baku. Slavic festival was held in the Old City on March 9, Trend Life reported. Various games, competitions, master classes, face art, delicious pancakes and colorful show were presented to the guests of the event. The festive program featured a bright concert program with the participation of more than 30 artists, five dance groups. Of particular interest was the animation program based on Shrovetide rituals and traditions, a fantastic interactive production. The festival continued with round dances and songs. Chairman of the Russian community of Azerbaijan, MP Mikhail Zabelin noted the great importance of holding the festival in Baku. "This event is a symbol of the tolerance of the Azerbaijani people, that we can freely celebrate our native Russian holidays in Azerbaijan. This is a symbol of the fact that Azerbaijan is a truly democratic state. I have always said that multiculturalism has existed in the souls of the Azerbaijani people for centuries," he said. The head of the Russian Youth Association Roman Boriskin also addressed the event. "In Azerbaijan, Maslenitsa has never been celebrated as a large-scale mass event until 2018.At the same time, interest in the holiday has always been quite high both from the side of Azerbaijani culture and from the side of Russian culture. This is largely due to the similarity of the traditions of celebrating Novruz holiday," said Boriskin. The head of the Russian Youth Association stressed that the first Maslenitsa folk festival was held last year. In 2019, the festival was organized more professionally. Considering the interest of the population, the Russian Youth Association plans to hold Maslenitsa folk festival annually in Baku. A series of events were held in Azerbaijan's capital city as part of the festival. Meanwhile, Archbishop of Baku and Azerbaijan Eparchy Alexander attended the exhibition entitled "Moscow - Baku. Female look" as part of the celebration. The exhibition tells about women who have reached heights in art, creativity, economics and other areas in Azerbaijan and Russia. The project was co-organized by the representative office of Rossotrudnichestvo in Baku and Russian Business Guide magazine. The holiday continued at the Research Laboratory of the Center for Russian Studies at the Azerbaijan University of Languages. The event participants were welcomed by the Rector of Azerbaijan University of Languages Kamal Abdullayev. The representatives of the Russian Federation diplomatic corps took the floor to congratulate the guests. Wonderful concert with participation of students and teachers was also held as part of the event. In addition, Slavic folk festival was marked at Modern Educational Complex. The event was attended by employees of diplomatic missions accredited in Azerbaijan. The director of the complex Mina Aliyeva welcomed the guests. The event featured a colorful musical performance based on the traditions of the Shrovetide festivities. The celebration ended with the burning of straw-stuffed figure. Maslenitsa, also known as Pancake Week, is the last week before Lent. It celebrates the end of winter, symbolized by the burning of effigies. In Slavic mythology, Maslenitsa is a sun-festival, personified by the ancient god Volos, and a celebration of the imminent end of the winter. In the Christian tradition, Maslenitsa is the last week before the onset of Great Lent. Everyday there is a special activity. For example, on Tuesday, different games are held in the open air. Everyone can take part in them. On Wednesday, you have to visit your mother-in-law and eat pancakes at her place. On Thursday, you can go sled-riding. On Sunday, a straw effigy symbolizing winter is burnt. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev received a delegation led by President of the Russian Jewish Congress Yuri Kanner on March 8. President of the Russian Jewish Congress Yuri Kanner said that as part of their visit to Azerbaijan they traveled to the city of Guba, adding they saw development processes in the country`s regions. He praised the fact that all conditions were created in Azerbaijan for representatives of all nationalities, including Jews, to live in prosperity. President Ilham Aliyev said that different nationalities and religious communities have been living in Azerbaijan as a single family for centuries, pointing out the existence of necessary conditions for representatives of all nationalities, including Jews to live in peace. The head of state underlined the importance of Azerbaijan`s hosting major international events aimed at strengthening dialogue among civilizations and cultures. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend First Deputy Defense Minister of Azerbaijan Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Colonel General Najmeddin Sadikov has left for Sofia on an official visit, Trend reports March 11 with reference to Azerbaijans Defense Ministry. The visit will take place at the invitation of Chief of the General Staff of Bulgarias Armed Forces General Andrey Botsev. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend First Vice-President of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva, who is on a visit in the French Republic, has met with Executive Vice-President of SUEZ for International Development Eric Ghebali. The sides discussed prospects of cooperation between Azerbaijan and SUEZ Group in environmental, ecological and other areas. They also exchanged views on the development of the bilateral relations on various fronts. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Punjab govt to give Nawaz Sharif access to any hospital-doctor of his choice: Imran Khan Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed the Punjab government to give former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif access to any hospital or doctor of his choice for medical treatment, according to an update shared on Twitter by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Thursday. As per Chaudhry, the premier has directed the Punjab government to provide the former premier with the best facilities for treatment and called for the recommendations of a medical board that recently examined Sharif to be implemented. Later, while briefing the media on cabinet decisions made in Islamabad this afternoon, Chaudhry said the direction indicates that the PTI government has no personal enmity with any person, Radio Pakistan reported. The minister noted that corruption cases against Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari were filed during the tenures of previous governments and incumbent government has nothing to do with these. Nonetheless, the government will not pervert the course of justice or obstruct the work of the National Accountability Bureau to benefit any influential personality, he was quoted as saying by Radio Pakistan. Separately, Chief Minister Punjabs Spokesperson Dr Shahbaz Gill shared that he had met with the former prime minister on the directives of Prime Minister Khan and Chief Minister Usman Buzdar. While addressing a press conference after the meeting, Gill said that he hoped God would give Nawaz and everyone in Pakistan who was unwell good health. He said that politics is one thing, and a persons health another. Two senior professors and doctors were also present during the meeting between Gill and Nawaz. Gill noted that when you have had a bypass or if you are diabetic, you need to take medication for life. This is normal procedure, he said. He noted that the medical board which examined Sharif had said that any arterial blockage should be examined with an angiography. While clarifying that he was not saying anything for certain, Gill said that, according to doctors, if there was an angiography they would be able to figure out how to remove any blockage, such as through a stent. By Trend Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has expressed condolences to President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Sahle-Work Zewde. I am saddened by the news of heavy casualties as a result of the crash of a passenger plane of Ethiopian Airlines, President Aliyev said. On the occasion of this tragedy, on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I extend my deep condolences to you, families and loved ones of those who died and the whole people of Ethiopia, he said. President Aliyev has also expressed condolences to President of the Republic of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta. I am deeply saddened by the news of casualties among your compatriots as a result of the crash of a passenger plane of Ethiopian Airlines, President Aliyev said. On the occasion of this tragedy, on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I extend my deep condolences to you, families and loved ones of those who were killed and the whole people of Kenya, he said. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Azerbaijan has submitted data on the country's daily oil production for February 2019 to the Joint Technical Commission (JTC) of the OPEC monitoring committee, Trend reports referring to the Energy Ministry. The daily oil production in Azerbaijan amounted to 806,000 barrels last month, including 722,000 barrels of petroleum, and 84,000 barrels of condensate, the ministry said in its message. About 572,900 barrels of petroleum, 84,000 barrels of condensate and 18,000 barrels of oil products were exported daily. The average daily oil production made up 793,000 barrels in January, and 792,600 barrels last year. In particular, Azerbaijan produced an average of 814,600 barrels per day in January 2018, 806,000 barrels in February, 794,000 barrels in March, 785,700 barrels in April, 801,000 barrels in May, 792,000 barrels in June, 773,000 barrels in July, 774,000 barrels in August, 796,000 barrels in September, 783,000 barrels in October, in 801,000 barrels November, and 790,000 barrels in December. The JTC was established on January 22, 2017 under the monitoring committee, created to monitor the countries' fulfillment of their commitments to cut oil production. On December 7, 2018, an agreement was reached at the fifth ministerial meeting of the non-OPEC member and non-OPEC countries in Vienna to cut daily oil production by 1.2 million barrels. As part of the agreement, Azerbaijan has reduced daily production by 20,000 barrels since January 1, 2019. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Dr. Khaled Ali Mohammad Al-Fadhel, Minister of Oil and Minister of Electricity and Water of Kuwait, and chairman of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, will visit Azerbaijan on March 17-18, Kuwait embassy in Baku told Trend. Leading a Kuwaiti delegation, he will take part in the Joint OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) that will be held in Baku March 18, said the embassy. The program of the visit hasnt been disclosed yet, according to the embassy. It should be noted that Baku will also host the Joint Technical Committee meeting on March 17. OPEC and its partners decided to extend its production cuts till the end of 2018 in Vienna on November 30, as the oil cartel and its allies step up their attempt to end a three-year supply glut that has savaged crude prices and the global energy industry. The 5th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting was held in Vienna, Austria, on December 7, 2018. The meeting participants decided to adjust the overall production by 1.2 million barrels per day, effective as of January 2019 for an initial period of six months. The contributions from OPEC and the voluntary contributions from non-OPEC participating countries of the Declaration of Cooperation will correspond to 0.8 million barrels per day (2.5 percent), and 0.4 million barrels per day (2 percent), respectively. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday that President Hassan Rouhani's visit to Iraq on Monday will begin a new chapter in the bilateral relations, Trend reported referring to Press TV. "Mr. Rouhani is travelling to Iraq for the first time in his presidency, and we consider the trip a new start in our relations with Iraq," Zarif said. During Rouhani's visit to Iraq, the areas of cooperation, including transit, oil, industrial work and the dredging of Arvand River, will top the agenda, he said. "We plan to use the commonalities to advance the joint interests of both countries as well as those of the region," Zarif noted. The Iranian foreign minister also highlighted Iraq as an important pillar of regional security, saying regional security would be impossible without Iraq's cooperation. During his trip to Iraq, a high-ranking politico-economic delegation will accompany Rouhani. It will be Rouhani's first official visit to Iraq during his tenure, after the United States imposed sanctions against the Islamic republic last year. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signed a decree abolishing the import duty on potatoes, Trend reports March 11 with reference to the newspaper Resmi Gazete. The duty wont be applied when importing potatoes in the volume of not less than 200,000 tons. In February 2019, potato prices in Turkey increased by 6.7 percent. President Erdogan has repeatedly stated that measures to combat entrepreneurs who artificially create shortage of potatoes in the markets will be strengthened. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Trend Iran has significantly reduced exports of dried fruits this Iranian year (started March 21, 2018), said Alireza Arzani Mamaghani, head of the Iran Dried Fruit Exporters Association, Trend reports via the Young Journalists Club (YJC). He said that for the first time in the last 25 years, the production of dried fruits in Iran has significantly decreased, and this greatly affected exports. However, despite this, Iran still ranks first in the world in the production of dried fruits, he noted. Prices of dried fruits in the Iranian markets in anticipation of the Nowruz (Persian New Year) holiday are listed below: Product (1 kg) Price in rials (in US dollars) Dried figs 580,000 (13.8) Almond (unpeeled) 230,000 (5.47) Pistachios (1st grade) 1.8 million (42.8) Dried mulberry 450,000 (10.7) Silverberry 440,000 (10.4) Raisin 300,000 (7.14) Walnuts (peeled) 820,000 (19.5) Salted hazelnuts (peeled) 1.55 million (36.9) Coconut (powder) 240,000 (5.71) Indian almond 1.67 million (39.7) Sunflower seeds 280,000 (6.66) Peas 190,000 (4.52) Sesame 330,000 (7.85) Pumpkin seeds 510,000 (12.1) Dried peach 185,000 (4.04) --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov Possessing more than half of the regions water resources, Tajikistans water policy is aimed at its rational and careful use based on the principles of cooperation and mutual benefit. During his working visit to the city of Tajik power engineers, the President of Tajikistan will launch the rehabilitation project of the Nurek hydropower plant (HPP) on March 20. It is expected that the head of state will meet with representatives of the company, which will deal with the rehabilitation of hydroelectric power plants, a source in the government of Tajikistan said. The international tender for the rehabilitation of the Nurek HPP (first phase) was announced at the end of August 2017. The Barki Tochik energy holding chose from the three bidders the ANDRITZ group of companies whose head office is in Austria. At the end of 2017, for the implementation of the project Rehabilitation of the Nurek HPP, phase 1 the entire required amount of $ 350 million was collected. For the implementation of the project, the International Development Association (IDA) will allocate $ 225 million, of which $ 57 million as a grant, the rest - as a soft loan. The Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD) allocated $ 40 million for the project implementation as a loan. Another $ 60 million in loan will be allocated by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The share of the Tajik Government in this project will be $ 25 million The project of the first phase for the Nurek HPP rehabilitation will be implemented within five years. The Nurek HPP rehabilitation project, divided into two phases, provides for the replacement of all 9 hydraulic units and key components of the station infrastructure, autotransformers, reconstruction of auxiliary transformers, improvement of dam operation safety, and provision of technical assistance. To implement the second phase of the project, it is necessary to spend approximately $ 350 million. After full rehabilitation of the Nurek HPP, the generation of electricity at the facility will reach 3,300 MW. The Nurek HPP is the largest hydroelectric power plant in Central Asia, and the Nurek hydrostatic dam, 300 meters high, is the second largest in the world. HPP provides more than 70 percent of the total electricity generated in the country and is included in the Vakhsh HPP cascade. The design installed capacity of the plant is 3,000 MW. Currently, it can potentially generate only 77 percent of its design capacity due to equipment obsolescence and lack of necessary maintenance, and therefore the maximum capacity of the Nurek HPP in recent years has not exceeded 2,320 MW. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov Kazakhstan has significant renewable energy resources in the form of hydropower, wind, solar and biomass. However, to date, apart from the partial use of hydro resources, other alternative sources have not received proper development. The main reasons for this situation are the presence of rich reserves of fuel and energy resources and the lack of adequate state support for energy conservation. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) granted Baikonur Solar LLP a loan for the construction of a solar HPP. The loan amount is $ 11.5 million in tenge equivalent, informs the press service of the bank. The project provides for the design, construction, launch, operation and maintenance of a solar power plant with a capacity of 50 MW, as well as the necessary infrastructure for connecting to a single energy system. The solar HPP is expected to generate 73 GW/h of electricity per year and consist of approximately 150,822 photovoltaic panels, 14 central inverter power plants and one substation. The station will be built in the south of Kazakhstan on 150 hectares of land. This is the first ADB experience in financing projects in the field of solar energy in the subregion and the first co-financing with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the renewable energy sector of Kazakhstan. Mohammed Azim Hashimi, senior investment specialist at ADBs Private Sector Operations Department said that Kazakhstans energy sector is heavily dependent on coal, with almost 80 percent of the country's electricity generated at coal-fired power plants, which are mostly outdated and do not meet modern requirements. He added that the ADB loan provided for Baikonur Solar LLP will help Kazakhstan achieve its goal of increasing the share of using renewable energy sources in the country to 50 percent by 2050. Baikonur Solar LLP is a special project company registered in Kazakhstan, which is owned by UG Energy Limited and the Baiterek Venture Fund Joint Stock Company (BVF), a subsidiary of Baiterek National Managing Holding JSC. ADB began supporting the Government of Kazakhstan in 1994, a few years after the country became independent, by providing much-needed assistance in agriculture, education, finance, and the delivery of social services. Since the early 2000s, Kazakhstan has pursued economic diversification to avoid being stuck in the middle-income trap. It seeks to transform from a landlocked to a landlinked economy. To address these development needs, ADB cooperation with Kazakhstan in recent years has focused on the finance and transport sectors and on knowledge partnerships. Kazakhstan is a member of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov Modern Tajikistan combines all the powerful aspects of its raw and untouched nature where the highest mountain peaks of Central Asia reach for the skies and some of the worlds largest glaciers slowly make their way downstream. Imposing mountains, feeding most of the rivers of Central Asia, picturesque gorges, subtropical valleys, where cotton fields, vineyards and apricot orchids take their turns, deserted high mountain plateaus, comparing in severity of their winters with Siberia this is all Tajikistan, an independent developing country. The International Tourism Exhibition ITB Berlin 2019 was held in Berlin on March 6-10. Representatives from 180 countries, 15,000 travel companies and 800 representatives of local and foreign media attended the exhibition. Tajikistan was represented at the exhibition by 21 travel agencies under the leadership of the Deputy Chairman of the Committee for the Development of Tourism at the Government of Tajikistan Shirin Amonzoda. The exhibition is held for the 57th time. The Tajik delegation met with representatives of foreign travel companies and considered new opportunities for cooperation on the first day of the exhibition. Hundreds of exhibitors, visiting the stand of Tajikistan, which was designed taking into account the priority areas of tourism and the Years of rural development, tourism and folk crafts 2019-2021, received the necessary information about the tourist opportunities of Tajikistan. The head of the Tajik delegation, Shirin Amonzoda, and the Tajik Ambassador to Germany, Sohibnazar Gairatsho, participated in a meeting of ministers of tourism of the countries participating in the program of the World Tourism Organization The Great Silk Road under the leadership of the WTO Secretary General Zurab Pololikashvili on March 6. During his speech, Amonzoda noted the efforts of Emomali Rahmon and the Tajik government, aimed at the development of tourism in Tajikistan. He recalled the announcement of 2019-2021 over the years of development of the village, tourism and folk crafts - another initiative of the President of Tajikistan, which corresponds to the main directions of the World Tourism Organization. Also on the margins of the exhibition was a meeting of the delegation of Tajikistan with a BBC news agency representative. During the meeting, the parties discussed issues of disseminating information regarding the tourist potential of Tajikistan through air force resources. A representative of the World Bank together with Tajik delegation discussed the possibilities of attracting investment in the country's tourism infrastructure. The exhibition hosted the solemn announcement of the 100 best places for ecotourism. As Ambassador Gairatsho noted, the inclusion of the Pamir mountains in this list for the fourth time indicates that Tajikistan is recognized as one of the best places for ecological tourism. Participation and presentation of tourism opportunities of the republic at this kind of exhibition provides an opportunity for national travel companies to establish cooperation with foreign companies in order to attract more tourists to Tajikistan. In recent years, there has been an increase in the interest of tourists from Europe to the unique nature of Tajikistan. On the eve of ITB Berlin 2019 - one of the largest exhibitions in the world in the German media, a number of articles were published on the tourism potential of Tajikistan and the aspirations of the country's government to develop this important industry. As many as 19,000 European citizens visited Tajikistan in 2018. It is expected that in the next years this number will increase by several times. As the Leading Travel Trade Show, ITB Berlin is the foremost business platform for global touristic offers. In addition to very high exhibitor satisfaction (over 90 percent), the numbers offer more proof: This is where supply meets demand. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz By Abdul Kerimkhanov Tourism is one of the main priorities of Azerbaijan which is seriously engaged in the diversification of the economy in order to eventually eliminate oil and gas dependence. The first tourist sea cruise along the Caspian Sea, Treasures of the East, outlined earlier for the summer of 2019 from Baku, is delayed for about a year, cruise company Mosturflot, which will become the tour operator, said. The reason is the construction of the cruise ship "Peter the Great", which can be launched with a delay of at least a year. According to the latest data, only the sea trials of the vessel can take place this summer. Nevertheless, interest in tours of the Caspian Sea remains high, stressed Mosturflot. Alexander Filimonov, spokesman of the tour operator, stated that the company plans to make several cruises around the Caspian Sea until the fall of 2020, and send the motor ship to Sochi for the winter, where it will most likely work as a floating hotel. The tour program "Treasures of the East", which will be the first such project in the Caspian Sea and will last 11 days and 10 nights, will include stops at the ports of Baku, Azerbaijan, Bandar-Anzali and Noushehr (Iran), Turkmenbashi (Turkmenistan), Aktau (Kazakhstan). Then the vessel will proceed to the Russian Astrakhan, Makhachkala and Derbent, and the voyage will end in the Azerbaijani capital. It is reported that on the ship under construction there will be 155 comfortable cabins with a balcony, including 12 of luxury class. Total ship is designed for 310 passengers. Tourists will have access to several restaurants, bars, swimming pool, SPA-center and much more. In fact, the new ship will be a floating five-star hotel. Peter the Great is a cruise passenger ship of the river-sea mixed navigation area, the first ship of the project PV300, being built at the Lotos shipyard in the Astrakhan region by order of the Moscow Shipping Company signed in August 2016. The ship is designed to carry passengers on cruise lines on waterways of the European part of Russia (Volga, Neva, Don, Ladoga and Onega lakes, Volga-Baltic Canal, Moscow Canal, Volga-Don Canal), with the possibility of access to the Black, Azov and Caspian Seas. The length of the vessel is 141 meters, the width is 16.82 meters. The passenger capacity of the vessel is 310 people, the crew and support staff - 90 people. In December 2017, the lead ship of the project PV300 was named Peter the Great. The ships deadline was initially announced for 2019, however, due to problems encountered during construction, it was announced that the completion date was chenged to 2020. The approximate date of the vessels first voyage is June 2020. --- Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Relationship with US is going to take a new turn: Shah Mehmood MULTAN: US-Pakistan relations were under strain because of FATF but because of Pakistans role in US-Taliban peace dialogues, the relationship with the US is going to take a new turn, said Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Sunday. Invited to a gathering of media persons and his supporters in his constituency NA-156, Mr Qureshi spoke at length about US-Taliban peace talks in Afghanistan, the governments dealings with India over Kashmir and relationship with neighbouring countries. US had placed Pakistan in the grey list of Financial Action Task Force [FATF] and consequently, its relationship with Islamabad was not that great. But because of our successful foreign policy ties between both countries are improving, he said at the Multan Tea House, a cafe on the lines of Pak Tea House in Lahore, located inside the Multan Arts Council. He attributed this to Pakistans behind-the-scenes role in US-Taliban peace dialogue. Our relations with the US are going to take a new turn. US-Taliban peace dialogues are underway in Doha and positive results are expected. If peace is restored to Afghanistan, Pakistan could not only purchase cheap hydel energy from central Asia but the countrys economy would strengthen and there would be an increase in the countrys exports. For long the war is underway in Afghanistan and it used to say that terrorists coming from Pakistan are carrying out terrorist activities in their country. But this was a planned policy of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who wants to isolate Pakistan. India wants Pakistans isolation on diplomatic level but it has failed. Regarding the recent tensions with India over Kashmir, he said: Pakistan wants peace in the region but will not compromise on Kashmir. We raised our voice over human rights violations in India-held Kashmir at every forum, including the House of Commons, the United Nations and the European Union. The foreign minister said it was a big achievement for Pakistan that despite its boycot of the Organisation of Islamic Countries meeting, the forum termed Indian atrocities in held-Kashmir state terrorism. We had already informed the world that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi could carry out some adventure in Kashmir before elections. With regard to Iran, he said: Friendly ties with Iran are quite important to us. We foiled all attempts that were being made to poison our relationship with Iran. I have had three meetings with the Iranian foreign minister and they were held in good atmosphere. About Saudi Arabia and the UAE, he said: When the PTI [Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf] came into power Saudi Arabia was not ready to listen to us while relations with the United Arab Emirates were also not good. Pakistan adopted a balanced policy on the Yemen issue as it has friendly ties with both Saudi Arabia and Yemen. [Prime Minister] Imran Khan categorically said Pakistan could not become a part of the conflict between the two rather it could play the role of a bridge and mediator, he said. Yemens nearly four-year old civil war has pitted the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels against the Saudi-backed government of Abd Rabou Mansour Hadi who fled and went into exile to Saudi Arabia and the Saudi-led coalition then intervened in Yemen. He mentioned Saudi Arabias plans to invest in Pakistan, announced last month. Saudi Arabia is going to establish a big oil refinery in Gwadar at a cost of $10 billion while it has provided oil worth $9.6 billion. By Leman Mammadova More countries view tourism as a crucial factor in socio-economic progress due to the increasingly growing export revenues, the creation of new jobs, businesses and infrastructure. Azerbaijan aims to develop tourism sphere by all possible means. Sustainable development of the non-oil sector, in particular the tourism sector, is crucial at a time when it is impossible to fully rely on oil and gas industry. Day by day, Azerbaijan further strengthens its position in this sector. The beautiful nature of Azerbaijan, hospitality of its people, the country's capital with its super modern and ancient buildings draws the attention of all tourists visiting this South Caucasian country. Azerbaijan ranks 7th among European countries for the development of tourism, Report informs citing the World Tourism Organization (WTO). The organization assessed the development dynamics of tourism sector in Azerbaijan at 20 percent. WTO, presented Baku as one of the most charming spots, describing it as New Dubai, an oil-rich country that has become a rapidly developing hub in Europe and Asia, including the East. San Marino tops the list, followed by Georgia, Israel, Turkey, Iceland, Macedonia. Moldova ranked eighth, Bosnia and Herzegovina ninth, Armenia tenth. Azerbaijan enjoys a great potential for the development of tourism. Nature, climate, historical monuments, cuisine, rich culture of the people and other factors lay the foundation for the development of many areas of tourism. There are wide opportunities for Azerbaijan to be recognized as a tourist destination in the world. Azerbaijan is among the developing countries in the field of tourism, occupying the 39th place among 148 countries in terms of global competitiveness in tourism. In 2018, 2,849,600 tourists from 196 countries arrived in Azerbaijan, showing a 5.7 percent increase compared to 2017, according to the State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan received most tourists in July (11.6 percent), in August (11.3 percent), in March (9.7 percent) and in June (9.5 percent). On the other hand, tourists visited Azerbaijan less in February (5.8 percent), in January (6.5 percent) and in May (7.3 percent). In January 2019, 191,600 foreigners and stateless people from 143 countries visited Azerbaijan (a 2.9 percent increase compared to January 2018). Thus, 29.4 percent accounted for the Russians, 29.1 percent Georgian citizens, 11.2 percent Turkish citizens, 5.4 percent Iranian citizens, 4.5 percent UAE citizens, 1.7 percent Ukrainian citizens, 1.3 percent Iraqi citizens, 17.3 percent - citizens of other countries, 0.1 percent - stateless people. In recent years, the creation of a diversified tourism infrastructure in Azerbaijan has increased the interest of foreign tourists to the country. There are many opportunities for tourism in our country, including rural, health, environmental, cultural, social, commercial, sport and etc. Simplification of visa regime also plays a major role in the development of tourism in Azerbaijan. Currently, citizens of a number of countries get visas right at the Azerbaijani airports, while other tourists can visit the country by getting online tourist visas. The mesmerizing mix of East and West, the possibility to have a rest on the Caspian Sea shore and enjoy fresh air and delicious meals have always been attracting tourists to Azerbaijan. Many of them get so much fascinated with the country and its capital Baku that they come back to visit Azerbaijan again after a while. --- Leman Mammadova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @leman_888 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Saudi Arabia assured Pakistan of complete support Saudi Arabia on Thursday assured Pakistan of Kingdoms complete support in seeking peaceful settlement of all outstanding disputes with India, according to a statement issued by the Foreign Office. Saudi Arabias Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al Jubeir arrived in Islamabad on Thursday on a one-day visit in follow-up to Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salmans two-day visit last month. Conveying sincere wishes of Saudi crown prince to the leadership and people of Pakistan, the visiting dignitary expressed deep appreciation for Islamabads restraint in the existing charged environment with New Delhi. Taking note of Pakistans peace overtures to de-escalate the situation, he assured Islamabad of the Kingdoms support to seek peaceful settlement of all outstanding disputes between Pakistan and India, the FO statement said. While welcoming Saudi Arabias steadfast support to Pakistan, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi hailed the crown princes offer to help resolve the current stand-off between the two neighbours. With regard to the crown princes landmark visit to Pakistan last month, Qureshi appreciated the announcement of release of 2107 Pakistani prisoners, increase in the hajj quota to 200,000 and the Road to Makkah project. He expressed confidence that the establishment of Pak-Saudi Supreme Coordination Council will help in advancing the bilateral relations in a targeted and time-bound manner. Later the Saudi Minister called on prime Minister Imran Khan at the PM Office. Recalling the landmark visit of Saudi crown prince to Pakistan, the prime minister expressed the confidence that decisions regarding release of 2107 Pakistani prisoners and increase in hajj quota to 200,000 will be implemented in a smooth and timely manner. He said the Saudi crown prince had won the hearts of the people by his generous offer of supporting the Pakistani community. Expressing satisfaction over the progress towards medium- and long-term economic and investment cooperation, he hoped that the newly launched Pak-Saudi Supreme Coordination Council will help build a comprehensive, tangible and result-oriented relationship between the two countries. Conveying sincere wishes of the Saudi crown prince to the leadership and people of Pakistan, Adel Al Jubeir expressed deep appreciation for Islamabads peace overtures to normalize current situation. He acknowledged the role played by Pakistan for regional peace and stability. The Saudi minister also called on Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa at the GHQ. The meeting between the two revolved around matters of mutual interest, regional security and [the] current situation between Pakistan and India, according to a press release issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). Bakersfield, CA (93308) Today Periods of rain. High 51F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%.. Tonight A few showers this evening with overcast skies overnight. Low 44F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%. A man sentenced to life without parole in the murder of a woman in 2011 will be arraigned in Kings County Superior Court on Thursday in anothe Aker Energy, operator of the DeepwaterTano Cape Three Points (DWT/CTP) Block, has encountered oil in the Pecan South-1A well offshore Ghana. According to the company, a sidetrack will now be drilled to further appraise the volume potential. The Pecan South-1A well was drilled south of the main Pecan field in the DWT/CTP Block and encountered oil. Aker Energy is in the process of analyzing the well result and will start further drilling in order to verify the volume estimate. These volumes will be an addition to the gross contingent resources (2C) from the existing discoveries in the area, which is previously estimated between 450 and 550 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe). It would be recalled that Aker Energy in January 2019 completed a successful drilling operation of the Pecan-4A appraisal well. The main purpose of the well was to confirm Aker Energys understanding of the geology in the area and identify deep oil water contact in the Pecan reservoir. This was successfully proven. Jan Arve Haugan, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Aker Energy, said: We are pleased to announce another successful well as the operator of the DWT/CTP Block. The drilling result is another confirmation of the geological model for the area. The discovered resources from the well will further strengthen the robustness of the Pecan field development. We will now continue the appraisal drilling campaign, while finalizing the Plan of Development to be submitted by the end of March. The drillship Maersk Viking will now drill a sidetrack well in Pecan South before relocating to drill the third well in the ongoing appraisal campaign, Pecan South East. Based on the Pecan South result and pre-drill estimates of Pecan South East, Aker Energy estimates that the total volumes to be included in a Plan of Development (POD) have the potential to increase to between 600 and 1,000 mmboe. Aker Energy disclosed that it sees further upsides in the area. The company has identified multiple well targets to be drilled as part of a greater area development after submission of the POD. Aker Energy, the operator of the DWT/CTP Block, has 50% participating interest. Aker Energys partners are Lukoil (38%), Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) (10%) and Fueltrade (2%). Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A suspect and a 4-year-old child were treated for gunshot wounds after Hardin County Sheriff's Office deputies opened fire at a home near Sour Lake during a reported domestic violence incident. Deputies were called to a home in the 14700 block of Atlantic Road shortly before 10 a.m. Sunday, a short news release from Sheriff Mark Davis said. They found a man there despite a restraining order barring him from the residence. Deputies also "learned that a sexual assault had just occurred," the statement said. The Sheriff's Office said the suspect ran out, fled in a car and tried to hit the deputy on his way out, before he "rammed" the patrol car. Another deputy in a second car chased the suspect along Texas 105, the news release said. The chased ended back at the house on Atlantic, the release said, where the suspect reportedly tried to "break down the door" to get to a woman and four children inside. Two deputies opened fire, striking the suspect and shooting one child in the leg, according to the release. The Sheriff's Office did not respond to requests for further comment on Monday. The department statement said both the suspect and the child were taken to an area hospital, and the suspect faces multiple felony charges. The suspect was said to be "conscious and alert" after being shot. The release did not elaborate on the child's status. No one appeared to be at the home on Atlantic Road on Monday morning, and there was no response to a message left there seeking more information. The Texas Rangers have been called to investigate and review use of force, which the department said is standard procedure. This week's Newton County Sheriff's Report: Busy around here last week. Let's see what was going on. Started the week off with a missing lady from Old Salem. Then going with Jasper County deputies to Kevin Byerly's residence. Turned out Jasper County deputies have filed murder charges on Byerly for the murder of Candi McKee of Old Salem. Great job goes out to Sheriff Newman and his officers! Please remember the McKee family in your prayers. How many times have I asked people to put up game cameras around their property? Four people broke into the old prison and took all kinds of our property, tires and other items. No cameras. Shame on me. Some good police work by Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office and us has got warrants on four thugs. Two are already in jail. We recovered some of our stuff. Received 911 call about a horse wearing a green coat in the road way. We contacted the owner who said she would go get the horse. Before she got there the horse was ran over and killed. Very sad. Received a call where a 32-year-old man had a flat and does not know how to change a tire. His sister wants us to go change this tire. Our north end deputy was on call so we called them a wrecker. If you are a man and don't know how to change a tire!!! Shut up Billy. Big thanks go out to several people for all their help redoing our gun range. Commissioners Fomby, Commissioner Fuller, and Commissioner White, Donnie Meek, Peewee Y'Barbo, Bruce Gordan and Jasper Newton Electric Coop. Gotta go. Thought for the week: What happens at Grandma's.... stays at Granma's. Ya'll have a good week and if we can help, just holler. God Bless. Note: This report has been published exactly as received. The Silos retail center on Eastex Freeway is a collection of unique stores and business owners with their own stories. With its collection of windmills, silos, train caboose and a 1917 dump truck, the shopping center tells a tale of its own. The shopping center at nearly the halfway point between Beaumont and Lumberton sprang from the vision of Henry LaBrie, rust aficionado turned developer. Labrie said he wanted to recreate an old town, complete with a train station and general store, that could also help serve fledgling business owners. Theyre eye catchers and a part of the history of the community, LaBrie said. Hopefully, they bring back old memories and make new memories. LaBrie owns and operates AAA Flood Masters, a disaster response business. More recently he has gotten involved in development projects across the Golden Triangle with the help of Tammiey Linscomb, his business development manager. Although the concept is deeply connected to LaBries sense of honoring the past, hes the first to point out that Linscomb is responsible for making it a present-day reality. She has a knack and a talent I havent seen in a person my whole life, LaBrie said. She has an ability to put things together, to take my ideas and she puts them on paper. Thanks to his love of everything rusty, The Silos are more than an authentic-looking throwback. From tractor graveyards in Minnesota to farms in Tyler, Labrie has been all over to build his collection. He procured the train caboose bordering the road front from Nacogdoches. At 12,000 square feet, the place is comparable in size to retail centers on Dowlen Road with a competitive pricetag. Spaces at The Silos rent for about $15 per square foot with leases of two or three years, according to leasing information from Loopnet.com In the anchor location of the building, a larger space highlighted by a rustic wheat silo cut into the entrance of the storefront, tenants are still hard at work preparing for the grand opening of Rambo Outdoors on March 28. The store will be the second location of Cory Rambos fishing and apparel store that started in Orange. Our biggest thing was the interstate location, Rambo said. Whether youre north or south of Lake Rayburn, you have to come through here. The location was also one of the strong suits Linscomb said would set the center apart from its counterparts in central Beaumont. The section of Eastex Freeway that The Silos calls home sees an average of 46,000 vehicles per day, according to data from the Texas Department of Transportation. Mark Martin, Rambos partner at the Beaumont location, said the location was a perfect match for the customers they hoped to attract. We couldnt have found a better place in Beaumont, both in space and access, Martin said. No one wants to have to drag a boat down Dowlen Road to make a bait stop. Sothanat Moeung, who owns Angkor Donuts and Kolaches with his wife, said he moved his shop to The Silos in November also because of the location. We saw the school nearby, and the highway runs right by it, Sothanat said. It seemed like a good location. The shop is named for Sothanats home city in Cambodia and is decorated with vivid paintings showing the famous temples of Angkor Wat. A wide case of kolaches, doughnuts and other pastries in the front of the shop are decorated with signs and pictures of the giant burgers the shop also serves. Sothanat said he got into the business for one simple reason: people love doughnuts. Now, he said he is in a spot where he can better serve people what they love. On the far-north side of the center, one tenant is already considering an expansion. Michele France, who owns and oeprates a BoxDrop Mattress outlet with her husband, said business has been good in the five months since they opened. The couple is in the process of leasing the store space next to them. We looked at other cities like Winnie and Port Arthur, but something kept drawing us back here, France said. I feel safe here in the evenings if I have to be by myself, and the tenants all visit with each other. France also shared an advantage of the place that other business owners mentioned: working with LaBrie and Linscomb. France said LaBrie checked in several times to make sure everything going fine. Linscomb also works hand-in-hand with tenants. We are trying to give our moms and pops a fighting chance, she said. On Dowlen Road, they just about cant afford it. Here, they have a new building and a reasonable rent. While LaBrie is happy to have a home for his historical vision, he said the functional purpose of The Silos is to help people build their dream like he did when he created his business. We want to be able to work with people, and make sure they can make their dream work for them, LaBrie said. If someone comes to us in a year and says they need more space, thats great. Its a problem we want to have. jacob.dick@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/jdickjournalism Tema-based school, DPS International Ghana has joined the rest of the world in commemorating the 2019 edition of International Women's Day (IWD). IWD is celebrated annually around the world on March 8. The celebration is a focal point in the movement for women's rights globally. It would be recalled that after the Socialist Party of America organised a Women's Day on February 28, 1909, in New York, the 1910 International Socialist Woman's Conference suggested a Women's Day be held yearly. This year's global celebration was under the theme: "Balance For Better." DPS International held its own celebration at its main auditorium a day after the global commemoration. Women and girls - including students, parents and teachers - converged in the auditorium during the short but memorable and colourful ceremony. The anchors bagan the ceremony emphasizing the power of women quoting the words of the founder of Pakistan, Honble Muhammad Ali Jinnah, No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men The ceremony sought to among other things, bring to the fore the need to appreciate the uniqueness of women and their immense importance to the wellbeing and the development of the human race. The women and girls modelled, as principal of DPS International, David Raj threw questions at them on what they thought were the unique qualities that make women more exceptional than men. They were also asked about the challenges facing women globally, with some of them citing access to education as a major hurdle for many women. Tanya Thakwani, the school's First Lady, believes in creating opportunities for women as she sees women are the largely untapped reservoir of the world. Today in many worlds leading organisations women are taking top positions. Women have always given back to society in multiple folds. She believes that " If you educate a man you educate a man, but if you educate women you educate a generation." The Director of DPS International, Mukesh Thakwani in a brief remark acknowledged the exemplary contributions that women and girls make to the development and advancement of the world. He expressed that DPS International Ghana believed in the holistic empowerment of women and girls. According to him, DPS International has over the years given women, girls, men and boys equal opportunities to unearth their God-given talents and that the school frowned at all forms of discriminations, especially gender-based discrimination. He warned against seeing the empowerment of women and girls as a threat to the socioeconomic and political advancement of men but that both genders need to be empowered to make the world a much better place to live for all. Mr Thakwani urged business leaders to ensure the inclusion of women in all spheres of the world's economic life. It was his view that women are better managers of businesses just as men and that they should not be denied the opportunities to play managerial roles in organisations simply because they are women. He assured that DPS International shall at all times uphold its value of showing respect to girls and women and playing a supporting role in their development. Source: Peacefmonline.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 Two Ghanaians who were allegedly abducted along with a Palestinian businessman by some operatives of a state security agency are now said to be worried about their safety and security, The Insight has gathered. The two, this paper is reliably informed, were waylaid and arrested on December 14, 2018 near Nyaho Clinic at Airport in Accra together with a Palestinian businessman whom they had gone to pick up from the Kotoka International Airport and kept in a state detention centre for six days without food and water. Since that fateful day the whereabouts of the Palestinian businessman (name withheld for now) remains unknown and the two Ghanaians (driver and security guard) who were assigned by their boss to pick up the businessman on his arrival in Ghana sys their lives are in danger especially as the state agency denies having the Palestinian national in its custody. This paper is reliably informed that the two Ghanaians have on countless occasions receive anonymous calls on their phones allegedly by state intelligence operatives who threaten them with re-arrest and severe bodily harm for refusing to keep their mouths shut over the incident. It is feared, that this serious case of abduction, if not handled properly would have serious international consequences especially about Ghanas image as a stable, peace-loving and law-abiding advocate of human rights in the African sub-region. The businessman arrived in Ghana from Lebanon on 14th December 2018 on the invitation of a friend in Ghana to do business but miraculously disappeared some minutes after being picked up from the Kotoka International Airport. Very reliable sources indicate that the said Ghanaians intelligence officers in collaboration with some foreign intelligence agents snatched the businessman in a Rambo style around the precincts of Airport. Those who abducted him were allegedly in Khaki uniforms and they took him to an official detention centre along with the driver and guard. The sources further claim that the businessman, guard and driver were interrogated separately by white hooded men with an accent. The driver and guard were released after six days in detention. Meanwhile, top security officials contacted by The Insight denied any knowledge of this operation. One of them said we cannot confirm that these victims were kept in the cells of BNI. There are no records to confirm that. It is suspected that the Palestinian businessman may have been smuggled out of the country to an unknown destination. Security experts say that this case of kidnapping will add to the feeling of insecurity which is becoming pervasive in the country. Source: The Insight/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Cleveland Clinic formed the Center for Clinical Artificial Intelligence to propel use of the technology in healthcare areas including diagnostics, disease prediction and treatment planning. Four things to know: 1. Launched by Cleveland Clinic Enterprise Analytics, the center will create a collaborative platform between physicians, researchers and data scientists to provide technology support for Cleveland Clinic's AI initiatives. 2. The center will conduct research in various areas of medicine, including pathology, genetics and cancer, to solve clinical issues using machine learning and other AI technologies. 3. Cleveland Clinic hematologist and oncologist Aziz Nazha, MD, will serve as director of the new center and as the system's associate medical director for AI. 4. The center has already begun working on new projects, including building machine learning models to identify patients with a high risk of death during admission, as well as numerous cancer-focused projects to make personalized predictions of patient outcomes. In an interview with The New York Times, cardiologist Eric Topol, MD, describes how AI has the potential to alter everything physicians do, but he emphasized that it won't replace physicians. The author of Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again, Dr. Topol suggests AI allows physicians to spend more time connecting with patients. While note-taking and scan- reading tools have become the norm, these tools continue to develop, making AI more than just a diagnostic and treatment tool. Dr. Topol said he expects the technology to lower healthcare costs. "By augmenting human performance, AI has the potential to markedly improve productivity, efficiency, workflow, accuracy and speed, both for [physicians] and for patients," he told the Times. Although AI holds promise with "keyboard liberation" and pattern recognition, the technology is susceptible to data breaches and hacking, he said. "There's no shortage of deep liabilities for AI in healthcare," the cardiologist said. "The liabilities include breaches of privacy and security, hacking, the lack of explainability of most AI algorithms, the potential to worsen inequalities, the embedded bias and ethical quandaries." However, despite these potential problems, physicians and hospital executives support AI development. Dr. Topol suggests clinician burnout and depression could be reduced by using AI. But to make this possible, the medical community will need champions to ensure the installation of AI does not harm the physician-patient relationship. What Im most excited about is using the future to bring back the past: To restore the care in health care, he said. Here are five recent articles posted by Becker's Hospital Review that concern healthcare price transparency: 1. #WheresThePrice aims to keep hospitals honest on transparency CMS Administrator Seema Verma is asking the public to monitor whether hospitals are complying with the agency's price transparency rule. 2. Price transparency creates competition, CMS chief says Amid rising healthcare costs, CMS Administrator Seema Verma saidthe industry must address price transparency. 3. California proposed health-pricing transparency bill would affect Kaiser Permanente California Democrat state Sen. Richard Pan, MD, has introduced legislation that would update healthcare price transparency and disclosure requirements to affect Kaiser Permanente. 4. 3 hospital revenue cycle leaders predict how price transparency will affect healthcare Price transparency has come to the forefront recently amid CMS' new requirement that hospitals publish their standard charges on the internet. To discuss this topic, healthcare revenue cycle management company PMMC hosted a roundtable interview with four experts from U.S. health systems. 5. Senator proposes bill to end PBM rebates in private market Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., unveiled the Drug Price Transparency Act, a bill to ban pharmacy rebates in the private market. More articles on healthcare finance: For-profit hospital stock report: Week of March 4-8 5 tips from hospital CFOs Texas physicians group opposes legislation to combat surprise ER bills Hospitals in New York are facing $657 million in Medicaid cuts under Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed budget, according to the Observer-Dispatch. Mr. Cuomo's original budget included $39 million in Medicaid cuts. However, when the state found it was facing a $2.3 billion shortfall, amendments to close the gap included another $618 million in Medicaid cuts. Darlene Stromstad, president and CEO of Mohawk Valley Health System in Utica, N.Y., told the Observer-Dispatch, "Cuts of this magnitude jeopardize the continued availability of comprehensive healthcare services for everyone not just Medicaid patients in our region." Proposals to curb the state's Medicaid spending include an overall 0.8 percent cut in Medicaid payments to hospitals and all other healthcare providers, as well as ditching a planned 2 percent increase in hospital Medicaid payments. The proposed rate hike would have been the first increase hospitals have seen in a decade, according to the report. While finances are improving at Philadelphia-based Temple University Health System, the public hospital system is looking for long-term financial sustainability, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Five things to know: 1. The health system, which employs 9,800, is the public system for Philadelphia's poorest patients. A significant portion of patients are Medicaid beneficiaries. 2. Without the tens of millions in additional funding Pennsylvania has been providing, the system would go under. Just two years ago, Temple University Health officials were concerned their cash on hand would fall below the number the system's bondholders require and secured a $15 million line of credit as a precaution. The system has even considered selling its most profitable operation, the Fox Chase Cancer Center, to improve financial performance. 3. Richard Englert, EdD, president of Temple University, told The Philadelphia Inquirer: "Over many years, the university has been looking at this, looking essentially at the sustainability of our healthcare enterprise. We have to get ahead of the curve." 4. Another factor challenging Temple University Health's sustainability is competing with other Philadelphia health systems like Penn Medicine, UPMC and Jefferson Health, according to the report. 5. Although Temple University Health posted an operating income of $17.2 million in 2018, the health system's financial metrics are below industry standards. Its operating cash flow margin totals 5.2 percent, compared to the industry average of 8.1 percent. It also has 77 days cash on hand, compared to an industry average of 210. To view the full article from The Philadelphia Inquirer, click here. Atul Gawande, MD, who was selected as the chief executive of the Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase health venture last summer, has outlined several ways he plans to tackle skyrocketing healthcare costs, according to CNN. Four things to know: 1. Dr. Gawande, who also works as a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, faces significant expectations and pressures in his role as leader of the venture, called Haven. "The pressure is, can Atul find the secret sauce that many others have missed. The cynic in me ... wonders if anybody can make a difference. The optimist in me would say that if anybody can make a difference, it's probably Atul," Niall Brennan, president and CEO of the Health Care Cost Institute, told CNN. "He's a god-like rockstar in healthcare. Atul is an incredible visionary thinker and clinician with also a track record of innovation." 2. While little has been revealed about Haven, the organization's primary goal is to make access to primary care easier, make insurance benefits simpler to understand and make prescription drugs more affordable for the companies' combined 1.2 million employees. 3. Dr. Gawande has previously said he plans to focus the venture's efforts on reducing prices and removing some of the middlemen in the industry to lessen administrative costs. He has acknowledged that the mission is challenging, but that "the good news is the best results are not the most complicated or expensive. The right care in the right place is often more effective and less costly than what we get today," he said in a statement to CNN. 4. Haven isn't the first organization to attempt to mitigate rising healthcare costs for employees. CNN reports several large employers have tried to institute changes, but have seen minimal results. Among them is General Motors' partnership with Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System to provide care to more than 24,000 GM workers and their families. To access the full report, click here. Technical professionals at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, Vt., voted to ratify a new contract with hospital management. The three-year deal covers about 340 technical professionals represented by the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals. It includes wage increases and market adjustments of 10 percent to 25 percent over the life of the contract, hospital officials said in a news release. They said the increases are based on comprehensive market analysis for each job, along with factors such as recruitment and retention data. Both sides began negotiations in December, about three months after the hospital's unionized nurses ratified a contract. Negotiations with the technical professionals were similar to negotiations with nurses in that technicians also wore red and fought for working conditions to improve patient care, union officials said in a news release. Union leaders said technical professionals "will continue to fight for patient safety issues, including appropriate rest periods between shifts and to extend important benefits equitably to all tech employees." The medical center praised the agreement. "We believe this agreement, which provides meaningful wage increases, recognizes the varied and vital work and dedication of the hospital's technical employees," said Chris Oliver, the hospital's vice president of clinical services. "We all share a commitment to providing high quality, affordable healthcare for the communities we serve, and to being responsible stewards of limited healthcare dollars. This agreement helps to make that possible." More articles on human capital and risk: University of California patient care workers say they'll join March 20 strike CHI St. Alexius workers vote to unionize in North Dakota Hospitals and unions: 7 recent conflicts, agreements A Kansas physician was sentenced to life in prison on March 8 after he was convicted of selling opioid prescriptions to patients without a legitimate medical reason, according to the Wichita Eagle. The sentencing came after Steven R. Henson, MD, was convicted of several federal charges in October, including illegally distributing pain medication. A federal investigation revealed patients would pay Dr. Henson $300 in cash for pain medication prescriptions. At the sentencing hearing, Judge J. Thomas Marten said Dr. Henson "abused his position of trust as a licensed physician," according to the report. One man died after overdosing on drugs Dr. Henson prescribed him. The count relating to the man's death resulted in Dr. Henson's life sentence. "I want this case to send a message to physicians and the healthcare community," U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said in a statement to the Wichita Eagle. "Unlawfully distributing opioids and other controlled substances is a federal crime that could end a medical career and send an offender to prison." Access the full Wichita Eagle article here. More articles on legal and regulatory issues: 9 latest healthcare industry lawsuits Former UPMC employee pleads guilty to criminal HIPAA violation Payroll employee charged with stealing $550K from NY hospitals A former employee of the Veterans Affairs North Carolina and Virginia regional office is claiming senior staff illegally accessed his medical records after he filed a whistle-blower case, according to CBS affiliate WBTV. In February 2018, Joseph Edger, then a deputy network director at the regional office, filed a whistle-blower complaint accusing DeAnne Seekins, regional office director, of retaliating against him. Mr. Edger said he took action against Ms. Seekins when she served as director of Durham (N.C.) VA Medical Center, where they once worked together, accusing her of harassment, defamation and creating an inappropriate work environment. Mr. Edger claims in his lawsuit that after he filed his whistle-blower case, Ms. Seekins set up a plan to fire him, and records indicate senior officials began viewing Mr. Edger's medical records. A report given to Mr. Edger showed four senior officials at the regional office and Durham VA Medical Center gained access to his medical records 12 times in less than two weeks from June 15-25, 2018. The report also stated the senior employees who viewed the medical records worked with Ms. Seekins. As a retired Army officer, Mr. Edger receives treatment at Durham VA Medical Center. In his two years as a patient, physicians viewed his records 20 times in a span, he said. The report gave no evidence that Ms. Seekins herself viewed the medical records. Ms. Seekins and the regional office declined to comment on the allegations to WBTV. 3000ad/iStock(WASHINGTON) -- In his proposed 2020 budget released Monday, President Donald Trump indicated there would be major cuts in domestic programs and boosts to spending at the Department of Defense. Trump is also calling for 5 percent cuts to non-defense spending. Under the plan, the Environmental Protection Agency would see a 31 percent decrease in funding, the Education Department would take a 12 percent cut and the Department of Energy an 11 percent decrease. Here are some highlights from the White House's proposal. Environmental Protection Agency The proposed budget contains massive cuts to the agency overall and various environmental programs. According to the proposal, the cuts are to "voluntary and lower-priority activities," so that the agency could focus on finalizing replacements to Obama-era policies, improving the agency's toxic chemicals program, cleaning up contaminated sites, helping communities remove hazards at schools like lead and asbestos and providing more money to improve water infrastructure. The proposal eliminates $650 million in programs, including programs focused on areas the agency says are a priority: Multiple programs specifically focused on reducing risks of lead exposure and improving water quality The program that researches health risks from endocrine disrupting chemicals like BPA, the agency says it will be absorbed into the pesticides program A partnership between federal agencies, states, and advocacy groups to improve the Gulf of Mexico Locally focused programs including the Long Island Sound, San Francisco Bay, and Everglades and Florida Keys A program that addresses indoor pollution and asthma triggers like secondhand smoke, mold, and pests $10 million in infrastructure programs to improve waster facilities along the U.S.-Mexico border. Local programs focused on the Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes face 90 percent cuts to their budgets. In previous years Congress has rejected similar cuts and kept EPA's funding mostly consistent or increased funding for some programs. The State Department Trump's budget proposal hits the State Department again with deep cuts, even after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo promised to get the department's "swagger" back and "get the team on the field." This is the first proposal under Pompeo, but the budget still calls for a nearly 24 percent decrease in funding for State and USAID. The proposal provides an additional $13.6 million for human resources and $11 million for the Foreign Service Institute, which trains diplomats. However, despite the department's empty senior positions and chronic vacancies overseas, as documented in a new government report, the budget proposal largely keeps staff levels even, according to budget director Douglas Pitkin. The cuts instead would come from U.S. contributions to international organizations like the United Nations, peacekeeping missions overseas in places like Darfur and Haiti, global health and refugee programs and a reorganization of USAID and how it distributes humanitarian assistance. Those have been part of Trump's foreign policy for two years now, although other positions are contrasted by the budget request: While Trump has threatened to slash aid to Central American countries over immigration, the budget proposal calls for increased economic assistance to enhance "governance and boost local economies to discourage illegal immigration," according to Deputy Secretary John Sullivan. Last month, Trump announced a new initiative to "defeat AIDS in America and beyond," yet his budget calls for major cuts to programs that treat and combat HIV/AIDS overseas. Congress has rejected these proposed cuts for the past two years when Republicans controlled both chambers. Now, with Democrats in charge of the House, this year's proposal is even less likely to be enacted. Rep. Eliot Engel, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has already released a statement calling it "dead on arrival." Medicaid Trump wants the government to cut some $1.4 trillion in the next 10 years from federal Medicaid spending and shift most of that money to state-run grant programs. The federal program provides medical assistance to millions of low-income and disabled Americans and the move would essentially wipe out the expansion effort led under President Barack Obama, in favor of limited block grants. According to the administration, the plan is provide additional flexibility to states and put Medicaid on a path to fiscal stability by restructuring its financing and reducing waste. Immigration enforcement The budget proposal aims to ramp up immigration enforcement on the border and within the U.S. In addition to $8.6 billion more for the border wall, the plan would fund 5,000 new Border Patrol Agents, allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to add 10,000 officers and investigators and expand detention centers, according to the White House budget office. When Trump first came into office, ICE facilities held an average of 34,376 people on any given day. Last week that number topped 50,000 and the new proposed budget would allow for further increases. The proposal also includes proposals aimed at sanctuary cities. The measures would allow the administration to withhold funding from cities that dont cooperate with specific federal immigration enforcement activities and requests. The Trump administrations efforts to crack down on these jurisdictions have been stopped by appellate courts multiple times. The proposal would also increase Justice Department funding to grow the number of immigration judges by nearly 20 percent, the budget office says. The judges face a record backlog of cases, made worse by the government shutdown earlier this year. Education The Trump administration is looking to cut $7.1 billion from the department compared to what it was given last year. The cuts would include eliminating 29 programs that "do not address national needs, duplicate other programs, are ineffective, are poorly targeted, or are more appropriately supported by State, local, or private funds." You can read more about the proposal for the Education Department here. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has announced that visa fee for entering Ghana from the United Kingdom (UK) has been reduced, adding that the move is expected to be replicated across the countrys missions worldwide. She made the announcement when she addressed members of the Ghanaian community, diplomats and business personalities and others during the celebration of Ghanas 62nd Independence anniversary in the UK. Recounting the constraints that Ghana has faced, she nonetheless pointed out that there has been remarkable progress across the various sectors. The minister was particularly enthusiastic about gains made in the trade and investment sector. She applauded the growing relations between Ghana and the UK, saying it is transitioning from aid dependence to one of trade and economic partnership. The growing relations between the two countries have seen the inauguration of the UK/Ghana Business Council, which has informed the signing of a communique. According to the minister, this would further boost the trade and investment relations between the two countries and prepare the grounds for improved relations as the Brexit negotiations approach closure. On tourism, Ms Botchwey encouraged Ghanaians in the Diaspora, people of African descent and all well-wishers and lovers of freedom to ensure that the blots on Ghanas history would never recur. She encouraged Ghanaians to take advantage of the 2019 Year of Return celebrations to see at first hand developments taking place in the country. I am hopeful that participating in this event will enable many of our compatriots to take the bold step of moving back home and contributing to the development of our motherland, she stated. Ghanas High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Papa Owusu Ankomah said his outfit had taken steps to reduce to the barest minimum the involvement of Ghanaians in criminal activities in the UK. He emphasized the importance of strengthening the bond of friendship between the two countries. The UKs envoy to the Commonwealth, Philip Parnham, could not agree more when he took his turn to address the gathering. He was full of praise for Ghanas role in supporting not only the UK but also the values of the Commonwealth such as democracy, good governance, peace, mutual understanding and reconciliation, which underscored the theme for the 2019 Independence celebration. Ghanas 62nd Independence celebration as commemorated in the UK also showcased the rich Ghanaian culture through food, performances and regalia. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video After being ranked as one of the lowest performing hospitals in the country for adult heart surgeries in August 2018, University Hospital in San Antonio is retooling its heart care program, according to San Antonio Express-News. In August, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons gave the hospital one star, its lowest ranking, for overall performance in aortic valve replacement surgery as well as for combined aortic valve and coronary artery bypass surgery. The hospital's scores improved slightly in January after data from the first half of 2018 was included it was bumped up to two stars for aortic valve replacement surgery. However, University Hospital remains among the lowest ranking hospitals for heart surgery. The hospital's heart surgeons did note there are certain factors, such as socioeconomic and insurance status, that are not included in STS ratings. University Hospital is a safety net hospital and thus may accommodate more uninsured patients or patients with more comorbidities. But the surgeons have acknowledged they are unsatisfied with the scores. The hospital has undertaken several initiatives to improve its cardiac program, including a nursing protocol that aims to help patients get off ventilators more quickly when possible. This protocol helped reduce the hospital's bypass surgery morbidity rate from 18 percent to 13.2 percent. Another initiative involves ensuring the hospital is accurately reporting information to STS through data collection reviews, internal audit and classification processes. Additionally, the hospital is more closely examining comorbidities that can increase patient risk for surgery. "We're guilty. We had a one-star rating. I don't think it's reflective of the entire program," said John Calhoon, MD, director of the University Health System/UT Health Heart and Vascular Institute, told San Antonio Express-News. "It nonetheless is reflective of the data we turned in. We found some data we didn't turn in. We're working to make sure our reports are as accurate as possible. We're very humbly proud that we report." Philadelphia-based PennMedicine's Kristy Weber, MD, will become the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons first-ever female president at AAOS 2019, March 12-16 in Las Vegas. An accomplished orthopedic oncology expert, Dr. Weber discussed the goals for her term, AAOS recently implemented five-year strategic plan and the biggest challenges in orthopedics with Becker's Spine Review. Note: Responses have been edited for style. Question: What does it mean to you to be AAOS' 1st female president? Dr. Kristy Weber: It's a great honor for me. I'm quite moved by this role. There aren't many women in the Academy, so I have definitely stood on the shoulders of others. I look forward to being a role model and breaking through this glass ceiling. It's important for me because it allows other people to see that it's possible. Not just for this particular spot, but in all aspects of leadership in orthopedics. The phrase is: 'you can't be what you can't see,' so it allows people to see a woman in a leadership role and see that she's, hopefully, doing a good job. You just don't see a lot of women in prominent leadership positions in orthopaedics. It'll be one small piece in the overall effort to make our field more diverse. Q: What are your goals coming into your presidency? KW: The goal of my term most broadly is to execute the strategic plan the Board of Directors just approved. I led a task force with outside consultants and we defined a strategic plan for the Academy. We've had strategic plans before, but we haven't always lived up to them. We're going to make this one as focused as possible and have the staff in our Chicago office also follow the plan. Everything they'll do will be accountable to the plan. We will use metrics and objectives, and make clear, focused efforts to accomplish the plan. I want to bring that level of rigor and focus to the Academy. We do a lot of things for a lot of people, and now we're really going to move forward on areas we think are the most important. Q: Can you elaborate on the strategic plan? KW: Our mission is still the same, but our vision to be the trusted leaders in advancing musculoskeletal health is new. We have three strategic goals: The first goal deliver a personalized and seamless member experience is about personalizing member experience. We want to be more like Google. We want to send you something you need, when you want it and in a style that you want. Everything will be personalized to what you want. Whether it's educational materials, video, digital books, course information, quality and advocacy information. To do this, we must know more about our members. We should've done this years ago, but we are trying to catch up in this digital age. A lot of our work here is focused on the educational piece of the academy, but it also goes beyond that into how we communicate with our members. The second goal equip members to thrive in value-based environments and advance the quality of orthopedic care is a big deal because the future is all about the value-based environment we are in. We've had clinical practice guidelines and appropriate use criteria for almost 10-years now, but this is even broader than that. This pulls in our new registry effort, and that's huge. We've started registries on a national scale to be able to get information to and inform our Academys quality efforts. But really, we're trying to move our members into thinking, 'This is the future.' We're not going to be in the fee-for-service landscape anymore. People have done well financially with those models, but right now it's all about value-based care and what evidence we have to show we're helping patients. We're trying to help our members thrive in that environment. The third goal Evolve the culture and governance of AAOS's board and volunteer structure to become more strategic, innovative, and diverse is about looking at culture and trying to think more strategically about the future and with an innovative mindset. We're also the least diverse medical specialty out there. Q: Elaborating on goal three, what do you see as the biggest challenge facing orthopedics this year? KW: I don't know that orthopedics as a field is prepared to meet the demand of the increasing patient population. We have an increasing population, people are living longer, and more people are older. The number of hip and knee replacements projected to be done in the next decade is staggering. Corollary to that, the population is becoming increasingly diverse. Do we have the workforce to meet that demand, and do we have a diverse enough workforce? The answer is no, we absolutely do not. The U.S. has a diverse patient population, so we need diverse practitioners in orthopedics to provide the care needed. It's been shown if your workforce mirrors the patient population, you're going to take better care of them. Someone who isn't a white male may prefer a doctor that looks more like them. If we are going to provide care to this increasing diverse population in a value-based system, we need to change. We need to be able to use evidence to demonstrate the value of musculoskeletal care in an evidence-based way. There's an increasing population that will live in that value-based space, and we need to have enough providers that mirror the increasing diversity of patients. Q: What's one thing about the Academy you'd want orthopedic surgeons to know: KW: I think it's a new day at the Academy. There may have been people who stepped away from the organization in the past several years. They may have thought we just weren't relevant. We're working to change that. With the strategic plan we just approved, we wont finish everything in the first month. It's a five-year plan, but I would hope members would give us a chance and look at the value we're going to deliver in the education and quality spaces, and look at how we're going to change the culture to be more relevant to our members and for our patients. Penn Medicine opened a new $10 million spine center at Pennsylvania Hospital, both based in Philadelphia. Four things to know: 1. The Spine Center at Pennsylvania Hospital includes both inpatient and outpatient care as well as nonsurgical treatment, pain management and imaging capabilities. 2. The facility includes space for patient visits, and affiliated physicians will offer virtual visits from the location. 3. Penn Medicine's spine program serves patients from across the region, including in Central Pennsylvania and New Jersey. 4. The center's multidisciplinary team includes specialists in orthopedics, neurosurgery, neurology, physical medicine, pain management, radiology and others on site. "Our physicians, nurse practitioners and staff collaborate with a team-based approach when caring for spine patients, working together to deliver the best treatment options possible for our patients," said William Welch, MD, medical director of the Penn Spine Center at Pennsylvania Hospital and chair of the neurosurgery department at Pennsylvania Hospital. "Increasing the efficiency of treatment will help get patients back on their feet as quickly as possible while also reducing some of the financial burden that spine disorders can place on patients and their families." Around 70% of entrepreneurs and investors polled at an all-island conference say access to finance has improved in the last five years, although investor readiness remains a challenge. The sentiments were revealed at an annual IntertradeIreland Venture Capital Conference. The event in Dublin's Croke Park stadium was attended by over 400 entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, business angels and investors. When asked about the main barriers to raising investment support as a start-up, 46% said investor readiness was a key challenge, while 38% cited a lack of access to suitable investors or funds as a hurdle. Margaret Hearty, director of Programmes and Business Services at InterTradeIreland said: "Venture capital continues to be an increasingly popular route for businesses wanting to grow, with latest figures from the Irish Venture Capital Association (IVCA) reporting a strong rebound in the final quarter of last year, achieving its highest quarterly total of nearly 20m (17.3m). The number of options for funding is expanding year-on-year, so it's vital that companies have the right information to help them access these funds and are investor ready." InterTradeIreland offers SMEs a number of equity support services. Since its launch it has supported over 39,000 SMEs. Brexit fears and uncertainty continue to grow among Northern Ireland businesses as new analysis from Ulster Bank reveals near-stagnation in economic output. The lender has released its last purchasing managers index (PMI) before the UK is scheduled to leave the EU on March 29. The highly-regarded monthly business monitoring report is considered a health check on the state of the economy. Read More It showed near-stagnation in economic output in Northern Ireland during February, with total new orders falling for the first time in 28 months. The survey said Brexit uncertainty was resulting in some customers holding off committing to new projects, resulting in the first dip in new business since October 2016. It also revealed a sharp drop in new export business, a lowering of staffing levels for the second month running and a prevailing mood of negativity within the business community here. Northern Ireland is the only UK region where firms expect business output to be lower in 12 months' time, according to the PMI. "Last month was perhaps the point of peak uncertainty and fear regarding a potential 'no-deal exit' from the EU," said Ulster Bank's Chief Economist Richard Ramsey. "This uncertainty is very much reflected in the latest report. "Private sector firms saw a marked deterioration in business conditions, with output growth almost grinding to halt, employment falling, new orders decreasing, and export orders falling at their fastest pace in 69 months," he said. "In terms of output, private sector growth eased to a 29-month low, with services being the only sector to remain in expansion mode. Manufacturing output stagnated but both construction and retail saw rapid rates of decline." The index revealed that retail sales fell at their fastest rate in almost four years during February, a trend that looks set to continue with orders also falling at their fastest rate in 49 months. Services stood out as the sole sector recording a rise in new orders, although Mr Ramsey called the growth "relatively modest". He said: "In relation to employment, Northern Ireland was one of nine UK regions to experience a fall in February, driven by the services sector which had until January seen almost two-and-a-half years of growth." Even among the firms reporting a rise in output, some said the work had been linked to contingencies for Brexit. Others said that the uncertainty had led to falls in activity. The economist said that while Brexit is clearly a factor in all aspects of the report, other issues remain at play, including the wider economic slowdown across Europe, concerns over global trade, and the ongoing restructuring of the retail sector. Cross-border business body InterTrade Ireland (ITI) has reported a surge in demand for its Brexit support schemes. The Newry-based organisation, which helps small businesses explore cross-border markets, has received 1,213 applications for its Brexit planning vouchers since they were introduced in May 2017. ITI said around 400 applications have been received in the past nine weeks. Last year the body carried out research which indicated that small businesses will feel the greatest impact from any change to the cost of cross-border trading after Brexit. The vouchers provide 2,000 toward financial advice for firms to help them understand their exposure to Brexit. With less than three weeks left until the UK is due to leave the EU, ITI has said it will now introduce an enhanced Brexit advisory service worth up to 4,500. It's also introducing a new online learning tool designed to help cross-border traders understand customs requirements. Warning firms against complacency, ITI's Aidan Gough said: "Over 11,000, largely small businesses in Northern Ireland, trade across the border. "To assist them, we have enhanced our support package by adding a new element to our voucher funding which is focused on implementing plans to mitigate risk and chase opportunity. "As we move closer to the March 29 deadline, the message is that it's still not too late to make preparations. "Through free, impartial, independent and up-to-date Brexit-related advice, alongside funding support, we are focused on helping as many SMEs as possible to prepare for whatever way Brexit ultimately evolves." Jenny McCartney (47) is a freelance journalist who formerly worked on the Sunday Telegraph for 19 years. It was there that she met her husband Rajeev Syal, also a journalist, and they have two children, a boy aged 13 and a girl of 9. Jenny is the daughter of well-known Northern Ireland lawyer Robert McCartney QC, who at one time led the UK Unionist Party and was a member of the Assembly. Her first novel, Ghost Factory, will be published on March 21. Q: Your novel is set in Belfast and begins near the end of the Troubles. Is there still an appetite in other parts of the UK for books set here? A: Milkman, which was set in Northern Ireland, won the Man Booker Prize, and is a wonderful read. On television Derry Girls is brilliant. But it is true that sometimes you see a gritty drama from Northern Ireland and your heart sinks. It may be very good but it is the revisiting of bad times. It feels a bit personal and you are reluctant to go back into that territory. Q: What is the theme of Ghost Factory? A: It was based on wondering how someone recovers from an experience of violence. Does someone who has been a victim turn to revenge or do they move on? That is an interesting question to me and a question for many people in Northern Ireland. I first reported on the issue of paramilitary attacks within communities in the mid-1990s, going back to Belfast for The Sunday Telegraph, and the stories of the youths - both Protestant and Catholic - who were at the wrong end of those attacks, stuck with me and became a theme of the novel. It's sad that so little has changed in reality today, but the hopeful bit is that there are some courageous people living in Northern Ireland who are working very hard to help end the attacks. Q: Do people in London, for example, realise that paramilitary attacks and violence against young people is still continuing in Northern Ireland? A: It is difficult to tell. Recently the Sunday Times commissioned me to write a peace on punishment beatings and shootings. I had not suggested the piece and the paper did not know that it was one of the themes of my book. The UK Press may not normally be interested in this sort of story, but even the Northern Ireland Press can just report another shooting or beating in a few paragraphs. But there is an enormous story behind the simple incident, the suffering of the victim, their recovery or perhaps non-recovery from the injuries or perhaps the descent into something worse like taking their own lives. It is an issue I don't think enough people pay enough attention to. If they were to see the human stories and the suffering they might be able to relate to the issue better. At the end of the day the consequences for those beaten or shot are disproportionate to the foolish mistake they may have made or the petty crime they are alleged to have committed. It is barbaric. Q: How long did it take you to write the novel which covers a fairly lengthy time span? A: I started writing it in the mid-1990s up until the new millennium but then life took over. I got married and had children and half of the book was stuck in a dilapidated computer stuck under a chest of drawers. I dug it out in 2014 but it was so old I had to get floppy discs to download what I had written and then I found someone on the internet who could recover the words from the discs. By this stage things had changed in Northern Ireland and I had to reflect that. I hope people will like it but if they don't there is nothing I can do about it. Expand Close Jenny McCartney on her wedding day with her father Bob McCartney / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jenny McCartney on her wedding day with her father Bob McCartney Q: Growing up you lived in a very nice part of Northern Ireland, North Down, went to Methody and later Keble College, Oxford. Were you insulated to an extent from the Troubles which affected so many of your contemporaries? A: Although I grew up in Cultra, my father was from the Shankill and my grandfather from the Donegall Road, so while growing up there was always talk and stories about those places and their memorable characters. I also had a good schoolfriend from the Village area of Belfast and as teenagers we used to stay over sometimes at each other's houses, so that helped a bit in imagining the fictional geography of the novel, which is some place in Belfast with close-knit terraced streets where it's hard to avoid other people noting what you're doing. Q: What was life like in your home given your father's prominence in public life here? A: It was a busy and talkative household. There was mum and dad, us four children and my granny and grandad. When my father went into politics in 1981 we became more attuned to the political atmosphere in Northern Ireland and of course we read all the newspapers and listened constantly to the news. The mindset at home was pro-Union but non-sectarian. I think my father was always more interested in the freedom to raise political ideas and principles than in preferment through party structures. I saw him primarily as my father, a very warm and supportive man. He had a very strong dissenting streak and that means one says what they think and that makes it hard for one to toe any party line. That has its advantages and disadvantages as a politician but I think people would agree that he was honest. Q: Were you glad to escape the city of the late 1980s to go to Oxford? A: My eldest sister had gone to London and that was a kind of template for me. When I was growing up I read books about different places and I had this notion of going away and living in places where I didn't know anyone and see what happened. I took a year out after Methody and went to Paris where I worked in a restaurant and then came back to London and worked in another restaurant and then went to Oxford. I was there for three years and then went to live in Prague. Expand Close Jenny McCartney and Rajeev Syal on their wedding day in Cultra. Pic by Alasdair McBroom / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jenny McCartney and Rajeev Syal on their wedding day in Cultra. Pic by Alasdair McBroom For a week I didn't speak to anyone and no one spoke to me. I called up my parents in a very self-pitying way as I really did not know anyone in the city. I think I would have done these things no matter where I grew up. I didn't see it as a final departure and I didn't feel bad about Northern Ireland. Q: Did you always want to be a journalist? A: I was always interested in English, both reading and writing essays. My great love as a child was to be left alone with a book. Growing up somewhere where we were steeped in political discussion and argument both inside and outside the home was a great grounding for someone wanting to be a journalist. I think there were a lot of people in Northern Ireland predisposed to going into journalism for that reason. I did some proof reading in an English language paper in Prague and later a City University course in journalism in London. Q: You have had a varied career to date. A: I began working on The Spectator and then was on the staff of the Sunday Telegraph for 19 years. I did a bit of reporting, feature writing, opinion columns and was film critic for 14 years. If anything came along I would always try it. I find there are just so many things that are interesting, and being a freelance journalist now gives you the choice to do interesting work. Q: What do you think of the Brexit debate? A: This idea of competing identities is something that Northern Ireland was used to, but not England. I believe there is a quiet majority hoping for an outbreak of common sense and seeing a consensus emerge. The political class seems to be in a nervous breakdown. At some point there will be a recovery but there then will need to be an analysis of why it happened. I do get a sense of the toxicity of politics in Northern Ireland. It is not for me to lecture anyone from over here in London, but it is a pity how things have turned out. You might have expected 20 years ago that we would be in a different place today and that communities could trust one another and talk to one another, However it is difficult to change things when you have a combination of this toxicity and the absence of a government for more than two years. Imagine if Westminster did not function for two years, yet it seems quite easily accepted in Northern Ireland. There does not seem to be the concern you think there should be. There is also growing toxicity in England. We are now in a position where certain female Labour politicians have panic buttons and get threats from both the right and the left. Ten years ago that would have been unacceptable. Q: Do you come back to Northern Ireland often? A: I am back and forward quite a lot to see parents, and my children love to come over. I don't feel disconnected from the place. When you come back to Belfast city centre it is fantastic in many ways. There is a different atmosphere and a great buzz in all the shops and restaurants, completely different from when I was growing up. But certain areas have been left behind. There are almost two cities - the one visitors see and enjoy and then the areas where people are very fearful and often that is not talked about. When you are afraid you don't talk. A lot of people who have experienced violence in areas where they still live won't talk about their experience for obvious reasons. Overall progress has been patchy and perhaps more could have been done to focus on those disadvantaged areas. Politics have atrophied and it is therefore difficult to take action or devise a scheme to help those places left behind. Around 70 people missed flights on Monday morning because of long security queues, Belfast International Airport managing director Graham Keddie has confirmed. He said they were determined to fix the issue which has long dogged the airport and they hoped there would be no more lengthly delays after Easter. He said compensation for those people that missed flights would be considered on a case-by-case basis. There were long queues through the airport on Monday morning with people forced to stand in the cold conditions outside the terminal. Mr Keddie said it was not a "great way to start the day". He apologised saying it was "embarrassing and humiliating" for the airport team to see the comments around the delays once again. He said the longest queuing time was just under an hour. "It's not great, we know what we have to do and we will fix it," he told the BBC. Read More Mr Keddie said he was "proud" of what the airport had achieved in the past despite the problems admitting work on security was needed which was ongoing and recruitment of staff "took time". He said many people had been recruited to fill vacant posts but they were awaiting security clearance. He said 1m had been invested on security upgrades. Belfast councillor Julie-Anne Corr-Johnston said some front-line staff bore the brunt of passengers' frustrations and were verbally abused. The International's rival, Dublin Airport, reported of a maximum wait of 15 minutes on Monday morning. While airline easyJet apologised to its customers, although said the issue was outside its control. It has said it works with the airport to minimise disruption. Frontline staff experiencing the brunt of the publics frustrations here at Belfast International. Conversing with one staff member he said hes ready to walk after being verbally abused for an issue outside of his control. Julie-Anne Corr-Johnston (@JulieACorr) March 11, 2019 Departing via @DublinAirport? You can check security queue times on our homepage https://t.co/cmaZDWiedf. Its currently 15 mins in T1 & 12 mins in T2. pic.twitter.com/VNNfDA0K5L Dublin Airport (@DublinAirport) March 11, 2019 Security at Belfast is managed by the Airport and although this is outside of our control, we would like to apologise to any affected passengers for any inconvenience. We would like to reassure passengers we will continue to work with the airport to minimise any disruption. 2/2 easyJet (@easyJet) March 11, 2019 Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Queues out the door at Belfast International Airport. Queues were through the terminal building at Belfast International Airport. Queues out the door at Belfast International Airport. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Queues out the door at Belfast International Airport. Alliance MLA Stewart Dickson has called for an investigation over the continued problems. He described Monday's queues as a "shambles". Mr Keddie said the airport conformed to all standards set out by regulatory authorities. The airport chief said on Thursday they would be back to six lanes and before Easter they would have eight fully-manned security posts. He blamed the long queues on work ongoing to expand the security area meaning space for queuing was reduced by 40% and stressed for people to arrive two hours before their flight departure. He told the Belfast Telegraph: "We are basically re-orientating all our search lanes by 90degrees. But initially we are turning three and we will have three sitting the other way. "So just to warn people queue space will reduce again because we are still working in those areas. But from Thursday we will be back to six lanes and by Easter it will be eight lanes. "It will improve from Thursday you will see a vast improvement from then and before Easter there will be a dramatic improvement." Belfast International Airport travellers have vented their frustration as queues for security stretched out the door of the terminal building on Monday morning. The airport is in the process of expanding its security area after long delays hampered those passing through the airport on numerous occasions over the past year. Read More On Monday morning travellers took to social media with pictures of long queues snaking through the airport, down the stairs and out the door. Many said the experience was a "joke" with some saying there was no information or announcements other than for an security announcement about leaving bags unattended. "Where in the world would you see this?" asked one Twitter user. Aine Lagan (21) attends King's College university in London studying politics, philosophy and law. She would regularly travel through the airport but said she had never seen it so bad and this was the first time she had got caught up in the queues. She said she found staff "unwilling" to help and when she told someone she would miss her flight she was told the only option was to purchase a fast-track security pass online which cost 4 to make the gate. "Thank God there was space otherwise I would have never got through," she told the Belfast Telegraph from the departure lounge. "I got there at 8am and was told there was a 40/50 minute wait for security. The queues was wrapped around the building. People were very frustrated and quite annoyed." Expand Close Aine Lagan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Aine Lagan Aine, from mid-Ulster said she thought it "odd" there did not appear to be staff telling people in the queue what was happening. "It was only when I went to them and they were very unwilling to help," she said, "They told me I should have been there two hours before." The airport said there was staff going along the queue to hand out information to travellers and all security posts were full manned. It said the space for queueing was reduced while work was taking place to expand security. Last year the airport changed its contractor responsible for security. It has in the past blamed low staff numbers with a recruitment drive launched to fill the gaps. "We are currently expanding the size of our security search area to include eight search lanes, however, to do this we have had to reduce the security lanes from six to five and also reduced the queueing space with the security search area," a spokeswoman said. "All security lanes are open and fully manned. "We understand this has caused some delays and continue to advise passengers to arrive two hours prior departure." From Jim Wray's grave in the cold and lonely cemetery overlooking Londonderry his brother Liam can see the spot in the Bogside where the 22-year-old fell after being killed by a British Paratrooper on January 30, 1972. Jim was shot twice as he ran for cover in Glenfada Park. Two witnesses to the Saville Inquiry said he was lying on the ground, wounded when a soldier fired the shot that snuffed out his life. Read More As snow settled on his headstone, Liam (65) says the family have waited a lifetime for this week. For after 47 years they will discover on Thursday if soldiers involved in Jim's death will face prosecution. He says they have never given up fighting for justice for the man they knew as "the gentle giant". "There is an anticipation and anxiety coming into this week," he said. "After 47 years obviously this is a moment in time that our family have, from day one, always demanded happen. It will be a big day when we hear the news and we just hope that it won't be a big disappointment. "I am caught up with those emotions - hope and a little bit of fear over what will happen. "I wouldn't be a blubbery type of person, but I feel that this last few days. Maybe it's the tension, the anxiety and the fear that you could go in and not get a good result. But we will not give up. We will still keep going to get the truth." Liam says he relives the horrific memories daily of the day he lost his "big brother". His mother Sarah died two years later. Family members have dedicated their entire lives to seeking justice and ensuring that what happened on Bloody Sunday never happens again. He says he wants his brother's death "not to have been in vain". He does not, however, want soldiers to serve time in jail. "I certainly want prosecutions," he said. "I wouldn't care if soldier F and H were prosecuted and convicted of the murder of my brother and the judge said that they could go home and behave themselves. It's not about vengeance. I don't care if they never spend a day in jail. I would get no pleasure or satisfaction from that. "Forty-seven years ago it might have. But now it wouldn't make one iota of difference to my life if they were told they were convicted murderers and told to go home." Yards away in the City Cemetery Kate Nash (69) tends to her brother William's grave. The 19-year-old dock worker was shot in the chest near the Rossville Street barricade. His dad Alex saw his son being shot and went to help him, and was then shot himself. Ms Nash says her stomach is "in knots" waiting for this week's news on possible prosecutions. She has dedicated her life to being a voice for her brother and says the families, "just want justice". "I want prosecutions and I want convictions," she said. "My view is that whatever a judge decides is punishment, I will accept. I want murder convictions, that is what is important to me. "The sentence would not be important to me, it is the prosecution and conviction. That would give me a little closure because it is a burden too. There's a constant struggle in my mind and thinking 'how dare they do this', all the emotions you go through. "I hear politicians talking about jailing this one and that one, but not soldiers, because they shouldn't have to face that. What makes them special that they shouldn't have to face it?" Across the city in the Waterside, DUP MP Gregory Campbell says the unionist community feels "angry over double standards". He says that soldier prosecutions will set a "bad precedent" and that the two police officers killed in the city by the IRA in the days before Bloody Sunday "have been totally forgotten". "It appears that there is a hierarchy of victimhood," he claimed. "Because there are some relatives of victims who seem to get an inordinate amount of money, resources, investigations and now possibly challenges in court to lead to conviction or whatever, whereas for others there are none of that. So there is nothing that displays a hierarchy of victimhood more than that. "So there is anger that there is a two-speed system of justice, whereas the infinitesimally small number of people who were killed by the state services compared to those killed at the hand of terrorists - like at Claudy, La Mon, Kingsmills - get very little if any attention paid to them, and certainly no prosecutions. And this week we will again see evidence of double standards." In England, as soldiers involved in the events of Bloody Sunday await to hear their fate, Alan Barry, founder of the Justice for Northern Ireland Veterans group, claimed pushing for convictions in the Bloody Sunday case is "sick and twisted". "I do not condone what happened on Bloody Sunday. I think it was awful, certainly discipline was an issue. But no one knows how you are going to act when you come under fire. And the soldiers that day were fired upon and mistakes were made. "Why is it that nationalist community cannot live with the past and put it behind them? Why is it that they feel the need for old men to be dragged through the legal system? Basically, it's sick and twisted. This isn't about closure, it's about revenge and it's about the republican machine of Sinn Fein constantly pumping their narrative into people's heads where we are portrayed as the bad guys and the IRA are the portrayed as these Robin Hood freedom fighter characters." The Chief of Staff at the Office of President Hon. Akosua Frema Osei-Opare has commissioned the newly refurbished Press Center at the Ministry of Information. The facility can now boast of a self production suite and a new guest lounge for visiting ministers and the Press. Madame Akosua Frema Osei-Opare disclosed that the refurbishment of the Press Center was part of Governments rehabilitation agenda to help the ministry function effectively. The Ministry continues to play a key role in communicating Governments policies and programs to the people of Ghana. That is why Government sees the need to provide the requisite logistics and resources to deliver on the mandate that has been given to the Ministry of Information she said. She commended the efforts of the Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, his deputies and the staff of the ministry for helping to facilitate the communication of Governments plans, policies and activities. In his address the Minister for Information Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah was optimistic the refurbished centre will provide a more comfortable working environment for Government actors and the media. When it comes to building a relationship of working together in pursuance of a common agenda and that agenda being building a nation great and strong that is why we believe, it is important to have a comfortable space within which we engage the media on regular basis. This is the standard worldwide he said. According to him, government will continue to execute initiatives to further the exercise of deepening engagements between state actors and media. The ceremony was attended by former Ministers of the Ministry of Information, the National Media Commission Chairman Yaw Boadu Ayeboafo, President of the GJA Affail Monney as well as directors and staff of the Ministry of Information. Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Ambrose_wash Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The UK and Irish labour parties will work together to provide a voice for social democrats in Northern Ireland following the SDLPs link-up with Fianna Fail, Brendan Howlin has said. The Irish Labour Party leader said he has already held lengthy discussions with Jeremy Corbyn on how their respective parties will respond to the development. He also called on the Party of European Socialists (PES) of which the SDLP, Irish and UK labour parties are all members to investigate whether the SDLP should remain part of the political grouping. Mr Howlin was in Belfast on Monday to hear the views of a range of people aligned with the labour tradition, including members of the SDLP who opposed the partnership with Fianna Fail. We are still in development phase, redevelopment and rebuilding phase in the RepublicBrendan Howlin I think there is a significant view within the SDLP that they want to hold onto the Labour Party tradition, the John Hume tradition, the Party of European Socialists tradition, which is really important, he said. Mr Howlin, who was accompanied by Labour senator Ged Nash, also met with members of the Labour Party NI, the Co-operative Party, trade unionists and academics. Asked if he would countenance running candidates north of the border, Mr Howlin told the Press Association: We havent ruled anything out, but we have no illusions about our strength either. We are still in development phase, redevelopment and rebuilding phase in the Republic. There are those coming to talk to me today who are encouraging the Labour Party to do that (run in Northern Ireland), there are others who would prefer that we would support the British Labour Party to do that. My own view is we need to have dialogue between both British and Irish labour parties to see how we can jointly support the creation of an entity that would be a social democratic labour party that is one that continues a tradition. I have spoken with Jeremy Corbyn, I met him at the last PES (Party of European Socialists) congress two weeks ago in Madrid and we had a long discussion about this. We have obviously concerns about any formal link between a party that is still a member of the European Socialists and a non-PES party. Fianna Fail is a member of the ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) group in the European family and our view, both British Labour Party and our own, is that these are questions that need to be answered now by the PES. They have to investigate to see how close is this relationship and are they moving away from social democracy and, if that is the case, then obviously they can no longer be a member of the PES family. The Labour TD said he was disappointed how SDLP leader Colum Eastwood had handled the issue, noting that the Foyle MLA had not called him to let him know his intentions. I am disappointed, I am disappointed he didnt discuss this with me because we have met and spoken at European Socialist leaders conferences in the past, he said. He didnt attend either the last two PES leaders meetings and he didnt attend the last British Labour Party conference. I dont know whether he just didnt want to have that level of discussion. We have worked together for a very long time. I asked him directly and I wasnt briefed about what was happening. Thats fine. The SDLP is its own party, it determines its own direction, from a Labour Party perspective I am just interested in ensuring that Labour Party values are maintained across the island of Ireland. He said former SDLP leader Mark Durkan did ring him to discuss his decision to stand for Fine Gael in the European elections a move he described as surprising. SDLP councillor Mairia Cahill, who is a former Labour Party senator in the Oireachtas, was among those who met Mr Howlin on Monday. She described their discussion as an informal chat. I think its healthy obviously a discussion needs to be had, she said. The SDLP have changed through the 70% vote of its membership the relationship with the Labour Party by going into partnership with Fianna Fail. Ms Cahill said she was content to remain a member of the SDLP, having received assurances from Mr Eastwood. I was an advocate of partnership with all of the parties in the south, because I believe that is actually more healthy in relation to politics here. The SDLP is a broad church. I have spoken to Colum and am quite happy that he has agreed to allow Labour to continue to help and support people who are running for election and, on that basis, I am still a member of the SDLP. DUP councillor Pamela Barr, sister-in-law to former MLA Jonathan Bell, has resigned from the party citing issues with the current leadership. Councillor Barr had been deselected by the party to run in May's local government elections. She had been in the party for two decades and an elected representative in the Newtownabbey for 18 years. In her resignation letter sent on Monday morning to the party's headquarters and seen by the Belfast Telegraph, the school teacher and mother of two said she was "hurt" by the recent actions of some but heartened by the private messages of support she had received. Her brother-in-law, the former Strangford DUP MLA Jonathan Bell, broke party ranks in December 2016 to make a series of explosive claims about the Renewable Heat Incentive cash for ash scandal. Mr Bell was Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment, the department responsible for the scheme, during the time it was closed for applications. Councillor Barr said she felt that under the current leadership her position in the party had become "untenable". She said she needed time to collect her thoughts. Asked if she would be running in the next election she would only say she was "taking one decision at a time". In the 2014 local government elections Mrs Barr narrowly secured her seat for the Threemilewater area with just two votes between her and the unsuccessful TUV candidate. As chair of Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council's Policy and Governance Committee, she will lose the position for the final six weeks of the council term. Read More Party sources in the area said they were surprised at her move so close to the dissolution of the council, although acknowledged she was unhappy at her deselection. It is understood she was interviewed in the selection process by MLAs from Jonathan Bell's Strangford constituency and only narrowly lost out on securing the party backing for the May poll. Mrs Barr had been encouraged to stay with the party. Sources said she was unhappy with the leadership of Arlene Foster and those "driving the agenda" to deselect her. "She could have stayed in the background for 18 months or so and who knows the opportunities that would present themselves?" said one DUP insider. "I don't think she would get elected if she ran as an independent in such an urban unionist area." Mrs Barr had supported former DUP MLA Jonathan Bell after he stood as an independent for Assembly election in 2017. "Ok she supported Jonathan Bell for his election which didn't go down too well. But I think people need to look at it in the context of she was supporting family," said our source. In February after it was confirmed she would not be running in the forthcoming election, Mrs Barr said ended her tenure with her "head held high". Jonathan Bell was suspended by the DUP following his public comments about the RHI scheme. Mr Bell later stood for election in 2017 as an independent candidate after separating from the DUP in a move that was backed by his sister-in-law. Although he failed to retain his seat. The DUP's leader on Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council Phillip Brett added: "I am deeply saddened by Pamelas decision to resign, but respect her choice. "I would like to thank her for her service to the party and her friendship. I wish her and her family all the very best for the future. A DUP spokesperson said: "Cllr Barr has indicated that she wishes to resign her membership of the Party. We are disappointed that she has decided to take this step but wish her well for the future." Pamela Barr resignation letter in full It is with great sadness that after 20 years of membership and 18 years as an Elected Representative, that I wish to tender my resignation from the Democratic Unionist Party. I have been both disappointed and hurt by the recent actions of some and whilst I have been heartened by the private messages of support from many party colleagues, I feel that under the current leadership my position in the party has become untenable. It is for this reason that I wish to resign with immediate effect. Kind Regards Pamela Barr The scene at Cabragh filling station outside Dungannon after the raid A digger was set alight after the only cash machine in a rural Co Tyrone community was stolen yesterday morning, according to police. The PSNI has been urged to do more to combat the growing problem of rural ATM thefts after the machine was ripped out of a filling station on the Ballygawley Road, Dungannon, at around 4.15am, causing substantial damage to the building. Police believe the digger was stolen from a business a short distance away. The excavator was set alight at the scene immediately after the theft. A digger was also used to rip an ATM out of the wall of a bank at Main Street, Kingscourt, Co Cavan, at around 4am yesterday. In both cases, the cash machine was placed on a trailer being towed by a jeep-style vehicle or SUV. After the Co Cavan theft the vehicle left in the direction of Carrickmacross. Just three weeks ago a stolen digger was used to rip an ATM from the wall of another filling station in Co Tyrone. Retail groups have warned that retailers may stop offering ATMs as a service in rural areas in response to the raids. Retail NI's Glyn Roberts said: "With five ATM robberies in the past few months, these attacks are now a major problem for local retailers. The PSNI need to redouble their efforts to put the criminal gangs behind these attacks in front of the courts. "With so many bank branch closures in rural towns and villages in recent years, our members' ATMs provide an invaluable service to their local communities. There is a real danger our members could start to remove these ATMs if these attacks continue, leaving many rural areas without the ability to access cash." Mid Ulster DUP councillor Wills Robinson said the theft of the ATM at Cabragh was "another assault on rural communities". "Tyrone has been plagued with ATM thefts," he said. "Surely the police have a strategy to tackle those behind the ATM thefts? "These don't look like small-time opportunistic thefts. There must be coordination between criminals." Sinn Fein MLA Colm Gildernew also slammed those responsible. He said: "This is the latest attack of this kind in the community in recent years and I would urge anyone with any information to bring it to the PSNI to help catch those responsible." Ulster Unionist MLA Rosemary Barton called for more night-time police patrols in the area. "These actions have become all too prevalent over the past few months, it must now be made a priority for the PSNI to put more resources into trying to prevent such deeds," she said. A woman assaulted staff at two bars in Belfast city centre within hours of being released from jail, a court heard today. Ciara Craig, 37, grabbed one woman by the hair after being told she was no longer welcome in her pub, prosecutors said. Craig, of Drumachose Park in Limavady, Co Londonderry, admitted two counts of common assault and a further charge of disorderly behaviour. All of the offences were committed last Friday afternoon. Belfast Magistrates' Court heard she had been asked to leave Brennan's Bar due to her state of intoxication. A prosecution lawyer said Craig responded by grabbing the woman by the hair and trying to push her head against a door. Police were then alerted to disturbances at the nearby Robinsons Bar. Craig was shouting and swearing while being restrained by door staff, one of whom reported being assaulted by her. With guilty pleas entered, her application for bail was opposed amid concerns about potential re-offending. Defence solicitor Ciaran Moynagh stressed his client was remorseful and just wanted to get home to her ill mother. Mr Moynagh disclosed that Craig had only been released from custody last Friday morning after serving a previous five-month sentence. "She went straight to a bus station to get a bus home, but there was quite a delay and she ended up in the bar," he told the court. "She lost her bag and that's where the agitation came from." Refusing bail, however, District Judge Bonita Boyd held there was a risk of further offences. She ordered Craig to remain in custody until a sentencing hearing next month. A retired Northern Ireland priest allegedly committed indecent assaults against two females in Belfast up to 40 years ago, a court heard today. Fr John Murray faces charges as part of a police investigation into claims of historical clerical sexual abuse in the city. The 77-year-old, with an address at Marguerite Avenue in Newcastle, Co Down, was arrested on Saturday - just days after travelling back from Spain. A carer guided him into Belfast Magistrates' Court in a wheelchair for his first appearance. Two charges of indecent assault were put to him as he listened through a hearing aid. The alleged offences were committed on dates unknown between 1976 and 1982. An investigating detective said she could connect him to the charges. The retired cleric, who had served at St Matthew's in east Belfast, entered no plea during the brief hearing. But his solicitor, Denis Moloney, hit out at how police handled the case. He told the court it had been "draconian" to have Fr Murray brought in and arrested at the weekend. Acknowledging the sensitivities involved, Mr Moloney added: "The defendant is here and ready to be interviewed by the authorities when they see fit." Proceedings were adjourned for four weeks, when the defendant excused from attending the next hearing. He was released on continuing bail, with conditions that he must remain in the jurisdiction, surrender his passport and stay at an address known to police. 10/3/19 PACEMAKER PRESS A womens march for justice about the murder of Ian Ogle left Cluan Place on Sunday afternoon. PICTURE MATT BOHILL PACEMAKER PRESS 10/3/19 PACEMAKER PRESS A womens march for justice about the murder of Ian Ogle left Cluan Place on Sunday afternoon. PICTURE MATT BOHILL PACEMAKER PRESS 10/3/19 PACEMAKER PRESS A womens march for justice about the murder of Ian Ogle left Cluan Place on Sunday afternoon. PICTURE MATT BOHILL PACEMAKER PRESS Alan Lewis- PhotopressBelfast.co.uk 10-3-2019 Following on from International Women's Day on Friday, a march was held in east Belfast today, (Sunday), with women taking a stand and are saying to paramilitaries that enough is enough! Organisers said, " That since the brutal murder of Ian Ogle it's come to light the many people and many families that have also been attacked, intimidated, harassed, threatened, blackmailed for money and even forced out of their homes by the same gang of cowardly thugs! We the community were shocked to find out at how extreme it had been for Ian Ogle and his family the past 18 months over a so called apparent dirty look ! " "THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE AND WE SAY NO MORE ! We stand behind Ian Ogles family in their fight for justice against these scumbags." 10/3/19 PACEMAKER PRESS A womens march for justice about the murder of Ian Ogle left Cluan Place on Sunday afternoon. Ian Ogle's daughter took part in the march. PICTURE MATT BOHILL PACEMAKER PRESS 10/3/19 PACEMAKER PRESS A womens march for justice about the murder of Ian Ogle left Cluan Place on Sunday afternoon. PICTURE MATT BOHILL PACEMAKER PRESS 10/3/19 PACEMAKER PRESS A womens march for justice about the murder of Ian Ogle left Cluan Place on Sunday afternoon. Ian Ogle's daughter takes place in the march. PICTURE MATT BOHILL PACEMAKER PRESS 10/3/19 PACEMAKER PRESS A womens march for justice about the murder of Ian Ogle left Cluan Place on Sunday afternoon. PICTURE MATT BOHILL PACEMAKER PRESS 10/3/19 PACEMAKER PRESS A womens march for justice about the murder of Ian Ogle left Cluan Place on Sunday afternoon. PICTURE MATT BOHILL PACEMAKER PRESS Women in east Belfast come together for a march against intimidation by paramilitary organisations in the area. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th March 2019 Women in east Belfast come together for a march against intimidation by paramilitary organisations in the area. The parade came in the wake of the murder of 45-year-old east Belfast community worker Ian Ogle outside near to his Cluan Place home in January. Mr Ogle died after being beaten and stabbed by several men. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye 10/3/19 PACEMAKER PRESS A womens march for justice about the murder of Ian Ogle left Cluan Place on Sunday afternoon. PICTURE MATT BOHILL PACEMAKER PRESS 10/3/19 PACEMAKER PRESS A womens march for justice about the murder of Ian Ogle left Cluan Place on Sunday afternoon. PICTURE MATT BOHILL PACEMAKER PRESS 10/3/19 PACEMAKER PRESS A womens march for justice about the murder of Ian Ogle left Cluan Place on Sunday afternoon. PICTURE MATT BOHILL PACEMAKER PRESS Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th March 2019 Women in east Belfast come together for a march against intimidation by paramilitary organisations in the area. The parade came in the wake of the murder of 45-year-old east Belfast community worker Ian Ogle outside near to his Cluan Place home in January. Mr Ogle died after being beaten and stabbed by several men. Ian Ogle's daughter Toni pictured at the parade. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th March 2019 Women in east Belfast come together for a march against intimidation by paramilitary organisations in the area. The parade came in the wake of the murder of 45-year-old east Belfast community worker Ian Ogle outside near to his Cluan Place home in January. Mr Ogle died after being beaten and stabbed by several men. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th March 2019 Women in east Belfast come together for a march against intimidation by paramilitary organisations in the area. The parade came in the wake of the murder of 45-year-old east Belfast community worker Ian Ogle outside near to his Cluan Place home in January. Mr Ogle died after being beaten and stabbed by several men. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th March 2019 Women in east Belfast come together for a march against intimidation by paramilitary organisations in the area. The parade came in the wake of the murder of 45-year-old east Belfast community worker Ian Ogle outside near to his Cluan Place home in January. Mr Ogle died after being beaten and stabbed by several men. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th March 2019 Women in east Belfast come together for a march against intimidation by paramilitary organisations in the area. The parade came in the wake of the murder of 45-year-old east Belfast community worker Ian Ogle outside near to his Cluan Place home in January. Mr Ogle died after being beaten and stabbed by several men. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th March 2019 Women in east Belfast come together for a march against intimidation by paramilitary organisations in the area. The parade came in the wake of the murder of 45-year-old east Belfast community worker Ian Ogle outside near to his Cluan Place home in January. Mr Ogle died after being beaten and stabbed by several men. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th March 2019 Women in east Belfast come together for a march against intimidation by paramilitary organisations in the area. The parade came in the wake of the murder of 45-year-old east Belfast community worker Ian Ogle outside near to his Cluan Place home in January. Mr Ogle died after being beaten and stabbed by several men. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th March 2019 Women in east Belfast come together for a march against intimidation by paramilitary organisations in the area. The parade came in the wake of the murder of 45-year-old east Belfast community worker Ian Ogle outside near to his Cluan Place home in January. Mr Ogle died after being beaten and stabbed by several men. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th March 2019 Women in east Belfast come together for a march against intimidation by paramilitary organisations in the area. The parade came in the wake of the murder of 45-year-old east Belfast community worker Ian Ogle outside near to his Cluan Place home in January. Mr Ogle died after being beaten and stabbed by several men. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th March 2019 Women in east Belfast come together for a march against intimidation by paramilitary organisations in the area. The parade came in the wake of the murder of 45-year-old east Belfast community worker Ian Ogle outside near to his Cluan Place home in January. Mr Ogle died after being beaten and stabbed by several men. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th March 2019 Women in east Belfast come together for a march against intimidation by paramilitary organisations in the area. The parade came in the wake of the murder of 45-year-old east Belfast community worker Ian Ogle outside near to his Cluan Place home in January. Mr Ogle died after being beaten and stabbed by several men. Ian Ogle's daughter Toni pictured at the parade. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 10th March 2019 Women in east Belfast come together for a march against intimidation by paramilitary organisations in the area. The parade came in the wake of the murder of 45-year-old east Belfast community worker Ian Ogle outside near to his Cluan Place home in January. Mr Ogle died after being beaten and stabbed by several men. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Women in east Belfast come together for a march against intimidation by paramilitary organisations in the area The daughter of UVF murder victim Ian Ogle yesterday made an emotional plea urging women who took a stand against paramilitaries in east Belfast to take back their community. Toni Johnston (27) was addressing more than 150 women who marched in solidarity from the spot where her loyalist father was brutally murdered on Cluan Place to nearby CS Lewis Square. "Please do not let my daddy die in vain," she begged. "We as a community are saying: No more violence on our streets. No more intimidation, no more drug dealing, no more so-called punishment beatings, no more bullying and no more destroying our community - we have had enough." The powerful message resonated with dozens of mothers in the crowd, who were asked what they would do if their children were summoned by masked men. "Would you take your child knowing that they are going to be shot or beaten?" she asked. She also encouraged people to exercise their "God-given right" to seek help from the police if they are being "harassed, intimidated or blackmailed" by criminal gangs. The grieving daughter of the slain community worker expressed concern over the number of people who have confided in her about existing threats against their families. She also confessed to enduring sleepless nights over her own reluctance to report acts of intimidation during the last 18 months of her father's life. "I keep beating myself up and have done since the night my daddy was murdered," she said. "What if, what if we just went to the police after my brother and I were assaulted in 2017, what if we exposed these thugs long ago, would my daddy still be here?" The campaigner was greeted by loud applause after an impassioned plea urging her neighbours to "take east Belfast back" by standing against "these thugs" in the community. "My daddy, only 45 years of age still with so much to live for, murdered," she said. "Stabbed 11 times in the back and left for dead on his own street. Lay dying in his own son's arms and why: because of an apparent dirty look." Two men have been charged in relation to the fatal stabbing of the father-of-two which happened on January 27. Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph after the 'Justice for Ian Ogle' rally, which was inspired by International Women's Day, Ms Johnston said she was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support. "But nothing is going to take away the fear my family is feeling," she added. "We are scared to walk the streets and I don't know when or if that will go away. "It's frightening to take a stand, but I'm doing it for my daddy and this community." Ulster Unionist councillor Sonia Copeland praised Ms Johnston's bravery after protesters fell silent at the scene and prayed for deliverance from evil at the scene where Mr Ogle died. However, she also acknowledged meaningful change could take many years. "This community has lived in fear for 40 years and that isn't going to change overnight," she said. "But this is hopefully a turning point." The South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust sought an Emergency Protection Order for the woman's children, aged three and one. A judge was wrong to exclude a mother from an emergency legal bid to have her two young children removed, the Court of Appeal ruled today. She was said to have been denied her right to a fair hearing by having no input in an application which resulted in an Emergency Protection Order (EPO) being granted. Lord Justice Treacy said: "By proceeding ex parte and failing to convene a properly constituted court the District Judge acted unlawfully." In October 2017 the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust sought an EPO for the woman's children, aged three and one. During an evening sitting at Craigavon Court the authority's representatives requested permission to proceed ex parte, or without the mother's participation, due to the urgency of the situation. The Trust felt it was the only way it could get the EPO application heard that day. By that stage a family court chaired by the District Judge, with two lay magistrates, had concluded. The judge believed he had no jurisdiction to conduct a contested EPO application while sitting alone. He granted the order sought for a seven-day period, with the two children removed from the mother's care and fostered separately. Appeal judges examined the lawfulness of hearing the Trust's application without evidence from her. She had been notified in advance and attended Craigavon Court in order to participate. But as her solicitor travelled to the hearing he was phoned by a member of the court staff and told he would have to remain at the back of the courtroom without permission to speak during the application. He was also advised that his client would not be permitted into the courtroom during the hearing. Ruling on the appeal, Lord Justice Treacy said: "The District Judge was plainly wrong" to proceed on an ex parte basis." Instead, he held, a properly constituted court should have been convened, potentially by asking lay members to remain to hear the case. Pointing out that a contested hearing with the involvement of both sides is generally necessary to protect the parent's human rights, Lord Justice Treacy added: "The appellant was denied her right to a fair hearing before a properly constituted court." An array of guests, mostly from the diplomatic and business communities thronged the Multipurpose Hall at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital to witness the celebration of the 62nd Anniversary of Ghanas Independence. The celebration was on the theme: Celebrating Peace And Unity. Ghanas Ambassador to Ethiopia, Mrs. Amma A. Twum-Amoah, assisted by her Deputy, Mr. Henry Tachie-Menson and Defence Attache, Brig.Gen. Asamoah Kweku Yeboa received diplomatic greetings and well-wishes from envoys of other nations, after which the national anthems of Ethiopia and Ghana as well as that of the African Union were played. Ghanas Minister for Trade and Industry, Mr. Alan Kyeremanten, was the Guest of Honour. Also present were Ambassador Kwesi Quartey, Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission; the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Office to the African Union, Madam Hanna Serwaa Tetteh; and the Honorary Tourism Ambassador for Zimbabwe, Ambassador Nancy Sam. The Ghanaian community was also in attendance, including students. Ghana gained independence from its last colonial master, Great Britain on 6th March 1975, becoming the first in sub-Sahara Africa achieve the political feat which is said to have energised the countrys founding President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah to set for himself a goal to ensure many of the then remaining African countries under colony gained their political freedom. Ghana, subsequently became beacon of hope for the entire continent, promoting vigorously the African Unity agenda, which culminated in the founding of the Organisation of African Union (OAU), now African Union. Addressing the ceremony, Ambassador Amma Twum-Amoah recalled the excellent relationship that has existed between Ghana and Ethiopia dating back to the era of Dr. Nkrumah and Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and paid tribute to both leaders for their role in de-colonising the continent. She announced that apart from ongoing negotiations between Ghana and Ethiopia Airlines on the re-establishment of national airline for Ghana, governments of both countries have taken steps to further strengthen cooperation in several other areas to move the bilateral relations a notch higher. Ambassador Twum-Amoah who is also Ghanas Permanent Representative to both the African Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), reiterated the resolve of current government led by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to ensure the promotion and enhancement of peace, unity and social cohesion among all Ghanaians. One of the leading priorities of government is the socio-economic development of our communities, especially the districts. The government of Ghana will therefore continue to pursue the agenda of industrialisation and the processing of our raw materials for the benefit of our people, she said. The Ghanaian envoy said as a member of the Committee on Democracy, Governance and Election and the Committee on Environment in the African Union, Ghana will continue to work assiduously to prevent conflicts and ensure peace, unity and justice on the continent. Responding to the Toast, the Ethiopian government representative, Ambassador Woinshet Tadesse congratulated Ghana on her independence attainment. Ambassador Tedesse, who is also the Permanent Secretary of the African Union Commission, Africa Affairs and the Middle East, particularly praised Ghana democratic and pan-African leadership and said both the African Union and the Ethiopian government looks forward to a deepened working relation with Ghana in the years ahead. Guests were treated to Ghanaian music, food and drinks. In Budapest - Hungary, a scientific conference was held as part of activities to mark the day. It was themed; Sustainable Development: The role of Young Researchers The conference brought together various Ghanaian students studying in Hungary including those on bilateral scholarship (Stipendium Hungaricum) under the Government of Ghana and Hungary as well as FAO sponsored students. Among the guests present, Ghanas Ambassador to the Czech Republic with concurrent accreditation to Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Macedonia, H.E. Virginia Hesse. Also present were Prof. Helyes Lajos of Szent Istvan University who hosted the gathering, Registrar of Scholarships, Ghana Scholarships Secretariat, Kingsley Agyemang, a section of the Ghanaian Community and the African Diaspora in Hungary. Ghanas Mission in New York was not left out as a joint delegation from the Permanent Mission to the United States and the Consulate General in New York joined the Ghanaian Muslim community at Yankasa, Bronx in worship. This is an annual event where special prayers are offered as part of the Independence anniversary of Ghana. Chief Imam of the Yankasa Masjid, Chief Imam Sulley prayed Ghanaians not to take the peace the country has been enjoying for granted. He also cautioned the citizenry to be mindful of their utterances, particularly in the public space. The Newark Municipal Council, Office of the Mayor for International Relations and Diaspora Affairs in collaboration with the Ghanaian community, organized a flag raising ceremony to mark the day. Meanwhile the two Missions led by their leaders, H.E. Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, Ghanas Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Professor Samuel K. Amoako, Consul General of Ghana to New York on Tuesday March 5, 2019, were joined by the Diplomatic community to commemorate the 62nd Independence anniversary at the UN Headquarters in New York. The Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Amina J. Mohammed was the Special Guest of Honour. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A man has been arrested over the murder of a woman in East Belfast. The body of the 53-year-old was found in a property in Whincroft Way on the Braniel estate late on Sunday night. Detectives investigating the death of a 53 year old woman in East Belfast have arrested a 42 year old man on suspicion of her murder. Womans body found in a property in Whincroft Way late last night. Detectives appealing for witnesses to contact them on 101 quoting ref 1345. Police Service NI (@PoliceServiceNI) March 11, 2019 Detectives detained a 42-year-old man on suspicion of murder. Prime Minister Theresa May leaves from the rear entrance of Downing Street, London, after she said the meaningful vote on Tuesday on her Brexit deal will go ahead. (Victoria Jones/PA) British Prime Minister Theresa May, background, is welcomed by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Strasbourg. (Vincent Kessler/Pool Photo via AP) Theresa May has set off to Strasbourg for last-minute Brexit talks with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on the eve of a crucial vote in the House of Commons. The last-ditch bid to make progress in talks, which Downing Street admitted overnight were deadlocked, comes amid predictions that the Prime Minister is headed for a second humiliating defeat on her Withdrawal Agreement unless she can secure legally-binding changes to its controversial backstop. Sources in London played down suggestions that Mrs Mays departure for France was an indication that a deal is ready for signature. But it is thought that the PM believes that there is a basis for further face-to-face discussions as part of the talks. Mrs May is likely to arrive in Strasbourg in mid-evening, and a statement to the Commons by Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay has been put back to around 10pm. Expand Close PA Graphics Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp PA Graphics Time is running out for any new assurances or clarifications to the deal which was resoundingly rejected by a 230-vote majority by MPs in January. The Government must table its motion for Tuesdays debate by the end of the day, alongside the publication of any relevant documents. MPs have also been promised that they will be shown any updated legal advice from Attorney General Geoffrey Cox before the debate begins. Mrs Mays efforts to secure new assurances appeared to have hit stalemate on Monday morning, as EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said that discussions were now taking place between the Government in London and the Parliament in London, rather than the UK and Brussels. But Downing Street insisted that talks continue, after Mrs May held a phone call with Mr Juncker in early afternoon. Reports suggested that EU ambassadors were told the PM came close to signing off a text with Mr Juncker on Sunday evening, which would have given new assurances on the UKs right to seek arbitration if Brussels was not using its best endeavours to seek a trade deal which would bring the backstop to an end. Number 10 dismissed reports that Mrs May might pull Tuesdays meaningful vote, insisting it would go ahead as planned. The PMs spokesman cautioned against speculation that Mrs May might ask Parliament to vote on a conditional motion expressing its readiness to support a form of deal other than the one agreed with Brussels. Expand Close Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey (Kirsty Wrigglesworth/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey (Kirsty Wrigglesworth/PA) Mrs May ducked a demand from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to update the House of Commons on the progress of negotiations, sending Brexit minister Robin Walker to respond to his urgent question in her place. Mr Walker was jeered by Labour MPs as he explained he had been sent because negotiations were at a critical stage. The absence of the PM was branded an outrageous dereliction of duty by backbencher Angela Eagle. As MPs debated Brexit, Mrs May was on the other side of Parliament Square at Westminster Abbey taking part in a Commonwealth Day service. She read a Bible lesson on the importance of solidarity, stating: The body is not one member, but many And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. PM no show in Commons today is an outrageous dereliction of duty #BrexitShambles #ToryChaos #ParForTheCourse Angela Eagle DBE (@angelaeagle) March 11, 2019 Mr Corbyn told MPs that the Government is in chaos and the country in crisis. If her deal is rejected again on Tuesday, the Labour leader said the PM should shift her red lines and show not just that she is willing to meet with members of this House, but that she is willing to compromise with them too. Mr Walker confirmed the meaningful vote will take place on Tuesday, and said it was incumbent on MPs to take the opportunity to deliver on the will of the British people and to provide certainty by backing Mrs Mays deal. The Prime Minister was warned that her position could be in jeopardy unless she stuck to commitments she made about this weeks votes. If her deal is defeated for a second time on Tuesday, she has promised to give MPs a vote on whether to accept a no-deal Brexit on March 29 or to extend Article 50 in order to delay the UKs departure beyond the current deadline. I am sure that the Prime Minister will honour these three commitments. If she doesnt she will forfeit the confidence of the House of Commons. Nick Boles (@NickBoles) March 11, 2019 Tory former minister Nick Boles said: I am sure that the Prime Minister will honour these three commitments. If she doesnt she will forfeit the confidence of the House of Commons. And senior Labour backbencher Yvette Cooper said the PM would be guilty of a straight-up lie if she failed to go through with votes allowing MPs to delay Brexit. Brexit-backing Conservative MP Anne Marie Morris said she did not expect any concessions secured by the Prime Minister in Strasbourg to alter her intention to vote against the Withdrawal Agreement on Tuesday. The Newton Abbot MP told BBC Radio 4s PM: The reality is weve taken almost two years to get here and I cannot see that in these twilight hours, suddenly something is going to come back and is going to satisfy concerns that I have which I share with, Im sure, many members of the public and many members of the ERG (European Research Group). This deal is a bad deal and what we need is for the Prime Minister to stick to her word that she would accept that no deal is better than this deal. Remain-backing Tory MP Sam Gyimah said he could not vote for the PMs deal. If there hadnt been a referendum and this deal had been presented to us as a template for our future relationship with the EU, it would have been rejected out of hand because we are essentially choosing a third-rate future for our country, he told PM. That is why I cant vote for it. Ed Vaizey, who backed Mrs Mays deal in the first meaningful vote, said: I am going to vote for the deal. I find it intensely depressing to think that yet again it seems likely that the deal is going to be voted down. Mr Vaizey said if Mrs Mays plan was rejected all bets are off it will engender complete parliamentary chaos. Although MPs would then be right to vote for an extension to Article 50, all Hell will break loose, he said. The mother of an Irishman killed in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash has paid tribute to him saying he was committed to making a difference to peoples lives. UN aid worker and engineer Michael (Mick) Ryan was killed after the plane crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa on Sunday morning. Mr Ryans mother Christine said that her son wanted to save the world. He was employed by the UNs World Food Programme (WFP), which is a leading humanitarian organisation delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with impoverished communities to improve nutrition. Our thoughts tonight are with families of all those lost in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, including Irish engineer Michael Ryan. Michael was doing life-changing work in Africa with the World Food Programme. Deepest sympathies to family, colleagues & friends Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) March 10, 2019 The married father-of-two, who was originally from Lahinch in Co Clare, had relocated to Rome to work at WFP headquarters. His wife Naoise and children were due to move out to Rome in the coming months. Speaking to RTE Morning Ireland, Christine said: Hes an amazing person, we cant believe it and we cant come to terms with this. His wife and children are just devastated. He was a very enthusiastic person, he had a great vision and he believed in engineering and in putting people first. The plane was en route from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to Nairobi and crashed on the eve of a UN Environment Assembly in the Kenyan capital. Several WFP staff were on the flight, ahead of this weeks conference. Mr Ryan was a global deputy chief engineer with the WFPs engineering division. Mrs Ryan said she knew he was flying to Nairobi but didnt know he was on the flight that crashed until his wife contacted her. Naoise was saying that she was always concerned when he got on different flights but when he got on this particular flight she wasnt particularly concerned as he had been in worse situations and survived and got through it, Christine added. He was involved in a lot of projects worldwide, flood relief, landslides, Ebola. He had been in Afghanistan and Pakistan and Sudan. He felt he made a difference. He had a marvellous vision and he just got there and did it and had great enthusiasm. He always wanted to help others and he loved people and would light up a room. He had a way with people. He never wanted a nine to five job, he put everything into his work. He had some amazing stories. There was a lot of danger for him but he loved his work. We all appreciated what he was doing and we couldnt take that away from him. Mrs Ryan said her son was turning 40 at the end of the month and the family were to fly to Rome next week for the celebrations. Irelands President Michael D Higgins also paid tribute to Mr Ryan. I wish to extend my deepest sympathies to the family of Michael Ryan, whose work in humanitarian assistance for the World Food Programme brought him onto the flight, he said. This tragedy affects so many, with passengers from more than 30 countries and from several international organisations were on board the flight. On my own behalf and behalf of the Irish people, I send my deepest sympathies to President Sahle-Work Zewde, to the families of the victims and to the people of Ethiopia, and the Ethiopian community who live here in Ireland. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he was filled with sadness over the death. Speaking in Dublin on Monday, he said: I had the opportunity to visit Rome a couple of years ago to do some work with the WFP and I saw in my work as Taoiseach the enormous importance of the WFP, not just ensuring that people dont go hungry in times of crisis but also that we build up agriculture and have secure food supplies in developing countries. Its really important and honourable work and I am really sad for him and really sad for his family and his friends that his life has ended this way. Seamus McDonald, whose parents were killed by loyalist paramilitaries in Newtownabbey in 1976, speaking during European Day for Victims of Terrorism at Stormont Parliament Buildings in Belfast (Niall Carson/PA) A man who watched his parents shot dead in front of him as a two-year-old boy has told the gunmen they achieved nothing. Seamus McDonald and his younger sister, Margaret, who was only four months old, were at their North Belfast home with father Mervyn and Rosaleen when two loyalist paramilitaries went in and murdered both adults in a random sectarian attack in July 1976. Mr McDonald, who now lives in Co Mayo, spoke publicly about the incident for only the second time in his life at an event in Belfast on Monday commemorating innocent victims of terrorism. It was just pointless and it was cruel and it achieved nothingSeamus McDonald The people that did this to me achieved nothing, my mum and dad are alive inside me, he said, during an emotional address at Stormont. They are alive in my sister and I see them in the face of my children. It was just pointless and it was cruel and it achieved nothing. I am shaking now and I am upset now, but I am actually OK what they tried to do to me didnt work, what they tried to do to my family didnt work, it was horrific and unnecessary. Mr McDonald outlined graphic details of the incident in July 1976 when the murderers from the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) called at their front door in Newtownabbey. The area we lived in was mixed, we were out in the country, so it made it quite an easy target, he said. On the 9th July 1976 as my dad was having his dinner, my mum had my baby sister in her arms and I was on the sofa, and two men came to the door asking for my father. My mum didnt recognise the men, thought they were friends of my dad, she invited them into the house. When my dad came in from the kitchen to see what was happening, one of the men produced a machine gun and shot my father and killed him instantly. After that he took my sister from my mother, put her next to me, and then turned his gun on my mum and shot her it took about four hours for my mother to die. I think in the context of terrorism-related incidents a lot of victims always ask that question - 'Why us, why me, why them?' I don't think there is any answer to that question that will ever satisfy anyoneSeamus McDonald Mr McDonald revealed that his mothers last words to the gunmen were Why us?. I think in the context of terrorism-related incidents a lot of victims always ask that question Why us, why me, why them?, he said. I dont think there is any answer to that question that will ever satisfy anyone. He said he would never have been able to address a public event about the murders a few years ago. I dont know what normality is, I have always had this, he said. I have no memory of my mother and father, I dont know their faces. At the same time I have no memory of the incident. Mr McDonald said support from the victims sector was gradually helping him to heal and let go of some of the fear, hate and trauma. I only managed to put a picture of my parents up on the living room wall four years ago, he added. One thing that unites all victims and all members of society in Northern Ireland, even though I dont live here now, is that we all grieve the same and we all feel loss the same and, if we can all grieve the same and all feel loss the same, we can all heal the same, and if we can do that that might bring us a bit closer. The brother of a man believed to have strangled his Colombian partner and her teenage daughter in Newry before taking his own life said the Scot had mental health problems, but was still an "absolute gentleman" and "one in a million". Police believe Russell Steele (38), originally from Kilmarnock and known to friends as 'Steelie', hanged himself in a Newry flat last Thursday after strangling his partner Giselle Marimon-Herrera (37) and her daughter Allison (15). His brother Derek defended the late Haldane Fisher building supplies employee from criticism on social media over the weekend after he posted an emotional farewell. "Today my absalute world has came crashing down finding out that my big brother Russell has died (sic)," he wrote. "Words cannot describe how am feelin right now and the family ov course... dizny feel real, feel like am in a nightmare and need tae wake. Russell a love you, always have and always will, always looked up to you, you were an inspiration tae me honestly Bro. RIP Russell (sic)." It is understood Steele also killed Newry High School pupil Allison's pet Chihuahua in the chilling attack which came to light last Thursday when Giselle's sister reported that she had not been seen for four days. A post-mortem examination confirmed Allison had been strangled and police have said they believe her mother died the same way, although they are still awaiting conclusive findings. Officers are treating domestic violence as a major line of enquiry amid reports that Steele was a disruptive and aggressive neighbour who was known to police. Last night Detective Chief Inspector Eamonn Corrigan confirmed that officers responded to a report of "rowdy and inconsiderate behaviour" on September 1, 2018. It is unclear when or why Steele moved here but he was in a relationship with Giselle for nine months. Her heartbroken father Fabian Marimon has told South American media that his daughter, who moved here four years ago, was due to travel home for good next week and was "happy and laughing" when they spoke last Saturday. YouTube videos of Steele, who is reported to have "floated between churches", show him busking and performing religious songs he penned himself. One Kilmarnock resident told the Sunday Post that Steele struggled with "addiction issues" in the past. Yesterday his brother defended the killer from online critics, telling them "tae get ta f***" (sic). "Ye ever herd ay mental health! (sic)" he wrote to one Facebook user before telling them to "do one". In another post he wrote "see at the end of the day mental health has alot tae dae wae it" (sic). He then claimed that anyone who "truly knows" his brother "knows fine well that he was "one in a million" and a "gentleman". "Just remember he has family and friends grieving," he added. Over 4,400 has been raised online to help Giselle's devastated father fly here after he said he is willing to sell his taxi to cover the cost. Newry Credit Union has also launched a fundraising appeal to help repatriate Giselle and Allison's bodies to Colombia. Businesses in Northern Ireland are warning of the problems posed by Brexit (Brian Lawless/PA) An open letter signed by more than 60 of Northern Irelands biggest businesses has warned that a no-deal Brexit would stifle the next generations opportunities. The letter was penned by the CBI and signed by companies including Coca-Cola, Bombardier Aerospace, Norbrook Laboratories, which produces veterinary drugs, and defence firm Thales. Read More It said a no-deal exit will result in significant damage to export markets, supply chains, consumer spending power and the countrys competitiveness. The DUPs East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson accused the employers of a coordinated attempt to railroad MPs into accepting the toxic, Union-destroying, NI economy-damaging deal facing a crunch Commons vote tomorrow. The letter comes the week after head of the NI Civil Service David Sterling suggested a no-deal Brexit could cause a sharp rise in unemployment here as businesses relocate to the Republic. But DUP Brexit spokesman Mr Wilson, whose party has been at loggerheads with the local business community over its position on leaving the EU, said: In the run-up to the vote on leaving the EU which will take place on Tuesday, it is clear that there is a coordinated attempt to railroad MPs into accepting the toxic, Union-destroying, NI economy-damaging deal, which the Prime Minister had previously agreed with the EU. Last week the head of the Civil Service entered the political arena with his ham-fisted, chaos threatening letter and now we find that businesses in NI are engaging in the same tactic. What is particularly odd about the business letter is that first of all it concentrates on damage to the NI economy. This comes from a non-existent threat of infrastructure along the border, while ignoring the explicit terms of the withdrawal agreement. Those terms would exclude NI businesses from having any benefit from trade agreements which the UK might strike with the rest of the world, in the future and, more immediately, it would make it difficult for firms to trade with the GB market. Mr Wilson said the letter ignores the role of the EU in the current impasse. Despite the Government of the UK rolling over to every demand the EU has made, EU negotiators have showed no flexibility at all to MPs across the political spectrum in Parliament, he said. Indeed this week Barnier reinforced his inflexibility towards NI. He believes NI must be separated from the UK in future relationships with the EU. When it comes to flexibility we have already as a party, with our allies in the Conservative Party, sought to find a number of ways around the obstacles to a deal. Tory Brexiteers have predicted that without an 11th hour concession from the EU on the backstop, the Prime Minister is heading for another crushing defeat in tomorrows meaningful vote on her withdrawal agreement. Mr Wilson added: It is important that businesses in NI do not simply fall into line with the Governments attempt to foist a really bad deal on the UK because of its incompetence in negotiations. They should also understand that we have used all of our contacts, abilities and Parliamentary strength to defend not only the Union but also the interests of businesses in Northern Ireland. That will be our guiding light when deciding how we will vote on Tuesday. The letter penned by the CBI, whose chief is Angela McGowan, stated that they believe that failure to approve a deal with Europe on the UKs withdrawal from the EU will have significant repercussions for the local economy. Such a scenario will both hinder indigenous and foreign direct investment, it would result in significant job losses and will stifle opportunities for the next generation across Northern Ireland. It said the negative economic impact was already starting to affect the private sectors ability to invest. Northern Ireland industry also noted with much regret uncertainty around future funding for local infrastructure given the immediate loss of approximately 450m from the European Regional Development Fund, which was once earmarked for significant infrastructure projects. The uncertainty linked with Brexit has additionally contributed to significant skill and labour shortages. It said peace and prosperity were mutually dependent in Northern Ireland. A no-deal Brexit will undoubtedly result in creating regulatory and tariff differences across the island of Ireland and will therefore have direct consequences for border checks and crossings. We therefore urge MPs across the UK to consider the damaging impact on Northern Irelands economy and political stability in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The peace and economic progress that flowed from the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement cannot be overlooked at this critical time in the UKs history. All members of Parliament must consider the burden of responsibility that they now carry for this regions future. Firms that signed the letter AES UK and Ireland Allianz Andras House Ltd Aurora Prime Real Estate Ltd Avondale Foods Ltd Barclays Bank Beyond Business Travel Bombardier Aerospace Canyon Europe Ltd CBI NI CBRE Chartered Accountants Ulster Society Coca-Cola Hellenic Northern Ireland Ltd Construction Employers Federation Creagh Concrete Products Danske Bank Deli Lites Denroy Plastics Denman International Ltd Devenish Nutrition Ltd Duncrue Food Processors Eakin Healthcare Group Etain Software Evermore Energy Fane Valley First Trust Bank Forde May Consulting Ltd Graham Group Greiner Packaging Ltd Hilton Meat Products Ltd Interfrigo Ltd Lanyon Communications Linden Foods Maxol Oil McCloskey International Ltd Mineral Products Association NI Mount Charles Group Ltd Norbrook Laboratories Ltd Northern Ireland Electricity Networks Ltd OHare and McGovern Ltd PKF-FPM Queens University Belfast Quinn Building Group Rainbow Communications SDC Trailers Ltd SHS Group T G Eakin Ltd Thales Thompsons Ulster University Viridian Group Walter Watson W&R Barnett Ltd Westland Horticulture Ltd Whites Speedicook Ltd Wilsons Country Ltd Yardmaster International Women in east Belfast come together for a march against intimidation by paramilitary organisations in the area The family of murdered loyalist Ian Ogle has inspired the community in east Belfast to stand up to paramilitaries operating in the area, a councillor has said. PUP councillor John Kyle was speaking to the BBC the day after women marched through east Belfast to take a stand against the east Belfast UVF. Police believe the criminal gang was responsible for the brutal murder of Ian Ogle on January 27. The father-of-two was stabbed 11 times in the back and suffered a fractured skull after being attacked by a group of men just yards from his Cluan Place home. Read More Mr Kyle said it was clear there is a "significant problem" with families being intimated and targeted by members of the east Belfast UVF. "There certainly are many families, tens, who have contacted the Ogle's or who have said to other folk 'I know what is it like to go through that, we have been threatened and they have tried to intimate us'," Mr Kyle said. He added: "When you are dealing with any criminal gang that is always a problem because they can attack you when you are not looking. To put your head above the parapet does invite retaliation. "So it is clearly a significant problem but these women have been remarkably courageous and forthright and our prepared to stand together, as did the church leaders in east Belfast. Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Vigils were held for Ian Ogle after his murder. Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph The ogle family as A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph The ogle family as A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Toni Johnston Ogle as A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Toni Johnston Ogle as A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Toni Johnston Ogle as A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Toni Johnston Ogle as A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Toni Johnston Ogle as A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph The ogle family as A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Toni Johnston Ogle as A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Toni Johnston Ogle as A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Sonia Copeland as A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Toni Johnston Ogle as A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Toni Johnston Ogle as A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph The ogle family as A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Toni Johnston Ogle as A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Toni Johnston Ogle as A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Toni Johnston Ogle as A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Toni Johnston Ogle as A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Sonia Copeland as A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A vigil is held Cluan Place where Ian Ogle was murdered on January 30th 2019 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph) "The overwhelming feeling within the communities is that we have had enough of this we want an end to this. That these paramilitary organisations are no longer welcome or a part of us and they need to leave the stage." Mr Ogle's daughter, Toni Johnston (27), addressed more than 150 women who marked in solidarity from the spot where her father was murdered to nearby CS Lewis Square. Asked if these women had put themselves in danger by standing up to the east Belfast UVF, Mr Kyle replied: "I think that would be an exaggeration but I think people individually are reluctant to stand up and to challenge. "But that is what is so remarkable about the Ogle family. People have been really impressed at their dignity and courage in how they have conducted themselves and they have said, enough is enough. We want these people brought to justice. "So I think their courage to stand up has inspired others to join them and say, no, we have had enough of this." Two men have been charged in relation to the murder. A coroner is examining a series of shootings by members of the Parachute Regiment (Cate McCurry/PA). Mourners filing past the coffin of Father Hugh Mullan, one of the victims of the Ballymurphy shootings, at Corpus Christi church on the Ballymurphy estate in Belfast. Most if not all those killed following gunfire by soldiers during a pitched battle in west Belfast were not in the IRA, a retired army general said. Ten people died over three rebellious days at the start of internment of suspected paramilitaries without trial early in the Troubles. A coroner is examining a series of shootings by members of the Parachute Regiment. Sir Geoffrey Howlett, 89, expressed enormous sympathy with families whose relatives perished in Ballymurphy in August 1971. Expand Close The 10 victims of the Ballymurphy Massacre (Ballymurphy Massacre Committee/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The 10 victims of the Ballymurphy Massacre (Ballymurphy Massacre Committee/PA) One of the highest-ranking former British officers to appear before a Northern Irish inquest into conflict deaths said in Belfast: I realise now that most, if not all, were not IRA. He accepted anyone who was not rioting could not be associated with armed republicans, despite the acknowledged level of support for the IRA in the area. Tensions linked to internment saw disorder escalate into what the soldier described as a full-blown battle, and many hundreds of rounds were fired at his men. Expand Close Riots: Belfast. August 1970. Soldiers shelter behind their riot shields during rioting at Ballymurphy. (04/08/70) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Riots: Belfast. August 1970. Soldiers shelter behind their riot shields during rioting at Ballymurphy. (04/08/70) The then-lieutenant colonel was commander of the Second Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, between 1971 and 1973. A contemporaneous regimental note before the inquest said soldiers viewed the incident as one of inflicting severe casualties on the IRA. Sir Geoffrey accepted the armys record of the time may have been mistaken. Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Riots : Belfast. January 1971. Soldiers frisking passengers and driver of a car on the Springfield Road, near Ballymurphy. (14/01/1971) Riots: Belfast. August 1970. Soldiers shelter behind their riot shields during rioting at Ballymurphy. (04/08/70) Riots : Belfast. August 1970. The common sight in the Roman Catholic estate at Ballymurphy, Belfast, as young rioters attack the army with missiles during the troubles. (04/08/70) Ballymurphy: troops stand by at the junction of Springfield and Whiterock Roads (20/09/1970) Riots : Belfast. January 1971. Catholic housing estate, Ballymurphy. (15/01/1971) Mourners file past the coffin of Father Hugh Mullan, one of the 10 people killed (PA Archive) PA Archive/PA Images Father Hugh Mullan. Shot at Moyard Park. 9/8/1971 THE FUNERAL HEARSE CARRYING THE BODY OF FATHER HUGH MULLAN TRAVELS ALONG THE ROAD IN BALLYMURPHY ESTATE. 12/8/1971 Joseph Murphy was one of 10 people shot dead by British soldiers in West Belfast in 1971 Pacemaker Press 17/6/10 John McKerr who is one of the 11 people died in the Ballymurphy Massacre in 1971 in West Belfast Pacemaker Press 17/6/10 Fr Hugh Mullan who is one of the 11 people died in the Ballymurphy Massacre in 1971 in West Belfast Pacemaker Press 17/6/10 Joseph Corr who is one of the 11 people died in the Ballymurphy Massacre in 1971 in West Belfast Pacemaker Press 17/6/10 Danny Teggart who is one of the 11 people died in the Ballymurphy Massacre in 1971 in West Belfast Pacemaker Press 17/6/10 Danny Teggart who is one of the 11 people died in the Ballymurphy Massacre in 1971 in West Belfast Pacemaker Press 17/6/10 Danny Teggart who is one of the 11 people died in the Ballymurphy Massacre in 1971 in West Belfast Press Eye Ltd Northern Ireland - 25th January 2012 Mandatory Credit - Photo-Jonathan Porter/Presseye. Ballymurphy massacre relatives call for a meeting with the Prime Minister, David Cameron. 10 people were shot dead by soldiers in west Belfast in August 1971. The victims, which included a priest and a mother-of-eight, were killed over the course of three days in August 1971 by members of the Parachute Regiment during Operation Demetrius, when people suspected of paramilitary activity were interned. Relatives Rita Bonner, John Teggart and Briege Voyle pictured at the top of the Whiterock Road in west Belfast beside a mural depicting the shootings. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Riots : Belfast. January 1971. Soldiers frisking passengers and driver of a car on the Springfield Road, near Ballymurphy. (14/01/1971) I want just to say to you how sincerely I have enormous sympathy with you allGeneral Sir Geoffrey Howlett Sir Geoffrey told relatives of the dead: I want just to say to you how sincerely I have enormous sympathy with you all. He added: I know something about bereavement because my father was killed in Italy in the war when I was 13, and I wanted to know everything about how it happened as well. Expand Close Riots : Belfast. January 1971. Catholic housing estate, Ballymurphy. (15/01/1971) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Riots : Belfast. January 1971. Catholic housing estate, Ballymurphy. (15/01/1971) He spoke from the witness box at a Belfast courtroom. Three rows of families of the dead sat opposite him in silence. After the hearing concluded, John Teggart, the son of one of the victims, Daniel Teggart, said it was almost an apology. Mr Teggart, 44, and Noel Phillips, 19, were shot close to the Henry Taggart Army base near Springfield Park. Expand Close Fr Hugh Mullan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Fr Hugh Mullan Sir Geoffrey said he would not be totally convinced that they were not associated with the IRA, but they were not firing at them. Campaigner John Teggart added: For the first time in almost 48 years, Geoffrey has said my father was not an IRA gunman. That is a big deal to the families, that is a big lift to the families today. We have waited just to hear that one word. The Ballymurphy families maintain their loved ones were entirely innocent. Sir Geoffrey occupied high-ranking military positions, including commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces in northern Europe. He was at an army headquarters in west Belfast during part of the events in question then went to a base known as Henry Taggart Hall to resupply his men with ammunition. Up to 40 rounds were fired at his two Land Rovers as they entered the hall. It was reported to him by B Company, a sub-group of about 100 men, that the violence was started by a large group who attacked soldiers. He attested that many hundreds of rounds were fired at members of the company. The situation was never the same again, life was difficult, he said. Following internment there had become an enemy out there who were definitely armed and firing at us. Six people died from shootings on August 9, 1971. They included Father Hugh Mullan. Sir Geoffrey said: It was quite obvious that Fr Mullan was not part of the IRA, and he was almost certainly, I believe, giving the last rites for someone who appeared to be dying. Which of the other people who were shot and killed, whether they were IRA at the time, I dont think we quite knew. He paid tribute to the role of clergymen during the conflict. Sir Geoffrey recalled serious escalation of the violence in west Belfast in 1971 after troops were charged with implementing internment of suspects without trial. None of us realised that the day of internment (August 9) and the next day or two would turn out to be such a rebellious period with as much rioting, shooting, petrol and nail bombing as it was. I dont think any of us were quite prepared for the big change. The streets were barricaded amid looting, shooting and bombing, Sir Geoffrey said. The witness added: The situation went from rioting to a full-blown battle. It was very busy certainly the busiest day of my life. Rules of engagement known as the yellow card had been introduced to govern the Armys use of fire. The general said: From the ninth for a day or two then, it was not quite fit for purpose. After Ballymurphy, no soldier was disciplined and there was no debrief, the witness said. We were too busy trying to get Belfast back to normal, he said. The battalion left Northern Ireland on August 25 and took a months leave. Sinn Fein MP Chris Hazzard has accused DUP MLA Jim Wells of attempting to "shout down" a Sinn Fein election rally in Ballynahinch on Sunday. However, Mr Wells said that a protest against the rally passed off peacefully and was held because victims of the IRA felt uncomfortable with having a Sinn Fein event in the "unionist" town. Read More In 2017 Mr Wells complained on Twitter about Sinn Fein canvassing in the Co Down town of Rathfriland, saying they were "not welcome" in the area. South Down MP Mr Hazzard said that Mr Wells alongside other DUP and UUP representatives travelled to the town "to shout abuse at Sinn Fein representatives and members of the local community". Mr Wells, who has had the DUP whip removed due to a disagreement with the party, said that he did not see Mr Hazzard at the event. The rally was for Sinn Fein candidate Marianne Clearly who is hoping to become the first ever woman elected to Newry, Mourne & Down Council for the Rowallane area. A loyalist counter protest was held in the town and attended by political representatives from a range of unionist parties. Expand Close Sinn Fein MP Chris Hazzard / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sinn Fein MP Chris Hazzard Despite the barrage of sectarian abuse and personal vitriol that was aimed at Marianne, it was encouraging to receive such a warm reception from the local community on our canvass where our message of equality, rights and Irish unity was well received," Mr Hazzard said. Sinn Fein will not be deterred by Jim Wells or anyone else from bringing that message to the electorate throughout Co Down. South Down MLA Mr Wells said that the only words exchanged between himself and Sinn Fein members were "light hearted" and about Brexit. "Ballynahinch is a unionist town and there was a large peaceful protest. There was some verbal abuse, but I certainly wouldn't be verbally abusing them," he said. "There were discussions between police and the protesters beforehand and a set of rules were agreed, there was nothing untoward. They gave as good as they got. "We were there in case it got out of hand, but it didn't, they were well behaved." Mr Wells said that holding the rally in a place where IRA victims lived was "insensitive". "They are coming into a unionist town that has suffered at the hands of the IRA, there's quite a few widows and orphans in the town who have lost loved ones. It's very insensitive to come into a town where they have no support to electioneer," the South Down MLA said. "If they'd gone to Castlewellan or Downpatrick or somewhere there might not have been a reaction. "As far as I know it's the first public rally Sinn Fein have ever had in Ballynahinch and I wouldn't go to a nationalist town and hold a rally like this. I would see it as insensitive. "They are basically wasting their time in Ballynahinch." An Irish woman detained in Syria will be allowed return despite her alleged links to Islamic State (IS), the Taoiseach has said. Leo Varadkar said an investigation will need to be conducted before Lisa Smith will be allowed to re-enter the country but he said it was the compassionate thing to do. Ms Smith, 37, originally from Co Louth, has been detained for being suspected as a member of IS. She was a member of the Irish Defence Forces before she converted to Islam and emigrated to Syria. We dont believe that removing an Irish citizens citizenship from her or her child and rendering her stateless would be either the right or compassionate thing to doLeo Varadkar Mr Varadkar said going to live in Syria, or what was called Islamic State, was not in itself an offence or a crime. I know the authorities there will want to interrogate her to see if she has been involved in any crimes there, he said. But its very possible that she was never a combatant. We really need to get to the bottom of the facts here, carry out a security assessment to see if the Syrian authorities want to carry out a prosecution or not. But ultimately this is an Irish citizen and we dont believe that removing an Irish citizens citizenship from her or her child and rendering her stateless would be either the right or compassionate thing to do. Mr Varadkar added: As an Irish citizen she will have the right to return to Ireland as will her child, who is an Irish citizen. But its not just as simple as coming here and proceeding as if nothing had happened, he said. There will need to be an interrogation by the authorities there. There may need to be a prosecution there. And well make sure that if she returns to Ireland, she isnt a threat to anybody here either. Irish woman Carol Duffy, who helped Ms Smith convert to Islam nine years ago, said she was shocked to hear of her suspected links to the Islamic State. Ms Duffy told RTEs Liveline she believes Ms Smith was brainwashed. People are judging her now from what they see but the Lisa Smith I knew was a genuine, nice girl., she said. She was very funny and very approachable and from a nice family. I think what has happened to Lisa is a level of brainwashing that we will never be able to comprehend. I think she was promised a great life and I think she believed them. She is very vulnerable and is guilty of being naive. Asked whether she think Ms Smith should be allowed to return to Ireland, she said: I was very conflicted by all of this because in one way Im very adamant that anyone who gets involved in that kind of carry on needs to be punished. The other thing is we have no proof she has done anything. The Lisa I knew was not confrontational, (she) would never physically hurt anyone. The idea that she would be over there doing something? No, I dont believe she lifted a gun and killed anyone. I dont even believe she was sympathising with them, I think she was looking for something in life and it dint turn out that way. The National Organizer of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Sammy Awuku and some bigwigs of the party youth have engaged Kadahar boys, Invisible force affiliated to the party in Tamale in the Northern Region and other parts of the country. The group had the opportunity to engage with the leadership of Kandahar boys, Invisible force; we went to the youth in Upper East and same in the Upper West. The purpose of the engagement had to do with vigilantism and ways of finding solutions to the violence perpetrated in recent time in the country. There have been calls for the disbanding of vigilante groups in the country due to the increasing rate of violence in Ghana. The National youth leaders of the NPP toured the various constituencies in the five regions of the north to engage with party youth. Mr. Awuku noted that the youth of the party see reason with the NPP leadership and have decided not to be violent but cooperate with party leadership to be able to eliminate any politically motivated violence in any by-elections or general elections. The National Organizer, Sammy Awuku told the media that the president tasked the leadership of the party to extend an invitation to the NDC to dialog and find lasting solution to the vigilantism menace. According to him, even though the NPP received targeted attacks from the NDC in the past, the party is still willing to help address the vigilantism issue for the good of mother Ghana. He said the NPP National Chairman, Mr. Freddie Blay placed a number of calls to the leadership of the NDC to meet on the vigilantism issue but the NDC comes to the table with conditions. Its sad that NDC seem to be always bringing in issues of conditions making it difficult for all of us to sit around the table and have a dispassionate discussion. But he indicated that both the NPP and the NDC can agree to disagree but all efforts must be geared to finding lasting solutions to the situation that the country faces currently. Responding to the NDCs call for the president to resign over the documentary by the Multimedia Journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni, Mr. Awuku called on the NDC to meet with their vigilant groups and sensitize them to find solutions to the vigilantism menace instead of wasting time on press conferences. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Theresa May has arrived in Strasbourg for last-minute Brexit talks with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on the eve of a crucial vote in the House of Commons. The last-ditch bid to make progress in talks, which Downing Street admitted overnight were deadlocked, comes amid predictions the Prime Minister is headed for a second humiliating defeat on her Withdrawal Agreement unless she can secure legally-binding changes to its controversial backstop. Sources in London played down suggestions that Mrs Mays departure for France was an indication that a deal is ready for signature. But it is thought that the PM believes that there is a basis for further face-to-face discussions as part of the talks. Mrs May was greeted in Strasbourg by Mr Juncker and the EUs chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier. Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay accompanied the PM to the talks. A Government statement is set to be made to the Commons later on Monday night. Expand Close PA Graphics Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp PA Graphics Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliments Brexit co-ordinator, confirmed he and EP president Antonio Tajani will also meet Mrs May on Monday night. In other diplomatic moves, an emergency meeting of Irish cabinet ministers was called for Monday night. Irish premier Leo Varadkar, who was due to begin a journey to America for St Patricks Day, returned from Dublin airport for the cabinet briefing. Time is running out for any new assurances or clarifications to the deal which was resoundingly rejected by a 230-vote majority by MPs in January. Meeting with @theresa_may & @EP_President tonight. I hope progress can be made, if it is possible, as a no deal #Brexit would be a catastrophe. We will stand by Ireland & the need to safeguard the Good Friday Agreement. Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) March 11, 2019 The Government must table its motion for Tuesdays debate by the end of the day, alongside the publication of any relevant documents. MPs have also been promised that they will be shown any updated legal advice from Attorney General Geoffrey Cox before the debate begins. Mrs Mays efforts to secure new assurances appeared to have hit stalemate on Monday morning, as Mr Barnier said discussions were now taking place between the Government in London and the Parliament in London, rather than the UK and Brussels. But Downing Street insisted that talks continue, after Mrs May held a phone call with Mr Juncker in early afternoon. Reports suggested that EU ambassadors were told the PM came close to signing off a text with Mr Juncker on Sunday evening, which would have given new assurances on the UKs right to seek arbitration if Brussels was not using its best endeavours to seek a trade deal which would bring the backstop to an end. Number 10 dismissed reports that Mrs May might pull Tuesdays meaningful vote, insisting it would go ahead as planned. The PMs spokesman cautioned against speculation that Mrs May might ask Parliament to vote on a conditional motion expressing its readiness to support a form of deal other than the one agreed with Brussels. Expand Close Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey (Kirsty Wrigglesworth/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey (Kirsty Wrigglesworth/PA) Mrs May ducked a demand from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to update the House of Commons on the progress of negotiations, sending Brexit minister Robin Walker to respond to his urgent question in her place. Mr Walker was jeered by Labour MPs as he explained he had been sent because negotiations were at a critical stage. The absence of the PM was branded an outrageous dereliction of duty by backbencher Angela Eagle. As MPs debated Brexit, Mrs May was on the other side of Parliament Square at Westminster Abbey taking part in a Commonwealth Day service. She read a Bible lesson on the importance of solidarity, stating: The body is not one member, but many And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. PM no show in Commons today is an outrageous dereliction of duty #BrexitShambles #ToryChaos #ParForTheCourse Angela Eagle DBE (@angelaeagle) March 11, 2019 Mr Corbyn told MPs that the Government is in chaos and the country in crisis. If her deal is rejected again on Tuesday, the Labour leader said the PM should shift her red lines and show not just that she is willing to meet with members of this House, but that she is willing to compromise with them too. Mr Walker confirmed the meaningful vote will take place on Tuesday, and said it was incumbent on MPs to take the opportunity to deliver on the will of the British people and to provide certainty by backing Mrs Mays deal. The Prime Minister was warned that her position could be in jeopardy unless she stuck to commitments she made about this weeks votes. If her deal is defeated for a second time on Tuesday, she has promised to give MPs a vote on whether to accept a no-deal Brexit on March 29 or to extend Article 50 in order to delay the UKs departure beyond the current deadline. I am sure that the Prime Minister will honour these three commitments. If she doesnt she will forfeit the confidence of the House of Commons. Nick Boles (@NickBoles) March 11, 2019 Tory former minister Nick Boles said: I am sure that the Prime Minister will honour these three commitments. If she doesnt she will forfeit the confidence of the House of Commons. Senior Labour backbencher Yvette Cooper said the PM would be guilty of a straight-up lie if she failed to go through with votes allowing MPs to delay Brexit. Brexit-backing Conservative MP Anne Marie Morris said she did not expect any concessions secured by the Prime Minister in Strasbourg to alter her intention to vote against the Withdrawal Agreement on Tuesday. The Newton Abbot MP told BBC Radio 4s PM: The reality is weve taken almost two years to get here and I cannot see that in these twilight hours, suddenly something is going to come back and is going to satisfy concerns that I have which I share with, Im sure, many members of the public and many members of the ERG (European Research Group). This deal is a bad deal and what we need is for the Prime Minister to stick to her word that she would accept that no deal is better than this deal. Remain-backing Tory MP Sam Gyimah said he could not vote for the PMs deal. If there hadnt been a referendum and this deal had been presented to us as a template for our future relationship with the EU, it would have been rejected out of hand because we are essentially choosing a third-rate future for our country, he told PM. That is why I cant vote for it. Ed Vaizey, who backed Mrs Mays deal in the first meaningful vote, said: I am going to vote for the deal. I find it intensely depressing to think that yet again it seems likely that the deal is going to be voted down. Mr Vaizey said if Mrs Mays plan was rejected all bets are off it will engender complete parliamentary chaos. Although MPs would then be right to vote for an extension to Article 50, all Hell will break loose, he said. Gardai have arrested a gunman after an army bomb squad were called to a house in Ballymun, Dublin. Garda Armed Support Units and a Defence Forces Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team rushed to the scene at around 4.45pm on Monday, after reports of an armed man in the Poppintree area. The man in his thirties was arrested shortly afterwards by unarmed Gardai and a firearm was recovered at a house on Cranogue Road, Ballymun. He was brought to Ballymun Garda Station and was detained. The area around the house was sealed off due to the discovery of a device. Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said: The Gardai involved showed great bravery in ensuring the safety of the public. Gardai are appealing to any witnesses who may have been in or around the area at the time of the incident to contact Ballymun Garda Station on 01 6664400, The Garda Confidential Telephone Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said if there is an extension to Article 50 there must be a purpose behind it (Michelle Devane/PA) Ministers in the Irish cabinet have been summoned to an emergency government meeting on Brexit. The Irish premier, Leo Varadkar, who was due to begin his journey to the US for St Patricks Day, returned from Dublin airport and was brought back to government buildings for the cabinet briefing. A government source confirmed the specially-convened meeting would take place at 7pm on Monday night. Not all cabinet members will be in attendance as ministers were not told to stay after an initial government briefing earlier on Monday. Sources say the meeting came as a surprise to ministers, and although two cabinet meetings in one day is unusual, it is not unprecedented. Earlier on Monday, Mr Varadkar had said any extension to the UK leaving the EU must have a purpose. He said if the UK took the decision to extend Article 50 it must not lead to a rolling cliff-edge scenario. The Taoiseach made the comments in Dublin as Brexit negotiations between UK and the EU remain deadlocked, and amid warnings in Westminster that British PM Theresa May could be heading for another defeat in Tuesdays House of Commons vote. Mr Varadkar was speaking at the launch of the Governments national childcare scheme at the Department of Children. Taoiseach @campaignforleo has said any extension to Article 50 must have a purpose and must not lead to a rolling cliff edge scenario in the coming months. Mr Varadkar made the comments alongside @KZapponeTD at the launch of the Governments national childcare scheme #Brexit @PA pic.twitter.com/iNe92ukI9R Michelle Devane (@michelledevane) March 11, 2019 If there is going to be an extension, it has to be an extension with a purpose, Mr Varadkar said. Nobody across the European Union wants to see a rolling cliff-edge where tough decisions just get put off until the end of April, then to the end of May and then maybe till the end of July. He said the uncertainty around Brexit was already worrying Irish citizens, damaging business confidence and affecting the agriculture industry in particular. If there is going to be an extension there has to be a purpose to that extension, he continued. Mr Varadkar said he could not predict the outcome of Tuesdays vote on the Withdrawal Agreement in the House of Commons. If it doesnt pass, I understand that there will be a vote on Wednesday to take no-deal off the table and then potentially a vote on Thursday around an extension, he said. He added that any change in the planned votes in the House of Commons this week would miss the point. I do hear some suggestion that the votes may be called off in favour of a new vote as a result of which the House of Commons would tell the European Union what they want. That really misses the point. Were two-and-a-half years, if not nearly three years now, since the referendum, he said. It is far too late for the United Kingdom to tell us what they want. The Withdrawal Agreement requires a compromise and this Withdrawal Agreement is already a compromise. Mr Varadkar also reiterated that the threat of a no-deal was not coming from the EU or Ireland, adding that the UK Parliament could take the threat of a no-deal off the table at any time as March 29 was a self-imposed deadline. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said the proposals could make matters worse (Brian Lawless/PA) Talks over a new contract for nurses and midwives have been referred to the Labour Court. Unions and the government have been deadlocked in negotiations over new contracts that were to accompany a higher payscale. The Labour Court will examine the disputed clauses of the new draft proposals. The Governments new contract and payscale emerged as a result of historic strike action taken by nurses all over the country in January and February, which saw thousands of men and women take to the picket line over safety concerns linked to a pay and staff retention crisis in the sector. Trade unions have rejected the Governments proposed new contract for nurses as not fit for purpose. A statement from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said the proposals could potentially make the current issues worse. There is a very large gap between the INMO and the employers on the new contract. We do not believe that their current proposals would be acceptable to our members, nor do they fulfil the requirements of the Labour Court recommendation, the statement said. This dispute arose over recruitment and retention problems. The employers proposed contract would only worsen such problems. Phil Ni Sheaghdha, INMO general secretary, said the group were disappointed in the Governments attitude. We are deeply disappointed with the governments attempt to stretch the limits set by the Labour Court in these contract talks. Government insistence on unreasonable contract terms would put nurses and midwives in some of the most insecure jobs in Ireland, allowing unilateral changes to work locations and hours. We will not allow this. The governments contract proposals are unacceptable to us and would only worsen the recruitment and retention problems. We believe that the governments proposed contract goes far beyond the Labour Court recommendation and will be making this case firmly to the Court on behalf of our members. Our constant focus is to improve conditions for our members and deliver safe patient care. We will continue to exhaust all avenues to achieve this aim. SIPTU Health Division confirmed that the talks on the Governments proposed enhanced nursing and midwifery contracts concluded after three days without consensus on Sunday at the Workplace Relations Commission. SIPTU Health Division organiser Paul Bell said government representatives did not waver on their position on the concerns raised by nursing unions. Nursing contract talks conclude without agreement ...the totality of the proposals either provide little or no benefit for some nursing/midwifery grades & destabilise the entire concept of a workplace location & a structured rostered day..." More here https://t.co/r2gPUWHjeU SIPTU Health Division #JoinAUnion (@siptuhealth) March 11, 2019 The Health Service Executive, the Department of Health and Department of Public Expenditure and Reform continued to maintain their position on fundamental issues concerning our members terms and conditions, he said. These areas, include hours of work, rosters, redeployment, work location and assimilation to the new enhanced pay scale. SIPTU negotiators informed management, that their objectives in all of these key areas, fundamentally undermine the terms and conditions of nurses and midwives. They further, firmly and unequivocally rejected the proposed new contract as not fit for purpose. He added that SIPTU representatives confirmed that any management proposals aimed at deteriorating the terms and conditions of nurses and midwives will be firmly resisted by the National Nursing and Midwifery Sector Committee. The employers proposed contract would only worsen such problemsIrish Nurses and Midwives Organisation Balloting had been due to start today for INMO members, but the Executive Council have decided to postpone the start of balloting by two weeks, after they decided that members would not be balloted without a satisfactory contract. The government have also indicated to the INMO that they will attend the Labour Court. A spokeswoman from the Department of Health said the Government was willing to hold further talks with unions. Health service management remains available for further discussion with nursing unions, she said. Management is committed to upholding the recommendation issued by the Labour Court and accepted by the Government, and to meeting the reforms laid out in Slaintecare. Irish justice minister Charlie Flanagan said he will do everything he can to try and get Smith home A leading European Islamic intellectual is calling for Islamic State suspect Lisa Smith to be allowed to return home to the Irish Republic, saying if she was involved in terrorism she must face trial there. Shaykh Dr Umar Al-Qadri, of the Islamic Educational and Cultural Centre Ireland, said the Muslim community in the Republic was shocked to learn about the case of Smith. "It's important that she does come back to Ireland and there's a fair trial to determine if she was involved in terrorism or in supporting terrorism," he said. Former Irish soldier Smith (37), from Dundalk, Co Louth, was detained by US forces in northern Syria on Thursday having left Ireland in 2015 to travel to the war-torn region. It's understood she married a British jihadi who died around four months ago and has been left alone with a two-year-old son. "It is a shocking revelation, that someone who had been in the Defence Forces and worked on the government jet has been radicalised," said Dr Al-Qadri, a leading Sunni scholar. "An investigation now has to take place into which people were in contact with her when she converted to Islam." He said new converts to the religion can be especially at risk of becoming radicalised and this often happens online. "What we see with people who have embraced Islam is, maybe they have never even been to a mosque because there isn't one close. "We need to begin having a discussion about what can be done to support those who decide to embrace Islam. "We need to make sure our society is immune to radicalisation," he said. Dr Al-Qadri, who is also the chair of Irish Muslim Peace and Integration Council, has been an outspoken critic of the extreme Islam used by followers to justify violence and works with inter-faith and integration groups. Meanwhile, Irish justice minister Charlie Flanagan said he will do everything he can to try and get Smith home. Rescuers work at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines crash (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene) Several airlines serving UK airports are continuing to fly the aircraft model involved in a deadly crash in Ethiopia, despite it being grounded in several countries. China, Indonesia and Ethiopia halted flights by Boeing 737 Max 8 planes following the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday which killed all 157 people on board. Tui Airways has the only five 737 Max 8 aircraft operated by a UK-based airline, and is due to begin flying a sixth later this week. Asked if the airline would take any action in response to the crash, a spokesman for parent company Tui said: We do not comment on any speculation and we are, as always, in close contact with the manufacturer. We have no indication that we cant operate our 737 Max in a safe way like we do with all other planes in our network. Scandinavian airline Norwegian, which serves London Gatwick, Manchester and Edinburgh in the UK, has 18 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. Tomas Hesthammer, the carriers director of flight operations, said: All of our Boeing 737 Max aircraft are operating as normal. A number of airlines have grounded their fleet of the aircraft model, including Royal Air Maroc, Cayman Airways, Mongolian Airlines and Comair, which is a British Airways franchise in southern Africa. A Comair spokesman said it will not fly its 737 Max 8s while it consults with other operators, Boeing and technical experts. The Ethiopian Airlines jet crashed six minutes after taking off from the capital Addis Ababa. Both the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were recovered from the wreckage. While the cause is not yet known, the crash shared similarities with last years Lion Air jet plunging into the Java Sea, killing 189. That also involved a 737 Max 8 crashing minutes after take off. Expand Close Boeing 737 MAX 8 (PA Graphics) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Boeing 737 MAX 8 (PA Graphics) The US Federal Aviation Administration, which is responsible for issuing safety certificates for the aircraft, said it was closely monitoring developments. This process is validated for European Union countries by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). The UK Civil Aviation Authority said it is liaising very closely with EASA. Ethiopian Airlines chief executive Tewolde Gebremariam said the pilot had sent out a distress call and was given the all-clear to return to the airport. Senior captain Yared Getachew had a commendable performance having completed more than 8,000 hours in the air, the airline said. Chicago-based Boeing is facing pressure to guarantee the safety of its 737 Max 8 aircraft. The firms chief executive Dennis Muilenburg said it is providing technical assistance to the Ethiopian government and regulatory authorities in their investigation. Expand Close Ethiopian Airlines crash (PA Graphics) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ethiopian Airlines crash (PA Graphics) Shares in Boeing were down nearly 9% in Frankfurt and also fell 9% in pre-market trading in New York. The Max aircraft has engines which are higher on the wing than previous models of the 737. This affects aerodynamics, leading to Boeing introducing new software designed to prevent stalling. The passengers killed in Sundays crash came from 35 nations, including 32 from Kenya and 18 from Canada. United Nations worker Joanna Toole, a 36-year-old from Devon, was among at least nine British nationals killed. Colleagues at the UN fisheries and aquaculture department described Ms Toole as a wonderful human being, while her father said she was a very soft and loving woman. Ms Tooles father Adrian, from Exmouth, told the DevonLive website that she was genuinely one of those people who you never hear a bad word about. Everybody was very proud of her and the work she did, were still in a state of shock, he added. Expand Close Wreckage lies at the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines flight (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Wreckage lies at the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines flight (AP) Joseph Waithaka, a 55-year-old who lived in Hull for a decade before moving back to his native Kenya, also died in the crash, his son said. Ben Kuria, 30, who lives in south London, said his father regularly visited England and was returning from a trip to meet his two-month-old granddaughter and get a health check-up when he died. Mr Kuria said: Hes someone who really loved justice, and didnt give up on people most people had given up on. He really just wanted the best for his kids. He was a father not just to us but to so many people in so many ways. One Irish victim was named as Michael Ryan, a married father-of-two based in Rome with the UNs World Food Programme, which distributes rations to people in need. Known as Mick and formerly from Lahinch in Co Clare, Mr Ryan was celebrated for doing life-changing work in Africa by Irish premier Leo Varadkar. As many as 19 UN workers were feared to have been killed in the crash, the number being so high because of its environmental forum which started on Monday. BMA has said it will support doctors to sue the Government (Peter Byrne/PA) Doctors have threatened to sue the Government over changes to the NHS pension scheme which they say discriminated against younger staff. The British Medical Association (BMA) has written to Health Secretary Matt Hancock and officials in Scotland and Northern Ireland to warn of its intention to take legal action on behalf of members, it said on Monday. The body, which represents UK doctors, said changes to pension schemes four years ago will result in huge financial loss for some medics when they retire. The BMA wants the Government to scrap the scheme so that doctors are not adversely affected by it in later yearsDr Trevor Pickersgill, interim BMA treasurer Many NHS staff were moved onto a new scheme in 2015 with less valuable retirement benefits, the BMA said. However, some doctors were allowed to stay on the previous schemes until they retired or at the end of a fixed transition period. The BMA alleges that the failure to allow younger doctors to benefit from these transitions constitutes unlawful age discrimination, Dr Trevor Pickersgill, interim treasurer of the body, said. Expand Close Some doctors may face financial loss as a result of the changes, the BMA said (Peter Byrne/PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Some doctors may face financial loss as a result of the changes, the BMA said (Peter Byrne/PA) The legal action follows a ruling by the Court of Appeal in December, which found the Government discriminated against judges and firefighters over changes to their pension. In line with the changes to the NHS Pension scheme, firefighters similarly could stay in the existing and better pension scheme, and younger members had to transfer to a new and worse scheme, causing significant financial losses, Dr Pickersgill said. The Government has said it will appeal this decision, but the BMA is demanding that, should that appeal fail, the Government will agree that 2015 NHS Pension Scheme does unlawfully discriminate against its younger members. The BMA wants the Government to scrap the scheme so that doctors are not adversely affected by it in later years. Many doctors had been working towards and planning for their retirement based on membership of the former sections of the NHS pension scheme, only for those plans to be completely disregarded once the Governments discriminatory changes were brought in. A Government spokesman said: In 2015 reforms were introduced to ensure that public service pensions are affordable and sustainable in the long term. In December 2018, the Court of Appeal ruled that the transitional protection offered to some members as part of the reforms amounts to unlawful discrimination. The Government is seeking permission to appeal this decision and continues to believe that the reforms were necessary, appropriate and lawful. If the appeal is unsuccessful, the Court will require steps to be taken to compensate employees who were transferred to the new schemes. However this decision does not alter the Governments longstanding objective to ensure public service pensions are fair to public service workers and fair to other taxpayers. Controversial plans to expand Heathrow Airport will come under the scrutiny of leading judges as a legal challenge gets under way at the High Court. A coalition of councils, residents, environmental charities and the mayor of London Sadiq Khan are fighting a legal battle against the Governments decision to approve the building of a third runway. The case is being brought against Transport Secretary Chris Grayling by local authorities and residents in London affected by the expansion and charities including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and Plan B. The coalition claims the governments National Policy Statement (NPS) setting out its support for the project fails to properly deal with the impact on air quality, climate change, noise and congestion. Expand Close Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling (Ben Birchall/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling (Ben Birchall/PA) The claimants will argue the NPS is unlawful and should be quashed, which would mean the Government would have to start the process again and put it to another vote in Parliament. Demonstrators are expected to gather outside the court on Monday, the first day of a two-week hearing before Lord Justice Hickinbottom and Mr Justice Holgate. Laura MacKenzie, climate change campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: The UK Government claims to be a climate leader yet supports the pending emissions disaster that is the third runway at Heathrow. An expanded Heathrow Airport would put seven hundred extra planes a day into our skies, pumping millions of tonnes of carbon into our atmosphere. With the impacts of climate chaos already being suffered by millions around the world, we simply cannot allow this to go ahead. Support from Labour MPs helped push through the proposals to expand Europes busiest airport with an overwhelming majority of 296 in a Commons vote last month. Mr Grayling said the new runway would set a clear path to our future as a global nation in the post-Brexit world. Construction could begin in 2021, with the third runway operational by 2026. As with any major infrastructure project, we have been anticipating legal challenges and will robustly defend our positionDepartment for Transport A spokesman for Mr Khan previously said: One of the mayors top priorities is cleaning up the toxic air in our city which causes thousands of premature deaths every year. He is greatly concerned about the impact of a third runway on air quality, noise pollution and also on public transport. Tim Crosland, director of Plan B, said: As recognised by the Mayor of London and numerous councils around the country, we are enveloped in a climate emergency, demanding an urgent and radical change of course. Meanwhile, central government ignores the science and continues to subsidise fossil fuels, to develop the fracking industry and to expand aviation as if there were no tomorrow. This reckless disregard for the science and for the future must be stopped. John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: The climate minister has admitted were in the grip of a climate emergency. The environment secretary has declared air pollution one of the biggest threats to public health in the UK. So how can ministers justify building a runway thats bound to make both problems much worse? Governments are very happy to talk the talk when it comes to protecting the air we breathe and the climate we all share but, unfortunately, getting them to walk the walk often takes legal action. A Department for Transport spokeswoman previously said: Expansion at Heathrow is a critical programme which will provide a boost to the economy, increase our international links and create tens of thousands of new jobs. As with any major infrastructure project, we have been anticipating legal challenges and will robustly defend our position. Todays hearing does not impact on the work Heathrow is undertaking on its application for planning consent or the timetable to deliver this much-needed runway. A Heathrow spokeswoman previously said: We are participating in the legal challenges as an interested party given our role as the promoter of this critically important, national project. Our work in delivering Britains new runway will continue in tandem with this process following overwhelming support in Parliament. We remain focused on the work needed for our development consent order submission in 2020 and we are getting on with the delivery of this project which will benefit the whole of the UK. Host of Okay FM's Drive time programme, Abeiku Aggrey "Santana", has been honoured at the Pan-African Executives Awards Summit 2018. The Presenter was given the Lifetime Achievement Award for his excellence in broadcast journalism in the country. Abeiku Aggrey "Santana" has over the past 20 years, carved a niche for himself in the media landscape as an astute Presenter and a giant in the tourism sector as well. Pan-African Executives Awards Summit recognizes and honors Africans who have made a great impact in media and the business world. The award event was held at the Accra International Conference on Saturday, March 9, 2019. Delivering a speech at the gathering, Abeiku Santana called for unity in Africa and also touched on the vision by Ghana's first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah for Ghana and Africa at large. He advised that the leaders of Africa should tap into the vision of the great leader of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah to ensure Africa's development. Present at the Summit were business magnates and other high-profile dignitaries among others. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Home Office minister Victoria Atkins joins an officer from the Metropolitan Police searching for knives in Lewisham, south London (Kirsty OConnor/PA) A nationwide seven-day police crackdown on knife crime can have a really huge impact, according to a Home Office minister. All forces in England and Wales are taking part in the clampdown, which is part of the polices Operation Sceptre, by using surrender bins, stop-and-search powers and weapon sweeps to target habitual blade-carriers. Victoria Atkins MP joined Metropolitan Police officers in Lewisham, south-east London, on Monday as they searched for weapons stashed in the area. Expand Close Officers from the Metropolitan Police search for weapons (Kirsty OConnor/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Officers from the Metropolitan Police search for weapons (Kirsty OConnor/PA) She said that while the police work every week to tackle knife crime, the crackdown will send a really big message that knife crime and carrying a knife is not normal and is not tolerated. Police officers searched through bushes and undergrowth near the town centre to try to find hidden weapons in an effort to take them off the streets and analyse them forensically in case they are linked to crimes. Ms Atkins said: Just this morning people wandering round, going about their business, seeing a great big team of police officers just there to reassure and keep the local community safe, I think that in itself is really valuable. A community response is important as well as the policing measures, she said, adding: Many forces this week will send officers into schools to talk about knife crime and the consequences of carrying a knife. Expand Close Home Office minister Victoria Atkins (Kirsty OConnor/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Home Office minister Victoria Atkins (Kirsty OConnor/PA) Stabbings have been under the spotlight following a string of fatal attacks on Britains streets over the last few weeks. Teenagers, including 17-year-old Jodie Chesney who was killed in east London, have featured prominently among the victims. When asked whether a fall in the number of police officers is linked to levels of knife crime, Ms Atkins said: We know that the causes of violent crime across the country are very complex. The number of officers in the 43 territorial forces in England and Wales has fallen by more than 20,000 since 2009. However Superintendent Darius Hemmatpour from the Metropolitan Polices violent crime task force, who was also at the weapons sweep, said that police numbers are linked to knife crime. But if you remove 20,000 officers its going to have some level of impact on crime, in my personal viewSuperintendent Darius Hemmatpour He said: Of course it does have an impact but we just have to be smarter and more effective, and thats what we are doing. We are maximising the opportunity to make officers visible to minimise that impact. But if you remove 20,000 officers its going to have some level of impact on crime, in my personal view. Mr Hemmatpour added that weapon sweeps are a form of reassurance, adding: Its vitally important the public and community see us actively out on the streets. Operation Sceptre has seen thousands of weapons seized and placed in amnesty bins since it began in July 2015. The father of Molly Russell has urged the Government to introduce regulation on social media platforms in order to make the internet a safer place, especially for the young. Ian Russells 14-year-old daughter was found to have viewed content on social media linked to anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide before taking her own life in November 2017. Speaking at an event in Parliament for the NSPCC and its Wild West Web campaign, which is calling for regulation of social networks, Mr Russell said technology giants had been allowed to self-regulate for too long. The tech captains still seem to be heading in the wrong direction, driving ever deeper into Silicon Valley. Up until now they have chosen their own course. Governments have allowed social media platforms to be self-regulated, but remember this really is a matter of life and death and its getting worse, he said. Now is the time for the UK Government to bring effective internet regulation, with strong sanctions as back-up. Now is the time for the UK to lead the world in making the online world a safer place, especially for the young. Expand Close Ian Russell speaks at the NSPCCs Wild West Web event inside the Palace of Westminster (Jonathan Hordle/NSPCC) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ian Russell speaks at the NSPCCs Wild West Web event inside the Palace of Westminster (Jonathan Hordle/NSPCC) The law in this country is very clear anyone who encourages self-harm or suicide on or offline, through imagery or words, verbal or written, is complicit. He said his familys search for answers following his daughters death had led him to view her social media accounts, where he said he found sickening content in a world where anxiety and depression and self-harm and suicide are all normalised and encouraged. It was too harrowing to spend long looking at the actual posts that Molly had viewed, posts that I can say with absolute certainty played a part in deepening Mollys depression and persuading her to end her own life, he said. Mr Russell, who has since set up a suicide prevention charity called the Molly Rose Foundation, said MPs now had the opportunity to better protect the young and vulnerable. Directly addressing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri, Pinterest founder Ben Silbermann and Apple chief executive Tim Cook, Mr Russell said inaction would no longer be tolerated. I know few will disagree when I say to Mr Zuckerberg, Mr Mosseri, Mr Silbermann and Mr Cook, you all have a moral duty of care to protect our children. You all must act now to stop the harm of other vulnerable people. For 10 years we have waited for your tech companies to take action, but only been met by inaction. We cannot wait any longer. Its time for social media platforms to be held accountable, its time for social networks to ensure their platforms are a safe place for our young people and our vulnerable people. Its too late for Molly, but the people in this room have the power to stop harmful content reaching our children. Mr Russell also criticised Mark Zuckerbergs recent announcement of his plans to increase privacy and encryption on Facebook, warning that such a move will only make investigating such cases even harder and provide more opportunities for grooming whether that be sexual or suicidal. His comments were supported by minister for digital and creative industries Margot James, who said a duty of care was needed to be placed upon internet companies. She also confirmed an expected Government white paper on online harms and social media regulation will be published later this month. Expand Close Digital minister Margot James speaks at the NSPCCs event calling for more regulation on social media (Jonathan Hordle/NSPCC) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Digital minister Margot James speaks at the NSPCCs event calling for more regulation on social media (Jonathan Hordle/NSPCC) Ms James said it will set out clear expectations for companies on how they should keep their users safe. We in government have a duty to act in a way which will compel, as well as encourage companies, to put the protection of children and the security of users at the heart of their corporate culture, she said. Whats unacceptable offline has to have the same unacceptability and the sanctions and the force of law behind it online, just as it does offline. We now have the opportunity and the determination to ensure that those already online and those who will grow up online are able to make the best possible use of everything good and all the opportunities that the internet offers, without facing those unacceptable risks. The serial killer, rapist and paedophile Angus Sinclair spent more of his 73 years in jail than outside but the complete picture of his murderous reign of terror may never be fully revealed following his death. He started his criminal career with the theft of a church collection box as a young boy growing up in Glasgow in the 1950s. But he soon progressed to violence and by 1961 he committed his first killing by strangling seven-year-old Catherine Reehill when he was just a teenager. He pleaded guilty to culpable homicide and served six years behind bars. Following his release, he went on a killing spree during the 1970s as well as carrying out violent sex attacks on 11 young children between the ages of six and 14 including three rapes. He found himself before the courts in 1982 for the sex attacks and was given two life sentences. Sinclair was refused parole in 1999, with the authorities stating he was too dangerous to be let back out on the streets, but the extent of his murderous past had not yet been revealed. Then in 2001, while still in prison, DNA advances led detectives to link him to an unsolved murder from 23 years previously. He was tried, convicted and given another life sentence for the murder of Glasgow teenager Mary Gallacher who was raped and stabbed near a railway line in 1978 as she went to meet a friend. The DNA breakthrough in the case saw police begin to examine any connection between Sinclair and several other unsolved murders from the era. However, it was the unsolved Worlds End murders that Sinclair would eventually be linked to thanks to scientific developments. Expand Close Sinclair was convicted in 2014 of the murders of Christine Eadie (left) and Helen Scott (Police Scotland/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sinclair was convicted in 2014 of the murders of Christine Eadie (left) and Helen Scott (Police Scotland/PA) The brutal killings of Christine Eadie and Helen Scott was one of Scotlands highest-profile unsolved crimes for almost four decades. The discovery of the girls bodies on October 16 1977, dumped in remote locations in East Lothian around five miles apart from each other, conveyed the unimaginable horror they suffered at the end of their all-too-short lives. Christines naked body was found at around 2.25pm that day at Gosford Bay, Aberlady. She had a ligature around her neck, her mouth was gagged with a pair of pants and her wrists had been tied behind her back. She had been punched and kicked on her head and body, bitten, raped, bound and strangled. Helens partially-clothed body, discovered at around 6pm, had been dumped in a wheat field at the Huntington to Coates road, near Haddington. Her hands were also tied behind her back and a ligature made from a belt and a pair of tights had been tied around her neck. Raped, bound and throttled, she too had been punched and kicked, and her head had been stamped on. Sinclair first faced trial for the horrific murders in 2007 but the case collapsed and he was sent back to jail before it ever reached a jury for a verdict. The outcry was such that it led to the introduction of double jeopardy legislation in Scotland, meaning suspects could face retrial for serious crimes if compelling new evidence emerged. Sitting in the dock again seven years later, Sinclair listened as forensic scientists revealed how new techniques uncovered his DNA, and that of his brother-in-law Gordon Hamilton, which had lay hidden inside knots on the ligatures used to strangle the girls. Science, as the prosecution put it, had given Christine and Helen a voice. With Hamilton dying in 1996, Sinclair had the opportunity during the five-week trial two years ago at the High Court in Livingston to claim Gordon did it all. Entering the witness box on day 21 of evidence, he did just that. During questioning from the Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland, who prosecuted the case, he was asked on several occasions to look into his soul and admit responsibility for raping and murdering the girls. His answer every time was simply no. He sat in the dock yawning, dozing and occasionally removing his glasses to rub his eyes. In a dramatic courtroom exchange, Sinclair said he had consensual sex with both girls in the back of his caravanette in the Holyrood Park area after meeting them in the Worlds End pub. He admitted he did not care about the teenagers and said they were something for him to use, but he said he did not kill them. Sinclairs denial of any involvement in their murder culminated in him claiming Hamilton dropped him off at the spot where they had been fishing earlier and then drove off to take the girls home. But in evidence led before the jury, it emerged that Sinclairs DNA could be detected across all the ligatures used to bind the girls. It took jurors less than two-and-a-half hours to convict him of both crimes. His actions in court and on a jury site visit to East Lothian where he remained in the car staring straight ahead did not shock the retired detectives who had sat through his evidence. Allan Jones investigated the deaths as man and boy, and latterly was the senior investigating officer in the case until his retirement in 2012. Mr Jones, who interviewed Sinclair numerous times, described him as a horrendous individual. Speaking in 2014, he said Sinclair was probably one of the most conniving, evil and cruel individuals you would ever have the misfortune to meet. Crime minister Victoria Atkins meets Lewisham shop owner Lawrence Roulland (left) and Barry Mizen, whose son Jimmy was killed in 2008 (Kirsty OConnor/PA) A shop owner who offers refuge to young people who fear they may be attacked said that he hears stuff that kids wouldnt tell a policeman or somebody in authority. Crep Select, a clothes shop in Lewisham, south-east London, provides young people with a safe haven to go to if they feel under the threat of violence. Owner Lawrence Roulland said that young people engage well with the service. Expand Close A yellow Safe Haven for Jimmy sticker on the Crep Select store (Kirsty OConnor/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A yellow Safe Haven for Jimmy sticker on the Crep Select store (Kirsty OConnor/PA) He said: We hear stuff that kids wouldnt tell a policeman or somebody in authority, and within reason we listen and give advice but were basically here to listen. His business, which is in the Lewisham Shopping Centre, works with charity For Jimmy, which was set up in 2009 following the killing of 16-year-old Jimmy Mizen, to provide the service. The charity gets shopkeepers to agree to protect young people who feel they may be attacked by locking the door and calling a parent, guardian or the police. Expand Close Lewisham shop owner Lawrence Roulland (left) speaking to Barry Mizen (Kirsty OConnor/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Lewisham shop owner Lawrence Roulland (left) speaking to Barry Mizen (Kirsty OConnor/PA) Mr Roulland said: Schemes like this should be more prevalent. Young people also come in to the shop to calm down or talk about an issue, he said, adding: Locally my shop is seen as a safe place to go, its well respected and we have no theft. A lot of my customers are 15 to 25, which is the demographic where all the problems are. Expand Close Jimmy Mizen was murdered in Lee, south east London (Metropolitan Police/PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jimmy Mizen was murdered in Lee, south east London (Metropolitan Police/PA) Security guards in the shopping centre need to be aware kids need their help, he added. Home Office minister Victoria Atkins visited the shop on Monday as the police launched a crackdown on knife crime. Superintendent Darius Hemmatpour, of the Metropolitan Polices Violent Crime Task Force, said initiatives like this are extremely important. He added: Its not always about enforcement, its important that weve got diversion opportunities and that kind of engagement with young people. A teenage boy caused thousands of pounds worth of damage by throwing a stone at the windscreen of a moving train. The incident happened at 3.45pm on Monday February 18 as the train pulled into Galashiels rail station in the Borders. A boy is reported to have thrown a stone at the train and cracked the windscreen. The windscreen will cost 3,200 to replace. The boy was with two girls believed to be aged between 15 and 16 and stood on a pathway next to the railway line. The girls are described as having brown hair with blonde streaks. Both were wearing large tracksuit tops which almost reached their knees. One of the girls tracksuits was green and black with a hood and had Adidas branding. Theresa May was yesterday warned she could be forced out of Downing Street if her Brexit strategy is dismantled by MPs this week in a series of critical votes. As negotiations entered the 11th hour, the Prime Minister was desperately attempting to salvage her withdrawal deal, with a plane on standby at RAF Northolt to fly her to Brussels at the first sign of EU officials shifting their position. But in an apparent indication of the lack of progress, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier chose to travel to Dublin to attend the Ireland v France rugby international with Irish premier Leo Varadkar rather than remain in the Belgian capital. And hopes of achieving any significant concessions appeared to fade last night. Tomorrow, MPs will once again vote on her Brexit deal. And without substantive changes to the contentious backstop, it appears May's deal will receive a potentially fatal blow. Her first attempt was rejected by the Commons in January by 230 votes, the biggest defeat for a Government in British history. If the Prime Minister loses again, her position could become untenable, warned senior Tory MP Nicky Morgan. "I think it would be very difficult for the Prime Minister to stay in office for very much longer," she said. Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt also warned there was a real risk for Brexiteers of "losing Brexit" in the coming weeks, as he admitted the "wind was in the sails" of pro-referendum campaigners. In a pointed warning to colleagues planning to vote down the deal, he said that in three weeks' time activists could be two-thirds of the way to forcing a public vote. Dominic Raab, who resigned as Brexit Secretary last year over Ms May's deal, said the Government was in a "precarious" position ahead of the vote, which would "get even trickier" if MPs demand and get an Article 50 extension later this week. Crucial to Mrs May gaining the support of the hardline group of Brexiteers MPs in the European Research Group (ERG) will be the legal opinion of Attorney General Geoffrey Cox. The legal advice he presented in November warned the UK was at risk of being trapped in the backstop indefinitely. He has been intimately involved in the negotiations in recent weeks. "I am putting my hand on my heart. I will not change my opinion unless we have a text that shows the risk has been eliminated. I would not put my name on anything less," he said. Deputy chair of the ERG Steve Baker and the DUP Westminster leader Nigel Dodds said in a joint newspaper article that without concessions, defeat tomorrow for the Prime Minister is inevitable. "An unchanged withdrawal agreement will be defeated firmly by a sizeable proportion of Conservatives and the DUP if it is again presented to the Commons," they wrote. "If with the DUP just half of previous Conservative opponents vote against the deal, a three-figure majority would be expected." Another ex-Brexit Secretary David Davis described the scenario of no Brexit at all as a "democratic disaster", adding that "Britain will get its Trump moment" if Parliament fails to deliver on the result of the 2016 referendum. Both the shadow chancellor John McDonnell and shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer said Labour was focused on opposing the deal and that the push for a second referendum would follow in due course. The pair backed extending the Article 50 negotiating period, with Mr McDonnell suggesting any delay should be "as long as necessary" in an interview on the BBC's Andrew Marr show. Their comments came as two Labour MPs hoping to force a fresh public vote - Peter Kyle and Phil Wilson - said they would not be tabling their amendment tomorrow. Their plan suggests providing support for the Prime Minister to get her deal through the Commons on the condition of it then being put to the country in the form of a second referendum. "It's very much a rollercoaster, the focus is going to be on defeating the meaningful vote," Mr Wilson told The Independent yesterday as he confirmed he was "postponing" the amendment. He insisted there "will be other opportunities", and said no matter what the deal is, the public have a right to decide in a confirmatory poll. "This a decision that is going to affect the country for years," he said. A senior Labour source also did not rule out the possibility of Mr Corbyn tabling a second motion of no confidence in the coming days in an attempt force a general election by capitalising on the expected turmoil at Westminster. The Labour leader's previous attempt - following the crushing defeat of Ms May's agreement in January - was unsuccessful, as MPs voted by 325 to 306 to support the Government. Belfast city centre came to a standstill on Saturday as hundreds marched to mark the previous day's International Women's Day, where they heard calls for abortion to be extended to Northern Ireland. Hundreds paraded noisily to the City Hall, some dancing to drum beats, others chanting slogans. Students accused Prime Minister Theresa May of breaching women's rights. Drummers led the colourful parade, and many participants wore purple associated with the day, with placards and banners highlighted issues such as domestic violence. Many pledged Northern Ireland would not be left behind as abortion laws are relaxed elsewhere. Rescuers search at the scene of the crash (Yidnek Kirubel/AP) An Ethiopian Airlines jet crashed on Sunday shortly after take-off from the countrys capital, carving a gash in the earth and spreading global grief to 35 countries that had someone among the 157 people who were killed. There was no immediate indication why the plane went down in clear weather while on a flight to Nairobi, the capital of neighbouring Kenya. There were seven British passengers and one Irish passenger among the victims. The crash was strikingly similar to that of a Lion Air jet that plunged into the sea off Indonesia minutes after take-off last year, killing 189 people. Both accidents involved the Boeing 737 Max 8. The crash shattered more than two years of relative calm in African skies, where travel had long been chaotic. It also was a serious blow to state-owned Ethiopian Airlines, which has expanded to become the continents largest and best-managed carrier and turned Addis Ababa into the gateway to Africa. PM Abiy Ahmed shared his condolences in a televised address on behalf of the FDRE Government. The House of Peoples Representatives have declared March 11, 2019 a national day of mourning for citizens of all countries that have passed in this tragic accident. #PMOEthiopia pic.twitter.com/F0aA1sPnYP Office of the Prime Minister - Ethiopia (@PMEthiopia) March 10, 2019 Ethiopian Airlines is one of the safest airlines in the world. At this stage we cannot rule out anything, chief executive Tewolde Gebremariam told reporters. He visited the crash site, standing in the gaping crater flecked with debris. Black body bags were spread out nearby while Red Cross and other workers looked for remains. As the sun set, the airlines chief operating officer said the planes flight data recorder had not yet been found. Expand Close Family members of the victims at Addis Ababa international airport (Mulugeta Ayene/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Family members of the victims at Addis Ababa international airport (Mulugeta Ayene/AP) Around the world, families were gripped by grief. At Addis Ababa airport, a woman called a mobile number in vain. Where are you, my son? she said, in tears. Others cried as they approached the terminal. Henom Esayas, whose sisters Nigerian husband was killed, told The Associated Press they were startled when a stranger picked up their frantic calls to his mobile phone, told them he had found it in the debris and promptly switched it off. Accident Bulletin no. 4 Issued on March 10, 2019 at 06:20 PM pic.twitter.com/685uGE6izJ Ethiopian Airlines (@flyethiopian) March 10, 2019 Shocked leaders of the United Nations, the UN refugee agency and the World Food Programme announced that colleagues had been on the plane. The UN migration agency estimated some 19 UN-affiliated employees were killed. Both Addis Ababa and Nairobi are major hubs for humanitarian workers, and many people were on their way to a UN environmental conference set to begin Monday in Nairobi. The Addis Ababa-Nairobi route links East Africas two largest economic powers. Sunburned travellers and tour groups crowd Addis Ababa airports waiting areas, along with businessmen from China, Gulf nations and elsewhere. A list of the dead released by Ethiopian Airlines included passengers from China, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Israel, India and Somalia. Kenya lost 32 citizens. Canada, 18. Ethiopian officials declared Monday a day of mourning. At Nairobi airport, hopes quickly dimmed for loved ones. I just pray that he is safe or he was not on it, said Agnes Muilu, who had come to pick up her brother. Updated Statement on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302: https://t.co/0jyiFuGHIE pic.twitter.com/Unl92SYykI Boeing Airplanes (@BoeingAirplanes) March 10, 2019 The crash is likely to renew questions about the 737 Max , the newest version of Boeings popular single-aisle airliner, which was first introduced in 1967 and has become the worlds most common passenger jet. The Ethiopian plane was new, delivered to the airline in November. The Boeing 737 Max 8 was one of 30 meant for the airline, Boeing said in July. The jets last maintenance was on February 4, and it had flown just 1,200 hours. The plane crashed six minutes after departure , ploughing into the ground at Hejere near Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, some 31 miles outside Addis Ababa, at 8.44am. The jet showed unstable vertical speed after take-off, air traffic monitor Flightradar 24 said. The senior Ethiopian pilot, who joined the airline in 2010, sent out a distress call and was given clearance to return to the airport, the airlines chief executive said. Donald Trump said he did not slip up when he referred to Apple CEO Tim Cook as Tim Apple (PA) US President Donald Trump has said he did not slip up when he referred to Apple CEO Tim Cook as Tim Apple at a White House meeting. Mr Trump tweeted on Monday: I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words. The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story! The president made the comment last week. After the session, Mr Cook altered his Twitter profile, replacing his last name with the Apple logo. At a dinner for Republican National Committee donors at his Florida club on Friday, Mr Trump complained that his Tim Apple blunder was fake news, according to reports. The Irish passenger who died on an Ethiopian Airlines plane which crashed just minutes after takeoff has been named locally as Irish developmental aid worker Michael 'Mick' Ryan. Mr Ryan, a native of Lahinch, Co Clare, had been working with the United Nations world food programme. Tragically, the accident occurred just weeks before he was to relocate with his wife, Naoise, and their two young children from Ireland to Italy. Mr Ryan was described in both Lahinch and Ennistymon, where he boasted many friends, as "a wonderful, compassionate man who lived for his job of helping others." He is the son of Christina and the late Jack Ryan. His mother is a retired teacher who was based at Scoil Mhuire in Ennistymon. His late father, Jack, who died in 2013, was a respected accountant in Clare. Mr Ryan is survived by his siblings, Cristin, Siobhan and Tiernan. In a special message, the Lahinch Parish extended the sympathies of the entire community to the Ryan family. "We pray for all who have died so unexpectedly in this tragedy, their families, colleagues and friends. "We pray for all working at the accident site at this present moment. "We hope that God will bless everyone in this tragedy for so many people." Mr Ryan was one of Ireland's most respected developmental aid workers. He had worked on various UN programmes across the world including high profile projects in both Africa and Asia. He was especially proud of a project he had worked on for the UN in Bangladesh. It is understood he was flying to a development project in Africa when the tragedy occurred. The Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX aircraft crashed just six minutes after it took off from Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. The flight left Bole airport in Addis Ababa at 8.38 am local time, before losing contact with the control tower just a few minutes later at 8.44 am. "There are no survivors onboard the flight, which carried passengers from 33 countries," said state-run Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, quoting an unidentified source at the airline. Expand Close The CEO of Ethiopian Airlines looks at the wreckage of the plane (Facebook via AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The CEO of Ethiopian Airlines looks at the wreckage of the plane (Facebook via AP) All 157 people on board perished in the tragedy. It has now emerged the pilot reported difficulties with the aircraft, which is just four months old, and had been granted permission to return to Addis Ababa. The death toll included citizens from at least 33 countries. The airline's CEO told journalists at a press conference today that the victims included 32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians, nine Ethiopians, eight Italians, eight Chinese citizens, eight Americans, seven British citizens, seven French citizens, six Egyptians, five Dutch citizens, four Indians, four people from Slovakia, three Austrians, three Swedes, three Russians, two Moroccans, two Spaniards, two Poles and two Israelis. Belgium, Indonesia, Somalia, Norway, Serbia, Togo, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda and Yemen each had one citizen onboard. Four of those onboard were listed as using United Nations passports and their nationalities were not immediately clear. Expand Close Rescuers use a digger at the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed shortly after take-off (Yidnek Kirubel/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rescuers use a digger at the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed shortly after take-off (Yidnek Kirubel/AP) The airline CEO told journalists there was "one Irish passport holder" on board. Mr Ryan was the only Irish national on board. The Department of Foreign Affairs said it was doing everything possible to assist the family involved. "The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is aware of the incident, and we stand ready to provide consular assistance if requested." The chief executive of Ethiopian Airlines Tewolde Gebremariam visited the crash site some 60km from the capital and extended his sympathies to all the families involved. Mr Gerbremariam confirmed that the pilot had reported difficulties and asked to turn back due to "no known technical problems". The airline boss said the pilot involved had an excellent safety record. One report from Ethiopia has indicated the brand new plane had an unstable vertical speed in the minutes before the tragedy. It is the second fatal accident involving the brand new Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet in the past six months. A Lion Air plane crashed shortly after takeoff in Indonesia on October 29 2018 resulting in the death of all 189 passengers and crew. While Boeing refused to comment on whether there will be an investigation into the model or if any planes will be recalled, a spokesperson for the aerospace company told the Independent.ie that they are prepared to dispatch a technical team to assist with the Ethiopian airline crash. "Boeing is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the passengers and crew on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a 737 MAX 8 airplane," he said. "We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the families and loved ones of the passengers and crew on board and stand ready to support the Ethiopian Airlines team. "A Boeing technical team is prepared to provide technical assistance at the request and under the direction of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board." Meanwhile, another United Nations worker has been named as one of the seven British passengers who were among 157 people killed. Joanna Toole, a 36-year-old from Devon, was said to have been among those killed on the Boeing 737 Max 8 plane destined for Nairobi when it hit the ground six minutes after departing Addis Ababa on Sunday morning. Colleagues at the United Nations fisheries and aquaculture department described her as a "wonderful human being", while her father said she was a "very soft and loving" woman. Additional reporting from PA Family members of the victims react with anguish at Addis Ababa international airport as they learn of the incident The Irish aid worker who died on an Ethiopian Airlines plane which crashed just minutes after take-off has been hailed as a compassionate man who devoted his entire life to helping others. Development aid worker with the United Nations, Michael 'Mick' Ryan, was the only Irish citizen on board the four-month-old Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft which crashed yesterday en route from Ethiopia to Kenya resulting in the death of all 157 passengers and crew. The plane destined for Nairobi hit the ground six minutes after departing Addis Ababa yesterday morning. Mr Ryan, a native of Lahinch, Co Clare, and a father of two young children, had been working as an engineer with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) over recent years. He had just redeployed to the WFP Rome office and was due to move to Italy soon with his wife Naoise and their children. He died along with six of his WFP colleagues in the crash. Locals in Lahinch and Ennistymon, where the Ryan family hails from, were last night heartbroken at the news of the tragedy. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar paid tribute to Mr Ryan, saying: "Michael was doing life-changing work in Africa." Executive director of the WFP, David Beasley, said Mr Ryan and his colleagues were "willing to travel and work far from their homes and loved ones to help make the world a better place to live. That was their calling". Mr Ryan's immediate family were last night making plans to fly to Ethiopia to assist with the identification and repatriation of his remains. Mr Ryan was described in Co Clare last night as "a wonderful, compassionate man who lived for his job of helping others". Among the seven British passengers who died was United Nations worker Joanna Toole (36), from Devon. Colleagues at the UN fisheries and aquaculture department described her as a "wonderful human being", while her father said she was a "very soft and loving" woman. Ethiopian Airlines said it had contacted the families of all victims, who came from 35 nations. Ms Toole's father Adrian, from Exmouth, told the DevonLive website that she was "genuinely one of those people who you never hear a bad word about". "Everybody was very proud of her and the work she did, we're still in a state of shock," he added. Joseph Waithaka, a 55-year-old who lived in Hull for a decade before moving back to his native Kenya, also died in the crash, his son told the Hull Daily Mail. Ben Kuria, who lives in London, said his father had worked for the Probation Service. He added: "He helped so many people in Hull who had found themselves on the wrong side of the law." Prime Minister Theresa May said she was "deeply saddened" to learn of the disaster, and offered her thoughts to everyone who had been "affected by this tragic incident". The victims' identities started to emerge over the course of yesterday, with Slovak MP Anton Hrnko saying "in deep grief" that his wife and two children were among those who were killed in the crash. We are just days away from learning the critical decision by the Public Prosecution Service as to whether or not the paratroops involved in the terrible events of Bloody Sunday are to be prosecuted. I can sense a degree of apprehension in the air which I have not felt since the dreadful years of the Troubles. I'm certain I'm not the only one in that situation, most particularly the relatives of those killed on that fateful day. It's not a pleasant feeling and serves to resurrect so many other bad memories. I'm a retired RUC CID Detective Superintendent who served at the coalface of the Troubles and, as with most of my colleagues, I unstintingly faced terrorists of all hues, from Martin Meehan of the IRA to Lenny Murphy, leader of the Shankill Butchers gang. However, in relation to Bloody Sunday, I'm in the somewhat unique position of having been on duty in Londonderry on that day. I was a probationer constable at the time, stationed in Tennent Street in north Belfast with less than two years service under my belt. Of the 3,600 killings of the Troubles, 700 of these took place in north Belfast. Death and destruction were, therefore, my daily companions. On the Friday immediately preceding Bloody Sunday, one of my closest friends and colleagues, Constable Raymond Carroll, was off duty and working on his rally car in a garage on the Oldpark Road. An IRA sympathiser spotted him and headed straight for the nearby Ardoyne, where he conveyed the intelligence to a notorious member of the IRA. He armed himself with an M1 carbine and went to the garage where he pumped 10 bullets into Raymond. His funeral was scheduled to take place on Sunday and I had hoped to be honoured by being a pallbearer. It was not to be, as RUC HQ had sent out a directive to all stations that a certain number of men were to be sent to Derry that day. I was one of 12 men despatched from Tennent Street and Oldpark. On arrival we were briefed and Sergeant Dan O'Connor and I, together with another constable, were detailed for duty on top of Shipquay Gate, overlooking Guildhall Square. I was very much aware of the geography of the city as I grew up there and attended the little St Augustine's church, which is situated on the Walls and overlooking the Bogside. In 1969, my family was forced to move from the Cityside. Our policing point was not considered critical enough to be issued with a radio, which were in short supply, so throughout that bitterly cold afternoon we were oblivious to the horror unfolding in the Bogside. At around 7pm we received word to return to the old Victoria RUC barracks, and we were shocked beyond belief to learn that 13 people were dead and that others were in hospital with serious injuries. We were eventually released from duty at 9pm, and all were in a sombre mood as we made our way back over the Glenshane Pass to Belfast and Tennent Street. Before retreating to my bedroom in the station I spoke to some who had been at Raymond's funeral in Enniskillen and was told there had been a huge turnout of mourners. In the days which followed, the killings in the Bogside were never far from my mind, but I was soon overtaken by the continuing violence in north Belfast. When the Widgery Inquiry ended in April 1972 and the findings made public, I, too, felt that it was not unbiased and realised it was merely a sop intended to placate the relatives of the victims of Bloody Sunday. In June 1974, my colleagues and I suffered another blow when Sergeant O'Connor was shot dead by the IRA while on lone foot patrol on the Crumlin Road in Belfast. On that occasion I was honoured to be a pallbearer at his funeral in Ballycastle and at the service held in the local Catholic church. We then progressed on to the Lord Saville Inquiry, which began in 1998 and lasted 12 years. Lord Saville exonerated all of the victims shot that day and apportioned blame on the paratroops, who, he said, had lost control of themselves. The costs of this inquiry were initially put at 200m, but subsequent leaks from those close to the Government put the true cost at closer to 400m. There followed a criminal investigation by the PSNI into the actions of the soldiers on that day and voluminous files of evidence were placed with a select group of senior lawyers to decide whether or not to prosecute the soldiers. Theirs was not an easy task and the disclosure of their findings is imminent. They would have had to consider many things and the least difficult would have been deciding if there is sufficient evidence to bring charges against the former soldiers. The more problematic question to answer is would the prosecution of the soldiers be in the public interest? This a highly sensitive one to deal with, taking into account the "comfort letters" issued to 200 republican terrorists on the authority of Tony Blair. I follow the national news avidly and many people living in the UK are confused and angry as they can't quite get to grips with the reasoning behind possibly prosecuting the former soldiers and the amnesty given to a large number of terrorists. If the prosecution is to go ahead, then this presents a huge logistical nightmare for the PSNI. Firstly, all 18 soldiers liable to be charged will have to be securely brought to Northern Ireland. It's quite likely that they would be granted bail, as the points to be considered by a judge are the risk of further offending and a possibility of interference with witnesses. Also, will the defendants turn up for their trial? The defendants should be able to satisfy all of these conditions. They will then have to go through committal proceedings, chaired by a district judge and more often than not these go through on the nod. The big problem begins when the trial starts, perhaps in a year from now. It would then most likely last a year and the security of the defendants will be a major issue. They will have to be accommodated each night; this may be inside somewhere such as Palace Barracks in Holywood. We wouldn't expect them to be kept from their families at weekends, so each Friday afternoon they would have to be flown back to England only to return on Monday mornings. Meanwhile, Father Time will continue to march on. I'm in the same age group as the ex-soldiers and all too aware of my own mortality. It's therefore quite likely that, if a trial ensues, some of the defendants will become ill, or even pass away due to age before it is concluded. At an early stage in my life, I was determined to become a detective and one of my role models, as I was growing up in Derry in the 1950s and 1960s, was Detective Sergeant Phil Coulter, father of the famous songwriter and composer of the same name. We lived not too far apart and I envied Coulter Snr as he rode about town on his black bicycle. I'm therefore very fond of Phil Coulter's famous song, The Town I Love So Well. At this time, one of the lines from the song which resonates in my head is, "What's done is done and what's won is won". I hope his words come to fruition in the coming days. One of my abiding hopes, and I am an optimist, is that Nemesis will yet catch up with Gerry Adams, that poster boy for Teflon. Last week my spirits lifted at the news that two of the producers of American Crime Story - a true crime series that has already successfully screened The People v OJ Simpson and The Assassination Of Gianni Versace - have taken out an option on Patrick Radden Keefe's book Say Nothing: A True Story Of Murder And Memory In Northern Ireland, about what happened to widowed mother-of-10 Jean McConville in 1972. Options mostly come to nothing, but the producers seem very committed to this. One of them said: "On some level it's a crime thriller, an espionage thriller, but it's also about something more deep and resonant." Mostly, when I read about Hollywood taking an interest in the Troubles my heart sinks. I haven't forgotten the photographs of actors fawning on Adams when in 1998 he first spoke at a Sinn Fein fundraising dinner in Los Angeles. Among those making donations was megastar Martin Sheen, a credulous ignoramus who has been photographed walking on the Garvaghy Road in Portadown with three of those most responsible for stirring up tribal violence over Drumcree - Adams, Martin McGuinness and Breandan MacCionnaith. I tend to avoid movies about Ireland, not least because inevitably most of them succumb to the familiar republican narrative featuring romantic rebels, comely colleens and brutal, ugly oppressors. It's understandable. Ireland has too much history for its own good, outsiders inevitably want a simple narrative, and republicans are much better storytellers than their opponents. But Keefe's empathetic book is nuanced and profound. The author is a staff writer at the New Yorker magazine, and despite the odd place where I thought he had got some of the context wrong, I was very impressed. He has taken a terrible story and turned it into an absorbing quest for the truth. More than that, he has looked at it in the round. It's not just poor Jean McConville and the family she left behind that no one helped who evoke sympathy, but two of the perpetrators - Brendan Hughes and Dolours Price, both of whom would die after years tortured by guilt over their terrorist crimes. "What the f*** was it for?" Adams's estranged and demoralised friend Hughes would ask as he contemplated the Good Friday Agreement and drank himself to death. "The lives he had taken, the young volunteers he had sent to die: his understanding of those sacrifices had always been that they would ultimately be justified by the emergence of a united Ireland." Troubled Price, one of the Old Bailey bombers, brainwashed as a child by relatives who were all in favour of her dying for Ireland, also ended her life drinking to block out guilt and anger. Keefe's research extended to many trips to Ireland and interviews with anyone he could find who could cast light on what had happened to Mrs McConville. His discoveries and conclusions about the key roles of, among others, Adams, Hughes and the Price sisters (Marian is alive and unrepentant) make a powerful story. He gives Adams, who refused to meet him, great credit as a strategist in peace-making, though I'd like to see him address the cynicism of his relentless stoking up of tribal hatreds in the culture and legal wars we have endured. Adams is, says Keefe, a man with a "sociopathic instinct for self-preservation", who never seems to cast "so much as a backward glance" at the suffering colleagues he left behind him as he sailed off to a world of politics and celebrity. In 2017, at the funeral of 50-year-old Billy McConville, who had been six when his mother disappeared and who had had a miserable childhood in abusive institutions, a priest said: "The whole world knows the name of a simple Belfast mother who loved her children and who was cruelly abducted, murdered and secretly buried in December 1972." What an extraordinary end to that terrible story it would be if Hollywood helped make Jean McConville the Nemesis not just of Adams, but of the shockingly brutal culture that he eulogises to this day. The last electoral highpoint for the UUP was in 2015. It won two Westminster seats, adding to the better than expected gains at the local council elections a year earlier. But in the Assembly and general elections in 2017, it lost six MLAs (followed by Mike Nesbitt's resignation as leader) and both MPs. So it has two big challenges at the local elections on May 2: make gains in Belfast, preferably at the expense of Alliance, which leads the UUP in votes and councillors, and narrow the gap in numbers between it and the DUP. If, after RHI, the Assembly's ongoing absence, a few internal 'personal' embarrassments for the DUP and the growing toxicity between it and Sinn Fein, the UUP can't make inroads into the bigger party's vote, then it raises the question of whether the UUP is, in fact, a serious electoral challenge. It's why Robin Swann devoted so much of Saturday's speech to the DUP. As he noted: "Be in no doubt that this is a vital election year for our party." He also noted: "We cannot be ignorant to the climate that the DUP and Sinn Fein are trying to create in this election. They are already warming up as though this election is a border poll." He's right. Neither party can take any slippage. It's not certain if there will be a resolution to Brexit, but one way or another it will have a huge impact on DUP leader Arlene Foster and Sinn Fein deputy chief Michelle O'Neill. One wants a vote that sends a message that a border poll is a waste of time; while the other wants a vote to bolster the case for the poll. Against that sort of background both the UUP and SDLP could take very damaging hits. Given that the DUP keeps saying that "four of the five parties would sign up for the Executive tomorrow", it was interesting to hear Swann say: "Before the UUP would even consider returning to an Executive there must be fundamental reform to governance and the petition of concern, and no going back to the days when the PoC could be thrown around to block or protect whenever the DUP and SF fancied it." That's a bold and sensible move, bearing in mind that issues like same-sex marriage and abortion could be put to straight votes. Interesting, too, that he says: "Leaving the EU without a deal would be detrimental particularly for those in NI... the DUP's inept handling of Brexit has now led us to the NI-only backstop they first missed in 2017." The real problem for the UUP is that the wider electorate may not be hearing its message if it is drowned out by a louder 'let's-prove-we-don't-need-a-border-poll' message from the DUP. Swann is softly-spoken. He needs to make himself and a clear message heard. He also needs to dispel the claims that the UUP is, when it comes down to it, DUP-lite. Indonesian Siti Aisyah leaves the Shah Alam Court Complex in Selangor, Malaysia, after prosecutors withdrew charges against her in the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, March 11,2019. Updated at 1:30 p.m. ET on 2019-03-11 An Indonesian woman accused of murdering the North Korean leaders half-brother at a Kuala Lumpur airport in 2017 returned home to Jakarta on Monday after prosecutors declined to press on with the case against her and Malaysian authorities released her. An emotional Siti Aisyah left the courthouse in Shah Alam, Malaysia in the morning and flew to the Indonesian capital soon after. Malaysian authorities did not say why they were dropping the charges and letting her go. Im so happy I have no words to describe my feelings, Aisyah told reporters and others after landing at Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport in Jakarta hours later. The decision came as lawyers for co-defendant Doan Thi Huong of Vietnam began their defense phase of the trial following a pause of several months. I move to have the charges against Siti Aisyah withdrawn under section 254(1), prosecutor Mohamad Iskandar Ahmad said in court early Monday. The court session in Shah Alam adjourned soon after as Doans lawyers said they would petition for her to be freed as well. Both Aisyah and Doan were charged with assassinating Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean dictator King Jong Un, in a chemical attack at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 on Feb. 13, 2017. Aisyah and Doan were accused of using a nerve agent, VX, to kill him. Aisyah cried and waved as she was escorted by two of her defense attorneys out of the Shah Alam High Court. The divorced mother-of-one who worked at a hotel spa in Malaysia before her arrest, flew home aboard a private jet owned by Indonesias ambassador to Kuala Lumpur, Rusdi Kirana, who owns Lion Air. Back on home soil, while being prompted by an official, Aisyah expressed thanks for being freed and discussed her time in a Malaysian jail. I thank our president Mr. Jokowi, and all ministers who have made efforts to help me and bring me back to Indonesia, she said. Discussing her time in custody, she said, they didnt do anything to harm me. Her father, Asriah Nur Hasan, covered his face, got down on his knees in front of her and broke into tears when he and his daughter were reunited at the foreign ministry. Aisyah helped him stand. I thank everyone for their help, big or small. Thank you for helping my daughter get free, Asriah said. We apologize for any mistakes. May God continue to protect us. Aisyah offered thanks as well. I had wanted to see my family for a long time. I thank God that my parents always prayed for me, she said. Reports of her release spread quickly in her hometown of Sindangsari on Java island. Weve heard the news and were so happy. Were getting a celebration ready! her aunt, Darmi, told Agence France-Presse. Letter from attorney general Malaysian prosecutors did not state why they were not moving ahead with the case against Aiysah, defense attorney Gooi Soon Seng told reporters. He speculated that the prosecution had determined that it could not prove the charges against his client. There was no direct evidence that she applied anything on Kim Jong Nam. No evidence. The CCTV did not show that she did the act to the effect that she applied anything on the face of Kim Jong Nam. What was purely found was traces of the degrading product of VX, he said, referring to traces of the banned nerve agent found on Siti Aisyahs clothes. In a letter shown to reporters on Monday, Malaysian Attorney General Tommy Thomas informed a senior Indonesian official of the upcoming acquittal and release of Aisyah, and said his decision in the matter took into account the good relations between our respective countries. Doan, who remains in custody, did not know about the prosecutions decision. I am shocked and I hope to be freed too, a tearful Doan said through a translator during a court recess. She had been scheduled to take the witness stand on Monday, but read only three sentences before her lawyers halted the testimony. On behalf of Doan, we will ask for the [attorney general] to review the case for the charge to be withdrawn on the same grounds as Siti Aisyah. We will make the application today, lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik said. We were surprised by Siti Aisyahs decision. We were not informed of it earlier on, he told reporters. Doan is not in a state to testify. She is traumatized. She broke down and cried, he said, adding, This decision is unfair. There is no equality and justice before the law. If Siti Aisyah is acquitted, so should Doan. Judge Azmi Ariffin said he was reluctant to grant the petition on Doans behalf. He said the trial would resume at 10 a.m. Thursday if the Attorney Generals Chamber rejected the application. He granted Aisyah a discharge not amounting to acquittal, meaning she could be charged again later if there was new evidence in the case. Siti Aisyah (second from right) stands with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi (center) and Sitis parents during a news conference in Jakarta, March 11, 2019. [Tia Asmara/BenarNews] Negotiations led to freedom In a statement issued midday Monday, the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur described Aisyahs release as the culmination of a long diplomatic effort directed by President Joko Widodo, who is aiming to win a second term in office in elections scheduled for April 17. Indonesian Justice Minister Yasonna Laoly welcomed Aisyah at the airport. Today is a day of joy for us as a nation, he later told reporters during a press conference at the foreign ministry. At the behest of the president, the chief of the national police, the attorney general and other officials worked together to find ways to free her and communicated well with the previous government of Prime Minister Najib Razak as well as the government of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, he said. So it was a long and concerted effort to help our sister Aisyah and make sure that she is here with all of us. Prosecutors alleged that Aisyah and Doan approached Kim Jong Nam and smeared a colorless and odorless substance across his face in the airports departures terminal. He died about 20 minutes later. The two young women were arrested within days. Both pleaded not guilty, with their lawyers arguing that they were misled into thinking they were taking part in a prank for a Japanese comedy show on YouTube. Prosecutors argued that the two Southeast Asian women, along with four North Korean suspects who fled the country and remain at large, took part in a premeditated attack and had practiced for it. Ali Nufael in Kuala Lumpur and Nisita Kirana Pratiwi in Jakarta contributed to this report. Two members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front patrol a flooded section of Datu Salibo in Maguindanao province in the southern Philippines, Sept. 18, 2017. Three soldiers and five militants from a group allied with the Islamic State (IS) were killed in fresh hostilities in the southern Philippines on Monday, barely two weeks after former Muslim separatist guerrillas took over an autonomous region in the south. Government security forces launched an air and artillery assault against Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) positions near a militant stronghold in the town of Datu Salibo in Maguindanao province, the military said. Ground battles that followed left one soldier and five BIFF fighters dead, according to regional military chief Maj. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana. Two other soldiers were killed in a separate clash near Marawi, the southern city destroyed by five months of fighting in 2017. The BIFF splintered from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), once the countrys largest separatist force that signed peace deal and last month assumed the leadership of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). The BIFF pledged allegiance to IS and has been fighting against troops in parts of Mindanao that are considered MILF areas. We lost one soldier but the exchange of fire continues. An air strike started early this morning followed by a ground maneuver, Sobejana said. Sobejana said five BIFF fighters killed were under leader Abu Turaife, who has pledged allegiance to IS and is believed to be among the likely successors of Isnilon Hapilon. Intelligence reports indicated the bodies of the BIFF fighters had been retrieved and buried by their comrades. Hapilon was the IS leader who carried out the attack on Marawi, destroying the area and leaving hundreds dead. He was killed in October 2017, five months after the battle began. The city is in ruin and the region remains under military control to prevent the militants from regrouping. Turaife split from the MILF when it signed the peace deal five years ago, saying he would continue with the fight for independence. He is believed to be backed by dozens of fighters. Intelligence sources said Turaifes fighters also joined forces with foreign militants who had escaped as troops pushed them out of Marawi or never made it there in the first place. Turaifes group did not send fighters to Marawi, but helped by launching attacks that served to divert military attention. Military officials recently confirmed the presence of foreign fighters in the south, admitting that they have been involved in at least two attacks a car bomb attack in Basilan island that left 11 dead last year and the January bombing of a church in Jolo island that left 23 dead. Philippine police had claimed that an Indonesian couple worked with Filipino militants in carrying out the Jolo attack, a claim discredited by Jakarta. Clash near Marawi The army reported a clash near Marawi between troops and a group led by Humam Abdul Najib (alias Abu Dar), a senior militant who helped plan and carry out the siege of the Islamic city. Mondays clash left two soldiers dead and four others wounded. The death toll was likely to go up. Fighting is ongoing and we have casualties, local army brigade commander Col. Romeo Brawner told BenarNews. Dar is believed to be a cousin of the Maute brothers who helped Hapilon plot the Marawi siege. While Hapilon and the Mautes died in the final days of the siege, Dar and other militants managed to flee as the military closed in. Murad Ebrahim, who led MILF and serves as the BARMM interim leader, on Monday said the MILF would not hesitate to use force against militants if they continued to refuse to lay down their weapons. In the meantime, he said, MILF leaders on the ground are tasked with reaching out to the militants. For now our main strategy is we approach them to convince them in joining us. Maybe later on, if we cannot persuade them, we will have no choice but to use our security structure, Murad said, adding there is a good chance they can be won over. Jeoffrey Maitem and Mark Navales in Cotabato City, Philippines, contributed to this report. Abhisit Vejjajiva, leader of the Democrat Party, receives roses from his supporters in southern Thailands Pattani province, March 3, 2019. Candidate and prime ministerial hopeful Abhisit Vejjajiva waved at potential voters as he rode in a motorcycle with a sidecar in Thailands predominantly Malay Muslim far south, where a shadowy separatist insurgency has killed almost 7,000 people since 2004. Abhisit was among candidates from various parties who talked about how they would approach the challenge of ending the conflict in the heavily militarized region, while campaigning in the Deep South earlier this month ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for March 24. We dont see that the problems can be solved militarily, Abhisit, 54, told a rally in Pattani, one of the provinces in the region, on March 3. If his party won the general election, Abhisit promised, he would support peace talks with insurgents operating in the Deep South. We need to move forward with the talks with a clear direction, said the leader of the Democrat Party Thailands oldest party as he called for decentralization of power away from Bangkok, saying this would be in line with the wishes of locals in the multicultural far south. Abhisit was not alone among high-profile candidates who talked about decentralization as a solution for peace, while they were out and about campaigning in the southern border region. Eleven parliamentary seats representing the region will be up for grabs when up to 1.3 million voters in the Deep South head to polls later this month, according to the election commission. Even Thailands military government, which has been pursuing Malaysia-brokered peace talks with the southern rebel groups since 2015, said lately that it was open to exploring the D-word, an idea it had resisted in the past. In early January, Udomchai Thammasarorat, Thailands new chief negotiator in peace talks, announced that his side was studying the concept of decentralization on advice from Mahathir Mohamad, the new prime minister of neighboring Malaysia. Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, leader of the Future Forward Party, delivers a speech during a campaign rally in Pattani, southern Thailand, March 1, 2019. [Mariyam Ahmad/BenarNews] Militarized region After he toppled Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in May 2014, junta leader Prayuth Chan-o-cha adopted several measures against the separatist insurgency, including deploying 60,000 troops and thousands of paramilitary ranger units to the Deep South, according to the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR), a think-tank based in Singapore. Prayuth complemented the troop deployments with the enforcement of an emergency decree and the Internal Security Act in the conflict areas, providing security forces with the option of detaining suspected insurgents for seven days at any location or 30 days with a court-issued warrant, ICPVTR said in a report. In 2015, the junta launched a new effort at engaging in Malaysia-facilitated talks with the southern rebels. Since then, the military government has been dealing at the table with MARA Patani, a panel representing insurgent groups and factions in the peace process. But nearly four years on, the talks have yielded no breakthroughs and hardcore leaders of Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) the largest and most powerful of the southern rebel groups have stayed out of the talks while carrying on with the insurgency. A local man and former BRN operative in Deep South, who identified himself only as Abdullah in a recent interview, said the insurgents had urged their sympathizers in the region to vote for pro-democratic parties in the March 24 polls. He did not name the political parties. They want to make sure pro-military parties wont make it, he told BenarNews, referring to the insurgents. On Monday, Thai government officials blamed southern insurgents for a series of bomb blasts that struck in the Deep South and two provinces farther north over the weekend. No one was injured, but at least five suspects were arrested in connection with the blasts, police said. It is rare for insurgents to set off bombs outside the confines of the Deep South. We defended [the Deep South] well, so they moved up to Pattalung and Satun [provinces] because they cannot mount attacks in the Deep South, Prawit Wongsuwan, the deputy prime minister and defense minister, told reporters Monday. We arrested a handful of suspects ... [the attacks] are very unlikely related to politics, he said, referring to the upcoming polls. The Deep South, an impoverished region where martial law is in place, is overseen by Bangkoks central government through an entity called the Southern Border Provinces Administration (SBPAC). Prayuth, the incumbent prime minister, leads the Palang Pracharat Party. However, he is not expected to campaign in the Deep South after the party called off its plan to have the former army chief take the stage during rallies across the country, The Nation, a leading Thai daily newspaper, reported last week. Thawee Sodsong, Prachachart Partys secretary-general, greets students while campaigning in Pattani, southern Thailand, March 2, 2019. [Mariyam Ahmad/BenarNews] Promising to solve social disparities Among other candidates who hit the campaign trail in the Deep South earlier in March was Thawee Sodsong, secretary-general of the recently launched Prachachart Party. The party is unique to the region. Its executive body is largely represented by members of the Deep Souths Muslim majority. Thawee is a former head of SBPAC, who was removed from office following the coup that toppled Yingluck. We will return justice to the people and solve the problem of social disparities, Thawee told a rally, as the audience of about 3,000 roared in approval. Prachachart wants to return rights and power to the people! In the past, Thailand tried to solve its problems with two parties the security forces and dissidents, said Thawee, a retired police colonel, referring to rebels as dissidents. But each time violence occurred, the victims are women, children and innocents, so we need multiple parties to get involved, he added There must be decentralization The day before Thawee campaigned in the region, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, scion of an auto-parts company and founder of the Future Forward Party, also rallied his supporters in Pattani province. Economic disparity must be solved, Thanathorn, a 40-year-old who is also a prime ministerial hopeful, told reporters, as dozens of giggling teens wearing hijab used their smartphones to take photos of him. There must be decentralization, empowering locals so that they can handle their own matters, he said. Sobri Salae, a Pattani resident, said he hoped to vote for a candidate who could become a competent prime minister. He did not name his pick. I wont elect any liar, he told BenarNews. I will vote for the competent one who can bring about prosperity and peace. Jamestown and Dollar General officials cut a ribbon Saturday to mark the opening of the new Dollar General store in Jamestown. As one of the world's favourite beverages and major sources of caffeine for many consumers, coffee continues to play an integral role in the daily routines of society, and coffee consumption continues to witness strong growth globally. This is no different in South Africa, with the country's unique culture and innovative trends helping the country's coffee industry to carve a successful niche in the global market. Source: ICO Graphics by Insight Survey Some key questions the report will help you to answer: What are the market dynamics (production, consumption, trade, pricing) of the global coffee industry? What are the latest South African coffee industry trends, drivers, and restraints? What are the value and volume trends in the SA coffee market (2013-2018); forecasts (2019-2023)? Who are the key manufacturing players and importers/roasters in the SA coffee industry? What are the prices of coffee (instant, fresh and ground, coffee capsules, and beans) at SA coffee outlets, coffee shops and supermarkets? About Insight Survey: latestcarefully unfolds the global and local coffee markets based on the latest information and research. It examines the market drivers and restraints as well as global and local market trends to present an objective insight into the current South African coffee industry environment, market dynamics and its forecasted future.In 2018, the retail value of the global coffee market was valued at an estimated US$88.0 billion and, is forecast to continue to grow at a robust compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.5%, between 2019 and 2023. Globally, coffee production is also estimated to reach a record 174.5 million 60kg bags in the 2018/2019 season, which represents an increase of 15.6 million 60kg bags compared to the 2017/2018 season.In terms of global coffee consumption, the three key global markets include the European Union, USA, and Brazil. The European Union continues to be responsible for the highest consumption of coffee globally with 44.0 million 60kg bags of coffee consumed over the 2017/2018 period.By comparison, the South African Coffee market is very small, however, has achieved satisfactory consumption growth over the past five years, increasing at a compound annual growth rate of 2.0% from 571,000 60kg bags in 2014/15 to 606,000 60kg bags in 2017/18.Through South Africas blossoming coffee culture, the Coffee market has developed to create its own identity. As stated by Iain Evans, event organiser of the Creative Coffee Week, the coffee industry in South Africa has matured and through innovation has created its own identity, carving a niche South African coffee market in the global coffee arena.This contention is further supported by Rithen Ramlal, co-founder of Kahve Road, who stated that innovation is key in their coffee brand. Kahve Roads coffee capsules, for example, provide a unique blend of favours with their berry-flavoured Petra product as well as a Machu Picchu product which has a light citrus flavour.Innovation is not only limited to coffee, with companies also investing in innovative packaging. For example, Ella Cappuccino is available in a capsule that consumers only need to shake, remove the seal, and pour into a cup to enjoy. This innovation has created an efficient and convenient on-the-go coffee drink, ideal for the modern-day urban warrior with a high-paced lifestyle.Furthermore, the perfect innovation for sunny South Africa has been nitro cold brew, which is cold an unsweetened coffee. Nitro cold brew is typically made by soaking coffee grounds in cool filtered water for 24 hours. Numerous coffee shops in South Africa have started to follow this trend including Starbucks and Terbodore. Terbodore have gone one step further by marketing sparkling cold brew products that are available in a variety of unique flavours including marula, lemonade, as well as honey bush and orange.The(150 pages) provides a dynamic synthesis of industry research, examining the local and global coffee industry from a uniquely holistic perspective, with detailed insights into the entire value chain from manufacturing and importing to retailing, sustainability, pricing analysis, consumption and purchasing trends.Please note that the 150-page report is available for purchase for R27,500 (excluding VAT). Alternatively, individual sections can be purchased for R10,000 (excluding VAT). For additional information simply contact us at az.oc.yevrusthgisni@ofni or directly on (021) 045-0202 or (010) 140-5756.For a full brochure please go to:Insight Survey is a South African B2B market research company with almost 10 years of heritage, focusing on business-to-business (B2B) market research to ensure smarter, more-profitable business decisions are made with reduced investment risk.We offer B2B market research solutions to help you to successfully improve or expand your business, enter new markets, launch new products or better understand your internal or external environment.Our bespoke Competitive Business Intelligence Research can help give you the edge in a global marketplace, empowering your business to overcome industry challenges quickly and effectively, and enabling you to realise your potential and achieve your vision.From strategic overviews of your businesss competitive environment through to specific competitor profiles, our customised Competitive Intelligence Research is designed to meet your unique needs.For more information, go to www.insightsurvey.co.za Marketing Achievement Awards usher in the future of marketing The Marketing Association of South Africa (Masa) announced the inaugural Marketing Achievement Awards earlier this year in recognising, rewarding and celebrating excellence in the science and art of marketing. New Marketing Achievement Award launches in South Africa How did the idea to launch the Marketing Achievement Awards come about? How did the idea to launch the Marketing Achievement Awards come about? Anne Kirkpatrick, director of the Awards, tells us how the idea came about through a conversation she had with Nandos CEO Geoff Whyte and how this programme fits neatly between other industry-specific programmes Anne Kirkpatrick Why do you believe theres a need for such awards or that its important to celebrate excellence in the science and art of marketing specifically? Why do you believe theres a need for such awards or that its important to celebrate excellence in the science and art of marketing specifically? What sets these awards apart from other marketing awards? What sets these awards apart from other marketing awards? Comment on the modern marketing profession what it means to be a marketer in 2019. Comment on the modern marketing profession what it means to be a marketer in 2019. There needs to be a shift towards future-thinking marketing, not just in the digital space, but in terms of organisational change, engaging tomorrow, today. We are creating the marketing leaders of tomorrow today and it is important to start meaningful conversations that will future-proof marketing in South Africa. What do you think these awards will mean for the profession/industry going forward? What do you think these awards will mean for the profession/industry going forward? Providing a high-profile opportunity for applauding excellence, creating significant publicity for the winners as role models, and promoting the importance of marketing within business. Setting the benchmark for industry performance in order to establish new standards for the industry. Honouring those who demonstrate excellence in creating and delivering value that drives brand sustainability. Encouraging true blue marketers to become ambassadors for the industry marketing innovation trailblazers, and to share their secrets of success. Overall, the MAA program constitutes a major catalyst for marketing business excellence thus encouraging the development of South Africas engine room for economic growth. Entries have closed, but why would you encourage marketers to enter next year? Entries have closed, but why would you encourage marketers to enter next year? Uncovering, encouraging and rewarding excellence and innovation in the field of marketing. Securing partnerships with industry to facilitate the creation of training and development initiatives. Fostering extensive business networking opportunities. Giving back through a variety of research and knowledge dissemination activities. Jessica Tennant's articles About Jessica Tennant Jess is Senior Editor: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com. She is also a contributing writer. Jess is Senior Editor: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com. She is also a contributing writer. moc.ytinummoczib@swengnitekram For about 10 years there has been a need for South African marketing awards of this scale and calibre. It was through a conversation that I had with Geoff Whyte, CEO of Nandos, that the concept of the Marketing Achievement Awards was crystalised.Kirkpatrick & Associates (K&A) has been actively involved in the marketing industry for more than 27 years and with marketing-driven initiatives, such as the Marketing Person of the Year Awards for the Institute of Marketing Management (IMM) and the Marketing Excellence Awards initiative under the banner of the Marketing Federation of Southern Africa (MFSA). We ran theMarketing Excellence Awards council from 2006 to 2008.With the dissolution of the Marketing Excellence Awards in 2008, the future of marketing awards in South Africa was at risk. K&A with the support of Nandos stepped into the breach. I met with Geoff Whyte, who was voted South African Marketing Person of the Year by thewhen he was group marketing director for Cadbury Schweppes in South Africa. We discussed the valuable role that marketing awards play in recognising marketing excellence in South Africa and in raising the standards of professionalism among marketers and how there was a gap in the industry.We spoke about the clear lack of innovative thought and the need to lift standards within the industry, to create energy and the importance of giving back to the industry. Geoff gave his buy-in with a handshake at that meeting, and two years later Nandos provided the underwriting funding for the MAA. We put the main council board and the Brand Trust together, with Geoff at the helm.K&A Productions, a separate, dedicated awards business with specialist organisational skills, was launched in 2014 and became the home of South Africas new Marketing Achievement Awards (MAA), endorsed by Masa. The MAA programme was launched in 2015 and the creation of the council of marketing advisors, nominated under the chairmanship of Yvonne Johnston to assist in reviewing judging processes and nominations.Through collaborative workshopping, the main MAA council board created the awards criteria to make sure we were spot on in the niche position that these awards occupy and that we were meeting the industrys needs. Key players in the industry were asked for their input into what criteria would be used for selecting South Africas best marketers. We started with 45 odd categories, which we whittled down to 13 core categories, with legs to expand when the industry expands.There is a clear lack of celebration and the elevation of the strategic thinking that lies behind the marketing campaigns in our industry. We need to put strategy back on the map and get conversations about marketing back into the C-Suite. Marketing drives innovation, the economy and the sustainability of our brands.Years of experience and knowledge in the industry will be shared as we acknowledge an industry that has changed significantly over the last decade. We want to award those who have made strides in improving marketing standards in this country.In future, the MAA will include a fully-fledged business marketing programme, an ambassadors programme and regular newsletters. We will share winners case studies and a narrative about what constitutes excellence in marketing. The awards will create the impetus to elevate individuals, companies and brands.There is no other fully-fledged festival of marketing of this quality and magnitude in South Africa. The MAA programme is not stepping on any toes, it fits neatly in between the Apex Awards, the Loeries, the Prisms, the New Generation Awards, the Bookmarks and the Most Awards.The MAA is the only awards that celebrate the brand owners and there are no other awards directly in this space and leads the way for a cohesive, innovative marketing community that can only benefit the programmes that are already established.We are living in an age of intelligent marketing which will undoubtedly see new imperatives for the industry. The industry is transforming and strategic thinking, in what is becoming an increasingly channel-agnostic marketing landscape, is essential to cut through the clutter and for a brand to stand out.The MAA programme has been conceived to usher in the future of South African marketing, underpinned by the fourth industrial revolution we are committed to creating the marketing reality of tomorrow, today.With a clear need to both elevate the profile of marketing and to reward the performance of effective, strategic and measurable marketing initiatives in South Africa, K&A, in discussion with industry, rose to the challenge and embarked on the roll-out strategy to implement an entirely new, re-energised South African marketing programme to fulfil a unique and much-needed role within the communications industry.We devised an awards system that will create a shift in thinking, highlighting those South African organisations who through strategic innovative thought and excellence establish themselves as globally competitive, enabling investment, while ensuring that corporate responsibility remains prominent.Given the rapidly changing landscape of marketing worldwide, there is a definite need to highlight the importance of marketing to business in South Africa, most notably the following:It is critical to create an element of competition and measure how you have placed against your peers. This provides the impetus to stay motivated, keep going and to recognise excellence.Our commitment to the MAA programme is to ensure that this initiative actively addsvalue to all participants of the programme by: This job expired on 11 May 2019. This job expired on 10 May 2019. How Effective Is Bloodletting Therapy? Disorders Cure oi-Devika Bandyopadhya Ever heard of withdrawal of blood from the body to prevent or cure illnesses? If not, then you will be surprised to know that an ancient system of medicine called bloodletting has made way into modern medical science. Bloodletting is giving the present day doctors some hope of curing disorders that could be difficult to manage using conventional techniques [1] . Ancient medicine believed that blood and other bodily fluids had to necessarily remain in proper balance so that good health could be maintained [2] . In the late 19th century, bloodletting was the most common medical practice performed by surgeons. However, it is also important to know that modern day medical science does not permit the use of bloodletting therapy for general ailments, its usage is restricted to the treatment of only some medical conditions. Read on to know more about bloodletting therapy, how it was used in the ancient days and how effective it is in the present day medical scenario. What Is Bloodletting? Bloodletting has been in use for over 100 years to cure illness and restore health. Blood is drawn out of the patient's body to heal him or her. It could either be done by a physician using instruments or with the use of live leeches [3] . In ancient times and according to a few British medical texts, bloodletting was initially recommended for almost all ailments. Some of them are listed below [4] . Asthma Cancer Acne Coma Cholera Diabetes Convulsions Epilepsy Gangrene Gout Herpes Indigestion Insanity Jaundice Leprosy Plague Scurvy Pneumonia Ophthalmia Smallpox Stroke Tetanus Tuberculosis History Of Bloodletting Therapy In the ancient days, in the absence of specialized treatments specifically for conditions such as hypertension, bloodletting was able to temporarily reduce blood pressure. This was made possible by reducing blood volume through bloodletting therapy [5] . Historical use of bloodletting was never considered harmful to the patients. Historians believed that ancient Egyptians strictly followed the practice of bloodletting (was proven through the presence of bloodletting instruments in the Egyptian burials) [6] . The idea of bloodletting was modelled on the process of menstruation. It was believed that one can conduct bleeding for the patient to return to good health conditions. During the Roman Empire, a famous Greek physician advocated physician-initiated bloodletting. During ancient times, the two key concepts that were used to support the outcomes of bloodletting were [7] as follows: Blood was first created and then used up; it did not circulate and hence got stagnant in the extremities Humoural balance formed the basis for illness or health (the four humours being phlegm, yellow bile, black bile and blood - blood being the dormant humour) The blood (either arterial or venous) to be let out was dependent on the ailment. Greek physicians believed that the way of bloodletting to be followed was dependent on the link between different blood vessels with different organs. For instance, in case of liver problems, bloodletting was done from the vein in the right hand, whereas in case of problems with the spleen, it was done from the vein in the left hand. As the severity of the disease increases, the amount of blood let out would also increase [8] . Modern Day Bloodletting In modern medicine, bloodletting is usually addressed as therapeutic phlebotomy. Phlebotomy is defined as the process of making an incision in a vein with a needle. This procedure is called venipuncture [9] . The person performing the procedure is called phlebotomist. Therapeutic phlebotomy is primarily used to treat conditions such as [10] Polycythemia vera [11] : This is a stem cell bone marrow disorder. This condition leads to overproduction of red blood cells. There could be variable overproduction of platelets and white blood cells as well. The treatment of this condition includes phlebotomy so that red blood cell mass can be reduced along with a decrease in the chance of dangerous clots. Haemochromatosis [12] : This is a genetic disorder. The disorder is associated with iron metabolism and leads to abnormal iron accumulation in the heart, joints, liver, pancreas, pituitary and skin. Periodic phlebotomy is used for its treatment so that ferritin levels can be maintained at a reasonable level in order to minimize further iron deposition. Porphyria cutanea tarda [13] : This is a group of disorders of heme metabolism. This is also associated with an abnormality in iron metabolism. Phlebotomy is used to treat this disorder so that the iron levels can decrease and hence its accumulation in various organs can be prevented. Leech Therapy One of the old age bloodletting methodologies that has made a comeback into modern science is leech therapy. It is primarily used in the areas of microsurgery and reimplantation surgery [14] . Process of leech therapy [15] : Live leeches are attached to the target area to draw blood. The leeches in turn release proteins and peptides that help in blood thinning and hence prevent clotting. Leeches are highly effective in increasing blood circulation. Use of leeches for this therapy helps in the reduction of venous congestion. It also prevents tissue necrosis. Leech therapy is therefore used in postoperative care of skin grafts and re-implanted fingers, ears, and toes. Acupuncture And Modern Bloodletting Acupuncture was originally considered a form of bloodletting. The needles used during acupuncture were the lances and the acupuncture points were locations over veins that had to be opened. The Chinese concept of life force (chi) [16] was believed to be present partially in the blood and hence bloodletting could be used to free up the flow of chi. This concept was quite similar to that of the ancient Greek physician who believed that bloodletting allowed the free flow of static blood in the tissues of the body. Many texts link the functions of the body to celestial events. Acupuncture was able to bring about all the concepts of life force, astrology and blood together. The main idea was to focus on balance and flow [17] , and acupuncture does just that; it uses needling to restore balance and flow to the natural rhythmic motions. However, as dangers of bloodletting evolved in medical science, the present day acupuncture has been made to purely concentrate on chi and not on blood. The focus now is on just drawing out imaginary toxins. Nevertheless, bloodletting (along with the modern-day acupuncture) does exist in muted forms in various traditions both in the East and the West. How Bloodletting Works Staphylococcus aureus (staph) is a type of bacteria on the skin or nostrils of healthy people. This bacteria is responsible for skin infections such as pimples and boils. Serious infections of the blood, bones and lungs can also occur due to the presence of staph. These bacteria are believed to be turning more and more resistant to antibiotic therapy as days pass by [18] . Staph thrives on iron compounds. It enables the growth of infection by obtaining iron. Staph is more drawn to a particular kind of iron, which is found in heme - the molecule in red blood cells that helps in carrying oxygen [19] . When an infection initiates, heme iron is the preferred iron source. If there is no heme available, then the bacterium's chances of thriving may fail. Research has discovered a gene cluster within the bacteria that promotes heme transfer [20] . This is an advantage for the bacterium. According to studies, when these genes mutate, it gets hard for the bacteria to launch an infection successfully. So, it can be inferred and understood from this theory reported by a medical research team that when there is less amount of available blood, it becomes harder for the bacterium to hunt for enough heme to thrive [21] . In short, less blood would mean that the bacterial pathogens would starve of iron and hence the bacterial growth would slow down. Bloodletting May Provide Health Benefits For Obese People A study conducted in Germany suggests that obese people could improve their health by donating blood. Obese people with metabolic syndrome (collection of symptoms associated with heart disease such as high blood pressure) were studied under the research. It was found that donating blood caused a reduction in blood pressure. Other health benefits observed were reduced risk of heart disease [22] . The study goes on to say that doctors can begin considering blood donation as a possible treatment option for people with metabolic syndrome. However, more studies are yet to be conducted on this treatment possibility to reach conclusive answers. Bloodletting Helps In Blood Pressure Drop [23] Studies reveal that high levels of iron are linked to Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. It was also found through research that bloodletting could possibly reduce blood pressure in patients who suffer from treatment-resistant high blood pressure. Researchers say that bloodletting can show a significant decrease in heart rate and consequently a reduction in blood glucose levels as well. Can Blood Donation Be Considered A Therapy? When the volume of blood is reduced through bloodletting, there would also be a decrease in the blood pressure, according to medical experts [24] . Therefore, bloodletting can be considered a therapy to a great extent. However, it is still not clear if this approach can stabilize blood pressure as well in the same patients. The long-term effects of reducing the volume of blood need to be analyzed and studied rigorously to reach a conclusion. As metabolic syndrome is not contagious, donating the blood by patients who possess this condition would not create any health risks for the receiver. Withdrawal of blood is the most opted treatment for conditions such as hemochromatosis (a condition wherein there is too much iron build-up in the body) [25] . Although it has been proved that withdrawal of blood can reduce blood pressure in obese people with metabolic syndrome, it is still unclear if this kind of therapy can reduce the risks associated with conditions like stroke and heart attack. Side Effects Of Bloodletting The following are some of the side effects of this therapy [26] : Anaemia Tiredness Dizziness Exhaustion General weakness (asthenia) Fatigue On A Final Note... Bloodletting was the most opted treatment method before antibiotics were developed. During the last few hours of America's first president, bloodletting was performed in order to save him (although the technique failed in reviving him) [27] . Highly regarded medical textbooks have advocated bloodletting as the best treatment for acute pneumonia. Bloodletting has also been used in Ayurveda, Unani (as it is based on using bloodletting for correcting a supposed humoural imbalance) [28] and traditional Chinese systems of alternative medicine. Many medical experts believe that 100 years from now, physicians might be astonished by the overuse of antibiotics and the human tendency to follow polypharmacy. Also, it is believed that bloodletting would again gain a lot of fame and find extensive usage in the future of medical science where treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy would be considered blunt and harmful. View Article References [1] Assi, T. B., & Baz, E. (2014). Current applications of therapeutic phlebotomy.Blood transfusion = Trasfusione del sangue,12 Suppl 1(Suppl 1), s75-83. [2] Roumelioti, M. E., Glew, R. H., Khitan, Z. J., Rondon-Berrios, H., Argyropoulos, C. P., Malhotra, D., Raj, D. S., Agaba, E. I., Rohrscheib, M., Murata, G. H., Shapiro, J. I., Tzamaloukas, A. H. (2018). Fluid balance concepts in medicine: Principles and practice.World journal of nephrology,7(1), 1-28. [3] Greaves G. (1861). Beneficial Effects of Blood-Letting.British Medical Journal,2(35), 240241. [4] Copeman E. (1879). On Blood-Letting.British medical journal,2(989), 932-933. [5] Hu Shuping,Lv Guiyuan,Yu Pingye,et al Wenzhou Medical College(325035);Evaluation to Hypertension Model of Hyperaction of Liver Yang[J];Journal of Zhejiang University of Traditional Chinese Medicine;2008-2005 [6] Hajar R. (2012). The air of history: early medicine to galen (part I).Heart views : the official journal of the Gulf Heart Association,13(3), 120-128. [7] Allison W. (1864). Types of Fever and Blood-Letting.British Medical Journal,1(179), 624625. [8] Kim, K. H., & Oh, K. Y. (2016). Clinical applications of therapeutic phlebotomy.Journal of blood medicine,7, 139-144. [9] WHO Guidelines on Drawing Blood: Best Practices in Phlebotomy. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2010. 2, Best practices in phlebotomy. [10] Kim, K. H., & Oh, K. Y. (2016). Clinical applications of therapeutic phlebotomy.Journal of blood medicine,7, 139-144. [11] Raedler L. A. (2014). Diagnosis and Management of Polycythemia Vera: Proceedings from a Multidisciplinary Roundtable.American health & drug benefits,7(7 Suppl 3), S36-47. [12] Porter JL, Rawla P. Hemochromatosis. [Updated 2019 Jan 28]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2018 Jan-. [13] Liu LU, Phillips J, Bonkovsky H; Porphyrias Consortium of the Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network. Familial Porphyria Cutanea Tarda. 2013 Jun 6 [Updated 2016 Sep 8]. In: Adam MP, Ardinger HH, Pagon RA, et al., editors. GeneReviews [Internet]. Seattle (WA): University of Washington, Seattle; 1993-2019. [14] Sig, A. K., Guney, M., Uskudar Guclu, A., & Ozmen, E. (2017). Medicinal leech therapy-an overall perspective.Integrative medicine research,6(4), 337-343. [15] Sig, A. K., Guney, M., Uskudar Guclu, A., & Ozmen, E. (2017). Medicinal leech therapy-an overall perspective.Integrative medicine research,6(4), 337-343. [16] Rubik, B., Muehsam, D., Hammerschlag, R., & Jain, S. (2015). Biofield Science and Healing: History, Terminology, and Concepts.Global advances in health and medicine,4(Suppl), 8-14. [17] Kordafshari, G., Ardakani, M., Keshavarz, M., Esfahani, M. M., Nazem, E., Moghimi, M., Zargaran, A., Kenari, H. M. (2016). The Role of Phlebotomy ( Fasd) and Wet Cupping ( Hijamat) to Manage Dizziness and Vertigo From the Viewpoint of Persian Medicine.Journal of evidence-based complementary & alternative medicine,22(3), 369-373. [18] Foster T. Staphylococcus. In: Baron S, editor. Medical Microbiology. 4th edition. Galveston (TX): University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston; 1996. Chapter 12. [19] Balasubramanian, D., Harper, L., Shopsin, B., & Torres, V. J. (2017). Staphylococcus aureus pathogenesis in diverse host environments.Pathogens and disease,75(1), ftx005. [20] Cassat, J. E., & Skaar, E. P. (2013). Iron in infection and immunity.Cell host & microbe,13(5), 509-519. [21] Crilly M. (2001). Evidence based bloodletting.BMJ : British Medical Journal,322(7290), 854. [22] Murphy, E. L., Schlumpf, K., Wright, D. J., Cable, R., Roback, J., Sacher, R., Busch, M. P., NHLBI Retrovirus Epidemiology Donor Study II (2012). BMI and obesity in US blood donors: a potential public health role for the blood centre.Public health nutrition,15(6), 964-971. [23] Houschyar, K. S., Ludtke, R., Dobos, G. J., Kalus, U., Broecker-Preuss, M., Rampp, T., Brinkhaus, B., Michalsen, A. (2012). Effects of phlebotomy-induced reduction of body iron stores on metabolic syndrome: results from a randomized clinical trial.BMC medicine,10, 54. [24] Al-Tabakha, M. M., Sameer, F. T., Saeed, M. H., Batran, R. M., Abouhegazy, N. T., & Farajallah, A. A. (2018). Evaluation of Bloodletting Cupping Therapy in the Management of Hypertension.Journal of pharmacy & bioallied sciences,10(1), 1-6. [25] Sundic, T., Hervig, T., Hannisdal, S., Assmus, J., Ulvik, R. J., Olaussen, R. W., & Berentsen, S. (2014). Erythrocytapheresis compared with whole blood phlebotomy for the treatment of hereditary haemochromatosis.Blood transfusion = Trasfusione del sangue,12 Suppl 1(Suppl 1), s84-89. [26] Houschyar, K. S., Ludtke, R., Dobos, G. J., Kalus, U., Broecker-Preuss, M., Rampp, T., Brinkhaus, B., Michalsen, A. (2012). Effects of phlebotomy-induced reduction of body iron stores on metabolic syndrome: results from a randomized clinical trial.BMC medicine,10, 54. [27] Assi, T. B., & Baz, E. (2014). Current applications of therapeutic phlebotomy.Blood transfusion = Trasfusione del sangue,12 Suppl 1(Suppl 1), s75-83. [28] Lone, A. H., Ahmad, T., Anwar, M., Habib, S., Sofi, G., & Imam, H. (2011). Leech therapy- a holistic approach of treatment in unani (greeko-arab) medicine.Ancient science of life,31(1), 31-35. GET THE BEST BOLDSKY STORIES! Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 9:00 [IST] PR Newswire SILVER SPRING, Md., March 11, 2019 SILVER SPRING, Md., March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Security Industry Association (SIA) has selected Chris Grniet, CPP, as the recipient of the 2018 SIA Committee Chair of the Year Award, which recognizes individuals for excellence in leading SIA committees and advancing member objectives. SIA will present Grniet with the honor at The Advance, SIA's annual membership meeting, during ISC West. Grniet a security industry veteran with over 26 years of experience in the field chairs the SIA New Product Showcase Committee and also serves as regional vice president of the security and technology consulting division at Guidepost Solutions, a global security consulting and investigations company and SIA member. He has been involved with the SIA New Product Showcase (NPS) for nearly a decade, serving as a committee member and vice chair before becoming chair; he will chair his third SIA NPS program at ISC West 2019. "I am truly honored to be recognized for my contributions as committee chair for the New Product Showcase and would like to thank Don Erickson and the rest of the SIA staff as well as my fellow NPS committee members and our judges for their trust, support and encouragement. I am passionate about the NPS vision to be the premier source for the security industry in the identification of innovative security solutions," said Grniet. "While it serves as a valued marketing opportunity for program participants, I believe it also a cornerstone of the missions of SIA and ISC West to educate professionals and fuel the advancement and success of the security industry." The SIA New Product Showcase, established in 1979, is the premier industry event to recognize new and innovative security products, services and solutions used to protect life and property in residential, commercial and institutional settings. Notable accomplishments from Grniet's time as chair of the New Product Showcase include an increased window of time in which judges deliberate on the Best New Product and Judges' Choice Awards, an increased emphasis on judicial ethics during the judging process and expansion of the program from a 6-month-long project to a year-round effort. "During his tenure as committee chair, Chris Grniet has demonstrated outstanding leadership and made notable contributions to the development and growth of the New Product Showcase program, including new insights into the newest technologies entering the security industry," said Don Erickson, SIA CEO. "Through Chris' leadership and the involvement of our dedicated judges, the NPS program is more widely recognized as a unique platform for learning about security technologies being launched at ISC West." "We are very proud and supportive of the work Chris has done to support and enhance the NPS program. The fact that he is being recognized for his hard work is indicative of the effort and passion he puts into everything he does," said Julie Myers Wood, CEO of Guidepost Solutions. "We truly appreciate having him as part of the Guidepost Solutions team and are grateful to SIA for spotlighting his hard work and accomplishments as the NPS Committee Chair." The Advance will take place during ISC West 2019 on Tuesday, April 9, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. in the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. All SIA members are invited to attend. In addition to the presentation of the Committee Chair of the Year Award, attendees will enjoy a high-impact presentation from Sal Mani, security systems manager for Google, on the workforce imperative of developing cross-functional skill sets to stay competitive in the security industry. SIA will also submit five nominations to the SIA Board of Directors for ratification and present the Milestone Awards, the SIA Chairman's Award and the Sandy Jones Volunteer of the Year Award. Attendees of The Advance will also receive complimentary lunch and have the opportunity to network with industry colleagues. Learn more and register. About SIA SIA (Security Industry Association) is the leading trade association for global security solution providers, with nearly 1,000 innovative member companies representing thousands of security leaders and experts who shape the future of the security industry. SIA protects and advances its members' interests by advocating pro-industry policies and legislation at the federal and state levels, creating open industry standards that enable integration, advancing industry professionalism through education and training, opening global market opportunities and collaborating with other like-minded organizations. As the premier sponsor of ISC Events expos and conferences, SIA ensures its members have access to top-level buyers and influencers, as well as unparalleled learning and network opportunities. SIA also enhances the position of its members in the security marketplace through SIA GovSummit, which brings together private industry with government decision makers, and Securing New Ground, the security industry's top executive conference for peer-to-peer networking. SOURCE Security Industry Association Reciba en su email: noticias de ultima hora, analisis tecnicos o el cierre de mercado Email no valido Nombre requerido Recibira las informaciones mas relevantes del dia en tiempo real Que informacion desea recibir? Noticias de Ultima hora Boletin Cierre de Mercado Boletin analisis tecnico Boletin Fundsnews Debe seleccionar un tipo de boletin Acepto la Politica de privacidad Debe aceptar la politica de privacidad Responsable EMPRESAS DEL GRUPO WEB FINANCIAL GROUP Finalidad La remision de informacion, novedades y promociones Establecimiento o mantenimiento de Relaciones Comerciales. Legitimacion Consentimiento del interesado. Interes legitimo en el desarrollo de la relacion comercial Destinatario Empresas del Grupo WEB FINANCIAL GROUP Derechos Acceso, rectificacion, supresion, limitacion, oposicion y portabilidad Informacion adicional Politica de Privacidad de nuestra pagina Web + INFORMACION Kathmandu, Nepal: Ekta Adhikari, a Nepali national working with World Food Programme (WFP) in Ethiopia confirmed dead in the fatal crash of Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 aircraft. In the crash occurred near the town of Bishoftu in 737 on Monday, 149 passengers and 8 crew members, lost their lives, the airlines has officially confirmed. SNc Channels: Search About Salem-News.com Mar-11-2019 16:10 TweetFollow @OregonNews Rep. Omar's Comments and the House Failure to Debate U.S.-Israeli Relations Why does Israel "need" so much U.S. support? Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) (SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.) - Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) recently suggested that House supporters of Israel have dual allegiances. Her comments caused a furor. Whether her comments were anti-semitic is debatable. Ideally, this uproar was an excellent opportunity for a long overdue debate on our one-sided U.S foreign policy toward Israel. Instead, the House passed a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and other bigotry. I fear this resolution will result in a chilling effect on legitimate speech activity. All criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic. Through (and since) the George W. Bush administration, there has been a clear pro-Israel tilt to U.S.-Israeli foreign policy. Consider that since 1972, the U.S. has cast over 43 vetoes in the United Nations to protect Israel. Israel is the largest annual recipient of direct economic and military assistance since 1976. According to President Trumps fiscal year budget request, Israel is expected to receive $3.3 billion in annual funding in 2019. Why does Israel need so much U.S. support, as Israels vulnerability is a myth? Although there is open hostility between Israel and many of the other Arab states, the latter do not pose a direct threat to Israel at this time. Even though an Arab alliance has a quantitative advantage, Israel can rely on its technological and military dominance. Israel has a nuclear monopoly in the region, although there is fear that Iran will develop this capability. It has a military superiority vis-a-vis any possible coalition of Arab forces. It has the fourth largest air force in the world after the U.S., Russian, and China. It is the only state in the region with its own defense industry. It has the most modern military in the region with about 160,000 personnel. Unfortunately, under President Trump, the pro-Israel tilt has gotten worse. Trump has started a new, hardline pro-Israel stance that fits easily with the Republican Party and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government. David Friedman, his ambassador to Israel, is a pro-Israel advocate who once wrote that the two-state solution is a suicidal peace with hateful radical Islamists hell bent on Israels destruction. Trump moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump appears to have abandoned efforts to curb illegal settlement activity in the West Bank, and the Trump administrations peace plan, supposedly being drafted by son-in-law Jared Kushner, is reportedly tilted toward Israels view of the conflict. Thats why it is very, very unlikely for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. While it is unrealistic for the U.S. to suddenly become neutral in all things Middle East, we must end our lockstep support of Israel with little or no public debate. Instead, we must redefine what it means to be pro-Israel something the House response to Rep. Omars comments fails to do. _________________________________________ Israel | Palestine | Racism | Justice | Most Commented on Articles for March 11, 2019 | Articles for March 12, 2019 Details are emerging about the 18 Canadian victims of an Ethiopian Airlines plane crash in Addis Ababa that left 157 people dead. Here is what we know so far: Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 11/3/2019 (1004 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Dr. Pius Adesanmi is seen in an undated handout photo. Dr. Adesanmi was aboard the Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302, which crashed shortly after takeoff from Ethiopia's capital on Sunday morning, killing all 157 on board, authorities said, including 17 other Canadians. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Carleton University, Josh Hotz, *MANDATORY CREDIT* Details are emerging about the 18 Canadian victims of an Ethiopian Airlines plane crash in Addis Ababa that left 157 people dead. Here is what we know so far: Ashka Dixit, Anushka Dixit, Prerit Dixit, Kosha Vaidya, Pannagesh Vaidya and Hansini Vaidya: The family of six from Brampton, Ont., was planning to visit Kosha's birthplace in Kenya, said her brother, Manant Vaidya. He said his 37-year-old sister hadn't visited Kenya for decades. Her daughters, 14-year-old Ashka and 13-year-old Anushka, were looking forward to going on a safari, he said. The other family members on the trip were 45-year-old father Prerit Dixit, 71-year-old grandfather Pannagesh Vaidya and 63-year-old grandmother Hansini Vaidya. Manant said his parents were from Gujarat, India, but they lived in Kenya for three or four years. The family later returned to India. Kosha moved to Ontario in 2004 after marrying her husband, who already lived in Canada. The girls were strong students and enrolled in specialized science and technology courses, Manant said. Ashka was also known for her singing voice, while Anushka was talented in dance and was learning a traditional Indian form called khattak. Prerit worked as a medical lab assistant for LifeLabs and also held a job at Ontario's Ministry of Health. Kosha used to work for the Canadian Hearing Society, said Manant. Pius Adesanmi: Adesanmi was a Nigerian-born professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and the Institute of African Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa. He was a "towering figure in African and post-colonial scholarship," said the school's president, Benoit-Antoine Bacon. Adesanmi was the winner of the inaugural Penguin Prize for African non-fiction writing in 2010. Mitchell Dick, a Carleton student in communications, said Adesanmi was "extremely nice and approachable," and stood out for his passion for African literature. Angela Rehhorn: Angela Rehhorn, 24, was an enthusiastic conservation volunteer from Orillia, Ont., who was developing a citizen science project on bat conservation. The Canadian Wildlife Federation says she had recently participated in its Canadian Conservation Corps, a volunteer program for Canadians ages 18 to 30. She was on her way to participate in the United Nations Environmental Assembly in Nairobi as part of the UN Association of Canada's Canada Service Corps Program, it said. Rick Bates, CEO of the Canadian Wildlife Federation, said in an interview that Rehhorn was a well-liked "outdoors girl" who was also a great leader. "She was full of excitement and the optimism of youth and wanting to change the world and work on changing the world. And that's what she was doing," Bates said. Rehhorn recently completed a bachelor of science at Dalhousie University and was "thrilled" to take part in the conservation corps, the federation said. Her experience took her to Alberta where she went backpacking in Kananaskis this fall, then to Pacific Rim National Park on Vancouver Island for her field training. At the time of her death, Rehhorn had just finished volunteering her time to do species surveys and was especially interested in expanding her experience working in the marine environment, the federation said. Stephanie Lacroix: Stephanie Lacroix was passionate about youth education and life skills development in both Canada and southern Africa. Lacroix was working with the United Nations Association in Canada to help engage young Canadians in the UN's work to grow global citizens as a project officer with the association's Canada Service Corps, her LinkedIn profile says. She graduated in 2015 with an honours degree in International Development and Globalization from the University of Ottawa. She was a board member of the African Community Fund for Education Canada and previously volunteered with Free the Children. Her mother Sylvie Lamarche Lacroix of Timmins, Ont., confirmed her death in a Facebook message. In an interview, Jasveen Brar said she met Lacroix at COP24 in Poland. "She was a mentor to me and the two other guys that were selected for the conference. Since the COP, we kept in touch over email, where she offered me lots of advice about my career and life, she really was a star," Brar said. Darcy Belanger: Parvati.org, a not-for-profit conservation group, says the former Edmonton resident was its founding member and director of strategic initiatives. Belanger's LinkedIn profile says he was working as a United States director of professional development with PCL Construction in Denver. Parvati says Belanger had taken time off from PCL and was travelling to Nairobi for the United Nations Environment Assembly. The organization said he was a champion of the Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary or MAPS because he realized the importance of the Arctic Ocean in balancing global weather patterns. MAPS declares the entire Arctic Ocean north of the Arctic Circle a protected area, the group said in a statement. "Admired for his courage, outstanding achievements, and noble qualities, Darcy was a hero in every sense of the word," Parvati said. "He was passionately devoted to the protection of all life through the realization of MAPS." Micah Messent: Messent was an environmentalist from British Columbia who expressed his joy on social media at being able to attend the fourth session of the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi. In an Instagram post, he said he had been selected by the United Nations Association of Canada to attend the assembly and was travelling to Kenya where he would "have the chance to meet with other passionate youth and leaders from around the world and explore how we can tackle the biggest challenges that are facing our generation." "I'm so grateful for this opportunity and want to thank all of the people in my life who have helped me get this far." Prof. Laurie Meijer Drees taught Messent at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo and said he was committed to being a role model for Indigenous youth and was regarded as a trailblazer among his classmates and the faculty. "He was a bright light among all of those bright lights," she said. "He was very enthusiastic, a bright young scholar, very committed to the environment and the land." Drees said Messent was part of a group of about a dozen Indigenous Studies students who wanted to make the world a better place. The First Nations Leadership Council said Messent was a member of the Red River Metis Nation in Manitoba and was raised as the youngest of five siblings in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island. It said he had plans to return to school in the future to pursue a law degree. Peter deMarsh Described by a longtime family friend in New Brunswick as a dedicated community activist, deMarsh also travelled the world as chairman of the International Family Forestry Alliance. The international group, based in Luxembourg, represents more than 25 million forest owners worldwide. Genevieve MacRae recalled how deMarsh and his wife Jean Burgess helped establish the Taymouth Community Association in central New Brunswick more than a decade ago. "Peter and his wife Jean made a pretty powerful team," said MacRae, a friend of deMarsh's since her childhood. "They were always looking for how to improve the lives of the people around them." MacRae said deMarsh was a pillar of the Taymouth community. "He was warm, funny, passionate you always felt listened-to with Peter," MacRae said. "He was an intense person, except that doesn't signify the warmth that was behind it all ... It's a monumental loss for our community." Felix Montecuccoli, a board member with the International Family Forestry Alliance, said in an email that police shared the news of deMarsh's death with his family late Sunday. DeMarsh was en route to Nairobi, where he and Montecuccoli had planned to attend a workshop on financing for small farms. The CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada, Derek Nighbor, issued a statement describing deMarsh as a life-long advocate for the Canadian forest sector. "The forestry community lost an incredible man this weekend," Nighbor said. "Peter dedicated so much of his life to our sector and was travelling to Africa to do what he loved to do talking about the environmental benefits of forestry ... He was a true champion of forestry on the global stage." Amina Ibrahim Odowaa and her daughter Sofia Faisal Abdulkadir: The 33-year-old Edmonton woman and her five-year-old daughter were travelling to Kenya to visit relatives. Her brother, Mohamed Hassan Ali of Toronto, said he had planned to travel with them but had to cancel last week. "(She was) a very nice person, very outgoing, very friendly had a lot of friends," he said. A family friend said Odowaa had lived in Edmonton since 2006. Derick Lwugi: An accountant with the City of Calgary, Lwugi was on his way to Kenya to visit both his and his wife's parents. "His mom was not feeling well," Lwugi's wife, Gladys Kivia, said in a brief interview from Calgary. The couple have three children, aged 17, 19 and 20, all of whom live at home. The family has lived in Calgary for 12 years. Jessica Hyba Hyba's Facebook page says she was born in Ottawa and pursued a career in international aid work. She worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as an public relations officer, based in Mogadishu, Somalia. Prior to that, the UNHCR said Hyba worked for CARE Canada. That agency issued a statement saying she had worked in Indonesia as part of the emergency response to the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. "We remember her fondly as a dedicated humanitarian and loving mother," CARE Canada said on their website. Danielle Moore: A 24-year-old marine biology student from Winnipeg, Moore graduated from Dalhousie University in Halifax in 2017. She posted on Facebook on Saturday morning that she would be travelling to Nairobi for the United Nations Environment Assembly. "Over the next week, I'll have the opportunity to discuss global environmental issues, share stories, and connect with other youth and leaders from all over the world," she wrote. "I feel beyond privileged to be receiving this opportunity." Prof. Kim Davies, her honours thesis adviser at Dalhousie, said Moore was an exceptional student. "She excelled at her studies, she was a kind and friendly person, and she was deeply devoted to environmental and human rights causes," Davies said in an email. Davies said after graduating from Dalhousie, Moore returned to Manitoba where she worked for several non-governmental organizations, including the Canada Learning Code, a group dedicated to improving the accessibility of educational and technological resources for Canadians. The professor confirmed Moore's work was recognized by the United Nations, which is why she was invited to be a delegate to the environmental assembly. OTTAWA - The push for the speedy passage of the new NAFTA is getting a boost from a big advertising campaign in the United States. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 11/3/2019 (1003 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The push for the speedy passage of the modernized NAFTA is getting a boost from a new, major advertising campaign in the United States. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right to left, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, President of the United States Donald Trump, Mexico's Secretary of Economy Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal, and President of Mexico Enrique Pena Nieto participate in a signing ceremony for the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick OTTAWA - The push for the speedy passage of the new NAFTA is getting a boost from a big advertising campaign in the United States. An alliance of U.S. companies, trade associations and lobbyists launched a series of TV commercials and digital ads Monday that it hopes will inspire more Americans to push their congressional representatives to ratify the continental trade agreement. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, if ratified, will replace the North American Free Trade Agreement. The deal, signed by the three countries' leaders in November, must be approved by Congress before it comes into force. U.S. President Donald Trump has called on Congress to support the new deal, which he argues will lift the American farm sector, bring back lost manufacturing jobs and reinvigorate the auto industry. The campaign by the "Pass USMCA Coalition" promotes what the group sees as the deal's economic benefits. It arrives as Trump's trade czar, Robert Lighthizer, expands efforts to meet with Democrats in Washington to discuss their concerns about the agreement. The coalition's 16 members include the Canadian American Business Council, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Chicken Council, Dow and Domino's Pizza. Its honorary co-chairs are former New York congressman Joe Crowley and Gary Locke, who served as U.S. ambassador to China, commerce secretary in the Obama administration and governor of Washington state. Both are Democrats, but Rick Dearborn, Trump's former deputy chief of staff, is the coalition's executive director. The initial 30-second TV ad, set to run for three weeks in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., tells viewers that a "new era of economic and creative prosperity is within reach." "The U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement will level the playing field for our workers, consumers and farmers with more free markets, fairer trade and robust economic growth," says the ad, which cost just over US$1 million. "By increasing exports, raising wages and accelerating innovation, it will propel U.S. trade into the 21st century." It then calls on voters to contact lawmakers and urge the deal's swift ratification. Trump administration officials, including Lighthizer, have been meeting Democrats in hope of securing bipartisan support for the USMCA. Democrats, empowered by their new majority in the House of Representatives, and some Republicans have said they won't vote for NAFTA 2.0 in its current form. Among the complaints, Democrats say the agreement lacks labour and environmental enforcement measures, and some don't like its extended drug-patent protections. To enact the deal, U.S. officials say those congressional concerns will have to be dealt with in so-called side letters or in the bill Congress eventually votes on. Last Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the Economic Club of Washington that Lighthizer has been "really very respectful" in his efforts and has listened to members on both sides of the aisle. OTTAWA - The federal government is launching a review of the Official Languages Act, saying it is time to modernize the decades-old law. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 11/3/2019 (1003 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Tourism, Official Languages and La Francophonie Minister Melanie Joly speaks during an event in Ottawa, Monday March 11, 2019. Joly announced a review to modernize the Official Languages Act. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld OTTAWA - The federal government is launching a review of the Official Languages Act, saying it is time to modernize the decades-old law. The 1969 law enshrined Canadians' right to receive federal services in English or French. The last major reform of the law was in 1988 and there have been recent calls to update it again, including from a Senate committee that late last month said the act needs to be applied more effectively and consistently. Oversight mechanisms need to be beefed up to ensure rights aren't trampled on, the report said, adding a veiled reference to a furor in Ontario that forced the government to backtrack on plans to abolish the independent office of its French-language services commissioner and shrink a francophone-affairs cabinet post. The Liberals plan a series of meetings, the first taking place Tuesday in Moncton, N.B., and an online consultation that's to result in a final report in June. Official Languages Minister Melanie Joly said in a statement that the government wants a modernized act to help minority-language communities "meet the new challenges they face" and ensure the law "can continue to meet the needs of Canadians." The latest census figures from Statistics Canada show that in 2016, the country's bilingualism rate stood 17.9 per cent an all-time high mainly due to an increase in the number of people who can speak French. Statistics Canada had to revise the bilingualism rate down by one-10th of a percentage point after it found a computer error in about 61,000 online census responses: French-speakers were recorded as having English as their mother tongue, leading the agency to report an increase in anglophones in Quebec. The erroneously reported jump in English-language speakers caused emotional ripples in Quebec, with provincial politicians talking about legislative means to ensure the survival of the French language in the province. This is one of the important contents stated in the minutes of the 12th meeting of the Joint Coordination Committee on the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area (JCC CLV DTA 12), just inked by the ministers of the three countries.The event, which took place from March 7-10 in Kratie province, Cambodia, was jointly chaired by Cambodian Commerce Minister Pan Sorasak, Lao Minister of Planning and Investment Suphan Keomixay and Vietnamese Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung.The Vietnamese side is also assigned to develop specific plans and projects to perform the Action Plan for CLV Economic Connectivity up to 2030.The ministers recognised the need to strengthen current efforts of the three countries in ensuring border security and satisfactorily solving security issues, especially illegal border crossings, drug and human trafficking; and improving the effectiveness of "hotlines", particularly at the local level.They highlighted that it is necessary to review and evaluate the master plan for socio-economic development in the CLV development triangle area in the 2010-2020 period to have a panorama of development status, new opportunities and challenges, as well as demand of the three countries in the new development context.Regarding tourism, the sides agreed to accelerate the building of a development plan for the sector, and coordinate in collecting information and data to complete relevant reports at the 11th CLV Development Triangle Area Summit in November this year.Laos and Cambodia have proposed Vietnam manage the website of the CLV Development Triangle Area, and upgrade the information storage capacity to enable the three countries authorities to upload information to the website.Under the minutes, Laos will be the host country of the 11th CLV Development Triangle Area Summit.In the development triangle area, Vietnam has so far invested in 49 projects in Cambodia with a total registered investment of US$1.63 billion and 67 projects worth $1.97 billion in Laos. Meanwhile, five Vietnamese localities in the Development Triangle Area have attracted 233 projects worth $2.3 billion from 20 countries and territories.The Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area was established in 1999, initially covering 10 provinces namely Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Lak and Dak Nong (Vietnam); Sekong, Attapeu and Saravan (Laos); and Stung Treng, Rattanakiri and Mondulkiri (Cambodia). Vietnams Binh Phuoc province, Laos Champasak province and Kratie of Cambodia were added into the group in 2009.The group aims to strengthen the solidarity and cooperation among the three countries while ensuring security and political stability as well as promoting poverty reduction and socio-economic development in the area.Its cooperation focuses on such areas as security-diplomacy, transport, industry, agriculture, trade, investment, social affairs, and environmental protection.Vietnam has joined actively and made important contributions to the area. Vietnamplus EDMONTON - An extensive study of caribou herds across British Columbia and Alberta suggests a way to reverse a long and steady decline of the endangered species kill more wolves and moose and pen pregnant cows. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 11/3/2019 (1003 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. An extensive study of caribou herds across British Columbia and Alberta has found a way to reverse the long steady decline of an endangered species -- kill more wolves and moose and pen pregnant cows. A female wolf, left, and male wolf roam the tundra near The Meadowbank Gold Mine located in the Nunavut Territory of Canada on Wednesday, March 25, 2009. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette EDMONTON - An extensive study of caribou herds across British Columbia and Alberta suggests a way to reverse a long and steady decline of the endangered species kill more wolves and moose and pen pregnant cows. "It's go hard or go home," said Rob Serrouya, a University of Alberta biologist and lead author of the study released Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Unfortunately, it's that black or white." Another study released within days of Serrouya's suggests another way. And wildlife advocates worry Serrouya's findings could be misused, illustrating the complexity of what he calls the "toughest conservation challenge in North America." Serrouya and his colleagues looked at 18 caribou herds ranging over more than 90,000 square kilometres. At the study's start in 2004, 16 herds were declining. Restoring habitat damaged by oil, gas and forestry activity is too slow, said Serrouya. Herds don't have the decades that takes. The scientists compared four government-run management programs killing wolves, protecting pregnant cows, moving caribou between ranges and culling moose that attract predators. Six of the herds were not managed. By 2018, the unmanaged herds remained unchanged. But eight of the 12 managed herds improved. Half of them had either stabilized or begun increasing. One almost doubled over three years to 67 from 36 animals. "That's almost unprecedented," Serrouya said. "It doesn't mean recovery, but it means some of these herds have turned around. It's the first study to show management has turned around sharp declines of caribou on such a broad scale." Herds with the best growth rates were linked to both maternity pens to protect pregnant cows during calving and extensive wolf kills. Ranges with the best herd growth had the most intense cull. Those five ranges saw a total of 144 wolves killed every year, mostly by aerial gunning and strychnine. A cull that large over the entire study area would result annually in nearly 650 carcasses, although Serrouya said that's not being recommended. Removing moose at the same time would allow managers to kill up to 80 per cent fewer wolves, he said. Still, moose numbers in any one range would have to be reduced by up to 83 per cent. Jonah Keim, an independent biologist and consultant, offers a different solution. In research published in the British Ecological Society's journal, he suggests caribou can be adequately protected by making it tough for wolves to get to them. "What we need to do is reduce the encounters between wolves and caribou," he said. "You can do that without reducing the number of wolves." Between 2011 and 2014, Keim studied what would happen if it weren't so easy for wolves, deer and moose to follow cutlines and forestry roads into caribou habitat. Over an 800-square-kilometre area, researchers dropped 200 cubic metres of tree debris every 200 metres. The rate at which wolves stopped using the paths dropped 70 per cent, the study found. "It was unbelievably effective at reducing wolf use," said Keim. Serrouya applauded Keim's paper, but questioned its practicality on a landscape with 350,000 kilometres of linear disturbance. "To block 350,000 kilometres would take years and years," he said. "What would happen in the meantime?" Four herds vanished between 2004 and 2018. Keim said efforts could be focused on where they'd do the most good. He suggested that snowmobile trails could be designed to draw wolf packs away from caribou. It wouldn't be that hard, he said. "That type of work can be done in the summer or winter by somebody on foot." Carolyn Campbell of the Alberta Wilderness Association fears Serrouya's findings could be used to declare "a war on wildlife." "These findings could be used by industry and government to prolong unsustainable forest exploitation while endlessly harming wildlife species," she said. She urged governments to keep restoring habitat. Serrouya said drastic measures will be needed into the foreseeable future. "Society would have to change the way it values natural resources. Society would have to decide to reduce the rate of resource extraction." Follow Bob Weber at @row1960 on Twitter OTTAWA - The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development is monitoring the allegations the Liberal government tried to influence a criminal prosecution against SNC-Lavalin to determine whether Canada is violating its commitment to an international anti-bribery convention. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 11/3/2019 (1004 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The SNC-Lavalin headquarters is seen in Montreal on February 12, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson OTTAWA - The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development is monitoring the allegations the Liberal government tried to influence a criminal prosecution against SNC-Lavalin to determine whether Canada is violating its commitment to an international anti-bribery convention. The OECD's working group on bribery said in a statement Monday that it is "concerned" by accusations that Trudeau and staff in his office tried to get former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to let the Quebec engineering giant negotiate a remediation agreement rather than pursue the firm on criminal charges of bribery and fraud. It's particularly keeping an eye on the twin federal investigations of the allegations, the group said, including one by the House of Commons justice committee that is to continue this week. SNC-Lavalin is accused of bribing Libyan officials between 2001 and 2011 to win business there. Canada is one of 44 nations that in 1999 signed the legally binding Anti-Bribery Convention, which established international standards to criminalize the bribery of foreign officials so nations would punish their own citizens and companies for trying to undermine governments elsewhere. The working group monitors the implementation and enforcement of the convention. It wrote to the Prime Minister's Office to express its concerns about the SNC-Lavalin matter and says it is interested in the investigations by the justice committee and the federal ethics commissioner. It says Canada has pledged to update the group on the matter at the working group's June meeting. The statement says Canada's commitment under the convention is to "prosecutorial independence in foreign bribery cases," and that political factors such as national economic interests and the identities of the company or individuals involved should have no influence on the prosecution. Adam Austen, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, said Canada "firmly supports" the OECD and noted Canada was a founding country in the Anti-Bribery Convention. "We acknowledge the concerns raised today by the OECD working group on bribery," he said in a written statement. "We will continue to work with and update the working group on the robust and independent domestic processes currently underway in Canada, which the working group has recognized and encouraged." The thrust of the controversy surrounds a decision by the director of public prosecutions not to use a new law in Canada to put off a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin in favour of a remediation agreement (also sometimes called a deferred-prosecution agreement). Under such an agreement the firm would admit wrongdoing, pay financial penalties and allow outside monitoring, and if it fulfilled its end of the agreement the prosecution would eventually be dropped. As attorney general, Wilson-Raybould could have ordered prosecutors to pursue such an agreement or taken over the prosecution and done it herself, but she elected to do neither. Wilson-Raybould says multiple people from Trudeau's office, the finance minister's office and the Privy Council Office all put sustained, improper pressure on her to change her mind and she believes she was shuffled out as attorney general in January because she wouldn't. Trudeau and his staff say their only concern was for SNC-Lavalin's 9,000 jobs, which might be at risk if the company were convicted and then barred from bidding on federal contracts for up to 10 years. They deny exerting any improper influence on Wilson-Raybould and say she did not get shuffled over it. Wilson-Raybould resigned Feb. 12. Jane Philpott, her close friend and cabinet ally, followed suit March 4, citing lost confidence in how the matter had been handled by the prime minister's office. Trudeau's principal secretary, Gerald Butts, resigned his own post Feb. 18. He said last week he resigned not because he had done anything wrong but because he felt if he stayed on after Wilson-Raybould resigned it would look as though Trudeau had chosen him, a longtime friend, over a minister. Last week Trudeau blamed the problem on a breakdown in trust between Wilson-Raybould and his office and committed to hiring outside experts to advise the government on interactions between political and public-service staff on justice files. The justice committee has already heard from 10 witnesses, including Wilson-Raybould and Butts, and is set to meet again Wednesday to discuss additional witnesses to call. Conservative MP Michael Cooper said he wants to call other Trudeau advisers Wilson-Raybould named as people who approached her on the SNC-Lavalin matter. But Cooper said the chief desire is for Wilson-Raybould to be brought back to answer questions that arose from Butts's testimony. The Conservatives say the waiver of solicitor-client privilege and cabinet secrecy that Trudeau issued to allow Wilson-Raybould to speak is limiting and that she should be allowed to also answer questions about why she resigned from cabinet and what she subsequently told the cabinet in a meeting after that resignation. "Clearly as a matter of fairness we need to hear from Jody Wilson-Raybould," Cooper said. "There's more questions now than ever." None of the Liberal committee members responded to Canadian Press inquiries Monday. They hold a majority on the committee. Liberal strategist Amanda Alvaro, president of the Toronto communications firm Pomp & Circumstance, said there is no benefit to bringing Wilson-Raybould back. "She had unprecedented time to answer all the questions put to her," Alvaro said. She said if Wilson-Raybould is brought back to respond to what Butts said, then Butts might have to be asked back to respond to her, and the cycle might never stop. She said there is now a reasonable understanding of what happened and demanding Wilson-Raybould reappear is more about continuing the drama than trying to get more information. OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau must lift a "gag order" and ensure Jody Wilson-Raybould can speak the full truth about her decision to leave cabinet, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said Sunday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 10/3/2019 (1004 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer responds to reporters questions, Wednesday, March 6, 2019 while visiting a supporter in Quebec City. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau must lift a "gag order" and ensure Jody Wilson-Raybould can speak the full truth about her decision to leave cabinet, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said Sunday. The SNC-Lavalin controversy has exposed a crisis of moral and ethical leadership in Trudeau's office, Scheer said at a news conference in Ottawa, adding an online campaign is underway to support Wilson-Raybould. "Justin Trudeau must let her speak," he said. MPs are to hold an emergency session of the House of Commons justice committee on Wednesday and Wilson-Raybould has previously said she would be willing to return to provide additional testimony. Scheer said Liberal MPs on the committee need to support Wilson-Raybould coming back to shed additional light on the scandal, suggesting if they do not, it would suggest the prime minister "has something to hide." "Previously, it was only after intense pressure that Liberal MPs on the justice committee allowed this investigation to start, and only after intense pressure from Canadians did Justin Trudeau even partially allow Ms. Wilson-Raybould to speak," Scheer said. "We're hoping that this campaign will have the same effect that the pressure will force Justin Trudeau to allow her to come and testify." Wilson-Raybould previously told the justice committee she was subjected to relentless, inappropriate pressure to stop the trial of the engineering giant on bribery and fraud charges related to contracts in Libya. Trudeau partly waived solicitor-client privilege and cabinet confidentiality so Wilson-Raybould could speak publicly, but not about communication with Kathleen Roussel, the director of public prosecutions. Last week, Trudeau's former principal secretary Gerald Butts testified that he believed no one from the Prime Minister's Office had done anything wrong. Butts also said that Wilson-Raybould never complained about improper pressure to halt the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin until Trudeau decided to move her out of her cabinet role as justice minister. Scheer said Sunday it is clear the "real Justin Trudeau" is being exposed to Canadians, adding that the prime minister is not displaying good leadership. On Saturday, a spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office acknowledged Trudeau had "emotional" conversations with Liberal MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes, but denied her claims the encounters were "hostile" or that Trudeau yelled at her. Caesar-Chavannes told the Globe and Mail in an interview that Trudeau was angry when she told him on Feb. 12 of her plans to announce she was not running in the October federal election. She alleges he yelled at her in that conversation and she responded by shouting back at him, however she added the prime minister later apologized. Caesar-Chavannes also detailed another encounter with Trudeau in the House of Commons a week later, in which she describes him as acting hostile toward her. The various allegations make it clear the "false presentation" that Trudeau has presented to Canadians is "falling apart," Scheer said. "I note that time and time again when he's accused of improper behaviour, whether it is pressure or how he handles people in these types of situations, his only defence is that other people experience things differently." with files from Teresa Wright Follow @kkirkup on Twitter Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 11/3/2019 (1004 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Documents lie on the ground at Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, outside Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Monday, March 11, 2019, where Ethiopia Airlines Flight 302 crashed Sunday. Investigators are trying to determine the cause of a deadly crash Sunday involving a new aircraft model touted for its environmentally friendly engine that is used by many airlines worldwide. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene) ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - The Latest on Ethiopian Airlines crash (all times local): 11:50 p.m. A team of U.S. aviation experts has arrived at the site where an Ethiopian Airlines jetliner crashed, killing 157 people on a flight to Kenya. A Federal Aviation Administration statement said the American agency's people were at the crash site outside Ethiopia's capital on Monday with representatives of the National Transportation Safety Board. They are joining an Ethiopian-led investigation that includes authorities from neighbouring Kenya and elsewhere. The new Boeing 737 Max 8 jetliner went down six minutes after takeoff from the airport in Addis Ababa in clear weather on Sunday. The FAA says it plans to soon issue an update to operators of that Boeing model. Boeing will be part of the investigation. ___ 11:20 p.m. A witness to the Ethiopian Airlines crash says smoke was coming from the rear of the plane before it hit the ground, killing 157 people on board. Tamrat Abera tells The Associated Press the plane rotated twice before crashing and exploding. Smoke rose high into the sky. An international team of investigators led by Ethiopian authorities is looking into the cause of Sunday's crash. Several countries and companies grounded their Boeing 737 Max 8 fleets out of caution. ___ 9:50 p.m. A U.N. official says thousands stood in silent tribute to victims of the Ethiopian Airlines crash at the opening of the U.N. Environment Program's Assembly in Nairobi on Monday. Some people who had been travelling to the meeting were among the 157 dead. Assistant Secretary-General Satya Tripathi tells reporters that "there's a lot of grief that's not just for the U.N. colleagues but ... because there have been losses on the side of member state delegations, the civil society community and others as well." Tripathi said there is a "renewed resolve" to do what more than 4,700 attendees had come to do: "preserve the cause of the environment and the planet." The U.N. secretary-general and presidents of France and Kenya are expected to attend this week. ___ 9:05 p.m. An official at Royal Air Maroc says Morocco has halted the commercial use of its sole operational Boeing 737 Max 8, pending tests and examinations of the airplane after the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday. The official, who spoke anonymously in line with his department rules, said the plane was scheduled to fly on Monday from Casablanca to London but was replaced. The official said the plane, in use since December, was undergoing an "inspection and verification" procedure by a Moroccan team and would be operational after tests are done. The official said Royal Air Maroc received a second Boeing 737 Max 8 airplane a few days ago, part of a deal with Boeing for acquiring a total of four. A number of airlines have grounded the planes. ____ 8:10 p.m. Comair, the operator of British Airways and Kulula flights in South Africa says it has grounded its Boeing 737 Max 8 while it consults with Boeing, other operators and technical experts. Mourners attend a memorial service held by an association of Ethiopian airline pilots, at which framed photographs of seven crew members were on display, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Monday, March 11, 2019. Authorities in Ethiopia, China and Indonesia grounded all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft Monday following the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jetliner that killed 157 people, and investigators found the flight recorders from the field where the plane went down. (AP Photo/Samuel Habtab) A statement does not say how many planes are affected. It says the decision was made without intervention from regulatory authorities. Comair joins a number of other airlines in grounding the planes after Sunday's deadly crash in Ethiopia. Wrenelle Stander, executive director of Comair's airline division, says in the statement that Comair "remains confident in the inherent safety of the aircraft." ___ 6 p.m. The United Nations secretary-general says at least 21 U.N. staff members died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday along with an undetermined number of people who had worked closely with the world body. Antonio Guterres spoke at the opening of the annual meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women, which began with hundreds of delegates standing in silent tribute to the 157 victims. The U.N. Security Council also began its meeting on Afghanistan with diplomats standing in honour of those who perished. Guterres said that "a global tragedy has hit close to home and the United Nations is united in grief." He said the U.N. staff members came from all corners of the globe and that "they all had one thing in common a spirit to serve the people of the world and to make it a better place for us all." ___ 5 p.m. A Greek man who narrowly missed the Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed near Addis Ababa on Sunday says he argued with ground staff to try and board after reaching the gate minutes too late. "I saw the last passengers going through but the gate had already closed. I complained, in the usual way when that kind of thing happens. But they were very kind and placed me on another flight," Antonis Mavropoulos told Greece's private Skai Television, speaking from Nairobi. Mavropoulos, who runs a recycling company and lives in Athens, was travelling to Kenya to attend an environmental conference. "I'm slowly coming to terms with what happened and how close it came. On the other hand, I'm also very upset I'm shattered for those who were lost," he said in the interview Monday. "To be honest, I didn't get much sleep last night." Mavropoulos put his survival down to luck. "I didn't check my suitcase because I knew the gap between connecting flights was tight. If I had checked the bag in, they would have waited for me," he said. "This is a very difficult moment one that can change your life." ___ 4:45 p.m. Ethiopia's state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate cites the United States ambassador as saying a six-member team of U.S. aviation experts are on their way to the site of Sunday's crash. Ambassador Michael Raynor visited the crash site on Monday. He told the broadcaster that the experts from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were expected to arrive at the site on Tuesday. He says that "Boeing and Interpol will also assist the Ethiopian government in the investigation. Interpol will assist in identifying the victims." The flight data recorder and voice cockpit recorder have been found. ___ 4:35 p.m. Ugandan authorities say a senior police officer is among the dead in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash on Sunday. Ugandan police say they are mourning Christine Alalo, who served as police commissioner under the banner of the African Union mission in Somalia. The statement calls her "a highly respected member of the force who loved her job." Rescuers work at the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines flight crash near Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, south of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Monday, March 11, 2019. A spokesman says Ethiopian Airlines has grounded all its Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft as a safety precaution, following the crash of one of its planes in which 157 people were killed. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene) Alalo was returning from a trip to Italy. She is the lone Ugandan who died in the crash. All 157 on board were killed. ___ 4:20 p.m. A German pastor and an aid worker from Germany are among the victims of the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday. The World Council of Churches says Rev. Norman Tendis was travelling to a U.N. environment summit in Nairobi. The 51-year-old worked in Villach, Austria. The German development aid organization GIZ confirms that a staffer was on the plane. Spokeswoman Tanja Stumpff tells The Associated Press that the woman was on a business trip. Germany's Foreign Ministry has confirmed that at least five German citizens died in the crash. ___ 4:05 p.m. Catholic Relief Services announces "with heavy hearts" that four of its Ethiopian colleagues died in Sunday's plane crash outside Addis Ababa. The aid group in a statement says Sara Chalachew, Getnet Alemayehu, Sintayehu Aymeku, and Mulusew Alemu had been travelling to Nairobi for training. The four had worked with the organization for as long as a decade. They worked in procurement, logistics and finance. All 157 people on board were killed. They came from 35 countries. ___ 3:30 p.m. There are scenes of agony as members of an association of Ethiopian airline pilots cry uncontrollably for colleagues killed in Sunday's crash near Addis Ababa. Framed photographs of seven crew members sit in chairs at the front of a crowded room. One pilot says he had planned to watch a soccer game between Manchester and Arsenal with the flight's main pilot, Yared Getachew. It was Getachew who issued a distress call shortly after takeoff and was told to return. But all contact was lost. Another pilot says he flew with Yared several times and said they even lived together before becoming senior pilots. ___ 3:15 p.m. Pope Francis has sent his condolences to the families of the victims of the plane crash in Ethiopia. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, said in a statement Monday that the pope was sad to learn about the crash and "offers prayers for the deceased from various countries and commends their souls to the mercy of Almighty God." The statement said, "Pope Francis sends heartfelt condolences to their families, and upon all who mourn this tragic loss he invokes the divine blessings of consolation and strength." ___ 3 p.m. Shares of Boeing are tumbling before the opening of U.S. markets following the crash in Ethiopia of a Boeing 737 Max 8, the second deadly crash since October. All 157 people on board were killed on Sunday. A Lion Air model of the same plane crashed in Indonesia last year, killing 189 people. Shares of Boeing Co. plunged more than 9 per cent in premarket trading Monday. If that trend holds, it could be one of the company's worst trading days in about a decade. Indonesia and China have grounded all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. Ethiopian Airlines and Cayman Airways are doing the same. ___ 1:35 p.m. Ethiopia's state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate reports that the black box has been found from the crashed Ethiopian Airlines plane. An airline official, however, tells The Associated Press that the box is partially damaged and that "we will see what we can retrieve from it." The official spoke on condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to speak to the media. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa on Sunday en route to Nairobi. ___ 1:20 p.m. China says two United Nations workers were among the eight Chinese nationals killed on the Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed shortly after takeoff Sunday. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang says the other Chinese passengers included four who were working for a Chinese company and two who had travelled to Ethiopia for "private matters." All 157 people on board the flight to Nairobi died. Lu said Chinese President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders have sent condolence messages to their Ethiopian counterparts. China has extended condolences to victims' families. China has ordered its airlines to ground their Boeing 737 Max 8 aircrafts by 6 p.m. ___ 12:45 p.m. The United Nations migration agency said that one of its staffers, German citizen Anne-Katrin Feigl, was on the plane en route to a training course in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya and the plane's destination. Germany's foreign ministry has officially confirmed that five victims of the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash that killed 157 people were German citizens. The ministry said in a statement Monday that it was in contact with the families of the victims. It did not reveal any information on the identity of those who died in the crash Sunday. All in all, 35 countries had someone among the 157 people who were killed. All people on board died minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa. ___ 12 p.m. The U.N. office in Nairobi is joining Ethiopia in mourning the 157 dead in Sunday's Ethiopian Airlines crash shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa. A moment of silence and U.N. flags at half-staff marked the deaths that included several workers with U.N. and affiliated organizations. The U.N. resident co-ordinator in Nairobi, Siddharth Chatterjee, says that "This has taken us by shock. ... But it also goes to reinforce the mortality of human life and therefore reinforces the need for humanity." He says U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sent "a poignant message of condolences to everybody, not just the U.N. staff but the crew of the flight and all other nationalities which were on the plane." People from 35 countries died. ___ 10 a.m. A spokesman says Ethiopian Airlines has grounded all its Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft as a safety precaution, following the crash of one of its planes in which 157 people were killed. Asrat Begashaw said Monday that although it is not yet known what caused the crash on Sunday, the airline decided to ground its remaining four 737 Max 8 planes until further notice as "an extra safety precaution." Ethiopian Airlines was using five new 737 Max 8 planes and was awaiting delivery of 25 more. Begashaw said searching and digging to uncover body parts and aircraft debris will continue. He said forensic experts from Israel have arrived in Ethiopia to help with the investigation. TORONTO - Relatives looking to collect on an American lawsuit against Omar Khadr are asking a Canadian court to force the former Guantanamo Bay prisoner to answer questions about his confession to purported war crimes. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 11/3/2019 (1003 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Relatives looking to collect on an American lawsuit against Omar Khadr are asking a Canadian court to force the former Guantanamo Bay prisoner to answer questions about his confession to purported war crimes. Former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr and his lawyer Nate Whitling walk into the courthouse after speaking with media in Edmonton on Tuesday, February 26, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson TORONTO - Relatives looking to collect on an American lawsuit against Omar Khadr are asking a Canadian court to force the former Guantanamo Bay prisoner to answer questions about his confession to purported war crimes. As part of the pre-trial process, Khadr has refused to discuss the agreed statement of facts he signed on which his 2010 conviction before a U.S. military commission was based. He argues the information was derived from torture. Khadr has also refused to answer other questions on the basis of solicitor-client privilege, or because the military commission rules prohibit his divulging certain information. The American plaintiffs have now filed a motion in Ontario Superior Court a hearing date has yet to be set to compel Khadr to answer. At stake is the US$134 million a Utah judge awarded the family of a U.S. special forces soldier Khadr is accused of killing in battle in Afghanistan in 2002 and another soldier blinded by shrapnel in one eye. "What is important are Mr. Khadr's actions that day and leading up to that day," said Jamie Schacter, one of the plaintiffs' Toronto-based lawyers. "The plaintiffs and the Utah court hold Mr. Khadr responsible." The undefended Utah lawsuit Khadr was in prison in Canada at the time of the judgment in 2015 leans heavily on a "stipulation of fact" in which, among other things, he admits to throwing a grenade that killed Sgt. Chris Speer and to being an al-Qaida terrorist. Khadr subsequently said he signed the stipulation and pleaded guilty as his only way out of the infamous American prison on Cuban soil. In their enforcement action in Superior Court in Ontario, lawyers for the American plaintiffs argue Khadr can't avoid the civil judgment by recanting his confession and guilty plea. They argue Canadian courts are bound to accept Khadr's statement of facts regardless of whether he lied under oath when he made the admissions. Khadr's main defence is that it would be contrary to Canadian public policy and an affront to the concept of justice to enforce the judgment in Canada since it is the "direct product of an unfair and abusive detention, interrogation and prosecution system." In seeking to have the motion quashed, defence lawyer Nate Whitling said Khadr is only refusing to be cross-examined on what he told his various interrogators information the military commission used to convict him. "Any and all information extracted from Mr. Khadr by interrogators is inadmissible as information derived from torture," Whitling's filing says. "Allowing a torture victim to be examined for discovery on the product of his torture would be 'onerous,' 'abusive,' and 'oppressive' among other stronger adjectives. Such conduct cannot be permitted in any legal proceedings in this country." The filing maintains that many of the stipulated facts the Utah plaintiffs are relying on came from "interviews" with Khadr, who was found severely wounded as a 15-year-old in the rubble of an Afghan compound in July 2002 after a four-hour American bombardment. In numerous interrogations, he was "abused and tortured," the filing states. The mistreatment, much of it meted out while he was still recovering from his injuries, comprised in part of sleep deprivation, threats of rape, and physical and psychological abuse, court records show. Khadr also notes the Supreme Court of Canada has held twice that his detention, interrogation and prosecution in Gitmo violated international law and the principles of fundamental justice. The federal government apologized and paid him a $10.5-million settlement in 2017, money the plaintiffs want to get their hands on. Khadr, who is appealing his conviction in the U.S., has said he did not defend himself in the Utah court action because he was prison in Canada serving his eight-year military commission sentence, had no money, and could not find an American lawyer willing to take on the case. The plaintiffs want to know what legal advice he might have received and why he couldn't pay for a lawyer issues subject to lawyer-client confidentiality, he argues. As the Westminster drama unfolds in the coming hours, the stark truth is that we do not know what route Brexit is going to take. No Deal is still very much alive and kicking, albeit a little less likely now after Theresa Mays back down in the House of Commons a few weeks ago. It seems more likely that Article 50 will be extended. All of this one would be forgiven to assume was in the gift of the UK. However, once the UK decides the direction it wants to go, its decision must be ratified by the EU 27. There is no guarantee that Article 50 will be extended for the period that the UK will want if there is no substantive reason for the extension. Indeed, the EU may counter with a request to extend Article 50 by a longer period. Effectively the EU is negotiating not only with the British Brexit civil servant, Olly Robbins, and the UK officials headed by Ms May but with the whole of the UK parliament who cannot find a consensus on anything at the moment. A No deal looms large under these circumstances. Therefore Irish preparations must continue to be intensified by all firms and their supply chains. The Government is advancing its preparations. Its Brexit Omnibus Bill will protect access to education, health care and public transport between the North and the Republic in the event of a no deal. Revenue will have 400 new customs officers in place by the end of March, although no one will be trained for North-South trade. It appears only 2% which amounts to 22 trucks at Dublin Port each day will be checked physically. And only 6%, or 66 trucks a day, will require documentary checks. But all this all relies on 100% full compliance and means Irish business will go from making 1.7 million declarations a year to more than 20 million declarations. Revenue will be available to work 24-7 but will expect to have access to customs agents around the clock, which is a huge problem, as there is a shortage of agents in Ireland with the necessary resources and competencies. If Revenue enforces all rules from the start under a no deal outcome, business and trade will grind to a halt and the ports will become clogged. Planning must combine training with practical experience. A pragmatic approach must be considered by the regulatory bodies in dealing with traffic to ensure trade keeps moving and businesses stay in business. Agri-food products require much more onerous documentary and physical checks. For instance, chicken and milk, as well as some fish products will require intensive checks. The just-in-time model in logistics works on the premise of picking and packing and loading trucks on an hourly basis. Most retail products are imported from the UK for next day delivery to our shops in Ireland on a daily basis and drivers are governed by tachograph regulations. Any delays at ports will add to costs and will also pose welfare issues for drivers. In the event of delays, there is no information from the authorities about facilities available to drivers around Dublin Port for drivers to take their rest breaks. The Road Safety Authority is responsible for enorcing checks along with the gardai. Brexit will, without doubt, instigate change. Contracts in the supply chain wil change and the just-in-time model of distribution will have to be revised. There will likely be a divergence in the rules and standards between the UK and the EU in operator licences, regulatory standards, qualifications, and food safety standards. We only have to look at the reliance of over 150,000 Irish trucks using the UK landbridge to access continental Europe to realise some of that volume may shift to direct routes. The industry needs time to adapt to the new trading and regulatory requirements. We know that to trade in as frictionless a manner as possible with so-called Third Countries requires a comprehensive free trade agreement. Change can, of course, deliver better supply chains and amid the Brexit mess, there may be opportunities. Aidan Flynn is general manager at Freight Transport Association Ireland The rate of growth in the construction industry has quickened to a seven-month high. The Ulster Bank Construction Purchasing Managers' Index out today, rose to 60.5 from 54.6 in January leaving it significantly above the 50 no-change benchmark, and it has now risen every month since September 2013. The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has abandoned his plans to depart for the United States this evening to attend an emergency Cabinet meeting in Dublin. Some of his senior team had travelled to Dublin Airport to begin checking in but have since returned to Government Buildings. The u-turn strongly indicates Mr Varadkar and his team being caught off guard by the pace of events today, despite them hosting EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in Dublin at the weekend. Several ministers expressed their surprise at the short notice given but said they understood the emergency meeting was Brexit related. They said they believed the matter at hand is some new deal for approval, which they hoped would secure Mrs May a Commons majority. Ministers who remained in Dublin expected the meeting would be very short while others who were absent were due to be on the phone. Meanwhile, British prime minister Theresa May is travelling to Strasbourg for talks with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker. Her last-minute dash is an attempt to finalise a Brexit deal before Tuesdays crucial second House of Commons vote on the withdrawal agreement. It is understood Mrs May and Mr Juncker will hold a press conference together tonight at the conclusion of their meeting. With three weeks to Brexit Day on March 29th when Britain is due to leave the EU any delay would raise renewed questions as to whether there was any way Mrs May could get her deal through the Commons. She has said that if she loses the vote on Tuesday, there will be further votes on Wednesday on whether the UK should leave with no-deal and on Thursday on whether they should seek an extension to the article 50 withdrawal process. Downing Street said Brexit talks had been continuing at a "technical level" on Monday afternoon. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "Talks have been continuing at technical level throughout the course of the afternoon. That remains the case." A compensation scheme for 221 women and their families caught up in the CervicalCheck controversy has been agreed by the Government. Health Minister Simon Harris expects that payments to women and families could be made in the coming weeks. A judge and two officials appointed to oversee the scheme will decide amounts paid. Campaigner, Vicky Phelan, has previously been paid 25,000 by the State as a contribution towards her final settlement. However, no figures or estimates have been set for the compensation scheme. Mr Harris secured approval from Cabinet yesterday for the ex-gratia scheme for women affected by the non-disclosure of the Cervical Check audit. It will be open to women, or their next of kin, in 221 cases identified from the retrospective clinical audit as having problems with their smear test results and where findings were delayed or not disclosed. The Government also approved the appointment of an independent assessment panel, comprising a retired High Court Judge, Mr. Justice Aindrias OCaoimh, as well as an independent clinician and another official. A statement said that the amount is to be determined by the independent panel, taking into account both the fact of, and impact of, the non-disclosure. A spokeswoman for Mr Harris also said that it was hoped that payments will be decided and made in a couple of weeks. HSE liaison officers will make contact with women and their families to make them aware of the compensation scheme. However, people will not have to make submissions as the HSE is already aware of their circumstances, the spokeswomen added. A statement from the Department of Health noted: The scheme is designed to provide an alternative, non-adversarial and person-centred option for women affected by the CervicalCheck non-disclosure issue. It is anticipated that the Scheme will be up and running in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, Government-backed legislation to stamp out ticket-touting could be delayed and impacted on by a European court case being taken by a Norwegian ticket reseller. Cabinet discussed the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Court case yesterday and on legal advice has decided to make submissions on it. The case relates to a legal challenge between a Norwegian ticket reseller and the Norwegian government in relation to the resale of tickets for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. A Government spokeswoman said the outcome could have an impact on Dail private members' legislation which proposes banning the resale of tickets for above face value. Anyone found guilty of selling on tickets in such a way could get a 5,000 fine, under the proposed Bill. The Government has, until now, said it expects the new laws to kick into action before the summer. Judgements of the EFTA court are not binding on the European Court of Justice. But they can influence its decisions. Due to the complicated development of measles in Ho Chi Minh City, Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien yesterday led a delegation to check epidemic prevention task in the center and the Children Hospital No. 1, the Tropical Disease Hospital as well as the municipal Department of Health. According to a representative of the medical center in ward 15, from January 1 to February 28, the district has reported 60 measles children aged from 6 to 15 who were not fully vaccinated because their parents fear the vaccines side effects so they have taken children to infirmaries for immunization. Health Minister Tien expressed her concern over infected cases of children under nine months and over 16 years old because of unfully vaccinated. Worse, Director of the Preventive Medicine Center Nguyen Tri Dung fretted that patients didnt write their home address clearly. He proposed to have code for each newborn baby to facilitate inoculation. Additionally, local medical centers should liaise with schools to give unvaccinated kids a shot. The health sector should update the home address of babies, he said. Health Minister while visiting the Children Hospital No.1 was talking to children patients there noticing hospital leaders to cross-infection. Deputy Director of the Department of Health Dr. Nguyen Huu Hung said the city has reported 4,327 measles cases from 2018 to February, 2019. At present, the disease tends to decline. Up to 97 percent of inpatients over nine months old had not been immunized. Dr. Hung Hung added that 139,005 children have not been inoculated in the campaign to inject measles and rubella on kids aged 1 5 because parents have had no demand and forgotten their kids vaccination history. The Tropical Disease Hospital said that from the beginning of the year, it has admitted 1,100 measles inpatients and two third of them are city dwellers while the remaining are from neighboring provinces. Measles cases are trending downward. Head of the Children Hospitals Infection Nerve Department Dr. Truong Huu Khanh stressed the rise in measles cases is due to loophole in vaccination. To address the matter, medical clinics mush tighten control over their jurisdiction. Health Minister Tien requested medical clinics to enhance vaccination by increasing information of vaccination benefit. She emphasized the close monitor on immunization management. BY KIM HUYEN - Translated by ANH QUAN The jury in Patrick Quirkes trial has heard a computer was taken from his home as part of the Garda investigation into Bobby Ryans murder. The 50-year-old farmer from Breanshamore, Co Tipperary, denies murdering his ex-girlfriend Mary Lowrys boyfriend sometime between June 3, 2011, and April 30, 2013. On April 30, 2013, Patrick Quirke found Bobby Ryans naked body in an underground run-off tank on the farm of his ex-lover Mary Lowry, who was seeing the local DJ when he went missing almost two years beforehand. Detective Sergeant John Keane told the jury he was not involved in the initial searches for Mr Ryan when his case was being treated as a missing person investigation but was brought in after the discovery of his body. Just over a fortnight later, he said he went to Mr Quirkes home with a search warrant. When asked what they were looking for, Det. Sgt Keane told the accused that they were searching for evidence in relation to the murder of Bobby Ryan. He said Mr Quirke asked how Bobby had died and Det. Sgt Keane told him he could not tell him that. Det. Sgt Keane said he then searched Mr Quirke's home with five other officers. He said Mr Quirke's home farm and a nearby farm he rented were also searched. A number of items were seized during the searches, including a computer and other electronic devices, some documents, green overalls and a trailer. The hearing of the long-running dispute between Sean Quinns five children and Irish Bank Resolution Corporation concerning loans of 2.34bn will open before the High Court on Tuesday. Mr Justice Garrett Simons will first hear an opening statement, expected to last three and a half days, by Bernard Dunleavy SC, on behalf of Aoife, Brenda, Ciara, Colette and Sean Quinn Junior. That will be followed by an opening statement, listed for one and a half days, on behalf of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, and a half-day statement on behalf of receivers appointed over various Quinn assets. Up to 49 witnesses, including David Drumm, the former CEO of Anglo Irish Bank, IBRC's predecessor in title, will then give evidence during proceedings which could run for six months. Mr Drumm, who is serving a six-year jail sentence for his role in a 7.2bn fraud perpetrated at the peak of the banking crisis in 2008, is among several witnesses subpoenaed by the Quinns to give evidence. In their action, initiated in 2011, the Quinns dispute any liability for share pledges and guarantees related to loans of some 2.34bn advanced by Anglo Irish Bank to Quinn companies. A separate case by IBRC against various Quinn family members and other parties, alleging a conspiracy to strip some 455m assets from IPG companies in several countries, is due for hearing after the children's action. Both cases were put on hold for several years pending the hearing of criminal proceedings against various Anglo executives and officials. The core issue in the children's case concerns the validity of share pledges and guarantees given to Anglo as security for monies loaned to Quinn companies. The transactions arose out of a fall in the price of Anglo shares in 2007 when the bank advanced to Quinn Group firms certain funds to allow them meet certain share commitments. Those "contracts for difference" (CFDs) involved an agreement to exchange the difference between the current and future price of shares in Anglo. The Quinns signed various security documents relating to the CFDs and claim they did so without legal or financial advice. When Anglo's share price continued to drop in 2008, the bank demanded the Quinns reduce the CFD position and most of the CFDs were unwound into shares. One portion of those was purchased by a group of investors known as the "Maple Ten" and the rest by the Quinn Group. The Quinn shares were transferred to six Quinn-owned Cypriot companies which ultimately received 498m from Anglo. In their original statement of claim, the Quinns alleged the guarantees and pledges were unenforceable on grounds including they were procured by undue influence and breached company law and EU market abuse regulations. The Supreme Court ruled in March 2015 they could not pursue the unenforceable lending claims and those issues are no longer in the case. The core claim now is the various securities provided by the children are invalid on grounds including undue influence, "unconscionable bargain", negligence and breach of duty by the bank to the children, especially to advise them. It is also claimed the bank's conduct involved intentional infliction of economic harm on them. The claims are denied. The Dublin Port Company (DPC) fears a standstill of truck traffic in the immediate aftermath of Brexit if its plans to take back land which has been leased for non-core activities are hampered. It has asked the High Court for an injunction over one piece of land it says it needs to provide truck parking and border control posts. The DPC, a State-owned commercial company, wants to use the 3.7 hectare site at Tolka Quay, about 600 metres south of the Port Tunnel, as one of its truck park and customs/immigration/agricultural inspection posts after Brexit. The property, which contains a warehouse and a two-storey office building, is mainly occupied by McQuaid O'Flanagan Warehousing and Transport which had a lease with the former owners of the site. The DPC says it bought the site in January from the former owners and McQuaidO'Flanagan's lease expired last November. It is seeking an order preventing McQuaidO'Flanagan from trespassing or otherwise interfering with its right to take possession. It also sought similar orders against AYBL Ltd, a company occupying another smaller office building on the site. The case was admitted to the High Court's fast track Commercial Court on Monday by Mr Justice Robert Haughton. Kelley Smith BL, for DPC, said there had been constructive engagement with AYBL, and with a number of other smaller companies housed at Tolka Quay, and they had agreed to vacate the premises by 5pm on April 5. If they did so, DPC would not seek legal costs against them. McQuaid O'Flanagan were opposing the injunction and, given the emergency nature and "Brexit sensitivity" of the situation, Ms Smith asked that an early date for the injunction hearing be given. Mr Justice Haughton adjourned it to March 20 for hearing. In an affidavit, Cormac Kennedy, DPC head of property, says in the immediate aftermath of Brexit, a portion of incoming vehicles will be required to park at the port to await inspection from the various State agencies. "It will not be possible to park on port roads or within the port as to do so would result in matters coming to a standstill", he says. Dublin is the largest freight and passenger port in Ireland with roll-on roll-off traffic volumes at levels enjoyed during the boom, he says. Some 8,000 ships arrive every year and on a typical day some 12,000 lane metres of traffic arrives every morning from Holyhead and Liverpool. DPC is seeking to ensure there is adequate space for immediate port needs post-Brexit and has redeveloped some 14.5 hectares for the purpose in recent years. Gardai in Co Westmeath are looking for a missing 13-year-old girl from Mullingar. Chantelle Doyle was last seen on the afternoon of March 7 on a bus that was bound for Dublin. A notorious Dublin criminal fired a submachine randomly into the air in a built-up Dublin suburb in broad daylight on Monday evening before being pursued into a house by three unarmed gardai and subdued. Garda Commissioner Drew Harris praised the gardai and said they showed great bravery in ensuring the safety of the public in Ballymun. The commissioner visited the scene in north Dublin and along with Acting Assistant Commissioner for Dublin, Orla McPartlin, met the three gardai. The unarmed officers, a sergeant and two garda members, were said to have been in a state of shock after disarming the gunman. Garda sources said the criminal also fired shots after the gardai entered the house he had barricaded himself into, but it is not clear if the shots were aimed at the officers or fired into the air. No one was injured in either of the discharges, which happened before 5pm. We could be dealing with a different situation, otherwise, one garda source said. The Cranogue Road area of Poppintree in Ballymun was sealed off by gardai after a suspect device, thought to have been a grenade, was spotted at the house. The Army bomb squad was called in to inspect the device and carried out a controlled explosion at around 7.45pm. The crime boss sent locals on the Cranogue Road area scarpering for safety after he fired a number of shots from, what is thought to have been, an MP6 submachine gun. He was out in the open and fired a number of shots into the air, but he was not targeting anyone, said a garda source. A major garda alert was issued and local unarmed members, attached to the drugs unit based in Ballymun Station, were first on the scene. The Armed Support Unit was also responding. The criminal entered a house and barricaded himself in. A sergeant and two garda members, all unarmed, made a decision to enter the house. Sources said further shots were fired, but it was not clear were they directed at the gardai or were they also fired into the air. The unarmed gardai overpowered him and arrested him, said a garda source. It is not clear what preceded the shootings, but sources said the criminal was heavily medicated when he was brought into custody. Gardai sealed off the house and the road, pending the arrival of the Defence Forces EOD team. Garda bosses will examine the entire incident, including the garda response. Commissioner Harris said: "The Gardai involved showed great bravery in ensuring the safety of the public." The criminal was associated with the victims of a botched gun attack at his home in Ballymun in August 2017, in which two innocent people, Antoinette Corbally-Devoy and friend Clinton Shannon, were shot dead. A Garda statement said: At approximately 4.45pm this afternoon Gardai were called to a report of a male armed with a firearm in the Poppintree area of Ballymun. Garda Armed Support Units and local units were dispatched to the scene. A male in his 30s was arrested shortly afterwards by unarmed Gardai and a firearm recovered at a house on Cranogue Road, Ballymun. The statement said the man was conveyed to Ballymun Garda Station where he was being detained under the provisions of Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act. It said the area was sealed off in order to allow for an examination by the Defence Forces EOD team. Gardai are appealing to any witnesses who may have been in or around the area at the time of the incident to contact Ballymun Garda Station on 01 6664400, The Garda Confidential Telephone Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station. The president of the High Court has urged that an adult psychiatric assessment be carried out this week on a very vulnerable young woman allegedly subject to devastating sexual abuse at home by more than 12 local individuals before being taken into care at the age of 10. The girl, who was made a ward of court last December, is now aged 18 and it has been clear for a long time she needs adult psychiatric assessment, Mr Justice Peter Kelly said. This was an "urgent and priority" case, he said. I dont want to have a dead body on my hands at the end of the week. An assessment scheduled for late next month is too late in light of serious issues including a recent event where the young woman left her care unit and was later taken to hospital by a Garda after she told him she had engaged in self-harm and expressed suicidal thoughts, he said. He was very concerned she was discharged from that hospitals accident and emergency department without having had a comprehensive psychiatric evaluation. While told she was seen by a psychiatric liaison nurse in A&E and discharged, accompanied by staff from her care unit, because she was adamant she would not stay in hospital, he said she had been made a ward of court last December because she lacks capacity. He was also concerned that the general solicitor for wards of court and the court were not informed forthwith of the hospital incident. Having been told the HSE is trying to bring the psychiatric appointment forward to this week, he directed its solicitor to inform him tomorrow whether a psychiatric assessment will be carried out this week. If not, he said he will order the HSE to arrange such an assessment this week. He also directed the prosecuting authorities be informed that the young woman's mother had, in breach of bail conditions, made phone contact with her daughter trying to persuade her that her grandfather was innocent of abusing her. The mother and grandfather are both facing criminal proceedings arising from allegations made by the young woman. Earlier, Sara Moorhead SC, for the general solicitor, Patricia Hickey, told the judge the hospital attendance, another incident and the mothers contact are very worrying developments. While Ms Hickey and the young woman's court-appointed guardian agree the current care unit is unsuitable to her needs, they were concerned, due to her level of upset and disruption, she should not be prised out of there without an adult psychiatric evaluation and input into the future care plan and placement. The staff in her current unit are very good and kind to her but lack the skills to address her very complex needs, she said. That included lacking the insight to ensure she was not discharged from hospital after the recent incident. A solicitor for the HSE said it is taking over her care from Tusla, funding for placements is not an issue and efforts will be made to bring forward the adult psychiatric assessment to this week. Previously, the court heard the guardian, who has been involved with the young woman since she was taken into care aged 10, has raised serious concerns about why she and her siblings were not taken into care earlier as social work services were familiar with the family before the girl was born. After she was taken into care, the girl named more than 12 individuals in her local area whom she alleged had come to her home and abused her in her bedroom before she was taken into care. A younger brother also made disclosures of sexual abuse of him by family members. The guardian has expressed the view, had the relevant authorities acted earlier on the concerns about the family, much, if not all, of the abuse, neglect and trauma the girl has suffered could have been avoided. The father left the home when the girl was aged four and, while family supports continued to be provided, concerns about the ability of the mother, who had certain difficulties of her own, to manage and safely parent the children continued and increased, she said. The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) says the EU needs to make sure there is a close relationship with the UK after Brexit. It is meeting the French farmers' union today to discuss the potential impact of Britain's departure on the Irish agri sector. An Italian tourist was robbed of her phone on a visit to Cork city and she said in her victim impact statement that the crime ruined her holiday. Judge Olann Kelleher said he had to take this into consideration when he was sentencing the man who carried out the robbery. He is not concerned at all about visitors to the city. Her holiday was ruined and she will probably never come back here again. If you do that (robbery) in the city you will end up in jail, the judge said. Tadhg Feehan of 23 Dublin Street, Blackpool, Cork, was sentenced to four months in jail after he pleaded guilty to a charge of robbery of the phone from the woman in her mid-twenties. Sergeant Gearoid Davis said the robbery was carried out on May 12, 2018 at Wood Street. The Italian tourist was approached by a man in a car, namely Tadhg Feehan. He asked for the time and she took out her phone to check the time. Tadhg Feehan caught her phone and began saying it was his. A struggle ensued and a second man got out of the vehicle. But on seeing witnesses coming to help the woman he returned to the vehicle. Feehan then threw the mobile phone on the ground before fleeing the scene in the vehicle. Details of the car a blue Corolla were circulated and the vehicle was stopped by the Southern Regional dog unit. Both men were arrested and taken to the Bridewell garda station, Sgt. Davis said. Frank Buttimer, solicitor, said, He admitted the offending but he had difficulty remembering it because he was taking a lot of medication at the time. He had not long beforehand taken medication for depression. He is very ashamed of what he did. He is very embarrassed. He knows he put upon a visitor to the city when he should not have done so. He does not know what came over him. He would make a payment of 500. That would be forthcoming in two weeks. Judge Kelleher said that while he would take into consideration the defendants background circumstances he also had to take account of the impact on the young tourist. The same defendant was fined 500 or five days in prison in default of payment on a drugs charge. That related to October 4, 2017 when Garda Matthew OMahony detected a strong smell of cannabis from a car at Kilbarry industrial estate. Feehan was caught with a cannabis cigarette in his possession on that occasion. He pleaded guilty to that offence today. By Olivia Kelleher Update 12.20pm A United Nations aid worker, who died in an Ethiopian airlines crash on Sunday, saved hundreds of lives arising out of his extraordinary intellect and his relentless work ethic, a friend who knew him through the Save Cork City Campaign in Cork has stated. Michael Ryan lived with his family in Pope's Quay in the centre of Cork and passionately supported plans to find ways to repair the quays with reference to the maritime history of the city whilst opposing the Office of Public Works Walls scheme. Spokesman for Save Cork City, John Hegarty, said that Michael was a dear friend to all those who knew him whilst making a huge impact on the world in his short life. "Mick was doing good around the world. He saved hundreds, possibly thousands of lives. If there was a landslide that separated a population and people were in trouble or whatever he found a way of connecting them. "He believed that his efforts in engineering could save lives and he did that. He was amazing. "That is what drove him in his life. To do good. He really thought about people being the benefactors of everything that was done. That's what makes it very tragic. He was often at risk with his work in the UN and he wouldn't have expected to be at risk on an ordinary domestic flight. John told the Opinion Line on Cork's 96FM that Michael worked tirelessly for populations in difficulty abroad. "He used his engineering skills and got roads built or set up connections between cities that were in trouble either in flooding or in war torn circumstances created homes for people. He worked for the UN in that he created a lot of engineering solutions to their problems." Today we mourn the tragic loss of seven WFP staff members who died in the plane crash in Ethiopia. Rest in peace dear colleagues. Our heartfelt condolences to those who lost loved ones. See the full statement regarding yesterdays tragedy: World Food Programme (@WFP) March 11, 2019 Michael and his wife Naoise and their two children were set to relocate to Rome next week as part of his work with the UN. John said that Michael had very good diplomatic skills and a natural affinity with people. "I didn't know anybody that didn't like him. And I know that is something that people say in these circumstances but it is so true about Mick. He used his skills to help people. He was amazing. He didn't see obstacles to getting stuff done. In his work abroad he has been shot at. He has been in perilous situations. "He was a really great person as a representation of Ireland abroad. It is a real tragedy. He is a great loss." Mr Ryan is survived by his wife Naoise and their two children. He was due to turn forty on March 28. He was travelling to Nairobi for a conference when his life was cut prematurely short. The WFP family mourns today -- @WFP staff were among those aboard the Ethiopian Airlines flight. We will do all that is humanly possible to help the families at this painful time. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. David Beasley (@WFPChief) March 10, 2019 Clare County Council has opened Book of Condolences for Micheal at Aras Contae an Chlair in Ennis and at the West Clare Municipal District Office in Ennistymon. Cllr Michael Begley, Mayor of Clare, said: On behalf of Clare County Council and the people of Clare, I wish to extend my deepest sympathies and condolences to Michaels family and his wide circle of friends and former colleagues. "Michael was a valued member of the UN community for his work in humanitarian assistance for the World Food Programme. His work brought him all over the world and has benefited countless numbers of people down through the years. "His loss to the local community in North Clare and to the United Nations is immeasurable. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam." Additional reporting by Digital Desk. 'He'd light up a room': Michael Ryan's mother pays tribute to son Update 11.10am: Tributes continue to pour in for Irish aid worker Michael Ryan who was among those killed in yesterday's Ethiopian Airlines crash. The airline has confirmed this morning that Read More: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and President Michael D Higgins led the tributes to Michael Ryan, a father of two from Lahinch, Co Clare. Statement by President Michael D. Higgins on the air crash in Ethiopia:https://t.co/CYd0LHGRao pic.twitter.com/aZHhJ2hRCL President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) March 10, 2019 Postmaster in Lahinch, Shane Tulty, knew Michael and says the community is devastated. "Terrible devastation in the area...the community is in deep shock," said Mr Tulty. Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin has expressed his sympathy to Mr Ryan's family and friends. Deputy Martin said: "From all of the wonderful reports yesterday evening and this morning, we know that he was a man who was dedicated to making a difference in all aspects of his life. Michael embodied what it is to be a humanitarian; he was compassionate, selfless, determined and talented. "As we heard from Michaels mother, he was a continually enthusiastic person who lit up a room when he entered it." Paying tribute to her son this morning, Christine Ryan said that the family couldn't believe that it had happened. He was always a visionary, he always wanted to help others and that was his vision in life and he loved people. He'd light up a room when he came into it and people loved him and he had a way with people." She went on to describe her son as a very enthusiastic person, he had a great vision, he had ferocious work, he believed in engineering, putting people first and he was involved in a lot of different projects worldwide - flood relief and landslides, Ebola and had been in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan and a lot of African countries. Accident Bulletin no. 6 Issued on March 11, 2019 at 01:40 PM Local Time The Digital Flight Data Recorder(DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder(CVR) of ET302 have been Recovered. Ethiopian Airlines (@flyethiopian) March 11, 2019 Michael Ryan wanted 'to save the world': Mother pays tribute to 'visionary' son Update 9.25am: The family of Michael Ryan had been planning to go to Rome next week to celebrate his 40th birthday. His mother Christine Ryan described her son as an amazing person who wanted to save the world. He was always a visionary, he always wanted to help others and that was his vision in life and he loved people. He'd light up a room when he came into it and people loved him and he had a way with people. He always wanted to help people, that was his thing in life. He wouldn't be interested in a 9 to 5 job, he was one of those that put everything into his work, she told RTE Radios Morning Ireland. Mrs Ryan had known Michael was going to be on a flight to Nairobi, but she did not know he had been on the Ethiopian Airlines flight that had crashed shortly after take off until Michaels wife Naoise contacted her. I had heard that the flight had gone down, but I didn't realise he was on it until Naoise contacted me. I was hoping that he wasn't on that flight, that he might have been on a different one. We still can't believe it, we can't come to terms with this. His wife Naoise and his children, everybody is just devastated. Nobody can believe that this has happened. She went on to describe her son as a very enthusiastic person, he had a great vision, he had ferocious work, he believed in engineering, putting people first and he was involved in a lot of different projects worldwide - flood relief and landslides, Ebola and had been in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan and a lot of African countries. He just felt he made a difference. He did so much for Rohingyas, all the other projects that he was involved in. He had a marvellous vision, he just got there and did it, and had great enthusiasm. Myself and his wife Naoise would always be concerned when he was going. She was always concerned when he got on different flights, but when he got on this particular flight she wasn't that concerned about him because she felt he had been in worse situations and had survived and had gotten through the system. It just took him this time. It's just unreal, we're finding it very difficult to come to grips with it. He did an awful lot with Ebola, landslides, flood relief, and he was always looking forward to doing his best with people and achieving goals with people, he wanted really basically to save the world as far as he was concerned and he had a vision for that. He just seemed to put all his energies and do that, and his wife and family really appreciated what he was doing. "Great that he could do it, he was great with them when he came back, it was all hands on deck with them, he brought his children off surfing or golfing in Lahinch. He just loved west Clare, Lahinch, the area, he loved life and living. He had such enthusiasm for anything he set his mind to, whether it was work or family, he was a continually enthusiastic person. Mrs Ryan explained how Michael had been based in Rome. He worked from there, he liked to go out on the field, he knew his life was at risk, he was in contact helping regarding Ebola, he knew there was a lot of risk involved in the job he was doing. Even as I was talking to him the day before the crash I was talking to him about his daughter Saorla, he said that he would love her when she grows up, she's only three and a half now, that she would go and do something like he did and go and volunteer and help less well off people, to travel the world and do something like him. He loved his job and he loved his work, he approached everything in life with enthusiasm, not just work, his family and everything else. A passengers passport lies on the ground at the scene of the crash (Mulugeta Ayene/AP) He had some amazing stories, there was danger there as well, there was a lot of danger for him, but he loved his work and he loved his job, we all appreciated that he was doing all this work, he was supported by his wife and family at all times. You couldn't take that away from him, that was his life, he did an awful lot with the Rohingya, he sent us photos of his work in various places, the work he had done, he was so enthusiastic about it. Next week we were meant to go to Rome to him for his 40th birthday on March 28th, his son was going to be christened in Rome, we were all heading off, we had our flights booked to go next week. "He would have been back from Naiorbi, we were all going out to celebrate his 40th birthday. Aviation expert claims Ethiopian Airline crash could have been averted Update 9.10am: An Irish aviation expert claims that the problem which caused the Ethiopian Airline crash on Sunday could have been averted had the pilots flicked two switches, writes Vivienne Clarke. Former pilot Fintan Ryan told RTE Radios Morning Ireland that a return to the landing field would have been very straight forward if the pilot had proper control of the aircraft. Obviously he hadn't because there's no evidence whatsoever that a turn was made back, in other words the aircraft continued on its original track, so it was heading out there and it's extraordinarily the same as the Lion Air crash in that it happened just as the flaps would be taken up and that's when this system that is suspect kicks in, for want of a better word. Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 The Lion Air crash in Indonesia, the problem was disagreement of air speed indicators and this fed into a soft ware system - an anti stall system - that thought the aircraft was going to stall, so it was forcing the aircraft to go down hill to gain speed and the pilots tried to overcome it, but they didn't over come it. But they actually could have. There were two switches there that could just switch it off and the problem would have been solved and that in actual fact happened on the previous flight. The problem was a one off, it wasn't generic with the aircraft, it was a problem with an air speed indicator and it should have been sorted, it happened on the previous flight, but the previous crew actually coped with it, they operated the two switches, switched off the stabliser that causes the problem and that was the end of it. They brought it back and it was supposed to be sorted after landing. It looks like a variation of that, if not exactly that because when the aircraft takes off as soon as you put in the flaps, which is about 1500 feet, that's about a minute after take off then this protecting system kicks in and it obviously kicked in because they were having trouble controlling the aircraft. If it was that they could have switched the two switches, I've flown the Boeing 737, when I started back in 1970 the same two switches were there. Mr Ryan said that Norwegian Airlines operates the same aircraft on their north Atlantic routes from Ireland to the east coast of the US. He also pointed out that Ryanair has ordered 135 of aircraft. However, he said he would not have any problem getting on a Norwegian aircraft to Boston. This is a huge problem for Boeing. I think it's more of a perception rather than a real problem because I think it's something that will be sorted very quickly. China temporarily ground Boeing 737 Max aircrafts; Tributes continue for Irish victim Earlier: Beijing has told Chinese companies to temporarily ground all Boeing 737 Max 8 planes - the same model involved in the Ethiopian Airlines crash. In October, a Lion Air plane of the same model came down in Indonesia. Aviation Consultant Gideon Ewers says we should not jump to conclusions. Ethiopian Airlines plane. File photo Mr Ewers said that to draw the conclusion that the problem is to do with the 737 Max would be pre-emptive and said that people should wait until the investigation has finished before speculating as to the cause. Meanwhile, tributes continue to pour in for Michael Ryan, a father of two from Co Clare, who was among the 157 victims of the crash. The Chief Executive of Ethiopian Airlines, Tewolde Gebremariam, says investigations are under way. "Today is a very sad and tragic day for all of us at Ethiopian Airlines," Mr Gebremariam said following the crash. "At this stage, we cannot attribute the cause to anything because we will have to comply with the international regulation to wait for the investigation to reveal the cause of the accident." Clare Fine Gael TD Joe Carey says the death of Michael Ryan is devastating for his family and the community. "The community in Lahinch and Co Clare are in mourning as a result Accident Bulletin no. 5 Issued on March 11, 2019 at 07:08 AM Local Time pic.twitter.com/rwxa51Fgij Ethiopian Airlines (@flyethiopian) March 11, 2019 Digital Desk Irish victim of air crash was doing life-changing work in aid mission The Irishman killed in an Ethiopian Airlines crash was using his engineering expertise to do life-changing work to bring vital aid and shelter to desperate people in the worlds trouble zones, writes Caroline ODoherty and Elaine Loughlin. Michael Mick Ryan, a native of Lahinch, Co Clare, but who had also made his home in Cork, worked for the World Food Programme, where he was a deputy chief engineer. The father of two, who was in his 40s, led a project to build secure accommodation and sanitation infrastructure for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar into neighbouring Bangladesh last year. Michael Mick Ryan, who worked for the World Food Programme,was originally from Lahinch, Co Clare, but was believed to be living with his wife and children in Cork. He was among those killed after an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed yesterday morning, shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa, killing all 149 passengers and eight crew on board flight ET302 to Nairobi in Kenya He was at the forefront of the emergency response following the 2015 Nepal earthquake where he led teams assessing road damage and helping secure routes for food aid. Mr Ryan was one of a group of aid specialists flying to Kenya to attend the UN Environment Assembly, which is gathering in Nairobi over five days this week. They were among 157 people who died when the Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed shortly after take-off from Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa yesterday morning. The deceased were from 33 different countries and there were no survivors. The plane contained passengers from more than 30 nationalities. According to the airline, Kenya had 32, Canada 18, Ethiopia nine, Italy, China, and the US eight each, the UK and France seven each, Egypt six, the Netherlands five, India and Slovakia four each, Sweden and Russia three each, and other countries one or two. The Department of Foreign Affairs said it was aware of the tragedy and was offering consular assistance. Enterprise Minister Heather Humphreys expressed her condolences. I am very sorry to hear about the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed this morning, she said. Just to say that our thoughts are with the families and the Department of Foreign Affairs remains ready to act in any way that they can and give any support that they can to the families. Ethiopian Airlines said it would provide all necessary support to the families of the victims and pledged a full and open investigation. Accident Bulletin no. 4 Issued on March 10, 2019 at 06:20 PM pic.twitter.com/685uGE6izJ Ethiopian Airlines (@flyethiopian) March 10, 2019 The plane, a Boeing 737, was only recently built, had undergone a full maintenance check five weeks ago, and had flown to Addis from Johannesburg without incident some hours before the crash. However, it was the same type of aircraft that crashed in Indonesia last October, killing all 189 people on board. That Lion Air flight also went down shortly after take-off. It is understood the Ethiopian Airlines pilot reported a problem and had requested permission to return to Addis when the plane went down. David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Programme, confirmed that Mr Ryan was one of seven WFP staff on board who lost their lives in the crash. He said each had been willing to travel and work far from their homes and loved ones to help make the world a better place in which to live. The WFP family mourns today. We will do all that is humanly possible to help the families at this painful time, he said. It is believed Mr Ryan, his wife Naoise, and their children had been due to relocate to Rome in the coming weeks. Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan tweeted: Thoughts & prayers with families of Ethiopian air crash victims but thinking especially of Ryan family from Clare. Michael was committed to the highest ideals of fighting world poverty & providing food for all. Condolences to his family & friends at all at Rome HQ. Last night, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: Our thoughts tonight are with families of all those lost in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, including Irish engineer Michael Ryan. Michael was doing life-changing work in Africa with the World Food Programme. Deepest sympathies to family, colleagues and friends. Our thoughts tonight are with families of all those lost in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, including Irish engineer Michael Ryan. Michael was doing life-changing work in Africa with the World Food Programme. Deepest sympathies to family, colleagues & friends Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) March 10, 2019 The pilot had sent out a distress call and was given the all clear to return, according to the airlines chief executive, Tewolde Gebremariam. Senior captain Yared Getachew had a commendable performance, the airline said. The plane had undergone a rigorous testing on February 4, a statement continued. Records show the plane was new and delivered to the airline as recently as November. [March 11, 2019] Avaya Wins GOLD in 2019 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service Avaya (News - Alert) Holdings Corp. (NYSE: AVYA), a global leader in solutions to enhance and simplify communications and collaboration, was presented with a GOLD Stevie Award in the Category: Innovation in Customer Service - Telecommunications Industries in the 13th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are the world's top honors for customer service, contact center, business development, and sales professionals. The Stevie Awards organization stages seven of the world's leading business awards programs, including the prestigious American Business Awards and International Business Awards. The awards were presented to honorees during a gala banquet at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, NV, which more than 700 executives from the U.S.A. and several other nations attended. "We are honored and humbled to win the GOLD award in innovation for customer service as further validation of our commitment to better meeting the evolving needs of our customers and partners," said Ed Nalbandian, president of services, Avaya. "We know how critically important the right communications solutions and services are for organizations to collaborate effectively, make smarter decisions and drive better business results. We are focused on delivering experiences that matter for our customers." The award was received for FAST (News - Alert) PASS, whereby Avaya Services Delivery provides customers an accelerated access to engineers-one of the first in the industry. When an entitled client requests technical support via the Avaya Support Website, they receive a phone call promptly from an engineer 24x7x365 regardless of the severity of the issue or their location. The preventative monitoring of system performance and the ability to quickly find and fix problems help keep Avaya communications solutions running optimally. Remote diagnostics and resolutions help to rapidly resolve potential problems, saving time and reducing the risk of an outage. Avaya offers every level of support for communications solutions with both niche and end-to-end services, available globally. "All of the Stevie Award winners should be very proud of their achievements. Independent professionals around the world have agreed that their accomplishments are worthy of public recognition," said Stevie Awards President and founder, Michael Gallagher. More than 2,700 nominations from organizations in 45 nations of all sizes across multiple industries were evaluated in this year's competition. Winners were determined by the average scores of more than 15 professionals worldwide in seven specialized judging committees. Entries were considered in 93 categories for customer service and contact center achievements, including Contact Center of the Year, Award for Innovation in Customer Service, and Customer Service Department of the Year; 60 categories for sales and business development achievements, ranging from Senior Sales Executive of the Year to Sales Training or Business Development Executive of the Year to Sales Department of the Year; and categories to recognize new products and services and solution providers. Details about the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service and the list of Stevie winners in all categories are available at www.StevieAwards.com/sales. About Avaya Businesses are built on the experiences they provide, and every day millions of those experiences are built by Avaya (NYSE: AVYA). For over one hundred years, we've enabled organizations around the globe to win - by creating intelligent communications experiences for customers and employees. Avaya builds open, converged and innovative solutions to enhance and simplify communications and collaboration - in the cloud, on-premise or a hybrid of both. To grow your business, we're committed to innovation, partnership, and a relentless focus on what's next. We're the technology company you trust to help you deliver Experiences that Matter. Visit us at www.avaya.com. About the Stevie Awards Stevie Awards are conferred in seven programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at www.StevieAwards.com. Sponsors of the 13th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service include Sales Partnerships and ValueSelling Associates. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This document contains certain "forward-looking statements." All statements other than statements of historical fact are "forward-looking" statements for purposes of the U.S. federal and state securities laws. These statements may be identified by the use of forward looking terminology such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "our vision," "plan," "potential," "preliminary," "predict," "should," "will," or "would" or the negative thereof or other variations thereof or comparable terminology and include, but are not limited to, expected cash savings and statements about growth, exchange listing and improved operational metrics. The Company has based these forward-looking statements on its current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While the Company believes these expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections are reasonable, such forward-looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond its control. The factors are discussed in the Company's Registration Statement on Form 10 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, may cause its actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. For a further list and description of such risks and uncertainties, please refer to the Company's filings with the SEC (News - Alert) that are available at www.sec.gov. The Company cautions you that the list of important factors included in the Company's SEC filings may not contain all of the material factors that are important to you. In addition, considering these risks and uncertainties, the matters referred to in the forward-looking statements contained in this report may not in fact occur. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law. Source (News - Alert) : Avaya Newsroom View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190311005286/en/ [ Back To SIP Trunking Home's Homepage ] A man who convinced a child to play sexualised games of truth or dare later coerced her into sexual intercourse, a court has heard. Graham Doyle (31) with an address at North Circular Road, Dublin, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to four sample counts of sexual assault and one count of section four rape in Dublin on dates unknown between August 1, 2004 and March 31, 2005. Doyle has four previous convictions for offences of defilement of a child under the age of 15 which date back to 2011. He met the teenage victim in that case on a social networking site while claiming to still be a teenager himself. Detective Garda Lorraine Killilea told Orla Crowe SC, prosecuting, that Doyle was aged 16 when he encountered the then 13-year-old victim. The two entered into a relationship which he convinced her to keep secret. He began to invite her to his home while his parents were absent and involved her in sexualised games of truth or dare. Matters progressed to around Halloween in 2004 when Doyle signaled the victim to come into his bedroom wardrobe while her friend was in the room and made her perform oral sex on him. He talked the injured party into sexual intercourse on two occasions. The court heard that the four counts of sexual assault were sample counts and that the offending behaviour took place two or three times a week, coming to an end in April of 2005. The woman came forward in 2013 after reading about Doyle's convictions for defilement of a child. In interviews with gardai, he made admissions to the offending, but claimed he was unaware of the legal age limits at the time. Victim impact statement Det Gda Killilea agreed with James Dwyer SC, defending, that the victim was psychologically coerced into the sexual activity rather than being physically forced. In her victim impact statement, which she read out in court, the woman said she was taken advantage of by a wolf in sheep's clothing who destroyed her childhood. The woman said that at first she was excited to have a boyfriend and was looking forward to holding hands and going on dates to the cinema, but Doyle had more sinister motives. She said she wished she could open up her chest and show the court the scars on her heart. She said she had spent half her life trying to bury the events but has never been able to do so. The woman said the events left her with little to no self-worth and that she felt as though what had happened was her fault. When she read about Doyle's convictions the feelings came back worse than ever because she knew that there was another me out there. I was the practice run, she said. The woman said that family members have been unable to dissuade her from the belief that she is responsible for the other victim and that had she told someone of the offences when she was a teenager then the other girl would not have been hurt. She said she came to court to give her 13-year-old self a voice and her current self some closure, and that she had at least achieved the first of her goals. Mr Justice Michael White said that she should not feel any responsibility for what occurred as she was an innocent child who was taken advantage of by an older boy. He paid tribute to her courage and wished her the best in the future. Mr Justice White adjourned the matter for sentencing on March 29, next. The deal struck between EU President Jean Claude Juncker and Theresa May does not undermine the Withdrawal Agreement, Government sources said. The British Government insisted it had secured legally binding changes to the deal, whereas the EU and the Irish Government all that was agreed were legally binding assurances, which complement rather than undercut the Withdrawal Agreement. It is a unilateral statement from the UK, Ireland is comfortable with that. It is in addition to the Withdrawal Agreement, a government source said. In a letter addressed to European Council president Donald Tusk, Mr Juncker said that "our hand must remain outstretched" to the UK and that "we should continue to support the efforts of Prime Minister May to ensure an orderly withdrawal". "While fully respecting the principles defined unanimously by the European Council we should - following the request of Prime Minister May - now give one last push to get the Withdrawal Agreement over the finishing line," said Mr Juncker in the letter. He sent Mr Tusk the text of an instrument relating to the Withdrawal Agreement and a joint statement supplementing the Political Declaration, agreed between him and Mrs May and endorsed by the European Commission. He said that Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had informed him that he "would be prepared to accept this solution in the interest of securing an overall deal". Mr Juncker recommended that the leaders of the 27 remaining EU states give their endorsement to the documents at the European Council summit of March 21-22 in Brussels, subject to them having been approved by that time by the House of Commons. "I believe it is high time to complete the withdrawal process in line with the wishes expressed by the Government of the UK and to move on as swiftly as possible to the negotiation of our future partnership," wrote Mr Juncker. The Commission is ready to start talks on the future partnership "immediately after the Withdrawal Agreement is signed", he said. Mr Juncker said that the UK's withdrawal should be complete by the time of the European Parliament elections of May 23-26. If it was not complete, the UK would be legally required to take part in the elections, he said. The British Government released the text of the motion for Tuesday's Commons vote, which asks MPs to approve five documents - the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) and Political Declaration agreed in November along with three others finalised in Strasbourg on Monday. The motion defines the first new document as "the legally binding joint instrument" relating to the WA "which reduces the risk that the UK could be deliberately held in the Northern Ireland backstop indefinitely and commits the UK and EU to work to replace the backstop with alternative arrangements by December 2020". The second new document is described as a "unilateral declaration by the UK" which sets out "the sovereign action the UK would take to provide assurance that the backstop would only be applied temporarily". The final document is a supplement to the Political Declaration "setting out commitments by the UK and the EU to expedite the negotiation and bringing into force of their future relationship". Ministers to return for late-night Brexit talks after cabinet meeting adjourned Government ministers will be hauled back into a late night emergency cabinet meeting after 10.30pm tonight due to fears Britain could undermine two years of Brexit talks by seeking a "unilateral" right to walk away from the backstop. Sources told the Irish Examiner the late night discussions will take place in Dublin city centre just after 10.30pm tonight after a two-hour emergency cabinet meeting was earlier adjourned. Despite holding an earlier scheduled general cabinet meeting this morning, ministers who were preparing to travel across the globe for the St Patrick's day festivities were ordered back to Government Buildings for an emergency cabinet meeting at 6.45pm. This was because of major developments on Brexit, with British prime minister Theresa May and European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker preparing to meet for last ditch talks in Strasbourg. It is understood these talks centred on three points: Confirmation the withdrawal agreement will not be re-opened An agreed joint statement between the EU and the UK on how to interpret the backstop British demands to be able to "unilaterally" walk away from the backstop Taoiseach Leo Varadkar gave an update on developments in the preceding hours when the emergency cabinet meeting began at 6.45pm. After discussions described as "full and frank, with lots of interaction" from ministers, he then adjourned cabinet at 7.45pm to take a phone call from European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker. During this phone call Mr Juncker updated Mr Varadkar on his initial discussions with British prime minister Theresa May. The Taoiseach returned to inform ministers of the updated situation, saying there are no concerns about the withdrawal agreement changing or an agreed joint statement on how to interpret the backstop. However, he said Britain wants to be able to publish a "unilateral" declaration on their view of the backstop which the Government has yet to see - an issue that could cause serious problems for Ireland's Brexit safety. A source told the Irish Examiner this is a key concern, as the wording has the potential to undermine two years of Brexit talks. The Government decided at approximately 8.30pm to adjourn the emergency cabinet meeting until 10.30pm in order to allow time for Mr Juncker and Ms May's talks in Strasbourg to conclude. However, it is understood Government ministers will be given a likely agreed wording of the "unilateral" declaration on the backstop the UK is seeking before the cabinet returns tonight, leading to yet another make or break Brexit moment. One source said while it is "too early to say if a deal is here, you could see a direction towards a deal and further progress tonight". As the political drama took place in Dublin, Ms May was understood to be preparing to give a statement just after 10pm in Strasbourg. Similarly, the hard-line Brexiteer Conservative party group the European Research Group is meeting in London and DUP leader Arlene Foster is understood to be in London meeting senior Conservative party members and UK government officials. The European parliament Brexit negotiation group is also believed to be meeting in Brussels to discuss the ongoing developments. At the time of publication, the planned three days of Brexit votes in the House of Commons - existing deal on Tuesday, ruling out no deal on Wednesday and voting on a potential extension on Thursday - are still scheduled to take place. A prosecutor has told a murder trial that the accused told gardai that he was going to sort out the deceased the night before he stabbed him to death outside a shopping centre. Patrick McGrath was outlining the States case to the jury today in the Central Criminal Court trial of a 26-year-old man accused of murdering another man in Longford. Rihards Lavickis, originally from Latvia, but with an address at Annaly Court, Longford is charged with the murder of Polish man Akadiusz Czajkowski on November 1, 2016 at Rue Noyal Chatillon, Townspark in the town. The father-of-one has pleaded not guilty to murder, but guilty to manslaughter. However, Mr McGrath told the jury that, according to the prosecution, this plea did not meet the facts of the case. He said that the deceased had recently come to live in Ireland, while the accused had lived here since he was 14. Neither man was working at the time of the killing, and deceased, who also lived in Longford, had developed a drink problem. He said that the jury would hear of a dispute and friction between them and that there had been an interaction between them near Longford Shopping Centre the evening before the stabbing. It was Halloween. He said that the accused had woken the following morning to find that his front windows had been smashed. He took the view that the accused was somehow responsible and called the gardai. The guards were told by the accused that he was going to sort out the deceased, said Mr McGrath. The guards advised him against this. CCTV footage However, Mr McGrath said that the accused took a knife and went out looking for the deceased. He said that CCTV footage would show that hed later concealed himself in a gap in a wall near the shopping centre as the deceased approached. Youll see Mr Lavickis coming out from the gap and chasing or running at the deceased, crossing the road with his arm lifted and with what the prosecution says is a knife in his hand, he explained. The actual stabbing is not caught on CCTV. Mr McGrath said that there was no dispute that the accused had stabbed him three times outside a shop close to where this footage was captured. Mr Czajkowski died enroute to hospital. He informed the jury that the accused had admitted stabbing the accused, when questioned by gardai. The core question in the case is likely to be intent, he said. The prosecution says that when you take the various strands of evidence, this is a case where you will be entitled to reach the conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt that he intended to kill him or cause serious harm, he continued. If we do (prove this) you will be obliged to return a verdict of guilty of murder. The trial continues before Mr Justice Michael White and a jury of eight men and four women. It is expected to run for about 10 days. A leading Muslim cleric says he would not feel safe having Islamic State suspect, Lisa Smith, roaming the streets of Ireland unless she goes through a process to de-radicalise her. Dr Umar Al-Qadri, head Imam of the Islamic Educational and Cultural Centre and chairman of the Irish Muslim Peace and Integration Council, said formal procedures need to be put in place to deal with the issue of returning IS soldiers and sympathisers. Dr Al-Qadri said he believes any person who is radicalised is a dangerous person and it is important to find out who or what convinced Ms Smith to align herself to Islamic State: "When did it happen? How did it happen? I believe it's really important that we find answers to that. The answers may lie on social media. But there is a small chance that she was radicalised face to face by an individual and we have to find answers to that." Dr Al-Qadri says Ms Smith should face prosecution here if she has a case to answer but just as important is the need to understand how the former Irish soldier came to be in her current position and to ensure she no longer has contacts with or loyalties to IS. "We in Ireland need legislation in place to deal with people who have supported or have joined such groups. Before we have that legislation, to bring back citizens without having procedures, it's quite a problem. She is an Irish citizen so she should be back in Ireland but at the same time I would be concerned at having such an individual roam free in the streets of Dundalk and roam free in Ireland." Dr Al-Qadri was speaking on LMFM radio in Ms Smith's hometown of Dundalk. He urged members of the Muslim community who had contact with her to go to the Gardai: "Law enforcement needs all the support it can get." Two men are to be sentenced for their roles in the murder of dissident Republican Peter Butterly, who was shot dead in a Meath car park six years ago in view of students waiting for their school bus. Frank Murphy (aged 58), of McDonagh Caravan Park, Triton Road, Bettystown, Co Meath, pleaded guilty in November 2018 to committing an act to impede the apprehension or prosecution of David Cullen, knowing or believing him to be guilty of possession of a firearm in suspicious circumstances within the State on March 6, 2013. In the same month Michael McDermott, (aged 60), of Riverdale House, Garrymore, Ballinagh, Co Cavan, pleaded guilty to helping an unlawful organisation murder Mr Butterly. McDermott admitted to knowingly rendering assistance to an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann, otherwise the IRA, directly or indirectly, in the performance or furtherance of an unlawful object, to wit, the murder of Peter Butterly, at diverse locations within the State, between March 3 and March 6, 2013, both dates inclusive. Murphy and McDermotts sentence hearings took place at the Special Criminal Court this morning. Mr Cullen was originally charged with the murder of Peter Butterly (aged 35), from Dunleer, Co Louth, who was shot outside The Huntsman Inn in Gormanston on the afternoon of March 6, 2013. In July 2014, Cullen pleaded guilty to the unlawful possession of a semi-automatic pistol at the Huntsman Inn on the day of the shooting. His plea was accepted by the DPP, a nolle prosequi a decision not to proceed was entered on the count of murder and he turned State's witness. Cullen was sentenced to seven years in prison, with three-and-a-half years suspended, for possession of the firearm. Four men - Kevin Braney (aged 44), of Glenshane Crescent, Tallaght, Dublin 24; Edward McGrath (aged 37), of Land Dale Lawns, Springfield, Tallaght; Sharif Kelly (aged 49), of Pinewood Green Road, Balbriggan and Dean Evans (aged 27), of Grange Park Rise, Raheny, Dublin - have all already received life sentences at the Special Criminal Court following convictions for Mr Butterly's murder. This morning the non-jury court heard evidence from Detective Garda Dermot Morris, who was involved in the Garda investigation into Mr Butterlys death. Det. Garda Morris confirmed to Paul OHiggins SC, for the DPP, that on March 6, 2013, Mr Butterly drove into The Hunstman Inn car park between around 1.50pm and 2pm, after which a silver Toyota Corolla car, occupied by Dean Evans and Edward McGrath, arrived. Det. Garda Morris agreed that the Toyota Corolla pulled up in front of Mr Butterlys car and a number of shots were fired from a pistol which killed Mr Butterly. The garda also confirmed that the Toyota Corolla then left the car park and, as it travelled down Flemingstown Road, the gun used to kill Mr Butterly was thrown out the window of the car. Mr OHiggins said that the Toyota Corolla and the men in the car were later caught by gardai, while the gun was picked up by David Cullen. Det. Garda Morris told the court that the plan was for Mr Cullen to bury the gun. The court heard that Mr Cullen was later supposed to be picked up by Frank Murphy but Det. Garda Morris confirmed that the pick-up never happened as the gardai apprehended Mr Cullen while he was on Flemingstown Road. Mr OHiggins told the court that subsequent investigations showed that Mr Cullen had been recruited into the operation on March 3, 2013, and this recruitment involved Sharif Kelly and Michael McDermott. Mr OHiggins said that on the morning of the killing, at 9.55am, McDermott rang David Cullen and they shared an 86-second phone call. Det. Garda Morris confirmed that McDermott was arrested on April 8, 2013, and that he was held in custody and interviewed on April 8 and 9, 2013, before he was rearrested in 2014. Mr OHiggins SC put it to Det. Garda Morris that the re-arrest followed a change of mind by Mr Cullen who by then made statements identifying his role and that of others on events from March 3 to 6, 2013. Det. Garda Morris said: Yes, David Cullen gave us a witness statement. In respect of Murphy, Mr OHiggins said the evidence was that Murphy was arrested at McDonaghs caravan park on April 9, 2013, and while in custody, he admitted to owning a number of phones found at the caravan park. Mr OHiggins told the court that, after Mr Cullens arrest, it was discovered that Mr Cullen was, according to him, to have been collected by Frank Murphy from the scene, after he [Mr Cullen] disposed of the gun. The court also heard there was a phone call between phones belong to Mr Cullen and Murphy at 1.18pm on the day of the shooting but that it didnt connect. Mr OHiggins told the court that, on the day after the shooting, March 7, 2013, a meeting took place at the KFC outlet of Charlestown Shopping Centre which involved a total of six people, including Kevin Braney and Frank Murphy. Counsel told the court that the meeting was recorded in part and while some of it is not very clear, what was recorded was sufficient to indicate that a discussion took place between six people, including Frank Murphy, about the events of the previous day. Mr OHiggins said the discussion suggested some form of debriefing to discuss what had gone wrong the previous day and how the gardai had arrived on the scene almost immediately after the killing took place. He added: And I think the nature of the conversation was such as to suggest that those involved had inside knowledge of the circumstances of the killing and the apprehensions of those involved?, Det Garda Morris agreed. The court heard neither McDermott nor Murphy have previous convictions. Det. Garda Morris said Murphy has a number of grown-up children and grandchildren and has lived alone in McDonaghs caravan park since he separated from his wife. Hugh Hartnett SC, for Frank Murphy, also handed to the court a letter from the owner of the park where Murphy has lived for 15 years. Mr Justice Paul Coffey, presiding, sitting with Judge Martin Nolan and Judge James Faughnan, were also given a letter from McDermotts wife and a second letter from a GP. A character reference for McDermott was also handed in from a previous employer which, the court heard, states McDermott is a reliable, trustworthy person. Mr Justice Coffey, Mr Justice Nolan and Mr Justice Faughnan said they will sentence the two men on April 1 and remanded them both in custody. The cabinet is meeting this morning ahead of ministers' trips abroad for St. Patrick's Day. Brexit is expected to be high on the agenda with a series of crucial votes taking place this week in the House of Commons. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will travel to Washington for a meeting with US President Donald Trump on Thursday. Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer says there is still a strong relationship between Ireland and America. "Considering the foreign direct investment that we share with each other and the culture that we share especially here in America, the impact that Ireland had, I don't think that coming in hot with any US president would be something that I would recommend," said Mr Spicer. A student who collapsed and died from a bleed on the brain did not receive an emergency scan to diagnose her condition, an inquest heard. Lisa Niland (19) from Drimbane, Curry, Co Sligo died three days after she collapsed at a fast food restaurant. An inquest into her death heard that a doctor did not sanction an emergency out of hours brain scan because he was not aware the patient had displayed neurological symptoms. Miss Niland collapsed at 8.30pm on January 17 2017. She was with her boyfriend about to order a milkshake when she slumped to the floor and vomited, her father Gerry Niland told Dublin Coroners Court. She was rushed to Sligo General Hospital where her father described her as groggy and imbalanced. She got a sudden, massive pain in the back of her head. She slumped to the ground, then she vomited, Mr Niland said. She was fully conscious when she was assessed by a doctor in the Emergency Department (ED) at 11.15pm. She was in excruciating pain, she had no balance, Gerry Niland said. She was no better at 2.15am when the ED registrar phoned the ED Consultant on call Dr Fergal Hickey seeking his opinion on whether an emergency CT scan was required. An out of hours CT scan requires the authorisation of a consultant, the court heard. Dr Hickey advised she be admitted to hospital and a scan carried out in the morning. However, Miss Niland went into cardiac arrest the following morning as her family received the results of a CT scan that was performed 10.15am. Solicitor for the Niland family Damien Tansey asked why Dr Hickey did not sanction the scan. I made a call in good faith taking the various factors into consideration, Dr Hickey said. She did not show hard neurological signs at that point, thats what was conveyed to me and thats what informed my decision, Dr Hickey said. Dr Hickey said he was operating in a very imperfect system and said in his experience Beaumont Hospital was unlikely to accept a fully conscious patient in the middle of the night. The ED registrar Dr Kate Langtree said she had conducted a full neurological assessment before contacting Dr Hickey but had not asked the patient to leave her bed. Dr Langtree said she was surprised at resistance from the medical registrar to admit Miss Niland due to the lack of a clear diagnosis, following Dr Hickeys advice. The medical registrar Dr Nagmeldin Hassan Abdoun Hafiz, denied this. The patient was subsequently admitted to the medical department. Miss Niland suffered three cardiac arrests before was transferred to Beaumont Hospital at 1pm on January 18 2017. She died two days later. Our lives were shattered and ruined forever, Mr Niland said. A postmortem found Miss Niland suffered a catastrophic cerebral bleed due to an arterial abnormality. Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane adjourned the inquest to hear evidence from a consultant at Beaumont Hospital before returning a verdict. A Dublin musician who was caught with over 21,000 of cannabis has been given a four year suspended sentence. Brian Walton (31), a skilled multi-instrumentalist and set musician, admitted he had been selling cannabis to clear debts. Walton, with an address at Portobello Harbour, Dublin 8, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possessing cannabis and cannabis resin worth a total of 21,423 at his home on April 24, 2017. He has no previous convictions. Garda Peter Lyons told Joseph Barnes BL, prosecuting, that he got a warrant to search Walton's address on foot of confidential information. The garda said he seized three phones during the search of Walton's home and that these contained unguarded text messages pertaining to drug dealing. Gda Lyons said one of the phones had 18 messages with the same content. He revealed this was sent to Walton's usual clients advertising something to alleviate hangover from the previous day, which had been St Patrick's Day. He said Walton was forthcoming and compliant on arrest and admitted he had been selling cannabis to clear debts. He said Walton had not come to garda attention since. The garda agreed with Dean Kelly BL, defending, that Walton had experienced homelessness and was someone he did not expect to see before the courts again. Mr Kelly submitted at the original sentence hearing last October that his client had been ridding himself of his persistent and pernicious cannabis addiction and was now drug free. Judge Melanie Greally had adjourned the case to allow a probation report be prepared. She noted that the root of Walton's offending seemed to have been his own excessive consumption of alcohol and drugs at the time and his inability to finance it. Judge Greally took into account his early guilty plea, his co-operation, personal circumstances and lack of previous convictions. She noted that he seemed to now have some insight into the wider implications of his activities. She imposed concurrent sentences totaling four years which she suspended in full on strict conditions including that he undergo a further period of nine months probation supervision Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang's Remarks on Ethiopian Airlines Crash 2019/03/10 Q: On March 10 local time, an Ethiopian Airlines jet crashed, killing all 157 people on board, including eight Chinese. Do you have more information? A: According to information released by the Ethiopian Airlines, on the morning of March 10 local time, an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed soon after taking off from Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia en route to Nairobi, capital of Kenya, killing all 149 passengers and eight crew members aboard. After learning the incident, the Foreign Ministry immediately instructed the Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia to activate emergency mechanism and contact the Ethiopian government and Ethiopian Airlines to gather more information. It has been verified that there were eight Chinese citizens on board, including one from the Hong Kong SAR. We express our deep condolences to the victims and sincere sympathy to the bereaved families. The Chinese side hopes that the Ethiopian side will locate the cause of the crash as soon as possible, keep us informed without any delay, and properly deal with the follow-up matters. The Foreign Ministry and the Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia will continue to closely follow the development of the situation and do our best to assist the families of the Chinese victims. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was forced to abandon his plans to depart for the US yesterday in order to attend an emergency Cabinet meeting. Some of his senior team had travelled to Dublin Airport to begin checking in but returned to Government Buildings. It indicated Mr Varadkar and his team being caught off guard by the pace of events regarding Brexit, despite hosting the EUs chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, in Dublin at the weekend. Mr Varadkar will fly to the US today ahead of the start of his official programme. Tomorrow, the Taoiseach will hold a series of meetings to promote trade and investment between the US and Ireland. He will meet representatives of Irish companies successfullyexpanding their operations in the US and will attend the Ireland Funds gala dinner. On Thursday, he will have breakfast hosted by US vice-president Mike Pence, and will visit the White House for a bilateral meeting with President Donald Trump. He will also attend the annual speakers lunch on Capitol Hill, and meet with senior members of Congress. That evening, the Taoiseach will join Mr Trump and his wife Melania for the traditional shamrock ceremony at the White House, in advance of attending the ambassadors St Patricks Day reception. On Friday, Mr Varadkar will travel to Chicago where he will meet with a number of emigrant support groups that receive Irish Government funding and will attend a St Patricks Day dinner hosted by the Irish Fellowship Club of Chicago. On Saturday, the Taoiseach will march in the Chicago St Patricks Day Parade before returning home. Tanaiste Simon Coveney has been forced to truncate his St Patricks programme in order to try to pass Brexit contingency legislation through the Seanad. He will not travel to Brussels until Friday. Communications Minister Richard Bruton is heading to Canada, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan is off to New York, while Health Minister Simon Harris will be heading to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe is travelling to London, while Agriculture Minister Michael Creed will visit Madrid and Lisbon. Three men found liable for the Omagh bombing have been adjudicated bankrupt by the High Court. Today, Ms Justice Teresa Pilkington said she was satisfied to make bankruptcy orders in respect of Michael McKevitt, who the court heard is terminally ill, Colm Michael Murphy and Liam Campbell. The bankruptcy applications were brought by lawyers acting for relatives of those killed in the bombing, carried out by the Real IRA. In 2009, a judge at Belfast High Court ruled that McKevitt, Campbell, Murphy and another man Seamus Daly were all liable for the bombing, and ordered them to pay Stg1.6m damages to 12 relatives of the bombing. Colm Murphy. That decision was upheld on appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. The 1998 attack was the single biggest atrocity of the Troubles, claiming 29 lives, including nine children and a woman pregnant with twins. All of the defendants denied having any involvement in the bombing. Arising out of the failure to pay the damages the relatives, represented by John O'Donnell SC, brought proceedings before the High Court in Dublin seeking to have the three adjudicated bankrupt. The court heard that demands had been made on each of the three men to each pay 439,000, which they had failed to do. When the matter returned before the High Court today Mr Campbell of Upper Faughart, Dundalk and Mr Murphy of Lower Faughart, Dundalk, Co Louth, and Mr McKevitt from Blackrock in Co. Louth did not appear in court. A barrister told the court that he appeared for Mr McKevitt, who he said it was difficult to get instructions from because his client has terminal cancer. The lawyer also said he acted for Mr Murphy, but did not have firm instructions in regards to the bankruptcy application. Mr O'Donnell told the court that all three should be adjudicated as bankrupt. The application, counsel said, had been going on for some time, and all three individuals had been served with documents in the case. Counsel said there had been correspondence last month from Liam Campbell, where he was seeking to obtain legal aid with regard to the bankruptcy application. Counsel said no adjournment should be granted in Liam Campbell's case. Counsel added that Michael McKevitt had written to his client in October 2015. In that correspondence Mr McKevitt, who repeated his denial of having anything to do with the bombing, said he had no assets, was suffering from terminal cancer, and the only source of income is the State pension. Michael McKevitt in 2015. Counsel said again there was no good reason advanced as to why Mr McKevitt or any of the others respondents should not be adjudicated as bankrupts. In her ruling, Ms Justice Pilkington said she was satisfied to adjudicate all three as bankrupts. The judge said all the required criteria contained in the relevant sections of the 1988 Bankruptcy Act had been complied with. The judge said she was satisfied that all three had been served with the relevant documentation and it would not be appropriate to grant any further adjournments of the matter. Cork legend Diarmuid OSullivan has claimed Cork were "mediocre at best" in their defeat to Tipperary. Tipp saw off Cork in comfortable fashion at Pairc Ui Rinn, running out 13-point winners with Read More: The Cloyne man has hit out at the Cork team on the back of the defeat saying: "Whatever about the collective, its about time a couple of individuals started looking in the mirror and saying is this really for me or have I enough of it?" Diarmuid OSullivan Writing in his Parry Power News column, O'Sullivan said: "Theres no getting away from the fact it was a disappointing afternoon all around. "No one goes out to have a bad game or play second fiddle," wrote O'Sullivan. "But I believe large sections of that Rebels team will be disappointed with their own personal performance, let along the collective one. "Bare in mind Tipperary were away on a hard weeks training camp in Spain leading into Sundays game as well. Cork should have been the fresh team, but it didnt look like it." O'Sullivan is of the belief that Cork boss John Meyler and his management team need to "define a system" to better suit the Rebels as "a lot of guys are playing as individuals." The former fullback was also full of praise for the Tipp forward line saying Cork "have a lot of work to do" to match them. "The movement in the Tipp forwards was incredible," said O'Sullivan. "They were all comfortable in any area they found themselves in and it had the fingerprints of Eamon OShea all over it. "Whereas, the Rebel forwards were constantly stuck in their own position." While stating that Cork have a lot of improving to do, O'Sullivan said things can be turned around. "We know the quality of player is there and that theyve worked on the strength in depth of the squad. "Lets allow them the freedom to get this right." You can read O'Sullivan's full Paddy Power News column here. GAA podcast: Friends of Kieran O'Connor, Carlow rising, Offaly's fall, Tipp's Spanish lessons, Kilkenny bullied German Chancellor Angela Merkel has endorsed the idea of developing a joint European aircraft carrier. The idea was suggested by her party's leader, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who succeeded Ms Merkel in December as leader of the Christian Democratic Union. She made the suggestion at the weekend in response to French President Emmanuel Macron's proposals for European Union reform. She noted that Germany and France are already working together on a future European combat aircraft. She said that "the next step could be to start on the symbolic project of building a common European aircraft carrier" to underline the EU's global security role. Ms Merkel said that "it's right and good that we have such equipment on the European side, and I'm happy to work on it". But she added that "we have to do other things as a priority". Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang's Regular Press Conference on March 11, 2019 2019/03/11 Q: On March 10 local time, an Ethiopian Airlines jet crashed after taking off from the capital of Ethiopia en route to the capital of Kenya, killing all 157 people on board, including eight Chinese. We know that the Spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry already issued a statement late last night. Do you have any updates for us? A: On March 10, an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed, killing all people aboard, including eight Chinese citizens. We are deeply saddened by this incident. We want to express our deep condolences to the victims and sincere sympathy to the bereaved families. Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping, have sent messages of condolences to Ethiopian and Kenyan leaders respectively. The Chinese Party and state leaders attach great importance to this incident and are very concerned about the Chinese citizens involved in this disaster. The Foreign Ministry and our Embassy in Ethiopia reacted immediately. Our Embassy in Ethiopia has established coordination and liaison mechanism with the Ethiopian side and made contacts with the families of the Chinese victims to assist them in dealing with the follow-up matters. To date, some preliminary information of the eight Chinese victims have been confirmed. Four were employees from Chinese companies. Two were UN staff. Two were from Liaoning province and Zhejiang province respectively, traveling for private purposes. The latest information I have is that on the afternoon of March 10, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali went to the crash site to express his deep condolences to the victims. He also pledged necessary assistance to the bereaved families and urged relevant officials to make thorough investigations. At the current stage, investigation is still underway to determine the cause of the crash. A committee comprising of Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority and Ethiopian Transport Authority has been set up to carry out the investigations. The Chinese side hopes that the Ethiopian side will determine the cause of the crash as soon as possible, provide information on the progress of the investigation in a timely manner, and properly deal with the follow-up matters. The Foreign Ministry and the Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia will continue to closely follow the development of the situation and do our best to assist the families of the Chinese victims. Q: Italy's possible participation in the Belt and Road Initiative has been a subject of discussion lately. We noted that Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte explicitly said that Italy's accession to the Belt and Road Initiative represents an opportunity for the country. It is a strategic choice for Italy and won't mean that Italy will be forced to do anything. It will provide Italy with access to the initiative and channels for dialogues. What is your comment? A: China and Italy enjoy sound relations. Practical cooperation between the two sides in various fields has yielded fruitful outcomes and made tangible contributions to the economic development of the two countries. Expanding mutually beneficial cooperation, as a strategic choice made by China and Italy, serves the common interests of the two sides. Over the past six years since its inception, the Belt and Road Initiative has been receiving growing support and participation from the international community. Fundamentally, it is because this cooperation platform serves the development needs of all participants, and the principle of wide consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits has been approved worldwide. More importantly, cooperation outcomes have been translated into the economic and social development and improvement of people's livelihood and employment in all participating countries. Italy is an important industrialized nation and a developed economy. We welcome Italy's participation in the Belt and Road Initiative which we believe will create greater space for mutually beneficial cooperation and bring more benefits to the business communities and the public of our two sides. Q: The US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback, has been in Hong Kong last week and he is currently in Taiwan. He has made some very strong comments critical of China in both places, including criticizing China's treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. What is your reaction? A: Your question touches on two aspects. First of all, I want to stress again that China firmly opposes any official contacts between the US government and Taiwan. This position is rock firm. Secondly, we have noted these wrong remarks made by the relevant person. We deplore and firmly oppose that and have made stern representations with the US side. The Chinese government protects its citizens' freedom of religious belief in accordance with law and people of all ethnic groups in China fully enjoy their right to freedom of religious belief in accordance with law. The Chinese side consistently opposes the US side cooking up or using the so-called religious issues to interfere in other countries' internal affairs. We urge the US side to face squarely and respect basic facts, cast aside prejudice, choose its words and actions carefully, view China's religious policies and freedom of religious belief in an objective way, stop using the so-called religious issues to interfere in China's internal affairs. This person in question mentioned the so-called issues in Xinjiang. I want to say that the affairs of Xinjiang are China's internal affairs. Xinjiang set up the vocational and educational training centers as a preventive counter-terrorism and de-radicalisation measure. They are not the so-called "re-education camps" claimed by the US. Facts have proven that the measures taken in Xinjiang to counter terrorism and maintain stability enjoy extensive support from all ethnic groups in Xinjiang. We urge the US side to discard its double standards on counter-terrorism and counter-separatism, stop using Xinjiang-related issues to interfere in China's domestic affairs, and contribute to enhancing mutual trust and cooperation between China and the US, instead of the contrary. Q: According to reports, during a session this week, the European Parliament will call on Brussels to assess the cyber threat of China's participation in the development of 5G telecommunications system and analyze the possibility of access to hidden data by foreign IT equipment. A draft resolution set to be voted on March 12 said that the increase of China's technological presence in the EU poses serious security threats that require urgent action to be taken at EU level. What's your comment? A: As far as I know, not a single country or organization has been able to provide convincing evidence in support of the so-called technology security threats posed by China. The playing-up of this issue and concerns raised by ill-informed people are short of definite evidence. Science and technology, a force without borders, is an important foundation for the sustainable development of the world economy and crucial impetus for common progress of mankind. Suspecting and guarding against each other in the absence of evidence and following a beggar-thy-neighbor policy are not in line with the course of globalization or scientific and technological development. You may imagine, if all economies were to resort to insulation, we would end up in a situation where developed economies who need the markets more will suffer more. As champions and defenders of multilateralism, China and the EU share clear consensus and common interests in upholding rules-based multilateralism. We hope the EU will remain objective and rational, stay committed to the ideal of openness and cooperation and the free and fair principle, refrain from protectionism and making everything a political or security issue, and avoid sending wrong signals so as to provide a fair and just environment for China-EU cooperation across the board, including in science and technology and promote the sound and steady development of our comprehensive strategic partnership. Q: About two weeks ago, a Twitter account appeared, which claimed to be the Chinese Foreign Ministry's official Twitter account. Can you tell us if it is your Twitter account? If it is not, have you complained to Twitter and asked them to remove it? A: You are not taken in by that, right? I can tell you responsibly that this is a fake account. Again, this underscores the need for us to have a discerning eye, act in an cooperative spirit and address the challenges in cyber security through international cooperation. Q: A recent opinion article carried by the Globe and Mail said that China suspended some Canadian canola imports on spurious excuses. This isn't about canola, and China is resolved to intimidate and coerce Canada. What is your comment? A: I already answered relevant questions last week. You may have noted that the General Administration of Customs has issued relevant notice. Recently, the Chinese customs has intercepted quarantine hazardous organisms in imported Canadian canola on numerous occasions, which will severely endanger agricultural production and ecological security once introduced into China. In order to prevent the spread of these organisms at source, the GAC has since March 1, 2019 suspended the canola imports from a Canadian company repeatedly found to have the above-mentioned problems. As far as I know, the GAC has already notified the Canadian side of the relevant situation. I shall stress that it is the Chinese government's responsibility to protect the safety and interests of the Chinese consumers and the agricultural production and ecological security of the nation. The above-mentioned measures taken by the Chinese customs are for the sake of quarantine safety and prevention. They are scientific and reasonable and fully conform to relevant Chinese laws and regulations as well as international practice. Q: Will the Chinese government release the names of the Chinese passengers on the Ethiopian Airlines flight? A: I just told you the basic information about the eight Chinese citizens killed in the accident as verified initially. The cause for the accident is still under investigation and we need to have more communications and further confirm with the relevant parties, including the families of the victims as for whether more information will be released. I believe you can fully understand that this is a way we show respect to those victims who have passed away. Q: The issues regarding terrorist Masood Azhar's case is coming up in UN Security Council's 1267 Committee again on March 13, according to reports. There was an appeal by India on Saturday that all the permanent members of the UNSC should declare him a terrorist this time in light of the recent tensions between India and Pakistan. Can a decision of China be expected this time? Can you again give us some insight into it? A: The UN Security Council and its subsidiary bodies are run on strict rules. You just quoted what the reports said about how the relevant discussions went inside the UN subsidiary body, which is quite dubious. I'm afraid no judgment should be based on the information gathered through an inappropriate channel. We already stressed China's position on the listing of terrorist organizations and individuals in the UN Security Council 1267 Committee on many occasions. China has all along participated in relevant discussions in a responsible manner and in strict accordance with the rules of procedure and provisions of the 1267 Committee. China will continue to communicate and work with relevant parties in a responsible manner so as to properly resolve this matter. Only by making a decision through responsible and serious discussions can we find a lasting solution. Follow-up: China is also holding talks with both countries during this current round of tensions between India and Pakistan. Is the issue of counter-terrorism being discussed? A: A series of incidents have transpired between Indian and Pakistan recently, which as we see is not conducive to the peace and stability in South Asia. Like I said before, China has been mediating between the two sides, engaged in dialogues and working very hard to promote talks, ease tensions and improve their relations. In our exchanges of views on regional situation, the security issue features in our discussion with Indian and Pakistan. We have had extensive and in-depth talks with both sides. Q: Last week Meng Wanzhou who is free on bail in Canada sued the Canadian government over her treatment. In China, Canadian citizens Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig are in jail and apparently unable to even see a lawyer. When will rights and freedoms afforded to Meng Wanzhou in Canada be afforded to Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig in China? A: Regarding the lawsuit Ms. Meng Wanzhou filed against the Canadian government and its relevant departments, like we said many times, it is completely understandable that a Chinese citizen uses legal tools to protect her legal rights and interests and seek justice. As to these two Canadian citizens against whom the Chinese security authorities have legally taken compulsory measures in China, like we said, the Chinese side has strictly fulfilled its obligations under the consular agreement between China and Canada, and their legitimate rights and interests have been fully guaranteed. A young Iranian couple have been arrested after a marriage proposal in public. The proposal was captured on a video clip that went viral on social media. Police said the pair offended Islamic conventions on public decency but were later released on bail. The video showed the young man standing in a heart-shaped ring of flower petals next to colourful balloons in a shopping centre in the city of Arak. Man publicly proposes to woman at shopping mall in Arak, central #Iran Both arrested for "marriage proposal in contradiction to islamic rituals... based on decadent Western culture," then released on bail pic.twitter.com/eKdlNX9Bte Sobhan Hassanvand (@Hassanvand) March 8, 2019 After the young woman says yes, he slips a ring on her finger to cheers from onlookers. The two were not identified. Mostafa Norouzi, deputy police chief in Arak, said that it is unacceptable for the young "to do whatever is common in other places of the world" and disregard culture and religion. Cabinet Office minister David Lidington has told MPs that "legally-binding" changes that "strengthen and improve" the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration have been secured. Mr Lidington said the Attorney General would be publishing advice ahead of Tuesday's debate, but needed time to consider the new changes. Update: Geoffrey Crossland, 70, who amassed a vast collection of more than two million indecent images and stored prohibited weapons in a bunker under his home, has been jailed for 12 years and eight months in England. Crossland, wearing a grey jumper, showed no emotion as he was given the sentence at York Crown Court. Judge Andrew Stubbs QC, sentencing, told him: "Your criminality was unearthed, almost literally, on October 18 last year, when officers searched your house for images of children. "One issue which is not forgotten is that these images capture real-life people, and at the same time real-life sexual abuse being carried out on them." The judge added that the "scale of the depravity" that the images depicted was hard for the public to understand. The court heard how officers executed a search warrant of his home address on October 18 last year, at which stage they found SD cards, USB sticks, DVDs, SIM cards, floppy disks, laptops, tablets and mobile phones littered with indecent images. Prosecutor Stephen Wood explained how the pensioner had "painstakingly categorised" the pictures, with some being listed under terms like "animal abuse", "peach Asian street meat", and "young Russian brother and sister". Some of the images dated as far back as 1998, implying that the defendant had a "longstanding interest in children", Mr Wood said. He was arrested at Heathrow Airport days after his home was searched by officers, having been on a shooting holiday in Argentina. The court heard how the vast store of images had been "carefully collected and collated" by Crossland, before then being ranked by the defendant. Of the weapons offences, which incorporated nine illegally-held firearms, the judge said: "The risk to the public is clear to all, but that risk is increased by the volume of weapons you held and the volume of ammunition which you also held." The court heard how Crossland had held around 24,000 rounds of ammunition, as well as expanding bullets. The work of North Yorkshire Police in investigating the case and bringing Crossland to court was praised by the judge at the end of his sentencing remarks. Earlier: Man, 70, pleads guilty to possessing millions of indecent images and storing guns in UK bunker A man has pleaded guilty in England to possessing one of the largest known collections of indecent images in England and Wales and storing prohibited firearms in a bunker underneath his home. Prosecutors explained to York Crown Court in the north of England how Geoffrey Crossland, 70, had amassed more than 2.2 million indecent images. Officers were raiding the pensioner's home in Padside Green Farm, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, when they found the bunker, which was made from shipping containers. They found guns hidden underneath the property, along with ammunition. North Yorkshire Police said the seizure of the images was the biggest in the county, and included 6,946 in the most extreme category A. He had previously admitted three counts of making indecent photographs and pleaded guilty to 11 counts in relation to the possession of firearms and ammunition when he appeared in court today. He will be sentenced later today. - Press Association Update: British Prime Minister Theresa May has set off for Strasbourg for Brexit talks with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, Downing Street has announced. Downing Street said Brexit talks had been continuing at a "technical level" on Monday afternoon. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "Talks have been continuing at technical level throughout the course of the afternoon. That remains the case." Earlier: UK Govt to continue with meaningful vote on Theresa May's Brexit deal tomorrow The British government has confirmed a meaningful vote on Theresa May's Withdrawal deal will take place in parliament tomorrow. The UK's Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay will address the Commons this evening. There will also be a written statement from the British Prime Minister, part of the process needed for tomorrow's vote. Also expected to be published is the legal advice of Attorney General Geoffrey Cox. Prime Minister Theresa May's official spokesman cautioned against "speculation" that the Prime Minister might ask Parliament to vote on a "conditional" motion expressing its readiness to support a form of deal other than the one agreed with Brussels. He declined to discuss how Mrs May will approach the no-deal motion expected on Wednesday if she loses the meaningful vote, saying only: "Her focus is solely upon speaking to fellow leaders and getting on with the work required to allow MPs to support the deal and to bring this stage of the process to an end." Asked if Mrs May had considered resigning if her deal was defeated on Tuesday, the spokesman said he had not discussed the matter with the PM, but added: "I have seen nothing at all to suggest that." Mrs May has had a further phone call with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, Number 10 said. "Talks continue," the Prime Minister's official spokesman said. Earlier, Downing Street described the current state of Brexit talks with the EU as "deadlocked." These are worrying hours for Boeing - and tragic ones for 157 families. The second crash of a 737 Max jet in five months raises inevitable questions about the safety of the US manufacturer's flagship single-aisle aircraft, even though it's still not known what caused the latest disaster. The company must respond with total transparency and hope there was nothing it could have done to have avoided Sunday's crash in Ethiopia. We don't know whether what happened to the Ethiopian Airlines plane was the same thing that brought down a Lion Air jet in October and a rush to judgment helps nobody, including the people who've lost their lives and their loved ones. Superficially, there are similarities: Both jets were almost brand new, both experienced difficulties shortly after takeoff and asked to return to the airport. But the details are absolutely crucial here. Australia's No.2 airline, Virgin Australia, says it is too early to comment on whether its order of Boeing 737 MAX 8s will change, following a fatal crash involving the aircraft in Ethiopia at the weekend. The airline has ordered 30 of the Boeing 737 MAX 8s and 10 Boeing 737 MAX 10s. The first of the new aircraft are due to be delivered at the end of the year. On Sunday, the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed shortly after take-off, killing all 157 passengers and crew on board including at least 19 UN officials. It's the second crash in months involving the relatively new Boeing aircraft, raising questions about the plane's safety. The same model crashed in Indonesia in October, killing 189 people. Anthony Donald Bonds (aka Gunny and Tony), 61, departed on Thursday, March 7, 2019 at St. Mary's Hospital. He was born in Leonardtown, MD on August 22, 1957 to the late Richley Paul Bonds and Mary Margaret Bonds. Anthony resided in Great Mills, MD. He was a graduate of Great Mills High School and continued furthering his education with various educational courses. Anthony served his country in the United States Marine Corps and received an honorable discharge on December 21, 1978. He was employed at DynCorp International as an Aircraft Mechanic. He had over 30 years of service and received numerous awards for his outstanding service and dedication to the DynCorp International. Anthony's passion was his car collections. He participated in many car shows throughout the Metropolitan area and won many trophies and recognitions. His prize possession was his 1969 Super Sport Chevelle which won him many trophies and prizes in car shows. He loved cars so much that he purchased a new car or truck every year. In fact, his hobby was restoring and detailing his cars as well as the vehicles of family/friends. Anthony was always there for everyone. He volunteered to assist the elderly and others. In addition, he guided and mentored many children such Corey Bonds, Dayania Carroll, Wilson Carroll and many others. Anthony lived a life that spoke of love for his parents, sisters, brothers and numerous nieces, nephews and friends. He was preceded in death by his mother and father, three brothers, Joseph David Bonds, Francis Paul Bonds, Sr. and Earl Vincent Bonds and two sisters, Linda Mae Bonds and Judy Mae Bonds. Anthony leaves to remember and cherish his legacy several sisters and brothers. He is survived by his brothers, Junior Xavier Bonds, James Bernard Bonds and George Lee Bonds Sr.; sisters, Shirley Kyle, Gloria King, Angela Lois Dias and Dinah Marie Bonds and an array of cousins, nieces and nephews; two of which he grew up with, Theresa Ann Parker and Corey Terrell Bonds. Family and friends will unite on Saturday, March 16, 2019 for visitation at 10 am until Mass of Christian Burial at 11 am at Holy Face Catholic Church, 20408 Point Lookout Rd, Great Mills, MD 20634. Interment to follow in the church cemetery. Arrangements by Briscoe-Tonic Funeral Home. Australian energy companies shed more than $2.5 billion on Monday after Norway's sovereign wealth funds decision to cut its global oil holdings, the rout even hitting companies the fund didnt own. The group is the worlds largest sovereign wealth fund, with more than $1 trillion in investments. On Friday, the fund's deputy governor, Egil Matsen, said it would divest its stakes in energy exploration and production companies "to make the government's wealth less vulnerable to a permanent drop in oil prices". Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund's broad oil divestment sent shock waves throughout the market. Credit:Jessica Shapiro In Australia, Woodside, Santos, Beach Energy and Caltex bore the brunt of the decision, at one point collectively falling more than $2.5 billion in value on Monday. Other Australian companies to feel the heat included Australis Oil & Gas, Karoon Energy, Liquefied Natural Gas, Oil Search and Horizon Oil. Two workers at a Belconnen massage parlour have won almost $40,000 in compensation after the Fair Work Commission found they were unfairly dismissed in 2015. As well as the main finding, the former owner and supervisor of Canberra Foot and Thai are also facing up to a year in prison over concerns they gave false or misleading evidence in the hearing. Canberra Foot and Thai in Belconnen now has new owners. Credit:Google Maps On the night of Sunday, October 26 2015, Delo Be Isugan ran away from the house in Higgins where she lived with other massage workers after she got word she would be fired and put on a plane back to the Philippines because her boss had discovered she was in a relationship with Bart Durado, a handyman at the business. Evidence given to the Fair Work Commission was that Colin Kenneth Elvin, then the owner of the business, had told staff they were banned from having relationships in Australia, and on the day in question had been interviewing other staff about the relationship between the pair. Anyone whos been to Italian and Sons over the past couple of years has no doubt been greeted at the door by Tony Lo Terzo. Hes a man that puts the hospitality into hospitality, a warm welcome, checking in during the night, he genuinely wants you to have a good night and he realises its about more than the food. Now, after six years at Italian and Sons, Lo Terzo is heading out on his own, wanting to carve out his own little piece of Italy in Braddon. Tony Lo Terzo and Francesco Petrillo are opening The Italian Place. Credit:Elesa Kurtz I want to create a place where people will come for the food and the service, a place where theyll feel at home, says the industry veteran who has been in the game for 45 years. The Italian Place will be a casual venue, where you can pop in over the course of the day, for a morning coffee, for a panini on the run at lunch, or come in after work for a drink and kick on for dinner. The expected opening is late March. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size It began, as so many unexpectedly eventful days often do, with a simple decision by a group of mates to head down to the Cotter for a barbecue. What transpired that fateful afternoon in November 1986 was to change many Canberra lives forever and create a political storm around the public safety of one of the capital's most popular swimming areas. Colin Trinder at Casuarina Sands, where one life was lost and another saved Credit:Fairfax Media For many years, Casuarina Sands had a reputation for being a tricky place for swimming when the river was up and running. A concrete weir right had been built right across the river in the 1960s, with the best of intentions, to create a pooled area in which to swim during the long, hot Canberra summers. With the coarse riverbank sands providing a quasi beach-like environment and overhanging trees for shade, hundreds of people flocked to the river banks to cool off. Mixing with his friends at a barbecue on that warm November afternoon, Colin Trinder had barely glanced at a woman and a boy who were carrying an inflatable rubber raft upstream. Advertisement It had been raining a little on and off in previous days so the river wasn't in flood but it was running strongly. As many Casuarina Sands swimmers would attest, the river was deceptive in that even what appeared to be a sluggish current could exert a significant downstream drag. A warning sign advised of the conditions. Swimming was prohibited at the location until October 1, and then the warning varied between "exercise care" and "unsafe". "A head of water, it would have been more than half a metre of water, was flowing over the weir, all the way across it," Mr Trinder recalled. "So it was a quite a volume of water." The rubber raft, with the boy and the woman in it, both wearing life jackets, paddled out and began to drift slowly towards the weir. In seconds, the pair was in trouble. "I didn't actually pay much attention until we saw the raft go over the weir and then get trapped in the backwash behind [the weir]," Mr Trinder said. "The strong back pressure created by the flow over the weir basically pinned the raft in place mid-river." Advertisement Pressure waves and eddies created by strong water flow around river obstacles have been harnessed by whitewater canoeists for years. Rushing over the weir, the water flow bounces off the rocky bottom and returns straight ack up, creating a standing wave. The quickest extraction from a pressure wave is said to be counter-intuitive; instead of staying at the top of the water flow, it's close to the bottom where the upward pressure decreases and horizontal pressure becomes a more powerful controlling force. But for 13-year-old Brandon McIlroy, now alone in the bobbing raft after his companion had fallen out and been carried downstream to the opposite shore, the swirling water behind the weir created a trap from which the raft and its small occupant could not escape. "We grabbed a tow rope out of the car but even when we waded out into the river as far as we could, the rope was still about a metre too short for him to grab," Mr Trinder recalled. Police were called and a rescue team arrived just after 4pm. Standard swift-water rescue techniques suggest a line should be secured on the opposite bank but this wasn't an option, as the rope kept getting dragged over the weir. Serious concerns were held for the safety of the boy in the raft as the water was cold and the raft was slowly deflating. Advertisement Police officer Tony Lewis then took the brave decision to put on a harness roped back to his team on shore, and swim out. His plan was bold but simple: to drift down slowly with the current, float over the weir, grab the boy and have his team drag them back to the bank. Mr Trinder positioned himself below the weir on a log sticking out into the water, waiting in case the boy fell from the raft. With the police fully occupied above the weir, he reasoned that should the boy fall out of the raft he could swim out and grab him. An excerpt from the police magazine Platypus then takes up the story: "When Senior Constable Lewis got within three metres of the weir, he was suddenly forced toward the near bank and went over the weir wall, about four metres from the boy." Senior Constable Tony Lewis, who nearly lost his life attempting the river rescue. Advertisement Mr Trinder, watching from below the weir, said that the police team upstream couldn't see what was happening and were trying to drag the officer back up as tonnes of water crashed down on him. "He [the police officer] was getting physically crushed by the water and the pressure of the harness. He couldn't release himself and it was holding him under water," he said. "We were shouting to the police to let the rope go. They couldn't hear us over the roar of the water but eventually they let go and the officer was washed over the weir and went under. "I saw his face under the water and saw he'd been spat out of the pressure wave, so I dived in and held his head up. "We were both tangled up in the rope but luckily we were both carried closer to the river bank by that time and I could swim him in to shore." The officer was injured and unconscious, but breathing. As an ambulance was called, repeated desperate attempts were made by police and the public to get out to the boy still trapped in the raft. Advertisement A woman is in hospital with a gunshot wound to the shoulder after a bikie-related drive-by shooting in Richardson in the early hours of Monday morning. Police said the home had been targeted in an attack on members of the Nomads outlaw motorcycle gang. Three people were inside the suburban home when the bullets struck. The victim was not a member of the gang but is reportedly related to members of the Nomads. Detective Superintendent Scott Moller, in charge of ACT's criminal investigations, confirmed that five shots had been fired. "At least three men fired on the house so, yes, it is a drive-by shooting incident," he said. The party boat toilet cubicle where "extremely hazardous" levels of hydrogen sulphide were recorded after a woman was found dead last month was the only one of six cubicles on the Lady Rose to have a "waterless trap" fitted to its sink. The Office of Transport Safety Investigations (OTSI) is examining the safe operation of the Lady Rose and whether the piece of plumbing was in place when the vessel was purchased or retro-fitted at a later date. Shalina Abdulhussein, 39, who was found dead on the Lady Rose last month. Credit:Facebook Three modifications have been made to the boat, including the waterless trap, an OTSI letter to the managing director of All Occasion Cruises Joe Elias, the owner of the Lady Rose, said. In plumbing a water trap is a section of pipe with a bend in it, allowing it to hold water to prevent sewer odours coming back up the pipe and into a building. A waterless trap or dry trap uses a valve or membrane instead to create the airtight seal. Stuart Ayres with his partner Marise Payne, now the Foreign Affairs Minister, at Fernhill in 2015. Credit:Tim Bauer This transaction has drawn the attention of the state opposition, which has raised questions about the extent of the links between the Tripps and Mr Ayres. Mr Ayres issued a press release saying the NSW government had purchased the Fernhill property from Angas Securities for more than $27 million, said shadow treasurer Ryan Park. Why did he fail to mention that the registered owners of the property were Simon and Brenda Tripp, his close personal acquaintances? Fernhill had been owned by Warren Anderson a colourful developer and entrepreneur once known for his association with former prime minister Paul Keating. But when Mr Anderson was bankrupted in 2010, the mortgage over the property was acquired by investment firm Angas Securities. In 2012 Angas entered into a complicated arrangement with the Tripps. Mr Tripp had been a stockbroker and real estate manager, and the couple had made a name restoring prestige properties. Under their agreement with Angas, the Tripps moved into Fernhill and held an option to buy the central and historic section of the property for $10 million. They hoped to reinvigorate this central section, restoring it to its former grandeur and hosting events and functions. Simon and Brenda Tripp with Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Ray Selkrig in 2013. Credit:Gene Ramirez And if they could make more than $55 million through the subdivision and sale of the eastern and western sections of the estate which had been acquired by Mr Anderson they would be able to keep the remainder, according to documents released by Angas. The Tripps soon started lodging development applications with Penrith Council. They lodged a successful application to host a Tough Mudder fitness event in April 2013. On June 28, 2013, they lodged a development application to subdivide the eastern and western parts of the estate to create 92 residential lots. Loading The week before they lodged this application, Mrs Tripp attended Mr Ayres fundraiser. To the surprise of some at the event, Mrs Tripp sat at the main table with Mr Ayres and Ms Payne although they had known each other less than a year. The week after the fundraiser, Mr Ayres office emailed the chief operating officer at Fernhill, Tom Lawson, to chase payment, according to emails provided to the Herald. Stuart has asked if I would contact you to see if you would be able to organise payment for the event that was on Wednesday evening at which Mr & Mrs Tripp were booked Stuart would like to be able to have all payments finalised by end of financial year where possible. Mr Lawson forwarded the email to Brenda Tripp. Mrs Tripp, however, told the Herald that she was invited to the fundraiser as a guest of Ms Payne and would not have paid. She said that, at one point, Mr Ayres told her she should not pay because of uncertainty over whether she was a developer. (Donations from developers are illegal in NSW). I dont remember if that was that dinner or something else, she said. A spokeswoman for Mr Ayres said: Brenda Tripp was a non-paying guest at the June 2013 event. Mr Ayres, the architect of the state government's controversial stadiums policy, also helped the Tripps organise their picnic race days. In October 2013, then racing minister George Souris announced the Tripps had been granted a racing licence to hold a race day. The media release credited the member for Mulgoa, Tanya Davies, as well as Mr Ayres with helping the Tripps organise the event. Practice at the Fernhill Estate racetrack in 2013. Credit:James Brickwood Emails provided to the Herald show the extent of Mr Ayress assistance. In one email to Mr Ayres in June 2013, Mr Lawson follows up with the MP on the ingenious idea of involving Inglis to create a new point of interest for media. The following month, Mr Lawson writes to his old buddy, old pal Mr Ayres asking how he went with Inglis, the racehorse sales company. Mr Ayres replied that he keeps missing him. Yes please do send me the sponsorship packages and new logo, Mr Ayres replied to Mr Lawson. Also Brenda was going to send me the email from the Arabian Association. With target contacts. Loading Asked for this story about the extent of his commercial involvement with the Tripps picnic race day, Mr Ayres spokeswoman said: He had none. Unfortunately for the Tripps, however, their plans to consolidate and subdivide the eastern and western sections of Fernhill did not make it through council. Both Mr and Mrs Tripp told the Herald they left the property in early 2016 and from that point no longer retained a financial interest in Fernhill. Andrew Luckhurst-Smith, the chairman of Angas Securities, also told the Herald the Tripps did not have an interest in Fernhill from early 2016. The Tripps remained the registered proprietors of the property, subject to an $18 million mortgage to Angas, when the state government announced the purchase of the property in March 2018. Justin Yerbury with his wife Rachel in 2008. Credit:Hank van Stuivenberg "We may not have many other opportunities. I was looking forward the most to being with family and going on a trip together like we used to always do." Mrs Yerbury said her daughters - Talia, 23 and Maddison, 20 - had been especially looking forward to spending time with their father. "While Justin has been very stable and well for the past 12 months, we really don't know how much longer he'll live," she said. "So after months of planning and weeks of packing, to get to check-in only to be referred to the doctor and told he wouldn't be allowed to board was just devastating." Mrs Yerbury said despite booking a disability room and filling in the special needs form, the female doctor said she also needed a medical clearance from Professor Yerbury's specialist. "We got Justin's neurologist on the phone, and he spoke to the doctor and told her that Justin was stable and fine to travel, but she didn't listen," she said. Dr Roger Parrish presenting Professor Justin Yerbury with a $7000 cheque for MND research. Credit:Adam McLean "The doctor also said the two carers we had with us weren't nurses - but one of them told her he had 25 years experience and could care for Justin in the dark, which he actually does. "She said the ship wasn't equipped to look after Justin in the event of an emergency - but surely there should be a plan in place for medical emergencies for any passenger?" As well as the cost of the cruise - around $12,000 for the group - the Yerburys have had to fork out $4000 to courier Professor Yerbury's equipment to Sydney, $2500 for travel insurance as well as other expenses. On Monday, a Royal Caribbean spokeswoman said the company would refund the cruise fares for Professor Yerbury and his travelling companions. "Regrettably, a male guest was unable to take his planned seven-night cruise to the South Pacific onboard Explorer of the Seas, which departed Sydney on Sunday," the spokeswoman said. "Upon presenting to the terminal for boarding, a decision was taken by the ships doctor to deny boarding on the grounds that the ship would be unable to provide the level of care required in the event of an emergency at sea." Late on Monday the company issued a further statement, stating it would also reimburse the couple for "all out-of-pocket expenses". 'There's things that money can't reimburse' However, Mrs Yerbury, the emotional cost of the incident continued to take its toll. "There's things that money can't reimburse," she said. "It's so hard for Justin already to do the daily things everyone takes for granted. And it's hard too for him to get respect and be treated as a person. And he didn't get the respect he deserved here. He felt invisible." Professor Yerbury said he felt discriminated against because of his condition. "They were rude, they didnt even speak to me or make eye contact. They didnt treat me as a person," he said. "They made all sorts of excuses why we couldnt go. They spoke to my specialist but still refused me access." Professor Yerbury said Royal Caribbean needed to review their processes, adding a specific consultant to work with special needs passengers would be helpful. They were rude, they didnt even speak to me or make eye contact. They spoke to my specialist but still refused me access. Professor Justin Yerbury "They need to be respectful and flexible. They should be upfront if they cant cater for people, not wait four months and tell you as you are leaving," he said. "They need to take responsibility when their systems fail." In the later statement, the Royal Caribbean apologised for the incident, which it committed to reviewing. "Royal Caribbean International is conducting a review into its booking procedures in the case of Professor Yerbury," the statement said. "Our processes of communicating Professor Yerburys medical condition to our on-board staff let down Professor Yerbury and his family and friends. "Royal Caribbean takes this issue very seriously and we apologise unreservedly for the distress, disappointment and inconvenience that this has caused." Tireless campaigner Professor Yerbury works at the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute to uncover the cause - and ultimately cure - for MND. MND is the name given to a group of diseases in which the nerve cells - neurones - controlling the muscles that enable us to move, speak, breathe and swallow; undergo degeneration and die. An aviation safety expert has been appointed Dreamworlds new general manager of engineering, in a bid to raise the embattled theme parks engineering safety levels. Ben Hogan, an aviation safety expert with more than 18 years' experience, takes the role ahead of the expected release of coroner James McDougalls findings into the 2016 Dreamworld tragedy. New Dreamworld general engineering manager Ben Hogan. Four people died and many others were traumatised after a raft on the Thunder River Rapids Ride collided with another and flipped over, killing Cindy Low, Kate Goodchild, Roozi Araghi and Luke Dorsett. The ride was decommissioned following the tragedy and an inquest into the incident began last year, hearing from nearly 100 witnesses including ride operators, experts and Dreamworld engineers and technicians. A former Catholic priest who took nude photos of a schoolboy while he has a teacher at Brisbane's Villanova College has been jailed. Michael Ambrose Endicott, 75, was found guilty last week of three counts of indecently dealing with the child about 40 years ago. Former priest Michael Endicott (centre) arrives at the District Court in Brisbane on Monday for his sentencing hearing. Credit:Dan Peled/AAP He was handed a 18-month jail sentence on Monday, to be suspended after he serves six months. Endicott was in charge of religious education at the school during the 1970s, his Brisbane District Court trial heard. Vietnam News Agency/Handout/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- In the wake of recent satellite images showing new activity at the Sohae (Tongchang-ri) launch facility in the northwestern part of North Korea, President Donald Trump's national security adviser said he's "not aware" of any contacts between the U.S. and North Korea since the summit in Hanoi, Vietnam. The images, which were published by the Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) Beyond Parallel, appear to show a rapid rebuilding at the countrys main site for long-range satellite launches and missile-engine testing. John Bolton told "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz on Sunday that its possible the South Korean government has spoken to North Korea about the activity. He added that he will be speaking with his South Korean counterpart Monday morning and he suspects the satellite images will be discussed. "I'd rather not get into the specifics" on the images," Bolton said. "The United States government -- I'll just put it this way -- spends a lot of resources and efforts so we don't have to rely on commercial satellite imagery. We've seen a lot in North Korea. We watch it constantly. ... There's a lot of activity all the time in North Korea, but I'm not going to speculate on what that particular commercial satellite picture shows." "What can you tell us?" Raddatz pressed. "Youve been doing this for years. Give us some idea whether that concerns you." "The president has been very clear that he's not going to make the mistakes of prior administrations. And one mistake that prior administrations made repeatedly was assuming that the North Koreans would automatically comply when they undertake obligations," Bolton said. "The North Koreans for example, have pledged to give up their nuclear weapons program at least five separate times, beginning in 1992 with the joint North/South denuclearization agreement. "They never seem to get around to it though. So that's one reason why we pay particular attention to what North Korea is doing all the time. We see exactly what theyre doing now. We see it unblinkingly, and we don't have any illusions about what their capabilities are." The facility in the satellite images had been inactive since August, following Trumps Singapore summit with Kim earlier that summer. During the summit, Kim committed to dismantling a launch facility. The renewed activity at the launch site was detected just two days after the second Trump-Kim summit in Vietnam, which failed to reach an agreement to eliminate North Korea's nuclear weapons program. However, Trump told reporters that like the Singapore summit, Kim had committed to not conducting nuclear or ballistic missile tests. Asked about the images on Wednesday, Trump said "its too early to see" if North Korea is breaking a promise by rebuilding the site. "I would be very disappointed if that were happening. Its a very early report," Trump said. "But I would be very, very disappointed in Chairman Kim. And I dont think I will be, but well see what happens. Well take a look. Itll ultimately get solved." On Saturday, CSISs Beyond Parallel published more satellite images taken on Wednesday and Friday that appear to show work has continued at the site. "What would the consequences be if we saw another test launch?" Raddatz asked Bolton Sunday on "This Week." "As the president said, hed be pretty disappointed if Kim Jong Un went ahead and did something like that. The president said repeatedly that he feels the absence of nuclear tests, the absence of ballistic missile launches is a positive sign," Bolton said. "Hes used that really as part of his effort to persuade Kim Jong Un that he has to go for what the president called the big deal, complete denuclearization." Bolton said that it would be a mistake to fall "for the North Korean action for action ploy" because it doesnt work. "What North Korea needs -- and it needs it very much right now -- is economic relief. ... [Kim] wants the economic sanctions released. And to get that, he is prepared to give up some part of his nuclear program, perhaps at a declaratory level, even a substantial part," Bolton said. "But the marginal benefit to North Korea of economic relief is far greater than the marginal benefit to us of partial denuclearization. So that's why, action for action, almost inevitably in the past three administration has worked to North Korea's benefit." Bolton said the sanctions put pressure on North Korea, which is to the United States advantage. "It's one reason why all of the pundits and all of the experts predicting a deal in Hanoi were wrong, because the leverage is on our side right now, not on North Korea's," he said. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. (WB) The U.S. Senate this week approved three of President Trumps picks for the judiciary each of whom have anti-LGBT records and in some cases the judges were confirmed from Senate Republicans who say they support LGBT rights. The Senate confirmed Allison Jones Rushing of North Carolina to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Fourth Circuit, Chad Readler of Ohio to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit and Eric Murphy of Ohio as U.S. Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit. Each of three new judges has issues in their on civil rights troubling to many observers, including aspects of the record related to LGBT rights. Rushing, who at 37 is now the youngest federal circuit judge in the United States, once had an internship at the anti-LGBT legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, which has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. (Allison Jones Rushing, image via Facebook) ADF has filed lawsuits seeking to bar transgender people from using restrooms consistent with their gender identity and argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Colorado baker Jack Phillips, who sought a First Amendment right to refuse to make wedding cakes for same-sex couple based on religious objections. Rushing, who also clerked for U.S. Associate Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, also spoke in favor of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which barred federal recognition of same-sex marriage, when it was litigated before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013. The Supreme Court ended up striking down the anti-gay statute. Despite Rushings record, all three Republican senators on the record in support of same-sex marriage Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Lisa Murkowksi (R-Alaska) voted for Rushings confirmation. Vanita Gupta, CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights, said in a statement Rushings confirmation brings bias and inexperience to the Fourth Circuit. Her inexperience is only outmatched by her clear bias as evidenced by Rushings work with Alliance Defending Freedom, an extremist organization listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Gupta said. Rushing has denounced marriage equality, opposed remedies for discriminatory lending practices, and rejected efforts to end housing discrimination against domestic and sexual violence survivors. Her record clearly shows she will not be a fair and independent judge a reality with dire consequences for Fourth Circuit cases and the American people. Readler, who until recently was acting assistant attorney general for the U.S. Justice Department for the Civil Division, faced opposition to his confirmation based on mostly on his signature on Trumps administration briefs arguing protections for pre-existing conditions under the Affordable Care Act should be struck down. (Chad Readler, image via Facebook) But Readler, who also defended Trumps travel ban on mostly Muslim countries and the family separation policy for immigrants seeking asylum at the border, also built a record defending the Trump administrations anti-LGBT legal policy. Readler penned his name to legal briefs defending President Trumps transgender military ban as well as voluntarily briefs arguing gay workers arent protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars sex discrimination in employment, and Phillips in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case. Collins broke with her caucus and voted against Readers confirmation, citing his legal work against protections for pre-existing conditions, but she did vote to invoke cloture on his confirmation. Portman and Murkowski both voted to confirm Readler. Tom Perez, chair of the Democratic National Committee, denounced Readlers confirmation in a statement after the vote. A vote for Chad Readler is a vote to take away protections for people with pre-existing conditions, Perez said. Its as simple as that. Republicans have shown their true colors: Theyve confirmed a judge who has a long and disturbing record of attacking peoples health care, voting rights, and civil rights. Hell drag us backwards on every issue from criminal justice and consumer protection to LGBTQ rights and the treatment of immigrants. Voters will not forget this betrayal next November. Murphy, who until recently was solicitor general of Ohio, defended in court the states ban same-sex marriage in the Obergefell v. Hodges case, which despite his efforts led the Supreme Court to rule in favor of marriage equality nationwide in 2015. (Eric Murphy, image via Facebook) Collins, Portman Murkowski each voted for Murphys confirmation. In the case of Portman, who has a gay son, the senator voted for a nominee that would have deprived his son to marry had Murphys argument succeeded before the Supreme Court. Sasha Buchert, senior attorney at Lambda Legal, took a note of Portmans vote in a statement condemning the Murphy confirmation. Todays vote to confirm Eric Murphy was yet another example of how little concern Senate Republicans have for the safety and security of the LGBT community, and their broader disdain for civil rights, Buchert said. The fact that even Sen. Portman, who came out publicly in support of marriage equality, could not bring himself to vote against this nominee demonstrates the extent to which Senate Republicans have completely abdicated their duty to provide meaningful advice and consent. Our federal courts will be the worse off for generations to come. Australia was home to all 15 of the world's hottest temperatures on Monday, with parts of south-east Queensland suffering its hottest March day on record. The sweltering autumn day was set to be capped off with severe thunderstorms on Monday night, the Bureau of Meteorology warned. Severe thunderstorms were detected on the weather radar near Coolangatta at the Gold Coast and north of Noosa Heads at the Sunshine Coast. Both storm cells were moving to the north-east on Monday afternoon and were likely to produce damaging winds and large hail, according to a BoM warning. A man has had surgery after being found with a "Rambo-style" hunting knife sticking out of his back on a Gold Coast street. The 28-year-old remains in a serious but stable condition and is recovering at Gold Coast University Hospital, with detectives investigating whether drugs are the reason for the attack. The man was put into an induced coma at Gold Coast University Hospital after the operation. Credit:Robert Shakespeare A crime scene was declared on McMillan Street in Labrador after the man was found by a woman walking a dog just after 6am on Tuesday. Police said the victim and the woman knew each other. Police said he was found on the street with "a large knife in his right shoulder blade" and was taken to the hospital by paramedics. Police have arrested and charged the man they will allege was responsible for an arson attack on the Gold Coast in which "this is for f---ing my wife" was painted on the house, almost two months ago. It will be alleged an arsonist broke into the homeowner's ute on January 14, reversed it into the side of the Belah Street home in Ashmore, set the vehicle alight and the fire spread to the house. The tinnie and trailer (inset) stolen from the Ashmore home on January 14 and set alight more than 20 kilometres away. Credit:7 News Gold Coast/Queensland Police Service A boat and trailer were taken from the scene and a message stating "this is for f---ing my wife" was spray-painted onto the outside of the home before it went up in flames about 8am. The 46-year-old male resident was not home at the time of the fire. South-east Queenslanders will have to endure another scorcher on Tuesday, with the possibility of further heatwave records tumbling. After a sweltering start to the week, the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and parts of Moreton Bay were battered by hailstones and strong winds on Monday evening. A fallen tree on the Gold Coast on Monday. Credit:Nine Weatherzone meteorologist Brett Dutschke said the strongest wind gust recorded by monitoring stations was 83km/h at Redcliffe in Moreton Bay. "The storms peaked in the mid-late afternoon, but all we had left in the evening was the odd bit of lightning close to coast, but not a lot of rainfall by that point," he said. Sediment runoff is not only a direct threat to the Great Barrier Reef, but is affecting how coral recovers from other threats, new international research has found. A joint study by the Canadian Dalhousie University along with James Cook Universitys ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and the University of Adelaide analysed 20 years of satellite footage of the southern end of the reef. The studys co-author, JCU PhD candidate Sam Matthews, said they found the coral in areas affected by regular runoff recovered more slowly than the coral in more pristine areas. Summer flooding in north Queensland delivers significant freshwater runoff into the Coral Sea creating concerns over the impact to the adjacent Great Barrier Reef. Credit:USGS/NASA Landsat Improving water quality is something thats going to do a lot of good for the Great Barrier Reef, Mr Matthews said. "I remember putting my hand on the dash, and I actually burst into tears ... I'd had enough." The man Mr Pisani's train hit this particular day did survive. He had walked into the path of the oncoming train near Queens Park station by navigating around some closed boom-gates. 'His face hit the window' "There was another guy who nearly came through my window," Mr Pisani said of another case, which turned out to be fatal. "I think about that every day. I still see his face [because] his face hit the window. "All I can do is hit the emergency brake and it's in the hands of God then." In an interview with WAtoday, Mr Pisani and Perth transit line supervisor Clinton Fernandez spoke of the tragic consequences of trespassing on train tracks and near level crossings. Jonathan Beninca, a man run over by a train in 1999, also told WAtoday about the potentially fatal results of trespassing in and around railway tracks. The three men hope that by speaking out they can get through to those who engage in such risky behaviour and expose the psychological trauma the incidents have on so many people, from PTA staff to members of the public. George Pisani and Clinton Fernandez. have seen their fair share of near miss cases. Credit:Cameron Myles Mr Fernandez, who has been in the job 11 years, is tasked with dispatching transit officers to scenes when people have been hit by a train. It is a horrendous job. "A lot of people get affected," Mr Fernandez said. "I've attended about three or four incidents." Mr Fernandez said he and his staff often spoke to young people on train platforms who got 'kicks' from pretending to jump or fall into the path of an oncoming train. "Whenever we speak to these people, it's just a joke for them," he said. "If you talk to them properly you can get compliance [but] it is getting difficult now; because before it used to be alcohol [related], but now it is alcohol and drugs." New figures released by the PTA show there were more than 860 incidents including near-miss and trespass-related cases on Perth's railway crossings and train tracks last year. The figures show there were 869 such incidents last year at level crossings, train tracks and other train property. There were 85 cases in 2018 of a near miss with a person at a level crossing and a further 13 near-miss cases with a car. And there were a further 285 cases of a person illegally being on a level crossing and a further 486 incidents deemed trespassing on train property or trespassing close to train tracks. 'It can ruin your career' Mr Pisani said he knew of some colleagues who had not been able to return to work after a near miss or a fatality because of the psychological impact it had on them. "One of my friends never came back," he said. "It can ruin your career ... but you learn to deal with it as best you can. "When you hear of an incident on the track ... it brings you back." 'All it is going to take is just a few moments' At the age of 19 Jonathan Beninca was run over by a train in Sydney after falling unconscious on railway tracks after a night of drinking. Jonathan Beninca lost a leg, an arm and two fingers on his hand. Credit:PTA He'd been throwing rocks at a stationary train as he walked along the train-line, when one of the rocks re-bounded off it and knocked him out cold. A train which later came along severed a leg, an arm and two fingers on his other hand. He spent three months in hospital. For the past 15 years Mr Beninca has been telling his powerful and personal story to teenagers across the country in an effort to highlight what can happen when one engages in anti-social behaviour around train stations. He will visit Perth later this month, where he will speak to hundreds of school children. "People become complacent, especially around the train tracks," he said. "All it is going to take is just a few moments and minutes of our time to stop and wait and cross safely. "I'd prefer to be 15 minutes late than have the police knock on the door and tell my family I've passed away because I couldn't wait a few minutes." PTA spokesman David Hynes said the agency was going to great lengths to reduce the chances of incidents like near misses happening in the first place. "While the safety and security of anyone who interacts with our system is of utmost importance to the PTA there is an expectation that people take some responsibility for their own safety," he said. "Public transport has many built-in safety features and we go to great lengths to reduce the chance of a serious incident." Rail Tram and Bus Union PTA branch secretary Joshua Dekuyer said near misses had wide-ranging short and long-term impacts for drivers and transit officers. "Especially as every incident can be so different and always traumatic," he said. "Where transit officers have the benefit of mental preparation, drivers have the worse situation with unexpected and direct involvement. Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack has rebuked his predecessor Barnaby Joyce over his ability to make the "marriage" work between the Nationals and the Liberal Party, in a growing dispute over leadership and energy. Mr McCormack made a telling swipe against Mr Joyce, known for his separation from his wife following an affair with staffer Vikki Campion, by emphasising the need to make the Coalition between the two parties work like a marriage. "I understand when you have a marriage that its a two-way relationship. You dont always get what you want but you have to work together to build better outcomes for your family," Mr McCormack told reporters on Monday. "I understand that. I understand what it takes to have a successful marriage and to make sure that we work together to build a better Australia. The remark came after days of turmoil within the Nationals as Mr Joyce called for Commonwealth financial support for a coal-fired power station in Queensland, while other MPs said Mr McCormack was not doing enough to back the investment. The Berejiklian government has vowed to press ahead with the demolition of Allianz Stadium before the state election, as it prepares to fight a last-ditch legal appeal this week aiming to halt the project. As the election campaign entered its final fortnight, Ms Berejiklian again tackled the stadium issue head on, declaring the government would not "sit on our hands" while it waited for a Court of Appeal hearing on Friday. The Berejiklian government has vowed to press ahead with the demolition of Allianz Stadium. Credit:Christopher Pearce "We'll do whatever action we need to do on all of our projects to make sure we meet our deadlines," Ms Berejiklian said. The government was given the green light on Friday to start major demolition works on its $730 million rebuild of Allianz Stadium at Sydney's Moore Park, after the Land and Environment Court rejected a legal challenge by community group Local Democracy Matters. Banning property developers from giving cash to politicians discriminates against one political viewpoint and benefits Labor, former LNP president Gary Spence has argued in his High Court challenge against the new rules. The Palaszczuk Labor government passed laws last year, backdated until before the 2017 Queensland election, banning property developers from donating money to state and local government politicians, candidates and parties. Former LNP president Gary Spence is fighting Labor's property developer donation laws in the High Court. Credit:LNP Queensland Then-LNP president Mr Spence, also the chairman of engineering consultancy PeakUrban, launched a challenge of the laws in the High Court in mid-2018 and in December resigned his position on the LNP. He argued the laws prevented him from legally playing a role in the leadership of the party ahead of the federal election, for example, fundraising, due to his role in the property development industry. A powerful union has claimed the "goalposts" are being shifted for coal mines in the Galilee Basin, such as the Adani Carmichael mine. CFMMEU mining and energy Queensland president Stephen Smyth said when the bar "looked like it was going to be reached, the bar was moved". CFMMEU mining and energy Queensland president Stephen Smyth says the goalposts have been moved for projects in the Galilee Basin. Credit:Bradley Kanaris "I have seen a fair lot of scrutiny clearly put on the Carmichael coal or the Adani project," he said. "All we are saying is that there should be a level playing field and a project should be judged on the project, not on what people may think or have a personal view on." As we finished celebrating Mardi Gras earlier this week, and with springtime festivities only weeks away, 2019 is picking up steam and moving right along. Luckily enough, I did not get myself arrested on Tuesday evening as I stumbled out onto the Drive with my Mardi Gras beads shouting at people passing by to flaunt themselves in exchange for cheap jewelry. One or two enthusiastically engaged in my debauchery until friends hauled me away to safety. All in all, it was a far cry from the hordes of revelers that pack New Orleans and other cities throughout Christendom on the eve marking the beginning of the Lenten season. Now we move on to 40 days of ascetic behavior and avoidance of temptation. The many who claim to be good Christians will hopefully gain greater compassion as they practice a more spiritual discipline through the Lenten season, even though the Methodists are clearly off to a poor start in that department. On the topic of compassion, there is bright spot on the local level here in Broward County with the launch of the Community Court, which is held every Wednesday at the Fort Lauderdale City Hall. It is the first court of its kind here in Florida, aimed mainly at those accused of petty infractions like panhandling and loitering. This court will go a long way in assisting a very vulnerable population in our community. Only a few weeks into operation, many are witnessing a huge support network coming together to offer services to those so desperately in need. Outside City Hall, organizations offer clothing, care services, and assistance in obtaining legal identification cards, birth certificates, and so much more that is required for many to get the social services they need to break the cycle of homelessness. This small part of a solution to a regional issue of homelessness, mental illness and addiction can serve as a beacon of hope for us all. Looking to lend a helping hand to those in need is a far better approach than to do nothing, turning a blind eye to encampments outside our public facilities, and offering no hope as those who are suffering spiral further down a path of despair. Initial signs of compassion and hospitality were definitely fading fast at our last City Commission meeting once the initial presentation was made to a packed house of enthusiastic residents. Those packing the Commission Chambers heard a wonderful presentation on the Station Area Master Plan and possible development scenarios that are necessary to sustain our citys future. The presenter did a great job informing the engaged audience on the possibilities of a future train station and how increased density achieved in the right places and with appropriate design does not have to be viewed as an evil monster rearing its head to bring havoc and destruction to us all. Unfortunately, the ensuing presentation on the Hotel Study Findings caused all good feelings to quickly dissipate, like a vacuum sucking all the air out of the room. Luckily for the presenter, he had to leave early for another engagement. Had he stayed around, he would have experienced very little compassion once the agitated Commissioners and audience let loose with questions and commentary that would have bordered on verbal abuse towards this poor misguided soul. To think of comparing our great citys needs to those of an aged motel chain on Federal Highway was insulting enough for anyone in the audience to endure. In an attempt to make ice cream out of mud, our Economic Development advisor stated that at least now we know the hurdles placed before us by such misguided individuals and institutions who are preventing such a shared dream of becoming a reality. By the end of a long informative evening, compassion was clearly not on the minds of those few tired souls left sitting in the chamber. One caveat was to watch the Commissioners begin to get a bit curt with their colleagues on the dais as the facade of pleasantries faded along with the remaining minutes to the midnight hour. As 2019 moves steadily ahead we should spend the next few weeks looking at ways to bring compassion into our daily routine. Let compassion guide us and motivate us to assist those in our community in need of a helping hand. Let us be motivated by the good work being done every Wednesday at the Community Court. Rather than turn a blind eye, let us compassionately engage to bring about solutions that will make life just better here The vote was lost, 391 "noes" to 242 "ayes". The No Deal Vote and its defeat. With the Meaningful Vote lost, May had promised Parliament a vote on leaving the EU without a Withdrawal Agreement the so-called "no deal Brexit". Parliament has already voted against a no deal in a non-binding amendment to a previous motion. It did so again. But this vote has no legal effect. It just expresses Parliaments will for the next step and focuses minds on the consequences. So Parliament doesn't want a no deal Brexit. But how can that be avoided? In her own words: PM Theresa May explains what's next The Delay Vote. Government wins. On Thursday there was a vote on an extension to the current Brexit date of March 29. It was a comfortable win for the government - mainly because it was also supported by Labour. The motion instructs the government to seek an extension from the EU. All 27 other member nations must agree to any extension, though. the vote doesn't make a 'no deal' Brexit impossible, just less likely. And there was a twist. The motion voted on by the Commons anticipated asking for a short Brexit delay: to June 30 at the latest, if May wins a Meaningful Vote by March 20. That delay would essentially be the time needed to pass necessary legislation that has been on hold (or running behind schedule). In other words, there would be a third (perhaps even a fourth) Meaningful Vote on the divorce deal. If the deal still doesn't pass the Commons, the motion "notes" that "it is highly likely that the European Council... would require a clear purpose for any extension... and that any extension beyond 30 June 2019 would require the UK to hold European Parliament elections in May". See below. Meaningful Vote 3? 4? So, unless one of the 'wild cards' come into play (see below), May will likely get one or two more chances to push her deal through parliament, early next week. What would a "no-deal" Brexit mean? The UK government's 12-page No Deal assessment paper sketches the consequences of a no-deal Brexit. It reveals that a third of the governments "most critical" no-deal preparations are not on track (it didnt say which ones). This includes many trade agreements between the EU and third countries, including major trading partners such as Japan and Turkey, which have not yet been rolled over into UK-specific deals. The report finds there is "little evidence that businesses are preparing in earnest for a no-deal scenario", with small and medium businesses particularly unready. For example, just 40,000 out of an estimated 240,000 importing businesses have registered for a trading ID system that will allow them to import goods from the EU after a no-deal. The government estimates a no deal would generate a GFC-level 9 per cent hit to the UK economy after 15 years, not including short term disruptions "which would be likely to have additional short and long-run economic impacts". Almost a third of the UKs food supply comes from the EU. Some food prices are likely to increase and there is a particular risk of shortages of fresh fruit and vegetables. The UKs agricultural industry would be particularly hurt, as the EU would immediately apply tariffs of 70 per cent on beef and 45 per cent on lamb imports (more than 90 per cent of Welsh lamb exports go to the EU). And the UK automotive industry would suffer a painful, possibly existential blow. Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May is inching closer to an ominous Brexit deadline without a deal with the EU. Credit:PA What happens if the Brexit date is extended? The UK must win the agreement of all 27 EU member nations to delay the Brexit date. That might be tricky. Many are fed up with the Brexit distraction from urgent issues such as migration, re-emerging nationalist dissent, a stumbling economy and the upcoming EU Parliament elections. Loading Rather than just stretching out the deadlock, the EU might demand a new referendum to assess support for the Withdrawal Agreement and its alternatives. French President Emmanuel Macron, for example, has said he would veto any delay to Brexit without a "clear objective" based on a "new choice" by the British. Any extension beyond mid-2019 hits another problem: the EU Parliament elections in May. If the UK is still in the EU, this could prove a legal and political minefield. Wild card one: a second referendum What Will Jeremy Do? Labour has said its biggest priority is to get into government and negotiate a softer alternative to what it has dubbed the "Tory Brexit". Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn only reluctantly and recently announced that Labour is also now behind the idea of another Brexit referendum an option his party members enthusiastically endorsed last year. But it is unclear when Labour would actually vote for one and it doesnt stand a chance until they do. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said Labour would "use this week to kill off no deal". After that they would seek "a realistic deal or going back to the people [for a second referendum]". He was vague on the timeline. It is also unclear if there is enough support in Parliament to get a second referendum across the line even then. Only a few Conservative MPs want one, and some Labour MPs would likely defy their leader to oppose it. A second referendum would take months to organise and require a delay to Brexit. Wild card two: a general election The governments support in Parliament already hangs on a knife edge. A looming chaotic Brexit could cause it to lose the confidence of the House of Commons: the cue for a general election, with or without a delay to the Brexit date. Or the government might use parliament to call an election to rally voters behind the prime minister and her Brexit plan. London: Stephen Hawking's former nurse has been suspended and is facing a misconduct allegation over her care of the renowned physicist. Britain's Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) handed 61-year-old Patricia Dowdy, who worked for the scientist for 15 years, an interim suspension in March 2016. A hearing into her professional conduct, which is expected to last until March 21 after beginning in February, has since been held behind closed doors. Professor Stephen Hawking the renowned physicist pictured in March, 2015. Credit:AP The director of fitness to practise at the nursing watchdog, Matthew McClelland, said the legislation and guidance of the NMC is "very clear that hearings will usually take place in public". New York: They measure 7.3 metres wide and 12.8 metres high, which makes them taller than a telephone pole but one metre shorter than the letters in the Hollywood sign. Pedestrians walk by photographs of Harry Macklowe and his new wife, Patricia Landeau, at 432 Park Ave., in New York. Credit:New York Times The two photographs, according to the man who had them installed last week on one of the tallest residential buildings in the Western Hemisphere, are "a proclamation of love." That man is real estate developer Harry Macklowe, who is pictured in one of the photographs and was married for the second time on Thursday. His new wife, the woman in the other photograph, is Patricia Landeau, president of the French Friends of the Israel Museum. Macklowe built the building where the images appear, 432 Park Ave. Macklowe, 81, said Saturday that he had bid $US2000 at a charity auction for photographs by Studio Harcourt in Paris. He loved the results "My wife looks gorgeous, and I love the picture of me," he said Saturday and began thinking about ways to show them off. Caracas: Venezuela is on course for civil war, one of the country's most respected military analysts has warned. "If the US go in, it'll be three days. If the Colombians go in, maybe a week," said retired colonel Jose Machillanda. People lie on the ground after being detained for allegedly looting a supermarket during a continued power outage in Santa Cruz del Este, Caracas, Venezuela. Credit:Bloomberg "But there will likely be chaos building up to that. The rifles and pistols and automatic weapons will come out. We're heading towards civil war." Juan Guaido, recognised by more than 50 countries as the interim president, declared a "state of alarm" on Monday after four days of nationwide blackouts. Caracas: Sporadic looting and spontaneous protests. Desperate patients begging doctors to be kept alive. Residents bracing for wider attacks on markets and restaurants after the sun goes down. It was the fourth day on Sunday since Venezuela's power system went down, plunging most of the country, including Caracas, the capital, into sporadic darkness and dampening hopes of imminent resolution to a devastating blackout that has brought the country to the verge of social implosion. "We're going to arrive at a moment when we're going to eat each other," said Zuly Gonzalez, 40, a resident of Caracas' Chacao neighbourhood. The blackout is the latest calamity to befall a country in seemingly perpetual crisis. Venezuela has been devastated for years by hyperinflation and a failing economy that has led millions to flee. But the country has been further torn since January, when opposition leaders refused to acknowledge as legitimate the re-election of President Nicolas Maduro. Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC Friends, Romans, Brooklynites lend us your ears! A new production of Shakespeares The Tragedy of Julius Caesar offers the ever-timely advice that stabbing your political opponents may not be the best way to get what you want. The modern-dress staging of the more-than-400-year-old play, which starts its run at Theatre for a New Audiences Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Fort Greene on March 17 just after the ominous ides of March considers the social cost of leaders who live by the sword, according to its director. The act of violence, that was an attempt to protect Rome and their Republic and their ideals, set in motion a civil war that destroys everything they were fighting for thats why I really think about the play as a meditation on the cost of governing through violence said Shana Cooper. The five-act play, likely written in 1599, follows the downfall of Roman ruler Julius Caesar, whose victory in a civil war wins him the love of Romes citizens, who offer him unlimited political power for life. But before Casear can accept that offer, a group of conspirators led by his close friend, Brutus assassinate him, plunging Rome into yet another civil war. The director emphasizes the effects of violence through the plays climactic battle scene, where she adds martial arts and dance moves to Shakespeares intimate conversations between soldiers. The movements allow the performers to more fully express the trauma and tragedy of fighting in battle, Cooper said. It felt useful to strip away Shakespeares language that is trying to conjure the civil war and replace it with a visceral, physical storytelling of war, she said. The show runner also added some literally haunting appearances from Caesar after his death, with his ghost looming over multiple moments of the production in order to emphasize his absence, she said. Weve created a couple moments where he, I think in quite a disturbing way, appears out of nowhere and then disappears really quickly all through simple theater magic, Cooper said. The role of the citizens in the play is just as important as that of Caesar, because their actions inadvertently spur his downfall, said the director, and the story demonstrates the power of the people. I think the biggest lesson of the story is the role we all play, in not simply who we choose to be our leader, but also how we choose to run our country, she said. Shakespeare very firmly puts that choice in our hands not in the hands of one single leader. Julius Caesar at Polonsky Shakespeare Center (262 Ashland Pl. between Fulton Street and Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene, (866) 8114111, www.tfana.org). Previews start March 17 at 7:30 pm. Official opening March 28; TueSun at 7:30 pm through April 28, Weekend matinees at 2 pm starting on March 30. $90$115 ($20 students and those under 30). The City Council this week took the wait-and-see approach, deciding to let the process of collecting enough signatures to put a measure on the ballot play out, 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 India should talk to Pakistan and separatists in Kashmir to defuse tension arising from a suicide attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy that was claimed by Pakistan-based militants, a former chief minister of the state said. Mehbooba Mufti, who was chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir from early 2014 to June last year when Prime Minister Narendra Modis Hindu nationalist party withdrew support for her regional party, said an ongoing crackdown on militants and those supporting secession could further alienate the people. India has vowed to kill all the ... The government has decided to return to the drawing board on the proposed industrial policy, despite announcing about two years back that the current policy framework could be overhauled. The primary reason behind this remains the lack of a proper draft. However, sources said, the decision has little to do with the announcement of Lok Sabha elections and the model code of conduct. Despite repeatedly insisting that the draft is ready, it appears that the Commerce and Industry Ministry is yet to agree on the broad contours of the policy, a senior government official said. In the ... TWO American plane crash survivors were rescued by a cruise ship after their small aircraft went down in the sea near Grand Turk on Tuesday morning (March 5). The private aeroplane which departed from St Maarten suffered an engine failure causing it to crash into TCI waters just southeast of the capital. At the same time the Regal Princess cruise ship was sailing towards St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. The captain received a distress signal and immediately changed course. According to Hon. Delroy Williams, Minister of Home Affairs, Agriculture and Human Services, several rescue vessels were dispatched to the scene. They included boats from the US Coast Guard, the Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies and the Royal TCI Police Forces Marine Division. The two survivors were found clinging to life on a makeshift raft. Regal Princess dispatched a rescue boat to collect the crash victims and the US Coast Guard provided assistance in directing it to the exact location. The survivors were given medical attention and food as soon as they were on board the ship. The cruise ship, which is operated by Carnival-owned Princess Cruises, then continued on its journey to the US Virgin Islands. In 2016 an elderly man on a small boat went missing after running out of fuel in the Baltic, the Regal Princess was in the region and rescued him. (By Olivia Rose) In a first-of-its-kind meeting of a federal forum in the midst of the code of conduct of general elections, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council is scheduled to meet on March 19 to finalise guidelines to support the changed tax rate structure for underconstruction houses. This would be the only substantive item that will be taken up, officials in the know said. The meeting will happen via a video conference. The pending decision to introduce parity in GST rates on government and private lottery is unlikely to feature in the meeting. Sources said the meeting of group of ... The Election Commission (EC) of India on March 10 announced the Lok Sabha Elections 2019 schedule. Polling will take place in seven phases from April 11 to May 19. With elections around the corner, you might like to check if your name figures in the voters list and verify your voter information, such as name, fathers name, address, constituency, booth and polling station. This information can be checked online on a computer or on a mobile phone. In case of information mismatch, you can also raise a request for changes from the comfort of your home. Here are the steps for ... The Election Commission of India on Sunday imposed 'Model Code of Conduct' (MCC) with immediate effect for the Lok Sabha elections 2019. What is a model code of conduct and when does it kick in? The Code comes into play as soon as the EC announces an Assembly election in a state or the Lok Sabha polls. Article 324 of the Constitution gives the Election Commission the power to monitor Central and state governments, all the candidates and political parties. In the context of the Lok Sabha elections 2019, the Model Code of Conduct will be in force until after May 19, the last ... Want to prepare a report card of your area Member of Legislative Assembly or Member of Parliament? There is an app for it. Angry at the state of your constituency, there is a web-based platform which will help you reach out to the right people. Connecting with more than 350 million Indians this poll season, more than 50 mobile applications and web-based platforms are planning to tap into the election fever as an alternative business model. Taking out full-page advertisements in national dailies, these apps, which till now were operating from the sidelines, are now making their ... Ericsson and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) have formed a new partnership to educate and empower the next generation, with the partners to develop a new digital skill learning program that has specific emphasis on scaling up Artificial Intelligence (AI) skill development for young people. With the rapid deployment of advanced technologies such as mobile broadband, cloud, IoT, automation and AI, a new set of skills is required to enter the workforce. There is an unprecedented opportunity to harness technologies and use them to advance not only economies but also to combat some of the worlds looming challenges. Next-generation 5G services are set to play a key role in accelerating digitalization and the impact of technologies like AI. The impact of AI is also felt across the education sector where it has the potential to increase access, automate process, curate learning and improve outcomes in education. It will continue to bring new opportunities for enhanced learning, new forms of learning and offer more flexible lifelong learning pathways. With this background, Ericsson and UNESCO are combining their respective strengths to create opportunities to scale up skill development in AI and other key digital skills for young people. Under the AI for youth initiative the partners will: Develop and manage a repository of AI and other key digital skill training courses that will be available globally Build capacities of master trainers from selected countries around the globe with advanced knowledge of AI skill development Support master trainers to mobilize AI hub centers and hackathons to train young people on developing AI applications Heather Johnson, Vice President Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility, Ericsson, says: At Ericsson we believe that building strong and viable partnerships is key to meeting the global Sustainable Development Goals. This public private partnership focusing on skill development for Artificial Intelligence is an excellent example of what can be achieved when leaders work together to promote knowledge sharing and cooperation. Borhene Chakroun, Director of Policies and Lifelong Learning Division, UNESCO, says: At UNESCO we think that artificial intelligence is to be put at the service of sustainable development, a whole set of new education and training programmes has to emerge to equip youth with skills required to live and work in artificial intelligence era. Our partnership with Ericsson is critical to advance this agenda. The initiative was launched at Mobile Learning Week 2019, UNESCOs flagship education conference held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris from March 4 to 8. The event brings together education and technology experts from around the world with focus on AI and sustainable development. As part of the event, UNESCO member states were invited to join the initiative and support the scaling up of AI skill development for young people. British Prime Minister Theresa Mays Brexit strategy was in meltdown on Monday after her failure to win last-minute concessions from the European Union set the stage for another humiliating defeat of her divorce deal in parliament. Just 18 days before the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU on March 29, there is still no ratified divorce deal and talks with the bloc have stalled as May tries to break the political deadlock in London. Mays spokesman said a meaningful parliamentary vote on her deal would go ahead on Tuesday, even though talks with the ... Two days after Pakistani drones were shot down by in Sri Ganganagar area, an unidentified object was found in a village in the area. The object fell through the roof of a building in 3B village on Sunday. Ismail Khan, CO (City) said, "We received information that some item came falling through the roof of a building here. We have informed the and the No injuries have been reported." The Indian on Saturday shot down a drone which intruded in Sri Ganganagar sector of The said that one Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) intruded in Rajasthan's Sri Ganganagar sector around 7.30 pm on Saturday. "The drone was engaged and brought down," the Army added. The Army on Friday too shot at a Pakistani drone along the international border in Rajasthan's Sri Ganganagar sector. "The shot down the drone while it was making an attempt to enter the Indian airspace, "army sources said. So far four Pakistani drones have been shot at by the Indian security forces since the carried out air strike at the terror camp in Balakot in on February 26. On March 4, the second drone was shot down in the Bikaner sector of Rajasthan, while the first drone was shot down on the morning of February 26 after it intruded Indian air space in Kutch district of (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.) South Africa's wicket-keeper batsman Quinton de Kock 's 14th ODI century helped his team defeat Sri Lanka in the third ODI by 71 runs to take an unassailable lead in the five-match ODI series on Sunday. Along with skipper Faf du Plessis, de Kock piled misery on the Sri Lankans hitting them for regular boundaries and dispatching their loose balls. They both shared a 97-run stand to provide a solid foundation to South Africa. Faf was dismissed for a brisk 36, but de Kock went on to score 121 runs before being dismissed by Kasun Rajitha. Late power hitting in the death overs by Andile Phehlukwayo and David Miller enabled South Africa to post 331 runs on the board. Chasing a target of 332, Sri Lanka got off to the worst start possible, as they lost their opener Niroshan Dickwella early. Lungi Ngidi dismissed Vishka Fernando reducing Sri Lanka to 75 for two at the end of 18 overs. Rain played a spoilsport in the match and after Duckworth Lewis permutations, Sri Lanka had to chase down 118 more runs off the last eight overs. The task proved too much for the Islanders, eventually losing the match by 71 runs. With this win, South Africa has taken an unassailable lead in the five-match ODI series. Sri Lanka will look to salvage some pride by displaying good show in the final two ODI's. Sri Lanka takes on South Africa in the fourth ODI at Port Elizabeth on Wednesday, March 13. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Election Commission on Sunday appointed three former civil servants Amarjit Singh Gill (IPS 1972 Batch, Former DG, CRPF), Noor Mohammad (IAS 1977), and Vinod Zutshi (IAS 1982) as special observers for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora had said, "The commission has also decided for more effective monitoring to appoint three special observers of Jammu and Kashmir. The commission will be regularly and on real-time basis monitoring the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and continue to take inputs from all necessary quarters and decision regarding holding the election for legislative assembly will be taken soon." Arora on Sunday announced that there will be no simultaneous elections for Jammu and Kashmir state assembly owing to the recent incident of violence, among other factors. He said, "The commission has been continuously accessing the prevailing condition in the state. Based on input, the constraint of availability of central forces and other logistics, the requirement of forces for the security of candidates in wake of recent violence and keeping other challenges in mind EC has decided at this stage to announce only the schedule of Parliament election in Jammu and Kashmir." "The commission has conducted several rounds of meeting with state administration as well as MHA secretary. In the totality of these views, the commission has decided at this stage to announce only the schedule of the parliament election," he added. While responding to a question about the assembly elections never being delayed since the mid-1990s due to security concerns in the valley, the CEC said, "Central forces are definitely a big issue and one cannot disregard the recent developments. The commission ultimately doesn't capitulate to anybody and at the same time commission cannot be non-cognizant of the situations on the ground." "Since 1996 and 1997, in many states now, the requirement of Central Forces has not decreased in any state. The requirement has not remained static," he added. Arora also outlined the commission's measure of appointing the three observers to monitor the situation and said that the commission will try and conduct elections "as soon as the ground situation allows." "On an average in an assembly constituency, even if we take it to be 8 to 10 candidates multiplied by 86 assembly constituencies. This is the additional quantum required for the protection. The candidates of the Panchayat and municipal elections, much after the elections are over, are staying in the state guest houses and paid over by the government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale is visiting Washington D.C from March 11 in connection with the bilateral Foreign Office Consultation and Strategic Security Dialogue with the United States. During his three-day visit, the Foreign Secretary will meet with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the Department of State on Monday morning (local time) and discuss bilateral, regional and global issues of common interest. In Washington D.C, Gokhale would also hold Foreign Office Consultation with his US counterpart, the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale and the Strategic Security Dialogue with the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Andrea Thompson. "These are regular high-level dialogue mechanisms to review bilateral relations, exchange views on major foreign policy and security-related developments and coordinate respective positions on issues of common interest," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. Gokhale is also slated to meet with senior leaders in the US administration and the US Congress. The Foreign Secretary's meet with his American counterparts comes amidst heightened tensions between India and Pakistan following the February 14 Pulwama terror attack, which claimed the lives of over 40 CRPF personnel. Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) claimed responsibility for the attack, following which there has been intense global pressure on Pakistan to quash all terror infrastructure on its soil. In fact, showing its solidarity with India, the United States had bluntly told Pakistan to stop providing support and safe haven to terror groups and terrorists in the immediate aftermath of the terror attack. No country has officially offered to mediate between the two countries, according to Ravish Kumar. However, US President Donald Trump has claimed that the United States has been "involved and trying to help them (India and Pakistan) stop." Making its stand very clear, India has sought credible, verifiable and sustained action from the Pakistani side against terror groups while saying that mere words will not be enough to appease the international community. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Shikhar Dhawan came back into form with a spectacular inning of 143 against Australia in the fourth ODI at Mohali. The opener has said that bad form does not worry him and he always tries to stay in the positive frame of mind. Dhawan's century went in vain as India lost to Australia by four wickets on Sunday. "I do not read newspapers, I do not take any information which I don't want to take. I make sure I keep my composure, I know I perform best when I stay calm. I really don't know what people write in newspapers and I make sure I stay in the positive frame of mind," Dhawan told reporters. Dhawan said that he tries to cut down the negative thoughts when he is going through a dull patch in his career and he tries consistently to improve his game. "I make sure I cut down the negative thoughts and accept the reality there is. If it is going good, it is good. I know I am right up there at my skill work and fitness, so there is nothing to worry about," Dhawan told reporters. Rishabh Pant missed two-three stumpings in the Mohali match which probably cost India the match as they went on to lose the match by four wickets. Dhawan said that Rishabh needs time to adjust and he will definitely be right up there among the best. "Rishabh is a young bloke and like any other player, you need to give time to him. MS Dhoni has played so many games so it is unfair to compare Rishabh with him. Yes, probably the missed stumping cost us the match but the dew also played a very important role in the match." As a result of a loss in the fourth ODI of the five-match series, the series stands levelled at 2-2. Having lost the fourth ODI against Australia, India would now hope to win the series decider at New Delhi. India takes on Australia in the fifth and final ODI on Wednesday, March 13 at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Three terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in Tral town of Pulwama district on Sunday. Two AK-47 rifles and a pistol were recovered from the spot. The search operation is underway. The gunfight broke out after the forces launched a cordon and search operation in the area acting on a tip-off on the presence of terrorists, officials said. More details are awaited. On March 7, one terrorist was killed in Handwara in an encounter. The state police said that the terrorist was a Pakistan and was affiliated with Jaish-e-Mohammed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Fans upset with rapper Nicki Minaj, who cancelled her concert at the last minute, chanted rival rapper Cardi B's name at the venue. This the second time in two months that Minaj has cancelled a concert at the last minute, reported Fox News. On Saturday night, the 36-year-old rapper was scheduled to perform in Bordeaux, France. However, after fans reached the Arkea Arena, they were informed that the show had been called off. The 'Barbie Tingz' rapper took to Instagram to post her reasons for cancelling the show. In a video posted on the photo-sharing application, the rapper said she had to call off the show due to technical reasons caused by a lack of electricity. "You guys, it's not in my best interest not perform and lose money and aggravate my fans. I love performing for my fans. I'm more excited than you are before the show," she explained in the video. "These two cities that had technical issues were cities that I had never been before and we tried to add them but they just didn't have the power in the building to facilitate my show. And they didn't tell us that until three hours before the show we did sound check, they said it was fine," Minaj added. She concluded, "But anyway, every artist has technical difficulties and has to cancel shows. I wanna tell you guys that I love you dearly and I really hope to make it up very soon." However, fans upset after the cancellation began chanting Cardi B's name at the venue. The other tour date which was cancelled earlier was scheduled to take place on February 22 in Bratislava, Slovakia. According to her, they also apparently didn't have the electrical capabilities to be able to support her performance. Minaj and Cardi have had a controversial relationship, their feud culminated into a scuffle at a New York Fashion Week party in September, last year. The feud between the duo started when Cardi launched a scathing attack on Minaj at Harper's Bazaar ICONS party in New York City. The fight is said to have broken out after Minaj criticised Cardi for not being a good mother. After the Saturday show's cancellation, Minaj headed back to her hotel. The rapper was spotted briefly greeting her fans outside and also apologised for calling off the show, before heading to a carnival with her boyfriend Kenneth Petty. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday said that opposition leaders were looking for an excuse to justify their impending defeat in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls by raking up the Ramzan controversy. "The opposition leaders are making excuses because they know they are going to lose the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. He who does not know how to dance, complains that the stage is uneven," he said while talking to ANI here on Monday. "Why are they bothered? They should not divert the people's attention unnecessarily," he said. Vishwash Sarang, another BJP leader, too lauded the Election Commission of India (ECI) for not being "narrow-minded" and requested the opposition parties to not "play the of separation during the election months." "The opposition leaders have accepted that they are going to lose the election. That is why they are adopting such tactics," said Sarang. The controversy erupted when Trinamool Congress leader and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim on Monday questioned the lengthy schedule of the ensuing Lok Sabha polls, saying that those observing Ramzan in Bihar, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh would be affected. Congress leader JP Dhanopia also said: "It would have been convenient if the Election Commission of India had decided the dates keeping in mind the holy month of Ramzan." Former Union Minister and BJP leader Syed Shahnawaz Hussain also on Monday wondered if the people were voting for the first time during the month-long fast, which this year is likely to start from May 5 to conclude on June 4 accordingly. "Are the people voting for the first time during Ramzan," asked Hussain. ECI on Sunday announced seven-phased poll to the 17th Lok Sabha, beginning April 11 and ending on May 19. The counting of votes will take place on May 23 to declare 543 members elected for the Lok Sabha, the Lower House of Indian Parliament. The phase five of Lok Sabha polling has been fixed for May 6, phase six May 12, and phase seven May 19, during which the polling will take place in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. Terming the whole controversy unfortunate, Hussain told ANI: "Our Hindu brothers fast on Monday. So, does that mean elections should not be held on Monday? Religious activities are extremely personal matters. People keep fast and go to work. And if they go to cast their votes, will Ramzan be stopped?" Chiding Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal, Hussain said: "What the message TMC is trying to send through all this." He, however, said that "let leaders make a grand alliance." "People of the country are with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They are galvanised to make Modi the prime minister again," he said. It is likely to start in India around May 5 depending on the sighting of the moon and continue for a month. The Election Commission had on Sunday announced the schedule for Lok Sabha elections. The dates for the seven phases are April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19. Counting of votes will be done on May 23. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Activists from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) have condemned the Pulwama terror attack and asked Islamabad to dismantle all terror camps operating in PoK and parts of Pakistan. At an event held on the sidelines of the 40th Session of United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) here on Monday, while focusing on the threat of extremism and terrorism, the activists said that not only the region but the entire is suffering from its menace. Sardar Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, Chairman of United Kashmir People's National Party (UKPNP) accused the Pakistani army of using terrorists for its proxy war against India. He said, "Pakistan's Army officials are now openly asking Kashmiris to stop using light weapons and go for suicide attacks. It is being openly preached by retired Army Generals. It is an alarming situation. We, people, love peaceful co-existence as our state is multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-ethnic. If Pakistan is continuously promoting extremism and terrorism, our state will be divided into thousand pieces on the basis of sects because we have Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims". Asserting that Pakistan is using religion, Kashmiri added, "Extremism is not in favour of any person. But, unfortunately, Pakistan loses its wisdom and always using terrorism as a weapon. They are using religion; they are using terrorism that's why entire Pakistan is suffering. Pakistan's civil society's voice is suppressed by the terrorists and mullahs. Why? If any peaceful organization is holding a protest against terrorism, against human rights violations these mullahs carry out attacks on these peaceful demonstrators. So, we are in a very critical situation, that's why we are asking UN Human Rights Council and the community to intervene and ask Pakistan to change its mind and send a fact-finding mission so that all the terrorist infrastructure which is very much intact in PoK should be dismantled". Misfar Hassan, another panellist and human rights activist from PoK said, "We have witnessed in history for the past 71 years that there have been attacks and counterattacks. With respect to the recent attack, the Pulwama attack, both the countries came closer to the brink of war and the whole was shivering that both powers are nuclear and if anything goes wrong it could be proving catastrophic for the world". He added, "This is the time to review the situation, to dismantle all these terror operating groups wherever they are, be it in Pakistan occupied Kashmir or they are operating in Pakistan. Pakistan government needs to take some responsibility and get rid of these non-state actors because they are not only destroying the local but international peace. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Rajasthan Congress party leaders including chief minister Ashok Gehlot, deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, in charge of state Avinash Pande held a meeting in the wee hours of Monday to discuss poll strategy for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. After the meeting Pilot told the media, "This meeting was called to decide the candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Screening committee meeting headed by the party's secretary KC Venugopal will be held tomorrow. A broad consensus on all seats has been formed. We had a discussion on all aspects, the final decision will be in favour of the party." Pande claimed that a broad consensus on all 25 seats has been made. "We will go with only one name to the CEC. All aspects were discussed during the course of the meeting. Winnability, of course, is the most important criteria," he added. The Election Commission on Sunday said that Rajasthan will vote in Lok Sabha elections in two phases on April 29 and May 6. While 13 seats will go to the polls in phase four on April 29, the rest 12 will vote in phase five on May 6. The general elections will be held in seven phases across India and the final counting of votes will take place on May 23. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A woman was allegedly gang-raped by her relatives here, police said. The police on Sunday received a complaint from the victim. "Over the call, she (the victim) said that two relatives and one unknown person had raped her when her husband was not there at home. Relatives included her husband's brother-in-law and his brother," police said. A case under relevant sections has been registered and teams to arrest the accused have been formed, said the police. Further investigation is underway. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Shiv Sena on Monday criticised its ally BJP and other political parties for using the uniform and pictures of soldiers to seek votes ahead of Lok Sabha polls and claimed that they are "as guilty as those demanding proofs of the operations of armed forces". "Those using the uniform and pictures of soldiers to seek votes are as guilty as those demanding proofs of the operations of armed forces," the latest editorial in Shiv Sena's mouthpiece 'Saamana' said. "Photographs have been published of BJP leader Manoj Tiwari donning Army uniform. He is saying that BJP will win the election...This gives strength to the Opposition's allegation that the air strike (in Balakot in Pakistan) was done for political benefit," it said. The editorial said, "Political parties have put up posters claiming that they have taken the revenge of the Pulwama terror attack from Pakistan. IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthman shot down Pakistan's F-16 because BJP is in power -- this publicity is being openly done. BJP and several political parties have used Abhinandan's image on posters to promote themselves... Later when the Opposition demanded proof of the IAF strike, then this was termed 'anti-national' by BJP." It said that "using Army uniform for political benefit is not appropriate". Shiv Sena's dig at BJP comes less than a month after the two parties declared an alliance for the Lok Sabha polls. At a joint press conference with BJP president Amit Shah and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had on February 18 said that Shiv Sena and BJP will field candidates for 23 and 25 Lok Sabha seats respectively in the state. A total of 48 Lok Sabha seats are at stake in Maharashtra. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United States-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have resumed their attack against the final ISIL enclave in eastern Syria with an objective to clear out the last traces of its self-declared 'caliphate'. ISIL was once spread across a third of Iraq and Syria is now limited to Baghouz, the last piece of populated land held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's (ISIL, ISIS) fighters, reported Al Jazeera. The head of the SDF media office, Mustafa Bali, on Sunday stated that no further civilians had emerged from the enclave at the Iraqi border since Saturday and the SDF had not observed any more civilians in the area, prompting the decision to attack. Stating that SDF had provided ISIL fighters enough time to surrender, Bali said, "The military operations have started. Our forces are now clashing with the terrorists and the attack started." Last week, SDF commander in Chief Mazloum Kobani said that Syria will announce "a complete victory" over the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terror group in a week. Syria has been embroiled in a civil war since 2011. The grim situation was further aggravated with the establishment of ISIS in Syria and Iraq in 2014, when its de facto leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a "Caliphate". At its peak, the terror outfit controlled huge parts of Iraq and Syria with a population of over 10 million people. However, since 2017, the group has been losing hold on major territories in both countries to US-backed military forces. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Karnataka's BJP unit president BS Yeddyurappa has claimed that they will form the government in the state within 24 hours if his party wins 22 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. Addressing a public meeting at Yaragatti village on Sunday, Yeddyurappa said, "If the people of Karnataka give us 22 seats in the coming Lok Sabha elections, we will form the government in Karnataka within 24 hours." There are 28 Lok Sabha seats at stake in Karnataka, out of which the BJP currently holds 16 seats while the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) hold 10 and 2 Lok Sabha seats, respectively. Recently, the former chief minister had said that the pre-emptive air strike carried out by the Indian Air Force targetting terror launch pads in Pakistan's Balakot on February 26 would help the BJP win 22 seats in Karnataka in the impending elections. "The recent act of armed forces attacking Pakistan has turned the tide in Narendra Modi's favour, as the youth is happy after the attack. It will help us win 22 seats in Karnataka," he had told reporters in Chitradurga on February 28. Yeddyurappa, who was sworn in as the chief minister soon after elections in May 2018, had to resign as the BJP was short of the majority mark of 111 in the state assembly. In the Karnataka Legislative Assembly elections held last year, the BJP had won 104 seats, while the JD(S) won on 37 seats and the Congress on 80 seats. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Britannia Industries Ltd is quoting at Rs 3113.8, up 1.39% on the day as on 12:54 IST on the NSE. The stock is up 27.96% in last one year as compared to a 6.93% gain in NIFTY and a 13.24% gain in the Nifty FMCG index. Britannia Industries Ltd is up for a third straight session in a row. The stock is quoting at Rs 3113.8, up 1.39% on the day as on 12:54 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is up around 0.98% on the day, quoting at 11143.7. The Sensex is at 36980.36, up 0.84%. Britannia Industries Ltd has added around 3.5% in last one month. Meanwhile, Nifty FMCG index of which Britannia Industries Ltd is a constituent, has added around 2.42% in last one month and is currently quoting at 29945.75, up 0.98% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 1.7 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 4.01 lakh shares in last one month. The benchmark March futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 3129.75, up 1.49% on the day. Britannia Industries Ltd is up 27.96% in last one year as compared to a 6.93% gain in NIFTY and a 13.24% gain in the Nifty FMCG index. The PE of the stock is 68.36 based on TTM earnings ending December 18. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Project will be completed in 5 years at an estimated project cost of Rs 12020.32 crore The Government of India has approved the Surat Metro Rail Project having two Metro Rail Corridors with combined length of 40.35 km. The project will be completed in 5 years at an estimated project cost of Rs. 12020.32 Crore. This project will provide continuous availability of affordable, reliable, safe, secure and seamless transport system in the urban agglomeration of the city. It will reduce the accidents, pollution, travel time, energy consumption, anti-social incidents as well as regulate urban expansion and land use for sustainable development. The Metro will provide Eco friendly and sustainable Public Transport to residents, commuters, visitors and travelers. Some of the highlights of these corridors are as follows: The corridor-1, Sarthana to Dream city line is 21.61 Kms comprising of underground corridor of 6.47 km & elevated corridor of 15.14 km, which will connect 20 metro stations (via Sarthana, Nature park ,Kapodra, Labheshwar chowk area, Central Ware house , Surat Railway station, Maskati hospital, Gandhi baug, Majura Gate,Roopali canal, Dream city). The corridor-2, Bhesan to saroli line is 18.74kms and is completely elevated corridor which will connect 18 Metro stations. (via Bhesan, Ugat Vaarigruh, Palanpur road, LP Savani School, Adajan Gam,Aquarium, Majuragate, Kamela Darwaza, Magob & Saroli) Dream city and Bhesan depot will fulfill the maintenance facilities of Surat metro rail Project. The population of around 69.36 lakh of Surat Municipal Corporation, Out Growth Area & Urban Agglomeration is expected to be benefitted by Surat Metro Rail Project directly and indirectly. The proposed corridors will be having Multimodal Integration, and will have feeder network of Bus, Intermediate Public Transport (IPT) and Non-Motorized Transport (NMT). The residential areas, commercial, and industrial areas along this Metro Rail corridors shall be immensely benefitted by this project as the people of these areas will be able to travel on trains from their own neighborhoods to reach different areas of the city conveniently. The project will be implemented by Gujarat Metro Rail Corporation (GMRC). The project will be financed mainly through equity from GoI and Government of Gujarat on 50:50 basis and loan from bilateral/ multilateral agencies. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd is quoting at Rs 264.8, up 5.98% on the day as on 12:54 IST on the NSE. The stock is down 27.8% in last one year as compared to a 6.93% spurt in NIFTY and a 13.56% spurt in the Nifty Energy index. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd gained for a third straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 264.8, up 5.98% on the day as on 12:54 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is up around 0.98% on the day, quoting at 11143.7. The Sensex is at 36980.36, up 0.84%. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd has risen around 13.14% in last one month. Meanwhile, Nifty Energy index of which Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd is a constituent, has risen around 6.14% in last one month and is currently quoting at 15352.55, up 2.33% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 105.45 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 50.34 lakh shares in last one month. The benchmark March futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 263.9, up 5.86% on the day. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd is down 27.8% in last one year as compared to a 6.93% spurt in NIFTY and a 13.56% spurt in the Nifty Energy index. The PE of the stock is 7.91 based on TTM earnings ending December 18. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Infosys Ltd is quoting at Rs 710.4, down 0.27% on the day as on 13:24 IST on the NSE. The stock jumped 19.82% in last one year as compared to a 7.01% rally in NIFTY and a 18.92% spurt in the Nifty IT index. Infosys Ltd dropped for a fifth straight session today. The stock is quoting at 710.4, down 0.27% on the day as on 13:24 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is up around 1.06% on the day, quoting at 11152. The Sensex is at 37002.99, up 0.9%.Infosys Ltd has eased around 5.34% in last one month.Meanwhile, Nifty IT index of which Infosys Ltd is a constituent, has eased around 3.57% in last one month and is currently quoting at 15408.7, down 0.26% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 57.66 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 61.6 lakh shares in last one month. The benchmark March futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 714.3, down 0.39% on the day. Infosys Ltd jumped 19.82% in last one year as compared to a 7.01% rally in NIFTY and a 18.92% spurt in the Nifty IT index. The PE of the stock is 22.25 based on TTM earnings ending December 18. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could fall 35 points at the opening bell. Overseas, Asian stocks were trading lower. US stocks finished lower Friday for a fifth session in a row, after a disappointing jobs report and a slump in Chinese exports added to concerns about slowing global growth. The US economy created only 20,000 jobs in February, the weakest reading since September 2017. Back home,key equity benchmarks snapped gains on Friday, 8 March 2019 after rising in past four consecutive sessions. The Sensex fell 53.99 points or 0.15% to settle at 36,671.43. The trading activity on that day showed that the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1095.06 crore on Friday, 8 March 2019 as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 470.70 crore on Friday, 8 March 2019, as per provisional data. Among corporate news,Tata Motors group global wholesales in February 2019, including Jaguar Land Rover, were at 110,262 units, lower by 9%, as compared to February 2018. Global wholesales of all Tata Motors' commercial vehicles and Tata Daewoo range in February 2019 were at 84,512 units, lower by 9% over February 2018. Global wholesales of all passenger vehicles in February 2019 were at 67,964 units, lower by 9%, compared to February 2018. Global wholesales for Jaguar Land Rover were 49,695 vehicles. Jaguar wholesales for the month were 14,926 vehicles, while Land Rover wholesales for the month were 34,769 vehicles. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 8 March 2019. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Oil India (OIL) announced that it was awarded two blocks as part of the discovered small field (DSF) bid round - II. Onshore contract area AN/ONDSF/Tuiamura/2018, covering an area of 47.23 square km, is in Tripura. Offshore contract area KG/OSDSF/GSKW/2018, covering an area of 93.902 square km, is in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin. This will be OIL's first ever foray into the North Eastern state of Tripura and also into KG Offshore. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 8 March 2019. Delta Corp announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Gaussian Software, entered into an agreement on 8 March 2019 to subscribe to 1 crore equity shares of Jalesh Cruises Mauritius (JCML) for $10 million. The acquisition is proposed to be completed in one or more tranches and the company is expected to hold over 25% stake in JCML. JCML proposes to acquire cruise ships and operate cruise services to various destinations from India and the Middle East. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 8 March 2019. Nitesh Estates said it reduced its overall consolidated debt by 30%, or Rs 407.88 crore. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 8 March 2019. Goa Carbon said it produced 18,026.80 MT of calcined petroleum coke in February 2019, 53.78% higher compared to same period last year. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 8 March 2019. Dilip Buildcon said it has received the letter of acceptance (LOA) on 9 March 2019 from the National Highways Authority of India for the EPC project in Maharashtra, NH-547E, valued at Rs 480.06 crore by the National Highways Authority of India. The project is to be completed in 24 months. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 8 March 2019. Tata Motors group global wholesales in February 2019, including Jaguar Land Rover, were at 110,262 units, lower by 9%, as compared to February 2018. Global wholesales of all Tata Motors' commercial vehicles and Tata Daewoo range in February 2019 were at 84,512 units, lower by 9% over February 2018. Global wholesales of all passenger vehicles in February 2019 were at 67,964 units, lower by 9%, compared to February 2018. Global wholesales for Jaguar Land Rover were 49,695 vehicles. Jaguar wholesales for the month were 14,926 vehicles, while Land Rover wholesales for the month were 34,769 vehicles. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 8 March 2019. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed, by orders dated January 31, 2019 and February 25, 2019, monetary penalty for non-compliance with various directions issued by RBI on time-bound implementation and strengthening of SWIFT-related operational controls on 36 banks. These banks include Bank of Baroda , Catholic Syrian Bank Limited, Citibank N.A, Indian Bank, Karnataka Bank Limited (Rs 40 Million each), BNP Paribas, City Union Bank Limited, Indian Overseas Bank, UCO Bank, Union Bank of India, United Bank of India (Rs 30 million each), Allahabad Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Canara Bank,DCB Bank Limited, Dena Bank, Jammu & Kashmir Bank Limited, Oriental Bank of Commerce , Syndicate Bank (Rs 20 million each) Bank of America N.A., Barclays Bank Plc, Central Bank of India, Corporation Bank, DBS Bank Limited, Deutsche Bank A.G, Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, ICICI Bank Limited, IDBI Bank Limited, IndusInd Bank Limited , JP Morgan Chase Bank N.A, Karur Vysya Bank Limited, Punjab & Sind Bank , Standard Chartered Bank ,State Bank of India, Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Limited and YES Bank Limited (Rs 10 million each). These penalties have been imposed in exercise of powers vested in RBI under the provisions of Section 47A(1)(c) read with Section 46(4)(i) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, taking into account failure of the above banks to adhere to the aforesaid directions issued by RBI. This action is based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the banks with their customers. An assessment of compliance with RBI directions on implementation and strengthening of SWIFT-related operational controls of 50 major banks was carried out which revealed that banks had not complied with one or more of the major directions pertaining to (i) direct creation of payment messages in the SWIFT environment, (ii) implementation of Straight Through Processing (STP) between CBS/Accounting System and SWIFT system, (iii) ensuring that users entering/ passing/authorizing the transactions in CBS were different from those operating in SWIFT environment, (iv) independent reconciliation of logs generated from SWIFT with corresponding entry passed in the CBS/accounting system, (v) introduction of an additional layer of approval for all payment messages exceeding a particular threshold, and (vi) Nostro reconciliation on T+1/T+5 basis. Based on the findings of the assessment and extent of non-compliance, Notices (SCNs) were issued to 49 banks advising them to show cause as to why penalty should not be imposed for non-compliance with directions issued by RBI as indicated therein. After considering the replies received from the banks, oral submissions made in the personal hearings, where sought by the banks, and examination of additional submissions, if any, RBI decided to impose monetary penalty on aforementioned 36 banks, based on the extent of non-compliance in each bank. RBI will continue to closely monitor compliance with these controls on an ongoing basis. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Trading for the week began on upbeat note. At 9:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 245.01 points or 0.67% at 36,916.44. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.83%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.85%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On the BSE, 1138 shares rose and 312 shares fell. A total of 76 shares were unchanged. Overseas, Asian stocks were trading lower. US stocks finished lower Friday for a fifth session in a row, after a disappointing jobs report and a slump in Chinese exports added to concerns about slowing global growth. The US economy created only 20,000 jobs in February, the weakest reading since September 2017. Back home, Tata Motors rose 0.63%. Tata Motors group global wholesales in February 2019, including Jaguar Land Rover, were at 110,262 units, lower by 9%, as compared to February 2018. Global wholesales of all Tata Motors' commercial vehicles and Tata Daewoo range in February 2019 were at 84,512 units, lower by 9% over February 2018. Global wholesales of all passenger vehicles in February 2019 were at 67,964 units, lower by 9%, compared to February 2018. Global wholesales for Jaguar Land Rover were 49,695 vehicles. Jaguar wholesales for the month were 14,926 vehicles, while Land Rover wholesales for the month were 34,769 vehicles. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 8 March 2019. Oil India rose 0.92%. Oil India announced that was awarded two blocks as part of the discovered small field (DSF) bid round - II. Onshore contract area AN/ONDSF/Tuiamura/2018, covering an area of 47.23 square km, is in Tripura. Offshore contract area KG/OSDSF/GSKW/2018, covering an area of 93.902 square km, is in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin. This will be OIL's first ever foray into the North Eastern state of Tripura and also into KG Offshore. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 8 March 2019. Delta Corp gained 1.51%. Delta Corp announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Gaussian Software, entered into an agreement on 8 March 2019 to subscribe to 1 crore equity shares of Jalesh Cruises Mauritius (JCML) for $10 million. The acquisition is proposed to be completed in one or more tranches and the company is expected to hold over 25% stake in JCML. JCML proposes to acquire cruise ships and operate cruise services to various destinations from India and the Middle East. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 8 March 2019. Nitesh Estates jumped 19.93%. Nitesh Estates said it reduced its overall consolidated debt by 30%, or Rs 407.88 crore. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 8 March 2019. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Customs authorities at an airport here on Monday seized 12 kg of gold bars from a toilet of a Bangladeshi aircraft. The gold bars were recovered with support from the National Security Intelligence after the plane arrived at Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka from Dubai, said Customs Department's Deputy Commissioner Othello Chowdhury. "The gold bars were wrapped up with tape on the back of a mirror in the plane's toilet. A total of 106 bars weighing 12 kg were recovered after removing the tape," he was quoted as saying by bdnews24.com. No one has been arrested over the incident, Chowdhury said, adding, "we will start an investigation to find the smugglers". --IANS soni/bc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Antonis Mavropoulos, President of the non-profit International Solid Waste Association, survived the Ethiopian Airlines crash that on Sunday killed all 157 people on board by being just two minutes late in boarding the flight. In a Facebook post, Mavropoulos, who was on his way to attend a five-day fourth annual UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, wrote that he was "mad because nobody helped me to reach the gate on time". "The flight ET 302 Addis Ababa-Nairobi crashed 6 minutes after taking off. I missed it by two minutes and when I arrived the boarding had been closed... I was screaming to put me on the flight but they did not allow it," he wrote. An angry Mavropoulos later booked a later flight but by then the crash of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet led to the cancellation of flights. The airport staff "told me gently not to protest and pray to God because I am the only passenger who did not enter the flight which is missing", he wrote. Mavropoulos was also probed by the authorities as he was the only person who did not board the flight. "They did not let me go until they determined who I am because I was the only passenger who did not get on the flight," he added. Ethiopia and China have grounded all Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets after the crash. The Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 302, on its way to the Kenyan capital Nairobi from Addis Ababa, crashed six minutes after take-off. It ploughed into a field near Tulu Fara village outside the town of Bishoftu, some 60 km southeast of the Ethiopian capital. --IANS na/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A US-based young physician from Andhra Pradesh was among the 157 killed in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash. Nukavarapu Manisha, hailing from Guntur district, was on her way to Nairobi to see her sister who had delivered three baby boys a few days ago. She was also looking to visit her parents Venkateshwar Rao and Bharathi, who were with their elder daughter. A relative of Manisha tweeted to Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj that her parents were waiting to receive the body in Nairobi. The Minister replied that she had asked Rahul Chhabra, the Indian High Commissioner in Nairobi, to provide all help and assistance. Four Indians were among those who died in the Boeing 737 jet crash on Sunday which occurred shortly after it took off from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. After doing medicine from Guntur Medical College, Manisha went to the US for higher studies and was settled in Tennessee. She is listed as one of the resident physicians of Department of Internal Medicine, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University. --IANS ms/mag/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Brexit talks between the UK and the European Union remain deadlocked, just a day before MPs are due to vote again on Prime Minister Theresa May's deal, the media reported on Monday. May spoke to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Sunday night after a weekend of negotiations failed to result in a breakthrough, the BBC reported. Talks will resume between May and Juncker on Monday with the aim of securing changes to the deal before Tuesday's vote. The Prime Minister is trying to secure changes to the Irish backstop, an insurance policy designed to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic after Brexit. The plan is widely disliked by members of her party, who fear it will mean that the UK will stay closely aligned to the EU for years to come, without Britain being able to end the agreement unilaterally. Meanwhile, pro-Brexit Environment Secretary Michael Gove said while the Prime Minister's deal was a compromise, it should not be rejected "for that reason alone". Gove also defended the backstop, saying that if it were to be used he could not imagine EU politicians "tolerating" it for long. But former Cabinet Minister Boris Johnson, who campaigned alongside Gove to leave the EU, said there was "no way" he would vote for the backstop in its current form. On Sunday, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt urged MPs to back the deal or risk losing Brexit altogether. If May's deal passes on Tuesday, the UK will leave the EU under the terms of the deal on March 29, the BBC said. If it is rejected, MPs have been promised a vote on Wednesday on whether the UK should leave without a deal. If they then reject a no-deal Brexit, they could get a vote on Thursday on whether to request a delay for the UK to exit the EU. --IANS ksk/bc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Chinese government on Monday grounded all Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets, a day after an Ethiopian Airlines plane of the same model crashed shortly after take-off, killing all 157 people onboard. On Sunday, Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 302, on its way to the Kenyan capital Nairobi from Addis Ababa, crashed six minutes after take-off. It ploughed into a field near Tulu Fara village outside the town of Bishoftu, some 60 km southeast of the Ethiopian capital, the Guardian reported. The cause of the crash is under probe. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) issued a notice on Monday morning ordering domestic airlines to suspend the commercial operations of the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft before 6 p.m. The CAAC said it made the decision "in view of the fact that the two air crashes were newly delivered Boeing 737-8 aircraft" and had "certain similarities". The regulator said the grounding of the planes was "in line with our principle of zero tolerance for safety hazards and strict control of safety risks". The CAAC said it would be contacting US aviation authorities and Boeing before restoring flights of the aircraft. China's move comes after Ethiopian Airlines and Cayman Islands carriers announced similar decisions, the Guardian reported. "Following the tragic accident of ET 302 ... Ethiopian Airlines has decided to ground all B-737-8 MAX fleet effective yesterday, March 10, until further notice," Ethiopian Airlines said in a tweet on Monday. Cayman Airways, which also flies the Boeing 737 Max 8 craft, also announced it would ground the planes while the investigation into the crash was ongoing. Cayman Airways President and Chief Executive Fabian Whorms said the airline was "putting the safety of our passengers and crew first". More than 300 Boeing 737-MAX planes are in operation and over 5,000 have been ordered worldwide since 2017. Several other carriers including Fiji Airways, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Australia and Korean Air told the Guardian they did not intend to ground their Boeing aircraft. Boeing said on Sunday that it was cancelling an event in Seattle to showcase its new 777X airliner scheduled for Wednesday. Sunday's disaster was the second involving the new aircraft in the last four months. In October, a Lion Air plane plunged into the sea off the coast of West Java 13 minutes after takeoff, killing all 189 on board. The crash was the worst aviation disaster in Indonesia in more than two decades. --IANS ksk/bc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A day after Lok Sabha poll dates were announced, the BJP's top brass on Monday began discussing their election preparedness and strategies with party chief Amit Shah meeting office bearers and Home Minister Rajnath Singh meeting members of the manifesto committee. The Lok Sabha polls will be held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19 while counting of votes in 543 constituencies will be taken up on May 23. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) manifesto committee, headed by Singh, met at his residence with Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Ministers Radha Mohan Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, General Secretary Bhupendra Yadav and other members attending. The 20-member manifesto committee had set up 15 sub-committees to work on the 2019 "Sankalp Patra", or manifesto. The BJP has already launched a campaign 'Bharat ke mann ki baat, Modi ke saath' last month to seek suggestions and voters' expectations for a "new India" from 10 crore families across the country before giving a final shape to its election manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls. Based on public suggestions, the BJP will prepare its manifesto. Later in the evening, BJP chief Shah also discussed poll preparedness with top party leaders and office-bearers. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also held a meeting with party spokespersons at the party headquarters. Jaitley, one of the chief election strategists of the party, has been regularly visiting party offices and holding discussion with leaders. --IANS bns/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Richwood, TX (77531) Today Mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High near 80F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Mostly cloudy. Low 72F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. With technology entering every sphere of our lives and giving rise to a new gamut of concerns and disputes to resolve, glory in the realm of law will go to those who will turn themselves into "super lawyers", in other words, lawyers who can read and analyse data with the same ease as they would the penal codes, contended the country's top notch legal and cyber experts on Monday. The term was discussed at "Lex Concurcus", the annual conference of Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) organised here. "In this time of innovative technology and artificial intelligence, the future of the Indian judiciary lies in the hands of super lawyers," said C. Raj Kumar, founding Vice-Chancellor, O.P. Jindal Global University, according to a statement released by the university. Raj Kumar, also the Founding Dean of the Jindal Global Law School (JGLS), urged budding lawyers to broaden their aspirational spectrum to look beyond the options of a classical lawyer to becoming legal entrepreneurs, with their own corporate law firms. The forum reflected on the future of the legal system in the era of technological innovations and what the budding lawyers must do about it. "With all the information and technological support at hand, the client will already have the data analysis and insights. They would require lawyers to guide them through it and provide necessary support. Hence, future lawyers need to be super lawyers with analysts, broadcasters and lawyers, all rolled into one," Pavan Duggal, a cyber expert said. Badrinath Durvasula of Hindustan Construction Company Ltd, defined a 'super lawyer' as a "Jack of all, as well as a master of all". 'Lex Concursus' is an annual conference conceived to bring together new-age legal practitioners and law students to contemplate over the future of legal practice in India. -- IANS vn/rtp/pcj (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu US Congresswoman and Democratic 2020 presidential candidate, said that she believed her past comments on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have been misunderstood, declining to call him a war criminal. Gabbard was pressed during a CNN interview on Sunday whether she believed Assad used chemical warfare against Syrian civilians. "I want to correct that, because there has been some misunderstanding," the Hawaii Representative said. "There have been reports showing that chemical weapons have been used in Syria, both by the Syrian Government as well as different terrorist groups on the ground in Syria. "The scepticism and the questions that I raised were very specific around incidents that the Trump administration was trying to use as an excuse to launch a US military attack in Syria," she added. Gabbard met Assad in Syria two years ago. She said last month that Assad was "not the enemy of the US because Syria does not pose a direct threat" to Washington. When asked if she was unsure whether Assad was a war criminal now, Gabbard said: "Everything that I have said requires that we take action based on evidence. (If) the evidence is there, there should be accountability." Gabbard cited her experience serving in Iraq as informing her approach to Syria. "I served in a war in Iraq, a war that was launched based on lies, and a war that was launched without evidence," she said. "And so the American people were duped." --IANS ksk/bc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The head of Venezuela's opposition-controlled Parliament, Juan Guaido, who has been recognised as the country's interim president by about 50 governments around the world, has announced that he will ask lawmakers to decree a "state of emergency" to deal with the "catastrophe" being experienced by the country as a result of a power blackout that now has lasted some 70 hours. Guaido on Sunday said at a press conference at the National Assembly in Caracas that the legislative body "will go into emergency session (on Monday) to evaluate a state of national emergency and take (appropriate) action." "We're going to ask Parliament (to decree the emergency). We must attend to it immediately," Guaido insisted without specifying what powers the interim government he heads would be able to accrue to itself if the decree were to be approved, reports Efe. He said that the opposition was maintaining "talks" with a German company with the ability to immediately provide electrical plants and other supplies needed to stabilise the electric grid. Most of Venezuela has been without electricity since Thursday at 5 p.m., when the Guri hydroelectric facility -- the country's most important such installation, providing service to 70 per cent of the national territory -- went down. The Nicolas Maduro government said at the time that the installation had been the target of a "cyberattack" launched by the United States, the country his regime habitually blames for all of Venezuela's serious problems. But Guaido on Sunday said that the blackout was not caused by sabotage and pointed to lack of investment and poor management as the true causes of the prolonged shutdown of the electric grid. In addition, he criticised the response of the Maduro regime to the crisis and for refusing to fully inform the public of the cause of the problem and efforts being made to resolve it. Guaido also confirmed that 17 people have died in hospitals around the country due to the blackout. "There are 17 confirmed dead, 15 of them in Maturin, but because of the lack of communications we haven't been able to monitor 17 of the 40 hospitals that are normally monitored," the opposition leader said during his press conference at the National Assembly. Meanwhile, The New York Times on Sunday reported that the fire that destroyed humanitarian supplies in an aid convoy heading for Venezuela most likely was caused when an opposition member mishandled a Molotov cocktail, thus discounting the prevailing narrative that the Maduro regime had caused the blaze. The daily, which examined video images along with other material to reconstruct the February 23 incident, said that a thrown Molotov cocktail was the most likely cause for the fire that destroyed some 40 tons of aid -- ostensibly a shipment of medicine -- on board several trucks. --IANS vc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina on Monday jointly inaugurated four projects, via video conferencing, in the areas of transport, health and education. Both leaders unveiled "e-plaques" for the supply of buses and trucks, inaugurated 36 community clinics, 11 water treatment plants and the extension of the National Knowledge Network to Bangladesh. Speaking on the occasion, Modi noted that this was his sixth video conference with Hasina and that these projects were directly linked to the lives of the common people. He said that Prime Minister Hasina's vision is the biggest inspiration for stronger connectivity between India and Bangladesh. "The National Knowledge Network will connect scholars and research institutes in Bangladesh to India and the world. The buses and trucks would assist the efforts towards affordable public transportation, water treatment plants will help supply clean water, and community clinics will benefit about two lakh people in Bangladesh," Modi said. He said these projects showed that India-Bangladesh relations are playing a key role in improving the quality of life of the people. Modi appreciated and reiterated India's support for the ambitious development targets set by Hasina for Bangladesh. He expressed confidence that bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh would continue to grow even further. --IANS rak/ksk/bc (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Cash-strapped Jet Airways' outgoing Chairman Naresh Goyal has sought an immediate funding of Rs 750 crore from the equity partner Etihad Airways. In a letter on March 8, written to Tony Douglas the Group CEO, Etihad Aviation Group, Goyal has has sought the funding by early next week. "As you are no doubt aware, Jet Airways is in a very precarious position, with more than 50 aircraft grounded and increasing arrears of vendors and salaries which makes the need for interim funding all the more imperative," the letter accessed by IANS said. With regular grounding of aircraft, sources said close to 50 per cent of airline's fleet is not operational. Analysts said the situation is fast moving on the path taken by now defunct Kingfisher Airline. "I now look forward to your support and cooperation in saving the airline by an urgent fund infusion by way of interim funding support of Rs 750 crore early next week, so that a matching contribution from the banks is also disbursed, as envisaged in the Resolution Plan," it said. To move things forward, Jet Airways has secured the approval from the the Ministry of Civil Aviation for the Pledge of Jet Airways' shares in Jet Privilege Pvt Ltd (JPPL) to secure the interim funding, it noted. Jet Airways holds 49.9 per cent stake in JPPL, while the majority is with Etihad. Etihad Airways' board is meeting in Abu Dhabi to discuss the resolution plan for Jet Airways. The Gulf-based carrier holds 24 per cent stake in the Indian airline. The Jet Airways board had on February 14 approved a resolution plan, as per which the lenders, led by the State Bank of India (SBI) would become the largest shareholders in the airline by converting the airline's debt into equity at a nominal price of Re 1. The bailout plan was approved by the shareholders on February 21 . --IANS rrb/sn/prs (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An official biopic on Nobel laureate Mother Teresa was announced on Monday. Written and directed by Seema Upadhyay, the film will have a cast of Indian and international actors. It will be produced by Pradeep Sharma, Nitin Manmohan, Girish Johar and Prachi Manmohan. The makers met Sister Prema Mary Pierick, the current Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity, and Sister Lynne in Kolkata recently to seek their blessings for the project on the life of the iconic nun who came from Albania to India in 1929 and set up the Missionaries of Charity in 1948. Upadhyay said in a statement: "We visited the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata and the experience was surreal." The producers are delighted about bringing together a film on Mother Teresa, who is known to the entire world for her nobility and charity. "She is a global icon and we will ensure to leave no stone unturned to meet her international stature and pay our tribute to the noble soul. We hope we will do justice and will be able to spread the message for peace, love and humanity that Mother Teresa stood for," the producers said in a joint statement. The script for the project has been locked. The technicians and teams are in the process of being finalised, after which the casting will begin for the film to go on floors by the end of this year. The makers are looking at releasing the film in 2020. There have been movies on Mother Teresa in the past -- in 2003, there was a documentary, "Mother Teresa of Calcutta" -- made by Fabrizio Costa of Italy; in 1987, Richard Attenborough turned narrator for a documentary on Mother Teresa; and in 1997, the "Mother Teresa: In The Name of God's Poor" docu-drama was released. In recent times, the 2014 movie "The Letters" explored her life through letters she wrote to her long-time friend and spiritual advisor Father Celeste van Exem over a 50-year period. --IANS rb/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) One of the two Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militants killed by security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district was on Monday identified as one of the key conspirators behind the horrific suicide bombing that killed 40 CRPF troopers. Mudasir Khan alias Muhammad Bhai from Midoora village in Tral area was one of the two men killed in a gun battle in Pinglish village, police said. The other militant was said to be a Pakistani code-named Khalid. Mudasir Khan was described as one of those who planned the February 14 terror attack on the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) envoy, triggering major India-Pakistan tensions. "Pertinently, investigation so far conducted revealed that Mudasir was one of the key conspirators of the Pulwama attack," a police statement said. "Based on incriminating material recovered from the site of the encounter, it is understood that the other killed terrorist was a Pakistani national code-named Khalid," it added. A search was on in the area by the security forces. According to police records, both the slain terrorists were affiliated with the outlawed JeM and were wanted for a series of crimes including attacks on security establishments and atrocities on civilians. The family of Mudasir Khan identified his body. The house in which the militants were hiding was destroyed in the operation by the security forces. The Army said three militants were killed. The police have recovered only two bodies. The Pakistan-based JeM claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in Pulwama. --IANS sq/in/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Tripura nonagenarian folk musician on Monday said he was upset for not being able to physically receive the prestigious Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award, from President Ram Nath Kovind due to old-age complications. "I am very upset that I could not personally receive the prestigious national award from the President," the musician, Thanga Darlong, told IANS. Earlier on Monday, President Kovind presented the Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri awards for 2019 at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. Northern Tripura's Kailashahar Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Vishal Kumar said: "He (Darlong)is 96-years old. Due to old age ailments, he could not attend the ceremony in the national capital." Kumar said a state government official would attend the ceremony on behalf of Darlong. In January, the Union Home Ministry announced to confer the Padma Shri on Darlong, who made the "Rosem", a flute-like musical instrument made of bamboo, and continues to play it till date. The instrument is made using seven small bamboo chips which is pierced into a wild fruit, locally called "om", similar to a gourd. Last month, the Tripura government conferred Darlong the first Atal Bihari Vajpayee Life-Term Achievement Award. It was presented at the valedictory function of the 37th Agartala Book Fair. The musician, who has travelled with his instrument across India and also to several other countries including Japan, has already been bestowed with the Sangeet Natak Academy Award, the Academic Fellowship Award and the state's Vayoshresta Samman. --IANS sc/ksk/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US National Security Adviser (NSA) John Bolton has said that President Donald Trump was open to a third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, although nothing has been scheduled. Bolton made the remark on Sunday in an ABC News interview. "He (Trump) said he's open to a third summit, none has been scheduled... But he's prepared to engage again because he does think that the prospects for North Korea, which he's been trying to persuade Kim Jong-un to accept if they denuclearized, are really quite spectacular," the NSA said. When asked about the new satellite images, which were made public on Friday, suggesting that North Korea could be preparing to revive its missile testing, Bolton said: "I'd rather not get into the specifics on that... We've seen a lot in North Korea. We watch it constantly... There's a lot of activity all the time in North Korea, but I'm not going to speculate on what that particular commercial satellite picture shows." The images that were made public on Friday showed vehicles, cranes and rail cars near a facility outside Pyongyang where North Korea has previously assembled some of its intercontinental ballistic missiles, leading some experts to believe North Korea is preparing to launch what would be its first missile or rocket in over a year. Bolton said that Trump would be very disappointed if there was another test launch from North Korea. "The president said repeatedly that he feels the absence of nuclear tests, the absence of ballistic missile launches is a positive sign." Trump and Kim's second summit in Vietnam last month ended abruptly without a deal on North Korean denuclearization in return for sanctions relief. Before the images were made public, Trump on Friday told the media that relationship with Kim was "a very good one" and said he would be "surprised in a negative way if he did anything that was not per our understanding". Bolton also said that "one mistake that previous administrations made was assuming that North Korea will comply when they undertake obligations". "The North Koreans have pledged to give up their nuclear weapons programme at least five separate times, beginning in 1992.. they never seem to get around to it, though. "I think Kim Jong-un has a very clear idea of where the president stands, what the objectives he's trying to achieve are." Trump and Kim first met in Singapore in June 2018, producing only a North Korean commitment to "work towards complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula". Bolton told ABC that he was not aware of any contact between the US and North Korea since Vietnam, though it was "possible the South Koreans have spoken to North Korea". --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump is expected to seek $8.6 billion for his long-promised wall along the border with Mexico when he submits his 2020 congressional budget on Monday, likely igniting another funding standoff with Congress. A senior administration official confirmed the figure, which is expected to be used to build or replace roughly 700 miles of barriers along the US-Mexico border, the Hill magazine reported. The budget proposal also would include $3.6 million in military construction funding to help fund projects affected by the wall, according to the New York Times. Trump earlier failed to extract extra funding for his wall that shut down parts of the federal government for a record 35 days. His fresh effort will likely lead to another showdown with Democrats who vowed to block his signature project. "I would just say that the whole issue of the wall and border security is of paramount importance," said Trump's top economic adviser Larry Kudlow. "We have a crisis down there." Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Kudlow said that "there will be" a fight over the issue in Congress. Fiscal Year 2020 will begin on October 1, the US Congress must pass the budget prior to that date to ensure that the federal government can operate after fiscal year 2020 begins. Reacting on news reports about Trump's intended move, top Congressional Democrats -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer -- said in a joint statement that they would block the budget proposal containing the $8.6 billion wall money. "President Trump hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos when he recklessly shutdown the government to try to get his expensive and ineffective wall," the joint statement said. "Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again. We hope he learned his lesson." Trump in December triggered a partial government shutdown when he demanded $5.7 billion in wall funding. He agreed after 35 days to reopen the government without wall funding, but continued to press lawmakers for $5.7 billion for the structure. Congress ultimately approved $1.375 billion for border barriers and the President issued a national emergency to bypass Congress and spend roughly $8 billion to construct his long-desired border wall. The US Congress is expected to block the national emergency in the near future as multiple Republican lawmakers anxious to preserve Congress' power of the purse voiced their opposition to the national emergency. --IANS soni/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Unicef official on Monday called on all parties with influence to make peace and put an end to the suffering of Syrian children in their country. "We call once again upon all parties and anyone with influence to make peace happen now and not tomorrow," said Geert Cappelaere, United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund's (Unicef) Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa. Cappelaere said that around 5 million Syrian children were born since the beginning of the war in Syria in 2011, Xinhua news agency reported. "These children have a bleak future with the absence of a political solution to a senseless war," he said. Cappelaere said that many of these children were born in families associated with extremists, but "these children are not terrorists. They are entitled to childhood and they deserve a fair chance in life." The Unicef will continue providing support to Syrian children inside Syria and in hosting countries, Cappelaere said. Cappelaere's remarks came during an event held by the Unicef to launch its first children's songs album, marking eight years since the start of the war in Syria. The songs are all-time regional favourites written and composed by the world-famous composer Elias Rahbani during the war in Lebanon. With generous support from the EU Trust Fund in response to the Syrian crisis, the EU "Madad" Fund, Unicef and Jad Rahbani, son of Elias Rahbani, held workshops for nearly 300 children, including children with disabilities, to record the re-arranged version of the songs. The workshops included Jordanian, Iraqi, Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian and Turkish children. --IANS pg/bg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a first-of-its-kind, a watchdog group has been launched to map electoral violence in the northeastern states in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls. The Social Actions for New Alternatives (SANA) promotes "clean elections" in India and electoral violence mapping is a part of its campaign, Bidhayak Das, Executive Director of SANA, said here on Monday. "The SANA will address the need for electoral reforms in India, particularly in the states inhabited by large indigenous population, generally isolated from the development process," he said. The group would keep a watch on elections and document every aspect of the process independently, he added. Das said the initiative would gradually be extended to other states. Two hundred volunteers will be trained to document the process, which will involve interviews with stakeholders, constituency visits, tracking election-related complaints, electoral violence mapping, sampling voters' concerns and watching the conduct of elections on polling day and after. A report would be circulated to all stakeholders soon after elections, said Das, an international election observer. "We shall use all online information sources available to first get a sense of the scale of violence, after that subject it to a process of verification and measure its impact on the electoral process," he said. "It is important to be able to understand how different forms of violence can impact a free and credible election, and that applies to Assam. Besides, it would also help prevent escalation of violence and make the process free and secure for voters," he said. --IANS ah/pg/pcj (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A total of 4,700 heads of state, business leaders, senior UN officials and civil society representatives, who are gathering in this Kenyan city for a five-day meeting of the world's top body on the environment, will take bold decisions that move global societies to a more sustainable path. The fourth UN Assembly began on Monday under the theme "Innovative Solutions for Environmental Challenges and Sustainable Consumption and Production". It is the biggest gathering in the Assembly's short history, with attendance almost double the last event in December 2017. Prominent world leaders attending the Assembly will include French President Emmanuel Macron and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta along with CEOs from major corporations. "Everyone can contribute to solutions to pollution. Policy direction from the government, like the single-use plastic ban helps set the tone for businesses and encourages them to develop sustainable solutions," UN Environment's Acting Executive Director Joyce Msuya told IANS. On her expectations from individuals, governments, civil societies and businesses globally, she said: "Upwards pressure from individuals changing their habits and civil society campaigns force business to provide the non-polluting products that consumers demand." Bold decisions and outcomes are expected as the delegates will negotiate late into the night for five days, says the UN Resolutions are on the table to push harder for sustainable consumption and production patterns, commit to the protection of the marine from plastic pollution, reduce food waste, and advance technological innovation that combats climate change, and reduces resource use and bio-diversity loss. This Assembly's status as the only UN body outside the General Assembly where all member states convene, and its power to bring together all sectors, means that the global environmental agenda is defined here. Decisions have a profound impact on the goals of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as paving the way towards the UN Climate Change Summit 2019 and impacting the overall UN agenda. Ahead of the meeting, Msuya appealed to nations to step up and start delivering real change. "Time is running short. We are past pledging and politicking. We are past commitments with little accountability. What's at stake is life, and society, as the majority of us know it and enjoy it today," she wrote in a policy letter. As delegates assemble in Nairobi, the UN Environment expressed grief over the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane on Sunday, killing all 157 people onboard. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those affected. We are following developments closely," it said in a statement. A UN Environment background report for the Assembly, which serves as a basis for defining problems and laying out new action areas, makes a strong case for urgent action. The report puts the value of lost ecosystem services between 1995 and 2011 at $4 trillion to $20 trillion; shows how agricultural practices are putting increasing pressure on the environment, costing an estimated $3 trillion per year, and estimates pollution-related costs at $4.6 trillion annually. "As never before, the time to act is now," said President of the UN Environment Assembly and Minister of Environment of Estonia Siim Kiisler. The Assembly will also see new research launched by the UN Environment, including the latest edition of the world's only comprehensive global scan of the environment: Global Environment Outlook 6, which was produced by 252 scientists and experts from over 70 countries. The International Resource Panel's Global Resources Outlook, meanwhile, takes stock of material extraction, including the future outlook and recommendations on how to use natural resources more sustainably. The Assembly is not just about the resolutions and science. Side events and exhibits provide the opportunity for attendees to form partnerships and make deals that benefit people and the environment. The Sustainable Innovation Expo acts as an innovation hub, with over 40 environmental technologies and innovations on display. The One Planet Summit -- co-organised by the governments of France and Kenya, and the World Bank -- is also being held around the edges of the Assembly, focusing on Africa's environmental challenges. (Vishal Gulati is in Nairobi at the invitation of the UN Environment. He can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in) --IANS vg/ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 19th century painting of the Maharaja of Travancore by leading artist Raja Ravi Varma will go under the hammer at Saffronart's Spring Live Auction on March 26. The painting is among the 68 works that will be auctioned on behalf of the tax recovery officer of the income tax department. Varma's oil on canvas painting, estimated between Rs 12-18 crores, features the Maharaja and his younger brother welcoming Richard Temple-Grenville, the third Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, Governor-General of Madras (1875-80), on his official visit to Trivandram. Also part of the sale will be Akbar Padamsee's "Grey Nude"(1960), estimated between Rs 1.5 - 2 crore. Painted in 1960, a year after the artist moved from Paris to Mumbai, the painting was one among a series of monochromatic grey works that he painted that year. However, leading the sale will be an untitled oil on canvas by VS Gaitonde. In the 1973 work, Gaitonde creates a deep, smouldering crimson surface, interspersed by dark horizontal bands that appear palpably dynamic. Two yellow orbs punctuate the painting in the middle, while a larger dark circle emerges from the lower half. The artist is believed to have conjured a "deeply spiritual world evoking associations of nature and philosophy through this delicate balance between colour, space, light and texture". "The selection and appointment of Saffronart as the official auctioneer on behalf of the Tax Recovery Officer, Central-3, Mumbai, Income Tax Department, Government of India, is a distinct honour for us. "This is the first time a professional auction house has been appointed for an auction of this nature in India," Dinesh Vazirani, Saffronart CEO and co-founder said. The sale will also feature detailed contemporary ink works and sculptural digital paintings by five Chinese artists including Wu Yi, Ge Guanzhong, Xu Lei, Miao Xiaochun and Chen Ke. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 35-year-old man was arrested three years after he allegedly cheated a businessman of Rs 1.6 crore on the pretext of selling him agricultural land in Madhya Pradesh at a very low rate, police said Monday. The accused, Kuldeep Khare, a resident of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, was carrying a reward of Rs 50,000 on his arrest, they said. On October 31, 2015, businessman Rajesh Kumar, a resident of Pitampura, filed a complaint alleging that Khare, a director of Pure Consultancy Solution Pvt Ltd, along with his other associates, approached him to sell 100 acres agricultural land at Betul in Madhya Pradesh at a very cheap price, a senior police officer said. Thereafter, Kumar transferred Rs 1.6 crore to various accounts of the accused people to purchase the land. After receiving the money, the accused gave him fake documents, police said. However, when Kumar went to take the possession of the land, he came to know that he had been duped, the official said. Earlier, all accused were arrested but Khare was granted interim bail, but he never returned to attend further proceedings, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ram Gopal Naik said. Khare had been evading arrest since the last two years, Naik said, adding that he was arrested near the Nizamuddin Railway Station on Sunday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Egypt's army on Monday said 46 suspected jihadists were killed in clashes in the restive Sinai Peninsula, where troops are fighting the Islamic State group. The "extremely dangerous" militants were killed in shootouts in north and central Sinai, the army said in a statement read on state television, without specifying when the clashes took place. About 100 "criminal, wanted elements and suspects" were arrested, and security forces destroyed dozens of hideouts and vehicles used by the suspected jihadists during operations in the Sinai, the statement added. Three soldiers also died in fighting in "various areas of operations", the army said but did not identify those locations. The Sinai Peninsula is the epicentre of an insurgency spearheaded by the jihadist IS group which surged following the 2013 military ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi after mass protests against his one-year rule. In February 2018, the army launched a nationwide operation against militants, mainly focused on the restive North Sinai region and the Western Desert, along the porous border with Libya. Some 600 militants and around 40 soldiers were killed since the start of the offensive, according to the armed forces. But no independent statistics are available and the North Sinai is largely cut off to media and foreigners. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi Police has arrested five people on charges of burglary and seized branded clothes worth Rs 50 lakh, an official said Monday. Based on a tip-off, police laid a trap near Power House in Dwarka Sector-1 and apprehended five men in a car on Thursday, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) Anto Alphonse. The five people were identified as Rajan (38), Ravi (28), Rajesh (30), Ansar (36) and Yashvir (35), he said, adding that Rajan was the kingpin of the gang. During interrogation, the accused persons disclosed that they mainly used to target shops. They told police that two members of the gang used to go for a recce posing as sweepers, the DCP said. The accused persons used to shift the stolen items to other parts of the country, he added. Later, their two accomplices Afsar Malik (23) and Asif Malik (21) were also arrested. Police also seized branded clothes worth Rs 50 lakh, five vehicles, one laptop and a television, the DCP added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi Traffic Police is advising drivers to install fire extinguishers in their cars, a day after a woman and her daughters were charred to death in a car near Akshardham flyover in east Delhi. The traffic officials on Monday said they will continue this drive to educate drivers, especially of vehicles that operate on CNG, to install fire extinguishers to wade off fire incidents. This drive was carried out by the Road Safety Team of Delhi Traffic Police at the ITO junction Monday. The traffic personnel of the road safety team have begun the drive asking drivers to keep fire extinguishers in their vehicles as a safety precaution to wade off fire incidents, Taj Hassan, Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) said. As part of the road safety campaign, the drive will be carried out at prime junctures across the city with a special focus on areas where schools are located. The team will also be going to schools and educating students about the fire safety measures, the officer said. Another officer said school students will be made aware about fire safety norms so that they can tell their parents about it. "Even for our other drives, we target students as we feel they are the future of the country and will be the ones who will be the future drivers. Making them aware about road safety and fire safety norms will ensure that the future drivers are much more aware. "If children tell their parents about something, it has a greater impact, so we will be visiting schools as part of this drive," the officer added. On Sunday, the 34-year-old woman and her two minor daughters were charred to death after their CNG car caught fire near Akshardham flyover in east Delhi. Last year, a Maruti Suzuki Eeco driver died after his vehicle caught fire following a collision with another near south Delhi's Sheikh Sarai. In another incident, a Honda city car caught fire on Akshardham flyover, following which the driver jumped out of the vehicle. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Andhra Pradesh appeared headed for a multi-cornered contest in the state assembly and Lok Sabha elections to be held on April 11, a do-or-die battle for major political parties, including ruling TDP. Over 3.71 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise for electing 25 Lok Sabha members and 175 members of the state assembly in the polls, the first after the state was bifurcated to create Telangana. With no major alliances on cards till now, the state is poised to witness a multi-cornered contest as the main parties, including ruling TDP and main opposition YSR Congress, are expected to jump into the fray on their own. For the TDP, which won the 2014 elections comfortably, retaining power is crucial while for the principal opposition YSR Congress its a must-win situation to ensure its political sustainability. The Congress is seeking a resurrection in Andhra after the rout it suffered post-bifurcation of the state in 2014. Stakes are not high for the BJP, but it is seeking to make a point on its relevance in the states political landscape. While the main fight will be between the TDP and the YSRC, all eyes are on Jana Sena as it could alter the fortunes of either party by splitting the votes, particularly that of a dominant community that tilted the scales in favour of TDP in 2014. In 2014, the TDP had an alliance with the BJP and the combine was supported by the Jana Sena Party of Telugu film star Pawan Kalyan. Jana Sena did not contest any seats then. Now, the TDP has severed ties with the BJP while the Jana Sena is set to fight the elections for the first time in alliance with the CPI and the CPI-M. Though the TDP forged an alliance with the Congress for the assembly elections in neighbouring Telangana in December last year, the tie-up broke after the Congress debacle in that state. The Congress leadership blamed the TDP for the rout in Telangana and, accordingly, decided to go it alone in AP. Both parties will, however, work together at the national level. Like in 2014, the YSRC has no allies this time either. In the last elections, of the 175 assembly seats, the TDP had won 102, YSRC 67, BJP 4, Navodayam Party 1 and an independent one. Of the 25 Lok Sabha seats, the TDP bagged 15, YSRC 8 and BJP 2. In the Assembly polls, the TDP polled 44.61 per cent of votes while the YSRC got 44.58 per cent. The BJPs 2.18 per cent vote share made all the difference, enabling the TDP to clinch power. The Congress which ruled AP for 10 years from 2004 managed only 2.77 per cent votes in 2014 as people of Seemaandhra punished it for dividing the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Armed men vandalised a toll plaza in Rajasthan's Bhilwara district and looted around Rs 9 lakh from the employees there, police said Monday. A case was registered against two accused, they said. Nearly two dozen people with sticks and iron rods vandalised the Khachrol toll plaza here, the Mandalgarh Police said. The entire incident was recorded on CCTV cameras installed at the plaza, they added. The two accused were identified by toll plaza employees as Ashok Khandelwal and Mahesh Khandelwal who were booked by the police, they said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call(WASHINGTON) -- Two senior Justice Department officials are privately dismissing claims by House Democrats that refusing to share special counsel Robert Mueller's final report and other investigative materials with Congress would amount to a "double standard." The circumstances that led the Justice Department to disclose investigative information in other recent, high-profile cases now being cited by Democrats are "just not the same" as the circumstances surrounding the Mueller probe, one senior department official insisted to ABC News, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about it. That official and another high-ranking Justice Department insider both pointed to what they see as one big difference: former FBI Director James Comey. In past cases, the officials alleged, Comey's public statements undercut the Justice Department's ability to argue that certain investigative materials should remain private. And, they said, the department only shared documents when investigations were finished or couldn't be impacted by the release of those documents. Long-standing department policy prohibits the disclosure of information that could influence ongoing probes or harm people who haven't been charged. But powerful Democrats in Congress worry the Trump administration could stretch that policy to execute "a cover up," as the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., recently put it. And two weeks ago, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., accused the Justice Department of a "double standard" for turning over "substantial amounts of investigative material" when Republicans were in control of Congress last year and the year before. In fact, the Justice Department gave lawmakers access to 880,000 pages of documents related to the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she served as secretary of State. And the Justice Department offered lawmakers access to a wide array of documents from the FBI's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign, including information related to Americans targeted in the probe. In a letter to Attorney General Bill Barr three weeks ago, Nadler, Schiff and the Democratic chairs of four other House committees insisted that "precedent" leads them to "expect" access to Mueller's report and other investigative material. On Friday, they introduced a congressional resolution reiterating their stance. Democrats fear that even if Mueller fails to find evidence of criminal wrongdoing, he could find evidence of misconduct that the public might never see. "People are entitled to know it, and Congress is entitled to know it," Nadler told ABC News last week. "It's our job to hold the president accountable." But two weeks ago, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein assailed what he called the "knee-jerk reaction" calling on the government to share its secrets. "If we aren't prepared to prove our case beyond a reasonable doubt in court, then we have no business making allegations against American citizens," Rosenstein said. In May 2017, just days before Comey's firing, Rosenstein wrote a letter to Trump blasting Comey for publicly airing criticisms of Clinton a year earlier. On July 5, 2016, inside FBI headquarters, Comey announced that -- even though Clinton and her aides shouldnt be charged -- they were "extremely careless" in handling classified information. For 15 minutes, Comey detailed what his team found and contemplated. Without those public comments, the Justice Department could have withheld documents on the basis that they reflected internal deliberations. But "from the get-go we had a very, very weak litigating position because" Comey had in effect waived that privilege, one senior Justice Department official said. In addition, the Clinton email probe was "over and closed" when lawmakers were granted access to materials, the other official noted. Asked whether the Justice Department would share what Mueller found about allegations of obstruction of justice -- since that inquiry would likely be closed when Mueller issues his report -- the officials declined to answer. Nevertheless, in Mueller's case there are ongoing investigations and prosecutions to still protect, the officials said. "The tentacles of [Mueller's probe] are going to continue being investigated for some unforeseen period of time in the future," according to one official. "[And] we do not give over to the Hill any material that could negatively impact an ongoing investigation." That didnt stop the Justice Department, however, from disclosing pivotal materials from the FBIs Russia probe while Muellers investigation was underway. When Republicans were accusing the FBI of abusing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to target President Donald Trump's associates, dozens of lawmakers were eventually granted access to four top-secret FISA applications, which after being approved by a federal court allowed the FBI to intercept the communications of former Trump adviser Carter Page, who at the time was suspected of being a Russian spy. Key lawmakers were also able to review thousands of pages of internal emails and other classified materials. Those accommodations "potentially" provide Democrats with their best argument to gain access to Muellers findings, the two Justice Department officials acknowledged to ABC News. But -- once again -- the officials blamed Comey for opening the door for Congress, saying his public statements on the Russia probe had "a lot" to do with their decisions. In early 2017, Comey took the rare step of publicly confirming the FBI launched an investigation into Trump's associates and reviewed the so-called "dossier," which by then had been published online by news outlets and detailed allegations against Page that were ultimately included in the FISA applications. Then, in coordination with the White House, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., drafted and released a memo citing substantial portions of the FISA applications. So two months later, based on what had already become public, the Justice Department made what it called the "extraordinary" decision to let the entire House and Senate intelligence committees review the FISA applications. "[But] we really didn't give them the keys to the kingdom," one of the officials said. In fact, the Justice Department did refuse to comply with several Russia-related requests. And in a letter to Congress at the time, Rosenstein said the "voluminous" production of documents was done "in a manner that does not harm the integrity of any ongoing investigation." In Mueller's probe, the department will similarly "protect the integrity of ongoing investigations" and "apply" privileges when appropriate, the two Justice Department officials told ABC News. "We have to actually pick our battles, which we're going to do," one of them said. Mueller could send his final report to Barr in the coming days. It is not expected to detail the findings of spin-off investigations that Mueller referred to prosecutors around the country to pursue separately. According to federal regulations, after receiving Mueller's report, Barr will then send his own summary of the findings to Nadler and other members of Congress. It's unclear how extensive that summary will be. Nadler and Schiff have said they will sue the Trump administration for Muellers evidence if necessary. Spokespeople for Nadler and Schiff did not respond to requests seeking comments for this article. Copyright 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Delhi's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ranbir Singh on Monday said around two lakh people have been added to the electoral roll in Delhi in the last two months, taking the total number of eligible voters till date to 1.39 crore. Singh, however, said nearly 90,000 voter applications are presently being processed, and asked first-time voters to apply as soon as possible to get their names enrolled in the electoral list. The number of first-time voters, aged 18-19, in the electoral roll stands at 1,58,314, he told reporters. Singh also said authorities will keep a strict vigil on social media platforms to check spread of fake and hate speech to ensure free and fair polls, and asserted that "appropriate action" will be taken against the violators. Announcing the poll schedule here on Sunday, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora had said each of the social media platforms has created a mechanism to accept only pre-certified political advertisements during the election process and will share the expenditure incurred in this regard with election authorities. For the "first time", a social media expert has been included in the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) of the poll body, which will monitor both at state-level and district-level, he said. "We will be keeping a watch if any paid or fake is being peddled on TV, radio or social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Use of image of army personnel on any posters would be a violation of the poll code. Posters bearing images of politicians displayed at public places would also be covered," he said. Singh said the commission has fixed an upper limit on poll expenses by each candidate at Rs 70 lakh, adding, the limit was Rs 40 lakh in 2014 general elections. "Besides, a candidate has to declare in the affidavit details of the last five years of his assets and liabilities and that of his or her spouse, dependent children, and including about overseas accounts or deposits. A Hindu undivided family would also have to provide account details," the CEO said. The general elections will begin on April 11 and will be held over seven phases, followed by counting of votes on May 23. The elections in Delhi are due on May 12. Singh told reporters that the last date for filing nominations for Lok Sabha polls in the national capital is April 23. A senior official of the Delhi CEO office said that for the first time, VVPATs (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails) will be used at all polling stations in Delhi, and in a Lok Sabha poll here. "We have 20,435 VVPATs for 13,816 polling stations. As per EVMs, we have 34,953 Ballot Units and 19,002 Control Units. VVPATs were used only in Delhi Cantonment in 2015 Assembly polls. They were not used in 2014 Lok Sabha elections," the official said. There are nearly 1.39 crore voters in the electoral roll of the national capital as of now, an increase of nearly two lakh from the corresponding figure on January 18 this year. The official said that no name can be deleted or old details modified after announcement of election dates, but additions can be made. "On January 18, the total number of voters in the electoral roll of Delhi stood at 1,36,95,291. So, there is an increase of nearly two lakh voters since then," Singh said. The total number of male and female voters is 76,61,680 and 62,35,814 respectively. There are 647 third gender voters, he said. Polling stations will be established at 2,696 locations, he said, adding 13,816 polling stations would be set up, with a model polling station in each Assembly constituency. As per current assessment, there would be 425 critical polling stations, officials said. Delhi has seven Lok Sabha seats and 70 Assembly constituencies, ten seats in each Lok Sabha constituency. The seven seats are -- New Delhi, South Delhi, West Delhi, North-East Delhi, East Delhi, North-West Delhi (reserved for SC) and Chandni Chowk. According to the Delhi CEO Office, the population of Delhi in 2019 is projected to be 1.97 crore. In another first for Delhi, the Delhi CEO Office has planned for having several booths staffed only by women during the Lok Sabha elections here to send out a message of women empowerment. Also, in keeping with the Election Commission's mission of 'leaving no voter behind', the Delhi CEO office will provide transport facility to differently-abled residents who, otherwise have no means to travel to polling booths, officials said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The on Monday told a court here that authorities were yet to give requisite sanctions to prosecute former Union president and others in a 2016 sedition case. On January 14, police had filed a charge sheet in the court against Kumar and others, saying he was leading a procession and supported seditious slogans raised on the JNU campus during an event on February 9, 2016. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat told the police that they could have filed the charge sheet after procuring the sanctions. "You (police) could have filed after procuring sanction only. What was the hurry? I can go ahead with the case," the judge said. Police told the court that it would take two to three months to procure the sanctions. The court also sought a report from the deputy commissioner of police assigned to the case. It posted the matter for further hearing on March 29. The court had earlier also directed the police to ask the authorities concerned to expedite the process while granting it three weeks to procure the sanction needed to prosecute Kumar and other accused, including former JNU students, and Anirban Bhattacharya, in the case. The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on Monday told AFP the negotiations to break a Brexit deadlock were now between British Prime Minister Theresa May and the UK members of parliament. "We held talks over the weekend and the negotiations now are between the government in London and the Parliament in London," Barnier told AFP as he arrived at EU headquarters in Brussels to discuss Britain's exit from the bloc with envoys from the other 27 member states. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told AFP on Monday that negotiations to break a deadlock on a deal to leave the bloc are now between British Prime Minister Theresa May and members of her parliament. "We held talks over the weekend and the negotiations now are between the government in London and the parliament in London," Barnier said as he arrived at EU headquarters in Brussels to discuss Britain's exit from the bloc with envoys from the other 27 member states. Hopes had been high that May would come to Brussels to finalise a deal with the EU on Monday, but a European source these plans had been shelved due to a lack of progress. With time running out, May had hoped for a signal from Brussels to help get a Brexit deal over the line in time for Britain's looming departure from the European Union -- scheduled for March 29. Instead, she spoke to European Commission chief Jean-Claude Junkcer late Sunday by phone, with both sides agreeing to stay in touch. "No further meetings at political level are scheduled, but both sides will remain in close contact this week," Juncker's spokesman Margaritis Schinas said. "We are committed to ratifying this deal before March 29. It is now for the House of Commons to take an important set of decisions this week," he added. British MPs overwhelmingly rejected the deal when it was first put to them in January -- with many citing the controversial Irish "backstop" clause. A second parliamentary vote will take place on Tuesday. The backstop would keep the whole of the UK in a customs union with the EU in order to keep the land border between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland free-flowing. A European source said the embattled May had failed to convince her cabinet over the weekend and that talks with the EU could go no further. Barnier said his teams had offered all they could, including a last-minute proposal that Britain could leave the bloc's customs union after the divorce. But this offer would not include Northern Ireland, which infuriated Barnier's British counterparts who called it a "rerun of old arguments". The Europeans have also proposed to sign a legally backed "joint interpretative document" of the Irish backstop. This would reiterate ways Britain could attempt to suspend the backstop if London were to request a suspension of some of its obligations. To assess the document, British MPs are awaiting the opinion of Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, the May government's top lawyer who took a lead role in the negotiations with Barnier last week. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a significant development in Pakistan's political scene, Opposition leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari met Nawaz Sharif at the Kot Lakhpat jail here on Monday and asked the Imran Khan-led government to provide the best medical treatment to the ailing former prime minister. Sharif, 69, has been imprisoned at the high security Kot Lakhpat jail since December 2018 following his conviction in a corruption case. Sharif's daughter Maryam Nawaz, quoting cardiologists sent by the government to examine Sharif on Thursday said, the 3-time former premier's heart disease has "worsened". Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal's meeting with Sharif is being seen by political observers as a step to form a major opposition alliance against the Imran Khan in days to come. After the meeting, Bilawal told reporters outside the jail that he came to to inquire after Sharif's health. "Although there are political differences but Mr Sharif is not well and I have come here to see him and inquire after his health. Mr Sharif looked very unwell. "I demand the government provide him best treatment. He should be given treatment according to his wish. Injustice shouldn't be done to him," Bilawal, 30, said. He said it is difficult to defend the country on human rights if best treatment is not accorded to a three-time prime minister. "It is our failure that the chartered of democracy couldn't be implemented in letter and spirit. We need to devise a new charter in this regard," he said. He said: "I hope Nawaz Sharif will not strike a deal and stay determined. I didn't take any impression that he was keen to go to London for treatment." Sharif is serving a seven year imprisonment in Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case, one of the three graft cases filed by the National Accountability Bureau on the orders of the Supreme Court. PPP senior leader Haider Zaman Qureshi told PTI that the meeting between Bilawal and Sharif lasted more than an hour. Senior PPP party leaders, including Qamar Zaman Kaira, Hassan Murtaza and Jameel Soomro accompanied Bilawal during his jail visit. Prime Minister Khan on Saturday asked Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar to ensure that every health facility in the country is made available for Nawaz to get the treatment of his choice. When asked about a joint political alliance against the PTI government in the wake of Bilawal's meeting with Sharif, Qureshi said: "It is very much on the card as the honeymoon period of the Imran Khan government is over and the Opposition will be seen united against this government that has brought miseries to the people of Pakistan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Karnataka BJP on Monday accused Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy of using his official position to cater to the needs of his "family business", amid his moves to induct his son into The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) criticism against the chief minister comes at a time when Kumaraswamy is making all efforts to ensure his actor son Nikhil Kumaraswamy's victory from the party stronghold of Mandya Lok Sabha constituency. The JD(S) had recently indicated that Nikhil would be the party candidate from Mandya. "CM @hd_kumaraswamy in last 8 months. 1st 2 Months - How to form govt, 3rd & 4th Month - How to help wife win elections, 5th & 6th Month - How to promote Son's movie, 7th & 8th Month - How to ensure Son win Mandya seat in MP election. CM seat is catering the needs of family business (sic)," the Karnataka BJP said in a tweet. Kumaraswamy's wife Anitha is an MLA from Ramanagara, the seat vacated by her husband as he chose Channapattana out of the two seats he had contested and won in the May, 2018 state Assembly polls. Nikhil is likely to be pitted against Sumalatha Ambareesh, wife of late actor-turned-politician Ambareesh, in Mandya. Sumalatha has made it clear that she would contest the polls from Mandya, which was earlier represented by Ambareesh, in spite of the Congress stating that the seat would go to its coalition partner, the Janata Dal (Secular). It is still not clear whether she will be contesting the polls independently or will take the support of the BJP as the saffron party too is looking to increase its prospects in the Vokkaliga bastion, where it is a weak player. With Sumalatha seen as a strong contender, banking on her late husband's popularity in the region, it is a prestige battle for Kumaraswamy and the JD(S) to retain the seat as the district is dominated by the party that has all the seven Assembly constituencies under its kitty. The JD(S) and the Deve Gowda family have also come under criticism in the social media for their plans to field Nikhil from Mandya and another grandson, Prajwal Revanna, from Hassan. Prajwal is the son of Kumaraswamy's elder brother and PWD Minister H D Revanna. A social media campaign titled "Go back Nikhil" was also launched in Mandya a couple of days ago to oppose the "dynasty politics" of the Deve Gowda family. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Monday latched on to Rahul Gandhi's reference to terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammad's head as " ji" to throw "Rahul loves terrorists" barb at the chief, as the opposition party hit back accusing its rival of deliberately twisting his comments made with sarcasm. Addressing a meeting of workers in Delhi, Gandhi attacked the BJP, saying, "These people with 56 inch chest, you would recall, in their previous government, the current National Security Advisor Ajit Doval went in an aircraft with ji and handed over there in Kandhar." Gandhi noted it was Azhar who was responsible for the killing of 40 CRPF soldiers in the Pulwama attack on February 14. Targeting the chief, leader and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "Come on Ji! Earlier it was the likes of Digvijay Ji who called Osama Ji and Hafiz Saeed Sahab. Now you are saying 'Masood Azhar Ji'. What is happening to Congress Party?" Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala accused the and a section of media for deliberately twisting Gandhi's remarks. "Two questions to BJP & select Bhakt Media, who deliberately seek to twist the 'Masood' sarcasm of Rahulji- 1) Did NSA Doval not escort & release terrorist Masood Azhar in Kandahar? 2) Did Modiji not invite Pak's rogue ISI to investigate Pathankot terror attack?". Another Union minister Smriti Irani also took a swipe at Gandhi. "What is common between and Pakistan? Their love for terrorists. Please note Rahul ji's reverence for terrorist Masood Azhar - a testimony to #RahulLovesTerrorists," she tweeted. In turn, Surjewala used the hashtag "BJP loves terrorists". Azhar and two other terrorists, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, were released from Indian prison in 1999 by the then BJP-led government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in exchange for the passengers held hostage on board IC-814 flight hijacked to Kandahar in Afghanistan. Azhar formed JeM after his release from jail. Since then, JeM, based in Pakistan, has been involved in terrorist attacks in India. The group was responsible for the attack on Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001 in which nine security personnel and officials were killed. On January 2, 2016, a heavily armed group of JeM attacked the Pathankot airbase in which seven security personnel were killed. JeM also carried out the attack on Uri brigade headquarters on September 18, 2016, killing 17 soldiers and injuring 30 others. And the latest Pulwama attack. The government will discuss with aviation regulator on action that needs to be taken regarding Boeing 737 MAX planes being operated in India following the crash of the aircraft in Ethiopia that killed 157 people, a senior official said Monday. This is for the second time in less than five months that a Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane crashed. In October 2018, an aircraft operated by Lion Air crashed killing over 180 people in Indonesia. Against the backdrop of full-service carrier Jet Airways and budget airline SpiceJet operating 737 MAX planes, the has decided to seek information about the aircraft from Boeing as well as the two domestic carriers. A senior civil aviation ministry official Monday told PTI it would discuss with the on the action that needs to be taken with regard to 737 MAX aircraft. Jet Airways has placed orders for 225 737 MAX planes with Boeing and some have already been delivered. SpiceJet, which has embarked on ambitious expansion plans, has a deal with Boeing for up to 205 aircraft, including at least 155 737 MAX 8 planes. The two airlines did not offer any immediate comments regarding the MAX planes. The 737 MAX is the fastest selling airplane in Boeing's history. Currently, SpiceJet has 13 737 MAX 8 planes and Jet Airways has 8 such aircraft in their fleets, as per data available with planespotters.net website. On Sunday, 157 people, including four Indians, were killed when a Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines' 737 MAX aircraft crashed after taking off from Addis Ababa. In the wake of the incident, various jurisdictions and airlines have initiated actions, including grounding of the 737 MAX aircraft. The Civil Aviation Administration of China has asked its local carriers to stop commercial flights with 737 MAX 8 planes and Ethiopian Airlines has grounded its fleet of such aircraft. Last December, the DGCA asked Jet Airways and SpiceJet to immediately report any "abnormal" issues related to the MAX plane's Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), following the Lion Air crash. MCAS is a kind of stall-recovery system that is used in Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and generally alerts the pilot in case there is stalling of the plane or fall in speed, among others. Prior to that, the DGCA, in November 2018, asked the two carriers to take corrective action to address possible issues with their 737 MAX planes that could lead to "significant altitude loss" of the aircraft. ALSO READ: Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 from Addis to Nairobi crashes with 157 aboard After the crash in Ethiopia, Boeing, on Sunday, said it was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the passengers and crew on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a 737 MAX 8 airplane. "A Boeing technical team will be travelling to the crash site to provide technical assistance under the direction of the Ethiopia Accident Investigation Bureau and US Transportation Safety Board," the aircraft maker said in a statement. "The 737 MAX is the fastest selling airplane in Boeing history, accumulating nearly 4,700 orders from more than 100 customers, worldwide," according to Boeing website. In a real life plot resembling the Sanjay Dutt starrer film Munna Bhai MBBS, a medical college in Bhopal allegedly admitted fake and ghost patients to comply with minimum requirements of Medical Council of India, a CBI inquiry has found. On the basis of the findings of the agency, the Supreme Court has barred RKDF Medical College Hospital and Research Centre from admissions in its first year MBBS course for the next two years 2018-19 and 2019-20. The apex court has also directed its Secretary General to initiate prosecution against the Dean of the college S S Kushwaha and imposed a penalty of Rs 5 crore for playing fraud on it. The apex court has directed the college to refund the fee paid by the students for the academic year 2017-19 along with a compensation of Rs one lakh to each student. The inquiry found that the college misled the Supreme Court by manipulating and filing of fabricated records. "The assertion made by the college regarding the genuineness of the patients in the hospital turned out to be false in the enquiry conducted by the Committee which was comprised of the officers of the CBI and medical experts," an official said. The Central Government and Medical Council of India had highlighted before the Supreme Court gross mal-practices in the college and inadequate infrastructure and patients to impart to MBBS students. This was contested by the college which had challenged the report of the Government and the MCI. In order to verify the allegations against the college, the Supreme Court in 2017 had constituted a committee headed by a senior officer deputed by the CBI Director and two doctors of the AIIMS recommended by the AIIMS Director. The CBI registered a preliminary enquiry and submitted its report before the Supreme Court last year which included opinion of AIIMS doctors. "The Committee exposes the evil design of the college in resorting to deceitful methods to cheat the authorities concerned and this court to secure permission for admission of students. Apart from the prosecution of the Dean, the college is liable to be suitably punished for committing perjury," the court said. The MCI in its inspection in 2015 had found that the college, for the purpose of granting admission for 2014-15, admitted fake patients and others who were without any significant illness. The matter went to number of litigations in various courts before Supreme Court constituted a committee under the CBI to look into the claims of the hospital in 2017. The allegation was corroborated by the Supreme Court appointed committee comprising CBI officer and AIIMS doctors which went through medical sheets of 436 patients shown to be admitted in the hospital in September 2017 when it carried out inspection. During inspection it found that the number of patients was abysmally low while medical files were not in conformity with the actual number of patients. Going through records collected by the committee, Surgical disciplines Professor in AIIMS went through 96 medical sheets of the patients on bed in 2017 and raised serious doubts over "genuineness of the patients actually admitted". Similar views were expressed by AIIMS experts in Gynaecology, Oral surgery, Ophthalmic sciences, dermatology, Paediatrics, General medicine, orthopaedics and ENT departments. The experts found the spectrum of patients shown to be admitted by college as inadequate for MBBS After the report was filed before the Supreme Court, the college gave an unconditional apology to the apex court requesting to give a quietus to the matter. "The brazen manner in which the college has indulged in relying upon manipulated records to mislead this court for the purpose of getting favourable order deserves to be dealt with a serious manner," the Supreme Court said. The court said it has noticed a disturbing trend of some medical colleges in projecting fake faculty and patients for obtaining permission for admission of students. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The has allowed state governments to put to "public use" some that were left behind by people who migrated to Pakistan since the Partition and to China after the 1962 Sino-Indian war, officials said Monday. The move comes amid the central government's efforts to sell more than 9,400 enemy properties, worth over Rs 1 trillion, and Rs 3,000 crore worth of enemy shares. The guidelines for disposal of the Enemy Property Order, 2018, has been amended to facilitate "usages of enemy property by the state government exclusively for public use", according to a notification issued by the Home Ministry. are those properties that were left behind by the people who took citizenship of Pakistan and China.There are 9,280 such properties left behind by Pakistani nationals and 126 by Chinese nationals, an official of the ministry said. Of the total properties left behind by those who took Pakistani citizenship, 4,991 are located in Uttar Pradesh, the highest in the country.West Bengal has 2,735 such estates and Delhi 487. The highest number of properties left by Chinese nationals is in Meghalaya (57) .West Bengal has 29 such properties and Assam seven. "The estimated value of all is approximately Rs 1 trillion," Union Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir had told the Rajya Sabha last year. The central government last month had constituted a high-level committee to recommend the quantum and price or price band for sale of enemy shares, worth Rs 3,000 crore. A total 6,50,75,877 shares in 996 companies of 20,323 shareholders are under the custody of the Custodian of Enemy Property for India, another official said. Of these companies, 588 are functional or active companies, 139 of these are listed and the remaining are unlisted. The Enemy Property Act was enacted in 1968 and it regulates such properties and lists the custodian's powers. The act was amended in 2017 to ensure that the successors of those who migrated to Pakistan and China will have no claim over the properties left behind in India. Monday, March 11, 2019 at 7:00PM Guest contributor Tony Ruggio reporting from SXSW Between the ages of thirteen and twenty-five years-old I witnessed what they would call the 11:11 phenomenon. Essentially, I saw a three or four-number combination of 1 in all walks of life. I saw it on television, often the last four of a Crash Bandicoot lawyers telephone number. I saw it during lunch time, the split-second moment a microwave hit that magic number. Most of all, I saw it on a clock, at least once a day every day. The paranoid and pretty rad among us consider this phenomenon many things: good luck, a sign from God, a glitch in the Matrix, a pang of the end times, or even a calling to those chosen to effect change and save the world from itself. Jordan Peele must have been a witness himself or simply heard about it and did his research, because Us is littered with references to this numeral phenomenon and the conspiracy theories that have sprung of it. More traditional horror than Get Out, and a better film too, Us gets hung up on making a big statement, but ends up making a great horror film regardless. This might be sacrilegious to those already devoted to Peele: Get Out is a good film, one whose merits lay more in writing than in directing. Silly folks label it a thriller, denying it horror status. Even if you grant that Get Out was not a horror film in concept, it's definitely a horror film in execution. Therefore, I knocked it at the time for not being scary enough. With Us, Peele is firing on all scary-movie cylinders, and doing so with a wider array of tools at his disposal, chief of all his confidence... In the span of just two films hes grown leaps and bounds as a filmmaker, doubling down on that shrewd, cunning humor and expanding on his penchant for wicked iconography. If theres one thing every future horror classic needs, its iconography. Indelible, iconic images are nearly as important as everything else. But oh, what everything else. Gabe (Winston Duke) and Adelaide (Lupita Nyongo) and their two children make up your average middle-class American family. Duke is on a rocket ship to the stars and Nyongo is officially one of the finest actresses of her generation. Her dual performances as two mama bears possessed are surefire proof that the Oscar was no fluke. On vacation with their affluent white buddies the Tylers (Elizabeth Moss and Tim Heidecker, nearly stealing the picture) and their teenage daughters, it would almost be your typical hunky-dory set-up before the shit hits the fan were it not for Nyongos Adelaide. Since arriving shes been reliving a childhood incident that traumatized her, and whether exploring that trauma or recollecting and subverting Reagan-era iconography (there it is again), its clear Peele is asking us to remember Americas sins. Us is not about race. Us is about all of us. While the message is somewhat obvious and couched in a ridiculous ending, the end point of it all doesnt matter so much as how he gets there, the yarn of it all. Peele is delving into Americas contradictions and duality as a country, the great binary, our capacity to be good whilst ignoring and fearing the other, from the poor and underprivileged to those foreign to us. And hes somehow doing it while throwing everything and the kitchen sink at us, including bunnies. Universals marketing team has done an excellent job crafting exciting trailers without spoiling the films secrets or much of its plot, so I cant go into much detail less I give up the ghost on just what is happening when the Wilson family doppelgangers show up with scissors and a kill-on for their tethered. Suffice to say, theyre not happy with how theyve been treated and theyre here to change the world. When do they show up, Us kicks into high gear, containing more than a handful of moments designed for audience participation, the kind of stand-up-and-cheer stuff built for horror audiences. This is particularly the case when the action moves to the Tyler family beach house, a twenty-minute sequence of shocking images, serious comedy, and killer tunes. From pillar to post the Tyler house battle between good and evil is a filmmaking tour de force. But what about 11:11? Is it a red herring or an integral part of the yarn, something to parse? So goes the phenomenon itself, and world I suppose. Once Peeles ambitious, apocalyptic vision comes to fruition, the numeric symbol takes on a special meaning to those of us who have entertained or at least read about the dozens of theories associated with it. Its kinda cool knowing the next great filmmaker was inspired by something that creeped you the hell out for so many years, as it did me. From Haneke to Serling, the inspirations are many, and through it all the former comedian has produced an inarguable horror film of great conviction and originality. Its all so fresh in spite of any borrowing. Though his message is clear as day, his tactics are dark as night, with so much to unpack scene to scene in terms of theme, metaphor, and a thoroughly unsettling fiction of American history. Us is not overtly political, and yet walking out I couldnt help thinking about our countrys two halves, and our unending ability to blame the other half for all the evil in the world. Its not them, its all of us. A- Us opens nationwide on Friday, March 22nd. The chiefs of the Air Force and the Army's eastern commands have held a meeting to discuss the security situation prevailing in the eastern theatre, an official said Monday. Air Marshal R D Mathur, Air Officer Commanding in Chief, Eastern Air Command, and Lt General M M Naravane, General-Officer-Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Command discussed ways to enhance synergy between the two forces for conducting integrated joint operations in the command theatre. They also "deliberated upon deepening joint training and logistics in the eastern theatre as part of this process" during the meeting on Saturday at Fort William, the Army's Eastern Command headquarter, the official said. "Such interactions are important from the point of view of total synergy in all future operations," he said. Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day-long standoff in Doklam from June 16, 2017, after the Indian side stopped the building of a road in the disputed tri-junction by the Chinese Army. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China's civil aviation regulator on Monday ordered domestic carriers to ground nearly 100 Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes, citing flight safety, a day after an aircraft of similar model operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed in Addis Ababa killing all 157 passengers and crew, including four Indians. The crash of Ethiopian Airlines plane came five months after another Boeing 737 MAX 8 of Lion Air crashed in Indonesia that killed 189 passengers and crew. Apart from China, Indonesia and Ethiopia have also ordered airlines to ground their Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes. There were similarities between the two mishaps, since they both occurred during take-off, involving new aircraft that had just been delivered, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported quoting a statement by the Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC). "In accordance with the CAAC's management principle of zero tolerance for safety hazards, the authority has instructed all domestic carriers to temporarily halt operations involving the aircraft model before 6pm (local time) on March 11," the Post quoted the CAAC statement as saying. The grounding of the aircraft is likely to affect more than a dozen Chinese carriers, which have taken delivery of close to 100 of the latest single-aisle plane from the US aircraft maker, it said. CNN, quoting state-run media, said Chinese carriers have 97 Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes. As many as 246 Chinese domestic routes and 355 domestic flights were scheduled on Monday for the 737 MAX 8 planes, excluding international services, the report said quoting Chinese flight data provider VariFlight. As many as 29 flights have already been cancelled, while 259 fights were replaced by other aircraft. China Southern Airlines, Air China, China Eastern Airlines, Hainan Airlines are among the carriers that fly the aircraft, which can carry between 138 to 230 passengers depending on their configurations, the report said. Meanwhile, the Chicago-based Boeing said it did not intend to issue any new guidance to its customers and a company's technical team will be travelling to the crash site to provide technical assistance to Ethiopian and US investigators. "Boeing is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the passengers and crew on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a 737 MAX 8 airplane. We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the families and loved ones of the passengers and crew on board and stand ready to support the Ethiopian Airlines team. "A Boeing technical team will be travelling to the crash site to provide technical assistance under the direction of the Ethiopia Accident Investigation Bureau and US National Transportation Safety Board," the statement from the company said. The 737 is the best-selling airliner in history. Its newest version 737 MAX 8 has more fuel-efficient engines. The aircraft is a central part of Boeing's strategy to compete with its European rival Airbus. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An affiliate of China's ruling Communist Party has called for a ban on child anchors on live streaming platforms following allegations that minors are being used to spread vulgar and pornographic content. A regulation banning minors from acting as anchors on live streaming platforms and protection on their use of the internet need to be issued, according to a proposal submitted by the All-China Youth Federation (ACYF) to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a national advisory body which is currently holding its annual session here. The ACYF, which represents many youth groups in the Communist Party of China (CPC), including the influential Communist Youth League of China, said its proposal was aimed at protecting minors from illegal content, the official media here reported. The draft of the regulation is needed since some live streaming platforms provide vulgar and pornographic information, which affects the values of minors, violates their privacy and causes financial losses due to "irrational" rewards to the network anchors, The Beijing quoted members of the National Committee of ACYF as saying. Commenting on the proposal Wang Sixin, a media law professor at the Communication University of China in Beijing, said "the ability for minors to control their language is weak." Under this circumstance, when they do not know how to deal with provocative language, it will be harmful to their physical and mental health, Wang was quoted as saying by the state-run Global Times on Monday. "Minors are at a critical stage in the development of moral habits and their capacity of discern is weak. They might mistakenly believe that the vulgar acts they watch through live streams can be attractive, profitable and even emulated, which causes a negative impact on their values," delegates from the ACYF were quoted by China National Radio (CNR) as saying. The number of online users in China reached 425 million as of June 2018, an increase of 2.94 million compared with 2017, and the user utilisation rate was 53.0 per cent. The percentage of students in elementary, junior and senior high schools who regularly watch live broadcasts reached 6.4 per cent, 18.3 per cent and 20.5 per cent respectively, another survey quoted by CNR stated. The ACYF has proposed that the regulation needs to clarify the criteria for an anchor and strengthen the investigation and punishment of live streaming platforms for illegal content inspection and supervision. Facial recognition and big data could be used to identify registered users and a "parental control mode" can be applied to monitor and prevent minors from getting away from parental supervision, the Global Times report said. Some young live streaming users would use their parents' bank cards to reward the anchors, but is difficult to get a refund, the report said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The choice is between Mahatma Gandhi's India and Nathuram Godse's India with love on one hand and hate on the other, Congress president Rahul Gandhi told his party's booth workers here on Monday, a day after the Lok Sabha polls were announced. In an all-out attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gandhi flayed him on a host of issues such as the Rafale deal, Doklam, employment generation, national security and the alleged agrarian distress. "You have to decide, you want Gandhi's India or Godse's India. On one hand, there is love, brotherhood, on the other is hate, fear. Gandhiji was fearless, stayed in jail for years, but spoke with the British with love, while (Veer) Savarkar wrote letters to the British apologising and asking to be let off," he said. Hitting out at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the issue of national security, the Congress chief said 40 CRPF personnel were killed in the February 14 Pulwama terror attack carried out by the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), whose chief Masood Azhar was released from jail by the saffron party. "These people with 56-inch chests, you would recall, in their previous government, the current National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, went in an aircraft with Masood Azharji and handed over Masood Azhar in Kandahar," he said sarcastically. "Two of our prime ministers were martyred. We don't bow before anyone," he added. Azhar, along with two other terrorists, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, was released from jail in 1999 by the then BJP-led NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in exchange for the passengers held hostage on board the IC 814 flight, which was hijacked to Kandahar in Afghanistan. The BJP latched on to Gandhi's reference to the JeM chief as "Masood Azharji" to hurl a "Rahul loves terrorists" barb at the Congress president. The opposition party hit back, accusing the saffron party of deliberately twisting Gandhi's comments, which it claimed were made sarcastically. Gandhi also slammed Modi over the Rafale fighter jets deal, saying five years ago, the "chowkidar" (watchman) had come to power and said he had a "56-inch chest" and would fight corruption. "People earlier used to say, 'acche din ayenge'...now you just say 'chowkidar' and everyone else says 'chor hai' -- this is due to the Congress," he said. The prime minister spoke for an hour-and-a-half in Parliament, but could not answer four questions on Rafale fighter jets, he added. "He talked about the Congress, Rajiv Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, but did not utter Anil Ambani's name," Gandhi said in a reference to the allegation that the industrialist was favoured in the Rafale deal. The Congress chief said Modi kept talking about Make in India, but his shirts, shoes and phone, with which he took selfies, were made in China. He also asserted that the Congress would come to power in the upcoming general election and fix a minimum income for all the citizens of the country. Rattled by the Congress's announcement of minimum income guarantee, Modi had announced Rs 3.5 a day for farmers, Gandhi claimed. The Congress waived farm loans within two days of coming to power in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, he said. Taking on the prime minister over his China policy, Gandhi claimed that the Chinese prime minister gave a "clear message to the PM that I know you, you are a weak person, I will send the Chinese army to Doklam and you cannot do anything". Modi bowed before China and offered a truce, he claimed. "Narendra Modi backs off when someone stands up to him," the Congress chief said. In Delhi, shops were sealed and both the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) did nothing while the drive was on, he said, touching upon the issues in the national capital. Gandhi urged his party's booth workers to work hard and win all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi in the upcoming polls. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Indian Coast Guard Monday said it would train officers from the Bangladesh Coast Guard in maritime search and rescue operations for the first time under an international cooperation agreement between the two countries. The Coast Guard Eastern region headquartered here would train five officers and ten others from various ranks of the Bangladesh Coast Guard from March 11 to 16, an official release said here. The officers would undergo training in handling the equipment at the Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) here and coordinating various types of Search and Rescue cases while operating the maritime distress and safety systems. Coast Guard has established a Search and Rescue Coordination system that is manned 24x7 through the MRCC for quick response to distress incidents at sea for the entire Bay of Bengal area. As part of the international cooperation between India and Bangladesh, New Delhi agreed to train Bangladesh Coast Guard personnel. Both the countries have been working closely on issues of co-ordination for Search and Rescue operations, maritime safety and security in the Indian ocean, the release said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Opposition SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal Monday urged voters to defeat the Congress in the general election so that chief minister Amarinder Singh is "forced" to fulfil poll promises. Addressing a party meeting here, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president alleged that the chief minister was in a "deep slumber" and the state government had failed to provide good governance in Punjab. "The only job it has done is to launch a witch hunt against the SAD leadership to divert attention from its poor performance as it has miserably failed to implement even a single promise made to the people," Badal said. Every section of society, be it farmers, youth, Dalits, government employees or traders are "feeling betrayed" by the Congress government, the former deputy chief minister alleged further. Lashing out at the Congress government for "playing fraud" with the people by "not implementing" any of its poll promises, Badal claimed that Punjabis had decided to teach Congress a "befitting" lesson in the parliamentary elections. "CM Amarinder Singh does not dare to step out of Chandigarh, sensing that the people would question him about all of the promises he has brazenly backtracked from, including farm loan waiver, jobs to youth and social benefits to Dalits and other under privileged sections of the society," alleged Badal. "This time the Congress party should not waste time in preparing its election manifesto as everybody in Punjab knows that it is a habitual liar and does not keep its word," he further alleged. Comparing Patiala seat-- home turf of Singh-- to the Bathinda constituency-- a pocket borough of the Badal family-- the former deputy CM said that under the previous SAD regime, Bathinda got several big projects including a petroleum refinery, university, AIIMS and a new airport. "Contrary to this, Patiala has been in a state of neglect during Amarinder Singh's stint as CM as well as the present term of the last two years. No effort was made to bring even one big project or industry to the Patiala parliamentary constituency," he alleged. He said Singh had also not deemed it fit to visit Patiala and thank the people for electing him as a legislator. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress is set to give final shape to its strategy for Lok Sabha elections at its working committee meeting in Ahmedabad on Tuesday and will sound the poll bugle from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state, party leaders said. The day-long meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's highest decision-making body, assumes significance as it comes barely two days after declaration of poll schedule for the general elections. Sources said the Congress is seeking to give a strong political message to the entire nation from the land of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel, with the party leadership scheduled to hold a prayer meeting Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, followed by the CWC meet at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel national memorial there. The CWC meeting is being held in Gujarat after a gap of 58 years. It was last held in the state at Bhavnagar in 1961. The party will also hold a public meeting in Adalaj in Gandhinagar district of Gujarat with the slogan of "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan". Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is also likely to address this meeting in her first public rally after entering Patidar leader Hardik Patel, who shot to fame by spearheading a quota stir in the state and is set to fight the Lok Sabha polls, will also join Congress at the meeting in presence of the party chief Rahul Gandhi. Besides giving final shape to its Lok Sabha election strategy, the party will demand answers from Prime Minister Modi and the BJP on what they call "failures" and "unfulfilled" promises of the government. Top Congress leadership, led by Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh, and other senior leaders will deliberate on key issues for the national elections beginning April 11. The party leaders will also discuss ways to corner Modi and his government on issues of governance, agrarian and economic crisis, unemployment and lack of job creation, national security and women safety. The party is of the view that the narrative for the general elections needs to be steered towards real issues and problems confronting people of the country, from what its leaders see as the "propaganda" plank of the current regime, especially after Pulwama attack and subsequent air strike on terror camps in Pakistan. Sources said the party will issue a statement after the CWC, covering all these issues. The Congress leaders feel that the party needs to demand answers from the prime minister on status of the promises made by him five years ago and on his governance track record. After the CWC meeting, senior Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh, as well as current and former party chief ministers will attend the 'Jan Sankalp' rally', state party unit chief Amit Chavda said. The party has been alleging that Modi has "fooled" the people with his "false propaganda" and "boastful claims" and has not delivered on his promises. It has also alleged that the Modi government has inflicted pain and misery on the poor, the unemployed and the farmers during its five years of power, which needs to be made an election issue. They will start their day by paying tributes to Mahatma Gandhi as March 12 marks the launch of the historic Dandi March by him from the Sabarmati Ashram here in 1930. Besides, 2019 is also being celebrated as the 150th birth anniversary year of the Father of the Nation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting will be held at Gandhinagar in Gujarat on Tuesday to discuss the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The meeting would be followed by a mega rally at Adalaj town in Gandhinagar where Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is likely to address her first public rally after entering CWC, the highest decision-making body of the Congress, will be meeting in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for the first time since 1961, after a gap of 58 years. Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel will also join the Congress on Tuesday in the presence of party president Rahul Gandhi. After the meeting at the Sardar Patel memorial building, senior Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, UPC chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh, as well as current and former party chief ministers will attend the 'Jan Sankalp' rally', state party unit chief Amit Chavda said. Before the CWC meet, senior party leaders will visit the Gandhi Ashram to attend a prayer meet. The leaders will pay tributes to Mahatma Gandhi as March 12 marks the launch of the historic Dandi March by him from the Sabarmati Ashram here in 1930. Besides, 2019 is also being celebrated as the 150th birth anniversary year of the Father of the Nation. The Congress is expecting a crowd of over three lakh people in the home turf of Modi and BJP president Shah ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, a party leader said. This will be Rahul Gandhi's second visit to Gujarat within a month in the run-up to the polls. He earlier addressed a rally in Valsad district February 14. In 1961, the CWC meet was held at Bhavnagar in Gujarat. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress in Telangana Monday announced it would boycott the MLC election Tuesday, accusing ruling TRS of poaching four of its MLAs and a TDP legislator 'in a brazen manner by adopting all illegal means.' The decision was taken in protest against the defection of its MLAs being 'encouraged' by the ruling TRS ahead of the MLC polls, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy said. "KCR ji (Chief Miniser K Chandrasekhar Rao), who assumed office after swearing in as per Constitution, violated the oath of office and admitted Telugu Desam and Congress MLAs into the TRS in a brazen manner by adopting all illegal means," he told reporters here. "In protest against this, Congress is boycotting this MLC election so that Telangana people know the undemocratic, and anti-Constitutional, illegal actions being resorted to by the Chief Minister in this MLC election," Reddy said. He was referring to the announcement of Congress MLAs -- MLAs -- Rega Kantha Rao, Atram Sakku, Chirumarti Lingaiah and Haripriya Naik -- and a TDP MLA (Sandra Venkata Veeraiah) to join TRS in the interest of development of their constituencies. In the election to fill five vacancies in the Council, TRS has fielded four nominees, leaving one seat to its ally AIMIM. In the December 7 2018 Assembly elections, TRS bagged 88 of the total of 119 seats. An independent MLA and an AIFB legislator have also declared support to the ruling party. The AIMIM has seven MLAs. The Congress fielded one candidate in the Council election. It had won 19 seats in the Assembly polls and was banking on the support of two-member TDP. However, the announcement of four Congress MLAs and the TDP MLA to join TRS hurt its chances in the MLC election. The PCC president said his party has fielded one candidate in the MLC election as it was in a position to win the seat with the support of two TDP members. "The defection of MLAs is a dangerous trend (for democracy) that the ruling TRS has started," Reddy alleged and added that his party would stage a demonstration against it. The Congress and TRS have been engaged in a war of words on the issue of MLAs moving to the ruling party. Responding to Reddy's comments that TRS 'purchased' its MLAs, TRS had referred to instances of public representatives joining Congress from other parties and asked if that too was a "purchase". Reddy said TRS MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy joined the Congress after the completion of his tenure. He dismissed reports that Congress MLA and senior leader P Sabita Indra Reddy also might join TRS. He said he and other party leaders have spoken to her. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Observing that corruption was spreading like "cancer", the Madras High Court asked the Vigilance personnel in Tamil Nadu on Monday to conduct periodical raids in taluk offices, where it said bribe was demanded for issuing every document such as a legal heir certificate. Justice S M Subramaniam noted that the common man was absolutely frustrated by the corrupt activities in public offices and by public servants and said all higher officials, including the courts, must take note of the prevailing situation and deal with the cases appropriately. He made the observations while dismissing a petition filed by a special tahsildar, who challenged his suspension for alleged corruption on the ground of delay in issuing the order. Courts could not show any leniency or misplaced sympathy in corruption cases, Justice Subramaniam said and held that a suspension order of a government employee could not be quashed merely on the ground that there was a delay in issuing it. "Corruption is spreading like cancer in our great nation. The common man is absolutely frustrated in respect to the corrupt activities in public offices and by the public servants," he said in his order. The judge further said, "Day in and day out, even for getting a legal document, the common man has to bribe certain public officials." He added that especially in taluk offices, even to get a legal heir certificate or a nativity certificate or a "patta" (land document) or any other document, "people are giving bribes to the officials, which are mostly demanded. That is the painful situation which is prevailing". This being the factum, the Department of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) must be even more vigilant and conduct periodical surprise inspections in the taluk offices also, the judge said, noting that such searches were being carried out in the regional transport offices and sub-registrar offices of the Registration Department. "Equally, the taluk offices are also to be monitored and surprise inspections conducted to nail all the culprits who indulge in corrupt activities," he said. The petitioner was holding the post of special tahsildar (land acquisition) and he was suspended several months after a case was registered against him in 2016 under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The judge noted that the case was not brought to the notice of the district collector and as soon as he was informed, he had issued the suspension order. Hence, the delay could not be attributed to the administration, he added. The judge said suspension was an interim arrangement to keep a public servant away from performing his official duties to ensure a free-and-fair investigation and hence, it could neither be quashed on merits of the allegations nor on the basis of certain documents or a complaint. Only an enquiry by affording an opportunity to the delinquent officials to present their case could look into the allegations, the judge said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A middle-aged couple were smothered, their bodies stuffed in different suitcases and dumped in a drain by their daughter and her paramour after they refused to hand over their property in outer Delhi's Paschim Vihar, police said on Monday. The accused Davinder Kaur (26), a resident of Deepak Vihar in outer Delhi and Prince Dixit (29), a resident of Gomti Nagar extension in Lucknow were arrested by the police. The duo hatched the plan to grab a plot of land owned by the elderly couple at Deepak Vihar's Nilothi extension. Police officials were informed on March 8 about a maroon coloured suitcase floating in a drain in Paschim Vihar suspected of having a body inside. Initial investigations by the police revealed that the body of the woman was stuffed in the suitcase and thrown into the drain after killing her. "A case was registered at Paschim Vihar police station. An investigation was into the incident was initiated," said Seju Kuruvilla, Deputy Commissioner of Police (outer). The body was later identified to be of Jageer Kaur (47). During investigations, the police found that Kaur's husband Gurmeet Singh was also missing. On March 9, a male body in a decomposed state, also packed in a suitcase was found on the opposite side of the drain where the first body was found. The body was later identified to be that of Singh, police said. Police brought in Davinder Kaur, Jageer's daughter for questioning and found her statements suspicious and contradictory with the facts and circumstances, the DCP said. The call records of suspects and the CCTV footage of the area were analyzed and multiple raids conducted, he said. On further interrogation, Davinder finally confessed to her involvement in the in the murder of her parents. Davinder told police that she had left her husband and was in relationship with Prince Dixit for the last one year. "Davinder and Dixit wanted to grab the property at Deepak Vihar in Nilothi extension the parents were not ready to transfer the property in Davinder's name. "So the duo hatched a conspiracy to kill her parents and grab the property," the officer said. Jageer Kaur left for Jalandhar on February 10 as her father had expired. "On February 21, the accused intoxicated her father by mixing sleeping pills in his tea. At night, Dixit came to the house with two more people and smothered Gurmeet Singh to death. "They then packed the body in a suitcase and threw it in a drain near Sayed Nangloi village," he added. Dixit fled to Lucknow the next morning along with the two other accused, the officer said. Dixit was informed a day before that Jageer Kaur would return Delhi from Punjab on March 2. "He came back to Delhi with one of his freinds. The same day, her daughter gave sleeping pills to her mother and once she fell asleep, Kaur was smothered to death by the accused duo who then disposed the body in the same drain after stuffing it inside a suitcase," Kuruvilla said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) whether it had prior to 2018 insisted on individual poll expense bills from elected members of the varsity's student union after their election. Justice Yogesh Khanna posed the query to the university while hearing a plea by Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) challenging the varsity's decision to not notify the elected office bearers and barring them from performing their duties for not providing separate bills of their individual poll expenses. Stressing that the JNU should have followed the laid down procedure, the court said that the matter should have been first placed before the grievance redressal committee which would have heard the students' side and taken a decision but instead the decision was taken by the Dean of Students. "Verify your (JNU) records with regard to situation in previous years and let me know," the judge said and listed the matter for further hearing on March 14. The JNU, represented by central government standing counsel Monika Arora and advocate Harsh Ahuja, told the court that as per Lyngdoh committee recommendations poll expenses have to be furnished within 15 days of declaration of the results, but the JNUSU office bearers gave a collective bill of 19 persons who had contested under one banner for different posts. Arora argued that separate bills were required to be furnished and despite several reminders, the students have not done so. She also said that the collective bills given do not contain any name or signatures nor do they state the purpose for which it was generated. The JNUSU and its office bearers, represented by senior advocate Akhil Sibal and advocate Abhik Chimni, told the court that in elections prior to 2018 individual bills were never insisted upon. The students' lawyers also contended that under the Lyngdoh committee recommendations only an audited statement of accounts was required and not individual bills. Taking note of the students' contention, the court said, "The Lyngdoh committee recommendations were there earlier also. Why the shift to it this time? What changed now? "If you intended to implement the recommendation, you (JNU) should have told them (students) before the elections and not after that. If you do not tell them before the elections, they will go by the past practice." The court also said that the matter should have been first placed before the grievance redressal committee. Instead, the Dean of Students took a decision in a meeting to not notify the elected office bearers and to bar them from attending meetings of various student committees and councils, the court observed. "How could the dean take a decision? It should have been placed before the grievance redressal committee first," the court said and added "you (JNU) should have followed the procedure you have laid down". JNUSU president N Sai Balaji and other office bearers, in the petition, have said that they are aggrieved by the "arbitrary and illegal acts" of the university and dean of students in illegally obstructing their participation in the various committees/councils set up under the JNU Act, 1966, statutes and ordinances citing the specious reason of non-issuance of the requisite notification. The petitioners are the elected office-bearers of the JNUSU for the academic year 2018-2019 and had won the elections conducted on September 14, 2018. The plea has sought a direction to JNU to declare the petitioners to be elected office bearers of JNUSU. It has also sought a declaration that the Dean of Students has no powers under the Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations to recognise/de-recognise/nullify the elections to JNUSU which are held annually at the university. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bombay High Court Monday told the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and other state authorities in Maharashtra to ensure that the implementation of the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha polls did not bring the administration to a halt. A bench of Chief Justice Naresh Patil and Justice N M Jamdar maintained that all required work must go on during the poll code enforcement period. "Code of doesn't mean you stop all work. All necessary work must continue going on," the bench said. It was hearing a petition seeking, among other things, directions to the BMC to appoint experts to its Tree Authority that holds the power to grant permissions for felling of trees for development projects. The bench asked the BMC about the status of such appointments. The civic body's counsel, advocate Anil Sakhre, however, sought time to respond to the court's query and said that while the appointments were to be finalised this week, they might be affected by the model code of conduct coming into force. At this, the bench said the appointments to the tree committee must not be affected by the code of conduct (which came into effect Sunday and will remain in force for over a month). "How does the Tree Authority get affected? Everything doesn't stop because of the code of conduct. Will you stop your TBMs (tunnel boring machines that is being used for metro construction across Mumbai)? Ensure that what is necessary does not come to a halt," the bench said. It also directed the BMC and the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) to inform the court how successfully they were able to transplant and translocate trees that were felled for the Metro and other development projects. The direction came after one of the petitioners, activist Zoru Bhatena, said the practice of translocating trees was problematic since in most cases, the authorities felled trees from a certain area, destroying its green cover, and then translocated them 20 km away or even farther. At this, the bench suggested that the BMC and the MMRDA make use of technology to see if such trees could be replanted at a site closer to the one from where they were felled. "This is an important point raised by the petitioner. You must try to maintain a balance between the and new development," the bench observed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Ethiopian Airlines jet has faltered and crashed shortly after takeoff, carving a gash in the earth and spreading global grief to 35 countries that had someone among the 157 people who were killed. There was no immediate indication why the plane went down in clear weather while on a flight to Nairobi, the capital of neighbouring Kenya. The crash was strikingly similar to that of a Lion Air jet in Indonesian seas last year, killing 189 people. Both accidents involved the Boeing 737 Max 8, and China ordered a temporarily grounding of those planes for Chinese airlines Monday. The crash shattered more than two years of relative calm in African skies, where travel had long been chaotic. It also was a serious blow to state-owned Ethiopian Airlines, which has expanded to become the continent's largest and best-managed carrier and turned Addis Ababa into the gateway to Africa. "Ethiopian Airlines is one of the safest airlines in the world. At this stage we cannot rule out anything," CEO Tewolde Gebremariam told reporters. He visited the crash site, standing in the gaping crater flecked with debris. Black body bags were spread out nearby while Red Cross and other workers looked for remains. As the sun set, the airline's chief operating officer said the plane's flight data recorder had not yet been found. Around the world, families were gripped by grief. At the Addis Ababa airport, a woman called a mobile number in vain. "Where are you, my son?" she said, in tears. Others cried as they approached the terminal. Henom Esayas, whose sister's Nigerian husband was killed, told The Associated Press they were startled when a stranger picked up their frantic calls to his mobile phone, told them he had found it in the debris and promptly switched it off. Shocked leaders of the United Nations, the UN refugee agency and the World Food Program announced that colleagues had been on the plane. The UN migration agency estimated some 19 UN-affiliated employees were killed. Both Addis Ababa and Nairobi are major hubs for humanitarian workers, and many people were on their way to a large UN environmental conference set to begin Monday in Nairobi. The Addis Ababa-Nairobi route links East Africa's two largest economic powers. Sunburned travelers and tour groups crowd the Addis Ababa airport's waiting areas, along with businessmen from China, Gulf nations and elsewhere. A list of the dead released by Ethiopian Airlines included passengers from China, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Israel, India and Somalia. Kenya lost 32 citizens. Canada, 18. Several countries including the United States lost four or more people. Ethiopian officials declared Monday a day of mourning. At the Nairobi airport, hopes quickly dimmed for loved ones. "I just pray that he is safe or he was not on it," said Agnes Muilu, who had come to pick up her brother. The crash is likely to renew questions about the 737 Max , the newest version of Boeing's popular single-aisle airliner, which was first introduced in 1967 and has become the world's most common passenger jet. China's civil aviation authority on Monday ordered a nine-hour grounding of that model plane for safety reasons and said it would consult with Boeing and others further. The Ethiopian Airlines CEO "stated there were no defects prior to the flight, so it is hard to see any parallels with the Lion Air crash yet," said Harro Ranter, founder of the Aviation Safety Network, which compiles information about accidents worldwide. The Ethiopian plane was new, delivered to the airline in November. The Boeing 737 Max 8 was one of 30 meant for the airline, Boeing said in July. The jet's last maintenance was on February 4, and it had flown just 1,200 hours. The plane crashed six minutes after departure , plowing into the ground at Hejere near Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) outside Addis Ababa, at 8:44 am local time. The jet showed unstable vertical speed after takeoff, air traffic monitor Flightradar 24 said. The senior Ethiopian pilot, who joined the airline in 2010, sent out a distress call and was given clearance to return to the airport, the airline's CEO told reporters. In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration said it would join the National Transportation Safety Board in assisting Ethiopian authorities with the crash investigation. Boeing planned to send a technical team to Ethiopia. The last deadly crash of an Ethiopian Airlines passenger flight was in 2010, when a plane went down minutes after takeoff from Beirut, killing all 90 people on board. African air travel has improved in recent years, with the International Air Transport Association in November noting "two years free of any fatalities on any aircraft type." Sunday's crash comes as the country's reformist young prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, has vowed to open up the airline and other sectors to foreign investment in a major transformation of the state-centered economy. Speaking at the inauguration in January of a new passenger terminal in Addis Ababa to triple capacity, the prime minister challenged the airline to build a new "Airport City" terminal in Bishoftu where Sunday's crash occurred. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A hard worker and dedicated environmentalist, Shikha Garg was on her way to Nairobi to be a part of an annual conference at United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) when Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 crashed taking her life and of all other 156 people aboard the plane. Garg, 32, had given over six years to the issue of climate change and sustainable development being a consultant with the United Nations Development Programme and attached to the Environment Ministry. Government official Rishi Kaushik, who knew Garg for two years, said she was an integral part of the international cooperation division of the ministry. "She was looking after sustainable development goals and was going to attend an annual environment conference of the UNEA, whose headquarters are in Nairobi. It is attended by environment ministers of several countries along with other delegates," said Kaushik, Section Officer (International Cooperation and Sustainable Development), Ministry of Environment. Garg's friend, who did not want to be named, remembered her as a vibrant, happy and hardworking person. The young woman got married in December last year to her colleague working with the United Nations in its environment programme UNEP. "She was a vibrant person and a happy soul besides being hard working and a dedicated professional. She got married last year in December," said the friend. Kaushik, who visited Garg's residence, said her family was devastated and waiting to receive her body, which has not been identified in Nairobi yet, after the crash on Sunday. Garg is survived by her parents, two sisters and a brother. "The body has still not been identified and brought back. The process is on. Our officials are in Nairobi to look into the formalities to bring the body back," said Kaushik. Garg was among the four Indians killed in the Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines Boeing plane that crashed minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa, killing all eight crew and 149 passengers, including tourists, business travellers and at least a dozen UN staff, on board. Union Minister Harsh Vardhan confirmed the death of Garg in a tweet Sunday. The minister tweeted, "My condolences to the families of four Indian nationals who have died in an unfortunate crash of Ethiopian Airlines. Sadly, a UNDP consultant attached to my ministry @moefcc Ms Shikha Garg, also died in the crash. My prayers for the departed souls. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The family of the 34-year old woman, who was charred to death in a car along with her two minor daughters on the busy Akshardham flyover Sunday night, has alleged foul play and accused the husband of murdering her. On Sunday, Upender (36) took out his wife Anjana Mishra, the deceased, for an outing for the first time in 13 years of their marriage. Apart from Anjana and Upendra, their three daughters, Nikki (1) and Mahi (6) and Siddhi (4) were returning from the Kalkaji temple in their Datsun Go car when the CNG-fitted vehicle caught fire, the Delhi Police said. While Upender, who was driving the car, managed to escape along with his daughter Siddhi, the other three members of the family remained trapped inside the burning vehicle and died, the police added. Braj Kishore Dixit, a cousin of the deceased, claimed Upender never took his wife for an outing in the 13 years of their marriage. "Suddenly he made a trip which is not digestible for us. He had started torturing her after their first daughter was born as he wanted to have a boy and not a girl," Dixit said outside the morgue of the Lal Bahadur Shastri hospital where the post mortem was being conducted. "We believe that it is not an accident. It was a planned murder and we urged police to investigate the matter, especially the car. We want justice for Anjana," Dixit added. Anjana and Upender, who hail from Etah, got married in 2005. Upender was working in a car showroom while Anjana was a homemaker. Shyam, another relative of Anjana, said "Upender used to beat and torture her. Earlier, he had threatened her several times and often said he would burn her and also opened a gas cylinder." Another relative Alok said neither Upender nor his family members informed us about the incident. "He did not find her attractive. He also used to abuse her. Many a times, he told us that he will kill her and we would not be able to do anything. He also had an extra-martial affair," he said. Upender, however rubbished the allegation. "Why would I kill my wife and daughters? I loved them a lot. It was an accident and the fire started from the dashboard. "I tried to save them and I also got some burn injuries while trying to rescue them. My wife and daughters were burnt alive in the car and I could not save them," Upender said outside the morgue. "I took the car on lease from Ola for my brother. It was 2018 model of Datsun Go. We got the car on Friday and from Monday, it was scheduled to take its first ride. As it was my holiday, I took my family to Kalkaji temple for an outing," Upender added. When asked whether the cops were also probing the murder angle, DCP (East) Jasmeet Singh said the probe was underway and it would be premature to comment on the case. He said they were waiting for a report from the Forensic Science Laboratory. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bombay High Court Monday directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to file a reply to a petition challenging its current solid waste management rules for housing societies in the metropolis. The public interest litigation (PIL), filed by city resident Aparajita Aiyer, has highlighted problems in a 2017 BMC notification that made it mandatory for hotels, malls and large housing societies -- termed by the civic body as bulk waste generators-- to segregate dry and wet waste at source and to treat or compost the wet waste it generated. The PIL, however, claimed that the notification was issued by the BMC in haste without creating adequate awareness among residents, housing society office-bearers, etc on waste segregation, treatment and composting. The plea stated that while the BMC's intention behind such notification was noble and much needed, it must be directed to first provide adequate awareness and training to residents. The petitioner's lawyer, advocate Shweta Kamble, also told a bench of Chief Justice Naresh Patil and Justice NM Jamdar that even as the BMC was making waste segregation at source mandatory, its own staff was collecting such waste and ultimately dumping all the waste together at the landfill site. The bench directed the BMC to file its reply within the next two weeks. In 2017, the BMC had ordered all housing societies and commercial establishments larger than 20,000 square metres or those producing more than 100 kilogrammes wet waste to start segregating and composting waste in their premises. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Five persons have been arrested for allegedly killing a 35-year-old truck driver and looting the consignment in Maharashtra's Thane district in February, police said Monday. Thane police superintendent (Rural) Shivaji Rathod said they tracked down the accused through CCTV footages, and finally picked them up on Sunday from various places. The incident occurred on February 26 when the gang of five allegedly intercepted the truck near Vadpe village and killed the driver Subhash Yadav. The accused then fled with the truck, which was transporting cement blocks worth over Rs 64,000, the SP said. Police have booked the accused Mohammad Azmal Vasiahmed Shaikh, Mohammad Shakhir Riaz Ahmed Shaikh, Jahanjeb Amin Khan, Imran Ali Khan, and Kaif Ahmed Altaf Shaikh, all in their 30s, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including murder. They all are residents of Mumbai, and Bhiwandi in Thane district. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale will call on US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and meet other senior officials of the Trump administration here on Monday and exchange views on major foreign policy and security-related issues, officials said, amidst tensions between India and Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack. Gokhale arrived in the US on Sunday for the bilateral Foreign Office Consultation and Strategic Security Dialogue with his American counterparts, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson. While his 3-day US trip was scheduled much before the February 14 Pulwama terrorist attack, Gokhale's meetings with Pompeo and his counterparts here this week are considered significant in view of the escalated tension between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of India's preemptive air strike on the largest terrorist training camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in Balakot in Pakistan and the subsequent developments. Tensions between India and Pakistan flared up after a suicide bomber of the Pakistan-based JeM terror group killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district. India has provided a dossier to Pakistan, detailing the role of JeM in the Pulwama terror attack. India has also said that Pakistan has failed to take any credible action against JeM and other terrorist organizations, which continue to operate with impunity from Pakistan. State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino, during his bi-weekly conference last Tuesday, said Secretary of State Pompeo played an "essential role" in de-escalating tensions between India and Pakistan. "Secretary Pompeo led diplomatic engagement directly, and that played an essential role in de-escalating the tensions between the two sides," he had said. According to Pompeo's schedule for Monday released to the media, the State Department said the meeting between the US Secretary of State and Gokhale is scheduled on Monday morning. "Secretary Pompeo meets with Indian Foreign Secretary Shri Vijay Gokhale at the Department of State," the State Department said. Protocol-wise, it is quite unusual for Pompeo to meet Gokhale, but over the last few years, the US Secretary of State has met the Foreign Secretary, including his predecessor S Jaishankar. The foreign office consultation and strategic security dialogue with the US are regular high-level dialogue mechanisms to review bilateral relations, exchange views on major foreign policy and security-related developments and coordinate respective positions on issues of common interest, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. Gokhale's visit comes as India intensifies its efforts to declare Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist by the United Nations Security Council. Last month, the US, the UK and France made a fresh bid at the UN to ban Azhar. JeM is already a UN-designated terrorist organisation. During his visit, the Foreign Secretary is also likely to meet with senior leaders in the US administration and the US Congress. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Centre has reduced the maximum sale price of genetically modified (GM) Bt cotton seeds by Rs 10 to Rs 730 per packet for the next fiscal to benefit farmers and also cut royalty to US-based technology provider Monsanto by almost half to Rs 20 per packet. German pharma and agrochemical major Bayer, which has now acquired Monsanto globally, expressed disappointment on reduction in royalty value. This is the third year in a row when the Union agriculture ministry has reduced the maximum sale price of cotton seeds and royalty. According to a notification, the maximum sale price of a Bt cotton seeds packet (of 450 gm) has been fixed at Rs 730 for bollgard (BG)-II version, including Rs 20 for the trait value, for the 2019-20 fiscal. The rate is Rs 740 per packet, including Rs 39 for the trait value, in the current fiscal year. The move will benefit eight million cotton growers and also increase the margin of domestic seed companies as royalty fee to Mahyco Monsanto Biotech Ltd (MMBL), a Monsanto group firm, has been reduced sharply. MMBL has sub-licensed Bt technology to various seed companies in India. "We are extremely disappointed with today's order that further cuts trait fees for cotton seeds across India. Trait fees were less than 0.5 per cent of the farmers' cost of cultivation and today's decision reduces them further," Bayer spokesperson said in a statement. "A predictable, fair and consistent business environment is extremely essential to attract future investments, innovation and growth in Indian agriculture," the spokesperson added. For the BG-I version, the maximum sale price has been kept unchanged at Rs 635 per packet with no trait value, the notification added. The government started controlling prices of cotton seeds, including the GM versions, by fixing a uniform maximum sale price from March 2016. Bt cotton is the only GM crop allowed for commercial cultivation in the country. Over the last decade, Bt cotton technology has been adopted on over 95 per cent of the country's cotton-growing area, making India the second-largest producer and exporter of the cash crop. In June 2018, Bayer completed the USD 63-billion mega deal to acquire Monsanto to create the world's biggest agro-chemical and seed company. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A day ahead of the Congress Working Committee meeting here, Jamnagar (Rural) MLA Vallabh Dharaviya Monday quit the party, tendered his resignation from the Gujarat Assembly and joined the BJP. Dharaviya's is the third resignation of a Congress MLA in the past four days. "Dharaviya has resigned as Jamnagar (Rural) MLA. He told me he is resigning voluntarily," Speaker Rajendra Trivedi confirmed. It was a homecoming for Dharaviya who was with the BJP earlier before switching over to the Congress ahead of the 2017 Assembly polls and winning on the opposition party's ticket. "I am originally a BJP soldier. I had worked under PM Modi and BJP president Amit Shah earlier. I am leaving Congress because of infighting. I have realised that only BJP can ensure people's well-being," he said after joining the party. "After the recent (February 26) air strikes on Pakistan (terror camp), I have realised that Modi must be re-elected as Prime Minister. The Congress does not have such leadership," he further said. Dharaviya belongs to the Sathwara community, part of the Other Backward Classes, which has a strong electoral presence in Jamnagar district. A little while before Dharaviya quit Monday afternoon, his former party colleague Parsotam Sabariya, who had resigned as Dhrangadhra MLA on March 8, joined the ruling BJP in the presence of its senior leaders I K Jadeja and K C Patel. Sabariya was arrested in October last year in connection with an irrigation scam and was granted bail by the Gujarat High Court in February. Sabariya said he was not under pressure to join the BJP and claimed he was making the switch to develop his constituency. "I am joining the BJP to develop my constituency. I was not under any pressure and have resigned from the Congress voluntarily. As far as the FIR is concerned, the law will take its own course. The BJP has to do nothing about it. I am not joining BJP to get any post or for other benefits," he told reporters. On March 8, Jawahar Chavda, Congress MLA from Manavadar, too had resigned from the Assembly and was promptly inducted into the BJP. He was made a cabinet minister in the Vijay Rupani government on March 9. The total number of desertions of MLAs from Gujarat Congress ranks in the past few months now stands at five. Apart from these five, the Congress lost another MLA when Bhagvan Barad was disqualified from the membership of the House on March 5 following his conviction and two year jail sentence in an illegal mining case. In July last year, senior Congress MLA Kunvarji Bavalia had resigned as legislator and was later made a cabinet minister in the state government. He then won the bypoll on a BJP ticket. Last month, first-time MLA from Unjha seat in Mehsana, Asha Patel, had resigned from the House and the Congress, and joined the ruling BJP. The BJP now has 100 MLAs in the 182-member House while the Congress has 71 MLAs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A day ahead of the Congress Working Committee meeting here, Jamnagar (Rural) MLA Vallabh Dharaviya quit the party and tendered his resignation from the Assembly to Speaker Rajendra Trivedi Monday afternoon. Dharaviya's is the third resignation of a Congress MLA in the past four days. "Dharaviya has resigned as Jamnagar (Rural) MLA. He told me he is resigning voluntarily," Speaker Trivedi confirmed. A little while before Dharaviya quit, his former party colleague Parsotam Sabariya, who had resigned as Dhrangadhra MLA on March 8, joined the ruling BJP in the presence of its senior leaders I K Jadeja and K C Patel. Sabariya was arrested in October last year in connection with an irrigation scam and was granted bail by the Gujarat High Court in February. Sabariya said he was not under pressure to join the BJP and claimed he was making the switch to develop his constituency. "I am joining the BJP to develop my constituency. I was not under any pressure and have resigned from the Congress voluntarily. As far as the FIR is concerned, the law will take its own course. The BJP has to do nothing about it. I am not joining BJP to get any post or for other benefits," he told reporters. On March 8, Jawahar Chavda, Congress MLA from Manavadar, too had resigned from the Assembly and was promptly inducted into the BJP. He was made a cabinet minister in the Vijay Rupani government on March 9. The total number of desertions of MLAs from Gujarat Congress ranks in the past few months now stands at five. Apart from these five, the Congress lost another MLA when Bhagvan Barad was disqualified from the membership of the House on March 5 following his conviction and two year jail sentence in an illegal mining case. In July last year, senior Congress MLA Kunvarji Bavalia had resigned as legislator and was later made a cabinet minister in the state government. He then won the bypoll on a BJP ticket. Last month, first-time MLA from Unjha seat in Mehsana, Asha Patel, had resigned from the House and the Congress, and joined the ruling BJP. The BJP now has 100 MLAs in the 182-member House while the Congress has 71 MLAs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress Monday sought Gujarat Governor O P Kohli's intervention to revoke disqualification of party MLA Bhagvan Barad, who has been convicted in an illegal mining case. While a court in Gir Somnath district had sentenced Barad to two years and nine months in jail in the illegal mining case dated 1995, a sessions court has stayed the conviction. Congress told the governor that Barad was removed as an MLA despite the sessions court staying his conviction. Barad was disqualified by Assembly speaker Rajendra Trivedi last week. On Sunday, the Election Commission announced bypoll to Talala assembly constituency in Gir Somnath district from where Barad was elected in 2017. A Congress delegation led by Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Paresh Dhanani, met Kohli at Raj Bhavan in Gandhinagar, and submitted a memorandum seeking his intervention to reinstate Barad as MLA. "The apex court had clearly said that if an appellate court stays conviction of a lawmaker, he will not face disqualification. In Barad's case, the sessions court has already stayed the conviction, but no notification has been issued by the assembly speaker to reinstate Barad as an MLA," the memorandum said. Moreover, the Election Commission has declared bypoll to Talala seat, which is also illegal, Dhanani stated. The speaker had declared Barad's disqualification from the Assembly on March 5, days after his conviction, which was subsequently stayed by the sessions court on March 7. Speaker Trivedi had said Barad stood automatically disqualified as per a 2013 order of the supreme court which said MPs and MLAs are immediately disqualified from House membership after being sentenced to jail for not less than two years. In a related development Monday, Barad moved the Gujarat High Court, challenging his disqualification as well the declaration of bypoll by the EC. The EC had Sunday announced that by-elections to two Assembly seats in Gujarat, Unjha and Talala, will be held along with Lok Sabha polls on April 23. Unjha seat fell vacant after sitting Congress MLA Asha Patel resigned and joined the ruling BJP. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A local court Monday sentenced a former 'sewadar' of a gurdwara here to 10 years of imprisonment for raping a girl in 2017. A 'sewadar' is a volunteer in a gurdwara. Additional District and Sessions Judge (I) Ashok Kumar Pandey held Pratap Singh guilty of raping the girl and sentenced him to 10 years of imprisonment. The judge also slapped a fine of Rs 20,000 on Singh and if he failed to pay it, he would have to serve an additional sentence of three months. Singh raped the girl after finding her alone at her home near the gurdwara under Kotwali police station limits on February 25, 2017. The survivor's mother registered a complaint and the man was arrested on the same day. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Himachal Pradesh administration has sought 42 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) for conducting free and fair Lok Sabha elections in the state, an election official said here Monday. The hill state goes to polls on May 19 to elect four Lok Sabha members. The notification for the polls will be issued on April 22 and the last date for filing of nomination papers is April 29. Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Devesh Kumar said that 42 companies of CAPFs have been sought from the Ministry of Home Affairs for smooth conduct of the elections. He was accompanied by Additional Director General (Law and Order) Shayam Bhagat Negi. The strength of a company is about 100 personnel. The CEO said one company of the ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) has already been provided. Kumar said that of the total 7,723 polling stations in the state, 950 have been categorised as "vulnerable" and 367 "critical". Extra security staff will be deployed at these two categories of stations, he added. Besides, a special vigil is being kept on 99 entry and exit points to adjoining states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand, Negi said. A total of 88,127 are first-time voters -- 48,211 male, 39,889 female and 27 transgender -- in the state, Kumar said. However, this number may increase as those who turned 18 on January 1, 2019 may enrol themselves as voters till April 19, he added. Any eligible person may enrol as voter after filling up the required form till 10 days before the last date of filing nomination papers, which is April 29 for the state. Scrutiny of nominations will be held on April 30 and the last date of withdrawal is May 2. The total number of voters in the state has increased to 51,59,000 -- 26,45,584 male, 25,13,357 female and 59 transgender -- compared to 48,10,071 in the 2014 parliamentary elections, the CEO added. A total of 62,131 are service voters in Himachal Pradesh this time, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) To ensure faster implementation of electronic toll collection, Indian Highways Management Company Ltd (IHMCL) has inked a pact with CSC e-Governance Services for issuance of FASTags through common service centres, according to an NHAI official. Promoted by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), IHMCL has been mandated to implement the National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) programme under the brand name 'FASTag'. "In a major fillip to ensure easy availability of FASTags, IHMCL, a company promoted by NHAI, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd, a special purpose vehicle, set up by the Ministry of Electronics & IT, for issuance of IHMCL FASTag through common service centres (CSC)," the NHAI official said. The collaboration aims at making FASTags available to citizens through an extensive network of over 1 lakh CSC outlets across the country. The FASTag programme is an initiative by the NHAI and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) to enable road users to pay the toll electronically without stopping by at toll plazas and thus reducing congestion. The programme was launched in April 2016. Currently, it is operational at over 480 toll plazas along the national highways and select state toll plazas. Till date, more than 4.3 million FASTags have been issued, the official said. FASTags were being issued by certified banks only through limited channels such as point of sale at NH toll plazas, online, and select bank branches, etc. The official said recent government measures such as mandate to affix FASTag for issuance of a national permit for commercial vehicle, proposed integration of FASTag with the e-way bill system of GST, etc., have led to an urgent need to scale up the FASTag issuance channels. The issuance of IHMCL FASTag shall go a long way in ensuring that vehicle owners are able to purchase them from an extensive network of CSCs across the country, he said. Recently, IHMCL has also signed MoUs with state-run oil marketing companies IOCL, BPCL and HPCL for ensuring availability of FASTag at petrol pumps. The MoU between IHMCL and the CSC-SPV (special purpose vehicle) is a step aimed at providing a safe, smooth and seamless journey to road commuters on national highways. The enhanced adoption of the FASTag programme will increase user convenience by offering seamless toll-fee payments at toll plazas and thus help save time, money and fuel, the official said. Online payments shall improve transparency of toll transactions, reduce revenue leakages, and improve overall efficiency and commercial competitiveness, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Key policymakers from India and African nations will brainstorm on strategies for scaling up bilateral trade volume to USD 150 billion in the next few years at the India-Africa Project Partnerships Conclave to be held here between March 17-19. "The event will mark the deepening of India-Africa economic and business ties and pave the way for a whole range of cross-border project partnerships," the Commerce and Industry Ministry said. The conclave coheres into the Indian government's broader vision of long-term engagement with Africa and its unflinching commitment to expanding the canvas of India-Africa economic partnership which is evident from the increase in bilateral trade between India and Africa by nearly 22 per cent from touching USD 62.66 billion in the year 2017-18, it added. Senior ministers from 21 African nations will participate in the 14th CII-EXIM Bank Conclave, which will also see the presence of India's Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu. Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President of Republic of Ghana, Dr. Ibrahima Kassory Fofana, Prime Minister of Republic of Guinea, MonyaneMoleleki, Deputy Prime Minister of Kingdom of Lesotho will be present in the conclave. The deliberations at the Conclave will be guided by long-term goals and objectives including encouraging Indian exporters to access the African countries and increase their presence in the region. Other key areas of discussions are enabling geographical and product diversification of Indian exports to Africa, enhancing manufacturing exports of Africa by optimal utilisation of Duty Free Tariff Preference scheme and capacity building support from India; expanding Indian investments in areas like infrastructure, agriculture and food-processing, energy, services, IT and knowledge industries. "The Conclave will mark the pre-eminence of India-Africa partnership in the area of 'South-South Cooperation', at a time when the global economy is faced with intractable challenges that stem from rising protectionism and trade conflicts," the Commerce and Industry Ministry said. The India-Africa bilateral partnership is augmented by India's ascendency as the fastest growing major economy, as well as Africa's new economic dynamism illustrated by some of the Sub-Saharan economies which are among the top 10 fastest growing economies in the world. The annual Conclave, since its inception in 2005, brings senior Ministers, policy makers, officials, business leaders, bankers, technologists, start-up entrepreneurs and other professionals from India and Africa on a common platform in a spirit of partnership. The knowledge sessions at the Conclave will focus upon the potential areas for bilateral economic and business partnerships, core capabilities of Indian and African enterprises and opportunities for joint ventures thereof, innovative financing of significant development projects, skill development and capacity building. The conclave is expected to see the participation of 400 plus delegates from Africa and around 300 delegates from India. The B2B meetings at this conclave are expected to be held on more than 500 project proposals from Africa. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) / -- One of Vietnam's most idyllic islands hosted a week-long wedding party for a billionaire couple from India who invited no less than 700 guests to join them at the five-star JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay resort from March 3-10. Located in the Gulf of Thailand, and known throughout the world for its unspoiled beaches, Phu Quoc Island was considered the ideal destination for dream wedding. The groom, Rushang Shah -- the son of the Chairman & CEO of Embassy National Bank, an Atlanta-based community bank -- and his bride Kaabia Grewal -- co-founder of The Outhouse, a luxury jewellery brand -- certainly spared no expense with a extravagant week-long party. This was truly 'the Wedding of the Century'. Two charter flights flew to Phu Quoc International Airport from India with 700 wedding guests on board. The entire entourage, along with a troupe of models and performing artists from Italy, Thailand, India, Russia, made their way to the award-winning JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay which boasts 234 spacious and beautifully appointed rooms, suites, villas, on the southernmost tip of this tropical island. Guests were spellbound by white sandy beaches, heavenly sea views and romantic sunsets. Destination wedding specialists from India worked together to pull out all the stops for the couple with a veritable extravaganza of entertaining events with a different theme and dress code for each day. The guests dressed in pink from head to toe one day and in ethnic costumes another and there were different activities, such as lantern making, and viewing marine life, on offer for guests. Naturally, the most eye-catching event was the main wedding ceremony, held on March 9th. Guests described it as "something out of a fairytale" when the stunning bride floated across the gentle waves in a boat adorned with pink and white flowers to arrive on shore and tied the knot with the handsome groom. Considered to be a 'masterpiece of resort design', JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay was conceptualised by the renowned Bill Bensley with investment from Sun Group, Vietnam's premier developer of luxury resorts and tourism-related infrastructures. The resort, much admired for its superlative services and stunning location, was listed as one of the Top 50 Best Resorts in the world by Conde Nast Traveller. Video: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_3hrzranyzMAeCRAQocUQyRNxI2EcWkD Video - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/833376/Indian_wedding_JW_MARRIOTT.mp4 Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/833322/Wedding_Phu_Quoc_Vietnam. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Indian national, who mistakenly crossed into Pakistan nearly seven years ago, has been handed over to the Border Security Force, an official said on Monday. Ghulam Qadir, crossed into the Pakistani territory from Jammu and Kashmir in 2012. He was arrested and handed over to the local police, the official from Pakistan Rangers said. Later, he was sentenced for illegally entering into Pakistan and upon completion of sentence, he was handed over to the BSF at the Wagah Border, the official added. Last month, an Indian teenage boy, who inadvertently crossed into the Pakistani side, was repatriated as a goodwill gesture. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Indonesian woman has been freed after a Malaysian judge discharged the murder charge against her in the killing of the North Korean leader's half brother. The judge discharged Siti Aisyah without an acquittal after prosecutors said they wanted to withdraw the charge. They did not give a reason. She was quickly ushered out of the courtroom and into a waiting car. An emotional Aisyah told reporters she had only learned Monday morning that she would be freed. "I am surprised and very happy." Indonesian Ambassador Rusdi Kirana said he was thankful to the Malaysian government. A judge last August had found there was enough evidence to infer that Aisyah, Vietnamese suspect Doan Thi Huong and four missing North Koreans had engaged in a conspiracy to kill Kim Jong Nam. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China's civilian aviation authority ordered all Chinese airlines to temporarily ground their Boeing 737 Max 8 planes Monday as world carriers assessed the situation following the crash of one of the aircraft in Ethiopia. The Civil Aviation Administration of China said the order was issued at 9:00 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Monday and would last nine hours. It said the order was "taken in line with the management principle of zero tolerance for security risks," because the crash was the second after another of the planes fell into the ocean off the coast of Indonesia in similar circumstances on Oct. 29, killing all 189 people on board. The head of Indonesia's national transport safety agency, Soerjanto Thahjono, offered Monday to assist the Ethiopian investigation into the crash of a Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane. Like the Ethiopian Airlines crash minutes after the jet's takeoff from Addis Ababa on Sunday, which killed all 157 people on board, the Lion Air jet had erratic speed in the few minutes it was in the air. The crash put global aviation authorities on alert. Cayman Airways says it was temporarily grounding the two Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft it operates, as of Monday. The president and CEO of the Caribbean carrier, Fabian Whorms, acknowledged the cause of the Ethiopian crash was unclear, but said the airline was taking the step because of its "commitment to putting the safety of our passengers and crew first." China's aviation authority said it would issue further notices after consulting with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing. Eight Chinese nationals on board the Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed. The crash in Ethiopia has renewed safety questions about the newest version of Boeing's popular 737 airliner, since the plane was new and the weather was clear at the time. The pilots tried to return to the airport but never made it. But safety experts cautioned against quickly drawing too many parallels between the two crashes. It is very early, and more will be known after investigators find and analyze the Ethiopian plane's black boxes, said William Waldock, an aviation-safety professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. But suspicion will be raised because the same type of plane appeared to crash the same way a fatal nosedive that left wreckage in tiny pieces. "Investigators are not big believers in coincidence," he said. Waldock said Boeing will look more closely at the flight-management system and automation on the Max. Boeing representatives did not immediately respond for comment. The company tweeted that it was "deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the passengers and crew" on the Ethiopian Airlines Max airplane. The Chicago-based company said it would send a technical team to the crash site to help Ethiopian and U.S. investigators. The 737 is the best-selling airliner in history, and the Max, the newest version of it with more fuel-efficient engines is a central part of Boeing's strategy to compete with European rival Airbus. Boeing has delivered about 350 737 Max planes and has orders for more than 5,000. It is already in use by many airlines including American, United and Southwest. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A young Iranian couple have been arrested after a marriage proposal in public, captured on a video clip that went viral on social media. The police say the pair offended Islamic mores on public decency but were later released on bail. The video, which spread on social media last Friday, shows the young man standing in a heart-shaped ring of flower petals next to colorful balloons in a mall in the central city of Arak. After the young woman says "yes," he slips a ring on her finger to cheers from onlookers. The two weren't identified. Mostafa Norouzi, deputy police chief in Arak, told the Shahrvand daily that it's unacceptable for the young "to do whatever is common in other places of the world and disregard mores, culture and religion. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The United Nations' telecom body ITU plans to set-up its first ever innovation centre in India to incorporate technologies from South Asian countries and emerging economies in standards for technologies. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Deputy Secretary-General Malcom Johnson Monday met Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan to discuss the roadmap for setting up the innovation centre along with the union's first regional office for South Asia in India. When contacted, Sundararajan said, "the proposal was approved in October. The ITU regional office and innovation centre are likely to start operations in July." The ITU coordinates with countries and companies globally to set-up new technology standards in telecom space. The innovation centre is expected to give opportunity to Indian technology firms to make their case for being part of global standards, which has been largely influenced by companies from developed countries and have huge influence on telecom businesses globally. Indian companies in the past have obtained patents for telecom technologies, however, they could not reap business benefit as their technologies could not be incorporated in global standards due to low engagement of the country in international technology bodies. "In the last four years, India has increased its participation around five-fold in terms of technical contributions. ITU has recognised it and hence a decision was taken to set-up regional office in India and its first ever innovation centre anywhere in the world," Sundararajan said. For the first time, 10 Indian academic institutions will join ITU and the government has plans to scale up representation of academic institutions to 40 soon, she said. The ITU charges 32,000 swiss francs, almost equal to USD 32,000, from an organisation for full time membership. However, the regional centre will offer it for around USD 2,000 per entity. The ITU innovation centre will work on adoption of technologies by small and medium businesses to enhance their productivity. The centre will collaborate with firms in the region for joint research in the field of of standardisation for 5G, artificial intelligence and upcoming new technologies. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sri Lanka's main Tamil party TNA and Marxist party JVP on Monday held a rare meeting here and decided to work together towards abolishing the executive presidency in the country. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which represented diagonally opposed political stands, came together during the political crisis in the island nation when President Maithripala Sirisena sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The TNA and JVP put up a broad front to force Sirisena backtrack through court action. The Supreme Court's intervention made Sirisena to reinstate Wickremesinghe as the prime minister. The meeting between the two parties on Monday came as part of JVP's consultations on the need to abolish presidency. The two parties held discussion on the 20th Amendment to the Constitution which aimed at abolishing the executive presidency. JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake told the media they discussed mustering support for the 20th amendment to the Constitution in Parliament and working in tandem on matters of mutual interest. He said the JVP discussed with the TNA about a model to get all communities involved in governance. He said the decision on the implementation of the proposed 20th amendment must be vested with the people. Those who attempt to defeat the amendment in Parliament are the ones who are afraid of the people, Dissanayake said. TNA leader R Sampanthan said they discussed how the two parties could work together for the country and the people. He said they briefed the JVP on matters recently discussed with the President and the Prime Minister on devolution of power. Both parties said their coming together was to preserve the island's Constitution and it was not an action in personal favour of Wickremesinghe. We have decided to work with the JVP for the betterment of the country. If we need to bring the main political parties onto the right track, the TNA and the JVP must work in unison in this regard," the veteran TNA leader said. We are open to working with the TNA based on equal participation," Dissanayake said. The JVP in 2004 branded the TNA a proxy party of the LTTE who ran a bloody separatist campaign to carve out a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east regions of the country. Dissanayake said the TNA was supportive of the idea to abolish the presidential system of government through the JVP's move to introduce amendment to the Constitution. The 20A seeks to abolish the executive presidency, the main feature in the existing 1978 Constitution. The nationalist opposition led by the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa accuses the government of relying on the TNA's support for its survival. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) South Korean consumer electronics maker LG is aiming to garner around 40 per cent market share of the inverter air conditioner market in India this summer, betting on its range of energy efficient products with advance features, said a top company official. LG India claimed to have around 38 per cent share in the inverter room AC segment in 2018, a growth of 28 per cent, even though the market was almost flat last season. The company, which sells a range of ACs through over 20,000 points of sale across India, expects a faster growth rate from the non-metro and tier III markets, besides the metros, which are the highest contributors to the company's sales. The company expects 70 per cent AC sales to come from its highly energy efficient 5-star range, the segment in which LG India is extending its product portfolio. "We have a market share of 38 per cent in the inverter AC sales; and this year we are aiming to have around 40 per cent, said LG Electronics India VP Home Appliances and Air Conditioners Vijay Babu. The Indian room AC market is expected to be around 5 million units, with over 20 companies competing in the segment. Commenting on the company's new products for this season, Babu said, "We have improved the lineup with wi-fi and other features such as good designs with good aesthetic sense and colours." This season, LG has a line up of 54 stock keeping units (SKUs) in the AC segment in which company has increased the range of 5-star units to 28, he added. The company, as per its strategy, has shifted its entire lineup to energy efficient inverter AC in 2017. It also has a range of six windows ACs. On market demand, Babu expects good growth in the non-metro and tier III cities driven by demand for LG's energy-efficient range. "The penetration of AC sales is only 5 per cent in India and has huge space for growth," he said. At present, 50 per cent of LG's sales comes from its distributors and rest from others, while sales from the online channels contribute around 3 to 4 per cent of the total. Babu said LG has also earmarked Rs 50 crore for marketing and branding campaign for ACs this season, in which around 30 per cent would be spent on digital platforms. LG India, at present, has a capacity to roll out around two million units of ACs from two plants situated at Noida and Pune. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A second petition seeking disqualification of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for not being "honest and righteous" during last year's general elections was adjourned indefinitely on Monday after a judge recused himself citing "personal reasons", a media report said. A second case against Khan, 66, was filed by two petitioners in the Lahore High Court (LHC), seeking his disqualification as prime minister for not being "honest and righteous" and concealing the alleged parentage of a daughter with a former partner in his nomination papers for the 2018 election. Earlier on January 21, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had quashed a similar petition, terming it "non-maintainable" as it involved personal matters. A two-member LHC bench comprising Justice Shahid Wahid and Justice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh, who headed the bench, heard the petitions. Justice Waheed recused himself from the cases due to "personal reasons", the Dawn newspaper reported. A request was sent to the high court's chief justice to nominate another judge for the bench, it said. The two petitioners claimed that Khan concealed his alleged parentage of Tyrian Jade Khan White in his nomination papers filed for the 2018 general elections. During the hearing, the state prosecutor argued that both the petitioners did not belong to the constituency from where the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief had contested the election. He said that only a voter of the constituency could challenge the eligibility of prime minister Khan. The court, however, raised questions over the state lawyer's argument and said that the petition could be filed at any stage. "Imran Khan did not mention White as one of his dependents in his nomination papers, and thus he does not measure up to Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution," the petitions read. Articles 62 and 63, set the precondition for a member of parliament to be "sadiq and ameen" (honest and righteous). Tyrian White is the daughter of Ana-Luisa (Sita) White, the daughter of the late Lord Gordon White. It has often been alleged that Tyrian is Khan's daughter. The petition in the IHC had sought to argue that Khan should be disqualified as the prime minister for 'concealing' his alleged parentage of Tyrian in his nomination election papers. However, the judges refused to dwell on the arguments and admonished the petitioner for not understanding the law or respecting Islamic teachings about respecting others' privacy. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Six persons, including four of a family and a forest department official, were injured after a leopard attacked them while trying to escape from a village in Maharashtra's Nashik district, police said Monday. The leopard was spotted by residents of Ashakirnawadi village, under Wadivhare police station limits in Igatpuri taluka, at around 3:30 pm on Sunday, following which they alerted the local forest department, an official said. While the forest staff and assembled villagers tried to corner the leopard, the animal panicked and retaliated by attacking six people and escaping into the wilderness, Range Forest Officer Ramesh Dhomse said. Police identified the injured as Forest Circle Officer Omkar Deshpande (40), Sachin Joshi (20), Pandharinath Shene (40), Bhiva Shene (38), Hiranan Shene (20), Sagar Shene (14), the last four being family members. They have been shifted to Nashik Civil Hospital for treatment, the official said. Dhomse said forest department teams had been deployed across the area and expressed confidence that the leopard would be trapped soon. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The number of voters in Maharashtra has gone up by over 65 lakh in the last five years, according to official figures. From 8,07,98,823 voters in the state at the time of 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the number has now gone up to 8,73,30,484, as per the electoral office data. This is a sharp rise of 65,31,661 voters. Of these increased 65,31,661 voters, 35,98,905 are women, 29,31,588 men and the rest are transgenders. "It is a good sign that transgenders are opening up and registering themselves as voters. It is a positive response to efforts of the Election Commission of India," state electoral officer Ashwani Kumar said on Sunday. Besides, there are 25,13,657 and 17,32,146 first time male and female voters, respectively. There are also 142 first time transgenders in the age group of 18 to 22 years, as per the data. Lok Sabha polls will be held in four phases in Maharashtra starting from the Vidarbha region on April 11. Maharashtra sends the second highest number of 48 MPs to the Lok Sabha after Uttar Pradesh, which has total 80 constituencies. The schedule for seven-phase Lok Sabha elections in the country, beginning April 11, was announced by the Election Commission in Delhi on Sunday evening. The counting of votes will be taken up on May 23. A byelection to Katol assembly constituency in Nagpur district will be held along with the Lok Sabha polls. The bypoll became necessary following BJP MLA Ashish Deshmukh's resignation in October last year. Deshmukh, the son of former Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Ranjeet Deshmukh, had quit citing differences with the state BJP leadership. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Indonesian woman accused of assassinating the North Korean leader's half-brother was freed Monday after Malaysian prosecutors dropped a murder charge against her, in a shock decision a year and a half after she went on trial. Siti Aisyah smiled as she was ushered through a pack of journalists and into a car outside the court, where she had been on trial alongside a Vietnamese woman for the murder of at Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017. "I feel happy. I did not know this will happen. I did not expect it," said Aisyah, who was wearing a red headscarf. It was a surprise move as the Shah Alam High Court, outside Kuala Lumpur, had been due only to hear Huong's testimony on Monday. Her lawyers said they were seeking an adjournment. The women, in their 20s, had always denied murder, saying they believed they were taking part in a prank and were tricked by North Korean agents into carrying out the Cold War-style hit using VX nerve agent. Their lawyers had presented them as scapegoats, saying that authorities were unable to catch the real killers. Four North Koreans - formally accused of the murder alongside the women - fled shortly after the murder. The trial, which began in October 2017, was due to resume Monday with the defence stage of proceedings after a break of several months. But at the start of the hearing, prosecutor Muhammad Iskandar Ahmad requested that the murder charge against Aisyah be withdrawn and that she be given a discharge. He gave no reason for the request. "Siti Aisyah is freed," judge Azmin Ariffin told the court, as he approved a request. "She can leave now." Indonesian to Rusdi Kirana told reporters outside court: "We are pleased with the court decision. We will try to fly Siti back to today or as soon as possible." Prosecutors had presented their case in the first stage of the trial. Witnesses described how the victim - the estranged half-brother of and once seen as heir apparent to the North Korean leadership - died in agony shortly after being attacked. In August, a judge ruled there was sufficient evidence the suspects had engaged in a "well-planned conspiracy" with the four North Koreans to murder Kim, and ordered that the trial continue to the defence stage. has accused the North of ordering the hit, which denies. A murder conviction carries a mandatory penalty of death in The has vowed to abolish capital punishment for all crimes, although parliament still needs to vote on changing the The Maharashtra government Monday told the Bombay High Court that its decision of granting reservation to the Maratha community was legal and valid. The government concluded its arguments before a division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre, which is hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the quota decision. On November 30 last year, the Maharashtra Legislature passed a bill proposing 16 per cent reservation in education and government jobs for the Marathas, declared socially and educationally backward class by the government. "The quantum of reservation granted to the Maratha community is valid and legal and the petitioners have failed to make out a case to show that the government's decision was malafide and dishonest," government counsel Anil Sakhare argued Monday. The petitioners, in their pleas challenging the quota, had said that no state government could exceed the 50 per cent mark in reservations. At present, the percentage of reservation in Maharashtra stands at 68 per cent. Sakhare told the court on Monday that as per the government, the Maratha community was socially and educationally backward and hence it decided to grant them reservation. "The government felt this was a special and extraordinary situation and hence we should be permitted to exceed the 50 per cent mark," Sakhare said. The bench had last week questioned as to why the Maratha community could not be included in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) and what was the need to create a special category of Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) for the Maratha community. Sakhare told the court on Monday that the government did not include the Maratha community in the OBC category so as to avoid any repercussions in the state. The court will hear the petitioners' advocates on Tuesday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 30-year-old married woman from Rajasthan's Jhalawar district was abducted and raped for over 20 days by a family acquaintance from a neighbouring village, police said Monday. The accused, Shanti Lal Mehar from Bandi village, held the victim captive at different spots in Jhalawar as well as neighbouring Gujarat, police said. The woman was freed by the accused on Sunday and after narrating the ordeal to her husband, she lodged an FIR at the Khanpur Police Station, sub inspector Surendra Singh said. According to the complaint, the victim had gone to Khanpur town on February 13 for the medical check up of her 10-year-old son when the accused met her and asked her to meet his ailing father, Singh said. The accused then raped the woman at Bhawanimandi town and later at different spots in Gujarat, the officer said, adding that the victim's son was taken along as well. The woman's husband had lodged a missing report of his wife and son on February 14, he said further. The woman has undergone a medical examination and her statement before the magistrate will be recorded on March 15, he said. A case of abduction and rape has been registered against the accused who is on run and efforts are underway to nab him, the SI further added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Retired IAS officer C Lalsawta was sworn-in as the first Chairman of the newly-constituted Lokayukta in Mizoram on Monday, officials said. He was sworn-in at the Raj Bhawan here, they said. State governor Jagdish Mukhi administered the oath of office to Lalsawta, an official said. Chief Minister Zoramthanga, other ministers, Mizoram Assembly Speaker Lalrinliana Sailo, legislators and senior officials were present on the occasion, he said. The function was presided over by state Chief Secretary Lalnunmawia Chuaungo, younger brother of the new Lokayukta chairman. Lalsawta is a 1981 batch Bihar cadre IAS officer. He was the principal secretary of finance department in the state from 2008 to 2011. After returning to Bihar, he was made the vigilance commissioner of the state, the official said, adding, he retired in 2015. The Lokayukta would function from a rented building here. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The biennial election to fill five vacancies in the Telangana Legislative Council (MLAs quota), which generated political heat following the decision of four Congress MLAs and a TDP MLA to switch over to the ruling TRS, would be held on Tuesday. The main opposition Congress, which fielded a candidate, announced boycott of the election, alleging that TRS encouraged defection of Congress MLAs. The ruling TRS has fielded four nominees, leaving one seat to its ally AIMIM and the election of the five now looks certain with the Congress deciding to stay away from the poll. TRS had 88 seats in the 120-member House (including nominated member). AIMIM has seven MLAs. An independent MLA and a legislator belonging to AIFB had declared support to the TRS. However, the strength of Congress came down from 19 to 15 with four MLAs announcing their decision to quit the party and join TRS. TDP's strength in the Assembly was two, but one of the MLAs has decided to join TRS. The decision of these MLAs dented the chances of the Congress nominee who was counting on the support of two TDP MLAs, in addition to Congress' own strength. Having decided to boycott the election, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader M Bhatti Vikramarka issued a whip on Monday, directing the MLAs to "abstain from the election and do not vote." On the eve of the election, a meeting of the ruling TRS was held on Monday at party headquarters here, presided by party president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. A mock poll was held on the occasion. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With the model code of conduct coming into effect after the announcements of Lok Sabha poll schedule, the district authorities have started to remove hoardings advertising central and state government schemes, officials said Monday. The Election Commission of India Sunday announced the schedule for the general elections according to which eight districts in western Uttar Pradesh including Muzaffarnagar will go to polls in first phase on April 11. City Magistrate Atul Kumar said that teams led by subdivisional magistrates removed several hoardings in the district including those put up by the central and state governments. The step was taken after the Model Code of Conduct kicked in Sunday with the announcement of the poll schedule. Among other restrictions, the model code bars the government from announcing any policy move that may impact voters' decision. Meanwhile, District Magistrate and District Election Officer Ajay Shanker Pandey told newsmen that 19,68,784 voters including 9,06,736 women will exercise their franchise in the constituency. He said 915 polling centres and 2,167 booths have been established in the constituency. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Twenty-five girl students had taken ill after consuming sweets in the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay campus in suburban Powai here, officials said Monday. They were promptly provided medical treatment at the hospital in the premier institute's campus and discharged, an IIT-B public relations officer said. The students of H-10 Hostel in the campus Saturday complained of giddiness after eating sweets following which they were rushed to hospital, an official said. He said samples of the sweets they consumed have been sent for laboratory analysis, adding that the cause of the food poisoning is yet to be ascertained. A Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation team visited the IIT-B campus after the incident and carried out an inspection of the mess where the sweets were prepared. The mess will remain closed till Tuesday as part of sanitisation works, an official said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba will begin his four-day visit to the UK from Tuesday with an aim to further consolidate bilateral maritime ties and explore new avenues of cooperation. During the visit, Admiral Lanba is scheduled to hold talks with the Chief of Defence Staff, UK and Chief of the Naval Staff of the Royal Navy, the Indian Navy said. Admiral Lanba is also scheduled to visit the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) in London, RN Submarine Rescue Facility at Glasgow and interact with the organisers of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo at Edinburgh. The visit of Admiral Lanba to the UK from March 12 to March 15 will consolidate existing maritime cooperation initiatives as well as explore new avenues for cooperation, the Navy said. The Indian Navy has had traditional links with the Royal Navy (RN) of the UK. With the constitution of the Indo-UK Defence Consultative Group (DCG) and the Military Sub Group (MSG) in 1995, a two-tier structure of cooperation was established for progress on various areas of defence cooperation. In September 2004, the two countries inked a pact to embark upon a strategic partnership in which defence cooperation figured prominently. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Suspected naxals abducted a police sub-inspector (PSI) and his schoolteacher-friend from a village in Chhattisgarh's Datewada district, police said Monday. The incident occurred Sunday inRewali village under the Aranpur police station area whenPSI Lalit Kashyap had gone to reportedly consume liquor with his friend Jaisingh Kureti, a contractual teacher in a government school there, Dantewada Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallava told PTI. Kashyap, who is part of the district police, is posted at the camp of 'C' company of CRPF's 111th battalion in Sameli village for coordination between local police and paramilitary personnel in anti-naxal operations, he said. As per preliminary information, at around 10 am Sunday, Kashyap went to Rewali, around 350km from Raipur and located in a hypersensitive area near his posting place, said the SP. An armed group of Maoists stormed the village and took the PSI and Kureti along with them, he added. After being alerted about the incident, security personnel immediately launched a combing operation in nearby jungles to trace the duo, Pallava said. No communication has been received till now about their whereabouts, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Zealand captain Kane Williamson was taken to hospital Monday, midway through the second Test against Bangladesh, for scans on his injured left shoulder. A team spokesman described it was a "precautionary" measure. Williamson injured the shoulder while fielding on Sunday and twice needed attention by medical staff when he batted. Despite the discomfort, Williamson made 74 before he was dismissed. New Zealand were 275 for three midway between lunch and tea on the fourth day to lead Bangladesh by 64 on the first innings. The first two days of the Test were washed out but fine weather is forecast for the remainder of the match. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The National Green Tribunal Monday expressed concern over the implementation of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 in the national capital, saying the situation was highly unsatisfactory. The green panel said it was extremely dissatisfied with the solid waste management in the city and the AAP government cannot just lie back and shun its responsibilities. A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said there was a serious need for a review at every level to implement the Solid Waste Management Rules and noted that the condition of sewage network was very bad and there was "absolute apathy" on part of authorities. "People are dying because of pollution, there is no proper policy, please devote some time... we have not yet come across any good officer or counsel for Delhi who understands the cause," the bench observed. It also voiced concern over illegal banquets and marriage halls and said they are violating norms and causing pollution by organising weddings and other functions without permission. The tribunal said that functioning of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) is very unsatisfactory and it has to depend on Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) every time for data and reports. During the hearing, the Delhi chief secretary told the bench that the government was taking sincere steps to implement rules and organise training programmes to sensitise its employees. He said individual accountability of officers would be fixed and they would prosecute the erring officials. The officer told the NGT that the waste lying unattended at waste plants would be disposed and land allotted for the same. The tribunal had earlier slammed authorities for failing to act on reducing solid waste and asked chief secretaries of all states and Union territories to appear before it with status reports of their actions and immediate future plans. It had noted that India generates over 1,50,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste per day, with Mumbai being the world's fifth most waste generating city. It had asked all states to display on their websites and portals of their pollution control boards the progress made in complying with Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 and Bio-Medical Waste management Rules, 2016. It had also directed states and UTs to constitute in every district a special task force having three members one each nominated by the district magistrate, the superintendent of police, and the regional officer of the state pollution control. The tribunal was hearing a petition seeking compliance of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The opposition Civic Alliance said Sunday that it will not return to talks with Nicaragua's government unless President Daniel Ortega's administration makes goodwill gestures like freeing prisoners. The coalition of student, business and civic groups said in a statement that it was demanding "the freeing of political prisoners, an end to repression and kidnappings." The alliance did not specify whether the demand was for the release of some or all of the estimated 770 people jailed by the Sandinista government following protests that started last April. Since the latest round of talks began in late February, the government has freed about 112 people on a form of conditional release. The opposition also said it wants an end to the harassment of protesters' families and "cruel and inhuman treatment" of prisoners. The government did not immediately respond to the statement. It has rejected previous demands to move up the 2021 elections. The statement came a day after the government announced its own agenda for the talks, which are aimed at resolving the nearly year-old political standoff. A Foreign Ministry statement spelled out several points including the strengthening of electoral institutions, justice and reparations, and negotiations about the suspension of international sanctions. It said the government is "committed to the strengthening of democracy and respect for the constitutional order of Nicaragua," but pointedly noted that the date for the next general election is "established" for 2021. During last year's protests, opponents of Ortega demanded that he leave office and allow an early and fair election. The government cracked down on demonstrations, and at least 325 people died in the unrest, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Of the 770 people the opposition considers political prisoners, the government said Saturday that it would consider freeing both those awaiting judgment and others already convicted. But it added that it would "review their case files, a situation that does not imply impunity. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP Monday accused some opposition parties of deliberately triggering a row over the Lok Sabha polls being held during Ramzan, when Muslims fast, saying it is a "communal" ploy to divide the country ahead of the elections. Leaders of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are among those who have claimed that holding elections during Ramzan will inconvenience Muslims and help the BJP as the community is largely seen to be backing the opposition parties against the ruling alliance. BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain pointed out that Navratas, when many Hindus observe fast, will also fall during the elections. "Muslims do not observe roza by not doing their work. Islam also does not ask us to stop our work for worship. It is not that people who have jobs do not attend them during Ramzan. They keep roza and do their work as well. Creating such a controversy is unfortunate," he said. People who want to divide the country on communal lines are causing a controversy over it deliberately, Hussain added. Reacting to the controversy, the Election Commission had said that polls are conducted during Ramzan as an entire month cannot be excluded from the schedule. However, dates of main festivals and Fridays are avoided as poll days, it added. The BJP leader noted that the Lok Sabha by-poll in Kairana in 2018 was held during Ramzan. The saffron party had lost the seat to the united opposition. AAP leader Amanatullah Khan had tweeted Sunday that elections will be held in Delhi on May 12, when Muslims will be observing Ramzan. "There will be less polling among Muslims, and it will directly benefit the BJP," he had said. Some leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal had also spoken on similar lines. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Opposition parties in Bihar on Monday questioned the Election Commissions decision to spread Lok Sabha polls in the state over seven phases and alleged that voting has been staggered with a view to enabling extensive electioneering by the ruing NDAs main crowd-puller - Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The state has only 40 Lok Sabha seats and as per the schedule announced on Sunday, only four parliamentary constituencies each will go to polls in the first couple of phases followed by five each in the next three phases. Votes will be cast in the remaining 17 in the last two phases. It is strange that the number of phases over which voting will be held in Bihar is the same as that of the neighboring Uttar Pradesh where the number of seats is twice as many. In West Bengal too, which has only 42 seats, polling will be held in seven phases, RJD national vice-president Shivanand Tiwary said here. He said even in a state like Karnataka, where voting was held in a single phase five years ago, this time there are two phases. It appears the EC has worked out its schedule keeping in mind the convenience of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is the NDAs main crowd-puller and needs to campaign extensively in states where the BJP is not on a very strong footing. Be that as it may, this raises a question on the impartiality of the poll panel. Echoing similar views, Congress leader Prem Chandra Mishra said in a state having 40 seats, voting could have been completed easily in four phases. Such a staggered poll schedule seems irrational. The only purpose it may serve is to enable the Prime Minister to reach out to a larger number of constituencies. A statement to this effect was also issued by former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhis Hindustani Awam Morcha, which quit the NDA and joined the Grand Alliance spearheaded by the RJD-Congress combine last year. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections polling was held in six phases in Bihar and in five phases in West Bengal out of a total of nine phases. However, Chief Minister Nitish Kumars JD(U) an NDA ally dismissed the opposition charge. JD(U) spokesman Sanjay Singh said there is no scope for ifs and buts once the EC has announced the polls. The opposition is jittery as it is devoid of issues. So sometimes they raise questions on the armed forces and sometimes on the Election Commission. A tireless campaigner, Modi is known to hold the people in thrall through his oratory. He had made a record of sorts in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, which he fought as the BJPs Prime Ministerial candidate, holding rallies in more than 400 constituencies and over 5,000 public interfacing events which included Chai pe charcha programmes held through video-conferencing as also addresses to the public through the use of 3D holograms. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Over 2.17 crore people will be eligible to vote in the three-phase Lok Sabha election in Assam, including 7.06 lakh first time voters, a top election official said here Monday. Assam, Chief Electoral Officer, Mukesh Chandra Sahu addressing a press conference here, said the number of voters are being updated on a daily basis and the final figure will be published just before the polling. "As per the last summary revision published on January 1 this year, we have a total electorate of 2,17,60,604 across Assam. Out of this, 1,11,32,782 are male and 1,06,27,319 are female," he said. The CEO said with announcement of the polling dates on Sunday by the Election Commission of India, the modal code of conduct (MCC) comes into force with immediate effect and all the mechanism like flying squads and static surveillance teams to monitor that have been activated. "We will also have an app -- cVIGIL. Anyone can take a picture or video and upload it in the app. Then our team will go and take action. The MCC is for having a level playing field for all candidates and we will implement that strictly. There is no question of any bias to ruling party candidates (as alleged by the opposition)," he added. To oversee the entire process, the ECI will send general observers and expenditure observers, while police observers may also be sent depending on the requirement The voting in Assam will take place at 28,143 polling stations in three phases on April 11, 18 and 23, while the counting of votes will be on May 23 after completion of the entire seven-phase voting across the country, he added. During the first phase, voting will happen for Tezpur, Kaliabor, Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur constituencies at 9,574 polling stations with 75,16,284 electorates, Sahu said. Karimganj (SC), Silchar, Autonomous District (ST), Mangaldoi and Nawgong will go for polling in the second phase, in which 68,36,496 persons will vote at 8,992 election booths. The CEO informed that Dhubri, Kokrajhar (ST), Barpeta and Gauhati seats will witness elections at the last phase across 9,577 polling stations, where 74,07,824 people will vote. When asked about the first time voters, Sahu said: "We have divided the voters as per age cohorts. In the 18-19 years category, we have 7,06,489 people, who are first time voters. However, there are some more people who did not register their names in before last elections and did it this time. They are also first time voters and fall in 20-29 years bracket. " The Assam CEO Office has not enumerated exactly how many people registered themselves for voting after the 2016 Assembly elections in the state yet, he added. There are also about 60,000 service voters, who are staying outside the state and will vote through postal ballot. For the first phase, the ECI will issue notification on March 18 and fixed March 25 for last date of nominations, March 26 for scrutiny, March 28 for last date of withdrawal and polling on April 11. In the second phase, the notification will be issued on March 19 and ECI fixed March 26 for last date of nominations, March 27 for scrutiny, March 29 for last date of withdrawal and polling on April 18. During the third phase, the ECI will issue notification on March 28 and fixed April 4 for last date of nominations, April 5 for scrutiny, April 8 for last date of withdrawal and polling on April 23. Talking about the polling stations, Sahu said 1,913 have been identified as critical and 3,663 as hyper sensitive, but these are constantly being updated as vulnerability mapping is going on across the state. "The critical booths are those which saw over 90 per cent polling in last time and 75 per cent voting went to one candidate or some sort of violence reported. The hyper sensitive segregation is done with perception analysis like prone to insurgency or threat of communal clashes," he said. For the critical and sensitive polling booths, central paramilitary personnel and micro observers will be deployed, while the entire process will be video-graphed along with web casting, Sahu informed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with the crown prince of Abu Dhabi on Monday and thanked him for inviting India to address the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. The prime minister and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces expressed happiness over the growing strength of all-round bilateral cooperation. "They reiterated their commitment to further consolidate the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership," a statement from the Prime Minister's Office said quoting the telephonic conversation. Modi took this opportunity to thank the crown prince for the invitation extended to India for addressing the OIC Foreign Ministers' Council as a guest of honour in Abu Dhabi on March 1. "He expressed hope that this historical participation would contribute to attaining the common objectives of peace and progress," the statement said. In a major diplomatic achievement, India for the first time addressed the OIC meeting, and asserted that the war against terrorism, which was destabilising regions and putting the world at great peril, was not against any religion. India's participation came despite strong demand by Pakistan to rescind the invitation to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to address the grouping of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation which was turned down by the host UAE, resulting in Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi boycotting the plenary. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Enforcement Directorate has filed a fresh charge sheet against PNB scam accused Nirav Modi under the anti-money laundering law, officials said Monday. They said the charge sheet or the prosecution complaint has been filed before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mumbai. This is a supplementary charge sheet against the diamantaire and few others and the agency has recorded additional evidences gathered in the case and attachments made, they said. Further details about the contents of the chargesheet are awaited. The development comes two days after a British daily reported that Nirav Modi, accused in the USD 2-billion Punjab National Bank(PNB) scam, is living in a swanky 8-million pound apartment in London's West End and is now involved in a new diamond business. The ED had said on March 9 that the United Kingdom's home secretary has recently referred India's request for extraditing the tainted businessman to a court for initiating legal proceedings against him. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had filed the first charge sheet in this case in May last year. The agency and the CBI are investigating Nirav Modi, his uncle Mehul Choksi and others for alleged money laundering and corruption to perpetrate the alleged scam in the Brady House branch of the PNB in Mumbai that was unearthed last year. Nirav Modi, 48, is currently living in a three-bedroom flat occupying half of a floor of the landmark Centre Point tower block in London, where rent is estimated to cost 17,000 pounds a month, The Telegraph had reported. It has also attached his assets worth Rs 1,873.08 crore under the PMLA and has seized assets linked to him and his family worth Rs 489.75 crore. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pope Francis has sent his condolences to the families of the victims of the plane crash in Ethiopia. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, said in a statement Monday that the pope was sad to learn about the crash and "offers prayers for the deceased from various countries and commends their souls to the mercy of Almighty God." The statement said, "Pope Francis sends heartfelt condolences to their families, and upon all who mourn this tragic loss he invokes the divine blessings of consolation and strength. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Professor Prajapati Trivedi, a senior director in the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, has been awarded the prestigious Harry Hatry Distinguished Performance Management Practice Award for 2019 for his contribution in public administration. The Center for Accountability and Performance (CAP), American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), awarded Trivedi on Sunday at a ceremony in Washington. This award is presented each year to an individual whose outstanding teaching, education, training, and consultation in performance management has made a significant contribution to the practice of public administration, a statement said. Trivedi, who is the first Indian to win this coveted award, said: "Of all the awards and recognitions that I have been fortunate to have received thus far, I value this award the most. It specifically recognises the area of practice that is closest to my heart and to which I have dedicated a large part of my professional life." From 2009-2014, Trivedi worked as a permanent secretary to the Indian government in the Cabinet Secretariat, Prime Minister's Office, where he was responsible for designing a highly regarded whole-of-government performance monitoring and evaluation system for government departments, a statement said. He also worked as a senior economist with the World Bank from 1995-2009, Economic Adviser to the Indian government (1992-1994), and a chaired professor of Public Sector Management at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (1987-1992). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Rajasthan High Court Monday issued notices to film stars Saif Ali Khan, Neelam Kothari, Sonali Bendre and Tabbu on an appal by the state government, challenging their acquittal by a trial court in a case of hunting two black bucks in 1998. Justice Manoj Garg issued the notice also to a local resident, Dushynat Singh, acquitted along with the film stars last year. Bollywood actor Salman Khan is the sole accused who was convicted in the case of hunting two black bucks in Kankani village near Jodhpur in October 1998. The trial court had sentenced Khan to five years in jail on April 5 last year, while acquitting the five other co-accused. Khan is presently out on bail. The high court issued notices, condoning the delay by the state government in filing the appeal, said Public Prosecutor Mahipal Bishnoi. The court has asked the five to file their replies to the court within eight weeks. After the five files their replies, the state's appeal would be sent back to the session court for further hearing as the first appeal to a magisterial court judgement lies in the sessions court, explained Bishnoi. The state had come to the high court after the sessions court had taken objections to the late filing of the appeal by the state government, he said. Salman Khan has already challenged his conviction before the sessions court, which is presently hearing the defence arguments in his appeal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In controversial remarks, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Monday appeared to suggest that the long-drawn Lok Sabha election process was intended to facilitate yet another "strike" as part of the BJP's "gameplan to disturb" her state. Banerjee, also the state's ruling Trinamool Congress chief, said the list of candidates of her party will be released on Tuesday. "I have been informed by some senior journalists that there will be another strike. What strike I will not say. In the name of so called... so called... so called... in the month of April. That is why it (voting process) will continue till May 19. "Please don't misquote me. I have great respect for a constitutional body like the Election Commission. But it is a part of the BJP's gameplan to disturb West Bengal," she told a press conference. With the TMC boss' comments being seen as an oblique reference to a likely military action by India, the BJP reacted quickly, dubbing her charge as "baseless". "She has the habit of levelling baseless accusations. She is given to kite-flying. If she has proof, she should make it public," state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh told PTI when reached for comments. Banerjee had accused the Centre of creating "war-like hysteria" in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack that left 40 CRPF personnel dead and the retaliatory air strike by the Indian Air Force on Jaish-e-Mohammad's terror training camp in Pakistan's Balakot. Banerjee had also said the lives of jawans were much more valuable than electoral politics, but the nation had a right to know what actually happened in Balakot following the IAF's strike. West Bengal will have polling in all seven phases, beginning April 11 and concluding on May 19. Banerjee exuded confidence that her party will win all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state. She said though she had no problem with the protracted exercise, it would put poll personnel and voters in "distress" as they would have to face the summer heat. Several leaders of her party have also said the polling during the holy month of Ramzan will inconvenience Muslim voters who observe fast. "I know the people of my state. I have great respect for the people of Bengal. But the BJP is showing disrespect to them. They (the BJP) have conspired against me and Bengal, but it will boomerang on them," Banerjee said. Replying to a question, Banerjee said 7-phase polls have been announced only in Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, which are expected to play a key role in deciding who will form the next government at Centre. Soon after the Election Commission announced the polling schedule on Sunday, the TMC had alleged the central government had "misled" the poll body about the law and order situation in the state. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Meghalaya government on Monday took exception to its Punjab counterpart providing funds for benefit of people residing in Punjabi Lane here without informing the state government. The issue was raised in the state legislative assembly by Meghalaya's Urban Affairs department minister Hamlet Dohling. The minister informed the House that the Punjab government had sanctioned Rs 1.5 lakh for treatment of 10 sikh widows in 2015. It (Punjab government) had also sanctioned Rs 10 lakh for the construction of the Guru Nanak School at Bara Bazar in 2016, he added. "I am surprised to see that the government of Punjab has sanctioned funds directly to the East Khasi Hills district deputy commissioner (on the two counts) without informing the state government," he told the house while replying to a supplementary question raised by opposition Congress legislator from East Shillong Ampareen Lyngdoh. On the utilization of the funds, the minister said the school had submitted the utilization certificate on July 31, 2017 and the construction work has been completed. Shilling had witnessed large-scale violence in June last year following clashes between sikhs living in the Punjabi lane and lacal tribals over an incident of eve-teasing and subsequent assault of a person from a local tribal community. The hill station Shillong had experienced curfew for months after the clashes. Punjab government had raised the matter of security of their community members with the Meghalaya government then. Lone Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislator Saleng A Sangma attacked the state government over the issue saying it reflects its irresponsible attitude. "I am not against development programmes by other states... Now this issue has been there for many years if the state government is allowing (such funds to come in), we are asking for trouble in the future," Sangma warned. He asked whether the state government would also accept if Nepal decides to take up development programs at Langpih. Sangma also sought assurance from the state government to look into the matter seriously to which the minister replied in the affirmative. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma assured the house that he will take up the issue of income tax paid by tribal youths working outside the state with the Union government. As per the laid down provisions, tribals of the Northeast are exempted from paying income tax in their states. But, the tax is collected from them while working outside the state. The Chief Minister also informed that three projects have been sanctioned under the North Eastern Council (NEC) in the state during 2018-19 financial year. The projects are construction of a hostel for a boarding school at Pynursla in East Khasi Hills district (Rs 194 lakh), construction of new building blocks for St Mary's College of Teacher Education in the city (Rs 334.18 lakh) and for construction of Rymbai-Bataw-Borghat-Borsora-Jalalpur Road (40km) in East Jaintia Hills district at a cost of Rs 94.19 lakh, he said. Conrad said Rs 10 lakh for each projects has been received as first installment. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Heavy rains deluged Brazil's biggest city, causing flooding and other damage that resulted in the deaths of at least 12 people, authorities said Monday. Six people were reported injured. Sao Paulo's emergency centre said it rained in one day almost a third of all precipitation expected for the entire month of March. Several roads were blocked by mud and destroyed furniture in different parts of the city. The Sao Paulo state fire department said four people died when a house collapsed in the city of Ribeirao Pires, on the outskirts of the megalopolis. It also said two people drowned in flooding of the Tamanduatei River and another died in Sao Bernardo do Campo. Other victims died in the cities of Embu das Artes, Santo Andre and Sao Caetano. Heavy rain began falling Sunday night and more was expected. Governor Joao Doria told Sao Paulo residents to stay home if they were in safe areas, but move as quickly as possible if they were not. "Between losing the shack and life, choose life," Doria said on the BandNews television channel. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Russia's arms export to fell by a whopping 42 per cent between 2014-18 and 2009-2013, according to a new report. As a result, accounted for 58 per cent of total Indian arms imports in 2014-2018, compared with 76 per cent in 2009-2013, according to the report "Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2018" released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's effort to reduce country's dependence on foreign arms, India's import of arms decreased by 24 per cent between 2009-2013 and 2014-2018, according to the figures released by the report. This decline in India's import is also partly due to delays in deliveries of arms produced under license from foreign suppliers, such as combat aircraft ordered from in 2001 and submarines ordered from in 2008. Still, was the world's second largest importer of major arms in 2014-18 and accounted for 9.5 per cent of the global total. Israel, the USA and all increased their arms exports to in 2014-18. Pakistan's arms imports decreased by 39 per cent between 2009-13 and 2014-18. The US has become increasingly reluctant to provide military aid or sell arms to Pakistan: US arms exports to fell by 81 per cent between 2009-13 and 2014-18, it said. has instead turned to other suppliers. For example, in 2018 it ordered 4 frigates and 30 combat helicopters from Turkey, it added. The decrease in India's arms import is significant given that the volume of international transfers of major arms in 2014-18 was 7.8 per cent higher than in 2009-13 and 23 per cent higher than in 2004-2008. The five largest exporters in 2014-18 were the United States, Russia, France, and The five largest importers were Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt, and The US was the top arms exporter in 2014-18 and 2009-13. Its exports of major arms grew by 29 per cent between the two periods and its share of total global exports rose from 30 per cent to 36 per cent. As a result, the gap between the USA and - the second largest exporter - continued to widen. In 2009-13, US exports of major arms were 12 per cent higher than those of Russia, whereas in 2014-18 they were 75 per cent higher. Russian exports of major arms decreased by 17 per cent between the same periods. The fall was partly due to general reductions in Indian and Venezuelan arms imports - two countries that have been among the main recipients of Russian arms exports in previous years, the SIPRI said. "Although India remained the chief recipient of Russian arms in 2014-18, Russian arms exports to India fell by 42 per cent between 2014-18 and 2009-13. Arms exports to Venezuela, which was the fifth largest recipient of Russian arms in 2009-13, decreased by 96 per cent between the two periods," it said. Days after visiting Islamabad, Saudi State Minister for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir on Monday held extensive talks with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj here with a focus on deepening cooperation to combat terrorism. It is learnt that the recent Indo-Pak tensions triggered by Pulwama attack and India's subsequent air strike on a terrorist training camp in Pakistan also came up during the meeting. During his four-and-a-half-hour visit, Jubeir also called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed bilateral issues, officials said. In her meeting with Jubeir, Swaraj is learnt to have raised the issue of cross-border terrorism and the need for ramping up pressure on Islamabad to take action to dismantle terror infrastructure in that country. "EAM @SushmaSwaraj had a warm meeting with the Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs @AdelAljubeir on his visit to India. Follow up to the recent visit of Saudi Crown Prince to India, including cooperation in counter-terrorism, came up for discussion," MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted. The Saudi minister's visit here comes in the backdrop of global efforts to de-escalate tension between India and Pakistan triggered by the suicide attack by JeM in Pulwama on February 14 in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed and subsequent aerial strike by India on a training camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror outfit in Balakot on February 26. Pakistan retaliated the next day by unsuccessfully attempting to target Indian military installations. Last week, Jubeir visited Islamabad and met Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. During the meeting, he delivered to Khan a "special message" from Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, according to Pakistani media reports. He also held talks with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. Countries like the US, the UK, China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were involved in easing tensions between India and Pakistan. Jubeir's visit to the two countries comes weeks after the Crown Prince's stand-alone visits to India and Pakistan soon after the Pulwama terror attack. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda Monday said seat sharing with coalition partner Congressin Karnataka was likely to be finalised by March 13 or 14. Amid confusion about the seat he would becontesting from, the former Prime Minister clarified that he has not yet reached any final decision on it. "Today mostly some Congress leaders may have gone to Delhi. Tomorrow after discussing with them on the seat sharing issue, a discussion will be held with me also and a final decision may be arrived at," Gowda said. Speaking to reporters here, he said "...in one or two days- by March 13 or 14 on the seat sharing issue, we will reach a final stage." A meeting on seat sharing between Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Gowda at Delhi last week was inconclusive. However, scaling down his party's demand, Gowda had asked Congress to allot at least 10 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats to his party. JD(S) had earlier demanded that it be given 12 seats. According to sources, the Congress may concede a maximum of eight seats to the JD(S), but the constituencies are yet to be finalized. The Congress held its screening committee meeting under the leadership of party General Secretary K C Venugopal in Delhi on Monday to discuss about seats and candidates. The Election Committee of the Karnataka Congress that met on Thursday had finalised a panel of names for 15 of the 28 LokSabha seats. While it is clear that Hassan and Mandya, where JD(S)has sitting MPs, will go to it, along with Shimoga, where Gowda has already declared that former MLA Madhu Bangarappa will be the candidate, both parties need to finalise on the rest of the seats that will go to the regional party, sources said. Meanwhile, Gowda, who held meetings with JD(S) leaders along with party state chief H Vishwanath, said candidates would be decided after discussions with party leaders, once Rahul Gandhi conveys his decision about seats. "Mandya and Hassan matter is known to you, no need to talk about it further. Other constituencies we will discuss," he added. Gowda has already indicated that his grandsons Nikhil Kumaraswamy and Prajwal Revanna will be the JD(S) candidates from the party bastion of Mandya and his home turf of Hassan, respectively. While Nikhil is the son of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy,Prajwal is the son of Gowda's elder son and PWD Minister, H D Revanna. Sharing of seats from old Mysuru region is expected to be an acid test for both the parties, as JD(S) considers it as its bastion, and Congress has its sitting members from most of the seats there. There is pressure from within the Congress not to cede too many seats to the JD(S), especially the 10 where the party has sitting MPs. To a question on the constituency he would contest from, the JD(S) patriarch said he has not decided on it yet. "...there are reports that I will be contesting from Mysore, Tumkur and Bangalore North. But I have not decided yet, we are discussing...," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court Monday expressed surprised that the Gujarat High Court granted anticipatory bail to social activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband in an alleged NGO fund embezzlement case and simultaneously gave liberty to police to seek their custody if they do not cooperate in the probe. "If investigating officer is given liberty for (seeking) police custody and anticipatory bail is granted, can they co-exist? The moment the investigating officer gets police custody, the anticipatory bail goes," said a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi. The bench, also comprising justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, said it was asking a question to itself as to whether such an order can be passed. "How do you prey for police remand? We are asking it to ourselves. How do you seek police remand," the bench observed. The remarks were made during the hearing of the two separate petitions against a singular judgement of February 8 of the high court. During the hearing when senior advocates Chander Uday Singh and Huzefa Ahmadi, appearing for the couple, submitted that the direction that prosecution can seek police remand be stayed, the bench said "then we will also stay the anticipatory bail". Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Gujarat Police, said there are other matters pending in the apex court relating to Setalvad and her husband and all those can be heard together. Taking note of the submission, the bench issued notice on the cross-appeals in the case and tagged them with the matter in which the couple is accused of embezzlement of funds collected for the victims of the riots of Gulbarga society in Ahmedabad. Setalvad and her husband in the past had denied all allegations contending that they have been targeted by the state government for fighting the cause of the victims of post-Godhra riots. The apex court on Monday was dealing with the case in which FIR was registered on March 31, 2018 against Setalvad and her husband for allegedly securing central government funds worth Rs 1.4 crore "fraudulently" for their NGO Sabrang between 2010 and 2013. While allowing their anticipatory bail plea, Justice J B Pardiwala of the high court on February 8 had directed Setalvad and Anand to cooperate with the probe and appear before the investigating agency, the city crime branch. The judge had also said the state government can approach the court to get their bail cancelled if the couple does not cooperate in the investigation. The case was filed against Setalvad and Sabrang trustees by Ahmedabad Crime Branch on the basis of a complaint lodged by her former close associate Raees Khan Pathan, who has accused that the grant for educational purposes was allegedly misused and materials were printed and distributed that could cause communal disharmony. Pathan had alleged that Setalvad and Sabrang Trust tried to "mix religion with politics" and were spreading disharmony through the curricular material prepared for the erstwhile UPA government which had given it a grant of about Rs 1.4 crore. The complaint had taken into account the report of a panel of the Ministry of Human Resource Development which in its finding has claimed that a prima facie case existed against her under section 153A and 153B of the IPC for promoting enmity on grounds of religion and making imputations and assertions, prejudicial to the national integration. Pathan had alleged that a large amount from the HRD funding was used during 2008-14 on 'Khoj' project of the Sabrang Trust under the scheme of 'National Policy on Education' in Maharashtra and Gujarat as well as on the 'Peace Building and conflict resolution' project. The project was launched by Setalvad's NGO in some districts of Maharashtra and Gujarat. The case will now be heard along with the other case in which Gujarat Police has filed an affidavit in the apex court alleging that the funds collected by them for setting up of a museum in memory of the riots victims of Gulberg Society was spent on personal use. Setalvad and her husband in the past had denied all allegations contending that they have been targeted by the state government for fighting the cause of the victims of post-Godhra riots. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Students' Federation of India (SFI) leader was attacked allegedly by BJP workers at Parassala in the district, police said on Monday. The SFI leader sustained serious injuries in the late Sunday night attack, they added. Two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists were arrested in connection with the incident on Monday, the police said. Four activists of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Kerala, including the SFI leader, and three BJP workers have been hospitalised after political violence erupted at Parassala, the border area of Thiruvananthapuram district. Abu Thahir, a district committee member of the SFI, was hacked, leading to head injuries. The SFI is the students' wing of the CPI(M). "Santhosh Kumar (36) and Girikumar (38) are the two who have been arrested in the case. They will be produced before a court on Monday. Further investigation is on," a police official told PTI. Houses and vehicles belonging to both CPI(M) and BJP leaders have come under attacks since yesterday. Local sources said two houses of CPI(M) leaders were attacked and in retaliation, two houses of BJP leaders were vandalised. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) chief Monday said he will not contest next month's Lok Sabha election. The 78-year-old veteran politician said as two members of his family are going to contest the polls, "somebody had to step back." "Since I have already won elections 14 times, I decided not to contest the poll (this time)," the Rajya Sabha member told reporters after holding a meeting with party leaders. "Somebody from our family had to step back and I decided to give an opportunity to the young leadership. I thought this was the right time to take this decision," he said. Pawar announced that his nephew and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar's son Parth Pawar will be NCP's candidate from Maval Lok Sabha constituency. "Jayant Patil (of Peasant and Workers Party of India), whose party has good presence in three of the six Assembly segments in Maval Lok Sabha constituency, urged me to give ticket to Parth as his party is ready to work for him. "We also have strong presence in the other three constituencies and we thought of giving an opportunity to the young leadership by giving ticket to Parth from Maval," he said. Ajit Pawar is an MLA from Pune district. Pawar had earlier said he was reconsidering his decision of not contesting the Lok Sabha election. He had said his party workers wanted him to contest from Madha constituency in Solapur district, currently represented by leader Vijaysinh Mohite Patil. ALSO READ: How our society transformed from a robust democracy into a fearful one "There was a lot of insistence (from within NCP) that I contest from Madha. However, my candidature hasn't been declared yet," he said. Pawar, who always won from his home turf Baramati in Pune, announced in 2012 that he would not be contesting The NCP chief's daughter Supriya Sule currently represents the family bastion of Baramati in the Lok Sabha. NCP chief Sharad Pawar Monday said he will not contest next month's Lok Sabha election. The 78-year-old veteran politician said as two members of his family are going to contest the polls, "somebody had to step back." Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the NCP chief's decision to pull out from poll fray was because he had "sensed the change in the air". "Since I have already won elections 14 times, I decided not to contest the poll (this time)," the Rajya Sabha member told reporters after holding a meeting with party leaders. "Somebody from our family had to step back and I decided to give an opportunity to the young leadership. I thought this was the right time to take this decision," he said. Pawar announced that his nephew and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar's son Parth Pawar will be NCP's candidate from Maval Lok Sabha constituency. "Jayant Patil (of Peasant and Workers Party of India), whose party has good presence in three of the six Assembly segments in Maval Lok Sabha constituency, urged me to give ticket to Parth as his party is ready to work for him. "We also have strong presence in the other three constituencies and we thought of giving an opportunity to the young leadership by giving ticket to Parth from Maval," he said. Ajit Pawar is an NCP MLA from Pune district. Sharad Pawar had earlier said he was reconsidering his decision of not contesting the Lok Sabha election. He had said his party workers wanted him to contest from Madha constituency in Solapur district, currently represented by NCP leader Vijaysinh Mohite Patil. "There was a lot of insistence (from within NCP) that I contest from Madha. However, my candidature hasn't been declared yet," Pawar said Monday. The NCP chief's daughter Supriya Sule currently represents the family bastion of Baramati in the Lok Sabha. Reacting to Pawar's announcement, Fadnavis said the NCP leader "sensed the change in the air", and decided to rethink on plans to contest Lok Sabha poll from Madha LS seat. Addressing BJP workers at the party office in Dadar, he said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi once praised Pawar of being able to sense any change earlier than others." "It looks like he has understood the change and this (Pawar's pulling out of LS poll arena) is a major victory for the BJP, Fadnavis said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Slovenian woman and her relative have been detained for allegedly cutting off her hand with a circular saw to get nearly 400,000 euros (USD 450,000) in insurance compensation, police said Monday. The 21-year-old and her relative, 29, face up to eight years in prison on charges of attempted fraud. "With one of her accomplices, she intentionally amputated her hand at the wrist with a circular saw, hoping to stage it as an accident," police spokesman Valter Zrinski told a conference. The woman is thought to have staged the incident, together with three relatives, earlier this year shortly after the group signed life and injury insurance contracts with five different insurance companies. All four were arrested initially, but two were released. The woman was hoping to get around 380,000 euros of compensation and a life-long monthly payout of some 3,000 euros, police said. The group intentionally left the hand behind rather than bringing it with them to the hospital, hoping to receive three times higher compensation for permanent disability, police said. But authorities managed to pick up the hand in time, and doctors in a hospital in the capital Ljubljana managed to sew it back on, Zrinski said. The average monthly net income is around 1,000 euros in Slovenia. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) PMK founder S Ramadoss Monday appealed to his party workers to strive for victory of the AIADMK-led alliance in all 40 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in the April 18 elections, and also ensure the success of ruling party candidates in the Assembly by-polls. People will face many hardships if the DMK-led alliance was voted in good numbers, Ramadoss said in a statement. "It should be the foremost duty of PMK functionaries and workers to ensure the victory of the candidates of the AIADMK-led alliance in all the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry," he said. The AIADMK-led NDA alliance in Tamil Nadu had the BJP, PMK, DMDK, Puthiya Neethi Katchi and Puthiya Tamizhagam as its constituents, besides the AINRC in neighbouring Puducherry, he pointed out. "Similarly, it is important (for the PMK workers) to make sure the AIADMK candidates won in the by-polls to 18 Assembly constituencies," he said. The by-polls are considered crucial as it would have a bearing on the stability of the K Palaniswami-led AIADMK government which needs to win a sizeable number of them to retain its majority in the 234-member House. Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Satyabrata Sahoo had said on Sunday that by-elections to 18 Assembly seats would be held along with the Lok Sabha polls. Bypolls would be held in Poonamallee, Perambur, Tiruporur, Sholinghur, Gudiyatham, Ambur, Hosur, Harur, Pappireddipapatti, Nilakkottai, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur, Manamadurai, Andipatti, Periyakulam, Sattur, Paramakudi and Vilathikulam, he had said. Of the 18 seats, sixteen had fallen vacant following the disqualification of ruling AIADMK MLAs loyal to rival party leader TTV Dhinakaran. The by-poll to Tiruvarur seat has been necessitated by the death of sitting member and late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi while the Hosur seat fell vacant following the disqualification of Minister K Balakrishna Reddy after his conviction by a court in a decades-old criminal case. Bypolls were not scheduled for Tiruparankundram, Ottapidaram and Aravakurichi constituencies, which are also vacant, in view of election petitions pending in the Madras High Court. Hitting out at the DMK-led alliance, Ramadoss said people will face many difficulties if the coalition was given a good mandate. He alleged there would be instances of landgrab and "goons targeting biryani outlets and beauty parlours," among others, seen as veiled references to the DMK. In the 2011 Assembly polls, late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, then in the Opposition, had made allegations of landgrab against the then ruling DMK leaders and Ministers a poll plank. After the AIADMNK stormed to power in that elections, cases in this connection were filed against some DMK leaders including former Ministers including the late Veerapandi Arumugam. Earlier, two DMK workers was suspended from the party for creating ruckus at a biryani outlet here and allegedly assaulting some of the employees, while a DMK functionary physically assaulted a woman inside a beauty parlour in Perambalur district in September last. He was later expelled from the party. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) External Affairs Minister Swaraj Swaraj Monday assured all help to the families of the four Indians killed in the and directed Indian missions in and to ensure assistance is provided to them. Four Indians, including a UN consultant attached with the Environment Ministry, were among the 157 people killed when a Nairobi-bound plane crashed after taking-off from Addis Ababa on Sunday. The deceased Indian nationals were Shikha Garg, Development Programme (UNDP) consultant attached with the Environment Ministry,Pannagesh Bhaskar Vaidya and Hansini Pannagesh Vaidya and Nukavarapu Manisha. Responding to a relative from the Vaidya family, Swaraj said: "I have spoken to the son of Mr Vaidya in Toronto. I am shocked you have lost six members of your family in air crash. My heartfelt condolences. I hv asked Indiain Embaasy in and the India Embassy in to reach you immediately. They will provide help and assistance in respect of all your family members." Replying to a tweet from a relative of N Manisha, the ministersaid she has asked the Indian High Commissioner in Nairobi,Rahul Chhabra,to provide them all help and assistance. Swaraj said she is trying to reach the family of Shikha Garg. "I have tried her husband's number many times. Please help me reach her family," she said. The Boeing 737 crashed minutes after an early-morning takeoff from Addis Ababa, killing all eight crew and 149 passengers on board, including tourists, business travellers, and Garg, who was on her way to attend a Environment Programme (UNEP) meeting. Taliban founder Mullah Omar lived within walking distance of US bases in Afghanistan for years, according to a new book that highlights embarrassing failures of American intelligence. Washington believed the one-eyed, fugitive leader had fled to Pakistan, but the new biography says Omar was in fact living just three miles from a major US Forward Operating Base in his home province of Zabul before his death in 2013. "Searching for an Enemy", by Dutch journalist Bette Dam, reveals the Taliban chief lived as a virtual hermit, refusing visits from his family and filling notebooks with jottings in an imaginary language. Dam spent more than five years researching the book and interviewed Jabbar Omari, Omar's bodyguard who hid and protected him after the Taliban regime was overthrown. According to the book, Omar listened to the BBC's Pashto-language broadcasts in the evenings, but even when he learned about the death of al-Qaeda supremo Osama Bin Laden rarely commented on developments in the outside world. Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001 which led to the fall of the Taliban, the US put a USD 10 million bounty on Omar and he went into hiding in a small compound in the regional capital Qalat, Dam writes. The family living at the compound were not told of the identity of their mystery guest, but US forces twice almost found him. At one point, a US patrol approached as Omar and Omari were in the courtyard. Alarmed, the two men ducked behind a wood pile, but the soldiers passed without entering. A second time, US troops even searched the house but did not uncover the concealed entrance to his secret room. It was not clear if the search was the result of a routine patrol or a tip-off. Omar decided to move when the US started building Forward Operating Base Lagman in 2004, just a few hundred metres from his hideout. He later moved to a second building but soon afterwards the Pentagon constructed Forward Operating Base Wolverine -- home to 1,000 US troops, and where American and British special forces were sometimes based -- close by. Despite his terror at being caught, he dared not move again, rarely even going outside and often hiding in tunnels when US planes flew over. According to Dam, Omar would often only talk to his guard and cook, and used an old Nokia mobile phone, without a sim card, to record himself chanting verses from the Koran. Omar's Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, and has waged an anti-government insurgency since then. Omar, who delegated effective Taliban leadership after 2001, appears to have acted as more of a spiritual leader, and the militant movement kept his death in 2013 secret for two years. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A double ton from Ross Taylor and three quick Bangladesh wickets put New Zealand in a prime position to pull off an exceptional victory in the rain-shortened second Test in Wellington on Monday. At stumps on day four at Basin Reserve, where the first two days were washed out, Bangladesh were 80 for three, still 141 from making New Zealand bat again. Taylor, dropped twice on 20, proceeded to punish the Bangladesh attack with a rollicking 200 from 212 balls before New Zealand declared at 432 for six. With 23 overs left in the day, Bangladesh had a disastrous start to their second innings when Tamim Iqbal was bowled in the first over. After innings of 126 and 74 twice so far in the series, Bangladesh's leading run-scorer was out for four. Mominul Haque followed for 10 and Shadman Islam for 29 leaving Mohammad Mithun on 25 with Soumya Sarkar not out 12. New Zealand resumed the day at 38 for two and piled on 394 runs in 73 overs before sending Bangladesh back in. Taylor, after surviving the two early chances, made Bangladesh pay a high price for their fielding errors. He clouted Taijul Islam for six over the long-on boundary to bring up his century which took him past his mentor, the late Martin Crowe, to become New Zealand's second most prolific century-maker with 18, two behind Kane Williamson. He put on 172 with Williamson for the third wicket and then 216 with Henry Nicholls for the fourth in an innings which included 19 fours and four sixes. But after reaching 200 for the third time in his career, and raising his bat in salute, he was dismissed from the next ball he faced, caught behind off Mustafizur. Williamson, who batted with a painful shoulder injury, made it through to 74 before he was dismissed and taken for a scan which proved inconclusive. He stayed off the field when Bangladesh started their second innings and will have a second scan on Tuesday morning. Nicholls swept Taijul Islam to the boundary to bring up his fifth century in the second over after tea, but only faced another seven deliveries before Taijul bowled him for 107. Mahmudullah had varied his attack as best he could but for most of the day Taylor, Nicholls and Williamson had an answer for every move. Apart from the two dropped catches off Abu Jayed in the third over, the raw Bangladesh seamers, with only 17 Tests between, them were unable to make full use of the green strip. When they failed to make inroads, spinners Taijul and Mominul Haque were called on to stem the run flow. Although Taijul removed Williamson and Nicholls, his two wickets cost 99 runs. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tejaswini Ananth Kumar is likely to be the BJP candidate from Bangalore South, the Lok Sabha constituency that her late husband and former Union Minister Ananth Kumar had represented six times, the saffron party's Karnataka leaders said Monday. BJP legislators, corporators and workers have unitedly endorsed her name as candidate from Bangalore South, which will be recommended to the high command for final decision, senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister R Ashoka said. "I have spoken to all MLAs. All our BJP workers have requested Tejaswini madam should be our candidate.. It is the opinion of every one that she should our candidate," he said. Speaking to reporters after meeting with party MLAs and local leaders here, Ashoka said the endorsement would be forwarded to the party leadership as a decision can be taken at the level of national president Amit Shah, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party's state chief B S Yeddyurappa. "Yeddyurappa has called me for a meeting later, I will inform him about the opinion of all our party MLAs and workers," he said, pointing out that Ananth Kumar had got elected from Bangalore South six times. Everyone one will work unitedly for Tejaswinis victory also, Ashoka said. The decision by the party leaders to recommend Tejaswinis name to the BJP leadership as candidate for Bangalore South came on her birthday. Tejaswinis husband Ananth Kumar was party's top leader from Karnataka and was serving as Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister when he died at the age of 59 in November last. Kumar first got elected to the Lok Sabha in 1996 from Bangalore South, the constituency, which remained his bastion till his death. Active in public life through not-for-profit organisation Adamya Chetana, Tejaswini had worked as a scientist at the Aeronautical Development Agency between 1993-1997 and also on the Light Combat Aircraft (LCATejas) project. During her student days, she was very active in Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), and has also served as its State Joint Secretary and National executive member. Tejaswini, recalling her late husbands contribution to the party, told reporters that she became member of 'BJP Parivar' 30 years ago, when she got married, and all party leaders were like her "elder brothers." "They have decided to send my name to the centre as candidate for Bangalore South. Whatever central leadership decides, I will abide by it," she said, as she promised to work for the party and the constituency. "I will keep the trust shown on me by the party leaders," she added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The ED has attached assets worth Rs 1.03 crore belonging to businessman Zahoor Ahmmad Watali in a money laundering case related to funding of terror organisations in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Monday. They said the agency has issued a provisional order for attachment of assets of Watali under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The Enforcement Directorate (ED) case is based on a charge sheet filed by the NIA as part of its probe against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed. Official sources, quoting the ED order, said J&K-based Watali "has been found to be involved in fund raising and as a financial conduit of Hurriyat leaders". They said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe revealed that the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) and other secessionists instigate the public, especially youths, to observe strikes and issue directives to the masses to hold anti-India protests, demonstrations and processions through press releases, newspapers and social media. "This is done willfully to create such circumstances which will arouse disaffection among the people of Jammu and Kashmir towards the Government of India," they said quoting the ED order. Watali, Hafiz Saeed, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahudin and nine others have been accused by the NIA of "conspiring to wage war against the government" and fomenting trouble in the Kashmir valley. In its charge sheet, the NIA has alleged that Watali received money from ISI of Pakistan, the Pakistan High Commission here and from a source in Dubai. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hundreds of Tibetan activists staged a protest march on Monday to mark the 60th anniversary of their National Uprising Day. They marched from Khan Market to the office of United Nations India in Lodhi Road and submitted a memorandum, Madhur Verma, Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) said. Around 400 activists participated in the rally, the officer said. Tibetan Uprising Day is observed on March 10 to commemorate the 1959 Tibetan uprising against the presence of the People's Republic of China in Tibet. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Telangana Rashtra Samithi Monday said most of the regional parties are confident of turning in a good performance in the Lok Sabha elections, giving a boost to its chief K Chandrasekhar Rao's idea of forging a non-Congress, non-BJP federal front post-poll. TRS spokesperson Abid Rasool Khan said most of the regional parties were confident of getting lot of seats, and claimed they were open to the idea of such a front proposed by the Telangana Chief Minister. "As soon as the (Lok Sabha election) results are out, there would be parleys and formation of a (federal) front. If it has the majority, it will form the government," Khan told PTI. If this proposed front falls short of numbers, it will decide what role it should play and "how it will have control over the government so that the states don't suffer and policies of the states are not affected," he said. TRS is counting on parties such as the SP, BSP, BJD and YSRCP to be on board the proposed federal front, party leaders have said earlier. Khan said his party was ready to support the YSRCP in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, where Assembly and Lok Sabha elections would be held simultaneously on April 11, so long as it has no truck with the BJP or Congress. In what way the TRS, the ruling party in Telangana, would back YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh is a matter of "political strategisation" between the leadership of the two outfits, he added. Khan said the AIMIM President and Hyderabad MP, Asaduddin Owaisi would campaign for TRS candidates in "all the districts, wherever we require his support, wherever there is sizeable population of minorities and Dalits, and we will extend our support to him in Hyderabad." TRS deputy floor leader in the Lok Sabha and Karimnagar MP, B Vinod Kumar, claimed Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who is also the TDP chief, was facing "lot of anti-incumbency" and it might help the YSRCP. Kumar said Chandrasekhar Rao would kick off the party's campaign in Telangana with a public meeting in Karimnagar in March third week. The TRS, which won 11 of the total 17 seats in the previous Lok Sabha elections in 2014, was already in campaign mode with the party last week initiating Parliamentary constituency-wise meetings chaired by its working president K T Rama Rao. The TRS has said it aims to win 16 seats in the April 11 Lok Sabha polls in Telangana, leaving the Hyderabad segment to Owaisi who would be backed by the party. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Democratic presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu lawmaker in the US Congress, has said she is unsure whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is a war criminal. Gabbard, who met Assad in 2017, has previously drawn criticism for voicing skepticism that his regime was behind the chemical weapons attacks on civilian people. "I think that the evidence needs to be gathered and, as I have said before, if there is evidence that he has committed war crimes, he should be prosecuted as such," Gabbard said at a CNN town hall on Sunday. Gabbard also said last month that Assad is "not the enemy of the United States because Syria does not pose a direct threat to the US". Asked if she is unsure whether Assad is a war criminal, Gabbard said, "Everything that I have said requires that we take action based on evidence. (If) the evidence is there, there should be accountability". She said there had been reports showing that chemical weapons have been used in Syria, both by the Syrian government as well as different terrorist groups on the ground in the war-torn country. Gabbard cited her experience serving in Iraq as informing her approach to Syria. "I served in a war in Iraq, a war that was launched based on lies, and a war that was launched without evidence. And so the American people were duped," she said. "So as a soldier, as an American, as a member of Congress, it is my duty and my responsibility to exercise skepticism any time anyone tries to send our service members into harm's way or use our military to go in and start a new war," she added. Gabbard, a four-time Democratic lawmaker in the US House of Representatives from Hawaii is an Iraq war veteran. She has become the first-ever Hindu to be running for the presidency in the US. Gabbard, who converted to Hinduism early in her life, is popular among Indian-Americans. If elected, she would be the youngest ever and first woman President of the United States. She would also be the first non-Christian and first Hindu to occupy the top post. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Two persons were killed in Uttar Pradesh's Pratapgarh district when a tractor-trolley they were travelling in turned turtle, police said on Monday. Two others, including the driver of the tractor, were injured and have been hospitalised, they said. The accident took place on Sunday night at Allahabad-Faizabad road under Mandhata police station area, Additional Superintendent of Police Ashwani Mishra said. The deceased have been identified as Surendra (35) and Arun (30), he added. Mishra said the accident took place when the driver suddenly applied brakes as a leopard came in the way of the vehicle. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) British Prime Minister Theresa May is fighting to save her European Union divorce deal with the negotiations deadlocked a day before Parliament is scheduled to vote on the plan. May promised lawmakers two weeks ago they would get a second vote on the deal by March 12, but hard-line Brexit supporters are warning she should postpone the vote rather than risk another crushing defeat. The House of Commons overwhelmingly rejected the deal in January, primarily because of concerns over arrangements for the Irish border. "Technical" talks aimed at securing concessions from the EU failed to secure a breakthrough over the weekend. Former chief whip Andrew Mitchell told the Times of London that "anything that avoids what looks like a massive defeat on Tuesday is worth considering. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid reports that the resolution to declare Pakistan-based JeM chief as a global terrorist would come up in the UN Security Council on March 13, on Monday said "a responsible solution" can only come through discussions. Beijing also said security issues constituted an "important topic" in its talks to ease tensions between Pakistan and India following the Pulwama terror attack. The US, the UK and France had moved a proposal at the Security Council (UNSC) after the Pulwama terrorist attack to designate the chief of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) which claimed responsibility for the Pulwama terror attack, as a global terrorist. According to reports the resolution was expected to be taken by the 1267 committee of the UNSC on March 13. China, which has blocked three times such moves by India and other members of the UNSC, is yet announce its stand. Asked about India's appeal and China's stand on the issue, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told media here, "First I would like to say that the UNSC as a main body of the UN has strict standards and rules of procedures. Some reports have knowledge of inside information the UNSC. I don't know that can be counted as an evidence," he said. "China's position on the designation of a terrorist by the 1267 Sanctions Committee is consistent and clear. adopted a responsible attitude, follows the rules of the procedure of the committee and participated in the discussions in a responsible manner. Only through discussions can we come up with a responsible solution," he said. Recently Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou travelled to Pakistan and held talks with Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and other officials. India on Saturday said all the UNSC members were aware of the JeM training camps and the presence of Azhar in Pakistan, and urged the nations to designate him as a global terrorist. To another question whether Azhar's ban issue figured in China's talks with Pakistan, Lu said "recently India and Pakistan has experienced a lot. We think those indents are not in the interest of peace and stability in the region". "We have engaged in mediation efforts with both sides and held talks to promote the easing of tensions. We made enormous efforts. While exchanging ideas security is an important topic and I can say that our talks were wide ranging quite deep," he said. Tensions flared up between India and Pakistan after a suicide bomber of JeM killed 40 CRPF personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14. Amid mounting outrage, the Indian Air Force carried out a counter-terror operation, hitting the biggest JeM training camp in Balakot, deep inside Pakistan on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured Indian pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1. An assembly of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) opened in Nairobi Monday under a dark cloud cast by the plane crash that killed 157 people, including 22 United Nations staff, many heading for the annual event. Delegates arrived with the UN flag flying at half-mast, and the flags of all UN nations that usually adorn the UNEP headquarters having been taken down. As they wondered aloud who among their colleagues may have been on board the ill-fated Boeing, delegates hugged and comforted one another, and observed a minute's silence at the meeting's start. According to Maimunah Sharif, head of UN Habitat, at least 22 UN employees were among those who perished when the Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines jet crashed early Sunday just six minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa. "I stand before you on the first day of the UN Environment Assembly, which has officially commenced today in the wake of this tragedy," she told delegates. "We will not forget this tragedy, nor those who perished. Let us reflect that our colleagues were willing to travel and to work far from their homes and loved ones to make the world a better place to live." Nairobi hosts the global headquarters of UNEP, and is the regional seat for many UN agencies. The annual UNEP assembly gathers heads of state, ministers, business leaders and civil society representatives to work on ways to slash pollution and build a greener global economy. In a statement ahead of the conference, the UN said it was "deeply saddened by the of the Ethiopian Airlines accident. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those affected. We are following developments closely," it said. A member of the UNEP secretariat told AFP Monday it was "still trying to consolidate" the number of staffers killed. Among the UN staff were some who worked for the World Food Programme, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration, the agencies have said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A United States paraglider has got stuck in higher reaches of Baijnath sub division of Himachal Pradesh's Kangra district, an official said. The US paraglider has reportedly been stuck in hills above Uttarala village in Baijnath sub division since 10.15 am, he said. Baijnath sub divisional magistrate has requested for a helicopter from adjoining state Uttarakhand to rescue him. The stranded US citizen reportedly communicated his plight through radio to the manager of a hotel where he had been staying, the official said. The manager, in turn, informed authorities about him, the official said. He said the hotel manager told authorities that the stranded paraglider can be rescued only by deploying a chopper. The chopper, however, has not been able to reach Baijnath due to bad weather, he said, adding more details are awaited. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Five gangsters, who were on the lookout for two siblings to avenge their associate's killing, hurled a country bomb at their parents' house and when the couple ran out, hacked them to death, police said Monday. Since the sons could not be found, the gang attacked their parents as they were running out of their house near here, they said. The woman was hacked to death outside the house while her fleeing husband was killed by the gang 100 metres from the residence which was destroyed in the blast, police said. The siblings were both on bail in connection with the case and and were working in Coimbatore. They had come home on Sunday. A special team has been formed to trace the gang. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The ED said on Monday it had issued an order to attach a Paris-based property worth Rs 5.83 crore of the former wife of Christian Michel, the alleged middleman arrested in the VVIP choppers scam case, under the anti-money laundering law. The agency said a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was issued to attach the asset located at 45 Avenue, Victor Hugo in Paris, which was registered in the name of M/s SCI Solaime and belonged to Michel's former wife, Valerie Michel. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) also alleged that Valerie had received the "proceeds of crime" from her former husband. The agency said its probe had found that Michel "had transferred the amount received as kickbacks to various entities, including 9,22,185.76 euros (equivalent to Rs 5,83,40,422) to Valerie Michel and subsequently, to SCI Solaime for buying the immovable property". The ED would soon send the attachment order to its French counterpart and the asset would be seized and held with a competent court in France till the case was finalised and the accused convicted in India, a senior official of the agency said. He added that the probe revealed that "funds were transferred from Dubai-based companies to various entities". Michel was extradited from the UAE in December last year and was arrested by the ED. He is currently in judicial custody. Michel is among the three alleged middlemen being probed in the Rs 3,600-crore case by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The other two are foreign nationals Guido Haschke and Carlos Gerosa. The ED, in its chargesheet filed against Michel in June 2016, has alleged that he received 30 million euros (about Rs 225 crore) from AgustaWestland, the manufacturer of the helicopters. "Further investigations to identify the remaining proceeds of the crime are under progress," the agency said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The execution risk of home textiles major Welspun India's Rs 1,123 crore tile manufacturing project at Telangana would be moderate, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) said Monday. "The execution risk will be moderate as the company has an established track record of executing similar large projects with standard technology," the agency said in a rating note on Monday. "The company is setting up a high-end integrated tile manufacturing facility in Chandanvelly, Telangana, which is scheduled to be completed by 3QFY'20," Welspun officials said. The company will incur capex of Rs 1,123 crore which will be funded by Rs 815 crore of debt guaranteed by WIL, and the remainder from equity of WIL. "As of December 2018, about Rs 370 crore of the capex was executed. The facility would reach optimum utilisation capacity in the next two-to-three years," Ind-Ra said. The company had said facility for flooring solutions is the first of its kind in India and in currently imported from China and Turkey. The capacity of the plant would be 27 million square meters. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) All set to take the political plunge, multi-lingual film actor Sumalatha said Monday she will reveal on March 18 whether she would contest the coming Lok Sabha election from Mandya constituency in Karnataka. Sumalatha, widow of celebrated Kannada actor Ambareesh, who was a three-time MP from Mandya, has disturbed the political equation with her insistence on contesting from the seat, upsetting calculations of ruling coalition partners Congress and JDS. "I believe that till the last minute anything can happen. Till it is officially announced, there is nothing to say this won't happen. I will let you know on March 18," Sumalatha told reporters in Mandya. She urged people to not give credence to speculation that Congress leaders were persuading her to not contest from Mandya. "Please don't heed to rumours about me unless I reveal it to you, given the fact that Mandya is one of the prestigious Lok Sabha seats, not only in Karnataka, but in the entire country," the actor added. She admitted that Congress strongman and Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar has requested her to not contest from Mandya. "Well, nobody can pressure me because they know who I am and what I am, but D K Shivakumar had met me with a suggestion that I should contest from somewhere else. "He told me that since coalition dharma (with JD-S) was in place, Congress cannot retain Mandya. I too told him about my stand on this matter," Sumalatha said. Having a substantial population of the dominant Vokkaliga community, Mandya is traditionally considered a JD(S) citadel. JD(S) has not only made Congress give up Mandya but also decided to field Nikhil Gowda, son of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and third generation leader from the Gowda family, from the constituency. Ambareesh, barring a brief stint in JD(S), had been associated with Congress and was the minister of state for information and broadcasting in UPA-I dispensation. He had represented Mandya thrice in Lok Sabha. The restlessness in the JD(S) was so apparent that Karnataka PWD Minister H D Revanna targeted Sumalatha, saying she has decided to enter when not even a month had passed since the demise of her husband. The statement of Revanna, son of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and brother of Chief Minister Kumaraswamy, to a private TV channel in Delhi Friday has embarrassed his party. Sumalatha was not grateful to what Kumaraswamy did for Ambareesh, who died in November last year, he had said, referring to the arrangements made by the state government for his funeral. Revanna drew flak from the party, Congress and the BJP for his remarks. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath Monday said the countdown to the defeat of the NDA government at the Centre has begun with the announcement of the Lok Sabha poll schedule. The Election Commission Sunday announced in Delhi that Lok Sabha polls will be held in seven phases in the country, beginning April 11. Counting of votes would be taken up on May 23. "With the announcement of national elections, the countdown for the (PM) Modi government has started. I have faith that the voters would send a message by their ballots that they are not fools and won't be taken for a ride again," he said here. Asked about some state BJP leaders claiming that his government would "collapse automatically" after the NDA retains power in the 2019 general polls, Nath said, "I can't stop them from dreaming." Polls for 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh will be held in four phases on April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Were sure you already know, but lets repeat: Burlington is a city located in the Halton, Ontario area. It is... A personal injury occurs when a person's body, mind, or emotions are injured due to the negligence, carelessness, or wrongful... After being seriously injured in an accident, you may be experiencing a wide range of emotions. You are probably feeling... What were the earliest laptops like? They had a big, chunky, bland design, inferior battery life, and a lousy user... I Agree This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy A woman Railway Protection Force inspector was arrested for allegedly shooting at and injuring her husband following a marital dispute in Chhattisgarh's Balodabazar-Bhatapara district, police said Monday. RPF Inspector Sunita Minj (39) was on duty at her post at Bhatapara railway station, over 80 kilometres from here, Sunday night when the incident happened, an official said. "The accused's husband Dipak Shrivastava (42), a railway employee, suspected that she was having an extra-marital affair and this caused frequent quarrels between the couple ever since they married two years ago. On Sunday night he arrived at her workplace to confront her," the official informed. As tempers flayed between the two, Minj pulled out her service revolver and after firing a warning shot in the air, discharged the next two bullets at Shrivastava, the official said. "He took a hit on the hips and was rushed to a nearby hospital from where he was shifted to a medical facility in Raipur. Doctors have said he is currently out of danger," the official said. Minj has been arrested and further probe into the incident is underway, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih said on Sunday it would be too early to change OPEC+ output policy at the group's meeting in April and that China and the US would lead healthy global demand for oil this year. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies such as Russia -- known as the OPEC+ alliance -- will meet in Vienna on April 17-18, with another gathering scheduled for June 25-26. Falih said the group was unlikely to change its output policy in April and if required would make adjustments in June. "We will see what happens by April, if ... Ami Modi, wife of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, who is accused of defrauding the state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) with over Rs 13,700 crore, has been named as an accused by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in multi-billion PNB fraud case. According to India Today report, the ED has filed a supplementary charge-sheet in the Punjab National Bank fraud case, naming Ami Modi, the wife of Nirav Modi, as an accused in the case in a special Mumbai court. Ami Modi has been charged for her alleged involvement in laundering proceeds from funds obtained fraudulently from PNB through LOUs to purchase a flat at Central Park, New York for 30 million USD. The laundered amount is close to 30 million dollars and was routed through Ami's HSBC bank accounts which were traced by the agency, according to the report. The charge-sheet was filed by the agency on February 28, a source told India Today. Tightening the noose around the absconding diamantaire Nirav Modi, who was recently traced down to London where he has reportedly been living a luxurious life in high-end Oxford street, the ED has filed a supplementary charge-sheet in connection with PNB fraud case. He was spotted on the streets of London wearing a jacket made from "ostrich hide". Also Read: Sneak peak into Nirav Modi's swanky life! Fugitive wears Rs 9 lakh 'Ostrich leather' jacket, lives in Rs 72 crore house The ED may have seized his assets worth over Rs 6,500 crore in India, but the economic offender still seems to have a large sum of cash left to burn. This is evident from the fact that Nirav Modi, when he was spotted on the streets of London, was wearing a jacket made from "ostrich hide", which cost no less than Rs 10,000 pounds (over Rs 9 lakh). This charge-sheet will be part of documents which the agency will be sharing with to UK authorities to get Nirav Modi extradited from London. Last week, the UK Home Secretary's office moved the extradition file of diamond merchant to the Westminster Court in London, finding his case "fit for extradition". His extradition case will now be further evaluated by the court and a provisional arrest warrant against Nirav Modi may be issued. However, strict civilian laws in the UK might allow him to get bail instantly. A request for the extradition of Nirav Modi to India was sent in July 2018. Nirav Modi along with his uncle and partner Mehul Choksi left the country last year before the CBI started investigating the PNB scam. Last week, the UK Home Secretary's office moved the extradition file of diamond merchant to the Westminster Court in London, finding his case "fit for extradition". His extradition case will now be further evaluated by the court, which might issue a provisional arrest warrant against Nirav Modi soon. However, strict civilian laws in the UK might allow him to get bail instantly. A request for the extradition of Nirav Modi to India was sent in July 2018. According to sources within the agency, the ED in its charge-sheet has said that Nirav Modi owned firms namely M/s. Diamond R US, M/s. Solar Exports and M/s Stellar Diamond, Surathave, got fraudulently issued Letters of Undertaking aggregating to USD 1015.35 million during the period from Feb 2011 to May, 2017 from PNB, Mumbai. Nirav Modi along with his uncle and partner Mehul Choksi left the country last year before the CBI started investigating the PNB scam. Also Read: Nirav Modi case: Fresh charge sheet filed; ED, CBI teams to leave for London Edited by Chitranjan Kumar In a major breakthrough in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday attached property worth Rs 5.83 crore in Paris. The assets reportedly belong to alleged middleman Christian Michel's ex-wife Valerie Michel. The ED said in a statement that the agency has provisionally attached immovable property in France in the name of M/s SCI Solaime situated at 45 Avenue Victor Hugo, Paris belonging to Michel's ex-wife. The ED claimed that she had received proceeds of crime from Michel. As per the agency, Michel had transferred the amount received as kickbacks to various entities, including 922,185.76 euros equivalent to Rs 5.83 crore to his ex-wife Valerie Michel and subsequently to M/s SCI Solaime for investment in purchase of the attached immovable property. "Investigation revealed that Christian Michel James is a middleman who received kickbacks from the VVIP Chopper deal to the tune of 42 million euros. During the course of investigation, it was seen that funds were transferred from Dubai-based companies to various entities," a report by India Today quoted the ED. Michel, who was arrested in the UAE and then extradited to India in December 2018, is among the three alleged middlemen being probed by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002. The others are Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa. British national Christian James Michel is currently lodged in the Tihar Jail after his judicial custody ended on February 27. The ED is also expected to record Michel's statement tomorrow inside Tihar Jail, who has recently been shifted to a high-security ward because of threat perception against him in the wake of the Pulwama attack. The key issues being investigated by the ED include the modus operandi adopted by the accused to eliminate TATA and HAL from competition in an Italian deal and the steps undertaken to mask the present deal as a British deal, instead of an Italian deal, to gain advantage in Light Observation Helicopters. The ED, in its charge-sheet against Michel filed in June 2016, had alleged that he had received 30 million euros -- about Rs 225 crore -- from AgustaWestland. The CBI, in its charge-sheet, has alleged an estimated loss of 398.21 million euros (about Rs 2,666 crore) to the exchequer in the deal that was signed on February 8, 2010 for the supply of VVIP choppers worth 556.262 million euros. Also Read: ED chargesheet names Nirav Modi's wife Ami Modi in PNB scam Edited by Chitranjan Kumar Foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale arrived in the US on Sunday in connection with the bilateral Foreign Office Consultation and Strategic Security Dialogue with his American counterparts, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson. Gokhale is also scheduled to meet US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today. Over the course of his discussions with the US officials, Gokhale will raise the issue of Pakistan misusing US-made F-16 fighter jets and Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) against India, The Economic Times reported. He is expected to emphasise the Indian point that US taxpayers' money was used to subsidise weapons that Pakistan had acquired under the 'fight against terrorism' banner in 2008 but was recently used to conduct a cross-border raid. Sources told PTI last week that India has already shared the evidence of misuse of F-16s - which, as per the sale agreement, can only be used for counter-terrorism operations and self-defence, and not to attack any country - with the US. The shared evidence reportedly includes the wreckage of an AIM-120C AMRAAM missile - clearly displaying its contract number that can be tracked by US authorities - and electronic signatures of the deployed F-16s captured by Indian radars. But Pakistan has categorically stated that no F-16s were used in the aerial combat against India. The US State Department said last Tuesday that America is seeking more information from Pakistan on the matter. "We've seen those reports and we're following that issue very closely," said US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino. As part of the 2008 deal - despite concerns raised by India - the US had also provided at least 500 of the AIM120 AMRAAMs that were used by Pakistani Air Force F-16 jets on the morning of February 27 in a 'first strike' attack against an Indian air patrol, comprising Force Su-30 MKIs, Mirage 2000 and MiG21 Bisons within Indian territory. The air patrol had scrambled to counter the Pakistani intrusion over the Nowshera sector in a retaliatory strike a day after the Indian Air Force blew up terror camps of Jaish-e-Mohammed across the Line of Control (LoC). According to the daily, the AMRAAM was fired at least four times by the Pakistani jets and while most of the missiles were dodged by the Su-30 MKIs, at least one is believed to have hit the Bison piloted by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman and brought it down in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. This offensive use of the US-supplied missiles reportedly violates the rules of engagement on the LoC. (Edited by Sushmita Choudhury Agarwal; with PTI inputs) Also read: Pulwama attack aftermath: India stops its share of water to Pakistan under Indus Treaty India has sought investment from Saudi Arabia to invest in its emergency crude oil reserves that will act as a buffer against contingencies like volatility in oil prices and supply disruptions for the world's third-largest oil consumer. Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan discussed Saudi's participation in the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Program at a meeting with his Saudi counterpart Khalid Al Falih who visited India second time in three weeks on Saturday, a government statement said on Sunday. The two ministers also talked about resurrecting a $44 billion (Rs 3.08 lakh crore) refinery project after the BJP-ruled Maharashtra government denied land at the initial site. "The (two) ministers reviewed various Saudi investment proposals in the Indian oil and gas sector, including the urgent steps to be taken to expedite the implementation of the first joint venture West Coast Refinery and Petrochemical Project in Maharashtra, estimated to cost $44 billion, which will be the largest greenfield refinery in the world," an oil ministry statement said on March 10. Also Read: Saudi Aramco in talks with Reliance Industries for joint investment in petchem, refinery projects in India Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had a detailed discussion with Khalid Al Falih who visited regarding the 60 million tone (MT) a year mega oil refinery cum petrochemical complex, which was initially allocated land in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra but the allocation was denotified by the state government earlier this month, as a part of electoral understanding between the ruling BJP and Shiv Sena. No alternate site of the project has yet been identified and the statement did not elaborate on steps to be taken for implementation of the project. Saudi Aramco and its partner ADNOC of UAE have signed agreements to take 50 percent stake in the project. The remaining is held by public sector oil firms - IOC, BPCL and HPCL. Also Read: PM Modi-Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meet: 5 major agreements India, Saudi may sign today India has built 5.33 MT of emergency storage enough to meet its oil needs for 9.5 days, in underground rock caverns in Mangalore and Padur in Karnataka, and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. It has allowed foreign oil companies to store oil in the storages on the condition that the stockpile can be used by New Delhi in case of an emergency. . In Phase-II, India plans to build an additional 6.5 million tonne facilities at Chandikhol in Odisha and Padur, which is expected to augment the emergency cover against any supply disruption by another 11.5 days. Also Read: UAE keen to invest in refining, petrochemical projects, store oil in India India, which meets 83 percent of its oil needs through imports, built the storages as insurance for any disruption in supplies. It has the right of first refusal to buy the crude oil stored in the facilities in case of an emergency. Saudi Arabia is the second largest supplier of crude and LPG to India. In 2017-18, India's crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia were 36.8 MT, accounting for 16.7 percent of its total imports. (With inputs from agency) Ending days of suspense and hard bargain, the ruling AIADMK Sunday inked an electoral pact with DMDK led by actor-turned politician Vijayakanth, allotting it four of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu. An agreement was signed between the top leadership of the two parties -- Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam and Vijayakanth and DMDK Treasurer and his wife Premalatha here. Incidentally, the announcement came shortly after the Election Commission announced the Lok Sabha poll schedule. Tamil Nadu is going to polls on April 18. The AIADMK-led alliance already has the BJP, PMK, Puthiya Tamizhagam and AINRC as its members. Talking to reporters at a star hotel, where the final leg of parelys which stretched to over two weeks were held, Panneerselvam, the coordinator of the AIADMK, said it was a committed alliance. "It has been decided to allot 4 seats to DMDK. In the bypolls to 21 Assembly constituencies, the DMDK will support the AIADMK," he said. Describing his party led front as "a mega and victory alliance", he said the constituencies to be contested by the allies will be announced after consultations. The finalisation of the alliance with DMDK brings the curtains down on days of uncertainty amid reports that the party was seeking higher share of seats. Several rounds of talks were held between the leaders of the two parties and even senior BJP leader and Union Minister Piyush Goyal, election in-charge of the party, had met Vijaykanth at his home. The DMDK was expected to be part of the alliance in time for the March 6 election rally addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi near here. However, it did not materialise though leaders of the two parties had indicated that by the next meeting to be addressed by Modi in the state, the alliance would be firmed up. At one stage, the DMK too was said to have been keen on a tie-up with the DMDK, but earlier last week it announced the conclusion of its alliance, shutting doors on any more partners. The DMK has entered into alliance with Congress, VCK, IUML, MDMK and CPI-M and CPI. By signing the pact with the DMDK, the AIADMK has almost come to the penultimate stage of finalising the alliance led by it in Tamil Nadu. Already, the party has finalised seat sharing with BJP and PMK and a few smaller outfits for the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, alloting 18 of the 40 seats at stake. It has alloted seven seats to PMK, five to the BJP and one to Dalit-based Puthiya Tamizhagam in the state and the lone Puducherry seat to AINRC. The alliance parties have also agreed to extend support to the AIADMK for the byelections. There are expectations that former Minister GK Vasan led Tamil Maanila Congress may join the AIADMK front, giving the final shape to the combine that will take on the DMK-led alliance. Asked if there was a scope for Tamil Maanila Congress joining the AIADMK front, Paneerselvam said "a good decision" will be out in a day or two. "It is a robust coalition," he said adding interview of candidates seeking party tickets will commence from tomorrow at AIADMK headquarters. The AIADMK which for the first time joined hands with DMDK in 2011 is again tying up with that party after a long hiatus. Premalatha pledged her party's support to the AIADMK in the bypolls to 18 assembly seats, to be held along with the Lok Sabha polls, and local body elections, expected in May. Asked if she was satisfied with the number of seats offered to her party, the DMDK leader said "yes, there is nothing in numbers, it all boils down to your thought process." She was apparently indicating that AIADMK and DMDK were together in their line of thought. "It is a victory alliance and an example is 2011 Assembly election when the AIADMK-DMDK alliance had a big win," Premalatha said. She hit out at the DMK and hailed the AIADMK as a party nurtured by a woman leader late Jayalalithaa. The DMDK and AIADMK were natural allies, she added. Days after Hindustan Unilever was panned for its Kumbh Mela advertisement, social media has directed its rage on detergent brand Surf Excel. The ad and its resultant hashtag #BoycottSurfExcel have been trending on social media over the weekend. The ad in question is the detergent brand's Holi campaign that shows the bond between a Hindu girl and a Muslim boy. The ad shows a small girl in a white t-shirt riding a bicycle and urging kids of her neighbourhood to throw colour water balloons on her. As she rides her bicycle through the lane, kids throw balloons on her, spattering colour all over. Once they run out of balloons, she signals her friend to come out. The friend turns out to be a Muslim boy who is wearing an impeccably white suit. She takes him on the bicycle and drops him at the nearby mosque where he has to go and pray. The ad is closed with the brand's popular tagline, "Daag achche hain"(Stains are good) . While a section of social media is lauding the company for its message of peace and love between the two communities, Surf Excel has faced incessant backlash from another section. Calls to boycott the detergent emerged following tweets that said that ad promoted love jihad and that the ad shows that Namaaz is more important than Holi. Some users also asked Surf Excel to make an ad on Muharram where a Muslim boy is shown protecting a Hindu girl to the temple. One user said, "Surf Excel ad is humiliating Muslim girls to the core... it is directly saying that a Muslim male child needs help of a Hindu girl for doing his prayer. This is shaming and humiliating all Muslim children." Ordered and refused SurfExcel... just to teach lesson to UniLever.... Shame on UniLever for promoting thier sale through Live Jihad pic.twitter.com/9CSEixHydz - Gyanmurti Sharma (@SharmaGyanmurti) March 11, 2019 If they want peace then why they make this ad. They have no rights to disrespect any religions festival.#Shameless #SurfExcel - Pawan Dubey (@pawandubey785) March 11, 2019 #BoycottSurfExcel One of the worst Ad ever by Surf Excel. It should be rolled back and @HUL_News should apologize for hurting sentiment of our religion.#BoycottSurfExcel - Ramesh Kumar Saini (@sainiramesh515) March 11, 2019 However, a lot of people have also tweeted in favour of the ad and questioned how anyone can not support this message of love and peace. "Well done #SurfExcel for promoting religious harmony in these times! Great ad too. Ignore the haters," tweeted actor and producer Konkona Sensharma. "He who objects this ad by Surf Excel is nothing but against the idea of India. Hatsoff who created this beautiful film (sic)," tweeted Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam. Well done #SurfExcel for promoting religious harmony in these times! Great ad too. Ignore the haters. https://t.co/TnjUUAr8Tz - Konkona Sensharma (@konkonas) March 10, 2019 Cigarette maker Godfrey Phillips India Monday said it is in complete compliance with the country's FDI norms and rejected allegations of violations regarding its arrangements for manufacturing Marlboro cigarettes. Godfrey Phillips has an exclusive procurement and supply agreement with Philip Morris International to manufacture and distribute Marlboro in the country. As per media reports, Philip Morris for years has paid manufacturing costs to Godfrey Phillips to make its Marlboro cigarettes and circumventing the FDI norms. "The suggestion of alleged violation of FDI laws of India is completely misconceived and misplaced," Godfrey Phillips India said in a regulatory filing. The company was clarifying over various media reports suggesting an alleged violation of FDI norms in the arrangement to manufacture Marlboro cigarettes in India. The company said it had entered into a commercial arrangement with IPM Wholesale Trading (an Indian entity and affiliate of Philip Morris International Inc, USA) to manufacture Marlboro cigarettes in India in May 2009, a year before May 2010 when the restrictions on FDI in the manufacture of cigarettes came into being. "The commercial arrangement referred to above is in complete compliance with the extant regulations governing the FDI laws in India. "All the business transactions entered and executed between the parties since 2009 are governed by the above referred commercial arrangement," the company said, adding that all the business transactions in this regard are executed in Indian rupees. Currently, FDI is prohibited in the manufacturing of cigars, cigarettes and tobacco substitutes. However, it is permitted in technology collaboration in any form, including licensing for franchise, trademark, brand name and management contracts in the tobacco sector. Shares of Godfrey Phillips India settled 9.62 per cent higher at Rs 1,032.60 apiece on BSE. ALSO READ: Indian defence lab develops 'combat medicines' to reduce casualties in Pulwama type attacks ALSO READ: Pakistan PM Imran Khan's income drops by Rs 3 crore in 3 years Bharti Airtel share price zoomed in trade today after its promoter Singapore Telecommunications last week said it would take part in the Rs 32,000-crore capital infusion plan by subscribing to the telco's Rs 25,000-crore rights issue. Singtel and Airtel's major shareholders - Bharti Group and Bharti Telecom - intend to subscribe to their full entitlement, except for a renunciation by Bharti Telecom in favour of GIC Singapore, Singtel said. Bharti Airtel share price closed 8.08% or 25 points higher at 333.70 compared to the previous close of 308.75 on BSE today. On Nifty, Bharti Airtel share price rose 8.36% to 334.50. Vodafone-Idea, Jio, Airtel pay spectrum dues of Rs 6,000 crore in March; RCom yet to pay Bharti Airtel share was the top gainer on Sensex and Nifty today. Bharti Airtel share price rose up to 9.02% to 336.60 level on BSE today. Bharti Airtel share has lost 17% during the last one year and gained 6.65% since the beginning of this year. 19 of 25 brokerages rate the stock "buy" or 'outperform', four "hold" and two "underperform", according to analysts' recommendations tracked by Reuters Promoter Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel) will subscribe to 170 million shares in the Airtel's rights issue for a total consideration of Rs 3,750 crore, the Singapore-based company said. Singapore government's investment arm GIC Private Ltd will subscribe to shares worth Rs 5,000 crore in the rights issue. The news of fund infusion from both firms pushed the stock higher today. Airtel, Zoom join hands for unified communications solution for businesses Last week, Airtel's board had approved plans for a rights issue to raise up to Rs 25,000 crore through issuance of fully paid up shares at a price of Rs 220 per share and to raise an additional Rs 7,000 crore through Foreign Currency Perpetual Bond Issue. With this, Singtel's effective interest in Airtel will be 35.2% and the company will continue to be the single largest shareholder in the country's second largest telecom company. S&P Global Ratings has said Bharti Airtel's proposed rights issue of up to Rs 25,000 crore is not enough to stabilise its credit rating. The rating agency said there is a negative outlook, an indication of the rating downgrade, which looks at renewed competition and higher capital spending by the company that will keep its debt level up. "S&P Global Ratings believes the proposed rights issue (of Rs 25,000 crore), if successful, would go a long way in restoring Bharti's balance sheet and shoring up leverage." The net debt of Bharti Airtel at the end of the third quarter of 2018-19 stood at Rs 1. 06 lakh crore. Another credit rating agency Moody's Investor Service has come out with different perspective on the proposed rights issue. Moody's said the Airtel's proposed rights issue is "credit positive" as it will enable the company to pare debt and improve liquidity. Moody's statement said it still expects a significant portion of proceeds from the rights issue to be used to lower debt, strengthening Airtel's balance sheet and providing the company with greater financial and operational flexibility for its Indian operations. The Jet Airways share price gained in trade today amid a report that the airline has received a fresh loan of Rs 2,050 crore from Punjab National Bank. Board of directors of Etihad, which currently owns a 24 per cent stake in the domestic carrier, will meet later in the day to decide on fund infusion into the airline. The Jet Airways share price rose 4.69% to 254.50 compared to the previous close of 243.10 on BSE. Jet Airways share price has been rising for the last six days and clocked 12.21% gains during the period. The stock opened with a gain of 3.31% at 251.15 level. Jet Airways share price has fallen 63.66% during the last one year and lost 10% since the beginning of this year. Till date, 28 Jet aircraft have been grounded due to non-payment of lease rentals. On February 14, Jet Airways' board had approved a Bank-Led Provisional Resolution Plan (BLPRP), whereby lenders would become the largest shareholders in the airline. Its shareholders also approved conversion of loan into shares and other proposals during the extraordinary general meeting on February 21. Jet Airways grounds two more planes over non-payment of dues taking total to 25 The BLRP by lenders estimated a funding gap of Rs 8,500 crore (including proposed repayment of aircraft debt of Rs 1,700 crore) to be met by appropriate mix of equity infusion, debt restructuring, sale and lease back of aircraft, among other things. Shareholders of Jet Airways had approved conversion of loan into shares and other proposals during the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on February 21. As on September 30, 2018, Jet Airways had gross debt of Rs 8,411 crore (including terms loans from banks and dues to lessors for aircraft lease), as against Rs 8,403 crore as on March 31, 2018. The company has large repayments of Rs 1,700 crore due over December 2018 to March 2019, Rs 2,444.5 crore in FY2020 and Rs 2,167.9 crore in FY2021. Jet Airways grounds 3 more planes over non-payment of dues; takes total to 28 Jet defaulted in servicing its loan obligations on December 31 2018 and the 90-day window before its loans are dubbed non-performing assets (NPA) ends on 31 March 2019. The company is reeling under losses for the last four consecutive quarters with its shares losing over 60% in one year. Edited by Aseem Thapliyal 01 Apr 2019, 12:25 PM Lok Sabha election dates announced: What exactly is the Model Code of Conduct? The Election Commission of India has declared the schedule for 2019's Lok Sabha elections, which will be held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19 and votes will be counting on May 23. Sunil Arora, Chief Election Commissioner announced the imposition of 'Model Code of Conduct' (MCC) with immediate effect from yesterday. He also asked all political parties to strictly adhere with the MCC. The MCC comes into effect from the day the election schedule is declared and stays into effect until the results are out. No Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir now, only Parliamentary polls: CEC Sunil Arora Elections for the Jammu and Kashmir assembly, which was dissolved after the BJP withdrew support to the PDP government led by Mehbooba Mufti, would not be conducted along with the Lok Sabha elections 2019, the Chief Election Commisisoner Sunil Arora announced on Sunday. The state has been under President's rule following expiry of six months of Governor's rule in December. The 87-member state assembly plunged into a political crisis after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew support to the PDP government led by Mehbooba Mufti in June last year. DGCA to seek information on Boeing's 737 MAX planes from Indian carriers post Ethiopian crash Aviation regulator DGCA will seek information from Boeing as well as Jet Airways and SpiceJet operating Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in the wake of a plane crash in Ethiopia, according to a senior official. As many as 149 passengers, including Indians, were killed when a Boeing 737 MAX plane operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed soon after taking off from Addis Ababa. DLF plans to raise Rs 3,000 crore through QIP Aiming to become a debt-free company, DLF had last year announced plans to issue up to 17.3 crore shares through qualified institutional placement (QIP) to raise funds and pre-pay loans. The QIP proceeds and further infusion of Rs 2,500 crore from promoters against the issue of warrants would help the company in significantly reducing the debt that stood at around Rs 7,200 crore as on December 31, 2018, he said. Govt has set target of attracting $100 billion FDI in next two years, says Suresh Prabhu Commerce and Industry minister Suresh Prabhu said on Saturday that the government has set a target of attracting USD 100 billion in foreign direct investments over the next two years. Boosted by the USD 16-billion Walmart-Flipkart deal last August, which is the biggest-ever foreign fund inflow into the country -- 2018 saw the country for the first time in two decades overtaking China with USD 38 billion in inbound FDI deals compared to China's USD 32 billion. Nirav Modi's case found 'fit for extradition', file moved to London court; may be arrested soon The UK Home Secretary's office moved the extradition file of fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi to the Westminster Court in London two days back on March 7, finding his case "fit for extradition". His extradition case will now be further evaluated by the court, which might issue a provisional arrest warrant against Nirav Modi soon. However, strict civilian laws in the UK might allow him to get bail instantly. Over 90,000 auto-rickshaw drivers to benefit as AAP govt approves hike in auto fares ahead of LS polls To woo 90,000-odd auto-rickshaw drivers in Delhi ahead of the Lok Sabha election, the AAP governmentFriday approved a hike of Rs 1.50 per km in auto fares. The government has also approved another recommendation of the fare revision committee on the base fare. The meter-down charge of Rs 25 for first two kilometres has been revised to Rs 25 for 1.5 kilometres, said Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot. In December, telecom operator Reliance Jio Infocomm announced that its board had approved schemes to spin off the company's fibre and tower assets to separate entities. This move would give Jio, which boasts 2.20 lakh towers and nearly 3 lakh kilometres of optical fibre assets, the leeway to monetise its assets - the buzz suggests that it is leaning towards the infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) route - and, thereby, pare down debt. The two new entities are Jio Digital Fibre Pvt Ltd and Reliance Jio Infratel Pvt Ltd. The valuation of the fibre assets is pegged at $6-8 billion. Sources in the know told The Economic Times that three investment banks -Moelis, Citi and ICICI Securities - have been appointed to reach out to potential investors across the Americas, Middle East and Asia, and Australia. Reliance, furthermore, is keen to continue as the sponsor of the InvIT and retain a minimum 15% stake in it, in which case, the remaining 85% would be sold to five global investors. The line-up of interested investors reportedly includes Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec (CDPQ), Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Qatar Investment Authority, Kuwait Investment Authority, Kingdom Holdings, Khazanah, Allianz and Macquarie, among others. However, talks are still at a preliminary stage and management meetings are expected to kick off in the coming weeks. The company hopes to wrap up the deal by mid-FY20. Meanwhile, Reliance Jio Infratel is expected to be sold separately to Canadian investor Brookfield. According to the daily, Brookfield, along with a clutch of insurers such as ICICI Prudential and the family offices of Russell Mehta and the Poonawalla family, is also buying East West pipeline for $2 billion and will transfer the asset into a separate InvIT. As Srikanth Venkatachari, joint CFO of Jio's parent Reliance Industries said in January, "The end objective [of demerging our tower and fibre business] will be to have different set of investors who would want to run these companies. This means that these assets go off our balance sheets, so the liabilities also go down." He had reportedly added that Jio's capex intensity will go down because the group is almost completing its broadband infrastructure rollout. Backed by a Rs 3 lakh crore capital investment, the telco is aggressively putting the fibre network in place to deliver fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) services ahead of its shift to 5G. Jio, which reported its fifth straight profitable quarter (Q3) in January, recently said that its home broadband and enterprise service, Jio GigaFiber, has already received an overwhelming response from customers in 1,400 cities. At a recent shareholders' meet, Ambani said Jio is committed to building a deep-fibre network across India. "With DSL and ethernet forming 75% of current fixed-line broadband connections, a strong fibre offering by Jio could drive market-share gains," CLSA's Deepti Chaturvedi and Akshat Agarwal told the daily. "Jio has reiterated target of 50 million home broadband subscribers. We estimate that 10 million subscribers at Rs 700 average revenue per user would add incremental Rs 11,000 crore to capex and Rs 3,500 crore to EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation] and $4.4 billion to Jio's EV." According to their estimates, Jio's net debt is at Rs 1.12 lakh crore, including Rs 21,100 crore in spectrum liabilities due to the government in December-end. The firm clocked an EBITDA of Rs 4,053 crore in Q3, which annualises to over Rs 16,000 crore, putting the new entrant's leverage ratio at around 7x. Besides, in January, the Competition Commission of India gave RIL the go ahead to acquire majority stakes in DEN Networks and Hathway Cable & Datacom - two of India's largest cable TV operators - for a total of Rs 5,230 crore. The acquisition will give RIL access to 24 million existing cable-connected homes of these companies across 750 cities, thereby covering around half of its target of connecting 50 million homes. It has also invested in content production directly through Viacom 18 and acquired non-controlling interest in several content firms. According to a recent report by brokerage firm UBS, the oil-to-telecom conglomerate is evolving from an integrated energy company into a consumer giant like China's Alibaba and RIL could potentially rival the likes of Amazon and Walmart. It added that the Mukesh Ambani company can potentially become a unique quadruple play by bundling connectivity, carriage, content and commerce to gain higher share of consumers' wallet. As per UBS estimates, the consumer-centric ecosystem can reportedly generate 47% of RIL's consolidated EBITDA by FY23. However, the capital expenditure of the consumer-facing businesses is likely to remain high due to intensifying competition and, hence, the net debt will expand even in FY20, before starting to decline from FY21. With PTI inputs Also read: Now, Reliance Jio will help you resolve your loan queries Also read: Reliance Jio launches JioGroupTalk conference calling app Motorola is resurrecting its famous super-thin Moto Razr flip-smartphone from the 2000s. The new Moto Razr is expected to be a foldable one though. Prior to Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy phones, Moto Razr was the phone to buy. The Moto Razr V3 had sold as many as 130 million units in four years. However, the new foldable Razr could be out of the reach of many buyers as it is expected to start at $1,500! The Lenovo owned Motorola revealed its future plans in a media interview and mentioned that it would bring a foldable phone "[no] later than everybody else in the market" - suggesting that the phone is all set to release in 2019. Earlier, Motorola had filed a patent with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) describing a foldable smartphone design. According to a report in XDA Developers, the new Razr will not offer a complete access to the entire Android experience when it's folded. Motorola has restricted which apps can "access display on flip". Currently, only certain pre-installed system applications like Moto Display, Moto Actions, and of course, the Moto Camera app, can display content on the "closed display". As for the other features, when unfolded, the secondary display can act as a trackpad. It can also display 6 Quick Setting tiles. When the camera is being used, the users will be able to tap on the main display to click the picture and also use swipe up gesture for zooming in. Also, in the camera app, the user can tap on the primary display to capture a photo, or swipe up on the primary display to zoom in. Motorola is also testing the Moto Display app that can show a clock, pulsing notifications, and controlling media via the external display. Motorola may also introduce a feature that will allow users to set different wallpapers for the main and the secondary screens. Motorola would join Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei and others in the long list of companies focussing on the foldable smartphone. Samsung and Huawei recently showed off their foldable phones at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), Barcelona. Edited By: Udit Verma Also Read: Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 and Redmi Note 7 Pro to go on sale on March 13 Also Read: Samsung Galaxy A40 gets certified by FCC, may launch soon With just a month to go before the world's largest democracy starts voting for a new parliament, the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora yesterday announced several measures that are being implemented to help ensure free, fair and participative polls. So here's a look at all that will be new in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which will be held for 543 seats on nearly 10 lakh polling booths across the country: Photos of all candidates on EVMs Arora said on Sunday that all the electronic voting machines (EVMs) and postal ballot papers will have to carry photographs of all the candidates - in addition to their respective party names and symbols - to help voters identify the political leaders in the fray and eliminate confusion. According to the Election Commission, although India had first gone to polls with photo electoral rolls in 2009, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir and Nagaland did not have it. But now, all the states and union territories have photo electoral rolls and photographs of 99.72 per cent electors are already printed in the electoral rolls. The Commission added that official voter slip bearing the photo of the elector (wherever present in the roll) will be distributed at least five days before the polling date. Introduction of VVPATs The poll body is introducing voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) for verification of voting in all polling booths in the country for the first time in general elections - VVPATs have previously been used in Assembly elections and bypolls. These machines are being used to bring more transparency in the system, as directed by the Supreme Court. VVPAT machines, attached to EVMs, dispense a slip with the name of the candidate and his/her party symbol each time a vote is cast. This slip appears on a small window for seven seconds and then drops into a sealed container. Hence, matching EVM and VVPAT results dispel fears about EVMs being 'hacked' to favour a particular political party. Furthermore, in the wake of complaints regarding security of EVMs, last mile transportation of these machines will now be tracked through GPS. New Vigilant Citizen app The Election Commission has launched a new Vigilant Citizen app - cVIGIL - ahead of the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha Elections. The app has been launched for citizens across the country to help them report any violation of code of conduct - say, incidents of intimidation or inducement - on their Android mobiles during polling. The app is available on the Play Store but will work from the date of notification of election. So how does it work? cVIGIL comprises a combination of time-stamping and live photo with auto location which creates a more reliable picture of the incident than just reporting it verbally. "The GIS-based dashboard provides strong decision tool to drop and dispose of frivolous and unrelated cases even before they are acted upon, thereby reducing the workload of election machinery on ghost complaints," reads the Play Store description. The devices running Android version 4.1 and above can run the app. Eagle eye on online campaigning The CEC yesterday also announced the steps that the Election Commission will monitor online campaigning. In order to fight the menace of fake news, all candidates standing for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections will have to declare their social media accounts to the Commission as part of their affidavit at the time of filing nominations. Moreover, all political advertisement on social media will require pre-certification from the Media Certification and Monitoring Committees (MCMCs) in place at the district and state levels. These ads will be part of the poll expenditure of the party. All the provisions of the Election Commission's model code of conduct - including the 'silence period' that exists 48 hours prior to polling in a region - will also apply to the content being posted on social media by candidates and political parties. "Various social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Google, WhatsApp, and Share Chat, will remain under the close and stringent vigil of the Commission for any content aimed at vitiating the electoral process or designed to disturb peace, tranquillity, social harmony and public order," said Arora, adding that a social media expert is also going to be part of the MCMCs. Photo voter slip will no longer suffice In end-February, the Election Commission had announced that a photo voter slip shall no longer be used as a standalone identification document during elections. Instead, a voter will have to carry any of the following 12 approved identity cards to the polling station - Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC), passport, Aadhaar card, driving licence, PAN card, service identity cards with photographs issued to employees by central/state government or PSUs and public limited companies, passbooks issued by bank or post office, and smart card issued by the Registrar General of India under National Populations Register. Other approved documents are MNREGA job card, health insurance smart card issued under the scheme of Ministry of Labour, pension document with photograph and official identity cards issued to MPs, MLAs and MLCs. This decision was taken after representations were made to the Commission against the use of these slips as they do not boast any security feature. "In the case of EPIC, minor discrepancies in the entries therein should be ignored provided the identity of the elector can be established by the EPIC," the order stated. In addition to the above, the Election Commission has strengthened its Voter Helpline to help citizens get authentic information pertaining to his/her voter registration. Voters in the Electoral Roll can use the Voter Helpline Mobile App or log into the www.nvsp.in portal or use the toll-free 1950 Helpline Number to check details of their personal information as well as get information of the polling station where they have to cast their vote. For instance, to fetch the address of the Polling Station where you have to go, send the following SMS to 1950: After helping the Indian Railways shift to accrual basis of accounting from the then existing cash basis of accounting, the Institute of Chartered Accountant of India (ICAI), the self-regulatory organisation for chartered accountant, is now in talks with India Post for 'reforming' the latter's accounting processes, says Prafulla P Chhajed, the president of ICAI. The ICAI has already submitted the financial statements of Indian Railways for 2015-16 and 2016-17 based on accrual basis of accounting. In the accrual basis of accounting, an entity reports the transaction as and when it incurs it unlike in the cash basis of accounting when the transaction is reported only if the money is exchanged. Thus, whether or not you receive money physically, you have to record it if you follow the accrual basis of accounting. Another feature of accrual basis accounting is double entry accounting, under which businesses have to record two entries for every transaction made. Accrual basis of accounting helps in better record-keeping of assets and liabilities, and gives a clearer picture of the financial health of the company. What started out as a pilot project in Ajmer division of the Indian Railways in December 2014, the ICAI took some times before it could complete the transition from the cash to accrual-based accounting. Other than Indian Railways, ICAI has also worked with Delhi and Kolkata local bodies to change their financial accounting method. The accounting reforms of urban local bodies have been in the focus for a very long time. In fact, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation and before it the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) required the municipal corporation of the selected cities under the two schemes to shift their transactions to the accrual basis of accounting. Also Read: RBI warned govt about DeMo hours before PM Modi's 8 pm announcement Also Read: ED chargesheet names Nirav Modi's wife Ami Modi in PNB scam Britain will face EU demands for billions of euros in cash if it fails to strike a Brexit deal, Brussels officials and diplomats said on Monday after talks with London stalled 18 days before it is due to leave the bloc. Prime Minister Theresa May agreed a withdrawal treaty last year under which Britain would pay the European Union close to 50 billion euros over the coming years to meet commitments made while a member. But the British parliament has rejected the deal and the treaty will be void if nothing changes by March 29. In the event of a no-deal exit, likely to cause economic disruption, the EU would insist on Britain committing to settle those bills - a significant part of the EU budget - before any resumption of talks on how to manage future trading relations. "Imagine all the bad blood and acrimony should we end up with a no-deal after two years of negotiations," an envoy who follows Brexit for one EU member state told Reuters. "Yes, we would need to engage with them again. But not right away. And not before they show us the money." With May planning to put the package to a second vote in parliament on Tuesday, her negotiators failed to secure concessions in Brussels at the weekend. EU officials and national diplomats told Reuters they were growing pessimistic and looking at how a collapse of talks might play out. An assumption in Brussels that May would ask for, and get, a delay to the deadline of a few weeks is in question: "We really want to be over with it now," one official said. "It's not going anywhere so even an extension is unlikely to break the impasse. "There's not much patience or goodwill left on our side." Even if there is a disorderly departure, both sides acknowledge that they will have to return to the table to negotiate a long-term free trade agreement and arrangements to avoid a "hard" customs border on land between the EU and the British province of Northern Ireland, the issue on which May's divorce deal has stalled. But, EU diplomats and officials said, Brussels would put a price on those talks. "First, they would have to agree to pay what they are due," an EU official said. Diplomats said negotiators have briefed the 27 other governments that this would be a condition for talks. The other conditions would be to safeguard citizens' rights and find solutions for the Irish border, the sources said. Another EU diplomat painted a picture of a Brexit snake eating its own tail in eternity. "We have been very firm on these three issues because they are essential for us. And that doesn't change after a no-deal Brexit," the person said on condition of anonymity. "So these would be back on the table as very clear conditions for starting trade talks, only the UK's position would be weakened again. It will be about what is your threshold for pain?" (Reuters) Source: www.businessworld.ie An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys and Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe, yesterday launched Future Jobs Ireland 2019: Preparing Now for Tomorrows Economy, a new, whole-of-Government framework for the next phase of Irelands economic development. Future Jobs Ireland 2019 is the first in a series of annual reports, which outlines the Governments longer-term ambitions for the future of the economy, under five key pillars: Embracing Innovation and Technological Change Improving SME Productivity Enhancing Skills & Developing and Attracting Talent Increasing Participation in the Workforce Transitioning to a Low Carbon Economy Future Jobs Ireland 2019 has been informed by engagement across Government Departments and with stakeholders. This consultation culminated in the Future Jobs Summit which took place on 22 November 2018 attended by more than 160 stakeholders with six breakout sessions, each chaired by a Minister. This stakeholder engagement will continue and throughout the course of 2019, with Government Departments aiming to work collaboratively with stakeholders to develop further deliverables for inclusion in Future Jobs Ireland 2020. The Government claims Future Jobs Ireland is about supporting business but also investing in the development of people. The world of work is changing. Advancing technology means society is always on. Connectivity and greater accessibility is changing the way people work. This comes with negatives and positives. Future Jobs Ireland aims to take the opportunity to exploit the positives that technology can bring for the country and take on the negatives. Speaking this week, An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar said, "I want Ireland to be a country that works to live, not lives to work. Businesses need to consider new ways of attracting and retaining talent through remote and flexible working options: women as well as men can get the job done. So that people living in rural areas can work for Google, Facebook and Apple without having to commute to Cork City or Dublin. We need to see lifelong learning as the norm so we are adaptable to new technology and sectors. And, today we are announcing that we have committed to doubling our Lifelong Learning rate to 18% by 2025." He added, "Ireland is one of the most attractive places for Foreign Direct Investment. But the next phase of our national development should be Irish owned SMEs succeeding at home and then going global. By confronting head-on the challenges we face in the world of work, we can ensure we are able to prosper from the transformations that are coming. We can face the future with confidence because of the preparations we have made today." Source: www.businessworld.ie KBC Bank Ireland has enhanced its new business banking service specifically designed for professional SMEs in Ireland. KBC Business Banking, which has been co-designed with input from the professionals, offers specialised support and a suite of products for businesses including business current account, business loans, business deposits, professional fee finance, tax loans and business credit cards. The result is a full-service business banking service for every customer, with a dedicated KBC business partner specialising in the professional sectors, business support team, tailored products and digital banking platform. KBC Bank Ireland recently conducted research among professionals and SMEs to ascertain the banking pain point affecting their business. The research found that a real pain point for some professionals is having to explain their business every time they engage with their bank particularly when they have a credit requirement. Commenting on the new initiative, Head of Business Banking at KBC Bank Ireland, Garrett O'Donohoe said, "There is a clear disconnect between certain specialist professions and their financial provider, with a clear lack of understanding of their business needs at the core. Recent research from Accenture has shown that one in four Irish SMEs expect to switch banks this year, with 76 percent admitting to being unhappy with an area of service from their current provider, including knowledge of their sector, lending rate and lack of relationship manager, among others." Source: www.businessworld.ie The Minister for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data, Pat Breen has welcomed a report entitled The Digitalisation of small and medium enterprises in Ireland from Andrew McDowell, Vice President of the European Investment Bank. The report, a collaborative project between the Advisory Hub of the European Investment Bank and the Department of Business Enterprise and Innovation, investigates how to increase digital technology diffusion among Irish SMEs, especially in traditional sectors. The report highlights that almost 40% of traditional Irish indigenous companies completely lack digital assets and Ireland lags behind leading countries in terms of e-business processes and e-business technology adoption. The project also found a limited appetite from traditional Irish SMEs for digital investment in products, process or business models due to the existence of market failures in relation to accessing finance and awareness of the benefits digital technologies can bring. The report finds that companies are often working with a budgeting logic instead of an investment logic and digitalisation is considered to be a cost factor and not seen as an opportunity. Ultimately, not enough companies know how to translate the use of technologies into economic impact, and how to build a new incremental business. Furthermore, the report finds that SMEs are often unwilling to apply for loans given the high cost of credit in Ireland. Banks are reluctant to provide loans, often with a higher risk profile, for investments in digital technologies. Speaking last week, Minister Breen said, "In light of the continuing commitment to ensuring SMEs have appropriate access to credit, I am delighted to announce that the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation is in the process of developing a pilot scheme aimed at addressing the difficulty that SMEs have in accessing finance in order to obtain the benefits of digitalisation." He added, "The development of this pilot, combined with the Future Loan Growth Scheme to be launched in the coming weeks, are targeted Government of Ireland measures to address a clearly defined market failure in that they will provide competitively priced finance on favourable terms to eligible SMEs." Source: www.businessworld.ie Mobike to Shut Down Operations in Some Asian Countries By Qian Tong and Zhao Runhua / Mar 11, 2019 02:48 PM / Business & Tech Mobike will shut its operations in some Asian countries, the shared-bike giants parent company Meituan Dianping said Monday. The company did not specify which countries, but it did say that the move will affect more than 10 staffers. Meituan Dianping and Mobike declined to provide further details. According to the statement, the changes are intended to improve the business overall efficiency as Meituan and Mobike continue to evaluate bike-sharing markets in other regions. Mobike may seek collaboration with local companies if its businesses there fail to meet expectations. Prior to Meituans response, Chinese media had reported that Mobike was considering closing all global businesses. The news raised market concerns, as it echoed a similar move by the companies former rival, debt-ridden Ofo, which dismissed its entire international business department in January. After purchasing Mobike last April for $2.7 billion, Meituan said in January that Mobike would be eventually be rebranded as Meituan Bike and accessed through the Meituan app. Related: Meituan to Retire Mobike Name as Major Overhaul Takes Shape The Northwest Multiple Listing Service reported Heavy Snowfall Ices February Housing Activity Around Western Washington Seattle's snowiest month in 50 years had an obvious chilling effect on February's housing activity, agreed officials with Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Statistics for last month show pending sales dropped nearly 14 percent compared to the same month a year ago. "The winter weather brought the market to a halt," stated John Deely, principal managing broker at Coldwell Banker Bain. He said last month's series of snowstorms and frigid temperatures had a negative impact on the typical momentum that builds at the beginning of the year. "Showing activity dropped more than 41 percent the week of the heaviest snow, and weekend keybox activity was down 80 percent," Deely reported. "The end of the month picked up as cabin fever weary buyers unleashed themselves on the burgeoning inventory," he added. Despite the weather disruptions, brokers added 6,247 new listings to inventory during the month, 1,037 fewer than a year ago. At month end, Northwest MLS members reported 11,275 total active listings, a robust 42.3 percent jump from twelve months ago. emphasis added The press release is for the Northwest. In King County, sales were down 3.7% year-over-year, and active inventory was up 128% year-over-year.. This is another market with inventory increasing sharply year-over-year, but months-of-supply in Seattle is still on the low side at 2.0 months. news, latest-news By 2050, Canberra's summers will start in early October and taper off midway through March unless radical efforts are made to combat the threat of climate change, the Australian Conservation Foundation has warned. The foundation teamed up with the Australian National University to create a tool allowing Australians to see how badly their electorate will be affected by climate change in 30 years. It also warned Australia will cease to see a winter as we know it, with a prolonged, hotter period over the traditional summer months the designers called "New Summer". Associate professor of design at the university, Dr Mitchell Whitelaw, said the data wasn't new, but researchers had tried to find a way to directly engage people. "It's through no fault of the science," Dr Whitelaw said. "We get figures that relate to the whole country. It lacks impact because it's easier to think of 'Oh, that doesn't relate to me'." Now people could see how badly their own electorate was affected, Dr Whitelaw said. "When you vote, your member should be able to reflect your interests." The data was compiled from over 4000 locations across Australia, with voters in the federal electorate of Fenner set to be the worst hit in the capital. Labor MP and shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh currently holds the seat, which is set to see daily average maximums increase by 3.9 degrees by 2050. The 20 most vulnerable electorates are expected to see an increase in average maximum temperatures of between 4.77 degrees (Groom) and 3.81 degrees (Hume). Of those 20 electorates, eight were held by the Nationals, five each were held by the Liberal and Labor parties, one was held by independent Bob Katter and one was the redrawn seat of Canberra, which does not yet have a federal member. Australia's hottest electorate by 2050 will be Groom, which includes Toowoomba in Queensland, with daily average maximums increasing by 4.8 degrees by 2050. According to the data, there will only be a few places in Tasmania which still experience a winter by 2050, but Australia's "New Summer" will see daily temperatures exceed 30 to 40 degrees for longer periods. The tool uses data from the Bureau of Meteorology and the Queensland government's Scientific Information for Land Owners, and assumes global greenhouse gas emissions will continue to accelerate. Dr Steven Crimp, from the university's Climate Change Institute, helped Dr Whitelaw and codesigner Dr Geoff Hinchliffe project the temperature rises. He said he hoped graphic devices helped drive a conversation on climate change. "What we see in the Canberra region is we're going to be more frequently breaking temperature records," Dr Crimp said. "We're now moving outside the realms of climate variability into a new period of variance." Dr Crimp pointed to Canberra's summer just past, which was the hottest on record. "Canberra's January was almost seven degrees warmer ... than the long term average," he said. Even the Snowy Mountains to Canberra's south will no longer see a winter by 2050 if more isn't done to slow climate change - which means no ski season. "In a lot of those regions they're already struggling now with snow coverage," Dr Crimp said. Australian Conservation Foundation chief executive Kelly OShanassy said too many MPs were failing their local communities by not addressing climate change. It is disappointing that many of the federal electorates found to have the highest projected increases in average maximum temperatures are represented by MPs who do little to champion climate action, or worse, deny the established science, she said. The tool can be accessed via myclimate.acf.org.au. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/0148748c-e6a4-43bf-a471-ac7492ab9a3b/r0_453_1000_1018_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, latest-news When Mandy Larsson was a teenager growing up in Cooma, a close friend took his own life. For years afterwards, all she could think about was the sheer waste of it all. "This was an amazing young fellow and it was a tragic story, he'd just split up with his girlfriend, and thought his life was over," she says. "He talked to me and I said, 'There's plenty more fish in the sea', that type of thing. All the wrong things to say." She knows that now, but she couldnt have known then. Today, she talk to dozens of people over the phone, many of them in crisis. As Lifeline Canberras director of crisis support, she is trained to know exactly what to say, and when, to someone who might be contemplating self-harm or suicide. But back then, she was just 17, still finding her own way. Later, when she was in her early 20s, her uncle also died by suicide. "He was schizophrenic, and he wasn't found by his family for 10 days after he died," she says. "That was something that was really huge to me, that nobody should not be cared about enough to be missing for 10 days. That really had an impact on me." It was these two events that would eventually lead her to Lifeline, first as a volunteer, and later as a paid staff member. Shes about to clock up 18 years in the office, and her work is as vital as ever. "You never know when you pick up that phone what's going to happen," she says. Born and bred in Cooma - her parents met on the Snowy in 1965 - she married a local and had two kids, before the family moved to Canberra. She had originally worked in the travel industry, but, when the kids were still small, she decided to cast around for something else to do. She decided to volunteer at Lifeline. Back then, in 2001, the office on Northbourne Avenue had just two phone lines in a tiny room. In the years since, the office has expanded to seven lines, and is now a national service, taking calls from all over the country. And the phones have never stopped ringing. "We have 1 million calls a year across the country, but the sad fact of that is that we only answer about 850-870,000 calls," she says. Its those 150,000 calls - around 15 per cent - left unanswered that keep her up at night. "These callers will ring Lifeline, and they'll get on our queue service for our first available crisis supporter, but if it's 11 o'clock at night, we can be absolutely flat out and you may have to wait 10 minutes to get through to a crisis supporter," she says. "That's a bloody long time if you're in crisis. So for me, this is one of the reasons I'm still there, because every caller that rings Lifeline should be answered. Every single caller." Meanwhile, just 4 per cent of Lifeline Canberras funding comes from government "We have to fundraise for 96 per cent of our budget. Thank god for the book fairs," she says. Canberras hugely popular twice-yearly event is the offices main source of revenue. Funding or no funding, the phones ring at all hours. On the other end are "all kinds of people, from all kinds of socio-economic backgrounds, calling for all kinds of reasons," she says. "Just to give you an example, we just had a 21-year-old girl who'd had a stroke, and she was talking about the loss of her life, the loss of her identity, and the loss of who she is as a person. "A couple of weeks ago, we had someone who's just found out she's got six weeks to live from cancer. And then there are people who are just lonely and have nobody else to talk to." Its the rise of loneliness that has been one of the biggest changes during her time at Lifeline. "We're in a more connected society, now, but people are more alone - they don't have that connectedness on a human level." The office fields calls from people who ring the service every day for months on end, as well as first-time callers from a wide variety of backgrounds. "It could be just to get through that crisis, they could call every day for a couple of months, or life's just really tough and they might call for a year every day, and that's ok. And that's hard for us to talk to them every day - to imagine living that life," she says. "And every day you pick up a phone and it's a first-time caller too. And what we've found is that we've had a 22 per cent increase in people talking about a third-party suicide - not being suicidal themselves, but needing help for another person." Larsson still answers the phones herself as much as possible - she needs to know what her staff are dealing with - but the training and supervision of staff is as vigilant as its ever been. "I still get anxious before I pick up that phone, and that's important, because that means I care about who's on the end of the phone. If I don't have that rush, I shouldn't be doing it anymore," she says. "The other thing that's changed greatly is just that we have so much debriefing and so much more supervision, because that's just so important. If you're taking a crisis call, you need that chain of support to back you up." Larsson received a medal of the Order of Australia in January for her services to the community, but she says her work is far from being done. The office is in constant need of more volunteers, and with Canberra's transient population, it's harder to keep people coming back. "Canberra is an amazing community and we have about 320 volunteers on the phones now, but we have the ability to have more. "The thing is, life changes. People are studying or working." While taking calls from people in crisis for hours on end is draining, Larsson says she and her staff rely on black humour - some days, its what pulls them all through - and the ability to switch off the moment they leave the office. "I think now I do what I do, and do my best, but then I let it go. I can remember maybe a handful of callers now," she says. "And every day I walk out of there and think geez, I'm so lucky. Some people's lives are just incredibly sad. You feel grateful, and you feel hopefully that you've been able to make some sort of a difference by keeping them going, keeping them having faith in life." She stresses that not all calls involve people deep in crisis; for every suicidal caller, there could be half a dozen people who just want to talk "That person who wants to have a yarn, if you give them 20 minutes, maybe you're the only person they're going to talk to in the day," she says. "But I think as a nation, as a society, we have to recognise that Lifeline's number is similar to the Triple 0 number. It is a necessary number to save lives. We do that every day." "I think that needs to be told more, we need to be aware that this service is integral in the health and wellbeing of our society, so we need to put more money into it." In the meantime, she says, there will always be those 15 per cent of calls that go unanswered. Support is available for those who may be distressed by phoning Lifeline 13 11 14; Mensline 1300 789 978; Kids Helpline 1800 551 800; beyondblue 1300 224 636; 1800-RESPECT 1800 737 732. /images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/72d8522b-0ac8-4749-8b1f-4e1d8e8a2e33/r0_225_4008_2490_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg news, crime A woman is in hospital with a gunshot wound to the shoulder after a bikie-related drive-by shooting in Richardson in the early hours of Monday morning. Police said the home had been targeted in an attack on members of the Nomads outlaw motorcycle gang. Three people were inside the suburban home when the bullets struck. The victim was not a member of the gang but is reportedly related to members of the Nomads. Detective Superintendent Scott Moller, in charge of ACT's criminal investigations, confirmed that five shots had been fired. "At least three men fired on the house so, yes, it is a drive-by shooting incident," he said. The woman is undergoing treatment with injuries described as "not critical". She was transported to hospital by ACT Ambulance. Superintendent Moller described this attack as a worrying development. "It is a conflict between gangs," he said. "All these incidents are worrying and that's why we are committed to pressing on with this investigation and seeing every avenue through to the end." He would not say at this time whether this drive-by shooting was linked to recent drive-by shooting incidents, although the modus operandi was clearly a familiar one to Canberra residents. Bullets were fired at a two-storey house in Harrington Circuit, Kambah on February 4, and three vehicles were set on fire outside the house. Police confirmed that people living in the Kambah house had "connections" to outlaw motorcycle gangs. Last year bikie gangs were responsible for multiple drive-by shootings and targeted attacks across Canberra, including one on a Calwell residence in which bullets were fired into the home and cars set alight. A man was shot in the hand during the Calwell attack, although a woman and small child living in the suburban home were unharmed. Taskforce Nemesis, the police specialist team dedicated to investigating bikie gangs in Canberra, was increased in size last year after the spate of attacks, and was given a specific funding boost. The taskforce now includes separate proactive and reactive teams, and an intelligence-gathering capability. While the ACT government provided more powers to police last year, it has stopped short of matching the powerful anti-consorting laws adopted by the Queensland and NSW governments, and which the Liberal opposition and the federal police union actively support. Anti-consorting laws have been used by the NSW anti-gangs team, Strike Force Raptor, to effectively target and disrupt outlaw motorcycle gang activity in that state. Since the introduction of the Queensland and NSW legislation, the number of outlaw motorcycle gangs active within the ACT has jumped from one, the Rebels, to four and now includes the Comancheros, the Nomads and most recently, the European-based Satudarah. The Liberals' Jeremy Hanson re-tabled anti-consorting laws as a private members bill in the ACT Legislative Assembly recently. Mr Hanson described Monday's shooting as "sadly inevitable, given the government has been warned for 10 years that something like this would happen if they failed to bring in anti-consorting laws". He said that the ACT's previous chief police officer, Justine Saunders, was "very vocal about the need for anti-consorting laws" and the current chief police officer had called for nationally consistent laws. "The police association and, I imagine, every police officer on the beat, is crying out for these laws," he said. Now his bill has been tabled, it will go to the Scrutiny of Bills Committee. He has pleaded with the government to reassess the proposed legislation, and said he would gladly work with it on amendments. "I'm now going to be working with the Human Rights Commission on the legislation and look at some of the amendments they have proposed. My intention is to bring this back to the Assembly later in the year," he said. Police are asking anyone with CCTV footage or information relating to the Richardson incident that could assist them to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or at the Crime Stoppers ACT website. The reference number is 6372664. Hyundai has announced the launch of Hyundai Subscription in partnership with Revv. Through this model, customers can use cars from the Hyundai product portfolio through a subscription based ownership model. The first phase will kick-start in Q1 2019 and will be available across six cities namely Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Commenting on the announcement SJ Ha, senior director, sales and marketing, Hyundai Motor India Ltd, We are extremely excited about the Indian mobility landscape currently and foresee great prospects. This strategic alliance will provide a unique opportunity for todays millennial customers to experience Hyundais diverse product offerings that blend with their personality. With our deep understanding of Indian consumers and progressive tech-driven mobility solutions, we aim to forge a new market for the New Age Indians. This plan includes subscription for short term / long term, swap across Hyundai range and can be availed with zero down payment, no insurance / maintenance for short subscription, including an assured-on demand delivery. Customers opting for one-year subscription or more will get an assured new car. Hyundai Creta 10.16 Lakh Onwards Hyundai | Creta | Hyundai Creta Exports seek solutions for stalled export to India 11 March 2019 Exports of cement and other commodities from Pakistan to India have been impacted following imposition of 200 per cent import duty by New Delhi on the aftermath of recent terrorist attacks on Indian soldiers. According to local media, Pakistani exporters have sought the government's help to clear their multi-million dollars of shipments stuck at the Indian ports, since the two neighbouring countries indulged in border skirmishes a month ago. They demanded of the government to form a taskforce to solve the issue as a large number of consignments exported to India are stuck at Indian ports as India imposed 200 per cent duty on all imports from Pakistan following the emergence of conflict. "A number of consignments of leather products, textiles, cement and other goods are stuck at Indian ports, as the Indian importers are not getting them released, while the consignments are neither being re-exported back to Pakistan," Gulzar Feroz, vice president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry said and added. "A taskforce needs to be formed to solve the issue, as exporters are suffering (from stalled trade)." Since then truckloads of cement, dates and some other items from Pakistan have been languishing at the Attari-Wagah border, traders said. Most of Pakistan's exports to India are through this border. Indian importers mostly pay for the goods clearance, "but they now find it impossible to take delivery because of the duty hike," an exporter said. During 7MFY19 Pakistan's total cement exports stood at approximately 2.876 Mt, up four per cent, YoY, of which cement exports to India stood at 648,110t (share in exports: approximately 22.5 per cent) down 4.6 per cent, YoY, while Pakistan's total clinker exports stood at about 1.264Mt during this period some of which found their way to India. Data released by All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) reveals that during FY18, Pakistans cement exports to India stood at ~1.127Mt against total cement exports 4.746Mt (market share: 25.6 per cent) while clinker exports during FY18 at zero. However, real impact is expected to be seen in the February and March data. Published under It is hard for to believe that some in Washington think that taking guns away from law abiding citizens would decrease violent crime. That would be like declaring a national holiday for criminals. Nancy Pelosi recently said in a speech that "if we had a Democrat as President they would declare a state of national emergency to confiscate legally owned guns." You know criminals don't keep legally owned guns, only law-abiding citizens do. If any President were so stupid to attempt to confiscate guns from law-abiding citizens this country would experience civil unrest not seen since the Civil War. People are passionate about hunting, sport and target shooting, but are even more passionate about being able to protect their home, their family and themselves. Not all of us are worth millions and can afford the best in home security systems and walk around with armed bodyguards. Maybe Mrs. Pelosi will give up all of that security in exchange for a whistle? But I don't think that will happen. But as most people know both houses of Congress for years have been referred to as the Millionaires Club. When President Trump was elected it was like people expected him to serve for free and he did. But why stop there, if those in Congress truly want to serve their country why don't they serve for free since some are worth in the hundreds of millions. But unlike President Trump it seems as they want their country to serve them. They are all so out of touch with the common Americans that they have no idea of the struggles we face. I have seen polls lately of should illegal aliens be able to draw social security? That should not even be a question. They didn't contribute to it and what part of illegal do some people not understand? If anything like that ever became law I can't even begin to comprehend the influx of elderly illegals that would be pouring across the borders into a country already so far in debt they can't see light at the end of the tunnel. But if you are independently wealthy it really don't create a problem for you. It is time we had a little common sense brought into all of our elected officials. I also believe that we should have term limits in both houses of Congress instead of lifetime politicians who get reelected based solely on name recognition. Vincent Gamble * * * Nancy Pelosi was referring to President Trump declaring a national emergency to build his wall. It was said with tongue in cheek so to speak last month, on or around Feb. 14, giving examples that if Trump could declare a national emergency to build a wall a Democratic president could do the same on issues they felt were compelling. The gun issue was just one example. Another was climate change, and another was income inequality. Don't get so upset. No one's gonna take yours or anyone's precious guns away. Relax. Brenda Washington * * * Mr. Gamble, In your letter you attribute a quote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. That statement, asserted as verbatim by way of quotation marks, is fabricated. Here is the actual statement made by Speaker Pelosi which most resembles the false quote you provide, "Let's talk about today: the one-year anniversary of [the Parkland School shooting] another manifestation of the epidemic of gun violence in America. That's a national emergency. Why don't you declare that emergency, Mr. President? I wish you would. But a Democratic President can do that." Beyond the simple made up quote, there's also the issue of failure to understand the meaning behind what was actually said. You'll see that Pelosi's comment was not really a statement about gun control, but rather her offering an example of how problematic it is to allow the President to abuse the powers of an emergency declaration. Read how she continued the comment, "A Democratic President can declare emergencies as well, so the precedent that the President is setting here is something that should be met with great unease and dismay by the Republicans." This is a sentiment shared by many on both sides of the aisle. Your Republican Senator Lamar Alexander said of the issue, "There has never been an instance where a President of the United States has asked for funding, Congress refused it, and the President then had used the National Emergency Act to justify the funding anyway. There is no limit to the imagination of what the next left-wing President could do to ham this country." Alexander also called Trump's maneuver "unwise" and a budding "constitutional crisis." A vote in the Senate on this very matter has been forced and is upcoming. Mitch McConnell won't be able to sit on this particular House bill. By the media's count there are already enough Republicans against the declaration to have it pass. A veto has even been promised by the President. But nevertheless this stands as yet another unsolvable contradiction for small-government advocates' support for a President that regularly crosses the constitutional boundries of executive power. Your letter, Mr. Gamble, gives one the impression that you too fall into this camp. I suspect government overreach and regulation, eminent domain, and unconstitutional government spending are all bad words to you, yet for the Wall we see a Republican President engaged in exactly that. I understand your concern of the issues you raise, sir. But please do not make up words to vilify your opponent. It only weakens your argument. Instead, I urge you to make sure your own house is in order, lest you empower those you fear most. Nolan Crenshaw * * * Well once again Ms. Washington, you carry the liberal tune and further the lie about gun control. The repetition of the line nobody wants to take your guns has become such an overused lie that it is no longer remotely believable. Numerous Democrats in Congress and several candidates for President have made it quite clear that they want to do exactly that. Bills have been filed by Pelosi et.al. to outlaw weapons in use for over 100 years, i.e. semi-automatic weapons. This ban includes language for confiscation of the outlawed weapons. Once again the Constitution is completely ignored by them in their zeal to disarm the American people. Ken Kaylor The Moccasin Bend Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution celebrated Womens History Month at their meeting on Saturday at the Mountain Creek Church of Christ. Guest program speakers were members of the American Heritage Girls, Troop 2206 and Lee Curtis, Communications and Legislative liaison with the Tennessee State Museum. AHG is a Christ- centered leadership development program for girls 5-18 years of age, building women of integrity. Ms. Curtis spoke on the new state museum and galleries, Tennessees suffragettes, and the srt and stories in Tennessee quilts. For further information on these organizations, please go to www.dar.org https://americanheritagegirls.org or https://tnmuseum.org. During Engineers Week in Chattanooga, BASF donated $2,000 to provide scholarships to engineering students attending the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) and Chattanooga State Community College. Coinciding with Engineers Week, a national annual event that raises awareness about the profession and contributions engineers make to society, BASFs donation is part of local workforce development efforts to attract local talent into the chemical industry. BASFs site in Chattanooga makes high quality polymer dispersions that are used in products people use every day such as adhesives, printing and packaging. With warmer weather coming, Tennessee State Parks is hosting free guided spring hikes in all 56 state parks led by park rangers on Saturday, March 23. The hikes fit every level, from short easy-to-walk trails to longer treks through more adventurous terrain, each featuring the natural settings that are so diverse across the state. The spring hikes are a great way to explore our parks, as well as get to know other people who share the outdoors in a group setting, said Anne Marshall, acting deputy commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. Our state parks staff has valuable expertise to share about our parks to enhance the experience. There are hikes for just about every taste. The hikes are a chance to see early spring wildflowers, discuss wildlife specific to the park, take photos of magnificent scenery, and take in the features that make each state park unique. The statewide turkey hunting season opens in Georgia on March 23. However, youth and mobility-impaired hunters utilizing private land have a chance to harvest a bird during a special early opportunity turkey season on March 16-17, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division. This weekend hunt opportunity is available only for youth 16 years of age and younger, or hunters that are mobility impaired (i.e. confined to a wheelchair, hemiplegia, monoplegia, paraplegia, or single-leg amputation above the knee). Youth hunters must be accompanied by an adult (18 years or older) who may call for turkey, but may not take or attempt to take a turkey. All turkey hunters, including those under 16 years of age, landowners, honorary, lifetime, and sportsman license holders, must obtain a free harvest record each season. Before moving a harvested turkey, hunters are required to immediately enter the date and county on the harvest record, and within 72 hours, must complete the reporting process through Georgia Game Check. More information at www.georgiawildlife.com/ HarvestRecordGeorgiaGameCheck . Resident youth hunters under age 16 will not need a license. Hunters age 16 years or older (including those accompanying youth or others) will need a hunting license and a big game license unless hunting on their own private land. Get your license at www.gooutdoorsgeorgia.com, at a retail license vendor or by phone at 1-800-366-2661. Grand opera is returning to Chattanooga once again with Bizets Carmen on April 11 and 13 at 7:30 p.m. at the Tivoli Theatre. The opera was last performed by the CSO in October, 1994. We had financial and programmatic success with bringing back grand opera during our 2016/17 season with Madame Butterfly, said CSO Executive Director Samantha Teter. The excitement from the community around opera was palpable, and we are excited to bring a fully staged grand opera back this season with. Carmen is set in southern Spain and centers on Carmen, a beautiful and fiery gypsy girl who seduces Don Jose, a straight-laced soldier in the army. The tale that unfolds is one of passion, obsession, and spurned love. When Carmen made its debut in 1875 it was met with harsh criticism and negative reviews - with a scandalous heroine and the portrayal of characters as real men and women with raw emotions, Carmen was far from the conventional operas of that day. Today, Carmen has become a worldwide operatic phenomenon, and is a favorite among long-time opera enthusiasts and those new to opera. For those of you whove experienced Bizets Carmen live, you will completely understand why weve chosen it for our next production, said Music Director Emeritus and opera conductor, Bob Bernhardt. The music is glorious and sensual, the story is timelessly tragic, and its a vocal and orchestral tour de force, filled with famous melodies and glorious ensembles. If youve never been to Carmen, take this chance! The Tivoli Theater is a wonderful opera house, and youll get to feel every moment of this masterpiece in an intimate, personal way. Youll experience what opera lovers have known for nearly 150 years: Carmen is breathtakingly beautiful, and completely unforgettable!" Georgia Northwestern Technical College held a High School Appreciation Luncheon and Information Program to show gratitude to the faculty and staff from regional high schools for their contribution to GNTCs Dual Enrollment program. The presentation took place at the Conference Center on GNTCs Gordon County Campus in Calhoun. Counselors, faculty and administrators from high schools across the northwest Georgia region took part in the luncheon. During the presentation, information was provided about various high school initiatives, the results of the Dual Enrollment program and other key partnerships in GNTCs nine-county service area. Georgias Dual Enrollment program allows qualified high school students to maximize their education and career training by taking courses that earn college and high school credit at the same time. For four consecutive years, from 2013-17, GNTC had the largest number of dual enrollment students out of all of the technical colleges in the state of Georgia according to the yearly High School Collaborative Enrollment reports issued by the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG). Last year, GNTC had the second highest number of dual enrollment students in the TCSG. The presentation began with a welcome from Pete McDonald, president of GNTC. Mr. McDonald thanked the attendees and discussed the many benefits of dual enrollment for high school students, which includes the opportunity to earn a Technical Certificate of Credit before graduation. There are some changes being made to the entrance requirements for some of our programs, which will allow many more students at the high school level to enroll in a college Technical Certificate of Credit program, said Mr. McDonald. This is an occupational track so that they will already have a skill set and can go to work immediately, if they choose, after they graduate from high school. Kristi Hart, director of High School Initiatives at GNTC, discussed some of the highlights from Georgia Northwesterns Dual Enrollment program from the previous academic year. We had over 157 high school students who graduated last year with some level of credential, said Ms. Hart. There were over 218 credentials conferred on those students so that means several of those 157 graduates actually earned more than one credential. The Whitfield County Assessors Office has begun a project to update property records throughout the county. While the primary focus will be photographing the main structure or structures on the property, the appraisal staff will also be checking for updates to floor plans, condition improvements or deteriorations and any modifications made to a property since the last field visit, officials said. This project will take approximately 16 months to complete, Chief Appraiser Ashley ODonald said. We have seven staff appraisers and our residential supervisor working on this project. Each have been assigned a portion of the county. Georgias Department of Revenue recommends all property should be reviewed in person every three years. There are more than 40,000 real estate parcels in Whitfield County, which means each appraiser averages 5,000 parcels each. Of those 40,000 parcels, more than 28,000 parcels have at least one residential structure on it. Our appraisers will be identifiable, Deputy Chief Kristi Queen said. They will be riding in county marked vehicles with government tags, wear shirts with the county logo present and have identification cards on their person. Pictures and property characteristics will be collected using an iPad. Some of the staff prefer to walk neighborhoods when the weather and the sidewalks cooperate, officials said. Walking a neighborhood gives me a more thorough and accurate review of the property, Real Estate Appraiser Jonathan Hayes said. Not only that, I get a better feel of the specific neighborhood, which ensures I treat like properties uniformly. While the photography project is the main focus of the Real Estate appraisal staff this year, the staff also continues with its yearly work of adding new construction permits to the digest, reviewing sales ratio reports and working deeds. In addition, the Assessors Office would like to remind taxpayers of a few important deadlines. The deadline for filing personal property returns, real estate property returns and applying for specialized assessments is April 1. If you have any questions, call the Assessors Office at 706-275-7410 or visit the office on the ground level of the Whitfield County Courthouse. Wednesday, March 13 Ales on 8th - W 8th Street between Pine Street and Chestnut Street will be closed on Wednesday, March 13th from 4PM until 9PM. This closure will be in effect each Wednesday evening through January, 2020. Friday, March 15 Notre Dame Irish Soles Crossing 5K Road Race and 1-Mile Walk - Reggie White Blvd., along with one westbound lane of W 20th St. will be closed from 6PM to 8PM for the annual Notre Dame Irish Soles Crossing 5K Road Race and 1-Mile Walk. Runners will start and end in front of Naked River Brewing Co. and will run out to the Riverwalk using W 20th Street and W 19th Street. Chattanooga Police Department officers will be at intersections to help direct traffic. Saturday, March 16 St. Paddy's Party on the Parkway - Patten Parkway will be closed from 4 a.m. to 12 a.m. for this St. Patrick's Day celebration, which will feature live music, food and libations for the holiday. The allages street party is designed to showcase and promote local and regional musicians and celebrate the universally loved St Patricks Day holiday. The Party on the Parkway festival uses the entire length of Patten Parkway to celebrate with an additional outdoor stage, food and beer vendors. St. Chatty's Day Parade - Westbound Main Street between Washington Street and Market Street, as well as northbound Market Street between Main Street and Georgia Ave., and northbound Georgia Ave., between Market Street and E MLK Blvd. will be closed from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. for this annual St. Patrick's Day parade hosted by Kids on the Block and The Shamrock Society. Before the parade, Chattanooga Police Department officers will be at intersections allowing traffic to pass through until the parade steps off. Bitter Alibi St Paddy's Day Bash - Houston Street will be closed between Martin Luther King Boulevard and just south of Flynn Street from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Sunday, March 17, for this St. Patrick's Day Bash hosted by the Bitter Alibi. St. Patrick's Day in West Village - Pine Street in front of the Westin Hotel, West 8th Street from Broad Street to Pine Street and Chestnut Street from West 8th Street to West MLK Boulevard will all be closed from 7 a.m. to 12 a.m. on Sunday, March 17, for this celebration that includes live bands, food, a laser light show and more. View CDOT's map of event and road closures for full details of these activities and other projects underway in our public space. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue issued the following statement after President Trump submitted his FY 2020 budget proposal to Congress: Our economy is booming, and unemployment is the lowest its been in decades. While the agriculture community still faces challenges, the Trump economy is creating new opportunities for all Americans to thrive, said Secretary Perdue. President Trumps budget is fiscally conservative and lays out a vision for an accountable federal government that cuts spending. With our national debt soaring to over $22 trillion, we can no longer kick the can down the road. The time to act is now and USDA will actively do its part in reducing federal spending. We are stewards of other peoples money and must be diligent in spending it more carefully than we would our own when it comes to delivering our programs. At the same time, we will maintain a safety net for farmers, ranchers, foresters, producers, and people who need assistance in feeding their families. GPS sixth-grade global cultures teacher Trish King received the 2019 Lottie and Alden Beverly Geography Teacher of the Year Award for superior achievement in the teaching of geography in grades kindergarten through sixth. Nominated by her peers, Ms. King stood out among other Tennessee nominees for her excellence in the areas of classroom instruction, curriculum development, leadership in the teaching profession, professional development, and community involvement. In his letter of recommendation, Dr. Ralph Covino, history/social sciences/world languages teacher and Dean of the Junior Class, wrote: Since joining our faculty, Trish has revitalized our sixth-grade global cultures curriculum and made it, to my mind, one of the most innovative geography-based programs in the states independent sector. She has shared her process and methods with other educators at a variety of conferences such as that of the National Coalition of Girls Schools and the Improving Student Learning conference in Augusta, Ga. In her revamped curriculum, Trish puts the girls into the drivers seat, not as passive receptors of knowledge, but active inquirers. She gives them a sense of agency as they cultivate what National Geographic terms the explorers mindset. Her girls are given the parameters and a timeline for completion of tasks and then they determine how their learning goes from there. Ms. King received her award during a luncheon at the 2019 Tennessee Council for the Social Studies annual conference (Gatlinburg) on Friday, hosted by the Tennessee Geographic Alliance. She was presented with a plaque from TCSS and a check for $500. According to TCSS, the award was established as the result of donations by two generous benefactors who are brothers. They are named after two dedicated K-12 educators. Alden Beverly was a lifelong teacher and administrator in the Westchester County, N.Y. school system. He served as a teacher, assistant principal, and principal of schools in that area. He was genuinely interested in the health and development of public education. In a shared recommendation, Dr. Gregg Lightfoot, GPS History Department Chair and Teacher, and Lynne Macziewski, head of Middle School, wrote: Our global science class centers the scientific process of discovery using geography to accentuate the cultural appreciation of our world as a complex and interconnected marketplace of ideas and production. Ms. King expertly combines expectations for understanding how spatial relationships shape and are shaped by the cultural necessities of the people on that land. She asks her students to make the tough connections across time and distance and always keeps a trained eye on encouraging the soft skills of empathy, intellectual flexibility, imagination, and awe that helps students appreciate people and places beyond simple categories or dots on the map. Ms. King's dedication to her students' appreciation for the lands and cultures of our community and our world makes her a deserving recipient of the Beverly Geography Teacher of the Year Award. She is tirelessly optimistic in her belief that helping students become better geographers can help them become more compassionate, empathetic, and inspired women who will change the world." The Tennessee Council for the Social Studies is an association devoted to providing information, resources, and support for all those involved in social studies education. This includes K-12 teachers, supervisors of instruction, and college professors, in the various disciplines interested in and involved in the social studies. Association for Visual Arts announced that Barnett & Company will be the 2019 sponsor of the 4 Bridges Arts Festival Preview Party. Scheduled for Friday, April 12 at the First Tennessee Pavilion, the Preview Party is an annual, ticketed event during which art enthusiasts get a sneak peek at the artwork available for purchase. Individuals can purchase Preview Party tickets through the AVA website at AVArts.org. A weekend art fair, 4BAF officially opens to the public on April 12 from 10 a.m.--6 p.m. and continues on April 14 from 10 a.m.--5 p.m. Admission to the festival on Saturday and Sunday is $5 per person. Children 12 years old and younger are free. Each year the festival marketplace makes its debut at the Preview Party. Lindsay Hill, AVA board member and co-chair of the 2019 Preview Party, considers the event to be one of Chattanoogas premier social affairs. The Preview Party is exceedingly popular, with close to 1,000 people attending, said Ms. Hill. Guests enjoy select wines and signature cocktails, complimented by a gourmet hors doeuvre buffet presented by Lee Towery Catering. Best of all, the Preview Party is the beginning of a community celebration that invites us to gather and celebrate the visual arts. Working with Ms. Hill as Preview Party co--chair is Kakhi Wakefield, an AVA board member. Ms. Wakefield emphasized the loyal support of Barnett & Company by highlighting a partnership that has sustained the festival for the past 19 years. She continued by recognizing Warren Barnett, the founder of Barnett & Company, as a willing advocate for the arts who has been investing in Chattanoogas creative capital for more than 35 years. Ricky Supan, president of AVAs board of directors, said community support from local businesses, like Barnett & Company, is pivotal to the festivals enduring success. Our sponsors have been the catalysts that grew the festival from a regional arts show into a nationally--ranked arts extravaganza, said Mr. Supan. Because of our corporate champions, 4 Bridges is a highly--anticipated destination arts festival, attracting seasoned and novice collectors from all around the region. Ms. Hill noted that 4BAF is a carefully curated art show that enhances civic pride and impacts the local economy. The festival has evolved into a culturally prominent experience that benefits the entire community, said Ms. Hill. This April 150 artists from 28 states are traveling to Chattanooga to participate in 4Bridges. Without question, the festival has become an economically valuable asset that we need to continually nurture and develop. For more information about 4 Bridges Arts Festival, contact Phyllis Mescon, 4 Bridges Arts Festival director, by email at pmescon@avarts.org or by calling 423-265-4282. The UTC Symphony Orchestra will present its Spring Concert in the C.C. Bond Humanities Theatre at Chattanooga State Community College on Tuesday, April 2 at 7:30 p.m. This free concert will feature the Neruda Concerto in Eb Major with Dr. Erika Schafer as the trumpet soloist. Dr. Schafer is associate professor of trumpet and assistant director of bands at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She performs with the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra and as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S. She has been a guest artist and performed recitals at Kansas State University, The University of Arizona and Eastern Illinois University, and has also presented masterclasses internationally. Dr. Schafer is a member of the Fuze Trio (including Ronda Benson Ford, flute, and Jenny Parker, piano), whose repertoire includes world premieres and other modern compositions, as well as arrangements of traditional classical music and popular music. Prior to her position at UTC, Dr. Schafer was a member of the United States Navy Band in Washington, D.C. where she was a featured soloist and performed with the U.S. Navy Band Brass Quartet and the Joint Services Brass Quintet. She was also active in orchestras in the D.C. area, including the McLean Symphony Orchestra, the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, the Folger Consort and the Orchestra of the 17th Century. Also on the program are the Overture to La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie) by Rossini and Schuberts Symphony No. 8 (Unfinished). This 60-member college/community orchestra includes university music majors and non-majors from UTC and Chattanooga State, UTC music faculty members, area music educators and other amateur and professional musicians from the region. The orchestra is conducted by Sandy Morris. I've been wanting to write this for some time now, but couldn't properly formulate the words or the message I wanted to share or how it would be taken. Mr. Biser's opinion piece gave me the courage. She also gave me her middle name, Louise. Aunt Helen was a woman well ahead of her times. It turns out she was also gay. As I've been told, she was married (in a heterosexual marriage) where she was horribly abused. Of course, the marriage didn't last. She never had any children of her own. Helen Louise was my mother's oldest sister and my aunt. They lost their mother to burns over 90 percent of her body when my mother was no older than nine and I guess Aunt Helen was around 13 or 14. Aunt Dorothy was somewhere in between. Although I have no memory of having met Aunt Helen, she named me.She also gave me her middle name, Louise. Aunt Helen was a woman well ahead of her times. It turns out she was also gay. As I've been told, she was married (in a heterosexual marriage) where she was horribly abused. Of course, the marriage didn't last. She never had any children of her own. Aunt Helen was feisty, strong and independent for her time. She rode motorcycles and wore pants at a time when doing so automatically brought about whispers and rumors of someone being 'odd' or 'funny', even when such labels may not true. She was the Betsy Coleman/Amelia Earhart of her day. I found an old picture of her and my grandfather, her father. She was simply gorgeous with her combination of African-Native American looks, with a rumor of possible German-Gypsy from the southern most parts of Germany. My Aunt Helen was forced to leave Chattanooga and told never to return. That would have been in the 1950s when she left Chattanooga. For years my mother didn't know where she was. But there were suspicions she had moved up north, like New York. Then in the 1960s, when my oldest brother entered the military and was sent to Germany, on his return he was determined to find Aunt Helen. The ship he returned on docked in New York, and that's where he began his search for her. Instinct told him that's where she likely would be found. Lo and behold, he found my aunt. She was doing well. She'd landed a job as a live in maid with a then-prominent New York family. She was doing quite well for herself. Aunt Helen passed away in the late 1990s. She never returned to Chattanooga, although she and my mother and Aunt Dorothy, living in Virginia (also now deceased), were able to reconnect and kept in touch over the years. Aunt Helen would be very proud and honored of today's gay, lesbian and LGBT. Unfortunately, for many attitudes haven't changed much over the years since she was forced to leave Chattanooga over 70 years ago and under threats. She wasn't openly gay, but people had their 'suspicions' about her, and that's all it took. A suspicion to bring out the pitchforks and torches. I guess my message in telling this story is 1. Be proud. 2. Stand strong. 3. The naysayers will always be on the attack, hiding behind religion or whatever else they can drum up. 4. The fact is many of them have demons they're in constant struggle with. Any attacks on the gay/LGBT community are just diversions so when the attackers look in the mirror they feel they can calmly lull themselves into seeing something other than their own flaws and struggles. With love, pride, honor and a tribute to a woman well ahead of her times. Brenda Washington The Chattanooga Zoo announces the official groundbreaking ceremony to begin construction on Phase I of the African Expansion to bring giraffe to Chattanooga. Phase I of the African Expansion will include the construction of a guest-friendly state of the art giraffe barn and an approximately 4,000 square foot outdoor giraffe lawn. With weather permitting, Phase I of this expansion is set to open in late 2019. The giraffe barn will include multiple stalls to house giraffe and other species as needed, built in veterinary equipment for the best animal management and modern zoological practices, zookeeper areas, a catwalk to be used for daily animal care purposes and behind-the-scenes tours and an indoor day yard. "The indoor day yard will allow guests to come indoors to visit our giraffe herd during inclement weather or colder months when the weather does not allow for this African mammal to be in their outdoor habitat," officials said. "The outdoor giraffe lawn will be placed alongside the giraffe barn and will provide a fascinating African savanna inspired habitat to hold a small herd of giraffes with multiple viewing opportunities. Guests will be able to get up-close and personal with these gentle giants and participate in engaging and new educational opportunities. "In addition to adding to the Chattanooga Zoos animal collection, this new project will allow for the growth of daily activities, educational offerings and conservation participation. These new animals will be incorporated into the zoo's current interactive on-site programming and will be used to build upon new educational opportunities. Once construction is complete, the Chattanooga Zoo will acquire the appropriate number of individual giraffes through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Species Survival Plan. The SSP is a population management program for endangered or vulnerable animal species within AZA-accredited institutions. With the addition of a new species, plans for more world-wide conservation partners are underway to extend our reach." The official groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, March 26 at noon at the Chattanooga Zoo. The ceremony is open to the public. Whether youve explored the world or just your local liquor store in search of a favorite drink, you can find a quality wine region to suit your budget and taste. Many emerging wine countries have fewer crowds than Napa and more character than your average vacation spot. Try visiting one of these underrated U.S. wine regions to get a taste. 1. Western Colorado aison La Belle Vie winery in Palisade, Colorado | Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via Getty Images A few hours west of Denver lies Grand Valley, home to 22 wineries between 4,000 and 7,000 feet in elevation. Mountains and mesas provide stunning views throughout the 55-mile region. Visitors enjoy renting bikes and touring the tasting rooms, vineyards, and local restaurants. Be sure to check out award-winners like Carlson Vineyards, Colterris, and Red Fox Cellars. Next: The Great Lakes have great wine. 2. Northern Michigan A vineyard view of Grand Traverse Bay in Michigan | Jeffrey Greenberg/UIG via Getty Images If you cant make it Frances celebrated vineyards, try Michigan, our very own Bordeaux. The northern area of the states Lower Peninsula has an ideal combination of well-drained soils with glacial deposits, and slightly tempered weather patterns, explains Vogue. Known for its white varieties, the narrow region is near Traverse City, a gorgeous resort town full of tasting rooms. With about 100 wineries, the Great Lakes State ranks 13th in U.S. wine production. Next: This states wine will enchant you. 3. Central New Mexico Holding grapes at Casa Rodena Winery in Albuquerque. | Jeffrey Greenberg/UIG via Getty Images The Land of Enchantment is home to some wine-related milestones. In 1629, a Franciscan monk planted grapes along New Mexicos Rio Grande River and created the first commercial wine region in America. The state was outproducing New Yorks vineyards by 1880. Now, New Mexico has nearly 50 wineries within the 150-mile region. Known for red varieties, vineyards like Casa Rodena land on top-10 lists across the country. Next: Everythings bigger in this state including the wine. 4. North Central Texas A vineyard in Texas | Josh Noel/Chicago Tribune/MCT via Getty Images Texas Hill Countrys 800 acres of vineyards make wines that are more old-world and earthy and dusty than California wines. So the dry heat is ideal for Syrah, Tempranillo, and Roussanne. Although the Lone Star State has seven other wine regions, Hill Country is the largest, helping Texas rank third for its wineries impact on the U.S. economy. Next: A historic state with modern wine 5. Southeastern Pennsylvania Pennsylvania vineyard and barn | John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images With five wine trails in this region of Pennsylvania, visitors have more than enough to taste and do in this historic area. As Travel + Leisure explains, this temperate climate and hilly countryside provide more than nearly 100 wineries and about 14,000 acres of grapes, making southeastern Pennsylvania the eighth most productive in wine. Next: Wine experts see a future in this state. 6. Snake River Valley, Idaho Traditional 60-gallon wine barrels | George Rose/Getty Images With an arid climate and high-desert landscape, the Snake River Valley climate is similar to Spain. Vinophiles love the regions 52 wineries, which are especially known for Riesling and Tempranillo. Summer provides an ideal time to visit, with long, warm summer days and cooler nights. Although many of the wineries are small, 1,800 acres of vineyards contribute $170 million annually to Idahos economy. In 2018, Food & Wine called the Snake River Valley Americas next must-visit wine region. Next: Stunning red rocks makes for good red wine. 7. Verde Valley, Arizona Not a bad place for a wine trail. | Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images This northern Arizona region experiences Pacific cold fronts and heavy rain in the late summer, making it just friendly enough for grapes. According to Vogue, big reds do well here thanks to the mineralized, slightly alkaline volcanic soils. With over 20 wineries and tasting rooms, Verde Valley is a refreshing surprise in the Southwest. Visitors also love the nearby city of Sedona and its spas, hiking trails, and red rock views. Next: This state doesnt go to war over wine. 8. Northern Virginia Rows of grapes at Pippin Hill Vineyard in Charlottesville, Virginia | Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty Images Thomas Jefferson was on to something when he planted grape vines in Virginia in 1808. He told a friend, We could in the United States make as great a variety of wines as are made in Europe. Mostly based in the Charlottesville area, Virginia winemakers are best known for Vidal Blanc. However, the regions Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc have garnered praise, too. If youre a wine-drinking history buff, Virginias for you. Next: Wine as impressive as the canyons 9. Eastern Utah Red Cliffs Lodge along the Colorado River in Moab, Utah | Joe Sohm/UIG via Getty Images Moabs two main wineries can thank the regions sandy, fertile soil and long growing season for the Cabernet Sauvignon, Gewurztraminer, and other wines. Built along the Colorado River on a working ranch, Castle Creek Winery has won awards for its Petroglyph White and Monument Red varieties. Spanish Valley Vineyards is a bit closer to the town of Moab; both wineries offer incredible views of red rock country. Next: Residents are nice here, and so is the wine. 10. Western Iowa Dormant vines in the spring | David Silverman/Getty Images Since 2000, Iowa has established more than 200 commercial vineyards, with seven wineries creating nearly 100 wines for visitors to taste. High-quality grapes grow well as the soil resembles that found in southern France and the Rhine and Moselle river valleys in Germany, explains Travel + Leisure. The Iowa Farm Bureau has acknowledged the states struggle to make a dry red wine. White varieties tend to do better, with the region finding success with six different kinds of white grapes. Next: Americas first wine region isnt in California. 11. Missouri Hermannhoff Inn and Winery in Hermann, Missouri, a historic German settlement | Jumping Rocks/UIG via Getty Images Missouri claims to be Americas first wine region, as German and Italian immigrants planted vines here in the early 19th century. These days, the Show-Me state has 134 wineries to show for it; they produce Riesling as well as French-American hybrids like Rougeon and Vidal Blanc. Before Prohibition, Missouri produced the second-most wine in the U.S. Now it produces over 900,000 gallons each year. Next: The Evergreen States wine offerings are vast. 12. Columbia Valley, Washington Benson winery, a Mediterranean-inspired winery in Eastern Washington | Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images At about 18,000 square miles, the Columbia Valley Appellation comprises almost half of Washington. Since its designation in 1987, Columbia Valley has provided award-winning wine, decadent food, and a gorgeous outdoor scene. Grapes have grown here since the 1860s. These days, it produces Riesling, Chardonnay, Merlot, and Syrah but wins the most awards for its Cabernet Sauvignon. Next: Beer-lovers flock here but the state is known for wine, too. 13. Yadkin Valley, North Carolina Black Wolf Vineyards wine in Dobson, North Carolina | John D. Simmons/Charlotte Observer/MCT via Getty Images As North Carolinas first federally recognized American Viticultural Area, Yadkin Valley is similar to Burgundy, France concerning its climate and soil. The 300-mile wine trail is home to most of the states 200+ wineries. North Carolinas most famous winery is the Biltmore Estate Winery in Asheville; more than 1 million visitors taste wine there each year. Next: A Midwest surprise for wine-lovers 14. Eastern Ohio Vidal Blanc grapes at the Ferrante Winery in Geneva, Ohio | Ty Wright/Bloomberg via Getty Images Tucked along Lake Eries shoreline, more than 40 wineries provide visitors with a unique climate to taste white varieties as well as newer ice wines, which are produced from grapes frozen on the vine. The sweet ice wines are best in spring, while traditional harvesting occurs in the fall. Eastern Ohio grows about 65% of the states wine, making it an ideal place for lake views and varietals. Next: Youll want to get your fingers on this wine. 15. Finger Lakes, New York Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars at the New York City Wine & Food Festival | Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for NYCWFF A quick weekend getaway for New Yorkers, the narrow Finger Lakes area is home to cozy B&Bs and over 100 wineries. Lake-effect weather creates a more temperate albeit chilly climate for vineyards. The grapes produce aromatic white varietals like Riesling and Gewurztraminer, as well as cool-climate reds like Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc. The new MCU film Captain Marvel stars Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson, but it also features a stunning supporting cast. Among those who appear is Ben Mendelsohn, an accomplished actor who you may not know much about. Heres the low-down on Mendelsohn, including his most notable roles and his net worth. Ben Mendelsohn | Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images Mendelsohns past roles The Australian actor has made a living as a character actor. He got his start in his home country, appearing on the soap opera Neighbours (which also boasts Chris Hemsworth and Margot Robbie as former cast members) and in the Nicole Kidman film Australia. In more mainstream fare, you may recognize Mendelsohn from his role as John Daggett in The Dark Knight Rises or his turn as Director Orson Krennic in Rogue One. On TV, Mendelsohn has also made his mark in his Emmy-winning role on Bloodline. In 2018, he appeared as the villain in two major films: Ready Player One and Robin Hood. He portrayed Talos in Captain Marvel In Captain Marvel Mendelsohn portrays Talos, a leader of the Skrulls. He spoke to the Hollywood Reporter about the role, which required him to where a prosthetic mask and a lot of makeup. He admitted that while wearing the prosthetics, certain things dont communicate as easily. However, he praised the quality of Marvels substantial costuming, saying that its the sort of thing that you become aware of and then you forget about it. Mendelsohn was also Nick Furys boss Spoilers ahead! Mendelsohn played a sort of dual role in Captain Marvel. Though he spent most of the film in the green prosthetic mask, Talos, like all of the Skrulls, is a shapeshifter. So Mendelsohn also played Talos in the form of Nick Furys boss, Keller. For this part, he spoke in an American accent, but then later switched back to his native Australian accent when he revealed his true identity. Though he doesnt get to spend much time on screen looking like himself, Talos does give a tongue-in-cheek nod to his other self. He makes a comment to a Fury about being envious of his boss blue eyes (as Talos, his eyes are a striking purple). Will he be in any future Marvel movies? Time for some more spoilers: At the end of the film, Carol Danvers helps Talos and his family escape from Kree rule to hopefully find a home of their own somewhere in the universe. So does that mean theres potential for Mendelsohn to make another appearance in the MCU? At this point, its hard to say. The Kree-Skrull conflict is an ongoing part of the comics, so it could come back into play at some point. However, now that the Skrulls have been painted as victims, it seems unlikely that Talos and his crew will become villains the Avengers need to fight. However, there is always the possibility of an intergalactic adventure in which the Skrulls team up with Earths heroes, especially if theres another Captain Marvel film on the slate. What is Ben Mendelsohns net worth? Over his expansive career, Mendelsohn has done quite well for himself. According to Celebrity Net Worth, he is worth approximately $9 million. This includes all of his film and TV roles, though the description has not been updated to include his most recent notable appearances. So chances are the Mendelsohn is worth quite a bit more than that now or he will be in the future. Check out the Cheat Sheet on Facebook! Teresa Giudice, the only original housewife left on The Real Housewives of New Jersey, is jockeying for her own show and it just might happen. The 46-year-old mother of four is perhaps the most polarizing of all the housewives. While some fans love her brash style and snappy comebacks, others find Teresa to be overdramatic and her very own worst enemy. Either way, fans of Bravos hit show have tuned in for nearly a decade to watch Teresa battle it out with every nemesis the network has thrown at her even her own family. So, is a spinoff so far off base? Teresa allegedly pitched the idea of filming in Italy Back in July 2018 rumors swirled that Giudice was trying to talk Bravos executives into considering filming a spinoff show in Italy. According to Ok! Magazine, Teresa was once interested in moving to the boot-shaped country and allowing Bravo cameras to follow the family as they assimilated into a foreign culture. While both Teresa and Joe Giudice are of Italian descent and Joe was born in Italy, neither has a direct connection with the nation. Teresas bid for an Italian spinoff may have been a last-ditch effort to keep the family together. Joe Giudice, 46 is facing a deportation order that would ensure he can never step foot in the United States again. Teresa initially told Andy Cohen that she would move if it came down to it, but in recent weeks she has changed her tune, alleging that if Joe does end up being sent back to Italy, she wont be packing up her Prada to follow him. A single mom spinoff could be in the works While early reports suggest Teresa was trying to pitch the idea of an Italian spin-off show, she has since switched gears. According to Radar, Giudice is now ready to live life as a single woman and has been pitching the idea of a show that would follow her as she acclimates to life on her own. The show would also follow her four children. Gia, now 18 is ready to head to college, while Gabriella, Milania, and Audriana are still in the house. Audrianas birth was documented on Real Housewives of New Jersey. According to inside sources, Teresa is hoping a nice payday from a new reality show would make the split easier. While both Teresa and Joe have had money troubles in the past, as a couple, Teresa is significantly out-earning her once breadwinner husband. A hefty payday would allow her to split from her husband more easily. Will Bravo actually give the reality star her own show? Bravo has not commented on whether Giudice will be featured in her own show or not. In fact, they have neither confirmed nor denied the rumors. What we do know, however, is that Giudice is generally unhappy with her role on RHONJ, but wont leave due to the paycheck. (L-R) Melissa Gorga, Jacqueline Laurita, Caroline Manzo, Kathy Wakile, and Teresa Giudice of The Real Housewives of New Jersey (Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic) After serving 11 months in prison for fraud charges, Giudice isnt ready to let go over her income stream. Her husband, Joe Giudice, was slapped with a 41-month sentence and is now in danger of being deported thanks to the same financial mishaps. The pair have been married for nearly 20 years. Sources close to the situation suggest that a spinoff could happen. After all, The Real Housewives of New Jersey doesnt have the same cache as other franchises, consider its revolving door of characters. As the only original cast member, fans remain invested in Giudices story so a spinoff could be the perfect way to say goodbye to RHONJ while keeping Giudice in the spotlight. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are getting ready to welcome their first child. And when a royal family member is pregnant, the pregnancy gets a lot of attention from the public. But that also means royal babies boost the British economy; when a new baby arrives in the royal family, people see it as a reason to celebrate. They make big purchases, whether its splurging on something theyve always wanted or buying baby clothes for their own babies that match what the royal baby is wearing. In many ways, these royal babies are worth a ton of money to the British economy and everyone seems incredibly excited about Meghan and Harrys little one. But how will Baby Sussex compare to his or her cousins when it comes to monetary worth? Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are expecting their first child next month. | Samir Hussein/WireImage Prince Georges birth brought $3.6 billion to the British economy When Prince William and Kate Middleton welcomed their first child, everyone wanted to celebrate. The first child of a future king brought plenty of money to the economy. In fact, at age four, Prince George was worth about $3.6 billion to the British economy, according to money.com. This was mostly due to his fashion choices. People became obsessed with the adorable shorts George wore as well as his sweaters. He had a massive impact on toddler fashion, and as people began to buy more clothes, the young prince added more and more money to the economy. Plus, he was the first child of Will and Kate, so people made purchases in celebration of his arrival. Princess Charlotte is worth about $5 billion, but Prince Louis hasnt quite met his siblings worth Princess Charlotte is worth even more than her brother as a toddler, and its largely suspected that her gender is the reason. Parents tend to be obsessed with dressing their little girls, and Charlottes fashion choices are a big part of how shes generated so much money for the economy. Charlottes birth was dubbed the Charlotte effect, Money.com reported, and the ties to various brands made her worth a ton of money. Prince Louis, on the other hand, was less exciting. Louis is William and Kates third child, so the excitement died down for him a bit. Plus, the public already experienced the birth of a boy and girl, so Louis arrival was essentially something everyone had seen before. Baby Sussex will likely boost both the British and American economies, making his or her net worth comparable to Charlottes In terms of the British economy, Harry and Meghans baby will probably be worth slightly less than Charlotte and George. Although the arrival will be very exciting and the baby will probably generate more money than Louis did, the child isnt the son of a future king. Harry and Meghan are very widely respected, but they arent giving birth to a future sovereign king or queen. However, Meghan is American, and that means more people than ever in the United States are paying attention to Meghan and Harrys baby. When Baby Sussex arrives, he or she may generate more money to the American economy than any of the babys royal cousins did. Between the two economies, the babys net worth will probably be comparable to Charlottes. A royal babys economic worth depends mostly on gender and family line When it comes to how much a royal baby is worth, the two most deciding factors are gender and family line. George was the first born of a future ruler, which is why he generated billions of dollars for the economy. And Charlotte was a girl, which had a lot to do with her $5 billion worth. If Harry and Meghan welcome a girl as their first born, it will likely do more for the economy than if they welcome a boy. Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook! Princess Diana became well known for many incredible things during her lifetime, from her humanitarian work to the charming way she interacted with the public. Perhaps her most enduring legacy, and the one that will surely live on through her sons and their wives is the way she parented her two children. Princess Diana was not only a hands-on parent in a way that no royal family member had before, but she set the standard for parents all over the world. What rule did Princess Diana break? When Diana Spencer married Charles, the Prince of Wales in 1981, she seemed to be a beautiful but incredibly shy woman. She was reluctant to grant interviews or appear in public too often and was quite unsure of how to present herself or what image she wanted to create. However, after she became a mother, the real Princess Diana started to come to light. In 1983, Princess Diana and Prince Charles were set to travel to Australia and New Zealand, along with their nine-month-old son Prince William. The tradition in the royal family up until that point was that two heirs to the throne would never travel together in the same airplane. The rule was in order to protect the line of succession in case something was to happen on the flight. However, Princess Diana, who was incredibly attached to her son, refused to leave him behind in the care of nannies and not only that, was determined that he should travel on the same plane as she and Prince Charles. Princess Dianas insistence that Prince William stay with her was shocking to many royal insiders, who thought that her shyness would prevent her from really standing her ground. Not only did she get her way on that issue, but it set a standard for her strength and determination over the years to come. Princess Diana would ultimately become an enchanting combination of sweetness and strength, and her groundbreaking decision in 1983 was to reverberate for decades to come. How do her children follow her example? I'd imagine these boys gave #PrincessDiana the best moments & days of her life. If she could visit she'd say that both her young men have come thru so much so well & it will only get better from here. Id be proud#RoyalWatchers weren't sure if #PrinceHarry was going to make it2 pic.twitter.com/yh3vYYxo8k abc123 (@LaLaKristiansen) February 28, 2019 Just like his late mother, Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton, practices hands-on parenting with their three small children. As can be seen in photographs and video, the two get down to eye level with their children frequently when chatting to them, a move which child experts claim helps children to feel more like equals in conversation. Even though they are royalty, they arent above getting down and dirty with their kids, playing outside with them and participating in family sports. Of course, they likely share many stories with their children about their late grandmother, helping them to feel close to her even though she isnt around, and reportedly there are many photographs of Princess Diana throughout the family home. Prince Harry will also likely honor his mothers memory Prince Harry, Princess Dianas youngest son, is also likely to honor his mothers memory as he parents his first child, due in late April or early May. Prince Harry was very close to his mother and has even gifted some of her jewelry to his wife, Meghan Markle, as a way of keeping her memory alive and involving her in their marriage. Of course, it is well known that both Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle like to pay homage to their late mother-in-law through fashion, and frequently channel the fashion-forward princesss style in subtle ways. While Princess Diana might be gone, her legacy lives on through her children and grandchildren. Royal family fans will likely be able to enjoy even more tributes and nods to the peoples princess in the days to come when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle introduce Princess Dianas latest grandchild to the world. From the moment Meghan Markle and Prince Harry announced their engagement in Nov. 2017 all eyes have been on Markles stunning engagement ring. Prince Harry had the gorgeous sparkler made for his beautiful wife, and its incredibly personal and sentimental with a diamond from the place where the couple first fell in love and some diamonds from his late mother, Princess Diana. Since their engagement, Markles beautiful ring has remained on her hand at her various royal events, her baby shower in New York City, and during her royal tours. However, in early March 2019 Markle stopped wearing her ring. Heres why. Why has Meghan Markle stopped wearing her engagement ring? On March 11, 2019, Markle and Prince Harry stepped out for an event celebrating Commonwealth Day at Canada House in London. Markle looked stunning as usual with a green embroidered coat and a long green dress. However, the Duchess of Sussex was missing one major accessory her engagement ring. Presently, the former actress is nearly eight months pregnant, so she could have certainly left her ring at home if her hands have become too swollen for her to wear it comfortably. In fact, beginning in Jan. 2017 when Duchess Kate Middleton was pregnant with Prince Louis, she also attended events without her massive sapphire engagement ring. Instead of their rings, both duchesses wore simple gold bands in their place. Insider details on Meghan Markles engagement ring The Duchess of Sussexs engagement ring was designed by her husband and features three diamonds on a gold band. The center diamond is from Botswana, Africa the royal couples favorite place in the world. They visited the country shortly after they met in the summer of 2016 for a romantic getaway. Prince Harry began visiting Botswana in 1997 after Princess Dianas death, and he has returned almost every year since. The diamonds on the right and left of Markles Botswana diamond came from Princess Dianas collection. Since Kate Middleton now wears Princess Dianas engagement ring, Prince Harry wanted to be sure that his wife also had a piece of his mothers legacy. The rings band is made from yellow gold which is Markles favorite. How much is Meghan Markles engagement ring worth? Becuase of the rings sentimental value and connection to Princess Diana there hasnt been an exact value placed on Markles ring. However, diamond experts have estimated that the diamonds alone are worth at least $350,000. Michael Fried, CEO of Diamond Pro, told Money, There is no way for anyone to put a value on the whole ring. Having diamonds from the royal collection that Princess Diana wore makes the ring priceless. Were sure the duchess ring will appear again once Baby Sussex has made his or her grand debut. Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook! NAIROBI, Kenya, March 11, 2019 (Morning Star News) The Somali pastor of an underground church in Kenya near the Somali border suffered a broken thigh bone and other injuries after Muslim extremists beat him with wooden clubs on Friday night (March 8), sources said. Pastor Abdul (surname withheld for security reasons), a 30-year-old father of three, had finished leading a prayer gathering at 9 p.m. on the outskirts of Garissa and was on his way back to his house when several ethnic Somali Muslims attacked, he told Morning Star News from his hospital bed, still visibly in pain. Pastor Abdul said he did not know the assailants. As they approached him, he said, one of them told him, We have been following your movements and your evil plans of changing Muslims to Christianity. Leader of an underground church of 30 former Muslims, he clandestinely met with them in smaller groups on varying days for worship, prayer and Bible study, he said. Immediately several assailants began hitting me with wooden clubs, and I became unconscious, Pastor Abdul said. I woke up and found myself surrounded by neighbors. I was rescued by the neighbors who found me in a pool of blood. They rushed him to a hospital in Garissa, where doctors found his thigh was broken and bruises throughout his body. Apart from the thigh pain, I now feel pain all over my body, especially the waist, the back and my left leg near the ankle, Pastor Abdul told Morning Star News between groans. Im almost unable to bear the pain. My family is in great fear, and Christians have located us to another place. Our prayer for now is to get a safe place for my family. My life and that of my family is at stake. His children are 8, 5 and 3 years old. The pastor, who became a Christian seven years ago, said the Muslim extremists discovered his activities even though he had taken precautionary measures to try to keep his movements secret. The population of Garissa, about 100 miles from the Somali border, is predominantly ethnic Somali. On April 2, 2015, 148 people at Garissa University College lost their lives in an attack by Muslim extremist Al Shabaab, a rebel group in Somalia affiliated with Al Qaeda, and several attacks on churches and Christians have taken place in Garissa. Somalis generally believe that all Somalis must be Muslim. Somalias constitution establishes Islam as the state religion and prohibits the propagation of any other religion, according to the U.S. State Department. It also requires that laws comply with sharia (Islamic law) principles, with no exceptions in application for non-Muslims. Somalia is ranked 3rd on Christian support group Open Doors 2019 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian; Kenya is ranked 40th. If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit http://morningstarnews. org/resources/aid-agencies/ fo r a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved. A church filed a federal lawsuit Friday against the state of Washington over a new law that forces it to cover abortions in its health care plans. The law, SB 6219, passed the Democratic-controlled Washington legislature last year and was signed by Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee, who recently announced he is running for president. The law requires insurance plans to cover abortion if they also cover maternity care. It has no religious exemptions. Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed the suit on behalf of Cedar Park Assembly of God, a Kirkland, Wash., congregation. The suit claims the law violates the congregations constitutionally protected freedom of religion and displays hostility toward religious groups that oppose abortion. Washingtons attack on people of faith is intentional. It represents the kind of deliberate religious persecution that our country was founded to prevent, the suit says. ... The strong statutory language, lack of any church exception, and anticipated evidence that pro-abortion groups assisted in drafting and enacting SB 6219, indicates that Washington and its officials deliberately targeted religious organizations and intentionally violated those organizations religious beliefs. Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice Washington helped draft the bill before it was signed, according to the suit. Cedar Parks deeply held religious belief is that abortion is the ending of a human life, and is a grave sin, the suit says. Therefore, in furtherance of such beliefs, Cedar Park does not provide coverage for abortion or abortifacient contraceptives in its employee health insurance plan. The church runs a Christian school and childcare program, and it has 185 employees. It chose a group health insurance plan as the best way to save money on health care. Switching to a self-insured model would cost $243,125 in additional costs, according to the suit. The Washington State Catholic Conference expressed concern over the bills lack of religious exemptions before it passed last year. But the bills sponsor, Democrat state Sen. Steve Hobbs, declined to change it, saying employers had the option of suing. Health care is about the individual, not about them, Hobbs told KOMO. ADF attorney Kevin Theriot said the U.S. Supreme Court has consistently held that government hostility toward people of faith is unconstitutional and has no place in our society. The states policy crushes dissent and violates the Constitutions Free Exercise Clause by targeting Cedar Parks entirely legitimate internal policies and religious beliefs, Theriot said. Michael Foust is a freelance writer. Visit his blog, MichaelFoust.com. Photo courtesy: Ganapathy Kumar/Unsplash Video courtesy: Alliance Defending Freedom Did you know you can get Christian Headlines flash briefings on Amazon Alexa? Rob Bell made a splash in 2011 with the release of Love Wins, a book that challenged settled Christian understandings of heaven, hell, and divine judgment. But as many critics pointed out in response, Bells musings about universal salvation relied on arguments that have been advancedand mostly condemnedthroughout church history. What explains the recent resurgence in self-described Christians affirming (or at least flirting with) universalism? In The Devils Redemption: A New History and Interpretation of Christian Universalism, scholar Michael McClymond sets out to answer this question by following the roots of universalist thought all the way back to the second century. His comprehensive, two-volume account maps out universalisms development down through the centuries and critiques it on theological and philosophical grounds. Paul Copan, professor of philosophy and ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University, spoke with McClymond about his book. How do you understand the term universalism? In theological usage, universalism is the doctrine that all human beingsand perhaps all intelligent or volitional beingswill come to final salvation and spend an eternity with heaven in God. This is a theory about a final outcome, and it leaves open the way that this outcome might be attained. One reason my book is so lengthy is that there have been many different kinds of arguments for universal salvation over the last 1,800 years. At certain points, these arguments conflict with one another, so that if someone claims to be a universalist, you might ask: What sort of universalist are you? One division is between the belief that everyone goes immediately to heaven at the moment of death (called ultra-universalism) and the belief that many or most people first undergo postmortem suffering (a view I call purgationism). This issue was fiercely debated in America during the 19th century, and universalists have never been able to resolve it. The more robust arguments for universalism hold that Gods purposes in creating the world will fail if even one intelligent creature should finally be separated from God. This line of reasoning implies that not only human sinners but also fallen angels will finally be saved. The title of my book, The Devils Redemption, is an allusion to that idea. What prompted you to write on the topic of universalism? There were several stages in the process. As an undergraduate at Northwestern University, I had a religious studies professorthe late Dr. Edmund Perrywho insisted that Paul taught universal salvation in Romans and 1 Corinthians. I was taking Greek at the time, and the professors claim did not seem credible to me. When I attended Yale Divinity School, I wrote a comparative essay on the eschatologies of Origen and Karl Bartha short piece that I now recognize as the tiny seed from which The Devils Redemption later sprang. Another factor is a dream that I had about a dozen years ago. Without going into too much detail, this was an unnerving encounter in which I saw Gods coming judgment arriving in the form of an overpowering storm; people in the path of the storm were pleasantly chit-chatting when they ought to have been seeking cover. The dream left a lasting impression. It suggested to me that were unpreparedboth inside and outside of the churchfor the return of Christ. When Rob Bell came out with Love Wins in 2011, what struck me was not so much the book itself, with its well-worn arguments, but rather the widespread approval the book elicited, together with the collective yawn of indifference on the part of most who didnt approve. I came to the conclusion that Karl Barths affirmation of universal election in the 1940s (in the second volume of his massive Church Dogmatics) had inaugurated a widespread turn toward universalism in mainstream theological circles, that this trend had gained momentum over the last half-century, and that the time was overdue for a wide-ranging appraisal of this teaching. Article continues below Given longstanding Christian opposition to universalism, how has it gained so many adherents in recent times? The change was a long time coming. As I show in my book, from the time of Origen onward there were individual Christian thinkers who held to some version of Origenist universalism. In Orthodox Christianity, however, universalism was never affirmed as an official or public teaching of the church. One might call it instead a tolerated private opinion. I found that Orthodox attitudes toward Origen through the centuries were double-sided and ambivalent (as my own attitude is), acknowledging Origens undoubted contributions to Christian theology and spirituality but finding fault with his speculative excesses. Western esotericists, who were outside of traditional churches or hovering about its fringes, maintained a robust universalism from around 1700 up to the mid-1900s. Yet until that point, few official church teachers in Protestant Germany, Britain, or North America publicly affirmed universal salvationeven though privately some may have been universalists. Something changed in the 1950s, and I believe it was Barths affirmation of universal election that allowed universalism to come out of the shadows. From the 1950s through the 1970s, universalism was most closely associated with modernist Protestantism. Prior to Vatican II, one finds some private musings on the possibility of salvation for all among certain Catholic intellectuals, even though no official Catholic spokespersons affirm universalism. The next step in the process occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, as Catholics discussed the unchurched and evangelicals debated the unevangelized. A book from the Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, Dare We Hope?, initiated a turn toward hopeful universalism among Catholics, leading into more overt affirmations of universalism later on. Similarly, the tentative suggestions by the British evangelical John Stott regarding conditionalism or annihilationism triggered intra-evangelical debates over the final scope of salvation. Even though we tend to shy away from the term heresy these days, it is correct to describe universalism as heretical? Universalism isnt just a theological mistake. Its also a symptom of deeper problems. In a culture characterized by moralistic therapeutic deism, universalism fits the age we inhabit. As I argue in the book, universalism is the opiate of the theologians. Its the way we would want the world to be. Some imagine that a more loving and less judgmental church would be better positioned to win new adherents. Yet perfect love appeared in historyand he was crucified. Universalism seems, then, to be fundamentally out of sync with the New Testament narrative of Gods loving initiative in Christ provoking some to faith and others to offense and even hatred. Because of its incongruence with the gospel narrative, universalism is, to my mind, not the first step off the path of orthodoxy, but perhapsin Kevin DeYoungs wordsthe last rung for evangelicals falling off the ladder. Every definition of heresy implies some correlative definition of orthodoxyof which there are many. Im not particularly concerned with whether universalism is termed a heresy, because to me the labeling question diverts attention from the main issue, which is showing why universalism is theologically untrue and pastorally unhelpful. Article continues below In an interview on the public television series Closer to Truth, the Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga said, I don't myself quite believe [universalism] but I don't disbelieve it either. I think it's something that a Christian should at least hope for. How would you assess such a statement? Plantinga is a dexterous reasoner, and so I might not grasp all the nuances of his position. For the sake of argument, then, Im going to presume that Plantingas outlook approximates the hopeful universalism of Balthasar. Essentially, my argument is that there are well-defined positions of universal salvation and particular salvation, and Balthasars effort to forge an intermediate view does not hang together conceptually. We should distinguish between wishing for something and expecting it. There are any number of things I might wish for that I would not expect to occurfor instance, that there might be no violence on earth in the coming year. Yet the biblical virtue of hope involves not only wishing but expecting somethingeven confidently expecting somethingon the basis of Gods promise. When we turn to universalist hope or hopefulness, my question is this: Does this hope involve confident expectation that all will be saved? If so, then I would not call this hopeful universalism but assertive or affirmative universalism. I would ask further: On what divine promise is this confident expectation based? Is there such a promise by God to save everyone? Conversely, if universalist hope does not involve confident expectation that all will be saved, then the phenomenon falls short of biblical hope and might be thought of as a form of mere wishfulness or wishful thinking. Another problem in Balthasars position is that he asserts that a Christian is obliged to hope for the salvation of all but also to reckon with the possibility of hell for oneself. That makes little sense: Why would anyone not be included in a supposed hope for all? In the final pages of The Devils Redemption, I suggest that Christianity is a religion of hopeand that the proper kind of hope is a hope for each rather than a hope for all. Your book is an academic tome that cites historical sources and other scholarly works. Does it have more down-to-earth implications for Christian believers? While I believe that The Devils Redemption can stand as a work of historical scholarship, there are pastoral considerations underneath my research. In my view, New Testament teaching in multiple contexts combines eschatological expectation with missional urgency and self-denying discipline. When one scrutinizes the scriptural accounts of Christs return and Gods judgment of individual persons, then the question of universalism takes on a different hue. When Jesus spoke to his disciples on the Mount of Olives (Matt. 24), he combined discussion of the End Times with a call to keep watch and a warning regarding the unfaithful servant who is caught off guard by the masters return (Matt. 24:4251). This chapter links Jesus return not only to the theme of moral and spiritual preparation but also to the theme of evangelism: And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached to the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come (v. 14). Likewise, the parable of the wise and foolish virgins (Matt. 25:113) likewise stresses the need to be prepared for Jesus return. When the apostles ask Jesus after the Resurrection whether he will restore the kingdom, he directs them to evangelize, once again linking his return to the present mission of the church (Acts 1:68). Article continues below The Book of Revelation represents Gods people as the bride to be joined to Christ as the bridegroom. It states that his bride has made herself ready with fine linen, bright and clean, which is the righteous acts of Gods holy people (Rev. 19:78). The Book of 1 John connects eschatological hope with moral and spiritual purification: But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure (1 John 3:23). In light of the worlds coming dissolution, 2 Peter exclaims, You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming (3:1112). And Pauls letter to Titus connects our blessed hope (2:13) with a summons to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age (2:12). From a pastoral standpoint, the passages surveyed suggest that one might evaluate eschatological teachings in terms of their practical effects. And it is exceedingly difficult to see how the biblical call to self-denial and godly living can flourish on the basis of universalist theology. Who would need to work at being alert or prepared if a universalist outcome were already known in advance? (Some Christian universalists, including Origen, acknowledged this problem and suggested that universalism should be kept secret from the masses and disseminated among only a select few.) And while some argue that universalism does not logically exclude the need for evangelism, I would ask: Where are the universalist evangelists, going to the ends of the earth, painstakingly learning and transcribing hitherto unknown languages and suffering opposition, up to and including the prospect of martyrdom, so that they can deliver their message of final salvation for all? Among the non-universalists, there are tens of thousands of such laborers. The Protestant spiritual awakenings of the 1700s and 1800s were marked by a heightened expectation of Christs impending return, and this was true also of the Bible prophecy movement, early Pentecostalism, the neo-evangelical resurgence of the 1940s, and the Jesus Movement of the 1970s. In light of past history and experience, I wonder whether the evangelical church of the 21st century will truly recover its spiritual, ethical, and missional urgency without first renewing its preaching (and awareness) of Christs return and the awesome reality of Gods final judgment of each individual. Our beliefs about eschatology carry profound importance as an incentive to (or disincentive from) the difficult tasks to be undertaken in our difficult times. 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. These days, living in small-town America often means living with less. 2018 marked another year of decline in many rural and small towns: economies suffering; local residents aging or moving away; and many struggling with addiction, disillusionment, or depression. But just as the nation declares a crisis in small communities, the church has seen new momentum around rural ministry. Proud pastors from blue-collar outskirts, flyover country farmlands, and cozy mountain towns proclaim that in Gods kingdom, less is more. In new books, blogs, networks, and conferences, these leaders resist popular narratives about rural America to instead embrace the gospel lessons they encounter when doing ministry on a small scale. One of the things that the rural church reminds the global church of is Gods commitment to be with people everywhere. We as the people of God have been sent to the ends of the earth and sometimes rural is one of those ends, said Brad Roth, pastor of West Zion Mennonite Church in Moundridge, Kansas. Not every place is going to have the same potential for that growth metric. But every place is still beloved by God and worthy of our best and most thoughtful ministry as the church. While plenty of materials are geared toward church growth in bigger congregations, more resources are emerging for leaders in smaller contexts. Americas largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, dedicated its annual pastors conferencelong the domain of megachurch pastorsto small-church pastors in 2017. Despite rapid global urbanization, many millions around the world continue to live in small towns and rural areas. God is calling some of us to live ... 1 You have reached the end of this Article Preview You have reached the end of this Article Preview To continue reading, subscribe now. Subscribers have full digital access. Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here. Christian grocery store owner receives death threat for Hell has open borders ad Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The Christian owner of a grocery store chain received a death threat in response to a message on his weekly ad mailer that featured a statement about Heaven, Hell and border walls. Macs Cash Savers, which has grocery stores in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, sent the weekly ad, which in addition to noting prices for certain products also included the statement Heaven has a wall, a gate and a strict immigration policy. Hell has open borders. Let that sink in. Reggy McDaniel, owner of Macs, told The Christian Post in an interview Monday afternoon that the chief purpose of the ad was to get people to thinking about their salvation. The mailer has garnered national headlines by media outlets that are drawing attention to the few who've voiced their objections to the ad's message. Please remove me from any mailers. I will no longer shop in your store. I find your mixture of religion and politics disgusting, one person lamented, according to Fox News. McDaniel explained to CP that each week's mailer ad includes a message "to get [people] to thinking about how they are going to get in them Pearly Gates up there, in Heaven. And the only way they are going to get in them is through Jesus Christ. McDaniel noted that the statement was not meant to be political, saying that it was a coincidence that it was published in an ad running at a time when the border issue was a deal, adding that I saw that statement around for a long time. One weekly mailer ad released last month had the statement Today, spend some time alone with Christ and experience joy that is full of pleasures that are eternal. Another weekly ad from last year read It is possible to pollute the water of the source, through rebellion. Obedience to God is a key to true satisfaction. I thought it was a really good Christian statement that Heaven has gates and borders and it does have a strict immigration policy: youve got to believe in the Son, Jesus Christ, or you dont get there, McDaniel said. McDaniel also took issue with the claim that the statement was racist or xenophobic, telling CP that there nothing racial about it. It aint talking about one color getting to Heaven, added McDaniel. I dont care what color you are. As a matter of fact, Jesus wasnt white come to think of it. Regarding backlash, McDaniel estimated that 85 to 90 percent of the feedback he's received was positive in nature. He said he had gotten one death threat, but brushed it off, saying weve had them before. NewSpring Church had 4 volunteers charged with sex crimes against minors Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Amid lawsuits concerning oversight of a daycare volunteer caught sexually abusing children, at least three other men who volunteered at NewSpring Church in South Carolina in the past have also been accused of sexual misconduct with minors. A report published Wednesday by The Post and Courier newspaper in South Carolina outlines allegations and charges against three former NewSpring volunteers and one former staff member. Affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, NewSpring has 14 campuses across South Carolina and has a weekly attendance of about 20,000. It's regarded as one of the fastest growing churches in the United States. One of the men featured in the report is Jacop Hazlett, who drew headlines last year when he was caught on camera abusing a 3-year-old child inside a NewSpring daycare bathroom. The 28-year-old Hazlett has been accused of abusing at least 14 children in a span of three months up until he was arrested last November. Hazlett's actions are at the center of lawsuits facing NewSpring. He faces nine counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor and five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. The litigation claims that the church failed to adequately supervise and monitor Hazletts actions and that they did not do enough to look into Hazletts history before allowing him to serve. Hazlett had previously volunteered at two churches in North Carolina but was asked to leave both places over concerns about his behavior around kids. When he was 17, Hazlett was accused of sexual misconduct with a child younger than 13. He admitted to kissing and touching the boy between his legs, according to Columbiana County Ohio juvenile court documents obtained by The Post and Courier. Although he was charged as a minor with gross sexual imposition, he was not required to register as a sex offender. Although NewSprings policy is to work with a third party to run criminal background searches on its volunteers, the juvenile records regarding Hazlett's crime are not considered public records in Ohio. Therefore, they are not searchable in a public search of the states judicial database. But Hazlett is not the first NewSpring volunteer to face sexual misconduct allegations and charges. According to a Florence Police Department incident report and affidavit obtained by The Post and Courier, a 20-year-old volunteer named Leo La Salle Comissiong admitted to investigators in April 2016 that he fondled and kissed a 15-year-old boy in a dark room at the New Spring campus in Florence. Comissiong was initially charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor. However, The Post and Courier notes that Comissiong pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of assault and was given three years probation. Reports from the Anderson County Sheriffs Office indicate that about a month after the Comissiong incident, 23-year-old Chaz McKinsey Wood, a NewSpring Anderson volunteer, admitted to sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy he met through his work at the church. Wood was charged with criminal sexual conduct with a minor and committing a lewd act on a minor. According to The Post and Courrier, Wood pleaded guilty to a reduced charge and was given a 10-year suspended sentence and five years probation. Wood was also required to register as a sex offender. In February 2018, Caleb Lide Jordan, a former youth pastor at NewSprings North Charleston campus, was let go after he was charged with counts of exploitation of a minor, which include solicitation of a minor for sex. Jordan worked as a full-time employee at NewSpring from August 2011 until September 2015. A church spokesperson told The Post and Courier that Jordan served as a volunteer after stepping down from his paid position. As for Jordan, he was accused of misconduct while away from church property and his charges remain pending. Jordans employment with NewSpring was terminated in 2015 and any issues involving Jordan have nothing to do with NewSpring, said Suzanne Swift, the church's communications director, in a statement to The Post and Courier. It was about a month after the church released Jordan from volunteer duties that Hazlett was brought in to serve as a volunteer at the Charleston congregation. Hazlett served there for about eight months before a complaint was received that he had abused a child. Each time a volunteer was caught up in the sexual misconduct charge, The Post and Courier reports that NewSpring was measured in its response and offered nearly identical explanations in every case. As for Hazlett, the church has maintained that it cannot be held liable for Hazletts actions. NewSpring filed an official response with the court responding to one of the lawsuits in late February. The church contends that its liability as a nonprofit is limited because of the South Carolina Charitable Funds Act. The church also stresses that since Hazlett was a volunteer, its liability is limited by the Volunteer Protection Act of 1997. The church maintains that as soon as concerns regarding Hazlett were made, staff took the appropriate course of action and called authorities. NewSpring performed a screening process that included a criminal background check that showed no prior records and one on one interview before Defendant Hazlett then went through training and was allowed to volunteer, the official response reads. Swift told The Post and Courier that the churchs screening process includes verification of Social Security Number, address history, national sex offender search and another review for criminal convictions. The third-party company that NewSpring uses to perform the background checks is called Protect My Ministry, which claims to work with over 25,000 religious institutions across the U.S. Swift previously said last year that NewSpring is open to revising its screening process. She explained that the church is evaluating [its] processes and procedures internally while an external consultant would be invited to help determine if changes need to be made. The Christian Post reached out to Swift for comment on The Post and Courier report and for clarification on whether changes to NewSprings screening process have been made. Swift told CP on Friday that while they are unable to comment on pending lawsuits or the ongoing investigation, "NewSpring Church is voluntarily creating a Healing Assistance Fund that will be available to assist families affected by the accuseds alleged actions. This fund will be completely funded by NewSpring and will be available to both the children and parents. She added: "It is NewSprings prayer that the families who utilize this resource will be able to experience short and long term healing. Through a verified and trusted outside company, we perform criminal background checks which includes SSN verification and address history, National Criminal Database Search, National Sex Offender Search, re-verification of criminal records and a check for alias names. "Hazlett's background check was returned to NewSpring showing no records found," Swift emphasized. "We are continuing to evaluate our policies and procedures internally for volunteers joining our ministry to do our best to prevent anything like this from ever happening again." Pastor David Chadwick resigns, shares doubts about multicampus church model Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment After nearly 40 years at the helm of the Forest Hill Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, which he built from a 180-member congregation into a 4,000-member, six-campus ministry, Pastor David Chadwick has resigned. Looking ahead, through discussions with my family and the council of elders about the future of the church, I have concluded Forest Hill would benefit from new leadership. So today, I want to let you know I will no longer serve as senior pastor of Forest Hill Church, the 69-year-old announced in a letter to his congregation Thursday after pointing to a 10-year vision that has already been established for the church. Stacey Martin, a spokeswoman for the church, told The Charlotte Observer that Chadwicks resignation was voluntary and the church would form a transitional leadership team to determine its next steps. The campus pastors will be sharing preaching responsibilities and will work collaboratively with senior leaders to continue to lead Forest Hill while we format the next leadership structure of the church, Martin said. Despite his resignation, Chadwick said he and his wife, Marilynn, have no desire to get out of ministry altogether and pointed to plans to expand his Moments of Hope media ministry. Marilynn and I feel called to the opportunity to expand our ministry through the work of Moments of Hope, which is positively affecting lives nationally and internationally through our media outreach. We also feel the continued call to serve the Charlotte region where we have spent our lives in ministry together, he said. As I approach my 70th birthday, please know I am as excited about sharing Gods Word today as I was in 1980 when I came to this church. While I will broaden the focus of my ministry, I will remain in Charlotte and faithful to Gods direction in His service so people everywhere may know and grow their relationship with God through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he added. Chadwick, who has three children and five grandchildren, told The Charlotte Observer that part of the reason behind his resignation was because he wanted to see his family more often. He added that he was open to the idea of starting over as a pastor at a much smaller church. I love to build things, Chadwick told the publication. With Gods help, I built (Forest Hill) from 180 members to however many thousands it is right now. Its in great health. So I asked myself: Do I want to continue to oversee this, or do I want to build something new? He said while he loves preaching he had grown weary of some of the administrative responsibilities of running the 150 staff, $25 million a year operation. Ive told Marilynn many, many times that if I didnt have preaching opportunities every week, Im not sure I would want to do this job, Chadwick said. Its so much meetings, planning, staff oversight, job performance reviews all of those things. Chadwick, who's also working on his 10th book, said the church has not yet decided on his replacement and is considering making each of Forest Hill Churchs campus pastors more autonomous. He said prior to his decision to resign he had started having doubts about the multicampus church model where lead pastors mainly connect with the congregation through video. Churches all over the country are doing it, with videos shown on the screen in other places, Chadwick said, Elevation (Church) is probably the primary example here in Charlotte. You know, I just began to wonder more and more how effective is that? I know Im a good communicator I can have people come and listen. But doesnt a pastor need to speak to his people? So I began to struggle with that, too, he said. Christians who dont have a passed-down faith have stronger theological convictions, Barna finds Wrestling with faith is a 'catalyst' for faith development Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Christians who grew up in homes where Christianity was incorrectly modeled and those who didnt have their faith formed by relatives in their home are more likely to have stronger theological convictions than Christians who say their faith was passed down to them, new research has found. On Tuesday, the evangelical polling firm The Barna Group released the results of a study conducted in partnership with the Lutheran Hour Ministries that aims to inform Christian families about what it means to live in a spiritually vibrant household. Titled Households of Faith, the new report is based on an extensive survey conducted last April of as many as 2,400 practicing Christian adults and teens in the United States. The term practicing Christian is defined as people who attend church at least once per month, call themselves Christian and say their faith is very important in their life. While Barna is known for researching trends within churches and congregations, the new study is different in the sense that it focuses on the conversations, relationships and rituals occurring inside the home. This is a cool study because you might think about who influenced you in terms of your spiritual development, in terms of your faith, Barna President David Kinnaman said during a launch event for the study held at Concordia Lutheran Church in San Antonio, Texas. This project is one of the first of its kind that I know of. And actually, I have been at Barna now for almost 25 years. The company is 35 years old and we have done a lot of research in that time. The survey asked the question: Would you say you are a Christian as a result of a person you grew up with in your household? Of the 1,116 practicing Christian adults who responded to that question, 59 percent said that someone passed their faith down to me. Meanwhile, 23 percent said they are a Christian despite the sort of Christianity I saw in my household growing up, and 15 percent said they are Christians as an adult not because of a person in their childhood household. What is interesting is that those who answered the second two options ... actually showed stronger theological convictions than those who did not, Kinnaman said during his presentation. It was interesting because having a passed-down faith is almost as though they hadnt really evaluated some of the orthodoxy, some of the beliefs. So, those who have struggled with their faith actually had a richer orthodoxy, he continued. At the same time, those who had a passed-down faith part of that 59 percent were more likely to prioritize traditions. Although those with a passed-down faith were less likely to have stronger theological convictions, Barna found that they did have more emotional connections to Christianity and had a warmer emotional climate within their home than other respondents. There was this interesting balance, Kinnaman said. There were some positives and negatives on each side of the ledger and there are some important implications for us. One of the implications the data show, according to Kinnaman, is that wrestling [with] faith is a catalyst for peoples faith development. These folks who I mentioned, the 23 percent who struggled despite growing in a Christian household that maybe wasnt a good model or the 15 percent who said they werent a Christian growing up but kind of came to faith, for them [faith] is not an heirloom, Kinnaman, the son of a pastor, argued. It is an anchor to them. That is a really cool part of our church and recognizing some of the contributions some of those individuals can make. The study also found that there are benefits to growing up in what is considered a spiritually vibrant home. Spiritually vibrant homes are defined by Barna as households that engage in spiritual practices (praying every one to two days and reading the Bible weekly together), spiritual conversations (talking about God and faith together at least once per week) and hospitality (welcoming non-family guests into the home several times a month.) Through the study, Barna discovered that faith formation is deeply connected to and increases with hospitality, that spiritually vibrant households are characterized by fun and quality time, and that faith heritage impacts Christians' beliefs and practices in the long run. Of a sample of 2,347 practicing Christians and teens, 25 percent said they live in spiritually vibrant households while 33 percent said they live in devotional households (engage in spiritual practices and conversations but not hospitality) and 14 percent said they are living hospitable households (engage in hospitality but not spiritual practices or conversations). Twenty-eight percent of practicing Christians say they live in spiritually dormant households that dont engage in any of those three requirements. When we looked at spiritually vibrant households, the differences across a whole range of factors were really, really clear and it is the kind of households that we want to be a part of, Kinnaman said. It is the kind of lives, as Christians, that we all aspire to. This is the vision that we want to show you today. People who live in spiritually vibrant households are more likely than people living in devotional and hospitable households to have someone in the home who shares their faith by either setting an example, encouraging others to go to church, talking about Gods forgiveness, teaching about traditions or teaching about the Bible. Imagine if we had more spiritually vibrant households in our churches, Kinnaman wondered. Imagine if there were more spiritually vibrant households in your neighborhood. Imagine if you became even more spiritually vibrant in what God is calling you to do. Barnas study comes as the landscape of American households is rapidly changing with households today taking many diverse shapes and forms. Additionally, Americans are increasingly falling into a post-Christian culture, according to Barna Senior Vice President of Research Brooke Hempell. For our team at Barna, we have been studying Gen Z, the next generation, for the last few years. And as a parent of a 12 and 8-year-old, I was looking at this going, The world they are growing up in is really different from the world I experienced in my childhood, Hempell explained. We are going to have to be really intentional in our home to shape their faith so they will thrive in that world. Along with the decline in church attendance, Hempell said that Americans are less reliant on the church to form their faiths. People are becoming more reliant on DIY faith formation through the internet and other forms of media like podcasts. For those who say they are investing in their faith, more of it is happening on their own in this kind of curated way and less of it is happening in the church, like going to worship every Sunday, Hempell stressed. The importance of the household in that faith formation in shaping and growing us as Christians has really increased in this context. Maina Mwaura, an Atlanta-based pastor and author, played the role of emcee during the launch event in San Antonio. He walked away encouraged by the report. I walked away going, Man, here are some opportunities for us to grow in the body of Christ, Mwaura told the audience. And I believe that when we are done with all this, you are going to walk away and go, This has been something that I needed. NJ firefighter-pastor sues fire department for making him shave beard he grew for religious reasons Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A born-again Christian firefighter and pastor in New Jersey has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Atlantic City as well as the fire departments chief and deputy chief for threatening to suspend him without pay unless he shaved a beard he claims he grew for religious reasons. In the lawsuit which was filed last week, according to NJ.com, the 15-year veteran firefighter Alexander Smith, who also leads the Community Harvesters Church in Atlantic City, is suing the city and his superiors, Chief Scott Evans and Deputy Chief Thomas Culleny Jr. for violating his religious freedoms under the First Amendment and for violating the New Jersey Civil Rights Act, NJ.com said. He is also seeking an injunction to prevent any adverse employment actions against him as well as an award of compensatory and punitive damage. Smith, who works as an air mask technician at an annual salary of $115,000, said he began growing out his beard last December as an expression of his faith. He tried to get special accommodation for his 3-inch beard from the city on Jan. 3 since beards are prohibited by the fire departments guidelines. The city, however, denied his request on Feb. 15, due to overwhelming safety concerns for Smith, as well as other firefighters, the lawsuit said. Facial hair can affect the seal of the breathing apparatus mask firefighters wear when they face fires, the report said. Smith argued that as an air mask technician, when he responds to fires it is solely for the purpose of refilling SCBA air bottles," according to the lawsuit. His job responsibilities do not include participation in extinguishing fires or search and rescue, it adds. Due to the denial of his religious accommodation he is now required to show up for work clean shaven. Smiths attorney, Luna Droubi, has filed a request seeking a temporary restraining order against the shaving requirement until his lawsuit is resolved, allowing him to keep his beard for now. Smith must prove he would face irreparable injuries and that his constitutional rights would be violated in order for a temporary restraining order to be granted. The lawsuit states that the bylaws of Smiths church say that growing a beard is a scriptural practice that is encouraged because many of the prophets in the Bible wore beards. Photos from the Community Harvesters Church website as well as the churchs Facebook page do not show Smith, who turns 43 next month, with a beard. The married father of three who has been a born-again Pentecostal believer since age 10 appears to freely sport a clean-shaved head and face. When contacted through his church by The Christian Post for comment Thursday, Smith did not immediately respond. Born and raised in Atlantic City as a Pentecostal believer, he developed a love and sense of compassion for others. Alexander was baptized in water and filled with the Holy Ghost at the age 10, the churchs website says of Smith. In the year of 2000 Pastor Smith accepted his calling and was ordained a minister under the leadership of Bishop John R. Gandy. In March 2009 we purchased a church building in Atlantic City and started The Way of Holiness Temple which was changed to Community Harvesters Church in 2013. Alexander was ordained pastor by The Universal Life Church in Modesto California, in 2011, and PA of W in 2017, it adds. The churchs website which was last updated on Aug. 31, 2018, further noted that Smith is pursuing a Masters of Divinity from Rockbridge Theological Seminary in Springfield, Missouri, and serves as a Police and Firemens Chaplain for the city of Atlantic City. In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that Arkansas must allow a Muslim prisoner to grow a beard that he says his religion requires. In that opinion, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., said Arkansas prison officials had violated a federal law passed to protect religious practices from policies set by state and local officials. While the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act does not require a prison to grant religious exemptions simply because a prisoner asks or because other prisons do, Alito said Arkansas officials offered no evidence that a short beard posed security risks or could serve as a hiding place for contraband, as the officials once argued. Smiths lawsuit referenced a 1999 Third Court of Appeals opinion written by Alito that says a Newark police department policy to discipline two Islamic officers who refused to shave their beards was unconstitutional and violated the First Amendment. Droubi also argued that the U.S. armed forces have revised their grooming policies to provide for religious accommodations in these circumstances. Pastor tells how surrendering to God led to 40,000 praying for all Nashville residents by name Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Correction appended A Tennessee pastor who specializes in church planting shared how he was able to coordinate about 40,000 Christians from more than 400 Nashville area churches to pray for every single resident of the city by name. Dave Clayton, founder of Ethos Church in Nashville and leader of the group Onward Church Planting, spoke at the Exponential Conference Wednesday at First Baptist Orlando in Florida. Clayton talked about how a decade ago he and some friends planted a church. By its fifth birthday, the church had grown and had planted churches of its own. Despite this major success, Clayton told the Exponential crowd that following a major gathering of the congregations, he recalled God calling him to do more. And He said, Dave, I didnt call you to gather a crowd. I called you to penetrate a crowd and then transform a crowd and then release a crowd not just for the city but for the nation and the nations, said Clayton. Clayton talked about how he and his family had a crazy journey of surrender as he and the other leaders reassessed how Ethos was organized and how they made decisions. All of the people except our closest friends thought we were losing our minds. Daves having a mental breakdown. Theyre burning out, theyre leaving the church. Whats going on? explained Clayton. And I go, No, for the first time youre seeing a leader who is under the authority of a true Senior Pastor and Hes calling the shots. From there, Clayton was inspired to coordinate a massive prayer effort to get as many local churches as possible to pray and fast for every single citizen of Nashville by name. Some churches protested the idea, noting that churches were competitive with one another. But he responded that he was just walking in obedience. Eventually, more than 400 churches across the Nashville area signed on. Forty-thousand leaders, 30 straight days of praying and fasting for every person in the city, explained Clayton amid loud applause. Every denomination, young and old, black and white, a hundred different languages represented in that group of churches. Right now, those 40,000 leaders are literally writing hand-written notes to everybody in the city saying you matter to Jesus and were saying God, you do unprecedented things because were surrendering to Him and were doing it together. Claytons effort, known as Awaken Nashville, garnered mainstream media attention, with the Tennessean recently reporting about the event which began on Jan. 27 and concluded Feb. 24. Each person involved had a list of 15 people to pray for during the time period and addresses to send cards to, drawn primarily from publicly listed phone records, according to the Tennessean. Clayton also told those gathered that God is not looking for the most strategic or most skilled, but rather the most surrendered. The way to more is not strategy and skills and speeches and systems, declared Clayton. The way to more is on the downward path of surrender. If we want our churches to do more, its time that we, as senior leaders, get really committed to becoming less. Clayton drew inspiration from the New Testament book of Ephesians, written by Paul of Tarsus, which noted that the city learned about Christianity because of this little church of nobodies. Paul says, listen Ephesian church, you didnt get here because of your strategy, or your intelligence, or your systems. You got here because of your surrender, Clayton added. Claytons talk about the value of surrendering to God and how it created a large ecumenical prayer event was part of the multiday Exponential Conference. Scheduled for March 4-7, the theme for this Exponential Conference is Made for More: Mobilizing Gods People, Gods Way. Francis Chan, a notable pastor and best-selling author, gave remarks Tuesday at the conference, stressing the importance of pastors always remembering that Jesus Christ, rather than themselves, is the head of their church. He is our head right now. So in light of that truth, how should I act? We all believe that Hes our head, right? What if He wasnt the head of the Church? How would you do things differently? Think about that, said Chan to those gathered. I realize that a lot of times I dont act like Hes the head of the Church. I dont act like Im just like an arm. And I dont really humble myself, Lord, Youre the head of the Church. What do You want me to do? The arm doesnt do anything unless the head tells him to do it. An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Dave Clayton left Ethos. He currently still serves at the church. Evangelical university blocks lecture by pro-life activist Star Parker Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment An evangelical university in Minnesota has blocked a conservative student group from hosting a lecture by African-American pro-life activist Star Parker because of her radically held beliefs. The University of Northwestern St. Paul informed its chapter of Young Americas Foundation, a conservative student group, last month that it could not hold an open event featuring the 62-year-old conservative activist. Parker is the founder of the 800-pastor network Center for Urban Renewal and Education and has long argued that the conservative agenda of traditional values, limited government and free markets are the greatest benefit to low-income Americans, especially African-Americans, in inner cities. She has also long spoken about the negative impact that abortion and Planned Parenthood has had on the African-American community. Since 2017, Parker has served as part of the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative to share ideas on how to best fix our nations most distressed zip codes. She is also an appointee to the Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Commission. YAFs chapter at the University of Northwestern had been working for months to host a prominent conservative to address their peers, according to a news release published March 5. But those plans were struck down by university officials. I accepted UNW YAFs gracious invitation to defend life and traditional Christian principles, Parker said in a statement. Abortion has devastated the black community and is the moral crisis of our time. Christian universities are precisely where this urgent discussion should be happening. On Feb. 20, school administrators informed UNW YAF Chair Hayley Tschetter that the group would not be allowed to host Parker and listed a number of concerns. The administrations email said that the first concern was over the fact that the group was planning an open event. [I]t would be different if you were having a speaker just come speak to your club, the letter explained. Speakers open to all UNW students would have more strictness and then like I said we dont typically do truly open events. The letter continued by explaining that there are other concerns about Parker. Our staff has been very adamant about bringing speakers to campus who educate and expand worldviews, but we really dont bring speakers who radically hold beliefs that UNW as a whole would not agree with, the email reads. In the past UNW has stayed away from sensationalized speakers. I foresee us continuing to do this. After reviewing some of Stars material online we didnt feel she was a good fit for our community. The school recommended that YAF plan its future speaking events far in advance so that appropriate speakers can be discussed with administrators. The schools YAF chapter requested a meeting with the university's President Alan Cureton in hopes of getting a reversal of the decision. That meeting came on Feb. 27. According to YAF, Cureton was found to be as resistant as the rest of the administrators. Cureton reportedly told the student leaders of the group that he didnt want to be divisive and that its better to provide a balanced view from different outlooks. One example would be a panel discussion. Tschetter asked Cureton what opposing viewpoint the school would want to have elevated. He didnt really have an answer, Tschetter explained. Cureton told the student activists that they would be better off scheduling a meeting with the schools vice president of student life Nina Barnes. As of Tuesday, Barnes has not responded to the groups meeting request. I was excited to embark on this new adventure and thrilled that Star Parker agreed to come and speak to my campus, Tschetter said in a statement. After doing a little reading on several YAF speakers, I thought she could address some relevant topics to our campus. However, many are too fearful of controversy to allow her lecture to take place. Issues already divide campuses, Christians, and people nationwide speaking about them will not cause a divide, it will bring the underlying issues to light and provide an opportunity for them to be discussed openly and civilly. YAF spokesperson Spencer Brown, who took courses through UNW as a high school student, argued that the decision to prevent Parker from speaking is a shocking departure from a school I once considered attending. UNW has chosen to abandon their core principles as a Christian university set above and apart in favor of avoiding any potential discomfort brought about by an insightful lecture from one of Americas leading conservative women on critical issues UNWs students will soon [face] with in the world, Brown stressed. The Christian Post reached out to UNW for comment and received an emailed response on Friday from April Moreton, vice president for Institutional Advancement. "University of Northwestern did not ban Ms. Parker from speaking on campus," Moreton said. "Ms. Parker has spoken on our campus twice before to share her testimony. The student club responsible for inviting her, Young Americas Foundation, did not follow policies and procedures that are put in place for student club events. Therefore, because proper approval was not obtained, the student club was told they could not host the event. "In addition, university administration had significant concerns regarding Ms. Parkers contract which contained certain requirements the university could not accommodate. "Furthermore, our statement on social media in response to information circulating sought to protect the students involved and Ms. Parker, but the lack of details caused more confusion," Moreton added. "For this, we sincerely apologize. Due to these misunderstandings, our stance on certain issues was not accurately represented. Northwestern is unwavering in our biblical foundation, therefore, we are passionately against abortion and take a pro-life stance." Future of homeschooling: Less religious, more regulated? Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The homeschooling movement in America is experiencing potential changes in its religious makeup and new challenges from government regulation. Steven Craig Policastro, founder and executive vice president of the International Association for Creation, told The Christian Post that in recent years, the biggest change in state-sponsored resistance to homeschooling has been a shift from attempts to ban homeschooling to extremely oppressive regulations. Opponents of home education have realized that since they are unable to make homeschooling illegal, they can at least attempt to place extremely burdensome regulations on parent-led, home education to make it difficult or nearly impossible, said Policastro. There also are constant attempts by school districts all over the country to require things of homeschool students and parents that are not required by law. There are times in which the school districts do not properly know the law, but in other instances the school board leaders do not care and they want their regulations mandated regardless of the law. The International Association for Creation is a Christian Young Earth organization and will be hosting its annual National Homeschool Day observance on Feb. 23. Speakers from dozens of locations will address people worldwide in a livestream online to discuss topics related to homeschooling and Christian resources for home education. On regulation, Policastro noted the importance of state organizations and the Home School Legal Defense Association in monitoring proposed legislation and maintaining good communication with school districts. Such government oversight is a continual battle, it has not let up; it has merely changed forms, going from the outlawing of parent-led education to now having parent rights constantly in jeopardy due to ever-changing regulations, he noted. The famous quote, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, is very apropos here because that's what all of us who believe in educational freedom and parental rights do. We seek to be vigilant so that our God-given right to train up our children is not impeded upon by bureaucrats and legislatures. A recent example of this regulation effort can be found in Iowa, where earlier this month Democrat State Rep. Mary Mascher introduced House File 272, which if passed would, among other things, require school districts to conduct "health and safety visits" for homeschooled children. Israel Wayne, director of the Michigan-based ministry Family Renewal and a scheduled speaker for this years National Homeschool Day, likewise viewed proposals to increase regulation as a constant threat to homeschooling. Wayne also serves on the board of the Michigan Christian Homeschool Network, which is the Christian homeschooling association for the state, where he works on behalf of homeschooling freedoms. Almost every year, in almost every state legislature, bills are introduced in the various education committees seeking to increase regulations over all homeschoolers, Wayne told CP. The regulation does not increase academic performance in any way, it merely serves to create unnecessary hassle and needless government red-tape for homeschooling parents who are doing what is best for their students. Over the past several years, the homeschooling movement in the United States has grown considerably. The National Center for Education Statistics reported that from 19992016, the percentage of American students educated in homeschools went from 1.7 percent to 3.3 percent. The most important reason for homeschooling in 2016 was concern about the school environment, such as safety, drugs, or negative peer pressure, reported by 34 percent of parents of homeschooled students, noted the NCES in a 2017 report. Other reasons cited as most important by families of homeschooled students in 2016 were dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools (17 percent of homeschooled students parents) and a desire to provide religious instruction (16 percent). Having 16 percent of respondents pick religious instruction as their most important reason in 2016 indicates a considerable decline from 2003, when NCES found that 29.8 percent of respondents selected religious or moral instruction as their most important reason. Some have speculated that the homeschooling movement is becoming less religious, with the Pacific Standard declaring in a 2018 article that modern day homeschool advocates aren't the Christian Right. Policastro told CP that while the homeschooling movement is becoming more diverse, religiously speaking, over two-thirds of homeschooling parents are self-identified Christians. When analyzing the number of parents who choose to home educate due to religious reasons, we see that this data continually points to exponential growth which consistently makes religious homeschooling more common than its secular counterpart, said Policastro. Wayne also acknowledged that motivations for parents seeking to homeschool their children were largely secular. However, he told CP that he believed the story was more complex. I think we see a shift here over time, but I don't think we should assume that means secular homeschooling is taking over the formerly Christian-dominated landscape, said Wayne. Increasingly, I think fewer Christian families are homeschooling for religious reasons. They might be Christians, but they're motivated by their child's safety, poor academic performance, special needs, etc., and less by biblical reasons. Louisiana College leaves CCCU over support for 'Fairness for All' LGBT compromise Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A private Baptist college in Louisiana has left the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities over its objection to the 180-school networks support for the Fairness for All compromise. Louisiana College, a school of about 1,000 undergrads affiliated with the Louisiana Baptist Convention, submitted a withdrawal notice to CCCU in January, its president told The Louisiana Baptist Message. The withdrawal comes months after CCCU officially endorsed the Fairness for All initiative that supports legislative constructs to cement LGBT civil rights protections into federal law in exchange for religious liberty protections. Louisiana College President Rick Brewer reportedly sent a letter to CCCU President Shirley Hoogstra asserting that Louisiana College could not be "willfully associated" with any entity that endorses Fairness for All legislation even though its long relationship with CCCU has been "beneficial. Sometimes the answer to such matters is to agree to disagree, Brewer was quoted as writing in the letter. But the import and impact of the Fairness for All initiative calls for Louisiana College to respectfully disagree with CCCUs stance. Norm Miller, Louisiana College vice president for communications and integrative marketing, confirmed to The Christian Post that the institution dropped out of CCCU because of the association's support for Fairness for All. For other questions, Miller referred CP to the report published by the Baptist Message, the state convention-owned newspaper. CCCU exists to serve Christian colleges and universities in their mission through public advocacy, professional development, and experiential education. Greta Hays, CCCUs director of communications and public affairs, told CP Wednesday that CCCU membership is voluntary and institutions join and leave CCCU at a variety of times and for a variety of reasons. In the case of Louisiana College, who themselves disclosed their reason for leaving, we can confirm that they left CCCU due to Fairness for All, Hays wrote in an email. But in general, as it relates to other institutions in the past or future, our practice is not to comment on why individual institutions choose to join or leave our organization this is something that individual institutions may choose to disclose, but is not our role to comment on. Fairness for All supports the passage of federal nondiscrimination legislation that protects on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation while bolstering religious exemptions allowing institutions to uphold the traditional Christian teachings on marriage and sexuality in their operations without government coercion. According to CCCU, Fairness for All would ensure that LGBT Americans can't be denied access to employment, housing, financial credit and social service programs funded by the federal government. At the same time, it would ensure that churches and religious organizations "will not be found to be engaging in discriminatory actions simply because of their religious beliefs." The initiative comes as Christian colleges across the nation are dealing with religious freedom concerns when it comes to enforcement of state discrimination laws. Although Fairness for All is seen by some evangelical leaders as an important step that puts down markers in the public conversation surrounding the intersection of LGBT rights and religious freedom, others have objected to the idea and fear that such legislation will only coerce Christians to embrace LGBT rights. Shirley Mullen, the president of Houghton College in Western New York and vice chair of CCCU's board of directors, defended the Fairness for All initiative earlier this month when talking with reporters after CCCUs Presidents Conference in Washington, D.C. The debate is not about the importance about the traditional view of marriage, Mullen contested. The debate is about the best strategy for preserving this. She admits that while there may be some risk associated with Fairness for All, she contested that there is also a risk on the LGBT side of the equation. Right now, the way our society is polarized, they [religious freedom and LGBT rights] are not on a level playing field, Mullen contended. The sense [in society now] is that one side has to win and one side has to lose. According to Mullen, the Fairness for All approach is much better than the Equality Act, which is expected to have success in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives. The bill would provide legal protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. However, it would not provide the religious freedom protections that the Fairness for All initiative is seeking. [I]t, in fact, stereotypes religious freedom ... as something that leads to violence, Mullen told reporters. Now, the Equality Act doesnt say this but I have actually heard people in higher education say that traditional religious protections are bigotry. CCCU is no stranger to having members schools drop out over LGBT issues. In 2015, two member schools left CCCU after two other member schools Goshen College and Eastern Mennonite University changed policies allowing for the hiring of faculty members in same-sex relationships. In September 2015, CCCU board announced the results of a survey of member institution presidents. The survey found that 75 percent of CCCU member presidents supported a recommendation to move Goshen College and EMU to nonmember status. EMU and Goshen College ultimately left CCCU and CCCU reaffirmed its commitment to the historic Christian view of marriage. Religious colleges fear higher education becoming more hostile to faith Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Religious colleges are attempting to re-write the narrative that exists today about faith in education before societal hostility mobilizes to one day push faith-based institutions out of the mainstream of higher education. Presidents from colleges representing traditions of Protestant Christianity, Islam, Catholicism, Judaism and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gathered last week to discuss the challenges they face as secular society continues to grow more hostile to principles of Abrahamic morality. Just days after the media hysteria surrounding second lady Karen Pence's job as an art teacher at a Christian private school in Virginia that adheres to biblical doctrine, presidents from the five religious colleges participated in a discussion just a few miles down the road in Washington, D.C., about the misunderstandings people have about faith in higher education. The discussion capped off the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities Presidents Conference that took place at the Washington Court Hotel on Capitol Hill. CCCU is a network of over 180 Christian colleges worldwide. "Todays discussion invites us to reimagine this narrative that [characterizes] so much of the modern period and to rewrite this story going forward, to rewrite this story that persists so much in the world of higher education," Shirley Mullen, the president of Houghton College, a Christian liberal arts school in Western New York, said during the panel. This standard western narrative of progress has assumed that deeply-held religious beliefs, especially when there is diversity in those beliefs, result in intolerance, conflict, violence, oppression." Mullen, who serves as vice chair of CCCUs board of directors, contended that a new narrative must be crafted regarding the relationship between religion, society, higher education and human flourishing. One of the great misperceptions out there today, particularly within higher education, is that our institutions would be the ones that are very monolithic internally and that students come here to learn how to think like Muslims or think like Roman Catholics or whatever, Mullen said. In fact, what you have heard illustrated here today is that these are the institutions where it is often really tough-minded, thoughtful dialogue going on among our students, she continued. [Those conversations] are passionate and they are deep because they are grounded in those fundamental moral and theological commitments. As a historian, Mullen stressed that people dont realize that science actually grew up in the context of a religious framework that assumed a universal order that the world was a creation of a rational being. She added that faith has also been the motivation for various social reform movements and the expansion of human rights in the modern period. John Fitzgibbons, president of the Jesuit-aligned Regis University in Colorado, suggested that students at religious colleges are able to have a dialogue on their campuses about controversial topics of the day. But on many secular college campuses, people who advocate certain religious views on topics like sexuality and marriage might find themselves shut out from the conversation. Instead of safe spaces, Fitzgibbons argued that colleges really need sacred spaces. The university is the place where the consummately personal and the structural are examined together. It is an enormous mistake to excise or cutout faith from public conversation, Fitzgibbons said. It is simply misguided. It doesnt matter what the faith articulation is. ... The point is if you dont bring the deepest parts of your being to the conversation with others that is rigorous, challenging and profoundly difficult, the deepest part of what it means to be human is not in the conversation. Hamza Yusuf, co-founder of Zaytuna College, the first accredited Muslim college in the U.S., said that there is increasing hostility toward deeply-held religious beliefs at many secular colleges. Where I am up on Holy Hill [in Berkely, California], the most intolerant college is up there [University of California, Berkeley] and is the one that claims to be the most tolerant, Yusuf said. Because if you are not completely on board with all of their beliefs, then you are unacceptable, you are a bigot. I am just saying that I dont want to see any persecution but I also feel that we should not be persecuted for adhering to Abrahamic morality. It is just not really fair. During a press lunch following the panel, the presidents expressed their concerns with proposed changes to standards for accreditation issued by one of the nations regional college accrediting agencies, Higher Learning Commission, which oversees 1,300 post-secondary schools in the central U.S. Last year, the HLC issued a draft rule proposal that removed language that instructed accreditors to take into account an institutions specific and diverse mission when assessing a schools commitment to diversity. The rule drew concerns from leaders within Christian higher education who fear that policies reflecting traditional Christian belief in marriage and sexuality could be questioned. They fear that such a rule would give the accrediting body the ability to decide whether a school ensures inclusive and equitable treatment of diverse populations. As a number of Christian schools have statements of faith that oppose homosexuality, the fear is that the accrediting agency wields power to impact an institutions abilities to receive federal student loans and federal grants if they are noncompliant. It is noteworthy that this is really a plea for diversity from a group of universities that are sometimes viewed as not very tolerant in their viewpoint, Kevin Worthen, president of Brigham Young University in Utah, explained. One reporter pushed back during the conversation and noted that the HLC rule proposal being objected to by religious schools is supposed to ensure the inclusivity in the viewpoint of the colleges. The reporter asked if the universities simply dont want to be forced to accept diversity. There is one way in which you say everyone will be diverse in exactly the same way, Worthen replied. Mullen agreed. There is some tension between that and sort of institutional diversity that comes as a seedbed for ultimate diversity, Mullen said. There is some tension there. That is a very good point. Yusuf weighed in and said that if religious colleges are supposed to take their religious traditions seriously, then the demand that they abandon a set of core principles of the religions for the zeitgeist is not fair. One reporter brought up the public outrage surrounding Karen Pences decision to teach at a Christian school in Northern Virginia that has clearly outlined beliefs opposing homosexuality. It is interesting that someone mentioned earlier that she was out of step with 67 percent of the country, Yusuf said. So suddenly morality is determined by a poll? That is like saying that Abraham Lincoln is out of touch with reality because 67 percent of Americans are pro-slavery. It is a little crazy. Yusuf said that in the future, he can see things getting much worse and difficult for Christian, Orthodox Jewish and Muslim colleges to adhere to basic Abrahamic morality without being considered bigots or preaching hate or something like that. While religious colleges are guaranteed the freedom to hold religious beliefs by the U.S. Constitution, one reporter asserted that the Constitution doesnt guarantee religious colleges federal funding. Mullen responded by stating that it has always been understood that federal dollars are tied to individual students who have the freedom to choose where they spend those federal dollars. There are still many, many students in this society that want to choose an education that accords with their fundamental moral and spiritual roots, Mullen explained. No students arrive at one of our institutions not knowing what they are getting into. They are choosing to go to those institutions because of the values of those institutions. I believe there is also a social good in American society for these institutions to remain places that these students can spend that money. Mullen believes that civil society would be worse off if religious colleges were not granted access to federal funding. Most of these institutions are going to turn out people of faith who have thought much more deeply about the links between reason and faith than most of the people in American society, Mullen stressed. These graduates can be the bridge builder in a society that has many people who have nothing to do with religion and people of faith. The larger culture would be worse off if federal dollars cannot continue to support the branch of higher education which is doing the most to produce people who understand [how to speak across the religious and political spectrum]. Mullen asserted that religious colleges are committed to being within the mainstream of American higher education. That is really what we are arguing for right now is the right to remain within the mainstream of higher education rather than be segregated off, she concluded. Growing Fraud Sucks Billions From Churches Annually; This IRS Fix Could Help, Expert Says Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment If members of the Zion Missionary Baptist Church in East Palo Alto, California, hadn't fought back, their one-time Pastor, Andre Harris, and his wife, Rhona Edgerton-Harris, would have fleeced them of their church building and a home valued at more than $1 million. Church members explained that when they arrived for services one day in early May 2014, they found a real estate sign on the parsonage next door where the Christian leader and his family had been allowed to live rent free. A curious church member did some sleuthing at the county recorder's office and discovered that the deed to the home had been strangely transferred to the pastor and his wife. A for-sale sign also soon appeared on the church property which led alarmed members to demand an explanation from their pastor about a month later. They protested the sale of the properties which the church's bylaws prohibit without their consent. Pastor Harris, who had renamed the church Born Again Christian Center when he took over leadership of the congregation, responded by handing the protesting members notices of ex-communication barring them from the church in the name of Jesus. "Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Born Again Christian Center is informing you because of your inconsistent attendance over the months or years, we have therefore removed you as a member," Harris wrote in the notice. "You therefore no longer have any rights or privileges to conduct any matter at the said Church. ... We are informing you of your removal and permanent ban of membership at Born Again Christian Center." The members replied to Harris with a lawsuit alleging several crimes, including attempts to defraud the church. About 10 months later, the church prevailed. Harris returned the properties to them in a settlement, the terms of which were not disclosed. But Harris almost got away. Zion Missionary Baptist Church members called themselves "blessed" because most perpetrators of fraud in churches are usually never reported. Research cited by Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company, the second largest U.S. provider of property and casualty insurance to Christian churches and related ministries, says reported cases of church financial fraud has been rising by about 6 percent annually and is expected to reach the $60 billion mark by 2025. The level of reported fraud in churches is dwarfed, however, by the 80 percent of church fraud cases that are estimated to go unreported. John Montague, a corporate and nonprofit tax law expert and senior associate at leading global international law firm Hogan Lovells, explained in a recent interview with The Christian Post why he believes the best way to abate church fraud is to remove the IRS Form 990 exemption churches currently enjoy. Evidence suggests churches cannot be trusted to regulate themselves, he said. Montague, who is a practicing Christian, also made his case several years ago when he penned a research paper for the Cardozo Law Review, titled The Law and Financial Transparency in Churches: Reconsidering the Form 990. What is the IRS Form 990? The IRS Form 990 is the reporting form that many federally tax-exempt organizations must file with the IRS each year. It allows the IRS and the general public to evaluate a nonprofit's operations, including information on the nonprofit's mission, programs, and finances. Depending on the filing year and the gross receipts of the organization, a nonprofit might be required to file Forms 990, 990-EZ or 990-N. In his general assessment of what he is hearing from average churchgoers today, Montague said people are frustrated by not having access to the kind of transparency in churches that a Form 990 can give. If, for example, the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability were a church, members could easily learn from its 2015 Form 990 disclosure, the latest 990 the organization makes available on their website, that it works to enhance trust in Christ-centered churches and ministries. The public could also learn financial details such as how much ECFA President Dan Busby got paid from the organization that year $193,218 in reported compensation and $42,032 in other income totaling just over $235,000. "Nearly every conversation I've had with members of the laity, people have been interested in the concept of transparency, and frustrated by the general lack of transparency," explained Montague, who served as a law clerk to The Honorable Thomas B. Wells of the U.S. Tax Court prior to joining Hogan Lovells. "In churches, I've encouraged people to ask questions about the finances of their churches, but I'm not aware of any church that has actually made a move to voluntarily file a 990 or to provide the level of transparency that would result from having to file a 990," Montague said. He also explained that among the reasons why Christians aren't pushing to hold churches more accountable and showing more concern about financial accountability through the IRS Form 990 is a lack of awareness. "I don't think most people are aware of the 990. ... And even if they are aware of the 990, they are not aware of the exemption that churches have. I'm sure that 99 percent of Christians are totally unaware of that exemption," Montague said. "I think there are people, [who might say] 'look, my responsibility is to give money to the Church and then I leave it up to God as to what happens to it after.' I think there are those people. I would imagine that they're probably in the minority but I have no idea." Why churches aren't required to file Form 990 In January 2011, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, released a report after a three-year investigation targeting six popular televangelists, including Paula White, Creflo Dollar and Kenneth Copeland. The report raised questions about their personal use of things such as church-owned airplanes, luxury homes and credit cards. It also expressed concern about the lack of oversight of finances by boards often filled by the televangelists' relatives and friends. Grassley, citing the concerns raised by the report, asked Busby in his role as leader of the ECFA to come up with a solution using legislation as a last resort. "As you consider the issues my staff raised, please remember our discussion in my office when you visited me with other members of ECFA board on March 12, 2009. I stated then that I believe that legislation should be the last resort. However, ideas for reform often inspire informed and thoughtful discussions which, in turn, lead to self-correction and eliminate the need for legislation," he wrote. In 1977, after similar concerns were raised about financial impropriety among certain televangelists at the time, then Republican Senator Mark Hatfield, who died in August 2011, warned that Congress would enact legislation if evangelical leaders could not develop a proposal to regulate themselves, according to Montague in The Law and Financial Transparency in Churches: Reconsidering the Form 990. This resulted in the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the Christian relief organization World Vision partnering to found the ECFA in 1979 with 115 members. Only one televangelist was listed among that number. In a March 1979 Washington Post report on the launch of the ECFA, organizers said more than 1,100 evangelical charitable organizations with a combined annual income approaching $1 billion would subscribe to the principles laid down by the organization. Information from the ECFA's 2015 990 shows that it currently reviews the data of more than 2,000 Christian charities and churches with more than $23 billion in annual revenue. Grassley, in his letter to Busby, reminded him of the origin of the ECFA and its role as an alternative to legislated financial oversight for churches. "ECFA was founded because of a challenge then-Senator Hatfield made in 1977 to Christian groups to be more accountable. He apparently was responding to a scandal in the religious community at that time. The size and diversity of the religious community in the United States has grown tremendously since the ECFA was created. I hope that a discussion of the issues raised by my staff will similarly result in increased accountability while acknowledging this growth and diversity," Grassley wrote to Busby. This request led to the creation of the Commission on Accountability and Policy for Religious Organizations, which operated under the authority of the ECFA board of directors. In a report released in December 2012, the commission, which is now inactive, encouraged churches and their leaders to act honorably and asked members of the public who donate money or their time to them to research religious organizations before investing in them. "Churches and their leaders should not engage in abusive financial activities, nor should they improperly exploit the exemption from filing Form 990, because doing so undermines the credibility of their organizations and the religious community as a whole," the commission advised. The commission also recommended that Congress "never pass legislation requiring churches to file Form 990 or any similar information return or form with the federal government." "To require such a filing would not only place a substantial and unnecessary burden on churches and the government, it would also raise significant constitutional concerns. New churches should not have registration or notification requirements beyond those that already exist," the commission said. Church transparency and the New Tax Cuts and Jobs Act In May, however, the IRS appeared to take a step toward bucking that advice when it released guidance on the increased scope of what should be taxed as unrelated business income under the newly instituted Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. While churches have long been subject to file IRS Form 990-T as long as they generated unrelated business income, the new law, the ECFA says, will now require many more churches and tax exempt organizations to file the form because the federal income tax is now applied to parking benefits. "Because of this new tax, many taxexempt employers, including churches, hospitals, charities, and schools will be required to file federal Form 990T, and in many cases, state corporate income returns, every year regardless of whether they actually engage in any unrelated business activity. This new tax was purportedly added to the law to put taxexempt employers on the same footing as taxable employers with respect to employerprovided parking," the ECFA explained in a statement to CP. While church and financial transparency experts agree that the 990-T would only add minimally to the broader push toward church transparency and accountability, Busby argued that it's also likely to create various administrative and financial costs for many churches that do not have the means to meet them. "Working in the church world most of my career, my guess is that prior to this provision, there's probably only 1 [percent] or 2 percent of churches in America that file form 990-T so we're really talking about two issues," Busby said in a June interview with CP. "We're talking about a financial issue. We're gonna have to pay a tax on providing employee parking and two, which may be more important, is the administrative piece of this to file a return with which they are not familiar. If you can imagine, small churches across America have to file a form 990-T that they've never even heard of. And probably they're gonna need to secure professional advice and pay a professional to file the return, even though the money may not be a significant amount, it's just a ridiculous provision that was put in the law," he said. In July, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention issued a policy brief in support of repealing the new parking tax and earlier this month, bills were introduced in both the House and Senate echoing that recommendation. "In addition to the new federal requirements, many nonprofits will then be required to file state returns and possibly pay state income tax," the ERLC stated. "The new regulations create tax liability and increase operations costs for these nonprofits, all because they simply have a parking lot. ... "Taxing nonprofits on basic costs of operating an institution defeats the purpose of nonprofit status, an American tradition for over 100 years." The case for IRS oversight of churches Pete Evans, lead investigator at the Dallas-based Trinity Foundation, which has been tracking religious fraud and helping victims of religious fraud for almost 30 years, told CP that the new requirement is a step in the right direction toward transparency and is a small price to pay compared to the billions being lost in church fraud annually. "Even if it affects our own church, I would vote yes [to the 990-T provision]," Evans said. "You have all these churches now and ministries that are wealthy beyond wealth and some of which have thousands and thousands of acres in the counties that are not on the tax rolls because of various exemptions and they are living like Arabian princes," Evans noted. Evans also questioned Busby's apparent concern for smaller churches in his criticism of the ECFA. "If you look at the majority of people that ECFA represents, they represent the larger churches because ECFA charges so much money that small churches can't afford to be members of ECFA. And so I think there is hypocrisy there that on one hand they're getting a lot of money from the larger ministries, churches and now all of a sudden they are defending the little churches?" he said. In response to recent questions about the organization's membership, a spokesperson for the ECFA revealed that only a minority of its currently registered members, 225, are churches. That's less than 1 percent of the 250,000 churches registered with the IRS' Select Check program, according to Holly Ivel, director of Guidestar's data services. Under this program, the IRS provides official recognition of an organization's tax-exempt status which assures donors that their contributions are tax deductible. "Based on how these organizations are coded there's almost a quarter of a million churches that have chosen to do that (Select Check)," explained Ivel of the program. "So they've voluntarily registered, which is great." While Ivel, like the ECFA, does not recommend requiring churches to file a Form 990, she did notice from the data in their system that just over 2 percent of the 250,000 churches registered for the Select Check program also filed some variation of the form 990, even though they aren't required to file it. "They are not required to file a return but even though they are not required to, about 5,300 have filed an annual return either an EZ, which is kind of the short form, or a 990. And that's between 2014 and 2017," Ivel said. Some of these filings could be easily searched and viewed on a database available on the IRS website as recently as late June. An update to that page on July 6 now only allows the public to determine deductibility of their contributions. It is unclear why this change was made. Evans, who agrees with Montague that the evidence against churches show they cannot be trusted with self-regulation, argued that the 990 would be a more powerful safeguard against abuse because of the detailed information it requires. Many churches, he argued, as seen in the number of churches that file Form 990 even though they are not required, would be able to adhere to IRS oversight if there was a requirement to do so. "Especially for the larger ministries and churches, there needs to be some transparency because they're not going to do it on their own. Churches, if they are not required to, are typically not going to be transparent on their own and I think a lot of churches would be willing if there was a requirement," Evans said. "ECFA does not reveal salary information of their clients and that's one of the key aspects of transparency that they're hiding their own clients. They give everybody a seal of approval, this organization is good and above board and yet don't reveal salary information? What's up with that?" he asked. In response, Busby noted in a statement to CP: "There has never been a legal requirement for churches to disclose their salaries. ECFA's standards start with legal requirements, and in some cases, go beyond the law." In 2013, shortly after the Commission on Accountability and Policy for Religious Organizations recommended that Congress not require churches to file Form 990, Montague argued against the advice in The Law and Financial Transparency in Churches: Reconsidering the Form 990. "... Because of their opacity and the unique nature of religious authority, churches are more likely to foster and shelter malfeasance. Churchgoers are unlikely to challenge leaders because doing so can endanger their position in the religious community, making it imperative that transparency be mandated by outside authorities," Montague argued. "Ironically, increased transparency may actually be good for churches because, as studies suggest, it is likely to increase donations and because, by minimizing opportunities for financial improprieties, it may preserve the religious experience of churchgoers. In addition, transparency is consistent with the teaching of many Christian leaders and with the expressed preferences of a large portion of churchgoers." Montague said he sent copies of his research to Busby and Grassley. In a response from Busby to Montague shared with CP, Busby noted in a 2013 letter: "ECFA's position with respect to Form 990 coincides with the recommendations in the Commission report, i.e., that requiring such a form for churches would constitute unnecessary and constitutionally prohibited excessive entanglement by the government in the affairs of the church." The excessive entanglement problem Some see potential religious freedom issues in additional filing requirements being placed upon churches. In The Internal Revenue Service as a Monitor of Church Institutions: The Excessive Entanglement Problem, published in the Fordham Law Review in 1977, Sharon L. Worthing concluded that requiring church-related organizations to file IRS information returns was one example of excessive government entanglement with religion. "Although the entanglement created by having church-related institutions file information returns does not seem terribly great, the requirement can be seen as a first step whose ultimate end is full government surveillance of religious institutions. The excessive entanglement test serves as a 'warning signal' regarding programs which may appear harmless, but whose ultimate expression would result in a clearly unconstitutional relationship between church and state," Worthington wrote. In discussing the excessive entanglement concerns, Montague pointed in his study to a well-publicized congressional hearing in 1987 hearing with witnesses from the IRS and the Treasury, as well as notable televangelists including Jerry Falwell and Oral Roberts. Then Congressman J.J. Pickle, chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight of the House Ways and Means Committee who convened the hearing, noted how Congress and the executive "historically have been reluctant to look very closely at tax issues involving religious organizations" because of their political sensitivity. Roberts argued that the ECFA, which had been formed as an alternative to legislation, lacked teeth and that it would be better for all organizations to file the Form 990 and submit to external audits. Gordon Loux, then chairman of the board of the ECFA, also noted that there are "inherent difficulties in self-regulation" as it is limited to those who consent to be regulated. He agreed that the Form 990 is a "minimal requirement that ought to be met by those that are operating in the public service." Then Commissioner of the IRS Lawrence Gibbs, who had previously agreed that churches had not been subject to the requirements of filing information returns because of concern about government intrusion into religion, was challenged during the hearing by former Congressman from New York Charles Rangel. An excerpt of their exchange is highlighted below: Mr. Rangel: Do you see where filing an annual report by churches would be in violation of the constitutional right of separation of church and state? Mr. Gibbs: I have assumed, perhaps erroneously, that that was the reasonor certainly one of the prominent reasonsfor specifically excluding them by statute in 1969. Mr. Rangel: Well, why did you reach that assumption? You know, it is only a congressional decision. Has any court said that you cannot put limitations on the privilege of tax exemption? We do it in unrelated taxes. We do it in lobbying. We do it in political affairs. We do it in FCC control. What in God's name could be even remotely considered a violation of the constitutional rights of churches to say that they should file an annual report as to how much money they got and what they did with it? Several pastors contacted by CP to discuss this story because their churches filed 990 returns referred questions to their treasurer or the individual who prepared them. None of these individuals responded to interview requests. Montague suggested that some of the churches may have filed the returns in error, not realizing they are exempt from filing. Al Mohler explains why he didnt sign John MacArthurs anti-social justice statement Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler explained why he did not sign last summers John MacArthur-led statement condemning evangelicals' embrace of social justice as dangerous to the Gospel. Mohler, an influential voice in conservative evangelicalism who frequently voices his opinions on current events through his daily podcast, took part in a panel discussion last week at the 2019 Shepherds Conference at MacArthur's Grace Community Church in California. During the panel discussion moderated by Grace to You Executive Director Phil Johnson, Mohler and other panelists on stage were asked why they didnt sign The Statement on Social Justice & the Gospel. The statement spearheaded last year by the 79-year-old MacArthur claimed that social justice values borrowed from secular culture are currently undermining Scripture in the areas of race and ethnicity, manhood and womanhood, and human sexuality. The statement seemed to challenge the embrace of social justice causes by influential institutions such as the Southern Baptist Conventions Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and The Gospel Coalition. Are you not concerned about the liberalizing drift [of the social justice movement] and all the rhetoric that goes along with that? Johnson, who has worked for MacArthur for decades, asked Mohler. Mohler, who didnt sign the statement last year, didnt seem too pleased with the question. He stated that he took a bit of offense to the question because he has laid out his concerns with the political left and cultural Marxism over his 30-plus years in ministry. When it comes to concerns about the evangelical left, I have been quite vocal. Anyone who knows the conversations among evangelical leaders knows exactly where I am on these issues, Mohler responded. How best to articulate that concern in this particular moment, that is not easy. I have tried to help interpret these issues as clearly and biblically and charitably as I can. [I] am afraid we are going to lose an enormous number of evangelicals to various kinds of the social gospel because that is a lot easier to find satisfaction in than evangelism. When directly asked why he didnt sign, Mohler explained: I want to be very honest. You have known me for a long time. So you know of my concerns. I am having before God trying to address those concerns the way I think best consistent with 35 years of public ministry, Mohler said. I was not particularly appreciative of being handed a statement. Mohler stressed that when it came to the statement, he had no opportunity to offer any particular consultation or suggestion. It is not pride of authorship but I am just reluctant to sign onto anything that is not creedal and confessional that doesnt express exactly how I want to say something, Mohler explained. Not signing should not be interpreted as a rejection of common concern. I dont think that is fair. During the panel, MacArthur, who will step down as president of The Masters University in California in May 2020, stated that he is not trying to pick a fight with his friends on the stage who didnt sign his statement. I got a lot of heat from people on the internet, MacArthur said of the response to last years statement. I said, look these are my friends. These are men I love. These are men who serve Christ. They have given their lives to him. God has given each of you guys a formidable place in the kingdom and you all had an impact on my life. . I dont fight my friends. Why would I do that? I dont want to become an island. My enemies have already eliminated me, if I get rid of my friends, I may have nobody but Phil. Assembly of God Pastor and Family Held Hostage for 4 Days Released by Captors in Burkina Faso Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The Christian pastor who was abducted last Sunday with his family in Burkina Faso's northeastern province of Soum has been released. Local sources told national broadcaster Omega Radio that Pastor Pierre Boena, his son David and his daughter-in-law, Ami Sawadogo, were released on June 7. The report does not specifically mention the two granddaughters, Fasne-wende Ouedraogo and Pelagie Sawadogo, who were also abducted during the raid on Sunday, but does state that the pastor was released "with all the other members of his family in Malian territory." The reason for their release is not known, nor is it known whether a ransom was paid. Pierre Boena, a pastor with an Assembly of God church, was kidnapped last Sunday evening in his village of Bilhore, near the border with Mali. At the time of the attack he was at home with four family members and a church member, Pauline Sawadogo, who was visiting with her two daughters, Sanata and Zoenabou, local sources told World Watch Monitor. These sources suggested that Pauline and her daughters might have been kidnapped along with Pastor Boena's family on June 3. Speaking on Thursday they said the whereabouts of Pauline and her daughters remain unknown. Meanwhile there has still been no news regarding catechist Basnere Mathieu Sawadogo, and his wife Alizeta, who were abducted two weeks earlier. Mathieu serves as a catechist at their parish, Notre Dame des Apotres (Our Lady of the Apostles) in Arbinda, 62 miles from Djibo. Kidnappers have previously targeted Djibo. Eighteen months ago an Australian couple were taken hostage from the city by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Ken and Jocelyn Elliott had run a 120-bed clinic for 40 years until their abduction in January 2016. Jocelyn was released a month later, but her husband remains in captivity. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the recent kidnappings but World Watch Monitor understands that the perpetrators are believed to be members of the Fulani ethnic group. Some relatives have been able to speak over the phone with the hostages, who told their family that they were in good health and were being treated well by their abductors. There has been speculation that the kidnappings could be the result of acts of violence against Fulani communities by security forces which, it was said, had angered them. Fulanis and Tuaregs are the two main nomadic ethnic groups in northern Burkina Faso, and in neighbouring Mali and Niger. Access to grazing land and water have caused tensions between the two communities. Militant members of the two communities are also fighting alongside numerous Islamist groups active in the Sahel region. Pope hears of terrorism concerns The recent kidnappings of the two Christian church leaders has created an atmosphere of anxiety among Christian communities in the land-locked Sahel nation, seen as a model of tolerance in a troubled region. Burkina Faso's 20 million inhabitants predominantly Muslim (around 60 percent), but also with significant numbers of Christians (over 20 percent, the vast majority of whom are Catholics) and followers of indigenous beliefs (15 percent) have long enjoyed peaceful co-existence. Two weeks ago, 21 Catholic bishops from Burkina Faso and Niger said better dialogue was needed between Muslim and Christian communities if terrorism was to be eradicated. Following their five-yearly ad limina meeting with Pope Francis, in which the bishops discussed their concerns, Bishop Laurent Birfuore Dabire of Dori, BurkinaFaso, told Vatican Radio that "peaceful cohabitation" between Muslims and Catholics continued "despite the atmosphere of insecurity, and everything must be done to support it." His diocese is located in the tense border region with Mali where many of the kidnappings and attacks have taken place, but, he said, what unites people "is family, culture, and traditions that are independent of religion". Increase in Islamist activities Unlike Mali, Burkina Faso has not seen as many terrorist attacks. But it appears it is being slowly drawn into the wars of the Sahel. Attacks attributed to Islamist militants have intensified, particularly in the northern part of the country, prompting a military campaign in the region. In a report published last month, Human Rights Watch highlighted the atmosphere of fear created by the increase in Islamist activities in the region. The New York-based group accused security forces of extrajudicial killings, abuse of suspects in custody and arbitrary arrests. In March, the capital, Ouagadougou, was rocked by twin attacks on the country's army headquarters and the French embassy. Schools and teachers in and around Djibo have also been targeted by the militants. In April, Islamic State in the Greater Sahara kidnapped a teacher "because he was speaking French to the pupils" rather than Arabic, the South African news agency News24 reported. Christians From All 50 States Praying in Nation's Capital for 'Spiritual Shift' in America Sponsored by Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment View Photos WASHINGTON Tens of thousands of Christians from every state in the U.S. have assembled on the National Mall this weekend to sing and worship in dozens of tents and pray for a "spiritual shift" in America. America's Tent of Meeting, is sponsored by Awaken the Dawn and several other partner organizations for the express purpose of focusing on Jesus and to pray for a nation in crisis. ATM began Friday night with a call to repentance on the main stage where an estimated 30,000 people were in attendance park police said, according to an and event organizer. "I see Awaken the Dawn as part of a bigger story that God is telling," said Michael Beardslee of Phoenix, Arizona, in an interview with The Christian Post outside the New Mexico prayer tent. Beardslee works for a nonprofit volunteer engagement agency and has just begun doctoral studies at Grand Canyon University. "There is a story that the enemy is telling in our nation, and he likes a lot of attention and he gets the attention a lot of the time," he said. But it's God's story that will prevail, he added. Beardslee has been praying and fasting for revival to sweep the nation for the past 20 years. He is a member of New Promise Christian Fellowship, a nondenominational church in Phoenix, which hosts the Phoenix House of Prayer, a weekly regional prayer meeting. "I don't know what God's going to do and how He's going to do it, but I know He works in mysterious ways." He was inspired by the vision of ATD, calling people from all 50 states to come and worship on America's front yard in front of the Capitol, and he took time off work to make the journey with his parents. Tens of thousands more are expected to attend over the course of the weekend, with various evangelistic equipping sessions planned and round-the-clock prayer in the tents until the event concludes Monday morning. Fifty-eight prayer tents, one for each state and eight regional tents are stationed all along the National Mall grounds. Speaker include Mike Bickle of the International House of Prayer, Francis Chan of We Are Church, Heidi Baker of Iris Global, Shawn Bolz of Expressions 58 and several others. The vision for all 50 states to gather around the worth of Jesus and exalt Him, as articulated by The Prayer Furnace's David Bradshaw in an interview with CP, was what inspired Christy Holt to make the trip to Washington from Pensacola, Florida, to participate. "I came because there is unity when all gather together and when they said there were going to be 50 tents on the mall. I love D.C. and I love the fact that every state is represented in our union," Holt told CP in an interview outside the Smithsonian. "With our country and the mess that it's in and the disunity, I thought 'Lord Jesus, thank you that somebody got a vision of unity and of what that would look like.'" She made a point to say that everything that happens in the nation's capital trickles down into the rest of the country and she wanted to come to intercede for her home state and to pray against the bitter division operating in the country. Marcie Lowe, a friend of Holt's, who was born in Ohio but is now based in Florida and is currently working in North Dakota, told CP with a chuckle, "I'm tent-hopping, I really am." She is taking the time to pray and worship in several states' tents. "My heart is for so many states in the union, but first and foremost for the United States of America. If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. And we're taking a stand for Jesus," Lowe said of their presence in Washington. "The whole world sees that we need Jesus. The whole world sees that we need to make a move for faith, for justice, and for liberty for all. It's time right now. It's [2 Chronicles] 7:14 'if my people who are called according to my name.' We need to humble ourselves and we need to seek His face, and pray. And we need to do it right now. We need to show God that we are on His side once and for all." Likewise, Angel Sweazy traveled to the District from Nevada. She is a member of Horizon Christian Church, a nondenominational evangelical congregation in Reno. With her husband she is pioneering a YWAM base there and believes the timing of America's Tent of Meeting is significant given the recent horror in her home state. Last Sunday, gunman Stephen Paddock murdered 58 people attending a country music festival in Las Vegas, using high-powered firearms from his 32nd floor Mandalay Bay hotel room. "The enemy overplayed his cards this time, because what he planned for evil, the Lord has just come in and said, 'But I can make good out of everything," Sweazy said. As CP reported earlier this week, a man who said he was an atheist told CNN that the only way he escaped was with God's help, and he's now a believer. A "major spiritual shift" happened Friday night as thousands have begun praying, Sweazy continued, noting that she could sense the change in the air. And God "is speaking through each one of these 50 tents," she said, remarking on how God's people are all uniquely praising Him. Although the darkness is intensifying and Revelation 12-like events are happening, she said, "this is the time for us [as Christians] to stand up and say, 'Yes. Yes and amen to what God has planned and we don't need to be afraid at all because, as a city and as a nation, we can see this is really bad but He told us this was going to happen," and that He has great plans in store for America. "He is coming, and there is so much excitement in the air knowing that," she emphasized. Awaken the Dawn will conclude on Monday, Oct. 9. Gay pres. candidate Buttigieg talks Christian faith, slams Pence supporting 'porn star presidency' Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who announced himself in January as the first openly gay Democratic presidential candidate, says he tries to live a life that is consistent with Christian teachings and questioned whether Vice President Mike Pence truly believes in Scripture. First of all I try to live a life that is consistent with Christian teachings. I know that it is my responsibility not to ever do anything that would in public life, not be equally beneficial or make as much sense to people of another faith or people of no faith. But in my life I believe in that Christian ethic, the idea that was drilled into me in Catholic school even though Im not Catholic, Im Episcopalian, said Buttigieg at during a Q&A at The South by Southwest Conference & Festivals on the weekend. The Harvard graduate who served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve and was deployed in Afghanistan, earned the Joint Service Commendation Medal for his counterterrorism work. He was responding to a question about what role faith plays in his life and he had a lot to say about it. That idea of the invitation of Christ, this sense that when God himself comes to earth, he is rejected in many ways largely because he tells the truth. He concerns himself with whats going on with those who are marginalized. He understands his role on earth not to be glorified but to serve, Buttigieg said before pointing out how Jesus demonstrated how Christians should serve by washing the feet of his disciples. Foot-washing is one of the most powerful images in the New Testament Feet are gross and even more so then, right. Not what you would expect the divine to be doing when He comes down to earth. And then the Old Testament full of the complexity of trying to be in contact with the absolute. Wrestling with God, these images. And so I try to live a life thats consistent with that, he said. The Rhodes Scholar who also attended Oxford and lives with his husband in South Bend, described himself as a rationalist enlightenment kind of guy who tries to be attentive. But I also know that there are limits on where reason can take you especially in public life. A lot of the problems I deal with are not technical problems that have a right answer like how can I treat wastewater at 10 percent less of the cost? Right, that has like a right or wrong answer, if we can figure out a way to do it then by definition we should do it, he said. But if the question is there is no way to have these peoples rates going down without those peoples rates go up thats a moral question. How do you want to share a burden? We need more than technical tools to deal with that. We need moral reasoning and in my own experience, faith is a helpful way to tune ourselves to that need, Buttigieg explained. When asked when was the last time he prayed he said he prayed in Church on Ash Wednesday in the morning but noted it is an activity he finds challenging. I find prayer challenging. Im liturgically conservative. I like to pray in church when we are all saying prayers at the same time because I think thats a communal act of tuning our hearts a certain way. I have trouble with the traditional formats for prayer just because I have trouble, I mean grammatically, he said. Grammatically when we pray we are in the imperative mood which means were telling God what to do. I get that theres a lot more to prayer but personally I think prayer is mostly about making sure that I am tuned. The prayer that makes the most sense to me is that may we delight in Thy will and walk in Thy way which is what were supposed to be, not telling God what hes supposed to do, he added. The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate also questioned Vice President Mike Pences faith on Sunday during the conference noting that Pences religious convictions dont appear to align with his support of President Donald Trump's "porn star presidency." "I mean, I don't know. It's really strange," Buttigieg said. "Because I used to at least believe that he believed in our I've disagreed with him ferociously on these things but I thought, well, at least he believes in our institutions, and he's not personally corrupt. But then, how could he get on board with this presidency? How could somebody who you know, his interpretation of Scripture is pretty different from mine to begin with." He argued that Pence's understanding of religious text "has a lot more to do with sexuality and, I don't know, a certain view of rectitude." "But even if you buy into that, how could he allow himself to become the cheerleader of the porn star presidency?" Buttigieg added. "Is it that he stopped believing in Scripture when he started believing in Donald Trump? I don't know, I don't know." Jim Bakker says he prophesied in 2007 Trump would become president to 'wound the left' Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Controversial televangelist Jim Bakker stated that he predicted the election of Donald Trump back in 2007, referring to it as a a great wounding that would happen to the left. On an episode of The Jim Bakker Show that aired last Thursday, Bakker talked about how on New Years Day 2007 he predicted that the Lord showed me there is going to be a great wounding on the left. Regarding those comments from 2007, Bakker said that while it took him some time to figure out what that wounding was, he has since concluded that it was the election of Donald Trump. Why did God tell me that? Why would He have me to blurt that out on television? It was because whats going on right now. If you want to understand whats happening in America, this wounding is happening in America because of the anger on the left, said Bakker. He said there will be a great wounding on the left. And theyre so upset because their candidate did not win. They guaranteed their candidate would win. But she did not. And theyre mad. Bakker went on to claim that some liberals who supported Hillary Clinton in 2016 will kill Donald Trump if they can, quoting MorningStar Ministries founder Rick Joyner in saying civil war is coming to America. Hemant Mehta of the popular Friendly Atheist blog critiqued Bakkers claim, pointing out in a blog post last Friday that soon after his prediction, Barack Obama was elected president and served for two terms. Just a Christian preacher claiming a decade-old prophecy has come true and that liberals are going to go on a murderous rampage. Its catnip for gullible conservative Christians who survive on daily doses of fear, wrote Mehta. Bakker is not only person claiming to have predicted the rise of Trump. Retired firefighter Mark Taylor had a book published in 2017 titled The Trump Prophecies saying that he was told by God that Trump would become president back in 2011. In an interview with conservative Christian radio host and author Eric Metaxas last November, Taylor also claimed that prominent liberal Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would be tried for treason in the near future. "They will be charged with treason, including Barack Obama and they will go to prison," said Taylor in the 2018 interview, adding that "I know it's coming." They are going to go down. Bill Clinton will be charged with things. Hillary Clinton will be charged with things. Pro-LGBT churches not leaving UMC just yet, advocacy groups say Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment While many predicted that there would be schism within the United Methodist Church following a recent General Conference vote affirming the denominations stance against homosexuality and gay marriage, it may not be coming just yet, according to pro-LGBT groups. In February, delegates at the UMCs special session of General Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, voted to adopt a plan that not only upholds the church bodys position against homosexuality and the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals, but also put in place stricter enforcement of said rules. The Traditional Plan succeeded in large part because of delegates representing Africa and other overseas regional bodies within the UMC. Jan Lawrence, executive director of the Reconciling Ministries Network, which has hundreds of churches affiliated with them, told The Christian Post that leaving the denomination is not being considered. We do not know of any churches currently discussing exit. We are encouraging our churches not to discuss leaving at this point, explained Lawrence. Bridget Cabrera, executive director of the Methodist Federation for Social Action, another pro-LGBT group, told CP that she has found many churches her organization has ties with are saying they will dissent from the plan and continue to welcome everyone. None of the churches that I'm connected to have voiced they are planning to leave. The response has been the opposite, said Cabrera. For the past several years, there has been a great deal of internal debate over the UMCs official stance on LGBT issues, with many American liberals seeking to have them changed. In April 2017, the UMC Council of Bishops announced that there was going to be a special session of General Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, on Feb. 2326 centered on adopting a plan to help the denomination end the debate. The two plans with the greatest support going into the special session were The One Church Plan and The Traditional Plan. The One Church Plan sought to have regional bodies and local congregations determine their own stance on LGBT issues. It was supported by most members of the Council of Bishops. The Traditional Plan sought to maintain the UMCs current position and also provide stricter enforcement of said rules while possibly giving a gracious exit for pro-LGBT congregations. During the special session, delegates rejected the One Church Plan and then approved the Traditional Plan in a vote of 438-384. Many theologically liberal United Methodists and leaders denounced the decision, with several congregations restating their support for the LGBT movement. Adam Hamilton, senior pastor of the Church of the Resurrection, which is the largest UMC congregation in the United States, entertained the idea of leaving the denomination. I think it would not be hard, said Hamilton in an interview with The Kansas City Star that was published days after the special session ended. I think our folks here love the United Methodist Church they love the kind of church we have created and so we could start a new United Methodist Church and thousands of churches would join us. Other megachurch pastors, including Pastor Talbot Davis of Good Shepherd UMC of Charlotte, North Carolina, which has approximately 2,000 worshippers every Sunday, praised the passage of the Traditional Plan. I am delighted that the Special General Conference of the United Methodist Church adopted the Traditional Plan as we believe in the beautiful picture of celibacy in singleness and faithfulness in heterosexual marriage that is woven throughout the pages of Scripture as well as church teaching for since its inception, Davis told CP in an earlier interview. We gladly join with our global brothers and sisters in teaching this truth with as much love and winsomeness as we can. The Rev. Shane Stanford, teaching pastor at Christ Church in Memphis, Tennessee, which has over 5,000 members, told CP that he was pleased with the result, especially the plans increased accountability. For my congregation in particular, the adoption of the Traditional Plan will have minimal effect. The vast legacy of my congregations spiritual DNA leans to a more evangelical, orthodox heritage, said Stanford. While approved by the majority of delegates at the special session, the Traditional Plan will need to be reviewed by the United Methodist Judicial Council in April to determine whether it will be allowed to take effect. SBC pastor repents for not taking action, says fired music minister had multiple victims Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Just over a week after a Southern Baptist Convention committee determined that six of 10 churches did not need further inquiry regarding their handling of sexual abuse, Pastor Rodney Brown, leader of one of the six churches, repented and apologized for not earlier firing a staff member alleged to have abused several children because the staffer was a friend. Recently I have come to realize that I failed my duty as pastor in not taking action against an individual who had been accused of child abuse in the past at another church. This was because of my longstanding friendship with the accused, Brown, who leads Trinity Baptist Church in Ashburn, Georgia, said in a statement to The Christian Index last Thursday. Other victims have now come forward naming this person and he has admitted to assaulting several young people many years ago. I now realize that what I first thought was an isolated incident was much more. I should have understood that earlier and not doing so was a great mistake on my part. I cannot apologize enough for my actions, Brown said, noting that the staff member has since been fired. Although there has never been any known abuse at Trinity, the person accused has been terminated from the staff at Trinity. He was also asked to immediately resign his church membership, which he did. He has been directed not to return to Trinity." Last month, SBC President J. D. Greear named Trinity Baptist Church among 10 churches he argued should face inquiries into whether they concealed sexual abuses or knowingly hired sexual predators. Brown had previously told the Baptist Press, that the now fired staffer had confessed he had molested a young teen decades earlier and had repented. Church leaders came back to me and said, Rodney, the man says hes repented, Brown told BP. Were not his judge. Weve not seen anything to indicate any of this at our church. David Pittman is one of the men who says he was abused by the staffer identified by the Houston Chronicle as a music minister more than 30 years ago. Pittman has been trying to get justice for himself and the other victims for the last 13 years and he said he felt vindicated by the recent firing. The SBC, he told the Chronicle, needs to understand the difference between child protection and risk management, because they seem to be more concerned with insurance policies than with the souls of the children and the lives that could be damaged. Im hopeful for the first time in decades that we can meet with them and they can hear what needs to happen for children to be better protected and for survivors to be listened to, he said. Pittman said the fired music minister abused him in the 1980s at a different church near Atlanta and the trauma forced him to turn to drugs and alcohol. When he came forward with the abuse in 2006, Pittman said police told him it was too late to press charges but he has continued to advocate for justice by contacting schools where the fired minister worked as a substitute teacher. He also reached out to others who alleged abuse at the ministers hand as well as the SBC and churches associated with him. He said he lost hope that any action would be taken against his alleged abuser until Greears short-lived recommendation to investigate Trinity and other churches on the SBCs watchlist. He was floored when the SBC Executive Committee bylaws workgroup stated in a report that for six of the 10 churches, they found no evidence, based on the information they were given, of them showing disregard or indifference for sexual abuse. I looked at my wife and told her I cant do this, he said. I cant give myself hope because theyve lied and failed and theyve said the right words before and then they failed again. In his apology, Brown also referenced Pittman and the other victims. I have injured the victims of the accused by my actions, especially Mr. David P, who brought this to my attention. I have spent much time before God repenting for my actions. I now ask David P and the other victims for forgiveness for my acting so irresponsibly, Brown said. I also must ask Southern Baptist Convention President Dr. J.D. Greear and the SBC in general, along with the Georgia Baptist Convention, to forgive my actions. I have acted irresponsibly toward them in the past few weeks and I truly express my deep sorrow for that. I pray we can heal and become stronger in the protection of our children, he continued. My greatest failure during this time has been to the God I serve who gave His Son for me. This situation has greatly changed my thinking as pastor. I realize that friendship can never override the duties God has given me to protect those we serve in His name. My prayer is for Gods mercy and healing for the victims of these terrible acts and for any churches affected. Should Christians cremate or bury the dead? Evangelical leaders respond Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Southern Baptist ethicist Russell Moore has weighed in on the burial vs. cremation debate, explaining that while God can resurrect a cremated body, burial better reflects the Christian concepts of the coming resurrection and a high view of the body. In a recent video for The Gospel Coalition website, Moore said Christians often become alarmed when he says burial is the Christian way to dispose of the dead because they fear hes implying that people who are cremated are somehow now unresurrectable. Thats obviously not the case, he clarified. Even in the case of burial, the body decomposes and so at the shout of the archangel and the peal of the trumpet, the coming of the Lord Jesus is able to, by the power of God, reassemble the body at resurrection regardless of what has happened to that person. The sea will give up its dead, the Scripture tells us. People who have been eaten by lions and ripped into pieces will be resurrected at the last day. All sorts of things can happen to the body, and God is still able to resurrect that person, he continued. Thats not what the question is about. Moore said that the actual question is: What do we, as the people of God, intend to communicate when we are dealing with our dead? He pointed out that cremation comes from eastern religions that would hold that the persons ultimate destiny is to be disintegrated. In the 19th century, there was a great move from those who would advocate for cremation because burial gave a picture of sleep and of a coming resurrection an idea that was religiously offensive to them. They were right to see that because the Scripture says we are but dust and we will return to the ground from which we came, Moore said. The Scripture also uses that language of sleep. We are put away in sleep in order to be awakened, in order to see the resurrection of the entire body one day. Christians, Moore said, should care what they communicate about death because of the very high view that the Bible has of the body. The body isnt just a disposable container of the person, he said, pointing out that according to Scripture, the women who visit the tomb of Jesus went to anoint Him. They were not going to anoint some meaningless piece of tissue, Moore explained. They were going to anoint Him; His body was Him. And so, death unnaturally separates the soul from the body, but we are soul and body together. When we care for the body and when we honor the body, we communicate that the body matters and that a day of resurrection is coming. The speaker and author said he wouldnt want to judge anyone who has chosen cremation for themselves or put guilt on those who have chosen to cremate a loved one. Still, he encouraged Christians to hold on to the meaning of burial because it communicates what we believe about the body and the future day of resurrection. Preference for cremation in the United States has risen dramatically in recent decades. In 2016, just over half (50.2 percent) of Americans chose cremation, while 43.5 percent opted for burial, according to a report from the National Funeral Directors Association. By 2025, according to research from the Cremation Association of North America, more than half (56 percent) of America's dead will be cremated. While Christians have historically opposed cremation since the body of every human being was made by God in His image and thus deserving of respect, no explicit condemnation of the practice exists in Scripture. Still, a number of pastors and faith leaders have weighed in on the issue. Craig Groeschel, pastor of Life.Church, previously pointed out that Genesis 3:19 reads, For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return." If you were buried in a box, youre going to become dust. If youre cremated, youre going to become dust, its just going to be faster, he said. My guess is that if Jesus can put you back together, cremation is probably OK. But John Piper, former pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, advised against the practice of cremation, believing that Scripture does not condone burning but burying the body. Unlike Greek religion, Piper explained, biblical faith "does not view the body as the prison of the soul." "So the afterlife has never been viewed as the 'immortality of the soul' finally liberated from its physical prison. Rather, Christianity has always viewed the body as essential to full humanity so that the life to come has primarily been seen as the resurrection of the body in glorious eternal life. [The Apostle] Paul did not consider the intermediate bodiless state, between death and resurrection, as ideal." "The greatest thing that can be said about the human body is that the eternal Son of God was incarnate in a human body and will have one forever," he continued. Piper stressed that Jesus paid for our bodies with His blood and that the human body is described in the Bible as the "temple" of the Holy Spirit. "Christians also have seen burial as the laying to rest of the body as though it is sleeping, waiting for the waking of the resurrection," he said. 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. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment I spent a lot of time last year in the world of Counseling & Psychology. My own mental struggles drove me to books, journals, a degree programeven to a Christian counselors officein search of information that would help make sense of the complexities in my thinking. Some Christians warn others not do dip their toes into the dangerous waters of Psychology. Though I sympathize with these folks perspective (Ill get to that in a minute), I dont completely agree with it. Psychology is not the devils religion. Its simply the study of the human mind and behavior. There are a vast amount of documented observations of abnormal thought & behavioral patterns that have been collected over the years. This information can be an excellent resource for people who want to better understand and overcome their own mental struggles. It was for me. But theres one prominent idea I keep coming across in Christian Integrationist circles (those who seek to integrate psychology and Christian theology) that I violently disagree with. The idea is this: In order to receive and enjoy Gods love, I must first believe I am worthy of his love. The Christian Counseling professionals with whom Ive come into contact or whose material Ive read argue that many mental issues are rooted in false beliefs that an individual has about God and/or themselves. Amen. I agree. We think wrongly because we dont see rightly. We desperately need for our core beliefs about God, ourselves, and reality to align with what is real and true. But to say that one of these core beliefs must be Im worthy of Gods lovethis is where my amens end. This is also where I sympathize with Christians who avoid Psychology like the plague. The science itself isnt bad. But some of the humanistic beliefs within it are so blatantly opposed to Christian doctrine and so dangerous to a weak, unsteady soul that its almost worth throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Demonic is the counsel that tells someone he must see himself as worthy or deserving of Gods love. It flies in the face of Gods Word and steers the struggling person far away from a right view of reality and therefore far away from real, lasting happiness. Modern psychology may portray man as lovable and good, but the Bible paints a completely different picture. They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. Isaiah 53:3 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great . . . that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Genesis 6:5 . . . the intention of mans heart is evil from his youth Genesis 8:21 If you then, who are evil . . . Jesus to his disciplines, Luke 11:13 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. Romans 7:18 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty. Jesus to his disciples, Luke 17:10 Sinful mankind is not worthy of Gods love. Period. BUT . . . does mankinds unworthiness of Gods love mean He doesnt love mankind? Praise his name that the answer is NO! For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. Psalm 86:15 The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17 I think the end that some integrationist counselors have in mind is good and rightthat people would come to a place where they fully believe the love God has for them. Its their means to that end which is bad. They say that a persons joyful receiving of Gods love is dependent upon that person first viewing himself as worthy of Gods love. But this dependency is one conjured up completely by human imagination, not drawn from Scripture. In fact, Scripture goes the extra mile to keep us from drawing the false conclusion that theres something good in us or about us that provokes God to be loving toward us. Take a close look at these two texts in Deuteronomy: It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers,that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. Deuteronomy 7:7-10. Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lordyour God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Deuteronomy 9:5 Notice two things. One: it is not because you were more in number . . . not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heartin other words, Gods goodness toward Israel wasnt based upon upon anything they brought to the table. Two: but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers . . .in other words, Gods love for Israel was based completely on his free, sovereign choice to direct his love toward them, in accordance with his covenant. Another massive derailing from Christian doctrine Ive seen in Integrationist circlesand one tightly intertwined with the one Ive been writing about thus faris the failure to distinguish between Gods common grace and his special (or covenant) grace. They talk about Gods love as if every single person to ever exist is automatically, by virtue of their existence, a recipient of Gods fatherly, covenantal love. But this isnt true. God does not relate to all people in the same way. While He does have a common love and care that is extended toward all his creation (Jn. 3:16 and elsewhere), he also has a special, fatherly, covenant love that is extended only toward his chosen people. You can see this in the two texts I pasted from Deuteronomy. God is dealing graciously with rebellious Israel, yet he talks about destroying other rebels. Hes being kind toward some wicked people (Israel) and wrathful toward other wicked people (the inhabitants of the land). What was the difference between these two groups of people? Nothing! At least, not when it came to their character or moral condition. Both groups of sinful people deserved Gods justice. Yet to some he was gracious, according to nothing more and nothing less than his free, sovereign choice to be gracious to whom he desired. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on Gods part? By no means!For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. Romans 9:14-18 Someone may ask, But how do I know if God has chosen to love me with his special, covenant love? The doctrine of election has often been another trampoline off of which people bounce into morbid introspection, looking frantically for some indicator of their election within themselves. There is a place for self-examination; Gods covenant love always brings forth new desires and affections in every heart into which it falls. Its good to ask ourselves, Do I love God? Do I see any evidence of that love in the way I live? Its right to draw confidence of our election from Christlike qualities in our lives. But even the most mature Christians will be frightened to death of what else they see when they look in on themselves: selfishness, deceit, lust, doubt, etc. Scottish pastor Robert Murray McCheyne said, For every glance at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. If you want to grow in confidence of your election and Gods great love for you, look away from yourself to Christ. When you see him in your minds eye, what do you see? Some Jewish man who you were told to ask into your heart when you were six but who you really couldnt care less about today? Or do you see a God who left his heavenly glory to suffer and die for rebels like you? Is your heart movedeven if not as fully as you wishby the sight of the crucified Savior? Do you believe in this One you see? Do you believe in the name of only Son of God? If you believe, its because God loves you and has enabled you to believe. Yes, even your belief is a gift of his love! He doesnt ground his love for you in anything that you bring to the table. Not your works, not your faithnot even your being one of his image-bearers. There are billions of image bearers in Hell! Gods love for you is based on the most concrete, stable things in the Universe: his decisive will and eternal purpose. This means that there is nothing you can do to make him love you more, and nothing you can do to make him love you less. Because his love for you is not primarily about you, and who you are. Its about Him, and who He is. Originally posted at MattMooreWrites.org Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment In Deuteronomy 25, Moses commanded that if a man dies childless, his brother should marry the widow and that the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. The practice, called Levirate marriage was the backdrop for the Sadducees trick question for Jesus about the woman who married the seven brothers (Matthew 22). If the surviving brother refused to fulfill his duty and marry the widow, she had options. One was to pull off the deadbeat brothers sandal, spit in his face, and say, So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brothers house. Another possibility was for another kinsman to volunteer to marry the widow. In that case, the sandal would still be removed but would be handed to the willing kinsman without any spitting or cursing. This is what happened with Boaz and Ruth. Today, Levirate marriage is rarely if ever practiced, even among the most traditional Jews. Instead, an increasing number of Israelis have found a new way to achieve the goal of Moses command. As described in a recent article in the Atlantic Monthly, all Israeli women under the age of 45 have a right to IVF treatments for up to two children. Now, IVF, as weve discussed a few times on BreakPoint, is a procedure laden with ethical challenges, at least from a Christian perspective. Even so, the Jewish state has added a new ethical dilemma by fully subsidizing IVF procedures using genetic material from deceased spouses. That is, retrieving sperm from a deceased husband, and using IVF to create and implant an embryo. If the idea of creating a child from a deceased husband sounds strange, hold on. It gets even stranger: this procedure isnt limited to widows. As the Atlantic tells readers, Israel is learning that the parents of deceased childless sons are increasingly looking to reproductive technology to provide them with a posthumously-conceived grandchild. The article tells of an unmarried woman whose biological clock is ticking more loudly. She wants to have a child using IVF but is concerned about that child not knowing its fathers family. Her problem is solved when she comes across a grieving family looking for a woman to bear their dead sons child. To make a long story short, the procedure I described earlier worked, and a child was born from a dead biological dad, but with two sets of grandparents. And everyone lived happily ever after Or did they? Were talking here of the phenomenon of ghost dads, and it raises a host of ethical questions. First and foremost is that the child is not the fruit of a union whose purpose was to produce her. Instead, she was conceived to meet someones elses emotional needs. As a social worker at Hebrew University asked: Is it ethical to create a child as the means for fulfilling the wishes of an adult, in any way possible, and at any cost? Another expert quoted in the article raised questions about the impact of what he called planned orphanhood. We have no idea how a child will feel knowing that he is not an individual, but a copy of someone else . . . a living monument to the dead. By the way, the ghost dad phenomenon isnt limited to Israel. While some European countries explicitly forbid it, the United States doesnt. Whats more, the rates of children reproduced posthumously vary from state to state, furthering reinforcing their status as means rather than ends. Even though, as I mentioned recently, Israel treasures children in ways that few nations do, you cant say the same of the U.S. Too often here, having kids is something you get around to and the thing we worry most about is having the freedom to live as we please. If kids get in the way, we eliminate them. If they serve our purposes, we accept them. We might even use our technologies to make them. Either way, in any country and everywhere, its wrong. The point of having children should never be us. It should be them. Resources Grieving Parents Are Turning to Posthumous IVF, Shira Rubin, The Atlantic Monthly, February 27, 2019 Originally posted at Breakpoint. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Imagine this scenario. A so-called pro-life activist shoots and kills an abortion doctor and then turns himself in. At once, the media comes to me and asks, Will you denounce this act of violence? I respond, I denounce this act of violence, just as I denounce all acts of violence, including the violence of war and the violence perpetrated on babies by abortion doctors. Would you be satisfied? Or would that strike you as a real cop-out? What if I had said, As a pro-life leader, I categorically denounce this murderous, anti-life act. There is neither excuse nor justification for this, and it violates the very foundations on which our movement stands. Would that be satisfactory? I would think so. In the same way, when a Palestinian terrorist slaughters Israeli children in cold blood, Palestinian leaders are often asked for official statements, condemning the violence. The leaders often comply, but with statements like this: I denounce this act of senseless violence, just as I denounce the acts of senseless violence committed by Israelis against Palestinians. That is hardly satisfactory, pointing the finger at others for their alleged wrongs rather than simply taking responsibility for the wrongs on ones own side. The Houses resolution condemning anti-Semitism is not much better, watering down the rebuke of Ilhan Omars anti-Semitic comments in a sea of widespread condemnation of other hateful conduct. The resolution, which is 7 pages long, is devoted to, Condemning anti-Semitism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values and aspirations that define the people of the United States and condemning anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry against minorities as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contrary to the values and aspirations of the United States. So, rather than directly rebuking Omar (herself a Muslim), this resolution also condemns anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry against minorities. Talk about losing punch and focus. And talk about losing sight of the unique nature of anti-Semitism in world history, until today. (I address that in detail here.) But this is only the beginning. Because the bill was driven by Democrats, and because Democrats want us to believe that those who voted for Trump are primarily white supremacists, the bill also stated that white supremacists in the United States have exploited and continue to exploit bigotry and weaponize hate for political gain, targeting traditionally persecuted peoples, including African Americans, Native Americans, and other people of color, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, immigrants, and others with verbal attacks, incitement, and violence. So much for focusing on anti-Semitism. In fact, the next sections of the resolution address the crimes of self-identified neo-Con-federates, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and Ku Klux Klansmen. To be fair, the next 10 sections focus on anti-Semitism, noting that anti-Semitism is the centuries-old bigotry and form of racism faced by Jewish people simply because they are Jews. And these sections do a good job of defining anti-Semitism, even giving some examples of anti-Semitism in history. The resolution also highlights why there was such an uproar about Omars claim that some congressmen were loyal to a foreign country (and thereby disloyal to America). The exact wording is, Whereas accusing Jews of being more loyal to Israel or to the Jewish community than to the United States constitutes anti-Semitism because it suggests that Jewish citizens cannot be patriotic Americans and trusted neighbors, when Jews have loyally served our Nation every day since its founding, whether in public or community life or military service. Yet the next 5 sections focus on anti-Muslim bigotry, and the final plank of the resolution encourages all public officials to confront the reality of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and other forms of bigotry, as well as historical struggles against them, to ensure that the United States will live up to the transcendent principles of tolerance, religious freedom, and equal protection as embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the first and 14th amendments to the Constitution. Again, to be fair, the first plank of the closing statement reads: Resolved, That the House of Representatives 1) rejects the perpetuation of anti-Semitic stereotypes in the United States and around the world, including the pernicious myth of dual loyalty and foreign allegiance, especially in the context of support for the United States-Israel alliance. But the final plank again waters this down by grouping anti-Semitism together with Islamophobia, racism, and other forms of bigotry. Is this satisfactory? Is this the right response to Omars dangerous rhetoric? Just imagine if the shoe was on the other foot and a Jewish member of Congress made a blatantly anti-Islamic comment. How would American Muslims feel if the House issued a resolution condemning Islamophobia, along with anti-Semitism, racism, and other forms of bigotry. Would they not cry foul, and rightly so? This was the moment to confront the insidious, rising tide of anti-Semitism in America, not to group it together with other hateful and dangerous attitudes. Other forms of bigotry and racism can be addressed another day. Not only so, but at a time when there is genuine reason to be concerned about the rising tide of hatred towards Bible-believing Christians in America this has been well-documented the House did not utter a direct word about this while finding time to address Islamophobia repeatedly. How telling, and how unfortunate. We shall see which direction things go in the days ahead. Fears of more attacks against India's Christians ahead of elections Weeks before millions of Indians head to the polls in the world's largest democratic election, Release International has warned that attacks on the country's Christians are likely to increase. India is home to 28 million Christians, around 2 per cent of the population, but they are facing increasing hostility. Two Christians were murdered in February by Maoist rebels, one in Odisha and the other in Chhattisgarh. However, there are reports that in addition to extremists, the authorities are also perpetrating violence against Christians, with four women and two men recently arrested during a Sunday service in Uttar Pradesh. Those rounded up included the female pastor, Sindhu Bharti, who was reportedly beaten unconscious at the police station, with a witness saying that scalding tea was poured into her mouth because the officers thought she was faking it. The Christians have been charged with intent to offend religious feelings, defiling a place of worship and rioting. According to the latest figures from the Religious Liberty Commission of the Evangelical Fellowship of India, 77 incidents of hatred and violence against Christians were recorded in the first two months of 2019 alone, up from 49 in the same period last year. The EFI believes that a systematic campaign is being waged against Christians in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where 40 per cent of the 325 attacks on Indian Christians last year took place. Their report warns that disruption of church services is commonplace and attacks are growing in frequency in the state. In Tamil Nadu, police and radical Hindus have reportedly gone door-to-door telling Christians not to meet for worship. Some Christians have been ordered to leave their churches. Release International, which works with persecuted Christians worldwide, fears that a rise in rightwing extremism and the elections in April, in which up to 900 million Indians will cast their votes, are only going to make the situation worse for Christians. 'With elections pending, Release International warns violence is likely to increase against India's Christians,' said Paul Robinson, CEO of Release. During a recent visit to India, he met one pastor named only as Steeven, who said he was beaten by militants after he applied to the local court for permission to build a church. 'Seven people beat him up outside the court with rods and sticks. Then they took him to an animal shed, kicked him, gave him an electric shock and partially strangled him with rope. Finally, they took him to a Hindu temple, beat him again and forced him to sign over the land he had bought for the church building,' said Mr Robinson. He continued: 'Members of the ruling Hindu Nationalist BJP have threatened Pastor Steeven to leave the area or they will kill him. Such attacks are growing increasingly common. And violence is expected to rise ahead of Indian elections later this year. 'Release is calling for prayer and support for Christians such as Pastor Steeven, who face intimidation and oppression for the sake of the gospel.' New paper to help evangelicals speak with confidence about Christian view of sexuality The European Evangelical Alliance has produced a new paper to help Christians in living out their beliefs in the face of an increasingly liberal view of sexuality across Europe. The paper offers theological reflections on sinfulness and sexuality, as well as how Christians can seek to influence the values and laws of their society. It notes that across Europe, there has been a dramatic shift in public attitudes to sex and family life in the last 50 years, reflected in a raft of new laws affecting divorce, fertility, fostering and adoption, civil partnerships and marriage. In the face of such wideranging changes, the EEA said that Christians must be 'confident' in living by and sharing their conviction in God's vision for marriage between one man and one woman, even if it provokes a negative response. 'Across Europe, public attitudes on sex and family life have been changing dramatically for at least the last 50 years,' the paper reads. 'In the West especially, nations have strayed far from a biblical understanding of sex and family and an often aggressive, secular culture makes it hard for any to oppose LGBT+ rights. 'People, especially children, are being hurt. Bible-believing Christians are called to proclaim God's good gift of family, based on monogamous heterosexual marriage as the basic and crucial relational unit in society.' It adds: 'Those who speak up for the biblical pattern are often viewed as judgemental bigots.' While the EEA said that the biblical view of sexuality may present challenges for evangelism, it urged the church to find better ways of communicating the beauty of God's vision for marriage and relationships, rather than trying to change the message. 'Many Evangelical Christians feel that their view of marriage has become a major obstacle in evangelism, making people turn their backs not only on the Christian view of sexuality and marriage but sometimes also on Christ himself. This pressure, however, should not result in Christians changing their beliefs,' it said. However, the EEA cautioned evangelicals to check their words, tone and actions to ensure that the message of God's love and grace is not overshadowed by feelings of being judged. 'The EEA believes that the Church's calling is to present the case concerning God's desire for family life to fellow sinners with grace, rather than in judgement,' it said. 'True, there is a place for warning especially when society as a whole is leaving a creation-based ethic. But the main task for the Church should be to tell a better story than secular ideologists: to explore the beauty of the biblical vision of sex and marriage.' It continued: 'We believe that a clear stance on the issues of sex and marriage should go hand in hand with a culture of grace, presenting the biblical vision with an open hand rather than in judgement.' US says religious freedom in China could boost trust in Taiwan The US ambassador for religious freedom on Monday again urged China to give its people religious freedom, a move he said could help gain trust from self-ruled Taiwan, an island China considers its own. Sam Brownback on Friday said in a speech in Hong Kong that China was waging 'war with faith' and that it needed to respect the 'sacred right' of people to worship, especially Muslims locked up in internment camps in Xinjiang. On Monday, he addressed the issue of Taiwan which China considers a wayward province and has pledged to unite, by force if necessary. 'If they want to build some confidence in Taiwan, they should give religious freedom to their own people,' he told Reuters. 'If they would give religious freedom to their own people, that would be noticeable.' Chinese President Xi Jinping sought to reassure people in Taiwan in January that religious and legal freedom on the island would be respected under a peaceful 'reunification'. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has in return rejected Xi's call and instead urged China to embrace democracy. Brownback's visit to Taipei was viewed by some in Taiwan as a sign of support from the Trump administration amid growing friction between Taipei and Beijing. The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, acknowledging that China takes the position that there is 'one China' and Taiwan is part of it. But the United States is also Taiwan's biggest ally and arms supplier and is duty-bound by legislation to help the island defend itself. In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China opposed any kind of official contact between the United States and Taiwan. China was strongly opposed to the envoy's 'wrong comments' about religious freedom and had lodged 'stern representations' with the United States, Lu said, adding that China protected religious freedom. China opposes the United States using the issue of religion to interfere in its internal affairs and urged it to stop, he said. China runs vocational training centres in Xinjiang that meant to carry out de-radicalisation and prevent terror, Lu said. 'They are absolutely not, as the United States exaggerates, so-called re-education camps.' What's a woman's place in the Church? Lessons from 10 great female saints There are times in which we look into the Catholic sphere and think, where are the women? A male-dominated hierarchy, male disciples, men at the altar, financial council, annual BBQ (but often not at the children's liturgy). The debate over a woman's place in the Church has raged since the very outset. Rather than step into this minefield, here are 10 great women giving us all great example. So great, that they have been made saints. 1. St Anne, patron saint of mothers Let's start with the woman that we came from, our mothers, and in this case the mother of our Holy Mother, St Anne. St Anne and her husband St Joachim are not mentioned in the Bible, though they play a pivotal role. Quite unusually at that time, St Anne conceived and gave birth to her only child much later in life. Her child was to be dedicated to God from this moment, and was to become the mother of Christ. 2. St Catherine of Alexandria, patron saint of girls St Catherine of Alexandria is perhaps more commonly known by her unfortunate end. The firework that we now call the 'Catherine Wheel' is named after the spiked wheel upon which Catherine was condemned to her painful death. St Catherine has a large female following which began in the Middle Ages, when she was used as an exemplar for women. At the time it was likely that this was through her dedication to study and chastity. Now one sees her strength in the face of 'mansplaining' pagan philosophers and violent kings as her inspiration to the girls whose patron she is. 3. St Paula, patron saint of widows St Paula is not a popular name in the canon. She is said to have been a close friend of St Jerome, and married a man called Toxotius. They were understood to be a perfect married couple, and his sudden death, when she was aged just 32, was a shock to their community. St Paula demonstrated strength during her grief by continuining to raise her five children alone. As well as this, she also dedicated her life to helping the poor, eventually building a hospice. While initially praised for her perfect marriage, St Paula became renowned for how she came into her own after its untimely end. 4. St Margaret of Cortona, patron saint of single mothers St Margaret of Cortona came from the humblest of beginnings. As in many classic fairy tales, St Margaret's mother died when she was young and she quickly gained a jealous and nasty stepmother. Margaret spent less and less time in the family home and quickly attracted the interest of local baron Arsenio, who invited her to be his mistress. She lived with him for nine years, even bearing him a son, while he continued to refused to marry her. One day, Arsenio's dog came back from a trip without him, and led St Margaret to a place in the forest where she found him murdered. It was at this point that St Margaret turned to faith. She continued to raise her son alone, after her family and the local community rejected her. 5. St Elizabeth Ann Seton St Elizabeth Ann Seton is known throughout north America as a champion of women's education. St Elizabeth Ann Seton was born in upper-class New York society, and married William Seton while they were both still very young. He died young, of tuberculosis, leaving St Elizabeth to care for his seven brothers and sisters. At the suggestion of St Mary's College in Baltimore, St Elizabeth started a sisterhood of women who would then instruct young girls. This was the origin of the first free Catholic school in America. Her order, with perhaps one of the most empowering names in history The Rule of the Sisterhood was formally ratified in 1812. 6. St Hildegard von Bingen, (unofficial) patron saint of creativity Mozart, Handel, Mendelsohn, Hans Zimmer. Even those with little interest in music can name a selection of famous men who have their names at the top of musical scores. Dufay or perhaps Guido da Arezzo are thought of as the earliest medieval composers. However, historians have recently discovered that, contrary to popular belief, women were also composing music at the same time. St Hildegard von Bingen, a mere 800 years after her death, has finally been recognised as one of the first identifiable composers in the history of Western music. Accounts of her life do not limit her to this one skill; St Hildegard was also an accomplished writer, theologian, artist, botanist and poet. An all-round talented woman. 7. St Dymphna St Dymphna, the daughter of a pagan king, lost her mother at a young age. Her father's grief caused him to spiral into mental illness. He thought that he wanted to marry Dymphna because her looks were so similar to her mother's and because his court were advising him that this was a sensible way to keep his kingdom safe. She felt the need to flee Ireland, and eventually settled in Gheel, Belgium, with Fr Gerebran. Her father found her and on the advice of his court, he continued to forcibly persuade her to marry him. Inevitably she was killed for her defiance. Since her death, people have venerated St Dymphna and have been supposedly eased in their mental illnesses. While still relatively unknown, 'Dymphna Day', a Catholic mental health campaign was set up in 2016 to raise awareness of charities that work with people who live with mental ill-health. 8. Saint Therese of Lisieux St Therese of Lisieux is much-loved in the European church, precisely because she did not do very much. She was not martyred, she did not build hospitals, and she did not convert thousands (in her lifetime). Prone to sickness as a child, she was often left alone, a time in which she learned to pray. As the 'baby' of the family, St Therese was often pampered and this cultivated a stubbornness a stubbornness that got her an audience with the pope and an entry into the convent at just 14 years old. The remainder of her short life was simple. She was known for smiling at everyone, eating the leftovers, taking the blame for small accidents that were not hers, and falling asleep during prayer. Her motto has become famous throughout the church: 'Do little kindnesses without making a fuss about them and lots of similar things' or more commonly reported, 'Do small things with great love.' 9. St Winifred of Wales (unofficial) patron saint of unwanted advances St Winifred was the daughter of a Welsh nobleman, and was much sought after by suitors who wanted to marry into their clan. One such suitor, Caradog, was enraged by the notion that she might not want to marry him, but instead become a nun. The only conceivable response, he thought, was to decapitate her. One version of her disastrous end reads that her head rolled down a hill, and at the place in which it landed, a healing spring appeared. This is now the welsh pilgrimage site of Holywell. But fear not! St Winifred's saintly uncle St Bueno, was able to re-join her head and body, and she lived to become a much-loved abbess. Naturally, St Winifred has been unofficially adopted as the patron saint of those receiving unwanted advances. 10. St Theresa Benedicta of the Cross St Theresa Benedicta of the Cross is more commonly known as Edith Stein and is one of the more modern female saints. Her story begins, perhaps unusually, with a rejection of God (and her Jewish faith), aged 14. This was followed by an intense study of philosophy which developed this atheism. However, after later reading about the life and works of St Theresa of Avila, she was inspired to became a Carmelite nun, taking the name St Theresa Benedicta of the Cross. St Theresa Benedicta was from a Jewish family in Breslau, Germany, which is now Wroclaw, Poland. Just six months after she made her eternal profession in April 1938, the antisemitism of Nazism became apparent to the whole world. Edith Stein was arrested by the Gestapo under her Jewish name on August 2, 1942 and deported to Auschwitz one week later. Her final known words, as she left the convent were 'Come, we are going for our people.' We are inspired by the women who went before us in faith, the champions of women in our communities and parishes, and the women who are raising the future generation of women of faith. Nina Mattiello Azadeh studied music and philosophy and was a Faith in Politics media intern in 2016. She has a keen interest in interfaith relations, social action and is a classical ballet dancer. Follow her on Twitter @Ninamataz World Council of Churches mourns loss of staff member in Ethiopian Airlines crash The World Council of Churches was today mourning the death of the Rev Norman Tendis, one of the 157 people killed in the tragic Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday. The Boeing 737 Max 8 was heading to Nairobi, Kenya but crashed minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa, killing everyone on board. The cause of the crash is still unknown but some airlines have made the decision to ground the Boeing model following the disaster. Rev Tendis worked as a consultant for the WCC in its work to help churches invest their resources in making a better planet and had been on his way to the UN Environment Assembly, which began on Monday. He had been due to present to the assembly a roadmap for an 'economy of life' for congregations, communities and churches that he had worked on with WCC colleagues. His previous work had included supporting small-scale agriculture, ethical investment, climate-friendly mobility and other practices aimed at sustainable living. Rev Tendis, who was also a Lutheran pastor in Austria, was remembered today at a memorial service held in the chapel of the WCC's headquarters in Geneva. WCC general secretary the Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit paid tribute to him and all the victims of the crash, saying that the world had lost many experts committed to global sustainability. 'We express our deepest condolences on the passing of the all the people on board the aircraft, and we have particular anguish upon the loss of our own Rev Norman Tendis, who was passionately carving out a path for economic and environmental justice,' he said. 'This had been his compassion and vision for years.' Prof Isabel Apawo Phiri, WCC deputy general secretary, said: 'Norman walked his talk. He was deeply rooted and committed to his congregation, and was committed to share his experiences and vision with the wider ecumenical family. 'His focus and enthusiasm was how each local church can contribute to the economic and ecological justice, in the marketplaces, in the communities, among the nations, and with the earth.' My brother David Hockney John Hockney grew up in post-war Yorkshire as the youngest of five siblings one of whom became Britains greatest colourist. As an early self-portrait and a number of other prints by David Hockney come to auction on 21 March, John looks back on early life with his famous brother During the Second World War, when paper was scarce, seven-year-old David Hockney (b. 1937) used to creep downstairs early in the morning to draw. He drew figures, streets, houses, landscapes and cartoons on the white edge of Dads newspaper, mums magazine or whatever comics arrived that day, writes John Hockney, Davids younger brother by two years. For family members, there was gentle irritation their mint copy had been interfered with. It was not until David got his first sketch book at the age of 10 that his parents understood that this practice was more than compulsive doodling. John Hockney is the author of the soon-to-be published memoir Never Worry What the Neighbours Think. The title is taken from his outspoken socialist father, who resolutely ploughed his own furrow and instilled a similar sensibility in his five children (often to the indignation of their more conventionally minded mother, Laura). Part biography, part reflection on what it is like to grow up with a genius in a religious, working-class home in Bradford, it is a candid account that is told with rueful humour. John Hockneys forthcoming memoir Never Worry What the Neighbours Think, will be published in October 2019 by Legend Press. On the cover is the 1977 painting My Parents by David Hockney, which is now held in the Tate Collection David Hockney At the heart of the book is father Kenneth, a man of sharp intellect and striking naivety as well as being a crusader against large and small injustices. He was a prolific letter-writer Mahatma Gandhi, Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev were all the beneficiaries of his wry wisdom. The Pope was advised to sell his gold telephone and give the money to the Mexican poor, while his outrage over the Suez Canal crisis resulted in a Christmas card from President Nasser of Egypt. Being with David was like having another pair of eyes; he's always looking and sees things we dont John Hockney When the private members bill to suspend the death sentence went through parliament in 1965, Kenneth, who was a tireless campaigner against capital punishment, was invited to the House of Commons by the Labour politician Sidney Silverman to witness the event. Yet Kenneth Hockney was also endearingly unworldly: after his death, John discovered a letter to the manager of the supermarket Morrisons, praising the perforation marks of Izal toilet rolls. They always tear to perfection, he had written. From left to right: Philip, Laura, Margaret, Kenneth and David Hockney. David is wearing the trousers and waistcoat that can be seen in the lithograph self-portrait of 1954, shown below. Courtesy John Hockney Kenneths unconventional nature was inherited by his two younger sons. David, who is now in his eighties, continues to be a complex, gifted and outspoken public figure, holding forth on a number of issues not least his militant support for smoking. John, meanwhile, is a musician and professional storyteller. John says that David understood early on that as a working-class boy from Bradford he would have to fight to become an artist. At grammar school he purposely failed his exams so that he would be allowed to go to Bradford College of Art, where he contrived an eccentric persona based on his hero, the artist Stanley Spencer (1891-1956). David Hockney at the age of 16, having just become a student at Bradford College of Art. Courtesy John Hockney A rare lithograph self-portrait from this time (below) depicts the 17-year-old artist with an uncharacteristic mop of black hair (pre the peroxide hipster of his Royal College of Art years), peering out from behind Spencer-like, owlish glasses. Hockney gave this first attempt at a self-portrait to his mother, Laura, before it was passed down to John, and the print makes it clear that the young artist was establishing himself as a serious contender. It is very solemn, says John, not like Davids personality. I think he was trying to say something about what he wanted to be. The yellow background and pink carpet, John suspects, were inspired by the 19th-century Nabis painter Edouard Vuillard. We certainly didnt have exotic colours like that at home, he says. In fact, what comes across in everything John writes about is the paucity of colour in ration-book Britain from the grey-flowered linoleum on the floor of the boys bare attic bedroom to the shock of seeing Laurel and Hardy perform live at the Bradford Alhambra. Wed only ever seen them in black and white, and Olly had this bright red face, recalls John. He was seriously unwell by then. It would also seem to explain Davids escape to California, and also, perhaps, his virtuosity as a colourist. Absolutely, agrees John. Bradford was mucky. That was the reality, but we would go out to the countryside and being with David was like having another pair of eyes; hes always looking and sees things we dont. Sign up today The Online Magazine delivers the best features, videos, and auction news to your inbox every week Subscribe Yves Logghe/STF The general counsel of CenterPoint Energy is leaving her post to join Virginia-based Brink's Co., the delivery firm known for armored trucks that carry money and other valuables. Dana C. O'Brien told CenterPoint that she is resigning her position effective April 2 as general counsel and senior vice president to pursue another opportunity in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, according to a notice to the Securities and Exchange Commission. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler claimed Monday that U.S. fossil fuels were "cleaner" than those from other countries, encouraging foreign customers to buy American oil, coal and natural gas. He said domestic environmental laws on energy production were tougher than other countries, attempting to marry increasing awareness around climate change with the Trump administration's ambitions to expand U.S. energy exports. "What the U.S. offers the world in terms of energy is our fossil fuels are extracted in a more environmentally conscious manner than anywhere else in the world," he said at the CERAWeek by IHS Markit energy conference in Houston. "If Europe wants to buy natural gas on the market place we produce our natural in a much cleaner way than Russia, for instance." Wheeler's appearance comes as pressure is intensifying on the Trump administration to take steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. So far, Wheeler and other administration officials have downplayed the urgency of addressing climate change. Wheeler, a longtime Washington lobbyist whose clients included the coal sector, took direct aim at Democrats pushing the so-called Green New Deal, which aims to shift the U.S. energy sector and economy away from fossil fuels. CARBON DILEMNA: EPA's Wheeler downplays urgency of climate change, says spike in emissions temporary "There are a few loud voices calling for the dismantling of the U.S. fossil fuel production," Wheeler said. "Not only would this be dangerous for energy security and the national economy, it would be devastating for public health both here and abroad." Climate scientists maintain that reducing global consumption of fossil fuels is essential to avoiding the worst consequences of climate change. A report by the United Nation's International Panel on Climate Change last year said without significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as soon as 2040 countries could begin to see devastating side effects like food shortages and inundated coastlines. Luke Metzger, director of the advocacy group Environment Texas, criticized Wheeler for playing on public fears while, "working to overturn numerous safeguards for health on everything from mercury in our water to soot in our air." "I would laugh at his claim if his actions weren't so damaging to human health," he said. Asked by CERAWeek moderator Daniel Yergin whether environmental issues had become more politicized since his first stint in the EPA as an attorney in the 1990s, Wheeler said they had. "That's a shame because we're doing a lot of positive things on the environment," he said. "The environmental issue has turned into a large campaign issue and a large moneymaker for campaigns." The merrymaking spirit of mariachi music is just as deeply rooted in Texas as in Mexico, and its vitality was on display over the weekend at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. An enthusiastic audience cheered and waved red bandanas at every high point as a competition among five Lone Star State bands started Saturday at the Arena Theater. In the realm of mariachis, it means those moments when fast violins, guitars and its cousins guitarron and vihuela, or long singing pitches, prompt a kind of hand-to-hand dialogue with the audience. "If you cannot interact and excite the audience, you are not a good mariachi band," said Roy Lopez, an adviser and director of the Mariachis Anillos de Oro from Texas A&M University, who was one of the five judges of the competition. NEW RECORD: Los Tigres del Norte beat Cardi B's draw, by six fans Every year, the Go Tejano Committee invites five bands from around Texas to compete for cash prizes, but the big reward for the two finalists is the opportunity to perform at the Go Tejano Day concert at the NRG Stadium, a Houston rodeo staple that draws a large crowd. This year it was 75,586, setting a new rodeo record. Mariachi Real Del Valle from Roma won the competition, held inside the stadium before Los Tigres del Norte, the headliners of the night which broke attendance record at the rodeo. Two groups perform one song each, and audience applause determined the winner. The other bands participating in the contest were Mariachi Los Soberanos from San Antonio, Mariachi Celestial from Kingsville, Mariachi Los Trovadores from San Marcos, and Mariachi Flores Mexicanas from El Paso. Mariachi is a music genre born in Mexico that is also deeply rooted in Texas for generations. "You have to remember that Texas was part of Mexico; we didn't cross the border, the border crossed us," said Lopez. HEAVY BEAT : Metalachi bills itself as the world's one and only heavy metal mariachi band "In Mexico and here, if you have an event, it's not a great event unless you have mariachis. It's a celebration of the Hispanic culture that many (non-Hispanic people) share," said Juan Garcia, chairman of the Go Tejano committee. The mariachi competition is also one of the fundraising events that the Go Tejano Committee organizes each year to provide scholarships for higher education. Last year, they gave 20 scholarships of $20,000 each. NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here. From your living room TV to the colossal video board at NRG Stadium, Chita Craft lights up the screen, large or small, with her weather forecasts. The popular meteorologist is on-air weekday mornings on Channel 11 from 4:30 a.m. to 9 a.m., and on the big screen at the stadium during Texans home games. Over the weekend, a crowd of nearly 2,000 turned out to the two-day grand opening of Unicorn Magical Dessert Bar in Montrose. While doors opened at 1 p.m., would-be patrons from as far as Louisiana and Corpus Christi began lining up outside of the dessert store at 9 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday, owner Javi Babar told Chron.com. Most waited for up to four hours in a line that wrapped around the building at 907 Westheimer in the former Chills360 location. Why all the excitement? The sweets shop out of Dallas is serving up something you'll want to get your hands on: over-the-top milkshakes. Especially the Unicorn, which sold out before day's end on Saturday and Sunday. RELATED: Unicorn-theme dessert store opens in Montrose While we'll never say no to a standard chocolate or vanilla milkshake, Unicorn Magical Dessert Bar has turned the classic diner dessert into a 'Gram-worthy sensation. Here, it's topped with a slice of six-layer rainbow cake and a waffle cone that serves as a unicorn horn. Also on the menu: unicorn-decorated cakes, cake pops, macaroons, ice cream, pink hot chocolate and more. During the grand opening, the dessert bar offered a 20 percent discount to those dressed in unicorn costumes and accessories. While several kids took the dress code seriously, so did a number of kids-at-heart. Spotted in the line on Sunday were Maria Plante, who showed up wearing a pink unicorn hat, and her daughter. "I've loved unicorns since I was a little girl. I'd heard about the store in Dallas and had to come," said Plante, who waited more than two hours in the line. "I'm getting the pink hot chocolate, some cupcakes and lemonade with cotton candy on top." Also outfitted for the occasion were Matt Denmark and Shelly Ortiz. Denmark wore a unicorn headband while Ortiz donned a unicorn onesie. HUNGRY? Find recipes, food news and restaurant reviews in our weekly Flavor newsletter delivered to your email here. "My girlfriend convinced me to come," Matt Denmark said. "She's getting a milkshake. I want a pink hot chocolate and cake." "My wife brought me here as a surprise," said newlywed Courtney Brown, who patiently waited in the long line with her spouse, Leah Brown. "It's a Sunday. We don't have anything else to do and it's not too hot outside." "We want something with a whole lot of glitter. And pink," Leah Brown added. "We've been in line more than two hours. My niece almost gave up but once she saw the unicorn hanging inside the shop, she told me we were going to keep waiting," said Tonya Bell. "She wants a pink hot chocolate." Ivis Villanueva and her family waited for three hours to place their order, including a unicorn milkshake, cupcakes and lemonade. "It was worth it," she said. "My daughter loves unicorns. And it's really good." 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 March 1 At 1:01 p.m., an officer observed a vehicle traveling 48 mph in a posted 35 mph speed zone westbound in the 4200 block of Bissonnet. A traffic stop was conducted and after further investigation the driver was arrested for outstanding warrants with the Houston Police Department. At 2:51 p.m., an officer was dispatched to the 2600 block of Wroxton for a report of a burglary of a motor vehicle that had already occurred. An officer observed a vehicle in the 5500 block of Belmont traveling north bound with expired registration sticker. A traffic stop was initiated and upon approach of the vehicle, could smell a strong odor of marijuana emanating from within the vehicle. The driver and passenger were detained while the vehicle was searched; the officer located drug paraphernalia. The subject was issued a citation for the contraband and released. March 2 At 3:50 p.m., an officer was dispatched to the West U PD Lobby to speak with a victim of identity theft that already occurred. At 10:40 p.m., an officer observed a vehicle traveling northbound in the 6700 block of Stella Link with no headlights when required. A traffic stop was conducted and after further investigation, the driver was arrested for Driving While Intoxicated. March 3 An officer observed a vehicle traveling southbound in the 6700 block of Buffalo Speedway fail to signal lane change and have a defective brake light. A traffic stop was conducted and after field sobriety tests were administered. After further analysis, insufficient evidence was found to pursue any charges and the individual was release from custody. An officer observed a vehicle traveling southbound in the 6700 block of Buffalo Speedway fail to signal lane change and have a defective brake light. A traffic stop was conducted and after field sobriety tests were administered. After further analysis, insufficient evidence was found to pursue any charges and the individual was release from custody. March 5 An Officer observed a vehicle traveling southbound in the 6600 block of Buffalo Speedway with an expired registration. A traffic stop was initiated and upon further investigation, the driver was arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance and Unlawful Carrying of a Weapon. March 6 An Officer was dispatched to the 3900 block of Bellaire in reference to a delayed report concerning theft from a business. At 3:52 p.m., an officer was dispatched to a suspicious vehicle call in the 2600 block of Quenby. The officer located the vehicle and later discovered the vehicle was reported stolen to the Houston Police Department. The vehicle was recovered. March 7 An officer was dispatched to the 2800 block of Reed Rd. to meet with a Houston Police Department Officer who had an individual in custody with outstanding warrants through the City of West University Place Municipal Court. The individual (Domanic Ginns) was taken into custody and transported without incident. An officer observed a vehicle run a red light in the 2800 block of Bissonnet. The officer initiated a traffic stop and upon further investigation, the vehicle was discovered to be stolen out of the Houston Police Department and the driver was in possession of counterfeit government documents. The vehicle was recovered and the driver (Dagim Bisrat) was arrested for Tampering with a government document. March 8 At 4:02 a.m., an officer observed a subject walking in the 3700 block of Tangley. The officer made contact with the subject and smelled the odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from his person. After further investigation, the subject (Natinal Heyilemaryam) was arrested for Possession of Marijuana. 3 1 of 3 International Housewares Association / International Housewares Association Show More Show Less 2 of 3 International Housewares Association / International Housewares Association Show More Show Less 3 of 3 A lifelong Houston resident, Paola Gonzalez, has won second prize in an international student design competition hosted by the International Housewares Association. She designed her product concept, Munch: A Kid's Educational Cooking Set, as a senior at the University of Houston University. Her prize includes $1,750 and an all-expense-paid trip to the International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago, March 2-5, where she will make contacts that may lead to a job when she graduates or a licensing contract for her design. By Trend Financial Market Supervisory Authority of Azerbaijan (FIMSA) has limited the license of the insurance company AXA MBASK, Trend reports with reference to the financial regulator. In particular, AXA MBASK wont be able to provide services on compulsory insurance of civil liability of motor vehicle owners. The regulator made such a decision because the insurance company violated the Law on Insurance Activity when concluding contracts on compulsory insurance of civil liability of motor vehicle owners. The decision will be valid until the company eliminates shortcomings in its work. MBASK Insurance Company has been operating since 1992. It is one of the first private insurance companies in Azerbaijan. In 2010, one of the largest insurance companies in the world - AXA Group acquired a controlling stake (51 percent) of MBASK insurance company through its subsidiary 'AXA Seguros Generales, S.A., De Seguros Y Reaseguros' (Spain). AXA Group owns 100 percent of AXA MBASK's shares. kirbyworks/Getty Images A former insurance agent in San Antonio was sentenced Monday to five years in prison after she pleaded guilty to pocketing money from clients who thought they were buying home policies. Cynthia Olague stole premiums from more than 20 homeowners, leaving their properties unprotected, the Texas Department of Insurance said Monday. Several of the clients only found out they did not have coverage when they tried to file insurance claims for losses. Houston liquefied natural gas company Cheniere Energy has taken another step toward putting the second production unit at its Corpus Christi LNG exporter terminal into service. In an order issued on Monday morning, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave Cheniere permission to start introducing feed gas into a production unit known as Train 2. Cheniere began n the weeks-to-months-long startup process for Train 2 in January. FERC's Monday morning order comes less than two weeks after FERC officials gave Cheniere permission to begin commercial operations for Train 1 at Corpus Christi LNG. Global Market: Top 10 destinations for U.S. LNG exports in 2018 Cheniere is bringing its second production unit at Corpus Christi LNG at a time of growing exports. U.S. LNG producers exported a record 483 shipments of LNG in 2018, an 84 percent increase from the previous year, figures from the Department of Energy show. South Korea was the top destination for U.S. LNG exports with 73 cargoes followed by Mexico with 53 shipments and Japan with 37 cargoes. Fuel Fix: Get daily energy news headlines in your inbox In addition to Corpus Christi LNG, Cheniere owns and operates the Sabine Pass LNG export terminal in Cameron Parish, La., where the company has been exporting liquefied natural gas since February 2016. Founded in 1983, Cheniere Energy employs nearly 1,400 people in Texas and Louisiana. Amid a record 273 export cargoes to 32 nations, the company closed 2018 with a $471 million profit on $8 billion of revenue. Oil began the week on the rebound, as Saudi Arabia moved to extend supply curbs and a nationwide blackout threatened deep production cuts in Venezuela. Futures in New York climbed 1.3 percent after dropping on Friday amid weak U.S. employment figures. Saudi Arabia plans to produce well below 10 million barrels a day in April, a Saudi official said over the weekend. Meanwhile, crude output from fellow OPEC member Venezuela has collapsed in recent days after a four-day power outage, according to a senior oil ministry official there. In terms of production, "there's nothing really bearish about the markets," said Brynne Kelly, an energy trader and analyst who runs The Fundamental Angle, an energy consultancy in New Jersey. "We still have Canada holding back; we still have OPEC cuts. At the moment, inventories aren't out of line." PREVIOUSLY: Oil sputters as economic woes outweigh U.S. drilling slowdown Oil has traded in a tight range above $55 for most of this month in New York, after rallying more than 30 percent from December lows amid output curbs led by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Disruptions in Venezuela, Libya and Iran have also tightened supplies, although U.S. production remains at a record high. Turmoil in Venezuela, owner of the world's biggest crude reserves, is leading its production to slide "significantly," the head of the International Energy Agency told reporters at an energy conference in Houston. State-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA and its joint venture partners are struggling to operate wells and other properties during the power outage that began last week, according to the ministry official, who requested anonymity to speak. The official called the production losses severe but didn't give specific details. West Texas Intermediate for April delivery rose 72 cents to $56.79 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent for May settlement advanced 84 cents to $66.58 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. PRODUCTION: Alaska, Ohio lead rig count plunge With plans to export less than 7 million barrels a day, Saudi Arabia will supply clients with significantly less oil than they've requested for April, the Saudi official said. With Venezuelan output falling due to U.S. sanctions and power blackouts, refiners have asked for more than 7.6 million barrels a day, the person said. "Saudi Arabia at the moment is willing to cover any number of compliance sins from others, by adjusting unilaterally," said Derek Brower, a director at consultant RS Energy Group. Meanwhile, the U.S. Commerce Department said on Monday that retail sales in the world's biggest economy rose 0.2 percent last month, offering a sign of stability after a plunge the prior month. A slew of data releases this week will be closely watched for clues on growth and the impact of central bank policy in the U.S., European Union and China. On the trade front, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Sunday that he's "optimistic" about a resolution of the U.S.-China dispute despite Beijing's push-back against Washington's demands. --With assistance from James Thornhill and Tsuyoshi Inajima. 2019 Bloomberg L.P. Private equity-backed oilfield landfill and saltwater disposal well operator PetroWaste Environmental has been sold to a subsidiary of Houston landfill operator Waste Management. Dallas private equity firm Tailwater Capital announced on Monday morning that it sold San Antonio-based PetroWaste Environmental to WM Energy Services Holdings. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but PetroWaste Environmental was launched in January 2019 with private equity funding from Tailwater Capital. Active in both the Permian Basin of West Texas and the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas, PetroWaste Environmental had developed a network of saltwater disposal wells and landfills to receive waste from oil and natural gas operations. Service Sector: University Lands to expand water services in the Permian Basin Touted as the largest oilfield landfill operator in the Permian Basin, PetroWaste Environmental was preparing to open its first landfill in the Eagle Ford near the town of Nordheim at the time of the sale. PetroWaste Environmental CEO George Wommack told the Houston Chronicle that the Nordheim facility was scheduled to be opened over the next two weeks but that Waste Management is taking over the project. With the sale complete "We are pleased that our employees will have the opportunity to continue to build on our success under Waste Management ownership and expand upon the essential services we provide to our customers and the communities in which they operate," Wommack said in a statement. Fuel Fix: Get daily energy news headlines in your inbox In a separate statement, Waste Management Vice President Scott Bradley said the acquisition allows the Houston company to expand its services to oil and natural gas industry customers. "By leveraging Petro Waste's extensive footprint and scale, core competencies, state-of-the-art disposal facilities and robust customer base, we expect to generate momentum for significant and sustainable business growth," Bradley said in a statement. Saudi Arabia will supply its clients with significantly less oil than they requested in April, extending deeper-than-agreed production cuts into a second month, a Saudi official familiar with the policy said. The move is the latest sign Riyadh is determined to regain control of the oil market as prices remain well below the level that many OPEC members need to cover their government spending. Saudi Arabia plans to produce well below 10 million barrels a day in April, a similar pace to March, when it cut output by 500,000 barrels a day from February, the same official said, asking not to be named discussing internal deliberations. Last year, Riyadh agreed with OPEC and its partners, including Russia, to cap production at 10.31 million barrels a day. PRICES: Oil rises as Saudis said to continue with deeper supply cut With Venezuela output falling further due to U.S. sanctions and power blackouts, oil refiners put in requests -- or nominations in industry jargon -- for Saudi crude of more than 7.6 million barrels a day for April, the person said. However, the kingdom will supply overseas customers with less than 7 million barrels a day, 635,000 barrels less than refiners asked for, they said. Brent oil futures rose as much as 1.3 percent to $66.60 a barrel in London trading. The second consecutive month of deep production cuts shows the worlds largest oil exporter is determined to re-balance the market more quickly even though events in Venezuela have left some refiners short of crude. The crisis has worsened a deficit of so-called heavy-sour crude that many refiners use to make diesel. PRODUCTION: U.S. will soon surpass Saudi Arabia in petroleum exports: Rystad Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil monopoly, decided its monthly nominations over the weekend and told clients early on Monday their individual allocations. Although not identical, Saudi crude can be used as an alternative to Venezuelan crude and is also a good alternative for Iranian oil, also in short supply due to U.S. sanctions. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, has recovered from a sell-off through November and December which saw it changing hands for as little as $50 a barrel. The Saudi cuts come after Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih told reporters in late February that U.S. crude inventories were brimming and reducing the glut was the main objective of the OPEC+ coalition. Since Al-Falih spoke, U.S. inventories have increased further as American oil production sets records. RIGS: Alaska, Ohio lead rig count plunge Saudi Arabia and other OPEC nations have come under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who urged OPEC in a tweet to please relax and take it easy. Al-Falih offered a direct response in February: We are taking it easy, 25 countries are taking a very slow and measured approach. So far, Saudi Arabia has focused its exports cuts in the U.S. market, where weekly data on inventories makes supply changes quickly visible to the wider market. U.S. imports of Saudi crude have fallen to a four-week average of just 513,000 barrels a day, according to the most recent government data, the lowest level since 1986. Last year, the kingdom exported an average of 815,000 barrels a day to the U.S. The extension of the deeper-than-agreed output cuts in April signals that Saudi Arabia is unlikely to press for any change at the next full OPEC+ meeting, scheduled for mid April in Vienna. 2019 Bloomberg L.P. With more liquefied natural gas plants coming online, the number of U.S. LNG export cargoes grew to nearly 500 shipments in 2018, new data from the Department of Energy shows. Four U.S. LNG facilities owned by three companies exported a combined 483 shipments in 2018, marking an 84 percent increase from the 262 export cargoes in 2017. Three of the facilities exported 330 LNG cargoes using tankers in 2018. The fourth facility sent out another 153 LNG shipments in a special type of container known in the industry as ISOs, the data shows. Nearly 82 percent of the U.S. LNG tanker exports in 2018 went to 10 nations. South Korea was the top destination with 73 export cargoes followed by Mexico with 53 shipments and Japan with 37 cargoes. Report: U.S. LNG export capacity to more than double by end of 2019 There were only two destinations for LNG export cargoes using ISO containers in 2018. The Bahamas received 102 of them while Barbados received 51 shipments. Combined, the three companies exported nearly 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, which is roughly equal to 14 percent of the 7.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas produced in Texas during 2018. Tanker shipments averaged 3.3 billion cubic feet of natural gas while ISO shipments averaged 2 million cubic feet of natural gas. Fuel Fix: Get daily energy news headlines in your inbox Houston liquefied natural gas company Cheniere Energy accounted for 282 of the LNG export tanker cargoes in 2018, or roughly 85 percent. Richmond, Virginia-based power company Dominion Energy accounted for 48 export tanker cargoes, or roughly 15 percent. Click through the slideshow above to see the top 10 destinations for U.S. LNG exports in 2018. Cheniere took advantage of record natural gas production from shale revolution and began LNG exports from the continental United States when its Sabine Pass LNG facility in Louisiana sent out its first tanker shipment in February 2016. Now the largest buyer and exporter of natural gas in the United States, the company's Corpus Christi LNG facility began exports in December 2018. Dominion began tanker exports at its Cove Point LNG facility in Maryland in March 2018. New York-based American LNG Marketing began ISO exports from its South Florida facility in February 2016. Boston to Bangladesh: Houston area company a global leader in offshore LNG LNG exports shipments are expected to keep growing in 2019. Fourteen production terminals at four facilities in Georgia, Louisiana and Texas are expected to begin export operations to support tanker exports by the end of the year. Top 10 Destinations for U.S. LNG via Tanker Look for a bight patch of yellow sunshine in Montrose and that's where you'll find Cafe Bustelo, a new pop-up coffee shop that runs through May 25 in Houston. Housed in a bright, canary yellow shipping container, the pop-up java hut opens Tuesday and will run daily from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. dispensing a variety of Cafe Bustelo's rich espresso drinks. Houston was chosen by the coffee brand as the first city for a multi-city outreach to bring Cafe Bustelo awareness to key cities. Although the other cities have not yet been named, Houston proved to be an ideal metropolis to launch the traveling pop-up series, said Eduardo Merino, senior brand manager for Cafe Bustelo. On HoustonChronicle.com: Alison Cook on Houston's golden age of carrot cake "Houston is an important market for us. The brand lives and breathes Latin culture," Merino said. "There's diversity in every corner in Houston and we want to be a part of that diversity." To that end, a portion of coffee sales through the pop-up run will be donated to MECA Houston (Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts) and HACU (Hispanic Association of Colleges & Universities). Cafe Bustelo also intends to engage with local artists and offer activities and programming during the run of the pop-up. On HoustonChronicle.com: Inside Montrose's new unicorn-themed dessert shop The 8-foot-by-40-foot shipping container has been fashioned into a two-level cafe with a 500-square-foot retail area selling not just coffee (cafecito, colada, cortadito and cafe con leche) and pastries (empanadas and pastelitos) but Bustelo-branded items such as mugs, t-shirts and coffee products. It's located on a vacant lot at 3615 Montrose at Marshall near Bacco restaurant. There is parking behind the pop-up. Cafe Bustelo was founded in New York in 1928 and became popular among Cuban exiles; today the full-bodied coffee brand, which is owned by J.M. Smucker Co., is favored within the Latin community. Greg Morago writes about food for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter. Send him news tips at greg.morago@chron.com. Hear him on our BBQ State of Mind podcast to learn about Houston and Texas barbecue culture. The designer of Katy Fire Station 2 David Slattery of Slattery Tackett Architects hit the mark March 2 when asked about the best part of the building: The people who are going to be using it, he said. We tried to make this place their home away from home and help them do their job a little bit more safely, added Slattery. Two days later the city of Katy sent a news release that told of the successful lifesaving efforts by the emergency medical technicians and firefighters from the newly opened station when they responded at 6:33 p.m. March 3 to a call of a three-year-old boy drowning at Homewood Suites pool. Officials said the fire crew responded in 47 seconds, performed CPR and were able to revive the toddler who was transported to Texas Childrens West. The city identified the life-saving crew as Quint 2 Officer Trey Lee, Harry Haynes, Julio Garcia, Rolondo De Leon and Medic 2 Michael Ondruch and Christian Kugler. Ondruch, a paramedic/firefighter, was honored as the departments firefighter of the year in 2018. The station houses the departments Quint 2, a ladder/pumper combination, which is manned by four people per shift for each of the three shifts. The station also houses medic 2, which is staffed by two firefighters each shift, and the departments high-water rescue vehicle. Fire Chief Russell Wilson and District 10 U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul both spoke on March 2 to the station being located in the right spot to serve the city. Its not the original planned location, Wilson told the audience. Tax Day floods in 2016 led the city to abandon the original site near Kingsland Boulevard and Pin Oak Road. The department worked with a consultant who recommended a station near Katy Mills mall, in part, to meet requirements of the Insurance Service Office which evaluates fire departments based on facilities, equipment, training and other factors. The Katy Fire Department has a 2 rating. Rating range from 1, which is the best, to 10. Ratings affect homeowners insurance premiums. We knew we needed to be in the area, said Wilson. This ended up being the area we were able to acquire. The station is located at 25420 Bell Patna Drive, which is west of the mall and near restaurants. Hurricane Harvey played a role, too. When flooding hit the Katy area after Harvey, the station site remained high and dry. This ended up being the optimal location for our station, said Wilson. The site also was used by the National Guard and other responders who came to the Katy area to help residents after Harvey. McCaul said his helicopter landed at the site of the future fire station when he came to Katy after Hurricane Harvey. The congressman called the first responders a great group and said his experience as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee is one of the best experiences of my lifetime. Wilson said Mayor Chuck Brawner, when he served as Katy mayor pro tem, played a key role in working with McCaul to obtain a $2.2 million Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response grant awarded in 2017 that paid for 16 new firefighters for the station. It was really rewarding to help the city get the grant, said McCaul. McCaul talked of rescue efforts after Harvey and the heroic efforts of firefighters during 9-11 in New York City. The firefighters are the symbol of 9-11, going to into the twin towers and saving lives. He referred to them as the unsung heroes and fallen heroes. I dedicate this building to the unsung heroes and fallen heroes who have served us, said McCaul. City officials broke ground for the three-bay, roughly 13,000-square-foot fire station in December 2017. Contractor was Bass Construction of Rosenberg. The station cost most than $3.65 million. The city used funds from a $5 million bond approved by voters in 2014 to pay for the station and a new fire truck. Katy resident Jennifer Spezia welcomed having the new fire station as neighbors. The daughter of a firefighter from Washington State, she said she looked forward to her family, which includes an autistic son, building relationships with the firefighters to help them down the road in case of an emergency. The grand-opening ceremony included a flag raising by members of the Katy Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9182, cornerstone dedication by Katy Masonic Lodge 1439 and a dedication proclamation from the office of District 22 U.S. Rep. Pete Olson. After the official program, the department offered refreshments and building tours. karen.zurawski@chron.com The average American taxpayer spends hundreds of dollars each year in tax preparation fees, but the AARP Foundation is providing those services for free at nine locations across the west Houston area. The AARP Tax-Aide Program has been helping people across the nation with their taxes for 51 years. Everybody is eligible for the services that were originally started to help elderly, retired and low-income taxpayers save money on fees and take home more of their refunds. Helping senior citizens is the main charter of AARP, said David Deeds, the west Houston Tax-Aide Program communications coordinator. That is a huge and growing number. While the amount people pay to get their taxes done varies depending on what firm they use and the complexity of their return, the average person in 2017 paid $273 for an itemized return, according to a survey by the National Society of Accountants. Deeds said the savings from taking advantage of the AARP services can be particularly important for senior citizens because many live on a fixed income. Across the nation, the Tax-Aide Program puts approximately 35,000 volunteers to work at more than 5,000 locations. In total, they help over 2.5 million taxpayers each year. Deeds said last year, the west Houston locations alone assisted with nearly 4,000 returns. He said each of the volunteer tax preparers is equipped and ready to serve those in need. Volunteers are trained in January each year, updated on any new tax law changes and tested to meet both AARP and IRS requirements, Deeds said. He said AARP takes the security and privacy of its clients seriously through filing each return electronically, giving the clients a printed copy and then returning all paperwork back to the clients before they leave. More Information Jungman Library 5830 Westheimer Houston Tuesday 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Thursday noon-4 p.m. Mendenhall Community Ctr 1414 Wirt Road Houston Wednesday 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Friday 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Hillendahl Library 2436 Gessner Houston Wednesday 11 a.m.-3 p.m., Thursday 12:30-4:30 p.m. Tracy Gee Community Ctr 3599 Westcenter Drive Houston Monday noon-4 p.m., Tuesday noon-4 p.m. St Basil Orthodox Church 1100 Eldridge Pkwy. Houston Wednesday noon-4 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Living Word Church 16607 Clay Road Houston Tuesday 11 a.m.-3 p.m., Friday 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Maud Marks Library 1815 Westgreen Blvd. Katy Monday 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Friday 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Cinco Ranch Library 2620 Commercial Center Blvd. Katy Monday 1-5 p.m. Katy Library 5414 Franz Road Katy Tuesday 12:30-4:30 p.m. See More Collapse Clients need to bring several items with them to the center: a picture ID (drivers license), Social Security cards for all family members, year-end statements and tax documents, a Form 1095-A if they purchased their health insurance through the marketplace and whenever possible, last year's return. All the services are performed on a first-come, first-served basis. Across Houston, there are 35 AARP Tax-Aide Program centers. Most are open one or two days each week for a few hours through this years tax deadline, which is Monday, April 15. For more information or a listing of the Houston-area tax centers, visit www.aarp.org/taxaide. tracy.maness@hcnonline.com After reaching out to the public to find a suspect in an assault case, the Harris County Sheriffs Office reports that a woman has been identified and charged. Investigators with the Harris County Sheriff's Office Violent Crime Division asked the public for help in identifying a suspect in an assault on Friday, Jan. 25, 2019, at the Family Thrift Center located in the 6700 block of south Highway 6 in west Harris County. Investigators say that Lakebra Revada, 21, was identified as the suspect that assaulted a woman in an unprovoked attack. Revada is a facing a misdemeanor in this case but is still in jail on a felony aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon charge. Her bond was set at $40,000 in this case. She has previously been charged in Harris County twice on misdemeanor assault charges and twice on misdemeanor marijuana possession charges. In responding to the incident, deputies reported that a woman claimed she was blocked from leaving a parking lot and was assaulted. Investigators with the Violent Crimes Unit then released a photo from store surveillance in the hopes it would lead to identifying the suspect. On Friday, Jan. 25, Harris County Sheriffs Office District 4 deputies responded to a call for service at the Family Thrift Center in the 6700 block of south Highway 6 in west Harris County. According to deputies, the 33-year-old female complainant told deputies she was in her vehicle and was attempting to back out of a parking space. A green-colored Toyota four-door sedan with a Texas temporary plate of 25411PA reversed and blocked the females exit. The complainant reportedly told the suspect that she was trying to back out when the female exited the vehicle and began screaming at the victim. According to the complainant, the suspect punched the woman several times in the face and spat on her. She then entered the green-colored sedan and drove north on Highway 6. Investigators reported that they received several tips on her identity, which help bring this case to a close Anyone with more information on this case is urged to call the Harris County Sheriffs Office Violent Crime unit at 713-274-9100. rkent@hcnonline.com By Trend Irans Minister of Economy and Finance Farhad Dejpasand will visit Azerbaijan, a diplomatic source told Trend. The Iranian minister will attend the 13th meeting of Azerbaijan-Iran State Commission for Economic, Trade and Humanitarian Cooperation on March 14. The 13th meeting of the State Commission will begin on March 13 and the working groups of Azerbaijan and Iran will discuss the agenda of the meeting. The Montgomery County Veterans Memorial Commission is continuing progress on a new memorial in Conroe hoping the Conroe City Council approves a multiuse agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation to allow the commission to place a sign and 13 flags at Interstate 45 and Texas 105. The council will meet at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the council chambers, 300 West Davis St. The state-owned 10-acre site, which was cleared by TxDOT in 2012 for the construction of retention ponds, will be the home of the new multimillion dollar Montgomery County Veterans Memorial. The agreement simply allows the placement of the Veterans Memorial Sign and 13 Flags to be erected on the site, said Director of Community Development Nancy Mikeska. The flags will be up on the berm. The city currently has several amenities located on the site, such as the fountains. Mikeska said while the state owns the property, the site is maintained by the city. The agreement comes on the heels of the MCVMC celebrating the opening of Freedom Boulevard last month that will provide access to the new memorial. The $1.2 million road connects with the Interstate 45 service road and continue east around the Montgomery County Library and connects with FM 2854. The two-lane concrete road provides access to the new Montgomery County Veterans Memorial and the Spirit of Texas bank complex. The project was a collaborative effort between the city of Conroe, Montgomery County and the Spirit of Texas bank. While the road was originally dubbed Veterans Memorial Park Drive, retired USMC Cpl. Jimmie Edwards III, who has spearheaded the relocation of the Montgomery County Veterans Memorial Park near the Montgomery County Library, suggested Freedom Boulevard since Veterans Memorial is widely used. Edwards began the mission to relocate the park about two years ago. His goal is to improve the park, which has 166 names of local men killed in action during their military service. The $8 million project has gained the support of all the cities in the county along with local and state leaders. Edwards along with the Montgomery County Veterans Memorial Commission is continuing to raise funds for the project. No completion date has been released. In other business: Update - The council will hear an update on the Oscar Johnson Jr. Community Center. New MUDs - City staff will present two resolutions to the council to support legislation for the creation of two separate municipal utility districts, one on Texas 105 and one on FM 830. Annexation - Council members will consider a resolution for the direct annexation of several parcels of land all within the citys extraterritorial jurisdiction. Health benefits - The council will discuss reclassifying active council members as city employees to allow them to receive health benefits through the city. cdominguez@hcnonline.com The Katy Area Economic Development Council is backing a series of bills in the Texas State Senate meant to address concerns about disaster preparedness and flood mitigation in Texas and specifically in the greater Houston area. Katy was hit hard by Hurricane Harvey with hundreds of homes and businesses being destroyed by the flooding that later occurred - especially those in areas that lie within the Addicks and Barker reservoirs. Moving forward, without further actions to improve disaster preparedness and mitigate flooding, the area will continue to experience flooding impacting its businesses and residents. Continued occurrence of flooding will not only have massive impacts on business and personal property, but it has the potential to slow economic growth for the entire region, officials with the Katy Area EDC said in a statement. Along with other civic groups and business associations that are part of the Houston Stronger coalition, the Katy Area EDC said it is backing Texas Senate Bills 6, 7, and 8 to help reduce risks by addressing disaster preparedness and flood planning and making what officials are calling significant investment in recovery and future mitigation. The bills were introduced by Texas State Senators Lois Kolkhorst, Brandon Creighton and Charles Perry. Their work shows a commitment to addressing flood mitigation and disaster needs statewide, said Auggie Campbell, a spokesman for the Houston Stronger group. Senate Bill 7 will help leverage billions of federal dollars for Texas and help our communities plan and fund flood mitigation infrastructure across the state. Senate Bill 6 is designed to strengthen emergency response training and programs so disaster planning and response are more effective at the state and local level. Meanwhile, Senate Bill 8 will create a long term planning process for flood control, officials said. Houston Stronger officials said Texas leads the nation in declared major disasters and square miles of flood-prone land. Since 2015, Texas has had nine declared disasters related to flooding and 65 percent of the counties have experienced flooding. Houston Stronger looks forward to working with these leaders as well as other lawmakers and officials in order to develop a comprehensive solution to build a more resilient Texas for the future, officials with the group said. mike.glenn@chron.com Karen Zurawski / Karen Zurawski Cookie Joes Dancing School in Sugar Land presented a $5,000 check on March 2 to the Star of Hope, which was one of six charities to receive donations. Other nonprofits each receiving $1,000 were Champions Kids Camp, Hope For Three, Child Advocates, The Exchange Club of Sugar Land and Texana Center. From left are Cookie Joe, school founder/artistic director; Jack OBrien, Star of Hope vice president of donor relations; and Tran Pham Rich, school president/executive director. The presentation occurred at the schools God Bless Texas program. 3 1 of 3 Rosenberg Police Department Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Rosenberg Police Department Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Members of their community complained so many times about a couple in the neighborhood that authorities showed up and busted two for drug and child endangerment charges. According to the Rosenberg Police Department, after the community members complained, the Fort Bend County Narcotics Task Force and Rosenberg Police Officers executed a search warrant in the 300 block of 1st Street in Rosenberg early Thursday, March 7. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held to celebrate the Sugar Land grand opening of the first Operation Kidsafe Year-Round Child Safety Center in the greater Houston area Friday, March 8. The new program provides parents a free platform to help families prepare for emergencies. Operation Kidsafe was created by law enforcement experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Located at the Allstate office operated by agency owner Eric Arredondo, parents and families are invited to visit the Kidsafe Child Safety Center in Sugar Land and register their children for free. Parents take home a new bio-document that includes fingerprints and a photograph available to assist land enforcement officers in the event of an emergency. A woman was attacked by a jaguar as she was apparently trying to get a photo outside the big cat's enclosure at Wildlife World Zoo in Arizona, authorities said. Shawn Gilleland, a spokesman for the Rural Metro Fire Department, told The Washington Post on Sunday that fire crews said the woman, who is in her 30s, climbed over a barrier at the zoo Saturday to get closer to the jaguar's enclosure so that she could get a selfie with the animal. The jaguar reached out and grabbed her arm with its paw, leaving lacerations, Gilleland said. Gilleland said the woman, who was not publicly identified, was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening. Officials with Wildlife World Zoo said in a statement that a guest was injured by a female jaguar at the zoo in Litchfield Park, not far from Phoenix. Officials said the attack is under investigation but noted that the animal was not outside her enclosure at any time. "Please understand why barriers are put in place," officials tweeted. "Sending prayers to the family tonight." One witness, Adam Wilkerson, told AZFamily.com that he and his mother heard the woman scream Saturday evening and ran to help. "My mom runs up and takes her water bottle and shoves it through the cage near where the jaguar is, and the jaguar goes to let go of the girl to take the water bottle, and the claw just catches this girl's sweater," he told the news organization. "So at that point I see that it's no longer attached to the girl's actual arm, only on her sweater, so I grab the girl on her torso and I pull her back." Wilkerson, who captured some of the aftermath on video, added that the woman was "lying on the ground, screaming in agony." Zoo owner Mickey Ollson told AZFamily.com that about a year ago, the big cat scratched another guest who also had crossed the barrier. "There's no way to fix people crossing barriers," Ollson told the news organization. "That happens occasionally. And we put substantial barriers there and if people cross them, they can get in trouble." Last summer, a male jaguar escaped from an enclosure at Audubon Zoo in New Orleans and went on a rampage, killing nine other animals at the zoo: five alpaca, three foxes and an emu. The Post's Cleve R. Wootson Jr. reported at the time: "Jaguars are opportunistic hunters that prey on more than 85 species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Their habitat ranges from the jungles of Central and South America, where they are considered 'near threatened' by the IUCN, to the southern regions of Arizona and New Mexico, where they are listed as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Lions and tigers are the only big cats that are bigger than jaguars, making the felines the biggest in the Americas." On Sunday,the president of the Humane Society of the United States urged zoos to "set a higher standard to protect people and to respect wildlife from a safe distance." "People get the mistaken idea that wild animals are approachable," Kitty Block said in a statement. "Throw in a healthy dose of poor judgment, and incidents like this are bound to happen." Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium houses more than 600 species, and the aquarium has more than 75 exhibits, including stingrays, penguins and sharks, according to the zoo's Facebook page. Ollson told AZFamily.com that zoo officials will look at whether more barriers should be added to the exhibits to keep guests away from the animals. On Sunday, the zoo assured people that "nothing will happen to our jaguar." "She's a wild animal and there were proper barriers in place to keep our guests safe," the zoo tweeted. "Not a wild animals fault when barriers are crossed." By Trend Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has expressed condolences to President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Sahle-Work Zewde. I am saddened by the news of heavy casualties as a result of the crash of a passenger plane of Ethiopian Airlines, President Aliyev said. On the occasion of this tragedy, on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I extend my deep condolences to you, families and loved ones of those who died and the whole people of Ethiopia, he said. President Aliyev has also expressed condolences to President of the Republic of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta. I am deeply saddened by the news of casualties among your compatriots as a result of the crash of a passenger plane of Ethiopian Airlines, President Aliyev said. On the occasion of this tragedy, on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I extend my deep condolences to you, families and loved ones of those who were killed and the whole people of Kenya, he said. Four Harris County magistrate judges three of whom were defendants in a drawn-out lawsuit over local bail practices are set to leave their posts after a local judicial committee voted last week not to renew their contracts. Joseph Licata, Blanca Villagomez, Jill Wallace and Connie Spence will all end their tenure presiding over bond hearings as soon as replacements are appointed, county officials confirmed Monday. A fifth magistrate, Eric Hagstette, retired from the post late last year. One of the outgoing judicial officers is a former prosecutor accused of misconduct, and her appointment in 2016 drew sharp criticism from the defense bar at the time. Two of the others - along with Hagstette - landed in hot water with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct last year after state Sen. John Whitmire filed a grievance over the judicial officers' refusal to consider low bond requests from poor defendants, sometimes simply for refusing to call the magistrate "sir." READ MORE: Harris County hearing officers sanctioned by state for not considering personal bonds The Houston senator on Monday heralded the turnover as a positive effect of the Democratic wave that swept through local elections last November. "Elections matter," he said. "This is just further demonstration of the change in accountability. I am pleased that we are making the reforms that are long overdue." Most of the departing officials could not be reached for comment, but Spence weighed in briefly when reached by phone Monday at the magistrates' shared county office. "We don't know much at this point," she said. "And it probably wouldn't be appropriate to comment further." *** Also known as hearing officers, magistrates serve as gatekeepers at the first stop in the local court system, signing search warrants and presiding around the clock over probable cause hearings where they set bail and determine whether there's sufficient justification to hold someone who has been arrested. Though the 10 full-time magistrates are attorneys, they're not elected, like district court judges; instead, their applications and yearly contract renewals are reviewed by a committee composed of nine local jurists. The role of hearing officers in the judicial process has come to the fore in recent months in the course of a contentious class-action lawsuit over the use of cash bonds to hold poor defendants accused of low-level offenses. The magistrate judges along with the county's misdemeanor judges were named as defendants in the legal claim first filed in 2016 by a young mother who spent two days in jail because she couldn't afford $2,500 bail after she was arrested for driving without a license. Ultimately, a federal judge deemed the practice unconstitutional because poor defendants didn't have equal access to freedom simply because they couldn't afford it. The county is finally in the process of working out a settlement. Hagstette, Licata, Villagomez and Wallace were all named in the lawsuit, but only Hagstette. Licata and Wallace ended up in front of the state's judicial commission last year. Whitmire filed his complaint in 2017 after a Houston Chronicle story exposed details from video-recorded bail hearings in which the magistrates appeared to ignore pleas from defendants seeking personal no-cash bonds. Some set high bonds because an arrestee said "yeah" instead of "yes" or because they didn't like the demeanor of the defendant. In a 2018 decision, the judicial commission concluded the officers "failed to comply with the law, and failed to maintain competence in the law." County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, a longtime advocate of reforming the bail system, said he hoped that new magistrates would avoid the pitfalls of their predecessors and "not run the risk of being sanctioned by the state." To Patrick McCann, a past president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, the turnover seems in step with shifting priorities in the courts, where Democrats won 59 benches in December. "It probably reflects a pretty clear change in spirit in terms of what they want from the magistrates in the sense that they're expecting an actual (bail) review and not a rubberstamp for the state anymore," he said. "And I hope that that comes true." The nine-member committee did not issue any formal statement on the contract decisions and its chair, Judge Maria Jackson, would not confirm the outcome of the vote when reached by phone over the weekend. But on Monday, committee member and Misdemeanor Judge Darrell Jordan weighed in briefly on what the turnover means for citizens. "Essentially," he said, "we're going in a different direction." Aside from turning away some of the magistrates, the committee also approved contracts with three temporary hearing officers, according to Court Manager Ed Wells. John Boone, Dick Bax and Steve Baldassano will fill the posts as needed on fixed contracts. Six current hearing officers were reappointed to one-year terms: Courtney St. Julian, Lionel Castro, Lisa Porter, Colin Amann, Ron Nicholas and Jim Callan. On Friday, the district courts website posted a job listing for more hearing officers. The outgoing magistrates will remain in their current roles until replacements are hired. keri.blakinger@chron.com Hundreds started their spring break in heartbreak as they mourned a 14-year-old Jane Long Academy classmate who was stabbed to death during a fight believed by his peers to be over a brownie. The chocolate treat fueled a fatal melee Wednesday at a corner store across from the Sharpstown school, according to several teens who attended a candlelight vigil Sunday evening for the slain teen. Another 14-year-old boy allegedly stabbed Brian Angel in the head. A young witness to the attack said that as she ran across Bellaire Boulevard to find a teacher to help, the assailant left. The kid who stabbed Brian just walked away, eighth-grader Hetly Alverez said. Brian spent the next two days in a hospital and died Friday, officials said. The suspected stabber was arrested Friday and charged as a juvenile. Principal Keri Wittpenn told vigil attendees at St. Lukes United Methodist Church Gethsemane Campus that she learned about Brians death as she left a pediatrician appointment with her newborn son. She drove into a parking lot and cried, Wittpenn recounted. I sat and wept, trying to understand why one of our students didnt come home safely and, as a new mom, how to cope with the death of a child, Wittpenn said. I kept thinking how unfair it was that you sent your son to school and he did not arrive safely home, she added. I dont understand why this tragedy happened, and I have so many questions for God. Only on HoustonChronicle.com: Amid the violence of northern Mexico, an oasis of dental work, pedicures and cheap tequila Pastor David Horton assailed the violence as he addressed the packed church near Brians school. Once more, a moment of rage has crippled our community and brought us to our knees, Horton said. Violence is a virus that cannot exist without a carrier. The boys family were not members of St. Lukes, Horton said, but he offered the house of worship for a prayer service ahead of the vigil. He met with Brians family on Thursday at Memorial Hermann Hospital. I went to go see Brian before he passed away, and it was one of the greatest privileges in my life, Horton told visitors. The boys family at the service declined to comment. Several staff members from Jane Long Academy also declined to comment but joined the throng of mourners who marched down the boulevard to the Shop N Go business along Rookin Street where Brian was stabbed. Iris Ruiz, 16, was among the group and tightly held a box of donations she made Saturday to fund her friends funeral. He always stood up for people and had their backs, Iris said. She had known Brian since seventh grade and the two most recently shared a dance class together. He wasnt fond of the activity, she mused. Eighth-grader Emily Ramos, who lives in the same apartment complex as the suspect, said he and Brian were not close. Emily said she was upset that it took two days for the boy to be tracked to his parents apartment so close to her own. I was scared and mad, she said. The police never looked for him at his house. We had to go call the police. Five minutes later, the apartment complex in the 5400 block of Ashbrook Drive was swarming with police, she said. Authorities have not identified the accused assailant due to his age. He has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, officials said Friday. Houston ISD officials said in a statement Friday that grief counselors will return to Jane Long Academy when school resumes after spring break. nicole.hensley@chron.com NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here. A guilty plea has ended the trial of a man facing murder charges in Fort Bend County. Desmond Glaze entered a guilty plea on Tuesday, March 5, to the shooting murder of Rosenberg resident Jena Pleitez, 33, back in 2016. Pleitez was survived by her husband and three children. Following the denial of motion to suppress testimony on March 4, Glaze entered his guilty plea. He was subsequently sentenced to 38 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice system. He is being credited with slightly more than three years served while waiting trial. Tragic events like this are difficult on everyone involved, Rosenberg Police Chief Jonathan White said in a news release. Wed ask that you continue to remember and pray for those who suffered as a result of this horrible act. Its time for our community to come together and help those families heal. Rosenberg Police Officers as well as your Fort Bend County District Attorneys Office personnel worked tirelessly to bring this case to an appropriate and just end. Glaze has previously spent time in jail for a felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge. Anyone with information regarding a crime is encouraged to contact Fort Bend County Crime Stoppers at 281-342-TIPS (8477). You can also submit online at www.fortbend.crimestoppersweb.com. If that tip leads to an arrest you can receive a cash reward! Information, which leads to the apprehension and filing of charges on the suspect(s) involved, could earn you up to $5,000 cash reward. All calls to Crime Stoppers are anonymous. rkent@hcnonline.com Tucked away on the third floor of the Lone Star College-University Center building in The Woodlands sits four converted office rooms behind a glass window. The words The Community Circle hang on the wall, and a quick peek around reveals that this is a resource center containing a care closet, food pantry and clothes closet. Theres a need, said Wendy Evans, project manager and communication administrator at Lone Star College, in explaining why the campus opened the center. Evans spearheaded the efforts to open The Community Circle on campus. Not only did Evans say that theres a need for increased resources on campus, but she cited a recent government study showing that more than one-third of college students nationwide are food insecure. Think about a class. If you have 27 students in a class, 10 are food insecure, Evans said. So, Evans and her team began working on bringing the resource center to campus late last year. A grand opening for the new resource center was hosted on Feb. 28. Becky Duncan-Ramirez, LSCs executive director of university affairs, said she also noticed that there was a need for assistance when she was began working with students who grew up in the foster care system. It was apparent that theres a huge need when students age out of the foster care system at age 18I started working with these students, and if they dont have clothes to wear when they go to look for a job, what are they going to do? Duncan-Ramirez said. The two teamed up to get the center operational. Its now open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday for both students and the community. Evans is hoping to bump up those hours to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday in the fall. Everything inside the center from hygiene items to pens and pencils, dress clothes for students who need something to wear to an interview and food has been donated, and its all free to those who need it. Though theres no screening process for those who come in for help, there are guidelines. For example, people can receive 10 grocery items and two snacks as well as one interview outfit at one time. What is food insecurity? It's different from just being hungry. The United States Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as the lack of consistent access, or the financial resources for access, to enough food for a healthy, active life. - Source: USDA See More Collapse The college has relied on community partners, such as the Montgomery County Food Bank to help stock the food pantry, to launch this effort. Faith Lane is the programs director with the food bank. Though Lane said they dont currently track how many college students they serve, theyre going to start looking at those numbers across the county. (Food insecurity) Is a growing problem nationwide. Its always been there, but the light has been shed. Ramen noodles will not get you a college degree, and its not OK thats been OK for so long, Lane said. Evans got connected with the food bank when she began volunteering there with students. John Tindall, the food banks volunteer services director, said the synergy between the community partners is what makes the center unique. (Evans) came in to the food bank for one three-hour shift and turned it into a pantry that not just the students can use, but also the community. Thats phenomenal, Tindall said. To understand where you fit in that process of taking all the unwanted food thats out there and finding the people who need it, thats being the conduit. In addition to providing pantry supplies, Tindall said the food bank is planning to distribute fresh fruits and vegetables on LSCs campus once a month starting in the fall. This center is also a way to consolidate resources in one place. Sam Houston State Universitys School of Nursing Clinical Assistant Professor Linda James said that the university used to have its own pantry, but has joined forces with LSC instead. We wanted to make it all a one-stop shop here, James said. In her own experience, James said shes also seen students who are food insecure because they may not have the knowledge or skills to prepare their food. Thats where a learning component comes in: another community partner is Stephen F. Austin State University social work students, who are slated to intern at the center and form relationships with those who come in for help. As another resource, the students wont teach formal classes but theyll be present to answer questions or provide more information for those who come in for help. Carrie Butler, the universitys clinical instructor of the school of social work, said the internships will give her students the hands-on experience to work with those in the community and their peers. It actually facilitates the learning process because by doing this, were teaching them how to navigate getting their needs met. Thats really important, because were teaching them how to use their skills to find resources and to reach out and network with other people, Butler said. Its here, and its not a bad thing to come and access these resources. jane.stueckemann@chron.com The UAEs financial services industry is heading for a major overhaul, with as many as 80 per cent of todays advisors leaving the market and life insurance companies coming under growing pressure, according to investment experts. Private equity firm Berkeley Assets said the combination of official regulatory moves and new investor trends marks the end of an era for financial advisors who have enjoyed years of profiting from high commission paid up front for sales. The future is also uncertain for the life companies whose products they sell, with Berkeley Assets seeing stricter regulations on the way from the UAE Insurance Authority and savvy investors taking charge of their own finances as a double threat. Berkeley Assets Partner Omar Jackson said new regulations will attract wealth management firms with qualified advisors operating on a fee and trail based model. The UAE Insurance Authority has made it clear it wishes to push ahead with new regulations limiting fees and commissions charged to those buying savings plans and giving better protection remarked Jackson. "Hong Kong has already taken the step towards a fee-based financial advisory model, very much like we see in the UK, and this is now happening here," he noted. "The biggest casualties will be the financial advisors for whom years of profiting from high commission paid up front for sales is drawing to a close. Their number has halved in recent years and it could drop by another 80 per cent," he added. "We can expect to see the big global wealth management firms move in with their fee-structured advisory services. Theyll have qualified advisors who will be paid by the hour, or on a trail and drip commission basis over a period of time," stated Jackson. These are anxious times for the licensed life companies here who know their business is under threat, he added. While the long-term savings plan has been embedded in the UAE market for more than 20 years, Jackson pointed out that more and more savvy investors were already turning to other options. The financial advisors selling these plans have often been branded as untrustworthy, he said. "But the real problem was the way the products were designed and how the life companies pay the brokers, incentivizing them to set up a plan for as long as possible," he added. "Problems occur when people find out only when its too late that their money is locked away for years, and they cant touch it without paying high penalties. The bigger risk is that the money will not be there at the end because it may have been lost in the funds in which it was invested," said Jackson. The majority of advisors who have been operating here have no financial qualifications and dont know how to manage funds, noted the top official. Jackson said the modern trend is for people to do online research and take more control over their own finances. Theyre looking for other alternatives, and thats where private equity, real estate and other asset classes come in to play, he added.-TradeArabia News Service South Africa: SA's participation in Foodex bears fruit South African companies who showed off their wares at the 44th Foodex exhibition in Japan are confident of trade leads that will help them grow their businesses. The Department of Trade and Industry (dti) led 30 local companies to the exhibition, which is regarded as Asias largest food and drink fair, providing a platform for creating and expanding business opportunities. Statistics from the exhibition, which got underway on Tuesday, indicate that over 6 500 people visited the South African pavilion over the course of the week. This resulted in 783 trade leads for South African companies from international traders, who showed keen interest in importing local products. Export Marketer at Fruits Du Sud, Tania Alston said the exhibition will boost the companys objective of increasing their market share in Japan and rest of the Asian market. As a result of her participation in the exhibition, Alston said she met very promising clients for her sun dried raisins. Peter Foulis from Naturezone was also impressed with the exhibition. He made contacts from countries such as Mexico, Korea, China, Japan and America, which he says could see the company exporting its products in the near future. The interest in our herbal iced tea and craft mixers was phenomenal, said Foulis on Saturday. Chief Executive Officer of the Fresh Produce Exporters Forum, Anton Kruger, said the show yielded positive results. The show yielded positive results as the forum did not only receive enquiries from Japan, but from South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and China as well. It is important to create more awareness about South Africa as a fruit production and export country of high-quality fruits, said Kruger. The exhibition takes place over a period of four days and attracts thousands of buyers from the food service value chain, distribution networks and trading companies from across the Asia region and globally. The show, which concluded on Friday, consisted of 1 360 exhibitors from 38 countries representing 14 sectors. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Ithmaar Bank, a Bahrain-based Islamic retail bank, has dismissed as inaccurate allegations being circulated as a voice recording on some social media platforms. In a statement issued today (March 11), the bank said it is initiating legal proceedings against the individual who made the allegations. TradeArabia News Service Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), the largest Islamic bank in the UAE, received nine industry recognitions at the prestigious Islamic Finance News (IFN) Awards 2019. The bank was honoured once again with the Best Islamic Bank in the UAE, Best Islamic Bank in Kenya, Best Overall Islamic Bank and the Best Islamic Retail Bank awards at the IFN Best Banks Poll 2018, among five other key accolades for the coveted Deal of the Year. Held at the Ritz Carlton in DIFC, Dubai, on March 10, the IFN Awards event honoured the most distinguished and impactful players in unravelling the potentials of Islamic Finance to a wider base of investors and audience. The awards ceremony recognizes the contributors to industry under two categories, the Best Bank Polls and Deals of the Year. Dr Adnan Chilwan, Group CEO of DIB, said: Once again, our teams perseverance and hard work is recognized at the IFN Awards. It is truly a proud moment for all of us at DIB and I am extremely grateful to everyone who have supported us over the years with such recurring wins. Islamic Finance is embedded within DIBs identity and the bank is committed to growing the industry globally. Strengthening DIBs legacy beyond the UAE, are one of the many achievements 2018 carried for us, and we will continue to build on this momentum and further enhance the banks already accepted position as a global pioneer in the Islamic Finance industry. TradeArabia News Service Kleindienst Group, the UAEs largest European property developer and creator of The Heart of Europe, is set to unveil real estate investment opportunities worth $5 billion during its debut appearance at Mipim real estate expo in Cannes, France this year. Unveiling its Mipim plans, the company said it will be exhibiting jointly with the Dubai Land Department. It will showcase The Heart of Europe, its innovative and imaginative freehold second home development and global tourist destination valued at $5 billion located on six islands in The World archipelago in Dubai. Kleindienst is the only Dubai-based developer to increase its prices in 2018 due to the strong demand for second home investment opportunities resulting in selling 100 per cent of Phase One, said a top offficial. "This development is an iconic masterpiece that will attract investment and new tourists from around the world. Dubai is an attractive market with Expo 2020 next year as well as many initiatives from the UAE government to make it easy to invest and operate here. The currency is pegged to the US dollar providing security and we have a high liquid property market offering some of the highest yields in the work and strong capital appreciation with zero income tax and readily available financing option," remarked Josef Kleindienst, founder and group chairman. "The Heart of Europe is an exciting and innovative development opening a new underserved market segment in Dubai the second home market," he stated. According to an initial research, there is an estimated demand for 50,000 to 60,000 second homes worth around $15 billion reinforcing Dubais readiness to develop the freehold second home concept in line with other major cities around the world. The Heart of Europe is therefore pioneering the second home market in Dubai with villas, chalets, palaces, cabins and hotel suites using its experience of the mature European holiday home market to spearhead this first development in the GCC region. Kleindienst said the Heart of Europe provides favourable returns for investors that are written into its contracts, offering guaranteed return on investment in 12 years; strong capital appreciation, and a rental yield of eight to 10 per cent, higher than the citys norm of 7.4 per cent as well as the international average short-let yield. "As Europe moves towards a trend for income-generating assets, The Heart of Europe delivers an innovative, luxury resort destination that is purpose-built to attract and service tourists and ensuring rental income," he noted. "The Heart of Europe has attracted a lot of positive attention from Middle East investors, particularly the GCC, who have bought off plan during Phase One resulting in it selling out and handover taking place in 2019," observed Kleindienst. "There has been significant progress with construction with examples of the beautiful Sweden Beach Palace, unique Floating Seahorse Villas ready to view as well as Germany Island Beach and Lagoon Villas and Portofino Hotel all under way," he added. Kleindienst pointed out that the group's vision was to bring the best of European culture and experiences to a Maldivian-inspired island setting in Dubai. "We are creating a tourist destination that has never been seen before with a number of world firsts. We will have climate-controlled and rainy streets at all times of the year, 13 hotels each with their own unique personality, and the best in underwater luxury living on the Floating Seahorse Villa surrounded by mesmerising coral seascapes and marine life," he added.-TradeArabia News Service ASTM International, one of the worlds largest standards development organisations, has announced plans to set up its first-ever international chapter in the UAE later this year. The announcement comes following ASTM's meeting on March 11 in Abu Dhabi with key leaders in industry, academia, and the UAE government. The stakeholders met at the Abu Dhabi Quality and Conformity Council (QCC), which uses ASTM International standards and which helped host the ASTM International board of directors meeting in October 2016. Mondays meeting also included current board member Amer bin Ahmed, managing director of Knauf Middle East, a subsidiary partner of the Germany-based construction company. ASTM International standards are already being used in the Gulf, and the planned chapter is a natural extension of this involvement, said Rashid bin Fahad, a former ASTM International board member. This addition to our co-operation will benefit all those involved, he noted. The group appointed a nominating committee to identify chapter officers, reviewed draft bylaws, and discussed potential chapter goals, including: Strengthening involvement of UAE and other Gulf technical experts in standards-related activities and events, including those focused on the regions specific needs; Sharing information on the UAE and the Gulfs societal needs and emerging trends so that ASTM International can develop solutions; and Providing a direct link between the UAE and ASTM International. ASTM International has several memorandums of understanding with Gulf standardisation bodies, including one with the Emirates Authority for Standardization & Metrology (ESMA) since 2007. Hundreds of ASTM International members and customers are based in the Gulf. ASTM International president Katharine Morgan said: "We are excited to deepen our already strong relationships with industry and governments throughout the Gulf. I look forward to seeing how this chapter will flourish and bring economic and societal benefits to this dynamic region." "Committed to serving global societal needs, ASTM International positively impacts public health and safety, consumer confidence, and overall quality of life," stated Morgan. "We integrate consensus standards developed with our international membership of volunteer technical experts and innovative services to improve lives Helping our world work better," she added.-TradeArabia News Service A second Texas juvenile prison is embroiled in what inmates and staff describe as a "gang war," with a string of assaults and disruptions, including a 33-person fight and bad behavior so widespread that officials were forced to put some of the dorms on "shut-down" status. The unrest at Evins Regional Juvenile Center in Edinburg is the latest in a growing string of problems revealed in oversight reports that are attracting the attention of state lawmakers, who are set to tackle the agency's troubles this week in a Senate committee hearing. "It truly is probably worse than the Wild West," said Sen. John Whitmire, who chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, which will take up the matter Tuesday. It's not clear what the answer is, but the Texas Juvenile Justice Department is "at a turning point," according to the Houston Democrat. More than a decade after a sex abuse scandal sparked an overhaul and forced the agency to change its name, the state's juvenile prisons are again beset by turmoil, as officials grapple with officer arrests, inmate deaths, an escape, high-level turnover, a six-day mass disturbance at Gainesville, two ongoing "gang wars" and persistent staffing shortages. "It's a mess," Whitmire said. "Doing nothing is not an option." Problems in the Valley Two months ago, a cluster of teens in the Evins rec yard started throwing punches, a disturbance divided along racial lines with black and Hispanic youth fighting each other, according to a site visit report from the Office of the Independent Ombudsman. The fight involved 33 kids, but an agency spokesman this month clarified that only about 10 of them actively engaged in the fight and no one required medical attention afterward. It was just one in a string of assaults and major disruptions that same month at the South Texas lock-up, which holds just over 110 boys. Following a January site visit, officials noted that staff and youth both reported a "gang war." Some kids said they were forced to pick a side in order to avoid becoming targets, while others said they'd gotten moved to different dorms for safety - but it didn't help because the problems were so widespread. The conflict escalated to the point that two of the dorms were "shut down" due to "gang issues, assaults and other safety issues" when oversight officials visited in January. Another dorm was so chronically disruptive that staff dubbed it "The Jungle" given the frequent "behavior and safety violations." As at Gainesville, teens were ordering "hits" on officers, according to the report, though spokesman Brian Sweany stressed that those hits are assaults and not "how the general public thinks about a 'hit' from the gangster movies." Despite the variety of problems laid out in the ombudsman's January report, the agency pushed back on the use of specific terminology, and also laid out moves to address the problems through transfers and safety plans. "We do not have a 'gang war' at Evins. We do have a gang issue," officials wrote in the response section of the report. "Characterizing our challenges as 'gang wars' misrepresents the risk and obscures the appropriate measures required to promote safety and security. The facility will work with staff to properly identify the issue so that the term is not used improperly. The youth involved have aligned their loyalties along race, common geography, and other similarities more than gang influences." Aside from the outbursts of violence at the South Texas lock-up, the report noted recurring difficulties controlling the teens. When oversight officials showed up in January, they spotted one teen cursing and taking a swing at a staffer. Others swarmed in with threats and obscenities, eventually throwing water on an officer. When one staffer tried handcuffing the instigator, the others tried pulling the officer away. In previous reports, oversight officials noted similar concerns last fall, with kids throwing food, flipping over tables and, in one case, assaulting a staffer badly enough to cause "serious bodily injury." The spokesman last week declined to explain, citing medical privacy laws. A History of Concerns The string of problems stretches back to at least 2017, when a number of staffers were accused of having or trying to have sex with youths in their care. In the months that followed, the state's juvenile justice system weathered several high-level shake-ups, including the appointment of a new executive director, the ouster of the longtime independent ombudsman, and the replacement of the board chair. In February 2018, the Texas Department of Public Safety announced the arrest of four current and former juvenile justice employees accused of tampering with records and using excessive force in handling jailed teens. Weeks later, a leaked email revealed more departures and restructuring. Then in April, two Houston-area teens escaped from Giddings State School, when they scaled the "no-climb" fence at the understaffed juvenile prison. Officials weren't sure the pair had made it past the fence until an off-duty staffer spotted them in a park. They were captured less than 24 hours later in Montgomery County. The following month, a 16-year-old locked up on a drug possession charge hanged himself from a vent in his cell at Evins, according to a state custodial death report. The boy had put up paper to cover the window of his cell door. In October, a 16-year-old drowned in the pool at Evins. The lifeguard didn't act quickly enough, and the boy wasn't a strong swimmer. But authorities didn't realize that because the officer who'd administered swim tests had retired and was never replaced, according to oversight reports. Afterward, the agency shut down the pool. Then in late November, six days of chaos broke out at Gainesville, when gang tensions and boredom boiled over. Staff and inmates described the conflict as part of an ongoing "gang war " that included planned "hits" on guards, fights and vandalism. "This is all just evidence of the problem that we keep pointing out," said Brett Merfish, director of Youth Justice at the nonprofit Texas Appleseed. "The facilities are a failed model and we can't expect to have large, remotely located understaffed facilities that are safe." Staffing Problems While Gainesville and Evins may be among the most troubled, according to state reports, concerns about inadequate supervision and insufficient staffing levels plague the department. The facility in McLennan was around 60 percent staffed in November, according to the quarterly ombudsman report, and earlier in the year, staff reported being forced to work back-to-back shifts. The Ron Jackson lock-up in Brownwood was so shorthanded that youth couldn't go to certain programs and it became difficult to adequately supervise kids on suicide watch. At Evins, officers reported that they'd been forced to work 12-hour shifts, and at Gainesville, one overworked staffer asked ombudsman officials if they were there to relieve her. As of late last week, some staffing situations appeared to be improving, according to Sweany. Figures provided to the Chronicle showed that Evins is now overstaffed, while Giddings is at about 92 percent of the staffing level needed for a 1-to-8 officer-to-inmate ratio. The McLennan and Brownwood facilities are both about 25 percent short of that level. Whitmire was baffled by the new numbers, which he said called into question the agency's claims that they couldn't remove more kids from the troubled Gainesville unit because they were too understaffed everywhere else. A Path Forward When scandal struck the department in 2007, there were roughly 5,000 kids in custody. But the shocking abuse allegations sparked an overhaul, and the department stopped holding kids on lower-level offenses, bringing down the juvenile prison population as youth shifted into county-run facilities and alternatives to incarceration. Today, only about 850 kids are in the state's five juvenile prisons. And while reformers and lawmakers generally agree that's a good thing, weeding out the lower-level offenses means that the kids still locked up are some of the highest-needs teens in the system. "The problem is that the make-up of juvenile justice has completely changed," Whitmire said. "We used to send school truants there - now, you have to be a convicted felon, and what's happened is that we haven't adapted the locations or the personnel for youth that have been convicted of violent felonies." On top of that, the remaining prisons are on sprawling rural campuses, where it's hard to retain staff and difficult to supervise unruly youth. Whitmire advocated for sending some of the older youth to the adult prison system - especially those with a history of assault and gang involvement. State Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, recently proposed solving the problem with a budget rider requiring the closure of Gainesville by September 2020. Whether or not the current scrutiny leads to any prison closures, Wu said, municipalities can look at ways to keep kids out of lock-ups. "We want jurisdictions to send fewer kids who are charged with non-serious crimes," he said. "If we provided counties with more support, more resources, more abilities for kids to get more treatment at home, then maybe they wouldn't feel like they needed to send these kids to a prison." For the advocates at Texas Appleseed, the best solution involves keeping kids out of troubled prison and jails altogether. "It isn't that we're interested in trying to go in and fix them," Merfish said. "We're interested in alternatives to them." Police say a homeless woman who said someone set her on fire last week actually sparked the blaze outside a west Houston church. Chandel Kenawell, 40, was burned late Tuesday night while sitting on a strip center walkway in the 4200 block of South Kirkwood, just south of the Westpark Tollway. As paramedics rushed her to an area hospital, she told investigators that a man walked up to her, doused her with lighter fluid and set her on fire, according to court documents. Three people were taken to a hospital with gunshot wounds Sunday night after a shooting at an Ellington-area home southeast of Houston, authorities said. A dog was also shot and later died at the vet, deputies said. A 3-year-old boy died early Monday in a fire at a west Harris County apartment where he was left unattended, according to authorities. The fire broke out about 1:30 a.m. at the Cozumel Apartments at 6403 Sierra Blanca Drive, northeast of the Westpark Tollway and Texas 6. A family friend identified the boy as Giovanni Lyles. He recently turned 3 years old. The Harris County Fire Marshal's office said a babysitter for the toddler wasn't home at the time of the fire. The babysitter, who officials identified as a woman around 18 or 19 years old, left while the baby was sleeping to go to the store, the fire marshal's office said. Only on HoustonChronicle.com: Katy's newest fire station put to the test as personnel save life of toddler The woman was met with heavy smoke when she tried to get back into the apartment, authorities said. She was treated for smoke inhalation at a local hospital. Rachel Moreno, a spokeswoman for the fire marshal's office, said investigators are working to corroborate where the woman went. The fire started in the kitchen area, but investigators are still gathering information on the cause, she said. When firefighters first arrived at the home, they said they saw smoke alarms in the building but didn't hear them. They were able to contain the fire to one unit. Metro Video reported the damage was relatively minor. Editor's Note: This story has been updated to correct the age of the boy. Julian Gill is a digital reporter in Houston. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | julian.gill@chron.com | NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here. United Airlines officials are trying to determine what caused a mechanical issue that forced passengers to be evacuated from a plane that landed at George Bush Intercontinental Airport late Sunday. All 174 passengers evacuated Flight 1168 from Newark, N. J., once it landed about 10:30 p.m., and they were bused to the terminal, according to United spokeswoman Rachael Rivas. If elected president, 2020 Democratic contender Julian Castro said he would create a commission to explore the possibility of reparations for slavery. During a stop Sunday at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Castro did not commit to paying reparations but said it should be part of a topic of conversation for a commission or task force that could explore that and other issues surrounding the nations history with slavery. Ive long believed the country should consider reparations because of the atrocity of slavery, said Castro, a former San Antonio mayor who was President Barack Obamas Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. I also believe that were never going to fully heal as a country from the racial divide until weve addressed the tremendous wrong that was done with slavery. Castro, 44, said hes not about to proclaim what reparations would look like, saying the country needs more than just a politician making a pronouncement. The process is going to be just as important as the result, Castro told hundreds of people at the Moody Theater in Austin, where 10 current and potential presidential candidates took turns addressing the annual festival in a question-and-answer format with various moderators. Castros comments came hours after he was on CNN earlier in the day, questioning why U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a rival for the Democratic Partys nomination, was not more supportive of the possibility of reparations. On ABCs The View last week, Sanders said there were better ways to address the issue than just writing out a check. To my mind, that may or may not be the best way to address it, Castro said on CNNs State of the Union with Jake Tapper in response to Sanders comments. However, its interesting to me that when it comes to Medicare for all, health care, you know, the response there has been we need to write a big check, that when it comes to tuition-free or debt-free college, the answer has been we need to write a big check. Castros jabs at Sanders come at a time when early polling in Iowa shows Sanders as the clear front-runner among candidates who have already declared to run for the White House. According to a new Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll of likely Democratic caucus-goers, 27 percent said Joe Biden, who is not in the race, is their first choice for president. The polls showed 25 percent picked Sanders as their first choice. No other candidate in the race topped 10 percent. Castro was in 8th place and the first choice of just 1 percent. Fellow Texas Democrat Beto ORourke, who has not announced yet if he is running, was the first choice of 5 percent of Iowa caucus-goers in the poll of 401 likely Democratic caucus-goers that was conducted March 3 through March 6. The Iowa caucuses are the first step in the presidential nomination process. Those caucuses are set for Feb. 3, 2020. Castro said hes not sweating being relatively far behind in early polling, and thinks hes making progress in Iowa and the other early states. No question I have plenty of work to do in these early states, Castro said in an interview after speaking at SXSW. But Im going to do the work. One of the ways you can measure candidates is through the amount of traction that they get when they get in front of people. And I can tell Im going to gain good traction as I get in front of people. NASA would face a $500 million cut in the coming budget year under a spending plan released Monday by President Donald Trump's administration, but space agency officials say the budget remains focused on human exploration, specifically to the moon. "This is a really good budget for NASA," Mark Geyer, director of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, said Monday. "We're blessed with this budget." Just last month, Trump signed the budget for the current year, allocating $21.5 billion to the history-making space agency. The proposal released Monday for fiscal year 2020, which starts Oct. 1, would only provide $21 billion. The cut comes as Trump has touted the ambitious goal of returning humans to the moon for the first time since 1972 MISSION MOON at HoustonChronicle.com: How 50 years of space exploration defined Houston Budget cuts would come to projects such as the Space Launch System rocket, which will carry the Orion spacecraft to the moon, the education office and a new telescope, the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). But during a livestreamed speech from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Administrator Jim Bridenstine avoided discussing the programs that would be cut. Instead, he talked about returning sustainably to the moon, as a stepping stone for a mission to Mars. The Lunar Orbital-Platform Gateway, a mini-space station orbiting the moon that NASA wants to build, is a huge part of this plan. The budget fully funds it. "Gateway is about sustainability ... it's going to enable a sustainable, human presence on the moon," Bridenstine said. "We won't be flying there and back, but we'll be exploring and learning about the moon." Congress still must approve the budget proposal, which some Democratic lawmakers have called dead on arrival. Half-a-billion-dollar cut Just a few weeks ago, federal budget officials announced that non-defense, discretionary spending would face a 5 percent cut in the 2020 budget year. That, of course, would include NASA. The cut ultimately recommended is less deep. "Recognizing the importance of controlling excessive spending, President Trump directed federal agencies to identify how they can cut a nickel out of every dollar they spend," Russ Vought, acting head of the Office of Management and Budget. wrote in an op-ed last month. "Hard-working American families make these sorts of tough decisions every day. The president believes Washington should be no different." The cuts came down Monday. And for the space agency, the most notable came to the SLS rocket, which will carry Orion -- the spacecraft being built to carry humans back to the moon. Trump's budget request postpones funding for upgrades to the rocket that would increase its performance, instead focusing on completing the initial version. SLS has faced major cost and scheduling setbacks and NASA now plans on launching it with Exploration Mission-1, the uncrewed flight of Orion, by 2020. The crewed Orion flight, Exploration Mission-2, is set to fly in 2022. Bridenstine on Monday addressed the criticism of SLS, saying that it is vital to the country's plans to return to the moon. "On this point I want to be crystal clear: SLS is not reusable but it is a critical piece of the architecture that enables us to deliver re-usability to the moon," Bridenstine said. The proposal also removes a payload from SLS's planned manifest. A mission that will study Jupiter's moon, Europa -- called the Europa Clipper mission -- would be removed from SLS, and instead launched in 2023 on the back of a commercial launch vehicle. Budget documents state that this will save NASA $700 million. LISTEN: The latest from the Cigarettes & Rocket Fuel podcast The James Webb Space Telescope -- the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that has orbited the Earth for 28 years -- would be fully funded with $352.6 million under the proposal. Initially expected to launch in 2007, Webb has since been delayed until March 2021 after it breached the $8 billion spending cap set by Congress in 2011. Scientists say they now need $9 billion to finish the telescope. Bridenstine, however, defended the mission. "This administration is committed to the James Webb telescope and our number one agenda is mission success," Bridenstine said. "This mission is so important to the United States of America and here's why: it will establish us as the leader in physics for the next 30 years." While Trump's budget calls for fully funding the Webb telescope, it's successor, the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), wouldn't receive any money. The budget propsoal also eliminates funding for the Office of Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics Engagement -- previously known as the Office of Education -- and two Earth science missions. The Trump administration tried to cut the Office of Education in fiscal years 2018 and 2019, but Congress nixed that idea. Returning to the moon Despite these proposed cuts, many NASA personnel said the budget supported the agency's goals. "Everybody loves to have a destination and the gateway provides that," Flight Director Jeff Radigan said Monday at the Johnson Space Center in Houston after Bridenstine's speech. The budget proposal fully funds the gateway, for example, and provides $363 million to support commercial development of a moon lander that will take cargo -- and later humans -- to the surface. Additionally, it funds a human return to the moon in 2028. "For the first time in over 10 years, we have money in this budget for a return to the moon with humans," Bridenstine said. "Human-rated landers, compatible with the gateway, can go back and forth to the moon. And we're funding them to go to the moon." The proposal also includes $1.5 billion for the International Space Station, while also funding new commercial capabilities to facilitate a transition to commercial activities in low Earth orbit, where the space station flies. Last year, Trump proposed ending federal funding for the space station at the end of 2024, allowing commercial companies to take over operations in 2025. This proposal was met with resistance from Congress, with many questioning whether commercial companies could step up to fill the government's funding role. In fiscal year 2017, NASA spent $1.45 billion on the space station, and that doesn't count costs to transport astronauts and supplies there. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, last week filed a measure to extend U.S. operations of the space station until 2030. A similar measure was filed last year by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, another Texas Republicanbut it failed to make it to the president's desk. Even Bridenstine has said that kind of timeline likely isn't feasible. The budget documents released Monday, however, appear to make no reference to ending federal funding for ISS. SPACE JUNK: Sign up for Mission Moon updates and out-of-this-world space news. "By 2025, the Budget envisions commercial capabilities on the International Space Station as well as new commercial facilities and platforms to continue the American presence in Earth orbit," budget documents state. Alex Stuckey writes about NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuceky@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey. The UAE Cabinet, chaired by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, has adopted the National Space Strategy 2030 that will see the country making huge investments in ambitious space projects. The meeting held at the Presidential Palace in Abu Dhabi was attended by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs and other ministers. The National Space Strategy aims at achieving UAEs vision in the field of space exploration, technologies, and applications. It also constitutes one of the pillars of the regulatory framework for the space sector in the country which consists of four components; National Space Policy, Space Sector Law, Space Regulations, and National Space Strategy. The UAE seeks to establish a major global hub for space science and technology, through investing in building capabilities and creating a scientific, legislative and financing environment that is stimulating and attractive for space projects. During the meeting, Sheikh Mohammed asserted that the UAE had established itself an economic powerhouse and advanced infrastructure by young Emirati talents, which enabled it to be at the forefront of the space exploration industry today. "Last year we celebrated the launch of the first satellite fully built by young Emirati engineers, and in the very near future we will see them operating international space technology centres, based in the UAE. We will see Emirati cadres, highly skilled and specialised in space science, achieving scientific breakthroughs that serve the entire humanity," stated Sheikh Mohammed. "We are investing in the space industry, with ambitious projects and initiatives that will benefit our citizens and contribute to key sectors of the national economy. This is an important milestone for our country, and we are aiming to become a model for countries seeking to launch ambitious space programmes," he added. The strategy sets the general framework for UAE's space industry and activities for the next 11 years, including government activities related to space, commercial activities, and scientific activities carried out by public and private sector operators and academic institutions and research and development (R&D) centres. The cabinet stressed the importance of raising awareness about the importance of the space sector among the Emiratis youth, and the importance of enhancing the role of advanced national research and development centres. The UAE possess today four specialised centres in the research and development of space, all of them have manufacturing capabilities, and where Emiratis represent more than 50 percent of the workforce, with more than half of them are women. The Strategy includes 6 objectives, 21 programmes and 79 initiatives, which translate into focus areas and programmes benefiting more than 85 entities in the UAE. The Emirates Space Agency is responsible for following up the implementation of the strategy in cooperation with strategic partners and more than 20 agencies and space centres abroad.-TradeArabia News Service Health-conscious residents and visitors in Manama have a new reason to celebrate, with the launch of a clean, green and delicious plant-based menu at Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay. Developed in partnership with Saudi-based KBW Ventures - founded by chief executive officer HRH Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud - Folias delightful culinary selection offers a range of wholesome, plant-based starters, entrees and desserts from the kitchen of Matthew Kenney, founder of more than 30 renowned vegan eateries worldwide. Diners will have an opportunity to sample the menu at the hotels Bay View Lounge starting from March 15 as Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay brings Matthew Kenneys culinary creations to the Middle East for the first time. The launch, the first in the Mena region, follows Folias successful introduction at Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills in California last year. I am thrilled to present Folia at Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay in collaboration with my partner Chef Matthew Kenney. Building on the success of our first collaborative effort at Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, it gives me immense pride to launch Folia in Bahrain as our premier Middle East destination, said Prince Khaled, founder and chief executive officer, KBW Ventures. Chef Kenneys ingenuity at crafting cuisine positions the menus selection as attractive to all diners. The concept, dedicated to guests looking to experience an array of quality healthy choices, demonstrated immediate success shortly after its launch in California. Now, KBW Ventures is proud to share Chef Kenneys selection in Manama, allowing visitors to Four Seasons from all over the Gulf to choose delicious and considered dining through Folia. Richard Raab, general manager of Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay, commented: At Four Seasons, we are always looking for fresh ways to innovate and create unique experiences for our guests. With increasing numbers of travellers seeking to adopt a healthier lifestyle, the appeal of plant-based cuisine has never been stronger. In addition to providing outstanding fine dining for our vegan guests, this new menu will also offer a delightful surprise for those unfamiliar with the tremendous array of dishes available in the plant-based world particularly when a master chef is at the helm. We are excited to bring Matthew Kenneys vision of healthy eating to life here in Bahrain, and look forward to introducing our guests to the many flavours of Folias plant-based cuisine. The Folia menu will showcase a refreshing range of seasonal dishes such as watermelon poke, marinated in a flavourful ponzu lime broth; hearts of palm ceviche with cherry tomato, peewee potato and olives in a dijon vinaigrette; beet hummus with oregano cream; and dukkah avocado with spicy greens, preserved lemon and tomato jam. Entrees include green herb tacos filled with roasted squash and king oyster barbacoa, and wild mushroom sandwich with caramelised onions and truffle aioli. Diners can end their meal on a sweet note with coconut cream pie and coco-berry mousse with hazelnut gelato among the tempting desserts on offer. The hotels Bay View Lounge features large, floor-to-ceiling windows that offer sweeping views of Bahrain Bay and Manamas glittering skyline. Beautiful olive trees line the chic lobby lounge, creating a perfect ambience in which to sample plant-based cuisine. Guests can also enjoy regular live piano music as they relax in the inviting surroundings. - TradeArabia News Service New York state Senate Democrats have used their first two months in control to pass significant legislation, including voting reforms, the Dream Act and codifying womens reproductive rights. Now, following the collapse of his Amazon HQ2 deal, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is trying to slow their progress, telling them to stop listening to progressives or else face political repercussions in the suburbs and put the partys majority at risk. Weve heard it in the governors comments, following the demise of an Amazon deal that he blames on progressive activists, that state senators dont appreciate their own need to get reelected in their own district. And weve seen evidence in the reports that Cuomo has been calling Long Island state senators to dissuade them from supporting the restoration of access to drivers licenses for all on the grounds that it will endanger their reelection prospects. The governors political analysis is wrong. State Senate Democrats should keep pushing for transformative progressive victories this year. Last fall, Democrats won sweeping victories, giving the party a commanding 39 seats in the 63-seat Senate with big victories outside of New York City. From Long Island to upstate, candidates including Rachel May, Jen Metzger and Kevin Thomas supported progressive platforms that mirrored those of progressive candidates in New York City. All of these candidates proved that energy and transformative ideas, rather than timidity, do win elections. Still, Cuomo and other centrists want to tame progressive firebrands by trying to scare suburban Democrats into thinking their colleagues are leaving them out to dry. Their historical example: 2009-2010, when Democrats briefly held Senate control. Following a coup that squandered the majority, Democrats then lost seats the next election and were in the minority until this year. The centrists argue that Democrats lost the election because a caucus led by New York City members forced a vote on the MTA tax that led to the loss of Long Island state senators Craig Johnson and Brian Foley. Suburban Democrats could face a similar fate, they say, in 2020. But 2020 isnt 2010, an off-year election with low Democratic turnout and a highly-energized Tea Party base. First, while not every 2018 election was a blow-out, most winning state Senate Democrats outside of New York City prevailed by large margins, outperforming national results. Six of these senators won by between 8 and 24 percentage points. This should make state Senate Democrats confident, especially going into a presidential election with likely high voter turnout. In 2018, voting surged across New York 49 percent, compared to 31 percent in 2014 with big boosts on Long Island and the Hudson Valley. Turnout in 2020 will be substantially higher. Turnout is always higher in presidential years 57 percent of eligible New Yorkers voted in 2016 but it will be especially true with Democrats motivated to defeat President Donald Trump. Higher overall turnout benefits Democrats because it reduces the discrepancy in voting rates between Democratic-leaning constituencies such as people of color, young people and low-income people, and the richer, older, whiter electorate that favors Republicans. Higher voting rates will help ensure Democrats hold the state Senate in 2020. While Trumps base may also be more enthusiastic to vote with him on the ballot than they were in 2018, the data suggest a net boost for Democrats. On this firm footing, Democrats should stick to the progressive vision that helped secure their strong majority. At bottom, the call for Democrats to slow down after they passed their early landmark bills implies that the rights of women, immigrants and transgender people do not matter in the suburbs. Having led suburban community organizing efforts for years, we know these issues resonate with many suburban residents. And suburban demographic change has brought significant increases in immigrants and people of color who lean progressive. For example, data show that affordable housing can be a winning issue with suburban residents. A 2017 Long Island Index report revealed deep concern about the lack of affordable housing among Long Islanders and strong support for government solutions that increase access to rentals. Similarly, a 2014 statewide poll found 73 percent of voters strongly or somewhat supported government efforts to increase affordability through increased investments and stronger policies to benefit families, homeowners and tenants. Whats more, a key plank of the universal rent control package, a good cause evictions bill, would expand protections for unregulated tenants, making an enormous difference for 1.2 million households living in rentals, and 150,000 households living in mobile homes, outside of New York City. Similarly, restoring access to drivers licenses to all qualified drivers, regardless of immigration status (a policy that New York had in place until the early 2000s, when Gov. George Pataki unwisely eliminated it), is critical for suburban residents who need to drive to get to work or take kids to school. While the governor has allegedly been whispering against this legislation, which he publicly says he supports, theres no evidence to suggest a net cost to Democrats for passing the bill. On the contrary, suburban senators have a built-in immigrant constituency that cares passionately about this issue, as well as strong data on how this legislation will improve road safety and boost the economy and state coffers. In short, state Senate Democrats are not especially vulnerable in 2020, and they should go big in what remains of this legislative session. They should pass public financing of elections, which will also help them stave off efforts by rich individuals and business interests to buy future state Senate elections for Republicans. They should restore access to drivers licenses to all. They should pass universal rent control legislation. And they should dramatically expand access to health care. It may make Cuomo uncomfortable, but a state Senate Democratic majority is here to stay. Its time to take that advantage for a spin and pass the transformative policies that gave Democrats the majority in the first place. Termen extins: OHCHR Moldova: Apel deschis pentru aplicatii din partea OSC-urilor pentru a beneficia de suport in desfasurarea activitatilor de advocacy la nivel international in contextul celui de-al treilea ciclu de EPU a R.Moldova Its one of those things that sounds so simple when you see a headline flash by in your Twitter stream: Apple and Google offer a smartphone app in Saudi Arabia that allows husbands to track their wives, and even prevent them from crossing the border? Thats outrageous! Why would such an app even exist, let alone be allowed in the App Store? Its easy to see why members of Congress called for the tech giants to remove the app, and why media coverage of the issue played on this outrage. But Google said earlier this week it had decided not to remove the app from its store (it did say it will continue to review the apps status, as did Apple). As with so many other things, however, theres more to this issue than can be summarized in a tweet. The app in questionknown as Absherdoesnt just allow Saudi men to track and block the movements of their wives, it also provides electronic access to a wide range of official government services, including drivers license and passport renewals. In case you havent made the obvious connection, the reason this wife-tracking feature is included in a government services app is that tracking your wife is legal in Saudi Arabia. A husband is his wifes legal guardian, and has control over her movement. If a woman is unmarried, she needs the consent of her father or brother. ICYMI: BuzzFeed and the digital media meltdown So if Google removed the Absher app from its store, it would not only be blocking a service that is completely legal in that country (whether Westerners like it or not), but also an app that provides a wide range of official government services. It gets even more complicated. The Saudi government and various observers in that country defend the app as having a wide variety of benefits, but they werent the only ones encouraging Google and Apple not to rush to judgment by deleting the app. Women both inside and outside Saudi Arabia have also argued that blocking the app could be counterproductive. Why? According to advocates for Saudi women, before the app came along, the process that husbands had to go through to approve their wifes travel was hugely complicated and time-consuming. Many husbands didnt do it, because the paperwork required was too much trouble. Egyptian-American author Mona Eltahawy noted on Twitter she received a message from a Saudi feminist who said that the Absher app is a symptom of a problem, not the problem itselfthe problem being the laws that make a Saudi man the legal guardian of his wife. This app is an abomination, the Saudi feminist continued, but it has helped women rather than the opposite. Those who want to flee can do so with app access, but could never before with actual paperwork and the previous bureaucratic system. Absher is a horrible, horrible application, but the alternative is worse. Re that Absher app that allows male guardians in #Saudi Arabia to issue permission for female relatives to travel and also to track the travel of those female relatives, a #Saudi feminist sent me this which is worth reading. #EndMaleGuardianship pic.twitter.com/FYqxrHbt34 Sign up for CJR 's daily email Mona Eltahawy (@monaeltahawy) February 12, 2019 This is a classic global ethics problemone that Google, Apple, Facebook, and even Twitter have to confront regularly: the app itself, while seen as ethically reprehensible in many countries, is completely legal in the country in which it is offered, and it includes access to a variety of official government services. Apple faced a similar problem in China, when the government asked it to remove all the VPN apps from its store, because they allowed Chinese citizens to get around the Great Firewall and access banned sites. This is the law in China, and Apple complied. It stores user data in China for the same reason (something Facebook said this week it will not do because of the countrys human-rights record). So what is the right course of action for Google? If it leaves the app, it gives the impression it doesnt care about womens rights. But if it removes it, Saudi women could be worse off than they were before. Being a global superpower isnt all its cracked up to be. ICYMI: Why the left cant stand The New York Times Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Mathew Ingram is CJRs chief digital writer. Previously, he was a senior writer with Fortune magazine. He has written about the intersection between media and technology since the earliest days of the commercial internet. His writing has been published in the Washington Post and the Financial Times as well as by Reuters and Bloomberg. A travel brochure offered a river cruise through France and added: For those who would like to extend their stay in France, an optional prelude in Normandy and an optional postlude in Versailles are offered. A psychology conference added a postlude to its lecture series, offering attendees two more days of lectures. A movie critic dissecting Escape Room complains about endings that seem tacked on: The postludes of today have become increasingly less the stylistic flourishes of confident or gonzo filmmakers and more like hedging, like plaintive pleas for a sequel. ICYMI: The term shoddy used to have a different meaning You probably know what a prelude is, and you probably know its close cousin, interlude, so youre likely able to figure out that postlude is the something that comes after. Pre- (before), inter- (during), and post-(after) are all prefixes that set something into a specific time period. But whats the lude that they are timing? Sign up for CJR 's daily email The plays the thing. Literally. Lude is from the Latin ludus, meaning a play, the Oxford English Dictionary says. In English, though, lude with no prefixes is an obsolete word meaning game, tracing to 1694. The OED says interlude is the oldest, dating to 1303. Its etymology, the OED says, is medieval (Anglo-) Latin interludium, itself a combination of inter and ludus. An interlude between acts of a play often featured a humorous character to lighten the mystery or morality play being presented. Any interval in the course of some action or event was an interlude by 1751. An interlude in music appeared around 1838, the OED says: An instrumental piece played between the verses of a psalm or hymn, or in the intervals of a church-service, etc. Then came prelude, around 1548. Interestingly, the OED says it is from multiple origins: Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French prelude; Latin praeludium. That Latin means, um, prelude. And while prelude derived from the practice of warming up the voice or instrument by performing a few notes, its oldest usage in English is A preliminary action, or condition, preceding and introducing one of more importance; an introduction, a preface; a precursor, as the OED says. Postlude first appeared around 1851 and was first applied to music and later to a written or spoken epilogue. But using postlude to mean an addition to something like a vacation, conference, or movie seems to be relatively recent. Most appearances of postludes relate to music, often accompanied by one of its close relations. At a wedding, for example, the prelude gets the guests in the mood before the wedding party enters and the postlude gets them out of the church afterwards. But at a wedding there is no interlude; instead, the members of the wedding party walk down the aisle to the processional and leave during the recessional. An interlude separates two things, and no other lude allows the wedding party to both come in and leave. Of the three, prelude is used more frequently in books, as shown by this Google n-gram, possibly because it is used more frequently than the others in nonmusic contexts. Postlude barely registers on the chart, despite William Carlos Williams popular 1913 poem Postlude. Postlude also rarely shows up in news copy, and when it does, its almost always as a reference to music. The funerals of both President George H.W. Bush and Sen. John McCain featured postludes, music for mourners to exit. The New York Times used it in the context of music in an article about the Massachusetts music venue Tanglewood: Make a very long weekend of your trip to the Berkshires with three Boston Symphony concerts and, as a postlude on Monday, an evening with the young players of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. To use prelude and postlude as synonyms for extensions to a vacation or a lecture series smacks of jargon for travel agencies, tour operators, and marketers. And while dictionaries follow rather than lead, none of the major ones have any definition for the extension kind of postlude. American Heritage comes closest, with a definition for A final chapter or phase. Everyone else keeps postlude close to music or the spoken word. Lets try to keep it that way, at least as it comes to prolonging a trip, lecture series, or the like: Extension, add-on, or additional days better convey what they want you to buy. ICYMI: The man who helps the internet make fake news Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Merrill Perlman managed copy desks across the newsroom at the New York Times, where she worked for twenty-five years. Follow her on Twitter at @meperl. An Iowa woman who filed a claim for damage that occurred after she purchased an auto insurance policy was convicted last week for felony insurance fraud, according to the Iowa Insurance Divisions Fraud Bureau. Jennifer Lea Fuentes, 43, was arrested on Aug. 15 by the Sioux City Police Department and booked into the Woodbury County Jail. On Thursday, Fuentes received a deferred judgment, was placed on probation for two years, ordered to complete 75 hours of community service, and was ordered to pay a $750 civil penalty, the division said in a press release. Fuentes conviction follows an investigation by the Iowa Insurance Divisions Fraud Bureau that began in July of 2018. The investigation concluded that while Fuentes was backing her vehicle out of a parking stall at her place of employment her vehicle collided with another vehicle that was traveling through the parking lot. At the time of the accident Fuentes did not have insurance coverage. Later the same day, Fuentes purchased insurance coverage online and failed to disclose that she had been in a collision hours earlier. Three days after the accident occurred Fuentes filed a claim with her insurer and intentionally misrepresented the date of the accident. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Employers can reduce workplace hazards by teaching workers how to see like artists, according to the National Safety Council. The organization isnt recommending art classes. It says that research by the Campbell Institute in Itasca, Illinois shows that training workers on the concept of visual literacy identifies hazards that werent spotted previously. After 225 employees at a Cummins Inc. manufacturing site were trained in visual literacy, they identified 132 safety issues using the elements of visual literacy and submitted and corrected 25 hazards through the companys Find It Fix It hazard recognition initiative, according to the study. About 90 percent of the information people consume is visual, said Campbell Institute Director John Dony in a press release last week. Taking in that much visual data can lead us to have inattentional blindness only seeing what we deem important to see, but being blind to many other details like potential hazards. Visual literacy is the ability to gain understanding from images, as opposed words. It is a skill set typically acquired early on. Think of understanding a trend by looking at a bar graph. The Toledo Museum of Art brought the concept of visual literacy to the field of occupational safety in 2015 when it began working with several companies in the Toledo, Ohio region, including Owens Corning, a Campbell Institute member. The museum launched a pilot program in 2015 to find out if training in visual literacy improves the ability to identify workplace hazards. The museum teaches the art of seeing art, which involves organizing ones thinking about an image by identifying the elements of art, color, line, shape, and space; as well as the principles of design, including balance, proportion and emphasis. Using that skill set to identify industrial hazards involves taking the time to see details that can quickly become lost through everyday exposure at the workplace. The Campbell Institutes study gives the example of a machine operator who looks at the same work area and equipment every day for years and stops noticing the fine details that may identify a hazard, such as a worn surface. The Toledo Museum of Art trained 300 Owens Corning staff members and volunteers in early 2015. It launched two-day train-the-trainer workshops in October 2017, teaching 14 participants from three companies on the elements of visual literacy. Using the template of line-shape-color-texture-space, Owens Corning created a process and vocabulary for looking at and assessing a work area for hazards. After completing training, workers at the Cummins plant completed job safety assessments and identified 17 slip, trip and fall hazards and nine machine hazards. Researchers compared the employees assessment of risk factors, expressed as scores, before and after the visual literacy training. The study found employees perceived greater risk in each of four hazard categories. The risk score for slip, trip and fall hazards, for example, increased from 310 before the training to 670 after. The identified hazards included steps with worn treading and a missing handrail and a failsafe for stopping an engine that had sharp edges after being ground down. The first paper on the topic of visual literacy for hazard recognition attempted to establish the connection between what is primarily a skill/process in art education and the field of environment, health, and safety, the Institute said. The preliminary results from the research project so far and the initial feedback from workers and workshop attendees seem to confirm that this is a lasting connection and one with important implications for workplace health and safety outcomes. The Campbell Institute will outline the preliminary results of the study during a free webinar on March 19. To register, click here. Crews are working on 134 flood control projects as parts of a $2.5 billion bond program approved by Houston-area voters last year in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, officials announced Thursday. Another 103 projects are on the drawing board _ all part of a process that could take up to 10 years to complete. Most people we talk to think were going too slow. I think were going relatively quickly for a government agency working on difficult infrastructure projects. But theres always room for improvement, said Matt Zeve, deputy executive director of the Harris County Flood Control District. Some of the projects already being built include widening of area bayous and construction of stormwater detention basins. The bond referendum is being supplemented by federal funds earmarked for flood mitigation after Harvey. Harvey, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm on Aug. 25, 2017, killed 68 people and caused an estimated $125 billion in damage in Texas. Thirty-six of the deaths were in the low-lying Houston area, where days of torrential rainfall and decades of unchecked development contributed to the flooding of more than 150,000 homes and 300,000 vehicles. As construction continues, questions have been raised about possible equity guidelines related to the projects. In a letter sent last month to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, a group of 11 state lawmakers expressed concerns about factoring income levels into the prioritization of the projects. Harris County has been clear that prioritization of projects depends on a number of factors but neighborhood and/or individual income levels have not, to my knowledge, ever been on the table, the lawmakers wrote. Actions by the States largest county to base project prioritization on elements outside of the scope that was understood by voters last summer could undermine our efforts to deliver much needed aid to Harris County and Texans across the state. The legislators became concerned after low-moderate income data was to be considered in the evaluation process for prioritizing bond projects. But Hidalgo later indicated that such data would no longer be considered. Other factors now being considered as criteria for prioritizing bond projects include existing drainage conditions, flood risk reduction and long-term maintenance costs. At the county commissioners meeting last week, Commissioner Rodney Ellis worried the ongoing debate about the equity guidelines would pit rich neighborhoods against poor neighborhoods over who would get projects built first. I dont think any of us ought to engage in class warfare. Thats the wrong thing for our community, Ellis said. County commissioners had been scheduled to discuss the equity guidelines at their meeting on Tuesday, but the issue has been postponed, Zeve said. Officials said they want to reassure residents that all the flood control projects are moving forward. We are not canceling any projects, Zeve said. We are going to complete every project in the bond program. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) is set to lead a delegation of the emirates leading hotels, attractions, tour operators and destination companies to ITB Berlin one of the worlds largest tourism trade fairs - taking place from March 610 at the Berlin Exhibition Grounds. The delegation of 48 partners and stakeholders will head to Europe to promote the Emirates tourism credentials and build on the record numbers of visitors to Abu Dhabi, which last year numbered more than 10 million. Through participating in ITB Berlin, DCT Abu Dhabi receives one of its widest annual platforms to network with key industry representatives. The Abu Dhabi stand at the fair will see the UAE Embassy in Germany hosting a reception event on the opening day. In addition, the second day will see the DCT stand host the Golden City Gate Awards as well as the annual Touristik PR & Medien Award 2019, which are organised by SRT, a publishing house which publishes the yearly handbooks Touristik PR and Touristik Media. These handbooks are the go-to publications for the tourism industry in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and the event, which will include the attendance of the UAEs Ambassador to Germany Ali Abdulla Al Ahmed, will see awards handed out for Best Tourism PR Agency, Best Tourism Board, Best Travel Blog, Best Travel Editorial Office and Best Travel Journalist. The delegation will include representatives from national airline Etihad Airways, Louvre Abu Dhabi, Yas Experience Hub, Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi and Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. The Abu Dhabi stand will gather extensive partners from the emirate, including approximately 37 hotels, such as Jumeirah Al Wathba, Jumeirah at Saadiyat Island, Fairmont Marina and Abu Dhabi Edition. DCT Abu Dhabi is planning to highlight the Special Olympics World Games, which is running between March 14 and 21 in Abu Dhabi, sharing the impact of the event with the global attendees assembled at ITB Berlin. Saeed Rashed Al Saeed, Destination Marketing director of the Marketing and Communications Department at DCT Abu Dhabi, said: ITB Berlin is a key global conference which we have been proud to attend since 2005. Our continued participation demonstrates our wish to showcase the remarkable culture and tourism offering of Abu Dhabi with the world, which is particularly important in this, the Year of Tolerance, as we look to communicate between peoples of different cultures. This demonstrates DCT Abu Dhabis continued relevance on the global stage, as we promote the emirate as an extraordinary destination worldwide. - TradeArabia News Service BROADVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio -- The long-awaited widening of Ohio 82, roughly between Interstate 77 and Broadview Road, is scheduled to start April 15. The estimated $10.7 million project will involve adding two lanes to the existing three-lane roadway between Ken Mar Industrial Parkway (just west of I-77) and Town Centre Drive (just east of Broadview), a distance of about 6,200 linear feet. Currently, that section of Ohio 82 contains one eastbound lane, one westbound lane and a center left-turn lane. When the widening is completed in late summer or fall of 2021, the road will have two lanes in both directions and a center left-turn lane. Broadview Heights Engineer Gary Yelenosky said the city is soliciting construction bids for the project and will open bid offers March 20. Yelenosky will recommend a contractor to City Council five days later and notify the winning bidder on April 2. Throughout construction, workers will keep three lanes of traffic open. Access to some residential and business driveways might be restricted at certain times. Work will shut down for the winter on Dec. 1 both this year and in 2020 and start up again March 15 in both 2020 and 2021. On Monday (March 11), preliminary work was already beginning. Yelenosky said AT&T and Dominion Energy were moving and replacing communication and natural gas lines, respectively, while workers from VanCuren Tree Services Inc. in Newbury Township were removing trees. Sharing the costs Last week, City Council hired Quality Control Inspection Inc. in Bedford for $1.1 million to provide contract administration, inspection and testing services, along with materials management, for the Ohio 82 project. QCIs work will include a constructability review to identity potential obstacles to the project before construction begins. The review will help reduce or eliminate errors, delays and cost overruns, Yelenosky said. Before selecting QCI, the city interviewed three additional firms: CTL Engineering Inc. in Columbus; Greenman-Pedersen Inc., a Babylon, N.Y., firm with an office in Berea; and Hill International, a global firm with a Cleveland office. The city chose QCI after a rigorous interview process, Yelenosky told cleveland.com in an email. Brecksville officials sat in on the interviews because a small portion of the project will take place in Brecksville. The City of Brecksville will pick up 30 percent of QCIs fee, or $160,499. Brecksville also will pay for 30 percent of the construction costs. In addition, a $4.4 million grant from the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency will help with construction, contract-administration and property-acquisition costs. The city needed to buy property along Ohio 82 to make room for the widened road. The city has spent about $600,000 buying parts of 65 parcels along Ohio 82, Yelenosky said. In some cases, the city will need the land only temporarily during construction. So far, part of the NOACA grant has covered the entire cost of land acquisition. Meanwhile, a $1.1 million grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the Ohio 82 widening, was used for preliminary engineering. The city chipped in about $120,000 for engineering. Another $960,000 from ODOTs Urban Paving Program will help pay for the project, Yelenosky said. Additional improvements According to the citys website, the genesis of the Ohio 82 widening dates to August 2008, when NOACA identified roads with the highest traffic volumes and lowest abilities to handle those volumes in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain and Medina counties. The study showed that Ohio 82 between I-77 and Broadview was carrying 44 percent more traffic than it can handle. Also, NOACA projected that this section of Ohio 82 would become the fourth most-congested roadway in the five counties by 2030. In addition to the widening, the Ohio 82 project will include the replacement of existing traffic lights and mast arms, and the addition of two traffic lights -- one at Glenwood Trail, a residential street, and the other at Market Place, a commercial street. Originally, the city was going to realign Glenwood and Market Place, which now offset, so that the two streets would meet each other. The street realignment was dropped from the plan because a property owner, from whom the city needed land, wanted to sell his entire parcel instead of a portion of it, and the city was unwilling to make that deal, Yelenosky said. The new traffic lights will have updated controllers that will coordinate the signals to move traffic more efficiently. Intersections with traffic signals will have left-turn-only lanes on Ohio 82. Also, workers will build a 5-foot-wide sidewalk along the south side of Ohio 82 and a 10-foot-wide walking-and-biking path along the north side. The sidewalk and path will include lighting. Yelenosky said most storm sewers along Ohio 82 will be replaced, and new curbs and catch basins will be added. Bioretention basins will absorb storm water. BRUNSWICK, Ohio -- This years Brunswick High School Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame inductees range from close to home to overseas. Janet Davis Rizzo, class of 1976, is the long-serving administrative assistant to superintendents of Brunswick City Schools. Nolan Masterson, class of 2003, is serving as a consular officer at the American Institute in Taiwan. Dr. Peter Katsaros, class of 1982, is an internal medicine specialist who lives in Wadsworth and whose practice is in Norton. And Debbie Manning, class of 1987, teaches sign language and is a vocational special education coordinator at Mid-East Career and Technical Centers in Muskingum County. The Hall of Fame is the highlight of the annual Spring Fling sponsored by the Brunswick Education Foundation. The dinner, ceremonies and silent auction raise funds for special teacher projects and student scholarships each year. It will be held again at Coppertop Restaurant, 5740 Center Road, Valley City, on April 6. Tickets are available for $45 from members of the BEF or by calling 330-273-0201. Janet Davis Rizzo If you call that number, you will probably find Rizzo on the other end. Rizzo, an active member of the Brunswick Optimist Club, has served as the contact for many of the school and community organizations through 40-plus years of work with the school district. She began her career at the Medina County Career Center, but in August 1977, she went to work at the Brunswick school boards business office with Goldie Mack. She then went to the education department with John Boyer. In 1982, she became the superintendents secretary and served with Boyer, Terry Furin, Ed Myracle, James Hayas and now, Michael Mayell. Her nominator said, Jan really is the perfect person for that position. She is also currently enjoying another job as a proud and active grandmother. Nolan Masterson Following graduation, Masterson earned his bachelor of science degree in secondary education in social studies from Champlain College in Vermont, graduating summa cum laude. He then earned a certificate in International Development Policy and Management, followed by a Master of Public Administration and Master of Arts in International Studies from The University of Washington in Seattle. He began his international work as a foreign service intern in the Virtual Student Foreign Service Program for the U.S. Department of State at the New Delhi Embassy in India in 2011. He later worked at the U.S. Consulate in Auckland, New Zealand from 2013-15. He then became a Foreign Service Officer Generalist in summer 2015 and studied Mandarin Chinese. From 2016-18, he served as the Assistant General Services Officer in the U.S. Consulate General Shanghais Management Section. Since July 2018, he has been serving as a consular officer at the American Institute in Taiwan, where he does visa interviews, and is the fraud prevention manager investigating U.S. visa and passport fraud in Taiwan. Debbie Manning I can do anything a hearing person can do, but hear, says Manning. She has lived by this motto her whole life. She grew up in Brunswick. When she was a baby, she became sick with the chicken pox and developed a high fever, which destroyed all the nerve endings in her ears. Thats when her life changed forever. She could no longer hear. Teachers in elementary school thought she was a behavioral problem or that she was mentally challenged, but she wasnt. She was crying out for help. Growing up in the 1970s and 80s, there were not a lot of services for the deaf and hard of hearing. Her parents, Robert and Dolores Watring, wanted to make sure their daughter could survive in a hearing world. So they enrolled Manning into years and years of speech therapy so that she could talk. She learned how to lip read, which got her through high school. It was very difficult. she says. When the teacher turned to write on the blackboard, or had a beard, I didnt know what they were saying. If videos were played in the class, they were not closed captioned. If class discussions took place, I would miss what other students would say, so I missed a lot. Manning graduated from Brunswick High School in 1987 and was accepted to Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., the only university for the deaf and hard of hearing in the United States. She earned a teaching degree, then returned home and started working on her masters degree in special education. She was commuting back and forth from Brunswick to Ashland University, where she earned her masters. Manning always wanted to work with kids, and her first job came at the Medina County Career Center as a resource room special education teacher employed by the Brunswick City Schools. In the fall of 1993, she was hired as the vocational special education coordinator at Mid-East Career and Technology Center in Zanesville. She provides services for students with disabilities from four different counties, including 14 home schools, who attend Mid-East while learning a trade. She has excelled in this position and started to be well known throughout the region in special education. She started teaching sign language classes at night. Manning was made a Board of Trustee Member of Deaf Services for 12 years and eventually became the board president. Deaf Services oversees services for the deaf and hard of hearing in Central and Southeast Ohio. Manning is married to Rob and they have a daughter, Kinzer. Dr. Peter Katsaros Katsaros was an outstanding student at Brunswick High School, serving as president of the National Honor Society. He attended Miami University of Ohio and earned his bachelors degree in chemistry in 1985 and went on to the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo, where he earned his medical degree in 1980, followed by a three-year residency in internal medicine. He has been in private practice since 1993 with Pioneer Physicians Network Inc. in Norton, Ohio. He has served as chief of staff, vice chief of staff and chief of medicine at Wadsworth-Rittman Hospital during his career. He has earned numerous honors and is a member of the Ohio State Medical Association, Academy of Medicine, American Medical Association and American College of Physicians. However, it is his personal relationship with his patients that earned him a nomination. Dr. Katsaros is such a professional in every aspect of medicine, his nominator wrote. He always gives you his full attention in a very gentle and caring manner, earning a complete sense of trust. Thus far in his career, Katsaros has served more than 100,000 patients -- and still counting. Staff members also honored In addition to the distinguished alumni, two more former staff members will be inducted into the Outstanding Staff Hall of Fame. William Bill Parschen, who was previously inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame, will be inducted this year -- the 20th anniversary of his sudden and untimely death at age 51. The principal of Towslee Elementary School at the time of his death, his career was marked with honors for the special way he treated people, including the little people for whom he was a mentor. Even after 20 years, former students and anyone who knew him remember him with great fondness. Kim Tomashefski, who served 35 years in the Brunswick City Schools as a teacher, elementary education coordinator, assistant high school principal, high school principal and assistant superintendent, will also be honored for her work with students and peers. One former student who nominated Tomashefski said: It is never easy to express the gratitude that I feel when I think back to my time at Brunswick High School. I truly enjoyed the experience that I had and when I think back to how Mrs. Tomashefski helped mold that experience, the word that continually comes to mind is professionalism. He went on the emphasize how she earned respect by the way she led by example, but wasnt afraid to share a good laugh and a smile. One of his favorite memories was that the day after he made her laugh, she told him, You made my day. BRUNSWICK HILLS TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- Trespassing, Grafton Road: A man was arrested for trespassing, criminal damaging and disorderly conduct at 10:56 p.m. Feb. 23 after police responded to an attempted break-in at a residence. The suspect was found standing next to a car parked in the driveway of the home. He told police that he had been dropped off by an Uber driver after leaving the Thirsty Cowboy in Medina and that the car in the driveway was his. He told police multiple times that he lived at the residence. Police determined that he actually lived in an apartment across the street. Police found damage to the car in the driveway and a screen door to the home from the suspect trying to enter. The callers told police they heard the suspect trying to use his keys to enter their house. Criminal damaging, Pearl Road: Management at Rolling Hills Animal Hospital reported that an outside wall of the business was spray-painted with graffiti sometime between Feb. 18 and the morning of Feb. 22. The owner of the building said a similar incident had occurred last fall. Police found no evidence at the scene of the most recent incident, and it was still under investigation at the time of the report. Suspicious person, Pearl Road: An employee at a day care center reported that an unknown man had entered the day care on Feb. 19, entered a restroom in the rear of the building, then left 10 minutes later. During the incident, the man reportedly ignored employees as they advised him that he was not allowed in the center. The employee was able to provide police with a description and license plate number of the car the suspect left in. She said there were three other people in the car, which had out-of-state plates. There was no further information at the time of the report. Driving under suspension, Substation Road: A driver was pulled over at 9:37 a.m. Feb. 23 when a random license plate check revealed his license was suspended. The driver claimed to have paid all of his outstanding fines, but the officer informed him that the Bureau of Motor Vehicles was still showing his license as suspended. If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page. FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio -- After a design period that lasted nearly a year and a half, Mayor Eileen Patton has announced that the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) plans to begin construction this spring on a vandal-protection fence across the Lorain Road bridge, which spans the Cleveland Metroparks Rocky River Reservation. Its finally happening, and thats only with the wonderful cooperation and the checkbook of ODOT, Patton said. We went through the design period back and forth quite a bit. We were looking for a pedestrian-friendly fence for a number of reasons. We do have a lot of pedestrians who cross over. And if you ever walked across that bridge, its quite daunting, but its beautiful, as well. Also, we have had quite a handful of deaths off that bridge. The scope of the estimated $621,725 project has increased to include painting and curb repair of the 1935 bridge, which sits 130 feet above the valley and is 1,300 feet long. During my conversations with Myron Pakush, the director of ODOT District 12, we discussed the idea if theyre going to put a fence up, why not fix the bridge in its entirety to correct the concrete thats there and the rust, Patton said. That way, everything will be in 100 percent condition when theyre finished. The bidding process for the Lorain Road Bridge took longer than expected. In the end, it was decided to divide the efforts into two different projects. The first, which is expected to start by Memorial Day and be finished in August, includes the installation of LED lighting, as well as concrete, curb, under-railing and deck-edge inspections. Traffic will have various daily lane restrictions during the project, ODOT District 12 Public Information Officer Brent Kovacs said. Added Patton, Theres no nighttime or weekend work. The next project, slated to be completed in 2020, involves ODOT painting nine bridges along Interstate 90 between Berea Road and West 65th Street. Specifically on the Lorain Road bridge, the project will repair and paint some of the steel of the bridge and also do some concrete sealing, Kovacs said. The project is scheduled to sell to a contractor in the spring of 2020. The work will start later that spring and is scheduled to be completed in the fall. Estimated construction cost for this (entire) project is $4,675,000. Originally maintained by Cuyahoga County, the Lorain Road bridge was transferred to the State of Ohio years ago. Still, Patton said Fairview Park takes care of plowing it in the winter. The mayor stressed that the addition of a pedestrian-friendly and vandal-proof fence is a sensitive subject, considering there have been roughly a dozen suicides since 2007 from the Lorain Road Bridge. Its really a delicate balance of, are we celebrating this fence going up? Patton said. I think so, for the future of anyone else losing their lives. Also, were encouraging more pedestrian-friendly traffic between the city of Fairview Park and the West Park area. Its a beautiful walk across the bridge. Theres no question about it. I think this fence will enhance that, as well. MEDINA, Ohio --Imagine being unable to read or to speak fluent English -- your ability to function effectively in the classroom or workplace would be seriously compromised. Thanks to Project:LEARN, hundreds of adults in Medina County have the opportunity to receive help with reading and with learning English as a second language. Recently, the Grainger Foundation -- an independent, private foundation based in Lake Forest, Ill. -- donated $5,000 in support of Project:LEARNS adult literacy and tutoring operations. The donation was recommended by Gail Yost, branch manager of W.W. Grainger Inc.s Akron location. According to Project:LEARN Executive Director Karla Robinson, the funds will be used to provide consumable workbooks and calculators to adults studying for the GED test and improving their reading skills. Students are encouraged to take the supplies home to study on their own. For more than 35 years, Project: LEARN of Medina County has served the community by providing free, one-on-one and group instruction to adults in English as a second language, reading, math and GED preparation. Well help adults with any kind of learning," Robinson said. To provide those services, the non-profit organization utilizes 162 volunteer tutors in four different county locations, providing 4,139 tutoring hours in 2018. In addition to the tutors, 80 volunteers work in three used bookstores -- one each in Medina, Brunswick and Wadsworth -- that earn money for Project:LEARN. To keep track of all this activity, a team of five paid, part-time employees work as a team. In addition to director Robinson, an office manager, a bookstore manager and two tutoring supervisors are part of that team. The group receives no government funding, so must raise funds from book sales, donations from businesses and individuals, fundraisers, and grants from foundations. Project:LEARN is gearing up for its annual spring fundraiser -- Match Wits -- a trivia challenge open to teams from Medina County. Last year, 21 teams competed, with the team from Medina Sunrise Rotary taking home the winning trophy. To participate or to learn more about the challenge, call 330-723-1314 or visit www.projectlearnmedina.org. Corporate sponsorships are also available. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Fox News is denouncing remarks by host Jeanine Pirro suggesting Rep. Ilhan Omars hijab could indicate shes against the Constitution. We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirros comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar. They do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly, the network said in a statement. During her opening monologue on Saturdays Justice with Judge Jeanine, Pirro talked about Omars controversial comments about Israel which some have described as anti-Semitic. This is not who your party is. Your party is not anti-Israel, she is, Pirro said, directly addressing Democrats who have defended Omar. Think about this. She is not getting this anti-Israel sentiment doctrine from the Democrat Party. So if its not rooted in the party, where is she getting it from? Think about it. Omar wears a hijab, which according to the Quran, 33:59, tells women to cover so they wont molested. Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to sharia law, which is antithetical to the U.S. Constitution? Fox host Jeanine Pirro says that Ilhan Omar's hijab may mean that she's against the Constitution. pic.twitter.com/yxGRVoYkQm John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) March 10, 2019 The comments didnt elicit an immediate reaction from Fox News, though a producer at the network took to Twitter to call Pirro out. @JudgeJeanine can you stop spreading this false narrative that somehow Muslims hate America or women who wear a hijab arent American enough?, Hufsa Kamal, a producer on Special Report with Bret Baier, posted. You have Muslims working at the same network you do, including myself. K thx. @JudgeJeanine can you stop spreading this false narrative that somehow Muslims hate America or women who wear a hijab arent American enough? You have Muslims working at the same network you do, including myself. K thx. https://t.co/ZfKhRhlvM3 Hufsa Kamal (@hufkat) March 10, 2019 Following the negative reaction, Pirro sought to clarify her comments. "I did not call Rep. Omar un-American, she said in a statement. My intention was to ask a question and start a debate, but of course because one is Muslim does not mean you dont support the Constitution. I invite Rep. Omar to come on my show any time to discuss all of the important issues facing America today. This isnt the first time Pirro has been reprimanded by Fox News. Back in November, the network called her appearance with President Donald Trump at a rally an unfortunate distraction and that it had been addressed. Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota and one of the first two Muslim-American women ever elected to Congress, thanked Fox News Monday for condemning Pirros comments. Thank you, @Fox News, she wrote. No ones commitment to our constitution should be questioned because of their faith of country of birth. Thank you, @FoxNews. No ones commitment to our constitution should be questioned because of their faith or country of birth. https://t.co/haqm7NWRw0 Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) March 11, 2019 Last week, the House passed a resolution condemning all forms of hate in the aftermath of Omars comments. Nothing will stop South Euclids leadership from eliminating the .75 percent tax credit for income earned outside of the city. This will be the final straw for many working-age residents, who will now be hit with thousands in new taxes, making the decision to leave a no-brainer. Increased taxes will guarantee two things: Residents will leave, and it will be more difficult to attract newcomers. The cycle guarantees that an ever-shrinking pool of income earners will shoulder the burden of outsized government, and taxes will continue to rise exponentially. South Euclid, know your audience: Many of us came to this community because it was affordable and within a reasonable distance to our places of work. This is not Chicago, New York or San Francisco -- were not here for some sense of civic involvement, natural beauty or deeply rooted community. South Euclids ability to attract tax-paying residents is directly attributable to the quality and type of housing, and overall affordability for first-time home buyers. Accept that fact and build government around it. South Euclids governance is the 20th century model in which the city provides public amenities that once were not widely available: transportation, recreation, meeting space. Today, the Metroparks, $10-a-month gym memberships, the YMCA, privately subsidized summer camps and affordable meeting space are available everywhere. South Euclid should focus on providing safety, garbage collection and infrastructure maintenance in an affordable manner. South Euclid should be partnering with Cleveland Heights, University Heights and Lyndhurst to share legal services, community and recreation facilities, housing, and building resources. That would be smart, right-sized, 21st century governance. Voters rejected the tax increase by an overwhelming majority last November, a mid-cycle election with one of the highest voter turnouts in decades. What part of NO MORE do South Euclids leaders really not understand? Voters gave you their answer, overwhelmingly: no new taxes. If that means non-essential services get cut, then do it. Well quickly discover how much demand there really is for those items, and how much residents are willing to pay for them. Travis L. Grundke, South Euclid CLEVELAND, Ohio There are people who, upon becoming homeless, would rather tough it out on the streets with their dog or cat than move into a shelter that doesnt allow pets. Its pretty common for folks who are living on the streets to have animals, said Chris Knestrick, executive director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless. We recently got a call from a woman who lives in an abandoned camper on the east side. She has a dog and two cats. When we went to check up on her during the extreme cold, we took pet food, too. And then theres the man who is homeless and who has an apartment, but doesnt live there. He, too, stayed outdoors, even during the recent harsh cold weather. His cat isnt allowed in the building because it doesnt have its shots, Knestrick continued. So hes staying outside. We take him cat food, and were trying to work with the APL (Cleveland Animal Protective League) to get the cats shots for free. As with animal lovers who have homes, the companionship of a pet enriches and eases to a degree the lives of people dealing with the hardships of living outdoors with unconditional love, loyalty and, in many cases, protection. The Homeless Coalition, on Perkins Avenue just east of downtown Cleveland, receives donations of food and funds specifically designated for the care of pets of the homeless. Its donors include the fledgling nonprofit, Paws for the Homeless. Last summer, 21-year-old college senior Hillary Lacks, and her mother, Monica, launched Paws for the Homeless and reached out to the Homeless Coalition. (You can learn more at facebook.com/PawsFTH) To me, it says something that homeless people would rather feed their pet then feed themselves, said Hillary, who is from Shaker Heights, and currently a senior studying social work at Syracuse University. I have had dogs all of my life, and I know the emotional benefits that they bring. And, being a social worker, I was thinking of ways to support marginalized populations. Homeless with pets a national concern There are about 3.5 million homeless Americans, and 5 to 10 percent of them have dogs and/or cats, according to the Carson City, Nevada-based Pets of the Homeless. Pets of the Homeless describes itself as being the only national animal organization focused completely on feeding and providing emergency veterinary care to pets of the homeless. Last summer, 21-year-old college senior Hillary Lacks, right, and her mother, Monica, launched Paws for the Homeless. The nonprofit donates pet food and pet supplies to homeless shelters that allow animals. The Lacks research before launching Paws for the Homeless included the book My Dog Always Eats First by Leslie Irvine, a sociology professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. Irvine specializes in human-animal relationships. Im an attorney, and when Hillary approached me with the idea of establishing a nonprofit that would assist homeless pet owners, I recently had coincidentally attended a continuing legal education on the subject of how to start a nonprofit in the state of Ohio, so of course I offered to help, said Monica. More than $2,000 quickly was raised, and fundraising is ongoing. Along with the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, Paws for the Homeless donates food and other supplies to pet-friendly shelters around the country. According to Monica and Hillary, there are no shelters in the Cleveland area that allow pets on site. In every case, we have purchased and shipped specific supplies based on the needs of the organization, which may include everything from dog or cat food, cat litter, beds, leashes, enzymatic cleaners and flea treatment, Monica added. Cincinnati shelter among those that allows pets Interfaith Hospitality Network of Greater Cincinnati allows pets, and is one of the organizations that the Lacks supply. We provide emergency shelter and a housing program for parents and children, said executive director, Stacey Burge. Back in 2014, we had so many homeless families with pets who didnt want to surrender them, we decided to build an embedded shelter (on-site kennel) within our center. So our families can bring their cats, dogs, hamsters and rabbits with them. And we make sure we develop a housing plan that includes pet-friendly housing. Once the IHNGCs Pet Support Program began, other homeless shelters in the Cincinnati area began calling, so in addition to serving its own families with pets, the nonprofit began taking in pets of people living at other shelters. Volunteers feed, walk and spend time with the pets that do not have families on site, Burge added. As for transitioning back into housing and stability, we continue to offer pet supplies, so as families build their budget and household they can enjoy the benefits and support of having a pet and not have to worry about the pet being a financial strain, said Burge. Thats where donations come in. The Lacks also work with Doorways for Women and Families in Arlington, Virginia. In May, 2009, Doorways became the only shelter in Virginia, and one of nine in the country (at the time) to offer shelter for survivors and their pets fleeing violence, said Linley Beckridge, communications and outreach manager. Doorways all-weather Safe Kennel, which has heat, air conditioning and indoor/outdoor areas, can house dogs, cats and small animals such as hamsters and turtles. Often, theres a link between pets and domestic violence, Beckridge said. For example, abusers may threaten to harm or kill a pet to maintain power over their victim and prevent them from leaving. Our Safe Kennel ensures that families can escape harm and find safety together. Family Promise of Greater Phoenix is yet another pet-friendly homeless shelter on the receiving end of the Lacks nonprofit. With a donation from PetSmart, the shelter in 2012 opened an onsite pet sanctuary complete with kitty condos, a dog area and dog run, and areas for reptiles. Hillary is juggling being a senior in college, her social work internship and Paws for the Homeless. In the beginning, because you have a vision for something like this, you envision it with consistent growth and progress, but it hasnt always been easy and straightforward, she said. But the bits of progress that weve made and the donations are so impactful for homeless people and families with animals. CLEVELAND, Ohio Prophet R.L. Bynoe gives weekly sermons online, told followers that God appointed him to foretell the future of those who listened to him and held twice-monthly services at a Beachwood hotel where he promised that he could help heal the sick. Social media posts from the churchs website insist that speaking with the prophet on the phone will amount to a life-alerting experience. He encouraged people to fight through adversity on an hourlong radio program. His website encourages people to email prayers and offers his book The Sacred Power of Excellent Leadership for $25. But U.S. marshals and local police are now searching for him. Authorities say he is a suspect in a sexual assault against a minor and lied to officials after a February arrest on a drug-dealing warrant that turned out to be for a completely different person. Authorities have been baffled by Bynoe, who spent time in prison under the name Taj Mahal Frazer. Officials are trying to figure his real identity and have struggled to do so in the past. He also tricked U.S. Marshals and other police agencies on Friday when he spoke with them during an hours-long standoff at an East Cleveland apartment building, making them believe he was inside. When they broke down the door, the police found he had been speaking with them through a web cam set up inside the apartment, according to the U.S. marshals. U.S. Marshals said on Monday they are still searching for Frazer. He had been arrested in February on a federal methamphetamine-dealing warrant from Arizona, but prosecutors in Cleveland later wrote in court records that he was not the man they were looking for, despite sharing the same unusual name. Frazer, in a hearing to determine his identity following the arrest, said he was the person being sought in the Arizona indictment, according to a transcript of the hearing. Prosecutors did not say how they determined he was not the Taj Mahal Frazer that Arizona authorities were looking for. Police have not released any information on the sexual abuse accusations, only saying that Frazer is a suspect. Frazer, born in the U.S. Virgin Islands, runs the Shiloh New Life International, which meets in person twice per week in Embassy Suites by Hilton Hotel in Beachwood off Interstate 271. The congregation met in other area hotels. Frazer, or Bynoe as hes called on the churchs website, says hes been a minister since he was 18 years old and that hes known far and wide for his divine accuracy and directness in the Caribbean, South America, South Africa, Europe, and the USA, the website says. His wife, Alexis Bynoe, who is listed as a minister and a prophetess on the churchs website, filed their businesses The Shiloh New Life International Center, LLC. And The Institute of Apostles and Prophets Congress, LLC. with the Ohio Secretary of State in 2016 and 2017, respectively. His LinkedIn profile says hes been a pastor for Shiloh New Life International Center since 2002. U.S. Marshals, however, say that Frazer in 2006 was convicted in a drug-dealing case in which he spent a significant amount of time in prison. Frazer served eight years in prison after a jury found him guilty of drug trafficking and possession. He was released from prison on March 6, 2014 and ended probation 13 months later, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections. The Southeast Area Law Enforcement drug task force began investigating Frazer after anonymous complaints by a woman who said Frazer and two others were ordering large shipments of marijuana to be delivered to women across the area by UPS or FedEx. The women would take the drugs back to the Maple Heights home that was being used as a stash house and where Frazer lived. Investigators sifted through Frazers garbage twice and finding documents with the name Ronley Bynoe on them. The officers reported searching numerous databases and being unable to find anyone with a Social Security number, drivers license or any other documentation under that name. Detectives later found a plane ticket from Cleveland to New York under the name Taj Mahal Frazer. They also reported finding a trip itinerary for a religious conference for the dates that Frazer was in New York. Both times police reported finding loose marijuana and other items used to package drugs for re-selling. The detectives in that case also had issues trying to identify Frazer. The officers wrote in court records that Frazer had a marijuana possession conviction in Georgia, but investigators later learned the Georgia conviction belonged to a different Taj Mahal Frazer only after running his fingerprints through a national database. Investigators on March 3, 2006 raided Frazers home after arresting a man who drove from the home with two boxes of marijuana in the bed of his truck. Frazer pulled up to the home while detectives were watching. They raided the home and found Frazer in the basement, surrounded by a large-scale operation that included some 44 pounds of marijuana that Frazer was cutting up, weighing and putting into gallon-size freezer bags. Investigators also found various identification cards with the names Taj Mahal Frazer and Ronley Bynoe, according to court records, including an Ohio drivers license, identification cards from the Virgin Islands and Georgia and a Walt Disney access card with Frazers photo on it, but with the name Ronley Bynoe. Investigators also seized more than $1,600 cash, a gun found under Frazers bed and a Scarface plaque in the living room. During the investigation, authorities seized two of Frazers cars because he bought them with drug money. In order to seize Frazers cars, officials had to establish that Frazer could have only bought them through illicit means. Investigators noted that Frazer asked one of the car dealers to hire him so he could show proof of employment. His girlfriend at the time told police he had no job and wasnt employed and detectives found he lied about his employment history when he bought the cars. CARROLLTON, Ohio Deputies have arrested a 45-year-old man accused of exposing himself to a child that had just exited a school bus. The Carroll County Sheriffs Office says it began investigating after being told the unidentified male is suspected of having exposed himself to juveniles on several other occasions. After notifying Carrollton Schools officials, a plain-clothes officer rode the school bus on Friday as deputies followed in unmarked vehicles. Deputies say they saw the suspect pull down his pajama-style pants and expose himself to a young child on Friday. He was immediately arrested, officials say. According to the sheriffs office, the suspect admitted to exposing himself to the child on Friday and also to past incidents. The suspect is charged with public indecency but could face additional charges, officials say. Carroll County is southeast of Canton. If youd like to comment on this post, please visit the cleveland.com crime and courts comments section. CLEVELAND, Ohio Danielle Sydnor wants a seat at the table and she is making it her mission to get one. Elected last month to lead the Cleveland chapter of the NAACP, Sydnor says one of her top priorities is ensuring that the storied civil rights organization is present at discussions of economic inclusion and equality issues rather than an afterthought. We dont want people to come to us to put our rubber stamp on things, and then we never hear from them again, she told me. The recently launched civic discussions about how to improve the regions economic development plans have drawn attention to the lack of inclusion among the authors of the regions plans. Sydnor, 36, is wise to try to tap into the moment, which was sparked by attorney Jon Pinneys criticisms of the regionals economic stagnation. Sydnor told me the NAACP must raise its profile around the issue. The NAACP, Presidents Council and Urban League best understand the difficulty minority entrepreneurs and small business owners face in attracting loans and community support, she said. That latter two groups are particularly focused on improving opportunities for minority businesses. You cant be serious about improving economic equality if you are not engaging these organizations, because they deal every day with the demographics of people we are now talking about, she said. Sydnor personally knows these issues. Shes a former banker who heads the nonprofit Economic and Community Development Institute, which provides small business loans, training and support to low-income entrepreneurs. Sydnor has appointed Sheila Wright to lead the NAACPs economic development committee. Wright, too, is well-connected and versed in the issues. A former executive director of the NAACP, she is president of The Good Community Foundation, which was established by Albert and Audrey Ratner and provides support to programs aimed at supporting educating, reducing poverty and economic development. Sydnor said she also wants the NAACP to give more attention to two other issues: mobilizing voters so they are better represented, and improving the health of minority residents. She said she hopes to partner with organizations tackling low-birthweight babies, diabetes and lead poisoning in minority communities. Thats an impressive agenda, especially for an organization thats seen its share of dysfunction over the last several years. As Ive noted in previous columns, the Cleveland NAACP has suffered from weak fundraising, low membership and internal conflict. These issues, however, have improved under the recent leadership of attorneys Michael Nelson (now a Cleveland Municipal Court judge) and James Hardiman, who have helped rebrand and return some financial stability to the organization. Sydnor said the NAACPs troubles are in the past, noting that she was unopposed in her bid to be elected the branchs top officer. Some past elections were particularly contentious and generated complaints to the national NAACP office. She said she also enjoys the support of members representing the old and new guards. Given the organizations important role in the community -- and her ambitious agenda -- Sydnor will need everyone to have her back. COLUMBUS, OhioOhio Senate President Larry Obhof on Monday said hes open to discussing alternative ways for Ohio to carry out executions, as the state continues to have issues regarding its use of lethal injection. I think we collectively need to sit down and decide what those alternatives are, the Medina Republican said at a Statehouse signing ceremony with Gov. Mike DeWine and others. Obhof also said he shares the concern DeWine has with the current status of the law that we have in place. DeWine, a Republican, has postponed four scheduled executions this year -- including three last Friday -- as the states prisons agency works to draw up a new lethal-injection protocol. In January, a federal judge ruled that Ohios current lethal-injection cocktail of midazolam (as a sedative), a paralytic drug, and potassium chloride (to stop the heart) are likely unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment, comparing their effect to the torture tactic of waterboarding. Franklin County Prosecutor Ron OBrien, a Republican, told the Associated Press last week that Ohio should consider using other execution methods besides lethal injection such as nitrogen gas, which is now Oklahomas primary method of execution. DeWine told reporters Monday that he hasnt thought about whether Ohio should stop using injections for executions. He added, however, that he felt we had no choice but to delay the states upcoming executions because the states prisons agency wouldnt be able to develop a new execution protocol and go through inevitable legal challenges to it by the time of their original execution dates. Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder deflected a question about whether he favors switching execution methods. But when he was asked last week whether the delayed executions are making him reconsider whether he supports the death penalty, Householder replied, I am putting thought into it, honestly. Ohio, like many other states with the death penalty, has struggled to obtain lethal-injection drugs since European pharmaceutical companies cut off further sales on moral and legal grounds. After the controversial execution of killer Dennis McGuire in January 2014, Ohio imposed a three-year moratorium on executions as officials worked to find new lethal-injection drugs and suppliers willing to sell it to them. During that moratorium, Ohio lawmakers considered using other execution methods, though ultimately no changes were made. Since the moratorium was lifted in 2017, Ohio has executed three people using the current three-drug cocktail. State prisons director Annette Chambers-Smith told cleveland.com late last month that her agency wont rush to come up a new lethal-injection protocol. I dont feel a need to try to come up with a protocol in an expeditious manner, she said. This is a dignified process this is human life were talking about. Since Nikol Pashinyan came to power in Armenia, many experts have put hopes on a young, progressive politician, who was not involved in the Karabakh clan, in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The new leadership's awareness of the fact that due to the ongoing confrontation with Baku, Armenia remains under the economic blockade - its borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan are closed, its communication with Moscow is through Georgia, and in terms of sanctions Iran does not look too reliable as a partner - could theoretically create favorable environment for progress in the negotiations. The first steps to mutual understanding were made last September in Dushanbe, later on the sidelines of the unofficial summit of the CIS heads of state in St. Petersburg, as well as at Pashinyan's meetings with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Davos. However, the negotiation process hampered by Yerevans claims to change the format of the talks by attracting representatives of the separatist regime created in the occupied territories to the negotiation process. "The Prime Minister of Armenia, claiming that he cannot speak on behalf of the Armenians living in Karabakh, cannot answer the simple question: what are the Armenian armed forces doing in Azerbaijan's sovereign territories," Baku wonders. It is not a secret that the self-proclaimed 'NKR' exists at the expense of military, political and financial support of Yerevan and the diaspora, and it is Armenia that controls Nagorno-Karabakh and the adjacent territories. In this regard, experts' attention was attracted by the statement of American political analyst, consultant with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Ray Salvatore Jennings, who, in his article 'Upgrading US Support for Armenia's Post-Revolution Reforms', called on the Armenian leadership to remove the Nagorno-Karabakh siloviki and initiate criminal proceedings against them. According to the expert, it will give the Armenian side flexibility in negotiations with Azerbaijan. This idea did not arise suddenly. At the beginning of last summer, about half a thousand people gathered for a spontaneous rally in the unrecognized republic's capital to protest the beating of two local residents by special forces, they not only demanded to arrest the special forces members, but also dismiss the security leadership of Nagorno-Karabakh. Then local experts began talking that the political consequences of the action could be serious. It became clear that the possibility of nominating the current 'president' of 'NKR' Bako Sahakyan for another term was almost excluded in 2020. Before the change of power in Yerevan, the 'NKR' security leadership had a 'cover' in the person of Serzh Sargsyan. But after his removal from power, they should not expect any serious protection. In the summer, the situation in Karabakh was somewhat smoothed out after Pashinyans request for the protesters to calm down and give the authorities an opportunity to solve the problems. Then the director of the Karabakh National Security Service, Lieutenant-General Arshavir Garamyan, the head of the 'police', Major General Kamo Aghajanyan and the "state minister" Araik Arutyunyan were dismissed. Moreover, the latter said that the citizens are dissatisfied not only with lawlessness of individual law enforcement officers, but also with the social conditions prevailing in the republic as a whole. At the end of last year, commander of the 'NKR defense army' Levon Mnatsakanyan said goodbye to his post. Now, observers are inclined to believe that 'cleansing' in both Karabakh and Yerevan can be regarded as measures indicating Pashinyans readiness to implement confidence-building mechanisms with Baku, which will bring significant benefits to Armenias current economic situation, for example, the opportunity to join international projects, such as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. At the same time, it is obvious that in order to advance in resolving the conflict, Armenia will have to withdraw its troops from the occupied Azerbaijani territories and build civilized relations with its neighbors, which will help the country to escape isolation. The series of NATO Week events have started in Armenia today. There are no political obstacles for approval of the 6th stage of the Individual Partnership Action Plans (IPAP) between Armenia and NATO for 2020-2022, head of the Department of Defense Policy at the Armenian Ministry of Defense Levon Ayvazyan said at the press conference devoted to the start of NATO Week in Armenia. He noted that NATO continues to be an important partner of Armenia. Head of Arms Control and International Security Department of Armenian Foreign Ministry, Ambassador Armen Yedigaryan, in turn, said that Armenia and NATO are negotiating the drafting of the 6th phase of the Individual Partnership Plan (IPAP). He added that most likely, the plan will come into force in spring 2020. "Until then the current version of IPAP is applied," Sputnik Armenia cited Yedigaryan as saying. The 'NATO Week' in Armenia will be held on March 11-18. It is attended by special representative of the NATO Secretary General for the South Caucasus and Central Asia James Appathurai. Cooperation between Armenia and NATO is being built in accordance with the Armenia-NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan, signed in December 2005. Armenia's participation in the IPAP involves holding periodic consultations with NATO on regional security, developing the strategy of this security, the military doctrine, improving the defense and budget planning process and other issues. The editor-in-chief of 'National Defense' magazine, Igor Korotchenko, noted in conversation with the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza that events of Armenia-NATO format raise questions from Russia. "Nobody forbids Armenia to maintain political contacts with other states, but the close military-political rapprochement of the CSTO member with NATO as an organization causes bewilderment. This bewilderment is all the more reasonable if we recall that the CSTO was left without a general secretary because of Armenia's unconstructive position, since former Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov was recalled to Yerevan and a new criminal case was opened against him by the new Armenian authorities, while the candidacy proposed by Belarus is blocked by Yerevan. At least, Armenia could agree on the appointment of a new CSTO Secretary General, and only then hold the NATO week," he said. "Russia is interested in strengthening military and military-technical relations and sees Armenia as an important partner. However, under the conditions when such NATO weeks are held, this is another reason to carefully analyze the situation after the change of power in Armenia," the editor-in-chief of 'National Defense' magazine stressed. "It is worth noting that a huge staff of the American embassy in Yerevan - several thousand people - has not gone anywhere. There are U.S. intelligence agencies operating under diplomatic cover - the CIA, military intelligence, the National Security Agency. Having so many U.S. citizens with diplomatic status in the republic is a threat for Armenian national security. Of course, Armenia is a sovereign state, no one can tell it what to do, but our Armenian partners should know that such Yerevan's drift towards NATO is of concern to us," Igor Korotchenko pointed out. Barrick Gold withdrew its $18 billion bid for its biggest rival Newmont Mining, ending a hostile and bitter takeover effort that sought to unite the world's two biggest gold producers. The companies said they have instead signed an agreement to create a joint venture for their operations in Nevada, where Newmont has 19 mines adjacent to Barrick's. Barrick launched a bid for Newmont last month, but was rejected by Newmont. The chief executives of the companies have been trading insults, bringing to fore the deep personality and cultural differences between the world's two biggest gold producers. Barrick's offer included Newmont ditching its previously announced takeover of Canada's Goldcorp Inc, which on Monday backed the joint venture plans. "We are finally taking down the fences to operate Nevada as a single entity in order to deliver full value to both sets of shareholders," Barrick Chief Executive Officer Mark Bristow said in a statement. Last week, a top Barrick shareholder urged the gold miner to strike an agreement for the Nevada operations. Both companies agreed to combine their Nevada assets to cut costs, but were so far unable to hammer out a solution on how it should be done. The joint venture, which Bristow said had been more than 20 years in the making, will be operated and majority owned by Barrick. Newmont's shares rose 1 percent premarket, while Barrick's U.S.-listed shares gained about 2.5 percent. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), right, president of the South Carolina NAACP chapter, Brenda Murphy, march to the Statehouse in commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 21, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. Sen. Bernie Sanders and his advisors have been meeting with potential South Carolina campaign staffers as the Vermont democratic socialist looks to pull off a win in the state's 2020 presidential primary, four years after Hillary Clinton crushed him there, CNBC has learned. Sanders has been pushing to firm up his support among younger and more liberal voters. According to people familiar with the process, the senator has been flying possible hires to his home in Vermont and having in-depth conversations about how they can help his operation. This time, Sanders faces a bigger, albeit more diverse field of Democratic rivals, and he has fallen behind in the South Carolina staffing race. Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker were among the first to start staffing there. Booker hired former Sanders state political outreach director Christale Spain to be his 2020 state director. Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday announced South Carolina hires, including Alycia Albergottie, who was Clinton's 2016 state director. Sanders is also looking to make inroads with black voters. In 2016, Clinton, who won the primary by about 50 percentage points, grabbed 84 percent of the black vote compared with Sanders' 14 percent. The senator has been in regular contact with supporter Terry Alexander, a South Carolina state lawmaker. Sanders plans to expand his outreach to black voters, Alexander said. "We are going to have a lot more events in the African-American communities this time around," Alexander, who is black, told CNBC. "I think you are going to have them more involved with the faith community, with the seniors and as a total community as a whole." The 2016 United States Census Bureau survey shows 69 percent of Palmetto State election participants are white, while 27 percent are listed as African-American. Alexander also elaborated on Sanders' hiring process. "We have been looking at staff and setting up an organization here in South Carolina," Alexander said. "We had a conversations this past Friday about how it's going to look and how it's going to work for him. We are trying to find people who want to win and not just those who just want to be on a campaign. It's the question of do you want to win, and I want to win South Carolina." Alexander declined to name the people he has met with about joining the campaign. He also noted he could play either an official local or national role for the campaign, and a decision may be made this weekend about his position. Sanders will be traveling on Thursday to South Carolina for the first time since launching his campaign, hosting a rally in North Charleston. Prior to entering the 2020 election, Sanders in January spoke at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day rally at the state capital and later at the historically black Benedict College, where he recounted marching with King in the 1960s. Representatives from the Sanders campaign did not return repeated requests for comment. Senior campaign strategist Jeff Weaver confirmed on a phone call with reporters on Monday that Sanders and his advisors have been working to put a team in place in the five early primary states, which includes South Carolina. When asked how he will do better in 2020 within the state compared to the last election, Weaver said the campaign will have "a stronger team on the ground and be much earlier in the process." Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir announced they had 70 people on the national payroll. President Donald Trump won the state over Clinton in the general election by more than 14 percentage points. Democrat Joe Biden and his consultants have been reaching out to seasoned political operatives in the state to see if they would join the former vice president's operation if he runs, according to people familiar with the discussions who declined to be named. Former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke speaks to a crowd of marchers during the anti-Trump 'March for Truth' in El Paso, Texas, on February 11, 2019. Beto O'Rourke is headed to Iowa this weekend, fueling speculation that the former Texas congressman and fundraising wunderkind will soon officially enter the packed Democratic primary race. The potential presidential candidate is expected to be in the state on Saturday to knock on doors for Eric Giddens, a Democratic candidate facing off against Republican Walt Rogers in a March 19 special election for state senate, according to Jonah Hermann, a spokesperson for the Iowa Democratic Party. "At this point, all signs point to a run," Hermann said. "He won't come to Iowa in March for the weather." O'Rourke will not be the only high profile Democrat in the state this weekend. Also campaigning for Giddens will be Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., both of whom have formally declared as presidential candidates, Hermann said. CNN was first to report on O'Rourke's plans to visit the state. Representatives for O'Rourke and Giddens did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Iowa caucuses are the first contest in the Democratic primary, which makes the state crucial to the fortunes of presidential hopefuls. Though O'Rourke, 46, has not officially entered the race, he is a consistent favorite in the polls. More Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents support O'Rourke than support either Booker or Klobuchar, according to a Monmouth University poll released on Monday, which found O'Rourke in fifth place. Conservatives have taken note. The Club for Growth, which advocates for lower taxes, is expected to begin airing attack ads in Iowa against O'Rourke this week, Politico reported on Sunday. O'Rourke narrowly lost a race for the U.S. Senate to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in November following an expensive and unexpectedly tight battle. -- CNBC's Brian Schwartz contributed to this report. There is growing frustration in Brussels as Brexit negotiations rumble on with only a few days left before an official departure date for the U.K. "Let's get on with it. We have bigger fish to fry," an EU official with knowledge of the negotiations but who preferred to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the situation, told CNBC Sunday regarding the mood in Brussels and ahead Tuesday's vote in London. Talks between the U.K. and the EU stalled over the weekend, after both sides failed to come to an agreement over the "Irish backstop" an insurance policy which aims to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This issue is not new in the Brexit process, with certain U.K. lawmakers heavily criticizing this insurance policy that the U.K. government formulated with the EU last year. It was seen as a key reason why the U.K. Parliament overwhelmingly rejected May's deal in January. However, the deadlock is becoming more pressing by the minute ahead of a key vote in the U.K. Parliament Tuesday and roughly two weeks away from the U.K.'s scheduled departure date from the EU. If the U.K. does not approve an exit deal there's a significant risk that it will leave without any arrangements, bringing uncertainty to businesses and citizens on both sides of the English Channel. U.K. lawmakers are due to vote again on the Withdrawal Agreement Tuesday evening, after they rejected it by a 230 vote-margin back in January. Since then, the U.K. has tried to get further concessions from the EU side, but the other 27 countries have refused to change its stance. Michel Barnier, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, tried to appease the concerns among U.K. lawmakers regarding the Irish backstop on Friday. Barnier said the U.K. would not be forced into a customs union against its will and reiterated that he is ready to strengthen two important commitments that are already in the Withdrawal Agreement. TWEET 1 These commitments state that the EU will act in good faith and it will use its best endeavors to prevent having to trigger the Irish backstop. European officials believe that these commitments prove that the 27 countries do not want to reach a state whereby they have to implement this insurance policy. Given that these promises are written in the Withdrawal Agreement they are legally binding. Brexit has shattered the U.K.'s image as a place for investment, the former chairman of one of the country's biggest banks said Monday. A second referendum on whether the U.K. should leave the EU may be inevitable, Gerald Grimstone, who served as chairman of Barclays, warned ahead of crucial Parliament votes this week on Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal. And he didn't mince his words. "Brexit is completely unpredictable for the U.K. ... I think it's been an unmitigated disaster for the U.K., and in the short term, it's made the U.K. almost uninvestable," Grimstone told CNBC's Dan Murphy at the Global Financial Forum in Dubai Monday. "We have two contrasting scenarios before us, and nobody knows which way we're going to go." On a knife's edge Only 18 days before the U.K.'s scheduled departure from the EU on March 29, the prime minister is trying, and so far failing, to get concessions from EU leaders on the exit deal before it goes to a vote on Tuesday. This will be the second vote on the deal, after it suffered a punishing defeat in January. If a simple majority of them don't approve the deal, they are then due to vote on whether they want to leave the 28-member bloc without a deal. If this is also refused, they'll then have a vote on whether to extend Article 50 (which sets out the departure process) and delay Britain's departure. May and other Brexit officials have tried to allay concerns of U.K. lawmakers with reassurances from the EU on key Brexit issues like the "Irish backstop". But EU officials have so far offered May little relief, with both sides expressing increasing frustration at what they see as continued deadlock. Game over for Theresa May? Some politicians and business players have said that time is up for May, who's already survived two votes of no confidence from lawmakers in her own party and from the opposition. The former Barclays chair stressed the urgent need for the U.K. to make up its mind on what Brexit will actually look like. "I've got huge respect for PM May, but they didn't get the politics right," he said. "The country is going to have to make a choice at some point, either in the single market, or out." It's time for a drastic change, Grimstone said and that may mean a second public vote on Brexit, something that many "remain" lawmakers, as well as several business leaders, have called for. "I think a second vote is almost unavoidable," he said. "That vote might come through a general election and/or a second referendum. You cannot have a scenario where the government of the day is putting legislation through the Parliament and that legislation fails... If a government can't get its legislation through Parliament, there will have to be a change of characters in the Parliament." UK investment is taking a hit and could suffer more A PG&E worker attempts to clear a fallen utility pole from Pentz Road in Paradise, Calif., after it was felled by the Camp Fire, Thursday, November 8, 2018. California's power regulator could face a shake-up that could lead to sweeping changes for PG&E and other utilities. It follows the California Public Utilities Commission coming under criticism for failing to properly enforce a 2016 law requiring electric utility companies to have a wildfire action plan. Gov. Gavin Newsom hinted about possible change coming to the CPUC during a meeting last week in Sacramento, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. It said the governor met with a group of state lawmakers and analysts from S&P Global Ratings. According to the Journal, the governor is weighing "overhauling" the commission, including making a management change, as the state prepares for the upcoming wildfire season. Newsom's office and the CPUC didn't respond to a request for comment. "The utilities in California are probably due for a pretty massive overhaul anyways," said Brian Curtis, CEO of Concentric Power, a California-based energy technology firm. "It's sort of a once-in-30-year opportunity to re-regulate how things are going in California." Last month, PG&E the state's largest electric utility said in a regulatory filing that it believes it's "probable" that the company's equipment will be found to be the source of the catastrophic 2018 Camp Fire, which destroyed more than 10,000 homes and killed 86 people in Butte County. Problems with PG&E equipment near where the Camp Fire is believed to have started were also reported by the utility in November. PG&E, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late January, also faces liability for more than a dozen other Northern California wildfires that broke out in 2017. The state is considering legislation that would allow the San Francisco-based utility to issue new debt to help cover some costs from the devastating wildfires. California also could push for a breakup of PG&E or take steps that could impact other investor-owned utilities in the state such as Edison International and Sempra Energy. The state regulator could push some investor-owned utilities to shed their natural gas units or split up their electric power business. PG&E received criticism after the deadly San Bruno gas explosion in 2010 and Sempra's Southern California Gas Co. unit has faced protests in 2015 for leaks at its Aliso Canyon gas leak in Los Angeles County. In February, S&P said it "has been actively reexamining its assessment of California regulatory construct for electric utilities." S&P also raised the possibility it could lower all of California's investor-owned regulated electric utilities to "below investment grade before the start of the 2019 wildfire season." "We're going to be heading toward a different regulatory regime in the not-too-distant future, and I think it's probably going to cut the utilities off at the knees in terms of credit," said Curtis. "It will change the cost of capital and change how the utilities can actually invest in infrastructure or not." A man carries a piece of debris on his head at the crash site of a Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines flight near Bishoftu, a town some 60 kilometers southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on March 10, 2019. China, Indonesia, and Ethiopia grounded their Boeing 737 MAX-8 fleets on Monday while investigators found the black box from a crash that killed 157 people in the second disaster involving that airplane model in six months. India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) also said it is reviewing safety issues related to Boeing's 737 MAX-8 aircraft operating in the country. The DGCA said it would issue additional safety instructions later on Monday or Tuesday for Indian carriers operating the Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes in India. Full service carrier Jet Airways and low-cost carrier SpiceJet own and operate these aircraft in India. The Ethiopian Airlines jet bound for Nairobi came down minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa on Sunday, killing all on board. The victims came from 33 nations and included 22 United Nations' staff. The discovery of the black box with both the cockpit voice recorder and digital flight data, reported by Ethiopian state TV, should shed light on the cause of the crash. At the scene, men in Red Cross jackets picked through the dirt, putting items in black paper bags, while investigators hunted for the black box voice recorders. "Although we don't yet know the cause of the crash, we had to decide to ground the particular fleet as extra safety precaution," Ethiopian Airlines said. It has four other 737 MAX-8 jets, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24. The 737 line is the world's best selling modern passenger aircraft and viewed as one of the industry's most reliable. Syria was suffering an economic siege, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said at the meeting with Chinese assistant foreign minister Chen Xiaodong in Damascus. "The war on Syria has taken on a new form that is basically siege and economic war," he said, according to a statement released by the presidency. "International political tools have changed," AP cited the Syria leader as saying. Instead of dialogue, foreign powers have adopted "a different approach consisting of boycott, ambassador withdrawal, economic siege, and the use of terrorism," Assad said. The economic weakness outside the U.S. is about to pose a big threat to U.S. companies. Those international-oriented companies, with more than half of their sales generated overseas, are expected to see an earnings decline of 11.2 percent in the first quarter of 2019, according to FactSet. That is significantly lower than the earnings estimates for the and for domestic-oriented companies. Wall Street is projecting a 3.4 percent earnings loss for the S&P 500, while seeing 1 percent growth for companies with more than half of their sales coming from the U.S., according to FactSet. "The U.S. economy seems stable, but an international slowdown eventually could spill over to the U.S.," Scott Wren, Wells Fargo's senior global equity strategist said in a note. "International trade and forward-looking economic data still are weakening, particularly in Europe. China's growth should stabilize, but its economic stimulus probably cannot lift the whole world economy." Stocks have staged a strong comeback in 2019 but the economic weakness across the globe is starting to derail a market that has rallied more than 10 percent this year. The market posted its biggest weekly decline in 2019 last week after the European Central Bank slashed its economic growth forecast for 2019 and announced a new round of stimulus to help banks in the region. A disappointing U.S. jobs report also added to growing concerns on the global slowdown. Executives from many companies have voiced concerns about the effects of slowing demand overseas and a global economic slowdown, leading some to cut earnings guidance. According to FactSet, 74 percent of companies have issued negative EPS guidance, which is above the five-year average of 71 percent. Things are worrisome across the globe. The Bank of Canada said Wednesday there was "increased uncertainty " around future rate hikes, while Australia's fourth-quarter GDP expanded at a pace of just 0.2 percent. Amid the ongoing trade negotiations, China set its economic growth target for 2019 between 6 percent and 6.5 percent, its slowest pace since 1990. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell echoed the worries in an interview that aired Sunday on "60 Minutes," when he said the economy is still strong, but weakness around the world could start to hit the U.S. Shares of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank surged Monday after reports that the two have agreed to hold merger talks. Several media reports over the weekend suggested Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing had dropped his opposition to the deal. Sewing was reportedly forced to reconsider his stance following investor pressure over the bank's declining performance. The German government, which still owns 15 percent of Commerzbank, is understood to be backing a tie-up between the country's two largest lenders. Reuters reported that Berlin is pushing for a deal, even though it could cause a multi-billion euro financial hole, because it would force the re-valuation of the lenders' assets. Deutsche shares were up by over 2 percent in early deals Monday, while Commerzbank was up nearly 4 percent. Over a 12-month period, shares of both companies are down by around 40 percent. A banking industry source with knowledge of the matter, who preferred to remain anonymous, told CNBC there's not massive support for the merger within Deutsche Bank. "The general feeling is that the merger is not a great idea since Commerzbank doesn't have the same amount of credibility on the street as Deutsche Bank when it comes to clients and this can impact future trades." Another concern is the German government's stake in Commerzbank. "There is skepticism that a merger could mean a bigger say from the government in (the) bank's dealings," the source added. A spokeswoman from Commerzbank declined to comment. Deutsche Bank did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment. However, both the companies declined to comment on the merger of a prospect to Reuters. French President Emmanuel Macron Gonzalo Fuentes | AFP | Getty Images "L'Europe! L'Europe! L'Europe!" was how an irritated French President Charles de Gaulle decried, in December 1965, the idea that a European integration was the answer to all of the continent's problems. De Gaulle approved of the European customs union and an economic and political cooperation of nation states. He thought that closer economic relations could eventually lead to some sort of European confederation, but he rejected the idea of Europe's federal super state. That means that, in today's post-modern Europe, de Gaulle voted by the French in 2005 as the "greatest Frenchman of all time" could be considered a nationalist and a populist demagogue. When I recently mentioned that to a French political commentator, he uncomfortably skirted the question with a cop out that the idea of a united Europe has changed since de Gaulle's time. Brexit, however, is a vivid example of the opposite: The majority of British voters cast their ballots in a 2016 referendum that the United Kingdom should not cede its sovereignty to an unelected European Commission, and that it should not have to defend its political governance with opt-outs from an increasingly federalist European Union. But the U.K. is quite willing to participate in a European free trade area that does not infringe upon its own sovereign decisions as a nation state. Don't divide Europe And that is not the proverbial Europe "a la carte" ridiculed by the governing elites in France and Germany, who bear an enormous responsibility for mismanaging the European Union they now see as the only way of clinging to power. The British, for example, refused to join the euro because they did not want to give up their monetary sovereignty for the sake of being part of a genuine European customs union and its single market. A reminder: Any exchange rate change violates the customs union because it is technically equivalent to an import tariff and an export subsidy. Another example is the Czech Republic's steadfast decision to manage its own monetary policy, even though Prague's budget deficit of 1.3 percent of GDP, gross public debt of 42 percent of GDP and an inflation rate of about 2 percent would make it a stellar member of the monetary union. And, just like the British, the Czechs fully realize that by maintaining their own currency (the koruna) they are missing some trade and investment advantages of the European single market. The Czechs are being left alone, but the Brexiters and the Italian, Hungarian and Polish governments are attacked as nationalists and populists. Predictably, French President Emmanuel Macron is leading the charge against the nationalists and their alleged populist deceptions. He recently proposed a "European renaissance," no less, around three main themes: freedom, protection and progress. The sad truth is that Macron's appeal to EU audiences is just his own party's electoral platform for the next European parliamentary elections on May 23-26, 2019. Unable to calm down the social unrest in France, and fighting low opinion polls, Macron is using Europe to attack his domestic opponents all branded as nationalists and populists by extolling the protective power of "European sovereignty," a mysterious constitutional category of his own invention. Germany should keep EU out of recession Macron's appeal, like his earlier reform proposals, is dead on arrival in Germany a country he needs to reconcile different national interests within the European Union. Some German Social Democrats are politely suggesting that Macron's latest effort merits attention, but Germany's center-right circles are less inclined to listen to his ideas. In the article "Making Europe Right," the leader of Germany's governing center-right Christian Democratic Party, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, roundly rejected most of Macron's reform ideas. She argued that Europe should be less centralized and more market driven, with no European minimum wage and no collective European responsibility for individual countries' public debts. Instead of the French fetish of a euro-area common budget, she wants a European fund to invest in development projects and new technologies. All that is music to the ears of Macron's political opponents. They will now be exulting at the idea that he got nothing in return for what they see as an excessive rapprochement with Germany. Meanwhile, as a practical matter, immigration policy remains the EU's main bone of contention. That is where Germany stands on thin ice in its strained relations with Hungary, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Those countries are rejecting mandatory immigration quotas Germany wants to use to get rid of migrants/refugees it cannot handle. And, quite unfairly, that seems to be the complaint Germany is using to attack those countries' alleged failure to live up to European values. Investment thoughts European stocks rallied Monday as traders looked ahead to a crucial vote in the U.K. that will determine whether the country's Brexit deal will be approved. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed provisionally up by 0.76 percent with almost every sector in the black. Banks were in the spotlight with the sector trading 1.5 percent higher. Commerzbank rose to the top of the benchmark, up over 7 percent. This was as Deutsche Bank reportedly agreed to hold merger talks with its rival after CEO Christian Sewing dropped his opposition to the deal. According to several media reports over the weekend, Sewing was forced to reconsider his stance following investor pressure over the bank's declining performance. The German Government, which still owns 15 percent of Commerzbank, is understood to be backing a tie-up between the country's two largest lenders. Reuters reported that Berlin is pushing for a deal, even though it could cause a multi-billion euro financial hole, because it would force the re-valuation of the lenders' assets. Deutsche Bank shares were up 4.7 percent. Brexit Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn arrives at his residence in Tokyo on March 8, 2019. Ousted Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn is seeking permission from the Tokyo District Court to attend the automaker's board meeting on Tuesday, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Monday. His attendance on Tuesday would mark the first time for Ghosn to meet colleagues since being arrested in November. He faces charges of under-reporting his salary by about $82 million over nearly a decade. Ghosn, one of the world's best-known auto executives, has called the charges "meritless" and said he is the target of a boardroom coup. He was released from detention last week on a $9 million bail, having been held for more than 100 days. He is seeking permission to attend Tuesday's board meeting, the person said, declining to be identified because the information has yet to be made public. Though Ghosn has been removed as chairman of Nissan Motor as well as alliance partners Renault and Mitsubishi Motors, he remains on the board of all three, given that a shareholder vote is required to remove a board member. The court is expected to decide whether to grant permission as early as Monday, the Yomiuri newspaper said. Ghosn's lawyer and representatives for Nissan could not be reached for comment. Ghosn has agreed to strict bail conditions which include residing in Tokyo and not travelling abroad. Separately, Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi plan to set up a joint board meeting structure under which Renault's new chairman, Jean-Dominique Senard, is likely to take the chair, people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The new set-up will replace two separate Dutch-based companies one for Nissan and Renault, and the other for Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, the people said. TV Tokyo reported on Sunday that the meeting structure was aimed at discussing issues related to their alliance in a step towards integrating operations. A facebook display during the China International Import Expo (CIIE), at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai, China, November 5, 2018. Aly Song | Reuters One Wall Street firm sees major upside for Facebook if its secretive cryptocurrency plan works out. The social network is reportedly developing a cryptocurrency that could be part of a multibillion-dollar revenue opportunity, Barclays internet analyst Ross Sandler said in a note to clients Monday. Sandler forecasted as much as $19 billion in additional revenue by 2021 from "Facebook Coin." Conservatively, the firm sees a base-case of an incremental $3 billion in revenue from a successful cryptocurrency implementation. "Merely establishing this revenue stream starts to change the story for Facebook shares in our view," Sandler said. Facebook is reportedly developing a cryptocurrency for global payments that will be tied to the value of traditional currencies and available to use through its messenger "WhatsApp," according to Bloomberg and The New York Times. Facebook has not publicly commented on the reports. Price volatility has been one major roadblock to bitcoin's widespread adoption as an everyday payment option. But Facebook's digital currency, a "stable coin," would likely be less attractive to speculators because of its fixed price tied to a currency like the U.S. dollar. Facebook's current business model came under fire from consumers, politicians and advertisers last year. Its share price tanked after a series of high profile setbacks. For one, British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica collected data on more than 50 million Facebook users without their permission. Still, Facebook earnings have continued to increase, and the share price has rallied roughly 30 percent this year. Expanding into payments could give Facebook a lifeline if investors suddenly become less forgiving. Using some form of cryptocurrency could generate a new revenue option something "sorely needed at this stage of the company's narrative," Sandler said. "Any attempt to build out revenue streams outside of advertising, especially those that don't abuse user privacy are likely to be well-received by Facebook's shareholders," Sandler said. Barclays based its Facebook revenue estimates off of Google's digital distribution service, which is also the official app store for Android's operating system. "Google Play," as it's called, generates $6 in "net" revenue per user now. Facebook could see a "similar cadence," across its nearly 3 billion users in 2021. A Facebook virtual currency would allow for more premium content to find its way back to Facebook, Sandler said, as companies re-establish themselves on the social network as a strategic partner. Paying through Facebook Sandler pointed to Facebook's original payment ambitions almost a decade ago. The Menlo Park, California-based company created a virtual currency in 2010 called "Facebook credits," similar to modern-day cryptocurrency. Users would prepay for these virtual coins using domestic currencies, and then use those credits for in-app-purchases. The company required a user to pay using a debit or credit card upfront, and each virtual credit cost about 10 cents. The major problem, according to Sandler, was that Facebook had to bear the interchange cost, "which negatively impacts the profitability of the business, especially when making high volumes of lower-value transactions." Since then, Facebook and the cryptocurrency sector have matured. The company has a much larger user base, and more mega-apps like Instagram and WhatsApp to which it can distribute content. The company's new cryptocurrency plan could potentially "re-invigorate that business strategy," Sandler said. "Based on our checks, the first version of Facebook Coin may be a single purpose coin for micro-payments and domestic p2p money transfer (in-country), very similar to the original credits from 2010 and Venmo today," Sandler said. David Marcus, vice president of Messaging Products at Facebook, speaks on stage during the annual Facebook F8 developers conference in San Jose, California, April 18, 2017. Stephen Lam | Reuters WHEN: Today, Monday, March 11, 2019 WHERE: CNBC's "Squawk Alley" live from CERAWeek by IHS Markit in Houston, TX The following is the unofficial transcript of a FIRST ON CNBC interview with Energy Secretary Rick Perry and CNBC's Brian Sullivan on CNBC's "Squawk Alley" (M-F 11AM 12PM) today, Monday, March 11th, live from CERAWeek by IHS Markit in Houston, TX. The following is a link to video of the interview on CNBC.com: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/03/11/watch-cnbcs-exclusive-interview-with-energy-secretary-rick-perry.html. All references must be sourced to CNBC. MORGAN BRENNAN: It is a perfect time, speaking of, to get some perspective from a member of the President, President Trump's cabinet. Let's head to Houston now where Brian Sullivan is sitting down with Energy Secretary Rick Perry. Brian. BRIAN SULLIVAN: Morgan, thank you very much. I am pleased be joined here at the CERAWeek conference by Secretary Perry. Secretary, thank you very much. RICK PERRY: Glad to be here. BRIAN SULLIVAN: Wow, a lot to get to in a short time. Let's jump right in. Trade negotiations are under way. I know that's not necessarily your domain, but energy is a massive part of our exports and imports to and from China. How does energy's role in trade effect the ultimate outcome? RICK PERRY: Now, obviously that is Ambassador Lighthizer's world, and he does a fabulous job by the way, a very good negotiator. It is part of the mix. It may not be the driver, but it's always hanging out there as part of the matrix if you will. So very important. And America now has the ability to use that in a very positive way when it comes to trade negotiations. BRIAN SULLIVAN: Is it sort of a lever that we have to pull? RICK PERRY: Yeah, sure it is. BRIAN SULLIVAN: Specifically, liquified natural gas? RICK PERRY: Well, across the board, when you really think about it, the U.S. is -- whether it is our technology on the renewable side, whether it's small modular reactors in the nuclear field, obviously the fossil fuels, as well. But all of it plays a role. America is a leader in the energy sector, all of those sectors, not just in fossil fuel side. Obviously, that's really changed with our ability to deliver 34 countries, now 5 continents of LNG. It matters and it matters a lot. BRIAN SULLIVAN: Yeah, and you guys have recently fast tracked some LNG projects. But here's the thing, Secretary. The demand numbers and the export numbers are off the charts. However, there's about 20 more projects that are in some phase in the United States. Is there at some point where we have to slow down? RICK PERRY: Not in my estimation. I mean the fact is this is a fuel that will clean up the environment. As we look at India, as we look at China, these massive economies, we need probably more projects than what we've got on the books today to be able to meet that demand. BRIAN SULLIVAN: Here's the thing: all of those resources, many of them are in the United States. We need to get them from where they are taken out of the ground, to the LNG or the crude oil export ships. To do that, we need roads, people, trucks, pipelines. You and I have talked about it. Are we any closer to a real energy infrastructure deal from the federal government? RICK PERRY: Yeah, I think so. And the states really matter on this, as well. So, you know, it's one of the things I'm a bit critical about: states that try to block pipelines, like New York, for instance. I mean, they've got a real need to be able to have that -- the diversity of supply in their state, yet won't allow pipelines across their states. States like Texas, states that have the resource there to be able move it to the export facilities, they are going to get ahead economically and they are going to get ahead substantially economically because they have that mentality of we need to build the infrastructure. Big projects out there. It's going to take a while. In the Appalachian region, the President is working with a group of people in those four states, in particular: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, to build an infrastructure there, sitting on top of the Marcellus, on top of the Utica, take that natural product, crack it, be able to add value to it, and then move it to the ports. That is happening. It is in the works. The federal government and state governmentsthey need to just, in some cases, get out of the way and let the private sector come and do these things. It is one of the reasons we tried to speed up our permitting process. We need a couple of FERC commissioners to get the permits done. But once that's done, grab a deep seat. Because we're going to take off and go at a great speed. BRIAN SULLIVAN: So, to be clear, Secretary, do you believe that we will get some kind of a federal spending plan specifically designed to target energy infrastructure this year? RICK PERRY: Yeah, I think people get a little confused sometimes about thinking that it has to be a federal spending plan to make this work. Frankly, what the private sector would like to do is if government will speed the process up, if you'll get out of our way, if you'll get us the permits, we'll take care of the spending side of it. BRIAN SULLIVAN: So it could be continued deregulation, continued fast tracking of these permits. RICK PERRY: Correct. BRIAN SULLIVAN: Secretary Perry, a real pleasure. We've got to stop meeting like this. RICK PERRY: Good to see you. Good place to come enjoy some barbecue while here. BRIAN SULLIVAN: Thanks very much. Secretary of Energy, Rick Perry. For more information contact: Jennifer Dauble CNBC t: 201.735.4721 m: 201.615.2787 e: jennifer.dauble@nbcuni.com Emma Martin CNBC t: 201.735.4713 m: 551.275.6221 e: emma.martin@nbcuni.com US President Donald Trump speaks at the Republican National Committee winter meeting at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC on February 1, 2018. Top Republican National Committee donors huddled over the weekend at President Donald Trump's private Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to discuss crafting a 2020 message that will, in part, argue that minorities have thrived under his administration. In private meetings with donors, officials explained that the party would seek to appeal directly to black and Hispanic voters, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter who declined to be named. The talking points that were described to donors focused on the idea that minorities' lives have improved under Trump as the economy keeps adding jobs and the unemployment rate stays low. The Washington Post reported on Sunday that President Donald Trump's campaign and his allies are hoping to break through to Hispanic voters in the battleground state of Florida. The campaign has also started running Spanish-language ads targeting Floridians on Facebook. RNC press secretary Blair Ellis did not rule out that donors and officials discussed a strategy of trying to appeal to minority voters. "We placed a premium on building relationships and having a presence in every community and neighborhood across the country," Ellis said. "We made big inroads this midterm cycle, and now with that permanent infrastructure in place combined with the positive results of the Trump administration we are primed to build on this success in 2020." The Trump campaign also did not deny the focus. Indeed, spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany offered what could be a preview of the messaging push citing record lows for black and Hispanic unemployment and criminal justice reform, among other issues. "President Trump has undeniably prioritized the interests of all Americans, including those traditionally left behind and forgotten by Washington politicians," she said. Black and Hispanic unemployment rates did hit record lows during last year, continuing a nearly decade-long trend, according to government statistics. The president and the GOP have an uphill climb if they want to broaden their appeal with minorities, however. A regularly updated Politico/Morning Consult poll shows that the president's approval among black and Hispanic voters has waned since his inauguration. In April 2017, the poll showed that Trump had 54 percent of approval from Hispanics, but now he has support from 20 percent. The highest standing he had with black voters was 28 percent, although it is currently at 12 percent. A Rasmussen Poll in August showed Trump with a 36 percent approval with black voters. Trump's proposed border wall with Mexico has drawn intense criticism. Black voters oppose it more than Hispanics, according to a 2018 Quinnipiac poll. The survey shows 87 percent of black voters dislike the wall while 71 percent of Latino voters also oppose it. Trump himself was at Mar-a-Lago this past weekend and met with Republican donors as part of a fundraiser for the Trump Victory Committee, a joint fundraising group that helps raise money for the campaign and the RNC. Trump met with GOP financiers on Friday and Sunday. An RNC official told the White House press pool that the committee raised $7 million throughout the two events. Between the campaign and the two joint fundraising committees, Trump has raised over $100 million since he entered the White House. During the 2016 presidential campaign and throughout his presidency, Trump has repeatedly claimed that the unemployment rate since he became president has gone down. Tweet: Full statement from Trump campaign press secretary Kayleigh McEnany: Robert Mueller Tom Williams | CQ Roll Call | Getty Images New developments due this week in a handful of criminal cases connected to special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe could help sketch a more detailed picture of the high-profile, yet highly secretive, investigation. President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, could receive more than a decade in cumulative prison time after his second and final sentencing hearing. Another Trump campaign leader, Manafort's former longtime aide Rick Gates, will reveal whether he is still providing information to the probe. And Trump's first national security advisor, Michael Flynn, will give a status update to the judge who had previously accused him of arguably selling out his own country. Two deadlines are also set this week for Republican political operative Roger Stone, among the most recent of Trump's associates to be hit with charges in Mueller's probe of Russian meddling, and possible Trump campaign collusion, during the 2016 election. Before new details about his upcoming trial can be hashed out, Stone's attorneys will have to explain how the rerelease of his book, "The Myth of Russian Collusion," squares with his strict gag order in the case. Mueller's busy week arrives amid persistent speculation that the investigation may be nearing its conclusion. Lawmakers of both parties on Capitol Hill have called for the summary findings of the investigation to be made public without redactions. Since the start of the investigation, Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has decried the probe as a "witch hunt." Here's what's coming up this week: Paul Manafort Manafort, 69, was already sentenced last week to less than four years in prison in a case brought by Mueller's prosecutors in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. But he will be sentenced by another judge Wednesday in Washington, D.C., district court. Some legal experts predict that that judge, Amy Berman Jackson, will be more likely to give Manafort a harsher sentence than the judge in the Virginia case, T.S. Ellis, who had previously expressed his displeasure with the special counsel's legal tactics. So-called statutory maximum rules set a 10-year cap on the prison sentence Jackson can impose in Manafort's case. Mueller's prosecutors, who suffered a bruising defeat after failing to secure a lengthy prison term for Manafort in Virginia, may argue in D.C. that Manafort's two sentences should be served consecutively, rather than simultaneously. Many legal experts were shocked by Manafort's relatively light first prison sentence of 47 months a length of time significantly below the 19-to-24 years suggested by federal guidelines. Manafort was convicted on eight criminal counts including bank fraud and tax fraud, which mostly related to work he had done for a pro-Russia political party years before he joined Trump's campaign. Ellis had previously accused Mueller of levying the finance charges against Manafort in order to pressure him into cooperating with the Russian interference probe. The judge had also taken a hostile tone toward Mueller's team before and during the trial. Jackson, in contrast, had ordered Manafort jailed pending trial after Mueller accused him of tampering with potential witnesses. Manafort has been detained in an Alexandria jail since June. "I don't believe Judge Berman Jackson will make any of the statements Judge Ellis did regarding the special counsel's motivations," former federal prosecutor Anthony Capozzolo told CNBC. "I thought Judge Ellis' comments were perplexing and confounding." Richard Gates Gates, who testified against his former business partner Manafort at trial last summer and has cooperated extensively with the special counsel, will file a joint status report with Mueller on Friday. Gates, 46, has had his sentencing on charges of lying to investigators and conspiracy delayed multiple times since he pleaded guilty in early 2018. In January, Mueller told the judge that Gates "continues to cooperate with respect to several ongoing investigations, and accordingly the parties do not believe it is appropriate to commence the sentencing process at this time." Michael Flynn Prosecutors and Flynn's attorneys are set to update Judge Emmet Sullivan in a status report Wednesday, where they might decide on whether Flynn is set to be sentenced. Flynn's initial sentencing date in December was pushed off during a dramatic hearing in D.C. federal court, where Sullivan blasted the 60-year-old retired lieutenant general for his crime of lying to investigators about his communications with then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak before Trump took office. "Arguably, you sold your country out," Sullivan said at the hearing. The judge had suggested that Flynn could get a lighter sentence if the decision was delayed until after he finished cooperating with Mueller. "The court likes to be in a position to say there is nothing else this defendant can to do help the United States of America," Sullivan said. The status of Gates' and Flynn's cases could provide one of the strongest indications yet about how near the Russia probe is to completion. If their sentencing hearings continue to be adjourned, or if the special counsel says that they are still providing information about ongoing investigations, then "It's likely that Mueller's investigation will be continuing for some time," Capozzolo said. Roger Stone Lawyers for Stone, 66, were ordered by Jackson in D.C. to explain by Monday Stone's efforts to comply with his gag order, as well as shed light on "unexplained inconsistencies" regarding some statements made to the court. The gag order on Stone, a self-described political dirty trickster, had been strengthened after he posted an image on Instagram showing Jackson's face next to the cross hair of a rifle's scope. Following that action, Jackson learned that Stone was rereleasing his book, "The Myth of Russian Collusion," which criticizes Mueller. Jackson also asked the defense attorneys to provide a list of other information, including records related to Stone's book deal. Starbucks' former chair and CEO Howard Schultz is making news for his possible plans to run for U.S. president in 2020, and he used an interview at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas to pitch himself as a "centrist independent outside of the two-party system." But he also made a few salient points about how he built Starbucks into a $86 billion company. "You can create shareholder value and you can create value for your people. We've also learned something at Starbucks that by doing good things to your people, your customers are going to build a large reservoir of trust around the equity of the brand, because they want to support a company whose values are compatible with their own," he told NBC News' Dylan Byers at the event Saturday. Asked about how he would market himself as a presidential candidate after former President Barack Obama's "Yes We Can," and President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again," slogans Schultz said: "I have not officially said that I am running for president. I think if you were going to give me a little bit of credit I think you'd have to say that over the course of the last 40 years I know a little bit about building a brand." "100 million people this week went into Starbucks stores, we have 4,000 stores in China, we open a store every day. Starbucks was just named (Fortune magazine's) fifth most admired and respected company in the world. I know a little bit about marketing. So, give me some time to kind of feel my way through. When we get to the point that if I'm going to announce that I'm running for president, you'll be the first to hear what the slogan is." Schultz also said giving staff shares in the company was the most important decision he made when building the Starbucks brand. "We did that when we were private and losing money and what we did, basically, is we figured out a way to give everyone at Starbucks, including part-time people, 14 percent of their base pay in the form of stock options," he said. "The secret of Starbucks is the culture and values and guiding principles of the company, the level of behavior, and how people are treated. We're not perfect, we make mistakes, you know we employ 400,000 people and have 30,000 stores but we've demonstrated over a 40-year period that culture really does matter," he added. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's visit to Turkey was rescheduled for March 18 upon agreement with Ankara, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. The change was made sue to a change in the minister's work schedule. Initially, the visit was to be held on March 12, 2019. "Cold and difficult" It sounds more like the description of life on another planet rather than life outside of the European Union (EU) but that's how one former U.S. diplomat has predicted that the U.K. will find the world once it's left the 28-member bloc. "The U.K., should it leave on March 29th, will find that the world is a pretty cold and difficult place without the leverage of the EU," Anthony Gardner, a former U.S. Ambassador to the EU appointed by former President Barack Obama, told CNBC Monday. With just under three weeks until the U.K. is due to leave the EU, both the U.K., Europe and rest of the world are none the wiser as to what the country's future relationship with the continent will look like ahead of a series of votes this week that will determine the course of Brexit. On Tuesday, U.K. lawmakers will vote on whether to approve or reject (as expected) U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal with the EU. If they reject it, on Wednesday they will then vote on whether to leave the bloc on March 29 with "no deal." If they also reject that scenario (as expected) they will then vote on Thursday on whether to seek a delay to the departure in the hope of securing better withdrawal terms. The latter is scenario seen as the most likely currently although whether the EU will make any further concessions or amendments to the deal on offer, when it has so far refused to do, remains to be seen. If the U.K. leaves the EU with a deal there will be a 21-month transition period in which it hopes to negotiate a trade deal with the EU and to replicate up to 40 existing trade deals that the bloc currently has with trading partners around the world. The U.K. can prepare, but not implement, trade deals during the transition period. So far, it has only signed a handful of "continuity trade agreements" to preserve current trading arrangements during the post-Brexit transition period, however, including one with the U.S., but these are not free trade deals (which it cannot sign as an EU member now and during the transition period). Indonesian defendant Siti Aisyah is escorted by police personnel following her appearance at the Malaysian Chemistry Department in Petaling Jaya, outside Kuala Lumpur on October 9, 2017, as part of the ongoing trial for her alleged role in the assassination of Kim Jong-Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. An Indonesian woman held two years on suspicion of killing the North Korean leader's half brother was freed from custody Monday after a Malaysian judge discharged the murder charge against her. The judge discharged Siti Aisyah without an acquittal after prosecutors said they wanted to withdraw the charge. They did not give a reason. She was quickly ushered out of the courtroom and into a waiting car. An emotional Aisyah told reporters she had only learned Monday morning that she would be freed. "I am surprised and very happy." The murder trial of Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong was put on hold after the surprise development. She was to have begun giving her defense in Monday's court session, after months of delay. Indonesian Ambassador Rusdi Kirana said he was thankful to the Malaysian government. The two young women were accused of smearing VX nerve agent on Kim's face in an airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13, 2017. They have said they thought they were taking part in a prank for a TV show. They were the only suspects in custody after four North Korean suspects fled the country the same morning Kim was killed. Salim Bashir, a lawyer for Huong, said previously she was prepared to testify under oath for her defense. "She is confident and ready to give her version of the story. It is completely different from what the prosecutors had painted. She was filming a prank and had no intention to kill or injure anyone," he told the AP. Lawyers for the women have previously said they were pawns in a political assassination with clear links to the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, and that the prosecution failed to show the women had any intention to kill. Intent to kill is crucial to a murder charge under Malaysian law. Malaysian officials have never officially accused North Korea and have made it clear they don't want the trial politicized. Kim Jong Nam was the eldest son in the current generation of North Korea's ruling family. He had been living abroad for years but could have been seen as a threat to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's rule. Murder carries a mandatory sentence of hanging, but Malaysia's government plans to abolish the death penalty and has put all executions on hold until the laws are changed. Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (left) shakes hands with China's Premier Li Keqiang (right) at the end of their joint press conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on August 20, 2018. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said he would prefer to take sides with China over the U.S. if his country was forced to take sides in the trade war, the South China Morning Post reported on Friday. Although the 93-year-old Malaysian leader has been a strong critic of Chinese investments in his home country, he acknowledged that China is an economic power that presents opportunities. Malaysia has to "accept that China is close to us", he told the SCMP. "And it is a huge market. We want to benefit from China's growing wealth." Mahathir told the newspaper that the Southeast Asian country will decide how to handle relations with China independently. "Well, it depends on how they behave. Currently the U.S. is very unpredictable as to the things they do," Mahathir told the SCMP in an interview in Manila where he was on an official visit. Weighing in on fears about Beijing's growing clout, he said: "China's attitude, of course, is to gain as much influence as possible." "But so far China doesn't seem to want to build an empire. So we will remain free people," he added. The prime minister said that Beijing will make use of its economic strength "to achieve what is to China the best objective that they have to grow richer and richer, and this is the ambition of all countries." "With their wealth they are going to be in the same position that the Western countries were in the past," he said. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk speaks with NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, along with astronauts Victor Glover, Doug Hurley, Bob Behnken and Mike Hopkins, in front of the company's Crew Dragon capsule. NASA | Joel Kowsky The White House unveiled NASA's 2020 budget on Monday and the $21 billion requested from Congress reveals new opportunities for private space companies to earn lucrative future awards, several industry analysts told CNBC. This is the first budget request under NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine. On a reference basis alone, the budget uses the word "commercial" almost twice as much as last year. That is a boon to companies like SpaceX, as CEO Elon Musk has said his company wants to be a part of returning cargo and humans to the moon's surface, as NASA aims to do. "This is potentially good for SpaceX, given it looks like on the lunar side they're emphasizing commercial companies more," Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas told CNBC. Jonas is widely followed due to his early call on electric automaker Tesla and helped form a team of analysts to focus on investment opportunities from the space industry at Morgan Stanley. In comments on NASA TV after the budget release, Bridenstine gave the recent SpaceX Demo-1 mission as an example for how reusable rockets and spacecraft are how NASA can "drive down costs" and "increase access" to space, he said. Bridenstine contends that NASA needs "reusability in the entire architecture" of its space exploration plans, as SpaceX has shown how re-using rockets for launches to low Earth orbit has proven cost effective. "I think SpaceX certainly are going to be big winners as a result of this budget," Chad Anderson, CEO of Space Angels, told CNBC. "Increase the use of commercial partnerships" NASA wants to accelerate its plans to establish a permanent human presence on the surface of the moon. And Bridenstine plans to "increase the use of commercial partnerships" to do that, the budget said. "Everything to this point has put the moon first in this administration. It looks like they're going all in," Anderson said. NASA's budget sets aside $363 million specifically to help companies develop "a large lunar lander" to take cargo and astronauts to the moon's surface. This funding and development model is similar to the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, Anderson said, "which is incredibly encouraging." That NASA program ended in 2013, after SpaceX and Orbital Sciences (now a division of Northrop Grumman) successfully developed new spacecraft and rockets for NASA to send cargo to the International Space Station. Musk's space company, as well as Jeff Bezos' venture Blue Origin, are both developing spacecraft capable of landing on the moon. There is "no doubt" both companies are working with NASA on landing on the moon and other planetary bodies, Anderson said. Mike French, Bryce Space and Technology senior vice president, also pointed to SpaceX and Blue Origin as top contenders for NASA lunar lander funds. He said there will be "an interesting mix of traditional contractors" such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin also competing for NASA awards. Additionally, NASA has nine companies competing for up to $2.6 billion in lunar transportation contracts. Known as the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program (CLPS), the effort would send small payloads and robots to the moon's surface as early as 2021. "CLPS is the most significant near term revenue stream for startups," French said. Under CLPS, the agency will award multiple contracts for lunar missions over the next 10 years. "Anyone working on lunar landers is also going to benefit," Anderson said. Private rockets for exploration missions NASA wants to set aside $10.7 billion for its lunar plans. But the way NASA expects to execute those plans continues to change, as billions of dollars in cost overruns and years of delays have made the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft less viable. "It sounds like people are fed up with these big projects like SLS, that are late and over budget," Anderson said. In the past year alone, NASA has moved two of its missions from SLS to commercial options: Lunar Gateway's "power and propulsion element" and the Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter, planned for 2023. "[NASA has] had calls to arms for ideas and for the commercial community to be a part of improving efficiency and reducing waste while achieving a fast time horizon," Jonas said. "Seems to be the result of a bit of soul-searching amongst the bodies who determine these budgets." The door is now open for commercial rockets to launch these missions. "Europa going commercial is a big deal," French said, as the launch contract represents a significant piece of $600 million that's up for grabs. NASA estimates that switching from SLS to a private rocket will save over $700 million. SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket is one currently available option but French believes "anyone who thinks they can will come" to NASA with a proposal for the mission, he said. That means NASA may consider Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket or Northrop Grumman's OmegA rocket, according to French. "The big ship is slowly starting to tack and change course and these are the early signs that people are paying attention," Anderson said. "The private companies' capability is real and comes at a cheaper price point." Business in Earth's orbit Russell Vought, acting White House budget director, said Monday security at the southern U.S. border is "deteriorating by the day," and he's blaming Democrats for refusing to approve President Donald Trump's repeated requests for wall funding. "This is an area of where we're tired of being right," Vought said on CNBC's "Squawk Box," referring to a government report of a record number of migrant families crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The White House is expected to release Trump's budget proposal for fiscal year 2020 on Monday. It is expected to seek $8.6 billion from Congress for additional barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border. That amount would be on top of the funds Trump will redirect from other programs as part of his national emergency, said Vought, who's minding the Office of Management and Budget after previous OMB head Mick Mulvaney left the agency to become the president's acting chief of staff. Trump's declaration last month, aimed at circumventing Congress to pay for his wall, is currently being challenged by more than a dozen states. The states said Trump is "trying to rob funds that were allocated by Congress legally to various states." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said they had hoped Trump "learned his lesson" after failing to get his wall funding following the partial government shutdown earlier this year. "Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again," they said in a joint statement Sunday. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, more than 76,000 migrants crossed the U.S.-Mexico border last month, more than double the number from the same period last year. The figures help Trump's case for his border emergency, albeit one built around a humanitarian crisis and not security. WATCH: Virtual walls could be the cheaper and more effective answer to Trump's border wall Construction workers are seen next to heavy machinery while working on a new border wall in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, as seen from the Mexican side of the border in San Jeronimo, on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico April 23, 2018. Jose Luis Gonzalez | Reuters Washington just emerged from one ugly government shutdown fight over President Donald Trump's proposed border wall. Another could sit right around the corner. The White House's fiscal 2020 budget, which it released Monday, will call for $8.6 billion to build barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border, acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought told CNBC. While the proposal is only a request, it shows Trump wants more money for the project than appropriators in Congress are willing to give him. Trump's demand for $5.7 billion to construct his wall and congressional Democrats' refusal to approve the money caused a record 35-day partial government shutdown during December and January. He eventually signed a bill last month to reopen the government through September. It put only $1.4 billion toward the wall. At the same time, the president declared a national emergency and took other executive actions to secure $8 billion in total barrier funding. The Democratic-held House has voted to block the declaration, and the GOP-controlled Senate is set to do so this week. Trump has promised to veto the congressional resolution. The president's new funding request sets up yet another standoff with Congress over immigration. It creates the specter of another government closure in October, as Democratic leaders have already warned they will not meet his latest demand. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., conduct a news conference in the Capitol about a continuing resolution to re-open the government on Friday, January 25, 2019. Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call Group | Getty Images "President Trump hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos when he recklessly shut down the government to try to get his expensive and ineffective wall, which he promised would be paid for by Mexico," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement Sunday. "Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again. We hope he learned his lesson." The wall a key Trump campaign promise likely will not disappear as an issue, especially as the president seeks re-election next year. Even after Trump rejects the bill to block the emergency declaration, his administration will have to defend against various lawsuits challenging the flex of executive power. Trump has seemed content to make each of the past two elections the 2018 midterms and his campaign for the White House in 2016 about his effort to crack down on immigration. He has repeatedly claimed the U.S. has to build barriers to stop illegal immigration, and once floated the need for $25 billion to construct them. President Donald Trump (C) is shown border wall prototypes in San Diego, California on March 13, 2018. Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo holds a news conference to talk about the dire economic and political situation in Venezuela at the State Department headquarters March 11, 2019 in Washington, DC. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday blamed Russia and Cuba for causing Venezuela's political crisis by supporting President Nicolas Maduro and said he had urged India not to help Maduro's government by buying Venezuelan oil. His comments came after the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Russian bank Evrofinance Mosnarbank for helping Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA evade U.S. financial restrictions. "This story is not complete without acknowledging the central role Cuba and Russia have played and continue to play in undermining the democratic dreams of the Venezuelan people and their welfare," Pompeo told reporters. "Moscow, like Havana, continues to provide political cover to the Maduro regime, while pressuring countries to disregard the democratic legitimacy of the interim president Guaido," he added. The administration of President Donald Trump has taken several steps in recent weeks to ratchet up pressure on Maduro and bolster Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, recognized by the United States and more than 50 other countries as interim president. However, Maduro, who has accused Guaido of a U.S.-directed coup attempt, retains the backing of Russia and China as well as control of state institutions including the military. Earlier on Monday, Pompeo met with India's Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale at the State Department and among topics was India's purchases of oil from Maduro's government. "We are asking the same thing of India as we are of every country: do not be the economic lifeline for the Maduro regime," Pompeo said, declining to give specifics of the talks. "I am very confident in the same way that India has been incredibly supportive of our efforts on Iran, I am confident that they too understand the real threat to the Venezuelan people," he added. The Indian market is crucial for Venezuela's economy. It has historically been the second-largest cash-paying customer for the OPEC country's crude after the United States, which through sanctions against Maduro has handed control of much of the revenue to Guaido. Earlier, the U.S. Treasury said all U.S. assets of Evrofinance, described as jointly owned by Russian and Venezuelan state-owned companies, would be frozen and U.S. citizens prohibited from doing business with it. Pompeo said Russian oil giant Rosneft was also defying U.S. sanctions by buying oil from PDVSA, which was sanctioned in January. "Russia's state-owned company, Rosneft, continues to purchase crude oil cargoes from PDVSA, Venezuela's state-owned oil company, in defiance of U.S. sanctions. And, Rosneft's CEO, Igor Sechin, continues to throw a lifeline to the regime," he said. Washington has called on foreign banks to ensure that Maduro and Venezuelan government officials are not hiding financial assets abroad. "Bankers: Do not help Maduro and his accomplices steal the assets of the Venezuelan people," U.S. national security adviser John Bolton wrote in a message on Twitter on Monday. "The United States is watching. The world is watching. The Venezuelan people are watching." Evrofinance was set up in 2011 with Venezuela's National Development Fund, commonly known as FONDEN, taking a 49 percent stake in the bank, the Treasury Department said. Russias Gazprombank and the Russian state bank VTB Bank each took a 25 percent interest in Evrofinance, which was founded as a bi-national bank to fund joint Russia-Venezuela oil and infrastructure projects, the department said. Evrofinance was the primary international financial bank that helped finance a Venezuelan crypto-currency, the petro, which launched last year in an attempt to "circumvent" U.S. sanctions, the Treasury Department said. Evrofinance said in a statement on its website that it was operating in a "stable manner" and will "fulfill all of its obligations towards clients and partners. Gazprombank, which is Russias third biggest lender by assets and includes among its shareholders Russian state gas company Gazprom, said in a statement that the U.S. Treasury decision would not affect it. Gazprombank has a minority stake in Evrofinance Mosnarbank, Gazprombank said. Gazprombank does not carry out operations on the accounts of companies that are sanctioned by the U.S. over Venezuela. Azerbaijan's First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva has arrived in France. In Paris, she has met with Executive Vice-President of SUEZ for International Development Eric Ghebali. The sides discussed prospects of cooperation between Azerbaijan and SUEZ Group in environmental, ecological and other areas. They also exchanged views on the development of the bilateral relations on various fronts. Austria's oil and gas company OMV welcomes the possible implementation of the Turkish Stream 2 project, Chief Executive Officer of the company Rainer Seele said. "I am interested in any pipeline running to Austria," he noted. "And any pipeline running to Austria is a good pipeline," TASS cited Seele as saying. Earlier, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said that he did not rule out that the Turkish Stream 2 natural gas pipeline project would be implemented in case of demand and required agreements in place. A pedestrian walks past Tencent Holdings's headquarters in Shenzhen, China. Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images Tencent had a tough 2018. Over $127 billion was wiped off the value of its shares as Chinese regulators clamped down on the video gaming industry, hitting one of the company's main businesses. This year, however, is looking up for Asia's most valuable technology firm. Shares of Tencent hit a more-than six-month high last week and are more than 10 percent higher so far this year. Beijing restarted approvals for video games in December after a nearly year-long hiatus. That, along with strong performances from Tencent's big name titles and new entrants, has helped boost shares of the Chinese internet giant. What happened last year? Any publisher that wants to release a game in China needs to get the green light from authorities. And, any company that wants to monetize a game, for example by offering in-app purchases, also needs approval. Online games accounts for over 30 percent of Tencent's total revenues. In March 2018, the Chinese government stopped approvals for new video games. In the second quarter of 2018, Tencent saw its first quarterly decline in net profit in nearly 13 years as a result of the government crackdown. Chinese authorities expressed concerns about violent content in video games and alleged that the medium may be a cause of myopia in children. Not only were games not being approved, but the sale of some titles was also banned. Tencent was forced to stop selling blockbuster hit "Monster Hunter: World" in August because its content did not meet regulatory requirements. Tencent shares started 2018 off strong, hitting a record-high, but tumbled nearly 23 percent in the year. The lowest point came on Oct. 30 at 251.40 Hong Kong dollars per share. Recovery As of Monday afternoon, Tencent shares are trading at about 355 Hong Kong dollars. That recovery kicked off when China's regulators restarted game approvals in December. Some of Tencent's new titles were among the games given the green light in the latest wave of approvals. One of those games called "Perfect World," which is Tencent's first major mobile title launch of 2019, was released on Wednesday. It is top of the Apple App Store "free" chart in China and was the top grossing app as of March 9, according to data from mobile data and analytics firm App Annie. In a note released Thursday, analysts at Jefferies said they expect the game to have raked in 40 million to 50 million yuan ($5.95 million to $7.44 million) in revenues and is on track to beat the investment bank's current estimate that it will gross 600 million yuan per month in the first quarter of launch. Meanwhile, Tencent's other games are performing well, particularly the blockbuster "Honor of Kings" title. In a note last week, Nomura estimated that the game's gross billing likely surged to a record high of 7 billion yuan ($1.04 billion) in February, driven by a new upgrade. "Honor of Kings" was first launched in 2015 and is one of Tencent's most popular games. The record-high billing "could have increased in the past year, thanks to fewer competition from quality new titles as a result of the nearly one-year suspension of new game approvals," Nomura analysts suggested in their note. Jefferies said in its note that "Perfect World" combined with "Honor of Kings" will lead to "decent sequential recovery" for mobile game revenue in the first quarter of 2019, but year-on-year growth could be kept "under check" because of a tough comparison with the first quarter of 2018. Market bullish Martin Scorsese's "The Irishman" could come to IMAX theaters, if Netflix makes concessions about how long it's willing to let the film play in theaters before bringing it to its streaming service. Like many theater exhibitors in the industry, IMAX has previously shied away from showing Netflix films in its theaters. The streaming service has been reluctant to adhere to traditional distribution policies set by theaters. However, if Netflix were to agree to expand its limited release windows, companies like IMAX would be more inclined to working with them, Rich Gelfond, CEO of IMAX, said on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" Monday. IMAX previously partnered with Netflix to bring "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny" to its theaters in 2016. This was the first time Netflix content had been shown at IMAX. However, this move drew ire from some theater owners, many of whom operated IMAX screens, as they did not want to release the film on the same day that it went live on Netflix's platform. Ultimately, the film was shown in about a dozen IMAX locations, a fraction of the number it had initially planned. Traditionally, Hollywood studios, and even Amazon, have adopted 90-day theatrical release window, which means a film will run in theaters for that time period before being available on video-on-demand or on a streaming service's site or app. Netflix's Academy Award-winning film "Roma" rolled out to a limited number of theaters on Nov. 21 and was released to Netflix's streaming service on Dec. 14. The decision ruffled feathers for some theater operators, like AMC Theaters and Regal Cinemas, which declined to show "Roma" in theaters after its best picture nomination in January. AMC said that because "Roma" hadn't been licensed to play in its theaters at the time of its release, it would not be included in its best picture showcase. But, this contention hasn't stopped Netflix from seeking out other theater distributors for films. Netflix is set to distribute "The Highwaymen" as part of a limited release on March 15 in select theaters and then release the film on Netflix on March 29. "The Highwaymen" is a film about a pair of police officers, played by Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson, who come out of retirement to catch the infamous outlaws Bonnie and Clyde. A limited release, if done in Los Angeles County, could make "The Highwaymen" eligible for awards season. "Directors themselves really want theatrical releases," Gelfond said, explaining why some films Netflix films could come to theaters. "I wouldn't be surprised to see if [Netflix has] windows for that. Now, whether the windows are good enough where the theaters want to play them, that remains to be seen." Exhibitors want a 12-week window to play the film, while companies like Netflix are looking for a shorter window of between four and six weeks, Gelfond said. If a compromise could be reached, then more Netflix films would likely come to theaters. "The Irishman," a film by Scorsese about a mob hitman who recalls his possible involvement with the slaying of Jimmy Hoffa, features Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in lead roles. The film gained attention because of Scorsese's willingness to work with Netflix. Other directors and actors have been reluctant to do so in the past. In fact, director Steven Spielberg has been quite vocal about the differences between theatrical and streaming releases. "Once you commit to a television format, you're a TV movie," he told ITV News last year. "You certainly, if it's a good show, deserve an Emmy, but not an Oscar. I don't believe films that are just given token qualifications in a couple of theaters for less than a week should qualify for the Academy Award nomination." Spielberg, governor of the academy's directors branch, has said that he would like films to have a longer theatrical run in order to qualify for an Academy Award. However, that doesn't mean Spielberg is championing a ban of Netflix films from Oscar contention. Media mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg said that Spielberg had no plan to campaign against Netflix, saying at the South By Southwest conference in Texas that "he is not going to the academy in April with some sort of plan," according to a report by the Hollywood Reporter. U.S. airlines tried to assure nervous customers Monday that the Boeing 737 MAX jets they fly are safe, a day after one of the new jets operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed outside of Addis Ababa and killed all 157 people on board. Accident investigators from Ethiopia and the U.S. are looking for clues as to what brought down the flight and analysts have cautioned that it's too early to know the cause. Investigators have recovered the so-called black boxes, which contain data showing the flight's movements and cockpit voice recordings. U.S. federal aviation officials on Monday said they still consider the Boeing 737 MAX planes airworthy. "External reports are drawing similarities between this accident and the Lion Air Flight 610 accident on October 29, 2018," the Federal Aviation Administration said in its notice. "However, this investigation has just begun and to date we have not been provided data to draw any conclusions or take any actions." The crash has sparked concern among some lawmakers, flight attendants and members of the public, who asked airlines on social media whether these planes are safe and in some cases, whether they can switch their flights. "We have not relaxed our fare rules or restrictions at this point," said Southwest Airlines spokesman Chris Mainz. Southwest had 34 of Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes in its fleet of about 750 as of the end of last year and remains "confident in the safety and airworthiness" of its aircraft, the carrier said in a statement. Southwest doesn't charge flight change fees like other airlines but passengers flying on different days and flights will have to pay a difference in fare. tweet American Airlines issued a similar statement and said it had full confidence in its planes and crew members. The airline has 14 of the Boeing 737 MAX 8s in its fleet and has not altered its ticket change polices as of Monday morning. tweet Some cabin crew members have expressed concerns about the crash. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents 50,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines including United, said it was formally requesting that the Federal Aviation Administration investigate the plane. United operates a larger model of the Boeing 737 MAX. tweet "While it is important that we not draw conclusions without all of the facts, in the wake of a second accident, regulators, manufacturers and airlines must take steps to address concerns immediately," said the AFA's international president, Sara Nelson. Berlin should bar Huawei or other Chinese vendors from constructing Germany's 5G network or risk losing access to U.S. intelligence, according to a letter from U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell to the country's economics minister, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The two countries have been carefully rebuilding their intelligence sharing relationship since 2013 and 2014, when the U.S. and Germany were at odds over two spying scandals stemming from the revelations by Edward Snowden of NSA snooping. Last month, German officials said they "weren't ready" to ban Huawei equipment and were unsure of the legality of such a request, according to a statement from the German Interior Ministry. "A direct exclusion of a particular 5G manufacturer is currently not legally possible and not planned," said a ministry spokesman, according to a CNBC translation. "The focus is on adapting the necessary security requirements so that the security of these networks will be guaranteed even if there are potentially untrustworthy manufacturers on the market." The letter was sent Friday, the Journal said. This would be the first time the U.S. has explicitly threatened consequences against a country for using the Huawei's equipment, which has been the subject of heavy scrutiny from U.S. intelligence agencies that say the company is intimately connected to the Chinese government and intelligence agencies. Huawei continues to deny these claims, and has launched legal and marketing campaigns to defend itself. A Huawei spokesperson and Grenell's office were not immediately available to comment. Read the full Journal story here. President Donald Trump welcomes Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S. March 20, 2018. The United States became the world's biggest oil producer in 2018, and over the next five years, the nation will take aim at becoming the top oil exporter, according to the International Energy Agency. IEA forecasts U.S. exports of crude oil and petroleum products will nearly double, hitting about 9 million barrels per day by 2024. At that level, the U.S. will surpass Russia's shipments and threaten to unseat Saudi Arabia, the current top exporter. The forecast from IEA comes just weeks after the U.S. exported a record 3.6 million barrels per day of crude oil. The country is also a major exporter of petroleum products, including refined fuels like gasoline. Those shipments will surge in the coming years as crude production from the nation's shale fields continues to boom, IEA says in its annual five-year oil outlook. The Paris-based adviser to oil consumers and producers sees U.S. crude output already at a record 12 million bpd growing by another 4 million bpd through 2024. "The second wave of the U.S. shale revolution is coming," IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a statement. "It will see the United States account for 70 percent of the rise in global oil production and some 75 percent of the expansion in LNG trade over the next five years. This will shake up international oil and gas trade flows, with profound implications for the geopolitics of energy." Pulling ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia in exports would further erode their influence in the oil market. Saudi Arabia and Russia have formed an alliance in recent years, coordinating oil production among OPEC and other oil-producing countries. The so-called OPEC+ alliance has capped output for much of the last two years, helping to boost oil prices after a punishing downturn. Most of the output growth from OPEC over the next five years will come from Iraq, IEA says. The group thinks the country will be the world's third-biggest source of new supply, helping to offset production declines in Iran and Venezuela, both of which are grappling with U.S. sanctions on their state-controlled energy industries. On Monday, Birol said the IEA's long-standing effort to assess the oil market without much regard for geopolitics is becoming increasingly difficult. "We are seeing that geopolitical concerns are casting an increasing shadow on the oil markets today and tomorrow," he said during a press conference at CERAWeek by IHS Markit, a major energy conference in Houston. The world will need new supply, in IEA's view. The group sees no signs that growing oil demand will peak in the coming years. It forecasts the world's appetite for oil will increase at an average 1.2 million bpd over the next five years, roughly in line with recent growth trends. While the group sees electric cars and fuel efficiency sapping demand for gasoline, IEA thinks rising petrochemicals and jet fuel consumption will offset any weakness at the pump. In addition to the U.S. and Iraq, IEA sees countries like Brazil, Norway and Guyana meeting rising demand for oil. In a major shift, the U.S. became the biggest source of oil demand growth in the world, overtaking China, long the engine of global commodity consumption. The robust U.S. consumption was driven by strong economic growth and high demand in the petrochemicals industry, which processes fossil fuels and byproducts into chemicals like plastics. "US oil consumption [growth] last year was about a half-million barrels per day, and as such it was the highest in all the countries around," Birol said on Monday. "It was the first time that the United States in the last two decades was the No. 1 driver of oil consumption growth." The U.S. achieved the feat against a backdrop of slowing global economic growth, particularly in China. WATCH: Here's what drives the price of oil U.S. government debt yields were slightly higher Monday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell described the U.S. economy as healthy and downplayed questions that President Donald Trump could remove him from office. The leader of the U.S. central bank said that he believes President Donald Trump cannot fire him despite any frustration the White House may have with higher borrowing costs. "The law is clear that I have a four-year term, and I fully intend to serve it," Powell told the news magazine show. Asked directly if he thought Trump could fire him, he said, "no." Powell added that he thinks the economy looks strong and he and his colleagues at the Fed will be making future policy decisions based on the available data. "I would say there's no reason why this economy cannot continue to expand," he said. At 9:07 a.m. ET, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to price, was higher at around 2.637 percent, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was also higher at 3.025 percent. Four civilians were injured in a ceasefire violation by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district yesterday, according to Indian media. Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked firing towards Indian posts and villages in Kamalkote area of Uri in north Kashmir, a police official said. He said that four civilians, including a woman, were injured in the firing. The official added that the injured were admitted to a hospital. An Army official confirmed the ceasefire violation by Pakistani troops, but said the Indian Army has responded to Pakistani firing in adequate measure, NDTV reported. A gas flare on an oil production platform in the Soroush oil fields is seen alongside an Iranian flag in the Gulf. The sanctioning of two OPEC members by the Trump administration has caused some ripples in the oil market, but not the type of shortages or pain for consumers that might have occurred. One big reason is that U.S. production continues to grow, and for the barrels lost, more are coming on line. U.S. output is now at 12.1 million barrels a day, up more than 1 million from this time last year, and IHS Markit expects it to be 13 million by the end of the year. That has given the United States more muscle and flexibility when it comes to sanctions. Saudi Arabia, OPEC and Russia initially agreed last spring to add more oil to the market to make up for limited Iranian output, but even with Iran's exports down by 1.4 million barrels a day, there is no shortage. The Trump administration surprised the market in the fall by granting some countries waivers to continue with Iranian oil purchases, after threatening that all barrels would be kept from the market. The price of oil then fell sharply after that October announcement, and OPEC and non-OPEC producers have reversed course and are now pulling barrels from the market. "Trump is yelling at OPEC, but Trump's been the most effective cutter" in barrels on the world market, said Helima Croft, RBC head of global commodities strategy. "He has made sure OPEC's made its quota by sanctioning Iran and Venezuela." She said 1.6 million barrels a day have been removed from the market, and President Donald Trump could choose to remove even more from Iran's exports when waivers come up for renewal in May. "Everyone is trying to figure out what's going on with the next round of Iran waivers," Croft said. India, for instance, is purchasing about 300,000 barrels a day from Iran and is seeking to extend its waiver, according to Reuters. "Trump was the disruptor in chief in the market. He really was, if you look at where some of the biggest losses were," Croft said. Both Venezuela and Iran are expected to be big topics of conversation among members of the world oil industry as they gather in Houston this week for IHS Markit's annual CERAWeek conference. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to the gathering Tuesday. Elliott Abrams, the State Department Special Representative for Venezuela, said the sanctions on Venezuela are meant to be temporary and force people to change behavior. The U.S. actions are seen as a message aimed at the military leadership, which so far continues to support Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro. The United States has recognized Juan Guaido, president of the Assembly, who declared himself Venezuela's president six weeks ago. Wall Street is turning sour on Apple. According to FactSet, analysts have the lowest percentage of buy ratings on Apple's stock in nearly 15 years, signaling a bearish shift on the company's prospects not seen since the year it released the first-ever iPod Nano. With Apple shares closing on Friday about $5 away from its average price target of $178.13 and still about 30 percent off its 52-week high, where the stock goes next seems to be an open question. Apple shares rose nearly 2 percent in Monday's premarket after a Bank of America upgrade to buy from neutral. It said the recent pullback in the stock "presents opportunity." "I think it's basically a repricing of the stock away from a sexy tech stock to, essentially, a stodgy, dodgy, blue-chip-with-a-dividend stock, simply because the growth story in Apple has really petered out," Boris Schlossberg, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset Management, said Friday on CNBC's "Trading Nation." "It's by no means a sour apple," Schlossberg continued. "But it's just [that] the growth prospects here are quite limited, simply because the whole story or the narrative that they're moving into services, I think, is very problematic." Schlossberg pointed out that roughly 40 percent of Apple's services revenue comes from one source, Google search, and that Apple's history might be capping its potential. "I think Apple, at its core, culturally, is very much a hardware company. They need a huge hardware hit that's what they haven't had. Until they have one, the growth story's going to be very limited," he said. "They do have one interesting possibility with the Watch as a medical device, but that seems to be still a very embryonic market. And I think that's the key thing: The market is just not excited about anything new on Apple." Piper Jaffray analyst Craig Johnson had more faith in the iPhone maker's stock, flagging some bullish trends bubbling up in its long-term chart. "When I look at the charts here on Apple, you can see that [the] stock's had a nice downtrend reversal. You're up about 19 percent off the lows. You're still 25 percent off the highs, and the Street is kind of split: 22 buys, 22 holds and one sell on the stock," Johnson said on "Trading Nation." "I think this stock can continue to move higher, and I think from a technical perspective, we can come back and retest that 200-day moving average, which is about $189, $190 at this point in time." The technical analyst added that while the Street's fundamental analysts see some more upside for the stock, he wouldn't focus too much on the lower percentage of buy ratings as it relates to the Apple's potential. "I think there's more room for this stock, ultimately, to work, and I wouldn't be too concerned about the place marker that the analysts have out there at this point in time, given some of the concerns and changes in the business model they've got," he said. "I think it's just been a resetting of expectations, but I think the longer-term picture for Apple is still quite positive." Disclosure: Piper Jaffray makes a market in Apple. SEATTLE, WA - MARCH 01: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announces his run for the 2020 Presidency at A & R Solar on March 1, 2019 in Seattle, Washington. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee took his 2020 presidential campaign message of fighting climate change to California on Monday, meeting with residents impacted by November's Woolsey Fire. Inslee toured a mobile home park in the Malibu Hills area where nearly 100 homes were lost and highlighted his fight against climate change. "Visiting the people affected by the Woolsey Fire reminds me of the work ahead," Inslee tweeted Monday. "Climate change has caused more wildfires and impacted too many lives. We need to act now on climate." The Woolsey Fire scorched Los Angeles and Ventura counties, destroying more than 1,600 structures and leaving three people dead. Inslee's visit to California comes on the heels of other Democratic presidential challengers coming to California to charm voters and donors. Inslee, who has made fighting climate change the central theme of his campaign, was in Iowa last week where he talked about the issue. Democratic presidential hopefuls may have their eyes on Iowa and New Hampshire in the 2020 presidential election cycle, but California is getting more attention this time around due to its earlier primary and huge number of delegates. Over the weekend, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, held fundraiser events in Beverly Hills as she tries to boost her chances of winning the Democratic nomination. "Because of our earlier primary, it makes California more consequential," said Mindy Romero, director of the California Civic Engagement Project at the University of Southern California. "It means more money, time and resources will need to be spent in California that we don't typically see when it comes to presidential primaries." California passed a law in 2017 to move up its presidential primary to Super Tuesday, March 3, 2020, or about three months earlier than the state typically has held its primaries. The stakes in California are high for the 2020 presidential contenders because the nation's most populous state has nearly 500 delegates up for grabs and could help decide who survives and goes on to win the Democratic Party's nomination. "California is so important because of the number of delegates," said Romero, pointing out California has nearly as many delegates as New York and Florida together. Also, she said candidates can't wait until the last minute to put together a campaign infrastructure and ground strategy in California since it's become so valuable in terms of delegate count. Interest in California's primary is expected to grow in the coming months as the crowded field of Democratic presidential candidates jockey for more attention from voters. Pete Buttigieg, a 2020 Democratic contender and the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is scheduled to attend political events later in the week the Los Angeles area. He was in San Francisco last month talking about his long-shot run for the presidency. Earlier this month, former Housing Secretary Julian Castro, a former mayor of San Antonio and a Democratic contender, visited Los Angeles and spoke at the University of California, Los Angeles and held a roundtable with community activists in south Los Angeles. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, meantime, visited Southern California last month and held a town hall in the community of Glendale. For her part, presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris of California enjoys name recognition in her home state. But Romero said it doesn't mean she's guaranteed to win the primary. "Harris has to survive the early states to be successful," Romero said. "And Harris isn't the only one with name recognition in California. Sen. Bernie Sanders [of Vermont] has strong name recognition in California, and a lot of Californians voted for him in 2016." Defense Department's Patrick Shanahan, before he was tapped by President Donald Trump to serve as the department's Acting Secretary WASHINGTON The White House declined to comment Monday on whether acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan would be tapped later this week by President Donald Trump to take the top spot at the Pentagon. "I'm not going to make any personnel announcements at this time," press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Monday during a media briefing at the White House. "I can tell you that the president has a great deal of respect for acting Defense Secretary Shanahan, he likes him, and when the president is ready to make an announcement on that front, he certainly will," Sanders said. Shanahan ascended to the acting role in the wake of then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis' shock resignation in December. In his resignation letter, Mattis said that disagreements with the president about America's treatment of both allies and strategic competitors came from beliefs that "are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues." Mattis, a revered Marine with a military career spanning four decades, was known for his battlefield prowess and kinship with rank-and-file service members. Before he became Trump's Defense secretary, the four-star general led the U.S. Central Command, the combatant command responsible for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders speaks to the media during a briefing in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House on October 29, 2018 in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump will "make his decision" on whether to pardon his former campaign chief Paul Manafort "when he's ready," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday. The comments from Sanders, delivered at the first official White House press briefing in six weeks, appear to signal a development in the president's thinking on the issue of pardoning Manafort. The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC's request to clarify the president's views on pardoning figures related to special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe. Trump has previously floated the possibility of issuing presidential pardons to Manafort and other associates. But just days earlier, the president told reporters outside the White House that he had not discussed pardoning Manafort, who was convicted last year on tax and bank fraud charges lodged by Mueller and is set to receive his final prison sentence this week. "I don't even discuss it. The only one discussing it is you," Trump said Friday. Trump has often criticized Mueller's probe of Russian meddling and possible Trump-campaign collusion in the 2016 election, calling it "illegal" and a "witch hunt." In November, Trump said in a New York Post interview that a pardon for Manafort "was never discussed," but added that he "wouldn't take it off the table." "Why would I take it off the table?" Trump asked rhetorically. At the previous press briefing in late January, Sanders said she was "not aware" of whether Trump had ruled out a pardon for Republican operative Roger Stone, a longtime friend of Trump's who had just been indicted by a grand jury on charges lodged by Mueller. "I'm not aware of that. I haven't had any discussions with him on that matter," Sanders said. She later added: "I'm not going to talk about hypotheticals that are just ridiculous and things I haven't talked about." But when asked during Monday's briefing why Trump has not yet ruled out a pardon for Manafort, Sanders responded: "The president has made his position on that clear and he'll make a decision when he's ready." Bazaar Corporate Radar | Feb 22, 2021, 12:00 AM IST Bazaar Corporate Radar Bazaar Corporate Radar is your window into the minds of top CEOs, Boardrooms, global economists, fund managers and sector analysts. If it?s making news, you?ll find it on Bazaar Corporate Radar. A commercial aircraft belonging to Russias Ural Airlines en route from Bahrain to Moscow has made an emergency landing in Baku due to suspicions of an explosive device on board, the airports press service informed. "An Airbus A321 plane belonging to the Ural Airlines air company, en route from Bahrain to Moscow, has successfully landed at Heydar Aliyev International Airport on Monday at 14:56 Baku time," the message states. The press service added that the plane has made an emergency landing due to "the aircraft captains suspicions of an explosive device on board the plane." The airports emergency services are currently on standby. According to Baku Airport's press service, there are at least 225 people on board the plane. According to a source, the emergency situation might have been caused by a man who handed a note to the crew about the explosive device on board; however, no such device has been found inside the plane following the landing. Earlier, the Ural Airlines press service said that the plane has performed an emergency landing in Baku due to reports of "foreign objects" on board the aircraft, TASS reported. The Russian Embassy in Baku also confirmed that no explosive device has been found inside the plane. 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. The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form International rating agency S&P Global Ratings has affirmed its 'BBB-/A-3' long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Kazakhstan, the forecast is 'stable.' "The stable outlook reflects our expectation that, over the next two years, Kazakhstan's government and external balance sheets will remain robust," Interfax cited S&P Global Ratings as saying. The agency has also affirmed its 'kzAAA' national scale rating on Kazakhstan. The transfer and convertibility assessment on Kazakhstan remains 'BBB'. The rating agency may raise the ratings if Kazakhstan's monetary policy effectiveness improves significantly, for example due to a material strengthening of the banking system, including further improvements in regulatory oversight and reduced concentration in lending to single borrowers. "A prolonged and sharp fall in oil prices or production, beyond our expectations, could put the ratings under pressure if it led to deterioration of Kazakhstan's external performance," the report says. Apparently, Apple is arguing in Washington that they can be the US champion for 5G, running against the juggernaut that is Huawei. Before I get into why this is a bad idea, a little backstory: One of the more interesting jobs Ive held was as a competitive analyst and, apparently, I was good at itbecause I not only received a ton of recognition for my work, it formed the foundation for creating a successful analyst practice. One of the biggest problems with this job is that the executives that have power generally fall in love with their own strategies and tend not to be too fond of folks who point out they are idiots based on real market data. So, the job also resulted in an impressive number of folks trying to get me fired, which got really old after a while. But that experience came to the fore when I heard what Apple was doing, as I feel there should be an alternative voice to Apples ill-conceived argument. On the surface, their case is compelling. Like Huawei, they are a hero brand that while weakened since Steve Jobs passing due to lack of funding is still arguably the most powerful in the smartphone segment (everyplace but China). In most of the world, the strongest challenger to Apple is Samsung, who currently leads the smartphone market in volume. In China, however, Huawei has become the hero brand and the US trade war with China has significantly benefited that company to the detriment of Apple. But Huawei is a very different kind of company, more like the original AT&T than Apple which, under Steve Jobs direction, was fashioned after Sony. Against the threat that Huawei represents, Apple is massively overmatched both in terms of available resources and market influence. Let me explain. Recalling AT&T Its been several decades since the original AT&T went under. We tend to forget that todays AT&T was built years later from the ashes that were left behind (what used to call the Baby Bells). AT&T was dominant because they controlled telephony end to end, they had the phones, they had the network and they had the switches. This end to end control effectively locked out competition, but it also slowed advancement and reduced AT&Ts R&D. When the government forced AT&T to allow competitors they not only rolled over AT&T, the resulting rapid advancement in alternative forms of communication (email, web, ethernet, etc.) that AT&T wasnt set up to compete in made them redundant and they failed. But while they maintained dominance, they were unbeatable. Huawei Huaweis strategy appears to be to recreate AT&T but without the limitations on networking and by creating vertical integration between the switches and handsets they sell. Huawei provides acceptable quality and aggressively low prices and has been penetrating both sides of this market quite impressively. Theyre almost unbeatable on price and are already passing Apple for the No. 2 spot in the smartphone market. The only thing holding them back right now is US sanctions. But the US is in a bruising trade war with China and its very likely that China will negotiate an end to the US sanctions against Huawei as part of their conditions for ending it. (They are currently arguing that Huawei phones are more secure than iPhones thanks to Apples security by obscurity approach.) Huawei is a 5G powerhouse, but their path to standards is through their dominance because competitors rarely accept leadership from a similar firm. What I mean is that one smartphone or switch maker wont accept a proposed standard from a competitor for fear it would give them a competitive advantage (which it generally would). This could be offset by the Chinese government which certainly could, by fiat, assure Huaweis dominance in China. Given the China market is expected to grow at multiples of the US market over the next decade, that could effectively turn Huawei into the next AT&T, giving China segment dominance by the time were ready to move to 6G. Apple Apple doesnt enjoy the support with the US government that Huawei enjoys. They currently arent really in the race for 5G, because they rely on Intel who, in turn, required allegedly illegal help from Apple to get there. And they not only dont have an interest in switches, they partner really badly making them even less likely to be able to drive standards in the US (let alone in the rest of the world). Apple has had great difficulty executing of late, too. Their smartwatch effort, while the most successful in the segment, lags massively behind what they did with the iPod. Their Homepod was late and not competitive. And their recent revenue gains are largely the result of increasing prices, not sales volume. They use a lock-in model which has proven untenable in long term in the US because the FTC and DOJ both take exception to it once a company becomes dominant (because it restricts competition). Theyve had several attempts at enterprise products starting with the Lisa and ending with the Apple server which failed horribly, and theyve had a number of high-profile partnerships that also failed (they truly suck at partnering). Apple lacks both the leadership and the corporate structure to take on Huawei. A better path might be to go to the US carriers, encourage global mergers with incentives and use them as a hedge against Huaweiwhile assuring competition between them, so you didnt replace one growing monopoly with another. Competing with Huawei Huawei is more like the old AT&T and Apple is more like the old Sony, both by design. Sony, even on their best day, couldnt compete with AT&T in their market any more than AT&T could compete with Sony on consumer hardware. But the battle for the lead in telephony isnt a consumer electronics battle, its a telephony battle, placing it more in Huaweis true market than in Apples. To effectively compete, Apple would need to merge with someone like Cisco [Disclosure: Cisco is a client of the author], which would not only be difficult to get through regulatory approval, but would create massive leadership stress, given the two companies have been extremely ineffective in each others markets. (Cisco had consumer products years ago and exited that market after failing with all of them.) So, even if you forced a merger, it likely wouldnt assure US dominance, it would more likely kill both Apple and Cisco, because neither management team has the skills to run both companies. Huawei will likely be the pivot point that will eventually move tech market dominance from the US to China. Currently, the US lacks a company like Huawei to counter and Apple is badly positioned to be that champion because they neither partner well nor have they been successful in the back end of anything. (Even their cloud efforts arent competitive outside of the Apple ecosystem.) The US needs another plan, probably one that looks at why the US is dominant and strengthen thatnot trying to emulate late (and poorly) what China is doing. We tried that with solar panels and currently China, not the US, owns that market. This story, "Apple vs. Huawei: Who can dominate 5G?" was originally published by Computerworld . Brexit 1) Defeat looms as Downing Street concedes talks are deadlocked Duncan Smith says Brussels is laughing at Cox Daily Express Hammond says deal would unlock billions to end austerity The Times Claim that no deal would boost Britains economy by 140 billion The Sun Downing Street admitted on Monday that Brexit talks in Brussels are deadlocked, leaving Theresa May facing a heavy defeat if she presents her largely unchanged deal to MPs for a meaningful vote tomorrow. Mrs May spoke to Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission president, on Sunday night but made no headway in her efforts to amend the treaty to ensure that Britain could not be trapped indefinitely in a customs union. The prime minister had been ready to travel to Brussels on Monday to meet Mr Juncker to finalise changes to the deal, but that trip now looks in doubt. Talks at an official level are continuing. Mrs May has promised MPs a vote on her deal by Tuesday and Downing Street has insisted that she will honour that pledge: We want people to have their say, said one ally of the prime minister. FT More: Europhile MPs could be two-thirds of the way to blocking Brexit, warns Hunt Daily Telegraph Civil servants reveal what they think of Brexit voters The Sun SNP will make Commons push for independence vote if Brexit goes ahead The Scotsman >Today: Brexit 2) MPs urge May to delay second meaningful vote Theresa May has been urged by senior Conservative MPs to pull tomorrows meaningful vote on her Brexit deal if she fails to secure significant concessions from Brussels. In phone calls with Downing Street, leading Tories in the Commons warned that the prime minister could face another three-figure defeat if she went ahead with her plan. They have advised her to halt the vote and replace it with a motion setting out the kind of Brexit deal that would be acceptable to Tory MPs to keep the party together and put pressure on Brussels. As it stands her deal is going to be defeated, a senior party source said. It has been made clear to Downing Street that it would be eminently sensible to avoid that by proposing a motion that the party can support. Whether they listen or not is another matter. The Times Ministers claims only two Cabinet members support the deal Daily Telegraph Gove tells rebels to save Brexit by backing the deal The Sun Tory Eurosceptics prove impervious to Mays warnings FT Europe will demand billions in exchange for extension Daily Telegraph Voters demand MPs get on with it The Sun >Yesterday: Brexit 3) Is the Prime Minister in danger? Pressure mounts to quit to save deal Deliver Brexit on March 29 or resign, Prime Minister told The Times Theresa May faced mounting pressure to quit on Sunday as Conservative Eurosceptic rebels claimed she might have to sacrifice her premiership to win them over ahead of a crucial Brexit vote this week. Several cabinet ministers have said Mrs May should announce her plans to resign to win the support of Tory Brexiters, who believe that a change in Number 10 would signal a more robust approach to talks on a future UK/EU trade deal. Nicky Morgan, former education secretary, said that if Mrs May lost the latest vote on her Brexit deal on Tuesday her time would be up. I think it would be very difficult for the prime minister to stay in office very much longer, she told the BBC. FT >Yesterday: ToryDiary: Cox is out of line with Downing Street on the backstop Brexit 4) McDonnell backs open-ended Article 50 extension Labour sparked fresh fears of a lengthy delay to Brexit yesterday as John McDonnell said he backed an open-ended extension. The Shadow Chancellor said we should delay our departure for as long as necessary to strike a new agreement or hold a second referendum. He claimed Labours Brexit plan could be passed in a matter of weeks. It marks yet another Labour split on Brexit coming just a day after Shadow Foreign Secretary said any delay must last no longer than three months. She said it would be inappropriate for Britain still to be an EU member state in July because it would require us to stand in Mays European Parliament elections. And Labours Brexit chief Sir Keir Starmer also backed a three-month extension yesterday saying that time-frame would be doable. The Sun Starmer holds fire on support for second referendum Daily Telegraph Scottish Labour avoids split with UK party on Brexit FT Unions attack Mays workers rights pledge The Guardian Blair secretly advising Macron branded unacceptable Daily Telegraph >Yesterday: Video: WATCH: Starmer says three-month extension of Article 50 would be doable Brexit 5) Michael Gove: Only backing the deal can bring our country together Brussels has treated Britain with condescension bordering on contempt Boris Johnson, Daily Telegraph May should resign a year after Brexit date Philip Collins, The Times Amoral Brexiteers are blackmailing the Prime Minister Peter Oborne, Daily Mail Her leadership has left Britain facing the abyss Trevor Kavanagh, The Sun Mays bungling has pushed our economy to the edge of chaos John McDonnell, Times Red Box Norway shows the UK a better way to Brexit Wolfgang Munchau, FT Britain needs an Article 50 extension of up to 21 months Andrew Adonis, The Times Our stubbornness in the face of Brexit scare stories is heartening Charles Moore, Daily Telegraph Forty-eight per cent of the country voted to remain. Their voices need to be listened to, their hopes incorporated in our plan for the future. That doesnt mean giving in to the much smaller number who want to overturn the decision and frustrate Brexit. But it must mean that none of us Leavers should try to make our perfect Brexit the enemy of the common good. Which is why I hope that everyone who believes in our democracy in the importance of delivering Brexit and in the critical need to unite our country will get behind the Prime Ministers deal this week. It is, of course, a compromise. But so many of the great British traditions and institutions I and many others value are the result of compromise. Daily Mail Editorial: Voting down the deal leads to no Brexit The Sun Hunt says UK is working on plan to rescue jihadis children Officials are working out how to rescue British children born to foreign fighters, Jeremy Hunt said, as it emerged that two more jihadist brides had been stripped of their citizenship. Reema and Zara Iqbal, sisters who between them have five sons under the age of eight, have had their British citizenship removed since marrying Isis fighters in Syria. They married into a terrorist cell linked to the murder of western hostages, according to The Sunday Times. The comments by Mr Hunt, the foreign secretary, came as Sajid Javid, the home secretary, faced continued criticism after the death of Shamima Begums baby in a Syrian camp. Ms Begum, 19, who fled Bethnal Green in east London four years ago, had pleaded to be allowed back to Britain with her son, having already lost two children. Mr Javid revoked her passport in the belief that she had citizenship of Bangladesh through her parents. The Times Playing politics with Begums baby shamed us all, Javid Jess Phillips, The Guardian Knife crime damaging Tories perception as party of law and order falling officer numbers. Last week the prime minister caused controversy by claiming that there was no direct correlation between certain crimes and police numbers. The Times McVey insists some foreign aid money should be spent on policing Daily Express Khan accused of prioritising self-promotion over tackling crime The Sun Thousands of troublesome youths to be sent to new schools Daily Telegraph Public concern about knife crime has wiped out the Conservatives reputation as the party for law and order, a poll has revealed. Only one in four people thinks that the Tories are the best for dealing with crime, the lowest proportion recorded by YouGov in the 14 years that it has been asking the question. Concern about crime has risen sharply in the past month, overtaking the NHS to become the most significant issue for voters apart from Brexit. There have been 100 killings in the UK already in 2019, including 41 stabbings. Theresa Mays record as a cost-cutting home secretary has been severely criticised, including her decision to scale back stop and search and accusing the police of crying wolf when they complained of >Today: Local Government: Conservative candidate selections are progressing for Police and Crime Commissioner elections as Raab sets out stall for second-chance society Ex-Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab will kick-start his pitch for the Tory leadership by setting out his vision for a second chance society. In a major speech to the Tory think tank Onward Mr Raab will lay out radical new policies to tackle inequality and halt Britains decline in social mobility. In a sign of the detailed planning he is already putting into a future leadership challenge he will call for radical new policies such as paying high-performing teachers bumper salaries to teach in Britains roughest schools The speech will be seen as a clear pitch for the Tory leadership, with Theresa May expected to stand down later this year. Mr Raab catapulted to become one of the favourites to replace her after his short stint in the Cabinet last year. The Sun We need to scrap the aid target and spend the money on policing Esther McVey, Daily Telegraph May and company have brought back the nasty party Jane Merrick, Times Red Box Unless the Government focuses on education, crime will rise Michael Wilshaw, Daily Telegraph >Yesterday: Video: WATCH: Hancock says the NHS must play its full part in stopping knife crime Small businesses urge Hammond for reprieve over tax digitisation Opponents of Heathrow expansion claim Grayling ignored facts Small firms have begged Chancellor Philip Hammond for a reprieve over digitising their tax records. The new Making Tax Digital rules from next month will force all firms with revenues over 85,000 to keep online records and submit tax returns four times a year. But half of business owners told the Federation of Small Businesses they will not be able to comply from April 1. A fifth have received software quotes but not yet bought any. The move will cost small firms about 564. Just three per cent said they took part in the pilot. HMRC found one in five firms that will be affected by MTD had never heard of it. The Sun The government faces a court challenge today over a third runway at Heathrow amid warnings that the project will subject millions of people in London and the home counties to higher levels of noise and pollution. The High Court action is an attempt to scrap the 14 billion plan to expand Britains biggest airport, for which 800 homes would need to be demolished. Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, is claimed to have ignored crucial facts over the impact of the project when he pushed ahead with legislation needed for construction of the runway. Lawyers will cite a failure to clearly identify the new flight paths before outline approval for the scheme was granted. They will say that Mr Grayling was required by law to identify all the areas that might be affected by aircraft. The Times Watson gearing up for leadership battle with McDonnell T Corbyn accused of snubbing anti-racist campaigners with Jewish links The Times om Watson is preparing for a head-to-head battle with John McDonnell over who should succeed Jeremy Corbyn after the Labour leader was rocked by a probe over anti-Semitism. The Equality and Human Rights Commission last week announced a formal inquiry into the partys handling of anti-Semitism cases amid claims it may have broken equalities law. Labour MPs critical of Mr Corbyn believe the EHRC investigation will result in heads rolling within the party and could potentially force him to stand down. As a result, Mr Watson, the deputy Labour leader who recently said sometimes he no longer recognised the party under Mr Corbyn, is reportedly readying for a showdown with the shadow chancellor over the top job. Mr McDonnell is a long time ally of the Labour leader and is viewed by many in the party as the candidate most likely to continue with Mr Corbyns socialist blueprint for the country. Daily Telegraph Comment: We exclude the Labour left from politics at our peril Andy Beckett, The Guardian Ive quit Labour, and other young activists should too Ollie Middleton, Times Red Box Editorial: Civil war looms for Labour Daily Telegraph >Yesterday: Video: WATCH: McDonnell hopes Labour will get a get a clean bill of health from antisemitism investigation Ulster Unionist leader fiercely criticises DUP Unionist unity seemed a distant prospect on Saturday, when the Ulster Unionist leader fiercely criticised the DUP. Robin Swann spoke to members at the party annual general meeting at the Park Avenue Hotel in east Belfast, weeks before the council elections. Mr Swann said that reform of councils should have been to deliver better, more effective services more efficiently In a speech that was often interrupted by applause, he added: The DUP and Sinn Fein wrecked all round them at Stormont, we cannot let them wreck local government too and bring the country to its knees. Mr Swann said: At the party conference in October past, I said that there was a battle to save the Union from the DUP. I cannot say my view has changed. With the DUP at the helm, pro-Union politics lies in the gutter. News Letter News in Brief: Making those dreams come true: that should be our calling as Conservatives. Raabs speech to Onward full text On Monday 11 March, Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP gave a speech for Onward on Unleashing the Great British Underdog: A vision for the Opportunity Society. Good morning. Id like to thank Havas Media for hosting us, and Will Tanner and the team at Onward for the vision, ideas and optimism they are bringing to our political debate. Isnt it great to be talking about something other than Brexit? When I was appointed Brexit Secretary, some of you mightve thought it was my dream job. I get that. But thats not my dream subject. Brexits a big deal, and it dominates debate. But I got into politics to talk about something else. Its something I feel very strongly about. And thats what I want to talk you about today. Its hard get it down to a soundbite. You can say: social mobility but that doesnt really capture the full meaning, emotionallymorally of encouraging and supporting young people to rise up, realise their potential, and fulfil their dreams. I got into politics because I love this country, and I want every child every child to get their chance to make the best of their potential, and to be a success in life. My father was a refugee to Britain. He arrived aged 6 with no English but he made the best of his abilities and became a food marketing manager at M&S. There he met a clothes buyer, my Mum. They married and had my sister and me. This country gave my father a second chance. Maybe, thats why he was one of the proudest Brits I knew. Sadly, he died when I was 12. Just before he passed away, he did something that changed my life. We lived near a great grammar school, Dr Challoners in Amersham, and I applied to go there. There were three 12+ tests. I passed two but on the day of the third, my sister was in a bad car crash that put her in hospital for several months. I went to school that day, and I sat the exam anyway. But I was thinking about my sister. I did so badly in the test that it brought my average down and I didnt get in. When my Dad found out what had happened, he appealed. He asked the school to take the average from the first two papers, and the appeal was successful. Now, thankfully, my sister recovered. Sadly, just a month before my first day at Dr Challoners, my Dad passed away. But I can still remember how proud he was that I was getting ready to go to school there. His effort was worth it. That school changed his sons life. I could not have had a better education, and not just in academic terms. The whole ethos of the school prepared the kids to fulfil their potential and not just in work but in life. Building a Fairer Society I guess its natural that my family history has coloured my outlook, and my politics. My Dad was Jewish, Mum raised us Church of England and I married a Catholic. I never expected that wed still see the kind of racism my Dad suffered in twenty-first century Britain, that were now seeing in the anti-semitism plaguing the Labour party under Jeremy Corbyns leadership. And I know there are many Labour MPs who are as disgusted as I am about that. The first principle of a fair society is that is doesnt discriminate on grounds of race, religion, gender or sexuality. Thats essential, but its not enough. I want to see all our kids, everywhere, have the chance that my Dad had, that I had, to make a success of themselves based on their abilities and hard-graft. My experience taught me that no one-off meritocratic process will ever be perfect, so we need to build layer upon layer of opportunity, Im talking about a second chance society, for those who miss out on their shot, whether thats because of bad luck, a bad day, or they just happen to blossom later in life. Weve got to make sure that our young people get a genuine opportunity to fulfil their potential. But thats not whats happening in Britain today. Think about this: social mobility has actually declined in this country since the Second World War. And its not getting any better. It is one of the few things the Left and Right agree on in British politics albeit with different explanations for the problem and what we should do about it. We know the socialist or egalitarian answer, which is equality of outcome rather than equality of opportunity. But I dont think thats right. People need the opportunity to benefit from their ability, their determination, and their hard-work. If you make policies designed to deliver a society with equality of outcome for every individual, regardless of how much they put in, it would drain our economic competitiveness, because you take away incentives for people to strive. And that kills aspiration. So weve got a two-part challenge: one we need to build a fairer society that strengthens the enterprise economy, rather than weakens it. And two, weve got to make our country fairer by expanding opportunity, not suffocating it as many on the Left would have us do. Build on what we got right the Gove reforms But lets just take a moment to recognise what weve been getting right. The Gove revolution with its focus on phonics, numeracy and literacy, academic rigour, and greater freedom for head-teachers to pioneer new ways of running schools has been a huge success. I know from my own experience, with two boys 4 and 6, how important phonics is. Ive read to both boys every morning since they were six weeks old. And Ive loved watching how phonics equipped them to feed their own curiosity, from the sun and stars to stories like the Gruffalo. For us as parents too, we get a precious opportunity to bond with our kids, away from tablets and tv screens. Because of Michael Goves reforms, weve seen literacy standards rise by 40% since 2012, when we introduced phonics. More broadly, we have 1.9 million more children in schools deemed good or outstanding. Now, Im not saying academic scores are the only thing that matter. Far from it. We need to be looking at our children in a much more rounded way. And that includes appreciating the value of sport, music, drama and art in building up self-confidence and self-esteem particularly for young people from tough neighbourhoods, or difficult family circumstances. I remember when my Dad died, I went up the hill to grammar school in Amersham, and down the hill on my BMX down to Slough Karate Club. I trained there for 20 years, made 3rd Dan, won two British Southern Region titles, and spent a year on the British squad. Looking back, I understand it was about much more than the sport. There were strong role models, a cracking camaraderie, and an ethos of respect. After the earthquake my family had been through, it certainly helped restore my confidence, and that hugely benefited my attitude to school and life. There are lots of talented kids out there for whom sport and other non-academic pursuits are the catalyst to the self-belief they need to turn the flicker of ambition into the flame of success. At the same time, I know that some of the Conservative school reforms have been unpopular with teachers. One concern Im sympathetic to is the charge of constant revolution. We need to allow the changes in curriculum, the introduction of the EBACC, and the new reforms to Ofsted inspections to bed down, and give our teachers time, and the space to implement them. If theres one change Id like to see, having sat on the Education Select Committee between 2013 and 2014, its to pay teachers more for teaching in our tougher schools. That would make it an important part of career progression for the best in the profession. And think about it: what better way to give children from the hardest backgrounds exposure to the very best teachers? Whats vitalis to allow these reforms the time and space to drive up standards across the board. Lets not forget that improving standards of learning across the whole state education system is the most important building block for improving social mobility. Widen Choice, Unleash the Aspirational Underdog But what we also know from Free Schools and Academies is that one size doesnt fit all. We need to challenge our own assumptions and keep looking for new ways to set up ladders of opportunity for the bright kid of modest means. Of course, you all knoweveryone in this room with children knows each one is different, unique, and theyre all the more precious for it. They have different aptitudes and passions. One of the risks Im conscious of and try to guard against, as a Dad, is limiting my childrens horizons by my own experiences. I certainly dont hanker for them to become politicians. But, theres a broader social challenge here. Weve created a culture in this country that prizes academic attainment above all else, funnelling more and more young people through university regardless of the benefits or the costs. And, anyway, when did we make it a condition of being a success in life that you had to go to university? Neither of my parents did, but I always admired the success they made of their lives. Theres an in-built snobbery that we have acquired in this country and it is holding our young people back. We need more ladders of opportunity for the bright, but not necessarily bookish kids who want to reach their full potential. Let me give you an example: Tony Blair introduced Young Apprenticeships for 14 to 16 year olds, but they started to be phased out under Gordon Brown and then the Coalition. I think that was a mistake. 14 to 16 is the age when truancy rates spike, and if you lose those children from the classroom, its hard to get them back. Young Apprenticeships were hugely successful. The kids whod been falling behind the most, before they joined the scheme, gained the most from it. Instead of shutting down vocational opportunities, lets revive Young Apprenticeships, at least as a choice, for this age group. But, we cant stop there. If were serious about offering our children a credible vocational alternative that leads to a good job, then we need to see it through consistently, and that means beyond school. We should build on T Levels, by expanding and promoting degree apprenticeships, like the flagship one offered by Jaguar Land Rover partnered with Warwick University. Degree Apprenticeships allow young people to combine working with acquiring a vocational degree, but without the fifty-thousand pounds of debt the average student racks up after a normal degree. Thats one great scheme but how can we stick rocket boosters under Degree Apprenticeships, to scale them up and expand access? To start with, Degree Apprenticeships should be given greater access to the Apprenticeship Levy. They should be mandated as a top priority for the Institute for Apprenticeships. And they should be fully integrated as part of the UCAS application process for every young person. That would give them the same status as normal degrees, and offer a genuine high-quality technical alternative for the next generation of school leavers. Lets offer young people a choice with all of the opportunity university has to offer but none of the debt. Thats just one area ripe for reform. There are plenty of other areas where we must smash through the glass ceilings holding our children back. I remember my first day as a trainee at Linklaters, the law firm. A partner said to me: You can forget all that stuff you studied, it wont help you in the real world. Your training starts now. I got a terrific training there, and I understood what he meant. I just couldnt help thinking it was a hell of a waste of money not to mention 5 years studying. With tuition fees at their level today, thats no joke for aspiring young lawyers. So, since 2010, Ive been championing non-graduate routes to becoming a solicitor. And theyve flourished. Now we need to expand those non-graduate routes into other professions which are starting to catch on, like accountancy. Likewise, we need to encourage young people, whove got some entrepreneurial spirit, to think about setting up a business. A few years back, I was involved in a review by the Royal Society of Arts into attitudes to setting up a business. It found that many parents and teachers didnt take the idea seriously they treated it like a gap year before university. Thats such a shame, when you think of the self-made entrepreneurs this country has turned out, from Alan Sugar to Tony Pidgley in my constituency. We cant lose that. Weve got to rekindle that buccaneering entrepreneurial spirit for the next generation. And there are some brilliant initiatives out there. Take Entrepreneur First. Started by Angel Investors, it takes talented students, but there arent any formal academic requirements. They spend the first 6 months developing business ideas with mentoring and networking. Then, they spend the second 6 months turning their bright idea into a start-up business, with Entrepreneur First providing office space, living costs and seed capital. Its a terrific scheme. Lets scale it up, so the next generation of budding entrepreneurs get their chance to start their own business from scratch. The government could boost Entrepreneur First by allowing participants to take out the maintenance loan element of the student loan for the year, to promote access for poorer young people. Next, we should consider increasing income tax relief for investors through the Enterprise Investment Scheme from 30% to 50% to attract more entrepreneurs to back it with their time and know-how. The beauty of Entrepreneur First is that it boosts the enterprise economy and the opportunity society. Lets encourage our young people to find that great idea. To believe they can turn it into a great business. To believe theres no limit to what they can achieve. Widen Access to some of the Best Schools And, finally, what about our brilliant independent school sector? Rather than bashing or abolishing, as some on the Left argue for, I want to open it up so more kids from poorer backgrounds actually benefit. Ive been arguing since 2012 that the government should adopt the Sutton Trusts Open Access scheme. At no extra cost to the taxpayer, that initiative would open up 90 leading independent schools to entry on meritocratic basis, with means-tested fee support. When Open Access was piloted at Belvedere School in Liverpool, 70% of pupils received fee support, and a third were eligible for free school meals. Ultimately, Id love to see the Sutton Trust scheme as a first step to opening up all independent schools on a means-tested and meritocratic basis. Of course, the Labour party will scream elitism. But many of the Labour frontbench benefited from a grammar school or private school, or sent their kids to one. We shouldnt let the Labour partys hypocrisy stop us from expanding opportunities, giving those of modest means their chance to go to some of the best schools. Just think what it would mean for the children growing up in the urban sink estate or the rural backwater, to get the opportunity to go to schools their parents never dreamed they could attend. Creating those opportunities, making those dreams come true: that should be our calling as Conservatives. Conclusion So, as I said to you at the start, I was lucky enough to get my shot in life. But today too many young people dont get theirs. I want to see a radical program of Conservative reform thats the political passion I was talking about. Weve got to break through the glass ceilings, raise more ladders of opportunity for every child, everywhere. I want us to build an opportunity society that empowers the aspirational underdog to reach his or her full potential, however they started out in life. Opportunity. That should be our lodestar. And that should be the driving mission for the Conservatives in post-Brexit Britain. Henry Newman is Director of Open Europe. One of the strange things about the Brexit debate at the moment is the persistence of certain idees fixes about the Prime Ministers Brexit deal and about its alternatives which are repeated by critics. There are of course principled reasons for opposing the deal and Paul Goodman outlined his view this morning. But there are also various confusions. Here is a mythbuster of a Brexit dozen of them: Myth 1 The deal isnt Brexit. This is often repeated; yet it is simply preposterous. The deal would take the UK out the EU. We would no longer be a member state, and would have no commissioner, no MEPs, no compulsory financial contributions (once our exit bill is settled), and no voting rights. We would basically be out of the EU legal order, with a treaty relationship with it. Yes, there would be some ongoing constraints most notably through the backstop protocol but the deal is Brexit. Myth 2 The deal would mean Brexit In Name Only (BRINO) or staying in the Single Market. Again, this is untrue. The deal takes us definitively out the Single Market. Even in the backstop, we would be free of practically all Single Market rules and could end free movement and diverge on services. The main exception is that we would have to maintain the stock of existing goods and agriculture rules in Northern Ireland (plus a few other rules around the Single Energy Market and so on). We could reject any new goods or agriculture rules from applying anywhere in UK, although we would be obliged to follow updates at least in Northern Ireland. Myth 3 The UK would be a vassal state. How? After the standstill 21-month transition, we would be free to reject new EU rules in almost all areas, even if we ended up in the backstop. We wouldnt have to pay ongoing membership contributions; we would keep all the customs revenue we collected (rather than sending the majority to Brussels as we do now). Myth 4 The UK will have to join a customs union to leave backstop. A future Government could opt to join a customs union to escape the backstop (though this would leave regulatory issues unsolved). But we couldnt be forced to do so. In the Political Declaration, the EU accepts that the future relationship will respect the result of the 2016 referendum including with regard to the development of its [the UKs] independent trade policy and the EU note that any arrangements which supersede the [backstop] Protocol are not required to replicate its provisions in any respect, provided that the underlying objectives continue to be met. Myth 5 In the backstop, every consignment passing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland or the EU will require a physical certificate to be wet stamped (as in using ink). This is wrong. It is true that there will be some documentation required, but the UK has stated that this will be electronic. And of course, a technological solution to the Irish border such as Max Fac would also require documentation. The only way to ensure entirely frictionless trade with the EU is to stay in both the Single Market and Customs Union, which the UK rejects. Myth 6 The backstop means a hard border in the Irish Sea. No. Some regulatory checks will be required, but these will be primarily in market (for goods) and conducted by UK (not EU) authorities. There will be some additional checks on agricultural products (SPS checks) crossing the Irish Sea, but there are already some such checks. As per Myth 5, there will need to be some certification for customs agreed, but it wont be wet stamped & should be electronic. In the backstop, there can be no tariffs or origin requirement rules on any intra-UK trade. Myth 7 The backstop is unique because it doesnt have a unilateral exit mechanism. In reality, there are many examples of treaties without clear exits the UN Charter, the Belfast / Good Friday Agreement, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the NATO Charter. The UK should seek a better exit, but to say it is unique in not having one is wrong. Myth 8 The UK wouldnt be able to do trade deals while in the backstop. Its true that we would not be able to offer to lower our tariffs on goods/food, but we could sign and implement deals on services, customs procedures, investor protections and qualification recognition. And, as per Myth 4, the EU recognises that an objective of the future relationship is an independent trade policy for the UK allowing us to do comprehensive trade deals. Myth 9 in the event of No Deal, the UK could use GATT Article XXIV to secure interim tariff free trade with EU. This article can only apply if the EU agrees, and they have so far been clear they wont. It is strange for critics to complain of EU intransigence, yet also assume that it would play ball in the event No Deal. Myth 10 in the event of No Deal the UK could keep the 39 billion Brexit bill. This only works if you want Never Deal, not No Deal. Even if the UK walks away, we are going to end up settling accounts before we do a trade deal with EU. Anyway, half the money is to pay for the standstill transition we requested. Myth 11 if the UK signs the deal we will be forced to jeopardise Five Eyes, join an EU army, or lose control of our benefits system and taxation. I can find almost no factual basis for these odd assertions. Some are drawn from confused misreadings of the non-binding political declaration. Myth 12 the Conservative manifesto committed the Government to No Deal. The manifesto actually said no deal is better than a bad deal and the Government view is this isnt a bad deal. The manifesto also committed to leaving the Single Market and Customs Union. This deal takes the UK out the Single Market; and the political declaration points to a destination outside the customs union too. Moreover, the Tories didnt win a majority in 2017 so its hard to implement the manifesto. Plenty of other bits of the manifesto have fallen away for obvious reasons, from social care to boundary reviews. Myth 13 theres a mandate for No Deal. In fact, Vote Leave promised a deal. It said that the UK would join a free trade zone from Iceland to Russian border this deal provides for that. In sum, there are many myths about the Prime Ministers deal and its alternatives. Its certainly not perfect, and some aspects of the backstop are uncomfortable and sub-optimal. Much would be improved by a sharper exit mechanism. Nonetheless, it often seems that the deal is not given a fair assessment, particularly against the other options actually available. Some critics clearly have something approaching a pathological mistrust of EU. Others have made a good faith decision to oppose it, on balance. But for those open to persuasion, look at the actual facts of the deal before its too late. Six years ago, the TaxPayers Alliance reported that in the last year, five times more Labour people were appointed to public bodies than Tories. Since then, the figures have varied, and some Conservative members or supporters have been selected to fill important posts. Nonetheless, it remains the case that, since it took office in 2010, our Party has punched beneath its weight when it comes to public appointments. One of the reasons seems to be that Tories simply dont apply in the same number as Labour supporters. To help remedy this, every week we put up links to some of the main public appointments vacancies, so that qualified Conservatives might be aware of the opportunities presented. Ofqual Board Member Ofqual wishes to recruit up to five, high calibre individuals to the Board. We are looking to appoint at least one in each of the following areas: assessment and qualification design, regulation, finance and apprenticeships. You will be expected to support Ofquals aims and objectives and act as ambassadors for the organisation. We are looking for independent thinkers who will offer challenge and guidance to Ofquals executive to support their decision making. We seek applicants who have significant experience and expertise to bring to Board discussions and are committed to driving forward the work of the organisation. You will have: the ability to think strategically and to contribute to strategic development in different organisational contexts; the ability to build effective relationships at senior levels and/or between organisations; and the ability to support and provide challenge to Ofquals executive on both strategy policy and organisational matters. Time: Up to 20 days per annum. Remuneration: 6,000 per annum. Closes: 14 March HM Treasury National Infrastructure Design Group The National Infrastructure Commission is recruiting for a National Infrastructure Design Group to advise on how best to embed design into the culture of infrastructure planning, to save money, reduce risk, add value, support environmental net gain and create a legacy that looks good and works well. We are seeking up to five Group members with relevant infrastructure and design expertise to contribute to the Group to ensure quality design in future infrastructure and to support the implementation of the recommendations on design made in the National Infrastructure Assessment. The Group will be chaired by Professor Sadie Morgan and will meet formally four times a year. Time: Four half-day meetings per annum. Remuneration: 500 per diem, plus reasonable expenses. Closes: 15 March Lancashire Local Enterprise Partnership Chair As our new Chair youll certainly be kept busy. Youll lead us through the next stage of our development. This will include working through and shaping a new future following the LEP review, introducing a Local Industrial Strategy, embedding new relationships, engaging across the County, harnessing all the strengths of a high calibre private sector led Board, bringing us a national profile and ensuring a relentless focus on delivery. Youll serve all of Lancashire and every sector, visible to our 52,000 businesses and 1.5m people. Youll see the big picture, understand what makes our economy tick and whats needed to accelerate growth. With deep private sector experience, youll be relentlessly commercial, but understand that real cross-sector partnerships create strong foundations for success. Time: Five days per month when aggregated. Remuneration: Some flexibility dependent on candidate-specific circumstances. Closes: 22 March Public Weather Service Customer Group Chair The Public Weather Service Customer Group (PWSCG) is an independent body which acts as the customer on behalf of the public and public sector users of the Public Weather Service (PWS). It provides independent advice to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to enable the formal agreement of the PWS Customer-Supplier Agreement (CSA) between Government and the Met Office. It is responsible for defining the outputs required from the Met Office and holding them to account for delivering to a satisfactory level. The funding for the PWS is currently around 120M per annum, of which 100M is paid by BEIS. The PWS provides a coherent range of weather information and weather-related warnings that enable the UK public and professional bodies to make informed decisions in their day-to-day activities, to optimise or mitigate against the impact of the weather, and to contribute to the protection of life, property and basic infrastructure. Time: 54 days per annum. Remuneration: Up to 20,000 per annum. Closes: 24 March Food Standards Agency Deputy Chair Ministers are looking to appoint a Deputy Chair and three Non-Executive Members to the Food Standards Agency (FSA). The statutory role of the FSA is to protect the health of the public and the interests of consumers in relation to food. As a Member of the FSA you will be responsible for ensuring the organisation discharges its statutory duties. You will also set and reinforce the FSAs core values through the development and monitoring of strategic objectives, plans and policies. In addition to the responsibilities of a Board member, the Deputy Chair will deputise as necessary for the Chair over the full range of their responsibilities and act as a conduit between the Board members and the Chair, facilitating effective communication of consensus and opinions. Time: 35 days per annum. Remuneration: 13,900 per annum. Closes: 25 March Homes England Board Member We are the Governments housing accelerator with a mandate to use our land, money, powers and influence to increase the pace, scale and quality of new homes being built in areas of the greatest demand, creating great places to live across the country. We have an ambitious growth programme in place. Over the next few years, we will invest more than 27bn to help meet the Governments ambition to deliver 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s. We also operate as a mortgage lender through the delivery of our Help to Buy product. We are working to build a different kind of public service. We must be bold, creative and think big to make a true difference to one of the most defining issues of our time. We now seek to appoint four commercial leaders to join our dynamic and ambitious Board at a critical time of our evolution. Time: ~24 hours per month. Remuneration: 25,000 per annum. Closes: 26 March Sport England Trustees We are keen to recruit new people to strengthen and broaden the skills of the Board to drive Sport England forward. As a member of the Board you will share responsibility for the overall direction, vision and strategy of Sport England. We are looking for candidates who can bring innovative ideas, enthusiasm for our values, and excellent judgment to help deliver our objectives. You will be prepared to assist our organisation in taking on any future challenges and play a key role in our success. The successful candidates will have held a position of responsibility in either the public, voluntary or private sectors and will have ability, at a senior level, in one or more of the following areas Time: At least seven meetings per annum. Remuneration: 218 per diem plus reasonable expenses. Closes: 10 April Department for Transport General Aviation Champion Ensuring the department is able to effectively take into account the specific needs of the GA sector by: collating and distilling for the Minister the views of the private and commercial General Aviation sectors (the GA sector) on the impacts of policies of relevance to them, indicating how much support various propositions have across the sector and where that support is located; undertaking visits and holding meetings with GA stakeholders wishing to make a case to the government for policy change or stability and to summarise for the Minister the features and findings of these events; assisting the GA sector in prioritising its concerns, setting them out in detail and with rigour and putting them into a wider context of government policy; [and] working with the GA sector to help it to present its position to a range of relevant government departments and to capitalise on interactions with and feedback offered by those departments. Time: Two days per month. Remuneration: 350 per diem. Closes: 19 April Nicky Morgan: Five questions for MPs this week. But whatever their answers, they should vote for the Withdrawal Agreement. Nicky Morgan is Chair of the Treasury Select Committee, a former Education Secretary, and MP for Loughborough. It feels as if this will be a momentous week for Parliament and for the Government and therefore for the whole of the UK. I still maintain that most people simply want us to get on with Brexit, and would much rather MPs and Ministers spend more time discussing the issues they really care about. At this early stage of the week, it seems we will have three key votes although if the draft Withdrawal Agreement is approved on Tuesday, then subsequent planned votes on No Deal (on Wednesday) and, if the Commons votes against No Deal, on extending Article 50 (on Thursday) wont be needed. And it would be better if we didnt have to have them which is one of the reasons I will support the Withdrawal Agreement. How should this weeks votes be approached? Id like to suggest that all Conservative MPs should ask ourselves the following five questions. 1. Does how I vote respect the result of the referendum? Apart from Ken Clarke, we all voted to trigger Article 50. Which presumably means that we all accepted, or at least were reconciled, to delivering the referendum result. So anything we do this week should get us a step closer to the UK leaving the EU not make that less likely to happen. The Withdrawal Agreement does just that. Extending Article 50 would not although a short technical extension to allow the necessary withdrawal legislation to be passed is understandable. 2. Does how I vote provide more certainty for businesses and individuals and stability for the country? A Withdrawal Agreement which leads to the UK exiting the EU in an orderly manner on 29th March is the best way to enhance the stability of the Government and the country. It would also stop talk of No Deal. And it would enable businesses and EU citizens living here, as well as many UK citizens in the EU, to know where they stand for the transition period. Stopping a No Deal Brexit on March 29th might well be welcomed by businesses, individuals and the markets. But such a decision would be temporary, because it is simply not possible to prevent No Deal in all circumstances. There are two sides to every negotiation, and ultimately they do not have to each a deal. Extending Article 50 by a short period of time might stop a disorderly Brexit in only a few days time, but a short three-month extension with no purpose would be next to useless. It would provide no more certainty to businesses and individuals. If the Government decides by Thursday that it wants an extension, it will have to say how long Ministers want to last, and what they will do with it. Would the Governments red lines be dramatically changed to pivot towards Common Market 2.0 (accepting in the course of so doing that such a plan would likely to split the Conservative Party)? Would it be used to prepare further for No Deal being in place at the end of the extension period? Would it perhaps be used to explore Malthouse Plan B, and to negotiate alternative arrangements to the backstop? If Ministers cant answer those questions, then I suspect that an extension is in doubt. And even if it is approved and requested, would it be agreed by the EU and, if so, what conditions would they impose? 3. Does how I vote help the Government or help those who dont support it? Any actions which make the Government look less stable and united are damaging in the short and long term. Ministers voting in different lobbies on No Deal or Article 50 extension will look terrible. We should try not to get to that stage which means approving the Withdrawal Agreement. And those in talks with Jeremy Corbyns Labour Party should be clear about its motivations. In no way does Labour want to help the Government. For the party, the socialist revolution is more likely to flourish amidst the chaos of a split Government. 4. Does my vote make a second referendum or a general election more likely? Ive previously set out for this site my firm view that a second referendum is a very bad idea, and risks undermining the belief that, if the British people vote, the result will be honoured. If the Withdrawal Agreement is not approved, and we enter No Deal and Article 50 extension votes with amendable motions, then we will undoubtedly enter the realm of amendments calling for indicative votes on options that will include a second referendum. I believe that most Conservative MPs want to try to move forward not re-live the last three years over again. In a similar vein I have yet to meet a Conservative MP, activist or supporter who wants an early election. 5. Is my vote more about what I think than about what is right for the country? Lee Rowley gave an excellent speech in the Brexit debate held on 27th February. As he said very powerfully Its not about you i.e: Brexit is not about our own personal views. MPs are representatives are we really hearing and representing the country at the moment, or have we convinced ourselves that our own views on Brexit matter more? Wheres the compromising and the leadership we should be showing by focusing on the bigger picture, not what is going on inside our heads and hearts? If delivering Brexit and maintaining a Conservative Government is your broader goal, then voting for the Withdrawal Agreement, however imperfect, is the only course of action that makes that more likely than less likely. Brexit doesnt begin or end this week. But we can bring the withdrawal phase to a close. And we can then get on with thinking about how to, and who should, negotiate the future relationship. The choice between responsible Government or chaos is in our hands. The country will not forgive the Conservatives if we opt for chaos. Whats at stake tomorrow is even bigger than Brexit. It is trust in politics. Which is why the deal as it stands must not pass. The meaningful vote on the Governments Brexit deal due tomorrow, promised by the Theresa May on February 26 and confirmed by Andrea Leadsom last Thursday, may not now take place at all. The Prime Minister could pull it, and substitute a motion which sets out a Brexit policy that the Commons will support. A problem with such an approach is that it has been tried recently, and nothing came of it. The Government whipped Conservative MPs in favour of the Brady amendment at the end of January. That amendment went hand in hand with the Malthouse compromise. MPs involved in drawing up the latter complain that May didnt take either seriously, and has pushed neither as hard at Brussels as her backing for Brady suggested she would. In her column for this site a fortnight ago, Nicky Morgan wrote that officials tried to make the tyres fall off [Malthouse], and couldnt do so. She was referring to the so-called alternative arrangements to the backstop, which include technological solutions to the Northern Ireland border question. One source close to the talks told ConservativeHome yesterday that these are now nailed down. If the EU still dismisses these as a unicorn, why is Barnier riding the same animal himself? But whether the Government does or doesnt pull the meaningful vote, it is worth thinking back to that Brady amendment. In whipping for it, the Prime Minister conceded that her deal, as it stands, requires radical change to the backstop. But as matters stand, no such alteration has been made. The deal that she is due to present to the Commons tomorrow is the same deal which the Commons rejected by a record margin in January, and against which Conservative MPs recorded a record rebellion. So as someone or other once put it, nothing has changed. The legal advice of Geoffrey Cox, whose own reading of the Withdrawal Agreement is at odds with Mays, is the same as it was that Britain, if it enters the backstop, will have no automatic right to leave it. This would have two main effects. First, England, Scotland and Wales would stay in the Customs Union informally, as it were: they would be members of a customs union. Second, Northern Ireland would remain in it formally, as a member of the Customs Union. This would set up an economic, political and constitutional conflict between one part of the United Kingdom and the other three between Euroscepticism and Unionism, if you like. England, Scotland and Wales would ultimately be able to leave their customs union and, under the terms of the Prime Ministers deal, would have left the Single Market. Northern Ireland would remain in both the Customs Union and the Single Market to all practical effect. So if the rest of the UK wanted to leave its customs union and diverge further from the EU regulation, it could but Northern Ireland could not The regulatory and customs barriers between the two might be minor, but the constitutional implications of this arrangement would be profound. Think for a moment of the consequences for our precious Union. Why should Northern Ireland stay in the Single Market, Nicola Sturgeon would say, but not Scotland? The SNP would have a chance of reviving its flagging campaign to break up the UK. The site is opposed to the Prime Ministers deal because of the backstop only. The former has pluses as well as minuses. In our view, May has won on money and migration taking back control of both and fought the EU to a standstill on laws. As we put it, the deal almost works. But the backstop is a threat to the unity of the country. The EUs last concession highlighted the problem. It offered to drop the customs union arrangement for the rest of the UK, but not Customs Union membership for Northern Ireland. Our sense is that most Conservative MPs who voted against the deal are in much the same place as we are. This morning, they will be asking why the Prime Minister is due to bring it back to the Commons when, by supporting the Brady amendment, she has indicated that the deal is unacceptable to the House as it stands. But many of them are thinking now not so much about principle as practice about consequences, rather than ideals. If they vote against the deal again, the argument runs, they will ultimately get no Brexit or Brexit in a softer form, at any rate. The Commons will vote for extension in the event of the deal going down tomorrow. If, during extension, the Government still cannot reach a deal with the EU, May will give it the opportunity to vote for a further extension, and will do so again. And again and again and again until there is a Second Referendum or Norway Plus now rebranded as Common Market 2.0. Mays chicken game has failed so far with the EU. It has made no significant concession on the backstop to date. But it could just succeed with her own MPs. They might conclude that Amber Rudd and company are more effective than, say, David Davis and company: that Leavers who disagree with Government policy honourably resign, while Remainers who do so unscrupulously dont and that the Prime Minister will always give way to the latter, as she did by announcing those potential No Deal and extension votes. None the less, taking No Deal off the table is not now inevitable however the Commons votes on Wednesday (if it votes at all). There is no guarantee that the EU will offer extension on terms that the Commons will necessarily accept. Neither the Conservatives nor Labour want to face a new protest party in Junes EU elections. And the local elections could be sticky for both parties. But the EU may well take the view that a short extension, designed to avoid an EU poll here, offers no prospect of a deal that the Commons would swallow. Nor is it the case that the Government would necessarily fall apart in the event of No Deal. Yes, it might not survive a deliberate policy decision to go for that outcome. But that isnt how No Deal would happen. Rather, that is now the default option, a repercussion of the EU Withdrawal Act carried by the votes of Rudd and friends, among others. They might well quit were the Prime Minister to announce that the Government is aiming for No Deal. But will they really give up their jobs, salaries and cars if Britain falls into it by accident? It could just be that May will dash to Brussels today, and that some meaningful backstop concession may emerge. But whether it does or not, the chicken game will continue with the Commons offered the dazzling prospect of higher spending and tax cuts by Philip Hammond later this week (though only if it votes for the deal). Tory MPs will be urged to ditch those dreamy ideals and focus on hard, real consequences. So for a few moments lets all do exactly that. Downing Street suggests that a consequence of the deal being passed as it stands is that the Government would then be able to move on to deal with childcare, housing, jobs, the NHS and other issues close to the heart of so many voters. But the effect of the deal going through would be the very opposite. For trade talks would wake issues from their uneasy sleep that voters thought had been put to bed: fishing, market access, bits of Chequers, migration numbers and, yes, the backstop. Brexit would roll on in its all-consuming way. So another consequence would be not a feelgood factor, but a feelbad one. This would underpin a story then spun by people far to the right of Nigel Farage: that the people voted for Brexit, and the politicians gave them two fingers. It might be unfair, at least in part, but it would carry. Amidst our post-crash, Trumpian, fake news age, this message would find many willing ears, not all of whom voted Leave in 2016 or voted at all. Are MPs really willing to take the chance that it wouldnt? Faced by a choice between two evils, the conventional response is to take the least bad. But there is another way to think about such decisions, both a radical and (we believe in this case) a Conservative one. It is to refuse to make such a forced choice at all. If pro-Remain MPs are prepared to defy the result of the biggest vote in the countrys history, let them take responsibility for it. If they are willing to smother the Brexit baby, pro-Leave ones should not be implicated in the act. To vary some words once said by Keith Joseph, Brexit is not enough. It must walk hand in and with trust. If tomorrows vote takes place, it wont primarily be about Theresa Mays future, much as some seem to think otherwise. At its core will be the issue of trust in politics. This will shrink further if the Commons passes a deal that the Government itself has indicated now needs a sweeping overhaul. Daniel M. Friedman & Associates of Long Island City, N.Y., is recalling about 177,000 universal rechargeable power banks sold in the U.S. and Canada. The power banks can overheat, posing a fire hazard. The firm has received three reports of the charger overheating including one report of a house fire causing up to $150,000 in property damage. No injuries reported received. This recall involves Universal Rechargeable Power Banks for use with smart phones and tablets. The recalled chargers came in a variety of colors and shapes, including a unicorn head, a cat with sunglasses, and a rainbow between two clouds. The power banks, manufactured in China, were sold at Burlington, Kohls, Ross and other stores nationwide from November 2016, through January 2019, for about $25. What to do Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled power banks and contact Daniel M. Friedman & Associates to arrange to return the product for a full refund. Consumers may contact Daniel M. Friedman toll-free at (855) 706-6500 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (ET) Monday through Friday, by e-mail at info@betseyjohnson.com or online at https://betseyjohnson.com and click on the Voluntary Recall button for more information. The Bundesnetzagentur, which is the German regulatory office in charge of telecommunications, published additional security requirements for telecommunications networks and services without banning Huawei or other Chinese vendors. The key elements of the new security policy are: Systems may only be sourced from trustworthy suppliers whose compliance with national security regulations and provisions for the secrecy of telecommunications and for data protection is assured. Network traffic must be regularly and constantly monitored for any abnormality and, if there is any cause for concern, appropriate protection measures must be taken. Security-related network and system components (critical key components) may only be used if they have have been certified by the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) and undergone IT security checks by a BSI-approved testing body. Critical key components may only be sourced from trustworthy suppliers/manufacturers, ie those that can provide assurance of their trustworthiness. Security-related network and system components (critical key components) may only be used following an appropriate acceptance test upon supply and must be subjected to regular and ongoing security tests. The components that are security-related (critical key components) will be defined by the BSI and Bundesnetzagentur by mutual agreement. Only trained professionals may be employed in security-related areas. Proof must be provided that the hardware tested for the selected, security-related components and the source code at the end of the supply chain are actually deployed in the products used. When planning and building the network, "monocultures" must be avoided by using network and system components from different manufacturers. Where system-related processes are outsourced, only professionally competent, reliable and trustworthy contractors may be selected. Adequate redundancy must be available for critical, security-related network and system components (critical key components). "We revise the security requirements on a regular basis in light of the current security situation and technological developments," explained Jochen Homann, Bundesnetzagentur President. "Security requirements apply to all network operators and service providers, irrespective of the technology they deploy. All networks, not just individual standards like 5G, are included."https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/EN/2019/20190307_SL.html?nn=404530 Russias Ground Forces and the Navys coastal brigades are practically fully equipped with the Ratnik combat gear, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a meeting of the State Duma Defense Committee. "Almost all Ground Forces units, as well as the Navys motorized rifle brigades and marine brigades - 35 units in total - have been provided with the Ratnik-2 modern combat gear," TASS cited the minister as saying. The serial deliveries of the second generation "soldier of the future" Ratnik gear to the Russian Armed Forces began in 2017. It includes modern small arms, efficient protection package, reconnaissance and communication means, and is designed to operate in various weather conditions on a 24-hour basis. Research is currently underway to create the third generation (Ratnik-3) combat gear, which will include a helmet with an integrated control system, a combat exoskeleton, anti-mine shoes and some other elements. 95% Website akku.net uses latest and advanced technologies. It is very popular on the web, it's within the 1 million most visited websites of the world at position 234592 by Alexa. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 46028 bytes (44.95 kb uncompressed) and 10495 bytes (10.25 kb compressed). This CoolSocial report was updated on 2020-08-27, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. 99% Website sushihouse.cl uses latest and advanced technologies. It supports HTTPS. The main html page has a size of 114 bytes (0.11 kb uncompressed). This CoolSocial report was updated on 2019-09-28, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. Russias force grouping in Crimea has been increased and ensures protection of the peninsulas territory, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told a meeting of the State Dumas Defense Committee. "The force grouping in Crimea has been reinforced, this ensures protection of the peninsulas territory and Russias interests in the Black Sea," the minister stressed. He added that Russias Armed Forces have received over 200 intercontinental ballistic missiles, both land-based and submarine-launched, since 2012. "As a result, in the past six years, the Armed Forces received 109 Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles and 108 submarine-launched ballistic missiles," TASS cited the minister as saying. Shoigu added out that in accordance with Russian President Vladimir Putins Decrees of May 2012, the Defense Ministry had developed a plan of activities to 2020. This year is expected to set another cruise traffic record for Victoria, the fifth in a row, according to Ian Robertson, CEO of the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority. He told Cruise Industry News that the port has booked 265 calls for 2019, up from 250 calls last year, and is forecasting just over 700,000 passengers, up from 640,000 last year. Looking back, Robertson said, the Norwegian Bliss was last years highlight for us. For the first time, we had a brand-new ship making her inaugural Alaska run and calling in Victoria. She generated a lot of excitement here for the public and for our shore excursion providers. We had been working more than a year preparing for her arrival, making modifications to one of the piers and investing almost a million dollars in new bollards. For this coming season, we will continue to see the trend of larger ships with the arrival of the Ovation of the Seas, and the Norwegian Joy, which will replace the Pearl, and sail alongside the Bliss. In other news, Cunard is returning to Victoria with the Queen Elizabeth, and Azamara will be calling for the very first time. With the continued growth, Robertson said: We are very mindful of how many visitors we have on any one day. We have several Saturdays with three ships at the same time, but the larger ships are only adding about another 1,000 passengers, so we are able to manage that not just from a port perspective but also the destination. As an example, he said that 4,800 passengers on the Bliss were cleared and on their way in 45 minutes. Looking ahead, Robertson said he sees continued growth in Alaska and has what he calls a fourth berth strategy. However, the fourth berth will not be at Ogden point, but somewhere else on the southern side of the island to disperse the passengers The long-term strategy also calls for becoming a homeport for a small cruise ship. Robertson would not commit to a timeline, but said the port authority was working with U.S. authorities to gain pre-clearance. Based on conversations we have had with cruise lines, they see viability in a small ship homeporting in Victoria, he added. The port authority has also been working to upgrade the fleet of buses that takes passengers downtown and on shore excursions. Instituting a minimum age requirement for buses in 2015, the average age has since dropped from 29 to 10 years. An electric bus trial, however, has not worked out as well as hoped, with two double-decker buses spending more time off the road than on. Citing new technology, Robertson said he was hopeful that the buses will be operational this season and is committed to having a 100 percent electric fleet of shuttle buses between the port and downtown by 2022. Robertson attributed the success of the port to all the stakeholders working together the port authority, stevedores, shipping agents, transportation companies, environmental waste management and the destination. Cruise lines want to see that there is collaboration and partnership across all providers in the port and the destination, he added. Who needs hackers when the government puts sensitive information about every person in the country online and invites the internet to look at it? That's what happened last year in Australia, and it sends a warning message of what not to do during the upcoming U.S. Census 2020. The Australian Bureau of Statistics published data from its last census online, but anonymized the data so poorly that it is vulnerable to a database reconstruction attack, researchers at Macquarie University in Sydney tell CSO. The database contains highly sensitive information about Australian residents, including address, age, ethnicity, salary, marital status, religious affiliation, number of children and so forth. The Australian census data is not published in bulk as one database, but allows researchers, journalists and businesses to query the database. A hostile nation-state adversary would have the time, patience and resources to query the entire database over the course of several months and reconstruct it, rendering null the ABS's anonymization algorithm, which adds noise to the database in an attempt protect citizens from identification, the researchers warn. Nor is simply unplugging the database from the internet a good option. The value of this data to journalists, academic researchers and enterprises in the energy, health and agricultural sectors makes it untenable to flick a switch and stop sharing. Finding the right balance in the privacy-utility tradeoff is a hard, unsolved problem, Macquarie University professor of computing, and scientific director of the Macquarie Cyber Security Hub, Dali Kaafar tells CSO. "In a perfect world we would offer 100 percent utility and 100 percent privacy, but that's not possible." The attack that the researchers developed proves mathematically that the algorithm the ABS is using is broken. Worse, the attack their research demonstrates allows more than just de-anonymizing a small percentage of individuals, but rather makes possible a database reconstruction attack the holy grail for an attacker that completely removes all privacy protections for the entire database, in this case of every person residing in Australia. "No ones privacy has ever been compromised through the use of the ABS TableBuilder tool," the ABS said in a statement posted on their website, but didn't clarify how they can be sure, given the mathematically provable attack Kaafar and Asghar demonstrated. "It's very difficult to deny the existence of this particular vulnerability," Kaafar says. "Just 200 well-crafted queries are enough to find any sort of attribute you are interested in with a high degree of accuracy. The attack is mathematically proven. There is a vulnerability in their algorithm." How a reconstruction attack works An attacker could easily automate 200 queries per individual times roughly 20 million residents in Australia and distribute those queries over time and geography by renting cloud servers around the world. An ABS spokesperson referred CSO to the public statement, writing "The ABS has no further comment at this time." "Our biggest concern," Kaafar says, "this is not just about the re-identification risk.... this attack is about reconstructing the entire census database." The attack works as follows. The ABS perturbs data before returning an answer to a user query. "It's a random perturbation within a fixed range," Hassan Jameel Asghar, assistant professor at Macquarie University, explains. "The reason to do that is to ensure if the count is too low, if the original count is only two or three, if only a couple people have those characteristics, that could be quite privacy intrusive." The problem arises because a user can query the census data hundreds or thousands of times, and by doing so remove the data perturbation and unmask Australian residents one by one. Kafaar and Asghar alerted the ABS to the flaw in mid-2018, but the agency has failed to adequately deploy new protections that defend against their attack, the researchers say, and instead appear to be relying on wagging a finger at users with their terms and conditions, including stern warnings that "As a TableBuilder guest user I will: not attempt to identify particular persons, households, or organisations to which the data relates [and] immediately report to the ABS any possible identification or disclosure that may have occurred." CSO The ABS terms and conditions asks people not to misuse the census data It's not clear how the terms and conditions will be enforced against hostile nation-state engaged in a database reconstruction attack, however. U.S. Census Bureau looks to prevent a reconstruction attack The failure of the Australian Bureau of Statistics to properly protect the privacy of Australian residents will be on the minds of the folks running U.S. Census 2020, who Kaafar tells CSO are working on deploying stronger protections in the form of differential privacy. "[The U.S. Census Bureau] are planning to adopt differential privacy and the main reason is that they have internally carried out... a database reconstruction attack and found it's possible to reconstruct the census data," says Kaafar. A group of hackers is using a previously undocumented backdoor program designed to interact with attackers over Slack. While abusing legitimate services for malware command-and-control purposes is not a new development, this is the first time researchers have seen Slack, a popular enterprise collaboration tool, being used in this way. The backdoor was detected by security firm Trend Micro in a targeted attack launched from the compromised website of an organization called the Korean American National Coordinating Council that posts articles related to North and South Korean politics. The technique of infecting websites that are of interest to a particular group of individuals or organizations is known as a "watering hole" attack. It's not clear if victims were directed to the website via an email campaign or if attackers just waited for regular visitors, but the site was modified to host an exploit for a remote code execution vulnerability in the Windows VBScript engine. That vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2018-8174 and can be exploited through Internet Explorer. However, the flaw was patched by Microsoft in May 2018, so having an up-to-date operating system would have prevented the attack. In cases where the exploit ran successfully, it triggered a multi-stage infection chain that first involved downloading and executing a malicious DLL file via PowerShell. This first payload scanned for the presence of certain antivirus programs before deciding whether to download and install a new backdoor program that Trend Micro has dubbed SLUB (for Slack and GitHub, which the attackers use as a repository). "Our investigation makes us believe with strong confidence that it was part of a possible targeted attack campaign," the Trend Micro researchers said in their report . "So far, we have not been able to find related attacks and have not spotted the custom backdoor elsewhere. We have been searching for similar samples and have found none so far, which is a strong indication that the attackers either developed the malware or got it from a private developer who has not publicly leaked it." The backdoor program was used to collect information about victims and their activity on Twitter, Skype, KakaoTalk and bulletin board systems (BBS), but its features also included the ability to list and terminate processes, execute commands and malicious files, take screenshots, list and exfiltrate files, read and add system registry keys and collect information about storage drives and volumes, including whether they are encrypted or not. The most interesting aspect of the malware remains its use of popular services to communicate with attackers. The backdoor connects to a GitHub repository to download commands and then connects to a Slack private workspace set up by the attackers to posts the output of those commands, along with the name of the computer the output was collected from. Finally, the malware uploads any stolen files to the file.io cloud storage service. Attackers use Slack and GitHub to avoid detection The reason why attackers used only legitimate services for command and control is likely because they wanted to evade network-level and even endpoint-level detection of potentially suspicious traffic. Of the abused services, Slack and GitHub are commonly used by companies and other types of organizations and are likely whitelisted in firewalls and Web security gateways. Furthermore, these services use HTTPS enabled by default, which means any data sent back to them is encrypted. In the absence of solutions that can decrypt traffic at the network level, organizations are blind to the contents of HTTPS communications, the Trend Micro researchers said via email. "That's the protocol doing its job. While this is good for protecting, say, banking transactions, in an enterprise setting it can pose issues." Slack has been notified and disabled the workspace set up by the attackers for violating the company's terms of service. However, this will probably not be the last attack where hackers decide to abuse Slack's service. The company provides APIs that can easily be used to integrate external applications with its service, and those applications can also include malware programs. Sicilian regional assessor at the Culture Ministry Sebastiano Tusa is among the victims of the Ethiopian Airlines crash. He was heading to Malindi, Kenya to participate in a UNESCO conference on safeguarding underwater cultural heritage in east Africa, which opens Monday, RAI state television said. Tusa also served as professor of paleontology at the Suor Orsola Benincasa University of Naples. The Boeing-737 airliner took off at 8:44 am local time yesterday, losing contact with air traffic control at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, just six minutes later. The plane was reportedly carrying 149 passengers and eight crew members from more than 35 different countries. Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, bowing to weeks of mass protests, abandoned his bid for a fifth term in upcoming elections, saying he was too old and infirm to press ahead with a run for office that threatened to tear the OPEC member apart.. The 82-year-old leader, who returned to Algiers on Sunday after receiving medical treatment in Geneva, said in a letter to the people that elections scheduled for April 18 would be postponed and he would replace the government as soon as possible. He also promised that new constitution would be drafted before year end. "There won't be a fifth mandate," Bouteflika's letter, carried by the official APS news agency, read. "My state of health and age do not allow me as an ultimate duty to the Algerian people to contribute to the foundation of the new republic." It was not immediately clear if his move would be enough to placate protesters, whose demands that Bouteflika bow out of the electoral race have snowballed in recent days to broader demands for political and economic change in the North African nation. Shortly after Bouteflika's statement, his prime minister, Ahmed Ouyahia resigned to make way for a new transitional government. Bouteflika also sio signed a decree creating the new post of deputy prime minister. Bouteflika did not set a date for the new election, but vowed they would be held on a date to be set by an independent commission. The ailing leader's decision to run for a fifth term had triggered seismic protests in Algeria, presenting him and the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) party with their most serious challenge since his election in 1999. His initial promises to amend the constitution and serve an abridged term if re-elected had failed to satisfy protesters frustrated with "le pouvoir", a cabal of military officers, veterans of Algeria's war of independence and big businessmen who have governed the oil and gas producer for decades. Bouteflika has been largely incapacitated and rarely seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013. Swiss media reported in recent days, shortly before his return to Algiers, that his health was deteriorating. While Algeria largely avoided the turmoil that shook its neighbors during the Arab Spring uprisings, its citizens have struggled with rising prices, frustration over alleged corruption and deteriorating living standards since oil prices tumbled from over $100 a barrel in 2014, the last time Bouteflika ran for office. The downturn in global oil markets has since sapped half the country's foreign reserves and sharply crimped the government's ability to sustain a generous subsidy system that had helped to placate a youthful population crying out for jobs. 3 1 of 3 Norwalk Police Dept. Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Norwalk Police Dept. Show More Show Less 3 of 3 NORWALK Two men wanted on child rape charges in Washington state were arrested at their Bridgeport home Friday afternoon. In February, Detective Tim Marquis, of Norwalks Special Victims Unit, learned that two Bridgeport men Alejandro Ocampo-Martinez, 40, and Eduardo Salgado-Martinez, 38 were wanted by the Benton County Sheriffs Department for first-degree rape of a child. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump and his advisers are launching a behemoth 2020 campaign operation combining his raw populist message from 2016 with a massive data-gathering and get-out-the-vote push aimed at dwarfing any previous presidential re-election effort, according to campaign advisers, White House aides, Republican officials and others briefed on the emerging strategy. Trump's advisers also believe the Democratic Party's recent shift to the left on a host of issues, from the push for "Medicare-for-all" to a proposed Green New Deal, will help the president and other Republicans focus on a Trumpian message of strong economic growth, nationalist border restrictions and "America first" trade policies. Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan will become, in signs and rally chants, "Keep America Great!" The president's strategy, however, relies on a risky and relatively narrow path for victory, hinged on demonizing Trump's eventual opponent and juicing turnout among his most avid supporters in Florida, Pennsylvania and the upper Midwest - the same areas that won him the White House but where his popularity has waned since he was elected. Some advisers are particularly concerned about the president's persistent unpopularity among female and suburban voters, and they fear it will be difficult to replicate the outcome of 2016 without former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as a foil. Campaign officials have also begun preparing for attacks on any politically damaging findings by special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. But even as the Mueller probe, congressional investigations and threats of impeachment swirl around him, Trump is starting his re-election bid with the full support of the Republican National Committee, a far more sophisticated data machine than his first election had and a party that has molded itself in his image while looking past his combative and incendiary style. The re-election effort has already raised more than $100 million, with millions of small-dollar donors and wealthy supporters poised to add to that record haul. Officials said the operation is targeting 23 million key voters in swing states such as Florida, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. The campaign also plans to enlist more than 1 million volunteers using a vast database of supporters who have attended Trump's raucous political rallies over the past two years, officials said. The president will kick off a heavy rotation of such rallies in battleground states in coming weeks, officials said. The campaign, with headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, has already announced a national press team and, one official said, plans to create a unit for the sole purpose of waging war against the news media. "We are creating the largest campaign operation in American history, an unstoppable apparatus that will follow and implement President Trump's strategy to great effect," campaign manager Brad Parscale said. "On every metric, we are on track to outpace our 2016 numbers by many multiples." But Democrats - fresh off a wave midterm election that brought them control of the House - say Trump is a severely weakened incumbent with a tired anti-immigrant message who has alienated the female and suburban voters who will decide the election. They see his 2016 electoral college victory as a fluke and his approval numbers, consistently stuck in the low 40s, as an opportunity. More than a dozen Democratic candidates are already competing for a chance to make him a one-term president. "Trump is weak," said Karine Jean-Pierre, a Democratic strategist and senior adviser at MoveOn. "And he's doubling down on his shrinking base. Independents have left him, women have left him. . . . I don't think you would see this many people jumping in if they didn't think Trump could be beat." Capping a week in which Trump's former campaign manager was sentenced to prison on tax fraud and other crimes, the president traveled Friday to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for a weekend retreat with hundreds of Republican donors. Standing in a tent perched atop the resort's pool on Friday night, the president lashed out at Democrats, trumpeted his accomplishments and riffed for more than an hour to more than 300 in attendance - and none of his domestic woes came up, attendees said. The retreat was slated to bring in $7 million for the president's joint re-election effort with the RNC, one official said. Trump recently received an extensive slide-show briefing on the campaign effort in the White House residence and has taken intense interest in the details of the battle to come, adviser say. He regularly quizzes advisers about potential foes - such as Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and former Vice President Joe Biden - and about individual battleground states, such as Pennsylvania and Florida. He also has asked aides about the perceived popularity of his positions, such as his vow to remove troops from Syria, and he is an avid consumer of polling data, advisers say. Trump has sought to build a 2020 messaging campaign around the idea of "promises kept" - replacing his 2016 "Make America Great Again" slogan with "Keep America Great!" and telling his supporters to chant "Finish the wall" instead of "Build the wall," even though no section of his promised border wall has actually been built. The campaign and Republican allies have pointed to recent Democratic proposals for expanding Medicare and investing in green energy projects as a chance to frame the 2020 race as a referendum on what they view as socialist policies. Many Republicans believe painting Trump's opponents as extremists provides the clearest path to his re-election. "If there's a headwind pushing, it's probably pushing the Democrat Party further to the radical left, rather than pushing the president into a one-term (presidency)," said Bryan Lanza, an adviser to Trump's 2016 campaign and transition. "Nothing's really changed for us. It's still going to be the same binary choice between a Republican set of principles as opposed to a socialist Democratic set of principles. And we'll gladly take than choice." A 10-person group at the RNC has been working to document Democrats' positions on the Green New Deal, Medicare-for-all, abortion and U.S.-Israel relations, according to two Republican Party officials. Trackers from the conservative super PAC America Rising are camped out in the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, helping to create opposition research material for each of the Democratic contenders, said Sarah Dolan, America Rising's executive director. "We're going to be hitting these candidates from the left and the right," she said. "We want to create as much chaos as possible." Dan Eberhart, a prominent GOP donor, said "the more divided and extreme the Democratic field is, the better for Trump. Right now they are trying to outdo each other with populist ideas from the far left. But Trump needs to resist the urge to stick his fingers in the Democratic primary waters by commenting daily." Harris has received a lot of attention from many Republicans, and Trump's advisers say he is watching her campaign closely. "Is there any (Democrat) I'm scared of? The answer is no," said Brian Walsh, who runs the pro-Trump super PAC America First Action. "Because all of them are going to have to go through what I call the liberal gauntlet." Not every Republican is so confident. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican moderate who is considering a primary race against Trump, told CBS News last month that Trump looks "pretty weak in the general election." The RNC took the unusual step of voting unanimously to pledge its "undivided support" of Trump during its winter meeting in January, and party officials have been pointing to the president's high poll numbers among Republican voters to scare off primary challengers. Campaign officials are calling state party leaders across the country to ensure that the 2020 convention is an unimpeded nomination of Trump - and are seeking to install allies into delegate and leadership roles. Campaign advisers say they have taken note of incumbent presidents who lost because they did not have the party machine fully behind them. Hogan and other potential candidates are watching to see whether Trump will maintain that support after Mueller wraps up his investigation into links between the Trump campaign and Russia's election interference effort. The investigation has led to convictions and guilty pleas from several of the president's 2016 aides, including former campaign leader Paul Manafort. Amy Walter, national editor of the Cook Political Report, said Trump will probably need to expand his support beyond his base and win back moderates and independent voters who sided with Democrats during last year's midterms, said Amy Walter, national editor of the Cook Political Report. Focusing on divisive issues like immigration and his proposed border wall won't help with that, she said, noting that Trump's approval ratings have remained below 50 percent throughout his presidency. During the midterms, Trump frequently did not follow the encouragement of many Republicans to focus on the growing economy, instead injecting polarizing issues such as birthright citizenship into the debate. "Why is he spending time leaning into an issue that has a 60 percent disapproval rate?" Walter said. "It's a real lack of discipline." Campaign officials said they follow Trump's lead on messaging. Several GOP officials pointed to Trump's boisterous and overflowing campaign rally last month in El Paso, Texas, as evidence of his political strength heading into 2020. Of several thousand people who registered for the rally, about half were registered Democrats, 70 percent were Hispanic and 25 percent didn't vote in 2016, Parscale said. The campaign has made Trump's rallies a centerpiece of its data effort, aiming to turn rallygoers into volunteers, donors and recruiters for the president's cause. Political operatives from both parties have said the map of battleground states has contracted since 2016, with Ohio seen as more comfortably Republican and Nevada likely to go to Democrats. Running the table in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania - states where Democrats rebounded last year after losing to Trump in 2016 - will be a top priority for the president, Lanza said. Trump and his allies are also focusing on Florida, where they see an opportunity to cut into Democrats' lead with Hispanic voters. Trump spoke to a mostly Hispanic crowd when he visited Miami last month to call for Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro to resign. Trump's campaign began running Spanish-language ads on Facebook last week, primarily targeting Florida voters, that amplified his message about Maduro and socialism. - - - Dawsey reported from Palm Beach, Fla. Two Sberbank employees were among the 157 people killed in an Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday, Sberbank confirmed. "Yekaterina and Alexander Polyakovy went on vacation to Africa, which was so tragically cut short," RIA Novosti cited the banks press service as saying. The couple hailed from the southern city of Taganrog, according to the citys administration. The Boeing 737 en route from Ethiopias capital of Addis Ababa to Kenyas Nairobi crashed on Sunday morning near Debre Zeit in central Ethiopia. The plane lost contact six minutes after takeoff, the airline said. There were 149 passengers and 8 crewmembers on board the plane. There are no survivors in the crash. The planed carried people from over 30 countries. Three Russian nationals were killed in the crash; they were identified by the Russian Embassy in Addis Ababa. Brian A. Pounds / Hearst Connecticut Media Fifteen months ago, when I left office as first selectman, I left a hand-written note to my successor wishing her well and letting her know that her success would be Trumbulls success. For the last 15 months I have refrained from offering my opinions because as someone who has held the office, I know there is an overabundance of critics. That silence ended when I read the first selectmans proposed budget and her transmittal letter to the Board of Finance. From its inception, this budget is intellectually dishonest and assumes that the people of Trumbull are gullible in an election year. This budget increases the employee headcount, compromises our schools and raises taxes. It places the interests of a few over the many. To deflect responsibility for her actions and her decisions, Mrs. Tesoro consistently refers to the previous administration. I would like to know who exactly Mrs. Tesoro is referring to, as she has retained a finance director, public works director, labor relations director, economic development director and chief of police that i hired. Each time Mrs. Tesoro has run for office, she has portrayed herself as a champion of education. During my eight years in office, Mrs. Tesoro and her supporters consistently labeled me anti-education. They accused me of decimating the schools at the same time we made full day kindergarten a reality, increased advanced placement courses at the high school and invested in classroom technology more aggressively than any administration that had come before us. In this budget, Mrs. Tesoros $2.3 million cut doesnt even fully fund existing contractual obligations or fixed costs. If I had done that, the PTA Council and Trumbull Education Association would have organized protests outside of my office. This budget is going to result in cuts to programs and staffing. This budget will negatively impact kids. The fact that the PTA and the TEA have remained silent tells you all you need to know about the motives and intentions of both organizations. Members of the World Food Programme had lost their lives after an Ethiopian Airlines jet crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) David Beasley said. "We will do all that is humanly possible to help the families at this painful time. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers," he wrote on his Twitter page. The Boeing airliner bound for the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, took off at 8:44 am local time, losing contact with air traffic control at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, just six minutes later, according to news reports. The plane was reportedly carrying 149 passengers and eight crew members from more than 35 different countries. Three Russian nationals were also among the passengers. Many financial institutions spend too much time and money juggling numerous vendors to keep their equipment, including ATMs, up and running. (Just ask Bank of America, which pays $1 billion a year just to shuffle cash around in armored trucks!) While it may seem like thats just the way the business goes, the truth is there are better ways for community banks and credit unions to manage their branch equipment so they can maximize savings and focus their time on more important things. When it comes to ATM and other branch equipment management and maintenance, you need to know four important things: 1. You have options. There are many trustworthy companies out there whose sole purpose is to help financial institutions like yours stay on top of equipment maintenance with minimal involvement of your staff. And whether you need full management and maintenance of all your branch equipment or you just want to focus on consolidating your ATM vendors, a perfect match awaits. We have millions of stories to tell. Every credit union member all 115 million in the United States has a unique perspective on how they benefit from their credit union. Then there are the 5,500 credit unions themselves that each have different narratives to share. The challenge is how we link our stories together to best illustrate the credit union difference to the stakeholders that impact us the most. At the Credit Union National Association (CUNA), we get to tell the credit union story. We share how our industry is different than other financial services peers. Sharing our difference is the best way for us to reshape regulations, push for legislation and secure big wins for our industry. Everyone in the movement, from CUNA and Leagues to credit unions, volunteers and members can be an advocate. In fact, its important that all these voices are heard when we tell our story. Thats what the CUNA/League 360-degree advocacy approach aims to achieve. Our 360-degree advocacy approach is a targeted effort that secured big wins for us last year. We pushed Congress to pass the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (S.2155) a critical piece of bipartisan legislation to our industry. We also succeeded in gaining support for fewer CFPB rulemakings; better transparency and modernizations at NCUA; delayed implementation of the current expected credit losses standard; removing a harmful provision from the National Defense Authorization Act; standing with credit unions facing frivolous lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act; and securing funding for several important community funds. CUNA and Leagues didnt achieve these wins on our own we fought along with so many credit union advocates to advance our priorities. This year, we again have a lot on our advocacy agenda as we anticipate and respond to all the challenges the credit union movement faces. Well continue to press the CFPB and others to reduce the regulatory burden on credit unions; defend NCUAs field-of-membership rules in court; support credit unions facing litigation; urge congress to modernize data breach requirements; and, as always, staunchly defend the credit union tax status. To achieve these goals, well need to activate all our credit union advocates. How do you become an advocate? Its simple. Bring your voice forward and tell your story. Join CUNAs Member Activation Program (MAP), where youll be a part of ongoing communications and calls to action. This year, MAP is focusing on promoting the credit union difference and a host of other credit union issues. But MAP is not the only way you can become more involved in advocacy. Getting involved is as easy as responding to action alerts on the Grassroots Action Center, participating in CUNA and League advocacy trainings, build relationships with local credit union-friendly political candidates, give to the Credit Union Legislative Action Council (CULAC) or join the Credit Union Political Action Council (CUPAC). Its not about doing everything, its about finding what issues spark your interest and passion. Your voice is powerful when you bring your experience and enthusiasm together to tell your story. CUNA and Leagues are here to help tell your story. The more people we engage with the better off well all be in the credit union movement. Our cooperative credit union principles mean better rates and more opportunity for financial growth. Our members understand our difference. Its why weve grown in membership to a record-breaking 115 million Americans. We stand for access and equity and fight every day for a better financial future. We need more voices to tell our story our lawmakers and regulators can dismiss the few, but they cant ignore the power of our movement. STORY LINK Pound New Zealand Dollar (GBP/NZD) Exchange Rate Steadies as May Gives the Go Ahead for Tomorrow?s Vote GBP/NZD Exchange Rate Rangebound as May Heads to Strasbourg NZD/GBP Exchange Rate Flat as Chinese Exports Surge GBP/NZD Forecast: Sterling Could Rise if Mays Deal Gains Backing Like this piece? Please share with your friends and colleagues: The Pound New Zealand (GBP/NZD) exchange rate steadied today and is currently trading around NZ$1.9076 on the inter-bank market.Sterling (GBP) held steady against the New Zealand Dollar (NZD) today following Prime Minister Theresa Mays announcement that the meaningful vote will go ahead tomorrow.The Pound has benefited from reports that May is likely to return to Strasbourg today to engage in discussions with the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker. This has buoyed hopes that the UK-EU political deadlock over the Irish backstop may break before tomorrows decisive vote.Meanwhile, Boris Johnson, the former Cabinet Minister, said that there is simply no way that he would vote for the Irish backstop in its present form.Johnson further condemned Theresa Mays deal, saying:The UK will have less sovereign power to withdraw from the backstop than it has to leave the EU itself. It is quite a bewildering state of affairs.The New Zealand Dollar is rangebound against Sterling today following the publication of New Zealands electronic card retail sales figures for February last night, which beat forecasts by rising to 0.9%.Sue Chapman, a Retail Statistics Manager at Stats NZ, commented:The rise in card spending was driven by people spending more on groceries and liquor The rise in fuel spending coincided with a gradual increase in fuel prices, after a period of lower fuel prices.Yesterday, however, saw the publication of the Chinese new loans figures for February, which fell below consensus to 885.8bn.Today saw the publication of the Chinese vehicle sales figures for February which fell to -13.8%.The New Zealand economy is closely tied to its largest trading partner, China, and with the continuing slowing down of the Chinese economy this is leaving some Kiwi traders feeling nervous.NZD, however, has benefited from the advance release of Chinese trade data which has showed a surge of 39.9% in Chinese exports.Allan von Mehren, a China economist at Danske Bank, commented:Positive news on exports could help shore up confidence a bit and thus stabilise the economy and help drive a moderate recovery I do think [the advance March data announcement] may be because of the overall concern over the economy and negative sentiment that is pervasive among households and companies.Kiwi traders will be awaiting the release of the Chinese FDI Foreign Direct Investment figures for February tomorrow, and with any improvement this could see the NZD/GBP exchange rate rise.GBP investors, meanwhile, will be awaiting the publication of the UK manufacturing production figures for January tomorrow, which are expected to improve.These will be followed by the release of the UKs GDP figures for January, which are too expected to increase, likely benefiting the Pound.The GBP/NZD exchange rate will however be dictated by the outcome of tomorrows meaningful vote. Any signs of improvement to the UK and EU situation regarding the Irish backstop would benefit the Pound, as Mays deal would gain more backing as a result. International Money Transfer? Ask our resident FX expert a money transfer question or try John's new, free, no-obligation personal service! ,where he helps every step of the way, ensuring you get the best exchange rates on your currency requirements. TAGS: Currency Predictions Daily Currency Updates New Zealand Dollar Forecasts Pound New Zealand Dollar Forecasts Fake News Prompts International Concern The 2020 US presidential election campaign has started now that a number of Democrats say theyre looking for their partys presidential nomination. Disappointingly, already theres evidence of disinformation campaigns on social media. Thats according to the site Politico.com, which asked a tech company to do an analysis of recent Twitter messages about candidates. One of the false messages alleges that a blackface doll appeared on a kitchen cabinet in the background of a senators New Years Eve Instagram livestream. Some of the negative messages appear to be from automated accounts. No one knows yet whos behind them. Governments are becoming increasingly worried about the effect on democracy of disinformation, which is why politicians from nine countries, including Canada, France and the UK, have formed what they call an international grand committee into the problem. On Wednesday 20th February they invited the heads of 10 tech companies, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Apple CEO Tim Cook to Ottawa on May 28 for a meeting. How many will show up is a question. Some may send lower executives, fearing the hearing may turn into an inquisition. When the committee held its first hearing in November in London, Zuckerberg sent a senior vice-president instead. Users of the Windows file compression utility WinRAR are being warned to update to the latest version because of a serious bug. It could allow a hacker to take control of your computer. WinRAR helps shrink huge files for things like archiving or uploading. However, security company Check Point Software has discovered a flaw dates back to 2005 and has been in the software ever since. According to WinRARs website, 500,000 people around the world use the software. Updating to the latest version will ensure the bug cant be exploited. Speaking of updates, those of you who run either the Drupal or WordPress content management systems should think seriously of updating your websites. The latest versions patch critical flaws. Finally, heres some misinformation going around Facebook: When you go to a gas station use the Bluetooth detector on your smart phone to detect if the pump has a phony Bluetooth wireless credit card skimmer for stealing your card data. If it detects a device with a bunch of random numbers and letters, it must be phony. Not true, says security vendor Sophos. First, a device named with a bunch of numbers and letters isnt necessarily crooked. It could be the video game being used by a kid in the next car. Second, criminals are unlikely to use a Bluetooth transmitter because of its short range. Youre wasting your time trying to detect criminality with Bluetooth. Its better to just look at the card reader, in any business, and see if it looks like its been tampered with. If youre really worried, pay with cash. IT World Canada: You Might Also Read: Zuckerberg Has Failed: Seven Springs to be sold Sevens Springs officials have announced that Somerset County's three ski resorts will be sold this winter. Rogers' Rules of Ranging (1757) Major Robert Rogers was one of America's great military commanders. Fighting in the French and Indian War with his celebrated "Rogers' Rangers," he revolutioned warfare with his use of green uniforms (a forerunner to today's camouflaged clothing), adapted Indian tactics and "Rules of Ranging." His St. Francis Raid is recounted in the first half of Kenneth Roberts' book Northwest Passage. The value of these rules was proven by Rogers and later by Lt. Colonel William Darby when he issued these rules verbatim to the First United States Ranger Battalion in World War II. The Rangers still use these rules today. 1. All Rangers are subject to the rules of war. 2. In a small group, march in single file with enough space between so that one shot can't pass through one man and kill a second. 3. Marching over soft ground should be done abreast, making tracking difficult. At night, keep half your force awake while half sleeps. 4. Before reaching your destination, send one or two men forward to scout the area and avoid traps. 5. If prisoners are taken, keep them separate and question them individually. 6. Marching in groups of three or four hundred should be done in three separate columns, within support distance, with a point and rear guard. 7. When attacked, fall or squat down to receive fire and rise to deliver. Keep your flanks as strong as the enemy's flanking force, and if retreat is necessary, maintain the retreat fire drill. 8. When chasing an enemy, keep your flanks strong, and prevent them from gaining high ground where they could turn and fight. 9. When retreating, the rank facing the enemy must fire and retreat through the second rank, thus causing the enemy to advance into constant fire. 10. If the enemy is far superior, the whole squad must disperse and meet again at a designated location. This scatters the pursuit and allows for organized resistance. 11. If attacked from the rear, the ranks reverse order, so the rear rank now becomes the front. If attacked from the flank, the opposite flank now serves as the rear rank. 12. If a rally is used after a retreat, make it on the high ground to slow the enemy advance. 13. When laying in ambuscade, wait for the enemy to get close enough that your fire will be doubly frightening, and after firing, the enemy can be rushed with hatchets. 14. At a campsite, the sentries should be posted at a distance to protect the camp without revealing its location. Each sentry will consist of 6 men with two constantly awake at a time. 15. The entire detachment should be awake before dawn each morning as this is the usual time of enemy attack. 16. Upon discovering a superior enemy in the morning, you should wait until dark to attack, thus hiding your lack of numbers and using the night to aid your retreat. 17. Before leaving a camp, send out small parties to see if you have been observed during the night. 18. When stopping for water, place proper guards around the spot making sure the pathway you used is covered to avoid surprise from a following party. 19. Avoid using regular river fords as these are often watched by the enemy. 20. Avoid passing lakes too close to the edge, as the enemy could trap you against the water's edge. 21. If an enemy is following your rear, circle back and attack him along the same path. 22. When returning from a scout, use a different path as the enemy may have seen you leave and will wait for your return to attack when you're tired. 23. When following an enemy force, try not to use their path, but rather plan to cut them off and ambush them at a narrow place or when they least expect it. 24. When traveling by water, leave at night to avoid detection. 25. In rowing in a chain of boats, the one in front should keep contact with the one directly astern of it. This way they can help each other and the boats will not become lost in the night. 26. One man in each boat will be assigned to watch the shore for fires or movement. 27. If you are preparing an ambuscade near a river or lake, leave a force on the opposite side of the water so the enemy's flight will lead them into your detachment. 28. When locating an enemy party of undetermined strength, send out a small scouting party to watch them. It may take all day to decide on your attack or withdrawal, so signs and countersigns should be established to determine your friends in the dark. 29. If you are attacked in rough or flat ground, it is best to scatter as if in rout. At a pre-picked place you can turn, allowing the enemy to close. Fire closely, then counterattack with hatchets. Flankers could then attack the enemy and rout him in return. The 24-hour forex market: Main talking points The Forex Market trades 24 hours a day, five days a week. The greatest amount of volatility happens during market open overlap. Forex traders can enter and exit trades at any time during the global business day. The 24-hour forex market is the largest market in the world and stays open five days a week 24 hours a day. It is divided in to three trading sessions: Asia, London/Europe and New York, which allows forex traders to have their pick of trading times according to their schedules. Why does the FX market trade 24 hours a day? The forex market is able to stay open 24 hours a day five days a week because forex trades over the counter (OTC). It does not trade at one central location. Forex trading is carried out using electronic communication networks (ECNs) in different locations around the world, mostly by big banks, and for a variety of different players. Whereas stock trading occurs on physical exchanges, meaning that traders have to adhere to the operating hours of the exchange, forex trading happens over the counter (OTC). When one regions business hours end, another opens which allows forex to trade continuously until the weekend. Although the forex market is open 24 hours a day five days a week, it is not always liquid. There are specific times during the day when the volume traded on the forex market is high. Traders usually take part in the forex market during these times of high liquidity. What does 24-Hour Forex trading involve? The majority of forex trading is done by financial institutions and dealers. Only an extremely small portion is done by retail traders. Traders will look to trade the forex market during the times of highest liquidity, like the New York session, London session, and Asian session because spreads will be lower and volatility could be higher. Source: Bank of International Settlements (BIS) Triennial Report from 2016, prepared by Warren Venketas Traders generally trade during the major forex sessions: the London session, the New York session and during the overlap. The overlap is a four-hour period of time from 8AM ET to 12PM ET when the New York session and the London session overlap leading to increased liquidity and volatility in the market. Traders do not need to be active 24 hours a day to take advantage of the forex market. They only need to pick a time that suits them when the market is liquid enough, and stick to a trading strategy. A common strategy amongst traders during the New York and London session is a breakout strategy that allows them to take advantage of the increased volatility during the session. 1. Holidays Because the forex market is divided into sessions they have different holidays. If America has a banking holiday then the amount of US Dollars traded will be small, but the forex market doesnt stop. Plus, some brokers are not available on public holidays. 2. Liquidity Trading during the main forex market sessions, like the New York and London session, offers the advantage of a reduced spread and increased volatility. 3. Employ different strategies for different sessions Each forex market session has different characteristics and therefore a trading strategy should be adapted to suit these different conditions. During the London and New York session traders can use breakout strategies and during lower volatility sessions like the Asian session, traders can use range bound strategies. 4. Trading major currency pairs: The major currency pairs like EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY, and USD/CHF trade in high volumes which means reduced spreads and lower costs for traders. 5. Learn the basics of forex trading We offer a free beginner guides outlining the fundamentals of forex trading, and how traders can take advantage of the 24-hour market. We also have in-depth research on the number one biggest mistake traders make, which offers useful tips for executing successful trades. Dont forget to stay up to date with our news and analysis on the latest currency price movements, and sign up to one of our free trading webinars for live updates. Two semis wrecked at Illinois entrance of I-24 bridge DOWNINGTOWN Some achievements are truly a victory. Bill Covaleski and Ron Barchet, who have been best friends since they met in fifth grade, opened Victory Brewing Company in Downingtown in Feb. 1996, about 15 years after they left for college. Covaleski majored in fine arts at Temple University and he used his graphic arts background to sketch the plans for the bar and restaurant. Victory is a manufacturing and distribution operation that sells its products in 35 states and six other countries. Additionally, there is a hospitality aspect of the business that involves seating for up to 900 people in its three taprooms. Downingtown is the source of all of this, Covaleski told Downingtown West High School students during the Career Cafe. They opened additional locations in Parkesburg and Kennett Square after overcoming setbacks in becoming entrepreneurs. After writing out their business plan in January 1994, they began asking friends and family members to buy shares of the company to help start their investment with financial assistance from those shareholders as well as a small business bank loan. The first setback they experienced that summer had required a name change in their proposed business. They originally called it Independence Brewing because that fit the identity of their business plan that they discovered together when they studied abroad. We saw this almost as a second American Revolution. It was almost like breaking away from the colonies and expressing something new here in America with something borrowed from Europe, said Covaleski, explaining that they learned about the brewing industry and they planned to bring back all these good ideas and make it happen here. So we felt very independent, we thought that was a strong name for our company. He explained they received a letter from Independence Brewing Company attorneys requesting a cease and desist use of the name, which was apparently an established business. Covaleski explained it was before the creation of the internet and they did not know about that competition. The fact that we had lost our identity when it fell through, it was a very dark moment, said Covaleski. One of us made the comment that it would be a victory if we actually got this thing together. Our dream was essentially dying. The value of the name Victory did not resonate with them until a short time later when he heard a quote from late President Theodore Roosevelt who said in part about a person who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. While they both already had steady jobs, they felt like they were too young to give up on their idea and live with regret. They changed the business name to Victory with the vision that they were going to succeed. Its also an interesting challenge to give yourself a name that is that forward looking, said Covaleski, who encouraged the students to look at challenges and obligations as opportunities. Their business vision remained the same with the idea to make import quality products fresh for a local audience to enjoy in a safe environment. They began with a team of 35 employees and now have 415 employees. Covaleski wore many hats when building the business and he realized that he had to train others to learn certain job responsibilities to sustain the company and allow it to grow. He said while it can be difficult at times to operate at multiple locations, he believes that having employees that are the heart and glue of the operation are what makes a business function successfully. Conceived in a warzone, born in a refugee camp, dead of pneumonia before he was three weeks old. Jerah Riedijks life was brutish and short, another war baby whose existence was over before it really began. His mother, Shamima Begum, had feared her third child like her first two would perish. This is really not a place to raise children, this camp, she said in the days before his death. And whose fault might that have been? This is now the issue. Following the decision of Home Secretary Sajid Javid to strip Miss Begum of her British citizenship, and thus leave her potentially stranded in the al-Hawl camp in northern Syria, it has been sickening to see those playing the blame game and trying to make political capital out of this tragedy. Shamima Begum, 19, seen here on ITV news revealing the face of the baby to the cameras for the first time It was never reasonable to expect Britain to rush to mother and babys rescue in a dangerous situation with no consular access, even if she had been returned here to face due process, were it possible. Yet even hardliners who wish that Begum and others are cast to their fate without help from the UK must have wobbled when they heard of the demise of her helpless newborn. The death of an innocent baby changes everything, yet the impulse to use this tragedy as part of a propaganda war is unedifying. Labours Diane Abbott has claimed Jerahs death is a stain on the conscience of Mr Javid and this country, while Conservative MP Phillip Lee said that he was deeply concerned by Mr Javids decision, which was driven by a sort of populism. If Dr Lee means that most ordinary Britons dont want to see Miss Begum back in this country anytime soon, then I think he is correct. Others have also mentioned the populism of the Home Secretarys decision, and it feels like a sneer to those of us who support him; a supercilious insult direct from the moral high ground, by those coddled in the glow of their ethically-sourced liberal opinions. We wouldnt even be having this conversation if Shamima Begum were male. British Jihadi wife Shamima Begum pictured with her week old son Jerah in Al Hawl camp for captured ISIS wives in children in Kurdish Syria Any man who had shrugged at seeing decapitated heads in a bin while celebrating and supporting murderers would have been banished without a second thought. Yet because she is naught but a woman, she is given the benefit of the doubt. Her Dutch jihadi husband, Yago Riedijk What was the Home Secretary to do? After everything Miss Begum said, there were and are real concerns about letting her back into the UK. After all, it might be the end of the caliphate, but it is not the end of Isis. Begums son was one of nearly 100 children of Isis fighters who have died fleeing from the battle in Baghuz, Isiss last remaining Syrian enclave. Even once they reached the camp the vulnerable young were still at risk, dying due to a lack of food, water and healthcare. Perhaps Jerah had a marginally better chance of survival than Begums other two babies; a daughter and a son who died of malnutrition and unspecified illness out on the bomb-blasted environs of Raqqa. But not by much. Despite the murderous choices of his parents Shamima and her Dutch jihadi husband, Yago Riedijk it is still possible to feel sympathy and despair for the death of this blameless mite. Yet the blame for his untimely death lies with Isis and with the misbegotten path in life his parents took. It is not our fault, it is not Sajid Javids fault and it is certainly not the fault of the British Government. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said today he was looking into ways to bring ISIS babies home It gets exhausting sometimes. No matter what atrocity is wreaked upon our shores, and despite the indignity and hurt heaped upon our citizens, somehow we are always to blame. It is always up to us to make amends and forgive never the other side. While I have sympathy for this misguided young woman who has lost her way so comprehensively, the truth is that terrible actions have terrible consequences. It is desperately sad for a young woman of 19 to have lost three babies, yet her relative youth is no excuse for her taking part in and supporting a brutal regime. Shamima Begum chose the wrong side, which is why she is now stuck in a refugee camp a long way from home. Yet so many refugees languish in camps around the world having had no choice at all. She did and she made the worse possible one available. Not just for herself, but for her three dead children, too. Poor little Jerah. He didnt stand a chance. There has been a great deal of excitable talk in recent months of a Left-wing takeover of Britain by a group of sinister zealots lurking behind Jeremy Corbyn. Maybe. But the more immediate menace is a hardline Brexiteer coup detat. One that will drive out Theresa May and impose a factional Right-wing politician as Tory leader and in Downing Street. For months these Brexiteers have been desperate to hunt down Mrs May and drive her from office. They tried just before Christmas when they mounted a leadership challenge against her and failed miserably. According to well-informed weekend reports they now have another plan. Lets call it by its real name. Blackmail. One that will drive out Theresa May and impose a factional Right-wing politician as Tory leader and in Downing Street The Tory hardliners might be willing to back Mrs Mays EU withdrawal agreement tomorrow night, thus enabling it to pass through the Commons and Britain to leave the EU on March 29. But only if they can demand a blood sacrifice in return. The head of Mrs May herself. They will only throw their weight behind the Government in tomorrow nights vote in return for a cast-iron, copper-bottomed and gold-plated guarantee that Mrs May will step down. They will warn the Prime Minister she can only secure Brexit if she resigns as Tory leader and thus Prime Minister within weeks. According to this ruthless and amoral scheme we can all look forward to a late spring Tory leadership election which or so calculate the hardliners only they can win. Here is their twisted logic. Remember that the Tory membership decides on the next leader after the parliamentary party in the Commons has presented it with two names. And Brexiteers calculate that the Tory activists in the country, reinforced by new arrivals from Ukip, will inevitably back the most Right-wing candidate put forward by Parliament probably Boris Johnson or Jacob Rees-Mogg. And Brexiteers calculate that the Tory activists in the country, reinforced by new arrivals from Ukip, will inevitably back the most Right-wing candidate put forward by Parliament probably Boris Johnson or Jacob Rees-Mogg No Tory MP has yet had the courage to publicly advocate this treacherous plan. And no wonder. But most significantly Charles Moore, the hugely respected biographer of Margaret Thatcher who commands respect among MPs and ministers, floated the idea in a newspaper column on Saturday. If Mrs May promised that she would leave as soon as her deal passed, she would quite likely get it through, wrote Mr Moore. Her supreme sacrifice would change the weather. A new leader with quite different ideas about the future relationship yet to be negotiated between Britain and the EU could be chosen. Mr Moore, as so often, is on the money. This is the view of some of the so-called Brexit ultras. It underlines their arrogance. As for assuming their cunning plan will deliver a Brexiteer into No 10, they cannot be so sure. Ever since Margaret Thatcher replaced Edward Heath as Conservative leader, Tory leadership contests have a habit of not going to form. John Major? Iain Duncan Smith? Need I say more. There is every chance a stop Boris or stop Jacob candidate would keep those two out of the final run-off. Perhaps May loyalist Michael Gove will see off Boris again. Or perhaps Jeremy Hunt or Sajid Javid will win. There is every chance a stop Boris or stop Jacob candidate would keep those two out of the final run-off. Perhaps May loyalist Michael Gove will see off Boris again Both the latter were Remainers who have embraced Brexit albeit somewhat unconvincingly. Just like Mrs May. So the Tory party would be no further forward. I hate to pour cold water on a good story. But the notion that Brexiteers want the PMs scalp as a price for backing her deal is one of the worst ideas I have heard in almost 30 years of covering politics. The voters would rightly see it as fresh evidence that a cynical clique was running the country and punish the Tories at the next election. More importantly Mrs May is far more liked and trusted by voters than Johnson, Rees-Mogg, David Davis or any hard Brexiteer. And the logic is bonkers. Tomorrows vote is one of the most important in modern history. It should be considered on its own merits rather than used for political manoeuvrings. The survival or otherwise of Mrs May is a very minor matter compared with the massive consequence of Britains departure from the EU. Furthermore, if she pushes through her deal after so many setbacks, the Prime Minister will be celebrated as a hero. Voters will wonder why she is being thrown out of power at her moment of triumph after almost three years of hard work and self-sacrifice. They will think MPs have gone mad. And they will be right. She's transformed the wardrobe of television's golden girl, and now Holly Willoughby's stylist is turning her attention to the average British shopper. Fashion guru Angie Smith, who curates Holly's envy-inducing This Morning outfits, has offered her top shopping tips in an exclusive interview with MailOnline. The London-based consultant recommends ignoring dress sizes, focusing instead on 'what looks good on your body', and investing in hard-working basics like t-shirts and sweatshirts instead of frivolous single-wear dresses. She implores British women to 'embrace colour more', fork out on investment pieces and not be afraid of donning top-to-toe denim. Celebrity stylist Angie Smith, pictured, curates Holly's envy-inducing This Morning outfits and has offered her top shopping tips in an exclusive interview with MailOnline London-based consultant Angie (second right, in the studio with Holly) recommends ignoring dress sizes, focusing instead on 'what looks good on your body', and investing in basics Celebrity stylist Angie Smith masterminded TV queen Holly's This Morning wardrobe (the presenter is pictured on set at the ITV studios in October 2017) Revealing her top piece of styling advice, Angie tells MailOnline: 'Stop looking at the sizes on clothes and start trying on what looks good on your body. 'I have clothes in my wardrobe that are a size 6-16 but each brand is different so theres no point getting hung up on the digits, as its what makes you feel good.' While there are plenty of affordable high street brands to choose from in 2019, Angie - who has just landed a new campaign with Boots Opticians - says it's worth splashing out on one investment piece - which should either be 'something you wear all the time' or 'something that you will get immense joy by wearing'. This could be the perfect pair of jeans, a sweatshirt or even a t-shirt if that's your usual style - or it could be a fancy dress for a special occasion that can be 'restyled' for different events, Angie notes. This same careful logic should be applied when choosing accessories, whether that's stilettos, handbags or glasses, says Angie who recommends trying on 'a minimum of nine pairs'. 'Try on as many different pairs as possible and take pictures of yourself, then step back and try and pretend you arent looking at yourself and be subjective - if you cant do that ask an honest friend.' London-based stylist Angie Smith (second right) with Holly Willoughby and her glam squad in Australia. The fashion guru has shared her tricks of the trade in an interview with MailOnline Holly's camera shy fashion stylist Angie (pictured at a fashion party in London, September 2018) implores British women to 'embrace colour more' and fork out on investment pieces And when it comes to trends to look out for in 2019, she recommends reaching for top-to-toe denim. Angie is widely credited with sparking the 'Holly effect' which sees the presenter's outfits sell out within minutes of her wearing them. Speaking to The Times in December, Smith revealed the process that goes into making Holly look flawless for every TV appearance - comprising two days of shopping per month, which results in 16 outfits plus 'extras'. Smith, who also works with Spice Girls Emma Bunton and Geri Horner, says her aim is to help clients look 'comfortable' and 'relaxed'. 'You look at someone's figure and say, "Right, I love this about you, and this is what I want to draw attention to," she told the newspaper. 'And then it's about playing up the good bits and forgetting about anything else.' Jungle Jane: Holly in one of her I'm A Celebrity outfits - a white dress from Aussie designer Spell, Maje boots and an Isable Marant belt - which was masterminded by Angie Smith Angie helped Holly put together a stream of stylish outfits while on I'm A Celebrity. On the first show, she wore an Isabel Marant top and matching skirt, along with Grenson hiker boots Holly, 37, wore an all-red ensemble for the second episode, teaming a Rag & Bone T-shirt with a matching denim skirt by Scandinavian brand Ganni - the outfit was the brainchild of Smith Holly wore a stylish checked shirt by Isabel Marant with a pair of leather boots by Maje for the third episode of I'm A Celeb, which has seen her stylist Angie Smith shoot to fame When it comes to shopping, Smith gave one piece of advice for deciding whether or not a garment suits you, telling The Times: 'Take a picture of yourself in an outfit, then chop your head off. Then you can look at the outfit more objectively.' It is a tip she follows herself, and her 85,000 Instagram followers are rarely treated to pictures of the camera-shy stylist's face. And as for fashion dos and don'ts, Smith says she has one strict rule: skinny jeans are strictly banned. 'Who actually looked good in skinny jeans?' she said. 'They're awful. They are leggings essentially, and we all agreed leggings weren't OK ages ago.' Boots Opticians is working with Angie to encourage the public to find their Feel Good Frames at their first hosting a Frame Amnesty Day where customers were able to receive a free eye test, style consultation and free glasses The devastated family of a bride who died six days after her wedding have revealed their pain at still not knowing what happened to her. Nicola Spencer, 42, project coordinator for charity the Shelter Project Hounslow, left the UK for the Canary Islands on September 11 last year and died two days later. She had been married to her childhood sweetheart Jason Nicholls, who she first met at school when she was 15, for just six days. Her daughter Rebecca Jones, 23, from Hatton Cross, London, told MailOnline that Nicola was feeling under the weather the morning she left London for Fuerteventura, but assumed it was nothing serious. The assistant manager, who works for a jeweller, is still looking for answers as she copes with her grief and honours her mother's memory. Rebecca describes her mother as a 'very headstrong, caring person who put 110 percent into her job.' Nicola Spemcer, 42, from London on her wedding day to Jason. The pair met when they were 15 and Nicola had once told a friend she would one day marry Jason. After being separated for a while, the couple reunited 10 years ago and got married on 8th September 2018 From left to right: Rebecca Jones, 23, with mother Nicola Spencer, 42, and sister Rhiannon Jones, 24 on Nicola's wedding day. Nicola died suddenly on the third day of her honeymoon as she flew back to London after falling ill A selfie taken on the first day of Nicola and Jason's honeymoon. The pair were spending some time in Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands when the mother-of-two started throwing up blood and was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection 'She was a feisty character who when passionate about something, would put her all into it. 'She was definitely a peoples person who could single-handedly fill a room and had a great sense of humour,' she added. Nicola met her husband Jason in secondary school, aged 15. They started dating soon after. 'She even told her friend that he was the man she was going to marry, even at that young age,' Rebecca said. Jason and Nicola dancing on their wedding day. Nicola told her daughters that Jason was her soulmate. Her family still calls him weekly since her death Nicola, left, with her eldest daughter Rhiannon. The newlywed mother asked Rhiannon to book her a flight back to London three days into her honeymoon after being diagnosed with an urinary infection The pair separated for some time but eventually were reunited in 2009. Jason proposed two years later in 2016, two years before they got married. 'Mum told us all that she had found her soul mate in Jason,' Rebecca said. On the morning of September 11, Nicola said she wasn't feeling well but sent a picture to her children and went on with the trip. 'That afternoon she started to bring up blood and visited the local clinic, where she was told she was dehydrated and had a urine infection,' said Rebecca. Nicola was put on an IV drip for a few hours and went home for the evening once she felt better. On the morning of Wednesday 12th, Nicola felt better and told her family she would be getting some sun. But later in the afternoon, she felt poorly again. From left to right: Nicola's father, Derek, her mother, Pat, Nicola and her Great Uncle, Peter. Rebecca said the family met regularly, which made her mother's passing even more difficult to deal with Nicola on her wedding day. The mother-of -two was sick on the morning she set off on her honeymoon, but thought nothing of it. But later that day, she started throwing up blood and went to a local clinic, where she was hooked on an IV drip for the remainder of the afternoon 'That evening she called my sister Rhiannon saying she wanted to go home and for her to book a flight back,' Rebecca said. The couple were on a flight back to Gatwick airport on Thursday morning, but the plane never made it home and was diverted to Portugal instead. 'Mid-flight, Mum was feeling very unwell, proceeded to collapse and was again bringing up blood,' Rebecca said. 'She was unresponsive so the plane was diverted to Porto and unfortunately she passed away on the descent to Porto airport.' Six months later, Rebecca still doesn't know what caused her healthy mother's sudden death. Nicola on her wedding day. She dedicated her life to helping others and was a project coordinator for charity Shelter Project Hounslow, which looks after homeless men during the winter 'She was generally in good health,' Rebecca explained. 'She was very well before she died which is why it has been such a huge shock to our family. The family was always very close-knit and that proximity makes it harder to process their grief, Rebecca said: 'Everyone has struggled greatly with mum's passing as we virtually saw each other every day,' she said. 'Due to the suddenness of mum's death, we are all still very much in shock and are still looking for some form of closure.' Jason and Nicola during their wedding. The couple first met when they were 15 and Nicola described him as her soulmate Two autopsies were performed on Nicola's body after her death. She was first examined in Portugal shortly after her death. However, the results of that autopsy were not immediately made public, which prompted another a second one on British soil. Results were inconclusive, and an inquest is now being held into her death. 'The date for this is 27th March 2019, six months after her death, said Rebecca, adding that is was 'prolonging the pain of her passing even more.' Nicola posing for a picture in front of the John Lennon memorial in Central Park during a holiday in New York City. Rebecca said her mother was a feisty character who was passionate about her job as a charity worker Nicola with husband Jason Nicholls. Nicola's daughter Rebecca is organising a charity gala for the anniversary of her mother's death in September 2019 The family remains in close contact with Jason and Rebecca's sister, Rhiannon, 24, calls him weekly to make sure he is coping. A selfie of Nicola (right) and her sister Katy. Nicola was part of a close family. Her relative are now trying to cope with her death, and waiting for the results of an inquest into her death Rebecca said she greatly admired her mother's charity work, which took a lot of Nicola's time. 'She dedicated her life to helping others and over the last 2 years she ran a local homeless charity. 'The charity helps homeless men over the winter months, providing them with somewhere to stay, meals and a friendly face,' explained Rebecca. 'More importantly the charities aim is to help give these men the skills necessary to get into long term accommodation and employment.' But her interest for other people did not distract Nicola from her family. 'She would spend all her free time with us, holding fun evenings such as Christmas in June, a casino night and so many more,' Rebecca recalled. Rebecca will hold a charity event for the anniversary of her mother's death in September 2019. The event will aim to collect money for Nicola's charity, 'the Shelter Project Hounslow.' A girl who was given life-saving open heart surgery at the age of just two has taken the fashion world by storm after she walked at New York and London Fashion week. Freya Ingham, eight, from Manchester, overcame the insecurities she had about a six-inch (15cm) scar on her chest following surgery in 2013 to fix a hole in her heart - and now asks photographers not to airbrush it out of images. Her mother, Claire Ingham, kick-started her career when she spotted a page on Instagram looking for child models last year. Freya Ingham, eight, from Manchester pictured on the catwalk at London Fashion Week has a six inch (15cm) scar on her chest as a result of the surgery, which she use to 'pick at' but has learned to accept Freya (pictured in London Fashion Week) has now modelled for small designer brands called House of Ikons, Me Clothing, Eye Candy. She wasn't paid for any of her shows but got to keep the clothes The scar the youngster used to try and 'peel off' is now something she's proud of, says mum Claire, and the family ask photographers not to airbrush it from modelling photos The opportunity led to Freya appearing in her first ever modelling show at London Fashion Week in September. Soon after, she was asked to walk in New York Fashion Week too. Claire, who is a primary school teacher, said: 'Freya is wise beyond her years, she tells people she got her scars for being a brave girl when they ask how she got it. 'When she was younger she'd try to peel it off, when we went on holiday we would put plasters to cover it when she was in her swimsuit so people wouldn't ask questions. 'When people saw the scar, they'd go up to her and ask to touch it, it really bothered her. Freya, pictured as a newborn, was in her first ever modelling show at London Fashion Week in September, after needing life-saving open-heart surgery as an infant Freya Ingham, eight, from Manchester, was born with a hole in her heart and needed life-saving surgery aged just two. Last month, aged eight, she modelled in New York Fashion Week (pictured) 'Her insecurity got worse when she realised other kids didn't have scars on their chests when she was changing for PE in school. 'During both shows in London and New York in February, it was just amazing to see her on the runway, she was so proud of herself. 'I'm so proud of her too, it makes me happy to see how much her confidence has boosted, she wants people to know that she got her scar for being a brave girl, she's an inspiration. Freya's mother Claire Ingham kick-started her modelling career when she spotted a page on Instagram looking for child models last year, it took her to London Fashion Week (pictured in September getting her make-up done) and New York last month Keen to make the most of her journey, Freya saw the sights in New York when she went there to model last month (pictured in front of the Statue of Liberty) 'I always tell the photographers not to airbrush her scars if they ask, she's very proud of it.' Freya has now modelled for small designer brands called House of Ikons, Me Clothing, Eye Candy. She was not paid for appearing on the catwalk but was able to keep the clothes by the British and American designers. Freya, pictured at London Fashion Week, now tells people who ask she got her scar from 'being a brave girl' Freya, pictured in New York's Central Park, was excited about her trip and practised perfecting her walk and poses in front of the mirror in the living room at home In the lead up to the event, she practised perfecting her walk and poses for the runway in her living room at home. Her dad, Phil Ingham, 42, her twin brother Alex, who was not born with the same condition and older brother Dylan, 13, did not attend her shows because of the costs but they supported her from home. Phil said: 'Freya wants to share the message that you can still be beautiful with a scar or even if you're slightly different. 'Freya (pictured on the catwalk) wants to share the message that you can still be beautiful with a scar or even if you're slightly different' he proud dad Phil Ingham said 'I'm so proud of her for having such an amazing attitude at such a young age. 'She was excited to be in New York and London living her best life, the whole opportunity was just out of this world she even met people from Real Housewives of New Jersey.' The family now collects money for Alder Hey's Ronald Macdonald House where Freya was treated. Freya, pictured in New York, left her twin brother Alex, who was not born with the same condition and older brother Dylan, 13, and Dad Phil at home and travelled with her mother Freya, pictured with an NYPD officer, and her family now collect money for Alder Hey's Ronald Macdonald House and have raised more than 3,500 They have raised more than 3,500 for the hospital throughout the years. She has also helped to organise events such as cake sales and raffles in aid of the cause. Claire added: 'We'll continue to raise money when we can for the charity because they've helped us a lot.' Living with housemates can be hard. Who's turn it is to clean the bathroom, if you've stolen each other's milk, and whether or not the bins are overflowing can be strains when living in a shared house. And it's no easier for students, who aren't well-known for their cleanliness. But for those who are atuniversity and are a little more tidy, it can be frustrating to share living spaces with those who are a little more slobbish. One student, Ruth Came, who studies at University of Lancaster, wanted to express her frustration to her ten housemates about always taking the bins out. Ruth Came who studies at University of Lancaster, wanted to express her frustration at always taking the bins out to her ten housemates, so shared a survey link in a group chat which her housemate India later shared on Twitter Rather than a standard passive aggressive text, Ruth sent her housemates a survey link and pleaded with them to fill it in, saying it was a cause 'really close to my heart'. Posting in their housemate group WhatsApp, she wrote: 'Guys can you please please please please pretty PLEEEEASE do this survey for me real quick. It'll take like 30 seconds and it's on a subject that's really close and dear to my heart. Thankeeeee. The link then took her housemates to a survey about the bins in their house. 'Do you know where the bins are situated?' the first question read, with the answers reading 'Of course, for I am a human being with eyes' and 'Lol what is B I N'. The second question was not relenting, reading: 'Are you aware that bins, when full, require emptying?'. Options given for her housemates to respond were 'I got into a top 10 uni, clearly I have more than three brain cells' and 'Omg wot I just assumed the magical bin pixies do it when I'm asleep haha wot crazy'. India, who studies Theatre and English Literature, shared the screengrabs online and the hilarious survey quickly went viral 'Do you know where the bins are situated?' the first question read, with the answers reading 'Of course, for I am a human being with eyes' and 'Lol what is B I N'. The second question was not relenting, reading: 'Are you aware that bins, when full, require emptying?' The survey went on to read: 'So how about emptying those bins once in a while, eh?' It gave two options, but not much choice between them. Hilariously, the first read: 'Of course, for I wish to create a happy and tidy living situation for my housemates and strive towards a society where everyone contributes to make the world a better place'. While the second said: 'Yes of course my good friend Ruth, because it is all our rubbish after all'. The survey went on to read: 'So how about emptying those bins once in a while, eh?' The final question, which just gave the options 'Yes' and 'Yes' read: 'Did I create this survey PURELY because I'm salty about emptying all the buns for the fourth time in a row and wish to communicate this in a passive aggressive yet mildly witty way?'. The final question, which just gave the options 'Yes' and 'Yes' read: 'Did I create this survey PURELY because I'm salty about emptying all the buns for the fourth time in a row and wish to communicate this in a passive aggressive yet mildly witty way?'. Ruth's housemate India Ellis, 19, who is in her first year studying Theatre and English Literature shared screengrabs on the survey online, with the caption: 'if anyone wanted an insight into living with students, my housemate has just sent this survey to the house chat for us to fill in'. Many people found the tweet relatable and it quickly racked up more than 7000 shares online. One wrote: 'This is literally my flat.' While another said: 'We needed something like this in first year.' Many people found the tweet relatable and it quickly racked up more than 7000 shares onlines Ruth told Femail: 'There's 11 of us living together and we all thought it was absolutely hilarious because our house is so messy that it's just become a joke to all of us now. 'So Ruth turning the situation into a survey made us all laugh so much.' India added that the message seemed to work. She said: 'One of our housemates did take the bins out yesterday so maybe we're beginning to learn our lesson! 'But currently the bin is overflowing and nobody is rushing to sort it so maybe not.' Despite the passive aggressive message, there were no hard feelings between Ruth and her housemates. 'I was actually sat in the room with Ruth when I got the message with the survey link and I was in absolute hysterics. I thought it was pure genius levels of petty' India said. Two women - one curvy and one petite - have put a body positive fashion retailer to the test and modelled four outfits to assess the fit, colours and fabrics of each. American YouTubers Sierra Schultzzie, a size 16, and Lisa Schwartz, a size 8, decided to try on clothing from Australian brand Showpo and see whether the jeans, dresses and jumpsuits suit both of their body types. The result was a video showcasing a mix of off-the-shoulder looks and buttoned up summer frocks, as well as acid wash denim and a see-through floral crop top. YouTubers Sierra Schultzzie (right), a size 16, and Lisa Schwartz (left), a size 8, decided to try on Australian brand Showpo's ensembles To start with Sierra, 23, purchased the Nellie jeans in blue for $76 and paired it with the Crack Of Dawn top in green floral for $61. 'The jeans have a long crotch and loose waist,' Sierra commented after trying the two items on together. 'There is nothing special, there are a lot of issues and they're not flattering.' Meanwhile her friend Lisa, 35, agreed, saying the jeans 'flattened her bottom' and had 'too much going on' with the rips, buttons and frayed ends. 'This might look good on someone else,' she commented. Showpo showcases many of its styles in a variety of women's sizes so it's inclusive to all They moved onto the Here With Me Two Piece Set in baby blue for $88 next, trying on the coordinating trousers and top with excitement But the mid-length top was a huge success and both ladies said it was well-made and hugged their figure really well. It would have got a 10/10 had it not been as sheer as it was. The next outfit was the Toughen Up bodysuit in white for $50 and the No Heartache skirt in beige suedette for $61 pieced together. Sierra said the bodysuit was very 'Rachel Green from Friends' and the material was soft to the touch. However they had gone up a size in the skirt based on reviews that said it 'ran small', when in fact it swamped both hers and Lisa's figures when they tried it on. 'I feel like you could wear mine and it would fit,' Lisa told Sierra in the video. They weren't a big fan of these jeans, which both said flattened their derriere They moved onto the Here With Me Two Piece Set in baby blue for $88 next, trying on the coordinating trousers and top with excitement. For Lisa it was almost a perfect fit and she wore it with ease but Sierra was left disappointed with the sizing which ran too large on her shoulders and waist. 'The pants are actually the right length but everything is a little bit big on me,' she said. 'There is so much fabric. And when you're short... more fabric is not good,' Lisa added. 'There is so much fabric. And when you're short... more fabric is not good,' Lisa added Their final reveal involved the Cooling It dress in white floral, which was $76, and turned out to be Sierra's favourite of the day Their final reveal involved the Cooling It dress in white floral, which was $76, and turned out to be Sierra's favourite of the day. 'I feel like this is the perfect size for me. It's expensive but it's worth it. I'm going to give it a 10/10,' she said. But on Lisa the v-neck hung very low and revealed much of her bra underneath, so she had to detract points for the sizing. Overall the ladies were very impressed by the clothes and reasoned that all online boutiques were difficult to judge sizing. Sierra and Lisa both loved Showpo's approach to giving women of all sizes a variety of fun outfits to choose from. A mother whose one-year-old son's skin was so red, raw and irritated that he was hospitalised for a week has spoken out about the $10 product from Childs Farm that saved her toddler's skin and allowed him to have his first bubble bath. Jess Roberts, 28, from Melbourne, didn't know what to do about little Jagger's skin after a routine bath caused him to break out in 'welts' all over his bum. 'I was terrified over what it was,' Jess told FEMAIL. 'We took him to the hospital, where at first they thought it was some sort of severe hand, foot and mouth disease. 'We were so confused. But Jagger couldn't sit down because his bottom was so sore and I couldn't bathe him as it irritated his skin.' A mother whose one-year-old son's skin was so red, raw and irritated that he was hospitalised for a week while doctors figured out what was wrong has spoken out about the $10 product that saved her toddler's skin (Jagger pictured before) Jess Roberts, 28, from Melbourne, didn't know what to do about little Jagger's skin after a routine bath caused him to break out in 'welts' all over his bum (Jagger pictured after) 'I was terrified over what it was,' Jess told FEMAIL. 'We took him to the hospital, where at first they thought it was some sort of severe hand, foot and mouth disease' (Jagger's skin pictured before) The mother (pictured with her son) couldn't even give her son a bath with any products, as his skin would get welts that quickly became scabs Jess credits Childs Farm bubble baths and shampoos with helping to clear up Jagger's skin. The mum-of-three explained that Jagger's skin began to be irritated after a bath when he was 14 months old. 'As soon as I lifted him out of the bath, I could see these welts all over his bum that quickly scabbed over,' she said. 'When we went to the hospital, they said they thought it was severe hand, foot and mouth disease and so sent us home with some medication. 'But when it didn't clear up and then it actively spread, I knew I needed to take him back.' When they first went to the hospital, Jess said that doctors thought Jagger (pictured before) had hand, foot and mouth disease - he had to stay in hospital for a week After a week in hospital, Jagger was diagnosed with eczema herpeticum - an infection usually caused by the herpes simplex 1 virus or 'oral herpes' What is eczema herpeticum? * Eczema herpeticum is an infection usually caused by the herpes simplex 1 virus or 'oral herpes' the virus that causes cold sores to appear around and inside the mouth. * Eczema herpeticum affects people with atopic dermatitis and other inflammatory skin diseases. * Eczema herpeticum usually appears on the face and neck. It can also appear on other places on the body such as the hands. * Eczema herpeticum is treated with antiviral medications. If a secondary bacterial infection exists with eczema herpeticum, your doctor may also prescribe antibiotics. * Eczema herpeticum is potentially a very serious condition. Complications of this infection may include scarring, infection and even organ failure. Source: National Eczema Advertisement On her second visit to the hospital with Jagger, Jess recalled that doctors were even more perplexed. 'They said he should go to Monash, where a host of doctors and dermatologists took a look at his skin,' Jess said. After a week in hospital, Jagger was diagnosed with eczema herpeticum - a form of eczema caused by the herpes simplex 1 virus or 'oral herpes' the virus that causes cold sores to appear around and inside the mouth. 'I was devastated and really confused,' Jess remembered. 'How had Jagger contracted a cold sore?'. The toddler was given some strong cortisone creams and was told he and his mother could go home - on the account that he couldn't be bathed with anything other than water and wasn't allowed to come into contact with any kind of soap or chemical. It stayed this way for over a week, upon which point Jess was instructed to return with all of the products she had previously been using on Jagger's skin. 'The doctors and dermatologists said the only thing that was safe to use was the Childs Farm bath products and shampoos,' she said. 'Everything else could cause another breakout.' 'The doctors and dermatologists said the only thing that was safe to use was the Childs Farm bath products and shampoos,' Jess said (Jagger pictured now) Since then Jess, Jagger and the mother's other two children have never used a single other product (Jagger's skin pictured now) And so, since then Jess, Jagger and the mother's other two children have always user Childs Farm bubble bath and shampoo. 'Jagger loves being bathed in Childs Farm and his siblings all use it too,' she said. 'The first time he had a bubble bath, he was so excited. Now, I would never dream of using another product.' Within several weeks of using Childs Farm alongside cortisone creams, Jagger's skin had entirely healed. Even better, he has since had no more welds or scabs - and now has fully clear skin. 'Jagger is back to his normal happy self, which is so good to see,' Jess said. 'The doctors were worried about scarring, but his skin looks as though nothing ever happened.' To find out more about Childs Farm, which is stocked in Healthy Life stores across Australia, please click here. LANA suede heels, 450, maxineshoes.com Life is too short to wear boring shoes is the ethos behind Maxine Willes eponymous shoe brand that launched in autumn 2017. Making its debut at London Fashion Week, it has since gone on to show at Paris and New York. MAXINE shoes are all produced by one of the finest Italian manufacturers in the Marche region of Italy, where each shoe is handcrafted from premium Italian leather and finished to perfection. Wanting to empower women from the feet up, the founder and designer has created a range full of texture, bright colour clashes and hand-drawn prints. Prices range from 360 to 800 (maxineshoes.com). Does tidying spark joy? Does your heart skip to the beat of the washing-machines drum and the dishwashers thrum? Does the maxim A place for everything and everything in its place flood you with contentment or cold, clammy fear? For me, its the latter. My nature abhors a vacuum cleaner. Of course, Id love my home to look like the celestial sanctum of a domestic goddess, where we could hug amid the hygge. But who has the time to achieve that? Every hour of every day at home could become a Sisyphean roll call of tedious domestic chores. Last weekend, I hoped to do some paid work; instead, I spent what felt like 48 hours sorting out others socks. Did it spark joy? Frustration, fury, self-pity, the beginnings of a martyrdom complex, yes. But joy? Nah. Literary expert Patricia Nicol shared a selection of books focused on housework including Ira Levin's The Stepford Wives (pictured left) and Kathryn Stocketts The Help (pictured right) What would Ira Levin, who, in 1972, imagined a male anti-feminist backlash with the satirical Stepford Wives, think of our early 21st-century cult of domesticity? In it, Joanna Eberhart is surprised by the docility of the women she meets when her family move to the New York suburbs. Her neighbour Carol rejects social overtures to wax the family-room floor . . . theres always something or other that has to be done. It turns out Carol is a robot. All the Stepford Wives are, otherwise theyd be wiping the floor with their sexist husbands. Behind every great man or woman theres usually someone doing the drudge work. Jo Bakers fresh Longbourn dusts off the plot of Jane Austens Pride And Prejudice, reimagining it entirely from the downstairs perspective of the Bennets put-upon staff. It begins at dawn on laundry day, with housemaid Sarah, her hands already chapped, musing on how, At Longbourn House they washed their own dirty linen. There is plenty of dirt, too, much of which sticks, in Kathryn Stocketts bracing The Help, putting the lives of black maids in early 1960s Mississippi under the spotlight. If someone elses domestic bliss is being achieved through your drudgery, then put your feet up preferably on them. A family-owned chicken shop in Melbourne has been praised for its 'delicious' crinkle cut fries in a new poll hosted by radio station Nova100. Dave Chen, who has owned McManos Chicken Bar in Seddon for the past 18 years, was thrilled to learn his store was producing the city's best fries. 'I tried changing them to straight cut years ago and everyone said no, no, no. So I've never changed them again,' he told the Herald Sun. Dave Chen, who has owned McManos Chicken Bar in Seddon (pictured), Melbourne, for 18 years was thrilled to learn his store was producing the city's best fries The 'secret' salt recipe he uses couldn't be shared but he did say that he hoped the honour would keep him in business for the next few years. Runner-ups included Biggie Smalls in Collingwood and Belle's Hot Chicken in Richmond, which also sell crinkle cut varieties to their customers. Some coated their fries in preserved lemon and burnt butter while others sprinkled them lovingly with Old Bay Seasoning (a popular blend of herbs and spices). McManos Chicken Bar in Seddon, Melbourne, (pictured) scored the top prize for having delicious hot chips on the menu In 2017, a Canstar Blue previously survey deciphered which takeaway chains in Australia sold the best hot chips. Oporto scored the highest with 7.7, followed by Hungry Jacks (7.4), McDonald's (6.9), Red Rooster and KFC (both six). Interestingly, the highest rating chips were thicker style chips with flavoured seasoning. Runner-ups included Biggie Smalls in Collingwood (left) and Belle's Hot Chicken in Richmond (right), who also sell crinkle cut varieties to their customers On Reddit a number of people questioned what makes the perfect hot chip, and came up with a variety of answers On Reddit a number of people questioned what makes the perfect hot chip, and came up with a variety of answers. 'Your local charcoal chicken with chicken salt. Preferably still hot enough to scorch your lips,' said one person. 'Steakhouse cut beer-battered, perfect crisp on the outside, absolutely fantastic,' said another. Another added: 'Old school, wrapped in butchers paper with salt, and you dictate how much you want - eg. "$3.50 worth of hot chips please mate".' Others said they loved fries from Red Rooster, battered creations and those found at 'local fish and chips stores'. Advertisement The Duke and Duchess of Sussex kicked off celebrations for Commonwealth Day - and their new roles at the forefront of the 'family of nations' - with a visit to London's Canada House on Monday morning. Meghan, who is eight months pregnant, chose a coat and matching dress by Canadian designer Erdem, teamed with 485 Aquazzura pumps, as she arrived at Trafalgar Square with Prince Harry. The bottle green wool number by the Montreal-born designer featured black embellishment on the cuffs and collar, described by the label as 'Doria beaded rose embroidery' - coincidentally the name of Meghan's mother. It is a custom piece inspired by a look from Montreal-born Erdem Moralioglu's Autumn/ Winter 2019 collection, inspired by the late Italian Princess Orietta Doria Pamphilj, and the entire ensemble is estimated to have cost around 8,000 by celebrity stylist Lucas Armitage. While the coat and dress have been specially tailored to accommodate Meghan's baby bump, the royal family are known to employ private dressmakers to make alterations should she choose to re-wear the outfit after giving birth. Meghan teamed the look with a Givenchy clutch, 568 Maison Birks opal earrings and a 363 Kismet by Milka bracelet. Protective father-to-be Harry guided his pregnant wife out of the car and onto the curb, before Meghan put an affectionate arm on his back as the couple made their way into the building. The Duke and Duchess arrive at Canada House. Los Angeles native Meghan lived in Canada, her 'second home', for over six years while filming for legal drama Suits in Toronto and has previously said she feels 'very connected' to the country Harry guided his pregnant wife out of the car and onto the curb (left) before Meghan, wearing an eye-catching Erdem number, put a tender hand on her husband's back as the entered the building (right) Harry and Meghan, who are expecting their first child, meet young people who demonstrate a Canadian spring tradition of making maple taffy (maple syrup cooled on snow to make sweets), but it is not clear if they tried some themselves A gift for Baby Sussex! Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Janice Charette, second left, presents Harry and Meghan with presents for their new arrival including a maple leaf babygro and a pair of boots before they leave The duke and duchess are saluted by two members of the Canadian Royal Mounted Police as they leave the Canadian High Commission with Canadian High Commissioner to London Janice Charette (second left) on Monday afternoon Parting gift: As the Duke and Duchess of Sussex left Canada House this afternoon, they were handed posies by Asya Karkaria, nine. Today's event showcased and celebrates the community of young Canadians living in London and around the UK Before departing, they were given some gifts for Baby Sussex; a 14.29 Canadian maple leaf baby bodysuit from Hop & Moo and a pair of 42.86 Manitobah Mukluks infant moccasins. Harry made staff laugh by sniffing inside the moccasins, saying: 'I'm sniffing the insides to check if they are leather or not, not because they are smelly.' As the couple left, Meghan - negotiating her way down the steps in her 4in heels and holding onto Harry's arm - was presented with posies by Asya Karkaria, nine, and Michael McCarthy, eight, both from Ottawa, whose parents work at Canada House. Asya, who gave a charming little curtsy, said Meghan had asked where she was from and said it was a pleasure to meet her. The duke and duchess, who are expecting their first child next month, took part in the Canadian spring tradition of making maple taffy (maple syrup cooled on snow to make sweets) as part of a traditional cabane a sucre (sugar shack). 'Does anyone want one?' Meghan asked the 30 children vying to see how many they could eat of the sweets, which are made by pouring hot maple syrup on ice and then rolling it onto a 'popsickle' stick. 'How many have you had?' she asked one little boy. 'Seven? Oh my goodness.' She gave her own taffy to a nine-year-old girl, Elodie-Rose Duguay-Inegbese, from Shippagan, New Brunswick, who had only eaten two. 'It was really fun and Meghan's really pretty. She was very kind and I liked talking to her,' said the little girl, whose mother Sylvie works at the high commission. The couple are all smiles as they arrive in Trafalgar Square. During their visit today, the couple will have the opportunity to talk to groups of young Canadians from a wide range of sectors including fashion, the arts, business and academia Glowing in green: Meghan, who is eight months pregnant, wrapped up against the March chill with a bottle green wool dress featuring black beaded floral detail as she arrived at Trafalgar Square with Prince Harry this morning The royal couple, whose first child is due at the end of next month, were escorted around the grand Greek Revival building on Trafalgar Square by the Canadian high commissioner Janice Charette, who said she kept dropping hints about them visiting Canada soon but got no firm commitment. 'I think their priority is the baby first,' she said. The high commissioner told the royal couple: 'We trust that your visit to Canada House today has served as a reminder of happy times spent in Canada. We do kind of claim you.' 'I'll take that!' said Meghan, laughing. She fondly reminisced about her time in Toronto, asking all the young people she met where they came from and which districts if they were from the city. 'Everyone here seems to be from Toronto,' Harry, 34 said. 'It's such a great place, his 37-year-old wife replied. When they met Michelle Keller-Hobson, who works for a Canadian investment firm, Wealthsimple, that encourages people to save and invest with as little as 1, Meghan asked what proportion of customers were women. The couple arrive at Canada House. During their visit today, the couple will have the opportunity to talk to groups of young Canadians from a wide range of sectors including fashion, the arts, business and academia, about their experiences as expats as well as opportunities for young people working in the Commonwealth Meghan is all smiles in London this morning. The Queen has put Harry and Meghan at the forefront of her Commonwealth duties by making them President and Vice President of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust, she announced last week The Duchess appears in good spirits as she arrives at Trafalgar Square. Los Angeles native Meghan lived in Canada, described as her 'second home', for over six years while filming Suits and has previously said she feels 'very connected' to the country Ms Keller-Hobson said 38 per cent in the UK but explained the figure was higher in Canada. She said women in Britain often had less money to invest because of the gender pay gap and other factors. Meghan, an ardent feminist, told her: 'It's so important what you are doing. Keep it up.' Today's event, hosted by Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Janice Charette, was designed to showcase and celebrate the diverse community of young Canadians living in London and around the UK. During their visit , the couple had the opportunity to talk to groups of young Canadians from a wide range of sectors including fashion, the arts, business and academia, about their experiences as expats as well as opportunities for young people working in the Commonwealth. Los Angeles native Meghan lived in Canada, described as her 'second home', for over six years while filming for legal drama Suits in Toronto and has previously said she feels 'very connected' to the country. Harry and Meghan arrive at Canada House. Commonwealth Day has a special significance this year, as 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth - a global network of 53 countries and almost 2.4 billion people Homecoming queen! Los Angeles native Meghan lived in Canada, described as her 'second home', for over six years while filming for legal drama Suits in Toronto and has previously said she feels 'very connected' to the country The Queen has put Harry and Meghan at the forefront of her Commonwealth duties by making them President and Vice President of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust, an organisation promoting young people around the world. Commonwealth Day has a special significance this year, as 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth - a global network of 53 countries and almost 2.4 billion people. Before departing, the couple will attend a short reception and watch a musical performance before hearing a short speech from High Commissioner, H.E. Ms. Janice Charette. The UK is home to a large community of expat Canadians; an estimated 500,000 Canadians are have made the country their home. Later, Harry and Meghan will join the Queen along with other senior members of the royal family and leading figures from national life to attend the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey. In her message to mark the occasion, the Queen has praised how the 'family of nations' inspires its member states to find ways of protecting the planet and its citizens. This morning's engagement at Canada House is just the start of Commonwealth Day duties for the couple; later they will join the Queen, the Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the Duke of York at a special service at Westminster Abbey Power couple: The Queen has put Harry and Meghan at the forefront of her Commonwealth duties by making them President and Vice President of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust, an organisation promoting young people around the world Meghan, who is known for her love of heels, teamed the Erdem coat with a pair of vertiginous Aquazzura pumps in London today. When asked recently how she was managing to walk in heels with her baby bump, she joked that she was taking it 'one day at a time' Proud mother: Meghan, who is eight months pregnant, clutched her bump protectively as she arrived at Canada House. Today's event will showcase and celebrate the diverse community of young Canadians living in London and around the UK The Duchess puts a hand on her bump as the couple arrive at Canada House. Los Angeles native Meghan lived in Canada, described as her 'second home', for over six years while filming for legal drama Suits in Toronto and has previously said she feels 'very connected' to the country The Duchess of Sussex teamed her look with black accessories, holding a small clutch bag and 485 Aquazzura Deneuve pumps. She gave a nod to Canadian design by wearing a bottle green coat dress by Erdem Meghan put a hand on her husband's back as the couple, who are famously tactile, entered Canada House in London this morning. Huge crowds had gathered to catch a glimpse of the duke and duchess, who were hosted by Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Janice Charette Millions of people are 'drawn together' because of the collective values shared by the institution, the monarch says in her address to the 53 countries of the Commonwealth. The written message is featured in the order of service for the annual Commonwealth Day service being held at Westminster Abbey later today. The Queen, who is head of the Commonwealth, says in her message: 'In April last year, I welcomed the leaders of our 53 nations to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, and we all witnessed how the Commonwealth vision offers hope, and inspires us to find ways of protecting our planet, and our people. 'We are able to look to the future with greater confidence and optimism as a result of the links that we share, and thanks to the networks of co-operation and mutual support to which we contribute, and on which we draw. Meghan plumped for an Erdem coat for today's engagement. The green wool number, featuring black beaded detail on the cuffs and collar, is a custom design inspired by a look from Montreal-born Erdem Moraloglu's AW 2019 collection Glowing Meghan sported a natural, dewy makeup look at Canada House this morning. Later, she and Harry will join the Queen along with other senior members of the royal family and leading figures from national life to attend the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey VIP visitors! Harry speaks with Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Janice Charette (second right) as he and Meghan attend a Commonwealth Day youth event at Canada House this morning The Duchess of Sussex appears in good spirits as she meets dignitaries at Canada House. The UK is home to a large community of expat Canadians; an estimated 500,000 Canadians are have made the country their home Harry and Meghan speak to guests at the Commonwealth Day youth event this morning. Los Angeles native Meghan lived in Canada, described as her 'second home', for over six years while filming for legal drama Suits in Toronto Harry and Meghan attend the Commonwealth Day youth event at Canada House, where they speak with young Canadians from a wide range of sectors including fashion, the arts, business and academia on Monday morning Meghan listens during a discussion with Canadians living in London. Today's event, hosted by Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Janice Charette, will showcase and celebrate the diverse community of young Canadians living in London and around the UK Meghan is all smiles as she joins Harry at a Commonwealth event this morning. In her message to mark the occasion, the Queen has praised how the 'family of nations' inspires its member states to find ways of protecting the planet and its citizens Meghan during this morning's Commonwealth meeting at Canada House. The theme for this year's service is 'A Connected Commonwealth' which highlights the co-operation between the diverse family of nations who work together in friendship Smiling Meghan chats to young people and dignitaries during her visit to Canada House this morning. Today's event will showcase and celebrate the diverse community of young Canadians living in London and around the UK, the Palace said Meghan opted for a green coat and matching dress by Erdem this morning. The green wool number, featuring black beaded detail on the cuffs and collar, is a custom design inspired by a look from Montreal-born Erdem Moralioglu's AW19 range The Duke and Duchess speak to Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Janice Charette (third left). The Queen has put Harry and Meghan at the forefront of her Commonwealth duties by making them President and Vice President of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust, an organisation promoting young people around the world Meghan meets young people during a visit to Canada House this morning. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who are expecting their first child, were hosted by Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Janice Charette The Duke and Duchess of Sussex meet a range of people this morning as part of Commonwealth Day. The event, hosted by Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Janice Charette, will showcase and celebrate the diverse community of young Canadians living in London and around the UK The couple applaud during their visit to Canada House this morning. Today's event, hosted by Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Janice Charette, was designed to showcase and celebrate the diverse community of young Canadians living in London and around the UK Meghan get stuck in during the Commonwealth Day youth event at Canada House, where she and Harry met young people demonstrating the Canadian spring tradition of making maple taffy (maple syrup cooled on snow to make sweets) Bon appetit! The couple join young people who demonstrate a Canadian spring tradition of making maple taffy (maple syrup cooled on snow to make sweets) as part of their visit to Canada House in Trafalgar Square this morning The duke and duchess, who are expecting their first child next month, demonstrate a Canadian spring tradition of making maple taffy (maple syrup cooled on snow to make sweets) as part of a traditional cabane a sucre (sugar shack) A parting gift for baby Sussex! Harry and Meghan receive baby gifts from Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Janice Charette (second left) following today's Commonwealth Day youth event at Canada House in London Before they left, Harry and Meghan were handed posies of white flowers by Asya Karkaria, nine. The couple will later join senior royals, including the Queen and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, for a service at Westminster Abbey Harry and Meghan meet Michael McCarthy as they leave Canada House following their visit this morning. The theme for this year's service is 'A Connected Commonwealth' which highlights the co-operation between the culturally diverse family of nations who work together in friendship What is the Commonwealth? Known formally as the Commonwealth of Nations, the group is a free association of 53 member states. It dates back about 75 years and followed the decolonisation of the British Empire. As countries sought greater self-governance in the mid-20th century, a new body was set up which united members states not by any legal obligation, but instead by shared values of democracy, freedom of speech and human rights. The Commonwealth was formally constituted by the London Declaration, which established the members as 'free and equal' in 1949. The Queen remains head of state for 16 member states, she has no formal position in several other nations of the Commonwealth, such as India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The Commonwealth accounts for about a third of the planet's population, or 2.4 billion people. Advertisement 'With enduring commitment through times of great change, successive generations have demonstrated that whilst the goodwill for which the Commonwealth is renowned may be intangible, its impact is very real.' The Queen will be joined at the Commonwealth Day service by the Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the Duke of York. Other guests among the 2,000-strong congregation will include Prime Minister Theresa May, the Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Scotland, alongside high commissioners, ambassadors, faith leaders and more than 800 schoolchildren and young people. The theme for this year's service is 'A Connected Commonwealth' which highlights the co-operation between the culturally diverse family of nations who work together in friendship. Highlights of the service include performances by Grammy-winning group Clean Bandit and tenor Alfie Boe. A reflection will be given by Lewis Pugh, an endurance swimmer, ocean advocate and the UN Patron of the Oceans. Later in the evening, Charles and Camilla will be guests of the Commonwealth Secretary-General at the annual reception which traditionally takes place on Commonwealth Day at Marlborough House, the home of the Commonwealth Secretariat, the institution's civil service. Last year, the Queen told foreign dignitaries of her 'sincere wish' that they pick Prince Charles to take over as leader of the Commonwealth and 'carry on' the 'important work' started by her father in 1949. Crufts viewers were left feeling disgruntled last night after Dave the boxer dog failed to be crowned Best in Show. The accolade went to 'Dylan The Villain', a Papillon owned by Kathleen Roosens, who also won first place in the Toy group on day four of the competition. Dave, from Banbury, Oxfordshire, was a firm favourite after topping a fan poll early in the Channel 4 show. But the six-year-old mutt didn't even make the cut for reserve Best in Show, losing out to hound Magic Mike, a Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen. Scroll down for video Dave the Boxer failed to be crowned Best in Show on the final day of Crufts last night, despite being a firm fan favourite Dave lost out to 'Dylan The Villain', a papillon owned by Kathleen Roosens who also won first place in the Toy group on day four of the competition Judge Dan Ericsson said he was 'spoilt for choice' when it came to choosing the winner, but his eyes were drawn to the 'beautiful' Papillon - the first of its breed to win the coveted title. Furious viewers took to Twitter to share their frustration - with many uploading snaps of their own Boxer dogs who looked 'saddened' by the wuff justice. It sparked the hashtag Justice For Dave, which was trending on the social media site last night. 'Dave was robbed,' wrote one angry fan, while another tweeted: 'Dave deserves better.' One Crufts viewer moaned: 'Should have been Dave. When will a "keeper" of big dogs judge the Best in Show? As soon as they said the judge keeps terriers - you ruled out the beautiful Boxer.' Dave came top of a viewer poll introduced by host Clare Balding, which asked people to tweet which dog should win Best in Show Many disgruntled fans took to Twitter to bemoan the result - and share pics of their Boxers who were also Team Dave Crufts fan Carys Whitehill shared an adorable snap of her pet Boxer watching the show, captioning the pic: 'Stupid dog show anyway' Viewer Helen MacDonald said she and her canine pal were off for a walk 'in disgust' after watching the result on Channel 4 Crufts 2019 Best in Show finalists Dylan - Papillon (Toy) - WINNER Mike Basset Griffon Vendeen (Petit) - RESERVE Luther Irish Water Spaniel (Gundog) Dave Boxer (Working) Charleen Samoyed (Pastoral) Eva Scottish Terrier (Terrier) Bearly - Shih Tzu (Utility) Advertisement Almost 28,000 dogs competed for just seven places in the shows finale, where each of the individual groups - Working, Gundog, Toy, Pastoral, Petit, Terrier and Utility - were represented. Dylan and Kathleen, who traveled from Belgium to compete, received a cash prize of 100 and a replica of the solid silver Keddall Memorial Trophy, named after Robert Keddall who was the show's manager for 30 years. Kathleen described Dylan as a 'crazy butterfly', adding: 'When all the dogs go outside, he is the one coming in all muddy, from head to toe.' But despite Dylan's incredible achievement, it was Dave who won the hearts of Crufts fans at home. The hashtag Justice for Dave was trending last night as dozens of viewers took to Twitter to express their disappointment at the result Dave's handler Mitch Griffiths said he 'couldn't believe it' when the pair won the Working Best in Group title on Friday. 'Weve never won the group at Crufts before Im completely overwhelmed,' he admitted. 'We bred him and he lives at home with us and his mum and dad. Last year Tease the Whippet, from Edinburgh, took home the Best in Show title. Mine Development Capital Costs ------------------------------------------------------------------ A$ million ------------------------------------------------------------------ - Process Equipment Upgrades 40.0 o Hydromet area 22.0 o Piping 6.0 o Flotation 6.0 o First fill reagents 3.0 o Ore sorting 3.0 - Tailings Storage Facility 3.0 Other major costs increases are: - Camp size increased from 240 to 380 beds 3.0 - Increase in Mining pre-stripping 2.8 - Services (water/earthworks/plant control) 13.0 - Spares & First Fills 1.6 - Indirects (labour/consultants) 42.0 - Others 9.5 Costs savings: - Airstrip/powerstation/gas pipeline/other 23.4 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Sydney, Mar 11, 2019 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Hastings Technology Metals Limited ( ASX:HAS ) ("Hastings" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that the board has approved the release of the updated capital cost estimate for the Yangibana Rare Earths mine to approximately A$427 million.- Board approves revised development capital cost of ~A$427M for the Yangibana rare earths mine.- Refinements to the Definitive Feasibility Study (November 2017) confirms project economics with a re-calculated NPV of A$447M.- Annual average free cash flow is estimated at A$137M.- Cost certainty increased with 54% of pre-production capital in lump sum and large fixed price contracts.- Board mandated change in process equipment supply to globally recognised Tier 1 companies capable of delivering performance guarantees and enhanced local support.- Construction certainty increased through engagement of DRA Pacific Pty Ltd, a multi-disciplinary global engineering group with established track record and experience in project delivery and capital cost estimates.- Scope to expand has been identified and preserved for the future.IntroductionThe mine located 270 kms north-east of Carnarvon in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia will be a robust, low cost and high cash generating asset with expansion potential that sets Hastings up for further growth poised to take advantage of the escalating electric vehicle (EV) market.Hastings Executive Chairman, Charles Lew said "Selection of global Tier 1 equipment suppliers, refinements of the process plant layout and changes to the tailings storage facility give further confidence in the constructability and operability of the project."Future expansion options have been enabled through process design improvements allowing further development of the largely unexplored tenement package.Project Capital CostSince the Definitive Feasibility Study (November 2017), the project NPV has decreased by 4% to A$447 million due to capital cost increases as a result of the board mandated decision to source, where possible, only Tier 1 process plant equipment suppliers with the capabilities to provide unrivalled equipment performance guarantees and field support and backup.Due to the approval and execution of newly approved large projects and expansions, pressure is being experienced within WA's construction labour workforce which has led to competition for specialist construction personnel and major growth in wages within this sector. The impact for Hastings has resulted in increased salary costs of approximately A$42 million dollars from the historically reported DFS position.Improvements to the mining schedule in bringing forward additional high-grade feed, higher consensus commodity prices arising from the rapid adoption of EV, and a lowering of the expected ramp-up period post construction have contributed to maintaining the NPV close to the DFS level.In February, Hastings announced substantial improvements in beneficiation recoveries to ~80% based on the second continuous flotation pilot plant test programme. In addition, through an operability assessment, the process plant layout has been redesigned and the footprint reduced mitigating further capital increases.These project value improvements more than offset and justify the increase in capital costs.Early contractor engagement started in H2 2018 with approval to commence early works and will continue through to H1 2021 with completion of construction, dependant on finalisation of project financing. Approximately 54% of pre-production capital costs is tied up in lump sum and fixed price procurement contracts either awarded or near finalisation with leading industry specialists and partners.Upon receipt of the final Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) approval, construction of the processing facility and other above ground infrastructure including the tailings storage facility is scheduled to commence in H2 2019.Over the last few months Hastings has recruited a number of skilled and highly experienced individuals into key operational roles, to implement construction and commissioning works and further review the project's value enhancements providing potential upside to capital and operating cost improvements.Construction will progress in two phases. This approach assists to reduce on-site construction personnel thereby enabling a 25 per cent reduction in the size of the camp.Phase one commenced in H2 2018 with early works approvals enabling some camp construction and access road clearing. The EPA permit process continues, and State and Federal Government departments are working to an agreed schedule, which should see the final Environmental Licenses granted by Q3 2019.The second phase, subject to the EPA permit approval, is scheduled to commence in Q3 2019. This phase includes construction of the processing plant and other above ground infrastructure, construction of the tailing's storage facility, power station and gas reticulation.There is strong local community and local business support, underpinned by a voluntary native title partnering agreement with the Thiin-Mah Warriyangka, Tharrkari and Jiwarli (TMWTJ) joint native title claim. This agreement was signed in November 2017.DRA Pacific Pty Ltd, a multi-disciplinary global engineering group has provided an updated Capital Cost estimate for the Access Road, Process Plant, Tailings Facility and associated services. This was done in consultation with various vendors, specialist consultants and Hastings personnel.Key Financial and Production MetricsNet Present Value (post-tax)*: ~A$447 millionInternal Rate of Return*: ~28%Project Payback (post tax): 2.6 yearsCapital Cost: ~A$427 millionPre-Production Capital**: ~A$413 millionAverage annual free cash flow (post tax): ~ A$137 millionMining production***: ~ 1.0 Mtpa oreMine Life: ~ 10+ yearsAnnual MREC production capacity: ~ 15,000tAnnual TREO production capacity: ~ 8,850tAnnual Nd2O3+Pr6O11 capacity: ~ 3,400t*Using Adamus Intelligence forward pricing, 8% real discount rate. Refer to Reserves Increase by 34% to 10.35Mt Covering 10 Years released on 29 January 2019.**Including A$32.8M in contingency, excluding A$14.1 million in sunk costs to January 31st, 2019.*** The production targets referred to in this announcement are based on Probable Ore Reserves. Refer to Reserves Increase by 34% to 10.35Mt Covering 10 Years released on 29 January 2019.Two phased construction projectThe two-phased work program is scheduled to occur in the following order;Phase 1: Enabling Infrastructure- Installation of the accommodation camp- Road access clearing- Airstrip certification- Finalising design work- Ordering of long lead time items- Offsite fabrication of plant- Approval of the EPA permits (which will enable phase 2)- Further near mine operational water drilling.Phase 2: Construction- Process plant- Mining offices and workshop- Camp to Plant Access Road- Bore field drilling and water abstraction- Communications network- Gas power station and gas pipelineCost and constructability certaintyCost certainty has increased with 54% of the total pre-production capital in lump sum and fixed price contracts near finalisation with experienced construction partners:- FLSmidth - Kiln- SAG/Regrind Mill - tier 1 supplier- Flotation cells - tier 1 supplierOther key work packages are:- TAPC/Tialoc - Off gas Scrubber- Fleetwood - purchase, transport and installation of the accommodation villageImprovements since DFSChanges made since the DFS to improve economics and manage risk include:- Reduced and optimised the plant footprint and layout, and added capacity for greater automation to improve productivity and lower costs;- Replacing 2 x mobile crushers, with 1 fixed jaw crusher;- Added a conveyor and live stockpile and refeed hopper giving up to 24 hours surge capacity, after crushing;- Redesigned TSF to better handle and accommodate slurry material;- Installed concentrate silos between beneficiation and hydromet area to give 3 days' live surge capacity to concentrate production and kiln feed;- Included allowance for Ore sorting technology;- Gas pipeline and power station - Build Own Operate and Maintain agreement including installation of an additional transmission line and substation being negotiatedDFS v Updated FS costsSince the DFS (November 2017) pre-production capital costs has increased by approximately A$91 million primarily accounted for by:RisksThere are risks specific to the Yangibana Project and risks which are relevant to the mining industry in general which may cause the project's actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or anticipated in this announcement. These are discussed in the Yangibana DFS released on 28 November 2017 which should be read in full together with this announcement.Risk mitigation- Airstrip - local agreement with pastoralist has been secured for airstrip access close to camp site which is capable of landing up to 70 seat aircraft. CASA certification has commenced;- Jaw Crusher - replacement of the mobile jaw crushers with fixed units- Kiln - purchase of a FLSmidth Kiln;- Extra Ore stockpiling - live feed storage capacity after jaw crusher and in silos after beneficiation;- Power station - 15 MW build own operate and maintain unit- Performance guarantees - strict performance guarantees with all major suppliersFuture growth optionalityThe future organic growth profile of the project has improved as a result of the design work and financial modelling being completed. The base case:- Excludes upside from any benefits derived from ore sorting;- Excludes optimisation of the mining schedule;- Excludes redesigning of the pits to reduce strip ratios;- Now sees a process flow sheet which can accommodate future expansion whilst reducing the overall footprint to reduce construction costs and facilitate maintenance access.To view the release with tables, please visit:About Hastings Technology Metals Ltd Hastings Technology Metals Ltd (ASX:HAS) (FRA:5AM) is advancing its Yangibana Rare Earths Project in the Upper Gascoyne Region of Western Australia towards production. The proposed beneficiation and hydro metallurgy processing plant will treat rare earths deposits, predominantly monazite, hosting high neodymium and praseodymium contents to produce a mixed rare earths carbonate that will be further refined into individual rare earth oxides at processing plants overseas. Neodymium and praseodymium are vital components in the manufacture of permanent magnets which is used in a wide and expanding range of advanced and high-tech products including electric vehicles, wind turbines, robotics, medical applications and others. Hastings aims to become the next significant producer of neodymium and praseodymium outside of China. Hastings holds 100% interest in the most significant deposits within the overall project, and 70% interest in additional deposits that will be developed at a later date, all held under Mining Leases. Numerous prospects have been identified warranting detailed exploration to further extend the life of the project. Brockman Project The Brockman deposit, near Halls Creek in Western Australia, contains JORC Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources, estimated using the guidelines of JORC Code (2012 Edition). The Company is also progressing a Mining Lease application over the Brockman Rare Earths and Rare Metals Project. Hastings aims to capitalise on the strong demand for critical rare earths created by the expanding demand for new technology products. A woman who is dating a man 13-and-a-half years her junior says they couldn't be happier, but admits she does fear their relationship changing as she ages. Allison Thomas, 43 from Folkestone in Kent, met her 29-year-old boyfriend, Marc Keen, in summer 2017 when he came to work as a temp staff at Premier Foods on the same line that she was on. She instantly had a soft spot for Marc and loved his sense of humour, smile and kind nature and work colleagues encouraged them to get together when she broke up with her then-boyfriend. The couple have since moved in together after eight months of dating and are talking about marriage. 'I know that he loves me as much as I love him and I know that we would never hurt each other,' Allison said. 'Marc is constantly reassuring me that he loves me for who I am, and that even when my body gets older he will still think I'm beautiful. Scroll down for video Allison Thomas, 43 from Kent, is planning to marry her 23-year-old boyfriend Marc Keen after a few months of dating, although she had a soft spot for him as soon as he joined her work one year prior The couple are currently living together and are excited for their future with one another, regardless of their 14-year age gap 'He loves me for who I am, so who am I to argue with that.' Both Allison and Marc's families are accepting of their relationship; Allison gets on well with Marc's mother, who is in a relationship with a man who is 10 years her junior and they are very happy together. When Allison first set eyes on Marc, she was dating someone else and did not act on her feelings. Then, Allison ended her relationship in April 2018 and her colleagues assured her Marc was crazy about her, and encouraged the pair of them to date. Allison's colleagues told her Marc was interested in dating her, but she did not believe their comments and thought they were all just joking with her Allison previously thought that Marc was innocently teasing her and had no idea he felt a romantic connection, but the pair went on a date two months later and have been inseparable ever since. The pair who have been together for eight months and now live together have plans to get married in future. Allison has admitted she worries she looks older than Marc, which has encouraged her to exercise more to keep in shape. Despite Allison's efforts, Marc has insisted none of this matters to him as he reassures her that he is in love with her every day, and says that he actually prefers to date a more mature woman. Allison felt an attraction towards Marc but because she was in a relationship she never acted on her feelings until she broke up with her former flame 'There is thirteen-and-a-half years between us. We met at work. At the time Marc was a temp and came to work on the same line that I was on,' said Allison. 'I was first attracted to Marc by his incredible smile and very kind heart. I instantly had a soft spot for him. 'I was in a relationship already then but it was very brief and I ended it in April 2018. 'After this, some of our work colleagues actively encouraged our relationship as they already knew that Marc was crazy about me. Just months after breaking up with her ex in April, Allison started dating her beau in June, and the pair have been 'inseparable' ever since 'I really didn't have a clue that he felt like that and just thought that he was teasing me up until then. 'We started dating in June. He said he fell in love with me the minute he saw me and knew that I was the woman he had always dreamed of. 'Myself and Marc are extremely happy and totally in love. We have been together for eight months and now live together. We plan to get married in the near future. 'People don't really question us when we are together as I think they just see how happy we are and are pleased for us. 'Sometimes I worry about me getting old or looking old, but Marc actually prefers older women and I try to keep in the best shape possible. Allison has admitted on social media she has been 'slated' about her age, but she is trying not to let harsh comments phase her as she insists she is 'proud' of her relationship in heartfelt Instagram post Allison has met Marc's family and their relatives, as well as work colleagues, are happy the couple are dating one another Now Allison and Marc are an official item, the couple's colleagues don't comment on their relationship. Allison believes people can't help who they fall in love with, but she feels lucky she has found her soulmate in Marc. 'We have had a few comments along the way from people at work but nothing really that major if I'm honest,' said Allison. 'Work colleagues don't really comment on our relationship much now, some just ignore us. The couple often share sweet selfies of them together on social media, using hashtags such as #ageisjustanumbe, #agegaprelationship and #olderwomenyoungermen because they are 'proud' of their love 'The fact of it is, and the message we want to get across, is that age is just a number and love doesn't discriminate. 'I'm proud of our relationship, proud of our love and this man tells me every day he loves me, so why should I care what people think? 'We have the best times together whether we are out for a meal or just going for a walk. 'We both feel like we are made for each other and he truly is my soulmate.' Harry and Meghan kicked off Commonwealth Day with a visit to Canada House in London earlier this morning The Queen, 92, and Camilla, 71 both arrived in a deep purple ensemble and accessorised with pearls Commonwealth Day service also attended by the Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, and the Duke of York Kate, 37, and Meghan, 37, were all smiles as they arrived alongside William, 36, and Harry, 34 on Monday The Duchess of Cambridge and Duchess of Sussex reunited in public for the second time since Christmas Day Advertisement It was a royal reunion for Kate and Meghan today as the two Duchesses attended the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey, and were seen greeting each other with a friendly kiss on both cheeks. Kate and her pregnant sister-in-law, both 37, exchanged the warm greeting as they gathered at the entrance with other senior royals, awaiting the arrival of the Queen and Prince Charles. It is the second joint engagement for the pair in under a week, coming just days after they attended a reception to mark the 50th anniversary of Prince Charles' investiture as Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace. Meghan was among the first to arrive, and looked elegant in a bespoke all-white ensemble by Victoria Beckham, complete with a chain-print dress, coat, bag and shoes, believed to have cost 9,000. It was a stark contrast to the bottle green Erdem wool dress and coat - also estimated to have cost 9,000 - that she donned when she visited Canada House in London with Prince Harry earlier today, bringing the total cost of her outfits for the day to 18,000. Meanwhile, the Duchess of Cambridge looked very much the lady in red in a recycled Catherine Walker coat and matching dress, which she previously wore in New Zealand in 2014, and a Lock & Co. Hatters hat. After meeting with dignitaries outside, the royal pair shared the friendly greeting as they took their seats, suggesting a thawing of their rumoured frosty relationship. The Commonwealth represents 53 countries and almost 2.4 billion people and 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth, enabling cooperation towards social, political and economic development. In her message released ahead of Commonwealth Day, the head of state has praised how the family of nations inspires its member states to find ways of protecting the planet and its citizens. Kate and Meghan attended the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey, and were seen greeting each other with a friendly kiss on both cheeks. It is the second joint engagement for the pair in under a week, coming just days after they attended a reception to mark the 50th anniversary of Prince Charles' investiture as Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace We're matching! The Duchess and Clean Bandit singer Grace Chatto were wearing matching shades, although the popstar's ruffled outfit was rather more extravagant No bad blood here! Kate and Meghan exchanged smiles as they chatted ahead of the Commonwealth Day service, which they attended with their husbands Prince William and Prince Harry The Duke and duchess of Cambridge stood with the duke and Duchess of Sussex during the service today. This year's theme 'A Connected Commonwealth,' speaks of the practical value and global engagement made possible as a result of cooperation between the culturally diverse and widely dispersed family of nations, who work together in friendship and goodwill Stylish sisters-in-law: Kate and Meghan both looked elegant in their designer ensembles and seemed to shrug off any hint of ill feeling as they engaged in a friendly chat The Queen opted for a bold purple ensemble as she donned a matching hat and coat which she completed with a silver jewelled brooch and a patent black bag (above) While brothers Prince Harry and Prince William engaged in conversation, the Duchess of Sussex held her burgeoning bump as she had a giggle with Prince Charles - who donned a smart pinstripe suit Solemnity and smiles! The Duchess of Cambridge looked reflective, while pregnant Meghan was cheerful as the group awaited the arrival of the Queen at Westminster Abbey The Queen leads the Royal family in procession in Westminster Abbey during the Commonwealth day service Striking! The Duchess looked elegant as she gave a final wave to well-wishers before departing Meghan, 37 and Prince Harry, 34, were amongst the first to arrive. They joined other members of The Royal Family at the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey today Meghan, who is expecting her first baby in late April, looked glowing in a cream chain-print Victoria Beckham dress and jacquard coat Delighted Kate accepted a beautiful posy of flowers while William shook hands with a youngster representing the Scouts as they left Westminster Abbey The Queen clutched a colourful bouquet of flowers as she headed outside with the order of service clutched in her arms Happy couple! The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were all smiles as they made their way into Westminster Abbey The Duchess of Cambridge opted for her classic go-to suede stiletto heels and managed to keep her hat firmly on her head - unlike Prime Minister Theresa May who was almost blown away by a strong gust of wind Millions of people are 'drawn together' because of the collective values shared by the institution, the Queen said in her address to the countries of the Commonwealth. The written message was featured in the order of service for the annual Commonwealth Day service and was seen to hail the value of international co-operation in what is likely to be interpreted as another royal remark on Brexit. The Queen, who has been the Head of the Commonwealth, throughout her reign, said: 'In April last year, I welcomed the leaders of our 53 nations to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, and we all witnessed how the Commonwealth vision offers hope, and inspires us to find ways of protecting our planet, and our people. 'We are able to look to the future with greater confidence and optimism as a result of the links that we share, and thanks to the networks of co-operation and mutual support to which we contribute, and on which we draw. 'With enduring commitment through times of great change, successive generations have demonstrated that whilst the goodwill for which the Commonwealth is renowned may be intangible, its impact is very real.' Close bond: The Duchess of Sussex and her father-in-law Prince Charles were seen deep in conversation before the service started Members of the royal family held the order of service book on their laps as they watched on during the service Members of Britain's Royal family left after attending the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey in London earlier today The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were all smiles as they made their way inside for the service at Westminster Abbey. Wearing four rows of pearls around her neck, Camilla opted for the same deep purple as the Queen It was like a mirror image when it came to the outfit choices of the Queen and Camilla earlier today. Both donned a deep purple jacket which finished below the knee. The Dean greeted Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of York as they arrived on a very windy Monday afternoon The Duchess of Cambridge stands with the Duchess of Sussex at Westminster Abbey for a Commonwealth day service, making the 70th anniversary of the union of 53 nations William and Camilla looked in good spirits as they appeared to share a joke ahead of the service at Westminster Abbey Glamorous Kate put her best foot forward in a striking scarlet coat and dress by ryal favourite Catherine Walker The pair couldn't keep the grins off their faces as they joined senior members of the royal family and leading figures from national life at the Commonwealth Day service today Something in the distance caught the attention of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge as they headed inside to Westminster Abbey Kate accessorised her smart red for with a Lock and Co Hatters hat and wore her hair neatly tied back to prevent it blowing in the wind The Duchess of Cambridge clutched a colourful bouquet of flowers as she spoke to a young well-wisher as she departed the Commonwealth Service Donning a black pair of black velvet gloves, the Queen clasped a bright bouquet and the order of service book as she leftthe service this afternoon Prime Minister Theresa May, who also spent her afternoon at Westminster Abbey marking Commonwealth Day alongside the Queen, read a passage from the Bible that could be viewed as significant to Brexit. Reading from Corinthians 12: 14-26, she told the congregation: 'The body does not consist of one member but of many... If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.' Her 11th hour dash came as EU sources said ambassadors of the 27 member states were told a deal over the Irish backstop had been done with Britain on Saturday - but was rejected by ministers 24 hours later. The Queen was joined at the Commonwealth Day service by Prince Harry, Prince William, Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke of York and the Prince of Wales. Lonely figure: Prime Minister Theresa May waits to give a reading at the Westminster Abbey Commonwealth day service. Other guests among the 2,000-strong congregation included the Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Scotland, alongside high commissioners, ambassadors, faith leaders and more than 800 schoolchildren and young people, and Theresa May. Theresa May's VERY pertinent reading Prime Minister Theresa May also spent her afternoon at Westminster Abbey today marking Commonwealth Day alongside the Queen, and read a passage from the Bible that could be viewed as significant to Brexit Reading from Corinthians 12: 14-26, she told the congregation: 'The body does not consist of one member but of many... If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it. May's 11th hour dash came as EU sources said ambassadors of the 27 member states were told a deal over the Irish backstop had been done with Britain on Saturday - but was rejected by ministers 24 hours later Advertisement The Prime Minister made a bold statement in a blue patterned coat and coordinated hat and heels, as she tackled the cobbles during her arrival - and finished the look with a gold cuff and colourful pebble necklace. Meanwhile, the Queen and Camilla, 71, both donned a similar deep purple ensemble with matching statement hats and pearl accessories for the service. The Queen's rich purple coat and dress with velvet trimming was by Angela Kelly, which she completed with an Amethyst shield brooch, while Camilla opted for a Bruce Oldfield suit and Philip Treacy hat. Commonwealth Day has a special significance this year, as 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth - a global network of 53 countries and almost 2.4 billion people. The theme for this year's service was 'A Connected Commonwealth' which highlights the co-operation between the culturally diverse family of nations who work together in friendship. The beautiful bright flowers which adorned the Abbey represent the 53 Commonwealth nations, while female British Mauritian dancers based in London who enjoy performing Sega, a joyful and lively expression of the Mauritian way of life, performed outside the Abbey ahead of the royal arrivals. Highlights of the service included performances by Grammy-winning group Clean Bandit and tenor Alfie Boe. The Duchess of Cambridge admired the dress worn by Grace Chatto of the group 'Clean Bandit,' who entertained royalty with the song 'Symphony.' Holding a silk green clutch in her left hand which coordinated with her shoes, Meghan leaned forward and engaged in conversation with a young girl who was dressed all in red The mother-to-be shook hands with one of the many well-wishers who waited outside as she left the ceremony this afternoon Queen Elizabeth II was pictured holding some pretty posies which matched the shade of her bold outfit As Prince William engaged in conversation with the Prince of Wales, Meghan watched on as Kate and Camilla also exchanged words inside the Abbey Camilla's velvet knot-tie coat blew open in the wind before she made her way inside with the Prince of Wales Prime Minister Theresa May opted for a bold blue look as she arrived today. She donned a blue patterned coat and coordinated with her hat and heels - and finished the look with a gold cuff and colourful pebble necklace Meghan's 18K day of Commonwealth engagements The Duchess of Sussex continued her high-end designer parade as she arrived at Westminster Abbey in bespoke Victoria Beckham, bringing her outfit tally for the day to an estimated 18,000. At Canada House this morning Meghan wore a custom-made green embellished coat and matching dress by Canadian designer Erdem, estimated by celebrity stylist Lucas Armitage to have cost around 8,000. Meghan teamed the look with a Givenchy clutch, 568 Maison Birks opal earrings and a 363 Kismet by Milka bracelet, bringing the total cost of the stylish outfit to almost 9,000. She then performed a quick outfit change, donning a chain-print Victoria Beckham dress and matching accessories from the same designer. While Victoria Beckham does not usually create bespoke pieces, Lucas believes the coat alone is worth an estimated 4,000 and the dress 3,000, plus a further 2,000 for the custom bag and shoes - bringing the total to 9,000. Earlier today, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, in their new roles at the forefront of the 'family of nations,' visited Canada House in London at an event to showcase and celebrate the diverse community of young Canadians in the UK earlier today. Meghan, who is eight months pregnant, paid tribute to Canadian design in a Erdem coat and matching dress, teamed with 485 Aquazzura pumps, as she arrived at Trafalgar Square with Prince Harry this morning. The bottle green wool number, featuring black beaded detail on the cuffs and collar, is a custom piece inspired by a look from Montreal-born Erdem Moralioglu's Autumn/ Winter 2019 collection. Protective father-to-be Harry guided his pregnant wife out of the car and onto the curb, before Meghan put an affectionate arm on his back as the couple made their way into the building. The duke and duchess, who are expecting their first child next month, took part in the Canadian spring tradition of making maple taffy (maple syrup cooled on snow to make sweets) as part of a traditional cabane a sucre (sugar shack). Before departing, they were given gifts for Baby Sussex; a 14.29 Canadian maple leaf baby bodysuit from Hop & Moo and a pair of 42.86 Manitobah Mukluks infant moccasins. The Duke and Duchess arrive at Canada House. Los Angeles native Meghan lived in Canada, her 'second home', for over six years while filming for legal drama Suits in Toronto and has previously said she feels 'very connected' to the country Harry guided his pregnant wife out of the car and onto the curb (left) before Meghan, wearing an eye-catching Erdem number, put a tender hand on her husband's back as the entered the building (right) Harry and Meghan, who are expecting their first child, meet young people who demonstrate a Canadian spring tradition of making maple taffy (maple syrup cooled on snow to make sweets), but it is not clear if they tried some themselves A gift for Baby Sussex! Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Janice Charette, second left, presents Harry and Meghan with presents for their new arrival including a maple leaf babygro and a pair of boots before they leave The duke and duchess are saluted by two members of the Canadian Royal Mounted Police as they leave the Canadian High Commission with Canadian High Commissioner to London Janice Charette (second left) on Monday afternoon Advertisement A reflection was given by Lewis Pugh, an endurance swimmer, ocean advocate and the UN Patron of the Oceans. As Kate left the special service, she engaged in conversation with a young girl who appeared to show off something on her colourful T-shirt. Meanwhile, Meghan clutched her silk green bag and a bright bouquet of flowers in one hand, and leaned forward and shook hands with a well-wisher with the other. Later in the evening, Charles and Camilla will be guests of the Commonwealth Secretary-General at the annual reception which traditionally takes place on Commonwealth Day at Marlborough House, the home of the Commonwealth Secretariat, the institution's civil service. Bumping along nicely! Meghan showcased her baby bump in a cream dress by Victoria Beckham William gave his wife an admiring smile as they made their way into Westminster Abbey Her Majesty looked striking as always in a bright purple coat with a matching flower-trimmed hat The Duke and Duchess of Sussex sweetly held hands as they made their way to the service Harry and Meghan waved to wellwishers as she and Harry departed the service. Meghan looked elegant in a white pillbox hat and Victoria Beckham coat US Ambassador Robert Wood Johnson (above) was engaged in conversation as he made his way into Westminster Abbey for the service Lady in red! Grace Chatto (left), the cellist for Clean Bandit, was joined by other band members Jack and Luke Patterson. They will perform during the service later today - along with the likes of the talented Alfie Boe The Queen is known for standing out from the crowd in vibrantly coloured outfits, and today the monarch had competition from her daughter-in-law Camilla who opted for a matching shade. Both royals looked as if they had colour co-ordinated their outfits for the Commonwealth Day at London's Westminster Abbey today as they arrived in deep purple shades. The 92-year-old monarch donned a deep purple button-down jacket, with a matching skirt underneath. Prince Charles' wife sported a long purple velvet coat for the occasion, which boasted button detail down the front of the garment, and puff shoulders, similar to the Queen's outfit. Queen Elizabeth II stuns in regal purple ensemble for the Commonwealth Day Service, which was held at London's Westminster Abbey today Duchess Camilla - the Queen's daughter-in-law - followed suit and colour co-ordinated with the monarch as she wore a purple outfit to the annual ceremony The Queen - who is the head of the Commonwealth - continued the regal colour scheme through to her accessories, as she wore a purple hat with floral decoration on the front, as well as a diamond and amethyst brooch on her left side. She also wore a pair of black court shoes, gloves and handbag for the annual ceremony. Duchess Camilla, 71, followed suit - and right down to the accessories as well. Camilla also completed her look with a purple hat to match. During the service the Queen stood just one place in front of Duchess Camilla. The pair both opted for purple ensembles, which is often associated with royalty nobility and power She too kept her accessories classic and minimalist wearing a pair of black leather gloves, as well as a black satchel-style bag, much like the Queen' trusty Launer handbag. Camilla also wore a pair of pearl drop down earrings for her appearance, but she went the extra mile by opting for a triple strand pearl necklace with a diamond encrusted emblem in the centre. The main difference between their outfits is the Queen opted for nude tights, while Camilla opted for black hosiery. The 92-year-old monarch kept the purple colour scheme going as she wore a purple hat, which had purple flower detail on the front to match, as well as a diamond and amethyst brooch The Queen kept her look classy wearing a pair of black gloves, shoes and a black handbag, which Camilla also wore Camilla attended the annual event with her husband Prince Charles by the side. Camilla had her long purple coat buttoned half way to show off her purple dress underneath The Duchess of Cornwall also accessorised with a purple hat and black accessories for the outing today. Camilla was seen wearing pearl jewellery, similar to the Queen The Commonwealth represents 53 countries and almost 2.4 billion people and 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth, enabling cooperation towards social, political and economic development. Commonwealth Day has a special significance this year, as 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth - a global network of 53 countries and almost 2.4 billion people. The theme for this year's service is 'A Connected Commonwealth' which highlights the co-operation between the culturally diverse family of nations who work together in friendship. In the Queen's message to mark Commonwealth Day, the head of state has praised how the family of nations inspires its member states to find ways of protecting the planet and its citizens. Millions of people are 'drawn together' because of the collective values shared by the institution, the Queen says in her address to the countries of the Commonwealth. The written message is featured in the order of service for the annual Commonwealth Day service being held at Westminster Abbey. While the Queen opted for neutral colour tights, Camilla decided on a pair of black sheer tights for the ceremony today The Queen has been head of the Commonwealth throughout her reign, and in her speech earlier today she insisted the future is looking great and she is 'optimistic' In her message, she said: 'In April last year, I welcomed the leaders of our 53 nations to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, and we all witnessed how the Commonwealth vision offers hope, and inspires us to find ways of protecting our planet, and our people. 'We are able to look to the future with greater confidence and optimism as a result of the links that we share, and thanks to the networks of co-operation and mutual support to which we contribute, and on which we draw. 'With enduring commitment through times of great change, successive generations have demonstrated that whilst the goodwill for which the Commonwealth is renowned may be intangible, its impact is very real.' The Queen and Camilla were joined at the Commonwealth Day service by grandsons Prince Harry and Prince William, as well as their partners Duchess of Cornwall and the Duchess of Sussex. They enjoy a famously close relationship, and there could be little doubt of the bond between the Duchess of Sussex and her father-in-law Prince Charles at Westminster Abbey today. The pair were captured enjoying a giggling exchange as they arrived alongside other senior royals for the Commonwealth Day service. Mother-to-be Meghan, 37, who is eight months pregnant, looked animated as she spoke to the Duke of Cornwall, 70, along the receiving line at the Abbey. After a few moments Charles made a comment that made his daughter-in-law giggle, although it is not known what was said. Meghan and Charles were captured enjoying a giggling exchange as they arrived alongside other senior royals for the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey today Mother-to-be Meghan, 37, who is eight months pregnant, looked animated as she spoke to the Duke of Cornwall, 70, along the receiving line at the Abbey. After a few moments Charles made a comment that made his daughter-in-law giggle, pictured The sweet moment prompted an outpouring from royal fans on Twitter, with one declaring the pair their 'favourite duo' The sweet moment prompted an outpouring from royal fans on Twitter, with one declaring the pair their 'favourite duo'. One tweeted: 'One can perfectly see they get along like daughter and father, no doubt about that.' Another added: 'I love watching Duchess Meghan and Prince Charles interact'. A third wrote: 'Prince Charles and Meghans relationship is so precious.' The Duke of Sussex, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Andrew all joined the Queen for the special service today. The Duchess of Sussex, dressed in a white hat, coat and Victoria Beckham dress, beamed as she spoke to the Duke of Cornwall at Westminster Abbey Prince Charles appeared to crack a joke that left his daughter-in-law giggling, pictured Royal supporters were thrilled at the display of affection between Charles and Meghan today Meghan was among the first to arrive, and looked elegant in an all-white ensemble, complete with a chain-print Victoria Beckham dress, bag and shoes. Meanwhile, the Duchess of Cambridge looked very much the lady in red in a recycled Catherine Walker coat and matching dress, which she previously wore in New Zealand in 2014. Once inside, the royals spent time greeting each other before taking their seats. Meghan could be seen holding her bag as she gestured while speaking to Charles. Meghan, 37 and Prince Harry, 34, were amongst the first to arrive. They joined other members of The Royal Family at the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey today Lady in red! The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrived shortly after Meghan and Harry. Kate opted for a recycled Catherine Walker coat and dress, which she previously wore in 2014 The Queen opted for a bold purple ensemble as she donned a matching hat and coat which she completed with a silver jeweled broach and a patent black bag (above) The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were all smiles as they made their way inside for the service at Westminster Abbey. Wearing four rows of pearls around her neck, Camilla opted for the same deep purple as the Queen She then laughed warmly at her father-in-law's light-hearted aside. It comes days after a report emerged that suggested Charles has been acting as Meghan's 'mentor' by educating her on royal and constitutional history. 'The Duchess has shown a genuine interest in learning more about the history of the family she has married into, and her father-in-law has been delighted to impart his knowledge,' a source told the Daily Telegraph. Jeremy Kyle is chased by a knife-wielding thug on tonight's episode of The Kyle Files which investigates the epidemic rise in moped muggings in the UK. The TV presenter, 53, meets with gang members in a London park to discuss their criminal activity and whether they ever stop to consider the impact they have on their victims. But as they talk, they're ambushed by a rival gang and a fight soon breaks out, during which one of the men is knocked out. Jeremy and his crew flee the scene after realising one gang member chasing after them is carrying a knife. Scroll down for video Jeremy Kyle is chased by a knife-wielding thug in tonight's episode of The Kyle Files, which investigates the rise of moped muggings 'I guess you'd say that turned a bit nasty,' Jeremy concedes. 'They were not happy.' Prior to the interruption, one moped mugger admits he's been an active criminal since the age of 11, after someone showed him how to steal and start a bike. 'It's a quick way of making money,' he says, adding he makes between 100 and 1,000 a pop. The hooded criminal admits his family aren't aware of his criminal behaviour. Moped crime has been described as an epidemic, with the number of incidents increasing 30-fold over the last five years. It's rife in cities all over the UK but is particularly prevalent in London, with 60 moped attacks a day on average. A massive spike in 2017 saw 23,477 moped crimes carried out in London alone. The figure dropped significantly last year, but it's still a huge problem. While most of the crimes are robberies, some do turn into violent attacks - as mum Jan Pearce knows only too well. Her son Danny, 31, was fatally stabbed 15 times on July 15, 2017 by two thugs on a moped who wanted his Rolex. He had just left a nightclub in Greenwich with his girlfriend at around 1am when the muggers targeted them and attacked Danny when he refused to give up his watch. Jeremy speaks to gang members in a London park about their crimes when they're ambushed by a rival gang The host and his crew flee to the safety of their car after realising one of the thugs on their tail is carrying a knife 'I wished that he hadn't put up a fight, but they wanted his watch, and they got it - and they took my son as well,' says Jan, breaking down in tears. 'I had to go to the mortuary and identify him. I just wanted to hold him, to cuddle him, but I saw him through a window and he had his face towards me, because they didn't want me to see the stab marks in his neck.' One of the attackers was given a life sentence, but the other is yet to be caught. 'When people fight these days it's not like they used to, they used to fight with their fists,' Jan warns. The gang members Jeremy speaks to refuse to reveal their identity and admit their families aren't aware of their crimes 'But nowadays they take these weapons with them. People are just frightened to go out now, I'm frightened for my family to go out; it really scares me.' Later in the show Jeremy speaks to 51-year-old Kirat Nandra, who was mugged by moped thieves as she walked home in Highgate, North London in September 2017. She suffered broken ribs, a fractured bone in her hand, concussion and post-traumatic stress disorder. 'The next thing I know I'm being dragged,' she recalls. Dad Danny Pearce, 31, was stabbed 15 times by moped muggers after refusing to give them his Rolex watch when they ambushed him on his way home from a nightclub in Greenwich 'I don't know if I was knocked out, I assume I was, but what I do know is two youths were on a moped. They mounted the pavement. 'I had a leather jacket with big zips. The handles of the bag got caught on the zips and they dragged me and they wouldn't let me go and I got caught up in the back wheel. 'Somehow I managed to twist my body and pull my arm free of the bag, and they fled.' She adds: 'I was terrified, I won't deny that, and for a long time I was terrified because I knew they were still out there.' Kirat is now working with kids on community projects to try to stop them falling into a life of crime. Jeremy joins the Met Police on a tactical patrol to witness first-hand the measures they're taking to fight back. Jeremy joins the Met Police on a tactical patrol to witness first-hand the measures they're taking to fight back Lee Hill, a top detective in charge of getting moped muggers off the streets, says these days this sort of daily patrol is 'business as usual' for them. He explains: 'It's become the preferred mode of transport for criminals because they're flexible, they can whizz in and out of the traffic, mount the pavements. 'They will make every effort to evade our efforts to detain them.' Speaking about the controversial tactical contact method, where suspects are driven into and knocked off their bikes, he says: 'Yes it's robust what we're doing, but at the same time it's measured, calculated and I think it's needed.' The Kyle Files airs tonight on ITV1 at 8pm. A former bullying victim was moved to tears after his classmates surprised him with a new pair of sneakers and clothes because they noticed he had been having a hard time. Azrael Robinson, a 15-year-old student at LaVergne High School in La Vergne, Tennessee, was visibly touched when two of his fellow ninth-graders presented him with gifts to cheer him up. 'We got you some stuff because of how generous you are and everything you do,' Azrael's classmate Kerolos Girgis told him. Touched: Azrael Robinson, a 15-year-old student at LaVergne High School in La Vergne, Tennessee, was moved to tears after his classmates surprised him with gifts to cheer him up A video of the heartwarming moment was shared on Facebook, where it has been viewed more than a million times. When Azrael unwrapped his first gift and saw the Nike sneakers his classmates had chipped in to buy him, he threw his hands over his face and started to cry. 'This is nothing Azie,' Kerolos assured him. 'All the stuff you've done for everyone in the class, you deserve way more than this.' 'Thank you,' Azrael replied. 'I really appreciate it.' The class laughed when Kerolos joked that Azrael was going to make everyone start crying with his reaction. Thoughtful: The ninth-grader's classmates had noticed that he was going through a hard time and chipped him to get him new sneakers and clothes Heart of gold: 'We got you some stuff because of how generous you are and everything you do,' Azrael's classmate Kerolos Girgis told him Before he was given his second present, Azrael's teacher told him that his classmates got him gifts 'because they love you, and they are appreciative of everything you do for them.' Dylan Norton, another student at the school, then gave Azrael a stack of clothes and a hat, explaining that his mother got them years ago and the tags were still on them, but he and his brother could never fit into them. After Azrael thanked them again, Dylan and Kerolos gave him a hug. The touching video was shared by Stephanie V. Myers, who explained that her younger sister had sent her the clip. 'Today, my little sister sent me a video of what they did for one of their classmates, thats having a hard time. They all got together and bought him some shoes, and also donated clothes to this kid,' she wrote. Act of kindness: Sonji Newman, the students' biology teacher, explained that Azrael often goes out of his way to help his classmates, and they wanted to return the favor Emotional moment: When Azrael unwrapped his first gift and saw the Nike sneakers his classmates had chipped in to buy him, he threw his hands over his face and started to cry More to come: Dylan Norton, another student at the school, then gave Azrael a stack of clothes and a hat, explaining that his mother got them years ago and the tags were still on them 'This video is so emotional & filled with love. You just never know what kids go through, but its kids like them, that gives us hope.' After the clip went viral, Stephanie returned to Facebook to explain that Azrael's gifts didn't have anything to do with financial hardship. 'He is a really sweet kid & will drop anything to help anyone,' she wrote. 'The kids did a sweet thing a blessed him & to show their appreciation to him. Hes been having rough days, so they wanted to cheer him up!' Sonji Newman, the students' biology teacher, told Today that two of Azrael's classmates spoke to her last week about doing something nice for him. In addition to the new sneakers and clothes, the students also collected a little bit of money to give to him. The teacher explained that Azrael often goes out of his way to assist others, whether it is helping one of his classmates understand something or telling a student who is feeling down that everything is going to be okay. So sweet: Azrael, who was bullied at his former school, was visibly touched by the gesture Amazing: After Azrael thanked them again, Dylan and Kerolos gave him a hug. The heartwarming Facebook video has been viewed more than a million times 'They just wanted to give to him to make him feel better about himself,' the teacher said, noting that she has never seen such a pure act of kindness in the classroom in her 20 years as a teacher. '[Azrael] was so grateful and so full of love. He just appreciated it so much.' The teen's mother, Traci Robinson, was also moved to tears after hearing what happened. She told Today that she was initially worried when her son got into their car and started to cry because he had been bullied at his former school. However, Azreal explained that his classmates had gone out of their way to try and cheer him up. 'Even just knowing that this had happened, I bawled all the way home,' the mom said. Eagle-eyed royal fans were quick to notice that the Duchess of Sussex wasn't wearing her engagement ring as she attended royal functions with Prince Harry in London today. Meghan, 37, who is expecting her first child with the Duke of Sussex, 34, in late April, was photographed wearing only her wedding ring during a visit to Canada House and Westminster Abbey. It is thought to be a sign of her advanced pregnancy, as many women find their fingers swell too much to wear their favourite jewellery. The stunning engagement ring, which was designed by her husband, features three diamonds - one a single solitaire from Botswana and two from his mother Diana's personal collection, set on a yellow gold band. The Duchess of Sussex (above) was pictured without her engagement ring today as she attended a Commonwealth Day Youth Event at Canada House with Prince Harry. It is widely believed that the mother-to-be's fingers may be swelling due to the late stage of her pregnancy Meghan was still wearing her wedding ring, which is made of rare Welsh gold, and was gifted to the couple by The Queen. She also sported a simple gold wedding ring on her left thumb Despite ditching her engagement ring, Meghan didn't go completely without as she still donned her wedding band, which is made of rare Welsh gold and was gifted to the expectant parents by The Queen. Pregnant Meghan also sported a simple gold ring on her left thumb during Mondays outings. With swelling a very common side affect of pregnant, it is quite possible that the Duchess, who is eight months gone, is finding it harder and harder to wear jewels as her due date nears. The common condition, which is known as oedema, usually affects the legs, feet and ankles of pregnant women, but it can also spread to their fingers. Meghan attended Westminster Abbey this afternoon, donning a chain-print Victoria Beckham dress and matching accessories from the same designer. The entire ensemble and accessories are estimated to be worth 9,000 Prince Harry and Meghan received baby gifts from Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Janice Charette when they attended a Commonwealth Day youth event at Canada House in London earlier today As the baby grows, its womb presses against the mother's blood vessels in her pelvis, which affects a large vein on the right-hand side, called the inferior vena cava. The pressure of the baby and womb slows blood circulation in that area and causes the blood to pool, which forces water down into feet and ankles. The swelling can become even worse as the days goes by, as the build-up of water increases gravity and draws it downwards. Towards the end of the pregnancy the swelling can reach the hands, causing rings to become tighter around the fingers. The royal couple were all smiles after the announcement of their engagement on 27 November 2017. Pictured, Meghan's sparkling engagement ring designed by her husband The Duchess of Sussex's engagement ring features three diamonds - one a single solitaire from Botswana and two from his mother Diana's personal collection, which is set on a yellow gold band But while there was one accessory clearly missing, Meghan still stunned in a custom-made green embellished coat and matching dress by Canadian designer Erdem as she arrived at Canada House this morning. She was joined by Prince Harry as they spoke with young Canadians from a wide range of sectors including fashion, the arts, business and academia. The Duchess of Sussex teamed the bottle green ensemble, which is estimated to have cost around 8, 000, with a Givenchy clutch, 568 Maison Birks opal earrings and a 363 Kismet by Milka bracelet, bringing the total to almost 9,000. After a quick outfit change, the mother-to-be opted for a chain-print Victoria Beckham dress and wore matching accessories from the same designer as she attended the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey. Commonwealth Day has a special significance this year, as 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth - a global network of 53 countries and almost 2.4 billion people. While Victoria Beckham doesn't usually create bespoke pieces, it is believed Meghan's coat alone is worth an estimated 4,000 and the dress 3,000, plus a further 2,000 for the custom bag and shoes - bringing the total to 9,000. The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall arrived at a reception at Marlborough House, the home of the Commonwealth Secretariat, following the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey this afternoon. Charles, 70, and Camilla, 71, were guests of the Commonwealth Secretary-General at the annual event which traditionally takes place on Commonwealth Day. The royal pair were all smiles as they arrived arm-in-arm before they headed inside, where they shared a joke with an array of other attendees, including former Prime Minister John Major and Baroness Patricia Scotland. And it seemed like purple was the colour of the day for the royal, as she traded in her earlier outfit for another deep-coloured tiered dress - and completed the look with a zig zag scarf. Just hours after attending the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey this afternoon, the Prince of Wales, 70, and the Duchess of Cornwall, 71, were guests of the Commonwealth Secretary-General at the annual event which traditionally takes place on Commonwealth Day It seemed like purple was the colour of the day for Camilla, who arrived wearing another alternative shade for the reception Prince Charles' wife accessorised her outfit with silver hoop earrings and the same pearl necklace she wore earlier. Adding a pair of black patent heels and sheer black tights to ward off the chilly weather conditions, she held onto her husband's arms as she walked up the stairs and headed into the venue. Meanwhile, Charles, who celebrated the 50th anniversary of his Investiture last week with a royal gathering at Buckingham Palace, looked smart as he threw a smart black jacket over a blue pin-striped suit. Following his arrival, the Prince of Wales greeted Baroness Patricia Scotland, who opted for a gold and black patterned dress, at the reception with a warm handshake and kiss on both cheeks. After exiting the black chauffeur-driven car, Camilla clutched her black bag in her left hand before making her way inside to the reception Prince Charles greeted Baroness Patricia Scotland at the Commonwealth Day reception at Marlborough House this evening Prince Charles, who celebrated the 50th anniversary of his Investiture at Buckingham Palace last week, offered a firm handshake to John Major The Prince of Wales, who donned a smart pin-stripe suit, shared a joke with former Prime Minister John Major as he clutched a drink in his left hand The royal pair engaged in conversation with another guest as they arrived at a reception at Marlborough House, the home of the Commonwealth Secretariat, this evening Camilla flashed a grin to the camera as she mingled with guests at the evening reception - of which she and Charles were guests of honour He was also pictured sharing a joke with former Prime Minister John Major as he sipped on his drink which was filled with ice and a slice of lime. Just hours earlier, Camilla and the Queen donned similar deep purple outfits for the service at Westminster Abbey, which marked the 70th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth, enabling cooperation towards social, political and economic development. Looking a mirror image, they even coordinated their knee-length ensembles with matching statement hats and pearl accessories. While the Queen opted for a rich purple coat and dress with velvet trimming by Angela Kelly, Camilla donned a Bruce Oldfield suit and Philip Treacy hat. The Commonwealth is a global network of 53 countries and almost 2.4 billion people, a third of the world's population, of whom 60 percent are under 30 years old. It was like a mirror image when it came to the outfit choices of the Queen and Camilla earlier today. Both donned a deep purple jacket which finished below the knee The lines and wrinkles that crop up on our foreheads are usually the first indication that were not as young as we used to be. Theres no avoiding them they just happen. If you can happily accept your lines as just part of life, thats fantastic. If youd prefer to take active measures to soften them, well, this is where the beauty business gets serious. There are two reasons those lines arrive. The first is the most obvious one when you frown or raise your eyebrows, the dynamic muscle movements involved scrunch up the skin of the forehead into wrinkles. Daily Mail writer Alice Hart-Davis on how you can look years younger with Botox Foreheads are expressive, which is great for communicating emotion, but if you carry on making these expressions for long enough, these wrinkles start to become set in. DON'T BOTHER WITH 'BOTOX GELS' I really wouldnt waste money on the creams and serums that offer a Botox-like effect. The ones I have tried in the past, such as Biotulin, have proved totally ineffective. If you do want to try this sort of product, the key ingredient to look for is Argireline, which inhibits the communication of superficial nerves in the skin, relaxing wrinkles. Cult skincare brand The Ordinary has a bargain version, a serum called Argireline Solution 10% (price 5.50). Apply a few drops on the forehead and around the eyes twice daily. Advertisement Theyre most noticeable if you have a habit of pulling your eyebrows together when you frown, creating the 11 vertical lines, or glabellar lines, between your brows or if you raise your eyebrows when youre curious or surprised. As skin becomes less firm as it ages, these lines become entrenched. This happens because the levels of collagen (the protein that keeps skin firm) and elastin (which keeps its springy) drop the older we get. That makes skin less resilient, so when it is continually squashed into a crease, it loses the ability to spring back. WHAT AGE SHOULD YOU START? Its impossible to give a one-size-fits-all answer about when to start Botox. Cosmetic doctors will usually say: When your face is relaxed and you still see lines on your forehead. But it also depends how you feel about those lines. If they make you look cross or sad when youre not, its very irritating. It was when my mother told me not to look so anxious about something trivial that I realised it might be time to do something about my forehead. Its impossible to give a one-size-fits-all answer about when to start Botox. Stock image Skincare, as I explained in yesterdays supplement, can genuinely help improve the appearance of wrinkles. The first and most useful skincare product you can own is a moisturising sunscreen, which you must wear every day, even in winter, because what really hastens ageing in the skin is daily exposure to ultraviolet light. FREEZING ALTERNATIVES Botox, even though it is one of the best-known drug names in the world, is a brand name, So although technically I should be referring to this injectable drug treatment for wrinkles as botulinum toxin A, Im going to call it Botox, just because thats how most of us think of it and Botox is the brand of botulinum toxin A that most practitioners use. For the past 20 years, Botox has been by far and away the leading toxin in the tweakment area. But there are several other wrinkle-relaxing botulinum toxins available, such as Azzalure, BoCouture, and Dysport, which do the same job. They just havent made the same impact on the industry. But that may be about to change. Two new toxins are coming onto the market which may disrupt the status quo. Theres Jeuveau, from an American company called Evolus, which is cheaper than Botox, and RT002, from Revance Therapeutics in California, which, it is claimed, lasts longer. Watch this space. Advertisement But today were talking about procedures. And the main way to quieten lines on the forehead is with injections of wrinkle-relaxing toxins, and the most widely used is Botox. Botox is considered by cosmetic doctors, dermatologists and cosmetic surgeons to be the gold-standard treatment for softening lines and wrinkles. It is quick, effective, and lasts for months. Its also a treatment that makes many people shudder. But its poison! they say. How could you consider it? Botulinum toxin A, to give it its proper name, is derived from a nerve poison. And yes, there are lots of badly Botoxed faces around, particularly in the beauty industry and it gives the whole business of aesthetics a bad name. Even though most people have a fairly good idea of what Botox does, they usually think it freezes the face, removing all expression and making it look distinctively bizarre. At its worst, Botox can leave a blank forehead and eyebrows that are either springing upwards in permanent surprise, or flying up at the outer corners, or pressing down heavily on the eyes. But honestly, it doesnt have to be like that. All of the best cosmetic practitioners, who spend more time treating patients with Botox than doing any other procedures at their clinics, are appalled by that sort of look. They would hate for anyone to be able to spot that their regulars even have Botox. Thats because their work is cautious and subtle, and every treatment is personalised to suit a patients face and their style. That way, they can make a face look rested, with eyebrows that sit a fraction higher and eyes that look a little more open and less tired than they did before. Most of us have faces that are asymmetrical to some extent, or where the muscles that make expressions pull harder on one side than the other. A spot more Botox on the side that is working harder will even things up. HOW TO AVOID A DROOPY DISASTER In short, choose an experienced practitioner who has a reputation for giving people a natural-looking result. All practitioners say they do this these days. Theyll tell you that they offer baby Botox or just a micro-dose and that the fashion for overtreating went out in the Noughties. But some of them still have quite a heavy hand. Next, discuss properly with your chosen practitioner what you hope to achieve by having Botox. Quietening down the muscles that move your face and create the frown lines and smile lines is what makes the difference. But the more you quieten those muscles, the less movement you will be able to make. The product can drift a little from the injection site, but usually not by much, and only within the first hour after injection. This is why practitioners used to advise not lying down for four hours after treatment, though this is now thought to be unnecessary and overly cautious. Still, I wouldnt advise rubbing at the treated area, or having a facial massage, for a day or two, just in case. Dont panic when you dont see any difference after a couple of days. It takes several days for the effects to become apparent and it will be seven to ten days before you see the full result. Also, always, always book in for a review two weeks after treatment, by which time the full effects will be showing. That way, if you end up with, say, one eyebrow arching higher than the other, your practitioner can make small adjustments to even things out. You will look different after having Botox, but if you dont like the way your face looks, dont panic. It will wear off in time. Theres no harm done. Have a laugh about it. And you will know to ask, more firmly, for less the next time. How much should you pay? That depends how much you have, but in general, from 150 for one area (between the brows, for example). The cheapest anywhere is 99 at Superdrug. Advertisement This 'waffle iron for your crow's feet' really works Tixel was first described to me as a waffle-iron for your crows feet. Its a device that uses heat to create a controlled burn on the skin, so its a relatively extreme option and also requires a few days of downtime, but it is effective. What is it? Tixel Skin Tightening and Resurfacing uses heat energy to deliver smoother, firmer and tighter skin. Compared to some of the sophisticated sorts of technology on the market, which work off radiofrequency energy, or use focused ultrasound, or miniature lightning bolts of plasma energy, Tixel is very straightforward. Alice Hart-Davis during treatment with Tixel, on her crow's feet by Tapan Patel at The PHI clinic on Harley Street All of these skin-rejuvenating technologies work by creating a trauma in the skin, which stimulates the skins own wound-healing process. That means your skin begins to produce not just more collagen and elastin, the proteins that keep skin strong and flexible, but also the growth factors that assist the formation of new skin tissue, to give you fresher, tighter, smoother skin in the treatment area. But all Tixel uses to do this is heat. Nothing fancier than that. The treatment head of the device is 1cm square, and packed into that space are 81 titanium rods with gently pointed ends. These are heated up to 400c, then lightly touched onto the skin to create the necessary trauma. FROWNIES - THE STICK-ON PATCHES TO RELAX YOUR WRINKLES Frownies are stick-on face patches I know staying serene is easier said than done, but this works. In the mirror, frown at yourself, then relax your forehead and your eyebrows, and observe the difference. Breathe in, breathe out and stay relaxed. With a bit of practice, you can do this in real life. One way is to use stick-on face patches known as Frownies (frownies.co.uk), which you pop onto your face when it is relaxed. (You can even use sticky tape, though that isnt so kind to your skin when you take it off.) Then, as soon as you start to scrunch up your face or frown, and the patch tugs at your skin, you become aware of your facial movements. Using these patches wont get rid of your wrinkles, but its a good way of getting out of the frowning habit. Advertisement You may be wondering, Did she really mean 400c? Yes, I did. Thats incredibly hot, searingly hot, so that touch on your skin has to be very light in order to create tiny pinpoint burns (rather than, say, permanent branding) on your skin. The point about there being 81 rods is that each hot rod tip creates a channel of damage into the skin, but the fractions of skin between the rod-tips are left intact, which helps the treated skin to heal swiftly. What it feels like: I hadnt quite appreciated how serious a treatment this was until the anaesthetic cream is applied. Not just your average clinical numbing cream with 4 per cent lidocaine (local anaesthetic), but the clinics own special super-strength numbing cream, with 23 per cent lidocaine. Within 20 minutes, the goggle-shaped area of skin around my eyes, neatly marked out for the treatment with a white pencil, is utterly numb, which is reassuring. As Dr Tapan Patel begins treating the area, I can feel each touch of the device clearly enough, but it feels hot, rather than painful. On the skin just below the eyes, I feel it more acutely, but not enough to make me shout for him to stop. And then he dials down the intensity to treat the skin on my eyelid I cant think of any other treatment that can be carried out on the eyelid, but for Tixel, its part of the treatment protocol and that, strangely enough, is perfectly bearable. By the end, I look as if I am wearing a pink eye mask. My skin feels fiery-hot for the rest of the day and I wish I hadnt arranged to go out for supper because I look pink and puffy enough to catch curious glances in the restaurant. Worse: youre not allowed to wear make-up for 24 hours until your skin has started to heal. It isnt painful overnight, though, and by the next morning my skin is almost its normal colour. The treated area is a bit swollen, but nothing a large pair of sunglasses wont cover. Over the next week, the skin feels a bit rough, and if I look closely in a magnifying mirror, I can see the grid-mark of pin pricks etched on my skin as they heal up. When I go back for reassessment four weeks later, I am amazed at the difference in the before-and-after photos. Crows feet are softer, the skin below my eyes is more taut, and the skin above the eyelid is tighter, too. Pain level (out of 10): 6. Tolerable. Some patches are uncomfortable. Verdict: A remarkable improvement, much more than I would have expected from a single treatment (a course of three treatments is recommended). But be prepared for the swelling afterwards. This treatment needs to be done with great care, by an experienced practitioner. Too much heat could result in a deeper burn. Cost and location: From 495, at the Phi Clinic in Harley Street (phiclinic.com). These practitioners are some of the superstars of the aesthetics world. They all have an artistic eye, and the kind of mastery of Botox which comes from many years of training, teaching and practising Dr Raj Acquilla Cheshire and Mayfair, London (rajacquilla.com) Dr Acquillas Instagram account often looks more like that of a film star than a clinician. When hes not travelling the world teaching cosmetic techniques to other doctors, or treating his elite clientele, he can be found DJ-ing at clubs. Beauty star: Tracy Mountford Dr Tracy Mountford Stoke Poges, Bucks (cosmeticskinclinic.com) With her easy manner and effortless skill with a needle that comes from 25 years of practice, Dr Mountford manages to keep her patients in a state of aesthetic suspended animation, looking natural yet forever under 40. Dr David Ecclestone Birmingham (medizen.co.uk) How good is Dr Ecclestone with Botox? Well, he teaches globally and has trained more than 3,000 doctors in how best to use the stuff. He is an international opinion leader on the topic, as well as a dab hand with a needle. So yes, extremely good. Dr Jonquille Chantrey Cheshire (oneaesthetic studio.com) Another international teacher and trainer, Dr Chantrey recently relaunched her Alderley Edge clinic to offer an all-round selection of the best cosmetic treatments to meet the wider needs of her clientele. Dr Jean-Louis Sebagh Central London (drsebagh.com/clinic/) The well known Botoxer to the stars has patients including a large number of socialites, business figures, aristocrats and models. Why so many? Because hes so very good. Dr Tapan Patel Harley Street, London (phiclinic.com) Once youve seen Dr Patel teaching other doctors how not to go wrong with Botox youll wonder why youd want to go anywhere else. Plus his couch-side manner and even his injection techniques can calm even the most nervous patient. Mr Kambiz Golchin Dublin and Knightsbridge, London (kambizgolchin.com) Mr Golchin is an established ear, nose and throat surgeon and has an advanced research project running with the NHS, using new approaches from cosmetic medicine to heal leg ulcers. But dont let that distract you from the fact that his Botox is among the very best in town. Film-star looks: Dr Maryam Zamani Dr Maryam Zamani Chelsea, London (drmaryamzamani.com) With her designer dresses and film-star looks, Dr Maryam Zamani is easily as glamorous as her elite Chelsea clientele. Luckily for them, her training as an oculoplastic surgeon and her flair for aesthetics means theyll receive meticulous doses of Botox for ultra-natural results. Dr Steve Harris Crouch End, London (harrisclinic.co.uk) The largest single user of Botox in the UK, Dr Harris works from his clinic in Crouch End and brings his artistic eye to all his work. Hes also working on an anti-wrinkle eye mask that will prolong the effect of Botox. Dr Suha Kersh Chelsea, London (23md.co.uk) Subtlety is the byword of Dr Kersh, and given the calibre of her Chelsea clientele, its just as well. She takes as much of an interest in her patients inner health as their external looks, bringing an edge to their glow. Anyone growing up in the 90s will fondly remember walking to the corner store to buy the sugar-filled snacks with pocket money. And a Sydney bar has launched a very nostalgic cocktail range to give you the chance to take a little trip down memory lane. Inspired by the classic Australian childhood treats, Made By The Hill has whipped up four delicious adults-only flavours, Banana Paddlepop, Snickers, Chocolate Freckle and Sour Warheads. A Sydney bar has launched a very nostalgic cocktail range to give you the chance to take a little trip down memory lane Inspired by the classic childhood treats, Made By The Hill has whipped up four delicious adults-only flavours, Banana Paddlepop (right) and Snickers (left) What's your favourite nostalgia inspired cocktail? Banana Paddlepop: Lena Banana Liqueur, vodka, milk, cream, sugar syrup and egg white, topped with a mini Paddlepop Snickers: Mozart Choc Liqueur, Baileys, milk, peanut butter, topped with whip cream, nuts, and Snickers bar Chocolate Freckle: Mozart Choc Liqueur, Bombay Gin, milk, topped with a giant chocolate Freckle. Sour Warheads: Watermelon Liqueur, Sour Apple Pucker, lemon juice, lime juice, with a crushed Warhead rim. Advertisement If you loved Paddlepop growing up, then this cocktail is perfect for you. The crafted cocktail includes Lena Banana Liqueur, vodka, milk, cream, sugar syrup and egg white, topped with a mini Paddlepop. The Snickers beverage features Mozart Choc Liqueur, Baileys, milk, peanut butter, topped with whip cream, nuts, and Snickers bar. For the chocolate lovers, the much-loved Freckle has been transformed into a giant drink filled with Mozart Choc Liqueur, Bombay Gin, milk, topped with a button. The Sour Warheads cocktail will have your taste buds dancing - as it's filled with Watermelon Liqueur, Sour Apple Pucker, lemon juice and lime juice, the cocktail features a crushed Warhead rim. The Sour Warheads cocktail (left) will have your taste buds dancing while the Freckle drink is perfect for anyone with a sweet tooth As a kid, did you enjoy a Snickers bar while watching the latest movie release from Blockbuster? Was your pick'n mix cup 90 per cent chocolate Freckles?' the bar said. 'Maybe you ate your body weight in Paddle pops to win the best Lick-a-Prize? Or did you prefer to take your taste buds to a whole new tingly level with Warheads? 'Whatever your childhood memory may be, Made By The Hill have brought back their infamous adults-only Memory Lane Cocktails to transport you right back to the good ol' days, when Teenage Dirtbag blared on your Walkman and your only worry was keeping your Tamagotchi alive.' All cocktails are $15 each, or two for $22 from Wednesday to Sunday between 5pm to 10pm if you want to bring a friend along to reminisce together. For more information about the nostalgia inspired cocktails, please visit the website. A nurse has been told she needs a pacemaker made of gold because she is allergic to her current one. Chandra Taylor was given the life-saving device after being diagnosed with a heart rhythm disorder last year. The 51-year-old claims she told medics about her allergy to many metals - but was reassured that a titanium-coated one would be fine. However, Ms Taylor - who develops a rash when she wears metal earrings - suffered a rare reaction to the device which keeps her alive by ensuring it keeps beating. She said: 'They said the only option is to have a gold-plated pacemaker but most companies they dont make them now.' Chandra Taylor was given the life-saving device after being diagnosed with a heart rhythm disorder last year But Ms Taylor, from Rackheath, near Norwich, added: 'Theres little demand for it so most places dont do it. 'I think the trust went back to to the same company and asked them to make one for me, and they said yes but then they said they cant do it. 'So now they are searching for alternatives. I really want a gold one as thats what the doctors were looking for.' Ms Taylor has given up her job as a stroke nurse at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital because she is unable to work. Ms Taylor, a nurse for 20 years who has sick sinus syndrome, almost collapsed on a night shift at the hospital after her heart rate became irregular. She was discharged from A&E but just days later she was left screaming in pain and bed-bound at home due to the mystery allergy. Ms Taylor said: 'For the first few days, I was just in constant pain, it was so extreme. I literally couldnt get out of my bed and it took three friends to help me out. 'It was like I had a fever, I was so disorientated I was screaming at my friends, I didnt know what was going on.' The 51-year-old claims she told medics about her allergy to many metals - but was reassured that a titanium-coated one would be fine (pictured with fellow nurses) However, Ms Taylor became one of only a handful of people worldwide to suffer a rare reaction to the device keeping her alive (pictured, her heart medication) HOW DOES A PACEMAKER WORK? A pacemaker is a small device about the size of a matchbox or smaller that weighs 20 to 50g. It consists of a pulse generator, which has a battery and a tiny computer circuit, and 1 or more wires known as pacing leads, which attach to your heart. The pulse generator emits electrical impulses through the wires to your heart. The rate at which the electrical impulses are sent out is called the pacing rate. Almost all modern pacemakers work on demand. This means they can be programmed to adjust the discharge rate in response to your body's needs. If the pacemaker senses that your heart has missed a beat or is beating too slowly, it sends signals at a steady rate. If it senses that your heart is beating normally by itself, it doesn't send out any signals. Most pacemakers have a special sensor that recognises body movement or your breathing rate. This allows them to speed up the discharge rate when you're active. Doctors describe this as rate responsive. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement A week after the operation, Ms Taylor's symptoms became more severe as the left side of body began to swell. She said: 'I couldnt move my neck to the left and my ankle became very stiff and swollen. 'I was completely covered by a red rash on the side of my body. The pain was so extreme, I just wanted to kill myself.' Exhaustive testing at the hospital failed to uncover a physical explanation for her symptoms. On two separate occasions, her GP sent her to hospital in an ambulance as he thought she may be having a heart attack or stroke. But it took months for medics to establish the truth - that, ironically, she is allergic to the device that helps keep her alive. Ms Taylor's friends began to stay overnight over fears she may commit suicide. She said: 'I was so active before this happened. 'I was working full time and Id often do extra shifts at the hospital. 'And I liked my exercise, I would jog six miles in the evening and going for walks everyday when I was free. 'Then all of a sudden, I couldnt do any of it. It was like the clock had stopped for me. 'Every morning I was in tears because I couldnt get out from bed. I struggled and struggled every morning.' She added: 'I told the nurse that Im allergic to all metal and that even if I wear a tiny pair of earrings, I develop a rash and my skin starts burning. 'So he phoned the surgeon and he said hed never ever seen any patient have a reaction to their pacemaker. 'I asked him to ring back and tell him Im still worried but the surgeon was certain we wouldnt have any trouble.' But after the nurse took matters into her own hands, it was discovered that she was allergic to her own pacemaker. Ms Taylor added: 'I begged my doctor to give me a prescription for antihistamines for two weeks. 'Nobody else was listening to me or believed that I could be allergic to my pacemaker. But he agreed as nothing else was working. 'I took my first tablet at 10am and by 6pm, my swelling was down and the pain was down. It was about 75 per cent better but the symptoms were still there.' Ms Taylor has been told by Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital Trust that they cannot source a gold-coated pacemaker. It is estimated that fitting a gold-coated pacemaker would cost around 5,500 while the average procedure just costs over 4,000. American manufacturers Medtronic says it provides gold pacemakers on a 'case-by-case' basis to patients. Instead, she may have to accept one which is made of titanium but covered in parylene, a type of plastic. But she is not confident it will work. Thousands of patients have pacemakers fitted every year. Lucy Wilkinson, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said this kind of reaction is very unusual. She said: 'Its more common that more people will develop an infection from having it implanted.' Norwich and Norfolk University Hospitals Trust has now apologised to Ms Taylor over the error. A spokesman said: 'Wed like to apologise to Chandra for the complications shes had following her pacemaker implant. 'A procedure to implant a new parylene-coated pacemaker will be scheduled in the near future. 'Wed like to wish Chandra all the best for the future and a speedy recovery.' Making people live longer could produce a population with healthy bodies but 'stupid' brains if scientists can't work out how to stop dementia, an expert claims. Professor Mauro Giacca, a heart disease expert at King's College London, said humans probably aren't capable of living much longer than 120 years. And he believes it would be damaging for a 100-year life to become the norm if doctors can't figure out how to stop brain degeneration. 'We will increase the number of perfectly functioning bodies but with poorly functioning brains,' he warned at a conference. Jeanne Calment, pictured, was 122 years old when she died in 1997, after being born in 1875 she remains the oldest person to have ever lived according to reliable records. There have been claims of people living longer but they haven't been properly documented Professor Giacca is an expert of cardiovascular science that investigating heart and circulatory diseases. He made the speech at an event at the Francis Crick Institute, The Telegraph reported, and said it is still not understood why humans age the way they do. Professor Giacca said: 'A person who reaches 80 or 90 has already lost about 10 to 15 per cent of their brain, which is why they think and move more slowly. 'And that's before diseases like Alzheimer's where you have accelerated neuron loss. 'So if you don't deal with those problems you could end up with a healthy heart but a head that is stupid.' He also said: 'If there was a world where we were vaccinated and free of disease would we live forever? Absolutely not. 'It is likely there is a biological clock which sets human life around 120 and we are programmed not to live longer than that. 'But the probability of undergoing dementia is increasing with the passing of age and the risk we are facing as we trigger regeneration, and recover limbs, is if we don't find a way to regenerate the brain we will increase the number of perfectly functioning bodies but with poorly functioning brains.' The oldest person ever to have lived and had their life reliably recorded was the Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who died aged 122 in 1997. Living to be older than 100 is rare but becoming more common the UN expects there to be 3.2 million centenarians worldwide by 2050, up from 316,600 in 2012. But rising at the same time is the prevalence of dementia a disorder in which the brain becomes damaged by age, causing memory loss, thinking and speech problems, difficulty understanding things and poor judgement. There 850,000 people in the UK with dementia and it's expected to rise to a million before 2025. More than five million Americans have Alzheimer's disease the most common form of dementia. A graph showing how life expectancy has fallen in the UK since 2009. It shows in 2009, women were expected to live until they were more than 90-years-old. This has fallen to just over 89 in 2018. For men, the age has dropped from 88.2 to 86.9 Various scientific theories attempt to explain why people decline as they get old. One is that of senescence, in which cells become useless over time but cannot be cleared by the body so linger and interrupt the body's processes. Or the free radical theory, in which scientists believe cells make waste products as they use energy and these waste products build up in the body over time and become damaging. Whatever its cause, ageing is proven to degenerate the brain and, Professor Giacca warns, this is damaging enough over a normal lifetime without disease. A woman fears she has been slowly poisoned by the mould in her old flat, causing years of exhaustion, memory loss and hair loss. Emma Marshall, 29, lived in a property in Hackney, east London, which had 'thick black mould' in the bathroom for a year in 2014. Since then, her health has steadily declined, as symptoms such as brain fog, headaches and skin rashes took over and 'sucked the life out of her'. Ms Marshall, who works in the music industry, was passed around various doctors. But none of them seemed to know why her body was so weak. At the end of last year, Ms Marshall, who said she was bed-bound due to her symptoms, paid to see a private functional medical doctor who works in alternative medicine. A urine sample revealed her levels of mycotoxin - caused by mould - were off the chart. Emma Marshall, 29, fears she has been slowly poisoned by the mould in her flat in 2014, causing years of exhaustion, memory loss and hair loss Ms Marshall, who moved out of the flat in Hackney in 2015, has been riddled with symptoms such as brain fog, headaches and skin rashes Ms Marshall found her hair falling out in clumps as her body became so weak At the end of last year, Ms Marshall, who said she was bedbound due to her symptoms, paid to see a private functional medical doctor who revealed her levels of mycotoxin - caused by mould - were off the chart Ms Marshall said: 'When I met with the functional medicine doctor, we talked about the kind of environment I lived and worked in. 'As soon as I said I started to feel unwell in 2014, when I lived in the flat, something clicked. 'Since then, my body has broken and continued to be slowly poisoned over the years.' Before 2014, Ms Marshall was the picture of health, enjoying a fast-paced life working London. She moved out of the flat in Hackney to be closer to her new job, unaware of the string of health issues that were to come. Ms Marshall said: 'I'd had a few symptoms, like acne, exhaustion and aches and pains throughout my body, but I thought it was down to stress and working a lot. 'People are used to living around mould and not knowing what it's doing to their body and, at that point, I had never heard of mycotoxins.' In February 2015, Ms Marshall began to see serious changes in her health. She had a serious kidney infection, which resulted in her needing a catheter a thin, flexible tube used to empty the bladder to be fitted for two weeks. Then, in April, she had a nasty fall in the street and fractured her arm. But the fall led to nerve pain so terrible in her arm, shoulder and neck, she was barely able to move. Ms Marshall then needed her appendix removed, after experiencing severe abdominal pain. For months, she was passed around various different doctors. But none seemed to know why her body was reacting so extremely. Ms Marshall said: 'Nobody ever questioned why my body broke down so severely in so many different ways. I was simply called unlucky. 'Because the doctors couldn't find anything, you think it's all in your head and so just feel like you have to get on with it. It is a very isolating place to be in, though. 'Knowing something is wrong and not being heard tests your strength and makes you feel like you're screaming into an abyss.' Ms Marshall was passed around various different doctors after having a kidney infection, nerve pain and appendix removed. But nobody seemed to know why her body was overreacting Ms Marshall thought her symptoms, like acne, exhaustion and aches and pains throughout the body, were down to stress and working a lot Ms Marshall said doctors told her she was simply 'unlucky' due to the severity of her symptoms Ms Marshall battled ailments including flu-like symptoms, nerve, joint and muscular pain, headaches, memory loss, brain fog, insomnia, rashes, bloating, acne, thinning hair and facial swelling. She said: 'I would wonder why I couldn't do certain things, but then also had to just accept how I was as my new normality. 'At my worst, I could only just about manage getting a taxi to work, then I'd go home and go straight to bed. 'People would think I was just being dramatic, which would make me isolate myself even more.' Towards the end of 2018, at rock bottom, Ms Marshall took to the internet desperate for answers, and stumbled across a page about mycotoxin poisoning. After researching more, she became convinced that is what she had, and paid to see a private functional medicine doctor who looks at patients holistically and tries to determine the root cause, rather than treating individual symptoms. Ms Marshall, who also experienced bloating, is determined to 'detoxify' her body Ms Marshall said she felt like she was 'dying', convinced the mould was the cause HOW CAN BLACK MOULD CAUSE HEALTH PROBLEMS? Moulds produce allergens (substances that can cause an allergic reaction), irritants and, sometimes, toxic substances. Inhaling or touching mould spores may cause an allergic reaction, such as sneezing, a runny nose, red eyes and skin rash. Moulds can also cause asthma attacks. Black mould often thrives in humid areas, such as bathrooms, laundry rooms, and shower cubicles. Although not recognised by official health bodies, black mould poisoning could be a form of mycotoxicosis, which may occur if a person breathes in too many mycotoxins over a long time. Mycotoxins are fungal metabolites which when ingested, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin could cause toxic disease in human and animals. The adverse health effects of range from acute poisoning to long-term effects such as immune deficiency and cancer, according to the World Health Organisation. Although there have been little large studies into mycotoxins, and its significance is only fairly recently recognised, researchers have noted that mycotoxicosis was 'the neglected disease' which can be overlooked. Mycotoxins are typically found in food due to infected crops. The moulds grow cereals, nuts, spices, dried fruits, apples and coffee beans, often under warm and humid conditions. Exposure to mycotoxins can happen either directly by eating infected food or indirectly from animals that are fed contaminated feed, in particular from milk. Advertisement In February 2019, she was shocked to discover that her levels of mycotoxins which, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), are naturally occurring toxins produced by mould, and can pose a serious health threat were sky high. Convinced it was breathing in toxins while living in the mouldy flat that triggered her nightmare, Ms Marshall said: 'The results really shocked me. I figured I'd likely have some mycotoxins in my system, but the doctor told me my levels were off the charts. 'He asked how I felt, and I said, "I know this sounds dramatic, but I feel as if I am dying, and the life is being slowly sucked out of me". 'It was traumatic knowing my body was failing and not to know why. Now it's just as scary to discover I was being slowly poisoned.' Determined to get well again, Ms Marshall and has set-up a GoFundMe page to help with the cost of her ongoing care. Using an alternative approach, she plans to take binders which aim to 'trap' toxins and help move them out of the body for around a year, before also having a type of stem cell rejuvenation. With the funds raised through her GoFundMe page, she is hoping to travel to a specialist clinic in Mexico for the treatment. On the page, she said: 'Treatment is not available on the NHS, due to their lack of understanding of autoimmune and chronic illness. There is a huge lack of research in the UK into Mycotoxin poisoning, CIRS and mould illness. 'Healing is not quick and simple. It's not a case of taking a pill and fixing something, but of finding the root cause and doing everything in my power to reset it,' she said. 'Functional medicine is amazing when it comes to chronic illness. They can piece everything together like a puzzle, rather than just treating the symptoms. By speaking out, Ms Marshall hopes to raise awareness of mould and mycotoxin poisoning in the hope that, one day, it will be better understood by both medical professionals and members of the public alike. She said: 'I would really like to see testing for mycotoxin poisoning as standard protocol, especially if someone is living in a mouldy environment but I know change must come from the top down, and not within the NHS. 'Not everybody will have as adverse a reaction as me, but those that do should be dealt with straight away and listened to.' To donate, visit GoFundMe. A mother-of-three paid to have her breast implants removed after five years because she became convinced they were poisoning her. Erika Ritschard, from Long Beach, Mississippi, claims her implants made her lose weight, become fatigued, get depression and develop skin rashes. Mrs Ritschard said the implants made her look middle-aged and she shaved her head because her hair became brittle and dry. She even claims breast implant illness which is not officially recognised but is widely reported caused heart palpitations and left her feeling suicidal. Mrs Ritschard paid $5,000 (3,850) more than it cost her to put them in to have the implants removed and says her symptoms all disappeared within eight weeks. Erika Ritschard said all her symptoms disappeared within weeks of having her breast implants removed last year (pictured after having them removed) Mrs Ritschard, a mother of three children, took matters into her own hands after doctors kept telling her she wasn't ill. She found support in a Facebook group for other women who had been through similar experiences after having implants Mrs Ritschard said she was at her wit's end after multiple doctors turned her away, saying she was the 'healthiest sick person they'd ever seen' when she asked for help. But after stumbling across a Facebook group of women who had been through similar things, she decided her crippling symptoms were caused by her breasts. And the photograph editor made the decision to have her silicone implants removed in February last year. 'It's horrifying to think that what I had chosen to put into my body was making it wither away,' she said. 'I wanted to cut them out of myself. During my worst times, I even contemplated suicide.' Mrs Ritschard had decided to get implants in March 2012 after breastfeeding left her unhappy with her body, despite protests from her husband, Jonathan, 30, an electrician in the navy. Becoming a mother reduced her breasts from 32D to 32A so she had implants to increase them back to a 32DD. Mother to Jaylea, 11, Jonathan Jr, eight, and Eli, five, Mrs Ritschard said: 'I had had pretty large breasts in high school. 'After breastfeeding two babies and losing some weight, I wasn't really into the appearance of my breasts. 'My husband told me I looked perfect but I was really set on getting implants. I felt like I had given my body to my kids and this was something just for me. 'You had to be 22 to get silicone and I got them the day after my 22nd birthday.' She paid $3,800 (2,925) for the procedure and claims that almost immediately she felt depressed and inexplicably anxious. 'Within three months, I was dealing with anxiety and depression,' she said. And soon other symptoms developed. Mrs Ritchard added: 'All of a sudden my heart was racing for no reason. I got a kidney infection in the summer. After that, it was constant. 'I had recurring yeast infections and respiratory problems. I went to ER several times with migraines.' Mrs Ritschard even resorted to shaving her head because her hair became brittle and straw-like, which she claims was an effect of the implants Mrs Ritschard, pictured in hospital with her youngest son, Eli, five, said the implants aged her prematurely and that people started to think she was in her 40s when she was really mid-20s In 2017, the symptoms became even more severe with Erika's weight plummeting from a healthy 140lbs (63kg) to a skeletal 100lbs (45kg). She said: 'I lost 40 pounds in a year. I was so fatigued in my body, I wasn't able to concentrate, I thought I had ADHD and my mood swings were outrageous. 'My doctor sent me to a psychiatrist who said I had bipolar tendencies. 'I would have extreme lows and manic highs. I had brain fog and insomnia. My muscles were in so much pain that I lived on a heating pad for months. 'I would be extremely cold, sitting in my house in August with a coat, gloves and a beanie on. But then I'd have a hot flush and I would be dripping in sweat. 'I developed dry patches of skin on my legs that made me look like I had alligator or snake skin. There were stabbing pains in my chest and ringing in my ears.' Mrs Ritschard even resorted to shaving her head in the summer of 2017 when her hair suddenly became extremely brittle. Mrs Ritschard had her implants removed in February 2018 in a procedure which cost her $5,000 (3,850) more than she had paid to have them put in Mrs Ritschard (pictured five days after having her implants removed) said she suddenly got her appetite back and it took her four months to put on the 40lbs (18kg) she had lost Mrs Ritschard (pictured in October) says her life has returned to normal since she had the surgery to remove the implants She now believes it was yet another medical problem linked to her implants. Mrs Ritschard estimates she went to the doctor at least 15 times but she was never given a diagnosis. She said: 'The doctors kept saying it was stress and healthy anxiety. I remember an ER doctor said to me: "You're the healthiest sick person we've ever seen". 'I felt like nobody believed me. Healthy people don't drop 40lbs in a year and feel the way I felt.' But in November 2017, by chance, Mrs Ritschard came across a Facebook group called Breast Implant Illness and Healing and felt like she finally had her diagnosis. 'I became obsessed with getting new implants,' she said. 'I had had them almost six years and I wanted to get them done again. IS BREAST IMPLANT ILLNESS REAL? Neither the NHS or the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) acknowledge a single condition called breast implant illness. They do, however, provide long lists of potential and publicly known side effects of having breast implants. Implants are not designed to last a lifetime, the FDA says, and the longer a woman has the implants in her body the higher the risk of complications occurring. Complications occur in around one per cent of all patients and can happen at any time after the surgery. As well as changes to the appearance and feel of the breast some potential side effects include pain, infection, swelling or irritation, swollen lymph nodes, skin rashes or bruising. Reported symptoms of BII include fatigue, chest pain, hair loss and headaches chills, light sensitivity, chronic pain, anxiety, brain fog, sleep disturbances and depression. The NHS urges any women suffering side effects to contact the clinic where they had the implants put in, and to report it through an official Yellow Card Scheme, to add to information on the safety of implants. Source: FDA and NHS Advertisement 'One day I was typing "breast implant" into Facebook and breast implant illness came up. 'The description in the group fitted with exactly what I was experiencing. I went to the website and the Instagram and I found everything I needed. 'I felt like I was reading about myself. I posted a bit of my story on the page and hundreds of women wrote to me and said it was definitely breast implant illness.' Breast implant illness is not recognised by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the NHS, but has reportedly been suffered by many women. More than 67,000 people are subscribed to a 'Breast Implant Illness and Healing' Facebook group. Just three months after finding the group, in February 2018, Mrs Ritschard had her breast implants removed at a surgery in Mobile, Alabama. Her breast size reduced to 32B, smaller than they had been before she had children, but her health improved drastically. She said: 'I immediately felt myself again but at first I was worried it was the pain medication I was on after the operation. 'But two weeks in, I knew this was a real heal. I was able to eat again. I was literally shovelling food into my mouth. 'For so long any food made me feel nauseous but now I was eating double cheeseburgers and fries. 'I put on 40 pounds in four months, all my muscle pain was gone, I could sleep through the night. My skin was soft again, no more alligator patches. 'I literally had 20 years taken off my face after I explanted. 'The illness made me rapidly age people thought I was in my forties when I wasn't even 30. All of my symptoms subsided in the first two months.' Dr Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Center for Health Research in Washington DC, said breast implant illness not being recognised by the FDA does not mean it isn't real. Breast implant illness is not recognised by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the NHS but experts don't rule out its existence Mrs Ritschard (pictured after implant removal) had first wanted breast implants because she wasn't happy with her body after birthing and breastfeeding three children, but recently said: 'It's horrifying to think that what I had chosen to put into my body was making it wither away' 'When there's a new pattern of a group of symptoms that seem to all cluster together for a group of people it often takes a long time until the medical community accepts that it is a real thing,' Dr Zuckerman said. 'We certainly have seen and talked to many women who have experienced this cluster of symptoms that are referred to as breast implant illness. 'What they have in common is that they are symptoms that could be caused by their immune system going out of whack. 'Many of the symptoms that these women talk about joint pain, mental confusion, hair falling out are very typical of certain autoimmune diseases. 'It is possible that these conditions are caused by breast implants.' She pointed out the link between breast implants and Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma, a rare cancer of the immune system. Dr Zuckerman added: 'It makes sense that if breast implants can cause ALCL, they can cause other problems in the immune system.' A British couple stranded in Singapore are frantically trying to raise 140,000 to bring their premature baby home. Chloe Wilkinson, 30, went into labour after just 24 weeks of being pregnant while travelling back from Australia with her partner, Patraic Walsh-Kavanagh. The pair were in Singapore awaiting a connecting flight home, where they planned to tell their parents about the surprise pregnancy. Ms Wilkinson was rushed to hospital after bleeding and having cramps during the two-day stopover. She gave birth to Lorcan, who weighed just 1.9lbs, a week later. The couple have been told Lorcan, who has been in intensive care since he was born on February 26, won't be fit enough to travel home for three months. They have told by doctors in Singapore that they face a bill of 140,000, assuming there are no further complications with Lorcan. Chloe Wilkinson, 30, went into labour after just 24 weeks of being pregnant while travelling back from Australia with her partner, Patraic Walsh-Kavanagh (pictured with Lorcan, who remains in intensive care) The pair, who are pictured together, planned to tell their parents about the surprise pregnancy when they got back to the UK Ms Wilkinson, a former teaching assistant, and Mr Walsh-Kavanagh, 27, left the UK to travel around Asia in December 2017. The couple, who took out travel insurance before setting on their adventure, found out they were expecting a child in November 2018. However, they claim they have been told their travel insurance didn't cover the eventuality of Ms Wilkinson becoming pregnant. Ms Wilkinson, from Lincoln, said: 'Lorcan's been fighting with all his might and we are bursting with pride at the strength he is showing so far. 'However, we are on our own, a 14 hour flight away from our family and friends, and it has been a very difficult start to parenthood whilst Lorcan remains in hospital. 'It's still extremely early and he's got a very long and difficult journey ahead of him. But with each day that passes he grows stronger. 'It's still such a huge shock to us both that he's here but we're doing everything we possibly can to ensure we all get back to the UK.' Ms Wilkinson was rushed to hospital after experiencing bleeding and cramps during the couple's two day stopover in Singapore on February 19. The couple have been told Lorcan, who has been in intensive care since he was born on February 26, won't be fit enough to travel home for three months They have told by doctors in Singapore that they face a bill of 140,000, assuming there are no further complications with Lorcan (Lorcan is pictured in hospital) But two days later, the couple were given the news she had started dilating at just 24 weeks and flying home was no longer an option. Former plumber Mr Walsh-Kavanagh, of Nottingham, said: 'All the doctors and nurses seemed very concerned. After numerous tests it was found she had an infection. 'She was started on antibiotics and medication to reduce contractions and prolong labour to give baby the best chance of survival. 'I was then told to go and admit Chloe as a patient with the business department of the hospital.' He revealed he was handed an estimation of costs per night for Ms Wilkinson, costs of delivery and costs per night for neonatal intensive care for Lorcan. Mr Walsh-Kavanagh added: 'We were in a complete state of shock and fear completely took over. 'We were faced with a severely premature baby with potentially multiple health issues whilst being stuck in a country with no support. Ms Wilkinson, from Lincoln, said: 'Lorcan's been fighting with all his might and we are bursting with pride at the strength he is showing so far' Lorcan was placed straight into an incubator when he was delivered, before being whisked off into intensive care Ms Wilkinson, a teaching assistant, and Mr Walsh-Kavanagh, 27, left the UK to travel around Asia in December 2017 The couple, who took out travel insurance before setting on their adventure, found out they were expecting a child in November 2018. However, they claim they have been told their travel insurance didn't cover the eventuality of Ms Wilkinson becoming pregnant 'On top of this I was handed an estimated bill of 140,000 ($181,000), assuming there will be no further complications with Chloe or the baby.' After being admitted due to the infection, Ms Wilkinson's condition worsened over seven days and it was advised by the doctors it could be unsafe to prolong labour. Ms Wilkinson said: 'I was only 24 weeks, I was absolutely terrified because I knew it was too early. 'The doctors explained there was a high risk that our baby might not be developed fully and that a lot of his organs may not yet be fully formed or functioning.' She revealed the room was 'quickly filled' with doctors, midwives and paediatricians, when her waters broke. Ms Wilkinson added: 'At that point I began to panic and I was worried [our] baby would become distressed if I couldn't deliver quickly enough.' Lorcan was placed straight into an incubator when he was delivered, before being whisked off into intensive care. The couple are now stuck in Singapore to be by Lorcan's side, living in a shared flat close to the hospital. The couple are now stuck in Singapore to be by Lorcan's side, living in a shared flat close to the hospital (pictured together) Because of the laws in Singapore they are unable to seek employment to support themselves (pictured is Mr Walsh-Kavanagh) And money they had raised by working in Australia to start their new chapter in the UK are now being used to keep them in Singapore with Lorcan (Ms Wilkinson pictured with Lorcan) Because of the laws in Singapore they are unable to seek employment to support themselves. And money they had raised by working in Australia to start their new chapter in the UK are now being used to keep them in Singapore with Lorcan. Ms Wilkinson said: 'Everyday I go into the hospital I get a knot in my stomach waiting to hear the update from the intensive care team about Lorcan's progress and condition as he's still in a critical condition. 'We're professional people who work hard but it's obviously a huge sum and anything anyone can offer to help would be greatly appreciated. 'We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at home and across the world for their continued love and support. 'It's very early still and he's got a lot to get through and many challenges to overcome. 'But with each day that passes without infection or further complications he gets stronger.' You can donate to the couple's GoFundMe appeal, which has already raised more than 33,000 here. Plastic surgery rates have risen once again, new figures released on Monday reveal. Almost 18 million Americans had a cosmetic procedure done in 2018, a two percent increase from 2017, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. The report revealed that more than 1.8 million surgical operations were performed with the top five being breast augmentations, liposuction, nose reshapings, eyelid surgeries and tummy tucks. About 15.9 million were nonsurgical procedures and the most popular were Botox, soft tissue fillers, chemical peels, laser hair removal and microdermabrasion. Plastic surgeons told DailyMail.com that the increasing rates are due to a mix of influence from celebrities and social media, an aging population that wants to remain 'relevant', and patients trying to fillers and injectables first before deciding to go under the knife. New figures from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons show that nearly 18 million Americans had a cosmetic procedure done in 2018, a two percent increase from 2017 (file image) The report showed that three of the top five surgical procedures were focused on body work. While rates for tummy tucks stayed about the same, breast augmentations and liposuctions increased by four percent and five percent, respectively, from 2017. Dr Stuart Linder, a board-certified plastic surgeon based in Beverly Hills, California, who focuses on body work, told DailyMail.com that he believes the number of augmentation also includes people who want to revise their first procedure. 'I bet that number includes re-dos, there's less of a number of primary augmentations and a higher number of revisions and explantations,' he said. 'That includes women who have scar tissue or ruptured implants that have to be redone.' From five years ago, Dr Linder says he's seen about a 35 percent increase in women who need follow-up breast augmentations or completely want their implants removed. Dr Norman Rowe, a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York City, told DailyMail.com the numbers are indicative of an aging population. TODAY'S MOST POPULAR SURGERIES OVERALL: LESS-INVASIVE Procedures such as laser treatments to tighten or 'rejuvenate' skin, toxin injections to paralyze face muscles and ease frown lines, chemical peels, and freezing and killing unwanted fat, are fast overtaking traditional surgery. More and more clients opt for procedures that require no anesthesia, less recovery time, and present fewer risks. 'The growth of non-surgicals is pretty much exponential,' ISAPS president Renato Saltz said. 'The technology, the money invested in research and development, is just mind boggling. If you look at the industry, they don't make money with a scalpel, but they do make money with machines.' MOST POPULAR: BOTOX OR SIMILAR In 2015, Botox injections were the most popular procedure with 4.6 million performed by plastic surgeons, followed by hyaluronic acid injections (2.9 million) to iron out wrinkles and plump up lips. STILL THRIVING: BOOB JOBS Surgical breast augmentation was in third place with 1.5 million procedures, followed by liposuction with 1.4 million and operations to lift and shape eyelids at 1.3 million. ON THE RISE: OPERATIONS 'DOWN THERE' Genital resculpting is another wide open field. 'The demand is not there yet, but 10/15 years ago there was also no demand for female genital rejuvenation,' said Bernard Mole, a Paris-based plastic surgeon. Today it is among the most popular procedures, 'and I believe that in five to ten years we will see the same trend in men.' Advertisement 'Liposuction, tummy tucks, eyelids are procedure for people who are more in their 40s and 50s,' he said. 'I think, personally, they're being done on people want to remain more relevant. Given that our population is growing older, the number of surgical procedures will only continue to increase.' The two facial surgical procedures in the top five - nose reshapings and eyelid surgeries - fell from last year, the report showed. However, Dr Linder and Dr Rowe believe this is because of the latest nonsurgical options for those who want changes to the nose or eyes. They say many facial plastic surgeons use injectables and fillers with their patients before turning to surgery. 'They are doing injectables to the tips of the nose, the [bridge] of the nose, to see how patients like it before they're ready for a permanent change,' Dr Linder said. For the nonsurgical procedures, including Botox, soft tissue fillers and laser hair removal, Dr Linder said the numbers are shocking. The report showed that Botox had a three percent increase in procedures in 2018 from 2017 - and an 845 percent increase from 2000. 'That's a nearly 10-fold increase in 18 years, that's shocking,' Dr Linder said. He said that many patients opt for injections because they are scared of having face lifts and eyelid surgeries. 'They want something that's quick healing with minimal down time and less chance of a chance of something going terribly wrong,' Dr Linder said. Dr Rowe says that about 70 percent of what plastic surgeons do nowadays are nonsurgical procedures. 'Options have gotten better,' he explained. 'There are better lasers, better treatments and more reliable treatments.' Dr Linder says he believes part of the reason for the rise in procedures is because the stigma surrounding plastic surgeries is decreasing. 'I don't see any stigma anymore,' he said. 'There's no taboo, nobody here in Beverly Hills cares anymore. People brag about it on Instagram and social media.' Dr Linder says one way that clearly shows the normalization of plastic surgery is the lack of shows on TV. 'Besides Botched on E! there's few to no shows on plastic surgery anymore,' he said. 'I used to get called every month to discuss plastic surgery on Extra or Access Hollywood. But they don't call anymore because it's so mainstream - there's no more "wow factor".' Dr Rowe says that the impact of celebrities and social media - namely the Kardashians - on the rising numbers can't be ignored. 'Celebrities and social media have a dramatic impact,' he said. 'In 2019, we're looking at our faces and bodies more than ever before. 'Now you look at yourself hundreds of times a day in selfies, [patients] want to look like Kylie [Jenner], they want to look like Kim [Kardashian], so that's one aspect.' A 70-year-old woman was forced to wait almost eight hours for an ambulance after breaking her hip at her home. Susan Key, who has terminal lung cancer and multiple sclerosis, lives eight to ten minutes away from her nearest hospital. But paramedics didn't arrive at her home, in Ipswich, Suffolk, until the evening of the initial call to 999 at 10.32am. By the time they turned up at 6.30pm, Ms Key was suffering chest pains and had called emergency services five more times, as well as her GP who urged immediate action. The shocking story comes just days after figures revealed people needing urgent care in rural areas are having to wait up to 20 minutes for an ambulance. In Suffolk, the average wait for life-threatening calls is around 17 minutes. But on February 1, when Ms Key had her fall, the wait was much longer. Susan Key, 70, pictured with her husband, Roger, waited eight hours for an ambulance after slipping in the shower and breaking her hip Ms Key lives an eight to ten minute drive from the nearest hospital in Ipswich Ms Key slipped in her shower room, and with her foot against one wall and her back against another, she cried out for help. Her son's girlfriend was with her and called an ambulance at 10.32am. Mrs Key had not taken medication for her MS that day, resulting in 'uncontrollable jerking motions' in her body, making her pain infinitely worse. At around 1pm, Mrs Key's friend called her GP who told her to take some painkillers and to sip water. The doctor even called the ambulance service themselves, urging them to help Mrs Key more swiftly. Hours after her fall, and after a further four calls to the ambulance service, Mrs Key started experiencing chest pains. Mrs Key's son, Adam Tibbenham, called for a fifth time, pleading the emergency services to come quicker. He said Mrs Key was upgraded in priority by the control room, but it was another two hours before an ambulance arrived. After her fall in the bathroom (pictured), Ms Key's son's girlfriend called for an ambulance at 10.32am. The family made four other calls before the ambulance arrived at 6.30pm NHS England introduced guidelines in 2017, known as the Ambulance Response Programme, which categorises 999 calls into how serious they are. Category one, for life-threatening injuries and illnesses, specifically cardiac arrest, should be responded to in an average time of seven minutes. Whereas category four, for vomiting or back pain for example, are usually responded to within 180 minutes. Mrs Key said: 'I couldn't move because of my broken hip plus I find it difficult to get up anyway because of my MS. 'My legs started going into spasms. By the end of the day I was screaming out in agony. 'When the ambulance crew got here they were wonderful. They couldn't believe I had been waiting for help for so long.' The East of England Ambulance service said it 'deeply regrets' Mrs Key's long wait for help. A spokesman said: 'We can confirm that on February 1 we received a 999 call from a patient who had broken her hip after a fall at home in Ipswich. 'We were extremely busy on February 1 and it is necessary to prioritise patients with life-threatening injuries and illnesses. 'We deeply regret that this patient did wait some time for an ambulance. We have received a complaint so it would be inappropriate for us to comment further until it has been fully investigated.' The NHS is taking steps to scrap the four-hour maximum A&E wait target and replace it with new ones. In place of its infamous four-hour target, the NHS is now trialling seeing the most seriously ill patients strokes and heart attacks, for example within one hour. Those with less serious conditions, meanwhile, will have to wait longer, and new targets will be drawn up after pilots at around a dozen hospitals later this year. The announcement comes after A&E waiting times hit their worst ever level in January, with only 84.4 per cent of people being seen within four hours, instead of the 95 per cent target. Having failed to hit this benchmark for four years in a row it was last met in July 2015 the NHS is now rewriting its own goals. 'Now is the right time to look again at the old targets,' the NHS's medical director said today. NHS England has confirmed it will get rid of its 2004 target to treat most A&E patients within four hours of their arrival at hospital, replacing it with one intended to speed up care for the most serious illnesses (stock image) Figures for January showed A&E waiting times in England reached their worst level since the four-hour target was introduced in 2004. Nearly 330,000 patients waited longer than four hours, and 83,519 people were left waiting on trolleys to be admitted to hospital. The NHS today confirmed it will now trial recording data differently with a view to setting new A&E targets in future. This is despite past warnings from emergency medicine experts that scrapping the target could put patient safety at risk. Pilots are expected to begin in around a dozen hospitals within the next couple of months, an NHS spokesperson said, but details of where or when are unknown. Once the trials have been completed, and if they are a success, health chiefs intend to use the data to set new targets to roll out across England. 'Now is the right time to look again at the old targets which have such a big influence on how care is delivered,' said medical director Professor Stephen Powis. 'The NHS is aiming to improve care for patients and save hundreds of thousands more lives over the coming years, with greater access to mental health support, better treatment for the major killer conditions and services which are more joined-up, personalised and closer to home.' The feeling has been growing that the current A&E target is outdated, with the NHS's own chief executive suggesting earlier this year it had had its day. MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS PATIENTS 'WILL BE SEEN WITHIN AN HOUR' Part of today's NHS announcement included plans to treat people experiencing a mental health crisis within an hour. The health service defines a crisis as someone losing control of their mental state, hallucinating or hearing voices, or contemplating or attempting self-harm or suicide. A new target of seeing these patients within an hour is a move to try and achieve 'parity of esteem' equal treatment with physical illnesses, the NHS said. Paul Farmer, chief executive of mental health charity Mind, said: 'People now expect that the NHS will help someone with mental health problems with the same timeliness as for their physical health. We know that too often, people with mental health problems find that isnt the case. 'We are pleased to see tangible improvements now being proposed.' 'This target, along with better care in the community, could help people avoid reaching crisis and offer them quick support when they do.' He added: 'People with mental health problems deserve to be treated with respect and dignity and to have their views properly taken into account, so we also welcome changes that will give people greater choice and control in their treatment.' Advertisement And it could be pushing staff to make rushed decisions to avoid going over the time around a fifth of all emergency admissions happen in the final 10 minutes before the four-hour deadline. In January, Dr Taj Hassan, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) said: 'Scrapping the four-hour target will have a near-catastrophic impact on patient safety in many emergency departments that are already struggling to deliver safe patient care in a wider system that is failing badly.' He said a decision to follow through with removing the target would be 'poorly thought out' and implied it would be replaced with another goal the NHS couldn't hit. Dr Hassan added: 'Lets be very clear. This is far from being in the best interest of patients and will only serve to bury problems in a health service that will be severely tested by yet another optimistic reconfiguration.' New targets could change the way A&E waits are recorded. There could be more focus on recording patients' individual wait times and outcomes instead of simply measuring how many were treated in four hours. This, the NHS said, could release pressure on staff to deal with all patients within the same time frame, meaning they could leave less ill patients waiting longer without jeopardising the hospital's performance against its targets. National director of Healthwatch, Imelda Redmond said: 'What shapes peoples experiences of A&E is often not how long they wait, but the quality of care they receive and how that care is delivered. 'Peoples experience of care can therefore be significantly improved by staff carrying out quick initial assessments to reassure patients, prioritising those in greatest need and concentrating on communication to keep people updated on progress. 'This is of course what doctors and nurses working in A&E want to do all the time, but current targets sometimes draw attention away from this.' However, removing the target could wipe the NHS's slate clean in one respect, making A&E data for the past 15 years difficult to compare with how hospitals perform in future. One branch of the health service has already admitted it may look like bosses are 'moving the goalposts'. Deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordrey said: 'In order to win public confidence, it will be vital to ensure this process is clinically led and that any changes have been carefully tested and evaluated. 'Any roll out will need to be incremental and must have the full backing of the clinical community and leadership of NHS trusts. 'This is particularly important in view of the fact that performance against the current standards has slipped. 'We must guard against any sense of "moving the goalposts" to bring the standards back within reach.' NHS A&E departments try to see 95 per cent of their patients within four hours but the health service as a whole hasn't hit the benchmark for an entire year since 2014 The RCEM today expressed a different opinion to its view in January. Dr Hassan said: 'While we are dismayed by many of the myths being pedalled [sic] around the four-hour standard, we are keen to ensure that any changes are not imposed due to political will but are developed responsibly, collaboratively and are based upon clinical expert consensus in the best interests of patients. 'The measures set out in this document are what we believe are in the best interests of patients and will enhance and refine the four-hour standard as a powerful system measure of flow.' The health service also today announced people suffering a mental health crisis would be seen within an hour of turning up at A&E. It defines a crisis as someone losing control of their mental state, hallucinating or hearing voices, or contemplating or attempting self-harm or suicide. This new target will be introduced to improve emergency care for people with severe mental illness, the NHS said, in a move towards giving them equal status to physically ill people. Chief executive of the charity Mind, Paul Farmer, said: 'People with mental health problems deserve to be treated with respect and dignity and to have their views properly taken into account, so we also welcome changes that will give people greater choice and control in their treatment.' A woman suffered a life-threatening allergic reaction to penicillin after performing oral sex on her partner. Doctors who treated the 31-year-old have now urged anyone with drug allergies to 'be aware' of the potential risk from oral sex. The unidentified woman swallowed her lover's semen and afterwards began to vomit, struggle to breathe and break out in hives. The patient, from Alicante in Spain, went to hospital with suspected anaphylactic shock. It is unclear how long after her sexual encounter she sought help. The unidentified 31-year-old, of Spain, swallowed her lover's semen and afterwards began to vomit, struggle to breathe and break out in hives (stock) She revealed she had an allergy to penicillin but denied having taken the drug, or any unusual foods, before performing fellatio. Doctors ruled out a rare semen allergy when the woman admitted she had never suffered any symptoms in her previous sexual encounters. Medics then discovered her 32-year-old partner had taken amoxicillin-clavulanic acid a form of penicillin to treat an ear infection. As a result, the doctors at Hospital General Universitari d'Alacant suspected her anaphylaxis was caused by 'seminal transfer of amoxicillin'. The case, believed to be the first of its kind ever recorded, was published in the British Medical Journal Case Reports. Susana Almenara, lead author of the report, has now urged anyone with known drug allergies to 'be aware' of the potential risk and ensure they use condoms. She said: 'We think that as clinicians it is important to be aware of this phenomenon so was to inform and prevent potentially serious reactions in sensitised patients. 'We also recommend condom use during treatment with drugs that can induce hypersensitivity responses in partners.' Ms Almenara added: 'This is the first case reported of a suspicion of amoxicillin-induced anaphylaxis in a woman after a sexual contact with a man who was taking the drug.' HOW CAN YOU SUFFER AN ALLERGIC REACTION TO SEMEN? Allergies to a protein in semen have been recorded in medical literature, causing typical symptoms to occur during or after sexual intercourse. But allergic reactions can also be induced 'by the transfer of allergens (drugs or food) present at low concentrations' in semen. Susana Almenara at Hospital General Universitari d'Alacant, Spain, said it was unlikely the woman in this case had an allergy to a protein in semen because she had never suffered a reaction after performing fellatio before. Instead, it was more likely to be because of her known penicillin allergy. Her partner was taking a form of the drug to combat his ear infection. Ms Almenara wrote in the British Medical Journal Case Reports admitted it is often difficult to find the causative agent of some allergic reactions. But she said drugs, such as penicillin, are the most common cause of anaphylaxis in adults. On the back of the study, she urged anyone with known drug allergies to 'be aware' of the potential risk and ensure they use condoms. Advertisement She revealed there has been a 'few reports' of allergic reactions related to drugs being transferred through sexual intercourse. Allergic reactions to amoxicillin, in particular, have occurred through kissing but this is the first to show it could happen through oral sex. The man, who also wasn't identified, took the medication four hours before having any sexual contact with the woman. The woman was given a dose of adrenaline, steroids and salbutamol to combat her reaction and open up her airways. Her shortness of breath was completely resolved after six hours. She had fully recovered a week later. Ms Almenara and colleagues asked her to return to hospital so she could be studied but she did not attend a follow-up appointment. Writing in the case report, she said allergies to a protein in semen have been recorded in rare cases, causing symptoms to occur during or after sexual intercourse. But allergic reactions can also be induced 'by the transfer of allergens (drugs or food) present at low concentrations' in semen. Ms Almenara said it was unlikely the woman had an allergy to protein in semen because she had never suffered a reaction after performing fellatio before. She admitted it is often difficult to find the causative agent of some allergic reactions but said drugs are the most common cause of anaphylaxis in adults. She added: 'In cases of anaphylaxis, it is essential to make a correct and early diagnosis in order to initiate adequate treatment and to avoid fatalities.' Ms Almenara quoted figures from another study that showed around one in 250 penicillin treatments result in an anaphylactic shock. Writing in the journal, she added: 'We have detected some concern about this issue in consultations carried out by sensitive patients in internet forums. 'This concern on the part of patients is accompanied by a lack of scientific information around this question.' Ms Almenara added even the smallest presence of an allergen, such as penicillin, in semen could lead to anaphylaxis. Last month, I went to the Baftas. This sounds very glamorous, doesnt it? And, indeed, it started out that way. I was invited to pre-Bafta fashion drinks at the Savoy. How lovely. Mingle with the stars. The invitation said 2pm, which seemed early, given proceedings didnt start until 7pm. I decided to wear my Dries Van Noten slip dress with gold at the decolletage and small train, and four-inch heels. Imagine my surprise when I arrived at the bar to find a small huddle of fashion journalists wearing Puffa coats, parkas and woolly hats. Flat shoes. They looked at me as though Id escaped from an asylum. The young PR came over, wielding an iPad. Just to let you know, we will be getting to the red carpet at 3pm. Oh goodie! We will then take you down to the fashion pen try not to walk on the red carpet as we dont want it getting dirty which is at the end, near the entrance and the bank of photographers. So you should get a good view of the stars being photographed, and we will try to bring someone over to speak to you, but youre at the end so they will probably be exhausted and desperate to get inside as its two degrees, not taking into account wind chill, and your bit of the red carpet is without cover so youre probably going to get wet. We will email you a list of what everyone is wearing as soon as the ceremony starts. Ah. After a glass of prosecco, we were herded into a people carrier. All the other journalists were about 12. This is clearly an assignment you take on at the beginning of your career, not near the end. I can see now why there were drinks at the Savoy: it was to lure me in. We were tipped out some distance away, and I staggered towards the big spotlights and silver vans bearing satellite dishes. I tiptoed along the red carpet, which was still covered in swathes of plastic: we in fashion and movies detest a smudge. Eventually, having braved the insane fans behind ropes, who took one look at us then figured we werent worth a wave, let alone a selfie, we were locked in a very small metal pen. There was nowhere to sit down. The big canopy over the red carpet was acting as a filtration system to catch every last drop of rain and dump it on my head. After several hours, we started to hear screams, which meant an A-lister had arrived. Craning my neck, I could see the essence of a star, but as they were surrounded by fluffy microphones and cameras and an over-made-up TV presenter, I was never wholly sure who they were. Who is that? I asked the 11-year-old from Hello! or Take a Break. What am I? she said. Human Google? The stars did indeed stop just in front of us to pose, this way, that way, making the shape of a teapot, in front of the hundreds of photographers, but then they were whisked inside by minions wielding cashmere blankets. I couldnt make notes, as my hands were frozen. It was depressing, too, as I kept seeing stars whom Id interviewed at the start of their careers Rachel Weisz, whom Id met when she was still at school. Kenneth Branagh, whom Id interviewed while he was at Rada; he had phoned my house to ask when we were meeting up. Joseph Fiennes? Id been to his house in Notting Hill, and found Naomi Campbell in the bathroom. Now they were unattainable, hugely successful, while here was I Perversely, I began to hope beyond hope Rachel wasnt brought over, just in case she recognised me, and summoned the Red Cross with a foil blanket. Finally, Id had enough. I tapped the PR on the shoulder. Listen, I said. Im an award-winning journalist. Bring me a star, now, or I will get you fired. She looked frightened. OK, she said, talking into the microphone up her sleeve. Let me see if I can get you someone. My questions fresh in my mind, I stood up straight. I could see the PR coming towards me, with Cuba Gooding Jr. Um. Right. None of the other fashionistas had a clue who he was, so they just craned annoyed necks round him. It was all down to me. So! I said. Can I ask how long it took you to get ready today, and are you rocking a corset under that? Think am barred next year. Brilliant Energy is the latest small supplier to announce that it has ceased trading affecting 17,000 domestic customers. The supplier joins a long list of small firms that have gone bust in recent times including Extra Energy, Spark Energy, Future Energy, National Gas and Power, Iresa Energy, Gen4U, Usio Energy, One Select, Our Power and Economy Energy. The energy supply for Brilliant Energy customers, including those supplied under a 'white label' arrangement with Northumbria Energy, will continue and the outstanding credit balances of domestic customers will be protected by Ofgem, the energy regulator. Ceased trading: Brilliant Energy is the latest small energy supplier to go bust in recent times A 'white label' is an organisation that does not hold a supply licence but instead works in partnership with a licensed partner supplier to offer tariffs under the white label brand. Matthew Vickers, chief executive at the Energy Ombudsman, said: 'The collapse of an energy supplier can be a stressful and unsettling experience for consumers. 'If you are a Brilliant Energy customer, we would echo Ofgem's advice to sit tight and don't switch. 'We are keen to work with whichever supplier is appointed to take on Brilliant Energy's customers in order to find the best possible outcome for the small number of consumers who have a complaint about the failed company open with us.' Ofgem will choose a new supplier for existing customers to be switched to as soon as possible. In the meantime, the regulator has advised customers to not switch to another energy supplier and to take a meter reading ready for when their new firm will contact them. This will ensure the process of transferring customers over to the chosen supplier, and paying back their outstanding credit balances, will be as quick and easy as possible. Philippa Pickford, Ofgem's director for future retail markets, said: 'Our message to energy customers with Brilliant Energy is there is no need to worry, as under our safety net we will make sure your energy supplies are secure and your credit balance is protected. 'Ofgem will now choose a new supplier for you, ensuring you get the best deal possible. 'Whilst we're doing this our advice is to 'sit tight' and don't switch. You can rely on your energy supply as normal. 'We will update you when we have chosen a new supplier, who will then get in touch about your new tariff. 'We have seen a number of supplier failures over the last year and our safety net procedures are working as they should to protect customers.' Citizens Advice are calling on Ofgem to move forward with supplier reforms to prevent further customers being affected by small energy suppliers going bust. Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: 'Brilliant Energy and Northumbria Energy customers' gas and electricity will continue as normal and Ofgem will appoint a new supplier soon. 'The failure of another supplier is a clear sign Ofgem needs to urgently move forward with its reforms to better monitor existing companies and take action earlier when problems arise.' The Leeds-based company was founded in 2009 and was the parent company to Universal Utility International which operates a number of energy brands in Germany. Nissan's former chief Carlos Ghosn has been banned from attending a board meeting Nissan's scandal-hit former chief Carlos Ghosn has been banned from attending a board meeting at the car maker he saved from ruin two decades ago. A Tokyo court rejected Ghosn's request to take part in the meeting today, less than a week after he was released on 7 million bail following more than 100 days in detention in Japan. Ghosn, 65, was arrested in November and faces charges of under-reporting his salary at Nissan by over several years, as well as other financial misconduct. He denies all the charges. His bail was granted on strict conditions, including a ban on foreign travel and promises not to tamper with evidence. Ghosn (pictured) is credited with turning around Nissan in the 1990s and forging a global alliance between the Japanese car maker, Renault, and later Mitsubishi. He has been removed from executive roles at all three firms, although is still on their boards. Australia's former foreign minister has said she was mistaken for the spouse of a politician by U.S. First Lady Melania Trump. Julie Bishop, who was Australia's first female foreign minister and deputy leader of the Liberal Party, said the first lady made the mistake after President Donald Trump struck up a conversation with her partner David Panton. Believing Panton to be Australia's foreign minister instead of her, she asked Bishop if she would be attending the ladies' lunch, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported. 'Melania, standing by, assumed David was the foreign minister and she said to me: "Julie, will you be coming to my ladies' lunch tomorrow?",' Bishop said of the encounter at the UN General Assembly Leaders' week in 2017. 'And I said "No, David's going to the partners' lunch". She thought about that for a while, thinking: "Why would Australia's foreign minister come to the partners' lunch?" Australia's former foreign minister Julie Bishop has revealed Melania Trump mistook her for the spouse of a politician at the UN General Assembly Leaders' week in 2017 (pictured together) 'So this went on for a while until the president explained that I was the foreign minister.' Bishop has been vocal about the subordinate role of women in conservative politics since she stepped down after the ouster of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull last year. She is among several politicians from the centre-right government set to quit parliament at upcoming elections amid expectations of an opposition win. Australia's embattled minority government has been accused of having a 'women problem', with Prime Minister Scott Morrison recently boosting the number of female politicians in his cabinet to counter the criticism. She revealed the first lady made the mistake after President Donald Trump struck up a conversation with her partner David Panton One cabinet minister who is also leaving parliament, Kelly O'Dwyer, reportedly said as a warning in a party meeting several months ago that the Liberals were widely viewed by voters as 'homophobic, anti-women, climate-change deniers'. Bishop said she was not comfortable being the only woman among 18 men in cabinet after Turnbull's predecessor Tony Abbott won national elections in 2013. 'This isn't fine. This is not completely normal,' she said of the situation. There have been growing calls for the Liberals to introduce quotas to improve the low levels of female representation in the party. This is not the first time the issue of sexism has been raised in Australian politics. Former prime minister Julia Gillard became a torchbearer for women around the world in 2012 with her fiery speech about misogyny in parliament, where she accused Abbott of sexism. A Maine fire chief died has died after suffering a medical emergency at the funeral of another firefighter who was fatally injured while shielding a colleague from flames this month. Oxford Fire Chief Gary Sacco, 63, suffered the emergency as several thousand people, including hundreds of firefighters from across New England, gathered to honor Berwick Fire Capt. Joel Barnes' sacrifice on Sunday. Barnes was fatally injured in a four-alarm fire earlier this month. Maine Medical Center spokesman Matt Wickenheiser confirmed that Sacco was stricken at the funeral, rushed to a hospital and pronounced dead in the emergency room. No further details have been released. Oxford Fire Chief Gary Sacco, 63, died from an unknown medical emergency while attending the funeral of another fallen firefighter In this June 11, 2017, photo provided by Erin Thomas, Berwick Fire Capt. Joel Barnes pulls a ladder at the scene of a structure fire in Somersworth, New Hampshire. Barnes died on March 1, 2019, while battling an apartment fire A firefighter from St. Johnsbury, Vt., salutes during a memorial service for Berwick Fire Capt. Joel Barnes, Sunday, March 10, 2019, in Portland, Maine. Barnes was fatally injured while shielding another firefighter from flames. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) 'Our hearts, already broken by the loss of Captain Joel Barnes, also mourn the loss of Oxford Fire Chief Gary Sacco,' said Maine Gov. Janet Mills in a statement. 'In a testament to his own character, Chief Sacco lost his life while honoring that of his fallen brother, fellow firefighter Captain Barnes.' Sacco, a veteran firefighter, had been the chief of Oxford Fire/Rescue in Oxford, Maine, since 2017, after retiring from the New Gloucester Fire Department. 'The Oxford Fire Department wishes to express our deepest condolences to the entire Sacco family,' the department posted on its Facebook page. 'Chief Sacco was a consummate professional. Not only did he love the job, he had a passion for the fire service like no other.' The department also noted that he died of 'unknown medical problem' at the time of the statement. Gary Sacco (right) with wife Sandi Sacco (left) was the Oxford Fire Department chief since 2017 after retiring from the New Gloucester Fire Department Firefighters salute fallen Berwick, Maine firefighter Capt. Joel Barnes as they escort his body to Tasker Funeral Home in Dover, New Hampshire on March 2, 2019 The casket of Berwick Fire Capt. Joel Barnes is carried atop a fire truck during a procession leading to memorial service, Sunday, March 10, 2019, in Portland, Maine The casket of Berwick Fire Capt. Joel Barnes is wheeled out at the end of a memorial service Sunday, March 10, 2019, where Oxford Fire Chief Gary Sacco suffered an unknown medical emergency that led to his own death The service Sacco attended was held at the Cross Insurance Arena, one of the few venues in Maine big enough to host such a large gathering. The 32-year-old Barnes was the first firefighter to die while battling a fire in at least three decades in Maine. The last time it happened was in 1980 when Portland Firefighter Joseph Cavallaro Jr. died of burns and asphyxiation while fighting a three-alarm fire at the Phoenix Nightclub, McCausland said. Gary Sacco was called a 'consummate professional' by the Oxford Fire Department who had a 'passion for the fire service like no other' Berwick Fire Capt. Joel Barnes at Berwick Public Safety Day in Berwick, Maine in May 2017 Barnes' uncle, also named Joel, grew teary as he described a nephew who grew up dedicated to serving the community as a firefighter. He recalled how an elderly neighbor once gave a plastic firefighter hat to then-toddler Joel, who soon became 'obsessed' with studying fire science books and preparing himself for a career that took him from Maine, to Massachusetts, to South Carolina and back to his family in Maine. Barnes was one of two firefighters who encountered a wall of flames on the third floor and had to be rescued during a March 1 four-alarm fire in Berwick, Maine. Five firefighters were injured that day, and Barnes died at a hospital in New Hampshire. A judge has ordered a 19-year-old woman held without bond on attempted murder and other charges in the shooting of a Chicago police officer serving a warrant. Police say Emily Petronella fired a shot through a door Saturday night, striking the 34-year-old officer in the shoulder. The officer is expected to recover. During Petronella's bond hearing Sunday, her attorney, Stefan Fenner, argued she didn't know police were outside and thought the banging on the door was burglars. This undated photo provided by the Chicago Police Department shows Emily Petronella He said she was home alone 'with someone battering a door.' Members of the tactical unit did not return fire. Fenner added that his client claimed that police did not identify themselves, but they claim otherwise. An officer said at the press conference that 'all of our officers, typically, when we do search warrants have some kind of CP [Chicago Police] identification on them so that you can clearly see that they are the police.' 'And besides that,' he added, 'we always station uniformed police cars with them.' Police officers embrace joyfully after learning their colleague did not have life threatening injuries from the gun shot in a apartment raid in Humboldt Park In Chicago But Fenner claimed it was too dark outside for Petronella to see who was battering her back door. 'She was hysterical,' Sandra Petronella, the defendant's mother, told the Sun Times. 'She called me while I was at the mall: 'They're breaking in. They're breaking in,' and then she hung up.' Petronella also is charged with aggravated assault of a peace officer, armed violence while discharging a weapon, aggravated discharge of a weapon at a peace officer and dealing more than 5,000 grams (176 ounces) of cannabis. She also faces a misdemeanor bail bond violation. At the time of Saturday's incident she was actually free on $10,000 bond after a February charge of a misdemeanor count of unlawful use of a weapon, officials said. Police say officers recovered drugs, a gun and large bundles of money at the scene. 'This is another illustration of how dangerous it is for police officers to serve search warrants,' said an officer at a news conference Saturday night. Advertisement From sea eagles fighting in Japan to wild horses thundering through the Camargue in France, these are just two of the stunning pictures set to go on show in a wildlife photo exhibition. Other stunning shots due to be displayed by the British photographers include a cheetah with its six cubs and an elephant feeding, as well as a European Roller with its beak open after tossing up a grasshopper in Hungary. Peter Jones, 74 from Nottinghamshire, came up with the idea of the exhibition to highlight wildlife in its natural habitat around the world and how precious our ecosystem is. Patricia Kearton from Northallerton, Yorkshire, had to stand in the path of the charging wild horses in Camargue, a natural region in southern France, to get this shot. She said the galloping horses came straight towards her. She said: 'With a little bit of luck they will run round you, but they love to leave it till the very last minute just to keep you guessing' Describing how he got his shot of the eagles fighting, he said: 'This was taken in the north of Japan in their winter when these white-tailed eagles, also known as sea eagles, gather on the sea ice. 'We were in an ice strengthened ship in temperatures of minus 10 for three hours, when I spotted the two birds in a flap over the fish.' And Peter had to spend six hours in a hide 12 feet above the ground in Hungary to get his lovely shot of a European roller. He said: ' We watched a pair of birds going backwards and forwards to a hole in a nearby tree to feed their chicks. I was very fortunate to catch this bird tossing the grasshopper around before feeding it to its young.' Peter Jones, 74 from Nottinghamshire, took this photo of winter white-tailed eagles fighting for their prey in Japan. The birds, also known as sea eagles, gather on the sea ice. He said he spotted the birds in a flap over the fish after three hours on an ice-strengthened ship Peter Jones had to spend six hours in a hide 12 feet above the ground in Hungary to get this shot of a European roller tossing a grasshopper around before feeding it to its young. Mr Jones came up with the idea of the exhibition to highlight wildlife in its natural habitat around the world This shot, taken by Susan Wilson, also from Nottinghamshire, captures an elephant reaching up to eat from an acacia tree. She captured the scene on a trip to the Masai Mara in Kenya on safari Patricia Kearton from Northallerton in Yorkshire had to stand in the path of the charging wild horses to get her shot. She said: 'I was a little apprehensive as to stand there and stay in position as these galloping horses come straight towards me. 'With a little bit of luck they will run round you, but they love to leave it till the very last minute just to keep you guessing. 'I selected these three horses in a group as it's best to pick one horse out and stay focused with that one while they gallop towards you.' In the Masai Mara in Kenya she saw a female cheetah with her six cubs whilst they drove round looking for big game. She said: ' We were very fortunate to be there at the right time as it is rare for a cheetah to have six cubs. We were around 30 metres away from this family when I took the photo. 'I heard that four survived and are still alive today.' Patricia Kearton spent five hours in a hide in Hungary to capture this shot of a pair of European bee-eaters where the male is giving a gift to his female before mating Susan Wilson had to wait an hour in minus eight conditions in Finland to get this picture of an arctic fox, left, poking its tongue out. Another photographer, Patricia Kearton, captured a red fox, right, hunting in the snow in Yellowstone National Park in the US state of Wyoming A different shot from the Masai Mara was taken by Susan Wilson, also from Nottinghamshire, as an elephant reached up to eat from an acacia tree whilst she was on safari. On another occasion she spent all night in a hide in Finland near the Russian border to get a dawn shot of a burly brown bear. Susan said: ' We spent the whole night waiting for bears to come by at the side of a small lake. This large male came by in the early hours of the morning so we were waiting some 11 hours to capture this picture.' They often braved subzero temperatures for hours to get some of their shots. Susan had to wait an hour in minus eight conditions in Finland to get this picture of an arctic fox poking its tongue out, whilst even a red fox captured in Yellowstone National Park by Patricia was hunting in the snow in minus five. Peter got the shot of a polar bear and its cub in Spitsbergen in the summer whilst they went around pack ice in a small zodiac, but it was still minus five. He said: 'This picture was taken from a zodiac as we searched amongst the icebergs looking for Polar bears. We were around some thirty feet away from this mother and cub when I took the picture.' And although it doesn't look like it, when he got this shot of a pintail duck in flight he had been waiting for an hour in minus ten conditions in northern Japan. Photographer Susan Wilson saw a female cheetah with her six cubs whilst they drove round looking for big game in the Masai Mara, Kenya. She said she was very fortunate to be there at the right time and said it was rare for a cheetah to have six cubs. She said: 'We were around 30 metres away from this family when I took the photo. I heard that four survived and are still alive today' This elegant picture of a great white egret taking off with water dripping off its back legs was taken by Patricia Kearton from a river boat in the Sundarbans National Park on the India Bangladeshi border. The stunning pictures of animals in their natural habitats are set to go on show in a wildlife photo exhibition Susan Wilson spent all night in a hide in Finland near the Russian border to get a dawn shot of a burly brown bear. The exhibition, Wildlife From Around the World, runs for a month later this year at Patching Art Centre at Calverton, Nottingham This elegant picture of a great white egret taking off with water dripping off its back legs was taken by Patricia from a river boat in the Sundarbans National Park on India Bangladeshi border. But it took her five hours in a hide in Hungary to capture this shot of a pair of European bee-eaters where the male is giving a gift to his female before mating. In warmer climes, Susan got this shot of a rare Hunting Dog in Botswana, an endangered species that only has about 4,000 left in the wild. And whilst looking for tigers in Kana National Park in India she noticed something else on the lookout. She said: 'This family of Langur Monkeys had the male high up to spot any danger, probably tigers. We were just driving around also looking for tigers and we came upon these monkeys at the side of the road on a hot day.' The exhibition, Wildlife From Around the World, will include 72 pictures and runs for a month later this year at Patching Art Centre at Calverton, Nottingham. Peter, who runs photography holidays with Wildwatch Tours said: 'This is the first big exhibition we have ever done. We would to think that it would might make people think more about conservation and help to protect our wildlife. 'We hope we can bring to their attention about the world's wildlife and how much it is in danger, every trip we do is helping to protect it and makes people more aware of what's happening to some of our endangered wildlife.' Susan Wilson also got this shot of a rare Hunting Dog in Botswana, an endangered species that only has about 4,000 left in the wild. The Nottingham exhibition will include 72 pictures and runs for a month Susan Wilson was travelling in Kana National Park, India, looking for tigers. However, she noticed a family of Langur Monkeys with one sitting high up to spot any danger. She said: 'We were just driving around also looking for tigers and we came upon these monkeys at the side of the road on a hot day' Peter Jones got the shot of a polar bear and its cub in Spitsbergen in the summer whilst they went around pack ice in a small zodiac, but it was still minus five. He runs photography holidays with Wildwatch Tours Eight children have been taken to hospital after their church bus overturned on a highway during heavy rains. News outlets report the bus with a driver and 11 passengers was returning from a conference in Chattanooga when the accident occurred along Interstate 840 south of Nashville on Saturday. According to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, the driver lost control and the bus struck a median and flipped on its side. The children were from Bolivar's Parrans Chapel Baptist Church, which had borrowed the bus from a sister church. Eight children have been taken to hospital after their church bus overturned on a highway in Tennessee during heavy rains Parrans Chapel said in a statement the children were released after being evaluated. Pastor Joshua Clark, who was driving the vehicle, told WMC: 'We're all here. We're all safe. So, praise the Lord. 'Right as we were trying to slow down, a big gust of wind and started pushing us. Rain, lots of rain came. It caused us to hydroplane as we tried to correct from the wind and that's when all the sliding started.' The accident remains under investigation. Paedophiles who use child sex dolls could escalate into physically abusing children, a new report has warned. There is nothing to support the sick theory that paedophiles who use child sex dolls will decrease their urges to carry out sex abuse on children, the Australian Institute of Criminology reported. Their report said child sex dolls could be used to groom real children for sexual abuse. Experts said parallels between life-like dolls and real children encourage paedophiles to act out their urges 'It may... desensitise the user from the potential harm that child sexual assault causes, given that such dolls give no emotional feedback,' the report said. Child sex dolls today are mainly manufactured out of China, Hong Kong, and Japan, and researchers are worried that because they are 'life-like,' it puts children in harm's way. Report authors Rick Browne and Jane Shelling said potential offenders who view child pornography and go on to use child sex dolls should be considered dangerous. 78 Child dolls were seized in 2017-2017 and last year only 15 were seized. However the report authors said no deep research shows the numbers of child sex dolls entering Australia undetected. 'Escalation in relation to child sex dolls refers to the possibility that such devices may promote a continuum of behaviour that results in contact child sexual offending...' the report said. While there is a steep drop from 2016's seizures to last year's, experts are concerned the numbers are getting higher 'When combined with a general preference for physical representations over virtual ones, there is a plausible argument that some individuals may migrate from viewing child exploitation material to engaging with a child sex doll.' The AIC report also said that child sex doll possession laws across Australian states were not identical or clear enough to combat the exploitation of child abuse material. While current legislation says child sex dolls classifies as child abuse material, it remains largely untested in Australian courts. If someone is found importing a child sex doll by the Australian Border Force, the accused could land up to 10 years in jail and $525,000 in fines. Jerry Christopher Drane (pictured), 31, was arrested on March 1 and charged with felony criminal trespassing after police responded to a burglary call An Arizona man was arrested after he was discovered cooking tortillas and soup in an apartment belonging to two women he didn't even know. Jerry Christopher Drane, 31, was arrested March 1 and charged with felony criminal trespassing after police responded to a call at 7:17 p.m. in the Maryvale Village neighborhood of Phoenix. One of the apartment dwellers told police she was asleep in her bedroom when the smell of something burning woke her up. She walked into the kitchen and found Drane cooking tortillas on her electric stove. The startled woman alerted her female roommate, Alex Herron, and both women yelled at Drane, demanding that he leave. 'I said to the man that you can take the food, whatever food you're making. Can you please leave?' Herron, who is hearing impaired, told Fox 10 News. Drane responded by taking a can of soup with him as he left before eating it on the balcony in front of the apartment. Responding officers said Drane struggled to stand without swaying when they arrived, according to court documents. Alex Herron (pictured) and her roommate found an allegedly drunk Drane standing in their kitchen cooking tortillas and soup His eyes were watery and bloodshot. His speech was slurred, and the stench of alcohol lingered on his breath even when he appeared in court some time later. 'Frankly, sir, I can still smell alcohol on you right now, someone who got really wildly intoxicated, went into somebody else's house and scared them half to death' a presiding judge said to Drane. The suspect told police he did not remember any of it. When officers asked Drane where he thought he was and who he was trying to see, he reportedly refused to answer, saying he didn't want people he knew to 'catch flak for this'. A judge ordered Drane not to drink or visit the apartment complex where he was arrested Court documents show Drane was later released, on the condition that he stops drinking and stays away from the apartment complex where he was arrested. Herron said she is still wary after the ordeal, but there was at least one silver lining. She said: 'I was planning to get rid of that can of soup, because I don't like the chowder anyway, but he ate it for me so, thank you for getting rid of it for me!" A man has been banned from his local pub after telling a woman who worked there 'nice to see you in shorts'. Leonard Lee, 72, made the comment when picking up a bottle of wine from a drive-through BWS attached the Royal Oak in north Adelaide last month. The temperature was 42C and Mr Lee told the woman, whom he had spoken to before on friendly terms, 'nice to see you in shorts.' Leonard Lee, 72, made the comment when picking up a bottle of wine from a drive-through BWS attached the Royal Oak (pictured) in north Adelaide last month 'She went a bit huffy and said "well it's hot",' Mr Lee told The Advertiser. The former screenwriter claimed 'the comment didn't mean anything'. Poll Was Mr Lee's comment inappropriate? Yes No Was Mr Lee's comment inappropriate? Yes 73 votes No 447 votes Now share your opinion But when he went back the next day an employee told him he made the woman feel uncomfortable and she had complained. A few days later, Mr Lee returned and had a verbal confrontation with the woman which ended with her throwing his credit card back into his car, he said. He said he was called in for a meeting with pub management and told he was banned for a month for 'offensive behaviour towards a staff member'. 'I was seriously flabbergasted.' Mr Lee said. 'I don't like sleazebags, I don't like drunks abusing staff and I do not indulge in conversations which objectify women - but the world has gone mad.' The Royal Oak declined to comment when contacted by Daily Mail Australia. The family of a young woman who was crushed by her beloved horse at an equestrian competition have criticised the sport's response to her death. Caitlyn Fischer was only 19-years-old when she died at the Sydney International Horse Trials in April 2016. The aspiring professional rider 'lived and breathed' horses from the age of five, her family previously said. And they can't accept Equestrian Australia's 'sloppy and superficial' response to her death. The accident occurred when Ralphie clipped his hoof on the second jump, causing Caitlyn to fly over the top and hit the ground Caitlyn died on impact. The jump she was attempting is known as a 'warm up' jump and stood at 1.1 metres 'Caitlyn is not a statistic; she was a beautiful, intelligent young woman who worked so hard at everything she did, always striving to be the very best she could. She is deeply loved and missed by her friends and family,' her mother, Ailsa Carr, told The Australian. Her parents penned a letter to the international body of equestrian sports, hoping to draw attention to their Australian counterpart's response to Caitlyn's death. They said they initially hoped Equestrian Australia would use the experience to do everything in their power to improve safety and reduce risks in the sport. Caitlyn's family say Ralphie was the most important thing in her life and say she 'lived and breathed' horses A coronial inquest into Caitlyn's death, and that of 17-year-old rider Olivia Inglis, is scheduled within the next two months 'However, our experience of how EA conducted the investigation into Caitlyn's death and their subsequent approach to the current coronial inquest has only highlighted that they are more interested in self-protection than meeting their obligations to conduct a safe sport for all participants,' they wrote. The letter went on to raise concerns about welfare of participants of a sport 'where the lack of deaths and serious injury is due to good luck rather than good risk management and comprehensive safety measures'. A coronial inquest into Caitlyn's death, and that of 17-year-old rider Olivia Inglis, is scheduled within the next two months. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Equestrian Australia for comment. Caitlyn Fischer's brother Kris Fischer, 27, previously opened up about his sister's love of the sport. Caitlyn Fischer's brother Kris Fischer, 27, previously opened up about his sister's love of the sport The family are heart-broken over Caitlyn's death but say 'she died doing what she loved and they wouldn't have it any other way' 'I remember when she fell in love with horses, she was five years old and made me be her pony,' Mr Fischer said. The family are heart-broken over Caitlyn's death but say 'she died doing what she loved and they wouldn't have it any other way'. 'She was such a unique person, she didn't have a bad bone in her body. She was just loving and kind. 'I wouldn't trade her for anyone and if I could do anything to bring her back I would,' he said choking back tears. 'I love her and I miss her and my family miss her she was taken too soon. No parents should have to outlive their child.' Mrs Carr, a maternity and childhood nurse, was watching as her daughter's fatal accident unfolded at 10.40am as she was making her second jump. The aspiring professional rider 'lived and breathed' horses from the age of five, her family previously said 'I can't say whether the horse jumped too early or too late because everything I know about horses I know from Caitlyn, but Ralphie's front hoof clipped the jump,' Mr Fischer said. 'She was catapulted over the top and the horse landed on top of her, they say she died on impact,' he said. Caitlyn had been working with her horse Ralphie for four years, her family joked he was 'the man in her life'. 'When she bought him he was a basic horse, but she trained him and turned him in to pure muscle. 'They loved each other and were a perfect team.' A paedophile father who made his two boys watch child porn and had 97,000 pictures of child exploitation will be jailed for the next six months. The man pleaded guilty in Bundaberg District Court to gaining child exploitation content and exposing his children, who were under 15, to pornography which is a domestic violence offence. Judge Tony Moynihan called him 'disgusting and depraved' before sentencing him to two years in jail, released after six months with an operational period of three years. A young boy told a psychologist that he and his brother had been shown pornography by their father which led to their father being sentenced to two years in jail, released after six months Police found 97,723 images and 2,000 movies of child exploitation after searching the mans house. The brothers were staying at their father's home when he showed them videos of pornography and child exploitation. 'The incident occurred over 30 minutes and involved adult and child pornography,' said Crown Prosecutor Christopher Cook, NewsMail reports. Police found 97,723 images and 2,000 movies of child exploitation after searching the mans house which the man admitted to owning and later pleaded guilty to Material ranged from category three showing young girls to category five which was 'the highest degree of depravity', according to Mr Cook. He said the case was 'unusual' because there were 'two complainants' and the man had no criminal history of sexual misconduct. One of the sons told a psychologist he and his brother had been shown pornography by their father which was brought to the attention of police. Crown Prosecutor Christopher Cook said the case was 'unusual' because there were 'two complainants' and the man had no criminal history of sexual misconduct The father admitted the images were his and he had shown his sons pornography when questioned by police. Defence barrister Callan Cassidy said his client had autism and was depressed. 'I'm instructed he is on good terms with them (his children) and speaks to them over the phone,' he said. A heartless gunman allegedly apologized to three children before shooting their puppy in the face after it ran into the street. The three kids had gone outside briefly near a Dallas apartment complex and their 9-month-old Labrador retriever mix named Nolan ran out after them. Then a man who was walking by pulled out a gun and fired at the animal. The dog, a Labrador Retriever mix was shot in the mouth and is expected to survive The man walked up to a group of children and shot their dog for seemingly no reason before taking off on foot Genola Vance, who owns the dog, says she believes the children would have been shot were it not for the dog Genola Vance, who owns the dog said she asked her son and nephews to take out the trash and when they opened the door the dog followed them. Moments later the children came back into the house saying Nolan had been shot. 'They said the man just looked at them, said "sorry", and then shot him,' Vance said. 'Nolan ran by me into the house and there was blood everywhere.' Vance called Dallas police, but officers couldn't locate the suspect by the time they arrived. He is currently at large, and if found will be charged with animal cruelty per a release. The dog, called Nolan, had major injuries but was treated at SPCA-Dallas at a cost of $7,000 Nolan is now at home with Vance and her family and has to eat soft foods. He is on pain medication as well as antibiotics The suspect, who has not yet been identified, fled the scene, The Dallas Morning News reported. He was described as a black man, wearing a black hoodie, WFAA reported. He is wanted on a charge of cruelty to non-livestock animals, officials said. Nolan had major injuries, but is expected to survive, the Star-Telegram states. The bullet went through the front of the dog's mouth and exited through his jaw, breaking it. Medical costs exceeded $7,000, but SPCA-Dallas kindly ended up paying for Nolan's surgery. The incident happened completely without warning as the kids were taking the trash out Poor Nolan has to be very careful for the next few weeks while his broken jaw heals Nolan is now at home with Vance and her family. He has to eat soft foods and is on pain medication as well as antibiotics. Vance adopted the little guy last year so that her family would have a loving pet to play with. 'We chose Nolan out of every dog at the shelter,' Vance said. 'He's like my son. I love my kids and I love him the same.' 'I think if Nolan wouldn't have run outside, maybe this man would have shot one of the kids,' Vance said to WFAA. 'He took a bullet for my family.' 'At the end of the day, I'm just happy he's alive and I'm going to do whatever it takes to make him better.' Virgin Australia has no plans to cancel their order of brand-new fleet of Boeing 737 Max 8s despite two devastating crashes involving the troubled model. An Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8 jet crashed within minutes of its takeoff from Addis Ababa on Sunday, killing 149 passengers and eight crew members. In October, an Indonesian Lion Air 737 Max 8 flight slammed into the Java Sea just 13 minutes after departing from Jakarta, killing all 189 passengers on board. Virgin Australia has no plans to cancel their order of brand-new fleet of Boeing 737 Max 8s despite two devastating crashes involving the troubled model. Pictured: A Virgin Australia Boeing 737 An Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8 jet crashed within minutes of its takeoff from Addis Ababa on Sunday, killing 149 passengers and eight crew members. Pictured: Rescuers remove body bags from the scene of the crash A Virgin Australia spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia it was too early for the company to comment on the crashes but they are expecting to receive 30 of the same planes in November. A further 10 larger Max 10 airliners are being built by Boeing for Virgin Australia. In announcing the order, Boeing aid the 737 Max will 'deliver big savings' due to fuel-efficient measures. 'The aircraft's more efficient structural design, less engine thrust and less required maintenance also add up to substantial cost advantages for airline customers,' Boeing said in a statement at the time of Virgin Australia's order. The deaths of 157 passengers and crew when the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft crashed within minutes of take-off are raising serious questions over the safety record of both the aircraft and airline. It was on another brand new Boeing 737 Max 8, in Indonesia less than five months ago, that 189 people lost their lives in the Java Sea. Initial reports show considerable similarities between the Ethiopian and Indonesian disasters which involve the same type of plane. Pictured: Wreckage lies at the crash site of an Ethiopian Airlines flight Initial reports show considerable similarities between the Ethiopian and Indonesian disasters which involve the same type of plane. Sunday's flight lost contact about six minutes after take-off, having requested and been given clearance to return to the airport in Abbis Ababa. In 2018, Lion Air 610 also went down minutes after take-off having requested permission to return to base. Telemetry shows the Ethiopian Airlines plane's vertical airspeed fluctuated rapidly in the minutes and second before its crash, including in the final moments when it seems to have been locked in a terrifyingly accelerating nosedive,. Investigations thus far by the Indonesian and American aviation authorities have concluded the Lion Air plane also hit the sea after a violent nosedive. A bureaucratic bungle led to the deportation of an alleged notorious female child pornographer before her trial. Areum Lee, 29, is a Korean woman who faced charges in Australia over the alleged possession and distribution of child pornography material. But an alleged bungle between the Northern Territory Police and the Australian Border Force led to Lee being deported back to her home country without facing any of the charges. Areum Lee, 29, is a Korean woman who faced charges in Australia on two counts of possessing child abuse material and two counts of using a carriage service to make child abuse material available online Lee came to Australia to work as an au pair but was arrested after a joint investigation by NT Police and the Border Force in November 2017. She was charged with two counts of possessing child abuse material and two counts of using a carriage service to make child abuse material available online. The pornographic material Lee allegedly possessed largely consisted of Category 6 child abuse material, which is material that may not feature a real child but is still considered child pornography under law. Some of the photos Lee allegedly possessed featured young boys in public places alongside grotesque captions such as her desire to see one of the boys raped. Lee was in the country without a passport so the NT police needed to issue a Criminal Justice Stay Certificate which would have prevented Border Force from deporting her She was granted bail on April 5, last year on the condition that she did not apply for a new passport as hers had expired while she was in police custody. Since Lee was in the country without a passport, the NT police needed to issue a Criminal Justice Stay Certificate which would have prevented the Border Force from deporting her. The NT police allegedly did not issue this document and Border Force had to deport her from the country under the Migration Act. The NT police allegedly did not issue this document and Border Force had to deport her from the country under the Migration Act A spokesperson from the Department of Home Affairs said that 'the Department is legally obliged to remove an unlawful non-citizen from Australia as soon as reasonably practicable, in accordance with section 198 of the Migration Act 1958.' 'The Department is committed to working collaboratively with law enforcement agencies to ensure that non-citizens who are required to remain in Australia for the purpose of criminal justice are lawfully able to do so.' Detective Acting Superintendent Glenn Leafe from the Domestic Violence and Sex Crimes Division said in a statement that 'a person who is scheduled to appear in court has an obligation to attend on the scheduled day.' 'In relation to this particular case, a 29-year-old female failed to attend court on the scheduled day and as such, a warrant was issued for her arrest which will be executed should she return to Australia.' The great Victorian Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli once lamented that Britain had become two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each others habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets. Disraeli was writing of the gulf between rich and poor in the 19th century. But his words echo down the decades. It seems, at times, that our country is now just as divided between those insulated by wealth from the effects of globalisation and those who feel shut out; or between those who compete on Twitter to signal how virtuous they are and those who are made to feel that patriotism is prejudice and love of country is now the love that dare not speak its name. There are other divisions, too between politicians in Westminster and a population becoming alienated because of those politicians failure to listen. Between broadcasters who seek to serve the public and a public that is increasingly switching off. Between elites who think their professional success means they know all the answers and those who wonder why these elites failed to see the banking crisis coming and failed to spread economic growth more fairly in the boom years. Disraeli was writing of the gulf between rich and poor in the 19th century. But his words echo down the decades Those divisions in our society were exposed for all to see by the Brexit referendum. There were different reasons why people voted to leave the EU, but at the heart of the campaign was a wish on the part of the majority to take back control from unaccountable elites, to make politicians more answerable to the people, and to make our country work in the interests of all: one nation once again. But since the referendum, it has often seemed as though that desire for a fresh start has been continually frustrated by an unwillingness to come together behind that democratic vote. Listening to some partisans in the ongoing Brexit debate, it is clear that they behave as though they think the other side are indeed dwellers in different zones or inhabitants of different planets. Insults are hurled, cries of treachery traded, any suggestion of finding common ground denounced as a heresy. Sympathy for others seems in short supply. But for democracy to work, there has to be understanding between people; there has to be compromise and a coming together. Along with a majority of other people, I voted to reinvigorate our democracy by taking power back from unaccountable institutions and taking back control of our laws. I recognise, however, that while the majority to leave was decisive, executing that decision, like all democratic decisions, means respecting everyone in our democracy. Forty-eight per cent of the country voted to remain. Their voices need to be listened to, their hopes incorporated in our plan for the future. That doesnt mean giving in to the much smaller number who want to overturn the decision and frustrate Brexit. But it must mean that none of us Leavers should try to make our perfect Brexit the enemy of the common good. Which is why I hope that everyone who believes in our democracy in the importance of delivering Brexit and in the critical need to unite our country will get behind the Prime Ministers deal this week. It is, of course, a compromise. But so many of the great British traditions and institutions I and many others value are the result of compromise. Which is why I hope that everyone who believes in our democracy in the importance of delivering Brexit and in the critical need to unite our country will get behind the Prime Ministers deal this week We are governed by a system that reconciles the different interests of Government, Parliament and the Courts; our constitutional monarchy is underpinned by centuries of compromise, as is our national Church. The devolution settlement is a compromise; our Press balances freedom of speech with a responsibility to be accurate in reporting; our economic system and welfare state balance the individual freedom to pursue success with the collective need to protect the vulnerable. As the great liberal thinker Isaiah Berlin rightly argued, when one value or a single perspective is valued above all others, the tree of liberty is hacked at its roots. So while the Prime Ministers deal is a compromise, it is not to be rejected for that reason alone. Quite the opposite. In balancing the freedoms that Brexit brings with assurances that smooth our path out of the EU, it provides the best way of delivering an exit that can secure our countrys unity and prosperity. Of course, there are some who voted Remain for whom no Brexit is acceptable. Whatever deal Mrs May secured, they would find fault with it. But their answer, a second referendum, would only deepen and inflame the divisions it is our duty to overcome. As the great liberal thinker Isaiah Berlin rightly argued, when one value or a single perspective is valued above all others, the tree of liberty is hacked at its roots The demand for another vote is a declaration that those who voted Leave in 2016 were too stupid to know what they were doing or too prejudiced to appreciate the consequences. Holding another referendum would only confirm the feeling among many that politicians dont listen and wont change. It would undermine confidence in our democracy and any campaign that ensued would further fray the bonds that hold us all together not least by fuelling demands for new votes in Scotland and Northern Ireland to break up the United Kingdom. But its not only those calling for a second referendum who are, I fear, making a mistake. Some of those who believe most sincerely and passionately in Brexit have allowed arguments to be made about the Prime Ministers deal which dont reflect the reality of whats been achieved. It is not the case that this deal makes us a colony or vassal state. How could it when it gives us total control over our borders and ends our automatic payments to the EU? Colonies, by definition, dont have control over their borders and they give up their natural resources to others. This deal means we have the absolute freedom to decide who comes into this country, and on what terms. It also allows us to decide what pan-European programmes, if any, we want to join in. As one of the leaders of the Leave campaign, I know that two of the most resonant demands from voters were control of our borders and money. This deal delivers completely and, as it happens, without compromise on both. Some of those who believe most sincerely and passionately in Brexit have allowed arguments to be made about the Prime Ministers deal which dont reflect the reality of whats been achieved It also ensures we leave the EUs legal order and, save for a few very limited areas, we are outside the control of the European Court of Justice. We can, if we wish, choose to continue to meet EU standards, as they change, to make cross-border trade easier. But we can refuse to accept any new EU rule on goods or agriculture we dont want. The ratchet of European integration has been stopped. Ever closer union ended. We can begin to do things differently in all manner of ways when the deal is concluded. We can have new rules for our service sector to help create new jobs in the fastest growing part of our economy. We will continue to maintain the highest environmental standards but we no longer need to follow the EU rulebook and can do things in our own, better, way. The deal also means we arent bound by the EUs Common Defence and Security Policy and were out of the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy. Our farmers are freed from the bureaucracy that held them back, and we take back control of all our fish stocks and access to our waters. There are, of course, aspects of the deal which cause concern. It requires us to accept an arrangement called the backstop which places certain restraints on the ability of Northern Ireland to diverge from the EU in the event that we dont conclude a full trade deal by the end of 2020. The Irish government have pressed for a backstop throughout these talks because they see it as an insurance policy in order to keep the current open border on the island of Ireland. But the backstop weve now agreed is very different from the arrangement the Irish government and the EU first wanted. It places more cards in our hands than theirs. If we play them with skill, we can get the final deal we want. As a Unionist and a Brexiteer, there are aspects of the backstop I certainly find uncomfortable. It creates a difference in treatment between Great Britain and Northern Ireland which is troubling. Id much prefer it if we had a unilateral exit mechanism. But while its uncomfortable for us, its a mistake to think its a bed of roses for the EU. There are many reasons why they would not want it to last indefinitely and its worth looking at them in detail. If the backstop ever kicked in, wed still be able to export our goods to Europe without any tariff barriers, but we would also have full control of our own borders, with free movement of people having ended. More than that, we wouldnt be paying the EU any money any more. Not a penny. More, even, than that, we could stop EU vessels entering our fishing waters. If we wished, we could deny French and Danish boats any of our fish. But they couldnt stop us selling our catch to them. On top of that, in the backstop our ability to ignore new EU laws, and indeed roll back the vast majority of existing EU laws, would be extensive. We could make our economy more competitive from day one, and still have guaranteed access to their economies. In the backstop we could still negotiate, sign and implement new trade deals. They wouldnt cover goods but could cover services, professional qualifications and investor protections. Leaving without a deal on March 29 would not honour that commitment. It would undoubtedly cause economic turbulence. Almost everyone in this debate accepts that I cannot imagine EU politicians tolerating for very long an arrangement which allows us to keep them out of our waters but sell all the fish we want to them; allows us access to their markets but restricts their citizens coming here; allows us to make our economy more competitive and ends all payments to their institutions. EU countries would want it to end. And if we do play our cards right, we can ensure that it does on our terms. Any objective assessment on this deal shows it delivers on the key Brexit demands and gives us the freedom to go further in the future.I fear, if MPs dont support the PMs deal this week, then the chance to come together as a country may be taken from us. Some may say that ditching this deal will allow us to leave without any compromises. But we didnt vote to leave without a deal. That wasnt the message of the campaign I helped lead. During that campaign, we said we should do a deal with the EU and be part of the network of free trade deals that covers all Europe, from Iceland to Turkey. Leaving without a deal on March 29 would not honour that commitment. It would undoubtedly cause economic turbulence. Almost everyone in this debate accepts that. EU tariffs on food would hit farmers; new trade frictions would harm manufacturers. We would get through it, of course were a great and resilient country. But jobs would be lost in the short term and none of us can be blase about the damage leaving without a deal would cause. We would also be open to criticism from those many Remain voters who are prepared to compromise and leave with a deal, but dont want to depart without a deal, that wed preferred our perfect to their good. They could argue wed preferred ideology to inclusivity. Given the fragility of faith in our politics at the moment, its not a course Id want to take. And its a course we may not be able to take anyway. If the deal is voted down, then the Government is no longer determining events. Parliament will then vote on whether we leave without a deal on March 29. A majority are likely to say they dont want to take that risk, and Parliament is likely to ask for an extension of EU membership. Whatever the merits of that course, its undoubtedly the case that it creates another risk of the Commons diluting Brexit or the EU offering us a poorer deal. The decisions all MPs face in the next few days will not be easy. And I respect the sincerity and passion with which every one of my colleagues holds to their position. But if we dont think coolly about whats in the best interests of our country, we may find that we have failed to rise to this moment; failed to find the common ground on which our best future rests. Delaying and diluting what we have or leaving without a deal risks perpetuating the difficulties when we need to overcome divisions to meet new challenges. Its time we became one nation once again. Michael Gove today warns rebel Tory MPs they have less than 48 hours to save Brexit. In a rallying call on the eve of tomorrows momentous vote, the Environment Secretary declares that everyone who believes in democracy should get behind the Prime Ministers deal. Writing in the Daily Mail, he argues the agreement is the only way to heal the nations bitter divisions and make sure Brexit happens. Mr Gove, who helped lead Vote Leave, warns that leaving without a deal would not honour the commitment made to voters ahead of the referendum. Writing in the Daily Mail, Michael Gove argues the agreement is the only way to heal the nations bitter divisions and make sure Brexit happens Andrea Leadsom, another prominent Eurosceptic, also last night issued a stark warning to rebels, saying: Its now or never. The Commons Leader said if Theresa Mays deal is rejected its really clear that the next steps Parliament will take make the Brexit we want a fading reality. Mrs May is expected to make a dash to Brussels this morning in a last-ditch attempt to secure changes to her deal. But sources on the Continent were yesterday playing down hopes of any meaningful concessions, saying talks could be as little as a phone call. British officials spent the weekend locked in negotiations with their EU counterparts over their demands for alterations to the withdrawal agreement so the country cannot be trapped in the Northern Ireland backstop. Whitehall sources said the atmosphere was grim with concerns that any changes may not be enough to satisfy rebel Tory MPs and the Democratic Unionist Party. The Prime Minister has promised that if her deal is rejected for a second time tomorrow, MPs will get the chance to vote on leaving the EU without a deal or delaying Brexit beyond March 29. Andrea Leadsom, another prominent Eurosceptic, also last night issued a stark warning to rebels, saying: Its now or never' Senior Tory figures yesterday warned Mrs Mays position could become untenable if she is forced to seek an extension to the two-year Article 50 process. Sources said Britain would be expected to pay another 13.5billion per year, more than the current 9billion, because the UK would lose its rebate negotiated by Margaret Thatcher. Even a delay of three months would add billions to the cost of the divorce payment. The second so-called meaningful vote on the Brexit deal comes after it was rejected by a majority of 230 MPs in January, in a historic defeat for the Government. In a further development last night, Downing Street did not rule out amending tomorrows vote on the deal so it is conditional on securing extra changes from the EU before the end of this month. Meanwhile, Philip Hammond is understood to be ready to promise billions of pounds of extra cash for the police, schools and tax cuts in his Spring Statement on Wednesday if the deal is passed. The Prime Minister has promised that if her deal is rejected for a second time tomorrow, MPs will get the chance to vote on leaving the EU without a deal or delaying Brexit beyond March 29 The Chancellor will release around 20billion currently ring-fenced as a contingency in case of No Deal. Mr Gove is pleading for Tory rebels to take a second look at the withdrawal agreement, arguing they should not make our perfect Brexit the enemy of the common good. In his article for the Mail, he says: I hope that everyone who believes in our democracy in the importance of delivering Brexit, but also in the critical need to unite our country will come behind the Prime Ministers deal this week. He insisted that while the deal is a compromise, it provides the best way of delivering an exit that can secure our countrys unity and prosperity. Mr Gove warns that many of the arguments made against the deal dont reflect the reality of whats been achieved. It is not the case that this deal makes us a colony or vassal state. How could it when it gives us total control over our borders and ends our current automatic payments to the EU? he writes. While admitting there were aspects of the backstop he found uncomfortable, Mr Gove says the version now agreed is very different from the arrangement the Irish Government and the EU first wanted. Philip Hammond is understood to be ready to promise billions of pounds of extra cash for the police, schools and tax cuts in his Spring Statement on Wednesday if the deal is passed It places more cards in our hands than theirs. If we play them with skill we can get the final deal we want, he adds. While its uncomfortable for us its a mistake to think its a bed of roses for the EU I cant imagine EU politicians tolerating for very long an arrangement which allows us to keep them out of our waters but sell all the fish we want to them, allows us access to their markets but restricts their citizens coming here, allows us to make our economy more competitive and ends all payments to their institutions. EU countries would want it to end. Mr Gove warns Eurosceptic rebels who believe that voting against the plan tomorrow will lead to a No Deal Brexit are likely to be disappointed. He says: Some may say that ditching this deal will allow us to leave without any compromises, but we didnt vote in June 2016 to leave without a deal. That wasnt the message of the campaign I helped lead. He adds: It would undoubtedly cause economic turbulenceWe would get through it, of course, were a great and resilient country. But jobs would be lost in the short term and none of us can be blithe or blase about the inevitable damage leaving without a deal would cause. Mr Goves warning comes after Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told Tory MPs they risk losing Brexit altogether if they fail to back Mrs Mays deal. He said there was wind in the sails of the opponents of Brexit and that it would be devastating for the Tories if they failed to deliver on their commitment to take Britain out of the EU. MICHAEL GOVE: Only by backing the Prime Minister's deal with the EU will ensure Brexit happens and heal the bitter divides across the country By Michael Gove The great Victorian Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli once lamented that Britain had become two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each others habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets. Disraeli was writing of the gulf between rich and poor in the 19th century. But his words echo down the decades. It seems, at times, that our country is now just as divided between those insulated by wealth from the effects of globalisation and those who feel shut out; or between those who compete on Twitter to signal how virtuous they are and those who are made to feel that patriotism is prejudice and love of country is now the love that dare not speak its name. There are other divisions, too between politicians in Westminster and a population becoming alienated because of those politicians failure to listen. Between broadcasters who seek to serve the public and a public that is increasingly switching off. Between elites who think their professional success means they know all the answers and those who wonder why these elites failed to see the banking crisis coming and failed to spread economic growth more fairly in the boom years. Disraeli was writing of the gulf between rich and poor in the 19th century. But his words echo down the decades Those divisions in our society were exposed for all to see by the Brexit referendum. There were different reasons why people voted to leave the EU, but at the heart of the campaign was a wish on the part of the majority to take back control from unaccountable elites, to make politicians more answerable to the people, and to make our country work in the interests of all: one nation once again. But since the referendum, it has often seemed as though that desire for a fresh start has been continually frustrated by an unwillingness to come together behind that democratic vote. Listening to some partisans in the ongoing Brexit debate, it is clear that they behave as though they think the other side are indeed dwellers in different zones or inhabitants of different planets. Insults are hurled, cries of treachery traded, any suggestion of finding common ground denounced as a heresy. Sympathy for others seems in short supply. But for democracy to work, there has to be understanding between people; there has to be compromise and a coming together. Along with a majority of other people, I voted to reinvigorate our democracy by taking power back from unaccountable institutions and taking back control of our laws. I recognise, however, that while the majority to leave was decisive, executing that decision, like all democratic decisions, means respecting everyone in our democracy. Forty-eight per cent of the country voted to remain. Their voices need to be listened to, their hopes incorporated in our plan for the future. That doesnt mean giving in to the much smaller number who want to overturn the decision and frustrate Brexit. But it must mean that none of us Leavers should try to make our perfect Brexit the enemy of the common good. Which is why I hope that everyone who believes in our democracy in the importance of delivering Brexit and in the critical need to unite our country will get behind the Prime Ministers deal this week. It is, of course, a compromise. But so many of the great British traditions and institutions I and many others value are the result of compromise. Which is why I hope that everyone who believes in our democracy in the importance of delivering Brexit and in the critical need to unite our country will get behind the Prime Ministers deal this week We are governed by a system that reconciles the different interests of Government, Parliament and the Courts; our constitutional monarchy is underpinned by centuries of compromise, as is our national Church. The devolution settlement is a compromise; our Press balances freedom of speech with a responsibility to be accurate in reporting; our economic system and welfare state balance the individual freedom to pursue success with the collective need to protect the vulnerable. As the great liberal thinker Isaiah Berlin rightly argued, when one value or a single perspective is valued above all others, the tree of liberty is hacked at its roots. So while the Prime Ministers deal is a compromise, it is not to be rejected for that reason alone. Quite the opposite. In balancing the freedoms that Brexit brings with assurances that smooth our path out of the EU, it provides the best way of delivering an exit that can secure our countrys unity and prosperity. Of course, there are some who voted Remain for whom no Brexit is acceptable. Whatever deal Mrs May secured, they would find fault with it. But their answer, a second referendum, would only deepen and inflame the divisions it is our duty to overcome. As the great liberal thinker Isaiah Berlin rightly argued, when one value or a single perspective is valued above all others, the tree of liberty is hacked at its roots The demand for another vote is a declaration that those who voted Leave in 2016 were too stupid to know what they were doing or too prejudiced to appreciate the consequences. Holding another referendum would only confirm the feeling among many that politicians dont listen and wont change. It would undermine confidence in our democracy and any campaign that ensued would further fray the bonds that hold us all together not least by fuelling demands for new votes in Scotland and Northern Ireland to break up the United Kingdom. But its not only those calling for a second referendum who are, I fear, making a mistake. Some of those who believe most sincerely and passionately in Brexit have allowed arguments to be made about the Prime Ministers deal which dont reflect the reality of whats been achieved. It is not the case that this deal makes us a colony or vassal state. How could it when it gives us total control over our borders and ends our automatic payments to the EU? Colonies, by definition, dont have control over their borders and they give up their natural resources to others. This deal means we have the absolute freedom to decide who comes into this country, and on what terms. It also allows us to decide what pan-European programmes, if any, we want to join in. As one of the leaders of the Leave campaign, I know that two of the most resonant demands from voters were control of our borders and money. This deal delivers completely and, as it happens, without compromise on both. Some of those who believe most sincerely and passionately in Brexit have allowed arguments to be made about the Prime Ministers deal which dont reflect the reality of whats been achieved It also ensures we leave the EUs legal order and, save for a few very limited areas, we are outside the control of the European Court of Justice. We can, if we wish, choose to continue to meet EU standards, as they change, to make cross-border trade easier. But we can refuse to accept any new EU rule on goods or agriculture we dont want. The ratchet of European integration has been stopped. Ever closer union ended. We can begin to do things differently in all manner of ways when the deal is concluded. We can have new rules for our service sector to help create new jobs in the fastest growing part of our economy. We will continue to maintain the highest environmental standards but we no longer need to follow the EU rulebook and can do things in our own, better, way. The deal also means we arent bound by the EUs Common Defence and Security Policy and were out of the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy. Our farmers are freed from the bureaucracy that held them back, and we take back control of all our fish stocks and access to our waters. There are, of course, aspects of the deal which cause concern. It requires us to accept an arrangement called the backstop which places certain restraints on the ability of Northern Ireland to diverge from the EU in the event that we dont conclude a full trade deal by the end of 2020. The Irish government have pressed for a backstop throughout these talks because they see it as an insurance policy in order to keep the current open border on the island of Ireland. But the backstop weve now agreed is very different from the arrangement the Irish government and the EU first wanted. It places more cards in our hands than theirs. If we play them with skill, we can get the final deal we want. As a Unionist and a Brexiteer, there are aspects of the backstop I certainly find uncomfortable. It creates a difference in treatment between Great Britain and Northern Ireland which is troubling. Id much prefer it if we had a unilateral exit mechanism. But while its uncomfortable for us, its a mistake to think its a bed of roses for the EU. There are many reasons why they would not want it to last indefinitely and its worth looking at them in detail. If the backstop ever kicked in, wed still be able to export our goods to Europe without any tariff barriers, but we would also have full control of our own borders, with free movement of people having ended. More than that, we wouldnt be paying the EU any money any more. Not a penny. More, even, than that, we could stop EU vessels entering our fishing waters. If we wished, we could deny French and Danish boats any of our fish. But they couldnt stop us selling our catch to them. On top of that, in the backstop our ability to ignore new EU laws, and indeed roll back the vast majority of existing EU laws, would be extensive. We could make our economy more competitive from day one, and still have guaranteed access to their economies. In the backstop we could still negotiate, sign and implement new trade deals. They wouldnt cover goods but could cover services, professional qualifications and investor protections. Leaving without a deal on March 29 would not honour that commitment. It would undoubtedly cause economic turbulence. Almost everyone in this debate accepts that I cannot imagine EU politicians tolerating for very long an arrangement which allows us to keep them out of our waters but sell all the fish we want to them; allows us access to their markets but restricts their citizens coming here; allows us to make our economy more competitive and ends all payments to their institutions. EU countries would want it to end. And if we do play our cards right, we can ensure that it does on our terms. Any objective assessment on this deal shows it delivers on the key Brexit demands and gives us the freedom to go further in the future.I fear, if MPs dont support the PMs deal this week, then the chance to come together as a country may be taken from us. Some may say that ditching this deal will allow us to leave without any compromises. But we didnt vote to leave without a deal. That wasnt the message of the campaign I helped lead. During that campaign, we said we should do a deal with the EU and be part of the network of free trade deals that covers all Europe, from Iceland to Turkey. Leaving without a deal on March 29 would not honour that commitment. It would undoubtedly cause economic turbulence. Almost everyone in this debate accepts that. EU tariffs on food would hit farmers; new trade frictions would harm manufacturers. We would get through it, of course were a great and resilient country. But jobs would be lost in the short term and none of us can be blase about the damage leaving without a deal would cause. We would also be open to criticism from those many Remain voters who are prepared to compromise and leave with a deal, but dont want to depart without a deal, that wed preferred our perfect to their good. They could argue wed preferred ideology to inclusivity. Given the fragility of faith in our politics at the moment, its not a course Id want to take. And its a course we may not be able to take anyway. If the deal is voted down, then the Government is no longer determining events. Parliament will then vote on whether we leave without a deal on March 29. A majority are likely to say they dont want to take that risk, and Parliament is likely to ask for an extension of EU membership. Whatever the merits of that course, its undoubtedly the case that it creates another risk of the Commons diluting Brexit or the EU offering us a poorer deal. The decisions all MPs face in the next few days will not be easy. And I respect the sincerity and passion with which every one of my colleagues holds to their position. But if we dont think coolly about whats in the best interests of our country, we may find that we have failed to rise to this moment; failed to find the common ground on which our best future rests. Delaying and diluting what we have or leaving without a deal risks perpetuating the difficulties when we need to overcome divisions to meet new challenges. Its time we became one nation once again. Health bosses secretly admitted they were at fault over the contaminated blood scandal nearly 30 years ago, official documents reveal. Governments have always denied wrongdoing and insisted the disaster was a tragic accident. But behind closed doors, officials acknowledged hundreds of patients had been given contaminated blood when safer treatments were available. Health bosses secretly admitted they were at fault over the contaminated blood scandal nearly 30 years ago, official documents reveal (stock image) Newly-released documents reveal how ministers were being privately briefed by lawyers that government cost-cutting policies were to blame. In the 1970s and 80s, the Department of Health imported blood products from the US because it was cheaper than producing them in Britain. These products were contaminated with HIV and hepatitis as the blood had been donated by high risk groups including prisoners and the homeless in exchange for cash. More than 7,500 patients were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through NHS blood products and transfusions. Many had the blood-clotting disorder haemophilia and relied on contaminated injections of Factor VIII, a US product. It was the worst treatment disaster in NHS history but nobody has yet been held responsible. The documents obtained via Freedom of Information laws are internal memos from the Department of Health and the Treasury, which were concerned about having to pay compensation to victims. One reveals an admission from the Department of Health that 500 haemophiliac patients had contracted HIV entirely avoidably. Thousands more would go on to develop hepatitis. Many had the blood-clotting disorder haemophilia and relied on contaminated injections of Factor VIII, a US product (stock image) The document, dated November 26, 1990, states: There seems a considerable danger that courts would bend over backwards to make awards to as many haemophiliacs as possible, by setting an early date after which the NHS could reasonably have been expected to have introduced new forms of treatment. The new forms of treatment refer to safer, heat-treated products which came on to the market in the mid-1980s but were expensive. They may also include an older form of treatment frozen blood products called cryoprecipitate given to patients before Factor VIII became available. An earlier memo shows then health secretary Ken Clarke admitting that some patients who had caught HIV from blood had very strong medical negligence cases. At the time, Mr Clarke who remains a Tory MP was publicly insisting that the tragedy was nobodys fault. A third letter, referring to advice given to the Department of Health from a barrister, warns of terrible gaps in their response to the disaster. Written on December 6, 1990, it says there was obviously quite a lot of neglect which was inevitable when money was tight. The barrister is believed to be referring to the Department of Health avoiding spending money on creating their own blood products, instead importing them. A final document reveals how, if the government were taken to court, losing badly to victims would cost almost 500million in compensation and legal fees. Last September, a major public inquiry, expected to last two years, got under way to establish what had happened and why, including whether there had been a Whitehall cover-up of the scandal. Jason Evans, whose father died in 1993 after being given infected blood, said: Its high time the Government publicly admitted negligence... we know theyre negligent, its now clear that they know they are, and have known for 30 years it is a scandal through and through. Mr Evans, who obtained the records, added: Its one thing to deny negligence for all these years but to have privately been advised and concluded the opposite almost 30 years ago is outrageous. Ken Clarke and the Department of Health declined to comment. A doctor has revealed controversial drug MDMA is actually 'not that dangerous' when taken in 'pure form.' Specialist GP David Charles Thomas weighed in on Australia's pill testing debate on Thursday. The real danger, he said, lies in the fact that the drug is illegal making it impossible for users to tell what's in it. 'If it was in the pure form, and you're a healthy person ... it's probably not that dangerous,' he told the Australian Radio Network. 'But it's still not a sensible thing to do, to take things with no information about where it's been made, how pure it is, what else has been added to it.' As debates rages in NSW and Victoria over pill testing at festivals, a GP has revealed MDMA is actually 'not that dangerous' when taken in pure form In a podcast titled Triggered, by Deborah Clay, the GP explained the way MDMA works to heighten excitement on users but also limits their ability to self-regulate temperature. 'It can make them feel like they have a lot more energy, but it also decouples their temperature regulation and their perception to the extent of any warning signs,' he said. Combined with the heat, dancing and general exertion of music festivals, users could easily overheat, he said. Debates over pill testing continues to rage in New South Wales and Victoria in the wake of recent drug-related deaths at music festivals. In NSW, pill testing has become a hot topic ahead of the March 23 election. Five people died after taking drugs at festivals in the state between September 2018 and January 2019, prompting a public outcry for pill testing trials. But the NSW government remains firmly opposed. The podcast, broadcast late last week, comes as former federal senator David Leyonhjelm called the government's opposition 'stupid'. The Liberal Democrat, who is running for the NSW upper house, says people are going to take pills anyway and testing would make the activity safer. Debates over pill testing continues to rage in New South Wales and Victoria in the wake of recent drug-related deaths at music festivals. The GP revealed users risk overheating due to the heat, dancing and general exertion of music festivals 'Just because you disapprove of something does not mean you should prohibit it,' he said. Professional business woman Maggie, whose surname was withheld, told the podcast she went to great lengths to ensure she enjoyed MDMA at festivals, while also purchasing a 'home' pill testing kit to mitigate safety concerns. The regular music festival patron said she concealed the drugs in a condom placed inside a tampon which she inserted into her body. 'MDMA does not kill, if it did I would be dead,' she said. NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard disagreed, saying the popular music festival drug is dangerous. 'What we do know, absolutely categorically, is that MDMA cooks your organs from inside,' he told the podcast. The government won't accept pill testing as it's 'crazy' for community leaders to endorse drugs, he said. Joseph Pham (left) 23, and Diana Nguyen (right) 21, died at Defqon 1 last year after overdosing on drugs. The recent spate of drug-related deaths have led to calls for pill testing Mr Hazzard cited overseas research findings that people take more drugs when they get their pills tested. 'You can take a fraction of MDMA and still end up in a coma and die,' he said. 'You can test the pill, but you can't test the person.' Opposition leader Michael Daley has said his party is open to exploring the option of pill testing if Labor wins the election. In Victoria, the government remains opposed to the idea. The New South Wales government previously rejected pill testing but Premier Gladys Berejiklian indicated earlier this month that she would consider it if the government was shown evidence it could save lives. Revellers Joseph Pham, 23, and Diana Nguyen, 21, died at Defqon 1 last year after overdosing on drugs. In January, 19-year-old Alex Ross-King, died after she collapsed at the FOMO music festival. Her death brought the number of fatal overdoses to six - five in NSW and one in Victoria - in the last four months. Hospitals could be fined for failing to spot and treat the silent killer sepsis under new guidelines. Staff are being told to be extra vigilant for symptoms of the condition in patients at A&E and on wards. Junior doctors will also be obliged to tell consultants if patients diagnosed with sepsis havent responded to drugs within an hour. The condition is known as the silent killer because it is notoriously difficult to diagnose and patients risk of death significantly increases for every hour they are not given antibiotics. Staff are being told to be extra vigilant for symptoms of the condition in patients at A&E and on wards [File photo] The guidelines, which take effect from April 1, will be enforced by local health trusts, now known as Clinical Commissioning Groups. CCGs will have the power to withhold funding from hospitals if sepsis care is poor. There are about 250,000 cases of sepsis in the UK each year. The condition is the countrys leading cause of avoidable death, with total fatalities reaching 52,000 a year although this may well be an underestimate. Sepsis occurs when the body overreacts to an everyday infection or virus, and it is commonly triggered by a skin infection, chest infection or the flu. Melissa Mead carried her sons ashes in a teddy bear as she was awarded an MBE earlier this year for her work raising awareness of sepsis. The Daily Mail has been campaigning to improve sepsis care since 2016, following the tragic case of her one-year-old son William Mead It develops when the chemicals that the immune system releases into the bloodstream to fight an infection cause inflammation throughout the entire body instead. The condition is known as the silent killer because it is notoriously difficult to diagnose and patients risk of death significantly increases for every hour they are not given antibiotics. The guidelines were drawn up by NHS England with the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of GPs, the health watchdog NICE and the UK Sepsis Trust. Celia Ingham Clark, of NHS England, said: Weve come a long way in the NHS in improving how we identify and tackle sepsis, with more people having the problem spotted and treated than ever before. 'The NHS Long-Term Plan is a blueprint for transforming NHS care and, after the success weve had ramping up earlier sepsis diagnosis in many parts of the country, all hospitals will now be required to deliver the best possible practices for identifying and treating sepsis. Dr Tim Nutbeam, of the UK Sepsis Trust, added: If delivered correctly [this initiative] will ensure rapid and effective treatment for the patients who need it most, while ensuring that senior clinical decision-makers are supported in making informed, balanced decisions in relation to the prescribing of antibiotics. William was just 12 months old when he died of sepsis. A damning report obtained by the Mail revealed how there had been 16 failures in his case, with a string of clinicians failing to spot signs he was suffering from sepsis We have been working with NHS England for the past three years to improve the recognition and management of sepsis in hospitals. This next step will ensure that every patient receives the attention they require. Some hospitals have recently been criticised for failing to prevent sepsis deaths. They include the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals and the Dudley Group of Hospitals in the West Midlands. Sepsis symptoms include rapid breathing, an abnormally high or low temperature, mottled skin and feeling dizzy or faint. Without prompt antibiotics, the condition can lead to multiple organ failure and death. The Daily Mail has been campaigning to improve sepsis care since 2016, following the tragic case of one-year-old William Mead. He died from the condition in Treliske Hospital, near Truro in Cornwall, after GPs and other staff missed the warning signs. Police have received an anonymous tip-off which they believe could end a 30-year murder mystery. South Australian businessman Peter Seaford was brutally murdered in his own home in the early hours of March 12, 1989, with the takings from the service station he part owned also stolen. Police are calling on a person who contacted Crime Stoppers last month with some information about the death to make contact with them again. 'It would be of great benefit to the investigation if the person who provided this information was to make further contact with us,' Detective Senior Sergeant Schneemilch said on Sunday. Peter 'Dudley' Seaford (pictured) was murdered inside his Whyalla home in 1989 during a robbery 'They can do that via Crime Stoppers, or by calling Major Crime directly.' Police believe Mr Seaford may have been killed after he fought with an intruder, pulling off a home-made balaclava and possibly identifying his attacker. 'The injuries he's suffered show this was a sustained attack and he's fought back,' Detective Schneemilch said. 'He had quite a lot of defensive wounds on both arms.' Police believe there may have been more than one person involved in the murder and have positive lines of inquiry, but say there is still a lot of work to be done 'to join the dots'. A person made contact with Crime Stoppers on 17 February on the website and provided information that suggested they have knowledge about the murder. A reward of up to $200,000 will be paid by the SA government, at the discretion of the police commissioner, to anyone who provides information that leads to the conviction of the person or people responsible for Mr Seaford's murder. Mr Seaford went outside of his unit when he heard an alarm at a nearby service station (pictured) which he owned An Australian woman who was diagnosed with cancer aged 73 has spoken about how she was left homeless after losing it all. Robin Dougherty, from Sydney, told the ABC she had to sleep on her family members' sofas because she had no savings when her husband died. Ms Dougherty, who says she was never taught about managing money, was widowed in her 50s and wishes she had put money away throughout her life. Sydney woman Robin Dougherty (pictured), resorted to couch-surfing between family members, after a lifetime of bad money habits left her homeless She is now living in a retirement village and is urging people to be more financially savvy. 'As soon as you start working, try and put something aside every week,' she told the ABC. 'If you suddenly win the lottery, that's fantastic, but you can't rely on that.' Ms Dougherty's heartbreaking story comes amid worsening conditions for older people across Australia. Homelessness among Australians aged between 55 and over, is likely to increase due to an ageing population and declining rates of home ownership, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). The number of older homeless people increased by 49 per cent in the past decade, with significant changes in people aged 65-74, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. A total of 17 per cent of older people sought specialist homelessness services due to financial difficulties in 2016-2017, according to research from the AIHW. Factors that put older people at risk of homelessness include relationship breakdown, financial difficulty and limited superannuation. According to Mission Australia, there is an emerging number of older people surviving on lower incomes and scarce savings, putting them at high risk of homelessness. The non-for-profit group said a majority of older people living on low incomes rely on social security payments, such as the age pension. However, the benefits of the age pension are built on the assumption the elderly already own their own homes. Older people can spend up to 70% of their income to cover just housing related expenses and are forced to compromise on medication and use of electricity. A recent study by corporate watchdog Australian Securities and Investments Commission found that a third of Australians find it challenging to manage their finances. Ross Guest, a professor of economics at Griffith University, said this can lead to more people needing time off work to deal with stress. A government body, called Ecstra, has been set up to tackle financial illiteracy and has received $55million in funding. will bring in rules to force all new-build homes to have low-carbon heating Phillip Hammond will use his Spring Statement this week to unveil a series of green measures. The Chancellor will say he has heard calls from young people to act on climate change and will pledge to preserve the environment for future generations. It comes after last months climate strike, in which thousands of pupils across the country skipped lessons and joined mass events calling for more action to preserve the planet. Mr Hammond also wants to help conserve natural habitats in the UKs overseas territories, from ice fields to coral reefs and tropical forests. Other measures will include a major global review to assess the economic value of biodiversity [File photo] Mr Hammond will say the UK must be creative and innovative on climate change. Among his proposals to tackle carbon emissions is future-proofing new homes by making sure they are energy efficient, have lower bills and are better for the environment. He will bring in rules that will force all new-build homes to have low-carbon heating. Mr Hammond has vowed to at least halve the energy use of new-build properties by 2030. He will look into whether all airlines should give passengers the option to pay to offset their carbon emissions when booking their flights. Currently only a small number of airlines give travellers that option. Mr Hammond also wants to help conserve natural habitats in the UKs overseas territories, from ice fields to coral reefs and tropical forests. Other measures will include a major global review to assess the economic value of biodiversity. It comes as figures show how much biodiversity contributes to the UK economy. The value to crops of our 1,500 pollinator species, such as bees, is estimated to be at least 680million per year. Theresa May was last night warned her position will become untenable if MPs reject her deal and succeed in delaying Brexit. Former Tory Cabinet ministers Dominic Raab and Nicky Morgan raised doubts she could remain if her withdrawal agreement is voted down tomorrow. Downing Street aides are now resigned to Mrs May having to set out her departure date in an attempt to get her deal through the Commons, Cabinet sources revealed. But former Brexit secretary David Davis dismissed the suggestion that the promise of an exit plan would be enough to persuade rebel Tories to support her withdrawal agreement. Theresa May was last night warned her position will become untenable if MPs reject her deal and succeed in delaying Brexit Mrs May has said if the Government loses tomorrow, there will be further votes on whether the UK should leave the EU without a deal or seek an extension to negotiations beyond the March 29 exit date. Former education secretary Nicky Morgan yesterday said it would be the beginning of the end if MPs end up voting for a delay to the Article 50 process. She told Radio 4s The World This Weekend: I think that her position is going to become slowly less and less tenable as Parliament changes the Governments Brexit policy. If the votes go this week in a way which means that the Prime Ministers policy as she has set out and stuck to rigidly over the course of the last two-and-a-bit a years is taken away, dismantled slowly by Parliament this week, I think it would be very difficult for the Prime Minister to stay in office for very much longer. Mrs Morgan, who has said she will vote for the Brexit deal tomorrow, said it may be up to the Cabinet to tell Mrs May that the time has come for her to go. They are going to have to take a role in saying potentially to the Prime Minister, Actually, things have changed significantly. We think you should think about your position, Prime Minister, she added. Former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab, who quit over the Brussels deal, acknowledged the PMs position was precarious but said it would be even worse if Brexit was delayed. Mr Raab, who has been touted as a possible successor to Mrs May if she is forced to step down, refused to be drawn on his own leadership ambitions. But asked if he thought Mrs May would still be Prime Minister by Christmas, he said: I dont know. She has said she is going to step down. I would like to be able to see her do that in a way which is in the terms of her own choosing. I think the Government has found itself in a precarious situation. Former Tory Cabinet ministers Dominic Raab and Nicky Morgan raised doubts she could remain if her withdrawal agreement is voted down tomorrow If the Government extends Article 50 or tries to reverse the Brexit promises that we have made, I think that situation would get even trickier. Cabinet ministers have privately floated the idea of Mrs May naming a date for her departure if it persuades hardline Eurosceptics to back her deal. Some believe the rebels may be tempted by this option in the belief they could install a Brexiteer to take over the second phase of negotiations on the future relationship with the EU. But Mr Davis rejected the suggestion. The former Brexit secretary told the BBCs Andrew Marr Show: No, it wont work. [It] wont get the vote through. Former Brexit secretary David Davis dismissed the suggestion that the promise of an exit plan would be enough to persuade rebel Tories to support her withdrawal agreement Health Secretary Matt Hancock also dismissed the idea. He told BBC Radio 5 Live: I dont think that would help... You have got to look at what the public think in many ways. The amount of respect for the PM in the country is incredible. Through this incredibly difficult negotiation and difficult time in politics her dignity and poise has been absolutely remarkable. Many people have been very rude about her, she just lets it pass her by. You can see that she is steadfastly focused on what is in the national interest. Mrs May had initially vowed to stay on as Tory leader for the long term and fight the next general election in 2022. In August 2017 the Prime Minister insisted she was not a quitter and would remain in office to guide the country through Brexit and beyond. But as she faced a confidence vote in her leadership in December, Mrs May backtracked and told MPs she would stand down before the next election. Last month she signalled she would not be quitting immediately after Brexit on March 29. Labour has abandoned plans to push for a second referendum tomorrow amid fears it would trigger a mass revolt by shadow ministers. But Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, told Sky there could still be a opportunity this week for MPs to vote for a second poll. Soldiers will think twice about obeying orders in future if veterans involved in Bloody Sunday are charged this week, a former Army chief has warned. Lord Ramsbotham who was military assistant to the chief of the general staff at the time of the shootings said that prosecuting any of the 17 former soldiers under investigation would set a dangerous precedent. Army veterans will find out on Thursday whether they face charges over the infamous shootings, in which 13 civilians died at the hands of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment on the streets of Londonderry in 1972. British troops in Northern Ireland during the Troubles which began in the late 1960s and lasted until 1998 with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement Former military chief Lord Ramsbotham who has said that prosecuting British soldiers over the deaths of civilians on Bloody Sunday would set a dangerous precedent for the Army's future operations around the world Two former Official IRA suspects are also facing charges. Soldiers had claimed they retaliated after coming under gunfire. However in 2010, a 200million report compiled by Lord Saville concluded that the civilians killed in one of the darkest periods of the Troubles were innocent. The prospect of charges against men now in their 60s and 70s, almost 50 years on, has caused profound concern within the Army, according to crossbench peer Lord Ramsbotham. Lying on the ground is a man receiving attention, during the shooting incident in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, which became known as Bloody Sunday on January 30, 1972 The position of a commander giving an order to somebody to open fire, if its likely to end up in court, the soldier receiving the order and the person giving the order will think twice about it in the future, he said. That could have very serious implications if were defending this country. I am thinking in terms of the command and control of the Army as a whole. Lord Ramsbotham reached the rank of adjutant-general in the Army, one of its most senior positions, before leaving in 1993. He later served as chief inspector of prisons for England and Wales. As Lieutenant Colonel David Ramsbotham, he was in London when he heard that people had been killed on a civil rights march. High velocity bullets fired by the British Army on Bloody Sunday are on display at The Museum of Free Derry in Derry City's Bogside, Northern Ireland. 13 people died from shots fired by the British Army during the conflict, and another individual died later from injuries He said he was very sorry... soldiers might have been involved in killing people on the streets of Londonderry, adding that then-head of the Army Sir Michael Carver was appalled. The 84-year-old added that if charges are brought on Thursday, the Government should ensure veterans are supported and given the legal help they require. Im involved in the general hope that a line could be drawn and we could stop the idea of prosecuting people for something that happened in the 1970s, he said. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson admitted last week that plans to introduce a ten-year limit on soldier prosecutions would come into effect in time for the Bloody Sunday soldiers Last week, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson admitted that plans to introduce a ten-year limit on soldier prosecutions will sadly, not come in time for Bloody Sunday veterans. Claims that charges could impact future military operations have been echoed by Democratic Unionist MPs. However members of Sinn Fein, the Ulster Unionist Party and the Social Democratic and Labour Party, have backed prosecutions for soldiers if there is evidence that they broke the law. It comes as the families of those killed during Bloody Sunday restated their calls for prosecutions. Kate Nash, 70, whose 19-year-old brother William was shot dead and her father injured, said: We have fought for this [prosecutions] for all these years. We dont care that these are old men. 'My brother was a young man. He was 19. He lost his life. He didnt get a chance to get to be an old man. My brother was murdered and the men responsible for that should be prosecuted. Taxi driver Mickey McKinney, 67, lost his brother William, 27, a keen amateur filmmaker who worked as a typesetter. He said: Its right that justice must be seen to be done. They told a lie and said my brother and everybody else killed were gunmen and nail bombers. These men have to pay for what they did. The time since the incident is no excuse at all. They have not shown one ounce of remorse. The Saville report concluded that Mr Nash did not pose a threat and Mr McKinney was not in possession of a bomb or firearm. Brussels will demand another 13.5billion in Brexit divorce payments if Theresa May seeks an extension to Article 50, it is claimed. EU states are said to be 'hardening' their stance against a longer Brexit process and could force Britain to stay in a customs union as the price of agreeing a delay. MPs could vote on a postponement this week if, as expected, Theresa May's deal is defeated again in the House of Commons tomorrow. The PM has suggested a three-month delay but EU diplomats will demand more money if the extension is longer than a few weeks, the Daily Telegraph reported. Theresa May, pictured outside church on Sunday, is facing another defeat on her Brexit deal which could force MPs to vote on an extension later this week An EU source told the newspaper: 'Lines are hardening against extension... Anything more than a few weeks will come with legal and financial conditions attached.' Brussels could ask Britain to pay an extra 13.5billion a year - 1bn a month - on top of the current 39bn divorce deal, it is reported. The EU could also push for Britain to stay in a customs union, a move opposed by many Brexiteers who want the UK to strike new trade deals instead. All 27 of the EU's remaining member states would have to agree an extension beyond March 29 if it is requested by Mrs May. A plane was reported to be on standby at RAF Northolt to fly Mrs May to Brussels to clinch an agreement if there was any sign of a deal emerging from talks over the weekend. But there has been no sign of a breakthrough and Mrs May will have to take her deal before Parliament on Tuesday with the controversial backstop still in place. Michel Barnier attended the Ireland-France rugby match on Sunday, pictured, rather than remaining in Brussels in a sign of slow progress in Brexit talks In an apparent indication of the lack of progress, the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier chose to travel to Dublin to attend the Ireland v France rugby international rather than remain in the Belgian capital. Tory Brexiteers have said a defeat for Mrs May was 'inevitable' unless the Prime Minister was able to secure significant changes to the arrangements for Northern Ireland. Mrs May has said if she loses the vote on Tuesday, there will be further votes on Wednesday on whether the UK should leave with no-deal and on Thursday on whether they should seek an extension to Article 50. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned Tory colleagues that they risked losing Brexit altogether if they did not back the PM. He said there was 'wind in the sails' of the opponents of Brexit and that it would be 'devastating' for the Conservatives if they failed to deliver on their commitment to take Britain out of the EU. Meanwhile former Cabinet minister Nicky Morgan said Mrs May could be forced out of No 10 if her Brexit strategy was 'dismantled' by MPs this week. Democratic presidential contender Tulsi Gabbard, an Iraq war veteran, said Sunday she knows women in the military like Sen. Martha McSally who wouldn't admit they were sexually assaulted, including her closest friend. 'I believe that we still today don't know how rampant sexual assault in the military is, because there is still a fear of retaliation,' Gabbard said at a town hall hosted by CNN at the South by Southwest festival. Gabbard said she knows people like McSally 'who feel like it's impossible' to come forward with their stories, including her best friend. Democratic presidential contender Tulsi Gabbard, an Iraq war veteran, said she knows women in the military who won't report their sexual assault Sen. Martha McSally revealed during a Senate committee hearing that she was raped by a superior while serving in the Air Force 'One of my closest friends still refused to do it,' the representative from Hawaii said. 'Still to this day?,' asked CNN's Dana Bash. 'Still to this day,' Gabbard responded. 'She has never reported what happened to her.' Gabbard, who serves in the Army National Guard, said there is still a 'stigma' against those who report sexual assault. 'There is a stigma and people who don't want to be known as that one. She or he is that one who went against the team, who turned their back,' she said. McSally, the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat, said last week that she was raped by a superior officer while serving in the Air Force and almost left the military over the 'betrayal' she felt. She said she didn't report it because she didn't trust the system. Gabbard said she's sat with officials from the Defense Department who don't recognize the 'serious change' needed to bring justice to the victims. 'I have sat through hearings and engaged with leaders from the department of defense in my role as a member of the armed services committee where, unfortunately, there is a lack of recognition, of the serious change that needs to take place for there to be a true path for justice, for victims of sexual assault in the military,' she said. McSally, a 26-year military veteran, made the stunning disclosure at a Senate hearing on the armed services' efforts to prevent sexual assaults and improve the response when they occur. She spoke pointedly of her 'despair' over the incident and the need to improve the system so that victims can feel comfortable sharing their stories, calling herself a 'survivor of rape and betrayal.' 'I share the disgust of the failures of the military system and at many commanders who failed in their responsibilities,' she said. Sen. Martha McSally said she didn't report her assault because she didn't trust the system Air Force service: Martha McSally was the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat. She revealed she was raped at a Senate hearing last week The Arizona Republican said she did not report being sexually assaulted because she did not trust the system, and she said she was ashamed and confused. McSally did not name the officer who she says raped her although she had choice words for commanders who mishandle reported claims of assault. 'Like many victims, I thought the system was raping me all over again,' McSally said. 'But I didn't quit. I decided to stay and continued to serve and fight and lead,' she said. 'To be a voice from within the ranks for women, and then in the House, and now in the Senate. So this is personal for me, too.' She called herself a 'survivor of rape and betrayal.' Democratic presidential contender Tulsi Gabbard took part in a CNN town hall at the SXSW festival Gabbard also addressed her father Mike Gabbard's work with The Alliance for Traditional Marriage, which supported gay conversion therapy Gabbard took part of the town hall at the annual SXSW festival. She also addressed some of the controversies that have dogged her presidential campaign, including allegations she supported conversion therapy for gays. 'I personally never supported any kind of conversion therapy. I never advocated for conversion therapy. And frankly, I didn't even know what conversation therapy was until just the last few years,' she said. Gabbard worked for her father's anti-gay organization in the early 2000s - a group that likened same-sex marriage to incest, pedophilia, and bestiality. Mike Gabbard, a prominent anti-gay activist in Hawaii who now serves in the state Senate, established The Alliance for Traditional Marriage, which supported gay conversion therapy and referred to homosexuality as 'unhealthy, abnormal behavior that should not be promoted or accepted in society.' The congresswoman addressed the issue in her town hall. 'I was raised in a very socially conservative home. My father is catholic. He was a leading voice against gay marriage in Hawaii during that time. Again, I was very young, but these were the values and beliefs that I grew up around,' she said. She said her own travels around the world through the military and serving with gays and lesbians changed her outlook. Gabbard said she 'served with gay and lesbian and trans service members. We became very good friends and knew in the most deep and visceral way that I would give my life for any one of them. And I knew that they would do the same for me.' 'I ask you to look to my record in congress now for over six years where it is a reflection of what is in my heart and it's a reflection of my commitment to fight for equality for all people. I have 100 percent legislative rating from the human rights campaign that reflects on a whole variety of issues and pieces of legislation how I have carried through on that commitment, which will continue as president and commander in chief,' she added. A classified ads website has revealed Melbourne's sauciest suburb, where hundreds of people are looking or casual sex. Locanto, a classifieds site, revealed there 1376 ads from people who are looking to hook-up with other people in Melbourne. Ringwood, in Melbourne's east, topped the list with 537 profiles of people looking for a casual hook-up. Box Hill had 189 profiles, while Doncaster was not far behind with 134 requests for casual sex Box Hill had 189 profiles, while Doncaster was not far behind with 134 requests for casual sex. In north-east Melbourne, both Greensborough and Eltham had a total of 136 profiles of people looking for a good time, while Heidelberg and 117, and Mernda had 75 requests. A Victoria Police spokeswoman told The Herald Sun that people who are looking for casual sex usually have a positive experience no matter their age or gender. However, she did warn users to be wary of who they meet up and ensure they are being safe. 'It is important that users understand that the internet isn't the same as the face-to-face environment,' she said. 'You can't be sure that the person you are speaking to is who they say they are.' 'If you are considering meeting someone that you have met online ensure that it is in a public location, that someone knows where you are and remember to trust your doubts about people you're meeting who don't resemble their pictures or if you have a suspicion that someone is being dishonest,' she said. She also said that the police are there to help if you feel uncomfortable or need help in a bad situation. Unearthed radio clips have revealed a number of sexist, misogynistic and perverted remarks by Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson. The clips compiled and published Sunday by Media Matters For America were recorded back when Carlson was a regular commentator on the shock jock radio program 'Bubba the Love Sponge' between 2006 and 2011. For about an hour each week, Carlson would call into the show and weigh in on current events, often sharing controversial opinions in vulgar terms. On several occasions the conservative commentator defended underage marriage and statutory rape while making crude comments about minors exploring their sexuality. He also frequently employed misogynistic language when talking about women, saying that they are 'extremely primitive' beings who 'just need to be quiet and kind of do what youre told'. He specifically called Britney Spears and Paris Hilton 'the biggest white whores in America' and said he wanted to give 'c***y' TV host Alexis Stewart, daughter of Martha Stewart, 'the spanking she so desperately needs'. Carlson, who joined Fox News in 2009, responded to the report on Twitter Sunday night by saying he wouldn't apologize. 'Media Matters caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago,' he wrote on Twitter. 'Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: Im on television every weeknight live for an hour. If you want to know what I think, you can watch. Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why.' Media Matters President Angelo Carusone responded to Carlson's statement by saying: 'The reason we released this is precisely because the things you say on your Fox News show echo the misogyny displayed in those clips. We were actually helping people better understand just how vile your current Fox News show is by showing what that worldview really looks like.' Scroll down for video Unearthed radio clips have revealed a number of sexist, misogynistic and perverted remarks by Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson. Media Matters For America published a compilation of 27 transcripts from his weekly guest appearances on the shock jock radio program Bubba the Love Sponge between 2006 and 2011 on Sunday The lengthy MMFA report contains 27 transcripts broken down into four sections: 'Talking about underage girls and sex, and minimizing and defending statutory rape', 'Diminishing sexual violence/laughing about violence against women', 'Sexism against specific women' and 'Sexism against unnamed women'. The conversations between Carlson, host Todd Clem (aka Bubba the Love Sponge) and an unnamed co-host are detailed below. 'Talking about underage girls and sex, and minimizing and defending statutory rape' The first transcript is pulled from an August 27, 2009, show during which Carlson, Bubba and a co-host discuss underage marriage. 'Look, just to make it absolutely clear, I am not defending underage marriage at all,' Carlson prefaces before saying: 'I just don't think it's the same thing exactly as pulling a child from a bus stop and sexually assaulting that child. After Bubba and the co-host express outrage at Carlson's defense, he explains: 'The rapist, in this case, has made a lifelong commitment to live and take care of the person, so it is a little different. I mean, let's be honest about it.' The co-host replies: 'That's twisted. That's demented.' Carlson then says: 'I got myself in a position that seem like I'm defending it, because I am against that.' Months later on an October 25, 2009, show, the group talks about how Carlson's 14-year-old daughter goes to boarding school. Bubba - who is against his children going to boarding school, describes a scenario in which underage girls experiment with each other sexually in their dormitory. Carlson remarks: 'If it weren't my daughter I would love that scenario.' For about an hour each week, Carlson would call into the show hosted by Bubba the Love Sponge (above), real name Todd Clem, and weigh in on current events, often sharing controversial opinions in vulgar terms One of the earlier transcripts of Bubba the Love Sponge is from a September 5, 2006, show during which the group talks about Warren Jeffs, who at the time was on the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list for his involvement in arranging illegal underage marriage. Carlson calls the charges against Jeffs 'bullshit' because 'arranging a marriage between a 16-year-old and a 27-year-old is not the same as pulling a stranger off the street and raping her'. On another show, Carlson said that if he made the laws, Jeffs would be go free and Michael Vick, who was convicted of dog fighting, would be executed. In an April 2006 show about a teacher who had sex with a 13-year-old student multiple times, Carlson said: 'Teachers like this, not necessarily this one in particular, but they are doing a service to all 13-year-old girls by taking the pressure off. They are a pressure relief valve, like the kind you have on your furnace.' The sixth and final transcript from the first section of the MMFA report, taken from a January 2008 show, contains a conversation about Bill Clinton. Carlson says: 'Why doesn't [Bill] divorce [Hillary] and, you know, take up plural marriage or something with a bunch of teenagers in a foreign country.' TUCKER CARLSON'S MOST SHOCKING RADIO COMMENTS Below is a list of the most controversial comments by Tucker Carlson revealed in the transcripts compiled by Media Matters For America: What women want: 'By the way, women hate you when they do you wrong and you put up with it. Because they hate weakness. They're like dogs that way. They can smell it on you, and they have contempt for it; theyll bite you. 'I mean, I love women, but they're extremely primitive, they're basic, they're not that hard to understand. And one of the things they hate more than anything is weakness in a man.' - October 30, 2007 In defense of underage marriage: 'I just don't think it's the same thing exactly as pulling a child from a bus stop and sexually assaulting that child. 'The rapist, in this case, has made a lifelong commitment to live and take care of the person, so it is a little different. I mean, let's be honest about it.' - August 27, 2009 Warren Jeffs' imprisonment for facilitation of child rape is 'bullshit' 'I should make the laws around here, and Michael Vick would have been executed, and Warren Jeffs would be out on the street. 'I'm not for child rape. I'm just saying, if you mistreat dogs like that, we're going to have to execute you. In defense of a teacher who had sex with a 13-year-old female student 'Teacher's like this, not necessarily this one in particular, but they are doing a service to all 13-year-old girls by taking the pressure off. They are a pressure relief valve, like the kind you have on your furnace.' - April 4, 2006 In defense of Duke University lacrosse players accused of gang raping a sex worker 'She sells sex for a living. If she's accusing other people of nonconsensual sex, it's a little more complicated than if some, you know, housewife claims she was pulled off the street and raped. 'It's just not the same thing. It's harder to determine what's consensual and what's not.' - April 8, 2006 The case for removing rape shield laws 'Why is it if I accuse you of embezzlement, of shooting my dog, or shooting me, of any crime, I have to go face you in open court. My name is available to anybody who's reporting on the case, right? 'Your name is in the public eye. My name is in the public eye. Why is it that, in this one category of crimes, the accuser doesn't have to be treated as an adult? I don't understand that. It gives the accuser all the power. 'So if I'm alleging rape, I have the protection of anonymity. I can say whatever I want while hiding behind anonymity, while the person I accused, whether he's guilty or not, has his life destroyed. That's totally unfair. 'We've done a couple of shows on this, and we always had these feminists on who kind of: "Well, because no one would ever report rape". Really? I don't know. Women seem to be adults to me. I mean, in other words, if you are grievously injured by another person, it's not your fault. I don't understand why, if you're an adult, you just can't get up and say: "This is what the person did to me."' - May 9, 2006 On Alexis Stewart 'She seems extremely c***y. I just wanted to give her the spanking she so desperately needs. 'I don't normally laugh at girls' appearances, just because I think it's mean. But she - I'm bending the rule for her.' - May 2, 2006 On Hillary Clinton 'She has dreams of real power. Now, if she were to get real power -- let's say she were to get absolute power, how long do you think it would take before she castrated you?' - March 12, 2006 'The problem with Hillary is you look at Hillary and you know in your heart that if she could castrate you, she would. 'So thereby she gets not a single vote from any white male in the country. Now you can hate white males if you want, but you kind of need them to vote for you.' - March 14, 2006 On Oprah Winfrey 'Somehow the rest of us have been bullied into pretending that Oprah's great, that she doesn't hate the penis, that she's not anti-man. But she completely is. 'The subtext of every Oprah show is men suck. They abuse you, they rape you, they sleep with your sister and leave you.' - December 11, 2007 On 14-year-old girls experimenting sexually at boarding school 'If it weren't my daughter I would love that scenario.' - October 25, 2009 Advertisement 'Diminishing sexual violence/laughing about violence against women' Tucker went on a rant about confusion over sexual consent during an April 2006 show about gang rape allegations against Duke University lacrosse players. 'Well, I think they could get railroaded. I mean, you know, look, here's the bottom line.... this woman sells sex for a living. OK? I'm not attacking that -- I'm merely noting it. She sells sex for a living. If she's accusing other people of nonconsensual sex, it's a little more complicated than if some, you know, housewife claims she was pulled off the street and raped. It's just not the same thing. It's harder to determine what's consensual and what's not. 'And to act like, you know, these guys absolutely did it because she's this oppressed stripper, pardon me, adult dancer or exotic dancer, whatever the hell they're calling her, is ridiculous. I mean, these kids, maybe they did do something wrong, I don't know. But, I mean, you got to give them the benefit of the doubt.' WHO IS BUBBA THE LOVE SPONGE? Bubba the Love Sponge, real name Todd Clem, was once Florida's boisterous equivalent to Howard Stern, hosting one of the state's largest radio shows and making up to $2million a year. But his place among the radio elite came to a screeching halt after he was involved in a Nielsen rating scandal and secretly filmed former best friend - wrestling icon Hulk Hogan - having sex with his wife in 2006. For years all was quiet, until the tape leaked and was published by now-defunct gossip site Gawker in 2012. The leak resulted in Bubba getting fired and Hogan winning a record-breaking $140million from Gawker which resulted in its closure. Hogan has moves in the work against other parties, but has taken no legal action against his former pal. Today Bubba hosts an internet broadcast called 'Bubba Radio Army'. Advertisement In another show he called for the elimination of rape shield laws, which protect the identity of sexual assault victims by keeping their names out of police records and court documents. It's unclear what sparked the conversation on the May 9, 2006, program. Carlson says: 'One thing that can be done immediately is to eliminate rape shield laws. I mean, why is it if I accuse you of embezzlement, of shooting my dog, or shooting me, of any crime, I have to go face you in open court. My name is available to anybody who's reporting on the case, right? 'Your name is in the public eye. My name is in the public eye. Why is it that, in this one category of crimes, the accuser doesn't have to be treated as an adult? I don't understand that. It gives the accuser all the power. He continues: 'So if I'm alleging rape, I have the protection of anonymity. I can say whatever I want while hiding behind anonymity, while the person I accused, whether he's guilty or not, has his life destroyed. That's totally unfair. 'We've done a couple of shows on this, and we always had these feminists on who kind of: "Well, because no one would ever report rape". Really? I don't know. Women seem to be adults to me. I mean, in other words, if you are grievously injured by another person, it's not your fault. I don't understand why, if you're an adult, you just can't get up and say: "This is what the person did to me."' Two other shows included in the report detail discussions about abusing women when they misbehave. In one from August 2, 2006, Bubba, his co-host and Carlson are discussing an upcoming guest, Miami Dolphins football player Lamar Thomas, who allegedly choked his girlfriend because 'she was acting up'. According to MMFA, Tucker could be heard laughing at the serious allegations. In the second show from January 6, 2010, Bubba and guest Hulk Hogan talks about how the former 'choked out' a woman named Rebecca. Carlson stays largely silent as the rather disturbing details are laid out. 'Sexism against specific women' Carlson launched an attack on TV host Alexis Stewart during a May 2, 2006, show after Bubba and his co-host mention that they run into her frequently. 'She seems extremely c***y,' Carlson remarks. He said after he heard Stewart's appearance on MSNBC: 'I just wanted to give her the spanking she so desperately needs. 'She seems so high maintenance, she seems like the kind of person you marry and then just the rest of your life is like hell.' Carlson insulted TV personality Alexis Stewart (above) during a May 2006 show by saying she 'seems extremely c***y' Bubba chimes in: 'She seemed like the kind of girl that you marry and then go out and have a w**** on the side.' Carlson replies: 'At least, and then go shoot yourself. And even that's not enough to raise her spirits.' Bubba then says: 'She's got real big f***ing Dumbo teacup for ears. She looks like a taxicab going down the road with the doors open, Brent, with her f***ing ears. Carlson responds: 'I don't normally laugh at girls' appearances, just because I think it's mean. But she -- I'm bending the rule for her.' Carlson took aim at Paris Hilton and Britney Spears in an August 5, 2008, show when talking about one of then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign commercials. He said the campaign was 'trying to say that [Obama is] coming for your pristine white daughters by putting two of the biggest white w****s in America' in the ad. In a show that aired on election day, Carlson revealed that he had voted for Republican candidate John McCain, to which Bubba said: 'Because you want to f*** Sarah Palin.' Carlson replied: 'I'll agree with that.' During an August 2008 show, Carlson referred to Britney Spears (left in February 2018) and Paris Hilton (right in June 2018) as two of the biggest white w****s in America' Three of the MMFA transcripts in this section of the report contain vulgar descriptions of Hillary Clinton. In March 2006, ahead of the Democratic presidential primaries, Tucker said of the then-Senator: 'She has dreams of real power. Now, if she were to get real power -- let's say she were to get absolute power, how long do you think it would take before she castrated you?' He made similar comments during a show two days later, saying: 'The problem with Hillary is you look at Hillary and you know in your heart that if she could castrate you, she would. 'So thereby she gets not a single vote from any white male in the country. Now you can hate white males if you want, but you kind of need them to vote for you.' Two years later in early 2008, when Hillary was a strong frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, Carlson said: 'Here's Hillary, but there's also someone who isn't so strongly anti-penis also running with her.' Carlson slammed Hillary Clinton in several radio appearances, calling her 'anti-penis' and saying: 'You know in your heart that if she could castrate you, she would' He attacked fellow 'man-hater' Oprah Winfrey during a December 2007 show. 'Somehow the rest of us have been bullied into pretending that Oprah's great, that she doesn't hate the penis, that she's not anti-man. But she completely is,' Carlson said. 'The subtext of every Oprah show is men suck. They abuse you, they rape you, they sleep with your sister and leave you.' In other transcripts, Carlson calls media mogul Arianna Huffington 'a pig' and says he feels sorry for then-Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan because: 'I feel sorry for unattractive women.' 'Sexism against unnamed women' The final section features Carlson's blatantly sexist generalizations about women. On a show that aired May 2, 2006, Carlson described how in his 'brief experience,' arguing with women 'gets them going'. 'You debate politics with a woman and just go -- just full blown out there, especially feminism. If you're talking to a feminist, and she's given you: "Well, men really need to be more sensitive," [say] no, actually, men don't need to be more sensitive. You just need to be quiet and kind of do what you're told.' He claimed that women 'love it' when they're put in their place. Carlson made several derogatory remarks about sex workers, specifically calling the ones in Florida 'so slutty and pathetic'. On another show he said: 'There's no Canadian woman that you'd want to pay to sleep with. You know that's true.' Perhaps his most disturbing comments came during an October 30, 2007, show. 'By the way, women hate you when they do you wrong and you put up with it,' Carlson says. 'Because they hate weakness. They're like dogs that way. They can smell it on you, and they have contempt for it; theyll bite you. He adds: 'I mean, I love women, but they're extremely primitive, they're basic, they're not that hard to understand. And one of the things they hate more than anything is weakness in a man.' Read MMFA's report with full transcripts here. Carlson responded to the MMFA report in a tweet on Sunday evening in which he essentially said he would not apologize for the 'naughty' comments he'd made Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal which helped the U.S. recover from the Great Depression as a 'racist policy' that benefited whites over minorities. In a one-hour interview at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, the New York Democrat went on to argue that the policies of President Ronald Reagan were also racist as they 'pitted' the white working class against African-Americans and Hispanics. However, she did not explicitly call him a racist. Ocasio-Cortez said: 'One perfect example, I think a perfect example of how special interests and the powerful have pitted white working-class Americans against brown and black working-class Americans in order to just screw over all working class Americans is Reaganism in the eighties, when he started talking about Welfare Queens.' Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez drew massive crowds at SXSW as she slammed the treatment of minorities throughout recent American history She implied that Ronald Reagan's policies were racist because of his treatment of minorities She said Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal was racist that 'drew little red lines around black and brown communities while it invested in white America' 'So you think about this image of welfare queens and what he was really trying to talk about was this like really resentful vision of essentially black women who were doing nothing, that were 'sucks' on our country,' Ocasio-Cortez said about Reagan whom she claimed stirred up conflict between white Americans and minorities. 'It gives people a logical reason, a 'logical' reason to say, 'oh yeah, no, toss out the whole social safety net.'' Her comments generated significant outrage from many prominent conservatives. DailyWire's Ryan Saavedra tweeted the clip with a message that said AOC was suggesting Reagan was a 'racist'. Fox News host Laura Ingram and suggested that Ocasio-Cortez was too young to understand, and wrong because Reagan was elected and re-elected in a 'landslide'. Conservative commentator Larry Elder made a similar argument in a tweet: 'Watch @AOC accuse President Ronald Reagan of utilizing racism to 'screw over all working-class Americans.' (Oh, so THAT explains how Reagan carried 49 states in '84. Black unemployment fell faster than did white unemployment. Black businesses grew faster than white owned ones.)' Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, right, D-New York, spoke with Briahna Gray, a senior politics editor at The Intercept, during South by Southwest. She spent much of her talk decrying the treatment of minorities On the subject of President Roosevelt, Ocasio-Cortez told how she believed FDR's New Deal was racist. 'The New Deal was an extremely economically racist policy that drew little red lines around black and brown communities and it invested in white America,' the Democratic socialist said during her interview on Saturday evening. 'It allowed white Americans access to home loans that black Americans didn't have access to, giving them access to the greatest source of intergenerational wealth.' FDR's New Deal during 1933 and 1936 created a series of public work projects, financial reforms and regulations to help the US recover from the Great Depression. AOC also went on to blasted moderate political policies, saying they only preserve the status quo. She referred to America's current state as 'garbage' while being asked about the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, and a $15 minimum wage. Conservative pundits were quick to come out against Ocasio-Cortez decrying her view Some commentators twisted AOC's words as she said his policies were racist, not him as a man Other commentators fought back with facts on how well Reagan did across the country in the 1984 election and how he managed to bring down black unemployment Conservative commentator noted how AOC wasn't born when Reagan was around but declared her interview at the SXSW festival to be 'brilliant' Ronald Reagan waves to supporters as his wife Nancy and son Ron Jr. look on as he is pictured in the New Hampshire primary in 1979 'I think the thing that is really hard for people to sometimes see is that when we are on this path of a slow erosion and a slow, slow, slow, just like move away from what we've always been, we'll be a hundred miles, you'll, you know you won't even realize that you've drifted a hundred miles,' Ocasio-Cortez said. 'So, when someone's talking about our core, it's like oh this is radical, but this isn't radical, this is what we've always been.' 'It's just that now we've strayed so far away from what has really made us powerful, and just, and good, and equitable, and productive, and so I think all of these things sound radical compared to where we are, but where we are is not a good thing. And this idea of like 10 percent better from garbage shouldn't be what we settle for. It feels like moderate is not a stance, it's just an attitude towards life of like 'hmmm.'' she added. 'It's just an attitude towards life of, like, 'meh,' she said as she shrugged her shoulders according to the New York Post. 'We've become so cynical, that we view 'meh,' or 'eh' we view cynicism as an intellectually superior attitude, and we view ambition as youthful naivete when the greatest things we have ever accomplished as a society have been ambitious acts of visions, and the 'meh' is just worshiped now, for what?' Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal proposal calls for giving every resident of the United States a federal job with paid vacation and retirement benefits, 'adequate housing,' 'healthy food,' and 'access to nature.' It also seeks to make air travel unnecessary and provide jobs for those 'unwilling to work.' It does acknowledge, however, that getting rid of 'farting cows and airplanes' will be difficult. One study suggested the proposal could cost up to $94 trillion. The nine-day music and media festival has attracted many political figures this year. Several 2020 presidential candidates made appearances Saturday, including Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who is also considering a presidential bid, also made the trip to Texas. Police wearing chemical protection suits have rescued a five year old 'Mowgli girl' with 'no language or social skills' who was living up to her neck in foul-smelling rubbish infested with cockroaches. The neglected half-naked child called Lyubov - or Love - was dehydrated and sickly after her mother named Irina Garashchenko, 47, had been 'absent for days' from her noxious Moscow flat. The half-starved girl made a den amid the piles of stinking garbage infested with cockroaches. Scroll down for video The girl, pictured above with rescue workers and neighbours, was widely described by the Russian media as a 'Mowgli' but it was unclear if dogs or cats were present with her. A necklace was ingrown into her skin and reports say she 'could not speak, only make sounds, and was not socialised' A necklace was ingrown into her skin, pictured above, and the five year old girl may not have seen the outside world since she was a baby, say reports The state of the flat was so bad that police used chemical protection suits within the flat. The girl was widely described by the Russian media as a 'Mowgli' but it was unclear if dogs or cats were present with her. A necklace was ingrown into her skin and reports say she 'could not speak, only make sounds, and was not socialised'. She was offered water and 'drank two litres'. Investigators believe she has 'pronounced signs of anorexia', said reports. A neighbour who entered the flat after summoning police due to the girl's desperate crying said: 'We almost fainted at the condition of the apartment and from the smell. 'Police had to wear chemical protection.' The garbage 'is rotting and smelled foul. The state of the flat was so bad that police used chemical protection suits within the flat. The neglected half-naked child called Lyubov - or Love - was dehydrated and sickly after her mother had been 'absent for days' from her noxious Moscow flat 'A five-year-old girl was sitting on the windowsill in the kitchen in a hat, and T-shirt with no underwear. 'She was crying. 'There was no food. 'There were cockroaches everywhere.' Neighbours said that five years ago the mother brought home a baby but then said the child had gone to live with a grandmother. Her husband was deported to Ukraine. In fact the child was still in the flat and may not have seen the outside world since she was a baby, say reports. After police rescued the child, the mother returned and was prevented from fleeing again by neighbours, say multiple reports. She was detained by police on suspicion of 'attempted murder' Neighbours said that five years ago the mother brought home a baby but then said the child had gone to live with a grandmother. Her husband was deported to Ukraine. In fact the child was still in the flat, say reports After police rescued the child, the mother returned and was prevented from fleeing again by neighbours, say multiple reports. She was detained by police on suspicion of 'attempted murder'. Neighbours said the woman was often 'dressed well', claimed to have a professional job, and swept communal areas of the apartment block. A potentially deadly measles outbreak has hit New Zealand's South Island with more than 20,000 vaccines brought in as authorities warn the disease is now circulating widely. Confirmed cases of the highly infectious disease in the Canterbury district rose from 15 on Friday to 25 on Monday. The Canterbury District Health Board said measles is now 'circulating widely in the community'. Canterbury Medical Officer of Health Ramon Pink said people who aren't fully immune could be exposed to the risk of infection anywhere in Canterbury. The Canterbury district in the central South Island includes Christchurch, New Zealand's third largest city. 'Immunisation is the only sure way to avoid getting measles. Only people who were born before 1969 or have had two MMR vaccinations are considered fully protected,' Dr Pink said. 'Those aged between 29 and 50 will only have had one measles vaccination and are not considered immune.' Children aged from 12 months to 5 years who have not been immunised are being given priority as a measles outbreak grips New Zealand's South Island Some Canterbury clinics ran out of vaccines since the outbreak began in late February. The Canterbury District Health Board which is coordinating the vaccination response confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that 2880 measles mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccines were delivered on Friday last week. A further 18,000 vaccines are now being rushed to health centres throughout the Canterbury district and are expected to be available in practices from Wednesday, a board spokesman said via email. The Canterbury district (shaded green) has been the worst hit and some clinics ran out of vaccination. Thousands more vaccines are being distributed to combat the measles outbreak Immunization is the best defense as the disease is highly infectious, the board said. 'Unimmunized people who come within 2 meters of an infectious person, however briefly, have a 90 per cent chance of contracting measles,' the board said in an earlier statement on their website. Measles can cause serious complications such as deafness from ear infections, or deadly pneumonia and swelling of the brain. It can also cause pregnant women to miscarry. The Canterbury District Health Board said one in 10 people who get measles will need to be hospitalized for treatment. The measles vaccine is a two-part immunization with both parts needed for full protection. Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay said only 80 percent of teenagers and young adults had received the full course of the vaccine. 'As a result, there are often outbreaks occurring in this older age group and there is a risk that measles becomes established in New Zealand again,' she said. The World Health Organisation had declared endemic measles and rubella eliminated in New Zealand in 2017, meaning no measles or rubella cases had originated there for the past three years. Measles is contagious for five days before the rash appears. Early symptoms can include a fever, a cough and a headache. The disease can have serious complications such as hearing loss in children from ear infections The outbreak was brought to New Zealand by a traveler. New Zealand's Ministry of Health warned travelers to make sure they are immunized after outbreaks overseas. 'Since 2012, all cases of measles in New Zealand came from travelers bringing the disease from overseas,' the Ministry of Health said in a statement on its website. Several countries have had recent measles outbreaks including the Philippines, the United States and parts of Europe. The World Health Organisation certified neighboring Australia as measles-free in 2014. The MMR vaccine is free in New Zealand and those at most risk are bring given top priority Australian health authorities issued a measles alert last week after an Australian traveler contracted the highly contagious disease while holidaying in Vietnam and brought it back to Darwin in the Northern Territory. Acting Director of the Centre for Disease Control, Dr Peter Markey, said the traveler, aged in their 20s, had passed on the disease to another person. 'The first case was in a Darwin resident who caught the illness while holidaying in Vietnam, while the second case was acquired from the first,' he said. He said the first person visited Palmerston Regional Hospital on 15 and 17 February. Anyone exposed who might be at risk may notice their first symptoms about 10 to 12 days following exposure. According to the World Health Organisation, the first sign of measles is usually a high fever, which begins about 10 to 12 days after exposure to the virus. Other symptoms that can develop during the initial stage, include a runny nose, a cough, red and watery eyes, and small white spots inside the cheeks. Theres no money, no sex and nothing illegal happened. This is what passes for a scandal in Canada. U.S. President Donald Trump has been engulfed in allegations involving possible collusion with Russia and secret payments to buy the silence of a porn star. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing a controversy that seems trivial by comparison, but it could topple him in elections later this year. Two high-profile women ministers in Trudeaus Cabinet, including Canadas first indigenous justice minister, resigned in protest, and his top aide and best friend quit too. The former justice minister and attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, says Trudeau and senior members of his government pressured her in a case involving a major Canadian engineering company accused of corruption related to its business dealings in Libya. Trudeau reportedly leaned on the attorney general to instruct prosecutors to reach the equivalent of plea deal, which would avoid a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, because he felt that jobs were at stake. Former justice minister and attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, says Trudeau (above) and senior members of his government pressured her in a case involving a major Canadian engineering company People south of the border would be astonished to think that this is the type of scandal that they have in Canada, said Eddie Goldenberg, a former adviser to former Prime Minister Jean Chretien. Many countries would be jealous of a scandal that went no further than a prime minster asking another minister to do something she is legally entitled to do, Goldenberg said. I just dont really see it as a scandal, he said. There is a political correctness here. Nobody wants to go after an indigenous woman minister. Its become politically incorrect to question the former minister. Trudeau has said he asked Wilson-Raybould to revisit her decision not to instruct prosecutors and said she agreed to consider that. He denied applying any inappropriate pressure, saying he and his officials were only pointing out that prosecution could endanger thousands of jobs. Former justice minister and attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould (pictured), the first indigenous woman to serve in her post, resigned in January over the SNC scandal SNC-Lavalin has pleaded not guilty to fraud and corruption charges related to allegations it paid about $35 million (CA$47 million) in bribes to public officials in Libya between 2001 and 2011. Its a pseudo-scandal. Its crap. What the hell? You are doing business in Libya and you are not bribing? said Robert Bothwell, a professor of Canadian history and international relations at the University of Toronto. It does suggest to me that the director of public prosecutions ... is also nuts. And so is Wilson-Raybould. These people are delusional. Wilson-Raybould was demoted from her role as attorney general and justice minister in January as part of a Cabinet shuffle by Trudeau. She has testified that she believes she lost the justice job because she did not give in to sustained pressure to instruct the director of public prosecutions to negotiate a remediation agreement with SNC-Lavalin. That solution would have avoided a potential criminal conviction that would bar the company from receiving any federal government business for a decade. The company is a major employer in Quebec, Trudeaus home province. It has about 9,000 employees in Canada and more than 50,000 worldwide. Canadian engineering company SNC-Lavalin pleaded not guilty to fraud and corruption charges related to allegations it paid about $35 million in bribes to public officials in Libya from 2001 to 2011 The company publicly led the lobbying charge for a law that allows for deferred prosecution agreements as a way to resolve the criminal charges it faces. The new attorney general has not ruled out approving a settlement. Wilson-Raybould has said herself that the pressure from Trudeau and others was not illegal and that she was not explicitly instructed to do a remediation agreement. Gerald Butts, Trudeaus former principal secretary and best friend who resigned, said nothing inappropriate was alleged until after Wilson-Raybould left the Cabinet, suggesting she felt sour grapes about losing her dream job. Opposition Conservative Andrew Scheer leader has demanded that Trudeau resign, saying he tried to interfere in a criminal prosecution. Canadian media have covered the story as intensely as American networks have covered Trump, noted Nelson Wiseman, a professor at the University of Toronto. Trudeau was recently was accused of pressuring two women he appointed to top cabinet posts to show leniency to SNC-Lavalin Trudeau would not be able to get away with what Trump does because the political cultures and the state of political polarization of the two countries are still quite different, Wiseman said. The differences among Canadian media outlets, for example, are relatively narrow compared to the chasms between Fox and MSNBC or CNN. The American media are reporting on two different worlds. The Canadian media are reporting on the same Wilson-Raybould-Trudeau story, Wiseman added. Daniel Beland, a politics professor at McGill University in Montreal, said Trudeau has framed himself differently than Trump. Trump said sympathetic things about Russia during the campaign and was elected despite that and other controversies, giving him the sense that he can do anything and his base will still follow him. Trudeau, meanwhile, promised transparency while describing himself as a feminist who was also determined to right the wrongs against Canadas indigenous people. Women make up half of his cabinet. Political observers question whether or not Trudeau can survive his current political scandal He depicted himself as a feminist, as someone who believes in indigenous reconciliation, and then you have two of his top female Cabinet ministers resign, and they are depicting him in a very different light, Beland said. Trudeau said he tried to foster an environment where his lawmakers can come to him with concerns, but one of his female Liberal party colleagues, Celina Caesar-Chavannes, took issue with that, tweeting, I did come to you recently. Twice. Remember your reactions? When you add women, please do not expect the status quo. Expect us to make correct decisions, stand for what is right and exit when values are compromised, she also tweeted. Caesar-Chavannes, who is not running for re-election, has issued messages of support for Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott, a respected Cabinet minister who said she lost confidence in how the government has handled the affair. It is a fundamental doctrine of the rule of law that our Attorney General should not be subjected to political pressure or interference regarding the exercise of her prosecutorial discretion in criminal cases, Philpott wrote in the resignation letter to Trudeau. Other Liberal lawmakers have expressed confidence in Trudeau. The federal election is in October. Antonia Maioni, McGill Universitys dean of arts, said citizens of every democracy will look at the Trump scandals and say everything else is small potatoes. But, she added, Im not sure Trump is a good reference point here. Leaders fall in parliamentary systems for many other reasons beyond personal scandal. An active shooter is reportedly on the loose at a New York hospital. A huge police response arrived at Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville on Sunday night amid reports that a man with a shotgun had walked inside. SWAT teams and armed vehicles have surrounded the hospital and are patrolling the area. Scroll down for video An active shooter is reportedly on the loose at Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, where a huge police presence could be seen on Sunday night Police vehicles are also blocking off entrances to the hospital, according to WPIX. Officers from Bronxville, Yonkers, and Westchester County are all at the scene. Hospital employee Mcaaulay Mike said her heard 'code silver' on the loudspeaker, which means someone has a weapon. 'I just ran out,' Mike told The Journal News. 'I got out of there.' 'Nobody seemed to be really take it serious, but I got out of there.' SWAT teams are currently patrolling the area (pictured) and the situation is ongoing Kereon Noel, who has family in the hospital, was in the lobby when he heard 'code silver' on the loudspeaker as well. 'All the hospital staff went behind locked doors, left everyone in the waiting room, did not tell us what was going on,' he said. 'Once the cops started piling in, then someone came out and said there's an incident on the sixth floor. And that's all we know for now.' The situation is ongoing. Check back for updates. A student who is the son of an Oakland, California, city councilwoman was shot and killed in a suspected robbery attempt near the University of Southern California campus, officials said. Victor McElhaney, who was studying at USC's Thornton School of Music, was killed shortly after midnight Sunday about a mile from the campus, USC Annenberg Media reported. McElhaney, 21, is the son of Oakland Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney, Zachary Wald, the councilwoman's chief of staff, told the Los Angeles Times. Victor McElhaney, who was studying at USC's Thornton School of Music, was killed shortly after midnight Sunday On Sunday night, the councilwoman posted a statement mourning her son's death. 'I miss my baby. Please keep me, my family, and all of my son's friends in your thoughts and prayers,' she wrote. 'We are beginning a new chapter in this reoccurring circle of violence ... And it will take all of us together to make it through this tragedy.' Three or four men approached the victim in what might have been a robbery attempt and one shot him, LAPD Officer Mike Lopez told Annenberg Media. The men fled in a vehicle, police said. Neighbors react as they look at a cellphone picture of University of Southern California student Victor McElhaney, shown by a television reporter near the scene of the crime McElhaney was in critical condition when he was taken to a hospital, where he died, police said. He was pronounced dead at 11 a.m. Sunday, Annenberg Media said. No arrests had been made in connection with the shooting as of Sunday afternoon. USC Interim President Wanda Austin sent a letter to students and faculty in which she praised the police investigation. 'We appreciate the ongoing and diligent efforts of the Los Angeles Police Department to quickly identify and arrest those responsible for this senseless crime,' Austin said. The school, which is on spring break, has been in touch with McElhaney's family, she said. McElhaney is from Oakland, where he was an instructor at Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, the university said. In the fall of 2017, he transferred from California State University East Bay to USC to pursue Jazz Studies. He was an active member of USC's Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs. Members of the local media film the scene of a fatal shooting in Los Angeles, Sunday 'He believed in the power of music to touch lives, to heal, and to bring hope,' Austin said in her statement. 'Victor's loss will affect all of the faculty and students who knew him.' The East Bay Times reported that McElhaney's family had previously suffered through the killing of Torian Hughes, 17, on Dec. 20, 2015. Hughes was lured to an Oakland street by two suspects under the ruse of buying a gun. 'It's been difficult, but we are grateful that there is some certainty around the next steps in the process,' Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney, who helped raise Hughes and considered him to be her grandson, said after Hughes' death. 'There are too many families that don't get that when they're grieving.' The USC community has previously been hit by violent crime. On July 24, 2014, 24-year-old student Xinran Ji was killed after he was attacked by a group of four people as he walked home from a study group near the campus. He made it back to his apartment and died before he was found by a roommate. The attackers were convicted of the killing and sent to prison. These are the women police believe are responsible for trying to post a Shingleback lizard from Australia to Hong Kong. On Tuesday police released a picture of the three women taken on August 31, 2018. They allege that the women entered a post office on William Street at 2.39pm in the central business district of Melbourne, and tried to post the reptile. The three women behaved thoughtlessly, as if exporting lizards is perfectly fine (file picture) The Department of the Environment (DEPWP) hope the photograph will prompt people to come forward. Shingleback lizards are members of the Skink family, which is becoming increasingly popular among wildlife smugglers. The three women are described as Asian and in their 20s with dark hair. The first woman had her hair in a ponytail, was wearing black shoes and a grey long-sleeved shirt with blue stripes. The second woman was wearing black 'Adidas' shoes, a white T-shirt with red 'Commes Des Garcons' heart logo, red jacket, black beanie and black bag; and the third woman was wearing a white T-shirt and black jacket. The third woman is perceived to be aged in her 20s with long dark hair. She was wearing dark coloured pants, white shoes, a white T-shirt and black jacket. Lizard smuggling is a worrying trend that the Australia Border Force is seeing regularly. Shingleback lizards originate from the Great Australian Desert (file pic) A 45-year-old Japanese man was intercepted at a Perth airport on Saturday trying to smuggle six lizards out of Australia, some of which were kept up to eight days in hessian bags without food, light, and water. In the last three months alone, more than 110 reptiles have been saved from being illegally exported overseas, most of which were Shinglebacks. Shingleback lizards are members of the Skink family that includes blue-tongue lizards, a native class of reptiles known for their bumpy skin and docile nature. They only need to hydrate at a minimum and feed every few months, and can adapt to the driest conditions on Earth. ABF Acting Assistant Commissioner Craig Palmer said the intense number of lizard rescues indicates the lucrativeness of lizard smuggling. '... We know individuals and criminal syndicates can make significant profits by exporting and selling Australia's unique native fauna overseas, particularly in Asia,' Mr Palmer said. 'If successfully exported, these animals are fed into illicit markets that are of significant interest to law enforcement overseas... working with our partners throughout the region is a key part of our strategy in combatting this issue.' An individual wildlife smuggler can land 10 years imprisonment and $210,000 in fines if they caught. If a corporation is involved, they can receive $1.05 million in fines. Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. A young woman who was filmed being shoved to the ground by an officer during the Moomba festival was interfering with an arrest, police said on Monday. Shocking mobile phone footage captured the moment a woman was pushed by a Protective Services Officer at Flinders Street Station in Melbourne's CBD at 1.30am on Sunday. The officer said 'step back, step back,' before he pushed her with such force that she fell on her back and slammed her head on the wall. In a press conference on Monday, police said the woman had been previously 'dealt with' by officers and was impeding an arrest. The officer (pictured) said 'step back, step back,' before he pushed the woman (in the yellow top) with such force that she fell on her back and slammed her head on the wall The woman was pushed by a Protective Services Officer Flinders Street Station in Melbourne's CBD on Saturday night 'She decided to walk in on an arrest scenario and from there one of our PSO's has taken some action to protect his colleagues but also the zone in which they're operating in,' said Commander Tim Hansen. 'They're an uncertain environment and they're a dangerous environment,' he said of arrest zones. 'If we give you advice to keep out of an area, it's with good reason and good intent. 'We were giving her some advice [that it was] probably time to head home'. Commander Hansen admitted the footage was confronting and said it was under internal review. The moment was filmed by a 15-year-old reveller who said officers had blocked off a platform because of a fight when the woman went up and tried to negotiate with them. Saturday night: Several police officers were needed to arrest a violent youth in Melbourne's CBD on Saturday night Brawling groups of ethnic youths have marred the Moomba Festival yet again, with five people arrested following three separate incidents in Melbourne's CBD 'She tried to get past them because she kept saying she was in a rush to catch her train, it was real late,' he said. 'When she walked up to the cops he told her "back off", she just said "I'm going this way".' 'She kept trying to get past him, that's when he threw her towards a wall. 'Her face was all bruised and beaten, she had a bruise on the right of her lip straight away.' His mother said the incident left her doubting whether her children could have faith in the authorities. 'My son's 15 and my daughter's nearly 12, if they can't trust police then what?' she said. 'If that was my daughter, oh my god.' On Sunday, the Professional Standards Command said it had received a third-party complaint which will be investigated. Confronting footage taken outside St Paul's Cathedral showed dozens of young men and women watch as a topless man threw punches (pictured) Dramatic footage posted online (pictured) showed more than a dozen teenagers sprinting down a set of escalators at Flinders Street station Protective Service Officers are employees of the AFP. They guard buildings and assist police at events such as festivals. Over the weekend, Victoria Police arrested 20 people for assault, drunken behaviour, drugs and weapons offences as Moomba festival was spoiled by violence. Three brawls between warring gangs of youths at Federation Square and Flinders Street Station between 10pm on Saturday night and 2am the next day resulted in two of the arrests. Commander Tim Hansen described the incident as a 'rolling brawl' and while it occurred during the Moomba weekend it wasn't directly linked to the festival, as clashes involving groups from Melbourne's southeast and western suburbs attracted police attention most weekends. 'They are networked on social media, some of them assume banners and tags of street gangs and there are existing tensions between them,' Mr Hansen added. 'We've been very successful in disrupting planned fights in the past, but on Saturday night there was nothing significant [in the intelligence] that indicated we would see a fight.' During the weekend, police proactively removed certain youths from the Moomba precinct and took others off the street before the weekend kicked off. Of the 20 people arrested between Friday and Monday morning, 10 were arrested in the Moomba Precinct for drugs, weapons and assault offences. The numbers indicate a fall in crimes against the person and criminal offences during the three-day festival, Mr Hansen said, although he didn't give comparable figures. 'Our extra police presence across the CBD assisted us greatly, and helped incidents be dealt with very quickly.' The beleaguered booster drive was dealt a fresh blow today as over 40s which were only yesterday urged to come forward for their booster were turned away by staff contrary to official NHS guidance. The chaos comes as experts call for the Government to 'throw the kitchen sink' at the booster drive and open it up to all age groups saying the current sluggish pace will cost both lives and livelihoods. The comments come as the MailOnline can reveal over 8million people in England could have a Covid booster today but have no way to book one, despite the country's hopes of warding off Omicron and escaping new restrictions pinned on the rollout of third jab doses. As he unveiled the new 'Plan B' restrictions last night, Boris Johnson outlined how the country's best line of defence against the new super spreading Covid variant and have as normal a Christmas as possible, was for people to get boosters. The new restrictions on Britons' lives, such as working from home guidance, compulsory mask orders, and proof of vaccination to attend events, are designed to slow the spread of Omicron so more booster jabs can be delivered. This, the Government hopes, will boost people's immunity defences against the new variant and reduce the risk of the NHS becoming overwhelmed if the number of Covid cases caused by the highly infectious Omicron spiral out of control. But despite the UK's hopes seemingly resting on the rollout of booster jabs, the pace of the campaign has failed to pick up, despite the Prime Minister promising he would put the vaccine drive on 'steroids' after slashing the wait time between the second and third jabs to three months. Mr Johnson pledged to increase the take-up of booster jabs to 500,000 a day last week in an attempt to get every adult in the UK triple-vaccinated by the end of January but official data shows the nation is currently set to miss this goal. Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack has taken an extraordinary swipe at Barnaby Joyce, after the backbencher announced he was eyeing a return to the top job. Mr Joyce revealed on Monday that he would run for the position again should there be a 'spill,' while arguing that the Nationals were not 'married' to the Liberal Party. Mr McCormack hit back at the former deputy's comments this afternoon saying he understood what it took 'to have a successful marriage.' 'I understand when you have a marriage that it's a two-way relationship,' he told reporters in Queensland. 'I understand that, I understand what it takes to have a successful marriage. 'You don't always get what you want but you have to work together to build better outcomes for your family.' Barnaby Joyce His barbed comments were an apparent swipe at Mr Joyce's failed marriage after his affair with former staffer Vikki Campion (pictured) was revealed in 2017 His comments were ostensibly aimed at managing tensions between the coalition partners over energy policy, but also in reference to Mr Joyce's failed marriage after his affair with former staffer Vikki Campion was exposed in 2017. Mr Joyce and Ms Campion have remained together since and the two are now expecting their second child. He was previously married to his wife of 24 years Natalie Abberfield, with whom he has four daughters. Earlier, Mr Joyce sensationally claimed he remained 'the elected deputy prime minister of Australia' and would feel no guilt in returning to lead the National Party if Mr McCormack was rolled. 'I am not going to call a spill, I am not looking for numbers,' Mr Joyce told ABC Radio National. 'If there was a spill, the position is vacant, I am the elected deputy prime minister of Australia, so I'd have no guilt at all standing - but I don't see that happening.' He made the explosive remarks after demanding the Morrison government bankroll a new coal-fired power station before the next election. Investment in coal-fired power would be electoral poison in Liberal-held seats in southern states, where voters are demanding stronger action on climate change. He was previously married to his wife of 24 years Natalie Abberfield (left) with whom he has four daughters. Mr Joyce resigned in February 2018 after a slew of bad press following his affair. The two remain together and are expecting their second child But Mr Joyce angrily rejected suggestions he was hurting the coalition's chances of re-election. 'We are not married to the Liberal Party,' he said. 'If we're going to agree with everything they say, we should join the Liberal Party.' Prime Minister Scott Morrison also rebuked Mr Joyce, insisting there will be 'no change' to his leadership team. Mr Morrison said he would not be distracted by the 'nonsense' leadership rumblings within the Nationals. 'We have a fantastic leader of the National Party and deputy prime minister in Michael McCormack and there will be no change to that,' he told reporters in Sydney. Nationals MP Andrew Gee, the deputy prime minister's right-hand man, insists his position is not under threat. 'If it's one thing the Australian people has made clear in recent times it's that they're not happy with leadership shenanigans,' he told the ABC. Queensland Nationals MP Keith Pitt, who is among those pushing for new investment in coal, is not impressed the issue has morphed into a proxy battle for leadership. Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured last month) also rebuked Mr Joyce, insisting there will be 'no change' to his leadership team 'The leadership of the party is a gift of the party room,' he told Sky News. 'We are all elected as individual members of parliament, whether it's in the Senate or in the House of Representatives. 'Michael McCormack is the leader, there will be no change.' Senior Labor frontbencher Chris Bowen was bemused by the discussion, saying on Twitter: 'It's a Venezuelan style stand-off between two blokes who think they are the deputy prime minister. I reckon we just give Tanya Plibersek the job.' Three tattooed drug dealers who persuaded women to smuggle MDMA into a festival by placing Kinder Surprise toy containers inside their bodies have been jailed. Trent Keogh, Matthew Sultana and Sant Alberto tried to get 270 capsules of the party drug past police sniffer dogs at the 2016 Knockout Circuz music festival in Homebush, west Sydney. They recruited two women on Instagram, but they were busted at the festival gates. Trent Keogh (pictured) and two others tried to get 270 capsules of MDMA past police sniffer dogs at the 2016 Knockout Circuz music festival in Homebush, west Sydney The syndicate was brought down when police found a strand of Keogh's hair on a Kinder Surprise toy container. Salas, 25, and Sultana, 24, were jailed this month for two years and seven months, reported the Daily Telegraph. Keogh, 26, was sentenced to two years and three months. A court previously heard that on the morning of the festival, Keogh wrote to one of the women on Instagram, telling her: 'We're trying to find someone to take in for us'. 'How many?', the woman asked, according to court documents, to which Keogh replied: 'Maybe 150.' After brief negotiations, Keogh agreed to pay the woman and her friend $150 and said they could keep eight of the MDMA caps in return for taking the stash into the rave. Trent Levi Keogh (right with co-accused Matthew Sultana) recruited two women on Instagram in a bid to get 270 MDMA capsules into a Sydney music festival The court heard that on the morning of the festival, Keogh (pictured) wrote to one of the women on Instagram, telling her: 'We're trying to find someone to take in for us' That day, Keogh met the women in Baulkham Hills before driving them to a service station in the nearby suburb of Kellyville. 'We need to stop here and get the Kinder Surprise That's what we're going to put the drugs in,' he told them, according to court documents seen by the paper. Sultana and Salas handed the drugs to the pair, who hid them inside their bodies and made their way to the festival. At the gate, police detected the drugs - with detectives later finding a strand of Keogh's hair on one of the Kinder Surprise containers. The men pleaded guilty and were sentenced this month. It comes as the New South Wales government is accused of 'waging war on festivals' with new licencing laws and heavy police presences to combat a recent spate of drug deaths. A legal 'loophole' that led a judge to slash the sentence of a guard-bashing prisoner will be closed after a prison staff walkout. Brothers 4 Life founder Bassam Hamzy had his jail sentence cut, leading prison officers to walk off the job across the state on Friday afternoon. Hamzy's 30 month sentence was quashed by a District Court judge after the court ruled he had been punished twice for the bashing - once in jail and once by a court. The snap strike caused chaos in the cells and led ministers to seek urgent advice from prosecutors over whether they will appeal the sentence. Bassam Hamzy's sentence for bashing a prison guard was slashed after a court found he had been wrongly punished twice for his 2017 attack on a prison officer - first by losing his jail privileges and secondly through the extension to his already lengthy sentence Some of the nation's worst criminals were left under minimal supervision after guards at prisons across New South Wales walked off the job on Friday (Goulburn Supermax above) Staff walked off the job just before midday, with all prisoners placed in lockdown and only a skeleton staff left in place at the jail (Stock image) Attorney General Mark Speakman and Prisons Minister David Elliott said that they stood with 'hardworking correctional officers' in a letter to the union. Corrective Services minister David Elliott said the Coalition will address any 'loophole' in the law if it is re-elected 'Their safety is our priority,' the pair said. The pair then announced if there is no appeal, or the appeal fails, the government will 'address ... any loophole' if it wins re-election. Public Service Association of NSW general secretary Stewart Little said: 'We welcome this. 'But why do prison officers have to strike, across the state for 24 hours, to have their safety concerns heard?' The strike comes at a critical time for the government as it faces voters in less than two weeks' time in what is expected to be a tight election. Daily Mail Australia understands state Labor will soon release its own policy on the issue. A Labor spokesman was contacted for comment. The decision by prison officers came after Daily Mail Australia revealed the District Court ruling over Hamzy, who assaulted a guard in 2017 Last week's walkout even included the nation's toughest prison, Goulburn Supermax. Sources from inside the prison told the Goulburn Post the move had come because of a perceived lack of support for guards. 'We are tired of being punching bags,' one source said. 'What if it had been a shiv?' Hamzy was originally jailed for the 1998 shooting murder of a teenager outside a Sydney nightclub and has been a menace since entering custody. He founded the Brothers 4 Life gang from behind bars and ran a drug ring from his jail cell. The ISIS sympathiser grinned as Acting Judge Geoffrey Graham told the New South Wales District Court last week that he was quashing the additional sentence. Acting Judge Graham told the court Hamzy had been wrongly punished twice for his 2017 attack on a prison officer, first by losing his jail privileges and secondly through the extension to his already lengthy sentence. 'Restriction of prison privileges make existence and a quality of living intolerable (for prisoners),' Judge Graham said. 'It is a form of punishment and it can be real punishment.' Hamzy, who can not apply for release from prison until 2035, represented himself in the matter after studying the appropriate legislation behind bars. He argued that the 'parallel punishment' he received through his sentencing and the loss of privileges was an 'extreme injustice'. 'If an inmate is punished externally he is not to be charged internally your honour,' he told the court in November last year. 'It is not for the commissioner to create a parallel punishment system - the Behaviour Management Plan (BPM) - by simply giving it another name.' Acting Judge Graham said the way prisoners were punished within the four walls of the Goulburn Supermax (highlighted on the map), as well as in the courts 'constituted an extreme case of oppression' Inside one of the austere cells at the High Risk Management Correctional Centre at Goulburn, which is 197km south-west of Sydney. All inmates in 'Supermax' sleep just one to a cell Acting Judge Graham agreed with the inmate in overturning the NSW Local Court's sentence on Thursday. He said the way Goulburn Supermax punished prisoners within their own four walls, as well as in the courts, 'constituted an extreme case of oppression'. 'The appellant (Hamzy) has been subjected to what he describes as a "compounding injustice" after the decision to regress him on the Behaviour Management Plan,' he said. 'It's a breach of the statuatory regime set up to govern the way correctional facilities operate.' Acting Judge Graham granted Hamzy a stay in proceedings and set aside the added jail time he received from the local court in 2018. Taliban founder Mullah Omar lived within walking distance of US bases in Afghanistan for years, according to a new book that suggests embarrassing failures of American intelligence. US and Afghan leaders believed the one-eyed, fugitive leader fled to and eventually died in Pakistan, but a new biography says Omar was living just three miles from a major US Forward Operating Base in Zabul province, where he died in 2013. 'Searching for an Enemy', by Dutch journalist Bette Dam, says the Taliban chief lived as a virtual hermit, refusing visits from his family and filling notebooks with jottings in an imaginary language. Omar may have lived three miles from a major US Forward Operating Base in Zabul province Dam spent more than five years researching the book and interviewed Jabbar Omari, Omar's bodyguard who hid and protected him after the Taliban regime was overthrown. The author spent years reporting in Afghanistan and also wrote an earlier book about former Afghan president Hamid Karzai. Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001 which led to the fall of the Taliban, the US put a $10 million bounty on Omar and he went into hiding in a small compound in the regional capital Qalat, Dam writes. It is alleged by the US government that he harbored Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda militants after the September 11 attacks. The family living at the compound were not told of the identity of their mystery guest, but US forces twice almost found him. Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar lived as a virtual hermit, refusing visits from his family and filling notebooks with jottings in an imaginary language according to the book's author At one point, a US patrol approached as Omar and Omari were in the courtyard. Alarmed, the two men ducked behind a wood pile, but the soldiers passed without entering. A second time, US troops even searched the house but did not uncover the concealed entrance to his secret room. Omar decided to move when the US started building Forward Operating Base Lagman in 2004, just a few hundred metres from his hideout. He later moved to a second building but soon afterwards the Pentagon constructed Forward Operating Base Wolverine - home to 1,000 US troops, and where American and British special forces were sometimes based - close by. Omar decided to move when the US started building Forward Operating Base Lagman in 2004 Omar later moved to a second building but soon afterwards the Pentagon constructed Forward Operating Base Wolverine (pictured) He dared not move again, Dam says, rarely even going outside and often hiding in tunnels when US planes flew over. Though he listened to the BBC's evening Pashto-language news broadcasts, even when he learned about the death of al-Qaeda supremo Osama Bin Laden Omar rarely commented on the outside world, the book says. The book goes on to claim that Omar became ill in 2013, did not see a doctor and refused to travel to Pakistan for treatment, later dying in Zabul. The allegations sparked mixed reactions, with the Afghan government quick to deny the claims. 'We strongly reject this delusional claim and we see it as an effort to create and build an identify for the Taliban and their foreign backers,' tweeted Haroon Chakhansuri -- a spokesman for the Afghan presidency. The book goes on to claim that Omar became ill in 2013, did not see a doctor and refused to travel to Pakistan for treatment, later dying in Zabul, Afghanistan 'We have sufficient evidence which shows he lived and died in Pakistan. Period!' Former CIA director and US military commander in Afghanistan David Petraeus also appeared sceptical, saying the Taliban leader's alleged decision to stay in Afghanistan would have been laden with risk. 'We had access, as needed, to anywhere inside Afghanistan, and I would be very surprised if Mullah Omar would have taken the risk that we could come calling some evening,' said Petraeus according to the Wall Street Journal. 'I have piles & piles of evidence which shows he lived & died in Pakistan,' added Amrullah Saleh, who was head of Afghan intelligence from 2004-2010. Afghan officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of harbouring Taliban insurgents. Omar's Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, and has waged an insurgency since then. Dam's book says Omar delegated effective Taliban leadership after 2001 and appears to have acted as more of a spiritual leader after that. The militants kept his death secret for two years. The latest account of Omar's life comes as the Taliban and US are holding ongoing peace talks aimed at bringing an end to the nearly 18-year conflict. The US and Taliban have remained tight-lipped about the most recent round of talks in Doha, which have been ongoing for two weeks, sparking expectations that they may be inching closer to a deal. A man has been arrested over the fatal shooting of a Melbourne man who is believed to have predicted his own death on Snapchat. The 19-year-old from Dandenong was arrested about 11.20am on Monday in relation to the alleged shooting that occurred in Springvale at 11.50pm on Sunday. Emergency responders arrived at Springvale Road following reports of a single gunshot, but were unable to revive the man. The victim, who is yet to be identified, died at the scene. The 22-year-old from Dandenong was arrested about 11.20am on Monday in relation to the alleged shooting that occurred in Springvale at 11.50pm on Sunday Police said they believe the men knew each other but there is no further threat to the community He has become the fifth to die in a shooting in the city in 10 days. Police said they believe the men knew each other but there is no further threat to the community. Witnesses said the man had predicted he was going to be shot and allegedly posted about it on Snapchat, encouraging people to go to the scene, 9news reported. Forensic police arrived at the crime scene about 9am on Monday and blocked off the area near Springvale Authentic Thai Massage on Springvale Rd. Forensic police arrived at the crime scene about 9am and blocked off the area Victoria Police spokeswoman Alex Day said police believe the victim and shooter were known to each other. 'At this stage of the investigation, police don't believe this incident is linked to the other shootings in Melbourne this month,' she said. His death follows a spate of shootings in Melbourne and is the fifth man who has died as a result of gun-related violence in a ten-day period. Last Friday, three men were shot outside the Melbourne Pavilion in Kensington around 10pm killing one, Ben Togiai, 30. Police have arrested Mikhael Myko, 25, and Abdullah El Nasher, 27, in connection to the killing. Days later, another man, Mitat Rasimi, was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds in his car in Dandenong. Last Monday, 28-year-old Ali Ali, and Deniz Hasan, 40, were found dead in Meadow Heights just 500m apart. Boeing shares closed down 5.3 per cent, at around $400 on Monday wiping billions off the Chicago-headquartered company's market value. Shares in the plane maker dived as much as 13.5 per cent their biggest fall since the 9/11 terror attacks - after the second deadly crash involving one of its jets in five months. Shares fell sharply in off-market trading on Sunday night and Monday morning. They clawed back some lost ground to close down 5.3 per cent. Many investors saw the initial drop in stock as an opportunity to pick shares up at a sudden discount. About $12.5 billion has been wiped off the market value since Friday afternoon. Shares in the plane maker dived as much as 13.5 per cent but closed down 5.3 per cent, at around $400 The Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after take-off on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board. Rescuers are pictured above working at the scene on Monday US stocks jumped on Monday as the technology sector led a broad-based rebound following five straight sessions of losses, but a fall in Boeing's shares limited the Dow's advance. It comes a day after a Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed in Ethiopia and left 157 people dead. Meanwhile, Indonesia and China have grounded all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, while Ethiopian Airlines and Cayman Airways are doing the same in the wake of Sunday's tragedy. The company announced on Monday it would delay the launch of its new 777X jetliner. 'We anticipate heightened volatility in Boeing shares,' Morgan Stanley analyst Rajeev Lalwani said. 'Though it is early to draw conclusions, there may be concerns of disruption around safety, production, groundings, and/or costs, all of which should be manageable longer-term.' He said he was not changing the bank's positive 'overweight' recommendation on Boeing shares for its customers, and that any corrective action the company has to take on its best-selling passenger plane will likely prove a longer-term buying opportunity. Shares of American Airlines Group Inc, Southwest Airlines Co and JetBlue Airways Corp also dropped between 1.1 percent and 2.5 percent on the news. The sharp fall in Boeing stocks single-handedly caused the Dow to plunge 242.24 points at the opening. Pictured above is the New York Stock Exchange before the opening bell on Monday The sharp fall in Boeing stocks single-handedly caused the Dow Jones to plunge 242.24 points at the opening Boeing stocks fell more than 11 percent in premarket trading on Monday after a Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed in Ethiopia, killing 157 people The Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after take-off on Sunday, killing all on board. It was the second crash of the 737 MAX, the latest version of Boeing's workhorse narrowbody jet that first entered service in 2017. In October, a 737 MAX 8 operated by Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air crashed 13 minutes after take-off from Jakarta on a domestic flight, killing all 189 passengers and crew on board. Boeing's shares lost 12 per cent in the weeks following the Lion Air crash last year. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) ordered all Boeing Co 737 MAX aircraft operations to be suspended by 6pm on Monday. Boeing sold 580 737s last year, which accounted for 72 per cent of the company's total deliveries. CAAC said in a statement it would notify airlines as to when they could resume flying the jets after contacting Boeing and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ensure flight safety. 'Given that two accidents both involved newly delivered Boeing 737-8 planes and happened during take-off phase, they have some degree of similarity,' the CAAC said, adding that the order was in line with its principle of zero-tolerance on safety harzards. The 737 MAX 8 is sometimes referred to as the 737-8. The cause of the Indonesian crash is still being investigated. A preliminary report issued in November, before the cockpit voice recorder was recovered, focused on airline maintenance and training and the response of a Boeing anti-stall system to a recently replaced sensor. It did not give a reason for the crash. China has ordered Chinese airlines to ground all Boeing 737 MAX planes following the horrific Ethiopian Airlines crash. Pictured was a December ceremony the mark the first Boeing 737 Max 8 airplane to Air China In October, a 737 MAX 8 operated by Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air crashed 13 minutes after take-off from Jakarta on a domestic flight, killing all 189 passengers and crew on board. Pictured is recovered debris of that crash Chinese airlines have 96 737 MAX jets in service, the state company regulator said on Weibo. Caijing, a Chinese state-run news outlet that covers finance and economics, said many flights scheduled to use 737 MAX planes would instead use the 737-800 models. A US official told Reuters the United States was unsure of what information China was acting on. The US official said there were no plans to follow suit given the 737 MAX had a stellar safety record in the United States and there was a lack of information about the cause of the Ethiopian crash. American Airlines and Southwest both issued statements saying they would not be grounding their fleets. Most of Air China Ltd's 737 MAX fleet of 15 jets landed on Sunday evening, with the exception of two that landed on Monday morning from international destinations, according to data on FlightRadar24. It did not list any upcoming scheduled flights for the planes, nor did China Southern Airlines Co, which also has its fleet on the ground. China Eastern Airlines Corp Ltd's four 737 MAX jets landed on Sunday evening and no further flights were scheduled until Tuesday, FlightRadar24 data showed. Cayman Airways has grounded both of its new 737 MAX 8 jets until more information was received, the Cayman Islands airline said in a statement on its website. Fiji Airways said it had followed a comprehensive induction process for its new Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft and it had full confidence in the airworthiness of its fleet. 'We continue to ensure that our maintenance and training program for pilots and engineers meets the highest safety standards,' the airline said. China's major move comes as Boeing delayed plans to reveal its new 777X jetliner (pictured) which it has called the 'largest, most efficient twin-engine jet' The 777X (pictured), which can carry upto 425 people, was supposed to make its 'debut to the world' on Wednesday Singapore Airlines Ltd, whose regional arm SilkAir operates the 737 MAX, said it was monitoring the situation closely, but its planes continued to operate as scheduled. Most other Boeing 737 MAX operators across the globe, including WestJet, Norwegian Airlines, and Icelandair, said their planes would keep flying and they had no plans to cancel orders. Indonesia said it would continue to monitor its airlines operating the 737 MAX, which include Lion Air and Garuda Indonesia but it did not mention any plan to ground the planes. China's major move comes as Boeing delayed plans to reveal its new 777X jetliner, which it has called the 'largest, most efficient twin-engine jet', according to CNN. The 777X, which can carry upto 425 people, was supposed to make its 'debut to the world' on Wednesday. A spokesman said the reveal was being postponed but did not say if the event had been rescheduled. The spokesman said the company has made no additional changes to the 777X schedule. A Perth baker accused of murdering his six-month-old daughter by shaking her and throwing her onto the floor 'just snapped' because he was sleep-deprived and the teething child was restless and agitated, a trial has heard. Isabella Sully Jean Martin's mother was working as a McDonald's manager during the day, leaving Arron Colin Martin to care for their infant at their Brookdale house after he returned from early morning shifts in November 2017. Martin's defence counsel John Rando told the Supreme Court of Western Australia on Monday his client did not intend to harm the child but 'something just happened' when she would not sleep, as he'd hoped. A Perth baker accused of murdering his six-month-old daughter by shaking her and throwing her onto the floor 'just snapped' because he was sleep-deprived and the teething child was restless and agitated, a trial has heard Martin's defence counsel John Rando told the Supreme Court of Western Australia on Monday his client did not intend to harm the child but 'something just happened' when she would not sleep, as he'd hoped 'You can begin to understand the dilemma here,' Mr Rando said. 'They did the best they could. They loved the child but something was bound to happen.' Martin was traumatised after he realised what he'd done and twice tried to end his own life before turning himself in to police, Mr Rando said. Paramedics gave first aid to the severely injured baby at the house, then rushed her to hospital, where she died. The court heard Martin hurled her onto the carpeted floor from a height of about 1.8m. A woman who shares her home with three crocodiles may be forced to give up her beloved pets after repeated notices from authorities. Vicki Lowing shares her suburban home in Melbourne's west with freshwater crocodiles Johnnie and Fovian and saltwater crocodile Jilfia. She takes her toothy friends for walks and even shares her bed with them but is now faced with the real possibility of being forced to part with them. Speaking on A Current Affair, the 61-year-old said the Victorian government's decision to take away her pets was 'a croc of s***'. Vicki Lowing (pictured) has vowed to step up the fight to keep her beloved crocodiles Ms Lowing told Daily Mail Australia her home had been inspected six times in the last six months by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DEWLP). 'I'm just so over what the department are saying,' Ms Lowing said. After each inspection, Ms Lowing claimed the DEWLP asked her to get rid of the crocodiles for a different reason. The last time she tried to renew her advanced wildlife licence, which is the mandatory requirement for owning a crocodile, was in late February, and DEWLP refused her application. 'DEWLP contacted me four months ago... they wouldn't discuss anything with me when they visited me, they just turn up and take heaps of photos,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'One time they said I didn't have a thermometer, but they didn't look very hard.' The crocodiles (one pictured) sleep with their owner and are taken for regular walks Saltwater crocodiles can reach over four metres n length and Jilfia is only 2.74 metres, which DEWLP argued was not appropriate to house as a domestic pet. 'I'm trying to resolve the issues with the department by moving Jilfia to a new home, but they want me to hand over all my crocs,' Ms Lowing told Daily Mail Australia. 'Salt water crocs grow to a massive size, they asked me to build a bigger enclosure for her, which I did and it took me to three years.' Ms Lowing finally gave in to the DEWLP's requests, searching desperately for a practical home for Jilfia, and made the decision to give away the giant croc to a 'private owner.' She revealed that she was deeply upset at letting Jilfia go, after caring for him for more than 10 years, but says she will be devastated if she is forced to give up the remaining two. Ms Lowing says she'll be devastated if she's forced to give her beloved pets up 'They have grown up with me, it's hard to explain, they are seen as serious killers, but if you show any wild animal love and care for it properly they will return it,' she said. She is determined to stop DEWLP, and she vehemently declared she will take up the battle with the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. 'I'm taking it up with VCAT to get my story straight... they don't understand my animals, they're way better than most,' she told Daily Mail Australia. Ms Lowing grew up on a 20,000 acre near Deniliquin, south New South Wales, and reptiles have been part of he life since she was four years old. Daily Mail Australia contacted the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning for comment. Waleed Aly's TV presenter wife Susan Carland is pleading for Logie votes so she an annoy One Nation leader Pauline Hanson. Dr Carland, a Muslim convert, has urged her 40,700 Twitter followers to back her as the host of SBS show Child Genius. 'Friends. Am I the greatest TV presenter of all time? No,' she said. Scroll down for video Waleed Aly's (left) TV presenter wife Susan Carland (right) is pleading for Gold Logie votes so she an annoy One Nation leader Pauline Hanson 'But am I the most likeable and deserving person to win this Logie? Also no. 'But is it worth voting for me just for the reaction it will evoke in Pauline Hanson? YES!.' Dr Carland, who has previously equated Sharia law and Islam with women's rights, is a long shot to win a Gold Logie or even a Most Popular Presenter accolade, considering her SBS show averaged little more than 200,000 viewers when it aired late last year. An SBS presenter has also never won a Gold Logie award. Dr Carland is, however, the wife of Gold Logie winner Waleed Aly, who won television's most coveted prize in 2016 as a co-host of The Project on Network Ten. In that year, Aly also beat former newsreader Lee Lin Chin, SBS's first ever Gold Logie nominee. Dr Carland, who has previously equated Sharia law and Islam with women's rights, is a long shot to win a Gold Logie, considering her SBS show averaged little more than 200,000 viewers when it aired late last year Dr Carland, a Muslim convert, has urged her 40,700 Twitter followers to back her as the host of SBS show Child Genius Dr Carland, who is also a Monash University academic, faces strong competition for the Gold Logie from axed Today show host Karl Stefanovic, who is considered a favourite. Her plea for Logie votes polarised her Twitter followers. It has been directed at Senator Hanson who supports a ban on Islamic immigration. One Nation, nonetheless, is running a secular Muslim Emma Eros as a candidate at this month's New South Wales election. While most of Dr Carland's Twitter followers were in favour of her plea for Logie votes, a small minority of tweets were uncharitable. Senator Hanson (pictured) supports a ban on Islamic immigration however her party is running a secular Muslim Emma Eros as a candidate at this month's New South Wales election 'Pleased to know Pauline triggers you all. Well done, Pauline Hanson,' a self-described conservative said. Another critic wondered why she had to politicise the Logies. 'Stop making this a political statement, we have enough of these loonies already,' one man said. Another man suggested she was playing the minority card as an SBS presenter. 'Isn't it great to be a token personality called up to do the bidding of SBS and the ABC,' he said. Then there was an accusation of political bias. While most were in favour of Dr Carland's plea for Logie votes, a small minority of tweets were uncharitable Another critic wondered why she had to politicise the Logies Another man suggested she was playing the minority card as an SBS presenter Then there was an accusation of political bias 'No way. I don't like Hanson but prefer her over you or your biased hubby,' one tweet said. In May 2017, Dr Carland argued Sharia law could be used to promote women's rights, during a launch in Sydney for her book, 'Fighting Hislam: Women, Faith and Sexism'. 'For those of you that dont know, if a woman is raped she can be punished for adultery,' Dr Carland said during a question and answer session. 'The woman I interviewed said, "I could go to them with these human rights justifications for why it's wrong but I know that if I do that, they will double down on this law because they will feel it's an insult to their culture and their tradition and their religion", so she said, "Why would I just not use the sharia to make the argument this is wrong?". Voting for the Logie awards closes on March 31. A new on-demand pay app which will allow employees to access their earnings before they are formally paid has been backed by NAB. Workers who use Earnd will be able to gain early access to up to half of their salary, if their employer chooses to sign up for the service. The new platform is meant to offer an alternative to loans and will also feature limits to ensure 'responsible spending,' according to Nine. New on-demand pay app, Earnd which will allow employees to access their earnings before they are formally paid has been backed by NAB Workers who use Earnd will be able to gain early access to up to half of their salary, if their employer chooses to sign up for the service. The new platform is meant to offer an alternative to loans and will also feature limits to ensure 'responsible spending 'Earnd is empowering Aussies to decide the frequency of their pay cycles by shifting their monthly or fortnightly schedules to something more manageable, such as weekly,' co-founder and chief executive officer Josh Vernon said. According to its website, the app aims 'to change the way pay is thought about in Australia and support the 1 in 2 Aussies who live paycheck-to-paycheck. ' Once an employer opts to use Earnd, employees can access it by downloading it on any smartphone. The founders have raised more than $2.5m for the venture with help from NAB, as well as BPAY and MYOB. NAB Ventures managing director Todd Forest will join the board as part of the investment, the news station reported. A former Brisbane priest's claim that indecent photos he took of a boy were 'artistic' rather than sexually motivated has been challenged by a judge. Michael Ambrose Endicott, 75, offered the Brisbane District Court a range of excuses for photographing nude boys while working at Villanova College in the 1970's and 1980's. The court also heard a psychologist's report found Endicott was on the spectrum of autism, meaning he had trouble reading social cues. Michael Ambrose Endicott, 75, offered the Brisbane District Court a range of excuses for photographing nude boys while working at Villanova College in the 1970s and 1980s Former priest Michael Endicott (centre) arrived at the District Court in Brisbane, Monday, March 11, 2019 The report said he would have struggled to understand how his behaviour was harmful 'but was vulnerable to intrusive sexual behaviours with students because of his inability to read appropriate social cues.' Defence barrister Craig Eberhardt also said his client insisted victims were never coerced, nor were they sworn to secrecy after the incidents. 'In the scheme of things, there are many, many worse photographs that he could have taken,' Mr Eberhardt said. 'He has always admitted an interest in photography and for taking photos of nude boys as an expression of his photographic interest.' But Judge Leanne Clare SC questioned how an eight-year-old boy could have consented. 'I would imagine he well understood the unequal relationship,' she said. 'This man was walking around the child, who was completely naked, taking photographs of him from the front and back. Former priest Michael Endicott (second from left) leaves the District Court in Brisbane, Friday, March 8, 2019 after he was found guilty of three counts of indecently dealing with a child 'I don't understand how that sounds artistic.' Endicott was last week found guilty of three counts of indecently dealing with a boy. On Monday, the court also heard he pleaded guilty in 2010 to two counts of similar offending involving another boy. He was given a suspended one-year jail term. Endicott was in charge of religious education at Villanova College during the 1970s. The victim said the abuse began on a school hiking trip in 1975. Endicott asked the boy to accompany him to a secluded area in dense bush, where he photographed the nine-year-old student naked. He then told the boy: 'There's nothing to worry about. It's okay. You're doing a good job.' Mr Endicott originally pleaded not guilty to eight historical charges of indecently dealing with a child under 12 and a child under 16 while he worked at Villanova College (pictured arriving at court n March 6) Three years later, Endicott abused him in the school tower. Again, the boy was photographed naked. Years later, when the boy was a teenager, Endicott took him into a change room and told him to strip when photos were taken of him in the shower. 'He went along with the defendant's behaviour... because he was a priest,' crown prosecutor Russell Clutterbuck said. 'He said, 'at school, priests ruled. They have absolute power over everything' and he dared not speak out against them.' Mr Eberhardt said Endicott believed the victim was consenting. 'On each occasion, no force or threat was used to coerce,' he said. 'In fact, he didn't need to be persuaded at all to the extent the complainant says that he only did so because of the position of authority Father Endicott occupied at the time.' The sentencing will continue on Monday. Company described incident as 'regrettable' and are looking to arrange a refund He said Royal Caribbean decided he was too much A father of two with motor neurone disease was turned away from a Royal Caribbean cruise due to his disability. Justin Yerbury, a professor in neurodegenerative disease at the University of Wollongong, attempted to board the cruise ship travelling from Sydney to New Caledonia on Sunday. Inexplicably, he was informed he would not be allowed to travel due to his physical condition. Justin Yerbury (pictured centre) was turned away from a Royal Caribbean cruise due to his disability The Explorer of the Sea (pictured) docked at Circular Quay in Sydney - on Sunday a father of two with motor neurone disease was turned away from the cruise due to his disability 'The ship captain and doctor said they weren't equipped to look after us,' he told the ABC. 'This was despite the fact we brought two carers and my wife, who is trained to look after me. 'They decided I was too much of a risk.' Professor Yerbury has a genetic form of motor neurone disease and underwent a tracheostomy and laryngectomy last year. After a testing 12 months, he was relishing time away with his family but was bitterly disappointed. In a statement, Royal Caribbean apologised 'unreservedly for the distress, disappointment and inconvience caused'. 'Royal Caribbean International is conducting a review into its booking procedures in the case of Professor Yerbury,' a spokesperson for the cruise operator said. 'Our processes of communicating Professor Yerburys medical condition to our on board staff let down Professor Yerbury and his family and friends. 'Royal Caribbean takes this issue very seriously and we apologise unreservedly for the distress, disappointment and inconvenience that this has caused. 'In addition to providing a full refund of their cruise fares we will be reimbursing the Yerburys for all out of pocket expenses.' The company is also looking to arrange a full refund for the Professor and his family. 'Regrettably, a male guest was unable to take his planned seven-night cruise to the South Pacific on board Explorer of the Seas, which departed Sydney on Sunday,' the statement said. 'Upon presenting to the terminal for boarding, a decision was taken by the ship's doctor to deny boarding on the grounds that the ship would be unable to provide the level of care required in the event of an emergency at sea.' A Hindu man who ate beef that was wrongly labelled as lamb has asked the supermarket to pay for his flights back to India so he can be cleansed by priests. Jaswinder Paul claims he bought the meat from Countdown Blenheim on New Zealand's South Island in September. He said he cooked the contents and began eating it before discovering the dish was beef instead of lamb, as labelled. In the Hindu culture, cows are considered sacred and not to be touched. Jaswinder Paul (pictured) claims he bought meat wrongly labelled as lamb from Countdown Blenheim on New Zealand's South Island in September when it was allegedly beef instead By eating beef, Mr Paul said he broke his religious vow and needed to be flown back to India to be 'purified' by priests, stuff.co.nz reported. 'According to my religion, I have to go back to my country and do sacred things for four to six weeks, and be purified by priests, so I can continue on my religious path. It's a long process,' he said. Mr Paul said he would have to close his small business to pay for the overseas trip, which would substantially affect his income. He also said his family has stopped talking to him since he ate the beef. Mr Paul approached Countdown who apologised for the mistake and offered him a $200 gift voucher. He rejected the gift voucher and is requesting the supermarket pay for his travel abroad for his purification. Following several months without a reply, Mr Paul went back to Countdown in February. The supermarket once again apologised to him and said the gift voucher still stood. Furious at their response, Mr Paul is now seeking compensation through the courts. 'I don't want to go to court against a big corporation. I just want to go home,' he told the publication. 'I understand this looks like a simple matter, but for me this is very hard. I break my religion [vows] because of someone else's negligence.' A 20-year-old man has appeared in court charged with the shocking murder of a teenage girl in London. Manuel Petrovic, originally from Croatia, was in the dock at the Old Bailey today charged with the murder of Jodie Chesney, 17, in Romford, east London on March 1. A 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, cried when he appeared at Barkingside Magistrates Court today charged with the same offence. Petrovic, of Collier Row, east London, was remanded in custody after today's hearing and will be tried on September 2. The pair's court appearances come as police across England and Wales begin a week-long crackdown on knife crime following 39 deaths so far this year. Manuel Petrovic (pictured), originally from Croatia, was in the dock at the Old Bailey today charged with the murder of Jodie Chesney Jodie Chesney, 17, was stabbed in the back in a park in Harold Hill, Romford, east London Miss Chesney was stabbed in the back as she listened to music with her boyfriend and friends in a park in Harold Hill, Romford, east London. The Explorer Scout, described by her heartbroken father as a 'great girl' and a 'proud geek', died at the scene. There has been mass outcry up and down the country after the deaths of Miss Chesney and Yousef Makki, also 17, in Manchester at the beginning of March. On Thursday a third 17-year-old Ayub Hassan was stabbed to death in London's West Kensington. The seven-day amnesty, dubbed Operation Spectre, will see knife bins placed up and down the country for youngsters to give up their weapons anonymously. Police forces in England and Wales will also step up stop and search operations in a desperate bid to reduce knife crime among young people. Petrovic (pictured in court sketch), originally from Croatia, was in the dock at the Old Bailey today charged with the murder of Jodie Chesney, 17, in Romford, east London on March 1 Police work at the scene in Harold Hill, Romford where Jodie Chesney was stabbed to death Petrovic was arrested in Leicester on Tuesday and charged in the early hours of Saturday with Miss Chesney's murder. Wearing a green and yellow prison tracksuit he spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and Croatian nationality when he appeared at the Old Bailey via videolink from HMP Pentonville today. The Recorder of London, Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, remanded Petrovic in custody ahead of a plea and trial preparation hearing at the same court on 28 May. The 16-year-old boy appeared with his arm in a cast and spoke only to confirm his name. Wearing a grey puma hoodie, the baby-faced teenager sobbed through most of the hearing, wiping his tears with a tissue. He has been remanded in a youth detention centre ahead of another hearing at the Old Bailey tomorrow. A second teenager, an 18-year-old man from Romford, is being held in police custody on suspicion of the 17-year-old's murder, the Metropolitan Police said. He was one of four people arrested on Sunday as part of the probe into the teen's death. A 50-year-old man and 38-year-old woman, both from Dagenham, east London, and a 17-year-old boy, were held on suspicion of assisting an offender. Purple bows and ribbons attached to lamp posts and railings in Harold Hill, east London, in memory of 17-year-old Jodie Chesney Magistrate Nigel Bower told Petrovic on Saturday: 'You have heard what's gone on. You are remanded in custody and are going to the Central Criminal Court on Monday. You may go.' Mr Petrovic nodded and said 'thank you' before he was led out of the dock and back to the cells. Later, obscured from view, he was placed in the back of a white van and driven away. A post-mortem gave the cause of Miss Chesney's death as trauma and haemorrhage. Police have said they are still trying to determine a motive. The Met has asked anyone with information about Miss Chesney's death to call Homicide and Major Crime Command's Incident Room on 020 8345 3775. They can also tweet @MetCC or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. The NRL career of Parramatta forward Peni Terepo is on the line after he was escorted off a flight for being drunk and abusive and stood down by the club. The 27-year-old was stood down from the club indefinitely on Monday after reports he drunkenly argued with an Air New Zealand flight attendant. Eyewitnesses say the 108kg prop was drinking heavily in the lounge before his flight bound for Auckland over the weekend. NRL player Peni Terepo (pictured with partner Vanessa Loko) has been stood down by the club He reportedly tried to bring alcohol on board the flight in a paper coffee cup, witnesses told Stuff New Zealand. When a stewardess told him it was not allowed, he began yelling at her, according to other passengers. 'He threatened the air hostesses that his lawyer would be contacting them because they were wrong. 'He continued to drink his alcohol in his coffee cup and the manager had to snatch a larger spirit bottle from him.' The manager of the flight read Terepo the rules of the airline, which prohibits bringing alcohol aboard, and told him police would be meeting them at the tarmac. The Parramatta Eels confirmed he would be stood down indefinitely after reports of an 'alcohol related' incident Passengers say he was restless throughout the flight, flirting with a 'visibly uncomfortable' air hostess. 'From her body language I could tell she felt uncomfortable as he prompted her with questions like "what are you doing after or tonight?" and "Do you come to Parramatta?" in his drunken state.' He fell asleep and was escorted off the flight by a pair of police officers when it landed in Auckland, though charges were not laid. An investigation by the NRL Integrity Unit and the league's Player's Association is now underway. A reportedly intoxicated Terepo got involved in an argument with a stewardess aboard an Air New Zealand flight (stock image) The Eels confirmed he will not feature in the side's round one clash against Penrith this Sunday as the investigation is underway. The findings could result in further punishment for the 27-year-old. The scandal is the latest in a series that has rocked the NRL's offseason, headlined by sexual assault allegations made against a pair of players and a spate of leaked sex tapes. Veteran broadcaster and former Liberal Party candidate Alan Jones has thrown his support behind One Nation, donating $10,000 to Mark Latham's NSW election campaign. Sydney's king of breakfast radio has regularly hosted the former Labor leader on his show and the pair wrote a cookbook together in 2018 called 'Conversations in the Kitchen'. Jones, who has topped the breakfast ratings for 30 years on 2UE and 2GB, has long helped the Liberal party to raise funds. Alan Jones (pictured), who has topped the breakfast ratings for 30 years on 2UE and 2GB, has long helped the Liberal party to raise funds but is now backing One Nation in the NSW election Jones has in the past been a strident critic of New South Wales Liberal premier Gladys Berejiklian, notably in 2017 when she took the reins of the premiership. Mark Latham, a former federal Labor leader who defected to One Nation, is spearheading the nationalist party's foray into NSW politics at the forthcoming March 23 state election. Latham took to Twitter to praise Jones, saying his campaign was honoured to receive his donation support. 'No one in Aust media has a bigger, thoroughly researched interest in public policy debate than Alan Jones,' he wrote on Monday. 'I aim not to let him and other supporters down as I pursue our policy agenda in NSW Parliament, if elected.' Alan Jones could not be contacted for comment on Monday. Mark Latham (pictured), a former federal Labor leader who defected to One Nation, is spearheading the nationalist party's foray into NSW politics at the forthcoming March 23 state election The veteran broadcaster is currently off contract with the owner of radio station 2GB, Macquarie Media, and some reports have suggested he may leave the network. Mark Latham, One Nation's NSW leader, is hoping to win an eight-year term in the NSW upper house, whilst the party is fielding several candidates across lower house seats. The former Labor heavyweight is considered to have a strong chance of being elected to the state upper house at the March 23 elections. The ruling Liberal-National party Coalition in New South Wales is seeking a third consecutive term against a Labor Opposition pledging to cancel $1.5 billion worth of stadium projects in Sydney's east and west. A dog has tragically died after being found tethered without water or shelter next to two other in searing 31C heat. Queensland RSPCA officers were able to save two other dogs who were also kept enslaved at a Boronia Heights home south of Brisbane on Monday. All three dogs were tied to a pole with heavy chains, The Courier Mail reported. As RSPCA officers seized two dogs that had been chained up without shelter or water after a third had already died other RSPCA officers were called to a home to find a dog tethered and with is's mouth taped shut (pictured) 'Words fail us, despite the warnings and despite the help of the media to relay the warnings, some people still aren't listening,' RSPCA's Michael Beatty told the publication. Mr Beatty said only 'unbelievable stupidity and callous indifference' could explain the treatment of the poor dogs left to die in scorching Queensland heat. He said while dogs can survive days without food they could not survive without water and that chaining them up presents a host of safety issued. 'It's far better to make the yard or courtyard secure and then it won't be necessary to tether the dog in the first place,' he said. The RSPCA was also called out to Marsden, south of Brisbane, on the same day after reports of a dog being chained up with its mouth taped shut. As a result the dog could not pant or drink and would have died if it was kept in the state it was in. In 2018 the Queensland RSPCA had over 2000 calls for animals left out with no shelter or water coupled with 200 call outs for dogs left in hot cars. Mr Beatty said despite strong advertising campaign in the media some people just weren't getting it or were wilfully undertaking animal cruelty. He said anyone who sees an animal in distress always has the option of calling the RSPCA on 1300 ANIMAL at any time of the day or night. The maximum penalty for a person found guilty of animal cruelty under the Animal Care and Protection Act 2001 is a $260,000 fine and three years' imprisonment. My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding star Paddy Doherty has revealed he is battling prostate cancer and has been in agonising pain ever since his diagnosis. The former bareknuckle fighter, 60, was given the devastating news by doctors seven months ago. After steroid treatment failed to contain the disease, the reality TV star now faces two make-or-break operations. Doherty was left devastated after his 32-year-old nephew Mikey Connors died in a horror car crash in July last year. He faced further heartbreak when his son David, 33, was jailed for seven years for an armed raid on a family home. Speaking of his illness, he told The Sun yesterday: 'I've been to hell and back with this and it's worse than getting a horrendous beating. 'The pain got so bad that I actually thought about taking my own life on two occasions.' Star of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding Paddy Doherty (pictured at his nephew Mikey's funeral last summer) has revealed he is battling prostate cancer Doherty has kept his condition a secret, only telling his wife, brothers and sister. He told the newspaper his wife encouraged him to share his story to inspire other men to get checked out. Paddy is pictured at the funeral of his mother Queenie in Cobham, Surrey The 60-year-old, who is based at a caravan park in north Wales, said diseases like cancer are often taboo among traveller men. He added that going to the toilet was 'excruciating' and he wouldn't inflict that level of pain on his worst enemy. When he started passing blood he knew it was time to seek help, he said. Asking doctors whether they thought he was going to die, they told him they had 'got it in time'. The TV hard man said hospital treatment has been extremely distressing for him, as he is terrified of needles. He said: 'I would be screaming and my grandchildren could hear me - that is so embarrassing and demeaning for me.' Doherty will soon have two operations at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, one to remove his prostate and another to make up for excess blood loss. He added: 'This has definitely been the biggest battle of my life but it's one ill determined to win.' After steroid treatment failed to contain the disease, the reality TV star (pictured at home in north Wales) now faces two make-or-break operations at a hospital in Manchester What are the symptoms of prostate cancer? The prostate is a small gland in the pelvis, found only in men. About the size of a satsuma, it's located between the penis and the bladder, and surrounds the urethra. Symptoms of prostate cancer do not usually appear until the prostate is large enough to affect the tube that carries urine from the bladder out of the penis (urethra). When this happens, you may notice things like: - an increased need to pee - straining while you pee - a feeling that your bladder has not fully emptied These symptoms should not be ignored, but they do not mean you have prostate cancer. Source: NHS Advertisement Doherty was reduced to tears as he said goodbye to his young nephew Mikey Connors last July. His funeral was held at St Michael's Church in Ashtead, Surrey before he was laid to rest at a cemetery in Epsom Downs nearly a month after he died in a car accident in Thamesmead, South East London. He was struck by a vehicle while driving a horse and cart on the A2016 Eastern Way on July 28. His uncle Paddy faced more heartbreak in 2017 when another nephew boxer Thomas, 17, was killed by a car just two weeks after passing his driving test. The gypsy leader gained a massive following after starring in the Channel 4 documentary My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding and won Celebrity Big Brother in 2014. He is wearing a man-shaped prostate cancer pin badge, championed by Sky Sports's Jeff Sterling, to help raise awareness of the disease. There are around 130 new cases of prostate cancer diagnosed in the UK every day. Chances of survival are far improved if the disease is caught at an early stage. A furious mother has slammed anti-vaxxer parents for endangering her son's life after he was infected with measles. The mother from Canterbury on New Zealand's South Island took to social media to criticise 'selfish' parents who decide not to vaccinate their children. Her anger stems from her own son, believed to be four months old and therefore too young to receive the vaccination, being infected by a sick child. A mother has slammed 'selfish' parents who don't vaccinate their children after her son was infected with measles (pictured) The mother said parents who didn't vaccinate their children were inconsiderate. 'I understand we all have choices to make in life but this choice doesn't just affect your family, it affects an entire community,' she wrote. 'It affects babies that are too young to be vaccinated against these diseases, mothers and their unborn babies and the elderly.' She implored others to think twice before deciding not to vaccinate. 'If you ever have the decision to make I want you to think about your community, about how you'd feel seeing your child with one of these diseases, because I'm telling you now it's incredibly heartbreaking and distressing for everyone involved.' She wrote that it was 'unfair' her son had gone through the ordeal, but added that he was now on the mend. WHAT IS MEASLES AND WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS? Measles is a highly contagious viral infection that spreads easily from an infected person through coughing, sneezing or even just breathing. Symptoms develop between six and 19 days after infection, and include a runny nose, cough, sore eyes, a fever and a rash. The rash appears as red and blotchy marks on the hairline that travel down the body over several days, turning brown and eventually fading. In one in 15 cases, measles can cause life-threatening complications including pneumonia, convulsions and encephalitis. Treatment focuses on staying hydrated, resting and taking painkillers, if necessary. Measles can be prevented by receiving two vaccinations, the first at about 15 months old and the second at three years and four months old. Source: Great Ormond Street Hospital Advertisement The mother took to social media to implore anti-vax parents to be more considerate of others The child is one of 25 people currently battling measles in the Canterbury region, sparking an urgent request for more vaccinations. Data from the Ministry of Health shows that more than 10,000 children in New Zealand who were old enough to be vaccinated did not receive the jab in 2018. Though New Zealand was declared free of measles in 2017, the Canterbury District Health Board are now saying the disease is 'circulating widely in the community'. Ten new cases were reported over last weekend alone and clinics in the area have run out of vaccines. Children usually get their first measles vaccine at 15 months, though local doctors are recommending it be brought forward to 12 months in the midst of the outbreak. The Anne Frank Center has come under fire for comparing the plight of Jews fleeing Nazi rule during the Second World War to ISIS terrorists. The educational institution, which is situated in the German city of Frankfurt, made the comments in response to the country's decision to strip returning ISIS terrorists of their citizenship. The decision will apply to all adult German nationals with dual citizenship who take part in future battles for any terrorist organisation. However in a five-part series of tweets the center slammed the decision. The Anne Frank Center in the German city of Frankfurt has come under fire for comparing the plight of Jews fleeing Nazi during the holocaust to returning ISIS terrorists In a series of tweets last Wednesday the center wrote: 'A draft of the Grand Coalition provides that captured German IS fighters are stripped of nationality-provided they are of legal age and thus do not become stateless. 'A lot of protest has broken out against this-including with reference to the Third Reich: Okay 5. 'In fact, the Nazis generously made use of the means of naturalization. 'In several waves, a total of more than 39000 people were expelled-especially Jews. As of Nov. In 1941, they automatically lost their citizenship they the crossed the borders of the Reich regardless of whether 'voluntarily' emigrated or deported.' 'The imperial limit crossed-whether 'voluntarily' emigrated or deported. Her assets were recovered. Among other things, Albert Einstein was affected on the grounds that he had violated 'the duty to be faithful to the Reich and the people. 'Also expelled was Hannah Ahrendt, from whom the saying comes: 'The naturalized person loses the right to have rights.' In democracies, withdrawal of citizenship is a means that deprives the sovereign, the citizens, of the opportunity to participate. 'That is why lawyers plead for a restrained approach to this means. Frankfurt lawyer Astrid Wallrabenstein says: 'The police and law enforcement officers are responsible for security, not the passport authority.''' In a five-part series on Twitter the center slammed the decision made by German authorities Women and children, some wearing the yellow Star of David, at Auschwitz concentration camp Entrance to the German concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland Far-right Hayat Boumeddiene appears in Islamic State film on February 6, 2015 Following the series of tweets, critics have condemned the center's comments. Retired British army officer Colonel Richard Justin Kemp CBE tweeted: 'A terrible insult by @BS_AnneFrank. They should delete this disgraceful tweet.' Last week the Deutsche Welle reported that German authorities would strip citizenship from anyone who 'takes part in combat operations abroad for a terrorist militia'. The government decision follows the case of 19-year-old Shamima Begum who was stripped of her British citizenship after fleeing the UK to Syria to join ISIS forces. Theresa May is back in London after claiming victory and securing 'legally binding changes' to the Irish border backstop after a dramatic last-minute dash to Strasbourg. The Prime Minister was seen smiling as she was swept into Downing Street in the early hours of this morning - but whether her breakthrough will convince Brexiteers and the DUP to vote through her deal is still uncertain. Last night, at a joint press conference with Jean-Claude Juncker, Mrs May said her deal 'delivers on the decision of the British people to leave the European Union' and appealed for MPs to back it at 7pm tonight. Tory Brexiteer rebels and the DUP have worked through the night before deciding whether to back for the deal when it is voted on. The changes fall short of Mrs May's promises to reopen the deal demands for the backstop to be scrapped altogether. But Mrs May told her fractious MPs: 'Today we have secured legal changes. Now is the time to come together, to back this improved Brexit deal, and to deliver on the instruction of the British people.' Sitting alongside the PM at the late-night press conference, Mr Juncker warned MPs if they do not back the deal tomorrow night 'there will be no third chance' and warned: 'It is this deal or Brexit might not happen at all.' A smiling Theresa May arrives back at Downing Street this morning after a breakthrough with the EU last night ahead of a crucial vote now hours away Theresa May announced tonight she does have 'legally binding changes' to the Irish border backstop after a last minute dash to Strasbourg ended in an appearance with Jean Claude Juncker At a joint press conference with Jean-Claude Juncker, Mrs May said her deal 'delivers on the decision of the British people to leave the European Union' and appealed for MPs to back it at 7pm tonight David Lidington (pictured tonight in the Commons) said the Government did have 'legally binding changes' that 'strengthen and improve' the divorce deal - but admitted the negotiation was not yet over There are three new documents following tonight's breakthrough. What is the new deal announced by May tonight? What are the changes to the deal? David Lidington told MPs there were two new documents attached to the Brexit deal that change the backstop part of the divorce agreement. Theresa May then announced a third document at a joint press conference with Jean-Claude Juncker . None of the new documents change either the Withdrawal Agreement or the Political Declaration on the Future Relationship agreed in November. The new documents are: A joint legally binding 'instrument' that is based on promises from Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk the backstop cannot be permanent and should be replaced by 'alternative arrangements' by 2020. A joint statement adding to the political statement about the future UK-EU relationship, committing both sides to 'enhance and expedite' the trade talks on the final status. A unilateral statement by Britain that if the backstop ever kicked in, the UK would introduce measures to ensure it is 'disapplied'. This means measures to ensure an open border - but does not specify what they are. What do the changes mean? Lidington said they 'strengthen and improve' the deal and amount to 'legally binding changes'. The Attorney General is due to produce new legal advice tomorrow. Will they persuade Tory rebels? It is too soon to tell. Tory hardliners will pass the documents to a group of their own lawyers and they will make a decision today. Advertisement The first set out a legal duty on both UK and EU to work on an alternative to the backstop by 2020 while the second says both sides must work more quickly on the trade talks phase of Brexit. Third, Britain makes a unilateral declaration that if the backstop ever comes into force the UK Government will find a way to get out of it without EU help. This appears to mean Britain will have to find a way of keeping an open border without breaking either the Good Friday Agreement or EU law - whether or not there is a UK-EU trade deal. The intention of the changes is to persuade MPs that the Irish border backstop - part of the divorce deal intended to rule out forever a hard border in Ireland - cannot be permanent if UK-EU trade talks fail. Mr Juncker said the deal had been on the table for '105 days' and insisted he hoped the 'meaningful clarifications' on the backstop would ease the 'difficult' passage of the deal in the UK. He insisted in the backstop were 'ever to be used it would never be a trap' - insisting tonight's agreement has 'legal force' and 'complements the withdrawal agreement without reopening it'. Back in London, Mrs May's deputy told the Commons the changes to the Irish border backstop 'strengthen and improve' the divorce deal that was first defeated in January by 230 votes. Mr Lidington told MPs 'two new documents' setting out the changes were being laid in Parliament last night - meaning they can be voted on as Mrs May finally brings back her deal for a second vote. He promised MPs that new legal advice from the Attorney General would be available before they vote tonight. But Mr Lidington told the Commons: 'There will be a fundamental choice: to vote for the improved deal or to plunge the country into crisis.' Theresa May, Jean-Claude Juncker and Michel Barnier emerged from talks last night to announce there was a new package on the backstop Mr Juncker said the deal had been on the table for '105 days' and insisted he hoped the 'meaningful clarifications' on the backstop would ease the 'difficult' passage of the deal in the UK The changes outlined by Mr Lidington fall far short of Mrs May's original promise to reopen the divorce agreement or the demands of Brexiteers for the backstop to be scrapped. The legal advice will be crucial to whether Tory Brexiteer rebels and the DUP are finally prepared to back down and vote for the deal. Most in Westminster expect Mrs May to have fallen short. Tonight's announcement came after dramatic scenes as Mrs May swept into Strasbourg at around 8pm for last-ditch Brexit talks with Jean-Claude Juncker. She is expected to make her own statement later. Mrs May flew to France for the talks after making the snap decision at around 5pm there was a chance of a breakthrough with face to face talks. Amid speculation about concessions from the EU, the Irish Government called a surprise emergency Cabinet meeting in Dublin. And back in London Mrs May's ministers were also meeting as the PM held her talks with EU leaders. MPs are due to vote on the Brexit deal for a second time tonight. Many expect they will inflict another heavy defeat on May - sparking votes to block no deal and delay Brexit on Wednesday and Thursday. Theresa May arrived in Strasbourg last night for last-ditch Brexit talks with Jean-Claude Juncker She flew to Strasbourg for the talks after making the snap decision at around 5pm there was a chance of a breakthrough with face to face talks The Prime Minister was greeted in Strasbourg by EU negotiator Michel Barnier Announcing the changes, Mr Lidington told MPs: 'Tonight we will be laying two new documents in the House; a joint legally-binding instrument on the Withdrawal Agreement and protocol on Northern Ireland and a joint statement to supplement the political declaration.' What are MPs voting on tomorrow? What is the vote tomorrow? Theresa May has promised to hold a vote on whether or not to approve her deal tomorrow. Passing it is an essential part of making the deal law. Technically the vote has to happen at some point because of the law in Section 13 of the EU Withdrawal Action 2018. What will MPs vote on? The Government has tabled a motion that broadly says MPs 'approve' the deal. The motion refer to documents that make up the deal - including the two new documents about the backstop. Both the motion and the documents have to be tabled in Parliament today, before the Commons finishes for the night. Can it be amended? Yes. MPs can re-write the motion to say they 'approve' the deal subject to conditions, or to say they 'decline to approve' it for whatever reason. Can May amend it? Yes, potentially. May could table an amendment to her own motion or endorse an amendment tabled by a friendly backbench MP if the new agreements look set to fail. Why would she do that? An amendment could be used to send a political signal to Brussels on what is needed to pass the motion unamended. It would probably mean a third vote was needed - but this is legally ambiguous. Advertisement He added: 'The second document is a joint statement supplementing the Political Declaration, which outlines a number of commitments by the United Kingdom and the European Union to enhance and expedite the process of negotiating and bringing into force the future relationship - for example, it makes reference to the possibility of provisional application of such future agreement - and it sets out in detail how the specific negotiating track on alternative arrangements will operate. 'Negotiations are continuing, and the Government will provide an update to the House at the earliest opportunity should there be further changes.' He concluded by saying: 'The House was clear on the need for legally-binding changes to the backstop. Today we have secured these changes. 'Now is the time to come together, to back this improved Brexit deal and deliver on the instruction of the British people.' The new documents are based on a letter from Mr Juncker and EU Council President Donald Tusk sent in January in an effort to reassure MPs. The letter has been turned into legal text alongside a new UK-EU joint statement on how the backstop should work. Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said the change 'adds nothing' from the letter Mrs May returned from negotiations with on January 14. He said: 'If all that's happening is to turn this letter into an interpretative tool for legal purposes, I remind the House what the Prime Minister said on January 14 about this letter. 'She said she had been advised this letter would have legal force in international law. 'To stand here today and say this is a significant change when she's repeating what she said on January 14 is not going to take anyone here far.' Shortly before Mrs May's trip was confirmed leading Brexiteers including Steve Baker and Iain Duncan Smith were in Downing Street for talks on what was on offer. Tory Brexiteers and the DUP have asked eight lawyers - including DUP Westminster leader Nigel Dodds - to consider promised new legal advice from Attorney General Geoffrey Cox before deciding whether to kill the deal. The so-called star chamber could work through the night to decide a position. They will rule around 5pm tonight on what to do when the Meaningful Vote is called at 7pm. With the fate of Brexit hanging in the balance, Mrs May spent her afternoon at Westminster Abbey marking Commonwealth Day alongside the Queen, and read a passage from the Bible that could be viewed as significant to Brexit. Reading from Corinthians 12: 14-26, she told the congregation: 'The body does not consist of one member but of many... If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.' Mrs May's 11th hour dash came as EU sources said ambassadors of the 27 member states were told a deal over the Irish backstop had been done with Britain on Saturday - but was rejected by ministers 24 hours later. An insider at the Brussels briefing said yesterday: 'On Saturday evening, it seemed negotiating teams are close to an agreement. 'But eventually, PM May had failed to convince her cabinet, which she conveyed to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker during their phone call on Sunday evening.' UK government sources said they did not recognise the account - insisting the negotiating process did not involve ministerial vetoes. Earlier yesterday the PM was forced to confirm she would hold the 'meaningful vote' on her Brexit deal tomorrow, despite facing another humbling Commons defeat of her deal as it currently stands and burgeoning calls to quit. Speculation had been rife that the Prime Minister would cancel it to avoid the humiliation of losing by 100-plus votes until Downing Street quashed the rumour in the morning. Mrs May flew to north east France on a BAe 146 jet from the Royal Air Force's 32 Squadron, also known as The Royal Squadron because it usually flies the Queen and other senior Royals Theresa May boarded her jet at RAF Northolt alongside close aides last night for the make or break trip to Strasbourg (pictured) The Prime Minister flew from RAF Northolt (pictured) and met Jean-Claude Juncker on arrival at 8pm. Mrs May spent her afternoon at Westminster Abbey (pictured) marking Commonwealth Day alongside the Queen, and read a passage from the Bible that could be viewed as significant to Brexit Jean-Claude Juncker spoke to the PM yesterday and she called off a Brussels dash EU Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier said today yesterday not the EU The three key pillars that might save Prime Minister Theresa May THE EXIT MECHANISM What it is: A legally binding text, added to the withdrawal agreement, which sets out the temporary nature of the Northern Ireland backstop. Known as a joint interpretative instrument, it states that the EU cannot act with the intention of applying the backstop indefinitely. If it did so, the UK could challenge it through arbitration and ultimately get out. What it means: Legal advice on the deal from the Attorney General Geoffrey Cox warned that the UK could in theory become trapped indefinitely in the controversial backstop. This attempts to reassure MPs, especially in the Eurosceptic European Research Group, by showing a clear and legally binding escape route. It also gives more weight to moves to replace the backstop with technological solutions. THE UNILATERAL DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE What it is: A UK-only document that sets out in explicit terms the temporary nature of the backstop. It makes clear that the UK Governments understanding is that there is nothing to stop Britain unilaterally leaving the backstop if it appears to be becoming permanent. What it means: This document makes clear the UKs view that we cant be trapped in the backstop. Although not legally binding over the EU, it would set out in unambiguous terms that a future government can decide to leave at any point if there was no prospect of escaping via a trade deal. THE ASSURANCES LETTER What it is: On January 14, Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker wrote to Theresa May in a bid to address UK concerns about the backstop and give reassurances that it would only be temporary. It was dismissed at the time because it was not legally binding, but the new deal puts it in binding legal form. What it means: The letter contains assurances about the temporary nature of the backstop, that the EU would use its best endeavours to do a deal, and that it would only be in place as long as strictly necessary. It also makes clear the EU will give priority to finding technological alternatives to the backstop, a critical element for hardline Eurosceptics. It makes clear the backstop cannot supercede the Good Friday Agreement. Putting these assurances on a legal footing could be crucial. Advertisement The PM's spokesman has insisted that Brexit talks are 'continuing' after she spoke to Mr Juncker twice in 24 hours and she will travel to Strasbourg later, Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said in Dublin yesterday afternoon. But in a bad omen for Britain earlier the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier insisted negotiations were over for now, adding: 'The talks are now between the UK government and MPs'. The Prime Minister's spokesman revealed today's vote will go ahead after MPs including Tory Remainer Nick Boles warned she could face a Commons vote of no confidence and potentially be ousted if she pulled it. Mrs May was urged by loyal Conservative MPs to stop the vote on her deal in the Commons tomorrow night because it is 'inevitable' it will be defeated. But the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'The meaningful vote will take place tomorrow. The motion will be tabled today ahead of that debate taking place.' He added: 'I seriously caution against speculating what this motion will look like'. If her deal is defeated as expected today, MPs are due to be given a vote on blocking no deal on Wednesday and delaying Brexit by extending Article 50 by a few months on Thursday both paving the way for a softer Brexit. Amid the chaos in Westminster a minister will have to answer questions on the state of negotiations later after Speaker John Bercow granted an urgent question (UQ) to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. In a signal Mrs May is still working to win over Tory MPs as well as holding talks with Brussels, Sir Graham Brady - the shop steward of Conservative MPs - was in Downing Street yesterday (pictured) Brexiteer ministers Liam Fox and Michael Gove were both in Downing Street for meetings as the Government faced its 'doomsday' week EU claims a Brexit deal was close over the weekend but Theresa May's cabinet ruled it out A Brexit deal seemed close on Saturday after the EU indicated legal ways for London to unilaterally leave the contentious Irish border backstop -but the plan was rejected by Theresa May's cabinet, it was claimed today. The bloc's Brexit negotiators on Monday updated envoys of the 27 states staying in the European Union after Brexit on the status of the talks, which have stalled just 18 days before Britain is due to leave on March 29. May's parliament is due to hold a new series of votes on Brexit starting on Tuesday but the sides are at loggerheads over the so-called backstop, or an emergency fix aimed at avoiding controls on the sensitive Irish border after Brexit. 'On Saturday evening, it seemed negotiating teams are close to an agreement,' the ambassadors were told, according to a source briefed on the closed-doors meeting. 'But eventually, PM May had failed to convince her cabinet, which she conveyed to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker during their phone call on Sunday evening.' The 27 national EU leaders will discuss Brexit in Brussels on March 21 without May, and should not engage in direct negotiations with the British leader at the two-day summit, the ambassadors were also told. May could go to Strasbourg, France, on Monday, where the bloc's executive European Commission and the European Parliament hold sessions this week. But that has not yet been confirmed in London. May had not ruled out coming up with another UK declaration on the backstop on Monday, according to the briefing the EU ambassadors were given. Brussels worries that she would ask the House of Commons to vote on backstop solutions that have been rejected by the EU side, which would not make reaching an EU-UK agreement any easier. Advertisement Mrs May is unlikely to take the emergency session herself because she is off to Strasbourg but could send Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay. Mr Barclay is already billed to make a statement to the Commons at around 7pm about Brexit. Mr Corbyn said: 'The Prime Minister cannot keep dodging scrutiny after failing to get changes to her overwhelmingly rejected deal. 'Theresa May must come to Parliament this afternoon and face up to the mess her government has made of the Brexit negotiations.' Mrs May and her team have again failed to make any breakthrough in negotiations with the EU and called off an 11th-hour trip to Brussels - but will go tonight instead. The Prime Minister had her plane on standby but after a phone call with President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker last night she cancelled plans to fly out to Europe as the deadlock continues. The next EU council meeting of the 27 states begins on March 21 - just eight days before Brexit is due to happen - and optimistic members of the Downing Street team are said to be hopeful that European leaders could still back down at the last minute. But insiders say that the EU is running out of patience and 'hardening' towards Mrs May. At Westminster Mrs May was being advised to replace it with a motion on the kind of Brexit deal wanted by Tories to put pressure back on the EU to help deliver her divorce by March 29. A source told The Times: 'As it stands her deal is going to be defeated. It has been made clear to Downing Street that it would be eminently sensible to avoid that by proposing a motion that the party can support. Whether they listen or not is another matter'. If the vote goes ahead and she loses some in her party are ready to call for Mrs May to resign immediately. Sources have claimed cabinet support is also failing, with under-fire ministers Chris Grayling and Karen Bradley said to be the only two people vocally backing the PM, who has kept them in their jobs despite usually career-ending blunders in recent weeks. A forlorn looking Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay arrives at 10 Downing Street yesterday Remainer Chancellor Philip Hammond looked far happier as he entered Downing Street via a rear entrance yesterday Leadership candidate Boris Johnson called on MPs to reject her deal - and accused the EU of showing 'chronic disdain' towards Britain by refusing to change the Irish backstop. The week that will make or break Theresa May's Brexit TUESDAY The Commons will vote on whether to support the revised deal in the second so-called 'meaningful vote'. In January it was rejected by a majority of 230 in an historic defeat for the Government. OPTION A: If it is passed, then the UK is set to leave the European Union on March 29 as planned. OPTION B: If MPs vote against it again, they will be back in the Commons on Wednesday. WEDNESDAY If her withdrawal deal is defeated, as seems likely, the Prime Minister has promised to hold a vote on Wednesday on whether the country should leave the EU without a deal. It would take place just hours after the Chancellor's Spring Statement. OPTION A: If MPs vote for it, a No Deal Brexit would take place. OPTION B: If politicians vote against leaving the EU without a deal, they'll go back again to the voting lobbies. LATER ON WEDNESDAY OR ON THURSDAY A vote against No Deal would see MPs given the chance to delay Brexit beyond March 29, Mrs May has pledged. This would take place on either Wednesday or Thursday. OPTION A: If MPs back a delay, then the PM would have to go back to Brussels to negotiate an extension of the two-year Article 50 process. OPTION B: Rejection of an extension, would mean the country leaves the European Union on March 29 with or without a deal. Advertisement But Michael Gove said that voting for the PM's deal is the only way to 'heal the bitter divides across the country' - saying if it falls there will be a democratic crisis in the country because the PM would lose control of Brexit. Brussels will demand another 13.5billion in Brexit divorce payments if Theresa May seeks an extension to Article 50, it is claimed. EU states are said to be 'hardening' their stance against a longer Brexit process and could force Britain to stay in a customs union as the price of agreeing a delay. MPs could vote on a postponement this week if, as expected, Theresa May's deal is defeated again in the House of Commons tonight. The PM has suggested a three-month delay but EU diplomats will demand more money if the extension is longer than a few weeks, the Daily Telegraph reported. An EU source told the newspaper: 'Lines are hardening against extension... Anything more than a few weeks will come with legal and financial conditions attached.' Brussels could ask Britain to pay an extra 13.5billion a year - 1bn a month - on top of the current 39bn divorce deal, it is reported. The EU could also push for Britain to stay in a customs union, a move opposed by many Brexiteers who want the UK to strike new trade deals instead. All 27 of the EU's remaining member states would have to agree an extension beyond March 29 if it is requested by Mrs May. In an apparent indication of the lack of progress, the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier chose to travel to Dublin to attend the Ireland v France rugby international rather than remain in the Belgian capital. Tory Brexiteers have said a defeat for Mrs May was 'inevitable' unless the Prime Minister was able to secure significant changes to the arrangements for Northern Ireland. Mrs May has said if she loses the vote today, there will be further votes on Wednesday on whether the UK should leave with no-deal and on Thursday on whether they should seek an extension to Article 50. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned Tory colleagues that they risked losing Brexit altogether if they did not back the PM. He said there was 'wind in the sails' of the opponents of Brexit and that it would be 'devastating' for the Conservatives if they failed to deliver on their commitment to take Britain out of the EU. Meanwhile former Cabinet minister Nicky Morgan said Mrs May could be forced out of No 10 if her Brexit strategy was 'dismantled' by MPs this week. Mrs May was last night warned her position will become untenable if MPs reject her deal and succeed in delaying Brexit. Former Tory Cabinet ministers Dominic Raab and Nicky Morgan raised doubts she could remain if her withdrawal agreement is voted down by the Commons. Michel Barnier attended the Ireland-France rugby match on Sunday, pictured, rather than remaining in Brussels in a sign of slow progress in Brexit talks Theresa May faces another defeat of almost 100 votes even if she gets back around half of the Tory rebels from last time - and needs most of them and Labour rebels to save her deal May 'til December? The dilemma facing rebels trying to oust the PM Theresa May cannot technically be removed against her will as Tory leader until December. That's because she won a Conservative Party confidence vote on December 12 last year and under party rules she cannot be challenged again for 12 months. However, there are some high risk ways that rebels could force her from office. For example, a mass walkout of ministers would leave the Government totally paralysed and if she could not find enough MPs to replace them, she'd have to quit in order to unblock the system. The nuclear option would be for Tory MPs to join opposition parties to back a Parliamentary confidence motion against her. If she lost this vote of all MPS she would have 21 days to try to form a Government or have to call a General Election, under the Fixed Term Parliament Act passed by her predecessor David Cameron. But it would be a huge gamble for the Tories as it would give Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party a potential route into power. How many would take this risk - after the 2017 election led to a hung parliament - remains to be seen. Advertisement Downing Street aides are now 'resigned' to Mrs May having to set out her departure date in an attempt to get her deal through the Commons, Cabinet sources revealed. But former Brexit secretary David Davis dismissed the suggestion that the promise of an exit plan would be enough to persuade rebel Tories to support her withdrawal agreement. Mrs May has said if the Government loses tomorrow, there will be further votes on whether the UK should leave the EU without a deal or seek an extension to negotiations beyond the March 29 exit date. Former education secretary Nicky Morgan said it would be the 'beginning of the end' if MPs end up voting for a delay to the Article 50 process. She told Radio 4's The World This Weekend: 'I think that her position is going to become slowly less and less tenable as Parliament changes the Government's Brexit policy. 'If the votes go this week in a way which means that the Prime Minister's policy as she has set out and stuck to rigidly over the course of the last two-and-a-bit a years is taken away, dismantled slowly by Parliament this week, I think it would be very difficult for the Prime Minister to stay in office for very much longer.' Mrs Morgan, who has said she will vote for the Brexit deal, said it may be up to the Cabinet to tell Mrs May that the time has come for her to go. 'They are going to have to take a role in saying potentially to the Prime Minister, 'Actually, things have changed significantly. We think you should think about your position, Prime Minister',' she added. Theresa May was warned her position will become untenable if MPs reject her deal and succeed in delaying Brexit Former Tory Cabinet ministers Dominic Raab and Nicky Morgan raised doubts she could remain if her withdrawal agreement is voted down 'I don't think no deal is a good idea at all': Cameron insists he backs May's plan for a 'partnership' with the EU and warns MPs not to crash Britain out David Cameron warned MPs not to let Britain crash out of the EU today as Theresa May faces catastrophe over Brexit. The former Prime Minister insisted he would not give a running commentary on events. Mr Cameron said he supported Mrs May's pursuit of a 'partnership' with the EU. But as he left home today he told reporters: 'I don't think no deal is a good idea at all.' Mrs May is due to put her deal to a new vote of MPs tomorrow but faces near certain defeat after the EU refused to make any concessions on the backstop. MPs are then due to vote on whether or not no deal is acceptable on Wednesday. David Cameron (pictured today in London) warned MPs not to let Britain crash out of the EU today as Theresa May faces catastrophe over Brexit Mr Cameron said: 'I support the Prime Minister and I think she is doing the right thing seeking a partnership deal with the EU, that's the right approach. The reason I don't give lots of interviews and answer lots of questions about this is because her job is hard enough already without her immediate predecessor giving a running a commentary. 'So I wish her well.' Asked about no deal as he walked off, Mr Cameron said: 'I don't think no deal is a good idea at all.' Advertisement Former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab, who quit over the Brussels deal, acknowledged the PM's position was 'precarious' but said it would be even worse if Brexit was delayed. Mr Raab, who has been touted as a possible successor to Mrs May if she is forced to step down, refused to be drawn on his own leadership ambitions. But asked if he thought Mrs May would still be Prime Minister by Christmas, he said: 'I don't know. She has said she is going to step down. I would like to be able to see her do that in a way which is in the terms of her own choosing. I think the Government has found itself in a precarious situation. 'If the Government extends Article 50 or tries to reverse the Brexit promises that we have made, I think that situation would get even trickier.' Cabinet ministers have privately floated the idea of Mrs May naming a date for her departure if it persuades hardline Eurosceptics to back her deal. Some believe the rebels may be tempted by this option in the belief they could install a Brexiteer to take over the second phase of negotiations on the future relationship with the EU. But Mr Davis rejected the suggestion. The former Brexit secretary told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: 'No, it won't work. [It] won't get the vote through.' Former Brexit secretary David Davis dismissed the suggestion that the promise of an exit plan would be enough to persuade rebel Tories to support her withdrawal agreement Health Secretary Matt Hancock also dismissed the idea. He told BBC Radio 5 Live: 'I don't think that would help... You have got to look at what the public think in many ways. The amount of respect for the PM in the country is incredible. Through this incredibly difficult negotiation and difficult time in politics her dignity and poise has been absolutely remarkable. 'Many people have been very rude about her, she just lets it pass her by. You can see that she is steadfastly focused on what is in the national interest.' Mrs May had initially vowed to stay on as Tory leader for the 'long term' and fight the next general election in 2022. In August 2017 the Prime Minister insisted she was 'not a quitter' and would remain in office to guide the country through Brexit and beyond. But as she faced a confidence vote in her leadership in December, Mrs May backtracked and told MPs she would stand down before the next election. Last month she signalled she would not be quitting immediately after Brexit on March 29. Labour has abandoned plans to push for a second referendum tomorrow amid fears it would trigger a mass revolt by shadow ministers. But Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, told Sky there could still be a opportunity this week for MPs to vote for a second poll. 'The only negotiations May will be doing are for her Celebrity Bake Off fee': As even PM's key allies 'lose faith in her ability to lead' rivals circle to take her place so who could replace Theresa? Theresa May is facing increasingly heavy calls to step down in a matter of just weeks if her Brexit deal is rejected a second time by MPs today. The Prime Minister appears to have almost completely run out of allies in her own administration as the Government crumbles over attempts to exit the European Union. One Cabinet source told The Telegraph: 'I would say there are only two ministers in the Cabinet who still support her. Everyone else has lost faith in her ability to lead.' Mrs May agreed last December to step down before the next General Election, in a plea deal that saw her win a confidence vote of Tory MPs. And there are a host of top Tories ready to step into her shoes whenever she finally decides that she can take the country - and the Conservative Party - no further. Here we look at the runners and riders, with their odds with Ladbrokes and how they voted in the 2016 referendum: Boris Johnson: The long-running thorn in May's side who has recently had a 'prime ministerial' makeover Boris Johnson has undergone a prime ministerial makeover as Theresa May's days appeared increasingly numbered Former foreign secretary and mayor of London Voted leave and has become an increasingly hardline Brexiteer As likely to make headlines over his private life Has recently lost a lot of weight and smartened up his appearance Leadership odds 4/1 The former foreign secretary who quit last July and has been tacitly campaigning for the leadership ever since returning to the backbenches with a regular stream of attacks on Mrs may and her Brexit strategy. Never far from the limelight it is his private life that has seen him most in the news recently after splitting from his wife Marina and embarking on a relationship with a former Conservative communications staffer 20 years his junior. But as an increasingly hawkish Brexiteer who says we should not be afraid of leaving without a deal he is hugely popular with the party faithful. In recently weeks he has further boosted his frontrunner credentials with what might be deemed a 'prime ministerial' makeover. He has lost weight and taming his unruly mop of blonde hair into something approaching the haircut of a serious senior statesman. Michael Gove: The boomerang cabinet minister who has a machiavellian reputation Michael Gove has made a remarkable political comeback after being sacked by Theresa May in 2016 Leading Vote Leave figure in 2016 who now backs PM's Brexit deal Former journalist, 51, who stood for leadership in 2016 Was sacked as education minister by Theresa May Later returned as Environment Minister Leadship odds 5/1 A Brexiteer with a machiavellian reputation after the 2016 leadership campaign in which he first supported Boris Johnson for the leadership and then stood against him, to their mutual disadvantage. The former education secretary - sacked by Mrs May - was rehabilitated to become a right-on environment secretary - complete with reusable coffee cups and a strong line on food standards after Brexit. Despite being a former lead figure in the Vote Leave campaign alongside Mr Johnson the former journalist and MP for Surrey Heath has swung behind Mrs May's Brexit deal. But while he noisily supports the deal - he views the alternatives as worse he is quieter when it comes to supporting the Prime Minister and practically mute when it comes to her future. Seen as one of the Cabinet's strongest political thinkers and having stood once it is unthinkable that he would not stand again. Dominic Raab: Brexit refusenik who quit rather than back Mrs May's deal Dominic Raab has become a cheerleader for a hard Brexit since stepping down as Brexit secretary in November Shortlived Brexit secretary last year, replacing David Davis in the hot seat But walked in November over terms agreed by PM Voted for Brexit in 2016 Leadership odds 8/1 Mr Raab, 45, is another Vote Leave member who became Brexit secretary after David Davis quit alongside Mr Johnson last July over the Chequers plan. But he lasted just a matter of months before he too jumped ship, saying he could not accept the terms of the deal done by the Prime Minister. Like Mr Johnson and Mr Davis he has become an increasingly hardline Brexiteer, sharing a platform with the DUP's Arlene Foster and suggesting we should not be afraid of a no-deal Brexit. The Esher and Walton MP's decision to quit in November, boosted his popularity with party members but he lacks the wider popular appeal of Mr Johnson. And like Mr Johnson he might benefit from having quit the Cabinet at an earlier stage and dissociating himself with the dying days of the May administration. On Sunday he was asked on Sky News's Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme if Mrs May would still be Prime Minister by Christmas, saying: 'I don't know. She has said she is going to step down. I would like to be able to see her do that in a way which is in terms of her own choosing.' Sajid Javid: Remainer star who has run into trouble over knife crime and refugees Sajid Javid has seen his stock take a hit in recent weeks over the knife crime crisis and migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats The most senior cabinet contender Voted Remain but wants to see Brexit delivered Faced criticism as Home Secretary But has taken a hard line on Shamima Begum case Leadership odds 8/1 The Home Secretary, a Remainer who wants to see Brexit delivered, was the leading candidate from inside the Cabinet to replace Mrs May. After replacing Amber Rudd last year he consciously put clear ground between himself and the Prime Minister on issues like caps on skilled migrants after Brexit. But his credentials have taken a hit in recent weeks. He finds himself facing ongoing criticism of his handling of the knife crime crisis affecting UK cities, which sparked a cabinet row over funding for police. He also lost face over his handling of the influx of migrants crossing the English Channel in January, being seen to move slowly in realising the scale of the problem. But more recently the 49-year-old Bromsgove MP has made a serious of hardline decision designed to go down well with Tory voters. Most notably they have included moving to deprive London teenager turned Jihadi bride Shamima Begum, 19, of her British citizenship, after she was discovered among former Islamic State members in a Syrian refugee camp. Jeremy Hunt: Remainer turned Brexiteer unity candidate who wants to heal the party Jeremy Hunt, a born-again Brexiteer after supporting Remain, is said to have been promoting himself as a unity candidate for a divided party The Foreign Secretary voted Remain But has become an increasingly vocal Brexiteer Backs May's deal Has approached ministers about running as a unity candidate Leadership odds 10/1 The Foreign Secretary who has undergone a Damascene conversion to the Brexit cause in with a series of hardline warnings to the EU. The 52-year-old South West Surrey MP is the most senior Cabinet minister in contention. He has reportedly been selling himself to colleagues as a unity candidate who can bring together the fractious Tory factions into something approaching a cohesive party. On Sunday he issued a stark warning to Tory MPs that they risk losing Brexit altogether if they fail to back Theresa May's deal in the crunch Commons vote on Tuesday. Mr Hunt said there was now 'wind in the sails' of the opponents of Brexit and that it would be 'devastating' for the Conservatives if they failed to deliver on their commitment to take Britain out of the EU. A long-serving health secretary, he replaced Mr Johnson as the UK's top diplomat and has won some plaudits over issues like the imprisonment of British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in Iran. But critics point to tub-thumpingly comparing the EU to the USSR at the party conference last year - which was very badly received in Brussels - and a gaffe in which he referred to his Chinese wife as 'Japanese' as a reception in China. Nevertheless he is seen as a safe if uninspiring pair of hands. Andrea Leadsom: May's former leadership rival who has not let collective responsibility stop her speaking out Ms Leadsom is a Brexiteer who frequently clashes with Speaker John Bercow The Commons' Leader challenged May in 2016 Voted for Brexit Hosted Brexiteer 'pizza party' plot last year Increasingly outspoken Brexiteer Leadership odds 16/1 The Commons' Leader stood against Mrs May for the party leadership in 2016 before conceding defeat before it was put to a vote of MPs. As collective responsibility has largely broken down among ministers she had been an increasingly vocal and clear Brexiteer voice in the Cabinet along line similar lines to Mr Johnson and Mr Raab. She was reportedly the host of a Brexiteer 'pizza party' in Parliament as the vying wings of the Cabinet plotted last year to shape the Brexit deal they wanted. In her role as Commons' Leader she frequently clashes with Speaker John Bercow, something that will do her no harm among the Tory backbenches where he is widely loathed. Jacob Rees-Mogg: the old-fashioned Tory who led attempts to topple Mrs May but failed to remove her Mr Rees-Mogg is a hardline Brexiteer but has suggested he could back a deal depending on what concessions Mrs May wins Chairman of the European Research Group Well-known for his old-fashioned mannerisms Led attempots to topple the PM last year but failed Has since suggested he could support a deal on the Irish backstop But only if the PM wins concessions from Brussels Leadership odds 16/1 The leader of the European Research Group of Tory Brexiteers has an almost cult following. Known for his old-fashioned manners and clothing he played a lead role in attempts to topple Mrs May in December last year. Once the hardest of opponents to the Irish border backstop he has slightly thawed in his opposition in recent weeks. In the face of concern that Brexit could be delayed or stopped altogether he has hinted that he (and much of the ERG) could support a deal if Mrs May achieve certain concessions - which she has let to achieve. The Somerset MP has brushed off the chances of him running for the leadership but he remains a popular figure in the party, although some feel that he may be too eccentric. EU leaders troll Theresa May as Tusk gushes about his 'English friend' (he means his dog) and Barnier shows his support for Ireland at the rugby The EU was today accused of 'trolling' Britain as its leaders took to social media to revel in their time off as Brexit talks collapsed. Chief negotiator Michel Barnier flew to Ireland for the rugby and Donald Tusk appeared to snipe at Mrs May again in an Instagram post about his English dog. A smiling Mr Barnier posed outside the Aviva Stadium in Dublin with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tanaiste Simon Coveney and today confirmed negotiations between the two sides are over as he said this morning: 'The talks are now between the UK government and MPs'. Around the same time Donald Tusk , the European Council president, posted an Instagram story of himself lounging in a chair with his 'English friend' - his English Springer Spaniel - in what critics said was a blatant goading of Mrs May. Anti-Brexit campaigner William Buist said that it was 'blatant trolling' of the Prime Minister. EU chief negotiator had a day off as talks failed and went to watch the Ireland France Six Nations match in Dublin with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (left) and Tanaiste Simon Coveney (right) Donald Tusk was accused of trolling Britain by taking to Instagram on the day talks failed to cuddle his 'English Friend', his spaniel EU Brexit chief Michel Barnier opted to watch rugby in Dublin yesterday rather than stay in Brussels. In a sign of the dire state of talks, the EU's chief negotiator watched Ireland v France rather than remain on standby in the Belgian capital. The Frenchman was spotted with Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar and foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney as they entered Dublin's Aviva stadium. Ireland went on to beat France 26-14 to keep their Six Nations hopes alive. The impromptu trip could be seen as provocative given the impasse in talks is over the Irish border backstop, which Dublin has repeatedly dug its heels in over and rejected British demands for an end date or unilateral exit clause. Before the weekend attorney-general Geoffrey Cox and Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay had been pencilled in for a trip to Brussels on Sunday to continue talks. And yesterday an RAF jet was on standby to rush prime minister Theresa May to the Belgian capital in the event of a breakthrough - but she never went. It came after relations sunk to a new low on Friday when eleventh-hour talks on British demands over the backstop issue descended into an ugly Twitter row. It ended with Mr Barnier taking the unusual step of posting the EU's latest backstop offer on Twitter in a bid to avoid being blamed for the breakdown in talks. Moments later Mr Barclay hit back, saying the offer was simply a 'rerun' of old arguments. It ended a tumultuous week in which Mr Cox's demands earlier in the week were rejected following a bitter four-hour stand-off. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez praised congresswoman Ilhan Omar by calling her 'one of the most effective voices right now' on Sunday night. Omar had tweeted an article about an alleged attack on an aid convoy being sent to Venezuela, saying that Trump 'cannot be trusted to tell the truth' about the Latin American country. She called for people to 'question the narratives' surrounding the situation and to 'promote dialogue instead of intervention'. Sharing her tweet, Ocasio-Cortez added that the congresswoman, from Minnesota, was 'cutting through the authoritarian foreign policy tendencies of this administration'. The New York lawmaker went on to say that 'you can see why she gets targeted'. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez praised congresswoman Ilhan Omar by calling her 'one of the most effective voices right now' on Sunday night Sharing a tweet by Omar, Ocasio-Cortez said that the congresswoman, from Minnesota, was 'cutting through the authoritarian foreign policy tendencies of this administration' Her praise for Omar comes despite the congresswoman being embroiled in an anti-Semitism scandal Her praise for Omar comes despite the congresswoman being embroiled in an anti-Semitism scandal. Rep. Ilhan Omar's controversial tweets 'Our democracy is built on debate, Congresswoman! I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee. The people of the 5th elected me to serve their interest. I am sure we agree on that!' - her March 3 tweet in response to Rep. Nita Lowey's criticism of her 'It's all about the Benjamins baby' - her February 10 tweet interpreted to mean lawmakers defended Israel because of financial donations 'AIPAC!' - Omar's tweeted the name of the powerful Jewish group in response to a tweet asking her who she meant when she said 'it's all about the benjamins' 'Israel has hypnotized the world. May Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel' - a tweet from 2012 now deleted Advertisement Omar, 37, sparked controversy after saying that she wanted to discuss 'the political influence in this country that says it is okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country' at an event in Washington. The Muslim lawmaker, who came to America in 1991 as a Somali child refugee, then said supporting Israel was not a pre-requisite for serving in Congress. Last month she drew criticism from both Republicans and Democrats after claiming that Israel's relationship with the US was 'all about the Benjamins'. She later apologized for the comment. Ocasio-Cortez has already refused to condemn Omar's comments in the past, saying that it should be acceptable for her to question foreign policy in the U.S. She previously wrote: 'I remember a time when it was "unacceptable" to question the Iraq War. All of Congress was wrong, including both GOP & Dem Party, and led my generation into a disastrous + wrong war that virtually all would come to regret, except for the one member who stood up: Barbara Lee.' Correcting a mistake, the congresswoman added: 'Afghanistan War* my apologies (But honestly we shouldn't have been in either, and we should end the AUMF now while we're at it).' Ocasio-Cortez shared this tweet by Omar, which claimed 'Trump and Elliott Abrams cannot be trusted to tell the truth' about Venezuela Last week the House passed a resolution condemning hate language in the hopes of putting the issue aside so the party can focus on other legislation. Omar's name was not specifically mentioned in the text, with speaker Nancy Pelosi clearing her of intentional anti-Semitism. Pelosi said: 'It's not about her, it's about these forms of hatred. 'I don't think the congresswoman perhaps doesn't appreciate how it was heard by other people although I don't believe it was intended as anti-Semitic although that's how it was interpreted.' They broadened the text to include condemn Islamophobia and white supremacism after Omar's defenders said one form of hate should not be singled out. Then, minutes before the scheduled vote Democrats pulled it again, to add several groups not included in the original measure, including Latinos, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and LGBTQ community. Omar has herself faced racism during her short time in Congress, most recently in the form of a poster in the West Virginia statehouse linking her to 9/11. When a baby monkey was under attack by a pack of dogs this loving dog came to her rescue - now he clings to his surrogate mother's back and even breastfeeds. The orphaned monkey was under attack by a pack of dogs in central India when she was saved by Ruby, a kind-hearted one-eyed dog. Ruby, who does not have any puppies of her own, now wanders through Kanskheda village in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh with the monkey safely perched on her back. Ruby wanders through Kanskheda village in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh while the monkey safely perches on her back And whenever her new baby leaves her back the dog keeps her one eye on the monkey and is 'very protective', according to the dog's owner Suresh Prabhy. As villagers feed the dog and monkey duo the baby is forced to cling to her surrogate mother's back. Suresh Prabhy, the dogs owner, said: 'The baby monkey was roaming along in the area when a pack of dogs surrounded him. The dog is fiercely protective of her new charge and the pair have been together constantly for almost two months 'Before they could rip him apart, my dog Ruby intervened and saved his life. 'It has beeen more than one and a half months since the pair became the centre of attention in the entire village. 'The bitch which does not have any pup considers the monkey as he own child and is very protective of him.' The duo are the talk of the town in Seoni Malwa of Hoshangabad district as nearby villages have started visiting the house to get a glimpse of the unlikely family. An Instagram model charged with a string of burglaries has revealed how she has been kicked out of her family home after suffering a 'falling out' with her parents. Monique Marina Agostino, 23, is accused of breaking into a string of cafes and convenience shops across Sydney's northern beaches in November. Appearing in Manly Local Court on Monday, the single mother asked for her bail conditions to be altered so she could live at a friend's house with her young son. The court heard the charges, which include two counts of breaking and entering, had strained Agostino's relationship with her parents, The Manly Daily reported. An Instagram model (pictured) charged with a string of burglaries has revealed how she has been kicked out of her family home after suffering a 'falling out' with her parents Monique Marina Agostino, 23, (pictured outside court last month) is accused of breaking into a string of cafes and convenience shops across Sydney's northern beaches in November Agostino has also been charged with breaking and entering with intent to steal, one count of aggravated breaking and entering in company to steal less than $60,000, and one count of dishonestly obtaining property by deception. The blonde model has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Magistrate Michelle Goodwin allowed the bail variation so Agostino can live at her friend's house in Brookvale. The accused burglar will return to court on April 17. Last month, Agostino failed to turn up to the Manly court and a warrant was issued for her arrest. Despite skipping court her bail conditions remained unchanged. Appearing in Manly Local Court on Monday, the single mother (pictured dropping her son off at day care last month after skipping a court date) asked for her bail conditions to be altered so she could live at a friend's house with her young son Agostino took several items from businesses and properties during her early morning raid on November 6, documents tendered to the court alleged. Agostino allegedly first broke into the Pound of Pizza restaurant in Tramore Pl Killarney Heights at 1.52am and stole a mobile phone. Minutes later, it's alleged the former Killarney Heights High School student broke into the nearby House of Fruit convenience store at 1.54am. Agostino just two minutes later allegedly tried to break into Le Parisen Cafe. Within an hour, she allegedly targeted Stanley St Cafe in St Ives, where police claimed she stole $300 cash and a Westpac credit card. The court heard the charges, which include two counts of breaking and entering, had strained Agostino's (pictured) relationship with her parents Officers alleged she later used the credit card to buy food worth $11.55 at McDonald's Brookvale. On November 24, police allege Agostino broke into Forestville Bakery and stole $1000 in the presence of another person. According to bail documents tendered to the court, the prosecution are planning to include CCTV footage as part of its case. Agostino had initially been granted conditional bail but didn't enter a plea. Her former barrister, Bronwyn Pullinger, who appeared in court on behalf of Agostino on January 23, has since withdrawn from the case. A terminally ill schoolgirl with an inoperable brain tumor was visited by around 40 cops and their police dogs. Little Emma Mertens loves dogs so much, officers visited her and brought their K-9 colleagues to her home in Hartland, near Milwaukee. After hearing about her illness and her love of animals, police departments from around Wisconsin made the time to take the K-9s to her home to cheer her up. A queue of officers and police dogs waiting to meet her stretched along her road as squads from around the state offered to help put a smile on Emma's face at the weekend. The seven-year-old was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor, known as Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) around six weeks ago. Emma Mertens got to meet around 40 police dogs and officers when departments from across Wisconsin went to her home The terminally ill girl got to pet police dogs from across the state, including Manitowoc County (pictured) A queue of officers and police dogs stretched down Emma's road waiting to meet her at the weekend Video courtesy of Fox 6 Now Last month she was inundated with 75,000 letters and photos of canines across the globe, from as far away as Scotland, Japan and Venezuela, after she asked for dog pictures to help her get through her treatment. Emma doesn't have a dog of her own and often dogsits along with her parents for their neighbors. After she was diagnosed, her friends and family sent Emma letters addressed from their pups to make her smile. Then on Saturday her local police forces brought their own canines to her home. Hartford Police Department wrote on Facebook: 'Today, just a few of us (roughly 40) stopped by to see Emma. She had no idea we were coming so she was VERY excited. What an amazing and strong little girl. It was such a great morning.' Emma got to meet around 40 different police dogs and officers when squads from across the state paid her a visit Lsst month Emma asked for people to send her dog pictures and was inundated with replies. After her online appeal Wisconsin forces wanted her to meet their K-9 officers Photos posted by both officers and Emma's parents, show police and the K-9s lined up to see Emma and cheer her up. Her family wrote online on social media in response to the seven-year-old's special visit: 'There are no words....Pure Joy! Thank you to everyone who took the time to organize and participate in this. 'Emma is still all smiles! Over 35 different departments and many more K9s and officers.' At first Emma started suffering headaches and flu-like systems in January and days later was rushed into surgery to reduce swelling on the brain. Terminally ill Emma was happy to meet the Wisconsin K-9s and got to pet them outside her home After receiving 75,000 letters and pictures of dogs last month, Emma got to meet around 40 police dogs in person on Saturday She has had a second operation and is having daily radiation therapy at the Childrens Hospital of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. DIPA is a highly aggressive brain tumor near the brainstem that primarily affects children, with most diagnoses occur between the age of five and seven. According to DIPG Resource Network, fewer than 10 per cent of children survive for two years following their diagnosis. Emma has a GoFundMe page to help her family pay medical bills that has raised more than $125,000. ecutors dropped the murder charge for the lesser offence of manslaughter The devastated family of a one-year-old boy who was tortured for four months before being killed by his father have demanded the monster 'rot in jail'. Brisbane father Shane Purssell Akehurst, 35, admitted to repeatedly throwing his son Corby Mitchell up against a timber bed in a bid to stop the youngster crying. The toddler began convulsing after the attack before his mother Kylie Woodford called emergency services. Corby died at Brisbane's Lady Cilento Children's Hospital as a result of the violent assault in March 2015. As Akehurst awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to manslaughter and torture, young Corby's aunt Tanya is demanding the judge gives him a life sentence. Shane Purssell Akehurst (pictured) tortured his own son before eventually killing him 'We're just down here to try and get justice for Corby, I don't believe he should be out in four years. I don't understand how they get to do all that and still get parole,' Tanya told The Sunshine Coast Daily. 'He needs life, but we all know that won't happen in this justice system. A life for a life.' Tanya and other family members bravely sat through the sentencing submissions, which she said made her feel sick. The incident has also sadly split the family down the middle. Tanya no longer speaks with her sister, who is Corby's mother, as a result of the court case. 'I don't class them as family anymore,' she said. Akehurst was originally charged with grievous bodily harm and five counts of assault, with the charges upgraded to murder and torture. On Monday prosecutors dropped the murder charge for the lesser offence of manslaughter. Akehurst was remanded in custody until his sentencing in Brisbane Supreme Court at a date still to be determined. A woman trying to cross a railway track gets trapped between a train and a platform - but somehow survives. The woman, who is believed to be in her fifties, was hit by the train at Dadar station, Mumbai, as it approached a platform on Sunday. The clip shows the unidentified woman desperately struggle to climb on to platform six at 11pm. The woman, thought to be in her 50s, was on the tracks at Dadar station, Mumbai, as a train approached platform 6 at 11pm The moment of impact shows the woman get trapped between the CSTM-bound Kasara train and the platform It hits the unidentified woman and drags her body a few metres before coming to a stop But the train from Kasara to Mumbai Cst station hurtled towards her and struck her as bystanders looked on in horror. The locomotive trapped her in the tiny gap next to the concourse. It dragged the lower half of her body along for a number of metres and continued to move as the woman got stuck. The train finally came to a halt after the driver slammed on the brakes, having spotted the incident. Witnesses waiting for their trains rushed to help her as she struggled to get free. The eight men pulled her out by the top half of her body as the rest of her remained under the vehicle. Witnesses waiting for their trains rushed to help the woman as she struggled to get free Head constable R.K. Dubey lunged towards the woman and pulled her to safety with the help of a passenger. Railway Protection Force said she refused medical help and left the station Head constable of the Railway Protection Force R.K. Dubey ran to the woman and pulled her to safety with the help of a passenger. The woman refused medical treatment and left the station, according to the RPF. RPF officials said the woman had got on the tracks to cross over to the other platform. RPF inspector Satish Menon said: 'It was due to the quick-thinking of the motorman, who instantly applied the brakes, that the woman's life could be saved.' Michael Jackson impersonators are 'busier than ever' since an investigative documentary aimed to expose the 'King of Pop' as a paedophile was released. Jay Styles, from Cambridge, has performed as Jackson for 11 years and says the impact of the documentary Leaving Neverland was 'incredible', caused 'a surge in interest' and he is now 'rushed off his feet'. Mitchell Thompson, 38, has just spent 3,500 on 13 new outfits for a theatre tour in June. Jay Styles, from Cambridge, has performed as Jackson for 11 years and says the impact of the documentary Leaving Neverland was 'incredible' and he is now 'rushed off his feet' Mitchell Thompson, 38, has been a Michael Jackson impersonator since he was 14 and has just spent 3,500 on 13 new costumes And Robin Parsons, 37, said despite feeling apprehensive during his shows at the weekend the atmosphere was 'electric'. And for Mr Styles bookings flooded in after the four-hour feature film was first shown at Sundance Film Festival in January. Just four shows booked for July and December were cancelled over the weekend for Mr Parsons who described a 'knee-jerk' reaction. But the shows he performed at the weekend had a sense of 'defiance' and were 'wonderful'. The two-part documentary was released on Channel 4 at 9pm on Wednesday, March 6. Another impersonator, Saul Tayler, 45, from Leeds, performs eight characters including George Michael and Freddie Mercury, ending with Michael Jackson. But when he made a Facebook poll asking whether to cut Jackson from his performance just 15% responded he should. Robin Parsons, 36, often performs his Michael Jackson impersonation at holiday parks. Although the audiences are not guaranteed to be fans he says they have been 'amazing' Mr Tayler said: 'I did a poll for my multi-tribute show. I do eight characters. Michael is the crescendo and finishes the show. 'It's a brill way to end the show. I was wondering if I should still do it. There seems to be fans who are behind his music even more now. 'When the compere announces my show Freddie got a big cheer but Michael got the biggest cheer of the lot. 'On Facebook I did a poll and 200 people voted. Out of 200 only 15 per cent said no and 85 per cent said yes. 'Whether they thought he was innocent it didn't matter to the show.' In Leaving Neverland Wade Robson, 41, and James Safechuck, 37, reveal the years of sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of Jackson on his California ranch known as Neverland. While Jackson claimed to love both boys the men revealed they were dropped and replaced by a younger child when they grew too old. Jay Styles promotes his performance with the fact the Jackson family have seen his act But instead of claims Jackson was a paedophile who groomed boys from the age of seven putting a stop to bookings Mr Styles says his phone has not stopped ringing. And Mr Mitchell said he can see people are supporting him through the number of bookings he still gets. Mr Styles has even given work to other impersonators as the documentary led to 'a surge in interest' and more people want Michael Jackson at their parties and corporate gigs than ever. He said: 'It has meant I'm now busier than I have ever been. It's incredible - I'm rushed off my feet. 'I'm having to turn down a lot of work and give it to other impersonators because there's not enough time in the week. I don't think the British public believe it. 'My phone doesn't stop ringing. I'm doing parties, private performances and corporate gigs and it's every day. 'I think the publicity has led to a real surge in interest.' Jay has travelled to other countries including Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Poland and Dubai to perform. He added: 'I sing all his songs and do the dance moves as well. I think people's interest has grown and the loyalties have become even stronger. In the film Wade Robson (pictured) and James Safechuck reveal the years of sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of Jackson on his California ranch known as Neverland Michael Jackson with James Safechuck. Instead of claims Jackson was a paedophile who groomed young boys from the age of seven ruining business Jay says his phone has not stopped ringing James Safechuck (left) and Wade Robson claimed they were sexually abused at Jackson's California Neverland ranch as children during the documentary Leaving Neverland 'It's great that more people are coming to see my shows. He will always be an icon. 'I'll always stand by him.' Mitchell Thompson, 38, has been a Jacko impersonator since the age of 14, and says he stands by him 100 per cent. Mitchell, of Birmingham, said: 'I've had quite a few bookings since the news of the documentary was made public - and they've come in since it aired as well. 'I start a large theatre tour in June and tickets are being sold for that. 'I had 13 new Michael Jackson costumes made the other day at a cost of 3,500 so I'm very pleased people are sticking by him. I'm actually busier than I was before. 'I'm confident that will stay the same. I think these disgusting allegations will actually make loyal fans more loyal. 'People are supporting him. I can see that through my bookings. 'I'm an entertainer and people still want to be entertained by what Michael Jackson was about. His legacy will always continue.' Mr Parsons said despite a 'knee-jerk' reaction to the documentary resulting in the cancellation of four shows his audiences after it aired have been 'wonderful' Robin Parsons, 36, from Essex, said despite a 'knee-jerk' reaction to the documentary resulting in the cancellation of four shows his audiences after it aired have been 'amazing'. He said: 'To be honest it has not affected me much. There was a knee-jerk reaction to start with. 'I have 130 shows booked and I have had four cancellations as a direct result of the documentary but one of those was going to be cancelled because it was an end of year school prom. 'The audiences this weekend were amazing. There was a defiance and it was like there was something to prove. It was wonderful. I think that all impersonators would say they were mildly apprehensive. 'My first show after it aired was a holiday park. It was public and open for people to walk in and not necessarily full of fans. 'But there was an amazing spirit and support. It was electric. It was one of the best audiences I have had in recent years. 'Many people have asked how it has been but I perform at many family based venues and it has all been positive. 'It was just a quick reaction from some people on the Monday before it aired and Wednesday. But the earliest cancelled shows were July and December. If someone cancelled a show for this weekend I would be more worried.' When the documentary first aired in January the Jackson family described the claims as a 'public lynching'. But radio stations in Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the Netherlands all removed Jackson's songs from air. Advertisement Recently unearthed vintage photographs from more than 50 years ago reveal how the night train from London to Paris operated in order to move across the Channel. The black and white images show a passenger hanging his coat up in a compartment on the train, another settling down in her bed for the night and passengers waiting at Dover before taking the night train back to London Victoria. Also among the collection are images showing the ferry boat from Dover to Dunkirk being loaded with passengers from the night train carriages, chefs in the kitchen serving a dining car on the London-Paris night train and passengers disembarking at the Gare du Nord in Paris. The remarkable photographs that have now been brought back to life were taken aboard the London-Paris train service in 1952. The London to Paris night train waits at the train platform in Dover before travelling back to London Victoria in 1952. The train service was introduced in 1936 and was operated by Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL) until January 1977 The night train is loaded on a large ferry boat at Dover as it continues its journey to the coastal city of Dunkirk in France. The seaport town lies along the Strait of Dover and was largely rebuilt after 1945. When the train was loaded onto the ferry it was split into sections and loaded equally on tracks on the port and starboard sides of the ship, to maintain its balance In another incredible black and white photograph, a group of commuters in coats and hats wait for their luggage to be loaded before boarding the London-Paris night train in 1952 Passengers disembark the London-Paris night train carriages at the Gare du Nord. The Gare du Nord, officially know as Paris-Nord, is one of six large railway stations in the city of Paris Commuters onboard the London-Paris night train settle down for an evening meal before arriving at their destination. The incredible images show those inside the Compagnie Internationale des Wagon-Lits carriages in 1952 A porter dressed in a coast and hat stands on the train platform and assists a passenger before he boards the Compagnie Internationale des Wagon-Lits carriages The night ferry was introduced on the night of October 14, 1936 and was operated by Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL) until January 1, 1977, when it was taken over by British Rail. Motive power was provided by the Southern Railway and later British Railways in England, SNCF in France and from 1957, by SNCB in Belgium. When loaded onto the train ferry the train was split into sections and loaded equally on tracks on the port and starboard sides of the ship, to maintain its balance. It normally departed from and arrived at platform 2 at London Victoria where customs checks were performed. The journey was split into two routes, one from London Victoria to Dover and the other from Dunkirk to Paris Gare du Nord, and first class sleeping cars and the baggage vans travelled the entire journey. Train workers load post bags on the London to Paris night train carriages. Southern Railway and later British Railways provided power for the train in England A passenger stretches his legs and settles down in his bed for a spot of light reading in a compartment on the London-Paris Night Train in 1952. The journey was split into two sections, one from London Victoria to Dover and the other from Dunkirk to the Gare du Nord in Paris A waiter onboard the London to Paris night train train serves meals to a passenger in 1952. The picture is one of many showing how the incredible night train operated and how passengers were looked after by staff more than 50 years ago A chef gets to work in the busy kitchen of the London-Paris night train before serving the food in the dining carriage of the locomotive A woman peacefully rests in bed with a book while onboard the London to Paris Night Train operated by Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL) until 1 January 1977 A tired passenger falls asleep in his bed as the night train he is on continues along its journey. The remarkable black and white photograph is among many that have recently been unearthed showing the inner workings of the London-Paris train service in 1952 Two members of staff conduct the final checks and secure the chains on the ferry boat before the train crosses the Channel in 1952 A man sits by the window to enjoy a cup of tea along his journey onboard the London-Paris night train. The train was taken over by British rail in 1977 A passenger sits down for a drink and pays her bill while on her journey inside the night train. Until the Eurostar service began in 1994, the night ferry was the only passenger train between the United Kingdom and Europe Crew on the ferry boat from Dover to Dunkirk look at the map and the route ahead for the night train. The route was split into two routes, one from London Victoria to Dover and the other from Dunkirk to the Gare du Nord Rail staff secure the carriage with chains after it is loaded onto the ferry boat in 1952. The service was the only passenger train between the United Kingdom and Europe The English train conveyed one of a pair of standard Mark 1 Brake Composite carriages, which had been modified with a French-style gangway connection at one end. This provided the guards compartment in England and enabled the guard to walk through the train. Until the Eurostar service began on November 14, 1994, the night ferry had been the only passenger train between the United Kingdom and Europe. When plans to build the Channel Tunnel were scrapped in the 1970s on cost grounds this gave the night ferry a short reprieve; a tunnel would have inevitably led to the end of conveying passenger carriages by train ferry. Four-year-old Alannah George who has an IQ of 140 and taught herself to read aged two A four-year-old girl has become the UK's second youngest member of Mensa - making her an official genius. Little Alannah George recorded an incredible IQ score of 140, earning her way into the elite group. The reception class pupil, from Iver, Buckinghamshire, is 'obsessed' with words and numbers and taught herself how to read before ever stepping foot in a classroom. Her parents said from early on she would rather recite the alphabet and times tables than singing nursery rhymes. Her incredible IQ score means she's of 'superior general intelligence'. Mensa is an of the most intelligent 2 per cent of people in their age group - and entry to it is strictly marshaled. The average adult has an IQ of 100, while Professor Hawking and Professor Einstein are thought to have an IQ of 160 although they are not known to have sat tests. Alannah officially became one of the youngest members of Mensa in the world last month, and her parents, Nadine, 37, and Edmund, 39, said it was a 'scary' realisation. 'It's exciting and overwhelming. I want to make sure she achieves her potential and manages to perform to the best of her ability,' said Nadine. 'She is so young but she lives and breathes academia. It was a scary realisation when we got the results about how clever she is. 'She is coming on leaps and bounds. She has got an aptitude for reading and can decode words herself. Alannah enjoyed maths shows over cartoons when she was younger - alerting her parents to her being 'very special' Four-year-old Alannah George with her mother Nadine, father Edmond and little brother Ethan MENSA: THE WORLD'S BIGGEST GENIUS CLUB Mensa was founded in England in 1946 by Roland Berrill, a barrister, and Dr Lance Ware, a scientist and lawyer. The society welcomes people from every walk of life whose IQ is in the top two per cent of the population. Albert Einstein apparently had an IQ of 160, while former US presidents Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin and Bill Clinton also racked up very high IQs - mustering 128, 160 and 137 respectively. Napoleon Bonaparte scored 145 and Sigmund Freud had a score of 156. Children under the age of 10-and-a-half can join Mensa by submitting prior evidence of their IQ score being in the top two per cent. Adults and children over the age of 10-and-a-half, take the Mensa Supervised IQ Test. The youngest person to ever join British Mensa was Elise Tan Roberts in 2009 aged 2 years and four months. Advertisement 'Alannah was always very alert as a child. We never taught her how to read she just did it on her own. 'She is clearly special but we just don't know what her potential could be.' Alannah who has been exceeding expectations since she was tiny now goes to the same school three of the Queen's grandchildren once attended. She is a pupil at the prestigious St George's School, in Windsor Castle, which was once attended by Princess Eugenie and the son and daughter of the The Earl of Wessex. But she is already miles ahead of her current classmates. Last month she was assessed by top educational psychologist, Dr Peter Congdon, who said Alannah is an 'intellectual genius'. Every milestone has surprised her parents, they said. Alannah was born in August 2014 and uttered her first words at just seven months old. Her ability came on leaps and bounds. In just 18 months she was able to speak in full sentences and when in nursery, aged three, Alannah could read full paragraphs from some of her favourite story books. She can now 'read herself bedtime stories' according to Nadine, who also has a son, Ethan, aged two, and is married to management consultant, Edmund, 39. Taking learning in her stride, the four-year-old, who might watch Peppa Pig or Dennis The Menace, Alannah likes to watch a show called Endless Numbers on YouTube. Her mother, Nadine, began to realise brainy Alannah was a 'special child' when Alannah was just aged one, . Intelligence tests were conducted by Dr Congdon in January after Nadine, sent her for an assessment. Recognising Alannah's special talent, her business analyst mother's move ended up with her being given 'genius' status by the doctor. Tests involved assessing Alannah's problem solving capabilities. Years above her peers, Alannah was put through the rigorous Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence test. She was made to answer a number of question and was given an IQ score based on her results. An average age-specific IQ is 100 and typically around 60 per cent of the population score between 85 and 115. The test also gave Alannah the reading age of a seven-year-old and the spelling and mental arrhythmia age of a child aged six-and-a-half. The tot's parents are hoping her school will help to increase the level at which she is studying Her mother said: 'She reached all of her childhood milestones way ahead of time. 'She was always very alert and taught herself how to read before she was three. 'Alannah was my first child but I knew she was passing milestones way earlier than usual. 'As a first-time mum it was all new for me. But at 18 months she was reciting numbers and letters form nursery rhymes and when she was two she knew most words. 'We used to read a lot of story books together and she just picked up reading on her own. She learnt herself before even going to school. 'By the time she was two she was coming on leaps and bounds. It was the reading that freaked me out a bit to be honest.' Little Alannah George is 'obsessed' with words and numbers and taught herself how to read before ever stepping foot in a classroom The reception class pupil, from Iver, Buckinghamshire, would rather recite the alphabet and times tables than sing nursery rhymes Just a month after sitting those tests, Alannah was accepted into the exclusive Mensa club and is now recognised as a 'gifted and talented child'. Nadine is confident her super-smart daughter has a bright future ahead of her and is determined to support Alannah to achieve her potential. Because of how clever Alannah is, her teachers are planning on adapting the school curriculum to meet the standard she is working at. One worry for both Dr Congdon and Nadine, is that due to her higher intelligence, Alannah could become 'bored' by lessons aimed at regular four-year-olds. In his report, Dr Congdon says she is at risk of 'under-achieving'. The report said: 'Alannah will benefit from being challenged and stretched in the school situation otherwise she may become prone to boredom, frustration and under-achieved.' He does admit, however, that Alannah sometimes gives the impression of being an 'introvert' and Nadine says she hopes her daughter's 'shyness' won't hold her back. She said: 'She's a very quiet girl and observes things without necessarily showing she is capable. 'She is very reserved and may not show all of her abilities all of the time. Her incredible IQ score means she's of 'superior general intelligence' 'Dr Congdon was very impressed and said he felt her score could be higher. He wants to see her again in three years time because some aspects of her abilities could be better. 'I want to give her the opportunity to achieve her potential. She needs to be stretched. Her curriculum needs to be altered so she doesn't get bored in class. 'She is still so young and I want to make sure she has an enriched childhood. But she lives and breathes academia.' Nadine added she would consider entering Alannah into Channel 4's Child Genius show, if she shows an interest in taking part. But the main thing for Nadine is to make sure Alannah lives a 'fulfilled and happy' life and enjoys being a child like every other youngster. WHO ELSE IS IN MENSA? Mensa was founded in England in 1946 by Roland Berrill, a barrister, and Dr Lance Ware, a scientist and lawyer. The society welcomes people from every walk of life whose IQ is in the top two per cent of the population. More than 121,000 people worldwide are members of Mensa, an elite society that boasts some of the smartest brains on the planet. The group was formed by Australian barrister Roland Berrill and scientist and lawyer Dr Lance Ware in Oxford in 1946. It has members across all demographics. The youngest member joined aged two and a half, and the oldest was 103. So who else is in the high IQ club? TV presenter Carol Vorderman is in Mensa with an IQ of 154 Model and former Miss Rochdale Laura Shields has an IQ of 50 World famous theoretical physicist Albert Einstein apparently had an IQ of 160 - although he did not take the test Former US president Bill Clinton has an IQ of 137 Napoleon Bonaparte would have scored 145, it is claimed Advertisement She said: 'I just want to make sure she reaches her full potential and is happy. That's the main goal. 'I am in no way a pushy parent so we will support her with whatever she does. 'We always knew she was advanced but we were so shocked with the results. We never knew she was that intelligent. 'She is very energetic and needs little sleep and I know that's a characteristic of intelligent children. 'We do hope she comes out of her shell a bit. Hopefully school will help with that.' Alannah will start academic education in September, when she joins year one at St George's School. Alannah joins young geniuses Adam Kirby, who entered aged two, Amber Sunshine and her brother Leon, Snnehal Vijay, who joined Mensa aged 11, Leah Mimms, tested aged ten, Oscar Wrigley who entered aged two years and five months and twins Nishka and Nysa Upadhya, who were aged eleven when they took the test and scored a huge 162. In 2009 Elise Tan-Roberts - aged two years, four months and two weeks - became the youngest person to join Mensa UK. Troubled children are to be sent to 37 new special schools as part of the Government's response to Britain's knife crime crisis. The Department for Education said about 3,500 extra school places will be made available at the schools. They will provide specialist support for pupils who may have been or are at risk of being excluded from mainstream education. Troubled children are to be sent to 37 new special schools as part of the Government's response to Britain's knife crime crisis (stock image) The drive is part of the Government's attempts to tackle the the growing knife crime crisis, in which school exclusions appear to be a factor. Almost a quarter of children caught with knives - 21 per cent - have been expelled or suspended from school, according to government figures. The current crisis has seen 26 knife murders across the UK from January 1 to March 7, while last year there were 135 homicides in London alone. The latest victim was Ayub Hassan, 17, who was stabbed near a Waitrose by West Kensington tube station in London last Tuesday. The new measures come following yesterday's official figures which showed that knife crime is rising four times faster in the Home Counties and rural areas of the UK than in London. Across 34 counties in England and Wales outside London, knife related offences have risen by 45.7 per cent. They will provide specialist support for pupils who may have been or are at risk of being excluded from mainstream education. Almost a quarter of children caught with knives - 21 per cent - have been expelled or suspended from school, according to government figures As well as trying to keep children at risk from exclusion, or those who have already been excluded, in mainstream education, the new schools will have other benefits. They will also provide specialist education for those with autism, severe learning difficulties or mental health conditions and will also boost choice for parents. Education secretary Damian Hinds said: 'We want every school to be a school for children with special educational needs and disabilities. The current crisis has seen 26 knife murders across the UK from January 1 to March 7, while last year there were 135 homicides in London alone. The latest victim was Ayub Hassan, 17, who was stabbed near a Waitrose by West Kensington tube station in London last Tuesday (pictured above) 'That's why we are investing significant funding into Special Education Needs units attached to mainstream schools and in additional support so children with education, health and care plans can access mainstream education. 'But we recognise some children require more specialist support. These new special free schools and alternative provision schools will make sure that more complex needs can be provided to help support every child to have a quality education.' Leora Cruddas, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, said: 'These additional school places will enable children with special needs and those facing difficulties to have access to high quality education provision. 'Over the past week, there has been much debate in the media about children and young people whose social, emotional and behavioural needs make them vulnerable. 'Today's announcement of a range of specialist provision in every region of the country is hugely welcome.' Fox News has 'strongly condemned' comments made by its host Jeanine Pirro after she questioned whether Rep. Ilhan Omar's hijab meant she subscribed to sharia law. During the opening monologue of her show on Saturday, Pirro claimed that Omar's head covering was a sign that she was committed to the religious law which originates from the Quran, adding that it was 'antithetical' to the constitution. She said: 'Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to sharia law which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?' Earlier in the segment, Pirro had suggested that the Minnesota congresswoman was not getting her 'anti-Israel sentiment doctrine' from the Democratic party. She said: 'Think about this. She's not getting this anti-Israel sentiment doctrine from the Democrat party So if it's not rooted in the party, where is she getting it from? Fox News has 'strongly condemned' comments made by its host Jeanine Pirro, pictured, after she questioned whether Rep. Ilhan Omar's hijab meant she subscribed to sharia law 'Think about it. Omar wears a hijab, which according to the Quran 33:59, tells women to cover so they won't get molested.' Omar has been embroiled in an anti-Semitism scandal in recent weeks after making a number of controversial comments. She previously said that she wanted to discuss 'the political influence in this country that says it is okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country'. Omar also drew ire from both sides of the political spectrum after claiming that Israel's relationship with the US was 'all about the Benjamins' last month, before later apologizing. Fox News reproached Pirro for the comments in a statement. Pirro said of Omar's hijab, pictured: 'Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to sharia law which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?' The conservative news channel said: 'We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirro's comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar. 'They do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly.' Despite the rebuke, Pirro released her own statement, in which she refused to apologize. She said: 'I've seen a lot of comments about my opening statement from Saturday night's show and I did not call Rep. Omar un-American. 'My intention was to ask a question and start a debate, but of course because one is Muslim does not mean you don't support the Constitution. 'I invite Rep. Omar to come on my show any time to discuss all of the important issues facing America today.' President Trump made 'blackface' jokes about balaclava-clad Secret Service agents and said Democrats hate Jewish people during a bizarre speech to party donors. Trump had invited RNC donors to his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida on Friday night when he went on a ramble about the anti-Semitism row and Secret Service agent's masks looking like they were in 'blackface'. So paranoid about leaks from the meeting getting out to the press, guests were made to put their phones in magnetized pouches so they could not have contact with the outside world, reports Axios. The president then went off on what one guest called a 'bizarre tangent' after saying he did not understand how any Jewish person could vote Democrat after the recent Rep. Ilhan Omar controversy. He joked how as Secret Service agents swarming across the White House lawn when he was he was in the building on his own at Christmas were in 'blackface'. President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and their son Barron, arriving on the South Lawn of the White House after spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach A snow covered member of the Secret Service wearing a mask, keeping watch in front of the White House in Washington last month According to Axios, a guest described him saying: 'They're in the trees, on the lawn, they have to take them away', as the agents were wearing night vision goggles covering their faces. It is thought this was a reference to Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, who was caught in a racist costume in his 1984 medical school yearbook. A page surfaced last month with a picture of one person in blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan hood and robe. Northam immediately apologized for appearing in the photograph but refused to resign. Before making the blackface joke, Trump waded into the row over Ilhan Omar's controversial comments about Israel lobby groups. At a public event in Washington earlier this month, Omar said she wanted to discuss 'the political influence in this country that says it is okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country'. Ilhan Omar has been criticized for her controversial comments over powerful pro-Israel lobby groups and their influence in Washington Trump making a fist as he and Melania disembark from Air Force One, after a weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate In the past she has claimed that Israel's relationship with the US was 'all about the Benjamins', which drew criticism from both Republicans and Democrats. Trump told donors, 'the Democrats hate Jewish people', before describing how much he had done for Israel, according to a guest. He caused outraged and stoked international criticism by recognizing Jerusalem, rather than Tel Aviv, as Israel's capital in December 2017. The announcement was met by mass protests across Gaza with dozens of protesters killed. Last week the US officially announced plans to shut down its consulate in Jerusalem, which had been a de-facto embassy to the Palestinians, and downgraded the status of its main diplomatic mission by folding it into the embassy to Israel. According to Axios, three guests heard Trump brag he would receive 98 per cent polling if he ran for prime minister of Israel. Pictured left-to-right: Don Jr., Kimberly Guilfoyle, Sergio Gor, Tommy Hicks, President Trump and Charlie Kirk President Trump allegedly told Republican donors that reports of him accidentally calling Apple CEO Tim Cook (left) by the name 'Tim Apple' during a White House roundtable last week were 'fake news' - even though it was caught on video He was also said to have called Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden 'the dummy' and Bernie Sanders 'the nutty professor', as opposed to the usual nickname he gives him of 'Crazy Bernie'. Trump also described how he 'took her out really early', when referring to Elizabeth Warren's low polling numbers. During the same visit to Mar-a-Lago, Trump also allegedly told donors reports of him accidentally calling Apple CEO Tim Cook 'Tim Apple' during a White House roundtable were 'fake news' - despite it being caught on video. While staying at the Florida retreat with his family, Trump also celebrated former Fox News host, Kimberly Guilfoyle's 50 birthday with his sons at the exclusive Palm Beach club. His son, Donald Trump Jr is dating the presenter. U.S. Navy veteran Michael White has been declared guilty of unknown crimes in Iran. No information as to what the ruling contained against White is known at this time, but a prosecutor in the northeastern city of Mashdad, Gholamali Sadeghi, was quoted as saying by the Tasnim news agency that the 'verdict has been issued' against White and that he faced unspecified security charges. Sadeghi's remarks counter a February statement by the Iranian foreign ministry, which said White faces no security or espionage charge. There was no immediate explanation on the discrepancies. The report came as Iran's new hard-line judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi took office. White, who is battling cancer and had been getting chemotherapy, was detained last July when he went to the country to visit his girlfriend. He has been on a hunger strike since last week. Vet: The Iranian judiciary has declared US Navy veteran Michael White (above) guilty of unknown charges White, who has been held in Mashhad, is the first American known to be detained since Donald Trump became president. Trump has pursued a maximalist campaign against Tehran that includes America's withdrawal of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers. Iran has in the past detained Westerners and dual nationals to use them as leverage in negotiations. White's family says he traveled to Iran to visit his girlfriend - the two met online - and was arbitrarily detained. Joanne White, the detainee's mother, said in January that he was undergoing cancer treatment and that she feared he would not survive prolonged detention. At least five other American citizens are being held in Iran, including the 81-year-old businessman Baquer Namazi who has been held for over two years and diagnosed with epilepsy. Both Baquer Namazi and his son Siamak Namazi, also a dual national who has been held for over three years, are serving a 10-year sentence after they were convicted of collaborating with a hostile power. An Iranian-American art dealer Karan Vafadari and his Iranian wife, Afarin Neyssari, received 27-year and 16-year prison sentences, respectively. Michael White and Iranian girlfriend are pictured. The two met online Chinese-American graduate student Xiyue Wang was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Also in an Iranian prison is Nizar Zakka, a permanent U.S. resident from Lebanon who advocated for internet freedom and has done work for the U.S. government. He was sentenced to 10 years on espionage-related charges. Former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran in 2007 while on an unauthorized CIA mission, remains missing as well. Iran says that Levinson is not in the country and that it has no further information about him, but his family holds Tehran responsible for his disappearance. The horrified parents of a young sexual abuse victim claim her abuser has been 'silently' released back into the community after serving just three months in jail. Convicted paedophile Gavin Sydney Patrick Lansdown, 51, was due to be released from jail on Monday after he pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent treatment of a child under 12 at a Logan home south of Brisbane in 2016 and 2017. He was sentenced to 15 months jail, suspended after three months, in Beenleigh District Court in December, The Courier Mail reported. Convicted paedophile Gavin Sydney Patrick Lansdown (pictured) has been released from jail after serving time for sexually abusing a girl The victim's parents believed Lansdown has been allowed returned to his home, located within a kilometre of at least two schools and two child care centres. They were sickened by claims the neighbourhood had not been informed. 'Even the neighbours didn't know and they have kids,' the girl's mother told the publication. 'It's not to target him as such, it's so that kids know that these people are out there.' The Queensland Department of Corrective Services directed Daily Mail Australia's enquiries to Queensland Police. 'The department has no further role regarding the supervision arrangements of this individual in the community,' a spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia. She was unable to say when he was released from prison due to safety reasons. The Queensland Department of Corrective Services told Daily Mail Australia it has 'no further role' regarding the supervision arrangements of Gavin Lansdown (pictured) Daily Mail Australia has contacted Queensland Police for further comment. The victim's family relocated and changed schools following the girl's terrifying ordeal. Now aged 10, the girl cried herself to sleep, suffered nightmares and was too scared to go to friends' places following the abuse. She still sees a psychiatrist. 'My daughter still has to suffer for the rest of her life, we've got to live with it for the rest of our lives. There is no justice in what he got,' the mother said. Eurostar passengers were suffering a second week of misery today as militant French trade unionists used Brexit as an excuse for work-to-rule industrial action. There were cancellations and long delays on both sides of the English Channel from first thing this morning as the high-speed rail service was hit by a customs work to rule. It is part of a nationwide protest by French officials, who last week caused 15-mile tailbacks around ports such as Calais and Dunkirk. It is currently unclear how long the disruption would continue. Travellers queue at the Eurostar terminal in London's St Pancras this morning as militant French trade unionists used Brexit as an excuse for industrial action Eurostar was reporting delays of up two hours from Paris Gare du Nord today, while the knock-on effect caused long queues and cancellations in London. Gavin Esler, the broadcaster and Kent University Chancellor, tweeted a video of hundreds of passengers standing in line at St Pancras International station as early as Sunday night. He wrote: Eurostar tonight - queue out of the door- anyone thinking of going on holiday after March 29 [and assuming the Brexit sunlit uplands continue] might find the same. But hey, we can spend hours waiting for our flights, trains and ferries looking at our new blue passports. Britain is officially meant to leave the EU on March 29, and the French customs are complaining that they do not have enough resources to deal with possible problems. This is why they have launched their industrial action calling for more money and resources. A spokesman for the CFDT, one of five French unions behind the problems, said: We are applying strict customs rules and reinforcing controls. The queues were mainly caused by uniformed French customs officials at the Gare du Nord interrogating all passengers once their luggage had passed through X-ray machines. Eurostar was reporting delays of up two hours from Paris Gare du Nord today, while the knock-on effect caused long queues and cancellations in London (pictured) Questions included: Where do you live? and What do you do for a living? the kind that nobody is usually asked once their bags have cleared. One passenger identified only as Jonathan on his Twitter account wrote: Dangerous situation created at Gare du Nordis because customs have shut down 5 of 6 baggage scanners. Eurostar says customs in their right to express concerns over Brexit! Eurostar connives in grotesque treatment of passengers, exposing them to serious security risks. He wrote in another tweet: It seems not to have occurred to the geniuses at Eurostar that the situation at Gare du Nordis actually dangerous. As well as highly uncomfortable, stressful and miserable for customers who pay a fortune. A shameful performance by Eurostar, famous for being awful. The UNSA union last week refused to give an end date for the action, with a spokesman telling The Local that it 'might last a long time because officers are just doing their jobs'. It is part of a nationwide protest by French officials, who last week caused disruption at stations including the Gare Du Nord in Paris (left) and 15-mile tailbacks around ports including Dover (right) A statement released by Eurostar reads: We are experiencing up to 120 minutes delay on departures from Paris Gare du Nord today due to French customs work to rule. As the company braced itself for massive pay-outs, the statement added: If you arrive at your destination more than 60 minutes late, you can claim compensation. Another statement posted by Eurostar on its website reads: We expect to maintain services on the existing basis, timetable and terms and conditions following Brexit. We are working closely with our station partners, Governments and border authorities on both sides of the Channel to ensure that robust plans are in place for us to continue to operate in either a deal or 'no-deal' scenario. Ports do not appear to be suffering significant delays due to the disruption. Two leopards had to be rescued after they rolled into a 50ft well during a fierce fight over territory. The male big cats had been seen scrapping near sugarcane fields in Bhatkalwadi, Maharashtra, India, on Friday morning. But during the tussle, they fell into the well and were heard growling by concerned residents. The two male leopards fell in to the 50ft hole in Bhatkalwadi, Maharashtra, India, on Friday morning when they were fighting The frightened felines were heard growling by locals who called the Wildlife SOS team The Wildlife SOS team - who run the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Center in Junnar - was alerted after fears the beasts may drown in the waist-deep water. The team drove 50 miles to reach the remote village as a team of forest officers arrived to assess the situation. The two leopards - thought to be seven or eight years old - had stopped fighting and climbed on to a ledge together to avoid drowning. Around 50 people gathered to watch the SOS team try to rescue the animals - which were thought to be seven or eight years old The team lowered a makeshift cage down the well to the leopards and the crowd shouted encouragement for the beast to get in As the team of conservationists arrived, a crowd of around 25 had gathered to watch the spectacle unfold. One of the leopards looks hopelessly down into the water while the other looks up to the commotion outside the well. The team lowered a cage towards the animals as they became weaker. The large wooden box being used was attached to five long ropes and the crowd of people can be heard shouting encouragement to the leopards to get in. One of the big cats mustered the energy to crawl into the makeshift elevator and a door was slowly slid across the exit. They were lifted to safety one at a time during the three-hour operation and loud cheers came from the locals. One of the leopards seemed unsure about the box and, after having a look at the inside, pushes off it and swims out of sight The video cuts to a camera that appears to be on the top of the cage. It shows one of the leopards nervously lift its front paws out of the water and on to the box, pausing to take one last look around the bottom of the well. But the careful cat seems unsure and pushes off the base of the cage and swims to the left and out of sight. However, the leopard reconsiders and can be seen returning to the entrance of the cage from the other direction and quickly hauling himself up. He is gradually lifted out of the murky water to safety. But after a short while he swims back into view and quickly jumps into the box, before being lifted to safety and taken to Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre Both leopards were taken to the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre for observation and treatment. Dr Ajay Deshmukh, Senior Veterinary Officer at the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre, said: 'They bear wounds from their earlier scuffle, but we have not detected any internal injuries.' He added: 'They are both exhausted and in severe shock because of the ordeal and will be kept under observation for a few days till they are deemed fit for release.' Amazing photographs taken in Ireland around the turn of the last century have been brought to life with modern digital techniques. The images show everything from school children playing in Co Monaghan in 1905, young women from Killarney posing for portraits in the 1870s and the streets of Cork in 1901. The stereoscopic photographs, taken from 1870 to 1910, were sourced from files at the Library of Congress in Washington DC. A photo of a young girl in the Gap of Dunloe in Ireland's southwestern County Kerry in the 1870s has been colourised and animated Some young boys pose up for the camera during a market day in Limerick in 1904 Locals walk down a street in Cork, southwest Ireland, in the year 1901 Different times: The same street in Cork is pictured in modern times Stereoscopy involves taking two photos a few inches apart and creating the illusion of 3D depth by viewing the two images through a binocular stereoscope. 'These started out as stereoview cards that have been laying in plain sight for decades,' Matt Loughrey of My Colorful Past who created the animations told MailOnline. 'Ordinarily a person would need a stereocard viewer to get the three dimensional effect intended, a piece of hardware that was available at the time these images were made. 'Fast forward to 2019 and technology enables the stereoviews to be seen using a series of gif animations to realize something unique and specific to Ireland.' At the time when these photographs were taken, the entire island of Ireland was still a part of the United Kingdom. Boys and girls play outside a school building in Co Monaghan in 1905 A mother and four children pose in a doorway in Cashel at an unknown date Three lace makers are seen working in Cashel, a town in County Tipperary, in 1900 This photograph is entitled 'Domestic thrift in Claddagh, Galway, in 1904' People flock to Eyre Square in central Galway for market day in 1905 New look: The same corner of Eyre Square is seen more than 100 years later In the decades that followed the Great Famine of the 1840s, the campaign for independence from Britain and Home Rule grew stronger. The fight for better rights for poor farmers and farm labourers would become known as the Land Wars, giving birth to the word 'boycott', and eventually resulting in the Irish Land Acts in the late 1800s. These gave tenant farmers more rights and improved housing, however the situation in Ireland's larger cities would remain dire. Dublin still had large slums and its infamous red light district 'Monto' was home to up to 1,600 prostitutes in the late 19th and early 20th century. The death rate in what would become the capital of the Irish Republic was 27.6 per 1,000. The Dublin infant mortality rate around the turn of the century was 142 per 1,000 births. Two young women are portrayed near the Gap of Dunloe in 1870 Two fishermen from Claddagh, an area close to the centre of Galway, in 1901 A man from Derry is photographed in 1910 Two young barefoot boys from Galway are photographed in the year 1900 A young woman from Derry in Northern Ireland poses for a photo in 1901 A woman walks through Avoca, a small town near Arklow, in County Wicklow, in 1904 A Galway couple are pictured at their home in 1906 This animation is described as depicting 'a gentleman of Denbeigh and his pipe' in a street in Killarney How times have changed: This is what the street where the man from Denbeigh smoked his pipe looks like now The Dublin Lockout of 1913 saw 20,000 workers effectively fired for belonging to a union, when they joined in a general strike and hundreds of employers responded by locking their doors. Many employees ended up agreeing to not join a union in order to be able to go back to work and feed their starving families, while others had no other choice but to join the British Army, which saw them sent to the frontlines of World War I a few months later. While a Home Rule Bill had been passed before war was declared in 1914, Ireland's Home Rule Act was suspended at the outbreak. Not until 1922, following the Irish War of Independence, would the southern parts of the island become the Irish Free State. A young Irish family are photographed in their home at an unknown location in 1904 A 'boat man' at Lough Gill, County Sligo is seen in 1901 A Galway man in vest and hat is seen smoking a pipe in the year 1900 A young boy is pictured at Ballynahinch Lake, in Galway in 1905 An 11-month-old baby has been bitten on the face by her family's dog. The girl was rushed to hospital after the pet Blue Heeler snapped and bit her on the nose at their Lobethal home in the Adelaide Hills on Monday morning. The mother was seen carrying the baby into emergency, shielding her with a purple blanket, shortly after the incident. The mother was seen carrying the 11-month-old baby, shielding her with a purple blanket, into emergency shortly after the infant was bitten on the nose by their family Blue Heeler dog THE BLUE HEELER DOG The Blue Heeler breed have herding tendencies (stock image) -Although not deemed aggressive, the Blue Heeler breed comes with strong herding instincts. -They are prone to try to herd other animals and even young children as they run around. -They're also prone to nipping legs and feet if they want attention. -They're also incredibly protective of their home and their owner/s -Blue Heeler's need to be integrated and socialised from puppyhood. Advertisement The baby will remain in the Women's and Children's Hospital overnight. She will be monitored before she is discharged on Tuesday. It is the second dog attack in just a week in the state. A 72-year-old man was mauled by his neighbours Bullmastiff cross at Willaston, north Adelaide last Monday. It's alleged the man had fallen over on top of the pet's female owner. The dog then became protective and allegedly lashed out at the man, biting into the man's throat and face. The elderly man was air-lifted to hospital where he remains in a serious but stable condition. Both the Blue Heeler and Bullmastif cross breeds are known to be protective and defensive of their homes and owners. They need to be socialisied early on from puppyhood. A French policewoman has been shot dead by her own colleague after they played a game of Wild West-style 'fast draw' with their firearms. The 27-year-old woman and her 28-year-old colleague were standing guard at the entrance of the Paris police force's headquarters in the capital on Sunday. The pair reportedly decided to start playing with their weapons and drew their guns on one another, at which point one went off by accident. Tragedy: The 27-year-old policewoman and her colleague, 28, were standing guard at the Paris police force's HQ when they decided to play 'fast draw' with their firearms and she was shot (file photo) The 27-year-old was shot in the head and died, The Local reports. The policewoman's colleague has been placed in detention and the Paris prosecutors' office has opened an investigation into the incident. 'This is a stupid drama that has just ruined two lives,' a senior police official told Le Parisien. Fast draw, also known as quick draw, is best known to the public as a staple of old school Western films, however it is also a recognised sport. The current World Fast Draw Association (WFDA) record for popping a balloon target 8ft away is 0.208 seconds. Theresa May arriving at Westminster Abbey for a Commonwealth Day service today Theresa May is facing increasingly heavy calls to step down in a matter of just weeks if her Brexit deal is rejected a second time by MPs tomorrow. The Prime Minister appears to have almost completely run out of allies in her own administration as the Government crumbles over attempts to exit the European Union. One Cabinet source told The Telegraph: 'I would say there are only two ministers in the Cabinet who still support her. Everyone else has lost faith in her ability to lead.' Mrs May agreed last December to step down before the next General Election, in a plea deal that saw her win a confidence vote of Tory MPs. The hapless duo of Transport Secretary Chris Grayling and Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley - both of whom would be out of a job were Mrs May not in charge - are said to be her only remaining loyal ministers. Hardline Brexiteers have been calling for weeks for her to step down, saying they want one of their own to lead the next stage of negotiations with the EU. But now it seems that a wider swathe of the party feels that they are in the dying days of the May administration, with one of her own MPs saying that within months 'the only negotiations Theresa will be doing are how much she can get for an appearance on Celebrity Bake Off', according to the Guardian. Others see a shorter time frame with some Cabinet ministers reportedly discussing whether she should step down at the end of this week. And there are a host of top Tories ready to step into her shoes whenever she finally decides that she can take the country - and the Conservative Party - no further. Here we look at the runners and riders, with their odds with Ladbrokes and how they voted in the 2016 referendum: Boris Johnson: The long-running thorn in May's side who has recently had a 'prime ministerial' makeover Boris Johnson has undergone a prime ministerial makeover as Theresa May's days appeared increasingly numbered Former foreign secretary and mayor of London Voted leave and has become an increasingly hardline Brexiteer As likely to make headlines over his private life Has recently lost a lot of weight and smartened up his appearance Leadership odds 4/1 The former foreign secretary who quit last July and has been tacitly campaigning for the leadership ever since returning to the backbenches with a regular stream of attacks on Mrs may and her Brexit strategy. Never far from the limelight it is his private life that has seen him most in the news recently after splitting from his wife Marina and embarking on a relationship with a former Conservative communications staffer 20 years his junior. But as an increasingly hawkish Brexiteer who says we should not be afraid of leaving without a deal he is hugely popular with the party faithful. In recently weeks he has further boosted his frontrunner credentials with what might be deemed a prime ministerial makeover. He has lost weight and taming his unruly mop of blonde hair into something approaching the haircut of a serious senior statesman. Michael Gove: The boomerang cabinet minister who has a machiavellian reputation Michael Gove, pictured in Downing Street today, has made a remarkable political comeback after being sacked by Theresa May in 2016 Leading Vote Leave figure in 2016 who now backs PM's Brexit deal Former journalist, 51, who stood for leadership in 2016 Was sacked as education minister by Theresa May Later returned as Environment Minister Leadship odds 5/1 A Brexiteer with a machiavellian reputation after the 2016 leadership campaign in which he first supported Boris Johnson for the leadership and then stood against him, to their mutual disadvantage. The former education secretary - sacked by Mrs May - was rehabilitated to become a right-on environment secretary - complete with reusable coffee cups and a strong line on food standards after Brexit. Despite being a former lead figure in the Vote Leave campaign alongside Mr Johnson the former journalist and MP for Surrey Heath has swung behind Mrs May's Brexit deal. But while he noisily supports the deal - he views the alternatives as worse he is quieter when it comes to supporting the Prime Minister and practically mute when it comes to her future. Seen as one of the Cabinet's strongest political thinkers and having stood once it is unthinkable that he would not stand again. Dominic Raab: Brexiteer who quit rather than back Mrs May's deal Dominic Raab has become a cheerleader for a hard Brexit since stepping down as Brexit secretary in November Shortlived Brexit secretary last year, replacing David Davis in the hot seat But walked in November over terms agreed by PM Voted for Brexit in 2016 Leadership odds 8/1 Mr Raab, 45, is another Vote Leave member who became Brexit secretary after David Davis quit alongside Mr Johnson last July over the Chequers plan. But he lasted just a matter of months before he too jumped ship, saying he could not accept the terms of the deal done by the Prime Minister. Like Mr Johnson and Mr Davis he has become an increasingly hardline Brexiteer, sharing a platform with the DUP's Arlene Foster and suggesting we should not be afraid of a no-deal Brexit. The Esher and Walton MP's decision to quit in November, boosted his popularity with party members but he lacks the wider popular appeal of Mr Johnson. And like Mr Johnson he might benefit from having quit the Cabinet at an earlier stage and dissociating himself with the dying days of the May administration. On Sunday he was asked on Sky News's Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme if Mrs May would still be Prime Minister by Christmas, saying: 'I don't know. She has said she is going to step down. I would like to be able to see her do that in a way which is in terms of her own choosing.' And asked today if hed like to be prime minister, he said: Never say never. Sajid Javid: Remainer star who has run into trouble over knife crime and refugees Sajid Javid has seen his stock take a hit in recent weeks over the knife crime crisis and migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats The most senior cabinet contender Voted Remain but wants to see Brexit delivered Faced criticism as Home Secretary But has taken a hard line on Shamima Begum case Leadership odds 8/1 The Home Secretary, a Remainer who wants to see Brexit delivered, was the leading candidate from inside the Cabinet to replace Mrs May. After replacing Amber Rudd last year he consciously put clear ground between himself and the Prime Minister on issues like caps on skilled migrants after Brexit. But his credentials have taken a hit in recent weeks. He finds himself facing ongoing criticism of his handling of the knife crime crisis affecting UK cities, which sparked a cabinet row over funding for police. He also lost face over his handling of the influx of migrants crossing the English Channel in January, being seen to move slowly in realising the scale of the problem. But more recently the 49-year-old Bromsgove MP has made a serious of hardline decision designed to go down well with Tory voters. Most notably they have included moving to deprive London teenager turned Jihadi bride Shamima Begum, 19, of her British citizenship, after she was discovered among former Islamic State members in a Syrian refugee camp. Jeremy Hunt: Remainer turned Brexiteer unity candidate who wants to heal the party Jeremy Hunt, a born-again Brexiteer after supporting Remain, is said to have been promoting himself as a unity candidate for a divided party The Foreign Secretary voted Remain But has become an increasingly vocal Brexiteer Backs May's deal Has approached ministers about running as a unity candidate Leadership odds 10/1 The Foreign Secretary who has undergone a Damascene conversion to the Brexit cause in with a series of hardline warnings to the EU. The 52-year-old South West Surrey MP is the most senior Cabinet minister in contention. He has reportedly been selling himself to colleagues as a unity candidate who can bring together the fractious Tory factions into something approaching a cohesive party. On Sunday he issued a stark warning to Tory MPs that they risk losing Brexit altogether if they fail to back Theresa May's deal in the crunch Commons vote on Tuesday. Mr Hunt said there was now 'wind in the sails' of the opponents of Brexit and that it would be 'devastating' for the Conservatives if they failed to deliver on their commitment to take Britain out of the EU. A long-serving health secretary, he replaced Mr Johnson as the UK's top diplomat and has won some plaudits over issues like the imprisonment of British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in Iran. But critics point to tub-thumpingly comparing the EU to the USSR at the party conference last year - which was very badly received in Brussels - and a gaffe in which he referred to his Chinese wife as 'Japanese' as a reception in China. Nevertheless he is seen as a safe if uninspiring pair of hands. Andrea Leadsom: May's former leadership rival who has not let collective responsibility stop her speaking out Ms Leadsom is a Brexiteer who frequently clashes with Speaker John Bercow The Commons' Leader challenged May in 2016 Voted for Brexit Hosted Brexiteer 'pizza party' plot last year Increasingly outspoken Brexiteer Leadership odds 16/1 The Commons Leader stood against Mrs May for the party leadership in 2016 before conceding defeat before it was put to a vote of MPs. As collective responsibility has largely broken down among ministers she had been an increasingly vocal and clear Brexiteer voice in the Cabinet along line similar lines to Mr Johnson and Mr Raab. She was reportedly the host of a Brexiteer pizza party in Parliament as the vying wings of the Cabinet plotted last year to shape the Brexit deal they wanted. In her role as Commons Leader she frequently clashes with Speaker John Bercow, something that will do her no harm among the Tory backbenches where he is widely loathed. Jacob Rees-Mogg: the old-fashioned Tory who led attempts to topple Mrs May but failed to remove her Mr Rees-Mogg is a hardline Brexiteer but has suggested he could back a deal depending on what concessions Mrs May wins Chairman of the European Research Group Well-known for his old-fashioned mannerisms Led attempots to topple the PM last year but failed Has since suggested he could support a deal on the Irish backstop But only if the PM wins concessions from Brussels Leadership odds 16/1 The leader of the European Research Group of Tory Brexiteers has an almost cult following. Known for his old-fashioned manners and clothing he played a lead role in attempts to topple Mrs May in December last year. Once the hardest of opponents to the Irish border backstop he has slightly thawed in his opposition in recent weeks. In the face of concern that Brexit could be delayed or stopped altogether he has hinted that he (and much of the ERG) could support a deal if Mrs May achieve certain concessions - which she has let to achieve. The Somerset MP has brushed off the chances of him running for the leadership but he remains a popular figure in the party, although some feel that he may be too eccentric. Amber Rudd: The former home secretary brought back to sort out benefits mess who became a Remainer rebel leader Ms Rudd has emerged as the senior voice of Remainers in the Cabinet after her return to the top table of politics Has publicly called for Brexit to be delayed in order to achieve a deal with Brussels The Hastings MP, 55, has refused to rule out resigning if the Government backs a no-deal Brexit Ms Rudd was brought back into Government to sort out the benefits system She had quit as Home Secretary over the Windrush scandal Leadership odds 20/1 Ms Rudd was forced to quit as Home Secretary last year over the Windrush scandal which saw British citizens, many of them old-aged pensioners, wrongly sent back to foreign countries they had left as small children. She was brought back as Work and Pensions Secretary after Esther McVey quit, with the dubious honour of having to sort out the widely criticised Universal Credit system. Since then the Hastings MP has found herself at the heart of a Remainer cell in the heart of the Cabinet. Last month she linked up with Justice Secretary David Gauke and Business Secretary Greg Clark to call for a delay to Brexit if a deal cannot be hammered out by March 29. She has also consistently refused to rule out resigning if the Government decided to go for a no-deal Brexit. Its unlikely she could get much support among the Brexiteer wing of the party. David Davis: The confident Brexit bulldog with an eye on the top prize The former Brexit secretary does not lack confidence but may struggle to get the backing of large numbers of MPs or the Tory membership Former Brexit secretary turned opponent of Theresa May Was the first top level minister to quit last July Brexiteer who has made no secret of his desire to lead the party, aged 70 Leadership odds 20/1 As Brexit secretary David Davis was lampooned by opponents as the Brexit bulldog who oozed confidence if not ability. Mr Davis was the first minister to make a Brexit-themed jump from Mrs Mays ship Government last July, followed by his deputy Steve Baker and then by Mr Johnson. Since then he has followed them into a position of extreme Brexiteer opposition to her strategic direction, talking down the risks of no-deal and arguing the Uk needs to take a firmer line with the EU in order to get concessions. Not short of self-believe, when asked last month by Tatler if he had the right credentials to be leader he replied: Yes. And if this were an application for a job as a chief executive, I would probably win it. But it isnt. And that isnt the way the decision is done. Penny Mordaunt: The highly regarded Brexiteer trying to carve out a niche in international development Ms Mordaunt is an outsider for the leadership but is highly thought of in Brexiteer groups The MP for Portsmouth North is a Royal Navy reservist Highly regarded in Brexiteer circles She has been consistently tipped to quit over Brexit b ut remains in the Cabinet Has come up with ideas to change the way foreign aid is spent Leadership odds 33/1 The International Development Secretary is an outside bet but is highly regarded in Brexiteer circles. The Royal Navy reservist, 46, has attempted to carve out a niche at International Development with some eye-catching suggests about changing how the UK spends disperses aid cash. Last month the Portsmouth North MP demanded a major overhaul so less of the UK's 14.1billion aid budget was handed out through staff at international agencies. She wants to use the cash to fund specific projects chosen by Britain with more oversight to make sure money is not wasted. Over the last few months she has been at the heart of persistent rumours that she will be the next Brexit-supporting minister out the door over Brexit. She has so far remained in the Cabinet but there is little time remaining for any ministers considering their position to make the change, so expect the rumours to continue as Brexit approaches. David Cameron warned MPs not to let Britain crash out of the EU today as Theresa May faces catastrophe over Brexit. The former Prime Minister insisted he would not give a running commentary on events. Mr Cameron said he supported Mrs May's pursuit of a 'partnership' with the EU. But as he left home today he told reporters: 'I don't think no deal is a good idea at all.' Mrs May is due to put her deal to a new vote of MPs tomorrow but faces near certain defeat after the EU refused to make any concessions on the backstop. MPs are then due to vote on whether or not no deal is acceptable on Wednesday. David Cameron (pictured today in London) warned MPs not to let Britain crash out of the EU today as Theresa May faces catastrophe over Brexit Mr Cameron said: 'I support the Prime Minister and I think she is doing the right thing seeking a partnership deal with the EU, that's the right approach. The reason I don't give lots of interviews and answer lots of questions about this is because her job is hard enough already without her immediate predecessor giving a running a commentary. 'So I wish her well.' Asked about no deal as he walked off, Mr Cameron said: 'I don't think no deal is a good idea at all.' Mrs May was today urged to delay her Brexit doomsday vote in the Commons tomorrow after she again failed to make any breakthrough in negotiations with the EU and called off an 11th-hour trip to Brussels. The Prime Minister had her plane on standby but after a phone call with President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker last night she cancelled plans to fly out to Europe as the deadlock continues. Theresa May (pictured today at Downing Street) was today urged to delay her Brexit doomsday vote in the Commons tomorrow after she again failed to make any breakthrough in negotiations with the EU and called off an 11th-hour trip to Brussels Today it emerged that Mrs May is being urged by Conservative MPs to stop the vote on her deal in the Commons tomorrow night because it is 'inevitable' it will be defeated by 100-plus votes. Instead she is being advised to replace it with a motion on the kind of Brexit deal wanted by Tories to put pressure back on the EU to help deliver her divorce by March 29. The next EU council meeting of the 27 states begins on March 21 - just eight days before Brexit is due to happen - and optimistic members of the Downing Street team are said to be hopeful that European leaders could still back down at the last minute. A source told The Times: 'As it stands her deal is going to be defeated. It has been made clear to Downing Street that it would be eminently sensible to avoid that by proposing a motion that the party can support. Whether they listen or not is another matter'. If the vote goes ahead and she loses some in her party are ready to call for Mrs May to resign immediately. Sources have claimed cabinet support is also failing, with under-fire ministers Chris Grayling and Karen Bradley said to be the only two people vocally backing the PM, who has kept them in their jobs despite usually career-ending blunders in recent weeks. The EU was today accused of 'trolling' Britain as its leaders took to social media to revel in their time off as Brexit talks collapsed. Chief negotiator Michel Barnier flew to Ireland for the rugby and Donald Tusk appeared to snipe at Mrs May again in an Instagram post about his English dog. A smiling Mr Barnier posed outside the Aviva Stadium in Dublin with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tanaiste Simon Coveney and today confirmed negotiations between the two sides are over as he said this morning: 'The talks are now between the UK government and MPs'. Around the same time Donald Tusk , the European Council president, posted an Instagram story of himself lounging in a chair with his 'English friend' - his English Springer Spaniel - in what critics said was a blatant goading of Mrs May. Anti-Brexit campaigner William Buist said that it was 'blatant trolling' by Mr Tusk. EU chief negotiator had a day off as talks failed and went to watch the Ireland France Six Nations match in Dublin with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (left) and Tanaiste Simon Coveney (right) Donald Tusk was accused of trolling Britain by taking to Instagram on the day talks failed to cuddle his 'English Friend', his spaniel EU Brexit chief Michel Barnier opted to watch rugby in Dublin yesterday rather than stay in Brussels. In a sign of the dire state of talks, the EU's chief negotiator watched Ireland v France rather than remain on standby in the Belgian capital. The Frenchman was spotted with Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar and foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney as they entered Dublin's Aviva stadium. Ireland went on to beat France 26-14 to keep their Six Nations hopes alive. The impromptu trip could be seen as provocative given the impasse in talks is over the Irish border backstop, which Dublin has repeatedly dug its heels in over and rejected British demands for an end date or unilateral exit clause. Before the weekend attorney-general Geoffrey Cox and Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay had been pencilled in for a trip to Brussels on Sunday to continue talks. And yesterday an RAF jet was on standby to rush prime minister Theresa May to the Belgian capital in the event of a breakthrough - but she never went. It came after relations sunk to a new low on Friday when eleventh-hour talks on British demands over the backstop issue descended into an ugly Twitter row. It ended with Mr Barnier taking the unusual step of posting the EU's latest backstop offer on Twitter in a bid to avoid being blamed for the breakdown in talks. Moments later Mr Barclay hit back, saying the offer was simply a 'rerun' of old arguments. It ended a tumultuous week in which Mr Cox's demands earlier in the week were rejected following a bitter four-hour stand-off. A 17-year-old girl was found dead this morning after being raped and having skin peeled off from her face in the Philippines. Christine Silawan, a grade nine student, had been on her way to church on Sunday afternoon but when she did not return home her mother Joan alerted the police to her daughter's disappearance at 7pm. This morning police found the teenager, whose face had been skinned, leaving just her skull, teeth, eyes and hair on one side of her head, dead in a vacant field in Barangay Bangkal, with her trousers and underwear removed. She was last seen at 4pm with three men in Lapu-Lapu City in the Cebu province. Christine Silawan, 17, was found dead this morning in a vacant field in Barangay Bangkal, Philippines After locals in the area reported the girl's body to the police, Christine's mother was left to identify her daughter from her clothes. Police Colonel Lemuel Obon, Lapu-Lapu City police director, said: 'We have witnesses who said three men were seen with the victim. We are now tracing their whereabouts.' Officers said that they suspected the teenager had been raped and are now waiting for the post-mortem examination results. They believe the killers could have been high on illegal drugs or removed the girl's face as part of a twisted ritual. Colonel Obon added: 'Police are investigating all motives about whether the young victim was the subject of an unprovoked attack and if the suspects were under the influence of drugs. 'We have never seen such a brutal crime before. It could also be a ritual to remove the skin from the face. The mother of the girl identified her from her clothes.' A police cordon is put up after the body of 17-year-old Christine Silawan is found in a field. The young girl had been waling to church and was last seen at 4pm with three men in Lapu-Lapu City Following the teenager's death friends paid tribute to the 'beautiful, clever' girl. Haring Joseph said: 'Rest in peace, my friend and my condolences to all of your family. May the police find whoever did this.' Police are now hunting for the killers behind the horrific crime. A Nebraska state trooper 'pulled over' a car made entirely out of snow while on shift over the weekend. Sergeant Downing discovered the replica, which he compared to a Mustang, in Chadron, Dawes County, on Saturday. Sharing a clip of the frozen model on the Nebraska State Patrol Twitter account, they wrote: 'Sgt. Downing came across an awesome find yesterday in Chadron. Now this is artwork! #SnowPony.' Nebraska state trooper Sergeant Downing discovered this car made out of snow on Saturday evening He discovered the replica, which he compared to a Mustang, in Chadron, Dawes County, on Saturday. In the clip, he can be heard saying: 'What in the heck' In the video, Downing can be seen getting out of his car directly behind the initiation vehicle. Clearly impressed by the likeness, he exclaimed: 'What in the heck.' He then added: 'Some people make snow men. Not the people in the northwest corner of the panhandle. They make snow cars. Snow Mustangs.' The snow car appears to have a post-it note on the window but it is unclear what it says or who left it, with some users joking that Downing might give him a ticket. Earlier this year a Canadian man fooled police in Montreal by sculpting a Delorean out of snow. Simon Laprise spent four hours crafting the snowy car that was made famous in the film Back to the Future. After his project, Laprise, a machinist by trade, posted a picture on social media of a confused police officer standing next to the 'car'. Disgraced footy star Ben Barba has threatened to hurt a reporter after being confronted outside the metal working factory where he's now employed on Monday. The 29-year-olds fit of rage is the first time the father-of-four has spoken publicly since being dumped from the NRL for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend outside of a casino in Townsville on Australia Day. Daily Mail Australia first revealed Barba had taken a job as a $20-an-hour labourer last month after losing his $300,000-a-year contract with the North Queensland Cowboys. 'I will hurt you. Do you want me to hurt you?' he shouted at the Nine News reporter outside of Statewide Sales and Service. 'I'm about to be charged with nothing (but) I don't feel lucky. I've lost everything.' Troubled NRL star Ben Barba is unlikely to face assault charges after an alleged incident with his girlfriend Ainslie Currie (pictured together) The 29-year-olds (pictured) fit of rage is the first time the father-of-four has spoken publicly since being dumped from the NRL for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend outside of a casino in Townsville on Australia Day Barba said he was going to hand himself in to police on Tuesday, more than a month after the alleged fight with girlfriend Ainslie Currie, who is also the mother of his children. Ms Currie, who has stood by the troubled ex-player through a myriad of off-field controversies, didn't file a complaint to police over the incident. Queenland Police are reportedly 'disappointed' with Ms Currie's decision, according to Nine News. After the alleged incident Ms Currie begged the NRL not to sack Barba, claiming it would cause financial hardship to their family. But after viewing the CCTV footage of the alleged incident the North Queensland Cowboys tore up his contract. Barba (pictured) says he has 'lost everything' after he was dropped from the NRL Barba (pictured) said he was going to hand himself in to police on Tuesday, more than a month after the alleged fight with girlfriend Ainslie Currie, who is also the mother of his children NRL boss Todd Greenberg also handed Barba a life ban from the league and suggested he 'find a new vocation'. Footage allegedly captured Barba throwing rocks at his girlfriend out the front of the casino. The former Dally M Player of the Year award recipient fall from the top was apparent during his emotional confrontation on Monday. Barba said he had 'lost everything' in the wake of the alleged assault. After trading his lucrative contract for a $39,000-a-year income, the family was forced to move in with the 29-year-old's parents in their housing commission home. Advertisement The creator of a remarkable new map claims to show the position of every one of Great Britain's 62 million population... from the Queen in London to the most northerly resident of Shetland. The map, which is based on the most recent census data, uses a black dot for every individual - and when zoomed out shows areas of heavy population in major cities such as London, Glasgow and Manchester. But zoom right in and it's possible to spot the residents of Buckingham Palace. In nearby Downing Street, a pair of dots could include the Prime Minister. The map, which is based on the most recent census data, uses a black dot for every individual - and when zoomed out shows areas of heavy population in major cities such as London, Liverpool and Manchester The map was created by 31-year-old Finn Heikki Vesanto, who currently lives in Ireland, using information from the National Records of Scotland and the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The ONS postcode directory and the Ordnance Survey open map were used to map people and the buildings in which they live. The data was from the 2011 census - the population has now grown to 66m. Mr Vesanto, a spatial analyst, shared his map on Tuesday via twitter saying 'Every person in Great Britain mapped. Around 62 million points.' When zooming in on the map the outline of Buckingham Palace becomes clear as it is surrounded by many dots, one of which is likely to be Her Majesty The Queen. A dot identified on Shetland near the Hermaness Nature Reserve in Shetland is thought to be the most northerly resident of the UK, and another near St Agnes in the Isles of Scilly is thought to be the most southerly one. The map distinctly shows how the east and south east of England are speckled grey throughout, demonstrating high population density. In contrast the North West - with the exception Manchester and Liverpool - south west England and much of Wales have large areas of white patches where people do not appear to be living. Another key identifier is the outline of national parks amidst high density populations across Great Britain. The Peak District for instance can be easily spotted between Manchester and Leeds. But zoom right in and it's possible to spot the residents of Buckingham Palace. In nearby Downing Street, (right) a pair of dots could include the Prime Minister A dot identified on Shetland near the Hermaness Nature Reserve in Shetland is thought to be the most northerly resident of the United Kingdom Dartmoor with Plymouth to the south west (left) and the map's creator, 31-year-old Finn Heikki Vesanto, who currently lives in Ireland The same can be said for the Dartmoor National Park in the south east, the Brecon Beacons in Wales, and the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales on the North of England. In Scotland, the map clearly identifies the central belt as home to at least two million of the country's population of just over five million. On closer inspection you can clearly identify the street patterns, parks, and rivers of big cities. The map is so detailed that viewers can even identify their own houses. The interactive map was also shared on Reddit, where it has got a lot of attention. Bearhandsbearhands said: 'I found my house on the interactive one.' Some-dawid-guy added: 'It's awesome how well this outlines the coasts of Britain! 'You can tell that there isn't an outline of Britain overlaid with the spots because of The Wash, where no one lives on its coast. Great map.' Brecon Beacons with Cardiff to the south east and Swansea to the south west. On closer inspection you can clearly identify the street patterns, parks, and rivers The map is so detailed that viewers can even identify their own houses. This far out image shows the Peak District surrounded by Manchester, Leeds, Bradford and Sheffield Thekev506 wrote: 'Interesting to see that the M62 corridor is the only area that comes close to the density of London.' Mr Vesanto today said that the interactive map was a follow-up to his one of Scotland back in 2016. 'It's a follow up piece to a map I made a few years ago with just Scotland. It's essentially a guess of where people live,' he said. 'So if a postcode has 10 residents according to the census. I put 10 points on the map randomly in buildings in that postcode.' The interactive map can be viewed as a whole through this link. London seen on Mr Vesanto's map. He today said that the interactive map was a follow-up to his one of Scotland back in 2016 A farmer has been branded a style icon after his wife posed him up in workers' overalls that look exactly like the M&S ones modelled by Holly Willoughby. Sheep and cattle farmer Jim Beary, 39, claims he was wearing overalls and ripped jeans on his farm in the Peak District 'before they were in fashion'. So when his wife Julia, 33, saw the TV presenter posed up in a denim jumpsuit from her Marks and Spencer range she couldn't help noticing the resemblance. The pair decided to stage a photo shoot at their farm in South Yorkshire and shared the images online, where M&S credited them for ensuring the 55 item sold out completely. The hilarious shots show Mr Beary smouldering in his overalls against a tractor tyre and in front of hay bales. Farmer Jim Beary (left) has been branded a style icon after his wife posed him up in workers' overalls that look exactly like the M&S ones modelled by Holly Willoughby (right) Jim Beary, 39, is pictured with his wife Julia, 33, who came up with the idea for the photo shoot He said: 'I thought I looked exactly like her in my work clothes and it would be quite funny to take some photos. 'I was wearing ripped jeans on the farm before they were in fashion. I'm always telling my wife I'm a trendsetter. 'We were laughing a lot when we were taking them and then when M&S tweeted us we thought it was hilarious. 'I was joking that I've helped boost the sale of overalls. I wear them everyday. I'm wearing them right now. 'It's quite overwhelming, I've actually had quite a lot of people I've not spoken to for a while get back in touch. 'I'm thinking about doing a calendar and bringing out a fragrance. The pictures show Mr Breary (left) smouldering in his overalls against a tractor tyre and in front of hay bales, in similar poses to the M&S campaign (right) 'We're hoping people will have a laugh about it and maybe make a donation to Comic Relief.' Nurse Mrs Beary said: 'I kept seeing these 'Holly wears' and 'Holly must haves'. 'I clicked on it and thought they must be having a laugh. Holly's beautiful and can pull off anything but even she's struggling with those overalls. 'I showed it to Jim and said 'you wear that everyday' so we thought it would be funny to pose him up. 'I got him to sit by the tractor so it was obvious he was on a farm then we got him near the hay bales. 'I was quite impressed. That one with him by the truck - he didn't look half bad. It was the only one I took and he captured it straight away. Mr Beary and his wife have been astounded at the response, which has seen him branded a 'style icon' The 55 'pure cotton utility jumpsuit' has now sold out on the Marks & Spencer website and in store 'He's always saying he's into things before they become fashionable. 'He's got a bit of a following in the farming world so I shared it for a bit of fun. When everything's a bit uncertain it's a bit of laugh and something positive for farming. 'I wasn't impressed with the outfit, although it's sold out so we will probably see people wearing it.' In a tweet M&S responded: 'You may have heard that the Jumpsuit from @hollywills latest Denim Edit has now sold out. 'We'd like to take this opportunity to thank our lovely ambassador @hollywills & self-proclaimed style icon @FarmerBeary for their support. HollysMustHaves MenWithStyle HowDoYouWearYours.' The lawyer who negotiated Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal's hush money payments from President Trump and Michael Cohen has told how Cohen thought he would become Attorney General in return and was furious not to be given a White House job. Keith Davidson represented Daniels and McDougal in 2016 and was working for them when Cohen paid them $130,000 each to stay quiet about their claims they had slept with President Trump. Both women have since distanced themselves from him and say he was working in the best interests of the then-candidate to silence them. In an interview on Good Morning America on Monday, Davidson said he became like a 'confidante' to Cohen during the negotiation process. Keith Davidson (left) the lawyer who represented Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal when negotiating their hush payments from Michael Cohen in 2016, said on Monday that Cohen (right testifying before Congress last month) was furious when he did not get a job in Washington DC A @GMA Exclusive: @TomLlamasABC speaks with Stormy Daniels former lawyer @KeithMDavidson about that infamous hush money deal, and what Trumps fixer Michael Cohen told him about his post-election hopes and plans. https://t.co/3P3yHrVC77 pic.twitter.com/KWDTAxZcGT Good Morning America (@GMA) March 11, 2019 He also dismissed the lawyer's claims that he was not motivated by a potential job in Washington and said he was furious when he did not get one. 'He confided in me that he was beside himself. In his words, he said "can you f*****g believe it? I just can't f*****g believe it. Can you f*****g believe that after everything I've done for him, he's not taking me to Washington?" 'He thought it was a personal embarrassment. He felt rejected,' Davidson said. He said the settlement and accompanying non-disclosure agreement was supposed to be 'the easiest deal in the history of man' and that it was prompted by the release of the infamous Access Hollywood tape where Trump was recorded saying 'grab them by the p***y'. While the negotiations had been going on 'for months', Davidson said the tape sped things along. He did, you know, confide in me and said "can you f*****g believe it. That son of a b***h never paid me back" 'The Access Hollywood tape was the motivating factor in this case and it defeats the argument that this was done for purely personal reason and that this was in fact done for political reasons because after the Access Hollywood tape, something like this could be the straw that broke the camel's back,' he said. Daniels' alleged affair with the president had been briefly reported years earlier but it was not major news. Cohen paid the women $130,000 each and used a home equity line of credit to do it. He was furious, according to Davidson, that Trump did not immediately repay him. 'He did, you know, confide in me and said "can you f*****g believe it. That son of a b***h never paid me back,"" Davidson said. Davidson worked on behalf of Stormy Daniels (left with Trump in 2006) and Karen McDougal (right with Trump in the same year) to negotiate payments and non-disclosure agreements to silence their claims about having sex with Trump Davidson said that payments were prompted by the release of a 2005 Access Hollywood tape where Trump was heard saying he could 'grab' women 'by the p***y'. Davidson said that if the affairs had come out after that, they would have been the 'straw that broke the camel's back' By the time Trump did pay him back, he claims, he had been elected. Davidson said he had 'no idea' if he would have been elected if the hush payments had never have been made. He admitted that it kept him up at night 'a bit' knowing that his involvement in them may have impacted the country's history. Cohen testified before Congress last month that he did not want to go to Washington to work for Trump but said he was motivated by blind loyalty to him after years of working on his behalf. In May, he will go to prison for three years for tax fraud and lying charges. Trump maintains that he never slept with either McDougal or Daniels and that anything Cohen did, he acted on his own. He and his sons say he is now speaking out against him because he is bitter that he was not brought into the fold once they had moved into the White House. At the time of the alleged affairs, the president had been married to the First Lady for around a year and she had not long given birth to their son, Barron. The family of Shamima Begum have pleaded for an 'act of mercy' from the Home Office and begged Sajid Javid to reconsider his decision to strip the 19-year-old of her British citizenship. A lawyer representing the family has written to the Home Secretary and urged him to reverse the move following the death of the teenager's new-born son. It comes after the father of the ISIS bride apologised for her joining the group and is pleading with the British Government to allow her back into the country. Ms Begum travelled to Syria when she was aged 15 in February 2015, with two other schoolgirls, so she could join the terror group. Ms Begum's son Jerah died aged 18 days old on Thursday after suffering pneumonia in a refugee camp in northern Syria. The family of ISIS bride Shamima Begum, pictured, have written a letter to the Home Secretary asking for 'an act of mercy' to allow her to return to the UK following the death of her new-born son. Sajid Javid recently stripped her of her British nationality for joining ISIS in 2015 It comes after her father Ahmed Ali, pictured, begged the Government to let her come home and apologised for her actions Home Secretary Sajid Javid has faced renewed criticism for stripping Ms Begum's citizenship since the death of Jerah According to the letter, seen by Sky News, the family say they have still not been able to contact Shamima directly and added it is 'extremely unlikely she is in a fit state to make rational decisions'. The family's lawyer Tasnime Akunjee, told Sky: 'Following the tragic and entirely avoidable death of Shamima Begum's son, we have written to the Home Secretary requesting that he reconsider his original decision to strip Ms Begum of her British citizenship. 'We do this on behalf of Ms Begum's family in an urgent bid to avoid further tragedy.' Ahmed Ali, 60, said his daughter, now 19, 'did wrong' by joining the group but did so 'without realising it' because she was 'under age'. Mr Ali called for the government to 'take her back and punish her if she had done any mistake'. How Britain can strip citizenship from its enemies - as long as they are not 'stateless' Shamima Begum, who fled the UK to join the Islamic State terror group in Syria aged 15, has been stripped of her British citizenship. International law forbids nations from making people stateless by revoking their only citizenship. Britain appears to believe that Ms Begum, who is of Bangladeshi heritage, holds dual citizenship. Under the 1981 British Nationality Act, any Briton can be deprived of their citizenship if it is 'conducive to the public good' - and they do not become stateless as a result. A 2017 government report on the issue said the Home Secretary has the power to 'deprive a person of British citizenship' if it would be 'conducive to the public good'. However, this only applies if the person would not be left stateless. If it is the case Ms Begum is a dual national, she could have her British citizenship stripped. Those who are outside of the UK have 28 days to lodge an appeal from the time they receive their Home Office letter. Advertisement He made the comments before discovering his grandson had died. Speaking to the BBC in north-eastern Bangladesh, Mr Ali said: 'She has done wrong, I apologise to everyone as her father, to the British people. 'I am sorry for Shamima's doing. I request to the British people, please forgive her.' He continued: 'She was under age at that time, she couldn't understand that much. I suppose someone influenced her to do that. 'I admit that she might have done wrong without realising it.' Earlier this month Ms Begum said she wanted to return to the UK with Jerah in an interview with Sky News, which took place at the Al-Hawl refugee camp. She was moved to Roj this month from the Al-Hawl refugee camp after she was threatened by other IS wives for revealing her face during Press interviews. Ms Begum, from Bethnal Green in east London, was 15 when she and two other schoolgirls went to join the terror group in February 2015. Aged 19 and heavily pregnant, she resurfaced in a refugee camp last month and said she wanted to return to Britain as the self-styled caliphate collapsed. Her family announced the boy's birth on February 17 and said they believed he was 'in good health'. Ms Begum said two of her other children had also died in Syria. A Government spokesman said: 'The death of any child is tragic and deeply distressing for the family. 'The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has consistently advised against travel to Syria since April 2011.' The Dutch husband of Ms Begum, Yago Riedijk, 27, joined when he was 15, and is being held in a Kurdish detention centre in north-eastern Syria Home Secretary Sajid Javid has faced renewed criticism for stripping Ms Begum's citizenship since the death of Jerah. Ms Begum's sister Renu previously wrote to the Home Secretary two weeks ago. She wants to challenge Mr Javid's decision to strip Ms Begum of her British citizenship. She said moving back to Britain was Ms Begum's 'only hope at rehabilitation'. A pair of F-15 fighter jets flying at 380mph came within a split second of smashing into a glider, a report has revealed. One of the pilots of the American jets estimated that the gilder had flown just 100ft beneath them and just 330ft ahead. The UK Airprox Board revealed the incident happened on August 14 last year as the fighters were coming in to land at their base in RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk. The jets were flying at 3,200ft at the time over woodland to the west of Thetford, Norfolk. The UKAB which investigates near misses said the pilots had been warned of the presence of 'multiple gliders' by air traffic controllers. An air-proximity report diagram showing how the near miss unfolded. Data based on radar data despite the glider was not being visible on the radar system used by RAF Lakenheath controllers at the time They levelled off to avoid a collision after suddenly seeing the glider ahead of them carrying out a 'sharp right turn' at 60mph. The lead fighter pilot reported the risk of collision as being 'high'. The glider pilot who was taking part in a competition said he had been rising on a thermal when he noticed the jets just over a mile away. He decided to continue circling to be conspicuous to make sure that the jet pilots saw him and maintained that the collision risk was low. The report heard that the glider was not visible on the radar system used by RAF Lakenheath controllers. The United States Air Force criticised the glider pilot, saying: 'The wisdom of operating just to the south of the extended centreline of the main instrument runway of one of the busiest fighter bases in the UK must be questioned.' Two J.A.S.D.F F-15 aircrafts (stock photo) UKAB members rated it as a Category B incident where 'safety had been much reduced below the norm'. The report also questioned how the glider pilot assessed the collision risk as low, saying it had 'caused some members to wonder whether he had a particularly robust approach to the risks of fast- jets flying so close by.' UKAB noted that the gliding competition organisers had not put out an official NOTAM warning about unusual air activity because they believed it was unnecessary due to all of the pilots being local. But as a result of the near miss, the British Gliding Association has now advised all its members to issue NOTAMs for gatherings of more than 20 gliders. An off-duty police officer has been caught up in a wild street fight which saw three teenage boys led away in handcuffs. The officer and a group of passersby in Sydney's northern beaches tried to break up a group of brawling boys on Monday evening. When the men tried to intervene, witnesses say the boys turned on them. A trio of teenage boys have been arrested after a house brawl spilling onto the streets Three of the boys, all aged under 18, were led away in handcuffs for further questioning Six police cars and two ambulances were called to the street in Newport. The fight reportedly began inside a beachfront home before it spilled out onto the streets. One resident said at least a dozen uniformed police officers were called to the fight right as it concluded. 'Girls were screaming and there were numerous young people milling about, some wearing school uniforms,' the resident told The Manly Daily. 'I was told that an adult stepped in to break it up and the kids turned on him before the brawl escalated.' A witness says an off-duty policeman tried to intervene in the fight before they turned on him Three were arrested and taken for questioning, and investigations are continuing A New South Wales Police spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia nobody was injured in the fight. A group of boys aged in their early-teens were held against a brick wall and handcuffed. Three of the boys were arrested at the scene, though they aren't expected to be charged since they're under 18. They were taken away for questioning and investigations are continuing. A baby poodle has been seriously wounded after its owner apparently put a tight rubber band around its muzzle several times in an attempt to stop it from barking. The puppy, about 40 days old, was abandoned with its muzzle bound on a road in northern China and found by an animal lover who shared the story with media. The rubber ring was so tightly wrapped around the tiny dog's mouth it had cut into its skin and caused the dog to bleed, according to a vet who treated the pooch. A vet shows the black rubber ring after removing it from the baby poodle's face. The puppy's last former had put the ring around the dog's muzzle to stop it barking, an animal lover said 'It is okay if you don't like the dog, but don't harm it and leave it alone,' the animal lover who found the pooch condemned the dog's previous owner to local video news site Pear. It is understood that the poodle has been adopted by the animal lover and is recovering from the horrific ordeal. The identity of the dog's last owner remains unknown. The incident took place in the city of Liaoyang in northern China's Liaoning Province. It came after a Chinese politician and scholar last week urged the central government to set up a law to protect pet dogs. While China has legislation safeguarding land-based and aquatic wildlife, it currently lacks any laws to protect animal welfare or prevent cruelty towards animals. Previously, Chinese pet owners in Chengdu were seen bringing their dogs to an unlicensed vet to have the animals' vocal cords removed in the street because they were fed up with them barking. Deep, bloody wounds are seen on the baby poodle's face after a vet removed the rubber band from its muzzle. It was abandoned by its last owner in Liaoyang city after being cruelly bound Guo Changgang, dean of Shanghai Institutes of International Studies from Shanghai University, said China should establish a relevant law to protect companion animals, especially pet dogs, as soon as possible. Mr Guo submitted the proposal to the central government last Tuesday in Beijing during the most important political gathering of the country known as the Two Sessions. Mr Guo, who was a local representative at the meeting, said pet dogs were friends to mankind and were loyal to their owners - whether the owners are normal residents, police officers or rescuers. 'Therefore pet dogs are not ordinary animals, livestock or assets, but creatures capable of giving strong emotional support,' the scholar argued. Just last week, Chinese scholar Guo Changgang urged the central government to set up a law to protect companion animals especially pet dog during a major political meeting Before Mr Guo, animal activists and legal experts in China had already submitted two draft laws to the country's authorities in a bid to put a stop to wide-spread animal cruelty in the country. Both laws are still pending for approval. It's been estimated that between 10 and 20 million dogs are slaughtered for meat in China annually. According to China's state-run Wenhui News, some 70 per cent of them are stolen pets. Culprits often use poisonous darts to steal or kill pet dogs, but few have been arrested and punished - partially due to the lack of animal protection laws. The controversial annual Yulin Dog Meat festival is still taking place every year on summer solstice despite the protest from celebrities and animal lovers across the world. Many more small animals are subject to cruelty in China in day to day life. Early last year, a golden retriever was beaten to death by a policeman on a street in front of shocked pedestrians including children in the city of Changsha. Harrowing footage emerged online showing the dog getting chained to a road barrier and beaten by an officer with a wooden club repeatedly. Local police bureau claimed the police officer was carrying out his duty of preventing citizens from getting injured by the 'out-of-control' dog. The officer was later detained for five days. Shocking pictures of 'inedible' food served up in a British hospital were shared after a family were left 'disgusted' with what was served to their family member. Paul Wardrop described the cottage pie and mushy peas meal as a 'f****** joke' and said he would sooner eat 'dog s***' while visiting his uncle at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow. The cottage pie appears to have been burnt into a solid mass while the mushy peas have solidified. Paul, from Glasgow, posted the pictures on social media, writing that the food had been served up to his uncle Thomas was not fit for animals, as he picked up the burned peas to show the camera. He wrote: 'This what my uncle Thomas got for his dinner tonight in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The cottage pie appears to have been burnt into a solid mass while the mushy peas are a burger-shaped and can be lifted in one 'It's meant to be cottage pie in peas in potatoes - f****** joke. 'I would not give an animal that because it probably wouldn't eat it. 'How can you put that out for someone? You just couldn't give someone something that terrible. 'I'm taking this on. I want answers - how could you even try and eat that? 'I would eat dog s*** before that, but I would probably just do without.' He added: 'The second picture is meant to be peas. Aye right! Am going to take them to the ground.' The pictures show the dinner in a black plastic dish with Paul being able to pick up the dark green mushy peas with one hand. Instead of having a smoother texture, the peas appear to be hard and have gone into an oval shape. The peas were so burned they could be lifted from the tray and remained together in Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Glasgow The pie appeared to be completely dry with the mashed potato appearing cracked and surrounded by dried sauce The potato in the cottage pie looks to have sunk into the mince, which also appears to have overcooked to the point where it has solidified. Marie Connolly responded online: 'Disgusting and shameful.' Rebecca Imlach said: 'Feed it to the catering staff and see how they like it. No excuses whatsoever!' Shelley Mccoll commented: S***e looks frozen. No wonder everyone ends up ill as soon as they go in there!' Narelle Grimes said: 'Expose the b******s.' Jackie Smith said: 'That is disgusting, bet prisoners get better food.' Tracy Arkley commented: 'That hospital is a f****** joke.' Those who saw the post online were furious about the meal which was served to the patient Debbie Connor said: 'Omg food always looked fine when my son was there for four months. That's no right man.' Margaret McKinlay commented: 'Revolting.' In January, an MSP shared a picture of an omelette meal one of his constituents were served at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh which was described as being 'unsuitable for dogs.' The QEU hospital in Glasgow is currently under fire after a 10-year-old boy died in December after contracting an infection linked to pigeon droppings. An inspection following this into the hospital's cleanliness also raised concerns. One of Australia's biggest and most famous breweries has announced it will move from plastic to cardboard packaging for its beer cans as part of a new eco-friendly agenda. Carlton & United Breweries announced on Monday that it would be replacing its six-pack plastic rings with cardboard for some of its most popular beers. The brewery said the move would reduce the number of plastic ring packaging being manufactured by up to 25 million a year. The changes will be made to Victoria Bitter, Carlton Draught and Carlton Dry cans which are already coming off the production line with amended design carriers. Carlton & United Breweries announced on Monday that it would be replacing its 6-pack plastic rings with cardboard for some of its most popular beer The brewery said the move would reduce the number of plastic ring packaging being manufactured by up to 25 million a year Plastic ring packaging has been a hotly debated topic since its introduction in the 1970s, with advertising campaigns highlighting the risk they pose to marine wildlife. Birds have been strangled by the rings, marine wildlife eat and choke on them as well as having them wrap around their necks and kill them. Turtles, birds and most marine mammals are the most at risk of being killed by plastic 6-pack rings. CUB Chief executive officer Peter Filipovic told The Herald Sun beer drinkers should welcome the move because it reduces their guilt of impacting on the environment by enjoying a cold beer. 'Last year we made a commitment that 100 per cent of our products will be in packaging that is returnable or made from majority-recycled content by 2025,' Mr Filipovic told the publication. He said this decision was a major and crucial step in achieving that goal. The rings aren't the only plastic that the iconic brewery will be scrapping. CUB announced it would also ditch the plastic shrink wrap on its slabs of VB, Carlton Draught and Carlton Dry cans. Plastic ring packaging has been a hotly debated topic since its introduction in the 1970s with advertising campaigns highlighting the risk they pose to marine wildlife The changes will be made to Victoria Bitter, Carlton Draught and Carlton Dry cans which are already coming off the production line with amended design carriers In 2018 Cascade Breweries, a stable of the Carlton & United Breweries, discontinued its production of plastic rings. At the time of Cascade's changes a company statement eluded to further changes 'in the next 12 months'. 'We know that the plastic six-pack ring packaging has a damaging effect on wildlife and the environment,' the statement read. The move is part of Carlton & United Breweries' 2025 Sustainability Goals. 'Including a commitment that 100% of our products will be in packaging that is returnable or made from majority recycled content by 2025,' a company statement read. 'We believe the responsibility for our product extends well after the last mouthful of beer has been drunk.' The brewery also aims to make its packaging returnable or made from majority-recycled content by 2025. A Russian passenger jet has been forced to make an emergency landing after the flight's crew was led to believe there might be a bomb on board. The Ural Airlines plane carrying 225 people had been travelling from Manama in Bahrain, to Moscow in Russia, but ended up landing in Baku, Azerbaijan. Local media reports that crew had found a note on board the plane warning of an explosive device. The Russian passenger jet had been travelling from Bahrain, to Moscow, but had to make an emergency landing in Baku, Azerbaijan, after a bomb scare on board The passengers descend from the plane after it made its forced landing in Baku According to Sputnik News, 'a man handed a note to the crew about the explosive device on board', which prompted the captain to make an emergency landing. All 216 passengers have been safely evacuated, according to the state-run RIA news agency. 'The crew received information about possible foreign objects on board the aircraft, and requested a landing at the nearest airport to perform additional security checks,' A Ural Airlines spokesperson told Russia's RBC radio. It is not known if any suspicious items have been found on board the passenger plane. Emergency landing: The plane had been heading to Moscow but was forced to land in Baku Geoffrey Crossland, of Harrogate, amassed more than 2.2 million indecent images A 70-year-old man who amassed one of the largest known collections of indecent images in Britain was yesterday jailed after admitting storing prohibited firearms in a secret underground bunker. Officers who raided Geoffrey Crossland's 750,000 farmhouse in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, found guns and ammunition hidden underneath the property. Police had been investigating the former company director, who lived with his wife Anne, 61, after he was found to have more than two million indecent images. The vast collection was stored on SD cards, USB sticks, DVDs, SIM cards, floppy disks, laptops, tablets and mobile phones. The court heard how Crossland was found to have 34,612 images in the most extreme category A, as well as 2,107,873 in the least extreme category C. Crossland was imprisoned for 12 years and eight months at York Crown Court. The court heard he had 'painstakingly categorised' the images and had wrote lists of the best websites to access sexual pictures and videos of children. The scale of the police response at Crossland's 750,000 farmhouse in Harrogate last October A 3D drawing of the secret undergrounder bunker complex where Crossland kept weapons Crossland pleaded guilty to the charges and was remanded into custody ahead of sentencing Among the rifles seized was a a Jager Armi/Moda P74 rifle and a .38 Brocock bolt action rifle which uses a self-contained gas cartridge system Among the haul found at Crossland's home were bullets designed to be used with a pistol This smooth bore ornamental pistol was among the guns uncovered at Crossland's property Prosecutors told how Crossland had demonstrated a 'long-standing interest in children', with the earliest images dating back to 1998. The haul was described by the Crown Prosecution Service as one of the biggest known collections in England and Wales. North Yorkshire Police said the seizure of the images was the biggest ever in the county, and included 6,946 in the most extreme category A. Appearing at court yesterday, Crossland pleaded guilty to six charges of possessing prohibited firearms, two charges of possessing firearms without the relevant certificate, two counts of possessing ammunition without the relevant certificate, and one count of possessing a shotgun without the relevant certificate. He had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images between January 2011 and October 2018. Another aerial view of the property. The bunker complex is beneath the outbuildings to the left Crossland lived at this farmhouse in Harrogate, which is pictured in an estate agent's photo Paedophile had more than TWO MILLION indecent photographs Geoffrey Crossland pleaded guilty to making 2,204,992 indecent photographs and videos of children between January 1, 2011 and October 22, 2018. These included: 28,686 images and 5,826 videos of the most extreme category A 46,271 images and 3,008 videos in category B 2,095,528 images and 12,302 videos in category C 12,281 images and 201 videos containing prohibited images of children 814 images and 30 videos containing extreme pornography Advertisement Sentencing him yesterday afternoon, Judge Andrew Stubbs QC said the 'scale of the depravity' of the images depicted was hard for the public to understand. 'Your criminality was unearthed, almost literally, on October 18 last year, when officers searched your house for images of children,' the judge said. 'One issue which is not forgotten is that these images capture real life people, and at the same time real life sexual abuse being carried out on them.' The court heard how officers carried out a search warrant on his home on October 18 last year, at which stage they found SD cards, USB sticks, DVDs, SIM cards, floppy disks, laptops, tablets and mobile phones littered with indecent images. Prosecutor Stephen Wood explained how the vast haul of images included 34,612 in the most extreme category A, and 2,107,873 in the least extreme category C. Mr Wood explained how the pensioner had 'painstakingly categorised' the pictures, with some being listed under terms like 'animal abuse', 'peach Asian street meat', and 'young Russian brother and sister'. One of the other pistols found in Crossland's arsenal of weapons at his home in Harrogate This 8mm gun was among the weapons found at the farmhouse he shared with his wife Crossland admitted 11 charges relating to the possession of prohibited firearms and rifles Some of the images dated as far back as 1998, implying that the defendant had a 'longstanding interest in children', Mr Wood said. The judge heard how the former business manager, who ran a company that manufactured electronic components for vehicles, had an 'arsenal of weapons' in the bunker, as well as around 24,000 rounds of ammunition. Arsenal of weapons in Crossland's bunker Geoffrey Crossland also admitted 11 charges relating to the possession of prohibited firearms, shot guns and rifles without licences, and ammunition offences, including: a Hi Standard pistol a .22 calibre revolver which used a self-contained gas cartridge system two .22 calibre Weihrauch revolvers which use a self-contained gas cartridge system a FN .22 automatic pistol which had a barrel less than 30 centimetres in length and which was less than 60 centimetres in length overall a Miroku double barrelled shotgun a Jager Armi/Moda P74 rifle a smooth bore ornamental pistol a .38 Brocock bolt action rifle which uses a self-contained gas cartridge system bullets designed to be used with a pistol and incorporating a missile designed or adapted to expand on impact bullets in quantities in excess of those authorised by a firearms certificate in force at the time Advertisement Susannah Proctor, defending, explained how the defendant had an enthusiasm for weapons dating back to him being given a firearms licence back in the 1970s. She added there was no evidence Crossland had any intention to cause harm with the weapons and ammunition. The former company director was arrested at London Heathrow Airport days after his home was searched by officers, having been on a clay pigeon shooting holiday in Argentina. A neighbour said eight police cars and two police vans rushed to the property around five months ago before asking to park on his drive. The man, who has two young grandchildren, said neighbours believed he was making his own ammunition when reports of his activity first came to light. However, after reading about the full details of the court case, he described his shock at living so close to Crossland. He said: 'It is so worrying knowing we lived so close. I have a young granddaughter who comes around here often. Knowing something could've happened is distressing.' The work of North Yorkshire Police in investigating the case and bringing Crossland to court was praised by the judge at the end of his sentencing remarks. Speaking outside the court, Julian Briggs, from the CPS, said Crossland's collection of indecent images was 'without parallel in the area'. He added: 'That alone would make this case extraordinary and troubling. 'But the subsequent discovery of prohibited firearms and ammunition, concealed in underground bunkers at Crossland's home, clearly shows that this defendant is a highly dangerous individual.' Detective Chief Inspector Graeme Wright, of North Yorkshire Police, said that the investigation into the defendant's potential criminality is ongoing. North Yorkshire Police executed a search warrant at Crossland's home address in October Police seized and examinated more than 100 digital devices and firearms-related items Marc Horsfall, of the National Crime Agency, said: 'A team of specially trained NCA officers spent several months working through Crossland's horrific catalogue of abuse images to grade them in order of severity. Coming forward with details or seeking help North Yorkshire Police issued the following advice on seeking help: Any victim of sexual abuse regarding this investigation is urged to call North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 1, and speak to the Force Control Room. Alternatively, contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 if you would prefer to remain anonymous. Please quote reference number 12180189353 when providing details about this case. Always dial 999 if you are in immediate danger or your safety is threatened. The Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a charity which aims to prevent the sexual abuse of children across the UK, has also issued a statement. A spokesman for the charity said: 'If you are concerned about what you are looking at online, or the online behaviour of someone you know, you can call the confidential and anonymous 'Stop It Now' helpline on 0808 1000 900 for advice, support and help to stop. Or visit https://get-help.stopitnow.org.uk/ to find out more.' Advertisement 'Crossland and men like him are fuelling the actual contact abuse of children and the sickening distribution of those images. The NCA works with partners at home and abroad to catch child sex offenders and bring them to justice.' Detective Chief Inspector Graeme Wright of North Yorkshire Police, the senior investigating officer in the case, said: 'This is without doubt the largest ever seizure of indecent images of children in the history of North Yorkshire Police. 'The investigation as a whole has been on a scale never seen before in our area regarding this type of offending. 'More than 100 digital devices were seized from an office area above the underground bunker complex on Crossland's premises. 'Each device had to undergo painstaking examination by North Yorkshire Police's Digital Forensic Unit supported by a team of specialist officers from the National Crime Agency. 'There was also the recovery of the prohibited firearms and ammunition. We knew that Crossland had, legitimately, been an active member of shooting clubs over the years and he had acquired a large collection of firearms-related items and ammunition which he stored in the bunker. 'Nevertheless, everything had to be seized and carefully assessed to determine what was and what wasn't legally held.' Humans are getting high off catnip in an alarming new trend, police say. New Jersey police have encountered erratic and bizarre behavior from people who have consumed the feline sedative, Catnip Cocktail. Last Thursday, the Fairfield Police Department executed a search warrant at the Nutrition Zone, located at 397 Route 46 West looking for Catnip Cocktail. The solution, which is commonly used to sedate felines, has been causing those who consume it to act irrationally. While searching Nutrition Zone, police recovered 61 bottles of Catnip Cocktail. They also found 29 bottles of human growth hormone (HGH), 20 bottles of a mixing agent, 13 bottles of Prohormones and seven high capacity handgun and rifle magazines. Authorities arrested 48-year-old John Sirico, who owns Nutrition Zone. Last Thursday, Fairfield police executed a search warrant at the Nutrition Zone, located at 397 Route 46 West looking for Catnip Cocktail. While searching Nutrition Zone, police recovered 61 bottles of Catnip Cocktail (pictured in the small pink and blue bottles) The solution (pictured), which is commonly used to sedate felines, has been causing those who consume it to act irrationally Police alleged that Sirico was well aware that he should not be selling Catnip Cocktail 'based upon the fact that it was hidden from customers view and that there was no advertisement that would make customers aware that the business even sold the product'. 'It seems quite suspicious to me that an individual looking for something to sedate a cat with would come to a Nutrition Zone and not a veterinarian, to purchase a product that wasn't even advertised or on display for the public to see,' Chief Anthony G. Manna said in a statement. 'This is a very dangerous product and it appears its improper use is on the rise,' Manna added. Authorities arrested 48-year-old John Sirico (pictured), who owns Nutrition Zone 'In executing today's search warrant, the Fairfield Police Department has sent a clear message that we will do whatever we can to assure that Catnip Cocktail does not become the next drug fad,' the chief said. Authorities charged Sirico with possession of a scheduled drug, possession with the intent to distribute, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of hypodermic syringes and possession of high capacity magazines. Sirico was booked into the Essex County Jail. Catnip Cocktail is not listed as a federal scheduled controlled dangerous substance by the Drug Enforcement Administration. The solution is a scheduled drug in New Jersey. The solution is not for human consumption but if ingested into the human body, it metabolizes and becomes substantially similar to gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, commonly known as GHB. GHB is a therapeutic drug which is illegal in multiple countries. It is currently regulated in the US and sold by Jazz Pharmaceuticals under the name Xyrem. Xyrem is a central nervous system depressant that reduces excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy in patients with narcolepsy. Police have responded to multiple reports of people acting irrationally after consuming Catnip Cocktail since the summer of 2018. The improper use of Catnip Cocktail first came to the attention of police in July 2018 when officers were called about a man 'who was dancing and yelling' in front of a hair salon. That salon is also located in the same strip mall where Nutrition Zone (pictured) is located The improper use of Catnip Cocktail first came to the attention of police in July 2018 when officers were called to investigate an individual 'who was dancing, yelling and generally acting abnormally in front of a hair salon'. That salon is also located in the same strip mall where Nutrition Zone is located. When officers found the individual, he was reportedly having a variety of mood swings. Authorities slapped Sirico (pictured) with multiple charges, including possession of a scheduled drug and possession with the intent to distribute. He was was booked into the Essex County Jail One moment he was being 'very friendly' before becoming confused and then angry. Police found six bottles of Catnip Cocktail in his possession along with a receipt indicating they were purchased at the Nutrition Zone. The second encounter occurred in November 2018 when police responded to reports of an 'erratic driver' traveling along Route 46. When officers stopped his vehicle, the driver was acting irrationally and extremely confused and unaware of his surroundings, police said. During a search of his vehicle, they found several bottles of Catnip Cocktail. The driver was charged with driving under the influence and had to be hospitalized. In February, officers responded to a call outside of Retro Fitness regarding an unresponsive male. Police deployed Narcan and the individual came around and was sent to the hospital. A bottle of Catnip Cocktail was found in his possession. Yvette Cooper warned Parliament would take control of Brexit if Theresa May fails to lead the country out of the 'worst kind of chaos and brinkmanship' today. In a furious blast at the PM, Ms Cooper accused Mrs May of having 'truly run down' the clock. She said the PM had hoped to unite Parliament around a fudge that saved hard questions about the final state of Brexit for later - but had failed. The senior Labour MP told Mrs May the looming catastrophe in tomorrow's re-run vote on the deal was the moment to 'pivot' to a new strategy. Ms Cooper said if Brexit is delayed, Parliament should hold indicative votes on what the final UK-EU relationship should look like - with an election or referendum being held to test the conclusion with the public. Yvette Cooper (pictured today at the CER) warned Parliament would take control of Brexit if Theresa May fails to lead the country out of the 'worst kind of chaos and brinkmanship' today Mrs May faces a second humiliation at the hands of MPs tomorrow as eight weeks of frantic diplomacy to renegotiate the Irish border backstop have come to nothing. In a speech at the Centre for European Reform (CER) today Ms Cooper said 'nothing has changed' since the PM's historic 230-vote loss on January 15. She said: 'What has the Prime Minister been doing for 8 weeks? Even if by magic, the Attorney General comes up with something to add at the last minute we will have barely hours to consider it before we are supposed to vote. 'This is the worst kind of chaos and brinkmanship.' The MP added: 'We have no idea what kind of Brexit we are going to get. In just over two weeks' time. Businesses don't know if they will face tariffs. Public services don't know if they will face shortages. Families don't know if food prices will go up. 'How can anyone plan?' Ms Cooper said the stakes are 'far too high' to rely on the hope Mrs May has a 'cunning plan' to escape the Brexit maze. She said MPs knew time was 'running out' and would no longer 'stand back and wait'. In a furious blast at the PM, Ms Cooper accused Mrs May (pictured yesterday in Maidenhead) of having 'truly run down' the clock She said: 'Theresa May needs to accept that her approach isn't working whether her deal gets through or not this week. 'As Prime Minister, she needs to show some leadership and reset the debate. This is the point to pivot not to dig in. 'There are practical steps the Prime Minister can take now. Not easy ones but sensible ones, step by step, to build more consensus around a way through. 'If she won't find a way forward, then Parliament has a responsibility to do so instead.' Ms Cooper said a simple delay to Brexit with no plan in place would prove nothing - insisting even if the deal does pass the political declaration on the future partnership meant 'following the Conservative Party on a journey into the unknown'. She said: 'The risk is that the Prime Minister just does more of the same, running round the same circles on the backstop, and running down the new clock.' Ms Cooper said MPs should hold 'indicative votes' to find out what sort of final settlement the Commons would agree. And she said that would likely need 'public consent' via either a general election or a referendum. Ms Cooper said: 'The challenge is to find a way to build consent and legitimacy not to just create more anger and division. 'So that confirmation process is best resolved once we have a clearer view what Brexit looks like.' A policewoman who milked a lonely widower out of more than 34,000 while accepting gifts including a BMW car, jewellery and holidays has been barred from the force. Fatou Mendy-Sambou, 28, was today struck off from Gwent Police after a force disciplinary hearing was told she received lavish gifts from the 87-year-old man in the three years after the death of his wife. He even helped her with cash to train as a police officer - but she is now banned from police work over the 'inappropriate relationship.' Former PC Fatou Mendy-Sambou, 28, (pictured) has been barred from the force after milking a lonely widower out of more than 34,000 while accepting gifts including a BMW car, jewellery and holidays Mendy-Sambou, from Newport, was accused of gross misconduct after she took cash of 34,670.18 from the widower. The hearing at Gwent Police HQ in Cwmbran, South Wales, heard Mendy-Sambou first met the married pensioner while working as a carer for his wife in 2014, before she was a police officer. But when his wife died in 2015, Mendy-Sambou visited the pensioner's home, regularly spoke to him on the phone and went out for meals. Gifts from him to Mendy-Sambou included weekly payments of 50, a 2,000 holiday to Paris, flights to Gambia, 2,700 for a Master's degree and 9,000 for a BMW. She also was also given a deposit for a house - and 750 towards a police training course for her new career by the widower, who was identified only as Mr JB. She also had a 320 Michael Kors watch for her birthday and a silver necklace from Sri Lanka, along with a washing machine, cooker and even a fishtank. Gifts from the pensioner, 87, included included weekly payments of 50, a 2,000 holiday to Paris, flights to Gambia, 2,700 for a Master's degree and 9,000 for a BMW The hearing was told Mendy-Sambou became a probationary constable for Gwent Police in March 2018 after gaining her Masters degree. Her relationship with the widower continued until it came to light in August 2018 while she was working for the Welsh police force. In the case, brought by the presenting officer Kate Connell, the force said: 'You accepted money and gifts from him amounting to many thousands of pounds and engaged in an inappropriate relationship with him. 'When questioned about these events you initially lied about your contact with JB, dishonestly inventing false stories about the sources of your money to try and conceal the extent of your financial gain. 'You did this because you knew that your actions in forming and exploiting the relationship with JB were wholly wrong. 'Your actions in initiating and developing an inappropriate relationship with JB amounted to an abuse of trust and lacked integrity in breach of the standard of Honesty and Integrity. The hearing heard Mendy-Sambou first met the married pensioner while working as a carer for his wife in 2014, before she was a police officer. After the death of his wife, the pair's relationship continued and only came to light in August 2018, five months after becoming a probationary constable with Gwent Police in March 'Your conduct as a whole, if known, would bring serious discredit on the police service and undermine public confidence in it, in breach of the standard of Discreditable Conduct. Your conduct is so serious as to amount to gross misconduct.' The hearing was told she did it to hide the extent of her financial gain. Panel chair Susan Davies said: 'We are agreed that Miss Mendy-Sambou, had she continued to be a police officer, would have been dismissed without notice.' Mendy-Sambou resigned from Gwent Police in August last year. Maria Henry, representing the former PC, said: 'She admits she behaved in the manner alleged.' The hearing was told Mendy-Sambou admitted that her actions amounted to gross misconduct and her name will now be added to the police barred list. The lawyer representing the two Nigerian brothers at the heart of the Jussie Smollett scandal said on Monday that they had been 'taken advantage of' by the star. Gloria Schmidt represents brothers Abel and Ola Osundairo, aged 25 and 27. They say Smollett paid them to stage a hoax attack on him on January 29 as part of an elaborate scheme to get a raise. In an interview on Good Morning America on Monday, Schmidt said the brothers were eager to help Smollett because they thought he could help them with their careers. They were officially hired to train him, she said, but that Smollett also asked them to carry out the attack as a 'favor.' 'My clients were just taken advantage of by someone they trusted,' she said. Schmidt dismissed Smollett's lawyers claims that it is only the brothers' word against his and says there is 'of course' corroborating evidence that the attack was a hoax. She also confirmed that the $3,500 check Smollett paid the brothers which police said was for the hoax was in fact officially for personal training, as Smollett claimed, but that he muddied the issue by asking them to carry out the attack at the same time. Scroll down for video A lawyer for Abel and Ola Osundairo (left) say the brothers were 'taken advantage of' by Jussie Smollett who allegedly hired them to carry out a staged hate crime on him on January 29 'They were paid for the training, they were training together, but they were also asked to do this favor for him. Unbeknownst to them, this turned out to be a big betrayal.' Asked if the check was explicitly for the training and not, as police say, for the attack, Schmidt replied: 'It would be such an easy narrative to see it that way but it's a very complicated relationship. 'If you're friends and I'm saying, "Hey, I'm going to pay you for training but I'm also asking you to do me a favor" and the favor was to stage the attack,' she said. The brothers were questioned as suspects of a hate crime for 47 hours in February before they finally confessed to police that Smollett had asked the to attack him. While Smollett's lawyers say it is their word against his, Schmidt insists there is other evidence to prove the brothers' story. 'That's why they went from being persons of interests to suspects. They are free men and they are at home,' she said. In a later interview, she said the pair were 'tremendously regretful' for their role in the scandal. Schmidt would not explain exactly what the brothers' motive was for participating but said they 'trusted' Smollett and thought he could help them. Gloria Schmidt, the brothers' lawyer, went on Good Morning America on Monday to defend them 'I look at the dynamic between loyalty and someone who was in a position of trust with my clients who really just took advantage. They worked with Jussie on Empire, they are friends with him, they thought he could help their career. 'Obviously he has connections, he has a good position at Fox. 'This was someone they trusted to consider their best interests,' she said. She insisted the brothers were not 'looking for anything' when they made their confession but would not confirm if they had been granted immunity from any possible prosecution in exchange for it. Schmidt said the pair were now putting their lives 'back together'. 'This was life-altering. I saw them go through the realization process. The brothers were filmed buying supplies to use in the attack in a store in Chicago the day before it happened. They say they used a $100 bill Smollett gave them 'They know this has impacted a lot of minority populations so they're working very hard to just move this in the right direction,' she said, adding she could say 'with confidence' that they 'did not commit a hate crime.' Smollett has hired celebrity-favorite Mark Geragos who previously represented Michael Jackson and Chris Brown In a later interview with CBS, she echoed her earlier points, saying: 'What they are really focused on right now is that they feel tremendously regretful for their involvement in the situation. 'All the other peripherals are outside of their main focus right now. 'You have someone here who is a celebrity type, someone who is in a position of trust, someone who works with these people, who is able to hep their careers if he so wants to and then he betrays them. 'This entire thing started because they trusted the wrong person.' Smollett is now facing 48 years behind bars as opposed to just three after being hit with an additional 15 counts of felony disorderly conduct last week. The fresh charges were returned in a grand jury indictment on Thursday. Smollett's lawyers say the entire case is a witch hunt that has been driven by the media. The star will return to court on Thursday. President Trump latest budget proposal to Congress requests more wall money, more detention beds for illegal immigrants, more immigration agents and stipulations on grants for cities and states calling themselves sanctuary cities, among other in-your-face demands he sent over to Democrats. Trump brazenly asks for an additional $8.6 billion for his wall, for a grand total of $18 billion for the border barrier he's been promising to construct since he ran for office, and asks Congress to replace a pot of money he's borrowing to fund this year's construction in the first place in his fiscal year 2020 budget. He pays for it all with cuts to liberal priorities like foreign aid and environmental programs and proposes a radical overhaul of welfare by adding new work requirements to programs like food stamps and housing. The requests are an opening bid to Congress with the knowledge, heading into the 2020 election, that they won't meet them. Democrats zeroed in on the wall request, which the administration circulated early, as a non-starter even before the White House sent the budget to lawmakers on Monday morning. President Trump is demanding an additional $8.6 billion wall for his border wall in the annual budget the White House will release later this morning. The request in the budget is more than six times more than what he secured through his national emergency after Congress refused it. Still, the budget gave the White House the opportunity to highlight Trump's desire to build 722 miles of barriers along the border as a way to combat drugs and crime in the mandatory document outlining his preferred, federal spending. Senior aides defended the request on Monday as necessary to national security. 'As you know this is an area where we're tired of being right,' said acting Office of Management and Budget director Russ Vought of the border on CNBC. 'The border situation is deteriorating by the day.' Vought, who is filling in for Mick Mulvaney while he serves Trump as acting chief of staff, argued: 'When we started the conversation throughout last year, Democrats were saying there's no national emergency. They're still saying that. But I don't know how you can continue to make that assertion.' In addition to an increase in Department of Homeland Security appropriations, the administration further proposes a five percent increase in the defense budget, taking military spending up to $750 billion from the $716 billion allocated by Congress to the Pentagon in the current fiscal year. It gets around current caps that are in place on defense spending by moving roughly $164 billion into Overseas Contingency Operations, which is referred to by some lawmakers as a Pentagon slush fund. 'We think it's important to continue to rebuild the military from the years of the Obama administration,' Vought said on CNBC of the increase. Vought pledged a White House press briefing that the money would not be spent on Trump's wall, after the president tapped into DOD funds this year for his barrier. 'And to be clear, this is not funding for endless wars, this is for research and development and procurement to fund the most awe-inspiring military the world has ever known,' he told reporters. National security spending is one of the few areas of Trump's budget that is immune to cuts, in spite of a growing, annual budget deficit that the White House admitted would take 15 years to get under control if Congress follows the president's plan. The White House would slash U.S. aid by more than $2.5 billion annually and welfare spending by $327 billion in effort to offset increases in spending on border security and other administration priorities. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer panned it as a 'gut-punch to the American middle class and a handout to the wealthiest few and powerful special interests that would worsen income inequality' in a Monday afternoon statement. 'The Republican Partys systematic efforts to rip away Americans health care, its continued embrace of the failed tax cuts for the rich, and its refusal to accept the science, facts, and urgent need to address the climate crisis have made cruel and unthinking budget proposals like this one par for the course,' the New York Democrat said. The welfare reforms would add work requirements to federal poverty programs, with hardship exemptions, for most Americans over the age of 18 and under the age of 65. To claim the benefits, the would be expected to work or enrolled in job training or participating in community service. 'We think that that's an important reform as people move up the ladder of opportunity,' a senior administration official said of the plan to move Americans off welfare. What's in Trump's 2020 budget? Requests $782 million for 2,750 additional law enforcement and immigration officers Proposes $132 million for mandatory nationwide use of the E-Verify Asks for $516.2 million in economic aid to the Western Hemisphere, including Mexico, Central America, Colombia & Venezuela Dedicates $484.0 million to combat the drug flow from South and Central America and to improve citizen security in countries whose populations are driving illegal immigration to the United States Calls for $1,336.4 million in aid for 'Near East' to support communities devastated by ISIS and provide the 'flexibility needed' for a Middle East peace plan Explicitly authorizes DHS and DOJ to condition certain grants on sanctuary city laws. Funds 75 additional immigration judges to reduce caseload Solicits $200 million for infrastructure reforms to scale up to $1 trillion Offers six weeks of paid family leave through the Unemployment Insurance system for new parents Eliminates cost-sharing on generic drugs in Medicare and requires more rebate funds to apply to the point of sale Cuts $2.8 billion from Environmental Protection Agency funding Applies for $291 million for a multi-year initiative to end the HIV epidemic by 2030 Advertisement Trump proposes to cut $2.7 trillion overall from foreign aid, welfare reform, student loans, federal retirement and a handful of other areas that are outlined in fact sheets released by the White House on Monday morning. It notably chops off $2.8 billion in Environmental Protection Agency funding, representing a 31 percent decrease from the current fiscal year. Acknowledging the cuts to the State Department budget at an afternoon briefing, Doug Pitkin, director for the Bureau of Budget and Planning, acknowledged it does 'contain some reductions in some programs and efforts that the administration ...believes are either a lower priority or perhaps are not the best use of taxpayer dollars. 'An example of that is continuing to request lower amounts for contributions, international organizations, than Congress has provided as an effort to try to drive greater burden-sharing among those organizations,' Pitkin said. Key priorities in 'Budget for a Better America' as outlined in a White House list of talking points are 'addressing wasteful Washington spending, strengthening our southern border, promoting a healthy American economy, and maintaining a strong national defense.' Vought claimed the budget 'embodies fiscal responsibility, and takes aim at Washingtons waste, fraud, and abuse' by shaving $2.7 trillion, or five percent, off the previous fiscal year's non-defense, discretionary spending. 'We hope they have an interest in maintaining and getting rid of the deficit,' he said on CNBC. The administration projects that it would be able to end deficit spending in 15 years at this rate. Fiscal conservatives within the Republican Party have typically aspired to balance the budget in 10 years in their opening bids to Congress. A senior official acknowledged the discrepancy on Monday and said the administration is trying to send a message that 'we can no longer afford the bills that have been sent to us' to Congress and that dollar for dollar increases in non-defense spending is 'no longer affordable for this country.' 'We have open mind, we don't have an empty mind,' the person said of the administration's willingness to accept lawmakers' feedback. The White House's fiscal year 2020 budget proposes also proposes a five percent increase in defense appropriations, taking military spending up to $750 billion from the $716 billion allocated by Congress to the Pentagon in the current fiscal year FINISH THE WALL: One of his top priorities is border security. The White House claims that the 'crisis at our southern border has strained Federal resources and overwhelmed agencies charged with border security and immigration enforcement Trump's proposed increase in military spending and his commitment to leaving entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare out the equation had White House economists admitting that it would take significantly longer to meet his goal of a deficit neutral budget. 'Long term policy projections indicate that the proposals in this Budget would put us on track to reach balance by 2034,' the White House said in its talking points. 'This is a clear roadmap for a more fiscally responsible future if Congress chooses to follow it.' One of Trump's top and most costly priorities is border security. The White House claims that the 'crisis at our southern border has strained Federal resources and overwhelmed agencies charged with border security and immigration enforcement. 'The Federal Government must employ all lawful means to enforce the immigration laws of the United States and reduce the flow of illegal aliens and illegal drugs into the country,' it says. 'The Budget requests the resources necessary to continue constructing physical barriers on the border, increases the manpower of ICE and CBP, and proposes policy changes to end sanctuary cities.' His defense plan meanwhile reiterates his national security strategy's aims of achieving 'peace through strength' and restoring America's competitive advantage by investing in capabilities such as a space force, artificial intelligence, and hypersonics. Other highlighted areas include money to combat the opioid epidemic, higher education reforms, resources for veterans IT modernization within the federal government. The administration proposes to put $80 billion toward healthcare for vets - which is roughly a 10 percent increase from the current fiscal year - for 'veteran rehabilitation services, education and employment assistance, and suicide prevention.' Trump's border security proposal will go nowhere in the Democratic-run House chamber and it could be the cause of another stand-off with lawmakers at the end of the current fiscal year in September. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, said Trump's tax breaks for corporations, which his budget would make permanent, were already bad enough from a revenue perspective. 'Now hes contemplating cuts to health care, education, protection for our air and water, renewable energy programs, and critical infrastructure funding all to fund his Big Dumb Wall,' Whitehouse said. Appropriations Vice Chairman Sen. Pat Leahy, a Rhode Island Democrat, likewise took also took aim at the wall request. 'Yet again, the President seeks to extract billions of dollars from American taxpayers to fund an ineffective wall he promised Mexico would pay for and Republicans and Democrats in Congress have repeatedly rejected,' he said in a statement. 'This is not a serious proposal.' Leahy said that the White House should not 'waste our time on partisan proposals and failed policies' with the clock running out on the fiscal year. Congress has in recent years waited until late fall, and beyond the fiscal year deadline, to pass annual budgets. It uses continuing resolutions mirroring the prior year's appropriations to keep agencies up and running. Until votes on those bills fail, that is. A partial government shutdown lasted 35 days over the Christmas holiday and into the new Congress earlier this year while the president and Congress fought over his $5.7 billion request for border wall construction. He ultimately declared a national emergency to lock down funds that he reprogrammed from Treasury Department and Pentagon programs. Cabinet secretaries for both executive agencies are likely to be pressed by lawmakers on the national emergency spending as they present their budget requests to Congress, beginning with Steve Mnuchin, who is due to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee later this week. Democrats on the House Appropriations and Budget Committees, led by Nita Lowey and John Yarmuth respectively, wrote to Vought on Monday and asked for details on which programs the president plans to raid to pay for his border wall in the current fiscal year. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Schumer also released a joint statement on Sunday, when Trump's border wall request broke, to warn him that his new attempt to wring the money out of Congress would be blocked again. 'President Trump hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos when he recklessly shut down the government to try to get his expensive and ineffective wall, which he promised would be paid for by Mexico,' they wrote. 'Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again. We hope he learned his lesson.' Appearing on Fox News Sunday, the president's top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, admitted there could be tension again over the border wall that could result in another shutdown. 'I suppose there will be. I would just say that the whole issue of the wall, of border security, is of paramount importance. We have a crisis down there. I think the president has made that case very effectively,' he argued. Kudlow cautioned, 'He's going to stay with his wall, and he's going to stay with the border security theme. - I think it's essential.' Trump's proposed cuts to foreign aid have also been met with resistance by lawmakers from both parties. House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel said that it demonstrates 'contempt for diplomats and and development experts on the front lines of our foreign policy' in a 'stunning manner' that undermines American interests and security. 'For the third year in a row, the Presidents foreign affairs budget request is dead on arrival on Capitol Hill,' Engel said. 'Congress recognizes the enormous contributions and sacrifices made by the men and women carrying out this crucial work, and I predict that once again the Trump Administrations attempt to hollow out our international affairs budget will meet bipartisan rejection in Congress.' Areas that Vought said he could foresee Congress and the White House sharing common goals over included workforce development, childcare, infrastructure, and prescription drug pricing. 'But that's an important conversation that we're gonna have,' he said on CNBC. Pelosi and Schumer had cited programs that rebuild America and expand education and workforce development as areas with the potential for a partnership between the White House and Congress. A university student in east China nearly died after she underwent surgery to sell her eggs on a black market in order to buy a new iPhone. The 20-year-old woman received more than 10 injections to stimulate her ovaries before having surgery to remove her eggs, according to doctors who treated her at a hospital in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Three days after the operation at the illegal clinic, her health quickly deteriorated and she suffered severe abdominal bloating and difficulty breathing. The 20-year-old university student in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province received more than 10 injections to stimulate her ovaries before having surgery to remove her eggs (file photo) Before falling seriously ill, the woman sold her eggs for 10,000 yuan (1,100) and bought herself an iPhone XS Max, the hospital said in a statement on Friday. She had seen her classmates with the new Apple smartphone and had wanted one as well, but didn't want to ask her parents for money. Desperate for cash, she reached out to a clinic online after seeing a poster recruiting egg donors. A person told her that selling eggs 'does not cause harm to the body' and she would have to receive injections every day for half a month before doctors would remove her eggs. She would earn between 10,000 yuan (1,100) to 20,000 yuan (2,300) after completing the procedure, the person said, prompting the woman to agree to the surgery. Neither of the girl's parents were aware of her plan. Before falling seriously ill, the woman sold her eggs for 10,000 yuan (1,100) and bought herself an iPhone XS Max, the hospital said in a statement on Friday (file photo) Three days after the illegal surgery where her eggs were extracted, she sought the help of doctors at The First Affiliated Hospital of Medical School of Zhejiang University after falling ill. She was diagnosed with ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, which can happen when ovaries become too stimulated for egg growth and fluid builds up around them. Doctor Hu Jinhui of the hospital's gynaecology department said that more than five liters of fluid was drained from her abdomen. 'Her ovaries had expanded as if she had been pregnant for seven or eight months,' Dr Hu said. 'She also was in a lot of pain, had trouble breathing and her life was at risk.' Following three days' of treatment, the woman's condition has stabilised and she is expected to make a full recovery, the hospital said. She also finally admitted to doctors that she wanted the cash for a new smartphone. The woman was diagnosed with ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, which can happen when ovaries become too stimulated for egg growth and fluid builds up around them Doctor Hu Jinhui of the hospital's gynaecology department said that more than five liters of fluid was drained from her abdomen. The woman's condition was severe when she arrived Chinese authorities have been ramping up efforts to crack down on illegal surrogate clinics and the trades of sperms, eggs and fetus. The black market of 'underground eggs' has grown as more infertile couples try for more children after the scrapping of the one-child policy at the end of 2015. More than 45 million people in the country were infertile, the Global Times reported in 2017 citing the China Association of Reproductive Health Industry. Advertisements seeking egg donors can be found outside most public hospitals, and many uncertified clinics seek to recruit high school and college students as donors. Organisations and individuals are prohibited from conducting egg donations for the purpose of making profit, according to China's assisted reproductive technology code released by the National Health and Family Planning Commission in 2003. Three days after the illegal surgery where her eggs were extracted, she sought the help of doctors at The First Affiliated Hospital of Medical School of Zhejiang University after falling ill A man sold his organ on the black market in 2011 when he was 17 years old through three middlemen he chatted up on a messaging platform. Surgery took place at an uncertified clinic Only eggs left from IVF treatment could be used for donations, and their sale and purchase were strictly prohibited, the Global Times reported. In 2016, a 17-year-old girl almost died after selling 21 of her eggs for 15,000 yuan (1,700) in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. Apple products were once one of the most desirable electronic gadgets in China, but were priced beyond the reach of many people in the country. The price for an iPhone is often the whole month's salary of an office worker in a big city. A 25-year-old man who sold one of his kidneys when he was a teenager on the black market to buy a new iPhone and iPad is left disabled and bedbound in Anhui province. The Apple craze has slowed down significantly after products from Chinese tech firms such as Huawei and Xiaomi gained popularity. Last August, Huawei surpassed Apple and became the world's second largest smartphone maker in the world, behind Samsung. A witness to violent brawls between two groups in Melbourne's CBD has described how teenage Pacific Islander girls beat up African boys in chaotic scenes. Events planner Blagoja Stajkojic was on his way home from the Moomba Festival with friends when he came across a tense stand-off between two opposing groups. The Melbourne man claimed 100 African youths had staked their territory on the steps of Flinders Street Station and were playing rap music while a group of Pacific Islanders stood nearby. 'It was all really territorial. The Islanders were on the steps of Federation Square and groups of them just kept getting closer and closer. I could tell something was about to happen,' he told Daily Mail Australia. Scroll down for video Melbourne resident Blagoja Stajkojic said the low number of people taken into custody was more a reflection of light-handed policing than the severity of the brawling (brawl scenes pictured) A witness to violent brawls between ethnic groups in Melbourne's CBD has described how female Pacific Islander teenagers beat up African boys in chaotic scenes (youths pictured brawling on Flinders Street Station escalators in footage posted online) Mr Stajkojic, who managed to snap a photo of the two 'gangs' squaring up against each other, claimed things kicked off after glass bottles were thrown. He said there was only one winner in the crazed fighting, which rolled on for about three hours as dozens of riot squad officers roamed the city. 'Pound for pound the Pacific Islanders dominated the Africans. They were just bigger guys - three African guys got knocked unconscious,' he said. He also revealed the Pacific Islander girls were beating up the male African youths as well as their female adversaries, none of whom looked over the age of 18. Victoria Police arrested five people as a result of three separate fights at St Paul's Cathedral and Flinders Street Station between 10pm Saturday and 2.30am Sunday. Those arrests made up just a quarter of the total arrests over the course of the Moomba Festival weekend. But Mr Stajkojic said the low number of people taken into custody was more a reflection of light-handed policing than the severity of the brawling. Confronting footage taken outside St Paul's Cathedral showed dozens of young men and women watch as a topless man threw punches (pictured) He said despite the violence, police appeared to deter the large groups of youths with their presence rather than their handcuffs. The events planner said he only saw one girl in the crowds of youths get arrested - and that was simply for screaming in a public place and being 'belligerent'. 'The police seemed to be there just to give their presence - and deploy capsicum spray to disperse the crowds,' he said. But he added that the tactics didn't stop the youths fighting, as the Pacific Islanders would simply use the Federation Square fountain to wash their eyes out and go again. Dramatic footage posted online showed more than a dozen teenagers sprinting down a set of escalators at Flinders Street station. They appeared to corner a smaller group of boys and lay into them with flying kicks and punches as others encouraged them from a distance. Just two minutes away at St Paul's Cathedral, dozens of young men and women were filmed watching as a topless man threw punches at the crowd. The brawls coincided with Melbourne's Moomba Festival, a three-day free family event run by the council (pictured officers usher a camera away) The violent incidents came despite Victoria Police promising a dedicated presence throughout the city during the Moomba Festival (man is pictured being subdued by police) The brawls coincided with Melbourne's Moomba Festival, a three-day free event run by the council. The festival has been spoiled by youth gang violence for the past four years. Police arrested 24 people in 2016, and more than 50 in 2017 when young thugs from the Apex gang ran riot through the city centre. Saturday night's violent incidents came despite Victoria Police pre-empting trouble by surrounding the family-friendly event and promising a dedicated police presence throughout the city. Despite the violent clashes, Victoria Police Commander Tim Hansen said the footage showed a very isolated side of what the family friendly festival was about. 'We have been happy with the event. This is a big city event. We deployed in excess of a thousand extra shifts over three days,' he said according to The Herald Sun. A former U.S. soldier nicknamed 'Rambo' who became a mercenary for drug dealers was sentenced to life in prison for arranging a contract killing. Joseph Hunter, a decorated U.S. Army sniper instructor with Special Forces training, was convicted over the killing of a broker who was shot in the face in cold blood. The 53-year-old and two other ex-American soldiers agreed to become contract killers for an international crime boss who wanted to settle a score with real estate agent, Catherine Lee, in the Philippines in February 2012. Two other ex-soldiers, Adam Samia, 44, and Carl David Stillwell, 51, both of Roxboro, North Carolina, arranged for Lee to show them several real estate properties. During the viewing Samia then shot Lee twice in the face with a pistol that had a silencer before he and Stillwell dumped her body on a pile of garbage, prosecutors said. Joseph Hunter being arrested in Thailand in 2013. The former army sniper instructor became a mercenary for criminals and plotted contract killings around the world Joseph Manuel Hunter sitting on the floor at the time of his arrest in Phuket, Thailand, following a raid by police Samia and Stillwell, convicted at trial along with Hunter, were already sentenced to life in prison. Hunter was also already serving a 20-year sentence for conspiracy to kill a DEA agent, in a case that was described as 'ripped from the pages of a Tom Clancy novel'. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in 2013 upon his arrest: 'The sentencing of Joseph Hunter...ends another chapter in a chilling criminal case that spanned the globe.' Hunter was brought to the United States in 2013 to face conspiracy charges. He pleaded guilty in 2016 after being caught in a sting operation mounted with the help of his former boss, Paul Le Roux, an international criminal kingpin who turned government snitch after being arrested in 2012. Hunter potted to kill the DEA agent and informant and a cooperating witness in Liberia in 2013, as well as recruiting others for assassination assignments. Hunter was to be paid $100,000 while two snipers he recruited were to be paid $700,000, prosecutors said. Hunter was arrested occurred in Phuket, Thailand, but authorities said he and his gang ranged all over southeast Asia trafficking drugs. Hunter arranged for two other ex-soldiers to assassinate real estate agent Catherine Lee, in the Philippines in February 2012 But it was the killing of Lee in the Philippines that resulted in a conviction at trial and sentencing last Thursday. Prosecutors said after leaving the military, Hunter tortured, kidnapped and killed people for years along with other former soldiers. U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams in Manhattan said he carried out his crimes, including arranging the February 2012 murder of a real estate agent in the Philippines, for money. The judge said she had never before seen such a 'total and complete lack of respect for human life'. Judge Abrams said Hunter had 'planned and committed truly horrific crimes' and then spoke of kidnapping, torture and assassination to recruits as if 'it was a business, plain and simple'. 'Rambo' Hunter was arrested in Phuket, Thailand, and was initially handed a 20-year prison sentence before receiving a life term for a separate plot The judge, who recalled re-watching videos introduced at trial of Hunter instructing recruits as she prepared for the sentencing, added: 'I was struck by how matter-of-fact it was.' She said the only emotion she detected was pride as Hunter said the work would be like performing in a 'James Bond' movie. 'This wasn't a movie. Real lives were taken,' Abrams added. Hunter tried to portray himself as a victim of his ex-boss, programmer-turned-outlaw Paul Le Roux (pictured) over the plot to kill a DEA agent The life prison sentence announced by Abrams was mandatory. Hunter, listed with the alias 'Rambo' in an indictment, was serving a 20-year prison term after another conviction. A defense lawyer, Arnold Jay Levine, had cited post-traumatic stress disorder as a mitigating factor, saying years in the military had taken a toll on Hunter. 'The country still owes something to Mr. Hunter', he said. Hunter, from Owensboro, Kentucky, who served in the U.S. Army from 1983 to 2004, declined to speak before the sentence was announced. In the Army Hunter led air-assault and airborne infantry squads, served as a sniper instructor and trained soldiers in marksmanship. In a statement, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: 'With zero regard for human life, Joseph Hunter callously helped to arrange the murder of a Filipino woman in exchange for money. 'He and his co-defendants have now been sentenced to life behind bars for their heartless crimes.' In a recording during his 2016 trial, the former sniper instructor told his crew about past exploits and boasting about past exploits, including 'bonus work' or assassinations. He bragged about smuggling gold and weapons from Jakarta to the Philippines on ships. A Chicago police officer was found dead Sunday from what is thought to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The body of Detective Eric Concialdi, 44, was found by another cop in his home in what is feared to be the sixth officer suicide within the last six months. Concialdi was not on duty at the time his body was found at his residence on West Monroe street, according to police and the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. An autopsy has been scheduled to confirm the official cause of death. A sixth Chicago police officer is believed to have taken his own life, after Detective Eric Concialdi, 44, was found dead on Sunday from what is thought to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was found by another officer in his home on West Monroe Street (pictured) If Concialdi's death is ruled to be a suicide, it will be the third officer to have taken his or her own life this year, and the sixth within the past six months The Chicago Police Department veteran of 16 years was a detective for Area South. If Concialdi's death is ruled to be a suicide, it will be the third officer to have taken his or her own life this year, and the sixth within the past six months. In 2018 there were at least 158 police officer suicides throughout the US, according to the organization Blue H.E.L.P. There were 140 police officer suicides and 103 firefighter suicides nationwide in 2017, according to The Ruderman Family Foundation. Breaking the silence around mental health is crucial for preventing suicides, Miriam Heyman, senior program officer for the Ruderman Family Foundation, said. 'The more that police chiefs and fire chiefs talk openly and frequently about self-care, and wellbeing, and accessing services when needed, the more likely the people under them will actually access those services,' Heyman said. In Chicago, police officer Dane Smith, 36, killed himself on New Years Day, marking the fifth suicide in the city in half of a year. Smith is pictured In Chicago, police officer Dane Smith, 36, killed himself on New Years Day, marking the fifth suicide in the city in half of a year. He was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Chicago's Jefferson Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side, which is where he lived, ABC News reported. Back in September, Chicago officer Regine Perpignan was found dead in her car. At that time, she was the third officer to have killed herself in the area, in recent months. DailyMail.com has reached out to the Chicago Police Department for the names of the remaining officers who have passed and is awaiting a reply. For confidential support in the US, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or click here. For confidential support on suicide matters in the UK, call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90, visit a local Samaritans branch or click here. For confidential support in Australia, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or click here. Advertisement A bushfire is raging through a national park towards a coastal holiday town on Australia's east coast. As of Monday night the massive fire is burning south through Burrum Coast National Park, north of Noosa in southeast Queensland. Residents from the idyllic seaside town Woodgate have been told to be ready to evacuate as conditions for the blaze worsen. A bushfire is raging through a national park towards a coastal holiday town as firefighters have issued an emergency warning for residents to be prepared to flee As of Monday night the massive fire is burning south through Burrum Coast National Park, north of Noosa in southeast Queensland 'There is a bushfire in Woodgate. You need to be ready to follow your bushfire survival plan. If you do not have a plan, or intend to leave, you should be ready to leave the area because the situation could get worse quickly,' a warning issued from QLD Fire and Emergency Services reads. 'Fire crews are working to contain the fire but firefighters may not be able to protect every property,' the statement reads. 'The fire is likely to impact Woodgate Road, between the rail crossing and Woppis Road.' Woodgate Rural Fire Brigade is working hard to contain the blaze. On Sunday they posted pictures to social media of the fires in Burrum Coast National Park and their efforts to battle them. 'A number of fires 'broke out' in the Kinkina Section of the national park this morning,' the caption to the pictures reads. Residents in the coastal holiday town of Woodgate have been told to be ready to evacuate as conditions for the blaze worsen and firefighters battle to contain the fire 'There is a bushfire in Woodgate. You need to be ready to follow your bushfire survival plan,' a statement from QLD Fire and Emergency Services reads On Sunday they posted pictures to social media of the fires in Burrum Coast National Park and their efforts to battle them 'This afternoon 18 appliances from rural brigades in the Bundaberg area, as well as 3 helicopters, bulldozers and a number of Parks crews worked to control the fires which are well into the middle of the park away from main roads. Crews are at the fire tonight and we will be out there tomorrow.' On Monday afternoon they posted a picture of a backburning operation near Woodgate to social media. 'Sorry about the smoke in town, we are busy backburning a very large block in the centre of the park between the beach road and the railway line. The wind is from the north hence the smoke in Woodgate and further south,' the caption to the picture reads. A severely malnourished 19-year-old girl died in her mother's arms after doctors in Venezuela were forced to turn her away because a massive blackout shut down a hospital. Heartbroken mother Elizabeth Diaz was forced to carry her daughter's body, which weighed just 22 pounds, through the streets to a morgue. Diaz visited a local Integral Diagnostic Center [CDI] in the northern city of Valencia on Saturday night but was immediately turned away by doctors because their shift had ended because the facility didn't have any electricity. The mother was advised to visit another medical center in Las Lomas where she was assured the staff could provide treatment for her daughter's cerebral palsy and chronic malnourishment. WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES Elizabeth Diaz (center) carries the body of her daughter, who died Saturday after the Venezuelan massive blackout didn't allow doctors to treat the young woman The 19-year-old was suffering from cerebral paralysis and chronic malnourishment According to Diaz, the young woman was repeatedly convulsing and her condition worsened before she felt her daughter's body stiffen. Upon arriving at the second hospital, the family was shunned at the entrance because it didn't have a functional backup power generator. Diaz's daughter died her arms moments later. The heartbroken mother then carried her daughter's body through the darkened streets to a local morgue. The mother's dire economical situation hasn't allowed her to reclaim her daughter's body for a proper burial service. The images of the teenager's sudden death have gone viral, and it has turned into perhaps one of the lowest points in the ongoing saga that has pitted the Nicolas Maduro regime against a nation that has been pleading for basic necessities like food, water and medicine. Nicolas Maduro (front center) blames the United States for sabotaging Venezuela's electrical system since Thursday Interim president Juan Guaido confirmed the deaths of 17 patients, who died inside hospitals during the four-day power outage in Venezuelan. Most of the victims were awaiting treatment for dialysis The massive power outage left the South American nation without electricity for four days although some of the country's 23 states had sporadic electricity Sunday Maduro went as far as casting blame on the United States, accusing it of sabotaging the Guri hydroelectric dam in the southeastern state of Bolivar. It's responsible for generating over 60 percent of the nation's electricity. The ongoing crisis in Venezuela, which has dealt a severe blow to its healthcare system, has led to an exodus of more than 3 million Venezuelans, most of whom have fled to neighboring South American countries. Maduro on Sunday tweeted that he had taken steps to ensure the distribution of basic necessities, including food and water, to hospitals and other places. In the capital city of Caracas, firefighters were spotted helping residents fill containers with water drawn out from a nearby river as the electrical outage has prevented people from receiving drinking waters at their homes. Maduro also posted a video that showed him with a two-way radio, purportedly talking to military commanders and governors. The embattled socialist leader said the "macabre strategy" to make Venezuelans desperate and turn them against each other would fail. Lines at fuel stations extended for blocks as drivers queued for gasoline and buses waited to fill up with diesel. State oil company PDVSA said on Sunday that fuel supplies were guaranteed. But only around 100 of the country's 1,800 service stations were operating due to the blackout, according to gas station industry sources. An explosion at an electrical substation in Caracas shortly before midnight on Sunday left 10 neighborhoods in the dark. The outage left the South American nation without electricity for four days although some of the country's 23 states had sporadic electricity Sunday. However, it wasn't sufficient enough to avoid the deaths of 17 patients - 15 of them in the city of Maturin - which were confirmed by interim president Juan Guaido. Residents (pictured) retrieve water from the Avila National Park in Caracas A group of firemen (pictured in navy blue t-shirts and pants) fill water containers in Caracas A substation exploded early Monday morning at the government-operated electrical company site in Caracas Venezuelan authorities opened up their of the Francisco de Paula Santander International Bridge in the city of Urena and permitted students and patients (pictured) to cross into Colombia Most of the victims died because they weren't able to receive their scheduled dialysis treatments. Venezuela's hospitals, already struggling with shortages of supplies and equipment amid an economic meltdown, entered crisis mode on Thursday when the oil-rich South American nation's power system went down. Public hospitals typically have generators to provide back-up electricity in the event of an outage, but doctors consulted by Reuters said they were either damaged or idled for lack of fuel. Health Minister Carlos Alvarado didn't mention the reported deaths in comments on state television. However, he said more than 90 percent of generators that were part of a government contingency plan successfully provided power to Venezuelan hospitals, ensuring there were no major problems for seriously ill patients. Natalia Glushkova, the daughter of the former Aeroflot deputy director Nikolay Glushkov said her father's death looked like 'cheap, set-up' suicide The daughter of a murdered Kremlin critic said his death will 'haunt' her forever as she recalled discovering his body in a 'trashy set-up of a suicide'. Natalia Glushkova said she cries every day and feels as though she has been 'inserted into some sort of different reality' as she tries to cope a year after her father's death. Former Aeroflot deputy director Nikolay Glushkov was found apparently strangled in his home in New Malden, south-west London, a week after the Novichok poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury. The body of the 68-year-old Russian businessman, a close friend of Vladimir Putin critic Boris Berezovsky, was discovered by his daughter on March 12 last year. Miss Glushkova, who is in her 30s, has appealed for help to find out what happened to her father. She said: 'My father was the most important person in my life and he was an amazing man. He was extremely caring, smart, funny and wise and he gave me so much support and love throughout my life, but especially so when I came to live in the UK, where we grew even closer. 'I will never forget the 12th March 2018 and I still live with the picture of my father when I found him that day. That image will haunt me for my whole life. It is something that I thought could only happen to other people or in the movies, but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw and don't think I will ever fully recover from it. Quite simply, it has left me devastated. Nikolai Glushkov, 68, was found dead by his daughter, Natalia, right, at his suburban home in New Malden just eight days after the nerve agent attack on spy Sergei Skripal in March 2018 'Not knowing how or why he was killed or who did it makes this even harder. I know that there will be somebody somewhere who will have information that could help the police with their investigation. If you do, then I ask, please come forward and tell them. 'Nothing will be able to bring my father back, but getting some answers as to what happened, I hope, will in some way help me and my family start to move on and focus on what a great and wonderful man my father was, rather than what happened to him last year.' She told the Guardian: 'I could see some traces of physical harm done to him. 'The picture was so trashy. It looked like a cheap set-up of a suicide. 'I had never seen any sort of depression in him,' she said, adding that she believed there could be a link between her father's death and the Salisbury poisoning. A black Volkswagen van that detectives investigating the suspected murder of Nikolay Glushkov want to trace (Metropolitan Police/PA) Police said at the time they wanted to find the driver of the Volkswagen Transporter filmed near Nikolay Glushkov's suburban house the night before he was found dead. Mr Glushkov fled Russia after being accused of fraud during his time at Aeroflot. After a trial in absentia he was sentenced to eight years in a Russian prison, convicted of stealing 87 million from the airline. London forensics officers erecting sheeting at the home in New Malden of former Aeroflot deputy director Nikolay Glushkov (Image March 2018) He was due to attend the Commercial Court in London to defend himself on Monday March 12, 2018 the day his body was discovered. He previously feared he had been poisoned in 2013 by mystery Russians who gave him Champagne, according to a paramedic who treated him. Miss Glushkova said: 'Apparently I have his character, and somewhere deep inside I must be a strong person, but I don't think I'm in any way recovered. 'I can hold my tears, I can smile, I can live a life but what happens behind it, nobody will know, nobody will see, but it's just my little world in which I emerged since last year, and it is hard to deal with it, impossible to deal with it, and I think it will haunt me my whole life, but it's something I need to get used to now.' Police outside the home of Nikolay Glushkov in New Malden, south-west London, in March 2018 (Yui Mok/PA) Mr Glushkov's friend Boris Berezovsky was found dead in his Berkshire home in 2013 and the death of another of their circle, Badri Patarkatsishvili, is also unexplained Miss Glushkova would not be drawn on who may have been responsible for her father's death, instead referring to the 'ongoing investigation'. Mr Glushkov, an outspoken critic of Putin, was strangled but police were initially unsure if it was suicide No arrests have been made since Scotland Yard launched a murder probe four days after the businessman's body was found. However, detectives have contacted more than 1,800 witnesses and taken almost 400 statements. Officers have also viewed 2,200hrs of CCTV footage and 1,200 exhibits - including forensic samples, as well as physical items - have been collected as part of the investigation. Miss Glushkova said it was 'literally devastating' to not know what happened to her father, urging people to 'care and spend time with the ones they love, as much as they can, and never think there is a tomorrow for somebody they care about'. She added: 'I think life puts its own judgment to those who deserve it. 'And I am not in power to say what should happen to who, but hope dies the last and I just want this investigation to come to some good ending, rather than just remain open for the whole time.' Miss Glushkova also revealed that she has been in touch with the families of her father's past business associates and friends, including relatives of Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who was fatally poisoned in 2006. She said she has not returned to Russia and has no plans to do so. 'I am settled here and my life is here now,' she added. The Metropolitan Police said officers had contacted more than 1,800 witnesses, viewed 2,200 hours of CCTV footage and collected 1,200 exhibits during their investigation. Commander Clarke Jarrett, head of the Met's counter-terrorism command, which is investigating the murder, said: 'Mr Glushkov was murdered a year ago and we have made and continue to make extensive inquiries to establish the motive and identify anyone who may have been involved. 'We remain absolutely committed and determined to identify and bring those responsible for his murder to justice and I would urge anyone who may have information to contact us. Alternatively, you can contact the Crimestoppers charity, which is completely anonymous.' Angered protesters have gathered outside the Courts of Justice in central London today over the government plans to expand Heathrow Airport. A coalition of local councils, environmentalists and London residents have taken the government to court over the proposals for the third runway. They claim authorities failed to properly address the impact on air quality, climate change, noise and congestion that expansion would bring. London Mayor Sadiq Khan is also backing the lawsuit which will be heard over two days. Parliament approved plans last year for the third runway, backing what the government described as the most important transportation project in a generation. Prime Minister Theresa May has said the expansion will boost economic growth. Speaking outside the court, shadow chancellor John McDonnell said he had 'been involved in the campaign against Heathrow since the early '80s'. Protesters say the plans for the third runway are not taking into account the detrimental impact it will have on the area He said that 'over that period of time, we have discovered the implications of air pollution and noise pollution'. The MP for Hayes and Harlington added that 'the campaign has gone from a 'nimbyist' campaign to one that is about climate change and saving the planet'. Mr McDonnell said: 'This is an iconic battleground in terms of climate change.' However, there are many who are also in support of plans saying the expansion will bring vital jobs to the area. Executive director of Back Heathrow Parmjit Dhanda said: 'There is an awful lot of support for this project. It is really important that we see both sides of the argument. My worry is that sometimes we don't.' He added that supporters of Heathrow expansion were part of the 'silent majority - they get on with their lives, they get on with their jobs and their jobs invariably depend on Heathrow airport as the biggest local employer'. Mr Dhanda said: 'I think if this expansion did not go ahead, it would be a disaster for Britain in a post-Brexit world.' A counter-protest from those who believe the expansion will bring vital jobs was held Some residents near Heathrow support the plans to build the third runway He added: 'This project has been on the starting blocks for decades, and it's now time to get on and build it. There have been no new runways built in London or the South-East of England since the Second World War, and our airports are full to capacity. 'The new runway project has the capacity to create up to 180,000 new jobs and 10,000 apprenticeships, as well the chance to create new prosperity at a financially challenging time for our country. 'Most importantly, we know from independent polling that more local people support the project than oppose it, and MPs from both sides have backed it by a majority of 296. The time is right and the process has been robust. We hope the courts will back democracy and back the needs of our country and let Heathrow create the jobs and prosperity the country needs.' Zac Goldsmith, Conservative MP for Richmond Park and North Kingston, argued: 'It is a massive issue locally, but it's a London issue. If you look at the proposals for flight paths, they are not specific, but they affect most of London.' He added that he thought Parliament could vote differently if the Government's National Policy Statement, setting out its support for Heathrow expansion, was quashed by the High Court. Support from Labour MPs helped push through the proposals to expand Europe's busiest airport with an overwhelming majority of 296 in a Commons vote. Asked if he thought MPs could vote differently, Mr Goldsmith said: 'I think if the court rules that Heathrow is not compatible, for example with our pollution levels, then yes.' A coalition made up of residents and councils are hoping to end the third runway plans Dozens gathered outside the Royal Courts of Justice over the plans for a third runway He added that the 'economic case' for Heathrow expansion had 'crumbled'. Back Heathrow is a grassroots organisation of over 100,000 local people who want to see a bigger, better and environmentally sustainable Heathrow airport, true to the recommendations of the 2015 Independent Airport's Commission report. However Craig Bennett, CEO of Friends of the Earth, said the environmental group's case against Heathrow expansion is 'focused very much on climate change'. Protesters held banners and called for no change to Heathrow - but those in support say the new jobs are needed post-Brexit He added that the group was concerned with the 'complete failure of the Government to properly consider scientific evidence on climate change and particularly the requirements of the Paris Agreement'. Mr Bennett said: 'That is such a fundamental failing that, if we win the case here, we think the Government will be forced to withdraw and draft a new National Policy Statement (NPS).' He added: 'We absolutely do not see how you can have aviation expansion in the UK... while cutting our carbon emissions by 50% in the next 12 years.' Mr Bennett also said: 'MPs are wholly ignorant of climate science and the requirements of the Paris Agreement.' He said that, if the NPS was quashed by the High Court and MPs voted through Heathrow expansion for a second time, they would be 'totally failing in their duty to society'. Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is making a cinematic return to America after falling of the U.S. political map, in a documentary film that reveals he believed he was the key to Donald Trump's 2016 victory but detested working in the West Wing in 2017. 'If I had not come in as the CEO of the campaign, Trump would not have won,' Bannon boasts in 'The Brink,' a biopic that screened last month at the Sundance Film Festival. And early in the film, reviewers have noted, he explains why he would allow a camera-wielding documentarian to follow him nearly non-stop for 15 months. 'Trump taught me a great lesson,' he says. 'Theres no bad media.' A trailer released Monday provides a hint of how far that logic might stretch on the big screen. Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon allowed a documentary filmmaker to shadow him for 15 months; the result is an unflattering biopic that opens in theaters this month Bannon, pictured in his White House office in 2017, complained that he 'hated every second' of the job and boasted that without him the nation would have Hillary Clinton as president President Donald Trump made Bannon his campaign CEO less than three months before Election Day 2016; Bannon boasts that he was the secret to Trump's success In one scene Bannon literally bangs his head against a cabinet repeatedly as he strains to bend the White House's bureaucracy to his will. 'There's no glamor to the job at all. I hated every second I was there,' he says, mirroring sentiments he expressed while he was still in the job. 'Why keep doing it?' DailyMail.com once asked him in his West Wing office? 'Some s**t has got to get done, dude' he replied. 'It's just got to, and some bastard has to do it.' In a series of text messages Monday, Bannon declined to comment about the film on the record. The president came to hate his onetime ideological link to America's right-wing voters, firing him and then blasting him on Twitter as a press-leaking 'Sloppy Steve' a jab at his unmade-bed approach to fashion. But most of 'The Brink' concerns Bannon's present, not his past, cobbling together a coalition of far-right political parties and their allies in an agglomeration known as 'The Movement.' The trailer's crescendo dead-ends into a newspaper interview scene in which Guardian reporter Paul Lewis accuses him of playing to the worst of Europe by turning billionaire financier George Soros into his immigration 'amnesty' whipping-boy. 'You're doing dog-whistle anti-Semitism here,' Lewis charges, after blasting him for making common cause with Europeans 'connected to neo-fascism, energizing hate.' 'Hate black people, hate Muslims, it's not right,' says Lewis. The president once considered Bannon's voice one worth listening to; ultimately he fired him, blaming him for press leaks, and claled him 'Sloppy Steve' on Twitter 'The Brink' makes a subtle case that Bannon is using money of nefarious origins to organize a movement of far-right political parties across Europe, an attempt to move the political needle as an entrepreneur the way he couldn't amid the White House's bureaucracy Bannon says in the movie that Trump taught him there's no such thing as bad press; 'The Brink' will test that theory The trailer depicts him sowing the seeds of Trumpian immigration politics in several countries during the summer of 2018, accompanied by former Breitbart News London bureau chief Raheem Kassam. Kassam recently purchased the dusty conservative weekly newspaper Human Events and plans to re-birth it farther away from the political center as a 'MAGAzine.' He no longer moves in Bannon's orbit. But the pair are shown entertaining former UK Independence Party chief Nigel Farage as he warns that 'the real battle is not in Washington; this is the future of all our states.' Mischael Modrikamen, the co-founder and leader of Belgium's right-wing People's Party, derides 'Islam, so-called refugees.' In another scene, after he advises the leaders of Marine Le Pen's National Rally party, formerly named National Front, director Alison Klayman interjects: 'What did I just watch? Are you now consulting for the National Rally Party? 'And your point?' Bannon replies with a chuckle. 'Every nationalist party that looks viable, I'm trying to help,' he says. 'The Brink' opens March 29 in theaters, directed by Alison Klayman (left) He does it with a well-thumbed copy of 'The War Years, 1861-1864,' the second volume of Carl Sandburg's three-part biography of Abraham Lincoln. Bannon famously carries it everywhere he goes, equal parts inspiration and affectation. Bannon carries this edition of volume 2 of Carl Sandburg's Abraham Lincoln biography wherever he goes 'They wish to get rid of me, and I am sometimes half disposed to gratify them,' he reads aloud in one scene, casting himself as Honest Abe commiserating with the Republican Senator Orville Browning in 1862 after a jealous Secretary of State William Seward threatened his resignation. 'We are now on the brink of destruction. It appears to me the Almighty is against us,' Lincoln said then, 'and I can hardly see a ray of hope.' Bannon is 'a keen manipulator of the press and gifted self-promoter,' distributor Magnolia Pictures said Monday in a press release. 'Bannon continues to draw headlines and protests wherever he goes, feeding the powerful myth on which his survival relies.' Klayman says in a written Q&A distributed to reporters that she saw the limits of Bannon's intellect. '[T]here I was filming quietly, seething, screaming in my head, and he would say things that weren't true, or infuriated me,' says Klayman. 'He thrives on arguing, and because he doesn't have respect for the truth, or for nuance, I came to see that his understanding of many things was thin. When he doesn't have an answer for something, he changes the topic.' 'The Brink' opens in theaters on March 29, and will get a public screening Tuesday in Washington. Rosa Rivera, 28, has been charged with stabbing to death her 11-year-old daughter Sunday A Florida mother has been arrested on a murder charge after investigators say she stabbed her 11-year-old daughter to death to stop her from having sex with the girl's grandmother's boyfriend. Rosa Rivera, 28, was arrested at around 11am on Sunday outside Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies in Orlando, where she arrived with the lifeless body of her child, Aleyda Rivera, in the passenger seat of her car. According to sheriff's officials, Rivera drove up to valet parking at the medical facility and asked for medical assistance for her daughter. Aleyda, who would have turned 12 on Thursday, was pronounced dead at the scene from 15 stab wounds, reported Fox35. Scroll down for video Aleyda, who would have turned 12 on Thursday, was pronounced dead at the scene from 15 stab wounds Rivera, 28, was arrested at around 11am on Sunday outside Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies in Orlando, where she arrived with the lifeless body of her child in the car Rivera was arrested at Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies in Orlando, where she arrived by car with her daughter's body in the passenger seat Rivera pulled up to valet parking in her black sedan (pictured) and asked for assistance for her daughter, Aleyda, who was already dead Police officers who were called to the scene later described the mother as 'argumentative.' Lt Diego Toruno, a spokesperson for the Orlando Police Department, said the 28-year-old suspect became combative with hospital staff and pulled a blood-stained knife on them, causing the hospital to briefly go on lockdown. Rivera was detained by security and police officers, and was later booked on a first-degree murder count. According to an arrest affidavit released on Monday morning, Rivera confessed to killing her daughter. Rivera was detained by security and police officers, and was later booked on a first-degree murder count Rivera (pictured after her arrest) allegedly confessed to killing the girl, who would have turned 12 on Thursday. She has been charged with first-degree murder 'My baby is gone,' she was quoted as telling first responders, reported WFTV. Sheriff's officials said the mother took the child to the home of her own mother's boyfriend Sunday and accused him of having sex with Aleyda. The child denied it. Rivera told authorities she stabbed the girl while in the car, and that she attempted to make Aleyda comfortable while she was knifing her in the back. According to the document, Rivera said she believed her daughter was sexually active because the 11-year-old smiled 'different.' 'Rivera stated she believed with her actions that her daughter is now in heaven,' the affidavit said. The engine of a Boeing 737-900 shut down late Sunday on a United Airlines flight as it was making its descent into Houston, Texas. Flight 1168 was carrying 174 passengers and six crew members when engine trouble began as the plane neared George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. The Boeing 737-900 was traveling from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. Passenger Chris Morrison told KHOU 11 that he was near the left side wing when the plane started vibrating. United Airlines Flight 1168 was carrying 174 passengers and six crew members when engine trouble began late Sunday. It landed safely at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston A number of emergency vehicles were in attendance when the plane landed. A Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman said there was no evidence of fire or smoke 'I saw a flash of light outside the window. I was sitting right on the wing where the engine had the issue,' Morrison said. Another passenger said he saw flames coming from the engine. The plane landed safely, with emergency crews responding. A Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman, Lynn Lunsford, said there was no evidence of fire or smoke. Lunsford added that crews were taking a closer look at the plane Monday. Some people suffered minor injuries while evacuating the plane, according to United spokeswoman Rachael Rivas. People stand near collected debris at the crash site of Ethiopia Airlines Boeing 737 that crashed on March 10 Rescuers work at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines flight crash near Bishoftu. The jet that landed in Houston on Sunday after developing engine problems was a Boeing 737-900 - not the same model as the Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 plane The cause of the engine failure is as yet unknown. The jet involved was a Boeing 737-900, not the same model as the Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 plane that fatally crashed on Sunday. The Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8 came down minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa for Nairobi, killing 157 people. Sunday's fatal crash comes just months after another 737 Max 8 crashed in Indonesia killing 189 people. An American Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8, on a flight from Miami to New York City, lands at LaGuardia Airport on Monday Indonesia and China have grounded all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, while Ethiopian Airlines and Cayman Airways are doing the same in the wake of the tragedy Indonesia and China have now grounded all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, while Ethiopian Airlines and Cayman Airways are doing the same in the wake of the tragedy. Boeing announced on Monday it would delay the launch of its new 777X jetliner. Shares in Boeing are set to see $21 billion wiped off their value after stocks fell 12 per cent during early trading Monday. The producer of Brexit: The Movie is facing jail after admitting he faked his earnings to secure a half a million pound investment for a business venture. Tory activist David Shipley, 36, convinced Resourcing Capital Ventures he could begin his own financial recruitment company after photoshopping wage receipts for business presentations. The corporate finance executive admitted a single count of fraud by false representation at Southwark Crown Court. The producer of Brexit: The Movie, David Shipley, 36, is facing jail after admitting he faked his earnings using false invoices to secure a 519,000 investment for his corporate finance firm Spitfire Capital Advisors Limited Shipley used the fake invoices to secure 519,000 for his corporate finance firm, Spitfire Capital Advisors Limited. A second investor ploughed a further 450,000 into the venture to cover the companys debts. Prosecutor Gareth Munday said: He (Shipley) lied to a potential investor in a new start-up business. The company would not have existed but for the lies that Mr Shipley told about being able to meet payments. The prosecutor said Shipley had no income whatsoever when he made the false claims. Benjamin Narain, defending said: He is 36 with no previous convictions. He accepts there is a risk of a custodial sentence. There is a background to this case of what might be described as erratic behaviour in the workplace - it may be indicative of a nervous breakdown. He added that Shipley had been suffering from severe bowel issues and was expected to undergo exploratory surgery in the coming weeks. Judge Michael Grieve QC said: It is a case of fraud involving 500,000 so a custodial sentence is a likely outcome. Brexit: The Movie was released a month before the referendum, in May 2016, and starred the then leader of Ukip Nigel Farage alongside other well known Brexiteers included former Brexit secretary David Davis and The Spectator columnist James Delingpole. The film, which had a budget of around 300,000, was part funded through the crowdfunding site Kickstarter and premiered at the Leicester Square Odeon. Writing about the documentary on the influential ConservativeHome blog, Shipley said: Between producing Brexit: The Movie, working with a wide variety of Leave groups to distribute it and pounding the streets, the campaign consumed all of my free time. Brexit: The Movie was released a month before the referendum, in May 2016, and starred the then leader of Ukip Nigel Farage alongside other well known Brexiteers included former Brexit secretary David Davis and The Spectator columnist James Delingpole I want Britain to be a positive, self-governing, outward-looking country that attracts the best and the brightest from across the world to study, work and live here. Shipley admitted one count of fraud by false representation. A further count of fraud by abuse of position was ordered to lie on file. He was bailed on condition that he hand over his passport, refrain from applying for foreign travel documents and that he live and sleep each night at his address in Great Missenden. Shipley will return for sentence at Southwark Crown Court on 25 April. Emergency workers were called to Amazon warehouses across the United States at least 189 times for suicide threats and mental health breakdowns between 2013 and 2018, a new report has revealed. Audio from 911 calls, obtained by The Daily Beast, contain the shocking descriptions of several suicide attempts. Some of the Amazon workers are heard describing co-workers as having suicidal thoughts, overdosing and attempting to cut themselves with box cutters. The reports came from all over the country, including Twinsburg, Ohio; Hebron, Kentucky; Joliet, Illinois and Chester, Virginia, to name just a few. In one case, the employee at the Hebron location threatened to stab herself in the stomach. She was pregnant at the time and other employees had fears that she would harm the baby. Amazon has made headlines on several occasions regarding the company's 'hellish' working conditions. Scroll down for video Emergency workers were called to Amazon warehouses (pictured, Lebanon, Tennessee) across the US at least 189 times for suicide threats and mental health breakdowns between 2013 and 2018, a new report has revealed In January 2015, a young man threatened to 'jump from [the] second floor' of the warehouse in Chester, according to the Daily Beast. The report says that the 911 calls came from 46 warehouses in 17 states. That total is roughly a quarter of the sorting and fulfillment centers that make up the company's US network. Employees who spoke to the Daily Beast described the relentless pressure from working at Amazon. They described a work environment where employees are treated 'like robots' in an 'isolating colony of hell'. Jace Crouch, a former Amazon employee in Lakeland, Florida, told the news outlet that 'people having breakdowns is a regular occurrence'. Crouch, who had his own emotional crisis while on the job, said it is 'mentally taxing to do the same task super fast for 10-hour shifts, four or five days a week'. Another former employee from the Etna, Ohio, warehouse said it was often impossible to physically keep up with the workload. 'Even if it isn't your fault, they ignore any explanation that you could give,' the employee told the Daily Beast, adding that he feared for his job. A former employee from the Etna, Ohio, warehouse (pictured) said it was often impossible to physically keep up with the workload Five of the six current or former Amazon workers who were interviewed by the Daily Beast, revealed that after their breakdowns at work, they were put on short-term medical or disability leave. Workers are seen inside the Lebanon, Tennessee, warehouse 'Once you have enough write-ups, you're out the door. There goes your livelihood. 'There was a constant sense of, "did I screw that up, did I screw that up, did I screw that up?"' he said, adding that it was like having 'permanent anxiety'. Five of the six current or former Amazon workers who were interviewed by the Daily Beast revealed that after their breakdowns at work, they were put on short-term medical or disability leave. During that leave, they said they struggled to obtain promised compensation and in some cases were ultimately fired. According to the Daily Beast, while on leave some of the workers used Amazon's assistance program, which includes three phone conversations with a counselor. But even with the Amazon-provided health insurance, the costs were also a financial burden. The Daily Beast report also describes one particular incident in which 36-year-old Jonathan Forrest took his own life while working for Amazon. Forrest had initially been excited to start the new position as a picker at Amazon and even ranked number 8 out of 100 pickers, whose job it was to place items in bins. But his father, Butch, said after a few months on the job, his son started to hate his position and began making suicidal comments in the summer of 2017. Forrest qualified for medical leave and sought out help from a psychiatrist who diagnosed him with bipolar disorder and prescribed him medication. Soon after Forrest returned to work at the Amazon warehouse, he started making more suicidal comments, according to the Daily Beast. His mental health continued to deteriorate and in January 2018, Forrest took his life. Forrest's father told the news outlet that he knows his son was struggling on many levels, but he believes that working at Amazon played a major role in his suicide. Butch said 'when it came to holidays it would be five days in a row. It killed him'. When DailyMail.com reached out to Amazon for comment on the 911 calls, the company replied: 'The physical and mental well-being of our associates is our top priority, and we are proud of both our efforts and overall success in this area. 'We provide comprehensive medical care starting on day one so employees have access to the care when they need it most, 24-hour a day free and confidential counseling services, and various leave and medical accommodation options covering both mental and physical health concerns.' This isn't the first time Amazon has been called out for its working conditions. Last April, at least 100 Amazon workers in the UK said in a survey that they suffered from depression, and eight of those individuals said they'd thought about killing themselves. This isn't the first time Amazon (file image) has made headlines for its 'hellish' working conditions. Last April, at least 100 Amazon workers in the UK said in a survey that they suffered from depression, and eight of those individuals said they'd thought about killing themselves The survey was carried out by Organise, which campaigns for employment unions. James Bloodworth, who worked ten-hour shifts at a warehouse in Rugeley, Staffordshire, claimed staff were peeing in bottles because they were scared of getting in trouble for taking toilet breaks. The Rugeley warehouse measures 700,000sqft and some of the 1,200 workers face a ten minute, quarter-of-a-mile walk to two toilets on the ground floor of the four-storey building. He said: 'For those of us who worked on the top floor, the closest toilets were down four flights of stairs.' Bloodworth revealed workers were continually monitored for time wasting by supervisors and claimed the strictness was what caused the 'toilet bottle' system. Nearly three quarters of those polled in that survey said they were so frightened of missing productivity targets that they'd starve themselves of water so they wouldn't need the toilet. But Amazon has hit back at Bloodworth's statements, calling them allegations that are 'simply not true'. 'James Bloodworth worked at Amazon for only nine days in early 2016 with the sole purpose to create negative content for his book,' a statement from Amazon reads. 'Before publishing, he made no attempt to seek clarification from Amazon for any disciplinary points he claims to have received for time off and toilet breaks. Instead, Bloodworth has made every effort to sensationalize unfounded or unverified accusations for his own personal profit. 'He has even claimed that working at Amazon made him start smoking, despite his own claims that breaks were too short and the fact that his true profession meant he had the opportunity to leave at any time. 'His allegations made time and time again are demeaning to the dedicated and skilled people who work at Amazon. This is a tired narrative created to sell a book and despite his negative experience and views on the company, Bloodworth found no issues selling on Amazon,' the statement reads. Meanwhile, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos remains the world's richest person with $131billion In New York, Amazon warehouse workers are pushing for unionization to fight what they claim are unfair quotas and insufficient breaks. Staff at Amazon's new warehouse in Staten Island officially announced their campaign in December, backed by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. They have raised safety and health concerns regarding 12-hour shifts and demands they pack 240 to 400 items per hour; one every 10-15 seconds. One Staten Island employee said that 'if an employee is a picker, they want that person to pick up 400 items per hour, picking each item every seven seconds'. In a statement released in December, Amazon said: 'We work hard every day to ensure all of our employees are treated fairly and with dignity and respect. 'Amazon offers a great employment opportunity with excellent pay ranging here from $16.25-$20.80 an hour, and comprehensive benefits including health care, up to 20 weeks parental leave, paid education, promotional opportunities, and more. Amazon has more than 150 'fulfillment centers' across the country where purchased merchandise is packaged and shipped. The centers employ more than 125,000 full-time employees, according to the company. A DailyMail.com request for comment to Amazon was not immediately returned. Meanwhile, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos remains the world's richest person, ahead of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, according to the latest Forbes list of the ultra wealthy. According to the list announced last Tuesday by Forbes, the riches of Bezos, 55, have swelled by $19billion in one year and he is now worth $131billion. But yet, Bezos has given less of his wealth to charity than Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, or even Donald Trump. Bezos, 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. He gave a tiny slice of of his $160billion fortune - $145million - to help charitable causes, The New York Post reported at the time. 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. Bezos has also come under fire after news of his affair with Lauren Sanchez broke in January. Last week it was revealed that Bezos' camp tried to keep him and his wife, MacKenzie, together with a $12,500-a-week 'intensive' couple's therapy retreat in Hawaii. The Amazon mogul's head of security, Gavin De Becker, urged Bezos to take a 30-day break from seeing Sanchez. UBS executive Shele Danishefsky (pictured) was in the midst of divorcing her much younger husband Rod Covlin when she died on December 31, 2009 Lawyers for backgammon pro Rod Covlin, on trial for murdering his millioniare wife Shele Danishefksy, attacked police on Monday who 'failed miserably' to investigate her death when her body was found in the bathtub of her Upper West Side apartment on Dec. 31, 2009. During his summation to the jury defense attorney Robert Gottlieb blasted NYPD Detective Carl Roadarmel and Detective Francis Brennan during his summation to the jury Monday after nine weeks of evidence at Manhattan Supreme Court. Gottlieb said it was dishonest for Raodarmel to insist he needed a search warrant or a subpoena to investigate Sheles death as the investigator and later his partner told the jury during the trial. Seriously? Seriously? Gottlieb asked. That was his excuse, to say so glibly when the prosecutor asked him [why he didnt do more]? He tells you his pre-prepared absurd excuse. Defense attorney Robert Gottlieb (pictured Monday) told jurors in summation at the Rod Covlin murder trial at Manhattan Supreme Court NYPD Detective Carl Roadarmel had lied to them Rod Covlin (pictured right) is accused of strangling Shele Danishefsky, 47, and staging the scene to look as though she slipped in the tub, struck her head and drowned in the bathwater He lied to you, everyone knows it. He was evasive, he was contradictory. He had the power, he had the discretion. He should be ashamed of himself and the NYPD should be ashamed of him. Gottlieb said Brennan parroted Roadarmels excuse for the lack of the sloppy investigation. How is it that two partners came up with the same blatant lie? Gottlieb asked. You both come up with the same exact words, the same exact syntax? Gottlieb argued that after some 70 witnesses, its still impossible to know what happened to Shele that night. He told the jury that when prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos gives his summation, to ask of the assistant district attorney, Mr. Prosecutor, wheres the evidence to support what you are telling us, wheres the testimony, wheres the proof? Shele Danishefsky's sister Eve Karstaedt and Eve's husband Marc come to court for the Covlin murder trial closing arguments on Monday Covlin, who was involved in a highly contentious divorce from Shele, is accused of strangling her and staging the scene to look as though she had slipped in the bathtub and died in a freak accident. Her Orthodox Jewish family objected to an autopsy and she was buried a few days later. But as suspicions of foul play mounted, Sheles body was exhumed and a post mortem examination revealed she had a fractured hyoid bone, a hallmark of strangulation. Because Sheles death was initially written off as an accident, there was no collection of physical evidence a rabbi cleaned up blood from the scene before Shele was buried and the scene was contaminated. Gottlieb said the lack of investigation and lack of physical evidence means that no one really knows what happened the night Shele died and therefore the prosecution was forced to rely on Covlins other bad acts, which were numerous including a rwquest for an open marriage, outbursts of rage and, years later, allegations he hatched several plots to kill his parents, who had been granted custody of his two children. Gottlieb asked jurors to overcome any distaste for the defendant and find him not guilty. You may despise him, you may detest him you may want to find him guilty, Gottlieb said, but asked them to set those feelings aside and perform their sacred duty as the guardians of our Constitution. Bogdanos is scheduled to sum up Monday afternoon. Covlin faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted. An Iranian couple have been arrested after their public marriage proposal, which was deemed offensive to Islam, was caught on camera and uploaded on social media. The footage, which captures the moment at which a young man places a ring on the finger of his girlfriend at a shopping mall in Arak, Tehran, Iran, was condemned by Iranian authorities as it contradicted the country's Islamic doctrines. The couple, who were later arrested by police for breaking the country's laws on public decency, have since been released on bail. During the viral clip, the unnamed man stands inside a ring of flower petals shaped like a heart as his girlfriend stares at him and gasps with excitement. Man publicly proposes to woman at shopping mall in Arak, central #Iran Both arrested for "marriage proposal in contradiction to islamic rituals... based on decadent Western culture," then released on bail pic.twitter.com/eKdlNX9Bte Sobhan Hassanvand (@Hassanvand) March 8, 2019 An unidentified Iranian couple have been arrested after their public marriage proposal at a shopping mall in Arak, Tehran, Iran, was caught on camera The unidentified man stands inside a ring of heart-shaped flower petals and places the ring on his girlfriend's finger The Iranian woman, who is stood next to red and white balloons laid out on the ground, then says 'yes' to the marriage proposal as her ecstatic boyfriend slips the ring onto her finger. The happy couple then embrace each other as excited spectators cheer and clap at their romantic union. However soon after the video was posted online and went viral, the couple were taken in by the police for breaking Iran's strict Islamic code. Arak deputy police chief Mostafa Norouzi later told the Shahrvand daily that the young couple's 'offense is very clear and there is no need for explanation'. He added that it was unacceptable for the couple 'to do whatever is common in other places of the world and disregard mores, culture and religion'. The happy couple embrace each other as excited spectators inside the mall cheer them on The young couple were later arrested by police for breaking the country's laws on public decency According to the Islamic laws that govern Iran, men and women are forbidden from exhibiting public displays of affection as the country deems it an influence of corrupt Western ideals. The law also prohibits kissing and dancing in public. This is not the first time citizens in Iran have been arrested for breaking the laws on public decency. In 2018, teenager Maedeh Hojabri caused outrage after posting a video of herself dancing to western and Iranian pop and rap music on Instagram. Following the young girl's arrest women took to the streets in protest to film themselves dancing in public. Donald Trump has endorsed ending the twice a year clock-bending Daylight Savings Time ritual, echoing many Americans' frustrations with Saturday night's loss of an hour of sleep that they won't get back until November. 'Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is O.K. with me!' the president tweeted Monday morning. DST changes the clock-time of sunrise and sunset, an idea that dates back to ancient Rome but had its modern rebirth thanks to New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson. President Donald Trump said Monday on Twitter that he would endorse ending the practice of Daylight Savings Time, permanently leaving America's clocks where they are now Hudson proposed the idea in 1895, telling fellow scientists that two extra hours of sunlight would give him more time in the evening to collect bugs after his day-shift at the post office was over. He was mocked for decades, but eventually a one-hour shift took hold in New Zealand, in 1923. By then most of Europe had shifted to save fuel during World War I. President Franklin Roosevelt instituted the plan, then called 'War Time,' in February 1942 a few months after the U.S. entered World War II. He ended the practice four weeks after Japan's surrender in September 1945. Today 48 of the 50 U.S. states observe DST, all but Arizona and Hawaii. Some Navajo reservations inside Arizona's borders buck that trend, however, joining the rest of the country. Most of America 48 states plus a small area of Indian tribal land inside Arizona participate in the 'spring forward, fall back' ritual; Hawaii sits it ou, along with the non-Indian-reservation majority of Arizona The American territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands also keep their clocks constant year-round. Medical studies have found having an earlier sunrise time for half of the year motivates most people to be more active in the morning. But the earlier darkness in the evening can deepen clinical edpression for people who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. It can also disrupt the circadian rhythms that tell the human body when to produce melatonin, a hormone that prepares the brain for sleep. And technological advancements have confounded the original purpose of saving on energy costs, thanks to increased use of air conditioning in summertime. An Englishman named William Willett is often wrongly credited with first proposing Daylight Savings Time. Overnight between Saturday and Sunday, nearly all Americans lost an hour of sleep when 2:00 a.m. instantly became 3:00 a.m. Willett's idea, outlined in a 1908 book titled 'The Waste of Daylight,' was to shift Britain's timepieces by just 20 minutes. Parliament, at the time, was not impressed. DST will be in the news next year thanks to Tokyo Olympics organizers who have proposed a nationside one-hour time shift to help athletes and spectators avoid the kind of scorching heat that killed at least 120 people in Japan. The International Olympic Committee is backing the one-time proposal. Three-quarters of Japan's private sector businesses oppose the idea, according to a Reuters poll, saying it would be too much trouble to adjust the nation's computer systems. The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have killed dozens of ISIS fighters in the battle to reclaim the last of the caliphate's territory in Syria. Four Islamic State fighters attempted suicide attacks and one SDF fighter was killed while four were wounded during the clashes at Baghouz, SDF spokesperson Mustafa Bali confirmed. As the SDF made slow advances towards the edges of the village, they battled with militants holed up in underground tunnels and captured a jihadist arms dump. The advance began on Sunday evening with large explosions and mushroom clouds rising into the air over the area on the Euphrates River in eastern Syria as the SDF battered the village with artillery and gunfire. On Monday morning, the thuds of renewed artillery and heavy weapons fire could be heard. An airstrike hit the IS-held pocket around noon. Syrian Democratic Forces, pictured yesterday, killed dozens of ISIS fighters in the battle to reclaim the last of the caliphate's territory in Syria The U.S.-backed SDF have made slow advancements into the village of Baghouz in eastern Syria (pictured yesterday) The advance began on Sunday evening with large explosions and mushroom clouds rising into the air over the area. Pictured: a civilian wounded by airstrikes on Sunday Some 500 IS fighters are believed to be still in the territory, along with possibly 3,000 to 4,000 civilians, including women and children. The civilians are mainly family members who remained after thousands of civilians streamed out of Baghouz in past week during pauses in the fighting. SDF fighters captured an arms depot and marched toward the tent settlement on the edge of Baghouz, Bali said in a tweet. The U.S.-led coalition carried out 11 airstrikes destroying depots, fortifications and vehicles, he wrote. Camps abandoned earlier this week as SDF made greater advancements into the territory featured damaged and burned tents, some of them set up over empty trenches and foxholes. SDF forces, pictured yesterday, managed to capture a jihadist arms dump as they made their way into the last sliver of caliphate territory Pictured: tracer fire and explosions light up the night sky in Baghouz on the Euphrates River yesterday A house that appeared to have been used as a clinic by IS was hastily abandoned, with medical equipment stood in place still wrapped in its plastic, as well as a microscope still in its box. Bali told the Associated Press that the forces were moving cautiously on the ground, adding that the militants were dug in and hiding into tunnels. The area is also believed to be laced with land mines and booby traps. 'If as we advance, we notice there are civilians, we will do all we can to evacuate them from the battlefield,' Bali said. He said so far there had been no SDF casualties. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said SDF fighters captured seven IS gunmen in Baghouz since Sunday. A senior U.S. defense official said in Washington on Friday that it would not be a surprise, based on current conditions, if it took another couple of weeks to finish 'mopping up' the IS enclave. The capture of Baghouz would be a milestone in the devastating four-year campaign to defeat the group's so-called 'caliphate' that once covered a vast territory straddling both Syria and Iraq. Retired British Army general Sir Geoffrey Howlett, 89, today told families of the victims of the Ballymurphy massacre he had 'enormous sympathy' with them at an inquest investigating the killings of 10 people in west Belfast in August 1971 A retired British Army general has expressed 'enormous sympathy' with families whose relatives died in the Ballymurphy massacre in 1971 during The Troubles. 10 Catholics were shot and killed by British paratroopers in west Belfast over three days in August 1971 in disputed circumstances, with the victims initially said to be members of the IRA. But General Sir Geoffrey Howlett, 89, who was a lieutenant colonel in the Parachute Regiment at the time, today told an inquest he acknowledged most of those killed were innocent. The shootings came two years into The Troubles and were part of Operation Demetrius, a controversial plan to arrest, intern and interrogate suspected IRA members in large numbers, with 342 people eventually seized. But the operation sparked a huge wave of violence, with the British troops involved in the shootings claiming they were fired upon first by Republican gunmen. Local continue to deny this version of events and the inquest has been set up to examine the circumstances around the deaths. Speaking at the hearing in Belfast, in front of three rows of family members of the dead, Sir Geoffrey said: 'I want just to say to you how sincerely I have enormous sympathy with you all ... as relatives of those who were killed in this case on the ninth of August 1971. The victims of the massacre, pictured, were shot between August 9 and August 11, 1971, during The Troubles, following the launch of a new policy of arrest and internment of suspected IRA members. The British Army's report of the incident was that members of the Parachute Regiment were fired upon by the IRA and soldiers returned fire But the families of the victims have been protesting the deaths for years and claim they were innocent Catholics. Some claim their loved ones were shot while trying to help wounded friends. Nine men and one woman were shot in Ballymurphy and their relatives are pictured here with banners and photos of the dead outside the inquest in Belfast 'I know something about bereavement because my father was killed in Italy in the war when I was 13 and I wanted to know everything about how it happened as well. 'I just repeat what enormous sympathy I have with you all.' The inquest heard a regimental note from the time said soldiers viewed the incident as them 'inflicting severe casualties on the IRA'. But the General said 'most if not all were not IRA'. Sir Geoffrey, who went on to occupy high-ranking military positions including commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces in northern Europe, said the Army did not anticipate the reaction to the operation. He said: 'None of us realised that the day of internment and the next day or two would turn out to be such a rebellious period with as much rioting, shooting, petrol and nail bombing as it was. 'I don't think any of us were quite prepared for the big change.' The general said streets were barricaded amid 'looting, shooting and bombing. He added: 'The situation went from rioting to a full-blown battle. It was very busy - certainly the busiest day of my life.' He said the operation went from police to military primacy at some stage. Sir Geoffrey was at an army headquarters in west Belfast during part of the events in question. He said it was reported to him by B Company, a sub-group of around 100 men, that the violence was started by a large group who attacked soldiers. The inquest into Ballymurphy has been going on since September with families saying they will continue to fight for 'justice'. The Army has since said it accepts not all of the victims were IRA but maintains some of those killed were Republic dissidents Sir Geoffrey claimed that many hundreds of rounds were fired at members of B Company. He added: 'The situation was never the same again, life was difficult. 'Following internment there had become an enemy out there who were definitely armed and firing at us.' He said the military in the area was already at full capacity and no extra soldiers were sent. Sir Geoffrey also claimed the regiment tried low-profile patrolling but that did not quell the violence. After Ballymurphy, no soldier was disciplined and there was no debrief. Sir Geoffrey added: 'We were too busy trying to get Belfast back to normal.' The battalion left Northern Ireland on August 25 and took a month's leave. A priest, Father Hugh Mullan, was among those who died in Ballymurphy and Sir Geoffrey paid tribute to the role of the Catholic clergymen during the trouble. He said: 'The priesthood on the whole were pretty good.' The inquest continues. A disgruntled man has stormed a South Carolina Taco Bell kitchen to make his own Mexican pizza after claiming that workers hadn't put enough meat on the one he ordered. Police in Spartanburg are still searching for the unidentified man following the incident last Wednesday. He potentially faces charges of theft of property and trespassing after employees called 911 when he stormed into the kitchen. Police are searching for the man after he stormed a Taco Bell in Spartanburg, South Carolina (pictured) last Wednesday to make his own Mexican pizza Workers said the man had come through the drive-thru and ordered one of Taco Bell's Mexican pizzas at about 3.45pm, according to a police report obtained by DailyMail.com. Soon after, the man stormed into the store complaining that workers hadn't put enough meat on his pizza. The employees said they made him another Mexican pizza but he still wasn't satisfied. He demanded a refund but the employees told police they couldn't give him his money back because there was no manager to approve it. The man had ordered a Mexican pizza in the drive-thru but later stormed into the restaurant claiming there wasn't enough meat on it. Despite repeated objections from workers, the man made his own and then left the restaurant They said he then stormed behind the counter and told them he would make his own food the right way. Despite staff telling him to leave, the man continued to make his own pizza while directing 'foul language' at the Taco Bell staff. Police noted that he didn't use gloves when making his food. He then left the fast food restaurant after making his new Mexican pizza. Police said employees described the man as a black male in his 20s or early 30s with braids or dreadlocks. He was wearing a dark colored sweatshirt and gray pants. The man was being driven by a black female in a Dodge Challenger that had temporary license plates. Jermaine Marcell Levy, 20, was acquitted of manslaughter in the choking death of his infant son, but was convicted of battery in punching the baby's mother Jurors in Miami have acquitted a man who was charged with manslaughter after his six-month-old son choked on a lollipop. The Miami Herald reports a jury decided late last week that the death of 20-year-old Jermaine Marcell Levy's son Marcell Davis Jr. was accidental and not the result of reckless behavior. 'This was a tragic accident that should not have been charged as a crime,' said Levy's lawyer, Miami-Dade Assistant Public Defender Adam Saper. Saper says the baby died on Father's Day 2018 as his father, from Miami, tried to resuscitate him, and he was thankful that jury did not find Levy guilty of the 'purely accidental death.' Levy, then 19 years old, was arrested after police said he hit the baby's mother Warnisha Davis in the mouth and kidnapped the boy who he had never taken care of before. An arrest warrant says Levy was homeless and couldn't provide formula for the child. He told police that he took baby Jermaine to his brother's home, then to his godmother's home. Six-month-old Marcell Davis Jr. choked on a lollipop and died on June 17 while in the care of his homeless father Jermaine Marcell Levy, who was acquitted of manslaughter in the case Warnisha Davis was punched by Jermaine Marcell Levy he snatched the baby in June 2018. The infant, Marcell Jr., would later die in his father's care Neither were at their homes, so he took the infant to a tent where he lived outside of a friend's house. The baby was left sucking on the lollipop when Levy fell asleep for about one minute, according to police, before he woke to the sound of his son 'gasping for air'. The infant died of accidental asphyxia on the candy, according to the medical examiner, and jurors deliberated less than two hours before acquitting the father of manslaughter and kidnapping charges. Levy, however, was convicted of battery for punching the childs mother, and remains in jail pending sentencing. A Chinese organisation has created a database featuring 1.8million women along with their phone numbers, addresses and a 'BreedReady' status. GDI.foundation researcher Victor Gevers discovered the unprotected database, which has since become inaccessible, over the weekend. Sharing his findings on Twitter, Mr Gevers revealed that the youngest girl in the database was just 15, while the oldest woman was 95. 'BreedReady' status, which is believed to mean that a woman is still in her reproductive years, ranges from 18 years old to 39. A Chinese organisation has created a database featuring 1.8million women along with their phone numbers, addresses and a 'BreedReady' status (file photo) 'BreedReady' status is believed to mean that a woman is still in her reproductive years. The women who are 'BreedReady' in the database are between 18 and 39 years old The women featured in the database are believed to be single - with 89 per cent of the list unmarried, a further 10 per cent divorced, and the final one per cent widows. Mr Gevers told the Guardian that he was unsure who owned the database, which could belong to a dating app, a government registry or some other organisation. He added that some of the entries have Facebook profiles linked to them, as well as videos and their education level. Earlier this year China's population shrank for the first time, with the number of live births nationwide in 2018 falling by 2.5 million year-on-year. For decades, the world's most populous nation limited families to one child to keep growth sustainable, only abandoning the policy in 2016 over concerns about an ageing society and shrinking workforce. Since the ban was reversed, births have not increased as much as forecast, and there has been rising speculation the government will further ease restrictions. Philip Hammond has 'abdicated' his responsibility as Chancellor and his 'cowardice' over Brexit is to blame for the poor economic outlook, John McDonnell claimed today. The shadow chancellor tore into his opposite number's record in office during a pre-Spring Statement speech at Bloomberg in central London. He said Mr Hammond was 'complicit in every cut, every closure, every preventable death of someone waiting for local hospital treatment or social care'. 'That will be this Chancellor's legacy, whatever happens with the Brexit negotiations and votes,' he warned. Philip Hammond has 'abdicated' his responsibility as Chancellor and his 'cowardice' over Brexit is to blame for the poor economic outlook, John McDonnell claimed today He said Mr Hammond was 'complicit in every cut, every closure, every preventable death of someone waiting for local hospital treatment or social care' Mr McDonnell claimed slow economic growth, falling investment and firms announcing their intention to leave the UK were all avoidable were it not for the 'political weakness and cowardice' of the Chancellor. He said Mr Hammond's 'failure' to stand up for the economy and the interests of the country were to blame. Mr McDonnell said: 'The position of the Chancellor of the Exchequer comes with a responsibility which I think Philip Hammond actually has abdicated in his current role. 'If Brexit ends up leading to even half of what the Government's own forecasts suggest could happen, I think history will judge harshly the few who could have prevented and averted this potential disaster and did so little.' He said the 'effects of their complicity' are already there, including the 'slowest growth in six years, investment falling, manufacturing in recession, a trade deficit of over 10 billion last quarter, growth forecasts being revised downwards by the Bank of England and others ... firms announcing their intentions to leave the UK'. 'I think all this was avoidable were it not for the political weakness and yes, these are strong words, the cowardice of the Chancellor of the Exchequer,' he said. 'Failure to stand up for our economy and failure to stand up for the interests of our country. 'And whatever happens with Brexit, that's damage to people's lives that cannot be undone.' Mr McDonnell claimed slow economic growth, falling investment and firms announcing their intention to leave the UK were all avoidable were it not for the 'political weakness and cowardice' of the Chancellor The Chancellor is due to deliver his Spring Statement to the Commons on Wednesday afternoon. Mr McDonnell predicted the speech would include 'warm words' about the need to avoid a no-deal Brexit. He said while there may be more 'rhetoric' about the end of austerity, there would be 'nothing to relieve the suffering of millions out there today - or to prepare us for tomorrow'. Mr McDonnell said: 'This is a week where we say 'no more'. Where we will lay bare the failures of this Government and the damage it has done to our society. 'But also where we will seek in Parliament a route through the Brexit chaos that the Government has created and an end to austerity once and for all.' Maryland State Police say a trooper shot and killed a man who stabbed him during a struggle. The state policeman was taken to R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center after the shooting Monday in Westminster, about 36 miles northwest of Baltimore, police said. The 'prognosis is good' for the wounded trooper, said Greg Shipley, a Maryland State Police spokesman, according to the Baltimore Sun. The 34-year-old man suspected of stabbing the cop was taken to Carroll Hospital where he was pronounced dead. A Maryland State trooper fatally shot a suspect who allegedly stabbed him at this scene in Westminster, Maryland, on Monday morning The patrolman, who was from the nearby Westminster barrack according to CBS Baltimore, encountered the suspect around 8am after responding to two reports of slashed car tires. One of the callers said the suspect was armed with a knife, police said. The suspect stabbed the trooper in the side of his body during a struggle, before the policeman shot him, according to police. A knife was recovered from the scene. The trooper is a six-year State Police veteran. The deceased suspect is from Carroll County, where the shooting occurred. Both men have yet to be identified. Price will face a charge of using threatening words or behaviour after the altercation on September 5, and will appear at Crawley Magistrates' Court on March 13 Katie Price will face a court for the third time this year after shouting 'are you enjoying f*****g my husband' at her ex Kieran Hayler's new girlfriend outside a primary school. The mother-of-five will face a charge of using threatening words or behaviour after the altercation on September 5, and will appear at Crawley Magistrates' Court on March 13. The 40-year-old former glamour model has previously appeared in court this year over two separate driving offences - being drunk in charge of a vehicle and driving while disqualified and without insurance. Price is accused of directing the verbal onslaught at Hayler's new girlfriend Michelle Penticost while picking up her children Jett and Bunny, leaving other parents shocked. The TV personality has since threatened to remove them from the school, which Pentcost's son also attends, because she had been left feeling like 'the black sheep of the playground', according to The Sun. Sussex Police told MailOnline: 'Katie Price, 40, has been summons to court to answer a charge of using threatening, abusive, words or behaviour to cause harassment, alarm or distress in connection with a verbal altercation. 'She will appear at Crawley Magistrates' Court on March 13.' Price was criticised on February 25 when she laughed off a three-month driving ban after she was found slumped in a 'very' drunken state in the back of her vomit-covered pink Range Rover which police saw collide with a grass verge. She was almost twice the legal limit after drinking four pornstar martinis when she was arrested in the early hours last October in Greenwich, South East London. The TV personality was cleared of drink driving after claiming the driver was her boyfriend's friend. Price is accused of directing the verbal onslaught at Kieran Hayler's new girlfriend Michelle Penticost. Price and Hayler are seen together in London on February 9 And in January, she was banned from getting behind the wheel for three months after she admitted driving while disqualified and without insurance. She was also fined 1,100 after being spotted driving on the A24 near her West Sussex home on July 25 while a six-month driving ban was still in place. She pleaded with the court not to ban her again, saying she needed her car to visit her terminally ill mother Amy and ferry her son Harvey, who has various conditions including PraderWilli syndrome, to hospital appointments. Price is currently on holiday in Thailand with her boyfriend Kris Boyson. Democrat Stacey Abrams clarified she is considering a 2020 presidential bid after she seemed to rule out such an option earlier Monday at the South by Southwest conference. 'Now 2020 is definitely on the table,' Abrams tweeted Monday afternoon. Her clarification comes after she told PBS' Yamiche Alcindor that 'In the spreadsheet with all the jobs I wanted to do, 2028 would be the earliest I would be ready to stand for President because I would have done the work I thought necessary to be effective in that job,' during her talk at the popular festival. Democrat Stacey Abrams clarified she is considering a 2020 presidential bid after she seemed to rule out such an option earlier Monday at the South by Southwest conference There is a large Democratic field fighting for the right to take on President Donald Trump in 2020 Abrams former campaign manager, Lauren Groh-Wargo, tweeted that Abrams' quote referred to an old spreadsheet and did not mean Abrams was ruling out running for president next year. 'Fact check: @staceyabrams' remarks at #SXSW were in reference to her years-old spreadsheet, not her current considerations. She is taking a look at all options on the table in 2020 and beyond,' Groh-Wargo wrote. In the conversation at SXSW, Alcindor asked Abrams about a series of spreadsheets in her forthcoming book that offered different scenarios for her life's path. One of those was the 2028 presidential one mentioned. The field for the 2020 Democratic nomination is packed with names and there was speculation Abrams could join them. In addition to the confusion, Abrams was coy on her own future electoral plans at the conference - whether she would challenge Republican Sen. David Perdue in 2020 or try again for the state's gubernatorial mansion in 2022. In the 2018 gubernatorial contest, Abrams lost to Republican Brian Kemp by 1 percent of the vote - 55,000 votes - in a contentious race that saw star power flood Georgia for both candidates. And she charged her rival with suppressing African American voters through his role as secretary of state. 'I'm still angry. I'm still very bitter. I'm still sad,' she said of that contest. 'I can't prove I would have won but we don't know because of how he behaved,' she told the heavily female audience at her SXSW talk. 'I refused to concede because it means the process is proper,' she said of her actions after the race, noting that all she had agreed with that Kemp numerically won. Her voting rights group filed a lawsuit in November that charged Georgia officials 'grossly mismanaged' the 2018 contest and deprived black and minority voters of fair participation by failing to send out absentee ballots on time and purging voter rolls. But Abrams said she would concentrate on getting Democrats elected next year even as Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is wooing her to run for the upper chamber. After her 2018 loss, Abrams founded the group Fight Fair Action to promote fair elections and combat voter suppression. She has made voter rights a signature issue. 'My task is to make certain that a Democrat is elected not only to the White House but that we have a Democratic majority in the Senate and a Democratic majority in Congress,' she said when asked about where she would be in 2020. And, on Monday, she didn't hold back in her criticism and contempt for the president. She advised those running for the Democratic nomination to focus on their own message and not slamming Trump. '2028 would be the earliest I would be ready to stand for president,' Stacey Abrams said at the South by Southwest festival on Monday 'I think beating Donald Trump is the wrong mission. When you are focused on your enemy than you are ignoring your allies,' she said of next year's election. 'Any presidential campaign that is focused on out trumping Trump will be a failure,' she added. 'Democrats didn't lose in 2016 simply because of the genius of Trump. We lost because we ignored communities that needed to be heard,' she said. Abrams did not hold back in her feelings on Trump, calling him a 'bully' and a racist. 'He is a bully. He is someone who learned his political style from Comic the Insult dog,' she said. She replied 'yes' when she was asked if the president was a racist. 'I think he's racist, I think he's xenophobic, I think he's homophobic,' she said. 'I think he does not respect people.' Abrams is also promoting her new book, 'Minority Leader: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change,' which comes out April 24. Domestic terrorism is a bigger problem in America than Islamic threats, according to internal FBI data. The figures, obtained by The Washington Post, reveal that far more U.S.-born suspects were arrested than those influenced by the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other foreign groups. Approximately 270 domestic terrorism suspects were arrested from 2017-2018, compared to roughly 210 international suspects, the data showed. In addition, the vast majority of those arrested by the FBI are charged with offenses that have nothing to do with terrorism including charges for possession of guns or narcotics. This chart illustrates the prevalence of domestic terrorism arrests over those of foreign-born terror suspects. Source: Washington Post Of the roughly 110 people arrested on suspicion of Islamic-inspired terrorism in 2017, about 30 actually were charged with terrorism. All others had gun, drug, fraud or immigration charges brought against them. Similarly, in 2018, just nine out of approximately 100 people arrested on suspicion of foreign terrorism actually faced terrorism-related charges, the Post reported. The numbers come as government leaders weigh their priorities in the pursuit of violent extremists. On the one hand is Islamic terrorism a focus in the intelligence world since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. On the other: a growing prevalence of far-right extremists promoting hate within America's borders. 'It's (the) violence that we key in on,' a senior law enforcement official told the Post on the condition of anonymity. 'And sometimes, it's the violence that motivates someone more than any particular ideology.' However, federal law does not define domestic groups as terrorist organizations, so they can't be charged with such crimes. Christopher Paul Hasson, 49, a recently-separated Coast Guardsman, was arrested in Maryland on gun and drug charges after federal law enforcement seized a stockpile of guns and ammunition from his apartment 'You're going to arrest someone with whatever charges you have to negate the threat. The FBI doesn't need to pad stats on terrorism if it means getting a terrorist off the streets,' Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, told the Post. Most recently, law enforcement arrested Coast Guard Lieutenant Christopher P. Hasson, 49, in February. Prosecutors claim Hasson is a white nationalist who looks up to Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian convicted in attacks that killed 77 people in 2011. His lawyer, Julie Stelzig, told the Post that the government's description is 'histrionic' and that there was 'no actual indication of any plan. . . . It's not a crime to think negative thoughts. It's not a crime to think about doomsday scenarios.' Hasson is accused of collecting weapons as part of a plot to target politicians and journalists with violent attacks. He allegedly wrote a letter, saying, 'I am dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on earth.' However, Hasson hasn't been charged in connection with terrorism, instead law enforcement indicted him on charges of illegal possession of silencers, possession of firearms by a drug addict and unlawful user and possession of a controlled substance. Ashleigh Naylor, 30, was in a relationship with Paul Lane, who had been locked up for attacking a former soldier A former prison nurse will face trial accused of stalking an inmate she began a fling with behind bars. Ashleigh Naylor was in a relationship with Paul Lane, who had been locked up for attacking a former soldier. She and Lane continued their relationship after his release from jail but when it fell apart, it is alleged, Naylor began stalking him. Naylor, 30, pleaded not guilty to the single charge of stalking and faces trial on August 1. It is alleged she caused Lane - who served 12 years for a 'monstrous' street attack - fear of serious harm or distress between June 2018 and January 16. The charge reads that between June 2018 and January this year she stalked Paul Lane 'causing him fear of serious harm or distress having an adverse effect on his every day activities.' She is alleged to have contacted him on numerous occasions by text, phone and Facebook and turned up uninvited at his family home She is said to have bombarded him with text messages and phone calls at times throughout that period. Her barrister Rod Hunt told Teesside Crown Court during the 15 minute hearing that Naylor had struck up a relationship with Lane whilst he was a prisoner at HMP Holme House in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham. On Thursday, she appeared before Teesside Crown Court where lawyer Garry Wood said there were problems with her legal aid application. When Paul Lane (pictured) was moved to the open prison HMP Kirkham, Lancashire, just before his release, Naylor visited him 35 times and he was found to have over 400 photos of her in his cell The case was adjourned by Judge Stephen Ashurst until March 11, by which time Mr Wood said he was confident the difficulties will be resolved. Naylor, of Skelton, North Yorkshire, was given bail until her next appearance. During her court appearance last November her barrister Mr Hunt told the same court: 'She loved well but not too wisely.' Lane, 33, and Naylor 'fell in love,' the court heard. When he was moved to the open prison HMP Kirkham, Lancashire, just before his release, Naylor visited him 35 times and he was found to have over 400 photos of her in his cell. During her appearance at Teesside Crown Court last November her barrister Mr Hunt told the same court: 'She loved well but not too wisely' Her fling with the jailbird was discovered when a colleague visited her at home one night when she was drunk and she blurted out her secret. While he was there, Naylor received a call from someone who flashed up on her phone as 'Paul' from a mobile phone, which are illegal for prisoners to have. The officer then discovered photographs of the couple on Naylor's Facebook page and reported his findings to bosses, sparking an investigation. In May 2011 Lane and an accomplice left a man for dead in the street in Darlington, Co Durham. The victim was attacked as he walked home following a night out in Darlington town centre and was left with a deep slash across his forehead and a badly-swollen face after being smashed in the face possibly with a bottle and repeatedly kicked on the ground. The ex soldier, who served in Iraq, said in a statement that he had witnessed the horrors of war but that was nothing compared to the impact of the assault. A six-month-old boy drowned after his mother fell asleep while they were taking a bath together. Firefighters in Fort Worth, Texas , responded to an 'unconscious person' call out Monday just before 6am to a home in the 2400 block of Shalon Avenue. When they arrived at the home, they found a six-month-old boy in critical condition and rushed him to Cook Children's Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead at about 6.30am, according to The Dallas Morning News. The boy's mother reportedly told authorities that she had been bathing the baby while she was in the tub with him when she fell asleep. Firefighters in Fort Worth, Texas , responded to an 'unconscious person' call out Monday just before 6am to a home in the 2400 block of Shalon Avenue She then woke up at about 5.45am to discover that the baby who is a twin had slipped underwater and was unresponsive. Child protective services were notified and took the boy's unharmed twin into custody, according to CBS DFW. Police are said to be investigating the incident. The mother told authorities she was bathing the baby boy in the tub when she fell asleep It's unclear how deep the water was in the bathtub at the time when the baby drowned It's unclear how deep the water was in the bathtub at the time when the baby drowned. This is the third North Texas child reported to have drowned in a bathtub in 2019 so far. The baby was taken to Texas' Cook Children's Medical Center (shown) in critical condition and was later declared dead there On Thursday, a three-year-old from Decatur, Texas, drowned after being left alone in a bathtub while her mother left the room for a few minutes to take care of her other children, the Star-Telegram reported. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says that drowning is one of the leading causes of accidental deaths among children ages one to four. Pools are said to be the primary location for the drownings, but bathtubs are the second-leading location. The naked body of missing British backpacker Catherine Shaw was found on the side of a mountain yesterday, one week after she vanished in Guatemala. The 23-year-old disappeared in the early hours of last Tuesday, carrying a stray grey and white puppy. It is believed she hiked up a peak overlooking Lake Atitlan to see the sunrise. Her body was spotted near a perilous rocky path which leads to the top. Last night it emerged she was found naked, with evidence of 'blows to her body' according to a leaked police report. It is understood Miss Shaw, from Witney, Oxfordshire, was discovered in a cavern near the trail, two miles from her hostel in the village of San Juan La Laguna. The body of missing British tourist Catherine Shaw (pictured), 23, has been found in Guatemala, local police have confirmed In footage shared with the Mail by the hotel's owner, Miss Shaw can be seen in a long purple dress sitting in a communal cafe area Investigators will now probe whether there was any foul play involved in her death or the possibility she may have been murdered. The tragic discovery came after Miss Shaw's jacket and the stray puppy were found nearby. Local mayor Antonio Chavajay said: 'I'd like to thank the community for coming together. They found the body near the dog, the dog was the evidence of where she was. It is not known how she died. She was found in a very rocky area.' A Ministry official also said police had designated a team to carry out a 'criminal investigation' to see 'who could be involved in this deplorable incident', although there was no immediate confirmation investigators were sure any foul play had occurred. It also emerged that Miss Shaw had been fasting and had stopped washing in the days before she vanished. Miss Shaw's parents had earlier said they were 'desperately worried' for her. Her father, Tarquin, was last night due to arrive in the Central American country. Former yoga teacher Miss Shaw was last captured on CCTV at 5.23am last Tuesday leaving the hostel, clutching the dog The scene of the mountain overlooking the Lake Atitlan near where Catherine's body was found A search party spent hours searching for Catherine until her body was found near a perilous rocky path Volunteers searched for Catherine who went missing 36 hours after she checked into a hotel in the village of San Juan la Laguna Former yoga teacher Miss Shaw was last captured on CCTV at 5.23am last Tuesday leaving the hostel, clutching the dog. On Sunday evening, a search party organised by volunteers and joined by locals, expats and police officers, found her distinctive jacket. It was discovered two miles from her hostel and 45 minutes on foot up the trail through dense woods. The woollen pink and cream jacket was found among leaves near a line of avocado trees on the hiking trail near a peak known as 'Indian Nose'. Before the body was found, Paco Rosales, who had travelled to Guatemala from Mexico to help find his friend, said he immediately recognised the coat. The puppy, which Miss Shaw had been carrying around in the days before her disappearance, was discovered in another spot at the top of the mountain on Friday. The wooded hiking spot where searchers believe Catherine may have gone to watch the sunrise involves climbing extremely rocky terrain for around an hour A search party found a distinctive jacket belonging to Miss Shaw, who is originally from Witney in Oxfordshire 'The puppy was OK, a little undernourished and crying a lot,' said Amy Farrow, 37, an American former paramedic who had been helping the search. Meanwhile, the owner of the hostel where Miss Shaw was last seen claimed the young backpacker had given cookies laced with cannabis to guests. The boss of Eco Hotel Mayachik claimed she herself had fallen ill and had nightmares and hallucinations after trying the biscuits. The Austrian woman, who did not want to be named, said: 'They came and put a box of cookies on the bar and said: 'Everyone, have some.' I tasted two and an hour later, I was completely under [the influence of] drugs. I think these cookies had drugs in them.' Her father Tarquin, pictured, landed in the Central American country after his daughter went missing Miss Shaw, a former yoga teacher, was last captured on CCTV at 5.23am on Tuesday morning leaving the budget hotel where she was staying Catherine's friend Paco Rosales, who shared this post on Facebook, said he immediately recognised the coat - and burst into tears when he was shown a picture of the item After the alleged incident the woman claims she told Miss Shaw to leave, adding: 'I confronted her. She said: 'It's just love. It's just nature.' The hotel has a strict no-drugs policy.' Police are understood to be investigating the claims but have been unable to find a cookie to test. CCTV shows Miss Shaw placing a plastic box at the hostel reception, wearing a long flowing dress at about 1.30pm on the Sunday. Later footage, taken in the early hours of the following morning, around 1.30am, shows her walking out of the hostel with a large drum known as a Hang, on her back. Although it had initially been thought Miss Shaw never returned to the hostel, a clip at 3.30am shows her in a hammock outside her room. She is seen leaving again at around 5.30am. The owner added: 'My opinion is that she was completely lost and completely on drugs. She didn't know what she was doing. She did things a normal person would not do at all.' Miss Shaw's friend Mr Rosales, 35, said of the jacket: 'It was one of her favourite items of clothing. It was really warm, that's why she always kept it.' It was 'so normal' for Miss Shaw to set off at 5.30am to watch the sunrise, he noted, adding that the pair had regularly done this. Miss Shaw began her trip last September, visiting the US and Mexico before travelling to Guatemala in recent weeks. In an online post two weeks ago, she described having the 'most magically spiritual week of my journey so far' following a visit to a nudist festival in Oaxaca, Mexico. A Mexican cartel allegedly unleashed another deadly attack against a rival organization, this time leaving 15 innocent people dead at a strip club. Federal authorities signaled the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel for carrying out Saturday's massacre at La Playa Mens Club in Salamanca, which targeted suspected members of the New Jalisco Generation Cartel [NJGN], according to reports from Mexican news outlet Milenio. On Monday, the Guanajuato Attorney General's Office announced that most of the victims were employees of the Federal Electricity Commission. WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES Paramedics tend to a victim after an attack, allegedly carried out by members of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, left 15 people dead and seven others injured after gunmen raided a strip club in Mexico early Saturday morning in search of rival members of the New Jalisco Generation Cartel [NJGN] An outdoor patio at the La Playa Mens Club was left in a pool of blood following a savage attacked that has been attributed to the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel At least seven gunmen arrived on trucks before they raided the club and opened fire at customers, which left seven people injured. The planned assault gave the attackers ample to time to escape the gentlemen's club without being caught by responding police officers. CCTV image spots an alleged member of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel carrying a military assault rifle inside the gentlemen's club Still video images from a CCTV camera inside La Playa Mens Club show two of the attackers carrying military assault rifles. No arrests have been reported. Investigators revealed that the bullet casings matched those that were used in previous shootings. The bloodbath was the second savage attack in over a month that the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel has launched on the NJGN in a battle over turf control of the illegal oil tapping business or huachicoleo. Salamanca is home to about 140,000 people. The main pipeline of state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) in Guanajuato state runs through the city. Fuel theft is a massive black market industry in Mexico that has thrived with the help of corrupt officials and company insiders. Every year, fuel theft costs Pemex about $3 billion, according to government statistics. Authorities in Guanajuato, Mexico, said seven men affiliated with the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel opened fire at a gentleman's club (shown above), killing 15 and injuring seven, before they escaped Jose Antonio Yepez Ortiz (pictured) leads the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel New Jalisco Generation Cartel is led by Nemesio 'El Mencho' Oseguera Cervantes (pictured), a former ally of Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman The groups have been at war since 2017 when Jose Antonio 'El Marro' Yepez declared war on the rival organization headed by Nemesio 'El Mencho' Oseguera Cervantes, a former ally of Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman. El Mencho is the most-wanted man in Mexico and one of the most-sought after by the United States Department of Justice, who is offering a $10 million bounty after agency originally offered $5 million. El Marro's henchmen revealed video images on social media of attack, which reportedly took place February 5, in which they killed five members of the New Jalisco Generation Cartel. Security camera shows one of the reported seven gunmen who participated in the attack For a week now, members of the Mexican Army and Marines along with dozens federal cops have been participating in an operation to arrest Yepez. Mexican law enforcement agencies accuse El Marro of stealing oil from Pemex. Authorities, however, have been met with fierce resistance from El Marro's gang, who last week forced motorists out of their vehicles and set them on fire on four different roads. Agents did raid several homes closely connected to El Marro, including a residence belonging to his mother-in-law where they seized a cache of cash stuffed envelopes emblazoned with the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel's logo. A separate investigation last Tuesday led to the arrest of Yepez's sister-in-law, who was identified as Angelica and thought to be at the head of the organization's finance management, and her husband, who happens to be an active federal cop. Authorities recovered a firearm and a couple of grams of drugs but they were immediately released. Two U.S. airlines will continue to fly Boeing 737 Max 8 planes despite China, Indonesia and Ethiopia ordering airlines to ground their fleets in the wake of the fatal Ethiopia disaster that left 157 dead. American Airlines and Southwest Airlines said Monday they have no immediate plans to ground their 737 Max 8 fleet. The crash of the Ethiopian Airlines jet shortly after it took off from Addis Ababa on Sunday is drawing renewed scrutiny of the plane just four months after a similar crash of the same model that killed 189 people in Indonesia. Chicago-based Boeing said it did not intend to issue any new guidance to its customers but it was planning to send a technical team to the crash site to help Ethiopian and U.S. investigators. American Airlines and Southwest Airlines said Monday they have no immediate plans to ground their 737 Max 8 fleet in the wake of the fatal Ethiopia disaster that left 157 dead. Pictured is an AA Boeing 737-8 landing in New York on Monday China's aviation regulator grounded nearly 100 of the planes by its airlines on Monday - more than a quarter of the global fleet of the jets. A U.S. official said it was unclear what information the Chinese regulator was acting on because the investigation into Sunday's crash was in the early stages. The official added that there were no plans to follow suit in the U.S. because the jet had a stellar safety record across America and there was a lack of information on what caused the Ethiopian crash. 'Safety is our number one priority and we are taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this accident, working closely with the investigating team and all regulatory authorities involved,' Boeing said in a statement. American Airlines, which has 24 of the planes in its fleet, issued a statement expressing condolences for the victims of the Ethiopia crash and said it would monitor the investigation. 'At this time there are no facts on the cause of the accident other than news reports. We have full confidence in the aircraft and our crew members, who are the best and most experienced in the industry,' the airline said. Southwest Airlines, which has 34 of the planes in its fleet, said it was confident in the safety and airworthiness of their fleet following the Ethiopia tragedy. Pictured is a 737 at Baltimore Washington International Airport on Monday Sunday's crash, minutes after take-off, of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 bound for Nairobi, killed all 157 on board. Rescue workers are pictured on Monday searching through debris Southwest Airlines, who has 34 in its fleet, said: 'We remain confident in the safety and airworthiness of our fleet of more than 750 Boeing aircraft.' Most other Boeing 737 MAX operators across the globe said their planes would keep flying and they had no plans to cancel orders. Among those included are: WestJet, Norwegian Airlines, TUI, Silk Air, Fiji Airways and Icelandair. China has grounded 96 737 Max 8 aircraft, while Ethiopian Airlines has grounded its remaining four 737 Max 8 planes as an 'extra safety precaution'. Indonesia also grounded 11 737 Max 8s for inspections to ensure flight safety and that the planes are airworthy. Cayman Airways also said it was temporarily grounding two Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. Association of Asia Pacific Airlines director general Andrew Herdman said it was unusual to ground a plane type unless a specific mechanical issue of component failure had been identified and could be inspected. 'In this case it is not clear what the action item is, having done the suspension,' he said. 'What is lacking now is what happened in this case. 'That means finding the black boxes and piecing together other circumstantial evidence from air traffic control recordings and so on.' Sunday's crash, minutes after take-off, of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 bound for Nairobi, killed all 157 on board. In October, a 737 MAX 8 operated by Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air crashed 13 minutes after take-off from the Indonesian capital of Jakarta on a domestic flight, killing all 189 on board. China's aviation regulator grounded nearly 100 of the planes by its airlines on Monday - more than a quarter of the global fleet of the jets. Pictured is the delivery of a 737 Max 8 airliner for Air China in December last year Safety experts cautioned, however, against drawing too many parallels between the two disasters. 'I do hope though that people will wait for the first results of the investigation instead of jumping to conclusions based on the very little facts that we know so far,' said Harro Ranter, founder of the Aviation Safety Network, which compiles information about accidents worldwide. The 737 MAX 8 first entered service in 2017. China's regulator said it would notify airlines when they could resume flying the jets, after contacting Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ensure flight safety. 'Given that two accidents both involved newly delivered Boeing 737-8 planes and happened during take-off phase, they have some degree of similarity,' the regulator said, adding the step was in line with its principle of zero tolerance of safety hazards. Alan Diehl, a former National Transportation Safety Board investigator, said reports of large variations in vertical speed during the Ethiopian jetliner's ascent were 'clearly suggesting a potential controllability problem.' Other possible causes include engine problems, pilot error, weight load, sabotage or bird strikes, he said. Ethiopian has a good reputation and the company's CEO told reporters no problems were spotted before Sunday's flight. A loyal dog who was found her owner's side after he passed away in Oklahoma was escorted to his funeral on Friday. Labrador retriever Sam was taken to the 1 Day Ranch in Shawnee to be cared for after she was found with the body of her military veteran owner, identified only as Arthur, in Bethel Acres on March 7. 'We allowed her to say goodbye, Maeghan Olsen, Founder and Director At 1 Day Ranch, told News 4. 'We didnt know Arthur, but we have learned a lot about him in the last week... and we hope he is comforted knowing his girl is safe and loved.' A loyal dog named Sam (pictured), who was found by its owner's side after he passed away in Oklahoma on Thursday, attended his funeral on Friday 'She had been trying to wake him up. Just trying to figure out what was going on,' Olsen said, describing how Sam was found with her deceased owner. The ranch shared a sweet post on Facebook on Friday about making sure that Sam, who is thought to be between 18 and 20 years old, was able to say goodbye to her human. 'This morning we had the privilege of escorting Sam to her dads funeral,' the post read, adding that 'she wanted to look nice, so she wore a pretty pink scarf.' 'We allowed her to see Arthur one last time when they opened the casket,' a Facebook post from 1 Day Ranch read, noting that Sam 'definitely recognized his face' The caretakers at 1 Day Ranch were called to pick up Sam after Pottawatomie County Sheriffs found her with Arthur's body It went on to say that Sam 'was slightly confused but happy when she met Arthurs brother who flew in for the service, quipping that the brother may smell like Arthur. 'We allowed her to see Arthur one last time when they opened the casket,' it read, noting that Sam 'definitely recognized his face.' The caretakers at 1 Day Ranch were called to pick up Sam after Pottawatomie County Sheriffs found her with Arthur's body. The ranch shared a sweet post on Facebook on Friday about making sure that Sam was able to say goodbye to her human The caretakers at 1 Day Ranch (pictured) were called to pick up Sam after Pottawatomie County Sheriffs found her with Arthur's body 'She just did not want to leave,' Olsen said. 'We got her in the car. She cried the whole way home. Howling and just being overall not pleased.' The veteran had unspecified health issues, according to authorities, and Olsen said his goal was to outlive his pet, but that's not how things turned out. 'Sam is now back at the ranch and taking a nap,' the Facebook post on Friday said. 'This morning took a lot out of her, but we think she was glad she was able to go.' Democratic contender Kirsten Gillibrand, a leader in the #MeToo movement, had a 20-something female staffer quit her Senate office over the way her sexual harassment claim was handled, it was revealed on Monday. The staffer alleged harassment by an older, married colleague, claiming he made unwelcome advances on her after he was promoted to a supervisor role over her. She also claimed Abbas Malik regularly made crude, misogynistic remarks in the office about his female colleagues and potential female hires, Politico reported. Kirsten Gillibrand, a #MeToo leader, had a 20-something female staffer quit her Senate office over the handling of her sexual harassment complaint The staffer claimed Abbas Malik (above), an older male colleague, made unwelcome advances against her and harassed other women in the office Abbas Malik is seen in his uniform at a 2011 event with Sen. Gillibrand The allegations against the senator, who has emphasized her feminist credentials and her role as a mother in the crowded Democratic primary field, could hurt her credibility on the #MeToo issue and her standing with the woman voters she is courting. The former aide, who requested to stay anonymous to avoid retaliation, resigned in August, emailing Gillibrand her reasons for leaving. 'I felt defeated, not just from the humiliation and pain that the harassment had brought me, but that in attempting to seek appropriate disciplinary actions for my harasser, my experience was devalued. I was devalued,' the aide wrote in her email. 'I have offered my resignation because of how poorly the investigation and post-investigation was handled,' she noted. 'I trusted and leaned on this statement that you made: 'You need to draw a line in the sand and say none of it is O.K. None of it is acceptable.' Your office chose to go against your public belief that women shouldn't accept sexual harassment in any form and portrayed my experience as a misinterpretation instead of what it actually was: harassment and ultimately, intimidation,' the woman wrote. Malik stayed on in the senator's office. Gillibrand defended her office's handling of the incident in a statement to the news website. 'These are challenges that affect all of our nation's workplaces, including mine, and the question is whether or not they are taken seriously. As I have long said, when allegations are made in the workplace, we must believe women so that serious investigations can actually take place, we can learn the facts, and there can be appropriate accountability,' she said. 'That's exactly what happened at every step of this case last year. I told her that we loved her at the time and the same is true today.' Gillibrand's office concluded his behavior was inappropriate but did not reach the standard for sexual harassment. They did rescind his promotion and warn him any additional behavior would result in his firing. And Politico reports that - two weeks ago - after it presented its findings from its own investigation into Malik, Gillibrand's office opened a new investigation and dismissed him last week. The news website reported there were claims that Malik made a 'joke' about rape to a female colleague and another woman said he made four unwanted advances to her in one day. Malik was also accused of calling a woman fat, calling someone ugly, rating women's appearance and saying that a women working at the Senate as a fellow was 'into him.' He did not respond to Politico's request for comment. Gillibrand's communication's director Whitney Mitchell Brennan defended the handling of the original complaint. 'At every step of the process, immediate action was taken by the office,' she said in a statement to The New York Times. 'A full and thorough investigation into the evidence revealed employee misconduct that, while inappropriate, did not meet the standard for sexual harassment.' Malik Abbas is seen behind Sen. Gillibrand in the military fatigues at a 2010 event The allegations against Sen. Gillibrand could hurt her credibility on the #MeToo issue and her standing with the woman voters she is courting as she runs for the Democratic nomination Gillibrand has been seen as a voice for women and leader against sexual harassment since she was the first Democratic senator to call on then-Sen. Al Franken to resign in 2017 following allegations of harassment against him dating back to his Hollywood career. She has also led the fight in the Senate to advance sexual harassment legislation, which would overhaul how such complaints are handled on Capitol Hill. Malik served two tours in Iraq and had a title in the senator's office related to military affairs, but his primary responsibility was to serve as Gillibrand's driver. He was reported to be close to the senator after spending years driving her and her children. Gillibrand officiated at his wedding. The female staffer was a more recent hire with less stature in the office. Two children have drowned and another was rescued after their mother locked them in an SUV that rolled into a Mississippi creek while she was in a nearby store. Jenea Monique Payne, 25, told police that she left her three children in her white Nissan Pathfinder when she went into a convenience store briefly in Leland on Saturday at about 6pm. Payne said the vehicle was already in the nearby creek when she came out. Jenea Monique Payne, 25, told police she locked her three children - Steve Smith, 4; Raelynn Johnson, 2; and one-year-old Rasheed Johnson Jr. - in a car in Leland, Mississippi on Saturday when she went into a nearby store Police were called to the scene and found the car floating down the creek with the three children - Steve Smith, 4; Raelynn Johnson, 2; and one-year-old Rasheed Johnson Jr. - still trapped inside. Their mother had jumped into the creek with several first responders to try and break the car's windows. They were able to pull Payne's two-year-old daughter from the car. Police said those who jumped into the creek only managed to rescue the girl before they had to swim to safety. Payne, pictured with her three children, jumped into the water with first responders to try and break the car's windows. They were only able to save her two-year-old girl before the car was swept away The bodies of the two boys were found in the vehicle when it was retrieved from the creek about two hours later. Photo courtesy of WJTV The vehicle then drifted further down the creek before sinking. Authorities said a rescue dive team found the submerged car about two hours later. The two children were found inside the car when authorities were able to retrieve it from the water. The Washington County Coroner pronounced the two boys dead at 8.37pm, according to police. Leland Police are now reviewing surveillance video from the convenience store. The case is being forwarded by police to the district attorney to decide if charges should be brought against the mother. This is the terrifying moment bolts of lighting forced a Thomas Cook plane with 139 passengers onboard to turn around after hitting the aircraft's wing. The Manchester to Banjul, Gambia flight was less than 54 seconds into the journey when it entered storm clouds and was struck by lightning. Dramatic video footage and photos from the incident show the electric charge bouncing off the wing off the plane. Scroll down for video A wiry bolt of lightning hit the Thomas Cook seconds after takeoff from Manchester International Airport. The plane has to return to Manchester and delayed the passengers on board by hours Flight MT1140 left Manchester International Airport at 9.22pm, ascending into an ominous grey cloud. A passenger over the right wing of the plane films footage of the outside as the cloud gets darker. Suddenly, a bright pink flash fills the small plane window, before a bolt of lighting is seen pinging off the wing of the plane. Terrifying footage from a passenger sitting over the right wing of the aircraft shows the sky turning pink before a wiry white bolt of electricity bounces off the wing against a grey backdrop of clouds The pilot continues to ascend out of clouds, and no one appears to have been hurt by the flash. However, due to safety concerns the flight was diverted back to Manchester Airport after flying as far as France. The plane managed to make it over the Bay of Biscay before having to turn around because it had to offload the required amount of fuel before returning to make a safe landing. The plane is seen returning to Manchester airport, it made it as far as France before turning around because the pilot had to offload enough fuel in order to land safely upon return 'The aircraft is equipped to safely withstand lightning and a full inspection was undertaken by our Manchester hangar engineers' said a spokesperson A spokesperson for Thomas Cook said that passenger safety was the airline's priority which forced the aircraft to return from its journey to Banjul (Stock photo) Passengers were then put onto a different flight later that night. A Thomas Cook Airlines spokeswoman said: 'Flight MT1140 from Manchester to Banjul returned to Manchester shortly after take-off following a lightning strike. 'The aircraft is equipped to safely withstand lightning and a full inspection was undertaken by our Manchester hangar engineers. 'The safety of our customers and crew is always our first priority and we are sorry for the delay and inconvenience caused. 'Customers departed Manchester later in the evening on a different aircraft.' Medicines and raw materials to keep power stations going will have the top priority for space on cross-Channel ferries if there is a no-deal Brexit - ahead of food supplies - the Government has revealed. Vaccines, transplant organs and both prescription and over-the-counter pills are among 'critical goods' that will get priority places on Government-chartered vessels if we leave without a deal. Similar material for animals and 'critical chemicals or consumables' for generating energy will also get a place, according to the two-page briefing note released by the department for Leaving the European union (DexEU). However baby milk formula is the only food that makes it onto the list for items under consideration for places in 'Government-secured freight capacity' system. The Department of Transport has signed deals worth 108 million with DFDS and Brittany Ferries to lay on additional crossings to ports other than Dover (pictured) in the case of a no-deal Brexit The Government document was publishe dthis afternoon, setting ut the goods that would have priority places in the freight system. Food supplies were not among the goods deemed as requiring places on the scheme at the moment The Department of Transport has signed deals worth 108 million with DFDS and Brittany Ferries to lay on additional crossings to ports other than Dover in the case of a no-deal Brexit. The contract with Seaborne Freight to provide a service between Ramsgate and Ostend was dropped after attracting controversy because the company had no ship In a statement, the Government said it was 'engaging directly with companies that supply critical goods about the process to purchase tickets on these additional crossings'. It added: 'Only suppliers identified by their sponsor departments will be able to purchase tickets. 'Critical goods have been identified as those essential for the preservation of human and animal welfare, such as medicines. 'Extensive work has been undertaken with a range of key sectors to understand their capacity needs and ensure that supplies of critical goods continue in any scenario.' The note outlines the rules for so-called Category 1 goods which are defined as 'critical to preservation of human or animal welfare and/or national security for the United Kingdom'. The note added: 'The Government-secured freight capacity is intended to support the supply of Category 1 goods which are currently reliant on the short Strait (covering Dover, Folkestone, Calais, Dunkirk, and Coquelles). 'Where Category 1 goods are currently imported or exported through other UK ports, these routes should continue to be used.' The note says 'critical food chain dependencies, e.g. chemicals and key additives used within the food supply chain' are not being considered. Other items not being considered are water purification chemicals, 'critical spare parts for the energy sector' and 'Items required for Military or National Security purposes'. The document does not specify the reasoning for the decision. But it adds: 'This list may be subject to further revision or amendment based upon further evidence and emergent needs. 'It will be kept under review and updated accordingly.' Miriam Rice was 28-years-old and four months pregnant at the time of her brutal murder on June 24, 1988 One of two people charged in the 1988 beating death of a pregnant mother in northwest Indiana has pleaded guilty. Prosecutors in St. Joseph County say George Kearney, 78, entered the murder plea Monday, three years after he agreed to speak with police about the slaying of 28-year-old Miriam Rice. The South Bend Tribune reports Kearney was in prison for an unrelated crime when he confessed and said his co-defendant, 56-year-old Barbara Brewster, was also responsible. Both were charged last year, but Brewster has a hearing on a motion scheduled for Tuesday. Rice left her home to walk her dog in South Bend on June 24, 1988, but was reported missing an hour later. Her dog was found the next day, but her body would be discovered on June 29 two miles away at Pinhook Lagoon, a man-made lagoon off of the St. Joseph River. George Kearney (left), 78, pleaded guilty in the murder of Miriam Rice in 1988. Barbara Brewster (right), 57, is also charged in the horrific crime Rice had multiple skull fractures and had been four months pregnant at the time. The victim also left behind a tjree-year-old son. Kearney said he was camping with Brewster and her three children, ages two, six and seven, on the day Rice was killed, according to court documents. He said the group saw a woman running and claimed that Brewster pulled something from a bag and ran after the her. Kearney then said he lost sight of Brewster but soon heard screaming before Brewster came back to the campsite with bloodied hands. It was the two older children, now adults, named Paula Brooks and Robert South, who helped investigators find probable cause against the pair, according to Vice. Rice's dog would be found on the next day, but her body would not be discovered until June 29 Rice, of South Bend, Indiana, was the mother to a three-year-old boy when she was killed Brewster's daughter Paula, 37, told police that during the camping trip, Brewster, Kearney and her six-year-old brother Robert left to get food, leaving her with her two-year-old brother. Hours later, she claimed to hear a 'blood-curdling scream' and a woman 'pleading for her life.' Brewster, Kearney and the boy then returned to the campsite covered in blood. She would tell the authorities that her brother would only say 'something bad happened.' Rice was walking her dog near Pinhook Lagoon in 1988 when Kearney and Brewster came upon her in their van with Brewster's son Robert in tow Court documents allege Robert South, now 35, later told investigators that Kearney abducted Rice as she walked her dog. The son said Rice fought back, so Kearney smashed her head into the side of the van before putting her inside the van. Brewster's son, who says he was in the van, claimed Kearney yelled at his mother to kill Rice, and that it was his mother who fatally beat Rice with tools. Robert told police he never told anyone over the decades because Kearney threatened to kill him. A motive for the crime is still unclear. Kearney faces 40 to 60 years in prison when sentenced March 29. A federal agent whose job it was to protect the US border instead helped Mexican drug traffickers smuggle narcotics into the country in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash. Former US Border Patrol agent Robert Hall, 45, of Texas, on Friday was sentenced to more than nine years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for accepting bribes from a criminal organization. As part of his sentencing, Hall also will be required to pay a $20,000 fine. Former Border Patrol agent Robert Hall, 45 (not pictured), has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from a criminal organization and was sentenced to more than nine years According to newly unsealed plea documents, between 2004 and 2014, Hall, working with several associates, helped bring illegal drugs, including marijuana, into Texas. In exchange for cash payments, Hall provided his contact inside an unspecified drug-smuggling group with CBP sensor locations, the locations of unpatrolled roads at or near the US-Mexico border, the number of agents working in a certain area, and even keys to unlock gates to ranch fences along the border. Hall also furnished the criminals with Border Patrol radios. In all, the rogue agent received more than $50,000 from the drug traffickers in exchange for using his position to help drug shipments cross the border into Texas without detection. Hall and his associate have admitted to handing over keys that unlock gates along the US-Mexico border in Texas to drug traffickers (stock photo) One of Hall's accomplices, former Border Patrol nurse Daniel Hernandez, 46, of California, pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy to bribe a public official. Court documents indicate that on one occasion, Hernandez received $500 for handing over a key to a gate on the border and a map showing sensor locations. Between 2013 and May 2014, Hernandez accepted $5,000 in bribes from the traffickers. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 9. Matthew Jacobs, 26, has been jailed for seven years after killing two 19-year-old musicians when he crashed into their parked car after he had been drinking for six hours A drink-driver who killed two 19-year-old musicians after getting behind the wheel of his company car at the end of a Christmas night out has been jailed for seven years. Matthew Jacobs, 26, had spent six hours drinking in Lincoln with work colleagues and was so unsteady that he fell off a bar stool. His colleagues thought he had arranged a lift home but instead he decided to drive the work's pool car. On his journey home he crashed into the back of a Ford Mondeo estate car parked in a lay-by, Lincoln Crown Court heard. Teenagers Alexander Ross and Sian Chambers, both 19, were asleep in the back of the estate car when they were killed. Jacobs remained slumped at the wheel of his car only stirring when he was found by a passing motorist and immediately said: 'I'm going to prison'. Moments later he fled from the scene on foot. Police used a drone and a helicopter to search for him and he was picked up four hours later close to his home. He subsequently failed a breath test and even six hours after the crash was almost twice over the limit. He was more than three times over the limit at the time of the crash. Jacobs, 26, of Lindholme Road, Lincoln, admitted two charges of causing death by dangerous driving as a result of the crash on December 22, 2018. He also admitted driving with excess alcohol and failing to stop after a road accident. Sian Chambers was a 'brilliant musician' who played double bass. Her father said: 'We now have to come to terms with the fact that our daughter, sister and granddaughter is never coming home again' He was jailed for seven years and banned from driving for four years. His driving ban will begin when he is released from custody. Phil Howes, prosecuting, said: 'This occurred in a lay-by on the A46 Lincoln bypass. 'This defendant was affected by excessive alcohol and drove into the rear of a car parked in the lay by. It killed two 19 year olds who were lying down in the rear of the car asleep. 'His car drove into the lay-by and into the estate car. There appears to have been no reason for that manoeuvre. He hit the rear of the Ford Mondeo estate car with such force that the length of the Ford was reduced by two metres.' Judge Andrew Easteal, passing sentence, told him 'There are no words that can adequately describe the tragedy at the heart of this case. 'The decision you took that night to drive when completely incapable of doing so is one for which you are wholly responsible. 'Just a few days before Christmas you went with a group of friends from work for a night out drinking. 'You drank and drank and drank. Beer, shots and whatever else you were drinking. You went out a little before 6pm and only stopped around midnight. It was clear to those around you that you were drunk. 'You had drunk so much that you were simply incapable of properly and safely driving a car.' The Judge said that after the crash Jacobs did not do anything to help the two teenagers and instead made his way from the scene. 'It makes what you did all the more serious. It was callous and self-interested.' Michael Cranmer-Brown, in mitigation, said 'It was a disastrous and tragic decision for him to have done what he did but was completely out of character. 'It can only be that the befuddling effects of the alcohol wrongly led him to believe that he was going to drive competently. This was a complete and utter aberration on his part and totally out of character.' Ms Chambers and Mr Ross were pronounced dead at the scene after the crash in the early hours of December 22. Mr Ross was a double bass player and second year student at the Royal Academy of Music. He performed together with Ms Chambers with the Lincolnshire Youth Symphony Orchestra. He was a former pupil at Caistor Grammar School from where he won a scholarship to the Purcell School of Music in London. He played in both the National Youth Orchestra and the Eu-ropean Youth Orchestra. At the time of his death he was auditioning for major London or-chestras. Head of Strings at the Royal Academy of Music, Professor Jo Cole, described Alex as someone she would remember fondly. She said Alex was 'a dedicated student and had a significant talent, with a marvellous dry sense of humour.' She added: 'I will miss him very much.' Miss Chambers was working as a jewellery engraver and, as a talented double bass player, was continuing to make music with local ensembles. She loved animals and was having a gap year before taking up Animal Science at university. In a victim impact statement Charles Ross, the father of Alexander, said the lives of himself and Alexander's mother Jacqueline had been completely devastated by his death. 'Alex was our only child. He was an unexpected surprise. He was a source of immense joy to us. There are no happy memories. There are memories of happy times but they are filled with grief.' David Chambers, the father of Sian, said 'She had so much to live for. Her future has been stolen from her as has Alex's. We now have to come to terms with the fact that our daughter, sister and granddaughter is never coming home again.' A passenger plane reportedly had to turn around and go back to a Saudi airport after a mother left her baby at the terminal. The Saudia flight from Jeddah was said to be on its way to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, when the woman realised she was missing her child and alerted cabin crew. The pilot then had to request permission to return to Jeddah from baffled air traffic controllers, Arab media reported. The woman had left the child behind in the departure lounge at King Abdul Aziz International Airport, according to Gulf News. A Saudia flight (file photo) from Jeddah was said to be on its way to Malaysia when a female passenger realised she was missing her child and alerted cabin crew A voice recording, which has been widely shared online in the Arab world, reveals how puzzled aviation staff tried to deal with the crisis. The pilot reportedly asked them: 'May God be with us. Can we come back or what?' One of the controllers can then be heard asking a colleague: 'This flight is requesting to come backa passenger forgot her baby in the waiting area, the poor thing.' They then said: 'OK, head back to the gate. This is totally a new one for us!' The bizarre delay reportedly took place over the weekend. Flight-tracking data showed a Saudia flight from Jeddah to Kuala Lumpur departing almost an hour late on Saturday, but it was unclear if this was the same one. The pilot of the Saudia plane (file photo) reportedly had to request permission to return to Jeddah from baffled air traffic controllers after the woman noticed her mistake It was not clear whether the plane had already taken off or was taxiing towards the runway when the woman realised her mistake. Last year police in Germany said a couple had left their daughter at an airport in Stuttgart on their way back from a holiday. Officers allegedly spotted the five-year-old wandering alone around the terminal last October. Each parent had reportedly driven off separately and believed the child was in the other's car. Andrew Dicken, 37, has been jailed for two years after wielding a revving power saw in a Manchester pub A construction worker who waved a revved-up power saw at pub-goers during a terrifying revenge attack in a crowded bar has been jailed for two years. Andrew Dicken, 37, burst into the pub and shouted 'I've got a chainsaw' before threatening regulars around a lounge area. Mobile phone footage captured Dicken as he climbed a flight of stairs at the Bulls Head bar in Sale, Greater Manchester before repeatedly revving up the saw and forcing screaming men and women to dive for cover. Dicken had drunk one pint of beer before the attack and later threatened to blow up his ex-girlfriend's home with her and her children inside. One pub regular had to jump out of the way as Dicken brought the saw down on a wooden table full of glasses. He was eventually driven out of the bar and he dumped the saw at the entrance to the pub before damaging a fence while driving away. Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester heard the incident on February 9 last year occurred after Dicken, from Sale, claimed he was beaten up in the car park of the pub. Prosecutor Suzanne Hargreaves said: 'At 12:30am, the landlord saw him leave, then he came back and he shouted that he had a chainsaw, and he saw him with the saw coming into the pub while a number of people were trying to stop him. 'This was an absolutely terrifying incident which took place in a pub where a number of people present. 'This is a really serious disorder where serious alarm and distress were caused.' The court heard how later that same day in an unrelated attack Dicken threatened to blow up his ex-girlfriend's home with her and her children inside and vandalised her Mercedes car causing 800 damage. Miss Hargreaves said: 'She got a phone call from him accusing her of having an affair and saying he wanted his belongings. 'He also messaged her saying "I will rip your door off and batter you and the kids".' She then looked outside her home and saw him punching the windscreen of her car and she started screaming to her daughter to get his belongings together. One pub regular had to jump out of the way as Dicken brought the saw down on a wooden table full of glasses. The judge said: 'As someone who uses power tools for a living, you should know how dangerous your actions could have been' The defendant went to drive away but said he would be back to blow the house up with her and the children inside. He then reversed back and damaged her car. The court heard Dicken who admitted affray, possession of an offensive weapon, criminal damage and making threatening communications. He had been subject to a suspended sentence for burglary at the time of the incidents. Defence lawyer Robert Mann said: 'He was at the pub with an old friend and he exchanged words with another group of males and females. What happened is that this large group of males followed him into the car park and he was assaulted there. 'He then dusted himself off and opened the boot of his vehicle, where his work tools are, and the first thing he noticed was this saw. 'He then went into the pub and was waving it towards these men. He didn't think about the terrifying effect it would have on the other customers. He just wanted to scare this group. Passing sentence Judge Angela Nield told Dicken: 'Your entry into that pub clearly terrified a number of individuals, in particular the females who were present. 'It was clearly a blade, but an operational blade moving at speed and it's a miracle that nobody was hurt. 'This was a serious loss of control. As someone who uses power tools for a living, you should know how dangerous your actions could have been.' While the national conversation on illegal immigration has focused on the Southern U.S. border, the number of people breaking the law to enter from the Canadian border has grown in recent years, according to Customs and Border Protection Data. A total of 983 people were caught while trying to cross into the U.S. from Canada in fiscal year 2018, up from 504 in 2017 a nearly 76 percent year-on-year increase, according to NBC News. The biggest source of the Northern spike originated at the Swanton border patrol sector, which runs along the edges of New Hampshire, Vermont and New York. This graph illustrates the annual trend in apprehensions of people illegally crossing into the U.S. from the northern border. Source: Customs and Border Protectoin More than half (548 people or 57 percent) of those apprehended in 2018 were caught along that border region. Preliminary border data indicates that during the period from October 2017-January 2018, 465 people were apprehended on their way into the U.S. from Canada. A majority (294) were caught along the Swanton sector. The efforts to sneak into the country from Canada are 'very organized,' Border Patrol Agent Richard Ross, told NBC News. Ross, who runs the station in Newport, Vermont, which is part of the Swanton sector, said that some immigrants may believe it is 'safer' to fly to Canada and enter the U.S. from the North after Canada recently changed its immigration policy to allow those from countries like Mexico and Romania to enter without a visa. 'I'd like people to understand that this is not an easy area to cross,' Ross told NBC. 'It's not safe. It can be very dangerous, especially under the conditions we're in right now, and it's equally as difficult to cross here as it is the southern border.' It's not safe. It can be very dangerous, especially under the conditions we're in right now. -Richard Ross, Border Patrol agent Overall, the crossings at the Canadian border are a small share compared to the 66,450 migrants who were apprehended in the month of February alone at the Southern U.S. border. Donald Trump has used that figure as validation for his pursuit of building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, although current figures remain below pre-recession levels. It's worth noting that nearly two-thirds of those apprehended at the Southern border are parents with children in tow, signalling more families are seeking to come to the U.S. without documentation. Those families are overwhelmingly coming from the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala in South America an area riddled with gang violence that is driving terrorized people to the U.S. The Filipino president who regularly makes vile jokes about women, rape, drugs, and the Church has taken another swipe at priests. Roberto Duterte 'advised' women against approaching priests in church, saying: 'The women should refrain from going near the priests because when you are near him, he will just smell the scent of your body. 'And if he corners you in the church, you're in trouble, he will court you. 'Do you know why? It's because he is a man. 'God gave him a penis. What will they do with that? 'Will they slap it against the door every morning? God was the one who made a mistake there, not us,' he added. President of the Philippines, Roberto Duterte, launched a broadside against the Church on the basis priests would 'court' women regardless of their vows Following criticism from the Church against his bloody war on the drug trade, he added: 'Is there an intelligent priest? They are all stupid. 'If they aren't stupid, they wouldn't enter priesthood,' Duterte said during the distribution of land ownership certificates in Negros Occidental last Friday. 'You are a man, but you chose to be a priest. You keep on looking at all the beautiful women that you can't court. My God.' He told priests to refrain from criticizing the government in their sermons. 'The priests shouldn't overstep their boundaries. You know that they started it first. Tell them that there is a separation of church and state. The sons of b****** attack me in the pulpit using the religion,' the president said. 'If you are a priest and you want to attack me, don't do it in the pulpit because this is the spokesman, the table of the church. Step away from it. 'I am a priest and I don't like Duterte because he killed criminals especially the drug addicts. As a Filipino, I am protesting against him.' The Filipinos have the right to know.' Duterte has a history of unpleasant and misogynistic statements. and recently admitted to sexually assaulting his family's maid in his youth The leftist Filipino Gabriela Women's Party asked: 'why would women take advice from a self-confessed womanizer and serial misogynist?' 'The macho-fascist president would be the last person who could give decent advice on how women can stay away from or fight abuse', the party said in a statement. It is not the first time Duterte has shared an insight into his worldview, which seems mainly to comprise of the belief that men are animals not responsible for their actions and women should be blamed for sexual offences committed against them. While running for office, he said of a gang-rape victim: 'I was angry because she was raped, that's one thing. But she was so beautiful, the mayor should have been first. What a waste.' He was mayor of Davao City on the southern island of Mindanao in the Philippines at the time of the statement. And last August has provoked worldwide outrage when he said: 'As long as there are many beautiful women, there will be more rape cases.' The security service has expressed its 'deep regret' that an allegation of possible child sex abuse by a Tory MP was not passed to police. A member of MI5, giving evidence anonymously at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), said the report on the late Chester MP Peter Morrison was looked at from a 'narrow security-related view'. A 1986 letter from MI5 to the Cabinet Office read to the Westminster strand of the inquiry, which is sitting for its second week, referred to a rumour that Mr Morrison had a 'penchant for small boys'. An MI5 lawyer, who did not work for the service at the time, said such allegations would be passed to police nowadays as a matter of policy. Sir Peter Morrison At Downing Street in the 1980s. The Conservative MP represented Chester and was PPS to Margaret Thatcher Brian Altman QC, lead counsel to the inquiry asked the witness: 'Do you say that there is no material in MI5's corporate recording to suggest that the 1986 allegations were ever passed to the police?' Speaking via video-link and visible only to the inquiry panel, he replied: 'That's right.' He went on: 'I can only take the view that with hindsight it is a matter of deep regret. 'I can't speak about what appreciations ought to have been at the time. 'I am aware, everybody will be aware, that the knowledge and understanding of child sex abuse at that time was much, much lower than it is now. 'So I am not surprised, to some extent unsurprised, that the wider consideration wasn't given in 1986. With hindsight it is a matter of real regret.' Asked how such allegations would be treated today, he said: 'Today as a matter of formal policy MI5 would report all allegations of this sort to the police and if the same information had come to MI5 today it would be passed to the police.' The inquiry heard two memos in relation to Morrison were written by Eliza Manningham-Buller, who was later to go on to become chief of MI5 and who is now Baroness Manningham-Buller. One written on November 13 1986 stated that then prime minister Margaret Thatcher was aware of the rumours and was supporting Morrison, and that Morrison hoped the press would publish a story so he could sue and 'nail the lies' he felt were being spread about him. Mr Altman asked the witness if he agreed that it seemed the information given by Baroness Manningham-Buller to MI5's director general at the time Sir Antony Duff 'relied upon what Peter Morrison himself said to her, his word was simply taken as read and what he said was accepted rather than inquiries made?' He said: 'Looking at the bald paperwork there does seem to be a chain from Morrison through Eliza to the director general to the cabinet secretary.' He added that he felt this was probably down to the belief the prime minister was aware of the allegations and supported Morrison and that if the then cabinet secretary Sir Robert Armstrong had any doubts 'he was in a very good position to check'. The inquiry also heard from former Labour MP Christine Russell who denied a deal was struck to keep quiet about a rumour that Morrison had been caught by police at a railway station with a teenage boy. Christine Russell, a former MP for Chester, said she could not recall any such meeting about Morrison when she worked as a Labour party election agent. But the inquiry heard from another Labour Party member who said they believed there had been a meeting which resulted in what he called 'a Chester cover-up'. Trade unionist Grahame Nicholls said rumours were 'rife' about Morrison's private life, that he 'liked little boys'. He said: 'That's the expression that was used in that period. I didn't hear the word paedophile at all.' He said the rumours were known by the 'political elite' in the area. Asked if he had any evidence to substantiate the rumour, he replied: 'No, the evidence was the rumour. The rumours that were going round Chester.' Mr Nicholls said a meeting had taken place, at some point between 1988 and 1990, in which Ms Russell said Morrison, who had been the area's MP since 1974, was not going to stand in the 1992 general election. He told the inquiry: 'The reason she gave was that Peter Morrison had been caught by Cheshire Police in a toilet in a railway station.' Mr Nicholls said he had been told about the alleged railway station incident before the meeting, by a local reporter, and said he heard it involved a 15-year-old boy. He added: 'The agreement was that if he wasn't standing then we wouldn't break cover on this particular story.' Sir Peter with Lady Thatcher, as the pair arrived for the funeral of Ian Gow, who was assassinated by car bomb by the IRA He said he understood that the police had agreed not to take the matter any further. But, contradicting this, Ms Russell said: 'There was certainly no deal.' The inquiry will continue on Tuesday. Yesterday Margaret Thatcher's former police bodyguard claimed he alerted her to allegations about Peter Morrison four years before Mrs Thatcher personally recommended the MP for a knighthood. Morrison, one of Mrs Thatcher's closest aides, is now widely suspected of being a child-sex pervert. He died of a heart attack in 1995 at the age of 51 but has since been linked to claims of sex abuse at children's homes in North Wales and accused of raping a 14-year-old boy. In a letter that November, the spy chief told then Cabinet Secretary, Sir Robert Armstrong, that stories about him [Sir Peter] persist. A memo from a mid-ranking intelligence officer also said: The Prime Minister was aware of [the matter] and was supporting Peter. The inquiry yesterday heard evidence that MI5 had also received allegations of sexual abuse against the late Tory MPs Charles Irving and Christopher Chataway, the broadcaster and Olympic athlete. Almost 100 Labour politicians have stuck two fingers up at party leader Jeremy Corbyn tonight by attending the first meeting of a new moderates group led by his deputy Tom Watson. Former party leader Neil Kinnock and New Labour era ministers Peter Mandelson, David Blunkett, Peter Hain and Tony Blair's former deputy John Prescott were among those seen at the launch of the Future Britain group. There were also around a dozen members of Mr Corbyn's current front bench at the meeting in Parliament, which will fuel suspicions that at least some were there to spy on the group. It was launched by Mr Watson after nine MPs quit the party over issues including Brexit and the anti-Semitism crisis and has been seen by many as a direct challenge to the hard-left take over of the party under Mr Corbyn. Mr Corbyn, pictured leaving his house in north London today, will be alarmed by the scale of support for the Future Britain group at its meeting tonight Mr Watson has mobilised following the fallout from the anti-Semitism and Brexit crises in recent weeks that have seen nine MP quit the party Mr Watson told the meeting recent events such as the departure of MPs like Luciana Berger to form the Independent Group (TIG) had been 'a wake-up call'. The Labour deputy leader went on: 'The last few weeks have been very difficult and upsetting. 'The departure of good people, in particular friends like Luciana and Ian Austin, was for me a personal wake-up call to step up and do more. 'I really fear that unless we restore pluralism and tolerance to this party, it will be irreparably damaged and we will see a schism bigger than any we have experienced in our long history. 'This party is made of many elements and we've only ever worked and been elected to government when the pluralism of our different traditions has been respected.' Lord Mandelson, pictured on ITV's Peston in February, was among those who attended Monday's meeting of moderate Labour MPs along with fellow peers Lord Kinnock, and Lord Prescott Mr Watson has long been planning the move, but it has been accelerated by the civil war which has broken out over anti-Semitism. The veteran party power-broker and union fixer claims he has an independent mandate because he was elected deputy leader by the membership. Discussing Mr Corbyn, Mr Watson said: 'Jeremy to his credit kept the voice of his tradition alive through the campaign group during the New Labour years. 'So, he understands the need for those from the social democratic and democratic socialist traditions to give ourselves the strongest voice we can. 'I feel, and I suspect that many colleagues in this room feel, that the voice of the social democratic and democratic socialist traditions hasn't been strong enough in recent times. 'It is to defend those traditions that I've invited you here. Not just because it's critical for the future of the Labour party. But because these traditions are critical to the future of the nation.' It has also been seen as a potential fix to prevent more MPs leaving Labour to follow Chuka Umunna, Luciana Berger and others into the Independent Group (TIG). Two weeks ago ago Mr Watson challenged Labour general secretary Jennie Formby, a close ally of Mr Corbyn, over anti-Semitism. He asked Labour MPs to forward complaints made to the party about anti-Semitism to him so they could be monitored in a move she branded 'completely unacceptable'. He returned fire in the extraordinary public spat by insisting there had been a 'complete loss of trust' in the party regarding the complaints situation. MP Darren Jones insisted the group was not a faction or a Labour equivalent of the Tory European Research Group (ERG). Mr Jones told reporters: 'Some have said that this is a new faction it is in fact the complete opposite. 'As Neil Kinnock, our former leader was saying this evening, and Peter Mandelson, this is a coming together of previous factions into the mainstream Labour Party. 'We are not the ERG. We are not a party within a party.' The family of an armed black man who was running away when a white Nashville police officer fatally shot him from behind is suing the city and the officer. Attorney Joy Kimbrough says the lawsuit filed Monday in Nashville federal court seeks $30 million on behalf of 25-year-old Daniel Hambrick. It names Officer Andrew Delke and Nashville's government. The 34-page complaint lays bare long-simmering criticisms of policing in Nashville and across the nation, saying officers are trained from their first days to lean on lethal force and to discriminate against people of color. Delke, 25, faces first-degree murder charges in connection with Hambrick's death in July 2018. Daniel Hambrick, shown, was shot in the back, torso and head as he was fleeing Officer Andrew Delke in July 26, 2018. His family is suing the city of Nashville and Delke for $30M Nashville Police officer Andrew Delke sits at his preliminary hearing at the Justice A.A. Birch Building on January 4 in Nashville Vickie Hambrick, mother of Daniel Hambrick, cries during the second day of a preliminary hearing for Delke at the Justice A.A. Birch Building in Nashville on January 5 According to an arrest affidavit, Nashville officer Andrew Delke pulled into an apartment parking lot after seeing a car he mistook for one he had been following last July 26 in North Nashville. Delke had been following a 'suspicious' white Chevrolet Impala initially stopped at a stop sign. He had run plates and found it was not a stolen vehicle but followed it regardless. Hambrick was in the area at the time when Delke mistook his car for the Impala and pulled up in the parking lot. Hambrick began to run and can be seen being gunned down from behind on a surveillance video. The case sparked an outcry that led to a November referendum approving the creation of a citizen oversight board for Nashville's police force. Delke was indicted on a charge of first degree murder after a video showed him shooting Hambrick as he ran away Delke shot Hambrick in the back, torso and the back of his head, killing him Defense attorney David Raybin has argued that Delke 'acted in accordance with his training and Tennessee law in response to an armed suspect who ignored repeated orders to drop his gun.' 'That's not a crime; it's what Officer Delke and every other police officer in America is trained to do to protect their life and others,' The Nashville chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police said in a statement while calling the charges 'politically motivated.' Judge Melissa Blackburn, however, disagreed with Raybin and the police union, stating that the evidence presented in a preliminary hearing showed that Hambrick's behavior didn't justify the officer's use of lethal force. Delke shot Hambrick in the back, torso and the back of his head. District Attorney General Glenn Funk has said Delke could have stopped, sought cover and called for help. Andrew Delke, 25, (pictured above) has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him Prosecutors have also pointed to the lack of video footage or witness testimony about Hambrick turning, looking back or aiming his weapon at Delke, as Delke claimed in his interview with a state investigator. The suit claims Nashville's police department has a culture of violence and racism and that Hambrick's shooting was at least partly motivated because he was black. The police department and Delke's attorney didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Delke is pleading not guilty to the charges. Police in Spain are investigating the bizarre case of a 33-year-old man who was found wandering around the streets after amputating his own penis and keeping it in a plastic bag. The incident happened in Zaragoza, the capital of northeastern Spain's Aragon region. According to Spanish press reports, the man was seen covered in blood as he stumbled around the city centre. Officers in a patrol car heard him crying for help and he was rushed by ambulance to the Hospital Miguel Servet. Police managed to find his penis in a bag at home and rushed it back to the hospital He told police he had amputated his own penis and had just left his house. Unconfirmed reports say he then put it into a shopping bag. The events took place in a central area of the city that links the Gran Via and Paseo Fernando el Catolico. Officers in a patrol car heard him crying for help and he was rushed by ambulance to the Hospital Miguel Servet. He revealed his severed private part was still in his home and the officers could go there to collect it. Police managed to find it in the bag and rushed it back to the hospital. It is not known if doctors managed to reattach his penis or his general condition as further details are being kept private. An investigation has opened to find out exactly what happened and if there may be third parties involved in the case. The man himself is insisting he did the amputation himself so psychiatrists believe it might have been self-harm or related to drug-taking. Health chiefs have declined to provide more details. President Trump says that he's being unfairly maligned for referring to tech giant Tim Cook by his first name and company at a roundtable last week. He said that he referred to the CEO as 'Tim/Apple' at one point during an event in the State Dining Room of the White House because it was an 'easy way to save time & words' after introducing Cook by his first and last name. 'At a recent round table meeting of business executives, & long after formally introducing Tim Cook of Apple, I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words. The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story!' he tweeted. President Trump says that he's being unfairly maligned for referring to tech giant Tim Cook by his first name and company at a roundtable last week Trump appeared to call Cook 'Tim Apple' at a White House event, after introducing him earlier by his first and last name Cook had taken the whole thing in stride, changing his Twitter handle to his first name and a Mac Apple emoji The president claimed to donors in Florida over the weekend that a video proving the incident occurred only appeared to drop the word 'Cook' after he said it 'really fast' making it inaudible. He blasted media taunting him for the flub as 'fake news' during the Friday evening event, the news website Axios reported. A donor attending the event at Mar-a-Lago told Axios it was a bizarre rant because 'it doesn't even matter' and was a blatant 'lie' based on White House video of the event. Trump couldn't let it go, though, and on Monday he had a different excuse. He admitted that he had intentionally referred to Cook by his first name and company after a formal introduction at the start of the roundtable. Cook had taken the whole thing in stride, changing his Twitter handle to his first name and a Mac Apple emoji. The reference to Cook came toward the end of the event, after Trump had gone around the table, and moved on to immigration, warning of an 'invasion' at the southern border on Wednesday afternoon. He segued into the topic after he went around the room and allowed CEOs - including Cook- to say a few words about their participation in the White House initiative that's the brainchild of Ivanka Trump. 'We want to have a very strong border, but we want to have a lot of people coming in,' the president said toward the end of the event. 'A lot of people dont understand that. They think were shutting it down. Were not shutting it down.' Trump grabs the hand of White House senior advisor and his daughter Ivanka Trump as they participate in an American Workforce Policy Advisory Board meeting in the White House He segued into the topic after he went around the room and allowed CEOs - including Apple's Tim Cook Trump said of his policy, 'We want people to come in, but they have to come in through a process.' He warned of human traffickers and drugs and called it 'somewhat of an invasion' of illegal immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Cook was seated to Trump's immediate right during the late afternoon event. Prior to the rant he thanked the Trumps, saying it was 'an honor to serve on this council' and be at the White House. 'For our company, as you know, founded by a college dropout, so we've never really thought that a college degree thing you had to have to do well,' he said. 'We've always tried to expand our horizons.' Cook told Trump he is proud of the fact that half of Apple's workers don't have college degrees. He said it is Apple's belief that every child should have a coding education before they graduate high school and working with government to bring the need within the workforce for workers who can code into alignment with schools' curriculum. The president told him that Apple is expanding in ways that he wanted to see 'right from the beginning' and have put a 'big investment' into the America's economy. 'We appreciate it very much, Tim Apple,' the president told him. At the beginning of the event, Ivanka Trump praised her father for directing resources to the initiative that she co-chairs Ivanka shared snaps of the meeting on her Instagram story, including a group selfie shot The Apple CEO has the president's ear and has been able to shape his policies on trade. He has broken with the billionaire publicly, however, on family separations at the border and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that Trump sought to terminate. He said his company employs immigrants who are part of the DACA program and workers in the country on H-1Bs visas and has a right, therefore, to speak his mind about the president's policies on immigration. That doesn't mean he'll stay away from the White House, though, he told the Irish Times in the summer of 2018. 'I'm personally a big believer in the way to be a good citizen is to participate, is to try to advocate your point of view, not to just sit on the sideline and yell or complain,' he explained. The First Daughter looked feminine and stylish in a pink suit, nipped at the waist with a burgundy sash Cook has indeed visited the White House on several occasions, attending Trump's first and only state dinner, in honor of France's Emmanuel Macron, at the White House in April of 2018. They also dined in August of 2018 during the president's extended stay at his Bedminister property in New Jersey. He came back the following day for a private meeting with Trump, where the two men discussed the president's trade agenda. The Apple executive was at the White House on Wednesday for the first meeting of Ivanka's advisory board comprised of business leaders interested in being a part of a White House initiative to expand the American workforce. President Trump told the CEOs he is seeking to make changes to the immigration system to make it easier for companies to hire high-skilled workers from other countries. 'Were going to let a lot of people come in because we need workers. They have to have workers,' he said. 'You need the people, and you need really great people.' But those aren't the people who are crossing the border illegally, he said, tying his comments on legal and illegal immigration together. 'You are having other people come into the country,' he said. The former businessman said that he 'would like to have the companies grow' and 'give them the workers' they need to expand after he was asked to clarify his immigration comments. Chasey Crawford-Usher has banned children at her primary school in Kent from bringing in sweets on their birthdays. She has also banned crisps and fruit juice A headteacher has banned children from bringing sweets in on their birthday but insists she is 'not the fun police'. Chasey Crawford-Usher has also prohibited crisps and fruit juice from her school, Wateringbury Primary School in Kent. The American-born teacher says she imposed the ban after being shocked by how much sugar British children were consuming. The self-confessed health fanatic insists the move is in the best interests of pupils. She said: 'First of all, I'm not the headteacher of all evil and saying no. 'I've banned birthday sweets because they were becoming a huge problem in the school and meant the children were consuming processed sugar almost every day.' Mrs Crawford-Usher, from New England, America, admits she wasn't allowed sweets growing up and claims her mother was a 'wholefoods mum before it was trendy.' She added: 'The most important reason for banning the practice was my growing awareness of the amount of sugar being consumed and the number of children in our school that were undergoing tooth extraction and also just had really serious tooth decay. 'My view is that things have changed today and the amount of sugar children consume is out of all proportion to what they should be eating - and therefore the tradition is no longer acceptable.' Ms Crawford-Usher said the practice is unfair to mums and dads who do not want their children tucking into unhealthy snacks which 'sets up conflict at every level.' Parents of children who attend Wateringbury Primary School were angry with the change and one mother said Ms Crawford-Usher was 'Britain's most miserable headteacher' She said: 'A few parents came to me and explained the amount of pressure they were under to comply with this tradition even though they disagreed with it. 'It sets up conflict at every level - the whole thing is just a nightmare for schools, and a nightmare for parents.' The playground was often covered in litter from children leaving school and dropping their sweet wrappers on this floor. When the birthday tradition was first banned, Ms Crawford-Usher faced a backlash from parents who thought they were being 'cruel and unsympathetic' to children. But the headteacher said she has since seen a real difference at the school where the playground is now litter free. She said: 'Immediately a number of parents thought I was being cruel and unsympathetic and I tried to explain that I had to make a policy that was going to put everybody on an equal playing field. 'The children quickly accept rules that have a strong reason for them. 'I'm all for children questioning rules and discussing them because they've got a point of view, and if I can explain a clear reason they accept it. 'It's really important that parents understand that we've got the children's well being at heart - it's not because I don't like sweets.' But parents reacted angrily to the rule. One Kent mother said: 'She's the most miserable headteacher in Britain.' Ms Crawford-Usher noted that children are provided with healthy and wholesome school dinners such as spaghetti bolognese, shepherd's pie and roast dinners - all made with fresh ingredients. The strict head also said desserts were on the table but they too were natural and unprocessed. The ban comes after recent figures revealed 13,000 children under five needed tooth extractions last year She said: 'Children can eat and drink whatever they want when they get home, I just want to provide them with healthier choices at school. 'The dental problems among schoolchildren now are awful and I want to do what I can to prevent it. 'It's a terribly traumatic ordeal for a child to have their tooth extracted and it's something I want to avoid.' It comes after recent figures revealed 13,000 children under five needed tooth extractions last year. Public Health England estimated that youngsters were eating around eight more cubes of sugar per day than the recommended guidelines. Mrs Crawford-Usher's decision has come under fire on social media from Olympic race walker Tom Bosworth. He said: 'Again, common sense needs to be used here. Really what is happening to society to ban kids from having sweets on their birthday. 'Ban them every other day if you like, but let a child be a child on their birthday though.' The head hit back and said the Olympian had perhaps missed the point. She said: 'Yes, I think pupils should be able to eat sweets on their birthday but if each and every child brings them in to celebrate, the children would be eating them nearly every day. 'Also it puts an unfair pressure on parents to bring in sweets when perhaps they don't agree with them.' Wateringbury CE Primary School is based near Maidstone, Kent. Its mission statement reads: 'Our vision...to be an excellent primary school at the heart of the community where we inspire, excite and enable children to achieve.' It was rated 'good' in a 2017 Ofsted report and Mrs Crawford-Usher said the obesity levels among pupils falls slightly below the national average. She has been headteacher of the school for eight years. Fake Uber driver Tommy Beard, of Alabama, has been charged with first-degree kidnapping after a sheriff's deputy found an unconscious 22-year-old woman in his car An Alabama man has been charged with kidnapping after he allegedly pretended to be an Uber driver to pick up a university student who was found unconscious in the back seat of his car. Tuscaloosa police Capt. Gary Hood said investigators then found multiple images of the student at least one other college-aged female who appeared unconscious in the vehicle on 61-year-old Tommy Wayne Beard. Court records show Beard was released on $45,000 bond Friday after being formally charged with first-degree kidnapping. Video recorded on Friday by WBRC showed the man being led in handcuffs to an awaiting sheriff's patrol vehicle while wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words, 'So when's this "old enough to know better" supposed to kick in?' Hood said Beard picked up the 22-year-old old woman near the University of Alabama campus, driving her about 7 miles away. A deputy noticed a car parked alongside the road at 2.30am and stopped to investigate, which led to his arrest March 2. Tommy Wayne Beard was released on $45,000 bond Friday after being formally charged with first-degree kidnapping Ironic: The 61-year-old man was bundled into back of a patrol car while wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words, 'So when's this "old enough to know better" supposed to kick in?' The college student told investigators she remembered leaving a bar in downtown Tuscaloosa, but could not recall getting inside Beard's vehicle. When interviewed by police, Beard initially claimed he was a driver for the popular ride-share service, but then admitted that he was only posing as one. Beard said he had bought an 'Uber' sign for his black 2012 Ford Taurus and was picking up people and giving them rides, reported Al.com. When police searched the man's phone, they reportedly found multiple images showing college-aged women who appeared to be unconscious in the back of his car. Beard, who is believed to be a married father and grandfather, then allegedly confessed to photographing young women who pass out in his backseat. A massive bull was shot and killed by New Jersey police after it escaped its enclosure and attacked its owner last week. The animal's owner, Wendy McDermott, called police on Friday around 3pm to report that the aggressive bull had gone on a rampage. When Sparta police arrived to the scene, they found McDermott trying to get the animal back to her farm on Houses Corner Road. A huge bull (pictured) was shot dead by New Jersey police after it escaped its enclosure and attacked its owner, Wendy McDermott, on Friday The bull tried to get inside the vehicle after it was seen attempting to mount cars in Sparta, New Jersey She was reportedly screaming that the bull was trying to kill her and ordered them to shoot the animal, according to a police statement. Officer Arlene Lippencott saw the bull 'throw her around' and attempted to distract it so that McDermott could get to safety. Two other officers ended up shooting the bull after it charged at another patrol vehicle. Photos of the scene showed the bull attempting to mount a vehicle. Police said during its rampage, the bull tried to attack other cars in the area. McDermott suffered a head injury, lacerations and bruising. She was taken to Newton Memorial Hospital for treatment. The bull had recently attacked McDermott's husband, but his injuries were not serious. The animal's owner, Wendy McDermott, called police on Friday around 3pm to report that the aggressive bull had gone on a rampage A week-long Interpol-led operation has dealt a huge blow to a criminal network, which included members of MS-13, for funneling arms through Latin America. The investigation led to the arrest of 560 people during the week of February 22-28, also led to the seizure of hundreds of guns and other weapons in eight different countries. Led by Interpol's firearms program, 'Operation Trigger V' was coordinated via the Organizations Regional Bureau in El Salvador and its General Secretariat headquarters in Lyon, France. Authorities arrested 47 people in the Central American nation, including 18 with alleged ties to the notorious MS-13 gang as well as the Barrio 18. An Interpol-led investigation led to the arrest of 560 people in eight different Latin American countries from February 22-28. The sting led to the arrest of 47 suspects in El Salvador, including 18 members of MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs. Agents (pictured) seized suspects during one of the raids The operation also led to the capture of a man identified as 'Zeus' or 'El Mono' ('The Monkey', pictured third center). Interpol points him as the lead contact for weapons purchases that originated in the United States and were shipped to the National Liberation Army, a revolutionary left-wing armed group in Colombia A raid at a warehouse in Panama led to the seizure of ammunition, firearms and gallons of chemical and explosive materials The investigation also led to the arrest of suspects in Mexico, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Panama. MS-13, whose members have been accused and convicted of countless crimes, including brutal murders, has been a target of United States President Donald Trump. Trump has leaned on the gang's notoriety to push Congress to pass a multi-billion dollar border protection program to fund a wall across the southern border with Mexico. Honduran police officers display some of the 800 plus weapons that were recovered by the Interpol in an investigation that targeted seven other countries in Latin America Vehicles in Mexico were equipped with secret compartments to store ammunition The gang's stronghold presence in El Salvador as well as its neighboring Central American countries has driven a mass exodus of migrants to flee their homelands and trek through Mexico in hopes of reaching the U.S.-Mexico border to apply for asylum. Operation Trigger V also led to the arrest of man known as 'Zeus' or 'El Mono' ('The Monkey') for his principal role for allegedly purchasing weapons in the United States. The Colombian man used Central American intermediaries to ship the arms to the National Liberation Army, a revolutionary left-wing armed group in Colombia. The suspect was caught while trying to cross illegally into Honduras from Guatemala and has been deported back to Colombia. Guatemalan police interrogate a suspect (pictured sitting) as part of a week-long sting that led to the arrest of 560 people in the Central American nation and seven other countries in the Latin America region Interpol successfully captured a Honduran national wanted for weapons and drug charges, and several members of two Colombian criminal organizations. The seven-day investigation recovered 857 firearms and more than 38,000 bullets on top of 20 grenades and various police and military uniforms. The agency recovered two AK-47's in Costa Rica, including one that had been recorded by an Interpol Middle East Office. Agents raided a warehouse in Panama thanks to an anonymous tip and uncovered ammunition, firearms and gallons of chemical and explosive materials. The large scale operation also seized drugs, stolen vehicles and $162,000 in cash in during various raids that also took place at air, sea and land border points. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders insisted at her first press briefing in 42 days that President Trump has called out 'abhorrent' language in the GOP, just as he has targeted Democrats for comments attacking Israel. Trump blasted Democrats publicly as 'anti-Israel' and 'anti-Jewish' on Friday after they declined to formally reprimand Rep. Ilhan Omar for making allegedly anti-Semitic comments and reportedly told donors at a fundraiser that evening that they 'hate' Jewish people as he spoke from his private club in Florida. Sanders did not deny that Trump expanded his argument behind closed doors when it came up at her briefing. Instead she said, 'The president's been an unwavering and committed ally to Israel and the Jewish people and frankly the remarks that have been made by a number of Democrats and failed to be called out by Democrat leadership is frankly abhorrent and sad and it's something that should be called by name. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders insisted at her first press briefing in 42 days that President Trump has called out 'abhorrent' language in the GOP, just as he has targeted Democrats for comments attacking Israel 'It shouldn't be put in a watered down resolution. It should be done the way the Republicans did it when Steve King made terrible comments,' she said. Trump never spoke out against the GOP lawmaker who was stripped of his committees but remains a federal legislator. Sanders called his comments 'abhorrent' at the time, but the Twitter-happy president did not condemn him. She argued Monday that they are one in the same, because she speaks for the president. And like her comments on King, after the Iowa lawmaker praised white nationalism, she said that Trump would like to see Democrats calls out anti-Semitic behavior. On principle, Sanders declined to comment on leaked comments from the president's fundraiser about Democrats and their alleged detest for Jews. She suggested that a reporter 'ask Democrats what their position is since they're unwilling to call this what it is, and call it out by name, and take actual action against members who have done things like this' and claimed the moral high ground for Republicans. Trump openly called the House vote last week on a resolution condemning hate language a 'disgrace' from the White House after Democrats expanded it to touch other minority and religious groups at the last minute. 'The Democrats have become an anti-Israel party, they have become an anti-Jewish party,' he said as he left the White House for Alabama. 'And I thought that vote was a disgrace. And so does everybody else, if you get an honest answer.' President Trump blasted Democrats as anti-Israel and anti-Jewish on Friday after they declined to formally reprimand Rep. Ilhan Omar for making allegedly anti-Semitic comments The House passed a resolution condemning hate language on Thursday after alleged anti-semitic comments from Rep. Omar consumed lawmakers' attention this week, caused an internecine war among Democrats and bringing the wrath of Republicans. It did not condemn Omar specifically, and at the last minute, Democrats added hate language about minority groups, including Muslims, to the resolution. The final vote was 407 to 23 with one lawmaker voting present. All no votes came from Republicans. As the gavel slammed down to close the vote, it carried with it the hopes of Democratic leaders that the issue could be put to rest and the party could move forward to their signature legislation a sweeping anti-corruption in bill that comes for a vote on Friday. Republican Rep. Steve King, who has been accused of supporting white supremacists, was the sole present vote. The House passed a resolution condemning hate language 407 to 23 Democrats in the House of Representatives will vote Thursday on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and other hateful speech following anti-Israel comments by Ilhan Omar, who is seen Thursday at a House Foreign Affairs Committee Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert took to the House floor before the vote on the anti-hate resolution to announce his opposition to it, arguing the original measure 'should never be watered down' with additional minority groups. 'There's never been a persecution of people like the Jewish people,' he said. Some Democrats agreed with him yet supported the legislation anyway. Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, who is Jewish, said he would vote for the resolution but was disappointed the House did not bring forward a separate resolution condemning Omar's comments. Democratic leaders had hoped to dispatch with the issue quickly through a hastily-written resolution condemning anti-Semitism. But they broadened the text to include Islamophobia and white supremacism after Omar's defenders said one form of hate should not be singled out over others. Minutes before the scheduled vote, Democrats pulled the resolution again, to add several groups not included in the original measure, including Latinos, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and the LGBTQ community. Lawmakers held a contentious debate on the House floor for nearly an hour before the vote occurred, with Republicans questioning why such a resolution was necessary. 'We shouldn't have had to go through the number of versions we have had to,' GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy said. He added: 'I will pledge to you this: from this side of the aisle and I hope you understand this clearly, any hatred, we take action.' The chaos surrounding the vote reflected the disarray among the Democrats after Omar made a series of comments that were alleged to be anti-Semitic. 'We're not policing the speech of our members,' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of the measure condemning hate speech. Trump, who has himself been accused of anti-Jewish commentary in the past, said anti-Semitism 'has fueled atrocities throughout history' Speaker Nancy Pelosi cleared Rep. Ilhan Omar of intentional anti-Semitism, saying the freshman lawmaker didn't appreciate how her comments were interpreted by others Rep. Ilhan Omar's Controversial Tweets 'Our democracy is built on debate, Congresswoman! I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee. The people of the 5th elected me to serve their interest. I am sure we agree on that!' - her March 3 tweet in response to Rep. Nita Lowey's criticism of her 'It's all about the Benjamins baby' - her February 10 tweet interpreted to mean lawmakers defended Israel because of financial donations 'AIPAC!' - Omar's tweeted the name of the powerful Jewish group in response to a tweet asking her who she meant when she said 'it's all about the benjamins' 'Israel has hypnotized the world. May Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel' - a tweet from 2012 now deleted Advertisement Pelosi defended the decision to drop Omar's name in the 1,400 word text, which some Democrats had argued for while the congresswoman's defenders countered that would require a resolution any time a lawmaker said or tweeted something offensive. 'One resolution is not mentioning her name because it's not about her,' Pelosi argued. Democrats had battled over the wording of the resolution should it directly refer to Omar and anti-Semitism or should it be broadened to condemn all hate speech. Omar, who is one of the first Muslim women in Congress, came under fire for suggesting that supporters of Israel were urging lawmakers to have 'allegiance to a foreign country' in a reference to Israel. Her words have split Democrats down the middle and overshadowed Democrat's legislative priorities. Pelosi would not be brought into the debate over whether or not Omar should apologize. 'It's up to her to explain but I don't believe she understood the weight of her words,' the speaker said on Thursday. President Donald Trump, who has himself drawn accusations of anti-Semitism on several occasions, denounced Democrats on Twitter. 'It is shameful that House Democrats won't take a stronger stand against Anti-Semitism in their conference,' the president tweeted. 'Anti-Semitism has fueled atrocities throughout history and it's inconceivable they will not act to condemn it!' House Democrats updated their resolution on condemning hate language, changing the original version (left) to include Latinos, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and LGBTQ community (right) It's at least the third time Omar has forced older, pro-Israel Democrats who run the House into awkward territory over U.S.-Israeli policy. A retracted claim that moneyed Jews buy the support of U.S. lawmakers with a strategy that's 'all about the Benjamins baby' got her into hot water recently. She was defending herself when she talked about 'allegiance' to Israel during a panel conversation. Omar has not apologized for her latest remarks, and Pelosi said Friday she doesn't think he Muslim colleague is actually anti-Semitic. 'I think she has a different experience in the use of words, doesnt understand that some of them are fraught with meaning that she didnt realize,' the House speaker said. Marco Rubio is being criticized for a number of tweets he has posted over the past few days about the increasingly fraught situation in Venezuela. The most glaring of these came on Sunday, when he confused a reporter on the ground in the South American country with an actual dam. 'Today another transformer explosion at the German Dam in Bolivar State caused another massive blackout,' wrote Rubio. 'The result? Critically ill patients have died, the #Caracas metro remains out of service & few if any flights have arrived at or departed from Caracas in over 20 hours.' Scroll down for video Marco Polo: Marco Rubio (above) confused a reporter with a dam while tweeting about the situation in Venezuela over the weekend Damn: 'Today another transformer explosion at the German Dam in Bolivar State caused another massive blackout,' wrote Rubio (above) Setting it straight: German Dam, the reporter who was covering that story, quickly responded to inform Rubio of his mistake, at which point he deleted his tweet Backing off: Rubio also stated: 'It was a thread & I usually go back & add the twitter handle before tweeting. This one I pressed tweet all before I checked' That tweet was later deleted when Rubio was corrected by the reporter who had been covering the story - German Dam. 'Senator @MarcoRubio, an important transformer exploded in Bolivar and that, in part, again collapsed the Venezuelan Electric System; however it was not in a dam, much less german,' wrote Dam. 'My name is German Dam, I am one of the journalists who published the information.' Then, the responses to Rubio started rolling in, most of which mocked the Florida congressman. 'I would like to apologize on behalf of the State of Florida for Marco Rubio,' said a fellow Floridian. 'Oh my God, they have talking exploding dams in Venezuela, time to send in the marines!' said another Twitter user. Author John Nicols replied to Rubio's gaffe by tweeting: 'What Marco Rubio does not know is... everything.' Rubio himself also responded to Dam, claiming it was a big social media mix-up. 'Sorry @GermanDam, I meant to type "Today another transformer explosion in Bolivar State caused another massive blackout according to German Dam,"' wrote Rubio. 'It was a thread & I usually go back & add the twitter handle before tweeting. This one I pressed tweet all before I checked.' One Twitter user quickly fired back: '"do not lie" Leviticus something-or-other.' The mother of a British soldier killed by Real IRA gunmen in 2009 has told fellow victims how her son's words have helped her family learn to live with loss. Patrick Azimkar's mother Geraldine said 'horror overwhelmed us' when she and her family learned of his murder ten years ago. Royal Engineer Azimkar, 21, from London, was shot dead by Real IRA gunmen outside an army barracks in Antrim, Northern Ireland, in March 2009. Geraldine Ferguson, whose son Patrick Azimkar was killed by the Real IRA in 2009, has spoken in Stormont about her experience with grief Patrick Azimkar (left) and Mark Quinsey (right) were killed when they went to collect a pizza before they were due to be deployed to Afghanistan He and comrades went to collect a pizza delivery at the gate as they waited for a flight ahead of deployment to Afghanistan when he was shot. Sapper Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham, was also killed in the attack. Geraldine Ferguson addressed a gathering of bereaved and injured in Belfast on Monday to mark European Day for Victims of Terrorism. She discussed how her family had grappled with a wide range of emotions over the last decade, including shock, disbelief, horror, anger, rage and bitterness. She said at the event in Stormont: 'We were utterly broken in heart and mind. 'We still don't know why Patrick was murdered and no one else seems to know either. 'Some people, they try to explain it away as political, but when it is your child that's murdered, it's not political, it's personal. Mrs Ferguson addressed a gathering of bereaved and injured in Belfast to mark European Day for Victims of Terrorism 'In the end the only way for us to understand that attack is that it was a carefully planned and deliberate act of evil.' Mrs Ferguson revealed that while home in England on leave months before his murder, her son had told the family that if he was killed in Afghanistan they were not to mope or be soppy, and instead to get on with their lives. 'In our darkest days those simple words were like a beam of light in pitch black,' she said. 'We would remind myself and each other, Pat wants us to live and that means to look up and look out into the world. 'I think we have learned to live alongside our loss and the injustice we suffered and not be overwhelmed by them. 'It took courage for us to live fully and enjoy our lives, but it's what Patrick wanted and really it's the only way to live and, besides, perhaps living a full life and a loving life is the best revenge of all. 'We are very proud of Patrick, how he lived his life and behind him he leaves a legacy of love. 'In Patrick's name and in his memory so many good things have been said and done by so many good people in many countries around the world. They all matter. They make the world a better place.' Mrs Ferguson said three of her son's friends have given their children Patrick as a middle name. 'I know our Patrick would be very proud of that,' she said. The event at Stormont, which was hosted by Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister, came as Northern Ireland's victims commissioner Judith Thompson published a series of recommendations on how to deal with the toxic legacy of the Troubles. A Saudi woman who was granted asylum in Canada after fleeing her homeland to escape her parents has celebrated her first birthday 'as a free woman'. Rahaf Mohammed captured global attention in December after she barricaded herself in an airport hotel room in Bangkok in a bid to not be sent home to her family. The 18-year-old said she was being oppressed by her family and took action to save her life. She was handed over to the UN refugee agency and resettled to Canada in January. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, spent three days at Bangkok airport after being denied entry by Thai immigration officials Today she took to Twitter to celebrate her birthday, saying: 'she was born again in this life' and that it was her 'first birthday being free'. In response, people posted messages of support to the Saudi teenager. Danielle T said: 'Happy Birthday and more to importantly you independence. Wishing you love & light from #Australia.' Cameron Riddle said: 'Happy birthday Rahaf! Enjoy the freedom. Let's hope more get out of there.' She spent three days at Bangkok airport after being denied entry by Thai immigration officials. Rahaf's family have denied abusing her. Today she took to Twitter to celebrate her birthday, saying 'she was born again in this life' and that it was her 'first birthday being free' A new life: Rahaf Mohammed, 18, posted a picture of her breakfast accompanied with bacon and heart-emojis and a Canadian flag, and a cup of Starbucks coffee Since starting her new life, Rahaf, who has renounced her last name al-Qunun, has posted snaps of her enjoying things that she was forbidden to have in her homeland. One pic shows her eating Canadian-style bacon for the first time. She also shared images of red wine and a lit cigarette as she continues to celebrate her freedom and new home. When Thai authorities eventually allowed Rahaf to enter the country, the UN refugee agency began to seek a home for her. New life: The knee-length dress the teenager wore at a press conference after seeking asylum in Canada is far from the covering outfits women are required to wear in Saudi Arabia After being informed that she had been granted asylum in Canada, she said in a press conference: 'the stress I felt over the last week melted away.' Ms Mohammed also said in her press conference that she wants to work in support of freedom for women around the world. 'Today and for years to come, I will work in support of freedom for women around the world,' she said. 'The same freedom I experienced on the first day I arrived in Canada.' She added that her first priority is to learn English. UBS executive Shele Danishefsky (pictured) was in the midst of divorcing her much younger husband Rod Covlin when she was killed on New Year's Eve in 2009 The parents of backgammon pro Rod Covlin, on trial for murdering his millionaire financier wife Shele Danishefsky, accused him of stealing from his children, a jury heard in a secret recording Covlin's then-girlfriend had made. Prosecutors in the nine-week-long Manhattan Supreme Court case have released the explosive tape as the case wraps up this week. Danishefky's body was found in the bathtub of her Upper West Side home on December 31, 2009. Covlin is accused of strangling Danishefsky, 47, and staging the scene to look as though she slipped in the tub, struck her head and drowned in the bathwater. Prosecutors at Manhattan Supreme Court claim Covlin, now 45, murdered Shele to get hold of her $5.4 million fortune and also took money away from their children. Following Danishefsky's death, Covlin and children Anna and Myles moved into the home of his parents David and Carol in Scarsdale, New York. David and Carol Covlin (above) were heard by jurors in their son Rod's murder trial evicting him from their home and accusing him of being a deadbeat who stole from his children He also lived there with his new girlfriend Debra Oles Campbell and asked her to secretly record an explosive argument he had with his parents on September 28, 2012. Prosecutors at Manhattan Supreme Court claim 45-year-old Rod Covlin, pictured on Monday, murdered Shele to get hold of her $5.4 million fortune David is heard accusing his son of stealing from Anna and Myles and being 'a deadbeat'. Covlin is heard warning his parents if they continue to claim he stole money he will make sure they never see their grandchildren. At that point, Carol tells Covlin they are evicting him and give him three days, until October 1, to leave. David also reveals spending a million dollars to allow Covlin custody of his children. David: 'You steal from your children. You stole before.' Carol: 'You're stealing their college money.' David: 'They won't be able to go to college by the time you're done with them.' David: 'Why don't you tell [daughter] Anna that every penny you're spending right now is her money and [son] Myles's money.' Carol: 'That Shele worked her ass off.' Covlin: 'Hold on a second. Anna, I'd like you to come here. Hold on a second. Come here, please. Covlin asked then-girlfriend Debra Oles Campbell (pictured above) to record his argument with his parents and his attempt to get into their home days after he was evicted Carol: 'Five years in the twelve years of your marriage you never worked.' Carol [to Anna]: Your mother worked her ass off for every penny that he's spending. Let me tell you, the Danishefskys are not wrong. 'They may be wrong about some things, not the money. Your mother worked and worked and worked and your father sat on his ass like he's doing now, he refuses to get a job.' David [to Anna]: 'He refuses to get a job. He's spending your money. He's spending your money.' Covlin: 'What you're saying now, in front of Anna and Myles, okay, will ensure you never see my children again, if you continue. Okay? In a recording released by prosecutors in Rod Covlin's murder trial, Covlin discovers his parents have changed the lock and alarm code to their home in Scarsdale, New York David: 'You threatened us with the children?' Covlin: 'No. I'm not threatening you. I'm telling you.' Carol: 'We want you out of the house by October 1st.' Covlin: 'Okay, evict me.' David [to Anna]: 'You know what, Anna? I've spent a million dollars of my money to make sure you didn't go to the Danishefskys.' Covlin: 'No. you spent a million dollars of Bonny's money.' David: 'I owe them money. I owe them money. I'm going to pay the money. You're never going to pay me back.' Carol: 'I'm not a deadbeat.' David: 'You're going to steal from me.' Carol: 'Because you're a deadbeat.' David: 'You're going to steal from me like you steal from your children.' The recording was handed over to police by Oles Campbell when they began investigating Covlin for murder. She also recorded Covlin trying to gain entry to the Scarsdale house on October 3. It shows how his parents have changed the house lock and alarm code. The jury also heard a short expletive-riddled recording of Covlin admitting to dipping into his children's college fund. Covlin said: 'I mean, I had to take money out of the *******, like college ****, so we could go away on weekend and escape from my parents.' Shele was initially buried without an autopsy at the insistence of her Orthodox Jewish family. Her body was exhumed months later and a post mortem examination revealed a broken hypoid bone, a hallmark of strangulation. Covlin faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted. Speaker of the House John Bercow issued withering reprimands today to two Tory ministers for interrupting Diane Abbot in a discussion of ISIS jihadi bride Shamima Begum. The Shadow Home Secretary began an impassioned speech by saying: 'When she was 15, Shamima Begum made a very bad decision, and it is arguable that much of the tragedy that has engulfed her since then flows from it'. She said she and the Labour Party believed the baby, who died in a refugee camp aged 18 days old, should have been allowed into the UK and that Begum should not have been stripped of her British citizenship. At the dispatch box Diane Abbott asked why Shamima Begum was singled out for treatment by the Home Office Shamima Begum pictured with her then-week-old son Jerah in the Al Hawl camp for captured ISIS wives in children, in Kurdish Syria She asked Sajid Javid: 'Can he explain why he deemed this 19-year-old, with a baby that was not quite three weeks old, more dangerous to Britain than the hundreds of foreign fighters who have already been allowed to return?' Ms Abbott was then interrupted by barracking from both benches after saying: 'We understand the issue of keeping British people safe, but this was a British baby, who is now dead.' At this point her her Labour colleague, Shadow International Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner exploded with fury, shouting 'Shut up' across the chamber, pointing towards the Tory benches. Speaker Bercow addressed himself sternly to Tory Security minister Ben Wallace and his Parliamentary Private Secretary, Simon Hoare, sitting on the government benches. After a Labour colleague demanded chuntering from the Government benches stop, the Speaker interrupted Ms Abbot to issue a rebuke Speaker Bercow delivered one of his trademark disdainful reprimands to Simon Hoare Minister of State for Security Ben Wallace MP Mr Bercow said: 'Mr Wallace, please. I respect your governmental responsibilities and the seriousness with which you take them, but I appeal to you just to listen to these exchanges.' But turning to Mr Hoare, he began: 'As for the Parliamentary Private Secretary, Mr Hoare, you are a junior Member of the House, trying to come to terms with your responsibilities as a PPS.' Mr Bercow then delivered some harsh truths to Mr Hoare, who was first elected in 2015 and whose unpaid governmental role as PPS is the lowest rung on the ministerial ladder. 'Your job,' said the speaker, his cheeks flushed to match his cerise tie, 'is just to sit there and nod or shake your head in the appropriate place. 'It is not for you to give a running commentary on the shadow Home Secretarys performance. 'I have not the slightest interest in what you have to say, and you will say no more in the course of these exchanges or I shall have to ask you to relocate yourself.' Home Secretary Sajid Javid rejected the suggestion he was responsible for the baby's death Diane Abbot was then allowed to continue, saying: 'This is a very serious matter, and it's unfortunate that the Treasury bench don't seem to take it with the seriousness it deserves.' Sajid Javid said the 'only person responsible' for the death of Shamima Begum's three-week-old baby was 'the foreign terrorist fighter'. The case of the 19-year-old, born in Bethnal Green but who travelled to Syria to be with Isis as a 'jihadi bride', was raised in the Commons during an urgent question. Mr Javid strongly rejected shadow home secretary Diane Abbott's suggestions he was responsible for the baby's death, having stripped Begum of her British citizenship instead of allowing her to come home. Radio broadcaster Ray Hadley has criticised One Nation candidate Mark Latham's plan to introduce DNA testing in order to prevent indigenous welfare rorts. Mr Latham - One Nation's New South Wales leader - wants to stop people without Aboriginal ancestry from fraudulently claiming welfare benefits designed for indigenous people. Under the proposed plan, Aboriginality would be determined by a DNA test proving the applicant has at least one full-blood Aboriginal grandparent. The policy at the moment allows any Australian to 'self-identify' as Aboriginal. Hadley said the policy doesn't make sense, as Mr Latham is a candidate for the NSW parliament and can not influence federal matters such as welfare. Radio broadcaster Ray Hadley has criticised One Nation candidate Mark Latham's (pictured) plan to introduce DNA testing in order to prevent indigenous welfare rorts Hadley (pictured) said the policy didn't make sense, as Mr Latham is a candidate for the NSW parliament and can not influence federal matters such as welfare 'It's just a populist-type decision. I do have a number of concerns about the fact that he said you've got to prove that you're 25 per cent indigenous which means you've got to have grandparents who are full-blooded Aboriginal people,' he told The Today Show. 'There would be people that have grandfathers, great-grandfathers, great-grandmothers and great-great-grandmothers who claim they are indigenous and so they should be able to be, I mean it's part of their heritage.' Hadley said he believes there is a problem with people claiming Centrelink benefits they weren't entitled to, but disagreed with Mr Latham's DNA benchmark of 25 per cent indigenous ancestry to qualify. 'To actually quantify it with 25 per cent - what, so your great-grandfather and great-grandmother are indigenous but under Mark Latham's scheme you can't claim aboriginality?' Hadley said. 'Mark Latham can't do anything about it in the state parliament, it's a federal matter. It's simply a populist thing to try and gain attention.' Mr Latham disputed Hadley's claim welfare fraud is a federal issue. 'No, there's a whole host of New South Wales indigenous welfare programs, positions reserved for Aboriginal people, the Land Council system where you need to qualify... the Land Councils in New South Wales have got assets of $5billion,' he said. 'There's a huge amount of state money that goes into this area and what I'm saying is if the technology exists, the DNA ancestry testing, let's use it. Australians claiming to be Aboriginal would be forced to undergo DNA testing under a One Nation policy designed to stamp out welfare fraud (pictured is One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, left, with the party's New South Wales leader Mark Latham) 'We should be respecting genuine indigenous identity and getting the money to the people in need who have got the genuine Aboriginal background.' Mr Latham said Australians are upset with seeing people who did not appear to be indigenous claim to be Aboriginal. 'Everybody hates a welfare rorter, especially in Aboriginal affairs,' he said. 'Australians are sick and tired of seeing people with blonde hair and blue eyes declaring themselves to be indigenous, when clearly they have no recognisable Aboriginal background and are doing it solely to qualify for extra money.' In Australia, people can identify as indigenous to be given special treatment when applying for jobs in the public service or the ABC, as part of an affirmative action policy designed to promote one minority group. They also qualify for special benefits, including Abstudy to fund university study or an apprenticeship, and can join an Aboriginal land council. 'The system of indigenous self-identification, declaring Aboriginality without any bloodline or DNA proof, has been open to widespread abuse,' Mr Latham said. 'It is being used as a fraudulent way of cashing in on welfare benefits, special Aboriginal programs and land council largesse.' Mr Latham said genuine indigenous Australians continue to live in poverty as people with little or no indigenous heritage claim taxpayer-funded benefits. 'Any waste of taxpayer funds in this area is highly disrespectful to genuine indigenous,' he said. 'It weakens the integrity of their racial group and takes money away from people in genuine need. 'We believe in an honest and fair welfare system. 'First Australians deserve the respect of stopping rorters and opportunists from masquerading as indigenous.' While indigenous recognition is largely a federal issue, the NSW public service has an Aboriginal employment strategy and administers indigenous land councils. Mr Latham has proposed a law which would require Aboriginality to be determined by a DNA test showing someone has at least one full-blood Aboriginal grandparent (pictured as Aboriginal men at Alice Springs in central Australia) The Greens' spokeswoman on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues Senator Rachel Siewert described the One Nation policy as 'blatant racism'. 'It should be called out as such,' she told Daily Mail Australia on Monday. 'But it's what you can expect from One Nation who are using shock tactics to get attention.' As federal Labor leader in 2004, Mr Latham backed then Prime Minister John Howard's dismantling of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. Almost 15 years later, as One Nation's leader upper house candidate in the NSW election, he has savaged his former party for failing to tackle fraudulent claims of being Aboriginal. 'It's surprising that Labor and The Greens, who pretend to respect Aboriginality, have not introduced this policy already,' Mr Latham said. Indigenous people were not counted in the Census until a 1967 referendum passed with 90.77 per cent support. A few years later during the early 1970s, Gough Whitlam's Labor government introduced a policy of indigenous self-determination. Indigenous land rights activist Noel Pearson has criticised the prevailing system of 'passive welfare' which originated under Mr Whitlam, who Mr Latham worked for as a former prime minister during the 1980s. Britain's FBI has helped to seize a 100million haul of cocaine near New York which was due to be shipped to London. The National Crime Agency revealed the huge bounty today after British agents helped to pull off the New York area's largest drug seizure for 25 years. Some 60 packages weighing about 1.6 tons (1,437kg) were intercepted during the bust on February 28, the NCA said. The container discovered in Newark was due to be shipped to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and then onwards to an address in London. Bundles full of cocaine were concealed within this container and discovered at the port of New York in Newark. The drugs were believed to have a street value of at least 100million The UK street value of the cocaine was estimated to be in excess of 100 million ($131million). The weight of the drugs is equivalent to more than a third of all the cocaine seized in Britain last year. In 2017/18 there were more than 15,000 cocaine seizures in the UK, taking 7,405lbs (3,359kg) of the drug off the streets. It is believed the illicit drugs could have produced more than 15million lines of cocaine. The container was recovered from a ship that originated in South America, U.S. customs officials said. The U.S. Coast Guard, customs and border agency, drugs enforcement officials and New York City's police department were all involved in the raid. The container was recovered from a ship that originated in South America, according to U.S. customs officials. The container in which the cocaine was found is shown at left The raid marks the biggest cocaine seizure at the ports since 1994. The drugs, which have been turned over to federal Homeland Security officials for investigation, are shown No arrests have been made, and the investigation into the origin of the drugs is ongoing, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said. Dave Hucker, regional head of international operations for the NCA, said: 'Taking this amount of cocaine out of circulation will be a massive hit for the organised crime group involved. 'While this seizure was made on the other side of the Atlantic there is no doubt in my mind that a proportion of these drugs would have ended up on the streets of the UK. 'We know there are direct links between drug distribution and street violence, intimidation and exploitation in UK towns and cities. 'These kind of seizures demonstrate the role the NCA plays in preventing that.' Authorities are shown handling the drugs after they were discovered in the United States, due to be shipped to Britain. They were equivalent to a third of all the UK's drug seizures last year U.S. drugs enforcement agent Ray Donovan said: 'This record-breaking seizure draws attention to this new threat and shows law enforcement's collaborative efforts in seizing illicit drugs before it gets to the streets and into users' hands.' New York State Police officer Keith Corlett said: 'The dedication of law enforcement has once again resulted in a massive seizure of deadly drugs. 'I applaud our partners for the hard work that kept this dangerous substance from our streets. 'Not only did this interception save lives, but it also put an end to the violence often associated with drugs and drug trafficking. 'This is a crime we will not tolerate, and one we will continue to fight with our partners in law enforcement.' An Ethiopian entrepreneur faces execution in China after being accused of smuggling cocaine into the country in shampoo bottles. Nazrawit Abera, 27, who is an engineer graduate, was arrested on drug trafficking charges and could face death if found guilty. A childhood friend asked her to deliver the bottles of shampoo which she did not know contained the Class A drug, according to local media. According to local media, a childhood friend asked her to deliver the bottles of shampoo which she did not know contained the Class A drug Nazrawit Abera, 27, who is an engineer graduate, was arrested on drug trafficking charges and could face death if found guilty Her friends and family say she is innocent and was duped into transporting the beauty products. The childhood friend was remanded in custody by Ethiopian police but has now gone on the run and her whereabouts are unknown. According to Ms Abera's brother, the Ethiopian Embassy in Beijing is helping her pay for legal expenses while she awaits sentencing. She has not been allowed any contact with family and friends since she was arrested in January. One friend, who wished to remain anonymous, told local media: 'We are fearful, angry and do not know where to go and cry. 'We have not heard from her and we have little information of her status and her parents cry and spend sleepless nights hopping their daughter will come back.' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi laid down a firm marker against impeaching President Donald Trump, saying Monday the effort would divide the nation and is 'not worth it.' Pelosi has long counseled her colleagues not to allow their talk on impeachment to get ahead of the facts including the final report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. But in her latest comments to the Washington Post, she stated flat out that she is 'not for' impeachment unless the evidence reaches a threshold of being both compelling and bipartisan. On that second criteria, Pelosi appears to be putting the decision of a GOP Senate majority that has so far refused to condemn Trump on policy matters such as his emergency declaration for a border wall, or on personal matters like his payments to lawyer Michael Cohen and hush agreement with porn star Stormy Daniels. NOT WORTH IT: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., said impeachment President Trump is not 'worth it' 'Im not for impeachment. This is news. Im going to give you some news right now because I havent said this to any press person before,' Pelosi told the paper. 'But since you asked, and Ive been thinking about this: Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless theres something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I dont think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And hes just not worth it,' she concluded. Pelosi's comments come after senior Democratic chairs have stepped up their probes of Trump's finances and the Trump White House. Days ago, longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen testified that Trump was part of a criminal conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws. 'She is lowering expectations about the prospect of impeachment and reminding people of the gravity of that move and the impact it would have politically in dividing the country,' Rep. Gerry Connelly of Virginia told CNN. He called it a 'useful thing' and said it served 'to remind us of the fact that impeachment is the last resort in the Constitution, not the first resort.' Pelosi and her leadership team were facing pressure on impeachment from as soon as the Democrats took power. On her first full day in office, Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan was caught on tape telling supporters it was time to 'impeach the mother******,' in comments pointed at Trump. Pelosi's comments come after longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen testified that Trump took part in a criminal conspiracy to break campaign finance laws House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., fired off requests for information from 81 individuals and entities linked to Trump The president regularly goes after Democrats by talking up the impeachment issue White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Monday said she was 'not aware' of specifics of the $35,000 check Trump wrote in December 2017 to longtime lawyer Michael Cohen. Cohen testified it was reimbursement for money he gave porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with Trump By laying down a marker against impeachment, Pelosi leaves herself the option of joining or boosting the effort at some point down the line, while avoiding having to walk back a statement should Mueller come up short. Yet even as she made the case against a hasty impeachment, Pelosi said Trump was unfit for office when asked. 'Are we talking ethically? Intellectually? Politically? What are we talking here?' she asked. Then she answered: 'All of the above. No. No. I dont think he is. I mean, ethically unfit. Intellectually unfit. Curiosity-wise unfit. No, I dont think hes fit to be president of the United States.' Despite a growing chorus of senior Democrats faulting the president for tearing down U.S. institutions and even going against the rule of law with his attacks on investigators, Pelosi portrayed U.S. institutions as intact. She said she didn't share that concern. 'Heres why I dont: Our country is great. Its a great country. Our founders gave us the strongest foundation. All the challenges we have faced, we can withstand anything,' she said. 'But maybe not two terms. So we have to make sure that doesnt happen,' she added. That line stresses one concern raised by the anti-impeachment corner of the Democratic caucus: that by impeaching Trump, Democrats could damage their ability to take him down at the ballot box. Billionaire Tom Steyer, who started a 'need to impeach' TV campaign, blasted Pelosi's comments. Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless theres something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I dont think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And hes just not worth it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi 'Speaker Pelosi thinks "he's just not worth it?" Well, is defending our legal system "worth it?" Is holding the President accountable for his crimes and coverups "worth it?" Is doing what's right "worth it?" Or shall America just stop fighting for our principles and do what's politically convenient,' Steyer asked. Aides have indicated he is prepared to spend $40 million backing the impeachment effort. The House GOP's impeachment crusade against President Clinton helped inspire a backlash in 1996 that is credited with helping Democrats gain House seats. A successful impeachment would begin in the Judiciary Committee, then make it's way to the Democratic-run House. It would then lead to an impeachment trial in the Senate, where a two-thirds majority would be required. Later in the interview, Pelosi struggled to define her relationship with Trump. 'Is there a relationship?' she said, laughing when asked about it. 'How would I describe my relationship to the president? My relationship toward him is respectful, respectful of the office that he holds. Straightforward, just tell him what I think. And I always say youre not going to hear me saying anything publicly that Im not saying here in the office. Hopeful that at some point we can find common ground that hell stick to. So, yeah, respectful, honest and hopeful,' she said. Disgraced NRL star Ben Barba is expected to hand himself in to police on Tuesday. The fullback was sacked by the Cowboys last month after being caught on CCTV allegedly throwing rocks at his girlfriend Ainslie Currie outside a casino in Townsville. Barba will not be charged with assault because Ms Currie refused to make a formal complaint. Troubled NRL star Ben Barba is unlikely to face assault charges after an alleged incident with his partner Ainslie Currie (pictured together) But he will hand himself in to police to face a lesser charge of public nuisance, according to the Courier Mail. On Monday the 29-year-old threatened to 'hurt' a reporter after being confronted outside the metalworking factory where he is now employed. Daily Mail Australia first revealed Barba had taken a job as a $20-an-hour metal worker last month after losing his $300,000-a-year contract with the North Queensland Cowboys. 'I will hurt you. Do you want me to hurt you?' he shouted at the Nine News reporter outside the Statewide Sales and Service factory. 'I'm about to be charged with nothing (but) I don't feel lucky. I've lost everything.' The 29-year-old's fit of rage (pictured) is the first time the father-of-four has spoken publicly since being dumped from the NRL for allegedly assaulting his partner outside a casino in Townsville on Australia Day Barba said he was going to hand himself in to police on Tuesday, more than a month after the alleged fight with partner Ms Currie, who is also the mother of his children. Ms Currie, who has stood by the troubled ex-player through several off-field controversies, didn't file a complaint to police over the incident. Queenland Police are reportedly 'disappointed' with her decision, according to Nine News. After the alleged incident Ms Currie begged the NRL not to sack Barba, claiming it would cause financial hardship to their family. But after viewing the CCTV footage of the alleged incident, the North Queensland Cowboys tore up his contract. Barba (pictured) says he has 'lost everything' after he was dropped from the NRL Barba (pictured) said he was going to hand himself in to police on Tuesday, more than a month after the alleged fight with partner Ainslie Currie, who is also the mother of his children NRL boss Todd Greenberg also handed Barba a life ban from the league and suggested he 'find a new vocation'. Footage allegedly captured Barba throwing rocks at his partner at the front of the casino. The strain of the former Dally M Player of the Year award recipient's fall from the top was apparent during his emotional confrontation on Monday. Barba said he had 'lost everything' in the wake of the alleged assault. After trading his lucrative contract for a $39,000-a-year income, the family was forced to move in with the 29-year-old's parents in their housing commission home. The US may not stand a chance against Russia and China should World War III break out, advanced warfare analysts have warned. Nonprofit global policy think tank RAND has been performing simulated war scenarios, often sponsored by the Pentagon, to test how American forces would fare against the world's other leading military superpowers. Last week, RAND analysts revealed that in scenario after scenario, the US has suffered severe losses despite spending nearly $1trillion annually on the military, exceeding the spending of any other country by more than double. Analysts with the nonprofit global policy think tank RAND who've been performing simulated war games to test how the US would fare in conflicts with other leading military superpowers say American troops are defeated by Russia and China in scenario after scenario (file photo) 'In our games, when we fight Russia and China, "blue" gets its ass handed to it,' researcher David Ochmanek explained at the Center for a New American Security on Thursday, Breaking Defense first reported. American forces are generally color-coded in blue in the simulations. 'We lose a lot of people. We lose a lot of equipment. We usually fail to achieve our objective of preventing aggression by the adversary,' Ochmanek added. Though hypothetical, the simulated games warn that the world order America has fought to protect for more than a century could be at risk. The simulated conflicts take place in all five domains of battle: land, sea, air, space and cyberspace. Accord to RAND, 'red' aggressor forces frequently burn US military bases to the ground, sink warships and take out cyber systems. Robert Work, a former deputy secretary of defense and experienced war-gamer, explained that America's F-35 fighter jet is the most advanced of its kind in the sky, but is vulnerable on the tarmac. 'In every case I know of, the F-35 rules the sky when it's in the sky,' Work said Thursday. 'But it gets killed on the ground in large numbers.' Work also warned that US military bases across Europe and the Pacific are not equipped to handle the fire they would face in a high-end conflict. Work and Ochmanek both said China focus on cyberspace with 'system destruction warfare', which involves targeting US communications satellites, command-and-control systems, and wireless networks. 'The brain and the nervous system that connects all of these pieces is suppressed, if not shattered,' Ochmanek said. The Chinese would 'attack the American battle network at all levels, relentlessly,' Work warned, adding that 'they practice it all the time'. 'These are the things that the war games show over and over and over, so we need a new American way of war without question,' Work said. A report published by the National Defense Strategy Commission, a bipartisan panel of experts selected by Congress to evaluate America's National Defense Strategy, last fall found that the US has lost its military edge as rival powers, namely Russia and China, have developed a 'suite of advanced capabilities heretofore possessed only by the United States' (file photo) Work and Ochmanek's bleak observations mirror the findings of an assessment carried out last fall by the National Defense Strategy Commission, a bipartisan panel of experts selected by Congress to evaluate America's National Defense Strategy. 'If the United States had to fight Russia in a Baltic contingency or China in a war over Taiwan, Americans could face a decisive military defeat,' the Commission said in a November report. The report highlighted how the US has lost its military edge as rival powers, namely Russia and China, have developed a 'suite of advanced capabilities heretofore possessed only by the United States'. It came to the alarming conclusion that the US is 'at greater risk than at any time in decades'. However, RAND's findings aren't all doom and gloom. Analysts say it would take just $24billion to improve outcomes - which is about three percent of the $750billion defense budget President Donald Trump will propose for 2020. The Air Force had approached RAND to develop a plan to fix the problems behind the poor outcomes. To his surprise, Ochmanek said: 'We found it impossible to spend more than $8billion a year' on necessary improvement. The $24billion number comes from tripling that $8billion to cover the Army and the Navy. Ochmanek said that adding $24billion to the budget 'for the next five years would be a good expenditure' to prepare the US for World War III, which he predicts is at least 10 to 20 years down the road. A sea explorer has filmed thousands of brown sea nettle jellyfish gathering off the American Pacific coast. Connor Gallagher found a massive bloom of the stinging sea creatures in the Monterey Bay area of California, after he went out to explore the sea with a friend. Stunning footage shows underwater conclave stretching as far as the eye can see in the warm Pacific ocean. Connor filmed the sea jellies (Chrysaora fuscescens) on a GoPro held underwater as he drove along in a speedboat. Long strains of tentacles dangle wildly in the vast open waters, flapping slightly as Connor drives by. At least one thousand of the slippery creatures can be seen swimming past in the minute-long clip. Thousands of brown sea nettle jellyfish gathering in Monterey Bay off of California's coast 'Every year or two, massive blooms of brown sea nettle jellies arrive in the Monterey Bay in California, USA,' says cinematographer Connor. 'My friend and I were out exploring on his boat and we came across a smack that simply infinite. 'There were jellies as far and as deep as we could see. 'I deployed my custom-built tow camera housing for my GoPro, and we pulled it behind the boat while we cruised through the smack (of jellies). Photographer and sea diver Connor Gallagher spotted them off the coast during a boat trip with a friend Incredible footage shot on a Go Pro camera shows the sheer scale of the conclave of jellyfish as Connor's speedboat moves straight through them When Connor went to retrieve the camer he did manage to take a few stings to his hands, but said the footage 'was worth the short term ouch'. The brown sea nettle jellies have very powerful stinging cells - known as nematocysts - and so can deliver a lot of pain if they come into contact with a human. Connor has lived to the north to Monterey Bay for the last four years, and previously taught students marine biology on Catalina Island. Children have been taken into council care after rows with their parents over wanting to change gender, it emerged yesterday. At least three children were taken into care last year after their families objected to their wishes but the local authorities involved insisted it was not the main reason they intervened. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of youngsters referred for gender identity treatment in recent years, and campaigners have warned some parents have felt powerless to act if they believed their child was making a flawed decision. Children have been taken into council care after rows with their parents (stock image) over wanting to change gender, it emerged yesterday The automated call that's neither sex Fans of Amazon's virtual assistant Alexa may have become fond of hearing a soothing female voice answer all of their queries. But now researchers have come up with the world's first 'gender neutral' voice amid growing concerns that technology companies are fuelling sexist stereotypes. The new voice, known as 'Q', has a higher pitch than most men naturally have but does not sound like a woman either. It was created from recordings of people who do not identify as either male or female. The project was unveiled yesterday by creative agency Virtue, Copenhagen Pride researchers and EqualAI campaigners. They said they hoped it would show firms how easy it is 'to recognise that more than two genders exist when developing artificial intelligence devices'. They claim banking apps tend to opt for male voices for recorded messages as they are seen as more 'authoritative' and female voices are used for 'service-oriented roles'. Amazon only offers a female voice for Alexa but has said this is based on user feedback. Advertisement Two councils revealed that children had been taken into care after arguments about their wish to change gender with their parents or carers, following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. Social workers at Hillingdon Council in west London said they placed two children in foster homes because of the disputes. And a second west London council, Ealing, said it had done the same with 'fewer than five' children. It refused to say how many exactly. Both councils denied the children were taken into care because they were transgender, or solely because their parents or carers did not support their decision. Hillingdon Borough Council said: 'In the two cases referred to, the children were not taken into care specifically because they are transgender. No child is taken into care solely because they are transgender. 'Whilst a child's sexual identity is assessed, it is complex family dynamics and/or contextual safeguarding issues which may negatively impact on a child that are usually the cause of social worker intervention.' Ealing Borough Council said: 'We have never taken a child into care on the basis of a dispute with their parents regarding gender reassignment. While we need to protect the confidentiality of those concerned, we can confirm that care was provided to young people over 16 who are now adults, due to safety concerns which were not predominantly related to gender reassignment.' Ealing Borough Council (pictured, the council's offices in west London) said that 'fewer than five' children had been taken into foster care Not all councils responded to the FOI request, which was made by The Sun, meaning the true number of children taken into care could be higher. According to the most recent figures, the number of young people referred by the NHS for gender identity treatment has risen by 1,000 per cent in six years. There were 2,519 referrals in 2017-18, of which 71 per cent were female. Equalities minister Penny Mordaunt has ordered an investigation into why so many girls have sought gender reassignment treatment. Campaigner Stephanie Davies-Arai, the founder of Transgender Trend, which represents parents concerned about the rising number of youngsters seeking treatment, said parents should be able to voice their concerns to their children without fear of being 'punished'. The High Court has previously granted a request by a 16-year-old that his parents should not be kept informed about his possible gender reassignment. The child, identified only as PD, was born female and told his adoptive parents he wanted to be treated as male aged 13. He formally changed his name but his parents continue to call him by his female name, a family court judge heard. In 2016, Mr Justice Keehan publicly ruled PD was entitled to cut his parents out: 'He struggles to understand their complete lack of support and understanding.' Four more people have been charged over the alleged murder of a mother- of-two last month. Brisbane woman Megan Kirely, 40, was fatally shot in the head at her rural Wembley road home in Karawatha, in the city's south in the early hours of February 9. Ms Kirley's partner Pieter Pickering, 43, who had planned to propose to her on Valentine's Day, rang Triple Zero at 3.16am after he discovered her body. The four arrests on Tuesday come after Stafford Emerson, 40, was arrested and charged with Ms Kirely's murder on March 4. Brisbane woman Megan Kirely (pictured), 40, was fatally shot in the head at her rural Wembley road home in Karawatha Ms Kirley's partner Pieter Pickering, who had plans to propose to her on Valentine's Day, rang Triple Zero at 3.16am after he discovered her body on her rural property (pictured) Detectives have charged a 21-year-old Waterfront West man, a 28-year-old Slacks Creek man, a 42-year-old Kingston woman and a 31-year-old Runcorn man. Emerson was allegedly found with an arsenal of weapons when he was arrested by police. Police allege Emerson and Ms Kirley were not known to one another, nor was there a relationship between Emerson and Mr Pickering. Stafford Emmerson (pictured), 40, has been charged with murdering 40-year-old mother Megan Kirley Mr Pickering (pictured) paid a series of tributes to his beloved partner on Facebook after she was found fatally shot The four others have all each been charged with one count of murder, manslaughter and attempted armed robbery. They are due to appear at Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday. Mr Pickering paid a series of tributes to his beloved partner on Facebook. 'Somebody help me my Meg is gone ... my whole world is destroyed,' he wrote. When friends asked what had happened, he replied bluntly: 'My Mrs was shot on Friday night.' 'I loved her so much and planned to ask her to marry me on Valentine's Day,' Mr Pickering said. He added that Ms Kirley, a passionate motorcyclist and one-time council worker, was the 'greatest woman this world was ever graced with'. 'I'm lost now she is gone.' Hundreds of village postmasters were wrongly accused of stealing because Post Office computers were riddled with 29 separate bugs, the High Court heard yesterday. When millions went missing, sub-postmasters were jailed, made bankrupt and had their lives ruined but glitches in the system were to blame, it was claimed. As 557 former sub-postmasters began fresh court action, a judge was told that postal chiefs tried to hush up reports that the software was plagued by problems. Bosses have always denied the computer system could be faulty, even though pillars of their communities like Mrs Misra, of West Byfleet, Surrey, were mystified by their terminals declaring shortfalls of tens of thousands of pounds [File photo] One sub-postmistress Seema Misra, 43 was jailed for theft when she was four months pregnant with her second son. Overcome with shame, she considered suicide and her conviction means she is still struggling to find work more than eight years later. At her 2010 trial, the Post Office claimed that although one IT bug was known about, it only affected one branch 600 miles away in Scotland. But yesterday, the High Court heard that the problem in the Horizon computer system had actually affected 30 branches. Now the Post Office could be forced to pay millions of pounds in compensation if it loses at the High Court. Yesterday was the opening day of the second of four linked cases into whether it cheated its own sub-postmasters. The hearings will last until next year [File photo] Patrick Green QC, for the sub-postmasters, said: It has taken the process of this group litigation to establish that the Post Office has not been truthful. Bosses have always denied the computer system could be faulty, even though pillars of their communities like Mrs Misra, of West Byfleet, Surrey, were mystified by their terminals declaring shortfalls of tens of thousands of pounds. Now the Post Office could be forced to pay millions of pounds in compensation if it loses at the High Court. Yesterday was the opening day of the second of four linked cases into whether it cheated its own sub-postmasters. The hearings will last until next year. Mr Green told the court that a computer expert commissioned by the claimants identified 29 separate bugs in Horizon, which records all over-the-counter transactions. One, called the Dalmellington Bug, gave an innocent sub-postmistress a 24,000 hole in her accounts, the court heard. Named after her village branch in Ayrshire, Scotland, it struck in October 2015 when she took delivery of a pouch from head office containing 8,000 in bank notes. When she recorded receipt of the 8,000 in Horizon, the screen froze when she pressed Enter so she pressed it again and again. Eventually the system wrongly recorded that she had accepted 32,000 cash. Hundreds of village postmasters were wrongly accused of stealing because Post Office computers were riddled with 29 separate bugs, the High Court heard yesterday [File photo] In 2016, the 24,000 discrepancy caused by the Dalmellington Bug was discussed internally by Post Office bosses, including Paula Vennells, chief executive at the time, the court was told. But an urgent review was mysteriously shelved and the bug was not disclosed when the Post Office responded just four weeks later to the claimants group legal action. The Post Office had front and centre in its mind the existence of this bug, said Mr Green. But that bug was not disclosed in the letter of response. I want justice for husband driven to an early grave Widow Karen Wilson went to the High Court yesterday bearing a small box containing some of her husband Julians ashes. The former sub-postmaster, 67 was named as a claimant in the case Widow Karen Wilson went to the High Court yesterday bearing a small box containing some of her husband Julians ashes to fulfil a promise to seek justice for him. The former sub-postmaster, 67 named as a claimant in the case died three years ago from cancer as a convicted criminal despite fighting to restore his reputation for over a decade. Mrs Wilson, 64, of Redditch, Worcestershire, said: The doctor said all of this did contribute to his early death. I promised him, You will have your day in court, your name will be cleared. Julian was a well-educated, meticulous, honest and fabulous man. He was a businessman and had run companies for 30 years. I am an ex-policewoman and in 2002 we decided to settle down and buy the local post office and shop where I grew up. We paid 100,000 and went to work 5am to 8pm every day. We had eight fantastic years. But then Horizon kept saying there was money missing. No matter who Julian spoke to at the Post Office, nobody wanted to know. We started making up shortfalls from the shop takings. But it grew to thousands. I sold every piece of jewellery we had, including my engagement ring, to make up the losses. It broke his heart. In the end, they confiscated our house, the car, the business and they told Julian he could go to prison for six years for theft or plead guilty to 27,000 of false accounting. He was sentenced to 300 hours community service. He was 56 and ended up with a gang of criminals cleaning a graveyard. Before that, he had never even got a parking ticket. Advertisement He added there was evidence of the Dalmellington Bug striking 112 times in five years but it was not noticed and fixed until 2016. Mr Green also accused the Post Office of telling the public, the court and claimants that bosses could not remotely access and alter a branchs accounts when this was clearly untrue. Anthony de Garr Robinson QC, for the Post Office, said Horizon was reliable. He claimed the sub-postmasters had failed to show any clear-cut examples of bugs causing false shortfalls, let alone bugs causing the shortfalls of 18.7million that they claim not to be responsible for. He added: [Their] suspicion of Horizon is driven by the natural human scepticism to technology. It is easy to blame the computer when something has gone wrong in a branch. The case continues. Christopher Paul Hasson, the US Coast Guard officer accused of stockpiling guns and compiling a hit list of prominent Democrats and TV journalists has pleaded not guilty to drug and firearms charges The US Coast Guard officer accused of stockpiling guns and compiling a hit list of prominent Democrats and TV journalists has pleaded not guilty to drug and firearms charges. An attorney for Christopher Paul Hasson, 49, entered the plea on his behalf at an arraignment on charges of illegal possession of firearm silencers, possession of firearms by a drug addict and unlawful user, and possession of a controlled substance. Public defender Liz Oyer didn't ask for Hasson to be freed on bond and declined to comment after the hearing. Federal prosecutors have said Hasson is a self-described white nationalist and 'domestic terrorist' who 'intends to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country'. Hasson has been detained since his Feburary 15 arrest. He faces a maximum of 31 years in prison if convicted of all charges in his four-count indictment last month. The former lieutenant answered several routine questions from a magistrate judge during Monday's brief hearing at the federal courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland. Investigators found 15 firearms, including seven rifles, and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition at Hasson's basement apartment in Silver Spring, Maryland, prosecutors said. Hasson's Feburary 27 indictment also accuses him of illegal possession of Tramadol, an opioid painkiller. Prosecutors said Hasson has espoused extremist views for years and drafted an email in which he said he was 'dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth.' Federal agents seized 15 firearms - including several long-guns and rifles - and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition during a raid on his cramped basement apartment last month Hasson created the hit list in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (pictured above) that included prominent Democrats, 2020 presidential candidates, activists and media commentators Prosecutors also claim Hasson drew up what appeared to be a computer-spreadsheet hit list that included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, presidential hopefuls Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris. Several network TV journalists - MSNBC's Chris Hayes and Joe Scarborough and CNN's Chris Cuomo and Van Jones - also were mentioned. However, Hasson hasn't been charged with any terrorism-related offenses. A different public defender has accused prosecutors of making inflammatory accusations against Hasson without providing evidence to back them up. Court papers have detailed a June 2017 draft email in which Hasson wrote that he was 'dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth' During a hearing last month, a different magistrate agreed to keep Hasson behind bars but said he was willing to revisit his decision if prosecutors didn't bring more serious charges within two weeks. Hasson, a former Marine, worked at Coast Guard headquarters in Washington on a program to acquire advanced new cutters for the agency. The Coast Guard confirmed that Hasson was an active duty member at the time of his arrest on February 15, but that he no longer works there. Court papers detail a June 2017 draft email in which Hasson wrote that he was 'dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth' and pondered how he might be able to acquire anthrax and toxins to create botulism or a deadly influenza. In the same email, Hasson described an 'interesting idea' that included 'biological attacks followed by attack on food supply' as well as a bombing and sniper attacks, according to court documents filed by prosecutors. In September 2017, Hasson sent himself a draft letter that he had written to a neo-Nazi leader and 'identified himself as a White Nationalist for over 30 years', according to court documents. Hasson allegedly advocated for 'focused violence in order to establish a white homeland' in the letter. Prosecutors claim that Hasson began the process of targeting specific victims and had compiled a list of prominent congressional Democrats, 2020 presidential candidates, activists, and media commentators. In February 2018, he searched the internet for the 'most liberal senators,' as well as searching 'do senators have ss (secret service) protection' and 'are supreme court justices protected,' according to the court filing. In September 2017, Hasson sent himself a draft letter that he had written to a neo-Nazi leader and 'identified himself as a White Nationalist for over 30 years', according to court documents Nancy Pelosi was named in a 'hit-list' by a man planning a terrorist attack The list - created on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet - also included mentions of John Podesta, who was Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, along with Reps Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Maxine Waters and former Rep Beto O'Rourke. Hasson's online search records show he searched for 'joe Scarborough' after reading media headlines that said the MSNBC Morning Joe host had referred to President Trump as 'the worst ever'. He also searched 'where is morning joe filmed' and looked up where the TV host lived. Prosecutors allege that Hasson visited thousands of websites that sold guns and researched military tactical manuals on improvised munitions over the last two years. He sometimes used his work computer to carry out these searches. 'The defendant is a domestic terrorist, bent on committing acts dangerous to human life that are intended to affect governmental conduct,' prosecutors wrote in court papers. Hasson's documents do not detail a specific planned date for an attack. However an investigation revealed he searched the Internet using phrases such as 'best place in dc to see congress people' and 'are supreme court justices protected'. Richard Blumenthal was named in a 'hit-list'' by a man planning a terrorist attack Officials with the US Attorney's Office in Maryland detailed that Hasson had planned to unleash destruction and violence in public places and against individuals in court documents. 'The defendant intends to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country,' the court documents state. It is not clear why federal agents began investigating him, but authorities said Hasson had harbored extremist views for years. Prosecutors said Hasson routinely researched and read portions of a 1,500 page manifesto written by Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik. Breivik, a right-wing extremist, is serving a 21-year sentence for killing 77 people in a 2011 bomb and shooting rampage in Norway. The manifesto outlined how Breivik orchestrated his attacks with the aim of providing a road-map for others planning similar terrorist operations, the US court filings said. Prosecutors said it instructs would-be assailants to collect firearms, food, disguises, and survival tools. Hasson also expressed admiration for Russia. 'Looking to Russia with hopeful eyes or any land that despises the west's liberalism,' he wrote in the draft email. Law enforcement found a container with more than 30 bottles that were labeled as human growth hormones (above) during a raid on Hasson's apartment. They allege that he was taken the drugs because Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik had taken steroids and narcotics because he believed this would heighten his abilities to carry out attacks Hasson appeared to be a chronic user of the opioid painkiller Tramadol and had ordered more than 4,200 pills from Mexico over a three-year period. Pictured is a screenshot of his order history that was included in court documents Prosecutors say during the past two years Hasson had regularly searched online for pro-Russian as well as neo-Nazi literature. The Norwegian terrorist, Breivi, had taken steroids and narcotics - and Hasson believed this would heighten his abilities to carry out attacks. When law enforcement raided his apartment, they allegedly found a container with more than 30 bottles that were labeled as human growth hormones. Hasson also appeared to be a chronic user of the opioid painkiller Tramadol and had ordered more than 4,200 pills from Mexico over a three-year period. According to court documents, authorities found Tramadol in his desk at work and observed him on surveillance taking some of the pills just days before his arrest. He had also purchased a flask filled with four ounces of 'synthetic urine' online, prosecutors said. Authorities suspect Hasson had purchased fake urine to use in case he was randomly selected for a drug test. Hasson had been working at the US Coast Guard headquarters in Washington since 2016. He also served in the US Marine Corps between 1988 to 1993 and in the Army National Guard for about two years in the mid nineties, according to court documents. Frankly, I think Im going mad. Stir-crazy. Round the flipping bend. There I was, on Sunday, softening chopped onions, celery and carrots in a shimmering pool of olive oil, just about to add the minced beef, when things took a turn for the odd. Virginio Merola, the 64-year-old Mayor of Bologna is leading his campaign against spaghetti bolognese on social media In other news, purred the newsreader on the radio, The Mayor of Bologna has declared spaghetti bolognese does not exist. You what? I started to brown the meat, perplexed and not a little alarmed. Was this not spag bol I saw before me? And, if not, what would my children eat for tea? As the meat turned from dark crimson to light tan, I sought advice. Um, kids, any idea as to the contents of this pan? Both looked up, sighed theatrically and returned to wrestling with the dog. Its spaghetti bolognese. Obviously, muttered my daughter, 11, while my son, just nine, rolled his eyes and nodded. Yup, thought so. I boiled away the red wine, threw in a great splodge of tomato puree, turned the heat to a simmer and retired to the sofa in triumph. The nations Official Favourite Dish (according to a 2018 survey) does exist. Now, I get Mayor Virginio Merolas point. Ragu alla Bolognese is a classic dish from northern Italy, in which a slow-cooked meat sauce called ragu (made with either beef or a mix of beef and pork) meets fresh tagliatelle pasta. The mayor called the popular pasta dish 'fake news' and has nothing to do with his home town of Bologna There are strict rules as to what goes in, although this being Italy no one agrees what they are. Spag bol, on the other hand, is basically mince with onions and tomato. Plus everything from ketchup to garlic, basil, carrots, thyme, Marmite, chocolate, coffee granules, Worcestershire sauce and chilli. Its served with dried spaghetti. No wonder the Mayor called the British dish fake news. Weve been here before: a couple of years ago, the late, great chef Antonio Carluccio claimed that Brits had ruined ragu by adding herbs. And Mary Berry ran into trouble by using white wine (which I have seen in authentic recipes from Bologna) and double cream for her version. But I get the feeling that the Mayors outburst last weekend was cynically calculated to stir up controversy. Its a reliable trick: when no ones paying you much attention as Mayor of Bologna, drag out the old spag bol spat and let battle recommence. I admit spaghetti bolognese, as we know it in this country, is about as authentically Bolognese as I am. Some say Italian emigrants invented it in America, others that those same immigrants created it in Soho, London, in the Fifties. But, more than a cross-cultural hybrid, spag bol soothes and delights, a taste of childhood that resonates deep into adult life. Just as T.S. Eliots J. Alfred Prufrock measures out his life in coffee spoons, so I chart my ever-advancing years (Im 44) in tales of spaghetti bolognese. Ive probably eaten it more than any other dish: even more than burgers and hot dogs (both immigrant dishes, too). It was a staple of my youth, made from good butchers mince by my mother, with little else other than a chopped onion and squeeze of Sainsburys tomato puree. Inauthentically, there was always more sauce than pasta. (In Italy, pasta is daintily anointed, not drowned.) Worse, it was finished with lashings of that dusty, foul-smelling cheese-powder that came in a cardboard cylinder and would probably have emerged unscathed from a nuclear war. Camilla Parker Bowles served her own take on spaghetti bolognese - mince with a chopped onion and Sainsbury's tomato puree Not that that bothered us two ravenous children, faced with the tea to beat them all. Simple, but by God we loved it. Just as we adored the stuff on holiday in southern Italy. Not for us the zuppa di cozze (mussel soup) and oozingly lactic burrata cheese, nor spaghetti con vongole (clams) or the baked pasta dish, Sformato Ferdinando. Nope, for my sister, me and my cousins, it was spaghetti bolognese. With chips. Every lunch and dinner. For two weeks. Back in London, and lunch with my grandmother in old-fashioned trattorias like Mimmo DIschia on Elizabeth Street and La Fontana on the Pimlico Road (both now gone the way of all flesh). We might have tried an occasional grilled veal paillard. But, really, the waiters never needed to ask. Spaghetti bolognese, per favore. And molto, molto parmesan. They knew Brits liked it with mince rather than a slow-cooked hunk of beef. And that was fine. For most Italians, regional authenticity is important but so, too, are generosity and good manners. Give the children what they want. At prep school, I found out how deranged this dish could be onions, hideously burnt while still somehow raw, mixed with ketchup and mince that was grey, gristled and greasy. That wasnt food: it was the definition of dyspeptic disgust. Forced through the grinder of British institutional eating in the Seventies and Eighties, it had no chance. But its a dish I continued to cook throughout my life. Student stand-by, saviour of the dreary dinner party, a crucial Cupids arrow in the search for true love. As I grew older, the ingredients got better, but if you could chop an onion and turn on a gas ring, you were halfway there. It was slow-cooked succour, seasoned with nostalgia and greed. These days I add sliced pancetta and, whisper it, chicken livers, garlic and even double cream. Because this is my spag bol, and this is the way I make it. The recipe my children so adore may be nearer to a classic ragu alla Bolognese. But I still serve it with spaghetti, swamped in sauce, and covered in a blizzard of parmesan albeit freshly grated. So no, Signore Mayor, this is not a Bolognan dish. It never has been and you knew that all along. But it does exist here as a true domestic classic, homage and hybrid at once. A dish unbound by formal strictures, and all the better for it. Spag bol may have no place in Bologna. But in Britain, its a true taste of home. The United Nations most senior environmental official yesterday praised the Great British Spring Clean. Siim Kiisler, president of the UN Environment Assembly, said taking part in a voluntary litter clean-up sent out the strongest possible message that dropping rubbish is unacceptable. The campaign, organised by Keep Britain Tidy and backed by the Daily Mail, will take place between March 22 and April 23. With less than two weeks to go until it starts, 218,191 people have volunteered their time for organised litter pick-ups around the country. Siim Kiisler, president of the UN Environment Assembly, has praised the Mail's Great British Spring Clean Mr Kiisler, speaking at the international gathering in Kenya dedicated to ridding the world of pollution, said cleaning up towns, cities, beaches and the countryside was a vital way to raise awareness about how we should all dispose of waste. One of the aims of the Environment Assembly being held this week in the capital Nairobi is to get the 193 members of the UN to commit to significantly reducing single-use plastics by 2030. While government action was necessary to stop an estimated eight million tons of plastic rubbish being dumped in the sea every year, Mr Kiisler said it was important that citizens told companies they do not want to buy single-use plastic items. A key way to send this message is to go out and clean up litter, whether plastic or otherwise. He told a press conference at the UN Environment Assembly: I believe the most important thing is the message given by people who go out and pick up trash, which somebody has just thrown out of their car window, and other waste in the environment. They see that their friend, neighbour or colleague from work or member of their family went out and with their own bare hands picked up some trash because there is no other way to collect it. If they see their friends doing it they will probably think twice before doing it [dropping litter] again. Join the Daily Mail's Great British Spring Clean for organised litter-picks across the country He made his comments after being told about the nationwide British clean-up promoted by the Mail. Mr Kiisler, who is the environment minister of Estonia, added: This is the strongest message to give. It is hoped that half a million people will take part in the Great British Spring Clean, making it Britains biggest ever mass environmental action. Mr Kiisler said he was proud to have been involved in a similar event to the Great British Spring Clean in Estonia, called Lets Do It, which began in 2008. He also took part in World Clean-up Day, an event in September. Mr Kiislers endorsement of the British event is similar to when his senior UN colleague Erik Solheim praised the Daily Mails Turn The Tide On Plastic campaign at a global summit in 2017. Earlier yesterday, Mr Kiisler led one minutes silence for the 22 UN officials who died in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash as they flew to Nairobi. Delegates from the Environment Assembly sobbed as they remembered the victims of the air disaster, some of whom were on their way to the event. Swimming champions taking the plunge to highlight plastic menace They are used to performing their flawless routine in pristine pools. But these teenage synchronised swimming champions volunteered to attempt it amid the kind of plastic rubbish that litters the worlds oceans to raise awareness of the plight of marine animals. Kate Shortman, 17, and 18-year-old Isabelle Thorpe performed twirls, kicks and half-somersaults surrounded by plastic bottles, containers, carrier bags and toiletries. Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe (pictured) surrounded themselves with plastic bottles and containers as they performed the routine Synchronised swimmers volunteered to do their routine amid the kind of plastic rubbish that litters the world's oceans to raise awareness of the plight of marine animals The British international pair were challenged to perform their world championship routine by the Big Bang Fair to highlight young peoples efforts to tackle the scourge of plastic pollution. Isabelle said: Trying to do our routine in a pool full of plastic was really hard. We kept getting our legs stuck in the bags and bopping our heads on bottles. It really hit home how awful it must be for the poor turtles and other sea life that go through that every day, so to hear so many people our age are using science and technology to come up with solutions to help this situation for the future is really great. The Big Bang Fair aims to get youngsters to use their scientific and engineering skills. It is free and takes place at the NEC in Birmingham from tomorrow until Saturday. Thousands of people dying with a genetic lung condition are being left to cope without treatment, a report reveals today. GPs misdiagnose 35 per cent of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) - a terminal condition which causes irreversible scarring of the lungs. People with IPF live just three to four years on average after the condition takes hold, a worse prognosis than most cancers. Yet 54 per cent of patients wait at least six months to be diagnosed and 20 per cent endure a delay of more than two years, the report reveals. Thousands of people dying with genetic lung condition, severe idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, are being left to cope without treatment, a report reveals today. Image shows a lung which has been damaged by the condition IPF, which affects 32,500 people in Britain, is caused by genetic mutations which makes the lungs up to 100 times more vulnerable to damage from dust, smoke and pollution in the air. The condition, which usually strikes in middle-age, is incurable but treatments are readily available to slow its advance and potentially give people a few extra months of life. But because doctors are grossly ignorant of the condition, 44 per cent of patients never get the drugs. Instead GPs wrongly diagnose their patients with asthma, heart disease or COPD. This often means that instead of receiving drugs, oxygen and physical rehabilitation, they are shunted back and forth between GPs, hospitals and scanning centres, receiving treatments for the wrong condition while their remaining years disappear. In some cases patients are not diagnosed until a few weeks before they die, by which time lung scarring has progressed so far that drugs will not work. The report, based on data from 776 patients with the condition, is the biggest investigation into IPF to date. Steve Jones, chairman of the Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis charity which produced the report, said: To be diagnosed with IPF is to be given a death sentence. But delayed diagnosis means delayed treatment and worse outcomes for patients. Charlotte Harvey from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, was diagnosed last year with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis) Since patients only live on average for three to four years after being diagnosed, we must tackle this tragic situation urgently. He said most GPs are simply unaware of IPF and its tell-tale symptom - a crackling noise in the lungs which, when listened to through a stethoscope, sounds like Velcro being unfastened. Our survey has revealed high levels of misdiagnosis is common in general practice, Mr Jones said. This is often because GPs have limited experience of the disease and miss tell-tale signs. GPs are working with their hands tied behind their backs. IPF - which kills 6,000 people in Britain every year - is caused by a genetic mutation that leaves peoples lungs extremely vulnerable to harm. The initial damage is usually suffered while a patient is young - caused by anything from inhaled dust to acid reflux. Tobacco smoke is thought to be one of the triggers, but not the only one, and many people with IPF have never smoked. The scarring in the lungs that defines IPF does not start to appear for up to 30 years, but once it has taken hold it causes rapid disability, leaving people unable to walk more than a few feet and reliant on oxygen. Steve Jones (pictured), chairman of the Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis charity which produced the report, said: To be diagnosed with IPF is to be given a death sentence. But delayed diagnosis means delayed treatment and worse outcomes for patients. We must tackle this tragic situation urgently. A lung transplant is the only treatment that can significantly extent someones life but because lungs are usually given to younger patients with conditions such as cystic fibrosis, only 1 per cent of IPF patients ever receive one. The charity is calling for a major awareness campaign so GPs know what signs to look out for. Some high-profile individuals have been affected by IPF, including TV presenter Keith Chegwin who died in 2017 at the age of 60, and Katie Prices mother Amy, who is currently battling the condition. But most people have never heard of the condition. Professor Gisli Jenkins of the University of Nottingham, one of Britains leading experts on IPF, said: This is a sobering report that suggests many healthcare professionals have only limited awareness of IPF, despite it being such a devastating and incurable disease. The symptoms of IPF are similar to other less serious conditions and this can delay accurate diagnosis and affect care. Professor Jenkins is working to develop a blood test that can quickly diagnose IPF. But until then doctors will continue to rely on listening to their patients chests and sending them for a CT scan. We need to get to a point where GPs assume patients with these symptoms have IPF until it is ruled out, Professor Jenkins said. If someone comes in with a lump the response is to rule out cancer - we need to do the same for IPF. Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a distressing condition that has devastating consequences for patients, their families and their carers. It is clear from this report that raising awareness to improve early diagnosis is key to ensuring patients with IPF get the treatment they need to have the best quality of life possible, and whatever can be done to support this, should be. The challenge for GPs who have the broadest curriculum of any medical specialty, yet the shortest training programme is that the initial presenting symptoms of IPF are often similar to other, far more common, respiratory conditions. With the current demands on our service, in most cases we are also working within the constraints of a standard 10-minute consultation, which is increasingly unfit for purpose, especially for diagnosing less common conditions. Former Vice President Dick Cheney ripped into Vice President Mike Pence over President Donald Trump's foreign policy moves, it was revealed on Monday. Cheney, at a closed-door Republican retreat, compared Trump's instincts to those of former President Barack Obama's and pressed Pence on several of the administration's controversial decisions, including treatment of NATO allies and the decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, The Washington Post reported. 'I worry that the bottom line of that kind of an approach is we have an administration that looks a lot more like Barack Obama than Ronald Reagan,' Cheney charged. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, a defense hawk, fretted about President Donald Trump's isolationist policies in a conversation with Vice President Mike Pence Vice President Pence defended the administration and it's outlook The former vice president was concerned about the Trump administration taking too hard of a line toward U.S. allies in the NATO alliance and also inquired why the president decided to withdraw troops from Syria during what Cheney called 'the middle of a phone call.' He also fretted allies would lose confidence in the United States. He told Pence that 'we're getting into a situation when our friends and allies around the world that we depend upon are going to lack confidence in us.' Pence joked back about a lack of 'softball' questions, it was reported by The Post, which obtained a transcript of the event. The intense questioning from Cheney came during a retreat hosted by the American Enterprise Institute on March 9 in Sea Island, Ga., attended by many prominent Republicans and high-dollar donors to the party. Cheney was known as a defense hawk during his time in George W. Bush's administration - a stark contrast to the more isolationist policies of the Trump administration. And those divisions in outlook came out in the conversations between the two vice presidents. Pence, meanwhile, offered an impassioned defense of the administration. During a back-and-forth about Trump's call for NATO allies to pay more toward defense, Pence defended the move as 'peace through strength.' 'As the president is rebuilding our military and strengthening our commitment to our national defense, calling on our allies to live up to their commitments to do more, I think, is a way of ensuring the vitality and the prosperity of the free world,' Pence said. The vice president also said voters know who their president is. 'When the American people elected this president, they elected a president who expressed concern about American deployments around the world,' Pence said. 'And they knew this was going to be a president that came and asked the fundamental questions about you know, where are we deployed and do we really need to be asking men and women in uniform to be deployed in that part of the world?' He did offer Cheney some reassurance. Trump and Pence together in January during a visit to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial President Trump has taken a more isolationist approach to foreign policy 'You can be confident, as one of my favorite hawks,' he said, 'we're going to continue to stand strong for a strong national defense with President Trump in the White House.' But he also poked fun of himself, The Post reported. 'Some people think the president and I am kind of different,' Pence said to laughter. 'You know, he's New York City; I'm small-town Indiana. He's larger than life, you know, always memorable. And I'm not.' And at the end of the event Pence joked: 'Gee, look at the time.' Google agreed to pay two of its top executives $135million in severance packages after they were both accused of sexual misconduct, a new lawsuit has claimed. Amit Singhal was offered $45million by Alphabet, Google's parent firm, after he was accused of groping a colleague at a 'boozy off-site event' with the company. Details of the exit package were revealed as part of a shareholder lawsuit against the company, one that followed a published report of payouts Google made to executives accused of sexual misconduct. Previously redacted portions of the lawsuit were made available Monday, including quotes from Alphabet board committee meetings. They come just months after thousands of Google employees staged a global walk-out after it was revealed Android creator Andy Rubin received a $90million severance package after a woman accused him of forcing her into oral sex. Google agreed to pay executives Andy Rubin (left) and Amit Singhal (right) $135million in severance packages after they were both accused of sexual misconduct Google investigated the accusation against Singhal and found it to be credible. Yet the former senior vice president was not fired, but instead allowed to resign. Singhal claimed that he was stepping down from the company in February 2016 to focus on his family and philanthropy. He even wrote a blog post in which he promised to spend the next 15 years giving back to 'people who are less fortunate'. Singhal only ended up receiving $15million from Alphabet because he joined Uber, according to the Wall Street Journal. He was forced to resign as the app's SVP of engineering after just five weeks when the company discovered he failed to disclose the sexual misconduct allegation. Singhal (pictured in 2013) was offered $45million by Alphabet, Google's parent firm, after he was accused of groping a colleague at a 'boozy off-site event' with the company The unsealed court filing revealed that on top of his $90million severance package, Rubin also received $150million in stock options. Rubin left Google in 2014 to create Playground Global, an incubator for hardware startups. But following his exit, the sexual misconduct claim was reported to Google's human resources department and an investigation was opened. Eventually, Google officials found the woman's claim to be credible. Rubin was later asked to resign by Google's co-founder Larry Page. The unsealed court filing revealed that on top of his $90million severance package, Rubin (pictured in 2011) also received $150million in stock options Despite the credible claim, Rubin was reportedly paid the $90million exit package in the form of monthly payments ranging from $1.25million to $2.5million over the course of four years. Page also initially authorized the $150million in equity compensation without approval from Alphabet's board. The board then gave Page a 'rubber stamp' approval for it eight days after allowing the payout, according to Bloomberg. Louise Renne, a lawyer for the plaintiffs in the case, said the company's own internal investigations showed there was 'misconduct and harassment'. 'Nonetheless, rather than just being terminated, they were terminated with hefty reimbursement and gifts,' she added. The lawsuit is claiming that Google 'schemed to cover up persistent sexual harassment and discrimination' within the company. Thousands of Google employees in offices across the globe participated in a mass walkout in November after details of Rubin's severance package were revealed. Pictured are employees protesting at the company's Mountain View headquarters It targets the board of Alphabet, charging that its members had a duty to protect the company and its shareholders from risk and reputation damage. Instead, it says, the board agreed to pay off and otherwise support male executives facing misconduct charges - opening the company to reputational and financial damage by doing so. Co-founder Sergey Brin, venture capitalist John Doerr, investor Ram Shriram and Alphabet Chief Legal Officer David Drummond are among those named in the complaint. Google said in a statement on Monday that there are 'serious consequences' for sexual misconduct at the company. 'In recent years, we've made many changes to our workplace and taken an increasingly hard line on inappropriate conduct by people in positions of authority,' a statement read. Thousands of Google employees in offices from Los Angeles and New York to Dublin and London participated in a mass walkout in November after details of Rubin's severance package were revealed by the New York Times in October. Rubin denied the allegations that same month, claiming they were part of a 'smear campaign to disparage me during a divorce and custody battle'. The number of compensation claims for holiday sickness and car accident whiplash has fallen dramatically after the introduction of legal curbs. Personal injury claims brought before civil courts fell 19 per cent from 35,000 at the beginning of last year to 28,400 in December, according to figures from the Ministry of Justice. It follows laws introduced last summer to stop profiteering by claims companies and lawyers, including limits on the amount they can demand in legal costs over holiday illness claims. Sickness claims by holidaymakers rose from 5,000 in 2013 to more than 35,000 by 2016. Stock image And last spring, claims companies were banned from making cold calls to people who had been involved in car crashes. Sickness claims by holidaymakers rose from 5,000 in 2013 to more than 35,000 by 2016. A number of bogus claims have been exposed, including that of Martin and Lindsey Brown, of Chorley, Lancashire, who tried to claim 20,000 after saying their holiday in Turkey was ruined by illness. The couple were found guilty of fraud after, instead of being bedridden, Mr Brown had been going to the pool and drinking until daft oclock. The act of 'phubbing' or 'phone-snubbing' could be causing marriages and relationships to breakdown, say divorce lawyers. A third of people in a relationship in the UK say they have been ignored by their phone-distracted partners, according to a YouGov survey. Millennials are the worst perpetrators of the act, with 57 per cent of people aged between 25 and 34 complaining of it affecting their romantic lives. Millennials are also more likely to exhibit 'disloyal' behaviour on their mobile phones, with 11 per cent admitting to having inappropriate conversations online. Scroll down for video Researchers suggest that phubbing is a relationship killer, where one person would rather interact with their phone than their partner. A third of people in a relationship in the UK say they have been ignored by their phone-distracted partners, according to a YouGov survey (stock image) More than 2,000 adults were surveyed in an online poll undertaken in February 2019, of which 1,328 people were in relationships. Mobile phones can build mistrust, doubt and suspicion, cause arguments and even lead to infidelity. Amanda Rimmer, a partner and family law expert at Stephensons Solicitors LLP who commissioned the poll, said: 'Some couples now spend more time in bed with their mobile phone than being affectionate with each other. 'People sleep with their phone, eat with it, play with it and talk to it - it's almost a relationship itself. 'We've experienced a surge in divorce enquires in the last five years because of phoneaholic partners, with many people citing a partner's secretive mobile phone behaviour as an indication that the relationship is falling apart.' Phubbing causes problems in relationships by reducing the amount of quality time spent together and making it appear as if the guilty part is losing interest. Millennials are the worst perpetrators of 'phubbing', with 57 per cent of 24 to 35-year-olds having experienced it Figures from Ofcom suggest 78 per cent of adults now own a mobile phone, with adults checking on their phones, on average, every 12 minutes during the day. Previous research from the University of Kent showed that people are 'phubbing' - and experiencing being 'phubbed' in social situations too. Published in the journal, Computers in Human Behaviour, the research identified three factors linked to being hooked on smartphones - internet addiction, a fear of missing out and a lack of self-control. This smartphone addiction - in turn - was directly linked to people demonstrating phubbing behaviour. WHAT IS PHUBBING? The term phubbing was coined in 2013 and is a portmanteau of the words 'phone' and 'snubbing'. It is defined as 'the act of snubbing someone in a social setting by looking at your phone instead of paying attention.' There is even a Stop Phubbing campaign group, which started in Australia and was set up to address the problem. The website lets people download posters to discourage phubbing at events. SIGNS THAT YOU ARE A PHUBBER You always have your phone out when you're with your partner Most of your conversations with you partner are are kept short because you're often on your phone You often stop paying attention to what your partner is saying when your phone buzzes You fill gaps in conversation by checking your phone When you're watching TV together, you go on your phone in the ad break You take calls that aren't urgent when you're spending time with your partner Source: Julie Hart, The Hart Centre Advertisement Another study from the US that surveyed 450 people found that 46 per cent of participants reported being 'phubbed' by their partners, and 22 per cent had argued as a direct result of the act. The researchers said that the phenomenon was on the rise because we are more likely to be addicted to our phones than ever before. Dr James Roberts and Dr Meredith David from Baylor University in Texas said: 'The presence and use of cell phones is ever-increasing causing the boundaries that separate our work and other interests from our romantic relationships to become more and more blurred,' said . 'As a result, the occurrence of phubbing is nearly inevitable. 'In fact, from a sample of 143 individuals involved in romantic relationships, seventy per cent responded that cell phones 'sometimes,' 'often,' 'very often,' or 'all the time' interfered in their interactions with their partners.' Refrigerator doors in supermarkets are being replaced with LCD screens that scan a shopper's face to show personalised pop-up adverts. Chicago-based Cooler Screens sells its products to stores which show the food or drink available inside. However, they are also used to display specific adverts based on the physical characteristics of the shopper. The cameras in the screens are not designed to prevent theft but instead are intended to give a personalised shopping experience through specific adverts. Supermarket chain Walgreens is believed to be testing the screens in half a dozen of its stores around the US. Scroll down for video Chicago-based Cooler Screens(pictured) sells its products to stores which show the food or drink available inside. However, they are also used to display specific adverts based on the physical characteristics of the shopper The technology scans a person's face to determine their sex and age and then displays relevant animated adverts that marketing experts believe will be of interest. It is claimed the firm does not partake in ethnic or racial profiling and also does not store the data of an individual. The concept works in a similar way to the targeted ads that come from Facebook and Google, but those sites require consent and permission to be given to share such data with advertisers. In the instance of the Cooler Screens product, this consent is never given, it simply scans and profiles whoever is in front of it at any moment. Kade Crockford, director of the Technology for Liberty program at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, who identifies as non-binary, told The Boston Globe: 'What is the machine going to tell me that I'm a woman or a man? 'I do not want to live in a world where every place I go my face, my voice, my iris, my body everything about me is being catalogued.' Digital screens used to display adverts in a store is not a new concept but the integration of profiling and person specific commercials may be a step too far for those who value their privacy. Supermarket chain Walgreens is believed to be testing the screens in half a dozen of its stores around the US. The technology scans a person's face to determine their sex and age and then displays relevant animated adverts (file photo) Lil Bub, a celebrity internet cat, owes her unusual and distinctive appearance to two rare genetic defects, scientists have discovered. The famous feline is known for her distinctive green eyes, surprised expression and permanently open mouth, earning her two million Instagram followers. The seven-year-old feline is kitten-sized because she stopped growing at seven months, has a short turned-up nose and her pink tongue sticks out from her jaw. She also has two extra digits on her two front paws, the same variant associated with Ernest Hemingway's cats at his former home in Key West. Scroll down for video Scientists have discovered that Lil Bub, a famous internet cat, owes her unusual and distinctive appearance to two rare genetic defects. Lil Bub is known for her kitten-sized frame, surprised expression and permanently open mouth, earning her millions of Instagram followers Now a team of geneticists, including from the Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology, have revealed that her 'magical' appeal is down to two distinct variants in her DNA. In 2014, molecular biologists Dario G. Lupianez and Dr Daniel Ibrahim stumbled across one of her videos. They realised Lil BUBs unique features might be caused by genetic mutations similar to those they had been studying in human patients and mice with rare bone diseases. After asking Lil Bub's owner for a blood sample they analysed her genetic make-up and were able to diagnose her with two congenital defects. The first is infantile malignant osteopetrosis, a rare disease that causes bones to grow progressively denser as she grows older, which also causes her stature and short snout. The defect was found in roughly fifteen humans and one mouse that share similar physical features to Lil Bub. Their research is the first time this type of osteopetrosis has been described in felines. Throughout their research, the team documented their findings in a Twitter Feed they called BUBome. After asking Lil Bub's owner for a blood sample they analysed her genetic make-up and were able to diagnose her with two congenital defects Lil Bub has two extra digits on her two front paws, the same variant associated with Ernest Hemingway's cats at his former home in Key West. Polydactyly is a genetic condition that causes an individual to be born with extra digits The second is polydactyly, a genetic condition which can occur in multiple species, causing an individual to be born with extra fingers or toes. They found a genealogical link from Lil Bub to Ernest Hemingway's cats, a tribe of six-toed cats that live at the author's former home in Key West. The scientists found that the mutation differs from those causing polydactyly in cats outside America, suggesting Lil Bub is a descends from a common ancestor. Nothing was previously known of Lil Bub's antecedents because it was discovered as a feral kitten. A colony of about 50 descendants still has its home at the Ernest Hemingway Museum in Key West, Florida. The seven-year-old feline is kitten-sized because she stopped growing at seven months, has a short turned-up nose and her pink tongue sticks out from her jaw. Now geneticists, from Germany and the US, have revealed that her appeal is down to two distinct variants in her DNA In 2014, molecular biologists Dario G. Lupianez and Dr Daniel Ibrahim stumbled across one of her videos. They realised Lil BUBs unique features might be caused by genetic mutations similar to those they had been studying in human patients and mice with rare bone diseases 'We were curious and wanted to look at her genome. Since developmental processes, like bone formation, are quite conserved across mammals, we hypothesized that identifying the causative mutations underlying BUBs phenotypes might improve our understanding of these rare diseases also in humans', said Dr Ibrahim. The researchers said that their discovery of the malignant osteopetrosis in Lil Bubs genome could give clues for treatment in humans suffering from the rare disease. It was known since the cats infancy that it had feline dwarfism and osteopetrosis, but now they know that it is caused by a variant in a gene that has also been linked to osteopetrosis in humans. Throughout their research, the team documented their findings in a Twitter Feed they called BUBome. The findings were published in the journal biorXiv. Liquid water on the surface of the moon has been found to 'hop' around various cold spots on the lunar surface due to a complex and intricate sequence of events. Temperatures rise during the moon's daytime and at lunar noon it is sufficiently warm enough to cause water to leave the soil - known as the regolith. It then either bounces to the nearest cold location or rises into the atmosphere before being reabsorbed. It was spotted by the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Scientists say this discovery could allow for a constant supply of water for planned long-term manned missions to the moon. Scroll down for video This LRO image of the moon shows areas of potential frost, pictured in blue. The spacecraft's Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) found water in the lunar soil can move around during lunar day time 'This is an important new result about lunar water, a hot topic as our nation's space program returns to a focus on lunar exploration,' Dr Kurt Retherford, the principal investigator of the LAMP instrument from Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, said. 'We recently converted the LAMP's light collection mode to measure reflected signals on the lunar dayside with more precision, allowing us to track more accurately where the water is and how much is present.' Water is tied to the chemicals inside the lunar soil for the majority of the time but during lunar noon, where temperatures can reach 260F (127C), it is released from the soil. Then it is attracted to the next cold region where it bonds back into the regolith. The phenomenon of the moving water was previously thought to be a result of faulty technology, caused by the difficulty of studying water reflection from orbit. LAMP has confirmed it is actually a direct result of the movement of water. Dr Michael Poston, who worked on the study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, said: 'Lunar hydration is tricky to measure from orbit, due to the complex way that light reflects off of the lunar surface. 'Previous research reported quantities of hopping water molecules that were too large to explain with known physical processes. 'I'm excited about these latest results because the amount of water interpreted here is consistent with what lab measurements indicate is possible.' Water is tied to the chemicals inside the lunar soil for the majority of the time but during lunar noon, where temperatures can reach 260F (127C), it is released from the soil (stock) Researchers involved in the study say it opens the door for water to be harvested from the soil in future missions. Amanda Hendrix, who led the study, added: 'Lunar water can potentially be used by humans to make fuel or to use for radiation shielding or thermal management; if these materials do not need to be launched from Earth, that makes these future missions more affordable.' Manned missions to the moon are planned by a range of nations and companies and there is even hope of establishing a lunar base. Less than two weeks after announcing a plan to shift all of its sales online in effort to cut costs, Tesla now says it will keep physical stores open and instead raise the prices of a slew of its vehicles. The electric car-maker revealed it was backing off its plan to close all of its U.S. stores in a blog post on Monday. To make up for this, Tesla will raise the prices of its high-end vehicles by about 3 percent on average, as it strives for profitability. The recently unveiled $35,000 Model 3 - Tesla's cheapest vehicle yet - will not be affected by the price hike. Scroll down for video Less than two weeks after announcing a plan to shift all of its sales online in effort to cut costs, Tesla now says it will keep physical stores open and instead raise the prices of its vehicles. File photo TESLA'S CHEAPEST MODEL 3 VEHICLE YET Tesla has finally launched the $35,000 Model 3. Range: 220 miles Top Speed: 130 mph Acceleration: 0-60 in 5.6 sec Tesla is also offering the $37,000 Model 3 Standard Range Plus, which boasts: Range: 240 miles Top Speed: 140 mph Acceleration: 0-60 in 5.3 sec Advertisement The company said late Sunday that it would now be closing only about half as many stores than initially planned in a widely criticized move earlier this month to cut overhead and shift its whole distribution network online. 'Over the past two weeks we have been closely evaluating every single Tesla retail location, and we have decided to keep significantly more stores open than previously announced,' the electric carmaker said. 'As a result Tesla will need to raise vehicle prices by about 3 percent on average worldwide.' Separately, Chief Executive Officer Musk has until the end of the day on Monday to explain why he should not be held in contempt for recent tweets that U.S. securities regulators say violated a September fraud settlement. The case is the latest major challenge by authorities to Musk's leadership as Tesla seeks to make good on his promises to Wall Street that it will soon by consistently profitable and will not need more capital. The three percent increase on its top-end cars would be the first hike in prices after a series of cuts over the past year aimed at offsetting a reduction in green tax credits and the impact of rising tariffs overseas. Tesla said the worldwide price increases would apply to the more expensive versions of the Model 3, Model S and Model X, and that there will be no price increase to the $35,000 Model 3. 'The 3 percent price increase announcement still indicates ... strong demand,' said Ivan Feinseth, an analyst with Tigress Financial Partners. The carmaker said potential buyers can place orders until March 18 at the old prices. Currently, the Model S and Model X models are priced starting at $79,000 and $88,000 before savings, respectively. Shares of the company, among Wall Street's most volatile in recent months, were roughly flat in early trading on Monday. Tesla will unveil its highly-anticipated Model Y crossover in LA later this week, Elon Musk said at the beginning of the month Cost savings from store closing will be only about half the expected amount as the company will close only half the number of stores planned, it said. A few stores in high-visibility locations that were closed because of low throughput would be reopened with a smaller Tesla crew and would carry fewer cars in inventory. Separately, Bloomberg reported on Monday that Tesla is in discussions with Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd on a deal for the production of rechargeable batteries for the Model 3. In January, sources told Reuters that Tesla had signed a preliminary agreement with China's Tianjin Lishen to supply batteries for its new Shanghai car factory. The talks come as Tesla looks to localize battery cell production and push forward with the 500,000-vehicle-capacity Shanghai plant, expected to be completed in May. A tiny dinosaur that only grew to 'six foot' has been discovered on a beach known as Australia's 'dinosaur graveyard'. The new species had a beak, had a galleon-shaped jaw, and was a herbivore roughly the same size as a wallaby. It likely roamed a 'lost world' that sat between Australia and Antarctica 125 million years ago, experts say. The Galleonosaurus dorisae walked on two legs and had sharp teeth that helped it graze the rich vegetation of the prehistoric floodplains, say archaeologists. The discovery is providing fresh insight on the diversity of small, herbivorous dinosaurs that once inhabited the region. The 'tiny' new species of dinosaurs have been named Galleonosaurus dorisae, after its 'galleon type' upturned jaws. The small dinosaur belonged to a large family known as the ornithopods Named Galleonosaurus dorisae, after its unique jaw, the small dinosaur belonged to a large family known as the ornithopods. The species was abundant on the prehistoric floodplains of the rift valley at a time when the two continents were breaking apart. Lead author on the study Dr Matthew Herne, of the University of New England, New South Wales, said: 'These small dinosaurs would have been agile runners on their powerful hind legs.' Ornithopods would reach up into trees for food while on their hind legs. Some would also have spent their day grazing on all fours as well. Galleonosaurus was identified from five upper jawbones dug up in Victoria, southeastern Australia. The name refers to the bone's shape - which experts says resembles the upturned hull of a sailing ship. The fossils were encased in rocks dating back to the Cretaceous, shedding fresh light on the diversity of small, herbivorous dinosaurs that once inhabited the region. The site on a beach just outside the town of Inverloch in southern Australia is a renowned dinosaur graveyard. It also holds the remains of rodent-sized mammals, turtles, and possibly a species of flying reptile. The fossils were encased in rocks dating back to the Cretaceous, shedding fresh light on the diversity of small, herbivorous dinosaurs that once inhabited the region WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT GALLEONOSAURUS DORISAE? The small dinosaur has been named Galleonosaurus dorisae, after the its 'galleon type' upturned jaws They lived in a 'lost world' between Australia and Antarctica 125 million years ago during the Cretaceous, a period that spanned 79 million years from the end of the Jurassic to the beginning of the Paleogene. Their habitat was a vast forested floodplain with powerful rivers that turned the valley into a lush, fertile environment. The 'mini dinosaurs' walked on two legs and had sharp teeth that helped it graze the rich vegetation of its surroundings. The new species belonged to a large family known as the ornithopods It would have grown to about six foot, and weighed around 50lbs (22.7kg) They were discovered on a site renowned as a dinosaur 'graveyard' and are the fifth small ornithopod genus unearthed in the area Advertisement Dr Herne said: 'The jaws of Galleonosaurus dorisae include young to mature individuals - the first time an age range has been identified from the jaws of an Australian dinosaur.' It would have grown to about six foot, and weighed around 50lbs (22.7kg). Galleonosaurus is the fifth small ornithopod genus discovered in the area. Dr Herne said it confirms they were unusually widespread in the 'ancient rift valley that once extended between the spreading continents of Australia and Antarctica.' They thrived on the vast forested floodplain fuelled by powerful rivers - turning the valley into a lush, fertile environment. The new species ,Galleonosaurus dorisae, grew to roughly the same size as a wallaby, archaeologists revealed. The Diluvicursor pickeringi - a smaller ornithopod about the size of a turkey, was discovered in 2018 on the coast the west of the current site in Iverloch Ornithopods were small, bipedal running grazers that lived 229 to 65.5 million years ago and would be equivalent to today's deer Ornithopods were two-legged plant-eating dinosaurs. They were the dinosaur equivalent of today's cattle and deer. Their horny beaks were used to crop vegetation which they then ground using molar-like cheek teeth. Ornithopods flourished around 229 to 65.5 million years ago and were one of the most successful dinosaurs to ever walk the planet. They ranged in side from 5 to 23 feet tall (1.5 to 7 metres) and may have subsequently evolved into more advanced iguanodontids and hadrosaurs who walked on all fours. The new find shows there were at least two distinct body-types among closely related ornithopods in this part of Australia. One was lightly built with an extraordinarily long tail, while the other, Diluvicursor, was more solidly built, with a far shorter tail, researchers found. Source: Britannica Advertisement At the time of Galleonosaurus, sediments were shed from a 2,500 mile thousand mile long range of large, actively erupting volcanoes along the east coast. As they were washed down the bones of dinosaurs, such as Galleonosaurus and other vertebrates, along with the logs of fallen trees, became mixed in. Dr Herne said: 'This land has now vanished, but as 'time-travellers' we get snapshots of this remarkable world via the rocks and fossils exposed along the coast of Victoria.' Galleonosaurus is a close relative of Diluvicursor pickeringi - a smaller ornithopod about the size of a turkey. That was discovered by the same team last year along the Otway coast, to the west of Inverloch. The new species has been named Galleonosaurus dorisae, after its upturned jaws that look like galleons (pictured), warships used in Spain from the 15th to the 18th centuries, Dr Herne said: 'The jaws of Galleonosaurus and the partial skeleton of Diluvicursor were similarly buried in volcanic sediments on the floor of deep powerful rivers. 'However, Galleonosaurus is about 12 million years older than Diluvicursor, showing the evolutionary history of dinosaurs in the Australian-Antarctic rift had been lengthy.' The jaws of Galleonosaurus were found by volunteers of the Dinosaur Dreaming project - made up of about 20 palaeontologists and volunteers. Each day they must wait until about 9am at low tide for the rocky dig site to become accessible. They are forced to leave when the water returns. Prior to discovery of Galleonosaurus dorisae, the only other ornithopod known from the region was Qantassaurus intrepidus, named in 1999. But Qantassaurus had a shorter more robust snout than that of Galleonosaurus, said Dr Herne. He said: 'We consider these two, similarly-sized dinosaurs fed on different plant types, which would have allowed them to coexist.' The study also reveals the ornithopods from Victoria are closely related to those from Patagonia in Argentina. Dr Herne said: 'We are steadily building a picture of terrestrial dinosaur interchange between the shifting Gondwanan continents of Australia, South America and Antarctica during the Cretaceous period.' These are exciting times for dinosaur research, explained Dr Herne. He added: 'Using advanced techniques, such as 3D micro-CT scanning and printing, new anatomical information is being revealed on dinosaurs such as Galleonosaurus dorisae. 'These techniques are helping us to delve deeper into the mysterious world of dinosaur ecology - what they ate, how they moved and how they coexisted - and their evolutionary relationships with dinosaurs from other continents..' The full study has been published in the Journal of Paleontology. Facebook's former virtual reality head is leading a new Silicon Valley startup that has won a contract to support the Pentagon's controversial 'Project Maven' program, according to The Intercept. The startup, called Anduril Industries, is led by Palmer Luckey, the 26-year-old founder of Facebook's virtual reality unit Oculus. Project Maven, which seeks to incorporate AI technology on the battlefield, first attracted the attention of Google, but the firm later backed out of its contract after worldwide upheaval from its employees. Scroll down for video Palmer Luckey (pictured), Facebook's former virtual reality head, is leading a new Silicon Valley startup that has won a contract to support the Pentagon's Project Maven program CONTROVERSIAL VR CREATOR Palmer Luckey hit headlines last March after being jettisoned from Oculus, the VR company he helped found and sold to Facebook. In September 2016, it emerged that he secretly funded a pro-Donald Trump group that mocked Hillary Clinton online, during the US presidential race. Troll group Nimble America also claimed it was behind a billboard in Pittsburgh that featured a caricature of Clinton and the slogan 'too big to jail'. But according to reports in the New York Times, Mr Luckey has been working with the Trump White House on the technology. It could offer a cheaper alternative to the controversial border wall between the US and Mexico championed by President Trump. Advertisement The program uses machine learning to sort through massive amounts of drone footage, identify objects such as humans and alert military analysts to its findings. The hope is that it will not only result in fewer casualties, but also provide some relief to military analysts whose job it is to spend long hours staring at big screens reviewing video feeds from drones. Anduril began work on Project Maven last year, the Intercept reported. Additionally, the company is working with the Defense Department's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, internal documents reviewed by the Intercept show. Luckey founded Anduril in 2017, not long after being let go from Facebook, which acquired Oculus for more than $2 billion in 2014. Anduril, which is focused on merging defense and consumer tech, has worked with the US government on other projects. It has been working with Customs and Border Protection in California to develop a virtual border wall that can be deployed at the US-Mexico border. The virtual wall uses a system called Lattice to pick up and identify motion that's up to two miles away, using a complicated array of sensors, as well as a mixed reality headset. Lattice has since been able to identify 55 people crossing the border illegally, as well as 982lbs of marijuana, in Texas, according to Wired. Project Maven, which seeks to incorporate AI technology into drones used on the battlefield, first attracted the attention of Google, but the firm later backed out of its contract after worldwide upheaval from its employees. Now, Anduril Industries has won the contract Since then, Anduril has been honing its technologies around battlefield management, which Luckey hopes will ultimately give soldiers 'perfect omniscience.' Luckey detailed his vision for how technology can be further incorporated into US defense at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon, Portugal last November. 'Practically speaking, in the future, I think soldiers are going to be superheroes who have the power of perfect omniscience over their area of operations, where they know where every enemy is, every friend is, every asset is,' Luckey said at Web Summit. He added that, in the future, military personnel may no longer need to carry weapons; instead, they could remotely operate machines and weapons, the Intercept reported. In addition to Project Maven, Anduril has also been working with Customs and Border Protection to develop a virtual border wall that can be deployed at the US-Mexico border WHAT IS PROJECT MAVEN? The U.S. military has been looking to incorporate elements of artificial intelligence and machine learning into its drone program. Project Maven, as the effort is known, aims to provide some relief to military analysts who are part of the war against Islamic State. These analysts currently spend long hours staring at big screens reviewing video feeds from drones as part of the hunt for insurgents in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon is trying to develop algorithms that would sort through the material and alert analysts to important finds, according to Air Force Lieutenant General John N.T. 'Jack' Shanahan, director for defense intelligence for warfighting support. A British Royal Air Force Reaper hunter killer unmanned aerial vehicle on the flight line February 21, 2014 in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Military bosses say intelligence analysts are 'overwhelmed' by the amount of video being recorded over the battlefield by drones with high resolution cameras 'A lot of times these things are flying around(and)... there's nothing in the scene that's of interest,' he told Reuters. Shanahan said his team is currently trying to teach the system to recognize objects such as trucks and buildings, identify people and, eventually, detect changes in patterns of daily life that could signal significant developments. 'We'll start small, show some wins,' he said. A Pentagon official said the U.S. government is requesting to spend around $30 million on the effort in 2018. Similar image recognition technology is being developed commercially by firms in Silicon Valley, which could be adapted by adversaries for military reasons. Shanahan said he' not surprised that Chinese firms are making investments there. 'They know what they're targeting,' he said. Research firm CB Insights says it has tracked 29 investors from mainland China investing in U.S. artificial intelligence companies since the start of 2012. The risks extend beyond technology transfer. 'When the Chinese make an investment in an early stage company developing advanced technology, there is an opportunity cost to the U.S. since that company is potentially off-limits for purposes of working with (the Department of Defense),' the report said. Advertisement While many Silicon Valley tech giants have felt conflicted over their products being used by the US military, Luckey doesn't seem to feel the same way. In an editorial for the Washington Post, Luckey wrote: 'If tech companies want to promote peace, they should stand with, not against, the United States' defense community.' Luckey also rejects the idea of creating a Geneva Convention or global rulebook around the use of AI in weaponry, the Intercept noted. Google continues to tread lightly on the subject of AI weaponry, having let its Project Maven contract expire this year. Meanwhile, Microsoft has also faced pushback around its $480 million contract with the Army to develop augmented reality headsets for soldiers. New findings are challenging a long-held theory that the huge expansion in the animal kingdom 500 million years ago was triggered by a single surge of evolution. Bursts of evolutionary activity may have increased the variety of animals and began millions of years earlier that thought. Data also shows the episodes could have occurred over a longer time frame, and were more frequent than previously thought. Bursts of evolutionary activity that increased the number and variety of animals began millions of years earlier that thought. This image shows researchers studying at a fossil site in Nambia Geoscientists from the University of Edinburgh re-assessed the timeline of early animal evolution by analysing records of fossil discoveries and environmental change. Until now, the Cambrian Explosion, which took place between 540 and 520 million years ago, was thought to have given rise to almost all the early ancestors of present-day animals. Now the new research has shown that it was probably just one in a series of similar events, the first of which took place at least 571 million years ago during the late Ediacaran Period. Scientists have long speculated that a large oxygen spike during the 'Cambrian Explosion' was key to the development of many animal species. Professor Rachel Wood, of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, who led the study, said these bursts of evolutionary activity may have coincided with dramatic fluctuations in the levels of oxygen and essential nutrients in the oceans. She said: 'Integrating data from the fossil record with that of environmental changes that affected the whole planet is revealing the patterns and drivers of the rise of complex life on Earth. An artist's impression of the 'Cambrian sea' (pictured) that occurred after what was thought to be a single evolutionary episode known as the Cambrian explosion. The sea was teeming with animals and coincided with a large spike of oxygen levels 'We used to think early animals emerged rapidly following a single evolutionary event, but our findings suggest it actually happened in stages.' Their findings challenge a long-held theory that suggests the huge expansion in the types of animals on the planet more than 500 million years ago was triggered by a single, rapid surge of evolution. Talk to Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa and you'll notice a common trait: They both have female voices. While this can help make robotic assistants more relatable and natural to converse with, it has assigned a gender to a technology that's otherwise genderless. Now, researchers are hoping to offer a new alternative by launching what they're calling the world's first 'genderless voice.' Scroll down for video HOW DID RESEARCHERS CREATE A GENDERLESS AI? To create 'Q', researchers recorded voices from participants who identify as non-binary, or neither exclusively female nor male. Researchers then tested the voice on 4,600 people across Europe. Testers rated the voice between one and five, with one being male and five being female. The voice was modulated and then tested again until it was perceived as gender neutral. A pitch between 145 and 175 hertz was perceived as a gender neutral frequency. Advertisement The voice, called 'Q', was created by researchers from Copenhagen Pride, equality campaign organisation EqualAI and Virtue, a creative agency under Vice, to be gender neutral. To do this, they recorded voices from participants who identify as non-binary, or neither exclusively female nor male. Researchers then tested the voice on 4,600 people across Europe. Testers were asked to grade the voice between one and five, with one meaning a male voice and five a female one. The voice was then modulated and tested again until it was widely perceived as gender neutral, the developers said. After altering the pitch, format filter and tone of the voice, researchers found that a range of 145 and 175 hertz was a gender neutral frequency. The higher the frequency, the more we perceive it as female; whereas, if the frequency is lower, we're more likely to think the voice is male. In launching Q, they hope to break down the rise of gender bias in smart assistants. Experts say assigning a female voice to an AI assistant reinforces stereotypes that females are supposed to helpful, nurturing and caring. Additionally, that they're more appropriate for administrative roles. Digital assistants like Alexa and Siri often default to having female voices. But a group of researchers is hoping to offer a new alternative by launching Q, a genderless voice To create Q, they recorded voices from participants who identify as non-binary, or neither female nor male. Pictured are a few of the participants who lent their voice to the study 'Companies turn to different research that tells them people expect a female voice,' said Julie Carpenter, who worked on Project Q and is a research fellow with the Ethics and Emerging Sciences Group. 'Sometimes we go back to these stereotypes and what happens is we're reinforcing them. We're not changing them. 'There's no reason we can't have more options,' she added. Apple and Google do give users the option of switching between a male and female voice for their digital assistants, but researchers say there should be a non-binary option as well. 'Q adds to a global discussion about who is designing gendered technology, why those choices are made, and how people feed into expectations about things like trustworthiness, intelligence, and reliability of a technology based on cultural biases rooted in their belief system about groups of people,' Carpenter said. 'Q is a step forward in true innovation because it forces a critical examination of these belief systems.' Last May, Google rolled out six new voices for its Google Assistant, among which are R&B singer John Legend. Experts say assigning a female voice to an AI assistant reinforces stereotypes that females are supposed to helpful, nurturing and caring, or more appropriate for administrative roles Amazon, too, launched eight new male voices last year, but the original female voice remains the default option. The creators behind Q are hoping the genderless voice will get tech giants' attention and lead to it being included in their products in the future. 'It's basically about keeping the technology companies responsible,' Casper Klynge, Danish tech ambassador, explained. 'And what we would argue is that they need to take a societal responsibility which is proportional to the kind of influence they exercise.' Thomas Rasmussen, head of communication for Copenhagen Pride, said Q would help combat 'harmful and often very limiting gender stereotypes,' as well as raise the issue to Silicon Valley giants. 'With Q - a neutral voice with no preassigned gender - we aim to get the attention of leading technological companies that work with AI to ensure they are aware that a gender binary normativity excludes many people and to inspire them by showing how easy it would actually be to recognise that more than two genders exist when developing artificial intelligence devices,' Rasmussen said. 'This is about giving people choices and options. It is about freedom and inclusion.' NASA has shared a baffling new animation showing a twist in the typical lunar transit. Thanks to the movement of its Solar Dynamics Observatory combined with that of the moon in orbit, the lunar shadow appears to reverse its direction as the moon travels in front of the sun. The incredible phenomenon popped up in observations captured by SDO on March 6. The sun is currently experiencing a period of unusual quiet as it approaches solar minimum; according to NASA, there were no visible sunspots in February at all. Scroll down for video NASA has shared a baffling new animation showing a twist in the typical lunar transit in which the lunar shadow appears to reverse its direction as the moon travels in front of the sun WHAT IS THE SOLAR CYCLE? The sun is a huge ball of electrically-charged hot gas that moves, generating a powerful magnetic field. This magnetic field goes through a cycle, called the solar cycle. Every 11 years or so, the sun's magnetic field completely flips, meaning the sun's north and south poles switch places. The solar cycle affects activity on the surface of the sun, such as sunspots which are caused by the sun's magnetic fields. One way to track the solar cycle is by counting the number of sunspots. The beginning of a solar cycle is a solar minimum, or when the sun has the least sunspots. Over time, solar activity - and the number of sunspots - increases. The middle of the solar cycle is the solar maximum, or when the sun has the most sunspots. As the cycle ends, it fades back to the solar minimum and then a new cycle begins. Advertisement Its a bizarre effect that might leave many viewers scratching their heads. But according to NASA, the phenomenon is simply the result of SDOs changing perspective. The moons apparent reversal is caused by SDO first overtaking the moon in its orbit, then the moon catching up as SDO swings around Earths dusk side, NASA explains. During the transit the sun moves in the frame as the telescopes cool and flex in the lunar shadow. NASAs SDO has been monitoring activity on the sun for nearly a decade. The sun has been relatively quiet over the last few months as it approaches a phase in its cycle known as solar minimum. According to NASA, there were no sunspots at all in the month of February a phenomenon that hasnt been observed since 2008. But, thats no cause for concern, the space agency insists. Where have all the sunspots gone? Last month the total number of spots that crossed our Sun was ... zero, NASA revealed on its Astronomy Picture of the Day blog. Well below of the long term monthly average, the Sun's surface has become as unusually passive this solar minimum just like it did 11 years ago during the last solar minimum. According to NASA, the phenomenon of the reversing moon is simply the result of SDOs changing perspective. This is illustrated in the animation above Such passivity is not just a visual spectacle, it correlates with the Sun being slightly dimmer, with holes in the Sun's corona being more stable, and with a reduced intensity in the outflowing solar wind. The reduced wind, in turn, cools and collapses Earth's outer atmosphere (the thermosphere), causing reduced drag on many Earth-orbiting satellites. NASA has long estimated that the sun would reach its minimum in 2019-2020, and the latest activity or lack thereof lines up with these predictions. The sun is currently experiencing a period of unusual 'quiet' as it approaches solar minimum; according to NASA, there were no visible sunspots in February at all. Above, the sun can be seen this past August, already appearing nearly spot-free The space agency is working to better understand the mechanisms behind solar activity with its recently-launched Parker Solar Probe, which began its second orbit of the sun back in January. It will make its next closest approach to the sun on April 4. Weve always said that we dont know what to expect until we look at the data, said Project Scientist Nour Raouafi of APL. Said in January. The data we have received hints at many new things that weve not seen before and at potential new discoveries. Parker Solar Probe is delivering on the missions promise of revealing the mysteries of our Sun. Advertisement Climate change is likely to alter rainfall patterns in some of the world's most important food crop growing areas over the next 20 years, a study has found. By 2040, up to 14% of land dedicated to wheat, maize, rice and soy will be permanently drier than in 1986-2005 while 31% will be wetter, according to the research. A number of regions are already experiencing a climate re-set, with rainfall patterns different to what they were a generation ago, say scientists. The rapid speed of the change means that many farmers are going to have to act quickly to adapt, they warn. Climate change is likely to alter rainfall patterns in some of the world's most important food crop growing areas over the next 20 years, a study has found. Regions expected to be heading for a drier future include south-western Australia, southern Africa, south-western South America, central Mexico and the Mediterranean. The map above shows areas that will be drier The four crops studied together account for about 40% of global calorie intake and are vital to feeding the world's growing population. Researchers used computer simulations of low to high greenhouse gas emission scenarios to predict 'time of emergence' (TOE) of permanent precipitation changes. When a TOE is reached, changes in rainfall pattern become fixed, reflecting a continuing altered climate. Regions expected to be heading for a drier future include south-western Australia, southern Africa, south-western South America, central Mexico and the Mediterranean. Wetter areas include Canada, Russia, India and the eastern United States. Many wheat producers are likely to experience drier conditions, including Australia, Algeria, Morocco, South Africa, Mexico and Spain, said the researchers. Lead author Dr Maisa Rojas, from the University of Chile, said: 'These are definitely countries that will need to think rather quickly what they'd like to do with their wheat production. 'What we're predicting are probably conservative years for time of emergence. 'Detectable precipitation changes are of course not only important for agriculture, but for water resource management more in general, so our results are relevant to other sectors as well.' Researchers used computer simulations of low to high greenhouse gas emission scenarios to predict 'time of emergence' (TOE) of permanent precipitation changes. Wetter areas include Canada, Russia, India and the eastern United States Areas of predicted reduced rainfall in the northern hemisphere currently grow 11% of the world's wheat 8% of its maize, said the scientists. In those countries, 62% of wheat and 69% of maize production would potentially be affected by a scenario of high greenhouse gas emissions. Some parts of the world were already making the transition to new rainfall climates, the study found. By 2040, up to 14% of land dedicated to wheat, maize, rice and soy will be permanently drier than in 1986-2005 while 31% will be wetter, according to the research. File photo A handful of regions had acquired entirely new rainfall 'regimes' compared with the average for the 30 years spanning 1986 and 2005, which provided the study's baseline. These included Russia, Norway, Canada, parts of the US east coast. Co-author Dr Julian Ramirez-Villegas, from the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, said: 'Farmers growing crops in those areas are going to experience significantly different conditions than what they are used to. 'They're going to be completely outside their normal historical environments and many farmers are already struggling with historic variability.' The study found that quick action to curb emissions, in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement, could delay the changes or reduce the size of affected areas. But even a rapid cut in emissions would not prevent altered rainfall patterns becoming established in most of the regions studied. The findings are reported in the journal Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences The last time I travelled to Scotland, the land of my birth, was ten years ago when I was a young and agile pup. But recently I have been dreaming of bouncing through the heather again. Being a West Highland terrier of a certain age, I thought I might need a young travelling companion and decided to invite my Scottie friend Otis. Otis 14 in dog years to my 84 leapt at the idea and we decided to circumvent the long drive to Fort William by taking the Caledonian Sleeper (or the 'non-sleeper', as my mistress calls it). Dog's life: Scottie Otis and West Highland terrier Puff on the breezy ferry ride to the Isle of Mull Otis and I were happy with our spot on the floor after boarding at Euston. On arrival, we all piled into a rented car and set off. Kilcamb Lodge is set in 22 acres on the shores of Loch Sunart, the longest sea loch in the Highlands, and I gathered it has four stars not that I cared. I was just hungry and anxious to get inside. To my horror, the teenage Otis made a beeline for the loch, leapt straight into the water and swam, splashing, in small circles. He then shook himself vigorously and headed for the hotel door, leaving paw marks all over the threshold. Luckily, Kilcamb Lodge is a dog-friendly establishment. In truth, it is more than friendly; it's positively accommodating to animals like us. In the bedrooms, there were bowls, towels, treats, toys even our own bed cover for the inevitable jump up. Bright and beautiful: Tobermory, on Mull, is known for its multicoloured waterfront houses While my mistress and Otis's mum, Lucy, tasted the delights of the local fish prepared by chef Gary Phillips, we had a snooze. Taking the Lochaline ferry to the island of Mull the following day was an adventure. Otis and I travelled on the top deck during the ferry ride to feel the wind in our fur. Mull is great for walkies and we headed straight for the white sands of Calgary Beach, where, of course, Otis went swimming and made a lot of noise. It was then time for a drink in the village of Tobermory, which is full of multicoloured waterfront houses, cafes and pubs. Hospitable: Country house hotel Kilcamb Lodge offers dog bowls and toys in its bedrooms Next day, we were driven to the Laudale Estate on the Morvern Peninsula to take up residence in one of the holiday cottages all pretty and designed with dogs in mind. We stayed in one called Riverside. My mistress was thrilled with the three-bedroom, three-bathroom cottage, with its proper kitchen, pantry, huge TV, wood stoves and internet. Otis imagined he was a fisherman and tried to run off with the anchor to one of the boats. What an idiot he is. But his company was enlivening, and as we returned on the sleeper to London, I thought I might even invite him along next time. (As told to INGRID SEWARD) Bats have had a bad press over the years. Most things you have heard about them are not true. They are not blind, nor is their waste product crazy, although it is hellishly difficult to remove should you find your clothes unfortunately flecked with any. That warning was issued by conservationists working hard to restore the image of these lovable little creatures. There are around a quarter of a million bats living under the Waugh Bridge in Houston, making it one of the largest colonies in America. After dusk each evening, thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats emerge every minute from under the bridge in search of food. Its quite a sight, but its the sound more than anything that impresses like a thousand old-school kettles simultaneously whistling at breakfast. Houstons parks department even provides stadium-style seating so you can enjoy the spectacle. Reaching for the sky: The Space Center in Houston is one of the city's top tourist attractions It wasnt just my misconceptions about flying mammals that had to be re-examined. Houston itself turned out to be not quite the soulless place I had expected. Its much greener than advertised. The 1,500-acre Memorial Park is one of the biggest urban parks in America. There are miles of walking and cycle trails through the park, and if popular culture has taught us not to think of Texans as natural joggers, well popular culture may have got it wrong. There are thousands of them. In summer the city is stiflingly hot and humid, so if you fancy some time out of the sun you could head to the home of Mission Control in the Apollo era of space travel, which culminated in the 1969 Moon landing. The Space Centers control room is currently being restored, although I thought the slightly careworn look rather appropriate. I also appreciated the fact that there was an ashtray by every seat, a sight that sets the historic room very much in its era. Bat out of hell: Mexican free-tailed bats (pictured above) live under the Waugh Bridge While the Space Center has the feel of a theme park for the kids, its also an impressive educational resource, and pays tribute to the extraordinary bravery of the space pioneers. I spent only a few days in Houston, and from a sightseeing point of view that was just about right. But if you are interested in flight either of small mammals or adventurous humans its definitely worth a visit. Continuing our series featuring the holidays of famous people, this week TV presenter JAN LEEMING, 76, recalls her lifetime of adventures First holiday I can remember I was a wartime baby so everything was scarce or rationed, and family holidays were not on the agenda. My parents separated when I was seven and my sister Gillian was aged one, and they also separated us: my father took me and my mother took my sister. Having a blast: Jan in Peru pictured alongside a pair of colourful llamas My first time abroad My father was in the Army, and serving officers had to deploy abroad for three-year terms. During that time, the children of Service personnel were allowed one holiday to see their parents. Unfortunately, my break was cancelled because it came at the time of the Suez Crisis. On his return to the UK, my father made up for the disappointment by sending me on an Erna Low Holiday to Austria with other young people. I remember being enchanted by mountains and cows with bells around their necks. My honeymoon Despite my five marriages, Ive been on only one immediately after the wedding honeymoon and that was a very wet week in a B&B in Cornwall. But when I married for a fourth time in 1988, the choice was a couple of weeks in Majorca or a night at the fabulous and very expensive Baumaniere Hotel at Les Baux in Provence. I chose the latter and it was a magical evening, dining under the stars, looking at the floodlit village of Les Baux, and ending with a midnight swim. My best holiday Two really stand out. One was a safari to Zambia with the late David Shepherd in 1995. More recently I enjoyed a rather wonderful trip to Burma. Memories: Jan with son Jonathan (above), who she chose as her perfect travel companion And my worst I am a sun lover and my then husband and I wanted an inexpensive mid-winter holiday that wouldnt necessitate a long journey and jetlag, so we went to the Gambia. The relatively new hotel was dreadful. The food was canteen-style unless you chose to eat in the air-conditioned French restaurant with the same menu every night; the grass around the swimming pool had become a sea of mud; we were plagued by beggars; and I caught some horrible stomach bug. Id never go back. Essential holiday item A small bag with medical essentials, having learned my lesson in the Seychelles: I bent down to stroke a kitten and received a bite from a spider. The hotel had absolutely nothing by way of first-aid kit, and when finally we got to the nearest town the chemist was closed. My arm swelled and I was in agony. Had I had antihistamines, the pain would have lessened. So now I always take various tablets, creams and plasters with me. Double act: Jan pictured with sister Gillian Dream destination Although the Dalai Lama no longer lives there, I would love to visit Tibet. Its beautiful monasteries and its air of mystery appeal to my romantic nature. Mind you, having suffered from altitude sickness when visiting Machu Picchu, Id probably succumb again but it would be worth it. Perfect companion A loved one or, if he were free, my son Jonathan. I wish he were happily settled with a companion but he is not and we have had some fabulous holidays. My favourite place I love places for different reasons. I am of French descent and love Paris for culture and Provence for history. For a beach holiday I would choose the Seychelles the sea is azure and warm and the beaches are fringed with fabulous volcanic rocks out of which springs amazing vegetation. I recently returned from a Just You singles holiday to Peru, visiting Machu Picchu and meeting a pair of colourful llamas. From how to change a lightbulb to making the perfect cup of tea, answers to burning questions are never far away thanks to the power of Google. But before the rise of the internet, finding out things was a bit trickier as these hilarious insights show. The New York Public Library trawled through its archives to find questions that were sent in before the web was on hand to help and published them via Instagram. In 1961, one question card shows how a person telephoned in asking: 'Is there a full moon every night in Acapulco, (Mexico)?' Meanwhile, in 1976 someone contacted the library with a more comical conundrum, with a transcript reading: 'Why do 18th century English paintings have so many squirrels in them, and how did they tame them so that they wouldn't bite the painter?' Setting a more serious tone, one person in 1945 wrote in asking if it was appropriate to host a funeral on July 4 with it being Independence Day in the U.S. Scroll down to read the questions which left library workers stumped... Animal magic: The New York Public Library trawled through its archives to find questions that were sent in before the web was on hand to help. Above, one person in 1976 wanted to know why there are so many squirrels in 18th century English paintings Shedding some light: In 1961, one question card shows how a person called in asking: 'Is there a full moon every night in Acapulco, (Mexico)?' 'We'd need to know which periodical exactly, but yes!' the New York Public Library said in response to this question asking if a periodical comes out weekly, monthly or yearly Nightmare question: 'What was the origin of bedsheets?' one person inquired in 1950 Page-turner: In 1951, on a 'hot July afternoon', one person requested the history of manhole covers in New York City One person in 1945 wrote in asking if it was appropriate to host a funeral on July 4 with it being Independence Day in the U.S. Homeward bound: One DIY novice called in asking how to put up wallpaper Mode of transport: If they crossed the desert in the U.S., one person wanted to know if they should ride on camels Colour blind: An inquiry at the library desk in 1948 left one library worker slightly bemused Final call: Someone wanted to know about the money that could be made in the sale of dead bodies New York state of mind: Someone contacted the library in a bid to find out how many neurotic people there are in the U.S. Advertisement Taking off and landing at Innsbruck Airport in Austria is so tricky that only captains are permitted to be at the controls. But for passengers, the challenge on the approach is keeping reactions to seeing the stunning Alpine scenery outside to below-hysteria levels. Planes pass thrillingly close to the mountains, as shown by this stunning time-lapse footage shot by a commercial British airline pilot flying as a passenger. A commercial pilot shot a stunning time-lapse video of the approach to Innsbruck Airport in Austria Charlotte the Pilot explained that landings at Innsbruck Airport are 'captains only' Charlotte the Pilot filmed the clip on her iPhone as the flight she was on earlier this year for a ski trip descended to Innsbruck through a real winter wonderland. Charlotte explained to MailOnline Travel just why only those sitting in the left-hand seat are allowed to land planes there. She said: Flying into beautiful, picturesque Innsbruck in Austria is a "captains only" landing. Thats because its one of the most challenging airports in Europe. Airports are mostly categorised as A - no special procedures necessary, B - a little more out of the ordinary, C - only flown by captains who have undergone specific simulator training and have also sat in the jump seat for takeoff and landing. Charlotte said that Innsbruck is 'one of the most challenging airports in Europe' Pilots are not allowed to use autopilot on the approach and must grapple with low-level wind shear and turbulence Strobes set up on the roofs of local buildings help to guide pilots in to Innsbruck The Alpine town of Innsbruck is a category C airport for many different reasons. Situated at the bottom of the Inn valley, its surrounded by terrain - mountains - rising to nearly 8,000ft. The visual manoeuvre means no autopilot, which can be made even trickier by low-level wind shear and turbulence associated with high winds and the mountains. So even with the best visibility, the approach requires years of experience in the cockpit. Strobe lighting on the roofs of local buildings help with the approach but its still a challenge. However, as a passenger the views are spectacular either at night or equally in daylight as you can see from my time-lapse video. So you can sit back, relax and enjoy the scenery. Councillors in a Costa del Sol holiday resort have been forced to axe plans to paint all the beaches fluorescent green, blue, yellow and red. Town planners in Fuengirola came up with the idea because they felt it would be a tourist attraction and bring more colour to the town. But the plan has horrified residents and the first phase of the face-lift was slammed as 'absurd' by a local politician. Work had already started on painting beaches in the Spanish holiday resort of Fuengirola in fluorescent colours such as green, blue, yellow and red A team of 10 council workmen recently took to the popular beach of San Fernando to paint the huge rocks along the beach in various rainbow colours. They insisted the spray paint was environmentally friendly and would do no harm to either people or wildlife. 'We just wanted to make it look like a giant mosaic,' said a council spokesman. And mayor, Ana Mula added: 'We thought it looked quite striking!' She also revealed that the intention was to roll out the programme to all Fuengirola's beaches and coastal areas. She insisted: 'It's an artistic initiative. There are many people who come to walk, to sit on a rock to read a book or just to sunbathe. 'In short, it is an attractive area for our municipality and for all the residents of the city, as well as being one of our best-known points and a hallmark of Fuengirola.' However, the council has agreed to stop the painting and return the beach to its natural look following a public consultation exercise and opposition from rival party groups. The council decided to conduct a citizen poll, which came out against the colourful scheme. The council declined to say what the voting split was but confirmed it was dropping the idea and is now investigating the cost of reversing the work. Spokesman for the Ciudadanos party, Francisco Javier Toro, said: 'It's the most absurd thing I have heard of in a long time.' Town planners in Fuengirola came up with the idea because they felt it would be a tourist attraction and bring more colour to the town He also slammed the cost involved as the first phase took 10 workmen two weeks to complete. He added: 'These rocks are part of the cultural and historical heritage of our municipality. 'Spending this public money could be much more beneficial for other areas and tasks that our municipality urgently needs.' Whille mayoral candidate Javier Garcia Leon added: 'Our tourism model should "paint" more in terms of security, infrastructure and cleanliness.' She's one of Australia's most eligible bachelorettes, boasting a legion of online fans and admirers. And it seems Tammy Hembrow, 24, may have found herself a worthy suitor after she was spotted exchanging telephone numbers with a mystery hunk on Los Angeles on Saturday night. The blonde bombshell- who has two children, son Wolf, four, and daughter Saski, two, was seen swapping digits with a tall gentleman while partying at Hollywood hot-spot Avenue nightclub. What would Tyga say? Tammy Hembrow, 24, (centre) was spotted exchanging telephone numbers with a mystery hunk (right) outside Avenue nightclub in Los Angeles on Saturday night While the identity of the man is unknown, onlookers tell Daily Mail Australia that he 'appeared wealthy' and drove off in a BMW X6 after their encounter outside the club. Daily Mail Australia has reached out for comment. The curvaceous singleton was certainly dressed to impress for the occasion, sporting tiny denim shorts and patterned knee-high boots. These boots were made for walking! The curvaceous singleton was certainly dressed to impress for the occasion, sporting tiny denim shorts and patterned knee-high boots Taking style tips from her friend Khloe Kardashian, she paired her Daisy Dukes with a longsleeve white top and leather handbag. She was pictured walking arm-in-arm with her pal Carrington Durham, who looked equally glamorous in a red mini dress and black booties. Until last year, she was engaged to Australian streetwear designer Reece Hawkins, who is the father of her two children. Girl code! The Lip Kit entrepreneur, 21, has unfollowed the Instagram model, 24, after a string of reports that she recently 'hooked' up with her ex-boyfriend Tyga (pictured) in Australia She was recently linked to U.S. rapper Tyga, who is the ex-boyfriend of Kylie Jenner. It is believed Tammy got intimate with Tyga during his Australian tour in January, with the model being spotted on the side of the stage at several shows. 'They arrived together, were all over each other at the side of the stage and then left together,' an onlooker told Daily Mail Australia after citing Tammy and Tyga together at Rolling Loud Festival in Sydney on January 27. However, Tammy's sister and spokeswoman Amy Hembrow later claimed the pair were 'just friends' and things had been 'taken out of context'. Kylie previously dated American musician Tyga on and off for several years from 2014, before calling it off for good in 2017. What really happened? Tammy's sister and spokeswoman Amy Hembrow claimed she was 'just friends' with Tyga and things had been 'taken out of context' She turned 34 at the end of February. But on Saturday night, Jenni 'JWoww' Farley received a blowout birthday bash from her Jersey Shore castmates. The reality television personality's belated surprise party took place in Atlantic City, starting at Martoranos at Harrahs Resort. Surprise! Saturday night, Jenni 'JWoww' Farley received a blowout birthday bash from her Jersey Shore castmates JWoww's Jersey Shore co-stars Deena Cortese, Angelina Pivarnick, Vinny Guadagnino, and Pauly 'DJ Pauly D' DelVecchio all joined her for the celebration. And the star looked truly taken aback when she arrived to a chorus of 'surprise' upon walking into a room at the resort. She shared a number of clips from the party to her Instagram on Saturday and effusively thanked her friends in a caption. 'I am still in shock. I feel so special! Shout out to @illuminationpr and @djpaulyd for the ultimate surprise party & @harrahsresort #martoranosac for making it such a great night and everyone for coming,' she wrote. Celebration! The reality television personality's belated surprise party took place in Atlantic City, starting at Martoranos at Harrahs Resort Atlantic City! JWoww's Jersey Shore co-stars Deena Cortese, Angelina Pivarnick, Vinny Guadagnino, and Pauly 'DJ Pauly D' DelVecchio all joined her for the celebration Amazing! And the star looked truly taken aback when she arrived to a chorus of 'surprise' upon walking into a room at the resort Party! She shared a number of clips from the party to her Instagram on Saturday and effusively thanked her friends in a caption The event took the Shore crew across the resort and ended at The Pool After Dark. DJ Pauly D even took a turn spinning a set for the birthday girl, just days before he prepared to set out on his first tour of 2019. JWoww shared a number of photos from the night to her Instagram as well, and it looked like all the stops were pulled out for her. Fun times! The event took the Shore crew across the resort and ended at The Pool After Dark All smiles: DJ Pauly D even took a turn spinning a set for the birthday girl, just days before he prepared to set out on his first tour of 2019 It was a night that JWoww looked like she needed because she is in the midst of a bitter divorce battle. She has two children with Roger Mathews, daughter Meilani, four, and son Greyson, two. The reality star filed for divorce from her husband of three years last September saying there was 'no prospect of reconciliation'. In December, she petitioned the court to grant her primary physical custody of their children and asked for child support. She has accused Mathews of physical and emotional abuse. Wow! It was a night that JWoww looked like she needed because she is in the midst of a bitter divorce battle All together now! JWoww shared a number of photos from the night to her Instagram as well, and it looked like all the stops were pulled out for her Shark Tank star Robert Herjavec returned to his Hollywood Hills home last weekend only to find himself the victim of a robbery, according to TMZ. The entrepreneur and reality star, 56, discovered that thieves broke in through a window and made off with over $100,000 in jewelry and cash, the outlet's soure revealed. While Herjavec's home was protected by a security system, said system was not activated at the time of the break-in. Burglary victim: Shark Tank star Robert Herjavec (seen with wife Kym Johnson in January) was the victim of a burglary with thieves making off with $100K in cash and jewels, TMZ reported TMZ reported that the burglary wasn't discovered until Herjavec returned home and found his house was burgled. There is no indication yet if this burglary is related to a spate of celebrity robberies that have happened over the past year in Los Angeles. Celebs such as Viola Davis, Rihanna, Matt Damon, Christina Milian and pro athletes Yasiel Puig and LeBron James were targeted last year. Husband and wife: The burglary wasn't discovered until Herjavec returned home and found his house was burgled, according to the outlet's sources; pictured with wife Kym Johnson on January 22, 2019 in LA The LAPD arrested four people in connection with this spate of burglaries last October, two 19 year old men, one 18 year old man and a 34 year old woman who was the mother of one of the teenage men. Then in November, the mother was cleared of wrongdoing, but seven other men between the ages of 18 and 25 were arrested and charged with numerous crimes. The thieves reportedly made off with over $1 million total from all of the houses they hit, including $50,000 cash, watches, purses and a vehicle. Robbery victim: The LAPD arrested four people in connection with this spate of burglaries last October, two 19 year old men, one 18 year old man and a 34 year old woman who was the mother of one of the teenage men Herjavec first started out in the film industry, working as a third assistant director on films like Cain and Abel in the mid 1980s. He took a job at a company called Logicquest, rising from an entry-level employee to general manager before he was fired, leading him to create his first company, Brak Systems. Ten years after building the company, which built internet security software, he sold it to AT&T Canada for $30.2 million Early career: Herjavec first started out in the film industry, working as a third assistant director on films like Cain and Abel in the mid 1980s Three years later he formed The Herjavec Group, and starred on the Canadian TV series Dragons' Den, before switching to the American version, Shark Tank. In February 2015, he was announced as one of the new contestants on the ABC reality series Dancing With the Stars, where he was paired with Kym Johnson. They became engaged in February 2016 and married in July 2016, with Kym giving birth to their fraternal twins Hudson and Haven in April 2018. Sharks: Three years later he formed The Herjavec Group, and starred on the Canadian TV series Dragons' Den, before switching to the American version, Shark Tank Oops... they did it again. Just days after Daily Mail Australia's sensational expose of Married At First Sight's eight secret actors, another 'producer's puppet' has been revealed. Jessika Power, who is currently embroiled in a cheating storyline, was accused of being a 'performer' on Monday. Scroll down for video Jessika Power EXPOSED as a secret actress: Married At First Sight's cheating bride, 27, 'staged walk-outs and stirred up drama for screen time', it was reported on Monday According to NW magazine, Jessika is 'only there for the fame' and has been putting on a performance to get more screen time. An on-set source claimed: 'Jess has openly said you have to do heaps of crazy s**t on the show if you want to stay relevant. 'She'd tell other brides at the dinner party to fake cry and pull faces to make sure they're on camera.' Attention-seeker: Jessika would use several 'tricks' to make sure she was being recorded, including 'slamming her cutlery on the table' and 'dropping things on purpose'. Pictured right: Her on-screen husband Mick Gould Fake storyline! Jessika Power, who is currently embroiled in a cheating storyline, has been accused of being a 'producer's puppet'. Picturing kissing Dan Webb at a dinner party last week Jessika would even use several 'tricks' to make sure she was being recorded, including 'slamming her cutlery on the table' and 'dropping things on purpose'. But a production insider said these attention-seeking antics angered her fellow brides and grooms, some of whom were genuinely looking for love. 'They've lost count of the times she's "stormed out" of a dinner party or commitment ceremony for dramatic effect,' they said, adding that she would 'do anything' to impress producers. Hired performers: Almost half of this year's participants on Married At First Sight are actors, having appeared in movies, reality shows and even McDonald's adverts. Pictured: Billy Vincent Who knew! Despite being billed as a 'barista' on the show, 28-year-old Billy Vincent is actually a model and part-time actor. Pictured in a 2012 advert for McDonald's Meanwhile, Woman's Day also reported on Monday that Jessika had a particularly close relationship with the MAFS crew. A source alleged: 'Mick [Gould, her husband] overheard her tell a pal she was being praised for causing drama. Hearing that really upset him. 'Jess told her friend the producers were very happy with her "performance". Mick was gutted by Jess' apparent lack of genuine interest in their marriage.' Another source told the same magazine that Jessika even tried to encourage her fellow brides to 'stage' walk-outs, 'pull faces' and 'throw cutlery on the ground'. Busting out! Susie Bradley starred in an advert for fitness company Peptides Direct in January Will she win an AACTA Award? In the promotional film, Susie is shown in bed wearing racy lingerie alongside a tattooed gentleman, who plays her boyfriend It comes after Daily Mail Australia revealed that almost half of this year's MAFS participants are part-time actors. A total of eight contestants have appeared in movies, reality shows and commercials in the past, casting doubt on claims they are simply 'looking for love'. Despite being billed as a 'barista' on the program, 28-year-old 'intruder' Billy Vincent is actually a model and actor. His biggest role to date was playing the lead in a McDonald's advert, which aired across Australia in 2012. In the commercial, Billy played a shirtless surfer struggling to find cash. Hmm! Tamara Joy is also a budding actress. The 29-year-old human resources manager has a StarNow profile (above) listing herself as an 'actor, extra and model' How professional! It appears that she uses a stage name on Married At First Sight, with her real name being Tamara Laing. Pictured on the show Billy's 'wife' Susie Bradley, 25, is also no stranger to being in front of the camera. In January, the mother-of-one starred in an advert for Queensland-based fitness company Peptides Direct. In the promotional film, Susie is shown in bed wearing racy lingerie alongside a tattooed gentleman, who plays her boyfriend. Secret past! In May, just four months before filming his MAFS wedding, Dino Hira boasted of his passion for acting on Instagram. Pictured behind the scenes of an unknown film project A versatile actor! Dino also starred in an advertisement for a razor brand in the past Tamara Joy likewise appears to be a budding actress. The 29-year-old human resources manager has a StarNow profile listing herself as an 'actor, extra and model'. Meanwhile, it appears that she uses a stage name on Married At First Sight, with her real name being Tamara Laing. Dino Hira, 34, is perhaps this season's most accomplished screen talent. After spending several years as a small-time actor in various productions, he appeared in Australian movie Eleven Days in 2018. Busted! Dino's 'ex-wife' Melissa Lucarelli is likewise an aspiring actress. In addition to her day job as a talent agent, the 38-year-old has starred as an extra in Home and Away In May, just four months before filming his MAFS wedding, Dino boasted of his passion for acting on Instagram. He wrote: 'When the director says "Action!" I get a thrill in the feeling that it is my chance to forget my own past or my future and embrace living in the character I play!' In a surprising twist, Dino's 'ex-wife' Melissa Lucarelli happens to be an aspiring actress too. In addition to her day job as a talent agent, the 38-year-old has previously starred as an extra in Home and Away. An IMDB page under Melissa's name also lists an upcoming role in an Australian production titled 'The Script of Life'. He's a star! Sam Ball played a 'river boy' in Home and Away during scenes that aired in 2018 Sam Ball, meanwhile, has appeared on Home and Away as a 'river boy' and played a background role in Netflix drama Secret City. But it doesn't end there. Gold Cost-based electrician Mike Gunner previously starred in a low-budget movie before finding fame on MAFS. And Bronson Norrish, who was described as an 'entrepreneur' on the show, is a former stripper who once appeared as a contestant on Australian Ninja Warrior. A spokesperson for Endemol Shine Australia, which produces Married At First Sight, said: 'This is categorically untrue, none of the MAFS participants are actors.' Watch out! Before finding fame on Married At First Sight, Gold Cost-based electrician Mike Gunner previously starred in a low-budget movie He's an unlikely choice for the Bachelor, but it seems the ladies love Matthew Agnew. According to Monday's NW magazine, the 31-year-old astrophysicist was an instant hit with the female contestants at the first cocktail party. This season's diverse selection of women were reportedly smitten with the 'hot nerd' and charmed by his intelligence. They're smitten! New Bachelor Matthew Agnew, 31, has reportedly been an instant hit with the ladies on set of Channel 10's popular dating show 'He seemed incredibly charming,' revealed an on-set source. 'And he had all the girls in fits of laughter and hanging off his every word.' While last year's Bachelor, former rugby star Nick Cummins, struggled to impress the contestants early on, Matt's journey seems to be quite the opposite. Contrast: While last year's Bachelor, former rugby star Nick Cummins (right), struggled to impress the contestants early on, Matt's journey seems to be quite the opposite Meanwhile, the Melbourne-based academic told Woman's Day that he's looking for a woman who will complement his down-to-earth nature. 'I want someone who doesn't take themselves too seriously and we can just have a laugh and fun together,' he said. 'I'm looking for a best friend, the same way I've seen so many of my friends find one in their partners.' While most Bachelors are known for their shirtless selfies and wild partying, Matt has led a very different life. Photos taken over the years reveal that he is more focused on his career achievements than growing his physique. On February 27, just days before The Bachelor began filming, Professor Sarah Maddison shared several images of Matt submitting a PhD thesis paper. In one of the pictures, he could be seen quite literally jumping for joy. 'Super congrats to Proto-Dr @MattyAgnew - PhD thesis submitted! There is life after #phdlife!' wrote Sarah. A whole new direction! Handsome astrophysicist Matt, 31, will front Channel 10's flagship dating show later this year - and he really is unlike any other previous suitor It seems there's no limit to Matt's academic accomplishments, with his PhD paper on 'solar system analogues and habitability' being published in April 2018. In September 2016, he posed for another celebratory snap after submitting a paper on 'finding potential habitable planets in Jupiter's hosting systems'. Although starring on The Bachelor will surely place Matt out of his comfort zone, he is certainly no stranger to the spotlight. 'PhD thesis submitted!' Photos of Matt shared online by his friends over the years reveal that he is more focused on his career achievements than growing his physique Thumbs up! Matt is pictured in September 2016 after submitting a paper on 'finding potential habitable planets in Jupiter's hosting systems' Charismatic: Over the years, Matt has hosted several talks and events on 'discovering life beyond our universe', sharing the results of his painstaking research Over the years, he has hosted several talks and events on 'discovering life beyond our universe', sharing the results of his painstaking research. Meanwhile, he hasn't always sported the clean-shaven look which was on display in the first promotional photos released by Channel 10 on Wednesday. One picture shared in 2014 by Mark Agnew, who is believed to be Matt's brother, showed the soon-to-be Bachelor with long, tied back hair and a scruffy beard. Speaking about his upcoming TV role last week, Matt said: 'I'm genuinely interested in meeting someone and this is definitely an exciting way to do that.' Is that a bit of stubble? Matt hasn't always sported the clean-shaven look which was on display in the first promotional photos released by Channel 10 on Wednesday. Pictured in 2016 Recognise him? One picture shared in 2014 by Mark Agnew, who is believed to be Matt's brother, showed the soon-to-be Bachelor (left) with long, tied back hair and a scruffy beard He added: 'Being The Bachelor is certainly an unorthodox way to meet someone. 'But I would never shy away from exploring an opportunity just because it's a little out of left-field.' When asked about his plans for the future, Matt told WHO magazine he has no desire to become a full-time Instagram influencer. Instead, he want to 'use numerical techniques to search for dynamically stable planet candidates in the habitable zones of all known multiple planet systems.' Former Married at First Sight star Dean Wells has accused producers of staging the affair between Jessika Power and Dan Webb. The 41-year-old, who was embroiled in a similar cheating scandal with Davina Rankin last year, said on Sunday that the whole storyline seems 'forced'. He posted on Instagram: '[Jessika] says she wants to get to know Dan better. But chooses to stay and go to meet Mick's [family] for a week. Instead of just leaving to be with Dan away from the cameras.' Bombshell! Former Married at First Sight star Dean Wells has accused producers of staging the affair between Jessika Power (left) and Dan Webb (right) 'The producers are forcing this to happen. it is a load of BS,' he concluded. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Channel Nine for comment. Jessika, who shared a secret kiss with Dan at last week's dinner party, chose to stay with her husband Mick Gould during Sunday's commitment ceremony - despite them both being unhappy together. Mick, 31, chose to leave but was forced to stay for another week due to his wife's controversial decision. Truth bombs: Dean, who was embroiled in a cheating scandal with Davina Rankin last year, said on Sunday that the whole storyline seems 'forced'. Pictured with Tracey Jewel Both Jessika and Dan have made no secret of the fact they wrote 'stay' so they could pursue an affair with each other, and aren't interested in their assigned spouses. It comes after Dean Wells and Davina Rankin both blamed her ex-husband Ryan Gallagher for their villainous portrayals during last year's season. 'I've tried to be supportive of [Ryan], as I always have been, despite what he did to me on Married At First Sight,' Dean said in a YouTube video in January. 'Everyone knows that he was trying to hook up with [Ashley Irvin], he'd been texting Ash, and he told me that he didn't care what happened between me and Davina. '[Ryan said], "Go off and do whatever you want with Davina, I'm gonna be hooking up with Ash, I've been texting her." And then he denied that on the show [and] made me look like the bad guy.' Similar scandal: Last year, Dean and Davina (pictured) were at the centre of controversy when they plotted an affair despite being married to other people Davina supported Dean's claims in a recent statement to Daily Mail Australia. 'Yeah, during filming Ryan and I openly spoke about how he liked Ashley,' she said. 'No one actually liked who they were paired with, I was just the only one to openly say it. Meanwhile, everyone else was doing it behind closed doors!' Diane Kruger bared her pregnant belly in a throwback snap shared Saturday by her boyfriend Norman Reedus. The 42-year-old German-born actress in the black-and-white photo leaned back against a classic Camaro wearing a black sweatshirt reading Norman pulled up exposing her baby bump. Diane also donned sweatpants and was barefoot and pregnant while flashing a peace sign. Throwback photo: Diane Kruger was shown barefoot and pregnant in a throwback photo shared Sunday by her boyfriend Norman Reedus Norman, 50, wrote in the caption for his roughly 6.2 million followers: 'this badass #internationalwomensday. every day'. International Women's Day has been celebrated annually March 8 as a celebration of womanhood and the movement for women's rights. Diane and Norman have a four-month-old daughter together. They co-starred along with Lena Dunham in the 2015 Franco-German English-language film Sky. Holding hands: Norman and Diane, shown in December in New York City, welcomed a daughter last November Diane and Norman were first seen together as a couple in July 2016 following her split from actor Joshua Jackson, 40, in 2016 after a decade together. The Troy star previously was married from 2001 to 2006 to French film star Guillaume Canet, 45, who has been in a relationship since 2007 with Marion Cotillard, 43. Norman and model Helena Christensen, whom he was with from 1998 until 2003, share 19-year-old son Mingus together. Family outing: Diane and Norman are shown in December taking their baby girl out for a stroll in New York City Diane starred in the thriller The Operative that premiered last month at the Berlin International Film Festival. The film follows a woman recruited by the Mossad to work undercover in Tehran. Norman has been portraying Daryl Dixon on The Walking Dead since season one in 2010. She stars as a sultry French trapeze artist in the anticipated live action remake of Dumbo. And Eva Green was certainly the star of the show as she joined her co-stars at a Beverly Hills press conference to promote the Disney movie on Sunday. The French actress, 38, looked stunning in a quirky leather and lace dress, posing up a storm for the cameras. Wow factor: Eva Green was certainly the star of the show as she joined her Dumbo co-stars at a Beverly Hills press conference to promote the Disney movie on Sunday One-time Bond girl Eva worked her best poses in the unusual dress, which featured a black leather layer over a delicate cream lace. The low-cut number flashed a hint of the beauty's black lace bra, while she accessorised with chic black heels. With her jet-black locks styled into loose waves and her signature gothic makeup of smoky eyes, Eva was ready to face the cameras. Looking chic: The French actress, 38, looked stunning in a quirky leather and lace dress, posing up a storm for the cameras She was joined at the event by her Dumbo co-stars, including Danny DeVito who stars as circus ringmaster Max Medici and Thandie Newton's daughter Nico Parker, who is making her movie debut as Milly Farrier. Director Tim Burton also posed on stage, alongside the rest of his all-star cast - Colin Farrell, Finley Hobbins, and Michael Keaton. Eva plays trapeze artist Colette Marchant in Burton's re imagining of the animated classic, part of Medici's Dreamland circus alongside Farrell as Dumbo's carer Holt Farrier, while Finley plays Holt's son and Nico plays his daughter. Quirky: One-time Bond girl Eva worked her best poses in the unusual dress, which featured a black leather layer over a delicate cream lace Sultry: The low-cut number flashed a hint of the beauty's black lace bra Michael Keaton meanwhile stars as the villainous V.A. Vandevere. Following on from re-makes of Cinderella, Maleficent, Jungle Book, and Beauty and the Beast, Disney's latest live-action offering is set to be released in March. Burton is in the director's chair for the film, while his frequent collaborator Danny Elfman is on board to do the soundtrack. Racy: The beauty worked the cameras with her sizzling poses before the press conference Ready for her closeup: With her jet-black locks styled into loose waves and her signature gothic makeup of smoky eyes, Eva was flawless to face the cameras It is based upon a storyline written by Helen Aberson and is a full-length adaptation of Walt Disney's 1941 animated film of the same name written by Otto Englander, Joe Grant, and Dick Huemer. Eva has also recently completed another big screen project - Proxima from French writer-director Alice Winocour. The actress stars as a single mother who signs up for a year-long space mission, leaving her young daughter behind. When her character Sarah joins an all-male crew headed up by Matt Dillon she battles to prove herself in the face of male chauvinism while coping with feelings of guilt over the separation from her daughter. Dumbo is set to be released on March 29 in cinemas across the UK and USA All-star: (L-R) Eva was joined at the event by the film's director/executive producer Tim Burton, actors Colin Farrell, Nico Parker, Finley Hobbins, Danny DeVito and Michael Keaton Radio star Fifi Box revealed she was pregnant with her second child last month. And good things continue to happen for the Fox FM favourite, who celebrated her 42nd birthday last week. Presenting The Fifi, Fev & Byron show, Fifi broke down sobbing after being surprised with a message from Outlander star, Sam Heughan. He's gorgeous: Radio star Fifi Box, 42, was left sobbing after she was delivered a personalised birthday birthday from Outlander star Sam Heughan, 38, while on air Fifi first gushed over the hunky Scottish star while on-air, encouraging fans to watch the drama series which revolves around time travel. 'If you haven't watched Outlander, you must watch this it's the most amazing series,' she said. She then turned her attention to the star of the TV series, hunky Sam Heughan, gushing, 'It does things to me. He does. I love Sam Heughen.' Oh, my: Fifi gushed over the hunky Scottish star Sam (pictured) saying: 'If you haven't watched Outlander, you must watch' before she received the on-air surprise from the actor The veteran radio star was interrupted by co-host Brendan Fevola, who hinted at a special surprise for her. It was then that the actor, 38, could be heard wishing Fifi a very happy birthday in a personalised video message. 'Fifi I believe it might be your birthday so I would like to wish you a very, very happy birthday. I hope you were treated today and surrounded by friends and family,' he purred. 'It's Sam Heughan, it's Sam Heughan': Fifi (pictured) was left speechless after getting the message from the hunky actor, with her left sobbing while at the radio desk Sam got even more personal when he singed off, saying 'lots of love' to the long-time radio host. The recorded message saw a starstruck Fifi break down in tears, repeatedly saying the hunky star's name while on the air. 'It's Sam Heughan, it's Sam Heughan,' she said, 'He's so gorgeous look at him,' she added, to her clearly bemused co-hosts Brendan Fevola and Byron Cooke. Hunky: 'Fifi I believe it might be your birthday so I would like to wish you a very, very happy birthday': The actor said in the personalised message to the radio host Fifi revealed she was pregnant with her second child last month. The radio star is already a mother to five-year-old daughter Beatrix 'Trixie' Belle with ex-partner Grant Kenny. Fifi announced she is expecting a baby via IVF and with an anonymous donor, and declared that she's filled with 'pure joy' over the 'miracle'. Clearly emotional, Fifi penned a deeply personal message about the pregnancy, saying, 'Being a mum is my greatest joy in life. It is quite simply everything to me,' she said. Channel Nine is cashing in on the incredible ratings success of Married At First Sight with a spin-off show, MAFS: Honeymoon Island. Daily Mail Australia understands that contestants past and present will have a second chance at love on the upcoming series, which will be set on a tropical island. According to sources with knowledge of the project, 'early discussions have started' and fame-starved former participants are 'eager to get the call-up'. EXCLUSIVE: Channel Nine is cashing in on the incredible ratings success of Married At First Sight with a spin-off show, MAFS: Honeymoon Island, Daily Mail Australia can reveal The spin-off is expected to follow the format the U.S. version. The American version of MAFS: Honeymoon Island premiered last year, and followed 'fan favourites and some new faces' as they searched for love in Saint Lucia. At the end of their stay, the Honeymoon Island couples were made to decide whether they wanted to get married or leave the island alone. The idea is similar to that of Bachelor in Paradise, which brings together former stars of the Bachelor franchise in a tropical resort in Fiji. Who will return? According to sources with knowledge of the project, 'early discussions have started' and fame-starved former participants are 'eager to get the call-up'. Pictured: Season six star Ines Basic (left) and season five star Ryan Gallagher (right) Second time lucky? The American version of MAFS: Honeymoon Island premiered last year, and followed 'fan favourites and some new faces' as they searched for love in Saint Lucia. Pictured: Season six couple Sam Ball and Elizabeth Sobinoff on their wedding day Although the project has yet to be confirmed by Channel Nine, contestants from all six seasons of Married At First Sight are reportedly 'getting excited'. 'Everyone's messaging everyone to try and see if they've heard anything or know anyone that's been formally approached by Nine,' a source told Daily Mail Australia. 'Other people have even joked about hiding their current relationships if it means they'll get back on television.' Will Dino make a comeback? Some of the names being mentioned in TV circles include Ines Basic and Dino Hira (pictured), who were both badly mismatched on MAFS season six Some of the names being mentioned in TV circles include Ines Basic and Dino Hira, who were both badly mismatched on MAFS season six. If the show is given the green light, season five's Ryan Gallagher and Tracey Jewel are also both good candidates as they are believed to be single. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Channel Nine for comment. 'Early discussions have started': If the show is given the green light, season five's Tracey Jewel (pictured) would be a good candidate as she is believed to be single Connie Britton was snapped on the red carpet of the premiere of the new animated film Wonder Park at the Regency Village Theatre in Los Angeles Sunday. The actress, 52, donned a pale blue coat adorned with rose patterns over a pink top with blue jeans and grey boots. The Boston native had her red locks parted to the side, accessorizing with a gold necklace and earrings. Britton was out after SMILF, the Showtime series she appeared on as Ally, was canceled after two seasons amid allegations aimed at creator Frankie Shaw of workplace harassment and the violation of performers' contracts. Out and about: Connie Britton, 52, was snapped on the red carpet of the premiere of the new animated film Wonder Park at the Regency Village Theatre in Los Angeles Sunday Showtime said Friday that 'after weighing a variety of factors, [it] has decided that 'SMILF' will not move forward for a third season. We remain extremely proud of the two seasons of SMILF, and thank Frankie Shaw for her singular voice and unique creation.' The show was canceled less than three months after a bombshell story in The Hollywood Reporter detailing the accusations, which purportedly led actress Samara Weaving to exit the show following two troubling incidents with Shaw. Employees of the show also complained to the Writers Guild of America that Shaw hadn't properly credited writers on the show, and that some staffers were divided into groups based on their race. Shaw, speaking with Seth Meyers in January, said the series of events amounted to a learning experience. Stylish: Connie donned a pale blue coat adorned with rose patterns over a pink top with blue jeans and grey boots Details: The TV standout accessorized with a gold necklace and matching earrings Multi-tasking: It was a busy day for the Dirty John star, who earlier hosted a Hancock Park fundraiser for New Jersey Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, her one-time college roommate who's among the Democrats running for president in 2020 'I would say Ive learned so much, theres so many lessons,' she said. 'I went from making short films in my basement to running a crew of over 215 people and there are a lot of lessons along the way.' Britton had one of the main acting roles on the show, which also featured Shaw, Rosie O'Donnell and Raven Goodwin. It was a busy day for the Dirty John star, who earlier hosted a Hancock Park fundraiser for New Jersey Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's presidential campaign, THR reported, as she and Gillibrand were once roommates at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Wonder Park, which features the voices of Jennifer Garner, Kenan Thompson, John Oliver and Mila Kunis, among others, hits theaters Friday. Impressive: Connie's credits include hits such as Friday Night Lights and Nashville Lustrous locks: Connie had her shiny red mane down and parted at the event Her new film Long Shot premiered on Saturday at SXSW. And Charlize Theron returned to the Austin, Texas-based media festival on Sunday for the Variety NATO Panel. The 43-year-old actress was joined on stage by her co-star from the upcoming flick, Seth Rogen, and the movie's director Jonathan Levine. Effortless: Charlize Theron returned to the Austin, Teas-based media festival on Sunday for the Variety NATO Panel Charlize looked effortlessly beautiful in a shin-length floral black-and-white dress with a dark belt cinched around her slender waist. She threw a black blazer over her shoulders and rolled the sleeves up her wrists, highlighting her eggshell blue fingernails. The Atomic Blonde star left her newly dyed dark tresses to fall unencumbered just past her chin. Gorgeous: Charlize looked effortlessly beautiful in a shin-length floral black-and-white dress with a dark belt cinched around her slender waist Relaxed: Rogen kept things casual in a yellow Cotton Citizen crewneck sweatshirt, which he paired with a straight-legged blue jeans Working together: The 43-year-old actress was joined on stage by her co-star from the upcoming flick, Seth Rogen, and the movie's director Jonathan Levine Rogen kept things casual in a yellow Cotton Citizen crewneck sweatshirt, which he paired with a straight-legged blue jeans. The 36-year-old donned glasses as he answered questions during the panel. Levine, 42, meanwhile also opted for a laid-back look, sporting a grey sweatshirt and jeans. Talking it out: Levine, 42, meanwhile also opted for a laid-back look, sporting a grey sweatshirt and jeans All together: Charlize was joined by Ravi Patel, O'Shea Jackson, June Diane Raphael, Jonathan Levine and Seth Rogen for Long Shot cast photo at the festival's portrait studio Imogen Poots couldn't keep the smile from her face as she walked the red carpet for the premiere of her film, The Art of Self-Defense. She donned a a slightly see-through black t-shirt that revealed a black bra underneath. The 29-year-old tucked the top into a pair of black trousers and tied a multicolored bonnet around her dark tresses. Her co-star Jesse Eisenberg, 35, kept things casual in blue jeans, a grey t-shirt, and threw a fleece-lined jacket over top. Cute: Imogen Poots couldn't keep the smile from her face as she walked the red carpet for the premiere of her film, The Art of Self-Defense All smiles: The 29-year-old tucked the top into a pair of black trousers and tied a multicolored bonnet around her dark tresses Hoosier: Her co-star Jesse Eisenberg, 35, kept things casual in blue jeans, a grey t-shirt, and threw a fleece-lined jacket over top Kim Dickens, 53, looked stunning in a black suit as she lead the cast of the Highwaymen onto the red carpet for the premiere of their film in Austin. Kathy Bates, 70, looked slender in a teal top with a black leather jacket and short dark locks. Kevin Costner, 64, kept things classy in a light brown suit with a striped white shirt and sunglasses. Woody Harrelson, 57, sported grey chinos and a medium blue shirt, along with a newsboy cap. Lady in black: Kim Dickens, 53, looked stunning in a black suit as she lead the cast of the Highwaymen onto the red carpet for the premiere of their film in Austin Slender: Kathy Bates, 70, looked slender in a teal top with a black leather jacket and short dark locks Lawman: Kevin Costner, 64, kept things classy in a light brown suit with a striped white shirt and sunglasses Grinning: Woody Harrelson, 57, sported grey chinos and a medium blue shirt, along with a newsboy cap Say cheese: The Highwaymen stars posed at the SXSW portrait studio. Back: Kevin Costner, John Lee Hancock, John Fusco. Front: Kim Dickens, Kathy Bates, and Woody Harrelson Henry Winkler, 73, was in his Texas gear as he delivered an acting workshop while in a purple and cream plaid shirt. Jodie Foster, 56, attended Featured Session: Elisabeth Moss with Brandi Carlile, wearing striped top. The 36-year-old actress, meanwhile, sported a pink sweater with a white skirt and nude heels. Roar: Henry Winkler, 73, was in his Texas gear as he delivered an acting workshop while in a purple and cream plaid shirt In the audience: Jodie Foster, 56, attended Featured Session: Elisabeth Moss with Brandi Carlile, wearing striped top Star of the show: The 36-year-old actress, meanwhile, sported a pink sweater with a white skirt and nude heels On Sunday evening, Starz hosted an American Gods and Now Apocalypse viewing party at the festival's #TwitterHouse. American Gods star Ricky Whittle kept it casual in a black sweater and ripped faded gray jeans with bright white sneakers. His co-star Pablo Schreiber wore a black top and black jeans with a jacket that had a floral-themed lining. Roxane Mesquida, Avan Jogia and Kelli Berglund from Now Apocalypse posed for photos together on the red carpet. Hunk: American Gods star Ricky Whittle kept it casual in a black sweater and ripped faded gray jeans with bright white sneakers at the festival's #TwitterHouse Natty dresser: Pablo Schreiber wore a black top and black jeans with a jacket that had a floral-themed lining as he also arrived for the Starz hosted viewing party for American Gods Funny guys: Roxane Mesquida, Avan Jogia and Kelli Berglund from Starz comedy series Now Apocalypse posed together for photos Bright: Actress Alyson Stoner stood out in a neon ensemble of sweater and flared trousers Looking good: Billie Lourd, Olivia Wilde, Beanie Feldstein, Kaitlyn Dever and Katie Silberman got together for a photo Picture: Adam Egypt Mortimer, Miles Robbins, Hannah Marks and Patrick Schwarzenegger from the film Daniel Isn't Real got their portrait done Happy to be here: Nancy Schafer, David Modigliani, Rachel Ecklund and Rebecca Feferman of the film Running with Beto smiled for the camera Festival stars: Paul Solet and Austin Wintory of the film Tread were happy to oblige too She's returned to reality TV for the reboot of the show that made her famous. And on Sunday The Hills: New Beginnings star Whitney Port enjoyed an outing to a Farmer's Market in LA with her family. The 34-year-old was accompanied by husband Tim Rosenman and their son Sonny, born in 2017. Family trip: Whitney Port enjoyed an outing to a Farmer's Market in LA on Sunday with husband Tim Rosenman and their son Sonny, born in 2017 Port was dressed down in a faded jean jacket and gray sweatpants that she paired with black and white sneakers. She carried a beverage as she walked along while Rosenman pushed their curly haired toddler in a stroller. Sonny wore a multi-colored jacket with camo pants and bright orange trainers and held a large-screen smart phone. The couple, who wed in November 2015, shared a joke as they spent time together. Casual: Port, 34, was dressed down in a faded jean jacket and gray sweatpants that she paired with black and white sneakers Dad's in charge: The reality star carried a beverage as she walked along while Rosenman pushed their curly haired toddler in a stroller Mommy's little boy: Sonny wore a multi-colored jacket with hood. He also had on camo pants and bright orange trainers Fun time: Port and Rosenman cheered the tot on as he giggled while going round and round on a carnival ride During the outing, Port was seen picking up Sonny and treating him to a carnival ride, She and Rosenman cheered the tot on as he giggled while going round and round. The trio recently got back from Mexico where they'd enjoyed a luxury vacation to celebrate Port's 34th birthday. The Hills: New Beginnings premieres April 15. Another year older: The family recently got back from Mexico where they'd enjoyed a luxury vacation to celebrate Port's 34th birthday She chose to stay during Sunday night's commitment ceremony, despite admittedly being repulsed by her 'husband', Billy Vincent. But Married at First Sight's Susie Bradley, 25, was pictured handing in her 'wedding' ring to a local Brisbane jeweller on Friday. The single mum looked emotional as she removed her diamond sparkler before handing it over to staff. The ring is off! Married at First Sight's Susie Bradley handed over her 'wedding' ring at a Brisbane jeweller on Friday All done: It's unclear whether Susie was simply having the ring cleaned or if she was getting rid of it altogether, however, the latter would come as no surprise to viewers, who have watched her tumultuous 'marriage' to Billy play out on the show It's unclear whether Susie was simply having the ring cleaned or if she was getting rid of it altogether, however, the latter would come as no surprise to viewers, who have watched her tumultuous 'marriage' to Billy play out on the show. The Queensland nurse looked downcast in a navy work uniform, black blazer and matching sneakers. After visiting the jewellery store, Susie treated herself to some frozen yoghurt and was seen chowing down while browsing her smartphone. Pensive: The reality star appeared to be deep in thought as she fiddled with the jewellery Relaxed: The Queensland nurse wore a navy work uniform and black sneakers Drama: Susie's 'marriage' to Billy has been filled with constant drama as she claims hes 'not manly enough' for her It comes after Susie was busted kissing NRL star Todd Carney last month, the morning after Valentine's Day. She was also pictured in a cosy Facebook photo last week, enjoying a family dinner with Todd, 32, and his mother Leanne in Byron Bay. Leanne shared the photo alongside the caption: 'Lovely dinner with Toddy and Susie.' New flame: It comes after Susie was busted kissing NRL star Todd Carney (left) last month, the morning after Valentine's Day. She was also pictured here in a cosy Facebook photo last week, enjoying a family dinner with Todd, 32, and his mother Leanne (3-L) in Byron Bay The loved-up photos have fuelled speculation that she has already split with Billy. Last week, Susie reduced her 'husband' to tears during their home stay, after berating him for being 'not manly enough'. But during Sunday night's commitment ceremony, Billy finally hit back, taking his 'wife' to task for her 'bullying' behaviour. Sugary treat: After dropping off her ring, Susie treated herself to some frozen yoghurt Something on your mind? The sharp-tongued blonde appeared to be down in the dumps 'I've seen dogs being shown more respect than what you show me!' the 28-year-old barista told Susie, before he was left stunned when she spectacularly chose to 'stay' in their relationship. As the couple sat down in front of the show's 'relationship experts', Billy didn't hold back in expressing how he was feeling. He stated: 'Things have deteriorated... I think I've been suppressing my personality quite a bit. To the point I'm not actually being true to myself. I think that the communication has broken down in the sense that, there is no communication. It's a bit of a standoff.' Messaging Todd? Susie was fixated on her smartphone as she strolled around the shopping centre Susie seemed somewhat surprised, insisting that she has been trying her hardest in the relationship. 'Not once have I lost my head or spoken to him in a rude manner,' she told the 'experts'. When it came time to decide whether she wanted to 'stay' or 'leave' their relationship, Susie cooed: 'I had such a wonderful time at Billy's house last week that I only think its fair that we get to go forward and hopefully he can come to mine.' Tasty: The single mum chowed down on yoghurt during her lunch break She then flipped her card to revealed that she wanted to 'stay' with Billy. Billy appeared stunned and somewhat terrified by the decision, with his eyes cast towards the floor. He then revealed he had voted to 'leave' the relationship, explaining: 'I can sense just a bit of resentment from her towards me... I see her being so beautiful with other people and I just don't feel like I get that same approach.' However, according to Married At First Sight rules, unless both people choose to 'leave' the relationship, the pair must stay on and try to make their marriage work. Tense: It comes after Susie reduced her 'husband' Billy to tears last week during their home stay, after berating him for being 'not manly enough' In a subsequent piece-to-camera, Billy appeared distraught at the thought of having to spend another week with Susie. 'I was blown away that she would want to stay... Someone that doesn't even look at me, wants to stay with me? She looks at me like she's disgusted most of the time,' he stated. It comes after the barista was left in tears after Susie berated him during an episode earlier this month. Troubled relationship: During an episode earlier this month, Billy was left in tears after Susie berated him After Billy took the blonde beauty surfing, she gave up after few seconds because the water was 'too f***ing cold', before she went on to scold Billy over an innocent slip of the tongue. 'You're lying,' raged Susie, after Billy said he hadn't surfed for a 'couple of years' - despite previously admitting it had been a 'couple of months' since he hit the waves. 'You're a liar and I have to deal with it. You're getting called out and you don't like it. You've lied to me and you're not honest.... you talk s***.' 'It's too f***ing cold': Things reached breaking point for the couple after Billy took his 'wife' surfing Susie also raged at Billy for saying he had sweetener in his pantry for her cup of coffee, before realising his flatmate had used the last of it. Billy responded: 'If I lied to you and I was cheating on you, yes we'd have a problem, but this is ridiculous.' Susie continued her furious rant at her 'husband' and said he was 'misleading'. Clash: Susie berated Billy and accused him of constantly lying to her Billy hit back: 'I don't like being treated like I'm worthless and a piece of s***.' He then stormed off the beach and began sobbing in the bushes. 'I'm trying really f***ing hard for this, I'm really f***ing trying. I just want this to work,' he complained. 'I'm trying really f***ing hard for this:' Billy began to sob in the bushes following the heated argument Star such as Eva Longoria, Gina Rodriguez and Kerry Washington spent their Saturday meeting with families seeking asylum in America. The actors joined forces with the organization Families Belong Together to visit the border crossing at Tijuana, Mexico to meet with these families. The event was initiated through Harness, founded by America Ferrera, Wilmer Valderrama and Ryan Piers Williams, to 'engage artists in social change.' Actors for change: Wilmer Valderrama, Eva Longoria, Gina Rodriguez and Roselyn Sanchez listen to families seeking asylum at the Tijuana border Others who attended the event include Kendrick Sampson, Ryan Piers Williams, Angela Robinson and Paola Mendoza. They were joined by Jess Morales Rocketto (chair of Families Belong Together), Soraya Vazquez (Mexico Project Director, Families Belong Together) and Ai-Jen Poo (Co-Chair of Families Belong Together and Executive Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance). Their delegation's goal was to 'witness the immediate reality facing asylum seekers' under President Trump's Remain in Mexico policy. Eva listens: Eva Longoria listens to asylum speakers at the Tijuana border crossing Wilmer and America: Wilmer Valderrama and America Ferrera meet asylum seekers The event was in support the tireless efforts of the entire Families Belong Together coalition. The event took place at a shelter entitled Espacio Migrante, and outside of the Tijuana Border Crossing. There were also over 20 children from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, who relayed conditions about shelter leadership and other residents. Coalition: The event was in support the tireless efforts of the entire Families Belong Together coalition Speaking out: The event took place at a shelter entitled Espacio Migrante, and outside of the Tijuana Border Crossing There were also families from Roca and Camino de salvacion who attended the event in Tijuana. There was also a tie-in to International Women's Day on Friday while distributing supply packs from Baby2Baby. There were also female empowerment workshops while children distributed Coloring Without Borders coloring books. Families: There were also families from Roca and Camino de salvacion who attended the event in Tijuana Supplies: There was also a tie-in to International Women's Day on Friday while distributing supply packs from Baby2Baby There was also a visit to the Border Crossing, where they observed the, 'asylum turn-in process.' The Families Belong Together coalition includes nearly 250 different groups comprising tens of thousands of Americans from all backgrounds. These groups have joined together to fight family separation and promote dignity, unity, and compassion for all children and families. Families: There was also a visit to the Border Crossing, where they observed the, 'asylum turn-in process' Group shot: The Families Belong Together coalition includes nearly 250 different groups comprising tens of thousands of Americans from all backgrounds She's one of the stars of Olivia Wilde's directorial debut, Booksmart. Billie Lourd, 26, hit the red carpet for the upcoming comedy at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas. The Star Wars actress was smiling ear-to-ear in a stylish black and white dress. Having a blast: Billie Lourd, 26, hit the red carpet for the upcoming comedy at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas in a stylish black and white dress The 5ft1in actress' white leather top featured a black velvet bow on the shoulder, while exposing the opposite shoulder and emphasizing her toned arms. Its long velvety skirt pooled on the floor and completely obscured her open-toe heels. Billie had her brunette hair parted down the middle and tied back in a tight ponytail so as not to draw attention from her sultry smoky eyes. She wore a fun pair of golden orb earrings with multicolored stones embedded in them that looked like Christmas tree ornaments. Chic style: The 5ft1in actress' white leather top featured a black velvet bow on the shoulder, while exposing the opposite shoulder and emphasizing her toned arms Putting on a show: Billie had her brunette hair parted down the middle and tied back in a tight ponytail so as not to draw attention from her sultry smoky eyes The Scream Queens star is featured in Booksmart alongside Lady Bird's Beanie Feldstein, Lisa Kudrow and Jason Sudeikis. The film marks Olivia Wilde's feature-length directorial debut. While walking the red carpet, the rising star spotted her father, talent agent Bryan Lourd, as well as his husband, Bruce Bozzi, co-owner of The Palm steakhouse in Manhattan. Billie will also be seen later this year when she returns at Lieutenant Connix for Star Wars: Episode IX, the conclusion to the revived trilogy. The Scream Queens star is featured in Booksmart alongside Lady Bird's Beanie Feldstein, Lisa Kudrow and Jason Sudeikis. The film marks Olivia Wilde's feature-length directorial debut Happy reunion: While walking the red carpet, the rising star spotted her father, talent agent Bryan Lourd, as well as his husband, Bruce Bozzi, co-owner of The Palm steakhouse in Manhattan Big things coming: Billie will also be seen later this year when she returns at Lieutenant Connix for Star Wars: Episode IX, the conclusion to the revived trilogy Though she was all smiles at the joyous premiere, Billie suffered enormous loss over the past few years. Her mother, Star Wars icon Carrie Fisher, died on December 27, 2016, after suffering cardiac arrest four days earlier on a flight from London to Los Angeles. The day after her death, Carrie's mother, Singin' In The Rain star Debbie Reynolds, suffered a stroke while planning funeral arrangements. She died later the same day. Despite losing to of the most important figures in her life in quick succession, Billie's career is on an upward trajectory. The still-untitled Star Wars: Episode IX will be released nationwide on December 20, 2019. I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here star Luke Jacobz battled creepy crawlies and wild animals while the South African jungle. And it appears the handsome TV star is ready for another challenge a bit closer to home, according to New Idea on Monday. Luke, 38, has revealed he and fiancee Raychel Stuart will soon be trying for kids. The next step: I'm A Celebrity star Luke Jacobz, 38, has revealed to New Idea on Monday that he and fiancee Raychel Stuart (pictured) are hoping to start a family together soon 'It might be a madhouse at my place in a few years!' he told the magazine. Luke explained that he wants to have children and his fiancee Raychel is keen for them to start a large brood. '[Raychel] is from a family of five and she wants a big family,' Luke said. 'I'm from a family of two and I'm happy with that, but if that's what she wants, she is my girl, so hopefully we can have a big family for her.' Feeling broody: '[Raychel] is from a family of five and she wants a big family,' Luke said, while admitting he would be content with a smaller brood It isn't the first time Luke has spoken of starting a family, and spoke to Raychel about kids the night he got eliminated from I'm A Celebrity last month. Speaking to Now To Love at the time, he said: 'I literally have left the jungle and I said to my fiancee last night, 'I want a family now, let's start'.' Luke went on to say he didn't want to 'wait any longer' and was keen to enjoy the trails and tribulations of fatherhood with his bride-to-be. 'I want a family now, let's start': Luke (pictured) revealed he told his fiancee he wanted to start a family as soon as he was eliminated from the South African jungle in February The reality TV star and presenter has been open about the tragic loss of his own father John Ashwood, who passed away from brain cancer. Speaking to News.com.au in January, he said: 'I lost my dad to brain cancer in 2015 and it was something that happened really, really, suddenly. 'It overtook and it just completely changed mine and my family's life, because it was just all of a sudden everything was fantastic and then it just turned around.' In September last year, Luke took to Instagram to share a touching tribute to his late father, writing: 'Love you, miss you. Today is one of the days I miss you most. Dad, Thank you.' They're known to have one of the happiest unions in showbiz land. But Chezzi Denyer has revealed she rarely sees husband Grant thanks to the pressures of hosting Dancing with the Stars. Taking to Instagram this week, the mum-of-two wrote: 'I've hardly seen him lately.' 'I hardly see Grant!' Chezzi Denyer reveals she rarely spends quality time with the Dancing with the Stars host who she claims is 'tired' and 'feeling the pressure' She added: 'He's been working around the clock, mostly in Sydney.' And Chezzi explained the exhausting hours fronting the Ten series have left him 'tired' and 'feeling the pressure.' Her admission comes after the pint-sized radio host revealed a severe lack of physical intimacy in his marriage. All quiet in the Denyer house? Grant (right) told bemused listeners on Tuesday's 2DayFM Breakfast radio show that he and wife of eight years Chezzi (left) were not having sex 'There's no love going down,' the 41-year-old previously told bemused listeners of his 2DayFM Breakfast radio show as he described the more intimate details of his marriage with his wife of eight years. Raising eyebrows, Grant continued to divulge to co-hosts Ed Kavalee and Ash London, saying: 'I ain't getting no sex!' 'We are a long way from where we were, Mrs D and I,' the popular presenter lamented. Family life: Grant clarified the situation was not by choice, but rather a result of a busy family life with two rambunctious young children, Sailor, seven, and Scout, three (pictured) But Grant was quick to clarify the situation was not by choice, but rather a result of a busy family life with two rambunctious young children. He then recalled examples of his daughters 'bursting in' on him on the toilet or the couple's bedroom. Grant and Chezzi have been happily married since 2010, and share two daughters, seven-year-old Sailor and three-year-old Scout. Married At First Sight's Jessika Power opened up about her 'affair' with Daniel Webb to sister Eliza on Monday night. And during the family reunion, at Jessika's home stay in Perth with 'husband' Mick Gould, the sibling gave her blessing on the secret romance. 'If you feel like it's right, doing something for yourself that makes you good and happy, then I think you should pursue that,' said Eliza. 'I think you should pursue that': Jessika Power's (R) sister Eliza (L) gave her blessing on her Married At First Sight 'affair' with Dan Webb on Monday night Jessika, 27, and Eliza had a heart-to-heart while Mick was downstairs in her home. After first discovering Mick did not know about Jessika's romance with Dan, Eliza admitted: 'It's scary, because they may see that as Jess and Dan being sly.' But the beauty soon changed her mind on their secret fling. 'If you feel like it's right, doing something for yourself that makes you good and happy, then I think you should pursue that,' said Eliza, during Jessika's home stay in Perth on Monday 'Hearing Eliza giving me her approval to pursue whatever it is that I feel with Dan': Jessika was thrilled to hear Eliza's thoughts on her 'affair' with Dan 'I think it's good that you have found someone, because you did come here to find love. It doesn't mean that it had to be with Mick,' said Eliza. 'If you feel like it's right, doing something for yourself that makes you good and happy, then I think you should pursue that.' Justifying her 'affair' with Dan, Jessika responded: 'This is what has been thrown at me and I just need to decide whether or not I think it's right. 'Hearing Eliza giving me her approval to pursue whatever it is that I feel with Dan, it's just giving me that little boost to really do this.' 'it's just giving me that little boost to really do this': Jessika is very close with her family and was grateful to get their feedback My Kitchen Rules' John Krasenstein and wife-of-three years Chloe, will soon welcome their first child. The reality star, who is competing on the Seven series with mum Lisa, made the big announcement in this week's issue of New Idea. And in a joint interview with Chloe, the 29-year-old revealed his wife fell pregnant while he was shooting the reality show. Scroll down for video 'We're having a baby!'in an interview with this week's New Idea, My Kitchen Rules' John Krasenstein reveals wife Chloe (pictured) is pregnant with their first child 'During filming, Chloe took a couple of months off work and she came to Sydney so we could keep trying for a baby,' he said. And revealing the baby girl is due in July, John admitted the couple have been trying for a child since tying the knot three years ago. 'We started trying straight after we got married and I think a lot of people have the same problem,' he said. Happy days: The good news comes as John and mum Lisa, 55 emerge as favourites to win this year's season of MKR after making history with their first instant restaurant John added: 'I think it's just not talked about a lot.' The good news comes as John and mum Lisa, 55, emerge as favourites to win this year's season of MKR after making history with their first instant restaurant. Last month, the duo hosted fellow contestants at their home in Margaret River, Western Australia and made the show's hall of fame for scoring perfect tens for each dish from judges Manu Feildel and Pete Evans. 'You've made MKR history!' Mother and son team Lisa and John (pictured) teared up as they make the show's hall of fame in an earlier episode after getting perfect tens for each dish from judges Manu Feildel and Pete Evans For their entree, main and dessert, the pair scored a full 10 points from each judge for the dishes, which has never happened in the history of the show. 'We have never had a team where Manu and I have both awarded 10 for each and every course,' Pete told the emotional pair. Manu added that it was an achievement that he had never seen during his entire decade-long run on the series. What a feat! 'We have never had a team where Manu (L) and I have both awarded ten for each and every course,' Pete (R) told the emotional pair 'First time I've ever given three tens in a row in MKR in ten years,' Manu said. He added: 'Tonight you've made MKR history.' My Kitchen Rules continues Tuesday 7.30pm on Channel Seven Samara Weaving has become engaged to her creative producer boyfriend, Jimmy Warden. The former Home and Away actress announced the exciting news on Monday, with a loved-up post shared on Instagram. The 27-year-old star, who recently appeared in the Oscar-winning film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, wrote: 'So here goes! Jimbo and I are engaged!! Let's party my loved ones!!' 'Let's party!' On Monday, Samara Weaving (left), 27, excitedly announced she was was engaged to her creative producer boyfriend Jimmy Warden (right) Bling: The blonde beauty shared several photos, including one of her unusual new sapphire engagement ring Samara sweetly added: '! P.S you know you're loved when you can eat a ham and cheese toastie in bed and your fiance says that's beautiful.' The blonde beauty shared several photos, including one of her unusual new sapphire engagement ring. After posting her exciting news, Samara was inundated with congratulatory comments from many of her famous friends including Lara Worthington, Jessica Gomes and Modern Family star Sarah Hyland. Bride-to-be! Samara was inundated with congratulatory comments from many of her famous friends after she shared the news Samara's former Home and Away co-star, Georgie Parker, also shared her best wishes, writing: 'You beautiful girl. Huge congrats darling.' Australian-born Samara is the niece of The Matrix star Hugo Weaving, and she first shot to fame in 2009, when she began a four-year stint playing Indi Walker on Home and Away. The actress has since relocated to Hollywood, and appeared alongside Oscar winners Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell in the 2017 hit Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Happy together! Samara and new fiance Jimmy are believed to have been dating since 2016 Samara will next be seen alongside Andie MacDowell and Adam Brody in the thriller Ready or Not. She and new fiance Jimmy are believed to have been dating since 2016. Jimmy, 29, is a creative at Hollywood production company Wonderland Sound and Vision. Going global! Samara has since relocated to Hollywood, and appeared in the 2017 hit Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Actor Dylan O'Brien is a heartthrob in his native America, with plenty of fans Stateside. But it appears the 27-year-old has just as many keen admirers in Australia, with thrilled devotees of the handsome star swarming Twitter to share their excitement after he arrived in Brisbane, Queensland this week. It appears the Maze Runner actor is happy to share the love, as he's been pictured posing with fans in numerous social media snaps taken at local eateries. Local celebrity! Thrilled Australian fans have swarmed Twitter after Maze Runner actor Dylan O'Brien (pictured) landed in Brisbane to shoot a new movie this week The young performer is in Brisbane to film new sci-fi film Monster Problems, and Aussie fans were delighted by his arrival. One person Tweeted: 'Why is Dylan O'Brien in Australia. How am I supposed to go on with my day now?' Another fan chimed in enthusiastically: 'Dylan O'Brien is in Brisbane SOS this is not a drill!' Here's here! It appears the 27-year-old has many keen admirers in Australia, with thrilled devotees of the handsome star swarming Twitter to share their excitement that he's in town Yet one more eager fan Tweeted: 'Dylan O'Brien is really in Brisbane filming a movie. I never thought this would happen what is going on'. Some fans even claimed to be 'crying' over the news that the hunky young performer was in town. Since touching down in Australia, Dylan has appeared with fans in various social media photos, posing at local Brisbane, Queensland establishments such as Fiasco's Steak House. Out and about! The Maze Runner star is happy to share the love, as he's been pictured posing with fans in numerous social media snaps taken at local eateries. Dylan is pictured with fans in Brisbane, Queensland Eating out: Dylan has posed with fans at local Brisbane establishments such as Fiasco's Steak House (pictured) So friendly! Several photos of the actor with fans have emerged online. Dylan is pictured with fans in Brisbane All smiles: Dylan dressed casually and smiled for one recent photo with a fan in Brisbane Picking up groceries? The Teen Wolf actor also posed for a selfie with a fan in Southbank (pictured), seemingly at the local shopping centre Like a local! He also posed for a selfie with a fan on a Brisbane street lit with fairy lights The Teen Wolf actor also posed for a selfie with a fan in Southbank, seemingly at the local shopping centre, and has popped up countless other snaps. Dylan recently starred in the last installment of his Maze Runner trilogy, The Maze Runner: The Death Cure which hit cinemas in January last year. He also stars as Marcel Marceau in the upcoming biopic Marceau, alongside Mark Strong, and The Bayou with Gary Oldman. His latest movie, Monster Problems, currently shooting in Brisbane, is a post-apocalyptic romance about a man who falls in love with a woman hiding out in a nearby bunker. She's one of the most famous supermodels in the world. And Miranda Kerr, 35, looked incredible when she modelled a series of looks for a high fashion magazine shoot for Gritty Pretty magazine. She looked beautiful wearing a semi-sheer blouse for one shot, changing into a trend-led khaki green suit. She's got it going on: Miranda Kerr looks fashion forward in a semi-sheer ruffled blouse as she models a series of high-fashion styles for Gritty Pretty Ready for business: She walked tall in a khaki suit as she put on a smouldering display in front of the camera In an accompanying video, Miranda can be seen stepping onto set wearing platform heels and wide-leg trousers. A stylist places a diamond ring on her finger as the KORA Organics founder shoots the cover options wearing a stylish hat. Looking over the shots with the photographer, she says: 'Do you want to do a couple more?' before going back to what she does best. All that glitters: Posing with her head in her hands, she showed off a selection of diamond rings On trend: Her hair fell down in front of her face as she looked stylish in an oversized hat Miranda welcomed her second son, Hart, in May 2018 with husband, Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel, 28. The couple tied the knot in an intimate backyard ceremony at the billionaire businessman's home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles in May 2017, in front of just 45 family and friends. Miranda and Evan made their debut as a couple in June 2015 after first meeting at a Louis Vuitton dinner in New York City in 2014. Autumnal vibes: She also showed off an animal print coat which had a vinyl collar and cuffs Wow thing: Miranda has always been an advocate of a healthy lifestyle and the results show Read all about it: Check out the full shoot in Gritty Pretty The former also has a son Flynn, eight, with her ex-husband, Pirates Of The Caribbean star Orlando Bloom, 41, who she was married to from 2010 to 2013. Miranda recently spoke out about encouraging women to be positive about their bodies after childbirth. Speaking in an interview with the January issue of Marie Claire magazine, she said: 'It's really important that we're gentle with ourselves and don't feel like we have to snap into shape after a baby. 'I took nine months - well, 10 months - to grow a beautiful child and it might take 10 months to feel good in a swimsuit again. Or longer. Or never.' He's playing South African activist Tim Jenkin, who was imprisoned in Pretoria's Maximum Security prison in the late 1970s. And Daniel Radcliffe was spotted in character while filming Escape from Pretoria in Adelaide on Monday, looking dirty and dishevelled as he was led into the old Adelaide Gaol, which has been transformed into Pretoria prison for filming. The 29-year-old actor had his hands and his legs shackled, shuffling along beside uniformed guards as he exited a white van. In character: Daniel Radcliffe was spotted in character while filming Escape from Pretoria in Adelaide on Monday, playing South African activist Tim Jenkin Dishevelled Daniel was a far cry from his clean cut Harry Potter days, sporting long hair and an untrimmed beard. He was dressed in a stain-covered shirt and trousers with a blue striped tie, looking dirty and unkempt. His co-star trailed along beside him with a bloody face, looking like he'd been in a fight. Filming for the upcoming drama is set continue over the next few weeks in Adelaide. Locked up: The 29-year-old actor had his hands and his legs shackled, shuffling along beside uniformed guards as he exited a white van Escape From Pretoria is inspired by a real-life escape from the brutal Pretoria Maximum Security prison in South Africa 1979. Filming began for the highly anticipated movie at Mitcham train station, in the suburb of Lower Mitcham, Adelaide, three weeks ago. The film is written and directed by Francis Annan and based on Tim Jenkin's autobiography, Inside Out: Escape From Pretoria Prison. New role: Daniel is playing South African activist Tim Jenkin (pictured right), who was imprisoned in Pretoria's Maximum Security prison in the late 1970s Daniel's character Tim and his friend Stephen Lee were two white South Africans branded as 'terrorists' and thrown in jail in 1978. They had been involved in covert anti-apartheid operations for the African National Congress. Escape from Pretoria is an Australian/UK co-production, financed with the assistance of the South Australia Film Corporation. Jurassic Park star Sam Neill, 71, plays South African social campaigner and activist Denis Goldberg. As reported by Screendaily.com, Goldberg was imprisoned with other key members of the anti-apartheid movement. Transformed: Dishevelled Daniel was a far cry from his clean cut Harry Potter days, sporting long hair and an untrimmed beard Goldberg received four life terms in 1964 and was released in 1986 having served 22 years in Pretoria's Maximum Security prison. Last week, Married At First Sight viewers saw Susie Bradley looking at a naked calendar of her 'husband' Billy Vincent - and she was certainly impressed by what she saw. But Susie may not have been as happy about Billy's nude past as was portrayed, with a source alleging that the blonde beauty was 'forced to re-shoot her reaction' to something more positive by producers. According to NW magazine, the 25-year-old 'flipped' when she first saw the X-rated images and 'stormed out' of Billy's apartment in shock. Take two? Married At First Sight's Susie Bradley (centre) allegedly had to re-shoot her reaction to 'husband' Billy Vincent's (right) naked calendar An 'on-set spy' says the reason behind the re-shoot had to do with the calendar being used to raise money for a men's mental health charity, so producers wanted Susie to react to it with more 'sensitivity.' Daily Mail Australia had contacted Channel Nine for comment. In the scene, the couple headed to Billy's apartment in Lennox Head, where the aspiring model showed his 'wife' his naked calendar shoot. Furious: According to NW magazine, the 25-year-old 'flipped' when she first saw the X-rated images and 'stormed out' of Billy's apartment in shock 'You need to appreciate it in its normal habitat,' Billy, 28, said referring to his flaccid manhood. Susie replied: 'It's definitely not the worst looking thing I've seen in my life.' After gathering her thoughts, the blonde added: 'When I saw Billy's penis I certainly wasn't not impressed, let's just put it that way.' The pictures were all taken by photographer John Bortolin, who also featured in the episode and is Billy's close friend. 'You need to appreciate a flaccid penis': Male model Billy, 28, bared all in the photographs which were taken around his home in Lennox Head by photographer John Bortolin Although the images may surprise some, Billy revealed during the segment that the calendars was released to raise money for male suicide prevention. Gushing about his friend on Instagram, photographer John recently wrote: 'Very proud of my friend and Manscapes model Billy in Married At First Sight. 'Great to see you on the screen and can't wait to see more.' Fans of Billy can order the raunchy calendars from John's website directly. Bobby Norris has revealed he was too scared to leave the house after he got slapped around the face in an unprovoked attack while shopping last month. The TOWIE star, 27, was heading to a bank with his mum Kym in Westfield, London on Thursday February 21, when the woman delivered the blow. A shell-shocked Bobby, who is filming in Thailand for the upcoming ITVBe series, spoke exclusively to MailOnline, saying he feels 'anxious, unconfident and paranoid' in the wake of the attack. Attacked: Bobby Norris has revealed he was too scared to leave the house after he got slapped around the face in an unprovoked attack while shopping last month 'I was in a shopping centre chatting to my mum and a girl just slapped me around the face with the back of her hand and walked off,' Bobby said. 'I didnt even see her, I just felt the back of her hand and she was gone. I was so shocked I just carried on going to the bank to pay a bill and I was in the queue when it hit me what had just happened. 'I was in so much shock I had to go to Pizza Express and get a pesto pasta to gather my thoughts, I make light of it but it has had a lasting affect.' Shell-shocked: The TOWIE star, 27, was heading to a bank with his mum Kym in Westfield, London on Thursday February 21, when the woman delivered the blow He added: 'It is scary to think you could be doing your shopping and get attacked. She didnt even say anything to me which was the strangest thing.' Bobby added the assault has left him feeling terrified about travelling into London, with him feeling so paralysed with fear that it nearly stopped him from leaving the house altogether. 'It did affect my confidence and Im a lot more self-conscious now. I'm constantly aware or thinking about it if Im on the tube or shopping on Oxford Street,' he said. 'I am now constantly looking around. It almost stopped me going out at first. I was supposed to meet someone and I couldnt face going out because I had too much anxiety about getting on the tube.' But the plucky reality star managed to summon-up his courage to force himself out of the house after refusing to let the bully get the better of him. He told us: 'I thought if I dont go out now this could become a big problem. Scared: A shell-shocked Bobby says he feels 'anxious, unconfident and paranoid' in the wake of the attack 'They say if you come off a horse you have to get straight back on it and thats what I did. I got straight back on the Central Line.' Last month, the show stalwart took to Instagram to share the emotional story with his 793,000 followers as he stated: 'Guys I'm in shock. I'm just walking through Westfield and out of nowhere I've been slapped!' Fans soon swarmed the comments on the video with pleas to know more information while others urged Bobby to go to the police and file a report. Despite feeling shaken, Bobby didn't go to police. 'A lot of people have said I should have done but I didnt for some reason. I did go to security,' he said. 'They have it on CCTV and the girls left the shopping centre straight after. If it happened again I would go to the police and if it had been more serious I would have done but I think I was in too much shock.' Bobby, who is gay and openly discusses his sexuality on TOWIE, now questions whether it was a homophobic attack. The reality star, who has been praised by viewers for helping them come to terms with their own sexual orientation, said: 'I've had a lot of homophobic abuse lately and it did happen just after I launched my petition about homophobic trolling. 'If it was it is really, really sad to think that in 2019 someone could slap you just for your sexuality.' He defiantly added: 'Being born gay isnt a choice but being homophobic is. I know Katie Price is trying to change the law and I fully support her. A lot does need doing.' TOWIE will return next Sunday to ITVBe at 9pm. Kathy Bates showed off her incredible 60lb weight loss while attending the premiere of The Highwaymen on Sunday. The American Horror Story star, 70, looked in high spirits as she attended the event at the Paramount Theatre during the South by Southwest Film Festival, alongside some of her co-stars including Woody Harrelson and Kevin Costner. The actress cut a stylish figure as she displayed her physical transformation in a black leather jacket and navy top and showed off her recently dyed black hair. Transformation: Kathy Bates showed off her 60 pound weight loss, (left) while attending the premiere of The Highwaymen during the South by Southwest Film Festival on Sunday, (right, pictured in 2011) She paired it with black jeans and matching shoes with a star detail and accessorised with gold necklaces. The TV star discussed her weight loss journey and how her 'little niece' taught her to simply train her mind to 'push the plate away'. Asked how she shed the pounds, she told Us Weekly magazine: 'Mindfulness, just knowing when to push my plate away.' Film star: The American Horror Story star, 70, looked in high spirits as she attended the event Cast: Kathy was joined by some of her co-stars on the film including Kevin Costner, Woody Harrelson and Kim Dickens Fashion: Kathy cut a stylish figure as she displayed her physical transformation in a black leather jacket and navy top Plot: The Highwaymen is a crime film that follows two Texas Rangers (played by Woody and Kevin) as they attempt to track down and apprehend notorious criminals Bonnie and Clyde She continued: 'My niece told me this little, secret, I guess it's no secret, it's a biological thing, that at some point when you're eating, you have this involuntary sigh and that's really your brain and your stomach communicating that you've had enough. 'The trick is to pay attention to that and push your plate away. It took a few years. I would say you have to be really patient ... I don't like the word willpower, but I like the word determination.' The 70-year-old actress battled ovarian and breast cancer in 2003 and 2012 respectively, and feels the healthiest she has ever been, but she wishes she had decided to lead a fitter lifestyle 'years ago'. Character: Kathy stars as Miriam 'Ma' Ferguson in the flick, who was the first female Governor of Texas, serving from 1925 to 1927 and 1933 to 1935 Ensemble: Kathy also wore black jeans and matching shoes with a star detail and accessorised with gold necklaces New 'do: Kathy has also been sporting a new hairstyle lately with freshly dyed raven locks She said: 'I have never been in such good health. I just had a physical. I'm doing great... I feel like a completely different person. I can move, I can walk. I just wish I had done it years ago.' To treat her cancer Kathy underwent a double mastectomy, and previously revealed she chose not to get reconstructive surgery as she doesn't believe she needs to 'pretend' that she has breasts. She said: 'I've joined the ranks of women who are going flat, as they say. I don't have breasts - so why do I have to pretend like I do? That stuff isn't important. I'm just grateful to have been born at a time when the research made it possible for me to survive. I feel so incredibly lucky to be alive.' Weight loss: Kathy has lost 60lbs between these two pictures; the American Horror Story star is seen in 2015, left, and in January, right The Highwaymen is a crime film that follows two Texas Rangers (played by Woody and Kevin) as they attempt to track down and apprehend notorious criminals Bonnie and Clyde. Kathy stars as Miriam 'Ma' Ferguson in the flick, who was the first female Governor of Texas, serving from 1925 to 1927 and 1933 to 1935. The Highwaymen will be released on Netflix on March 29, 2019. Her daughter Billie Faiers has just tied the knot in a fairytale wedding ceremony in the Maldives. But Suzanne Wells ensured all eyes were on her as she took to Instagram to show off her jaw-dropping figure while hitting the beach on the idyllic island of Kuramathi on Sunday. The Mummy Diaries star, 50, looked stunning in a bright orange two-piece complete with a white trim as she displayed her holiday tan. Bond girl! Sam and Billie Faiers' mother, Suzanne Wells, 50, showed off her jaw-dropping bikini body as she hit the beach on the Maldivian island of Kuramathi on Sunday The grandmother-of-four arched her leg to show off her toned pins and sheltered her eyes from the Indian Ocean sunshine with a pair of dark shades. With her wet blonde locks slicked back, Suzie looked as though she was enjoying every second of her sun-filled break on the Maldivian island. The star's followers rushed to compliment her photo, with many claiming she looked like a Bond girl. Wow!!!!! You look absolutely stunning Suzie!!! gushed one fan. Bond girl? The Mummy Diaries star's followers rushed to compliment her photo, with many claiming she looks like a Bond girl Age-defying: The grandmother-of-four is no stranger to showing off her incredible figure in bikini snaps from her sun-soaked adventures Another remarked: New bond girl. U look great..that where the girls get it from. A nan and looks like this wow commented another amazed person. While a fourth added: You look amazing if only I looked as good now never mind when Im 50 xx.' Suzanne is mother to Billie, 29, and Sam, 28, and regularly appears on their ITVBe reality show, The Mummy Diaries. The TV personality is a grandmother to Billie's daughter Nelly, four, and son Arthur, two, with husband Greg Shepherd, 33, and Sam's son Paul Jr, three, and daughter Rosie, 14 months, with boyfriend Paul Knightley, 30. Me and my girls: Suzanne has been in the Maldives for the last week with daughters Sam, 28, (left) and Billie, 29, (right) to celebrate Billie's wedding to fiance Greg Shepherd Read the full story in this week's OK! Magazine - out now Billie tied the knot with Greg last Tuesday, following a five-year engagement. In images from this week's OK! magazine, blushing bride Billie looked radiant in a fishtail, lace, crystal embellished gown designed by Berta as she said 'I do' in front of 95 of her her friends and family. Speaking to the publication about the ceremony, she gushed it was like a 'fairy tale', with Greg pulling out all the stops by arriving on a speedboat. Billie said: 'Other than the days that Nelly and Arthur were born, it was the best day of my life. It was like a fairy tale - all the stress and tears were worth it. She added: 'Its so lovely for me to finally be a Shepherd and share a surname with my children. Marriage ties our little family together completely.' Greg admitted he was blown away by his new wife's beauty at the nuptials, revealing: 'She looked incredible in her dress. Read the full story in this week's OK! Magazine - out now. Jules Robinson welcomed 'husband' Cameron Merchant into her Sydney home during Monday's episode of Married At First Sight. And the business owner, 36, wasn't joking when she referred to it as a 'palace' before they stepped through the front door. The stunning apartment, believed to be in Sydney's affluent suburb Double Bay, could easily be described as a sun-drenched haven. 'This is my palace': Jules Robinson showed off her sun-drenched Sydney apartment during Monday's Married At First Sight while welcoming 'husband' Cameron Merchant there The top floor apartment offers near-panoramic views of the local greenery, thanks to the huge windows in each room. With an open plan, the spacious abode has a very intimate and homely feel to it. Modern furniture decorates the property, with various rustic pieces giving the apartment a stylish edge. Wow! The stunning apartment, believed to be in Sydney's affluent suburb Double Bay, could easily be described as a sun-drenched haven Comes with a view! The top floor apartment offers near panoramic views of the local greenery, thanks to the huge windows in each room His future home? Cameron seemed overwhelmed by the impressive property, quickly exploring each room, much to the delight of Jules Cameron seemed overwhelmed by the impressive property, quickly exploring each room, much to the delight of Jules. After spending the past six weeks living in an apartment in North Sydney with Cameron while filming the show, the beauty commemorated her time away. Minutes after arriving back to her home, Jules placed a framed photograph from their wedding on her fireplace. She's got style! With an open plan, the spacious abode has a very intimate and homely feel to it Trendy! Modern furniture is used to decorate the property, with various rustic pieces giving the apartment a stylish edge Newlyweds bed! Jules and Cameron arrived at the home after spending the past six weeks living in an apartment together in North Sydney while filming the show Despite Jules showing off the apartment with pride, Married At First Sight viewers accused the show of hiring rentals for the home stay episodes. Although there is nothing to suggest Jules was not filming in her own home, cast members from series five have confirmed they hired places for their 'home stays'. Noticeably, Nasser Sultan and Gabrielle Bartlett spent the night in a rental apartment together, which the groom fled after believing it was haunted. Netflix's new show Dirty John, based on the true story of con artist and sociopath John Meehan, has gripped viewers around the world. The popularity of the adaptation, starring Connie Britton, has helped the real Terra Newell gain a strong online following, using her platform to share her experience with PTSD. Debra Newell's daughter, who was played by Julia Garner in the series, was 25 when she stabbed her mother's conniving fifth husband 13 times in 2016 in an act of self-defence. Social media sensation: Netflix show Dirty John has helped the real Terra Newell gain a strong online following, using her platform to share her experience with PTSD Terra, now 27, now boasts over 17,000 followers on Instagram and has become something of a social media sensation. Her bio reads: 'Official Instagram of Terra Newell only positive vibes please DogsZombiesCountryPTSDTravelFashion and @dirtyjohnbravo'. The bubbly blonde encourages her followers to seize the day and think positive, celebrating the happy moments in life. A Walking Dead superfan, Terra is also a fashion and lifestyle blogger, posting outfit snaps and encouraging her followers to use the discount code 'Dirtyjohn20 for 20 per cent off'. Gaining a following: Terra, now 27, now boasts over 17,000 followers on Instagram and has become something of a social media sensation Adaptation: Debra Mehan's daughter, who was played by Julia Garner in the series (pictured), was 25 when she stabbed her mother's conniving fifth husband 13 times in an act of self-defence in 2016 Terra's Instagram is littered with bikini-clad pictures of her on exotic holidays, photos from hikes with her beloved dog Cash, and snaps of her catching up with friends. She is also seen posing alongside the stars of the Netflix show, Connie Britton (her mother Debra), Eric Bana (evil stepfather John) and Juno Temple, who plays her sister. The California native gained even more followers thanks to the release of an accompanying documentary about the man behind the story, Dirty John, The Dirty Truth. Her mother Debra appears alongside her, but her older sister - whose real name is in fact Jacquelyn, changed to Ronnie for the series - didn't want to be in the public eye and had her identity concealed. Animal lover: The star's Instagram is littered with snaps photos from hikes with her beloved dog Cash Discount: Terra is also a fashion and lifestyle blogger, posting outfit snaps and encouraging her followers to use the discount code 'Dirtyjohn20 for 20 per cent off' Inspirational: Terra blogs about her life, her passions and her love of the outdoors, while also speaking candidly about her PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) Terra blogs about her life, her passions and her love of the outdoors, while also speaking candidly about her PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder). In a recent post about her struggles, Terra shared her top tips and coping mechanisms to relieve her anxiety disorder. She explains: 'Ever since the attack, I have had to deal with many problems. A couple months after the trauma my PTSD had gotten so bad that I really had to find some activities to help calm and settle me. 'These were things I needed to do in addition to my weekly therapy sessions. Some of the activities that I tried were yoga, rock climbing, hiking, massages, warms baths, and photography.' Dirty John was based on Christopher Goffard's 2017 Los Angeles Times articles and critically-acclaimed true crime podcast of the same name. Daily battle: In a recent post about her struggles, Terra shared her top tips for coping mechanisms to relieve her anxiety disorder Sharing her story: The California native gained even more followers thanks to the release of an accompanying documentary about the man behind the story, Dirty John, The Dirty Truth It was turned into an eight part series, released on Netflix on February 14. John met Debra Newell on an over-50s dating website in 2014, and just five weeks after their first date, they were living together in Newport, California. But soon, Debra - who had been an interior designer in Orange County - would learn that the man she thought she knew was actually a stranger and had been lying about being a doctor. John was a sociopath with a serious drug addiction and a long history of manipulating and abusing women. Her daughters Terra and Jacquelyn became suspicious of his motives and hired a private detective to look into him, fearing he was after Debra's money. They uncovered a chequered past; jail time, restraining orders taken out by several exes and drug offences. Evil: John met Debra Newell on an over-50s dating website in 2014, and five weeks after their first date, they were living together in Newport, California (pictured - Eric Bana and Connie Britton as John and Debra) The nickname 'Dirty John' or 'Filthy John' was coined by his classmates in the University of Dayton, Ohio, due to his bragging about all the women he had bedded. In 1990, John - who worked as a nurse - married his first wife, Tonia Sells, with whom he had two children. He led a double life, keeping his illegal activities a secret for a decade until his behaviour became menacing when he demanded a divorce. After discovering his drug stash and his web of lies about his past, she called the police who began investigating John. In 2002, John was caught and charged with having a gun in operating room and stealing Demerol he should have been administering to a patient. Despite fleeing to Michigan, Meehan was sentenced to six years in prison, but was released in 2004 after just 17 months. The real couple: John was a sociopath with a serious drug addiction and a long history of manipulating and abusing women, intent on isolating Debra from everyone It was just two days later that he met Debra Newell for the first time, and began manipulating the four-time divorcee and isolating her from her family members. In April 2016, Newell ended their marriage and filed for a restraining order against him, but a judge ruled there was 'no imminent threat'. Viewers saw the tense tale of abuse and control culminate with Terra stabbing John 13 times on August 20, 2016, after he attacked her outside her apartment complex. John had prepared what police later described as a 'kidnap kit' of duct tape, a vial of drugs and kitchen knives. Grabbing her from behind, he used a knife to slash her arm, but she fought him off and managed to turn the weapon on him, leaving wounds in his shoulder, arm, back, chest and right through his eye. 'I just started stabbing him. I thought if he got back up hes going to kill me', Terra told Dateline. Re-enactment: Viewers saw the tense story culminate with Terra stabbing John 13 times August 20, 2016, including a blow to the eye, after he attacked her at her apartment complex John was rushed to hospital, but suffered severe brain damage and died four days later. Terra was questioned by police following the incident, but was swiftly released after it was decided she acted in self-defence due to John's criminal past. What is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events. People with PTSD often suffer nightmares and flashbacks to the traumatic event and can experience insomnia and an inability to concentrate. Symptoms are often severe enough to have a serious impact on the persons day-to-day life, and can emerge straight after the traumatic event or years later. Advertisement Executive Producer Jeffrey Reiner has revealed how important it was to do the dramatic finale justice. Speaking in the bonus episode of Dirty John: Inside the TV Series, Reiner explained: 'The most important thing in the fight was seeing it through Terra's eyes. 'So, I actually met with Terra for an hour and recorded her telling me what she smelled, what she saw, what she felt, what her heart was feeling like, what her body was feeling like, and she was unbelievably giving in the moment. 'She gave us a lot of imagery, so when you look at the sequence it's really kind of told from her point of view.' Bravo has already renewed Dirty John for a second season, but the next chapter will focus on a new story and cast, becoming a true crime anthology similar to FX's American Crime Story. She's one of Australia's hottest exports. After finding fame on a popular children's TV series in the noughties, this Aussie actress decided to pack her bags and try her luck in Hollywood. She found success on a popular teen series about vampires, and even dated one of the show's lead actors. Scroll down for video Oh baby: Phoebe Tonkin shared a sweet throwback photo of herself and her mum, Jannyfer Tonkin, from when she was a baby The actress is Phoebe Tonkin, and on Saturday, the 29-year-old star shared a sweet throwback photo of herself and her mum, Jannyfer Tonkin, from when she was a baby. In the photo, Phoebe can be seen dozing in her mum's arms while dressed in what appears to be a white christening gown. Phoebe shared the sweet photo for International Women's Day, paying tribute to her 'incredible' mother. Hero: Phoebe shared the adorable throwback photo for International Women's Day, paying tribute to her 'incredible' mother 'Happy International Womens Day to all the incredible intelligent beautiful flawed complicated strong hardworking loving kind badass women in my life,' she captioned the photo. 'Especially this one! Mama, who taught me and [sister Abby] that everyday is women's day.' After moving to Los Angeles, Phoebe landed a recurring role in The Vampire Diaries before reprising her role as Hayley in the spin-off series, The Originals. Star power: After moving to Los Angeles, Phoebe landed a recurring role in The Vampire Diaries before reprising her role as Hayley in the spin-off series, The Originals. Seen here in The Vampire Diaries (far left) In full bloom: More recently, Phoebe returned to Australia, where she currently stars in the Stan series, Bloom She also enjoyed a long-term relationship with her Vampire Diaries co-star, Paul Wesley, 36. More recently, Phoebe returned to Australia, where she currently stars in the Stan series, Bloom. The fantasy series also stars Jacki Weaver, Bryan Brown and Ryan Corr. Paris Jackson looked in good spirits as she attended church in Calabasas on Sunday in the midst of the furore surrounding accusations of child abuse against her late father Michael Jackson. The model, 20, was joined by friends on the outing, and smiled as she headed into the service in a quirky, multicoloured ensemble. She had dressed in her typical boho style, teaming a colourful striped cardigan with hareem pants and UGG boots. Sunday service: Paris Jackson looked in good spirits as she attended church in Calabasas on Sunday in the midst of the furore surrounding accusations of child abuse against Michael The pretty blonde accessorised with gold mirrored aviators as she strolled into the church service, which was also attended by Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. Paris appears to have been shirking her father Michael's controversy a few days after defending him after he was accused of child abuse in the shocking, and divisive, new Leaving Neverland documentary. The actress proved to be in full concentration mode as she lit up the bong in the Instagram Story uploaded on Saturday. Controversial: Paris appears to have been shirking her father Michael's controversy a few days after defending him after he was accused of child abuse (pictured together in 2005) Low-key look: She had dressed in her typical boho style, teaming a colourful striped cardigan with hareem pants and UGG boots Taking to Twitter on Thursday, she referred to his 'good heart' and said she was thinking about 'the bigger picture'. Having previously tweeted advising her fans to be 'calm', she returned to the social media site to share her thoughts more fully. The Gringo actress wrote: 'I didn't mean to offend by expressing that t***ies should be calm, i know injustices are frustrating and it's easy to get worked up. but reacting with a calm mind usually is more logical than acting out of rage and also.... it feels better to mellow out. 'Smoke some weed n think about the bigger picture. chillax my dudes.' Social media savvy: The model and actress proved to be in full concentration mode as she lit up the bong in the Instagram Story uploaded on Saturday Attention elsewhere: Paris appeared to be shirking her Michael's controversy a few days after defending him after he was accused of child abuse in the shocking, and divisive, new Leaving Neverland documentary Backing him: Taking to Twitter on Thursday, she referred to his 'good heart' and said she was thinking about 'the bigger picture' 'It's not possible to tear his name down': Paris engaged with fans on social media where she defended her father's name An angered Michael fan replied: 'The bigger picture is your father's legacy ruined and his name smeared forever but whatever though. 'They want to tear his name down and stop playing his music but it's cool like who cares that he died for this.' Paris then penned: 'Yeah they do that to everyone with a good heart and tries to make a difference but do you really think that it's possible to tear his name down? like do you truly believe they stand a chance ? relax and have peace.' The day before, Paris responded to reports that she's worried about the document and allegations affecting her fledgling career. 'I actually haven't made any statements yet, especially regarding how it affects my work life. you guys are reaching a bit. 'At least this wasn't a disgusting and attacking article though,' Paris said in a now-deleted tweet. 'You guys are reaching a bit': Paris also responded to reports that she's worried about the document and allegations affecting her fledgling career (Seen together in 2009) She then added a tweet that read, 'ya'll take my life more seriously than I do.' Sources have said that Paris firmly believes her father never abused children but has not watched the new documentary in which two of his accusers speak out. Paris was just 11 when her father passed away in 2009 aged 50, following acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication. Leaving Neverland features emotional testimony from Wade Robson and James Safechuck who allege Michael raped them for years as children. It has caused bitter reaction from both critics and fans of Michael. Paris's extended family have claimed Michael Jackson was 'naive' about children but wasn't an abuser. Defiant: Sources have said that Paris firmly believes her father never abused children but has not watched the new documentary in which two of his accusers speak out Tragic: Paris was just 11 when her father passed away in 2009 aged 50, following acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication The late King of Pop's siblings, Tito, Marlon and Jackie Jackson, and his nephew Taj spoke out on CBS This Morning. Tito's son Taj, 45, claimed that the family do not wish to 'put more energy' into the claims against their late relative - who died in 2009 - because they don't want to draw any more attention to the documentary. Taj said: 'There's a fear to put more energy to it and more eyeballs to it. 'That's why Janet (his aunt) hasn't said anything, because she doesn't want to make it any bigger.' The siblings stated that they know the Thriller hitmaker was not a sexual predator and accused the documentary of spinning lies. They tied the knot on the scenic island of Kuramathi last week, with the likes of her sister Sam and their children Nelly, four, and Arthur, two, in attendance. And Billie Faiers and Greg Shepherd have finally jetted off on their honeymoon for some quality time together, with the pair documenting their arrival to their tropical destination on Instagram on Monday. Relishing in newlywed bliss, the Mummy Diaries star, 29, showcased her jaw-dropping figure in a white bridal bikini by Arabella London, while Greg, 33, gushed 'I finally get her to myself' as he shared a fresh-faced snap of her on the aircraft. Trip of a lifetime: Newlyweds Billie Faiers and Greg Shepherd jetted off on their honeymoon for some quality time together on Monday, with the pair staying at an idyllic water villa Stunning: Billie looked incredible wearing her bridal-white bikini and showing off her 'honeymoon' bag Billie exhibited her enviably-toned waist and ample cleavage in the white balconette bikini as she headed out the terrace to take in the island's idyllic sea views. The reality starlet kept cool in the balmy climes, shielding herself from the sun's rays with a straw hat and mirrored gold aviators. She captioned the post: 'HoneyMoon Time... Im not going to lie @gregory_shep is already getting bugged out with the amount of photos his going to be taking'. Beach babe: Relishing in newlywed bliss, the Mummy Diaries star, 29, showcased her jaw-dropping figure in a white bridal inspired bikini by Arabella London as she looked at the stunning sea views Fun in the sun: The mother-of-two later threw a pair of zig-zag patterned trousers over her white bikini as she and Greg enjoyed a day in the Maldivian sun Breathtaking: Billie gave fans a glimpse of her dreamy water villa on her Instastories, telling fans she was in 'heaven' Wow: The pair are staying in their very own honeymoon suite, which has a pool, slide, sun-bathing area Honeymoon suite: Billie can take a plunge into the ocean with her very own slide Lavish: The couple have spared no expense when it comes to their luxurious Honeymoon trip Billie gave fans a glimpse of her dreamy water villa on her Instastories, telling fans she was in 'heaven'. The pair are staying in their very own honeymoon suite, which has a pool, slide and sunbathing area. They can even look at the ocean below with the villa boasting a clear glass floor. The couple lapped up the sunshine as they enjoyed a family getaway to the Maldives for their nuptials earlier this month. Smitten: Newlyweds Billie Faiers and Greg Shepherd have finally jetted off on their honeymoon for some quality time together, with the pair documenting their plane journey on Instagram on Monday Delighted on their first holiday alone as husband and wife, Greg penned on the social media site: 'Finally got her to myself... doesn't look to happy about being on a sea plane @billiefaiersofficial'. During the flight, TV personality Billie revealed she's afraid of seaplanes as she posted a radiant snap alongside the caption: 'Honeymoon let's do this... (I'm not a fan of sea planes but I'm sure it will be worth it).' Loved-up: Relishing in newlywed bliss, the businessman, 33, gushed 'I finally get her to myself' as he shared a fresh-faced snap of the former TOWIE star, 30, on the aircraft 'I'm not a fan': During the flight, the TV personality revealed she's afraid of seaplanes 'Finally billie is a shep': Later that day, the father-of-two shared his happiness as he discovered the reality star officially changed her surname on Instagram Later that day, the father-of-two shared his happiness as he discovered the reality star officially changed her surname on Instagram. He wrote: 'Finally billie is a shep.' Last week, the couple spoke to OK! magazine about the ceremony as Billie gushed it was like a 'fairy tale', with Greg pulling out all the stops by arriving on a speedboat. The blonde confessed: 'Other than the days that Nelly and Arthur were born, it was the best day of my life. It was like a fairy tale - all the stress and tears were worth it. Doting parents: Greg popped the question to Billie in 2014 when she fell pregnant with their first child Nelly, four (also pictured with son Arthur, two) She added: 'Its so lovely for me to finally be a Shepherd and share a surname with my children. Marriage ties our little family together completely.' Greg admitted he was blown away by his new wife's beauty at the nuptials, revealing: 'She looked incredible in her dress. Explaining her decision making process behind the gown, which featured a risque sheer panel to showcase her cleavage, the yummy mummy said: 'As soon as I tried it on I had "the feeling"; when you know you know! 'Because we didnt get married in a church I could get away with something more daring'. Family fun: The couple lapped up the sunshine as they enjoyed a family getaway to the Maldives for their nuptials earlier this month In good company: They tied the knot on the scenic island of Kuramathi with the likes of her sister Sam Faiers and pal Ferne McCann in attendance Whilst Billie and Greg had a wonderful wedding surrounded by their nearest and dearest, the pair have been hit by claims that there was loud, disruptive behaviour amongst their wedding party. Billie, who partied until 3am on her wedding night, dismissed the claims, stating: 'The hotel manager hasn't had any complaints about our party. 'I was half expecting some loudness as there are 95 of us out here celebrating [but] we have always been very respectful of the island and the other guests holidaying here'. Greg popped the question to Billie in 2014 when she fell pregnant with their first child Nelly, two years after first embarking on a relationship. Jett Kenny has been on the receiving end of harsh criticism during his time on Dancing With The Stars. And on Monday night, the lifesaver broke down as he revealed the emotional toll that the judgement has been taking on him. In a piece-to-camera, the 23-year-old sobbed as he stated: 'I didn't think it was going to be emotionally difficult... I wouldn't say it's broken me, but it's hard.' 'I didn't think it was going to be emotionally difficult!' On Monday night's episode of Dancing With The Stars, Jett Kenny broke down in tears as revealed the toll the competition has taken on him Last week, judge Craig Revel Horwood slammed Jett's performance as a 'mess'. And as he wiped away tears during Monday night's episode, Jett claimed that he was struggling to overcome the missteps that he had made during that routine. 'I get too told I am too hard on myself, and it's just sort of the way I've been my entire life', he stated. Keep your chin up! Jett was supported by his dancing partner and rumoured lover Lily Cornish, who encouraged him to stay optimistic Chemistry: Jett and Lily have fuelled romance rumours with their sizzling chemistry However, the part-time model was supported by his dancing partner and rumoured lover Lily Cornish, who encouraged him to stay optimistic. 'This week, we're just going to move on and we're going to work really hard on our rumba,' she was seen saying in a pre-packaged segment. Then, the pair took to the dance floor in front of a live studio audience to perform their new routine. Hot, hot, hot! Lily and Jett entranced onlookers with their sizzling routine Standing ovation! After weeks of struggle, Jett received positive feedback for his raunchy rumba with Lily Lily's optimism certainly paid off, as she and Jett entranced onlookers with their sizzling routine. A shirtless Jett writhed and thrust up against Lily, who showed off her incredible physique in a skimpy green dress. The pair earned a standing ovation for the raunchy rumba, and even some kind words from Craig Revel Horwood. 'I did like it!' the famously harsh judge conceded with a smile. Paris Hilton sparked concern among fans when her father revealed he had been unable to contact her. The hotel heiress, 38, took to Instagram on Friday to share a throwback clip of her music video, Stars Are Blind, but fans were more concerned by her dad Rick's comment. Under the clip, Rick Hilton, 63, posted: Paris it is very important you call Dads cell. We can't reach you on any of your lines [sic]'. Concern: Paris Hilton sparked concern among fans when her father - Hilton & Hyland co-founder Rick Hilton - revealed he had been unable to contact her Concerned fans replied to his post, writing: 'dying to know what was so important'; 'Call your dad @parishilton'; 'girllll, call your dad!!!!!!'; 'omg! i hope she's ok'. Despite the concerns, it seems Rick's mind was put at ease, as he later shared a carefree clip listening to a song. MailOnline has contacted Paris' representatives for comment. Panic: The hotel heiress, 38, took to Instagram on Friday to share a throwback clip of her music video, Stars Are Blind, but fans were more concerned by her dad Rick's comment Urgent: Under the clip, Rick Hilton, 63, posted: Paris it is very important you call Dads cell. We can't reach you on any of your lines [sic]' Worried: Concerned fans replied to his post, urging Paris to call her father and sending their hopes that all would be well Paris was no doubt kept away from her phone due to her busy schedule, with the television personality and DJ recently admitting that she's always rushed off her feet. The star, who broke off her engagement to actor Chris Zylka in November, told The Mirror earlier this month: 'I don't have time for love right now. I hardly have time for myself.' She continued, saying: 'I am constantly travelling over 250 days a year, never home hardly, just focusing on myself, my business and my friends.' But Paris isn't worried about finding a man when the time comes, as she says there's 'always' guys for her to choose from, and insists her ideal man would be someone 'loyal' whom she can trust. The blonde beauty added: 'There is always a lot of guys everywhere, always. When I am ready, the most important thing is loyalty, someone who is your best friend and who you can trust and who loves you for you. 'When you know you know. But I don't know yet.' She's currently filming scenes for The Only Way Is Essex's upcoming series in Thailand. And Courtney Green looked sensational as she shared a series of sizzling snaps from her tropical getaway on Instagram on Sunday. In one of the striking images, the TV personality, 23, flaunted her gym-honed physique as she slipped into a monochrome animal print bikini set, embellished with red ruffled details. Wow-factor! Courtney Green looked sensational as she shared a series of sizzling snaps from her tropical getaway to Thailand on Instagram on Sunday The reality star showcased her beach wardrobe as she switched into a classic black triangle two-piece, flashing a hint of her cleavage and toned abs. Brunette bombshell Courtney let her skin soak up the sun as she opted for minimal make-up, and wore tresses in a straight fashion, decorated with a pretty pearl headpiece. For a third outfit, the former junior PA rocked a white lace bra and matching wide-leg trousers for another sun-soaked day in the Asian country. Taking a break from filming scenes, the Essex beauty visited the Samui Elephant Sanctuary as she shared a snap of herself feeding the large mammal a banana. Racy: In one of the striking images, the TV personality, 23, flaunted her gym-honed physique as she slipped into a monochrome animal print bikini set, embellished with red ruffled details Striking: The reality star showcased her beach wardrobe as she switched into a classic black triangle two-piece, flashing a hint of her cleavage and toned abs Meanwhile, Chloe has dodged the massive cast cull ahead of TOWIE's newest series. Earlier this year, it was revealed Amber Turner, Myles Barnett, Jon Clark, Chris Clark, Chloe Lewis, Dean Ralph, Jordan Wright and Adam Oukhellou will not return for the new series. Remaining castmembers, including Chloe Sims and Dan Edgar, are currently filming scenes for the upcoming series, set to return in March, in holiday hot spot Thailand. Poolside: Brunette bombshell Courtney let her skin soak up the sun as she opted for minimal make-up, and wore tresses in a straight fashion, decorated with a pretty pearl headpiece Radiant: For a third outfit, the former junior PA rocked a white lace bra and matching wide-leg trousers for another sun-soaked day in the Asian country Having fun: Taking a break from filming scenes, the Essex beauty visited the Samui Elephant Sanctuary as she shared a snap of herself feeding the large mammal a banana Bosses are shunning the show's typical clubbing destinations in favour of a yoga retreat. Insiders revealed to MailOnline: 'The trip is to Thailand furthest they've ever gone - very cool - feel more grown-up more beach bars than clubs'. In the romance department, Courtney has been dating boyfriend Callum Bushby since late last year. In November, a friend of Courtneys told MailOnline that the pair had been dating for three months, and she often spent nights at his family home in Wanstead, Essex. 'Shes got every right to brag about it,' they revealed. 'In fact I cant believe that she hasnt shouted it from the rooftops. Shes dating Callum Bushby, whos handsome and a lovely guy. They were both single, so why not?' Yet it seems the couple will be keeping their romance low-key for the time being, as Callum has no desire to become famous. Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan have been spotted together on the set of their new period drama Ammonite for the first time. Titanic star Kate was seen on the Dorset set of the upcoming lesbian romance, getting into character in the picturesque seaside town of Lyme Regis, while Saorise stepped out in a Victorian dress to film scenes. Oscar-winning actress Kate, 43, was transported back to the 1840s for the film, inspired by the life of legendary fossil hunter Mary Anning. Filming begins: Kate Winslet has been spotted on the Dorset set of lesbian romance Ammonite for the first time, getting into character in the picturesque seaside town of Lyme Regis Joining her: Saoirse Ronan stepped out in a Victorian dress to film scenes Kate was seen getting into character, her face free of heavy make-up and her hair dyed brown, worn parted in the centre. She was clad in a plaid skirt and navy coat, a brown scarf knotted around her neck and a leather satchel slung over one shoulder. Kate was seen arriving at a newly-erected makeshift shop, Anning's Fossils, run by her character Mary. Saorise, 24, wore a heavy black gown and bonnet, typical of the era, with a lace detailing around the collar and a similarly make-up free complexion. On set: The Oscar-winning actress, 43, was transported back to the 1840s for the film, inspired by the life of legendary fossil hunter Mary Anning Period drama: She was clad in a plaid skirt and navy coat, a brown scarf knotted around her neck and a leather satchel slung over one shoulder Looking the part: Saorise, 24, wore a heavy black gown and bonnet, typical of the era Victorian: The dress had a lace detailing around the collar and the star sported a make-up free complexion Makeover: Kate was seen getting into character, her face free of heavy make-up and her hair dyed a mousy shade of brown, worn parted in the centre On location: Kate was seen arriving at a newly-erected makeshift shop, Anning's Fossils, run by her character Mary Unlikely romance: The plot centres around the paleontologist, who becomes involved with a young woman sent to convalesce by the sea The plot centres around the famous paleontologist, who becomes involved with a young woman sent to convalesce by the sea. Saoirse plays her love interest in the film, 'a London woman of means to whom she must unexpectedly play nursemaid.' It is directed by Francis Lee, who was recognised at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017 for God's Own Country. The project marks Kate and Mary Queen Of Scots star Saorise's first collaboration on the big screen. New project: It is directed by Francis Lee, who was recognised at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017 for God's Own Country Transformed: Lyme Regis, famously depicted by novelist Jane Austen, has undergone a makeover ahead of the Hollywood duo descending upon the town Both women are Oscars darlings, with 24-year-old Saoirse having been nominated three times in acting categories. Kate, meanwhile, has been nominated a whopping seven times, taking home the award for Best Actress in 2009 for The Reader. Lyme Regis, famously depicted by novelist Jane Austen, has undergone a makeover ahead of the Hollywood duo descending upon the town. Exteriors have been transformed and new buildings erected in preparation for cast and crew's arrival. Joining forces: The project marks Kate and Mary Queen Of Scots star Saorise's first collaboration on the big screen Lights, camera, action! Exteriors have been transformed and new buildings erected in preparation for cast and crew's arrival Scientific discoveries: Mary Anning's work contributed to important changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life Mary Anning is known for making major discoveries in Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs at Lyme Regis and Charmouth. Her work contributed to important changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life. However, due to being a woman, she was prevented form joining the Geological Society of London and did not receive full credit for her findings. It is also thought she was the inspiration for the 1908 tongue-twister 'She sells seashells on the seashore' by Terry Sullivan. Vital work: Her work contributed to important changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life - but she did not receive full credit for her findings due to being a woman She took off on a business class fight for Thailand on Friday for a 'much-needed' getaway with boyfriend Kris Boyson. But the treats didn't stop there for Katie Price, who was pictured heading for a foot massage with Kris on Sunday after arriving in beautiful Koh Samui. Katie has left four of her children at home with their fathers, while it's claimed that her 16-year-old son Harvey is spending the week with the model's long-term hairdresser, Louisa Roy. Relaxing: Katie Price was pictured in Thailand getting a massage with boyfriend Kris Boyson on Sunday A source told The Sun on Monday: 'Harvey loves it there. He still hasnt been placed into residential care so hes at school everyday and then back to Lous in the afternoon.' Katie's eldest son has Prader-Willi syndrome and will soon be boarding at his specialist school. LA Studio boss Louisa has been providing hair extensions for Katie for over a year now. While the model is away, it's understood that her other children Princess, 11, and Junior, 13, are staying with dad Peter Andre. Little treat: Katie and boyfriend Kris have taken off for Koh Samui for a sunshine break Her youngest Bunny, four, and Jett, five, are with their dad Kieran Hayler, however Harvey does not have a relationship with father Dwight Yorke. A representative for Katie Price has been contacted by MailOnline for comment. When Kris announced that he and Katie had business-class tickets to Thailand, he called it a 'needed' and 'well-deserved' break. They were seen diving right into the relaxation over the weekend when they stopped by a spa for a Thai foot massage. Handful: Katie defended her decision to put Harvey into full-time care last month Helping hand: But while she's on holiday, her good friend Louisa Roy (left, with Katie) is looking after the teenager Long-term friend: Katie's pal Louisa has been doing her hair for over a year now Katie looked relaxed in a pair of rolled up jogging bottoms and strappy top, with her waist bag slung over one shoulder. The couple wore 'his and hers' sliders fit for their South-East Asia break and a spot of afternoon spa time. On a day-to-day basis, Katie has her hands full with her five children, the eldest of which she recently said had become too much to handle. Katie spoke about her decision to put 24-stone and six foot two Harvey into full-time care in the next few months. Foot massage: The model has left her children in the UK while she takes time out 'He's still growing,' she said on an episode of This Morning last month. 'And he kicks off. The other day he kicked a chair across a room over a muffin. 'On Instagram, I only show him when he's good. But he's got a side to him. My house is smashed to bits. This year he has broken eight iPads and four TVs. Someone might bang the door and he'll chuck something. 'Some people think I'm out of order [sending him into care] but people don't understand the situation.' Katie will still take care of Harvey on weekends and during school holidays but he will have the benefit of after school clubs by being a boarder. Katie continued: 'Ive never done respite because Id never want him to think Im palming him off. But its come to a point where I actually have no choice. 'I can still go there and tuck him into bed, I can have dinner with him, I can come and watch him after school. Im really nervous.' They've had a tumultuous relationship since tying the knot on Married At First Sight. And Billy Vincent and Susie Bradley are headed for yet another explosive clash this week. In a preview of Tuesday's episode, aspiring model Billy, 28, appears visibly shaken as he struggles to confront his 25-year-old 'bride' over the harsh way she's treated him. Drama: Married At First Sight's Susie and Billy are headed for another clash in a preview Attempting to assert himself, Billy says: 'You're gonna listen to me the first time.' Unperturbed by his serious display, Susie simply responds: 'No, I'm not,' before getting up and walking away. As Susie nonchalantly sits on a nearby couch and sips tea, a flustered Billy tries his hardest to give her a serving. Manning up! Attempting to assert himself, Billy says: 'You're gonna listen to me the first time.' 'No, I'm not': A nonchalant Susie refuses to sit and listen to Billy's stern lecture 'You know, beauty is only skin deep,' he stutters. 'Well, some day you're not gonna look as good as you look now, my dear.' Earlier that day, Billy is shown getting slammed by Susie's overprotective Hungarian father, Steve. Getting up in Billy's face, Steve says: 'You're too weak. You're way too weak!' Over it: As Susie nonchalantly sits on a nearby couch and sips tea, a flustered Billy tries his hardest to give her a serving 'You know, beauty is only skin deep,' Billy stutters. 'Well, some day you're not gonna look as good as you look now, my dear' Elsewhere in the preview, Cyrell Paule's brother Ivan is shown trying to convince her to leave her 'husband' Nic Jovanovic. Michael Brunelli is also shown getting a grilling from Martha Kalifatidis' big Greek family. Married At First Sight continues Tuesday at 7:30pm on Channel Nine. Ferne McCann surprised best friend Billie Faiers by performing a rendition of Stand By Me on her wedding day in the Maldives. The new bride, 29, revealed her long-time pal, 28, delighted her by taking to the mic during her reception to belt out the Ben E King classic, making it a day to remember for her and new husband Greg Shepherd, 33. Speaking after tying the knot at the five-star Kuramathi Island Resort last Tuesday, Billie told OK! Magazine: 'It was such a lovely surprise.' Talented: Ferne McCann (L) surprised best friend Billie Faiers (R) by performing a rendition of Stand By Me on her wedding day in the Maldives (pictured last week) Ferne clearly impressed the happy couple with her vocal ability, with The Mummy Diaries star adding: 'Shes got a brilliant voice'. The former TOWIE favourite is no stranger to showcasing her voice, and shocked her Instagram followers with her vocals last year. Fans were left stunned as Ferne sang baby daughter Sunday, 16 months, to sleep with a moving rendition of Paolo Nutini's Last Request. The star also revealed last year that she once tried to make it big in the music industry by auditioning for the X Factor in the past - however, she wasn't successful. 'A lovely surprise': The new bride, 29, revealed her long-time pal, 28, delighted her by taking to the mic during her reception to belt out the Ben E King classic Wedding bells: Ferne's unexpected rendition made it a day to remember for Billie and her new husband Greg Shepherd, 33 (right, last week) She told Digital Spy: I auditioned for The X Factor years ago but I never got through. I didnt even get to the stage where I got to meet Simon. I sang that song Fever but I didnt get through. Im alright, I can hold a tune.' I always wanted to be on the stage, even before I had my daughter Sunday, she continued. I always wanted to be in a West End musical no dream is too big! Ferne has been keeping her followers abreast of her island getaway, uploading stunning snaps of her holiday amid the wedding celebrations. In one post, the reality star sizzled in a skimpy navy string bikini during a boozy brunch. Sensational: Ferne has been keeping her followers abreast of her island getaway, uploading stunning snaps of her holiday amid the wedding celebrations Read the full story in this week's OK! Magazine - out now Ferne, attended the glittering nuptials with mum Gilly and daughter Sunday, with the 'fairy tale' ceremony taking place on the idyllic island of Kuramathi last Tuesday. In images from this week's OK! Magazine, bride Billie looked radiant in a fishtail, lace, crystal embellished gown designed by Berta as she said 'I do' in front of 95 of her her friends and family. Speaking to the publication about the ceremony, she gushed it was like a 'fairy tale', with Greg pulling out all the stops by arriving on a speedboat. Billie said: 'Other than the days that Nelly and Arthur were born, it was the best day of my life. 'It was like a fairy tale - all the stress and tears were worth it. She added: 'Its so lovely for me to finally be a Shepherd and share a surname with my children. Marriage ties our little family together completely.' Read the full story in this week's OK! Magazine - out now. She's best known for her work with Victoria's Secret. And Devon Windsor showed off her model figure as she posed for a series of stunning snaps in a scanty black bikini. The blonde bombshell, who turned 25 last week, shared a series of stunning snaps on Sunday after jetting to The Bahamas for her birthday. Sizzling: She's best known for her work with Victoria's Secret. And Devon Windsor showed off her model figure as she posed for a series of stunning snaps in a scanty black bikini Devon looked phenomenal in a skimpy two-piece, with the crop top style bikini showing off her enviably toned abs. Posing aboard a yacht, the model looked coquettishly over one shoulder as she flaunted her peachy posterior in a pair of high rise briefs. Devon's golden locks were slicked back in a bun, whilst she accessorised with a pai of oversized square shades. Looking good: The blonde bombshell, who turned 25 last week, shared a series of stunning snaps on Sunday after jetting to The Bahamas for her birthday Devon was holidaying with her sister Alex on the island, which has special memories for her as it's where she got engaged. Devon's fiance Johnny Dex popped the question last June after more than two years of dating. While taking a plane ride, the blonde bombshell was able to see 'Marry Me?' spelled out on the sand of a private beach in the Bahamas. Sister act: Devon was holidaying with her sister Alex on the island, which has special memories for her as it's where she got engaged Devon has walked in the coveted Victoria's Secret Fashion Show six times, last appearing on the runway for the lingerie label in November. She also appeared on E! series Model Squad, where she controversially compared the hardship of maintaining her blonde highlights to the discrimination faced by ethnic minority models in the fashion industry Devon later claimed the 'joke' had been taken out of context but said she understood it was an 'incredibly insensitive' thing to say and apologised for her comments. She has undergone an extreme makeover which includes dental veneers and bombshell blonde locks. And on Monday, Married at First Sight star Jessika Power also admitted she has lip fillers, though they have been causing her some issues by looking 'too big' she says. Speaking to Confidential, the admin assistant claimed her lips appear overly swollen on television because consuming alcohol causes her cosmetic filler to puff up. Pouty! Married at First Sight star Jessika Power (pictured) revealed on Monday that she has lip fillers and claims drinking alcohol makes them look more inflated on television 'I spoke to my surgeon the other day because I brought it up with her and said "everyone's saying my lips are so big,"' she began. Jessika added: 'And she said it's normal for anyone with lip fillers, when you drink they swell'. Last month, Jessika's mouth became the centre of much attention after fans mercilessly mocked the blonde star for her plumped-up lips on-screen. Reasons: The admin assistant claimed she spoke to her surgeon about the issue after people noticed her lips were large. Pictured on Married at First Sight Jessika revealed: 'I spoke to my surgeon the other day because I brought it up with her and said "everyone's saying my lips are so big" and she said it's normal for anyone with lip fillers, when you drink they swell'. Pictured on Married at First Sight The beauty has received criticism from fans for the size of her pout, with some branding it her 'Daffy Duck mouth' and claiming it affected her speech. Her lips aren't her only new adjustment - in 2016, the blonde updated her teeth with veneers. A Western Australian dental clinic shared pictures of the model's stunning transformation back in October 2016, long before she appeared on the controversial social experiment. New look! Her lips aren't her only new adjustment - in 2016, the blonde updated her teeth with veneers. A Western Australian dental clinic shared pictures of the model's stunning transformation back in October 2016, long before she appeared on the show (pictured) So different! Jess has undergone an extreme makeover which includes dental veneers and bombshell blonde locks. Pictured left in 2017 and right in a recent Instagram snap The images show Jessika's gappy grin corrected with white porcelain veneers. The Perth-born administrative assistant looks very different today compared to photos shared to Instagram several years ago. In one photo, taken in 2017, Jessika is hardly recognisable without makeup and with a noticeably thinner top lip. Kyle Richards was lucky to get a rare portrait with all four of her daughters as well as husband Mauricio Umansky this weekend. Kyle has been married to second husband Mauricio since 1996 and together they share three daughters, Alexia, 22, Sophia, 18, and 11-year-old Portia. She also has 30-year-old daughter Farrah from her first marriage. Family: Kyle Richards was lucky to get a rare portrait with all four of her daughters as well as husband Mauricio Umansky this weekend The occasion was Portia's 11th birthday party; the party was held on Saturday. The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills star turned her backyard into a lavish fairground for her youngest daughter. The pre-teen was treated to a back yard wonderland which featured a fairground, cotton-candy machine and yurt. Birthday girl: Portia celebrated with a lavish birthday party on Saturday Yummy mommy: Kyle, seen here with sister Kathy Hilton in February, celebrated her youngest daughter's birthday Kyle, 50, who has starred in RHOBH since its premiere in October 2010, shared images of the big celebrations on her Instagram. She posted a picture of Portia, who was wearing jeans and a black gypsy top, captioned: 'Our birthday girl looks so grown up I cant believe it We love you Portia & are so lucky to have been blessed with you . Loved celebrating you today #eleven #11.' The post was liked by her former RHOBH co-star Yolanda Hadid, but none of her co-stars appeared to attend. Fun! The daughter of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star was treated to a back yard wonderland bash The details of the bash were shared on her Instastories, with a pretty yurt by Wondertent Parties being the focus of the event. It featured a sweetly decorated interior, with cushions and fairy lights, and Kyle revealed that Portia slept the night under the Mongolian-style canvas. There were plenty more adrenalin-fuelled activities for the lucky guests too. Yurt style: Kyle, who has starred in RHOBH since its premiere in October 2010, shared images of the big celebrations on her Instagram Inflated: Pink and purple balloons decorated the premises Dancing queens: An inflatable disco dome blasted out music inside Got moves: Portia and her pals were led in dance routines on the back patio Sipping tea: A fairground ride was available for thrill-seekers Lucky girl: The now 11-year-old looked to be enjoying the festivities Celebrations: She partied with her family and friends Wonderful! The decor from Wondertents looked very pretty Star turn: The details were all very well placed Magical: Fairy lights sparkled inside the Mongolian-style yurt Bling! A glitter ball hung above the dance floor in the disco room Family affair: She was seen with her sister Kim Richards Stepping out: The sisters appeared to be having a great time An inflatable disco dome blasted out music inside, with a glitter ball above, and a fairground ride was available for thrill-seekers. Pink and purple balloons decorated the premises and music blasted, while the younger guests were led in a dance routine. Kyle, who was a child actress on Little House On The Prairie, had beef earlier this week with Lisa Vanderpump, after LVP appeared to suggest she - and the other Housewives should be fired from the show. Below a screen-grab showing that Lisa had in fact retweeted a comment which read 'Fire them', Kyle added the word: 'Interesante' and a pipe-smoking cartoon. Lisa Vanderpump says her friendship with fellow Real Housewife Of Beverly Hills Kyle Richards 'finished'. In a new post on her Bravo blog, she wrote that 'for me to put my hand to God and swear on my childrens life and still have my friend disbelieve me is unacceptable.' Over the past season, a huge controversy called Puppy Gate has been simmering with 58-year-old Lisa's pet foundation Vanderpump Dogs at the center. Throwback to 2012: Lisa Vanderpump says her friendship with fellow Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards is over Housewife Dorit Kemsley adopted a pooch called Lucy Lucy Apple Juice from Vanderpump Dogs, but evidently did not get along with her new pet. Lucy was ultimately 'dropped off at a shelter that had euthanasia facilities,' Lisa wrote on her blog - while still giving Dorit the benefit of the doubt. 'I dont believe for one minute that Dorit wouldve knowingly left the puppy in a shelter, but she was guilty of a careless choice,' Lisa maintained. John Blizzard, a 23-year-old employee at Vanderpump Dogs, leaked the scandal onto the grapevine by way of Housewife Teddi Jo Mellencamp. Innocent pooch: Housewife Dorit Kemsley adopted a pooch called Lucy Lucy Apple Juice (left) from Vanderpump Dogs, but evidently did not get along with her new pet The lady herself: Lucy was ultimately 'dropped off at a shelter that had euthanasia facilities,' Lisa wrote on her blog - while still giving Dorit (pictured) the benefit of the doubt 'He was often in contact with her and a gossipy text had been sent, which I witnessed later,' Lisa dished in her Bravo blog. Once the story got out, it ignited a feud that has dominated the latest season of the show, including the cast trip to the Bahamas. Lisa, whose brother Mark committed suicide last year, also shared in the post how painful the mourning process has been. 'I didn't cope': The London native, whose brother Mark (left) committed suicide last year, shared in the post how painful the mourning process has been 'This last year has been extraordinarily challenging and I admit I floundered - I didnt cope - as I wallowed in the depths of depression, having some good days and many bad,' wrote Lisa, adding that where the show was concerned 'I hoped to make it through with close friends but as we have seen, that was not to be.' Of Kyle's accusation of dishonesty, Lisa wrote: 'I assure you, if any of my friends were as vociferous in their statement of innocence, holding up their childrens life...guess what? I would believe them.' The restauranteuse and TV personality remarked of that moment: 'That is where the show started but is ultimately where our friendship finished.' It is currently unconfirmed whether Lisa, who has been on the show since it began in 2010, will return for a 10th season. An elderly couple have become the latest in a string of holidaymakers who have complained about Billie Faiers and Greg Shepherd's wedding party. The pair told The Mirror that the 'yobbish' group spoiled their 12k sunshine break, leaving 'dirty nappies on the beach' and 'throwing stones at sharks,' although there is no suggestion that Billie or Greg did this directly. They are also accused of wearing G-string bikinis to dinner, where swimsuits are not allowed and abusing the free bar. More claims: Billie Faiers' wedding guests have been accused of 'ruining an elderly couple's 12k Maldives trip, leaving dirty nappies on the beach, wearing thongs to dinner and throwing stones at sharks' The news comes a day after Billie, 29 and Greg, 33, denied their party had been 'raucous' saying everyone was 'respectful' after they had been accused of turning 'Paradise into Southend' by other disgruntled holidaymakers last week. But the elderly couple dispute this, saying they were noisy and caused a scene. They said: 'They were screaming and shouting. The noise was awful. We had been told to dress appropriately in the restaurants and bar areas but these girls were parading round in bikinis and g-strings. They said: 'They were screaming and shouting. The noise was awful. We had been told to dress appropriately in the restaurants and bar areas but these girls were parading round in bikinis and g-strings' 'Members of staff would dread them coming in. When they left the whole island breathed a sigh of relief. 'They didn't have to pay for any of the drinks and cocktails and they abused it. We also saw them leave dirty nappies on the beach, discard their rubbish and have loud water fights. A spokesperson for Billie told MailOnline: 'Under no circumstances did Billie and Greg allow any disrespectful behaviour to take place throughout the week of their wedding celebrations. 'These so called complaints are ignorant and unjustified. 'As mentioned numerous times, the Maldives is a very special place to the couple and they have the utmost respect for the islands and their people. 'They behaved appropriately throughout their time there and any suggestion of anything otherwise is incorrect.' The couple tied the knot last Tuesday on the island of Kuramathi in The Maldives. Not impressed: Several guests have now claimed that they felt like 'second class citizens' on the trip and some of the bars and restaurants were closed off to accommodate Billie's wedding party However, several guests have now claimed that they felt like 'second class citizens' on the trip and some of the bars and restaurants were closed off to accommodate Billie's wedding party. They accused guests of swearing and shouting and indeed, a rep for KUONI confirmed to MailOnline that they did have to speak to a handful of guests who were then respectful thereafter. Billie told OK! magazine: 'Other than the days that Nelly and Arthur were born, it was the best day of my life. It was like a fairy tale - all the stress and tears were worth it. She added: 'Its so lovely for me to finally be a Shepherd and share a surname with my children. Marriage ties our little family together completely.' Greg admitted he was blown away by his new wife's beauty at the nuptials, revealing: 'She looked incredible in her dress. Explaining her decision making process behind the gown, which featured a risque sheer panel to showcase her cleavage, Billie said: 'As soon as I tried it on I had "the feeling", when you know you know!' They've toured the world as two of the top performers in their industry. And Beyonce and Jay-Z are set to receive top honors during the 2019 GLAAD Media Awards on March 28 in Los Angeles. The powerful pair will receive the Vanguard Award during the 30th annual benefit as 'global icons and passionate defenders of human rights and acceptance for all people,' according to GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis. Powerful: Beyonce and Jay-Z are set to receive top honors during the 2019 GLAAD Media Awards on March 28 in Los Angeles 'When Beyonce and Jay-Z speak, the world becomes inspired and when it comes to LGBTQ people, their voices of acceptance have been heard loud and clear,' she added. 'We could not be prouder to stand with them to send a message of love during the biggest LGBTQ event in the world and to honor their work to bend the arc of justice forward for LGBTQ people, people of color, and marginalized communities everywhere.' Previous Vanguard Award winners include Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Janet Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Kerry Washington. The award 'is presented to allies who have made a significant difference in promoting acceptance of LGBTQ people,' according to the site. 'Beyonce and Jay-Z are longtime allies and supporters of the LGBTQ community who use their global platforms to share messages that inspire and change the world for the better.' Together: The powerful pair will receive the Vanguard Award during the 30th annual benefit as 'global icons and passionate defenders of human rights and acceptance for all people,' according to GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis; seen during their On The Run II tour 'Beyonce and Jay-Z are longtime allies and supporters of the LGBTQ community who use their global platforms to share messages that inspire and change the world for the better,' according to GLAAD; seen in 2015 Jay-Z and his mother Gloria Carter received a special recognition from GLAAD in 2018 for her coming out story as told through his song Smile. In the track from his 2017 album 4:44, she says, 'You live in the shadows for fear of someone hurting your family or the person you love. The world is changing and they say it's time to be free. But you live with the fear of just being me.' Jay-Z shared his support for his mom in the song, rapping, 'Mama had four kids, but she's a lesbian/Had to pretend so long that she's a thespian/Had to hide in the closet, so she medicate. The award 'is presented to allies who have made a significant difference in promoting acceptance of LGBTQ people,' GLAAD wrote on their website; seen during On The Run II tour 'Society shame and the pain was too much to take/Cried tears of joy when you fell in love/Don't matter to me if it's a him or her.' Beyonce was also noted for her inclusive Formation and All Night videos, in addition to dedicating a performance of Halo 'to the victims and survivors of the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting during The Formation World Tour.' GLAAD also recognized that her athleisure company, Ivy Park, 'proudly showcased transgender actress Laverne Cox as one of the featured faces' in brand promos. The group will also honor Madonna with the Advocate for Change Award during its May 4 event in New York. The happy couple celebrated their 10-year wedding anniversary in April and have three children, Blue Ivy, seven, and twins Rumi and Sir will turn two in July. They have just returned from their first overseas getaway to Paris Fashion week. And Sienna Miller, 37, and her boyfriend Lucas Zwirner, 28, looked the picture of happiness as they shared a kiss during their stroll around the big apple on Sunday. The actress flaunted her edgy sense of style in a pair of blue wide leg trousers styled with a burnt orange sweater and an khaki fluffy lined coat. New romance: Sienna Miller, 37, shared a kiss with her art gallery owner boyfriend Lucas Zwirner, 28, as the couple strolled around New York on Sunday afternoon Sienna continued her casual look by leaving her blonde hair down in loose waves with a middle parting. The natural beauty appeared to be make-up free for her Sunday outing. Her art gallery owner beau also sported an earthy colour palette in a pair of chocolate brown trousers, a forest green padded jacket and a sage green overcoat. Happy couple: The couple kept it casual as they stepped out following their recent trip to Paris The duo opted for comfort by both strolling along the New York pavement in white trainers. Enjoying their new relationship, the Layer Cake star and Lucas lovingly shared a kiss and he showed off his caring side by wrapping his arm around his girlfriend. Lucas is a Yale-educated literature expert who joined the family business to grow his father's eponymous art gallery, David Zwirner Books. He currently oversees 25 book releases a year as editorial director of the company and revealed he plans to extend the gallery to publish more than books. Last year, Sienna gushed to Harper's Bazaar that her ex Tom Sturridge is her 'best friend in the entire world' - and that while they don't share a property, they often stay together to spend mutual time with their little girl. Admitting their close bond has not broken since they cut romantic ties in the summer of 2015 after four years together, she explained: We still love each other... 'I think in a break-up somebody has to be a little bit cruel in order for it to be traditional, but its not been acrimonious in a way where you would choose to not be around that person.' Sienna and Tom first became engaged in 2012, the same year that Marlowe was born - but they called time on their relationship in 2015. Co-parenting: Sienna and Tom first became engaged in 2012, the same year that their daughter Marlowe was born - but they called time on their relationship in 2015 Sofia Richie won't put up with haters on Instagram. When the 20-year-old daughter of Lionel Richie posted a snap with a friend, a troll wrote in the comment section, 'Leave Scott alone and face your future.' That was when Richie, who has been dating Scott Disick for nearly two years, snapped back, 'Leave me alone and face your future.' The look of love: Sofia Richie fired back Sunday at an Instagram commentator who advised her to break off her relationship with Scott Disick; seen in February The original Instagram photo was liked by April Love Geary, 24, who last month gave birth to her second child with her fiance Robin Thicke, 41. Sofia has spent more than a year in a relationship with reality TV heartthrob Scott, who at 35 is a decade and a half her senior. Scott shares three children with Kourtney Kardashian - nine-year-old son Mason, six-year-old daughter Penelope and four-year-old son Reign. Last year, Kourtney's half-sister Kendall Jenner commented on a photo of Scott with Sofia, Mason, Penelope, and Reign: 'Awww Scott and his kids'. Getting attention: The 20-year-old daughter of Lionel Richie posted a snap with a friend, only for a viewer to comment: 'Leave Scott alone and face your future' Striking back: To the delight of several other commentators on the post, Sofia imaginatively replied: 'leave me alone and face your future' Kourtney and Scott, who were introduced by Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis in 2006, went on and off before finally breaking off the romance in 2015. The original Instagram photo was liked by April Love Geary, 24, who last month gave birth to her second child with her fiance Robin Thicke, 41 Like Scott, Kourtney, 39, has a penchant for picking drastically younger people to date - she recently ran around with 25-year-old Algerian model Younes Bendjima. Kourtney and Younes broke up last year, and since then she was linked 21-year-old model Luka Sabbat - but he told The Cut last month: 'We're definitely not dating.' 'She's 19. When you're 19 you know everything,' Lionel told Sydney's Daily Telegraph last year with regard to Sofia's relationship. 'Is it going to be for life? I don't know. But for right now it's just a phase and I'm going to stand real still in the corner, get me a good drink and not make too much noise.' He dished: 'Now I know what my parents meant when I came through the door with my Afro and my girlfriend and said: "Dad, I'm in love" and [he] looked at me and said: "Okay, we're going to leave you alone for a minute and you'll figure it out." My daughter is getting me back for my Afro days!' Sophie Perry, the daughter of actor Luke Perry, was spotted out in Los Angeles with her mom Rachel 'Minnie' Sharp on Sunday. The 18-year-old and her mother, who was married to the actor for 10 years, were seen as they made a quick coffee break at a Starbucks in Studio City. Their outing comes as reports claim the family is planning to lay the star to rest soon at Los Angeles' Forest Lawn Cemetery. Living on: Luke Perry's daughter Sophie was seen out with her mom Minnie on Sunday grabbing coffee in Studio City, California ahead of the late actors funeral Luke died unexpectedly a week ago on Monday March 4 at the age of 52, after suffering a stroke days prior. Sophie and her mom Minnie looked somber as they stepped out for a caffeine fix during this difficult time. Minnie has been a 'rock' for her young daughter as she copes with the loss of her father. Last week, Sophie took to social media to thank her mom for holding her up following Perry's death. Mourning: The family is still dealing with the loss of the star who died unexpectedly following a stroke a week ago Family: Luke and Minnie were married for 10 years and share two adult children together; the relationship following their split remained amicable In the caption Sophie wrote: 'You all know my dad is a super star, but I just want to share for a moment that I got really f***ing lucky in the parental department because this is my mom. Minnie. Who also happens to be my best friend. Wow, how cliche, I know. 'And she is the rock for everybody grieving in this family right now. Shes the toughest and sweetest and most amazing woman I or anyone else has ever met. 'How did I get so lucky to have two icons for parents? I love you mom and I could not get through this absolute s*** situation without you. None of us could.' Luke and Rachel married in November 1993 in Beverly Hills before separating in 2003. They also have a 21-year-old named Jack together. Support: On International Women's Day, Sophie took to social media to thank her mom for being 'a rock' for the family as they grieve Later on Monday, Sophie revealed that she hasn't enjoyed all of the attention she has been receiving via post to social media. 'Since my dad died I have received a lot of attention online. And most of it has been positive but of course, some people just cant be nice,' began her Instagram post. 'And Im here to say that I did not ask for this attention, I did not ask to be thrown into some virtual spotlight, and while I dont mean to offend anybody, Im also not going to cater to any one elses needs and beliefs. Im 18. I swear like a sailor and sometimes I dress like a hooker.' She went on to explain that she intends 'to laugh and smile and live [her] normal life,' despite the tragedy that she is facing, and even though she's 'torn the f*** up over it,' she's 'not going to sit in [her] room and cry day in and day out until the internet has deemed it appropriate for [her] to do otherwise.' She added, 'if you knew my dad you would know he wouldnt want me to. So you shouldnt either. So to those of you shaming me for my language and my wardrobe and most disgustingly, my grieving process, do us both the favor and just unfollow. Its a waste of both of your time.' Unwanted attention: Later on Monday, Sophie revealed that she hasn't enjoyed all of the attention she has been receiving via post to social media According to a recent report, the family of the 90210 actor plans to have him buried at the famed Forest Law Cemetery which inters stars like Lucille Ball and, more recently, Carrie Fisher, among countless others. A source told RadarOnline that the family wants 'to honor him like the icon he is and they are hoping to have a service that will reflect that.' The insider went on to explain that the Perry family is hoping Luke's industry friends would be in attendance, as that is what he would have wanted. According to the source, 'They want it to be a grand sending-off and they want fans to have the opportunity to visit him and pay their respects.' Father daughter duo: Since Luke's passing, Sophie has used social media to pay tribute to her loving father Laid to rest: Sources told RadarOnline that Perry's family plans on having him buried at Los Angeles' famed Forest Lawn Cemetery Since the Riverdale star's untimely death last week, there has been an overwhelming outpouring of grief and tributes among Hollywood and beyond. Luke's fiancee Wendy Madison Bauer broke her silence over the loss of her love over the weekend. Bauer joined Jack and Minnie at a restaurant near in Studio City, California, on Friday evening. The family dinner came the night before Bauer broke her silence about losing the man she'd been secretly dating for nearly 12 years. In a statement to People published Saturday, the 44-year-old said: 'I want to express my gratitude to everyone for the outpouring of love and support. Support: Since the 90210 star's death, there has been an outpouring of love and support from Hollywood and regular people who'd been impacted by his life 'The countless, heartwarming stories of Luke's generosity and kindness have been a great source of solace during this difficult time. 'The past 11 years with Luke were the happiest years of my life, and I am grateful to have had that time with him. 'I also want to thank his children, family, and friends for their love and support. 'We have found comfort in one another and in the knowledge that our lives were touched by an extraordinary man. He will be dearly missed.' Gwyneth Paltrow took part in a featured session during the South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas on Monday. The 46-year-old beauty looked chic in a dark beige turtleneck with a long black leather skirt and sling-back heels. This comes after the wife of American Horror Story producer Brad Falchuk told the Today show that she is a 'mess.' On stage: Gwyneth Paltrow took part in a featured session during the South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas on Monday Sleek: The 46-year-old beauty looked chic in a dark beige turtleneck with a long black leather skirt and sling-back heels The Oscar-winning actress told Savannah Guthrie she works hard to change. 'Im a mess,' she told Savannah with a laugh. 'I always feel like Ive been very open about my learnings, my shortcomings, my mistakes. I think we are all in process. 'And were all starting at different places. And I think I am actually a person who tries to look for ways to support people and offer solutions and ideas.' A mess, really? The Oscar-winning actress told Savannah Guthrie she works hard to change. 'Im a mess,' she told Savannah with a laugh FrankL 'I always feel like Ive been very open about my learnings, my shortcomings, my mistakes. I think we are all in process,' said the Emma star And the Iron Man actress added that she had to take a hard look at herself when GOOP launched 11 years ago because she was entering a whole new world far from what she knew in Hollywood. 'Ive had to constantly shed my ego along the way because Ive had to come to terms with how much I didnt know,' she admitted. 'I made so many mistakes along the way to learning what Ive learned.' While Gwyneth admitted to having a vision for Goop, she did not anticipate its success. She's a giver: 'And were all starting at different places. And I think I am actually a person who tries to look for ways to support people and offer solutions and ideas,' said the ex of Ben Affleck Daring: And the Iron Man actress added that she had to take a hard look at herself when GOOP launched 11 years ago because she was entering a whole new world far from what she knew in Hollywood Ego free: 'Ive had to constantly shed my ego along the way because Ive had to come to terms with how much I didnt know,' she admitted. 'I made so many mistakes along the way to learning what Ive learned' 'I think had a secret dream that it would become what its become,' she said. 'But when I started 10 years ago, I had absolutely no idea. I just had a vision but I had no idea how to get there, how to execute on it.' Her focus has now turned to being an involved businesswomen and putting her efforts towards growing the company. 'I think that I am an optimistic boss,' Gwyneth said. 'I think that I am an constantly hoping for the highest good for all.' The ex of Brad Pitt also clarified that she has not completely given up on movies. That GOOPy look: The Sliding Doors actress had a deep summer tan and wore her hair slicked back into a ponytail 'Ive never said that I am quitting acting,' Gwyneth said. She continued: 'What I say is goop is my full-time passion. Being the founder and CEO of Goop is what I do all day every day. 'Occasionally when something is right and it works out around my children and my life,' she said. 'I think I am just not focused on full-time acting right now.' Gwyneth took Savannah around the Goop Health summit in New York on Saturday. Demi Moore and Elle Macpherson also attended. Tickets to attend the summit started at an astounding $1,000 and during the day the women got matching ear piercings and Savannah received a vitamin B12 injection. Success: Gwyneth started her lifestyle brand in 2008 and it has since grown to be a business worth $250 million Alyssa Milano has sparked anger with a tweet she posted on Friday in honor of International Women's Day. The actress' initial tweet was harmless enough as she wrote: 'My transgender sisters! I am celebrating YOU this #NationalWomensDay!' A user replied asking, 'Alyssa are you transgender?' which is when Alyssa, 46, responded with a tweet saying that she is 'everything'. Controversy: Alyssa Milano raised eyebrows on Twitter over the weekend after she claimed to be transgender 'I'm trans. I'm a person of color. I'm an immigrant. I'm a lesbian. I'm a gay man. I'm the disabled. I'm everything. And so are you, Kirk,' she wrote, adding, 'Don't be afraid of what you dont know or understand. No one wants to hurt you. We are all just looking for our happily ever after.' Despite clearly not meaning it in the literal sense, the former Charmed star attracted much criticism for her tweet, with many pointing out her place of privilege as a successful white woman. One follower replied: 'No. You are an advocate. Be ok with that. This isn't the way to say you are with us. You can't just fake an experience you dont have. 'I'm everything': Alyssa replied to a person who asked if she was transgender after she showed support for the community calling them her sisters Alyssa was accused of 'faking experiences' after writing she was transgender, a person of color, an immigrant and disabled 'You don't navigate any space like these groups. This is the 'I dont see color' approach which is oppression and erasure,' 'How about stop focusing on identity politics and simply recognize each person's individual dignity void of these 'progressive'markers of victimhood? Stop adhering to the 'I'm a victim therefore I am' ethos.' came another tweet. Another user chimed in: 'Had no idea you were a transgender. And you have the narcissism to think you can relate to everyone's life. No youre a white woman who feels that she needs to be ashamed so she takes on the role of hating herself to make sure no one hates her. Facts.' A particularly scathing response came from YouTuber Rob Gavagan, who tweeted: 'Supporting trans people, people of color, immigrants, lesbians, gay men, and disabled people is all well and good. Claiming to BE them just because you 'love' them is just sort of asinine and perverts the idea of being an ally. 'I support disabled people. Doesnt mean Im disabled ... And to say that I am disabled in ANY way is a lie and entirely unhelpful to the people you claim to support. This isn't St. Paddys day where 'everyones Irish for a day!' This is real world s**t. So perhaps you should choose a more tactful way to be supportive. This is repugnant.' A particularly scathing response came from YouTuber named Rob Gavagan After receiving a barrage of complaints Alyssa tweeted again, 'Im glad this tweet invoked conversation. Im so sorry it offended some, 'I see you and hear you. But just a reminder, empathy is not a bad thing. Nuance is important and literal interpretation is not always intended. And I can identify with and not identify as. Both are powerful.' She later explained that she was inspired by a Rumi quote. 'The great Rumi quote was my intention!' she wrote, including an earlier post with some words from the poet reading 'This is a subtle truth. Whatever you love, you are.' With their relationships falling apart on Married At First Sight, Tamara Joy and Susie Bradley certainly have a lot to talk about. So it's perhaps unsurprising that tensions flared between the two women when they met for lunch in Barangaroo, Sydney on Monday. Tamara, 29, and Susie, 25, looked animated during their catch-up, perhaps sharing horror stories from their disastrous TV 'marriages'. A lot to talk about? Tensions flared between Married At First Sight's Susie Bradley (pictured) and Tamara Joy on Monday when they met for lunch in Barangaroo, Sydney Susie, who was paired with Billy Vincent on MAFS but is now dating disgraced NRL star Todd Carney, glared at her co-star during their chat. Meanwhile, Tamara appeared rather downcast and stony-faced as they exchanged words at a trendy outdoor cafe. During the outing, Susie wore a chic floral blouse and skintight skirt, while Tamara rocked a low-cut black singlet and flared pants. Plenty to discuss: Tamara, 29, and Susie, 25, looked animated during their catch-up, perhaps sharing horror stories from their disastrous TV 'marriages' It does not appear the two women were angry at each other, however, and they were likely just discussing their tumultuous few weeks in the spotlight. They actually seemed to perk up later in the trip, and were seen smiling and laughing as they strolled arm-in-arm through Barangaroo. There's no doubt they had plenty to discuss, with their respective relationships falling apart on the show amid cheating and arguments. It's not you, it's me! The two women did not appear to be angry with each other, however, and were likely discussing their tumultuous few weeks in the spotlight Betrayed: Tamara is currently involved in an affair storyline on Married At First Sight, with her 'husband' Dan Webb running off with another bride Trout pout: Susie's overly plumped lips were on display as she chatted to her co-star Tamara Tamara is set to be blindsided on MAFS when she discovers her husband Dan Webb is having an affair with fellow contestant Jessika Power. Meanwhile, Susie's 'marriage' to mild-mannered barista Billy Vincent has been a trainwreck from the very start. She has relentlessly picked on her spouse and accused him of being a serial liar, even reducing him to tears during homestays. It's not all doom and gloom! The two women seemed to perk up later in the trip, and were seen smiling and laughing as they strolled arm-in-arm through Barangaroo Here come the girls! During the outing, Susie wore a chic floral blouse and skintight skirt, while Tamara rocked a low-cut black singlet and flared pants Shocking: Tamara is set to be blindsided on MAFS when she discovers her husband Dan Webb is having an affair with fellow contestant Jessika Power Taking a stand: During an appearance on Channel Nine's Today Extra earlier this week, Tamara said that Dan needs to 'grow up' Of course, it's not the first time Tamara and Susie have been spotted in public together. Late last month, they were pictured on shopping trip in Sydney's Chatswood, with Tamara looking visibly emotional. The human resources manager appeared to be on the verge of tears and was comforted by her friend. The sighting came just days before Tamara's 'husband' Dan was due to face Brisbane Magistrates Court on an aggravated fraud charge. Married At First Sight continues Tuesday at 7:30pm on Channel Nine 'And then he said, "I went surfing two months ago!"' There's no doubt Tamara and Susie had plenty to discuss, with their respective relationships spectacularly falling apart on the show Fast friends! It's not the first time Tamara and Susie have been spotted in public together. Late last month, they were pictured on shopping trip in Sydney's Chatswood She always has everyone talking about her love life, unsurprisingly as the host of the steamiest show of the summer. Yet Caroline Flack was in her element as she strutted her stuff under the bright sunshine when she joined a female friend, in New York City on Monday The Love Island host, 39, exhibited her toned legs in a tiny denim miniskirt which was fraying at the edges and subsequently framing her pins nicely. Girls' getaway! Caroline Flack flashed her legs in a barely-there miniskirt as she swapped the streets of London for New York City on Monday Although she opted for a bare leg in the breezy temperatures, the presenter stuffed her hands into the pockets of a tan coat which had a hood lined with faux fur. The TV personality stayed under the radar with a trendy baker boy cap pulled over her caramel coloured tresses and she peered out of her circular shades. On the lookout for adventure, the former West End star trotted through the busy streets in a pair of chunky boots. Stay warm: She opted for a bare leg in the breezy temperatures, the presenter stuffed her hands into the pockets of a tan coat which had a hood lined with faux fur She's stylish: She always has everyone talking about her love life, unsurprisingly as the host of the steamiest show of the summer Feeling shy? The TV personality stayed under the radar with a trendy baker boy cap pulled over her caramel coloured tresses and she peered out of her circular shades Soon after, the former X Factor presenter joined by her leggy brunette female pal while on the move and she grabbed a cold coffee for their trip. The ladies were happy in each other's company as they made the most of their girls' getaway in New York City. Caroline has been sharing her favourite spots of the Big Apple with her fans as she documents her trip on social media. A sign post outside a shop that caught her eye read: 'I fell in love not with anyone or anything but with everything.' Good pals: Soon after, the former X Factor presenter joined by her leggy brunette female pal while on the move and she grabbed a cold coffee for their trip Great times: The ladies were happy in each other's company as they made the most of their girls' getaway in New York City Cheeky! Caroline's love life has been on everybody's lips recently, with the latest report claiming she locked lips with a music mogul at a party Letting her hair down: Caroline has been sharing her favourite spots of the Big Apple with her fans as she documents her trip on social media Caroline's love life has been on everybody's lips recently, with the latest report claiming she locked lips with a music mogul at a party. A source told The Sun that the Caroline, who was rumoured to be taking her personal trainer Bradley Simmonds, was having a lot of fun during the night. The insider said: 'Caroline and the manager are old friends. They had been flirting all night and shared a cheeky kiss. She was having lots of fun.' In the candid interview, the Love Island host, who was recently linked to AJ Pritchard, 24, also admitted she will 'never apologise for dating younger men'. Posted: A sign post outside a shop that caught her eye read, 'I fell in love not with anyone or anything but with everything' Picture perfect: Caroline peered out of her circular shaped sunglasses as she took in all of her surroundings with a look of awe on her face Relaxed: The Love Island beauty spread her arms out wide on the balcony as she posed up a storm in front of the idyllic backdrop of New York City No fuss here! Caroline threw her arms up in the air which ensured all of her followers' eyes were on her fantastic figure Kourtney Kardashian has a new business venture named Poosh, which was inspired by her daughter Penelope's nickname. The 39-year-old got the attention of her social media followers last week when she shared a first image for the brand. The star was wearing no clothing as she sat on her bathroom countertop. And on Monday the mother-of-three posted more photos from the company. The caption read, 'Name: Penelope, Nickname: Poosh.' Fresh: Kourtney Kardashian has a new business venture named Poosh, which was inspired by her daughter Penelope's nickname, on Instagram. On Monday she shared new images Clean: One photo saw the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star in a bubble bath. She was nicely made up with her hair down and her makeup done perfectly with brown eyeshadow and matching lipstick. Her daughter Penelope was off to the side One photo saw the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star in a bubble bath. She was nicely made up with her hair down and her makeup done perfectly with brown eye shadow and matching lipstick. Her daughter Penelope was off to the side in her nightgown as she had bubbles on her hand while touching her mother's hair. Fun with collage: In another photo Kourtney is in a tub but instead of water there are silver crystals. The copy reads, 'Educate, motivate, create, curate' In another photo Kourtney is in a tub but instead of water there are silver crystals. The copy reads, 'Educate, motivate, create, curate.' There are also pink flowers over her chest. Then there is a photo of Penelope with her cousin North and another little friend as they play Tug-of-War at a party. Silly: Then there is a photo of Penelope with her cousin North and another little friend as they play Tug-of-War at a party In her first snap, she used a tea cup and strategically placed laptop to preserve her modesty. The siren's hair was wrapped in a white towel. She didn't reveal any details about the nature of the company, simply asking fans to sign up to her website to find out more. But now it seems she is working on a site that has to do with being a working mother. Her naked ambition: Kourtney teased her new business venture called Poosh on Instagram a week ago Proud of their star: Poosh's official Instagram page teased: 'This isn't a monologue, it's a dialogue.' She is looking at the site which has a photo of her next to a piece of her art work Poosh's official Instagram page teased: 'This isn't a monologue, it's a dialogue.' All she wrote in her caption, 'C O M I N G. S O O N.' This is her latest venture after working onPrettyLittleThings and representing Manuka Doctor. And earlier in the week Kourtney joined ex partner Scott Disick when she headed to This isn't the first time Kourtney has dabbled with a lifestyle brand, with her and other Kardashian sisters launching their own apps. Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian and Kendall Jenner launched their own apps in September 2015, with Kourtney not launching hers until December 2015. The apps featured plenty of content about each of the sisters, everything from their favorite recipes and life hacks, with Kourtney promising insights into her flair for 'interior design,' and 'insight into my mom life.' A photo collage: Here there was work done to her photo which was split into a grid In December 2018, all of the sisters announced they were shutting down their apps, effective January 2019, so the sisters could create even more new ventures. The family has been reeling ever since they learned family friend Jordyn Woods 'made out' with Khloe's beau Tristan Thompson on February 17 at his home in Los Angeles. Woods made the situation ever more tense when she gave an interview to Jada Pinkett Smith on Red Table Talk on Friday. The beauty - who was given her start in the modeling world by Khloe - cried as she claimed all she did was briefly kiss Tristan on the lips after she partied with him until 7 am. Khloe quickly called Woods a 'liar' and also said she was hurt that someone she considered a sister would do this to her. Real tears? Woods made the situation ever more tense when she gave an interview to Jada Pinkett Smith on Red Table Talk on Friday. The beauty - who was given her start in the modeling world by Khloe - cried as she claimed all she did was briefly kiss Tristan on the lips after she partied with him until 7 am The 34-year-old Good American designer also set blame on Tristan, with whom she has daughter True, aged 11 months. The couple have since split up. Kourtney doesn't seem to have publicly commented on the scandal. But Kim has told friends she is 'livid' with Woods and Thompson. And on Monday People reported that West has cut them out of his life. It was added he feels like the 'godfather' to the family and wants to protect Khloe. Karlie Kloss hit the streets of New York City in style on Monday as she made her way to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The Victoria's Secret model, 26, was spotted in not one but two eye-catching black outfits. In the first she went bra-free in a black blazer with a matching skirt. And the second was a tight black dress. All black everything: Karlie Kloss, 26, stunned in a chic satin suit as she walked through New York's SoHo district on Monday As she strolled New York's SoHo district, Karlie was first spotted in a sexy, silk suit. The model walked confidently down the sidewalk wearing a long skirt with a slit running up the left side. And as sexy as the skirt was, her top was even hotter. Stopping traffick: Karlie crossed the street showing some leg through her slit skirt Leggy: She also shared a sexy Instagram picture wearing this outfit, posing in a chair while she spoke on the phone Karlie paired the bottom with a matching black blazer, which plunged low on the neckline. Showing off her chest, Kloss tightened the top with a gold and black belt around her waist. The blonde also wore a matching bracelet and pointed off-white kitten heels. The entrepreneur turned heads as she dashed across the street, revealing a good look at her long, toned legs while doing so. Style icon: Karlie later put on a black dress that laid just above her knees as she headed to her interview Not a care in the world: Karlie was unfazed by her adoring fans who paused to get a good look at the supermodel Best foot forward: Karlie - who is married to Jared Kusher's brother Joshua - flashed a wave for on-lookers Looking back: Her dress featured a split at the rear which showcased her legs Rearly nice: The dress clung in all the right places Later on, Karlie did a quick outfit change into another all black look. The second of the outfits was a black, tight fitted dress, that also portrayed a low cut neckline. With long sleeves and a string tied on top, Karlie rocked the dress, while fans snapped her picture as she sauntered by. Her short blonde hair accompanied Karlie's sly smile that she flashed into the cameras. Fallon, 44, will be joined by the blonde beauty on his latest episode, airing Monday night. Ready to chat: Karlie promoted her time with Jimmy Fallon in an Instagram story posted on Monday Tune in: Jimmy shared with his followers who to expect on his show Monday night, including Kloss Elegant: She had perfected her model stance while Jimmy was trying to get the hang of it Looks familiar! She posed in the style of Taylor Swift as she waited backstage for Fallon Real jitters: She admitted to having nerves while her make-up was being done Joking about: The star pulled a face in the mirror as she had her make-up touched up And in a Instagram video teasing her time on set, Jimmy revealed him and Kloss will be playing a new game called the jinx challenge. Karlie's appearance is also sure to be filled with talks about season 17 of Bravo's catwalk competition, Project Runway. The bombshell is the show's new host, replacing Heidi Klum. During an interview with DailyMailTV's senior corespondent Alicia Quarles, the New York University graduate revealed she has 'a lot to share' with the next generation of designers. Get excited: Kloss talked with DailyMailTV's Alicia Quarles about all of the exciting things viewers can expect from the new season of Project Runway The statuesque model told Alicia, 'I've been able to learn from the most incredible designers and editors and photographers. 'I feel like as a model and as someone in the industry I just have so much to share,' she explained. Season 17 marks the show's return to Bravo after an 11 season stint on Lifetime. It also features fresh talent, after series regulars Zac Posen, Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum departed at the end of last season. Feast your eyes: Nina Garcia, 53, Elaine Welteroth, 32, Brandon Maxwell 34, and Christian Siriano, 33 posed alongside Karlie while promoting the show Project Runway veteran Nina Garcia, 53, said she was 'so honored' to be returning to the show this year. Series newcomer Brandon Maxwell, 34, who will join Garcia and beauty guru Elaine Welteroth, 32, as judges said he is looking forward to being 'able to help someone' in the series. The new season of Project Runway premiered Thursday March 14 at 8pm on Bravo. Selena Gomez plugged the record label Friends Keep Secrets on Monday. The brunette bombshell, 26, wore her hair down and had on red lipstick as she looked away from the camera on her Instagram Stories. The Texas native - who is working on her first album since her ex Justin Bieber married Vogue model Hailey Baldwin - also shared the handle for the label, @friendskeepsecrets, on another close-up shot. Something new: Selena Gomez plugged the record label Friends Keep Secrets on Monday. The brunette bombshell, 26, wore her hair down and had on red lipstick as she looked away from the camera on her Instagram Stories Gomez was in a black turtleneck with a light grey coat, adding silver hoop earrings. In her next shot she is looking through a foggy window as if she is spying on someone from afar. That is when she names the Instagram handle for Friends Keep Secrets. The third new image is of her blowing on the window to make it steamy. Her lips look very large as they must be overlined. Click this: In her next shot she is looking through a foggy window as if she is spying on someone from afar. That is when she names the Instagram handle for Friends Keep Secrets Lip service: The third new image is of her blowing on the window to make it steamy. Her lips look very large as they must be overlined It's been a week since she shared her new sing, the breathy I Can't Get Enough. And the former Wizards Of Waverly Place star had a look for the single. She slipped into silky light pink pajamas to plug the tune, which will certainly be a favorite in the club world. Her hair was worn half up/half down as she sat on an oversized bed. Her moment to shine: Gomez has a new look for her new song, the breathy I Can't Get Enough Team: The Texas native has collaborated with J Balvin, benny blanco and Latin Grammy-winning producer Tainy This is the beauty's first new song since September 2018's Taki Taki with DJ Snake. The Texas native has collaborated with J Balvin, benny blanco and Latin Grammy-winning producer Tainy. She is seen in several images on a ridiculously large bed with white sheets as she creates a slumber party environment. The tune has suggestive lyrics such as, 'I like that baby, yeah, we can keep it low key as long as you're with me, incredible unforgettable... keep your body on me,' are some of her lyrics. Tainy is the producer behind Cardi Bs I Like It hit song. Sexy time: The tune has suggestive lyrics such as, 'I like that baby, yeah, we can keep it low key as long as you're with me, incredible unforgettable... keep your body on me,' are some of her lyrics Work started on the song in December. 'Im extremely excited about this track, and helping put this collab together, especially since it was created so smoothly and organically,' Tainy said in a statement. 'Its a fun piece that everyone involved loved off top, and its going to make people feel good.' He also said of Gomez: 'She's a queen. It's such an honor to have her on my first single. It's insane. Hopefully, we can continue to do some more work together.' 'She's amazing! Such a humble girl,' Balvin told ET. 'Great person. Im really happy shes the way she is.' Her ex: The star was relentlessly linked to Justin Bieber, whom she split from a year ago. He quickly went on to propose to model Hailey Baldwin and the two wed in New York City over the summer The song is available on Spotify and can be download on iTunes. Gomez has not made much music since getting mental health help last year. She has kept a low profile as she has worked on herself. The star was relentlessly linked to Justin Bieber, whom she split from a year ago. He quickly went on to propose to model Hailey Baldwin and the two wed in New York City over the summer. Hailey and Justin have since been going to therapy often to deal with past issues. Over the weekend Bieber admitted he was battling depression and was going to work through it. He had said he feels 'disconnected and weird.' Because Justin and Selena often sing about each other, it's likely her next album will include her painful split from the Canadian artist. Channel Nine went into crisis mode last week, releasing statements denying this year's cast of Married at First Sight are 'professional actors'. However, one former MAFS participant says the controversy is all just a case of semantics and that while the 2019 stars are not paid to act, they are indeed 'acting'. Matty Lockett, the 'runaway groom' from last year's season, revealed in an Instagram Q&A on Monday that contestants are aware they will get more airtime if they bring 'drama' to the show. 'They're all acting!' A former Married at First Sight star has revealed the 'truth' behind rumours this year's cast are 'paid performers'. Pictured: Billy Vincent in a 2012 McDonald's commercial 'They're all acting, but they're not being paid to act,' he said in response to a fan who asked, 'Do you think they must be paid actors? Must be!' He added: 'They're all acting because they think they're gonna be the next big thing. 'They all know for a fact that they only show the drama [on TV]... [Jules Robinson and Cameron Merchant], they're the only ones who are in love and you never see them because they're boring. The rest of them are just acting out drama.' Matty Lockett, the 'runaway groom' from last year's season, revealed in an Instagram Q&A on Monday that contestants are aware they will get more airtime if they bring 'drama' to the show Daily Mail Australia has contacted Channel Nine for comment. Matty appeared on the 2018 season of MAFS and he's not alone in believing that this year's contestants are putting on a show for the cameras. Last month, Cyrell Paule accused her co-stars - including her own 'husband' Nic Jovanovic - of only being on the show to gain Instagram followers and launch media careers. 'They're honestly thinking they're going to be the next Nicole Kidman and Brad Pitt... and they just want Instagram followers!' she told Woman's Day's podcast. And... action! Daily Mail Australia's revealed last that eight current MAFS cast members are also part-time actors. Pictured: Melissa Lucarelli on set of Channel Seven's Home and Away 'You guys think you're going to end up at the Oscars or something? This is like maximum six months... settle down,' she added. On Thursday, Married At First Sight's executive producer John Walsh denied reports the show hired 'paid actors'. 'The suggestion that any of them were hired as performers to appear on Married At First Sight is categorically untrue,' he told 9Honey. Remember this? Sam Ball also played an extra on Home and Away last year Walsh's statement came after Daily Mail Australia revealed that eight current MAFS cast members are also part-time actors. Billy Vincent, a model and barista from Byron Bay, appeared in a McDonald's advert that aired across Australia in 2012. Dino Hira has also starred in various TV shows as well as the 2018 movie Eleven Days. Playing the part? Tamara is portrayed as the innocent wife of 'bad boy' Dan Webb (left) Acting ambition: Interestingly, she has an active StarNow profile (pictured) which describes her as 'actor, extra and model' Fellow 2019 stars Melissa Lucarelli and Sam Ball both previously appeared as extras on Home and Away. And Gold Cost-based electrician Mike Gunner once played a gun-toting criminal in a low-budget movie. Tamara Joy, meanwhile, has an active StarNow profile which describes her as 'actor, extra and model'. Indonesian Siti Aisyah waves to the press after her return to Jakarta having been freed by a Malaysian court An Indonesian woman accused of assassinating the North Korean leader's half-brother was freed Monday after Malaysian prosecutors dropped a murder charge against her, in a shock decision that delighted her friends and family. Siti Aisyah smiled as she was ushered into a car outside the court, where she had been on trial for a year and a half alongside a Vietnamese woman for the 2017 murder of Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur airport. "I feel happy. I did not know this will happen. I did not expect it," said the 27-year-old, who earlier hugged her tearful Vietnamese co-accused, Doan Thi Huong, in the dock when the news was announced. Indonesian officials mounted a major diplomatic effort to free Aisyah, which included pressure from the president. The Indonesian justice minister had written to Malaysia's attorney general seeking her release, citing problems with the case, and he agreed last week. Elite Malaysian police secure the court hearing the North Korea assassination case The women had always denied murder, saying they were tricked by North Korean spies into carrying out the Cold War-style hit using VX nerve agent, and believed it was a prank for a reality TV show. Their lawyers presented them as scapegoats, saying that authorities were unable to catch the real killers. Four North Koreans -- formally accused of the murder alongside the women -- fled Malaysia shortly after the assassination. The trial, which began in October 2017, had been due to resume Monday with the defence stage of proceedings after a break of several months. But at the start of the hearing at Shah Alam High Court, prosecutor Muhammad Iskandar Ahmad requested that the murder charge against Aisyah be withdrawn and she be given a discharge, without providing a reason. Indonesian Siti Aisyah adjusts hear headscarf during a press conference on her return to Indonesia The judge agreed to a discharge not amounting to an acquittal, and ordered Aisyah's immediate release. This means Aisyah has not been formally cleared of the charge and could, in theory, be re-arrested. The news was a surprise as the court had only been scheduled to hear Huong testify Monday, and the Vietnamese woman was left in shock that she was not released alongside Aisyah. "I do not know what will happen to me now. I am innocent -- please pray for me," the 30-year-old said. Her testimony was adjourned Monday as her lawyers said they would also apply to get the charge against her dropped. - Homecoming party - Aisyah arrived later Monday in Jakarta, where she was reunited with parents. In her hometown of Sindangsari on Java island, there was shock and delight as word spread of her release. "We've heard the news and we're so happy. We're getting a celebration ready!" her aunt Darmi, who goes by one name, told AFP. Vietnamese national Doan Thi Huong is escorted into the Malaysian court hearing the assassination trial Indonesia often makes concerted diplomatic efforts to free its citizens detained overseas, particularly those who may face the death penalty. Speaking at the Indonesian embassy in Malaysia, Indonesian Justice Minister Yasonna Laoly reeled off a list of figures in government -- from President Joko Widodo to the foreign minister -- who had pushed for Aisyah's release. A murder conviction carries a mandatory penalty of death by hanging in Malaysia. The government vowed last year to abolish capital punishment but has yet to amend the law. There does not appear to have been any such aggressive lobbying effort from Vietnam for Huong, however. Vietnam generally does not get publicly involved in individual criminal cases overseas, and foreign affairs officials did not respond to AFPs request for comment Monday. In the first stage of the trial that ran until August last year, prosecutors presented their case. Witnesses described how the victim -- the estranged half-brother of Kim Jong Un and once seen as heir apparent to the North Korean leadership -- died in agony shortly after being attacked. Prosecutors said Aisyah and Huong were well-trained assassins but their lawyers argued the four North Koreans were the masterminds, and provided them with poison on the day of the murder. South Korea has accused the North of ordering the hit, which Pyongyang denies. Malaysia had been one of the nuclear-armed North's few allies but the assassination badly damaged ties, and led to the countries expelling each other's ambassadors. burs-sr/fox This handout photograph taken in 1978 and obtained from the Afghan Taliban in 2015 shows the late Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar posing for a portrait when he was a student at a madrassa in Kandahar Taliban founder Mullah Omar lived within walking distance of US bases in Afghanistan for years, according to a new book that suggests embarrassing failures of American intelligence. US and Afghan leaders believed the one-eyed, fugitive leader fled to and eventually died in Pakistan, but a new biography says Omar was living just three miles from a major US base in Zabul province, where he died in 2013. The Afghan government has vehemently denied the claims in "Searching for an Enemy", by Dutch journalist Bette Dam, -- but the Taliban, who are currently in talks with Washington in Doha, told AFP the book's claim that Omar remained in Afghanistan is "true". Dam -- who spent years reporting in Afghanistan and has also written a book about former Afghan president Hamid Karzai -- described the Taliban chief as a virtual hermit, refusing visits from his family and filling notebooks with jottings in an imaginary language. She spent more than five years researching the book and interviewed Omar's bodyguard Jabbar Omari, who claimed to have hid and protected him after the Taliban regime was overthrown. Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001 which led to the fall of the Taliban, the US put a $10 million bounty on Omar and he went into hiding in a small compound in the regional capital Qalat, Dam wrote. The family living at the compound were not told of the identity of their mystery guest, but US forces almost found him twice. At one point, a US patrol approached as Omar and Omari were in the courtyard. Alarmed, the two men ducked behind a wood pile, but the soldiers passed without entering. A second time, US troops even searched the house but did not uncover the concealed entrance to his secret room. Omar decided to move when the US started building Forward Operating Base Lagman in 2004, just a few hundred metres from his hideout. He later moved to a second building but soon afterwards the Pentagon constructed Forward Operating Base Wolverine -- home to 1,000 US troops, and where American and British special forces were sometimes based -- close by. He dared not move again, Dam says, rarely going outside and often hiding in tunnels when US planes flew over. Though he listened to the BBC's evening Pashto-language news broadcasts, even when Omar learned about the death of al-Qaeda supremo Osama Bin Laden he rarely commented on the outside world, the book says. It says he delegated Taliban leadership after 2001, acting more as a spiritual leader to the group. The book claims that Omar became ill in 2013 and refused to travel to Pakistan for treatment, later dying in Zabul. - 'Piles of evidence' - The Afghan government said it "strongly" rejected the "delusional" claim. "(W)e see it as an effort to create and build an identify for the Taliban and their foreign backers," tweeted Haroon Chakhansuri, a spokesman for the Afghan presidency. "We have sufficient evidence which shows he lived and died in Pakistan. Period!" Former CIA director and US military commander in Afghanistan David Petraeus also appeared sceptical. "I would be very surprised if Mullah Omar would have taken the risk that we could come calling some evening," said Petraeus, according to the Wall Street Journal. "I have piles & piles of evidence which shows he lived & died in Pakistan," tweeted Amrullah Saleh, who was head of Afghan intelligence from 2004-2010. Afghan officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of harbouring Taliban insurgents. For their part, the Taliban -- who at times have been criticised in Afghanistan for their alleged links to Pakistan -- said the claim was accurate. "This is true," militant spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP. "The late Mullah Sahib was in Zabul province all along, and there was an American base nearby, the Americans did carry out a raid there, and he passed away there." Omar's Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, and has waged an insurgency since then. The US and Taliban have remained tight-lipped about the most recent round of talks in Doha, which have been ongoing for two weeks, sparking expectations that they may be inching closer to a deal that could see Washington exit the nearly 18-year conflict. Jean-Pierre Bemba was acquitted last June of charges of murder, rape and pillaging committed by his private army in the neighbouring Central African Republic in 2002-3 Former DR Congo vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba is demanding 68 million euros in compensation from the International Criminal Court following his war crimes acquittal last year, his lawyer said Monday. Lawyers said Bemba's assets -- including seven planes and three villas in Portugal -- were "simply allowed to rot" by the court while he spent a decade behind bars in The Hague. Last June, Bemba was acquitted of charges of murder, rape and pillaging committed by his private army in the neighbouring Central African Republic in 2002-3. A conviction for bribing witnesses was upheld. "An innocent man lost 10 years of his life," lawyer Peter Haynes said in a document sent to the ICC. "The aim is to try to repair some of the damage done to this man and his family by his arrest, his detention and the related actions by the court and certain parties," Haynes added. Bemba returned to his homeland after his acquittal but was barred from running for the opposition in Congolese elections because of the bribery conviction. The compensation demand adds to the troubles of the ICC, which was set up in 2002 to try the world's worst crimes but has faced recent setbacks including the acquittals of Bemba and, in January, former Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo. Haynes pointed out that the demand for 68 million euros ($76.5 million) "is just less than half the annual budget of the court". But Haynes said Bemba was willing to donate 22 million euros -- should he be awarded the full compensation -- "to provide reparations to the people of the Central African Republic." This amount would come from the compensation claimed "for the loss of 10 years of his life." "For 10 years Mr Bemba's assets, which includes amongst other things seven aeroplanes, three villas in Portugal and three parcels of land in the Congo and two boats were simply allowed to rot," said Haynes. Asked about who would foot the bill, Haynes said his client was entitled to compensation as stated in the ICC's founding document, the Rome Statute. "I would hope, and I'm sure the taxpayer would hope, that they sort out some insurance for that. It's not Mr Bemba's fault or my fault if they run their business in a way that they don't try and get insurance for their liabilities," he added. The US special envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun says the US won't settle for incremental denuclearization in its talks with Pyongyang A top US envoy said Monday Washington's goal is the complete denuclearization of North Korea by the end of Donald Trump's first term, insisting it will not settle for incremental disarmament. "We are not going to do denuclearization incrementally," said Stephen Biegun, the special US envoy for North Korea. While stressing he was not bound by an artificial calendar, Biegun said the administration wanted to accomplish the complete and verified denuclearization of North Korea by the end of Trump's term in January 2021. "We stand by the expectation that if we fully mobilize our resources... we could align ourselves in a manner sufficient to achieve this in something approaching a year," he said. "We do have to have a complete declaration," from Pyongyang, he went on. "We will not lift these sanctions until NK completes the process of denuclearization." The US side has included North Korea's chemical and biological weapons in the negotiations with Pyongyang. The envoy said there could be no comprehensive agreement with the North without agreement on each point, adding that there was "complete unity" in the administration on that approach. Speaking at a conference organized by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Biegun said progress had been made despite the failure of Trump's second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, held in Hanoi last month. "The door remains open" for further negotiations, he said, adding, however, that "the North Koreans have to be fully invested." "Nothing can be agreed until everything's agreed," he stressed, while adding that confidence-building measures between the countries could still take place. The outcome in Hanoi last month fell far short of hopes that the meeting would build on the leaders' summit in Singapore in June 2018, which marked a historic first but resulted only in a vague commitment to "work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula." After weeks of building expectations and with a signing ceremony ready to go, Trump abruptly ended the summit, saying: "Sometimes you have to walk and this was just one of those times." North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho later said his side had offered to "permanently and completely dismantle all the nuclear production facilities" at its main complex in Yongbyon if the US dropped sanctions "that hamper the civilian economy and the livelihood of our people." Biegun repeated the US position that sanctions would not be lifted "until North Korea completes the process of denuclearization." The commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force, Qassem Suleimani The commander of the Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, a key figure in the battle against the Islamic State group, has received Iran's highest military award, the country's supreme leader announced Monday. The major general, whose unit runs foreign operations, is regarded as the mastermind of Iran's military strategy in the region. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei awarded him with the "Order of Zulfaqar", the leader's office tweeted. Soleimani became the first to receive the award since the 1979 Islamic revolution, according to Tasnim news agency. The general has been the public face of Iran's support for the Iraqi and Syrian governments in their battles with Islamic State group jihadists. He reportedly landed in Baghdad only hours after IS captured Iraq's second city Mosul in 2014 and threatened to overrun the capital. In Islamic tradition, Zulfaqar is the name of the double-pointed sword said to have been given by Prophet Mohammed to his son-in-law Ali. Opposition protesters in Benin's biggest city Cotonou, where they chanted slogans denouncing President Patrice Talon Thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets in Benin's biggest city on Monday to accuse President Patrice Talon of seeking to exclude them from forthcoming legislative elections. An estimated 20,000 protesters took part in the march in Cotonou, where crowds, including politicians, union leaders, women, students and traders, brandished placards reading "Repeal rogue laws" and "Save Beninese democracy in danger". They also chanted slogans denouncing Talon, who has been accused of authoritarianism since he was elected in March 2016. Several political opponents have been subjected to legal proceedings in recent months as part of a fight against corruption which critics have described as a witch-hunt. The latest demonstration follows a controversial decision by the national electoral commission (CENA) preventing five opposition parties from standing at parliamentary elections due on April 28. More than five million people are expected to vote for all 83 seats in the National Assembly. CENA last week ruled that only two parties -- which both officially support the president -- had fulfilled the conditions required by the new electoral code adopted last year, tightening the rules governing political parties. The decision sparked outrage in Benin, leading Talon to call a meeting of representatives from all parties where he proposed finding a solution in parliament to "break the deadlock". But the main opposition parties boycotted the meeting, instead calling for mass protests which they have said reflect widespread frustration with the president. Monday's march was organised by the Cowry Forces for an Emerging Benin (FCBE) of former President Thomas Boni Yayi and businessman Sebastien Ajavon's Social Liberal Union (USL). "The people are out in the streets because they want to tell the president that they are fed up," Donklam Abalo, a USL leader, told AFP. Parliament needs to act to "let the people express themselves to freely choose their representatives", he added. The parliament's deputy leader Eric Houndete, who was at the protest, vowed: "There will be no election without the opposition." Victor Topanou, the former justice minister of ex-president Boni Yayi, said the CENA decision to ban the opposition from elections was the final straw. "For three years, there has been a feeling of an almost constant violation of individual and collective freedoms," he said. RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - The tumultuous relationship between President Jair Bolsonaro and the media heated up Monday, after the far-right leader criticized a journalist who has written damaging pieces about the first family for one of Brazil's largest newspapers. Bolsonaro sent a misleading tweet Sunday night saying Constanca Rezende of the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo had been recorded saying she wanted to ruin the life of Bolsonaro's son, Flavio, and impeach the president. Rezende has reported on a case of alleged corruption that has cast a shadow over the initial months of the administration. The case involves alleged irregular payments to Flavio Bolsonaro, a senator who is Bolsonaro's eldest son, as well as to Bolsonaro's wife, Michelle Bolsonaro. Flavio and Jair Bolsonaro deny any wrongdoing and say they are being politically persecuted. In the tweet, Brazil's president also said journalists like Rezende wanted "to topple the government with blackmail, disinformation and leaks." Brazil's Bar Association, the investigative journalism association Abraji and many others condemned Bolsonaro's tweet. Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro attends a ceremony marking the 211th anniversary of Brazilian Marine Corps in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, March 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) Bolsonaro's comment "shows not only a lack of commitment to the facts, but also more seriously the use of his position of power to try to intimidate media outlets and journalists," the Bar Association said in a statement. In the audio mentioned by the president, Rezende tells a man who claimed to be a university student researching a paper, "This case can put in a bind and ruin Bolsonaro." She also said she believes the case could lead to impeachment, an opinion many legal experts agree with. In 2016, then President Dilma Rousseff was removed from office for illegally managing the federal budget. In one part of the audio, Rezende, speaking in English, expressed concern that nothing would come of the investigation, a common fate of many probes in Latin America's largest nation. Joao Caminoto, director of journalism at Estado de S.Paulo, told The Associated Press that his main concern after Bolsonaro's tweet was for Rezende's safety. "She had her social media accounts suspended, her cellphone number was published," Caminoto said. "This is very worrying and it isn't happening only to us. There are frequent attacks on the press and attempts to discredit journalists. It is very well organized." The audio was first shared Sunday by the rightist website Terca Livre, and Estado de S. Paulo reported that the author of story was on the staff of a state legislator from Bolsonaro's party. There were also questions about whether Rezende was set up, similar to the way rightist groups in the U.S. have presented fake sources to journalists and recorded them without their knowledge. Estado de S. Paulo said Rezende was contacted by someone named Alex McAllister who "was supposedly a student interested in doing a comparative study between Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro." Caminoto later told AP that McAllister identified himself as a student at the University of Texas. The University of Texas, Austin said there is no one named Alex McAllister or Alex MacAllister in their student or staff directory. McAllister and Rezende spoke on Jan. 23, according to the paper. As of Monday evening, the cover of Terca Livre no longer showed posts about the affair, but the stories and audios were still available in the pro-Bolsonaro website. Theresa May is battling to save her Brexit strategy as negotiations with the European Union remain deadlocked, amid warnings that the Prime Minister is heading for another crushing defeat in Tuesdays crunch Commons vote. Tory Brexiteers said rejection of the Withdrawal Agreement is inevitable unless Mrs May is able to secure significant changes to the Northern Ireland backstop. (PA Graphics) Technical talks between officials took place in Brussels over the weekend and the PM spoke to European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on Sunday night. But a Downing Street source said the negotiations remained deadlocked. A plane was reported to be on stand-by at RAF Northolt to fly Mrs May to Brussels to clinch an agreement if there was any sign of a deal after talks over the weekend. (PA Graphics) But the EUs chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier did not appear to be expecting further talks on Monday morning, telling the AFP news agency in Brussels: We held talks over the weekend and the negotiations now are between the Government in London and the Parliament in London. Some senior Conservatives said on Sunday that the PM should postpone the meaningful vote rather than risk another damaging reverse. Instead she was being urged to table a conditional motion setting out the terms for dealing with the backstop issue which Parliament would be prepared to accept. Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the pro-Brexit Tory European Research Group, told the Times that it would not be a foolish way to proceed. Jacob Rees-Mogg said a `conditional motion `would not be a foolish way to proceed (Dominic Lipinski/PA) He added: I think a meaningful vote with an addendum saying this House will support a deal if such and such is done might be a way of uniting the party or limiting the scale of the defeat. Former chief whip Andrew Mitchell told the paper: Anything that avoids what looks like a massive defeat on Tuesday is worth considering. Meanwhile, Public Health Minister Steve Brine has warned that he will resign unless Tory MPs are given a free vote in a vote expected later in the week on whether Britain should leave the EU without a deal. I think a free vote would be very smart, he told BBC Radio 4s The Westminster Hour. I would find it very difficult, actually impossible to be part of a policy that was pursuing actively no-deal. Tory MP George Freeman said Mrs May should quit after Brexit, telling the Radio 4 Today programme: I hope the Prime Minister can get withdrawal through and then I do think we need to choose a new leader for a new generation with a new vision of a conservativism that can make sense of Brexit and reinspire and reunite the nation. I hope we can do that having secured a sensible Withdrawal Agreement. A panicked change of leader now will solve nothing, we have got to get this through. I hope colleagues this week will recognise that: vote for the deal and then we can change. Environment Secretary Michael Gove has encouraged MPs to back Theresa Mays deal (Jeff Overs/BBC) Environment Secretary Michael Gove one of the leaders of the official Leave campaign in the referendum became the latest Cabinet minister to urge MPs to vote for Mrs Mays deal. In an article for the Daily Mail, he said: I hope that everyone who believes in our democracy in the importance of delivering Brexit, but also in the critical need to unite our country will come behind the Prime Ministers deal this week. The calls for a postponement came after former Cabinet minister Nicky Morgan warned that Mrs Mays position would become untenable if Parliament dismantled her Brexit policy in a series of votes during the course of the week. Nevertheless, delaying the meaningful vote would be another humiliation for the Prime Minister after senior ministers spent the weekend insisting it would go ahead as planned. Mrs May had already postponed it once from December, only to see it resoundingly defeated the following month by a majority of 230. With less than three weeks to Brexit Day on March 29 when Britain is due to leave the EU any delay would raise renewed questions as to whether there was any way she could get her deal through the Commons. Mrs May has said if she loses the vote on Tuesday, there will be further votes on Wednesday on whether the UK should leave with no-deal and on Thursday on whether they should seek an extension to the Article 50 withdrawal process. Many at Westminster believe that in that event MPs would vote to delay Britains departure to the fury of Brexiteers. The mother of an Irishman killed in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash has paid tribute to him saying he was committed to making a difference to peoples lives. UN aid worker and engineer Michael (Mick) Ryan was killed after the plane crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa on Sunday morning. Mr Ryans mother Christine said that her son wanted to save the world. He was employed by the UNs World Food Programme (WFP), which is a leading humanitarian organisation delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with impoverished communities to improve nutrition. Our thoughts tonight are with families of all those lost in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, including Irish engineer Michael Ryan. Michael was doing life-changing work in Africa with the World Food Programme. Deepest sympathies to family, colleagues & friends Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) March 10, 2019 The married father-of-two, who was originally from Lahinch in Co Clare, had relocated to Rome to work at WFP headquarters. His wife Naoise and children were due to move out to Rome in the coming months. Michael Ryan was killed in the crash (World Food Programme) Speaking to RTE Morning Ireland, Christine said: Hes an amazing person, we cant believe it and we cant come to terms with this. His wife and children are just devastated. He was a very enthusiastic person, he had a great vision and he believed in engineering and in putting people first. The plane was en route from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to Nairobi and crashed on the eve of a UN Environment Assembly in the Kenyan capital. Several WFP staff were on the flight, ahead of this weeks conference. Mr Ryan was a global deputy chief engineer with the WFPs engineering division. Mrs Ryan said she knew he was flying to Nairobi but didnt know he was on the flight that crashed until his wife contacted her. Naoise was saying that she was always concerned when he got on different flights but when he got on this particular flight she wasnt particularly concerned as he had been in worse situations and survived and got through it, Christine added. He was involved in a lot of projects worldwide, flood relief, landslides, Ebola. He had been in Afghanistan and Pakistan and Sudan. He felt he made a difference. He had a marvellous vision and he just got there and did it and had great enthusiasm. He always wanted to help others and he loved people and would light up a room. He had a way with people. He never wanted a nine to five job, he put everything into his work. He had some amazing stories. There was a lot of danger for him but he loved his work. We all appreciated what he was doing and we couldnt take that away from him. Mrs Ryan said her son was turning 40 at the end of the month and the family were to fly to Rome next week for the celebrations. Irelands President Michael D Higgins also paid tribute to Mr Ryan. I wish to extend my deepest sympathies to the family of Michael Ryan, whose work in humanitarian assistance for the World Food Programme brought him onto the flight, he said. This tragedy affects so many, with passengers from more than 30 countries and from several international organisations were on board the flight. On my own behalf and behalf of the Irish people, I send my deepest sympathies to President Sahle-Work Zewde, to the families of the victims and to the people of Ethiopia, and the Ethiopian community who live here in Ireland. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he was filled with sadness over the death. Speaking in Dublin on Monday, he said: I had the opportunity to visit Rome a couple of years ago to do some work with the WFP and I saw in my work as Taoiseach the enormous importance of the WFP, not just ensuring that people dont go hungry in times of crisis but also that we build up agriculture and have secure food supplies in developing countries. Its really important and honourable work and I am really sad for him and really sad for his family and his friends that his life has ended this way. Ministers in the Irish cabinet have been summoned to an emergency government meeting on Brexit. The Irish premier, Leo Varadkar, who was due to begin his journey to the US for St Patricks Day, returned from Dublin airport and was brought back to government buildings for the cabinet briefing. A government source confirmed the specially-convened meeting would take place at 7pm on Monday night. Not all cabinet members will be in attendance as ministers were not told to stay after an initial government briefing earlier on Monday. Sources say the meeting came as a surprise to ministers, and although two cabinet meetings in one day is unusual, it is not unprecedented. Earlier on Monday, Mr Varadkar had said any extension to the UK leaving the EU must have a purpose. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said if there is an extension to Article 50 there must be a purpose behind it (Michelle Devane/PA) He said if the UK took the decision to extend Article 50 it must not lead to a rolling cliff-edge scenario. The Taoiseach made the comments in Dublin as Brexit negotiations between UK and the EU remain deadlocked, and amid warnings in Westminster that British PM Theresa May could be heading for another defeat in Tuesdays House of Commons vote. Mr Varadkar was speaking at the launch of the Governments national childcare scheme at the Department of Children. Taoiseach @campaignforleo has said any extension to Article 50 must have a purpose and must not lead to a rolling cliff edge scenario in the coming months. Mr Varadkar made the comments alongside @KZapponeTD at the launch of the Governments national childcare scheme #Brexit @PA pic.twitter.com/iNe92ukI9R Michelle Devane (@michelledevane) March 11, 2019 If there is going to be an extension, it has to be an extension with a purpose, Mr Varadkar said. Nobody across the European Union wants to see a rolling cliff-edge where tough decisions just get put off until the end of April, then to the end of May and then maybe till the end of July. He said the uncertainty around Brexit was already worrying Irish citizens, damaging business confidence and affecting the agriculture industry in particular. If there is going to be an extension there has to be a purpose to that extension, he continued. Mr Varadkar said he could not predict the outcome of Tuesdays vote on the Withdrawal Agreement in the House of Commons. If it doesnt pass, I understand that there will be a vote on Wednesday to take no-deal off the table and then potentially a vote on Thursday around an extension, he said. He added that any change in the planned votes in the House of Commons this week would miss the point. I do hear some suggestion that the votes may be called off in favour of a new vote as a result of which the House of Commons would tell the European Union what they want. That really misses the point. Were two-and-a-half years, if not nearly three years now, since the referendum, he said. It is far too late for the United Kingdom to tell us what they want. The Withdrawal Agreement requires a compromise and this Withdrawal Agreement is already a compromise. Mr Varadkar also reiterated that the threat of a no-deal was not coming from the EU or Ireland, adding that the UK Parliament could take the threat of a no-deal off the table at any time as March 29 was a self-imposed deadline. A man who watched his parents shot dead in front of him as a two-year-old boy has told the gunmen they achieved nothing. Seamus McDonald and his younger sister, Margaret, who was only four months old, were at their North Belfast home with father Mervyn and Rosaleen when two loyalist paramilitaries went in and murdered both adults in a random sectarian attack in July 1976. Mr McDonald, who now lives in Co Mayo, spoke publicly about the incident for only the second time in his life at an event in Belfast on Monday commemorating innocent victims of terrorism. The people that did this to me achieved nothing, my mum and dad are alive inside me, he said, during an emotional address at Stormont. They are alive in my sister and I see them in the face of my children. It was just pointless and it was cruel and it achieved nothing. I am shaking now and I am upset now, but I am actually OK what they tried to do to me didnt work, what they tried to do to my family didnt work, it was horrific and unnecessary. Seamus McDonald, whose parents were killed by loyalist paramilitaries in Newtownabbey in 1976, speaking during European Day for Victims of Terrorism at Stormont Parliament Buildings in Belfast (Niall Carson/PA) Mr McDonald outlined graphic details of the incident in July 1976 when the murderers from the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) called at their front door in Newtownabbey. The area we lived in was mixed, we were out in the country, so it made it quite an easy target, he said. On the 9th July 1976 as my dad was having his dinner, my mum had my baby sister in her arms and I was on the sofa, and two men came to the door asking for my father. My mum didnt recognise the men, thought they were friends of my dad, she invited them into the house. When my dad came in from the kitchen to see what was happening, one of the men produced a machine gun and shot my father and killed him instantly. After that he took my sister from my mother, put her next to me, and then turned his gun on my mum and shot her it took about four hours for my mother to die. Mr McDonald revealed that his mothers last words to the gunmen were Why us?. I think in the context of terrorism-related incidents a lot of victims always ask that question Why us, why me, why them?, he said. I dont think there is any answer to that question that will ever satisfy anyone. He said he would never have been able to address a public event about the murders a few years ago. I dont know what normality is, I have always had this, he said. I have no memory of my mother and father, I dont know their faces. At the same time I have no memory of the incident. Mr McDonald said support from the victims sector was gradually helping him to heal and let go of some of the fear, hate and trauma. I only managed to put a picture of my parents up on the living room wall four years ago, he added. One thing that unites all victims and all members of society in Northern Ireland, even though I dont live here now, is that we all grieve the same and we all feel loss the same and, if we can all grieve the same and all feel loss the same, we can all heal the same, and if we can do that that might bring us a bit closer. (ANSA) - Rome, March 11 - Italy's Ambassador to Pakistan at the weekend confirmed that Italian mountaineer Daniele Nardi and his British climbing partner Tom Ballard have died on Nanga Parbat, the world's ninth-tallest mountain. Ambassador Stefano Pontecorvo said two bodies spotted on the mountain had been identified as those of Nardi and Ballard. For the moment, the corpses are set to remain in the mountain as it is too dangerous to try to recover them. Nardi, from Sezze, near Latina, south of Rome, and Ballard, a Scot, had last been heard from on February 24. The mission to try to save them was called off last week. The pair had been attempting a rare winter ascent of the mountain. A pensioner who collected and categorised one of the largest hauls of indecent images known in England and Wales has been jailed. Geoffrey Crossland, 70, was told by a judge that the scale of the depravity depicted in the 2.2 million still and moving pictures he possessed would be hard for the public to come to terms with. The vast collection which was stored on SD cards, USB sticks, DVDs, SIM cards, floppy disks, laptops, tablets and mobile phones was discovered when officers raided Crosslands home at Padside Green Farm, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, in October last year. The property of Geoffrey Crossland with the bunker complex beneath the outbuilding to the left (North Yorkshire Poilice/PA) While there, police discovered what has been described as a secret underground bunker filled with weapons and ammunition, as well as a shooting range and the equipment necessary to put together more bullets. Among the arsenal of weapons, as a judge described it, were nine illegally-held weapons, including various shotguns and pistols. It was found that Crossland, a long-term weapons enthusiast, had in his possession around 24,000 rounds of ammunition, as well as expanding bullets. Images released by North Yorkshire Police show how shipping containers were used to create the bunker, with the court hearing how the defendant had gained planning permission in 1990s for a much smaller facility which would be used for business purposes. One of the weapons found at the property of Geoffrey Crossland (North Yorkshire Police/PA) His Honour Judge Andrew Stubbs told Crossland, who once ran a business manufacturing electric components for vehicles: The risk to the public is clear to all, but that risk is increased by the volume of weapons you held and the volume of ammunition which you also held. Appearing at York Crown Court on Monday, Crossland admitted six charges of possessing prohibited firearms, two charges of possessing firearms without the relevant certificate, two counts of possessing ammunition without the relevant certificate, and one count of possessing a shotgun without the relevant certificate. He had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images in relation to his disturbing collection, some of which featured young children being abused. The court heard how Crossland was found to have 34,612 images in the most extreme category A, as well as 2,107,873 in the least extreme category C. Prosecutors explained how these had been painstakingly categorised, with some being listed under sick headings like animal abuse, peach Asian street meat and young Russian brother and sister, having been downloaded from the internet. The millions of images were described by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) as one of the largest known collections in England and Wales, with North Yorkshire Police adding that the raid on Crosslands property was the biggest seizure of indecent images in the county. Sentencing Crossland to 12 years and eight months in jail, the judge told him: One issue which is not forgotten is that these images capture real life people, and at the same time real life sexual abuse being carried out on them. Detective Chief Inspector Graeme Wright makes a statement to the press after Geoffrey Crossland was jailed at York Crown Court (Danny Lawson/PA) The court had previously been told how the defendant had been away on a shooting holiday in Argentina when officers searched his home on October 18 last year, having been alerted to suspicious online activity. His wife answered the door, and more than 100 digital devices were seized and examined. Crossland was arrested as he arrived back at Heathrow Airport days later. Detective Chief Inspector Graeme Wright, of North Yorkshire Police, said that the force is involved with ongoing enquiries to establish if Geoffrey Crossland was involved in the direct abuse of children. Speaking outside court following the sentencing, Julian Briggs, from the CPS, said that Crosslands collection of indecent images was without parallel in the area. He added: That alone would make this case extraordinary and troubling. But the subsequent discovery of prohibited firearms and ammunition, concealed in underground bunkers at Crosslands home, clearly shows that this defendant is a highly dangerous individual. The mother of a British soldier killed by dissident republicans has told fellow victims how her sons words have helped her family learn to live with loss. Patrick Azimkars mother Geraldine said his murder 10 years ago had utterly broken her, husband Mehmet and their other son James. Royal Engineer Sapper Azimkar, 21, from London, was shot dead by Real IRA gunmen outside Massereene army barracks in Antrim in March 2009 as he and comrades went to collect a pizza delivery at the gate as they waited for a flight ahead of deployment to Afghanistan. Sapper Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham, was also killed in the outrage. Geraldine Ferguson addressed a gathering of bereaved and injured in Belfast on Monday to mark European Day for Victims of Terrorism. She outlined how her family had grappled with a wide range of grief-induced emotions over the last decade, including shock, disbelief, horror, anger, rage and bitterness. Geraldine Ferguson speaking during the European Day for Victims of Terrorism event at Stormont (Niall Carson/PA) Horror overwhelmed us, she told the event at Stormont. We were utterly broken in heart and mind. We still dont know why Patrick was murdered and no one else seems to know either. Some people, they try to explain it away as political, but when it is your child thats murdered its not political, its personal. In the end the only way for us to understand that attack is that it was a carefully planned and deliberate act of evil. Mrs Ferguson revealed that while home in England on leave months before his murder, her son had told the family that if he was killed in Afghanistan they were not to mope or be soppy, and instead to get on with their lives. In our darkest days those simple words were like a beam of light in pitch black, she said. We would remind myself and each other Pat wants us to live and that means to look up and look out into the world. She added: I think we have learned to live alongside our loss and the injustice we suffered and not be overwhelmed by them. It took courage for us to live fully and enjoy our lives, but its what Patrick wanted and really its the only way to live and, besides, perhaps living a full life and a loving life is the best revenge of all. We are very proud of Patrick, how he lived his life and behind him he leaves a legacy of love. In Patricks name and in his memory so many good things have been said and done by so many good people in many countries around the world. They all matter. They make the world a better place. Mrs Ferguson said three of her sons friends have given their children Patrick as a middle name. I know our Patrick would be very proud of that, she said. The event at Stormont, which was hosted by Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister, came as Northern Irelands victims commissioner Judith Thompson published a series of recommendations on how to deal with the toxic legacy of the Troubles following a public consultation on Government proposals for new mechanisms. A Belfast auction house has cancelled the sale of Nazi memorabilia after an outcry from Jewish leaders. Bloomfield Auctions in the city were set to auction a dinnerware set, which had an estimate of 20,000, on Tuesday. Described on their Facebook page as historically rare, the tablecloth, napkins and silver cutlery set are emblazoned with swastikas. They allegedly come from Adolf Hitlers 50th birthday glass observation wagon on the Deutsche Reichsbahn, the Third Reichs German state railway. The tablecloth is probably the only one known to exist today, making it historically rare, along with the cutlery and napkins, where only a very few have ever appeared, the post read. Since the Facebook post was published, the auctioneers were criticised for what some viewed as profiting from anti-Semitism. Bloomfield Auctions were set to auction a dinnerware set (Julien Behal/PA) Heino Schonfeld, director of Holocaust Education Trust Ireland, said he was appalled at the sale, and said the items should be kept in a museum. We were quite appalled when we saw the advert, and I would agree that they are historical, they would be well placed in a museum, in context and with explanation attached, he said. They should be displayed in a context that commemorates victims, and explains what they symbolise. Im not saying they should be destroyed, theyre artefacts that should be displayed in their proper place. Just to display them like this, with no explanation and without putting them into a framework we find it appalling. It is totally insensitive of the feelings of possible victims of the Nazi terror regime and others who were persecuted at that time. We strongly object, wed also point out that these kinds of displays are illegal in many jurisdictions, like Russia and France, for instance, very important countries who suffered under the Nazi regime, we would like to see a similar response from the governments in the UK and Ireland. It is not illegal, but it is still wrong. I personally would find it spooky to have them round the house, I dont know the psychology behind the person who would buy them, but I know theyre very popular and traded for a lot of money. Mark Gardner, from the Community Security Trust (CST), a British charity established to ensure the safety of the Jewish community in the UK, said the auctioneers were turning a profit from Nazi memorabilia. Anyone with an ounce of decency will be disgusted to see people trying to turn a profit on this Nazi memorabilia, which draws its so-called value from Hitlers depraved racism, mass murder and war-making across Europe. Craig Bennett, from Bloomfield Auctions, told the Press Association: In light of the sensitivities surrounding the items, weve taken the decision to withdraw the sale, and they will not be sold by this company in the future. Selling Nazi memorabilia in the UK is not illegal, however the sale of such items is banned in other European countries, like Germany, France, Russia and Austria. Home Secretary Sajid Javid has strongly rejected suggestions he was responsible for the death of Shamima Begums three-week-old baby. Mr Javid, who stripped the Islamic State bride of her British citizenship, said any blame for the infants death lay fully with jihadists. He told the House of Commons: The death of any British child, even those children born to a foreign terrorist fighter, of course is a tragedy but the only person responsible for the death of that child is the foreign terrorist fighter. The case of Ms Begum, born in Bethnal Green but who travelled to Syria to be with Isis as a jihadi bride aged 15, was raised in the Commons during an urgent question on Monday. Islamic State bride Shamima Begum, whose baby son has died (PA) Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott had suggested Mr Javids act was responsible for Ms Begums infant son Jarrah dying from pneumonia in a Syrian refugee camp on Friday. Ms Abbott questioned if stripping Ms Begum of her nationality made it impossible for her to fulfil her duties as a mother and bring her baby home to a safe place? The MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington had asked Mr Javid: Nobody on this side of the House condones what Shamima Begum did, the choices she made, the things she said If it was his 19-year-old daughter, however badly she had behaved, however reprehensible or near-criminal her choices would he want her to bury three babies in the course of a year? The exchange came as Tasnime Akunjee, a lawyer for Ms Begum, called on the Home Office to reinstate her British citizenship as an act of mercy. The 19-year-old, who fled the UK for Syria four years ago, has given interviews from the camp saying she wished to return to the UK for the babys safety after her two older children died. The letter to the Home Office, also posted on Twitter, said: We write specifically on behalf of Mrs Begum, Shamima Begums mother, to ask you to reconsider your previous decision dated February 19 2019 to deprive her daughter Begum of her British citizenship Ms Begum requests this reconsideration, as an act of mercy, on the basis of the following new information, namely the death of her newborn son. It adds: It is extremely unlikely that Shamima will be in a fit state to make any rational decisions. The family have still not been able to contact her directly and their request for any help from the British government to contact Shamima and her baby was refused in writing by the Home Office on March 5. In the wake of the babys death, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said officials are working on how to rescue British children born to Islamic State runaways. The Foreign Secretarys defence came after it was reported two further women married into the terror group have been stripped of their UK citizenship while being held in detention camps with their children. The Government had suggested Ms Begum could apply for a Bangladeshi passport but this was refused. Her family claim UK officials had not consulted Bangladesh before making their decision. Mr Akunjee added: You will appreciate there are immediate fears for Shamimas health and safety, and the matter is urgent. Former cabinet minister Esther McVey was taken to task on social media on Monday after tweeting and then deleting a false claim about the European Union. On Sunday the former Department of Work and Pensions secretary shared a tweet claiming all EU member states will have to adopt the euro after 2020 on her personal Twitter account, writing: Are the public aware of this? and the many other things the EU has planned for its member states after 2020? #trust #WatchOut. The tweet she shared, from the pro-Leave Brexit Central, linked to a 2014 opinion piece which argued that political union in the eurozone is an economic existential necessity. However, both Denmark and the UK have negotiated to remain outside the eurozone, in a similar way to how the UK is outside the Schengen zone of free movement and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Her tweet, which she has since deleted, caused uproar across the social network as Ms McVey was accused of spreading misinformation. Activist Femi Oluwole, who campaigns for a so-called Peoples Vote on Brexit, tweeted: Esther McVey published fake news saying the UK would have to join the Euro if we stayed in the EU. Former work and pensions secretary Esther McVey resigned from Cabinet over the Brexit deal (PA) This is the same crap that floated around Facebook WEEKS AGO, and I debunked it BELOW, yet this former government secretary is still sharing lies. #McVeyFacts Esther McVey published fake news saying the UK would have to join the Euro if we stayed in the EU. This is the same crap that floated around Facebook WEEKS AGO, and I debunked it BELOW, yet this former government secretary is still sharing lies.#McVeyFacts https://t.co/ALPBoBjbGh Femi (@Femi_Sorry) March 11, 2019 The hashtag #McVeyFacts was trending across the UK on Monday as Twitter users tried to outdo each other with outlandish and imaginary facts. Are the public aware that after 2020 the first born male child must be named Ian and that because of their standardised EU birth certificate, shall henceforth be referred to as Europe Ian. #McVeyFacts, quipped one Twitter user. Are the public aware that after 2020 the first born male child must be named Ian and that because of their standardised EU birth certificate, shall henceforth be referred to as Europe Ian. #McVeyFacts Dean Capel (@deanscapel) March 11, 2019 Are the public aware that, by 2021, every school in every EU nation will be required to sing a song of allegiance to Jean Claude Juncker instead of holding an assembly? #McVeyFacts, joked another. Are the public aware that, by 2021, every school in every EU nation will be required to sing a song of allegiance to Jean Claude Juncker instead of holding an assembly? #McVeyFacts Martin Greenaway (@mgreenaw) March 11, 2019 Ms McVey told the Press Association: The truth is no one knows how the EU will change in the future and if the UK remains the changes it would undergo. For instance, if anyone said in the 1975 referendum on the common market this would lead to the EU with free movement of people and so many laws being decided by qualified majority voting, people would have said that was rubbish and untrue. Yet it happened. However, both free movement of workers and qualified majority voting were part of the European Common Market before the UK joined in 1973. Steve Peers, professor of EU, human rights and world trade law at the University of Essex, said: The basic framework of the EU cant be changed without the consent of all its member states. The changes since 1975 were all approved by Acts of Parliament. Ms McVey continued: In the EU referendum when people talked about an EU army it was said it was a lie and yet it is now seriously being discussed. No one could have predicted in 1975 the common market would have become the EU super state and equally no one knows the future of the EU now. Mr Peers added that every member state has a veto or opt out from EU defence co-operation. Ms McVey had earlier sought to backtrack on her initial tweet, writing: From reading the comments, even if you dont agree with the article I posted, I think we can all agree on one thing we never want the UK to join the Euro. True or false ? #true The Irish Government has held an emergency meeting on the unfolding Brexit developments. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has also spoken to EU Commission president Jean Claude Juncker about the last-ditch efforts in Strasbourg to find an agreement with Prime Minister Theresa May. Ministers were summoned at short notice for the meeting in Government Buildings in Dublin at 7pm. The meeting adjourned at 8.30pm, with further talks scheduled for later on Monday night. Mr Varadkar was due to fly to the United States on Monday evening for his annual St Patricks trip, but his plans were changed at the last minute to accommodate the unscheduled cabinet meeting. A Government spokeswoman said: The Taoiseach spoke to President Juncker this evening. The Cabinet met to discuss developments across the day. Cabinet meeting adjourned just after 8.30pm and will resume again later this evening. Discussions are continuing. Leo Varadkar postponed a trip to the US for the meeting (Brian Lawless/PA) Earlier on Monday, Mr Varadkar had said any extension to the UK leaving the EU must have a purpose. He said if the UK took the decision to extend Article 50 it must not lead to a rolling cliff-edge scenario. Mr Varadkar was speaking at the launch of the Governments national childcare scheme at the Department of Children. If there is going to be an extension, it has to be an extension with a purpose, he said. Nobody across the European Union wants to see a rolling cliff-edge where tough decisions just get put off until the end of April, then to the end of May and then maybe till the end of July. He said the uncertainty around Brexit was already worrying Irish citizens, damaging business confidence and affecting the agriculture industry in particular. If there is going to be an extension there has to be a purpose to that extension, he continued. Mr Varadkar said he could not predict the outcome of Tuesdays vote on the Withdrawal Agreement in the House of Commons. If it doesnt pass, I understand that there will be a vote on Wednesday to take no-deal off the table and then potentially a vote on Thursday around an extension, he said. He added that any change in the planned votes in the House of Commons this week would miss the point. I do hear some suggestion that the votes may be called off in favour of a new vote as a result of which the House of Commons would tell the European Union what they want. That really misses the point. Were two-and-a-half years, if not nearly three years now, since the referendum, he said. It is far too late for the United Kingdom to tell us what they want. The Withdrawal Agreement requires a compromise and this Withdrawal Agreement is already a compromise. Mr Varadkar also reiterated that the threat of a no-deal was not coming from the EU or Ireland, adding that the UK Parliament could take the threat of a no-deal off the table at any time as March 29 was a self-imposed deadline. Three countries have borne the brunt of Pakistan-abetted terrorism India, Afghanistan and Iran. Can they now forge a common front to fight and defeat the scourge that has taken thousands of lives? Last week, General Qassen Soleimani, the powerful commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), warned Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan and army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa: "I have this question for the Pakistani government: where are you heading to? You have caused unrest along borders with all your neighbours and do you have any other neighbour left that you want to stir insecurity for? Are you, who have atomic bombs, unable to destroy a terrorist group with several hundred members in the region?" Iranian authorities claim there were three Pakistani nationals among the terrorists who killed 27 Revolutionary Guards on a bus on February 13 coincidentally, just one day before the Pulwama attack that killed 40 CRPF jawans. Several Pakistan-based terror groups operate near the long Iran-Pakistan border. The two countries share restive ethnic Baloch populations on both sides of the border. Responsibility for the terror strike on Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards was claimed by the Jaish al-Adl militant group which has bases in Pakistan. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei displayed his anger with Pakistan by authorising his top aide Major-General Yahya Rahim Safavi to convey a tough message to the Pakistani army: "These criminal outlaws are from one of the tribes of Balochistan who had been trained in suicide operations in the neighbouring country, and the neighbouring country and the ISI should account to the Iranian government and nation and the IRGC for how they have crossed the borders of that country and why this neighbouring country has turned into a safe haven and a place for training and dispatch of these infidel terrorist groups (to Iran)." Not only Chabahar These three nations can also agree on the crucial common factor of fighting terror from Pakistan. (Photo: Twitter) The elite IRGC is the bulwark of Iran's security forces. Its commander, Ali Jafari, was even more direct in warning Pakistan: "Pakistan should know that it should pay the cost for the Pakistani intelligence organisation's support for Jaish al-Adl from now on and this price will no doubt be very heavy for them." Pakistan has over the years been careful to mollify Iran, even as it slides deeper into Saudi Arabia's embrace. Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia are locked in an attritional geopolitical battle over the Middle East. Pakistan is Sunni-majority but it has a significant Shia minority that it cannot afford to alienate. When the Saudis asked Pakistan to contribute troops to its Islamic coalition army in the assault on Yemen, Islamabad demurred in a gesture towards Iran. It assuaged the Saudis by sending former Pakistani army chief Raheel Sharif to Riyadh as military head of the Saudi-led Islamic coalition army. After four years of devastating war against the Houthi rebels (a Shia sect), the pan-Islamic army has failed to make headway amidst growing anger in the West (which armed the Islamic coalition force in the first place) over human rights abuses. Pakistan's bankrupt treasury increasingly relies on Saudi bailouts making Pakistan a quasi-satellite of Riyadh. This has strained Islamabad's ties with Iran and made the Pakistan-Iran border fertile ground for Pakistan-based terror groups. Afghanistan meanwhile continues to reel under suicide terror attacks by the Taliban, which has sanctuaries in Pakistan. Rahmatullah Nabil is the former head of Kabul's intelligence agency. He is one of the contenders in Afghanistan's presidential elections due in July. Nabil recently claimed that Pakistan shelters and supports as many as 48 terror groups on its soil: "Pakistan has been using terrorism as a tool and tactic. India should have done this (Balakot strikes) much earlier. I hope Iran will also take action against Jaish al-Adl. Because if the US leaves the region and we hope they leave behind a good legacy but if they simply withdraw, that will give a sense of victory to all terrorist networks not just in the region but on the other side as well." Pakistan and Iran share restive ethnic Baloch populations on both sides of the border. Fears are these are being drawn into terrorism. (Photo: Geocurrents) India's post-Balakot strategy to defang Pakistan-sourced terror must clearly involve closer cooperation with both Iran and Afghanistan. There is already a sharing of counter-terrorism information between the three countries. But this needs to be upgraded into a structured arrangement. The most effective counter-terrorism alliance in the world today is the "Five Eyes" network this comprises the intelligence agencies of the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The Five Eyes share intelligence with one another in real time. This has helped avert several terror attacks in the US, Australia and Britain. The coordination between the Five Eyes is seamless. A similar "Three Eyes" arrangement between India, Afghanistan and Iran could help mitigate the threat of terror attacks in the region. With the US determined to make a Faustian bargain with the Taliban, Pakistan (which controls and hosts the Taliban) will unleash jihadis on both Afghanistan and India as soon as US and NATO troops withdraw from Afghanistan. Gautam Mukhopadhyay, a former Indian ambassador to Afghanistan, warned recently that the Taliban's presence in a future Afghan government would be a disaster. Speaking in London at the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), he said that during the current "peace talks" with the US in Doha, Qatar, the Taliban's promised concessions on issues such as women's rights "were just a smokescreen to grab power." The Taliban's joy may, however, be shortlived the US has pledged to keep a small contingent of troops behind even after it withdraws from Afghanistan. It will send back a large force if the Taliban does not keep its end of the bargain of renouncing violence in Afghanistan. The Taliban, of course, will not keep its end of the bargain Pakistan will ensure that. But with India, Afghanistan and Iran working together as "Three Eyes" on intelligence sharing, the dangers of an increase in terrorism can be mitigated to a large extent. China and Saudi Arabia, Pakistan's chief financial patrons, have homegrown terror concerns of their own. There is a global threshold for tolerance of terrorism. That threshold has been reached. India's challenge is to make sure the threshold is not breached. Also Read: India must use every option to cripple Pakistans military-jihadi complex now On February 14, 2019, India saw one of the ghastliest terror attacks of all time. The nation lost 40 of its soldiers when a convoy of the Indian Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was attacked in Kashmirs Pulwama by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber who owed allegiance to the Pakistan-based jihadi organisation, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). As India stood still, we were reminded of many such previous attacks that proved that our neighbouring country Pakistan has been harbouring terrorists. From the 2001 Parliament attack by Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed that took nine lives to the 2008 Mumbai attacks where 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists took more than 170 lives. From the 2015 Gurdaspur attack that killed three civilians and four policemen to the 2016 Uri attack that claimed the lives of 17 jawans Indias war on terror isnt new. For decades now, dastardly terrorist attacks have been tearing down our nations strength with frequency and savagery that know no bounds. While every terror attack is equally appalling, the Pulwama terror attack was a reminder that this war and this complacency cant go hand in hand. We have forgotten the Gurdaspur attack although it hasn't been so long. (Photo: Reuters) Passive to aggressive Pakistan, the staging ground for various terrorist groups, needed a befitting reply. The calls for revenge amongst Indians were roaring. And so, 12 days after the Pulwama attack, when Indian fighter jets bombed a JeM terror camp at Pakistans Balakot, the Indian in me was filled with pride. Dont get me wrong here I am no warmonger. But I am no coward either. I totally stand with Indias act of self-defence against Pakistan for Pakistan is a state-sponsor of terrorism, which has repeatedly attacked India. For so long, our peace-loving Gandhian land has been mum but no more. We have all the right to retaliate to the unwarranted aggression more so if it targets our countrys pride, our soldiers. The air-strike was a simple message that if Pakistan-backed terrorist groups attack India again, India will hit and hit them hard. Heres what Bhagwad Gita says: : , | This means that although non-violence is the ultimate dharma or duty, it is equally righteous to commit violence for the protection of dharma. Remember, this is the land of Indira Gandhi. She brooked no nonsense in 1971. (Photo: India Today) The Bhagwad Gita has many such anecdotes that say to kill an enemy for the protection of the good, there is nothing wrong in picking up a weapon. So, when India strikes back at Pakistan, it is our dharma to do so. India has made one thing pretty clear: We wont tolerate terror in our country and if Pakistan doesnt mend its ways, then our soldiers will kill the terrorists. And successive governments irrespective of the party in power must match this doctrine. Call it a 'paradigm shift' or a long-awaited move on part of the Indian government but we wont tolerate another terror attack. Hello Liberals, where are you? A day after the Indian air-strike at Balakot, Pakistan launched an incursion across the Line of Control (LoC) which resulted in aerial combat. The dogfight led to the capture of Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman who shot down an intruding Pak F-16 fighter jet during the cross-border airstrike. After spending 60 hours in Pakistani captivity, the Indian Air Force pilot was released on March 1. Feted as a hero among a majority of Indians, Abhinandan won many hearts for the calm he was seen maintaining in the videotaped interrogations by Pakistan officers. India, don't move on. (Photo: Reuters) While the pilot was praised by many for his bravery and composure, Indias liberal elite was on a different tangent altogether. As disconnected as they can get from the reality of society, India's liberals waxed lyrical about the Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. Perhaps these ivory-tower radicals, who were just too stunned with the so-called peace gesture of the Pakistan government, were unaware that the neighbouring country was in fact obliged to release our pilot under the Geneva Conventions. Note here that these are the same group of what I call intellectually illiberal and condescending people who broach peace and human rights. They often sympathise with terrorists and demand peace, forgetting that peace is a two-way road. You cant stay peaceful at the cost of your countrymens lives. It is shocking how many among us arent supporting the nation in this war on terrorism with Pakistan while the latter has been shamed internationally and has lost the majority of its global support post-the Pulwama attack. Now that Pakistan risks becoming a global pariah, some Indians are commiserating with it. Those who are soft on Pakistan, are they actually soft on terror? Because Pakistan is a hub of terror. It may be difficult for some to understand, but Pakistan has been involved in terrorist activities around the world. Shielding itself with its nuclear umbrella, Pakistan continues to harbour several terror organisations. Pakistan is a land of terrorists. It always was. We need to deal with it like that. (Photo: Reuters) But India has had enough. Pakistan must soon dismantle terror infrastructure and act against operatives such as Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar. If Pakistan doesnt crack down on the terrorist groups it hosts, India will not be afraid to do that. Mind you, this is the land of Indira Gandhi the Indian PM who dealt with Pakistan with an iron hand. The PM who was an excellent military strategist and a diplomat like no other. The PM under whose guidance we won the 1971 war against Pakistan. Unfortunately for us, and fortunately for Pakistan, after Indira Gandhi, there has been no other Indian PM who could deal with internal and external enemies with the same bravery. A woman of substance and a leader of the masses, Indira believed in no chest-thumping, no jingoism and certainly no propaganda. Politics over national security Today, as we see it, political rhetoric has taken precedence over the nations sovereignty. While Indira never boasted, her actions did the talking. But currently, nationalism has politics in tow. While the country was mourning the loss of its soldiers in the Pulwama attack, our PM failed to immediately address the nation and chose to go on the hustings instead. His much-famed Mann ki Baat was nowhere to be heard. But after launching air-strikes at Balakot, the BJP government took no time to politicise the Pulwama attack for garnering votes. Although I wholeheartedly applaud the current governments response to Pakistan-sponsored terror be it the air-strikes now or the surgical strike after Uri I cant applaud the ensuing politicising of such acts. These acts are to counter the attack on the soul of India not to polarise voters in favour of the BJP or the Congress. That said, boasting about the number of dead terrorists isnt a tactical solution to this war on terrorism. Today, we want the international community to add Pakistan to the list of state sponsors of terrorism. But we have failed to walk the talk. And over the years, India has allowed Pakistan to become what it is. Had this step been taken by the UPA government after the 2008 Mumbai attack, Pakistan wouldnt have come this far. When Atal Bihari Vajpayee pushed for the peace process with Pakistan by inaugurating the Delhi-Lahore bus service in February 1999, Pakistan ditched us soon by launching the Kargil War. And it never stopped betraying us. The fact that Pakistans territory was used for launching cross-border terror strikes on Mumbai, Pathankot, Uri, and now, Pulwama, cant be denied. Which is why PM Modi must talk tough and act tough with Islamabad and ask the Pakistan PM Imran Khan to hand over Indias enemies Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar. He must take a solid stand against Pakistan and do away with the bonhomie that he was trying to strike up by visiting Lahore uninvited. Additionally, other political leaders like Navjot Singh Sidhu should follow suit. No more talks of building the Kartarpur Corridor on Indian soil. The process should be stalled with immediate effect, for it will fuel Khalistani terror once again something that I and Captain Amarinder Singh already cautioned against in the past. The sheer complacency of this government along with security and intelligence failures must be done away with. Also, remember that most of our defence equipment require an urgent upgrade. As per a July 2017 report, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) reported that the Indian Armys ammunition will not last for more than 10 days in a war. It also said that in case if a war, the military does not have the minimum required stock of 55 per cent of the 152 types of arms it uses for operational preparedness. After Rajiv Gandhis tenure as PM, successive governments failed to give due attention to the defence budget. In fact, last year, the Indian Army stated that 68 per cent of its equipment is vintage. And now that the defence allocation in the interim Budget 2019-20 has a shortfall, particularly in its capital allocation, modernisation seems like a far cry. Our war on terrorism is not against Kashmiris. It is vital to stress that. (Photo: Reuters) The perils of being Pakistans neighbour India must learn from the United States. Just like the US declared a war on terror after 9/11 and destroyed its enemies, the Indian government needs to aim for the same. I have full faith in our defence forces. They have the strength, valour, and conviction to conduct an operation against the Pakistani terror outfits and be successful. All we need is an assurance from the present and future governments, an assurance that there wont be any attack on India after Pulwama. For this to happen, the government must take tough coercive action against Pakistan. We must have a consistent Pakistan policy. Rather than being reactive, we must be proactive. Though flights re-routing and not crossing Pakistani airspace may look like a good solution, in reality, it isnt. For we have done that in the past too. On Jan 1, 2002, India imposed a ban on all flights originating from Pakistan. This move proved much damaging to India than to Pakistan. Simply because this step resulted in increased fuel costs and longer flying times for India. Thus, what we need is a balanced strategy that puts diplomatic, military and economic pressure on Pakistan. And while we are at it, lets not forget that we also must tackle the infiltration of jihadi elements in West Bengal, which has turned into a safe haven for jihadists thanks reportedly to Mamta Banerjee and her vote bank politics. As for Kashmir, remember that in the last two to three years, there has been a drastic increase in the number of local Kashmiri recruits into terror outfits. And so, we must resort to a carrot-and-stick approach to tackle radicalisation in the Valley. While we do that, we must not forget that our war on terrorism is not against Kashmiris it is against Pakistan-sponsored terror groups who are infiltrating Kashmir. It is against Islamist radicalism, which has become a global threat. Understand that as long as Pakistan exists as a nation, it will continue spreading terror in J&K and Punjab. Pakistan is a terrorist state and must be declared one. Today, we are witnessing an emotional outpouring that advocates revenge for our fallen heroes. Today, we are being driven by a media narrative. Today, we have become Internet soldiers, fighting with Pakistanis on social media. Today, we have the time to depict our outrage through protests and candlelight marches. Tomorrow, we may get busy with our usual, mundane tasks forgetting Pulwama just like every other terrorist act that has hurt India in the past. So, India, please dont move on. Please dont sleep now to wake up when another terror attack strikes. We may have forgotten 26/11, Gurdaspur, Pathankot and Uri. We may have forgotten all such Pakistan-sponsored terror attacks that infested and hurt India. But lets not forget Pulwama. Pulwama should not be repeated. Also Read: General Elections 2019: Even after Balakot, are major BJP states not joining General Elections, wary of an uncertain mood? Revoking MFN and imposing punitive duties on Pakistan would hit the Kashmiri traders hard Following terrorist attack on CRPF convoy in Kashmir, Indian government has taken several steps to isolate Pakistan in international forum. Hitting Pakistan economically is of course a reasonable approach. On this front, India has taken two steps: (b) abolish MFN status to Pakistan (b) impose 200 percent duty on Pakistani goods. Since India has notified World Trade Organisation (WTO) that it is revoking MFN status to Pakistan, technically it is in a position to raise tariffs without being dragged to WTO on this punitive measure. The real question is whether it hurts Pakistan and its traders only or do our traders suffer equally? First, official trade between India and Pakistan is on a low level, amounting only to about US $ 2 billion in 2017-18, with imports from Pakistan to the tune of only US $ 0.5 billion. Since India is not an important trading partner of Pakistan, these interventions will have limited impact. Second, let us be realistic. Poor connectivity of Kashmir Valley implies that trading with Pakistan along the borders makes economic sense for Kashmiri traders, especially producers of primary goods. Since India has revoked MFN status to Pakistan, the latter can retaliate by imposing punitive high tariffs on Indian goods. Effectively the trading opportunities of Kashmiri traders would be further curtailed leading to economic hardships for them. The successive years of terrorist activities in Kashmir Valley has reduced the economy of the area to shambles. These actions will cause further economic hardship for those Kashmiris who are engaged in trading with Pakistan. The traders from the rest of the country, who have multiple connectivity options, would not face as much hardship as they can search for other markets. Frankly, these steps would only affect the vulnerable Kashmiri traders depriving them of economic opportunities. May be, the Government of Jammu & Kashmir or Government of India should take steps that would ensure that they do not suffer unduly by this knee-jerk action. This in turn would have the effect of driving a further wedge in the already precarious relationship between the Valley and the Indian Government. The third and the most important result is that it would lead to spike in informal trade between the two countries. A study of India-Pakistan trade by Taneja and Pohit indicates that while its true potential is to the tune of US $ 15-20 billion, the numerous tariff and non-tariff barriers constraining the cross border exchange of goods between the two countries have restricted the current level to about US $ 2 billion. Much of this takes the form of informal trade. This has further ramification in terms of informal money market or hawala, a mode of finance largely preferred and/or controlled by anti-social elements. Surely, the very purpose of the step taken by the present regime by streamlining electronic payment in all sectors of the economy would be defeated if this trade is allowed to flourish Over the years, the deadlock in India-Pakistan diplomacy has led to the establishment of an efficient system for cross border trade. By and large, Middle-East is the preferred route through which it takes place. Many a times, the official papers indicate that the destination is some hypothetical country, but the merchandise, instead, is delivered to a port in Pakistan. The traders also use Afghan transit trade channel route or trade via China to deliver merchandise to the partner country. While the traders located in Mumbai or other Indian ports may continue to thrive even after India's tough action in respect of trade with Pakistan, the cost would solely be borne by Kashmiri traders who use the land borders for trading with the neighbouring country. Of course, all traders using land borders would be hit hard as they would have to look for alternative markets for their products. However, the ones located in the rest of Northern India are better connected than those in the Kashmir region and would be able manage better in the changed scenario. It is thus the Kashmiri traders who will bear the brunt of this action. In such a scenario, the question that needs to be asked is whether it is worth it since access to economic opportunities is probably the best remedy for reducing terrorism activities in the Valley? (Sanjib is a Professor at NCAER Ever since its inception, AMU has maintained a cordial atmosphere for students as well as faculty members. All must strive to maintain this delicate balance As we all know, 2019 is the year of general elections in India. And the students union of any university in India plays a vital role in raising issues of local and national importance, lending a futuristic perspective of the nations goals. At the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), established in 1877 by secularist and nationalist leader Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, students have always raised their voices on several occasions in the past in an efficient manner. However, it has been observed in the recent past that AMU has become a soft target and a centre for polarisation for right-wing groups. One incident after another clearly indicates the intention of a group of students belonging to a political outfit to create nuisance in the peaceful campus. Whether it is the matter of serving food in the dining hall, or taking the tiranga yatra without permission or unauthorised entry of a TV reporter to the campus to cover an event organised by AMU Students Union, all these events seem to be pre-planned to disturb the peaceful academic atmosphere of the campus. It clearly shows that a group of students following a certain political ideology tries to distract attention from unemployment and corruption within the Government before the 2019 general election. There is no denying that the AMU since its inception has succeeded in maintaining a cordial atmosphere for students and faculty of all religious affiliations to live and work together. The Government of India must see to it that this delicate balance is not disturbed by communalists of either kind. Likewise, our educationists should consider the cause of the AMU as their own cause and seek to preserve its autonomy as well as its residential character. In his less than two years of tenure, Vice Chancellor Prof Tariq Mansoor has taken many initiatives, be it smart classrooms or developing infrastructure in the campus, maintaining the academic standard of the university or reviving the tehzeeb among students and faculty to make this great seat of learning unique. Professor Mansoor believes that talking with students and their representatives on a regular basis and making them feel comfortable and relaxed is very important in resolving any crisis. Students always want the administration to reach out to them and get their attention. Prof Mansoor behaves like a fatherly figure and keeps the communication lines open with students so as to make them feel connected, which helps in resolving any matter smoothly. Referring to a recent incident, Shashi Bhushan Roy, who is an alumnus of AMU and was in the campus recently for a corporate meet, says, I have been here for around 15 years and received all my education from this great seat of learning. I was never discriminated on the basis of my religion or caste. In fact, I want my son to get admission in AMU. He has already applied for admission this year in the university, which would be his first choice, if selected. In an appeal to the students community, the Vice Chancellor said, Our glorious institution, the Aligarh Muslim University, has been passing through challenging times. Our resilience and spirit has been and remains our biggest strength. During the recent past, my team and I have been making the best possible efforts to resolve the situation, which we have successfully overcome. He further said: I will continue to see that innocent students are honourably exonerated, and no injustice is done to any student because of false accusation. This appeal boosted the morale of students and they felt safer and connected with the administration. It is a matter of great satisfaction that AMU is ranked among top universities at the national as well as the global level. It has successfully reached the top academic rankings in the world. Academic standards are improving, the curriculum is being upgraded and enriched on a regular basis in every department so as to make sure the education and training provided is relevant to the need of the times. At the same time, the AMU management is trying to preserve the Aligarh tehzeeb by making sure that the faculty-student relations are cordial, respectful and beneficial to each other. With the help of alumni and well-wishers of the AMU, the management is also striving to make the university serve its basic purpose, which is to provide good and relevant education that will enable graduating students to get easily placed in the global market. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan dedicated his life for the Hindu-Muslim unity in the country and worked all his life for the educational uplift of the community and to strengthen a pluralistic society of a modern India. He stressed on making education a medium to transform people into good human beings. AMU represents the secular Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb and the AMU community is committed to preserving this identity of this great seat of learning. The AMU management has to carry the legacy of the great reformer Sir Syed. And the current Vice Chancellor, with his over three-decade association with the university, has to take the lead in guiding the top brass in ensuring excellence for the famed varsity. A good beginning is seemingly visible. In the last two years, factionalism and groupism on the campus have decreased. The need of the hour is to maintain this momentum. For the AMU management as also the Vice Chancellor, their biggest challenge would be maintaining law and order situation in the institution. Understanding the dynamics of the campus would come handy for them. Also, it is high time that the AMU community worldwide supports the Vice-Chancellor in making it one of the best universities of the country. It now has around 28,000 students, 2,000 faculty members and 6,000 non-teaching members. Non-Muslims among these employees have a very viable presence. AMU is one of the most prominent residential universities in the subcontinent and receives students from all walks of life. It has an eminent history, which is intricately linked with the freedom struggle and the formulation of the Indian education system. People across communities have contributed to making it what it is today. It is necessary that the minority character of the AMU must be protected in the national interest as it was established and administered by the minority community which enjoys protection under Article 30 of the Constitution. (The writer is a well-known linguist, author and columnist) (ANSA) - Milan, march 11 - The Italo-Chinese memorandum on the Belt and Road Initiative or 'new Silk Road' cannot lead to the colonisation of Italy, Deputy Premier and League leader Matteo Salvini said Monday, prompting government partner the 5-Star Movement (M5S) to accuse the League of being "split" on the huge project. Salvini said Cabinet Secretary Giancarlo Giorgetti had explained that the memorandum must safeguard Italy's strategic interests and "this is the position of the whole League," Salvini said. "It it's a matter of helping Italian companies to invest abroad we are willing to talk to anyone," Salvini said. "If it's a question of colonising Italy and its firms by foreign powers, no. And the treatment of sensitive data is a national interest. Therefore the issue of telecommunications and the treatment of data cannot be merely economic". The League is split on Italy's memorandum of understanding with China on the Belt and Road Initiative but the 5-Star Movement is solidly with businesses on it, M5S sources told ANSA Monday. "We're sorry about this internal split because it hurts our businesses and Made in Italy," the sources said. "We are working to make sure that companies and business associations urge us to make an effort to bring Italy into the Chinese market and not to submit to it". They said League leader Salvini had spoken of colonisation while Industry Undersecretary Michele Geraci, also of the League, "strongly supports the agreement". Government sources said Premier Giuseppe Conte was ready to sign the memorandum. Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday briefed US National Security Advisor John Bolton about the measures taken by Islamabad to de-escalate tensions with India following the Pulwama terror attack. Tensions flared up between India and Pakistan after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPF personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14. Amid mounting outrage, the Indian Air Force carried out a counter-terror operation, hitting the biggest JeM training camp in Balakot, deep inside Pakistan on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured Indian pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1. The Foreign Office (FO) said that Qureshi and Bolton, during their telephonic conversation, discussed regional security situation following the Pulwama incident. "The purpose of the call was to provide him Pakistan's perspective on the recent regional developments," the FO said. Qureshi's call to Bolton came ahead of Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale's meetings with top Trump Administration officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in Washington. Qureshi said the Indian "aggression" of February 26 was a violation of Pakistan's territorial integrity and sovereignty as well as the UN Charter. He also said that Pakistan's response on February 27 was "purely in self-defence against external aggression". The FO said the foreign minister "informed Bolton about the de-escalatory measures taken by Pakistan". Qureshi said that Prime Minister Imran Khan decided to hand over the Indian pilot as a gesture of goodwill towards India. Pakistan wished peace and stability in the region. He said Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Sohail Mahmood has returned to Delhi after consultations. Islamabad would send an official delegation to India on March 14 to discuss the modalities for the operationalisation of the Kartarpur Corridor, also was ready to continue with the weekly meeting at the level of the Directorate General of Military Operations, the Pakistan foreign minister said. Ambassador Bolton said that he and Secretary of State Pompeo, despite being actively engaged in talks with North Korea in Hanoi, monitored the developments between India and Pakistan and kept contact with the leadership of two countries to ensure that the security situation in the South Asia region did not deteriorate, the statement said. Bolton appreciated Pakistan's measures which had helped lowering the tension and urged continued restraint on both sides, it said. "The need for dialogue between Pakistan and India to find peaceful resolution to all outstanding disputes was also emphasized," the FO statement said. "The Foreign Minister cautioned against any Indian misadventure, keeping in view the forthcoming elections. Ambassador Bolton concurred," it said. It said that Ambassador Bolton also appreciated Pakistan's important role in the Afghan peace process. Both leaders agreed to work together to pursue the process. The Congress is all set to give the final shape to its strategy for Lok Sabha elections at its Working Committee meeting in Ahmedabad on Tuesday and will sound the poll bugle from Prime Minister Narendra Modis home State, party leaders said. The party is of the view that the narrative for the general elections needs to be steered towards real issues and problems confronting people of the country, from what its leaders see as the propaganda plank of the current regime, especially after Pulwama attack and subsequent air strike on terror camps in Pakistan. CWC, the highest decision-making body of the party, comes barely two days after declaration of poll schedule for the general elections. The CWC was earlier scheduled for February 27, which was put off amid escalation of the India-Pakistan tension. Sources said the Congress is seeking to give a strong political message to the entire nation from the land of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel, with the party leadership scheduled to hold a prayer meeting at Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, followed by the CWC meeting at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel national memorial there. The CWC meeting is being held in Gujarat after a gap of 58 years. It was last held in the State at Bhavnagar in 1961. The party will also hold a public meeting in Adalaj in Gandhinagar Gujarat with the slogan of Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is also likely to address this meeting in her first public rally after entering politics. Patidar leader Hardik Patel, who shot to fame by spearheading a quota stir in the State and is set to fight the Lok Sabha polls, will also join the Congress at the meeting in presence of party chief Rahul Gandhi. Besides giving the final shape to its LS election strategy, the party will demand answers from Prime Minister Modi and the BJP on what they call failures and unfulfilled promises of the Government. Top Congress leadership, led by Rahul, Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and other senior leaders will deliberate on key issues for the national elections beginning April 11. The Congress leaders feel that the party needs to demand answers from the Prime Minister on status of the promises made by him five years ago and on his Governance track record. After the CWC meeting, senior Congress leaders, including Rahul, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as well as current and former party CMs, will attend the Jan Sankalp rally, said Gujarat Congress chief Amit Chavda. The party has been alleging that Modi has fooled the people with his false propaganda and has not delivered on his promises. The Congress wants these issues to be made poll agenda. The party will start their day by paying tributes to Mahatma Gandhi as March 12 marks the launch of the historic Dandi March. 18 terrorists, including JeM ultras, eliminated post suicide attack, says Army A joint team of security forces achieved a major success on Monday when they eliminated one of the main conspirators of the February 26 Pulwama terror attack on a CRPF convoy. Jaish-e-Mohammed local commander Mudasir Khan, alias Mohd Bhai, a low profile trained electrician, was eliminated in a fierce gunfight in the Tral area of South Kashmirs Pulwama late on Sunday. Addressing a hurriedly called Press conference in Srinagar, GoC 15 Chinar Corps Lt Gen KJS Dhillon, accompanied by IG Kashmir SP Pani and IG CRPF Zulfiqar Hussain said Mudasir Khan has been eliminated in the encounter. He said Mudasir was the main conspirator of the attack on the CRPF convoy in Pulwama. His elimination has caused a major dent to the Jaish leadership in the Valley. Claiming that the security forces are pulling out all stops to prevent Pulwama repeat, Lt Gen Dhillon said, We have really gone behind JeM across Kashmi. In the last three weeks, We have eliminated 18 terrorists, out of which 14 were JeM cadre, including 6 top commanders, he added. Operations against foreign mercenaries and JeM terrorists will continue till we kill all of them, he added. The fierce gunfight, which lasted several hours in Pinglish area of Tral, erupted soon after joint teams of security forces had cordoned off the area in Tral after receiving a specific input about the presence of JeM terrorists in the area on Sunday. The security forces eliminated two Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists without suffering any collateral damage. The bodies of the two terrorists, charred beyond recognition, were recovered from the encounter site, on Monday morning. The identity of the slain terrorist was established with the help of his family members. Official sources claimed that 23-year-old Mudasir, an electrician with a graduate degree and a resident of Pulwama, reportedly arranged the vehicle and explosives used in the terror strike. A resident of Mir Mohalla of Tral, Mudasir joined the JeM in 2017 as an overground worker and was later drawn into the terror outfit by Noor Mohammed Tantrey, alias Noor Trali, who is believed to have helped the terror groups revival in Kashmir. After Tantray was killed in December 2017, Mudasir disappeared from his home on January 14, 2018, and has been active since then. Suicide attacker Adil Ahmed Dar, who rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into a bus in the CRPF convoy on February 14, had been in constant contact with Mudasir, officials said. IG Kashmir SP Pani said one of the terrorists killed has been identified as Code Khalid, believed to be a Pakistani. Zulfiqar Hussain, IG CRPF, said the Tral encounter could not be called an avenge of the Pulwama terror attack as the CRPF had lost several men. He said, Our job is still not done. All those people who had supplied explosives, provided logistics and radicalised youth would be dealt with. According to the police records, both the slain terrorists were affiliated with JeM and were wanted for their complicity in terror crimes. A police spokesman said, Both terrorists were involved in planning and executing several terror attacks. Mudasir was involved in attack on a CRPF camp in Lethpora last year. The National Investigation Agency, which is probing the Pulwama attack, had raided Mudasirs residence. Win all seven seats in Delhi, Cong chief exhorts party cadre Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday set aside all speculation about a Congress-AAP alliance in the national Capital by urging the party workers to work hard to win all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. There will be no tie-up and the Congress will go it alone on all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. You should work hard to win all the seven seats of Delhi, said Rahul while addressing partys booth workers in Delhi. It seems the Congress is taking a long term view of its prospects in Delhi, where it was a force to reckon with for decades. But the arrival of the AAP wiped out the Congress from the scene. In 2004 LS polls, the Congress won six out of seven seats and in 2009 it won all seven seats. But after AAP turned the 2014 polls into triangular contest, the BJP swept Delhi winning all the seven seats. The Congress had been in power for three consecutive terms spanning 15 years from 1998 to 2013. At a recent meeting with the Congress chief , the Delhi Congress, led by Shiela Dikshit, had unanimously refused an alliance with AAP. Last week, after a meeting with Rahul and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Dikshit had claimed the Congress had no alliance yet in Delhi. The meeting and the comment both came after AAP leaders urged Rahul for a rethink, saying it should be his decision and not the State Congress diktat. The Congress has been under pressure from the TMC to enter into an alliance with the AAP. Delhi Chief Minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal too has been keen on a tie-up, saying it would stop the split of non-BJP votes. As the Opposition started recalibrating its campaign after the Pulwama terror attack and the subsequent IAF air strikes, Rahul held a meeting with leaders of the Delhi Congress to discuss the issue. After the Congress refusal then, Kejriwal had tweeted, At a time when the whole country wants to defeat Modi-Shah duo, Cong is helping BJP by splitting anti-BJP vote. Rumours are that Congress has some secret understanding with BJP. Delhi is ready to fight against Cong-BJP alliance. People will defeat this unholy alliance. Reacting to Rahuls statement on Monday, AAP leader Gopal Rai said his party is not in talks with the Congress for an alliance in Delhi and it will contest all seven seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Rai said Kejriwal will hold a meeting with all State unit chiefs of the party and MLAs to discuss the strategy for the parliamentary polls. The party is not in talks with the Congress for an alliance in Delhi and it will contest all the seats on its own, the AAPs Delhi unit convener said. In an all out attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress president flayed him on a host of issues such as the Rafale deal, employment generation, national security and alleged agrarian distress. He also said the choice is between Mahatma Gandhis India or Godses India with love on one hand and hate on the other. You have to decide, you want Gandhis India or Godses India. On the one hand there is love, brotherhood, on the other is hate, fear. Gandhiji was fearless, stayed in jail for years, but spoke with the British with love, while (Veer) Savarkar wrote letters to Britishers apologising and asking to be let off, he said. He said Modi keeps talking about Make in India, but his shirt, shoes and phone, with which he takes selfies, are made in China. Rahul said 40 CRPF personnel were martyred in the Pulwama terror attack carried out by the Jaish-e-Mohammed whose chief Masood Azhar was released from jail by the BJP. Two of our Prime Ministers were martyred. We dont bow before anyone, he said. With the announcement of schedule of general elections 2019, speculations have started on the possible names of candidates to be fielded on 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. Among the 10 seats, a surprise may be in store for Karnal Lok Sabha seat as the ruling BJP is looking to field a political heavyweight from the constituency. The names of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Sanjay Gandhi are doing the rounds from the seat. Karnal Lok Sabha constituency is seen as a safest bet for the BJP with Manohar Lal being an MLA from the Karnal assembly seat. The saffron party is looking for a winning candidate in the constituency currently represented by media baron Ashwini Kumar Chopra. BJPs rebel Ashwini Chopras differences with the Chief Minister is well known and the formers article in a newspaper showering praise on the Congress following Priyanka Gandhis entry into politics, had also upset the BJP leadership. Political experts feel, With Karnal being Chief Minister Manohar Lals hometurf, the parliamentary seat is likely to witness a prestige battle in the Lok Sabha polls and the CM will play a key role in deciding the partys candidate from there. Manohar Lal is keen to field a political heavyweight especially a current Union Minister, having enough clout in the Central Government as well as central BJP leadership. If a political heavyweight wins from his constituency, this would be helpful for the Chief Minister as well as his state in the future, political experts say. The state party leadership is learnt to have requested Union Minister Arun Jaitley to contest from the Karnal seat and also gave assurance of his victory from the seat. Jaitley had unsuccessfully contested from Amritsar Lok Sabha seat in the 2014 elections, being among the few heavyweights who had lost despite the Modi wave in the country. In the keenly-watched contest, Jaitley had lost his first parliamentary election against current Punjabs Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and is currently a Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh. On the other hand, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi, the seven-time BJP MP has expressed interest to contest from Karnal constituency. She currently represents Pilibhit Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Some party leaders have also proposed the name of Swami Gyananand, founder of Shri Krishan Kripa Sewa Samiti from the parliamentary seat. Swami Gyananand is stated to be close to the Chief Minister. Interestingly, the voters in Karnal have elected parachute candidates in the past many elections. BJPs Ashwini Kumar Chopra, Congress Arvind Kumar Sharma, Congress Chiranji Lal Sharma among others were tagged outsiders and had yet managed to register victory from Karnal. In 2014 polls, BJPs Ashwini Kumar Chopra while riding high on Modi-wave had won the Karnal seat by a margin of more than 3.6 lakh votes defeating his closest rival Congress Arvind Kumar Sharma. The party is looking to field a political heavyweight from the Karnal parliamentary seat. In initial discussions, names of Union Ministers Arun Jaitley, Maneka Gandhi and Swami Gyananand have been suggested by the party leaders, said a senior party leader. The party is yet to finalize the list of probable candidates, he added. The Karnal parliamentary constituency has nine assembly segments including Nilokheri (SC), Indri, Karnal, Gharaunda, Assandh, Panipat (rural), Panipat city, Israna (SC) and Samalkha. At present, Karnal, Nilokheri (SC), Indri, Gharaunda, Asandh, Panipat city, Panipat (rural) and Israna (reserved) are represented by BJP MLAs while Samalkha is represented by independent MLA. Notably, the Karnal parliamentary constituency has seen fierce electoral battles with several heavyweight candidates ending up on the losing side in the past. Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who belongs to Haryana state, had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from Karnal thrice. The BJP heavyweight Sushma Swaraj, was defeated by Congress Chiranji Lal Sharma in the Lok Sabha elections in 1980, 1984, and 1989. Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal had also faced defeat for the first time in his political career in 1999 when he had lost the Karnal seat to his BJP rival ID Swami. As countdown has begun for the General Elections-2019, leaders of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Congress and Swaraj India joined BJP at Delhi BJP office at Pt Pant Marg on Monday. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Jitender Chaudhary , Hemant Jha , Pushpa Sharma and Congress Youth Wing Leader Ayush Chaudhary are among the hundreds of leaders who joined BJP formally. Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari said that we will win 400 seats of Loksabha as people are hopeful and keeping positive attitude towards BJP under the leadership of Pimen Minister Narendra Modi. Some are playing politics of dividing the country on the name of religion , cast and believe in dynastic politics, Said Tiwari. BJP State President also reacted on Ramjan and dates of elections and said that people have lost their mental balance in view of their eminent defeat in the next Elections. Kejriwals Party has 67 seats in Delhi Assemblybut is entreating the Congress for alliance. On what ground Kejriwals Party will go to the people for vote because under the rule of this Party Delhi has become the most polluted city in the world, said Tiwari. Nirmal Singh Rawat, 27 year old Indian sailor, had returned to Uttarakhand in December, 2017 after an ordeal of full one year, living in oil tanker with no electricity, a meal in three days while fighting for survival in extreme conditions. The sailor had made repeated appeals to be rescued from Sharjah coast where his vessel was stuck but nothing worked. He survived and was rescued thanks to Samaritan Girish Pant who not only helped him while he was stranded alone but also contacted the UAE Labour and Internal ministries and Consulate General Office of India in Dubai to ultimately fly him back home. More than 800 such workers in UAE who were in dire straits due to some reasons or the others were rescued by Pant. He shared his views with this correspondent while visiting Haridwar recently. Hailing from Uttarakhand, Pant recently became the youngest Uttarakhandi NRI settled in Dubai to receive Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award 2019 for community services conferred by the President of India. Earlier, he was also called by the Minister of External Affairs for the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas panel discussion on community organisations working for Indian nationals in distressed situation. Pant is a part of Indian peoples forum in UAE and is committee in-charge for overstay and seafarers, Consulate General of India to Dubai. In the past few years, he has been able to help out about 800 Indians and people of other countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Russia, Uzbekistan, Philippines, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Sudan and Nepal to return to their homelands from UAE. During his recent visit to Haridwar he said, I do this not for name or fame but to satisfy my urge of being humane to the people in distress. Probably the land where I was born, Berinag in Pithoragarh has infused in me such humanitarian trait. Not only for living people but even sending mortal remains from UAE back to home in India in various death and suicide cases, I have facilitated the families. In a few cases, I myself accompanied the mortal remains to hand them over to families in India, he told this correspondent. Some of the people who go from India to UAE in search of jobs land up in jail due to issues like dispute with their employers and they have been helped by this NRI to settle their issues through mutual understanding. He has also helped save starving workers with the involvement of the local authorities and Government of India. Often at odd hours, he goes to give food to workers who are facing difficulties. In one instance, he went and gave solace to abandoned labourers who had to live inside a bus on the outskirts near the border with Oman. With the arrest of seven accused, including two receivers of stolen items, Delhi Police on Monday claimed to have busted an inter-state gang of burglars known as 'Rajan Gang' in national Capital. After their arrest the sleuths of Delhi Police in Dwarka district have solved 18 cases of burglary and house theft that took place at different locations of Delhi and police have also made recovery in nine cases. The accused all from different states have been identified as the kingpin of gang Rajan (38) a resident of Balrampur in Mathura Uttar Pradesh (UP), Ravi (28) a resident of Raj Nagar, Palam Colony, New Delhi, Rajesh (30) a resident of Begusarai, Bihar, Ansar (36) a resident of Bhagalpur, Bihar, Yashvir (35) a resident of Dholpur Rajasthan, Afsar Malik (23) a resident of Vikas Nagar in Delhi's Uttam Nagar and Asif Malik (21) a resident of Seelampur Market in Delhi. According to Anto Alphonse, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Dwarka district, due to recent incidents of burglary in the area a police team was tasked to analyze the crime trends and to collect CCTV footage of the incident and other vicinity. "Specific inputs were received on March 7 regarding the gang of burglars following which a trap was laid and five persons were apprehended near Power House, Dwarka Sector-1. The car they were travelling was found to be stolen," said the DCP. "During interrogation, their unique modus operandi surfaced as the accused persons disclosed that they used to target mainly shops. Each members of this gang has his own task, like two members of the gang Rajesh and Ansar were tasked to get the targets and recce the market area and for this they used to broom/clean in the market area. While cleaning they used to note down the least protected shops," said the DCP. "Another accused Yashvir, master in auto lifting, was tasked to arrange vehicle for movement and shifting of burgled items. These gang members specifically after committing crime used to shift to other parts of the country. Their kingpin is Rajan who is also arrested by the police," said the DCP. "On their instance, two receivers, Afsar Malik and Asif Malik, were also arrested and recovery of Rs 1,30,000/- were made from them," the DCP said. "On the instance of accused persons, recovery of case property of nine different cases has been made out. Further, CCTV footage of incident reported in other 12 cases also confirmed the involvement of this gang. Further investigation is underway," the DCP added. A section of the dominant Jat community has announced to boycott the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Lok Sabha polls 2019. Upset with the BJP over their long-pending demands including reservation, some Jat outfits have announced not to support the BJP and vote in favor of other political parties in the polls. Among the claimants of Jat vote bank in Haryana are political parties including Congress, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Jannayak Janta Party (JJP). Though Jats in Haryana dont traditionally vote for the BJP, the communitys consolidation behind the Congress or any other political party may upset BJPs political fortunes in Jatland- Haryana, having 10 Lok Sabha seats, which goes to vote on May 12. The Jats constitute nearly 29 percent of Haryanas population (25 percent electorate). Barring northern Haryana, the Jats have strongholds everywhere across the state. Their strength is particularly high in central Haryana, which includes Rohtak Lok Sabha constituency seat. The community also has a significant presence in Hisar, Bhiwani- Mahendragarh and Sonepat parliamentary seats. There is resentment among the influential Jat community against the BJP over their unfulfilled demands of reservation in educational institutions and government jobs, release of youths arrested during quota stir 2016 and withdrawal of cases registered against them. The Jats will boycott the BJP in Haryana as well as other states across the country. We will support mahagathbandhan and Congress in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, said Yashpal Malik, the president of All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS), while talking to The Pioneer. Malik, who is spearheading the Jat quota agitation in Haryana, said that Bhaichara yatras are being held in various villages of Haryana to apprize people about the betrayal of BJP to the Jat community. This campaign will continue during next two months, he said. We have decided to support SP, BSP and Congress in Uttar Pradesh and Congress party in Rajasthan, he said. When asked about AIJASS support to a political party in Haryana, Malik said, we will decide this after the announcement of candidates. Congress and INLD have assured us to fulfill our demands while JJP is yet to make its stand clear on our demands, the Jat leader said. The Jats, an upper caste are usually seen as playing a key role in electing or overthrowing Jat leaders in the polls. In the past three decades, the dominant Jat community is stated to have always polarized behind a favoured Jat leader in the maze of Haryana politics. This time, Haryana will be witnessing a multi-cornered political battle with BJP, Congress, INLD, JJP of Hisar MP Dushyant Chautala, Aam Aadmi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)- Loktantra Suraksha Party (LSP) combine in the fray. Hawa Singh Sangwan, who is heading another faction of the AIJASS in Haryana alleged that the BJP is attempting to consolidate the non-Jat vote bank in their favor for general polls. The ruling BJP is aware of resentment among the Jat community and relying on Jat vs non-Jat divide to win the polls now, he said. Sangwan said, Even after giving assurances to the Jat community to fulfill their demands, the BJP has betrayed them. We have decided to boycott the BJP in the elections, he said. We will hold meetings in villages and run a campaign on social media to make an appeal to the Jat community to vote against the BJP in the polls, he added. According to the political analysts, the caste politics will play a key role during general elections, with the state of Haryana, bitterly divided on caste lines following the violent Jat quota agitation 2016. They also say that with the dominant Jat community unhappy with the ruling party due to their unfulfilled demands, the BJP will be focusing on cobbling together other castes including Dalits, Brahmins, Ahirs, Gujjars, Baniyas among others to win the polls in Haryana. The violent Jat reservation stir in 2016 and unfulfilled demands of the Jat community is also seen as a key election issue. 31 people had died while more than 200 were injured during the Jat agitation 2016 in the state. Apart from the unfulfilled demands, the BJPs bold decision of having a non-Jat Chief Minister Manohar Lal continues to upset the Jat community in the state. Notably, aiming to mend fences with the Jat community ahead of polls, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in October last year unveiled the statue of venerated Jat farmer leader Deenbandhu Sir Chhotu Ram in Jat heartland of Rohtak and had also addressed Deenbandhu Samriti Rally where he had lauded the contribution of the peasant leader for empowering poor and farmers in pre-Independence era. However, the ruling BJP has failed to appease the Jat community so far. The assembly polls in Haryana are also due to be held in October this year. A 35-year-old man has been arrested after three years by the Delhi Police for allegedly cheating people of Rs 1.6 crore on the pretext of selling agricultural land at a low rate in Madhya Pradesh. The accused has been identified as Kuldeep Khare, a resident of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. He was also carrying a reward of Rs 50,000 on his arrest. "On October 31, 2015, one businessman Rajesh Kumar, a resident of Pitampura, filed a complaint where he alleged that one Kuldeep Khare, Director of Pure Consultancy Solution Pvt Ltd, along with his other associates, approached him for selling 100 acres agricultural land at Betul in Madhya Pradesh at a very cheap price," said Dr Ram Gopal Naik, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch. "Thereafter, Kumar transferred Rs 1.6 crore in various accounts of accused persons for purchasing the land. After receiving money, accused persons posed fake men as the owners of the land and also arranged fake documents," said the DCP adding that however, when Kumar went to take the possession of the land, he came to know he was duped. "Earlier, all the accused persons were arrested but Khare got interim bail after compromising the matter with the complainant and then, never returned to attend further proceedings in the court and was evading his arrest since last two years," said the DCP. "During investigation, police searched all the possible hideouts of Khare at various places in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh. Later, on the basis of secret information, police laid a trap near Nizamuddin Railway Station, on Sunday. Kharge was arrested when he came there to meet someone, the DCP said. "During interrogation, Kharge said that he, along with his associates, planned to con the businessman from outside the Madhya Pradesh to earn quick money," the DCP said. 'Scheherazade' in Tunis with young musicians from Arezzo Spazio Seme and OIDA at work on international project (ANSAmed) - TUNIS, MARCH 11 - Students from Arezzo's Francesco Petrarca music high school and the Arezzo Instabile Orchestra (OIDA), accompanied by Gianni Bruschi, performed the opera "Scheherazade, the Other Night" in Sousse, Tunisia on Sunday evening. The opera by Samir Ferjani is based on a libretto in Arabic by Madame Emma Rimli, with arrangements co-written by Aymen Ben Salah, performed by the Tunisian Orchestra conducted by Ferjani. The students will also perform the opera on March 12 at the Tunis City of Culture. Bruschi, co-artistic director of Spazio Seme and while in Tunisia acting as the OIDA director, met colleagues and musicians in Sousse from both shores of the Mediterranean. Musicians from Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and France, including some brass players from the Paris Conservatory, came together to work on the programming for a truly international tour. Bruschi has had a fruitful relationship for many years with Tunisia and the El Jem International Symphonic Festival. Now he is planning a large artistic collaboration with the support of the EU Creative Europe Programme. Bruschi said Spazio Seme, an international artistic centre, is one of the organisations within OIDA that often handles logistics and performance details, as well as theatre and dance productions. In recent days, in addition to rehearsals and the two important concerts, the Italian musicians met with colleagues from Sousse's Institut Superieur de Musique, in an example of how OIDA offers valuable experiences and opportunities to young people who intend to become professional musicians.(ANSAmed). A police sub-inspector and a school teacher were abducted by Naxals in the insurgency hit-Dantewada district of Bastar region, police said on Monday. Sub Inspector (SI) Lalit Kashyap and contractual school teacher Jaisingh Kumeti are missing from hyper-sensitive village Rewali under Aranpur police station limits, Superintendent of Police (SP) Dantewada Abhishek Pallav said. The place of occurrence is 360 kms south of state capital Raipur. The SI was posted in Sameli camp of 111th battalion CRPF along with five others for coordinating between police and the paramilitary forces, the SP added. On Sunday, the SI without informing officials slipped out of the camp and met Kashyap. They reportedly went to nearby village for consuming liquor from where they were abducted, the SP said. We are conducting inquiry as to how the SI managed to slip out of the camp, the police officer added. Praveen Agrawal, Managing Director, Ad-Magnum Packagings Ltd got elected as the Chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Madhya Pradesh State Council for the year 2019-20. AD-Manum Packagings Limited, is a public limited company. The company started manufacturing in 1998. The company is a part of the reputed 'Agarwal Group of India and is engaged in the businesses of packaging material like HDPE Woven Sacks. Anurag Shrivastava, CEO of NETLINK Software Pvt Ltd got elected as the Vice-Chairman of CII Madhya Pradesh State Council for the year 2019-20. He is also a co-founder of Xeeva Inc. Anurag specializes in building Global businesses and building technology leadership for the business. He grew business from nothing to now 2000 plus employees and across more than 18 locations worldwide. NETLINK is a premier provider of information technology, supply chain and business process solutions. On the side-lines of Annual Session CII Madhya Pradesh also organized a conference titled on Shaping new Madhya Pradesh: Localized Strategies for Sustainable Economic growth Kamal Nath, Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh addressed the gathering and spoke about the strategies for sustainable economic growth. Renowned speakers from various facets of economy deliberated on the topic. Conference received an enthusiastic response from across the sectors and was well attended by leading industrialist across Madhya Pradesh. A day after the model code of conduct was enforced in Punjab with the announcement of elections for May 19, the states poll panel on Monday asked the state police chief to get hold of the gangsters and the proclaimed offenders (POs) at the earliest. To ensure peaceful conduct of Lok Sabha elections, Punjab Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S Karuna Raju has asked the state Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta to submit a report on the current law and order and the prevailing crime situation in the state after apprehending gangsters, and the proclaimed offenders within 48 hours. The directions came as several gangsters and criminal groups have been active in the state, even after the state police has, in the recent past, succeeded in neutralising many of them. The state police, since the 2017, had arrested or neutralised 1414 gangsters or members of various criminal groups including 10 category-A gangsters. Besides, 19 terrorist modules had also been busted, and 101 terrorists and 22 foreign handlers have been arrested. A senior official of the Punjab Police told The Pioneer that in the wake of ensuing polls, the state police force is already working in close coordination with the neighbouring states of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab to prepare a joint strategy to deal with the drug smugglers, gangsters, proclaimed offenders. The three states have formed an inter-state Cooperation and Coordination panel comprising high-ranked police officials, said the police official. Notably, the operations of various gangsters and groups are not only limited to just one state but are active in two or more states, especially in Fazilka and Ganganagar areas. For instance, gangster Ankit Bhadu, who was killed in encounter at Zirakpur on February 8, though belonged to Abohar area but was more active in Rajasthan. Before that, gangster Harjinder Singh alias Vicky Goundar was killed in encounter in Hindu Mal Kot area of Rajasthan on Punjab border on January 26, last year. A senior election official said that being the border state, Punjab has to extra cautious during elections. We need to devise a strategy to keep a tab on such elements that may affect the smooth conduct of elections, said the official. Turncoats have turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Congress, which has been burning midnight oil to stage a revival in the 2019 parliamentary elections in the politically important state of Uttar Pradesh. Interestingly, Congress, which fell short of candidates to fight from all 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in UP, has now geared up to woo leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party who may be denied ticket by their parties this time. Sources said that while the BJP would not repeat more then 25 percent of its sitting MPs, the SP and BSP, after forming an alliance in UP, would be forced to annoy many of their prominent ticket seekers and former MPs. The Congress has been eagerly eyeing these left out leaders and it would help them in their hunt for finding potential candidates with winnability factor. The sources said that newly-appointed All-India Congress Committee general secretary and UP East in-charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was now busy fishing potential candidates from other parties. The sources further said that Priyanka had even asked some top leaders from the BJP as well as SP and BSP to wait till the Election Commission issued the poll notification and then switch over to her party. With the Election Commission announcing the poll dates on Sunday an chances of Congress joining the BSP-SP alliance fizzling out, at least two dozen leaders from other parties, including sitting MPs, would join Congress and help it in giving a serious fight in the Lok Sabha polls. A senior Congress leader said on Monday that winnability was being weighed as the deciding yardstick for welcoming turncoats in the party. MP from Bahraich Savitribai Phule, former BSP MP from Sitapur Kaisar Jahan, former SP MP Rakesh Sachan, Avtar Singh Badhana and former Union Home Minister Ram Lal Rahi, former MP and minister in BJP government Omwati Devi, former IAS officer RK Singh, former SP MP from Misrikh, Ramashankar Bhargawa, former BSP MP from Ghosi (Mau) Bal Krishna Chauhan, senior BSP leader Niyaz Ahmed Khan, former MLA Anoop Kumar Pandey in Deoria, have already joined the Congress. Besides, more leaders from other parties are bargaining and are likely to strengthen the Congress in poll season. Along with turncoats, top Congress leaders, who have earlier won polls, are likely to be fielded in this elections. Besides Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, prominent Congress leaders set to try their luck at the hustings from UP include Jitin Prasada, RPN Singh, Anu Tandon, Nirmal Khatri, Imran Masood, Rajaram Pal, Brij Lal Khabri, Saleem Sherwani, Salman Khursheed, Pradeep Jain Aditya, PL Puniyas son Tanuj Punia, Sri Prakash Jaiswal, Raj Babbar, Pramod Tewari, Sanjay Singh, Laliteshpati Tripathi, Akhilesh Pratap Singh and others. While the Congress plans to contest 60-65 seats, it would leave the remaining seats for other like minded parties. The Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party may have finalised their pre-poll alliance on January 12 this year, but the cadres of both the parties are still in the dark over their top leaders Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav taking the plunge in the Lok Sabha election. With the announcement of parliamentary poll schedule on Sunday, all eyes are on Uttar Pradesh which sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha. With not much time left for the first phase of polls on April 11, whether SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and BSP boss Mayawati will enter the poll fray is still a question for many. No leader in both parties is willing to go on record, saying that only the top leaders can speak on the issue. Sources, however, claimed that there were several options before the two leaders. They said that both could stay away from contesting election and devote their time and energy on campaigning for the success of alliance candidates. Both Mayawati and Akhilesh apprehend that this may not send positive message to the masses and party cadres of the two parties when stakes are high and both parties are facing existential crisis, they said. The sources said it was also possible that Mayawati and Akhilesh contest the election, which would suit the interests of the Bharatiya Janata Party as both would remain busy managing their respective seats. If they decide to contest, then Akhilesh Yadav might contest from Azamgarh and Mayawati from Nagina or Ambedkar Nagar constituencies. Earlier, Akhilesh had announced that he would contest the Lok Sabha poll from his wife Dimple Yadavs constituency Kannauj and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav from Mainpuri. However, the SP announced that Dimple would once again be contesting poll from Kannauj while SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav would be shifted to Mainpuri from Azamgarh. It was also being anticipated that BSP chief Mayawati would announce her candidature even as she had decided not to contest polls after becoming national president of BSP in 2003. Since then, Mayawati has been a member of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council while being Chief Minister and of Rajya Sabha from where she resigned in 2017. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj Monday assured all help to the families of the four Indians killed in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash and directed Indian missions in Ethiopia and Kenya to ensure assistance is provided to them. Four Indians, including a UN consultant attached with the Environment Ministry, were among the 157 people killed when a Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed after taking-off from Addis Ababa on Sunday. The deceased Indian nationals were Shikha Garg, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) consultant attached with the Environment Ministry, Pannagesh Bhaskar Vaidya and Hansini Pannagesh Vaidya and Nukavarapu Manisha. Responding to a relative from the Vaidya family, Swaraj said: "I have spoken to the son of Mr Vaidya in Toronto. I am shocked you have lost six members of your family in air crash. My heartfelt condolences. I hv asked Indiain Embaasy in Kenya and the India Embassy in Ethiopia to reach you immediately. They will provide help and assistance in respect of all your family members." Replying to a tweet from a relative of N Manisha, the minister said she has asked the Indian High Commissioner in Nairobi, Rahul Chhabra, to provide them all help and assistance. Swaraj said she is trying to reach the family of Shikha Garg. "I have tried her husband's number many times. Please help me reach her family," she said. The Boeing 737 crashed minutes after an early-morning takeoff from Addis Ababa, killing all eight crew and 149 passengers on board, including tourists, business travellers, and Garg, who was on her way to attend a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) meeting. Can Zuckerberg really make a privacy-friendly Facebook? After building a social network that turned into a surveillance system, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says hes shifting his companys focus to messaging services designed to serve as fortresses of privacy. Instead of just being the network that connects everyone, Facebook wants to encourage small groups of people to carry on encrypted conversations that neither Facebook nor any other outsider can read. It also plans to let messages automatically disappear, a feature pioneered by its rival Snapchat that could limit the risks posed by a trail of social media posts that follow people throughout their lives. Its a major bet by Zuckerberg, who sees it as a way to push Facebook more firmly into a messaging market thats growing faster than its main social networking business. It might also help the company ward off government regulators, although the Facebook CEO made clear that he expects the companys messaging business to complement, not replace, its core businesses. But there are plenty of obstacles. Facebook has weathered more than two years of turbulence for repeated privacy lapses, spreading disinformation, allowing Russian agents to conduct targetted propaganda campaigns and a rising tide of hate speech and abuse. Zuckerberg submitted to two days of grilling on Capitol Hill last April. All that increases the challenge of convincing users that Facebook really means it about privacy this time. Encrypted conversations could alleviate some of those problems, but it could make others worse. Security is an admirable goal, said Forrester Research analyst Fatemeh Khatibloo. Im just not sure it addresses the bigger issues Facebook is facing right now. Facebook grew into a colossus by vacuuming up peoples information in every possible way and dissecting it to shoot targeted ads back at them. Anything that jeopardizes that machine could pose a major threat to the companys share price, which would also affect its ability to attract and retain talented engineers and other employees. In an interview, Zuckerberg predicted Facebooks emphasis on privacy will do more to help the companys business than hurt it. While most of the stock market slipped in Wednesday trading, Facebooks shares gained $1.25 to close at $172.51. The Facebook CEO has been telegraphing some of these changes to investors for the past six months, but his recent blog post is the first time he has explained the idea to the more than two billion people that use Facebooks services and look at its ads. Those ads are expected to generate $67 billion in revenue this year, according to the research firm. If everything falls into place, Facebook will also display similar advertising on the privacy-protected messaging services. Those services are also likely to offer other moneymaking features, such as a digital wallet, as Facebook attempts to build something similar to Tencents popular WeChat service in Asia. If you think about your life, you probably spend more time communicating privately than publicly, Zuckerberg said. The overall opportunity here is a lot larger than what we have built in terms of Facebook and Instagram. Thats far from proven. While Facebook has already tried to show ads in the Messenger app, its seen only limited success. It hasnt even tested the concept in WhatsApp since it acquired that service for $22 billion in 2014. There are some huge unknowns about how successful Facebook is going to be rolling advertising into a more private messaging environment, said analyst Debra Aho Williamson. Some critics are convinced that Facebook has become so powerful even a threat to democracy as well as to peoples privacy that it needs to be reined in by tougher regulations or even a corporate breakup. But unraveling Facebook could become more difficult if Zuckerberg can successfully stitch together the messaging services behind an encrypted wall. I see that as the goal of this entire thing, said Blake Reid, a University of Colorado law professor who specialises in technology and policy. He said Facebook could tell antitrust authorities that WhatsApp, Instagram Direct and Facebook Messenger are tied so tightly together that it couldnt unwind them. Combining the three services also lets Facebook build more complete data profiles on all of its users. Already, businesses can already target Facebook and Instagram users with the same ads, and marketing campaigns are likely coming to WhatsApp eventually. Facebooks focus on messaging privacy raises other concerns. Messaging apps have in the past helped fake news and rumours spread fast, sometimes with deadly consequences. A report from University of Oxford researchers last year found evidence of widespread disinformation campaigns on chat applications like WhatsApp. In one particularly brutal example, the Indian government last year accused WhatsApp of fuelling rumours that led to lynchings and mob violence that wounded dozens. Facebook responded by restricting the number of groups to which a message could be forwarded and labelling forwarded messages as such. Zuckerberg said that Facebook needs to protect both privacy and safety as it encrypted messaging services, although he noted to an inherent trade-off between security and safety, simply because Facebook wont be able to read encrypted conversations. And in some cases, Facebook could allow some content to automatically disappear in a day or two, as if it were a fleeting mirage. Some people want to store their messages forever and some people think having large collections of photos or messages is a liability as much as it is an asset, said Zuckerberg, adding, Figuring out the balance is a really important one. The multiplicity, candour and personality of the sari, a symbol of eternity, will be celebrated by top designers from all corners of the country at the grand finale of Lotus Makeup India Fashion Week 2019. By Team Viva The multiplicity, candour and personality of the sari, a symbol of eternity, will be celebrated by top designers from all corners of the country at the grand finale of Lotus Makeup India Fashion Week 2019. By Team Viva The sari is a metaphor of history, its seamless and unstitched character makes it moldable for every body type. It is one of the few ensembles that has withstood the test of time, tide, trends and has held womens undaunted interest for decades. It is this multi-identity that Lotus Makeup India Fashion Week Autumn Winter 2019 will pay a tribute to at the grand finale. Sunil Sethi, President FDCI says, The grand finale pays homage to the adaptability ingrained in the warp and weft of this traditional fabric, which hasnt lost its relevance pan-India despite Western onslaught. Today the sari has seen many innovative and artisanal renditions to woo the modern-thinking woman in a youthful way. The countrys most ingenious designers Akaaro, Alpana & Neeraj, Amit Aggarwal, Anamika Khanna, Anavila, Anita Dongre, Bodice, Gaurav Gupta, Little Shilpa, Neeru Kumar, Pankaj & Nidhi, Payal Khandwala, Prashant Verma, Raw Mango, Rimzim Dadu, Rohit Bal, Rohit Gandhi + Rahul Khanna, TAANI by Tanira Sethi, Tarun Tahiliani, Urvashi Kaur and Wendell Rodricks will showcase their collections. Designer Pooja Shroff will also be displaying her collection Resist Aur Dye, which is inspired by a line of handmade Indonesian batiks that she acquired during her travels to Jakarta. Actress Rakul Preet Singh will turn showstopper for designer Julie Shah. The designer will showcase her new collection The High Noon Affair, which derives inspiration from the blooming tree of peony flowers, capturing its abstract beauty and varied textures. The subtle creases in each petal has been beautifully showcased by delicately interweaving within the layered foliage, creating manifold striped patterns and illusions, said Shah. Actress Karisma Kapoor will walk in a Mekhela Chador, a traditional Assamese attire, for designer Sanjukta Dutta, as part of her new collection, Morom, meaning love in Assamese. It is inspired by flowers and butterfly. Duttas collection is especially designed for the modern women in handwoven Assamese silk, by the weavers of Assam. Its a collection by women for women. LMIFW will host various sessions Pledge against child labour by FDCI designers along with Kailash Satyarthi, a Nobel Prize winner and founder of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, to wage war against child labour. In support of the councils determination to make India child labour-free, 12 designers are taking a pledge to manufacture garments that do not use child labour. New York-based trend forecaster, Fashion Snoops is holding an exclusive Trend Forecasting Seminar. The workshop will target Spring/Summer 2020 trends for both men and women and will provide key insights into the essential apparel items, materials, patterns, graphics, silhouettes and colour reports targeted at the forthcoming season. Recently, FDCI curated a show titled Made in South Asia, which displayed 60 outfits made from textiles created by women self-help groups from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan. Within India, the textiles came from eight states (Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh). Fifteen FDCI designers participated in the event, each of them working with the craft and textiles of a particular South Asia region. The designers were Alpana Neeraj, Amrich, Anjana Bhargava, Munkee See Munkee Doo, Nitin Bal Chauhan, Nought One, Pankaj & Nidhi, Payal Jain, Payal Pratap, Pratimaa Pandey, Reynu Taandon, Rina Dhaka, Sonam Dubal, Suket Dhir and Suneet Varma. While the show was very well received, FDCI believes the tremendous work done by the womens self-help groups as well as the designers creative efforts need to be shared with a wider audience on a large platform. And the LMIFW is all set to provide such a stage to them. (The fashion week starts from March 13 and will go on till March 17 at the JLN Stadium.) American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved. 326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at [email protected] | (844) 978-6257 MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. Our Accessibility Statement | Terms of Service | Do Not Sell My Information 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research. NAPLES - Italian Environment Minister Sergio Costa said Naples will host an international conference on the Mediterranean Sea from December 2-5, as part of the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean. "In one of the capitals of the Mediterranean, that is, Naples, there will be representatives from Europe, the UN, the Mediterranean area of Africa, and the Asian area," Costa said. "This shows how much we want to be the leader in environmental protection in a new vision," he said. Covestro AG develops, produces, and markets polymer materials for various industries. The company operates in three segments: Polyurethanes; Polycarbonates; and Coatings, Adhesives, Specialties (CAS). The Polyurethanes segment develops, produces, and markets chemical precursors, such as diphenylmethane diisocyanate, toluene diisocyanate, and polyether polyol, which are used primarily in the furniture, construction, and automotive industries. The Polycarbonates segment provides high-performance plastic polycarbonates in the form of granules, composite materials, and semi-finished products for use in the automotive, construction, electrical and electronic, medical technology, and lighting industries. The CAS segment offers precursors for coatings, adhesives, and sealants, as well as specialties. This segment also provides polymer materials and aqueous dispersions for use in automotive and transportation, infrastructure and construction, wood processing, and furniture applications. The company markets its products through trading houses and distributors. It operates in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, the United States, Canada, and the People's Republic of China. The company was founded in 1863 and is headquartered in Leverkusen, Germany. Read More Bridgepoint Education, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides postsecondary education services in the United States. Its academic institutions, Ashford University and University of the Rockies, offer associate's, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs in the disciplines of business, education, psychology, social sciences, and health sciences. The company offers its programs primarily through online; and at its campuses. As of December 31, 2017, its institutions offered approximately 1,200 courses and 80 degree programs; and had 45,730 students enrolled. The company was formerly known as TeleUniversity, Inc. and changed its name to Bridgepoint Education, Inc. in February 2004. Bridgepoint Education, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in San Diego, California. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Molina Healthcare: Aetna & Humana - Medicare Advantage, Affinity Health Plan, AmericanWork Inc., Better Health Network, Camelot Care Centers Inc, Children's Behavioral Health Inc., Choices Group Inc., College Community Services, Dockside Services Inc, Family Preservation Services Inc., Family Preservation Services of Florida Inc., Family Preservation Services of North Carolina Inc., Family Preservation Services of Washington D.C. Inc., Family Preservation Services of West Virginia Inc., Florida NetPASS LLC, Hclb Inc., Magellan Complete Care, Maple Star Nevada Inc., Maple Star Oregon Inc., Mercy CarePlus, Molina Clinical Services LLC, Molina Healthcare Data Center Inc., Molina Healthcare of Arizona Inc., Molina Healthcare of California, Molina Healthcare of Florida Inc., Molina Healthcare of Georgia Inc., Molina Healthcare of Illinois Inc., Molina Healthcare of Iowa Inc., Molina Healthcare of Louisiana Inc., Molina Healthcare of Maryland Inc., Molina Healthcare of Michigan Inc., Molina Healthcare of Mississippi Inc., Molina Healthcare of Nevada Inc., Molina Healthcare of New Mexico Inc., Molina Healthcare of New York Inc., Molina Healthcare of North Carolina Inc., Molina Healthcare of Ohio Inc., Molina Healthcare of Oklahoma Inc., Molina Healthcare of Pennsylvania Inc., Molina Healthcare of Puerto Rico Inc., Molina Healthcare of South Carolina LLC, Molina Healthcare of Texas Inc., Molina Healthcare of Texas Insurance Company, Molina Healthcare of Utah Inc., Molina Healthcare of Virginia Inc., Molina Healthcare of Washington Inc., Molina Healthcare of Wisconsin Inc., Molina Holdings Corporation, Molina Hospital Management LLC, Molina Information Systems LLC dba Molina Medicaid Solutions, Molina Medical Management Inc., Molina Pathways LLC, Molina Pathways of Texas Inc., Molina Youth Academy, NextLevel Health Illinois, Pathways Community Corrections Inc., Pathways Community Services LLC, Pathways Community Support of Texas Inc., Pathways Health and Community Support LLC, Pathways Human Services LLC., Pathways of Arizona Inc., Pathways of Delaware Inc., Pathways of Idaho LLC, Pathways of Maine Inc., Pathways of Massachusetts LLC, Pathways of Oklahoma Inc., Pathways of Washington Inc., Providence Community Services, Providence Human Services, Raystown Developmental Services Inc., The Game of Work LLC, The RedCo Group Inc., Total Care Medicaid plan, Transitional Family Services Inc., Unisys -Health Information Management, and YourCare Health Plan. Daily Mail and General Trust plc manage a portfolio of companies that provides information, analysis, insight, events, news, and entertainment services to businesses and consumers in the United Kingdom, North America, and internationally. It operates in five divisions: Insurance Risk, Property Information, EdTech, Events and Exhibitions, and Consumer Media. The Insurance Risk division offers risk modelling services; and invests in software, data, data analytics and applications. The Property Information division provides services that uses technology, data, and workflow to streamline and reduce the risk associated with commercial and residential property transactions. The EdTech division offers college, career, and life readiness tools to middle and high schools; student match and fit solutions for college admissions offices; and a student success platform for colleges and universities to guide students from enrolment to degree completion through Naviance, Intersect, and Starfish platforms. The Events and Exhibitions division organizes B2B exhibitions and conferences with events in the energy, construction, interiors, hotel, hospitality, and leisure sectors. The Consumer Media division publishes newspapers under the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, and Metro brands; operates MailOnline, an English language newspaper website; and i, a newspaper and website. The company was founded in 1896 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Daily Mail and General Trust plc is a subsidiary of Rothermere Continuation Limited. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise: 3Com International Inc., 3PAR Inc., Apogee, Aruba Networks Inc., Aruba Networks International Cayman, Aruba Networks International Limited, BlueData Software, Cloud Cruiser, Cloud Technology Partners, Cloud Technology Partners Inc., Compaq Computer (Mauritius), Compaq Trademark B.V., Cray, Cray Inc., EDS World Corporation (Far East) LLC, EYP Mission Critical Facilities Inc., H3C Holdings Limited, HP Enterprise Services Australia Pty Ltd, HP Financial Services (Australia) Pty Limited, HP Financial Services (Chile) Limitada, HP Financial Services (Japan) K.K., HP Financial Services Arrendamento Mercantil S.A., HP Financial Services Company (Korea), HP Financial Services International Holdings Company, HPE Government LLC, HPFS Global Holdings I LLC, HPFS Global Holdings II LLC, HPFS Rental S.R.L., Hangzhou H3C Technologies Co. Ltd, Hewlett Packard Caribe BV LLC, Hewlett Packard Colombia Ltda., Hewlett Packard Enterprise (China) Co. Ltd., Hewlett Packard Enterprise B.V., Hewlett Packard Enterprise B.V. Amstelveen Meyrin Branch, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Canada Co., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Canada Co. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Canada Cie, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Costa Rica Limitada, Hewlett Packard Enterprise GlobalSoft Private Limited, Hewlett Packard Enterprise India Private Limited, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Ireland Limited, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Luxembourg SCA, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Polska sp. z o.o., Hewlett Packard Pathfinder LLC, Hewlett Packard Taiwan Ltd., Hewlett-Packard (Israel) Ltd., Hewlett-Packard (M) Sdn. Bhd., Hewlett-Packard (Nigeria) Limited, Hewlett-Packard (Schweiz) GmbH, Hewlett-Packard (Tanzania) Limited, Hewlett-Packard (Thailand) Limited, Hewlett-Packard ApS, Hewlett-Packard Argentina S.R.L., Hewlett-Packard Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Hewlett-Packard Australia Pty Ltd, Hewlett-Packard Belgium SPRL/BVBA, Hewlett-Packard Bermuda Enterprises LLC, Hewlett-Packard Brasil Ltda., Hewlett-Packard Bulgaria EOOD, Hewlett-Packard Caribe B.V., Hewlett-Packard Caribe Y Andina B.V. LLC, Hewlett-Packard Chile Comercial Limitada, Hewlett-Packard Cyprus Ltd, Hewlett-Packard Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Hewlett-Packard Egypt Ltd., Hewlett-Packard Financial Services (India) Private Limited, Hewlett-Packard Financial Services Canada Company, Hewlett-Packard Financial Services Company, Hewlett-Packard France SAS, Hewlett-Packard G1 SPV (Cayman) Company, Hewlett-Packard Gesellschaft mbH, Hewlett-Packard Ghana Limited, Hewlett-Packard GmbH, Hewlett-Packard Guatemala Limitada, Hewlett-Packard HK SAR Ltd., Hewlett-Packard Hellas EPE, Hewlett-Packard Holdings Ltd., Hewlett-Packard International Bank Designated Activity Company, Hewlett-Packard International Bank Public Limited Company, Hewlett-Packard International Sarl, Hewlett-Packard Italiana S.r.l., Hewlett-Packard Japan Ltd., Hewlett-Packard Korea Ltd., Hewlett-Packard Leasing Limited, Hewlett-Packard Limited, Hewlett-Packard Luxembourg Enterprises LLC, Hewlett-Packard Macau Limited, Hewlett-Packard Manufacturing Ltd, Hewlett-Packard Marigalante Ltd., Hewlett-Packard Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Hewlett-Packard Middle East FZ-LLC, Hewlett-Packard Mocambique Limitada - Sociedada em Liquidacao, Hewlett-Packard Nederland B.V., Hewlett-Packard New Zealand, Hewlett-Packard Norge AS, Hewlett-Packard OY, Hewlett-Packard Operations Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Hewlett-Packard Peru S.R.L., Hewlett-Packard Philippines Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Portugal Lda., Hewlett-Packard SARL, Hewlett-Packard SIA, Hewlett-Packard Servicios Espana S.L., Hewlett-Packard Singapore (Sales) Pte. Ltd., Hewlett-Packard South Africa (Proprietary) Limited, Hewlett-Packard Sverige AB, Hewlett-Packard Technology Center Inc., Hewlett-Packard Teknoloji Cozumleri Limited Sirketi, Hewlett-Packard The Hague B.V., Hewlett-Packard Venezuela S.R.L., Hewlett-Packard Vision Limited, Hewlett-Packard d.o.o., Hewlett-Packard s.r.o., Limited Liability Company Hewlett Packard Enterprise, MapR Technologies, New H3C Technologies Co. Ltd., Niara Inc., Nimble Storage, Nimble Storage Inc., Nimble Storage Israel Ltd, Nimble Storage Japan GK, Nimble Storage UK Limited, Plexxi, RedPixie, SGI (Silicon Graphics), Sapphire Holding Co, Scytale, Shanghai Hewlett-Packard Co. Ltd., Silver Peak, SimpliVity, Sinope Holding B.V., Trilead, UAB ES Hague Lietuva, and Unis Huashan Technologies Co. Limited. Ibstock plc manufactures and sells clay and concrete building products and solutions primarily in the United Kingdom. Its principal products include clay bricks, brick components, concrete roof tiles, concrete stone masonry substitutes, concrete fencing, pre-stressed concrete, and concrete rail products. The company provides facing bricks, walling stones, architectural masonry products, cast stones, facade systems, and retaining walls, as well as lintels, sills, and arches; and cladding solutions; roof tiles, chimneys, soffits, and roofing accessories; and fencings, caps and copings, bollards, balustrades, path edgings, and urban landscaping products. It also offers floor beams, door steps, gully surrounds, screed rails, insulated floorings, and hollowcore products; and rail and infrastructure products, such as troughing, cable theft protection, boards, blocks, bases, catchpits, and inspection chambers. In addition, the company offers engraving, cutting, and bonding services; floor beam and block design, supply, and fitting solutions; bespoke concrete products; and staircases and lift shafts services. Its products are used in new build housing; repair, maintenance, and improvement; and infrastructure markets. The company sells its products under the Forticrete, Supreme, Anderton, and Longley brands to customers in the construction industry. Ibstock plc was founded in 1825 and is headquartered in Ibstock, the United Kingdom. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of MetLife: 1001 PROPERTIES LLC, 10700 WILSHIRE LLC, 1201 TAB MANAGER LLC, 150 NORTH RIVERSIDE PE MEMBER LLC, 1925 WJC OWNER LLC, 23RD STREET INVESTMENTS INC., 500 GRANT STREET ASSOCIATES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, 500 GRANT STREET GP LLC, 60 11TH STREET LLC, 6104 HOLLYWOOD LLC, AFP GENESIS ADMINISTRADORA DE FONDOS Y FIDECOMISOS S.A., AFP PROVIDA S.A., AGENVITA S.R.L., ALICO EUROPEAN HOLDINGS LIMITED, ALICO HELLAS SINGLE MEMBER LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY, ALICO OPERATIONS LLC, ALICO PROPERTIES INC., AMMETLIFE INSURANCE BERHAD, AMMETLIFE TAKAFUL BERHAD, American Life Insurance Company, BEST MARKET S.A., BIDV METLIFE LIFE INSURANCE LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY, BLOCK VISION HOLDINGS CORPORATION, BLOCK VISION OF TEXAS INC., BORDERLAND INVESTMENTS LIMITED, BOULEVARD RESIDENTIAL LLC, BUFORD LOGISTICS CENTER LLC, CC HOLDCO MANAGER LLC, CHESTNUT FLATS WIND LLC, CLOSED JOINT-STOCK COMPANY MASTER D, COMPANIA INVERSORA METLIFE S.A., CORPORATE REAL ESTATE HOLDINGS LLC, COVA LIFE MANAGEMENT COMPANY, DAVIS VISION INC., DAVISVISION IPA INC., DELAWARE AMERICAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, DES MOINES CREEK BUSINESS PARK PHASE II LLC, ECONOMY FIRE & CASUALTY COMPANY, ECONOMY PREFERRED INSURANCE COMPANY, ECONOMY PREMIER ASSURANCE COMPANY, EURO CL INVESTMENTS LLC, EXCELENCIA OPERATIVA Y TECNOLOGICA S.A de C.V., FEDERAL FLOOD CERTIFICATION LLC, FORTISSIMO CO. LTD, FUNDACION METLIFE MEXICO A.C., GLOBAL PROPERTIES INC., General American Life Insurance Company, Grand Bank N.A., HASKELL EAST VILLAGE LLC, HIGH STREET SEVENTH AND OSBORN APARTMENTS LLC, HOUSING FUND MANAGER LLC, INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL AND ADVISORY SERVICES LIMITED, INVERSIONES METLIFE HOLDCO DOS LIMITADA, INVERSIONES METLIFE HOLDCO TRES LIMITADA, JOINT-STOCK COMPANY METLIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, LHC HOLDINGS, LHCW HOLDINGS, LHCW HOTEL HOLDING, LHCW HOTEL HOLDING LLC, LHCW HOTEL OPERATING COMPANY, LONG ISLAND SOLAR FARM LLC, LUMENLAB MALAYSIA SDN. BHD., Logan Circle Partners, MARKETPLACE RESIDENCES LLC, MAXIS GBN S.A.S., MC PORTFOLIO JV MEMBER LLC, MCJV LLC, MCMIF HOLDCO I LLC, MCMIF HOLDCO II LLC, MCP - WELLINGTON LLC, MCP 100 CONGRESS MEMBER LLC, MCP 1500 MICHAEL LLC, MCP 1900 MCKINNEY LLC, MCP 2 AMES LLC, MCP 2 AMES ONE LLC, MCP 2 AMES OWNER LLC, MCP 2 AMES TWO LLC, MCP 220 YORK LLC, MCP 22745 & 22755 RELOCATION DRIVE LLC, MCP 249 INDUSTRIAL BUSINESS PARK MEMBER LLC, MCP 3040 POST OAK LLC, MCP 350 ROHLWING LLC, MCP 4600 SOUTH SYRACUSE LLC, MCP 550 WEST WASHINGTON LLC, MCP 60 11TH STREET MEMBER LLC, MCP 7 RIVERWAY LLC, MCP 9020 MURPHY ROAD LLC, MCP 93 RED RIVER MEMBER LLC, MCP ALLEY 24 EAST LLC, MCP ASHTON SOUTH END LLC, MCP BLOCK 23 MEMBER LLC, MCP BRADFORD LLC, MCP BUFORD LOGISTICS CENTER 2 MEMBER LLC, MCP BUFORD LOGISTICS CENTER BLDG B LLC, MCP BURNSIDE MEMBER LLC, MCP CENTER AVENUE INDUSTRIAL MEMBER LLC, MCP CLAWITER INNOVATION MEMBER LLC, MCP COMMON DESK TRS LLC, MCP DENVER PAVILIONS MEMBER LLC, MCP DILLON LLC, MCP DILLON RESIDENTIAL LLC, MCP ENV CHICAGO LLC, MCP FIFE ENTERPRISE CENTER LLC, MCP FRISCO OFFICE LLC, MCP GRAPEVINE LLC, MCP HIGHLAND PARK LENDER LLC, MCP HUB I LLC, MCP HUB I PROPERTY LLC, MCP LODGE AT LAKECREST LLC, MCP MA PROPERTY REIT LLC, MCP MAGNOLIA PARK MEMBER LLC, MCP MAIN STREET VILLAGE LLC, MCP MOUNTAIN TECHNOLOGY CENTER MEMBER TRS LLC, MCP NORTHYARDS HOLDCO LLC, MCP NORTHYARDS MASTER LESSEE LLC, MCP NORTHYARDS OWNER LLC, MCP ONE WESTSIDE LLC, MCP ONYX LLC, MCP PARAGON POINT LLC, MCP PLAZA AT LEGACY LLC, MCP PROPERTY MANAGEMENT LLC, MCP SEATTLE GATEWAY INDUSTRIAL I LLC, MCP SEATTLE GATEWAY INDUSTRIAL II LLC, MCP SEVENTH AND OSBORNE MF MEMBER LLC, MCP SEVENTH AND OSBORNE RETAIL MEMBER LLC, MCP SHAKOPEE LLC, MCP SLEEPY HOLLOW MEMBER LLC, MCP SOCAL INDUSTRIAL ANAHEIM LLC, MCP SOCAL INDUSTRIAL BERNARDO LLC, MCP SOCAL INDUSTRIAL CANYON LLC, MCP SOCAL INDUSTRIAL CONCOURSE LLC, MCP SOCAL INDUSTRIAL FULLERTON LLC, MCP SOCAL INDUSTRIAL KELLWO00OD LLC, MCP SOCAL INDUSTRIAL LAX LLC, MCP SOCAL INDUSTRIAL LOKER LLC, MCP SOCAL INDUSTRIAL REDONDO LLC, MCP SOCAL INDUSTRIAL SPRINGDALE LLC, MCP STATELINE LLC, MCP THE PALMS AT DORAL LLC, MCP TRIMBLE CAMPUS LLC, MCP UNION ROW LLC, MCP VALLEY FORGE LLC, MCP VALLEY FORGE ONE LLC, MCP VALLEY FORGE OWNER LLC, MCP VALLEY FORGE TWO LLC, MCP VANCE JACKSON LLC, MCP VINEYARD AVENUE MEMBER LLC, MCP VOA HOLDINGS LLC, MCP VOA I & III LLC, MCP VOA II LLC, MCP WATERFORD ATRIUM LLC, MCP WEST BROAD MARKETPLACE LLC, MCP ENGLISH VILLAGE LLC, MCPF ACQUISITION LLC, MCPF FOXBOROUGH LLC, MCPF NEEDHAM LLC, MCPP OWNERS LLC, MCRE BLOCK 40 LP, MEC HEALTH CARE INC., MET 1065 HOTEL LLC, MET CANADA SOLAR ULC, METLIFE 1007 STEWART LLC, METLIFE 1201 TAB MEMBER LLC, METLIFE 425 MKT MANAGER LLC, METLIFE 425 MKT MEMBER LLC, METLIFE 555 12TH MEMBER LLC, METLIFE 8280 MEMBER LLC, METLIFE ACOMA OWNER LLC, METLIFE ADMINISTRADORA DE FUNDOS MULTIPATROCINADOS LTDA., METLIFE ALTERNATIVES GP LLC, METLIFE ASHTON AUSTIN OWNER LLC, METLIFE ASIA HOLDING COMPANY PTE. LTD., METLIFE ASIA LIMITED, METLIFE ASIA SERVICES SDN. BHD, METLIFE ASSET MANAGEMENT CORP., METLIFE ASSIGNMENT COMPANY INC., METLIFE AUTO & HOME INSURANCE AGENCY INC., METLIFE BL FEEDER, METLIFE BL FEEDER LP, METLIFE BORO STATION MEMBER LLC, METLIFE CABO HILTON MEMBER LLC, METLIFE CAMINO RAMON MEMBER LLC, METLIFE CAPITAL CREDIT L.P., METLIFE CAPITAL LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, METLIFE CAPITAL TRUST IV, METLIFE CB W/A LLC, METLIFE CC MEMBER LLC, METLIFE CHILE ADMINISTRADORA DE MUTUOS HIPOTECARIOS S.A., METLIFE CHILE INVERSIONES LIMITADA, METLIFE CHILE SEGUROS DE VIDA S.A., METLIFE CHILE SEGUROS GENERALES S.A., METLIFE CHINO MEMBER LLC, METLIFE COLOMBIA SEGUROS de VIDA S.A., METLIFE COMMERCIAL MORTGAGE INCOME FUND GP LLC, METLIFE COMMERCIAL MORTGAGE INCOME FUND LP, METLIFE COMMERCIAL MORTGAGE ORIGINATOR LLC, METLIFE COMMERCIAL MORTGAGE REIT LLC, METLIFE CONSQUARE MEMBER LLC, METLIFE CONSUMER SERVICES INC., METLIFE CORE PROPERTY FUND GP LLC, METLIFE CORE PROPERTY FUND LP, METLIFE CORE PROPERTY HOLDINGS LLC, METLIFE CORE PROPERTY REIT LLC, METLIFE CORE PROPERTY TRS. LLC, METLIFE CREDIT CORP., METLIFE DIGITAL VENTURES INC., METLIFE EMEKLILIK VE HAYAT A.S., METLIFE EMERGING MARKET DEBT BLEND FUND, METLIFE EU HOLDING COMPANY LIMITED, METLIFE EUROPE INSURANCE d.a.c., METLIFE EUROPE SERVICES LIMITED, METLIFE EUROPE d.a.c., METLIFE EUROPEAN HOLDINGS LLC., METLIFE FINANCIAL SERVICES CO. LTD, METLIFE FM HOTEL MEMBER LLC, METLIFE FUNDING INC., METLIFE GENERAL INSURANCE LIMITED, METLIFE GLOBAL BENEFITS LTD., METLIFE GLOBAL HOLDING COMPANY I GMBH, METLIFE GLOBAL HOLDING COMPANY II GMBH, METLIFE GLOBAL HOLDINGS CORPORATION S.A. De C.V., METLIFE GLOBAL INC., METLIFE GLOBAL OPERATIONS SUPPORT CENTER PRIVATE LIMITED, METLIFE GROUP INC., METLIFE HCMJV 1 GP LLC, METLIFE HCMJV 1 LP LLC, METLIFE HEALTH PLANS INC., METLIFE HOLDINGS INC., METLIFE HOME LOANS LLC, METLIFE INNOVATION CENTRE LIMITED, METLIFE INNOVATION CENTRE PTE. LTD., METLIFE INSURANCE AND INVESTMENT TRUST, METLIFE INSURANCE BROKERAGE INC., METLIFE INSURANCE K.K., METLIFE INSURANCE LIMITED, METLIFE INTERNATIONAL HF PARTNERS LP, METLIFE INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS LLC, METLIFE INTERNATIONAL LIMITED LLC, METLIFE INTERNATIONAL PE FUND I LP, METLIFE INTERNATIONAL PE FUND II LP, METLIFE INTERNATIONAL PE FUND III LP, METLIFE INTERNATIONAL PE FUND IV LP, METLIFE INTERNATIONAL PE FUND V LP, METLIFE INTERNATIONAL PE FUND VI LP, METLIFE INTERNATIONAL PE FUND VII LP, METLIFE INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT HOLDINGS, METLIFE INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT HOLDINGS LLC, METLIFE INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LIMITED, METLIFE INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LLC, METLIFE INVESTMENTS ASIA LIMITED, METLIFE INVESTMENTS LIMITED, METLIFE INVESTMENTS PTY LIMITED, METLIFE INVESTMENTS SECURITIES LLC, METLIFE INVESTORS DISTRIBUTION COMPANY, METLIFE INVESTORS GROUP LLC, METLIFE IRELAND TREASURY D.A.C., METLIFE JAPAN US EQUITY FUND GP LLC, METLIFE JAPAN US EQUITY FUND LP, METLIFE JAPAN US EQUITY OWNERS, METLIFE JAPAN US EQUITY OWNERS LLC, METLIFE LATIN AMERICA ASESORIAS E INVERSIONES LIMITADA, METLIFE LEGAL PLANS INC., METLIFE LEGAL PLANS OF FLORIDA INC., METLIFE LHH MEMBER LLC, METLIFE LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, METLIFE LIFE INSURANCE S.A., METLIFE LOAN ASSET MANAGEMENT LLC, METLIFE MAS S.A. DE C.V., METLIFE MEMBER SOLAIRE LLC, METLIFE MEXICO HOLDINGS S. DE R.L. DE C.V., METLIFE MEXICO S.A., METLIFE MEXICO SERVICIOS S.A. DE C.V., METLIFE MIDDLE MARKET PRIVATE DEBT FUND LP, METLIFE MIDDLE MARKET PRIVATE DEBT GP LLC, METLIFE MIDDLE MARKET PRIVATE DEBT PARALLEL FUND LP, METLIFE MIDDLE MARKET PRIVATE DEBT PARALLEL GP LLC, METLIFE MULTI-FAMILY PARTNERS III LLC, METLIFE MUTUAL FUND COMPANY, METLIFE OBS MEMBER LLC, METLIFE OFC MEMBER LLC, METLIFE ONTARIO STREET MEMBR LLC, METLIFE PARK TOWER MEMBER LLC, METLIFE PENSION TRUSTEES LIMITED, METLIFE PENSIONES MEXICO S.A., METLIFE PET INSURANCE SOLUTIONS LLC, METLIFE PLANOS ODONTOLOGICOS LTDA., METLIFE POWSZECHNE TOWARTZYSTWO EMERYTALNE S.A., METLIFE PRIVATE EQUITY HOLDINGS LLC, METLIFE PROPERTIES VENTURES LLC, METLIFE RC SF MEMBER LLC, METLIFE REAL ESTATE LENDING LLC, METLIFE REINSURANCE COMPANY OF BERMUDA LTD., METLIFE REINSURANCE COMPANY OF CHARLESTON, METLIFE REINSURANCE COMPANY OF VERMONT, METLIFE RETIREMENT SERVICES LLC, METLIFE SAENGMYOUNG INSURANCE COMPANY LTD., METLIFE SECURITIZATION DEPOSITOR LLC, METLIFE SEGUROS S.A., METLIFE SENIOR DIRECT LENDING FINCO LLC, METLIFE SENIOR DIRECT LENDING FUND LP, METLIFE SENIOR DIRECT LENDING GP LLC, METLIFE SENIOR DIRECT LENDING HOLDINGS LP, METLIFE SERVICES AND SOLUTIONS LLC, METLIFE SERVICES CYPRUS LIMITED, METLIFE SERVICES EAST PRIVATE LIMITED, METLIFE SERVICES EEIG, METLIFE SERVICES EOOD, METLIFE SERVICES SOCIEDAD LIMITADA, METLIFE SERVICES SP Z.O.O, METLIFE SERVICIOS S.A., METLIFE SLOVAKIA S.R.O. V LIKVIDACII, METLIFE SOLUTIONS PTE. LTD., METLIFE SOLUTIONS S.A.S., METLIFE SP HOLDINGS LLC, METLIFE SYNDICATED BANK LOAN FUND SCSP, METLIFE SYNDICATED BANK LOAN LUX GP S.A.R.L., METLIFE THR INVESTOR LLC, METLIFE TOWARZYSTWO FUNDUSZY INWESTYCYJNYCH S.A., METLIFE TOWARZYSTWO UBEZPIECZEN NA ZYCIE I REASEKURACJI S.A., METLIFE TOWER RESOURCES GROUP INC., METLIFE TREAT TOWERS MEMBER LLC, METLIFE WORLDWIDE HOLDINGS LLC, METROPOLITAN CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, METROPOLITAN DIRECT PROPERTY AND CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, METROPOLITAN GENERAL INSURANCE COMPANY, METROPOLITAN GLOBAL MANAGEMENT LLC., METROPOLITAN GROUP PROPERTY AND CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, METROPOLITAN LIFE SEGUROS E PREVIDENCIA PRIVADA S.A., METROPOLITAN LIFE SOCIETATE de ADMINISTRARE a UNUI FOND de PENSII ADMINISTRAT PRIVAT S.A., METROPOLITAN LLOYDS INC., METROPOLITAN LLOYDS INSURANCE COMPANY OF TEXAS, METROPOLITAN PROPERTY AND CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, METROPOLITAN TOWER LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, METROPOLITAN TOWER REALTY COMPANY INC., MEX DF PROPERTIES LLC, MFA FINANCING VEHICLE CTR1 LLC, MIDTOWN HEIGHTS LLC, MIM CLAL GENERAL PARTNER LLC, MIM EMD GP LLC, MIM I LLC, MIM METWEST INTERNATIONAL MANAGER LLC, MIM ML-AI VENTURE 5 MANAGER LLC, MIM PROPERTY MANAGEMENT LLC, MIM PROPERTY MANAGEMENT OF GEORGIA 1 LLC, MIM THIRD ARMY INDUSTRIAL MANAGER LLC, MISSOURI REINSURANCE INC., ML - URS PORT CHESTER SC MANAGER LLC, ML 300 THIRD MEMBER LLC, ML ARMATURE MEMBER LLC, ML BELLEVUE MANAGER LLC, ML BELLEVUE MEMBER LLC, ML BRIDGESIDE APARTMENTS LLC, ML CAPACITACION COMERCIAL S.A. DE C.V., ML CERRITOS TC MEMBER LLC, ML CLAL MEMBER LLC, ML DOLPHIN GP LLC, ML DOLPHIN MEZZ LLC, ML MATSON MILLS MEMBER LLC, ML MILILANI MEMBER LLC, ML ONE BEDMINSTER LLC, ML PORT CHESTER SC MEMBER LLC, ML SENTINEL SQUARE MEMBER LLC, ML SLOANS LAKE MEMEBR LLC, ML SOUTHLANDS MEMBER LLC, ML SOUTHMORE LLC, ML SWAN GP LLC, ML SWAN MEZZ LLC, ML TERRACES LLC, ML THIRD ARMY INDUSTRIAL MEMBER LLC, ML VENTURE 1 MANAGER S. DE R. L. DE C.V., ML VENTURE 1 SERVICER LLC, ML-AI METLIFE MEMBER 1 LLC, ML-AI METLIFE MEMBER 2 LLC, ML-AI METLIFE MEMBER 3 LLC, ML-AI METLIFE MEMBER 4 LLC, ML-AI METLIFE MEMBER 5 LLC, MLIA MANAGER I LLC, MLIA PARK TOWER MANAGER LLC, MLIA SBAF COLONY MANAGER LLC, MLIA SBAF MANAGER LLC, MLIC ASSET HOLDINGS II LLC, MLIC ASSET HOLDINGS LLC, MLIC CB HOLDINGS LLC, MLJ US FEEDER LLC, MM GLOBAL OPERATIONS SUPPORT CENTER S.A. DE C.V., MMP CEDAR STREET OWNER LLC, MMP CEDAR STREET REIT LLC, MMP HOLDINGS III LLC, MMP OLIVIAN OWNER LLC, MMP OLIVIAN REIT LLC, MMP OWNERS III LLC, MMP OWNERS LLC, MMP SOUTH PARK OWNER LLC, MMP SOUTH PARK REIT LLC, MREF 425 MKT LLC, MSV IRVINE PROPERTY LLC, MTC FUND I LLC, MTC FUND II LLC, MTC FUND III LLC, MTL LEASING LLC, MTU HOTEL OWNER LLC, NATILOPORTEM HOLDINGS LLC, NEWBURY INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED, OCONEE GOLF COMPANY LLC, OCONEE HOTEL COMPANY LLC, OCONEE LAND COMPANY LLC, OCONEE LAND DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LLC, OCONEE MARINA COMPANY LLC, OMI MLIC INVESTMENTS LIMITED, PACIFIC LOGISTICS INDUSTRIAL SOUTH LLC, PARK TOWER JV MEMBER LLC, PARK TOWER REIT INC., PJSC METLIFE, PLAZA DRIVE PROPERTIES LLC, PNB METLIFE INDIA INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED, PREFCO FOURTEEN LLC, PREFCO XIV HOLDINGS LLC, PROVIDA INTERNACIONAL S.A., SAFEGUARD HEALTH ENTERPRISES INC., SAFEGUARD HEALTH PLANS INC., SAFEHEALTH LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, SEVENTH AND OSBORN MF VENTURE LLC, SINO-US UNITED METLIFE INSURANCE CO. LTD., SOUTHCREEK INDUSTRIAL HOLDINGS LLC, ST. JAMES FLEET INVESTMENTS TWO LIMITED, SUPERIOR PROCUREMENT INC, SUPERIOR VISION BENEFIT MANAGEMENT INC., SUPERIOR VISION HOLDINGS INC., SUPERIOR VISION INSURANCE INC., SUPERIOR VISION INSURANCE PLAN OF WISCONSIN INC., SUPERIOR VISION OF NEW JERSEY INC., SUPERIOR VISION SERVICES INC., Safeguard Health Enterprises, Security First Group Inc., THE BUILDING AT 575 FIFTH AVENUE MEZZANINE LLC, THE BUILDING AT 575 FIFTH RETAIL HOLDING LLC, THE BUILDING AT 575 FIFTH RETAIL OWNER, THE DIRECT CALL CENTRE PTY LIMITED, TRANSMOUNTAIN LAND & LIVESTOCK COMPANY, UVC INDEPENDENT PRACTICE ASSOCIATION INC., VERSANT HEALTH CONSOLIDATIONS CORP., VERSANT HEALTH HOLDCO INC., VERSANT HEALTH LAB LLC, VIRIDIAN MIRACLE MILE LLC, VISION 21 MANAGED EYE CARE OF TAMPA BAY, VISION 21 PHYSICIAN PRACTICE MANAGEMENT COMPANY, VISION TWENTY-ONE MANAGED EYE CARE IPA INC., Versant Health, WDV ACQUISITION CORP., WFP 1000 HOLDING COMPANY GP LLC, WHITE OAK ROYALTY COMPANY, and WHITE TRACT II LLC. 46 'terrorists' killed in Sinai, 3 Egyptian soldiers dead Clashes and 200 IEDs blown up (ANSAmed) - CAIRO, MARCH 11 - The killing of ''46 highly dangerous terrorists'' in airstrikes and clashes in the northern and central sections of the Sinai peninsula left 3 Egyptian soldiers dead, MENA reported a statement as saying on Monday. The news agency noted that the clashes had occurred ''in recent days''. The statement added that some 15 ''terrorist hideouts'' had been destroyed and 204 IEDs placed along roads had been blown up. The operation also included the seizure of ''a large quantity of arms, munitions, and explosive material'', it said. Some ''100 criminals wanted by the security forces'' were arrested and 17 cars and 14 motorcycles were destroyed. In the northern and central sections of the Sinai, a low-intensity conflict has been underway for the past six years between Egyptian security forces and terrorists linked to the Islamic State (ISIS), with numerous deaths on both sides but no official death toll has been published. (ANSAmed). Nabors Industries Ltd. engages in the provision of platform work over and drilling rigs. It operates through the following segments: U.S. Drilling, Canada Drilling, International Drilling, Drilling Solutions, and Rig Technologies. The U.S. Drilling segment includes land drilling activities in the lower 48 states and Alaska, as well as offshore operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The Canada segment consists of land-based drilling rigs in Canada. The International segment focuses in maintaining a footprint in the oil and gas market, most notably in Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Argentina, Colombia, Kazakhstan, and Venezuela. The Drilling Solutions segment offers drilling technologies, such as patented steering systems and rig instrumentation software systems that enhance drilling performance and wellbore placement. The Rig Technologies segment comprises Canrig, which manufactures and sells top drives, catwalks, wrenches, drawworks, and drilling related equipment, such as robotic systems and downhole tools. The company was founded by Clair Nabors in 1952 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda. Read More There is not enough analysis data for Carpetright. 4.0 Community Rank Outperform Votes Carpetright has received 247 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Carpetright has received 164 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Carpetright has received 60.10% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Carpetright and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe CPR will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe CPR will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next Phoenix Group Holdings plc engages in the long-term savings and retirement busines in Europe. The company operates through UK Heritage, UK Open, Europe, ReAssure, and Management Services segments. It engages in the management of insurance policies, which include active and closed life insurance products. The company also provides workplace pensions, and customer savings and investments products under the Standard Life brand. Its retirement solutions business includes vesting annuities and bulk purchase annuity business, where it acquires annuities and deliver the financial stability for secure pensions. The company also offers a range of financial products for the over 50s market under the SunLife brand, which cover life cover, equity release, funeral plans, and home insurance. Phoenix Group Holdings plc has a strategic partnership with Standard Life Aberdeen plc. The company was formerly known as Pearl Group and changed its name to Phoenix Group Holdings plc in March 2010. Phoenix Group Holdings plc was founded in 1782 and is based in London, the United Kingdom. Read More Ameriprise Financial, Inc. operates as a holding company. The firm provides financial planning, asset management and insurance services to individuals, businesses and institutions. It operates through the following business segments: Advice & Wealth Management, Asset Management, Retirement & Protection Solutions, and Corporate & Other. The Advice & Wealth Management segment provides financial planning and advice, as well as full service brokerage and banking services, primarily to retail clients through the company's financial advisors. The Asset Management segment provides investment advice and investment products to retail and institutional clients. It also provides products and services on a global scale through two complementary asset management businesses: Columbia Management and Threadneedle. The Columbia Management business primarily provides U.S. domestic products and services and Threadneedle primarily provides international investment products and services. Its international retail products are primarily provided through third-party financial institutions. The segments retail products include mutual funds and variable product funds underlying insurance and annuity separat Read More ROME - UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a statement that in 2018 alone, 1,106 children were killed in the fighting in Syria, making it the highest ever number of children killed in a single year since the start of the war. "These are only the numbers that the UN has been able to verify, which means the true figures are likely much higher," Fore said. "Mine contamination is now the leading cause of child casualties across the country, with unexploded ordnance accounting for 434 deaths and injuries last year. The year 2018 also saw 262 attacks against education and health facilities, also a record high," she said. "Today there exists an alarming misconception that the conflict in Syria is drawing quickly to a close - it is not. Children in parts of the country remain in as much danger as at any other time during the eight-year conflict," Fore said. She said said she is "particularly concerned" about the situation in Idlib in northwestern Syria, "where an intensification of violence has reportedly killed 59 children in the past few weeks alone". Children are still the main victims of the war in Syria. "Children and families in no man's lands continue to live in limbo," Fore said. "The fate of children of foreign fighters in Syria remains unclear," she said. "UNICEF urges member states to take responsibility for children who are their citizens or born to their nationals, and to take measures to prevent children from becoming stateless," Fore said. She said neighbouring countries in the region are hosting 2.6 million Syrian refugee children "who face their own challenges despite support from host governments, the UN and the international community". She said these challenges include child labour and child marriage, as well as poverty and lack of education. Fore said UNICEF is renewing its call "on all parties to the conflict, as well as those who have influence over them, to prioritize the protection of all children". "We also renew our call for unconditional, safe access to the families in need and for sustained, voluntary, long-term solutions to those choosing not to return," she said. "On the eve of the pledging conference in Brussels, we also urge donors to maintain their generosity towards the children of Syria and neighbouring countries. Predictable, unrestricted, multi-year funding is required to meet the immediate and longer term needs of children and their families inside Syria and across the region," Fore said. The following companies are subsidiares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.: 2235158 Alberta Limited, A.J. Amer Agency, AHC Digital LLC, AIX Limited, AJG Coal LLC, AJG Financial Services LLC, AJG Meadows LLC, AJG North America ULC, AJG RCF LLC, AJGRMS of Louisiana LLC, ARM RE Ltda., AVIATION INSURANCE SERVICES, AVRECO, Ace IRM Insurance Broking Group, Acumus Holdings Limited, Acumus Interco Limited, Acumus Ltd, Adams & Associates International, Adaptive Marketing LLC, Adco General Corporation, Advanced Benefit Advisors, Aequus Trade Credit, Affinity Marketing Group, Ahrold Fay Rosenberg, Aires Consulting Group, Alesco Risk Management Services Limited, Alize Limited, Allied Claims Administration Inc., Alternative Market Specialists, Altman & Cronin Benefit Consultants, American Freedom Carriers Inc., American Security Services Corp., American Wholesalers Underwriting Ltd, Andrew-Anthony Insurance Agency, Anthony Hodges Consulting Limited, Antrobus Investments Limited, AquaSurance, Argentis, Argentis Financial Group Limited, Argentis Financial Management Limited, Argus Benefits, Armstrong/Robitaille/Riegle, Artex (SAC) Limited, Artex Cedar Hill, Artex Corporate Services (Malta) Limited, Artex Corporate Services Limited, Artex Holdings (Gibraltar) Limited, Artex Holdings (Malta) Limited, Artex Insurance (Guernsey) PCC Limited, Artex Insurance (Tennessee) PCCIC Inc., Artex Insurance Brokers (Malta) PCC Limited, Artex Insurance ICC Limited, Artex Intermediaries Ltd, Artex Risk Solutions (Bermuda) Ltd, Artex Risk Solutions (Cayman) Limited, Artex Risk Solutions (Gibraltar) Limited, Artex Risk Solutions (Guernsey) Limited, Artex Risk Solutions (International) Ltd, Artex Risk Solutions (Malta) Limited, Artex Risk Solutions (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Artex Risk Solutions (UK) Limited, Artex Risk Solutions Inc., Arthur J Gallagher (Norway) Holdings AS, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (AUS) Ltd, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (Bermuda) Limited, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (Illinois), Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Insurance Brokers of California Inc., Arthur J. Gallagher (Aus) Pty Ltd, Arthur J. Gallagher (Bermuda) Holding Partnership, Arthur J. Gallagher (Life Solutions) Ltd, Arthur J. Gallagher (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Arthur J. Gallagher (U.S.) LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher (UK) Limited, Arthur J. Gallagher Asesoria S.A.C., Arthur J. Gallagher Australasia Holdings Pty Ltd., Arthur J. Gallagher Brokerage & Risk Management Services LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher Broking (NZ) Limited, Arthur J. Gallagher Financial Services Professionals Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher Group Quebec ULC, Arthur J. Gallagher Holdings (UK) Limited, Arthur J. Gallagher Insurance Brokers Limited, Arthur J. Gallagher Latin America LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher Management (Bermuda) Limited, Arthur J. Gallagher Real Estate Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services (Hawaii) Inc., Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services Inc., Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services of Utah Inc., Arthur J. Gallagher School Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher Service Company LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher Services (UK) Ltd, Ashmore & Associates Insurance Agency, Atlantic Risk Management Corp., Atrex Insurance (Cayman) SPC Limited, Avantek Pty Ltd, Axe Insurance PCC Limited, BIS Insurance Services, Baker - Tillys employment benefits solutions, Ballard Benefit Works, Bankers Financial Benefits, Barmore Insurance Agency, Behnke & Co. Inc., Bellisle Pty Ltd, Belmont Associates Consultants, Belmont Insurance Holdings Limited, Belmont International, Belmont International Limited, Benefit Development Group, Benefit Management Group, BenefitLink Resource Group, Benefits Planning & Insurance Agency, Benefits Unlimited, Bennett & Shade Co., Bergvall Marine, Bergvall Marine A.S., Besselman & Little Agency, Big Savings Insurance Agency Inc., Blenheim Park Ltd, Blenheim Park Services Limited, Blue Holdings Pty Ltd, Blue Horizon Insurance Services, Blue Water Benefits, BluePeak Advisors, Blueleaf Consulting Pty Ltd., Bluewater Incorporated Cell Insurance Company, Bollinger Inc., Bollinger Insurance Services Inc., Bowen Miclette Britt & Merry of Arkansas Inc., Brendis & Brendis, Brim AB, Broker Benefit Services, Brokerage Professionals, Brown Hobbs & McMurray Insurance, Bultman/Bell Associates Inc., Burkwald & Associates, Burns-Fazzi Brock & Associates, Bushong Insurance Associates, C&B Consulting Group, CGM Gallagher Insruance Brokers (Trinidad & Tobago) Limited, CJM Solutions Inc., CMA Solutions LLC, Cairnstone Financial, California Insurance Center, Capital Bauer Insurance Agency, Capitol Benefits Group, Capsicum CRLA LLP, Capsicum Re Brasil Participacoes Ltda, Capsicum Re Latin America Corretora De Resseguros Ltda, Capsicum Reinsurance Brokers Bermuda Limited, Capsicum Reinsurance Brokers Miami Inc., Carefree Marketing Inc., Carpenter Cammack & Associates, Cashan & Co., Castle Insurance Associates, Centennial Insurance Agency, Charity First Insurance Services Inc., Charles Allen Agency, Charter Lakes Insurance Agency, Chris Schroeder Insurance, Christie-Phoenix, Cintran Claims Canada Limited, Classic Insurance Services, Cleaveland Insurance Group, Cohen & Lord Insurance Brokers, Cohn Financial Group, Coleman Group Holdings Limited, Coleman Holdings Limited, College and University Scholastic Excess Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Commercial Insurance Brokers, Complete Benefit Alliance, Complete Financial Balance, Complete Financial Balance Pty Ltd, Consolidated Casualty Specialties LLC, Construction Risk Solutions, Contego Underwriting Limited, Contego Underwriting Ltd, Continental Excess & Surplus, Convergence Risk Services Ltd, Copper Mountain Assurance Inc., Cornwall & Stevens Co., Corporate Benefit Advisors, Corporate Life Consultants, Countrywide Accident Assistance Limited, Coverdell & Company Inc., Coverdell Canada Corporation, Cowles and Connell, Craig M. Ferguson & Co., Crist Elliott Machette Insurance Services, Crombie Lockwood (NZ) Limited, Davis-Poston & Associates, Denman Consulting Services, Detlefs Johnson & Partners, DiBrina Group, Dickinson & Associates, Discount Development Services L.L.C., Discovery Benefit Solutions, Dodson-Bateman & Co., Donald P. Pipino Co. Ltd., E. S. Susanin Inc., EHE Holdings LLC, EHS Holdings Limited, Elantis Premium Funding (NZ) Limited, Elantis Premium Funding Limited, Elite Benefits Insurance Marketing Services, Employee Benefits Analysis Corp., Employee Benefits of The Carolinas, Encore Insurance & Bonding, Everett James, Evolution Risk Services Limited, Evolution Technology Services Limited, Evolution Underwriting Group, Evolution Underwriting Group Limited, Evolution Underwriting Limited, Excel Insurance Services, FYI Direct Canada Corporation, FYI Direct LLC, Farallone Pacific Insurance Services, Fenchurch Faris Limited, Fidelity Benefits & Insurance Services, Financial Profiles Inc., Finergy Solutions Pty Ltd, First Agency, First Iowa Insurance Agency, First Premium Inc., First Premium Insurance Group, Fish & Schulkamp, Fishermans Insurance Services, Foley Healthcare Limited, Fortress Financial Solutions Pty Ltd, Fortress Insurance LLC, Foundation Strategies, Fox Lawson & Associates, Franklin-Case Agency LLC, Fraser MacAndrew Ryan Limited, Friary Intermediate Limited, Fuller & O'Brien, G.S. Chapman & Associates Insurance Brokers, G.S. Levine Insurance Services, GBS (Australia) Holdings Pty Ltd, GBS Administrators Inc., GBS Insurance and Financial Services Inc., GBS Retirement Services Inc., GBS Specialty Markets LLC, GGB Finance 1 Limited, GGB Finance 2 Limited, GGB Finance 3 Limited, GGB Finance 4 Limited, GPL Assurance, GPL Assurance Inc., Gabor Insurance Services, Gale Smith & Co. Inc., Gallagher (Bermuda) Insurance Solutions Ltd., Gallagher - Grace/Mayer Insurance Agency, Gallagher Bassett Aires Inc., Gallagher Bassett Canada Inc., Gallagher Bassett Insurance Services Ltd., Gallagher Bassett International Ltd., Gallagher Bassett NZ Pty Ltd., Gallagher Bassett Services Inc. , Gallagher Bassett Services Pty Ltd., Gallagher Bassett Services Workers Compensation Victoria Pty Ltd., Gallagher Benefit Services (Canada) Group Inc., Gallagher Benefit Services (Holdings) Limited, Gallagher Benefit Services Inc., Gallagher Benefit Services Management Company Limited, Gallagher Benefit Services Pty Ltd, Gallagher Benefits Consulting Limited, Gallagher Bomford Couch Wilson, Gallagher Burgess, Gallagher Canada Acquisition Corporation, Gallagher Caribbean Group Limited, Gallagher Clean Energy LLC, Gallagher Communications Limited, Gallagher Community Clinic RPG LLC, Gallagher Consulting Ltda, Gallagher Corporate Services LLC, Gallagher Coyle, Gallagher CyberRisk, Gallagher Energy Risk Services Inc., Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors LLC, Gallagher Holdings (UK) Limited, Gallagher Holdings Bermuda Company Limited, Gallagher Holdings Four (UK) Limited, Gallagher Holdings Three (UK) Limited, Gallagher Insurance Brokers (Barbados) Limited, Gallagher Insurance Brokers (St. Kitts & Nevis) Limited, Gallagher Insurance Brokers (St. Lucia) Limited, Gallagher Insurance Brokers (St. Vincent) Limited, Gallagher Insurance Brokers Jamaica Limited, Gallagher International Cash Management s.r.l., Gallagher International Holdings (US) Inc., Gallagher Investment Advisors LLC, Gallagher Inwest Group, Gallagher Koster, Gallagher Lambert Group, Gallagher Madison Risk & Insurance Services, Gallagher Mauritius Holdings, Gallagher Mississippi Brokerage LLC, Gallagher RE Colombia Ltda Corredores de Reaseguros SA, Gallagher Risk & Reward Limited, Gallagher Risk Group LLC, Gallagher Risk Placements Pty Ltd, Gallagher SKS, Gallagher Service Center LLP, Gallagher-Tarantino, Galtney Group, Game Day Insurance Inc., Gardner & White Corp., Gardner Marine Agency, Garza Long Group, Gatehouse Consulting Limited, Gault Armstrong Kemble Pty Ltd, Gault Armstrong SARL, Giles Group, Giles Holdings Limited, Giles Insurance Brokers, Gillis Ellis & Baker Inc., Goodman Insurance Agency, Grandy Pratt Co., Greenseed Alternative Mangaers Platform Ltd, Grossman & Associates, Group Benefits of Arkansas, Group Insurance Associates, Gruppo Marcucci, HLG Holdings Limited, HMG-PCMS Limited, HPF Investments LLC, HR Owen Insurance Services Limited, Hagan Newkirk Financial Services, Hagedorn & Company, Hardman & Howell Benefits, Harlequin Insurance PCC Limited, Hartstein Associates Inc., Healthcare Professionals Purchasing Group LLC, Healthcare Risk Solutions, Heath Lambert Group Ltd., Heath Lambert Limited, Heath Lambert Overseas Limited, Heiser Insurance Agency, Henderson Phillips Fine Arts Insurance, Herbruck Alder & Co., Heritage Insurance Brokers (CI) Limited, Hesse & Partner AG, Hesse Consulting, Hexagon ICC Limited, Hexagon Insurance PCC Limited, Hill Chesson & Woody, Hogan Insurance Services, Home & Travel Limited, Honour Point Limited, Horseshoe Corporate Services Ltd, Horseshoe Fund Services (Cayman) Ltd, Horseshoe Fund Services Ltd, Horseshoe Fund Services USA Inc., Horseshoe ILS Services UK Ltd, Horseshoe Insurance Advisors US LLC, Horseshoe Insurance Advisory Ltd., Horseshoe Insurance Services Holdings Ltd, Horseshoe Insurance Services Holdings US Inc., Horseshoe Management (Gibraltar) Limited, Horseshoe Management (Ireland) Ltd, Horseshoe Management Ltd., Horseshoe PCC Limited, Horseshoe Re Limited, Horseshoe Services (Cayman) Ltd, Horseshoe Services (Pty) Ltd, Horton Insurance Agency, Housing Authorities Services Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Human Resource Management Systems, I-Protect Underwriting Pty Ltd, IBIS Advisors, IBS Reinsurance Singapore Pte Ltd, ILS Fund Services Ltd., ISG International, ITI Solutions, Igloo Insurance PCC Limited, Independent Benefit Services, Independent Fiduciary Services, Ink Underwriting Agencies Limited, InsSync Group Pty Ltd, Inspire Underwriting Limited, Instrat Insurance Brokers, Instrat Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd, Instrat Integration Holdco Pty Ltd, Insurance Acquisitions Holdings Limited, Insurance Associates Inc., Insurance Dialogue Limited, Insurance Dialogue Ltd., Insurance Plans Agency, Insurance Plus Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Insurance Point, Insurance Risk Managers of Missouri Inc., Insure My Villa Limited, Insure Pty Ltd, Integrated Healthcare Strategies, InterNational Insurance Group, InterPacific Underwriting Agencies, Intermountain Financial Benefits, Interstate Insurance Underwriters, JPGAC LLC, James F. Reda & Associates, James R. Weir Insurance Agency, Jenkins and Associates, Joe E. Martin Inc., John P. Woods Co. Inc., Jones Brown, Jones Brown Group Inc., Jones Brown Insurance Solutions Inc., Joseph Distel, Joseph James & Associates Insurance Agency, Just Landlords Insurance Services Ltd, KDC Associates, KRW Insurance Agency, Kahl Insurance Services, Kaler Carney Liffler & Co. Inc., Kane Group - Insurance Management Operations, Kelly Financial, Kent Kent & Tingle and RBS, Keyser Benefits Corp., Kingspark Enterprises Pty Ltd, L&R Benefits, LSG Insurance Partners, Learn About Money Limited, Lewis & Associates Insurance Brokers, Leystone Insurance & Financial, Life Plans Unlimited, Lincoln Financial Management, Longfellow Financial, Lucas Fettes Limited, Lucas Fettes and Partners Limited, Lutgert Insurance, MA Underwriting Pty Ltd, MDM Insurance Associates, MG Advanced Coal Technologies-1 LLC, MGA Insurance Services, MRS Holdings Ltd., Madison Scott & Associates, Managed Healthcare Solutions, Mannequin Insurance PCC Limited, Marchetti Robertson & Brickell Insurance, Marine Insurance Service, Martin Gordon & Jones Inc., McDowall Associates Human Resource Consultants, McIntyre Risk Management, McLean Insurance Agency, McNeary, McPherson Benefits Group, McRory & Co., Mecacem Insurance SPC Ltd, MedInsights Inc., Melton Insurance Associates, Memberworks Canada LLC, Merit Insurance, Metcom Excess, Metzler Bros. Insurance, Meyers-Reynolds & Associates, Mid America Group, Midwest Surety Services, Mike Henry Insurance Brokers, Mike Henry Insurance Brokers Limited, Mike Henry Insurance Funding Limited, Miller Buettner & Parrott, Miller-Harrison Insurance Services, Milne Alexander Pty Ltd, Minvielle & Chastanet Insurance Brokers, Monument Insurance (NZ) Limited, Monument Llc, Monument Premium Funding Limited, Mortgage Insurance Agency, Murphy Consultants, Mutual Insurance Services, NationAir Aviation Insurance, National Administration Co., National Ethics Association, National Transportation Adjusters, Nelson/Monarch Insurance Services, Nicoud Insurance Services, NiiS/Apex Group Holdings, Nonprofit Insurance Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Noraxis Capital Corp, Nordic Forsakring & Riskhantering AB, North Alabama Insurance, Nourse Insurance Brokers, O'Gorman & Young, OAMPS (UK) Limited, OAMPS Gault Armstrong Pty Ltd, OAMPS Limited, OAMPS Special Risks Ltd, Offshore Market Placements Limited, Optimum Talent, Orb Financial Services, Orb Financial Services Limited, Osprey Insurance Brokers Limited, Oval Group, Oval Healthcare Limited, Oval Insurance Broking Limited, Oval Limited, Oval Management Services Limited, Oxygen Insurance Managers, P2 Group, PEN Insurance Management Advisors Ltd, PT IBS Insurance Broking Service, Pacific Insurance Agency, Palmer Atlantic Insurance, Palmer Atlantic Insurance Ltd, Palmer Atlantic Risk Services Ltd., Park Row Associates, Parkstar Enterprises Pty Ltd, Parmia Pty Ltd, PartnerSource, Pastel Holding (NZ) Company, Pastel Holdings Pty Limited, Pastel Purchaser (NZ) Limited, Pastel Purchaser Pty Limited, Pavey Group Holdings (UK) Limited, Pavey Group Holdings Limited, Pavey Group Limited, Pearson Dunn Insurance Inc., Pen Underwriting Canada Limited, Pen Underwriting Group Pty. Ltd., Pen Underwriting Limited, Pen Underwriting Pty Ltd, Persing Dyckman & Toynbee Inc., Personal Advice Services Pty Ltd, Petty Burton Associates, Pointer Insurance Agency, Portmore Insurance Brokers (Wilshire) Limited, Portmore Insurance Brokers Limited, Potter-Holden & Co., Powell Insurance Agency, Premier Insurance Services Inc., Premier Risk Services, Premium Finance Corporation, Preston-Patterson, ProSource Financial, Professional Agents Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Professional Claims Managers, Proinova AB, Proinova Agency AB, Pronto California Agency LLC, Pronto California General Agency LLC, Pronto Florida Claims LLC, Pronto Florida General Agency LLC, Pronto Franchise LLC, Pronto General Agency Ltd, Pronto General Agency Management LLC, Pronto Holdco Inc., Pronto Holding California LLC, Pronto Holding Florida LLC, Pronto Insurance Agency of Laredo Inc., Pronto Premium Finance LLC, Property & Commercial Ltd., Property Insurance Initatives Limited, Property and Commercial Limited, Protected Insurance Company, Protection Plan Association Inc., Protek Group Limited, Providium Consulting Group, Ptarmigan Underwriting Agency Limited, Ptarmigan Underwriting UK Limited, Purple Bridge Claims Management Limited, Purple Bridge Finance Limited, Purple Bridge Group Limited, Purple Bridge Investments Limited, Purple Bridge Online Services Limited, Purple Bridge Publishing Limited, Quantum Underwriting Solutions Limited, Quillco 226 Limited, Quillco 227 Limited, R. L. Youngdahl & Associates, R.G. Speno Inc., R.W. Scobie, RA Rossborough (Guernsey) Ltd., RA Rossborough (Insurance Brokers) Ltd, REGENCY Group inc., RGA Referencing Limited, RGA Underwriting Limited, RIL Administrators (Guernsey) Ltd., RJ Dutton Inc., RSM Insurance Services Limited, Reassurance Holdings Inc., Rebholz Insurance Agency, Reid Manson Ltd., Reimbursement Services, Rentguard Limited, Reward Management Limited, Reynolds & Rodar Insurance Group, Riley & Associates, Rio 587 Limited, Rio 588 Limited, Risk & Reward Group, Risk Management Partners Limited, Risk Placement Services Inc., Risk Planners, Risk Services (NW) Limited, Risk Services (NW) Ltd., Risk Solutions Group Limited, Robert A. Schneider Agency, Robert Keith & Associates, Roberts & Roberts Insurance Service, Robinson-Adams Insurance, Rossborough Healthcare International Ltd, Rossborough Insurance (IOM) Ltd., Rossborough Insurance Services Ltd. (Jersey), S. A. Freerks & Associates, SEG Insurance Ltd, SGB-NIA Insurance Brokers, SHILLING Ltd, SKANCO International, SMERI AB, SRS Underwriting Pty Ltd, Secure Enterprises Pty Ltd, Securitas Re, Sellers Group, Sentinel Indemnity LLC, Septagon Insurance PCC Limited, Shuford Insurance Agency, Sigma II Insurance Agency, Sinclair Billard and Weld Limited, Sobieski & Bradley, Solid Benefit Guidance, Spanjers Insurance Agency, Spataro Insurance Agency, Specialised Broking Associates, Specialty Risk, Stackhouse Poland, Stackhouse Poland Bidco Limited, Stackhouse Poland Group Limited, Stackhouse Poland Holdings Limited, Stackhouse Poland Midco Limited, Stackouse Poland Limited, Stanton Group, Stark Johnson & Stinson Inc., Steel Agency, Strata Solicitors Ltd, Strategic Health Plans Corp., Strathearn Insurance Brokers, Strathearn Insurance Brokers (Qld) Trading Trust, Strathern Insurance Group Pty Ltd, Strathern Integration Holdco Pty Ltd, Strathern Unit Trust, Strong Financial Resources, Summit Insurance Group, Sunday and Associates, Sunderland Insurance Services, Super Advice Corporate Services Pty Ltd, Taylor Benefits, Texas Insurance Agency, Texas Insurance Managers, The BeneTex Group, The Buchholz Planning, The Chapman Group, The Commonwealth Consulting Group, The Daniels Group Inc., The EHE Group LLC, The EHE Insurance Agency LLC, The Eagle Insurance Agency LLC, The Eriksen Group, The Forker Company, The Gleason Agency, The Great Lakes Agency, The HR Group, The Hawk Agency, The Human Capital Group, The Lance Group, The Levitt/Kristan Co., The MW Bagnall Company, The Old Greenwich Consulting Group, The Parks Johnson Agency, The Plus Companies Inc., The Presidio Group, The Producers Choice, The Rains Group, The Splinter Group, The Titan Group, The Treiber Group, The Woodsmall Companies Inc., Title & Covenant Brokers Ltd., Title Investments Limited, Tom Sherwin Insurance Agency, Total Reward Group, Total Rewards Group (Holdings) Limited, Towle Agency, Transwestern, Tri-State General Insurance Agency, Triad Insurance Agency, Triad USA, Tribeca Strategic Advisors, Trinder & Norwood, Trip Mate, Trissel Graham & Toole, Tropp & Co., Tudor Risk Services, Tyloma Holdings Limited, Uni-Care Inc., Unison Inc., Universico Group, Unoccupied Direct Limited, V2V Holdings LLC, VEBA Service Group, Vasek Insurance Services Limited, Velo ACU LLC, Velo Holdings Inc., Verbag AG., Vertrue LLC, Victory Insurance Agency, Vincent L. Braband Insurance, Vital Benefits, Voluntary Benefits Solutions, W. E. Kingsley Co. Inc., WM. W. George & Associates, Walker Taylor Agency, Welling Associates, Wesfarmers Insurance - Insurance Brokerage Operations, Western Benefit Solutions, White & Company Insurance, Whitehaven Insurance Group, William Gallagher Associates Insurance Brokers, William H. Connolly & Co., Williams Insurance Agency Inc., Williams-Manny Insurance Group, Winn & Company Insurance Brokers, Wischmeyer Benefit Partners, Woodbrook Underwriting Agencies, Woods & Grooms, WorkCare Northwest, Worksite Communications, Y. S. Liedman & Associates, YOA Capsicum Reinsurance Broker Limited, Zenor Limited, Zuber Insurance Agency, and e3 Financial. The following companies are subsidiares of Exxon Mobil: AKG Marketing Company Limited, Aera Energy LLC, Al-Jubail Petrochemical Company, Ampolex (Cepu) Pte Ltd, Ancon Insurance Company Inc., Barnett Gathering LLC, Barzan Gas Company Limited, Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Celtic Exploration Ltd., Coral FLNG S.A., Cross Timbers Energy LLC, Ellora Energy Inc., Esmeroon Oil Transporta Imperial Oil Limited, Esso (Thailand) Public Company Limited, Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd, Esso Deutschland GmbH, Esso Erdgas Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 15) Limited, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 17) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Angola (Overseas) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Chad Inc., Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Deepwater) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Offshore East) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, Esso Exploration and Production UK Limited, Esso Global Investments Ltd., Esso Italiana S.r.l., Esso Nederland B.V., Esso Norge AS, Esso Petroleum Company Limited, Esso Raffinage, Esso Societe Anonyme Francaise, Exxo Holdings Inc., Exxon Azerbaijan Limited, Exxon Chemical Arabia Inc., Exxon International Finance Company, Exxon Luxembourg Holdings LLC, Exxon Mobile Bay Limited Partnership, Exxon Neftegas Limited, Exxon Overseas Corporation, Exxon Overseas Investment Corporation, ExxonMobil (China) Investment Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil (Taicang) Petroleum Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil Abu Dhabi Offshore Petroleum Company Limited, ExxonMobil Alaska Production Inc., ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., ExxonMobil Australia Pty Ltd, ExxonMobil B Resources Company, ExxonMobil Capital Finance Company, ExxonMobil Capital Netherlands B.V., ExxonMobil Central Europe Holding GmbH, ExxonMobil Cepu Limited, ExxonMobil Chemical France, ExxonMobil Chemical Gulf Coast Investments LLC, ExxonMobil Chemical Holland B.V., ExxonMobil Chemical Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil China Petroleum & Petrochemical Company Limited, ExxonMobil Development Africa B.V., ExxonMobil Development Company, ExxonMobil Egypt (S.A.E.), ExxonMobil Exploracao Brasil Ltda., ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc., ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Norway AS, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Romania Limited, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Tanzania Limited, ExxonMobil Finance Company Limited, ExxonMobil Financial Investment Company Limited, ExxonMobil France Holding SAS, ExxonMobil Gas Marketing Europe Limited, ExxonMobil General Finance Company, ExxonMobil Global Services Company, ExxonMobil Golden Pass Surety LLC, ExxonMobil Holding Company Holland LLC, ExxonMobil Holding Norway AS, ExxonMobil Hong Kong Limited, ExxonMobil International Services SARL, ExxonMobil Iraq Limited, ExxonMobil Italiana Gas S.r.l., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Ventures Inc., ExxonMobil LNG Services B.V., ExxonMobil Lubricants Trading Company, ExxonMobil Oil Corporation, ExxonMobil PNG Limited, ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical BVBA, ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical Holdings Inc., ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, ExxonMobil Production Deutschland GmbH, ExxonMobil Production Norway Inc., ExxonMobil Qatargas (II) Limited, ExxonMobil Qatargas Inc., ExxonMobil Ras Laffan (III) Limited, ExxonMobil Rasgas Inc., ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, ExxonMobil Russia Kara Sea Holdings B.V., ExxonMobil Sales and Supply LLC, ExxonMobil Technology Finance Company, ExxonMobil Ventures Finance Company, ExxonMobil Ventures Funding Ltd., Fujian Refining & Petrochemical Co. Ltd., Golden Pass LNG Terminal Investments LLC, Golden Pass LNG Terminal LLC, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures LLC, Imperial Oil Limited, Imperial Oil Resources Limited, Imperial Oil Resources N.W.T. Limited, Imperial Oil/Petroliere Imperiale, Infineum Italia s.r.I., Infineum Singapore Pte. Ltd., InterOil Corporation, Jurong Aromatics Corporation Pte Ltd, MPM Lubricants, Marine Well Containment Company LLC, Mobil Australia Resources Company Pty Limited, Mobil California Exploration & Producing Asset Company, Mobil Caspian Pipeline Company, Mobil Chemical Products International Inc., Mobil Corporation, Mobil Equatorial Guinea Inc., Mobil Erdgas Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Mobil Exploration & Producing Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil International Petroleum Corporation, Mobil Oil Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil Oil Exploration & Producing Southeast Inc., Mobil Oil New Zealand Limited, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Mobil Producing Texas & New Mexico Inc., Mobil SerLimited, Mobil Venezolana De Petroleos Inc., Mobil Yanbu Petrochemical Company Inc., Mobil Yanbu Refining Company Inc., Mountain Gathering LLC, Mozambique Rovuma Venture S.p.A., Palmetto Transoceanic LLC, Papua New Guinea Liquefied Natural Gas Global Company LDC, Permian Express Partners LLC, Phillips Exploration LLC, Qatar Liquefied Gas Company Limited, Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited, Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (II), SPI Limited, Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery Company Ltd., Saudi Yanbu Petrochemical Co., SeaRiver Maritime Inc., South Hook LNG Terminal Company Limited, Tengizchevroil LLP, Terminale GNL Adriatico S.r.l, Trend Gathering & Treating LLC, Wolverine Pipe Line Company, XH LLC, XTO Delaware Basin LLC, XTO ENERGY, XTO Energy Canada, and XTO Holdings LLC. Emera Incorporated, an energy and services company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity to various customers. The company operates through Florida Electric Utility, Canadian Electric Utilities, Other Electric Utilities, Gas Utilities and Infrastructure, and Other segments. It generates electricity through coal-fired, natural gas and/or oil, hydro, wind, solar, petcoke, and biomass-fueled power plants. The company is also involved in the purchase, transmission, distribution, and sale of natural gas; and the provision of energy marketing, trading, and other energy asset management services. In addition, it transports re-gasified liquefied natural gas from Saint John, New Brunswick to consumers in the northeastern United States through its 145-kilometer pipeline. As of December 31, 2020, the company's electric utilities served approximately 792,500 customers in West Central Florida; 529,000 customers in Nova Scotia; 131,000 customers in the island of Barbados; 19,000 customers in the Grand Bahama Island; and 34,000 customers in the island of Dominica, as well as gas utilities and infrastructure served approximately 426,000 customers across Florida and 540,000 customers in New Mexico. It also provides insurance and reinsurance services to Emera and its affiliates, as well as offers financing services. The company was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Halifax, Canada. Read More CASSINO - Italian President Sergio Mattarella, speaking with students at the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio on Monday, said deaths in the Mediterranean, especially those of young people, "strongly question our consciences". Mattarella's speech took inspiration from an exceptionally well-received preceding speech by student government representative Elena Di Palma. Di Palma spoke of the problems of migration and tragedies in the Mediterranean, and Mattarella recalled the case of a young migrant who drowned during the crossing. "A dramatic episode that we cannot forget, that of a 14-year-old who drowned in the Mediterranean and whose report card with grades was found sewn inside," Mattarella said. "There are various cases of very young people who attribute the value of a passport to their report card, giving it an even higher value, nearly that of an accreditation for the world. All of this strongly questions our consciences," he said. The episode that Mattarella recalled, which touched people across Italy, was told in the book 'Shipwreck Victims Without Faces' by forensic anatomist Cristina Cattaneo. The young migrant was estimated to be no older than 14 years old, judging by his wrist bones, and died together with between 700 and 900 other migrants in a huge Mediterranean shipwreck on April 18, 2015. His report card was found sewn into the lining of his jacket, with the writing 'Bulletin scolaire' and his grades still faintly visible. The young migrant was from Mali and had passed through Libya. The ship he was traveling on overturned and migrants were found trapped in the hold, so tightly crowded together that they could barely breathe. In her book, Cattaneo recalls her experience with the young victim. "When the doctors began to undress him, they found something hard and square. I found in my hands a small packet of paper made up of various sheets. I tried to unfold them without ripping them and then I read: Bulletin scolaire and, in a column, the faded words mathematiques, sciences physiques. It was a report card," she wrote. Augusta Gold Corp., a junior exploration company, engages in the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties in the United States. It primarily explores for gold, silver, and other metals. The company holds interests in the Bullfrog gold project located in the north-west of Las Vegas, Nevada. It also owns, controls, or has acquired mineral rights on Federal patented and unpatented mining claims in the state of Nevada for the purpose of exploration and potential development of metals on a total of approximately 7,800 acres of land. The company was formerly known as Bullfrog Gold Corp. and changed its name to Augusta Gold Corp. in January 2021. Augusta Gold Corp. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. Read More Westpac Banking Corp. engages in the provision of banking and financial services. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Bank, Business Bank, BT Financial Group (Australia), Westpac Institutional Bank, Westpac New Zealand and Group Businesses. The Consumer Bank segment covers consumer banking products and services under the Westpac, St. George, BankSA, Bank of Melbourne and RAMS brands. The Business Bank segment involves in sales and customer service of small-to-medium enterprise, commercial and agribusiness customers under the Westpac, St.George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA brands. The BT Financial Group (Australia) segment manages wealth and insurance division. The Westpac Institutional Bank segment delivers a range of financial services to commercial, corporate, institutional, and government customers. The Westpac New Zealand segment comprises sales and service of banking, wealth and insurance products for consumer, business and institutional customers. The Group Businesses segment is responsible for the management of the Group's balance sheet, group technology which includes functions for the Australian businesses and core support which covers functions perform Read More Medtronic Plc is a medical technology company, which engages in the development, manufacture, distribution, and sale of device-based medical therapies and services. It operates through the following segments: Cardiac and Vascular Group; Minimally Invasive Technologies Group; Restorative Therapies Group; and Diabetes Group. The Cardiac and Vascular Group segment consists of products for the diagnosis, treatment, and management of cardiac rhythm disorders and cardiovascular disease. The Minimally Invasive Technologies Group segment focuses on respiratory system, gastrointestinal tract, renal system, lungs, pelvic region, kidneys, and obesity diseases. The Restorative Therapies Group segment comprises of neurostimulation therapies and drug delivery systems for the treatment of chronic pain, as well as areas of the spine and brain, along with pelvic health and conditions of the ear, nose, and throat. The Diabetes Group segment offers insulin pumps, coninuous glucose monitoring systems, and insulin pump consumables. The company was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Read More Nevsun Resources Ltd. engages in the mining and development of mineral properties in Europe, Africa, and North America. It explores for gold, copper, zinc, and silver deposits. The company's principal assets include Timok project, a copper-gold development project in Serbia; and Bisha copper- zinc mine in Eritrea. It also holds exploration licenses and permits in Serbia and Macedonia, as well as in the Bisha mining district. The company was incorporated in 1965 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. As of January 7, 2019, Nevsun Resources Ltd. operates as a subsidiary of Zijin Mining Group Company Limited. Read More DTE Energy Co. operates as a diversified energy company, which engages in the provision of electricity and natural gas sales, distribution and storage services. It operates through the following segments: Electric, Gas, Non-Utility Operations, and Corporate & Other. The Electric segment engages in the generation, purchase, distribution and sale of electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers in south-eastern Michigan. The Gas segment engages in the purchase, storage, transportation, distribution and sale of natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers throughout Michigan and the sale of storage and transportation capacity. The Non-Utility Operations segment engages in gas storage and pipelines, power and industrial projects, and energy trading. The Corporate & Other includes various holding company activities, holds certain non-utility debt, and holds energy-related investments. The company was founded in January 1995 and is headquartered in Detroit, MI. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Sherwin-Williams: Acquire Sourcing LLC, CTS National Corporation, Comex North America Inc., Compania Sherwin-Williams S.A. de C.V., Contract Transportation Systems Co., Dongguan Lilly Paint Industries Ltd, Duron, EPS (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., EPS B.V., Geocel Holdings, Geocel Limited, Guangdong Valspar Paints Manufacturing Co Ltd., Inver East Med S.A., Inver France SAS, Inver GmbH, Inver Industrial Coating SRL, Inver Polska Spoka Z O.O, Inver Spa, Invercolor Bologna Srl, Invercolor Ltd, Invercolor Roma Srl, Invercolor Torino Srl, Invercolor Toscana Srl, Isocoat Tintas e Vernizes Ltda, Isva Vernici Srl, Leighs Paints, M.A. Bruder & Sons, Omega Specialty Products & Services LLC, Oy Sherwin-Williams Finland Ab, PT Sherwin-Williams Indonesia, PT Valspar Indonesia, Paint Sundry Brands, Pinturas Condor S.A., Pinturas Industriales S.A., Piton Paints Limited, Plasti-Kote Co. Inc., Plasti-kote Limited, Productos Quimicos y Pinturas S.A. de C.V., Quest Automotive Products UK Limited, Quetzal Pinturas S.A. de C.V., Ronseal (Ireland) Limited, SWIMC LLC, SWIPCO Sherwin Williams do Brasil Propriedade Intelectual Ltda, Sherwin Williams Colombia S.A.S., Sherwin-Williams (Australia) Pty. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Belize) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (Caribbean) N.V., Sherwin-Williams (Ireland) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Sherwin-Williams (Nantong) Coatings Technology Co. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Nantong) Company Limited, Sherwin-Williams (S) Pte. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Shanghai) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Vietnam) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (West Indies) Limited, Sherwin-Williams Argentina I.y C.S.A., Sherwin-Williams Aruba VBA, Sherwin-Williams Automotive Mexico S.de R.L.de C.V., Sherwin-Williams Balkan S.R.L., Sherwin-Williams Bel Unitary Enterprise, Sherwin-Williams Benelux NV, Sherwin-Williams Canada Inc., Sherwin-Williams Cayman Islands Limited, Sherwin-Williams Chile S.A., Sherwin-Williams Coatings India Private Limited, Sherwin-Williams Coatings S.a r.l., Sherwin-Williams Czech Republic spol. s r.o, Sherwin-Williams Denmark A/S, Sherwin-Williams Deutschland GmbH, Sherwin-Williams Diversified Brands Limited, Sherwin-Williams France Finishes SAS, Sherwin-Williams Italy S.r.l., Sherwin-Williams Norway AS, Sherwin-Williams Paints Limited Liability Company, Sherwin-Williams Peru S.R.L., Sherwin-Williams Pinturas de Venezuela S.A., Sherwin-Williams Poland Sp. z o.o, Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine Coatings, Sherwin-Williams Realty Holdings Inc., Sherwin-Williams Services (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Sherwin-Williams Spain Coatings S.L., Sherwin-Williams Sweden AB, Sherwin-Williams UK Coatings Limited, Sherwin-Williams do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., Spanyc Paints Joint Stock Company, Syntema I Vaggeryd AB, Taiwan Valspar Co. Ltd., The Sherwin-Williams Acceptance Corporation, The Sherwin-Williams Headquarters Company, The Sherwin-Williams Manufacturing Company, The Sherwin-Williams US Licensing Company, The Valspar (Asia) Corporation Limited, The Valspar (Australia) Corporation Pty. Ltd., The Valspar (Finland) Corporation Oy, The Valspar (France) Corporation S.A.S., The Valspar (France) Research Corporation SAS, The Valspar (Malaysia) Corporation Sdn Bhd, The Valspar (Nantes) Corporation S.A.S., The Valspar (Singapore) Corporation Pte. Ltd, The Valspar (South Africa) Corporation (Pty) Ltd, The Valspar (Spain) Corporation S.R.L., The Valspar (Switzerland) Corporation AG, The Valspar (Thailand) Corporation Ltd., The Valspar (UK) Corporation Limited, The Valspar (Vietnam) Corporation Ltd., The Valspar Corporation, The Valspar Corporation Limitada, UAB Sherwin-Williams Baltic, Valspar (India) Coatings Corporation Private Limited, Valspar (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd., Valspar (Uruguay) Corporation S.A., Valspar (WPC) Pty Ltd, Valspar Aries Coatings S. de R.L. de C.V., Valspar Automotive (UK) Corporation Limited, Valspar Automotive Australia Pty Limited, Valspar B.V., Valspar Coatings (Guangdong) Co. Ltd., Valspar Coatings (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Valspar Coatings (Tianjin) Co. Ltd, Valspar D.o.o Beograd, Valspar Industries (Ireland) Ltd., Valspar Industries (Italy) S.r.l., Valspar Industries GmbH, Valspar LLC, Valspar Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Valspar Paint (Australia) Pty Ltd, Valspar Paint (NZ) Limited, Valspar Powder Coatings Limited, Valspar Rock Company Limited (Japan), Valspar Specialty Paints LLC, and ZAO Sherwin-Williams. Spectris plc manufactures and sells measuring instruments and controls worldwide. The company provides products and services, which enable customers to determine structure, composition, quantity, and quality of particles and materials during their research and product development processes, when assessing materials before production, or during the manufacturing process; various range of life science services; products for measurement and control of temperature, humidity, pressure, strain, force, flow, level, pH, and conductivity; and data acquisition, electric heating, and custom-engineered products. It also supplies test, measurement, and analysis equipment, software, and services for product design optimization and manufacturing control; and designs and manufactures tooling and monitoring system for installation and acquisition services, data processing services, 24/7 monitoring, and advanced analytics consulting. In addition, the company offers various industrial automation products, including IIoT controllers and gateways, data acquisition and protocol converters, human machine interface operator displays and panel meters, visualisation software products, proportionalA-integralA-derivative controllers, remote terminal units, input/output products, and signal conditioners and sensors; and industrial networking products, which include ethernet switches, wired and wireless routers, and network and device management software products. Further, it provides on-line and off-line measurement and control solutions for the dimensional monitoring of diameter, ovality, wall thickness, eccentricity, length and speed, and other parameters; particle measuring systems; and supplies gas analysis solutions and various related product and services. The company was formerly known as Fairey Aviation Company Ltd. and changed its name to Spectris plc in May 2001. Spectris plc was founded in 1915 and is headquartered in Egham, the United Kingdom. Read More The following companies are subsidiares of Tyson Foods: APF Legacy Subs LLC, Advance Food Company LLC, AdvancePierre Foods, AdvancePierre Foods Holdings Inc., AdvancePierre Foods Inc., Aidells Sausage Company Inc., Allied Specialty Foods Inc., American Proteins Inc, Artisan Bread Co. LLC, Australian Food Corporation Pty Limited, Australian Food Corporation Trust, BRF, Barber Foods LLC, Bosco's Pizza Co., Bryan Foods Inc., C.S. Grain LLC, C.V. Holdings Inc., CBFA Management Corp., Central Industries Inc., Chefs Pantry LLC, Clovervale Farms LLC, Cobb (Hubei) Breeding Co. Ltd., Cobb (Shanghai) Enterprise Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Cobb Ana Damizlik Tavukculuk Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Cobb Columbia S.A.S., Cobb Europe B.V., Cobb Europe Limited, Cobb Peru (Andina) S.A.C., Cobb-Heritage LLC, Cobb-Vantress Brasil Ltda, Cobb-Vantress Inc., Cobb-Vantress New Zealand Limited, Cobb-Vantress Philippines Inc., Coominya AFC Pty Limited, Coominya AFC Trust, DFG Foods Inc., DFG Foods L.L.C., Don Julio, Egbert LLC, Equity Group - Georgia Division LLC, Equity Group - Kentucky Division LLC, Equity Group Eufaula Division LLC, Equity Meat Corp., Flavor Corp., Flavor Holdings Inc., Foodbrands America Inc., Foodbrands Supply Chain Services Inc., Gallo Salame Inc., Global Employment Services Inc., Grow-Out Credit LLC, Grow-Out Holdings LLC, Haimen Tyson Poultry Development Co. Ltd, Hudson Foods Company, Hudson Midwest Foods Inc., Hybro Genetics Brasil Ltda, IBP Caribbean Inc., IBP Foodservice L.L.C., IBP Inc., International Affiliates & Investment LLC, Jiangsu Tyson Foods Co. Ltd, Keydutch Finance B.V., Keydutch Holdings I LLC, Keydutch Holdings II LLC, Keydutch Investments B.V., Keystone CLJV Holdings Limited, Keystone County House Road LLC, Keystone Foods, Keystone Foods (AP) Limited, Keystone Foods Holdco LLC, Keystone Foods Intermediate LLC, Keystone Foods LLC, Keystone Foods Pty Limited, Keystone Management Inc., Keystone Trading (Shanghai) Company Limited, LD Foods LLC, M & M Express LLC, M&M Restaurant Supply (MI/OH) LLC, MFG (USA) Holdings Inc., Mac Food Services (Malaysia) SDN. BHD., Madison Foods Inc., McKey Food Services (Hong Kong) Limited, McKey Food Services (Shandong) Limited, McKey Food Services (Thailand) Limited, McKey Food Services Limited, McKey Luxembourg Holdings APMEA S.a.r.l., McKey Luxembourg Holdings S.a.r.l., McKey Luxembourg S.a.r.l., McKey VI Holdings Limited, Myung Seung Food Company Ltd., National Comp Care Inc., New Canada Holdings Inc., Oaklawn Capital Corporation, Oaklawn IT Solution Private Limited, Original Philly Holdings Inc., PBX inc., Pierre Holdco Inc., River Valley Ingredients LLC, Rizhao Tyson Foods Co. Ltd, Rizhao Tyson Poultry Co. Ltd, Rural Energy Systems Inc., Sara Lee - Kiwi Holdings LLC, Sara Lee Diversified LLC, Sara Lee Foods LLC, Sara Lee Household & Body Care Malawi Ltd., Sara Lee International LLC, Sara Lee International TM Holdings LLC, Sara Lee Mexicana Holdings Investment L.L.C., Sara Lee TM Holdings LLC, Sara Lee Trademark Holdings Australasia LLC, Saramar L.L.C., Shandong Tyson-Da Long Food Company Limited, Smart Chicken, Southern Family Foods L.L.C., Southwest Products LLC, TF 20 B.V., TF 5201 B.V., TFA Leasing LLC, TFA Opportunity Zone Fund LLC, TFI of California Inc., Tecumseh Poultry LLC, Texas Transfer Inc., The Bruss Company, The Hillshire Brands Company, The IBP Foods Co., The Pork Group Inc., TyNet Corporation, Tyson (Shanghai) Enterprise Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Tyson Americas Holding Sarl, Tyson Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Tyson Breeders Inc., Tyson Chicken Inc., Tyson China Holding 2 Limited, Tyson China Holding 3 Limited, Tyson China Holding Limited, Tyson Deli Inc., Tyson Europe Holding Company, Tyson Farms Inc., Tyson Farms QOZB LLC, Tyson Foods Brasil Investimentos Ltda., Tyson Foods Canada Inc., Tyson Foods Europe (Netherlands) B.V., Tyson Foods Europe GmbH, Tyson Foods France S.A.R.L., Tyson Foods Germany GmbH, Tyson Foods Group Limited, Tyson Foods Holland B.V., Tyson Foods Huadong Development Co. Ltd, Tyson Foods Iberia Alimentos S.L.U., Tyson Foods Italia S.p.A., Tyson Foods Korea, Tyson Foods Netherlands B.V., Tyson Foods Products Limited, Tyson Foods Scotland Europe Limited, Tyson Foods Scotland Sales (Europe) Limited, Tyson Foods UK Limited, Tyson Foods Wrexham Limited, Tyson Foods oosterwolde B.V., Tyson Fresh Meats Inc., Tyson Fresh Meats Sales and Distribution LLC, Tyson Global Holding Sarl, Tyson Hog Markets Inc., Tyson India Holdings Ltd., Tyson International APAC Ltd., Tyson International Company Ltd., Tyson International Holding Company, Tyson International Holding Sarl, Tyson International Service Center Inc., Tyson International Service Center Inc. Asia, Tyson International Service Center Inc. Europe, Tyson Mexican Original Inc., Tyson Mexico Trading Company S. de R.L. de CV., Tyson New Ventures LLC, Tyson Opportunity Zone Fund LLC, Tyson Pet Products Inc., Tyson Poultry Inc., Tyson Prepared Foods Inc., Tyson Processing Services Inc., Tyson Refrigerated Processed Meats Inc., Tyson Sales and Distribution Inc., Tyson Service Center Corp., Tyson Shared Services Inc., Tyson Storm Lake Holdings LLC, Tyson Warehousing Services LLC, Tyson of Wisconsin LLC, Uninex SA, Universal Meats (UK) Limited, WBA Analytical Laboratories Inc., Wilton Foods Inc., Xamol Consultores e Servicos, and Zemco Industries Inc.. Carlos Ghosn faces three charges of financial misconduct over allegations he under-reported his compensation and sought to transfer personal losses to Nissan's books. (Photo: Facebook) Tokyo: Former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn is seeking court permission to attend a board meeting at the Japanese automaker while out on bail, his lawyer told reporters Monday. "(Ghosn) has a duty to attend the board meeting as a member of the board, so if he is allowed, he wants to attend," Junichiro Hironaka said in comments carried on Japan's NTV television station. Nissan is scheduled to hold a board meeting Tuesday afternoon at the company's headquarters in the city of Yokohama. The firm said it could not confirm that Ghosn was seeking to attend the meeting but that it would be "for the court to decide" whether its former chief could be present. Nissan removed Ghosn as chief shortly after his shock November 19 arrest, but he cannot be officially removed from his seat on the board without a shareholder meeting. The company has scheduled a meeting for April 8, but Ghosn retains the right to attend board meetings until then. But he must also obtain the court's approval, which may prove challenging given the stringent measures that govern his release on bail. Under the terms of his release, he is forbidden from contacting people who could be involved in his case, including Nissan executives likely to attend board meetings, such as CEO Hiroto Saikawa. Ghosn, who paid nearly $9 million in bail money, must also live in a residence that is monitored from the outside by camera and can only access a non-internet connected computer at his lawyer's office. The 65-year-old was released on bail on March 6 after more than 100 days in detention. He faces three charges of financial misconduct over allegations he under-reported his compensation and sought to transfer personal losses to Nissan's books. On March 5, Switzerland's Federal Tax Administration (FTA) has decided to grant "administrative assistance to India in respect of Geodesic Ltd and its three directors -- Prashant Sharad Mulekar, Pankajkumar Onkar Srivastava and Kiran Kulkarni, according to the official documents. (Representative Image) New Delhi: It enthralled children with stories of Indian mythology for decades while narrating virtues of good deeds, but the 'Chandamama' magazine's owners are now in the dock for allegedly stashing illicit funds in Swiss banks. Mumbai-based Geodesic Ltd, which acquired the iconic magazine in 2007, and its three directors are being probed by the Indian authorities for alleged money laundering and other financial irregularities and Switzerland has agreed to provide "administrative assistance" regarding their accounts in Swiss banks, which broadly means sharing of information with India. Switzerland was widely known as an alleged safe haven for black money before it bowed down before the global pressure and agreed to bring down the famed secrecy walls that had historically surrounded the Swiss banks, provided the requesting country gave proof for financial irregularities done by the concerned person or the company. Along with several other countries, India has also been making use of this change in the stance of Switzerland by seeking details of suspected black money hoarders in Swiss banks and it has already got back information in a large number of cases in the last few years. In a decision dated March 5, Switzerland's Federal Tax Administration (FTA) has decided to grant "administrative assistance to India in respect of Geodesic Ltd and its three directors -- Prashant Sharad Mulekar, Pankajkumar Onkar Srivastava and Kiran Kulkarni, according to the official documents. As per the Swiss law, the FTA decision can be appealed within 30 days, provided the appellant is able to give sufficient ground to challenge it. Earlier on October 30, 2018, also, the FTA had decided to provide the administrative assistance in respect of Geodesic Ltd and the three individuals. While that decision is appeared to have been challenged, the FTA has again decided to share the details with the Indian authorities, indicating that the earlier appeal could not sustain. In a similar case, the FTA also decided on March 5 to provide administrative assistance' to India in case of a Chennai-based entity, Aadhi Enterprises Pvt Ltd. This decision can also be appealed within 30 days. An earlier decision was taken by the FTA on October 16 to assist Indian authorities in this case, but now a fresh notification has been issued for providing administrative assistance to India in case of this real estate firm which saw a meteoric rise soon after being incorporated in November 2014 and is said to have got significant political links. Geodesic, on the other hand, used to be a publicly-listed entity and has already faced the wrath of capital markets regulator Sebi for multiple violations. Its shares have not been trading since August 2014 when its share price had dipped to as low as Rs 1.50 apiece. While the Swiss government documents did not disclose specific details related to the information and assistance sought by the Indian authorities regarding the two companies and the three individuals, such an 'administrative assistance' follows submission of proof about financial and tax-related wrongdoings and typically involves sharing of information relating to bank account details and other financial data. Repeated attempts to contact the two companies and the three individuals for their comments failed to yield any result. In the past, they have denied any wrongdoing. The 1982-incorporated Geodesic, once known as a fast-growing company with cutting-edge technology solutions, does not have a functional website anymore and is also no longer a listed entity as trading in its shares has been suspended by stock exchanges for "procedural reasons". The company and its directors have faced regulatory action by Sebi as well as other authorities like the Enforcement Directorate and the Economic Offence Wing of the Mumbai Police. Aadhi Enterprises had reportedly landed in trouble due to alleged links to tainted politicians and for allegedly indulging in money laundering. According to reports, the Income Tax Department has conducted multiple raids on properties of the company's promoters. While Switzerland has always denied being a safe haven for black money, it has begun sharing details for last few years with several countries including India after submission of evidence about financial and tax-related wrongdoings of the clients of Swiss banks. Besides, a new framework of automatic information exchange has been now put in place and the details can be accessed under the new system from this year. Still, India was the world's second largest importer of major arms in 2014-18 and accounted for 9.5 per cent of the global total, as per the report. (Photo: Representational | File) Washington: Russia's arms export to India fell by a whopping 42 per cent between 2014-18 and 2009-2013, according to a new report. As a result, Russia accounted for 58 per cent of total Indian arms imports in 2014-2018, compared with 76 per cent in 2009-2013, according to the report "Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2018" released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). In line with PM Narendra Modi's effort to reduce country's dependence on foreign arms, India's overall arms import decreased by 24 per cent between 2009-2013 and 2014-2018, according to the figures released by the report. This decline in India's import is also partly due to delays in deliveries of arms produced under license from foreign suppliers, such as combat aircraft ordered from Russia in 2001 and submarines ordered from France in 2008. Still, India was the world's second largest importer of major arms in 2014-18 and accounted for 9.5 per cent of the global total. Israel, the USA and France all increased their arms exports to India in 2014-18. Pakistan's arms imports decreased by 39 per cent between 2009-13 and 2014-18. The US has become increasingly reluctant to provide military aid or sell arms to Pakistan: US arms exports to Pakistan fell by 81 per cent between 2009-13 and 2014-18, it said. Pakistan has instead turned to other suppliers. For example, in 2018 it ordered 4 frigates and 30 combat helicopters from Turkey, it added. The decrease in India's arms import is significant given that the volume of international transfers of major arms in 2014-18 was 7.8 per cent higher than in 2009-13 and 23 per cent higher than in 2004-2008. The five largest exporters in 2014-18 were the United States, Russia, France, Germany and China. The five largest importers were Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt, Australia and Algeria. The US was the top arms exporter in 2014-18 and 2009-13. Its exports of major arms grew by 29 per cent between the two periods and its share of total global exports rose from 30 per cent to 36 per cent. As a result, the gap between the USA and Russia - the second largest exporter - continued to widen. In 2009-13, US exports of major arms were 12 per cent higher than those of Russia, whereas in 2014-18 they were 75 per cent higher. Russian exports of major arms decreased by 17 per cent between the same periods. The fall was partly due to general reductions in Indian and Venezuelan arms imports - two countries that have been among the main recipients of Russian arms exports in previous years, the SIPRI said. "Although India remained the chief recipient of Russian arms in 2014-18, Russian arms exports to India fell by 42 per cent between 2014-18 and 2009-13. Arms exports to Venezuela, which was the fifth largest recipient of Russian arms in 2009-13, decreased by 96 per cent between the two periods," it said. During last week, the Sensex gained 607.62 points or 1.68 per cent; and the Nifty advanced 171.9 points or 1.58 per cent. (Photo: File) Mumbai: Equity benchmark Sensex surged over 233 points 36,904 in early trade on Monday, which is seen by experts as a pre-poll rally following the announcement of 2019 general election dates. Similarly, the NSE gauge Nifty rose over 75 points to scale past 11,110 level. The BSE Sensex started off on a positive note at 36,741.57 and furthered its gains to trade at 36,904.81, rising 233.38 points, or 0.64 per cent, in early trade. The broader Nifty opened at 11,068.75 and extended its rise to 11,110.95, gaining 75.55 points, or 0.68 per cent. Experts said that prevailing geopolitical concerns in the wake of recent India-Pakistan tensions will be a key factor in the upcoming general elections that may help incumbent NDA government at the Centre. With the Election Commission of India (EC) announcing dates for the much-awaited 2019 general elections, market analysts say a pre-poll rally is likely to continue, citing historical data which suggests a positive trend in the stock market in case the incumbent returns to power. Last week, the 30-share Sensex settled 53.99 points, or 0.15 per cent, lower at 36,671.43, while the broader NSE Nifty slipped 22.80 points, or 0.21 per cent, to 11,035.40. During last week, the Sensex gained 607.62 points or 1.68 per cent; and the Nifty advanced 171.9 points or 1.58 per cent. Meanwhile, Asian bourses saw mixed trading activities following the subdued last week for global equities. Hong Kong and Japan posted gains, while South Korea stocks retreated. In contrast, Chinese stocks soared. Besides election-related developments this week, the market will watch CPI, WPI data, analysts said. New Delhi: Realtors' apex body CREDAI Monday said it has so far identified 30 flats to be offered to families of CRPF personnel martyred in a terror attack at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir. The association will soon identify homes for the remaining martyrs. CREDAI member ATS group has offered 10 flats, while realty firm Gaur group, Supertech and Belani group would give 2 flats each. As many as 14 developers, including Prestige group, have offered one flat each. "We are in complete solidarity with the CRPF soldiers and their families. CREDAI had previously pledged to offer homes to the families of the deceased as a humble gesture. Currently, we have identified 30 homes while we shall share the comprehensive list of the remaining houses at the earliest," CREDAI President Jaxay Shah said in a statement. These flats are situated in the respective home cities or states of the soldiers including Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka, Assam and Punjab. New Delhi: Bollywood actor Rishi Kapoor, who is undergoing medical treatment in New York, has opened up about the rising tensions between India and Pakistan. Kapoor, who is known for voicing his opinions quite strongly, took to his Twitter handle and said that Pakistan should join hands with India to root out terrorism. He wrote, Agree with @arunjaitley If Pakistan truly wants to root out terrorism as they say so, they should join hands with India to do so. We and you have nothing against our respective civilians. If Imran cannot, Pakistan Army or ISI should do it. Think! Agree with @arunjaitley If Pakistan truly wants to root out terrorism as they say so,they should join hands with India to do so. We and you have nothing against our respective civilians. If Imran cannot, Pakistan Army or ISI should do it. Think! Rishi Kapoor (@chintskap) March 10, 2019 The tweet was made following Jaitleys recent interview with a news channel. In the interview, the minister shared his opinion on why Pakistan has been dismissing Indias air-strike and is not helping to curb terrorism. The 66-year-old actor is known for speaking his mind over every topic and has been advocating India-Pakistan peace talks for a very long time. Following the Pulwama terror attack that killed around 40 CRPF, the Indian Air Force (IAF) conducted air-strikes on terror launch pads in Pakistan's Balakot. Meanwhile, Rishi is currently in New York and is getting treated for an unknown disease. Rishis children Ranbir Kapoor and Riddhima Kapoor Sahni visit him from time to time. Over the past few months, several celebrities including Alia Bhatt, Aamir Khan, Anupam Kher, Priyanka Chopra, Sonali Bendre, Javed Akhtar, among others went to see the veteran actor. On the work front, Rishi Kapoor last appeared in 'Mulk' and 'Rajma Chawal'. Mumbai: Actress Sara Ali Khan is on a roll post the success of Kedarnath and Simmba. The actress is now keen to do some powerful roles that will give her enough space to prove her mettle. If the sources are to be believed, Sara was offered a role in the biopic of Udham Singh. However, she politely turned down the offer as she felt it wouldnt give her enough exposure as an actress. Besides, her dates were also clashing with her next project with Imtiaz Ali. The film, however, belongs to Vicky Kaushal who will be seen playing Udham Singh in Shoojit Sircars biopic of the freedom fighter. Udham Singh had assassinated Michael ODwyer, former Lieutenant Governor of Punjab of British India to avenge the horrors of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Shoojit, who is helming the project, praised his male lead to the skies and said he is excited to work with the Uri star. Mumbai: Actress Kriti Sanon, who is presently shooting for Ashutosh Gowarikars Panipat, is very excited to play the character of Parvati Bai, the second wife of Sadashivrao Bhau who was the commander-in-chief of the Maratha army in the third battle of Panipat. Talking about her character, she says, I am playing the historical character of Parvati Bai and the journey of this character and its love story before and after her marriage with Sadashivrao Bhau seems to be intriguing. Adding more about her transformation in this historical drama, she says, From being a North Indian Punjabi hailing from Delhi to playing a Marathi character, I had to pick up the Marathi dialect. For this, I took some Marathi classes as well since the pronunciation has to be perfect. Panipat is an action film and Kriti too has some action sequences. I am very happy donning this action-packed role. For this, I had to learn horse riding and also had to do a few swords fight scenes. Thankfully, I had already done a combat training that came handy for me while playing this character says the actress. Since her character is a Maharashtrian, Kriti is also donning Kashta (nauvari) sarees. Talking about her attire, Kriti informs that her saree is not ready made. Designer Neeta Lulla will never like any of her character to wear readymade costumes, she says and adds, It takes me about half-an-hour to wear this saree and it is draped in a dancing manner, I feel. But, it is a comfortable attire. Sharing an anecdote from the film, she says, On the first day, we were shooting the marriage scene and I was given fresh flowers to wear. But, these flowers were the kind that dries off very fast. So, I had to keep changing these flowers for every scene. The next day, I requested them to bring roses for me so that I can wear them for a longer period of time. Amidst the India Australia match, Akash Ambanis wedding and the announcement of election dates, a hashtag urging people to boycott a detergent brand started trending on Twitter. The brands recently released commercial has invited the wrath of the Twitteratis who wasted no time in terming it as anti-Hindu and promoting love jihad. The minute-long commercial features a young girl, dressed in a white t-shirt, choosing to get stained in Holi colours in order to protect her young Muslim friend who has to go to a nearby mosque to pray. The advertisement ends with its classic tagline: Daag acche hain. While some twitteratis tried to question the gender selection of the kids in the film, others egged the brand to make a similar commercial based on a Muslim festival. Reacting to the criticism, noted director Vasan Bala took to Twitter and wrote, Proud to have been a part of the #SurfExcel Holi commercial. An amazing and a brave team behind this! Unfortunately to convey compassion, tolerance and love one needs to be brave these days. This controversy comes hot on the heels of the heavy backlash against another commercial that was set in Khumbh Mela. The conglomerate had referred to Kumbh Mela as a place where old people get abandoned. This didnt go down well with many and after a furore, the company issued a statement saying, We do not intend to hurt the sentiments of people, and have modified the tweet which could have been inadvertently misconstrued. When asked about such criticisms towards the commercials, well-known ad film director, Prahlad Kakkar, feels that its an agenda. He says, I dont think people are getting offended, I think its the fringe lunatics, that is ultra-fundamentalist. It is a body very active on Twitter and most people are not bothered to reply. Right now, the only voices that you hear are people of political leading, and they think they are going to get mileage by polarizing population through Twitter. While trolls sitting behind the computer screen feel that its anti-Hindu, many praised the ad for its creativity. Sharing his views ad filmmaker Gaurav Panjwani says, I dont see anything wrong with this advertising film, its an apt narration of friendship and sincere effort of promoting peace via brand which is used widely in almost every home. In fact, I loved its texture, I dont see any reason for such boycott. Although trolls dont need a reason to bash a certain post on social media, ad filmmaker Sneh Nilhani urges people to see the other side, she says, I think they could have used the content in a different way for showing unity. If theyd shown a boy goes for namaz with the Holi colours on his kurta, then this could have shown more unity and togetherness. Although Sneh personally doesnt think the ad was wrong, she feels the political situation is making people more sensitive, It might come across like this Holi colour stain is making you impure; this can be sensitive to some people because, in the present political scenario, anything is possible. I see whatever message they are trying to give through this ad may be sensitive to some people for sure, says the filmmaker. Ad filmmaker Milind Dhaimade who has made several ads for Pepsico, says, I think the group is trying to create some good values about caring and respecting each others thoughts and beliefs and thats what they are trying to associate with their brands, so whats wrong in that? Its just that few people are using this to create a ruckus and make noises. Just because someone is from other religion they are trying to make a fuss about it. On the flip side, there are many who have gone ahead and endorsed it. While celebrities such as Vir Das, Swara Bhaskar have tweeted in favour of the ad, their voices have gotten overshadowed by the number of trolls criticising the ad. According to Prahlad, the number of trolls is not high but the people who liked the ad are not speaking up. 500 people in one million people have not liked the ad, so does it really matter? questions the director. He continues, I think its about time now before the elections, that we should either manifest it in the election and say what we think or we should turn out and have a voice. Turn out and say all you guys are talking rubbish and this is perfectly okay and legit ad. Expressing his views on the ad he says, I think it is the right message and it gives the right impression for everybody and it calls for peace and harmony and that is what we need in this country. Tweets: @ReallySwara: Search #BoycottSurfExcel hashtag and witness #TheCultOfStupidity in action. I hope @HUL_News will have the conviction to stand by their advertisement aimed at promoting communal harmony & not be cowed down by hate mongers. @VirDas: To call what happened backlash is paying it a compliment. How about 'Completely irrational inherently stupid hatred motivated by too much free time'? @MehboobaMufti: I have a better suggestion. Bhakts should be washed properly with Surf Excel. Kyunki Surf ki dhulai daag ko karain saaf. With inputs from Priyanka Chandani Kolkata: Originated in Thailand, the Green Thai curry is an intense, thick blend of flavourful ingredients. Curries in Thailand mainly differ from the Indian curries in their use of ingredients such as herbs and aromatic leaves over a mix of spices. Green curry is generally eaten with rice as a wide range of dishes in a meal. Green Thai Curry: 150 grams Curry Paste 25 grams green curry Paste 5 grams cumin powder 5 grams Coriander root 5 grams Kaffir lime leave 15 grams - Cooking oil can Coconut milk 5 grams Pea Aubergine 20 grams Pak choy 20 grams Snow peas 10 grams Lesser Ginger 5 grams Sweet basil leaves 5 gram Red chilli 10 grams Palm sugar 6 ml Fish sauce 150 grams White sugar Step 1 Green curry paste to sauteed with coconut milk and cumin powder. Kaffir lime leave to add in and let it slow boil for better flavour. Step 2 Add in seasoning and chicken slow cook for 10 minutes. Follow by add in all vegetables and cook for another 5 minutes. Step 3 Garnish with coconut cream, basil leaves and fried chilli before serving. (The recipe and the picture of Green Thai Curry has been provided by Chef Prakash Chettiyar, Executive Chef JW Marriott, Kolkata.) Hyderabad: Among every four diabetic patients there is a chance of one being affected with cancer, say oncologists. A patient, who is suffering from both, will tend to deteriorate if not treated properly since drugs used against cancer often aggravate diabetes. Steroids, which are often given to decrease nausea in cancer patients, can increase insulin levels. A recent study, which was published in Diabetologia, confirmed the relation between diabetes and cancer. As a part of the study, a systematic review and meta-analysis of 121 groups including 20 million individuals was done. Predominantly in diabetic patients, prevalence of different types of cancers like pancreas, liver, breast, colorectal, urinary tract, female reproductive organs is reasonably high. In every four diabetic patients, the possibility of one getting affected with cancer is more. Insulin is a hormone that is responsible for allowing glucose in the blood to enter cells, imparting them with the energy to function. If insulin is given to a diabetic patient suffering from cancer, the steroids which are prescribed as a part of cancer treatment will worsen the condition of the patients. Speaking about the issue, Dr Sai Ram, an oncologist from MNJ Cancer Hospital said, The insulin should be given after having some food rather than the usual case wherein the insulin is given to diabetic patients before the consumption of food. Instead of long acting insulin injections, short acting insulin injection should be given to the patients who are suffering from both cancer and diabetes. Speaking about the treatment of cancer leading to Type 2 diabetes, Dr Sai Ram further added, Androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) with luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonists for prostate cancer, are linked with increased risk of the development of type 2 diabetes, possibly due to loss of insulin sensitivity. Speaking about the medication give to diabetes patients, Dr Ravi Shankar, an endocrinologist said, Few medications used in treatment of diabetes have an increased association with certain cancers such as pancreatic and urinary bladder cancer. While this is do, the good old medication Metformin used for diabetics may have a protective role against certain cancers. Sculptors flock to the Slovak Tatra mountain hamlet of Hrebienok every winter to build an ice version of a famous church. (Photo: AFP) Rome: A young nun breathes deeply as she peers up at a statue of an angel bathed in softly coloured light streaming through a church, and as she exhales, you can see her breath. Instead of wood or bricks and mortar, this chilly house of worship perched among the snowy peaks of Slovakia's High Tatra Mountains has been built from massive crystal-clear blocks of ice. "It's so good for your soul; it provides you with tranquillity," she whispers. "All of nature is inside and around this temple," she adds, gazing at the surrounding alpine vistas. Englishman Martin, who declined to give his surname, describes it as a "beautiful, religious place, so peaceful and calm". Since 2013, ice sculptors have flocked to the Slovak Tatra mountain hamlet of Hrebienok every winter to build a Tatra Ice Temple, or scaled-down replica of a famous church using only crystal-clear ice blocks. This year, it's an 11 metre (36-foot) tall version of the 16th-century Vatican basilica, complete with the imposing two half-circle wings of Bernini's colonnade. A quarter of a million tourists last year took the short funicular ride up the mountain to see the ice replica of Barcelona's soaring and intricate Sagrada Familia. A team of 16 sculptors from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Wales and the United States worked 12 hours a day for a month to create this year's ice temple. On Sundays, the venue vibrates with the sounds of sacred music concerts. "I'm glad to see people crossing themselves and praying inside," says Slovak chief sculptor Adam Bakos. The interior boasts sculptures modelled on the works of Italian masters side-by-side with those of chamois, marmots and other wildlife native to the High Tatras. "I gave them a free hand with the decoration, so each artist added their signature style to the sculptures," Bakos said. Slovak-Greek artist Achilleas Sdoukos designed and produced stained-glass decorations incorporated into the temple's icy walls. With an unusually warm winter threatening to melt details on their sculpture, Bakos and his team covered it with a geodesic dome, measuring 25 metres in diameter. They also installed refrigeration units to ensure a bone-chilling minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) to keep the ice solid. "Cold wind was blowing in our faces from the AC (air conditioning) all day long. "It was like a chopper ride in January. "Once we were done, I didn't even want to open the freezer at home anymore," he jokes. More than 15 carpenters helped sculptors with the demanding task of stacking the ice blocks, each weighing 125 kilogrammes (275 pounds). "It took us more time to stack the blocks than to carve them," Bakos said. "Ice is also an extremely fragile material, you must be very gentle with it or details tend to fall off. We used only water to glue the pieces together," he said. Visiting the ice temple is free. It is funded by the Tatra tourism organisation, the transport and construction ministry and other partners. Only cold air and water are used to maintain the ice church. "It is not only that visitors touch the walls of the temple, they also breathe out warm air and come in sipping hot tea," Kromka said. When winter is over, the ice structure is smashed to pieces, the cooling system switched off and the ice carried outside to melt on the ground. Open annually from November until late April, the ice temple is also becoming a hotspot for destination weddings. She is also convinced that ice temple weddings lead to long, lucky unions. "Thanks to that huge amount of ice, I believe that marriages entered into here will be preserved and last forever." Senior actor Naresh was declared the new president of the Movie Artistes Association (MAA) after a decisive victory in the elections held on Sunday for all the posts. Unlike the previous election where Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) were used, counting continued till the wee hours of the morning this time as only ballot paper was used. In a first for a woman, Jeevitha was elected as general secretary while her husband Rajasekhar will be the executive vice president. Other victors include Rajiv Kanakala as treasurer, director and actor S.V. Krishna Reddy as one of the two vice-presidents and Hema, who contested individually. Sivaji Balaji and Gautam Raju will function as joint secretaries while popular personalities like Thanikella Bharani, Ali, Suresh Kondeti, Sai Kumar, Uttej, Tanish and Raja Ravindra found spots as executive members. Interestingly, of the total 745 votes, only 472 actors cast their vote out of which 18 votes were declared invalid. Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Rana Daggubati, Nani, Sai Dharam Tej, Allari Naresh, Jamuna, Roja Ramani, Jayasudha, Priyamani and Archana were among the top celebrities who came to cast their vote. Senior actor Srikanth lost out to Rajasekhar while young actor Raj Tarun contested on Sivaji Rajas panel for EC member and lost. In a curious turn of events, comedian Ali contested as EC member and got 308 votes the highest for any candidate, despite not campaigning at all. The landlord and his son attacked the victim and sprayed red chilli powder on him. They began beating him with iron rods and poured diluted acid on his face. Hyderabad: A 20-year-old was attacked with chilli powder and diluted acid by the owners of a house where he used to be a tenant. The victim, Md Abdul Farooq, sustained severe injuries, police said. The incident, the latest in a long-running quarrel between the two, was sparked by Tayyab (Afzal), the son of house owner Md Sarwar Khan, posting pictures of Farooqs mother with derogatory remarks on social media. According to the Santoshnagar police, Farooq went to Sarwar Khans house to talk about the picture of his mother posted on social media by the landlords son with objectionable remarks. The landlord and his son attacked the victim and sprayed red chilli powder on him. They began beating him with iron rods and poured diluted acid on his face. The victim lodged a complaint with the Santoshnagar police on Thursday. The original skirmish broke out between the owner and the tenants over a parking issue. Sarwar Khan asked Farooq not to park his vehicle in front of the house, which they had taken on rent. A quarrel broke out between both parties. Afterwards, the victims mother lodged a complaint on February 6 with the Santoshnagar police and both the parties agreed agreed on a compromise. The victims mother, Ms Kausar Begum, said, My son insisted on taking back the case and vacating the house. So we shifted to another house on March 6. Sarwar Khan had to return the advance of `20,000 which we gave him at the time of shifting to his house. He gave only `15,000 and deducted `5,000 and claimed some charges. While I was counting the money the owners son Md Tayyab took a picture and uploaded it on social media captioning it with derogatory remarks. My son saw the picture on social media and went to the owners house to discuss about the issue. An argument broke out between my son and the owners family and they attacked him with red chilli powder and acid used to clean bathrooms. My son sustained severe injuries to his left eye and other private parts, said Ms Kausar Begum. Santoshnagar inspector K. Ravi told this newspaper that, We have booked a case of attempt to murder based on the complaint from the victim. Further investigation is underway. Sathish who did not like his father suspecting his mother, asked him to mend his thoughts and behaviour. (Representational image) Chennai: A 50-year-old man was arrested for murdering his son suspecting him of having illicit affair with his mother at his house in Ramapuram, in the wee hours of Monday. Police identified the deceased youth as S. Satish (22). According to police, Satish's father Sakthivel, a painter, lived in Senthamil Nagar, Ramapuram, with wife Loganayaki (45), son Sathish and a daughter. Sources said Shakthivel often picked up arguments with his wife suspecting her fidelity. He even stalked her to work. Sathish who did not like his father suspecting his mother, asked him to mend his thoughts and behaviour. This soon turned out into a personal fight between the son and father. On the fateful day, Sakthivel, in the middle of the night, stabbed his son sleeping in another room with a knife, and fled the spot. Hearing his screams, his mother Loganayaki and daughter Sangeetha ran to his room. In the melee, Loganayaki also suffered cut injuries on her hand. Loganayaki with the help of neighbours rushed Satish to a hospital, where doctors declared him 'brought dead'. Based on Loganayaki's complaint, the Royala Nagar police have registered a case and arrested Sakthivel on charges of murder. Preliminary inquiries revealed that the deceased youth, Satish, worked as a typist while his mother Loganayaki worked as a housekeeping staff in a private hospital in the city. The family lived in a rented house in Ramapuram for one-and-half years. Police said Sakthivel often picked up quarrels with wife Loganayaki as he suspected her of having an illicit relationship with his son, Satish. According to the police, Sampath Kumar had prepared a fake identity card of a central government employee and with the help of advocate G. Venkanna, who is absconding, prepared government orders with the help of which he duped 20 people. (Representational Image) Hyderabad: A fake IAS officer was arrested by the Chaderghat police on Monday. He had allegedly duped 20 people and taken Rs 6 crore, in the name of offering land, money and jobs. The police has identified the accused as Sampath Kumar, 29, a private employee and resident of Medipally. According to the police, Sampath Kumar had prepared a fake identity card of a central government employee and with the help of advocate G. Venkanna, who is absconding, prepared government orders with the help of which he duped 20 people. The accused was arrested by the Chaderghat Police in Dilsukhnagar on Sunday evening. G. Nagaraju, Inspector of police, Chaderghat, said, The accused hatched a plan and offered land in Jubilee Hills to the customers who were willing to afford it, stating that there was a scheme from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited through which they could get the land at very cheap rates. Previously he used to work as a PRO and by using those contacts; he along with another accused Banerjee, section officer in Parliament ,and one G. Venkanna cheated people. Speaking about the modus operandi the police official said, The accused used to win the confidence of victims by offering some money to the victims initially. He used to impersonate as an IAS officer who was working in Parliament as an assistant and administrator officer (AAO). Believing him, many of the customers gave him money as an advance. The police cracked the case following a complaint from a person who was cheated by the accused for Rs 1.3 crore. According to the complaint, the accused impersonated the treasurer of a temple and offered Rs 60,000 as donation for the construction of the temple. The accused cheated the victim stating that he would release Rs 3 crore as funds for the construction of the temple which the victim was building. In the same manner he also cheated job aspirants by offering them fake jobs. Expressing confidence on the voters of his constituency, he said that electorates will vote even greater numbers in the upcoming elections. (File Photo) New Delhi: Union Minister VK Singh on Monday said that the IAF strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammed camp in Pakistan's Balakot on February 26, was a decisive step and paradigm shift reflecting that India can go to any extent to fight terrorism. "The air strike is a decisive decision of the government and shows a paradigm shift asserting that India can go to any extent to fight terrorism. I believe all citizens of the country have appreciated this," Singh told ANI. In reference to Lok Sabha elections round the corner, he said that people with their votes will choose between a government that takes strict action on national security and the one which had "lax attitude" on the issue. "While addressing a rally in Ghaziabad, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked people as to what type of government they want. The one which takes strict action on national security or the other which has a lax attitude on the issue, I think people themselves will answer it," said Singh. On the development front, the Minister underlined that with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of sabka sath sabka vikas, massive work has been done during this government. Taking a jibe at grand alliance of various opposition parties, Singh said: "Workers of different parties which make 'mahagathbandhan' were at loggerhead earlier. (Therefore) how can they suddenly become friends? The way people are analysing it (mahagathbandhan) may be wrong." Expressing confidence on the voters of his constituency, he said that electorates will vote even greater numbers in the upcoming elections, which is beginning from April 11. "The image of Ghaziabad has improved. People will vote in even greater number this time. Anyone who thinks for the betterment of the country will vote for the BJP," said Singh. The Election Commission on Sunday announced the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections. The dates for the seven phases are April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19. Counting of votes will be done on May 23. Bengaluru: With coalition partners Congress and JD(S) still struggling to come to a seat sharing deal for the Lok Sabha polls and local leaders making no secret of their animosity, Congressmen in particular wonder if they made a strategic mistake by going ahead with an alliance in the first place. The JD(S) is demanding a minimum 9-10 parliamentary seats of the total 28 including high profile ones like Mandya, Mysuru, Hassan, Tumakuru and Chikkaballapur where Congress workers want party candidates to contest. A few Congress legislators and ex-MLAs of these five districts have openly told state leaders that they will remain neutral if their seats are given to the JD(S). In a seat like Chikkaballapur which the JD(S) is eyeing, sitting MP Veerappa Moily has without mincing words, reminded the JD(S) that CM H.D. Kumaraswamy was relegated to third place in the 2014 polls. The enmity is more than evident in Hassan where former Congress minister, A Manju has announced that he will not campaign for the JD(S) if Prajwal Revanna, son of PWD Minister H.D. Revanna is given the JD(S) ticket. The Congress dilemma is that if it gives the JD(S) 9-10 seats, it would be left with 18 or 19 seats in coastal Karnataka, Mumbai-Karnataka and Hyderabad-Karnataka where the BJP claims to have a strong base. A Congress leader told DC that an alliance with JD(S) is a risky proposition especially after the air strike on Pakistan and Congress president Rahul Gandhi's hope of getting 20 seats from Karnataka may seem a bit too far fetched. Instead, the party should have gone for a friendly fight and made the best of the opportunity to field Congress candidates in all 28 LS constituencies. The development comes two days after a British daily reported that Nirav Modi, accused in the USD 2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, is living in a swanky 8-million pound apartment in London's West End and is now involved in a new diamond business. (Photo: File) New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has filed a fresh chargesheet against PNB scam accused Nirav Modi under the anti-money laundering law, officials said Monday. They said the chargesheet or the prosecution complaint has been filed before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mumbai. This is a supplementary charge sheet against the diamantaire and few others and the agency has recorded additional evidences gathered in the case and attachments made, they said. Further details about the contents of the chargesheet are awaited. The development comes two days after a British daily reported that Nirav Modi, accused in the USD 2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, is living in a swanky 8-million pound apartment in London's West End and is now involved in a new diamond business. The ED had said on March 9 that the United Kingdom's home secretary has recently referred India's request for extraditing the tainted businessman to a court for initiating legal proceedings against him. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had filed the first charge sheet in this case in May last year. The agency and the CBI are investigating Nirav Modi, his uncle Mehul Choksi and others for alleged money laundering and corruption to perpetrate the alleged scam in the Brady House branch of the PNB in Mumbai that was unearthed last year. Nirav Modi, 48, is currently living in a three-bedroom flat occupying half of a floor of the landmark Centre Point tower block in London, where rent is estimated to cost 17,000 pounds a month, The Telegraph had reported. It has also attached his assets worth Rs 1,873.08 crore under the PMLA and has seized assets linked to him and his family worth Rs 489.75 crore. Washington/New Delhi: Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale will call on US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and meet other senior officials of the Trump administration here on Monday and exchange views on major foreign policy and security-related issues, officials said, amidst tensions between India and Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack. Gokhale arrived in the US on Sunday for the bilateral Foreign Office Consultation and Strategic Security Dialogue with his American counterparts, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson. While his 3-day US trip was scheduled much before the February 14 Pulwama terrorist attack, Gokhale's meetings with Pompeo and his counterparts here this week are considered significant in view of the escalated tension between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of India's preemptive air strike on the largest terrorist training camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in Balakot in Pakistan and the subsequent developments. Tensions between India and Pakistan flared up after a suicide bomber of the Pakistan-based JeM terror group killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district. India has provided a dossier to Pakistan, detailing the role of JeM in the Pulwama terror attack. India has also said that Pakistan has failed to take any credible action against JeM and other terrorist organizations, which continue to operate with impunity from Pakistan. State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino, during his bi-weekly news conference last Tuesday, said Secretary of State Pompeo played an "essential role" in de-escalating tensions between India and Pakistan. "Secretary Pompeo led diplomatic engagement directly, and that played an essential role in de-escalating the tensions between the two sides," he had said. According to Pompeo's schedule for Monday released to the media, the State Department said the meeting between the US Secretary of State and Gokhale is scheduled on Monday morning. "Secretary Pompeo meets with Indian Foreign Secretary Shri Vijay Gokhale at the Department of State," the State Department said. Protocol-wise, it is quite unusual for Pompeo to meet Gokhale, but over the last few years, the US Secretary of State has met the Foreign Secretary, including his predecessor S Jaishankar. The foreign office consultation and strategic security dialogue with the US are regular high-level dialogue mechanisms to review bilateral relations, exchange views on major foreign policy and security-related developments and coordinate respective positions on issues of common interest, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. Gokhale's visit comes as India intensifies its efforts to declare Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist by the United Nations Security Council. Last month, the US, the UK and France made a fresh bid at the UN to ban Azhar. JeM is already a UN-designated terrorist organisation. During his visit, the Foreign Secretary is also likely to meet with senior leaders in the US administration and the US Congress. The police will ascertain from where he got the explosive material and what was his motive. (Photo: File | Representative)) Jammu: A 33-year-old man was arrested on Monday with two grenades and a detonator outside an Army camp in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, a senior police official said. Rajinder Singh, a resident of Kalakote area, had come for a recruitment rally which is underway and was arrested during frisking outside the Army town gate in Surankote, Senior Superintendent of Police, Poonch, Ramesh Kumar Angral told reporters in the border district. A C-90 grenade, a UBGL (Under Barrel Grenade Launcher) grenade and a detonator were recovered from his possession, he said. The SSP said a lot of youths have turned up to join the Territorial Army at the recruitment rally. An FIR was registered against the man who is being questioned, the officer said, adding that police will ascertain from where he got the explosive material and what was his motive. "We are open to all the angles and a thorough investigation is on in the case," Angral said. Earlier, official sources said Army personnel noticed the man moving under suspicious circumstances outside the Army camp around 10.15 am and stopped him for checking. He was immediately arrested and handed over to police for further investigation, they said, adding that timely arrest of the suspect averted a possible tragedy. This is not the first time when the two-time prime minister has been offered the Amritsar constituency, in 2009 general elections Singh refused to contest. (Photo: File) New Delhi: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh is not willing to contest Lok Sabha polls from Amritsar, sources said. Despite a request from Congress, Singh, who has a massive fan following in Punjab has cited age and health concerns for not contesting polls. Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, state party chief Sunil Jakhar and general secretary in-charge of Punjab affairs Asha Kumari made a fervent request to Manmohan Singh, at his residence in New Delhi on Sunday at 5 pm. According to sources, while urging Singh, the Congress delegation told him that he would just need to come to Amritsar to fill all nomination papers and the CM Captain Amarinder Singh would personally look after his campaign. However, the 86-year-old has not responded with alacrity to the request. This is not the first time when the two-time prime minister has been offered the Amritsar constituency, in 2009 general elections Singh refused to contest from Amritsar (home to the holiest Sikh shrine Golden Temple) on the health grounds. Manmohan Singh is a Rajya Sabha MP from Assam and would finish his term in June this year. According to sources the party does not want him to retire. Punjab screening committee is likely to delay the release of names of candidates and may put it up in April. The elections in Punjab is scheduled for May 19. Congress workers are optimistic about Singh's nod since he had a lot of time to think about his decision. New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Indias aviation watchdog is expected to examine concerns about the use of Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft after the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday. DGCA is likely to speak both Boeing and airlines like Jet Airways and SpiceJet. A Boeing 737 MAX plane operated Ethiopian Airlines crashed soon after take-off from Addis Ababa around 8:30 am on Sunday morning, killing all 157 on board. However, the cause of the crash is still not clear. China's aviation authorities have grounded their Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets after the crash. Jet Airways and SpiceJet are the two Indian carriers that operate the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. The 737 MAX 8 is a new model from the US aircraft manufacturer's best-selling 737, which has been operating since 1967. Boeing has been criticised for not informing airlines in detail about how to override problematic software on the flight control system of the 737 Max aircraft. The new software is part of an automatic system designed to ensure that the aircraft does not stall; in other words, lose it ability to remain flying. Boeing was quoted by reports as saying that the 737 MAX 8 was "as safe as any airplane that has ever flown the skies." The US is a major trade hub for India and exports are valued at around $50 billion. The Trump administrations decision to take India off preferential trade list has triggered the talk of India imposing retaliatory duties on US goods. Care ratings chief economist Madan Sabnavis feels India must not take decision without understanding the consequences. The Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) is a set of trade laws in the United States of America introduced some four and a half decades back in 1974. Under the GSP, the US allows imports of various goods from a set of over 120 developing countries at zero tariffs. The idea was two-fold. The first was to enable developing countries to increase their exports and growth and second to get in cheaper imports that would lower domestic cost of production as the goods covered were mainly raw materials and intermediate goods. It was hence a win-win situation for all. India has been singled out by President Donald Trump for keeping tariffs on US goods high and making laws restrictive in terms of fostering trade and investment. In fact when Mr Trump took over as the President his trade related objective was to straighten out such unequal practices of trading partners and while China was the main target, India did not escape notice. While the initial objection was on export of automobiles to India (the Harley Davidson case), it came down to medical products, dairy goods etc. among others. While the FDI rules relating to ecommerce did not get specific mention, the US is not too happy over the new rules which affect Amazon. By taking India off the list, exports of $5.6 billion would be affected in leather products, carpets, textiles, gems and jewellery etc. The US is a major trade hub for India and exports are valued at around $50 billion. The government has argued that this is just 10 per cent of exports to the US and the cost would be $190 million which is not much when we look at the larger picture. Individual industry units would get affected by this move of the US even though aggregate exports may not get impacted significantly. The argument is that with the tariffs coming in, their relative export competitiveness would get affected which can make other country imports to US cheaper. This cannot be ruled out. And given that these products typically have inelastic demand, getting replacement markets will not be easy. How is one to look at this issue? To begin with it must be said that getting extra privileges under the GSP is quite anachronistic as India is no longer the country it was in 1974. We do lay claims to being the fastest growing economy and along with BRICS have sufficient economic clout in the world economy as well as at WTO. Therefore, it is time we moved out of this shelter. Second, being a sovereign nation, India has a right to decide on its trade rules and hence should not bend back for the US. This was a case of standing by our principles and not getting pushed around. This is important because when GSP was introduced at no stage did the US talk of reciprocal rights. This has been an addition brought by Mr Trump and hence was new. Third, Indian exporters too need to be pushed to become more competitive and look for more markets rather than depend on the US only. As long as there is an implicit protection, there would be less drive to become self-reliant. On the other side from the point of view of exporters which would tend to be in the SME sector, this comes as a shock. Although this was on the cards, it was assumed that it would be excused just as China has been given some more time for negotiation. The 60 days period for us is too short to expect any change of stance. The Indian exporters have always been crying for relief from the government as they have several disadvantages in the international market. Therefore instead of getting support, they have to fend for themselves and would expect the government to come up with some alternative package for them just like they do for other sector like textiles or sugar or steel. It may pointed out that most of the goods affected are labour intensive and hence can lead to some employment challenges if these exports are not made up. Also, for the present China can leverage this loss of GSP status for India to push their goods to the US at a lower cost. The US position is also quite singular. At a time when it is fighting a hard trade battle with China, it may have been expected that it would cosy up to India. But it does appear that President Trump is more keen on furthering his policy of equal trade treatment by its partners. India may not be a big exporter for the US at around $50 billion but there is a deficit run (around $24-27 billion) which makes it important. At the broader level, India may have to be more flexible with the trade relations with the US as GSP has to be seen with respect to both political issues as well as future investment. At the political side, the US need to be made an ally especially with hostile neighbours which includes China. While non-alignment is the stated policy, taking a flexible stance on issues like tariff could help India in the long run. The other part is that if there is any thought of retaliation with the US on the trade front, it would affect us more as it is our major export market and with India competing with countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, China, and East Asia, there could be further repercussions. On the investment front too, India may have to relook at its policies as we need more of such flows and the policies pursued in the past have been less friendly at a time when funds have other options. Therefore, there is a view that we should also be ready to talk rather than be brash about FDI in the name of protectionism especially in case of ecommerce as it sends wrong messages which can take the flows away from the country. While compromising domestic industry should certainly not be allowed taking a stance of hubris may also be detrimental especially at a time when the world is getting closed with protectionism as limited growth in the last decade has made countries more inward looking. Therefore, before we really consider retaliation, it may be useful to understand the consequences as another event called Brexit is on the anvil which has consequences that are not evident to us presently. But one can never tell. (The writer is the chief economist of Care Ratings. Views are personal) New Delhi: A Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist who was a key-conspirator of the Pulwama attack was killed in an encounter in south Kashmirs Tral on Monday, the Army said. Three JeM terrorists were killed in an encounter. Jaish commander Mudassar Khan was among the terrorists killed in the encounter. He was the main conspirator of the Pulwama terror attack, said Lt Gen KJS Dhillon in a press conference. He added that in first 70 days of 2019, security forces have been successful in eliminating 44 terrorists, mainly from Jaish-e-Mohammed. Against 1629 ceasefire violations along Line of Control in 2018, this year 478 ceasefire violations have already taken place along LoC, Dhillon added. However, he refused to term this as avenging the death of February 14 terror strike."We are peace keepers and we ensure that no one raises gun against the country," the officer said. Inspector General of Police, Kashmir Range, Swayam Prakash Pani, said the actual identity of the second militant has not been ascertained as of now. "We know that his code was Khalid. We are trying to find his actual identity," he said. The killing of Khan is a significant dent to the JeM, he said. Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft are currently being used by SpiceJet (12) and Jet Airways (5). New Delhi: Following the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft in Ethiopia on Sunday that killed all 157 people on board including four Indians, the Indian aviation regulator DGCA on Monday undertook a safety assessment of the aircraft of the same make used by Indian carriers and issued interim safety measures applicable from Tuesday. The safety review coincides with reports that authorities in China, Indonesia and Ethopia have grounded all such aircraft. Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft are currently being used by SpiceJet (12) and Jet Airways (5). External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj has promised all help and assistance to the bereaved families of the four Indian victims in the Ethiopian crash. She spoke to the family members of Indian nationals identified as Bhaskar Vaidya, Hansini Vaidya, N. Manisha and Shikha Garg. Following the crash, the DGCA on Monday held a review meeting on the functioning of the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft of the two Indian carriers where it was observed that the daily defect and daily incident reports contained defects of routine nature and no significant concern were observed. This means that there is no move in India to ground these planes as of now. While issuing fresh technical guidelines on aspects such as dual autopilot, yaw damper system, spoiler systems and angle of attack (AOA) sensor, the DGCA said that the minimum experience level of crew operating Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft to fly as pilot-in-command (PIC) is 1,000 hours and co-pilot is 500 hours on Boeing 737 NG aircraft type. Civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu while ordering a safety review of the aircraft said, Safety of the passengers is our utmost concern. I have directed secretary and DGCA to take appropriate action immediately. This is the second time in five months that aircraft of this specific make has crashed, sparking global alarm. Vijayawada: A doctor from Guntur district was among the 157 passengers and crew who died in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash on Sunday. Nukavarapu Manisha from Ungutur village, Amaravati mandal in Guntur district was the youngest daughter of Nukavarapu Venkates-wara Rao and Bharati. She did her MBBS in Guntur Medical College four years ago and went to the US for further studies. She lived in Tennessee in the United States and worked as resident physician in the Department of Internal Medicine at Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University. She was flying to Nairobi to be with her sister Lavanya who had given birth to triplets. Her parents were also visiting her sister in Nairobi. Manishas family has been living in Navabha-rath Nagar, Guntur, for the past few years. According to reports, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj responded to the tweet of Manishas cousin, Avinash Yaganti, saying that she has asked Indias High Commissio-ner in Kenya, Rahul Chhabra, to provide all help and assistance to those waiting to receive the bodies of their loved ones. Ethiopian Airlines has also said forensic investigations and identification of the identities of the victims will be done as quickly as possible. A relative of Manisha, N Visweswara Rao, who lives in Guntur, told this newspaper: Manisha was a very intelligent student and always achieved her goals. She studied in Guntur from the seventh standard and her father Venkateswara Rao is a realtor, he added. The Nairobi-bound Boeing 737 crashed six minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa in the early hours of Sunday. Four Indians are said to have been among those killed. The students said that due to the glitch the machines could not register their attendance accurately. (Representational Image) Hyderabad: Polytechnic students numbering 21,481 who have been barred from taking their exams due to a glitch in the biometric machines in their colleges, protested in front of the State Board of Technical Education and Training on Monday morning. The exams are scheduled to begin from March 19. The students said that due to the glitch the machines could not register their attendance accurately. There are 100 polytechnic government colleges in TS. Students who had 100 per cent attendance were told that they had only 60 per cent, said the All India Democratic Students Organisation. D. Gangaji a student explained, The biometric machines are not of good quality. The students want the authorities to at least collect a fine and allow them to take the exams. Srinagar: A Jaish-e-Mohammed cadre who was believed to be the main conspirator behind the February 14 terror attack in Pulwama was killed along with another militant, possibly a Pakistani national, in a fierce gunbattle that started on Sunday evening and went on till the early hours of Monday in the districts Tral area. Officials identified him as 23-year-old Mudassir Ahmed Khan, alias Muhammad Bhai, an electrician. Mudassir, a graduate, was a resident of Midoora village in Tral (Pulwama). The police said the identity of the other slain militant was being ascertained. It, however, also said that on the basis of the incriminating material recovered from the site of the encounter, it is understood that he was a Pakistani national codenamed Khalid. On February 14, a Jaish cadre, 22-year-old Adil Ahmed Dar, alias Waqas commando, detonated the Maruti Suzuki Eeco with at least 60 kg of deadly RDX after driving it parallel to a fully-occupied bus that was part of a large CRPF convoy at Lethapora along the Srinagar-Jammu highway. As many as 49 CRPF personnel were killed and many others injured in the massive blast. The officials said it was Khan who arranged the vehicle and explosives used in the strike. They said Khan is also believed to be involved in the terror strike at the Army camp in Sunjawan in Jammu in February 2018, in which six soldiers and a civilian were killed. His role has also come under the lens in the Lethapora attack on a CRPF camp in January 2018 that left five personnel dead. An earlier report said the other militant killed with him during the gunfight in Trals Pinglish village was Sajjad Bhat, a resident of Bijbehara area in Anantnag district, and the owner of the Maruti Eeco used in the blast. But officials said since the militants bodies were completely charred in the gunfight they were finding it difficult to identify them. Bhats brother refu-sed to take the body, saying it was charred beyond recognition. However, Khans body was taken by his family and he has since been buried in a cemetery of Tral. The fighting at Pinglish erupted Sunday evening after the security forces laid siege to the village to conduct an operation to flush out militants, dead or alive. The security forces launched a cordon and search operation after receiving specific intelligence about the presence of terrorists in the area. The operation turned into an encounter after the terrorists opened fire at the search party, a police spokesman said. In a surprise plea, the woman moved the anti-terror court for directions for examination of the blast eyewitnesses from Pakistan. Panchkula (Har): A special NIA court had to defer its verdict that was expected to be pronounced on Monday in the 2007 Samjhauta Express blast case in which Swami Aseemanand is one of the accused after a last-minute application by a Pakistani woman. In a surprise plea, the woman moved the anti-terror court for directions for examination of the blast eyewitnesses from Pakistan. The court was expected to deliver the verdict in the case relating to the blast in the cross-border train in which 68 people, mostly Pakistani nationals, were killed. Special Judge Jagdeep Singh listed the application of the Pakistani woman Rahila Wakeel for hearing on March 14. The woman contended that her co-nationals eit-her did not receive proper summonses from the court or were denied vis-as by authorities. Hyderabad: Giving an indication of how bitter the election campaign could turn out, Union minister Anant Kumar Hegde asked Congress president Rahul Gandhi to prove he was a Brahmin. He was responding to Mr Gandhi asking for proof that the Indian Air Forces strike against terror camps in Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack had succeeded. Look what situation they have brought our country down to. The entire world is acknowledging our bravery. But some people within our own country have raised doubts. They want proof for our IAFs air strikes but this son of a Muslim calls himself a Gandhi, calls himself a Brahmin, does he give proof, he asked to applause at a meeting at Kokthi, a village in Karnatakas Bhatkal taluk. How does this son of a Muslim father and Christian mother (claim to be a Brahmin)... will he give proof, Mr Hegde, a five-time MP, asked. When some in the audience laughed during his remarks, the minister retorted: This is not a joke. When Rajiv Gandhi died, his body was blown into pieces. When his DNA had to be match with his kin, Mrs Sonia Gandhi declined to match it with that of Rahul Gandhi. Instead, it was matched with Priyanka Gandhis DNA. This is the truth. This is on record. Today, such people are asking for proof. We do not have any hybrid proof. Coconut might grow on a chilli plant in the Congress, but not in our place. Reacting to the comments, Karnataka Congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao said on Twitter that Union minister was once again making crude, crass and communal remarks against Rahul Gandhi. Mr Rao said Mr Hegdes continuing uncouth behaviour indicated that he had the blessings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah. This was not the first time that the union minister has waded into another controversy. Earlier too, Mr Hegde had called the Congress president a hybrid specimen that cannot be found in any laboratory in the world. He had also stoked controversy with his comments the hand that touches a Hindu woman must not exist a couple of months ago. Mumbai: In an apparent volte-face, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday said he would not contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls from the Madha constituency. At the same time, the 78-year old Maratha strongman endorsed the candidature of Parth Pawar, his grandson, from the Maval seat in Pune district. Since I have already won elections 14 times, I decided not to contest the poll this time, said Mr Pawar after holding a meeting with party leaders. Somebody from our family had to step back and I decided to give an opportunity to the young leadership. I thought this was the right time to take this decision, he said. Parth Pawar, the son of former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, will be NCPs candidate from Maval Lok Sabha constituency, said Mr Pawar. Jayant Patil of the Peasant and Workers Party of India, which has a good presence in three of the six Assembly segments in Maval constituency, urged me to give a ticket to Parth as his party is ready to work for him. We also have a strong presence in the three other constituencies and we thought of giving an opportunity to the young leadership by giving a ticket to Parth from Maval, he added. Committees have been formed to regulate the media - Media Certification and Monitoring Committee and district media certification cell and the district media monitoring cell. These committees will check the reports being published in the media and interact with the media to put out information related to the polls. (Representational Images) Warangal: The Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are foolproof and cannot be tampered with or manipulated. Political representatives and people must not believe the rumours being spread in this regard, said Warangal Urban district collector and district returning officer Prashant J. Patil. Addressing newspersons on Monday, Mr Patil said, There are 7,12,063 voters in the Warangal Parliamentary constituency spread over Warangal West, Warangal East and Wardhannapet Assembly constituencies. The number is expected to change as voter enrolment will go on till the last date of filing nominations, March 25. The final figure will be declared after that. Mr Patil has asked citizens to utilise the cVigil app to bring to notice of concerned officials about any irregularities or poll code violation. Mr Patil said, Since the app is being monitored by officials in Hyderabad and New Delhi, complaints can be filed also against collectors and DEOs for their inaction or negligence. Committees have been formed to regulate the media - Media Certification and Monitoring Committee and district media certification cell and the district media monitoring cell. These committees will check the reports being published in the media and interact with the media to put out information related to the polls. Jangaon collector T. Vinay Krishna Reddy said that the votes polled in Palakurthy and Station Ghanpur Assembly constituencies for the ensuing Parliamentary elections to the Bhongir MP seat would be counted at Warangal Urban, while the votes polled in the Jangaon Assembly constituency would be counted at Bhongir. Mr Vinay informed that the assistant returning officer of Jangaon would coordinate the election work. The counting of votes at Warangal Urban would be held at Enumamula agriculture market. New Delhi: Four Indians, including a UN consultant attached with the Environment Ministry, were among those killed when a Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed after taking-off from Addis Ababa, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said Sunday. The Boeing 737 crashed minutes after an early-morning takeoff from Addis Ababa, killing all eight crew and 149 passengers on board, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) consultant attached with the Environment Ministry, Shikha Garg, who was on her way to attend a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) meeting. "I am sorry to know about the unfortunate crash of Ethiopian Airlines plane ET 302. We have lost four Indian nationals in the air crash. I have asked Indian High Commissioner in Ethiopia to provide all help and assistance to the bereaved families," Ms Swaraj tweeted. She said the Indian Embassy in Ethiopia has informed her that the Indian nationals killed are Vaidya Pannagesh Bhaskar, Vaidya Hansin Annagesh, Nukavarapu Manisha and Shikha Garg. "My colleague Dr Harsh Vardhan (Environment Minister) has confirmed that Ms.Shikha Garg is a Consultant with the Ministry of Environment and Forests. She was travelling to attend the UNEP meeting in Nairobi," Ms Swaraj said. The minister said she is trying to reach the families of other Indian nationals. She urged people to help her reach the families of those killed. "My condolences to the families of four Indian nationals who have died in an unfortunate crash of Ethiopian Airlines. Sadly, a UNDP consultant attached to my ministry @moefcc Ms Shikha Garg, also died in the crash. My prayers for the departed souls," Minister Harsh Vardhan tweeted. People from 35 countries were reportedly on board flight ET 302 when it ploughed into a field 60 kilometres southeast of Addis Ababa. Ethipian Airlines said the plane had taken off at 8:38 am (0538 GMT) from Bole International Airport and "lost contact" six minutes later. It came down near Tulu Fara village outside the town of Bishoftu. The carrier, which changed its logo on Twitter to black and white from its trademark green, yellow, and red, said "there are no survivors". Ethiopian Airlines said Kenya had the largest number of casualties with 32, followed by Canada with 18, Ethiopia nine, then Italy, China, and the United States with eight each, reports said. Britain and France each had seven people on board, Egypt six, and Germany five. Twelve countries in Africa and 14 in Europe had citizens among the victims. Kirloskar Brothers is India's largest centrifugal pump manufacturer. Pune: Pune-based fluid management solutions firm Kirloskar Brothers is celebrating its entry into the 100th year of incorporation as a public limited company. The 130-year-old company started by its founder Laxmanrao Kirloskar as a bicycle shop in Belgaum in 1888 later introduced several innovative products like indigenous chaff cutter in 1901 followed by the iron plough in 1903, was officially registered as a legal entity Kirloskar Brothers on January 15,1920. Later in 1936, the company second generation led by Shantanurao, in 1936 innovated India's first machine tool and electric motor. Today Kirloskar Group has clients across 165 countries and 14 manufacturing facilities across the world, eight in India and rest in UK, Thailand, USA, South Africa and Netherlands. Kirloskar Brothers is India's largest centrifugal pump manufacturer. While celebrating new milestone on Sunday in Pune, the company unveiled its future road map, which rests on two pillars of ethical growth and leveraging breakthrough technologies. Speaking on the occasion Sanjay Kirloskar, Chairman and Managing Director of Kirloskar Brothers, said, "Going forward, a stronger focus on product R&D and embracing of new technologies for innovation along with inculcating a strong value system across the organisation will be an imperative to uphold the rich legacy." The company is now aiming to emerge as a world leader in fluid management solutions. Alok Kirloskar, Non-Executive Director, Kirloskar Brothers said, "The journey of Kirloskar Brothers over the next century would be about a smarter approach to product and service differentiation through adoption of disruptive technologies. KBL's technology blueprint using combination of Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality and 3D printing will enable us to innovate across the entire length and breadth of our fluid management systems. Rama Kirloskar, Non-Executive Director, Kirloskar Brothers said, "The company has through its irrigation solutions helped countries like Senegal and Laos to become rice exporters from rice importers." Terming IAF strike on Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in Pakistan's Balakot as an election stunt, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Monday accused the ruling BJP of creating an 'environment of fear' in the country. (Photo: File) Srinagar: Terming IAF strike on Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in Pakistan's Balakot as an election stunt, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Monday accused the ruling BJP of creating an "environment of fear" in the country. "We always knew that there would be a fight or a skirmish with Pakistan. This surgical strike (air strike) was done as elections are approaching. We lost an aircraft worth crores. Be thankful that the pilot (Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman) survived and returned from Pakistan with respect," Farooq told ANI. He added, "They (BJP) have failed in everything that is why they want to create an environment of fear. They want us to think that only he (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) can save us." When asked about the success of the strike, he said, "No terrorist was killed, in return, we lost our jet." Raising questions over the Election Commission's (EC) decision not to conduct Lok Sabha and assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir simultaneously, Farooq alleged that BJP intends to conspire in the polls. He said, "I do not understand. All parties are in favour of holding simultaneous (Lok Sabha and State Assembly) polls. An environment is conducive for Lok Sabha polls but not state polls in Jammu and Kashmir! Local body polls were held peacefully, there is enough forces present, then why can't the state elections be held?" "They are intending to rig the polls in some way that is why they have taken this decision not to simultaneous polls in Jammu and Kashmir," he alleged. He further said that EC has lost its independence and has become a "political commission". He said, "I wish some new government comes and gives back the independence of Election Commission which it deserves." Siddaramaiah Former CM Siddaramaiah at Polali Sri Rajarajeshwari temple near Mangaluru on Sunday. (Image KPN) Mangaluru: Asking people of Udupi district to support the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls, former chief minister Siddaramaiah accused the the Bharatiya Janata Party of setting fire to the coastal districts. Mr Siddaramaiah was in Udupi to participate in the Parivarthana Yatre of the Congress on Sunday. The Bharatiya Janata Party has set fire to the coastal districts. Their party workers are also targeted and killed. The Bharatiya Janata Party is a party of murderers, they have been committing murderers since Godse. There is no patriot in the Bharatiya Janata Party, Mr Siddaramaiah said attacking the saffron party. He also blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his unkept promises. In my political life of 40 years, I have not seen a liar like the Prime Minister. Acche din have come to Adani, Ambani and Lalit Modi. I am ready for a open debate with Mr Modi on issues concerning progress and development, the former chief minister remarked. Attacking sitting Udupi MP Shobha Karandlaje, Siddaramaiah said she is being opposed by her own party members. BJP workers are telling her go back. Her contribution is zero, he alleged. Mr Siddaramaiah also asked party workers not to rest as there are just 35 days left for the election. Workers should visit every house without resting. You should motivate people to vote the Congress party to power, he said adding, there is a coalition government in the state. We will win more than 20 seats. Mr Siddaramaiah who landed at Mangaluru International Airport, visited Sri Raja Rajeshwari Temple at Polali before going to Udupi. The Brahma Kalashabhisheka celebration of the renovated temple is being held from March 3 to 13. Indore: Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh Monday said Narendra Modi would not become prime minister again as he stands "exposed" after failing to fulfil promises during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He also predicted that the Congress, which was routed in the 2014 Modi wave, would do well this time around. "Modi stands exposed as he has not fulfilled promises he made during the last national elections. So he will definitely not become the Prime Minister again," Singh claimed while speaking to reporters here. The 72-year-old Rajya Sabha MP also said that the Election Commission of India should, if possible, change the voting time so as to avoid inconvenience to Muslims observing Ramzan fast. Asked that some Muslim leaders had objected to the Lok Sabha poll schedule as it clashed with Ramzan, Singh said it was a Constitutional necessity that election results had to be declared before May 26. "Despite this, I pray to the Election Commission (EC) that even if it does not change the election date, make a change in voting time in such a way so that it facilitates voting (among Muslims)," Singh said. Queried on the brickbats he received on social media for stressing that India place proof of the February 26 air strike on a terror camp in Pakistan's Balakot before the international community, like the US had done after killing terrorist Osama bin Laden, Singh said he was "grateful" to people who trolled him. "The army and the nation's security should never be made political issues. The Election Commission has issued strict direction in this regard," he quipped. Sidestepping a query on why Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir were not being held along with national polls nationwide, Singh stated the EC was "free to take a call on it". He also evaded an answer on whether Priyadarshani Raje, wife of Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia, would contest on a Congress ticket from Madhya Pradesh. "Jyotiraditya Scindia can give an answer to this question. I can't say anything about it," he replied. MLA Vallabh Dharaviya quit the party and tendered his resignation from the Assembly to Speaker Rajendra Trivedi on Monday afternoon. (Photo: Twitter/ ANI) Ahmedabad: A day ahead of the Congress Working Committee meeting here, Jamnagar (Rural) MLA Vallabh Dharaviya quit the party and tendered his resignation from the Assembly to Speaker Rajendra Trivedi on Monday afternoon. Dharaviya's is the third resignation of a Congress MLA in the past four days. "Dharaviya has resigned as Jamnagar (Rural) MLA. He told me he is resigning voluntarily," Speaker Trivedi confirmed. A little while before Dharaviya quit, his former party colleague Parsotam Sabariya, who had resigned as Dhrangadhra MLA on March 8, joined the ruling BJP in the presence of its senior leaders I K Jadeja and K C Patel. Sabariya was arrested in October last year in connection with an irrigation scam and was granted bail by the Gujarat High Court in February. Sabariya said he was not under pressure to join the BJP and claimed he was making the switch to develop his constituency. "I am joining the BJP to develop my constituency. I was not under any pressure and have resigned from the Congress voluntarily. As far as the FIR is concerned, the law will take its own course. The BJP has to do nothing about it. I am not joining BJP to get any post or for other benefits," he told reporters. On March 8, Jawahar Chavda, Congress MLA from Manavadar, too had resigned from the Assembly and was promptly inducted into the BJP. He was made a cabinet minister in the Vijay Rupani government on March 9. The total number of desertions of MLAs from Gujarat Congress ranks in the past few months now stands at five. Apart from these five, the Congress lost another MLA when Bhagavan Barad was disqualified from the membership of the House on March 5 following his conviction and two-year jail sentence in an illegal mining case. In July last year, senior Congress MLA Kunvarji Bavalia had resigned as the legislator and was later made a cabinet minister in the state government. He then won the bypoll on a BJP ticket. Last month, the first-time MLA from Unjha seat in Mehsana, Asha Patel had resigned from the House and the Congress and joined the ruling BJP. The BJP now has 100 MLAs in the 182-member House while the Congress has 71 MLAs. The election commission on Monday warned political parties in Kerala not to use the Sabarimala temple matter as a campaign issue. (Photo: File) Thiruvananthapuram: The election commission on Monday warned political parties in Kerala not to use the Sabarimala temple matter as a campaign issue. Kerala Chief Electoral Officer Teeka Ram Meena told the media here that "citing or invoking" religious propaganda on the "Sabarimala issue" would be a clear violation of the model code of conduct. "Inviting religious feelings, using any kind of Supreme Court judgement, invoking or soliciting the votes in the name of religion or by inciting religious feelings is a clear violation of the model code of conduct," he said. The CEO also said that the commission would not allow any kind of violation that puts a particular political party at an advantage over another. "Citing or invoking or doing something of religious propaganda on the Sabarimala issue by invoking the name of Sabari God, etc., will be a clear violation of the model code of conduct," Meena said. He added that the Sabarimala issue was a controversial matter as far as Kerala was concerned and political parties "need to draw a line to what extent they have to use it". "Tomorrow, I am holding a meeting with political parties in this regard and I will be requesting them not to unnecessarily use this religious feeling or religious traditions to solicit votes as this may create some religious tensions among people. If that happens, action will be taken against those responsible," Meena said. Kerala witnessed widespread violence by devotees and right-wing activists after the state government decided to implement the Supreme Court's September 28, 2018 verdict allowing women of all ages into the Sabarimala temple. The BJP has already pinned its hopes on the Sabarimala issue as it believes that it was able to create a momentum among its workers. The central leadership of the saffron party brought back former BJP state chief Kummanam Rajashekharan, who was appointed as Mizoram governor nine months ago, to lead the party in the state. The Lok Sabha elections will begin on April 11 and continue for over a month till May 19 across seven phases, followed by counting of votes on May 23. Kerala will go to the polls on April 23. The NCP boss announced the decision after meeting senior party members in Pune. (Photo: File) Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar has decided not to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The NCP boss announced the decision after meeting senior party members in Pune. After holding talks with family, we were of the opinion that next generation members should be given a chance. There is demand from various party leaders and workers for Parth Pawars candidature from Maval, said Sharad Pawar, clearing way for Parth, his grand nephew and son of Ajit Pawar. "I thought that already two members of my family are contesting polls this time and hence I felt this is right time to take decision to not contest, since I already have contested 14 times in the past," Pawar added. The NCP chief said that his party would announce the final list of candidates soon. NCP is contesting the polls in alliance with the Congress in Maharashtra where 48 Lok Sabha seats are at stake. On Sunday, Election Commission of India had announced the schedule for the 17th Lok Sabha election, which will be held in seven phases beginning April 11. The final phase of voting will take place on May 19. The counting of votes will be done on May 23. The case pertains to cash found from a farmhouse of one Jagannath Reddy, who is a relative of Patnam Narender Reddy. Hyderabad: There is a discrepancy of Rs 16.99 crore in the amount of money seized by the Telangana police during a raid conducted ahead of the state elections, and the figure mentioned by the income tax department as seized in their raid on the same premises. The police booked a case in which it mentioned seizing Rs 17.50 crore in cash meant for distribution to voters. The income-tax department, however, has mentioned that `51 lakh in cash was seized. The Chief Election Officer has ordered an inquiry. After the TS Assembly elections, an independent review of cases involving seizing of unaccounted cash during the elections was undertaken. Cases booked across 31 districts falling under various police commissionerates and superintendents of police were studied. In one particular case registered in Kosgi police station in Mahabub Nagar district, a discrepancy of `16.99 crore has come to light between the amounts seized as recorded by the police and the I-T department. Official records issued by the office of Mahabub Nagar Superintendent of Police (a copy of which is in the possession of this newspaper), said, At Mirzapur village, accused Patnam Narender Reddy (TRS MLA who contested against Congress working president A. Revanth Reddy) and his relative Jagannath Reddy dumped money `17.50 crore in the farmhouse of Jagannath Reddy in order to distribute money to voters to get support in form of votes in Telangana Assembly election 2018. Subsequently I-T officials raided the farmhouse and seized net cash and said `51 lakh were seized from the farmhouse. A case has been registered in 194 /18 u/s 188, 17 (e) of IPC. The case needs attention because police said they found `17.50 crore cash in the farmhouse of Jagannath Reddy and booked a case. An FIR (Cr. No. 194/18) has been issued for the same. However, when officers of the I-T department raided the farmhouse they found and seized `51 lakh. There is no clarity about the `16.99 crore. Was it returned to the party concerned or deposited in the court? The Chief Election Officer has ordered an inquiry into the matter. In a letter dated March 7, 2019, Chief Election Officer of TS, Dr Rajat Kumar, has asked the additional director general of police (law & order), and the Additional Director Income Tax to investigate. The officer is requested to inquire the matter thoroughly and furnish a factual report in the matter immediately, the CEO wrote. It may be noted that the accused TRS MLA, Patnam Narender Reddy, is the brother of former TS transport minister P. Mahender Reddy. The ex-minister is among four former cabinet members who lost in the recent state elections. Vijayawada: Even after the date for the AP Assembly has been announced, AP minister Nara Lokesh is keeping everyone guessing on where he is going to contest from on April 11. Mr Lokesh is an MLC, and has expressed a desire to contest for the Assembly. His father, TD president and AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has indicated he will not vacate Kuppam for Mr Lokesh. For his first direct election, it is learnt that Mr Naidu wants to field Mr Lokesh either from Bheemili or, more probably, Vizag North. This seat is currently held by the BJPs Vishnu Kumar Raju, who won due to the TDs 2014 alliance. The TD considers north Andhra its bastion, and Vizag has a huge urban population apart from voters from the Kamma and Kshatriya communities. Initial reports had suggested that Mr Lokesh was looking at an Assembly seat in Krishna district, a Kamma bastion. Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday cautioned party legislators to cast their vote carefully during the polling on March 12 for the biennial elections the Legislative Council from the Assembly quota. The TRS chief was overseeking practice polling in the Telangana Bhavan for the five MLC seats as it involves a process of marking preferences. He told the MLAs not to take the elections lightly since the Congress had boycotted it. Explaining why he had offered the fifth Council seat to the MIM, Mr Rao said the party had requested the Congress not to field its candidate. When the Congress leaders provoked him stating that two to three TRS legislators were in touch with him and would vote for its candidate, he decided to fight for the fifth seat. According to sources, Mr Rao said that despite knowing well that they would not get even 10 votes, and a majority of the Congress MLAs were in touch with the TRS, they decided to boycott the polling. Mr Rao said he would announce the names of candidates in a couple of days. Sources in the party said Mr Rao had warned MLAs and aspirants of MP tickets he would not tolerate any indiscipline after the announcement of candidates. Indicating that not all sitting MPs would be renominated, Mr Rao said that when he had nominated a leader belonging to the Yadava community for the Rajya Sabha, many others had expressed dissent. Party leaders had again dissented when Mr Rao had nominated Mr Yegge Mallesham and Mr Seri Subhash Reddy to the Council. The party selects candidates after taking several factors into consideration, Mr Rao said. Referring to the poll boycott call of the Congress, Mr Rao said the Opposition party had made it easy for the TRS. The Congress MLAs who had decided to join the TRS would abstain from voting. He said the defector MLAs could have faced disqualification petitions if they had violated the party whip. There was no such danger as the Congress had boycotted the elections. Explaining the voting pattern to newly elected MLAs, Mr Rao introduced MIM nominee Mirza Riyaz ul Hasan Effendi to the MLAs. Sources said Mr Rao had divided the TRS and MIM legislators into five group. Each group was allotted 20 MLAs and would be lead by two ministers each for smooth polling. Sundays tragic Ethiopian Airlines crash is worrying for many reasons, not just the scale of the catastrophe of 157 citizens of 35 nations, including India, losing their lives. This is the second crash in five months involving the modern Boeing workhorse B-737 Max 8 jets, of which 300 are now flying around the globe with various airlines, as huge orders are in the works. Indias Jet Airways and SpiceJet also fly this aircraft. The alarm bells have been ringing loud and clear since a similarity was spotted in two crashes, the first that of the Lion Airlines aircraft flying inter-island in Indonesia with an experienced Indian pilot. Both jets went down within minutes of takeoff. Simulations of the Lion Air crash based on the recovered black box data revealed frightening images of an plane bucking like a bronco and falling steeply nose first even as the pilot struggled for control. As a precaution, China, the biggest customer of the new Max (introduced in 2017) has grounded its entire Max fleet despite disruptions to the its burgeoning domestic tourism market. The Cayman Islands (2), Ethiopia (6) and Indonesia (11) have taken quick decisions to ground the Max. The haunting question on whether modern aircraft are so advanced in their fly-by-wire systems that the smallest malfunction in software programs can cause such disasters has to be answered first. Every time a major crash occurs, people must be convinced everything is being done for safety although modern aviation can be said to have got so safe that fatal crashes are statistically just a minuscule percentage compared to the number of flights globally. However, there were two other crashes over the weekend involving smaller aircraft, enhancing doubts over whether we are getting blase over safety in the skies. Indias aviation regulator DGCA has only posed some queries to the two Indian airlines flying the B-737 Max 8 rather than pass edicts on the need to ground the planes until we know more about what caused virtually brand-new aircraft to crash. The bleeding state the nations airlines are in after taking a bruising from competing with budget airlines and passenger traffic increasing by the day, means aviation safety protocols are in danger of being bypassed. Air passenger traffic in India grew threefold from 69 million in 2008-09 to over 183 million in 2016-17, and such expansion cant have come without adequate investment in infrastructure. The great worry in the era of open skies and perennially expanding traffic is whether airlines, always strapped for cash, are spending enough on top-flight maintenance to assure safe operations. The Boeing Max issue adds a problem of a very new dimension to the world of civil aviation, already buffeted by headwinds of ballooning oil prices and increasing costs as against travel getting cheaper for the flier. RAW was to be pitched with the absurd-looking jungle adventure Junglee starring Vidyut Jammwal. The desi Tarzan has just been pushed out by our very desi RAW agent John Abraham starrer Romeo Akbar Walter (RAW). RAW was to be pitched with the absurd-looking jungle adventure Junglee starring Vidyut Jammwal. But the producers of Junglee have now preponed their release by a week to avoid a clash with RAW. The decision seems fairly prudent when seen in the light of the credibility that RAWs leading man John Abraham has acquired as an actor since Parmanu last year. John and a film about national security are a solid box-office bet. To pitch an out-and-out trivial adventure like Junglee against a heavyweight theme like RAW is suicidal. The Junglee producers have rightly moved back by a week, says a trade source. Although, how wise it is to pitch your film against Salman Khan is debatable. Junglee now faces competition from the Salman Khan produced The Notebook introducing the legendary Nutans granddaughter Pranutan Bahl. Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk has until the end of the day on Monday to explain why he should not be held in contempt for recent tweets that US securities regulators say violated a September fraud settlement. The US Securities and Exchange Commission asked a federal court in Manhattan to hold Musk in contempt after he tweeted about Teslas production volume, saying he breached the agreement requiring him to get company approval before sharing any material information on social media. The renewed public battle between Teslas CEO and the SEC adds pressure on Musk, the public face of the electric vehicle-maker who is struggling to make it profitable after cutting the price of its Model 3 sedan to USD 35,000. Musk on Feb. 19 tweeted to his more than 24 million Twitter followers that Tesla would make around 500,000 cars in 2019. He corrected the tweet four hours later to say the annualized production rate at year-end 2019 would probably be about 500,000, with deliveries of about 400,000. A lawyer for Tesla and Musk told the SEC that the CEO believed the substance of the tweet had been pre-approved and disseminated when the company released fourth-quarter earnings in January. The September settlement between Musk, Tesla and the SEC resolved an SEC lawsuit over claims Musk made on Twitter in August that he had funding secured to take Tesla private at USD 420 per share. The SEC called those tweets false and misleading and a go-private deal never materialized. As part of that settlement, Musk stepped down as the companys chairman and he and Tesla agreed to pay USD 20 million each in fines. Musk had called the regulator the Shortseller Enrichment Commission after the settlement, and tweeted that something is broken with SEC oversight just one day after the SEC started pursuing the contempt order. Hours later, US District Judge Alison Nathan set a March 11 deadline for Musk to respond. Legal experts have said the SEC could now pursue multiple avenues, including a higher fine, imposing further restrictions on Musks activities or removing him from Teslas board or helm. Tesla published a new communications policy in December for executives as part of the settlement. It called for Teslas general counsel and a newly designated in-house securities law attorney to pre-approve any written statements about Tesla that could be material. A disclosure controls committee, made up of board members Brad Buss, Antonio Gracias and James Murdoch, was tasked with overseeing compliance with the new policy. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Rating: At a special event held in Delhi, Xiaomi took to the stage and introduced its newest brand Redmi, and with it; announced a variety of surprises that enthralled the audience. While each surprise had its own charm, the highlight of the day was a new handset that was unveiled globally for the first time in India. This handset was none other than the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro. Unlike the Redmi Note 7 which was introduced in China earlier this year, the Redmi Note 7 Pro came with unique attributes that stood out from its Chinese counterpart. As of writing, the Redmi Note 7 Pro is an India exclusive and it boasts some impressive features such as a 48MP rear camera, a 6.3-inch LTPS Dot Notch display, an Auro designed rear, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 chipset, a 4000mAh battery all encompassed in a price tag below Rs 15K. The Redmi Note 7 Pro has specs that look astonishing on paper and based on these features alone, it's a must buy the handset. We spent a few days with this bad boy to tell you whether the king reigns supreme once more. Design, Build The Redmi Note 6 Pro was meh when it came to design. It looked like a lazy attempt from Xiaomi to replicate its past success as it stuck with the single tone finish that was present on handsets of old. With the Redmi Note 7 Pro, the designers over at Xiaomi took a good look at the current market scenario, put their heads down and gave the handset a finish thats not only relevant in 2019; but has a lot of functionality as well. As soon as you first get the handset in your palms you forget that it is priced at this amount. And not to compare the two, but the premium build feels similar to an iPhone that is priced multiple times higher. If you happen to have no clue regarding the price of this smartphone, we will not fault you for thinking that it could be priced around Rs 35K. To achieve this premium feel, Xiaomi has sandwiched a plastic chassis between two Cornings Gorilla Glass 5 glass slabs. So, not only does this handset look and feel premium, but it also has protection against multiple accidental drops. While the handset does offer protection, we would advise using a case with it because you definitely wouldnt want scratches on your newest toy. Available in Neptune Blue, Nebula Red and Space Black, the Redmi Note 7 Pro is the first handset from this series to come with a gradient finish which Xiaomi likes to call 'Aura' design. It is worth mentioning that just the Blue and Red variants have a gradient finish, the Black variant is colour blocked making it a rather class affair. To achieve the gradient reflective design on the other colour variants, Xiaomi has used 6-layer craftsmanship. As mentioned earlier, using a protective case has its advantages over scuffs and scratches but more so against fingerprint residue. This can get pretty irritating for those who love their devices to appear pristine even after months of use. Side note: In the hands-on area at the Note 7 Pro unveiling we noticed that all colour variants appeared to look dated because of the grime of fingerprints by onlooker journos and tech bloggers. To shoot photos, they needed to be scrubbed down quite a lot which honestly was disappointing considering how beautiful it looked. Featuring a minimalist design on the rear, Xiaomi has done well to keep the camera bump down to a minimum, especially since a 48MP camera is located here. However, thats not to say there is no wobble when placed on a flat surface. In for review is the Space Black variant and in our humble opinion, it features a timeless look that can never go out of style. Mix the glass black with subtle features like the fingerprint scanner that also has a glossy finish and the branding; we get a device thats not just classy, but also easy on the eyes. There have been a lot of complaints in the past that Xiaomi has been too cautious to introduce the USB Type-C port on their Redmi series and with the Note 7 Pro, the Chinese tech giant has ensured that with the addition of this port, they have made it futureproof and on par with handsets that are priced at double the amount. At the top, we also find the headphone jack, a feature that may be on its last legs but still not yet dead. So, if you own your favourite pair of earphones/headphones with a 3.5mm jack, the Redmi Note 7 Pro has got you covered. There is also an IR Blaster for using the phone as a universal remote control. Other standard features include buttons on the side that comprise of the volume rockers and the power button, the speaker grill and microphone at the bottom and the SIM eject tray on the left. A cute inclusion here is sweet little notification LED on the chin. This goes to show that Xiaomi while introducing the best of their new features also dont neglect others that consumers have become accustomed to and grown to love. Lastly, we have to commend Xiaomi on keeping the size of the Redmi Note 7 Pro down to a minimum even though it uses a display thats bigger than the Redmi Note 6 Pro and the Note 7 Pro. The size of the handset is around the same as the previous generations and hence if you are upgrading from either of them, the transition should be a breeze. A worthy mention here is that Xiaomi has sealed its ports to make the Note 7 Pro splash resistant. This means that if you happen to drop water on the phone, it should survive your clumsiness. Don't be dunking it in a pool or use it in heavy rains though you could be sorry. Display After Essential, Apple implemented the notch on the iPhone X. Since then, virtually every smartphone brand has added the notch on their handsets. While 2018 was the year of the notch; 2019 is the year where brands have been working for hand on shrinking the notch actually, getting rid of it. As in the case of the Redmi Note 7 Pro, there's a Dot Notch display - as Xiaomi likes to term it. This is essentially a notch thats circular and reminds us of the style Essential used way back in 2017. By adding a smaller notch, the Note 7 Pro gets a lot more screen real estate which helps in providing you with a larger surface area for watching videos or gaming. If you are an anti-notch guy, you can turn it off from the Settings. The Redmi Note 7 Pro features a 6.3-inch FHD+ LTPS Dot Notch display that boasts a resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels. Due to the addition of this type of notch, we get an aspect ratio thats 19.5:9 similar to those found on handsets with a 'waterdrop' notch display. By using an LTPS panel, Xiaomi has added one of the best technologies in display tech and have yet managed to bring the price down to an absolute minimum. This technology helps a lot when it comes to faster refresh rates as well as for producing better visuals. The width of the bezels is a slimmer too just 1.95mm. Also, by using a curved 2.5D glass on the front and the rear, the bezels appear a whole lot thinner than they actually are. We cannot stress it enough how premium the entire packaging is and with the Redmi Note 7 Pro, at this price, Xiaomi doesnt fail to blow our mind. Viewing content on the Redmi Note 7 Pro is an absolute pleasure; however, it cant be compared to the display found on the iPhone XR; but it still manages to hold its own. The blacks are deep and the colours are accurate. In fact, when compared with other LCD displays in prices north of Rs 15K, the Redmi Note 7 Pro stands out. Colours have the desired punch and brightness levels are exceptionally good. Under bright sunlight, we observed that content was still viewable thereby making the viewing experience in any lighting condition quite satisfactory. The screen was pretty responsive as well with no lag noticed whatsoever. The response to our inputs was recorded well and we expect nothing less from a Redmi Note handset which it managed to deliver in spades. Software The Redmi Note 7 Pro runs on MIUI 10 thats built on top of Android 9.0 Pie and is updated to the February Android Security patch as of now. You will be hard pressed to find an Android Pie handset in this price range and Xiaomi once against proves that their honest pricing strategy is a charm that works so well for them. While you may not get a true vanilla Android 9 experience of Android One, the Remi Note 7 Pro offers almost the next best experience. The MIUI 10 was introduced last year and with it, you get a new recent menu, gestures, and much more than this latest OS from Google has to offer. The MIUI 10 is designed for the full-screen experience. With this skin, the brand has removed all elements that could break the visual integrity of a full-screen device. There's no segmentation brought about by divisions and conflicting colours here, everything important is presented in the form of neat cards with rounded corners which rhyme with hardware elements. Also, you get new full-screen gestures where you swipe up to go to the Home screen, swipe half-way up to go to the Recent menu, swipe from right to left to go back and wipe from left to right to switch between apps. Xiaomi has also removed all unnecessary UI elements and visual clutter from the Notification shade to let the content take the front stage. With this new skin, apps launch a lot faster in comparison to previous versions. Performance Its a running pun that Xiaomi 'favours' the SD625 SoC amongst the others. And, with the Redmi Note 7 Pro, youll be pleased to know that they have utilised a powerful octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 chipset thats based on a 64-bit 11nm design to do the heavy lifting. In this SoC the workload is balanced between eight cores, we find two Cortex A76 Kryo 460 CPUs with each core clocked at 2.02GHz and six Cortex A55 Kryo 460 CPUs clocked at 1.71GHz. The former two cores are used for performance while the latter six are efficiency cores for daily interactions. The GPU found here is an Adreno 612 that enhances the overall gaming performance. The chipset does well with its gaming prowess, camera capabilities and last but not least, the AI processing power to handle all the load thats thrown at it. This speedy premium mid-range chipset has been paired with either 4GB or 6GB of RAM thats accompanied by 64GB or 128GB of onboard storage. The RAM used is of the LPDDR4X variety and this means you get lower voltage, that allows for more power efficient memory which translates to longer battery life on smartphones. In for review, we have received the 4GB RAM and 64GB storage variant. For most daily tasks, the handset is a strong performer. This is clearly evident in the way the device handles multitasking which is completely fluid and absolutely no lag noticeable. When handling the MIUI, the handset performs at it's optimal best leaving us satisfied. Whether you are launching or killing apps, the handset performs brilliantly giving us a hard time to not recommend it for absolutely anyone. During gaming, though Xiaomi has touted this as a handset that can be played on the highest possible settings, we did notice some framing issues when the settings were maxed out. For games like Asphalt 9, we recommend not using the highest settings, but rather tone it down to medium settings to get the best experience. When it comes to the fingerprint scanner, the biometric sensor worked flawlessly; and we expected nothing less from a handset thats gained a cult following. Also, if the fingerprint sensor isnt your thing, the Face Unlock feature works just as well if not better. Out of most of the handsets available in the market, OnePlus has gained a reputation for being the fastest with its face unlock. OnePlus could see some competition here, but not yet as the face unlock still needs some polishing from Xiaomi. Nevertheless, it is comparatively faster than most others there. Camera The Redmi Note 7 Pro is packed with some amazing features but undoubtedly the show stopper here is the dual-rear camera configuration that plays home to a 48MP AI-enabled Sony IMX586 sensor; which so happens to be the highest resolution sensor to ever feature on a smartphone. This sensor is paired with a 5MP secondary sensor thats used for depth sensing. With the 48MP sensor on the Redmi Note 7 Pro, Xiaomi utilizes the pixel binning technology that when captured, images shot at a resolution of 12MP. This is the default setting when using the Photo mode through the camera app. Xiaomi does this in order to keep the output file size down to a minimum. If you want to gain access to the entire 48MP resolution, then Xiaomi has got you covered again in the Pro mode you need to tap the 48MP option to shoot images at this high resolution. While on paper, using 48MP is quite a tantalizing feature to have on a smartphone, in our test shots we found that shooting at the default 12MP had a far superior output due to the quad Bayer pixel binning technology thats present. The Redmi Note 7 Pro does extremely well in well-lit environments; although it has to be stated that it is partial to under-exposure which is present only to the discerning eye and not so much that we can dock points off it. This can be easily corrected in post-processing through countless apps that are present on the Google Play Store or even the Google Photos app that comes preinstalled here. The white balance in Photo mode does an incredible job of accurately reproducing colours and with the AI scene detection kicking in, it manages to produce the right amount of hues in a wide range of lighting conditions. In bright light conditions, we found that the image quality captured had the right amount of sharpness with details present across the entire focus points. In low-lit conditions, the camera tends to struggle with the auto-focusing and there is a slight blur prevalent. Also, not as much as seen on handsets priced similarly, there is a bit of image noise when shooting indoors or in low-light. While capturing images using the Night mode, the colours arent blown out of proportion or overexposed. In fact, theres a very subtle difference between this mode switched on and can be used as a tool to shoot if required. Up front, the Redmi Note 7 Pro uses a 13MP sensor thats packed to the brim with AI tech. This ranges from Beautify mode to AI filters and everything in between. With all the AI enhancements turned off, the Note 7 Pro is a solid performer and manages to capture colours and skin tones quite effectively. A major shout-out goes to the Portrait mode or the Bokeh effect. The edge-detection here is exemplary and it even manages to blur out small pockets that are in the background. To have a smartphone with these camera abilities are a feat in its own. But to have a smartphone with all these nifty camera tricks and being priced right absolutely annihilates the sub Rs 20K price segment. Battery Xiaomi has packed in a 4000mAh battery here and paired it with an energy efficient SD675 SoC and LPDDR4X RAM. The two in tandem and you are bound to get some solid battery life. During our use as a daily driver, we observed that even after a day of moderate-to-heavy use, we still managed to get an average of 25% battery remaining by the end of the day. If you use this handset moderately, you can be sure it will last two days on a single charge. Another interesting feature is that it supports Qualcomm's Quick Charge 4 thats able to utilise at least 18W of fast charging. However, you dont get an 18W brick with the handset, but instead, Xiaomi provides you with a 10W charger which will definitely charge your device faster than a regular adapter. Verdict The Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro is available for Rs 13,999 for the 4GB/64GB variant and Rs 16,999 for the 6GB/128GB option. With a wide range of brands, all having recently launched their products, there are various shortcomings which dont stack up to the Redmi Note 7 Pro. With Xiaomis offering, you cant get the premium build in this segment and you cant get a 48MP shooter in this price bracket. Xiaomi, in India, knows how to read their consumer base, they know whats needed and when to deliver it. The Note 7 Pro is a testament to the brands understanding of the current smartphone market. And as of now and probably till the next Note Pro handset from the Chinese smartphone manufacturer, this is the model we recommend you buy eyes closed. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Addis Ababa: Ethiopian Airlines said on Monday it had grounded its Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet after a crash that killed 149 passengers, including four Indians, and eight crew. "Following the tragic accident of ET 302... Ethiopian Airlines has decided to ground all B-737-8 MAX fleet effective yesterday, March 10, until further notice," the state-owned carrier said in a statement released on Twitter. "Although we don't yet know the cause of the accident, we have to decide to ground the particular fleet as an extra safety precaution," said the airline, Africa's largest. Also Read: Heart breaking video of panic driven passengers moments before Ethiopian crash All 157 people on board died when Nairobi-bound Flight ET 302 came down just six minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa. It ploughed into a field near Tulu Fara village outside the town of Bishoftu, some 60 kilometres (40 miles) southeast of the Ethiopian capital. China also grounded its fleet of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 in the aftermath. Among the dead were tourists, business travellers, and UN staff headed for a conference. People holding passports from more than 30 countries and the UN were on board. (Photo:AP) Ethiopia: China on Monday ordered domestic airlines to suspend commercial operation of the Boeing 737 MAX 8, citing the Ethiopian Airlines crash and another deadly accident of that same model in Indonesia. Noting the "similarities" between the two accidents, China's Civil Aviation Administration said domestic airlines had until 6:00 pm local time (1000 GMT) to ground all 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Also Read: Heart breaking video of panic driven passengers moments before Ethiopian crash Operation of the model will only resume after "confirming the relevant measures to effectively ensure flight safety", the administration said in a statement. My heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the bereaved families of the #EthiopianAirlines #ET302 plane crash. Among the victims are @UN staff members including one from @FAO. We are working to get in touch with family members and assist them in this time of tremendous pain Jose Graziano da Silva (@grazianodasilva) March 10, 2019 The aviation authority will contact the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing, it said. It also mentioned the Indonesia Lion Air flight, which crashed after takeoff from Jakarta in October, killing all 189 people on board. My condolences to the families of the Americans and all others affected by the tragic crash of Ethiopian Airlines. @USEmbassyAddis and @USEmbassyKenya are working tirelessly to offer all possible assistance. Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) March 11, 2019 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday also deplored the "devastating news" that 18 Canadian nationals were among the 157 people killed in the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jetliner. "Devastating news from Ethiopia this morning," Trudeau said on Twitter. "Our thoughts are with all the victims on Flight ET302, including the Canadians who were on board." Deeply saddened by the news this morning of the plane crash in Ethiopia, claiming the lives of all on board. My heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of all the victims including our own @UN staff who perished in this tragedy. Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 10, 2019 His office later issued a statement. "We join the international community in mourning the loss of so many lives, including those countries who have also lost citizens in this devastating crash. My condolences to the families of four Indian nationals who have died in an unfortunate crash of Ethiopian Airlines.Sadly,a UNDP consultant attached to my ministry @moefcc Ms Shikha Garg,also died in the crash. My prayers for the departed souls. @IndiaInEthiopia @SushmaSwaraj Dr. Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) March 10, 2019 "I am reaching out to President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta and Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed to express my condolences for this tragic event." The Nairobi-bound Boeing 737 crashed minutes after an early-morning takeoff Sunday from Addis Ababa. I am trying to reach the family of Shikha Garg who has unfortunately died in the air crash. I have tried her husband's number many times. Please help me reach her family. Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) March 11, 2019 People holding passports from more than 30 countries and the UN were on board, but Canadians, with 18 victims, trailed only the 32 Kenyans who died in the crash, according to the airline. A UN source told AFP that more than a dozen people affiliated with the world body had lost their lives. Sushma Swaraj also said the Indian Embassy in Ethiopia has informed her that the Indian nationals killed are Vaidya Pannagesh Bhaskar, Vaidya Hansin Annagesh, Nukavarapu Manisha and Shikha Garg. "My colleague Dr Harsh Vardhan (Environment Minister) has confirmed that Ms.Shikha Garg is a Consultant with the Ministry of Environment and Forests. She was travelling to attend the UNEP meeting in Nairobi," Ms Swaraj said. She told the UN body that Pakistan continues to use terrorist outfits to engage in proxy warfare against its neighbours. (Photo:ANI) Geneva: In an attempt to protect terrorists on its soil, Pakistan is willing to bring the world to the brink of war and even resort to the use of nuclear weapons, which should "horrify all of us", a researcher at an Amsterdam-based foundation told the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Monday. Yoana Barakova, the researcher at the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS), underlined that Pakistan "unscrupulously exports terrorism" and continues to use terror outfits to engage in proxy war against its neighbours, implying India and Afghanistan. Intervening during the 40th Session of the UN Human Rights Council here, Barakova referred to the ghastly February 14 terror attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir and the Pakistani aerial bombing in Jammu and Kashmir on February 27, a day after Indian air strike at terror camp in Balakot. Noting that the Pulwama terror attack, in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed, was perpetrated by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) outfit, she said the subsequent action (of aerial bombing) by Pakistan "unveils an ugly truth, (that) the country is willing to bring the world to bring of war and threaten to use its nuclear arsenal, just in order to defend its terrorists." She went on to add, "The sheer thought of such utterly reckless behaviour should horrify all of us." She told the UN body that Pakistan continues to use terrorist outfits to engage in proxy warfare against its neighbours. "The UN Security Councils consolidated list of terrorist individuals and entities includes 139 entries from Pakistan. Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Haqqani Network and Jamaat-ud-Dawa are all based in Pakistan and believed to be receiving State protection," the European researcher said, slamming Pakistan. She referred to a recent interview of Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi with BBC in which he accepted that the Government of Pakistan is in contact with Jaish-e-Mohammed, exposing the countrys duplicitous rhetoric vis-a-vis terrorism. "While Pakistan continues to unscrupulously export terrorism and is the only country in this world which is willing to use nuclear weapons in order to protect its terrorists, it also remains a member state of this (UNHR) Council. Surely, a matter that warrants contemplation," she added. Angry after the ghastly suicide car bomb attack on CRPF convoy in Pulwama, India on February 26 carried out air strike at JeM terror camp in Balakot in Pakistans Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It has also shared dossiers with Pakistan about links to the terror attack in that country but Pakistan continues to be in a denial mode. India has also mounted intensified campaign globally to ensure that the world community pushes Pakistan to dismantle the terror infrastructure and end support to terrorists. London: British MPs will on Tuesday vote again on Prime Minister Theresa Mays Brexit deal, making the historic decision whether to back her plan or risk a chaotic exit from the EU in less than three weeks time. Two months ago, the House of Commons rejected the withdrawal agreement by a huge majority, and sent May back to renegotiate. But European Union leaders have rejected her demands as impossible, and without a breakthrough in the next 24 hours, some MPs have warned another defeat is inevitable. Unless it negotiates a delay, Britain would then be on course to leave the EU after 46 years of membership with no plan on March 29, causing huge disruption on both sides. British and European officials have continued their talks this weekend, and May is ready to make a last-minute visit to Brussels if needed. In the absence of visible progress, she has sought to remind MPs of the stakes involved in rejecting her divorce agreement. Back it and the UK will leave the European Union. Reject it and no one knows what will happen, she said in a speech on Friday. We may not leave the EU for many months. We may leave without the protections that the deal provides. We may never leave at all.A threatened cabinet revolt over the risks of leaving with no deal forced May to agree that MPs would be able to vote on Thursday on delaying Brexit, if her agreement is rejected. Britain has revoked citizenship from two more women who joined the ISIS group in Syria. (Representational Image) London: Britain has revoked citizenship from two more women who joined the ISIS group in Syria, a newspaper reported Sunday, raising questions about the fate of their children. The revelation follows a row over a similar decision regarding London teenager Shamima Begum, whose newborn baby died in a Syrian refugee camp last week. Reema Iqbal, 30, and her sister Zara, 28, left east London for Syria in 2013, and between them now have five boys under the age of eight, The Sunday Times newspaper said. Citing legal sources, the paper said they had been stripped of their British citizenship. The pair, who are of Pakistani heritage, reportedly married into a terror cell linked to the murder of western hostages. The British interior ministry said it does not comment on individual cases. A spokesman said: "Any decisions to deprive individuals of their citizenship are based on all available evidence and not taken lightly." Begum, who married a Dutch IS fighter, was located by journalists in a refugee camp after fleeing fighting between the terror group and US-backed forces. She had asked to return to Britain with her baby, after her two other children died under ISIS rule. Interior minister Sajid Javid revoked her citizenship amid security fears, but has been criticised for not doing more to help her son. British law states that the government cannot remove a person's citizenship if that would make them stateless. Begum was thought to be eligible for Bangladeshi citizenship through her parents, but Dhaka said she could not go there. Javid has previously said that more than 100 individuals had already been deprived of their British citizenship. China, which has blocked three times such moves by India and other members of the UNSC, is yet announce its stand. (File Photo) Beijing: Amid reports that the resolution to declare Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist would come up in the UN Security Council on March 13, China on Monday said "a responsible solution" can only come through discussions. Beijing also said security issues constituted an "important topic" in its talks to ease tensions between Pakistan and India following the Pulwama terror attack. The US, the UK and France had moved a proposal at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) after the Pulwama terrorist attack to designate the chief of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) which claimed responsibility for the Pulwama terror attack, as a global terrorist. According to reports the resolution was expected to be taken by the 1267 committee of the UNSC on March 13. China, which has blocked three times such moves by India and other members of the UNSC, is yet announce its stand. Asked about India's appeal and China's stand on the issue, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told media here, "First I would like to say that the UNSC as a main body of the UN has strict standards and rules of procedures. Some reports have knowledge of inside information the UNSC. I don't know that can be counted as an evidence," he said. "China's position on the designation of a terrorist by the 1267 Sanctions Committee is consistent and clear. China adopted a responsible attitude, follows the rules of the procedure of the committee and participated in the discussions in a responsible manner. Only through discussions can we come up with a responsible solution," he said. Recently Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou travelled to Pakistan and held talks with Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and other officials. India on Saturday said all the UNSC members were aware of the JeM training camps and the presence of Azhar in Pakistan, and urged the nations to designate him as a global terrorist. To another question whether Azhar's ban issue figured in China's talks with Pakistan, Lu said "recently India and Pakistan has experienced a lot. We think those indents are not in the interest of peace and stability in the region". "We have engaged in mediation efforts with both sides and held talks to promote the easing of tensions. We made enormous efforts. While exchanging ideas security is an important topic and I can say that our talks were wide ranging quite deep," he said. Tensions flared up between India and Pakistan after a suicide bomber of JeM killed 40 CRPF personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14. Amid mounting outrage, the Indian Air Force carried out a counter-terror operation, hitting the biggest JeM training camp in Balakot, deep inside Pakistan on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured Indian pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1. A polling booth in Arunachal Pradesh's Hayuliang Assembly constituency will have only one voter on April 11, when 7.94 lakh voters exercise their franchise for two Lok Sabha seats and 60-member Assembly. The frontier state that shares its borders with China, Myanmar and Bhutan will also have 9,040 more female voters compared to male voters. An official statement issued by the office of the chief electoral officer, Arunachal Pradesh, said there is only one female voter in the Malogam Temporary Structure polling station under the Assembly constituency. Polling station number 52 SE (power) offices, East Side, Naharlagun under Itanagar (ST) constituency will have a maximum of 1, 340 voters. Filing of nominations for the Assembly elections will begin on April 18 and counting will be held on May 23. Polling station number 18-Luguthang under 3-Mukto Assembly constituency, situated at an altitude of 13, 583 feet has been identified as the highest among the 2,202 polling stations in the hilly state. A total of 99.97% of voters have been provided with Electoral Voter Identity Card, while 11 polling stations would be set up exclusively for female voters only. "For the first time, VVPAT will be used along with EVMs in all the polling stations," said the statement. The frontier state has seen five governments under three chief ministers in the past five years. Chief Minister Pema Khandu, who along with 33 MLAs switched from People's Party of Arunachal (PPA) to BJP in January 2017 and formed the government with 12 BJP MLAs and independents. Khandu was with the Congress when he formed the government in July 2017. Before Khandu became the chief minister, political uncertainty dominated the state after senior minister Kalikho Pul broke away from the Congress government of Nabam Tuki with 24 MLAs to form a PPA government in February. Puls government was removed after a Supreme Court verdict reinstated Tuki. But with most Congress MLAs backing Khandu, Tuki had to resign in July. A dejected Pul committed suicide in Itanagar in August that year. Next month Khandu left the Congress with 42 MLAs to join the PPA. Khandu government, however, is now struggling with strong public protests over according to permanent residence certificates to six non-tribal communities. Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale announced Monday that he plans to audit the Glen Mills Schools in the wake of news reports cataloging decades of alleged abuse at the privately run, state-licensed institution. The alleged abuse of students and long-running culture of secrecy at Glen Mills shocks the conscience, DePasquale stated in a release. Because the institution receives public funds, I am demanding that the school answer what if any policies it has to prevent the abuse of students and ensure that reports of abuse are properly handled. The embattled reform school has been under mounting scrutiny and pressure from state and local regulators in the wake of an alleged assault against a student in July. Patrick Jameson Raquet, 34, of West Chester, and Christopher Medina, 31, of Kennett Square, are both facing charges in the July 19 incident that was allegedly caught on camera. A recent investigative report by the Philadelphia Inquirer detailing decades of alleged abuse at the school prompted the citys Department of Human Services to withdraw 51 students, a move quickly followed by other jurisdictions across the state and country. There are currently no Delaware County students at the institution. Both Delaware County and Philadelphia have placed a moratorium on sending students to the school. Delaware County District Attorney Katayoun Copeland said her office is continuing to investigate the facility and the state Department of Human Services is looking into taking additional action, including license revocation. DePasquale said Monday that his audit would examine whether Glen Mills has complied with child abuse laws, and whether the school has policies and effective procedures in place to prevent abuse. The audit will also examine how students can report incidents, according to the release, and the extent to which Glen Mills complies with mandatory state and federal background clearances for employees and others who come into contact with students. Protecting kids from abuse is job one, DePasquale said. No young person, no matter what circumstances led to their placement in a reform facility, deserves to be mistreated. This case may justify a broader examination of so-called reform schools operating in Pennsylvania. DePasquale said the school would receive a formal engagement letter this week outlining objectives for the audit and offered to share the results with the state DHS. Glen Mills spokeswoman Aimee Tysarczyk said the school would work with the auditor general to address his concerns, as it has with other state and local officials. We take these allegations very seriously and we will continue to provide access to information requested by those individuals, as well as Glen Mills Schools families, customers and our independent review panel, she said. Democratic Delaware County Councilmen Kevin Madden and Brian Zidek, meanwhile, joined Democratic District Attorney candidate Jack Stollsteimer Monday calling for Copeland to turn her investigation over to Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. As elected officials, we need to know what law enforcement agencies in Delaware County, including the District Attorneys office, have known about these repeated incidents and why no actions have been taken to stop the systemic abuse of children in our county, the councilmen said in a joint release Monday. Part of any independent investigation must include a determination of what the D.A.s office knew about the systemic abuse alleged to have gone on at Glen Mills for decades and why they didnt act to protect children, said Stollsteimer. Copeland, a Republican who was appointed to fulfill former District Attorney Jack Whelans unexpired term when he became a Common Pleas judge in January 2018, has previously stated that she is uninterested in handing over the investigation. The Delaware County District Attorneys office has an ongoing investigation with our law enforcement partners regarding allegations that derive from the Glen Mills School, said Copeland in a statement provided by spokewoman Chelsey Price last week. This investigation to-date has already resulted in arrests and prosecutions of individuals for their crimes. We are continuing to pursue this investigation and will not be referring this matter to the Pennsylvania Attorney Generals office as this matter falls within our offices jurisdiction. Shapiro spokesman Joe Grace said the attorney general has been following the story and is in contact with state and local agencies, including law enforcement. We stand ready to assist further if necessary, Grace said. Glen Mills sent a letter to Shapiro and U.S. Attorney William McSwain last month indicating it welcomes both to visit the campus and conduct a full and fair investigation. The letter added that the school has consistently earned national and international recognition of its programs over the past four decades. Glen Mills Schools works with challenged youths from across the country, many of whom we are proud to say (they) have gone on to become stand up fathers and members of their communities after attending Glen Mills Schools, said Tysarczyk. The school uses the internationally recognized Handle With Care Behavior Management System to help staff become trained in potential violent behaviors. New employees are trained and staff are re-certified annually using this program. The school has zero-tolerance for violent behaviors against students. The school is also regulated and licensed each year by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, which approved full licensure in 2018. The Glen Mills Schools recently announced that Executive Director Randy Ireson was taking a leave of absence for health reasons and that Joe Hand Jr. had resigned as a member of the board of managers for business and personal reasons. The board appointed Christopher Spriggs as the assistant executive director to assume all of the functions of the executive director while board Vice President Carolyn Seagraves assumed the duties of the president. Prior to his departure, Ireson repeatedly denied the allegations in the Inquirer report and urged that a panel of experts convened to investigate alleged staff misconduct be given the time needed to provide an assessment. With the announcement of the poll schedule, the model code of conduct came into immediate effect. New Delhi: Lok Sabha elections for 2019 will be held from April 11 to May 19 and after the seven-phase exercise across 543 parliamentary constituencies the results will be declared on May 23, the Election Commission announced on Sunday, kick-starting the countdown for a mega electoral battle wherein the BJP will pitch for a re-election of the Narendra Modi government amid the Oppositions efforts for a united fight to unseat it. Voting for electing the 17th Lok Sabha will be held on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19 in which nearly 90 crore voters, including 1.8 crore first-time electorate aged between 18 and 19 years, are expected to take part, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said at a packed press conference here. With the announcement of the poll schedule, the model code of conduct came into immediate effect. The CEC said that along with the parliamentary polls, Assembly elections will also be held in four states Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Odisha. Contrary to expectations, no elections will be held in Jammu and Kashmir, which has been without an elected government since June last year when the BJP pulled out of its alliance with the PDP. Flanked by two election commissioners, Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra, Mr Arora said, While finalising the election dates, exam schedules of state examination boards, CBSE, various festivals and harvest season are also adequately factored in. The CEC said that voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) will be used in all 10 lakh polling stations this time. Soon after the announcement of election dates, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, Best wishes to the Election Commission, all those officials and security personnel who will be on the field, across the length and breadth of India assuring smooth elections. India is very proud of the EC for assiduously organising elections for several years Voting for the first phase will be held on April 11 across 20 states covering 91 seats. Second phase polling will be held on April 18 covering 13 states and 97 seats, while the third phase of polling will take place on April 23 on 115 seats covering 14 states. The fourth phase will be held on April 29 covering nine states and 71 seats, while the fifth phase voting will be conducted on May 6 across seven states covering 51 seats. The penultimate sixth phase of polling will be conducted on May 12 in 59 seats spreading across seven states, while the last and seventh phase of voting will also be held in 59 seats across eight states on May 19. The national capital territory of Delhi will go to polls during the sixth phase on May 12. Polls will be held in a single phase in 20 states and Union Territories, including Andhra Prad-esh, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Hima-chal Pradesh, Kerala, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Telan-gana, Sikkim, Tamilnadu and Uttarakhand, Andaman & Nicobar, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli. Rajasthan, Karnataka, Manipur and Tripura will have polls in two phases. The decision of the Election Commission (EC) looks surprising as there are only two seats each in Tripura and Manipur. Assam and Chhattisgarh will have polling in three phases, while four states which have been and still continue to be affected by Naxal violence namely Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra will have four-phased polling. Jammu & Kashmir will have a five-phase polling process, while the politically crucial states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal will have seven-phase polling. While the NDA hopes to make history by coming back to power for a consecutive second full term, the Opposition wants to unseat the Narendra Modi-led government by raising questions on its performance on a host of issues, including economic growth, employment, corruption and social harmony. Atal Behari Vajpayee had led the NDA to back-to-back wins in 1998 and 1999 general elections but he was at the helm for only one full term. In 2014, the Lok Sabha elections were held across nine phases beginning April 7 and ending May 9. Votes were counted on May 16. The total contestants in fray were 8,251, with an average of 15 candidates in each constituency, though deposits got forfeited for 7,000 contestants. A total of over 55 crore voters (66.3 per cent) exercised their vote, while there were nearly 60 lakh NOTA votes. A total of 668 women candidates contested, out of which 62 won. A lighthearted look at news of the day: North Korea just released a documentary that characterizes Kim Jong Uns performance at the recent summit with President Trump as "yet another meaningful incident on the issue of world peace." Thats pretty much true, except for the part about it being a total failure that resulted in no agreement whatsoever. --- The summit was so successful that Kim apparently has begun ramping up North Koreas nuclear weapons programs again. Maybe a future documentary could describe how Kims tough negotiating skills won him the right to do this in exchange for keeping sanctions in place against his country. --- While were on the subject of films, a new Chinese movie, The Wandering Earth, has Chinese astronauts and truckers saving the earth from a fading sun. Apparently, the Chinese are tired of movies showing Americans always saving the planet. Meanwhile, the actual planet could use fewer movies and more actual negotiating, but no one would buy overpriced popcorn to watch that. --- A man in Georgia is accused of locking his family in a house and setting it on fire after an argument over a box of Cheez-It crackers. The family made it out OK, although mom had to be lifted down from a second-story window. This gives new meaning to Cheez-It's new Snapd variety. --- Last month, a woman in Kentucky told her husband she wished he would give her something for Valentines Day that would last, such as tulips that would come back each year. So her husband, desperately trying to remember what she had said, surprised her on the big day with turnips, stacked in a bucket that said, I love you. The fact that this became a news story tells you all you need to know about how that turned out. --- Thats one husband who no longer can say he didnt fall off the turnip truck yesterday. --- Meanwhile, millions of American husbands are grateful to the turnip guy for making their mistakes on Valentines Day look minor. --- With only three days left in their 2019 session, Utahs lawmakers have turned their attention to regulating e-cigarettes. Thats fitting, seeing as how their efforts at tax reform went up in smoke. SALT LAKE CITY Last week, we told you about how the Stan Lee tribute in Captain Marvel made the directors and cast cry. Now we know exactly what that tribute looks like. Warning: Captain Marvel spoilers ahead. The tribute: As Captain Marvel begins, viewers see the familiar opening credit scrawl with the Marvel Studios logo and superhero montage. Instead of images of MCU superheroes such as Iron Man or Thor flashing in the logo, however, we see images of Lee from his lifetime career as a writer, producer and publisher of Marvel comics. Following the scrawl are the words Thank you Stan. Lee passed away in November at the age of 95, according to ComicBook.com. "Captain Marvel" is the first live-action film Lee has been in since his death. Lees cameo: Marvel also paid homage to Lee with his cameo for the film. As Starforce member Vers (Brie Larson) walks down the aisle of a train, she suspiciously eyes passengers to see if theyre members of the shapeshifting Skrull. Lee is seen as a train passenger practicing his lines for Mallrat, a 1995 film that Lee also had a cameo in. In the film, Vers eyes linger on Lee and she smiles to herself before moving on through the train. According to film directors, that scene was initially meant to be funny, but with Lees passing, it was changed to reflect the gravitas of the situation, according to Mashable. Director Anna Boden told Mashable, "Instead of just the pure laugh we had, we had a little bit of a smile from Captain Marvel in response to it, and she kind of breaks character for a moment ... I think it reflects a little bit of what the audience is feeling, and we allowed that to happen." Lee will once again have a cameo in the upcoming Avengers: Endgame on April 26. ST. GEORGE An undercover operation to catch potential online predators resulted in charges against several men in southern Utah last week. The Washington County Attorney's Office said that agents from the FBI and other partners conducted undercover operation Tuesday through Thursday. Friday, at least six men were charged. Larry Dale Harris, Jr. of Hurricane, 43, faces the most serious accusations. He was charged with enticing a minor by internet or text, and five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, all second-degree felonies, in 5th District Court. Michael Anthony Lerat, 33, of Washington City, was charged with five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony. According to charging documents, Lerat is "responsible for distribution of child pornography through known social media platforms." Others were charged with enticing a minor, a second-degree felony, many for trying to meet up with an undercover officer posing online as a 13-year-old child for the purpose of engaging in sexual actions, according to court records. John Russell Potter, 39, of St. George; Robert Dajdl Hardy, 24, (who was arrested on his birthday), of Grantsville; Robert Anthony Johnson, 18, of Hurricane; and Kyle Brey Shorr, 32, of St. George, were each charged with one count of enticing a minor by internet or text, a second-degree felony. The jail authority has been asked to submit its response by Tuesday. Michel is among the three alleged middlemen being probed in the scam by ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation. The others are Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa. (Photo: File) New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday sought a response from Tihar Jail authorities on the Enforcement Directorate's plea to interrogate Christian Michel, who was arrested in the AgustaWestland chopper case, inside the prison. The jail authority has been asked to submit its response by Tuesday. Special Judge Arvind Kumar also issued a production warrant for Tuesday against Michel after his lawyer alleged mental torture inside jail. He was arrested by the ED on December 22 last year after his extradition from Dubai. The court had earlier lashed out at the jail's authorities for failing to justify the shifting of Michel to a high-security cell in isolation, saying it will start an inquiry if it does not get a proper response. Michel is among the three alleged middlemen being probed in the scam by ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation. The others are Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa. SALT LAKE CITY Every month, Leah Boehs and her young son Hayden make the journey from the Uinta Basin to Salt Lake City to accompany her husband, Derrick Boehs, a U.S. Navy veteran, to the George E. Wahlen Veterans Administration Medical Center for medical treatment and dental care. Considering how often the family makes the trip and how they frequently have to stay for days at a time, they consider themselves lucky they don't have to shell out lots of money for lodging and food thanks a charitable foundation that helps scores of people just like them across the country. "You have a place to stay, the room is nice and cozy," said Leah Boehs, 41, of Vernal. This month, the Fisher House in Salt Lake City is commemorating seven years of serving veterans and their families from the region and around the world, according to a news release. Originally established by New York real estate investor and philanthropist Zachary Fisher and his wife, Elizabeth, in 1990, the Fisher House Foundation today operates a network of over 80 homes where families of veterans can stay free of charge while a loved one receives medical treatment. The facilities are located at major U.S. military and Veterans Administration medical centers nationwide. "It would be a huge expense for us if Fisher House wasn't here for us," Leah Boehs said. "We've lived in a lot of places and used the VA in a lot of places. This is the first place where we've had a Fisher House and it is a huge relief." The facilities provide families of veterans a place to stay on the campus of the local Veterans Administration hospital, explained Quinn Kiger-Good, Salt Lake City Fisher House manager. Boehs said being at the facility for extended periods has allowed her to develop bonds with some of the other families who also utilize the facility regularly. "The kitchen is where we meet people," she said. "I get to meet other veterans and get to talk to veterans' wives. We hear each others' stories and support each other. It's really nice." The 16,800-square-foot home includes 20 suites, each with private bedrooms and bathrooms. The houses also have common areas that promote interaction between the families, Kiger-Good said. She added that Fisher House is meant to be more than a place to stay. The facility is a home away from home for residents, she said. "As long as they are coming with families, they are eligible to stay here," Kiger-Good said. Speaking at the open house Tuesday, she recalled the story of a rural Colorado woman who was in her 70s and had never been to Salt Lake City. "She was scared to death," Kiger-Good said. The woman was staying at the Fisher House recently while her husband was being treated at the medical center. She was at his bedside when he passed away. Distraught by the loss and otherwise alone, she reached out to another spouse whom she befriended during her stay, she explained. "That lady went around and knocked on everybody's bedroom door," Kiger-Good said. "They had every family member wait for her at the front door." The families staying in the house and the staff were there to comfort and console her, she added. "When she walked in, there were 20 families there to embrace her, That's what this home is all about," Kiger-Good said. "The families become family. A lot of healing happens here." The longest visit at the Fisher House was nine months by a 30-year-old Nevada veteran and his parents who stayed while the son battled brain cancer, she said. The visitor who came the farthest was a veteran from the Dominican Republic who underwent heart surgery, she said. While constructed through the charitable foundation, the facility is maintained heavily through community donations and volunteer support, Kiger-Good explained. "Everything that we have in the house is donated by the community," she said. "All the food items, all the toiletries everything we can give to (the visitors)." She said some community groups come in to cook meals and offer services to help the families. For more information about the facility, visit fisherhousesaltlakecity.com. SALT LAKE CITY Even as the 2019 Student Health and Risk Prevention survey is being administered statewide in Utah public schools, the Utah State Board of Education has its eye on improving the next survey to be conducted in 2021. Late last week, the board reviewed the current years SHARP survey, which is being administered to students in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12 in most public schools in Utah every other year. Most students take the survey during February and March. The SHARP survey is designed to assess adolescent substance use, anti-social behavior as well as risk and protective factors that can predict problem behaviors in youths. The findings help educators and other government agencies track trends, plan programs and deploy resources. School participation is voluntary and parents must give consent for their child to take the survey. Every school district in Utah takes part, except Beaver School District. The survey is also administered in public charter schools. Statewide, 97 percent of Utah students take part, officials said. One district plans to survey all students in grades 6-12 this year. This years survey for secondary schools asks students to identify their gender by what best describes them: woman/girl; man/boy; transgender or other. It also asks them to identify their sexual orientation with four options: "heterosexual (straight); gay or lesbian; bisexual; not sure/other." State Superintendent of Public Instruction Sydnee Dickson said the governor's Suicide Prevention Task Force, of which she is a member, asked for the questions on gender and sexual orientation but made no recommendation how the questions should be framed. Some board members raised concerns about the personal nature of other survey questions, such as asking whether people in a students family often insult or yell at one other or if the student has contemplated or attempted suicide. Board member Jennie Earl said letters sent to parents or guardians asking their permission for their child to take the survey should recommend that they conduct a debrief with their child afterward. Even though its anonymous and we keep thinking that makes it OK, youre looking at all that information and disclosing it in some way, youre still giving that out. There needs to be that element of dialogue that takes place, preferably with an adult, with a parent, so the child can say 'I didnt understand this or that,' she said. Board member Carol Lear said she had no qualms with the questions or process. It is adequately addressed by the parents ability to opt out if there is a concern, she said. Rhett Larsen, substance abuse prevention and intervention specialist for the State School Board, said the survey is anonymous and confidential. It allows students to skip any question they do not wish to answer. Craig PoVey, prevention administrator in the state Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health, said parental permission forms direct them to a link so they can review the survey. A parent has the right to know what it is, PoVey said. Other board members questioned the validity of the survey given that some students who take standardized tests simply fill in circles without attempting to offer correct answers. PoVey said the survey was developed by the University of Washington but it is unique to Utah. It has been conducted every two years since 2003. Questions are regularly updated to gather information about emerging health risks such as the use of e-cigarettes or recreational use of opioid prescription drugs. Moreover, it has controls to determine whether respondents are providing accurate and honest information. If a student reports that they used drugs or alcohol in quantities that would be fatal or they took drugs that dont exist, their survey is thrown out because it is considered unreliable, PoVey said. Utahs survey is unique in the respect that has questions about religiosity. One question asks if a student regularly attends religious services. Another asks if they have been bullied because of their religion and another asks if they have a religious preference. When asked why Utahs SHARP survey asks about religion, PoVey replied, Religiosity is shown to be a protective factor. It doesnt matter which religion, by the way, he said. Dickson the state school has supported the administration of the SHARP survey in a cooperative effort with the Utah Department of Health and Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health. Our office actually does use some of the prevention information that is gathered to then determine how we adjust our programs that are statutory in nature, Dickson said. Prior to the SHARP survey, three different surveys were administered in Utah schools: the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the Prevention Needs Assessment and the Youth Tobacco Survey. The three evolved into the biennial SHARP survey, Larsen said. SALT LAKE CITY The 2019 legislative session is down to its final four days, and Monday promises to be eventful as lawmakers are expected to settle on budget numbers after last week's dramatic collapse of plans for reforming the state's sales tax structure. READ MORE: House, Senate 'trying to avoid turmoil' in ongoing budget impasse House Speaker @BradWilsonGOP says 'skinny budget' is about 92-93 percent of $19 billion budget already agreed to by joint majority leadership #tupol #utleg DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) March 11, 2019 Wilson says base budgets already passed account for about 85 percent of full budget. 'Skinny' budget has 4 percent WPU, 2.5 percent raise for state employees $20 million for TSSA #utleg #utpol, DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) March 11, 2019 Wilson says Senate NOT agreed to skinny budget plan, some chance leave session with only base budgets in place #utpol #utleg DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) March 11, 2019 Rep Arent says no funding for air quality bills in proposed House budget. Wilson says important, but WPU funding for schools 'more urgent' #utpol #utleg DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) March 11, 2019 Wilson says fiscal note bills that have not already passed both House and Senate won't be dealt with this session. Those that have, like Medicaid expansion, will be funded in skinny budget #utpol #utleg DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) March 11, 2019 More than a dozen committee meetings are scheduled with time running out to advance bills for approval by both chambers before the session ends at midnight Thursday. Other issues expected to be discussed at the Statehouse during the day include: Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski announced Monday evening she directed city attorneys to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the creation of the Utah Inland Port Authority. READ MORE: Salt Lake City mayor sues over creation of Utah Inland Port Authority The House Judiciary Committee will now take up so-called "Lauren's Law." HB190 would place liability on a gun owner when a firearm they have loaned out is used to commit a felony. It is nicknamed "Lauren's Law" for University of Utah student Lauren McCluskey, who was murdered by a bitter ex-boyfriend who borrowed a gun and tracked her down on campus. The bill was transferred last week from the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee at the request of the sponsor, Rep. Andrew Stoddard, D-Sandy. READ MORE: Second Utah House committee rejects 'Lauren's Law' The Senate Education Committee will take up HB219, which would create a commission to determine whether Utah needs a new state flag. The bill flew through the House Friday with a vote of 46-26. The Senate Transportation, Public Utilities, Energy and Technology Committee will discuss HB354, which prohibits a public entity from regulating a peer-to-peer car sharing company or a peer-to-peer vehicle owner in the same manner as a car rental company. READ MORE: Attempts to regulate peer-to-peer car rental networks appear untenable The Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee is considering HB357, which modifies the requirements to be eligible for funding to convert wood-burning stoves, and requests $14 million in the clean-air effort. READ MORE: Utah lawmakers endorse wood burning stove conversions Utah would join other states in holding a presidential primary on Super Tuesday next year under a bill passed Monday to the House that has a nearly $3 million price tag. READ MORE: Utah's presidential primary would be on 'Super Tuesday' under bill passed by Senate Here's what happened on March 8, the 39th day of the 2019 session: Tax reform continued to be a focus during the sixth week of the 2019 legislative session. After Utah lawmakers suddenly scrapped a tax reform plan extending sales taxes to services, House Republicans are pushing a plan to scale back the state budget until lawmakers pass a tax reform bill later this year in a special session. Other important issues included four gun bills that failed to move to the House floor and a proposal to create a commission to determine whether Utah needs a new state flag. Here's a brief look at five other major legislature stories from last week: A House committee voted 8-2to send SB103, a hate crimes bill, to the House floor Friday despite some friction between committee members and the bill's sponsor. The bill has already passed the Senate for the first time after years of attempts by senators to enact hate crimes legislation. READ MORE: Utah hate crimes bill headed to House floor amid friction Members of the House Judiciary Committee voted Tuesday to recommend a bill that would ban the practice of conversion therapy for gay teens in Utah. But advocates don't agree with the way conversion therapy is defined in the version of the bill that was approved. Gov. Gary Herbert issued an apology letter Thursday to a group of young protesters who staged a sit-in outside his office earlier that day. READ MORE: Utah legislators vote to recommend version of conversion therapy bill that advocates don't support Several pro-life advocates gave emotional testimony in front of a packed Senate committee Thursday urging support of HB136, which would restrict Utah's window for legal abortions from 22 weeks to 18 weeks. But the bill was also met with emotional resistance from doctors, mothers, and legal advocates urging lawmakers not to pass a bill they said would not only restrict women's rights but also inevitably face an expensive legal challenge. READ MORE: Bill to ban Utah abortions after 18 weeks heads to final legislative hurdle Despite pushback from some environmental groups and concerned residents, the Utah House of Representatives voted 61-11 to approve a bill that would allow the port authority to expand outside its already 16,000-acre jurisdiction and partner with willing communities including rural areas eager to maximize export opportunities for coal, oil, gas, hay or other products. READ MORE: Bill to expand Utah Inland Port Authority to other areas clears Utah House A House committee Wednesday rejected legislation to raise the alcohol content by weight from 3.2 percent to 4.8 percent for beer sold in Utah stores, something the bill's sponsor expected. READ MORE: House panel rejects bill to allow higher alcohol content beer in Utah grocery, convenience stores SALT LAKE CITY Heres a look at the news for March 11. A look at our top stories this morning: In Rome on Monday, all of the Latter-day Saint apostles make powerful statement. Read more. President Russell M. Nelson of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints referred to apostles Peter and Paul during Rome Temple dedication. Read more. Watch: The Prophet and the Pope: President Russell M. Nelsons historic meeting with Pope Francis. Oklahoma City Thunder Russell Westbrooks numbers dwarf the Utah Jazz all-time number of triple-doubles. Read more. Here are nine things to know before attending the Sri Ganesha Hindu temple open house. This BYU professor entered a mountain bike race from Canada to Puerto Rico. Heres what happened next. Inside the newsroom: This concept could change your approach to life. Read more. Here are five stories to catch you up on the sixth week of the Utah Legislature. A look at our InDepth coverage: After latest controversy, should you listen to Michael Jackson's music? Is the 'Momo challenge' a hoax or a real cause for concern? Maybe both Utah Sen. Mitt Romney says 'I've made my decision' about President Trump's national emergency vote The real reason Utah Gov. Gary Herbert changed his support on the conversion therapy ban bill Can conservative icon Gayle Ruzicka stay relevant in today's Republican party? The Jussie Smollett story showed the danger of instant certainty. How can we slow the hot takes? A look at our most read stories: Pope Francis meets with President Nelson in the Vatican Dick Harmon: San Diego humiliates punchless BYU in WCC quarterfinal showdown Affirmation now able to offer greater personal support to LGBTQ Latter-day Saints in the U.S. and Canada Russia to deport 2 Latter-day Saint volunteers detained since last week News from the U.S. and world: Ethiopian Airlines: Flight recorders recovered from crash site | BBC News Deal, no deal, or delay? May's future in the balance as Brexit enters decisive week | CNN Turkey's economy slides into recession | BBC News In budget, Trump to ask Congress for $8.6 billion for border wall | Reuters U.S.-North Korea tensions approach boiling point | The Hill SALT LAKE CITY The upcoming Cruella movie may soon have its villain, and spoiler alert: it isn't Cruella. What happened: Disney has reportedly been eyeing Nicole Kidman to play an antagonist in the upcoming Cruella reboot starring Emma Stone, according to a report by That Hashtag Show podcast. According to That Hashtag Show, Disney is interested in Kidman for the role of baroness, a role thats being described as playing a pivotal role in Cruellas rise as a Disney villain. Disney is also looking at Emma Thompson, Charlize Theron, Julianne Moore and Demi Moore for the role, according to ComicBook.com. What else we know: The Cruella film will be directed by Craig Gillespie of I, Tonya. The film was initially going to be directed by Alex Timbers, who declined due to scheduling conflicts. The script for the film is currently being rewritten by The Favourite writer Tony McNamara, according to Comic Book. Synopsis: The Cruella film is said to follow Estella (who eventually becomes Cruella De Vil), who lives on the streets of 1970s London with other hoodlums. It will also delve into the origins of her hatred for Dalmatians, according to That Hashtag Show. As of yet, there is no scheduled release date for the film. MURRAY A Riverton man with a history of shoplifting and drug-related crimes was shot and killed by a Murray homeowner Sunday after police say he broke into his house. On Monday, Murray police identified the deceased man as Andrew Wayne Miller, 32. Investigators say about 6:50 p.m. Sunday, Miller used a rock to break a sliding glass door connecting a carport and a house at 440 E. 5900 South. Shortly after entering the house, there was a confrontation with the homeowner, who shot Miller, said Murray police detective Kenny Bass. Miller died a short time later at a local hospital. The homeowner, whose name was not released, was taken to police headquarters to be questioned and was later allowed to return home. Bass said the homeowner was cooperative with police. Once the investigation is completed, the case will be turned over to the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office to determine whether any criminal charges should be filed. The homeowner told detectives he did not know the intruder, Bass said. Why Miller broke into the man's house was still under investigation Monday. It was also not immediately known if Miller was armed. Miller has a lengthy criminal record consisting mainly of drug and drug paraphernalia possession, and retail theft, especially from Home Depot stores, according to court records. He was last incarcerated at the Utah State Prison from 2010 to 2012 and was supervised on probation from 2015 to 2016, according to Utah Department of Corrections officials. At the time of Sunday's shooting, Miller was on parole for a crime in Nevada. In September, an agreement was made between Utah and Nevada officials where Miller could reside in Utah and be supervised by Utah officials. Miller was arrested in Carson City, Nevada, in 2017 for investigation of drug possession and being in possession of a stolen car, according to news website CarsonNow.com. SALT LAKE CITY He was supposed to be delivering parcels to businesses. Instead, the U.S. Postal Service says a man who worked for a delivery service in Utah was dropping off packages specifically ones that contained cellphones in the back of his car. Now investigators believe Hector Armando Cortes, 34, of West Valley City, could be responsible for stealing more than 400 parcels throughout Salt Lake and Utah counties. Cortes, who contracted with OnTrac shipping company, was arrested Thursday and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of felony mail theft, culminating an extensive investigation by the U.S. postal inspector and West Valley police. By Monday afternoon, Cortes was formally charged in 4th District Court with engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity and mail theft, both second-degree felonies. "OnTrac is a company contracted to deliver mail for certain private businesses, including AT&T, Victoria Secret, NewEgg, and Newgistics," according to court documents. Cortes was first identified as a possible suspect by his own company in January, according to charging documents. "OnTrac reported that in 2018, over 450 AT&T phones had gone missing from one of their routes in Lehi," the charges state. "They identified the contract driver for this route as Hector Cortes." "The loss value to OnTrac Logistics has been reported to exceed $80,000," according to a police affidavit. As the seven-month investigation into the missing parcels progressed, detectives began monitoring Cortes. "Cortes was observed on multiple occasions transferring items from his delivery truck to his personal vehicle," the charges state. On March 6, investigators left a parcel with no tracking information at the Lehi Post Office. In the parcel was a laptop and GPS tracker. The proper procedure for packages with no tracking information is to return it to the post office, the charges state. Cortes, however, allegedly took it to his house. Investigators searched Cortes' home and found several laptops, five cellphones three of them still in their boxes "and several items still in packaging, including clothing, shoes and Victoria Secret lingerie," the charges state. In his personal car, "dozens of articles of clothing, most of which were new or still in their original packaging" were recovered, according to charging documents. "Investigators also found at least 112 phones (82 iPhones of various types and 30 other smart phones). Dozens of these phones were found in AT&T boxes or packaging. Finally, four HP laptops were recovered which appeared to have been associated with QVC orders." The police affidavit also notes that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials were contacted and that "an ICE agent will proceed with deportation efforts as a result of the felony investigation." Charging documents also state, "He is not lawfully present within the United States. He has used different Social Security numbers and cards not belonging to him." OnTrac released a prepared statement Monday saying that Cortes was "an independent contractor performing services for a motor carrier that contracts with OnTrac." "Our OnTrac loss prevention team has been aware of the situation and began investigating this as soon as it was brought to our attention," according to the company. "Be assured that this kind of action will never be tolerated. We will continue to aggressively pursue investigations and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law." The number of packages stolen was still being tabulated, according to OnTrac. SALT LAKE CITY With just three days left in the legislative session, House and Senate Republican leaders remain divided over a House planto withhold $400 million in spending until tax reform is approved in a special session. "We will not be driven by a date. We will be driven by a good solution," House Speaker Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, told members of the House Democratic caucus Monday, warning the session could end with only a minimal budget in place. Senate Republicans, meanwhile, took a caucus position to support the full $19 billion budget approved by joint GOP leadership last week, just before the House tax reform plan was scrapped because time was running out for complicated fixes. "We're trying to avoid turmoil," said Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City. "The House, hey, they're pretty traumatized. You have to admit that their House members went through a lot of severe pressure." Vickers said he does not expect the session to end without action on the budget. Gov. Gary Herbert's deputy chief of staff, Paul Edwards, weighed in on the split. "We support the process to pass a modest budget that meets the needs for core services while leaving room for a sizable tax cut when we reconvene to modernize our tax system," Edwards said. The governor had called for a $200 million reduction in the state sales tax rate in his proposed budget last December. But what had been a $1.3 billion surplus dropped by $200 million last month when revenue estimates were revised. For now, the impasse means that when the new fiscal year begins July 1, state agencies could end up with only what's known as base budgets that were passed earlier in the session and do not include new funding. Wilson said the base budgets add up to about 85 percent of the $19 billion spending plan already agreed to, while the House Republicans' so-called "skinny budget" represents about 92 percent. The difference between what are now House and Senate budgets is that the House budget removes about $400 million in the Senate budget for everything from air quality projects, arts programs, higher education buildings and public safety. Both budgets include money for an increase in per-pupil funding and a pay raise for state employees, Wilson said, and cover the cost of the partial Medicaid expansion approved earlier in the session. But a long list of bills that carry a fiscal note meaning they'll cost taxpayers to implement that have yet to clear both the House and Senate may be doomed this session, the speaker said. Wilson said he and other House Republican leaders negotiated the budget with their Senate counterparts based on fixing a financial situation "that turns into a pumpkin in July" as growth in income tax revenues far outpace sales tax collections. The speaker said he understands that the public struggles with cutting back spending at the same time lawmakers have a $1.1 billion budget surplus because they see "record revenue, all this money, then we can't pay our bills." For now, both the House and Senate are moving forward with their versions of the budget. An early morning Executive Appropriations Committee meeting Tuesday to finalize spending was cancelled. Bills reflecting the different budgets passed the House and Senate Monday night. House and Senate GOP leaders worked throughout Saturday and from afternoon until late in the evening Sunday on possible fast fixes to the budget situation that could be made this session, including raising the sales tax rate. One solution that would require the approval of voters is to amend the Utah Constitution so that income tax collections could be spent on more than public schools and higher education. Monday, the Senate passed SJR3, sponsored by Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, allowing income taxes to be used for "providing services for the poor, disabled and elderly," into an unrelated resolution amending the constitution. "We need a lot of options on the table," said McCay, who substituted that language into an unrelated resolution shortly before the vote. He said the proposed amendment could be withdrawn "if we find a better solution." SJR3 needs two-thirds support in the House and Senate to get on the 2020 ballot. It advanced to the House 21-8, with all six Democrats opposed, along with Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, and Senate Majority Assistant Whip Ann Milner, R-Ogden. Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said the Senate GOP "is 100 percent supportive of whatever measures are needed," but told reporters Monday night that's "probably not now." House Majority Leader Francis Gibson, R-Mapleton, said the House GOP was told during an evening caucus "that we're still in the same place." He said he "preferred everyone being realistic and looking at the problem." Gibson questioned how the House budget is being described. "Is it withholding money? We're funding all of the essential services that need to be funded," the majority leader said. "Seventy-five percent of those fiscal-note bills are either an expansion of government or expanding a current program." He dismissed the solutions talked about over the weekend, saying there were complaints that there wasn't enough time to handle tax reform this session so "now you're going to try to do it in three days?" Last Thursday, GOP legislative leaders and the governor pulled the plug on a House bill that would have expanded the state's sales tax rate to include a wide variety of services while lowering both the sales and income tax rates. HB441, which did not surface until late in the session, had passed a House committee but was generating increased opposition from businesses as well as groups across the political spectrum. The legislation, intended to address the state's shrinking sales tax base, is expected to now be considered in a special session this summer, called either by the governor or, thanks to a constitutional change, by lawmakers themselves. On Friday, House Republicans agreed to back Wilson's plan to set aside a portion of the budget surplus until tax reform is passed. The move caught the Senate off guard, but Vickers said the situation is not being seen "as a showdown at all." House Budget Chairman Brad Last, R-Hurricane, said the priority for the House is figuring out a way to deal with the structural imbalance in the budget sooner rather than later. All I want to say is were really not crazy. We are sincere in wanting to try and resolve our structural problem," Last said. "And thats been the whole foundation of our conversation from even before the session started." Contributing: Katie McKellar Utahs greatest asset is its people. We work hard and look out for each other. And Utahns continually impress me with their compassion and their willingness to tackle daunting obstacles. One such challenge that has reached crisis level in recent years is Utahs suicide epidemic. Ive written publicly before about one of my children who struggled with suicidal thoughts, and people close to me have lost friends or loved ones to suicide. The loss of a single life to this heartbreaking affliction is a crisis on the individual and family level, and the impact ripples throughout our community. As Utahns, we must engage in this battle. And for policymakers, we must continue to prioritize policy interventions that have the potential to save lives. Thats why suicide prevention is one of my priority issues as a mother, as a Salt Lake County Council member and as a Utahn. Im grateful to the local, state and federal leaders who have championed this issue, and Im deeply encouraged by the progress weve made. As Ive worked with my fellow members of the state Mental Health Crisis Response Commission over the past year, weve come up with a number of policy recommendations that I believe could make a tremendous difference. Some of these policy recommendations are being heard on the Hill as the legislative session progresses. SB219 appropriates funds to pilot mental health receiving centers and establish a statewide stabilization services plan and standards. Imagine you have a family member in crisis. Instead of taking them to an emergency room, a receiving center can give immediate help and specializes in behavioral health issues. It would also be a great resource for our law enforcement officers, who can take those who are mentally ill to a place other than an ER or jail. It is imperative that we give residents immediate help when they are experiencing a mental health crisis. Another bill, HB393, funds the statewide suicide prevention plan and helps educate health care providers. We need health care providers who can watch for signs of behavioral health crises. We must provide better mental health access for our children. Thats why our commission recommended funding for mental health providers in more schools. Rep. Steve Eliasons bill, HB373, provides historic funding for school counselors, psychologists, social workers and nurses in our schools. This would give support to all schools so they can use that funding for the positions they see fit. We have a statewide suicide prevention lifeline, where you can talk with a professional 24/7 if you or a loved one is in crisis: 1-800-273-TALK. The SafeUT app is also a great resource. If you are a parent of a teen or young adult, this is a crisis intervention app that you should put on your phone and encourage your child to download it as well. It provides a chat function, as well as a tip line. These and other public policy interventions are important steps. But this crisis cannot be solved by public policy alone. Though well fight for funding and resources to ensure Utahs mental health system is up to the task, we cannot do it without your help. Call your legislators and encourage them to get on board. It will take all of us to make a difference and to stop this epidemic. Soon after the poll schedule was announced, Mr Modi wished all political parties and candidates the very best for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. New Delhi: As the Election Commission on Sunday set the ball rolling for the crucial Lok Sabha electoral battle, voters will decide whether they believe in BJPs slogan Modi hai to mumkin hai (everything is possible with Modi) or the Congress rhetoric on Chowkidar chor hai. Claiming that the Prime Ministers popularity is high even after five years, saffron poll managers want the BJP campaign to focus on turning the electoral battle into Modi vs none in a virtual repeat of the 2014 strategy of there is no alternative (TINA). While the BJP is asserting that it has fulfilled its 2014 Lok Sabha poll promises under karmyogi Mr Modi, the Congress is striving to burst attempts by the Prime Minister to seek a second term by showcase his anti-corruption credentials. Farmers unrest, unemployment, few depressing economic indicators and anti-incumbency against some BJP MPs remain to be key problem areas for the ruling BJP which is striving to showcase development carried out under the Modi government. The yet-to-be-stitched up Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) of Opposition parties will only help the BJPs poll narrative to get bolder if it does not start speaking in unison soon. The seven-phase elections, whose results would be declared on May 23, are also likely to show whether the nationalist card played by the BJP after the Pulwama terror attack and the Indian Air Forces (IAF) strike on terror camps in Pakistan end up impacting the partys prospects. In 2014, NDA had won 336 parliamentary berths out of 543, with the BJP alone bagged 282 seats. UPA had won 59, with the Congress managing to win only 44. Soon after the poll schedule was announced, Mr Modi wished all political parties and candidates the very best for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. We may belong to different parties but our aim must be the same the development of India and empowerment of every Indian! tweeted the Prime Minister. He also urged voters, including the 1.8 crore first-time voters, to actively participate in the democratic exercise so that the Lok Sabha polls witnesses a historic turnout. The seven-phased elections, beginning from April 11, are seen as the toughest poll battle for the BJP, the Congress and some of the regional players in particular the SP, the BSP, the RJD, the BJD and the TDP. Mr Modi had on many occasions pointed the pros and cons of a majboot sarkaar (strong government with a majority) verus majboor sarkaar (a helpless government) seeking a second term for the BJP-led NDA. For the Congress, any reduction in its current Lok Sabha strength, would not only mean losing the ground to the BJP but significant decline of its bargaining power within the Opposition camp. While the SP, the BSP and the RJD faced massive losses in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJD and the TDP will have to prove that their supremos Naveen Patnaik and N. Chandrababu Naidu respectively can firmly hold the ground against Mr Modis unabated popularity. In both BJD-ruled Odisha and TDP-ruled Andhra Pradesh, Assembly polls will be held simultaneouly with Lok Sabha polls. Though the caste arithmetic seems to be in favour of regional satraps, in politically crucial states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, BJP poll managers are hoping that the development plank will overshadow caste politics. The Modi governments decision of 10 percent reservation for general category was seen as a balancing act of the BJPs aggressive wooing of the numerically crucial dalits and the OBCs. While effort were made by the RSS-led Sangh Parivar to revive the emotive Ram Mandir issue, seen as a major polarising factor, it failed to take the generated the expected hype. Region wise, the only region which is troubling BJP poll managers the most is the South, mainly Tamil Nadu and Kerala, where the NDAs performance depends more on regional allies. In the North-east, the BJP has allied with smaller parties and has been highlighting how it fulfilled the promises made in the 2014 manifesto titled Ek Bharat, Shreshta Bharat Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas. Urging people to bless his party in the Lok Sabha election, BJP president Amit Shah said on Saturday that the Modi government has taken bold decisions for their welfare in its first term and will ensure Indias giant leap to make everyone happy and prosperous in the second. Making a strong pitch for the re-election of the BJP-led dispensation, Mr Shah said it has achieved phenomenal results in various spheres of governance during this term. He put out a series of tweets with hashtag #PhirEkBaarModiSarkar (Modi government once again). SALT LAKE CITY Fox News host Tucker Carlson said he wont apologize over a recently uncovered interview in which he defended polygamist leader Warren Jeffs. Media Matters for America published a set of recordings over the weekend of Carlson speaking on the Bubba the Love Sponge radio program. The recordings originally ran from 2006 to 2011. In the recordings, Carlson made numerous degrading statements about women, calling them primitive and comparing them to dogs, and defending the now-convicted child sexual abuser Warren Jeffs," according to Business Insider. Carlson tweeted a statement, refusing to apologize. "Media Matters caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago. Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: I'm on television every weeknight live for an hour. If you want to know what I think, you can watch. Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why." In a clip from 2009, Carlson defends Jeffs, who, at the time, was awaiting trial. In 2011, Jeffs was convicted of child sexual assault and sentenced to life in prison. "Here's my point," Carlson said in the tape. "If a guy wants to be polygamist, that's kind of his business." Carlson was pressed about the age of the children and defended Jeffs more. "It's disgusting! I think the religion is ridiculous, I think it's a cult, I think it's totally immoral. But that's not the point. The question is, two questions. One: Is this guy one of the top 10 most dangerous people in America? The answer is no, unequivocally no. And two: If you're, like, for the government butting out of the bedroom and for gay marriage, and for the right of strip clubs to operate unimpeded by governments how exactly can you be against polygamy? On what grounds are you against polygamy? I don't get that." Angelo Carusone, the head of Media Matters, responded to Carlsons decision not to apologize, according to CNN. The reason we released this is precisely because the things you say on your Fox News show echo the misogyny displayed in those clips. We were actually helping people better understand just how vile your current Fox News show is by showing what that worldview really looks like." The Washington Posts Erik Wemple, who covered Carlson for years, said that the Fox News anchor is attempting to "parlay the up-and-coming scandal into higher ratings. SALT LAKE CITY A Greek man says he narrowly missed the Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed near Addis Ababa on Sunday, according to The Associated Press. The man, Antonis Mavropoulos, said he argued with ground staff to let him board the plane after he arrived two minutes before takeoff. However, the staff wouldnt let him on board. "I saw the last passengers going through, but the gate had already closed. I complained, in the usual way when that kind of thing happens. But they were very kind and placed me on another flight," he told Greece's private Skai Television, according to The Associated Press. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtnLK4pZjIk Context: The Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed six minutes after taking off Sunday, killing 157 people on board, BBC News reported. The victims were from 30 countries, including 32 people from Kenya, 18 Canadians and seven people from England, BBC News reported. Mavropoulos said he was traveling to Kenya to attend an environmental conference. He said it was luck that helped him survive. "I'm slowly coming to terms with what happened and how close it came. On the other hand, I'm also very upset I'm shattered for those who were lost," he said in the interview Monday. "To be honest, I didn't get much sleep last night." "I didn't check my suitcase because I knew the gap between connecting flights was tight. If I had checked the bag in, they would have waited for me," he said. "This is a very difficult moment one that can change your life." Not alone: Dubai resident Ahmed Khalid said he missed the flight because he suffered from a delay in the first leg of his trip, according to The National. SALT LAKE CITY A man who borrowed his estranged wife's car and his son's toy gun to try and rob a restaurant by going through the drive-thru line left empty-handed, according to police. But now, Cody Tawn Olsen faces a potential minimum sentence of 15 years in prison for his efforts. Olsen, 30, of Payson, was charged Monday in 3rd District Court with aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony. On March 6, Olsen went to the drive-thru window at Rancherito's, 8732 S. State in Sandy, pointed what appeared to be a black handgun at an employee and demanded money, according to charging documents. But the employee told him she did not have any money, shut the window and called police, the charges state. She also was able to get a license plate number as the vehicle drove away, the charges state. Using witness information and surveillance video, police were able to track down the owner of the vehicle. Olsen's wife, who told police she had recently separated from him "because she believed he was using illegal narcotics again," stated that she had let him borrow the car allegedly to go to work a few days earlier, but he hadn't returned it, according to a Salt Lake County Jail booking report. Police later arrested Olsen in Payson. A toy gun wrapped in duct tape was found in the vehicle. When Olsen was interviewed by detectives, he "admitted to the robbery and stated he did so because of money problems regarding purchasing a trailer from family and gambling. Cody admitted to wrapping duct tape around his son's toy gun to make it look real," according to the report. "Cody admitted to deciding to rob the Rancherito's because it looked like an easy target and didn't think the employees would give him any resistance." SALT LAKE CITY Police say a man with an extensive criminal history has been busy committing burglaries across Salt Lake County, including several at the University of Utah. Joshua Austin Beebe, 45, of Layton, was arrested in February for investigation of several counts of burglary and theft. But as detectives from the University of Utah Department of Public Safety put their case together, they say they were able to link him to burglaries in at least four other jurisdictions in the county. Police are now asking the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office to consider more than 20 charges against Beebe. No formal charges had been filed as of Monday. Between Dec. 10 and Jan. 30, Beebe is suspected of committing burglaries on campus at the Old Law Library, Rice-Eccles Stadium and the Park Building in addition to breaking into several vehicles around campus, according to a Salt Lake County Jail report and a search warrant affidavit filed in 3rd District Court. He is also suspected of attempting to enter the Guest House on Fort Douglas Boulevard. At Rice-Eccles Stadium, Beebe is suspected of making his way to the fourth and fifth floors and stealing a laptop, according to the report. Investigators believe credit and debit cards that Beebe stole on campus were used at places such as City Creek Center and a Maverik convenience store, the report states. Some of Beebe's alleged crimes on campus were committed just two days before he was arraigned in court on another case involving multiple counts of unlawful acquisition of a financial card, according to court records. Beebe is also currently charged with theft and vehicle burglary in a case filed a year ago. He was also convicted of drug possession, a third-degree felony, last week for a case filed in 2017, court records state. His convictions in 3rd District Court date back nearly 20 years. Jazz and Nokia have signed a contract to support Jazz's expansion of its 4G network to provide better coverage and a superior subscriber experience. Nokia radio solutions will be deployed in the central and southern Punjab province as well as the Sindh and Baluchistan provinces, enhancing delivery in densely populated cities including Faisalabad, Multan, Bhawalpur, Rahimyar Khan and Sukkur. Once deployed Jazz subscribers will be able to enjoy a range of bandwidth-intensive applications and services. Jazz is a leading service provider in Pakistan and has the highest number of subscribers in the country. The network expansion and upgrade of more than 4000 sites will allow more subscribers to enjoy 4G services. In the project, Nokia AirScale radio stations will be deployed to expand 4G coverage nationwide and Massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology will enhance capacity and speed, whereas Nokia AirFrame-based cloud controllers will improve efficiency. Further, Nokia NetAct will monitor the entire network, across technologies, providing improved visibility and enabling Jazz to proactively address problems. Khalid Shehzad, Chief Technology and Information Officer at Jazz, said: "Expanding 4G coverage across all cities and towns in Pakistan is one of the key strategic pillars of Jazz to fuel the consumption of broadband services. Nokia's advanced equipment coupled with its commitment to provide quality professional services will ensure that our subscribers enjoy superior service experience. It will help us maintain our growth momentum and attract new subscribers." Khalid Khan, Head of the Middle East Growth Markets at Nokia, said: "We are committed to supporting Jazz in providing better 4G coverage to meet the growing data demand in Pakistan. Once deployed, Jazz will be able to provide a much-improved mobile broadband customer experience, in addition to launching exciting new services to more subscribers." The app is compatible with Samsung devices only and brings with it gesture navigations to navigate the device Highlights: The Samsung One Hand Operation + app is now available on the Google Play Store. The app will work with Samsung devices only. The app gives users a glimpse into the world of gesture navigation. Samsung has released its One Hand Operation + app on the Google Play Store. The app officially works on Samsung devices only. As the name suggests, the app makes it easy to navigate one's Samsung smartphone with just one hand. Users can perform various swipe gestures from the edge of the display to perform certain actions. These swipe gestures can be for functions like going back, going to the home screen, going to the recent app, navigating to the menu, going forward in a web browser, opening the notifications panel, opening the quick panel, opening the assistant, taking a screenshot, pulling the screen down, going into one handed mode and more. You can check out the full list of functions along with download the app from the Google Play Store here. The gestures can be to the left or the right of the screen based on whether you are a right handed user or a left handed user. The way we navigate our smartphones has come a long way. The first Android devices had hardware buttons below the display. After that we started seeing on screen buttons and now we have gestures. Gestures aren't new, but they are baked into Android Pie making them easier to implement on smartphones. Samsung has been notorious for its Tizen UI on smartphones for the past decade, but it looks like the South Korean smartphone maker has its act together with the One UI. It has gotten rid of everything that made Tizen cumbersome and has given the software a clean UI. Since Samsungs phones are quite big, one handed operation is baked into the phones running on One UI. It is easier to navigate a big Samsung smartphone today than it was before with one hand. Samsungs One UI is available on devices as old as the S8 and Note 8 family of devices. However, the Samsung One Hand Operation + is a nice way of giving Samsungs other device users an experience of gesture based navigation. Even though the app is for Samsung devices only, Android Police says, In case you're wondering, the app is exclusive to Samsung devices, but thanks to Edge Gestures, a paid application available on the Play Store, I've been able to do the same on my phone for a while. Also Read: Samsung Galaxy A40 with 5.7-inch display gets FCC certified OnePlus 7 listed with image, specs by Chinese online retailer After Galaxy Fold, Samsung developing two more foldable phones: Report Subscriber content preview By RACHEL D'ORO Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska Far from competitors tackling the frozen wilderness in Alaska's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, a dozen people are holed up inside an Anchorage hotel behind banks of computers, tracking the punishing route and connecting with global fans seeking a real-time link to the off-the-grid sport. As of Friday, 51 mushers are traveling long stretches between remote village checkpoints with no other company but the dogs pulling their sleds. But they're not competing in a vacuum on the 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) trail that spans two mountain ranges and the frozen Yukon River before it heads up the wind-scrubbed Bering Sea Coast to the finish line in the Gold Rush town of Nome. . . . Subscriber content preview JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) Juneau officials have rejected an offer by Norwegian Cruise Line to send the city manager and mayor on a free cruise. The Juneau Assembly last week voted to turn down the invitation, and it rejected an amendment to have the city pay for the cruise, KTOO Public Media in Juneau reported. . . . Subscriber content preview By KATHLEEN RONAYNE Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. The federal government has rejected $306 million in reimbursements for California's repair of damaged spillways on the nation's tallest dam, a state agency said Friday. California has so far requested about $639 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the Oroville Dam repairs, said Lisa Lien-Mager of the state's Natural Resources Agency. FEMA has agreed to cover $333 million. . . . Subscriber content preview OLYMPIA The Washington Department of Ecology is proposing an increase in its annual stormwater and wastewater discharge permit fees. Nearly 6,000 local governments and businesses across the state hold water quality permits, according to the department. . . . Modi asked the people to consider security frisking a process to ensure their well-being. New Delhi: Referring to terror attacks in Pulwama and Uri, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday issued a stern warning to terrorist forces targeting India, saying enough is enough and the country cannot keep suffering forever. We cannot keep suffering till eternity, he said, highlighting that his government has taken some strong decisions against terrorism. For many decades, the country and numerous families have suffered the wounds and pain given by terrorism, Naxalism and insurgency. What happened in Pulwama and Uri was heartbreaking. We cannot bear this pain till eternity. Enough is enough, the Prime Minister said while spea-king at the raising day function of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) in Ghaziabad. Incidentally, this is the first time that the Prime Minister has attended an event of any central para-military force. In an apparent reference to the airstrikes and earlier surgical strike, Mr Modi, Someone, sometime, has to take a big decision against such terror acts. It is my privilege that with the support of the crores of people of this country, we took some strong decisions. Various conspiracies hatched within the country are getting encouragement from across the border and ghastly picture of terror comes to light, in different forms, Mr Modi said. Mr Modi said the government has adopted a new policy to act against terrorism and that it was its responsibility to live up to the expectations of the families of the personnel killed in the line of duty. Our government is purchasing all modern gadgets required by our security forces to tackle such challenges, the Prime Minister said in reference to creation of a new facility in Uttar Pradeshs Amethi to manufacture modern rifles. The Prime Minister also criticised the misuse of VIP culture, saying it was wrong on part of such people to throw their weight around, get angry and humiliate security personnel, a major brunt of which is faced by the CISF. I would say the biggest problem while carrying out your duty is people like me, VIPs. The VIP culture at times is the biggest threat to security. When you frisk, some people get annoyed but have to tell them that it is your duty which has to be done, the Prime Minister added. I would urge the CISF to train and inform citizens about their security systems so that they appreciate the hard work put in the job by the people in uniform, he said. Mr Modi asked the people to consider security frisking a process to ensure their well-being. We should feel proud that the security personnel are doing it (frisking), he said. The Prime Minister asked the CISF to monitor and study in realtime global trends and techniques of terrorism so that a better preparedness is ensured against it. He also directed the force to install digital museums or electronic walls at airports so that people get to know about CISFs history, role and its expectations from the citizens. Raised in 1969, the CISF has about 1.56 lakh personnel in its ranks. Subscriber content preview HELENA, Mont. (AP) Montana's forestry agency is working with federal, local and private organizations to increase logging on national forests to improve forest health and decrease the risk of disease and catastrophic fires. State lawmakers are supporting a $2.2 million request from the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to hire people to help implement the Good Neighbor Authority program. . . . Seth Rogen isnt normally the beacon of hope for guys looking to get a bit more inspiration from their wardrobe. Things may have changed in 2019 though with the nearly unrecognisable 36-year-old actor popping up at this years SXSW conference in Texas in what looks to bea nicely fitted suit. This is Seth Rogen, people the perennially cherub guy whos better known for being the butt of every dirty joke and at the receiving end of every joint. The bro to every dude, if you must. Standing next to his co-star Charlize Theron, Rogen looked like an entirely new man at the premiere of his latest film Long Shot. The suit itself is a very simple affair with an electric blue suit worn over a matching blue crew neck and paired with fresh white sneakers. There was a lack of accessories on the outfit a pocket square would have polished things off nicely but its not entirely bad as a pared down suit. Baby steps is perfectly for this slimmed down Rogen with threads that fit like a glove. Also pay attention to the beltless look Rogen has gone for. Definitely a smart casual touch when pairing a suit with a tee. Were not fans of digging up the past but as reference here was Rogen a few years ago at his film premiere in a suit which left much to be desired. The trousers werent fitted properly, the shoes were an odd colour and the tie wasnt done up properly. Overall it was a look which was better suited to a school formal (prom, for you Yankees). Take a bow Seth Rogen, youve done alright this time around. On an end note, also pay attention to Rogens touched up beard and hair. Its amazing what a bit of grooming can do to your entire look. Read Next Bharti Airtel, GIC to subscribe half of Rs32, 000 cr rights issue The board of directors of telecom major Bharti Airtel proposes to raise up to Rs32,000 crore, through a rights issue of fully paid-up preference shares worth Rs25,000 crore at Rs220 per share and an additional Rs7,000 crore through issue of Foreign Currency Perpetual Bonds. Promoters of Bharti Airtel along with Singapore government's investment arm GIC Private Ltd will subscribe to over half of the proposed Rs32,000 crore rights issue in a bid to infuse funds in the company, which is saddled with losses. Bharti Airtel proposed to issue up to 1,133,591,075 rights equity shares of face value of Rs5 each at a price of Rs220 per share, at a premium of Rs215 per rights issue aggregating to Rs24,939 crore to eligible shareholders of the company in the ratio of 19 rights equity shares for every 67 equity shares held by the eligible equity shareholders of the company as on record date, the company stated in a draft letter of offer to shareholders. "The entire rights entitlement of promoter and promoter group of approximately Rs167,857 million (Rs16,785.7 crore) will be subscribed by them and GIC," Bharti Airtel said in a statement on Thursday. Further, the company said the promoter and promoter group will subscribe to Rs11,785.7 crore and GIC will subscribe to Rs5,000 crore by way of renouncement in their favour. Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (Singtel) said it will infuse Rs3,750 crore in Bharti Airtel by subscribing to the proposed Rs25,000 crore rights issue. Singtel announced that "it will subscribe to 170 million new shares at an issue price of Rs220 per share, for a total consideration of Rs3750 crore, representing the rights entitlement for its direct stake of 15 per cent. With this rights issue subscription, Singtel's effective interest in Airtel will be 35.2 per cent and the company will continue to be the single largest shareholder in Airtel. The rights issue reiterates the confidence of our shareholders in the competitive strength and sound business strategy of Airtel. It shall further strengthen our balance sheet with desired financial flexibility so as to meet future opportunities, particularly in the rapidly transforming Indian mobile market, Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO (India & South Asia) at Bharti Airtel, said. With a solid spectrum pool, and robust networks investment over the last three years, Airtel is well positioned to strengthen and participate decisively in the 4G data market. The fresh capital infusion will help us to continue our investments in future rollouts to build large network capacity and create content and technology partnerships to ensure the best customer experience, he added. He said the fresh capital infusion will help the company to continue investments in future rollouts to build large network capacity and create content and technology partnerships to ensure the best customer experience. Renault in talks for new alliance with Nissan and Mitsubishi French automaker Renault SA today said it is in talks with its Japanese partners Nissan and Mitsubishi Motor over a new, deeper alliance among the three companies. In response to recent press reports, Renault confirms that it is in discussions with its Alliance partners Nissan Motor Co, Ltd and Mitsubishi Motor Co., Ltd. regarding the establishment of a new Alliance body in order to enhance and ensure further collaboration, Renault said in a statement. The proposed arrangement will have no impact on the existence of the RAMA (Restated Alliance Master Agreement), and the cross-shareholding structure, which will both remain in place, added Renault. A Reuters report citing sources close to the development said the new Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi joint venture will be headed by Renaults new chairman, Jean-Dominique Senard. The new joint venture will replace Dutch-based companies currently linking Nissan and Renault and, separately, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, the report said. The heads of the partners will hold a press briefing at Nissans Yokohama headquarters on Tuesday, Nissan said. Carlos Ghosn, the sacked chairman of the current joint venture and chairman on Renault, is expected to meet the press at an opportune time, sources said. Meanwhile, a Tokyo court has rejected ousted Nissan boss Ghosns request to attend a board meeting this week. Prosecutors submitted a document to the Tokyo District Court from Nissan stating its opposition to Ghosn attending Tuesdays board meeting, Ghosns lawyer, Junichiro Hironaka, told reporters. Nissans strong opposition to Ghosns attendance is very regrettable, Hironaka said outside his law office. The defence team still had time to appeal the decision, he added, and the lawyers later duly filed an appeal, according to Kyodo News. Ghosn who faces charges of under-reporting his salary at Nissan by about $82 million over nearly a decade, is out on a $9 million bail after the court granted him bail last week after more than 100 days in detention. The Tokyo District Court on Monday declined to temporarily suspend a condition of Ghosns bail that bars him from meeting people linked to his case. The courts decision comes as Renault, Nissans top shareholder, confirmed it was in talks with Nissan Motor and Mitsubishi Motors about setting up a new alliance body to improve their collaboration. Some at Nissan had been unhappy with Ghosns push for a deeper tie-up, including possibly a full merger. Ghosn, however, remains on the boards of all three automakers, as a shareholder vote is still required to remove a board member. Tesla launches more affordable $35,000 Model 3 Tesla has launched a more affordable Model 3 with a base price of $35,000(about Rs25,00,000) in the US, with plans to deliver the vehicle across the world. Tesla said it will shut its stores in the US and other parts of the world and instead start selling its cars online. We are proud to announce the $35,000 Tesla Model 3. With 220 miles of range, a 5.6 second 060mph and over-the-air updates, Model 3 Standard Range is now available to order at $35,000 before incentives. Although lower in cost, it is built to achieve the same perfect 5-star safety rating as the longer-ranged version, which has the lowest probability of injury of any car ever tested by the US government, the company stated in a release Tesla said it is also introducing Model 3 Standard Range Plus, which will cost 6 per cent more and 9 per cent more range, more power, and an upgraded interior. Tesla said it has lowered the base price of all Model 3, Model S and Model X trims, and updated our Autopilot packages to be even more compelling. With todays updates, weve taken a significant step towards allowing everyone to buy a Tesla, and accelerating the transition to sustainable transportation, the release stated. Although Teslas electric cars are not on sale in the country currently, the new $35,000 model could change it. Priced at $35,000 (Rs 25 lakh) in the US, Tesla intends to roll out online sales in all major markets where it currently operates. This has increased the chances of the brand making its way here substantially as it no longer needs to invest heavily in setting up a dealer network in the country. Also, Tesla has assured that it will provide doorstep service for its cars throughout the world. So all that Tesla needs to do to start selling its cars here is to set up service centres in key cities from where its service executives can reach Tesla owners for an on-site service. Volkswagen fined Rs500-cr in India for cheating on emission The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday slapped a fine of Rs500 crore on German auto maker Volkswagen for using a "cheat device" in its diesel cars in India and thereby damaging the environment. The move comes years after the automaker paid billions of dollars in fines in the United States and Europe for hoodwinking regulators through the cheat device. A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel directed the carmaker to deposit the amount within two months. In fact the NGT enhanced the compensation amount of Rs171.34 crore, which was recommended by a committee appointed by the tribunal, as a means of creating deterrence. Volkswagen, however, said that it did not violate the BS-IV norms and that the test results were based on on road testings for which there were no prescribed standards. The bench maintained, Sustainable development is the main guiding factor... We are unable to accept the manufacturers objections to the report. The tribunal said the money collected through the penalty may be utilised for improving air quality in the National Capital Region and other highly polluted areas. The NGT had, on 16 November 2018, said the use of cheat device by Volkswagen in diesel cars in India caused environmental damage and had directed it to deposit an interim amount of Rs100 crore with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). It had also constituted a joint team of representatives of the CPCB, ministry of heavy industries, Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) and National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, which had recommended Rs171.34-crore fine on Volkswagen as health damages for causing air pollution in Delhi due to excess nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. The expert committee in its report has estimated that Volkswagen cars released approximately 48.678 tonnes of NOx in 2016 in the national capital. Estimated cost of heath damage due to additional NOx emissions from the Volkswagen group vehicles is approximately Rs171.34 crore using a metro city, ie, Delhi as base. The value may be considered conservative due to lack of methodologies for calculating the overall impact of nitrogen oxide on the environment in India and hence only health damages are valued. Further, the valuation is for Delhi considering that the value of NOx is 435 tonnes released in the city. This is assumed because lack of data on the geographical locations and plying regions of Volkswagen vehicles which have caused the damage and for all the years which have been considered for damage, the committee has said in its report. The panel was formed by the NGT on November 16 last year to give its opinion whether the manufacturer has exceeded the prescribed environmental norms and fair estimate of the damage caused to the environment. The committee has told the NGT that automobiles are a major source of nitrogen oxide. The green panel had said the use of cheat device by Volkswagen in diesel cars in India could lead to environmental damage and asked the German carmaker to deposit an interim amount of Rs100 crore with the Central Pollution Control Board. The tribunal was hearing pleas filed by Ailawadi, a school teacher, and a few others seeking ban on the sale of Volkswagen vehicles for alleged violation of emission norms. A cheat or defeat device is a software in diesel engines to manipulate emission tests by changing the performance of the cars globally. Volkswagen had in December 2015 announced the recall of 3,23,700 lakh vehicles in India to fix the emission software after ARAI conducted tests on some models and found that their on-road emissions were 1.1 times to 2.6 times higher than the applicable BS-IV norms. After the tests by ARAI, Volkswagen India had undertaken a rejig of the software by recalling around 3.23 lakh vehicles fitted with EA 189 diesel engines which were in alleged violation of emission norms. The automobile giant had admitted to the use of defeat device in 11 million diesel engine cars sold in the US, Europe and other global markets to manipulate emission test results. He is being interrogated by a joint team of security agencies for his alleged links with Pakistani intelligence agency ISI. Acting on credible intelligence inputs, Nawab Khan, a resident of Sam area, was detained on Sunday on suspicion of being involved in espionage activities, the official said. (Photo: Representational Image) Jaipur: A man has been detained on suspicion of espionage activities near the International Border between India and Pakistan in Rajasthan's Jaisalmer district, a top official said Monday. Acting on credible intelligence inputs, Nawab Khan, a resident of Sam area, was detained on Sunday on suspicion of being involved in espionage activities, the official said. Khan works as a jeep driver, he added. He is being interrogated by a joint team of security agencies for his alleged links with Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, the official said. Further action will be taken following the detailed interrogation, he said. Indo-Russian JV in Amethi to manufacture AK-203 assault rifles Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday dedicated to the nation Indo-Russian Rifles Pvt Ltd, a joint venture for the production of the AK-203 Kalashnikov assault rifles, in Kauhar, in Amethi district of Uttar Pradesh. He also laid the foundation stone and dedicated various development projects in Amethi. In his special message on the occasion, which was read out by defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, the new joint venture will manufacture world famous Kalashnikov assault rifles of the newest 200 series and eventually will reach full localization of production. Thus, the Indian defence-industrial sector will have the opportunity to fulfill the needs of national security agencies in this category of small arms, resting upon advanced Russian technologies. Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister thanked President Putin for this partnership. He said lakhs of rifles will be made from this facility in Amethi, and will strengthen our security forces. He also said that this development has been long delayed. He said that this delay in the production of modern rifles for our soldiers, actually amounts to an injustice to the jawans. He recalled that despite projecting a requirement for bullet-proof jackets in 2009, no such jackets were procured till 2014. This requirement has now been fulfilled, he added. He said that earlier, such delays had also been happening in procurement of other important armaments. In this context, he also mentioned the Rafale fighter planes, and said these will start joining the Air Force within a few months, as a result of the efforts of the union government. He also mentioned other development projects in Amethi, which were facing various bottlenecks in operationalization. He said those bottlenecks were being removed, so that the projects could be operationalized, so that employment is provided to people. He said the implementation of schemes such as PM Awas Yojana, Ujjwala Yojana, Saubhagya Yojana and construction of toilets, in Amethi, is now bringing ease of living to the people. The prime minister said the government is empowering the poor, and helping them come out of poverty. Similarly, he said, the farmers are being empowered. In this context, he mentioned the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi. He said this scheme will ensure that Rs7,50,000 crore reach farmers over the next ten years. JeM has backing of Pakistani intelligence, says Musharraf Pakistani terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JM) has been actively supported by the state intelligence organisation Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) and was instrumental in carrying out attacks on Indian soil, former Pakistan president General Pervez Musharraf has said. The former president also acknowledged that all earlier terrorist attacks on India, including those during his tenure as head of state, had the backing of Pakistani intelligence agency. In a telephonic interview with Pakistan-based journalist Nadeem Malik, Musharraf welcomed the action being taken against Jaish-e-Mohammad, which, he said, had even carried out two assassination attempts on him. A 2-minute clip of the interview was put out on Twitter on Maliks handle on 5 March. Musharraf also said suicide bomber had attempted to assassinate him in December 2003 at Jhanda Chichi. He said that it was mere fortune that he wasnt killed in the attempt. The attacker pressed the button a few seconds too late and I had crossed the bridge by that time, Musharraf said, adding that the action against the JeM was a right action and that it should have been done earlier. Responding to a question as to why he himself had not taken any action against the Jaish leadership and the organisation when he was in power, Musharraf suggested that Pakistans intelligence agencies were using the Jaish to carry out bombings in India. Those were different times. Our intelligence men were involved in a tit-for-tat between India and Pakistan. They were conducting bomb blasts in Pakistan and we were getting it done there (in India). This was continuing at that time and amid all of this, no major action was taken against the Jaish. And I also did not insist, Musharraf said. Nearly 10 days after the IAF action against JeM terror camp at Balakot, the Imran Khan-led Pakistan government ordered detention of terrorist Masood Azhars brother Abdul Rauf Asghar and 43 others linked to banned outfits in the country, following pressure from countries worldwide. The order for their detention was issued on Tuesday after a high-level meeting to review the National Action Plan (NAP). Pakistan is also facing action by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which is nudging it to stop terror funding and to act against the terror organisations operating on its soil. A failure to abide by the FATF demands would see Pakistan moved from the grey list to the black list, making it even more difficult for the country to get funding from international organisations. JeM chief Masood Azhar Alvi, however, remains defiant. Hours after Pakistan announced the arrest of key Jaish-e-Mohammed leaders, Azhar issued a message warning the country against efforts to rein in the jihadist group. The speech was released on Jaish-encrypted chat platforms early in the evening of 6 March. Fear god, Azhar said in the speech. And stop persecuting the mosques, madrassas and mujahideen. Remember, that when a Muslim flees the battle against the hypocrites, the wrath of Allah is upon him. Fear not only the world community; fear God too. God can protect you from the world community, but it cannot protect you from god, he goes on. Large parts of Azhars speech are devoted to mocking India and chiding Pakistans politicians for cracking down on the Jaish. In a mockery of Indias action against the terrorist that killed 40 of its security personnel, Azhar spoke of his captive days when he said he and his follower were tortured for many days. When we were beaten, he said. We would try to suppress our screams. Then, one experienced prisoner told us we were making a mistake by doing this: if we screamed loudly, he said, the jailors would often ease up, fearful of killing you. Ill share a story: we had a comrade with a particularly loud voice. As soon as a laathi fell near him, he let out such a shriek that the jailor ran away. Today, Azhar said. This formula has been adopted by India: it is getting thrashed, but screaming so loudly that our leaders have started quaking. India stops its share of river water flowing to Pakistan Amidst rising tension between India and Pakistan following the killing of 40 CRPF Jawans by Pakistan-backed Jaish-e-Muhammad terrorists in Kashmirs Pulwama district, India has stopped its share of water from three eastern rivers from flowing to Pakistan. Speaking to reporters in Rajasthans Bikaner on Sunday, union minister of state for water resources, Arjun Mehghwal, said that 0.53 million acre-feet of eastern rivers, which was flowing into Pakistan, have been stopped. 0.53 million acre-feet water has been stopped from going to Pakistan and has been stored. Whenever Rajasthan or Punjab needs it, that water can be used for drinking and irrigation purposes, the minister said. India is entitled to use water from the three rivers - Sutlej, Ravi and Beas - under the Indus water treaty of 1960 and the present action does not amount to any breach of pact. The tour of the Pakistani side was originally scheduled in October 2018 but was postponed because of local bodies elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Subsequently, the Pakistani team visited India in the last week of January to inspect projects in the Chenab basin in the state. Pakistan, meanwhile, said it has neither concern nor objection to Indias diversion of Indus water. India also deferred a planned visit by a team to river projects being implemented by Pakistan. During the 115th meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission held in Lahore from August 29-30, 2018, both the commissioners had agreed to undertake the treaty-mandated tours of the Indus basin on both sides, reports citing government officials said. The tour of the Pakistani side was originally scheduled in October 2018 but was postponed because of local body elections in Jammu and Kashmir. The Pakistani team visited India in the last week of January to inspect projects in the Chenab basin in the state. Pakistani Indus Commissioner Syed Mohammad Mehar Ali Shah and Indian Commissioner PK Saxena along with respective advisers visited the under-construction Indian hydropower projects in Chenab basin namely Pakal Dul (1000 MW), Ratle (850 MW) and Lower Kalnai (48 MW). The delegation also visited the under-operation Baglihar hydro electric project (900 MW). The Pakistani commissioner extended an invitation to his counterpart to undertake a visit of the Indus basin on Pakistani side. The Indian team was supposed to visit Pakistan this month, a senior official said. But amid the ongoing tension it has now been postponed, the official added. The official remained non-committal about the date, but said the visit has to take place by March 2020. SC leaves decision on Ayodhya dispute to FMI Kalifulla-led panel The Supreme Court, after years of hearing, today left a decision on the Ayodhya land title case to a three-member mediation panel headed by retired Justice FM Ibrahim Kaifulla with spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar and senior advocate Sriram Pachu as the other two members. The mediation panel has been asked to submit its report within eight weeks. In its order, the SC bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi said that the panel should submit its progress report within the first four weeks. The other judges on the five-judge constitution bench included justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and SA Nazeer. The matter pertains to the title of the disputed 2.77-acre plot, which the Allahabad High Court had divided into three equal parts to be awarded among the three parties - Nirmohi Akhara, Ram Lalla Virajman and Sunni Waqf Board. While the Hindu parties, except Nirmohi Akhara, opposed the idea of mediation, the Muslim parties have welcomed the decision. The panel has been given powers to co-opt more members on the panel if necessary. Uttar Pradesh government has been directed to provide mediators all the facilities in Faizabad. Mediators can seek further legal assistance as and when required CJI Ranjan Gogoi said that the proceedings of the "court-monitored mediation will be confidential." The SC also banned the reporting of mediation proceedings in media Commenting on his appointment as the head of the panel, Justice (Retd) FM Ibrahim Kalifullah said, "I understand SC has appointed a mediation committee headed by me. I'm yet to received order copy. I can say if the committee has been constituted we'll take every effort to resolve the issue amicably." "I just heard of this news, I think this will be good for the country, mediation is the only way," said Sri Sri Ravishankar. Lok Sabha polls between 11 April and 19 May, results on 23 May Voting in the general elections 2019 for election of members to the 17th Lok Sabha will be held in 7 phases between 11 April and 19 May and the counting of votes for all seven phases would be done on 23 May, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora announced on Sunday. With the announcement of the general elections, the Model Code of Conduct has also come into effect across the country. Assembly elections for Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim will also be held along with the general elections. (Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will not to be held along with the Lok Sabha polls). The poll panel did not announce the dates for assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. The first phase of the elections on 11 April will cover 91 constituencies across 20 states. In the second phase, 97 constituencies across 13 states will cast their votes on 18 April. The third phase on 23 April will cover 115 constituencies in 14 states, followed by polling for 71 seats in nine states on 29 April and the fifth phase when electorate in 51 constituencies in seven states vote on 6 May. The sixth phase of voting for 59 seats will take place on 12 May and the seventh phase of voting for 59 seats across eight states on 19 May. The Chief Election Commissioner announced the dates at a press conference in New Delhi. The tenure of the current Lok Sabha ends on 3 June while the 5-year term of the Narendra Modi government expires on 26 May. As many as 900 million voters are eligible to participate in the elections. There will be around 1 million polling stations across the country, compared to 9 lakh in 2014. Voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) will be used for all electronic voting machines. Voters will elect 543 members to the Lower House of Parliament, the Lok Sabha and the party or coalition of parties with the support of a minimum of 272 members will form government at the centre. In the previous elections in 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party had emerged victorious with 282 seats managing to secure a majority on its own. After defections, resignations and demises, the Lok Sabha now has 522 members, with 268 from the BJP. 1950 is the voter helpline number to check name and election-related information. In order to curb noise pollution, usage of loud speakers is prohibited between 10 pm and 6 am. Candidates will be required to furnish details of their social media accounts All critical events will be videographed and VVPATs will be used with EVMs at all polling stations. Lok Sabha Polls 2019: Highlights Phase one polling (11 April) - 20 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Andaman & Nicobar, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, Lakshadweep, Delhi, Puducherry, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand Phase two polling (18 April) - Karnataka, Manipur, Rajasthan, Tripura. Phase three polling (23 April) - Assam, Chhattisgarh. Phase four polling (29 April) - Jharkhand, MP, Maharashtra, Odisha. Phase five polling (6 May) - Jammu & Kashmir. Phase six polling (12 May) - Phase seven polling (19 May) - Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal. Constituency-wise polling Phase 1 in 91 constituencies in 20 states Phase 2 in 97 constituencies in 13 states Phase 3 in 115 constituencies in 14 states Phase 4 in 71 constituencies in 9 states Phase 5 in 51 constituencies in 7 states Phase 6 in 59 constituencies in 7 states Phase 7 in 59 constituencies in 8 states Election results to be announced on 23 May Cabinet allows ministerial panel to decide on price, timing of CPSE sale The Union Cabinet on Thursday decided to authorise the finance minister-led alternative mechanism (AM) to take a call on strategic disinvestments, announced measures to promote power generation, and declared an interest subsidy of up to Rs3,355 crore on loans taken by sugar mills to boost ethanol production. Addressing the media after the cabinet meeting, finance minister Arun Jaitley said the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has empowered the AM to decide on the on price and timing of sale of stake in central public sector enterprises. The ministers panel was set up in 2017 to look into the strategic sale of central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) to decide on quantum of shares to be transacted, the mode of sale and the final pricing of the transaction, or lay down guidelines for such pricing, the selection of strategic partner or buyer, and the terms and conditions of sale. The AM, which will comprise Jaitley, road transport minister Nitin Gadkari and the minister representing the administrative department concerned, can now decide on the quantum of shares to be transacted, the mode of sale and the final pricing of the transaction. It can also lay down the principles or guidelines for such pricing and the selection of a strategic partner or buyer, Jaitley said. So far, the AM has decided only on the terms and conditions of the CPSE sale from the stage of inviting of expressions of interest (EoIs) till inviting of financial bid. The cabinet also cleared a proposal to give interest subvention of up to Rs3,355 crore to the sugar industry for increasing production of ethanol for the fuel blending programme. The subsidy will be given on the Rs12,900-crore bank loans given to sugar mills for augmenting ethanol production, as well as on the Rs2,600 crore to be given to molasses-based standalone distilleries. Additionally, the cabinet gave its nod to a slew of measures to promote hydro and thermal power production in the country. It decided to declare hydropower projects as renewable energy projects and announced steps to facilitate the availability of coal to thermal projects with shorter term power purchase agreements. It also made it mandatory for Discoms delaying payments to pay a late-payment surcharge. Apart from clearing the Rs30,849-crore Phase-3A of Mumbai Urban Transport project, the cabinet gave its nod to Delhi Metros 62-km-long Phase-4 as well as to a plan to revive under-used air strips in different parts of the country. Indore gets 'cleanest city' tag for third year in a row Indore has been adjudged Indias cleanest city for the third straight year in the central governments cleanliness survey. President Ram Nath Kovind conferred the Swachh Survekshan awards 2019 at a ceremony in New Delhi today. New Delhi Municipal Council area was given the Cleanest Small City award, while Uttarakhands Gauchar was adjudged the Best Ganga Town in the annual survey conducted by the union ministry of housing and urban affairs. Congratulating Indore, union minister for housing and urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted, Absolutely Brilliant! Indore is Indias Cleanest City for 3rd year running. My heartiest congratulations to the Swachhagrahis of Indore for their unmatched dedication & participation in transforming Swachh Bharat into a Jan Andolan. Speaking at the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2019 function, President Ram Nath Kovind said India has made remarkable progress towards achieving the goals of rural and urban sanitation. Today, a city or village is identified by its emphasis on cleanliness. This is an important change. By winning the first prize in all the four surveys so far, Indore has set an example for other urban centres, he said. The President said cleanliness should be integral to the behaviour of every citizen to make it effective and sustainable. Many people pay attention to personal hygiene but remain apathetic to public and community cleanliness. Change in this mentality is important for achieving the goals of Swachh Bharat. He urged educational institutions to include cleanliness in their curriculum and spread awareness about the importance of sanitation. Meanwhile, the National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey (NARSS) 2018-19, conducted by an Independent Verification Agency (IVA) under the World Bank support project to the Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen (SBM-G), has found that 96.5 per cent of the households in rural India who have access to a toilet use it. The NARSS also re-confirmed the Open Defecation Free (ODF) status of 90.7 per cent of villages which were previously declared and verified as ODF by various districts/states. The survey was conducted between November 2018 and February 2019 and covered 92,040 households in 6,136 villages across states and UTs of India. Trump trains sights on ''high-tariff'' India US President Donald Trump on Saturday alleged that continues to be a very high-tariff nation and that he is thinking of some kind of a reciprocal tax to lessen its impact on US goods and services. India is a very high-tariff nation. They charge us a lot, Trump said in his address to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in the Maryland suburb of Washington DC. Trump touched upon a range of issues, including domestic, global and bilateral relationship with countries like India, including his pet subject of Indias high tariffs on Harley-Davidson motorcycles. When we send a motorcycle to India, its a hundred per cent tariff. They charge 100 per cent when India sends a motorcycle to us, we brilliantly charge them nothing, he mentioned during his speech that lasted for more than two hours. So, I want a reciprocal tax or at least, I want to charge a tax. Its called the mirror tax, but its reciprocal, Trump asserted. It may be noted that at a White House event to announce his support for reciprocal tax, early this year, Trump had said he was satisfied with the Indian decision to reduce the import tariff on Harley-Davidson motorcycles from 100 per cent to 50 per cent. Even this is not enough, this is okay, he had said. Look at motorcycles as an example. (In) India, it was 100 per cent. I got them down to 50 per cent, just by talking for about two minutes. Its still 50 per cent vs 2.4 per cent (on imported motorcycles to the US). Again, other than that, its a very fair deal, the president had told reporters at the White House on January 24. Trump was using the Indian example to highlight how other countries were imposing high taxes on American products and now it was time for the US to impose a reciprocal tax. But India is a very high-tariff nation. And they charge tremendously. So they charge a hundred. So I say, Im not going to charge you a hundred, but Im going to charge 25 per cent, and I hear this turmoil in the Senate because we are charging 25 per cent, he said. Trump told his supporters that there was resistance to his move from the Senate. I say, fellows, listen, they are charging us a hundred per cent. For the exact same product, I want to charge them 25 per cent. I feel so foolish charging 25, because it should be a hundred. But Im doing 25 only because of you. I want to get your support, he said. Thereafter, Trump mimicked the response from the lawmakers. Sir, thats not free trade. Where did these people come from? Where do they come from? I need your help, I need your help, the voters help. Where do they come from?, he said. Trump said the US could not allow a country to charge it 100 per cent while it got nothing for the exact same product. For one thing, they dont respect us. They think were stupid. They dont respect us. But let me tell you something, the world respects our country again, he said. America is now booming like never before. Other countries are doing very poorly, Trump said. India says GSP withdrawal by US won't hit exports The US decision to withdraw duty benefits on Indian products under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) programme will not have a significant impact on exports to America, reports citing official sources said. The United States today gave a 60-day withdrawal notice to India on the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) benefits extended by it. India exports goods worth $5.6 billion under the GSP, and the duty benefit under the preferential system is only $190 million annually, according to commerce secretary Anup Wadhawan. India mainly exports raw materials and intermediate goods such as organic chemicals to the US, he said, adding, "GSP withdrawal will not have a significant impact on India's exports to the US." The US had initiated the review on the GSP scheme following representations by the US medical devices and dairy industries, but subsequently included numerous other issues on a self-initiated basis. These include issues related to market access for various agriculture and animal husbandry products, relaxation / easing of procedures related to issues like telecom testing / conformity assessment and tariff reduction on ICT products. The commerce ministry said the Department of Commerce has been engaging various government departments concerned with these issues, and was able to offer a very meaningful way forward on almost all the US requests. However, in a few instances, specific US requests were not found reasonable and doable at this time by the departments concerned, in light of public welfare in relation to India's developing country status and in its national interest, it added. On the issue of medical devises, India had offered to put in place suitable trade margin within a reasonable time frame to address US concerns regarding profitability of its medical devices exports. This has been proposed taking into consideration concerns about fair pricing for the consumers and adequate remuneration for the suppliers. On the issue of dairy market access, India has clarified that the certification requirement, that the source animal had never been fed animal derived blood meal is non-negotiable given the cultural and religious sentiment, the requested simplified dairy certification procedure, without diluting this requirement, could be considered. Acceptability of US market access requests related to products like alfalfa hay, cherries and pork was conveyed. On reduction of IT duties, India had pointed out that its duties are moderate and not import obstructing. Any MFN duty reduction would almost entirely benefit third countries. Accordingly, India conveyed willingness to extend duty concessions on specific items in which there is a clear US interest. On telecom testing, India was willing to consider discussions for a Mutual Recognition Agreement. Due to various initiatives resulting in enhanced purchase of US goods like oil and natural gas and coal the US trade deficit with India has substantially reduced in calendar years 2017 and 2018. The reduction is estimated to be over $4 billion in 2018, with further reduction expected in future years on account of factors like the growing demand for energy and civilian aircrafts in India. This reduction has happened in the face of a rising overall US trade deficit, including with some other major economies. India is also a thriving market for US services and e-commerce companies like Amazon, Uber, Google and Facebook with billions of dollars of revenue, the commerce department pointed out. The issue of Indian tariffs being high has been raised from time to time. It is pertinent to note that Indias tariffs are within its bound rates under WTO commitments, and are on the average well below these bound rates. Indias trade weighted average tariff is 7.6 per cent, which is comparable with the most open developing economies, and some developed economies. On developmental considerations there may be a few tariff peaks, which is true for almost all economies, it added. Further, it said, India was agreeable to a very meaningful mutually acceptable package on the above lines to be agreed to at this time, while keeping remaining issues under discussion in the future. US, China move closer to trade deal: report The United States and China are expected to soon finalise a deal that would roll back US tariffs on at least $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, provided Beijing abides by its pledges, including better protection of intellectual property rights and better market access foe American goods. The deal is subject to Beijing following up with proposed structural economic changes and elimination of retaliatory tariffs on US goods, reports citing sources close to the negotiations said on Sunday. If the current progress of the negotiations are any indication, President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could seal a formal trade deal at a summit around 27 March, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. A deal could end an eight-month trade war that saw the United States imposing punitive tariffs on $250 billion worth of imports from China and Beijing hitting back with tariffs on $110 billion worth of US goods, mostly agricultural commodities. The trade friction brought volatility in commodity and stock markets across the world and disrupted global supply chains for manufactured products. Although no dates for a deal are not yet finalised, President Trump had on an earlier occasion said he expected to close a deal during a summit with his Chinese counterpart at his Mara-a-Lago estate in Florida in the coming weeks. Reports also said that Beijing had reserved a 10-day window from around March 20 for a possible summit. Several details, however, are yet to be worked out, including the terms of an enforcement mechanism to ensure that Beijing follows through on pledges on IPR, forced transfer of technology and curb industrial subsidies. China is reported to have agreed on most non-enforceable issues like pledges to increase purchases of farm, energy and manufactured products, as well as six agreements on structural policy changes. China would lower tariffs on US-made goods, including agricultural products, chemicals and cars in a quid-pro-quid basis, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people briefed on the matter on both sides. As a part of the deal, China would buy $18 billion worth of natural gas from Houston-based Cheniere Energy Inc, the report said. The newspapers sources cautioned that hurdles remain, and each side faces possible resistance at home that the terms are too favorable to the other side. The US is working on a detailed trade agreement with China that will include specific structural commitments, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC on Thursday. Singh has cited age and health concerns for not contesting polls. This is not the first time when the two-time prime minister has been offered the Amritsar constituency, in 2009 general elections Singh refused to contest. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh is not willing to contest Lok Sabha polls from Amritsar, sources said. Despite a request from Congress, Singh, who has a massive fan following in Punjab has cited age and health concerns for not contesting polls. Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, state party chief Sunil Jakhar and general secretary in-charge of Punjab affairs Asha Kumari made a fervent request to Manmohan Singh, at his residence in New Delhi on Sunday at 5 pm. According to sources, while urging Singh, the Congress delegation told him that he would just need to come to Amritsar to fill all nomination papers and the CM Captain Amarinder Singh would personally look after his campaign. However, the 86-year-old has not responded with alacrity to the request. This is not the first time when the two-time prime minister has been offered the Amritsar constituency, in 2009 general elections Singh refused to contest from Amritsar (home to the holiest Sikh shrine Golden Temple) on the health grounds. Manmohan Singh is a Rajya Sabha MP from Assam and would finish his term in June this year. According to sources the party does not want him to retire. Punjab screening committee is likely to delay the release of names of candidates and may put it up in April. The elections in Punjab is scheduled for May 19. Congress workers are optimistic about Singh's nod since he had a lot of time to think about his decision. Chanda Kochhar denies any knowledge of husband Deepak's business dealings Chanda Kochhar, former MD and CEO of ICICI Bank, has stuck to her earlier stand of distancing herself from husband Deepak Kochhars business dealings. In the third round of questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at its Mumbai office on Monday, she yet again denied having any knowledge of loans allegedly routed to her husbands company NuPower Renewables in alleged dealings by Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot. The ousted ICICI Bank CEO has maintained her statement during questioning by both the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA). This is the third consecutive day that the Kochhars were summoned by the ED following raids on February 28. Besides Chanda, the ED also called Nishant Kanodia, son-in-law of Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia, for a second round of questioning on Monday. Following the interrogation, Chanda left the ED office at 10 pm. Nishant Kanodia was questioned from Sunday afternoon until 6 am on Monday. He was called again at 1 pm on Monday. The Enforcement Directorate was looking at the source of the funding received by Deepak Kochhar from Kanodias Mauritius-based company, a Moneycontrol report quoted a source close to development as saying. In 2010, NuPower received Rs325 crore from Firstland Holdings, a Mauritius-based firm owned by Kanodia. The deal is under the scanner as ICICI Bank had granted loans to Essar Steel Minnesota LLC worth $530 million in 2010. According to Moneycontrol, the ED questioned Deepak, Mahesh Pungalia and Dhoot in pairs to get a clear picture of the investments in NuPower Renewables by Videocon Group. The ED searched the residences and offices of the Kochhars and Dhoot over the alleged quid pro quo arrangement over loans sanctioned to Videocon Group when Chanda was at the helm of ICICI Bank. New Provident Fund rule makes special allowances part of basic salary The Supreme Court ruled has ruled that employers must consider special allowances paid to the employees as a part of the "basic wage" for deduction towards provident fund. As per the new provident fund rules, both employer and the employee pay 12 per cent of basic wages each towards contribution to EPF. The top court had rules that special allowance is part of the basic wages for computing the employees provident fund (EPF). The Supreme Court decision came when it was dealing with a question on whether special allowances paid by an establishment to its employees would fall within the expression "basic wages" under the provision of the Employees' Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 for computation of deduction towards provident fund, news agency. Accordingly, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will take stringent action against firms not factoring special allowance for EPF computation Both employer and the employee pay 12 per cent of basic wages each towards contribution to EPF. "Following the judgement, the EPFO will take stringent action against firms which would not factor in special allowance for computation of EPF contributions. The body is studying the judgement and would soon come out with a detailed plan to implement the judgement," PTI quoted a source privy to the development as saying. "The case of artificially lowering basic wages which become the basis for computation of EPF contributions," the EPFO stated in the apex court. Thus, it is imperative for the body to implement this in letter and spirit," it added. EPFO trustee Virjesh Upadhyay, who is also general secretary of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) said, "We welcome the apex court decision. This is a long pending issue. In fact the EPFO's apex decision making body Central Board of Trustees had constituted a committee to give a detailed report and suggestions to deal with splitting of wages by employers for reducing EPF liability." "The committee had given its recommendation to deal with the issue. But in the meantime, the matter went to court and recommendations given by the panel to include various allowance into basic wage could not be implemented," he further said, EPFO had found in a survey earlier that scores of employers were splitting their employees pay packages into numerous allowances to reduce their EPF liability. For employees with monthly pay of less than Rs15,000, however, inclusion of all allowances in wages for PF calculation would result in a lower take-home salary. Monthly pay comprises basic wages, dearness allowance, cash value of food concession and retaining allowance, if any. Govt doubles income tax exemption limit for gratuity to Rs20 lakh The government has doubled the income-tax exemption limit for payment of gratuity to Rs20 lakh from existing Rs10 lakh, offering a big relief to retired employees, especially in the private sector with no worthwhile pension benefits. The ministry of finance today announced the enhancement the income tax exemption limit for gratuity under section 10 (10) (iii) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 to Rs 20 lakh. Minister of state for labour and employment Santosh Kumar Gangewar expressed the hope that this would benefit those employees of PSUs and other employees not covered by Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 and thanked the finance minister for enhancing the exemption limit. The ceiling of gratuity amount under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 has been raised from time to time keeping in view over-all economic condition and employers capacity to pay and the salaries of the employees, which have been increased in private sector and in PSUs. The latest enhancement of ceiling of gratuity follows a government notification dated 29 March 2018 under which the gratuity amount ceiling has been increased from Rs10 lakh to Rs20 lakh, with effect from 29 March 2018. Gratuity Act applies to all employees working in an organisation that employs 10 or more employees during a year. The move will benefit lakhs of salaried employees, who are now retiring as well as those who retired over the last 12 months. NABL launches quality assurance scheme for small medical labs The National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL), a constituent board of Quality Council of India, has launched a voluntary Quality Assurance Scheme (QAS) for entry-level basic composite medical laboratories, The second such initiative by NABL, the new scheme aims at sensitising small medical laboratories to basic doable quality practices. The laboratories performing only basic routine tests like blood glucose, blood counts, rapid tests for common infections, liver and kidney function tests and routine tests of urine will be eligible to apply under this scheme. The ministry of health and family welfare (MOHFW) had through a Gazette notification on 18 May 2018, amended the Clinical Establishments (Central Government) Rules, 2012 with a view to encourage small pathology laboratories to follow quality norms. The scheme requires minimal documentation and a nominal fee has been prescribed for availing the scheme. Components of competence assessment have been added for assuring quality and validity of test results. The scheme will help to bring quality at the grass roots level of Indias health system where laboratories follow the imperatives of quality in all their processes. This will inculcate the habit of quality and facilitate the laboratories to achieve benchmark accreditation of ISO 15189 over a period of time. The laboratories may upgrade to accreditation as per ISO 15189 at any point of time. Successful laboratories will be issued a certificate of compliance to QAS BC scheme by NABL and they will be allowed to use a distinct symbol on the test reports as a mark of endorsement to the basic standard for a defined time frame before which they will have to transition to full accreditation as per ISO 15189. To familiarise and encourage more and more small labs, even in the remotest part of the country, to avail the scheme, NABL will organise awareness programmes in various cities of India. The scheme is expected to bring transformational change in more than 5,000 laboratories over the next 5 years and to transform them into labs providing quality service. Through this scheme, patients availing services of small labs in primary health centers, community health centers, doctors clinic, standalone small labs, labs in small nursing homes will also have access to quality lab results. State governments are being encouraged to adopt this entry level scheme for registering labs as establishments under Clinical Establishment Act. So far, the Act has been implemented in 11 states and all union territories. This will help organize the sector of diagnostics in these states. This scheme will also give a much needed support to Ayushmaan Bharat Yojana of Government of India. Under this Yojana, the government plans to set up 1,50,000 wellness centers which will cover over 100 million poor and vulnerable families. This entry level scheme of NABL will, enhance the intent of Ayushmaan Bharat Yojana of universal access to quality healthcare for majority of citizens especially those residing in villages and small towns by providing them access to quality diagnostics. Small laboratories who wish to achieve quality through QAS BC scheme may apply to NABL in application document NABL 155 available on NABL Website www.nabl-india.org, the ministry release added. NABL has also launched the Recognition of Sample Collection Centers of Medical Testing Laboratories last year. The objective is to assess all declared Sample Collection Centers and Facilities (SFCs) of Medical Testing laboratories. This will ensure end-to-end sample integrity leading to reliable test results and help laboratories to gain patients trust and satisfaction. The scheme has proved to be a success and about 1,300 SCFs have been recognized by NABL since the launch of this scheme. Accurate, reliable pathology laboratory results are critical aids which enable doctors to provide evidence-based patient care and treatment. Single card for seamless travel through different metros launched Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched a `One Nation, One Card to facilitate common transport mobility across various metros and other transport facilities across the nation. The `National Common Mobility card, Indias first, was launched at a function to launch Phase One of Ahmedabad metro on Monday. The automatic fare collection system based on One Nation One Card model, or National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) is the first of its kind in India. Indias first indigenously developed payment system for transport consisting of NCMC card, SWEEKAR (Swachalit Kiraya: Automatic Fare Collection System) and SWAGAT (Swachalit Gate) is based on NCMC Standards. These are bank issued Debit/Credit/Prepaid cards and the customer may use this single card for payments across all segments, including metro, bus, suburban railways, toll, parking, smart city and retail. The stored value on card supports offline transaction across all travel needs with minimal financial risk to involved stakeholders. The service area feature of this card supports operator specific applications like monthly passes, season tickets etc. The National Common Mobility Card (NCMC), which enables seamless travel by different metros and other transport systems across the country besides retail shopping and purchases, is an initiative of the ministry of housing and urban affairs. The card will address the challenges associated with the cash payment, eg, cash handling, revenue leakages, cash reconciliation etc. Various initiatives have been taken by transit operators to automate and digitise the fare collection using Automatic Fare Collection System (AFC). The introduction of closed loop cards issued by these operators helped to digitise the fare collection to a significant extent. However, the restricted usability of these payment instruments limits the digital adoption by customers. The customers need not carry multiple cards for different usage. Further, the super quick contactless transactions will improve the seamless experience. This will also help in higher digital payments penetration, savings on closed loop card lifecycle management cost and reduced operating cost. The rich data insights may be used by operators for business intelligence leading to efficient operation, an official release stated. Saudi oil minister calls on Indian counterpart, pushes JV plans Saudi oil Khalid A Al-Falih called on Indias minister of petroleum and natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan for a second time in less than three weeks, as part of Saudi Arabias increased engagement with oil consuming nations. Minister of energy, industry and mineral resources of Saudi Arabia and chairman of Saudi Aramco, Khalid A Al-Falih, on Saturday met minister of petroleum and natural gas and skill development and entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan in New Delhi on Saturday. This is the second visit of Saudi oil minister to India in less than three weeks. Al-Falih was in India to attend the wedding of richest Indian Mukesh Ambanis son Akash. Al-Falih last visited India on 20 February as part of the high-level delegation that travelled with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for a bilateral visit. The meeting is a follow-up to the first state visit of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, deputy prime minister and minister of defence of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in February this year. This visit also reflects the intensifying engagement between the two countries in the hydrocarbon sector. Saudi Arabia is the second largest supplier of crude and LPG to India. In 2017-18, Indias crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia were 36.8 MMT, accounting for 16.7 per cent of our total imports. During the meeting, Pradhan referred to Saudi Arabias pre-eminent role as a leading producer of crude oil in the world, and in maintaining global oil market balance. He raised concerns about increasing trend in global crude oil prices. He also pointed to the need for uninterrupted supplies of crude oil and LPG to India in view of the Opec+ cuts. Both ministers also discussed the possible adverse impact of recent geopolitical developments on global oil market. The ministers also reviewed various Saudi investment proposals in the Indian oil and gas sector, including the urgent steps to be taken to expedite the implementation of the first joint venture West Coast Refinery and Petrochemical Project in Maharashtra, estimated to cost $44 billion, which will be the largest greenfield refinery in the world. Saudi Arabias participation in Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) Program was also discussed. Both the ministers agreed to take concrete steps for early implementation of the decisions taken in the oil and gas sector during the visit of the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to India last month. The Saudi oil minister, after his earlier visit to the Ambanis in December 2018, had tweeted that the worlds largest oil exporter Saudi Arabia and Ambani-run Reliance Industries are discussing joint investments in petrochemicals, refinery and communications projects. And, during a 20 February visit, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Al-Nasser had spoken about talks with Reliance for investments in refinery and petrochemical projects. Reliance operates two refineries at Jamnagar with a total capacity of 68.2 million tonnes per annum. Reliance plans to expand its only-for-exports SEZ refining capacity to just over 41 million tonnes from the current 35.2 million tonnes but does not have any plans to set up a new refinery in the country. Reliance is currently focused on expanding its petrochemicals and telecom business. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, is looking for a foothold in the worlds fastest-growing market for oil, which would ensure the company a captive market for its crude oil it produces. Saudi Aramco, the worlds biggest oil company, and its partner Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) plan to jointly pick up 50 per cent stake in a $44-billion refinery planned to be set up in Maharashtra but the project is facing problems in land acquisition. Aramco and ADNOC will together hold 50 per cent stake in the 60 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) refinery and adjacent 18 MTPA petrochemical complex planned to be built at Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra by 2025. The two will also supply half of the crude oil required for processing at the refinery. India has a refining capacity of 247.6 million tonnes, which exceeds the demand of 206.2 million tonnes. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), this demand is expected to reach 458 million tonnes by 2040. Merck offers to buy electronic materials maker Versum for $5.9 bn German pharma giant Merck KGaA has offered to buy electronic materials maker Versum Materials for $5.9 billion, including debt, in a cash deal that tops an offer from US rival Entegris. Merck said it planned to buy Versum for $48 per share - or $5.2 billion excluding debt at a premium of 16 per cent to Tuesdays closing price and a 52 per cent above the share price before Entegris offer. Entegris announced a $4 billion all-stock deal in January, saying it wanted to create a big chemical supplier to the semiconductor market. Versum said in a statement on Wednesday that it continues to believe in the strategic and financial rationale of the proposed merger of equals with Entegris, but its advisers will also thoroughly review the Merck proposal. Entegris combination with Versum is highly complementary and strategically compelling, Entegris chief executive Bertrand Loy said in a statement. Merck is building a high-tech chemicals division, called Performance Materials that caters to the electronics industry and will complement its shrinking liquid crystals business. The liquid crystals business had operating income margins of 40-50 per cent but is now under pressure from Chinese rivals Merck has said Performance Materials would return to growth in 2020, thanks to restructuring measures. Family controlled Merck is diversified across three separate businesses, including a healthcare unit, which stems from a collaboration deal with GSK, and a life science division that makes supplies and gear for biotech labs. To bolster its Performance Materials division, Merck in 2014 bought Britains AZ Electronic Materials for 1.9 billion euros. Merck said it was ready to proceed immediately to due diligence and to quickly agree a deal, adding it did not need its own shareholders to approve a transaction. The transaction that Versum recently disclosed significantly undervalues Versum, Merck Chief Executive Stefan Oschmann said in a letter to Versums board of directors. Instead of the speculative value offered by the Entegris transaction, the all-cash proposal would deliver immediate and certain cash value to Versum stockholders and employees, he added. The proposed deal would value Versum at 13.3 times its 2018 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, Oschmann said, adding he anticipated no regulatory problems. Merck expects the deal, which it said will reap cost synergies of about 60 million euros annually, to close in the second half of 2019. Versum shares soared 18.7 per cent to close at $49.13 on Wednesday, while shares in Merck lost 4.2 per cent and Entegris fell 2.7 per cent. CCEA approves power projects costing over Rs39,000 crore The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) has given approval for four power projects involving total expenditure of over Rs39,000 crore, in a move to give a further boost to power generation in the country. The projects approved by the CCEA at its meeting today include a 2x660 MW Buxar Thermal Power Project in Bihar, a 2x660 MW Super Thermal Power Plant (STPP) at Khurja in Uttar Pradesh, Khurja (UP), the 624 MW Chenab Valley Power Projects (private) in Kishtwar in J&K and the Teesta Stage-VI hydro-electric project scheme in Sirwani village of Sikkim. In addition, the CCEA approved measures to promote development of hydro power and to alleviate the stress in thermal power projects. The Buxar Thermal Power Project, to be set up in the Buxar district of Bihar, is estimated to cost Rs10,439.09 crore. The plant will be set up by SJVN Thermal Private Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of SJVN Ltd, a Mini Ratna CPSU under the ministry of power. The Buxar TPP will be based on Supercritical Technology with two units of 660 MW each, equipped with latest emission control technology to protect the environment and high efficiency. The Buxar TPP will improve the deficit power scenario in Bihar and Eastern region. The Bihar government has already signed power purchase agreement (PPA) for supply of not less than 85 per cent of generated power. The project is expected to generate substantial direct and indirect employment apart from various other socio-economic development in the project area. The Buxar TPP will start generating power from 2023-24. The 1x660 MW Khurja Super Thermal Power Plant, proposed to be set up in Khurja, in Bulandshahar district of Uttar Pradesh, is estimated to cost an estimated Rs11,089.42 crore. The CCEA also approved the allocation of funds for the development of the allotted coal block the Amelia Coal Mine - in Singraulli district of Madhya Pradesh, at an estimated cost of Rs1,587.16 crore. The project, to be set up by THDC India Limited, a Mini Ratna CPSU under the ministry of power, will be based on supercritical technology with two units of capacity 660 MW each, equipped with latest emission control technology to protect the environment and high fuel efficiency to generate power. The Khurja STPP will improve the deficit power scenario of Northern Region and particularly of Uttar Pradesh, which has already signed power purchase agreement with THDC India Limited for purchase of 60 per cent of power from the project and the other beneficiary states like Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi. The project is expected to generate substantial direct and indirect employment and result in overall development of district Bulandshahr and nearby districts of Western Uttar Pradesh. The Khurja STPP will start yielding benefits from 2023-24. The CCEA has approved the investment sanction for construction of Kiru HE Project (624 MW) by Chenab Valley Power Projects Private Limited, at an estimated cost of Rs4287.59 crore. CVPPPL is a joint venture amongst NHPC, JKSPDC and PTC with equity shareholding of 49 per cent, 49 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively. The project is located on River Chenab in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir. It envisages construction of a 135 m high concrete gravity dam, with installed capacity 624 MW (4 x 156 MW). The project would generate 2272.02 MU in a 90 per cent dependable year. The project will provide much needed power to the Northern Grid and accelerate the process of development of remote areas of Jammu and Kashmir. The project is scheduled to be completed in a period of 4- years. The Teesta Stage-VI HE Project is a run-of-river (RoR) scheme in Sirwani village of Sikkim, which will utilise the power potential of Teesta River. It involves construction of a 26.5 metre high barrage across river Teesta. The project would generate 2,400 MUs in a 90 per cent dependable year with installed capacity of 500 MW (4x125 MW). The project was earlier proposed to be developed by LancoTeesta Hydro Power Ltd (LTHPL), an SVP promoted by the Lanco Group. However, due to financial crunch in the company, the project could not be completed by scheduled completion time. Accordingly, the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) was initiated by order dated 16 March 2018 by the NCLT, Hyderabad bench. In the bidding process under NCLT, NHPC emerged the highest bidder with bid amount of Rs907 crore. Accordingly, the investment proposal for an estimated cost of Rs5,748.04 crore, being implemented by NHPC Limited, a CPSU of. It has been approved by the CCEA on 7 March 2019. Completion period of the project shall be 60 months. The CCEA also approved the recommendations of a group of ministers (GoM) constituted to examine the specific recommendations of a High Level Empowered Committee (HLEC) constituted to address the issues of stressed thermal power projects. The CCEA has approved recommendations of the GoM, mainly relating to grant of linkage coal for short-term PPA - allowed existing coal linkage to be used in case of termination of PPAs due to payment default by DISCOMs - procurement of bulk power by a nodal agency against pre-declared linkages. It also approved an increase in quantity of coal for special forward e-auction for power sector and more regular auctions of coal linkages and non-lapsing of short supplies of coal. India wins first prize at `Golden Gate' awards for TV tourism ad campaigns India has secured the first prize in the International Golden City Gate Tourism Awards 2019 In TV Cinema Spot Category at the Internationale Tourismus-Borse Berlin (ITB, Berlin). Indias ministry of tourism won the first prize in the category of TV Cinema Spot at the prestigious international Golden City Gate Tourism Awards 2019. Yogendra Tripathi, secretary, Department of Tourism, received the awards on 8 March 2019 at ITB, Berlin, which is being held from 6 to 10 March 2019. Following promotional films / television commercials produced by the he ministry as part of its Incredible India 2.0 Campaign received the awards: Yogi of the Racetrack The Reincarnation of Mr. and Mrs. Jones Sanctuary in Paris Maharani of Manhattan and The Masala Master Chef The Golden City Gate Tourism Multi-media Awards are given annually in various categories related to the tourism and hospitality sectors. The Golden City Gate is a creative multi-media international competition for countries, cities, regions and hotels. The entries received for the awards are judged by an international jury comprising film and tourism experts. The annual award ceremony takes place at ITB Berlin, the worlds leading tourism trade show. The ministry of tourism launched the Incredible India 2.0 Campaign in September 2017. The 2.0 Campaign marks a shift from generic promotions across the world to market specific promotional plans and content creation. The campaign produces and uses thematic creatives on different niche tourism products to cater to diverse consumer interests. These include the television commercials on yoga, wellness, wildlife, luxury and cuisine, which has been very well received the world over, registering about 155 million views on social media. The commercials have been produced in English with voiceovers in 9 international languages, viz. German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Arabic. There is sadness in south Donegal at the death of Grace Gilliland, the young Bundoran woman whose brave battle with a rare neurological illness won her the admiration of so many. Grace Gilliland passed away peacefully in her home in Bundoran on Sunday night surrounded by her family. The 23-year-old, a daughter of Olga and Neil, suffered from Rett Syndrome, a rare genetic neurological and developmental disorder. But throughout her short life, she was rarely seen without an infectious smile on her face. She fought this illness with extreme courage and served as an inspiration to everybody who knew her. Grace was synonymous with Bundoran. She was part of the community and in her own way, lived life to the full. Her story and determination attracted the attention of many well-known people who made a point of visiting her including Johnny Sexton, Brian ODriscoll, Michael Murphy, Ronan Keating, Nathan Carter, and Westlife. A close friend said: It is heartbreaking for us all - Grace was very much part of all our lives here in Bundoran and down at the St Agnes Day Centre in Donegal. She may not have been able to speak but she communicated with everybody through her eyes and her smiles - she understood everything that was happening around her. She probably enjoyed the most love from her parents that any young woman could hope for. They were always at her side - they simply devoted their lives to Grace and simply never gave up. Graces remains are reposing at family home from 12pm to 9pm today, and tomorrow from 10am to 9pm. House strictly private at all other times and on the morning of the funeral. Removal on Wednesday morning to arrive at the Church of Our Lady Star of the Sea, Bundoran for Mass of the Resurrection at 11am, and afterwards to Lakelands Crematorium, Dublin Rd, Cavan for Cremation Service at 3pm. All welcome. Family flowers only please and donations in lieu if so desired to St. Agnes Day Centre, Donegal Town, care of Conlan and Breslin Funeral Directors or by donation box at family home or Church. At present, the percentage of reservation in Maharashtra stands at 68 per cent. Mumbai: The Maharashtra government Monday told the Bombay High Court that its decision of granting reservation to the Maratha community was legal and valid. The government concluded its arguments before a division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre, which is hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the quota decision. On November 30 last year, the Maharashtra Legislature passed a bill proposing 16 per cent reservation in education and government jobs for the Marathas, declared socially and educationally backward class by the government. "The quantum of reservation granted to the Maratha community is valid and legal and the petitioners have failed to make out a case to show that the government's decision was malafide and dishonest," government counsel Anil Sakhare argued Monday. The petitioners, in their pleas challenging the quota, had said that no state government could exceed the 50 per cent mark in reservations. At present, the percentage of reservation in Maharashtra stands at 68 per cent. Sakhare told the court on Monday that as per the government, the Maratha community was socially and educationally backward and hence it decided to grant them reservation. "The government felt this was a special and extraordinary situation and hence we should be permitted to exceed the 50 per cent mark," Sakhare said. The bench had last week questioned as to why the Maratha community could not be included in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) and what was the need to create a special category of Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) for the Maratha community. Sakhare told the court on Monday that the government did not include the Maratha community in the OBC category so as to avoid any repercussions in the state. The court will hear the petitioners' advocates on Tuesday. The 19m upgrade of one of the county's busiest stretches of road is due to finish ahead of schedule. The works at the Bluebanks on the N56 near Kilmacrennan are expected to be completed by Easter. The upgrade has resulted in long tailbacks on the main route between Letterkenny and west Donegal. Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh welcomed the news that the unpgrade is to be completed ahead of schedule. The 19 million upgrade work on the N56 along the Blue Banks has been a big success for the county, Mr McHugh said. It has delivered way more than was originally expected. We have the water supply running alongside it and we have the greenway. Now we have the project running ahead of schedule. And from a safety point of view, as well as for comfort and for better travelling, this project is a shining example of this Governments investment in infrastructure and getting a job well done, and ahead of time. Id like to thank Michael Nolan of Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and all the construction crews and designers who have been involved in this project from day one. The brilliant news of schedule-busting work on the N56 is also coming when the Government is spending another 34million on projects on the main roads in Donegal this year. While the main road along Blue Banks is being completed by Easter, the crews will be onsite working on the minor link road to bring the whole stretch to top class standard. We have 17km of new improvement works on the N56 from Dungloe to Cloughbolie and Letterilly to Kilraine. Weve the crews ploughing ahead with work further south near Mountcharles and Inver, also on course to finish this year. Louth Tidy Towns Together is asking all candidates in the forthcoming local and European elections not to erect posters within the core areas of 13 towns and villages in the county who have opted to participate in the initiative. In a statement sent to the Democrat, the group say that a" significant number of towns, villages and municipal districts throughout Ireland, including in County Louth, have successfully implemented initiatives in recent years during elections and referendums to maintain poster-free environments within their localities." Louth Tidy Towns Together are calling for a "voluntary commitment" from all candidates. "13 Louth Tidy Towns Together member groups now wish to be part of this growing national movement and are requesting a voluntary commitment from all candidates, should they be planning a postering campaign, not to erect posters within the 50km/h speed limits of, nor at landscaped approaches to, their respective towns and villages. They have already emailed all 29 current Louth County councillors and the main political parties seeking this voluntary commitment." Larry Magnier, chairperson of Louth Tidy Towns Together added: This commitment would help enormously in supporting hard-working Tidy Towns volunteers in their efforts to present their areas in the most aesthetically pleasing and environmentally sustainable manner possible all year round. Secondly, managing scarce resources is a key challenge for all of us, and everybody is aware of the increasing emphasis on waste prevention and specifically the move away from single use plastics from which posters are made. "Furthermore the cost of any postering campaign needs to be considered in terms of value for money and effectiveness given the alternative social media and other communication options that are available nowadays, but this, of course, is a matter for each candidate to decide. We understand and accept that there are also very strong arguments in favour of postering, but we hope that on balance candidates will agree that the benefits are outweighed by the environmental, aesthetic and cost effectiveness considerations. The 13 villages and towns in County Louth that are participating in the initiative are: Annagassan, Ardee, Blackrock, Carlingford, Castlebellinghan / Kilsaran, Dromiskin, Dunleer, Knockbridge, Louth Village, Monasterboice / Tinure, Omeath, Stabannon, Tallanstown Irish Water are urging Dundalk customers to conserve water while essential works are taking place at Cavanhill Water Treatment Plant in Knockbridge on Wednesday. "We are urging customers to conserve water by not running taps needlessly, taking showers instead of baths and to postpone using dishwashers and washing machines where possible." According to Irish Water, essential works are to be carried out in order to safeguard water supply to Dundalk and surrounding areas. During the "essential works" the supply to Dundalk will be dependent on storage in the reservoir which is adequate to maintain supply for the duration of the planned works. Irish Water is encouraging customers to conserve water while these essential works are underway. Irish Water and Louth County Council are carrying out essential works at the Cavanhill Water Treatment Plant between 8am and 8pm on Wednesday 13 March. These works are necessary to continue to provide a safe, secure and reliable water supply to homes and businesses in Dundalk and surrounding areas. During these essential works the supply to Dundalk will be dependent on storage in the reservoir which is adequate to maintain supply for the duration of the planned works. For further information please visit the website www.water.ie and on Twitter @IWCare. The Irish Water customer care helpline is open 24/7 and customers can call on 1850 278 278. Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) held a symposium last Friday aimed at opening dialogue on how Institutes of Further and Higher Education can work together to develop a blueprint for successful cross-border collaboration in the North Leinster South Ulster region. The DkIT Symposium: A Changing Cross Border Landscape for Further & Higher Education brought together more than 80 policy-makers, academics and industry representatives from North and South to discuss challenges and opportunities surrounding BREXIT and the implications it may have on Further and Higher Education network in the region. In his opening address DkIT President, Michael Mulvey PhD said: Our region is quite unique in that it spans two jurisdictions, it is cross border and the consequence of that can be a fractured approach to development. The result can be that resources are not always maximised and the opportunity to offer a wide range of opportunities and pathways for progression may be lost. Much of the symposium focussed on identifying ways in which organisations can work together for the benefit of communities and learners in the region, either through strategic alliances, engagement with industry, research collaboration or clearly defined progression pathways between further and higher education. In her address, Siona Cahill, President of Union of Students in Ireland called on stakeholders to protect the education choices of young people both North and South by ensuring that they are not inhibited by freedom of movement issues following BREXIT, either through physical borders or through implications on fees and admissions. DkIT President, Michael Mulvey also addressed this when he spoke about the need to examine our region as one Region of Learning. An important part of Regions of Learning is that people do not feel they have to leave to access the education of their choice. A Region of Learning is one that enables people to stay in their communities, to grow and develop within them to enhance local innovation and creativity and to gain employment in their locality. It does not involve endless commuting. As part of its discussions, the Symposium also examined plans and the vision for the region with particular emphasis on Project Ireland 2040 and the National Planning Framework. Anthony Abbott-King, Senior Planner in Louth County Council spoke about the North East in the context of the Dublin-Belfast economic corridor and opportunities to enhance regional connectivity particularly in an all-island context. As part of the regions spatial strategy he emphasised the importance of place-making through social and economic outcomes and discussed how local government is prioritising the wellbeing of people as the regional population continues to grow. Margaret Hearty, Director of Programmes & Business Services at InterTradeIreland reflected on the cross-border region in terms of enterprise, innovation and research. She spoke about the importance the Further and Higher Education sector in helping to drive successful collaborations between enterprise north and south, such as the Fusion Programme and the Co-Innovate programmes. In his closing remarks, DkIT President, Michael Mulvey emphasised that education policy must enable maximum collaboration between Institutions of Learning. In DkIT, we see our future as the Regions future and everything that we do, must by necessity, be concerned with building the region, making it stronger, giving it greater definition and adding to a sense of place. Amid todays changing landscape of education, collaboration with our partners in our region, on both sides of the border, is now more important than ever. The symposium included representatives from the Department of Education and Skills, Southern Regional College, University of Ulster, Cavan Institute, Monaghan Institute, LyIT, IT Sligo and the East Border Region. It was announced at Masses in the Parish of Carrickmacross (Machaire Rois) this past weekend that Fr Brendan McCague, the resident priest in the Corduff-Raferagh part of the parish, is to retire from active ministry after almost 46 years of service in different parts of the diocese and in various roles. Despite ill-health in recent years he continued faithfully in his ministry to the people of the Corduff-Raferagh part of Carrickmacross parish, an area which will now be without a priest of its own for the first time in over one hundred years, and as the number of priests in Carrickmacross parish reduces from three to just two. The Bishop of Clogher, Bishop Larry Duffy, has paid tribute to Fr McCague. "Until my ordination as bishop I worked with Fr Brendan in Carrickmacross parish and I know how much his ministry meant to the people of Corduff and Raferagh. I witnessed the great personal sacrifices he made and the inspiration he gave in generously serving the people of that part of the parish. Fr Brendan has served the Diocese of Clogher exceptionally well, as a priest, teacher and as a leader in the field education. I thank him for that service and I pray that the Lord will bless him in his well-deserved retirement", he said. Monsignor Joseph McGuinness, the recently-appointed Parish Priest of Carrickmacross, thanked Fr McCague for his ministry in the south-Monaghan parish. "We are immensely grateful for the generous ministry of Fr Mc Cague in Corduff and Raferagh. We all thank him most sincerely for his dedication and wish him every happiness and blessing in his retirement", he said. The Parish of Carrickmacross has announced a number of arrangements to take account of the new situation that arises in Corduff-Raferagh. Shortlyster, an intelligent hiring optimisation platform, that helps companies make better and more informed hiring decisions, has today announced it has successfully completed a AUD $5 million capital raise. The seed round was led by Deepbridge Capital, an investment fund specialist in the technology, life sciences, and renewable energy sectors, with participation from Shark Tanks Andrew Banks and entrepreneur, Tink Taylor. Shortlyster uses smart data and science to match organisations with candidates who uniquely fit their job, team, and company culture to create more successful workplaces. The combination of all three elements is a distinguishable difference versus other HR and recruitment tech platforms. Shortlysters CEO and Co-Founder Rudy Crous said the funding would be used to execute their growth strategy and unlock further market expansion. Who you hire can make or break your business and we want to establish a beachhead position for Shortlyster as the essential first step tool for hiring decisions. All businesses want to ideally find the right person to hire quickly, and the value in our technology is that we can do this and thus dramatically improve the process of recruitment, he said. Shortlyster standardises the way candidates are reviewed (screened, ranked, and matched), removing the cognitive bias from the hiring process at the start. We help businesses make more objective hiring decisions with the platform underpinned by organisational psychology and neuroscience principles, said Crous. Andrew Banks, business leader across the HR and recruitment space and Shark on Shark Tank, said he saw his investment in Shortlyster as a great opportunity to invest in a company disrupting the recruitment industry. Theres no doubt traditional hiring methods need to change and I often see a lot of so-called great solutions in this space. Im excited to work with Rudy and Carl as Shortlyster is a fantastic solution that can help every company. Its the best digital innovation around increasing the cultural match in recruitment that Ive seen in a very long time, added Banks. Shortlysters Chairman and Co-Founder Carl Hartmann said the automated platform empowers hiring managers and lets them take control of their hiring process. Whats great about the platform is it gives recruiters and hiring managers back their time while reducing cognitive bias, speed to hire, and cost to hire. Research shows that up to 70% of a recruiters time is spent on manual hiring processes like reviewing CVs and creating candidate shortlists. Which means that less than 30% of their time is spent on more value-adding tasks like relationship building, and engaging with the candidate, added Hartmann Shortlysters scientific approach to recruiting and matching successful candidates aims to ensure higher job satisfaction and higher employee retention rates in the long term. The platform uses smart data derived from cultural and behavioural assessments to measure, rank and recommend optimal candidates instantly. Key features of the Shortlyster platform include: Skills and Qualification Mapper Powerful mapping tools that evaluate the technical suitability of each candidate. Powerful mapping tools that evaluate the technical suitability of each candidate. Organisation Fit Assessments Identifying candidates who reflect the core beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours businesses need in their teams and organisation. Identifying candidates who reflect the core beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours businesses need in their teams and organisation. Selection Criteria Weighting Assigning relative importance ratings to selection criteria to increase the accuracy of candidate scoring and selection decisions Assigning relative importance ratings to selection criteria to increase the accuracy of candidate scoring and selection decisions Progressive Candidate Profiling Dynamically comparing, contrasting, and recalculating candidate scores to find the best talent. This feature allows you to run different individual fit, team fit, and organisational fit scenarios. Dynamically comparing, contrasting, and recalculating candidate scores to find the best talent. This feature allows you to run different individual fit, team fit, and organisational fit scenarios. Shortlyster Talent Pool Matching Providing a business direct access to top talent in the Shortlyster candidate pool. Organisations using Shortlyster include Brand Link, Future You, Hurricane, Crane Access and Hall Chadwick Accountants. As a Corporate Psychologist, Rudy Crous specialises in Organisational Change and Culture, while Carl Hartmann is a multi-award-winning Australian entrepreneur best known for his work as Co-Founder & CEO of Temando. He alleged that an atmosphere of fear is being created in the country to help BJP in the polls. Srinagar: Former Union minister and National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Monday accused the Election Commission of Indian (ECI) of toeing the government line by not agreeing to hold the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections along with those for the Lok Sabha. He also alleged that the airstrikes ordered by the government against an alleged Jaish-e-Muhammad base in Pakistans Balakot area was aimed at winning the Lok Sabha elections by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The sole purpose of going in for the surgical strike (airstrike) at Balakot was to win the Lok Sabha elections, he told reporters. Speaking on India-Pakist-an tensions, the NC leader said, The whole theatrics of warmongering following the Pulwama attack is aimed at giving Modi an escape route. The forthcoming elections are, without any doubt, between the people of India and Narendra Modi. He alleged that an atmosphere of fear is being created in the country to help BJP in the polls. The former chief minister said that there is no other way but to talk to Pakistan over the Kashmir issue. They want to create an atmosphere of fear. There would be no war. The whole world is watching. This government is only using the senior officer for winning the election, the officer whom they got by superseding many others and who is now dancing to their tunes. Otherwise, there is no danger, he said without naming the officer but in an obvious reference to the incumbent Army chief. Expressing dismay over ECIs decision of not holding Assembly polls simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections in J&K, he said that it is a major setback to democracy in the state. The ones who took this democratically incoherent decision must be up to some mischief, otherwise there is no sound reason for not conducting both Assembly and Lok Sabha elections together, he said. By prioritizing the For the People Act, Democrats show they get that voting rights are even more popular than legal weed. Mitch McConnell knows how he got away with it. The Senate Majority Leader led GOP efforts to swipe a Supreme Court seat from Merrick Garland. He killed a bipartisan effort to call out Russian attacks on the 2016 elections. While Paul Ryan hemmed and hawed, McConnell did everything he could to help Donald Trump could win the White House while losing the popular vote by almost 3 million votes. These invidious assaults on democracy were enabled by an imperfect storm of improper influence from rogues ranging from Jim Comey to Roger Stone to Konstantin Kilimnik. But McConnell knows that the election wouldnt have been close enough to be decided in the margins if not for the GOPs masterful efforts to make voting harder and buying elections easier. Call it The Long Game, since thats what McConnell called his 2016 memoir. And the effect of this game is to roll back the power of the rapid expansion of the vote that began in the Civil Rights Era and resulted in the election of Barack Obama. In the last decade, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court has erased almost all restrictions on campaign finance, allowing corporations and individuals to anonymously spend unlimited, untraceable amounts of money to elect candidates. Meanwhile, red states and key purple states, including Wisconsin and North Carolina, have implemented hundreds of harsh measures making it harder to vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. With their new House majority, Democrats can finally fight back against this game. Meet HR 1: The For the People Act. Simply put: this is the most important civil rights bill of the last half century, as Larry Lessig wrote. (Id add besides the Americans with Disabilities Act.) Its like an Avengers of heroic measures designed to reverse the corruption of the system by big money. Its Mitch McConnells worst nightmare and forms a defining argument that unites the entire Democratic Party. The bills first part is the greatest expansion of the right to vote since 1965. This includes a slew of national automatic registration, independent redistricting commissions to end gerrymandering abuses, and a national holiday on Election Day. The next part of H.R. 1 is my favoriteand, I like to think, Mitch McConnells least favoritereforms campaign finance and implements a simple reform that could transform our politics. It creates a new small-donor matching system to encourage congressional candidates to rely on public financing instead of large donors, so that every $100 raised would trigger $600 in matching public funds, according to Ari Berman. Finally, the bill demands the bare minimums to avoid obvious conflicts in elected officials. It mandates the release of tax returns by presidential and vice-presidential candidates and bars members of Congress from serving on corporate boards. While this bill has easily passed the House, it now hits a Mitch McConnell-sized roadblock. Mitch McConnell has called H.R. 1s common sense reforms a power grab because it isfor voters. He so scared of H.R. 1 that he wont even put it up for a vote in the Senate, unlike the Green New Deal, which he seems to relishing the chance to give Republican Senators a chance to debate. McConnell still claims to think voting for this bill is bad politics for Democrats. But, as Adam Smith noted in his excellent newsletter, Because as we all know, if theres one thing McConnell wont do, its use the levers of power when he thinks itll hurt a political opponent. The stench of fear emanating from McConnell and big money pals is based in reality. Last fall in Michigan, the state Donald Trump won by his slimmest margin in 2016, one proposal that expanded voting rights with automatic registration and another took on gerrymandering. Both passed with Yes getting 20% more votes than Nomaking both far more popular than marijuana legalization, which was also on the ballot and easily won. Yes, voting rights are more popular than weed. H.R. #1 build on what I call the Michigan Plan for Rebuilding Democracy, which helped Democrats sweep Republicans out statewide office in 2018: Expand the vote to make voting as accessible as possible. Reform the system so voters pick their representatives not other way around. Legalize weed and nominate a bunch of great women. Reforms like these are sweeping state after state despite being opposed by the most powerful monied interests in the country.Democrats understand how popular and necessary these proposals are, which is why theyre adopting them nationally and building on them. Democrats understand that a multi-year fight will be required for any hope of this bill becoming law, but they should relish that fight. Fixing our political system should be the defining issue for Democrats as we approach the 2020 House and Senate campaign not just because it unites party, but because fixing our broken political system is the only issue. As big money has polluted our politics, inequality has skyrocketed and modest efforts to fight the destruction of our climates floundered to the point that clouds clouds! could disappear in your kids lifetime. Now as Democrats recognize that pushing Mitt Romneys health care policy and John McCains climate policy only made the GOP less willing to compromise, theyre aiming for bold expansions of the safety net for health care, child care along with moonshot approaches to fight carbon pollution. None of that is going to be possible without turning the small-dollar donation revolution that helped push Democrats to the largest House midterm win American history into an unprecedented explosion of voting engagement and political reform. This means killing off the anti-majoritarian flaws of our democracy by ending the filibuster, offering statehood to Washington DC and Puerto Rico and then axing our most enduring monument to slaveholdersthe Electoral College. Because if our democracy were to start working the way it could, Mitch McConnell knows his game is over. [Photo by Gage Skidmore | Flickr] This is the second time in five months that aircraft of this specific make has crashed, sparking global alarm. New Delhi: Following the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft in Ethiopia on Sunday that killed all 157 people on board including four Indians, the Indian aviation regulator DGCA on Monday undertook a safety assessment of the aircraft of the same make used by Indian carriers and issued interim safety measures applicable from Tuesday. The safety review coincides with reports that authorities in China, Indonesia and Ethopia have grounded all such aircraft. Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft are currently being used by SpiceJet (12) and Jet Airways (5). External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj has promised all help and assistance to the bereaved families of the four Indian victims in the Ethiopian crash. She spoke to the family members of Indian nationals identified as Bhaskar Vaidya, Hansini Vaidya, N. Manisha and Shikha Garg. Following the crash, the DGCA on Monday held a review meeting on the functioning of the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft of the two Indian carriers where it was observed that the daily defect and daily incident reports contained defects of routine nature and no significant concern were observed. This means that there is no move in India to ground these planes as of now. While issuing fresh technical guidelines on aspects such as dual autopilot, yaw damper system, spoiler systems and angle of attack (AOA) sensor, the DGCA said that the minimum experience level of crew operating Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft to fly as pilot-in-command (PIC) is 1,000 hours and co-pilot is 500 hours on Boeing 737 NG aircraft type. Civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu while ordering a safety review of the aircraft said, Safety of the passengers is our utmost concern. I have directed secretary and DGCA to take appropriate action immediately. This is the second time in five months that aircraft of this specific make has crashed, sparking global alarm. A Boeing 737Max 8 aircraft operated by carrier Lion Air crashed in Indonesia in October last year killing 189 people on board. Following that accident, the DGCA had already taken several steps last year to ensure safety. 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You may recognize this community from the Oscar-winning film Moonlight. Here, the streets thrum to the beat of Miami bass, the aroma of Haitian griot and banan peze (fried pork and plantains) wafts out from the area's restaurants, and homes are painted in bright hues that speak of their owners' Caribbean roots. According to longtime residents, though, the character of the neighborhood is changing as wealthier Miamians move in. "The place just don't feel like home anymore," said Valencia Gunder, a community strategist who was born and raised in Liberty City. "And I believe climate change has everything to do with itbecause the people who are moving here would never have stepped over here before." The mood is similar in Little Haiti, Little Havana, Overtown and Allapattah. Segregation shunted people of color to these less desirable, landlocked neighborhoods around the turn of the last century. These communities perch atop Miami Rock Ridge, an elevated stretch of land extending like an alligator's spine from the northern tip of Miami-Dade County down to the Florida Keys. And this higher ground may now be driving up real estate prices. Much of the city sits just six feet above sea level, and many neighborhoods are vulnerable to the expected sea level rise of 14 to 34 inches by 2060. Former Florida Sen. Bill Nelson has called the city "ground zero" for climate change. Meanwhile, at higher elevations, many of the residents of Liberty City and other underserved black and Latino communities say they feel pressure from real estate developers to sell their homes. The phenomenon is being called climate gentrification, and this year Miami is undertaking a study to better understand what's happening Miami is the second-fastest growing big city in the country. So even without the threats of sea level rise and more intense hurricanes and storm surges, it would be experiencing development pressure, said Jane Gilbert, the chief resilience officer for the city. That said, a 2018 Harvard University study shows that real estate at higher elevations in Miami-Dade is appreciating at a faster rate than elsewhere in the county. Gilbert says that research, along with the anecdotal evidence pouring in from residents, helped inspire the city's study. If climate gentrification is happening, Miami wants to get out in front of it. The city will kick off the study by gathering data on rates of property turnover, increases in land values, purchases by companies, building permits, and opportunity zones to help pinpoint the high-lying neighborhoods experiencing the most development pressure. The second step is identifying what policies exist (or are needed) to help renters and homeowners stay put if they wish to. One move in the right direction is the Miami Forever bond, which dedicates $400 million to addressing sea level rise through improving seawalls, roads, and stormwater pumps, in addition to creating more affordable housing opportunities. Still, more support is needed. According to a 2015 report issued by Miami-Dade County, more than 60 percent of its 2.7 million residents are struggling to make ends meet, and around 21 percent live below the poverty level with annual incomes of less than $16,000. The Miami Herald reports that in Miami Beach, wage increases aren't keeping pace with housing prices (rental or otherwise), causing service workers and public servants to leave. Now, the threat of getting priced out is creeping up the real estate map's contour lines. "We can't have an economy that's thriving if the workforce is not living where they work," said Caroline Lewis, founder of the Miami-based Climate Leadership by Providing Engagement Opportunities (CLEO) Institute, a nonprofit that engages the public in climate change education and action. "If we're going to create a society where the haves and have-nots are separated by two hours of traffic, it becomes unlivable, unfair, and furthers the strain on everything that life asks." Fortunately, there are ways to combat gentrification. Cities can develop inclusive processes and policies that ensure residents can chart a way forward in their own communities, explained NRDC's Sasha Forbes. Forbes is the state and local policy coordinator for SPARCC (Strong, Prosperous, and Resilient Communities Challenge), an initiative to improve the environmental, health, and racial equity of vulnerable communities in six U.S. cities. Community benefits agreements also can help. Under such agreements, a community group supports an upcoming development project in exchange for the developer providing a community need, such as affordable housing, green space, or jobs for local residents. Other strategies include enacting homeowner and tenant protections like rent control, just cause eviction, tax freezes and community land trusts. Inclusionary zoning, whereby developers dedicate a percentage of new housing units to lower-income residents, can also help. In all, a mix of equitable housing protection, housing preservation, and new housing is needed. "The time to implement protective policies is now," said Forbes. "If we don't move fast enough, we will see historic and institutional inequities repeat themselves, displacing cultures and people who could then suffer the consequences of housing insecurity and vulnerability to climate change." "Miami's study will hopefully help the city understand that climate gentrification is a shift in demand across all incomes demographics," said Jesse Keenan, the lead author of the Harvard study and a professor of urban development and climate adaptation. He said the problem is bigger than Liberty City, or Miami, or the whole of Florida. "We might have housing pressure in Atlanta from displacement originating in Florida, from state to state, and even transnationally as a component of climate migration." Unfortunately, some level of movement and displacement is inevitable. Put simply, people are going to move to where it doesn't flood. And as the effects of climate change continue to batter Florida, much of the appreciation or depreciation of a household's single largest asset, usually the house, will be out of the current owner's control. But there's also an opportunity here, added Keenan, a chance for cities to start living up to sustainability goals. Places like Miami, for instance, would have to densify development on higher land. Urban planners frequently promote higher-density layouts for efficiency in terms of transportation and to counteract sprawl; the challenge is to make sure that protective policies and plans for smart growth benefit everybody. This is particularly challenging in Miami-Dade, with its rapid growth, high fragmentation (34 municipalities) and too few civic institutions that give a voice to broad segments of the populace. Liberty City, and others, want a seat at the table. "If I just had a magic wand, the county would give us the money to redevelop our own community in our own way," said Gunder, laughing. "We have the ability to imagine a safe, clean, and healthy community." But she fears time may be running out. "The water isn't here yet, but the sharks are at the door." Reposted with permission from our media associate onEarth. By Tara Lohan For many people a clean drink of water isn't a certainty. Right now an estimated 1.2 billion people live in areas with chronic water scarcity, and upwards of 4 billion two-thirds of the world's population experience shortages at least one month a year. This will only get worse with climate change and population growth, and as it does it will exacerbate food insecurity and inequality in both rich and poor nations. As bad as this sounds, it's not an unsolvable problem, according to a new book, The Water Paradox: Why There Will Never Be Enough Water And How to Avoid the Coming Crisis, by Edward B. Barbier. Barbier, a senior scholar at Colorado State University's School of Global Environmental Sustainability and a professor of economics, explains that our approach to solving water shortages with drastic measures in the moment of crisis isn't a cost-effective strategy and won't solve our long-term problems. Instead, he argues, we need to fix the root of the problem: not simply a lack of water but inadequate and poor management of the water we do have. The problem is one of our own making, but it shouldn't be surprising given our history. We've built our cities, designed our infrastructure, irrigated our farms and driven our energy production assuming water is abundant and easily accessible. But today signs abound that this is no longer the case: Billions of people live in water-scarce regions, hundreds of millions lack access to adequate sanitation, groundwater stress is increasing in our most agriculturally productive areas, and our surface water in many places is often choked with pollution. And while we've taken small steps to improve efficiency and conservation, we've yet to adequately address the scale of the problem. "Why we continue to ignore the impending threat of a global water crisis despite water being the most essential resource for human existence and survival is the great water paradox facing humankind today," he wrote. Barbier takes a hundred pages explaining the gravity of the problem and how we got to where we are today. It's good information if you're new to understanding the water crisis. But the most interesting part of the book, how to avoid the coming crisis, starts halfway in. First, he says, we need better governance structures. Water is rarely managed by basin and then it can be further divided among irrigation, industrial or municipal uses. Areas that have moved toward more integrated water management such as Canada or Australia's Murray-Darling River basin have done better at monitoring and managing water resources, he explained. Secondly, and most importantly, according to Barbier, we need to charge users what water's actually worth instead of perpetually underpricing it. One way to do this is through something called water markets, where the rights to certain amounts of water are sold or leased and move water from lower value to higher value endeavors. When done well, Barbier wrote, water markets can help "facilitate water conservation and reallocation." Here's one example of how water markets can come into play. If you're a farmer and pay little for water, you may be inclined to waste the resource. But if there's a market where you can sell some of it, you're more likely to use it efficiently and sell what you save. Markets used by the agricultural sector often result in water going from low-value crops to high-value crops. In the wider community, markets usually mean agricultural water ends up being transferred from farms to municipal or industrial users. But water markets are not cheap or easy to set up and are often complicated in systems where water rights are tied to land. Barbier gives three examples of areas where it's been implemented, with varying levels of success: Australia's Murray-Darling River basin, Chile and parts of the western U.S. Barbier touts better pricing as a solution to solving the management woes driving the water crisis, meaning markets play a major role. He could've dug a little deeper into how to avoid potential pitfalls when it comes to environmental concerns: Rivers don't usually have big checkbooks, and some their "value" isn't easily quantified. How do we make sure ecological health is protected when markets move water to the highest bidder? There are other environmental concerns, too. The movement of water from agricultural lands to cities (so-called "low-value to high-value" uses) has resulted in the "buy and dry" phenomenon in places like Colorado where agricultural communities are drying up and water transfers are fueling more urban sprawl creating another set of problems. Looking beyond markets, Barbier also points to water and sanitation services that fail to cover the full price of the infrastructure and services. A better pricing scheme would involve two important components, he explains. The first is a fixed charge for all users to cover operational costs of the system; the second is a tiered rate structure in which users pay more when they use more. Economic analysis has shown that efficient pricing of water has done more to promote conservation and manage demand than regulatory efforts aimed at restricting use or requiring water-saving technologies, he wrote. Irrigation and agricultural subsidies should be removed, which admittedly is "politically difficult," he said. Although many of the ideas in the book, like revamping water-rights systems, are also politically problematic, that doesn't mean they wouldn't be beneficial. The biggest takeaway, though, is that what we've been doing isn't going to work to dig ourselves out of the hole we're in currently because our institutions, water-rights systems and regulatory management structures for water were built in, and for, the days of plenty. "In today's economies, water use management, and its accompanying institutions, incentives and innovations, is dominated by the 'hydraulic mission' of finding and exploiting more freshwater resources," he wrote. "But what works in an era of freshwater abundance is detrimental in an age of increasing water scarcity." Reposted with permission from our media associate The Revelator. A congressman found a creative way to make himself heard about the impact of seismic air gun testing on North Atlantic right whales during a committee meeting Thursday. Assistant Administrator for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Chris Oliver was testifying before a Natural Resources subcommittee hearing that the practice would not impact the animals when South Carolina Democratic Representative Joe Cunningham asked permission to blow an air horn, The Washington Post reported. Permission granted, Cunningham sounded the horn. "Was that disruptive, Mr. Oliver?" Cunningham asked. "It was irritating, but I didn't find it too disruptive," Oliver responded. Cunningham continued to push, as this transcript of the exchange published by Newsweek shows: "What about every, say, ten seconds, like seismic airgun blasting, that goes on for days, weeks, months?" the congressman pressed. "If I were that close to it, yeah, probably," Oliver admitted. "What if you depended on sound for hunting your food and for communication? Do you think it would be disruptive?" Cunningham continued. "At a distance of 20 feet, yes, it would be?" Oliver responded. Cunningham asked Oliver to guess how much louder seismic air gun blasting was for whales when compared to the 120-decibel horn he had blasted. When Oliver could not, Cunningham told him that it was 16,000 times louder. "Do you see how that would be impactful on marine species and mammals?" "I do," Oliver said, "which is why we put mitigation measures in to minimize the proximity of that activity." The hearing comes after NOAA granted five companies permits last November to conduct seismic testing in the Atlantic Ocean to search for offshore oil and natural gas. South Carolina coastal communities and conservation groups then filed a lawsuit to block the practice that was joined by nine east coast states. The five companies are waiting for final permits from the Interior Department before they begin testing, The Washington Post reported. NOAA officials argued at the hearing Thursday that no right whales have been killed by seismic testing in the Gulf of Mexico or Pacific Ocean, and that studies show its impacts are "sublethal." However, conservation scientists testified that "sublethal" effects for individual whales could still have serious consequences for the survival of an extremely endangered species. There are only about 400 North Atlantic right whales left alive, and only 100 breeding pairs. "Many right whales now have poor body scores that are just above the threshold of reproductive success, suggesting that any additional stressors ... will push them below any ability to reproduce," New England Aquarium vice president and senior science adviser Scott Kraus testified. Cornell University scientist Christopher Clark said that the bowhead whale, a close relative of the right whale, responds so severely to even low levels of seismic testing that it stops communicating. Clark said that the testing could increase the chances that right whale mothers and calves would get separated. "This is the cost to a marginally surviving population as a result of chronic noise from seismic air gun surveys," he said. President Donald Trump's 2020 budget calls for $8.6 billion in funding for his proposed border wall, NPR reported Monday, signaling that Trump is intent on a project that environmental groups say would be devastating to borderland communities and wildlife and that he is willing to keep fighting Congress to get it. A funding battle with Congress at the end of 2018 and beginning of 2019 over $5.7 billion for the project led to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, which caused "irreparable" damage to some of the country's most beloved national parks. "President Trump hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos when he recklessly shut down the government to try to get his expensive and ineffective wall, which he promised would be paid for by Mexico," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement Sunday. "The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again. We hope he learned his lesson." Other potential public health and environmental impacts of Trump's 2020 budget include a 15 percent cut to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a 31 percent cut to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The news also comes days after the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife released an interactive story map showing exactly how Trump's wall would impact the nature and communities of the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) in Texas. The map acts in lieu of an environmental impact statement, which the Trump administration has refused to conduct, Defenders of Wildlife said in a press release about the map. "The Lower Rio Grande Valley has become ground zero for the Trump administration in its pursuit of a border wall that will destroy precious landscapes and communities," President and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife Jamie Rappaport Clark said in a statement. "This region is home to some of the most biodiverse habitat in the United States and is crucial to the survival of endangered species like the ocelot." The LRGV is home to more than 700 species of vertebrate, 300 species of butterfly, more than 300 bird species and at least 18 threatened or endangered species. There are already 115 miles of concrete or steel barrier along the Texas / Mexico border, and Congress has earmarked enough funds in 2018 and 2019 to build 88 more miles of concrete and steel wall in the LRGV. The Trump administration has issued legal waivers for 35 miles of wall and contracts for 14 miles, and the wall construction would seal off parts of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, Defenders of Wildlife said. Sites like the Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park, the National Butterfly Center and the La Lomita chapel in Mission, Texas are also threatened by planned construction, but the construction has not been funded yet. The map also shows how the wall will impact communities, cutting people off from homes, businesses and recreation trails. It includes quotes from stakeholders like property owner Nayda Alvarez: "I have lived here all my life. This land belonged to my great-grandparents since this area was part of Mexico. Unlike some people [who] say that we might be first generation no, my parents and great-grandparents have been here forever ... I'm not losing a piece of my land. I'm actually going to lose my house." (Photo: GCCM)Lutheran World Federation General Secretary Rev. Martin Junge speaks at an interfaith panel on the opening day of a Vatican conference on Religions and the Sustainable Development Goals on March 7, 2019. Photo: GCCM A global Lutheran leader has said the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet to act on biblical principles. The Lutheran World Federation General Secretary, Rev. Martin Junge urged faith-based organizations gathered at a Vatican conference to play a more incisive role in the implementation of the UN SDGs. The LWF leader was among some 400 representatives of different faith communities taking part at the three-day March 7-9 international conference, Lutheran World Information reports. It was titled "Religions and the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals): Listening to the cries of the earth and of the poor'. The event was organized by the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. "I want to strongly advocate for a much clearer focus on children and youth in the Agenda 2030. "We are heading toward an intergenerational conflict: youth is increasingly realizing and experiencing that neither the economy, nor the ecology are working for them," said Junge. In his presentation, Junge spoke about the UN Agenda for the year 2030 with its slogan "Leave no one behind." BIBLICAL PARABLE He compared it to the biblical parable of the shepherd who sets out to find the one lost sheep, saying this message "resonates well with the Christian community" as it reflects "our deeply-held faith convictions and practices." The vision of ensuring that no one is left behind in the implementation of the development goals stands in stark contrast to the prevailing logic of exclusion, said Junge, who is from Chile. He said that churches need to be straight-forward in stressing that "a development paradigm that operates on the basis of exclusion can't be called development. "We'd rather call it for what is: exploitation". The Lutheran leader noted that while faith drives the Christian vision of inclusivity, the secular SDG Agenda must be shaped by the Human Rights framework which is under threat in many parts of the world today. If the obligations enshrined in that framework are not upheld, he said, the SDG Agenda could lead to the weakening of accountability to these obligations, thus continuing to leave "people and entire communities behind." Junge referred particularly to gender inequality, which "if left unaddressed," he said, "will always leave women behind: underpaid, less educated, stigmatized and altogether on an unequal footing when it comes to development." While he acknowledged that "gender discourse is often difficult" for faith-based organizations, he draws inspiration from the biblical stories of Jesus meeting, talking and listening attentively to women to illustrate God's vision of leaving no one behind. ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH Junge praised the leadership of both the Orthodox leader Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew 1 of Constantinople and Pope Francis, without whose encyclical "Laudato Si" on care for creation. The Lutheran leader said that without the Pope's document, "the Paris agreement could hardly have been achieved." Both Francis and Bartholomew "constantly remind us of our role as stewards of God's creation" and "point to the deep conversion and transformation" that is needed and which faith-based organizations are "uniquely placed to support," said Junge. Pope Francis described the aim of the conference as "listening to the cry of the earth and of the poor." The conference highlighted the need for collaboration between faith communities in areas as diverse as climate change, health, education, inclusion, inequality and social changes, as well as the consequences of the 4th industrial revolution. Rev. Matthew Ross, programme executive for Diakonia and Capacity Building, attended the conference on behalf of the World Council of Churches. "The urgency of action needed in tackling climate change is beyond doubt," said Ross. "Given that a large majority of the world's population belongs to a faith tradition, the faith communities have a deep responsibility to work for human flourishing and to combat climate change." Another militant, identified as a Pakistani, also killed. Srinagar: A Jaish-e-Mohammed cadre who was believed to be the main conspirator behind the February 14 terror attack in Pulwama was killed along with another militant, possibly a Pakistani national, in a fierce gunbattle that started Sunday evening and went on till the early hours of Monday in the districts Tral area. Officials identified him as 23-year-old Mudassir Ahmed Khan, alias Muhammad Bhai, an electrician with a graduate degree and a resident of Midoora village in Tral (Pulwama). The police said the identity of the other slain militant was being ascertained. It, however, also said that on the basis of the incriminating material recovered from the site of the encounter, it is understood that he was a Pakistani national codenamed Khalid. On February 14, a Jaish cadre, 22-year-old Adil Ahmed Dar, alias Waqas commando, detonated the Maruti Suzuki Eeco with at least 60 kg of deadly RDX after driving it parallel to a fully-occupied bus that was part of a large CRPF convoy at Lethapora along the Srinagar-Jammu highway. Well over 40 CRPF personnel were killed and many others injured in the massive blast, the deadliest carried out ever during the nearly three-decade-old militancy in J&K. The officials said it was Khan who arranged the vehicle and explosives used in the strike. They said Khan is also believed to be involved in the terror strike at the Army camp in Sunjawan in Jammu in February 2018, in which six soldiers and a civilian were killed. His role has also come under the lens in the Lethapora attack on a CRPF camp in January 2018 that left five personnel dead. An earlier report said the other militant killed with him during the gunfight in Trals Pinglish village was Sajjad Bhat, a resident of Bijbehara area in Anantnag district, and the owner of the Maruti Eeco used in the blast. But officials said since the militants bodies were completely charred in the gunfight they were finding it difficult to identify them. Bhats brother refused to take the body, saying it was charred beyond recognition. However, Khans body was taken by his family and he has since been buried in a cemetery of Tral. The fighting at Pinglish erupted Sunday evening after the security forces laid siege to the village to conduct an operation to flush out militants, dead or alive. The security forces launched a cordon and search operation after receiving specific intelligence about the presence of terrorists in the area. The operation turned into an encounter after the terrorists opened fire at the search party, which retaliated, a police spokesman said here. The officials said Khan had joined the JeM some time in 2017 as an overground worker and was later drawn into the outfit by Noor Muhammad Tantray, alias Noor Trali, who is believed to have helped the groups revival in the Kashmir Valley. But after Tantray was killed in December 2017, Khan disappeared from his home on January 14, 2018, and was active since then. The officials also said that after completing his graduation, Khan did a one-year diploma course as an electrician from an Industrial Training Institute (ITI). The National Investigation Agency, which is probing the February 14 attack, had carried out searches at the residence of Khan on February 27. Confirming that Khan was the main conspirator of the February 14 attack, Lt. Gen. Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon, GOC of the Armys Srinagar-based 15 Corps (also called Chinar Corps), told a hurriedly-called press conference here: Jaish commander Mudassir Khan was among the terrorists killed in the encounter. He was the main conspirator of the Pulwama terror attack. CRPF IGP (operations) for south Kashmir Zulfiqar Hasan refused to term this as avenging the deaths in the February 14 strike. Replying a question, he said: We are peacekeepers and we ensure no one raises a gun against the country. IGP (Kashmir Range) Swayam Prakash Pani said the identity of the second militant was not ascertained yet. We know his code was Khalid. We are trying to find his actual identity, he said, adding that he is believed to be a Pakistani. He added Khans killing is a significant dent to the JeM. Mr Pani further said the incriminating material found at the slain militants hideout would be shared with the NIA. Lt. Gen. Dhillon said ever since the February 14 attack, as many as 18 militants had been killed in action by the security forces across the Kashmir Valley. He added that in the first 70 days of 2019, the security forces had been successful in eliminating 44 militants, mainly from JeM. Replying a question, he said: Against 1,629 ceasefire violations along the Line of Control in 2018, this year 478 ceasefire violations have already taken place. Charter schools are hardly an obscure corner of the public school sectorthere are 7,000 charter schools across 43 states, serving a total of 3.2 million students. And those schools often find themselves at the center of fierce debates over issues including policy, funding, and oversight. Yet many in the publiceven some policymakers and educatorscan find themselves confused about what a charter school really is, or what forms charters can take on. The simplest way to put it: A charter school is a public school that is independently operated. Beyond the basics, however, there can be much to differentiate one charter school from another, ranging from management to authorizers to the money that keeps it running. Additionally, charters can be affected by local laws that may place regulations on how a charter is allowed to run. Heres a quick look at some of those issues, ways that charter schools can differ, and potential strengths and weaknesses that come with various approaches. Who Oversees Charters? All charter schools must be authorized by institutions that decide who can start a new school and what is expected of that school. These institutions also oversee a schools performance. Overall, there are six main types of authorizers : independent chartering boards, state education agencies, higher education institutions, non-educational government entities, such as a mayors office, nonprofit organizations, and school districts, (otherwise known as local education agencies, or LEAs). In practice, the majority of charter schools are authorized by local districts, although the percentage has steadily decreased. According to the National Association of Charter School Authorizers , in 2013 school districts authorized 56 percent of charters. By 2017, this percentage had dropped to 48 percent, the most recent numbers available. Who can authorize a charter school, and whether there is a statewide authorizing body, also varies based on state laws. According to the NACSA, school districts are authorizers in 32 states, and may act as authorizers in special cases in three states: Alabama, Kentucky, and Maine. How LEAs act as authorizers also depends on state laws. According to the Education Commission of the States, in California, LEAs are the primary authorizers, but can relinquish their authorizing authority to an independent chartering board. In Minnesota, however, LEAs are one of many authorities. Co-Located Charters Co-located charters share a facility or exist in close proximity to a traditional public school. These schools may be located in large cities, where real estate is expensive, and schools have to battle it out for available space, or in rural towns where it may not be financially viable to build a new facility. Co-located facilities often are the source of tension between the charter and the traditional public school sharing a space. For example, one or the other school may have to reserve areas of the facility, such as the gym or field, ahead of time for events and activities. Advocates of charter and traditional schools sometimes say one type of school pulls students and resources away from the other, starving its counterpart. However, a study by Sarah Cordes , an assistant professor of education at the Temple University College of Education, indicates that co-locating may offer benefits to both sides. Her study of 900,000 3rd to 5th graders in New York City found that when a school shares a building with a charter, levels of engagement and safety increase. Co-located schools reported small increases in attendance for both types of schools, and a 20 to 40 percent decrease in the number of students retained for not performing at grade level, according to the study. Affiliated Charters With funding from the district and governance by the school board, so-called affiliated charter schoolsa term mainly used by the Los Angeles Unified School Districtoffer limited autonomy and flexibility. Unlike most independent charter schools, which are given as much self-governance as permitted by law, affiliated charters are largely indistinguishable from traditional public schools. While the term may be associated with Los Angeles, which has about 50 district-affiliated charter schools, some other states have charters that essentially act as affiliated charters due to strict laws governing schools. Maryland charters, for example, must adhere to the districts collective-bargaining agreement, hire certified teachers (charters may apply for exemptions from both), and participate in the state retirement system. There is no explicit language under Marylands charter law that provides them with fiscal and legal autonomy with an independent board. In effect, affiliated charters must adhere to district guidelines and curriculum, use district facilities, and hire district teachers. Additionally, they are bound by union bargaining agreements, and, in the case of LAUSD, teachers may go on strike hand in hand with their noncharter counterparts. Still, affiliated charters typically have more flexibility than traditional public schools in that they have some site-based freedom over non-state funding and educational programming, including texts, methods, and testing. Privately Operated Charters The majority of charter schools are privately operated, usually by nonprofit and, in some states, for-profit education management organizations. Some organizations own and operate charter schools across the country. For example, KIPP, a network of charter schools operated by a nonprofit of the same name, has 224 college-preparatory charter schools across the country. KIPP is an example of a charter management organization (or CMO), which either manages certain aspects of a charter school for a board or an entire network of schools. Although KIPP is run by one nonprofit entity, different boards manage each school. Education management organizations (or EMOs) are typically run by for-profit organizations, which manage all aspects of the school and students education. Unlike affiliated charters, privately operated charters have the freedom to stray from certain district and union rules. For example, privately operated charters can implement longer school days or years, enforce students to wear uniforms, or incorporate different topics in the curriculum. This freedom, however, can raise concerns about transparency and accountability. Critics of privately operated charters have also expressed concerns over how such schools use tax dollars. Many of these factors are dependent on the authorizers who oversee such charters. If you have a good authorizer and a good accountability system, then [charter schools] are accountable to the public for their performance. said Nathan Barrett, the senior director of research and evaluation at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Two kinds of schools tend to hire my services as a consultant: traditional schools taking tentative steps towards project- and competency-based learning, and special pilot programs that need to justify their value to the state, prospective parents, or others to whom they are accountable. Each type of school is attempting to address the core problem of the typical factory model, teacher-centered classroom that privileges memorization and recall. Such classrooms usually fail to engage young people in learning higher-order skills like critical thinking, analysis, and problem-solving. Traditional schools tend to face what Ive dubbed the Penguin Problem, in honor of a veteran teacher whom I once tried to help enhance a research project she had taught for decades. What was the greater purpose of the project? For the students to learn about penguins, she told me. Penguins are admittedly pretty cool. But since several minutes with Wikipedia can reveal anything students would ever want to know about them, what larger topics or themes could we plug into the project? Animal life cycles? Food webs? Humanitys impact on other species? They need to know about penguins, she maintained, pointing to the relevant learning standard. Certainly, critical thinking and problem-solving require that students possess some base of factual knowledge. But facts can seem meaningless unless they are somehow contextualized. Even more concerning is when I see students pursue creative projects that produce products, but no clear learning." Yet, too many traditional education models seem built specifically to prevent connections to other topics, subjects, and students own lived experiences. Even a simple field trip like a walk around the neighborhood (to teach cartography by mapping familiar places, for instance) requires overcoming tremendous scheduling and permission hurdles. Some teachers find the idea of crossing subject-area borders even more challenging than crossing a busy intersection. (We cant include any math concepts. Its designated English/language arts time!) Ive consulted with some wonderful educators who are bravely moving from the role of director to facilitator of learning, employing cooperative and personalized structures to engage all of their students. But I hear these teachers loud and clear when they say its a tall order with 30 students and 45-minute class periods. I take them seriously when they tell me they lack time to have students learn math or science through actual experimentation, because they have 20 more standards to cover that month. (Read: Write on the whiteboard, give a quick lesson and a quiz, then move on.) Those are traditional schoolings challenges: Each individual class is its own small iceberg, and its too hard to connect to the other icebergs floating out there. The Penguin Problem. On the other end of the spectrum, Ive worked with educators at pilot, innovative, and private schools and programs that are frequently willing to rethink age-grouping or eliminate classrooms in favor of design studios or outdoor explorations. In their zeal to shield themselves from the corrupting influences of tradition, however, educators at such schools too often throw out best practices with the bathwater. One teacher I worked with struggled for a whole year to figure out ways to get her chaotic class on task. We spent hours discussing strategies like setting clear expectations, developing classroom norms and procedures, and enlisting disruptive students in generative classroom roles. It was classroom management 101, and she wished shed had it from the outset. Even more concerning is when I see students pursue creative projects that produce products, but no clear learning. I recall a student proudly showing me a gorgeous red-tailed hawk wire-and-cloth sculpture she had worked on for weeks. What had she learned about red-tailed hawkstheir biology, their behavior, their role in the ecosystem? Theyre awesome. What had she learned about design? It was really hard to make and took a lot of time. Despite its presentation as documentation of learning, this sculpture seemed to be merely a documentation of effort. Innovative schools can seem allergic to the idea of learning standards, as if to mention their name would be to summon the drudgery of lecture and fill-in-the-bubble tests. The irony is that the Red-Tailed Hawk Problem is, in its own way, just one more version of the factory model: Instead of reproducing the work of Wikipedia, students reproduce the work of a 3D printer. What needs to happen is a mating between the penguin and the red-tailed hawk. Leaders of traditional schools need to rethink coverage models and allow teachers to sacrifice some particular content in order to help students learn overarching concepts and skills deeply. They need to be brave enough to make significant structural changes. They cannot just ask their teachers to start using project-based learning, without lengthening block times, for instance. Pilot, charter, and private schools have a responsibility to prove they can actually educate, as well as engage young people. They should provide their staff professional development in core teacher competencies, including lesson planning, assessment, and classroom management. Teachers should at least be conversant in time-tested traditions for creating well-functioning learning environments before breaking with them. Students need teachers who will not circumscribe their learning according to inflexible curriculum timetables, but who will also not just let them run loose without helping them progress towards defined learning goalsand, when necessary, hold them to those goals and demand excellence. Without these sorts of structures, our most innovative schools risk forever remaining boutique options, as opposed to workable visions of what education could and should look like: not penguin, not hawk, but some third kind of bird, that could both endure and soar. The two also agreed that those who support or abet terrorism in any form should be held accountable, it said. New Delhi: India on Monday thanked the US for its firm support in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir last month, with both countries agreeing that Pakistan needs to take concerted action to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure and to deny safe haven to all terrorist groups in its territory. The two sides held talks during the ongoing three-day visit of foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale to Washington when he met US secretary of state Michael R. Pompeo. The meeting took close to India asking the US to examine whether the use of F-16 jets by Pakistan against India is in accordance with the terms and conditions of sale, an issue highlighted by New Delhi after a recent dogfight between fighter aircraft of the Indian and Pakistani Air Forces on February 27 in which the PAF used F-16s equipped with missiles against the IAF. The MEA said that Mr Pompeo also made a reference to bilateral trade matters during the talks in response to which foreign secretary (Gokhale) underscored the significant reduction in trade deficit in the last three years. In a statement from Washington, the MEA said, Foreign secretary conveyed appreciation to the US government and to secretary Pompeo personally for the firm support that India received from the US in the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Pulwama The two also agreed that those who support or abet terrorism in any form should be held accountable, it said. Mr Gokhales visit comes as India intensifies its efforts to declare Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist by the United Nations Security Council. The MEA said, They (Mr Gokhale and Mr Pompeo) expressed satisfaction over the significant progress and the quality of the India-US strategic partnership since Mr Pompeos visit to India in September 2018 for the first ever ministerial 2+2 dialogue. The foreign secretary and secretary Pompeo also discussed other issues of mutual interest including Afghanistan and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, and agreed to closely work together in this regard. RLSP leader Jitendra Nath dismissed Nagmanis allegations. Patna: Rumblings are likely in Upendra Kushwahas Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) as several leaders of his party may join Bihar chief ministers Nitish Kumar camp. The development comes a month after RLSP leader Nagmani was removed from the post of national executive president for indulging in anti-party activities. Talking to this newspaper on Monday, Mr Nagmani said, Most of the RLSP leaders a-re not comfortable an-d have decided to quit the party. Around 80 per cent of RLSP leaders will resign from the party on Tuesday. There is a buzz that Mr Nagmani is trying to persuade the JD(U) leadership to field him from te Karakat Lok Sabha constituency against Upendra Kushwaha. JD(U) insiders, however, said that there are many strong candidates but the party is currently busy discussing seat allocations with other NDA partners. Earlier on several occasions, Mr Nagm-ani had accused the RLSP leadership of selling Lok Sabha tickets to candidates who had no political backing. He said, The Motih-ari ticket has been pr-omised to somebody who offered `9 crore to Kushwaha. However, senior RLSP leader Jitendra Nath dismissed Mr Nagmanis allegations and blamed Mr Kumar of fuelling a crisis by conspiring to split the party ahead of the 2019 general elections. Sources said that Mr Nagmani wanted two tickets, one for himself and the other for his wife, and when the party turned down his request, he launched a campaign against Mr Kushwaha. Efforts are being made to destroy the RLSP in Bihar ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Everyone is aware that Mr Kumar is trying to engineer a split by wooing our leaders, RLSP leader Jitendra Nath said. The revolt in the RLSP had begun after Mr Kushwaha walked out of NDA in December last year over seat-sharing differences with the BJP leadership. In the last two months, four RLSP leaders, including two of his MLAs Lalan Paswan and Sudhanshu Shekhar, have left the party. Political analysts see this as a major setback to Mr Kushwaha who is trying to bargain with the RJD and Congress for a sizeable seat share to contest in the general elections. Sources claim that the RJD has offered four seats to Mr Kushwaha. 4 civilians killed in regime attacks in Syria's Idlib Six civilians were also injured in attacks, including women and children. Four civilians were killed in attacks by regime forces and Iran-backed terror groups on residential areas in Syria's northwestern Idlib late Sunday, according to the White Helmets civil defense agency. Mustafa Haj Yusuf, head of the White Helmets in Idlib, told Anadolu Agency that 51 rockets struck the town of Khan Shaykhun in Idlib's south, killing four and injuring six, including women and children. HUNDREDS OF CIVILIANS WERE KILLED On Sunday, regime forces also attacked a center of the White Helmets in Idlib, killing a civil defense worker. A day earlier, a volunteer was killed when another White Helmets center was hit by a warplane, which belonged to Russia, according to the opposition. Regime attacks in Idlibs de-escalation zone are estimated to have killed at least 121 civilians and injured more than 348 others since the beginning of 2019. In September 2018, Turkey and Russia agreed to turn Idlib into a demilitarized zone after a meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his counterpart Vladimir Putin in Russia's coastal city of Sochi. Ankara and Moscow signed a memorandum of understanding calling for the stabilization of the situation in Idlib's de-escalation zone, in which acts of aggression are prohibited. Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to UN officials. North Koreans vote in parliamentary elections North Koreans voted in parliamentary elections on Sunday, with only a single candidate registered for each constituency, according to South Korean state-run news agency. North Koreans went to the polls Sunday for an election in which there could be only one winner. 'DEMOCRATIC' ELECTION Leader Kim Jong Un's ruling Workers' Party has an iron grip on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as the isolated, nuclear-armed country is officially known. Polls are held every five years to elect rubber-stamp parliament in North Korea. North Korea held first parliamentary elections in 2014, under the leadership of Kim Jong-un, in which 99.97 percent of all registered voters had participated. North Korean voters, aged 17 or older, have started to cast their ballots at 9 a.m. local time. As of 3 p.m. local time, 92.35 percent of all registered voters had cast their ballots, according to North Korea's KCNA news agency. Voting closed at 6 p.m. local time (0700GMT). Trade ties in focus as Iran's Rouhani begins Iraq visit Iranian President Hassan Rouhani sharply criticized US military intervention in the Middle East on Monday as he began a first official visit to Iraq, aimed at shoring up Tehrans influence and expandi The visit also sends a strong message to Washington and its regional allies that, in the face of US sanctions, Iran still plays a dominant role in Iraqi politics. Prior to his departure, Rouhani said Shiite Iran was determined to strengthen brotherly ties with its neighbour, Iranian state television reported on Monday. "CANNOT FORGET THE BOMBS THAT AMERICANS DROPPED OVER" Those ties cannot be compared to Iraqs relations with an occupying country like America, which is being hated in the region, the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted him as saying before he left. One cannot forget the bombs that Americans dropped over Iraq, Syria and other regional countries. During the three-day visit a series of agreements will be signed in energy, transport, agriculture, industry and health, Irans state news agency IRNA said. We are very much interested to expand our ties ... particularly our transport cooperation, Rouhani said at Tehrans Mehrabad airport. He will visit a Shiite Muslim shrine in Baghdads Khadhimiya district prior to a welcome ceremony, the offices of Iraqs president and the prime minister said. A senior Iranian official accompanying Rouhani told Reuters that Iraq was another channel for Iran to bypass Americas unjust sanctions ... This trip will provide opportunities for Irans economy. Turkey receives Best Overseas Destination" prize Numerous events organized by Turkey for the promotion of Turkey across China in 2018, Year of Turkish Tourism. Turkey was awarded the Best Overseas Destination" prize at the 6th Road Trip Festival 2019 in China, according to a Turkish ministry. YEAR OF TURKISH TOURISM 6th Road Trip Festival 2019 was organized by China Self-Driving Club as part of the "I Driver Ceremony" event in Shanghai, the largest city of China, according to the statement made by Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Numerous events were organized by the ministry for the promotion of Turkey across China after 2018 was celebrated in China as the "Year of Turkish Tourism". The fire of Anatolia performed Troy musical in April as part of the Year of Turkish Tourism activities organized by Ministry of Culture and Tourism at China. The Turkish dishes prepared by the chef Deniz Ahmet Kose and his team were presented to the Chinese people at the "China Outbound Tourism and Travel Market" exhibition. The team of Zhejiang Television, one of the biggest TV channels in China, was hosted in Fethiye district of Turkey's southwestern Mugla province. Turkish cuisine was introduced to China's tourism sector, to representatives of state institutions, and to opinion leaders and diplomatic missions of other countries in 2018. The number of Chinese tourists rose by 59.38 percent to 394,000 in 2018 thanks to the activities organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism at China. US criticism of Russian S-400 deal goes too far No one can threaten Turkey, and suggesting cancellation of F-35 deal ill befits NATO allies, says ruling party spokesperson. US criticisms of Turkeys deal to buy a Russian S-400 missile defense system have gone too far, said the spokesman for Turkeys ruling party on Monday. "THE REMARKS HAVE CROSSED THE LINE" They have reached the unreasonable point of suggesting the US might cancel its deal to sell Turkey F-35 fighter jets, something unworthy of a NATO ally, added Celik. The remarks have crossed the line, Omer Celik, the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party spokesman, told reporters in the capital Ankara. "Allies can solve issues by talking," he said, adding that no one can threaten Turkey. US officials have suggested that Turkey should buy US Patriot missiles rather than the Russian system, arguing the S-400 is incompatible with NATO systems. But Turkish officials shot back that Turkey will not go back on its agreement with Russia, even if it were to also buy Patriots, and also complained that up to now its allies have been unwilling to sell it missile defense. US weapons end up in the Middle East, says report More than half of all weapons exports from the US defense factories passed in the last five years in the Middle East. The volume of international transfers of major arms in 201418 was 7.8 percent higher than in 200913 and 23 percent higher than in 20042008, according to new data on arms transfers published today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). WEAPONS ARE IN HIGH DEMAND IN GULF REGION The ve largest exporters in 201418 were the United States, Russia, France, Germany and China. Together, they accounted for 75 percent of the total volume of arms exports in 201418. The flow of arms increased to the Middle East between 200913 and 201418, while there was a decrease in flows to all other regions. According to the report, US arms exports grew by 29 percent between 200913 and 201418, and the US share of total global exports rose from 30 percent to 36 percent. The gap between the top two arms-exporting states also increased. US exports of major arms were 75 percent higher than Russias in 201418, while they were only 12 percent higher in 200913. More than half (52 percent) of US arms exports went to the Middle East in 201418. Weapons from the USA, the United Kingdom and France are in high demand in the Gulf region, where conflicts and tensions are rife, says Pieter D. Wezeman, Senior Researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Programme. BINGHAMTON, NY -- Researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York have developed a new device that could help minimize scarring during surgery. The device can ascertain the orientation of skin tension lines, which is important for wound-healing post-surgery. Human skin is a complex tissue that exhibits properties that arise primarily from the alignment of collagen fibers in the dermis layer of the skin, ultimately causing skin tension lines. These lines are vital for surgery, as they are used to guide incisions that produce the least conspicuous scars. While there are many skin tension guidelines to help surgeons make incisions that create unnoticeable scars, skin anisotropy, or the skin's property of having directionally dependent mechanical properties, is believed to vary from subject to subject, with no single guideline universally recognized as the best to implement for surgical applications. "Skin is easier to stretch in one direction than another (try stretching the skin on your wrist along the length of your arm, and then at 90 degrees to this)," said Guy German, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Binghamton University. "This has been known for a long time. More recently, however, it has been discovered that these lines have important implications. Firstly, surgeons (primarily cosmetic surgeons) use these lines to decide on which direction to make incisions in order to make the least-conspicuous scars. If you make incisions across the direction that collagen is aligned, the risk of keloid scar formation (raised scars that can grow larger than the original injury) is increased. Cut along the direction of the aligned collagen and wounds heal better and produce less scarring. Surgeons currently use either skin tension line maps (of which there are many, and often different) or manual manipulation to find the local orientation of skin tension. Manual manipulation is often inaccurate, and our research demonstrates that skin tension line directions differ between people -- so maps are only approximate." The new device created by the researchers is more accurate than other devices and the manual tests that surgeons perform. The device is also more efficient, as it only uses a single test that lasts a few seconds to measure skin tension orientation. "Our device can measure the skin tension line direction accurately and quickly," said German. "Other devices exist that do this. However, many devices require more than one measurement to establish the direction, and the devices that use a single test can currently only measure the skin tension direction to an accuracy of 45 degrees. Rather than using guidelines, our device directly measures the skin tension direction, avoiding the need to use maps or guidelines. We believe our device is more reliable and accurate than existing methods." German said he hopes this device becomes a staple tool used by surgeons. "We hope that this device will one day be a common piece of equipment in operating rooms. Surgeons will use the device to quickly and accurately establish skin tension line directions, and plan their incisions to minimize scarring," he said. ### The paper, "Non-invasive in vivo quantification of human skin tension lines," was published in Acta Biomaterialia. (Boston)--Vasan Ramachandran, MD, FACC, the Jay and Louise Coffman Professor in Vascular Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), delivered the prestigious William B. Kannel, MD, Memorial Lecture during the American Heart Association's (AHA) 2019 EPI/Lifestyle Scientific Sessions held in Houston. The Lecture was established in 2013 jointly by the AHA's Council on Epidemiology and Prevention and the American Society of Preventive Cardiology to honor Dr. Kannel's dedication to the field of cardiovascular epidemiology. Ramachandran discussed the fundamental concepts of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and the landmark contributions to understanding these risks over the past six decades. "CVD risk nests biologically within cells, tissues, key organ systems, and species - and sociologically within individuals, families, communities and populations. Structural, macrosocial, economic, cultural and societal factors influence human behavior, lifestyle choices, and, consequently, impact individual susceptibility to the development of CVD risk factors and their progression over of a lifetime," he explained. Ramachandran joined BUSM as an associate professor of medicine in 1998 and was promoted to professor in 2006. He was appointed professor of epidemiology at BU School of Public Health in 2013. Currently, he serves as chief of the section of preventive medicine and epidemiology in the department of medicine, principal investigator and director of the renowned Framingham Heart Study, with which he has been affiliated for the past 19 years, and was the founding Editor of Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics. He received his medical degree from, and completed his residency in internal medicine and fellowship in cardiology at, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. He is the recipient of many RO1 awards and a mid-career clinical investigator award ((K24) from the National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung, Blood Institute. Over the last 25 years, Ramachandran has made major contributions to the genetic and non-genetic epidemiology of congestive heart failure; population-based vascular testing, echocardiography and exercise testing; the genetic and non-genetic epidemiology of high blood pressure; and cardiovascular disease risk prediction models. His many awards and honors include the BUSM's department of medicine's Evans Scholar and Outstanding Mentor awards in 2010; Outstanding Mentor, American Heart Association (AHA) Council on Epidemiology Prevention in 2012; and the AHA's prestigious Population Science Award in 2014. ### Until recently, physicians had generally assumed that older adults benefit from keeping their blood pressure below 140/90 mmHg. However, researchers from Charite - Universitatsmedizin Berlin have now found that this assumption does not apply to all patients with high blood pressure. The reality is, in fact, quite the opposite: lower blood pressure is associated with an increased risk of death in adults over the age of 80, and in adults who have previously had a heart attack or stroke. Results from this study have been published in the European Heart Journal*. Approximately 70 to 80 percent of 70-year-olds have high blood pressure - a condition which, over the long term, can lead to cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and stroke. Physicians refer to professional guidelines when deciding how to treat a person with high blood pressure. In order to protect against cardiovascular disease in people over the age of 65, the European guidelines recommend a target blood pressure of below 140/90 mmHg. While the same target values apply in persons over the age of 80, additional factors, such as an individual patient's comorbidities, should be taken into account. Professional associations in the US even go so far as to recommend a target value of under 130/80 mmHg for all patients aged over 65. The scientific debate over which target values produce the best outcomes in older patients with high blood pressure remains ongoing. Using an observational study design, Charite researchers were able to show that blood pressure-lowering (antihypertensive) drugs administered to achieve target levels of under 140/90 mmHg do not always have a protective effect. Results were even more pronounced for target levels below 130/80 mmHg. These findings are based on epidemiological data from more than 1,600 men and women, all of whom were receiving treatment for high blood pressure and were aged 70 or over at the beginning of the study in 2009. The researchers found that mortality was 40 percent higher in 80-year-olds with blood pressure levels below 140/90 mmHg than in those whose blood pressure exceeded 140/90 mmHg. Observations were similar in participants who had previously had a heart attack or stroke. Notably, mortality was 61 percent higher among patients whose blood pressure was under 140/90 mmHg than in patients whose blood pressure remained above this level despite antihypertensive treatment. "Our results show clearly that, within these groups of patients, antihypertensive treatment should be adjusted based on the needs of the individual," explains the study's first author, Dr. Antonios Douros of Charite's Institute of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology. He adds: "We should move away from the blanket approach of applying the recommendations of professional associations to all groups of patients." The epidemiological data used were collected as part of the Berlin Initiative Study (BIS), which is led by Prof. Dr. Elke Schaffner, Deputy Director of Charite's Institute of Public Health. At two-yearly intervals, researchers asked participants about their medical conditions and medicines, measured their blood pressure and kidney function, and analyzed both blood and urine samples. After six years, the data were statistically analyzed to determine whether and to what extent blood pressure might have an effect on mortality. This analysis took into account other potentially relevant factors, such as gender, body mass index, smoking status, alcohol consumption, diabetes and the number of antihypertensive drugs. "As a next step, we want to study which groups of patients actually benefit from antihypertensive treatment," remarks Prof. Schaffner. ### *Douros A et al., Control of blood pressure and risk of mortality in a cohort of older adults: the Berlin Initiative Study. Eur Heart J. 2019 Feb 25. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehz071. The Berlin Initiative Study (BIS): The Berlin Initiative Study (BIS), which started in 2009 and includes approximately 2,000 older adults, is investigating the way in which kidney function develops over time. The aim of this study is to improve the medical care of patients over 70 years of age who have chronic renal failure. The BIS forms part of Charite's Institute of Public Health and is led by Prof. Dr. Elke Schaffner. All of the study's participants are insured via statutory health insurance providers AOK Nordost. The BIS involves researchers from Charite's nephrology departments on Campus Virchow-Klinikum and Campus Benjamin Franklin, the hospital Vivantes Klinikum im Friedrichshain, and the University Hospital Tubingen's Institute of Clinical Epidemiology and Applied Biometrics. Rahul was referring to release of Azhar in exchange of hostages of hijacked Indian Airlines plane IC-814 in 1999. Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday courted in a controversy after he referred to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as 'Ji', prompting an instant attack from the BJP leaders. (Photo: ANI) New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday courted in a controversy after he referred to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as 'Ji', prompting an instant attack from the BJP leaders. "In Pulwama, there was a bomb explosion. 40-45 of our CRPF personnel were martyred. Who carried out the bomb attack in the (CRPF) bus? Jaish-e-Mohammad. You might remember Masood Azhar. During the previous government of the 56-inch people, today's NSA Ajit Doval went in an aircraft with Masood Azhar ji and handed him over," Rahul said while addressing a party function here. Rahul was referring to release of Azhar in exchange of hostages of hijacked Indian Airlines plane IC-814 in 1999. Indian Airlines plane was hijacked during its flight from Kathmandu to Delhi and was taken to Kandahar in Afghanistan. No sooner Rahul made the comment, BJP slammed him and accused him of loving terrorists. "#RahulLovesTerrorist" started trending on Twitter from the BJP's official handle minutes after Rahul Gandhi's comment. "Rahul Gandhi is filled with respect for Masood Azhar who is chief of JeM which is responsible for taking lives of 44 of our brave soldiers in Pulwama. #RahulLovesTerrorists," tweeted BJP. "What is common between Rahul Gandhi and Pakistan? Their love for terrorists. Please note Rahul jis reverence for terrorist Masood Azhar - a testimony to #RahulLovesTerrorists", tweeted union minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani, along with the short video of the Congress President's comment for reference. Congress leader Shakeel Ahmed sought to downplay the issue, saying, "if he (Rahul) said 'ji', it is just use of dignified language." He, however, said the BJP should answer as to who had accompanied Azhar in an aircraft to leave him free in Kandahar. The cytoskeleton is a structure that not only helps cells maintain their shape and internal organisation, but also enables them to perform functions like movement and migration, that is to say, the movement that takes cells far from the place where they are initially located. Migration forms an essential part of the spread of cancer cells from the place where they first formed to another organ or tissue (metastasis). So far, this association is not fully understood: how is the mechanical force generated by the cytoskeleton transformed into a biochemical signal that controls cell migration? During his work at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), Daniel Lietha (who has now moved to the Biological Research Center, CIB-CSIC) led an international study that has answered this question. He worked jointly with the teams headed by Hermann Gaub (Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Germany) and Frauke Grater (Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, Germany). The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), has found that the protein FAK is one of the key molecules that respond to the forces generated by the cytoskeleton, activating biochemical signals regulating cell adherence and migration. These findings can help broaden the knowledge of how tumor invasion and metastasis are initiated. Focal adhesion kinase, or FAK, is present in the cytoskeleton and the cell anchorage to the components of its external surroundings. "It is a signaling molecule that is key in a structure activated by forces that are generated by the contraction of the actin filaments in the cytoskeleton," explains Lietha, co-corresponding author of the study. "Until now, it was unclear whether FAK can act as a sensor to these forces required for cell movement. Based on the hypothesis that FAK is such a sensor, we carried out our study," he adds. A force activating cell movement The researchers who took part in the study used atomic force spectroscopy to simulate the forces generated by the contraction of actin filaments in the cytoskeleton. They found that FAK changed as a response to these forces. One of these changes was related to the shape that FAK adopts when it activates the biochemical signaling involved in cell migration. Atomic force spectroscopy is a technology that allows to study the behaviour of various specimens under force, from intact cells to single molecules. "Actually, we have used a specific configuration of this technology pioneered by Hermann Gaub's team at the LMU, whose sensitivity and precision provide measurements of a single molecule with a high degree of accuracy," says Lietha. Thanks to this technology, researchers have obtained detailed mechanical information on FAK which together with knowledge of its atomic structure, previously described by Lietha, can be interpreted in terms of how force induces changes in the structure to activate FAK. The Molecular Biomechanics group at HITS has simulated this process on high performance computers to obtain a fully dynamic view of these events. "We successfully uncovered key steps in FAK activation in great detail", says group leader Frauke Grater. "We could show that this signaling protein not only gets activated by force but also stays active while being further stretched out." The mechano-environment of a cell influences its behavior. The focal adhesion kinase acts as sensor for changes in the extracellular and intracellular framework. "In single-molecule atomic force microscopy experiments and steered molecular dynamics simulations, we could show a force-mediated opening of the auto-inhibitory complex of FAK and, consequently, the activation of the kinase," describes Magnus Bauer, first author of the publication and graduate student in the group of Hermann Gaub at the LMU, the experimental approach in Munich. In cells, the mechano-activation of FAK is triggered upon stress between the cytoskeleton and the extracellular matrix. "With FAK it seems we found the first non-muscle enzyme to be directly activated by mechanical force," highlights Bauer. "Transferring our data into cellular systems, we assume that translation of physiological forces into the biochemical signals could be one way to trigger the migration of cancer cells." These are key findings to go deeper into the study of tumor invasion and metastasis. "In tumors, stiffening of the stroma results in increased forces that activate signaling pathways via FAK, that strongly promote tumor invasion and metastasis," says Lietha. The stroma is a tissue that surrounds cancer cells in tumors and affects their progression. Understanding how stroma stiffening and its implication in the activation of adhesion signaling are related to tumor invasion, may provide the basis for the development of therapies targeting this mechanism. Now that it has been found that the forces generated by the cytoskeleton prompt conformational changes in FAK, further studies are needed to directly measure the biochemical signals in response to mechanical forces. ### The study has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the European Regional Development Fund, the Volkswagen Foundation, Worldwide Cancer Research, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Klaus Tschira Foundation, the State of Baden-Wurttemberg (Germany) and the European Research Council. Reference article: Structural and mechanistic insights into mechanoactivation of Focal Adhesion Kinase. Magnus Sebastian Bauer, Fabian Baumann, Csaba Daday, Pilar Redondo, Ellis Durner, Markus Andreas Jobst, Lukas Frederik Milles, Davide Mercadante, Diana Angela Pippig, Hermann Eduard Gaub, Frauke Grater, Daniel Lietha (PNAS, 2019). DOI: https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1820567116 Discovery allows scientists to look at how 2D materials move with ultrafast precision. Using a never-before-seen technique, scientists have found a new way to use some of the worlds most powerful X-rays to uncover how atoms move in a single atomic sheet at ultrafast speeds. The study, led by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energys (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and in collaboration with other institutions, including the University of Washington and DOEs SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, developed a new technique called ultrafast surface X-ray scattering. This technique revealed the changing structure of an atomically thin two-dimensional crystal after it was excited with an optical laser pulse. Extending [surface X-ray scattering] to do ultrafast science in single-layer materials represents a major technological advance that can show us a great deal about how atoms behave at surfaces and at the interfaces between materials. Argonne scientist Haidan Wen Unlike previous surface X-ray scattering techniques, this new method goes beyond providing a static picture of the atoms on a materials surface to capture the motions of atoms on timescales as short as trillionths of a second after laser excitation. Static surface X-ray scattering and some time-dependent surface X-ray scattering can be performed at a synchrotron X-ray source, but to do ultrafast surface X-ray scattering the researchers needed to use the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray free-electron laser at SLAC. This light source provides very bright X-rays with extremely short exposures of 50 femtoseconds. By delivering large quantities of photons to the sample quickly, the researchers were able to generate a sufficiently strong time-resolved scattering signal, thus visualizing the motion of atoms in 2D materials. Surface X-ray scattering is challenging enough on its own, said Argonne X-ray physicist Hua Zhou, an author of the study. Extending it to do ultrafast science in single-layer materials represents a major technological advance that can show us a great deal about how atoms behave at surfaces and at the interfaces between materials. In two-dimensional materials, atoms typically vibrate slightly along all three dimensions under static conditions. However, on ultrafast time scales, a different picture of atomic behavior emerges, said Argonne physicist and study author Haidan Wen. Using ultrafast surface X-ray scattering, Wen and postdoctoral researcher I-Cheng Tung led an investigation of a two-dimensional material called tungsten diselenide (WSe 2 ). In this material, each tungsten atom connects to two selenium atoms in a V shape. When the single-layer material is hit with an optical laser pulse, the energy from the laser causes the atoms to move within the plane of the material, creating a counterintuitive effect. You normally would expect the atoms to move out of the plane, since thats where the available space is, Wen said. But here we see them mostly vibrate within the plane right after excitation. These observations were supported by first-principle calculations led by Aiichiro Nakano at University of Southern California and scientist Pierre Darancet of Argonnes Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), a DOE Office of Science User Facility. The team obtained preliminary surface X-ray scattering measurements at Argonnes Advanced Photon Source (APS), also a DOE Office of Science User Facility. These measurements, although they were not taken at ultrafast speeds, allowed the researchers to calibrate their approach for the LCLS free-electron laser, Wen said. The direction of atomic shifts and the ways in which the lattice changes have important effects on the properties of two-dimensional materials like WSe 2 , according to University of Washington professor Xiaodong Xu. Because these 2-D materials have rich physical properties, scientists are interested in using them to explore fundamental phenomena as well as potential applications in electronics and photonics, he said. Visualizing the motion of atoms in single atomic crystals is a true breakthrough and will allow us to understand and tailor material properties for energy relevant technologies. This study gives us a new way to probe structural distortions in 2-D materials as they evolve, and to understand how they are related to unique properties of these materials that we hope to harness for electronic devices that use, emit or control light, added Aaron Lindenberg, a professor at SLAC and Stanford University and collaborator on the study. These approaches are also applicable to a broad class of other interesting and poorly understood phenomena that occur at the interfaces between materials. A paper based on the study, Anisotropic structural dynamics of monolayer crystals revealed by femtosecond surface X-ray scattering, appeared in the March 11 online edition of Nature Photonics. Other authors on the study included researchers from the University of Washington, University of Southern California, Stanford University, SLAC and Kumamoto University (Japan). The APS, CNM, and LCLS are DOE Office of Science User Facilities. The research was funded by the DOEs Office of Science. About Argonnes Center for Nanoscale Materials The Center for Nanoscale Materials is one of the five DOE Nanoscale Science Research Centers, premier national user facilities for interdisciplinary research at the nanoscale supported by the DOE Office of Science. Together the NSRCs comprise a suite of complementary facilities that provide researchers with state-of-the-art capabilities to fabricate, process, characterize and model nanoscale materials, and constitute the largest infrastructure investment of the National Nanotechnology Initiative. The NSRCs are located at DOEs Argonne, Brookhaven, Lawrence Berkeley, Oak Ridge, Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories. For more information about the DOE NSRCs, please visit https://science.energy.gov/bes/suf/user-facilities/nanoscale-science-research-centers/. Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nations first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance Americas scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energys Office of Science. The U.S. Department of Energys Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit the Office of Science website. ### In their secUnity roadmap, 30 renowned European IT security experts of the BMBF-funded secUnity collaboration outlined how digital threats on the European level can be responded to more efficiently in the future. Among these experts also are researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Today, the secUnity scientists will present the roadmap in Brussels and hand it over officially to the ENISA European Union Agency for Network and Information Security. Information transmission, transport, industrial production, research, administration - hardly any area can manage without modern information and communication technologies. At the same time, the number of cyber attacks that become known is increasing constantly. Such attacks on digital infrastructures by criminals or state organizations threaten our prosperity, the security of our societies, and eventually, our freedom and democracy. At an evening event at the representation of the state of Hesse with the European Union in Brussels, secUnity scientists will discuss "Civil Cyber Security Research for Digital Sovereignty" with representatives of the European Parliament and European Commission. Then, the secUnity roadmap will be published officially and handed over to the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security. "The hazard potential of cyber attacks in highly developed countries cannot be overestimated," warns Professor Jorn Muller-Quade, Spokesman of KIT's Competence Center for IT Security KASTEL. Within secUnity, IT security experts from all over Germany cooperate. Apart from the three national competence centers KASTEL, CRISP, and CISPA, specialists of the universities of Darmstadt and Bochum and of the Fraunhofer Institutes for Applied and Integrated Security (AISEC) and for Secure Information Technology (SIT) are involved. Cyber security experts have long criticized that companies and public institutions are not adequately prepared for digital threats. On the contrary: due to progressing networking and digital trends, such as Industry 4.0, smart homes, or autonomous cars, potential points of attack by cyber criminals even increase. In the roadmap initiated by the secUnity collaboration and funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), more than 30 European authors now identify future challenges and potential solutions. Among the problems analyzed are the security of embedded systems, machine learning, lacking awareness, and fake news. Then, measures to enhance security are outlined. The experts strongly criticize the frequent use of hardware solutions without any IT security check. This threatens digital sovereignty of Europe. "This situation might be improved by European testing institutes that independently analyze the technology," says Professor Michael Waidner, Director of the National Research Center for Applied Cyber Security CRISP and of the SIT Fraunhofer Institute in Darmstadt. Moreover, open-source software and hardware solutions should be developed transparently in the EU. But approaches to developing trustworthy European solutions are not sufficient to effectively protect interconnected systems, as they will continue to incorporate a large number of inexpensive, but insecure hardware and software components in the future. Using the smart home as an example, Professor Claudia Eckert, Director of the AISEC Fraunhofer Institute in Munich, says: "We need solutions to minimize the risks of such components and to operate the systems in a resilient way. Cameras, door openers, heating controls, any automatic device at home may be the gateway for big attacks. Secure gateways to connect insecure components ensure that sensitive information will not leave home and control components cannot be accessed from outside." Resilience in spite of uncalculable components has to be guaranteed in particular for critical infrastructures, such as healthcare and energy supply systems, as well as for public authorities and companies. Development of quantum computers that is being pushed worldwide also entails major risks. Jorn Muller-Quade warns: "A quantum computer big enough to threaten the security of current cryptographic methods has not yet been built, but this might change quickly. Current progress in quantum technology is such that we have to take precautions today already. We have to provide our complex interconnected systems with reliable encryption methods. These still remain to be studied in more detail." Also artificial intelligence methods with their many new applications are associated with severe risks for IT security: machine learning processes can be attacked easily by specific manipulations during the learning and operation phases. "Before these technologies can be applied in critical areas or to improve the quality of life, trust in these processes and in their reliability will have to be placed on a scientific basis," Professor Thorsten Holz from Ruhr-Universitat Bochum demands. The new opportunities associated with the information society, such as smart grids that make everyday life more comfortable and help save energy, give rise to questions regarding the legal basis and in particular data security legislation. "In view of the fundamental risks caused by the digitization of entire industry sectors and of critical infrastructures, such as power and energy supply, we urgently need a harmonized legal framework for IT security in Europe," says Dr. Oliver Raabe of KIT's Center for Applied Legal Studies (ZAR). Legal standards as to which risks are acceptable and which security measures can be taken by companies still remain to be developed. The same applies to requirements relating to quality assurance and integrity of big data. In addition, citizens who increasingly use complex communication systems have to be supported in protecting their privacy and IT security. "Research is therefore aimed at e.g. developing methods for a privacy advisor. When uploading photos or messages, such methods are to assess the risks and to reveal how much additional private information is disclosed by the publication. This would help citizens use social networks confidently," says Professor Michael Backes, founding director of the CISPA Helmholtz Centre for Information Security. As data inventories are getting larger and larger, many companies will be given new possibilities of innovation, but there will also be the risk of losing an apparently secure market position in the digital era. "Data as such are not the petroleum of the 21st century. They will only come into value, if business models are developed that make them valuable. And valuables deserve special protection," explains Peter Buxmann, CRISP scientist and Professor of Information Systems and Information Technology as well as Director of the HIGHEST startup innovation center of Technische Universitat Darmstadt. Citizens have to become aware of the value and protection needs of their data. On the other hand, use and further processing of data have to be transparent and fair price models of suppliers have to be implemented. "Politically speaking, we should therefore move away from the principle of data economy towards data sovereignty and we should request and support fair business models," Buxmann underlines. "To master all these challenges, civil cyber security needs an interdisciplinary network of experts for civil cyber security research on EU level," summarizes secUnity speaker Jorn Muller-Quade. ### For further information, click here: https://it-security-map.eu/en/home/ Press contact: Margarete Lehne, Press Officer, Phone: +49 721 608-21157, Fax: +49 721 608-43658, Email: margarete.lehne@kit.edu Being "The Research University in the Helmholtz Association", KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility and information. For this, about 9,300 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 25,100 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. This press release is available on the internet at http://www.sek.kit.edu/english/press_office.php. Two proposals submitted by teams, led by scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, have been selected to analyze unopened Apollo samples. The proposals were selected under The Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis or ANGSA program. Its goal is to is maximize the science derived from samples returned by the Apollo Program in preparation for future lunar missions anticipated in the 2020s and beyond. The newly selected proposal teams will conduct research on specially curated materials from the Apollo 15 and 17 sample collections, including samples that were collected on the Moon and never opened on Earth, as well as samples that have been in cold storage since their initial processing after return to Earth. The first team, led by principal investigator Jamie Elsila, will study the abundances of volatile compounds that may be precursors to amino acids that have been detected previously in lunar samples. The study will seek to understand if organic compounds are better preserved in shadowed regions on the Moon, and if their abundances vary by depth, which can help scientists better understand lunar chemistry. The work will be carried out in Goddard's Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory. "This is a unique and exciting opportunity to use state-of-the-art techniques on lunar samples that have been preserved for almost 50 years and to study questions that scientists at the time may have asked but didn't have the ability to answer," said Jamie Elsila from Goddard. "It's a privilege to have access to these special samples and we hope to contribute not only to increase our knowledge of lunar chemistry but also to improve our understanding of how to best preserve samples returned by future NASA missions." Complementing Elsila-Cook's work with organic molecules, a team led by Natalie Curran and Barbara Cohen will use noble gases to investigate the geologic history of the samples. Noble gas abundances reflect how long a sample has resided at the lunar surface, being exposed to the damaging effects of cosmic rays, which may affect the organic material. The team will also use noble gas ratios to investigate geologic events (e.g., impacts, landslides) that were important in shaping the surface from which the pristine samples were collected. This work will be conducted at Goddard's Mid-Atlantic Noble Gas Research Lab (MNGRL), the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and the Carnegie Institution. "Getting the chance to work on these samples is like participating in a completely new mission to the Moon," Curran said. "Even though these are Apollo samples, they've never been opened, and we don't know what surprises are in store for us. I'm excited to have a part in our generation's era of exploration of the Moon." ### NASA is going to the Moon and on to Mars, in a measured, sustainable way. The direction from Space Policy Directive-1 builds on the hard work NASA is doing on its SLS and Orion spacecraft, agency efforts to enable commercial partners, its work with international partners at the International Space Station in low-Earth orbit, and what NASA learns from its current robotic missions at the Moon and Mars. Learn more at: https://www.nasa.gov/moontomars Nancy Neal Jones NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center nancy.n.jones@nasa.gov Researchers examined a group of eighth-grade students in Chicago and whether their schools emphasized the value of diversity in their mission statements They measured multiple biomarkers of students' cardiovascular health -- inflammation, insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome Students of color who attended schools that valued diversity showed better cardiovascular health The schools that emphasized diversity in their mission statements and those that did not were similar in racial composition; the difference was in their values EVANSTON, Ill. --- Students of color who attend schools with a culture that emphasizes the value of diversity -- specifically schools whose mission statements mention goals such as serving a diverse student body and appreciating diversity and cultural differences -- show better cardiovascular health than peers whose schools do not express such values, according to a new collaborative study done by researchers at Northwestern and Stanford universities. This same pattern did not emerge among white students. Using a diverse sample of eighth-graders who attended more than 100 different schools in the greater Chicago area, the researchers categorized schools as emphasizing diversity if they had mission statements that mentioned: the goals of respecting or valuing diversity serving a diverse student body, including racially or culturally diverse perspectives in the curriculum, offering bilingual instruction and helping students develop an awareness of other racial, ethnic or cultural groups meeting students' cultural needs or preparing students to live in a multicultural or global world Cynthia Levine, lead author of the study, said some people might wonder whether schools whose mission statements emphasize the value of diversity are really different environments from schools whose mission statements do not, or is this just rhetoric. "We used another sample of schools in Chicago to check this, and we showed that schools whose mission statements mention diversity are schools where students of color are more academically successful and less likely to be disciplined," said Levine, who conducted the research at Northwestern as a postdoctoral student and is now an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Washington. "For students of color, these schools that emphasize diversity are different environments in concrete ways," she added. "They may feel more supported and valued there, in a way that matters for their health. "There's research showing that when schools and workplaces recognize and appreciate diversity, people of color are more engaged and successful. Our work suggests that similar environments also can be good for health." There's research showing that people who report they have experienced racial discrimination have worse health, Levine said, adding that their work suggests that it's not only experiences of poor treatment that are linked to the health of people of color, but also potentially whether diversity is valued and explicitly recognized in their environments. Levine and her co-authors looked at multiple biomarker outcomes -- inflammation, insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome -- that previous research has prospectively linked to the development of cardiovascular disease later on in life. Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of disability and death in the U.S., and there are racial disparities in its prevalence and mortality rates. "In our work, it's not just that students of color are being discriminated against," Levine said. "In fact, we statistically control for students' self-reported experiences of discrimination." Going forward, the researchers would like to understand more about what is happening in schools that emphasize diversity that makes them healthier environments for students of color. They have established that these are environments where students of color are more academically successful and disciplined less harshly. Levine thinks that "these schools may also have more teachers of color, have the perspectives of people of color represented in the curriculum to a greater degree, or have teachers who otherwise treat students of color in a more positive, supportive and inclusive manner." "These findings are innovative in suggesting that a positive school climate around diversity can promote better cardiovascular health among students of color," said Greg Miller, senior author of the study, professor of psychology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern and faculty fellow with the University's Institute for Policy Research. "They need to be replicated, of course, but if they are, there may be implications for mounting preventive interventions in the school context around diversity and inclusion and studying how such efforts affect children's lifestyle and physiology." ### "Students of color show health advantages when they attend schools that emphasize the value of diversity" will be published next week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In addition to Levine and Miller, co-authors include Hazel Markus, Stanford University; and Makeda K. Austin and Edith Chen, Northwestern University. More news at Northwestern Now Find experts on our Faculty Experts Hub Follow @NUSources for expert perspectives Ohio University study states that information literacy must be improved to stop spread of 'fake news' ATHENS, Ohio (March 11, 2019) - It's not difficult to verify whether a new piece of information is accurate; however, most people don't take that step before sharing it on social media, regardless of age, social class or gender, a new Ohio University study has found. A new study conducted by Ohio University professor Dr. M. Laeeq Khan found that several factors can be used to predict someone's ability to detect misinformation, otherwise known as "fake news," on social media. Additionally, the study found that, by looking at certain factors, it is also possible to predict if someone is likely to share misinformation based on the same factors. The study, titled "Recognise misinformation and verify before sharing: a reasoned action and information literacy perspective," was published in the journal Behaviour and Information Technology. "This is a pioneering study that helps understand why individuals would share misinformation on social media using a theoretical lens and information literacy factors," Khan said. The idea for the current study came from a larger research project in which Khan investigated the spread of misinformation on social media during past U.S. elections. In this study, Khan wanted to take a look at misinformation as a whole. "Fake news and misinformation could be rightly termed as the major issues of our time. Almost every other study in this realm falls short of highlighting the vital role of individuals in halting the spread of misinformation," Khan said. To test the research hypotheses that predict the sharing of misinformation, Khan decided to extend his work from a U.S. framework to gather data in Indonesia. Indonesia is not only one of the largest social media markets in the world, the country has caught news headlines for fighting misinformation and hoaxes, especially during its election season. The study asked participants to rate their perceived internet skills, self-esteem and internet experiences as well as their attitudes towards fact-checking online information, belief in reliability, and how often participants shared information without fact checking. There were 396 participants in the study, which found that age, social class and gender did not play a huge part, but rather media and information literacy was found to be the biggest factor in recognizing misinformation. "The important role of information literacy is often taken for granted. It was found that information verification skills such as simply Googling some new piece of information and not sharing it right away could prove beneficial in halting the spread of misinformation," Khan said. "In addition, information verification attitude greatly mattered." Those who have a strong belief in the reliability of the information are more likely to share information online without verification. "Online users must possess an attitude of healthy skepticism when any information comes their way. Such an attitude of information verification by individuals can prove to be a major counterweight to the rising misinformation online," Khan said. While many respondents said that they felt it was important to share verified information, some do not have the media or information literacy to accurately assess whether information they are sharing is in fact correct. The study found that people from lower education levels, lower income and those newer to the internet would benefit most from learning additional information literacy. ### Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU), in consortium with LUT University and Central Research Institute of Structural Materials "PROMETEY" develop energy-efficient installations based on the use of wind power to supply consumers in the Arctic. The research project EFREA was awarded in the framework of South-East Finland - Russia Cross-Border Cooperation Program 2014-2020. The project aim is to achieve advances on the following topics: welding processes and methods, materials for arctic conditions, light-weight structures, standards and patents, coatings, and 3D manufacturing and corrosion protection. "Our program area is an emerging cluster for Arctic technology development, which utilizes extensive Russian and Finnish experience and have high scientific competence and technical knowledge. To remain competitive in the field of Arctic engineering, strong cross-border cooperation is needed and institutional frameworks should be established. The project will assess the usability of new high-strength materials and advanced joining methods for application in various Arctic structures," - said Associate professor Paul Kah, the EFREA project manager. "The problems of energy supply is very acute in the Northern regions. The delivery of the organic energy resources to these areas is very expensive. In addition, the emissions of fuel combustion products, as well as storage of the spent fuel barrels cause significant environmental damage to the Arctic nature," said professor Viktor Elistratov, director of the Scientific and Educational Center "Renewable Energy Sources and Installations based on them" SPbPU. The scientist also added that using the wind energy resources in the Arctic region is difficult due to the harsh climatic conditions: icing of wind turbine blades and the metal becomes brittle due to low temperatures. Due to off-road and a short summer period, there are serious problems with the manufacturing of the foundation of the installation and its assembling. At the first stage of the project, the scientific group should determine the type and design parameters of the modular type wind turbine, which is to be developed based on the principles of digital design. Researchers will assess the natural and climatic characteristics and wind potential of the Arctic region and identify the most effective zones and extreme climatic factors for designing and manufacturing of the wind turbine. It should be noted that scientists consider the possibility of calculating both grounds and floating (underwater) installation. Taking into account the features of the Northern Sea Route operation, the large water surfaces of the northern seas and lakes in Russia and Finland, the manufacturing of such installations opens up tremendous prospects for the ecological energy supply to remote Arctic regions. The Finnish participant of the consortium is the LUT University, which has extensive experience in the development and implementation of Arctic materials. "We have a long-term experience in collaboration with LUT University," said Professor Sergei Parshin, the Head of the department "Theory and Technology of Welding Materials" of SPbPU. He added that supervisor of the project from the Finland Paul Kah has been a visiting professor at St. Petersburg Polytechnic University for the three years in now and successfully combines work in the joint research project with teaching students. The third participant in the consortium, the Central Research Institute of Structural Materials "PROMETEY" is engaged in analyzing the types of materials, which can be used in the manufacturing of structural elements and the construction of the installation in Arctic conditions. The result of the project should be a prototype (digital twin) of a wind turbine adapted to northern conditions, as well as a geographic information system with wind potential, natural and climatic characteristics (including extreme ones). As an educational aspect of the project implemented in the framework of the European program "Cross-Border Cooperation", the obtained results will be used in programs curriculum for students of SPbPU and LUT University relevant departments. The students will be able to work on their undergraduate and masters diplomas in the framework of real-life an international project. ### A team led by the Rutgers Institute for Translational Medicine and Science that includes Princeton University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology has received a National Institutes of Health grant for $29 million over five years for joining the NIH's Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program (CTSA). The CTSA program at Rutgers University will be known as NJ ACTS: New Jersey Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science. Additional funding from the institutions will grow the program to about $45 million. Translational science takes observations made in the laboratory, clinic and community and creates interventions that improve the health of individuals and populations - from diagnostics and therapeutics to medical procedures and behavioral interventions. "The ultimate goal is bringing more evidence-based treatments to more patients more quickly," said Reynold Panettieri, vice chancellor for Translational Medicine and Science and director of Rutgers Institute for Translational Medicine and Science (RITMS). "In addition, our partnership with RWJBarnabas Health gives us a great opportunity to expand our clinical research, connecting the basic science research done by our 200+ investigators to patient care statewide." NIH supports a national network of more than 50 CTSAs at medical research institutions nationwide that collaborate to speed the translation of research discoveries into improved patient care. It enables research teams, including scientists, patient advocacy organizations and community members, to tackle system-wide scientific and operational problems in clinical and translational research that no one team can overcome. The grant will allow Rutgers and its partners to train and cultivate the translational science workforce; engage patients and communities in every phase of the translational process; promote the integration of special and underserved populations in translational research across the human lifespan; innovate processes to increase the quality and efficiency of translational research, particularly of multisite trials; and advance the use of big data information systems. The collaborative program develops innovative approaches to barriers in clinical research, such as the efficient recruitment of research participants and approvals for multisite clinical trials. Rutgers and its partners will build a new infrastructure for clinical and translational research across the entire state, which will give patients access to clinical trials with cutting edge care. In addition, NJ ACTS will have the capacity to analyze big data to discover trends in population health that can inform basic science research. It will also allow for diversity in clinical trials across Rutgers' five clinical research units, which include the Adult Clinical Research and Pediatric Clinical Research Unit at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and centers based at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers School of Dental Medicine, and Rutgers Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute. "This huge grant is a natural outgrowth of the integration of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and Rutgers, and the type of opportunity for New Jersey then envisioned by the state government. It will foster the further development of innovation in New Jersey," said Brian L. Strom, chancellor of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences and executive vice president for Health Affairs for Rutgers. "It would not have been possible without the combination of resources from these two large great universities as well as the funding provided through our partnership with RWJBarnabas Health. It indicates to the world and to New Jersey industry that New Jersey is now in the big leagues of academic clinical research." The grant also will build a pipeline for new clinical investigators by funding two positions a year for five years for junior faculty or professionals finishing their post-doctoral fellowship who can move into faculty positions with two years of guaranteed support. It will fund six positions for graduate students, who will be trained in translational and clinical research. The grant was awarded due to the strength of RITMS, the alliance between Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, Princeton and NJIT, and the partnerships with community-based organizations, hospitals, community health centers, outpatient practices, data centers and health information exchanges. It reaches nearly seven million of the state's nine million residents. ### The first findings to result from a collaboration between Seattle Children's Research Institute and Microsoft data scientists provides expecting mothers new information about how smoking before and during pregnancy contributes to the risk of an infant dying suddenly and unexpectedly before their first birthday. According to the study published in Pediatrics, any amount of smoking during pregnancy - even just one cigarette a day - doubles the risk of an infant dying from sudden unexpected infant death (SUID). For women who smoked an average of 1-20 cigarettes a day, the odds of SUID increased by 0.07 with each additional cigarette smoked. "With this information, doctors can better counsel pregnant women about their smoking habits, knowing that the number of cigarettes smoked daily during pregnancy significantly impacts the risk for SUID," said Dr. Tatiana Anderson, a researcher in Seattle Children's Center for Integrative Brain Research and lead author on the study. "Similar to public health campaigns that educated parents about the importance of infant sleep position, leading to a 50% decrease in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) rates, we hope advising women about this risk will result in less babies dying from these tragic causes." If no women smoked during pregnancy, Anderson and her co-authors estimate that 800 of the approximately 3,700 deaths from SUID every year in the U.S. could be prevented, lowering current SUID rates by 22%. Data deep dive provides detailed view of smoking's impact on SUID risk To better understand how smoking contributed to SUID risk, the researchers used computational modeling techniques to analyze maternal cigarette smoking habits for all U.S. live births from 2007 to 2011. Of the about 20 million live births included in their analysis, over 19,000 deaths were attributed to SUID with the specific cause of death occurring from SIDS, an ill-defined and unknown cause, or accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed. Beyond overall cigarette consumption, the researchers also looked at how smoking before pregnancy, and cutting back or quitting smoking during pregnancy, affected SUID risk. Compared to the over half of pregnant smokers who did not reduce their smoking during pregnancy, women who reduced cigarette consumption by the third trimester saw a 12% decrease in SUID risk. Successfully quitting smoking was associated with a 23% reduction in risk. Their analysis also showed that mothers who smoked three months before pregnancy and quit in the first trimester still incurred a higher risk of SUID compared to non-smokers. Need for smoking cessation before pregnancy Anderson says the data from this study supports public health efforts aimed at encouraging women to quit smoking well before pregnancy. "The most important takeaway is for women to understand that quitting smoking before and during pregnancy by far results in the greatest reduction in SUID risk," she said. "For pregnant women unable to quit entirely, every cigarette they can eliminate will reduce the odds of their child dying suddenly and unexpectedly from SUID." One of the study's co-authors, Juan Lavista, Senior Director of Data Science, AI For Good Research Lab at Microsoft, explains how the research team applied Microsoft Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) technology to better understand SUID and potentially save lives. "Using A.I., we built machine learning models that analyzed millions of pieces of data on child births and deaths, including mothers' smoking histories, allowing us to do something that was not done before: assess the impact that each additional cigarette has on SUID at this level of granularity," he said. "Through our AI for Humanitarian Action initiative, Microsoft data scientists will continue studying other causes of SUID alongside Seattle Children's and SUID experts around the world." ### Research carried out at SISSA in Trieste, Italy, confirms the similarities between rats, primates and artificial vision systems; a correspondence that paves the way to promising developments in the AI field "It is known that there are important similarities between the visual system of primates and the artificial neural networks of the latest generation. Our study shows how these similarities exist also with the visual system of rats, whose architecture is undoubtedly more primitive, if compared with the brain of primates, but whose functions and potential still remain largely unexplored". This is the comment by Davide Zoccolan, professor of neuroscience at SISSA, on the research conducted by his group, the Visual Neuroscience Laboratory, and recently published in The Journal of Neuroscience. The study, supervised by Professor Zoccolan and Dr. Federica B. Rosselli (a SISSA graduate and now postdoctoral researcher in the Caesar centre of the Max Plank Society in Bonn) and conducted together with Giulio Matteucci (first author), Rosilari Bellacosa Marotti and Margherita Riggi, provides new insights on the mechanisms used by neurons in rat visual cortex to encode the shape of visual objects. The results confirm the importance that rodents can have in the study of the neuronal basis of vision. They also suggest that the brain of these animals, in addition to that of the most evolved species, can inspire improvements to the so-called Artificial Deep Neural Networks, possibly helping them to "see" in a way that is increasingly more similar to their biological counterparties. "By exploring a progression of cortical areas that, in the rat brain, runs across the occipital and temporal lobes, we have found trends that are similar to those observed in the monkey visual system, with respect to the ability of visual neurons to represent increasingly complex shapes". Zoccolan continues "these trends, which are considered to be at the root of the extraordinary object recognition abilities of primates (including humans), are very similar to those found in deep neural networks, as confirmed by the simulations run in our study. Thus, our work provides further evidence about the existence of a hierarchy of visual areas, which are responsible for processing the shape of visual objects and forming mental representations of the world in the rat brain". The use of rodents to study high-level visual functions The visual cortex of humans and, in general, of primates, is organised hierarchically: different areas exist, which are responsible for representing progressively more abstract information: from the identification of borders between light and shadow in localised regions of the visual field, to the identification of the objects contained in an image. It is not clear yet if an equally advanced specialisation exists in the cortex of rodents. The study conducted at SISSA starts to clarify some of these doubts, confirming the existence of functional similarities between primates and rodents that open interesting prospects for future research. In fact, establishing how advanced the visual system of the rat is, compared to that of a superior mammal, is essential to understand if this species can be a good model to study the mechanisms at the root of high-level visual functions. On the other hand, understanding these mechanisms is a key step towards bridging the gap that still separates the perceptive skills of machines from our own. Models to develop artificial intelligence The research of Zoccolan's group lends itself to potential applications in the field of artificial intelligence. "We are increasingly directing our efforts at the interface between biological and artificial vision, using approaches of machine learning and deep neural networks. The advent of deep networks, which, in recent years, have revolutionized the field of artificial intelligence and machine vision, has also been possible thanks to the inspiration provided by the understanding of biological vision. For this reason, several scholars in the field of AI are convinced that further developments will come from better understanding biological intelligence. "If the neuronal mechanisms that allow processing visual information in biological systems will be better clarified, this knowledge could be applied to develop increasingly advanced and efficient algorithms to process and understand images and videos in artificial systems" concludes Davide Zoccolan. ### BJP criticism against the CM comes at a time when he is making all efforts to ensure his actor son's victory from Mandya. Kumaraswamy's wife Anitha is an MLA from Ramanagara, the seat vacated by her husband as he chose Channapattana out of the two seats he had contested and won in the May, 2018 state Assembly polls (Photo: File) Bengaluru: The Karnataka BJP on Monday accused Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy of using his official position to cater to the needs of his "family business", amid his moves to induct his son into politics. The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) criticism against the chief minister comes at a time when Kumaraswamy is making all efforts to ensure his actor son Nikhil Kumaraswamy's victory from the party stronghold of Mandya Lok Sabha constituency. The JD(S) had recently indicated that Nikhil would be the party candidate from Mandya. "CM @hd_kumaraswamy in last 8 months. 1st 2 Months - How to form govt, 3rd & 4th Month - How to help wife win elections, 5th & 6th Month - How to promote Son's movie, 7th & 8th Month - How to ensure Son win Mandya seat in MP election. CM seat is catering the needs of family business (sic)," the Karnataka BJP said in a tweet. CM @hd_kumaraswamy in last 8 months 1st 2 Months - How to form govt 3rd & 4th Month - How to help wife win elections 5th & 6th Month - How to promote Son's movie 7th & 8th Month - How to ensure Son win Mandya seat in MP election CM seat is catering the needs of family business. BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) March 11, 2019 Kumaraswamy's wife Anitha is an MLA from Ramanagara, the seat vacated by her husband as he chose Channapattana out of the two seats he had contested and won in the May, 2018 state Assembly polls. Nikhil is likely to be pitted against Sumalatha Ambareesh, wife of late actor-turned-politician Ambareesh, in Mandya. Sumalatha has made it clear that she would contest the polls from Mandya, which was earlier represented by Ambareesh, in spite of the Congress stating that the seat would go to its coalition partner, the Janata Dal (Secular). It is still not clear whether she will be contesting the polls independently or will take the support of the BJP as the saffron party too is looking to increase its prospects in the Vokkaliga bastion, where it is a weak player. With Sumalatha seen as a strong contender, banking on her late husband's popularity in the region, it is a prestige battle for Kumaraswamy and the JD(S) to retain the seat as the district is dominated by the party that has all the seven Assembly constituencies under its kitty. The JD(S) and the Deve Gowda family have also come under criticism in the social media for their plans to field Nikhil from Mandya and another grandson, Prajwal Revanna, from Hassan. Prajwal is the son of Kumaraswamy's elder brother and PWD Minister H D Revanna. A social media campaign titled "Go back Nikhil" was also launched in Mandya a couple of days ago to oppose the "dynasty politics" of the Deve Gowda family. Singapore, 5 March 2019 (Tuesday) - The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) has conferred the inaugural prestigious award of Scientist-Practitioner Presidential Recognition to Professor David Chan, Director of the Behavioural Sciences Institute and Professor of Psychology of the Singapore Management University (SMU) for his outstanding contributions in the combined science and practice in the field of industrial and organisational psychology. Professor Chan will be receiving the award at the Annual SIOP conference to be held next month in Washington, DC, United States. The SIOP, which has more than 10,000 members, is the largest organisation of industrial and organisational psychologists worldwide. It is devoted to the scientific study of working and the application of that science to workplace issues facing individuals, teams, and organisations. The Scientist-Practitioner Presidential Recognition award is an honour bestowed upon individuals whose works have made outstanding contributions and impact on both the science and the practice of industrial and organisational psychology, affecting the creation and dissemination of knowledge as well as workers and work practices in organisations. As stated by the SIOP, the award is a recognition of the individual's world-class stature in both the practitioner and scientific communities as demonstrated by notable contributions to both, with (1) "a history of conducting research in applied settings that has led to the creation of knowledge"; (2) "a pattern of aligning the interests of the practice and research communities with each other through practice, research, writing, and behaviour and thus modeling the scientist-practitioner model"; and (3) "a noteworthy pattern of disseminating knowledge about methods, procedures and practices through presentations and publications in a variety of outlets." Professor Chan is internationally known for his scientific and practice contributions in research methods, personnel selection and individual adaptability, as well as in many fields beyond industrial and organisational psychology, including personality and social psychology, particularly in his research on individual differences and social attitudes and how individuals make judgments and adapt to various changes across diverse situations. In addition to this latest prestigious award, Professor Chan has previously received numerous prestigious international scholarly awards from various scientific organisations. In April 2011, he was the first Asian to be appointed Elected Fellow of the SIOP. In the same year, he was named Elected Fellow of both the Association for Psychological Science (APS) and the American Psychological Association (APA), and a year earlier in 2010 he was presented the award of Elected Fellow of the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP). In 2017, both the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) and the American Psychological Association Division of Personality and Social Psychology (APA Division 8) conferred Professor Chan the Elected Fellow award, making him the first scientist in the world to receive Elected Fellow status from all the six major international organisations for psychologists (i.e., SPSP, APA Division 8, IAAP, SIOP, APS, APA). This is not the first time that Professor Chan made history in his field and for Singapore in the world stage. In 2003, he became the first non-American to receive the prestigious Distinguished Early Career Contributions Award presented by SIOP, and in 1999 he was the first non-American to receive the William Owens Scholarly Achievement Award. In 2000, he was ranked 9th worldwide in the list of Top 100 most published researchers of the 1990s in the top journals of Industrial and Organisational Psychology. In Singapore, Professor Chan has received numerous awards for his public service contributions, including the Outstanding Volunteer Award from the Ministry of Social and Family Development, the Special Recognition Honour by the Ministry of Home Affairs for outstanding contributions to the Home Team in the field of psychology, the Medallion Award for Distinguished Service from the Ministry of National Development, and the Public Administration Medal (Silver) National Day Award. Professor Chan, whose works have been cited over 10,000 times in various scientific disciplines, has served on an international committee with Nobel Laureate in Economics Professor Daniel Kahneman and four other psychologists that submitted to the United Nations a report on measures of national well-being across countries, which was subsequently incorporated in a report published by the United Nations. Professor Chan serves on various scientific advisory panels, national councils and boards in the public and people sectors. He is also a regular contributor to various media outlets in Singapore, including being an invited columnist writing commentaries for The Straits Times and a consultant to the Channel NewsAsia's "Social Experiments", which is a five-part programme series that examined human behaviours and social phenomena using scientific experiments and "Days of Disaster", which is a give-part documentary series that examined the lessons learned from previous disasters in Singapore. ### For media enquiries and interviews, please contact: Miss Corinne Kang Assistant Director, Corporate Communications, SMU DID: +65 68085238 Email: corinnekang@smu.edu.sg Professor David Chan Director, Behavioural Sciences Institute Singapore Management University Email: davidchan@smu.edu.sg About Behavioural Sciences Institute (BSI) The Behavioural Sciences Institute (BSI) is a multi-disciplinary research institute for creating, disseminating and applying scientific knowledge about human behaviours in various social, organisational and cultural settings. http://www.smu.edu.sg/institutes/bsi About Singapore Management University (SMU) A premier university in Asia, the Singapore Management University (SMU) is internationally recognised for its world-class research and distinguished teaching. Established in 2000, SMU's mission is to generate leading-edge research with global impact and to produce broad-based, creative and entrepreneurial leaders for the knowledge-based economy. SMU's education is known for its highly interactive, collaborative and project-based approach to learning. Home to over 10,000 students across undergraduate, postgraduate professional and post-graduate research programmes, SMU, is comprised of six schools: School of Accountancy, Lee Kong Chian School of Business, School of Economics, School of Information Systems, School of Law, and School of Social Sciences. SMU offers a wide range of bachelors, masters and PhD degree programmes in the disciplinary areas associated with the six schools, as well as in multidisciplinary combinations of these areas. SMU emphasises rigorous, high-impact, multi- and interdisciplinary research that addresses Asian issues of global relevance. SMU faculty members collaborate with leading international researchers and universities around the world, as well as with partners in the business community and public sector. SMU's city campus is a modern facility located in the heart of downtown Singapore, fostering strategic linkages with business, government and the wider community. http://www.smu.edu.sg With a price tag of up to 30,000 euro per kilogram, saffron is the most expensive spice in the world. Sometimes it even exceeds the price of gold. Its typical aroma is produced by the apocarotenoid Safranal. Saffron is harvested from the flowers of the saffron crocus (Crocus sativus), which blooms solely in autumn. In order to yield one kilogram of saffron - skilled pickers can collect 60 to 80 grams per day - 150,000 to 200,000 flowers must be harvested by hand. Subsequently, the three stigmas of each flower are also separated manually and dried. These threads then constitute the spice saffron. Approximately 200 tonnes of saffron threads are harvested worldwide each year. For many farmers in Mediterranean countries, Kashmir, India, Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, the production of saffron is the main source of income, since the saffron crocus also thrives in soils that cannot be utilised for agriculture. Even in the vicinity of Dresden, the cultivation of saffron has been recently restored after a centuries-long interruption that began in 1570. These local growers swear by the excellent quality of German saffron. Frost makes the plants more robust and the filaments more fragrant. Over the past millennia, saffron has been used as a spice, dye and as a medicine to treat rheumatism and alcohol addictions. For example, saffron was also used as a painkiller during childbirth and for "lady's malaise". According to Greek mythology, Zeus slept on a bed of saffron. In the 14th century "Saffron War of Balsthal", Swiss merchants were even ambushed and robbed. Due to its immense value, ground saffron is frequently adulterated by the addition of substances such as pollen from other flowers. Experts therefore advise consumers to buy whole threads. The saffron crocus is a triploid hybrid species, is sterile and cannot be bred. Although it has been cultivated for more than 3,500 years, all plants cultivated worldwide originate only from daughter bulbs. For almost 100 years, there has been controversy as to the possible parent species of the saffron crocus are. If the parent species were known, changes could be inserted into the crocus genome by new breeding. It is precisely this mystery that Dresden biologists have now solved. "We have managed to understand the origins of the saffron crocus and shed light on the parent species using molecular and cytogenetic methods," says Thomas Schmidt, Professor of Plant Cell and Molecular Biology at TU Dresden's Institute of Botany. "Our paper Adding color to a century-old enigma: multi-color chromosome identification unravels the autotriploid nature of saffron (Crocus sativus) as a hybrid of wild Crocus cartwrightianus cytotypes was accepted for publication in the renowned journal New Phytologist. The paper is the title story for the April print issue and the source of the cover picture for the edition published on 8th May." The saffron crocus therefore is descended from only one species, the wild species Crocus cartwrightianus that is found in Greece. Through saffron crocus genome sequencing and comparative chromosome analysis (Fluorescence in situ hybridization, FISH) of different crocus species, Dresden biologists were able to demonstrate that genomes of two Crocus cartwrightianus individuals with slight chromosomal differences are fused. These findings conclude the centuries-long search for the origins of this mythical plant. By the way: In order to preserve the fragrance, saffron should not be cooked for long. It is best to soak the threads in warm water for a few minutes and add them to the dish with the liquid when it is almost finished cooking. An even more intense colour can be obtained if the saffron threads are freshly ground. ### Astronomers have discovered a binary star system with the closest high-mass young stellar objects ever measured, providing a valuable "laboratory" to test theories on high mass binary star formation. An international team led by the University of Leeds has determined the distance between the massive young star PDS 27 and its orbiting stellar companion to be just 30 astronomical units away or 4.5 billion km. That is roughly the distance between our Sun and Neptune, making them the stellar companions with the closest proximity ever determined for young high mass stars in a binary system - a star system with two stars in orbit around a centre of mass. Study lead author, Dr Evgenia Koumpia, from the School of Physics and Astronomy at Leeds, said: "This is a very exciting discovery, observing and simulating massive binaries at the early stages of their formation is one of the main struggles of modern astronomy. With PDS 27 and its companion we have now found the closest, most massive young stellar objects in binaries resolved to date. "There is a shortage of known young massive binary systems in charted space. High mass stars have comparatively short lifespans, burning out and exploding as supernovae in only a few million years, making them difficult to spot. This limits our ability to test the theories on how these stars form." As part of their study the team has also identified a companion object for another young massive star referred to as PDS 37. The analysis revealed a distance between PDS 37 and its companion to be between 42 to 54 astronomical units -comparable to the distance between the Sun and Pluto. While further apart than PDS 27 and its companion, it is still a significant discovery given the need for confirmed massive young stellar binaries in astronomical research. Dr Koumpia continued: "How these binary systems form is quite a controversial question with several theories having been put forward. Observational studies of binaries in their early stages are crucial to verifying the theories of their formation. "PDS 27 and PDS 37 are rare and important laboratories that can help inform and test the theories on the formation of high mass binaries." PDS 27 is at least 10 times more massive than our Sun, Dr Koumpia explained, and about 8,000 light years away. To determine the presence of stellar companions for PDS 27 and PDS 37, the team used the highest spatial resolution provided by the PIONIER instrument on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). This instrument combines light beams from four telescopes, each of which is 8.2 metres across, and mimics a single telescope with a diameter of 130m. The resulting high spatial resolving power allowed the team to resolve such close binary systems despite their huge distance from us and their close proximity to each other. Study co-author Professor Rene Oudmaijer, also from the School of Physics and Astronomy at Leeds, said: "The next big question - which we have tended to avoid so far because of observational difficulties - is why so many of these massive stars are in binary systems?" "It has become increasingly clear to astronomers that massive stars are almost never born alone, with at least one sibling for company. But the reasons why that is the case are still rather murky. "Massive stars exert significant influence on their cosmic environment. Their stellar winds, energy and the supernova explosions they generate in turn can impact the formation of other stars and galaxies. The evolution and fate of high-mass stars is quite complex but previous studies have shown that they can be influenced to a large degree by their binary properties. "The discovery of massive young binary stars provides a crucial step forward in being able to answer many of the questions we still have about these stellar objects. These discoveries were only possible thanks to the exquisite resolving power provided by the PIONIER instrument on the VLTI." This research is published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics: Letters. ### Further information: The study "Resolving the MYSO binaries PDS 27 and PDS 37 with VLTI/PIONIER" is published in Astronomy & Astrophysics: Letters 11 March 2019 (DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201834624) Full list of authors: E. Koumpia, K. M. Ababakr, W. J. de Wit, R. D. Oudmaijer, A. Caratti o Garatti, P. Boley, H. Linz, S. Kraus, J. S. Vink, J.-B Le Bouquin Further information relating to PIONIER can be found on the ESO website. For any additional information please contact University of Leeds Media Relations Officer Anna Harrison on a.harrison@leeds.ac.uk or +44 (0)113 343 4196. Images: PDS27 (attached) Caption: 2MASS observations (background image) revealed a highly reddened source back in 2003 indicating the massive young nature of PDS 27. PIONIER on VLTI provides 2000 times higher angular resolution making it possible to resolve PDS 27 as a binary system for the first time in 2019. Credit: Evgenia Koumpia, University of Leeds Binary formation figure (recommended image, available for download: https://public.nrao.edu/gallery/binary-star-formation/) An artistic view illustrating one of the main theories on how orbiting pair stars form. A young star is surrounded by a rotating disk of gas and dust, with its companion forming within the fragmenting disk. Credit: B. Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF VLT Unit Telescopes (recommended image, available for download: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1139a/) All four VLT Unit Telescopes working as one Credit: G.Hudepohl (atacamaphoto.com)/ESO The PIONEIR instrument (recommended image, available for download: https://www.eso.org/public/images/ann1081a/) Credit: ESO & B. Lazareff (LAOG) Acknowledgements: S.K. acknowledges support from an ERC Starting Grant (Grant Agreement No. 639889). A.C.G. has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 743029). University of Leeds The University of Leeds is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK, with more than 38,000 students from more than 150 different countries, and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. The University plays a significant role in the Turing, Rosalind Franklin and Royce Institutes. We are a top ten university for research and impact power in the UK, according to the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, and are in the top 100 of the QS World University Rankings 2019. The University was awarded a Gold rating by the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework in 2017, recognising its 'consistently outstanding' teaching and learning provision. Twenty-six of our academics have been awarded National Teaching Fellowships - more than any other institution in England, Northern Ireland and Wales - reflecting the excellence of our teaching. http://www.leeds.ac.uk Follow University of Leeds or tag us in to coverage: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Instagram About DIAS Dr Alessio Caratti o Garatti is a researcher from the School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS). As the world's second, and Ireland's only, Institute for Advanced Studies, DIAS is a globally embedded institution that attracts scholars and academics from around the world. It conducts and publishes advanced research across three disciplines: Celtic Studies, Theoretical Physics and Cosmic Physics (encompassing Astronomy, Astrophysics and Geophysics). DIAS also leads Ireland's participation in a number of international research endeavours that focus on big unanswered questions for mankind. Further information is available at http://www.dias.ie. Follow DIAS on social media: Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) The Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg is an institute of the Max Planck Society, Germany's largest organization for fundamental research. The two science departments at MPIA address cardinal questions of cosmic evolution: How do stars and planets form, and what can we learn about planets orbiting stars other than the Sun? How do galaxies form, and how have they changed in the course of cosmic history? Furthermore, MPIA hosts a versatile instrumentation department that is involved in building cutting-edge instruments for the VLT(I), LBT, and the E-ELT, as well as for space-borne missions like JWST, EUCLID, and WFIRST. http://www.mpia.de | @mpi_astro A college campus may not seem like a place that requires extensive lactation support. But while most undergraduates don't have children, several populations within these higher-education environmentsgraduate students, faculty, staff, visitorsmay need access to breastfeeding and pumping spaces. Diane Spatz of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has been advocating for and researching the needs of breastfeeding moms for nearly two decades. Most recently, she and colleagues from the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and the Center for Public Health Initiatives, both at Penn, and the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) turned their attention to the availability of such a resource on college and university campuses. In a study published in the journal Breastfeeding Medicine, the researchers found that nearly all of the 105 institutions surveyed had a least one dedicated lactation space. About two-thirds reported having a policy for creating such spaces, but only about a quarter included them in campus construction standards. "There are many different types of women who may need to access lactation space when they're on a university campus. That's why this work is really cool and so important, because there is definitely a need," says Spatz, a perinatal nursing and nutrition professor at Penn who also runs CHOP's lactation program. "Beyond that, we're getting these ideas into the hands of the people making the decisions about space on campus. On the majority of campuses, no one is thinking about this as a standard." The project emerged after a student of Spatz's asked 139 universities across the country whether they had lactation policies in place for their students. Just five percent did. So in 2015, when Dare Henry-Moss joined the Penn master's in public health program as a student, the issue was already top of mind for Spatz. The two began working together. At around the same time, Spatz met Joyce Lee, an architect who teaches at PennDesign and is a faculty advisor at the Wharton School Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership. Lee also works closely with SCUP, which expressed interest in pursuing research on the subject. Lee connected everyone and the project came to life, spurred by a mutual excitement for what all parties saw as a crucial yet unexplored topic. "For so long this type of gender-specific space has not been in any best-practice standards," says Lee, president of design firm IndigoJLD Green Health. "Now we're creating an environment where presidents, provosts, real estate managers, planners, designers can discuss it as a network of health-promoting spaces. An interdisciplinary collaboration is critical to getting this work done." So, too, are solid numbers, so the research team created a survey that asked participants who on campus was involved in planning for and funding lactation spaces, how many there were, and whether the institution tracked use of the space. They also went further in depth, asking what percentage of the campus population lived or worked within a seven-minute walk of a lactation space, and how many of the rooms had features such as a locking mechanism, a hospital-grade pump, or personal storage for users. Across the country, representatives from every campus size"small" schools with fewer than 5,000 undergrads to "very large schools" with more than 30,000responded. They came from public schools and private, some with graduate divisions, some without. Their responses painted a clear picture about how universities and colleges across the U.S. think about this issue. Some do more than others, yet even those places already moving forward have room to grow. SCUP and the researchers hope to help in that regard, not simply by publicizing the statistics their work revealed, but also with a resource page they created that lives on the SCUP website. "Now there's a place where a campus administrator interested in doing more can go," Spatz says. "This is often looked at from a human resources standpoint, as an employee benefit, but it's not just that. It's a bigger-picture item." It's all in the name of making the process a little simpler for breastfeeding moms. "I've said this before. I've said it a million times. All the onus is on the woman to figure it out herself," Spatz says. "Moms shouldn't have to work so hard to be able to meet their personal breastfeeding goals. We need to make it easier." ### Diane Spatz is a professor of perinatal nursing and the Helen M. Shearer Professor of Nutrition at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. She is also a nurse researcher and manager of the lactation program at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dare Henry-Moss is an adjunct fellow at the Center for Public Health Initiatives. She was formerly a research coordinator for the Perelman School of Medicine and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and earned her master's in public health from the University of Pennsylvania in 2017. Joyce Lee is president of design firm IndigoJLD Green Health and has taught at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a faculty advisor at the Wharton School Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership. Kathleen Benton of the Society for College and University Planning also collaborated on the paper. Packaging: Faced with the threat of insurgent brands, how can established conformists adapt? By Dominic Twyford, Business Director, FITCH In India, for too long packaging has been the most overlooked and underutilized marketing tool, a perverse statement when you consider its vital importance. The pack is the best-owned media that a brand could wish for, delivered directly into a customers hands when they are in a buying mind-state. There is no intermediary or third-party involvement, it is purely a connection between brand and consumer. An effective pack is next in importance only to the product itself. Yet, for most, its a mere container, with its true value and effectiveness ignored. Its time to redefine packaging, for starters lets call it a marketing channel, not tool. Enter Insurgent brands. With typically less budget to spend on brand building, these are new brands that are willing to challenge and fight traditional conformists, or more established brands and are choosing to do it through packaging. Insurgents look and act differently While bigger brands might initially attract shoppers to the aisle via multi-crore marketing campaigns, insurgents are backing themselves to come into consideration at the actual point of purchase - the ultimate moment of truth for a brand. This thinking is liberating. Gone is the obsession with category conventions and what the competition is doing, instead, the new focus is single-minded and wonderfully selfish. The end results are clearly targeted propositions and genuinely disruptive designs. Bira 91 is proof that thinking like an insurgent brand can create significant value. Bira has single-handedly established the craft beer category in India by creating a brand that resonates with Indias young, aspirational urbanites. The brand identity and packaging doesnt obsess with cueing provenance or traditional brewing techniques, instead, it concentrates on promoting fun and proving its accessibility by using a very funky monkey as its identity. Not only has the brand created a new category, but it has also raised millions of dollars of investment and according to press reports intends to enter five new international markets. From a global perspective, take for example Van Leeuwen, artisanal ice cream in the US. Faced with increased competition the brand took the bold decision to de-clutter their packaging, removing all superfluous graphics. What remained was a statement in total confidence, a perfectly crafted identity and a sumptuous colour palette that dials up taste and communicates the purity of the product. Proof of their success A new metric, that identifies great packaging? Instagram posts. Whether by accident or design, when worthy, consumers are now taking pictures of their packaging and posting them on social media. Given the fact that consumers are now directors, editors, and publishers in their own right, and that the content they generate is a reflection of themselves, their status, beliefs, and values it stands to reason that brands become part of their personal narrative. Forget functional packaging, or even an emotional response to packaging, their packaging transcends both to become self-promotional. It isnt only about social media likes, research numbers support the success of insurgents. A recent Nielsen study discovered that from 2011 onwards, the biggest food and beverage companies have driven just 3% of the total growth in the industry. The largest contributors, by far, have been the small insurgents, adding to 50% of the growth. How are traditional conformists reacting? Scale, larger marketing budgets and more developed supply chains used to protect big brands from smaller challengers, but these advantages are being eroded. Social media and digital channels provide the means to create buzz and establish reach cheaply, and online shopping provides a sales platform irrespective of a physical retail footprint. Some big brands understand the threat and are reinventing themselves or rethinking how they operate. Casting a view across the globe, Unilever are choosing to acquire new brands by prolifically spending on disruptive brands like Dollar Shave Club, The Vegetarian Butcher and the T2 gourmet tea brand. Other big brands are choosing to masquerade as smaller, more artisanal brands. Fever Tree have turned the mixer market upside down by placing as much focus on the mixer as the premium alcohol that it accompanies. In response, Coca-Cola-owned Schweppes has created the 1783 range of mixers inspired by the alchemy of founder Jacob Schweppe. Diageo owned Guinness is confronting the popularity of new craft beers by launching new experimental beers that use low key branding to promote traditional brewing credentials. But, a long term solution? Takeovers and pretense seem to be working for now, but are these sustainable solutions? Brands need to start looking beyond the current horizon and focusing on inside out solutions. This is something that Nestle India has understood very well. They are finding ways to become proactive rather than being merely reactive like other conformists. For the last three years, they have partnered with FITCH and together, we have created the first of its kind, Nestle Design Lab. The Design Lab consists of a FITCH team working within Nestle Indias HQ on brand, packaging and POS briefs from across all of their business units. This arrangement is developing a culture of creativity at the heart of the business by providing an inspirational place where brand and marketing managers can collaborate on a daily basis with design industry experts. Why this works The result is a flatter structure and a narrowing of the gap between business strategy and design. New opportunities can be quickly identified, tested, prototyped and launched into the market. The relationship between client and agency is no longer based on a brief, and design is no longer a linear process, instead, briefs are co-created, ideas freely shared and brand teams are now equipped to be more responsive. The end result is a multinational benefitting from the power of established global and domestic brands (with huge brand equity and valuable histories) employing more nimble practices, more at home in a startup culture. Just remember When assessed individually, insurgents remain small in size, but as a whole, they now pose a problem far greater than the sum of their parts. Their approach is redefining the design process and challenging conventional wisdom about category rules and behavior. Like Nestle, rather than shy away from the challenge, big brands need to fundamentally rethink how they operate and redefine their rules of engagement. The first priority should be to build an environment and culture where new and agile thinking can flourish, enabling brands to move quickly and decisively. The second priority involves loosening the shackles of the big brand playbook where restrictive processes and conventional thinking can easily kill fresh ideas. Instead, this needs to be replaced with an entrepreneurial zest that focuses on bold but considered decision making. Conformists cant become insurgents overnight and nor should that be their goal, however, rather than fear insurgents, there is plenty that can be learned from them. Domestic and international brands are benefiting A good example of such a project would be the recent Munch emoji Crunch Macha campaign. The Munch team wanted to find new ways to capture the attention of Indias youth. Quickly, with the Design Lab we were able to rapidly prototype a wide range of themes and ideas that would connect with young India, ideas that we didnt believe in were just as swiftly cast aside. The campaign was brought to life on-pack through a limited edition run, the solution that was born from packaging design then went on to influence our social and digital brand communications. The work is a perfect example of how an initial idea can be turned in to a tangible piece of on-brand work that quickly gets to market. In this case, we were able to showcase Munchs understanding of how Indias youth communicate with each other and prove the relevance of Munch to this audience by Indianising the global phenomena of emojis. The effectiveness of the Design Lab has also been felt on Maggi. Unlike Munch, Maggi is a global brand with guidelines that come from Europe. A global shift has seen Nestle reposition Maggi, moving it from a snacking brand to a cooking brand. Our on-site design facility and expertise meant that we had the ability to redesign the Maggi portfolio while looking at it through the lens of Indias consumer. The end result is a range revamp with a single point of view that balances global requirements with local nuances. The advantages of creating a common vision between business and agency partner. By Rashi Goel, VP Consumer Communications and e-commerce, Nestle India The creation of the Design Lab within Nestles office has provided our organisation with a number of benefits. Being under one roof has a number of practical advantages including improved turnaround times, greater access to designers and simplified operations. While these are helpful, removing the physical divide with our agency partner is of deeper significance to the wider Nestle business and our design outcomes. Consolidating and formalising our relationship with FITCH means that we have created a partnership in the truest sense. The FITCH team that work on our brands are fully invested and over time have built up a considerable understanding of our brands, our business priorities, and Nestles culture. Crucially, their presence in the same office means that marketing and brand teams have greater access to the creative process and strategic design and this infuses more creativity into the brand building culture for Nestle. Standardised briefing processes have improved the clarity of our thinking and greater participation in collaborative brainstorms and creative discussions have led to a growing number of breakthrough projects. Design, whether it be for packaging or POS has traditionally been viewed as a bolt on to the marketing function. Finding a home for design within our organization has elevated its importance, the Design Lab is now part of the fabric of Nestle and how we operate. While weve narrowed the gap between our business and design, more importantly, by focusing on how our brands appear in the hands of our consumers we have narrowed the gap between ourselves and our customer. (The authors, Dominic Twyford, is Business Director, FITCH and Rashi Goel is VP Consumer Communications and e-commerce, Nestle India) Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not in any way represent the views of exchange4media.com Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India) USD/GBP Exchange Rates Surge on Attorney Generals Brexit Legal Advice UPDATE: The Pound to US Dollar (GBP/USD) exchange rate had the rug pulled out from beneath it on Tuesday afternoon, after the UKs Attorney General warned Theresa Mays hard won concession from the EU could still leave the UK in the EU customs union indefinitely. This appeared to scupper any chances of the deal passing later in the evening and resulted in Sterling being assailed by Brexit jitters. However helping to trim the pairing losses was the release of the latest US CPI figures, with a slight dip in domestic inflation further dampening hopes of a rate hike from the Federal Reserve in 2019 PREVIOUSLY: The US Dollar Pound Sterling (USD/GBP) exchange rate is down today and is currently trading around 0.7647 on the inter-bank market. Sterling (GBP) rose against the US Dollar (USD) today following Prime Minister Theresa Mays announcement that tomorrows meaningful vote will go ahead, dispelling rumours that she would delay the vote due to the political deadlock between the UK and the EU over the Irish backstop issue. The Pound further benefited from news that Theresa May was likely to return to Strasbourg this evening to meet with the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, in an attempt to finalise a Brexit deal ahead of tomorrows important parliamentary vote. This has caused the Pound to soar today following the previous deadlock between the EU and the UK over the Irish backstop issue, and with signs of progress this has relieved pressure on GBP. The US Dollar, meanwhile, has struggled against the Pound today despite better-than-expected US retail sales figures for January which came in at 1.1%. Dollar Exchange Rates Drop as US Political Volatility Increases The Greenback has been weakened by on-going political volatility in the US today, with President Donald Trump due to ask Congress for $8.6bn to build the controversial Mexican border wall, which will be under his budget proposals for the 2020 fiscal budget. Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer hit back at Trumps demand, saying: [He has] hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos. Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again. This has increasingly put pressure on the US Dollar as the political divide between the White House and the House of Representatives shows no signs of easing. USD/GBP Exchange Rate Forecast: US Dollar Could Rise if Mays Deal is Voted Down US Dollar traders, meanwhile, will be looking ahead to tomorrows speech by the Chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, and with any bullish comments about the state of the US economy, this could prove Greenback-positive. Tomorrow will also see the release of the US CPI figures for February, which are expected to hold steady. Pound investors, however, will be looking ahead to the publication of the UK manufacturing production figures for January tomorrow, which are expected to improve. These will be followed by the UK GDP figures January, which are expected to improve at 0.2%. The USD/GBP exchange rate will remain sensitive to Brexit developments tomorrow, and with any signs of Mays Brexit deal failing to gain backing within Parliament, this could see the US Dollar soar against the Pound. Even without knowing your personal situation, in terms of it being 'off the employers radar' my advice is don't even go there. If Spain is your main residence, tax and social security payments will be due in Spain, from you and your employer. This means usually the UK part of your company setting up a shadow payroll in Spain (basically a payroll for the UK entity so they can withhold income tax/PAYE and Social Security) and they may also need to pay corporate tax - especially if you are creating what is called a 'Permanent Establishment' - read up on it. I had to transfer to a Spanish employment contract and be on a Spanish payroll. If you're not having tax/SS withheld both you and your company would face hefty fines for non-payment. It's a big deal. There's no other way around it usually, although I have heard of people setting themselves up as autonomo/self-employed and setting up a T.R.A.D.E. contract with a sole employer, but its messy and expensive. Remember you don't get a choice where you pay your taxes, and if we do exit the EU without a deal at the end of March, you will only be able to come as a 3rd country citizen (on a similar basis to the US, Australia or any other non-EEA country) and you will need to earn a minimum salary (I think it is quite low at 27K Euros) and would have to show regular income, social security cover (or private health care with no co-pay). A UK contract or money in a UK bank wouldn't cut it - they need to see money in the Spanish account. That's just for residency - and for tax/social security you'd have to be fully above board. Hey, teachers, teachers aides, librarians and other public school workers youre paying too much for products pushed by insurance companies in your retirement plans! While fixed and variable annuities make up more than three-quarters of the products in public school employees 403(b) retirement plans nationwide, theyre so expensive that only insurers could love them. Theyre perfectly legal, so whats the big deal, you may ask. Well, as I argued in last weeks column, loading up teachers retirement plans with these annuities shouldnt be legal. These products cost retirees $10 billion per year in costs, according to independent analysis by Aon Hewitt in 2016. This takes a bit of explaining but would be clear to any independent financial adviser. By independent, I mean not paid by an insurance company. First, lets talk about why the products are bad for school employees, and second, how its difficult to change the status quo in Texas. This is a game rigged by the insurance industry, at the expense of public school employees. Over their careers, public school workers in Texas contribute to the Teachers Retirement System, qualifying in retirement for 2.3 percent of their salary for every year served. Work for a school system for 20 years, for example, and youll qualify for 46 percent of your income guaranteed for life. (Because 2.3 times 20 is 46). Thats a fine deal for employees, and very safe and lovely. A prudent portfolio manager would tell you that you dont need more fixed-income annuities anchoring and by anchoring, I really mean more like sinking the process of building up your retirement account. Fixed annuities are bad in this scenario because they offer a very low return for school employees. Thats not what the insurance salesman is telling them, but its what an independent adviser would tell them. Variable annuities are even worse because they charge extraordinary fees every year TRS allows them to charge between 1.9 percent and 2.7 percent per year, but more on that later and extra fees if you ever want to get out. Variable annuities are one of the Four Horsemen Of Your Personal Financial Apocalypse. (Ill try to get that phrase copyrighted, thank you very much. Since you asked, the other three horsemen are gold, bitcoins and time shares.) School district employees, if youve already set up your 403(b) account with that nice insurance salesman after the meeting in the teachers lounge, I know you ended up with a variable annuity product in your 403(b) account because thats what theyre paid to sell you. Its hard to fully describe just how broad the consensus is among noninsurance folks about the inappropriateness of variable annuities because of their high costs. They are the kind of product one sells but never buys. The people who like them are salespeople. Now Im talking directly to school district employees: Why should you believe me rather than that nice insurance salesman who brought you free pizza and put you into an annuity rather than a brokerage product? Because Im not being paid either way. But he is. He is well-paid if you buy an annuity product, especially a variable annuity. Hes likely paid a 5 percent commission on your initial investment, and between 1 percent and 2 percent of your contributions thereafter. Now thats what I call a great long-term annuity! For. The. Salesman. When a problem that could be easily solved persists like the status quo of public school 403(b) plans in Texas its worth asking: Why? Who benefits? The answer to the first question often lies in some regulatory and legislative garbage fire of complexity. Within that complexity, incumbents with lobbying power at the Legislature can squash solutions as they occasionally arise. Speaking of which, lets talk about the last time TRS attempted reforms to 403(b) plans, in 2017. TRS staff periodically reviews rules and fees in 403(b) plans, which have been in place since 2002, and makes recommendations for changes to the systems board of directors. For context: One of the great developments of the past 15 years in investment management has been the astonishing drop in fees for brokerage products, thanks to competition from low-cost providers such as Vanguard, Fidelity and Charles Schwab. Since 2002, investment providers to 403(b) in Texas have seen their fees capped at 2.75 percent per year by TRS. Also for context: That is a crazy-high cost in this day and age. These days, 1 percent is arguably a reasonable fee for a retirement product, although competition has driven many fees in many fine products down to a fraction of that 1 percent benchmark. (I checked all my own accounts, and Im paying 0.16 percent on my most expensive fund.) But 403(b) providers in Texas have been allowed to charge between three and 20 times more for products in a 403(b) than investors could get elsewhere. What do these fees mean in practice? They are selling Hyundais to schoolteachers at Lexus prices. Trust me when I say the products do not perform like a Lambo. (Yeah, you guessed it I drive a Hyundai. For reals.) So, anyway, how did that reform go in 2017? Thanks for asking. The TRS board adopted a sliding scale of fee caps between 1.9 percent and 2.7 percent for annuity products, and between 1.65 and 2.45 percent for nonannuity products. This is the kind of reform only an insurance company could love. This is like when I ask my daughter to clean her catastrophe of a room, and I return two hours later to find she has put clothes on her American Girl doll and brushed its hair, and then she declares the entire place straightened up. This is not reform! Another rule adopted in 2017 included the continuation of hefty surrender and withdrawal charges for 12 years after you buy a variable annuity. Oh, did I not mention that? If you want your money in a different product after you took the advice of that pizza-slinging salesman, you have to leave between 1 percent and 10 percent of your investment behind. I dont think insurance companies literally make teachers put both hands in the air as they hand over a chunk of their retirement funds, but they might as well. The mugging is the same either way. Hey, insurance company lobby? You won. The 600,000-plus public school employees surrendered. Nice job, everybody. Michael Taylor is a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News and author of The Financial Rules For New College Graduates. michael@michaelthesmartmoney.com | twitter.com/michael_taylor The Bangladesh premier said her government would never allow Bangladesh soil to be used by any terrorist organisation. Dhaka: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday assured her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi that her government would never allow the country's soil to be used by any terrorist organisation under its "zero tolerance policy". Dhaka was firmly committed to stamp out terrorism from the South Asian region through bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation, she said after jointly inaugurating four projects in Bangladesh with Prime Minister Modi through video-conferencing. Terming the spread of radicalism as a "grave threat" not only to the two countries but to the entire region, India and Bangladesh last year resolved to step up anti-terror cooperation. "We remain steadfast in our resolve to root out the scourge of terrorism from our region and beyond through bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation," Hasina said. The Bangladesh premier said her government would never allow Bangladesh soil to be used by any terrorist organisation under its "zero tolerance policy" against terrorism "in all its forms and manifestations". Hasina also expressed her "utmost sympathy" for the family members of the Indian paramilitary police personnel who were killed in last month's terror attack in Pulwama in Kashmir. "We reiterate our strong condemnation of this dastardly act," she said. A suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed killed 40 CRPF personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14, the incident led to flaring up of tensions between India and Pakistan. Hasina said that the relations between Dhaka and New Delhi is now a "role model" of good neighbours for the rest of the world as a result of multi-faceted and multi-dimensional cooperation. "I strongly believe this momentum will continue," she said. The Bangladesh premier said over the last decade, two countries have witnessed remarkable progress on cooperation in different conventional and unconventional areas like security, power, trade and commerce, energy, connectivity, infrastructure development, environment, renewable energy, education, culture, people-to-people contact and health. She said at the same time, the two countries have expanded cooperation in new areas like blue economy and maritime cooperation, peaceful uses of the nuclear energy, cooperation in outer space, internet bandwidth sharing, cyber security etc. The two prime ministers joined the video-conferencing from their offices in Dhaka and New Delhi and jointly inaugurated the four projects by unveiling the e-plaques. The four projects launched on Monday include, supply of Double Decker and Single Decker AC and Non-AC Buses and Trucks to Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (under the second Line of Credit); 36 Community Clinics in five north and northeastern Bangladesh districts bordering India with an aid from Indian government; setting up of 11 Water Treatment Plants in two southwestern cities and the extension of India's National Knowledge Network (NKN) to Bangladesh. The NKN is a multi-gigabit National Research and Education Network (NREN) which provides a unified high spe ed network backbone for educational institutions in India. Apart from Hasina and Modi, Bangladesh Foreign Minister A K Abdul Momen and his Indian counterpart Sushama Swaraj also spoke through video-conferenceing. In the weeks leading up to the March 1 fight that ended with a 16-year-old high school student accused of fatally stabbing Kaitlin Castilleja, 18, videos of Castilleja and the younger girl in separate scuffles appeared on social media. The videos collected dozens of likes and generated obscenity-laced spinoff arguments about who won and who fought fair. Teens who might once have scrapped in front of 10 or 15 people for respect or credibility are now doing it in full view of hundreds on the internet for the same reasons, experts on teen psychology and digital behavior said. On camera or in writing, some are publicizing and escalating conflicts for social rewards from the exponentially wider audience that social media bring. When I talk to kids, I call it the zero to 100 effect, said Meghan McCoy, manager of programs at the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center, which has worked internationally to prevent cyberbullying and other problematic digital behaviors among youths. The San Antonio Express-News is not identifying the Madison High School student accused of killing Castilleja. She is being held in a juvenile detention facility pending a hearing next week. Police say she also injured Vivian Foster, 18, who was cut superficially. Foster and Castilleja graduated from Madison. Related: An online feud between teenagers in San Antonio ends in a stabbing death Authorities have not addressed rumors that an online feud led to the fight, that others were present or that the stabbing in the younger girls driveway was videotaped. Foster last week said lawyers have advised her not to comment publicly at this point in the case. Not all teens are going to escalate name-calling online to physical violence, experts said. Those who do fight are often themselves victims of trauma or have instability in their lives, and youth violence overall has decreased over the years, said Sara E. Boyd, a psychologist affiliated with the University of Virginia Forensic Clinic who studies social media and aggression. But whatever their histories or motivations, teens can be seen fighting each other in endless loops of YouTube videos that receive tens of thousands of likes. An Instagram account that showcased videos of Wyoming teens fighting made news last month and was taken down a week after the first post, as high school administrators began to investigate, according to the Jackson Hole News & Guide. ABC News reported six years ago on students posting fight videos to social media for bragging rights, about the same time that an NBC affiliate in the Orlando, Fla., area unearthed videos of a fight club at a local middle school. Videos of street fights involving adults are similarly easy to find online. And experts said adults are setting aggressive examples online with their words as well as videos. Kids are watching adults engage in some really nasty behaviors, McCoy said. Its being modeled in some of the highest offices in the country. Boyd, who performs forensic psychological evaluations in civil and criminal cases, said shes astounded by the things adults put online during child custody battles. Most of the kids I interact with show better judgment online than the adults that I evaluate, she said. The younger kids have grown up with this culture and they understand it, and they understand that online behavior is not ephemeral. Related: Madison High principal defends school after off-campus fatal stabbing Boyd and McCoy dont see fight videos as a national trend but acknowledge that they can become popular in local subcultures. Savvier teens realize documenting fights and uploading them to the internet can be incriminating, Boyd said. A week before she was accused of killing Castilleja, a video of the Madison student fighting another girl in a classroom was posted to social media. Hours after Castilleja was killed, some students walking home from Madison spoke about the seeming frequency of fights on campus, a characterization Principal Steve Zimmerman disputed in a letter to parents. Only a small number of Madisons more than 3,000 students engage in fights, he said. The school reported fewer than 10 fights to the Texas Education Agency in the 2017-2018 school year. The TEA defines a fight as mutual combat, excluding one-sided assaults as defined by the state penal code. North East Independent School District, which includes Madison and is the second largest Bexar County school system, has not seen a trend of fight videos posted from its schools, spokeswoman Aubrey Chancellor said. The district contracts with a company to flag threatening posts that mention NEISD or any of its campuses and relies on students, parents and community members to report altercations between students on social media. Campus administrators and district police respond to such information, keeping a watchful eye on those involved, Chancellor said. A few other local school districts reported not seeing an increase in fight videos on social media. They said district police and administrators investigate any worrisome posts brought to their attention. Many times, posts of a concerning nature are brought to the attention of our 24-hour SAFELINE, and our NISD Police Department will follow up accordingly, Barry Perez, spokesman for Northside ISD, said in an email. As appropriate, action may be taken following a thorough investigation if a violation of our student code of conduct (or law) has taken place. Sgt. Michelle Ramos, spokeswoman for the San Antonio Police Department, encouraged parents to monitor their childrens phones and social media accounts for conflicts that could spill into real-life fights. Unfortunately, many of these social media confrontations are not reported to police, Ramos said in an email. Related: Podcast: San Antonio principal responds to Express-News story about aggression culture In his letter to parents, Zimmerman, the Madison principal, said he hoped that Castillejas death had made students more aware of their actions on social media and reinforced the idea that violence is not a solution to disagreements. I would ask that you have a conversation with your child about social media and the impact it has on others, Zimmerman wrote. Please encourage your child to bring any information to the Madison administration if they feel an incident could take place at school. We will act on every tip we receive and keep the source confidential if possible. Teens are at a stage of brain development that is more sensitive to peer influence than regulating emotions, Boyd said. Theyre less likely to listen to adults, but parents can have better conversations about their social media activity by asking neutral questions and avoiding strong negative emotional reactions, Boyd said. Try to understand their social world, she said. The rise in digital technology has hindered some childrens development of the social skills used in conflict resolution, McCoy said, such as compromise, respectful speech and attention to body language. Schools confronting cyberbullying and digital aggression have the most success when students lead the way, McCoy said. Her organization, based out of Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts, recruits students from different social groups identified as leaders on campus who are willing to work with their younger classmates on digital behaviors. I think adults are not genuine enough with them, McCoy said. We need to be real with them. When she talks to teens, she acknowledges that nasty messages feel good to send. Is that feeling worth what the consequences are? McCoy said. Adults, too often, say everyone should get along or everyone should be nice. Thats not the world we live in. But how can we not like someone, how can we fight with someone, in a respectful and civil way that allows you to save face but also allows you to stay out of something that you dont want to get into? Social media can facilitate conflict but also have connected isolated teens to broader communities and provided help to those contemplating suicide. Some of this opportunity to communicate is, I would say, lifesaving, McCoy said. Staff Writer Jacob Beltran contributed to this report. Alia Malik covers several school districts and the Alamo Colleges District in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | amalik@express-news.net | Twitter: @AliaAtSAEN COLLEGE STATION Jean Becker had to move quickly. It was early 2005, and Bill Clinton, fresh off a heart operation, was about to call George H.W. Bush. Though under strict orders from his doctors to stay home and recover, Clinton planned to seek Bushs advice about tagging along to Pope John Paul IIs upcoming funeral in Rome. A Clinton aide called Becker, who was Bushs chief of staff: Would she tell Bush to advise against the trip? Becker agreed, and got to Bush just before Clinton called. He pledged to tell Clinton not to come. Minutes later, though, Becker recalled overhearing Bush say on the phone, Well, Bill, I think you can go. It would be a lot of fun for us to go together. And he says, You know, were going on Air Force One, and theyve got that big medical unit, Becker continued, recalling the story Saturday to a group of mid-career professionals participating in a leadership program co-sponsored by the presidential libraries of George W. Bush, Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Lyndon B. Johnson. Becker, with Bushs former spokesman Jim McGrath and personal aide and medic Evan Sisley, spent about 90 minutes at the senior Bushs presidential library in College Station recounting anecdotes from his post-presidential life, painting a picture of a former president who, while not known for his oratory prowess, continued to lead by decisive action in the decades after he held public office. The trio was among Bushs closest confidants before he died in November at age 94. Their audience was a group of about 60 people chosen to participate in the Presidential Leadership Scholars program, now in its fifth iteration. The program organizers deliberately select participants from an assorted range of industries doctors, executives, veteran-focused nonprofit founders and locations, hoping to expose them to new perspectives, said Mike Hemphill, the Clinton Foundations academic programming director. The groups three-day stop in College Station marked the first of four: Next month they will go to Clintons center in Little Rock, Arkansas, before traveling to George W. Bushs Dallas center in May and Johnsons Austin center in June. At each stop, the scholars will hear from administration officials, business leaders and others, while focusing on different themes; in College Station, the focus was strategic partnerships. Saturdays conversation only loosely followed that topic. Instead, the string of tales focused on Bushs actions later in life, such as the time he learned members of his Secret Service detail planned to shave their heads to support an agents 2-year-old son who was diagnosed with leukemia. Bush shaved his head, too without telling his wife, Barbara. I have never been around anyone (like Bush) who saw something that bothered him, and who just acted, Becker said. In another case, Becker recalled Bushs unusual decision to call then-vice president Al Gore after Gore conceded the 2000 presidential election to Bushs son. Realizing that he was one of the few people who could empathize with Gore, Bush told Becker to dial the White House and get Gore on the line. I said, why? Becker recalled. "And his answer was, I have been where he is. I know what it feels like to lose. And Im one of the few people in America who can make this phone call to him. Bush did form a strategic partnership of sorts with Clinton, developing a well-documented friendship with his onetime political foe while they traveled to the sites of various disasters around the globe. He also became close with Dana Carvey, the late-night comedian who impersonated Bush on Saturday Night Live during his presidency. Bush loved Carveys skits, and it was those more intimate details about Bush, some of which went largely uncaptured in media accounts, that painted the full picture, Sisley said. (George and Barbara) taught me that its not just what you see in the media, its who people are very intimately, he said. The only panelist who began working for Bush without political experience, Sisley, 32, admitted that before meeting Bush his impression of the president was negative and did not extend far beyond Carveys impressions. But I felt that everybody deserved high-quality health care even Republicans, Sisley said. When he began working for Bush, Sisley said he had recently entered a relationship with his husband. Caring for the Bushes taught Sisley how to be in a relationship himself, he said. Some of the biggest things I learned from them was how to be a spouse, how to watch a couple, Sisley said. You want to talk about a strategic partnership. This most strategic partnership was formed at the age of, like, 17. He would have never been president if it wasnt for Barbara Bush. Family and friends of Andreen McDonald gathered Sunday for a service at Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto to honor her life and pray for a miracle. McDonald, 29, was last seen alive on Feb. 28, and authorities have said they believe she is dead. Bexar County deputies arrested her husband, Andre McDonald, 40, on March 3 on charges of tampering with evidence. I have faith that we will find her and that justice will be served, said Joseph Spencer, a friend of Andreens, who met her through the senior care industry. He and about 50 others, including members of her family, attended the vigil. Today were here to celebrate a beautiful and strong life, a vibrant life, said the Rev. Katrina Ornelas, who led the service. She was a light and a beacon of strength and courage, and she illuminated the room whenever she walked into it. She was a light of Christ in so many ways. Dianne Steffey, who described herself as a gym buddy of Andreens, said her friend would give you the shirt off her back. She was a beast, she said of her workouts, and she encouraged me to do more. Related: Sheriff's deputies continue search for missing San Antonio woman Andreen was also praised by the children of patients she looked after, who cited her tremendous care. She launched Starlight Assisted Living in 2012, and now has two senior care facilities in San Antonio. Other attendees said they had never met her, but after learning about her, they were compelled to come support her family. Andreens loved ones are at a moment of crossroads, between hope that she will be found alive, and hope if nothing else, to find her body, so that justice will be served, Ornelas said. We are gathered here to pray that a particular miracle happens, she said. She called for forgiveness of those who have harmed Andreen because in forgiving, we ourselves will find peace. She also called for an end to domestic violence, and asked those gathered to consider how they can be a safe haven for those in need of one. Related: Can you prove murder without a body? Law enforcement and volunteers have searched for Andreens body near her home and Joint Base San Antonio-Camp Bullis after friends reported her missing when she did not show up to work or the gym on March 1. Sheriff Javier Salazar said her husband, Maj. Andre McDonald, an Air Force Reserve officer, may have visited the training site within hours after she went missing. Bexar County officials have not yet announced if the search for Andreen will resume Monday. LTeitz@express-news.net AUSTIN Texas educators said Monday that neither the Houses proposal nor the Senates plan for increasing teacher pay addresses what educators and support staff need. Were not here to pick and choose among bills that have been filed, Louis Malfaro, president of Texas American Federation of Teachers, said during a news conference at the Capitol. Its not our job to reconcile what the House and Senate come up with. Its our job to hold these elected officials accountable, and not play games with each other where a couple of people behind closed doors forestall opportunities for 5.5 million kids in this state. Since Gov. Greg Abbott named teacher pay an emergency item in his State of the State address in January, the issue has become a point of contention between the upper and lower chambers. The Senates plan, which unanimously passed last week, calls for mandatory $5,000 pay raises for each Texas teacher and librarian, while the Houses plan is more flexible, allowing school districts to use increased funding for teacher pay as they see fit. On Monday, thousands of school employees, students, parents and community members from across the state including 275 from San Antonio traveled to Austin to demand lawmakers work out the differences in their proposals and pass a plan that gives adequate raises to all public school employees. Adrian Reyna, a U.S. history teacher at Longfellow Middle School on the near Northwest Side who also coaches basketball and cross-country in addition to teaching classes in team leadership and college readiness, was among those making the trip from San Antonio to the state capitol. When you hear $5,000 raise, it sounds great and teachers arent going to say no, but it doesnt address the inadequacies in the public school funding system, said Reyna, 31, whos in his eighth year of teaching. It absolutely takes a village to make sure that students receive all the services they need. Obviously, a teacher is a big part of it, but it takes everybody the custodial staff, counseling staff, lunch staff, support staff, everybody. Making sure we take care of everyone is an important part of the funding system. A $5,000 pay raise doesnt adequately or permanently address the more fundamental issues we have with public school finance. The lower chambers school finance reform bill, House Bill 3, would raise minimum salaries for teachers and full-time counselors, librarians and registered nurses, and offer opportunities for merit pay programs which reward top-rated educators with additional stipends. Senate Bill 4, the upper chambers school finance bill, also includes merit pay proposals. But educators Monday spoke harshly about the idea of using money to incentivize teacher performance. Our theory of action is not that teachers arent trying hard enough to get kids to read, and if you dangle a little more money out there, theyll work a little harder and the kids will read a little better, Malfaro said. We dont believe that. We believe teachers are trying as hard as they can to educate kids and get kids able to read. Noel Candelaria, president of Texas State Teachers Association, said the $5,000 pay raise for teachers and librarians is a step in the right direction, but its not enough. He called on legislators to tap into the states $15 billion Rainy Day Fund to provide adequate raises to all public school employees. Were not willing to sell out our brothers and sisters working alongside us for a $5,000 pay raise, Candelaria said. We know the state can do better. You want to talk about a border emergency? Grab your passport and take a quick trip with me around the world. Look at the tensions between Israel and Syria. India and Pakistan. Iraq and Iran. Colombia and Venezuela. South Korea and North Korea. Now, closer to home, look at this relationship: United States and Mexico. Thank goodness for good neighbors. Americans really need to stop hyperventilating about the supposed crisis on their southern border better known as the natural migration of people from one place to another and count their blessings. Ill start. Americans are fortunate that Mexican law enforcement provides regular intelligence on terrorist threats along the border. In 2011, then-U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder credited Mexican authorities with helping uncover a murder-for-hire plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States. The plan came to light when Manssor Arbabsiar, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Iran, met with a person he thought was part of a Mexican drug cartel but who was actually a confidential source for the Drug Enforcement Administration. A good friend is an anti-terrorism hawk who studies the U.S.-Mexico border and who recently gained access to a migrant caravan heading north through Mexico. What keeps him up at night are the so-called special-interest aliens from terrorist-producing countries who roam around the border. According to the libertarian Cato Institute, as many as 45,000 special-interest aliens have been captured by U.S. authorities since 2007. But there has never been a terrorist attack on U.S. soil linked to this population. Yet when I speak to groups about immigration, I never hear a peep about potential terrorists. You know what I hear? We have to stop this invasion of illegal aliens from Mexico who refuse to learn English and assimilate into our culture. As the Republican-led Senate pushes back against President Donald Trumps attempt to declare a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border to clear a path for him to build his big, beautiful wall, it seems like a good time to clarify the exact nature of this emergency. The real four-alarm fire is a blinding fear of changing demographics and a clash of cultures that has worried nativists and other immigration restrictionists for 30 years. It was in the early 1990s that immigration from Mexico started surging and the media began running stories in the march to the 2000 census about how the Latino population was swelling and how whites would eventually become a statistical minority. That freaked out a lot of people. A decade later, some people were even more frightened by those massive immigrant marches in cities like Dallas, Phoenix, Chicago and Los Angeles. Over the years, fear gradually turned to resentment. Now resentment has morphed into panic with a dash of opportunism. For those who worry about changing demographics, Trumps national emergency declaration is a convenient vehicle to stop the browning of America. Thats what this whole calamity is all about. And no wall can fix that. This is about pulling up the drawbridge. This is like shutting down Ellis Island 100 years ago because the Italian immigrants who were entering were thought to be of inferior stock. Maybe Republican lawmakers know this full well, and they dont have the character to admit that there is nothing high-minded or righteous about Trumps emergency declaration. Or perhaps theyre so dense that they really do think whats happening on the border is about keeping out opioids, turning back criminals and rescuing children from human traffickers. Syndicated radio host and self-appointed expert on the U.S.-Mexico border Rush Limbaugh sounded the alarm when he told listeners: This crisis is transforming the United States into something it wasnt intended to be. Theres no question that there is an invasion going on of people who cant be absorbed or assimilated into our culture. I appreciate the honesty. Limbaugh is half-right. Its a crisis all right. But its not about turning away undesirables. Every day, south of San Diego, more than 100,000 people cross the border between the United States and Mexico either to make money at work or spend it at play. Not exactly a war zone. Rather, its about what America is turning into and those who want to turn it back to what it used to be. What we have on the border is not a security crisis. Its an identity crisis. ruben@rubennavarrette.com 1. Jan. 14. Razzie Hancock , 39, was fatally stabbed in the side of the chest with a kitchen knife following a dispute with by another man over the affections of a woman. Kenyon Gay, 41, of West Haven, was charged with murder, carrying a dangerous weapon and second-degree assault. Police said both Gay and the victim had been in a relationship with the woman, Gay for nine years and Hancock for eight months. 2. Jan. 26 Eugene Rogers , 50, was found lying on the ground, motionless on Reservoir Avenue. He was bleeding from a bullet wound in his head, and police said he had a silver and black gun in his left hand. Police went to the scene after 9 a.m. by the Bridgeport Police Departments Shot Spotter system to the Citgo gas station and Pitt Stop convenience store on Reservoir Avenue. Jayvell Washington, was charged that same day with Rogerss death. Washington and members of the Rogers family have been engaged in a violent series of confrontations since the summer of 2017, according to police. That year, Washington shot Rogers twice in the abdomen. Rogers recovered from that shooting and Washington was charged with his attempted murder. 3. Jan. 27. Eric Salters , 28, of New Haven, was shot multiple times around 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 26. He later died on Feb. 4. He was shot near the New England Tractor Trailer Training School at 510 Barnum Ave., where he was a student. Police said it appears that when Salters went to his car during class, he was confronted by a gunman, who opened fire on him. Salters was hit multiple times, including once in the head, police said The the motive for the shooting was unclear. 4. Feb. 5. Sujata Lee Edwards , 36, died after being shot through a second story window in her residence on William Street. Edwards was shot as she looked out the second-floor window while her 17-year-old daughter was walking to the teens fathers car. Llesha OConnor. Edwards mother, said her daughters two children were with their mother when Edwards was gunned down. There had been a fight outside the home earlier in the evening, involving Edwards son and an ex-girlfriend who brought a large group of people with her, OConnor said. Once the fight ended, the group left, she said. But the family suspects they came back later, armed. Edwards was shot at least once in the torso. 5. Feb. 11. Dyshon Williams , 19, was found dead on a city sidewalk about two hours after a call came in to a computerized system that shots had been fired in the area. The Cowles Street resident was shot around 10:45 p.m. Monday. He was pronounced dead after police found him roughly two hours later on Boston Avenue. Police said Williams was shot in his vehicle and apparently staggered away before he collapsed, police said. Williams died from a single gunshot wound to the torso with penetration to the neck, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. 6. March 5. Jerrell Gatewood , 34, of Bridgeport, was shot in the area of Connecticut Avenue and Fifth Street around 9:40 a.m. Years before the fatal shooting, Gatewood was shot in the chest on Sept. 8, 2013, while working on his car on Connecticut Avenue. An acquaintance brought him to Bridgeport Hospital. A day after that 2013 shooting, he was in stable condition at the hospital. Police Chief Armando Perez said Tuesday detectives are looking into the 2013 shooting as part of Gatewoods homicide investigation. 7. March 10 Twenty bullets were fired into a car parked near a market killing Tyron Heard, 21, and wounding his 17- and 22-year-old companions. According to police, shortly before 7:30 p.m., shots were fired at the vehicle in the area of 533 Hollister Ave. The day after the killing, parents like Felipe Ramos dropped their kids off at the nearby Jettie S. Tisdale School. Im moving out of Bridgeport, said Ramos as he watched his child enter Tisdale school. I live right near the corner store. Its just not safe anymore. FAIRFIELD A colleague of Fairfield-based humanitarian organization Save the Children was one of the 157 people who who died Sunday morning when an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 jetliner crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi. In a tweet Sunday afternoon, Save the Children confirmed that Tamirat Mulu Demessie, who served as a child protection in emergencies technical adviser for Save the Children Denmark, died in the crash. The tweet from the Save the Children account states that Demessie worked tirelessly to ensure that vulnerable children are safe during humanitarian crises. Our thoughts are with Tamirats family and the loved ones of the 156 other people who lost their lives in this terrible tragedy. Roger Hearn, International Programme Director, Save the Children Denmark, expressed his grief over Demessies death. While he was based in Addis (in Ethiopia), his work took him to so many contexts where he was known for so many valuable things including his amazing gift as a trainer, Hearn said in a statment. He has undertaken this work across the globe and his skills and enthusiasm have been communicated to me by so many people who were lucky enough to engage with him. It is tragic that such commitment and passion should be taken from us all so abruptly. According to its web site, Save the Children helped over 3.1 million children through its global protection programs. Save the Children is an international non-governmental organization that has been around more than 100 years and provides relief to, supports the rights of and generally helps children in developing countries. In addition to Demessie, those who died in the crash came from 35 countries, incuding the United States, Canada, Kenya, Ethiopia, China, Italy, France and Russia. There was no immediate indication why the plane went down in clear weather while on a flight to Nairobi, the capital of neighboring Kenya. The crash was strikingly similar to that of a Lion Air jet that plunged into the sea off Indonesia minutes after takeoff last year, killing 189 people. Both accidents involved the Boeing 737 Max 8. The crash was a serious blow to state-owned Ethiopian Airlines, which has expanded to become the continent's largest and best-managed carrier and turned Addis Ababa into the gateway to Africa. Ethiopian Airlines is one of the safest airlines in the world. At this stage we cannot rule out anything, CEO Tewolde Gebremariam told reporters. He visited the crash site, standing in the gaping crater flecked with debris. Black body bags were spread out nearby while Red Cross and other workers looked for remains. As the sun set, the airlines chief operating officer said the plane's flight data recorder had not yet been found. Shocked leaders of the United Nations, the U.N. refugee agency and the World Food Program announced that colleagues had been on the plane. The U.N. migration agency estimated some 19 U.N.-affiliated employees were killed. Both Addis Ababa and Nairobi are major hubs for humanitarian workers, and many people were on their way to a large U.N. environmental conference set to begin Monday in Nairobi. The Addis Ababa-Nairobi route links East Africa's two largest economic powers. Sunburned travelers and tour groups crowd the Addis Ababa airport's waiting areas, along with businessmen from China, Gulf nations and elsewhere. Ethiopian officials declared Monday a day of mourning. The crash is likely to renew questions about the 737 Max , the newest version of Boeings popular single-aisle airliner, which was first introduced in 1967 and has become the worlds most common passenger jet. Indonesian investigators have not determined a cause for the October crash, but days after the accident Boeing sent a notice to airlines that faulty information from a sensor could cause the plane to automatically point the nose down. Safety experts cautioned against drawing too many comparisons between the two crashes until more is known about Sundays disaster. The Ethiopian plane was new, delivered to the airline in November. The Boeing 737 Max 8 was one of 30 meant for the airline, Boeing said in July. The jet's last maintenance was on Feb. 4, and it had flown just 1,200 hours. The plane crashed six minutes after departure , plowing into the ground at Hejere near Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) outside Addis Ababa, at 8:44 a.m. The jet showed unstable vertical speed after takeoff, air traffic monitor Flightradar 24 said. The senior Ethiopian pilot, who joined the airline in 2010, sent out a distress call and was given clearance to return to the airport, the airline's CEO told reporters. In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration said it would join the National Transportation Safety Board in assisting Ethiopian authorities with the crash investigation. Boeing planned to send a technical team to Ethiopia. The last deadly crash of an Ethiopian Airlines passenger flight was in 2010, when a plane went down minutes after takeoff from Beirut, killing all 90 people on board. Staff writer Amanda Cuda and the Associated Press contributed to this report. The CWC meeting is being held in Gujarat after a gap of 58 years. It was last held in the state at Bhavnagar in 1961. Ahmedabad/New Delhi: The Congress will sound the Lok Sabha poll bugle from Prime Minister Narendra Modis home state Gujarat with its working committee meeting in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, coinciding with the 89th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhis Dandi March launched on March 12, 1930. Apart from firming up its poll strategy at the CWC meeting for the April 11 to May 19 electoral battle, the Congress has also scheduled party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadras debut public rally, after she formally entered politics, at Gandhi Nagar. The Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision-making body of the party, is expected to discuss highlights of the campaign and issue a statement covering key poll issues, sources said. The meeting will mark the official commencement of Congress campaign for the month-long general elections as it comes barely two days after declaration of poll schedule for the general elections. The party will also demand answers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP on what they call failures and unfulfilled promises of the government, sources said. The CWC meeting is being held in Gujarat after a gap of 58 years. It was last held in the state at Bhavnagar in 1961. Top Congress leaders, led by Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and other senior leaders will deliberate on issues, including the minimum income guarantee scheme which has been mooted by Mr Gandhi. The scheme would be one of the highlights of the partys manifesto, a Congress leader said. Sources said the Congress is seeking to send a strong political message to the entire nation from the land of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel, with the party leadership scheduled to hold a prayer meeting at Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, followed by the CWC meet at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel national memorial there. The party will also hold a public meeting in Adalaj in Gandhinagar district of with the slogan of Jai jawan, jai kisan. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is also likely to address this meeting in her first public rally after entering politics. Patidar leader Hardik Patel, who shot to fame by spearheading a quota stir in the state and is set to fight the Lok Sabha polls, will also join Congress at the meeting in presence of Rahul Gandhi. The Gujarat meeting of the CWC is also aimed at discussing ways to corner Mr Modi and his government on issues of governance, agrarian and economic crisis, unemployment, national security and women safety. The Congress is of the view that the narrative for the general elections needs to be steered towards real issues and problems confronting people of the country, from what its leaders see as the propaganda plank of the current regime, especially after Pulwama attack and subsequent air strike on terror camps in Pakistan. After the CWC meeting, senior Congress leaders will attend a Jan Sankalp rally, said state party unit chief Amit Chavda. They will start their day by paying tributes to Mahatma Gandhi on the anniversary of the launch of the Dandi March, he said. 100 years ago Million More Books: Urgent call sent out in behalf of the soldiers Stamford has been so prompt and generous in responding to appeals in behalf of the soldiers it must be considered very remarkable that only a dozen books were received as a result of two appeals recently made. The following letter from Dr. C.O.S. Mawson of the American Library Association was just received by Miss Colt of the Ferguson Library, who once more requests donations for books: On January 16 we received the following cablegram from Dr. Putnam, who is not in France: Demand for books unbelievably great and supply inadequate. Rush all possible shipments. 50 years ago City planning to pay $1,951,447 for Washington Ave. property The City will pay a total of $1,951,447 for 128 properties to be acquired for the Washington Ave. extension, if the project receives approval and if the property owners agree to the assessment of damages. A total of $107,690 would be paid to the Washington Avenue Associates for five pieces of property along the highway route. 10 years ago Parishioners reject rules proposed by lawmakers State Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, was not at the capitol Wednesday to hear dozens of people testify against his bill that would have altered how Catholic parishes handle money. Nor did he watch the testimony on television. He didnt need to. If the outcry from Catholics over the past few days had not driven home the extent of opposition to the legislation, the hate messages and threats over the weekend did. There have been credible threats, McDonald said. All of those matters have been turned over to the capitol police. Student Art Show in Easton EASTON There was some remarkable talent on display Sunday afternoon when the Easton Arts Council hosted its annual Youth Art & Talent Show at Easton Library. Weve been doing this about 20 years now, said Joanne Kant, president, noting the show open to young people from throughout the region. Were pretty happy with the turnout, she said. It was one of the bigger shows, with about 30 entrants and multiple pieces by some in charcoal, pen, paint and collage. March being Youth Art Month, she said, this was an opportunity to celebrate; and while there were certificates given to each entrant, this was no contest but a show. There are a lot of talent young artists in the area, said Kathy Davidson, who spearheaded the show, and its a chance for them to show their work, get together and participate in the arts. HARTFORD David Lehman, the former Wall Street wunderkind whos taking criticism for the burst housing bubble that led to the Great Recession of 2008, is working intensely this week to woo enough support from state senators to become Gov. Ned Lamonts economic development commissioner. While hes not on the Senate agenda this week for a possible confirmation vote, the former Goldman Sachs executive has scheduled private, face-to-face meetings, particularly with Democratic senators who publicly remain neutral but may be pushing back against the 41-year-old from Greenwich. I dont know what to think, said state Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven. At this point, I dont know if I should say yes. I dont know if I should say no. I have members of the public who take issue with his nomination. Sen. Alex Bergstein, D-Greenwich, supports Lehmans nomination based on what she knows now, but if new information came to light she might re-evaluate her position. She met with Lehman and his wife for coffee a few weeks ago. I think it has yet to be determined whether he made decisions, whether the company made decisions that were imposed on him, I dont have those details, nor would I speculate as to what they were, Bergstein said last week. Really, this comes down to judgment. What is someones judgment and their values. Until you know someone really well or until theyve been tested, it is hard to know. This is not just about numbers and balance sheets, this about peoples lives, said Bergstein, who recently approved Lehmans nomination in the Executive and Legislative Nominations Committee. Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, said his staff has been involved in a deep dive into Lehmans former role in the financial meltdown. Given the controversial actions of Goldman Sachs, we have to do a pretty careful vetting process, Looney said Monday. If nothing turns up that directly undermines, contradicts or conflicts what he said to the committee under oath, then the presumption of a favorable vote on the governors nomination would carry the most sway. Lamont, in Stamford on Monday, reiterated his support for Lehmans candidacy to head the state Department of Economic and Community Development, stressing that he is taking undue criticism for the recession, from which the state has struggled to extricate for the last 10 years. Speaking after a transit-related news conference, Lamont said hes still pushing for Lehmans confirmation. Absolutely, the governor said. Hes the guy thats going to bring jobs to the state; help to grow jobs. Hes really focused on the cities help(ing) new entrepreneurs get going. Hes the perfect background we need. Very different than usual guys for DECD. Get the state growing. Lamont said Lehman, who would also be his top economic policy adviser, is continuing to reach out to senators. Democrats have a 22-14 Senate majority, but opposition from Republicans has not emerged. It would be unusual for a nominee of a first-term governor to be rejected, but several Democrats have voiced skepticism. I think theres going to be a vote very soon, Lamont said. I think hes going to talk to the Senate caucus. Hes calling and talking to all the legislators. You know, hes not from the old Hartford political class. He comes from a different background, hes going to have to introduce himself. Hes going to be a great economic development leader for us. Meanwhile, opponents are circulating an online petition opposed to Lehmans candidacy on the Change.org. platform Lamont has said repeatedly that Lehman was not culpable in the financial crisis of 2007-08, when the mortgage market collapsed. During that time, Lehman was co-head of the Goldman Sachs department that created Goldmans controversial collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), packages of mortgages the bank sold to others, and bet against at the same time. A U.S. Senate investigation from 2011 described he practice which Lehman and others at Goldman called routine hedging as a conflict of interest. The Goldman Sachs case study focuses on how it used net short positions to benefit from the downturn in the mortgage market, and designed, marketed, and sold CDOs in ways that created conflicts of interest with the firms clients and at times led to the banks profiting from the same products that caused substantial losses for its clients, the U.S. Senate report said. Staff writer Emilie Munson contributed to this report. HARTFORD Ethan Song would likely still be alive if the state had more stringent laws requiring the safe storage of firearms, his parents told lawmakers on Monday. During emotional testimony on gun-related bills, Michael and Kristin Song said that while their 15-year-old son has been dead for over a year, tougher laws and awareness would likely save the lives of others in the future. Yes, better education would have saved my sons life, said Michael Song, who with his wife Kristin were the first to testify before the Judiciary Committee, which is considering a variety of gun-safety legislation. Kristin Song, among dozens of activists wearing orange in honor of the teen, read a remembrance of her son, written in his voice, enjoying the removal of the braces from his teeth, celebrating the music of Jimi Hendrix, looking forward to a life as a student, friend, brother, and father. She slammed the table in the Legislative Office Building meeting room to imitate the sound of a gun firing. Continuing in Ethans voice, she voiced his surprise at a bullet being in the weapon, as his life ebbed away. Oh my God. What did I do? How did a bullet get in the gun? Who loaded the gun? Im trying to breathe but theres so much blood. Im choking on it. I want to live. I want to live. I feel my body slowly shutting down. Kristin Song started a 15-minute appearance before the committee detailing a smiling photo after the final visit to the orthodontist. It would be the last picture taken of the boy, who later went out for an hour-long visit with a friend, but shot himself with a .357 handgun allegedly owned by Daniel Markle, whom the family is suing in state Superior Court. We walked to my friends house because his dad had guns, Kristin Song said. His dad was awesome. He let me handle and shoot his guns in the backyard. My friend and I had been playing, posing, making videos with the guns for the last six months. We were posting on our fake social media accounts. I didnt want my family to see. I mean, what is cooler than a teenager with a gun. Every time we posed we get a ton of likes. Hey guns were making us popular. Under the proposed legislation, even unloaded guns would have to have trigger locks or be kept in a gun locker, as required now for loaded weapons. Gun owners could be held criminal liable for injuries or deaths. The committee reacted mostly in stunned silence to the Songs. I think theres a component missing from this language, said Rep. Craig Fishbein, R-Wallingford, a conservative who dissected the proposal and said that things can happen in other peoples houses. Rep. Doug Dubitsky, R-Chaplin, another conservative who, like Fishbein, pushed back on several gun-related issues Monday, said that education is a key. Dubitsky asked whether Ethan Song had firearms training. We worked so hard to keep our kids safe, everything from seat belts to every imaginable thing, Michael Song said. The one thing I probably spoke to Ethan the most about was gun safety. We werent gun owners. The sad thing about this case was that he did have gun education, from the parent in the house where he died. Scott Wilson, president of the firearms-rights organization called the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, said lawmakers had the chance to strengthen the laws on locking guns back in 1990, but failed. he said the group does not support the bill as written. We recognize that parents have an obligation to protect children, but we also must recognize that they cannot be with children in every circumstance, Wilson said in written testimony. The committees daylong hearing on firearms featured a variety of legislation. Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim and Police Chief Armando Perez spoke in favor of a bill that would allow law enforcement officials to ask to see the permits of people carrying handguns. Current law, illustrated in a controversial case in a Bridgeport sandwich shop nearly three years ago, prohibits police from asking to see the permits of those carrying guns. Perez said he believes that in the sandwich shop altercation, Dontrell Brown, tried to provoke police, to create a problem. The incident in downtown Bridgeport, near state Superior Court, could have easily been defused if Brown had simply shown his permit to responding officers, Perez said, stressing that he believes gun owners should bear the responsibility of providing their permit when asked. Youre not detaining the guy. Youre not denying any civil rights, Perez said. Youre protecting those rights of other individuals that are around that individual that may be afraid, that may be scared. That may be alarmed. We live in a society where anything can happen at any time. Hundreds of people attended the hearing, and about 90 registered to speak. The committees deadline to pass legislation is April 12. kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT There is not enough analysis data for Adaptive Medias. 4.7 Community Rank Outperform Votes Adaptive Medias has received 107 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.) Underperform Votes Adaptive Medias has received 45 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.) Community Sentiment Adaptive Medias has received 70.39% outperform votes from our community. MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Adaptive Medias and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe ADTM will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe ADTM will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days. Previous Next Patel must first secure stay on conviction in rioting case to contest LS election. Ahmedabad: With Patel Anamat Andolan Samiti leader Hardik Patel announcing that he will join the Congress party, the buzz in political circles is that he will fight the Lok Sabha election from Jamnagar. The constituency in the Saurashtra region has nearly 2.5 lakh Patel voters, and the Congress intends to give the BJP a tough fight by fielding him. However, he will have to clear a legal obstacle. He has been convicted by a local court in a case of causing riots. The court has suspended his sentence and he is on bail. He applied for a stay on his conviction on March 9. He can contest the elections if he secures the stay. Interestingly, Mr Patel is joining the Congress at a time when the party in the state is struggling to retain its MLAs. Five of its MLAs have already switched over to the BJP and others are believed to be in queue. In this scenario, party leaders believe that Mr Patels joining will give the party some relief. All this forms the backdrop for the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting being held in Ahmedabad on Monday to mark the historic Dandi March. There will be a public rally after the CWC meeting in which Mr Patel will formally take the plunge into politics. With the intention to serve society and the country at large, I have decided to join the Congress, Mr Patel said, announcing his decision. The trio of Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mewani sprang to prominence during the strong reservation stir before the Assembly elections in December 2017. While Mr Thakor joined the Congress and became an MLA, Mr Mewani was elected as an independent with Congresss support. Mr Patels debut in politics will complete the circle. There are reports that Mr Thakor could be joining the BJP; a third Congress legislator defected on Monday. It all started in July 2015, when the demand for reservations for the Patidar community began, with a small bike rally in Visnagar in north Gujarat. Mr Patel, then 22, took the lead and won huge public support. As the agitation grew, he emerged as the unchallenged youth leader. He remained at the centre of things during the Gujarat Assembly elections and campaigned hard to defeat the BJP. We welcome Hardik Patel into the Congress family and we hope that the party will benefit with his presence, Congress state in-charge Rajiv Satav said. POLA Orbis Holdings Inc., through its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and sells cosmetics and related products in Japan and internationally. The company operates through Beauty Care and Real Estate segments. The Beauty Care segment offers cosmetics; skincare products; health foods; and fashion products, such as women's underwear, women's apparel, and jewelry under the POLA, ORBIS, Jurlique, H2O PLUS, THREE, Amplitude, ITRIM, FIVEISM A THREE, and DECENCIA brand names. The Real Estate segment is involved in the leasing of office buildings and residential properties. The company also involves the management and operation of buildings. The company sells its products through department, directly operated retail, duty-free shops, Internet, and specialty cosmetics stores, as well as through door-to-door sales, and mail-order sales. POLA Orbis Holdings Inc. was founded in 1929 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Read More iShares MSCI Belgium ETF's stock was trading at $15.65 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, EWK shares have increased by 36.5% and is now trading at $21.37. View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19. Everything will be OK in the end. If its not OK, its not the end. Wisdom from Kayla Z., of North Dakota, on a Dove chocolate wrapper Commentary by Susan Crowell / editor@farmanddairy.com We often think of the science of economics as dry and boring. A bunch of numbers and theories. But economics and economies can tell stories about people and thats not dry and boring. Last month, at the U.S. Department of Agricultures annual Agricultural Outlook Forum, USDA Chief Economist Robert Johansson shared some numbers that tell the grim story of many farmers today. While the U.S. economy remains strong, with GDP growth estimated to average more than 2 percent over the next two years, real net farm income is down 28 percent, Johansson said, relative to the 10-year average. In his statement to the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture Feb. 27, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue threw out these numbers: Net farm income has fallen nearly 50 percent from its peak in 2013. And, as a result of low commodity prices, farmers are leveraging their equity oftentimes their land to finance operating expenses. Right now, the number of crop farms in a highly leveraged financial situation are about 1 in 10. Today, total debt is approaching record levels in real terms, and real estate debt has reached a record high in 2018, Johansson said in his report at the forum. Enough with the depressing numbers. They do give us, however, the real picture of whats happening on farms around this country. Most of you are living it, but some readers may be on the periphery and not realize the stark reality of the current farm situation. We need them to know that were hurting. You are the face behind these numbers. After hearing Ive been at Farm and Dairy for nearly 34 years, an Ohio farmer looked at me last night and said, What, youve been through about three of these cycles then? I guess I have. Farm and Dairy rides the peaks and troughs of these economic cycles with you. And this I know: Farmers are resilient. I also know this: Farmers are fiercely independent, and sometimes (sometimes?) stubborn traits that can be a detriment if it means were slow to change or seek help or face hard decisions. We cant wish this current farm economy away. We cant ignore the impact to our individual farms and farmers. We cant put on a smiling face when we feel like everything is slipping out of our control. What we can do, however, is realize were not in this alone. Yes, were responsible for our farms, but we cant socially isolate ourselves or blame ourselves for broader economic factors that originate beyond our farms edge. Your mental well-being is just as important as the health of your herd. If you feel like you can no longer tread water, reach out to other people before you sink. Theres a lifeline out there. In absence of Cong-AAP tieup, split in anti-BJP votes to favour saffron party. New Delhi: Delhi is set to witness a three-cornered contest on May 12 as the Congress has so far decided not to forge any alliance with the Aaam Aadmi Party to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. There are indications that the AAP is making all possible efforts to stitch together an alliance with Congress, but the later seems reluctant as it fears that any such move would go a long way in harming its prospects in the coming Assembly elections. In the absence of any formidable alliance between the Congress and the AAP, there is going to be a split in the anti-BJP votes which will ultimately work in favour of the saffron party, which had previously won all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi by defeating all the sitting Congress MPs. After state leadership recently met Congress president Rahul Gandhi, things were crystal clear that the party was in no mood to join hands with the AAP which ousted it from power in 2013, following with a complete wipeout in 2015 Assembly elections. That year, AAP won 67 of the 70 Assembly seats, but Congress failed to win even one. Ever since, the AAP has faced a decline in popularity and fortune. It lost to the Congress in the Punjab Assembly elections of March 2017 and month later to the BJP in the all three municipal bodies in Delhi. To counter anti-incumbency factor, the BJP had strategically replaced all the sitting councilors with new faces in the municipal polls. While the Congress was still delving upon the option on whether to go in for seat sharing arrangement with the AAP to take on the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo in the Lok Sabha polls, there was strong resentment in the state unit against any such move as the local leaders feel that any such arrangement would wipe out the party in the citys political arena. It is learnt that Delhi Congress president Sheila Dikshit had a last-minute discussions with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to see whether any alliance with AAP will work in favour of her party, but all in vain. The Congress move not to stitch together any alliance with the AAP is being interpreted in the political circles as a major bolt to the newbie AAP that had promised to support it in Goa and Gujarat where Arvind Kejriwals outfit had contested seriously in the last Assembly polls but had failed to make much impact. After the Congress announced that it was not in favour of going in for any alliance with the AAP, rattled Kejriwal said that the party had a secret understanding with the BJP and his party was ready to fight the unholy alliance. Mr Kejriwal had said if Congress did not join hands with AAP, this would definitely split anti-BJP votes in the national capital. And to mount pressure on Congress, his party had even named candidates for the six of the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. A 'no deal' Brexit risks putting 'billions' of battery eggs back on the shelves unless the government acts to protect consumers, the egg industry has warned. Despite assurances across a number of agricultural sectors, the government has so far refused to confirm tariffs will be put in place on foreign eggs and egg products. The industry fears this could potentially open the floodgates for the import of eggs produced in barren battery cages that were banned in the UK in 2012. The British Egg Industry Council (BEIC) and Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) have warned that billions of eggs from battery cages could be back on the menu for consumers. BEIC Chairman, Andrew Joret said it would be a 'national disgrace' if the government were to remove tariffs to allow eggs into the UK which do not meet high standards. It is 7 years since we banned barren battery cages in the UK and consumers would justifiably feel betrayed if this were to happen, he said. Mr Joret also raised concerns over the 'questionable' food safety record of many egg producing countries. He added: The BEIC keeps a global list of issues associated with eggs from other countries and weve almost lost count of the number weve seen which could put consumer safety at risk everything from salmonella to Fipronil. We also need to ensure UK consumers are protected from this. 'Insult to consumers' While the government has pledged to provide robust protection for beef, poultry, dairy and pig meat in order to safeguard the British farming industry, it risks dealing a devastating blow to not only the egg industry, but also to consumers by refusing to confirm that protection would also be given on eggs and egg products. Both organisations say that because of this, eggs produced from hens housed in barren battery cages must not be allowed into the UK. The BEIC is seeking assurances from the government to stop consumers being exposed to eggs and egg products from non-EU countries, including the USA, Ukraine, India and Argentina, where animal welfare standards are significantly lower. Removing tariffs and giving the green light to foreign eggs and egg products, produced in countries where there is no national legislation for laying hen welfare standards, and that are quite rightly outlawed here is an insult to British consumers and simply cant be allowed to happen, he said. There is a very real risk that we will end up importing eggs from countries where hens have less than 400cm2 of space each which is far less than when we banned battery cages in 2012. Mr Joret said: The government cannot let our consumers and farmers down in this way and needs to act now to ensure that we maintain the standards that consumers expect in the UK. More than 40 MPs have written to Ofcom to highlight the need for annual monitoring of mobile operators commitments on increasing rural 4G mobile coverage. The cross-party group, chaired by Julian Sturdy MP, recently welcomed moves by Ofcom to maximise 4G coverage across the country. This included commitments for 500 new mobile masts in rural areas and 90% geographic coverage by all four networks across the UK. In return, Ofcom agreed to a reduction in costs for mobile operators on the upcoming sale of the 700Mhz spectrum which was freed up by the move to digital TV. It comes as only 16 percent of farmers have access to superfast broadband>, according to the NFU's latest broadband survey. The letter, by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Rural Business, has raised concerns, however, on how this will be monitored, with no obligation on mobile operators to report on successful mast completions until the end of the review process in 2024. It also notes that operators have historically been reluctant to build masts in rural areas owing to the significant costs involved. Ms Sturdy said: While Ofcoms initial announcement truly has the potential to revolutionise mobile coverage across the countryside, it will fall by the wayside if progress is not monitored on a regular basis. We need annual reporting to ensure that mobile operators are holding their promises to the public on delivering a 4G network which works for people wherever they live. The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) runs the #4GForAll campaign, and is calling for greater investment from mobile operators in new masts in rural areas. CLA Deputy President, Mark Bridgman said: Increasing 4G coverage will unlock the potential of rural businesses and the countryside and we cannot let this opportunity slip owing to lax oversight. Given mobile operators previous reluctance to invest in rural areas, annual reporting on progress should be compulsory. Ofcom have made great strides in this area in recent times and it would be a shame if they did not take the simple step to give themselves the tools to publicly keep mobile operators to their word on expanding rural 4G coverage and ending the digital wilderness, he said. Europes largest dairy cooperative Arla Foods has introduced new measures to tackle climate change, including a step to be carbon 'net zero' by 2050. The new targets, launched on Sunday 10 March, include a target to be carbon neutral by 2050, with any unavoidable emissions, for example from farms, offset by improvements elsewhere in the supply chain. The move is widely regarded as being in line with the goals of the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change. Other targets include a step to balance nitrogen and phosphorus cycles to support clean water systems and a wish to be more closely aligned with nature to further increase biodiversity across Britains countryside. While Arla has managed almost 50% more milk since 2005, its CO2 emissions have reduced by 22% across production and packaging; on farms CO2 emissions per kilo of milk have reduced by 24% since 1990. The dairy cooperative, which is owned by 2,400 UK farmers, already boasts the first carbon net zero milk processing facility in the world. From 2015 to 2018 it cut the annual emissions of carbon from the UKs largest dairy at Aylesbury by more than half, or by 15,000 tonnes, by switching to using biogas. Arla Foods UK Managing Director, Ash Amirahmadi said providing food for a growing population whilst reducing environmental impact is one of the world's 'greatest challenges'. Arla has already shown this is possible and the new ambitions announced today will ensure Arlas farmers, production sites and products continue to play their part in developing a sustainable world for everyone, he said. Examples of actions taken by Arlas UK farmer owners include the fact that over 130 farms now use robotics to allow cows to be milked whenever they want. Meanwhile, almost 1,500 farms have opened parts of their land to public use, with farmers taking responsibility for the maintenance of hedgerows and more than 10,000 kilometres of public footpaths. Nearly 10,000 sheep stolen last year by livestock rustlers in England and Wales has only resulted in one charge by the police. Livestock theft is seen as incredibly difficult to protect against, and farmers are becoming agitated as criminals get away with their crimes. The BBC made a Freedom of Information (FoI) request into the crime, which shows an increase in the past few years. There were 381 incidents of sheep theft in 2018, but Hertfordshire Police was the only force to bring a charge. Data shows that 9,635 sheep were stolen in 2018, an increase from 7,606 in 2017 and 6,337 in 2016. All 43 police forces in England and Wales responded to the BBC's request. For example, three separate incidents of livestock rustling in Herefordshire in this year alone has led the police to issue out a warning to farmers. The incidents include 22 Texel Cross and Welsh Mule ewes stolen earlier this year from a farm in Canon Frome. Twenty sheep, with a green mark on shoulder, were stolen during January from a farm in Tarrington. And 17 in lamb ewes were stolen from a different farm in Tarrington around the 15th January. West Mercia Police said: Thieves often don't use the main point of access to a field choosing to cut through barbed wire or fence instead. It is a crime that often needs a degree of organisation, as dogs are used to round up the sheep and put them on a trailer. Checking your animals regularly can alert you to their theft, marking the animals can make them difficult to dispose of. The worrying increase follows a Scottish farmer turning to a revolutionary marking system in a bid to tackle the problem. Drummond Estate near Comrie in Perthshire - which grazes nearly 3,000 sheep across the Glenartney Hills - uses the TecTracer theft-deterrent system. It is adapted from technology used to discourage the theft of lead from church roofs. By ingraining thousands of coded microdot markers into each sheep's fleece, the system easily identifies the animal and which farm it comes from, incriminating rustlers at random checks carried out at auction markets, abattoirs or on other farms. Based on claims data, NFU Mutual estimate rural crime cost the UK 44.5m in 2017. With an increase of 13.4% on the previous year, rural crime is rising at its fastest rate since 2010. A farming union has said that in the event of a 'no deal' Brexit reciprocal tariffs must be in place to safeguard food production. The Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) said agriculture should be treated as 'sensitive' as the threat of lower standard food hangs over the industry post-Brexit. It comes as the UK government outlines that it will pursue stable food prices in the event of a no deal Brexit. UFU president, Ivor Ferguson said: This could mean the government chooses to apply a zero tariff unilaterally on all food products coming in from the EU and the rest of the world. Flooding the market with lower standard food, produced at a lower cost. This would render UK producers uncompetitive, ultimately forcing us out of the market. The governments own economic model recognises the detrimental impact unilateral trade liberalisation would have. Forecasting decreased UK food production and depressed prices across all commodities should it implemented. For example, the effect on the beef and sheep sectors would be particularly acute, with predictions the UK beef price could fall by 45 per cent by 2025. However, the UFU favours what it calls a 'more sophisticated approach' whereby there is reciprocity on tariffs and standards. Mr Ferguson said this would be a 'refined way' of managing trade rather than the abolition of tariffs or a unilateral reduction. If the EU applies tariffs, we should reciprocate at the same level. Ongoing trade would be managed through the introduction of tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) for sectors where there is a domestic producer interest, he said. However, the UK farming unions argue that a no-deal Brexit has to be avoided at all costs. Our key concern is the future of farm family businesses in Northern Ireland and there are no winners in a no deal Brexit situation, added the UFU president. The UK government has indicated it will shortly announce the UKs no-deal tariff schedule. The person found guilty shall no more be "fit and proper". IRDAI has proposed a few guidelines to address conflicts of interest arising out of the appointment of common directors between insurance companies, insurance company and insurance intermediaries and common promoters of health and general Insurers. Chennai: If a conflict of interest arises when insurance companies have common directors, they should not be allowed to participate in the day-today activities of the company, proposes IRDAI. IRDAI has proposed a few guidelines to address conflicts of interest arising out of the appointment of common directors between insurance companies, insurance company and insurance intermediaries and common promoters of health and general Insurers. A director or officer shall eliminate the conflict of interest or resign from office within thirty days after he / she becomes aware that a material conflict of interest exists. When the insurer becomes aware of the conflict of interest situation, immediate steps shall be taken to ensure that the powers / authority delegated to such a director or officer is ceased and he / she is not allowed to participate in the day-to-day activities of the company. Also, an enquiry, headed by an independent director, shall be conducted on such a director or officer. The person found guilty shall no more be "fit and proper". As per the guidelines, it is the responsibility of board of directors of the insurance companies to formulate policy to address conflict of interest situations that may arise when insurers have common directors or officers. Where a promoter of a general insurance company wants to be a promoter of a health insurance company or vice versa, the promoter should file an application for issuance of requisition of registration of certificate. This should be accompanied with a note duly approved by board of directors on the manner in which the segregation of business between the two companies shall take place. However, no permission is required where the person proposed to act as the common director is an independent director in both the companies under the same group and the remuneration payable to such a director does not exceed Rs 10 lakh per annum. Permission for common non-executive director of an insurance company and insurance intermediary is required where the insurance company and insurance intermediary are part of the same group. If an insurance company and insurance intermediary are not part of the same group, they cannot have a common director. Sheep sector fears rise in dog attacks this festive season Farmers urged to look at latest guidance on issue We Can Shape the Web of the Future World Wide Web at 30 : We Can Shape the Web of the Future Governments, companies, and citizens have to do their part to make the world wide web an egalitarian and creative space. If we give up now, then the web will not have failed us. We will have failed the web. A guest article by Tim Berners-Lee. Tim Berners-Lee im November 2018 auf der Technologie-Konferenz Web Summit in Lissabon Bild: dpa Today, 30 years on from my original proposal for an information management system, half the world is online. Its a moment to celebrate how far weve come, but also an opportunity to reflect on how far we have yet to go. The web has become a public square, a library, a doctors office, a shop, a school, a design studio, an office, a cinema, a bank, and so much more. Of course with every new feature, every new website, the divide between those who are online and those who are not increases, making it all the more imperative to make the web available for everyone. And while the web has created opportunity, given marginalised groups a voice, and made our daily lives easier, it has also created opportunity for scammers, given a voice to those who spread hatred, and made all kinds of crime easier to commit. Three sources of dysfunction Against the backdrop of news stories about how the web is misused, its understandable that many people feel afraid and unsure if the web is really a force for good. But given how much the web has changed in the past 30 years, it would be defeatist and unimaginative to assume that the web as we know it cant be changed for the better in the next 30. If we give up on building a better web now, then the web will not have failed us. We will have failed the web. To tackle any problem, we must clearly outline and understand it. I broadly see three sources of dysfunction affecting todays web: Deliberate, malicious intent, such as state-sponsored hacking and attacks, criminal behaviour, and online harassment System design that creates perverse incentives where user value is sacrificed, such as ad-based revenue models that commercially reward clickbait and the viral spread of misinformation Unintended negative consequences of benevolent design, such as the outraged and polarised tone and quality of online discourse While the first category is impossible to eradicate completely, we can create both laws and code to minimize this behaviour, just as we have always done offline. The second category requires us to redesign systems in a way that change incentives. And the final category calls for research to understand existing systems and model possible new ones or tweak those we already have. We need a new contract for the web You cant just blame one government, one social network or the human spirit. Simplistic narratives risk exhausting our energy as we chase the symptoms of these problems instead of focusing on their root causes. To get this right, we will need to come together as a global web community. At pivotal moments, generations before us have stepped up to work together for a better future. With the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, diverse groups of people have been able to agree on essential principles. With the Law of Sea and the Outer Space Treaty, we have preserved new frontiers for the common good. Now too, as the web reshapes our world, we have a responsibility to make sure it is recognised as a human right and built for the public good. This is why the Web Foundation is working with governments, companies and citizens to build a new Contract for the Web. This contract was launched in Lisbon at Web Summit, bringing together a group of people who agree we need to establish clear norms, laws and standards that underpin the web. Those who support it endorse its starting principles and together are working out the specific commitments in each area. No one group should do this alone, and all input will be appreciated. Governments, companies and citizens are all contributing, and we aim to have a result later this year. Governments, companies, and citizens must act Governments must translate laws and regulations for the digital age. They must ensure markets remain competitive, innovative and open. And they have a responsibility to protect peoples rights and freedoms online. We need open web champions within government civil servants and elected officials who will take action when private sector interests threaten the public good and who will stand up to protect the open web. Companies must do more to ensure their pursuit of short-term profit is not at the expense of human rights, democracy, scientific fact or public safety. Platforms and products must be designed with privacy, diversity and security in mind. This year, weve seen a number of tech employees stand up and demand better business practices. We need to encourage that spirit. And most important of all, citizens must hold companies and governments accountable for the commitments they make, and demand that both respect the web as a global community with citizens at its heart. If we dont elect politicians who defend a free and open web, if we dont do our part to foster constructive healthy conversations online, if we continue to click consent without demanding our data rights be respected, we walk away from our responsibility to put these issues on the priority agenda of our governments. More than just quick fixes The fight for the web is one of the most important causes of our time. Today, half of the world is online. It is more urgent than ever to ensure the other half are not left behind offline, and that everyone contributes to a web that drives equality, opportunity and creativity. The Contract for the Web must not be a list of quick fixes but a process that signals a shift in how we understand our relationship with our online community. It must be clear enough to act as a guiding star for the way forward but flexible enough to adapt to the rapid pace of change in technology. Its our journey from digital adolescence to a more mature, responsible and inclusive future. Mehr zum Thema 1/ The web is for everyone and collectively we hold the power to change it. It wont be easy. But if we dream a little and work a lot, we can get the web we want. 'I've Discussed This With The Home Minister' Addressing these rumors, KGF actor told media personnel, "Upon hearing the news, I decided to meet the Home Minister and police officials in person. They themselves clarified that my name isn't been mentioned in the FIR or any other reports. I wonder why I have been spoken about despite this". Who From The Industry Is Threatening? When asked if he's receiving threats from people from the industry, Yash said, "It is has led to negative discussions on social media. People were throwing around names of other actors speculating their involvement in the case. That's very wrong. And it will also show our industry in a poor light. There is a healthy competition in the industry but I would like to make it clear that nobody in the industry would stoop so low." Don't Entertain The Rumors He further added, "Am I a hen or a goat that someone can simply attack me? I know who I am and what my powers are. I order to make others realise that, I've held this press conference. However, nothing of the sort has happened. I have no idea how these speculations originated and grew to be so bog. I request you to not pay heed to such reports." His Car Wasn't Attacked "Previously someone had thrown a stone at my car. I was not in the vehicle at the time of the incident. I had filed a complaint at the police station and it ended at that. Nothing more happened. However, the news channels and other medium began to label it a planned attack. Why is my name taken time and again?", Yash questioned! Novartis International AG / Three winners of 2019 Sandoz Healthcare Access Challenge (HACk) are announced at SXSW . Processed and transmitted by West Corporation. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Sandoz commits to increasing support from one winner to three, following impressive pitches from the finalists Winning ideas proposed innovative uses of artificial intelligence, mobile apps and digital therapeutics to address healthcare access challenges Sandoz invited people worldwide to "reimagine access to healthcare" by identifying practical, scalable digital solutions to address unmet medical needs Austin, Texas, March 10, 2019 -Sandoz, a Novartis division, today announced the winners of the 2019 Sandoz Healthcare Access Challenge (HACk). Sandoz HACk invites entrepreneurs and innovators in the field of digital technology to submit ideas with the potential to complement - or even positively disrupt - established approaches to driving access to healthcare. The three winners, chosen from over 400 ideas across 80 countries, who will now receive EUR 20,000 each in funding to bring their ideas to life as well as ongoing support from Sandoz experts, are: US-based Regulora TM , led by Tim Rudolphi, which offers a prescription-only digital therapeutic for patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), based on Gut Directed Hypnotherapy -- a method of treatment that has been increasingly used in recent years Netherlands-based SocialGenomics, led by Susanne Baars, which is developing a smart social network with a matchmaker tool to connect patients across the world who suffer from rare and undiagnosed diseases Ugandan-based Mobile Clinic, led by Andrew Dbembe, which seeks to use an app and a mobile van clinic to provide door-to-door maternal healthcare services in Uganda. The idea will enable patients to make emergency appointments via a toll-free number, which will be directly linked to the mobile van clinic "Sandoz sees the future of healthcare as being driven by two closely related factors: the digital revolution and the need for strong collaboration between healthcare companies and external partners," said Carol Lynch, President Sandoz Inc, speaking at the 'Startup of the Year' event at the South by Southwest (SXSW) congress in Austin, Texas. "Today saw three teams pitch innovative ideas to tackle a diverse range of healthcare access issues. As judges, we felt passionate about all three ideas and the people behind them, and so we are excited to offer support and seed funding to all teams." Andre Heeg, global Head of Digital at Sandoz, also speaking from Austin, added: "We believe Sandoz HACk is a key step towards realizing this vision, and we look forward greatly to working with all three winners to help bring their ideas to fruition. And there is no better place to celebrate the winner than SXSW: the global meeting point for innovative digital thinkers." Since arriving in Austin, Texas the three finalist teams (see below for details) attended a four-day "accelerator" event in parallel to SXSW. Working with Sandoz and industry experts, they discussed and re-assessed their ideas, with a view to creating practical, scalable solutions that can have a significant impact on people's lives. Finalists also attended SXSW sessions and networked with other participants and speakers to further stimulate development of their ideas. All three finalists pitched their idea in person to a panel of judges, consisting of Sandoz and industry experts. The judging panel was led by Carol Lynch, President of Sandoz US and Head of Sandoz North America, and included Steffen Kurzawa, Global Head of Communications, Sandoz, John Fremont, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Hypergiant; Rich Maloy, Director at Established and Venture Partner at SpringTime Ventures; Jennifer Skjellum, Director of Programs at The Company Lab; and John W. Dankanich, Chief Technologist at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. Judges assessed finalists based on criteria including the anticipated impact of their idea and the effective use of digital technologies. About the Sandoz HACk winners Regulora TM (Tim Rudolphi, US ) - Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a chronic and painful condition affecting approximately 10% of people worldwide. Recent clinical trials have shown that psychologically-focused treatments are an effective way to treat IBS, with over 50% of people enjoying significant relief from symptoms. Regulora TM is in development as a prescription-only digital therapeutic based on Gut Directed Hypnotherapy. The mobile app connects patients with automated digital therapy sessions from the comfort of their own home, as well as offering daily practice routines and reports that track progress. Social Genomics (Susanne Baars, Netherlands ) - Approximately one in 15 people worldwide are affected by rare diseases, with many untreated and unstudied. Social Genomics is building an AI-based smart social network, enabling people with rare and undiagnosed diseases to connect and share stories, providing access to global real-world patient data insights about treatment options and scientific research. By using advanced matchmaking algorithms based on genomic patient data, Social Genomics aims to link the right questions to the right people and to data sources that are available in the field of genomics. The Mobile Clinic (Andrew Ddembe, Uganda) - In Uganda, access to antenatal and maternal healthcare is extremely challenging, resulting in over 25 women dying every day due to complications while giving birth in remote and rural areas. The Mobile Clinic plans to develop an app that can be used to make emergency appointments via a toll-free number and will be directly linked to a mobile van clinic offering door-to-door services in rural areas. About Sandoz HACk The Sandoz Healthcare Access Challenge invites entrepreneurs and innovators in the field of digital technology to submit ideas with the potential to complement - or even positively disrupt - established approaches to driving access to healthcare. As a global leader in generic and biosimilar medicines and a pioneer in the field of digital therapeutics, Sandoz is determined to play a leading role in driving access to global healthcare by focusing on areas of unmet medical need. Sandoz sees the future of medicine as driven by increasingly strong collaboration between healthcare companies and external partners, and the goal of Sandoz HACk is to help make this vision a reality - by identifying and supporting small, practical ideas with the potential to spark big change. For more information on Sandoz HACk, see here: https://www.sandoz.com/sandoz-hack (https://www.sandoz.com/sandoz-hack) Join the conversation on Twitter (https://twitter.com/sandoz_global) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/sandozglobal/) using SandozHACk. About Sandoz Sandoz, a Novartis division, is a global leader in generic pharmaceuticals and biosimilars and a pioneer in the emerging field of prescription digital therapeutics. Our purpose is to pioneer access to healthcare by developing and commercializing novel, affordable approaches that address unmet medical need. Our broad portfolio of high-quality medicines, covering all major therapeutic areas and increasingly focused on value-adding differentiated medicines, accounted for 2018 sales of USD 9.9 billion. Sandoz is headquartered in Holzkirchen, in Germany's Greater Munich area. Sandoz is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Sandoz global at http://twitter.com/Sandoz_Global (http://twitter.com/Sandoz_Global). Novartis Media Relations Central media line: +41 61 324 2200 E-mail: media.relations@novartis.com (mailto:media.relations@novartis.com) Eric Althoff Novartis Global Media Relations +41 61 324 7999 (direct) +41 79 593 4202 (mobile) eric.althoff@novartis.com (mailto:eric.althoff@novartis.com) Chris Lewis Sandoz Global Communications +49 8924 476 1906 (direct) +49 174 244 9501 (mobile) chris.lewis@sandoz.com (mailto:chris.lewis@sandoz.com) Media release (PDF) (http://hugin.info/134323/R/2238054/881837.pdf) Local business in the Caribbean islands of St Kitts and Nevis is thriving as small and medium enterprises were announced that they will soon be able to access a US$3-million funding pool. According to a recent press release issued by the Office of the Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, the CARICOM Development Fund signed a concessional loan agreement with the Federation as part of the second cycle of the eight-year Country Assistance Programme. The funding aims to facilitate entrepreneurs' access to technical and financial assistance, improve competitiveness and productive capacity, promote innovation, boost employment rates and accelerate economic growth on the islands. The beneficiary sectors include women and youth start-ups, light manufacturing, agri-business and agriculture, tourism, infrastructure and sustainability. The financial support is important to address the problem resident business owners are said to be facing in accessing funds. Prime Minister Timothy Harris explained that "access to funding has been identified repeatedly as one of the main challenges to small businesses." As a result, all citizens of St Kitts and Nevis that qualify for the scheme are "encouraged to take full advantage of this opportunity," mentions the release issued by the Prime Minister's Press Unit. Prior to this, an additional US$1.33m was agreed on for the Enhancement of Frigate Bay as another component of the second cycle of the Country Assistance Programme. A similar end purpose serves the Sustainable Growth Fund (SGF) under the twin-island nation's Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme. It channels funds from foreign investors seeking the country's valuable citizenship into socio-economic initiatives on the islands, such as supporting entrepreneurship or the development of tourism, amongst others. Every applicant contributes with at least US$150,000 to the SGF and the reason it works well is because it remains the most straightforward and secure route to St Kitts and Nevis' citizenship. Increased foreign investment under CBI has been growing sustainably in St Kitts and Nevis due to the country's unrivalled experience as the world's longest-serving citizenship by investment programme. A recent World Justice Project report ranked it within the top 30 countries across the globe for rule of law, explaining why applicants looking to become economic citizens in a law-abiding system often opt for St Kitts and Nevis specifically. CS Global Partners is the international legal advisory mandated by the Government to promote the Citizenship by Investment Programme. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190310005057/en/ Contacts: Thomas Kohn pr@csglobalpartners.com +(44)2073184343 www.csglobalpartners.com Schweiter Technologies / Schweiter Technologies: Figures for 2018 . Processed and transmitted by West Corporation. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Growth in revenues amid challenging market conditions Steinhausen, March 11, 2019 - Schweiter Technologies enjoyed a successful 2018 business year in a market characterized by fluctuating demand. Net revenues rose to CHF 1,047.4 million (prior year: CHF 980.2 million), equivalent to an increase of 7% (5% in local currencies). Organic growth came to 2%. Owing to one-off positive effects the previous year (in particular a high single-digit million windfall profit from the sale of property), Group EBITDA amounted to CHF 111.0 million, just short of the prior-year figure of CHF 114.4 million. EBIT came to CHF 82.2 million (prior year: CHF 87.3 million). Athlone Extrusions, acquired in the previous year, made a positive contribution to both revenues and earnings. Net income from continuing operations declined to CHF 60.3 million (prior year: CHF 77.0 million) partly because of exchange rate losses following exchange rate gains in the amount of CHF 11.0 million in the previous year. Cash and cash equivalents came to more than CHF 108 million, after expenditure of about CHF 105 million for the Perspex acquisition and a dividend distribution of about CHF 64 million. The Board of Directors will propose paying a dividend of CHF 40 per bearer share at the General Meeting on April 11, 2019. The media conference will be held in Zurich at 11 a.m. today in the Marriott Hotel, Neumuhlequai 42. The 2018 Annual Report and the investor presentation can be downloaded from: http://www.schweiter.ch/s1a200/investoren/geschaftsberichte-prasentationen.html (http://www.schweiter.ch/s1a200/investoren/geschaftsberichte-prasentationen.html) Key figures Schweiter Technologies Group (in CHF m) CHF) 2018 2017 + / - Net revenues 1'047.4 980.2 +7% EBITDA 111.0 114.4 - 3% as a % of net revenues 10.6% 11.7% EBIT 82.2 87.3 - 6% Net income from continuing operations 60.3 77.0 - 22% Net income from discontinued operations - 95.0 Total net income 60.3 172.0 - 65% 3A Composites 2018 was a challenging year divided into two halves. Whereas in the first half the mood was upbeat and the prospects for growth were good, in the second half sentiment slowly deteriorated especially in the Display business (Polycasa) and in Core Materials. However, the Architecture business in Asia and the Transportation business performed strongly in the second half. Display Demand in the European Display market benefited in the first half from the generally buoyant economic environment. In the second half, however, it failed to match the previous year's high sales volume. Uncertainty about the duration of the economic upturn compounded by expectations of declining raw material prices resulted in substantial destocking among customers, especially in the Clearsheet business, and consequently in weaker sales of acrylic products. Higher raw material prices than the previous year coupled with fiercer competition impacted negatively on profitability. The launch of two new Clearsheet product lines will broaden the product range and reinforce our market position.The Display business in the US lost some of its momentum in the second half and as a result did not manage to match the previous year's strong showing. Architecture The construction sector in Europe remained stable at a high level, even though performance varied in the individual markets. Whereas France, Turkey, and Eastern Europe reported a dip in sales revenues, UK recorded a gratifying revenue increase despite the uncertainty caused by Brexit. Italy, too, posted a positive revenue trend. The core markets - Germany, Switzerland, and Austria - matched the previous year's high revenues, and sales in Scandinavia and Benelux also reached the prior-year level. The Architecture business improved profitability on the back of technological improvements and process optimization despite higher raw material costs. The US construction sector remained very buoyant. Since Alucobond is still the brand for premium aluminum composites that is most often specified by architects, revenues and earnings grew by double-digit figures. The Architecture business in Asia also posted double-digit growth in revenues and earnings over the whole year thanks to a very solid second half. Growth was driven mainly by a large number of construction projects in China, which more than made up for weaker demand in the Middle East in the first half. Demand is increasingly shifting to high-quality fire-retardant and non-combustible cladding panels, a market in which 3A Composites is ideally positioned. Uncertainty surrounding anticipated changes to fire protection regulations led to a certain amount of restraint in some markets. Core Materials The Core Materials business turned in a satisfactory performance over the last three quarters after getting off to a slow start in the first quarter. Demand from wind energy customers continued to increase, though the regional differences were considerable. Whereas demand firmed up substantially especially in China, the Indian market continued to suffer from muted demand. Europe and the US benefited in both the wind and the non-wind sectors from a strong business climate and buoyant demand, especially in the marine products market. Profitability was held in check by higher raw material costs and by the price pressures exerted by global OEMs. A number of measures - product portfolio streamlining, steps to boost efficiency, and selective price increases - were taken to enhance profitability. Transportation The Transportation business picked up strongly in the second half following a subdued first half. Revenues from lightweight bus and RV components as well as from train front-ends posted double-digit growth versus the previous year. The steep rise in revenues from these two product groups almost completely compensated for the lower sales of interior products and function-integrated sandwich systems for rail vehicles. Customer-related delays in two major projects in Switzerland and in China resulted in lower sales of flooring systems year-on-year. Owing to long-term contractual obligations, there was a certain time lag in passing on to customers the higher costs for raw materials and prefabricated parts. The resulting additional costs, however, were offset by rigorous implementation of measures designed to boost efficiency. Outlook Despite the ongoing weakness of demand in the Display business for acrylic products, Schweiter got off to a good start this year and expects a positive business performance. The economic outlook in the core markets of 3A Composites remains favorable. However, the current trade dispute between the US and China is causing some unease. In operational terms, the integration of the Perspex companies acquired at the end of 2018 will durably strengthen the Display business and make a positive contribution to revenues and earnings. The Architecture business should also continue to perform strongly on the back of the buoyant construction sector in Europe, the US, and Asia. The trend to non-combustible cladding panels coupled with the strong market position of 3A Composites is a medium-term sales driver in the Architecture business. The Core Materials business looks set to benefit from the ongoing strong demand in China, Europe, and the US. Important trends such as the reduction of dependence on fossil fuels, worldwide efforts to cut back CO2 emissions, measures to improve air quality especially in China, along with technical innovations are driving medium-term growth in wind energy as well as in the marine and automotive sectors. The Transportation business has a good order backlog. The trend to weight-saving solutions for buses, RVs and rail vehicles is a key factor driving growth in this area. Change in management Jan Jenisch will not stand for re-election to the Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting on April 11, 2019, after five years as a member of the Board of Directors due to time constraints. The Board of Directors sincerely thanks Jan Jenisch for his valuable commitment in recent years. Georg Reif, Chief Technology Officer of 3A Composites and a member of the Management of Schweiter Technologies, has decided to take early retirement in the first half of 2019. The Board of Directors and Management thank Georg Reif for his many years of successful service. For further information please contact: Martin Kloti, CFO Tel. +41 41 757 77 00, Fax +41 41 757 70 01, martin.kloeti@schweiter.com (mailto:martin.kloeti@schweiter.com) Please find the Media release in the PDF attached: Media release (PDF) (http://hugin.info/100347/R/2238024/881816.pdf) Like Suresh and Habibul Sheikh, a child arrives every five minutes at a railway station in India. New Delhi: Fourteen-year-old Suresh was found loitering at the Sarai Rohilla railway station by a team of the Kingsway Camp based Child Welfare Committee (CWC) way back in May 2018. He had left home at Etawah in Uttar Pradesh after his father died of illness and mother committed suicide. The CWC team and the district child protection unit coordinated with the Railway Children India (RCI), an NGO working towards the rehabilitation of such children. After persistent efforts by RCI, Suresh was finally provided shelter in a long-care childrens home near Kanpur in August last year. The home in-charge warmly received him and assured that he would be admitted to a school to continue his studies. Now the boy is enrolled in Class 9 and wishes to complete his schooling to become an outreach worker so that he himself can help more children who have faced similar situations in their life. Like Suresh, Habibul Sheikh, an 18-year-old resident of Kathalberia in South 24 Pargana district in West Bengal, dropped out of school when he was nine years old to support his family of six. He worked with his father to supplement his household earning till he met one of the volunteers of one of RCIs supported NGO working in the area. The volunteer advised him to attend the aspiration-mapping workshop organised by the NGO to identify vulnerable youths for enrolment in vocational training. Habibul was selected and immediately got enrolled in tailoring training in August 2017. Like Suresh and Habibul Sheikh, a child arrives every five minutes at a railway station in India. Many of these children, who come in contact with Indian Railways, are abandoned, trafficked, homeless, or have run away from their homes where they suffer poverty, violence, abuse, and neglect. A survey conducted by RCI in 2015 indicated that 1.8 lakh children arrive at around 32 stations across all 16 Railway zones every year who need support and care. Since RCIs establishment in 2013, the organisation has protected 12,041 children from immediate dangers at railway stations. During 2017-18, RCI worked at nine railway stations in different railway zones across five states protecting 3,627 children, out of whom 313 were girls. Their programme models at railway stations include 24x7 outreach, child help desks (CHDs), open shelters, and restoration of children back to families or government homes. Financial results for the full-year 2018 Strong increase in order entry to CHF 627.0 million (2017: CHF 564.3 million) Full-year growth of 10.3% in local currencies or 11.1% in Swiss francs Sales of CHF 593.8 million (2017: CHF 548.6 million) Full-year growth of 7.4% in local currencies and 8.2% in Swiss francs Full-year organic growth of 6.8% in local currencies and 7.7% in Swiss francs Full-year operating profit before depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of CHF 110.3 million (2017: CHF 104.6 million) Reported EBITDA margin of 18.6% (2017: 19.1%), after costs related to the acquisition of NuGEN Technologies EBITDA margin of 19.4%, excluding all effects related to the NuGEN acquisition Full-year net profit of CHF 70.7 million (2017: CHF 65.9 million); increase of 7.2% Net profit margin of 11.9%, including all acquisition-related costs (2017: 12.0%) Increase in earnings per share to CHF 6.02 (2017: CHF 5.67) Cash flow from operating activities of CHF 92.7 million (2017: CHF 99.4 million) Operating highlights 2018 and other important information Market launch of Fluent Gx platform variant for regulated markets; successful registration as a Class I medical device in the US Considerable progress made with several development projects in the Partnering Business A cceleration of broad genomics strategy with the acquisition of NuGEN Technologies Increase in the dividend proposed from CHF 2.00 to CHF 2.10 per share Outlook 2019 Full-year s ales are forecast to increase in the mid- to high single-digit percentage range in local currencies Despite accounting for all costs related to the acquisition of NuGen Technologies, reported EBITDA margin expected to expand to around 19% of sales Mannedorf, Switzerland, March 11, 2019 - The Tecan Group (SIX Swiss Exchange: TECN) today announced that the Company recorded strong financial results in the second half and another very successful business year in 2018. Tecan CEO Dr David Martyr commented: "I am very pleased with Tecan's financial performance in 2018. We recorded another year of strong sales growth, a further increase in underlying profitability and a higher net profit. Of particular note is our high order entry in the second half of the year, leading to a substantial increase in order backlog - a solid basis to head into 2019." Dr Achim von Leoprechting, Executive Vice President and designated CEO of Tecan said: "Tecan is in a strong position to benefit from the tremendous opportunities that the 'Century of Biology' has to offer. With an end-user as well as an OEM business, Tecan has a unique position to bridge from research to diagnostics settings and thereby help our customers with the discovery of novel medications all the way to better diagnosis of diseases. I very much look ahead to another promising business year in 2019 and beyond." Financial results full-year and second half of 2018 In the year under review, Tecan grew its order entry by 11.1% to CHF 627.0 million (2017: CHF 564.1 million), which corresponds to an increase of 10.3% in local currencies. With an increase of 20.0% in local currencies and by 19.9% in Swiss francs, orders grew particularly strongly in the second half of 2018. Both business segments contributed with double-digit growth rates in the second half. Thanks to the strong order entry, the order backlog was sharply higher as of December 31, 2018. The order backlog also includes a large order in the Life Sciences Business for customized solutions which is likely to be recognized as revenues in 2020. Sales for fiscal year 2018 climbed by 7.4% in local currencies or 8.2% in Swiss francs to CHF 593.8 million (2017: CHF 548.6 million). On an organic basis, sales grew by 6.8% in local currencies and 7.7% in Swiss francs. Sales continued their positive trajectory in the second half of the year as well, growing by 7.8% in local currencies and 8.1% in Swiss francs. On an organic basis, excluding sales from NuGEN (now Tecan Genomics) in the last four months of the year, sales grew by 6.8% in local currencies and 7.0% in Swiss francs. Recurring sales of services and consumables increased for the full year 2018 by 5.9% in local currencies and 6.7% in Swiss francs, and therefore amounted to 41.8% of total sales (2017: 42.4%). The operating profit before depreciation and amortization (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization; EBITDA) rose by 5.4% to CHF 110.3 million in the fiscal year (2017: CHF 104.6 million), after acquisition-related costs in a mid-single-digit million Swiss franc amount. The reported EBITDA margin thus reached 18.6% of sales (2017: 19.1%; 18.4% excluding non-recurring positive effects). The EBITDA margin excluding all effects related to the NuGEN acquisition increased to 19.4%, delivering on the margin commitment for the year of "more than 19%". Reported net profit for the year 2018 rose by 7.2% to CHF 70.7 million (2017: CHF 65.9 million). Net profit increased less than operating profit as a lower financial result was recorded due to currency hedging losses. The net profit margin was almost unchanged at 11.9% of sales (2017: 12.0%), while basic earnings per share increased to CHF 6.02 (2017: CHF 5.67). Cash flow from operating activities reached CHF 92.7 million (2017: CHF 99.4 million), thereby corresponding to 15.6% of sales. Information by business segment Life Sciences Business (end-customer business) Sales in the Life Sciences Business increased by 7.0% to CHF 328.2 million in 2018 (2017: CHF 306.9 million) and were 5.6% above the prior-year period in local currencies. On an organic basis (excluding sales from NuGEN for the last four months), sales in 2018 rose by 4.6% in local currencies. After a moderate start into the year, based on a high comparative basis from the prior-year period, sales in the Life Sciences Business accelerated significantly in the second half and were 11.3% above the prior-year period, corresponding to an increase of 10.8% in local currencies. On an organic basis, sales in the second half grew by 8.9% in local currencies. The newly launched Fluent Gx platform variant enjoyed strong demand on the market, which contributed significantly to this growth. Full-year order entry in the Life Sciences Business segment grew with a double-digit rate, significantly exceeding sales, which resulted in a sharp rise in order backlog. Reported operating profit in this segment (earnings before interest and taxes; EBIT) rose to CHF 51.3 million (2017: CHF 50.5 million), despite the cost impact from the NuGEN acquisition. The corresponding operating profit margin reached 14.8% of sales (2017: 15.9%). Partnering Business (OEM business) The Partnering Business generated sales of CHF 265.6 million during the year under review (2017: CHF 241.7 million), which corresponds to an increase of 9.7% in local currencies and 9.9% in Swiss francs. The segment posted continued strong growth from existing instrument platforms, first contributions from newly launched analyzers and the consumables business. After posting significant growth in the first half of the year, sales in the second half grew by 3.9% in Swiss francs and in local currencies. Also in the Partnering Business order entry increased at a high rate in fiscal year 2018. Operating profit in this segment (earnings before interest and taxes; EBIT) rose by 15.9% to CHF 48.6 million (2017: CHF 42.0 million). This positive performance is primarily a result of sales growth and lower acquisition-related integration costs compared to the prior-year period. The operating profit margin improved by 100 basis points to 18.2% of sales (2017: 17.2%). Additional information Regional development In Europe, Tecan's full-year sales increased by 12.1% in local currencies and by 14.0% in Swiss francs, with both business segments performing strongly. The Life Sciences Business grew particularly strongly in the second half of the year with sales increasing by 17.1% in local currencies. In North America, sales grew by 4.7% in local currencies and 4.2% in Swiss francs in 2018. The Life Sciences Business recorded solid growth in this region. The Partnering Business posted moderate growth, mainly due to the high comparative basis of the prior-year period. With a growth rate of 10.9% in local currencies, sales accelerated markedly in the second half of the year. In Asia, Tecan posted an increase in sales of 2.5% in local currencies and 4.2% in Swiss francs. Sales in the Life Sciences Business were 2.6% below the prior year, while sales in the Partnering Business grew by 18.3%, particularly boosted by strong growth in China. Operating performance 2018 The Fluent Gx platform variant was developed for the automation of laboratory workflows in regulated markets and was launched in various regions in the first half of 2018. After successful registration as a Class I medical device, the platform also became available in the US. Its specific functionalities, which facilitate greater process security, traceability of samples and stricter user management, have met with a lot of interest and several major lab chains ordered multiple instruments at once. In August, Tecan announced the acquisition of US-based NuGEN Technologies, Inc. (now called Tecan Genomics). The company, since September 2018 part of the Tecan Group, is a leading provider for innovative next-generation sequencing (NGS) sample preparation solutions, the fastest growing field within the genomics area. Through this acquisition, Tecan expands its dedicated solutions offering into the new market segment of NGS reagents, accelerating its broad genomics strategy and further increasing recurring revenues. Overall R&D activities and gross expenses were higher compared to the prior-year period, however due to customer funding of projects and higher capitalized development costs, net R&D expenses were at a similar level. Tecan made considerable progress with a number of development projects in the Partnering Business in 2018. More than five projects are currently in the development phase, the sales potential of which ranges from single-digit to clear double-digit million amounts in Swiss francs per year. Several market launches are expected for 2019. Strong balance sheet - high equity ratio Tecan's equity ratio reached 71.4% as of December 31, 2018 (December 31, 2017: 68.4%). Net liquidity (cash and cash equivalents minus bank liabilities and loans) reached CHF 289.6 million, despite having paid the purchase consideration for the NuGEN acquisition fully in cash in the second half of the year (June 30, 2018: CHF 284.1 million; December 31, 2017: CHF 290.7 million). The company's share capital was CHF 1,176,637 as at the reporting date of December 31, 2018 (December 31, 2017: CHF 1,166,487), consisting of 11,766,372 registered shares with a nominal value of CHF 0.10. On the basis of the increase of net profit in 2018 and an ongoing positive business perspective, the Board of Directors will propose at the Company's Annual General Meeting an increase in the dividend from CHF 2.00 to CHF 2.10 per share. Outlook 2019 Tecan expects sales growth for full-year 2019 to be in the mid- to high single-digit percentage range in local currencies. This forecast does not take account of potential additional acquisitions during the course of the year. As previously communicated, integration costs together with short term lower margins associated with the NuGEN acquisition will have an impact on Tecan's reported EBITDA margin. These acquisition-related costs are expected to add up to a high single-digit million Swiss franc amount in 2019. However, Tecan anticipates that costs related to the NuGEN acquisition as well as the CEO transition will be largely offset by gains in profitability due to the adoption of the IFRS 16 accounting standard regarding leases that becomes effective in 2019. The IFRS 16 gains will be recurring. Tecan therefore anticipates that the overall reported EBITDA margin will expand to around 19% of sales in 2019. The expectations for profitability are based on an average exchange rate forecast for full-year 2019 of one euro equaling CHF 1.14 (2018: 1.15) and one US dollar equaling CHF 0.99 (2018: 0.96). Again, no contributions or costs linked to further acquisitions are taken into account. Financial Report and Webcast The full 2018 Financial Report can be accessed on the company's website www.tecan.com under Investor Relations. An iPad app for the Tecan Financial Reports is also available from the App Store. Tecan will hold an analyst and media conference to discuss the 2018 annual results today at 09:00 am. A link to the webcast will be provided immediately prior to the event. The dial-in numbers for the conference call are as follows: For participants from Europe: +41 (0)58 310 50 00 or +44 207 107 0613 (UK) For participants from the US: +1 (1) 631 570 5613 Participants should if possible dial in 15 minutes before the start of the event. Key upcoming dates The Annual General Meeting of Tecan's shareholders will take place in Pfaffikon (SZ) on April 16, 2019. The 2019 Interim Report will be published on August 15, 2019. About Tecan Tecan (www.tecan.com) is a leading global provider of laboratory instruments and solutions in biopharmaceuticals, forensics and clinical diagnostics. The company specializes in the development, production and distribution of automation solutions for laboratories in the life sciences sector. Its clients include pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, university research departments, forensic and diagnostic laboratories. As an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), Tecan is also a leader in developing and manufacturing OEM instruments and components that are then distributed by partner companies. Founded in Switzerland in 1980, the company has manufacturing, research and development sites in both Europe and North America and maintains a sales and service network in 52 countries. Registered shares of Tecan Group are traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange (TECN; ISIN CH0012100191). For further information: Tecan Group Dr Rudolf Eugster Martin Brandle Chief Financial Officer Vice President, Communications & Investor Relations investor@tecan.com (mailto:investor@tecan.com) Tel. +41 (0) 44 922 84 30 www.tecan.com (http://www.tecan.com) Fax +41 (0) 44 922 88 89 Attachment Top line results expected in spring 2019 GKT831 exhibited a favorable safety profile throughout the study No drop outs or treatment interruptions due to pruritus 2 SAEs recorded in the study, both unrelated to GKT831 Regulatory News: Genkyotex (Paris:GKTX) (Brussels:GKTX) (Euronext Paris Brussels: FR0011790542 GKTX), a biopharmaceutical company and the leader in NOX therapies, announces today that the last patient has completed on March 8, 2019 the full 24-week treatment in its Phase 2 trial of GKT831 in patients with Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC). Positive interim efficacy results after 6 weeks of treatment were previously announced in November 2018. Final results are expected in the spring of 2019. Importantly, final results will include fibrosis and quality of life endpoints. The safety profile of GKT831 remained favorable throughout the 24-week treatment period. No drop outs or treatment interruptions due to pruritus or fatigue were reported. The study had a very high rate of completion, as 107 out of the 111 randomized patients were treated for the full 24-week period. Two serious adverse events (SAEs) were reported, a grade 1 urinary infection and multiple bone fractures related to a traffic accident. Both cases were deemed unrelated to GKT831 by the investigators. Treatment was not interrupted, and both patients completed the treatment period as per protocol. "We were extremely encouraged by the positive interim efficacy results announced last November, and our confidence in the potential of GKT831 was further enhanced by the very high completion rate in the study, and the favorable safety profile observed throughout the full 24-week treatment period. We look forward to the final study results which will include quality of life and fibrosis endpoints," said Philippe Wiesel, Chief Medical Officer of Genkyotex. This Phase 2 trial is a 24-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, evaluating the safety and efficacy of GKT831 in patients with PBC and inadequate response to ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA). A total of 111 PBC patients were enrolled, versus the original target of 102 patients, and allocated to three treatment arms: UDCA plus placebo, UDCA plus GKT831 at 400mg once a day, and UDCA plus GKT831 at 400mg twice a day. GKT831 has shown potent anti-fibrotic and anti-inflammatory activity in a broad range of animal models, as well as pharmacodynamic activity in healthy subjects and diabetic patients. Mechanistic data indicate that inhibiting NOX 1 and 4 with GKT831 down regulates multiple fibrogenic pathways, including TGF-, MCP-1 and ASK1. "Completing the 24-week treatment period for this extended phase 2 clinical trial is an important milestone for our PBC program and NOX therapeutics. GKT831 continued to demonstrate a favorable safety profile after extended treatment, supporting its anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic potential in multiple indications, such as NASH, IPF, diabetic nephropathy, scleroderma, and oncology," said Elias Papatheodorou, Chief Executive Officer of Genkyotex. Genkyotex will present interim efficacy results of its Phase 2 trial of GKT831 for the treatment of PBC during the general session of the International Liver Conference (ILC 2019) in Vienna on April 11, 2019. Next financial press release: Q1 2019 business update and cash position: April 25, 2019 (after market) About Genkyotex Genkyotex is the leading biopharmaceutical company in NOX therapies, listed on the Euronext Paris and Euronext Brussels markets. A leader in NOX therapies, its unique therapeutic approach is based on a selective inhibition of NOX enzymes that amplify multiple disease processes such as fibrosis, inflammation, pain processing, cancer development, and neurodegeneration. Genkyotex's platform enables the identification of orally available small-molecules that selectively inhibit specific NOX enzymes. Genkyotex is developing a pipeline of first-in-class product candidates targeting one or multiple NOX enzymes. The lead product candidate, GKT831, a NOX1 and NOX4 inhibitor is evaluated in a phase 2 clinical trial in primary biliary cholangitis (PBC, a fibrotic orphan disease) and in an investigator-initiated Phase 2 clinical trial in Type 1 Diabetes and Kidney Disease (DKD). A grant from the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) of $8.9 million was awarded to Professor Victor Thannickal at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) to fund a multi-year research program evaluating the role of NOX enzymes in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a chronic lung disease that results in fibrosis of the lungs, the core component of the program will be to conduct a Phase 2 trial with the GKT831 in patients with IPF. This product candidate may also be active in other fibrotic indications. Its second product candidate, GKT771, is a NOX1 inhibitor targeting multiple pathways in angiogenesis, pain processing, and inflammation, currently undergoing preclinical testing. Genkyotex also has a versatile platform well-suited to the development of various immunotherapies (Vaxiclase). A partnership covering the use of Vaxiclase as an antigen per se (GTL003) has been established with Serum Institute of India Private Ltd (Serum Institute), the world's largest producer of vaccine doses, for the development by Serum Institute of cellular multivalent combination vaccines against a variety of infectious diseases. This partnership could generate approximately 150 million in future revenues for Genkyotex, before royalties on sales. For further information, please go towww.genkyotex.com Disclaimer This press release may contain forward-looking statements by the company with respect to its objectives. Such statements are based upon the current beliefs, estimates and expectations of Genkyotex's management and are subject to risks and uncertainties such as the company's ability to implement its chosen strategy, customer market trends, changes in technologies and in the company's competitive environment, changes in regulations, clinical or industrial risks and all risks linked to the company's growth. These factors as well as other risks and uncertainties may prevent the company from achieving the objectives outlined in the press release and actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements, due to various factors. Without being exhaustive, such factors include uncertainties involved in the development of Genkyotex's products, which may not succeed, or in the delivery of Genkyotex's products marketing authorizations by the relevant regulatory authorities and, in general, any factor that could affects Genkyotex's capacity to commercialize the products it develops. No guarantee is given on forward-looking statements which are subject to a number of risks, notably those described in the registration document (document de reference) registered by the French Markets Authority (the AMF) on 27 April 2018 under number R.18-037, and those linked to changes in economic conditions, the financial markets, or the markets on which Genkyotex is present. Genkyotex products are currently used for clinical trials only and are not otherwise available for distribution or sale. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190310005051/en/ Contacts: INVESTORS NewCap Dusan Oresansky, Emmanuel Huynh +33 1 44 71 94 92 genkyotex@newcap.eu MEDIA NewCap Nicolas Merigeau, Arthur Rouille +33 1 44 71 00 15 genkyotex@newcap.eu US LifeSci Advisors, LLC Brian Ritchie +1-212-915-2578 britchie@lifesciadvisors.com PHU QUOC, Vietnam, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- One of Vietnam's most idyllic islands hosted a week-long wedding party for a billionaire couple from India who invited no less than 700 guests to join them at the five-star JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay resort from March 3-10. Located in the Gulf of Thailand, and known throughout the world for its unspoiled beaches, Phu Quoc Island was considered the ideal destination for dream wedding. The groom, Rushang Shah -- the son of the Chairman & CEO of Embassy National Bank, an Atlanta-based community bank -- and his bride Kaabia Grewal -- co-founder of The Outhouse, a luxury jewellery brand -- certainly spared no expense with a extravagant week-long party. This was truly 'the Wedding of the Century'. Two charter flights flew to Phu Quoc International Airport from India with 700 wedding guests on board. The entire entourage, along with a troupe of models and performing artists from Italy, Thailand, India, Russia, made their way to the award-winning JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay which boasts 234 spacious and beautifully appointed rooms, suites, villas, on the southernmost tip of this tropical island. Guests were spellbound by white sandy beaches, heavenly sea views and romantic sunsets. Destination wedding specialists from India worked together to pull out all the stops for the couple with a veritable extravaganza of entertaining events with a different theme and dress code for each day. The guests dressed in pink from head to toe one day and in ethnic costumes another and there were different activities, such as lantern making, and viewing marine life, on offer for guests. Naturally, the most eye-catching event was the main wedding ceremony, held on March 9th. Guests described it as "something out of a fairytale" when the stunning bride floated across the gentle waves in a boat adorned with pink and white flowers to arrive on shore and tied the knot with the handsome groom. Considered to be a 'masterpiece of resort design', JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay was conceptualised by the renowned Bill Bensley with investment from Sun Group, Vietnam's premier developer of luxury resorts and tourism-related infrastructures. The resort, much admired for its superlative services and stunning location, was listed as one of the Top 50 Best Resorts in the world by Conde Nast Traveller. Video: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_3hrzranyzMAeCRAQocUQyRNxI2EcWkD Video - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/833376/Indian_wedding_JW_MARRIOTT.mp4 Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/833322/Wedding_Phu_Quoc_Vietnam.jpg Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 11, 2019) - Alta Natural Herbs & Supplements Ltd. (TSXV: AHS) (the "Company" or "AHS") is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Sina Pirooz as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and Mr. Jamie Lewin as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Director of the Company. Sina Pirooz possesses over 18 years experience in the international pharmaceuticals industry and has been a professional member of the College of Pharmacists of British Columbia since 2003. He is the owner of the Coal Harbour Compounding Pharmacy and President of SP RX Services. Mr. Pirooz has provided consulting, pharmacist and pharmacy management services to many of Canada's leading pharmacies and drug stores including Rexall Drugs, Pharmasave and Guardian Pharmacies. He is also actively engaged in the sales, marketing and export of pharmaceuticals, OTC drugs and health supplements to the Middle East. Mr. Pirooz brings to Alta Natural his invaluable expertise in new product development, compounding, sales, marketing and export of pharmaceuticals. Jamie Lewin is a professional accountant CPA, who also holds an MBA, with specialization in financial management, from City University, and a Certification in Public Companies. In addition, he completed a LLB at Laval University and a BA in Economics from the University of Western Ontario. He has more than 20 years' experience in accounting and finance for private and public companies. They range from brokerage and investment through to manufacturing, distribution, resources and service. Currently Jamie is an operational CFO for three venture companies. In the past he has also been operational CFO the Janda Group, Vanc Pharmaceuticals, Savoy Ventures, Essex Capital, SPT Sulphur Polymer Technologies, Red Star Capital, Abenteuer Resources and Dussault Apparel. Mr. Lewin has been a Director and audit committee member with Upper Canyon Minerals, Vanc Pharmaceuticals, Choice Gold, Innovative Properties, Abenteuer Resources and Lucky Minerals. Jamie has served on the Boards of two NPO's, in Treasury and Fund Development functions, and is a member of the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Vancouver Institute. He is also the owner of Best Fit Consulting. The Company has also received the resignations of Jimmy J.F. Jin, as a Director and CEO, and Dr. William Xiong, as Director, and sincerely thanks them for their past services to the Company and wishes them every success in their new endeavors. On behalf of the board, Mr. Sina Pirooz, CEO Contact: Tel: 604-767-3613 3512 Rosemary Heights Cres. Surrey, V3Z 0M4 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially and there are no assurances that the transaction described in this news release will close on the terms described or at all. Except as required pursuant to applicable securities laws, the Company will not update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof. More detailed information about potential factors that could affect financial results is included in the documents filed from time to time with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities by the Company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/43329 Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. PHILADELPHIA, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Techstreet, one of the top aggregators of technical standards content worldwide, and IPC -- Association Connecting Electronics Industries, a leading Standards Developing Organization (SDO), have formed a partnership to offer electronics manufacturing standards through the Techstreet Enterprise subscription service. For more than 60 years, designers, board manufacturers, assembly companies, suppliers, and original equipment manufacturers have depended on IPC content to create high quality, reliable products. Through the partnership with IPC, the Techstreet division of Clarivate Analytics will continue to expand its content, making it one of the fastest-growing standards management web platforms available. "For many years, Techstreet has been a trusted distributor of IPC's standards, guidelines and handbooks. I'm pleased to announce that Techstreet now offers access to Techstreet Enterprise to IPC members," said John Mitchell, IPC president and CEO. "From anywhere in the world, IPC members can streamline access to IPC standards via Techstreet's cloud-based standards library." "We are pleased to partner with IPC to provide crucial content to the printed circuit board and electronics assembly industries via our Techstreet Enterprise subscription service," added Todd Fegan, Vice President, Techstreet. "Companies need access to a broad set of content, with intuitive access tools, an issue that is challenging for publishers to solve on their own. Through this partnership, IPC solves this pervasive problem via our accessible and sophisticated standards management platform." IPC standards are accepted worldwide as the key manufacturing standards for the printed board and electronics manufacturing industries and they are associated with nearly every stage of the electronic product development cycle. Today, IPC's collection of industry standards and guidelines exceeds 300 active standards and is used by more than 5,000 member-company sites. For more information about Techstreet Enterprise, visit: https://www.techstreet.com/pages/subscriptions_video.html IPC IPC (www.IPC.org) is a global industry association based in Bannockburn, Ill., dedicated to the competitive excellence and financial success of its 5,000 member-company sites which represent all facets of the electronics industry, including design, printed board manufacturing, electronics assembly and test. As a member-driven organization and leading source for industry standards, training, market research and public policy advocacy, IPC supports programs to meet the needs of an estimated $2 trillion global electronics industry. IPC maintains additional offices in Taos, N.M.; Washington, D.C.; Atlanta, Ga.; Brussels, Belgium; Stockholm, Sweden; Moscow, Russia; Bangalore and New Delhi, India; Bangkok, Thailand; and Qingdao, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou and Beijing, China. Techstreet Techstreet serves those who invent, build, test and maintain virtually everything on which the world depends. Techstreet keeps technical professionals connected to 550,000+ industry codes and standards, in partnership with 150+ standards publishers. Techstreet standards and management tools help corporations, government, and academic institutions achieve national and international compliance, global competitiveness, and speed to market with better, safer products and services. For more information, please visit www.techstreet.com/subscriptions. Clarivate Analytics Clarivate Analytics is a global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation. Building on a heritage going back more than a century and a half, we have built some of the most trusted brands across the innovation lifecycle, including the Web of Science, Cortellis, Derwent, CompuMark, MarkMonitor and Techstreet. Today, Clarivate Analytics is a new and independent company on a bold entrepreneurial mission, to help our clients radically reduce the time from new ideas to life-changing innovations. For more information, please visit www.clarivate.com. Forward-Looking Statements This press release and oral statements made with respect to information contained in this release may contain forward-looking statements regarding Clarivate Analytics. Forward-looking statements provide Clarivate Analytics' current expectations or forecasts of future events and may include statements regarding anticipated synergies and other future expectations. These statements involve risks and uncertainties including factors outside of Clarivate Analytics' control that may cause actual results to differ materially. Clarivate Analytics undertakes no obligation to update or revise the statements made herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Media Contact: Jessica Stanek e: media.enquiries@clarivate.com Investment expands 777's presence in the aviation sector, while enabling Air Black Box to broaden its travel connection capabilities for global airlines, airports and other travel brands MIAMI, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Air Black Box-the first global travel technology company founded to solve the complexities of cross-selling products and services within the aviation sector-has been acquired by 777 Partners, an investment firm that specializes in unique high-growth investments. The acquisition of Air Black Box adds to the firm's portfolio of pioneering companies in the aviation sector. By equipping its portfolio companies with proprietary back-end operational technology, 777 Partners creates efficiencies that support the commercial success and scaling of each business. A team of industry experts founded Air Black Box to address a key airline pain: how to efficiently connect inventory and systems to drive passenger volume, business expansion, and increased ancillary revenue. Limited by outdated PSS technology, disparate fulfillment systems, cumbersome industry contractual requirements, and restrictive selling platforms, airlines, airports and travel providers have been unable to create the profitable multi-brand revenue opportunities that they need to grow their business. The Air Black Box platform is the first system to provide seamless capability for airlines to network and cross-sell with each other, regardless of carrier type or PSS platform. The platform is built upon Air Black Box's patent-protected "managed" interlining technology, which sits at the core of travel supplier distribution channels and helps airlines increase conversions and revenues by creating product and service combinations that meet passenger needs for flexibility and frictionless travel. "Air Black Box's expert team and technology platform fits our criteria for investing in disruptive aviation companies that create efficiencies and drive revenue in areas that haven't been fully optimized," says Juan Arciniegas, a Principal of 777 Partners. "In aviation's evolving global marketplace, their technology plays a key role in achieving our shared vision for an airline industry that is more agile, flexible, and profitable for all stakeholders." 777 Partners recently made an investment in Flair Airlines, the only independent ultra-low cost carrier in Canada, and announced that is it relaunching the historic World Airways brand as North America's first low-cost, long-haul airline. Addressing Airlines' Operational and Revenue Needs With an ongoing mandate to maximize revenue and expand route networks in an increasingly competitive marketplace, airlines need solutions to form and maintain partnerships that help them expand reach and monetize their full inventories in a cost effective manner. Air Black Box's platform supports all those needs, providing solutions for booking, pricing and packaging cross-brand core and ancillary products, and for streamlining the logistical difficulties of servicing a multi-carrier itinerary - from baggage handling to funds settlement. The platform allows airlines to broaden their product portfolio and sell more product without having to overhaul existing systems, and connects through APIs, reducing implementation time and conserving internal or limited IT resources. A New Vision for Aviation "Our technology was built to overcome long-standing issues in how airlines connect and sell their inventory across their networks and drive new revenues as a result," said Ian Reyner, CEO of Air Black Box. "Through our relationship with 777 Partners, we can now bring our solution to more airlines and a broader segment of the travel industry." The Air Black Box platform also provides the technology behind the Value Alliance, the world's first low-cost carrier alliance and Asia-Pacific's largest, which includes Cebu Pacific, Cebgo, Scoot, Nok Air, NokScoot, Vanilla Air, and Jeju Air. Value Alliance carriers share inventory and cross-sell each other's products using the platform, enabling the alliance to better serve its 50 million-plus passengers across 160 destinations, and compete more aggressively in the region. "We've already proven that our approach is more cost-effective and less complex than traditional distribution networks, and that we can help travel brands expand their reach and sell more product. And for passengers, our technology enables more seamless and efficient journeys, especially when they self-connect," said Reyner. For more information about Air Black Box, please contact Vanessa Horwell at vhorwell@thinkinkpr.com (305-749-5342 ext. 232), or visit www.airblackbox.com. About Air Black Box Air Black Box is a travel technology company dedicated to transforming the travel selling process through decades of domain expertise, patented integration technology and a vision for innovation. Air Black Box's industry-first comprehensive travel connection platform enables airlines, airports and travel providers to expand their market footprint, boost passenger volume, increase core and ancillary revenue, and create new sales opportunities by efficiently and cost-effectively facilitating the cross-selling, distribution and fulfillment of travel products and services. To learn more about Air Black Box, please visit www.airblackbox.com. About 777 Partners 777 Partners is a Miami-based investment firm focused on a broad spectrum of specialty finance businesses, asset originators and financial technology and services providers. Its overarching thesis is to incubate new ventures and to make control investments in businesses with scalable profiles and ambitious management teams operating in attractive markets. 777's senior management team is composed of industry veterans with backgrounds in private equity, venture capital, investment banking, financial technology, aviation, insurance, actuarial science, asset management, structured-credit, ABS, risk, analytics, complex commercial litigation and computer science. For more info, please see www.777part.com. FORT WALTON BEACH, FL / ACCESSWIRE / March 11, 2019 / ASG Legal has advised visitors participating in the 2019 Okaloosa County Spring Break to stay on the safe side of the law, but they also have pledged to provide legal counsel and representation to students who are arrested during the spring break period. Two notable attorneys at ASG Legal, Timothy W. Shaw and Jay Patel, have announced that they will offer their legal expertise to students and visitors who get in trouble during the Okaloosa County Spring Break. Students celebrating during their holidays can often get carried away, which is why the law firm advises that suitable precautions be taken. Furthermore, the Okaloosa County Sheriff has strictly instructed his deputies to arrest individuals found in violation of Florida State statutes during the spring break period. This can potentially lead to a lot of arrests during Spring Break. Among the statutes and ordinances that students need to be particularly mindful of are possession of alcohol under the age of 21, disorderly conduct while drunk, possession or consumption of alcohol in a public place such as a county park, having an open house party, carrying a glass container in a public park, having pets outside, and lighting fires/fireworks. Those interested in more details regarding these statutes can read more in this article. "Our goal is to provide our clients with prompt, efficient and cost-effective legal representation consistent with the highest standards of legal excellence," states the firm on their website. "By combining over two centuries of collective legal experience that crosses a broad range of practice areas with an unparalleled insight into the legal, social, and political environment of Northwest Florida, the lawyers at ASG are able to meet the many and varied needs of our clients." The firm asserts that, "Anchors Smith Grimsley provides a full range of legal services, and is dedicated to the prompt, efficient and effective legal representation of our clients in all settings and in all state and federal courts throughout Northwest Florida." Attorneys Jay Patel and Tim Shaw are highly experienced criminal defense attorneys and litigators at ASG Legal. Patel is a former prosecutor and law enforcement officer with the Okaloosa County Sheriff's office and Shaw has more than 25 years' experience representing clients in all State and Federal courts throughout Northwest Florida. They both have experience with thousands of criminal prosecutions, ranging from petty misdemeanors to felonies punishable with life sentences. "Tim Shaw and Jay Patel make up ASG's Criminal Defense team," said a spokesperson for ASG Legal. "Whether someone has been arrested in Escambia County, Santa Rosa County, Okaloosa County, or Walton County, our team has decades of experience representing them in Judge trials and Jury trials in all types of criminal cases ranging from misdemeanors to complex capital felonies. Our Criminal Defense team is here and ready." ASG Legal is comprised of eleven lawyers raised in the local community, with over two centuries of combined legal experience in a broad range of practice areas, especially regarding local laws and regulations. The firm came into being in 2005 with the merger of Martindale Hubbell AV-rated law firms of Smith, Grimsley, Bauman, Pinkerton, Petermann & Shaw, and Anchors, Foster, McInnis & Keefe - which merged to form Anchors Smith Grimsley. At the time, it was the largest law firm in the local three-county area. Those interested in the criminal defense services offered by ASG Legal can contact attorneys Shaw or Patel through the firm's website at www.ASGLegal.com. For more information about ASG Legal - Patel and Shaw, contact the company here: ASG Legal - Patel and Shaw Jay Patel & Tim Shaw (850) 863-4064 909 Mar Walt Drive, Suite 1014 Fort Walton Beach, FL 32547-6711 SOURCE: ASG Legal View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/538627/Destin-DUI-and-Criminal-Defense-Attorneys-Offer-Legal-Counsel-During-Okaloosa-Spring-Break Petrol and diesel prices have risen by over Rs 2 per litre in last one month as international rates have risen on hopes of the United States and China ending a trade war New Delhi: With oil prices on the boil just as general elections are announced, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has asked world's largest oil exporter Saudi Arabia to play an active role in keeping rates at a reasonable level. Petrol and diesel prices have risen by over Rs 2 per litre in last one month as international rates have risen on hopes of the United States and China ending a trade war that has slowed down the global economic growth and OPEC ally Russia saying it would ramp up its crude supply cuts. Pradhan raised the issue of rising oil prices with the visiting Saudi Oil Minister Khalid Al-Falih late Saturday night and sought a role of the Kingdom in cooling rates. "Shared my concern on the rising oil prices and sought active role to be played by Saudi Arabia for keeping oil prices at reasonable level," he tweeted after the meeting. An official statement issued on Sunday said: "During the meeting, Pradhan referred to Saudi Arabia's pre-eminent role as a leading producer of crude oil in the world, and in maintaining global oil market balance. He raised concerns about increasing trend in global crude oil prices. He also pointed to the need for uninterrupted supplies of crude oil and LPG to India in view of the OPEC-plus (decision to) cut (output)," it said. Both ministers, it said, also discussed about the possible adverse impact of recent geopolitical developments on global oil market. It, however, did not say about the Saudi Oil Minister's response to India's demand. Petrol and diesel prices, which are revised daily, have been on the rise for the last one month or so. Petrol price in Delhi has increased by Rs 2.12 a litre to Rs 72.40 on Sunday, while diesel rates have risen by Rs 2.03 to Rs 67.54 per litre. The statement said the visit of the Saudi Oil Minister was a follow up of first State visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud last month. "Both the ministers agreed to take concrete steps for early implementation of the decisions taken in the oil and gas sector during the visit of His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to India last month," it said. The visit, it said, reflects the intensifying engagement between the two countries in the hydrocarbon sector. Saudi Arabia is the second largest supplier of crude and LPG to India. In 2017-18, India's crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia were 36.8 million tonne, accounting for 16.7 per cent of its total imports. "Met HE @Khalid_AlFalih, Ministry Of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources, Saudi Arabia and discussed about further strengthening the strategic partnership that exists between India and Saudi Arabia," Pradhan tweeted. Prosecutors submitted a document to the Tokyo District Court from Nissan stating its opposition to Carlos Ghosn attending Tuesdays board meeting, Ghosns lawyer, Junichiro Hironaka, told reporters. Tokyo/Paris: A Tokyo court rejected ousted Nissan boss Carlos Ghosns request to attend a board meeting this week, denying him a seat at the table even as the carmaker looks set to bolster an alliance he built over two decades. Prosecutors submitted a document to the Tokyo District Court from Nissan stating its opposition to Ghosn attending Tuesdays board meeting, Ghosns lawyer, Junichiro Hironaka, told reporters. Nissans strong opposition to Ghosns attendance is very regrettable, Hironaka said outside his law office. The defence team still had time to appeal the decision, he added, and the lawyers later duly filed an appeal, according to Kyodo News. Ghosn was released on a $9 million bail only last week after more than 100 days in detention. He faces charges of under-reporting his salary at Nissan by about $82 million over nearly a decade - charges he has called meritless. The Tokyo District Court on Monday declined to temporarily suspend a condition of Ghosns bail that stops him from meeting people linked to his case, blocking what would have been a dramatic face off between the once-feted executive and the colleagues he has accused of fomenting a coup. The court did not give a reason for its ruling. Nissan could not be reached immediately for a comment outside business hours. The courts decision came as French automaker Renault SA, Nissans top shareholder, confirmed it was in talks with Nissan Motor and Mitsubishi Motors about setting up a new alliance body to improve their collaboration. Ghosns dramatic arrest in November has caused concerns about the future of the three-way alliance, the worlds largest maker of automobiles excluding heavy trucks. The proposed arrangement will have no impact on the existence of the (alliance agreement) and the cross-shareholding structure, which will both remain in place, Renault said. Joint board meeting Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi plan to set up a joint board meeting structure under which Renaults new chairman, Jean-Dominique Senard, is likely to take the chair, people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. That would replace Dutch-based companies currently linking Nissan and Renault and, separately, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, the people said. The heads of the partners will hold a press briefing at Nissans Yokohama headquarters on Tuesday, Nissan said. Hironaka said Ghosn would meet the press at an opportune time, but that it would not be on Tuesday. Some at Nissan had been unhappy with Ghosns push for a deeper tie-up, including possibly a full merger. One of the worlds best-known auto executives, Ghosn was sacked as chairman of Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi, and resigned as chief executive of Renault after his arrest. However, he remains on the boards of all three, given a shareholder vote is required to remove a board member. If his request to attend the board meeting had been approved, he would have been expected to dial into the meeting via teleconference, given the conditions of his bail, according to a person familiar with Nissans thinking. Hironaka said Ghosn had received an invitation to the meeting with details of a time and location, and that there had been no discussion on whether he would attend in person or not. Industry potential to generate Rs 35,000 crore revenue and two-and-a-half lakh jobs. Chennai: The cruise industry rues that high GST and customs duty are hobbling its growth and holding it back from realising its potential to generate Rs 35,000-crore revenue and two-and-a-half lakh jobs. A study done by global consultancy Bermello & Ajamil and commissioned by the Shipping Ministry found the cruising industry has tremendous business potential. The number of ships making a port of call can go up from 158 to 955 and the number of passengers these ships bring in can grow multifold from 2 lakh to 40 lakh. This will help the cruising industry revenues grow from Rs 712 crore to Rs 35,500 crore and in turn provide jobs to 2.5 lakh people from the current employment of 5,000. "This target can be achieved in a span of 5 to 10 years, provided some of the impediments that make the business unviable are removed. One of the main issues is taxation and once that become industry-friendly, infrastructure issues will naturally get resolved,' said Varun Chadha, Chief Operating Officer of Tirun Travel Marketing, an India Representative of Royal Caribbean Cruises. Currently, the tickets and earnings come under the 18 per cent GST bracket, while the average tax across the leading cruising destinations globally is closer to zero. Further, every item consumed carries a 5 per cent customs duty while in other countries it is nil, he said. This is making Indian ports less competitive in the international cruising map. "It would be prudent to incentivise the almost non-existent cruise tourism sector. It is recommended that cruise ship travel in India, including auxiliary activities be zero-rated or taxed at the lowest rate for a period of five to ten years," said the B&A study. The government has reduced the port charges by 30 to 40 per cent over a year back and made it comparable with global standards. It had also brought in a standard operating procedure for different stakeholders of the industry. The berthing infrastructure and the capacity to handle large ships that carry over 5,000 passengers are very limited at Indian ports. But the industry finds that once the taxation issues are resolved and more number of ships come calling, investments will pour in and this will help the country develop necessary infrastructure. Mumbai-based Geodesic Ltd acquired the iconic magazine Chandamama in 2007 New Delhi: It enthralled children with stories of Indian mythology for decades while narrating virtues of good deeds, but the Chandamama magazine's new owners are now in the dock for allegedly stashing illicit funds in Swiss banks. Mumbai-based Geodesic Ltd, which acquired the iconic magazine in 2007, and its three directors are being probed by the Indian authorities for alleged money laundering and other financial irregularities and Switzerland has agreed to provide "administrative assistance" regarding their accounts in Swiss banks, which broadly means sharing of information with India. Switzerland was widely known as an alleged safe haven for black money before it bowed down before the global pressure and agreed to bring down the famed secrecy walls that had historically surrounded the Swiss banks, provided the requesting country gave proof for financial irregularities done by the concerned person or the company. Along with several other countries, India has also been making use of this change in stance of Switzerland by seeking details of suspected black money hoarders in Swiss banks and it has already got back information in a large number of cases in the last few years. In a decision dated 5 March, Switzerland's Federal Tax Administration (FTA) has decided to grant "administrative assistance to India in respect of Geodesic Ltd and its three directors -- Prashant Sharad Mulekar, Pankajkumar Onkar Srivastava and Kiran Kulkarni, according to the official documents. As per the Swiss law, the FTA decision can be appealed within 30 days, provided the appellant is able to give sufficient ground to challenge it. Earlier on 30 October, 2018, also, the FTA had decided to provide the administrative assistance in respect of Geodesic Ltd and the three individuals. While that decision is appeared to have been challenged, the FTA has again decided to share the details with the Indian authorities, indicating that the earlier appeal could not sustain. In a similar case, the FTA also decided on March 5 to provide administrative assistance' to India in case of a Chennai-based entity, Aadhi Enterprises Pvt Ltd. This decision can also be appealed within 30 days. An earlier decision was taken by the FTA on 16 October to assist Indian authorities in this case, but now a fresh notification has been issued for providing administrative assistance to India in case of this real estate firm which saw a meteoric rise soon after being incorporated in November 2014 and is said to have got significant political links. Geodesic, on the other hand, used to be a publicly-listed entity and has already faced the wrath of capital markets regulator Sebi for multiple violations. Its shares have not been trading since August 2014 when its share price had dipped to as low as Rs 1.50 apiece. While the Swiss government documents did not disclose specific details related to the information and assistance sought by the Indian authorities regarding the two companies and the three individuals, such an 'administrative assistance' follows submission of proof about financial and tax-related wrongdoings and typically involves sharing of information relating to bank account details and other financial data. Repeated attempts to contact the two companies and the three individuals for their comments failed to yield any result. In the past, they have denied any wrongdoing. The 1982-incorporated Geodesic, once known as a fast-growing company with cutting-edge technology solutions, does not have a functional website anymore and is also no longer a listed entity as trading in its shares has been suspended by stock exchanges for "procedural reasons". The company and its directors have faced regulatory action by Sebi as well as other authorities like the Enforcement Directorate and the Economic Offence Wing of the Mumbai Police. Aadhi Enterprises had reportedly landed in trouble due to alleged links to tainted politicians and for allegedly indulging in money laundering. According to reports, the Income Tax Department has conducted multiple raids on properties of the company's promoters. While Switzerland has always denied being a safe haven for black money, it has begun sharing details for last few years with several countries including India after submission of evidence about financial and tax-related wrongdoings of the clients of Swiss banks. Besides, a new framework of automatic information exchange has been now put in place and the details can be accessed under the new system from this year. Remember, demonetisation wasnt yet another routine policy move of the government. Even as the Narendra Modi governments five-year term is coming to an end in another two months, we still know very little, officially, about the impact of governments biggest economic experiment executed in November 2016 demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes. Both the government and the central bank seem to have no interest in studying the crucial after-effects of demonetisation,it appears. Else, how would you explain the following? In an RTI response, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that it has no data on the invalidated Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes used to pay for utility bills such as fuel at petrol pumps, where black money holders are believed to have rushed in to get rid part of the illegal notes in their custody. These notes are believed to have formed a good part of the demonetised currency that returned to the banking system. These exits for banned notes, by no means, were insignificant and included a long list government hospitals, railway tickets, public transport, airline tickets at airports, milk booths, crematoria/burial grounds, petrol pumps, metro rail tickets, purchase of medicines on doctor prescription from the government and private pharmacies, LPG cylinders, railway catering, electricity and water bills, ASI monument entry tickets and highway toll. Why doesnt the RBI have data on the amount of high value notes passed through these channels? Secondly, the government itself has admitted that it has not studied the after-effects of demonetisation, none at all. As Bloomberg has reported here, No Madam, was the Indian junior finance ministers reply to a lawmakers question in the Parliament on 14 December on whether the government had studied the after-effects of the note ban. Remember, demonetisation wasnt yet another routine policy move of the government. It was, by far, the boldest and most disruptive economic move of this government that will have far-reaching implications in Asias third largest economy. Not surprisingly, this has been the subject of research studies across the world including by a group of US economists, one of whom is the current International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist, Gita Gopinath. What does the lack of enthusiasm on the part of the government to put the results of the very move it launched tell the world? Third, another RTI revelation is that, Prime Minister Narendra Modi went ahead with the announcement on 8 November, 2016 to invalidate Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, even before the RBI approval came. The RBI board had met just two and hours prior to the prime ministers announcement. The RBI approval reportedly came much later, on 16 December. All of us knew from day one that demonetisation was a political decision, not a central bank decision. Even then, is it a justifiable move for any government to implement a currency experiment of this scale, however political it is in nature, without the approval of the monetary authority of the country? The lack of availability of crucial data on demonetisation is a major concern and only leads to more questions about its perceive gains with respect to the primary goals curbing fake currency, recovering black money and terminating cash-based corruption. What we know so far is that more than 99 percent of the demonetised currency is back in the system, no significant amount of blackmoney has been recovered from hidden shelves and underground vaults where they should have been stacked up by tax cheats, nothing much has happened to fake currency and corruption. The RBI, in the first place, was not a big believer in the idea that demonetisation could kill black money because most of the unaccounted wealth has already changed form into real assets. Those who laughed at former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh for predicting a 2 percent fall in GDP post note ban, would not do the same after looking at the findings of a working paper from National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) titled as Cash and the economy: Evidence from Indias demonetisation authored by Gabriel Chodorow-Reich, Gita Gopinath, Prachi Mishra, and Abhinav Narayanan. The paper showed demonetisation indeed lowered the GDP (gross domestic product) growth by at least 2 percent in the near-term post demonetisation. "Our results imply demonetisation lowered the growth rate of economic activity by at least 2 percentage point in the quarter of demonetisation, the paper said. It is also known that note ban has had serious impact on the informal sector, where cash played a crucial role. After launching such a massive disruptive move, the least the government could have done was to commission a proper study on the effects of the economic experiment, take a stock of the move and present the facts before the world. Its silence and missing critical data points demonstrate the lack of conviction in the move itself and also how pathetically the Indian central bank has failed to do its job during and after the demonetisation episode. FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The management board of Deutsche Bank has agreed to hold talks with rival Commerzbank on the feasibility of a merger, a person with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Saturday. First unofficial contacts took place within a very small group and the mandate from Deutsche's board was given more than a week ago, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The management board of Deutsche Bank has agreed to hold talks with rival Commerzbank on the feasibility of a merger, a person with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Saturday. First unofficial contacts took place within a very small group and the mandate from Deutsche's board was given more than a week ago, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. Talks were at a very early stage and could fall apart, the person added, confirming information reported earlier by the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. A spokesman for Deutsche Bank and a spokeswoman for Commerzbank both declined to comment. Speculation about a possible merger between Germany's two largest listed lenders has been rife for months, heightening under the tenure of Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, who has emphasised the importance of strong banks. Proponents of a merger say that a tie-up would give a combined entity -- which would have an equity market value of more than 24 billion euros ($27 billion) based on Friday's closing share prices -- a 20 percent share of the German retail banking market. That would allow it to potentially charge higher prices in a country where banking services have been free or low cost. Welt am Sonntag reported that both banks were reacting to pressure from the government, which expects a decision on the merger in the coming weeks. A spokesman for the finance ministry declined to comment on the report. The two lenders, which flirted with a merger in 2016 before focusing on restructuring, have struggled to return to sustainable profitability since the global financial crisis. The government holds a stake of more than 15 percent in Commerzbank following a bailout and Deutsche Bank's shares have fallen 73 percent over the past five years. Founded in 1870 to help companies with overseas trade, Deutsche is currently regarded as one of the most important banks in the global financial system, having expanded rapidly in the 1990s to become an investment banking giant. However, its market share has dwindled since the financial crisis and it has been plagued by three years of losses, ratings downgrades, failed stress tests and money laundering scandals. Its chief executive, Christian Sewing, has said publicly in recent months he was focused on restoring profitability before taking on a complicated merger project. Sewing is expected to report back to the board before the bank takes further steps, the source said. Commerzbank's chief, Martin Zielke, has been more open to the idea of a tie-up, a person with knowledge of his thinking said. Last month, he said speculation about a merger was "understandable". A person familiar with the matter said in February that U.S. investor Cerberus Capital Management, a major shareholder in both Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, was open to a merger, increasing the chances of a tie-up. However, some of Deutsche Bank's other key shareholders are opposed, stressing the need for patience to allow the bank to regain its footing. Ratings agencies, which have cut Deutsche Bank's credit ratings to the lowest among its major competitors, have warned that a merger would be risky and difficult to execute. Labour unions have also voiced opposition fearing large job losses. German officials have been worried about Deutsche since 2016 when the bank was negotiating a hefty fine with the U.S. Department of Justice for its role in the mortgage crisis. At the time, Deutsche and the government publicly played down speculation that it could need state support. Behind the scenes, however, tensions were running high. Over the past year, Deutsche has undergone an abrupt management change that installed Sewing as CEO. The bank has trimmed its international operations to focus more on retail banking and its home market. Negative headlines about the lender have, however, continued. In November, police searched the offices of all the members of Deutsche Bank's board as part of an investigation into money laundering allegations linked to the Panama Papers. Deutsche said in January that it had received requests for information from regulators and law enforcement agencies that are investigating a money laundering scheme involving Danske Bank. In the U.S., Congress is also investigating money laundering allegations and the bank's connections to the U.S. president, who owes the bank at least $130 million dollars. Deutsche Bank has more than 20 million personal and business customers and Commerzbank around 18 million. ($1 = 0.8896 euros) (Reporting by Tom Sims and Andreas Framke; Additional reporting by Paul Carrel in Berlin; Editing by John Stonestreet and Kirsten Donovan) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. DLF had last year announced plans to issue up to 17.3 crore shares through qualified institutional placement (QIP) to raise funds and pre-pay loans New Delhi: Realty major DLF plans to raise an estimated Rs 3,000 crore through the sale of equity shares to qualified institutional investors. Aiming to become a debt-free company, DLF had last year announced plans to issue up to 17.3 crore shares through qualified institutional placement (QIP) to raise funds and pre-pay loans. "We are looking to complete QIP by June this year," DLF group CFO Ashok Tyagi told PTI in an interview. The QIP proceeds and further infusion of Rs 2,500 crore from promoters against issue of warrants would help company in significantly reducing debt that stood at around Rs 7,200 crore as on 31 December, 2018, he said. Moreover, the company is ready to move housing inventories worth Rs 12,500 crore which are being targeted to be sold in the next 3-5 years. "We are currently selling Rs 600 crore worth properties every quarter. These sales proceeds will also be utilised towards reducing debt," Tyagi said. DLF promoters K P Singh and family have already infused Rs 9,000 crore in the company and would pump in Rs 2,250 crore more. The company made preferential allotment of compulsorily convertible debentures (CCDs) and warrants to the promoters against infusion of funds. As the infusion of fund by promoters will lead to an increase in their shareholdings beyond permissible limit of 75 per cent, the company plans to launch QIP and maintain minimum public shareholding of 25 per cent in a listed entity. In August 2017, the promoters had sold entire 40 per cent stake in rental arm DLF Cyber City Developers Ltd (DCCDL) for Rs 11,900 crore and committed to infusing bulk of this amount in the company to cut net debt. This deal included sale of 33.34 per cent stake in DCCDL to Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC for Rs 8,900 crore and buyback of remaining shares worth Rs 3,000 crore by DCCDL. The deal concluded in December 2017. As a result, DLF stake in DCCDL increased to 66.66 per cent stake from 60 per cent, while GIC has the balance 33.34 per cent stake in the joint venture firm. Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu has asked aviation watchdog DGCA to undertake safety assessment of Boeing 737 MAX planes operated by domestic airlines New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu has asked aviation watchdog DGCA to undertake safety assessment of Boeing 737 MAX planes operated by domestic airlines. The direction comes a day after a 737 MAX aircraft, operated by Ethiopian Airlines, crashed killing 157 people. Jet Airways and SpiceJet have 737 MAX aircraft in their fleet. In a tweet on Monday, Prabhu said he has directed officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to undertake "safety assessment" of Boeing 737-MAX planes being flown by domestic carriers. "Safety of the passengers is our utmost concern. Directed Secretary and DGCA to take appropriate action immediately," Prabhu said in a tweet. The incident on Sunday was the second time in less than five months that a 737 MAX 8 plane crashed. In October 2018, an aircraft operated by Lion Air crashed killing over 180 people in Indonesia. While Jet Airways has already grounded its 5 aircraft based on instructions from lessors, the airline could be eligible for compensation from Boeing for the grounding. The crash of Ethiopian Airlines' jet on Sunday marked the second hull loss of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft and it came within months of the first. As Ethiopian Airlines broke the news of the crash near Addis Ababa, people could not stop but compare it to the first near Jakarta involving Lion Air flight. While it is too early to speculate on the reasons behind the crash, the profile of both is similar. Early reports indicate that pilots wanted to return back to the airfield in both cases. When the Lion Air crash investigation is complete, one would know better on the exact similarities, if any. The crash had an immediate fallout in China. The country has grounded its entire fleet of B737 MAX aircraft. This grounding involves close to 100 aircraft operated by seven Chinese carriers. This blanket grounding in one of the largest markets in the world has put a question mark on the latest and best-selling product of Seattle based Boeing. While the Chinese have grounded the aircraft in what is being considered as a bigger ploy of trade negotiation in addition to passenger safety, the Indian regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has reached out to Boeing and FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) for more data on the Boeing 737 MAX 8 and its safety. Two carriers in India, Jet Airways and Spicejet operate the B737MAX8 and have a large order book of the plane. Jet Airways has so far taken delivery of 5 Boeing 737 MAX 8 and further deliveries have been put on hold due to the ongoing financial issues. While Spicejet has taken delivery of 13 aircraft which now form 27 percent of its B737 fleet which comprises of 35 B737-700/800/900 and 13 B737MAX8. The airline also operates 26 Bombardier Q400 turboprops. This time around it is unclear if the manufacturer will go for the grounding of planes or will global regulatory bodies look at grounding it till Boeing comes up with a fix. Preliminary reports of Lion Air crash have indicated that pilots struggled to control the plane because of an internal malfunction and the manufacturer had not informed the customers about such a change. The issues came to the fore in such a way that Lion Air has threatened to cancel its order of the B737MAX series and work with rival Airbus for its fleet replanned, it could be looked at two different ways for Jet Airways and Spicejet. While Jet Airways has already grounded its 5 aircraft based on instructions from lessors, the airline could be eligible for compensation from Boeing for the grounding. With its default, if the lessor would get the compensation or the airline will be keenly watched. But with the aircraft still on the records of Jet Airways, the airline can surely claim it. With flights already curtailed, there isn't much that the airline will be hurt at. Spicejet, on the other hand, is a different issue. The airline operates 13 of this type and all are operational aircraft, except the one which the airline received recently - which is undergoing registration formalities. While Spicejet would certainly get compensated, the airline could have to scale back its expansion plan and also cancel some of its flights. Spicejet has not returned many of their B737NG aircraft but has gone for selective expansion. The airline stopped wet lease operations after it received the B737MAX8. Regulators and airlines alike never want unsafe operations, so the thumb rule for aviation has been "if it's flying, it's safe". Past and present issues of the B787 Dreamliner have seen groundings - a blanket or partial and thus it is safe to assume that the B737MAX8 is considered safe to fly thus far. But if the groundings have to happen anytime soon, it could suck out capacity from the Indian market which is already battling high fares due to an on-going capacity reduction of around 2 percent by IndiGo for pilot issues and 40+ planes being grounded by Jet Airways for funding issue. This will drive up the costs for customers since frequencies on some sectors and at times flights on few sectors may have to be completely withdrawn for lack of aircraft. The increased fares have already led to slowing down of growth in January and a further increase would hamper this more in what is termed as worlds fastest growing aviation market. While IndiGo and GoAir have grappled from emergency landings due to engine problems on its Pratt & Whitney powered A320neos but not seen any groundings due to safety issues, a crash is serious and both of them have been fatal for the B737MAX8 putting a bigger question mark on safe operations. As regulators worldwide look at ways to have safe operations, all eyes will be what the DGCA decides in the next couple of days. The author is the founder of networkthoughts.com, a blog on aviation There are reports that petrol and diesel prices crossed Rs 80 and Rs 72 respectively in certain parts of Maharashtra. There is no relief for the common man from fuel price rise as petrol became dearer by 6 paise while diesel rates declined by 11 paise in major cities across the country on Monday. After the price revision on Monday, petrol was sold in Delhi at Rs 72.46 per litre, Mumbai Rs 78.09, Chennai Rs 75.25 and Kolkata Rs Rs 74.54 per litre according to data available on Indian Oil Corporation website. Similarly, diesel was retailed in Delhi at Rs 67.44 per litre, Mumbai Rs 70.65, Chennai Rs 71.27 and Kolkata Rs 69.23 per litre, said the website. Media reports said petrol and diesel prices crossed Rs 80 and Rs 72 respectively in certain parts of Maharashtra. Petrol crossed the Rs 80-mark in Maharashtra's Parbhani where the fuel was sold at Rs 80.06 a litre on Sunday, said a report in The Times of India. On Monday, it went up to Rs 80.12 a litre. Diesel prices went past Rs 72-mark in Nandurbar where the fuel was retailed at Rs 72.02 per litre on Sunday. Petrol price in Delhi has gone up by Rs 2.12 a litre, while diesel rates rose by Rs 2.03 in the past one month alone. Crude oil rates up International rates of crude oil have risen on hopes of the United States and China ending a trade war that has slowed down the global economic growth and Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) ally Russia saying it would ramp up its crude supply cuts, a Reuters report said. Meanwhile, Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih said on Sunday that it would be too early to change OPEC+ output policy at the groups meeting in April. China and the US would lead healthy global demand for oil this year, according to Reuters. The OPEC and its allies such as Russiaknown as the OPEC+ alliancewill meet in Vienna on 17-18 April, with another gathering scheduled for 25-26 June. Falih said the group was unlikely to change its output policy in April and if required would make adjustments in June. We will see what happens by April, if there is any unforeseen disruption somewhere else, but barring this I think we will just be kicking the can forward, Falih said, Reuters reported. We will see where the market is by June and adjust appropriately, Falih said after a meeting with Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in New Delhi. OPEC member United Arab Emirates (UAE) said on Sunday it would continue to meet its obligations to cut supply under the producer agreement. We will continue to deliver on the OPEC and non-OPEC commitment for voluntary production adjustments until the global market is re-balanced, Minister of Energy and Industry Suhail al-Mazrouei said on Twitter. On 1 January, OPEC+ began new production cuts to avoid a supply glut that threatened to soften prices. The group agreed to reduce supply by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) for six months. Sources recently said the most likely scenario is that the current supply cuts will be extended in June but much depends on the extent of US sanctions on OPEC members Iran and Venezuela. OPECs share of the cuts is 800,000 bpd, to be delivered by 11 membersall except Iran, Libya and Venezuela, which are exempt. The baseline for the reduction was in most cases their output in October 2018. For Saudi Arabia, the worlds top oil exporter, Falih said output in April was expected to remain at this months level of 9.8 million bpd. Aramco is finalising their April allocations today [Sunday] or tomorrow so we will know more on Monday. But my expectation is that April is going to be pretty much like March. Pradhan asked world's largest oil exporter Saudi Arabia to play an active role in keeping rates at a reasonable level as the oil prices is on the boil just as the general elections were announced on Sunday, said a PTI report on Sunday. Pradhan raised the issue of rising oil prices with the visiting Al-Falih on Sunday night and sought a role of the Kingdom in cooling rates. "Shared my concern on the rising oil prices and sought active role to be played by Saudi Arabia for keeping oil prices at reasonable level," he tweeted after the meeting. An official statement issued stated: "During the meeting, Pradhan referred to Saudi Arabia's pre-eminent role as a leading producer of crude oil in the world, and in maintaining global oil market balance." "He raised concerns about increasing trend in global crude oil prices. He also pointed to the need for uninterrupted supplies of crude oil and LPG to India in view of the OPEC-plus (decision to) cut (output)," it said. Both ministers, it said, also discussed about the possible adverse impact of recent geopolitical developments on global oil market. It, however, did not say about the Saudi oil minister's response to India's demand. With inputs from agencies Cigarette maker Godfrey Phillips India on Monday said it is in complete compliance with the country's FDI norms and rejected allegations of violations regarding its arrangements for manufacturing Marlboro cigarettes New Delhi: Cigarette maker Godfrey Phillips India on Monday said it is in complete compliance with the country's FDI norms and rejected allegations of violations regarding its arrangements for manufacturing Marlboro cigarettes. Godfrey Phillips has an exclusive procurement and supply agreement with Philip Morris International to manufacture and distribute Marlboro in the country. As per media reports, Philip Morris for years has paid manufacturing costs to Godfrey Phillips to make its Marlboro cigarettes and circumventing the FDI norms. "The suggestion of an alleged violation of FDI laws of India is completely misconceived and misplaced," Godfrey Phillips India said in a regulatory filing. The company was clarifying over various media reports suggesting an alleged violation of FDI norms in the arrangement to manufacture Marlboro cigarettes in India. The company said it had entered into a commercial arrangement with IPM Wholesale Trading (an Indian entity and affiliate of Philip Morris International Inc, USA) to manufacture Marlboro cigarettes in India in May 2009, a year before May 2010 when the restrictions on FDI in the manufacture of cigarettes came into being. "The commercial arrangement referred to above is in complete compliance with the extant regulations governing the FDI laws in India. "All the business transactions entered and executed between the parties since 2009 are governed by the above referred commercial arrangement," the company said, adding that all the business transactions in this regard are executed in Indian rupees. Currently, FDI is prohibited in the manufacturing of cigars, cigarettes and tobacco substitutes. However, it is permitted in technology collaboration in any form, including licensing for franchise, trademark, brand name and management contracts in the tobacco sector. Shares of Godfrey Phillips India settled 9.62 percent higher at Rs 1,032.60 apiece on BSE. In January LIC had completed the process of picking up a controlling 51 percent stake in the nearly crippled IDBI Bank Mumbai: Struggling IDBI Bank is charting out a revival strategy to bring banking and insurance under one roof to its customers, along with its new owner Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). In January, LIC had completed the process of picking up a controlling 51 percent stake in the nearly crippled IDBI Bank which has been under the prompt corrective action (PCA) framework of the regulator that bans it from corporate lending and branch expansions, salary hikes and other regular activities. The RBI action followed after its bad loans touched 33 percent which in the December 2018 has come down to 29 percent of its total assets. The bank and LIC, through its collective network of branches, offices and workforce, have started leveraging their mutual business synergies, a statement said on Sunday. The major areas of synergy identified for the immediate short-term are pertaining to selling of LIC policies through IDBI branches. Other areas where both the players will work together include cash management and premium receipts of LIC through the bank branches, enabling the technical wherewithal available in both the entities to offer digital solutions to their respective customers. These strategic initiatives will pave the way for improved operations and better financials, which in turn, would lead to wealth maximisation for all our stakeholders, including LIC and the government, the statement said. "This initiative will help in turning around the bank. We will get access to LICs large customer base, which will help in growing our business as also," bank's managing director and chief executive Rakesh Sharma said. The lender's board has approved appointment of LIC as a corporate agent under bancassurance channel. In the long-term, the bank and LIC will have a common investment strategy, use each others resources like real estate, commercial and residential space, bank branches, premises and ATMs and digital marketing, among others. Both the entities will also undertake rationalisation of the common subsidiaries in mutual funds and life insurance arms, the release said. The lender said a joint task force has been constituted, chaired by the senior management of the bank and LIC, to chart out the future roadmap, both for the bank as also for the associate companies. A working group, has been created to carry forward the initiatives identified for synergy and to effectively implement the decision taken at the management level. "With this strategic alliance, the bank stands to gain immensely as it will be able to augment its retail business, thereby de-risking its business portfolio and ensuring increasing of other income/operating profit, margins and substantial increase in CASA," it said. As of December 2018, the CASA ratio was at a low 38 percent. The LIC chairman has been appointed as the non-executive chairman of the bank. The bank said it is considering the name of Sharma for appointment for a further period of three years as MD and CEO. Last October, the government had appointed Sharma as MD and CEO for six months. Sharma said the bank is also in the process of selling its stake in IDBI Federal Life Insurance and IDBI Mutual Fund. "We are hoping to sell our stake both in IDBI Federal and IDBI Mutual Fund latest by September," he said. On the BSE, Jet Airways stock rose as much as 4.68 percent to 254.50 in intra-day trade, but pared some of its gains to close at Rs 248.05, up 2.04 percent New Delhi: Shares of Jet Airways Monday settled with over 2 percent gains following reports that the cash-strapped airline has secured a loan worth over Rs 2,000 crore from Punjab National Bank (PNB). On the BSE, the stock rose as much as 4.68 percent to 254.50 in intra-day trade, but pared some of its gains to close at Rs 248.05, up 2.04 percent. On the NSE, the scrip hit its intra-day high of Rs 255 before settling at Rs 246.25, up 1.23 percent, over the previous close. In terms of equity volume, 6.7 lakh shares were traded on the BSE while over 86 lakh scrips changed hands on the NSE. According to a report, the airline has raised loan worth Rs 1,100 crore and a non-fund based credit facility of Rs 950 crore from PNB. It said the loan has been raised through two separate agreements with the state-run bank. Under one agreement, Jet Airways received a credit facility of Rs 1,050 crore, and a non-fund based facility of Rs 700 crore. The other agreement has a credit facility of Rs 1,000 crore that includes a term loan of Rs 750 crore and a non-fund based facility of Rs 250 crore, the report added. PE players managed to exit from their investments in domestic companies despite the volatility in equity market. Mumbai: Despite the volatility in the domestic market, private equity space is buzzing with activity as both fresh investments and PE exits have seen sharp spike lately. And marquee firms like Japan's Softbank, Bain Capital buyouts funds like Blackstone, True North, AION and Carlyle are actively making investments in Indian companies. In February 2019, PE firms made investments worth $2.6 billion across 61 deals and exits worth $472 million across 10 deals. Also private investment in public equity (PIPE) investments recorded a rebound in February 2019, emerging from a four year low of $2.8 million recorded in January 2019. At $431 million, PIPE investments in February 2019 were highest in past eight months. Both investments and exits were supported by improvement in deal activity in listed securities as stability emerged in the financial markets after witnessing significant volatility in the previous few months. PE players managed to exit from their investments in domestic companies despite the volatility in equity market. PE exits in the past month saw a three times jump in value compared to the February 2018, according to EY's Private Equity Monthly Deal Tracker. "After a relatively subdued start in to the year, February 2019 has been a good month, recording strong performance in both investments and exits," said Vivek Soni, Partner and National Leader-Private Equity Services, EY. "We think 2019 could very well be one of the best vintages year for Indian PE/VC investments," he further said. Growth investments, at $1.2 billion, were 27 per cent higher compared to February 2018. According to E&Y, the consulting firm, the exits are happening on the back of a rebound in open market exits in wake of the volatility in the stock markets subsiding. The firm said there were four open market exits in February 2019 worth $351 million, more than three times the value recorded in February 2018 and highest in past six months. The largest exit in February 2019 saw Bain Capital and GIC sell 5 per cent stake in Genpact for $324 million. It can be noted that Etihad board is meeting in Abu Dhabi on Monday to discuss the resolution plan for Jet Airways in which it owns 24 percent stake since April 2014. Mumbai: Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal has sought an urgent funding of Rs 750 crore from its equity partner Etihad, citing "the very precarious" position of the airline following the lingering cash flow issues which got amplified after the forced grounding of over 50 of its planes. In a letter to the Gulf-based carrier's group chief executive Tony Douglas, Goyal also said the airline has also secured the go-ahead from the aviation ministry to pledge its shares in JetPrivelege for securing the interim funding. The airline holds 49.9 percent stake in the loyalty programme, while the majority is with Etihad. It can be noted that Etihad board is meeting in Abu Dhabi on Monday to discuss the resolution plan for Jet Airways in which it owns 24 percent stake since April 2014. "I now look forward to your support and cooperation in saving the airline by an urgent fund infusion of Rs 750 crore by early next week, so that a matching contribution from banks is also disbursed, as per the resolution plan," Goyal said in the letter dated 8 March. On 14 February, the airline's board had approved a debt recast plan whereby the lenders would become the largest shareholders in the airline by converting the debt into equity at a nominal price of Re 1. The same was approved by the shareholders on 21 February. "Any conditions precedent to the Rs 750 crore infusion by Etihad Airways may please be taken up with the banks and settled bilaterally with them,so that the much-needed funding is made available to Jet Airways early next week," he said. He also warned that the if interim funding is not received at the earliest it will be severely "deleterious" to the future of the carrier and could even result in its "grounding". The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) Monday pulled up SBI, the lead lender of debt-ridden Reliance Communications, along with others for giving a 'false impression' to monetise Rs 37,000 crore from asset sales of the telecom company to Reliance Jio New Delhi: The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) Monday pulled up SBI, the lead lender of debt-ridden Reliance Communications, along with others for giving a 'false impression' to monetise Rs 37,000 crore from asset sales of the telecom company to Reliance Jio. A two-member bench headed by Chairman Justice S J Mukhopadhaya came down heavily on the lenders, specially State Bank of India, and asked why a "proceedings against them should not be initiated" for this. "You have failed. JLF (Joint Lenders' Forum) has failed. No sale took place," the bench observed. According to the bench, the lenders gave a "golden outlook" to NCLAT to recover around Rs 37,000 crore from sale of assets but nothing happened. "You clapped with RCom and claimed that you would recover around Rs 37,000 crore from sale of assets to Reliance Jio...you had earlier cited losses of crore per day," said NCLAT. After failing to get money from assets, creditors are now trying to recover Rs 260 crore which the company has got from the Income Tax refunds, it added. The NCLAT was hearing RCom's plea, which has approached the appellate tribunal seeking waiver over the moratorium placed by it on 4 February. However, its financial creditors are opposing its plea to release the Income-tax refunds to clear dues of Ericsson, to whom the company has to pay Rs 550 crore. The appellate tribunal asked from the lenders that why the order of the Supreme Court, directing to release the income tax fund should not be implemented. "Why not give effect to the orders of the Supreme Court? Sending someone (Anil Ambani) to jail will not solve the problem before us," it said. The NCLAT has asked all the lenders to file a two-page note over that and directed to list the matter on Tuesday. On 20 February, the Supreme Court held RCom chairman Anil Ambani along with two others guilty of contempt of court for wilfully violating its order by not paying Rs 550-crore dues to telecom equipment maker Ericsson. The apex court had said they faced a three-month jail term if remaining Rs 453 crore was not paid to the telecom equipment maker in four weeks. Earlier on 4 February, the appellate tribunal had said that until further orders of the NCLAT or the Supreme Court, no one can sell, alienate, or create third party rights over RCom's assets. "Until further orders, the Appellants, corporate debtor (RCom), Respondent (Ericsson India), guarantors or any third party will not sell, transfer or alienate any moveable or immovable property of RCom nor invoke any guarantee or mortgage or any other instrument without prior permission ..," the tribunal had said. MEA said the govt was taking all steps for the extradition of Nirav Modi from the UK and asserted that the extradition request made to that country showed that India was aware he is there Days after a British daily reported that fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, accused in the $2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, was living openly in a swanky 8-million pound apartment in London and is now involved in a new diamond business, Indian agencies will be investigating whether any of his associates helped him establish his business in the UK. An official told The Economic Times, that Nirav Modi is in touch with a UK-based wealth management company, which might have helped him set up his business in London. The investigative agencies suspect that Modi's Indian associates also might have helped him. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the government was taking all steps for the extradition of Modi from the UK and asserted that the extradition request made to that country showed that India was aware he is there. The assertions, claims and counterclaims began after British daily, The Telegraph, reported that Modi, wanted in India in the Rs 13,500 crore PNB fraud case, was living in an eight-million-pound apartment in London's West End and running a new diamond business just yards away. Forty-eight-year-old Modi was spotted in a tony neighbourhood of London by British newspaper The Telegraph. He refused to comment to any of posers put forth by The Telegraph correspondent. Asked about the report, the MEA said the UK was considering India's request to extradite Nirav Modi. MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, at a media briefing, said the fact that "we requested the UK government for extradition of Nirav Modi, means that we were aware that he is in UK, otherwise we would not have made the request". The Enforcement Directorate said the United Kingdom's home secretary has recently referred India's request for extraditing Nirav Modi to a court for initiating legal proceedings against the diamantaire. Also, officials involved with the proceedings in the UK confirmed in London that UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid has certified India's extradition request for Nirav Modi. On Saturday, the CBI said it will extend all necessary help to the United Kingdom authorities for the extradition of Modi. The CBI is awaiting a response on its extradition request which was sent to the United Kingdom through the External Affairs Ministry in August last year after the confirmation from London that Modi was in their country, agency spokesperson Nitin Wakankar said. --With PTI inputs The RBI in reply to an RTI query said it has no data on the old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes used to pay for utility bills such as fuel at petrol pumps -- payments that are anonymous and are believed to have formed a good part of the demonetised currency that returned to the banking system New Delhi: The RBI in reply to an RTI query said it has no data on the old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes used to pay for utility bills such as fuel at petrol pumps -- payments that are anonymous and are believed to have formed a good part of the demonetised currency that returned to the banking system. After the 8 November, 2016 shock decision to ban the use of old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, the government had allowed the exchange of the junked notes as well as they being used for payment of utility bills for 23 services. Both 500 and 1,000 rupee notes could be used at government hospitals, railway ticketing, public transport, airline ticketing at airports, milk booths, crematoria/burial grounds, petrol pumps, metro rail tickets, purchase of medicines on doctor prescription from the government and private pharmacies, LPG gas cylinders, railway catering, electricity and water bills, ASI monument entry tickets and highway toll. On 25 November, 2016, the exchange of old notes was stopped and the government allowed the use of only old 500 rupee notes at these utilities till 15 December, 2016. The government, however, stopped the use of even this currency at petrol pumps and for the purchase of air tickets at airports abruptly with effect from 2 December, 2016, after reports that they were becoming fronts for laundering of old currency notes. In reply to the Right to Information (RTI) query, the RBI said: "information on (invalidated) notes used for paying utility bills is not available with us". As much as 99.3 per cent of the junked Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes have returned to the banking system, the RBI had stated in August last year, indicating that just a miniscule percentage of currency was left out of the system after the government's unprecedented note ban aimed at curbing black money and corruption. Of the Rs 15.41 lakh crore worth Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in circulation on 8 November, 2016, when the note ban was announced, currency worth Rs 15.31 lakh crore have been returned. On the issue of number and value of invalidated or demonetised currency notes being exchanged, the RBI in the RTI reply referred to a 28 November, 2016 press statement where it had stated that "Banks have since reported that such exchange/deposits effected from 10 November, 2016, upto 27 November, 2016 amounted to Rs 8,44,982 crore (exchange amounted to Rs 33,948 crore and deposits amounted to Rs 8,11,033 crore). "The facility of exchange of Specified Bank Notes at banks' counter was available up to 24 November, 2016," it said. Specified Bank Notes or SBN is the term used to denote the demonetised currency which was allowed to be deposited in bank accounts till 30 December, 2016. The Reserve Bank of India also said it did not have information on the number of SBNs used to buy KYC-compliant instruments like insurance policies. The central bank referred a part of the RTI to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) which also stated that it does not have information on old notes used to pay for insurance policies as "it is not maintained by the Authority". As of today, Jet is in a mess with a billion dollars in debt, according to news reports, and pending payments to pilots, suppliers and leasing firms, and more than a dozen of its planes grounded Much of the criticism and carping about where Naresh Goyal got his seed money to start an airline is credited to envy and the hope that he would fail in the 1993 take-off of Jet Airways. But with no competition from either Air India or Indian Airlines, Jet, with its radically different offering from the government-owned airlines, especially in the post-JRD Tata era, roared up the graph. Unknown entity Goyal made a personal fortune of $1.6 billion and entered the Forbes list of top 20 richest men in India. Goyal was seen as the man with the Midas touch, and recognition sidled up to himas did awards aplenty. He could do no wrong. So, the cloud over who had coughed up the initial capital became increasingly moot; and it seemed sufficient to say that it had been legally channelled through the Tailwinds company, incorporated in the Isle of Man. It remained drawing room gossip for a while, but the little Mom-and-Pop airlines, replete with the bells and whistles of modern airlines, caught public fancy and its growth graph was perpendicular. Flights were on time, the food was good, the experience far more 20th century. Run by a martinet of a chairman, the carrier had the first-mover advantage in the governments new open-skies policy. For the first ten years, things went swimmingly. Goyal helmed the airline as its sole sculptor, and brooked no argument. He did bring in great talent at top dollar, but would not give them a freehand, witness the fact that seven CEOs came and went in 10 years, unable to consolidate their grand plans: the Mom and Pop mindset refused to go away. On a whim and against all advice, Goyal invested heavily in JetLite, a no-frills, low-cost airline fashioned out of the buy-over of Air Sahara. The fleet was amalgamated with JetKonnect, Jets own low-cost fleet, and the airline got a collective 32 per cent of the national commercial aviation pie. What should have been a bonanza became a brick around the neck of Jet. The decision to enter the low-cost market was sensible in itselfIndia was upping its traffic by as much 20 per cent annuallybut Goyal wanted in on everything, and knew little of the intricacies of an enterprise that had fare structure changes by the hour in response to real-time market conditions. Low-cost airlines function not so much on lower fares but on lower operating costs. If one is out of kilter, you lose. City pairings and timings are also crucial. Jet had that great assetthe maximum slots for Mumbai airportwhich if properly exploited, could have given the airline a great advantage. Alas, it was not to be. When the low-cost exercise ran into the red, Goyal turned his attention back to the full-service fleet and chose Boeing 777s and Airbus A330s on not-so-profitable routes. By now, he had begun to fancy himself as a Richard Branson. He could have succeeded, but his draconian style resulted in true talents slipping away, leaving Goyal surrounded by sycophants and yes-men. Wrong decisions multiplied. Improperly advised by his inner circle and based, the legend goes, on a dinner conversation in Long Island, he added JFK to Jets American destinations in addition to Newark. The JFK experiment started going down the tube within 45 days and cost the airline a bundle. Goyal placed new-generation aircraft on routes from Kochi, Mangalore and Thiruvananthapuram to the Gulf in the hope of grabbing traffic. But then, before this could come to fruition, Jet pulled back and cancelled these routes as they were not making money. By then, overextended on these aircraftincluding the 777-ERhe placed them on the London and New York routes, but could not pull in the slack. Nor, at that, pay back the banks: the debt just kept mounting. In all fairness, Goyals initial idea was splendid, almost patriotic: he wanted to create an international Indian airline that flew all nationalities around the world, a literal ambassador in the sky. In recent times, he fell off that concept finally settling for a middle-class Indian menu that failed to reflect the globalisation of the discerning traveller. His own top management called it the chicken curry and rice fare. All these factors came together to mount pressure on him. The cash-strapped carrier has reportedly grounded 47 of its 123-strong fleet. If the airline wants to succeed, it will have to bring in professionals, give them targets and leave them to produce results. If the one-man show continues, there will be no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Jet is now in talks with Etihad for a second rescue op (the airline had injected $600 million for a 24-per cent stake in 2013). It is also making overtures to Tata Sons, but Goyal has previously rejected offers of help from that source in the past. That recalcitrance is likely to have contributed heavily to his eventually stepping down. The final blow was probably the State Bank of India, which had lent it Rs 8,000 crore, calling for a forensic examination of the airlines accounts. As of today, Jet is in a mess with a billion dollars in debt, according to news reports, and pending payments to pilots, suppliers and leasing firms, and more than a dozen of its planes grounded. In many ways, it is sad that the man who had the vision to usher in the new era of Open Sky aviation into India was blindsided by his own weaknesses in not creating a functional hierarchy. But then, he is not the first, nor will he be the last. By Jan Wolfe WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Italian government should not support China's 'Belt and Road' infrastructure plan, a spokesman for the White House's group of national security advisers said on Saturday, calling it a 'vanity project.' On Friday, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said that he might sign an accord with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month, despite reports that the United States was concerned at the prospect of a key ally joining the venture. 'Italy is a major global economy and great investment destination By Jan Wolfe WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Italian government should not support China's "Belt and Road" infrastructure plan, a spokesman for the White House's group of national security advisers said on Saturday, calling it a "vanity project." On Friday, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said that he might sign an accord with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month, despite reports that the United States was concerned at the prospect of a key ally joining the venture. "Italy is a major global economy and great investment destination. No need for Italian government to lend legitimacy to China's infrastructure vanity project," said spokesman Garrett Marquis on Twitter. Xi is due to travel to Italy from March 22-24 and Conte said Rome and Beijing were looking to agree a framework deal during the state visit. The "Belt and Road" plan, championed by Xi, aims to link China by sea and land with southeast and central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, through an infrastructure network on the lines of the old Silk Road. (Reporting by Jan Wolfe, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. The United States is pressing India to stop buying oil from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduros government, Washingtons top envoy for Venezuela said, as the Trump administration this week threatened more US sanctions to cut off Maduros financial lifelines. We say you should not be helping this regime. You should be on the side of the Venezuelan people, Elliott Abrams told Reuters in an interview. The Trump administration has given the same message to other governments, Abrams said, and has made a similar argument to foreign banks and companies doing business with Maduro. Abrams described the US approach as arguing, cajoling, urging. The talks with India come as the United States and its regional allies, who back Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, threaten more sanctions to cut off revenue streams to Maduros government and force him to step down. Washington views Guaido as Venezuelas legitimate leader and has imposed sanctions on the countrys oil sector and announced asset freezes and visa bans targeting top government officials. The Indian market is crucial for Venezuelas economy because it has historically been the second-largest cash-paying customer for the OPEC countrys crude, behind the United States, which through sanctions against Maduro has handed control of much of that revenue to Guaido. Washington wants India to do the same. Oil shipments to China, another major importer of Venezuelan oil, do not generate cash because they go to pay off billions of dollars in loans made to Caracas by Beijing. The talks over Venezuela come as trade tensions rise between Washington and New Delhi, and when the United States is also pushing India to cease buying Iranian oil. The United States is planning to end preferential trade treatment for India that allows duty-free entry for up to $5.6 billion worth of its exports to the United States. Secondary sanctions US sanctions typically block American firms from doing business with specific foreign governments or companies. Any move by the United States to prevent purchases of Venezuelan crude would be part of a strategy known as secondary sanctions, in which Washington applies penalties to companies not based in the United States. That strategy, and even the threat of using it, was vital in Washingtons pressure campaign to cut off revenue to Iran, which eventually helped force Tehran to negotiate a nuclear deal with six world powers in 2015. But it has drawn criticism from some foreign governments that argue that the United States should not be able to force its policy decisions on firms in other countries. US National Security Advisor John Bolton this week put foreign banks on notice that they risked US sanctions for hiding Venezuelan assets. If that leads to people to cooperate voluntarily, were glad, Abrams said. Asked whether India had agreed to stop buying oil from Maduros government, Abrams said: I dont want to characterize the discussions, which continue. The issue will be discussed on Tuesday during US-India diplomatic consultations in Washington, an Indian official said, adding that India was very cognizant of the US position on Venezuela. Abrams said there were no signs that Maduro is open to negotiations to end the political impasse with Guaido, emphasizing that any talks would need to be reached among Venezuelans. Vital market Manuel Quevedo, Venezuelas oil minister, attended a conference in New Delhi in mid-February seeking to double the countrys crude exports to India while boosting Venezuelan imports of Indian refined products. He also said he was open to barter payments. Venezuelas exports to India remained relatively stable in the month since the Trump administration slapped sanctions on Venezuelas state-run oil company PDVSA , meaning shipments were not nearly enough to make up for the fall in US sales. Venezuela directly exported 297,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude to India in February, according to Refinitiv Eikon data, which does not include barrels first shipped to other ports such as Singapore or Rotterdam. India imported 342,000 bpd of Venezuelan crude in January, and an average of 340,000 bpd last year. That was well off the more than 400,000 bpd India used to import, on average, and not nearly enough to make up for the drop in US imports to 104,800 bpd in February from more than 500,000 bpd before the sanctions hit. India is also being pressured by lawmakers from both major US parties. Republican Senator Marco Rubio tweeted on 13 February that Indian refiner Reliance Petroleums purchases of Venezuelan oil would undermine Guaidos legitimate government and lead to calls for secondary sanctions on Reliance. Albio Sires, chairman of the US House of Representatives subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, wrote to Indias ambassador in Washington on 12 February expressing concern about what Sires called Venezuelas attempts to work around US efforts to hold Maduro accountable and approach one of our strongest partners in the process. Venezuelan oil made up just 4.2 percent of Indias total imports in January, data show. Venezuela is also not a top foreign policy priority for India, as it is for other major buyers like Russia, said Moises Rendon of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. The US has enough leverage to get India to pull away the relationship with Venezuela, Rendon said. Thats why the US role here is key. Amid heightened tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad, a reciprocal visit by the Indian team to Pakistan for inspection of projects in the Indus River Basin this month has been postponed. New Delhi: Amid heightened tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad, a reciprocal visit by the Indian team to Pakistan for inspection of projects in the Indus River Basin this month has been postponed, senior officials said Sunday. During the 115th meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission held in Lahore on 29 and 30 August, 2018, both the commissioners had agreed to undertake treaty-mandated tours of the Indus basin on both sides, the official said. The tour of the Pakistani side was originally scheduled in October 2018 but was postponed because of local body elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Subsequently, the Pakistani team visited India in the last week of January to inspect projects in the Chenab basin in the state. Pakistani Indus Commissioner Syed Mohammad Mehar Ali Shah and Indian Commissioner PK Saxena along with respective advisers visited the under-construction Indian hydropower projects in Chenab basin namely Pakal Dul (1000 megawatt), Ratle (850 megawatt) and Lower Kalnai (48 megawatt). The delegation also visited the under-operation Baglihar hydro electric project (900 megawatt). The Pakistani commissioner extended an invitation to his counterpart to undertake a visit of the Indus basin on Pakistani side. The Indian team was supposed to visit Pakistan this month, a senior official said. "But amid the ongoing tension it has now been postponed.". The official remained non-committal about the date, but said the visit has to take place by March 2020. Under Article VIII of the Indus Waters Treaty, both commissioners are mandated to undertake, once every five years, a general tour of inspection of the rivers to ascertain the facts connected with various developments and works on both sides. The current five-year block ends in March, 2020. The PCIW, formed under the Indus Waters Treaty, was signed between India and Pakistan in 1960, and it includes Indus commissioners of both countries. The treaty provides for both the commissioners to meet at least once every year, alternately in India and Pakistan. The treaty specifies that the waters of three eastern rivers namely Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, have been reserved for India, and that of western rivers, namely Indus, Chenab and Jhelum, are for Pakistan. The deep air strikes inside Pakistan complemented by the nimble and integrated air defence response the next day have demonstrated the Indian Air Forces operational effectiveness in contemporary warfare After global speculation and much written on the effectiveness or otherwise of the Balakot strikes, the fog is lifting and it is slowly coming to light that the Mirage strikes have indeed been effective. What has been submerged in the noise are the processes involved in planning this mission that indicate the emergence of a matured force. First, the ability to speedily convert a political directive into an aggressive operational plan in a less-than-war situation. Second, the surprise and deception element of Su-30MKI decoys posturing towards Bahawalpur, the Jaish-e-Mohammed headquarters, while the main package headed north from Gwalior towards the main target. Third, demonstrating reach and precision, the fuel-efficient Mirages, flew more than 1,300 km one way with an aerial refuelling; used the mountains to mask their entry into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir airspace; and delivered their Spice 2000 bombs with unerring accuracy onto a confirmed terrorist training camp target across the International Border and barely 160 km north of the capital, Islamabad. The coercive signalling attempt to try and induce a change in behaviour was clear and palpable. The Naushera sub-sector of Jammu and Kashmir has tremendous significance for the Indian armed forces as it has seen much action in all the three wars with Pakistan (47-48, 1965 and 1971). Located between Poonch and Rajouri, it is part of the Indian Armys 16 Corps, which undertakes the defence of the Line of Control and executes counter-infiltration and counterterrorist tasks. It is largely over this sector that multiple engagements took place between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in what is emerging to be one of the largest short-of-war aerial engagements since WW II. It is for this reason that a clinical preliminary assessment of the aerial slugfest is essential to understand the complexities of modern air combat. It is highly likely that the PAF response would have been entrusted to units at Sargodha and Rafiqui with the planning spearheaded by the Combat Commanders School (CCS) and lead execution by the F-16 squadrons stationed there. A 10 am Time Over Target (TOT) would have been planned hoping that this was a window when a changeover of airborne Combat Air Patrols was taking place in the IAF, particularly of the air superiority fighters (Su-30MKIs, MiG-29s and Mirage-2000s. The combat zone to depict this engagement is a frontage extending from Jammu to Rajouri (approximately 90-100 km as the crow flies) and a depth of slightly over 100 kmsconsidering that the AWACS from both sides could have been operating at those distances. The PAF package is likely to have comprised eight F-16s (four carrying laser-guided bombs [LGBs] and the rest in the air defence sweep role). This formed the northern and more potent element of the force and was most probably headed for military targets in the Naushera sector. The southern strike package comprised Mirage 5 strike aircraft and JF-17s providing top cover and were likely headed towards the 16 Corps HQ at Nagrota, a few km north of Jammu, or could have been a decoy package just as the Su-30MKI package was two days earlier when it was headed towards Bahawalpur. The older Mirage-IIIs were possibly on standby. Supporting this large force were to 2 Saab AWACSone positioned between Sargodha and Sialkotand the other around Islamabad with a dual tasking of supporting the Northern package and controlling air defence of the capital area. The IAFs air defence network has seen much transformation over the years and is now a sophisticated, well-networked and integrated system with highly motivated fighter controllers working in tandem with other combat crew (pilots and SAM operators). With all air bases on High Alert, the PAF should/would have anticipated a robust response, but reckoned that a few aircraft would get through and cause significant damage. As it turned out, this was a fair assessment. The first engagement took place in the south (refer diagram) with two Mirage 2000s intercepting a large package of more than eight aircraft under extremely effective AWACS control in the airspace high over Jammu. Armed with beyond-visual-range (BVR) missile MICA missiles and likely to have been the upgraded Mirage 2000s, they would have locked on first to the JF-17s, duelling with them at long distances and conversing among themselves as the battle progressed going hot and going cold, or extending and exitingall of it typical fighter pilot jargon across the world that indicates different stages of BVR combat. Frustrated at being unable to clear the Mirage 5s to proceed towards their intended target, the PAF formation would have turned backnot something unheard of or unprofessionalliving to fight another day is a wise strategy in tough times. One deduction from this engagement if the forces painted are right is the clear superiority of the upgraded Mirage 2000 over the JF-17! To the north was a duel between four SU-30MKIs and eight F-16s. Two of the Sukhois could have been in a swing role and towards the end of their combat endurance (a characteristic that allows it to switch between roles albeit with marginal reduction in effectiveness in the second role) while the other two would have been in full air defence configuration. Into this melee came in four MiG-21 Bisons, scrambled from the Operational Ready Platform (ORP) on both runway ends at Srinagar and controlled by a GCI radar. Covering the almost 200 km in about 10-12 minutes at top speeds of between 950-1000 km/hr, the lead Bison with Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman would have arrived on the scene just as three F-16s appear to have barely crossed the LC, impeded in no small measure by the intense BVR manoeuvring with the Sukhois. Positioning themselves for an attack on their intended targets within an Indian Army brigade headquarters, they would have now been cautioned by their own radars of the approaching Indian MiGs and hastily dropped their bombs within the premises of the local brigade (preliminary reports indicate LGBs) and exited. It was during their exit, that Varthaman first locked onto his target and then visually picked him up (using Eyeball-Mark 1) from his perch high above, choosing to close in using his height and speed before launching his Vympel R-73 from fairly close distances (The R-73 is a third-generation Russian close combat missile (CCM) that has been a standard fit on most recent Russian aircraft). All this while, it is possible that Varthaman was locked on by an F-16 from depth and targeted with an AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missile (BVR) the moment it was either ascertained that he had crossed the LC or after shooting down the F-16 he was chasing. I would imagine that at speeds of over 15 km/min, he would have crossed at least 10-12 km inside the LC and would have broken off from the attack and turned homebound when he felt the aircraft shudder from a hit to the tail. Failing to control his crippled aircraft, Varthaman rightly chose to eject rather than stay and try to control it. Observers have seen his parachute descending for well over 12 minutes, clearly indicating that he had ejected at a fair height and beyond the range of ground-based air defence systems. Probably, he was downed by an AIM-120. However, this can only be confirmed once the IAF releases more details of the engagement. Some key operational lessons point that the IAFs air defence network performed well/near-flawlessly that morning. The pressure was initially put on by a combination of Mirage 2000s, Sukhois and AWACS as they forced the incoming aircraft to re-evaluate their options and resort to sub-optimal targeting solutions (it is highly likely that the F-16s were not given adequate time in a steady run that is essential for effective weapon deliveryas against the IAF Mirage-2000s at Balakot which were unopposed and would have had adequate tracking time prior to weapon delivery). Shaping the battlefield can only create possibilities, and that is what Varthaman seized with his aggression. It is assessed that during his pursuit, his Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) would have been buzzing with warnings. He could have broken off from his attack and headed home and no one would have questioned his decision. By choosing to stay in pursuit, he did what many would not have done: bring down an F-16. It is a once in a lifetime experience of claiming a kill in an actual aerial duel in the current times. As an experienced fighter pilot, while I would gladly take in all the chatter about the MiG-21 Bison vs F-16 bit, I would rather stress on two propositions. First, is that close combat is still alive and kicking in symmetrical air combat. Second, individual decision-making by the man behind the machine can bridge the technology gap and remains as relevant as it was in the days of the Spitfire vs Messerschmitt duels of WW II. The deep air strikes complemented by the nimble and integrated air defence response two days later have demonstrated the IAFs operational effectiveness in contemporary warfare. It has also demonstrated that calibrated, proportionate and discriminate application of offensive airpower is a possible option in the ongoing covert war against cross-border terrorism. This is no time for triumphalism, but one of reflection on how the IAF can be strengthened as a critical arm of proactive deterrence and joint operations with induction of carefully selected platforms, weapons and sensors that fit into the contemporary milieu. The next time will be different! Air Vice-Marshal Arjun Subramaniam is a retired fighter pilot who has flown both the MiG-21 and the Mirage 2000. He is also an air power analyst and military historian). Most of this assessment is based on experiential analysis and multiple open-source visual graphics and Google Map plotting by aviation enthusiasts. There would be gaps in the narrative that would be plugged over time when official reports are released by the MoD. The opinions expressed are solely the authors and do not reflect either the views of the IAF or the GOI. Additional interest for readers will be that the topic of the authors PhD research from 2006-2011 was on The Role of Air Power in Fourth Generation Warfare. The Bharatiya Janata Party latched on to his reference to throw Rahul loves terrorists barb at the Congress chief. New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday created quite a row when he called Jaish-e-Mohammad chief as Masoor Azharji during his address to the party workers here. Targetting the BJP for the release of Azhar during the Kandahar hijacking, Mr Gandhi said: These people with 56 inch chest, you would recall, in their previous government, the current national security advisor Ajit Doval went in an aircraft with Masood Azhar ji and handed over him there in Kandahar. The Bharatiya Janata Party latched on to his reference to throw Rahul loves terrorists barb at the Congress chief. BJP leader and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said: Come on Rahul Gandhi ji! Earlier it was the likes of Digvijay ji who called Osama ji and Hafiz Saeed Sahab. Now you are saying Masood Azhar ji. What is happening to Congress Party? But the Congress party hit back accusing its rival of deliberately twisting Mr Gandhis comments made with sarcasm. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala accused the BJP and a section of media of deliberately twisting Mr Gandhis remarks. A day after Lok Sabha elections were announced, Mr Gandhi launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that now the choice was between Mahatma Gandhis India or Godses India with love on one hand and hate on the other. He also laid to rest all speculations that the party was going to stitch together any alliance with the AAP, saying that the Congress would on its own win all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. The party had lost all the parliamentary seats in Delhi to BJP in the 2014 elections. It also had to face a humiliating defeat by not winning even a single seat in the 2015 Assembly elections. Mr Gandhi also chose the occasion to launch an all-out attack on Mr Modi by flaying him on a host of issues such as the Rafale deal, employment generation, national security and alleged agrarian distress. Prohibition is not the only answer. India needs a comprehensive national policy to tackle alcohol Is prohibition a glass-half-empty or a glass-half-full scenario? A recent report by the Centre on Magnitude of Substance Use in India, commissioned by the ministry of social justice and empowerment (MOSJE), has reopened the debate about prohibition as an alcohol-control policy measure. The study has not only brought to our attention the high prevalence and burden of liquor consumption in the country, but has also underscored the need to review the alcohol-control policy environment in the country. Currently, alcohol is eighth in risk factor rankings for death and disability, and is responsible for five million deaths in India annually. Alcohol draws attention of public health professionals as it is a product that adversely impacts not only an individuals well-being but also has passive impact, just like smoking. It negatively impacts a familys income, society (accidents due to drink-driving, violence against women) and economy owing to lost productivity. The report presents results from a recent national survey, showing prevalence of current alcohol use as 14.6 per cent for the population between 10-75 years of age. Wide variability exists among states, with Chhattisgarh reporting the highest use and Lakshadweep the lowest. Prohibition is enshrined in the Constitution of India under Article 47 as Directive Principle, authorising states to ban intoxicating drinks which are injurious to health. The states of Bihar, Gujarat and Nagaland and one union territory, Lakshadweep, have completely prohibited sale and consumption of alcohol, whereas Manipur has banned alcohol in a few districts. States with prohibition clearly show low prevalence of alcohol use compared to the national figure with Lakshadweep at 0.2 per cent, Bihar 0.9 per cent, Gujarat 3.9 per cent and Nagaland 8.1 per cent. Earlier reports have also shown decreased incidence of violence against women in states with prohibition. It is, however, important to note that even though overall prevalence of current use of alcohol is lower in these states and so is quantum of work (a variable that combines prevalence of harmful use and dependence), a substantial proportion of consumers is using alcohol in a dependent manner in Gujarat (30 per cent), Bihar (16 per cent, Manipur (17 per cent) and Nagaland (20 per cent), against the national figure of 18.5 per cent. Lessons from state-level prohibition in India do not present a clear picture of its impact. The move had a positive response in Andhra Pradesh with decrease in crimes, road accidents and violence as well as an increase in small-scale savings, but it also led to a rise in illicit brewing, incidences of hooch tragedies and corruption. This points to the need to embed prohibition alongside tightening of other legislation to avoid illicit trade of alcohol and to protect public health. The experience with prohibition in Haryana and Andhra Pradesh in the mid- 1990s suggests that the policy was ineffective as both the states eventually repealed their anti-alcohol laws. The consideration of excise tax values and declining land value (Haryana) likely played an important role in the repeal of prohibition. Though previously a persuasive case has been made against liquor ban based on the experience in the United States, a more scientific study is needed in India to study the impact of prohibition. The report also highlights an increase in prevalence of alcohol use among Indian men from 21 per cent in 2004 to 27.3 per cent in 2018.From a public health perspective, it is important to note the high prevalence of current use and, more importantly, the higher prevalence of alcohol-use disorders. With more than 30 million alcohol dependents and more than 40 per cent of alcohol users drinking liquor in a dependent manner in some states, India needs a comprehensive policy to address this risk factor and to fulfill its commitment to the nationally adopted target of 10 per cent relative reduction in alcohol use by 2025. Till now, alcohol has been regulated at the level of state government through excise departments, but the burden of this risk factor is felt by the health, social justice and finance departments. Prohibition is not the only answer: we need a comprehensive national policy to tackle alcohol in the country and this plan should be developed adopting a public health lens. Dr Monika Arora is Director Health Promotion; and Additional Professor, Public Health Foundation of India This weekend, a fully-grown elephant repeatedly attacked a safari vehicle packed with tourists in the famous Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand In the latest and one of the scariest documented manifestations of man-animal conflict in India, a fully-grown tusker is seen repeatedly attacking a safari vehicle packed with tourists in the famous Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand. It may be recalled that last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited this place in connection with a film documentary shoot. A rattled forest department of Uttarakhand has initiated an inquiry into the incident. "We are taking the matter very seriously," said Rahul, field director of Corbett Tiger Reserve. The nerve-wracking attack on the tourist vehicle took place on Saturday afternoon in the Jhirna range of Corbett Park. According to several eyewitnesses, the elephant suddenly appeared from the bushes and charged headlong at the Maruti Gypsy. As luck would have it, the driver failed to move the vehicle in time. Yet another witness the driver of another vehicle that had reached the spot said that the rear wheel of the Gypsy got stuck in a pothole and refused to move. Alarmed at the panic-stricken shouts by the tourists (three men and a woman), the Gypsy driver and their guide, other vehicles in the vicinity rushed to the spot. This was when everybody realised to their horror that it was not a mock elephant charge, but a real one unfolding before them. At one crucial moment, the petrified tourists, as well as the driver, jumped out of the vehicle while the elephant tried to overturn it from the other side. This could have been a fatal error. In March last, senior Indian Forest Service officer and field director of Karnataka's Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, S Manikandan, was trampled to death inside the reserve by a wild elephant. Corbett Tiger Reserve's field director Rahul said they were still trying to ascertain the real reason behind the incident in the Jhirna zone of the park. "Whatever lapses are found in our inquiry, we will take strict action. If we find the Gypsy driver to be at fault, his vehicle will be banned from entering our reserve. We are also monitoring the movement of this particular tusker," he added. However, the question remains: Why did this elephant go beyond a mere mock charge something tuskers do all across India to scare away humans, and instead follow it up with an actual assault on the vehicle? In all likelihood, this could be a grave pointer to the sort of things to come. This incident goes beyond the broad man-animal conflict paradigm that is quite common in many regions of India. The usual man-animal conflict occurs when, for a variety of reasons, animals leave their natural habitat and enter the human zone, whether this is elephants in the Sonitpur district of Assam, leopards in the far-flung villages of Uttarakhand's Garhwal and Kumaon regions in search of goats and similar prey, and blue-bulls and wild-boars running amuck in the agriculture fields of Uttar Pradesh. But in the national parks and sanctuaries, it's the humans who have caused the animals to become aggressive like this particular tusker of Corbett Tiger Reserve. In May last year, the Uttarakhand High Court had put a cap on the number of tourist vehicles entering Corbett Tiger Reserve. As per the ruling, only 30 vehicles can go for a single safari inside the Jhirna zone of the reserve. But just as a map is not the territory, the court order and its thorough implementation are two different things. Even 30 vehicles, in case a tiger or an elephant comes in sight, are enough to create a crowd of vehicles and make it difficult for the animal to move away. In the elephant charge of Saturday, it's not clear whether the presence of so many vehicles compounded the problem or helped in saving the tourists. By some accounts, the shouts and general commotion created by the vehicle scared the elephant away and it moved off without inflicting actual harm. It's not fair to put the blame entirely on the tourism, says wildlife expert Imran Khan from Uttarakhand. "The global climate change is causing changes even in the life-cycles of animals. Their breeding, sleeping and other patters have altered significantly. We need to further study these new aspects of the animal kingdom," he pointed out. Nature photographer, Padma Shri awardee and a member of the Uttarakhand Wildlife Board, Anup Shah, too feels that there has been a marked change in the behaviour of wildlife. "Till very recently, I would come across leopards behind my house in Nainital and they would always disappear into the undergrowth. But now, they confront us. I can't say why this is happening, but the change is definitely there. But yes, villages situated on the border of Corbett Tiger Reserve often have skirmishes with wild elephants. No wonder the elephants are losing their cool," he said. So far, animals have suffered most in their conflict with the humans whether in the form of shrinking forest cover or a depleting prey base. Once in a while an exception occurs; a big mammal not easily intimidated puts its foot down forcefully and seems to say "Enough is enough". One hopes it does not become the rule. The annihilation of caste is only possible when we include Dalit men and non-Dalit women, who have given up their Brahmimical mindset, said Semmalar Jebaraj If we look at our country's politics, there has been no one from the scheduled castes who has become the Prime Minister of India till date, let alone a scheduled caste woman. Political engagement of Dalits is necessary, but more importantly, it has to include Dalit women leadership in political spaces. The panel on 'Dalit Women in Politics: Past, Present and Future' organised by The Blue Club, a collective for providing mentorship and support to women filmmakers, and All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch (AIDMAM) was put together with the above vision in mind. More than 60 Dalit women leaders from across India participated in the conference. Firstpost will be publishing some of the important speeches from this panel. This is the sixth of the series of speeches. *** By Semmalar Jebaraj I see this meeting as a way to consolidate power by Dalit women, because one of the most important teachings of Dr BR Ambedkar is to organise, which still seems very difficult to achieve among Dalit women. Firstly, I would like to appreciate the efforts taken by the women who made this happen. I find the consolidation of power among Dalit women a necessity. While speaking about Dalit women in politics, we should also talk about the consolidation of power for Dalit women who are working in various political parties. There is a need to talk about Dalit feminism now, so this is a great opportunity for young Dalit women to unite. In recent times, various strategies are being used. With the intervention of social media and other factors, there is a dire need for Dalit women to organise. We need to ask ourselves: Are we here just to destroy the patriarchy, or as Dr Ambedkar said, "the annihilation of caste"? I strongly believe patriarchy in India is a by-product of caste. They go hand-in-hand. It is different in Western nations, where they have also created different narratives of feminism for socially oppressed communities, such as black feminism to counter privileged white women's feminism. When we as Dalit women identify our enemies, they sometimes include both Dalit men and caste Hindu women, sadly. While it would be totally unfair to equate both, it still has to be critically analysed. The very reason so many men are gathered here itself is a positive thing and should be celebrated, because we need to acknowledge that Brahminism is the actual enemy here and to annihilate that, we need Dalit men to stand in solidarity with us. I think the annihilation of caste is only possible when we include Dalit men and non-Dalit women, who have given up their Brahmimical mindset. We also need to admit that we lack strategy. When we talk about Bahujan and Dalit women in politics, there is a huge vacuum. I was very young when the National Federation of Dalit Women started, and since then, there have been different political movements which took place at the international, national and regional levels, but the problem is that there was a lack of connection between all three. They were not able to communicate with the Dalit women at the grassroots level. So where do we lag behind? Are our strategies failing because we follow the same old practice of attacking and antagonising instead of devising new strategies, which include politicising young people? We cannot limit our politics to just electoral politics; we must consider it in a broader sense, because the very idea of us uniting together and asserting our rights here itself is a political act. The economic and social difficulties in electoral politics are common everywhere, but let's work on the other things we can, like Priya said politicise young students. While we certainly cannot promote a particular political party, we can help young people to identify the real foe, which is Brahminism. Once they have that understanding of caste, they might develop the intelligence to choose the right party. We need to let them know we are at an ideological war with Brahminism, and hence right-wing parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promoting what we stand against should be opposed vehemently. Our motive is to annihilate caste, and for that we need to include as many people as possible who believe in our ideology and movement, to achieve it together. Electoral politics still is a difficult arena for Dalit women and other socially backward communities, as compared to the economically and socially privileged ones. It is indeed a long journey, and so how we are going to strategise our politics along with Dalit men and other caste and class-conscious non-Dalit women is important. While we complain about Dalit women not voting for fellow Dalit women in politics, we need to understand the need to politicise and educate them. Their idea of who a political leader is, influenced by the media and other means, has to be destroyed. We are always scared of affiliating with people from different backgrounds, believing we'll lose our identity. But here I would like quote Dr BR Ambedkar, who has always inspired me. He was in the Congress, which used to be as right-wing as the BJP is right now. Yet, he said, "I am like a rock (stone) which does not melt but turns the course of rivers. Wherever I may be, in whatever company I may find myself, I would never lose my separate identity. If anybody asks my co-operation, I would gladly give it for a worthy cause." If as Dalit women we can work with this vision, we can work with anybody and still not lose our identity. And I would like to remind everyone again that Brahminism is our only enemy; we need to unite and organise ourselves to uproot it. *** (Speech transcribed by Bakhya Kaliaperumal.) Semmalar Jebaraj is a professor at Loyola College, Chennai US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale on Monday, during which the two officials are likely to discuss bilateral, regional and global issues of common interest. Washington: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale on Monday, during which the two officials are likely to discuss bilateral, regional and global issues of common interest. Gokhale arrived in the US on Sunday in connection with the bilateral Foreign Office Consultation and Strategic Security Dialogue with his American counterparts, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson. While his US trip was scheduled much before the 14 February Pulwama terrorist attack, Gokhale's meeting with Pompeo and his counterparts in Washington this week is expected to gain media spotlight in view of the escalated tension between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of the air strike at a terrorist camp deep inside Pakistan and subsequent developments. Tensions between India and Pakistan flared up after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror group killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district. India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot on 26 February. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 and captured its pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, who was handed over to India on 1 March. State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino, during his bi-weekly news conference last Tuesday, said Pompeo played an "essential role" in de-escalating tensions between India and Pakistan. "Secretary Pompeo led diplomatic engagement directly, and that played an essential role in de-escalating the tensions between the two sides," he had then said. According to Pompeo's schedule for Monday released to the media, the State Department said the meeting between the US Secretary of State and Gokhale is scheduled for 9 am local time or 6.30 pm IST. "Secretary Pompeo meets with Indian Foreign Secretary Shri Vijay Gokhale at the Department of State," the State Department said. Protocol-wise, it is quite unusual for Pompeo to meet Gokhale, but over the past few years, the US Secretary of State has met the foreign secretary, including his predecessor S Jaishankar. These are regular high-level dialogue mechanisms to review bilateral relations, exchange views on major foreign policy and security-related developments and coordinate respective positions on issues of common interest, according to an Indian official. During his visit, the foreign secretary is also likely to meet senior leaders in the US administration and the US Congress. Telling the truth has long been a struggle for Indias national-security establishment. Even data already in the public domain is reflexively denied In April 2018, the Israeli Air Force struck at the Tiyas (T-4) Air Base, near the Syrian city of Homs, targeting a single hanger housing surveillance drones and a yet-to-be-installed Iranian-supplied Tor air defence missile system. Photographs show the warheads gutted the inside of the hanger but left only tears on its metal skin. The structure, despite the multiple hits, remained almost intact. For the Indian Air Force (IAF), under siege ever since independent satellite analysts claimed that there is no evidence that its February 26 air strike hit the Jaish-e-Mohammed training base in Balakot, those images are good news. The IAF has, in off-record briefings, been pointing to tears on the roof of one of the northern buildings of the complex as evidence that it did indeed hit its targets. Its Spice 2000 bombs, the IAF says, carried 80-kg fragmentation warheads, similar to those used at Tiyas. Part of the reason few have been listening, though, is that the T-4 imagesalong with other imagery available with the governmenthavent been circulated. Indeed, the government put out no technical data at all to back its case. That points to one of the important deficits in Indias national security responses: credibility. Telling the truth has long been a struggle for Indias national security establishmenteven when there are few costs of doing so. Even data which will become available through government websites or is already in the public domain is reflexively denied. Phone me when Im having coffee in Khan Market and ask where I am, says one bureaucrat jokingly, and Ill insist Im at the other end of city. Ive become psychologically incapable of telling the truth even when theres no reason to lie. Israel, by contrast, routinely releases satellite imagery and video as evidence in support of strikes it acknowledges the country conducteda tool both to undermine denials by its adversaries and to block propaganda on civilian fatalities. For the most part, the US and the UK follow the same practice. The case against this practice is that its hard to hide the facts when things go wrong, but experience has taught these democracies that the benefits outweigh the costs. Indias credibility crisis after Balakot illustrates the point. In Pakistan, Indias claims now have no credibility. This means at least one important objectivepersuading Pakistani public opinion of the costs of allowing jihadists to operatehas failed despite the IAFs stellar operation. Its also opened the way for a divisive, bitter political battle at home. This is true to pattern. For example, New Delhi hasnt publicly revealed that the IAF is investigating credible claims that the Mi-17V5 helicopter shot down over Budgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on 27 February may have been brought down by the countrys own air defence system. Pilots on the helicopter, IAF sources say, were cleared to land just as air defence systems at Humhama and Awantipora airbases went on high alert in response to Pakistans counterstrikes, leading to a missile operator firing in error. Tragic as such incidents are, the so-called friendly fire is a routine part of war: a staggering 24 percent of all US military fatalities in the first Gulf War were inflicted by its own forces. There, however, public disclosure led to improvements in operating practices and procedures. In India, the bureaucratic impulse is to cover up or scapegoat, often with disastrous consequences, not the least of which is that hushed-up good-faith errors become fodder for conspiracy theories. Economy with the truth costs lives. In Kargil, a large body of military history now tells us, the army leadership pushed under-prepared formations into combat to cover up its mistakes. Political leaders, similarly, are known to have made serious strategic misjudgments on Kashmir, leading to unacceptable escalations in Indian military fatalities. The standard response to these criticisms is that we ought not question the armed forces. Its worth considering, though, where not asking questions takes us. In the build-up to the 1962 war, a servile media failed to confront then-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the cabal of pet Generals around him on strategy and military preparedness. The consequence was national humiliation. India's Foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale met US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo in Washington DC Monday as India ramps up diplomacy with the US to push the US to investigate the claim that Pakistan used F-16s against India in the conflict after the Balakot strikes on 26 February. India's Foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale met US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo in Washington DC Monday as India ramps up diplomacy to push the US to investigate the claim that Pakistan used F-16s against India in the conflict after the Balakot strikes on 26 February. Gokhale's visit caps an entire week of Indian officials meeting political operatives in US Congress to tell the story about Pakistan using F-16s in its offensive against India, including after the recent attack in Pulwama. On 14 February, a suicide bomber rammed a car into a bus carrying Indian paramilitary police in Kashmir, killing 44 of them in the deadliest attack in decades on security forces in the region. Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) claimed responsibility for the attack. On 26 February, India launched an air strike on what it said was a militant base inside Pakistan at Balakot. A 26 February statement by Gokhale describes the Balakot airstrikes as a non-military preemptive action against the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the terrorist outfit responsible for the Pulwama attack. It says Indias pre-emptive strike was necessitated on the basis of credible intelligence of another imminent attack by the JeM, and condemned Pakistan for its failure to dismantle terrorist camps on its soil. A statement today from the Indian Embassy in Washington confirmed that Gokhale and Pompeo spoke about the Pulwama attack on Indian forces in Jammu and Kashmir. Gokhale "apprised Secretary Pompeo about recent developments in this regard". Gokhale and Pompeo also assessed the continuum of bilateral connect after the first ever Ministerial 2+2 Dialogue in September 2018. "Secretary Pompeo expressed his understanding of India's concerns regarding cross-border terrorism. They agreed that Pakistan needs to take concerted action to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure and to deny safe haven to all terrorist groups in its territory. They also agreed that those who support or abet terrorism in any form should be held accountable", says a statement from the Indian Embassy in Washington DC. A joint press conference is to be addressed by the Indian Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police, and CRPF personnel in Srinagar on Monday A joint press conference is to be addressed by the Indian Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police, and CRPF personnel in Srinagar on Monday, after officials stated that the mastermind behind the Pulwama terror attack had been killed in an encounter with security forces in the Tral area of Jammu and Kashmir. The press conference, which is scheduled for 3.30 pm, is likely to address the killing of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist Mudasir Ahmed Khan alias 'Mohd Bhai', who reportedly carried out the recce before the attack on a CRPF convoy travelling on the Jammu-Srinagar highway. At least 40 personnel of the paramilitary force lost their lives when an explosives-laden car was rammed into their bus on 14 February. Khan is also believed to have provided the car driven by suicide-bomber Adil Ahmed Dar and also to have sourced the explosives used in the attack. Reportedly, Dar had been in constant contact with Khan. Khan who joined the JeM in 2017. In the encounter in the Pinglish area of Tral in south Kashmir's Pulwama district, which broke out on Sunday night, Khan was among the three militants killed, PTI reported. The bodies of the three militants are charred beyond recognition and efforts are on to establish their identity, the report quoted defence officials as saying. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), that is probing the 14 February terror attack, had carried out searches at the residence of Khan on 27 February. A Maruti Eeco minivan was used in the Pulwama terror attack and it was bought by another JeM operative just 10 days before the suicide attack. The JeM operative, identified as Sajjad Bhat, a resident of Bijbehara in south Kashmir, has since been on the run and is believed to have become an active militant now, they said. The security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Pinglish after receiving specific intelligence input about the presence of militants in the area. The operation turned into an encounter after the militants opened fire at the search party of the forces who retaliated. With inputs from agencies The Delhi Police has to get the Delhi government's nod before prosecuting in sedition cases, as mandated under the Code of Criminal Procedure. However, the Aam Aadmi Party government is yet to give a go ahead in this case Days after a Delhi court said it will proceed in the 2016 Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) sedition case even if the Delhi Police is unable to procure the sanctions needed to prosecute those accused, the court on Monday said it will examine video footage of the event to come to a decision. The court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate has posted the matter for further hearing on 29 March. Meanwhile, the Delhi government has yet to give the requisite sanctions to prosecute former JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and others in the sedition case and has asked for two to three months more to go through the chargesheet the Delhi Police had filed in the case. Sanctioning prosecution in JNU sedition case: Chief Public Prosecutor informs Delhi's Patiala House court that sanctions can likely take 2-3 months. Investigating Officer didn't appear before court bcos he met with an accident. Court will see video today. Next hearing on March 29 ANI (@ANI) March 11, 2019 The court also sought an update in the case from the Commissioner of Police, even as it expressed displeasure at the "hurry in filing a chargesheet without sanctions". The court had earlier directed the police to ask the authorities concerned to expedite the process, while granting it three weeks to procure the sanction. The Delhi Police has to get the Delhi government's approval before prosecuting in sedition cases, as mandated under the Code of Criminal Procedure. However, the Aam Aadmi Party government has yet to give the police the go ahead in this case. On 14 January, the Delhi Police police had filed charges in the case against Kumar and former JNU students Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya and seven others at the court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate . In the chargesheet, it claimed that Kumar had led a procession and supported seditious slogans during an event on the JNU campus on 9 February, 2016, to mark the hanging of Parliament-attack mastermind Afzal Guru. The students had allegedly held the event even though the JNU administration had cancelled the permission granted for it on a complaint by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, which had called it "anti-national". Decades of conflict between India and Pakistan have been hard on the families that live in border villages. There is no war, but it's no less than war The villagers watched as a bright red light emerged from the Pakistani side of the Line of Control, arced over the mountains, and landed on the hill above their lands. The flare was followed by at least an hour of shelling, with Indian soldiers matching Pakistani artillery round for round. Estimates of how many shells hit the village of Salotri on March 1, varied from the several hundred reported by the men and the 10-30 by the women. At least four houses were severely damaged. In one such house, 27-year-old Mohammad Youniss wife and their two children, including an infant, were torn to bits. Mohammad Hussain, uncle of Younis, said the rubble still had pieces of the children and villagers were burying those as and when they found them while clearing the debris. Only that morning, villagers had buried bits of the babys head. Hussains wife Zubaida Bi sat at the edge of the house, still in shock, cursing the Pakistan Army. The people here and there die. The land remains, she lamented looking at the Pakistan-controlled hills. Every child wears the scars of war. Kushal Kumars six-year-old daughter yells: Papa thaain thaain. She does this regularly and, to her, its just a game. But for people like Kumar living in Jammu and Kashmirs villages bordering Pakistan, that innocent burble masks an explosive and tragic reality: the child is imitating the shelling that has killed many and maimed many more over decades of hostilities between the two countries. A bus packed with men, women, and children stops at the main crossing in the Kalsian village, less than 10 kilometres from the Line of Control, in the Nowshera area of Rajouri district. A woman peers out to ask, Has the shelling cooled down? The bus moves on, though explosions grow louder. In a small village market, a few kilometres from where the bus stopped, young men stand by shuttered shops pockmarked by splinters, cautioning travellers. Villagers have identified safer spots not protected from the incoming bombs but providing additional cover to vehicles and humans to halt at while travelling during mortar shelling. At one such safer spot, the location of which is being withheld due to the sensitivity of the border region, villagers and soldiers took shelter behind homes and shops, carefully peeking at the hills above on their left. A few loud explosions could be heard from the right side. Sometimes the shelling resumes soon after civilians or soldiers move out from these spots. Yahan sab Ram bharose hai (Here, everything is in gods hands), said Sunil Choudhary, in his 20s, a local resident. On the morning of February 27, the region that was already a battlefield witnessed a rather rare combat in the skies as jets of India and Pakistan engaged in a dogfight following which both sides claimed to have shot down enemy jets. Pakistans claim was backed by the arrest of an Indian pilot but the Indian side remained adamant that a Pakistani jet was also downed. Since then shelling has continued with intermittent bouts of increased intensity. There is no purpose to life here, said 66-year-old Mehender Lal Bali, a retired teacher and resident of Bhawani, about six kilometres from the LoC. In all of these years, Bali said, the only constant in the village was the shelling and the threat of displacement, but the attitude of the government towards the people had changed. Earlier the displaced would be given relief, in cash and kind, but villagers who were temporarily displaced during last years intense spell of shelling, and also in the first few months of this year, complain of lack of facilities. Modi has done a lot for the country but we dont see that on the ground, he said. We wont shift for a kilo of flour from the government. As working in the fields and letting their livestock in the open is difficult, livelihood of the residents is increasingly at threat and employment with the Army the only viable option for many. However, for Choudhary, also the villages elected head, evacuating the border regions would be a weak point for the country. If we leave the Army alone here, they will be demoralised, he said with determination. We are each others support here. Each of the village close to the de-facto border has witnessed a casualty in the decades since Partition or heard of a recent one in the nearby villages. Choudhary said the shelling has also caused long-lasting trauma to the children and several of them had already grown hard of hearing. Barely any kids play in the open. We prepare food not knowing whether we will be able to have it in peace, said Zooni Begum. Whenever something happens we are the first victims. We spend days without food and sleep. Several residents of this part of the village migrated from areas farther from the border in hope of better living in the early 1980s. But ever since border tensions escalated once again, they find themselves hostage to their poverty and the hostilities between India and Pakistan. On the morning of March 3, local leaders rubbed salt on their fresh wounds. Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, standing outside the damaged house, vowed to give a befitting response to Pakistan as journalists recorded the jingoism on cameras. For this family, if this isnt war, what is? asked Shameema Akhter, a neighbour, as she scoffed at the leaders statement. When shelling begins, we let our children cry their hearts out. We cant protect them. These children were killed when their mother was with them. The same jingoism was on display at the school in Kuniyan, more than ten kilometres from the border, where the surviving family of Younis is taking shelter and being helped by local residents. A BJP MLA came here, posed with the victim family and told his men to take pictures, said 25-year-old Sarfaraz Ahmad. He left after that. The grieving family of Younis was enraged. None of them offered even 10 rupees to buy milk for these young kids, said Fareeda Bi, sister of Younis. Their father, Mohammad Aslam, was visibly agitated. Who will Modi rule over if we are all dead? Residents in various border villages in different districts of the region point out the shelling has intensified in the last two years of the BJP government, primarily in the wake of the Indian raids across the border touted as the surgical strikes by the Indian prime minister and widely publicised by the national media. After the recent escalation of tensions, border residents blame the media on both sides for warmongering from studios far from danger. They feel while Pakistan targeted Hindu-dominated areas mostly, India responded to the fire from Muslim-dominated villages to relieve pressures elsewhere, thereby escalating the spiral of violence. Residents also complain of discrimination in the allotment of bunkers; it is widely believed that Hindu- dominated border regions have received more bunkers. Salotri, a mainly Muslim village with a population of about two thousand, spread over the hills, has few bomb shelters far and apart. The construction of bunkers is also marred with corruption and the generally slow pace of works in India. The terror that has gripped Salotri has made the residents once again flock to a locally revered shrine organising an 11-day niaz ritual that was first done by a local saint, now deceased, in 2002 when the shelling was similarly intense. Quarters of oranges and sweet rice were served to villagers gathered at the shrine of the panj peer - according to one legend they are five brothers, another says it is a peer and his subsequent generations. At the shrine Molvi Qasim, a resident of Salotri, said the area has so far avoided civilian casualties because of the hallowed place. Caretaker Haji Mohammad Bashir said that the shrine had cast its blessings over the area but warned that Jammu and Kashmir will consume both India and Pakistan. The 3rd phase of seven-phased election to 17th Lok Sabha, beginning 11 April and ending on 19 May, will see the maximum number of 115 seats spread over 14 states undergoing polling on 23 April. New Delhi: The 3rd phase of seven-phased election to 17th Lok Sabha, beginning 11 April and ending on 19 May, will see the maximum number of 115 seats spread over 14 states undergoing polling on 23 April. The counting of votes will take place on 23 May to declare 543 members elected for the Lok Sabha, the Lower House of Indian Parliament. Announcing the poll schedule here at a press conference at Vigyan Bhawan, Indias Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora said: The first phase of Lok Sabha poll will be held on 11 April, covering 91 constituencies in 20 states. The second phase of polling will be held on 18 April for 97 constituencies in 13 states. The third phase of polling will take place on 23 April in 115 constituencies in 14 states, said Arora. Arora said the elections would be held in single phase in 22 states, which include Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Andaman and Nicobar, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep, Delhi, Puducherry, Chandigarh. The fourth phase of polling is scheduled for 29 April to be held in 71 constituencies spread over 9 states. The fifth phase polling will be held on 6 May in 51 constituencies in seven states, while phase six on 12 May in 59 constituencies in 7 states and the seventh phase polling will be held on 12 May for 59 constituencies in eight states. Arora said that the election to the legislative assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and Odisha will be held simultaneously with the General Elections, while the Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir will be held later on. There will be approximately 10 lakh polling stations in the Lok Sabha elections as compared to 9 lakh polling stations in 2014, he said. The total electorate in the final published roll will be in the vicinity of 900 million as compared to 814.5 million in 2014, out of which 15 million voters are in the age group of 18-19; 38,325 are third gender and other voters. As many as 71,735 are overseas electors, while 1.6 billion are service electors, said Arora. The CEC informed that 23.3 lakh ballot units have already reached their destinations. Also 16.35 lakh control units and 17.4 lakh VVPATs are also deployed for conducting elections. VVPATs will be used along with EVMs at all polling stations. Adequate numbers of both have been made available for smooth conduct of election exercise. There will be mandatory VVPAT slip count at randomly selected polling station per assembly segment, he said. Arora also said that candidates are required to furnish details of their social media account. All advertisement on social media will also require pre-certification. All expenditure on campaigning advertisement in social media is to be included in the election expenditure account, said Arora. Election Commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra were also present during Sundays announcement press conference. Lok Sabha polls 2014 had been held in nine-phases with the election schedule announced on 5 March. The electoral exercise was spread over the months of April and May with the first phase of polling taking place on 7 April, and the last phase being on 12 May. The BJP had won 282 seats in the 2014 General Elections, giving them a simple majority in the Lower House of Parliament. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had won 336 seats out of 543. The Congress had won 44 seats. NCP not ready to leave Ahmednagar seat, Sujhe Vikhe-Patil to join BJP Mumbai: With less than a month to go for the four-phase Lok Sabha (LS) election in Maharashtra, there is still no clarity on major political parties alliances. While the grand alliance between the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is yet to happen, Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM) leader Prakash Ambedkar is not ready to join them. Though the Shiv Sena, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine has cemented its alliance, their smaller allies are still unaware of their allotment of seats. It is also not clear if the Opposition leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil's son Sujay Vikhe-Patil will get a seat from the Congress while farmer leader Raju Shetti's stance is far from clear. Sources in the Congress said that the NCP is not ready to let go of the Ahmednagar LS seat and, hence, Sujay Vikhe-Patil will join the BJP on Tuesday. Congress general spok-esperson Sachin Sawant said, We have already started our campaign. The discussion on the grand alliance will be concluded soon. NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said, The election has been announced today. The alliance will materialise within the next two days. Maharashtra chief electoral officer (CEO) Ashwani Kumar said that a meeting has been held to explain the model code of conduct (MCC). As the election dates have been announced, the MCC has been invoked across the state. It will continue till May 27. The election would be held in four phases in Maharashtra. In the first phase, seven seats will go to the polls on April 11. In the second phase, voters will exercise their franchise at ten seats on April 18. In the third phase, the electorate will cast their vote at 14 seats on April 23, while in the fourth phase, polls will be held at 17 seats on April 29. Mr Kumar said 6 lakh personnel would be engaged in conducting the elections in the state. In addition to this, enough police personnel would be deployed during polls. said. A man has been detained on suspicion of espionage activities near the International Border between India and Pakistan in Rajasthan's Jaisalmer district, a top official said Jaipur: A man has been detained on suspicion of espionage activities near the International Border between India and Pakistan in Rajasthan's Jaisalmer district, a top official said Monday. Acting on credible intelligence inputs, Nawab Khan, a resident of Sam area, was detained on Sunday on suspicion of being involved in espionage activities, the official said. Khan works as a jeep driver, he added. He is being interrogated by a joint team of security agencies for his alleged links with Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, the official said. Further action will be taken following the detailed interrogation, he said. On 28 January, the Supreme Court had asked the Centre and the Meghalaya government to continue their efforts to rescue the miners. East Jaintia Hills: Efforts to find the miners trapped in a Meghalaya mine Since 13 December, 2018 made little progress, as the process of cleaning the 10 shafts got completed on Sunday. Dewatering on the incident site by CIL pump and its adjoining areas continued for 16 hours before being concluded at 5 pm on Sunday. It pumped out 2160000 litres of water while the KSB pumped 6336000 litres of water. One Kirloskar pump also discharged 2880000 litres of water. The NDRF and the SDRF continue to be present on the site to assist other agencies with all available resources. Two out of 13 bodies of miners were recovered 77 days after 15 coal miners were trapped inside the rat-hole coal pit by the Indian Navy divers, after they retrieved the first body identified as that of Amir Hussain from Assam's Chirang district on 23 January. Multiple agencies are involved in the operation which is underway to rescue the miners trapped in the mine located at Ksan near Lytein River in East Jaintia Hills. On 28 January, the Supreme Court had asked the Centre and the Meghalaya government to continue their efforts to rescue the miners. The miners got trapped in the illegal mine in Lumthari village when water from the nearby Lytein river flooded the mine. Since then, a multi-agency rescue operation has been underway to rescue the miners. In dealing with Pakistan henceforth, inaction has been taken off the table of any future prime minister "Pakistan told you we will bleed you with a thousand cuts. So it is not terror from their point of view. It is an agenda that they are fulfilling. They are doing what they believe is the right thing to do. Now, from Indias stand point are we doing the right thing that is good for this nation? That is something we have to decide. Life or death somebody is working for their agenda. What the hell is your agenda? Spell it out and act upon that." That was Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev at News18s Second India Rising Summit on February 25 succinctly and unemotionally pointing out the two key missing ingredients of Indias Pakistan policy: resolve and action. Pakistan had resolved to wage a perpetual war. Where and what was Indias resolve? And, was there enough steel in the leadership to back up resolve with action? Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the podium about two hours after Sadhguru at the same Summit. When he exited at 9.30 pm after a 40-minute key note address, he had not mentioned Pakistan or Pulwama even once. Sadhguru did not get his answers. But in Modis mind there was a time and place for answers. The time was precisely six hours later and the place was Balakot, deep inside Pakistan, where Indian Air Force jets bombed the terror training camps of Jaish-e-Mohammed. Ten days earlier (February 15), after the deadly Pulwama attack, Modi had told the nation that Pakistan had made a grave mistake and it would have to pay a heavy price for it (bahut badi galti kar chuka hai, aur bahut badi keemat chukani padegi). There was a touch of the menacing in the stress he laid on kar chuka hai. It suggested a new resolve and intent for action. But, programmed to hearing prime ministers dish out such stuff over the decades, it didnt strike as much more than regulation rhetoric. Pakistan showed empty craters, IAF claimed it achieved its mission, and BJP president Amit Shah claimed 250 terrorists had been neutralised. These arguments, which will rule the headlines till the last vote is cast this May, cannot, however, obfuscate one inalienable fact. In the wee hours of February 26 Indias Pakistan doctrine underwent a fundamental shift. In those few minutes of air raids India breached the sovereignty of Pakistan for the first time during non-war scenario. It dumped the decades-old formula of indignation-condemnation-consternation-confabulation, all of which added up to nothing but glorious inaction. The peace detour It is no surprise that Narendra Modi is in South Block when the shift happened from a doctrine of helpless inaction to measured action. What is surprising is why it took so long for a presumed Pakistan hawk to risk all-out war only in the dying weeks of his term. The easy, facile answer is that it is an election gimmick planned to stoke patriotic fervour. Risking war so as not to risk losing an election is a very cheap charge against any leader. In Modis case it does not stick for three reasons. One, a thorough scan of all his public speeches for one month before the Pulwama attack is instructive. Modi had not uttered the word Pakistan even once. The recurring theme of all twelve speeches (available on www.narendramodi.in) is development, development and more development. Once (February 3) when he was in Kashmir he spoke about breaking the back of terrorism. Even here he did not name Pakistan. If he was building war hysteria, he was doing so in vacuum. Two, the bombing of CRPF was a grave external provocation. Unless one were Mamata Banerjee, one would not ask the absurd question of why the JeM was gift-wrapping the election for Modi. Masood Azhars intention was to weaken Modi not strengthen. To hit him at a time when he wouldnt be able to mount a full response as a lame duck government. Three, and the most important, is the governments calibrated response that would stand the test of international scrutiny as a fair step in self-defence (more on this strategy later). Clearly, Modi, the hawk, was missing in action. His ghar mein ghus ke maarenge (Ill hit you inside your house) remark in Ahmedabad drew a lot of criticism but that was political demagogy at its best (or worst) akin to Richard Armitages we will bomb you to stone age warning to Parvez Musharraf after 9/11. Modis hard-nosed stand against Pakistan took time coming because he had to first exhaust all options for peace in light of the war-monger perception of him. Aware that Pakistan would figure centrally in his diplomacy and politics, he got down to work even before he began his term by inviting Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to his inauguration in May 2014. He struck an instant personal chord with Sharif. The Pakistan deep state would not take kindly to their prime minister cosying up to his Indian counterpart, so Modi gave Sharif the long rope he needed to mend relations. He threw the diplomatic bluebook to the winds and made an unscheduled stop-over in Lahore to honour Sharifs invitation for his grand-daughters marriage on December 25, 2015. He was rewarded, on January 2, 2016, with the attack on the Pathankot airbase. Modi took this hit in his chin because Sharif personally conveyed his anguish and assured action. Give me some time, he is believed to have told Modi. Sharif got much more than a little time. Risking considerable damage to his image at home, Modi gave a Pakistani team of investigators limited access to the airbase. Predictably, nothing came out of the visit except bad press for Modi. It didnt take long for Sharif to start singing the Pakistan Army tune. After calling for UN intervention in Kashmir, Sharif followed it up with an open exhortation for insurrection in Kashmir in the wake of terror poster-boy Burhan Vanis killing (July 2018). Two months later, JeM militants attacked the Uri headquarters of the Indian Army killing 19 soldiers, the deadliest attack on a military establishment yet. Working with the world Now the gloves were off. India replied within 12 days by launching surgical strikes to hit terror launch pads on the other side of the LoC and called off all talks. Though there is still no agreement on how successful the strikes were or if they were indeed one of their kind, the swift action and its public announcement added to brand Modi as the decisive leader. Pakistan ratcheted up its terror activities in Kashmir culminating in the Pulwama attack. That was a big miscalculation. Pakistan would always get away after every hit on India by showing the world how close its finger was to the nuclear button. This would scare the world which would lean on India to grin and bear and get on. But Modi had re-set Indias role as an important and equal global player without much notice from Pakistan. It would have been instructive for Pakistan to study the evolution of India-China relations which seem to have found an equilibrium in the past four years after a wobbly start. Chinese troops had intruded into Ladakh at precisely the same time when Modi was hosting Chinese president Xi Jinping in Ahmedabad. Discarding diplomatese, Modi confronted Xi: Why is it that most of the time these incursions happen during high profile visits to each others countries? Questioning China was not the norm for Indian leaders as this anecdote narrated by a former ITBP chief reveals. He was making a presentation on border security to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Home Minister LK Advani and Defence Minister George Fernandes at Leh. When he came to the part where he wanted to talk about the sensitive matter of infrastructure development by China on the border, he was shut down before he began. Lets leave China out, he was firmly told. Modi showed his mettle again during the 71-day Doka La stand-off in 2017, the longest and most tense yet. In spite of threats of war and annihilation by China, Indian soldiers stood eyeball-to-eyeball with the Chinese in a display of diplomatic nerve never seen before. That Modi was gaining equity as a global leader should have been clear to Pakistan from its own experience. To global powers India-Pakistan was one issue. They would come to India via Pakistan or go to Pakistan after a visit to India. Modi personally insisted that they de-hyphenate the two countries. And since then all global leaders from China, USA, Europe or other countries travel separately to India. Last month the Saudi crown prince flew back home from Pakistan before leaving for India the next day, said a top bureaucrat in the PMO. From a self-confessed novice to international diplomacy, Modi grew to be a respected leader capable of representing Indias interests to the fullest. Evolution of a strategist Pakistan apparently missed this evolution of Modi and his personal equation with world leaders. Immediately after the Pulwama attack, Modi let the world know that India would hit back hard. But it was a strategic nightmare to deliver what the country wanted him to do, a strike more spectacular than the surgical strikes of 2018. He needed to cross a new red line. Do something to demonstrate Indias new resolve for action while not giving up its stature as a responsible nation unaccustomed to reckless war-mongering. He needed to a clean break from the past and yet show a fine balance between aggression and restraint. Indias Pakistan strategy based on worst case scenarios was so impeccable that it paralysed the leadership. Pakistan would keep delivering blows and India would keep postponing action for another day. Modi not only acted but framed the need for action in such a way that the international community had no option but to stand on India's side. The definition of the strikes as intelligence-led non-military action to pre-empt more strikes from JeMs terror factories because Pakistan itself was doing nothing to dismantle the same worked to Indias favour. It conveyed to the world that while India was ready for full blown war, it was still holding its hand. It also cleverly constricted Pakistans space for retaliation because there were no terror facilities in India for the latter to target. If Pakistan struck it would be military or strategic installations and that would be a clear act of war. The world, including China, rallied around India. Pakistan did strike back, dropping bombs here and there on Indian territory. Technically it was war on February 27 when India and Pakistan shot each others planes down but thankfully de-escalated quickly. All of those Modi world tours, for which he took a lot of flak domestically, were obviously not for nothing. For Modi it was mission accomplished. He had delivered many messages in one go. Pakistan now knows India would not hold back anymore. Every plan of Pakistan-sponsored terror will have to take on board a new threat: how will India hit back. It spikes up their costs of war. To the world he sent the message that India could look after itself. Domestically he has underscored his image as a strong leader and a responsible decision-maker who will not seek war but will not duck it either. This small anecdote highlights this aptly: At an informal meeting with Modi, a senior leader of the party expressed concern that all this was happening in the run-up to the election. Modi, a top source told us, became very serious and said: Dus chunaav aayenge jaayenge, humein dekhna hai ki desh bachchehumne decide karliya humko kya karna hai (elections will come and go, but the Nation needs to be survive, I have decided what needs to be done). All this has an impact on India far beyond the immediate elections. An option exercised striking terror camps inside Pakistan is an option expended. In the military sense once a card is played, the adversary is alerted to it so it is useless in future. For example, after the Uri attack, India surprised Pakistan with its surgical strikes across the LoC. But post-Pulwama, that was not an option because Pakistan would be ready for it. And politically, it sets the bar of public expectations that much higher. Surgical strikes was par for course then. But post-Pulwama surgical strikes were not an option even for the lay citizen. Managing this conjoined contradiction of shrinking military options and growing public expectations will be a strategic nightmare for the new government in 2019 and later. But this is much crystal clear. As long as terrorism remains the state policy of Pakistan, helplessness cannot be the state policy of India anymore. Not taking action is no longer an option for any future prime minister. What can India do will have to replace who can India complain to. And that, if you will, is our new Pakistan doctrine. The Modi doctrine. The two accused Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists were booked under Sections 120B and 121A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 17, 18, 38 40 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the NIA said in a statement. Lucknow: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday filed a charge sheet against two Hizbul Mujahideen terrorists for hatching a conspiracy to carry out attacks in different parts of Uttar Pradesh. They have been identified as Kamruj Zaman, hailing from Assam and Osama Bin Javed, who is from Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir and is absconding. The charge sheet was filed at an NIA special court in Lucknow. The two accused were booked under Sections 120B and 121A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 17, 18, 38 40 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the NIA said in a statement. The case was initially registered on 12 September, 2018 by the Uttar Pradesh police. It was re-registered by the NIA on 24 September, after which an investigation was initiated. During the investigation, it was revealed that the two accused had joined Hizbul Mujahideen and were imparted weapon training between June 2017 and March 2018 in Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir, the statement said. After the completion of training, Zaman was directed to set up hideouts and select targets in Uttar Pradesh and Assam for terrorist attacks. On 8 April, 2018, a photograph of Zaman brandishing an automatic AK-47 rifle emerged on the social media, which was posted by Mannan Wani, slain terrorist of Hizbul Mujahideen on his Facebook account, NIA said in the statement. Zaman later escaped to Bangladesh fearing his arrest. However, he was constantly in touch with Javed and Riyaz Naikoo, a Hizbul Mujahideen operational commander in Kashmir, the statement added. In the first week of August 2018, Zaman returned to India and stayed in Assam for some time. On 25 August, 2018, on the directions of Javed and Naikoo, Zaman proceeded to Kanpur where he carried out reconnaissance of a few temples to carry out terror attacks. He was also trying to collect arms and explosives to carry out terror activities, the statement further said. An Indian national, who mistakenly crossed into Pakistan nearly seven years ago, has been handed over to the Border Security Force on Monday Lahore: An Indian national, who mistakenly crossed into Pakistan nearly seven years ago, has been handed over to the Border Security Force, an official said on Monday. Ghulam Qadir, crossed into the Pakistani territory from Jammu and Kashmir in 2012. He was arrested and handed over to the local police, the official from Pakistan Rangers said. Later, he was sentenced for illegally entering into Pakistan and upon completion of sentence, he was handed over to the BSF at the Wagah Border, the official added. Last month, an Indian teenage boy, who inadvertently crossed into the Pakistani side, was repatriated as a goodwill gesture. Less than a month after the Pulwama attack on a CRPF convoy, the Indian Army confirmed that the security forces have killed the main conspirator Mudasir Khan in an encounter. Less than a month after the 14 February Pulwama attack on a CRPF convoy, the Indian Army confirmed on Monday that the security forces have killed main conspirator Mudassir Ahmed Khan in an encounter. Mudassir, a local Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist, was among two militants killed in an encounter in Tral's Pinglish area in Pulwama district, the forces said at a press conference on Monday. At a joint press conference by the army, Jammu and Kashmir Police and the CRPF, General Officer Commanding (GoC) of the Srinagar-based 15 corps Lieutenant-General KJS Dhillon said that the forces have eliminated a total of 18 terrorists since the attack. "Our main emphasis was to eliminate the JeM leadership and we have been very successful in doing that. We have gone behind JeM and tried to eliminate the top hierarchy so that the Pulwama incident is not repeated," he said. Out of the 18 terrorists, eight were Pakistanis and 10 were local terrorists including two of Lashkar-e-Taiba and two of Hizbul, he said. "I would like to assure that operations against foreign terrorists and others will continue till we eliminate all (of them)." At the briefing, CRPF inspector general for operations Zulfiqar Hassan said, "Yesterday's operation was a very significant operation. He (Mudasir) was also involved in the December 2017 Lethpora attack on a CRPF camp. It was a very clean operation, but our job is still not done. Very important players still remain. The ones who supplied him with explosives would be dealt with. Sooner or later, the rest of the players should be dealt with." Inspector General of Police (IGP) SP Pani said that a "significant dent" has been caused to the JeM with the operation. The Tral encounter, in which Mudasir was eliminated, lasted past midnight. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the Pulwama terror attack, had carried out searches at the residence of Mudasir on 27 February. Pani said at the briefing that the identity of the second militant killed in the Tral gunfight is still being ascertained. "We know that his code was Khalid. We are trying to find his actual identity," he said. Meanwhile, PTI reported that officials believe the second militant was JeM operative Sajjad Bhat, whose vehicle was used in the Pulwama attack. With inputs from PTI As a result, Russia accounted for 58 percent of total Indian arms imports in 2014-2018, compared with 76 percent in 2009-2013, according to the report 'Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2018' released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Washington: Russia's arms export to India fell by a whopping 42 percent between 2014-18 and 2009-2013, according to a new report. As a result, Russia accounted for 58 percent of total Indian arms imports in 2014-2018, compared with 76 percent in 2009-2013, according to the report "Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2018" released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's effort to reduce country's dependence on foreign arms, India's import of arms decreased by 24 percent between 2009-2013 and 2014-2018, according to the figures released by the report. This decline in India's import is also partly due to delays in deliveries of arms produced under license from foreign suppliers, such as combat aircraft ordered from Russia in 2001 and submarines ordered from France in 2008. Still, India was the world's second largest importer of major arms in 2014-18 and accounted for 9.5 percent of the global total. Israel, the USA and France all increased their arms exports to India in 2014-18. Pakistan's arms imports decreased by 39 per cent between 2009-13 and 2014-18. The US has become increasingly reluctant to provide military aid or sell arms to Pakistan: US arms exports to Pakistan fell by 81 per cent between 2009-13 and 2014-18, it said. Pakistan has instead turned to other suppliers. For example, in 2018 it ordered 4 frigates and 30 combat helicopters from Turkey, it added. The decrease in India's arms import is significant given that the volume of international transfers of major arms in 2014-18 was 7.8 percent higher than in 2009-13 and 23 percent higher than in 2004-2008. The five largest exporters in 2014-18 were the United States, Russia, France, Germany and China. The five largest importers were Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt, Australia and Algeria. The US was the top arms exporter in 2014-18 and 2009-13. Its exports of major arms grew by 29 percent between the two periods and its share of total global exports rose from 30 percent to 36 percent. As a result, the gap between the USA and Russia - the second largest exporter - continued to widen. In 2009-13, US exports of major arms were 12 percent higher than those of Russia, whereas in 2014-18 they were 75 percent higher. Russian exports of major arms decreased by 17 percent between the same periods. The fall was partly due to general reductions in Indian and Venezuelan arms imports - two countries that have been among the main recipients of Russian arms exports in previous years, the SIPRI said. "Although India remained the chief recipient of Russian arms in 2014-18, Russian arms exports to India fell by 42 percent between 2014-18 and 2009-13. Arms exports to Venezuela, which was the fifth largest recipient of Russian arms in 2009-13, decreased by 96 percent between the two periods," it said. A joint SAD-BJP delegation on Sunday met Punjab governor VP Singh Badnore, accusing the SIT of implicating SAD leaders in false cases linked to the 2015 police firing incidents in Faridkot Chandigarh: A joint SAD-BJP delegation on Sunday met Punjab governor VP Singh Badnore, accusing the SIT of implicating SAD leaders in false cases linked to the 2015 police firing incidents in Faridkot. The delegation comprised Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and Punjab BJP president Shwait Malik among others. The delegation submitted a memorandum to Badnore and urged him to "safeguard the democracy and democratic institutions by directing the Congress government in Punjab to put an end to the politically motivated and vendetta-driven probes and ensure no elected member is implicated in false cases", said SAD in a statement. According to SAD's statement, Badal told the governor that "the Congress government was politicising the unfortunate incidents of firing which occurred in Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan (in 2015)." He said the SIT constituted last year "initiated a witch hunt against Akali leaders and started conspiring to implicate them in false cases". He told the governor that former Kotkapura legislator Mantar Singh Brar has already been made accused "in one such false case despite the fact that he was only performing his duty as an elected representative when the unfortunate incident took place in 2015". Wrong inferences are being deduced and the SIT is claiming that he (Mantar) was pressurising officers and stopping them from doing their duty," Badal told the governor. The delegation members alleged that SIT was indulging in a pre-determined and biased investigation aimed at settling scores with the top Akali leadership. Stating that the SAD-BJP was in favour of a speedy and impartial probe into the 2015 firing incidents, the delegation told governor "we urge you to direct the state government to get both incidents probed by an independent investigating agency, monitored by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court. BJP state president Shwait Malik alleged the Congress government has initiated "the vendetta exercise in desperation because it had lost popular support after failing to implement any of its promises to the people". The delegation members also included Union minister and BJP leader Vijay Sampla, senior SAD leaders Charanjit Singh Atwal, Tota Singh, MP Prem Singh Chandumajra and Maheshinder Singh Grewal. The SAD on Thursday had said it would boycott the special investigation team (SIT), probing the 2015 police firings in Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan at mobs protesting the incidents of desecration of guru Grant Sahib in the state. SAD has alleged that the SIT was following the footsteps of the Ranjit Singh Commission and implementing the mandate of the Congress party to implicate the SAD leaders. The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a petition challenging the Triple Talaq ordinance, which was passed by the Centre in February. The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a petition challenging the triple talaq ordinance, which was passed by the Centre in February. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi dismissed the petition filed by lawyer Reepak Kansal. The bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, dismissed the petition against the re-promulgation of the ordinance and said that it stood "withdrawn". In February, the controversial triple talaq bill had lapsed during the Budget Session of the Rajya Sabha. The bill had been passed by the Lok Sabha, but lapsed after the Upper House adjourned sine die without having passed the bill. The issue of triple talaq was taken up in the Parliament in August last year after a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court ruled "unconstitutional" the practice that allowed Muslim men to divorce their wives simply by uttering "talaq" three times in quick succession. In a landmark 3-2 verdict, the Supreme Court found the practice un-Islamic and "arbitrary" and disagreed that triple talaq was an integral part of religious practice. On Monday, Gogoi was quoted by reports as saying, "Can't do much if a bill isn't passed in the Rajya Sabha and if the House is dissolved." The triple talaq Bill was passed in Lok Sabha on December 27 last year with 245 votes in favour and 11 against it. The Opposition parties were demanding that the Bill be sent to a Select Committee of Parliament for further vetting, a demand which was rejected by the Centre. However, an ordinance was re-promulgated in January this year after the revised bill could not be passed in Rajya Sabha where the government lacks majority. On 20 February, The Union Cabinet approved triple talaq ordinance. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said: "The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its approval to the promulgation of an Ordinance, namely, the Muslim Women (Protection of Right on Marriage) Second Ordinance, 2019, as per Appendix-111 under the clause (1) of Article 123 of the Constitution." Soon after, President Ram Nath Kovind signed the ordinance, which brought it into force for the third time in less than a year. The ordinance makes triple talaq a non-bailable offence. However, an accused can approach a magistrate to seek bail even before trial. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday called the triple talaq ordinance a weapon against minorities, being used to cover up a narrative of womens empowerment. The latest Surf Excel advertisement, featuring a young 'Hindu' girl who ensures her Muslim friend gets to go to the mosque in pristine white clothes during the Holi festival, caused quite a stir on social media after it was released on 27 February. The latest Surf Excel advertisement, featuring a young 'Hindu' girl who ensures her Muslim friend gets to go to the mosque in pristine white clothes during the Holi festival, caused quite a stir on social media after it was released on 27 February. The "Hindu phobic" concept faced instant flak from Hindu extremists, however, the tide of hate was overtaken by activists, journalists, and others who came out in support of the ad's message of "unity and love". Some users also pointed out that the '#BoycottSurfExcel' campaign run by "bhakts", had, in fact, helped increase traction for the ad on platforms like Facebook and YouTube. A Twitter user posted screenshots of Surf Excel's Facebook page engagement before and after the campaign against it. The 'likes' and 'follows', according to the screenshot, are shown to have jumped from 8,29,000 to 1.5 million and 9,08,000 to 1.4 million, respectively. The ad now has around 93 lakh views on YouTube. Another user observed that the trending #BoycottSurfExcel hashtag had actually helped Hindustan Unilever (HUL) "up their share prices" in comparison to last week. We were using Tide and patanjali. Now we changed to #SurfExcel happyin (@happyin6) March 12, 2019 The HUL-owned brand, which is known for its "daag achhe hai" (stains are good) ads, tried to do something similar recently with its latest Holi special "Rang Laaye Sang" (colours bring us together) campaign. Under this campaign, the brand released an advertisement in a bid to promote Hindu-Muslim unity. The advertisement ends with Surf Excel's classic tagline "daag acche hain". While those criticising the ad used #BoycottSurfExcel to share their messages, supporters also made #SurfExcel trend on Twitter. Critics of the ad perceived it as "Hindu phobic" and "controversial" and believed that it wants to showcase that "namaaz is more important than Holi". Supporters, however, labelled those outraging against Surf Excel as 'The Cult of Stupidity'. "#BoycottSurfexcel because you also know that the add is humiliating Hinduism," read a user's tweet. #boycottSurfexcel because you also know that the add is humiliating Hinduism. And promoting love jehad. Gender selection and talking holi colour as "daag" is not acceptable by hindu because it is done intentionally. Gender selection could have been reverse also. : (@MBMRKDr) March 10, 2019 Claiming that the ad humiliates Muslims, a user wrote, "#SurfExcel ad is humiliating Muslim girls to the core... It is directly saying that a Muslim male child needs the help of a Hindu girl for doing his prayer. This is shaming and humiliating all Muslim children." Many of the angry tweets seemed to have been deleted on Friday. While opinion over the ad was clearly divided, some also advised "caution" during "crazy times". South Indian actor Siddharth Suryanarayan wrote, "Can Indian advertisers keep religion out of the picture while pushing FMCG products? Don't complain when people witch hunt you later. I'm sure the red flags are visible when creatives are being finalised. You're selling detergent! Crazy times warrant caution." By Monday, the tide had largely turned in favour of the ad. "There is nothing wrong in this ad. Why people take everything so seriously and make unnecessary interpretations. Just cool always think simply," a tweet read. The outrage over this Surf Excel ad by Hindutvawadis on the day elections have been announced is a testimony to how the country has regressed in the past 5 years. pic.twitter.com/Z8a4x8yPsO Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) March 10, 2019 I am buying 2 extra 2 kilo pack of #SurfExcel for reminding us that we are nice people. And live naturally in relative harmony. And, kids know no barriers, until they are taught. It will last me 6 months. but it is worth it to defeat haters. Harini Calamur (@calamur) March 10, 2019 Search #BoycottSurfExcel hashtag and witness #TheCultOfStupidity in action. I hope @HUL_News will have the conviction to stand by their advertisement aimed at promoting communal harmony & not be cowed down by hate mongers. Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) March 9, 2019 Oh boy. Not really a fan of #SurfExcel the product or even #HLL. But will buy it now in solidarity!! #stopdivisiveness https://t.co/kAUoxb8cxG Sucheta Dalal (@suchetadalal) March 11, 2019 By trending #BoycottSurfExcel, Bhakts have actually promoted further and helped the company to up their share prices compared to the last week. Bhakts will be Bhakts. #SurfExcel#BoycottHULproducts pic.twitter.com/GPIQOexogb Nihal Kirnalli (@NihalKirnalli) March 11, 2019 What a beautiful ad by #SurfExcel #RangLaayeSang. Those outraged, where is your sense of community, commaraderie, religious tolerance? Can we no longer co-exist & celebrate love in peace? https://t.co/q4HVXhN3xx Dr. Shruti Kapoor (@kapoors_s) March 11, 2019 Everyone I know has switched to #SurfExcel ;especially for Holi Shruti Seth (@SethShruti) March 11, 2019 This #SurfExcel ad celebrating friendship between a Muslim boy & presumably Hindu girl is being attacked by Sanghi haters who view it through the lens of their communal patriarchal sexualised anxieties of 'love jihad'. Teach them a lesson in love, India! https://t.co/w4UajX6qBG Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) March 10, 2019 Such a beautiful ad. Watched it 10 times, left me smiling EVERY SINGLE TIME. Depicts India through the eyes of innocent/naughty/lovely kids Touched. Why attack #SurfExcel ? Why look for conspiracies everywhere? https://t.co/6Iz5Ml92QT Manak Gupta (@manakgupta) March 10, 2019 This is not the first time Hindustan Unilever has faced flack for the story line of their advertisements. Days before releasing this Surf Excel ad, the company released an advertisement for Red Label based at the Kumbh Mela that had irked viewers. In the ad, a son contemplates abandoning his aged father in the crowd, but soon realises his mistake and comes back to him. Soon after the ad was shared on the HUL Twitter handle, people objected to it, saying it hurt the sentiments of Hindus and portrayed the festival in the wrong light. With inputs from ANI South Africa: Government to honour business at Premier Awards Business excellence will be celebrated at the South African Business Premier Awards (SAPBA) later this week. The Department of Trade and Industry (dti), together with Proudly South African and Brand South Africa, will present the annual awards on Wednesday. Speaking ahead of Wednesdays glittering award ceremony, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said the awards will honour exceptional businesses. The awards are an opportunity for government, and South Africa as a whole, to recognise exceptional businesses and the businesspeople who drive them, ranging from emerging start-ups to established business institutions from the dawn of democracy, said Davies. Entrepreneurs will be competing in categories that are aligned to the strategic focus of the dtis Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP), which supports and complements the National Development Plan (NDP) and the New Growth Path (NGP). Acting Chief Marketing Officer of Brand South Africa, Sithembile Ntombela, paid tribute to business people who are finalists in the sixth instalment of the awards. CEO of Proudly South African, Eustace Mashimbye, says this years awards have seen another crop of outstanding entries, which demonstrates that local companies are striving for excellence and growth. The awards -- which have been held since 2013 -- will be held at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg. - SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. The police consider the reverse search warrant method useful in cases such as robbery. In a robbery case last October, the police asked for a warrant to identify all mobile devices in an area around the victim couples house. In a traditional crime scenario, the police use a search warrant against a suspect to gain evidence. However, in the new age of technology, the police are increasingly using what is called as a reverse search warrant with the help of Googles location database to identify the suspect. As explained by Cheddar, the police consider the reverse search warrant method useful in cases such as robbery. It has been used quite frequently by the police in the US. In a robbery case last October, the police asked for a warrant to identify all mobile devices in an area around the victim couples house. They also asked for location data on every cell phone in the area. The police thus gained data on every person who used Google product such as Google Maps. While this method is legal and considered useful especially in robbery cases, the amount of data Google is asked by the police is far more than needed. There are a number of innocent people whose data crawls up the public database. Advocates defending the method said it involves a two-step process where the name of the suspect is revealed only after an anonymous ID number given by Google establishes a probable cause. 10-year-old Palak enjoys theatre and drama but hopes to someday follow in the footsteps of her Teach For India Fellow. 10-year-old Prince enjoys learning about computers, machines and hacking. Someday, he hopes to join the police force to capture criminals. 10-year-old Palak enjoys theatre and drama but hopes to someday follow in the footsteps of her Teach For India Fellow. Prince and Palak are both students who are taught by Teach For India Fellows in their classrooms. Today, more than 50% of students in Grade 5 cannot even read at a Grade 2 level or solve a simple subtraction problem. With nearly 1 in 4 people below the age of 14 years, India is the precipice of brighter tomorrow. But, this is only possible if we have more reliable leaders who are committed to improve the quality of our childrens education. Teach For Indias vision is for all children to have access to a quality education. Teach For Indias paid Fellowship program places Fellows in under-resourced schools for a two-year full-time duration, where they acquire the skills and mindsets required to work towards resolving the education crisis. In conversation with 5th-grade students Prince and Palak What are the positive changes you have noticed since your Teach For India Fellow entered your classroom? Palak They teach us patiently and that has led us to becoming more curious and asking more questions. We learned about our community and social issues from our Fellows, and the responsibility we have in making a change. They motivate us to become good leaders in our communities, beyond just being toppers. What is your message to Fellows who want to teach children in classrooms across India? Why should more Fellows join? Prince If more Fellows join, more children will have access to opportunities. What we learn from you, will continue with us and with this chain-reaction, the country will also move forward. Palak Children can only bring about a change in the community if we are given the right knowledge, skills and education. With every Teach For India Fellow that joins, our chances of making a difference increases. In conversation with Teach For India Fellows Trupti and Aishvarya. How does teaching your students inspire you? Trupti - It motivates me to know that I can empower children in some way. I often end up learning more from the kids than I could teach them, and their optimism despite the lives they lead gives me enormous hope. Aishvarya - Teaching gives me a great sense of possibility. It feels like we teach them a lot every day, but over time, their personalities visibly change and that motivates me. Why did you join the Fellowship? What role do you think teaching plays in shaping the future of a country? Trupti - I was working in a corporate job earlier, but Ive always actually wanted to work full time with children. When I quit my job and the Teach For India opportunity came up, it seemed like the perfect fit to get into the education space and learn what part of it is best suited to my skills. Aishvarya - I did my Bachelors in Elementary Education and volunteered to work with several schools- both economically stable and under-resourced. I finally decided that doing this work was where I was needed more. What role do you think teaching plays in shaping the future of a country? Trupti - We work to broaden our students vision and expose them to issues from different perspectives. We hope they will grow up with a more evolved way of looking at issues and be compassionate human beings who can think critically, form fair opinions and become change makers that will problem solve for themselves and the people around them.Aishvarya - When I was in college we debated the causes and effects of our biggest social issues and what solutions were available. But at the end of every discussion, the solution boiled down to education. Children are receptors, they learn easily and if you want to create good citizens, educating children is the start. To do this, our country needs more teachers who are passionate about nurturing young minds. In what way has the Fellowship allowed you to build leadership skills? Trupti - You may not realise this from the outside, but this whole program is extremely challenging. Youre put in situations where you are the go-to person, you hear things you may not be equipped to deal with but over time you learn how to relate to people, how to problem solve with what you have and for me thats where leadership learning and growth happened. What is your message to individuals who aspire to join the Fellowship? Trupti - While passion is one of the best motivations to join this program, the two-year fellowship also helps you narrow in on your strengths and learn what role you can play in the context of child education and learning in next 10 to 20 years ahead. Aishvarya - As a college student, I feel that I never thought about my society or my future and how I was going to achieve anything. The fellowship gave me a sense of responsibility and presented a purpose greater than myself. Applications for the 2019 Teach For India Fellowship are open. Click here for the chance to apply and lead change for tomorrow! The final deadline is Sunday, March 24 2019. This is a partnered post. If the government wishes to embarrass itself it can charge The Hindu with simple theft but not espionage. With the government threatening to prosecute The Hindu under the Official Secrets Act of 1923, its time to ask that question again: Should the fourth estate be worried if it is tilled by an Act that was promulgated more to keep an enslaved India in cowering fear of retribution from the Raj? When the British brought in the law it had wide bandwidth since it loosely employed the label of espionage and spying as cardinal sins. This encompassed any activity including pamphleteering or demanding freedom from oppression through word or deed and, perhaps, even thought. Suspicion was enough grounds for hauling someone in. In 2017 Parliament debated on easing up on its draconian scope and aligning it with the Right to Information Act of 2005 but let it lie. So, technically the 96-year-old totally out-of-line act still has mandate. The essence of the Act concentrates on any activity that helps the enemy state and can be in the form of communicating a sketch, plan, model of an official secret, or of official codes or passwords, to the enemy (Section 3.1.b and 3.1.c). None of this makes for any valid grounds for prosecuting The Hindu for its reportage on the Rafale deal. Documentation that is brought to light against the governments actions definitely does not fit the bill of helping the enemy. Unless, of course, the government is the enemy of the people. As such anything any individual or group offers as evidence in the public interest cannot be construed as an act of espionage. Again, even in legal parlance, the materials so produced cannot be seen as the fruit of the poisonous tree and be excluded because they are stolen. If that was the case in a democratic set up Richard Nixon would never have been marched out of the White House and Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward and the Washington Post would have been punished for violating an official secrets act, the burglary at Watergate. Ergo, how The Hindu accessed the papers pertaining to the Rafale deal is mutually exclusive from the contents therein. If the government wishes to embarrass itself it can charge The Hindu with simple theft but not espionage. Especially because since 2009, in the Shantanu Saikia case, the high court concluded that merely because a document is marked secret it does not render the journalist liable for action for publicising its contents. This is what Justice S Ravindra Bhat said, quoting Stanford Smith of the American Newspaper Publishers Association: The newsman is but the surrogate for the people in a never-ending search to uncover the truth. (Stanford Smith, American Newspaper Publishers Association). The punishment under the Act is three to 14 years if found guilty. Surely, this governments case cannot be predicated to this legal fiat. If it does proceed on what is profoundly a rocky road it has to first cement three premises: i) That anything negative on buying these 36 jets is an act of espionage and anti-national. ii) That the right to information and the expression of that information regarding this purchase to the public compromises national security and places the country in jeopardy. iii) That, and this requires repetition, the government can ipso facto decide what is sedition and what is not without giving just cause. Although nothing much has happened yet and there is no call to jump the gun, it is going to be very sticky for the governments counsel to follow this line of argument. Perhaps it is this realisation that made Attorney General KK Venugopal change his mind about the papers were stolen or copied. The provisions exist under this act to throw the book at the editor, publisher and management but it is a horrible precedent to establish. With the Lok Sabha election approaching, prohibition will, once again, be used as an important poll plank in Bihar. Editor's Note: A network of 60 reporters set off across India to test the idea of development as it is experienced on the ground. Their brief: Use your mobile phone to record the impact of 120 key policy decisions on everyday life; what works, what doesn't and why; what can be done better and what should be done differently. Their findings straight and raw from the ground will be combined in this series, Elections on the Go, over a course of 100 days. Read more articles from the series here *** Patna: This is a tale of two women in two nearby villages. It is a tale of hope and a tale of despair, as well as a tale of prohibition, its few successes and many failures, as experienced in the once-prosperous weaving centre that is the Jehanabad Lok Sabha constituency. Ranti Devi, a 30-year-old from Dharnai village, about 30 kilometres from Jehanabad railway station, is one of those who hail the government's decision to enforce a ban on liquor in the state. "We don't have land. My father-in-law Saheb Manjhi is a daily-wage labourer. Earlier, he used to spend all the money he earned on liquor. His contribution to the family was zero. We used to eat rice without vegetables and bread only with salt. He now gives us Rs 400 from his earnings and we can spend Rs 50 every day on green vegetables. This is the benefit of prohibition," she said. Coming from the Manjhi community, Ranti Devi is an intermediate graduate who got married in 2008 to Jogender Manjhi, who only passed Class 9. After marriage, the mother of four helped her husband study further by working at the Anganwadi Kendra. This year, he graduated with first division. "Had my father-in-law not quit drinking, it would have been difficult to manage the family," she said. Mahadalit tola in Dharnai village has 250-odd families belonging to the lower Musahar and Paasi communities. Just 25 kilometres away is Ratni village one of the half a dozen villages that was penalised for making, selling and consuming country-made liquor (mahua daaru) where there are around 50 Musahar families that brew mahua daaru and live in their own section in the village named Ratni Musahari. It is a tale of despair for the family of a 70-year-old landless labourer, Aata Manjhi, in Ratni village. He has been arrested nine times for possession and consumption of alcohol since the prohibition Act came into force in Bihar in April 2016. His wife Srikanti Devi is vocal in her opposition to the liquor ban and its ardent sponsor, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. "I took loans and sometimes worked at brick kilns and construction sites to get money for my husband's bail and family expenses," said Srikanti Devi, a mother of five, estimating that she had spent at lease Rs 3 to 4 lakh since prohibition was enforced in Bihar. "Whenever my husband is arrested, we have to spend Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 on travelling expenses and lawyer's fees," she said, adding that to meet the expenses, she was forced to sell four of her precious goats for Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000. "Money was not sufficient as we are a nine-member family. I had planned for my sons to appear in the matriculate exams, but where we will get the money from?" Many of her community also allege that they are often falsely implicated in cases related to violations of the liquor ban. One such case is of 70-year-old Dilchan Manjhi of Ratni village. "My son Sufi Manjhi was resting when the police came on 17 February and picked him up," Dilchan said. "They falsely showed that Sufi had three litres of liquor in his possession, when he did not have even a single drop." The local police could not be contacted for comment. At least 30 percent of the population of Bihar's Jehanabad constituency comprises Dalits, while upper caste members make up 12 to 15 percent of it. This constituency has witnessed some of Bihar's bloodiest class struggles that culminated in deaths on both sides. Today, Jehanabad is a source of cheap daily wage labour as most Dalits are landless. Many Dalit labourers also migrate to Punjab, Gujarat, Delhi and other states as farm and construction labourers. Among the Dalits, Bihar's 2.2 million Musahars are the worst off. This forced the community to get into the mahua daaru business for more than two decades and ultimately made them face the brunt of the harsh penalties of the prohibition law. Yet, barely 3.5 kilometres from Ratni village is Pahari Bigha village where Musahars continue to make and sell mahua daaru despite the anti liquor crackdown. And they have enough reasons to justify their actions. For Phoola Devi, mahua daaru came as a saving grace and helped her take care of her family after her husband died 15 years ago. Describing how she had no money to look after her three children, the 80-year-old said: "I saw some people making mahua daaru, and to survive, I also started brewing it. The earnings enabled me to get my three daughters married." She also recalled the police crackdown on liquor, saying that she had explained to the police that till the government provided her, and others like her, other means of income, she will not stop making mahua daaru. Other landless villagers involved in the mahua daaru trade expressed the same sentiment. Their problems were compounded when the price of raw mahua rose from Rs 25 to Rs 30 per kilogram to Rs 100 to Rs 125 after the liquor ban came into effect. But they persevered as the demand for their liquor was huge. The irony here is that the Government of Bihar is spending more money on enforcing prohibition than ever before. According to a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India tabled in the Bihar Assembly, the expenditure of the excise department rose by Rs 41 crore in 2016-2017 as compared to that the previous year. Two years after promulgating the prohibition law and in response to the arguments of Musahars, the state government launched the Satat Jivikoparjan Yojana for the affected families of mahua makers. On 5 August, 2018, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had also announced financial help for the community to the help them venture into other businesses. According to Arun Kumar Singh, the principal secretary to the secretariat department, "Those who made country liquor and tari (palm wine) will benefit from this scheme, which has been allocated Rs 840 crore for the next three years." But this correspondent could not find a single beneficiary of the scheme in the three villages he visited. The reality is that politicians in the state continue to hail the "success" of prohibition even as the illegal business of country-made liquor and Indian-made foreign liquor continues to rise. According to excise and prohibition department officials, they have seized 16 lakh litres of Indian-made foreign liquor and 9 lakh litres of country-made liquor since prohibition was introduced and registered more than 1.4 lakh police cases. Since the chief minister announced the liquor ban in Bihar on 5 April, 2016, the has undergone a myriad of changes. The Bihar High Court had declared the law illegal a few months after its promulgation, but the Supreme Court had stayed the verdict. Meanwhile, the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar has toned down the crackdown on violations of the liquor ban, which used to include five to 10 years in prison and fines of up to Rs 1 lakh. Over 1.61 lakh people were arrested under this law, which was amended in 2018, primarily under electoral compulsions. The amendment reduced the punishment for first-time offenders to a fine of Rs 50,000 or three months' jail time and for second-time offenders to five years in jail and a fine of Rs 1 lakh. The earlier provisions of seizing the property where the illegal liquor was found and mass punishment were also done away with. It was only recently that the high court decreed that those arrested before the amendment came into force would be tried under the amended Act, though 90 percent of cases under the earlier law have yet to go to trial. Interestingly, Bihar had introduced total prohibition in 1977-1978 under former chief minister Karpoori Thakur. It had proved to be a total failure then, as it had in Andhra Pradesh, Mizoram and Tamil Nadu, states where prohibition was subsequently repealed. Now, as parties prepare for the Lok Sabha election, the Jehanabad seat currently represented by first-time MP Arun Kumar of the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) will find prohibition, once again, being used as an important poll plank. Nitish Kumar never misses the opportunity to project the ban as a grand success, even though the RLSP MP says "prohibition has completely failed and will work against the NDA". As this correspondent left Pahari Bigha, local community leader Ramashish Manjhi repeated what others in the village had said: "The government should provide employment. If it does, no one will make liquor in my tola." The author is a Patna-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters Sheikh Hasina said that the relations between Dhaka and New Delhi are now a 'role model' of good neighbours for the rest of the world. Dhaka: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday assured her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi that her government would never allow the country's soil to be used by any terrorist organisation under its "zero tolerance policy". Dhaka was firmly committed to stamp out terrorism from the South Asian region through bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation, she said after jointly inaugurating four projects of associated to healthcare, drinking water supply, public transport in Bangladesh with Prime Minister Modi through video-conferencing. Terming the spread of radicalism as a "grave threat" not only to the two countries but to the entire region, India and Bangladesh last year resolved to step up anti-terror cooperation. "We remain steadfast in our resolve to root out the scourge of terrorism from our region and beyond through bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation," Hasina said. The Bangladesh premier said her government would never allow Bangladesh soil to be used by any terrorist organisation under its "zero tolerance policy" against terrorism "in all its forms and manifestations". Hasina also expressed her "utmost sympathy" for the family members of the Indian paramilitary police personnel who were killed in last month's terror attack in Pulwama in Kashmir. "We reiterate our strong condemnation of this dastardly act," she said. A suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed killed 40 CRPF personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district on 14 February, the incident led to flaring up of tensions between India and Pakistan. Hasina said that the relations between Dhaka and New Delhi are now a "role model" of good neighbours for the rest of the world as a result of multi-faceted and multi-dimensional cooperation. "I strongly believe this momentum will continue," she said. The Bangladesh premier said over the last decade, two countries have witnessed remarkable progress on cooperation in different conventional and unconventional areas like security, power, trade and commerce, energy, connectivity, infrastructure development, environment, renewable energy, education, culture, people-to-people contact and health. She said at the same time, the two countries have expanded cooperation in new areas like blue economy and maritime cooperation, peaceful uses of the nuclear energy, cooperation in outer space, internet bandwidth sharing, cyber security etc. The two prime ministers joined the video-conferencing from their offices in Dhaka and New Delhi and jointly inaugurated the four projects by unveiling the e-plaques. The four projects launched on Monday include, supply of Double Decker and Single Decker AC and Non-AC Buses and Trucks to Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (under the second Line of Credit); 36 Community Clinics in five north and northeastern Bangladesh districts bordering India with an aid from Indian government; setting up of 11 Water Treatment Plants in two southwestern cities and the extension of India's National Knowledge Network (NKN) to Bangladesh. The NKN is a multi-gigabit National Research and Education Network (NREN) which provides a unified high speed network backbone for educational institutions in India. Apart from Hasina and Modi, Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen and his Indian counterpart Sushama Swaraj also spoke through video-conferenceing. Swaraj said the four projects, inaugurated by the two prime ministers "symbolise the breadth and depth of our partnership" and also an reaffirmation of our "Neighbourhood First Policy". She said both the countries should set more ambitious targets which are aimed at preserving the special character of India-Bangladesh ties, as she had earlier said "Neighbours first, and among neighbours, Bangladesh first of all". What Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman did is not everyone's cup of tea. He hunted the hunter, read the Hindi poem that the Indian Air Force shared on Twitter. New Delhi: Continuing with its poetic praise on its personnel, the Indian Air Force on Sunday described Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman as someone who "hunted the hunter". Posting a poem on its official Twitter handle @IAF_MCC, 'Sabke Bass Ki Baat Nahi', written by Bipin Allhabadi, the IAF described the fighter pilot's feat as something that is not possible for everyone. What Varthaman did is not everyone's cup of tea. He hunted the hunter, the Hindi poem read. Tensions between India and Pakistan flared up after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror group killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district on 14 February. India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot on 26 February. The next day, the Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 and captured Varthaman. However, in the air fight, the air force pilot had also shot down Pakistan's F-16 fighter jet. After his capture and subsequent release, the air force pilot became an overnight sensation across the country. On Friday, the IAF had tweeted another poem by the same poet 'Hadd Sarhad Ki', whose lines can be construed as a jibe at Islamabad. N Chandrababu Naidu further termed the ensuring General Elections as a test to protect the self- respect of the people in Andhra Pradesh Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday announced that he will begin his poll campaign after offering prayers at Tirupati temple. At first, I will go to Tirupati for 'darshan', and then I will start campaigning. Before the war, I will have to make my soldiers ready, the TDP chief said. We are ready for the elections. The TDP government in the state successfully implemented several welfare programmes and strove hard for the development of the state in all sectors, despite the state's bifurcation problems, he said. He further termed the ensuring General Elections as a test to protect the self- respect of the people in Andhra Pradesh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government failed to fulfill the promise of according a special category status to Andhra Pradesh," he said. The Chief Minister said that though Andhra Pradesh has a right to rule from Hyderabad, he came to the state for its development. The state government successfully completed the construction of secretariat in nine months. The Election Commission of India had on Sunday announced the schedule for the 17th Lok Sabha election, which will be held in seven phases beginning 11 April. The final phase of voting will take place on 19 May. The counting of votes will be done on 23 May. Kerala Chief Electoral Officer TR Meena said on Monday that any propaganda relating to the Sabarimala judgement will amount to violation of the model code of conduct In a stern warning to political parties, Kerala Chief Electoral Officer TR Meena said on Monday that any propaganda relating to the Sabarimala judgement will amount to violation of the model code of conduct. Meena asserted that invoking the Sabarimala issue or the 28 September Supreme Court verdict, which allowed the entry of women of all age groups in the shrine, may invite action against the relevant political party. During his visit to the state in January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had slammed the ruling Left Democratic Front government regarding the Sabarimala imbroglio, saying the state will face a Tripura-like situation if the CPM government continued to overlook what the people want. Modi has visited the state twice since January. BJP chief Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath have also invoked the issue on their visits to Kerala. While announcing dates of the Lok Sabha polls on Sunday, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora had announced the the model code of conduct would be effective from the same day. The polls will be held over seven phases, with the voting in the first phase to be held on 11 April and counting of votes for all phases to be held on 23 May. Lok Sabha polls will be held in Kerala in a single phase. The state will vote from 20 Lok Sabha constituencies on 23 April. Protests were witnessed after the apex courts order. Only two women could enter the Lord Ayyappa Temple. For Kerala, politics revolving around the 28 September Supreme Court verdict allowing women of all ages to enter the Sabarimala temple and political violence, will be the hottest issues in the Lok Sabha election scheduled for 23 April in the state. Politics revolving around the 28 September Supreme Court verdict allowing women of all ages to enter the Sabarimala temple and political violence, will be the hottest issues in the Lok Sabha election scheduled to be held in Kerala on 23 April. However, political parties will have to virtually sweat it out to take their stand on these and other issues to the 2.54-crore electorate with weather watchers predicting an unusual 0.5 to 4 degree Celsius rise in temperature during the current summer. While the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast a rise ranging from 0.5 to 1 degree Celsius for the entire season, the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) said it could be in the range of 2 to 4 with a maximum departure of 8 degree Celsius. KSDMA member secretary Sekhar L Kuriakose said they had made the forecast based on the IMD weather models. K Abhilash, an atmospheric expert from Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) termed the KSDMA warning a slight exaggeration. However, he said that the departure could be 3 degree Celsius taking into account the global warming and the El Nino possibility this year. The state government has accepted the KSDMA prediction as it had found the IMD rain forecast during the South-West monsoon faulty and has initiated several precautionary measures. They include declaration of heat wave, sunburn and sunstroke as state-specific disasters and allocation of fund for compensating the victims. The scorching summer heat will impact elections as door-to-door campaigning is the favourite for political parties in the state. All the major parties have formed specially-trained squads to take the campaign to people's door steps. KSDMA has advised election candidates and their supporters to do door-to-door campaign before noon. The agency has asked campaigners to avoid exposure to direct sunlight between 12 noon and 3 pm and wear light clothes, hold an umbrella and carry safe drinking water and oral rehydration kits while going for door-to-door campaign. Parties were expecting the election for the 20 seats in the state in the first phase. But the Election Commission's decision to hold the election in the third phase on 23 April has given over 40 days for campaigning, indicating a grueling campaign ahead. Poll funding will add to state Congress' woes Apart from the summer heat, the parties also have to find additional resources to carry forward the campaign for these many days. This is a tough task for parties like the Congress, which has been in the Opposition, both at the Centre and the state. The state leadership of the party is not expecting any major help from the All India Congress Committee (AICC) as it has been witnessing a steep dip in their income ever since it relinquished power in 2014. According to a report in The New Indian Express, the income of the party declined from Rs 593.31 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 193 crore in 2016-17. The Congress, which is contesting 16 seats in Kerala, is also finding it difficult to raise the fund domestically as the state economy has been crippled by the devastating August flood. The NRIs, who used to come to the aid of the Congress and its allies in big way during the elections, are also helpless this time as they are still reeling under the economic recession being grappled with by the Gulf countries. "The campaigning for 43 days will be tough for us compared to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist). However, we will find means to achieve our objective of throwing out Narendra Modi from power," said state Congress chief Mullappally Ramachandran. LDF and BJP welcome 43 days of campaigning The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the BJP have welcomed the 43 days given to them for the campaigning, saying that it will give them adequate time to reach out to the people. The CPI(M), which has already announced its candidates and launched their campaign, hopes the additional time they get will help them win more seats. The optimism is based on the previous performance. LDF convenor A Vijaraghavan said that the Left parties had won 18 of the 20 LS seats in the state in 2004, when the parties got more than 60 days for campaigning. He claimed that the LDF will forge ahead the other two fronts, which are yet to finalize their candidates, this time. N K Premachandran, a sitting MP belonging to the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), a constituent of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (LDF), conceded that launching campaign ahead of rivals will certainly give an advantage during elections but the current election will be based on crucial issues. He said that the time that the LDF got this time may not be sufficient to heal the wounds it has inflicted on Hindu believers over the Sabarimala issue. Premchandran said that the Left coalition will also have to struggle hard for explaining its politics of annihilation. Congress spokesperson Jyothi Kumar Chamakala said that the UDF has an upper hand as their party is not in power either at the Centre or the state. "We will begin our campaign with no anti-incumbency factor. This is a good way to hit the campaign trail," he said adding that the party candidates will be finalised in a day or two and the list will be released and campaign begun soon. BJP pins hopes on Sabarimala issue The BJP camp, which is hoping to open its Lok Sabha account in Kerala, is confident as it feels the party has already done considerable work by consolidating Hindus over the Sabarimala issue. The opening of the Ayyappa temple for the monthly puja twice before the elections from 15-19 March and from 15-19 April will help the saffron party to keep the issue alive till the elections. However, the LDF government is not likely to precipitate the issue by facilitating entry of menstruating women in the hill shrine before the elections. The government has already deployed a huge contingent of police in and around the temple to prevent young women from entering the temple for the coming monthly puja. Meanwhile, the state election commission has warned political parties in Kerala against using the Sabarimala issue for poll gains, reports claimed on Monday. The parties and the candidates are expected to weather all odds since they consider the poll crucial in deciding the next government at the Centre. The Congress is seeking maximum seats from the state to strengthen Rahul Gandhi's bid for power and the LDF for a secular third front government while the BJP is looking for at least 12 seats from the state to compensate the loss the party is likely to face in the Hindi-belt. With all the three fronts gearing up for a do-or-die battle, Kerala is expected to witness the toughest triangular contest in its elections history so far. BJP MP Sanjay Kakade on Sunday expressed his willingness to join the Congress party, citing lack of respect from the local BJP leaders Pune: BJP MP Sanjay Kakade on Sunday expressed his willingness to join the Congress party, citing lack of respect from the local BJP leaders. "I am in touch with senior Congress party leaders. I will be joining Congress soon," he told ANI. Asked why he wanted to join the Congress party, he said, "Congress is the only party that carries all castes along. Workers are respected at every level in the Congress." Kakade termed Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as a "friend" and said that he had no qualms against the BJP. "I am not getting the kind of respect from the local leaders that one gets in the Congress. That is why I am leaving the party," he said. Over the last month, many leaders have quit political parties and deflected to rival parties. This includes former rebel Congress MLA Umesh Jadhav, who quit the Rahul Gandhi-led party earlier this month and joined the BJP. Bihar Congress leader Binod Sharma quit the party on Sunday, 'ashamed' about its leaders asking for proof of the India-Pakistan air strikes. Gujarat Congress leader Jawahar Chavda quit the party on Friday and joined the BJP. He said he switched parties as it was necessary to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi given the "current security scenario of the country". The Election Commission on Sunday announced the schedule and dates of Lok Sabha polls. The election will be held in seven phases, with the first phase voting to be conducted on 11 April and counting of votes for all phases to be held on 23 May. While the crackdown on separatists in Kashmir is likely to help the ruling party in upcoming general elections, political analysts here argue that it will have a ripple effect on the voter turnout in the Valley. While the ongoing crackdown by the BJP-led Centre against the separatist voices in Kashmir may be an unprecedented move by any Central government in recent years, it has already begun to cast an ominous shadow on the political turmoil in the region with the Election Commission of India delaying the state Assembly polls due to security reasons. As the state is presently reeling under President's Rule which came into force in December 2018 after the expiry of six months of Governor's rule most of the senior separatist leaders have been either arrested or detained in their houses over the past two weeks even as the dates for Lok Sabha elections have been announced. The latest addition to the long list of suspects in an alleged terror funding case filed by National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2017 is moderate Hurriyat chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Naseem Geelani, son of senior separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani. Mirwaiz has been asked to present himself before the agency on 11 March, Monday while Naseem will follow him on Tuesday. The development follows a five-year ban on Jamaat-e-Islami that the Centre feels was behind the surge in protests since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani. Kashmir observers believe these measures are been pushed by the rightwing BJP through its man and Governor Satya Pal Malik in Jammu and Kashmir to project a strong image of the party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Banning organisations, jailing separatists, restricting their movement or any peaceful political activity and the associated optics don't fit into India's image as a democracy. These measures are against ethics of democracy, said Ibrahim Wani, an assistant professor at the Institute of Kashmir Studies, University of Kashmir. This will have drag down effect and there will be low electoral percentages, particularly in urban areas, during Lok Sabha elections. While the crackdown on separatists in Kashmir is likely to help the ruling party in upcoming general elections, political analysts here argue that it will have a ripple effect on the voter turnout in the Valley. The BJP is calling for strict action against anti-national elements in the state which might strike a chord with its electorate in mainland but in Kashmir, it is only going to aggravate the situation. By summoning him (Mirwaiz), the NIA is actually going to subject him to humiliation and intimidation, only because he is also spearheading the Kashmiris ongoing struggle for right of self-determination and demands that Kashmir issue be settled peacefully, Mian Qayoom, chief of the Kashmir High Court Bar Association said in a statement. On 25 February, a team of NIA, accompanied by police and CRPF personnel searched the residences of JKLF chief Yasin Malik, Mirwaiz, Naseem Geelani and Ashraf Sehrai, chairman of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, in connection with the so-called terror funding case. It is a political witchhunt, nothing else. If you are confident that the people want to participate in electoral process, why do you need to put them (separatists) behind bars? Any opposing viewpoint is being crushed. These are hallmarks of a democracy turning into fascism, said Imtiaz Ahmad, a resident of Maisuma and supporter of JKLFs Yasin Malik, who was slapped with Public Safety Act and shifted outside the state amid apprehensions that he might lead protests for poll boycott. For people in Kashmir, the summoning and arrest of separatists is part of the BJP-led central governments crackdown on the separatists ahead of the elections. As the BJP refuses to tone down its militaristic policy, even the regional mainstream parties are feeling the heat while some of them have come to the rescue of separatists by saying New Delhi is indulging in unfair targeting of those who hold an contrarian views on Kashmir. "Mirwaiz Farooq isn't any ordinary separatist leader. He is religious and spiritual head to Kash (Kashmiri) Muslims," former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Sunday. New Delhi has humiliated the pro-India political parties which is unprecedented in last 70 years. This has made the position of NC and PDP untenable. Even ordinary people are raising questions about their achievement after being loyal towards New Delhi. They (New Delhi) dont even trust them, Farooq Ahmad Shawl, a social activist based in Baramulla who is ideologically inclined towards separatism, said. There is a general belief in Kashmir that the sweeping crackdown on separatists is embedded in the BJP-led Centre DNA for Kashmir, which is to mostly look at every problem through the security prism rather than political. Thousands of people are languishing in jails in entire south Kashmir, and many thousands are lodged in jails of both central and north Kashmir. Recently the Kashmir police launched a massive manhunt and arrested at least 200 people associated with Jamaat-e-Islami, a socio political organisation which advocates for the right to self determination in Kashmir and was earlier associated with militant group Hizbul Mujahideen. The decision to Jamaat has been widely condemned in Kashmir, even by National Conferences Omar Abdullah, whose workers have fought with Jamaat activists for decades. The NC is also blamed by Jamaat activists for majority of the killings of their workers in the past. Mehbooba Mufti, who enjoys some support among the Jamaat cadre, has been hitting the streets to demand revocation of the ban. That the elections will be held in five rounds for five seats explains how bad the situation is in Kashmir. And any action against the separatist groups and their leaders in the state will only evoke more forceful calls for boycott from their side, Wani, the professor, said. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 157 people thought to be on board. CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Tewolde Gebremariam looks at the wreckage of the plane that crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. (Photo: AP) Bishoftu: A Nairobi-bound Boeing 737 crashed six minutes after an early-morning takeoff from Addis Ababa on Sunday, killing all 149 passengers, including four Indians, and eight crew on board, Ethiopian Airlines said. Four Indians, including a UN consultant attached with the environment ministry, were among those killed when a Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed after taking-off from Addis Ababa, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said Sunday. The Boeing 737 crashed minutes after an early-morning takeoff from Addis Ababa, killing all eight crew and 149 passengers on board, including tourists, business travellers, and the United Nations Development Programme consultant attached with the environment ministry, Shikha Garg, who was on her way to attend a United Nations Environment Programme meeting. People holding passports from 32 countries and the UN were on board the plane which ploughed into a field just 60 km southeast of Addis Ababa, the carriers CEO Tewolde GebreMariam told journalists in the capital, lamenting this very sad and tragic day. The crash came on the eve of a major, annual assembly in Nairobi of the UN Environment Prog-ramme, which learnt of the crash with deep regret but did not say whether any delegates were on the plane. We can only hope that she is not on that flight, Peter Kimani, who had come to fetch his sister at Nairobis Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), said shortly after news of the crash reached those waiting in the arrivals hall. State-owned Ethiopian Airlines, Africas largest carrier, said the ill-fated Boeing 737-800MAX had taken off at 8:38 am (local time) from Bole International Airport and lost contact six minutes later. Scheduled to land in Nairobi at 10.25 am (0725 GMT), it came down instead near the village of Tulu Fara outside Bishoftu. There was a massive crater at the crash site, with belongings and airplane parts scattered widely. Rescue crews were retrieving human remains from the wreckage. Ethiopian Airlines confirmed there are no survivors. Ethiopian Airlines said Kenya had the largest number of casualties with 32, followed by Canada with 18, Ethiopia with nine, then Italy, China, and the US with eight each. Britain and France each had seven people on board, Egypt six, the Netherlands five and India four. Four were UN passport-holders. Eleven countries in Africa, and 13 in Europe had citizens among the victims. The Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party have taken serious exception to the dates, with later phases of the polls coinciding with the Ramzan period The announcement of the poll schedule is generally taken in stride by most political parties. They focus on finalising alliances, seat-sharing arrangements wherever needed, candidate selection and giving the last push to their poll strategy rather than wasting time and energy in taking on the Election Commission and politicising poll dates. But this time, the Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party have taken serious exception to the dates, with later phases of the polls coinciding with the Ramzan period. Revered Islamic scholar and Imam of Lucknow Idgah Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahali is angry that elections are being held during this period. RJD leader Shivanand Tiwari too is angry but his reasons are slightly different. He is against seven-phase elections to be held in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. They believe that the Narendra Modi government at the Centre has influenced the Election Commission to announce poll dates in a manner that will benefit the ruling BJP and be detrimental to the interests of Opposition parties. The TMC, AAP and Mahali believe that since the Muslim community will be fasting (the month-long Ramzan period is expected to begin on 6 May), the percentage of voting of the community in fifth, sixth and seventh phase of the election, to be held on 6, 12 and 19 May respectively, will be substantially lower. AAP MLA and the party's Muslim face Amanatullah Khan claims that during this period, the voting percentage of Muslims will slide down to as low as 25 percent. His charge is that this was part of a thought-out conspiracy for the election to seven parliamentary seats in Delhi, scheduled for 12 May. Khan is perceived to be very close to AAP chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. It can be assumed that he is not speaking out of turn. Let us consider some facts about multi- or seven-phase elections and then analyse the overlap of poll dates with the Ramzan period and concerns for fasting members of the Muslim community. In 2004, when the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in power, the Election Commission had held elections in four phases, 20 April to 10 May. In 2009, elections were held in five phases, 16 April to 13 May. But when it came to the 2014 elections, the Election Commission decided to hold parliamentary elections in nine phases. The Congress-led UPA was in power when the elections were held. Although the conduct of elections including decisions on poll scheduling, actual polling and everything related to polls is within the exclusive domain of the Election Commission, it also remains a fact that the government of the day does have some say, through a well laid-out consultation processes, mostly relating to logistics support and security arrangements. Informal channels of communication between the commission and leadership in government also are at work on some occasions. In 2014, elections in Uttar Pradesh were held in seven phases, Bihar in six phases and West Bengal in five phases. The span of elections in 2019, in terms of number of days is almost the same as in 2014. The actual worry for the TMC, AAP and others lies somewhere else. It relates to Modi given his credentials as a campaigner for the BJP getting more time, spreading his reach on the ground and mobilising his party workers and influencing a larger number of voters. It would be worthwhile to narrate an experience this writer had in 2007. The dates of the Gujarat Assembly elections were about to be announced and a top Election Commission official appeared particularly bothered that that day. He told this writer in the strictest of confidence that he was under great deal of pressure from one of the most influential leaders in the then ruling party at the Centre, the Congress, to hold a two- or three-phase election in Gujarat. The EC had till then not decided whether to have a single-phase or multi-phase election, but it was inclined to have elections in the state in one go. Modi was chief minister then. Elections were then held in two phases but to the dismay of the Congress, Modi comfortably returned to power. It was the same election that saw Sonia Gandhi deliver her 'Maut ka Saudagar' remark against Modi that changed the second-phase poll dynamics in Gujarat. The spread of voting across nine phases in 2014 again helped Modi reach the length and breadth of the country. He also used his nomination in Varanasi as a high point in his campaign on a day when polling for one phase was under way in different parts of the nation. Another aspect to consider is the deployment of Central para-military forces. In a seven-phase election, security forces will be moving from one area to another. It is clear that the central idea behind having Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal go for seven-phase elections is the apprehension of the panel that there could be trouble in these states and a strong deployment is needed to have free and fair polls. In that scenario, strong-arm tactics from parties like the TMC on polling days is unlikely to succeed. But what the leaders of the TMC, AAP and RJD tend to forget is that their linkage of Ramzan with voting patterns of the Muslim community tends to have a polarising effect on the majority community. If that happens, the electoral situation could turn out far more worrisome for them. While responding to a question on the Lok Sabha election dates clashing with the Muslim festival of Ramzan, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan on Monday claimed that Muslims in present-day India are considered 'tenants.' Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan on Monday claimed that Muslims in present-day India are considered "tenants." Khan, while responding to a question on election dates clashing with the Muslim festival of Ramzan, said: "There were days when RSS used to say we will make Muslims second-class citizens. Now we say that we are kirayedaars (tenants)." Changing dates of the election won't be good. But if election commission would have taken note of this thing before announcing the date, it would have been proved that election commission does not think and work like political parties and treats everyone equally. Ramzan is the most important festival for the Muslim community, he added. Khan also accused the Centre of garnering votes in the name of the air strike carried out by the Indian Air Force (IAF) in February. There are many strikes carried out by previous governments. But no one talked about it. It is the first time that votes are being sought in the name of strikes. They are counting votes on the lives of soldiers. The borders, heads, blood, and uniforms (of soldiers) are being compromised and politicised for political benefits, he said. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not contesting elections in India but they are contesting the election in Pakistan. This is the first time that politics is being done on the martyrdom of our jawans. This should not happen, Khan added. With regards to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case, Khan claimed that there are many Ram temples in Ayodhya, but the exact 'janmabhoomi' or birthplace of Lord Ram is not clear. From Muslims side there is only one representative, while there are many people from the other side including Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), etc. How is it a balanced panel of mediation? Masjid side is helpless, they have no option but to surrender, he added. On Friday, the Supreme Court referred the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case for court-appointed and monitored mediation and expressed the view that the proceedings should be conducted with utmost confidentiality to ensure its success. After taking note of the submissions made by the parties concerned, the bench constituted a three-member committee which would be chaired by retired top court judge Justice Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla. The panel would have Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior Madras High Court advocate Sriram Panchu as members. In its order, the bench, which also comprised Justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer, said that the mediation proceedings will be held in Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh and the state government will provide the mediators with all facilities. People will face many hardships if the DMK-led alliance was voted in good numbers, S Ramadoss said in a statement Chennai: PMK founder S Ramadoss on Monday appealed to his party workers to strive for victory of the AIADMK-led alliance in all 40 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in the 18 April elections, and also ensure the success of ruling party candidates in the Assembly by-polls. People will face many hardships if the DMK-led alliance was voted in good numbers, Ramadoss said in a statement. "It should be the foremost duty of PMK functionaries and workers to ensure the victory of the candidates of the AIADMK-led alliance in all the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry," he said. The AIADMK-led NDA alliance in Tamil Nadu had the BJP, PMK, DMDK, Puthiya Neethi Katchi and Puthiya Tamizhagam as its constituents, besides the AINRC in neighbouring Puducherry, he pointed out. "Similarly, it is important (for the PMK workers) to make sure the AIADMK candidates won in the by-polls to 18 Assembly constituencies," he said. The by-polls are considered crucial as it would have a bearing on the stability of the K Palaniswami-led AIADMK government which needs to win a sizeable number of them to retain its majority in the 234-member House. Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Satyabrata Sahoo had said on Sunday that by-elections to 18 Assembly seats would be held along with the Lok Sabha polls. Bypolls would be held in Poonamallee, Perambur, Tiruporur, Sholinghur, Gudiyatham, Ambur, Hosur, Harur, Pappireddipapatti, Nilakkottai, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur, Manamadurai, Andipatti, Periyakulam, Sattur, Paramakudi and Vilathikulam, he had said. Of the 18 seats, sixteen had fallen vacant following the disqualification of ruling AIADMK MLAs loyal to rival party leader TTV Dhinakaran. The by-poll to Tiruvarur seat has been necessitated by the death of sitting member and late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi while the Hosur seat fell vacant following the disqualification of Minister K Balakrishna Reddy after his conviction by a court in a decades-old criminal case. Bypolls were not scheduled for Tiruparankundram, Ottapidaram and Aravakurichi constituencies, which are also vacant, in view of election petitions pending in the Madras High Court. Hitting out at the DMK-led alliance, Ramadoss said people will face many difficulties if the coalition was given a good mandate. He alleged there would be instances of landgrab and "goons targeting biryani outlets and beauty parlours," among others, seen as veiled references to the DMK. In the 2011 Assembly polls, late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, then in the Opposition, had made allegations of landgrab against the then ruling DMK leaders and Ministers a poll plank. After the AIADMNK stormed to power in that elections, cases in this connection were filed against some DMK leaders including former Ministers including the late Veerapandi Arumugam. Earlier, two DMK workers was suspended from the party for creating ruckus at a biryani outlet here and allegedly assaulting some of the employees, while a DMK functionary physically assaulted a woman inside a beauty parlour in Perambalur district in September last. He was later expelled from the party. Rahul Gandhi flayed Modi on a host of issues such as the Rafale deal, Doklam, employment generation, national security and the alleged agrarian distress. New Delhi: The choice is between Mahatma Gandhi's India and Nathuram Godse's India with love on one hand and hate on the other, Congress president Rahul Gandhi told his party's booth workers on Monday, a day after the Lok Sabha polls were announced. In an all-out attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gandhi flayed him on a host of issues such as the Rafale deal, Doklam, employment generation, national security and the alleged agrarian distress. "You have to decide, do you want Gandhi's India or Godse's India? On one hand, there is love, brotherhood, on the other is hate, fear. Gandhiji was fearless, stayed in jail for years, but spoke with the British with love, while Savarkar wrote letters to the British apologising and asking to be let off," he said. Hitting out at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the issue of national security, the Congress chief said 40 CRPF personnel were killed in the 14 February Pulwama terror attack carried out by the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), whose chief Masood Azhar was released from jail by the saffron party. "These people with 56-inch chests, you would recall, in their previous government, the current National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, went in an aircraft with Masood Azhar ji and handed over Masood Azhar in Kandahar," he said sarcastically. "Two of our prime ministers were martyred. We don't bow before anyone," he added. Azhar, along with two other terrorists, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, was released from jail in 1999 by the then BJP-led NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in exchange for the passengers held hostage on board the IC-814 flight, which was hijacked to Kandahar in Afghanistan. The BJP latched on to Gandhi's reference to the JeM chief as "Masood Azharji" to hurl a "Rahul loves terrorists" barb at the Congress president. The Opposition party hit back, accusing the saffron party of deliberately twisting Gandhi's comments, which it claimed were made sarcastically. Gandhi also slammed Modi over the Rafale fighter jets deal, saying five years ago, the "chowkidar" (watchman) had come to power and said he had a "56-inch chest" and would fight corruption. "People earlier used to say, 'acche din ayenge'...now you just say 'chowkidar' and everyone else says 'chor hai' -- this is due to the Congress," he said. The prime minister spoke for an hour-and-a-half in Parliament, but could not answer four questions on Rafale fighter jets, he added. "He talked about the Congress, Rajiv Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, but did not utter Anil Ambani's name," Gandhi said in a reference to the allegation that the industrialist was favoured in the Rafale deal. The Congress chief said Modi kept talking about Make in India, but his shirts, shoes and phone, with which he took selfies, were made in China. He also asserted that the Congress would come to power in the upcoming general election and fix a minimum income for all the citizens of the country. Rattled by the Congress's announcement of minimum income guarantee, Modi had announced Rs 3.5 a day for farmers, Gandhi claimed. The Congress waived farm loans within two days of coming to power in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, he said. Taking on the prime minister over his China policy, Gandhi claimed that the Chinese prime minister gave a "clear message to the prime minister that I know you, you are a weak person, I will send the Chinese army to Doka La and you cannot do anything". Modi bowed before China and offered a truce, he claimed. "Narendra Modi backs off when someone stands up to him," the Congress chief said. In Delhi, shops were sealed and both the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) did nothing while the drive was on, he said, touching upon the issues in the national capital. Gandhi urged his party's booth workers to work hard and win all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi in the upcoming polls. In what comes as a shocker ahead of the elections scheduled from 11 April, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief and former chief minister Mayawati on Wednesday announced that she will not be contesting the Lok Sabha polls. More details are awaited. In what comes as a shocker ahead of the elections scheduled from 11 April, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief and former chief minister Mayawati on Wednesday announced that she will not be contesting the Lok Sabha polls. "We have a strong alliance with RLD (Rashtriya Lok Dal) and Samajwadi Party to defeat the BJP. It is more important for us to win more seats than for me to win one. I had earlier resigned from Rajya Sabha to keep our movement alive, but keeping in mind the current political situation I have decided not to contest the Lok Sabha elections," she was quoted as saying at a press conference in Lucknow. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Chief Mayawati: I will not contest the Lok Sabha elections. pic.twitter.com/88oGmtd6Ww ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 20, 2019 Mayawati's announcement comes days after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar said that he will not contest the elections. Mayawati, along with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, had announced a BSP-SP alliance in Uttar Pradesh, rejecting Congress' proposal to leave seven seats in the 80-seat Assembly for the alliance, and asked the party not to "create confusion." Pawar and Mayawati are among several other prominent leaders who are planning to give 2019 elections a miss. Incidentally, Pawar is also among several leaders whom analysts had predicted may the prime ministerial candidate of the Opposition alliance. In fact, a Firstpost report had quoted senior NCP leader Praful Patel as saying in November 2017 that Pawar "can be the next prime minister in 2019." However, speaking to the media on Monday, the NCP chief said that he will not contest the election so that two of his family members daughter Supriya Sule and grandson Parth Pawar can contest instead. He also said that he has contested elections 14 times in the past. Pawar, a former chief minister of Maharashtra, is the most recent political heavyweight to have ruled himself out of the poll fray. Lok Sabha elections will begin on 11 April 11 and continue for over a month till 19 May across seven phases, followed by counting of votes on 23 May, the Election Commission announced Sunday, kick-starting a mega electoral battle where the BJP will pitch for a re-election of the Modi government amid the Opposition's efforts for a united fight to unseat it. Here is a look at other senior political leaders who have announced that they will not contest the Lok Sabha elections: Sushma Swaraj Union Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, one of the most recognisable faces of the present NDA government, announced in November last year that she would not contest the upcoming parliamentary polls. However, she later clarified on Twitter that she is not retiring from politics as yet. You are right, Swapan. I am not retiring from politics. It is just that I am not contesting the next Lok Sabha election due to my health issues. https://t.co/jF5GpPvVwU Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) November 20, 2018 Swaraj cited 'health issues' that she has been facing as the reason behind her decision. In November 2016, she had stated that she had been admitted to AIIMS due to a kidney failure. She is the first woman to hold individual charge of the Union external affairs ministry. Deve Gowda Another prominent political leader to have ruled himself out of the Lok Sabha battle is former prime minister HD Deve Gowda. The JD(S) leader made this announcement in March last year. He also indicated that his grandson Prajwal Revanna may contest in his place from Hassan, if public decides and no other senior leaders of the party was willing to take it up. Gowda, however, continues to be politically active, and had recently discussed seat-sharing in Karnataka with Congress president Rahul Gandhi. KC Venugopal Among those who recently announced their intention not to contest parliamentary polls was Congress leader KC Venugopal. He said on Sunday that he will not contest Lok Sabha election on account of his organisational responsibilities. Venugopal, who represents Kerala's Alappuzha Lok Sabha constituency, said he has communicated his decision to party leadership in the state. "It is my responsibility to perform duty for the party. Also I am in-charge of (party affairs in) Karnataka. Contesting polls in Alappuzha by sitting in Delhi will be an injustice to my voters. I am personally interested in fighting polls but party's interests are supreme. In this context, there are practical difficulties in fighting election in Alappuzha," he said. Rajinikanth Actor Rajinikanth announced on 17 February that he could not contest the Lok Sabha election. His announcement came over a year after he announced his entry into politics on 31 December, 2017. Ever since his entry into politics, Rajinikanth has been meeting people all over Tamil Nadu over various issues, including the kin of those who were killed during the anti-Sterlite protests that took place in Thoothukudi last year. After he entered politics, media articles had said that he could be a 'game-changer' for politics in the state, and wondered if would be 'the change that Tamil Nadu's politics needs'. Ideologically, Rajinikanth is said to be close to the BJP. The saffron party's warm words for him when he joined politics lent further credence to such speculations. With inputs from agencies On 4 March, when the team of the Election Commission visited Srinagar all mainstream politicians had urged to them to hold the Assembly elections simultaneously. 'It becomes necessary to have popular government when the Governor's constitutional interference is growing day by day and which can create far-reaching consequences for the state,' the visiting delegation had reportedly told the ECI team. Only a week ago, Kashmir's mainstream camp was briefing the visiting team of Election Commission of India (ECI) in Srinagar about the pressing need of holding simultaneous Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir to end political vacuum. They had pitched a collective war cry: "Only popular government can restore some lost sense of confidence and normalcy in the state." However on Sunday, when the ECI decided against holding simultaneous elections in the state, Kashmir's mainstream political camps were left seething, with some even accusing New Delhi of playing at the hands of Pakistan, separatists and militants. Among them, Democratic Party Nationalist chief Ghulam Hassan Mir stood vindicated over ECI's decision. Only last week, Mir had said that the governor-run state administration doesn't want assembly elections in the state. "It was certain that this Governor doesn't want Assembly elections in Kashmir any time sooner," Hassan said after the EC announced the Lok Sabha election dates on Sunday. "I had said it earlier as well that Delhi is deliberately creating a void of elected government in the state which is only creating problems on the ground." The Election Commission on Sunday announced dates for the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections which will be starting from 11 April and will go on till 19 May. The results will be declared on 23 May. Among the total 545 seats, Jammu and Kashmir will witness Lok Sabha polls on 6 seats three in Kashmir province (Anantnag, Srinagar and Baramulla), two in Jammu province (Jammu and Udhampur) and one in Ladakh province. In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BJP had swept the three seatsJammu, Udhampur and Ladakh, while PDP won all the three Kashmir-based seats. While announcing the dates for Lok Sabha polls, the poll panel said that it has decided not to hold Assembly elections simultaneously in Jammu and Kashmir due to security reasons. The decision about state Assembly elections will be taken later, it said. "If security reasons are being cited for not holding Assembly elections in the state at the moment, then how can they conduct Lok Sabha elections?" asked Kashmir's veteran Marxist leader, MY Tarigami. "This is travesty of democratic process. New Delhi must come clean on this." On 4 March, when the team of the Election Commission visited Srinagar all mainstream politicians had urged to them to hold the Assembly elections simultaneously. "It becomes necessary to have popular government when the Governor's constitutional interference is growing day by day and which can create far-reaching consequences for the state," the visiting delegation had reportedly told the ECI team. When Governor Satya Pal Malik was asked about his take on conducting the Assembly elections along with the Lok Sabha polls, Malik passed the buck on to the poll panel, saying, "Let ECI decide that." It was this non-committal stance which had made people like Ghulam Hassan Mir to speculate that Jammu and Kashmir might have to wait for the Assembly elections. The delayed Assembly polls, however, has already created new dynamics in the state with many saying that if BJP returns to power in Centre, they will later on get a boost in Jammu and Kashmir. While eager for polls, National Conference may lose some edge, PDP may regain some lost ground, as per the popular poll predictions back in Srinagar. Congress, which is expected to gain some footing in Lok Sabha elections, is also likely to capitalise on the failure of BJP unit in Jammu and Kashmir on many counts. Besides, the new political entrant, Shah Faesal, former IAS officer who is announcing the name of his political party this week, is likely to get enough time to consolidate his cadre. Even Sajad Lone is likely to keep his dark horse image in Kashmir politics intact. But ECI's decision has largely come as a shock for many political parties in Jammu an Kashmir, especially those who pitched for simultaneous elections. National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah told ANI, "All parties are in favour of holding simultaneous Lok Sabha and state Assembly polls. Environment is conducive for Lok Sabha polls but not state polls in J&K? Local body polls were held peacefully, there are enough forces present,then why can't state elections be held?" Former chief minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah tweeted: In light of the failure to conduct assembly elections on time in J&K Im retweeting my tweets from a few days ago. PM Modi has surrendered to Pakistan, to the militants & to the hurriyat. Well done Modi Sahib. 56 inch chest failed. #slowclap https://t.co/oqtDAfNdeb Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) March 10, 2019 Read the full thread here: Its worth remembering that since 1995-96 Pakistan, militants & separatist have always tried to ensure elections dont take place in J&K. Successive governments since H.D. Deve Gowda have ensured all attempts at disruption fail. Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) March 8, 2019 PDP chairman and former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti also reacted to the EC decision: Besides questioning the need to hold the Lok Sabha election in West Bengal in seven phases, political parties are likely to bring up the Ramzan controversy at rallies and make BJP allegedly using the Election Commission poll panel as a puppet one of their key talking points. The Election Commission on Sunday announced the dates for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls to be held in seven phases. There are three states Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal that will go to the polls in all seven phases, but only one of them is opposed to the schedule. Soon after the Election Commission announced the dates, the Trinamool Congress was up in arms against the BJP-ruled Centre, claiming that the BJP had submitted false data on the law and order situation in West Bengal to the polling monitor, which had forced it to declare a seven-phase election for the state. Senior TMC leader and state minister Firhad Hakim, who is also the Mayor of Kolkata, said the "Central government has intentionally misled the EC with wrong inputs about the law and order situation in the state". Meanwhile, the BJP welcomed the move to hold the election in West Bengal in seven phases, claiming that this is a "clear indication that a state of lawlessness prevails in West Bengal". The charged atmosphere in West Bengal in the run-up to the Lok Sabha election has been marked by several incidents of political violence. The two parties have also gone back and forth with their accusations against the other the BJP has accused the TMC government of denying permission to its leaders, including party president Amit Shah and Union minister Smriti Irani, to land their helicopters near the site of their rallies; the Mamata Banerjee government had blocked the BJP's proposed statewide 'rath yatra'; both parties have accused the other of resorting to dirty politics to lure leaders of the rival parties to switch loyalties, so much so that the TMC claimed that the BJP was trying to buy TMC leaders. The BJP has always claimed that West Bengal suffers from perennial lawlessness, with the TMC firing back by saying that the saffron party was responsible for stoking this very law and order situation. Ramzan politics Adding to the opposition to the seven-phase elections in West Bengal is the fact that three of these phases will fall during the month of Ramzan this time. The Muslim fasting month will be observed from 5 May to 4 June this year. Hakim had noted that "the seven-phase election will be tough for people in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, but will be most difficult for those who will be observing Ramzan at that time". "Since the Election Commission is a constitutional body, I don't want to comment much on the matter. But they should have considered that people will suffer during Ramzan (while casting votes)," he said. Local leaders are likely to rake up the issue further and make Ramzan a key issue of Bengal politics in the run-up to the elections as nearly 31 percent of the electorate in West Bengal comprises Muslim voters. Hakim claimed that the BJP "doesnt want minorities to cast their votes". "Minority population in these three states is quite high. They will cast votes by observing 'roza'. The Election Commission should have kept this in mind. The BJP wants minorities to not cast their votes. But we aren't worried. People are committed to BJP hatao-desh bachao," he said. Interestingly, while announcing the dates and the process followed to come up with the schedule, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora had said that the team had taken into account festivals falling in the same months as the polls. The TMC isn't alone in questioning the election dates. In fact, the West Bengal Congress has urged the Election Commission to reconsider its decision to hold the polls in the month of Ramzan. "People belonging to the minority community will suffer a lot during elections as three of the seven phases are falling in the month of Ramzan," said state Congress president Somen Mitra said. Aam Aadmi Party leader Amanatullah Khan also pointed out that holding the election in Delhi on 12 May would "directly benefit the BJP" as there would be fewer Muslim votes on account of Ramzan. Another AAP leader, Sanjay Singh, said the Election Commission should have kept festivals of all religions in mind while deciding the schedule. He tweeted that the poll panel was spending millions on appealing to voters to exercise their franchise but was ensuring reduced Muslim participation by holding three phases of the Lok Sabha election during Ramzan. 3 CEC Sanjay Singh AAP (@SanjayAzadSln) March 11, 2019 Singh also claimed that the Election Commission was working under pressure from the BJP and had chosen the dates to thwart Muslim participation in the polls to suit its agenda. On the references to Ramzan, BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha alleged that the TMC was indulging in communal politics by saying that the long election season will inconvenience the people from the minority community. "Why is the TMC worried about a seven-phase election? By raising the issue of the minorities, the TMC is indulging in communal politics. They are talking about Ramzan month to get Muslim votes. They want to polarise voters. Last year, the panchayat polls were also held during the month of Ramzan. I appeal to the people to not support this kind of politics," Sinha said, according to The Indian Express. Union minister VK Singh also came to the defence of the Election Commission on Monday. He said it was not the poll panel's fault that a few of the phases of voting were falling during the Ramzan month as the dates of the Muslim fasting month changes every year. Besides questioning the need to hold the election in smaller states in seven phases, political parties are more than likely to bring up the Ramzan controversy at rallies and make BJP allegedly using the poll panel as a puppet one of their key talking points. The Lok Sabha election is scheduled for 11 April, 18 April, 23 April, 29 April, 6 May, 12 May and 19 May. The votes will be counted on 23 May. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi on Monday said most of the regional parties are confident of turning in a good performance in the Lok Sabha elections, giving a boost to its chief K Chandrasekhar Rao's idea of forging a non-Congress, non-BJP federal front post-poll. Hyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi on Monday said most of the regional parties are confident of turning in a good performance in the Lok Sabha elections, giving a boost to its chief K Chandrasekhar Rao's idea of forging a non-Congress, non-BJP federal front post-poll. TRS spokesperson Abid Rasool Khan said most of the regional parties were confident of getting lot of seats, and claimed they were open to the idea of such a front proposed by the Telangana chief minister. "As soon as the (Lok Sabha election) results are out, there would be parleys and formation of a (federal) front. If it has the majority, it will form the government," Khan told PTI. If this proposed front falls short of numbers, it will decide what role it should play and "how it will have control over the government so that the states don't suffer and policies of the states are not affected," he said. TRS is counting on parties such as the SP, BSP, BJD and YSRCP to be on board the proposed federal front, party leaders have said earlier. Khan said his party was ready to support the YSRCP in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, where Assembly and Lok Sabha elections would be held simultaneously on 11 April, so long as it has no truck with the BJP or Congress. In what way the TRS, the ruling party in Telangana, would back YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh is a matter of "political strategisation" between the leadership of the two outfits, he added. Khan said the AIMIM President and Hyderabad MP, Asaduddin Owaisi would campaign for TRS candidates in "all the districts, wherever we require his support, wherever there is sizeable population of minorities and Dalits, and we will extend our support to him in Hyderabad." TRS deputy floor leader in the Lok Sabha and Karimnagar MP, B Vinod Kumar, claimed Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who is also the TDP chief, was facing "lot of anti-incumbency" and it might help the YSRCP. Kumar said Chandrasekhar Rao would kick off the party's campaign in Telangana with a public meeting in Karimnagar in March third week. The TRS, which won 11 of the total 17 seats in the previous Lok Sabha elections in 2014, was already in campaign mode with the party last week initiating Parliamentary constituency-wise meetings chaired by its working president KT Rama Rao. The TRS has said it aims to win 16 seats in the April 11 Lok Sabha polls in Telangana, leaving the Hyderabad segment to Owaisi who would be backed by the party. Soon after the Election Commission's press conference on Sunday, Narendra Modi took to Twitter to 'particularly call upon first-time voters to vote in record numbers'. Elections are always unpredictable. No number of exit polls can accurately predict which way voters may actually swing. It is little wonder then, that the uncertainty increases by several folds when the nation's young electorate is a 15 million strong voting force. In an address to the media on Sunday, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora had said that the total electorate in this year's Lok Sabha polls will be 900 million, 84.3 million more than the electorate during the 2014 general elections. Of these, 15 million are new voters in the age group of 18-19 years. It was no wonder then that only a few minutes after the Election Commission announced its schedule for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to "particularly call upon first-time voters to vote in record numbers". The festival of democracy, Elections are here. I urge my fellow Indians to enrich the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with their active participation. I hope this election witnesses a historic turnout. I particularly call upon first time voters to vote in record numbers. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 10, 2019 In 2018 too, Modi's Independence Day speech had especially referred to those born from 1997 to 2001. The prime minister spoke about how 2019 will be a "decisive year" of their lives. Political parties have been going all out to woo this young electorate be it through social media or quirky campaigns to nurture them as steadfast loyalists. An analysis by The Indian Express reveals how the youth may hold the key in as many as 282 seats across 29 states in 2019, where there could be more first-time voters than their respective winning margins in 2014. Young voters are particularly influenced by social media. The narrative of wooing the youth hence, has also changed from 2013-14. Modi, during his campaigning ahead of the 2014 polls, had depended on a group of student volunteers to spearhead his Chai Pe Charcha campaign as well as Facebook-driven social media interventions, writes The Economic Times. Recently, the saffron party began its 'Mera Pehla Vote Modi Ko' (my first vote to Modi) campaign to attract first-time voters. It is one of the 14 programmes that the party has assigned to its youth wing Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) with an objective of drawing maximum support of young voters. A BJP member was quoted by the Hindustan Times as saying that these events would be conducted in colleges and universities to make young voters pledge their "first vote to Modi". "They can post their pledge in social networking sites, which will also encourage others to take a similar pledge," he said, adding that a "youth icon network" will be set up in each state to engage with the younger troop. Aiding these social media programmes, without doubt, are cheap smartphones and 4G connectivity, that are fast making in roads into rural India. The Congress, likewise, has been inventing and re-inventing itself to increase young voters' membership by at least a million, cites a report in The Economic Times. The party's outreach programme includes a rights-based "I-Am-India" campaign (similar to the "Je Suis Charlie"), reaching out to first-generation students and women. Joint secretary of the National Students' Union of India (NSUI), Congress' students' wing, Ruchi Gupta is quoted saying, "I Am-India is a way to tell the youth that what defines you as an Indian is your citizenship, not your food and not your religion. We want to spread the message that Congress, unlike BJP, stands for inclusivity. In a neck-to-neck race to outdo each other, the two national parties had even released two rap videos targeting each other within a span of one hour. Both parties had put up the same song 'Azadi' by Divine, whose rap career inspired the film 'Gully Boy'. The BJP highlighted alleged corruptions and scams during the UPA rule, with former telecom minister A Raja along with Modi's speech talking about a 'Congress-mukt Bharat'. While @RahulGandhi will stay up all night wondering what new lies to peddle tomorrow morning, we leave you with this goal for 2019. Have a happy friday night, people! pic.twitter.com/WOXOJ1QPYO BJP (@BJP4India) February 8, 2019 Congress, in the meanwhile, came up with its own version, where Rahul Gandhi can be seen saying, "the day we get united, RSS, BJP, and Modi will run away". With only days left for the elections to kick in now, only time will tell which political parties had their finger on the pulse of the young voter. Press Trust of India Chinese smartphone maker Oppo's Research and Development centre is working on 5G solutions for its global market and India-specific mobile phone solutions and products, according to a senior official. Tasleem Arif, Vice president, head of R&D, Oppo Mobile India, also said the current headcount of the facility would be doubled from the existing 150 in the next two to three years, depending on the business. "India is an emerging market. We have more commitment to the Indian market and we want to come out with more innovation which is specific to the Indian consumer and for that we have established the Indian R&D centre last year in December in Hyderabad." "The main purpose of setting this R and D Centre is to come up with more innovative products which will solve Indian consumer problems," he told PTI without specifically confirming if it is a mobile phone. Besides, Indian specific products and specification, the Hyderabad facility was also working on 5G solutions and overseas market requirements, he said in Mumbai recently during a company's product launch programme. According to Arif, the requirement of the price segment need is different in India as more than 85 percent people use less than $250 devices and about five percent use devices between $500 and $700 dollars. To solve the Indian problem they need something in the service side, software side which addresses their routine or daily problem such as charging limitations, he said. "We are working on lot of solutions which are specific to India. And also we are aligning with the Digital India initiative. We are closely working with the government and we are closely working with the startup and service providers and Infosystem providers," Arif added. Oppo recently set up the R&D centre, which is part of the $ 1.4 billion investment the company declared last year. "We are expanding the headcount. The current strength is almost here touching 150 testing members. And the plan, by the next two years, based on the way the business grows, our headcount will also go (up). The way the business is going on definitely the count will be doubled and more than that (in the next two to three years)," he added. Reactions surmount after the devastating plane crash of Ethiopian airlines. People holding passports from more than 30 countries and the UN were on board. (Photo:AP) Ethiopia: China on Monday ordered domestic airlines to suspend commercial operation of the Boeing 737 MAX 8, citing the Ethiopian Airlines crash and another deadly accident of that same model in Indonesia. Noting the "similarities" between the two accidents, China's Civil Aviation Administration said domestic airlines had until 6:00 pm local time (1000 GMT) to ground all 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Also Read: Heart breaking video of panic driven passengers moments before Ethiopian crash Operation of the model will only resume after "confirming the relevant measures to effectively ensure flight safety", the administration said in a statement. Deeply saddened by the news this morning of the plane crash in Ethiopia, claiming the lives of all on board. My heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of all the victims including our own @UN staff who perished in this tragedy. Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 10, 2019 The aviation authority will contact the US Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing, it said. It also mentioned the Indonesia Lion Air flight, which crashed after takeoff from Jakarta in October, killing all 189 people on board. My heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the bereaved families of the #EthiopianAirlines #ET302 plane crash. Among the victims are @UN staff members including one from @FAO. We are working to get in touch with family members and assist them in this time of tremendous pain Jose Graziano da Silva (@grazianodasilva) March 10, 2019 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday also deplored the "devastating news" that 18 Canadian nationals were among the 157 people killed in the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jetliner. My condolences to the families of the Americans and all others affected by the tragic crash of Ethiopian Airlines. @USEmbassyAddis and @USEmbassyKenya are working tirelessly to offer all possible assistance. Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) March 11, 2019 "Devastating news from Ethiopia this morning," Trudeau said on Twitter. "Our thoughts are with all the victims on Flight ET302, including the Canadians who were on board." His office later issued a statement. "We join the international community in mourning the loss of so many lives, including those countries who have also lost citizens in this devastating crash. My condolences to the families of four Indian nationals who have died in an unfortunate crash of Ethiopian Airlines.Sadly,a UNDP consultant attached to my ministry @moefcc Ms Shikha Garg,also died in the crash. My prayers for the departed souls. @IndiaInEthiopia @SushmaSwaraj Dr. Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) March 10, 2019 "I am reaching out to President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta and Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed to express my condolences for this tragic event." The Nairobi-bound Boeing 737 crashed minutes after an early-morning takeoff Sunday from Addis Ababa. I am sorry to know about the unfortunate crash of Ethiopian Airlines plane ET 302. We have lost four Indian nationals in the air crash. I have asked Indian High Commissioner in Ethiopia to provide all help and assistance to the bereaved families. @IndiaInEthiopia Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) March 10, 2019 People holding passports from more than 30 countries and the UN were on board, but Canadians, with 18 victims, trailed only the 32 Kenyans who died in the crash, according to the airline. A UN source told AFP that more than a dozen people affiliated with the world body had lost their lives. Sushma Swaraj also said the Indian Embassy in Ethiopia has informed her that the Indian nationals killed are Vaidya Pannagesh Bhaskar, Vaidya Hansin Annagesh, Nukavarapu Manisha and Shikha Garg. "My colleague Dr Harsh Vardhan (Environment Minister) has confirmed that Ms.Shikha Garg is a Consultant with the Ministry of Environment and Forests. She was travelling to attend the UNEP meeting in Nairobi," Ms Swaraj said. tech2 News Staff US Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren has proposed a plan to break up big tech companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon to prevent monopolies. According to an article featuring an interview with Warren on The Verge, she has also made it amply clear that along with Google, Facebook and Amazon, Apple too would have to be broken up, as it also ticks off all the boxes regarding the criteria she had proposed. "Apple, youve got to break it apart from their App Store. Its got to be one or the other. Either they run the platform or they play in the store. They dont get to do both at the same time," said Warren. Warren said that because Apple runs the App Store, it has an immediate advantage over app developers who sell their products and services on the App Store. Apple has all the data about people's buying habits on the App Store, and because Apple runs the App Store, it can very well promote its own apps over that of third-party app developers. These same rules would apply to Google Play Store as well, where Google does promote a lot of its own in-house apps. In a detailed post on Medium, highlighting why she wants to break up Big Tech, Warren said, "I want to make sure that the next generation of great American tech companies can flourish. To do that, we need to stop this generation of big tech companies from throwing around their political power to shape the rules in their favour and throwing around their economic power to snuff out or buy up every potential competitor." To drive home the point, Warren pointed out how penalising Microsoft in its heyday led to the formation of companies such as Google and Facebook. Warren plans to go about this breaking up process in two ways: Companies with an annual global turnover of $25 bn or more will be designated as 'Platform Utilities' and will be prevented from being a participating seller on these platforms. Amazon Marketplace, Googles ad exchange, and Google Search would be platform utilities under this law. Warren's administration would appoint regulators to ensure that illegal and anti-competitive tech mergers are reversed. The idea behind this move, according to Warren, is that small businesses should not be gobbled up by Big Tech. For instance, if there is a small business selling its wares on Amazon and doing great business, there is a high chance that Amazon will either try to buy this seller or have a similar product on its marketplace, which Amazon could promote over the small business. Warren wants that to not be a concern for small business owners. What that effectively means is that Amazon Basics would not be allowed to sell its products on Amazon, Google would not be allowed to promote its own products via Search or Play Store and Facebook would have to detach itself from Instagram and WhatsApp. The M&A point is a good one: one of the advantages the big companies have is early data on trends and the ability to predict which little competitors will likely succeed, maybe before the small company knows itself. Then they can take them off the board with their cash reserves. Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) March 10, 2019 The e-commerce requirement is quite reminiscent of the recent e-commerce rules that were announced in India, which prevent online firms from getting into exclusive agreements with sellers and pushing sellers in which these e-commerce sites have a commercial interest. This had led to Amazon taking off some of its exclusive products such as the Kindle and so on from the Amazon India store. Things have now been restored after Amazon decided to modify its business structure to accommodate the e-commerce rules. Another group of companies that Warren also has on her radar are US telecom companies, which almost operate like cartels demarcating areas in the US where only one or two of these big players can determine what price customers pay for getting mobile internet on their phones. Rayies Altaf Hitting two birds with one stone, a group of Indian scientists have come up with a new process which promises to help utilise black carbon soot, which is a major air pollutant, for treating industrial waste containing highly poisonous organic dyes. The scientists have developed two techniques: one to convert black soot into graphene nanosheets, and the second to utilize the nanosheets to remove organic dyes such as crystal violet, rhodamine B, and methylene blue from industrial waste. Black carbon soot is emitted from gas and diesel engines, coal-fired power plants and other processes that involve burning of fossil fuel. It is known to be highly carcinogenic. Organic dyes, in turn, are an important component of industrial waste and are generally non-biodegradable and deadly. They enter water bodies and make them not only unfit for human consumption but also highly poisonous. Treatment of wastewater with organic dyes has remained a major challenge. The currently available methods are generally costly and cumbersome. According to the scientists involved in the development of the new process, it would offer a cost-effective and sustainable solution. Speaking to India Science Wire, Kumud Malika Tripathi, one of the co-authors of the study, said the technique we have developed for synthesizing Graphene nanosheets from black-soot is very easy, quick and economical. Black soot is available everywhere and even a lay person can convert it into Graphene nanosheets at home. The second process of utilizing the nanosheets for treating the wastewater is also not very complicated. One just had to put the nanosheets into industrial waste water, in the presence of sunlight. The dyes in the water are broken down into simpler and harmless elements and are subsequently isolated. The scientists tested the sustainability and the suitability of the overall process by using the treated water for growing wheat. Seeds which had been germinated for 24 hours were used. Their growth was normal and healthy as compared to those grown with untreated water. The research team comprised of Gunture, Anupriya Singh, Anshu Bhati, Prateek Khare and Sumit Kumar Sonkar, from Department of Chemistry at Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, besides Kumud Malika Tripathy, who is from Department of Bio-nanotechnology at Gachen University, South Korea. They have published a report on their work has been published in the journal Scientific Reports. India Science Wire BEIRUT (Reuters) - Air strikes targeted Islamic State weapons stores on Sunday as the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched an attack against the jihadists' enclave at Baghouz near the Iraqi border, SDF official Mustafa Bali said. In a post on Twitter, Bali said the attack began at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT). BEIRUT (Reuters) - Air strikes targeted Islamic State weapons stores on Sunday as the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched an attack against the jihadists' enclave at Baghouz near the Iraqi border, SDF official Mustafa Bali said. In a post on Twitter, Bali said the attack began at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT). "Direct and fierce" clashes were underway, he added. (Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Kirsten Donovan) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Just 19 days before the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU on 29 March, May is scrambling - so far unsuccessfully - to secure last-minute changes to an EU exit treaty before parliament votes on Tuesday on whether to approve the deal. Brexit could be reversed if lawmakers reject the governments exit deal, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said on Sunday after two major eurosceptic factions in parliament warned that Prime Minister Theresa May was facing a heavy defeat. Just 19 days before the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU on 29 March, May is scrambling - so far unsuccessfully - to secure last-minute changes to an EU exit treaty before parliament votes on Tuesday on whether to approve the deal. If she fails, lawmakers are expected to force May to seek a delay to Brexit which some say could see the 2016 decision to leave the bloc reversed. Others argue that, without a delay, Britain faces an economic shock if it leaves without a deal. We have an opportunity now to leave on 29 March or shortly thereafter and its important we grasp that opportunity because there is wind in the sails of people trying to stop Brexit, Hunt told the BBC. We are in very perilous waters. The United Kingdoms labyrinthine crisis over EU membership is approaching its finale with an extraordinary array of options including a delay, a last-minute deal, no-deal Brexit, a snap election or even another referendum. The ultimate outcome remains unclear, though most diplomats and investors say Brexit will define the United Kingdoms prosperity for generations to come. The government has previously tried to use the risk of Brexit being reversed as a way to convince eurosceptics to back Mays deal despite their deep reservations about it. If you want to stop Brexit you only need to do three things: kill this deal, get an extension, and then have a second referendum. Within three weeks, those people could have two of those three things ... and quite possibly the third one could be on the way. Nigel Dodds, deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) which props up Mays minority government, and Steve Baker, a leading figure in the large eurosceptic faction of her Conservative party, warned: the political situation is grim. An unchanged withdrawal agreement will be defeated firmly by a sizeable proportion of Conservatives and the DUP if it is again presented to the Commons, they wrote in the Sunday Telegraph. The opposition Labour Partys Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer, said his party should support staying in the EU if there was a second referendum. However, he said the party would not be seeking to secure support in parliament for a second referendum on Tuesday. The Sunday Times said May was battling to save her job as aides were considering persuading her to offer to resign in a bid to get the deal approved. The newspaper also said cabinet ministers had spoken about whether to insist she goes as early as this week. Parliament rejected Mays deal by 230 votes on 15 January, prompting her to return to Brussels in search of changes to address the so-called Irish backstop - an insurance policy designed to prevent the return of a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Many British lawmakers object to the policy on the grounds that it could leave Britain subject to EU rules indefinitely and cleave Northern Ireland away from the rest of the country. But Mays attempts to get the clause rewritten have so far failed to yield any result. Hunt said that Tuesdays vote would definitely go ahead, and that it was too soon to say that negotiations with the EU had run into the sands. He said realism and a lot of work was needed from both Britain and the EU to get a deal. If lawmakers reject Mays deal on Tuesday, she has promised to let them vote the next day on whether to leave without a deal on 29 March. If they reject that, then on Thursday they are due to vote on a limited delay. Frances EU affairs minister Nathalie Loiseau told France Inter radio that she did not see any value in extending the window for talks. More time, to do what? Weve had two years ... If theres nothing new, more time will not do anything other than usher in more uncertainty, and uncertainty just creates anxiety, Loiseau said. Its not time that we need, but a decision. Amid the political chaos, many company chiefs are aghast at Londons handling of Brexit and say it has already damaged Britains reputation as Europes pre-eminent destination for foreign investment. Business is holding its breath ahead of the votes in parliament this week, knowing that if Brexit has taught us anything, it is to expect the unexpected, said James Stewart, head of Brexit at KPMG UK. Companies are now split on whether an extension to the Brexit timeline is a good thing. Some of those who prepared early are locked into March specific contingency plans. Those carrying additional inventory know an extension will squeeze their cash flow for longer. NAIROBI (Reuters) - The Ethiopian prime minister's official Twitter account on Sunday expressed condolences to families of those lost in an Ethiopian airline's flight to Nairobi, without giving details. 'The office of the PM, on behalf of government and people of Ethiopia, would like to express it's deepest condolences to the families that have lost their loved ones on Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 on regular scheduled flight to Nairobi, Kenya this morning,' the PM's office said on Twitter. NAIROBI (Reuters) - The Ethiopian prime minister's official Twitter account on Sunday expressed condolences to families of those lost in an Ethiopian airline's flight to Nairobi, without giving details. "The office of the PM, on behalf of government and people of Ethiopia, would like to express it's deepest condolences to the families that have lost their loved ones on Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 on regular scheduled flight to Nairobi, Kenya this morning," the PM's office said on Twitter. (Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. An Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after take-off on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board and raising questions about the safety of the Boeing 737 MAX 8, a new model that also crashed in Indonesia in October. Nairobi: An Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after take-off on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board and raising questions about the safety of the Boeing 737 MAX 8, a new model that also crashed in Indonesia in October. Sundays flight left Bole airport in Addis Ababa at 8.38 am (0538 GMT), before losing contact with the control tower just a few minutes later at 8.44 am. The pilot mentioned that he had difficulties and that he wanted to return, Ethiopian Airlines chief executive Tewolde GebreMariam told a news conference. There are no survivors, the airline tweeted alongside a picture of Tewolde holding up a piece of debris inside a large crater at the crash site. Passengers from 33 countries were aboard, said Tewolde. The dead included Kenyan, Ethiopian, American, Canadian, French, Chinese, Egyptian, Swedish, British, Dutch, Indian, Slovakian, Austrian, Swedish, Russian, Moroccan, Spanish, Polish, and Israeli citizens. At least four worked for the United Nations, the airline said, and the UNs World Food Program director confirmed his organisation had lost staff in the accident. Weeping relatives begged for information at airports in Nairobi and Addis Ababa. Were just waiting for my mum. Were just hoping she took a different flight or was delayed. Shes not picking up her phone, said Wendy Otieno, clutching her phone and weeping. The aircraft, a 737 MAX 8, is the same model that crashed into the Java Sea shortly after take-off from Jakarta on 29 October, killing all 189 people on board the Lion Air flight. The cause of that crash is still under investigation. A senior US government official said it was too early to tell if there was any direct connection between the two accidents, but that reviewing the issue would be among the top priorities for investigators. The 737 is the worlds best-selling modern passenger aircraft and is seen as one of the industrys most reliable. A preliminary report into the October crash focused on airline maintenance and training and the technical response of a Boeing anti-stall system to a recently replaced sensor. Boeing is working on a software patch, while insisting cockpit procedures were already in place to deal with problems that the Lion Air jet experienced. Ethiopians new aircraft had no recorded technical problems and the pilot had an excellent flying record, Tewolde said. We received the airplane on 15 November, 2018. It has flown more than 1,200 hours. It had flown from Johannesburg earlier this morning, he said. Unstable speed Flight ET 302, registration number ET-AVJ, crashed near the town of Bishoftu, 62 kilometres (38 miles) southeast of the capital Addis Ababa, with 149 passengers and eight crew aboard, the airline said. The flight had unstable vertical speed after take-off, the flight tracking website Flightradar24 tweeted. The aircraft had shattered into many pieces and was severely burnt, a Reuters reporter at the scene of the crash said. Clothing and personal effects were scattered widely over the field where the plane came down. There was no immediate indication of what caused the crash and safety experts said it was too early to speculate, adding most accidents are caused by a cocktail of factors. Boeing said it was ready to help investigate. Anguished relatives At Nairobi airport, many relatives were left waiting at the gate for hours, with no information from airport authorities. Some learned of the crash from journalists. Robert Mutanda, 46, was waiting for his brother-in-law, a Canadian citizen. No, we havent seen anyone from the airline or the airport, he told Reuters at 1 pm, more than three hours after the flight was lost. Nobody has told us anything, we are just standing here hoping for the best. Kenyan officials did not arrive at the airport until 1.30 pm, five hours after the plane went down. James Macharia, the cabinet secretary for transport, said he heard about the crash via Twitter. Families were taken to Nairobis Sheraton hotel, but said they were still waiting to hear from airline staff eight hours after the accident. Ethiopian Airlines Under international rules, responsibility for leading the crash investigation lies with Ethiopia but the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will also participate because the plane was designed and built in the United States. Representatives of Boeing and Cincinnati-based engine-maker CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric and General Electric Co and Frances Safran SA, were expected to advise the NTSB. Ethiopian is one of the biggest carriers on the continent by fleet size. The plane was among six of 30 Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets the rapidly expanding carrier has ordered. The fleet will continue flying since the cause of the crash is not clear, the CEO said. Its last major crash was in January 2010, when a flight from Beirut went down shortly after take-off, killing all 90 people on-board. The Lebanese blamed pilot error, which was disputed by the airline. North American airlines that operate the 737 MAX 8 said they were monitoring the investigation. Southwest Airlines flies 31 MAX 8 jets while American Airlines and Air Canada each have 24 in their fleet. Southwest said it remained confident in the safety of its more than 750 Boeing jets. LONDON (Reuters) - Lawmakers will this week decide how and when Britain should leave the European Union in a series of votes that could determine the country's prosperity for decades to come. With Britain due to leave the EU on March 29, and no agreed direction for the world's fifth-largest economy to take, Prime Minister Theresa May will ask lawmakers to vote on up to three possible outcomes. WHAT WILL PARLIAMENT VOTE ON? LONDON (Reuters) - Lawmakers will this week decide how and when Britain should leave the European Union in a series of votes that could determine the country's prosperity for decades to come. With Britain due to leave the EU on March 29, and no agreed direction for the world's fifth-largest economy to take, Prime Minister Theresa May will ask lawmakers to vote on up to three possible outcomes. WHAT WILL PARLIAMENT VOTE ON? On Tuesday, they will be asked if they support May's deal. The deal was heavily rejected in January and May has yet to agree with Brussels any of the changes that parliament has asked for. If the deal is rejected, lawmakers will vote on Wednesday on whether the government should pursue a no-deal exit. Critics warn that such an exit would cause an economic shock, but some Brexit supporters say it is the only way to break free from Brussels. If lawmakers reject a no-deal exit, the government will hold a vote on Thursday to ask parliament whether Brexit should be delayed. Ministers have argued that a delay would open the door to Brexit being reversed through a second referendum. WHAT HAPPENS ON TUESDAY? Lawmakers will spend several hours on Tuesday debating the prime minister's deal. The debate is likely to start around 1300 GMT and is expected to culminate in votes at around 1900 GMT. The vote will be on a statement saying that parliament approves a two-part deal: a legal withdrawal treaty, and a political declaration on future relations with the EU. Parliament must approve the deal before it can be ratified. Lawmakers are expected to try and make changes to the text of the statement to show that there is majority support for an alternative course of action or to make backing the deal conditional on something such as a second referendum. These so-called amendments will be submitted in advance and, even if approved by a majority, will not be legally binding. However, their political power in demonstrating support for an alternative route could be hard to ignore for May. The speaker chooses which amendments will be eligible for a vote and announces his choice at the start of the debate. Amendments are voted upon before the government's deal. For more on how parliament carries out votes, see: WHAT HAPPENS ON WEDNESDAY? If May's deal is rejected, the government has promised to give lawmakers the chance to show they want to pursue leaving the EU without a formal deal. Parliament has previously voted against a no-deal exit. The exact details of this vote are not yet known, including which way May will instruct her Conservative Party to vote. Party policy has long been that leaving without a deal is preferable to leaving with a bad deal. But, many ministers are opposed to a no-deal exit, meaning May could face resignations from her government if she asks lawmakers to back that policy. The wording of the motion that parliament votes on will be subject to amendments, although it is not clear yet what changes lawmakers would seek to make at this stage. The motion is not binding on the government, and May could theoretically continue negotiating in search of a deal parliament will approve. WHAT HAPPENS ON THURSDAY? If parliament does not support leaving the EU without a deal, the government has promised to hold a further vote, asking lawmakers if they want the government to ask for a "short, limited" delay Britain's EU exit. The exact details of this vote are not yet known, including which way May will instruct her Conservative Party to vote. Britain cannot unilaterally decide to delay Brexit, it has to seek agreement from the other 27 EU countries to extend the exit negotiations. The wording of the motion that parliament votes on will be subject to amendments. Although it is not clear yet what changes lawmakers would seek to make, they could involve attempts to determine the length of any delay. (Reporting by William James. Editing by Jane Merriman) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. By Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq and Iran signed several preliminary trade deals on Monday, Iraqi officials said, as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani began his first visit seeking to bolster Tehran's influence and expand commercial ties to help offset renewed U.S. sanctions. The deals, among them a plan to build a railway linking the neighbours, emerged soon after the start of Rouhani's visit, meant to underline that Tehran still plays a dominant role in Iraq despite U.S By Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq and Iran signed several preliminary trade deals on Monday, Iraqi officials said, as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani began his first visit seeking to bolster Tehran's influence and expand commercial ties to help offset renewed U.S. sanctions. The deals, among them a plan to build a railway linking the neighbours, emerged soon after the start of Rouhani's visit, meant to underline that Tehran still plays a dominant role in Iraq despite U.S. efforts to isolate the Islamic Republic. Iran and Iraq fought a devastating 1980-88 war but the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that ousted Saddam Hussein prompted a long Sunni Islamist insurgency during which Iran's regional sway rose at the expense of the United States. Rouhani and Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Mahdi signed several memorandums of understanding, Abdul Mahdi's office said in a statement. They included agreements on oil, trade, health, and a railway linking the southern Iraqi oil city of Basra and the Iranian border town of Shalamcheh. They had also agreed on measures to make it easier for businessmen and investors to obtain visas, Abdul Mahdi's office said. The Iranian state news agency IRNA said it was agreed that travel visas would now be free of charge. Prior to his departure, Rouhani said Shi'ite Muslim Iran was determined to strengthen ties with its Shi'ite-led Arab neighbour, Iranian state television reported. Those ties "cannot be compared to Iraq's relations with an occupying country like America, which is hated in the region," the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Rouhani as saying before he flew to Baghdad. "One cannot forget the bombs that Americans dropped on Iraq, Syria and other regional countries." Rouhani was due to visit the Shi'ite holy cities of Kerbala and Najaf on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. He will meet top Iraqi Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, Iranian state media said. A senior Iranian official accompanying Rouhani told Reuters that Iraq was "another channel for Iran to bypass America's unjust sanctions ... this trip will provide opportunities for Iran's economy". Iraq relies on Iranian gas imports to feed its power grid and has asked for extensions to a U.S. waiver to continue importing Iranian gas since U.S. President Donald Trump restored sanctions on Iran's vital energy sector in November. IRANIAN ECONOMY SUFFERING The slump in Iran's economy since Trump's decision last May to pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers has pushed the Islamic Republic to try to expand commercial ties with neighbours. The 2015 agreement lifted sanctions that had been imposed by the United States, European Union and United Nations in return for Iran curbing aspects of its nuclear programme. The Trump administration said the accord was too generous and failed to rein in Iran's ballistic missile capabilities and its involvement in regional conflicts in Syria and Yemen. Other signatories to the deal have been trying to salvage the pact, but U.S. sanctions have largely scared off European companies from doing business with Iran. The Europeans have promised to help firms do business with Iran as long as it abides by the deal. Iran has itself threatened to pull out of the agreement unless EU powers demonstrably protect its economic benefits. (Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed ith additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Dubai, John Davison and Ahmed Aboulenein in Baghdad, Babak Dehghanpisheh in Geneva; Editing by Mark Heinrich) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, urged Milan's La Scala opera house on Monday to reject an offer from Saudi Arabia to pump funds into the theatre. The Saudi culture ministry has offered a five-year partnership deal with La Scala worth 15 million euros ($17 million). The proposal has set off a furious row, with human rights groups and some politicians arguing that one of Italy's most prestigious cultural institutions should shun money from Saudi Arabia, a deeply conservative Muslim kingdom accused of repeated rights abuses MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, urged Milan's La Scala opera house on Monday to reject an offer from Saudi Arabia to pump funds into the theatre. The Saudi culture ministry has offered a five-year partnership deal with La Scala worth 15 million euros ($17 million). The proposal has set off a furious row, with human rights groups and some politicians arguing that one of Italy's most prestigious cultural institutions should shun money from Saudi Arabia, a deeply conservative Muslim kingdom accused of repeated rights abuses. Salvini told reporters he did not want the partnership to go ahead. "I would prefer for some people not to be there and for La Scala to be free, independent and autonomous," he said. "If the Swiss want to invest in La Scala, we would not have a problem." It is the second time this year that Salvini, who heads the far-right League party, has taken aim at Saudi Arabia. In January he condemned as "disgusting" restrictions imposed on women hoping to see the final of the Italian Supercoppa, which was staged at the start of the year in Saudi. The La Scala board is due to discuss the Saudi proposal at a meeting on March 18. (Reporting by Sara Rossi; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Modi deepens fears of a Hindu India that would swallow up whole the Muslims of Pakistan, were it not for Pakistans military This, there is a consensus on in Pakistan: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is enmeshed with the Hindu fundamentalism of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, he is committed to Hindutva, and has demonstrated tolerance, time and again, of bigotry, racism and hate crimes against non-Hindus. In the general Pakistani consciousness, the anti-Muslim riots inGujarat define the current Indian PM. Fascinatingly, however, theres also this: while, in the past, any diplomatic snub or aggression from an Indian PM would evoke a unified response of solidarity and nationalism from Pakistanis, the responses are now visibly divided and varying. Even though Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf supporters exhibit the traditional reaction, a vast section of the public and intelligentsia take pleasure in the snubs to the current government, seen as a puppet thrust upon the polity. Jokes from Pakistanis pillorying Khan and his backers on the diplomatic slights from India flooded social media each time. This is not, of course, love for Modi at allit is a manifestation of the shattering of national unity caused by Khans politics of divisiveness, bigotry, and use of the religion card against his political opponents. Even more fascinating is the fact that increasing numbers of people have shed their fear of being labelled unpatriotic or Indian agents for appearing to side with Modi instead of with Khan. The new confidence is truly striking. Conversely and predictably, however, Khans supporters point to the affronts and poor responses from India as evidence of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif being Modi ka yaar, a trope invented by the security establishment and its proxies as one of many imaginary allegations against Sharif. India-Pakistan watchers, interestingly, assert that the military establishment in Pakistan actually loves Modi, for the very same bigotry and racism others revile him for. This, the military believes, re-validates the two nation theory and ideology of Pakistan, thus reaffirming the case for Pakistan being a national security state. Modi deepens fears of a Hindu India that would swallow up whole the Muslims of Pakistan, were it not for Pakistans military. The fact is also, however, that this governmentwidely seen as a proxy for the militaryhas repeatedly tried to reach out to Modi. This suggests it considers him powerful on the world stage, and therefore wants his goodwill and wants Indias anti-Pakistan lobbying to cease. Modis obstinacy has widely been attributed to the upcoming election by Pakistans analysts and media gurus. Modi displayed a strikingly different attitude towards the Nawaz Sharif government. His surprise visit to Nawaz Sharifs home, the willingness to have dialogue, the apparent downplaying of the Pathankot terror attack, and the past inclination to allowing Pakistan to resolve the terrorism problem all stand in sharp contrast to the rigid Modi of today. I would attribute this different Modi less to the upcoming election in India, and more to the repeated incidences of terror attacks within India by Pakistan based militant groups, with nothing but lip service from Pakistan each time. Gul Bukhari is a Pakistani political analyst and journalist A researcher at European Foundation says Pakistan's will to use nuclear weapons to protect terrorists should horrify all of humanity. She told the UN body that Pakistan continues to use terrorist outfits to engage in proxy warfare against its neighbours. (Photo:ANI) Geneva: In an attempt to protect terrorists on its soil, Pakistan is willing to bring the world to the brink of war and even resort to the use of nuclear weapons, which should "horrify all of us", a researcher at an Amsterdam-based foundation told the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Monday. Yoana Barakova, the researcher at the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS), underlined that Pakistan "unscrupulously exports terrorism" and continues to use terror outfits to engage in proxy war against its neighbours, implying India and Afghanistan. Intervening during the 40th Session of the UN Human Rights Council here, Barakova referred to the ghastly February 14 terror attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir and the Pakistani aerial bombing in Jammu and Kashmir on February 27, a day after Indian air strike at terror camp in Balakot. Noting that the Pulwama terror attack, in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed, was perpetrated by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) outfit, she said the subsequent action (of aerial bombing) by Pakistan "unveils an ugly truth, (that) the country is willing to bring the world to bring of war and threaten to use its nuclear arsenal, just in order to defend its terrorists." She went on to add, "The sheer thought of such utterly reckless behaviour should horrify all of us." She told the UN body that Pakistan continues to use terrorist outfits to engage in proxy warfare against its neighbours. "The UN Security Councils consolidated list of terrorist individuals and entities includes 139 entries from Pakistan. Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Haqqani Network and Jamaat-ud-Dawa are all based in Pakistan and believed to be receiving State protection," the European researcher said, slamming Pakistan. She referred to a recent interview of Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi with BBC in which he accepted that the Government of Pakistan is in contact with Jaish-e-Mohammed, exposing the countrys duplicitous rhetoric vis-a-vis terrorism. "While Pakistan continues to unscrupulously export terrorism and is the only country in this world which is willing to use nuclear weapons in order to protect its terrorists, it also remains a member state of this (UNHR) Council. Surely, a matter that warrants contemplation," she added. Angry after the ghastly suicide car bomb attack on CRPF convoy in Pulwama, India on February 26 carried out air strike at JeM terror camp in Balakot in Pakistans Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It has also shared dossiers with Pakistan about links to the terror attack in that country but Pakistan continues to be in a denial mode. India has also mounted intensified campaign globally to ensure that the world community pushes Pakistan to dismantle the terror infrastructure and end support to terrorists. Sri Lanka's main Tamil party TNA and Marxist party JVP on Monday held a rare meeting in Colombo and decided to work together towards abolishing the executive presidency in the country Colombo: Sri Lanka's main Tamil party TNA and Marxist party JVP on Monday held a rare meeting in Colombo and decided to work together towards abolishing the executive presidency in the country. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which represented diagonally opposed political stands, came together during the political crisis in the island nation when President Maithripala Sirisena sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The TNA and JVP put up a broad front to force Sirisena backtrack through court action. The Supreme Court's intervention made Sirisena reinstate Wickremesinghe as the prime minister. The meeting between the two parties on Monday came as part of JVP's consultations on the need to abolish presidency. The two parties held a discussion on the 20th Amendment to the Constitution which aimed at abolishing the executive presidency. JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake told the media they discussed mustering support for the 20th amendment to the Constitution in Parliament and working in tandem on matters of mutual interest. He said the JVP discussed with the TNA about a model to get all communities involved in governance. He said the decision on the implementation of the proposed 20th amendment must be vested with the people. Those who attempt to defeat the amendment in Parliament are the ones who are afraid of the people, Dissanayake said. TNA leader R Sampanthan said they discussed how the two parties could work together for the country and the people. He said they briefed the JVP on matters recently discussed with the President and the Prime Minister on the devolution of power. Both parties said they were coming together to preserve the island's Constitution and it was not an action in personal favour of Wickremesinghe. We have decided to work with the JVP for the betterment of the country. If we need to bring the main political parties onto the right track, the TNA and the JVP must work in unison in this regard," the veteran TNA leader said. We are open to working with the TNA based on equal participation," Dissanayake said. The JVP in 2004 branded the TNA a proxy party of the LTTE who ran a bloody separatist campaign to carve out a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east regions of the country. Dissanayake said the TNA was supportive of the idea to abolish the presidential system of government through the JVP's move to introduce an amendment to the Constitution. The 20A seeks to abolish the executive presidency, the main feature in the existing 1978 Constitution. The nationalist opposition led by the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa accuses the government of relying on the TNA's support for its survival. (Reuters) - Islamic State faces territorial defeat as U.S.-backed Syrian forces attack its final, besieged enclave near the Iraqi border. This timeline chronicles the lightning rise, cruel reign and gradual fall of Islamic State. - 2004-11 - In the chaos following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, an al Qaeda offshoot sets up there, changing its name in 2006 to Islamic State in Iraq. (Reuters) - Islamic State faces territorial defeat as U.S.-backed Syrian forces attack its final, besieged enclave near the Iraqi border. This timeline chronicles the lightning rise, cruel reign and gradual fall of Islamic State. - 2004-11 - In the chaos following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, an al Qaeda offshoot sets up there, changing its name in 2006 to Islamic State in Iraq. - 2011 - After Syria's crisis begins, the group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi sends operatives there to set up a Syrian subsidiary. Baghdadi follows in 2013, breaking with al Qaeda and renaming his group "The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant". - 2014 - Its sudden success starts with the seizure of Fallujah in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria at the turn of the year. The jihadists take Mosul and Tikrit in June and overrun the border with Syria. At Mosul's great Mosque, Baghdadi renames the group Islamic State (IS) and declares a caliphate. So begins a reign of terror. In Iraq, IS slaughters thousands of Yazidis in Sinjar and forces more than 7,000 women and girls into sexual slavery. In Syria, it massacres hundreds of members of the Sheitaat tribe. IS beheads Western hostages in grotesquely choreographed films. In September, the United States builds a coalition against IS and starts air strikes to stop its momentum, helping the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia turn the militants back from Kobani on the border with Turkey. - 2015 - Militants in Paris attack a satirical newspaper and a kosher supermarket, the bloody start to a wave of attacks that IS claims around the world. Militants in Libya behead Christians and pledge allegiance to IS, followed by groups in other countries, but they stay operationally independent. In May, IS takes Ramadi in Iraq and the ancient desert town of Palmyra in Syria, but by the end of the year it is on the back foot in both countries. - 2016 - Iraq takes back Fallujah in June, the first town IS had captured during its initial blaze of success. In August, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), spearheaded by the Kurdish YPG, takes Manbij in Syria. Alarmed by the Kurdish advances near its own frontier, Turkey launches an offensive into Syria against both IS and the YPG. Enmity between Turkey and the YPG will continue to complicate operations against IS. - 2017 - Islamic State suffers a year of catastrophic defeats. In June it loses Mosul to Iraqi forces after months of fighting and Baghdad declares the end of the caliphate. In September the Syrian army races eastwards backed by Russia and Iran to relieve Deir al-Zor and re-extend state control at the Euphrates River. In October, the SDF drives IS from Raqqa. - 2018 - The Syrian government retakes IS enclaves in Yarmouk, south of Damascus, and on the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The SDF advances further down the Euphrates and Iraqi forces take the rest of the border region. The United States vows to withdraw troops. - 2019 - IS is besieged in its last enclave on the Euphrates at the village of Baghouz. (Compiled by Angus McDowall; Editing by Tom Perry/Mark Heinrich) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Once Hailed as Trudeaus worst nightmare, the New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh has seen his popularity crater, his party is in a bad shape and his first election win is scratchy at best Ultimately, it were 2,929 votes that may have saved Jagmeet Singh, leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in Canada, from a political demise that would have been as quick as his dizzy rise in Canadian politics. Party veterans, including Singhs predecessor Thomas Mulcair, had warned that a defeat in the by-election to the House of Commons could lead to the 40-year-olds ouster from the post and the NDP electing someone else to helm its campaign for the federal election due October 21. Singh knew that a defeat in Burnaby South, a constituency in British Columbia, would be a serious setback. Since making known his intent to contest, he moved to Burnaby and even cast a ballot for his own election. Eager to avoid a humiliation, the party poured its resources, including field workers. Singh emerged victorious with less than 40 per cent of the vote. Barely 30 per cent of the registered voters turned up despite a federal party leader featuring in the race. Gerald Baier, a political scientist with the University of British Columbia, was clear that the victory was vital to Singhs survival as a political actor. The fact was not lost on Singh, as he said, Thanks to a vote of confidence from the people of Burnaby South, today isnt the end of a campaign its the start of one. Just 17 months ago, Singh was being hailed as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus worst nightmare not only in the Canadian media, but also globally. When he took over as the NDP leader in October 2017, Singh was the first person from a visible minority to lead a federal party in Canada. Armed with charisma, adorned in bespoke suits and an array of colourful turbans, Singhs arrival was heralded with superlatives. That was the zenith of his career, so far. But the honeymoon didnt last. In the spring of 2018, Canadian media reported on a videos showing the Indian-origin Sikh leader speaking at pro-Khalistan events in San Francisco and London. Battered by criticism, Singh, seemingly adopted new positions each day, as often as he changed his expensive suits. He also refused to condemn gurdwaras for prominently displaying portraits of the mastermind of the 1985 bombing of the Air India flight 182, Talwinder Singh Parmar. Over the months, his popularity cratered as did the prospects for his party. The only option was to enter the House of Commons, where he would have a an opportunity to debate Trudeau directly instead of taking potshots from the periphery. For New Delhi, Singhs emergence on the Canadian national political stage is worrisome. Singh has the dubious distinction of being the only elected representative from a Western nation to have been denied a visa to India. But his immediate challenges are closer home. An election win does not wash away the structural challenges ahead of the federal election. Singhs leadership may not have inspired confidence within the party caucus in parliament as well several NDP MPs have announced they will not seek a re-election this time. After the 2011 federal election, the NDP outpaced the Liberal Party to become the official Opposition party in Canada. The 2015 election were a disaster, leading to Mulcairs resignation. And all signs indicate a potentially disastrous outcome in 2019. On the day Singh won, the non-profit public policy foundation Angus Reid Institute released a poll that showed that 64 per cent of respondents held unfavourable opinion about Singh and just 14 per cent would support his party in the national polls. That leaves Singh with a tough task. It will be interesting to see how he performs and whether he is able to do that rebuilding work for his party, Baier said. If he doesnt, Singh may only have put off his departure as the NDP leader by a few months. (Anirudh Bhattacharyya is a Toronto-based analyst of North American issues) By Deisy Buitrago, Mircely Guanipa and Marianna Parraga CARACAS/PUNTO FIJO, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan state-run oil firm PDVSA has been unable to resume crude exports at its primary port since last week's blackout, according to people familiar with the matter, indicating that the country's massive power outage is crippling the OPEC nation's principal industry. By Deisy Buitrago, Mircely Guanipa and Marianna Parraga CARACAS/PUNTO FIJO, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan state-run oil firm PDVSA has been unable to resume crude exports at its primary port since last week's blackout, according to people familiar with the matter, indicating that the country's massive power outage is crippling the OPEC nation's principal industry. Power remained patchy in most of the country after a blackout on Thursday that the government of President Nicolas Maduro claimed was a U.S.-backed act of "sabotage" on the country's principal hydroelectric dam. His critics insist it is the result of more than a decade of corruption and mismanagement. Authorities have given few explanations about why the blackout occurred and how long it might take to resolve, spurring fears it could be indefinite. PDVSA has launched a contingency plan to restore power to the Jose port, according to one source. The state of Anzoategui, where the port is located, has had only intermittent electricity since Friday, the source added. "It has been totally halted since the blackout. It has affected all of Jose's oil installations," another source said, adding that a restart would be costly and require power lines to be replaced. PDVSA did not immediately reply to a request for comment. No oil export tankers have left Jose since March 7, according to Refinitiv Eikon data. There were a few shipments between domestic ports on Saturday, when power briefly returned, but another outage that lasted through Sunday halted operations again, according to the data. The power outage also affected the Puerto la Cruz refinery in Anzoategui, which was already operating at minimum levels. The country's crude upgraders, which can convert up to 700,000 barrels per day of Orinoco Belt heavy oil into exportable grades, also operated at minimum levels due to the lack of power, the sources said. Blackouts are not unusual in Venezuela. Incidents stemming from problems at the Guri hydroelectric dam have briefly disrupted oil activities at fields that depend on the grid, which are mainly located in western Zulia State, rather than the Orinoco belt. Many fields, refineries and ports generate their own power. But the current outage has been much more widespread and prolonged than those in the past. The status of the generators that PDVSA and its private partners use in upstream activities was unclear. PDVSA has said it has activated a contingency plan for its gas stations that do not have their own power generation, but has not provided a general update on domestic fuel supply. (Reporting by Deisy Buitrago, Mircely Guanipa and Marianna Parraga; Writing by Luc Cohen; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jeffrey Benkoe) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. At Moscow peace talks, Afghan leaders who fought each other and the Taliban found themselves on the same side It was February 1997. The Panjshir Valley was in the middle of yet another harsh winter. The mighty Hindu Kush was covered in snow. A war was on not far from the Valley, the home and stronghold of Ahmad Shah Massoud. Just five months ago, unable to hold Kabul, Massoud had retreated into the folds and the safety of the Valley, to continue the fight against the Taliban, which was ruling three quarters of Afghanistan. And, I was there to talk to him about his hopes, concerns, goals and needs. It was a quiet, but not a clandestine, visit. For Massoud was the defence minister in President Burhanuddin Rabbanis government, the legitimate occupant of Afghanistans UN seat. Hero of the Afghan jihad, Massoud had earned the respect of the Soviet army for his legendary skills in guerrilla warfare but he was more than a great military commander. He had a cultivated mind, steeped in poetry, aware of the currents of history. I had met him earlier and would do so again but this trip was special an occasion to underline Indias solidarity. Massoud was generous with his time, grateful that India stood by its friends in their hour of need. I met his companions and friends too, including Dr Abdullah Abdullah, all mirroring their leaders steely resolve to carry on the good fight against an obscurantist foe, sponsored by an avaricious and meddling neighbour. The Moscow roundtable Fast-forward 22 years. It was February again. As I saw pictures of a cross-section of Afghan leaders and Taliban representatives, old and new foes, old and new friends sitting at a round table in Moscows President Hotels glittering, chandeliered hall, I was reminded of that Panjshir visit and of the remarkable men I had met then and later, some of whom were around that table. Almost all at the table had participated in the jihad against the then USSR, forcing Mikhail Gorbachev to cut his countrys losses and withdraw the Soviet army north of the Amu River 30 years ago, to the month. The Soviet Union was consigned to historys dustbin in 1991 and its constituent states are now independent countries. Russia was always the core of the Union and these Afghans, once the sworn enemy of the Bear, were back in its embrace, even if temporarily. The wheel of time constantly turns and springs surprises. Among those whom I had met during my professional association with Afghanistan was Toran (captain) Ismail Khan from Herat. He led its garrisons revolt against communist rule in March 1979, became a famous jihad commander and lost Herat to the Taliban in 1995. Khan rebuilt the province after the Taliban were ousted and is based in Herat, weakened but not out. Then there was Yunus Qanooni from Panjshir. Articulate and a skilled negotiator, he was a leading aide of Massoud and is now a pillar of the Jamiat-e-Islami party. Mohammed Mohaqiq, the Hazara fighter from Mazar-e-Sharif who showed exemplary courage against the Taliban in Hazarajat, is now a power player in Kabul.Atta Muhammad Nur, the Tajik fighter from Balkh who spent early years in the jihad and also took on the Taliban in the province, went on to be governor of the province after Taliban were defeated. He wields considerable power and influence nationally. Hamid Karzai, the Pashtun Popalzai chief from Kandahar, who went to college in Shimla, remained on the fringes of the jihad, was in Moscow as well. Adept at political manoeuvring, Karzai was the Afghan president from December 2001 to September 2014. He continues to be influential and many feel hes not reconciled to losing power. Hanif Atmar, a Laghman Pashtun, as a young man worked with the Afghan intelligence of the communist government against the jihadis. Sharp and a competent networker, the former national security adviser is a strong candidate for the presidency. Shifting sands Afghan politics is again on the cusp of change. Will it end 45 years of turmoil and bring peace? While that question awaits an answer, these men are dropping old allies and stitching new partnerships. They have done that in the pastsuch is the nature of politics and Afghanistan is no different. Ethnic solidarity is critical to the countrys identity and acts as a coalescing factor for political groups but is no guarantor of individual loyalty. Thus, the non-Pashtuns Mohaqiq, Qanooni and Atta, who were with Abdullah, who is for all purposes a Panjsheri have now teamed up with Atmar in his quest for the presidency. More dramatic was non- Pashtun leaders sharing the table and breaking bread with the Taliban led by Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, who had put in his lot with the Taliban soon after its formation. The Taliban are essentially a hard-line Sunni Deobandi Pashtun group. It was hard on all non-Pashtuns but particularly the Hazaras, who are Shia and the most disadvantaged ethnic minority. But here was Mohaqiq supping with Stanikzai and his colleagues. Stanikzai is a graduate of the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun and he was sent for training during the communist government period! The non-Taliban participants had no hesitation in meeting the group that refused to interact with the Afghan government. The Moscow meeting illustrated the government losing ground. The Russians left it out in the cold, pandering to the Taliban. The Americans are doing the same, as they go ahead with their Taliban engagement. Zalmay Khalilzad, the leader of the American negotiating team, must be keeping Ghani and Abdullah in the loop but a meal is being cooked and they will have to eat whatever is dished out. President Donald Trump is determined to end the Afghan war and Khalilzad is in a rush to seal an agreement with the Taliban. His wants to ensure that the country does not become a base for an al-Qaeda like outfit again, an assurance the Taliban is believed to have given him. On its part, the Taliban want to be back in power, with as little dilution in their theological and political positions as possible. The country though, has changed and a new generation of Afghans may no longer be willing to accept its rigid ways. In this flux, my old Afghan friends will have to navigate their political and personal lives. I can only pray that peace returns and guns stop booming so the Hindu Kush knows the calm again. (The writer is a retired Indian Foreign Service officer) Reema Iqbal, 30, and her sister Zara, 28, left east London for Syria in 2013, and between them now have five boys under the age of eight. Britain has revoked citizenship from two more women who joined the ISIS group in Syria. (Representational Image) London: Britain has revoked citizenship from two more women who joined the ISIS group in Syria, a newspaper reported Sunday, raising questions about the fate of their children. The revelation follows a row over a similar decision regarding London teenager Shamima Begum, whose newborn baby died in a Syrian refugee camp last week. Reema Iqbal, 30, and her sister Zara, 28, left east London for Syria in 2013, and between them now have five boys under the age of eight, The Sunday Times newspaper said. Citing legal sources, the paper said they had been stripped of their British citizenship. The pair, who are of Pakistani heritage, reportedly married into a terror cell linked to the murder of western hostages. The British interior ministry said it does not comment on individual cases. A spokesman said: "Any decisions to deprive individuals of their citizenship are based on all available evidence and not taken lightly." Begum, who married a Dutch IS fighter, was located by journalists in a refugee camp after fleeing fighting between the terror group and US-backed forces. She had asked to return to Britain with her baby, after her two other children died under ISIS rule. Interior minister Sajid Javid revoked her citizenship amid security fears, but has been criticised for not doing more to help her son. British law states that the government cannot remove a person's citizenship if that would make them stateless. Begum was thought to be eligible for Bangladeshi citizenship through her parents, but Dhaka said she could not go there. Javid has previously said that more than 100 individuals had already been deprived of their British citizenship. The decision is taken on the 60th anniversary of the 1959 uprising. Tibetans in exile mark the event with protests. Xinhua uses the argument of economic growth, increased life span and better education to refute the critics' claims that the Tibetans are oppressed by China. New Delhi (AsiaNews) Thousands of Tibetans protested yesterday in New Delhi marking the anniversary of the failed 1959 uprising against Chinas invasion of their homeland. Given the occasion, China restricted access to Tibet by foreigners, claiming they suffer from altitude sickness. Like every year, exiled Tibetans held a rally (pictured) in the Indian capital. This years was special as it marked the 60th anniversary of Chinas crackdown. At least 3,000 protesters marched carrying pictures of the Dalai Lama, shouting slogans like Tibets freedom is Indias security and India-China friendship is a sham. Their basic demand is for greater international support to achieve some degree of autonomy for their homeland. Conversely, Beijing has defended its rule claiming that those who question its policies are simply showing anti-Chinese bias. Chinas official Xinhua news agency said in an editorial dated Saturday that economic growth, longer lifespan and better education refute the claims of critics that Tibetans suffer oppression. Xinhua did not mention the anniversary directly but referred to the events of 1959 as the start of the "democratic reform" which saw the dismantling of the Buddhist hierarchy and feudal structures. Undeniable facts and figures related to development debunk the repeated lies and accusations that aim to smear Tibets human rights with vile motives, it said. Anyone without bias will recognise Tibets tremendous progress in human rights. On Sunday, an editorial in the Communist Party-run Tibet Daily attacked the Dalai Lama, Tibets traditional Buddhist leader, for what it said were his efforts to sow chaos in Tibet. His separatist plots are doomed to total failure, the paper said. For Tibetans in exile, their country is enveloped in smothering layers of Chinese security whilst its resources are exploited for Chinas benefit and its language and unique Buddhist culture are gradually destroyed. Hundreds of Tibetans and Taiwanese also rallied in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. Cooking for people I love, creating deliciousness out of fresh ingredients, browsing through cookbooks for inspiration, perusing grocery shelves for choice items and writing about my expat life enriched by food. That's what I do here. Leave me a comment or write me at foodlustpeoplelove [at] gmail [dot] com. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb wasn't terrible for electronic cigarettes, but there are likely few in the industry who will be sorry to see him go when he resigns next month. While there's some truth in the saying that you're better off with the devil you know than the one you don't, another way to look at it is that President Donald Trump now has an opportunity to appoint someone more in line with his general low-regulation style, and e-cigs may now be able to become a full partner in reducing cigarette smoking. Friend and foe Gottlieb's tenure as head of the FDA was the cliched mixed bag. He was responsible for delaying until 2022 the implementation of the agency's order that required e-cig makers to file and have the FDA sign off on every product they put on the market after February 2007. He also sounded a more conciliatory tone toward the e-cig industry than his predecessors by affirming the FDA was "committed to encouraging innovations that have the potential to make a notable public health difference." Although in that same announcement Gottlieb hinted at regulatory actions to come in regards to teen use of e-cigs, he became far more strident toward the industry after indications suggested teen use of electronic cigarettes was at "epidemic" proportions. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey found e-cig use among high schoolers surged 78% in 2018 (to 20.8%), while middle school usage was up 48% (to 4.9%). Students who were considered regular users of e-cigs also jumped at all grade levels. It was then that Gottlieb and the FDA really began gunning for the industry. On the attack Gottlieb cracked down hard on e-cigs and launched an offensive to combat teen use: Warning letters were sent to over 1,300 retailers on limiting access to teens, the largest ever coordinated enforcement campaign in the agency's history. Industry leader Juul Labs was asked to turn over documents about the design, marketing, and ingredients found in its product, as, with a market share north of 75%, its pods are far and away the most popular form of e-cigs. Altria MO -0.44% ) British American Tobacco BTI -0.14% ) limit teen access to the devices, or face having their e-cigs pulled from store shelves. limit teen access to the devices, or face having their e-cigs pulled from store shelves. The availability of flavored e-liquids was limited to adult-only stores like vape shops, while only tobacco, mint, and menthol flavors were allowed to be sold in stores where the general public can buy them. It was reported just last weekend that Gottlieb went to the White House to lobby for the complete ban of flavored liquids in convenience stores. Gottlieb railed against Altria's $13 billion investment in Juul, alleging it amounted to reneging on the commitment to reduce teen use. He called representatives of both companies into his office to have them explain in person what they were doing. Although Philip Morris International PM 0.01% ) Despite the raging, electronic cigarettes are apparently helping reduce cigarette use. The University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research found teen use of cigarettes in 2017 hit its lowest level since they first began measuring in 1991. And the most recent study of e-cigs by researchers in the U.K. found the devices were twice as effective as any other form of nicotine replacement therapy in getting adult smokers to stop. Check out the latest earnings call transcripts for Altria, Philip Morris International, and other companies we cover. What comes next Although a new commissioner may take a more hands-off approach to regulation, reducing teen e-cig usage seems likely to remain a cornerstone of the agency's mandate, because there is also a reported increase in the use of the devices by people who have never smoked. Electronic cigarettes are a healthier alternative than traditional cigarettes, but they are not without health risks. All the manufacturers warn against vaping for recreational pleasure, so the likelihood the next FDA commissioner will keep shining a spotlight on that issue seems great. Yet it also seems difficult for e-cig makers to prevent people from participating in what's often depicted in social media and other facets of pop culture as trendy. Still, it might be an easier task to focus on and help minimize if the industry is not having to fight an agency apparently resistant to the idea that vaping can help reduce cigarette smoking. What happened Shares of railroad operator Genesee & Wyoming (NYSE:GWR) climbed as much as 9.1% on Monday following reports that the company is exploring strategic options, including a potential sale of a minority stake. So what Genesee & Wyoming, which operates short-line and regional railroads in North America, Australia, and Europe, is working with a financial adviser and has held early talks with potential suitors including Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE:BAM) about an investment, according to a Bloomberg report. The company's shares are up 16.9% year to date, or about 7% before Monday's jump. Check out the latest earnings call transcripts for the companies we cover. The company last month reported adjusted fourth-quarter earnings of $1 per share, up 30% year over year and beating the $0.91 consensus estimate. For the full year, North America led the way with revenue up 6.6% and adjusted operating profit up 10.7% on increased carloads and higher margins, helping to offset more moderate profit growth in Europe and weakness in Australia. Now what It's dangerous to invest based on buyout speculation, especially when the reported suitors are said to be only considering an investment and not a full takeover that would reward investors with a takeover premium. Still, Genesee & Wyoming is an intriguing investment regardless of takeover talk. The company's fortunes are tied closely to the economy, and in recent years it has succeeded in taking market share from truckers. Given new regulations on trucking, driver shortages reported by trucking companies, and constraints in acquiring new trucks, the railroad should have the ability to continue to take share in 2019 and beyond. As a result of shortages, power is available only one hour a day. Highways and airport need to re-open; the lack of jobs and resources will stifle the city. Christians continue to emigrate because " There is no future in Syria. Only Jesus can heal open wounds. People should get up and do something." Aleppo (AsiaNews) The situation is still "very difficult", and residents are ceaselessly bearing a cross, like power shortages that limit supplies to an hour a day, this according to Fr Ibrahim Alsabagh, parish priest at Aleppos Latin parish. Speaking to AsiaNews, he explained that if the northern Syrian city, which was a major battleground in the still ongoing civil war, remains isolated "like Idlib and Hamat" and the "highway and airport are not reopened, the lack of jobs and resources will stifle it. This is unacceptable for life and human dignity. The priest is critical of US and Western embargo against the Syrian regime which "perpetuates the suffering of the population". It limits any chance of a dignified life. It is not acceptable for people to line up four hours in the rain to buy a gas cylinder" or for "newborns, and seniors, to suffer from the cold because they cannot buy heating oil." Born in Damascus in 1971, the clergyman has helped out people, Christians and Muslims, victimised by the war that has caused almost half a million deaths and displaced more than seven million people. Ahead of Easter, the priest began a charity drive to help families in difficulty, by providing them with a can of olive oil as a tangible deed of charity and mercy. After speaking to workers and artisans, "we know that since 15 November the economy is stuck and there is no work, the Franciscan priest explained. Some parents, "with tears in their eyes, have told us that they earned less than 25 dollars to feed their children". This is why many are leaving. "Yesterday a mother came to say goodbye before she left for Canada, with her two young sons who are already in Lebanon". "She said she didnt want to go and leave her country but was forced to because there is nothing to survive on. There is no future in Syria. "She also noted that the Church helped her and her family, did everything, but the problem is that the chaos that engulfs the city is not ending. For her, the only option was to leave with us in her heart. In light of the situation, "which continues to be absurd, we hand out food parcels and help with health care since there is no effective coverage for the sick and pensions for seniors is a symbolic pittance. Housing must be rehabilitated. So far about 1,300 homes have been repaired but many more need work to become habitable. The entire city is in need of repairs, Fr Ibrahim said. Small business projects are a drop in the bucket as evinced by high levels of unemployment. "We need thousands of projects to get the city get back on its feet, so that people can regain their lost dignity, put food on the table and earn a living from the sweat of their brow. There are still many open wounds, but there is a lot of trust "in our doctor, Jesus, who has the grace to heal us from all illnesses and wounds. This is no time to weep. We should get up and do something. We are proud to do in our lives and bodies what is lacking from Christs suffering." Northern Colorado Homebuilder Signs with Epcon Franchising for New Community Colorado-based Eastman Properties entering the 55+ housing market March 11, 2019 // Franchising.com // COLUMBUS, Ohio - Epcon Franchising (Epcon) announced recently that Eastman Properties will build their first Epcon franchise community in northern Colorado in the city of Fort Lupton. After starting my real estate journey, I came to the realization that the 55+ market has been tremendously under-served. I knew there had to be a way to capitalize on this market - and thats when I found Epcon, said David Krafsur, owner and managing member of Eastman Properties. I thought to myself, I want to do something that makes people happy, and what better way to do that than with beautiful, amenity-rich homes that appeal specifically to this growing demographic. Already immersed in the northern Colorado real estate market and buoyed by Epcons expert knowledge of the 55+ demographic, Krafsur has jumped right in to begin his community. Appealing to buyers in the 55+ demographic, the Courtyards at Lupton Village is a 27-unit community development near the heart of town, close to the recreation center, restaurants and retail shopping. The communitys homes will feature open floor plans, high ceilings and plenty of room for entertaining. Epcon offers Franchise Builders like Eastman Properties the opportunity to expand into the 55+ market by giving them access to proven home designs, development strategies, marketing, sales and national buying programs, and a network of Franchise Builders. Davids unique engineering background and owning his own business will make him an ideal Epcon Franchise Builder, said Paul Hanson, president of Epcon Franchising. We look forward to leveraging our experience and sharing our substantial knowledge as Eastman Properties develops their community. About Epcon Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, Epcon is one of the top lifestyle-rich home developers in the country. One of Americas largest home builders (Builder Magazine, May 2017), Epcon has integrated smart, innovative designs with the most desirable modern amenities for more than 30 years. Today, more than 30,000 families and individuals call an Epcon community "home." By leveraging the company's proven designs, technology and marketing and sales resources, Epcon Franchise Builders are given a competitive advantage to quickly develop 55+ communities and become a market leader. Media Contact: Caitlin Thompson Epcon Franchising 513-659-1183 caitlin@caitthompson.com SOURCE Epcon ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus Six Senses Bhutan Opens In The Land Of The Thunder Dragon March 11, 2019 // Franchising.com // BHUTAN - Located in the colorful Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan famous for its Gross National Happiness (GNH) philosophy, Six Senses Bhutan celebrates its highly-anticipated arrival with the opening of its first three lodges in Thimphu, Punakha and Paro. The lodges seamlessly combine the brands commitment to wellness, sustainability and out-of-the-ordinary experiences with the countrys rich culture, warm hospitality and omni-present spirituality. Comprised of five lodges spread over the west and central valleys of this remote Himalayan kingdom, Six Senses Bhutan offers guests a unique adventure with uplifting experiences at every turn. From sunrise meditations and holistic spa treatments to private astrology readings and butter lamp lighting ceremonies to incredible hikes and treks through pristine forests, the aim is to leave enriched and reconnected. Each location has been thoughtfully designed to fully immerse travelers into the local culture. The lodges, which vary in style, showcase the diversity and special character of each valley. Offering sweeping views, the spacious interiors are framed by subtle references to Bhutanese architecture, seen in the simple lines of the natural timber furniture and the presence of locally-inspired touches, such as bukharis (traditional wood-burning stoves) and vegetable-dyed, antique-washed Himalayan rugs. We are delighted to welcome guests to Six Senses Bhutan in this beautiful Kingdom we call home. As we open our doors, guests can experience the transformative power of this magical destination through adventure, culture, serenity, cultural and enriching experiences, said General Manager Sally Baughen. Six Senses Bhutan offers endless options for every kind of traveler to explore: from architecture and art, to birdwatching, botany, history, meditation, spirituality, sports, wellness and more. Sustainability lives at the foundation of Six Senses Bhutan and is reflected through active management of energy, water, waste, purchasing and chemical usage. The Kingdom of Bhutan keeps 60 percent of its land under forest cover, as mandated by its constitution. The four pillars of Bhutans Gross National Happiness (GNH) philosophy are: Sustainable Development, Environmental Protection, Cultural Preservation, and Good Governance, all of which are carefully woven into the design, operations and identity of Six Senses Bhutan. Getting There: Bhutan is served by Druk Air and Bhutan Airlines. International destinations on scheduled flights are Bangkok, New Delhi, Kolkata, Singapore, Kathmandu, Dhaka, Bagdogra, Guwahati and Gaya. Domestic flights are available between Paro and Bumthang. Helicopter charters are available from Paro airport and private jet assistance is offered by Bhutan Air Services. Reservations are being accepted now for the lodges in Thimphu, Paro and Punakha with introductory rates available through March 31. Full rates will be applied for stays from April 1 onwards. The lodges in Gangtey and Bumthang are targeted to open in the summer of 2019. With the opening of the five lodges Six Senses Bhutan is spreading some happiness with extra special offers and tempting bonuses. Opening Offer Available immediately is a Special Opening Offer available online via www.sixsenses.com and via select travel partners. Guests enjoy a complimentary upgrade from half board to full board each day of their stay. In addition, Six Senses Bhutan is rewarding guests who book five consecutive nights or more, with a private vehicle with driver and a licensed English-speaking Bhutanese guide at their disposal for their entire journey to explore the Kingdom. For more details, reservations and travel arrangements, contact the resorts reservation team at reservations-bhutan@sixsenses.com. About Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas is one of the worlds leading operators of luxury hotels, resorts and spas, managing 18 hotels and resorts across 14 countries, plus 37 spas under the brand names Six Senses, Evason, Six Senses Spas and Raison dEtre. There are a further 18 hotels and resorts signed into its development pipeline. In February 2019, Six Senses became part of the IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) family of hotel brands. Six Senses properties share a leadership commitment to community, sustainability, wellness and design, infused with a touch of quirkiness. Whether an exquisite island resort, mountain retreat or urban hotel, the enduring purpose is to help people reconnect with themselves, others and the world around them. Six Senses Spas offers a wide range of holistic wellness, rejuvenation and beauty treatments administered under the guidance of expert therapists in all resorts as well as at 16 additional standalone spas. The high-tech and high-touch approach guides guests on their personal path to well-being, taking them as deep as they want to go. Six Senses Residences provides the best life has to offer. From beautifully-appointed villas on the beach, rustic chalets in the mountains and spacious urban hideaways, Six Senses features a variety of residential choices in stand-alone buildings or attached to a resort or hotel. No matter the location, the promise remains the same and the commitment to create a community where every day revolves around learning and growing, great food and drink, innovative wellness programming, sustainable living all mixed in with a lot fun. Evason follows the Six Senses philosophy of uncompromised responsibility to sustainability and the community. Its two unique resorts provide a strong value focus, while offering a vast array of personal guest experiences that the whole family will love. Media Contacts: Norman Zweyer Marketing Communications Manager Six Senses Bhutan M +975 1712 1723 E marketing-bhutan@sixsenses.com Benjawan Sudhikam (Ms.) Director of Public Relations Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas T +66 2 631 9781 E ben@sixsenses.com SOURCE Six Senses ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus by Kamran Chaudhry According to Mgr Sebastian Shaw, mobile phones are a source of distraction and can lead to dependency. The bishop of Hyderabad agrees. The head of a Karachi charismatic group says that phone fasting is too much. There are many other forms of distraction in churches, like children running around and families chatting with each other." Lahore (AsiaNews) Mgr Sebastian Francis Shaw, archbishop of Lahore, has called on Catholics to refrain from using their smartphones during Lent, a time of penitence and fasting that prepares for the resurrection of Christ. Last Friday, he spoke to the faithful present in Lahores Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. In His address, he called for "An hour of fasting from smartphones to avoid distractions during the 14 stations of the Via Crucis and Sunday Mass. Mobile phones are like having Satan stashed away in your pockets when you come to church." Young Pakistanis, like young people around the world, have taken to mobile phones with a vengeance. The are at least 155.4 million mobile phones in the country. According to the Pakistani telecommunications authority, about 63 million users have signed contracts for 3G or 4G connections. At the same time, research on communication and information technologies show that in Asia especially South Asia - there is a lack of knowledge of how the internet works and its dangers. In Pakistan, around 69 per cent of the population do not even know what the internet is. Mgr Shaw wants to warn young people against developing a dependency, like drugs. "Young people keep sending messages even while they are praying," he bemoaned. Instead, they should "use this six-week period to analyse their life, and give up habits and behaviours that increase the distance among them. Be firm in the face of temptation," he urges them. In Pakistan, the use of mobile phones inside churches is a serious issue, also related to terror attacks. For this reason, Church authorities have banned photo or video taping equipment in them, including during religious holidays like Easter and Christmas. Mgr Samson Shukardin, bishop of Hyderabad (Sindh province) supports his fellow bishop in Lahore. "Although it is a great source of information at ones fingertips, the unbridled use of mobile phones is most dangerous for young people. For example, radiation is harmful and causes cancer; some use it for the wrong reasons and it can destroy families." Adeel Pratras, 28, disagrees. For the past 10 years, he has led the charismatic movement at St James parish in Karachi. In his view, Mgr Shaw "is too critical. Describing smartphones as satanic sends a wrong message to Protestants and people of other faiths. Catholic Church leaders could simply invite the community to put the 'silent' mode during prayers. There are many other forms of distraction in churches, like children running around and families chatting with each other." United States, Russia, France, Germany and China among the main exporters the. Washington remains the world leader in sales. 52% of US weapons go to the Middle East. Riyadh has increased the arms imports by 192%. Egypt ranked third with a 206% growth. Imports of weapons to Syria are decreasing by 87%. Beirut (AsiaNews) - The volume of international trade in heavy weapons in the five-year period 2014-18 surpassed that of the period between 2009 and 2013 by 7.8% and the period 2004-2008 by 23%, according to the latest data published today by Sipri (Stockholm International Institute of Peace Research). The study on the global arms trade ranks five main exporters: the United States, Russia, France, Germany and China. Put together, these five countries are worth about 75% of the total volume of arms exports over the last five years. Arms flows increased in the Middle East between 2009-13 and 2014-2018, while there was a decrease for all other regions of the planet. Arms exports from the United States have increased by 29% over the last 10 years, and the overall US prerogative share has increased from 30% to 36% over the same period. At the same time, the distance between the two main exporters has become increasingly wide: the figure recorded by Washington on heavy weapons was 75% higher than in Russia between 2014 and 2018; in the period 2009-2013 the margin was "only" 12%. The majority of weapons sold by the United States in the last five years (52%) went to one of the countries of the Middle East [probably Saudi Arabia, but the report does not mention it-ed]. The USA has further solidified its position as the worlds leading arms supplier, says Dr Aude Fleurant, Director of the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Programme. The USA exported arms to at least 98 countries in the past five years; these deliveries often included advanced weapons such as combat aircraft, short-range cruise and ballistic missiles, and large numbers of guided bombs.. On the other hand, arms exports from Russia have decreased by 17%, in particular given the decrease in demand from India and Venezuela. Frances exports were up (+ 43% in exports) as well as Germany (+ 13%). The overall figure for arms exports to European Union (EU) countries is 27% of global trade between 2014 and 2018. The fifth largest exporter in the world is China, which has however made a marked change of course. If, between 2004-8 and 2009-13, exports had increased by 195%, in the last five years the increase recorded is a measly 2.7% between 2009-13 and 2014-2018. Instead there has been a "substantial" increase by Israel (+ 60%), South Korea (+ 94%) and Turkey + 170%). Imports of arms in the Middle East have increased by 87% between 2009-13 and 2014-18 and accounted for 35% of global imports in the last five years. Saudi Arabia has become the world's largest importer, with an increase of 192%. Imports of arms from Egypt, the third largest in the world, have tripled (+ 206%). Imports of arms from Israel (354%), Qatar (225%) and Iraq (139%) have also grown. Finally, arms imports from Syria decreased by 87%. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center on Tuesday formally announced a goal to collaborate on global health programs with Aga Khan University, which operates medical schools and hospitals throughout the developing world. Dr. Gary Gilliland, president and director of Fred Hutch, and Firoz Rasul, president of Aga Khan University, signed a memorandum of understanding on March 5 outlining their intentions to develop a five-year relationship to advance cancer research and training and help build an improved medical infrastructure. As outlined in the memorandum, the Hutchs Global Oncology Program would work with Aga Khan University on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer and related diseases, with a focus on Africa, where the Hutch has research laboratories in Kampala, Uganda, and Cape Town, South Africa. The vision we share is to see how we can improve outcomes for cancer globally, said Gilliland at the Hutch campus, as he welcomed dignitaries including Prince Rahim Aga Khan and his wife, Princess Salwa. by Nirmala Carvalho The Nirmala Matha Convent Matric Higher Secondary School in Kuniyamuthur, near Coimbatore, is run by the Sisters of the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. In order not to crowd the building during the exam days, the principal had scheduled the enrollment of kindergarten children on different days. Mumbai (AsiaNews) - A Catholic school in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, was hit by a ferocious wave of criticism after the school leadership had opened enrollments for Christian children who want to attend asylum. The nuns who run the structure have been accused of favoritism and fomenting "sectarian policies on education". Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), tells AsiaNews "the right of schools in the Christian minority to enroll students in their community, as guaranteed by the National Commission for the Minority Educational Institutions Act of 2004, as amended from the NCMEI (Amendment Act 2006) ". The Christian leader says that the offending school is the Nirmala Matha Convent Matric Higher Secondary School of Kuniyamuthur, in Coimbatore. The institute is run by the nuns of the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. For administrative reasons, in recent days, the school posted a sign for the registration at kindergarten (Lower Kindergarten, Lk) in which appeared the words: "Applications for asylum enrollment of Christian students only will be distributed on March 2, 2019 ". The school principal explained that she wanted to separate the applications for admission to the school for a simple organizational question: in fact, exams are currently underway and the school administration wanted to avoid the creation of large crowds that disturbed the students . Furthermore, the principal explains, "students of every religion are studying in our school". However, the poster has aroused the reaction of the population, which accuses the school of favoritism on the basis of religion. The nuns declare to the authorities that they did not expect such heated criticism. Despite this, not to displease anyone, they decided to remove the announcement and in the coming days will proceed with a new one for all students. Sajan K George complains: "The school circular only wanted to prevent excessive crowds. It was not based on any religious preference". The ritual has been held at the foot of Mount Kitanglad since 2012. For Talaandig tribal chief, this years ceremony is important now, especially that the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao is being implemented. Tensions among Muslims continue. The MILFs central role fuels disagreements. For PIME missionary, the situation remains fluid. Mindanao (AsiaNews) Representatives of eight Lumad tribes, their Moro kin and settler groups gathered in Songco, a village in Bukidnon province (Mindanao), three days ago, to renew their vow of friendship. During the ceremony, hosted by the local Talaandig community, participants slaughtered some chickens and smeared their blood in their palms and on their foreheads. Drops of blood were sprinkled on the monument marking the kinship reaffirmation, featuring a clay tibod or jar that symbolises the unity the three people of Mindanao. In addition to the Lumad, an un-Christianised and un-Islamised indigenous group, concentrated in southern Philippines (Mindanao, Cebu and Panay), the island is home to the Moro, predominantly Islamic ethnic groups, who live mainly in the south-western part of Mindanao, Sulu and Basilan; and predominantly Christian settlers from the north. Talaandig tribal chief Datu Migketay Victorino Saway said that the ritual has been carried out each year since 2012 at the foot of Mount Kitanglad, in the heart of Mindanao. This year's ceremony is important now, especially that the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao is being implemented, Saway told MindaNews. For many the new region is the key to achieve lasting peace with separatist rebels and counter the rise of Islamist extremism on the island. On 22 February, the Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte handed over power in the new region to Al Hajj Murad Ebrahim, leader of the former rebels of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Ebrahim will lead the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) until a regional parliament is elected in 2022. A referendum endorsed the new region, which will include the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, as well as the cities of Marawi, Lamitan, Cotabato and 63 villages in North Cotabato province. Mindanao Muslims are however divided. Sources told AsiaNews that tensions persist. The central role played by the MILF, which is largely made up of ethnic Maguindanao, has fuelled dissatisfaction among other Islamic ethnic groups, most notably the Tausugs, who have always preferred a federal structure, and the Maranao. The tensions during the campaign peaked a few hours after the Yes victory with the attack against Jolo cathedral (Sulu province) and the attack on a Zamboanga mosque. Divisions have thus become fertile ground for certain politicians and interest groups, sources note. Many Muslims fear that the autonomous region might be undermined, leading to the outbreak of fresh violence. Ceremonies like that in Songco represent an important opportunity for intercommunal dialogue. Fr Sebastiano D'Ambra, missionary with the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) and founder of Silsilah, a movement for Islamic-Christian dialogue, said that the situation is under control at present, especially ahead of elections on 13 May. "People are waiting to see how things unfold during the transitory phase. Meanwhile, The situation remains fluid. (Photo credit: MindaNews) The Vrouwe van Stavoren Hotel is a truly unique destination - where you can sleep in huge barrels of wine. Located in Stavoren, a coastal town in the Netherlands, the hotel has been attracting scores of curious wine lovers. With 25 rooms, the hotel is only open from April 1st to October 31st. The service offered is worthy of any establishment, and even allows you to bring your pet with you. Whilst the rooms may look narrow from the outside, the interior is actually very well-designed and comfortable. Definitely a place to visit if you go to the Netherlands! Check out the video above to see more of these unique hotel rooms! Weekly Digest - GeorgianJournal ADMINISTRATIONS PRE-ELECTION PROMISES 2012-09-27 09:00:00+04:00 In the principle presented by the new Minister total defense, total trainings and total care emphasis was made on total care. According to Merabishvili insurance package of the militarypersonnel KREMLINS VOICE FROM ASTANA 2010-12-02 09:00:00+04:00 Georgian President addressed the Summit participants saying that a part of Georgias territories is still occupied. 20 of our land is controlled by over 12 000 Russian soldiers by means of tanks, r GEORGIA WILL NEVER USE FORCE TO RESTORE ITS TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY AND SOVEREIGNTY 2010-11-25 09:00:00+04:00 Mikheil Saakashvili voiced the unilateral initiative that Georgia will use only peaceful methods to restore its territorial integrity and sovereignty. The Georgian government already considers itsel MALAYSIA DETAINEES MAY ESCAPE DEATH PENALTIES 2010-11-11 09:00:00+04:00 According to the Malaysian law, two Georgian citizens detained in Malaysian airport on 27 October on the charge of drug trafficking face death penalty. Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and t COMPLETE FAILURE OF RUSSIAN RECONNAISSANCE 2010-11-04 09:00:00+04:00 The anonymous source stated that all the detainees were citizens of Georgia suspected of creating a spy network and were providing secret information to Russia. As reliable source informed InterPres KARS-TBILISI-BAKU CONSTRUCTION SLOWS DOWN 2010-10-21 09:00:00+04:00 Out of USD 200 million, Azerbaijani side has provided only 27,1 million Azerbaijani manats, Executive Director of State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan, Shahmar Movsumov confirmed.The small amount of the tr Russian President starts to correct mistakes he made during the war with Georgia 2010-10-07 09:00:00+04:00 Mr. Rasmussen arrived from Brussels where he participated in North Atlantic Council session. It was his first visit to Georgia in the capacity of the Secretary General of Alliance. During his visit t MEDVEDEV IS LEAVING; PUTIN IS COMING BACK 2010-09-30 09:00:00+04:00 In answer to the question regarding Medvedevs statetment that he would start negotiations with a new leader of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili answered My own vision is that Medvedev is leaving, and 'MOTHERS OF SOLDIERS'': RUSSIAS PLAN TO ATTACK GEORGIA 2010-09-23 11:00:00+04:00 Military officers take away mobile phones and SIM cards from the soldiers. Transportation of soldiers to the North Caucasus is planned for the next week, Utkina adds.The organization informs that baz LG G8 ThinQ now available for pre-order: Costs Rs 55,250 News oi-Vivek LG G8 ThinQ is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC LG recently unveiled the LG G8 ThinQ and the LG V50 ThinQ at MWC 2019. These are the latest set of flagship smartphones from LG with a top of the line specifications and a premium design. The LG G8 ThinQ is now available for pre-order in the home market, and here is everything you need to know. The LG G8 ThinQ price and availability The LG G8 ThinQ is now available for pre-order in South Korea (from 15th of March to 21st of March) with a price tag of 897,600 Korean Won or Rs 55,250 for the 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage. The smartphone costs slightly less than the LG G7+ ThinQ (considering the launch price), and the pre-order unit comes with a complimentary screen replacement policy for a year (from the day of purchase) and a soft silicone case. LG G8 ThinQ specifications The LG G8 ThinQ comes with a 6.1-inch P-OLED display with QHD+ resolution (3120 x 1440 pixels), offering a taller 19.5:9 aspect ratio with 2.5D curved tempered glass protection. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC powers the device, coupled with 6 GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 128 GB internal storage. The phone does feature a microSD card for additional storage expansion (up to 2 TB). The LG G8 ThinQ in total has four cameras (three on the back and one on the front). The primary camera unit constitutes of a 12 MP primary sensor with an f/1.5 aperture, a 16 MP super wide angle lens with an f/1.9 aperture, and a 12 MP telephoto lens with an f/1.7 aperture. The phone boasts an 8 MP selfie camera with an f/1.7 aperture. The LG G8 ThinQ is IP68 rated for water and dust resistance and is also MIL-STD 810G certified for added durability. The smartphone has an all-glass design, and the G8 ThinQ is one of the few smartphones with a dedicated 3.5mm headphone jack with a 32-bit Advanced Hi-Fi Quad DAC. The dual stereo speaker setup is powered DTS: X 3D Surround Sound. The smartphone has a 3500 mAh Li-ion battery with support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 via USB type C port and the smartphone also supports Qi-based wireless charging. As of now, there is no information on the launch of the LG G8 ThinQ in India. Via Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Redmi Note 6 Pro now available for Rs 11,999. Should you consider it in 2019? News oi-Vivek Redmi Note 6 Pro was launched in Q4 2018 Xiaomi India launched the Redmi Note 6 Pro back in November 2018 for a starting price of Rs 13,999. In the last few months, the smartphone has received a bit of a price cut. And now, the smartphone is available at an all-time-low price tag. The Redmi Note 6 Pro is now officially available for Rs 11,999 for the base variant with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB internal storage, whereas the 6 GB RAM and 64 GB storage is available for Rs 15,999. The new prices are already live on Mi.com and Flipkart. Yes, it's true! The Quad camera all-rounder #RedmiNote6Pro is now available at the best price ever starting at just 11,999! 20MP + 2MP AI front camera 12MP + 5MP AI rear camera @qualcomm_in Snapdragon 636 4000mAh 636 RTs & I will give away a #RedmiNote6Pro. pic.twitter.com/Ev9KsTcXJv Manu Kumar Jain (@manukumarjain) March 11, 2019 Should you buy the Redmi Note 6 Pro in 2019? The Redmi Note 6 Pro does not have a chance against the Redmi Note 7 Pro. However, the Redmi Note 6 Pro can be considered as a Redmi Note 7 alternative, which also retails for Rs 11,999 (for the 4 GB RAM and 64 internal storage). If the camera is your main priority, then the Redmi Note 6 Pro definitely has a better camera setup (at least on paper) compared to the Redmi Note 7. The Redmi Note 7 definitely has some advantages over the Note 6 Pro, as the device comes with a premium design, water-drop notch, and an USB type C port. Redmi Note 6 Pro specifications The Redmi Note 6 Pro comes with a 6.26-inch IPS LCD screen with FHD+ resolution, flaunting an iPhone XS style notch with dual selfie cameras. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 SoC powers the Note 6 Pro with 4/6 GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 64 GB of internal storage with a microSD card slot for additional storage expansion. The Note 6 Pro in total has four cameras (two on the front and two on the back), which is also the first Redmi smartphone to launch in India with a quad-camera solution. The primary camera setup consists of a 12 MP primary RGB sensor with an 11.4m size sensor and an f/1.9 aperture in collaboration with a 5 MP depth camera. The secondary camera setup has a 20 MP primary sensor with an f/2.0 aperture and a 2 MP depth sensor. Just like the Redmi Note 3, Redmi Note 4, Redmi Note 5, and the Note 5 Pro, the Redmi Note 6 Pro has a massive 4000 mAh Li-ion battery with support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 support. The Note 6 Pro runs on Android 8.1 Oreo with MIUI 10 skin, and the device is expected to receive Android 9 Pie update via future software update. Best Mobiles in India These Qualcomm chipsets supports 192 MP camera sensor and image processing News oi-Vivek Redmi Note 7 Pro is capable of processing a 192 MP image Qualcomm is one of the first Mobile Platform to launch a 5G modem and a 5G processor capable of supporting the 5G modem. Now, the company has updated the specs sheet for some of the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets with respect to camera capabilities. According to the latest update, some of the newly launched Qualcomm processors will support a whopping 192 MP camera sensor. The below mentioned SoCs are capable of driving a single camera sensor with up to 192 MP and processing a 192 MP resolution image. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 670, Snapdragon 675, Snapdragon 710, Snapdragon 845. And the latest flagship SoC the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC now supports 192 MP megapixels image. As of now, there is no information on the launch of a smartphone with a 192 MP camera sensor. Xiaomi recently launched the Redmi Note 7 Pro, which is the first budget smartphone to launch in the country with a 48 MP camera sensor and is capable of capturing images in 48 MP mode, which offers great detailing compared to a pixel binned 12 MP image. The Redmi Note 7 Pro uses the Sony IMX 586 sensor, the same camera sensor used on the Honor View20, which costs almost thrice the price of the Redmi Note 7 Pro. Redmi Note 7 Pro specifications The Redmi Note 7 Pro has a 6.3-inch IPS LCD screen with FHD+ resolution, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 SoC powers the smartphone with 4/6 GB of RAM and 64/128 GB of internal storage. The Redmi Note 7 Pro has a dual camera setup on the back with a 48 MP primary camera and a 5 MP depth sensor. On the front, the device has a 13 MP camera. The main camera is capable of capturing 4K videos @30fps, whereas the secondary camera can record 1080p videos @30fps. The Redmi Note 7 Pro also has a 4000 mAh battery with support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0 support via USB type C port with a dedicated 3.5mm headphone jack. The device runs on Android 9 Pie OS with custom MIUI 10 skin on top. Via Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications by Bernardo Cervellera Since the signing of the agreement, members of the non-official communities have been forced to join the PA and its "independent" Church project. It is said that the underground Church "must disappear". But Pope Francis message speaks only of "reconciliation". Card. Filoni demands that PA membership not be mandatory, as under Chinese law. But there are bishops and priests who acclaim unity through "erasing" the underground community. The time has come for clarity, perhaps in a meeting between Pope Francis and the Chinese president. Rome (AsiaNews) - From March 20 to 23 next, President Xi Jinping will be in Italy. Rumors are already circulating in China of a possible meeting with Pope Francis. Should this be the case, it would be important to clarify the fate of the underground Church and the Patriotic Association. The Sino-Vatican agreement and the lifting of the excommunication of seven illegitimate bishops seem to have endorsed the idea that by now the only way to live ones faith in China is in the official Church and that the underground community must disappear. This position is also strengthened by the push towards reconciliation and unity requested by Pope Francis with his Message to Chinese Catholics and to the Universal Church, published a few days after the signing of the agreement. In it, quoting Pope Benedict XVI, Francis affirms that the phenomenon of clandestinity " is not a normal part of the life of the Church", but also says again citing Benedict - that " pastors and faithful have recourse to it only amid suffering, in the desire to maintain the integrity of their faith". In the Message, Pope Francis asks all the faithful to "work towards reconciliation" and " restore full communion among all Chinese Catholics", he urges them to now offer gestures of reconciliation and communion " to "overcome the divisions of the past" . He also asked the pastors to establish "ever more fruitful ... relations between the leaders of ecclesial communities and the civil authorities become more productive through frank dialogue and impartial listening, so as to overcome antagonism on both sides". The papal Message, therefore, speaks of a process of reconciliation, but does not say that it must be achieved by eliminating the underground community. Moreover, it does not say that unofficial bishops and priests should be forced to join the Patriotic Association (PA). In this regard, on the contrary, it is probable that in the Sino-Vatican agreement - which unfortunately has not yet been published - it is stressed that membership of the PA is optional and not mandatory. This aspect is deduced from a note by Prof. Wang Meixiu, from the Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing who, commenting on the agreement for AsiaNews, says that the PA is "a popular organization" and not an ecclesial association; and that "participation is voluntary and not imposed". Also Card. Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, in an interview with the Osservatore Romano of 3 February 2019, at one point says: "I hope, therefore, not to hear or read about local situations in which the Agreement is exploited to compel people to do what is not even required by Chinese law, such as joining the Patriotic Association ". Instead, unfortunately, this is precisely what is happening. In Xinjian, Inner Mongolia, Henan, Zhejiang, Hubei, the Religious Affairs Office continues to demand and encourage priests and bishops to join the PA and its project of "independence" (from the Holy See). Even the incident in Xuanhua (Hebei), where a priest - supported by the local government - accuses his bishop, Msgr. Augustus Cui Tai of "resistance" to the Sino-Vatican agreement and urges the police to arrest him, showing how the falsely "patriotic" and "independent" mentality is also being imposed on the clergy. Hebei is not new to this attempt to force members of the unofficial community to become official by joining the PA. For several months, four priests of the underground community (unofficial) of Zhangjiakou (Hebei) have been kept in an unknown location, subjected to indoctrination and brainwashing to make them join the Patriotic Association (PA). Yet, these unofficial bishops and priests are "good citizens" and support the development of the nation, as is the wish of Pope Francis. The only point of resistance is membership of the PA, and its project of "independence of the Church" which for Benedict XVI is "incompatible with Catholic doctrine". The amazing fact is that even some bishops precisely among those from whom Pope Francis lifted excommunication - proclaim that it is time to erase the underground community and join the PA. In recent days, Magr. Vincent Zhan Silu, of Mindong - who took the place of ordinary bishop Msgr. Guo Xijin - was in Beijing as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Responding March 3 to a Sintao Daily journalist who asked him if he did not mind that the faithful are being forced to enter the official community, meaning the unofficial one would disappear, he declared that this is the only way for "the Church to be united". Msgr. Zhan even said that underground Catholics do not take on an official status for "reasons of personal interest". Msgr. Zhan is vice-president of the PA and benefits greatly from this position. Another of the reconciled bishops, Msgr. She Shiyin of Leshan (Sichuan), also vice-president of the PA, has even declared that the application of the new religious regulations (in which young people under 18 are forbidden to take part in the functions and receive a religious education in addition to the demolition of crosses and statues that are not "sinicized") does not create any problems for religious freedom. Fortunately, there are also official bishops full of dignity. At the same meeting of the CPCPC, Msgr. Fang Jianping, vice president of the Council of Chinese Bishops, in an interview with the radio station in Hong Kong, said that the official Church should adhere to the spirit of Pope Francis without "forcing the believers of the underground community to move to the officially recognized Church ". When President Xi Jinping is in Italy, in the possibility of a meeting with Pope Francis, both could clarify some of these directives. UN Expert: Recruitment of Child Soldiers by Extremist Groups Rising By Lisa Schlein March 09, 2019 A United Nations expert finds the use of children by violent extremist groups to fight their battles is growing and becoming internationalized. The findings come in a report on Children and Armed Conflict submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council. Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict, Virginia Gamba, considers children to be the primary victims of war. While children continue to be recruited as soldiers by governments and rebel armed groups, she notes the emergence of several disturbing new trends. Speaking in Geneva, she said the transnational nature of violent extremist groups has seen the emergence of transnational recruitment and involvement of children as foreign fighters. "It is estimated that since 2011, between 30,000 and 42,000 foreign fighters from some 120 countries have travelled to Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic to join groups affiliated with Islamic State and/or al-Qaida. Those numbers include a significant proportion of children," she said. Gamba said a growing number of children are being detained for their alleged association with violent extremist groups that operate across borders. She said these children who have been exposed to some of the worst atrocities are treated as criminals instead of as victims. She said they should receive help to become rehabilitated and reintegrated into society. Last year, she said there was a significant rise in attacks on schools and the use of schools for military purposes, thus denying children access to an education. She said children are afraid to go to class because they may be exposed to abduction, recruitment or sexual violence by parties to conflict. The U.N. expert says child abductions in situations of conflict also have risen. She warns abductions frequently are a precursor to other violations. She cited the example of Nigeria, where the militant Boko Haram has abducted hundreds of school girls. In many cases, she said, girls were specifically abducted to be used as human bombs. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Israeli fighter jets bombard northern Gaza IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, March 10, IRNA -- The Israeli warplanes have bombarded Gaza Strip on Sunday, the Palestinian media 'Safa' reported. According to Palestinian media, the Israeli forces targeted Al-Vahe military base in Beit Lahia. Based on the local reports, the Zionist fighter jets also targeted the fishing union building west of Deir al-Balah. The Israelis claimed that the attacks were conducted in response to missiles fired from Gaza Strip. The great 'March of Return' rallies culminated on May 15 to mark what Palestinians refer to as the Nakba, or Catastrophe, a reference to the forced removal of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and villages to clear the way for Israel's establishment in 1948. The mass Friday demonstrations have continued since then. Since the protests began on March 30, the Israeli forces have martyred at least 260 Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave and wounded about 27,000 people, according to health officials in Gaza. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has passed an enactment to provide sustainable budget for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). 9376**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Resistance responds to Israel's attacks on Gaza Strip IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, March 10, IRNA -- The Palestinian Resistance movement has fired two missiles from Gaza Strip to Israeli settlements. The Zionist officials have confirmed that the missiles hit non-residential areas near Eshkol City. The Resistance measure has been taken in response to killing a Palestinian youth by Israeli forces during the 50th round of peaceful 'March of Return' rallies on Friday. This is while, earlier on Wednesday Resistance Movement has fired two rockets towards Israeli settlements. The rocket launches sounded the sirens in the Zionist settlements. It's not yet known if the rocket attacks caused any fatalities. The rockets were fired in response to the Zionist attack on the Gaza Strip hours earlier that killed a Palestinian teenager and wounded four others. The 50th round of the 'March of Return' protests was held in Gaza Strip on the occasion of the International Women's Day. The great 'March of Return' rallies culminated on May 15 to mark what Palestinians refer to as the Nakba, or Catastrophe, a reference to the forced removal of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and villages to clear the way for Israel's establishment in 1948. The mass Friday demonstrations have continued since then. Since the protests began on March 30, Israeli forces have martyred at least 260 Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave and wounded about 27,000 people, according to health officials in Gaza. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has passed an enactment to provide sustainable budget for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). 9376**1424 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Yemen bombards Saudi aggressors' positions in Asir IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, March 10, IRNA -- The Yemeni army and the popular committee missile and artillery units targeted Saudi aggressors' positions in Asir, southwestern Saudi Arabia with two missiles. According to Yemeni media 'Al-Masirah', Yemen used Zelzal-1 missiles and has bombarded Alab and Al Raboah districts. Earlier on Saturday, the Yemeni forces have shot down a Saudi-coalition spy drone in Jizan, southern Yemen. Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing back the government of Mansour Hadi back to power. Some 20,000 Yemenis have been killed and thousands more injured since the onset of the Saudi-led aggression. The assaults of the Saudi-led coalition forces have failed to stop the Yemenis from resisting the aggression. Earlier, Yemeni Armed Forces spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree has accused the Saudi-led coalition of repeatedly breaching ceasefire agreement in Al Hudaydah, Yemen, saying that it has breached the truce 966 times in 4 days. The United Nations Security Council adopted 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. 9376**1424 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Protests continue in Algerian cities, strikes staged in capital Iran Press TV Sun Mar 10, 2019 06:59PM Thousands of students have taken to the streets in the major cities of Algeria to protest against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term in office, more than two weeks since anti-government rallies began in the North African country. Some 1,000 high school students, as well as other demonstrators, rallied in central Algiers, the capital, on Sunday as schools were shut down, and train, subway, tram, and bus services were halted within the capital as part of a protest strike. Most shops in the capital's commercial center were also shut down. Residents told AFP that shops were also closed in the poor district of Bab al-Oued and in the suburb of Zeralda, though shops were open in other areas of Algiers. Additionally, around 2,000 students convened at the University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene in Algiers to rally against the embattled president, chanting "Algeria free and democratic!" Similar peaceful rallies were staged in other cities. On Saturday, the Higher Education Ministry unexpectedly ordered universities to commence their spring holiday earlier than scheduled. Without providing a reason for the abrupt rescheduling of the academic calendar, the ministry said in a decree that the spring break would be brought forward by 10 days, starting on Sunday instead of March 20. Students have been at the heart of the recent protests in Algeria, and the unusual move could be an attempt to weaken the protest rallies led by students against the president's 20-year rule. Bouteflika, who uses a wheelchair and has rarely been seen in public since he suffered a stroke in 2013, infuriated his opponents and unleashed major protests last month after he announced that he would once again participate in the presidential race. The election is due on April 18. The protesters are unlikely to give up demanding the resignation of Bouteflika with opponents citing what they call chronic corruption and a lack of economic reform to tackle unemployment. On March 7, Bouteflika issued his first warning to his opponents, cautioning them that the unrest, now entering its third week, could create chaos in the oil- and natural gas-producing North African country. The 82-year-old president traveled to Switzerland on February 24, two days after the unprecedented rallies first erupted, for what his office described as "routine medical tests," without giving an exact fate for his return home. Local media reported on Sunday that a government plane coming from the Swiss city of Geneva carried Bouteflika back to the country after landing at the Boufarik military airport southwest of Algiers. Bouteflika had his election papers submitted at the Constitutional Council on March 3 in defiance of his opponents, promising that if re-elected, he would order a referendum on a new constitution and call an early election in which he would not run. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 5219220687 - 2014 18200920137.82004 - 200823 75 2009-20132014-2018 102930362014201875;2009- 201312 52SIPRIAude Fleurant 98; 174313EU2014201827 200482009131952009-13201420182.7+ 60+ 94+ 170 2009132014188735192+ 20635422513987 Palestinian Authority cuts back wages to civil servants over cash crunch Iran Press TV Sun Mar 10, 2019 06:56PM The Palestinian Authority is scaling back the monthly payroll of the Palestinian civil servants, as a result of a cash crunch exacerbated by the Israeli regime's recent decision to cut about five percent of the tax handovers to the West Bank-based administration over its financial support for jailed resistance fighters. Speaking at a news conference in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday, Palestinian Finance Minister Shukri Bishara said the Palestinian Authority will be paying only half of the wages paid to its employees for the month of February. He noted that Palestinian civil servants whose salaries are below 2,000 shekels ($550) will receive a full salary for the month, while the rest of the employees will receive 50 percent of their monthly salary for February. Civil servants earning more than that, including cabinet ministers, will have their wages cut by half, Bishara said. However, he underlined that prisoners' families will continue to be paid their full allocations. "No force on earth can alter that," the Palestinian minister stated. Bishara said the Palestinian Authority will have to take bank loans of between $50 million to $60 million for the coming five to six months to overcome the crisis. In mid-February, Israel's cabinet froze about $138 million from within the taxes collected for the Palestinian Authority, stating that the Abbas administration paid the same amount in prisoner stipends in 2018. "Abu Mazen (Abbas) continues each month to transfer fat salaries to those who are in prison," Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked told Israel's Hebrew-language Reshet 13 television network. "We must find a way of stopping this money." Palestinian authorities condemned the Israeli decision as "piracy." "It is an attempt to pressure us and blackmail us," Wasel Abu Youssef, a senior official with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), commented then. "Even if left with just one dollar, we will pay it to the families of the martyrs, of the prisoners and of the wounded," he said. Abbas said the Palestinian Authority would not accept any of the tax revenues, which totaled 700 million shekels ($193 million) in January and account for about half of the authority's budget. Israel collects funds from imports that reach the occupied West Bank and run the Gaza Strip via Israeli ports, in addition to other taxes, and forwards a large sum of it to the Palestinian Authority, after deduction of payments for water and electricity. The Palestinian Authority is facing steep aid cuts. US President Donald Trump's administration has slashed hundreds of millions of dollars to humanitarian organizations, including $360 million it used to give to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), in a bid to pressure the Palestinians to re-enter so-called peace talks with Israel that collapsed in 2014. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US, France, UK in talks to prolong Syria presence: Bolton Iran Press TV Sun Mar 10, 2019 06:22PM US National Security Adviser John Bolton says he has discussed a long-term military presence in Syria with his British and French counterparts, despite an order by President Donald Trump to evacuate American troops from the Arab country. Speaking to ABC News on Sunday, Bolton was hopeful that Britain and France would also join the US efforts to prevent Daesh's resurgence. "It hasn't happened formally yet, but they're looking at it. I think it's very important that we try and get this up. The ISIS threat, the al Qaeda threat, the terrorist threat is an ideological threat worldwide and it's something that I think we have to be vigilant against for the foreseeable future," he said using another acronym for Daesh. Bolton reaffirmed President Donald Trump's assessment of Daesh's defeat in Syria but cautioned that the threat still persisted because members of the group were spread around the world. "The president has been, I think, as clear as clear can be when he talks about the defeat of the ISIS territorial caliphate," Bolton said. "He has never said that the elimination of the territorial caliphate means the end of ISIS in total. "We know that's not the case. We know right now that there are ISIS fighters scattered still around Syria and Iraq, and that ISIS itself is growing in other parts of the world. The ISIS threat will remain." The remarks once again highlight Washington's shifting messages since Trump's announcement of a swift withdrawal from Syria. In a video posted to Twitter in December, Trump declared that "we have won against ISIS" and "it's time for our troops to come back home" from Syria. Back then, the president said he had directed his commanders to complete the process in three months. While some of the nearly 2,000 US troops in Syria have already moved to the neighboring Iraq but the process has reportedly come to a halt to address concerns in Washington. Last month, the Trump administration announced that some 400 American troops will stay in Syria indefinitely after the withdrawal was completed to allegedly protect allied Kurdish militants in Syria from possible Turkish attacks while keeping an eye out for Daesh's reemergence. Bolton said Sunday that the decision was out of concern that Daesh could regain its footing. "One reason that the president has committed to keeping an American presence in Iraq and a small part of an observer force in Syria, is against the possibility that there would be a real resurgence of ISIS, and we would then have the ability to deal with that if that arose," he said. Last week, General Joseph Votel, commander of US Central Command which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, said the fight against Daesh was "far from over." He told the House Armed Services Committee that Daesh had made a "calculated decision" to preserve its resources and wait "for the right time to resurge." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 20 women, one child killed in fresh Saudi airstrikes in Yemen Iran Press TV Sun Mar 10, 2019 05:46PM Nearly two dozen women and a child have been killed in the latest round of Saudi airstrikes in Yemen as the Riyadh regime presses ahead with its atrocious campaign against the impoverished southern neighbor. Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Saudi warplanes bombarded residential buildings in Talan village of Kushar district in Yemen's northwestern province of Hajjah on Sunday afternoon, leaving 20 women and a child dead, Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported. The sources added that the attacks leveled five houses to the ground. Locals were looking for possible survivors under the rubble. Saudi warplanes also reportedly targeted ambulances, preventing doctors and paramedics from reaching the area. The leader of Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement recently said Yemeni women and children are being brutally killed by US and Western-made munitions used in the campaign. Delivering a televised speech broadcast live from the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, on February 25, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said, "The main goal of the enemies of Islam from the ongoing aggression against Yemen is to get full control over us. However, the most important outcome of Islam is to protect us against slavery and exploitation." "The enemy has focused its primary attention on women as they hold an important position both in the family and the society. Islam brought independence to us, and freed us from the grips of reliance and dependence." Separately, scores of Saudi-sponsored militiamen loyal to Yemen's former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi were killed and injured when a powerful bomb explosion struck them as they sought to infiltrate an area in Nihm district of Yemen's central-west province of Sana'a. Yemeni soldiers and allied fighters from Popular Committees also pounded the positions of Riyadh's mercenaries in Jaribat area of the country's central province of Bayda. Elsewhere in Ajasher desert area of Saudi Arabia's southern region of Najran, Saudi-paid militiamen suffered losses when Yemeni troops and their allies launched a major offensive there. Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched the devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of Hadi back to power and crushing Ansarullah. According to a report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, the Saudi-led war has so far claimed the lives of around 56,000 Yemenis. The 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Palestine's Abbas appoints close ally as new prime minister Iran Press TV Sun Mar 10, 2019 03:49PM Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed longtime ally Mohammad Shtayeh as prime minister and asked him to form a new Palestinian government, in a sign of potentially renewed discord between the Palestinian leader's party and the rival Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas. Abbas received 60-year-old Shtayeh in his office on Sunday afternoon and, in a decree published by Palestinian Ma'an news agency, appointed him as the Palestinian prime minister with the task of forming "the 18th government during the given period." Shtayeh, who holds a doctorate in economy and development from Sussex University, is a member of the Central Committee of Fatah, the ruling Palestinian nationalist political party led by President Abbas. He has also been the minister of the Palestinian economic council for the past decade. Shtayeh's government will replace the outgoing Rami Hamdallah's government, which resigned in late January but continued as a caretaker government. Hamdallah was politically independent and his government was formed during a period of improved relations between Fatah and Hamas. The resistance movement had even expressed support for the outgoing premier and his government. In the decree, Abbas said the mission for the new government would be to speed up reuniting the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip as well as to work toward holding legislative elections in the West Bank including East Jerusalem al-Quds and the Gaza Strip to boost democracy. The Palestinian leadership has been divided between Fatah and Hamas since 2006, when the latter scored a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in Gaza. Hamas has since been running the coastal enclave, while Fatah has been based in the autonomous parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Previous reconciliation attempts by the two sides to form a power-sharing unity government in Gaza and the West Bank have failed. Shtayeh's government is expected to be dominated by the ruling Fatah, though other parties will be represented. Hamas is not expected to hold a share in the new government. According to law, Shtayeh has three weeks to form a new government. The deadline, however, can be extended by two more weeks if necessary. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address India says downed drone, struck Pakistan thrice in 5 years Iran Press TV Sun Mar 10, 2019 10:35AM India says it has shot down a third Pakistani drone since border tensions escalated last month and carried out three cross-border strikes in the last five years. The nuclear-armed neighbors are facing their most serious conflict in years, with cross-border airstrikes and a dogfight over the skies of Kashmir after a bombing attack on Feb. 14 killed at least 40 Indian police. Tensions cooled after Pakistan last Friday returned the Indian pilot of a downed aircraft, but both nations have continued to fire shells and mortars over their de facto Kashmir border. On Saturday, the Indian army said it shot down a Pakistani drone which had intruded into the northern border state of Rajasthan - the third alleged downing since the new skirmishes began. Home Affairs Minister Rajnath Singh also said India had carried out three cross-border strikes in Pakistan in the last five years. Singh said Indian forces struck alleged terrorist "launchpads" in Pakistani Kashmir in 2016, after four militants killed 19 Indian soldiers near the town of Uri. "We have gone beyond our borders thrice and our men have successfully conducted airstrikes," Singh told a public rally in Mangalore. "About two I will tell you, but won't tell you about the third one," he added. The third strike may refer to an alleged 2017 army operation that Indian journalist Shiv Aroor said had killed three Pakistani soldiers. The most recent strikes set off a tit-for-tat escalation that saw the capture and immediate release of Indian Air Force Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, helping the two countries step back from the brink of a major conflict. India on Saturday called on the United States to investigate Pakistan's alleged use of American-made F-16 jets in the downing of the Indian MIG 21 jet. "We have asked the United States to also examine whether the use of F-16 against India is in accordance with the terms and conditions of sale," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. Indian officials say they have recovered parts of an AMRAAM air-to-air missile that can only be used on those specific jets. Kumar said New Delhi has "eye-witness accounts and electronic evidence that Pakistan deployed F-16 aircraft" and claimed that one such jet was shot down by Abhinandan. Pakistan has stated that no F-16s were used in the operation. The US puts certain restrictions on how its military equipment can be used. It is unclear what restrictions were placed on the use of Pakistan's F-16 jets. A US Department of State official told CNN that it was "aware of reports" on the use of F-16 jets but Pakistan's ambassador to the US, Asad Majeed Khan, said he was not aware of any request from the US about the alleged use of F-16s. Since the 1947 partition and independence from the UK, India and Pakistan have been embroiled in a dispute over Kashmir and fought three wars over the scenic Himalayan territory. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Israel launches fresh airstrikes on Gaza Strip Iran Press TV Sun Mar 10, 2019 01:34AM The Israeli regime has launched a series of new airstrikes on the Gaza Strip a night after it targeted civilian infrastructure in the besieged enclave. The attacks late on Saturday targeted several locations north of Gaza, including two naval facilities. Israeli regime sources said fighter jets had dropped bombs on locations in Sudaniya, Khan Yunis, Zeytoun and Tuffah. There were no immediate report of casualties from the attacks which Israeli military sources claimed had targeted positions held by the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas. However, most of such attacks over the past days, including those coming late on Friday, have mostly targeted civilian infrastructure in an enclave which is under a crippling Israeli siege and is in desperate need of humanitarian aid. The Israeli military said in a statement that Saturday attacks had come in response to rocket launches by Hamas on areas northwest of the occupied Palestinian territories. That comes a day after Israeli fighter jets carried out intensive acts of aggression on Palestinian houses and farming land. Palestinian media also reported on Saturday that Israelis had launched an attack on a fishing boat off the Gaza's coast earlier in the day. The attacks come amid massive demonstrations by the people in Gaza against the 12-year blockade of the enclave. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have been protesting on a weekly basis along the security fence separating their land from the occupied Palestinian territories since March 30, 2018, when the Great March of Return began. Authorities in Gaza said Israel's violent crackdown on one such protest on Friday had left one Palestinian killed and 48 others injured. At least 253 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire during the anti-occupation rallies in Gaza since the end of March last year. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address U.S. Envoy Urges Kosovo To Lift 100 Percent Tariff On Serbian Goods By RFE/RL's Balkan Service March 10, 2019 A senior U.S. official has urged Kosovo's leaders to rescind or delay a 100 percent tariff on Serbian goods to allow normalization talks between the two Balkan neighbors to resume. David Hale, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, was visiting Pristina on March 9 a day after stopping in Belgrade, where he called on the two countries to "end mutual provocations" against each other. In Kosovo, Hale met with President Hashim Thaci, Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, and parliament speaker Kadri Veseli at the residence of U.S. Ambassador Philip Kosnett. In an interview with three local media outlets, Hale said he urged Serbia and Kosovo to resume bilateral discussions and reach an agreement acceptable to both sides. He said the United States and Western allies would support any accord reached between the two countries. Kosovo, in November 2018, imposed a 100 percent import tax on Serbian goods in retaliation for what it called Belgrade's attempts to undermine its statehood, such as spearheading a campaign to scupper Pristina's bid to join Interpol and blocking it from UN membership. Washington and the European Union -- both strong allies of the Pristina government -- have pressed Kosovo to repeal the tariff. Serbia has refused to restart EU-facilitated normalization talks until the duties are revoked. Following his talks with Serbian leaders a day earlier, Hale said the "United States calls for the abolition of tariffs, an end to mutual provocations, and resumption of dialogue." Belgrade has not recognized the independence of its former province, proclaimed in 2008 after a 1998-99 war. More than 10,000 were killed in the war, which prompted NATO to launch an air campaign in the spring of 1999 to end the conflict. NATO troops are still stationed in Kosovo as a protection force. Prime Minister Haradinaj, in a Facebook post on March 9, invited Serbia to return to the negotiating table and "discuss all open issues, including free trade, and to reach an agreement that will result in the recognition of the existing borders." President Thaci on March 9 said that Serbia should not place preconditions on talks and that discussions should be "comprehensive and transparent." With reporting by AP and Gazeta Express Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-envoy-hale-urges- kosovo-lift-tariffs-serbia/29812929.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Moldova's Constitutional Court Confirms February 24 Vote Result By RFE/RL March 10, 2019 Moldova's Constitutional Court has confirmed the outcome of the country's February 24 parliamentary elections, rejecting an appeal by some opposition parties to invalidate the results in several constituencies. The court on March 9 said the Socialist Party will hold 35 seats in the 101-member parliament. The current ruling Democratic Party will get 30 mandates, while the ACUM bloc will have 26. The conservative Shor Party will get seven seats, and three independents will also be included. Potential coalitions are still uncertain. If the next parliament fails to form a governing coalition within 45 days after the election results, the president dissolves the legislature and calls new elections. Igor Dodon, who headed the pro-Russia Socialist Party until he became president, is a vocal supporter of closer ties with Moscow and a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. ACUM is considered pro-European Union. The Democrats are considered pro-West but have looked to balance East-West relations. Chisinau's relations with Russia deteriorated after Moldova signed an association agreement with the EU in 2014. Russia then placed an embargo on some Moldovan goods. Now, 70 percent of Moldovan exports head to the EU. Tensions are also exacerbated by the situation in Moldova's Transdniester region. The mainly Russian-speaking region declared independence from Moldova in 1990 over fears that Chisinau would seek reunification with neighboring Romania. Most of Moldova was part of Romania in the period between World War I and World War II. Moldovan forces and Moscow-backed Transdniester fighters fought a short but bloody war in 1992. The conflict ended with a cease-fire agreement after Russian troops in the region intervened on the side of the separatists. Some 1,400 Russian troops remain in Transdniester guarding Soviet-era arms depots, and Moscow has resisted numerous calls over the years to withdraw its troops. With reporting by RFE/RL's Moldovan Service and Interfax Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/moldova- constitutional-court-confirms-parliament- elections/29812890.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pakistan's 'Nuclear Bluff Exposed', Indian Minister Warns Sputnik News 13:17 10.03.2019(updated 13:19 10.03.2019) The statement comes weeks after India accused Pakistan of harbouring terrorists and having a "direct hand" in the deadly suicide bomb attack on the Indian paramilitary police force in Kashmir in mid-February. Islamabad, for its part, has vehemently denied the allegations and arrested over 40 terrorists earlier this week. New Delhi has "exposed" Pakistan's "nuclear bluff" by carrying out an air raid on an alleged Jaish-e Mohammad terror camp at Balakot in Pakistan-administered Kashmir on 26 February, Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday. "India fought and won conventional wars against Pakistan in 1965, 1971 and during the Kargil conflict. Since then, Pakistan's army has realised that because of our huge economy and superior military strength, conventional wars cannot be won. Since both countries are armed with nuclear weapons, the nuclear bluff was their second option. But it has been exposed this time", he said on an Indian TV station, as cited by the Hindustan Times. The finance minister went on to accuse Pakistan of sending terrorists to attack India, and said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's approach towards Islamabad has brought a change to the country's policy: "Till now, Pakistan's policy was to send terrorists to carry out attacks, while our policy was to be defensive. Modi brought a small change in that. While we will continue to defend, we will also attack the main source of terrorism. The 2016 surgical strike was our first step, and the latest air strikes were the second", he added. Earlier this week, Pakistan arrested at least 44 members of Jaish-e Mohammad, including Mufti Abdul Raoof, the brother of the terror group's leader. On 26 February, India's Air Force carried out an air raid on the alleged base of the Pakistan-based terrorist group, Jaish-e Mohammad, at Balakot, reportedly destroying a number of facilities. New Delhi's assault was conducted in response to a suicide bomb attack claimed by Jaish-e Mohammad on a convoy with Indian security forces on 14 February that killed over 40 soldiers. While New Delhi claims that the air raid on Balakot was targeted against Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists, which claimed responsibility for the 14 February deadly suicide attack on Indian paramilitary forces, Islamabad has strongly denied the allegations. Pakistan contended that the Indian aircraft dropped their bombs in a wooded area, causing no damage or casualties, and that it was a pure act of aggression by the IAF which was promptly responded to by the Pakistan military. Pakistani top civilian and military leaders also rejected India's claims that it had hit a "terrorist camp" inside Pakistan, warning that it would retaliate "at the time and place of its choosing" to Indian aggression. Pakistan's National Security Committee (NSC), comprising high-ranking officials including Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa, said Khan would "engage with global leadership to expose irresponsible Indian policy". Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address IDF Says Israeli Air Force Strikes Hamas Base in Response to Missile Launch Sputnik News 06:20 10.03.2019 TEL AVIV (Sputnik) The Israeli Air Force conducted a strike against a base and two ships of the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip in response to a Saturday missile attack, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said Sunday in a statement. "Saturday night: A rocket is fired from Gaza at Israel. Air raid sirens blare. Israelis have seconds to find shelter. Now: We responded by striking several military targets in a Hamas compound in Gaza & 2 Hamas vessels," the statement posted on Twitter reads. Earlier in the day, the IDF said in the statement posted on Twitter that they detected the launch of a rocket from the Gaza Strip. The new wave of escalation near the Gaza border began last March, when Palestinian protests, dubbed the Great March of Return, began. The tensions further mounted in fall due to continued shelling and arson balloons launches from Gaza into the Israeli territory and Israeli strikes on Palestinian targets in response to these actions. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Washington Boosts Focus on Venezuela By Michael Bowman March 10, 2019 U.S. President Donald Trump's national security adviser on Sunday weighed in on Venezuela's raging power struggle between embattled ruler Nicholas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido, who is recognized by much of the international community as interim president. "I hope his future consists of living on a nice beach somewhere far from Venezuela," John Bolton said of Maduro, speaking on ABC's "This Week" program. Bolton said "momentum is on Guaido's side" but suggested it will be Venezuelans who make sure the opposition leader prevails. "There are countless conversations going on between members of the assembly and members of the military in Venezuela talking about what might come, how they [armed forces] might move to support the opposition," the national security adviser said. Venezuela's economic collapse has triggered hunger, privation, and mass-migration. Recent days have added to the suffering, as widespread power outages ground to a halt a nation already on its knees. Overall, the Western Hemisphere's most acute humanitarian disaster has forced more than three million Venezuelans to flee their oil-rich country. The man who succeeded leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez as president in 2013, Nicholas Maduro, continually blames Washington for Venezuela's woes. "We are facing the most serious aggression from U.S. imperialism that Venezuela has seen in its entire 200-year history," Maduro said at a recent rally of loyalists. In Washington, meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers are weighing in with messages to Venezuela. "Your fight for freedom and restoration of democracy is our fight, and the free world has not and will not forget you," Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, chairman of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, said at a hearing last week. "To [Maduro] regime officials: if you want a future in Venezuela, and if you want a future free of U.S. sanctions that will follow you anywhere in the world, then you must recognize the legitimate interim president, Juan Guaido, and you must not have blood on your hands," the full committee's top Democrat, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, said. Many Democrats back sanctions the Trump administration has imposed on Maduro's regime but say armed U.S. intervention should be off the table. "Loose talk about military action actually cements and emboldens dictators," Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine said. "The only interest we have is peace, liberty and democracy for the Venezuelan people. That's it." America's top diplomat for Venezuela sought to reassure lawmakers that military action is not being contemplated. "It is certainly not desirable and it is not the path the administration is taking," U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela Elliot Abrams told the panel. Speaking at the White House last month, Bolton said President Trump is keeping "all options are on the table" regarding Venezuela. On Sunday, he declined to make any predictions. "We'll see what happens," Bolton said on "This Week." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Bouteflika Returns to Algeria Amid Protests By VOA News March 10, 2019 Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika landed in Algeria Sunday amid protests against his bid for a fifth term as president. Bouteflika, 82, has been in Geneva for two weeks, receiving what his office called routine medical checks. But many have speculated that the health of the longtime president, who has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013, is far more serious. An Algerian government plane, hidden from view in a hangar, was reported to have left Geneva around 1500 GMT. The Algerian government did not immediately announce the purpose of the flight, which landed in Geneva earlier Sunday. Protests against Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term entered their third week on Friday, with thousands flooding the streets in Algeria as well as Paris, which is home to a large Algerian immigrant population. Bouteflika, who has ruled the North African country since 1999, officially filed paperwork to run for a fifth term last week, but vowed that if he won he would only serve for one year before holding new elections. Bouteflika warned Thursday that instigators may try to infiltrate the demonstrations to provoke turmoil ahead of the April 18 election. "We must call for vigilance and caution in case this peaceful expression is infiltrated by some insidious party... which could cause chaos," he said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address F-35 fighter jet plan 'not aimed at China' Global Times By Zhang Mengxu and Ma Jun Source:Global Times Published: 2019/3/10 22:38:40 Last Updated: 2019/3/11 0:45:50 Singapore's decision to buy F-35 fighter jets from the US is unlikely aimed at China, and recent analyses by US media saying otherwise are ridiculous and wishful thinking, Chinese experts said. The experts' remarks came after Singaporean Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen announced in early March that the country plans buy up to 12 F-35 warplanes, with US news outlet CNN saying the potential purchase could cause trepidation from China. The CNN report said that Singapore's decision is indicative of growing concerns within Asia regarding China's "regional ambitions," and quoted analysts as saying that China should see the plan as evidence that there remains strong demand in the Asia-Pacific region for a US presence. Zhu Feng, executive director of China Center for Collaborative Studies of the South China Sea at Nanjing University, told the Global Times on Friday that "The assertion by CNN is really ridiculous. For the most part, it is merely wishful thinking by US media." Singapore has been importing advanced US fighter jets for 30 years, and this F-35 plan is just a continuation of its traditional "small but advanced" national defense strategy, Zhu said. "I do not think this is aimed at China." Ng said in June 2018 that Singapore was looking to replace the aging F-16 fighter jets with not only the F-35, but also China's J-20 as options, Singapore-based newspaper the Straits Times reported then. If Singapore's new fighter plan has any intention against China, why would it list the J-20 as an option? An anonymous Chinese military expert told the Global Times on Friday. Even the CNN report admitted that Ng did not mention China when announcing the purchase plan. He only said the jets will contribute to Singapore's ability to safeguard its sovereignty and security. If the deal goes through, Singapore will become the fourth US ally in the Pacific to own the F-35, joining Australia, Japan and South Korea, who had bought the stealth fighter earlier, CNN reported. But it is absurd to say this is "a message to China," because the four countries' fighter jets were originally all US-made, as they are all core allies of the US in the Asia-Pacific region, the military expert said. Japan, South Korea and Australia's older fighters were extremely outdated and they had to upgrade, and Singapore's plan is also a normal equipment replacement, the expert noted. However, Chinese experts also warned that the unified deployment of the F-35 in US allies benefits US operations in the Asia-Pacific region, which could bring challenges to the air defense in the South China Sea. The F-35 is constantly linked with the US military's information network, experts said, noting that even US allies do not participate in a battle, as long as their F-35s are in the air, they can share all kinds of information with the US. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Morocco's Repatriation of Foreign Terrorist Fighters From Syria Press Statement Robert Palladino Deputy Spokesperson Washington, DC March 10, 2019 The United States commends the Kingdom of Morocco for repatriating eight Moroccan foreign terrorist fighters from Syria. Morocco is a highly capable partner in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, and we appreciate its commitment to countering terrorism. Morocco's actions should encourage other nations to repatriate and prosecute their citizens who have traveled to fight for ISIS. Repatriating foreign terrorist fighters to their countries of origin is the best solution to prevent them from returning to the battlefield. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China developing key technologies on heavy-lift rocket People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 13:59, March 10, 2019 XICHANG, March 10 (Xinhua) -- China has made significant progress in the development of the key technologies of the heavy-lift carrier rocket, the Long March-9, which is expected to make its maiden flight around 2030. The development of the heavy-lift rocket will greatly improve China's capacity of entering outer space. The Long March-9 rocket will support China's space industry development, utilization of space resources and deep space exploration, said experts from the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. The rocket will have a core stage with a diameter of 9.5 meters. Its total length will be nearly 100 meters. The rocket will be able to carry payloads of 50 to 140 tonnes into low-Earth orbit, 15 to 50 tonnes into the lunar transfer orbit, and 12 to 44 tonnes into the Mars transfer orbit. The carrying capacity of the Long March-9 will be five times that of the Long March-5, currently the largest carrier rocket of China. The heavy-lift rocket is expected to help China realize manned lunar exploration, taking samples from Mars back to Earth, and other deep space explorations. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 40-ton class heavy helicopter jointly developed by China, Russia to be delivered by 2032 Global Times By Ma Jun and Liu Xuanzun Source:Global Times Published: 2019/3/10 15:52:41 The 40-ton class heavy helicopter, jointly developed by China and Russia, is expected to be delivered by 2032, said Wu Ximing, a Chinese political advisor and chief designer of helicopters for the Aviation Industry Corporation of China. "Russia is more experienced in the transmission system when it comes to 40-ton class helicopters, as Russia's Mi-26 is of the 56-ton class. Our goal in the cooperation is to learn from Russia's strong points and close the gap," Wu told the Global Times at a Thursday press conference featuring Chinese legislators and political advisors in the field of aviation. Wu said that China lacks experience in technologies related to the transmission system. Russia's state corporation Rostec is set to sign "the contract of the century" with China on the helicopter "in the coming two months" after four years' talks on the project, Russia's Tass news agency quoted Viktor Kladov, a Rostec representative, as saying in February. As a strategic cooperation project between the two countries, China has now reached agreements with Russia in technology, management and business-related fields, Wu said. Under the contract, at least 200 heavy helicopters will be built in China, Kladov said in 2017, Russia's state TV channel RT reported then. China is responsible for the helicopter's design and production and Russia would be acting as a technical partner, Kladov said. The heavy helicopter, dubbed Advanced Heavy Lift, would have a weight-lift capability of 15 tons, a range of 630 kilometers and a top speed of 300 kilometers an hour, RT reported. A heavy helicopter can usually be used to airlift heavy cargo and vehicles without the need of an airfield. For military use, a heavy helicopter can transport troops, armored vehicles, artillery and rockets. For civilian use, it can lift heavy engineering vehicles to sites where normal transportation routes could not reach in case of a natural disaster, military observers said. China will have a complete helicopter family covering from 500-kilogram class to 40-ton class, to satisfy all kinds of needs, Wu said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US warns Italy against joining China's new Silk Road project Iran Press TV Sun Mar 10, 2019 07:42AM The United States has warned Italy against supporting China's global economic effort, called the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), denouncing the infrastructure plan as a "vanity project." In a thinly veiled rebuke of the initiative, which aims to unite European and Asian markets, a spokesman for the White House's group of national security advisers said on Saturday that Italy's participation in the BRI would add "legitimacy" to Beijing's infrastructure project. "Italy is a major global economy and great investment destination. No need for Italian government to lend legitimacy to China's infrastructure vanity project," spokesman Garrett Marquis said on Twitter. Italy's intention to pull itself out of an economic recession that has gripped countries in southern Europe signals an upset for the US and the administration in Washington, which has been actively seeking to curb China's global influence. Marquis had previously claimed that the project was unlikely to "bring any sustained economic benefits to the Italian people," and that it "may end up harming Italy's global reputation in the long run." The White House official had called on "all allies and partners, including Italy, to exert pressure on China to bring its global investment efforts in line with accepted international standards and advanced practices." The Saturday tweet came after Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said he might sign an accord with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month, despite reports that Washington was concerned at the prospect of Italy joining the venture. "With all the necessary precautions, Italy's accession to a new silk route represents an opportunity for our country," Conte said on Friday, noting that participation in China's trade master plan would be up for discussion during Xi's upcoming visit to Italy. The Chinese president is due to travel to Italy from March 22 to 24. Conte has pointed out that Rome and Beijing will seek a framework deal during the state visit. The Italian premier has also announced his plans to attend a BRI summit in China in April. The BRI plan, also known as the One Belt One Road project and championed by Xi, aims to link China by sea and land with southeast and central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, through an infrastructure network on the lines of the ancient Silk Road. The US, which is currently engaged in a massive trade dispute with China, views the vast Asian country as a direct threat to its economic dominance and has expressed pessimism about Xi's infrastructure plan. The administration of US President Donald Trump has imposed steep tariffs on billions of dollars worth of Chinese products. Since taking office, Trump has claimed that China's rise as an exporting powerhouse has hurt US workers and manufacturing. Trump has imposed tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese goods and threatened to target all Chinese exports to the US. Beijing has responded by imposing tariffs on $110 billion in US products. Other trade partners of the US, including the European Union, Canada and Mexico, have also retaliated with tit-for-tat tariffs against American products. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Senior Party and Government Officials Go to Polls Korean Central News Agency of DPRK Date: 10/03/2019 | Source: KCNA.kp (En) Pyongyang, March 10 (KCNA) -- Senior Party and government officials went to sub-constituencies across the country on Sunday to take part in the election of deputies to the 14th Supreme People's Assembly together with voters. Kim Yong Nam, Choe Ryong Hae, Pak Pong Ju and other leading officials of the Party and government voted for candidates for deputies to the SPA at relevant sub-constituencies. They met candidates for deputies and voters to praise them for their patriotic devotion to the prosperity and development of the country and expressed belief that they would as ever fulfill their duty as citizens of the DPRK in the general advance for further consolidating the people's power as firm as a rock and opening a new road of advance for socialist construction, regarding the our-state-first principle as their faith. -0- NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address North Koreans vote in elections after collapse of talks with US Iran Press TV Sun Mar 10, 2019 07:16AM North Koreans are taking part in parliamentary elections in their millions to choose 700 members for the Supreme People's Assembly, the most powerful body in the country. The elections, which are held every five years, started at around 10 am (0100 GMT) on Sunday, and will continue until late evening. The candidates, who come from all over the country and all walks of society, mostly hail from the ruling Korean Workers' Party. However, some of them come from a handful of other smaller coalition parties. Photos and profiles of all the candidates are made available to voters before the election. If voters approve a candidate, they cast the ballot with their name in the box in a private booth. If not, they draw a line on the candidate's name. "The election system of the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] is most popular and democratic as it makes all citizens take part in the election of power organs with equal rights," the North's official news agency said. The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the elections were "an important occasion in further strengthening the government and displaying the solidity and invincibility of the socialist system in which the leader, the party and the masses form a harmonious whole." "I'm very proud to be voting for the first time," 19-year-old university student Kim Ju Gyong told the Associated Press. Election days have a festive mood in North Korea with bands playing music as voters wait in line. Turnout is expected to be as high as 99 percent. The elections come shortly after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump attended a summit in Hanoi to discuss denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. State media in Pyongyang said on Saturday the people of North Korea blame the US for the collapse of the talks. The Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North's ruling Workers' Party, admitted for the first time that the Hanoi summit had failed to yield intended results. "The public at home and abroad ... are feeling regretful, blaming the US for the summit that ended without an agreement," the paper said in a commentary. US news outlet NPR also reported that North Korea may be preparing for a missile or space launch, based on satellite image analysis of a key facility near Pyongyang. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address North Koreans Go To Polls: Turnout Will Be 100 Percent, Results Unanimous March 10, 2019 North Koreans are going to the polls -- and turnout of near 100 percent is assured, along with a 100 percent result for the ruling Workers' Party, since it is the only choice available. The election on March 10 for the Supreme People's Assembly, the country's rubber-stamp legislature, is the second to take place since leader Kim Jong Un took power. An election is held every five years in the communist country for the legislature. There is only one approved name on each of the ballot papers. Voters theoretically could cross out the name before casting the ballot, but that is not known to have happened. North Korea analyst Fyodor Tertitsky, who is based in the South Korean, told the BBC that if someone were to cross out a name, it would almost certainly lead to the secret police coming for the voter, who would likely be declared insane. The official KCNA news agency said turnout five years ago was 99.97 percent, with only those who were out of the country or "working in oceans" at the time not taking part. The vote was 100 percent in favor of the named candidates. Citizens 17 years of age or older are required to vote. Based on reporting by AFP and BBC Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/north-korea-election-unanimous- result-full-voter-turnout-likely/29812889.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Intel May Be Behind Attack on North Korean Embassy in Spain - Reports Sputnik News 19:03 10.03.2019(updated 19:04 10.03.2019) MOSCOW (Sputnik) - US intelligence agencies may have been behind the February attack on the North Korean Embassy in Madrid, during which a group of unidentified people broke into the mission, blocked the diplomats and seized computers, El Confidencial reported on Sunday, citing sources. According to El Confidencial newspaper, Spain's National Police and the foreign intelligence unit of the National Intelligence Centre (CNI) are examining all possible versions of what happened. Nevertheless, the sources told the newspaper that the theory that the US intelligence agencies, which could have been acting together with other foreign counterparts, were involved in the attack, was gaining momentum. CNI reportedly suspects that the way the embassy was attacked resembles the "method of work" of the North American intelligence services during secret operations. The newspaper added that embassy employees, who were in the building at the time of the attack, told investigators that some attackers spoke Korean and could be nationals of South Korea, a "US strategic ally". In February, reports emerged in Spanish media, saying that a group of attackers had broken into the North Korean embassy in Madrid, effectively took diplomatic personnel hostage for several hours and seized their computers. The incident reportedly occurred on February 22. One of the employees managed to escape and contacted the police. Another version is that North Korean intelligence services themselves could have been behind the attack. According to the media outlet, the attack may be somehow connected to the former North Korean ambassador in Madrid, who was declared persona non grata and expelled from Spain back in 2017. Investigators purportedly believe that the attackers were searching for information about the diplomat, who had been enjoying the freedom of movement in Madrid throughout four years of his mission. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US: 'No Illusions' about Possible N. Korean Missile Activity By Ken Bredemeier March 10, 2019 The White House said Sunday it does not "have any illusions" about whether North Korea is preparing to resume missile testing, but refused to assess commercial satellite imagery suggesting Pyongyang is assembling a new rocket. National security adviser John Bolton told ABC News the U.S. watches North Korea "constantly," but added, "I'm not going to speculate on what that commercial satellite imagery shows." The Feb. 22 imagery seems to show new North Korean missile activity at an assembly operation, but Bolton said the U.S."relies on its own" satellite surveillance and draws its conclusions from those images. "We see exactly what they're doing," he said. "We look every day at the intelligence. I don't want to get into speculation as to what they're doing." After last month's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, U.S. President Donald Trump said he trusted Kim's pledge to him that he would not resume nuclear or missile testing. Bolton said that Trump "is confident in his relations with Kim Jong Un." Asked about the commercial satellite images on Friday, Trump said he would be "very disappointed" if North Korea resumed nuclear testing. He said he has greatly improved U.S. relations with North Korea during his time in office. "Look, when I came in," he said, "under the Obama administration, North Korea was a disaster. You were going to war, folks, whether you know it or not. . . . I inherited a mess." He continued, "Right now you have no testing, you have no nothing. Let's see what happens, but I would be very disappointed if I saw testing." North Korean state media said for the first time on Friday that the summit late last month made no advances and its people were blaming the U.S. for the lack of an agreement. Trump and Kim met in Vietnam in a summit meant to reach an agreement on North Korean denuclearization. But the meeting collapsed over an impasse over how many weapons sites North Korea would shut down and the extent of economic sanctions relief the U.S. would offer in return. Following the summit, South Korean newspapers reported there was evidence of new activity at the Sohae long-range rocket site, a site Kim agreed last year to shut down as part of confidence-building measures with the United States. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address India Announces Poll Schedule, 900 Million to Vote in the 7-Phased Election Sputnik News 16:18 10.03.2019(updated 19:43 10.03.2019) For the first time, citizens in India will record instances of poll code violations on their smartphones and send the same to poll officials via the Election Commission Android application. The commission emphasized that action on the complaint must be taken in 100 minutes. New Delhi (Sputnik): The world's second most populated country, India, will go to polls in the second week of April and the results which will decide the new government for the South Asian bicameral democracy, which has a tenure of five years for its central government. Polls to the lower house, the Lok Sabha, were announced today. The Election Commission of India, in a media briefing on Sunday evening, declared that the parliamentary election will be held in seven phases beginning from 11 April 2019, while the counting of votes will be held on 23 May. The current term of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government will expire on 3 June, and Lokasabha Elections will be held in seven phases. "Around 900 million citizens are eligible to cast their vites in 2019 general election against 814.5 million in 2014 election", Sunil Arora, the country's chief election commissioner, said while briefing media on Sunday in New Delhi. Interestingly, a whopping 15million first-time voters in the age group of 18-19 years will cast their ballots in the 2019 polls. This year, electronic voting machines will have pictures of candidates to avoid discrepancies, Arora added. Around 900 million voters will cast their ballots to elect 543 lawmakers to India's lower house of parliament. The world's largest democratic exercise will witness Prime Minister Narendra Modi run for a second term against a large opposition coalition led by Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Gandhi-Nehru family. Reportedly, Prime Minister Modi is facing a major backlash from youth and farmers as the slowing economy has failed to generate desired results for them. Rahul Gandhi has also been raising the issue of corruption in the $8.7 billion Rafale fighter jet purchase from France. Nevertheless, the governing Bharatiya Janata Party is seeking to win the support of alienated voters by raising the issue of national security in the polls, a tendency that the Election Commission has advised against for all the political parties. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address India's Mammoth General Election Kicks Off April 11 By Anjana Pasricha March 10, 2019 India's general elections will be held over five weeks weeks starting April 11 and decide if Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who won a sweeping victory five years ago, is able to secure a second term in office. Billed as the world's largest democratic exercise, as many as 900 million voters will be eligible to choose 543 members of the country's lower house of parliament. The staggered election will be held in seven phases until May 19 and votes will be counted on May 23. The elections pit Modi's rightwing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party against the main opposition Congress party and an array of regional parties, some of who have formed alliances to challenge Modi. While economic issues such as unemployment and farmers distress dominated the poll agenda until weeks ago, terrorism and national security have emerged as campaign issues after recent military skirmishes between India and Pakistan and could help Modi in his reelection bid as he projects himself as a strong leader. Recent surveys say his popularity has risen since he ordered airstrikes inside Pakistan to target a militant camp following a suicide attack in Indian Kashmir. Several polls held earlier this year had suggested that the contest would be close and the BJP, which suffered key defeats in state elections in December, would struggle to win an outright majority as it battles perceptions that its economic performance has been patchy. In a series of tweets after the announcement, Modi hailed the festival of democracy, called on first time voters to vote in record numbers and touted his achievements. "We spent the last five years fulfilling basic necessities that were left unfulfilled for 70 long years. Now, time has come to build on that and create a strong, prosperous & secure India," he said. As he announced the elections on Sunday, the country's Chief Election Commissioner, Sunil Arora, outlined the logistical challenges of organizing a mammoth election involving an electorate bigger than the size of Europe and Australia, dozens of political parties and hundreds of candidates. "When independent India held its first election, not everyone was convinced of our capacity to conduct the exercise. But India emerged as a beacon light for emerging democracies. The scale and complexity of elections has only grown since then," said Arora. This year one million polling stations will be established throughout the country and more than five million government officials and security forces will be deployed. To ensure that every voter, whether on high mountain villages or inside forests is reached, officials sometimes have to travel by foot, helicopters and boats. The poll schedule has to take into account school exam dates, harvest times and festivals in different parts of the country. With political parties starting to rely heavily on social media to influence voters and concerns about misuse of these platforms, the election commission is stepping up scrutiny of social media giants. Chief Election Commissioner Arora said that companies like Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube have said they have appointed officers to take action against objectionable content posted on their sites and counter fake news and hate speeches. He said that all political advertisements on their platforms will be pre-certified by monitoring committees. The election commission has also asked political parties not to use images of the armed forces in their campaign posters saying that they are "apolitical and neutral stakeholders in a modern democracy." The notice was issued after the ruling BJP used campaign posters with images of a captured Indian Air Force pilot who was returned by Pakistan after the recent clash between the neighbors. The Election Commissioner dismissed concerns that have recently been expressed by some opposition parties that electronic voting machines used in Indian elections could be hacked and ballots rigged. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Unlike Saudi Arabia, Iran seeks no tension with any country: FM Zarif Iran Press TV Sun Mar 10, 2019 06:25PM Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says unlike Riyadh, Tehran does not seek tension with any country in the region, including Saudi Arabia. The Iranian foreign minister made the remarks while speaking to a number of Iraqi reporters in Baghdad on Sunday. Zarif is in the Iraqi capital to make necessary preparations for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's first visit to Iraq since 2013, which is scheduled to start on Monday and last for three days. Asked about the possibility of a trip by the top Iranian diplomat to Riyadh, he said he has no plan for such a visit, but at the same time, has no problem with it, because it is Saudi Arabia, which seeks to create tension in the region not Iran. When asked about the United States' unilateral sanctions against Iran, Zarif said it is the first time that a country is being punished, because it has observed international law and the United Nations' regulations. He described as a "dangerous phenomenon" the US approach to violate international law and punish other countries due to their commitment to regulations. Earlier in the day, Iraq's President Barham Salih said his country will not be part of a regime of unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States against Iran and will do its best to reduce the damage done to the Iranian nation as a result of the bans. "Let me tell you that Iraq will not become part of the US unilateral sanctions regime against Iran. There is no doubt that we will be affected by these sanctions, but it is certain that we will not be part of them," he said. US President Donald Trump withdrew Washington in May 2018 from a landmark nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries in 2015, and decided to re-impose unilateral sanctions against Tehran. Under the deal, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions. Iran, Iraq support restoration of Syria's regional role Meanwhile, the Iranian foreign minister and his Iraqi counterpart Mohammed Ali al-Hakim told a joint press conference on Sunday that Tehran and Baghdad support restoration of Syria's regional role. Zarif said Iran and Iraq have a common stance on the maintenance of Syria's territorial integrity, its involvement in all regional and international solutions and the fight against terrorism. Hakim, for his part, said both Tehran and Baghdad believe that the battle against terrorism should continue in Syria and the country's territorial integrity should be observed while the Arab League's chair should be returned to Damascus. Earlier this month, Syria took part in a meeting of Arab states for the first time since the foreign-backed militancy broke out in the country eight years ago, in what has been seen as another sign that the Damascus government led by President Bashar al-Assad is being welcomed back into the fold. The development came almost a month after Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said on February 3 that his country will eventually return to the Arab League, stressing that the Damascus government will never surrender to blackmail or accept conditions for the restoration of its membership to the regional organization. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iraq will not be part of US sanctions regime against Iran: President Salih Iran Press TV Sun Mar 10, 2019 03:32PM Iraq's President Barham Salih says his country will not be part of a regime of unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States against Iran and will do its best to reduce the damage done to the Iranian nation as a result of the bans. Salih made the remark as he spoke at a press conference in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on Sunday, when asked about the impact of the sanctions on Tehran-Baghdad relations. "Let me tell you that Iraq will not become part of the US unilateral sanctions regime against Iran. There is no doubt that we will be affected by these sanctions, but it is certain that we will not be part of them," he said. "Iraq insists that the interests of our friendly and neighboring country must be met. We will do our best to reduce tensions in this regard and decrease the damage that will be done to the Iranian nation." US President Donald Trump withdrew Washington in May 2018 from a landmark nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries in 2015, and decided to re-impose unilateral sanctions against Tehran. Under the deal, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions. Salih further emphasized that his country wants to be a place for achieving regional agreements and it must not be used to carry out any hostile act against its neighboring states, saying this has been stipulated by the Iraqi constitution. Iraq's relations with its neighboring countries can help ease tensions in the region, Salih noted. The Iraqi president said Iran has supported Iraq in its fight against the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, adding that his country can say nothing but only to thank Tehran for its efforts in this regard. On Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's "very important" visit to Baghdad, the Iraqi president said the trip mainly aims to deepen relations between the two countries. He expressed hope that the visit would be an important step toward the strengthening of bilateral cooperation, particularly in the economic, security and political sectors, and help Iraq's approach to regional issues. In November 2018, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei slammed foreign meddling in Iraq, saying the Arab country must stand firm against its enemies. "The way to overcome problems and counter ill-wishers' plots is to preserve national unity in Iraq, properly recognize friends from foes, stand up to the brazen enemy, rely on youths and maintain and strengthen links with the [clerical] sources [of emulation]," the Leader said in a meeting with the Iraqi president and his accompanying delegation in Tehran. No country can scuttle Iran-Iraq strategic ties: Zarif Also on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran and Iraq enjoy "strategic" relations that cannot be weakened by any country, noting that the two countries' youths fought side by side against the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group. Zarif made the remarks while addressing negotiations between the Iranian and Iraqi delegations in Baghdad in the presence of Iraq's Foreign Minister Mohammed Ali al-Hakim. He hailed the recent parliamentary elections in Iraq, which promoted democracy in the country, and offered his congratulations to the Iraqi government and nation on such a "big success." The top Iranian diplomat also stated that he held positive talks with his Iraqi counterpart about leading mutual and regional developments and hoped the two sides would deal on common interests. During Rouhani's trip to Baghdad on Monday, these agreements would be finalized, Zarif said. The Iraqi foreign minister, for his part, said Iran and Iraq are linked to each other through deep-rooted and strategic relations emanating from common history and shared interests. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran will be opening new chapter with Iraq: Zarif Iran Press TV Sun Mar 10, 2019 07:48AM Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says an upcoming visit by President Hassan Rouhani to Iraq the president's first will be the beginning of a new chapter in Tehran-Baghdad relations. "Mr. Rouhani is traveling to Iraq for the first time in his presidency, and we consider the trip a new start in our relations with Iraq," Zarif told the Iraqi al-Forat satellite TV network in an interview aired on Saturday. Zarif referred to the measures of cooperation that are scheduled to be bilaterally approved during the Iranian president's visit to Iraq and called them "historic." New cooperation, he said, will be in the areas of transit, oil, joint industrial work, and the dredging of Arvand River. The Iranian president will be starting his three-day visit to Iraq on Monday. Zarif, who arrived in Iraq on Saturday evening, said Iran and Iraq shared not just a border but historical commonalities as well as interests. "We plan to use those commonalities to advance the joint interests of both countries as well as those of the region," he said. Iran's message to region from Iraq The Iranian foreign minister said Iran was seeking to send a message [to the region] during President Rouhani's trip to Iraq. "In Iraq, we will be sending a message of regional cooperation. We don't see Iraq as a place of conflict [with Iran's regional rivals]; we see it as a place of cooperation with regional countries," Foreign Minister Zarif said. Saudi Arabia, which perceives Iran as its main adversary and which has severed its ties with Tehran, has been viewing Iraq as a battle zone where it needs to curb Iranian influence. Zarif also said Iran viewed Iraq as "an important pillar of regional security," without whose cooperation, regional security would be impossible. "Thus, it is necessary for Iran and Iraq to cooperate, beside the other countries of the region, toward [bringing about] security for the region," he said. He said no regional country had to be excluded from regional decision-making. 'US pressing Iraq to cut Iran ties' "We don't want Iraq to cut relations with any other country," Zarif said. "Sadly, it is the Americans who are pressuring Iraq not to have neighborly ties with Iran." The Iranian foreign minister also thanked Iraqi people and officials for their "principled stand" in support of Iran and against unilateral US sanctions against the Islamic Republic. 'Iran welcomes regional talks' Asked about a proposal by Ammar Hakim the head of Iraq's National Wisdom Movement (Hikma) for regional talks among Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, Zarif said Iran welcomed "all proposals for regional cooperation." "We have a principle: regional cooperation should be inclusive and should be targeted against no one; all countries in our region should be involved in such cooperation," the Iranian foreign minister said. He explained that by regional countries, he meant Persian Gulf states, as well as countries further afield, such as Egypt and Jordan. He cited the cooperation of Iran, Russia, and Turkey regarding the Syrian peace process in the Kazakh capital of Astana as an example of good regional work. Whom the region concerns and whom it does not The Islamic Republic, he stressed however, has never held talks with outsiders about the future of the region and has always said that the fate of the region should be determined by the region itself. Turning to Saudi Arabia, Zarif said in the interview that while Iran had always been ready for dialog, Riyadh had shown no such willingness. The Iranian foreign minister recalled that he sent multiple messages to Saudi officials expressing readiness for bilateral and regional cooperation when he took office in 2013, to which they responded, "The region does not concern you!" "It is now evident whether the region concerns us or not!" Zarif said. Iran has helped effectively bring an end to the Syrian conflict by offering Damascus military advisory help and has been facilitating a diplomatic end for Syria through cooperation with Turkey and Russia. This is while Saudi Arabia was among the countries that funded anti-Damascus militant groups in an attempt to oust President Bashar al-Assad. 'Talks with Trump would not be very useful' Asked about the possibility of talks with US President Donald Trump, Zarif said dialog had to be founded on respect, which was lacking on Trump's part. Last year, Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of a multilateral deal with Iran. As a party to that deal, Washington had been involved in negotiations that led to the agreement. "If you do not respect even your own words, one cannot expect you to respect (and uphold) a deal. Therefore, I don't believe dialog [with the Trump administration] would be very useful," Zarif said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address India Asks US to Probe Pak's Alleged Breach of F-16 Deal Amid Escalated Tensions Sputnik News 09:28 10.03.2019 Pakistan has consistenly rejected accusations by New Delhi that it had violated an F-16 sale agreement with the United States, having allegedly deployed US-made fighter jets to shoot down an Indian warplane last month. India has called on the United States to launch an investigation into Pakistan's alleged use of American-built F-16 fighter jets during a dogfight in late February that led to an escalation of tensions between the two nuclear weapons-wielding neighbours. "Evidence of the use of Amraam Missile, which can only be deployed on the F-16 with Pakistan, has also been shown to the media. We have asked the United States to also examine whether the use of F-16 against India is in accordance with the terms and conditions of sale", Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told reporters at a Saturday briefing. Kumar also stated that Islamabad should explain the reason for its continued denial of dispatching F-16s and the loss of an aircraft, claiming that there were eyewitnesses and electronic evidence. According to The Times of India, New Delhi made a reference to the testimony to the US Congress by American officials in which they committed to maintaining a "very enhanced end-use monitoring programme" of Pakistan's F-16s. "We will have a US presence to monitor compliance with the security plan requirements, a very enhanced end-use monitoring programme", said John Hillen, then-US assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, in June 2016. Hillen also promised a "two-man rule, so to speak, for access to this equipment and restricted areas, and F-16 flights outside of Pakistan or participation in exercises and operations with third nations must be approved in advance by the United States government". The Times of India reported that such assurances suggest that Washington can easily determine whether Pakistan used the F-16s during air combat with India and confirm whether India's MiG-21 Bison actually shot down one of the US-made fighter jets. Pakistani Defence Minister Pervez Khattak said earlier this week that he was not aware of whether the F-16 purchase agreement with the United States contained a provision prohibiting Islambad to use the US-made fighter jets against New Delhi. Speaking at a media briefing on Tuesday, Robert Palladino, deputy spokesperson at the US Department of State, confirmed that Washington was following the issue "very closely": "I can't confirm anything, but as a matter of policy, we don't publicly comment on the contents of bilateral agreements that we have in this regard involving US defence technologies nor the communications that we have with other countries about that". Under the deal with the United States, Pakistan is believed to only be entitled to use the US-built fighter jets for counterterrorism operations, but India has accused Islamabad of violating the agreement and downing an Indian warplane during an aerial fight over the Line of Control in Kashmir in late February. The Indian side also displayed parts of an AMRAAM medium-range missile that was recovered in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir, alleging that they had been launched by a US-made jet. Pakistan has vehemently denied losing any F-16s or scrambling them in the first place. Historically tense relations between India and Pakistan have been simmering since Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e Mohammad claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a convoy with Indian security forces on 14 February that killed over 40 soldiers. In the wake of the attack, New Delhi accused Islamabad of harbouring terrorists a claim vehemently rejected by Pakistan as "unsubstantiated". On 26 February, the Indian Air Force conducted an air raid against an alleged Jaish-e Mohammad training camp in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, reportedly destroying a number of facilities. The following day, Islamabad announced it had shot down two Indian warplanes over the Kashmir border and captured an Indian pilot, who was released two days later in a "peace gesture". Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russians Rally For Internet Freedom By RFE/RL's Russian Service March 10, 2019 Thousands of activists have held protest actions across Russia against a new bill that its critics say is part of an effort by President Vladimir Putin's government to increase state control over the Internet and facilitate censorship. Around 15,300 people gathered on Moscow's Sakharov Avenue on March 10 for a sanctioned rally against the proposed legislation, according to White Counter, an independent activist group that tracks turnout at demonstrations. Police put the figure at 6,500. The participants chanted slogans such as "hands off the Internet" and "no to isolation," rejecting backers of the bill who say it is designed to ensure the operation of the Internet in the country if access to servers abroad is cut off. OVD-Info, an independent group that monitors crackdowns on demonstrations, said that 29 people were detained before, during, and after the Moscow rally. RFE/RL's Russian Service correspondent Andrey Kiselyov was one of those detained by police. Kiselyov took video from inside a police van after being detained along with 12 others. He was held by police for about five hours before being released late on March 10. Dozens of protesters also rallied in the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk, while activists in St. Peterburg held so-called single pickets in order to comply with a Russian law against mass demonstrations that aren't authorized by authorities. Protest actions were also held in the western city of Voronezh and other Russian cities. Two supporters of the Libertarian Party were also briefly held in St. Peterburg, OVD-Info reported. The so-called "sovereign Internet" bill, which passed in the first reading in the lower chamber of Russia's parliament on February 12, faces two more votes in the State Duma before heading to the upper house. Aleksandr Isavnin of the Roskomsvoboda movement, one of the organizers of the planned, sanctioned rally on Moscow's Sakharov Avenue, told RFE/RL: "Our state has paid attention to the fact that the Internet is being used to freely exchange information, including by opposition forces, and therefore it wants very much to put it under control." The name Roskomsvoboda is short for Russian Freedom Committee and plays off Roskomnadzor, the name of the state communications, Internet, and media oversight agency. Nikolai Lyaskin, an aide to opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, called the bill yet another step by the authorities to "tighten the screws" on Internet freedom, and urged the Russians to rally against "this madness." The bill reflects persistent tension between Russia and the West, where governments have accused Moscow of using cyberattacks and social-media activity to sow discord abroad and increase its global clout. Proponents say it aims to make what they call the Russian segment of the Internet more independent, and argue that the legislation is needed to guard Russia against potential cyberattacks. The bill calls for the creation of a system that would protect Russia in the event of cyberwar while also filtering Internet traffic to the country, but there has been debate about how realistic that is and how much it would cost. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russians-rally -against-moves-to-tighten-the-screws-on -internet-freedom/29813172.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russian Ship Test Weapon That Renders Enemy Targeting Systems Useless Sputnik News 21:47 10.03.2019 The weapon system, developed by the Russian company Rostec, was recently spotted on the Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov by British media as it approached a Royal Air Force base. The Times described the weapon as being able to make opposing soldiers vomit, but its effective range is much greater. The Russian TV channel Zvezda has published a video featuring the test "firing" of a Russian weapon for visual and optical warfare, the 5P-42 "Philin" (Russian for "eagle owl"). The system can be used at night and essentially renders enemy targeting systems, night vision equipment and scopes within a 5 km range useless by "blinding" them. It's also capable of blinding and disorienting enemy personnel within a range of 2 kilometres. The system has already been deployed on several Russian ships. The frigate drew the attention of British media outlets on 7 March after The Scotsman reported that Russian naval vessels, including the Admiral Gorshkov, had been "sailing through UK territorial waters at will to conduct provocative drills" near Moray Firth. Russian the Consulate General rejected the accusations as baseless, noting that the group remained in international waters the entire time. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syria now facing economic war through sanctions: Assad Iran Press TV Sun Mar 10, 2019 05:37PM As the Syrian government emerges victorious from eight years of a battle against foreign-sponsored militancy, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says his country now also faces an economic war. Speaking at a meeting with visiting Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Chen Xiaodon and an accompanying delegation in Damascus, Assad said some hostile powers were waging the new war against Syria by resorting to such methods as "boycotts, withdrawal of ambassadors, economic siege, and the use of terrorism," reported Syria's official news agency SANA on Sunday. The Syrian president underlined the importance of international efforts to counter terrorism and find a political solution to the ongoing crisis in the Arab country. He noted that fighting terrorism will lead to a political solution in the end, but any talk of political solution to the Syrian crisis while terrorism spreads across the country would be an illusion and a deception. Assad emphasized that fighting terrorism cannot simply be carried out via military action, but an even more important aspect of this war is to combat intellectual and ideological aspects of terrorism. An armed conflict began in Syria in 2011. The Damascus government, aided by its allies Russia and Iran, managed to gradually retake almost all of the areas in the country from the militant and terrorist groups that had overtaken them, and the conflict is considered to be winding down. But Washington has been imposing sanctions on hundreds of companies and individuals that it accuses of involvement in developing "chemical" munitions in Syria. This is while Damascus surrendered its stockpile of chemical weapons in a process monitored by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in 2013. The European Union (EU) has also imposed an oil embargo on Syria, placed restrictions on certain forms of investment in the country, frozen the assets of the Syrian Central Bank across the bloc, and imposed bans on dozens of companies linked to Damascus. The EU voted last May in favor of extending the bans until June 1, 2019. Syria's mission to the UN earlier this year condemned the economic sanctions targeting the country, saying they blight the lives of ordinary Syrians. "The unilateral, coercive measures imposed on the Syrian people represent an economic terrorism... [and] are largely affecting the lives of the Syrians and hindering the delivery of their daily basic needs," the country's UN Ambassador Bashar al-Ja'afari said on January 31. During the meeting between Assad and the Chinese officials on Sunday, the two sides affirmed the need to bolster coordination between Beijing and Damascus in "political, military, economic, cultural, and technological" fields. Chen hailed the resistance by the Syrian nation and voiced China's readiness to keep standing by the Arab country and providing it with all forms of support. In a separate meeting with Chen, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem also suggested that China play a role in rebuilding Syria. Assad, who has estimated that rebuilding Syria would cost 200 billion dollars at a minimum, has insisted he would refuse to take Western contributions. In an interview with Russia's NTV network in June last year, the Syrian president said the West "won't be part of reconstruction in Syria, because very simply we won't allow them to be part of it, whether they come with money or not." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US-Backed Forces Launch Final Assault to Wipe Out IS Enclave By Jeff Seldin March 10, 2019 Clashes and fierce fighting are being reported in northeastern Syria, where U.S.-backed forces say their final assault on the Islamic State terror group enclave of Baghuz is underway. A spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces made the announcement on social media Sunday, writing the offensive to wipe out the last remnant of the terror group's self-declared caliphate resumed at 6 p.m. local time. Earlier, he tweeted the last chance for any fighters or civilians still holding out in the small path of land on the banks of the Euphrates River to leave had come and gone. "The timeline that we give it for ISIS to surrender themselves is over," the SDF's Mustafa Bali wrote, using an acronym for the terror group. The SDF is "ready now to start and finish what is left in ISIS hands," he added. Officials with both the SDF and the United States are expecting a difficult battle over the collection of tents and wrecked buildings spanning no more than 1.6 square kilometers on the outskirts of the northeastern Syrian town of Baghuz. They say IS has been using a network of tunnels, caves and trenches to hide and launch counter attacks. They describe the tunnel system as complex, extending possibly for more than two kilometers, and rigged with explosives and booby traps. There are also questions about how many IS fighters are left to defend the last shred of the terror group's self-declared caliphate. In late February, SDF officials estimated that no more than 1,000 people remained the bombed-out farming community on the banks of the Euphrates River, including perhaps 300 of the terror group's most hardened and devoted fighters. But as more than 20,000 civilians and fighters have emerged from the area to surrender over the past week, taking advantage of a brief cease-fire, they have been forced to reassess their estimates. Officials now say it is possible thousands of IS fighters are still there, prepared to fight to the death. "We have been consistently wrong as have our SDF [Syrian Democratic Force] partners on how big this is," a senior U.S. defense official said Friday. "The number of civilians coming out of Baghuz has exceeded any prediction of humanitarian actors," Hedinn Halldorsson, with the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Damascus, told VOA late last week. Yet as surprising as the numbers have been, U.S. defense officials do not believe it is an accident or a happenstance of the campaign to liberate this part of Syria from IS rule. "What we are seeing now is not the surrender of ISIS as an organization but a calculated decision," the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, Gen. Joseph Votel, told U.S. lawmakers Thursday. He, and other officials, warn IS' goal is to preserve as much of the group's capabilities as possible as it completes a transition from an almost traditional army to a clandestine insurgency, counting on every man, woman and child to do their part. "The vast majority of these are assessed not to be innocent civilians," the senior defense official said of the thousands of stragglers who evacuated Baghuz in recent days. The prolonged battle to wrest Baghuz from the control of IS has played out as U.S. President Donald trump has repeatedly declared victory over IS and its caliphate. "We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency," he tweeted Dec. 19, 2018, adding in a video released by the White House that "we have beaten them and we have beaten them badly." Most recently, on February 28, he told troops at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska of the self-declared caliphate's demise, "You kept hearing it was 90 percent, 92 percent, the caliphate in Syria. Now it's 100 percent." "We have the whole thing," he added. Trump's national security adviser defended the president's comments Sunday. "The president has been, I think, as clear as clear can be when he talks about the defeat of the ISIS territorial caliphate," Bolton said told ABC News' "This Week." "He has never said that the elimination of the territorial caliphate means the end of ISIS in total. We know that's not the case." "We know right now that there are ISIS fighters scattered still around Syria and Iraq and that ISIS itself is growing in other parts of the world," Bolton added. "The ISIS threat will remain" Despite losing administrative control over almost all the land it once held in Syria and Iraq, U.S. defense officials warns IS still has "tens of thousands" of fighters working either as part of sleeper cells or as part of an active, clandestine insurgency. A series of reports issued starting last year warned IS could have as many as 30,000 followers and fighters in Syria and Iraq, with officials cautioning they remain "well-positioned" to rebuild a physical caliphate. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syrian Army destroys terrorists' vehicles, dens in Hama IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, March 11, IRNA -- Syrian Arab Army units on Sunday destroyed vehicles and dens of terrorist organizations in the northern countryside of Hama, in response to their breaches of the de-escalation zone area in Idleb. SANA's reporter said that army units carried out artillery strikes against the terrorists' dens and fortified positions in the surroundings of al-Latamina, al-Araba'een and Kafr Zeta in response to their attacks with rockets shells on Masyaf area, 48km southwest of Hama city. The reporter said the operations resulted in killing and injuring a number of the terrorists and destroying their vehicles and dens. 8072**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Saudi tanker agrees to pay full damages to Taiwan Navy ROC Central News Agency 2019/03/10 22:11:43 Taipei, March 10 (CNA) A foreign oil and chemical tanker that accidentally collided with Taiwan navy vessel Ning Yang (FF-938) on March 9, signed a document promising to pay full compensation for damages caused, a source familiar with the matter said Sunday. The Saudi Arabia-registered tanker NCC Sama collided with the Ning Yang as it was entering the Port of Keelung after 1 a.m. on March 9, denting the port side bow. No one was hurt in the incident. The Chi Yang class frigate was docked when the incident occurred and therefore bears no responsibility, the source said, adding that the persons in charge of NCC Sama signed a compensation agreement Sunday. The source said the Ning Yang could have sustained damage to its electronic systems and electric wires in addition to the dent, the compensation the Navy asks for will be determined over the next few days after a thorough inspection. The Ning Yang served as the Knox-class frigate Aylwin in the United States Navy from 1971-1992 before it was decommissioned and sold to Taiwan. The ship now patrols Taiwan's eastern coast with potential submarine incursions its main focus. (By Matt Yu and Emerson Lim) Enditem/AW NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Erdogan says US angered by Turkey's independence Iran Press TV Sun Mar 10, 2019 06:15AM Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the United States is pressuring Turkey to cancel an arms agreement with Russia because Washington is angered by Ankara's independence. "The issue is not about (the Russian defense system) S-400. It is because Turkey takes action of its own will regarding regional developments, particularly in Syria," President Erdogan said in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir on Saturday. Turkey has been maintaining military presence in Syria to ward off Kurdish militants, whom it associates with anti-Ankara separatists. The US, which has also been present on Syrian soil, has been arming those Kurds under the pretext of helping them fight the Takfiri terror group of Daesh. Ankara has been at loggerheads with Washington over that support. Russia and Turkey finalized an agreement on the delivery of Russian S-400 missile defense systems in December 2017. Turkey is expected to take delivery of the systems between later this year and early next year. The US has been selling its own Patriot missile systems to regional countries to push back against Russia's expanding influence among them. A day before Erdogan made the comments, the US Department of Defense warned Turkey of "grave consequences" if it took delivery of the Russian equipment. "They (the Turks) would not have access to Patriot and the F-35," acting Pentagon spokesman Charlie Summers said, also referring to an advanced American fighter jet that the Turks plan to purchase. The US was about to sell the Patriots to Turkey before Ankara chose to purchase the Russian systems. It is also contracted to deliver 100 F-35 stealth warplanes to Turkey. Washington claims that members of the Western military alliance of NATO, including Turkey, should be using certain weapons to ensure "interoperability." Erdogan, however, said, "Everyone knows that this issue has nothing to do with either NATO and the F-35 project nor the security of the US." Turkish-US tensions are at a peak mainly due to Washington's support for the Kurds and Turkey's subsequent imprisonment of an American pastor. Last year, Ankara also imposed tariffs on US goods in response to American tariffs on Turkish-supplied steel and aluminum. The two sides are separately at odds over Washington's refusal to extradite Fetullah Gulen, a Pennsylvania-based Turkish cleric accused of masterminding an abortive 2016 coup against the Turkish government. The situation was not defused despite Turkey's release of the pastor, whom it had detained over alleged links to anti-Ankara outfits. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ukraine: Nationalists clash with police at Kiev corruption protest Iran Press TV Sun Mar 10, 2019 10:21PM Supporters of the Ukrainian far-right party National Corps held a protest in Kiev on Saturday, decrying government corruption and calling for the removal of the country's president Petro Poroshenko. Ukraine's police say 25 officers are injured in clashes with protesters trying to attack a presidential motorcade. "Poroshenko has come to create an absolutely unique system - every third hryvnia [national currency of Ukraine] that was given for the Ukrainian defense remains in the pocket of corrupt officials," said National Corps leader Andriy Biletsky, while addressing the crowd in Kiev's Independence Square. Scuffles erupted during the protest, with demonstrators throwing smoke bombs at the security forces, causing them to respond by deploying tear gas. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ukraine Police: Twenty Officers Hospitalized After Clashes With Far-Right Activists By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service March 10, 2019 Police in Ukraine say that 22 officers were injured in clashes with far-right protesters who tried to attack a presidential motorcade ahead of this month's election. Police said in a statement on March 10 that 19 officers were hospitalized the previous day in the city of Cherkasy, where supporters of the National Corps party tried to block President Petro Poroshenko's motorcade and called for arrests of figures linked to an alleged military corruption scandal. The clashes in Cherkasy erupted after Poroshenko made a speech for the March 31 presidential polls. Police said that two law enforcement officers were also injured in clashes with National Corps activists near the presidential offices in Kyiv, with one hospitalized. Criminal investigations have been opened into the violence in both Kyiv and Cherkasy, about 150 kilometers southeast of the capital, police said. A media investigation last week detailed alleged embezzlement schemes in Ukraine's military industry, including a factory controlled by Poroshenko. The investigation alleged that the son of close Poroshenko ally Oleh Hladkovskyy had organized a ring to smuggle spare military-equipment parts from Russia in 2015, a year after Moscow seized Ukraine's Crimea region and threw its support behind militant separatists in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. After the report was broadcast on YouTube on February 25, Poroshenko announced that a probe has been launched into the allegations. He also sacked Hladkovskyy from his post. With reporting by AFP Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-police- twenty-officers-hospitalized-after-clashes- with-far-right-activists/29813289.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address TORONTO, Feb. 19, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gran Colombia Gold Corp. (TSX: GCM; OTCQX: TPRFF) announced today that it sees opportunity in the evolving changes in Venezuela to recover and develop its gold exploration assets that were nationalized in 2011, adding to its pipeline of Latin America-based projects which could fuel the Companys mid- to long-term growth objectives. Gran Colombia recognizes Mr. Juan Guaido as the legitimate interim President of Venezuela and has communicated to its government the Company's firm intention to re-start its mining project in Venezuela as soon as circumstances allow. For the purposes of holding, developing and financing its Venezuelan assets and carrying out its Venezuelan investment strategy, Gran Colombia intends to spin off such assets into a separate listed special purpose vehicle. Through the spin off, Gran Colombia will retain a major stake in the new company while leveraging the capital markets to provide the funding required for exploration and development of the mining assets. Serafino Iacono, Executive Co-Chairman of Gran Colombia, stated: We are incredibly excited with the future prospects of Venezuela and are eager to be a partner in the reconstruction of the country. We have been successful in executing our turnaround strategy over the last couple of years, focused primarily on implementing our mining plan at our core producing asset, the Segovia Operations, which remains at the heart of our exploration and development programs for near-term growth. We believe Gran Colombia is uniquely positioned to use this experience to efficiently develop gold mining assets in Venezuela through a separate listed vehicle in a sustainable and environmentally responsible manner. We are the largest gold and silver producer in Colombia with a 2018 output of 218,001 ounces (equivalent to approximately 6.8 tons) of gold and our senior management team has unmatched experience in the Venezuelan greenstone belt, having also financed and developed what was, until the nationalization of the gold industry, the largest operating gold project in the country. Prior to nationalization of the gold industry in 2011, Medoro Resources Ltd. (Medoro, which merged into Gran Colombia in mid-2011) was the legal owner of the Increible 4A & 4B gold mining property in El Callao, State of Bolivar, an area in which close to US$110 million had previously been invested. Exploration for gold in Bolivar State dates back to before Venezuelan independence in 1811 and most likely prior to the Spanish occupation. The El Callao mining district itself is historically the most prolific gold producing region in Venezuela with a recorded output of 6 million ounces since 1870. Through its exploration work, Medoro had outlined a NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate with 950,000 ounces of gold in the Measured & Indicated category and a further 90,000 ounces of gold in the Inferred category. Medoro had also filed a development and mining plan and an environmental impact study before the Venezuelan authorities in order to start development of its project, in accordance with applicable regulations. Lombardo Paredes, CEO of Gran Colombia added: Our investment strategy in Venezuela, if we are given the opportunity, will include revitalizing other prospective assets in the El Callao area, such as the Sosa Mendez mine and the old Revemin processing plant, while working with the communities and the governmental authorities to formalize illegal miners, an area in which we have proven experience to foster economic activity and help the recovery from the current humanitarian crisis. Gran Colombia will provide further updates on this initiative as information becomes available. About Gran Colombia Gold Corp. Gran Colombia is a Canadian-based mid-tier gold producer with its primary focus in Colombia where it is currently the largest underground gold and silver producer with several mines in operation at its Segovia and Marmato Operations. Gran Colombia is continuing to focus on exploration, expansion and modernization activities at its high-grade Segovia Operations. Additional information on Gran Colombia can be found on its website at www.grancolombiagold.com and by reviewing its profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com . Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains "forward-looking information", which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect repayment of the Gold Notes. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Gran Colombia to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements are described under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form dated as of March 27, 2018 and Managements Discussion and Analysis dated as of November 13, 2018, both of which are available for view on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and Gran Colombia disclaims, other than as required by law, any obligation to update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, results, future events, circumstances, or if management's estimates or opinions should change, or otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. ATLANTA, March 05, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Huber Engineered Materials (HEM), a specialty engineered materials company owned by the J.M. Huber Corporation (Huber), announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement with Dunes Point Capital, LP to acquire Miller Chemical & Fertilizer , LLC (Miller). Miller, founded in 1937, has nearly 100 employees and is headquartered in Hanover, Pennsylvania where its manufacturing operations are located. The company manufactures and distributes crop protection and nutritional agrichemical products designed to improve plant and crop production quality and yield. Miller sells its products into the farming and agricultural industries in more than 90 countries via its global sales force of skilled agronomists and distributors, and targets the high value segment of fruits, nuts and vegetables. The acquisition of Miller furthers HEMs mission to build a diverse portfolio of small to medium sized, competitively advantaged businesses in the chemical and mineral markets, says Dan Krawczyk, President of HEM. We are excited to welcome Millers employees into the HEM organization and work with them to continue to serve their customers globally with world-class products and services. The current management team and employees will continue to operate Millers operations and serve the companys customers as a business unit within HEM. Huber looks forward to investing and growing the capabilities of the business for the long-term strategic needs of its customers. Says Mike Marberry, CEO & President of the J.M. Huber Corporation, This acquisition is a strategically important step in Hubers ongoing effort to diversify its overall portfolio with new specialty businesses that can grow and deliver significant value to their customers. This marks a significant milestone in HEMs history, and we look forward to introducing Millers employees to the Huber Principles, and working with them to expand this business on a global basis. About J.M. Huber Corporation J.M. Huber Corporation, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S.), operates as a Portfolio Management Company, which serves as an effective organizational structure for a diverse range of businesses. CP Kelco , Huber Engineered Materials , Huber Engineered Woods and Huber Resources Corp hold leadership positions in rapidly growing markets such as specialty chemicals and minerals, hydrocolloids and engineered woods, as well as timber management. Founded in 1883, Huber is one of the largest family-owned companies in the U.S. The diversified, multinational company creates products that are used in a broad range of consumer and industrial applications, including fire retardant additives and smoke suppressants, personal care, food, beverage, pharmaceuticals and building materials. About Huber Engineered Materials Huber Engineered Materials, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S.), is a global business focused on engineered specialty ingredients that enhance the performance, appeal and processing of a broad range of products used in industrial and consumer-based applications. With an expertise in inorganic materials, it has a portfolio of high value products: specialty alumina trihydrate, magnesium hydroxide, molybdate compounds and industrial, food and USP grade calcium carbonate. MEDIA CONTACT: Lea Volpe Director, Corporate Communications J.M. Huber Corporation 678.247.7128 phone lea.volpe@huber.com DORAL, Florida, March 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Earth Science Tech, Inc. (OTCQB: ETST) (ETST or the Company), an innovative biotech company focused on the cannabidiol (CBD), nutraceutical and pharmaceutical fields, medical devices, and research and development, announces that it has engaged Derek Lindsay as a consultant to manage compliance for the potential dual listing of the Companys common shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange (the CSE) in addition to its current listing on the OTCQB. Derek Lindsay assist ETST with the listing process on the CSE as previously announced by the Company and will implement an investor relation program and other items. Dual listing is a major achievement and one that can provide ETST access to new investors and capital, stated Mr. Lindsay. Considering that ETSTs R&D division is based in Canada, cross-listing appears well-aligned with the corporate vision. Once this milestone is complete, ongoing efforts will be needed to monitor and ensure compliance, build shareholder value, and communicate with investors. I look forward to supporting the Company in these endeavors. Derek Lindsay has solid experience in accelerating the growth of emerging private and public companies, serving as in various capacities that include investor, member of the management team or on the board of directors. His expertise includes capital raising, strategic advice, investor relations and risk management. ETST President and Chairman Nickolas Tabraue, stated, We believe Dereks expertise makes him the perfect fit to ensure that we improve communication with our shareholders and progress on the CSE listing. I plan on sharing further updates as we advance this initiative. About Earth Science Tech, Inc. (ETST) Earth Science Tech, Inc. (ETST) offers the highest purity and quality high-grade full spectrum cannabinoid oil on the market. There are positive results in studies on breast cancer and immune cells through the University of Central Oklahoma, in addition to studies through DV Biologics that prove the Companys CBD oil formulation lowers cortisol and functions as a neuro-protectant, with positive result case studies through key health organizations. ETST formulates, markets and distributes the CBD oil used for its studies to the public, offering the most effective quality of CBD on the market. To learn more, please visit: www.EarthScienceTech.com ETST currently has two wholly-owned subsidiaries and favored entity focused on developing its role as a world leader in the CBD space, expanding its work in the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors: Earth Science Pharmaceutical, Inc. Earth Science Pharmaceutical ("ESP") is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Earth Science Tech, committed to the development of low cost, non-invasive diagnostic tools, medical devices, testing processes and vaccines for sexually transmitted infections and/or diseases. ESP's CEO and chief science officer, Dr. Michel Aube, is leading the Companys research and development efforts. The Companys first medical device, Hygee, is a home kit designed for the detection of STIs, such as chlamydia, from a self-obtained gynecological specimen. ESP is working to develop and bring to market medical devices and vaccines that meet the specific needs of women. To learn more please visit: www.EarthSciencePharmaceutical.com Cannabis Therapeutics, Inc. Cannabis Therapeutics (CTI) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Earth Science Tech, Inc. poised to take a leadership role in the development of new, leading-edge cannabinoid-based pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products. CTI is invested in research and development to explore and harness the medicinal power of cannabidiol. The company holds three provisional application patents for a CBD product that is focused on developing treatments for breast and ovarian cancers, as well as two generic CBD based pharmaceutical drugs. To learn more please visit: www.CannabisThera.com Earth Science Foundation, Inc. Earth Science Foundation (ESF) is a favored entity of Earth Science Tech, Inc. ESF is in the process of becoming a non-profit organization to accept grants and donations to conduct further studies and help donate Earth Science Tech's effective CBD products to those in need. To learn more please visit: www.ETSTFoundtion.org SAFE HARBOR ACT: Forward-Looking Statements are included within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements regarding our expected future financial position, results of operations, cash flows, financing plans, business strategy, products and services, competitive positions, growth opportunities, plans and objectives of management for future operations, listing on the CSE, including words such as "anticipate," "if," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "could," "should," "will," and other similar expressions are forward-looking statements and involve risks, uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, which may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance, or achievements. We are under no obligation to (and expressly disclaim any such obligation to) update or alter our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Company Contact: www.EarthScienceTech.com Nickolas S. Tabraue President, Director & Chairman 305.615.2118 Office English German Growth in revenues amid challenging market conditions Steinhausen, March 11, 2019 - Schweiter Technologies enjoyed a successful 2018 business year in a market characterized by fluctuating demand. Net revenues rose to CHF 1,047.4 million (prior year: CHF 980.2 million), equivalent to an increase of 7% (5% in local currencies). Organic growth came to 2%. Owing to one-off positive effects the previous year (in particular a high single-digit million windfall profit from the sale of property), Group EBITDA amounted to CHF 111.0 million, just short of the prior-year figure of CHF 114.4 million. EBIT came to CHF 82.2 million (prior year: CHF 87.3 million). Athlone Extrusions, acquired in the previous year, made a positive contribution to both revenues and earnings. Net income from continuing operations declined to CHF 60.3 million (prior year: CHF 77.0 million) partly because of exchange rate losses following exchange rate gains in the amount of CHF 11.0 million in the previous year. Cash and cash equivalents came to more than CHF 108 million, after expenditure of about CHF 105 million for the Perspex acquisition and a dividend distribution of about CHF 64 million. The Board of Directors will propose paying a dividend of CHF 40 per bearer share at the General Meeting on April 11, 2019. The media conference will be held in Zurich at 11 a.m. today in the Marriott Hotel, Neumuhlequai 42. The 2018 Annual Report and the investor presentation can be downloaded from: http://www.schweiter.ch/s1a200/investoren/geschaftsberichte-prasentationen.html Key figures Schweiter Technologies Group (in CHF m) CHF) 2018 2017 + / - Net revenues 1'047.4 980.2 +7% EBITDA 111.0 114.4 - 3% as a % of net revenues 10.6% 11.7% EBIT 82.2 87.3 - 6% Net income from continuing operations 60.3 77.0 - 22% Net income from discontinued operations - 95.0 Total net income 60.3 172.0 - 65% 3A Composites 2018 was a challenging year divided into two halves. Whereas in the first half the mood was upbeat and the prospects for growth were good, in the second half sentiment slowly deteriorated especially in the Display business (Polycasa) and in Core Materials. However, the Architecture business in Asia and the Transportation business performed strongly in the second half. Display Demand in the European Display market benefited in the first half from the generally buoyant economic environment. In the second half, however, it failed to match the previous year's high sales volume. Uncertainty about the duration of the economic upturn compounded by expectations of declining raw material prices resulted in substantial destocking among customers, especially in the Clearsheet business, and consequently in weaker sales of acrylic products. Higher raw material prices than the previous year coupled with fiercer competition impacted negatively on profitability. The launch of two new Clearsheet product lines will broaden the product range and reinforce our market position.The Display business in the US lost some of its momentum in the second half and as a result did not manage to match the previous year's strong showing. Architecture The construction sector in Europe remained stable at a high level, even though performance varied in the individual markets. Whereas France, Turkey, and Eastern Europe reported a dip in sales revenues, UK recorded a gratifying revenue increase despite the uncertainty caused by Brexit. Italy, too, posted a positive revenue trend. The core markets - Germany, Switzerland, and Austria - matched the previous year's high revenues, and sales in Scandinavia and Benelux also reached the prior-year level. The Architecture business improved profitability on the back of technological improvements and process optimization despite higher raw material costs. The US construction sector remained very buoyant. Since Alucobond is still the brand for premium aluminum composites that is most often specified by architects, revenues and earnings grew by double-digit figures. The Architecture business in Asia also posted double-digit growth in revenues and earnings over the whole year thanks to a very solid second half. Growth was driven mainly by a large number of construction projects in China, which more than made up for weaker demand in the Middle East in the first half. Demand is increasingly shifting to high-quality fire-retardant and non-combustible cladding panels, a market in which 3A Composites is ideally positioned. Uncertainty surrounding anticipated changes to fire protection regulations led to a certain amount of restraint in some markets. Core Materials The Core Materials business turned in a satisfactory performance over the last three quarters after getting off to a slow start in the first quarter. Demand from wind energy customers continued to increase, though the regional differences were considerable. Whereas demand firmed up substantially especially in China, the Indian market continued to suffer from muted demand. Europe and the US benefited in both the wind and the non-wind sectors from a strong business climate and buoyant demand, especially in the marine products market. Profitability was held in check by higher raw material costs and by the price pressures exerted by global OEMs. A number of measures - product portfolio streamlining, steps to boost efficiency, and selective price increases - were taken to enhance profitability. Transportation The Transportation business picked up strongly in the second half following a subdued first half. Revenues from lightweight bus and RV components as well as from train front-ends posted double-digit growth versus the previous year. The steep rise in revenues from these two product groups almost completely compensated for the lower sales of interior products and function-integrated sandwich systems for rail vehicles. Customer-related delays in two major projects in Switzerland and in China resulted in lower sales of flooring systems year-on-year. Owing to long-term contractual obligations, there was a certain time lag in passing on to customers the higher costs for raw materials and prefabricated parts. The resulting additional costs, however, were offset by rigorous implementation of measures designed to boost efficiency. Outlook Despite the ongoing weakness of demand in the Display business for acrylic products, Schweiter got off to a good start this year and expects a positive business performance. The economic outlook in the core markets of 3A Composites remains favorable. However, the current trade dispute between the US and China is causing some unease. In operational terms, the integration of the Perspex companies acquired at the end of 2018 will durably strengthen the Display business and make a positive contribution to revenues and earnings. The Architecture business should also continue to perform strongly on the back of the buoyant construction sector in Europe, the US, and Asia. The trend to non-combustible cladding panels coupled with the strong market position of 3A Composites is a medium-term sales driver in the Architecture business. The Core Materials business looks set to benefit from the ongoing strong demand in China, Europe, and the US. Important trends such as the reduction of dependence on fossil fuels, worldwide efforts to cut back CO2 emissions, measures to improve air quality especially in China, along with technical innovations are driving medium-term growth in wind energy as well as in the marine and automotive sectors. The Transportation business has a good order backlog. The trend to weight-saving solutions for buses, RVs and rail vehicles is a key factor driving growth in this area. Change in management Jan Jenisch will not stand for re-election to the Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting on April 11, 2019, after five years as a member of the Board of Directors due to time constraints. The Board of Directors sincerely thanks Jan Jenisch for his valuable commitment in recent years. Georg Reif, Chief Technology Officer of 3A Composites and a member of the Management of Schweiter Technologies, has decided to take early retirement in the first half of 2019. The Board of Directors and Management thank Georg Reif for his many years of successful service. For further information please contact: Martin Kloti, CFO Tel. +41 41 757 77 00, Fax +41 41 757 70 01, martin.kloeti@schweiter.com Please find the Media release in the PDF attached: McLean, VA, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Newgen Software Inc., a provider of banking software solutions, today announced its participation at the CUNA Governmental Affairs Conference. Newgen experts will showcase solutions for credit unions such as consumer & commercial lending and member on-boarding Booth #129. Credit Union experts can get to understand how they can drive digital transformation and improve overall business profitability. With the increase in customer expectations and regulatory compliances, Credit Unions require significant resources to remain competitive. They need to deliver superior products and a differentiating experience. Newgens tailored solutions allow Credit Unions to enhance member engagement, drive profitability and improve compliance adherence, said Diwakar Nigam, MD and Chairman, Newgen Software. Newgen offers configurable solutions, built on robust Business Process Management (BPM) platform, cater to the end-to-end automation of key processes. These solutions are configurable to effectively manage exceptions and are robust enough to handle immense volume and scale. A core BPM framework makes the solutions adaptable and responsive to the extent that organizations can independently run most of the changes without much dependency. These solutions help credit unions to harness automation as a tool to deliver superior products and a differentiating experience to members. Newgens Retail Loan Origination Solution (RLOS), Commercial Loan Origination Solution (CLOS) come bundled with member on-boarding module, which allows straight through processing, faster-go-to-market, and unified front and back offices. These solutions help in seamless integration with credit unions' core system, rating applications, credit bureau systems etc. They allow financial institutions to avail the benefits of both the worlds, i.e. buy and build. This means, they get ready-made solutions that are domain rich and can be deployed on day one along with the benefits of enhancing their capabilities. The CUNA Governmental Affairs Conference will be held at Washington Convention Centre, Washington D.C. from 10th 14th March 2019. About Newgen Software Inc. Newgen Software Inc. is a global provider in banking process automation with more than 200+ banks and financial services institutions as its clients. Newgens banking process management framework automates critical business processes for banking institutions across commercial lending, consumer lending, customer onboarding, online account opening, trade finance, digital and mobile customer experience strategy. Newgen offers flexible on-premise and cloud-based solutions to its banking customers. For more information, please visit https://newgensoft.com/ Connect with us: Media Contact: Asif Khan asif.khan@newgensoft.com English German Financial results for the full-year 2018 Strong increase in order entry to CHF 627.0 million (2017: CHF 564.3 million) Full-year growth of 10.3% in local currencies or 11.1% in Swiss francs Sales of CHF 593.8 million (2017: CHF 548.6 million) Full-year growth of 7.4% in local currencies and 8.2% in Swiss francs Full-year organic growth of 6.8% in local currencies and 7.7% in Swiss francs Full-year operating profit before depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of CHF 110.3 million (2017: CHF 104.6 million) Reported EBITDA margin of 18.6% (2017: 19.1%), after costs related to the acquisition of NuGEN Technologies EBITDA margin of 19.4%, excluding all effects related to the NuGEN acquisition Full-year net profit of CHF 70.7 million (2017: CHF 65.9 million); increase of 7.2% Net profit margin of 11.9%, including all acquisition-related costs (2017: 12.0%) Increase in earnings per share to CHF 6.02 (2017: CHF 5.67) Cash flow from operating activities of CHF 92.7 million (2017: CHF 99.4 million) Operating highlights 2018 and other important information Market launch of Fluent Gx platform variant for regulated markets; successful registration as a Class I medical device in the US Considerable progress made with several development projects in the Partnering Business A cceleration of broad genomics strategy with the acquisition of NuGEN Technologies Increase in the dividend proposed from CHF 2.00 to CHF 2.10 per share Outlook 2019 Full-year s ales are forecast to increase in the mid- to high single-digit percentage range in local currencies Despite accounting for all costs related to the acquisition of NuGen Technologies, reported EBITDA margin expected to expand to around 19% of sales Mannedorf, Switzerland, March 11, 2019 The Tecan Group (SIX Swiss Exchange: TECN) today announced that the Company recorded strong financial results in the second half and another very successful business year in 2018. Tecan CEO Dr David Martyr commented: I am very pleased with Tecans financial performance in 2018. We recorded another year of strong sales growth, a further increase in underlying profitability and a higher net profit. Of particular note is our high order entry in the second half of the year, leading to a substantial increase in order backlog a solid basis to head into 2019. Dr Achim von Leoprechting, Executive Vice President and designated CEO of Tecan said: Tecan is in a strong position to benefit from the tremendous opportunities that the Century of Biology has to offer. With an end-user as well as an OEM business, Tecan has a unique position to bridge from research to diagnostics settings and thereby help our customers with the discovery of novel medications all the way to better diagnosis of diseases. I very much look ahead to another promising business year in 2019 and beyond. Financial results full-year and second half of 2018 In the year under review, Tecan grew its order entry by 11.1% to CHF 627.0 million (2017: CHF 564.1 million), which corresponds to an increase of 10.3% in local currencies. With an increase of 20.0% in local currencies and by 19.9% in Swiss francs, orders grew particularly strongly in the second half of 2018. Both business segments contributed with double-digit growth rates in the second half. Thanks to the strong order entry, the order backlog was sharply higher as of December 31, 2018. The order backlog also includes a large order in the Life Sciences Business for customized solutions which is likely to be recognized as revenues in 2020. Sales for fiscal year 2018 climbed by 7.4% in local currencies or 8.2% in Swiss francs to CHF 593.8 million (2017: CHF 548.6 million). On an organic basis, sales grew by 6.8% in local currencies and 7.7% in Swiss francs. Sales continued their positive trajectory in the second half of the year as well, growing by 7.8% in local currencies and 8.1% in Swiss francs. On an organic basis, excluding sales from NuGEN (now Tecan Genomics) in the last four months of the year, sales grew by 6.8% in local currencies and 7.0% in Swiss francs. Recurring sales of services and consumables increased for the full year 2018 by 5.9% in local currencies and 6.7% in Swiss francs, and therefore amounted to 41.8% of total sales (2017: 42.4%). The operating profit before depreciation and amortization (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization; EBITDA) rose by 5.4% to CHF 110.3 million in the fiscal year (2017: CHF 104.6 million), after acquisition-related costs in a mid-single-digit million Swiss franc amount. The reported EBITDA margin thus reached 18.6% of sales (2017: 19.1%; 18.4% excluding non-recurring positive effects). The EBITDA margin excluding all effects related to the NuGEN acquisition increased to 19.4%, delivering on the margin commitment for the year of more than 19%. Reported net profit for the year 2018 rose by 7.2% to CHF 70.7 million (2017: CHF 65.9 million). Net profit increased less than operating profit as a lower financial result was recorded due to currency hedging losses. The net profit margin was almost unchanged at 11.9% of sales (2017: 12.0%), while basic earnings per share increased to CHF 6.02 (2017: CHF 5.67). Cash flow from operating activities reached CHF 92.7 million (2017: CHF 99.4 million), thereby corresponding to 15.6% of sales. Information by business segment Life Sciences Business (end-customer business) Sales in the Life Sciences Business increased by 7.0% to CHF 328.2 million in 2018 (2017: CHF 306.9 million) and were 5.6% above the prior-year period in local currencies. On an organic basis (excluding sales from NuGEN for the last four months), sales in 2018 rose by 4.6% in local currencies. After a moderate start into the year, based on a high comparative basis from the prior-year period, sales in the Life Sciences Business accelerated significantly in the second half and were 11.3% above the prior-year period, corresponding to an increase of 10.8% in local currencies. On an organic basis, sales in the second half grew by 8.9% in local currencies. The newly launched Fluent Gx platform variant enjoyed strong demand on the market, which contributed significantly to this growth. Full-year order entry in the Life Sciences Business segment grew with a double-digit rate, significantly exceeding sales, which resulted in a sharp rise in order backlog. Reported operating profit in this segment (earnings before interest and taxes; EBIT) rose to CHF 51.3 million (2017: CHF 50.5 million), despite the cost impact from the NuGEN acquisition. The corresponding operating profit margin reached 14.8% of sales (2017: 15.9%). Partnering Business (OEM business) The Partnering Business generated sales of CHF 265.6 million during the year under review (2017: CHF 241.7 million), which corresponds to an increase of 9.7% in local currencies and 9.9% in Swiss francs. The segment posted continued strong growth from existing instrument platforms, first contributions from newly launched analyzers and the consumables business. After posting significant growth in the first half of the year, sales in the second half grew by 3.9% in Swiss francs and in local currencies. Also in the Partnering Business order entry increased at a high rate in fiscal year 2018. Operating profit in this segment (earnings before interest and taxes; EBIT) rose by 15.9% to CHF 48.6 million (2017: CHF 42.0 million). This positive performance is primarily a result of sales growth and lower acquisition-related integration costs compared to the prior-year period. The operating profit margin improved by 100 basis points to 18.2% of sales (2017: 17.2%). Additional information Regional development In Europe, Tecans full-year sales increased by 12.1% in local currencies and by 14.0% in Swiss francs, with both business segments performing strongly. The Life Sciences Business grew particularly strongly in the second half of the year with sales increasing by 17.1% in local currencies. In North America, sales grew by 4.7% in local currencies and 4.2% in Swiss francs in 2018. The Life Sciences Business recorded solid growth in this region. The Partnering Business posted moderate growth, mainly due to the high comparative basis of the prior-year period. With a growth rate of 10.9% in local currencies, sales accelerated markedly in the second half of the year. In Asia, Tecan posted an increase in sales of 2.5% in local currencies and 4.2% in Swiss francs. Sales in the Life Sciences Business were 2.6% below the prior year, while sales in the Partnering Business grew by 18.3%, particularly boosted by strong growth in China. Operating performance 2018 The Fluent Gx platform variant was developed for the automation of laboratory workflows in regulated markets and was launched in various regions in the first half of 2018. After successful registration as a Class I medical device, the platform also became available in the US. Its specific functionalities, which facilitate greater process security, traceability of samples and stricter user management, have met with a lot of interest and several major lab chains ordered multiple instruments at once. In August, Tecan announced the acquisition of US-based NuGEN Technologies, Inc. (now called Tecan Genomics). The company, since September 2018 part of the Tecan Group, is a leading provider for innovative next-generation sequencing (NGS) sample preparation solutions, the fastest growing field within the genomics area. Through this acquisition, Tecan expands its dedicated solutions offering into the new market segment of NGS reagents, accelerating its broad genomics strategy and further increasing recurring revenues. Overall R&D activities and gross expenses were higher compared to the prior-year period, however due to customer funding of projects and higher capitalized development costs, net R&D expenses were at a similar level. Tecan made considerable progress with a number of development projects in the Partnering Business in 2018. More than five projects are currently in the development phase, the sales potential of which ranges from single-digit to clear double-digit million amounts in Swiss francs per year. Several market launches are expected for 2019. Strong balance sheet high equity ratio Tecans equity ratio reached 71.4% as of December 31, 2018 (December 31, 2017: 68.4%). Net liquidity (cash and cash equivalents minus bank liabilities and loans) reached CHF 289.6 million, despite having paid the purchase consideration for the NuGEN acquisition fully in cash in the second half of the year (June 30, 2018: CHF 284.1 million; December 31, 2017: CHF 290.7 million). The companys share capital was CHF 1,176,637 as at the reporting date of December 31, 2018 (December 31, 2017: CHF 1,166,487), consisting of 11,766,372 registered shares with a nominal value of CHF 0.10. On the basis of the increase of net profit in 2018 and an ongoing positive business perspective, the Board of Directors will propose at the Companys Annual General Meeting an increase in the dividend from CHF 2.00 to CHF 2.10 per share. Outlook 2019 Tecan expects sales growth for full-year 2019 to be in the mid- to high single-digit percentage range in local currencies. This forecast does not take account of potential additional acquisitions during the course of the year. As previously communicated, integration costs together with short term lower margins associated with the NuGEN acquisition will have an impact on Tecans reported EBITDA margin. These acquisition-related costs are expected to add up to a high single-digit million Swiss franc amount in 2019. However, Tecan anticipates that costs related to the NuGEN acquisition as well as the CEO transition will be largely offset by gains in profitability due to the adoption of the IFRS 16 accounting standard regarding leases that becomes effective in 2019. The IFRS 16 gains will be recurring. Tecan therefore anticipates that the overall reported EBITDA margin will expand to around 19% of sales in 2019. The expectations for profitability are based on an average exchange rate forecast for full-year 2019 of one euro equaling CHF 1.14 (2018: 1.15) and one US dollar equaling CHF 0.99 (2018: 0.96). Again, no contributions or costs linked to further acquisitions are taken into account. Financial Report and Webcast The full 2018 Financial Report can be accessed on the companys website www.tecan.com under Investor Relations. An iPad app for the Tecan Financial Reports is also available from the App Store. Tecan will hold an analyst and media conference to discuss the 2018 annual results today at 09:00 am (CET). The presentation will also be relayed by live audio webcast, which interested parties can access at www.tecan.com. A link to the webcast will be provided immediately prior to the event. The dial-in numbers for the conference call are as follows: For participants from Europe: +41 (0)58 310 50 00 or +44 207 107 0613 (UK) For participants from the US: +1 (1) 631 570 5613 Participants should if possible dial in 15 minutes before the start of the event. Key upcoming dates The Annual General Meeting of Tecans shareholders will take place in Pfaffikon (SZ) on April 16, 2019. The 2019 Interim Report will be published on August 15, 2019. About Tecan Tecan (www.tecan.com) is a leading global provider of laboratory instruments and solutions in biopharmaceuticals, forensics and clinical diagnostics. The company specializes in the development, production and distribution of automation solutions for laboratories in the life sciences sector. Its clients include pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, university research departments, forensic and diagnostic laboratories. As an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), Tecan is also a leader in developing and manufacturing OEM instruments and components that are then distributed by partner companies. Founded in Switzerland in 1980, the company has manufacturing, research and development sites in both Europe and North America and maintains a sales and service network in 52 countries. Registered shares of Tecan Group are traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange (TECN; ISIN CH0012100191). For further information: Tecan Group Dr Rudolf Eugster Martin Brandle Chief Financial Officer Vice President, Communications & Investor Relations investor@tecan.com Tel. +41 (0) 44 922 84 30 www.tecan.com Fax +41 (0) 44 922 88 89 Attachment NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN AUSTRALIA, CANADA, JAPAN OR THE UNITED STATES OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION WOULD BE UNLAWFUL. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF ANY OF THE SECURITIES DESCRIBED HEREIN. Reference is made to the stock exchange release by Awilco Drilling Plc (the "Company") on 8 March 2019 regarding the successfully completed private placement (the "Private Placement"). The Board of Directors of the Company intends to carry out a subsequent offering of up to 800,000 new shares in the Company (the "Offer Shares") for gross proceeds of up to approximately USD 3 million (~NOK 25.4 million) (the "Subsequent Offering"). The Subsequent Offering will, on the basis of a prospectus approved by the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority, expected to be launched in May 2019, be directed towards shareholders who (i) are shareholders in the Company as of 8 March 2019, as registered as shareholders in the Company's register of shareholders with the Norwegian Central Securities Depositary (Nw. Verdipapirsentralen) (the "VPS") as of expiry of 12 March 2019 (the "Record Date"), (ii) were not allocated shares in the Private Placement, and (iii) are not resident in a jurisdiction where such offering would be unlawful or, for jurisdictions other than Norway, would require any prospectus, filing, registration or similar action (the "Eligible Shareholders"). The Eligible Shareholders will be granted non-transferable subscription rights based on their shareholding in the Company as of the Record Date. The subscription price in the Subsequent Offering is NOK 31.80 per Offer Share, being the same as the subscription price in the Private Placement. The subscription period in the Subsequent Offering will commence shortly after publication of the prospectus (expected in May 2019). The following key information is given with respect to the Subsequent Offering: Date of announcement of terms of Subsequent Offering: 11 March 2019 Last day including right to receive subscription rights: 8 March 2019 First day excluding right to receive subscription rights: 11 March 2019 Record date: 12 March 2019 Date of approval of Subsequent Offering: 10 March 2019 Maximum number of Offer Shares: up to 800,000 shares Subscription price: NOK 31.80 per Offer Share For further information, please contact: Cathrine Haavind, IR Manager Phone: +47 93 42 84 64 Email: ch@awilcodrilling.com This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. Important information: The release is not for publication or distribution, in whole or in part directly or indirectly, in or into Australia, Canada, Japan or the United States (including its territories and possessions, any state of the United States and the District of Columbia) or any other jurisdiction in which the release, publication or distribution would be unlawful. This release is an announcement issued pursuant to legal information obligations, and is subject of the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. It is issued for information purposes only, and does not constitute or form part of any offer or solicitation to purchase or subscribe for securities, in the United States or in any other jurisdiction. The securities mentioned herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "US Securities Act"). The securities may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the US Securities Act. The Company does not intend to register any portion of the offering of the securities in the United States or to conduct a public offering of the securities in the United States. Copies of this announcement are not being made and may not be distributed or sent into Australia, Canada, Japan or the United States. The issue, exercise, purchase or sale of subscription rights and the subscription or purchase of shares in the Company are subject to specific legal or regulatory restrictions in certain jurisdictions. Neither the Company nor the Manager assumes any responsibility in the event there is a violation by any person of such restrictions. The distribution of this release may in certain jurisdictions be restricted by law. Persons into whose possession this release comes should inform themselves about and observe any such restrictions. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. The Managers are acting for the Company and no one else in connection with the Private Placement and will not be responsible to anyone other than the Company for providing the protections afforded to their respective clients or for providing advice in relation to the Private Placement and/or any other matter referred to in this release. Forward-looking statements: This release and any materials distributed in connection with this release may contain certain forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they reflect the Company's current expectations and assumptions as to future events and circumstances that may not prove accurate. A number of material factors could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. BOSTON and BEIJING, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a court order dated March 6, 2019, the Honorable J. Travis Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery ordered Sinovac Biotech Ltd. (the Company ) to maintain the status quo under its Rights Agreement dated March 28, 2016 (as amended, the Rights Agreement , also known as the Poison Pill ) by not effecting or causing an exchange of any of the rights issued under the Rights Agreement until final disposition of the litigation in Delaware between the Company, on the one hand, and 1Globe Capital LLC ( 1Globe ) and certain other shareholders of the Company (together with 1Globe, the Defendant Shareholders ), on the other hand. In addition, on March 7, 2019, after an initial hearing on 1Globes pending application for injunction relief, the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (in the Court of Appeal) also ordered the Company to give an undertaking in broad terms, including not taking any steps to operate the Rights Agreement in any way that affects 1Globes shareholding or affects any of 1Globes rights as shareholder or reduces the proportion of 1Globes shareholding in the Company. The Rights Agreement was adopted by the board of directors of the Company controlled by the Disputed Directors as defined below (the Disputed Board ) on March 26, 2016 to entrench themselves after the buyout group affiliated with the Disputed Directors (the Management Buyout Group ) proposed to take the Company private given an anticipated higher valuation of the Company in Chinas markets. 1Globe, a major shareholder which was invited to roll over its shares with the Management Buyout Group in such proposed privatization, requested that the Disputed Board run a fair and transparent sale process with consideration of the minority shareholders. The Disputed Board nevertheless approved the Management Buyout Groups offer of $7.00 per share and rejected a competing offer of $8.00 per share. At the Companys annual meeting held on February 6, 2018 (the 2018 AGM ), over 90% of the shareholders in attendance in person or by proxy, including 1Globe, voted against the re-election of Weidong Yin, Kenneth Lee, Meng Mei and Simon Anderson (the Disputed Directors ) as directors of the Company and for a new slate of directors nominated by OrbiMed Advisors LLC. The newly elected board subsequently removed Weidong Yin as its CEO for a convicted bribery charge and Nan Wang as its CFO for breach of fiduciary duties (the Former Management ). Since the 2018 AGM, the Disputed Board has refused to transfer management control to the elected new board and has brought multiple frivolous lawsuits using Company resources to retaliate against all shareholders who voted against the re-election of the Disputed Directors, including the pending litigation against the Defendant Shareholders in the Delaware Court of Chancery (the Pending Delaware Case ) which seeks to determine whether the Defendant Shareholders who voted against the Disputed Directors had triggered the Rights Agreement. 1Globe, together with other Defendant Shareholders, continues to defend against these litigations. The Disputed Directors and Former Management have taken a series of further actions to entrench themselves since the 2018 AGM, including issuing 11,800,000 Company common shares to Vivo Capital, LLC and Prime Success, L.P. on July 2, 2018 for consideration payable in promissory notes at a discounted price compared to an existing cash offer price by PKV-Sinobioway ( PKV ). Mr. Shan Fu, a partner at Vivo Capital, purportedly joined the Disputed Board in conjunction with such private placement. On February 18, 2019, the Disputed Board purportedly determined that 1Globe and all other shareholders that voted against the Disputed Directors at the 2018 AGM (representing about 50% of all shares outstanding) constituted Acquiring Persons and therefore triggered the Poison Pill. The Disputed Board did not establish a legitimate basis for such determination or explain why it made such determination over a year after the purported trigger event had occurred without waiting for the result of the Pending Delaware Case which the Company initiated. The intent of the Disputed Board and Former Management is to greatly dilute all shareholders who voted against their re-election through the Poison Pill and to gain control of more than 50% of the Company shares in order to remove any resistance to their goal of acquiring the Company at a discount. 1Globe welcomes the orders from both the Delaware Court of Chancery and the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (the Court of Appeal), which stop, pending further proceedings in each jurisdiction, the Disputed Boards plan to unilaterally dilute all shareholders who voted against the Disputed Directors. We will continue to contest through appeal and other legal channels the validity of the election of the Disputed Directors as directors of the Company at the 2018 AGM and consequentially the validity of the corporate actions taken by the Disputed Board thereafter. About 1Globe Capital LLC 1Globe Capital LLC, an investment company wholly owned by 1Globe Holdings, is dedicated to investment in healthcare and high-tech sectors through its public and private divisions. Photocat's offering on how to improve the environment and improve air quality continues to increase. The latest offering targets asphalt roads in new road construction. This is the first and only technology to implement photocatalytic capabilities in a road when it is being laid. The first project using the new technology will be the upcoming expansion of the Port of Skagen, a harbour in the north of Jutland in Denmark. The product will help the harbour improve air quality by lowering the NOx level and is a milestone case for Photocat and the Port of Skagen towards a sustainable future and a collaboration for the UN Sustainable Development Goal 11. The Port of Skagen has received a grant to fund the testing of the new photocatalytic asphalt solution through the DUAL Port project cooperation. Photocat is currently in the process of identifying potential road contractors to implement the technology in planned and future road projects in Denmark. Further Photocat works with international partner and manufacturer of granules to make the international launch of the technology. It is expected that the technology first will be marketed in Germany and Denmark. Photocats holds a leading position in its current markets (Canada, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Spain and Sweden) where it is recognized as the leading quality provider of photocatalytic technology. For More Information, Please Contact: Michael Humle, Tel: +45 2210 2523 e-mail: michael@photocat.net Photocat A/S is obliged to publisize this information in accordance with the EU Market Abuse regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out above, at CET 09:09 on March 8th 2019. About Photocat: Photocat manufactures patented coating materials for both outdoor and indoor applications with the effect to degrade NOx and VOCs when exposed to light. Both NOx and VOCs are severely damaging to human health. Photocats patented technology is a very efficient and an economically viable alternative to many of the traditional technologies targeting NOx (e.g. bus catalysts, flue gas cleaning etc.). Photocats shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm, First North with the ticker symbol PCAT. The companys Certified Advisor is Mangold Fondkommission AB, phone: 08-50301550, e-mail: ca@mangold.se. English Swedish AB Industrivarden (publ) will hold its Annual General Meeting at 2 p.m. on April 17, 2019, at Grand Hotel, Vintertradgarden (entrance at the corner of Stallgatan/Blasieholmsgatan), in Stockholm. Registration opens at 1 p.m., during which Industrivardens 75-year anniversary will be celebrated with light refreshments. As is customary, a few of Industrivardens portfolio companies will present their operations. Right to attend and notification Those who on April 11, 2019, are registered as shareholders in the shareholder register maintained by Euroclear Sweden AB and who have notified the Company of their intention to attend the Annual General Meeting by no later than April 11, 2019, have the right to attend the Annual General Meeting. Notification may be made by post to AB Industrivarden, Annual General Meeting 2019, c/o Euroclear Sweden AB, Box 191, SE-101 23 Stockholm, Sweden; by phone at +46 (0)8 402 92 86; or by electronic form on Industrivardens website, www.industrivarden.net. Upon notification, shareholders must provide their name, personal identity number/corporate identity number, address, phone number, and number of assistants (maximum two), if any. Proxies, certificates of incorporation and other authorization documents must be on hand at the Annual General Meeting, and to facilitate entry to the meeting, they should be submitted to the Company no later than April 11, 2019. Any proxies must be shown in original and may not be older than one year unless a longer validity period (maximum five years) is stated in the proxy. The Company provides proxy forms on its website, www.industrivarden.net. Shareholders whose shares are registered in the name of a nominee must, in order to be entitled to attend the meeting, in addition to the above notification to attend the meeting, request that their nominee re-register their shares in their own name, so that the shareholder is registered in the shareholder register on April 11, 2019. Such registration may be temporary. Shareholders who wish to register their shares in their own name should inform their nominee well in advance of April 11, 2019. For information on Industrivardens processing of personal data in relation to the Annual General Meeting 2019, see the privacy notice on the companys website www.industrivarden.net. The Boards proposed agenda 1. Opening of the meeting 2. Election of a chairman to preside over the Annual General Meeting 3. Drawing-up and approval of the register of voters 4. Approval of the agenda 5. Election of persons to check the minutes 6. Decision as to whether the Annual General Meeting has been duly convened 7. Presentation of: a. the annual report and audit report, and of the consolidated accounts and audit report for the Group b. the auditors statement on whether the guidelines for executive compensation, which have applied since the previous Annual General Meeting, have been followed c. the Boards proposed distribution of earnings and statement in support of such proposal 8. Address by the CEO 9. Decisions concerning: a. adoption of the Income Statement and Balance Sheet, and the Consolidated Income Statement and Consolidated Balance Sheet b. distribution of the Companys earnings as shown in the adopted Balance Sheet c. the record date, in the event the Annual General Meeting resolves to distribute earnings d. discharge from liability to the Company of the members of the Board of Directors and the CEO 10. Decision on the number of directors 11. Decision regarding directors fees for each of the Company directors 12. Election of board of directors and the Chairman of the Board The Nomination Committees proposal: a. Par Boman (re-election) b. Christian Caspar (re-election) c. Bengt Kjell (re-election) d. Nina Linander (re-election) e. Fredrik Lundberg (re-election) f. Annika Lundius (re-election) g. Lars Pettersson (re-election) h. Helena Stjernholm (re-election) i. Fredrik Lundberg as Chairman of the Board (re-election) 13. Decision on the number of auditors 14. Decision on the auditors fees 15. Election of auditor 16. Decision on guidelines for executive compensation 17. Decision on a long-term share savings program 18. Closing of the Annual General Meeting The Boards other proposals Dividend and record date The Board of Directors propose a dividend of SEK 5.75 per share. April 23, 2019, has been proposed as the record date for payment of the dividend. Provided that the Annual General Meeting votes in favor of this proposal, dividends are expected to be sent out via Euroclear Sweden AB on April 26, 2019. Guidelines for compensation of senior executives The Board of Directors proposes that the meeting resolve on the following guidelines for compensation of senior executives. The proposal is in its entirety consistent with the guidelines resolved by the 2018 Annual General Meeting. Compensation paid to the CEO and other members of the executive management shall consist of a base salary, variable salary, other benefits and pension. The total compensation should correspond to market terms and be competitive, and shall commensurate with the executives responsibilities and authority. The variable salary consists of a short-term variable salary component (yearly) and a long-term variable salary component. The short-term variable salary component is based on individually set goals, shall have a cap, and never exceed fifty (50) percent of the base salary. The long-term variable salary is based on the long-term growth in the Companys share price and shall have a cap. None of the variable components shall be pensionable. Upon termination of an executives employment contract by the Company, up to a maximum of a two-year notice period applies. No severance pay should be payable. Pension benefits shall in all material respects be defined-contribution, and give the members of the executive management the right to retirement benefits from 60 or 65 years of age, depending on their position. The Board may depart from these guidelines if there are special reasons for doing so in individual cases. Long-term share savings program Background Since 2012 the Annual General Meetings have resolved on the implementation of long-term share saving programs for employees of the Company. The share savings program (the Program) now proposed by the Board of Directors to the 2019 Annual General Meeting corresponds in all material respects with the program adopted by the 2018 Annual General Meeting. The Program entails that the employee after three years receives so-called matching shares and, if the performance conditions are fulfilled, so-called performance shares, provided that the employee has invested a portion of his or her base salary in Industrivarden shares and that the participant has not given notice or has not been served notice of termination at the time of the shares were granted. The purpose of the Program is to encourage Industrivardens employees to increase their shareholdings and thereby further emphasize long-term shareholder value. The share savings program is deemed to increase Industrivardens prospects for retaining and recruiting competent employees as well as the employees interest and involvement in Industrivardens business and development. The performance condition, which is based on the total return for Industrivarden shares during the term of the Program, is assessed to further enhance the participants long-term commitment and the mutual interests between Industrivardens shareholders and employees. The Program is intended to be annually recurring and constitute the form of long-term variable salary. The Board of Directors thus proposes that the 2019 Annual General Meeting resolve to implement a long-term share savings program for no more than 20 employees of Industrivarden. The Board of Directors proposal for resolution The Board of Directors proposes that the Annual General Meeting resolve to implement the Program based on the terms and conditions set out below. a. The Program is open to a maximum of 5 members of Industrivardens management (Management), to a maximum of 6 key persons employed at Industrivarden (Key Persons), and to other permanent employees of Industrivarden who are not Management or Key Persons (Employees), however in total a maximum of 20 permanent employees of Industrivarden. b. Under the terms of the Program, Management, Key Persons and Employees are offered the opportunity to, provided that they have made an investment of their own in Class C shares in Industrivarden (Savings Shares) during the Acquisition Period (defined in item c below), from a designated third party at the end of the Lock-in Period (defined in point d below) be granted 0.5 Class C shares in Industrivarden free of charge (Matching Shares) per Savings Share. The Program also entails that Management, Key Persons and Employees, free of charge and in addition to granted Matching Shares, may be granted additional Class C shares based on the total return of Class C shares during the Lock-in Period compared with the SIXRX total return index during the same period of time (Performance Shares), in accordance with the following: Provided that the average annual total return for the Class C shares during the Lock-in Period is equal to or exceeds SIXRX during the same period of time, Management may be granted 1.0 Performance Share, Key Persons may be granted 0.5 Performance Share, and Employees may be granted 0.5 Performance Share. Provided that the average annual total return of the Class C share during the Lock-in Period exceeds SIXRX by two (2) percentage points per year during the same period of time, Management may additionally be granted 1.0 Performance Share and Key Persons may additionally be granted 0.5 Performance Share. In total, the Program thus entails that Management may be granted 2.5 shares per Savings Share, that Key Persons may be granted 1.5 shares per Savings Share, and that Employees may be granted 1.0 share per Savings Share. c. The maximum number of Savings Shares that each program participant may acquire is limited in such way that Savings Shares may be acquired for an amount corresponding to a maximum of ten (10) percent of the participants gross annual base salary for 2019. Acquisition of Savings Shares shall take place during the period July 19 - October 31, 2019, however with a right for the Board of Directors to prolong the period in certain circumstances (the Acquisition Period). d. Grants of Matching Shares and Performance Shares are expected to take place shortly after the publication of Industrivardens third quarter interim report for 2022. The time from the last day of the Acquisition Period to the date of publication of Industrivardens third quarter interim report 2022, is defined as the Lock-in Period. e. In order for a program participant to be granted Matching Shares and Performance Shares it is required that, with certain specific exemptions, the participant has not been given notice or has not been served notice of termination of employment in Industrivarden during the Lock-in Period and that the participant, throughout the Lock-in Period, has retained the Savings Shares. Saving Shares disposed of prior to the expiration of the Lock-in Period will therefore not entitle to any grants of Matching Shares or Performance Shares. Should a program participant retire during the Lock-up Period, the entitlement to receive allotment of Matching Shares and Performance Shares shall be reduced in proportion to the time remaining in the Lock-in Period. f. The Program shall comprise a maximum of 50,000 shares of Class C shares in Industrivarden. Should Savings Shares be acquired at a share price such that the total number of Matching Shares and Performance Shares exceeds 50,000, the number of Matching Shares and Performance Shares that may be transferred to the program participants will be proportionally reduced. g. The Board of Directors shall be authorized to establish the detailed terms and conditions for the Program. h. In the event significant changes occur in Industrivarden or the market, or in the event the costs for the Program significantly exceed the estimated costs, and this, in the opinion of the Board of Directors, results in a situation where the conditions for grants of Matching Shares and Performance Shares under the Program become unreasonable, the Board of Directors shall be entitled to make adjustments to the Program, including, among other things, a decision to reduce the grant of Matching Shares and Performance Shares or to not grant any Matching Shares or Performance Shares at all. i. The number of Matching Shares and Performance Shares shall be subject to recalculation as a result of intervening bonus issues, splits, rights issues and/or other similar company events. Drafting of the proposal The proposal regarding the Program to the 2019 Annual General Meeting has been prepared and decided on by the Board of Directors following preparation by the Compensation Committee. Hedging, etc. To hedge the financial exposure that the Program is expected to have, the Board of Directors intends to enter into a share swap agreement with a third party on behalf of Industrivarden, at market terms, whereby the third party in its own name shall be entitled to acquire and transfer Class C shares in Industrivarden to the program participants. As proposed the Program may comprise a maximum of 50,000 Class C shares in Industrivarden, representing approximately 0.01 percent of all outstanding shares in Industrivarden and approximately 0.02 percent of all outstanding Class C shares in Industrivarden. In accordance with the scope of the Program as described above, the cost upon full grant is estimated to approximately SEK 8.3 million, under the assumption all employees participate in the Program and that all program participants acquire the maximum number of Savings Shares. The Program is expected to have only marginal effect on Industrivardens and the Industrivarden Groups key ratios. Majority requirements The Annual General Meetings resolution in accordance with the above requires a majority of more than half of the votes cast. Nominating Committees proposals The Nominating Committee has consisted of Fredrik Lundberg, (Chairman of the Board of AB Industrivarden), Bo Damberg (the Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation and others), Mats Guldbrand (L E Lundbergforetagen), Mikael Schmidt (SCA pension foundations and others), and Hakan Sandberg (Handelsbanken Pension Foundation and others). Mats Guldbrand has served as Nominating Committee chair. The Nominating Committee proposes the following: AGM Chairman Attorney Sven Unger. Number of directors Eight directors and no deputy directors. Directors fees Chairman of the Board: SEK 2,060,000 (SEK 2,000,000). Vice Chairman (in the event such is appointed): SEK 1,240,000 (SEK 1,200,000). Each of the other non-executive directors: SEK 620,000 (SEK 600,000). No separate fee is to be paid for committee work. Board of Directors Re-election of Par Boman, Christian Caspar, Bengt Kjell, Nina Linander, Fredrik Lundberg, Annika Lundius, Lars Pettersson and Helena Stjernholm. Re-election of Fredrik Lundberg as Chairman of the Board. Biographical information about the proposed directors can be found on Industrivardens website www.industrivarden.net. Number of auditors A chartered accounting firm. Auditor The Nominating Committee proposes election of the accounting firm Deloitte AB, in accordance with the Audit Committees recommendation, for the period until the end of the Annual General Meeting 2020. Deloitte AB has notified that if the firm is elected, it will appoint Authorized Public Accountant Hans Waren as chief auditor. The Audit Committees recommendation to the Nominating Committee has been motivated as follows: Deloitte AB has the relevant experience of auditing a publicly listed investment company and fulfills Industrivardens requirements in respect of industry- and stock market experience, resources and quality. In view thereof and the composition of the audit team and fee level, the Audit Committee has deemed Deloitte AB to best meet Industrivardens requirements. The Audit Committee has alternatively to Deloitte AB, for the period until the end of the Annual General Meeting 2020, recommended re-election of the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers AB (PwC). Under the EU Regulation of 16 April 2014 on specific requirements regarding statutory audit of public-interest entities, PwC can be re-elected as auditing firm for the financial year 2020 but not longer. Auditors fee Fee in accordance with approved invoice. Documents Accounting records, audit reports and auditors statements, and the Boards proposed distribution of earnings and statement in support of such proposal, will be on hand for the shareholders at the Company three weeks before the Annual General Meeting. These documents will also then be posted on the Companys website, www.industrivarden.net, and will be sent to shareholders at their postal address upon request. The documents will also be available at the Annual General Meeting. Number of shares and votes in the Company The total number of shares in AB Industrivarden is 435,209,877, of which 268,183,457 are Class A shares and, 167,026,420 are Class C shares. Each Class A share carries one vote and each Class C share carries one-tenth of a vote. The total number of votes is 284,886,099. This data pertains to the conditions at the time this notice was issued. Disclosures at the Annual General Meeting The shareholders have the right to certain disclosures at the Annual General Meeting: The Board of Directors and CEO shall, if requested by any shareholder, and if the Board believes that it can be done without causing material harm to the Company, provide disclosures on conditions that could affect the assessment of a matter on the agenda, conditions that could have an effect on the assessment of the Companys or a subsidiarys financial situation or the Companys relations with another Group company. A shareholder who wishes to submit questions in advance can do so by post: AB Industrivarden, the Board of Directors, Box 5403, SE-114 84 Stockholm, Sweden, or by e-mail: agm@industrivarden.se. Stockholm in March 2019 AB Industrivarden (publ) The Board of Directors Attachment TORONTO, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Plateau Energy Metals Inc. (Plateau or the Company) (TSX VENTURE: PLU | OTCQB: PLUUF) is pleased to announce the creation of an advisory board in support of the ongoing advancement of the Companys Falchani lithium project (Falchani). Highlights Advisory board created with deep experience in lithium processing and project design and engineering from study work to operations. M.Plan International ( M.Plan ), as advisors to Plateau, have appointed Mr. David Anonychuk (M.Plan) and Dr. Reiner Haus (Dorfner Anzaplan) as the owners team representatives on the advisory board. M.Plan brings extensive expertise in multiple lithium projects from a processing, customer end product preferences and independent lenders engineer perspective. ), as advisors to Plateau, have appointed Mr. David Anonychuk (M.Plan) and Dr. Reiner Haus (Dorfner Anzaplan) as the owners team representatives on the advisory board. M.Plan brings extensive expertise in multiple lithium projects from a processing, customer end product preferences and independent lenders engineer perspective. David Laing, appointed to the advisory board, is a mining engineer who brings over 40 years of mining experience, including in Peru and across a wide range of commodities. Our Falchani advisory board brings a wealth of project experience to our existing team, Alex Holmes, CEO of Plateau, commented. We believe it is critical as this stage of our project evolution to bring in top talent in various disciplines that will support the development of what we see as a scalable, long life lithium project poised to capitalize on the electrification revolution. With the strong expected demand growth in lithium, M.Plan is pleased to work with Plateaus management team to support the advancement of the Falchani project, commented David Anonychuk, Managing Director of M.Plan. The advisory board will support Plateaus existing leadership team in the development of a comprehensive preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on Falchani. Working alongside the owners team for Falchani will be M.Plan, a joint venture between two internationally recognized consulting companies Micon International Limited (Micon) and Dorfner Anzaplan GmbH (Anzaplan), combining their expertise in global geological and mining consulting with analytics, processing and engineering with significant experience in the battery metals sector. M.Plan has deep project experience in the specialty minerals and metals sector, from initial mineral resource estimation through to engineering design and development. M.Plan and its joint venture owners have been involved in several lithium projects globally and hundreds of development studies in the mining sector, including independent lenders engineer assignments and as due diligence lead for multiple European and North American capital providers. Anzaplan is a specialist in high-value industrial and strategic minerals and metals and is the technical services provider within the Dorfner Group of Companies a private, family owned industrial and specialty minerals business based in Germany with over 300 clients globally, producing over 2,000 products for a large variety of different market sectors. Micon is a global team of geologists, mining engineers, metallurgists and environmental consultants all with extensive mining industry experience including development studies and independent due diligence assessments for lithium projects and on a variety of assignments in Peru. Plateau is also pleased to appoint David Laing to its advisory board. Mr. Laing is a mining engineer with over 40 years of experience in the industry. He is an independent mining executive, formerly the COO of Equinox Gold Corp. and True Gold Mining Inc., COO and EVP of Quintana Resources Capital ULC and one of the original executives of Endeavour Mining Corporation. Mr. Laing has worked in Peru and has extensive experience in a wide range of commodities. About Plateau Energy Metals Plateau Energy Metals Inc ., a Canadian exploration and development company, is enabling the new energy paradigm through exploring and developing its Falchani Lithium Project and its Macusani Uranium Project in southeastern Peru. The Company, with 100% control of mineral concessions covering over 93,000 hectares (930 km2), has significant and growing lithium resources and all reported uranium resources known in Peru, all of which are situated near infrastructure. For further information, please contact: Plateau Energy Metals Inc. Alex Holmes, CEO & Director +1-416-628-9600 IR@PlateauEnergyMetals.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/pluenergy/ Twitter: www.twitter.com/pluenergy/ Website: www.PlateauEnergyMetals.com Forward Looking Information This press release includes certain forward-looking statements concerning the Companys plans and expectations related to its properties, including, but not limited to, expected exploration drilling, an updated resource estimate, metallurgical test programs and a maiden PEA at Falchani Li; expected optimization work programs, an updated PEA and exploration drilling at Macusani Uranium; and the timing and expected results related to the foregoing. Forward-looking statements are frequently identified by such words as "may", "will", "plan", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "intend", indicate, scheduled, target, goal, potential, subject, efforts, option, poised and similar words referring to future events and results. Forward-looking statements are based on the current opinions and expectations of management. Although the Company believes that the opinions and expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements since the Company can provide no assurance that such opinions and expectations will prove to be correct. All forward-looking information is inherently uncertain and subject to a variety of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, including risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of drill results, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; the possibility that any future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with our expectations; mining and development risks, including risks related to accidents, equipment breakdowns, labour disputes (including work stoppages and strikes) or other unanticipated difficulties with or interruptions in exploration and development; the potential for delays in exploration or development activities; risks related to commodity price and foreign exchange rate fluctuations; risks related to foreign operations; the cyclical nature of the industry in which we operate; risks related to failure to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis and on acceptable terms or delays in obtaining governmental approvals; risks related to environmental regulation and liability; political and regulatory risks associated with mining and exploration; risks related to the certainty of title to our properties; risks related to the uncertain global economic environment; and other risks and uncertainties related to our prospects, properties and business strategy, as described in more detail in Plateaus recent securities filings available at www.sedar.com . Actual events or results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements and Plateau cautions against placing undue reliance thereon. Except as required by applicable securities laws, neither Plateau nor its management assume any obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. STEINHAUSEN, Switzerland, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) announced today that Petrobras awarded two of the Companys ultra-deepwater drillships, the Ocean Rig Corcovado and Ocean Rig Mykonos, with a 629 day contract and 550 day contract, respectively. The estimated firm contract backlog, excluding mobilization, is approximately $123 million and $118 million, respectively. The rigs are expected to commence work in Brazil in November 2019 and the contracts include priced options for 680 days and 815 days, respectively. We are very pleased to have so quickly secured contracts for the Mykonos and Corcovado, two of the high-specification ultra-deepwater drillships acquired as part of the Ocean Rig transaction last December, said President and Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Thigpen. These contracts further solidify our long-standing partnership with Petrobras, and will expand our rig operations in the strategically important market of Brazil. With three rigs operating in the region, we intend to benefit from efficiencies that can only be derived from building scale in this market. About Transocean Transocean is a leading international provider of offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells. The company specializes in technically demanding sectors of the global offshore drilling business with a particular focus on deepwater and harsh environment drilling services, and believes that it operates one of the most versatile offshore drilling fleets in the world. Transocean owns or has partial ownership interests in, and operates a fleet of 48 mobile offshore drilling units consisting of 31 ultra-deepwater floaters, 13 harsh environment floaters, and four midwater floaters. In addition, Transocean is constructing four ultra-deepwater drillships; and one harsh environment semisubmersible in which the company has a one-third interest. Forward-Looking Statements The statements described in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements contain words such as "possible," "intend," "will," "if," "expect," or other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on managements current expectations and assumptions, and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. As a result, actual results could differ materially from those indicated in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, estimated duration of customer contracts, contract dayrate amounts, future contract commencement dates and locations, planned shipyard projects and other out-of-service time, sales of drilling units, timing of the companys newbuild deliveries, operating hazards and delays, risks associated with international operations, actions by customers and other third parties, the future prices of oil and gas, the intention to scrap certain drilling rigs, the success of our business following the acquisitions of Songa Offshore SE and Ocean Rig UDW Inc., and other factors, including those and other risks discussed in the company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, and in the company's other filings with the SEC, which are available free of charge on the SEC's website at: www.sec.gov . Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize (or the other consequences of such a development worsen), or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those indicated or expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to the company or to persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by reference to these risks and uncertainties. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of the particular statement, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur, or which we become aware of, after the date hereof, except as otherwise may be required by law. All non-GAAP financial measure reconciliations to the most comparative GAAP measure are displayed in quantitative schedules on the companys website at: www.deepwater.com . This press release, or referenced documents, do not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and do not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of article 652a or article 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of Transocean and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of Transocean. Analyst Contacts: Bradley Alexander +1 713-232-7515 Lexington May +1 832-587-6515 Media Contact: Pam Easton +1 713-232-7647 ATLANTA, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vacation Express is thrilled to begin new, exclusive, non-stop flights to Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica from Louis Armstrong International Airport (MSY) every Saturday from May 25, 2019 to June 22, 2019 for six-night packages. Additionally, Vacation Express will commence weekly summer flights to Punta Cana departing Thursdays from May 23, 2019 to June 27, 2019 for four-night packages as well as Friday departures for six-night packages beginning May 24, 2019 and lasting through July 26, 2019. These vacation package options are available at phenomenal price points, marking Vacation Express seventh season in New Orleans as one of major savings. Every little thing is truly going to be alright with six-night packages to Jamaica as low as $879, up to $800 in resort credits and Kids Stay, Play and Eat Free options! Exclusive low prices allow travelers to focus on the experience and not the expense whether theyre booking a family vacation or romantic, adults-only package. Seasonal flights from New Orleans to Punta Cana are back boasting incredible prices as well. Beginning in May, guests looking for a relaxing retreat can book six-night packages for as low as $849.These unique offers give travelers the opportunity to pay less and play more while in paradise all of Vacation Express exclusive, non-stop flights to both Punta Cana and to Jamaica will feature early morning departures and late afternoon returns to make the most of beach and bonding time. Vacation Express non-stop flights to Jamaica and Punta Cana are operated by Swift Air, LLC on a Boeing 737-series aircraft. These flights offer travelers a complimentary non-alcoholic beverage and snack, one free carry-on bag and an optional seat upgrade. Affordable flight add-ons start at only $25 each way for Preferred exit-row seats or $45 each way with the Preferred Plus upgrade, which includes two complimentary alcoholic beverages, a snack box, roomy front-row seating and a free checked bag weighing up to 50lbs. Flights to Punta Cana will also offer First-Class seating for only $129 each way, which includes Preferred Plus perks as well as two-by-two seating with extra legroom and priority check-in and boarding. Most travelers are taking advantage of vacation packages with air and all-inclusive resort stays, though travelers may opt to purchase airfare only for non-stop or roundtrip flights. Packages can be booked online at VACATIONEXPRESS.com, by calling 1-800-309-4717 or through a local travel agent. About Vacation Express: Based in Atlanta, Vacation Express, part of Sunwing Travel Group, is a tour operator specializing in quality, affordable vacation packages to over 30 destinations in the Caribbean, Mexico and Costa Rica. Now in business for over 25 years, Vacation Express is one of the countrys largest and most trusted tour operators. Travelers looking for the most affordable, all-inclusive vacations may book Vacation Express exclusive, non-stop packages through their travel agent, directly by phone seven days a week at 1-800-309-4717 or online at VACATIONEXPRESS.com. Exclusive charter flights are operated by Sunwing Airlines, Allegiant Air, Swift Air, LLC., VivaAerobus, Miami Air International and Volaris. See Operator/Participant Agreement for details. Additional Notes: TTRestrictions apply. Call for details. Advertised prices available for bookings made electronically through your travel agent or on vacationexpress.com; small service fee of $10 applies when booking through Vacation Express Call Center. For full terms and conditions, hotel and description of all services, please refer to the Vacation Express 2019 Brochure, www.vacationexpress.com or call 1.800.309.4717. Vacation Express now accepts debit cards that offer the same consumer protection as credit cards. See Operator/Participant Agreement for details. Public charter flights are operated by Sunwing Airlines, Allegiant Air, Swift Air, LLC., VivaAerobus, Miami Air International and Volaris. All flights subject to DOT approval. Packages are limited and subject to change without prior notice. Airfares are per person, reflect lowest available airfare at time of printing, are subject to change and based upon availability of class of service. Book by 3/13/19. Not responsible for errors or omissions. Registered Florida seller of travel no. St 38441. State of California Seller of Travel Certificate of Registration #2107538-40. Facebook: www.facebook.com/vacationexpress Twitter: www.twitter.com/vacationexpress Instagram: www.instagram.com/vacationexpress MEDIA CONTACT Pamela Caltabiano | Public Relations Manager pcaltabiano@vacationexpress.com | 800.309.4717 x3098 A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/23d0d1a8-7d18-45af-8f5c-249794f868f2 Sydney, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LiquidityBook, a leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based provider of buy- and sell-side trading solutions, today announced the opening of a new office at 383 George St in Sydney, Australia. The firm, which added more than 40 new customers in 2018, will use the new office to accommodate its growing team and support its rapid expansion in the Asia-Pacific region. The new office will be opened by Chief Architect Andy Carroll, who joined the firm from Twitter in July 2017. He will be joined by Andre Meintjes, who was recently hired to serve as the firms Asia-Pacific Client Services Lead. Meintjes will play a vital role in deploying bespoke enhancements and white-glove support to both APAC-based clients and clients that trade into APAC. Before joining LiquidityBook, Meintjes served as a Support Officer for ABN AMRO Clearings Global Execution Services arm, where he worked closely with all levels of clients to deploy algos for various markets and perform a wide variety of compliance operations, providing follow-the-sun support of equity and future markets. Before ABN AMRO, Meintjes worked in Derivatives Dealing and Operations at Peregrine Derivatives, where he managed DMA and internal trades and was instrumental in setting up risk management systems for the firms electronic clients. In all, he has spent well over a decade providing key support services to traders. In addition to supporting LiquidityBooks growing team, the new office better positions the firm as it works to expand and provide local service and support to its rapidly growing client base, which has shown an increasing interest in investment opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region. Commenting on the news, Chief Revenue Officer Sean Sullivan said: Were very pleased to add Andre to our growing Asia-Pacific team. Were constantly on the lookout for top-flight talent, and the addition of Andre to our new Australia office represents the latest culmination of that ongoing effort. Our SaaS-based model provides superior value to fund managers around the globe, and we hope to add to our success here, just as we did in the EU with our first global expansion office in London in 2016. The LiquidityBook platform delivers significant benefits in the following areas: Cost: LBX is a fully SaaS-based product, delivered 100% via the cloud leveraging AWSs global footprint and architecture, which is the most reliable and secure in the industry. That means there is no need to pay for hosting, remote connectivity, back up of firm trading and position data or business continuity planning. The platform provides full redundancy and accessibility anywhere in the world; users simply need a browser and connectivity to trade. Stability and Service: LBX is an OMS/PMS/FIX order routing platform built on a single code base. Every client runs the same version, and updates are rolled out weekly. The platform is not an amalgamation of different stitched-together products; it was developed only a few years ago, making it far more reliable than competitive offerings. Functionality: The fact that the product is one integrated platform has significant usability benefits. For instance, the GUI is incredibly flexible, allowing users to create custom columns and calculations on the fly. Business Model: Since LiquidityBook provides its products on a SaaS basis, the firm can offer them at a very competitive price point while still being able to fully fund development, growth and product enhancements. The firm is not and has never been dependent on transactional fees to drive revenue growth. Not only do those cut into broker commission wallet commitments that many buy side are struggling to reach, this model is also potentially considered an inducement under MiFID II unless the vendor also provides connectivity. About LiquidityBook LiquidityBook is a leading SaaS-based provider of buy- and sell-side trading solutions, including order management, portfolio management, execution management, FIX network connectivity, compliance and pre- and post-trade processing. Founded in 2005, the LiquidityBook platform is trusted by many of the industrys most sophisticated buy- and sell-side firms globally to power their trading workflows. For more information please visit www.liquiditybook.com or contact sales@liquiditybook.com. FRAMINGHAM, Mass., March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arch Therapeutics, Inc. (OTCQB: ARTH) ("Arch" or the "Company"), developer of novel liquid, gel and solid hemostatic and wound care devices, will be featured as a presenting company at the 31st Annual ROTH Conference. The conference is being held on March 17-19, 2019 at The Ritz Carlton, Laguna Niguel in Orange County, California. Chief Executive Officer, Terrence W. Norchi, MD, is scheduled to provide a corporate update on Tuesday, March 19 at 8:30 AM PT. Dr. Norchi and Mr. Richard Davis, Chief Financial Officer, will be able to meet with investors who are registered to attend the conference. If you are an investor and wish to attend the Companys presentation or schedule a meeting, please click the following link: https://roth.meetmax.com/sched/event_51941/conference_home.html To access the live webcast, please visit: http://wsw.com/webcast/roth33/arth/ The presentation will be available for download at: https://www.archtherapeutics.com . About Arch Therapeutics, Inc. Arch Therapeutics, Inc. is a biotechnology company developing a novel approach to stop bleeding (hemostasis), control leaking (sealant) and manage wounds during surgery, trauma and interventional care. Arch is developing products based on an innovative self-assembling barrier technology platform with the goal of making care faster and safer for patients. Arch's development stage product candidates include AC5 Topical Gel, AC5 Topical Hemostat1 and AC5 Surgical Hemostat1. About Roth Capital Partners, LLC Roth Capital Partners, LLC (ROTH) is a relationship-driven investment bank focused on serving emerging growth companies and their investors. As a full-service investment bank, ROTH provides capital raising, M&A advisory, analytical research, trading, market-making services and corporate access. Headquartered in Newport Beach, CA, ROTH is privately-held and employee owned, and maintains offices throughout the U.S. For more information on ROTH, please visit www.roth.com. Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such forward-looking statements include, among other things, references to novel technologies and methods, our business and product development plans and projections, or market information. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with developing new products or technologies and operating as a development stage company, our ability to retain important members of our management team and attract other qualified personnel, our ability to raise the additional funding we will need to continue to pursue our business and product development plans, our ability to obtain required regulatory approvals, our ability to produce commercial quantities of our products within projected timeframes, our ability to develop and commercialize products based on our technology platform, and market conditions. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that any beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosure outlined in the reports and other documents we file with the SEC, available at www.sec.gov. Source: Arch Therapeutics, Inc. Contact ARTH Investor Relations Toll Free: +1-855-340-ARTH (2784) (US and Canada) Email: investors@archtherapeutics.com Website: www.archtherapeutics.com or Richard Davis Chief Financial Officer Arch Therapeutics, Inc. Phone: 617-431-2308 Email: rdavis@archtherapeutics.com Website: www.archtherapeutics.com 1. AC5 Topical Hemostat and AC5 Surgical Hemostat are currently investigational devices and are limited by federal law to investigational use. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Donnelly Group, the Canadian hospitality company, today confirms its new cannabis retail venture. Nine locations of Hobo Recreational Cannabis Store (Hobo) are set to open in rapid succession across B.C. and Ontario beginning April 2019. Eight stores are now confirmed for B.C., including locations on Granville Street, Main Street, and Commercial Drive. The first Hobo location will launch in Ottawa, Ontario on April 1st, coinciding with the roll out of the provinces new private retail model. The store, located on Bank Street in Centretown, was home to one of the citys most popular dispensaries and will re-open this spring under the operation of Hobo through the acquisition of one of five highly coveted Eastern Ontario licenses. The Hobo concept will articulate Donnelly Groups mastery and appetite for disruptive ideas, synergy of concept and culture, and progressive attitudes both in brand and service. With two decades of consumer hospitality experience and regulatory know-how, Hobo Recreational Cannabis Store felt very natural for Donnelly Group, says Harrison Stoker, VP Brand & Culture at Donnelly Group. Were dedicated to creating great gathering places for communities across Canada. The result of that dedication is a certain expertise in the areas of sourcing viable lease locations and navigating the regulatory framework around licensing. This has proved invaluable for our new venture, Hobo. Looking forward to the launch of our first nine retail locations in the coming months, our aim is to apply our experience to make the Hobo cannabis experience disarming, compassionate and, fundamentally, human. With an emphasis on delivering a modern, approachable cannabis browsing and buying experience, each of Hobos nine locations will employ a contemporary aesthetic rooted in simple, functional design and feature a well-considered product range and frictionless technology. As a testament to Hobos commitment to the consumer experience and the reinvigoration of Canadas waning cannabis culture, each Hobo location will reflect its host neighbourhood and feature elements of the communitys aesthetic amid a welcoming atmosphere. While the venture may be new, our ethos remains the same, says Jeff Donnelly, Founder and President at Donnelly Group. Be true to yourself and your neighbourhood; the people will follow. Hobo is now focused on recruitment and hiring initiatives to support its aggressive national rollout over the coming months. About Hobo Recreational Cannabis Store Hobo Recreational Cannabis Store, a Donnelly Group venture, is a Canadian collection of privately-owned retail cannabis stores with locations in B.C. and Ontario set to open starting April 2019. With an emphasis on delivering a modern, approachable retail experience, each of Hobos nine locations will employ a contemporary aesthetic rooted in simple, functional design and feature a well-considered product range and frictionless technology. As a testament to Hobos commitment to the consumer experience and the reinvigoration of Canadas waning cannabis culture, each Hobo location will reflect its host neighbourhood and feature elements of the communitys aesthetic amid a welcoming atmosphere. Hobo Recreational Cannabis Store plans to hire over 200 retail positions in the coming months. About Donnelly Group Donnelly Group is an award winning and diversified hospitality company, operating in both Vancouver and Toronto. With a collection of brands including public houses, cocktail taverns and barbershops whose values reflect strength in community, an emphasis on great food, honest beer and spirits, paired with a disruptive design and the desire to create a genuinely human experience. In Vancouver, Donnelly Group, operates pubs Blackbird, Lamplighter, Butcher & Bullock, Library Square, Cinema, New Oxford, Tavern, Three Brits, Railway Stage and Sing Sing, cocktail clubs Granville Room and Clough Club, five barbershops under Barber & Co, as well as restaurant, Royal Dinette. In Toronto it operates pubs Belfast Love, Death & Taxes, Walrus, Pong Bar, cocktail club Gift Shop, two barbershops under Barber & Co, and Lovejoy Cafe. For more information, visit donnellygroup.ca NEWPORT BEACH, CA, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE ADVANTIS CORPORATION (OTC PINK: ADVT) announced a planned meeting with N2Packs executives at their corporate headquarters in Idaho. Advantis CEO, Darren Cherry, says the purpose of the meeting is to discuss how they can strengthen their partnership to better support the explosive growth that its Amster-Can division continues to appreciate. Advantis has experienced a surge in Amster-Can orders since it began packaging edibles last quarter. Several long-time clients have also chosen to shift all their packaging needs to Advantis, resulting in multiple-pallet monthly increases in Amster-Can orders. We are so thrilled with this increase in demand, Cherry explained. And to properly sustain this rate of increase we put a strategy in motion. Cherry announced in February that they were signing a lease in an Orange County location that would provide the space needed to get ahead of the demand. With Orange County coming online, we have been actively engaged with N2Pack as we develop our long-term packaging strategy for Amster-Can. I think it is time to deepen our relationship with our most valued business partner. My hope is that we can develop a mutually beneficial arrangement that will significantly expand our relationship. At the very least, we will add our input on new machine designs that promise to increase packaging efficiency by many-fold. Cherry says that 2019 is a year to look for even more explosive growth than last year. Cherry reviewed the importance of deepening relationships with partners like N2Pack by emphasizing the symbiotic nature of their relationships. I mention all the exciting developments we have all the time, and it cant possibly match the excitement we all have, here at Advantis. We became a serious revenue-driven company last year; this year we will eclipse what we did last year. We have developed so many relationships with such strong synergy, that a critical mass is building. Cherry stressed the value of N2pack to their business model. N2Pack is and will remain among strongest relationships, as we dont see a better packaging solution in the entire marketplace, and we want to lead the movement toward this standard, Cherry concluded. I think N2Pack is fully onboard with our vision, so I am very much looking forward to this meeting. Advantis wishes to thank Investors Hangout for mentioning the company in their podcast. Links to Advantis websites can be found at advantiscorp.com , rosin6.com , elixicure.com , and amstercan.com About Advantis Corporation Advantis Corporation (ADVT) focuses on the development of innovative products that supply the medical, research, and pharmaceutical industries. The company additionally establishes partnerships with businesses that develop and sell proprietary pain management, and consumer products and services. Forward Looking Statements: This news release contains forward-looking statements made by ADVANTIS CORPORATION. All such statements included in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Although management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these statements. The following risk factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in any forward- looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, economic conditions, changes in the law or regulations, demand for products of the Company, the effects of competition and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or represented in the forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by the words: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, and similar expressions or which by their nature refer to future events. The Company is not entitled to rely on the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 because it is not registered under either Act. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Core Gold Inc. ("Core Gold" or the "Company") (TSXV: CGLD, OTCQX: CGLDF) announces that its Board of Directors has terminated for cause, the consulting agreement of the Companys President & CEO, Mr. Keith Piggott, and has removed him as President & CEO effective immediately. Mr. Piggott had been previously put on notice by the Board of Directors. Mr. Mark Bailey, a current Director of Core Gold, has agreed to act, and has been appointed by the Board of Directors, as Interim CEO. Mr. Piggott remains a Director of the Company. The Board will provide an update in due course regarding the full-time position of a new CEO. As previously announced on February 24, 2019, the Company is merging with Titan Minerals Ltd. (Titan) and it is expected that upon closing of the transaction that Mr. Laurie Marsland will become the new Managing Director, CEO and Director of the combined entity. Mr. Mark Bailey has been a director of the Company since September 2003. Mr. Bailey is a mining executive and registered Professional Geologist with more than 40 years of industry experience. Between 1995 and 2012, he was a Director and the President and Chief Executive Officer of TSX-listed Minefinders Corporation Ltd. (Minefinders), a precious metals mining company that operated the multi-million ounce Dolores gold and silver mine in Mexico before being acquired by Pan American Silver Corp. for approximately $1.5 billion. Before joining Minefinders, Mr. Bailey held senior positions with Equinox Resources Inc. and Exxon Minerals. Since 1984, Mr. Bailey has worked as a consulting geologist with Mark H. Bailey & Associates LLC. Mr. Bailey is currently a Director and Non-Executive Chair of Fiore Gold Ltd. and a Director and Non-Executive Chair of Entree Resources and was a director of TSX-listed Mason Resources Corp. until its recent acquisition by Hudbay Minerals Inc. Mr. Bailey holds a Bachelor of Science degree in geology from the University of Washington and a Master of Science degree in geology from Oregon State University. About Core Gold Inc. The Company is a Canadian based mining company involved in the mining, exploration and development of mineral properties in Ecuador. The Company is currently focused on gold production at its wholly-owned Dynasty Goldfield project. Mineral is treated at the Companys wholly-owned Portovelo treatment plant. The Company also owns other significant gold exploration projects including the Linderos and Copper Duke area in southern Ecuador all of which are on the main Peruvian Andean gold-copper belt extending into Ecuador. For further information please contact: Mark Bailey, CEO Suite 1201 1166 Alberni Street Vancouver, B.C. V6E 3Z3 Phone: +1 (604) 345-4822 Email: info@coregoldinc.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. HOUSTON, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Riviera Resources, Inc. (OTCQX: RVRA), (Riviera or the Company) announces it has finalized an agreement to sell a limited term overriding royalty interest (the Volumetric Production Payment or VPP interests) in helium produced from certain of the Companys long-lived wells located in the Hugoton Basin. The Company highlights the following aspects of the VPP: Total cash proceeds of approximately $82 million, subject to closing costs Monetization of approximately 23% of Rivieras total helium reserves at a 5.16% discount rate Estimated value of the net helium production to be delivered in 2019 of approximately $14.6 million Closing to occur later this month Use of proceeds to be determined by Board and management, which may include share tenders and/or reinvestment in higher return projects at Blue Mountain or in the upstream business David Rottino, President and Chief Executive Officer of Riviera commented, We are excited to announce this very unique transaction that partially monetizes our helium reserves at an attractive discount rate. Due to the long-life nature of the producing wells and the predictability of the associated helium revenue stream, we expect to raise significant proceeds through a VPP structure at very attractive rates. Rottino continued, We continue to believe the sum-of-the-parts value of our assets is not fully appreciated by the market. Not only does this transaction highlight the value of our reserves, but it will also generate significant proceeds that we can use to return capital to shareholders and/or reinvest in higher return projects. Deal Structure The VPP consists of a limited term overriding royalty interest in helium produced from certain of Rivieras wells in the Hugoton Basin. The VPP interests will be contributed to Mayzure, LLC (Mayzure is a wholly owned subsidiary of Riviera). Mayzure will issue 5.16% senior secured notes in the amount of approximately $82 million, expected to be satisfied in third quarter 2026 (the Notes), secured by the VPP. In consideration for the contribution of the VPP, Mayzure will distribute the proceeds of the Notes (less closing costs) to Riviera. Neither Riviera Resources, Inc. nor any of its subsidiaries other than Mayzure, have guaranteed the Notes. The Company will retain all of its natural gas, oil and NGL production from the wells associated with the VPP. Furthermore, any new wells drilled would not be committed to the VPP. As projected, over the term of the VPP, proceeds from approximately 23% of Riviera's total helium reserves will be used by Mayzure to satisfy the notes. In 2019, Riviera forecasts the value of the helium production delivered to Mayzure and applied to the notes will be approximately $14.6 million. The Company expects to close the transaction later this month. Barclays acted as financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis LLP as legal counsel during the transaction. The VPP will have no impact on the Companys year-end 2018 standardized measure of discounted future net cash flows(1) (SEC PV-10) which does not include helium value. Also, Rivieras credit facility will not be impacted by this transaction and will continue to have borrowing commitments of $385 million. (1) Determined in accordance with the regulations of the Securities and Exchange after the effects of income taxes and discounted using an annual discount rate of 10% ABOUT RIVIERA RESOURCES Riviera Resources, Inc. is an independent oil and natural gas company with a strategic focus on efficiently operating its mature low-decline assets, developing its growth-oriented assets, and returning capital to its stockholders. Rivieras properties are located in the Hugoton Basin, East Texas, North Louisiana, Michigan/Illinois, the Uinta Basin and Mid-Continent regions. Riviera also owns Blue Mountain Midstream LLC. Forward-Looking Statements Statements made in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on certain assumptions and expectations made by the Company which reflect managements experience, estimates and perception of historical trends, current conditions, and anticipated future developments. These statements include, among others, statements regarding our 2019 guidance, planned capital expenditures, increases in oil and gas production, the number of anticipated wells to be drilled or completed after the date hereof, future cash flows and borrowings, our strategic objectives with respect to Blue Mountain Midstream, our financial position, business strategy and other plans and objectives for future operations. Such statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, which may cause actual results to differ materially from those implied or anticipated in the forward-looking statements. These include risks relating to the Companys financial and operational performance and results, low or declining commodity prices and demand for oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids, ability to hedge future production, ability to replace reserves and efficiently develop current reserves, the capacity and utilization of midstream facilities and the regulatory environment. These and other important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. Please read Risk Factors in the Companys Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other public filings. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events. ATLANTA, GA, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE GeoVax Labs, Inc. (OTCQB: GOVX), a biotechnology company developing human vaccines and immunotherapies using its novel viral vector platform technology, today provided an update on its progress and development programs. David Dodd, GeoVax President and CEO, commented, We continue to advance GeoVaxs development programs on multiple fronts with an expanding list of world-class government, academic and corporate collaborators, as further described in this update. I am pleased with what the GeoVax team has accomplished during 2018 and so far in 2019, but I also recognize that our constrained capital resources continue to limit our ability to meaningfully advance our products as rapidly as we would like. Going forward, we will continue to evaluate options to secure the capital needed to proceed with our business plan, especially to advance further programs into human clinical testing. We view this as critical to our overall corporate development and enhancement of shareholder value. I remain highly optimistic about the future of our company and I look forward to sharing additional news in the coming months. All of us at GeoVax wish to thank our shareholders for their continued support as GeoVax progresses toward a status of having multiple clinical programs underway, addressing various infectious diseases and cancer indications, having a capital structure that supports continued execution of our strategy and business plan. A few highlights from 2018 and early 2019 include: Immuno-oncology - A Promising and Expanding Program. We began 2018 with a single program in this area (tumor-associated MUC1 vaccines) supported by two collaborations (University of Pittsburgh and ViaMune) and that work is continuing to expand and advance. During 2018, we added four more collaborations to expand our footprint in this space -- with Vaxeal Holding SA (Cyclin B1 tumor-associated antigen), Emory University (HPV-related head and neck cancers), Virometix AG (also for HPV-related cancers), and Leidos, Inc. (multiple potential cancer targets). We believe immuno-oncology to be important for the future of GeoVax and we intend to vigorously pursue development of these programs. Raising sufficient capital will be key to rapidly advancing in this area. Defense Department Grant - Our First Entree into the U.S. Government Biodefense System. In September the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) awarded us a $2.4 million grant to support our Lassa Fever vaccine program. The DoD will also fund testing of our vaccine by U.S. Army scientists at USAMRIID under a separate sub-award. This grant represented an important advance by GeoVax into the critical area of biodefense which we believe represents a significant growth area for the application of our technology and expertise. HIV Cure Program - New, Exciting Possibilities. Our collaboration with American Gene Technologies International, Inc. (AGT), for use of our vaccine in combination with AGTs gene therapy for development of a functional cure for HIV, is on track to enter a Phase 1 trial sponsored by AGT. AGT anticipates starting the trial during the second half of 2019. We are also in discussions with two other consortiums for the possible use of our vaccine in similar efforts toward developing a cure for HIV infection. We expect that one or both of these studies may begin in late 2019 or early 2020. HIV Prevention Program - Continued Progress with NIH Support. In October, positive results from HVTN 114, a phase 1 trial of our preventive HIV vaccine, were presented at the HIVR4P conference in Madrid. The clinical trial program for our preventive HIV vaccine continues to be supported by the NIH and the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), with the next study (HVTN 132) expected to commence later this year. Furthermore, during President Trumps recent State of the Union address, he committed to pursuing the elimination of HIV within the next decade. We view our preventive vaccine developments as being critical and core to this initiative. NIH Support for our Lassa Fever and Zika Programs. In April the NIH awarded us a Fast-Track Phase I/II SBIR grant for our Lassa Fever vaccine with an anticipated total project budget of up to $1.9 million. In May we received $300,000 for the second year of the NIH SBIR grant for our Zika vaccine. Both of these grants support preclinical testing of our vaccines in non-human primates in preparation for human clinical trials. New Collaborations - New Opportunities. In addition to the new collaborations described above, we continue to work with the Burnet Institute in Australia on our malaria vaccine program and with Georgia State University on our Hepatitis B immunotherapy program. We also added new collaborations with Scripps Research, Institute of Human Virology, and the Geneva Foundation for our Lassa Fever program; and with Enesi Pharma for developing a novel vaccine delivery platform utilizing several of our vaccines. And we recently expanded our relationship with Leidos, adding a malaria program to our existing cancer collaboration. These collaborations provide multiple opportunities for success and demonstrate the high level of interest our MVA-VLP platform generates within the scientific and business development community. Scientific and Peer Recognition. We are honored that our accomplishments were recognized through our selection for the 2018 Best Biotech Vaccine Industry Excellence (VIE) Award, and a finalist for the Best Prophylactic Vaccine for our Zika vaccine candidate at the 18th World Vaccine Congress in Washington DC, as well as a finalist for 2018 Pipelines of Promise at the Buzz of BIO in Boston. Again, in 2019, GeoVax has made it through as a finalist in two categories for this years VIE Awards on April 15, at the 19th World Vaccine Congress -- for the Best Therapeutic Vaccine Award (MVA-VLP-MUC1 cancer) and Best New Vaccine Technology Award (MVA-VLP platform). This now marks two years in a row of recognition by industry peers of our continued progress in applying our expertise and technology to advance highly promising vaccines for the benefit of people worldwide. About GeoVax GeoVax Labs, Inc., is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing human vaccines and immunotherapies against infectious diseases and various cancers using its MVA-VLP vaccine platform. The Companys development programs are focused on vaccines against HIV, Zika, hemorrhagic fever viruses (Ebola, Sudan, Marburg, Lassa) and malaria. GeoVax also is evaluating the use of its MVA-VLP platform in cancer immunotherapy, and for therapeutic use in chronic Hepatitis B infections. GeoVaxs vaccine platform supports in vivo production of non-infectious VLPs from the cells of the very person receiving the vaccine. The production of VLPs in the person being vaccinated mimics virus production in a natural infection, stimulating both the humoral and cellular arms of the immune system to recognize, prevent, and control the target infection. For more information, visit www.geovax.com . Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this document are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from those included in these statements due to a variety of factors, including whether: GeoVax can develop and manufacture its vaccines with the desired characteristics in a timely manner, GeoVax's vaccines will be safe for human use, GeoVax's vaccines will effectively prevent targeted infections in humans, GeoVaxs vaccines will receive regulatory approvals necessary to be licensed and marketed, GeoVax raises required capital to complete vaccine development, there is development of competitive products that may be more effective or easier to use than GeoVax's products, GeoVax will be able to enter into favorable manufacturing and distribution agreements, and other factors, over which GeoVax has no control. GeoVax assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements and does not intend to do so. More information about these factors is contained in GeoVax's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including those set forth at "Risk Factors" in GeoVax's Form 10-K. MELBOURNE, Fla., March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via OTC PR WIRE -- Kona Gold Solutions, Inc. (OTC: KGKG) a hemp and CBD lifestyle brand focused on product development in the functional beverage sector, is pleased to announce agreements with three new distribution partners, TJ Distribution in Massachusetts, Trident Distributors LLC in New Jersey, and SeeBeeDee'z LLC in New York. Kona Gold has now partnered with 13 new distributors in 2019, putting the number of distribution partners around the country selling the Companys Hemp Energy Drinks and CBD Energy Waters well over 20. The addition of TJ Distribution, Trident Distributors, and SeeBeeDee'z will place Kona Golds popular Hemp Energy Drinks and CBD Energy Waters into key markets as the Company continues its aggressive expansion across the United States. TJ Distribution, who recently entered into a distribution agreement with Kona Gold, is located just north of one of the most popular metropolitan cities, Boston Massachusetts. TJ Distributions sales team will be covering Essex, Suffolk, Middlesex, and Norfolk counties in Massachusetts and along with the entire state of Rhode Island. TJ Distribution believes in Kona Golds products and look forward to growing sales for both companies. Trident Distributors is excited to be working with the team of Kona Gold and only sees nothing but success of both companies. What made their decision much easier, was talking with the Kona Golds V.P. of Sales, Chris Selinger, and knowing how comfortable they would be moving forward. Trident expects amazing sales as they are in a great market. Anyone who has been to the Jersey Shore knows that you see cotton candy everywhere and Trident cant wait to see it explode at the bars along the coast at local convenience stores and liquor stores. SeeBeeDee'z LLC is found in the heart of upstate New York and will be covering four counties including Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady. SeeBeeDee'z LLC will be approaching key market areas around all four counties including popular college areas/bars, local vape and smoke shops and convenience stores. Zachary Cook, owner of SeeBeeDeez LLC stated, Locations within each county have already contacted SeeBeeDeez about future product placement with orders already being placed around the communities as we await our first pallets for distribution. SeeBeeDeez is looking forward to bringing brand awareness within the bars, convenience stores and communities within our territory. For product placement within these counties, please visit our website, www.seebeedeez.com. We continue to sign a new distribution partner on average of one per week, and with the busy season in the beverage industry around the corner, I anticipate even more growth in the coming months, stated Chris Selinger, VP of Sales of Kona Gold. With the addition of these three distributors, Kona Gold and HighDrate continues to expand into exciting retail markets. I am working with each of these distribution partners and I am extremely impressed with the ownership and the passion they display for our brands. Kona Gold will be posting its annual disclosure by the end of the month, which will include the Companys record setting Q4, with revenue in the six figures. The Company will be closing out 2018 as its strongest year to date. Kona Golds first quarter revenue for 2019 is projected to surpass total revenue for the entire year of 2018 as they continue to post record sales from online sales, which include Amazon and the Companys ecommerce websites, and existing and new distribution partners. For more information regarding Kona Gold Solutions, please visit: http://www.konagoldhemp.com https://www.facebook.com/konagoldhemp https://twitter.com/konagoldhemp https://www.instagram.com/konagoldhemp/ For more information regarding HighDrate, please visit: http://www.highdrateme.com https://www.facebook.com/HighDrateMe/ https://twitter.com/highdrateme https://www.instagram.com/highdrateme/ Kona Gold Solutions, Inc.: Kona Gold Solutions, Inc., a Delaware Corporation, has created wholly owned subsidiaries, Kona Gold LLC and HighDrate, LLC. Kona Gold, LLC has developed a premium Hemp Infused Energy Drink line; please visit the Companys website at www.konagoldhemp.com. HighDrate, LLC has developed the beverage industrys first CBD Energy Water, available in 4 delicious flavors; please visit the Companys website at www.highdrateme.com. The Companies are located on the east coast of Florida in Melbourne. Safe Harbor Statement: The information posted in this release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these statements by use of the words "may," "will," "should," "plans," "expects," "anticipates," "continue," "estimate," "project," "intend," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, general economic and business conditions, effects of continued geopolitical unrest and regional conflicts, competition, changes in technology and methods of marketing, delays in completing various engineering and manufacturing programs, changes in customer order patterns, changes in product mix, continued success in technological advances and delivering technological innovations, shortages in components, production delays due to performance quality issues with outsourced components, and various other factors beyond the Company's control. Investor Relations Contact: investorrelations@konagoldhemp.com Laval, QC, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Teamsters are calling for dairy workers to be compensated in the upcoming federal budget for losses from recent trade agreements. The union represents 5,000 dairy workers in Canada in the dairy processing sector and in bulk milk and dairy product transportation. If a government finds it is necessary to compensate an industry for harm caused by a trade deal, then they should also explicitly compensate workers, explained Francois Laporte, President of Teamsters Canada. Compensating businesses will not help workers who lose their jobs. The benefits do not trickle down. The impact of CETA, the CPTPP and NAFTA 2.0 (CUSMA) on Canadas dairy sector is cumulative and severe. Close to 10% of the Canadian dairy market the equivalent of a quarter of a billion dollars annually has been sacrificed on the altar of these free trade agreements. Workers deserve access to training funds to upgrade skills within the dairy sector. If they lose their jobs, they need funding for skills upgrading in addition to those available through existing programs, or funds to help older workers bridge into retirement with dignity. Workers need to be part of the picture. But the compensation package for the dairy industry is being negotiated in secret between the federal government and big business. Ottawa has inexplicably chosen not to consult unions on the issue, said Paul Barton, Director of the Teamsters Canada Dairy Division. The next federal budget is set to be tabled on Tuesday, March 19. Teamsters Canada represents 125,000 members in Canada in all industries, including 5,000 in the dairy industry. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, with which Teamsters Canada is affiliated, has 1.4 million members in North America. -30- HANOVER, MD, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Processa Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB: PCSA), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing products to improve the survival and/or quality of life for patients who have high unmet medical need conditions, announced today that it will be presenting at the Cowen Conference on Wednesday, March 13 at 9:20 AM followed by a breakout session at 10:00 AM. Dr. David Young (Chief Executive Officer) and Patrick Lin (Chief Business and Strategy Officer) of Processa Pharmaceuticals will be giving the presentation and are available to meet with investors. The Companys presentation will be available to the public immediately following the session and can be accessed at: http://processapharmaceuticals.com/investors-events The 39th Annual Healthcare Conference will be held at the Marriott Copley in Boston, Massachusetts, For more information or to schedule a one-on-one meeting with the Company, please contact Patrick Lin at plin@processapharma.com or call 925.683.3218. About Processa Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Processa Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was founded in 2017 in Hanover, Maryland, with a mission to develop products that can improve the survival and/or quality of life for patients who have a high unmet medical need. The Company acquired the assets of Promet Therapeutics, LLC in October of 2017 and assembled a proven regulatory science development team, management team, and Board of Directors. The Processa drug development team members have been involved with more than 30 drug approvals by the FDA (including drug products targeted to orphan disease conditions) and 100 FDA meetings. PCS-499 represents the first Processa drug that can potentially be used in a number of unmet medical need conditions. For more information, please visit http://www.processapharma.com . Forward-Looking Statements This release contains forward-looking statements. The statements in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements which involve risks and uncertainties. Actual future performance outcomes and results may differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements. Please refer to the documents filed by Processa Pharmaceuticals with the SEC, specifically the most recent reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q, which identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. # # # THIS NEWS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES OR TO U.S. NEWS AGENCIES VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Asante Gold Corporation (CSE:ASE/ FRANKFURT:1A9) (Asante or the "Company") is pleased to announce that a new mining technique, Sustainable Mining by Drilling (SMD), is currently under review by the Company for its future application at our Kubi Gold project in Ghana. SMD is a two-stage drilling method that enables direct mining of narrow deposits. The technology is being developed and commercialized by Anaconda Mining Inc. (Anaconda), in collaboration with Memorial University of Newfoundland, and utilizes technology proven in other industries. Anacondas SMD technology placed second in the Goldcorp Inc. #DisruptMining1 challenge held at the PDAC in Toronto on March 3, 2019. According to Anaconda, This concept is a complete surface mining option with a drilling rig as a main surface piece of equipment used in conjunction with several field proven down hole technologies. The mining process would be divided into two campaigns: drilling the pilot holes and accurately mapping the vein, then enlarging the pilot holes to predetermined sizes to recover the ore. Using an inclined mast drilling rig an inclined pilot hole is to be drilled along the center line of the vein (equidistant between the hanging wall and foot wall) with directional drilling system. Steering the pilot holes live with survey tool will determine the current orientation and to refine 3D model of the vein used to plan the pilot hole enlargement. Once the pilot hole has been drilled, progressively larger hole-openers can be used to drill along the pilot holes trajectory up to 2m.2 Anaconda notes that the SMD technology is a disruptor in that it reduces the cost to extract ore by 50% over conventional UG narrow mining techniques; it places the operator in a safe location on the surface; it can access areas not open to conventional mining; reduces the environmental footprint; and bypasses the crushing and grinding circuits by moving the +-2mm drill cuttings in a slurry direct to the mill, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HZaf660WDY&feature=youtu.be Douglas MacQuarrie, President & CEO, states, The new SMD mining technique slashes the mining costs, development time and capital required to take near surface gold deposits to production. Our Kubi Main Zone* gold resource is located in one of the best and safest gold mining destinations in the World, is road and power accessible, has an average width of 2m, is near vertical, and appears to be well suited for the application of this technique. Previous metallurgical tests on Kubi mineralization gave 35% to 40% recovery of the contained gold by gravity concentration from a coarse grind, which suggest a similar recovery might be expected directly from the SMD drill cuttings, giving a potential source of early cash flow. We are looking forward to the development and commercialization of the SMD technology and its potential application at Kubi. "Douglas R. MacQuarrie" President and CEO 1 https://disruptmining.com/ , 2019. 2 https://www.anacondamining.com/narrow-vein-mining , 2019. Scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Douglas R. MacQuarrie, P.Geo. (B.C.) Geology & Geophysics, the President and CEO of the Company, who is a "qualified person" under NI 43-101. *Kubi Main Zone has a current NI 43-101 resource estimate, completed by SEMS Exploration Services Ltd. of Accra, Ghana: Measured Resources 0.66 million tonnes @ 5.30g/t for 112,000 ounces; Indicated Resources 0.66 million tonnes @ 5.65g/t for 121,000 ounces; and Inferred Resources 0.67 million tonnes @ 5.31g/t for 115,000 ounces, which is filed on SEDAR. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. For further information please contact: Douglas MacQuarrie, President and CEO, tel: +1 604-558-1134; E-mail: douglas@asantegold.com Doreen Kent, Shareholder Communications, tel: +1 604-948-9450; E-mail: d.kent@eastlink.ca Valentina Gvozdeva, Business Development, E-mail: valentina@asantegold.com Florian Riedl-Riedenstein, Director; European Investor Relations, E-mail: frram@aon.net Additional information is available on our web site at: www.asantegold.com Further information on Kubi is available at: http://www.asantegold.com/projects/kubi-gold-mine LEI Number: 529900F9PV1G9S5YD446 Neither IIROC nor any stock exchange or other securities regulatory authority accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. MONTREAL, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- "Tamino" or the "Company" -OTC Markets: TINO- March 11, 2019, the Company agreed to retain the services of Mr. Dale Gray, an Arizona Registered Geologist. Mr. Gray has provided a variety of consulting services to Freeport McMoran for several mines in Arizona for a number of years. Mr. Grays accomplishments can be summarized in mentioning that he has been involved in making operational improvements that have been implemented in the Morenci Mine, Bagdad Mine and the Safford Mine located in Arizona. He also was involved in Freeports operations in New Mexico and Colorado. We can stress that he has extensive experience working in the State of Nevada where he has been using geophysical methods for location of mineral deposits. Mr. Gray is also versed in fund raising. This will assist the company achieve its goals within its mining exploration projects in order to meet corporate milestones. The company gladly receives Mr. Gray and looks forward to building a strong and long lasting relationship. His field expertise is valued and we are pleased to announce it. TAMINO MINERALS, INC. is exploring for high-grade gold deposits within a prolific gold producing geologic state, Sonora, and starting exploration in the Kenora Mining District in the Province of Ontario. On behalf of the Board, Pedro Villagran-Garcia, President & CEO For further information, please contact the Company at 1-971-285-4570 or by email at info@taminominerals.ca Forward Looking Statements Certain information contained in this press release, including any information as to our strategy, plans or future financial or operating performance and other statements that express management's expectations or estimates of future performance, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. The words "believe," "expect," "will," "anticipate," "contemplate," "target," "plan," "continue," "budget," "may," "intend," "estimate," "project" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, certain delays beyond the company's control with respect to its plans or operations. Our actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including, without limitation those set forth as "Risk Factors" in our filings with the SEC which can be found at www.sec.gov. There may be other factors not mentioned above or included in the Company's SEC filings that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statement. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Ivy Palm Resorts Multi-Phase Repositioning to Commence June 2019 Palm Springs, CA., March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ivy Palm Resort today unveiled plans for a transformational two-phase renovation updating guest rooms, lobby, outdoor pool area and restaurant into a modern, upscale hotel inspired by the resorts heritage in downtown Palm Springs. The renovation follows the change in hotel ownership, sold in May 2018 to owner-operator hospitality management company, Oxygen Hospitality . In addition to physical asset renovations, Oxygen Hospitality, which owns and operates a portfolio of branded and independent hotels, will rebrand the Ivy Palm Resort with a new hotel name, identity and amenities. Phase One of the renovation -- set to begin June 2019 with an anticipated fall 2019 completion -- will tackle all 100 guest rooms and suites, two outdoor pools and public spaces, redesign of the main entrance and outside bar. Phase Two of the renovation, targeted for completion in 2020, will bring a new restaurant concept and additional rooms. The hotel will remain open during renovations and sectioned off to minimize disruption to guests at the property. "The Ivy Palm Resort is a jewel property in the beautiful desert of Palm Springs, said Yaron Ashkenazi, chief executive officer of Oxygen Hospitality. Our new vision for this hotel inside and outside embraces the citys rich local history of its people, architecture and design. Once repositioning is completed, the hotel will have a new name, a new look, instill the warmth of American hospitality and celebrate local influences for a first-class guest experience. The hotels redesign is inspired by this iconic citys reputation for some of the countrys best mid-twentieth century modernism architecture. Modernism arrived in the 1930s, when actor Gary Cooper commissioned a home in Palm Springs and other actors followed suit. This history inspires the hotel's inviting redesign, which includes angular, artistic with colorful motif for the outside pool area ranging from royal blues, white and yellow. Guest room design offers a palette of clean, neutral white and cream colors -- paired with shades of aqua and complemented with sleek, rich modern wood furnishings for a desert climate. Complete guest room renovation includes bathroom remodel, all-new furnishings, beds, window treatments, artwork and technology. Built in 1982, the four building, two-story hotel sits on approx. three lush acres situated conveniently within steps of downtown for day and nightlife experiences and nearest to the widely popular Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. The property boasts one of the largest hotel pool areas in Palm Springs and spectacular mountain views. About Ivy Palm Resort The Ivy Palm Resort is a 4 building, 2-story exterior corridor 100-room hotel located four miles from the Palm Springs International Airport and nearest to experiencing the worlds largest rotating tram car Palm Springs Aerial Tramway -- with breathtaking views of Mt. San Jacinto State Park. Take pleasure visiting the sites in the heart of a dynamic downtown center the Ivy Palm Resort is minutes away to explore by foot or car exciting shopping, art, restaurants and nightlife of this iconic California resort city. This tropical oasis with lush landscape and spectacular mountain views includes a palm-tree fringed sundeck surrounded by sparkling blue outdoor pools, spa hot tubs and soothing fountains. For more information, visit www.ivypalmresort.com . About Oxygen Hospitality Group Oxygen Hospitality Group, Inc., is an owner-operator hospitality company that acquires, renovates and manages a portfolio of mid- to upper scale branded and independent hotel assets in the U.S. Sunbelt and other advantageous destinations. The Company works with Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs), accredited investors and family offices looking to direct invest in capital appreciation and income-producing hotel real estate projects. These assets undergo a Revive and Thrive value creation turnaround strategy by infusing technology into real estate and driving bottom-line results and gaining positive guest experience reviews with proven return-to-profitability management. Founded in 2017, Oxygen Hospitality is privately held and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. For more information, please visit: http://www.oxygenhospitality.com and follow us on Facebook , Twitter and LinkedIn . This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities. Offers to sell or the solicitations of offers to buy securities may only be made through official offering documents that contain important information about risks, fees and expenses. # # # Media Contact: Ruth Seigel Oxygen Hospitality Group, Inc. ruth@oxygenhospitality.com 602.320.4182 Attachment London, UK, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The lead analyst of the report said: With increasing global demand and ageing oil fields, the world needs to turn to a new source of fuel, which for some time will be LNG. With the invention of small-scale LNG, companies and countries can now make use of fields which were they were otherwise unable to take advantage of in the past. Small-scale LNG has opened up significant opportunities for both the larger more dominant companies in the space as well as smaller companies, continuing growth in the industry. For free sample pages on this report please click on: https://www.visiongain.com/report/top-20-small-scale-liquified-natural-gas-sslng-companies-2019/ The report contains 106 tables, charts and graphs that add visual analysis to explain developing trends within the SSLNG market. Visiongain provides detailed individual profiles for each of the top 20 companies in SSLNG in 2017. Each profile reveals the companys total revenue and where possible, revenue from SSLNG. If you are interested in a more detailed overview of this report, please send an e-mail to sara.peerun@Visiongainglobal.com or call her on +44 (0) 207 336 6100 The top 20 Leading Companies in Small-Scale Liquefied Natural Gas 2019 report will be of value to anyone who wants to better understand the major companies in the LNG market and their underlying dynamics. It will be useful for businesses who wish to comprehend the market better they are already involved in, or those wishing to enter or expand into a highly promising global energy market. Notes for Editors If you are interested in a more detailed overview of this report, please send an e-mail to sara.peerun@Visiongainglobal.com or call her on +44 (0) 207 336 6100 SAN FRANCISCO, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TrueVault , the first data security company completely focused on helping businesses protect personal data, announced today that it has won two prestigious industry awards. The first, a 2019 InfoSec Award from Cyber Security Magazine, is for Most Innovative Compliance Solution. More than 3,000 companies applied for the 2019 InfoSec awards, and only 200 were honored. Winners were announced at this weeks RSA Conference. The second is the 2019 Info Security Product Guides Global Excellence Awards . TrueVault won a Silver Award in the category of Compliance. Winners will be honored at a June 24 event in San Francisco. The award wins come on the heels of TrueVaults recent launch of TrueVault Atlas , the only solution that is designed to introduce efficiency and give businesses confidence by automating critical GDPR tasks, such as fulfilling data subject requests and detecting data processing anomalies. We are thrilled to have won these two awards, said Jason Wang, founder and CEO of TrueVault. Data security and compliance are two pressing issues for businesses regulations such as GDPR and the upcoming CCPA are making them even more urgent. TrueVault is focused on developing solutions that ensure companies protect consumer data and stay compliant. For more information on TrueVault, visit https://www.truevault.com/. About TrueVault TrueVault is the first data security company completely focused on helping businesses protect customers personal data. TrueVault Atlas simplifies compliance-related tasks, including fulfilling data subject requests and detecting anomalies in data processing practices. Companies increase their risk as they collect and store more personal data, but TrueVault products are designed to reduce liability. By using TrueVault Safe to decouple consumer identity from consumer behavior data, companies can virtually eliminate data security risks. TrueVault helps companies comply with strict regulations such as HIPAA, GDPR, and the California Consumer Privacy Act with our platform. Learn more at https://www.truevault.com/ or follow @TrueVault. Media contact: Michelle Faulkner +1 617-510-6998 michelle@big-swing.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/858b7c53-5090-4448-84fd-a4202fa40f65 SMITHFIELD, Va., March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Smithfield Foods, Inc. has donated more than 326,000 pounds of protein to four food banks throughout North and South Carolina as part of the companys 2019 Helping Hungry Homes donation tour. Helping Hungry Homes is Smithfields signature hunger-relief initiative focused on alleviating hunger and helping Americans become more food secure. The donations, equivalent to more than 1.3 million servings, will help families fight hunger across the Carolinas through the Lowcountry Food Bank and Harvest Hope Food Bank in South Carolina, and the Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina and the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina in North Carolina. Our efforts to supply nutritious food to those in need throughout North and South Carolina is made possible by devoted partners like Smithfield Foods, who truly understand and support our mission, said Mike Darrow, executive director of Feeding the Carolinas , a strategic alliance of Feeding America food banks in North and South Carolina. This gracious contribution from Smithfield adds to the long-standing efforts of our organizations to alleviate hunger, and this protein donation will make an incredible impact on those that we collectively serve. Together, these donations mark the fifth large-scale protein contribution from Smithfield to food banks across the country during its 2019 Helping Hungry Homes tour. Since the programs inception in 2008, Smithfield has provided more than 120 million servings of protein to food banks, disaster relief efforts, and community outreach programs nationwide. At Smithfield, we take pride in our role as a food company to feed people, while strengthening communities across the country through our Helping Hungry Homes initiative, in line with our social purpose, said Jonathan Toms, associate manager of charitable initiatives for Smithfield Foods. As a major employer in the region, the Carolinas continue to be close to the heart of our cause. We are honored to help alleviate hunger for many of our neighbors in need with these donations of much-needed protein by providing this donation to our food bank partners throughout North and South Carolina. For more information about Smithfield Foods Helping Hungry Homes initiative and a list of upcoming donation events, visit helpinghungryhomes.com . About Smithfield Foods Smithfield Foods is a $15 billion global food company and the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. In the United States, the company is also the leader in numerous packaged meats categories with popular brands including Smithfield, Eckrich, Nathans Famous, Farmland, Armour, Farmer John, Kretschmar, John Morrell, Cooks, Gwaltney, Carando, Margherita, Curlys, Healthy Ones, Morliny, Krakus, and Berlinki. Smithfield Foods is committed to providing good food in a responsible way and maintains robust animal care, community involvement, employee safety, environmental, and food safety and quality programs. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com , and connect with us on Facebook , Twitter , LinkedIn , and Instagram . About Feeding the Carolinas Feeding the Carolinas is a strategic alliance of the food banks in North and South Carolina who also belong to Feeding America, the nations largest hunger-relief charity. Feeding the Carolinas is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable nonprofit organization. Feeding the Carolinas is North and South Carolinas only statewide hunger relief organization that continuously services all 146 counties. Our community-supported member food banks are private, non-governmental organizations, located in every corner of both states and have consistently high ratings from Charity Navigator. www.feedingthecarolinas.org Our member services include: Multi-state networking and communication Raising food and funds for our food banks Public policy participation and analysis Public awareness about hunger issues About Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina As part of Feeding America, Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina serves 19 counties in North and South Carolina. In FY2017-2018, Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina distributed over 54 million pounds of food and household items to over 700 hunger feeding agencies including emergency pantries, soup kitchens, senior programs, shelters and low-income daycares. SHFBM on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SHmetrolina/ SHFBM on Twitter: https://twitter.com/shmetrolina SHFBM on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shmetrolina/ About Harvest Hope Food Bank Harvest Hope Food Bank is a non-profit organization serving people in need across 20 counties in South Carolina. In 2018, Harvest Hope distributed more than 27 million pounds of food and provided over 22 million meals. Harvest Hope operates out of locations in Columbia, Florence, and Greenville, SC. For more information please visit harvesthope.org . About The Lowcountry Food Bank The Lowcountry Food Bank serves the 10 coastal counties of South Carolina and distributed more than 31.2 million pounds of food in 2018. The Lowcountry Food Bank helps fight hunger by distributing food to nearly 300 partner agencies including soup kitchens, homeless shelters and emergency food pantries. The Lowcountry Food Bank is a member of the national Feeding America network. The Lowcountry Food Bank advocates on behalf of those who experience hunger and helps empower people to make healthy and nutritious food choices. For more information go to http://www.lowcountryfoodbank.org and connect with us on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram and LinkedIn. About the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina The Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina is a nonprofit organization that has provided food for people at risk of hunger in 34 counties in central and eastern North Carolina for more than 35 years. The Food Bank serves a network of more than 800 partner agencies such as soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, and programs for children and adults through warehouses in Durham, Greenville, New Bern, Raleigh, the Sandhills (Southern Pines), and Wilmington. In fiscal year 2017-2018, the Food Bank distributed nearly 70 million pounds of food (over half of which was perishable) and non-food essentials through these agencies. Sadly, hunger remains a serious problem in central and eastern North Carolina. In these counties, more than 600,000 people struggle to access nutritious and adequate amounts of food necessary for an active and healthy life. foodbankcenc.org . Media Contacts: Arlington, VA, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rosetta Stone Inc. (NYSE: RST), a world leader in technology-based learning solutions, today announced that the Company will participate in the 31st Annual ROTH Conference, which is taking place March 17 19, 2019 at The Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, CA. John Hass, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Tom Pierno, Chief Financial Officer, and Nick Gaehde, Co-President, will hold meetings with investors throughout the day on March 18 - 19, 2019. About Rosetta Stone Inc. Rosetta Stone Inc. (NYSE: RST) is dedicated to changing people's lives through the power of language and literacy education. The company's innovative digital solutions drive positive learning outcomes for the inspired learner at home or in schools and workplaces around the world. Founded in 1992, Rosetta Stone's language division uses cloud-based solutions to help all types of learners read, write and speak more than 30 languages. Lexia Learning, Rosetta Stone's literacy education division, was founded more than 30 years ago and is a leader in the literacy education space. Today, Lexia helps students build fundamental reading skills through its rigorously researched, independently evaluated, and widely respected instruction and assessment programs. For more information, visit www.rosettastone.com. "Rosetta Stone" is a registered trademark or trademark of Rosetta Stone Ltd. in the United States and other countries. TORONTO, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kilo Goldmines Ltd. (Kilo or the Company) (TSX VENTURE: KGL) announced today that Mr. John Welborn has resigned as a director of the Company. On behalf of the Board, the Chairman, Mr. David Netherway, expressed his thanks to Mr. Welborn for his contributions to the Company during his tenure. Following Mr. Welborns resignation, the Board is comprised of three directors, being David Netherway (Chair), James Mustard and Louden Owen, and there are no immediate plans to fill the vacancy created by Mr. Welborns resignation. About Kilo Kilo Goldmines Ltd. is a Canadian gold exploration company that is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol 'KGL' and on the Frankfurt Exchange under the symbol '02K'. The Company holds about 2,417 km of prospective Archaean Kibalian greenstone in the Kilo-Moto area in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Incorporated within these licences is: the Somituri project (71.25% owned by KGL), comprising six contiguous licences (361km) held by KGL-Somituri SARL the KGL Isiro SARL Joint Venture (JV) with Randgold Resources Ltd (2,056 km), for gold and associated minerals only. The JV is managed by Randgold and financed by it to pre-feasibility (PFS) for a 51% participation interest. Upon completion of the PFS, KGL can participate in funding or Randgold will increase its participation to 65% by completing a Feasibility Study. Certain areas which have been deemed of no interest to Randgold have been returned to KGL. KGL has retained the rights to explore for and develop iron ore resources and other minerals associated with the licences held by KGL Isiro SARL. For further information, please contact: Philip Gibbs Interim Chief Executive Officer Tel: +1 416 360 3406 Email: philip.gibbs@kilogoldmines.com Website: www.kilogoldmines.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. KELOWNA, British Columbia, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today Starbuds Canada, an independent corporate cannabis retailer, is pleased to announce it is bringing its education-based retail cannabis experience to the Alaskan Highway Region, with the opening of its retail location in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. The retail location is the first to open under the Starbuds Canada brand, with several others in various licensing phases in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Were excited to bring our education-first approach to cannabis to Dawson Creek, says Dave Martyn, President and Co-Founder of Starbuds Canada. From what weve seen across the country, more access to retail cannabis storefronts is the best way to beat the black market. Were happy to provide Dawson Creek with safe, regulated access to cannabis and look forward to opening more locations across British Columbia in the future. Martyn says this retail location represents an important step in Starbuds projected growth strategy to become the leading cannabis retailer in Canada. As part of that strategy, the company has multiple licences underway for retail shops in British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, with plans to expand into Ontario as lottery restrictions ease. Starbuds' first British Columbia retail location is at the Dawson Mall at 19-11000 8th Street in Dawson Creek, and is open Monday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information about Starbuds Canada, visit Starbuds.co. About Starbuds Canada Starbuds is a leading independent adult-use cannabis retailer poised to establish itself as one of the worlds largest international cannabis retail companies. The company intends to capture significant market share in jurisdictions that allow private retail. Starbuds is changing the way people think about cannabis with expertly curated product selection and a best-in-class, education-driven customer experience. Starbuds leadership team has extensive experience in both the medical and recreational cannabis industries and deep retail expertise. The company has first-mover advantage in the new adult-use cannabis industry in Canada and, specifically, in British Columbia. For further information contact Daniel Winer Marketing Director daniel.winer@starbuds.co CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION This news release contains certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively referred to herein as forward-looking statements) within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. All statements other than statements of present or historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as anticipate, achieve, could, believe, plan, intend, objective, continuous, ongoing, estimate, outlook, expect, may, will, project, should or similar words, including negatives thereof, suggesting future outcomes. Management of the Company believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable as of the date hereof but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking statements should not be unduly relied upon. Various material factors and assumptions are typically applied in drawing conclusions or making the forecasts or projections set out in forward-looking statements. Those material factors and assumptions are based on information currently available to the Company, including data from publicly available governmental sources as well as from market research and industry analysis and on assumptions based on data and knowledge of the retail cannabis industry which the Company believes to be reasonable. However, although generally indicative of relative market positions, market shares and performance characteristics, such data is inherently imprecise. While the Company is not aware of any misstatement regarding any industry or government data presented herein, the retail cannabis industry involves risks and uncertainties and is subject to change based on various factors. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and are subject to and involve a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, which may cause the Companys actual performance and results to differ materially from any projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise such statements to reflect new information, subsequent or otherwise. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/eed66d00-28db-49dc-866c-6633eb602572 BENSALEM, Pa., March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Law Offices of Howard G. Smith announces an investigation on behalf of Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc. investors (Diplomat or the Company) (NYSE: DPLO) concerning the Company and its officers possible violations of federal securities laws. On February 22, 2019, Diplomat disclosed the postponement of the release of its Q4 and full-year 2018 earnings as it worked to finalize the amount of an impairment charge, which was expected to be equal to a significant portion of the PBM's Goodwill and Definite-lived intangible assets, which total approximately $630 million as of December 31, 2018, prior to impairment charges. On this news, shares of fell $7.59 or 56%, to close at 5.87 on February 22, 2019, thereby injuring investors. If you purchased Diplomat securities, have information or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Howard G. Smith, Esquire, of Law Offices of Howard G. Smith, 3070 Bristol Pike, Suite 112, Bensalem, Pennsylvania 19020 by telephone at (215) 638-4847, toll-free at (888) 638-4847, or by email to howardsmith@howardsmithlaw.com , or visit our website at www.howardsmithlaw.com . This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. BENSALEM, Pa., March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Law Offices of Howard G. Smith announces an investigation on behalf of CPI Aerostructures, Inc. investors (CPI or the Company) (NYSE American: CVU ) concerning the Company and its officers possible violations of federal securities laws. On February 8, 2019, CPI announced that its previously issued financial statements for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 should no longer be relied upon due to an error related to the Companys billing process which caused an overstatement of revenue. On this news, CPIs share price fell 8.5% to close at $6.34 per share on February 8, 2019, thereby injuring investors. If you purchased CPI securities, have information or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Howard G. Smith, Esquire, of Law Offices of Howard G. Smith, 3070 Bristol Pike, Suite 112, Bensalem, Pennsylvania 19020 by telephone at (215) 638-4847, toll-free at (888) 638-4847, or by email to howardsmith@howardsmithlaw.com , or visit our website at www.howardsmithlaw.com . This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. NEW ORLEANS, March 11, 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 May 10, 2019 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (NYSE: BPI), if they purchased the Companys securities between March 8, 2016 and March 7, 2019 (the Class Period). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. What You May Do If you purchased securities of Bridgepoint and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-bpi/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by May 10, 2019. About the Lawsuit Bridgepoint and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws. On March 7, 2019, the Company disclosed that its financial statements for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 would be restated, and should not be relied upon, due in part to a revenue recording process that was not designed with sufficient precision, leading to material accounting errors relating to revenue, provision for bad debts, accounts receivable and deferred revenue, which resulted in the overstatement of revenue and expenses. On this news, the price of Bridgepoints shares plummeted. The case is Stein v. Bridgepoint Education, Inc. et al, 19-cv-00460. 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 Stratfords Cutrufello building has been a fixture in the town for decades, and its new owner wants to make sure it stays that way. Its a beautiful building and should be preserved, said Vivian Guttman Perez, who purchased the 20,000 square-foot space at 1390 Barnum Ave. with plans to renovate and bring it back to form. A longtime tenant of a neighboring building, Perez, along with her sister, took over ownership of the building seven months ago, purchasing it from the Cutrufello family for $460,000, she said. Since making the purchase, Perez has been refurbishing the building and make it look more like it did when it was the former Cutrufello Creamery. I want to bring it back to its old glory, she added. There is a lot of history in it. Its Stratford history. The building dates to the 1930s, and housed a Stratford-based business known for making Italian cheeses and pastas on the second floor. Cutrufello Creamery closed a few years back, and the family went on to join Bridgeport-based Wades Dairy, which now produces his families products. We never really had an opportunity to keep the building up to what we really wanted to keep it looking like, so it just made sense for us to sell that and go over with Wades, said Ben Cutrufello, whose grandfather started the creamery in Bridgeport in 1920 on Main Street before relocating to Stratford some 12 years later. Perez was first introduced to the space in 2004, when she and her sister opened a laundry business across the street from the former creamery. Two years later, they relocated into a space in the building and built a 4,000 square-foot laundromat which is next to H and R Block. The building currently features long-standing tenant Salernos Apizza as its anchor and several other businesses, including Kitchen by Coufar, a granite and marble countertop business with origins in Bridgeport; and the newly opened Brick Box restaurant, which serves waffle cones with hot wings and other foodstuffs inside. Brick Box opened last week. Perez said she plans to turn a vacant space in the back of the building into a site for local artists to work. Town officials said they are looking forward to the transformation along with added business on one of Stratfords main corridors. The Cutrufellos Building is an iconic piece of architecture that reminds us of Stratfords storied history, and the celebrated Cutrufellos Creamery, Salernos Apizza and the new arrivals of Brick Box and Kitchen by Coufar, said Mayor Laura R. Hoydick in an email to Hearst Connecticut Media. It is impressive and gratifying to see the level of care taken by Vivian Perez to preserve and promote this location repurposing it for new and exciting commercial uses with an eye to its history and heritage, she said. Jordan.grice@hearstmediact.com WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump proposed a $4.7 trillion budget plan Monday that stands as a sharp challenge to Congress and the Democrats trying to unseat him in 2020, the first act in a multi-front struggle over the role of government that threatens to consume Washington for the next 18 months. The plan would dramatically expand spending on programs and initiatives popular with Republicans, such as $750 billion in new defense spending and $8.6 billion for barriers on the Mexico border. At the same time, it would slash spending on Medicaid, food stamps, environmental protection, and a range of other programs that Democratic presidential candidates vowed to protect and expand. The budget proposal ran into an immediate buzzsaw on Capitol Hill, where many Democrats flatly rejected it and even some Republicans sought to distance themselves from key details. And the demand for $8.6 billion for a border wall, less than two months after a 35-day shutdown paralyzed much of Washington, raised the possibility that there could be an even more dramatic impasse if a spending deal isn't reached by the end of September. The budget plan sets up a contrast with Trump's 2020 Democratic rivals for the White House, proposing to shrink spending on social programs at a time when many of his challengers are promising to radically expand it. Top White House officials acknowledged that lawmakers routinely dismiss these budget proposals, but they signaled a willingness on Monday to fight harder this year than they have in the past. "We need to continue to secure the country," said White House Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Russell Vought. "We need to continue to secure the border. We're not going to be bashful about that. But at the same time, we're also going to say that we have many, many programs that are wasteful and inefficient that we can no longer afford." Trump's "Budget for a Better America" features dozens of spending cuts and policy overhauls. Total spending on Medicare, the popular health care program for the elderly that in the past he had largely said he would protect, would be reduced by roughly $845 billion over 10 years. Some of those savings would be redirected to other health programs, but most would be completely cut from the budget. His budget would also propose a major overhaul of Medicaid, the health care program for low-income Americans run jointly with states, by turning more power over to states and cutting spending by $241 billion over 10 years. "The cruel and shortsighted cuts in President Trump's budget request are a roadmap to a sicker, weaker America," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., effectively dooming the budget by promising the House would reject it. Even with the cuts in Trump's budget, the spending plan predicts annual deficits to top $1 trillion from 2019 through 2022, a threshold that has caused consternation within GOP ranks for weeks and only came into sharp focus on Monday. A number of agencies, particularly the Environmental Protection Agency, State Department, Transportation Department, Education Department and Interior Department, would see their budgets severely reduced. The Commerce Department budget would increase in preparation for the 2020 Census - but Democrats said the Census money was insufficient. Trump's GOP allies, meanwhile, received the budget plan with a lukewarm embrace. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., said the proposal was "the first step in the federal budget process and will allow us to consider how his priorities align with the priorities of Congress." The budget was full of provisions that Republicans have long embraced but had not been put forward on such a scale. It would would impose mandatory work-requirements for millions of people who receive welfare assistance, including for food and housing, while dramatically increasing the defense budget to $750 billion next year, a 5 percent increase from 2019. Trump and other Republicans have said the federal budget is full of waste and bloat, arguing many federal agencies could still function with less taxpayer money. Still, according to Trump's budget, the spending cuts would do little to reduce what is shaping up to be a colossal deficit in the next several years. The deficit is the annual gap between spending and tax revenue. The budget foresees a $1.1 trillion deficit in 2019, 2020, and 2021, and a $1 trillion deficit in 2022. Asked about this, Vought said "We do have large deficits. That's why we are here transparently saying we have a problem as a country." White House officials believe the budget proposal would eventually eliminate the deficit in 2035, but Democrats accused the plan of relying on rosy estimates of future economic growth in order to count large increases in future tax revenue. These deficits will add to the existing $22 trillion debt and have a real impact on government spending. For example, the White House now projects the government will spend $482 billion on interest payments for the debt next year, more than the entire budget for Medicaid. Republicans have long called for taking steps that shrink - or even eliminate - the deficit, and putting forward a plan that would create $4.3 trillion in new debt over four years could give Democrats fresh targets on the campaign trail. There is a crowded crowded field of Democrats seeking the nomination to challenge Trump in November, and at a time when Trump is trying to pull the country to the right, the Democratic Party has moved left. Several Democratic senators running for president have backed Sen. Bernie Sanders' "Medicare-for-all" health legislation, which would expand federal spending on the health program by as much as $30 trillion - just as the Trump administration is looking to decrease the program's costs. Trump's budget also calls for maintaining existing federal funding for child care programs, hoping to generate additional spending at the state level. Democratic candidates have called for the federal government to massively increase its spending on child care, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., recently unveiling a plan that would ensure free, government-subsidized childcare for every American earning less than roughly $50,000 annually. The administration's budget also revives its push for an infrastructure bill, asking for $200 billion in federal dollars over 10 years, which it says will lead to $1 trillion in federal, state, and private spending on roads, housing, ports, and other investments. Some Democratic candidates have called for programs on a much bigger scale, with Sanders recently calling for the federal government to rescind the 2017 GOP tax cut, estimated to cost about $1.5 trillion, and spend $1 trillion in new federal dollars on the nation's roads, bridges, and highways, among other things. House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., said the White House spending blueprint would give Democratic presidential candidates plenty of material to show how their agenda is different. "If I were running against him I would sure use it against him," he said. White House officials believe Trump's economic agenda has proven very successful so far, leading to job growth, higher wages, and economic growth. But critics allege he achieved this in part through huge levels of fiscal stimulus, including tax cuts and spending increases, that have widened the deficit and added several trillion dollars to the government's debt. Administration officials say the southern border wall funding request would allow them to complete 722 miles of barriers, the full amount they have identified as necessary. Building the wall would fulfill Trump's core campaign promise, although it would see U.S. taxpayers foot the bill for a barrier he long claimed would be paid for by Mexico. The defense spending increase in the budget includes funneling more than $170 billion into a special overseas account, something even some Republicans dismissed as a gimmick aimed at getting around existing spending caps. However defense hawks on Capitol Hill welcomed the Pentagon budget increase. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, warned against getting "distracted by the construction of the budget request." The budget does reflect the changing nature of Trump's agenda since taking office. He has continued to try to pump more money into the military and border security programs, and the budget provides funding for the creation of a "Space Force," and a U.S. Space Command, ideas Trump has personally pushed even while running into some resistance from military leaders and congressional Republicans. Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said last week that he's skeptical about the need to create a new branch of the military to deal with space. And despite Trump's decision to slash spending for most Cabinet agencies, his budget makes room for women- and family-focused priorities embraced by his daughter Ivanka Trump. It includes a provision supporting state paid family leave programs, and allocates $100 million for her recently launched Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, an effort to help women in the workforce succeed as entrepreneurs. While his Democratic rivals for the White House next year ramp up their attacks on his policy agenda, Democrats in Congress are planning to challenge him in the coming months on his budget plan. In addition to the Sept. 30, 2019 deadline to reach a spending agreement, lawmakers believe they will also need to reach an agreement to raise the debt ceiling around that time. The debt ceiling is a borrowing cap established by Congress, and it prohibits the Treasury Department from issuing more debt. The government is bumping up against the debt limit now, and the Treasury Department has begun emergency steps to buy more time so Congress can eventually vote to raise it. Several lawmakers have said they expect the debt ceiling to be raised as part of a broader budget deal this summer or fall. But if budget talks bog down later this year amid a fight over border wall funding, it could force lawmakers to rethink this timeline and their entire approach. GREENWICH A year and a half ago, Swedish ninth-grader Greta Thunberg sat on the steps of the Swedish parliament building on a School Strike for Climate. This Friday, Greenwich Country Day School students and teachers will march a message of awareness and support for actions against climate change from Fairfield Road to Greenwich Town Hall. We are responsible for our future. I have seen the effects of our behaviors, and now is the time to change, GCDS student Tessa Pascarella said. Adults in power are not doing enough. I hope that kids and adults in our Fridays for Future march realize that they have a powerful voice which they can, and should, use. Thunberg sparked the global Fridays For Future movement after she watched Parkland High School students organize the March for Our Lives after the mass shooting at the Florida school. Students have demonstrated around the world, in 270 cities in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Uganda, the United Kingdom and the U.S. The largest coordinated student march so far happened last month, when an estimated 65,000 students demonstrated across Switzerland. I was inspired that Greta made a difference, even though she is only one person, eighth-grader Bridget Brockelman said. More than 700 marches in 72 countries are planned for March 15, including 86 marches in the U.S. Middle- and high-school students are advocating for actions such as switching to 100 percent clean energy by 2030. At Country Day, a team of teachers and 11 students in the eighth grade are organizing the Greenwich march. Teachers and staff will accompany sixth- to ninth-grade students along a 2.5-mile sidewalk route from the school to the Greenwich Town Hall. We are putting together this march to raise awareness about what is going on in our world, and we hope to make an impact on our representatives so that they can help us help the world, eighth-grder Evie Offit said. The team has invited Republican and Democratic elected leaders to appear with the marchers at the Town Hall at 10 a.m. March 15. First Selectman Peter Tesei, state Sen. Alex Bergstein, and state Rep. Livvy Floren have accepted invitations and applauded the students engagement. Everyone we speak to says they are excited that the kids are taking action for an issue they care about, GCDS Community Service program director Jen Donnalley said. The team extends the invitation to other Greenwich public and independent schools students. Even if only 10 people come march with us, I will still be happy because I will know that we will have made a difference, Offit said. Student activists at the United Nations meeting in Poland last December cited the recently released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report as an urgent call for governments to act. The IPCC report forecasts that the impacts on people and nature will be extreme, and that the world risks runaway warming, beyond a 2.7-degree rise in average annual global temperature. The report also states that humans will pass this threshold in 12 years at current emission rates. Climate scientists have supported the international student marchers. In January, 3,400 Belgian scientists signed an open letter to their government, while last month 350 Dutch scientists and 224 British academics did the same. Global warming isnt coming. Its here, and we cant just wait around, GCDS 6th-grader Grace Stewart added. jo.kroeker@hearstmediact.com The head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints met with a pope for the first time on Saturday, an event that reportedly followed decades of behind-the-scenes relationship building between denominations whose leaders share a concern over secularism. Pope Francis and President Russell. M Nelson - both men who hold offices of profound spiritual significance for their faiths - met for 33 minutes at the Vatican to discuss the shared priorities of protecting religious rights, traditional family values and young people and opposing secularism, according to the Mormon Church-affiliated Deseret News. The visit comes a day before Nelson was to dedicate the first Mormon temple in Rome. There are about 16 million Mormons in the world, compared with more than 1.1 billion Catholics. However, in a chaotic era when many people are leaving organized religion, leaders of the two denominations share goals, including responding together to disasters and poverty and promoting traditional families and involvement with Christian institutions. "We talked about our mutual concern for the people who suffer throughout the world and want to relieve human suffering. We talked about the importance of religious liberty, the importance of the family, our mutual concern for the youth of the Church, for the secularization of the world and the need for people to come to God and worship Him, pray to Him and have the stability that faith in Jesus Christ will bring in their lives," Nelson told his church's news website. The two groups work together on relief efforts in 43 countries. "What a sweet, wonderful man he is," Nelson said of Francis, the Mormon Church news site reported, "and how fortunate the Catholic people are to have such a gracious, concerned, loving and capable leader." The Vatican put out no detailed statement about the meeting Saturday, except to include it on the list of people and groups who had audiences with the pope that day. The meeting and the existence of the new temple are especially significant for Mormons, said Kathleen Flake, a historian of American religion and an expert on the Latter-day Saints. The church teaches that it isn't just generically "Christian" but is the authentic restoration of Jesus's church. Establishing the temple in Rome, a center of global Christianity, and the meeting with the pope give credibility to the Mormon Church as fully Christian, Flake said. That's important for a group still fighting for acceptance. In the United States, for example, 97 percent of Mormons consider themselves Christian, compared with just more than half of U.S. adults who recognize Mormonism as a Christian faith, according to a 2016 analysis by the Pew Research Center. Asked to volunteer one word that best describes the group, Pew found, the most commonly offered response by non-Mormons was "cult." Flake said it was significant that the visitors' center of the new temple in Rome features a dramatic Christus sculpture along with sculptures of the 12 apostles. "There's a resonance there. It's a claim. . . . To replicate those statutes, in that place, there's nothing else it can be. It's symbolically an assertion of their claim to be the restored Church of Jesus Christ with its apostolic authority," she said. Nelson and Francis, she said, are unique. "Are there any other men but those two who believe they stand in the shoes of St. Peter?" According to the Deseret News, Francis gave Nelson two gifts: some of his writings on the family and on the Islamic faith. Nelson gave the pope a Christus statue - an image common in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - and a copy of a core 1995 church document on the family. Other high-ranking Mormon Church leaders have met with top Catholic leaders in the past, including Henry B. Eyring, whose title was the first counselor in the First Presidency. That happened in 2014 when he and Francis spoke at a Vatican conference about marriage, the Deseret News wrote Saturday. The news site noted that a meeting between men in these positions "would have been unimaginable to leaders and members in both churches" until at least the 1960s, when followers officially were told to limit interactions with other faiths, including weddings and funerals. But behind-the-scenes connections were happening, the Deseret News reported, and have intensified in the past decade. The Mormon president, the news site reported, would go in the 1950s to Salt Lake City's Holy Cross Hospital - which is Catholic-run - "under the guise of visiting a Latter-day Saint patient, then slip into the office of Bishop Duane G. Hunt. They used their private sessions to talk about community issues and the tensions between their members in Utah," said Monsignor J. Terrence Fitzgerald, a Salt Lake City priest interviewed by the site. "The Catholics were trying to get the Latter-day Saints not to bad-mouth the Catholics at every conference," Fitzgerald said, "and the Latter-day Saints were trying to get the Catholics to put in a good word for them on the national level." Interfaith relations opened significantly with the Second Vatican Council, a major meeting of the Catholic Church in the 1960s. Both sides have become more open and, in the United States especially, have shared the cause of protecting traditional religious values in public life, such as government-affiliated faith groups' choice not to offer health benefits to same-sex couples or to place foster or adopted children in their homes. Leaders of both faith groups have warned about liberalizing changes in sexuality, reproductive technology and gender norms and about a decrease in people's firm belief in God. "Secularism is prevalent in many Western countries, and many people have lost their faith in Jesus Christ," Latter-day Saint Presiding Bishop Gerald Causse told the Deseret News. "And to have all Christian faiths join together and defend our values is important." In Utah, the two communities have developed strong relations in recent decades, the church's news release said Saturday. WASHINGTON - The once-remote idea of adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent is prompting growing discussion within the Democratic Party, creating a new frontier for presidential candidates looking to display their liberal credentials. Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who recently decided against running for president, became the latest figure to embrace an expansion of the nine-member court in recent talks at Yale Law School and Columbia University. He questioned the validity of the current court, given Senate Republicans' refusal to vote on Judge Merrick Garland after President Barack Obama nominated him to the Supreme Court in March 2016. The seat was ultimately filled by President Donald Trump's nominee Neil Gorsuch. "Given the Merrick Garland situation, the question of legitimacy is one that I think we should talk about," Holder said. "We should be talking even about expanding the number of people who serve on the Supreme Court, if there is a Democratic president and a Congress that would do that." His comments come as activists launch an organized effort to prod the presidential contenders to say publicly they're open to such ideas. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., has called adding justices - or imposing term limits on them - "interesting ideas that I would have to think more about." Pete Buttigeig, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who is exploring a presidential campaign, has responded to questions by inviting consideration of either adding justices or rotating them on and off the court. He has also discussed a new 15-justice structure for the court - five Democratic appointees, five Republican appointees, and five chosen by the other 10. Conservatives have long been galvanized by the promise of moving the Supreme Court to the right, making it a sometimes significant factor in their voting decisions. Now liberals, angered by the aggressive GOP push to remake the federal courts, are becoming equally impassioned, prompting the discussion of far-reaching ideas for remaking the nation's highest legal body. The concept of expanding the Supreme Court, like the phrase "court packing" itself, fell into lengthy disrepute after 1937, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt - frustrated that conservative justices were blocking New Deal programs he considered to be crucial for the country - sought to add six friendlier justices, prompting an outcry even from allies. Some liberal activists and scholars say the idea now merits a new look. They view the GOP's refusal to consider Garland as tantamount to stealing a Supreme Court seat, and they contend that the Senate paid insufficient attention in last year's confirmation hearing to the sexual misconduct allegations against Justice Brett Kavanaugh, which he forcefully denied. Republicans, these activists fear, have in essence created a judicial buffer against any future liberal agenda if Democrats recapture the White House and Congress. "Democrats cannot sit back and accept the status quo of a partisan Republican five-seat majority for the next 30 years," said Brian Fallon, a former adviser to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and to Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who now runs the advocacy group Demand Justice. "We don't consider those two seats that Trump has filled to be legitimate." Fallon has been in contact with a new group, Pack the Courts, which seeks to inject the idea of restructuring the court into the presidential campaign. Supporters of the group were responsible for publicizing Holder's recent comments and for prompting Buttigieg's response, and they have reached out to other campaigns. "The strategy is to make the 2020 candidates understand that if they don't come up with an agenda to deal with the courts, everything they are talking about is going to be dead on arrival," said Aaron Belkin, executive director of Pack the Courts and a professor at San Francisco State University. Leaders of the grass-roots network Indivisible, which helped organize for Democrats in the 2018 campaign, have also voiced support for changes in the court. Ezra Levin, the group's co-executive director, said the idea comes up regularly in the group's meetings. Activists like Levin say that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has warped the judicial nomination process by using unprecedented tactics to confirm young, far-right judges. "Indivisible is strongly against packing the courts, which is why we think we need to expand the courts, to undo all the packing that has been done in recent years," Levin said. McConnell, for his part, says Democrats are merely upset at Republican success in putting qualified conservative judges on the bench despite Democratic obstructionism. The new interest in court-packing, he says, reflects liberal extremism. "Some left-wing publications are already trying to lay the groundwork for, you guessed it, literally packing the court with more justices," McConnell said on the Senate floor after Kavanaugh's swearing-in ceremony. "That's right, the far left has gone scrounging through the ash-heap of American history and they're bandying about that discredited fantasy from the 1930s." Members of both parties, however, decry the fact that Supreme Court confirmation fights, including Kavanaugh's, have increasingly degenerated into drawn-out battles featuring personal attacks, bitter recriminations and charges of bad faith. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., has endorsed a proposal from Bruce Ackerman, a professor at Yale Law School, to end lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court and instead shift justices onto lower courts after stints of 14 or 18 years. Under this plan, presidents would appoint new justices at regular intervals, arguably lowering the temperature and the stakes for each confirmation. "There is something that is wrong in our country when our Supreme Court hearings are becoming the high-stakes affairs that they are, almost like presidential elections," Khanna said. "The Founding Fathers never intended that." Legal scholars say it's not clear if the Constitution allows term limits for justices if they remain on the federal bench after leaving the high court. The Constitution says federal judges "both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour," which has generally been interpreted to mean lifetime appointments. The Constitution is also silent on the size of the Supreme Court. There were six justices after the Judiciary Act of 1789 and 10 under President Abraham Lincoln, and there have been nine since 1869. The current debate comes as the Supreme Court, and the judiciary more broadly, is increasingly a focus of impassioned political debate. Both major party presidential candidates in 2016 outlined explicit litmus tests for their nominees. Trump has repeatedly attacked federal judges as political actors when they rule against his interests, sometimes calling them "Obama judges." That prompted Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., a defender of the judiciary who was appointed by President George W. Bush, to take the rare step of publicly pushing back. "We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges," Roberts said last November. "What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them." For some proponents of court packing, the current effort could bring benefits even if Congress never votes on it. Activists say the threat alone could pressure the justices to avoid decisions that would inflame partisan fury by undoing legislative or presidential actions. "If Roberts is genuinely looking to preserve his institution, he has some runway here," said Ian Millhiser, a columnist at the liberal website ThinkProgress who wrote a recent article defending court packing. Millhiser and others say they're particularly concerned about potential court decisions on gerrymandering, voting rights and other matters that directly affect the democratic process and could make it harder for Democrats to win elections. "It's the existential democratic issues that provide the most principled basis" for a change to the Supreme Court, said Todd Tucker, a political scientist at the Roosevelt Institute. Some legal scholars warn, though, that the debate over court-packing risks weakening the court's credibility further, since it suggests that the court is irrevocably political in its current form. "The risk is really, one way or another, undermining the ability of the court to play the role it has played in American democracy," said David Strauss, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School. "People have to be willing to go along with what the court does." Roberts has made clear over the years that he is sensitive to the danger of politicization. In a 2015 address to the Historical Society of the New York Courts, he praised former chief justice Charles Evans Hughes, who successfully worked to defeat Roosevelt's plan to add six justices to the court. "It fell to Hughes to guide a very unpopular Supreme Court through that high-noon showdown against America's most popular president since George Washington," Roberts said. He also praised Hughes for working "under the radar" to allow time for Congress to realize the harm that would come from Roosevelt's proposal. - - - The Washington Post's Robert Barnes contributed to this report. Estonia's ruling party unexpectedly opened the door for anti-immigrant populists to join another European Union government. Despite finishing as runner-up in this month's elections, the Center Party reached out to the anti-establishment EKRE Monday, alongside its current coalition partner, the conservative Isamaa. The EU is already struggling to address gains made by euroskeptic nationalists across the world's largest trading bloc. "Every government has to value the freedoms and the basic rights of our people," Prime Minister Juri Ratas, who leads Center, said in a statement, defending the decision to engage with EKRE. The government must "also offer safety to all Estonian residents and to strengthen the rule of law and democracy that underpin Estonia," he said. Nationalist politicians are on the rise from Budapest to Rome, striking at the EU's migration policies and in many cases challenging the bloc's democratic norms. An EKRE official last year attacked a court verdict to register a Swedish same-sex married couple as spouses, saying he wanted judges' "heads to roll." It's also pushing to scrap same-sex partnerships, while some party members have publicly used racial epithets. The coalition talks are playing out as Estonia grapples with the reputational hit from a $230-billion money-laundering scandal centered on the local unit of Danske Bank, one of Europe's biggest dirty-money cases. Isamaa accepted Center's invitation ahead of that of Reform because "Center didn't draw any red lines, allowing for constructive talks," Chairman Helir-Valdor Seeder said in an emailed statement, after competing offers turned it into the kingmaker party. Last week, Center rejected an offer for talks on a grand coalition from the Reform Party, which unexpectedly tapped its arch-rival over Isamaa and the junior ruling Social Democrats. Center's invitation to the nationalists marks a reversal for the ruling party, which along with Reform had pledged to keep EKRE from government. EKRE scored third in the elections by railing against immigrants and saying the nation of 1.3 million's unwavering engagement with the EU hasn't helped lift Estonians' living standards. A coalition isn't a sure thing, however, with Center leader Juri Ratas, who's also prime minister, saying talks would be difficult. He also said his party wouldn't let EKRE contradict Estonia's values. President Kersti Kaljulaid reiterated on Monday she would extend the first offer for forming a government to Reform, the election winner. Even as the Social Democrats said they're ready for talks with Reform, their combined 44 mandates in the 101-seat parliament would be too little for a stable government. A potential coalition of Center, Isamaa and EKRE would have 57 seats. The cycles of the 2020 presidential campaign are churning quickly and will continue to do so. For the past two months, the Democratic nomination contest has been about newcomers, women and the image of diversity in a new party. Suddenly, it's about two older white men. The spotlight has fallen on Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and former Vice President Joe Biden. Sanders, because his entry into the race has come with more force and energy than some people had expected - and more money than anyone else. Biden, because he appears to be on the cusp of announcing his candidacy, with allies out this week removing what little suspense remains about his plans. But there's a bigger reason the focus has fallen on the two politicians with the longest records and years of experience. Every early poll - national and state - puts Biden and Sanders ahead of others who are in the race or are seriously thinking about running. Among the latest is a Des Moines Register-CNN Iowa poll that showed Biden and Sanders with more than half the vote combined, and no one else in double digits. The poll should be read in two ways - as a sign of initial strength for each of them, and as an indication of the vulnerabilities the two best-known figures in the race could face. These early polls suggest that as the contest takes shape, the structure is Biden and Bernie vs. the field. That's not to say the Democratic race is either Biden's or Sanders' to lose. With a big field assembling, those numbers - Biden at 27 percent and Sanders at 25 percent - are helpful but not overwhelmingly impressive. At every candidate event this year, there are more shoppers than buyers, and any number of candidates are drawing crowds and good reviews. Other candidates are and will have their moments. Still, it is notable that Biden and Sanders are where they are, given who they are. Either would be the oldest newly elected president in history. Sanders is 77 years old, Biden 76. Together, they have about 80 years of public service. The similarities would seem to end there. Biden and Sanders occupy competing poles in the Democratic Party, ideologically, and in style and temperament. Few Democrats are more representative of the party establishment than Biden. Few politicians are more indifferent to party politics than Sanders. Biden is an insider, Sanders, despite long service, an outsider. Biden is a moderate progressive who will try to pull the party away from the far left. He has already signaled concerns that the Democrats cannot risk allowing President Donald Trump to cast the party as too far left. Those criticisms have begun and will intensify, assuming he enters the race. Biden has yet to lay out an agenda, although as he campaigned for candidates in 2018, much of what he talked about was a combination of middle-class economics, restoring America's image abroad, dealing with the emerging world here and abroad, and bringing the country together in contrast with Trump's presidency. On Tuesday, Biden is scheduled to address the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF). In 2008, the firefighters endorsed then-senator Chris Dodd over Biden, but narrowly and based on specific work Dodd had done in carrying legislation important to the organization. His appearance likely will be a political love-in and offer more hints about the themes and priorities that he would carry into a 2020 presidential campaign. Sanders is as progressive as anyone in the race, an unapologetic democratic socialist. The length and breadth of his ambitions is beyond what others in the race are offering. Campaigning Sunday in Concord, New Hampshire, he went through his agenda step by step, to enthusiastic applause from the audience that turned out on a snowy day. The list is familiar but worth recounting. It includes: reducing wage and income inequality; Medicare-for-all; free public college tuition; a national $15 an hour minimum wage; a trillion-dollar infrastructure program; overturning Citizens United and moving to public financing of campaigns; an aggressive climate change action program that includes going after the fossil fuels industry; comprehensive immigration reform; criminal justice reform; an end to private prisons; breaking up the big banks; taking on the pharmaceutical industry; universal affordable child care; expanded Social Security benefits; a federal jobs guarantee; rebuilding rural America; new gun control legislation. Among those who turned out in Concord on Sunday were Shaun and Mary Ellen Sutliff, and Joan Wotkowicz. Shaun Sutliff has been a Sanders fan and supporter for decades, ever since Sanders was mayor of Burlington. He has no faith in the institutional Democratic Party and won't give them money "until they embrace Medicare-for-all, and all the superdelegates are dead." The two women are, as Wotkowicz put it, still "on the fence," wondering who the strongest candidate against Trump would be. "There are a lot of good candidates," she said. "I need to know more still. The big thing for me is I've got to put my support behind whoever can take Trump out, and I don't know who that is." She thinks that could be Sanders. "But that's my No. 1 priority, to not lose to him (Trump) again," she said. The contrasts between Biden and Sanders are significant, but here's the oddity. According to the Des Moines Register, nearly a third of those who say they favor Biden would switch to Sanders, if Biden is not in the race. Meanwhile, four in 10 supporters of Sanders say Biden is their second choice. But with many other choices, voters will be looking closely at both Biden and Sanders, weighing whether either is best suited to take on Trump in the general election. In the Iowa poll, 70 percent of Democrats said Biden's positions on issues were "about right." Only 48 percent said the same for Sanders, while 44 percent said his views were "too liberal." Biden and Sanders occupy considerable space, but not all of it. Other candidates are looking for openings. Sen. Kamala Harris of California has impressed many activists with her early campaigning style and biography. Positive comments about South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg exploded on Twitter Sunday night after his skillful performance during a CNN town hall in Austin, Texas. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massaschusetts keeps rolling out provocative policy proposals. Someone (or more than one) in single digits will move up, but perhaps not for many months. Biden and Sanders start in enviable positions. Voters in the Democratic Party will be assessing whether either has the stuff to take down Trump. Mary Kingwoods home felt freshly settled. The roomy first-floor apartment in a yellow house sits on a quiet street north of downtown up Norwalk, as Kingwood called it. On a winter morning, sunlight flooded through windows and a sliding glass door leading to a small porch, warming the kitchen and den. A TV sat atop a stand, encircled by plastic chairs placeholders as Kingwood waited for her furniture to be delivered and cardboard boxes lined the walls. Kingwood, 73, likes her porch and the peacefulness shes found since moving two weeks ago into the Wilton Avenue home, which took her many months and multiple apartment visits to find with a Section 8 voucher. Her search was narrowed by her congenital heart disease and the oxygen tank she must maneuver around her living space. Per her doctors orders, only single-story, two-bedroom homes for an aide, or her children, to watch her after shes had an episode would do. Several places had potential, but one had no closet space and another, she liked, but they wanted water and electric and heat. Section 8 dont want to pay for that, Kingwood said. The move was spurred by the razing and redeveloping of her 46-year home at Washington Village the oldest housing project in Norwalk. The former federally funded project will be replaced by Soundview Landing, mixed-income development funded thanks to a $30 million federal Choice Neighborhood Initiative Grant and the private developer Trinity Financial. The new complex will feature 136 federal public housing units (Washington Village also had 136), 67 workforce housing units and 70 market-rate units. Kingwood was given a voucher to relocate during the construction and, upon its completion, will be offered a unit in the new development. But after more than four decades in a place, she is struggling to adjust. Soundview Landing looks to her like a hotel, cramped and without personal space, and Wilton Avenue can be lonely. Washington Village had room for her kids to play and it was in that space that she and her family laid down deep roots. Youd go to your front door, or youd go to your back door in the morning, and theres usually somebody standing there waving good morning, Kingwood said. This particular morning on Wilton Avenue, only the empty yards of neighboring houses were visible from Kingwoods porch. Death by a thousand cuts The Norwalk redevelopment is part of a nationwide trend: Inadequate federal funding has forced local Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) to cultivate private partnerships to provide affordable housing. Results for tenants have been mixed. In November, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sent a directive to PHAs, acknowledging that need had outpaced available funding and instructing them to reposition their housing stock. That repositioning means making it easier to demolish public housing and also making it easier for PHAs to voluntarily convert public housing to vouchers, said Ed Gramlich, a senior adviser at the nonprofit National Low Income Housing Coalition, based in Washington, D.C. Vouchers are one of several types of federal assistance that provide aid to families, the disabled and the elderly to find housing. Other means of housing assistance include subsidized private development and state and federal public housing, the last of which has become increasingly less palatable to the government. By October, the feds aim to eliminate 105,000 units nationwide. Statewide, federal public housing stock has already dropped by more than 3,000 since 2008, from 17,149 to 14,074 units. This decrease has happened at varying rates in Connecticut municipalities. Norwalk, bucking the trend, gained nine units since 1998. Bridgeport has lost just 23 federal public housing units since 2012, though by one estimate, the citys low-income housing stock has dropped by as many as 1,000 units since the 1970s. New Haven lost more than 900 federal public housing units from 2002 to 2012. In Stamford, the average number of federally subsidized units through much of the 1990s was nearly 1,200. Today, there are 360. Once upon a time the federal government was very active in providing funding for new housing, not just keeping up existing, and thats gone, Stamford Land Use Bureau Chief Robin Stein said. Thats where big dollars used to come for a lot of housing projects. Gramlich estimated that since 2010, public housing has been underfunded by roughly $50 billion. During that same time, HUD has estimated a loss of between 10,000 and 15,000 public housing units a year. According to 2017 NLIHC estimates, there is a shortage of 7.4 million affordable extremely low-income (at or below the poverty guideline or 30 percent of area median income) rental homes. In Connecticut, there are only 36 affordable and available rental homes per 100 extremely low-income rental households. And with less funding, unresolved maintenance issues have piled up. With constant underfunding of the capital budget, basic repairs cannot be made, Gramlich said. When you starve the beast, the physical integrity of the units begins to crumble and then youre forced to demolish and theres no money to replace. Its kind of a death by a thousand cuts. PHAs must find alternate solutions. What were hearing over and over again from HUD is that theyre unable to fund public housing at a level that would allow us to maintain it properly, said Adam Bovilsky, executive director of the Norwalk Housing Authority. One of the main reasons for conversions is in order to ensure that public housing doesnt get dilapidated because of lack of funding. A dream takes seed A Dream Come True. So begins the second annual report from the Housing Authority of Bridgeport, dated 1940. Public housing has become a reality, through the working out successfully of one of the greatest cooperative enterprises in civic improvement that Bridgeport has ever seen, the report gushes, touting the citys first two public housing projects: the 1,251-unit Yellow Mill Village and the 516-unit Marina Village. The projects were made possible, in part, thanks to the petitioning in Hartford for funds by Father Stephen Panik, first chairman of Bridgeports Housing Authority, and socialist Mayor Jasper McLevy, and the passage of the federal Wagner-Steagall Act of 1937, which established the United States Housing Authority and allowed for the allocation of federal money to local housing agencies. The aim was to clear substandard housing to which low-income people were relegated in the pre-war years where conditions of crime and disease constitute a menace to the health, safety, morals and welfare of the residents, according to the Bridgeport report and replace it with cleaner, safer, subsidized options. They were located in cities like Bridgeport and New Haven to support factory workers and improve their housing conditions, particularly in relation to strategic industries, like gun production, said Alan Plattus, professor of architecture at Yale University. In Connecticut and nationwide, the concept was embraced and projects were erected in large numbers. Projects like Elm Haven in New Haven, Washington Village and Roodner Court in South Norwalk and Southfield Village and Vidal Court on Stamfords West Side were sold as beacons of hope for the citys neediest residents. Upon its completion in 1941, Yellow Mill Village, later renamed Father Panik Village, was heralded by McLevy as the biggest event in the history of Bridgeport. A dream deferred But by the mid 20th century, the dream had begun to wither, and projects were sources of the social ills they were ostensibly meant to cure. The reason: No jobs, or the disappearance of good, relatively high-paying, relatively low-skilled factory jobs, Plattus said. This is a familiar story. In the 19th and early 20th century, immigrants and people from rural areas in the South came to industrial cities. Without advanced degrees, or in some cases, without degrees at all, they could get a good factory job with benefits, join the union and build wealth, Plattus explained. So a lot of the people who started out in public housing, typically would move to better housing eventually. De-industrialization of cities also struck a heavy blow. Factories, which once sustained cities like Bridgeport and New Haven, shut down or relocated. Public housing became relegated to the housing choice of last resort, Plattus said. When a lot of this public housing was built, starting in the 1930s and on through the 1940s and early 1950s, segregation was legal, Gramlich said. In the years before the Civil Rights Act, properties were either intentionally placed in areas of low-income and racial concentration, or in some cases, were racially segregated by project building. That kind of racial dynamic was kind of baked into the system, Gramlich said. As conditions worsened in the 60s, 70s and 80s, public housing was deemed a failed experiment and politicians squeezed funding. Projects became synonymous with drugs, crime and general depravity. Glaring examples of the systems failure (Father Panik and Elm Haven, among many) became cautionary tales. Alternatives were sought, including the HOPE VI Housing plan in the 1990s, and more recently, the Obama-era Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program and loosened Section 18 demolition and disposition regulations. Each enables PHAs to demolish failed public housing and build replacements often with the aid of a private partner either with voucher or mixed-income units, that are seemingly meant to reduce the concentration of poverty and provide better living conditions and more opportunity for residents. I think that the old model of large public housing complexes is generally frowned upon at this point. I think theres general consensus among most policy makers that concentrating poverty is not healthy for families or cities, Bovilsky said. Where there are concentrations of poverty, theres normally less economic opportunity and outcomes for children tend to be reduced. Success, however, was varied. The push for repositioning justified the further depletion of HUD funds and, in many cases, destroyed projects were not replaced with an equal number of low-income units. Often, displaced former residents of housing projects were denied re-entry to the new developments built where their homes once stood. What generally happened is there was no 1-for-1 replacement, Gramlich said. By 1994, Father Panik was completely razed and in 2017, Crescent Crossings, a mixed-income, partially federally-funded complex opened in its footprint. In recent years, Elm Haven, Southfield Village, Vidal Court, and most recently, Washington Village, have succumbed to the same fate, ushering in a new and not necessarily improved era of housing assistance. I think it changes the face of how we serve our low-income communities, Bovilsky said. It depends on how you do it. Theres no question of a greater need of affordable and deeply affordable housing, whatever the trends of public housing may be. Moving up, moving out? Kingwood didnt come to Washington Village by choice. She was living with her children in an apartment on Flax Hill Road when, in 1970, the landlord sold to a developer. Kingwood, then a teachers aide, applied for public housing. I really didnt want Washington Village. But they put you where they wanted, Kingwood said. Nevertheless, Kingwood adjusted. Her children, then her grandchildren, grew up in the project and, like Kingwood, forged bonds among the rows of brick apartments. Neighbors barbecued in the summer, played games in the courtyard and hosted seasonal clean-ups. Kingwood, along with the other single mothers that surrounded her apartment, formed an informal support group, often coming to each others aid in intangible ways. I never had to worry because normally the kids would go out and there was another mother out there watching, Kingwood said. They say it takes a village to raise a family. Washington Village was that village. There were, undoubtedly, problems at the project while Kingwood lived there. And there are, undoubtedly, positives to the privacy of her new apartment. But only one of the two places really feels like home. To ride by and see it torn down hurts. Theyre not just tearing down a building, Kingwood said, of Washington Village. There were a lot of memories. Staff reporters Emlie Munson and Barry Lytton contributed to this story. justin.papp@scni.com; @justinjpapp1; 203-842-2586 A question for voters who backed Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016: Would you vote for a Bobby Kennedy-like candidate over Trump in 2020? The question makes sense only to those familiar either via memory or books with the New York senator and former U.S. attorney general who served in that job under his brother John F. Kennedy (and under Lyndon B. Johnson), and who was assassinated in June 1968. Bobby Kennedy was a tough-as-nails anti-communist, with a reputation for political ruthlessness. He never completely abandoned his attachment to "TailGunner" Joseph McCarthy even after the now-infamous Wisconsin senator and redbaiter had been censured by the Senate and exiled by Dwight D. Eisenhower to the fringes of the Republican Party. Because Bobby Kennedy was fiercely loyal to family and friends. Genuine loyalty - "Stickin'," James Carville calls it - is an undervalued quality in politicians. Voters notice it, though, and admire it. Bobby Kennedy was also eloquent and deeply religious. He was everything his awful father and appetite-driven brother were not: principled, disciplined, possessed of extraordinary energy and intelligence, and deeply compassionate. He was a reader, a thinker, a lover of poetry. He was "great-souled." So, Republicans, would you vote for a Democrat like that over Trump? Three issues pushed "reluctant Trump" voters into the president's column in 2016: national security, the federal judiciary and Clinton's long career of controversy and decades of brawls with the right. It is unlikely that any Democratic nominee will satisfy any conservative who understands - really understands - the importance and impact of federal judges and thus of judicial selection as an issue in presidential elections. But Trump, with a huge assist from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has already infused the federal bench with enough originalist talent to dampen the worst fears - high and heartfelt in 2016 - of a Constitution lost forever to the whims of "living Constitution" enthusiasts, with a Supreme Court and federal appeals courts locked into hard-left majorities for decades ahead. That will not happen now, at least not for the next two decades. Thus the federal judiciary will have cooled for some as an issue in 2020. National security will not, however, have cooled as a decisive issue for millions in the middle of the political spectrum. The growing obviousness of the superpower competition with China ought to drive the election, for Beijing is everywhere acting boldly in pursuit of a preeminent role again. Bobby Kennedy would understand that central fact and threat, would campaign on it even as his brother ran a national security campaign - on an illusory "missile gap"- in 1960, would charge right at the president's record on the world stage and Trump's failure to deliver, even remotely, on his oft-repeated promise to move the Navy to 355 ships. But do today's Democrats have anyone - anyone at all - who is serious about national security? Who is, as Sens. Henry "Scoop" Jackson, John Glenn and Sam Nunn used to be, a voice for a Democratic Party committed to the use of American power abroad to protect national interests and confront threats to the rules-based international order? Not yet. Don't say "What about former Vice President Joe Biden?" Very few people enjoy the bipartisan credibility of former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was pointed in his assessment of Biden's record in his memoir, even as he praised Biden's integrity: "I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades." If you want a replay of the failed Iran deal or a return of appeasement of Cuba and indifference to Venezuela, Biden's your guy. And Bernie Sanders, Kamala D. Harris and the rest are all to his left. But if Marine Corps veteran - four tours in Iraq and the recipient of a Bronze Star - Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., steps onto the stage, Democratic voters in the primaries will be startled by his seriousness on national security. They should notice he is the perfect challenger to Trump (who is praying for Sanders but will settle for Elizabeth Warren or Harris). There's a lot of "Bobby" in Moulton when it comes to scrappiness. And there are a lot of Republicans who would have to give him a hard look, as they will any Democrat who spends time making the case that he or she won't spend a presidency apologizing for the United States, but defending it. There is no candidate more qualified to talk persuasively about defending the national interest than one who has actually done just that - defended the country while risking life and limb. Keep an eye on Moulton. - - - Hewitt, a Post contributing columnist, hosts a nationally syndicated radio show and is author of "The Fourth Way: The Conservative Playbook for a Lasting GOP Majority." The storm of announcements that was the MWC and the week preceding it really shook things up in our top 10 trending chart, but now things are starting to settle down a bit. A bunch of high-profile names dropped out including both flexible phones as a lot of people realized that their market arrival is still way off and some mid-rangers took their place. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro is our new leader, followed by Galaxy M30, which is its direct rival in India and other emerging markets, while the Galaxy S10+ flagship had to settle for third. Even the market launch didn't help the Samsung top dog to retain its crown. Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 came fourth, ahead of three more Samsung phones - Galaxy A50, Galaxy M20 and the vanilla Galaxy S10 took places fifth to seventh. The Xiaomi Mi 9 returns to the chart to capture eight, while the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018) placed just below it. The last available spot goes to the only phone not coming from either Samsung or Xiaomi - the Oppo F11 Pro launch on Tuesday and it managed to gather just enough interest to make the top 10. That means we say goodbye at least for the time being to vivo iQOO, Huawei Mate X, Samsung Galaxy Fold and the Sony Xperia 1. We can bet that least a few of those (and more likely all) will be back at one point or another this year, though. Published on 2019/03/10 | Source On the latest episode of the TV Josun drama "Babel", Han Jeong-won (Jang Hee-jin) who was suspected of murdering Tae Min-ho (Kim Ji-hoon-I), struck back. Advertisement Prosecutor Cha Woo-hyeok (Park Si-hoo) tried to prove that Han Jeong-won, the woman he loves, acted in self-defense. He tried to get her to say that she'd been constantly harassed by Tae Min-ho and finally when she defended herself from him, things got out of control and he died. However, she didn't want to say it. Han Jeong-won asked for a meeting with her mother-in-law, Sin Hyeon-sook (Kim Hae-sook). Han Jeong-won told her she had a will saying she was Tae Min-ho's heiress and Sin Hyeon-sook laughed and said she couldn't inherit anything because she killed him. However, Han Jeong-won revealed that she was carrying Tae Min-ho's child and said, "I may not have the right, but my child does. It's his child. I'm the child's mother. Aren't you interested? Then I should talk to my lawyer". Sin Hyeon-sook cursed at Han Jeong-won. Tae Yoo-ra (Jang Shin-young), who had ill-feelings for Han Jeong-won, decided to be her laywer. However, Tae Yoo-ra had no intentions of saving Han Jeong-won. Cha Woo-hyeok struggled to make the case self-defense. Meanwhile, Cha Woo-hyeok got closer to the death of his father 30 years ago. A witness died in front of his house and his cell phone was found. The last call had been made to Sin Hyeon-sook. Cha Woo-hyeok went to see her and said, "Today is the happiest day of my life. I have found the truth I had always been looking for. Why did you kill my father?" He revealed that his father was Cha Seong-hoon, surprising her. Published on 2019/03/10 | Source Chae Shi-ra is starring in "The Banker" as the ace Han Soo-ji who dreams of becoming the first female president of a bank. Advertisement In the latest piectures, she looks on point in a suit and increases anticipation to her new transformation in the drama. "The Banker" revealed Chae Shi-ra's interview on Naver TV about her character, charismatic Han Soo-ji, the director of Daehan Bank. "The Banker" is a financial office investigation drama where Noh Dae-ho (Kim Sang-joong), a man who is unexpectedly promoted from the top of Daehan Bank's waiting list to being its auditor, solves corruption cases with the bank's top level audit team. The cast is made up of Kim Sang-joong, Chae Shi-ra, Yoo Dong-geun, An Woo-yeon, Shin Do-hyun, Cha In-ha, and more. Han Soo-ji joined Daehan Bank as a teller when she was poor, but now in the position of bank director, she dreams of becoming the president of the bank. She's a workaholic and people call her the Han Witch for her lack of sympathy, but she does her work no matter what anyone says. Han Soo-ji is Noh Dae-ho's (Kim Sang-joong) trusty colleague and hidden aid. Chae Shi-ra said, "She's reasonable and realistic. She's a strong career woman". She also claimed hair, make-up and styling take a lot of time. She revealed a few fun facts as well. She was awarded the Savings Award at one point and she used to work in a bank before. "The Banker" can be seen on the 27th at 10 PM KST. Lincoln-McKinley Intermediate School third-graders pose for a photograph with Havre Elks Lodge Exalted Ruler Kyle Leeds, left, Lincoln-McKinley Principal Holly Bitz, from third from left, Elk Esquire Bob Nieuwenhuyse and Elk Leading Knight Matt Kretchmer with dictionaries the Havre Elks Lodge provided to the third-graders. Press release Havre Elks Lodge No. 1201 recently donated dictionaries to third-grade school children in Hill and Blaine counties. "Havre Elks Lodge No. 1201 was pleased to present the following Hill County Schools: 144 dictionaries to Havre Public Schools, 10 dictionaries to St. Jude's School, four dictionaries to Cottonwood School, 10 dictionaries to North Star School, 38 Dictionaries to Rocky Boy Schools, and 31 dictionaries to Box Elder Schools," Lodge Exalted Ruler Kyle Leeds said, "In Blaine County, we were pleased to present 21 dictionaries to Zurich School." Leeds said the dictionary project is a core youth activity project that the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks sponsor nationwide. Courtesy photo St. Jude Thaddeus School third-graders pose for a photograph with Havre Elks Leading Knight Matt Kretchmer, back from left, Exalted Ruler Kyle Leeds, St. Jude Principal Mike Haugen and Elk Esquiire Bob Nieuwenhuyse with dictionaries the Havre Elks Lodge provided to the third-graders. "Locally, our lodge has not participated in this project for many years. Our lodge secretary, Brandy Kurtz, suggested we start the project again this year and our lodge enthusiastically supported reigniting this activity on a local level." Leeds said. "When our lodge members delivered these dictionaries to the students in at Lincoln-McKinley and St. Jude's schools, the excitement to own and utilize their own dictionary and the thirst for knowledge by the students was heartwarming." "Havre Elks Lodge was able to fund the dictionary through donations of our members on giving Tuesday and through the generosity of Hill, Blaine, and Chouteau county residents at a free will donation bake sale we held the week before Christmas at the Atrium in Havre." Kurtz, the project chair, added. "The dictionary project was such a smashing success that we are making it an annual youth activity in our lodge." The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is celebrating 151 years as the premiere charitable and patriotic organization in America. Locally, Havre Lodge No. 1201 has 231 members. Find out more about Havre Elks Lodge No. 1201 and the work it does by contacting Leeds at 945-2524 or Kurtz at 390-0091. Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Area Manager Clive Rooney and Lewistown Unit Manager Jocee Hedrick review artwork for the 2019 Keep Montana Green art contest. The art contest received 672 entries from students taught by 33 teachers at 13 schools from the northeastern region of 13 Montana counties. From DNRC LEWISTOWN - Montana scenes of wildfire and wildlife coupled with creative slogans illustrate the need for wildfire prevention in the 2019 Keep Montana Green art contest. "We had some exceptional entries that demonstrate how creative and artistic Montana youth can be," said Clive Rooney, area manager of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Northeastern Land Office in Lewistown, where the posters were judged. "For this year's contest, we received 672 entries from 33 teachers in 13 schools across our region of 13 counties in northeastern Montana." The Keep Montana Green Association has sponsored 58 art contests since 1961 with the mission of creating a lasting interest in preventing wildland fires in Montana's youth, as well as adults. "The artwork reminds the public to be more careful with fire and fire-causing hazards while enjoying the state's forests, campgrounds and rangelands, as well as in everyday life," Rooney said. "If these prevention efforts help eliminate just one fire, which helps saves homes, rangeland and money, then they are well worth it." Each year, Montana DNRC and Keep Montana Green Association ask kindergarten through 12th-grade students to participate in the art contest. This year's theme, "Prepare, Prevent, Protect," and the Keep Montana Green organization, provide educators with a curriculum for teaching students about fire safety, prevention and conservation, said Tim Crosmer, east side training officer for the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Fire Bureau. Crosmer helps coordinate the Keep Montana Green art contest in the DNRC Northeastern Land Office. The art entries are judged regionally where first, second, third and honorable mention placings are decided. Then, those entries are sent to Missoula, to be judged with five other regions' winners. The state winners receive ribbons, cash prizes and statewide recognition, explained Crosmer. "Our central and northeastern Montana area schools have had a strong showing in the state contest for the past several years," said Rooney. "We wish to praise the students for their outstanding artwork and creativity, as well as their teachers for taking the time to incorporate the Keep Montana Green Art Contest into their daily lessons." Twenty-three of the 672 entries submitted to the Northeastern Land Office will be considered for prizes at the state level. State winners will be announced March 22. "Having 672 entries from 13 schools is awesome, and clearly demonstrates the teachers' support and commitment to wildfire education," said Crystal Beckman, executive director of the Keep Montana Green Association from Missoula. "Thank you to everyone who participated." The student-created artwork helps increase public awareness of the dangers of human-caused wildland fires. The artwork may be used to generate advertisements, brochures, and other promotional products, Beckman said. "The Keep Montana Green artwork could be used for billboards, sent out as a traveling art show and/or used for other wildfire prevention messaging promo products," she said. "We also post the winning posters on our Web site, Facebook page and Twitter, as well as utilize them in a Keep Montana Green calendar for the upcoming year to share the wildland fire prevention message across Montana and beyond." The 2019 northeastern regional Montana winners include: Primary Division, Grades K-Three: First Place - Whit Brandon, second grade, Highland Park Elementary School, Lewistown; Second Place - Blaine Petzak, second grade, Highland Park Elementary School, Lewistown; Third Place - Archer Schwomeyer, first grade, Garfield Elementary School, Lewistown; Honorable Mentions - Ava Eldred, second grade, Highland Park Elementary School, Lewistown; Emerson Fladagar, third grade, Scobey Schools, and Johnnie Schultz, third grade, home school, Grass Range. Intermediate Division, Grades Four-Six: First Place - Carson Fishell, sixth grade, Scobey Schools; Second Place - Camille Keeley, sixth grade, Havre Middle School; Third Place - Sydalee Alexander, sixth grade, Havre Middle School; Honorable Mentions - Katelyn Barnard, sixth grade, Havre Middle School; Ivy Cole, fifth grade, Scobey Schools, and Kylee Mangold, sixth grade, Havre Middle School. Junior Division, Grades Seven-Nine: First Place - Aryella Andring, eighth grade, Froid Public School; Second Place - Keanna Sondergaard, ninth grade, Scobey Schools; Third Place - Kamea Fourstar, ninth grade, Wolf Point High School; Honorable Mentions - Jenna Hodik, seventh grade, Moore Public School; and Elizar Southard, seventh grade, Lewistown Junior High School. Senior Division, Grades 10-12: First Place - Alexis Culbertson, 10th grade, Poplar High School; Second Place - Brooke Schwenke, 11th grade, Big Sandy High School; Third Place - Faith Gasvoda, 11th grade, Big Sandy High School; Honorable Mentions - Jaylyn Cline, 12th grade, Jozlyn Baumann, 10th grade, and Amanda Cline, 11th grade, all from Big Sandy High School. Headquartered in Missoula, the Keep Montana Green Association sponsors the annual art contest in cooperation with the DNRC. "Thank you to all the participants and their teachers for making Keep Montana Green's wildfire prevention program such a success," Beckman said. "Be sure to visit keepgreen.org for all things wildfire prevention." Researchers from The University of Queensland will investigate the potential of existing drugs to be repurposed to fight Parkinsons disease, thanks to a new research grant. The research will be funded by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinsons Research and Shake It Up Australia Foundation and headed by UQ Centre for Clinical Research Group Leader Dr Richard Gordon. Dr Gordon said the funding would allow researchers to build on their previous work into halting Parkinsons disease. In our previous study, we were trying to cool brains on fire from inflammation whereas this time were focusing on stopping that fire from starting in the first place, he said. That study showed that a key immune system target known as inflammasomes were causing inflammation in the brain leading to the disease progressing. Now we will study the mechanisms that cause inflammasomes to become activated and how we can target these pathways to develop new treatments for Parkinsons disease. The two-year study will focus on new compounds as well as repurposed drugs that already have FDA approval for use in treating other inflammatory conditions. If we can prove they work in treating Parkinsons disease, we can repurpose these and get them to the clinic to treat patients faster than developing new drugs, Dr Gordon said. Parkinsons disease is the second-most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide, with 10 million sufferers whose control of body movements is affected. The disease is characterised by the loss of brain cells that produce dopamine, which is a chemical that co-ordinates motor control, and is accompanied by chronic inflammation in the brain. Shake It Up Australia founder and CEO Clyde Campbell said the project could lead to promising new treatments for people with Parkinsons disease. Brain inflammation is a key area of Parkinsons research and were excited to be involved developing new treatments that can rapidly progress to clinical trials through our landmark drug repurposing initiatives, Mr Campbell said. The research team will also include co-investigator Associate Professor John OSullivan, whose team is leading clinical trials with repurposed drugs in Queensland. The University of Queensland Australian and US researchers have developed a way to discover elusive cancer-promoting genes, and have already identified one that appears to promote aggressive breast cancers. The University of Queensland and Albert Einstein College of Medicine team has developed a statistical approach to reveal many previously hard-to-find genes that contribute to cancer. Associate Professor Jess Mar, of UQs Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, said the majority of oncogenes identified to date showed up in most patients with a particular cancer type. When you average the data across those patients, those common oncogenes tend to stand out, but they dont paint the full picture, Dr Mar said. Even if a group of people all have the same type or even subtype of cancer, the molecular makeup of that cancer is different from person to person because the activity of genes vary between people, she said. If an oncogene is over-active in one group of patients but inactive in another group, thats statistically harder to see using the tools that we had available. If you only look at the average activity of a gene across the two groups, youd never see the high activity in the first group. The Oncomix method enables researchers to zoom in on genetic information from cancer patients and identify genes with two distinct bumps of data low activity in one group of patients but high activity in another. Were acknowledging that there is diversity among cancer patients, but were still looking for trends in the data that pertain to groups of people, Dr Mar said. Dr Mar and her colleagues used Oncomix to examine breast cancer data from The Cancer Genome Atlas patient database. They identified five genes that were over-active in a subset of breast cancer patients and followed up on the most promising target, known as CBX2. Previous studies have shown that most healthy female tissue has low levels of CBX2 activity, while an aggressive subtype of breast cancer has been shown to have high levels of CBX2 activity, Dr Mar said. This suggested a possible link between CBX2 activity and breast cancer, but the nature of that link hadnt been investigated. So we switched off the gene in a human breast cancer cell line and this slowed down the growth of those cancer cells, suggesting that CBX2 might promote tumour growth. Dr Mar said if further tests confirmed that CBX2 was an oncogene, it could be a potential therapeutic drug target for aggressive types of breast cancer. This discovery highlights the potential value of the Oncomix approach, Dr Mar said. Identifying hidden oncogenes that are unique to smaller groups of cancer patients will open up new therapeutic avenues and move us closer to personalised medicine. Oncomix is now a publicly-available, open source software tool, and the study is published in the British Journal of Cancer. The University of Queensland THE equivalent of 13 full-time teaching posts and up to eight subjects could be axed at The Henley College in a bid to streamline and improve its service. The college announced the proposed redundancies, which also affect two management positions and 10 administrative roles, as part of a staff consultation which began on Monday. It says the threatened courses arent financially viable because they no longer attract enough students to justify the running costs. This year, the college suffered a shortfall of 166 students so it lost about 800,000, or 10 per cent of its expected income, which had a serious detrimental impact on its finances. However, it launched two new subjects in September which have proved popular and it wants to add more in years to come so new jobs could eventually be created. The college has agreed to drop A-level music technology, the subsidiary diploma in travel and tourism and the national extended diploma in childrens play, learning and development. It could also get rid of A-level French, German and textile art and the BTEC first certificate in sport. Its classical civilisation A-level is also at risk although this could be merged with A-level ancient history to create a new syllabus covering both. The former has only 14 students and the college says the ideal figure for academic subjects is 20 or more. Students and parents have been told about the consultation, which closes on April 12. If the proposed cuts go ahead, the courses will continue for one more year to allow current students to finish. The college says the number of redundancies will depend on staff feedback but it hopes they will all be voluntary and support will be given to anyone affected. It says the threatened subjects attract fewer applicants because the Government is urging secondary schools to promote science, technology engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects so fewer pupils now choose arts, languages and the humanities as a GCSE. Under recent changes, an AS-level result no longer counts towards an A-level in the same subject or a vocational qualification so demand for less popular courses has dropped even further. Competition has also increased as grammar schools are now getting money to expand their sixth forms. Meanwhile, government funding for further education has dropped by about 30 per cent since 2010. Funding for students aged 16 and 17 has been frozen at 4,000 per head since 2013 and was cut to 3,000 for each 18-year-old in 2014. The college is supporting a national campaign to increase this to 4,760 for all youngsters. There is also a demographic dip in which the number of 16- to 19-year-olds nationally has fallen due to the birth rate. This started two years ago but is having an effect for the first time as the colleges intake was higher than expected last year and in 2017. Principal Satwant Deol said: As a college, we pride ourselves in the breadth of provision, which is reflected in how widely we recruit students from Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, but we have to look at how that offering is constructed because fewer students are now coming up through the system in certain subjects as a result of reforms. Modern languages have seen a 30 per cent decline nationally over the past three years, as have many arts subjects. Weve kept French and German going despite that but we cant do so any longer as theyre being subsidised by other subjects. Theres a huge emphasis on STEM and thats fine but it does mean other things are being pushed aside. The AS-levels were good for students because they werent always sure which subjects to take but by the end of their first year they had more experience and maturity to make that decision. Arts and languages have been worst hit because they previously felt safe to experiment and take on a niche subject they could drop, although in some cases they discovered a love for it and it became their primary subject. With the return to the linear A-level syllabus, that decision is a bigger commitment from the outset. Up and down the country, the government funding issue is almost crippling everybody, particularly secondaries and colleges and now even universities are starting to feel it. Were also losing about 500 per head, or 1million a year, for students from Oxfordshire because they get a seven per cent uplift in funding as opposed to 12 per cent in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. All these external threats are beyond our control, which is why were supporting campaigns for an increase. The latest announcement comes a year after the college warned staff that up to 66 jobs were at risk as part of a drive to reverse a 1.5 million budget deficit by 2020 under a two-year early intervention strategy overseen by the Governments Education and Skills Funding Agency. However, just nine people were made redundant, all voluntarily, while eight new tutoring and mentoring roles were created to free up teaching time. Further savings were made through staff choosing to reduce their hours. The German A-level course was threatened but continued for one more year under a partnership with the Goethe Institute, the German embassys educational arm, which provided logistical support but no additional funding. Music technology was dropped but there were hopes that it would come back this year. Mrs Deol said: We dont want to make irreversible changes, which is why were looking to create new subjects through mergers where possible. Its about maintaining variety but without overlap or duplication. Weve taken three months to consider this because we dont want to do it in a crude and mechanistic way. Were well aware that the national situation could change and want to preserve our capacity in case it is needed again. For example, were still keeping our music facilities even though we dont currently teach it and weve also invested in a suite of Apple Macs, which will benefit various creative media subjects but could be used for music in future. The college is launching new courses in criminology and applied psychology, which it says has attracted more applicants than expected, although it is unlikely to create any new jobs this year. It hopes to run more courses in partnership with local businesses, which would be asked to set assignments so that students understand the expectations of the workplace, and will also revise the timetable so that lectures are not spread thinly across the week. There will be no cut in teaching hours but students may spend fewer days on campus as a result and there could also be supervised study sessions and discussion groups. The college still intends to open a new 3million STEM centre at its campus in Deanfield Avenue by 2021 and has secured at least 1million in funding for this. Mrs Deol said: We feel we can do more with STEM, especially the digital and creative subjects, as well as the financial services. The demographic dip will turn in two years time and we want to be well placed to meet local students needs. The traditional academic subjects teach valuable transferable skills and we dont want to discount them but want to achieve a balance between that and equipping students for the modern world. We set out to continually evolve rather than radically transform. This process has not been easy but were responding both to feedback from our students and challenges in the wider economy. In a letter to parents, Mrs Deol said: Our students education is at the centre of everything we do and there will be minimal disruption. We still offer a broader range of subjects than other colleges while our pastoral care and careers guidance are very important. We will also continue with our dedicated tutorial system, which has proven very effective. Henley MP John Howell said: There are things the college could do to help itself, much of which it has not done. An example of that is trying to obtain funding from companies that offer apprenticeships. I did ask the principal what they had been doing in this area and she said they hadnt been doing much. This would make a big difference to what they were able to do and give them a lot more money. I would be happy to put them in touch with the apprenticeships minister to discuss this. They have to look at whether they can go against the market trends and if fewer people are taking certain subjects theyll have to be flexible in their approach but within those limitations its always worth looking at whether they can become sustainable with additional funds coming in. I also talked about the Governments comprehensive spending review, which is taking place this year and next, and we need to make sure that we make a good case on funding. It is at an early stage and there have been no indications as to how this might affect colleges but it is important to get in now. I am very keen to support the college and make sure it comes out of this process successfully. A report published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies in September said that funding per student in sixth forms is now at its lowest since 2002-3. The Department for Education says it accepts there are pressures across the system but it has protected sixth form funding from cuts until 2020 and is putting more money into primary and secondary schools than ever before. PLANS to convert an office block in Henley into homes have been opposed by town councillors. Chaskel Rand and Joel Sofer, from London, are seeking planning permission to demolish Andersen House on the Newtown industrial estate, which used to be the home of digital signage firm Onelan. They want to build two blocks of up to four storeys containing a total of 43 flats with 61 parking spaces in between them and a large ground-floor office space facing on to Newtown Road. They already have permission to convert the building into 11 flats but now say it cannot be refurbished due to its poor condition and should be demolished. The site isnt earmarked for housing in the joint Henley and Harpsden neighbourhood plan, which says the Newtown estate should be kept for employment purposes. But the applicants planning agent Boyer says there is no demand for the site for use commercially and the development would make better use of the land and improve the appearance of the area without increasing traffic. Henley Town Councils planning committee has recommended the application should be refused. Councillor Stefan Gawrysiak said: Its converting business units into residential. Its purely opportunistic. Councillor David Nimmo Smith said: If you take away employment areas people are going to have to travel out of the town rather than being able to cycle or walk to work. South Oxfordshire District Council will make the final decision. Councillors have also opposed plans to build 95 homes at Thames Farm, near Shiplake, in Haprsden parish. The land, off Reading Road, was not earmarked for housing in the neighbourhood plan. But outline planning permission was granted in 2017 after an appeal by the landowner Claire Engbers. Now housebuilder Taylor Wimpey has submitted detailed plans, which include the layout of the site, landscaping and materials. The company wants to build a mixture of houses and flats with up to five bedrooms, 38 of which it says would be affordable homes. Taylor Wimpey says it has amended the plans following consultations with local residents to include additional planting, lighting and speed bumps around the development. Members of the planning committee vowed to make it as difficult as possible for the plans to be approved. Cllr Gawrysiak said: This was a site that was gerrymandered into getting planning permission. It turned on the fact that the district council was two houses below its five-year land supply. They let in those 95 houses so now its 93 above. We should make this as difficult as possible because this wasnt in the neighbourhood plan. Harpsden Parish Council said it did not object to the plans but cited concerns over car parking, access and the boundary with green belt land. Shiplake Parish Council says the scheme would be exposed due to a lack of hedging and would cause light pollution in the area as well potential traffic problems. The scheme was first put forward by Mrs Engbers in 2016 but was refused permission by the district council, which said the land wasnt in the neighbourhood plan and there were road safety issues. Planning inspector John Braithwaite overturned the decision when Mrs Engbers appealed. He said the council had failed to secure enough housing sites to meet demand for the next three years, making the neighbourhood plan unenforceable. The council then sought a judicial review at the High Court, saying the inspectors methodology was flawed but judges argued this was a matter for his discretion. Last year, the council had to abandon its fight against the development after being denied the right to challenge the planning inspectors decision to approve it. The council had filed for a hearing at the Appeal Court after being refused a judicial review by the High Court. Judges said it didnt have a valid case and refused to consider the issue further. Now the council will consider Taylor Wimpeys application. John Tallon lost his job because of his cocaine addiction A young man stole a delivery of pizzas from a driver when he arrived to drop them off at a house in west Dublin. John Tallon (26) was addicted to cocaine and on a three-month "crime spree" when he took the bag of pizzas, a court heard. Judge Marie Keane jailed him for six months. Tallon, of Meadowview Grove, Lucan, pleaded guilty to stealing a Domino's Pizza bag and pizzas worth 119. He also admitted separate burglary, trespass and public order charges. Dublin District Court heard the pizza incident happened at Sarsfield Close, also in Lucan, last June 7. A delivery driver arrived at an address at 1am with a bag with pizzas in it. His bag was taken by the accused, who he recognised. Alcohol Tallon was arrested and made full admissions. The accused told gardai where to find the bag, which was of significant value. It was recovered, but the pizzas were not. He also admitted breaking into Guns 'N' Tattoos in Lucan. Nothing was stolen in that incident, but Tallon took tobacco, alcohol and food from Centra, Main Street, Lucan, in a separate theft. He was caught trespassing on the roof of a shop in Lucan and told gardai to "go f**k themselves" in other incidents. The offences all happened last year during a "very chaotic" time in the accused's life, his lawyer said. Tallon worked as a plasterer but became unemployed as a result of being heavily addicted to cocaine and was asked to leave the family home. He fell into a "very dark period". Tallon was already serving another sentence and his lawyer asked the judge not to add to it. Judge Keane made the six months concurrent. 'A Courts Service worker said he had sole use of the laptop and it was heavily encrypted.' (stock photo) A judge has voiced concern over a security breach at the Four Courts, where a staff laptop was allegedly snatched through an open window. Judge Alan Mitchell said "the mind boggles" at how the breach happened. A garda said there had since been a full security review at the complex. Dublin District Court heard of the breach as a man was found not guilty of burglary. Alan Smith (31), of St Canice's Court, Finglas, was acquitted after the judge found that while gardai said they saw him in CCTV at the window, there was no evidence he had trespassed or taken anything. Mr Smith had pleaded not guilty to burglary at Aras Ui Dhalaigh in the Four Courts complex at Church Street last August 20. A passer-by alerted gardai to suspicious activity and two men and a woman were seen walking on the street. One of the men - the accused - went through a gate and was arrested when he gave gardai no explanation for being there. Gardai viewed the footage and identified Mr Smith as one of those at the window. Encrypted Nothing was found on Mr Smith, but the laptop was all- egedly found on another man, who had also been before the courts and pleaded not guilty. A Courts Service worker said he had sole use of the laptop and it was heavily encrypted. When he left at 5pm, the window, which had no bars, was open as it was a hot day. His laptop was on a desk beside the window. Usually the last person out would make sure the windows were closed. He agreed that a person could have put their hand in and taken the computer out. The judge asked: "This could be considered a high-security complex, couldn't it?" "It should be," the man replied, adding that you had to go through security to get into the building. "Obviously not - you can go through a window if it's left open," the judge said. The witness said security now came around at 5pm every day to close the windows. The CCTV footage was not compatible with the district court's video system so the judge had to view it on a laptop. Defence solicitor Declan Fahy said the court could not make inferences from the CCTV. The judge dismissed the case. Tiger Roll triumphs on day two of Cheltenham last year And they're off, with thousands crossing the Irish Sea for the annual Cheltenham racing festival. Around a third of this year's tickets were sold to Irish fans. But racegoers have been advised to wrap up and keep dry, as 12mm of rain is forecast to fall tomorrow. Over the weekend the weather was warm, but with downpours expected up to lunchtime tomorrow the racing may start on soft ground. Predicted Ryanair said it had put on 30 extra flights - and more than 190 flights in total - to and from Birmingham, Bristol and East Midlands for Cheltenham week. The airline estimated its aircraft will carry some 25,000 racing fans to and from the festival. It has also sponsored a grade one race which will take place on Thursday. Bookmaker Paddy Power predicted around 1.13bn will be bet across the industry for Cheltenham. Punters from Ireland are expected to wager 452m of that figure. And the company spoke about its exposure to Irish horses running at the event. "If the three 'Irish bankers' - the Gordon Elliott-trained Tiger Roll, Sir Erec, trained by young buck Joseph O'Brien, and Irish Gold Cup hopeful Presenting Percy - all win, it will trigger the biggest payout of the week," said a Paddy Power spokesperson. "And if the latter wins, what his enigmatic trainer, Galway native Pat Kelly, does next could be the greatest cliffhanger of the week as the world's media and racing fans alike wait with bated breath to see if he breaks his silence to the press for the first time." The annual battle between Irish and British horses to claim The Prestbury Cup is already well under way, with Irish punters showing huge support for our chances at Cheltenham this year. The bookmaker has given Ireland a 55.6pc chance of winning the cup. Laura Kenna said she sliced her victim like you would a goat A Dublin woman who tried to kill a civil servant by slitting her throat was suspected of carrying out up to seven assaults before the shocking knife attack. Homeless Laura Kenna (37) was last week found guilty of the attempted murder of Fionnuala Burke after a random and unprovoked assault. She told gardai she sliced the civil servant "like you would a goat" and was found guilty despite claiming she was legally insane at the time of the knifing. Today, the Herald can reveal that Kenna has been investigated for involvement in as many as seven assaults over a two-year period before she attempted to kill Ms Burke. Violence The majority of the assaults, most of which involved a high level of violence, were carried out in the capital, but one of the incidents happened in a pub in Prosperous, Co Kildare. Kenna, who is originally from Swords but has been homeless for some time, is suspected of carrying out three attacks in 2015 and a further four in 2016. "She is well-known to gardai, mainly in the city centre, and has regularly been arrested for being in possession of blades, as well as thefts and public order offences," a source told the Herald. "Kenna is suspected of several assaults where people were simply attacked out of the blue but was never charged in relation to these incidents." In October 2016, a woman was attacked in a pub in the Prosperous area of Kildare in an unprovoked assault. When the victim's sister attempted to intervene, she was bitten by the attacker. In another attack, in December 2016, just weeks before the attempted murder of Ms Burke, Kenna is suspected of stabbing a tourist "out of the blue" on a Luas carriage. However, no formal complaint was made to gardai in either case and Kenna was never charged over these separate incidents. Shortly after carrying out the attack on the civil servant, Kenna posted a series of updates to her Facebook page from an internet cafe in Dublin city centre. In one chilling message, she wrote: "I tell ye's wot ye's do - cut the throat of sum1 getting into the car u want! same as i do! do ur own robbin! n get ur own meat! same as me! same as the rest of us!" She posted another disturbing message around the same time, saying: "I'm having a great one getting out robbing. Maybe even eat a f**ker." Kenna will be sentenced on March 25 after being found guilty of attempted murder at Lower Drumcondra Road on January 3, 2017. She had argued that she was legally insane at the time and had attacked Ms Burke in the context of delusions about death, vampires and cannibalism. The trial heard that Ms Burke was working for the Department of Social Protection, and was walking home when she noticed a woman sitting on a wall outside a house. Slashed As Ms Burke approached, the woman, Kenna, sprang up and pushed her back on to a grassy area. Kenna did not say anything, but started to stab her. Ms Burke felt the short stab wounds and could also feel her face being slashed, before she felt a dramatic slash straight across her neck. Kenna then spoke, telling Ms Burke that she would let her go if she handed over her bag. The jury saw photographs of the large, deep cut across Ms Burke's neck. It had penetrated through muscle and cut through the thyroid gland. She was operated on and treated in intensive care after the attack. Ms Burke also had other injuries to her face and body. Kenna later admitted to gardai: "I sliced her like you would a goat." Get into the spirit of the season with these holiday activities Thousands of teens from around the world celebrated Jewish unity, heritage, and pride at the 11th annual CTeen International Shabbaton. The convention, which drew in over 2600 participants, was the most electrifying and meaningful event to date. From world class guest speakers, to a life changing closing ceremony with a surprise guest appearance by Adam Neumann, founder of WeWork, CTeen left the teens exhilarated and ready to share their Jewish pride with the world. The inspirational weekend included a traditional Shabbat experience in the heart of Crown Heights, the Hasidic neighborhood of Brooklyn; meaningful hands on workshops and lectures about Judaism; and the ever popular Times Square takeover, featuring world renowned Jewish popstar, Yaakov Shwekey. The theme of the historic Shabbaton was I-Matter. The aim of the theme was to empower teens to recognize and use their inherent, true value that is not dependent on achievements or status. It is a message that resonated with thousands of teens who have found their voices and personal missions through their involvement in CTeen. There are things that every teenager goes through, but that we rarely talk about. Watching my fellow CTeeners on stage was like a breath of fresh air. Hearing their stories reminded me that I am not alone; none of us are, shared 12-grader Meira Borsody. The Times Square concert was amazing! said Sarah Glasser, who is in ninth grade. I felt a much deeper connection with my Judaism than I ever have because I was surrounded by so many Jewish teens that were proud of who we are as a nation. Fifteen teen speakers shared personal stories of struggle, triumph, and strength in the face of adversity. The storiesranging from students who fought for Jewish rights at school, dealt with alopecia and subsequent bullying, to teens who lost family members to drug addictioncaptivated the crowd, leaving a deep impression on the audience. Priest turned rabbi, Yaakov Parisi, captivated the teens with his animated story during Shabbat dinner, sharing his inspiration for living a Jewish life. Professor Binyamin Abrams, who lectures on chemistry at Boston University, left an indelible impression on the teens, resolving questions about Torah and science, and inspiring the teens to seek knowledge while living Jewishly. The secret of my life and success is keeping Shabbat, Adam Neumann shared in a powerful, electrifying surprise appearance. Disconnecting from the world for 25 hours and connecting to something greater than myself makes me who I am. There has never been a more relevant time in history to celebrate being Jewish. If you come away with one thing today, I hope its that you disconnect to connect. Our intrinsic worth is not based on achievements. Every individual can connect to G-d, no matter the circumstances. It is because of this connection that every individual, in any situation, can make a significant difference, shared Rabbi Mendy Bronstein of Chabad of Altamonte Springs. That is what CTeen is all about. Indeed, a brave teenager from the Cteen Las Vegas chapter went up on stage, and shared his inspiring message of finding his self-worth despite constant bullying about his appearance. After his speech, he was surrounded by kids giving him high-fives, hugs, and thanking him for inspiring them to be stronger. You may find yourself alone, the only Jew in your public school, you may feel like a minority, but remember: there is no such thing as a small Jew, shared Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, chairman of CTeen. I hope you take the energy you gained this weekend and carry it into every aspect of your lives back at home. There were four Orlando chapters that joined, including CTeen Altamonte Springs, CTeen Longwood, CTeen Maitland and CTeen South Orlando. With over 500 chapters in 23 countries, CTeen creates a nurturing environment where giving to others encourages self discovery. The networks mission is to empower tomorrows next generation of leaders through Jewish education, and by providing a strong Jewish network across the globe. Teens develop awareness and confidence, while connecting with individuals sharing similar experiences and beliefs, becoming an integral part of a group that focuses on building core values and stresses positive character development. CTeen is open to Jewish teens regardless of affiliation. For more information on future programming for your teen, please contact your local Chabad. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing corruption charges as he gears up for his re-election. (JTA)-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is going to court on corruption charges-he says he's innocent. Netanyahu was indicted in three cases Thursday pending a court hearing. It's the first time in Israel's history that a sitting prime minister faces criminal charges. Oh, and elections are in fewer than six weeks. What exactly is Netanyahu accused of? How is he defending himself? Does this mean he'll lose the election? Who is Benjamin Netanyahu, and what is he accused of? Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister for a decade, is up for re-election on April 9. He's running for his fifth term. He was first elected in 1996 for one term, then returned to office in 2009 and hasn't left. He leads the right-wing Likud party. But he could be in trouble. After years of investigation, his country's attorney general charged Netanyahu in three separate corruption cases. Two have to do with Netanyahu buying himself positive press, and the third alleges that he received illegal gifts from a rich donor. The Israeli Police have numbered them Case 1000, Case 2000 and Case 4000. (Don't worry about 3000-that investigation was dropped.) Case 1000: Netanyahu is accused of accepting illegal gifts from Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan, including Cuban cigars and pink champagne. The gifts totaled about $200,000. In return, Netanyahu allegedly helped secure a U.S. visa for Milchan and supported a law that would give tax breaks to the billionaire if he moved back to Israel. Case 2000: Netanyahu is accused of advancing a law that would have hurt one newspaper in exchange for positive coverage from a rival paper. In Israel, the two leading papers are Yediot Acharonot and Israel Hayom. Yediot is generally anti-Netanyahu. Israel Hayom is almost always pro-Netanyahu-and it's also free, thanks to funding from the American casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. Case 2000 alleges that Netanyahu made this deal with Yediot's publisher: Netanyahu would support a law banning free daily papers-that would hurt Israel Hayom. In return, Yediot would give Netanyahu positive coverage. Case 4000: Netanyahu is accused of supporting looser regulation of Israel's telecom giant, Bezeq, in exchange for favorable coverage from a news website Bezeq owns called Walla. Sounds like Netanyahu really wants positive news coverage. Allegedly. But Netanyahu and the Israeli press don't really get along. Like his ally, President Donald Trump, Netanyahu says the local press is out to get him. He accuses the media of being left-wing and dishonest, and likes to use the term "fake news" a lot. He doesn't translate it: He just says "fake news" while speaking Hebrew. That's a big part of his defense: Since the investigations began a couple of years ago, he has attacked the media again and again for accusing him of corruption-seeking to depose him in court because he keeps winning elections. Netanyahu does have a few allies in the media, including Israel Hayom, which has consistently supported him since it was founded by Adelson, a Netanyahu ally, in 2007. (Yes, this is the same paper he allegedly said he'd hurt through legislation. Kind of ironic.) And this year, as part of his re-election campaign, Adelson launched a pro-Netanyahu TV channel. How else is Netanyahu defending himself? Defiantly. Since the investigations began in 2016, Netanyahu has insisted that "Nothing will happen-because nothing happened." In a speech following the announcement of the indictment Thursday, Netanyahu didn't give an inch. He called the criminal proceedings a left-wing conspiracy and said he would beat the charges. "For three years, they've gone after us politically-an unprecedented hunting expedition, with one goal-to depose the right-wing government led by me," the prime minister said. "The primary goal is to influence the elections, even when they know this house of cards will completely collapse after the elections." But wait-Netanyahu is facing criminal charges. Will he have to step down? Nope. There's no law that forces a sitting prime minister to resign if indicted. Plenty of people-including Netanyahu's opponents-have said that he should resign for the good of the country. They say a sitting prime minister can't be tied up in court while he has to run the country. But Netanyahu is standing his ground, and legally, it looks like he's within his rights. A final hearing, probably after the election, will determine whether the charges go forward. Has this ever happened before? Yes and no. Netanyahu is the first prime minister to be indicted for corruption-but that's only because previous prime ministers have resigned before the process got this far. In 2008, Ehud Olmert resigned amid allegations of bribery, even before police recommended that he be indicted. Olmert eventually was convicted and served time in prison. And in 1977, Yitzhak Rabin resigned after it became public that he and his wife held illegal foreign bank accounts totaling $10,000. Rabin ran again 15 years later and won. He would sign a historic peace treaty with the Palestinians but two years later be assassinated by a Jewish extremist. Netanyahu, though, hasn't backed down, staying in office even after police recommended that he be indicted, and after the indictment came through. That's never happened before; we're in uncharted waters now. What does this mean for the election? Unclear. Netanyahu is in a tight race with a new centrist party called Blue and White (the colors of Israel's flag), which has a narrow lead in the polls. And a poll by The Times of Israel published Thursday says the indictment could hurt Netanyahu at the polls, moving some right-wing voters over to his rival. But here's where it gets complicated: Even if Netanyahu wins fewer votes in the election on April 9, he could still win the election. Israel has a parliamentary government, so what matters is which party can get a majority in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, to back them. So even if Netanyahu finishes second, he will stay as prime minister if there is a right-wing majority overall-and it's willing to back him. So Netanyahu could still serve another term, even under indictment? Maybe. Let's talk on April 10. (JTA)Deborah Lipstadt, the prominent Holocaust historian, is resigning her membership in her local synagogue because it belongs to a movement that defended an Israeli political deal with the extremist right wing. Lipstadt belonged to Young Israel of Toco Hills in Atlanta, an Orthodox congregation. The broader Young Israel movement, in a statement Monday to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, defended an agreement between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jewish Power, a far-right political party. Critics of the deal note that Jewish Power is led by followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, who advocated the expulsion of Arabs from Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu acted to get right-wing parties to merge in order to meet the threshold necessary to secure a victory in the election, read the statement by Farley Weiss, president of the National Council of Young Israel. We understand what Prime Minister Netanyahu did, and he did it to have ministers of the national religious and national union parties in his coalition. The rabbi of Lipstadts synagogue, Adam Starr, himself condemned the statement in a Facebook post Monday, writing Not in my name and not in my shuls name! But Lipstadt still felt that she could not continue to be associated with the Young Israel movement, despite having fond words for her synagogue and rabbi. I cannot be associated with an organization that gives such racism, celebration of violence, and immoral policies a heksher, or imprimatur, she wrote in an open letter posted to Facebook Tuesday. At this time of rising antisemitism, Jew hatred, and prejudice of all kinds, each of usand not just our spiritual leadersmust speak out and act individually and collectively. And so I speak out with deep sadness that such a despicable action is given cover by people who claim to walk in the ways of the Kadosh Baruch Hu, a Hebrew term for God. Lipstadt told JTA Tuesday that she felt a particular urgency to act because her latest book is about present-day anti-Semitism. This is a party that has racist views, she said. This is a party that condones murder. This is a party that condones the man who committed the largest mass murder in Israel by a Jew. Those are all things that I find despicable, and to say its just politics is really bad. One of the leaders of Jewish Power hung a picture in his home of Baruch Goldstein, the Jewish terrorist who killed 29 Palestinians at the Cave of the Patriarchs in 1994. Lipstadt also condemned Netanyahu for the agreement, which saw Jewish Power merge with other right-wing parties in a joint slate for Israels upcoming election. The unified slate will give the parties a better chance of getting enough votes to enter Israels Knesset. She said the deal was of a piece with Netanyahus recent tendency to cozy up to right-wing nationalist leaders in Europe, like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. It was sadly in sync with a number of things weve seen, she said. This was just one more step but this was a dealbreaker. Netanyahu defended the deal on Twitter by noting that the Labor Party partnered with non-Zionist Arab parties to maintain power in the mid-1990s. Such hypocrisy and double standards from the left, Netanyahu wrote. They condemn a bloc on the right with right wing parties while the left worked to bring extremist Islamists into Knesset to create a bloc... The height of absurdity. (JNS)Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus decision to cut a deal with Bayit Yehudi, and its subsequent temporary union with right-wing political parties National Union and Otzma Yehudit, has created a political storm, being called foul and worse by some. And with others calling it a reprehensible political party with racist roots and an anti-Arab group, a number of Jewish American organizations have come out against the deal involving Otzma, which they consider an extremist and racist party, and which they dont want to see as part of any possible future government coalition. Otzma Yehudit is an offshoot of the late extremist Rabbi Meir Kahanes former Kach Party, which was banned from the Knesset because of its racist views and push for the expulsion of all Arabs from Israel. But is the merger as bad as it is hyped up to be? According to Yonatan Freeman in the political-science department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, This is a technical kind of join-up. Its about the polls, not the policies, he told JNS. Freeman explained that this union with Otzma Yehudit was a necessary move by Bayit Yehudi because it has been sinking in the polls. Freeman emphasized that Netanyahu never actually called for Otzma Yehudit to join up with any specific party, but that he simply wanted to unite the right due to a fear that in the upcoming April elections, Israel may see a higher percentage of people voting for parties that may not pass the threshold, which would ultimately be a waste of important, potentially game-changing votes. Still, not everyone cares about the reasoning behind Netanyahus decision. The Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative Movement, AIPAC, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Boston and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, among others, have all expressly stated their objections in one way or another against any potential political merger or deal. The American Jewish Committee angrily wrote that the views of Otzma Yehudit do not reflect the core values that are the very foundation of the State of Israel. The 13 principles that make up the partys platform show that its not entirely what it is being accused of, and that while some of its points are deeply problematic for many, it still represents views held by those who vote for mainstream parties. Some believe that it may have made more sense to create a pact with the New Right Party led by Naftali Bennett, but Netanyahu is known to have a longstanding beef with his former chief of staff and, according to some reports, is working to undermine Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked before the elections. Bennett himself has come out against the deal, saying, people who see Kahane as a model are unworthy of sitting in the Knesset, but those who undermine Israel are, too. Later, in response to the lefts reaction to his comment, he clarified his words and said, I reject the demand of the left to prevent representatives of Otzma Yehudit from running for the Knesset, while relying on Arab parties that undermine the existence of the state. Either way, Netanyahu understood that the fracture within the right has hurt the country for many years, and he realized he needs to unify it in order to counter the new momentum by the Blue and White union by Israel Resilience party head Benny Gantz, the former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, and Yesh Atid Party head Yair Lapid. An attempt to get back in the middle In general, American Jewish and pro-Israel organizations have stood by Israels side throughout the years without getting heavily involved, if at all, in internal politics. So why now? According to Freeman, there are two main reasons. The first is that America is now in the beginning stages of a heated election season. And AIPCA, he explained, is concerned that the perception of Israel as being too pro-Trump might influence how AIPAC is perceived as well. This is an attempt to get back in the middle, Freeman said of AIPAC. The second reason, he noted, is that a good number of Israelis are fretting over the separation that exists between the Jewish Diaspora and Israel, and are clamoring for an easing of tensions. AIPAC sees this as an opportunity to bridge that divide and get involved in Israeli domestic politics, even in a minimal way. But according to Freeman, when push comes to shove, this will not affect [Israels] relations with AIPAC, though it might influence it in two ways. First, the type of discussions and talking points may change. Second, internally in America, there might be a backlash from Jews who dont agree with all of Israels policies. Jonathan Rynhold, the deputy head of the department of political studies at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, emphasized to JNS that Netanyahu did this for political reasons and not ideological ones. Rynhold believes that Netanyahu made the move because he is desperate due to a possible a pending indictment against him for charges of corruption, as well as the political threat presented by Gantz and Lapid. The Netanyahu of five years ago would have decried this [inclusion of Otzma Yehudit] as terrible. He firmly believes that the Otzma Yehudit representative will not have direct influence and probably not even direct representation in the next Knesset. Freeman agreed and sought to allay the fears of many, assuring that they wont be setting policy. (JTA)Even before he was old enough to vote, Justyn Trenner was already a supporter of Britains Labour Party. Trenner, now a 54-year-old financial adviser from London, had felt at home there thanks to Labours mild socialism and anti-racist agenda. That had made it a favorite for many British Jewish voters like him. But he and other Jews have become politically homeless. Trenner feels like hes been driven out of Labour by the proliferation of anti-Semitic hate speech in the party ranks following the 2015 election of Jeremy Corbyn as its leader. Corbyn, far left and anti-Israel, is accused of helping to spread anti-Semitism. Scarcely better for Trenner are the increasingly right-wing positions of the ruling Conservative Party, which is committed to taking the United Kingdom out of the European Union despite having no clear strategy with the deadline just weeks away. Last week, though, Trenner found a new political home: the Independent Group. The new centrist movement was founded by eight former Labour lawmakers who hope to recalibrate the polarized politics in Britain. He wants the Independent Group to do for moderates there what the party of Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, did for their French counterparts in 2017. I was thrilled, Trenner said of the Independent Groups Feb. 18 creation. No one knows how this will play out, but I think its a development that could change British politics and give a voice to a lot of people who had lost it along the way. Since its surprise launch by Labour defectors including Luciana Berger, a Jewish lawmaker who quit the party over anti-Semitic abuse online for criticizing Corbyn, the Independent Group has been joined by three Conservative lawmakers. Constituting the biggest Labour split in decades, the Independent Groups 11 seats out of 650 in the House of Commons make it the fourth-largest faction there along with the 31-year-old Liberal Democrat Party. The split has further hurt Corbyns Labour by prompting another one of its lawmakers, Ian Austin, to leave over anti-Semitism on Friday. Neil Nerva, a Jewish Labour politician from the London borough of Brent, shares Austins concerns about Labour, which Nerva said has become institutionally anti-Semitic under Corbyn. But Nerva is staying in Labour for now, he said, at least until his many foreign constituents have more clarity on Brexit, which is due to happen next month. Its the overriding priority now, Nerva said. There will definitely be a recalibration in Labour after that. Another 20 lawmakers are on the brink of leaving Labour over anti-Semitism and Corbyns perceived inaction to prevent Brexit, according to The Guardian. Many of them are seeking Labour support for a second referendum on Brexit. Corbyn had resisted this pressure until the Independent Group walkout but announced his support for a referendum on Monday. Austin, the ninth Labour lawmaker to leave, was joined by David Hirsh, a prominent scholar and author on anti-Semitism. I was just waiting for a time to leave when leaving could have the most impact, Hirsh, who is not a politician but had been a Labour member throughout his adult life, wrote about his decision to terminate his membership. I have been driven out of my party by antisemites, he wrote. Berger, as its highest-profile Jewish member, may attract many Jewish supporters to the Independent Group. She echoed Hirshs sentiment in announcing the split at a news conference with the others who quit Labour. This has been a very difficult, painful but necessary decision, she said about leaving. I have become embarrassed and ashamed to remain in the Labour Party. I have not changed. The core values of equality for all. Opportunity for all. Anti-racism against all. And social justice. The 37-year-old Berger, who is pregnant with her second child, is something of a hero for many British Jews regardless of where they stand on Labour. Although she hails from Londons affluent Wembley area, she has become quite popular in the impoverished Liverpool constituency where she ran for Parliament. She won 79 percent of the vote there in the 2017 elections, a 10-point increase over 2015. Berger, who entered Parliament in the 2010 elections, was Labours point person for mental health issues. An unwavering critic of the British far right, she has spoken out with the same determination against the rise of anti-Semitism among Corbyn supporters, who often conflate Jews with Israel and propagate conspiracy theories about Jews. As a former chair of the Labour Friends of Israel group, she has been targeted incessantly in such verbal attacks. Her rebuke for such rhetoric earned her even more vicious harassment by members of her own party. But Berger has not wavered, criticizing Corbyn last year for defending an anti-Semitic mural in London in 2013 that portrayed Jewish bankers playing Monopoly on the backs of black people. She called a Corbyn spokespersons defense of the artists right to free speech wholly inadequate. It fails to understand on any level the hurt and anguish felt about anti-Semitism. I will be raising this further. Berger has inspired hundreds of hate messages on social networks and beyond, prompting police to assign her agents for her own protection at a Labour event last year. On Twitter, a post wished for her death, so a real Labour MP can take her place. The former chief rabbi of Britain, Jonathan Sacks, last year said that Corbyn was an anti-Semite. Corbyn has denied the claim, pointing to his ban of some Labour members over anti-Semitic hate speechothers who spoke similarly were either unpunished or allowed back inand citing the support he has from some Jews on the far left of the political spectrum. In 2009, Corbyn called Hamas and Hezbollah his friends. He laid flowers on the graves of Palestinian terrorists in 2014. In 2015 he said that British-born Zionists dont understand British irony. He has called to boycott Israel and applauded a speaker who called for its destruction. Bergers principled stance against such behavior has earned her the admiration of Jews and non-Jews from her left and right. Daily Telegraph columnist Zoe Strimpel on Sunday called Berger a brilliant poster girl who Jews can get behind. I may not cleave to Lucianas lefty lingo, wrote Strimpel, who is Jewish. But, she added, Ive watched her over the years with interest and gratitude, which peaked last week on seeing her bravelyand with fabulous hairresign from Labour because of an institutionalized and unstaunched culture of antisemitism. Among hard-left Jewish voters, too, Berger commands more respect than others who have fled Labour. I think Im much more sympathetic to her and her views than to other Labour centrists, said Keith Kahn-Harris, a British Jewish sociologist. He cited Bergers work on mental health. More than other members of the Independent Group, Kahn-Harris said, discourse by Corbyn supporters about her leaving Labour has been particularly venomous precisely because Berger cant simply be dismissed as Conservative-light. For now, Bergers Independent Group isnt even officially registered as a political party. It has not published a manifesto or platform beyond a short, 11-point document that speaks broadly about investing in health infrastructure, national security and bilateral relations. Remarkably, it does not mention either Brexit or anti-Semitism. This vagueness may be necessary as the movement recruits new members, who will be invited to shape its platform. The new entity does not have a leader, either, presumably for the same reasons. Despite assets like Berger and growing voter disdain for Britains old partiesthe Independent Groups tagline is Politics is broke. Lets change itthe movement is up against a two-party system that is entrenched in the British constituency-based electoral model. Trenner noted that the Liberal Democrats have been vying in it for decades with limited success. But Frances political system appeared equally inhospitable to independent movements before 2017, when Macrons centrist La Republique En Marche smashed the widely discredited Republicans and Socialists, as well as the far right and far left, to make him president and head of the ruling party. Kahn-Harris does not believe that a meteoric Macron-style rise is in the cards for the Independent Group. What could happen is that they win enough votes to become, perhaps with the Liberal Democrats, kingmakers in coalition talks, he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. In Britain, politicians are not elected directly. Instead, voters elect parties, which at times need to negotiate alliances with other parties to form coalitions. Trenner said theres some hope for the would-be party to pull off a Macron-like upset. But if the Independent Group merely ends up preventing Corbyn from becoming prime minister, he said, then thats good enough. That prospect, he added, for the first time in my life is creating a serious discussion among British Jews about leaving this country. Tuesday evening, Feb. 26, ACT for America, a national security grassroots organization, hosted a panel discussion about political Islam and Western culture. Although ACT is also recognized as the largest anti-Muslim group in the U.S. and takes a hardline stance on Islam and immigration, this meetings panelistsDr. Jonathan Matusitz, an associate professor at the Nicholson School of Communication at UCF who teaches a class on terrorism; Rev. Bruce Lieske, former chairman of the Florida-Georgia District Muslim Evangelism Task Force and a retired Lutheran pastor; and Pastor Roger Diaz of Fellowship Church in Casselberry, who experienced physical abuse by Muslims as a young man in Trinidadpresented facts about and personal experiences with Islam. The discussion encompassed the rise of Islam throughout history and its expansion through the Middle East to Persia (now Iraq and Iran) and North Africa. The areas were conquered by military force. Islam has never spread by persuasion, stated Lieske, but by military force and intimidation. Unlike Judaism and Christianity, Islam is a political, militant religion. Today, Trinidad has the highest rate of Islamic State recruitment in the Western hemisphere. According to Diaz, it is the No. 1 exporter of ISIS fighters. From the age of 12 to 19 Diaz faced personal attacks from Muslims, who though lowest in percentage of the population, dominated the community. I was beaten, spat upon by Muslims. They were hostile, said Diaz. In Israel, he continued, Islam is a different caliber. They are more single-minded, hostile and believe the deception that the land belongs to them. Matusitz shared that there are 1.8 billion Muslims in the world. Today in Europe, Muslims comprise about 4.9 percent of Europes population. A Pew Research study revealed that approximately 3.45 million Muslims of all ages were living in the United States in 2017. This means that Muslims made up about 1.1 percent of the total U.S. population. It is estimated that this percentage will double by 2050. The definition of Islam, Lieske stated, is submission. It does not mean peace. As long as a country submits to the conquering Muslims authority, there is peace. A prime example is the Ottoman Empire which was one of the mightiest and longest-lasting dynasties in world history. This Islamic-run superpower ruled large areas of the Middle East, Eastern Europe and North Africa for more than 600 years. In 1453 the Ottomans captured the city of Constantinople and renamed it Islambol, the city of Islam. Its modern name is Istanbul. The Ottomans ruled until 1923. In 1915, the Ottoman government began to systematically kill non-Muslims Armenians. About 1.5 million Armenians were killed within a two-year period. With this violent history, why would anyone think that Islam has changed to a peaceful religion in less than 100 years? Matusitz explained that there are different types of Muslims, using six concentric circles: The core are the jihadists, those who are willing to die instantly for Allah. They make up only 10 percent or 1.8 million people. He noted that every single terrorist group today is Muslim. The second circle is fundamentalist. The fundraisers and converters. They comprise 10 percent. The third circle are the conservatives. These Muslims do not support ISIS, but do believe in Sharia Law. These are the wolves in sheeps clothing, Matusitz said. The fourth circle are the human rights activists, and they accuse America and Israel of all the evils in the world. (the big Satan and the little Satan) The fifth circled are the reformers. They would like to make Islam a peaceful religion. The sixth circle are the cultural Muslims. There are about one billion cultural Muslims, representing 60 percent of Islam. They are Muslim in name only. However, they will not speak against Islam. Is there a real threat that Islam will take over America? We have only to look at Europe. Today, Islam is spreading through immigration. Matusitz shared that in the book The Strange Death of Europe, written by Douglas Murray, two factors explain why European civilization will not survive. The first is the combination of mass migration of new peoples into the continent together with Europes negative birth rates. The second is what Murray describes as the fact that...at the same time Europe lost faith in its beliefs, traditions, and legitimacy. In his review of the book, Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks stated, Murray weaves a tale of uncontrolled immigration, failed multiculturalism, systemic self-doubt, cultural suicide and disingenuous political leadership. Accurate, insightful and devastating, with applicable lessons for countries on both sides of the Atlantic. Today, America is divided. There is uncontrolled immigration, multiculturalism, a departure from our traditions and values. Many young people are looking at socialism as an alternative. Already in Congress, one Muslim representative blatantly covered Israel on a map in her office with a post-it saying Palestine. Others stand behind the Constitutions freedom of speech and freedom of religion to further the cause of Islam. Can a Muslim be faithful to the U.S. Constitution and the Koran? Having this information, what can we Americans, Jews and Christians, do? People are in denial, stated Lieske. Matusitz raised the question, Are people in denial or do they just not know? There were some in the audience who until a few years ago didnt know about the Muslim migration. There are those who want to avoid discussion or thinking about it, and there are those who deny there is any problem. Many keep silent because they fear being labeled racist. Nobody says anything. Its 1938 again, said Lieske. Pastors and rabbis need to wake up, he continued. They are silent. They need to talk about the contrast between Christianity and Islam and Islam and Judaism. But they dont want to lose [church or synagogue] members. One attendee encouraged everyone to talk openly with their children and grandchildren about being aware of different beliefsbe welcoming, but wise about what people tell you. Finally, pay attention to what is going on in Congress, know the causes people on the ballots are standing for, and vote. Perhaps there is nothing to worry about. Perhaps America will continue on as she has for almost 300 years. Perhaps America is unconquerable, and all the people who are pointing out the (possible) coming storm are only crying wolf. (JNS)-With so many new businesses sprouting up in Israeli and Palestinian communities in Judea and Samaria, isn't it possible to create some form of collaboration between them to share resources and take advantage of shared opportunities? That's what many people hope to achieve. Last week, the Judea Samaria Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Israel Education Association came together at Jerusalem's David Citadel hotel to launch the Regional Development Financial Initiative as part of the Israeli-Palestinian International Economic Forum. It would see Israeli and Palestinian business leaders in Judea and Samaria partner together to advance regional economic opportunities. Avi Zimmerman, co-founder of the JSC, told JNS that "the objective is economic development for the region of Judea and Samaria. As we see it, from a capitalist perspective, economic development is for all parties-all populations living in the area-and through all parties. We need to engage the business community, which needs to become a leader. It's an area that lives with a great deal of uncertainty. We need to create circumstances that are more conducive to stability and sustainability." Zimmerman highlighted the possibilities of collaboration, which include the tech industry, tourism, rehabilitation projects, transportation, regional development and plenty of other areas. He addressed the elephant in the room, of course, which is the political aspect of Israeli-Palestinian relations, but said that the emphasis is on business alone, with the intention of staying away from politics. U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman seemed to support this when he addressed the forum. "The political process will continue," he said. "We're hopeful we will make real progress on that in the near future, but it is never a substitute or a means to delay the opportunity to provide a better future for the Jews and the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, who are entitled to the very same things that we all want for our families." Eli Cohen, Israel's Minister of Economy and Industry, spoke about the government's commitment to the economic development of Judea and Samaria. "The State of Israel is a country of innovation and technology," said Cohen during his address at the forum. "There is a term we use called tikkun olam, which means 'repairing the world.' We are trying to make the world a better place, and we use technology to make Israel a better place. I congratulate all those who took part in organizing this important meeting here. Its fruits will be reaped in the economy through joint action." Zimmerman, however, emphasized that he wants to move away from the model of government handouts. "We need to engage the business community. Yes, we need to have further development, but we have to do it because we are strong," he said. "We have the ability and prerogative to do this ourselves." Ashraf Jabari, a Palestinian business and community leader from Hebron, who together with Zimmerman is also co-founder of the JSC, told JNS, "We know how to work with our Israeli neighbors. We have a strong base of support in Hebron. The street is with us. There are many businessmen who are ready to work with Israelis." Jabari said such dialogue and communication was the only way forward for Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank. "We need to break the fence between Israelis and Palestinians, and to know that there's no other way but to work together," he said. "We can't keep going like we have over 25 years and waiting for a political settlement. We don't have time to wait for politicians." The organizers believe that the region is "poised to emerge as Israel's most innovative economy," and are enthusiastic and hopeful about playing their part in this process. 'The way of the future' Heather Johnston, founder and executive director of USIEA, told JNS, "The whole idea of this economic forum is to take what they have done so far in the way of the success with the businesses and showcase that, as well as show the economic outlook of where the future is going." She noted that since its founding, the economic forum has had the experts involved, all of whom have "played a part in mapping the economic future for Judea and Samaria." She was referring to the Milken Innovation CenterJerusalem Institute, in addition to the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research. "USIEA has taken the path of being able to highlight this for the U.S. Congress and the U.S. administration to help them understand what is happening inside this grassroots movement," she said about her particular role. Johnston pointed to the Palestinian Partnership Fund Act of 2018 as an example of bipartisan support in both the U.S. House and Senate that supports Jews and Palestinian doing joint business together. The legislation has now been referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. "That seems to be the way of the future," she said. "Whereas the focus has been focused on the Palestinian economy, now we have a new road of how do we create real peace and prosperity together?"By Israel Kasnett (JNS)-With so many new businesses sprouting up in Israeli and Palestinian communities in Judea and Samaria, isn't it possible to create some form of collaboration between them to share resources and take advantage of shared opportunities? That's what many people hope to achieve. Last week, the Judea Samaria Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Israel Education Association came together at Jerusalem's David Citadel hotel to launch the Regional Development Financial Initiative as part of the Israeli-Palestinian International Economic Forum. It would see Israeli and Palestinian business leaders in Judea and Samaria partner together to advance regional economic opportunities. Avi Zimmerman, co-founder of the JSC, told JNS that "the objective is economic development for the region of Judea and Samaria. As we see it, from a capitalist perspective, economic development is for all parties-all populations living in the area-and through all parties. We need to engage the business community, which needs to become a leader. It's an area that lives with a great deal of uncertainty. We need to create circumstances that are more conducive to stability and sustainability." Zimmerman highlighted the possibilities of collaboration, which include the tech industry, tourism, rehabilitation projects, transportation, regional development and plenty of other areas. He addressed the elephant in the room, of course, which is the political aspect of Israeli-Palestinian relations, but said that the emphasis is on business alone, with the intention of staying away from politics. U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman seemed to support this when he addressed the forum. "The political process will continue," he said. "We're hopeful we will make real progress on that in the near future, but it is never a substitute or a means to delay the opportunity to provide a better future for the Jews and the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, who are entitled to the very same things that we all want for our families." Eli Cohen, Israel's Minister of Economy and Industry, spoke about the government's commitment to the economic development of Judea and Samaria. "The State of Israel is a country of innovation and technology," said Cohen during his address at the forum. "There is a term we use called tikkun olam, which means 'repairing the world.' We are trying to make the world a better place, and we use technology to make Israel a better place. I congratulate all those who took part in organizing this important meeting here. Its fruits will be reaped in the economy through joint action." Zimmerman, however, emphasized that he wants to move away from the model of government handouts. "We need to engage the business community. Yes, we need to have further development, but we have to do it because we are strong," he said. "We have the ability and prerogative to do this ourselves." Ashraf Jabari, a Palestinian business and community leader from Hebron, who together with Zimmerman is also co-founder of the JSC, told JNS, "We know how to work with our Israeli neighbors. We have a strong base of support in Hebron. The street is with us. There are many businessmen who are ready to work with Israelis." Jabari said such dialogue and communication was the only way forward for Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank. "We need to break the fence between Israelis and Palestinians, and to know that there's no other way but to work together," he said. "We can't keep going like we have over 25 years and waiting for a political settlement. We don't have time to wait for politicians." The organizers believe that the region is "poised to emerge as Israel's most innovative economy," and are enthusiastic and hopeful about playing their part in this process. 'The way of the future' Heather Johnston, founder and executive director of USIEA, told JNS, "The whole idea of this economic forum is to take what they have done so far in the way of the success with the businesses and showcase that, as well as show the economic outlook of where the future is going." She noted that since its founding, the economic forum has had the experts involved, all of whom have "played a part in mapping the economic future for Judea and Samaria." She was referring to the Milken Innovation CenterJerusalem Institute, in addition to the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research. "USIEA has taken the path of being able to highlight this for the U.S. Congress and the U.S. administration to help them understand what is happening inside this grassroots movement," she said about her particular role. Johnston pointed to the Palestinian Partnership Fund Act of 2018 as an example of bipartisan support in both the U.S. House and Senate that supports Jews and Palestinian doing joint business together. The legislation has now been referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. "That seems to be the way of the future," she said. "Whereas the focus has been focused on the Palestinian economy, now we have a new road of how do we create real peace and prosperity together?" The Pearls of the Pavilion luncheon on Feb. 22 treated some of the Jewish Pavilion's most generous supporters to a gracious afternoon social affair. Attendees were celebrated as "pearls" because of their yearly commitment of at least $500 to support the Pavilion's programs, which keep hundreds of Jewish seniors in Central Florida living facilities connected to their Jewish heritage and to the community. To symbolize their value to the organization, all attendees who were first-time annual donors of $500 or more received a beautiful strand of hand-knotted freshwater peacock pearls. Guests enjoyed a delicious lunch catered by George's Gourmet Cookies and Catering, featuring panko-encrusted salmon filet with bearnaise sauce and capers and basil cream penne Alfredo, and followed, of course, by George's mouth-watering cookies. The event was sponsored and co-chaired by Geanne Share and Eva Krzewski, who also created the beautiful table decor. As guests enjoyed their meals, Share thanked them for their support of the Pavilion, asking them to imagine a life in which a day's highlights might be dressing, eating, and playing Bingo. "Now, you can imagine what it means when the Jewish Pavilion visits or hosts a program," she continued. "We give them a hug, a touch, which is so meaningful. We bring them a slice of challah, a little pudding, and we make a connection with the seniors we visit. Because of your generous support, Jewish seniors have not been forgotten." The event's highlight was an intimate private performance by Orlando Ballet II dancers, made possible by the generous donation of the Orlando Ballet. Orlando Ballet School director Phillip Broomhead introduced the sneak preview of two new works, "Arrival" and "In Concerti," which are in final stages of rehearsal before an upcoming performance. The Jewish Pavilion hosts a number of entertaining and meaningful events throughout the year and warmly welcomes members of the community to get involved. To learn more about the Jewish Pavilion, visit JewishPavilion.org or call 407-658-9363. (JNS)For the sixth time since November, anti-Semitic fliers appeared around the University of Montana campus in Missoula, including four times in February. Discovered on Monday, the latest fliers included an image of a disfigured military member with a quotation from the late former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel Ovida Yosef that said, Goyim were born only to serve us. There is a line that can be crossed, but as for putting out literature that is hateful or untrue, people get to do that because of the free speech amendment, David Cox, the president of the board of directors at Missoulas Har Shalom synagogue, told NBC Montana. On Feb. 8, anti-Semitic fliers were seen on car windshields around campus, accusing Jews of weakening both the First and Second Amendments of the U.S. Bill of Rights. On Feb. 12, fliers promoting Jew hated were discovered around town, depicting a man on a cross, calling him enslaved because of a Jewish tradition. This doesnt just affect the Jewish community; it affects the entire community, Rabbi Chezy Vogel of the Chabad Jewish Center of Missoula told NBC Montana. This is one person trying to poison the atmosphere and environment here. I would say dont let them win. Dont hide your religion, hide your beliefs now in the wake of this. On the contrary, respond with pride in your religion, he continued. Stand up for what you believe in. The same day, a Missoulian reporter tweeted a picture of a swastika and the words white power being spray-painted on a building in the area. On Friday, anti-Semitic fliers were found also on the doorsteps of Missoula residents, featuring a disfigured picture of U.S. President Donald Trump with spiked hair with the Israeli flag next to his head, apparently implying a demonization of those support the Jewish state. I didnt know if it was going after specific people in the community, Crystal Koosman, who is Jewish and a member of Har Shalom, told NBC Montana. I went outside, and some of my neighbors were outside chatting, and found out that they were all up and down the block. No suspects have been found in any of the cases. It is currently unknown if any of the incidents are connected. Finally, in November, recruitment fliers from the white-nationalist group Identify Evropa were found around campus. (JNS)U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined to comment on last weeks controversial merger between the Jewish Home and the far-right Otzma Yehudit parties ahead of the Israeli elections in April. Were not about to get involved in an election, to interfere in an election of a democracy, Pompeo told CNNs Jake Tapper on Sunday. Election campaigns are tough. Well allow the Israeli people to sort this out, and I am confident that when the elections over the United States will continue to have a strong, important, very, very deep relationship with Israel that protects the American people and benefits Israel as well. Otzma Yehudit, or Jewish Power, was formed by followers of the late extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was based in Brooklyn, N.Y. Last week, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the American Jewish Committee condemned the merger. The views of Otzma Yehudit are reprehensible. They do not reflect the core values that are the very foundation of the State of Israel, said AJC in a statement, prefacing that it was compelled to speak out despite its prerogative not to comment on political parties and candidates during an election. The party might conceivably gain enough votes to enter the next Knesset, and potentially even become part of the governing coalition, added the organization. Historically, the views of extremist parties, reflecting the extreme left or the extreme right, have been firmly rejected by mainstream parties, even if the electoral process of Israels robust democracy has enabled their presence, however small, in the Knesset. We agree with AJC. AIPAC has a longstanding policy not to meet with members of this racist and reprehensible party, the latter tweeted. Despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brokering the merger, AIPAC announced that he will address next months annual policy conference in Washington. (JTA)-When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brokered a partnership between the extreme right-wing party Jewish Power, or Otzma Yehudit, and the more moderate right-wing Jewish Home, the late American-born Rabbi Meir Kahane was suddenly all over the news. Kahane, whose extremist Kach party was outlawed in Israel several years after his assassination in 1990, is the ideological father of Jewish Power. By extending a welcoming hand to the party ahead of Israel's April elections, Netanyahu was accused of legitimizing Kahane's deep legacy of racism, violence and hatred. But understanding Kahane-and his ideas-goes much deeper than just knowing that he has a link with Jewish Power. Who is Meir Kahane? Quick trip through his childhood: He was born Martin Baruch Kahane in Flatbush, Brooklyn, in 1932, and grew up a member of youth group affiliated with Revisionist Zionism. Founded by Zeev Jabotinsky in 1925, the Revisionists were the more militant wing of the Zionist movement, insisting its Labor movement rivals were too passive in efforts to establish a Jewish state in all of the land of biblical Israel. Let's skip ahead a few decades, to 1968. What happened in 1968? So much! New York City was a racial and an ethnic powder keg in the late 1960s. In May that year, in the aftermath of a racially charged New York City teachers strike that set African-American parents against a largely Jewish teachers' union, Kahane and two pals decided to form the Jewish Defense League. The first ad for the JDL appeared in The Jewish Press: "Anti-semitic Black racists are battling for control of cities," the advertisement claimed. Kahane's JDL would go on to fixate on supposed examples of black anti-Semitism. Plenty of Jewish groups battle anti-Semitism. What made the JDL different? Kahane wanted Jews to embrace "Jewish power," modeled after the Black Panthers and other ethnic militant groups of the era. (Ironically he was styling the JDL after the Black Panthers while using racist sentiment in equating Black Power groups to Nazis.) He called it self-defense; critics called it vigilantism. Kahane believed his JDL would fight for the "forgotten Jew" that the American Jewish establishment had supposedly left behind, and that the JDL would inspire young Jewish men to fight back when they saw what they perceived as anti-Semitism. Kahane would popularize the slogan "Never again!" (also the title of his manifesto) long before it became a rallying cry for Holocaust memory and numerous other movements. For Kahane, when another Holocaust came around-and it would, he believed-Jews would be ready to fight back. Kahane saw the threat to Jews not only from black militants at home in New York, but in worldwide communism-remember, this is the Cold War era-and the plight of Soviet Jewry. Wait, Soviet Jews are involved here? Yes, the Soviet Jewry movement was sort of Kahane's claim to fame in America. And by fame, we mean violence. In the early 1970s, Kahane led the JDL in a domestic terror campaign of bombings, in addition to civil disobedience tactics (sit-ins, demonstrations, harassment) to put pressure on the Soviet Union to allow Jews to emigrate. (Here's one report in JTA, from 1971, of the firebombing of a Soviet attache's car.) In July 1971, Kahane stood trial for violating the Federal Fire Arms Act of 1968, entered a guilty plea and was placed on five years federal probation. Two months later, he and his family immigrated to Israel. Kahane did not found the movement to free Soviet Jewry-the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry was launched in 1964 by New York college students -but Kahane and the JDL raised the profile of the issue in American politics. Yossi Klein Halevi, a former member of the JDL who has since denounced the group, explained in an interview, "Kahane's classic line was 'It's time to take the Soviet Jewry issue out of the obituary pages and onto page 1.' And he did. He put the Soviet Jewry movement on page 1." OK, now Kahane's in Israel. What does he do there? After arriving in Israel, he soon pivots to Israeli politics, with a brief one-year hiatus in American prisons, when he returns in 1975 and violates his parole. He founds a political party called JDL-Israel that he quickly renames Kach ("Thus"). He continues with what he knows best: anti-black racism. The first action he takes is related to the Black Hebrew Israelites cult in Dimona: In October 1971, JTA reported on a Kahane speech about "guarding Israel's honor" against "insults" from the Black Hebrew community. Soon he moves on to targeting the Israeli-Arab community and Palestinians. In August 1972, Kahane and the JDL distribute fliers in Hebron calling for the mayor to stand trial for his alleged part in the 1929 Hebron massacre. When does Kahane run for office? In 1973 Kahane (and Kach) win some 13,000 votes, or 0.8 percent-not enough for a Knesset seat. In 1977 and 1981 elections, the total drops to less than 5,000 votes. But (ominous drum roll please) by 1984, Kach receives nearly 26,000 votes, or 1.2 percent-enough to land Kahane a seat in the Knesset. First, however, there is some drama. In June of '84, ahead of the July elections, Israel's Central Elections Committee votes to ban Kach from participating in the elections. It cites Kahane's call for deportation of Arab and Druze citizens, and his characterization of Israel's Declaration of Independence as a "schizophrenic document." It is, as JTA reports, "the first time in Israel's history that a Jewish political faction was banned from an election." Kahane leads an appeal to the Supreme Court, arguing that a political faction can be barred only if it poses a danger to the existence of Israel. He calls the committee's ruling political bias. The court rules that Kach can run. Whoa. How'd he get elected after all that? In the lead-up to the '84 elections, Kahane's profile in Israel rises. In April 1982, following the Egypt-Israel peace treaty-Israel agreed to give back the Sinai in exchange for peace-a group of his followers refuse to evacuate a settlement in Yamit, in the Sinai Peninsula. Some of the more extreme protesters threaten to take their own lives rather than leave. At the request of Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Kahane intervenes to negotiate a resolution to have them evacuate. Somehow this leads to a rise in Kahane's popularity, and also a near-universal condemnation of Kahane by Israeli parties across the spectrum, American Jewish groups and the Chief Rabbinate. What is Kahane's platform? Mainly it's no Israeli citizenship for non-Jews and expelling the Arabs from the country and the territories controlled by Israel. He also wanted to ban intermarriage and sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews. A Kach advertisement in May 1981 warns of Jewish women being seduced by Arabs, and proposes prison sentences for "every Arab who has sexual relations with a Jewish woman." Kahane also demanded Jewish sovereignty over the Temple Mount, but the anti-Arab ideology was the major plank. So what does Kahane do in the Knesset? Lawmakers immediately move to introduce an anti-racism bill to stop Kahane from using his platform as a means to expel Arabs from the parliament. Mayor Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem tells Knesset members that Kahane undermines "the basic moral tenets of the state." Knesset members also boycott Kahane's speeches. No one wants him there. Except, of course, his supporters. A month after his election, Kahane tries to visit an Israeli-Arab village, Umm El-Fahm, to "encourage" its inhabitants to immigrate. Israeli police block him from entering. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir calls the "Kahane phenomenon" "negative, dangerous and damaging," and Attorney General Yizhak Zamir warns Knesset members in November 1984 that it is "shameful, disgusting and dangerous." Yet Kahane's mere presence in the Knesset increases his popularity in Israel, with many feeling like he is speaking a truth that others won't. So does he get re-elected? In July 1988, Kahane is suspended from the Knesset for threatening an Arab member with a noose. Yes, a noose. A few months later, Kach is banned from competing in the elections that year. (In 1985, a year after Kach is allowed to run and Kahane is elected, the Knesset passed an amendment to the Basic Law, Israel's not-quite constitution, barring parties "engaged in incitement to racism." This includes Kach.) Polling at the time shows the party winning some 100,000 votes-three or four seats. In October 1988, Kahane appeals to the Supreme Court, saying "I am neither a Nazi nor a racist." His appeal is rejected and the Kach election ban stands. (Kahane later accuses the Likud of treason, for they are the party that stands to benefit from Kach not participating in the elections.) What happens to Kahane? In 1990, two years after he is deemed too racist for the Knesset, he is assassinated by a gunman in New York City posing as an Orthodox Jew. Is it connected? Not directly-he is shot dead in New York speaking to a crowd of Orthodox Jews urging them to make aliyah. He is killed by an Egyptian-American and Muslim extremist, El Sayyid Nosair. Over 5,000 mourners at his funeral carry signs labeled "Never Again!" and "N'kama" (revenge), as well as Israeli flags, and chant "Am Yisrael Chai" (the people of Israel live). (Read JTA's obituary of Kahane.) Why does he still matter? His ideas live on. Following Kahane's death, Kach split into two factions: Kahane Chai (Kahane Lives), headed by Kahane's son, Binyamin, and Kach, led by Rabbi Avraham Toledano, who later was replaced by Baruch Marzel. Four years after Kahane's assassination, the American-born Dr. Benjamin (Baruch) Goldstein walks into the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and opens fire on Muslim worshippers. Goldstein fires more than 100 rounds of bullets, killing 29 and injuring 125, before survivors beat him to death. Goldstein had belonged to the JDL in his youth in Brooklyn and is a devoted follower of Meir Kahane. His terror attack leads the Israeli government to outlaw Kach and Kahane Chai. So they are outlawed. End of story? First, the legacy of Goldstein's attack is still painful, even 25 years later. Second, even though Kach and Kahane Chai do not technically exist, there are parties that are their ideological descendants. Most relevant for us in 2019: Baruch Marzel, Michael Ben-Ari and other Kach followers created Jewish Power in 2013. OK, I'm with you now. Can you explain what went down with Jewish Power and Netanyahu? We've finally made it full circle. This month, Netanyahu brokered the Jewish Power-Jewish Home deal in an effort to ensure he has enough partners in the Knesset to form a ruling coalition. Knesset seats are handed out according to the percentage of the total vote, but parties must meet a minimum threshold. Individually, Jewish Power would not have crossed the threshold, but as a bloc with Jewish Home it could, ensuring Netanyahu another partner for a right-wing coalition. If the combined faction can get five seats, Michael Ben-Ari will make it into the Knesset, as he's fifth on the list. Netanyahu defends his overtures to the Jewish Power party as a standard political maneuver, likening it to left-wing parties partnering with non-Zionist Arab groups to form their own coalitions. But the backlash to the move is widespread, especially among American Jews, who think Kahane's legacy taints Israel's image abroad. Even the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which hesitates to interfere in Israel's internal politics, dittoes a statement by the similarly non-confrontational American Jewish Committee, saying "The views of Otzma Yehudit are reprehensible. They do not reflect the core values that are the very foundation of the State of Israel." So what does this all mean? Kahane's legacy is alive and well in Israel. Ive been called many things in my life, but never black. Until recently. I was visiting with a friend who is a black pastor in Chicago and at one point he burst out you must be half black. He meant it as a compliment, and I received it as such. Since then hes invited me to speak in his church as an Orthodox American-born Israeli Jew about black Jewish relations later this month, Black History month. I agreed immediately and enthusiastically. Its one of the most meaningful and important invitations Ive ever received. Unlike my children who were raised in Israel, growing up in the U.S. my identity is unavoidably linked to the legacy of Dr. King and the civil rights movement. Im proud of the fact that Dr. King himself recognized the unique Jewish participation in the civil rights movement. Probably more than any other ethnic group, the Jewish community has been sympathetic and has stood as an ally to the Negro in his struggle for justice. (March 25, 1968) Growing up I never had many close black friends, but inevitably I was friendly with black people from my diverse public high school and private university. This is not to use the cliche some of my best friends are black which, in fairness, was not so growing up. But is the case now. While I may not have had close black friends growing up, I also never participated in or understood discrimination based on ones skin color. Part of that is the same inability to understand or accept anti-Semitism. And from a Jewish perspective growing up in America, I understood the common orientation of both Jews who experienced slavery in biblical times and which remains a part of our consciousness, and African-Americans who were enslaved in much more recent times that remains a blight on American history and is a part of their consciousness. And I am well aware that still today, in America and around the world, Jews and blacks remain discriminated against. Though I grew up in America and spent my first 40 years there, I approach black Jewish relations from a unique Israeli perspective. I will never forget the conversation I had with my Polish born and very traditional grandmother about the fact that I would happily marry an Ethiopian Jewish woman. For her, this concept was simply foreign. Sadly, in Israel we have our share of racism as well. However, when I looked at the history of black Jewish relations from Israeli perspective, I am inspired by Israels dynamic relationships with black Africa. I hope it will inspire other Jews and blacks to look at this as a positive model for our shared future. This month, Israel repatriated the first of what is anticipated to be more than 1000 Ethiopians of Jewish descent. Hopefully this is the beginning of completing the rescue of an ancient black community of Jews, and their absorption at home in Israel. Personally, its no coincidence that the same week I attend a black church in Chicago, my daughter will participate in a humanitarian mission among the remainder of Ethiopia is Jewish community. The Ethiopian Jewish community was separated from the rest of the diaspora Jews thousands of years ago. They maintained ancient biblical traditions. Because they remained isolated they were not privy to the thousands of years of rabbinic Judaism, and even certain holidays celebrated by the vast majority of world Jewry. The remaining 9000 people who are awaiting their opportunity to come home to Israel are largely descendants of Ethiopian Jews who were forced to convert. But in a tribal society, they were never accepted fully as Christians, and were discriminated against widely as Jews. Because they are not Jewish according to Jewish law, the time its taken to prepare to help these remnants of an ancient Jewish community come to Israel has taken longer. In the meantime, unlike previous waves of immigration from Ethiopia, these people have moved from their tribal lands, living in temporary communities, essentially refugee camps. The difference is that in these communities they are taught Hebrew and rabbinic Jewish traditions as well as learning aspects of modern society so that when they arrive they are more prepared to be absorbed into Israeli society. But Ethiopia is a poor country, and these are the poor of the poor. Profound medical and nutritional needs exist as more than 50 percent of young children are malnourished. On a very personal level, the airlift of some 15,000 Ethiopian Jews in May 1991 had a profound impact on my life that I will speak about in Chicago. However, seeing the reunification of families of 82 descendants of Ethiopian Jews with their Israeli relatives this week has been heartwarming and inspiring. Its noteworthy that major funding for their arrival in Israel has come from the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. Since one of the areas in which Run for Zion is committed to make an impact on and bless Israel is through support of the ingathering of the exiles, and its hard to imagine a more remote or exiled community than that of the ancient Ethiopian Jewish community, we have undertaken to establish a special fund to aid with the immigration and absorption of as many of the remaining thousands that we can. It costs $1.50 a day, or $45 to feed one child an extra meal for an entire month. $9000 to feed hundreds for a whole month. It costs $1600 to prepare and transport one new Ethiopian immigrant to begin their lives in Israel. Please join us, individually or as part of your church or synagogue, to support these needs. We will gladly share with you details, and how your support makes a huge difference as part of Gods promise to return His people from the four corners of the earth to their homeland. For information please email jonathan@runforzion.com. When it comes to black-Jewish relations, this is one way that we can all make a difference together. For the first time ever in our community, two Jewish organizations are coming together to create a unified fundraiser to support both Central Florida Hillel and Jewish Academy of Orlando. The organizations will combine forces to host what will be the largest Casino Night and Lady Luck event in Orlando history. Central Florida Hillel and Jewish Academy of Orlando are both nonprofit organizations supporting students throughout our community This incredible night out on the town will take place at MLounge (2000 N Orange Ave, Orlando FL 32804) on April 4 at 6:30 p.m. The night will include a Poker Tournament, cocktails, food catered by Arthur's, casino games, shopping vendors, a silent auction and much more. The poker tournament grand prize, generously donated by Luxury Trips is a fabulous five-star, five-day trip to Spain, including luxury hotel stays, customized private tours, cooking classes for the discerning palate, and much more. An assortment of sought-after other prizes will be awarded to the additional nine other final poker tournament winners. Both CFH and the JAO know the importance of nurturing Jewish communities throughout the ages, from preschool to college, and beyond. Your support of this event will ensure that Orlando's Jewish community will thrive, from preschool to college, and beyond. Students that went to JAO are now active students at UCF and Rollins College, and others are already making their mark in our community as alum of both organizations. Orlando's Jewish future is a safe bet with you at our table. We hope you can join us in strengthening our Jewish community, and enjoy an incredible night out on the town. Tickets and sponsorships can be directly purchased at bit.ly/orlandocasinonight2019. Couple tickets are also available at a discounted price. Those who purchase their tickets prior to March 15 will be entered to win a $200 gift certificate to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Winter Park. For sponsorship opportunities, or for more information, please contact either Jennifer Waldholtz, Jennifer.Waldholtz@CentralFloridaHillel.org or Summer Simmons, ssimmons@myjao.org. NEW YORK (JTA)An American Orthodox Jewish group is defending Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus decision to work with a far-right political party. It is the first statement by a major American Jewish organization defending Netanyahus decision. Last week, Netanyahu orchestrated an agreement between the extremist Jewish Power and Jewish Home, a religious Zionist party. The merger will increase the united partys chances of gaining enough votes to enter Knesset, Israels parliament. An array of centrist and liberal American Jewish groups and religious movements has criticized the merger as giving legitimacy to a fringe, racist movement. But the National Council of Young Israel, a traditionalist Orthodox association of 175 synagogues that tends to take hawkish stances on Israeli issues, defended the prime ministers actions as a matter of political calculus. Young Israel also noted that the Israeli Supreme Court said in 2015 that a Jewish Power candidate should not be barred from running because of the partys platform. Prime Minister Netanyahu acted to get right-wing parties to merge in order to meet the threshold necessary to secure a victory in the election, read a statement Monday by Farley Weiss, president of the National Council of Young Israel, to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. We understand what Prime Minister Netanyahu did, and he did it to have ministers of the national religious and national union parties in his coalition. The statement stands in contrast to an alphabet soup of major Jewish groups that have condemned Jewish Powerfrom the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to the American Jewish Committee to the Anti-Defamation League. In a rare instance of criticism of a sitting prime minister, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, called the political deal very disturbing. He obviously has some political calculation that drove him to it, but politics cant dictate everything, Hoenlein told The Associated Press, referring to Netanyahu. You have to take into consideration all of the ramifications and all of the concerns. With Netanyahus intervention, Jewish Home agreed to include on its slate in Aprils elections Michael Ben-Ari and Itamar Ben-Gvir, self-professed followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, who advocated the expulsion of the Palestinians from territories controlled by Israel and a near theocratic state of the Jews. Netanyahu would need the support of successful right-wing parties in addition to his own Likud to form a government. The Young Israel statement likened Netanyahus decision to the 1993 vote on the so-called Oslo II accords, when a left-wing government relied on votes from Arab-Israeli political parties to secure passage of an Israeli-Palestinian agreement. That argument echoes one made Saturday by Netanyahu himself on Twitter. Such hypocrisy and double standards from the left, Netanyahu wrote. They condemn a bloc on the right with right wing parties while the left worked to bring extremist Islamists into Knesset to create a bloc... The height of absurdity. The Zionist Organization of America, a right-wing pro-Israel group, also called the condemnations of Netanyahu hypocritical. The ZOA statement did not discuss the actual positions of Jewish Power, except to say at one point that its critics were engaging in Nazi-name-calling against Jewish candidates. It is also mystifying that these Jewish-American groups condemned Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for encouraging small right-wing Israeli parties to merge, so that Israeli voters on the right are not disenfranchised, the ZOA statement reads, telling other American Jewish groups to direct their condemnation to those who oppose the State of Israel, and are truly racist and reprehensible, and a danger to the Jewish people and the Jewish State. The Young Israel statement also contrasts with statements condemning Jewish Power from the Reform and Conservative Jewish movements. In Israel, the Modern Orthodox leader Benny Lau condemned the merger, calling it a vote for the racism of Kahane, The Jerusalem Post reported. Also, 80 rabbis signed onto a statement by Torat Chayim, an international association of Modern Orthodox Zionist Rabbis, saying that bringing Jewish Power into the government is truly a lamentable failure by Netanyahu. JTA has reached out to the Orthodox Union and Rabbinical Council of America for comment on the issue. RCA responded that it doesnt comment on Israeli politics. Two Democratic Jewish groups, the Jewish Democratic Council of America and Democratic Majority for Israel, both spoke out against bringing Jewish Power into a potential coalition. The Republican Jewish Coalition said it has a longstanding policy of not commenting on internal Israeli politics. (JTA)The next Israeli government may include terrorists that are barred from entering the United States. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu crossed every moral line for political gain in Israeli politics last week when he brokered a merger of the religious nationalist Jewish Home party with Otzma Yehudit, the racist successor to the Kach and Kahane Chai parties, who advocated for the transfer of Arabs from Israel and the occupied territories. This completes the near total rehabilitation of Kahanists into mainstream Israeli politics, despite the fact that Otzmas leader, Michael Ben Ari, has been banned from entering the United States for nearly a decade because of his links to terrorism. I know this because I made the case for his ban. In 2009, I was a U.S. Foreign Service officer in Tel Aviv fulfilling a tour in consular services. One of my duties was serving on the Visas Viper committee, an interagency working group at the embassy that evaluated individual cases in the country for potential threats to U.S. citizens. The committee consisted of field officers from the major intelligence agencies, including the State and Defense departments, CIA and FBI. With a majority of agency field officers in support at post, the committee generated requests to State Department headquarters. In concert with the other major agencies, Washington would respond with a security advisory opiniona sort of no-fly list for visas. As the representative of the consular section, it was my role to draw up the lists and supporting evidence for each case. The Viper committee would then discuss and adjudicate a ban based on the evidence provided. It was incumbent on the committee to make a strong case, as approval from D.C. was not automatic. Our meetings focused largely on lists of Palestinians affiliated with Hamas or Islamic Jihad drawn either from the public record or documentation provided by our Israeli counterparts. The resulting bans often were well justifiedbut in some cases we had our doubts. On one occasion, we were unable to honor a scholarship to a student in Gaza because of his loose affiliation with a Hamas youth group. In the 2009 Israeli elections, Ben Ari was seated as a member of Knesset on the Jewish Union list, despite his well-established connections to the late Rabbi Meir Kahane and his Kach party, which was banned in Israel for its racist anti-Arab agenda. It was important to me that if the Viper committee was able to judge the minor indiscretions of a Palestinian teenager, we could certainly consider the case of a prominent Jewish public figure who was publicly advocating racist Kahanist policies. The case was pretty straightforward and supported by everyone on the committee, which I would generally describe as strongly pro-Israel. Ben Ari joined the Kach movement in 1979. Kach and Kahane Chai were both designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government in 1997, the same year as Hamas and Hezbollah. Ben Ari has never disavowed Kach and openly considers himself a disciple and devotee of Kahane. Based on this evidence alone, the embassys request for a visa ban was granted. We also explored a separate request for Baruch Marzel, another Kach enthusiast running in the election, but a ban was not possible because he was born an American citizen. Ben Ari himself may be known for his bookish demeanor, but his fellow travelers in the Jewish underground planned a series of assassinations against Palestinian mayors and a school in eastern Jerusalem. They were behind an attempt to blow up the Al-Aqsa mosque in the Old City. Most notoriously, in 1994, Kach enthusiast Baruch Goldstein killed 29 worshippers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. The entire movement was outlawed in Israel after it expressed support for the terrorist attack. During his time in the Knesset, Ben Ari was detained by police for defending radical settlers; he incited race riots against African immigrants in South Tel Aviv; and he called for massacres of Palestinians during Israeli military operations in Gaza. I took a small measure of personal satisfaction when Ben Ari was banned entry to the United States in 2012. At the time, Ben Ari marveled that Irans president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was granted entry (for the United Nations) while he was not. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin protested on his behalf, writing in a formal letter to the U.S. ambassador: As a public official in Israel, a close ally of the U.S., he cannot be recognized as a member of a terror group or be prohibited from visiting the U.S. By Rivlins logic, Ben Ari is no longer a terrorist simply by virtue of being elected to the Knesset. With Netanyahus assistance, he may now go one step further by becoming part of the ruling coalition. Sadly, this says more about the radical right-wing transformation of Israels government than it does about Ben Ari. He has been nothing if not consistent. It is disheartening that as Netanyahu embraces the likes of Viktor Orban of Hungary and Rodrigo Duterte of the Phillipines, Israeli leaders increasingly adopt their authoritarian and ethno-nationalist approaches. Ben Ari is right when he says that he does not need to represent Kahane in the Knesset anymore; his anti-Arab views now have many followers in mainstream political parties. In recent days, leading Israeli politicians and generals, led by Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, have come together to form the Blue and White party with the intention of defeating Netanyahus far-right coalition. Netanyahu has characterized this effort as a new left-wing government, weak, led by Lapid and Gantz, with a blocking majority of Arab parties. With their hawkish credentials under attack, mainstream political leaders have again avoided direct repudiation of Ben Ari and other Kahanists. American institutions, including AIPAC and the American Jewish Commitee, have spoken out against Otzma Yehudit, but have said nothing of Netanyahus courtship of their support. In a close vote Rivlin, who defended Ben Ari against my visa ban, will be in a position to decide which party is allowed to form a government and whether that coalition will include Jewish terrorists. The United States has abandoned many of its own norms and legal precedents in recent years, and it is unlikely that this administration would admonish our ally for inviting extreme racists into their government. Nevertheless, the Kahane movement remains a terrorist organization under both Israeli and American law and should be treated as such. No one affiliated with Kahane belongs in the Knesset or on American soil. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media. (JNS)Like most victims of Palestinian Arab terrorism, Avraham Bromberg would have been completely forgotten if not for the persistence of the murderers many admirers and financial sponsors. Bromberg was just 20 years old when he was murdered. The same age as my daughter, Alisa, when she was murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists in 1995. Avraham was hitchhiking. In those days, all young Israelis hitchhiked. Nobody thought of it as a potentially lethal activity. A car with Israeli license plates stopped to give him a ride. The driver and his front-seat passenger were Israeli Arabs. Avraham might have noticed that they were Arabs. But so what? After all, most Israeli Arabs arent terrorists. But these two were. Karim Younes and his cousin, Maher Younes, kidnapped Avraham Bromberg, shot him in the head and threw him into a roadside ditch. Several days later, he died from his wounds. The Younes cousins were caught, convicted and sentenced to life in prison. That would have been the end of the story, as far as the Jewish public is concerned. Some older Israelis might still remember his name. But the number of American Jews who remember Avraham Bromberg can be counted on one hand. And the number of American Jewish or Zionist organizations that have mentioned Brombergs name in one of their fire-and-brimstone press releases is zero. So, Avraham Bromberg would be gone and utterly forgotten if not, ironically, for the Palestinian Authority. Yes, the P.A. regime that is bound by the Oslo Accords to reject terrorism, to disarm and extradite terrorists, to shut them down and outlaw them and imprison thembut instead honors them, praises them and finances them. The Jews may have forgotten Avraham Bromberg. But the Palestinians have not forgotten his murderers. Palestinian Media Watch reports that last week, a ceremony honoring Karim Younes was held at the Palestinian Ministry of Education. Thats right, at the Ministry of Education. Not in some private residence. Not out in the forest. But front and center in the very seat of the Palestinian government. And who led the ceremony? Not some clerk or secretary or fringe figure, but rather, the Minister of Education himself, Sabri Saidam. As Karim Youness mother smiled approvingly, the minister called the gathering a gesture of loyalty to prisoner Younes and his family. Saidam added that he was conveying the greetings of the Palestinian leadership and the Fatah Central Committee members to the Younes family. Fatah is chaired by P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas, by the way. The ceremony was held at something called the Martyr Yasser Arafat Auditorium. And Saidam presented the mother of the murderer with a plaque featuring a photo of Arafat. I suppose it was fitting that an event honoring a murderer should be so closely tied to the memory of one of the most notorious mass murderers of the 20th century. Minister Saidam hailed the murderer Younes as one of the symbols who have defended the national enterprise. The ceremony was featured prominently in the official P.A. daily newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida. A few days earlier, a P.A. university awarded Karim Younes an honorary certificate, and a program broadcast on the P.A.s official television station showed posters glorifying him and presented fawning interviews with the killers family members. And last year, Abbas appointed the imprisoned Karim Younes to serve on the Fatah Central Committee. Not that the other killer, Maher Younes, has been neglected. Not at all! Last year, the P.A. named a plaza after him in the city of Tulkarm. At the naming ceremonycomplete with a live band and a march by Palestinian Boy Scoutsthe murderers mother cut the inaugural ribbon, and P.A. official Isam Abu Bakr declared: We are proud of this great man, this fighter, this leader. How has all this despicable glorification of murderers kept Avraham Brombergs name from being forgotten? Simple. Every Israeli or foreign news media report about the P.A. honoring the Younes cousins has mentioned the name of their victim. And so, in a bitter and ironic twist, American Jewish and Zionist leaders may have forgotten Avraham Bromberg, but the actions of his murderers and their cheerleaders have forced his name back into the newsand back into our too-short memories. Stephen M. Flatow, an attorney in New Jersey, is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995. His book, A Fathers Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terror, has just been published. Dear Editor: I am a proud and ardent Zionist and have dedicated much of my adult life to serving these ideals and advancing these goals because I believe that ultimately this will better serve ALL of Israels citizenry, as well as support better relations between Israel and her neighbors. The recent decision by Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu to embrace the racist Otzma Yehudit party along with National Union and the Jewish Home Party is as reprehensible as it is condemnable. If they succeed, this will bring into the Knesset, the inheritors of a racist ideology that was outlawed in Israel and condemned by a growing number of important Jewish organizations in Israel and the U.S. including no less than the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. This kind of thinking has no place in civil society and embracing it in order to win an election is neither an acceptable excuse nor a goal that will serve the democratic and Jewish ideals that are the TRUE underpinnings of the Jewish nationality enterprise. These individuals must be vocally opposed at every corner and if Bibi still insists on partnering with these so called religious parties (imposters more accurately), and if the Israeli Election Commission permits them to run, then they and the PM must likewise be opposed vociferously and actively for the sake of Am Israel. Racism, hatred, homophobia and support for intimidation activities against Palestinians are NOT Jewish ideals and while they are being advanced by men who look religious on the outside, their dark hearts and sick and twisted ideologies are in direct contrast with the same Torah they claim to represent. They and their supporters like the PM himself must be stopped by the only means available to a civil society... the ballot box. Aaron Weil Executive Director & CEO Central Florida Hillel Aeromexico to Relaunch Monterrey - Vallarta Flights Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Aeromexico will begin direct flight service from Monterrey to the Banderas Bay region on June 17th, arriving and departing from Puerto Vallarta's Lic. Gustavo Diaz Ordaz International Airport, the gateway to the Riviera Nayarit. The flight will have a frequency of three days a week and will be available through August 18, 2019. The planes can carry 76 passengers per flight, representing over 2,000 seats for the summer season. According to Juan Carlos Benavides Araiza, district manager for Aeromexico in Colima, Manzanillo, Tepic, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta-Riviera Nayarit, the route was originally launched in the summer of 2018 with excellent results. The aircraft is an Embraer Jet EMB-170 and will have the following itinerary: MTY-PVR | Departure: 18:39 | Arrival: 17:00 (Monday and Sunday) PVR-MTY | Departure: 19:14 | Arrival: 20:42 (Monday and Sunday) MTY-PVR | Departure: 08:30 | Arrival: 10:09 (Friday) PVR-MTY | Departure: 10:44 | Arrival: 12:12 (Friday) Marc Murphy, managing director of the Riviera Nayarit Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) and the Bahia de Banderas Hotel and Motel Association, commented that the fact Aeromexico has decided to reopen the Monterrey route for the second year in a row points to the trust placed in the region, added of course to the fact the flight was profitable for the airline as this is a very accessible destination with options for everyone. "We're very pleased with the news because these are tourists who can come and stay for a week, perhaps, two - and especially considering Nuevo Leon is the fifth state of origin for visitors to the Riviera Nayarit," he added. MORE INFO: Over the past few years, the Riviera Nayarit has become a very attractive destination for citizens of northern Mexico who are looking for a place to relax, enjoy the beach or even invest in a beach house, particularly in the Punta de Mita area. The state of Nuevo Leon is currently among the top five states of origin for tourists to the Riviera Nayarit with a total of 5%, behind Mexico City, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, and Jalisco (the latter is the number one state of origin for visitors with 34% of the total.) On Feb. 21, 2019, in collaboration with Space X, NASA, and tracking facilities of other nations, an Israeli spacecraft, carrying scientific instruments to add to our knowledge of lunar science, was successfully launched into earth orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This spacecraft, named in Hebrew, Beresheet, meaning Genesis, is special. When, not if, it succeeds to soft-land on the moon in April, Israel will be in the company of the United States, Russia and China as the only nations on earth to accomplish this magnificent engineering feat. Pretty good company I would say, given the small size and population of little Israel when compared to the other three nations. Making this flight even more spectacular is the fact that this will be the first privately designed, financed and built spacecraft ever to have landed on the moon. The joy, enthusiasm, and sense of pride in Israel and in Jewish communities throughout the world at the successful launch was astounding. Once again, Israel has demonstrated that it is a country not to be shunned, but to be emulated if the people around the world are truly serious in advancing human progress, embracing technology, and moving toward a more peaceful globe. I have taken particular interest in this civilian Israeli project since its inception. It was more than 50 years ago that I, as a young physicist working for the Boeing company at the Kennedy Space Center on the Apollo-Saturn Lunar Program, participated in the very first manned launch to the moon in December 1968. NASA actually asked me to tape an interview in Hebrew with Kol (Voice of) Israel, the Israeli radio station covering the launch, among more than 1,000 members of the news media from around the world. It brought back memories of the excitement generated by the thousands of on-lookers who came from around the world to witness that launch and the launch six months later that actually landed our astronauts on the moon, in what I believe was the singular greatest scientific and engineering achievement of the 20th century. The flight path of Genesis to its final lunar destination chosen by its developers minimizes fuel consumption and maximizes use of the respective gravitational fields of the earth and moon in order to keep payload weight down, making it one of the most efficient and cost effective spacecraft ever designed. There is an interesting aspect to this flight that gives it a uniquely Jewish characteristic. To accomplish this minimal energy path to the moon, Genesis will circle the earth several times in a Hora-like dance of increasingly larger orbits, finally extending out to approximately 250,000 miles from earth, reaching its farthest point from earth or apogee at a precise point in space where it will be captured by the moons gravitation. The tiny spacecraft will then be pulled into another Hora-like orbital dance, but this time into progressively tighter orbits and close enough to the moon to permit retrorockets to slow its dance and softly land it on the moons dance floor. While there will be no one on the moons surface to greet the Israeli spacecraft with song and dance, be assured the words of the traditional celebratory songsang at weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, and other Jewish simchasSimon tov and mazel tov will ring out in Israel and in Jewish communities throughout the world. We can only hope that most of the world will recognize this worthy accomplishment and scientific contribution of the Jewish state, as well as all its other accomplishments and contributions to the world, and give it the recognition and respect it so richly deserves. In you wish to comment or respond you can reach me at melpearlman322@gmail.com. Please do so in a rational, thoughtful, respectful and civil manner. Mel Pearlman holds B.S. & M.S. degrees in physics as well as a J.D. degree and initially came to Florida in 1966 to work on the Gemini and Apollo space programs. He has practiced law in Central Florida since 1972. He has served as president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando; was a charter board member, first Vice President and pro-bono legal counsel of the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Central Florida, as well as holding many other community leadership positions. While the United Nations Interim Front in Lebanon has emphasized Israels protection from Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, newfound evidence has demonstrated otherwise. UNIFIL is an international peacekeeping effort created to initiate Israels withdrawal from Lebanon in 1978, but has evolved to promote stability within the Lebanese and Israeli governments. However, Hezbollah, an internationally recognized terrorist organization, has evidently resisted the porous authority of UNIFlL, due to their active construction of elaborate tunnels under the Israeli border. Hezbollah, a Lebanese-based terrorist organization, is heavily backed by Iran financially and militarily. While the establishment has made recent strides in obtaining seats in the Lebanese parliament, it is not an accurate reflection of the government. The organizations violent, Shiite militant attitude not only seeks to terrorize Israel, but the United States and much of the Western world, as well. Overwhelmingly, Hezbollahs military continues to increase in influence over Beirut and continues to act as its own separate entity rather than a representation of the Lebanese people who are greatly affected by the organizations destruction. While the idea of constructing tunnels under Israels border may seem harmless, the threat of such actions are a massive threat to Israels national security and welfare for Israelis. The border separating Israel and Lebanon, also known as the Blue Line, has shown to have several tunnels claimed by Hezbollah, which is an immediate violation of UNIFIL regulations and border sovereignty. UNIFILs annual budget of $500 million does not appear to alleviate the long-standing conflict within the Israeli-Lebanese border. The threat of these terror tunnels to Israeli society was previously disregarded by the majority of the international community, but further examination and presentation of evidence by the Israeli Defense Forces reveals the true intentions of Hezbollahs operation. Israeli politicians have noted that Hezbollahs territorial intrusion into Northern Israels border is a blatant violation of the United Nation Security Resolution 1701, which entails border sovereignty and protection against intrusion. Notably, Hezbollah has also shown to smuggle weapons and other mechanisms of terror through these tunnels with the sole purpose of threatening Israeli society. To international dismay, the United Nations allegedly just became aware of this issue, despite it continuing for years. Within these years of continuation, the Israeli military can only accomplish so much for national defense, despite UNIFILs promises to work with Israel to protect their sovereignty. These tunnels are primarily used as entryways into Israeli territory in order to orchestrate inconspicuous civilian attacks through Hezbollah. On Dec. 4, 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Operation Northern Shield, a military initiative to identify and destroy Hezbollah tunnels constructed under the border. Operation Northern Shield was completed Jan. 13, 2019. This initiative was Israels most recent response to the Lebanese government and Hezbollahs violations of Israels sovereignty, and given the international communitys newborn awareness of the tunnel dilemma, Israel will have to continue gathering evidence to sway the UNs stance in their favor due to institutional bias. Although the IDF has recently discovered nearly four tunnels within the Northern Israeli border in just the month of December, the tunnel tactic is certainly not exclusive to Hezbollah. Similar operations are conducted by Hamas within the Gaza Strip. The UNRWA, a refugee agency for Palestinians, discovered a Hamas attack tunnel underneath two Palestinian elementary schools in mid-2017, which was immediately relayed to the IDF. Coincidentally, these elementary schools are UNRWA-funded. Israels military comeback is to install explosives within the burrow in order to rid the tunnel of any intruders or harmful devices that may make its way into Israel. Unsurprisingly, Israel has taken the construction of such tunnels extremely seriously, given its imminent threat to the Israeli people living just next to the Northern and Southern borders. Evidently, the United Nations has not taken these threats as seriously, which is no surprise given their reactions to past events with Lebanon and UNIFIL. One of the IDFs many responses to the tunnel epidemic is the installation of military robots near these tunnels that not only film inside the tunnel, but also emits an explosive in order to deter enemy intrusions. Such measures lessen military casualties, in conjunction with providing ample evidence to international organizations to educate the community on the severity of this situation. Despite UNIFILs pledge to reduce belligerency between Beirut and Jerusalem, the interim front has done little to protect Israels borders from Hezbollahs tunnel intrusion. Until recently, this issue has been largely ignored by not only UNIFIL, but much of the developed world. A major reason for such recent awareness is Netanyahus announcement of Operation Northern Shield, which is the official military initiative against these terror tunnels. Overall, Israel has consistently prioritized the safety and security of Israel as well as maintained open communication with the international community to allow others to gain awareness on this dilemma. As evidence shows, if the actions of Hezbollahs tunnel construction and UNIFILs inability to deter such actions continues, the relationship between the United Nations and Israel will not improve. The UN should comply with the resolutions made with UNIFIL and be cognizant of relations between Israel and Lebanon and maintain their promise of keeping the peace. However, the future to the end of such animosity is bleak due to the United Nations institutional bias towards the State of Israel. If the UN fails to acknowledge their institutional bias and work with Israel, then relations will fail to improve. Emily Aspinwall is the vice president of UCFs Knights for Israel and the campus CAMERA fellow for the 2018-2019 school year. Pasitos de Luz Kids will be Surfing with Nixon March 14 Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - The first ever Surfing With Nixon event in Mexico will be held on Beach #1 in Nuevo Vallarta, behind Hotel Villa Varadero, on Thursday, March 14th from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. Surfing With Nixon (surfingwithnixon.org) is a successful US-based registered charity that gives children with disabilities, particularly those on the autism spectrum, the chance to experience surfing. Water therapy has been proven to provide lasting benefits to children with special needs, with surf therapy being particularly effective. You will see this first hand! Pasitos de Luz has been chosen as the local partner for the event, with 40-50 children supported by our charity due to attend. They will be taught by professionals from top local surf schools, including Sayulita Surf Co. and Bucerias Surf. We would appreciate your support of this event. If it is successful, the plan is to make it an annual event, inviting more children and major sponsors including Quiksilver and Hurley. Why Indian Govt do not take such type of action against those who insult Hindu Dharma ? Editor, Hindujagruti Malaysia : A Malaysian was sentenced to more than 10 years jail and three others were charged over insults against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad on social media, police said on Saturday (Mar 9). The sentence is believed to be the harshest such penalty on record in the Muslim-majority country, where concerns over racial and religious tensions have grown in recent months. Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun said in a statement the person, who was not identified, had plead guilty to 10 charges of misusing communication networks. The offence carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail or a fine of up to RM50,000 (US$12,228) or both. The sentence was meted out consecutively, Mohamad Fuzi said. Another social media user had also plead guilty and a sentencing hearing would be held on Monday. Two others had plead not guilty and were being held without bail. All four were charged under laws against causing racial disharmony, incitement, and misusing communications networks. The police advise the public not to abuse social media or communication networks by uploading or sharing any form of provocation that can affect religious or racial sensitivities, causing racial tensions within this countrys diverse community, Mohamad Fuzi said. On Thursday, minister in charge of religious affairs Mujahid Yusof Rawa said the Islamic Affairs Department had set up a unit to monitor writings and communications insulting Islam and Muhammad. He said the ministry would not compromise on any acts insulting the religion and called for punishments against those found guilty of such. Source : Channel News Asia On March 4, the Pakistan government launched a crackdown against banned terror organisations such as Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). It issued an order to streamline a process for the implementation of sanctions against individuals and entities of all banned outfits as designated by the UN Security Council. In other words, the Pakistan government took over the control of all proscribed outfits operating in the country. This action, however, was not surprising. India has seen such crackdowns before. In fact, it was far more dramatic against the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) after the Mumbai serial attacks in 2008. But that crackdown has not produced anything concrete: The Mumbai attack trial is heading nowhere; the accused are moving around freely in Pakistan, and organising more attacks against India. The net result of the latest crackdown will not be any different. It is, however, significant that Pakistans foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, in two separate interviews to CNN and BBC on March 1, acknowledged the presence of a very unwell Masood Azhar in Pakistan, but claimed that the JeM leadership was denying its involvement in the February 14 Pulwama attack. Without naming the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Qureshi revealed that his claim was based on the information given by those (ISI) known to them (JeM leaders). This comment confirms what India has been claiming for years: there is a strong linkage between the ISI and the Pakistan-based terror groups. So has Pakistan finally realised that it can no more hide serpents, which are meant to bite India, in its backyard from the world? Or is it a tactical position adopted by Pakistan to let the crisis blow over and in the meantime improve its precarious economy that needs a bailout? The terror groups can then be reinvigorated to continue Pakistans regional proxy wars in India, Afghanistan and now in Iran also. Like his predecessors, Pakistans Prime Minister Imran Khan has also inherited the institutionalised policy of use of non-State actors by the Pakistan army and the ISI for its regional ambitions. But now his neck is on the chopping block, thanks to aggressive Indian posturing and international scrutiny. Any concession to India, even symbolically, would not go down well with the Pakistan army and the ISI. He will have to do a delicate balancing act. It is a difficult contradiction to manage. Coming out of the crisis unscathed is almost impossible. Khan also knows that he heads a government that has a thin majority and can be toppled any time by the military establishment. So what are the options available to Khan as he faces mounting international cry to put Azhar Masood on UN sanctions list and take action against JeM? First, deny the involvement of the JeM leadership in Pulwama attack by saying that Masood is unwell and could not have organised the attack. This is laughable. Masood doesnt have to even move out of his room to organise an attack; his well-oiled terror infrastructure is functioning smoothly in Pakistan under the overall control of the ISI. Second, assuage Indian anger by assuring action on any specifics given by New Delhi. The promise rings hollow given the fate of hundreds of Indian dossiers given to Pakistan about the countrys involvement in terrorism, beginning with the militancy in Punjab. None of the Pakistani leaders took action against those causing mayhem in India. Former Pakistans foreign decretary Salman Bashir had the audacity to say that the evidence handed over to him on the Mumbai attack mastermind, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, were pieces of literature. Third, start with a clean slate. It is difficult to accept the contention of Khan and Qureshi that their government has come with a new mindset and approach on the issue of terrorism. That would only mean that India should forget previous attacks committed by Pakistans non-State actors and make a fresh beginning with the Khan government. This would not be acceptable to the Government of India and the citizens. Will Khan apply the same logic domestically and not pursue those who were responsible for the attack on school children in Peshawar in December 2014 just because he was not in power that time? Pakistan should realise that any crackdown against JeM is in its own interest as the group has strong links with Sunni sectarian organisations that target prominent Shias. Pakistan should listen to former President Pervez Musharraf, who only recently accepted on TV that Masood Azhar had tried to kill him and he had no sympathy for the latter. The onus is now on Khan to prove that he is ready to move forward in developing peaceful relations with India. Let him make a beginning by handing over at least those Indian terrorists who are being protected by the ISI in Pakistan. No more evidence or dossier is required in the case of Dawood Ibrahim, whose house in Clifton has become a tourist landmark in Karachi. Avinash Mohananey is a former Intelligence Bureau officer, who served in J&K and Pakistan The views expressed are personal Actor Tanishaa Mukerji, sister of actor Kajol, has claimed in a report that she faced racist attack in New York earlier this week. The actor was in the US to attend the CRY America charity gala and later visited a restaurant with her friends when a man made insensitive remarks. I dont understand what triggered it as I was polite, but he turned rude. One of the employees, an African-American, said that we looked as if we were fresh off the boat and couldnt speak English. That was insulting and blatantly racist. My friends and I were shocked. Its traumatic to experience this kind of racism in the US; I have never faced it earlier, she told Mid-Day. She said she approached the hotel authorities but no help was forthcoming. I told them to call the cops, but they refused to do so, she said. Tanishaa was seen in Ramgopal Varmas Sarkar and was also a part of an earlier season of Bigg Boss. She was last season as a contestant on reality show Khatron Ke Khiladi two years ago. Varun Dhawan, who has been forthright about his relationship with girlfriend Natasha Dalal in public, has now shown us the close relationship she enjoys with his family too. In an adorable post, he has claimed that his parents have given up on him and adopted Natasha. While Varun is currently in London shooting for Street Dancer with Shraddha Kapoor, Natasha was seen posing with Varun Dhawans parents, David and Lalli Dhawan, at Akash Ambani and Shloka Mehtas wedding. Sharing the picture, Varun wrote on an Intsagram story, my parents gave up on me and adopted another. Talking about Natasha, Varun recently said on an episode of Koffee With Karan, Thats why Im with her because she has her own individuality, she has her own voice which is super strong with things she wants to do and things she wants to achieve in life. And, as her partner, that is something I want to support, you know. And, she has been so supportive where my career is concerned, always, from day one actually. Because I have known her, we were in school together. We were just friends, we werent dating then. But since day one she has been supportive of my dreams and it has to be the same. It has to be equal from my side. From my side, I have to be supportive of her dreams also, or what she wants to achieve, or what she likes. Eventually, I think as a couple you want to evolve together, he added.. Also read: Kalank first posters: Varun Dhawan is the fearless Zafar, Sanjay Dutts the head of the family Varun was last seen alongside Anushka Sharma in Sui Dhaaga and is now gearing up for the release of Karan Johars ambitious period drama Kalank that also stars Alia Bhatt, Madhuri Dixit, Sanjay Dutt and Aditya Roy Kapur. . Follow @htshowbiz for more Shares of Jet Airways Ltd rose as much as 4.8 percent to 255 rupees, the highest in over a month, after a report said the debt-laden carrier has secured a loan of 20.50 billion rupees ($293.07 million) from Punjab National Bank. The airline has raised foreign currency term loans worth 11 billion rupees and a non-fund based credit facility of 9.50 billion rupees from Punjab National Bank (PNB), according to copies of loan documents reviewed by Mint. Jet and PNB did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The loan documents mention that Jet will use the credit facility for its working capital needs, but the money would be mainly used to pay rental dues to aircraft lessors and salary arrears, Mint reported, citing a source familiar with the matter. Jet said last week another three aircraft had been grounded due to its failure to make payments, taking the total number to 28, but it has not specified the lessors involved. The airline has an option to sell down as much as 2.50 billion rupees of the term loan to other investors, Mint added. It was the summer of 2002. Memories of the attack on Parliament were fading, but the wounds caused by it were still raw. The armed forces of both Pakistan and India faced each other on the front. In those days, the sight of the convoys of soldiers approaching the northern border raised questions and doubts would there be a war? Would it escalate into a nuclear conflict? I still remember the day when uncertainty loomed large in one of the army encampments near Jammu. In the bombing that night, one of our farmers and his daughter were killed. Across the border too, innocent , helpless people were being killed. It was the time when Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was running the government, had seriously contemplated a full-scale war, but that did not happen. At that time, the people who were close to those in power had given two reasons for this. The first was the United States pressure. Washington at that time badly needed the Islamabad-Rawalpindi combine. The 9/11 catastrophe had taken place a few months before. After this, America had launched an attack on Afghanistan. The Pentagon wanted Pakistan to not only provide access to its roads to American squads but also extend every possible help to them. Pakistans argument was that its army is mostly deployed on its border with India. So, America should not expect much assistance from Pakistan. This is the reason why the US was pressuring India to remove its army from the borders. During the Kargil conflict, the US had worked as a mediator and Vajpayee had not forgotten it. Hence, he had agreed. But, those associated with internal security and intelligence agencies at that time say that our armys morale was high, but the equipment and weaponry were not up to scratch. Therefore, Vajpayee thought it better to oblige the US. Its a different matter altogether that the army sources have always condemned and criticised this argument. Whatever be the reality, the war was put off and it was also decided that India will follow the old practice and tactics to fight terrorism in the coming years. The next prime minister, Manmohan Singh, also decided to follow the same path for a decade, but Narendra Modi has changed this doctrine. Even if we set aside the political debate which has been going on in both the countries after the aerial surgical strike, one thing is certain that this move by Modi has actually institutionalised this line of resistance even for the next government, irrespective of who heads it. In future, if India is attacked by terrorists, then New Delhis rulers would be expected to take similar action. At present, India has been engulfed in the heated debate over what we gained from this attack. The way Pakistans prime minister Imran Khan released wing commander Abhinandan Varthaman after the aerial conflict, banned Jamaat-ud Dawa and Jaish-e-Mohammed, detained Masood Azhars son and brother, and even gave indications that he would confiscate the properties of these organisations, holds out hope. Not only this, by expelling the culture minister of Punjab province, Fayyaz ul Hassan Chohan, for his anti-Hindu remarks, the Pakistani prime minister has tried to send a message to the world that Pakistan is now changing. Concluding on the basis of these baby steps that Pakistan is changing would be hasty. Experience shows that Pakistan changes its strategy from time to time to save the terrorists who have been nurtured there. After the Western forces arrived in Afghanistan, Pakistan transferred some of the terrorist camps from that country to Pakistan occupied Kashmir and other border areas of India. It was done to avoid embarrassment on international platforms and make these camps accessible to the misguided Indian youths. There is also a fear that conspiring army officials may have attached some of these terrorists camps to their cantonments. Pakistan had taken Osama bin Laden out of the Tora Bora mountains and given him shelter near the Abbottabad cantonment. Right now Azhar is reportedly undergoing medical treatment in an army hospital in Pakistan. His son and brother have also been put under house arrest under the supervision of army. Is this an effort to save them? Its clear that we will have to keep a tight vigil over steps taken by Pakistan. The midnights children Salman Rushdie wrote about have been born together but their relationship is not one based on trust. It is a tragedy that more than 1.5 billion people living on both sides of the border have inherited this crown of thorns. Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan The views expressed are personal Even as a blaze spread quickly in his car, Upendra Mishra drove it to the side of the flyover before exiting and saving his daughter, said eyewitnesses. Stopping the burning car in the middle of the busy Akshardham flyover could have soon turned into a death trap for other vehicles. The cars rear portion had caught fire, said Babloo Kumar, who works at a tent house close to the accident site. In the time, he slowly moved towards the footpath to stop the car. More than half of it had been engulfed in the fire. The man jumped out and pulled out his daughter who was sitting next to him in the front. Other commuters passing by tried to unlock or break open the rear door but failed. We feared that the car may explode and maintained a safe distance. Fire officials said the rear doors may have been locked. Mishra tried repeatedly to break open the rear doors of his car to save his family. People held him back else he too would have died in the fire. He was crying loud and was screaming for help. However, the heat was so much that none of us could even stand close to the vehicle, said Karan Sarkar, another witness to the incident. An official at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital, where the bodies were taken for autopsy, said, The bodies were charred beyond recognition, they were burnt right through. An auto driver who had also stopped by to help the family, said the traffic cops had reached the spot in time and cleared the traffic. One carriage way on the flyover had to be blocked. The traffic was disrupted. Meanwhile senior police officers also arrived at the spot along with fire tenders and ambulance. The firemen doused the fire.Police cordoned off the area and we were asked to keep away from the spot. Police called a crane which move the gutted vehicle away and traffic was restored, said Prashant Kashyap, the auto rickshaw driver from Anand Vihar. Police said Mishra owned the car and used to drive it for the online used car selling company. They said since he had planned a family outing on Sunday, he didnt take the car to work and took the day off to spend with family. Deputy commissioner of police (east) Jasmeet Singh said that Mishra, a driver by profession, is in a state of shock. We will ask him sequence of event to find out reason of fire in the car later, Singh said. When 21-year-old Dhruvika joined seven other women on a walk to explore public spaces at night last month, she was inured to the reaction the group received. Cars still slowed down, men still jeered, and passersby were too close for comfort, as eight women carried on with the five-kilometre-walk around south-east Delhis Lajpat Nagar. This happens whenever we are out on walks with our friends or are heading back home after watching a late-night movie, Dhruvika said. The group, Women Walk at Midnight, has been conducting these walks for the past year to see, hear and feel our city at a time when most of us do not dare to be out. Last year on December 16, the group organised a walk on the Saket-Munirka bus route taken by the 2012 Delhi gang-rape victim. While the discourse around womens safety has grown over the years, womens rights activists say little has changed on the ground since that fateful December evening. Why cant the city have well-lit streets? Thats the most basic requirement for ensuring safety of all citizens at night, especially women, who prefer to walk to their homes, said Ranjana Kumari, director of Centre for Social Research and womens rights activist. A safety audit of Delhis roads done by the NGO Safetipin, which is also a womens safety app, too said the lighting (on streets) has the maximum impact on the perception of safety. While a large number of women use the citys public transport, last-mile connectivity is often an issue. Women HT spoke to said that though commute using the Metro is relatively safer, traversing the distance between a Metro station and home after dark is a worry. So, a large number of women prefer to take an auto-rickshaw or taxi to cover the short distance. Vikaspuri resident Soumya Mathew, who is a Gender Studies student in Jamia Millia Islamia, admitted that though she likes walking, she prefers to take an auto at night while coming back from the nearest Metro station. The Metro station is 1.5km away from my house and there is a 750-800 metre-long stretch where theres no light, a garbage dump and a huge park where men sit and drink. So, I prefer to take an auto, she said. However, not everyone has easy access to safer conveyance options for short distances. For women employed in the informal sector, walking is not a choice but a compulsion, as they cant afford public transport, said Shruti Batra, manager of research and policy at Jagori a group that is working on a project on womens safety in Bawana industrial area, which employs many female workers. A majority of women prefer to walk in groups when they come to work or go back home because they dont feel safe walking alone, Batra said. The situation is the same in several parts of the city where women or school girls prefer to travel in groups. The fear of harassment in public spaces forces them to move in groups. While there is a need to change the mindset, there is also a need to have more eyes on the streets, Batra said. While well-paved, encroachment-free pavements are essential for pedestrians, government agencies should also guarantee safety, especially of women, elderly and children, in the plan for better last-mile connectivity. In 2018, a coalition of womens groups also submitted recommendations to the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs on building safer cities for women. It is crucial to design public spaces with adequate signage, cycle paths, walkways, with helpline numbers clearly displayed and the availability of visible police assistance, that are also people with disabilities-friendly, and that women and transpersons can access easily, read one the recommendations. Women activists say that to make city spaces safer for women there is a need for a comprehensive planning to ensure good physical infrastructure, reorganise informal sectors to ensure more eyes on the streets, build streets for all and not just vehicles. We lack comprehensive thinking when it comes to issue of womens safety. Government agencies should consult experts before planning for infrastructure and taking measures for womens safety, Kumari said. The United Nation Womens global flagship initiative Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces, in which New Delhi is a participating city, was launched in 2010 and stresses on identifying and preventing sexual violence against women in public spaces. Nishtha Satyam, Deputy Representative, UN Women Office for India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka, said: It is crucial to note that one in three women are likely to face violence in their lifetimes, and therefore public services, urban planning and transport systems should be planned with womens safety and mobility in mind. However, women are rarely consulted and are left vulnerable to travelling in unsafe public spaces. Building smart in the 21st century means adopting a gender-responsive approach. (with inputs from Risha Chitlangia) SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Each general election is important. It determines who will govern the State, exercise executive power, shape the legislative agenda and, through all of it, have an impact on the lives of all citizens. But some elections are perhaps more critical than others. With the Election Commission announcing dates for the 17th Lok Sabha elections, this is perhaps one of them. And that is not because of the nature of the contestants in the fray, but because of the position India finds itself in. The country is at the cusp of multiple transitions and the next regime will have the challenging task of navigating us through it. And that is why it is time for both parties and voters to step back and recognise what is at stake. India is in the middle of an economic transition. While the contribution of agriculture to the GDP has steadily declined, the number of people engaged in agriculture remains disproportionately high. The contribution of services to GDP is steadily increasing, but the number of people it absorbs is not enough, given the scale of the Indian work force. And manufacturing has remained a weak point. So the first big task for the next government will be managing this transition better: improving agricultural incomes; smoothening the transition out of it; creating jobs in manufacturing; continuing to sustain the services momentum; and all through improving the social safety net through welfare for the poorest citizens. India is in the middle of a geographical transition. People are rapidly moving out of rural to urban areas, with a range of smaller towns proliferating. Our cities and towns lack the infrastructure to cope with this shift. India is confronting a geopolitical transition. The old international order is crumbling, with the retreat of the US; a new order is coming to life, with the rise of China, but its contours are not clear. This presents both an opportunity and a threat. India is also in the middle of a democratic transition. Older institutions confront a crisis of credibility and legitimacy but the solution lies in strengthening, not replacing them. The balance between efficiency and accountability is a work in progress. There are similarly other transitions in the realm of energy, social values, technology and media that will have a wide-ranging impact on the way State is governed. Arithmetic, alliances, campaign blitz of leaders, issues of identity and political polemics will capture the headlines in the next 60 days. It is time to ask Indias political parties what they have in mind to steer the country through the big transitions. This should be the barometer for judging who governs the country for the next five years. And that is why it is important that parties pledge to keep the nature of the conversation informed and civil. All contestants must pledge to avoid hate speech, inflame passions, and instead tell citizens their road map for a better India. Elections are an opportunity to find the answers to big questions, educate the public as well as seek their legitimacy for policy. We call on all stakeholders to raise the bar and strive to make the 2019 election one which does this. Xem them ... Tin bai cuoi cung Khong con du lieu e load Even as international pressure has forced Pakistan into taking some action, only if symbolic, against terrorist organisations flourishing on its soil, the reaction that would have hurt it the most came from China. By taking a neutral position between India and Pakistan after the terrorist attack in Pulwama and the airstrikes in Balakot, China has revealed the true value it places on Pakistan. During his media briefing on Friday, Chinas foreign minister and state councillor, Wang Yi, reiterated the need for preventing escalation and solving the matter through dialogue. It is true that China, unlike other countries, has not asked Pakistan to take stern action against terrorists, but Islamabad would have hoped for greater rhetorical support from its old friend during this crisis. It is not that China has not supported Pakistan at all. It did try its best to ensure that the United Nations Security Council statement on the Pulwama attack did not mention Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). However, with the US and France standing firmly behind India, China had to accede. As this newspaper has said earlier, Chinas support for Pakistan is perfectly rational. If the cost of supporting Pakistan is greater than the transient gains, China does not hesitate in taking a stance that would hurt its iron brother. At the moment, China realises that the gains made in the informal summit in Wuhan between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping are still in their infancy. Any overt support for Pakistan after Pulwama could hurt those precarious gains. Wang credited the Wuhan summit and said, it created a new model of high level interactions between our two countries, deepened trust between our leaders but [also] set the direction for our future relations. Pakistan also made an effort to get China involved as a mediator between itself and India. Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi even announced that China would be sending a special envoy to both New Delhi and Islamabad for the purpose. Chinese vice foreign minister Kong Xuanyou did indeed visit Islamabad but not New Delhi. It is not known whether India refused this mediation offer or if the Chinese were too sensible to make the offer in the first place. The big story from the current crisis is not the number of terrorists dead in the Balakot airstrikes, but the international isolation of Pakistan. Chinas neutrality only strengthens that story. The Election Commissions (EC) decision to not hold the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir is a mistake. To be sure, the ECs claim that security considerations did not permit simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections has to be carefully considered. It is indeed true that there has been an alarming rise in violence in the Valley in particular. It is also true that terrorists, aided and abetted by Pakistan, would have been at the forefront of derailing the poll process, threatening candidates and voters, and pushing for a boycott. All of these are real and not imaginary issues that have to be navigated. Yet, it is also true that while there is a strong security component to the crisis in Jammu and Kashmir which requires a tough approach with Pakistan and being prepared in the Valley itself there is also a strong political component. And it is here that the central government has a lot to answer for. The fact is that each time the democratic process in Kashmir has got stalled, aborted or undermined, alienation and radicalisation have only grown. It happened in 1987, when widespread suspicion that the polls were rigged led to many mainstream political actors turning to militancy. In the early 90s, with no democratically legitimate government in office, militancy and violence only grew. On the other hand, difficult as it was, the 1996 election restored a popularly elected government. In subsequent elections, voter turnouts increased, the legitimacy of elections began to be internationally recognised, citizens began to express faith in non-violent political forces through the ballot box. This was accompanied by the steady erosion in the credibility of both Pakistan and terrorist groups. If the situation in Kashmir improved to some extent, it was because of this twin process. In the last four years however, the reverse has happened. The spirit of the last elections got undermined when an absolutely unnatural coalition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took office. The insensitive handling of the situation after Burhan Wanis killing only aggravated the sense of alienation in the Valley. With the BJP pulling out of the government last year, the state has been under Governors Rule. And mainstream regional actors both the PDP and National Conference as well as the local units of national parties have no way to channel political grievances on the ground in a democratic setting. In this backdrop, holding elections would have provided a channel for popular aspirations; restored faith in the democratic process; undermined separatists and Pakistan. The EC must remedy its error and hold polls in the state as soon as possible. Students in Lucknow seemed very happy while coming out after writing the ICSE geography examination of Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE). The paper was easy and scoring, most of the students said on Monday. Shipra Mishra, a student of St Teresas College, Aashiana said that question paper was according to the syllabus. The paper had direct questions with no twist and confusion. I am expecting good marks, said Shipra. Ayushi Jaiswal, another student said the paper was easy but lengthy. I was able to complete the paper on time. But there was no time left for revision, said Ayushi Jaiswal. Namit Singh Varun, another student of St Teresas College said the map was easy but the toposheet was tricky. Kritika Yadav said that Section A was very easy. It was the best paper till now. Two more students, Ekta Singh and Shabnam Khan said before the exam they were apprehensive but as soon as they saw the paper, their fear disappeared. Their geography teacher at St Teresas College, Aashiana, Kumkum Sharma said ICSE Examination 2019, geography paper was easy and scoring and students were satisfied and confident after the examination. When I saw the paper I was sure students will be able to solve the question paper easily. It covered the whole syllabus and if the students had studied thoroughly the questions were easy, she said. It did require some thorough knowledge for scoring full marks. The paper was more or less what the students had expected. Most of the questions were similar to what we had practice during revision, the teacher said. Students at Hoerner College said that paper was easy and there was no ambiguity. The toposheet was based on basic concept and the map of India was easier too. Mohd Nawaz and Apoorva Gupta, both Class 10 student of the school said that question paper was on expected lines and there was nothing out of syllabus. The students of City Montessori Inter College, Aliganj, Lucknow, were very happy and content after taking their ICSE geography examination. According to Anoushka Gupta, Vaibhav Awasthi and Nipun Sharma the paper was very easy. Toposheet and map proved to be a major percentage booster in the question paper since it covered almost all the topics the children had studied. Akshat Bajpai, Mallik Hammad and Divyansh Verma, said although the paper was easy to comprehend but the reasoning part was very tricky. Every question had sub-parts which made the paper very lengthy, they said. The teachers, Seema Hitkari, Poonam Saxena and Suchitra Mishra, were also satisfied with the performance of their students after reviewing the question paper. They said that the map and toposheet was 100% scoring. The questions were based on the same structural pattern as their internal examinations and were set with in the scope of the syllabus prescribed. The teachers are confident that all the students will pass with flying colors. Principal, Jyoti Kashyap was also very pleased to see the cheerful faces of the children and was overjoyed at the well accomplished task of the children and the teachers. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Special Centre for Disaster Research, JNU, New Delhi in collaboration with NITI Aayog, NDMA, NIDM, ICSSR, Skymet Weather and Springer Nature is organising a three day Global Symposium on Artificial Intelligence in Governance and Disaster Management at Convention Centre, JNU from March 11-13, 2019. The symposium reflects on intensive preparedness required to address the problem of recurrent disasters, which have grown in frequency as well as their uncertain destructive ability. It is now beyond human capacity to assure safety and protection from the wide range and varieties of disasters. The use of AI, Machine Learning and Robots can help tremendously in disaster preparedness and community resilience building, which would lead to greater safety of public life and institutions. AI in a preliminary understanding speeds up mapping, geographical and human vulnerabilities and can send directives and instructions to the relevant offices to take preemptive action. Most disasters and even the best of Early Warning Systems do not give adequate timely warnings for preemptive action. The use of AI would address delays, unwillingness, lack of accountability, fuzzy coordination and biased or deficit of understandings of decision makers. The symposium is a brainchild of Special Centre for Disaster Research, after a six year long intensive research of many disasters across the country. This involved the senior faculty as well as the young researchers. The Symposium is being coordinated by Prof TV Vijay Kumar, JNU and Dr Keshav Sud, Amazon Robotics. During the inauguration, the brochure with the list of participating experts and the thematic journey of the Centre was released by Prof VK Saraswat, Prof M Jagadesh Kumar, Lt Gen NC Marwah and Dr Braj Bihari Kumar. Prof Robin Murphy, the leading woman scholar who has intensively worked on Disaster Robotics, delivered the key note address through Video Conferencing from the University of Texas, USA. During the occasion, the Global Handbook on Disaster Research signed with Springer from Singapore was also declared. Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Naseem Geelani, the son of Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Gilani, on Monday skipped a summons by the National Investigation Agency citing security reasons, their lawyer said. On Saturday, the two were issued the summons to appear before the NIA at its Delhi headquarters in connection with a 2017 terror funding case. The notice in question appears to have been issued on the basis of fallacious assumptions and misinformation solely aimed at maligning the Mirwaiz-i-Kashmir (Farooq), knowing his status and position, it appears to be outcome of considerations other than law. My client is not acquainted with the subject matter of FIR/NIA Crime no RC 10/2017/NIA/Dli, referred in the notice, Farooqs counsel Ajaz Ahmad Dhar said. It is on record that in 2004 and 2005 Mirwaiz and his colleagues from the Hurriyat engaged in a dialogue initiated by the then Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee and continued by his successor Manmohan Singh. The government of India facilitated the travel of Mirwaiz and his colleagues to Pakistan to pave the path for peaceful resolution of issue, Dhar said. The lawyer also said that under the prevailing condition of hostility wherein there is a threat to the personal safety of my client it becomes unwise for my client to travel to Delhi. If the NIA wants to examine my client they can do so in Srinagar. He is willing to cooperate as he has nothing to hide. An NIA official said, on February 26, the agency had carried out searches at seven locations, including the residences of separatist leaders Farooq, Geelani, Yaseen Malik, Shabir Shah, Ashraf Sehrai and Zaffar Bhat in connection with the case. The official claimed the agency had recovered incriminating documents, including property papers. The National Heralds publisher, Associated Journals Limited (AJL), on Monday moved the Supreme Court against a Delhi high court order that upheld the Centres directive to the newspaper to vacate its premises in the national capital. AJL has alleged the directive was part of a political witch-hunt due to the governments pathological hatred for Nehruvian ideals and to scuttle the dissenting voices to create a majoritarian state. The countrys first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, founded the National Herald newspaper in 1938. The AJL said the mala fide intent behind the eviction order was writ large even by a bare perusal of the tweets by the members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, uploaded before the eviction order was communicated to AJL in October 2018. The eviction proceedings constitute a malicious step in the larger design of defaming and effacing the legacy of Pandit Nehru, said the AJLs plea. The eviction proceedings have been initiated for the purposes of scuttling the voice of democratic dissent of the Congress, AJL said. The Delhi high court on February 28 dismissed AJLs plea against the eviction orders. The AJL was directed to vacate the premises over alleged violation of a lease agreement. Attacking the Congress following the high courts decision on December 21 to reject Congresss plea challenging the eviction, BJP said the matter was a textbook case of corruption. In the Narendra Modi government, the Congress will not be allowed to loot the country, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said. Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Sunday visited an airborne brigade in Agra and asked troops to stay prepared to decisively deal with emerging challenges, an army spokesperson said. Rawats comments are significant against the backdrop of escalating military tensions between India and Pakistan following the February 26 bombing of a Jaish-e-Mohammed terror base in Balakot by the Indian Air Force. The cross-border aerial strikes by India were in retaliation for the suicide car bombing of a Central Reserve Police Force convoy in Pulwama in which 40 men were killed on February 14. The army said Rawat reviewed the operational readiness of the para brigade and complimented the men for their highest standards of training, operational readiness, morale and exemplary synergy with the IAF. The army spokesperson said during the 1971 war, the actions of the brigade accelerated the momentum of military operations leading to the surrender of Pakistani forces in Dacca (Dhaka). On March 7, the IAF said it was in a high state of preparedness to foil any aggressive move by Pakistan. On February 28, India warned Pakistan that it was prepared to respond swiftly and strongly to any misadventure. A bride in Dumri Chapiya village in Bihar called-off her wedding after the groom allegedly turned up in an inebriated state for the marriage. The bride, Rinki Kumari was to marry Bablu Kumar on Saturday. Tribhuvan Shah, brides father said, The groom was so drunk that he was unaware of his surroundings. He misbehaved on the stage, so my daughter refused to marry him. As per a relative, the groom was unable to stand properly as he was heavily drunk. Also, he could not perform the rituals correctly, as a result, she left the wedding and went away. Both the families tried to convince Kumari for the marriage but she did not agree. The villagers apparently did not let the groom leave the venue until the time he returned all the dowry he had taken. (This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.) An effort to seek judicial intervention against the triple talaq ordinance fell flat on Monday when the Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain petitions against a fresh ordinance or executive order. We cant do much if the bill isnt passed in the Rajya Sabha and the (Lower) House is now dissolved, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said. The top judges decision came on a bundle of petitions against the ordinance that makes instant triple talaq a criminal offence. The ordinance, which had lapsed twice earlier, was issued for the third time last month because an amended version of the bill was stuck in the Rajya Sabha where the government does not have a majority. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018, provides for three-year imprisonment and fine for any Muslim man, who abandons his wife through instance divorce. The Opposition wanted a joint select panel to review the bill against instant divorce but did not get its way either. The Centre did amend the original version of the ordinance last year. It said the changes had been made keeping in mind feedback and suggestions received from the public and experts. For one, it decided that only the affected woman or her blood relative could file a police complaint against the husband. The earlier bill allowed anyone to lodge a complaint. The amended legislation also made the offence compoundable by a magistrate after hearing the wife. Second, the offence will be compoundable, meaning a compromise can be reached at the instance of the wife. Third, a magistrate can grant bail only after hearing the wife. The punishment for the crime is up to three years in jail. To ban instant triple talaq, the Modi government had brought the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017, in the Lok Sabha on December 28, 2017, where it had been passed by a voice vote. Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has asked the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to question him in Srinagar instead of Delhi as he fears for his security in view of prevailing condition of hostility. The NIA on Saturday summoned Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Syed Naseem Geelani, son of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, to Delhi on Monday for questioning in connection with a terror funding case. Mirwaizs counsel Ajaz Ahmad Dhar in a letter to the NIA cited various reasons including security concerns for the Hurriyat Conference leader not appearing at the New Delhi office of the agency. The notice in question appears to have been issued on the basis of fallacious assumptions and misinformation solely aimed at maligning the Mirwaiz i- Kashmir, knowing his status and position, it appears to be outcome of considerations other than law. My client is not acquainted with the subject matter of FIR/NIA Crime no RC 10/2017/NIA/Dli, referred in the notice, said the counsel in the letter. The counsel said that under the prevailing condition of hostility wherein there is a threat to the personal safety of my client it becomes unwise for my client to travel to Delhi. If the NIA wants to examine my client they can do so in Srinagar. He is willing to cooperate as he has nothing to hide. Also read: NIA turns heat on Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, summons him to Delhi for questioning On February 26, the NIA carried out searches at seven locations, including the residences of Farooq, Geelani, JKLF leader Yaseen Malik, Shabir Shah, Ashraf Sehrai and Zaffar Bhat in connection with the same case. An NIA spokesperson said officials seized incriminating documents, including property papers, financial transactions receipts and bank account details during the raids. Electronic devices, including laptops, e-tablets, mobile phones, pen drives, communication system and DVRs, were also seized, he added. On Thursday, Malik was slapped with Public Safety Act and was shifted to a Jammu jail. The developments come in the backdrop of the governments decision to withdraw the security cover of senior separatist leaders after the Pulwama suicide attack on a CRPF convoy killed 40 troopers on February 14. Indias aviation regulator is yet to take a call on grounding all B737-800 MAX aircraft following the second accident involving the new Boeing jets in six months. But the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has said the minimum experience level of crew operating such planes as Pilot in Command (PIC) should be 1000 hours and co-pilot 500 hours on Boeing 737 NG aircraft type, which is an older version. Soon after an Ethiopian Airlines jet crashed killed all 157 on board on Sunday, Chinese, Indonesian and Ethiopian airlines decided to ground the aircraft. Jet Airways has five of these aircraft on its fleet and SpiceJet 12. According to Jet airways, all its 737-800 MAX aircraft are grounded as the airline negotiates a financial crunch. Jet Airways has five B737 MAX in its fleet but is currently not flying any of these aircraft. The airline is in contact with the manufacturer and the regulator in context of this development, and remains committed to implementing all directives or advisories that may be published by those authorized, said a spokesperson for Jet airways. SpiceJet did not comment on the matter. Read more| China grounds entire domestic fleet of Boeing 737 Max Jets after Ethiopian Airlines crash In a directive issued on Monday evening, DGCA said, The engineering and maintenance team has been asked to check autopilot system. And Stall Management and Yaw damper system for any stored maintenance messages and carry out necessary corrective action prior to release of aircraft for line operation. Directed officials of DGCA to undertake safety assessment of Boeing 737-MAX (being flown by domestic carriers, civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu tweeted. Safety of passengers is our utmost concern. Directed Secretary and DGCA to take appropriate action immediately. The junior minister of aviation, Jayant Sinha echoed that on Twitter. DGCA is undertaking a detailed technical evaluation and consulting with safety regulators around the world. safety is our paramount consideration. During the review on Monday, DGCA analysed all reported snags/ defects of significant nature along with rectification action(s) taken on these aircraft. Compliance of an earlier advisory issued by DGCA post Lion Air accident on 3.12.2018 was also reviewed. During the review, it was observed that the Daily Defect and Daily Incident reports contained defects of routine nature and no significant concern were observed, the spokesperson said. The B737 is popular with several airlines around the world and the new 800 MAX variant was widely touted for its fuel efficiency. In October, a B737-800 MAX operated by Indonesias Lion Air plunged into the sea 15-minutes after take-off, killing all 189 people on board. The Ethiopian Airlines jet too crashed soon after take-off. Investigators are yet to determine the cause of Sundays crash. Boeing, in a statement, said its technical team will be travelling to the crash site to provide technical assistance under the direction of the Ethiopia Accident Investigation Bureau and U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. Soon after the Lion Air crash, DGCA directed Indian airlines to land B737-800 MAX aircraft at the nearest airport if maneuvering characteristics augmentation system (MCAS) of the plane develops any snag. MCAS is a utility that prevents the aircraft rising at too steep an angle (and stalling), and offsets this by getting it to dip. Since it is a new utility, no one is really aware of how it works, said a senior DGCA official who asked not to be identified. The official also referred to the Angle of Attack (AOA) issue which caused the Lion air crash. AOA is simply the angle between the wind and the aircraft. Beyond a certain AoA, the aircraft stalls. MCAS is designed to prevent this stall by automatically kicking in and causing the angle to reduce. The issue is also compounded by the new aircrafts aerodynamics, which are different from the old ones because its engines are a little higher according to experts. In India, there is a further complication, said an expert. Indian operators have not opted for AOA display in the cockpit to save costs. This should be mandatory as it affects the safety of passengers. Monitoring by DGCA doesnt solve the issue as none of the pilots in India area trained to deal with the situation. Now the situation is you dont know which aircraft is next, as 737-800 MAX is turning out to be a dangerous plane, said Captain Mohan Ranganathan, an aviation safety expert. HT couldnt independently ascertain whether the new jets of Jet and SpiceJet do not have this display. An AOA sensor keeps track of the angle at which wind is passing over the wings and tells pilots how much lift a plane is getting, information which can be critical in preventing the aircraft from stalling and diving. Keralas Chief Electoral Officer on Monday warned political parties that invoking the Sabarimala temple during campaigning would be considered as the violation of election code of conduct which came into force on after the Election Commission announced the general election on Sunday. Using Sabarimala issue for poll campaigning is the violation of the code. Specific directions will be issued to political parties after a meeting with them. Campaign in the name of God or religion will not be entertained, he said. All digital contents posted by political parties or candidates will also fall under the purview of the code of conduct, CEO Teeka Ram Meena said while addressing the media. After Supreme Court verdict last September allowing women of all ages to worship at the hill temple the state had witnessed a series of agitations. Trouble started when the Left Front government decided to implement the apex court order. Traditionally, women in the 10-50 age group were barred in the temple as the presiding deity Lord Ayyappa is considered to be naistika bramachari (eternal celibate). The temple cant used to instigate religious feelings. It should not be given a religious dimension. We will keep a strict tab on such activities, said Meena. He said the issue cant be exploited blatantly to garner votes. Also read: Keralas religious diversity in danger, says former Mizoram governor Kummanam Rajasekharan Meenas warning to political parties drew a sharp reaction from the BJP. The Election Commission cant dictate what political parties should raise during the campaigning. The inept handling of the Sabarimala is a major issue and we will raise it strongly, said state general secretary K Surendran. The ruling CPI(M) has welcomed the CEOs directive. The emotional issue has stirred political firmament of the state and both BJP and Congress blamed the state government saying its affidavit in the Supreme Court had resulted in the verdict. The Electoral Officers caution assumes significance after the BJP and Congress made it clear Sabarimala will be one of the poll issues. Protests by devotees and right wing supporters opposing the entry of women into the temple roiled Kerala for almost five months after the Supreme Court verdict. Flex boards banned In another development on Monday, the Kerala High Court has banned flex boards and directed political parties to use only environment-friendly materials for the campaigning. The court said the local self-government department will be held responsible if flex boards and hoardings were found. The court also observed that political parties and film entities were main culprits. The high courts order came after a Thiruvananthapuram-based activist K Shyamkumar moved the court saying though there were many restrictions these were flouted much impunity. Since the Lok Sabha election is around teh corner, flex boards and hoardings will flood roads, busy intersections and markets, he pointed out in his plea. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said India cannot continue suffering terrorism forever and that his government has taken some strong decisions against it. For many decades, the country and numerous families have suffered the wounds and pain given by terrorism, Naxalism, and insurgency. What happened in Pulwama and Uri was heartbreaking. We cannot bear this pain till eternity. Enough is enough, Modi said at a function to celebrate 50 years of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF)s foundation. India carried out an air strike on a terror camp in Pakistan on February 26 in retaliation to the February 14 car bomb attack that left 40 Central Reserve Police Force men dead in Jammu and Kashmirs Pulwama district. Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed responsibility for the attack. Someone, sometime has to take a big decision [against such terror acts]... it is my privilege that with the support of the crores of people of this country, we took some strong decisions, Modi said. He said the government has adopted a new policy to act against terrorism and that it was its responsibility to live up to the expectations of the families of the security personnel killed in the line of duty. Our government is purchasing all modern gadgets required by our security forces to tackle such challenges, Modi said. Modi said that various conspiracies being hatched within the country were getting encouragement from across the border in Pakistan. He lauded the CISF and said the role of the force has become more significant in terms of combating terrorism. Modi referred to the VIP culture and said it poses a hindrance to the extraordinary work the CISF, which is responsible for the security of 61 airports across the country, has been carrying out. I also have a security cover... It is easy to protect one person rather than protecting an institution where lakhs of different people arrive and have different behaviour. This becomes more difficult than protecting a VIP. You are serving the country and biggest hindrance is people like me... and colleagues who think themselves as big VIPs. Their tempers run high when a jawan asks for security check as part of his duty. A rare opportunity for India and China to cooperate in a high-profile space mission fell through after the two countries disagreed on the nature of the Indian payload to be carried on the Change-4 lunar mission, it has emerged. Chinas Change-4 lunar exploration mission was the first one to land on the far side of the moon the side thats not visible from earth on January 3. Since landing, the mission has sent back stunning first-time images from the moons surface. It has been carrying out a series of scientific research tasks involving multiple countries and organisations. Chinas lunar exploration chief Wu Weiren called the mission a huge stride for China. It could have been a breakthrough stride for Sino-India cooperation in space both countries have successful space programs as well had Change-4 carried the Indian payload. The top space agencies the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) confirmed the information but did not share details why the cooperation failed to take off. In April 2015, Xu Dazhe, the incumbent administrator of CNSA wrote a letter to the heads of the worlds major space agencies, invited them to participate in the piggy-back cooperation of Chang e-4 mission, which received positive responses from more than a dozen national space agencies, the Chinese agency told HT over email. China also received applications from India for the piggy-back cooperation. However, due to the different nature of the missions of the two sides, the Indian payload on Chang e-4 could not be carried through (after) the evaluation, the agency said. The payload in this context could have been a satellite or space probe equipment. No, we will not be able to comment on that Yes, we will not comment on that, an ISRO spokesperson said. Several countries including Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Russia have cooperated in the ongoing mission. India and China formally established the Sino-Indian Joint Committee on Space Cooperation in 2015. In the same year, the first meeting of the joint committee was held in Beijing, and the outline of Sino-Indian space cooperation was signed. The outline includes 19 projects in seven areas: Remote sensing satellites, space-based meteorology, space science and lunar and deep space exploration, education and training, piggy-back launch services, satellite navigation, and space components, CNSA said. The MoUs signed have provided a platform (for the two countries) to work but there is nothing as of now; all at dialogue stage. There are international forums where they are there and we are there but nothing (bilateral), ISROs spokesperson said. Last year, the then Indian ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale visited CNSA twice in half a year and exchanged views with Zhang Kejian, the CNSA head, on promoting Sino-Indian space cooperation. The two sides reviewed the course of Sino-Indian space cooperation in recent years, agreed to further promote the process of Sino-Indian space cooperation with an active and open attitude of cooperation, and agreed to convene the second meeting of the Sino-Indian Space Joint Committee in 2019, CNSA said. The Chinese space agency said it is open to cooperating with India. CNSA is open to international cooperation in lunar and deep space exploration and international cooperation for a series of deep space exploration activities, such as Chang e 6 sampling return, the Mars exploration, and asteroid exploration, Jupiter galaxy, and planetary crossing exploration, it said. We are willing to work hand in hand with space agencies, space institutions, and foreign space exploration enthusiasts to explore the mysteries of the universe. India and the United States on Monday renewed their call to Pakistan to take concerted action to dismantle terror infrastructure in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack. The two countries also called for holding accountable all those who support and abet terrorism in any form, according to a readout of a meeting between visiting Indian foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale and US secretary of state Michael R Pompeo. The two officials also discussed bilateral trade, an issue that hit headlines last week with the Trump administration announcing its intention to end a zero-tariff preferential system for over $5 billion worth of imports from India over market access for US goods. Gokhale underscored the significant reduction in US trade deficit with India and a willingness to remain engaged with the US to for a meaningful and mutually acceptable package on trade issues. Also read: UN ban on Masood Azhar could figure in India, US foreign secretaries talks This was the first high-level in-person contact between India and the United States, following intense engagements over phone, after the Pulwama terrorist attack that killed 40 CRPF personnel on February. And, significantly, it took place just two days ahead of a crucial UN Security Council decision on Wednesday to designate, or not, Masood Azhar, founder of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad, which has claimed responsibility for the attack. The United States is one of the three joint movers of the designation proposal, with the United Kingdom and France. This is the fourth attempt to sanction Azhar. China, which blocked the three previous moves, holds the key, and has appeared non-committal. It could not be immediately ascertained if Gokhale and Pompeo discussed the upcoming UNSC decision. Secretary Pompeo expressed his understanding of Indias concerns regarding cross -border terrorism, said the Indian embassy in a readout of the meeting. They agreed that Pakistan needs to take concerted action to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure and to deny safe haven to all terrorist groups in its territory. They also agreed that those who support or abet terrorism in any form should be held accountable. Both India and the United States want Pakistan to go beyond the present, and episodic, crackdown on terrorists it harbors and uses as a foreign policy tool and take demonstrably credible and verifiable action. Also read: Need responsible solution, says China on terrorist tag for Jaish-e-Mohammeds Masood Azhar The foreign secretary also conveyed Indias appreciation to the US and the secretary personally for the firm support that India received from the US in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack. The United States was the only major power to back Indias right to self-defence and the airstrike on a Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist camp in Balakot calling it counter-terrorism actions. It joined the UK and France, then, to press the UN Security Council to pass a path-breaking statement condemning the Pulwama attack, despite stiff resistance from China, on behalf of Pakistan. And the three countries, and Afghanistan, joined India to oppose an appeal by Hafiz Saeed, founder and head of Lashkar-e-Toiba that carried out the Mumbai attacks in 2008, to be removed from the UNSC list of designated terrorists. An ombudsman for the world body rejected Saeeds petition on Wednesday. The foreign secretary will meet his US counterparts Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson later during his visit. These are regular high-level dialogue mechanisms to review bilateral relations, exchange views on major foreign policy and security-related developments and coordinate respective positions on issues of common interest, a spokesperson for the ministry of external affairs said in a statement issued in New Delhi earlier. Gokhale is also likely to meet with senior leaders in the US administration and US Congress. Amid heightened tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad, a reciprocal visit by the Indian team to Pakistan for inspection of projects in Indus river basin this month has been postponed, senior officials said Sunday. During the 115th meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission held in Lahore from August 29-30, 2018, both the commissioners had agreed to undertake the treaty-mandated tours of the Indus basin on both sides, the official said. The tour of the Pakistani side was originally scheduled in October 2018 but was postponed because of local bodies elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Subsequently, the Pakistani team visited India in the last week of January to inspect projects in the Chenab basin in the state. Pakistani Indus Commissioner Syed Mohammad Mehar Ali Shah and Indian Commissioner PK Saxena along with respective advisers visited the under-construction Indian hydropower projects in Chenab basin namely Pakal Dul (1000 MW), Ratle (850 MW) and Lower Kalnai (48 MW). The delegation also visited the under-operation Baglihar hydro electric project (900 MW). The Pakistani commissioner extended an invitation to his counterpart to undertake a visit of the Indus basin on Pakistani side. The Indian team was supposed to visit Pakistan this month, a senior official said. But amid the ongoing tension it has now been postponed, the official added. The official remained non-committal about the date, but said the visit has to take place by March 2020. Under Article VIII of the treaty, both commissioners are mandated to undertake, once every five years, a general tour of inspection of the rivers for ascertaining the facts connected with various developments and works on both sides. The current five-year block ends in March, 2020. The PCIW, formed under the Indus Waters Treaty, was signed between India and Pakistan in 1960, and it includes Indus commissioners of both countries. The treaty provides for both the commissioners to meet at least once every year, alternately in India and Pakistan. 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. Aviation regulator DGCA will seek information from Boeing as well as Jet Airways and SpiceJet operating Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in the wake of plane crash in Ethiopia, according to senior official. As many as 157 passengers, including Indians, were killed when a Boeing 737 MAX plane operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed soon after taking off from Addis Ababa. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) would seek information from plane maker Boeing and Indian carriers operating Boeing 737 MAX planes in India, according to the official. Jet Airways and SpiceJet fly Boeing 737 MAX planes. A 26-year-old Kenyan woman was allegedly raped by a 31-year-old man who claimed to be a tourist guide whom she met in the pilgrim town of Rishkesh, the Uttarakhand Police said Monday. The woman was assaulted by the accused Hemant Thapliyal on March 8 but she registered a case on Sunday night after which police nabbed him within six hours, said a police officer. The victim had come to Rishikesh from Kenya on March 7 to attend a religious event of a seer in the town. On March 8, while she was roaming in the town, she met the accused, a local, identified as one Hemant Thapliyal, who described himself as a tourist guide. He then offered her to take her to visit popular places in the town on his two-wheeler. She went with him to a popular tourist spot named Neer Guddu Waterfalls in the evening where Thapliyal raped her, said station house officer, Muni Ki Reti police station, Ramkishor Saklani. The woman was assaulted once more. The victim somehow came to the nearby road, but accused dragged her to the nearby bushes and raped her again. She then somehow escaped from there and reached her hotel. Finally on Sunday, she registered a case against him following which police initiated an investigation and nabbed him within six hours, Saklani said. The accused was presented before the court on Monday which sent him to jail while the victim was taken to a hospital for medical examinations. One of the main plotters of the February 14 terror attack on a paramilitary convoy in South Kashmirs Pulwama was killed in a security operation late on Sunday night, officials announced on Monday, saying forces had wiped out at least 14 members of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) over the last three weeks. The army crackdown on the terror group follows an air force operation on February 26 in which Indian combat aircraft bombed a site in Balakot, in Pakistans Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, known to be a militant training centre. The strikes triggered a sharp escalation in tensions with Pakistan which attempted an air operation in retaliation and brought back into focus Islamabads inaction in curbing terrorist groups operating on its soil. Sunday nights operation led to the deaths of Mudasir Ahmed Khan, who is believed to have headed the JeM unit active in Pulwama, and another militant identified as Khalid. In last 21 days we have been getting after the Jaish. We have eliminated 18 terrorists so far, of them 14 being from Jaish. Six of them were main commanders, said Lt Gen Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon, identifying Khan as the second main conspirator in the attack on the Central Reserve Police Force convoy last month in which 40 troopers had died. The other main conspirator was identified as Kamran, who was eliminated on February 18th, Dhillon added. Dhillon was flanked by Inspector General of Police Kashmir, SP Pani and IG CRPF, Zulfiquar Hassan. On Monday, three weapons were recovered from the spot in Pinglish village where the encounter took place and search operations were underway. In the three weeks since the attack, 18 terrorists have been killed, the army officer said on Monday. Eight are Pakistanis while the rest were locals, including one each from Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen, added Lt Gen Dhillon, the corps commander. He said security forces had been focussing on eliminating the Jaish leadership since the convoy bombing. We have been very successful in doing such in three weeks time. The operations against the foreign terrorists and Jaish will continue till we eliminate them, he said, adding that the main focus was to ensure the Jaish did not carry out more Pulwama-style attacks. We lay focus on Jaish but other militant outfits are also right on our radar. IG Kashmir Pani said Khan was wanted for several terror crimes. He was active for one year and was basically trying to recruit youngsters, he said. Khan, 22, was an electrician with a graduate degree and police said that he had arranged the vehicle used for the attack last month. The police has identified the youth who purchased the Maruti Eeco used in the attack as Sajjad, who joined Jaish after National Investigation Agency pieced together the origin of the car and his links to it. Jaish operative Adil Ahmad Dar allegedly detonated his car bomb alongside a bus carrying 40 CRPF troopers on a busy highway last month, reducing both vehicles to a heap of twisted metal. The attack, the deadliest strike on security personnel in Kashmir, triggered calls for retaliation against Pakistan, where Jaish founder Masood Azhar is known to be living. South Kashmirs Pulwama district is considered one of the hotbeds for the insurgency. Soon after the Pulwama attack and Kamrans killing on February 18, the corps commander had said that the outfits leadership in the Valley had been wiped out. I am happy to inform the country that in less than 100 hours (from Thursdays attack), we eliminated the JeM leadership, mostly Pakistanis, in the Valley which was being handled by JeM from Pakistan, Dhillon had said. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Monday scotched any hopes of a tie-up with the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi for the Lok Sabha elections as he urged booth level workers to win all seven seats in the capital. Congress has to win all the 7 seats in Delhi. The booth level workers have to ensure it, he said. The grand old party had drawn a blank in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Delhi with the BJP sweeping all seven seats. Earlier Monday, AAP leader Gopal Rai said that his party is not in talks with the Congress for an alliance in Delhi and it will contest all seven seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on its own. Also read: Arvind Kejriwal slams arrogant Congress, says its candidates will lose deposits Rai said Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal will hold a meeting with all state unit chiefs of the party and MLAs to discuss the strategy for the parliamentary polls later in the day. The party is not in talks with the Congress for an alliance in Delhi and it will contest all the seats on its own, the AAPs Delhi unit convenor said. Kejriwal would be holding a meeting this evening at his residence to discuss the strategy for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Talks of an alliance between the Congress and the AAP evaporated last week after Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit announced that the party will not form an alliance with the AAP in the national capital and contest the Lok Sabha polls alone. Delhi votes on May 12, the sixth phase of the seven-phase general elections. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Gasgoo compiled the sales data released by four major Japanese automakers and found out that Toyota was the only one that achieved positive year-on-year (YoY) growth in both Feb. sales and Jan.-Feb. sales for China's market. Honda posts a rising performance in cumulative sales despite a slight drop in Feb. sales. However, Mazda faced quite a big downturn with its Feb. sales and year-to-date (YTD) sales both plunging over 35%. Toyota Last month, Toyota sold nearly 80,000 vehicles in China with a YoY increase of 3.3%, being crowned the sales champion of Japanese car brand for the second month in a row. During the first two months of 2019, Toyota also gained a positive growth of 11%. The Feb. sales of the Camry were 7,500 units, which made its YTD sales jumped 30% to 24,900 units. Besides, the monthly sales of the premium car brand Lexus edged up 4.4% to 10,379 units. In 2019, Toyota plans to roll out the change-over versions of the Corolla, the Levin, the RAV4 and the locally-produced Avalon in China. Nissan Nissan saw its China retail sales in February edged down 1.8% year on year to 76,745 units. For the first two months, its cumulative sales also slightly dropped 1.2% to 210,679 units. The PV sector operated by Dongfeng Motor Company Limited (DFL) got a sales drop of 3.4% with 66,386 vehicles delivered last month. Specifically, Dongfeng Nissan sold 59,184 vehicles in February (+1.8% YoY) and 159,418 vehicles for the first two months (+1.9% YoY), both hitting the record high in Feb. sales and Jan.-Feb. sales. Besides, Dongfeng Venucia's sales in Feb. reached 7,202 units and totaled 20,668 units from January to February. The light CV sector witnessed its Feb. sales jump 15.3% over a year ago to 9,241 units, among which the respective sales of Dongfeng Automobile Co., Ltd. and Zhengzhou Nissan were 6,109 units and 3,132 units. By the end of February, the two CV subsidiaries have sold a total of 26,500 vehicles in 2019 with a YoY increase of 8%. As to the Feb. performance for several sales mainstay models, the Sylphy, the X-TRAIL and the Qashqai's sales reached 25,240 units, 12,491 units and 7,827 units respectively. Honda Honda announced that its China's deliveries in February edge down 1.5% year on year to 75,907 units. GAC Honda delivered 40,508 vehicles with a drop of 4.2%, while Dongfeng Honda gained a slight growth of 1.8% with its sales amounting to 35,399 units. For the first two months, Honda's total deliveries in China climbed 4.5% over a year ago to 212,390 units. Both two joint ventures achieved positive growth in cumulative sales. Specifically, GAC Honda sold 116,300 vehicles, an increase of 2.8%, and Donfeng Honda's sales volume climbed 6.6% from the previous year to 96,090 units. The champion model by Feb. deliveries was the CIVIC. Last month, the sales of the CIVIC jumped 22% from the year-ago period to 11,805 units. Besides, the sales of the FIT and the CRIDER reached 9,035 units and 7,511 units respectively, presenting vigorous year-on-year growth of 27.5% and 13.2% compared with the same period a year ago. Mazda Mazda sold 34,388 vehicles in China during the first two months of the year, posting an evident year-on-year drop of 36.4%, Mazda Motor (China) Co., Ltd. announced on March 5. FAW Mazda and Changan Mazda saw their Jan.-Feb. retail sales tumbled 44.0% and 31.3% respectively from a year ago to 12,053 units and 22,335 units. In February, Mazda's retail sales in China plunged 42.5% over a year ago to 11,544 units, representing year-on-year drop for the tenth month in a row. Both joint ventures came across year-on-year negative growth. FAW Mazda handed over 5,037 vehicles with a steep decline of 37.5% and Changan Mazda witnessed its Feb. retail sales sharply dwindle 45.9% to 6,507 units. Pakistan has asked the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to remove India as the co-chair of the international terror financing watchdogs Asia-Pacific Joint Group, which is reviewing Islamabads progress on action against terrorism. The FATF had in February said Pakistan made limited progress in curbing terror financing and failed to show a proper understanding of the risks terrorist groups pose. Pakistan faces economic sanctions if it fails to act. In a letter to FATF president Marshall Billingslea, Pakistan finance minister Asad Umar asked him to appoint any other member country as the co-chair to ensure that the review process is fair, unbiased and objective. Indias animosity towards Pakistan is well-known and the recent violation of Pakistans airspace and dropping of bombs inside Pakistani territory was another manifestation of Indias hostile attitude, Umar wrote. He was referring to the Indian air strike on a terror camp in Pakistan on February 26 in retaliation to the February 14 Pulwama attack. Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed responsibility for the attack. Separately, Pakistan maintained it did not lose any of its planes during the aerial combat with Indian Air Force jets on February 27. The combat followed the Indian air strike. The Indian government and the Indian media continue to spread disinformation to mislead the international community, and the Indian people for domestic political gains, while trying to cover up its failures and resultant embarrassment, the Pakistani foreign office said in statement Saturday. The statement came hours after external affairs ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar told the media that an Indian Air Forces MiG-21 Bison shot down the F-16 fighter aircraft during the combat as Pakistan retaliated to the air strike. There are eyewitness accounts as well as electronic evidence for it, he added. Islamabad cited the use of local explosives and vehicle miles away from the Line of Control [the de facto India-Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir] and added the Pulwama had an indigenous origin. Saudi Arabias deputy foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir made a six-hour-long visit to New Delhi on Monday to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who also spoke on the phone with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and United Arab Emirates crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, people familiar with these developments said. The flurry of contacts sparked speculation about influential players in the Islamic world interceding on behalf of Islamabad with New Delhi to reduce tensions following the Pulwama terror attack, claimed by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed. There were no discussions on possible mediation in the contacts on Monday, officials said. External affairs ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar had said on Saturday there has been no offer of mediation from any country, including Saudi Arabia, and India is also not interested in mediation. Official statements on the contacts said the Indian leadership had without naming Pakistan emphasised the importance of immediate, irreversible and verifiable action against terrorism. Al-Jubeirs visit was described in an external affairs ministry statement as a follow-up to Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salmans trip last month, and the Saudi minister met Modi and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj during his trip lasting about six hours. Modi thanked the Saudi leadership for expressing full solidarity with India in the fight against terrorism. It was agreed that Saudi Arabia and India should work together for irreversible, verifiable and credible steps against all terrorists without any discrimination, the statement said. During her meeting with al-Jubeir, Swaraj said immediate, irreversible and verifiable action to dismantle terror infrastructure is essential to fight the menace. They also agreed to set up the Strategic Partnership Council at the earliest. Al-Jubeir also briefed Modi on the follow-up of the outcomes of the Crown Princes visit. Both countries have taken steps to boost trade and to achieve the investment of $100 billion from Saudi Arabia, which is Indias fourth largest trading partner and second largest supplier of crude oil. Erdogan expressed condolences for victims of recent terror attacks in India. Modi said terror is one of the gravest threats to global peace and security and underscored the importance of immediate, demonstrable and irreversible action against terrorism by all concerned countries, according to an official statement. While speaking on phone with UAE crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Modi expressed thanks for inviting India to address the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Abu Dhabi as a guest of honour. A Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist who was a key-conspirator of the Pulwama terror attack was killed in an encounter in south Kashmirs Tral on Monday, the Army has said. Three Jaish terrorists were killed in the Tral encounter. Jaish commander Mudassar Khan was among the terrorists killed in the encounter. He was the main conspirator of the Pulwama terror attack, said Lt Gen KJS Dhillon, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps . The Army said 18 terrorists have been killed in the last 21 days. News agency PTI reported that Mudassar Khan has been identified as the brain behind the Pulwama terror sucide attack that killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel on February 14. Also read: Will kill anyone who picks up gun in Kashmir Valley, says Army The CRPF personnel were killed when a Jaish terrorist rammed an explosives-laden vehicle -- a Maruti Eeco minivan -- into their bus. Adil Ahmed Dar, who blew the explosive-laden vehicle had been in constant contact with Khan, PTI quoted officials as saying. Twenty-three-year-old Mudassar Khan is an electrician with a graduate degree. He is resident of Pulwama and arranged the vehicle and explosives used in the Pulwama attack, PTI reported. The security forces launched a cordon and search operation in the area in Tral after receiving specific intelligence input about the presence of militants in the area. The operation turned into an encounter after the militants opened fire at the search party of the forces who retaliated. Also read: Eliminated Jaish leadership that planned Pulwama attack within 100 hours, says army Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Sunday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to tell the families of the 40 CRPF jawans killed in Pulwama suicide bomb attack as to who released Masood Azhar, whose Jaish-e-Mohammed group has claimed responsibility for the terror attack, from an Indian prison almost 20 years ago. Taking to Twitter, he alleged that the current National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, went to Kandahar to hand over the murderer Azhar. Azhar, along with two other militants, was released by the Indian government in December 1999 in exchange for the passengers and crew of an Indian Airlines plane that was on a flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi when it was hijacked on Christmas eve that year and diverted to Kandahar in Afghanistan. PM Modi please tell the families of our 40 CRPF Shaheeds, who released their murderer, Masood Azhar? Also tell them that your current NSA was the deal maker, who went to Kandahar to hand the murderer back to Pakistan, Gandhi tweeted. At least 40 Central Reserve Police Force jawans were killed in the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmirs Pulwama district on February 14 for which JeM has claimed responsibility. In response to Gandhis tweet, the Bharatiya Janata Party posted on its social media platform: You were probably busy playing video games when the whole nation was praying for safe return of hijacked passengers. Do you know that all decisions regarding the hijacking were taken at all-party meet? Remember Latif, handler of Pathankot, released by UPA as goodwill gesture? The Chhattisgarh government on Monday appointed retired Supreme Court judge Aftab Alam as the head of a panel formed to draft a bill for the protection of journalists in the state. Alams appointment comes months after the Congress returned to power in the state in December. In its election manifesto, the Congress had promised to bring a law for the protection of journalists. The Chhattisgarh governments public relations director, Taran Prakash Sinha, said Alam will head the committee formed to formulate the Journalists Security Bill. Officials familiar with the matter said names of other members of the committee, which will include senior journalists, activists, and human rights defenders, are yet to be decided. Maharashtra enacted a law for the protection of journalists in 2017, which provides for punishment for violence against journalists, damage to their property and that of media organisations. Santosh Yadav, a journalist, was arrested in October 2015 on suspected links with Maoist leader, Shankar, in Chhattisgarhs Bastar. Journalists marched to the chief ministers house in Raipur in protest against the arrest of Yadav, who was later released on bail. In 2018, another Bastar-based journalist, Kamal Shukla, was booked under the sedition law for allegedly posting a cartoon lampooning the countrys judiciary and government on Facebook. Kamal was later released on bail. The society does not run on the basis of whats laid down in the Constitution alone as traditions and faith have their own place, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) general secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi said on Sunday, speaking on a few court rulings in cases related to the Hindu faith. On the last day of the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha in Madhya Pradeshs Gwalior, Joshi said the Sangh has passed a resolution on the need to protect the traditions and beliefs of Hindu society. I agree that Constitution has its own power and capability, but society does not run only on the basis of the Constitution alone, he said. The Sangh functionary said his organisation sees a pattern of a conspiracy against Hindu culture in cases seeking bans on firecrackers during Diwali and the bull taming festival of Jallikattu. The Sangh has also taken exception to the top courts decision that scrapped a centuries-old tradition and allowed women of all ages to enter Keralas Sabarimala temple. We have said it in the resolution that those who are not Hindu and not Indian are raising sensitive issues and questions recurrently; they are attacking the faith of the Hindus and this is a conspiracy, he added, responding to a question on why the Sangh has been critical of the Supreme Court in its annual report for decisions on Sabarimala and for the delay in the Ayodhya case. We think that society works on the basis of Constitution as well as on the basis of traditions and faith; and there are many issues on which those having expertise in social, spiritual and religious areas should also weigh in and show the way, and not just the judiciary [should decide], Joshi said. Joshi also said the government should keep its view on Section 35A firmly in court so that a discussion can be taken up on Article 370 after a verdict on the former. Article 35A of the Constitution accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir and bars people from outside the state from acquiring any immovable property in the state. It also empowers the Jammu and Kashmir assembly to define permanent residents to bestow special rights and privileges on them. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a batch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of Article 35A. Article 370 of the Constitution grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir and limits Parliaments power to make laws concerning the state. External Affairs Minister Swaraj Swaraj Monday assured all help to the families of the four Indians killed in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash and directed Indian missions in Ethiopia and Kenya to ensure assistance is provided to them. Four Indians, including a UN consultant attached with the Environment Ministry, were among the 157 people killed when a Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed after taking-off from Addis Ababa on Sunday. The deceased Indian nationals were Shikha Garg, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) consultant attached with the Environment Ministry, Pannagesh Bhaskar Vaidya and Hansini Pannagesh Vaidya and Nukavarapu Manisha. Responding to a relative from the Vaidya family, Swaraj said: I have spoken to the son of Mr Vaidya in Toronto. I am shocked you have lost six members of your family in air crash. My heartfelt condolences. I hv asked Indiain Embaasy in Kenya and the India Embassy in Ethiopia to reach you immediately. They will provide help and assistance in respect of all your family members. Replying to a tweet from a relative of N Manisha, the minister said she has asked the Indian High Commissioner in Nairobi, Rahul Chhabra, to provide them all help and assistance. Swaraj said she is trying to reach the family of Shikha Garg. I have tried her husbands number many times. Please help me reach her family, she said. The Boeing 737 crashed minutes after an early-morning takeoff from Addis Ababa, killing all eight crew and 149 passengers on board, including tourists, business travellers, and Garg, who was on her way to attend a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) meeting. Also Watch: 4 Indians among 157 killed in Ethiopian Airlines crash Union minister Nitin Gadkari has added a clarificatory note to his family first comment. In an interview on Sunday, the senior BJP leader explained that his advice to party workers not to ignore their responsibility towards their family to let them be honest. My sons take care of it [the business] and they are handling it in a very professional way... Had that not been the case, then I would have needed a sponsor who would ultimately exert pressure on me in the political arena, the senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said during an interview session organised by the Chitnis Centre in Nagpur. The minister, who is expected to contest from Nagpur seat as the BJP nominee, said: Thats why I say to everyone, first take care of your family and then join politics. The senior BJP leader holds the portfolios of road transport and highways; shipping; and water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation ministries. The remark comes a month after the senior BJP leader, who owns power and sugar companies, had advised young political activists to focus on their family first. I meet many people who say we want to devote our lives for the BJP, for the country. I asked (one such person) what do you do, and who all are there in your family. He said I have closed my shop as it was not doing well....there is wife at home, children, Gadkari said on February 4 at an ABVP event. At the interview, Gadkari also talked about his meeting with Rajinikanth. The minister said he had visited the superstar in Chennai and told him that its best that he stays away from politics. And also because the actor-turned-politician is an absolutely down to earth person, he said. I strongly feel that one should focus on ones strengths, he further added. Rajinikanths stand on certain issues had led to speculation that he might extend support to the BJP in 2019. After meeting 32 district secretaries of the Rajini Makkal Mandram (RMM), he had said on February 17 that this social outfit, seen as the launch vehicle for the political party, will not contest the Lok Sabha election 2019. The Srinagar administration on Sunday imposed restrictions in several parts, bringing the old city to a halt during a two-day shutdown against the summoning of separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). On Saturday, NIA summoned Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz and Syed Naseem Geelani, the son of Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, to Delhi on Monday for questioning in connection with an alleged terror funding case. In a joint statement on Saturday, several trade bodies said the summoning Mirwaiz and Geelani was totally undemocratic and will not be tolerated by the people of Kashmir in general and the trader fraternity in particular. The police and Central Reserve Police Force increased deployment in the city to maintain law and order. Mirwaiz is also chief cleric of Srinagars Jamia Masjid where he delivers weekly sermons. Naseem Geelani works as an assistant professor at an agriculture university. Criticising the summons issued, former chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti tweeted: Mirwaiz Farooq isnt any ordinary separatist leader. He is religious & spiritual head to Kash(miri) Muslims. NIA summons to him are emblematic of GOIs repeated assaults on our religious identity. J&K is the proverbial sacrificial lamb exploited to divert attention from real issues. A 26-year-old woman and her boyfriend smothered her parents to death in their sleep, stuffed their bodies in suitcases, and dumped them in a drain in outer Delhis Nihal Vihar one by one over a period of 10 days in a bid to grab their property, police said on Monday. The woman, Davinder Kaur alias Sonia, drugged and killed her father, 54-year-old Gurmeet Singh on February 21, and then used the same modus operandi to kill her mother, 46-year-old Jageer Kaur, on March 2, according to the deputy commissioner of police (outer district) Seju P Kuruvilla. The murders were committed in their home in Chander Vihar, where the couple lived with Sonia. The bodies were recovered from the drain, about five kilometres away, during an eight-hour-long search over last Friday and Saturday. Police said the woman managed to mislead her relatives and neighbours for 17 days, until investigations began suspecting her after speaking to her estranged husband and other people in the vicinity. Finally, Sonias contradictory statements and odd behaviour gave her away. The woman, who has a son and a daughter, has been separated from her husband since December 2017. Police said she was in a relationship with Prince Dixit alias Vikram, a 29-year-old event manager from Lucknow who was her accomplice in the crimes, for the past year. Sonia and Vikram, who were arrested on Sunday, took the help of two other people both Vikrams friends from Lucknow who are yet to be arrested. Sonias father was a tall and burly man who returned from Dubai last year after years in the furniture business. One of his sons separated from the family after he got married. Another son works as a chef in Kuwait and a daughter lives with her relatives. The familys one-storey house, constructed over a 1,100 sq ft plot, was the property Sonia allegedly hoped to grab after killing her parents, the DCP said. She killed her father while her mother was away at her maternal home in Punjab for the post-funeral ceremonies of her grandmother, who died on March 10. Sonia and Vikram called two men from Lucknow to help them with the crime. Sonia mixed sleeping pills in her fathers tea. The four of them then smothered him, said the DCP. The same night, they allegedly tied the fathers limbs with his turban, stuffed the body in a green suitcase, loaded it on a motorcycle, and dumped it in a drain near village Sayed in Nangloi. The family hardly interacted with neighbours, so we didnt realise about Gurmeets disappearance, said a local shopkeeper. Police said that Sonia did not report her fathers disappearance to the police. When, Sonias mother returned from Punjab on the evening of March 2, Sonia, Vikram and one of their accomplices killed and dumped the mother in the same drain, using the same modus operandi, said the DCP. This time, Sonia alerted her relatives after which a missing complaint was filed at Nihal Vihar police station. The first body to be recovered was that of Sonias mother that was found by a passerby in a maroon suitcase around 4.30pm on Friday. I was passing by and saw police and a crowd. When I got to know that a body was found, I alerted the police that my in-laws had gone missing. The body turned out to be that of my mother-in-law. I urged the police to search the nearby areas as my father-in-law too had been missing, said Sonias husband, Karun Sharma, who is a regional sales manager with a pharmaceutical firm. We continued the search and found the other suitcase in another part of the same drain at 12.30am on Saturday. The body of Sonias father had greatly decomposed, said the DCP. Sonia and Vikram have been booked for murder. Forensic examinations to gather evidence against the accused persons is underway, police said. Kummanam Rajasekharan, 67, resigned as Mizoram governor on Friday amid calls for fielding him as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)s Lok Sabha candidate from Keralas Thiruvananthapuram. A former BJP Kerala president, Rajasekharan spoke to Ramesh Babu about his plans, anger over the Supreme Courts order last year allowing women of menstruating age to enter Kerala Sabarimala Tempe and how it would impact the national polls. Edited excerpts: What prompted you to resign? My state is at a crossroads. Many believers are still in jails for chanting hymns [in protest against the Supreme Court order]. The present [Left Democratic Front] regime is trampling on religious diversity. Many leaders of the state were also keen on my return and the party leadership approved it. I devoted my life to the organisation [BJP]; it is for it to decide where I should serve. Is Sabarimala going to be a key election issue? No doubt. Only the BJP stood with the believers. The repressive government has dealt with the issue brutally with many believers still in jails. Cases were slapped on women and aged believers for just chanting hymns. The state never witnessed such an agitation [against the entry of menstruating women into the shrine]. The states religious diversity is imperilled and the atheist government wants to impose a uniform religion. It is treading a dangerous path. What is the way out and is not the court verdict binding on all? The court is now considering a bunch of review petitions. In Kerala, each temple has its own customs and traditions. Can you implement north Keralas Parassinikaduvu Muthappan temple rituals in Sri Padmanabhaswami temple? Every village temple has got different customs. Believers are really hurt. It is not a place for activists either. It is an attack on the religious freedom. If the court cannot find a solution, we will approach the Centre to bring an ordinance [to reverse the verdict]. Are you going to be the candidate from Thiruvananthapuram to take on Congress leader Shashi Tharoor? That is for the party to decide. I can contest from any of the 20 constituencies in the state. The AAP on Sunday launched its mega campaign to demand full statehood for Delhi by staging a protest outside near the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters at Deendayal Upadhyay Marg. On Sunday, the protesters which included AAP volunteers and its different wings demanded that the BJP clear its stand on full statehood for Delhi. For the first phase of election, the party has prepared 20 prachar rath which will tour localities of each of the seven constituencies of Delhi and spread the message of full statehood. The party has also formed 1,000 teams that will go door-to-door covering seven Lok Sabha constituencies divided into 560 zones, AAPs Delhi unit conveneer Gopal Rai said. In the second phase, Rai said, the AAP legislators will hold street meetings, while in the third phase all star campaigners of the party will hold rallies in Delhi. On Monday, the party will gherao Congress party office in the national Capital. Delhi Congress spokesperson Jitender Kochar said, This campaign is nothing more than a political gimmick. Kejriwal knows that the demand for statehood is not viable in Delhi. We had also demanded statehood but learnt that its not feasible . Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen?S Kapoor said, Arvind Kejriwal has failed the city on a lot of aspects such as development of infrastructure and public transport. Hence, he has been forced to rake up issues like statehood. He has no grounds to go to the people for the Lok Sabha polls. A total of 13.6 million people will be eligible to vote in Delhi on May 12, the sixth phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections which were announced by the Election Commission of India on Sunday. Delhi has seven parliamentary constituencies, all of which are currently held by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). With no pre-poll alliance in sight as of now, it could be a three-way fight between the states ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the BJP and the Congress. For the AAP, it would be their only second outing at the general elections, and their first after they swept to power in Delhi in 2015 assembly polls. The BJP, on the other hand, will aim to repeat its performance as they have been campaigning against the Arvind Kejriwal government. The Congress is looking to turn the tide after facing repeated reverses in consecutive elections for the assembly, Lok Sabha and the municipal corporations. The AAP has released a list of six candidates and is yet to announce the nominee for West Delhi constituency. Neither the BJP nor the Congress has announced candidates for Delhi. The chief electoral officer of Delhi had said that the total number of voters in Delhi for this election has increased by 7.8% compared to the 2014 general elections. The final number of voters may rise further as the revision of electoral rolls was still on. In a press conference to announce the election schedule on Sunday, chief election commissioner Sunil Arora said candidates may file nominations between April 16 to April 23, while the last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 26. The contest Experts say this election will be crucial for Delhi as the city will go for assembly polls in less than nine months. Therefore, to make a dent in the vote share of the BJP -- 46.4% in the 2014 general elections-- the AAP has been pushing for an alliance with the Congress over the past five months. Last week, the Delhi unit of the Congress, after meeting party president Rahul Gandhi, said that there would be no alliance. But a meeting between the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit has once again sparked speculation about an alliance with the AAP. Political commentator Neerja Chowdhury said this election is going to be chemistry vs arithmetic. While the BJP is using both chemistry of Modi and arithmetic, the opposition parties are relying on arithmetic. If it will be a triangular contest, the BJP, especially after the Pulwama attacks and Balakot airstrike, will benefit immensely as there will be a three-way split in votes. The anti-BJP vote will be divided between the AAP and the Congress, she said. But, if the AAP and the Congress come together, it could be a game-changer, Chowdhury said. An analysis of the vote shares of the three parties by HT last week showed that the combined vote share of the AAP and the Congress would have been enough to defeat the BJP in six out of seven seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In the 2017 municipal corporations elections, the Congress polled 21.1% of the total votes, only five percentage points less than what the AAP could get. Once again, combined vote share of the AAP and the Congress was significantly higher than 36% figure of the BJP. Key poll issues Full statehood, housing, sealing and demolition action against commercial establishments, and the friction between the state and Central government, may be the main issues this time. Full statehood is the only way to end the autocracy of the Centre. It is the central theme of AAPs mega election campaign because we feel it is the only way to speed up development work in Delhi, said Gopal Rai, AAPs Delhi unit convener. The BJP plans to highlight the achievements of Modi government at the Centre and the development projects cleared by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government for Delhi such as the eastern and western peripheral expressways. The party is also wooing voters from unauthorised colonies after the Union Cabinet recently appointed a committee to recommend the process of regularising such areas. There are 1,797 unauthorised colonies in Delhi and nearly one-third of Delhis population lives in such pockets. In our campaign, we are also highlighting how the Delhi government led by Kejriwal has failed on all fronts and has tried to mislead people by creating a false narrative of being a victim. The AAP government only kept fighting unnecessarily with the Centre to cover up for the promises it could not fulfil, said Manoj Tiwari, Delhi BJP chief. The Congress is banking on the works done by the Sheila Dikshit government. Development is going to be our main poll plank. Whatever the AAP is claiming credit for is done by us. The Signature Bridge is our creation. Lots of flyovers you see [in the city] were started by us, said a Congress leader. Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik announced on Sunday that his party, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), will field women candidates in at least 33% of the 21 parliamentary seats in the state for the general elections. Patnaik made this announcement at the Mission Shakti convention in the politically important Kendrapara district but was silent on extending the measure to the assembly elections, which is being held simultaneously in the state. I would like to announce that Odisha will send 33% women to Parliament in the coming elections. It was a dream of Biju Babu [former CM and Naveens father Biju Patnaik] to empower women. Biju Babu showed the way to the entire nation. It is he who for the first time in India implemented 33% reservation for women in the three-tier Panchayati Raj Institutions and government jobs. In order to fulfil his dreams, I am making this announcement, he said. Patnaik called on national parties such as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress to follow suit. They should be true to their words and must follow what they are propagating for women empowerment, he added. Two days ago, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had promised to get the Womens Reservation Bill (108th Constitution Amendment Bill) passed in the Lok Sabha if Congress came to power. The women of Odisha will lead the way in women empowerment in India. If India is to lead the world, if India has to compete with countries like America and China and become advanced, then women empowerment is the only answer, he said. The number of women voters has increased dramatically in the past decade. In a previous article in this newspaper, Milan Vaishnav and Jamie Hinston showed that female turnout lagged male turnout by 7 to 12 percentage points in every election between 1967 and 2004, except for the 1984 election following Indira Gandhis assassination. By 2014, the gender gap had plummeted to 1.8 percentage points, a record low. But the number of women elected to Parliament remains dismally low. In 2014, just 8.1% of candidates for the Lok Sabha were women and this figure was the highest ever. Vaishnav and Hinston showed that between 1962 (the first year for which gender-specific data is available) and 1996, women did not once account for more than 5% of the candidate pool, and after a sharp growth in 1998, their numbers have seen a modest incremental rise. Female representation in the Lok Sabha is meagre and only surpassed 10% for the first time in 2009. In the outgoing Lok Sabha, women made up 11.6% of directly elected members of Parliament. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJD had fielded two women candidates - in Jajpur and Keonjhar. Later, it nominated another woman candidate from Kandhamal Lok Sabha seat after its sitting MP died. In the 2014 assembly polls, the BJD fielded 14 candidates. Patnaiks move comes at a time when the CM is facing a massive electoral challenge from the BJP that is eyeing to win at least 7-8 Lok Sabha seats, up from one in 2014 elections. This announcement comes two days after West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee also pitched for gender equality in politics, and said she was proud of the Trinamool Congresss record of having women comprising 35% of its lawmakers in Parliament. In 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) became the first party in three decades to achieve a majority on its own in the Lok Sabha. Can the party repeat this performance? In a first-past-the-post (FPTP) system of elections, electoral predictions are a hazardous exercise. This is because even similar levels of popular support (measured by vote shares) can lead to different number of seats for a party. This author wrote in a 2017 piece published in Mint that the Congress failed to get a majority in earlier elections despite having a vote share which was larger than what the BJP did in 2014. This larger caveat notwithstanding, the BJPs re-election chances will depend a lot on how it performs in what can be referred to as its big six states. These are the undivided states of Bihar (now Bihar and Jharkhand), Uttar Pradesh (now Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand) and Madhya Pradesh (now Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh) along with Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat. These states have a total of 278 Lok Sabha seats, which is slightly more than 50% of the total 543 seats. At least 70% of the BJPs total Lok Sabha seats have come from these states since the 1989 elections. Analysis | Will the triangular contest in Lok Sabha polls work to BJPs advantage in Uttar Pradesh? In 2014, the BJP won 80% of the Lok Sabha seats from these states, a huge improvement compared to its previous performances. The BJPs performance in each of these states was the best ever. Interestingly, the party won only 61 seats in the rest of the country, just nine more than the previous best performance of 52 in the 1999 elections (see chart 1). It can be said with a reasonable degree of confidence that if the BJP has to get past or even closer to the magic figure of 272, it must avoid any significant losses in the big six states vis-a-vis what it had in 2014. This brings up the question of vote shares. As is to be expected, 2014 was also the best performance of the BJP in the big six states in terms of vote share. However, its gains in terms of seats were disproportionate to the vote share gains, which is not surprising in a FPTP system (see chart 2). The BJPs 2019 tally will in these states be a function of two factors. The first is whether the BJP can retain its extraordinarily high 2014 vote share in these states. This will matter particularly in direct-contest states such as Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Also Watch: HT Poll Conversations: Balakot, Rafale or Jobs what will be 2019 decider? The second is whether better Opposition unity will reduce the BJPs seat share even with similar vote share levels. This will play a big role in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. Assembly elections held after 2014 show that the BJP could not retain its 2014 vote share levels in most of these states. If these trends continue, the BJP might lose a significant number of seats in these states (see chart 3). The question is whether the BJP will be able to reverse the trend and swing back a significant number of voters in its favour. In 2019, it will probably be an election where the Opposition would be more interested in defending what it has achieved between 2014 and 2019, while the BJPs campaign might be all about attacking the Opposition. Can the warring saffron allies repeat the 2014 poll performance in Maharashtra in 2019? Or, will the Opposition, the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party that ruled the state together for 15 years, win their lost home ground and get the numbers that will help the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the Centre? The poll battle for 48 constituencies in Maharashtra, which has the second highest number of seats after Uttar Pradesh, will be crucial for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as the main Opposition Congress because it will impact the outcome of the polls. It will be a direct fight between the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and UPA. In 2014, the saffron allies swept the general polls riding on the Modi wave, winning 42 of the 48 seats. The Congress was decimated to a single digit tally of 2, its ally the NCP did marginally better with 4 seats. Since 2014 polls, however, the Modi wave has ebbed in the state, especially in rural areas, where agrarian crisis and drought have led to questions being raised over BJPs promises and policies. The states caste cauldron has also been simmering over the Maratha reservation issue, which has pitched the Other Backward Class (OBC) and Dalits against this community. The scenario on ground is ripe for the Opposition to shore up support among disgruntled communities from minorities and Dalits to a section of the OBCs, but even as the election dates are announced, the Opposition parties havent been successful in cobbling up a coalition that can avoid split in their votes. The saffron alliance, which is building the nationalism narrative after the Pulwama attack and airstrikes, is likely to win dividends. Beyond these factors, one of the keys to the 2019 electoral battle is how the alliances, which have come together owing to political compulsions, work and perform together. Alliances and Readiness The alliance with the Sena was sealed because every seat we lose would add up to the UPAs tally, as it is a direct fight between two alliances. We can now target 35 + seats. We may not win 42 seats like last time, but we will lose fewer seats, said a senior BJP leader and state minister, explaining why his party bent over backwards to accommodate its ally, Sena, promising them equal seat-sharing formula and power-sharing after the Assembly polls, despite its harsh criticism of the BJP. The equal seat-sharing formula was offered even though the BJP won 122 seats in the 2014 Assembly polls against Senas 63 of the total 288 seats. For Lok Sabha, the Sena will contest 23 seats, while the BJP will contest 25 seats. There will be niggling issues such Sena workers not wanting to work for certain BJP MPs, but the message from the top brass is to work together. A majority of MPs and MLAs realise that this is in their favour, especially after Pulwama, said a senior Sena leader. Moreover, the Fadnavis government has recently taken decisions such as providing sops to the disgruntled Dhangar community (10-12% of the states population), clearing infrastructure projects and offering sops to citizens (no property tax for flats below 500 sqft in Mumbai). The BJPs election machinery is well-oiled and ready, unlike the remaining parties who face organisational challenges from mobilising the cadre to funding the campaign. The Congress and NCP havent been able to finalise seat-sharing yet or convince smaller parties to join their coalition. This could be last the Lok Sabha election where Sharad Pawar will play an active role. He is keen on winning back lost ground. In case of a hung house, he could even play a key role in forming the government. In Maharashtra, we had done so badly that we can now only do better, said a senior NCP leader. But he admitted that getting smaller allies, especially Prakash Ambedkar, a Dalit leader and founder of the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh, had proved to be a hurdle. Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, has floated Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and tied up with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), targeting Dalits, Muslims and a section of OBCs. He is not keen on joining the Opposition coalition. Another NCP leader complained that the Congress leadership is yet to learn from its past mistakes. They called Rahul Gandhi for the first campaign rally, but it didnt have the expected impact. We had suggested that there should a joint rally, but they refused, the NCP leader said. The party has even failed to rein in its senior leader and Opposition leader in the Assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, whose son is flirting with the BJP for a ticket from Ahmednagar in western Maharashtra. The NCP has so far refused to give the seat to the Congress. The air strike in Pakistan has sent out a message to Indians a decisive leader like Modi should be at the helm. The issue will be on top of peoples minds, said a senior state BJP functionary. The strikes and ensuing Indo-Pak escalations in February this year, has given the BJP an upper hand, with the Opposition still unsure on how to tackle this. A BJP leader linked to the RSS said, Development with nationalism and Modi for PM is our plank. Its difficult to contest this. Urban vs Rural divide The Congress-NCP face their biggest challenge from the states urban middle class that forms the support base of the BJP. Despite demonetisation, the party won 15 of the 27 municipal corporations and expanded its urban footprint. Its focus on infrastructure for cities has helped in creating a positive perception about the government. The BJP-Sena has always done well in cities. After 2014, the BJP has amassed huge support base among the middle class, with their development plus soft communal poll plank. This support is unlikely to be fazed by issues such as farmer suicides, discontent among Dalits or lynchings. The nationalism narrative will favour the BJP, said Dr Aruna Pednse, political science professor with Mumbai University. Rural areas have faced the brunt of the ongoing agrarian crisis and it is here that the Opposition could do well. The state is currently facing a drought, second in the past four years. The governments loan waiver worth nearly Rs 24,000 crore has not had the expected impact. The government has failed farmers after promising them the moon from higher minimum support prices to double incomes. Farmers have had to face consistent fall in prices of agriculture produce, drought and demonetisation. There is a visible anger among farmers and it will help the Opposition, said Vijay Jawandhia, farmers leader and expert from Vidarbha. The drought this year that impacted 16 districts and 155 tehsils nearly half of the state - will worsen over summer and coincide with the polls. Unemployment is also a major issue in small towns and areas, beyond big Metros where educated youngsters from predominantly agrarian families are struggling to find jobs. Unemployment, along with agrarian crisis, will be the main campaign plank for the Opposition. We have toured all colleges in rural and semi-rural areas and everywhere it is the same story of graduates and even post-graduates not finding private jobs and government just not recruiting. You will not see this angst in Metros, but it is very much visible here, said Sakshana Salgar, chief of NCP womens youth wing. Caste dynamics The BJP governments 16% reservation for the dominant Maratha community as well as the Centres 10% reservation for the upper caste poor will help them, but it has not gone down well with the Other Backward Class (OBC). The OBCs, who make up 50% of the states population, however, are fragmented into as many as 362 castes. They dont vote en bloc, but have supported the BJP in the past. This support is now under strain. Marathas-Kunbis, make up 32% of the states population, and are said to have a decisive role in as many as 75 of the 288 Assembly seats. The Maratha versus OBC card will get played out, say experts, but it is difficult to predict whether it will go against one party or in favour of another. For instance, among those who get reservation, the Dhangar (shepherd) community is angry with the ruling dispensation and may go against it. On the face of it, one can say a section of OBCs will feel alienated from the ruling party over the Maratha reservation as well as 10% reservation for forward classes. The BJP may lose some of its traditional support. The Dhangars are definitely irked, said political analyst Surendra Jondhale. The Dalit votes in the state are also likely to go against the BJP in the backdrop of the Bhima-Koregaon violence, for which the government has failed to book the accused Hindutva elements so far. From tracking products in a supply chain to screening candidates for clinical trials accurately, college students across Mumbai have come up with technology-driven ideas to improve businesses. The solutions were submitted at the recently held Smart India Hackathon at Prin LN Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research (WIMDR), Matunga. Participants said they learnt a great deal about developing solutions in such a short span. A team of students from Shah & Anchor Kutchhi Engineering College, Chembur, developed a computer programme that can speed up the process for testing medicines before their launch. The programme uses an algorithm to match the people who are willing to volunteer for a clinical trial. It analyses factors such as a volunteers medical history, type of trial, number of trials and their success rate. People are reluctant to participate in clinical trials because of the side-effects. Our goal was to increase participation and generate better results from laboratories, said Viraj Modi, one of the students. Teams from WIMDR and Don Bosco Institute of Technology (DBIT), Kurla, worked towards digitising supply chain management system. They suggested using barcodes and QR codes on products to track them by manufacturers, retailers and suppliers. Recently, a company wanted to recall products from a particular batch after detecting a defect in them. But there was no mechanism to trace the products from the defective batch, said Roshan James, a student from DBIT. The current system of returning expired products by retailers to companies is manual and slow, said Vipul Bhole, a student from WIMDR. Another team from WIMDR proposed enhancement of customer experience at large retail shops. It suggested 3D hologram promotion of various products at the stores. The team also proposed installing a touch screen to provide information about various products. Before finding a solution, we had to understand what kind of customers visit the store. We also learnt what companies mean by customer service, said Alekhya Susarla, one of the students. The stage is set for a fierce triangular contest on majority of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh -- the largest state in the country that takes pride in the crucial role it plays in electing the winning party at the Centre. As the ruling party zealously launches its campaign to retain the state that gave it a windfall of support in 2014 71 out of 80 seats -- the pertinent question in discussion is, Will the BJP gain from a triangular contest? Traditionally, a divided opposition has worked to the ruling partys advantage as the opponents share the anti-votes. Thus, the more the opponents in the fray, the better it is for the party in power. Before the 1990s, when Congress consecutively ruled the state since Independence, the differences among the socialist parties proved to be beneficial. As and when they united 1969 (Bhartiya Lok Dal), 1977 (Janata Party) and 1989 (Janata Dal) -- Congress lost the battle. Ideally the BJP would have preferred a multi-cornered contest like in 2014 when SP, BSP, Congress and other parties independently contested the election as they fought more to protect their own turf than defeating the BJP. However, after their humiliating defeat, successively in 2014 general elections and 2017 state assembly elections, the SP and BSP realised the need to first checkmate the winning spree of the BJP if they had to survive in the state politics. The two parties came together, shedding much of their earlier animosity, also because of the pressure from their own vote banks. But despite backroom efforts of many opposition parties to build a grand alliance, they failed for various reasons. While SP-BSP were unwilling to accept the Congress demand for 20-odd seats, the Congress leadership felt that the party will lose the state forever if it accepted to play a very small partner in the alliance. Their argument being that at the national level they will fight the NDA and not the regional parties. Secondly, the Congress is concentrating on 2022 assembly elections more than the 2019 polls as in private they do concede the poor health of the party. Thus it will largely be a contest between SP-BSP-RLD combine, the BJP and its allies and the Congress and its small allies. Other smaller parties, even the one led by Shivpal Singh Yadav, will play spoilsport more than being winners in their constituencies of influence. Read | Lok Sabha election dates announced: Know when your state goes to polls Who is saying what A Congress leader, while admitting that a triangular contest may turn to BJPs advantage, hoped, The opposition parties could still come to some tactical understanding on about a dozen odd seats. In fact, Akhilesh Yadav was willing for an alliance with the Congress but its poll partner BSP threw a spanner, indirectly helping the BJP. BJP leader Chandra Mohan dismissed the theory of divided opposition helping the ruling party and said, Our strength is the charismatic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the dedication of our booth presidents. SP spokesman Abdul Hafiz Gandhi, however, was of the view that the SP-BSP-RLD combine represented the larger section of the electorate in UP and was unbeatable. This alliance has come from the rank and file as the people wanted it and will firmly back, and vote for the alliance. In this scenario, Congress will not be able to divide our votes. Whatever Congress gains in terms of vote percentage, it will be from BJPs kitty. It will be so because in some particular sections of society the Congress and BJP voters are same, he said. Political expert Badri Narain says, Yes, it could work to BJPs advantage as Congress could divide Muslim votes. But it will also hurt the BJP as Congress will take away their Brahmin votes. How division of opposition votes helped BJP in 2014 Lets take Saharanpur Lok Sabha constituency that BJP won by 65,090 votes. The runner up was Congress. Here while BJP polled 39.59 percent votes, the runner up polled 34.14 percent votes. Then BSP polled 19.67 percent and the SP 4.42 percent. Both Congress and SP had fielded Muslim candidates. Sambhal is another constituency in West UP where both SP and BSP fielded Muslim candidates, that cut into each others votes, helping the BJP win the seat with a slender margin of 5174 votes only. The BJP polled 34.08 percent votes, SP 33.59 percent and BSP 23.90 percent votes. A fierce contest between SP and BSP helped BJP win Ghazipur in east UP by a margin of 32,542 votes. While BJP polled 31.11 percent votes, SP and BSP polled 27.82 and 24.49 percent votes. If you look at the overall results, the SP-BSP-RLD together polled about 44 percent votes, which was more than the BJPs 42.63 percent. Elections not mere mathematics Yes, addition of poll percentage does not necessarily mean the alliance can easily trounce the BJP, which is still riding the Modi wave, though much weaker than 2014. The overnight bonhomie between estranged leaders does not necessarily translate into votes, especially when they represent castes locked in traditional social and political enmity. Thus much would depend on Akhilesh, Mayawati and Jayant Choudhury to convince their cadres to get their votes transferred to each other. Besides homework, the three will have to send a message through joint rallies and workers meetings. To their advantage the communities feeling marginalized in the current dispensation are in a mood to support the alliance. The flip side, as a senior leader said, is: The failure of the non-BJP parties to strike an alliance for the forthcoming elections has once again triggered the TINA (There Is No Alternative) factor in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A deadlock in talks in Brussels on a key provision in the EU withdrawal agreement is expected to lead to another defeat for Prime Minister Theresa May when the motion on her Plan B is introduced in the House of Commons on Tuesday. The agreement was resoundingly voted down in January due to the so-called backstop for Ireland-Northern Ireland, which is a fallback option to avoid a hard border between the two if formal trade talks do not result in a deal between the UK and EU. MPs across the political spectrum believe the backstop does not have an end-date and will thus tie the UK indefinitely to EU rules, defeating the result of the 2016 referendum. May promised to secure the required changes and re-introduce the agreement in parliament. However, despite renewed talks, there has been no progress, fuelling speculation in Westminster that May would withdraw the motion called the meaningful vote in the face of certain defeat on Tuesday. Also read: Brexit: No-one knows what will happen, says UK PM Theresa May On Monday, May was closeted in talks with close aides in Downing Street, while a spokesperson insisted she had no plans to make a last-minute dash to Brussels and dismissed claims that the vote would be withdrawn due to the likelihood of it being voted down again. Conservative MP Mark Francois reflected the views of many MPs as he declared on Monday: Nothing has changed since January. It is exactly the same agreement. If you ask the same question, you are likely to get the same answer. Environment secretary Michael Gove, a leading Brexiteer, appealed to rebel MPs to support Mays deal in an article in the Daily Mail: Forty-eight per cent of the country voted to remain. Their voices need to be listened to, their hopes incorporated in our plan for the future. That doesnt mean giving in to the much smaller number who want to overturn the decision and frustrate Brexit. But it must mean that none of us Leavers should try to make our perfect Brexit the enemy of the common good. Which is why I hope that everyone who believes in our democracy in the importance of delivering Brexit and in the critical need to unite our country will get behind the prime ministers deal this week, he added. Also read: Brexit: There are no easy choices for Theresa May China will not pick sides in the India-Pakistan dispute as its primary aim is to develop the poor and backward Kashmir, a state media opinion piece has said, adding that Beijing is willing to be the mediator to defuse tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad. The editorial dismissed Indias concerns about Chinas consistent support to Pakistan-based terrorist and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief, Masood Azhar, by not allowing him to be listed as a terrorist in the UN Security Council (UNSC). The disputed Kashmir region is not destined to be poor and backward forever. This is Chinas goal and should also be the goal of both India and Pakistan. If the two countries can meet each other halfway, it would help them to build mutual trust, lay the foundation for peaceful negotiations and especially strengthen their cooperation on anti-terrorism together with China, state-controlled nationalistic tabloid Global Times said in an opinion piece. China will not pick sides in India-Pakistan disputes. Aiming at easing the two countries conflicts and improving the anti-terrorist situation, China will play the role of a mediator and facilitator amid the ongoing tensions. Islamabad has been under international pressure to act against terror groups operating from its soil, including JeM, which claimed responsibility for the February 14 suicide bombing in Pulwama that killed 40 Indian troops. The attack one of the worst in Kashmir led to serious escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan, with India conducting an air strike on a JeM camp in Pakistan, and engaging in an aerial dogfight with Pakistan along the border. Last week, China sent vice foreign minister Kong Xuanyou to Pakistan to discuss the tensions. Kong, who met Pakistans Prime Minister Imran Khan and army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa, assured Islamabad of Beijings support for peace and stability. The editorial said it was irresponsible to blame China for protecting alleged terrorists. However, some Indians doubt Chinas efforts. Some Indian experts blamed China for continued protection of terrorists who were allegedly based in Pakistan and launched the Pulwama terror attack in February. And many Indian analysts regard Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as a geopolitical threat, it said. Such irresponsible statements are not supported by facts. Foreign ministers of China, Russia, and India held the 16th trilateral meeting on February 27. During the meeting, they vowed to eradicate breeding grounds of terrorism and extremism. In fact, China, Pakistan, and India share common interests in combating terrorism. It is time for India to stop the groundless accusations, it said. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship infrastructure project under the BRI, passes through Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (PoK). India has repeatedly told China that it cannot join BRI as the CPEC violates its territorial sovereignty. The editorial however said that India should overcome its prejudices against the BRI as it would boost cooperation and help bring stability to the region. And India should also understand this: Although China supported Pakistan in alleviating poverty and wiping out terrorism, Beijing is not an enemy of New Delhi. Just the opposite: China proposed and launched the BRI, which not only meets Indias needs for infrastructure construction but also helps ease India-Pakistan tensions, it said. We believe that political consultation must be the only channel to resolve the disputes. This is Chinas consistent policy, and nothing will change Chinas firm stand in promoting peaceful negotiations between India and Pakistan, it said. US president Donald Trump will seek $8.6 billion more for his border wall in budget proposals 2020 to be announced on Monday, setting up another round of fight with the Congress that caused the longest ever shutdown of the federal government recently. The proposals were described in some reports as dead on arrival as Democrats, who now control the House of Representatives, will most certainly reject it, given their opposition to the wall and other cuts that the Trump administration is expected to seek in welfare programmes. The budget is also expected to propose an increase of $35 billion in defence spending, taking it up to $750 billion. Senior Trump aide Larry Kudlow confirmed the presidents wall funding proposal on a television show on Sunday morning, acknowledging it will trigger a new fight. President Trump had sought $5.6 billion in his 2019 budget, but had to settle for $1.3 billion. He has sought to raise an additional $6.5 billion by shifting funds from other approved appropriations by declaring a national emergency, which has been challenged in courts and is set to be rejected by the Congress. He will veto the congressional rejection and save his emergency declaration, but it is not clear yet if he can begin moving funds pending the settlement of legal challenges. Trumps campaign promise of a wall along the border with Mexico has turned into a fight that is likely to continue given the pressure he is under from his supporters, some of whom have turned against him for failing to begin work on it and giving in to Democrats in the last shutdown. One of them is Ann Coulter, an influential conservative commentator, who has called the president an idiot for surrendering to Democrats. Trump lashed out against her Saturday calling her a Wacky Nut Job. Earlier, he had unfollowed her on Twitter to register his anger. Democrats are in no mood to relent either. They called the president proposed immoral and had at one stage said they would not give Trump even $1 for it. The $1.3 billion they approved earlier is strictly to be spent for other measures to boost security at the border and not for the wall. India and the US on Monday called on Pakistan to take concerted action to dismantle terror infrastructure and deny safe haven to all terror groups, reflecting the growing pressure on Islamabad to crack down on terror after the Pulwama suicide bombing. Pressuring Pakistan to deliver on its counter-terrorism commitments and the move to designate Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist figured in foreign secretary Vijay Gokhales meeting with US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, people familiar with the developments said. This was also the first meeting between officials of the two sides since the Pulwama attack. The meeting with Pompeo kicked off a routine visit by Gokhale for diplomatic consultations, which were in the pipeline much before a suicide bomber affiliated with the Pakistan-based JeM killed 40 Indian troopers in February and prompted a non-military counter-terror air strike by India on a JeM training camp in Pakistan. Pompeo expressed his understanding of Indias concerns regarding cross-border terrorism and the two officials agreed that Pakistan needs to take concerted action to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure and to deny safe haven to all terrorist groups in its territory, said a statement from the external affairs ministry. They also agreed that those who support or abet terrorism in any form should be held accountable, the statement added. Gokhale conveyed Indias appreciation for the firm support...from the US in the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Pulwama in the State of Jammu and Kashmir and apprised Pompeo about recent developments in this regard. Gokhales visit also provided India an opportunity to give a final push to efforts, led by France, the US and Britain, to list Azhar through the UNs Islamic State and al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee, the people quoted above said. The listing will go ahead on March 13 if it isnt blocked by any member of the UN Security Council. The US was the only major power to back Indias right to self-defence and the air strike on the JeM facility at Balakot in Pakistan, calling it counter-terrorism actions. It joined the UK and France to press the UN Security Council to pass a path-breaking statement condemning the Pulwama strike despite stiff resistance from China, acting on behalf of Pakistan. The US, Britain, France and Afghanistan joined India to oppose an appeal by Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed to be removed from the UN Security Councils list of designated terrorists. An ombudsman for the world body rejected Saeeds petition last week. Much of the attention has been focused on China, which has blocked several previous attempts to sanction Azhar on technical grounds and which has been non-committal on the latest move. India has reached out to China on the issue and also taken it up with the non-permanent members of the Security Council, the people said. China might put a technical hold on the proposal for now, as it has before, to meet the 10-day proposed deadline to determine the fate of a proposal and vote later when the heat is off for Azhar to be designated, the people added. With the completion of the counter-terrorism operation against Pakistan, New Delhi is working with interlocutors in the world community to pressure Islamabad to act against terrorists operating from its soil, the people said. Gokhale will meet US under secretary of state for political affairs David Hale and under secretary of state for arms control and international security Andrea Thompson for bilateral foreign office consultations and a strategic security dialogue between March 11 and March 13. These are regular high-level dialogue mechanisms to review bilateral relations, exchange views on major foreign policy and security-related developments and coordinate respective positions on issues of common interest, the external affairs ministry said in its statement. Gokhale and Pompeo expressed satisfaction over significant progress and quality of the India-US Strategic Partnership since the US secretary of states visit to New Delhi last September for the first 2+2 Dialogue. They also discussed other issues of mutual interest including Afghanistan and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, and agreed to closely work together in this regard. In response to Pompeos reference to bilateral trade matters, Gokhale underscored the significant reduction in trade deficit in the last three years and conveyed Indias willingness to remain engaged with the US for a meaningful and mutually acceptable package on trade issues, the external affairs ministry statement said. China on Monday said it was only through discussions that a responsible solution could come out on the issue of listing Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) leader Masood Azhar as a terrorist at the UN Security Council (UNSC). The Chinese foreign ministrys comment comes in the backdrop of the US, the UK and France moving a fresh proposal at the UNSC to list Azhar as a global terrorist in the aftermath of the JeM claiming responsibility for the suicide attack in Kashmirs Pulwama on February 14. According to reports, the resolution was expected to be taken up by the 1267 committee of the UNSC on March 13. China has thrice blocked the move by India and other UN members, interpreted by observers as a result of Beijing-Islamabads close ties. Also read: US, UK, France push for terrorist tag for Jaish chief Masood Azhar that China blocked First I would like to say that the UNSC as a main body of the UN has strict standards and rules of procedures... Chinas position on the designation of a terrorist by the 1267 Sanctions Committee is consistent and clear, foreign ministry Lu Kang said on Monday when asked about the upcoming proposal. China (has) adopted a responsible attitude, follows the rules of the procedure of the committee and participated in the discussions in a responsible manner. Only through discussions can we come up with a responsible solution, Lu said. To a second question whether the issue of Masood Azhars ban figured in Chinas talks with Pakistan, Lu said: Recently, India and Pakistan has experienced a lot. We think those indents are not in the interest of peace and stability in the region. We have engaged in mediation efforts with both sides and held talks to promote the easing of tensions. We made enormous efforts. While exchanging ideas security is an important topic and I can say that our talks were wide ranging and quite deep, he said. Also read: UN ban on Masood Azhar could figure in India, US foreign secretaries talks A day after the Pulwama attack, China had condemned it in strong words, saying it was against all forms of terrorism but had remained ambiguous about Azhar. We firmly oppose and strongly condemn all forms of terrorism. We hope relevant regional countries will cooperate to cope with the threat of terrorism and jointly uphold regional peace and stability, foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang had then said. When asked about Chinas stand on the listing of Azhar, Geng repeated what he and his MFA colleagues have said many times before: UN protocols were being followed in this particular case. As for the issue of listing, I could tell you that the 1267 Committee of Security Council has a clear stipulation on the listing and procedure of the terrorist organisations. JeM has been included in the Security Council terrorism sanctions list. China will continue to handle the relevant sanctions issue in a constructive and responsible manner, Geng had said. Also read: Pakistan must realise that any action against JeM is in its own interest Two Pakistani-origin sisters from London are believed to be the latest set of mothers to lose their British citizenship for marrying into the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group in Syria. Reema Iqbal and her sister, Zara, have five boys under the age of eight between them and are being held in a Syrian detention camp. Reports of them losing their right to return to the UK after losing their citizenship rights come as it was confirmed that Bangladeshi-origin Shamima Begum lost her three-week-old baby in a Syrian refugee camp days after her British citizenship was similarly revoked. The Sunday Times quoted legal sources to say that the Iqbal sisters, from east London, have had their British nationality rights revoked for marrying into an ISIS terrorist cell. Their parents are from Pakistan, so the UK Home Office would argue they are eligible for Pakistani nationality instead. Their five sons, however, are likely to remain British citizens. The newspaper report says the two women headed to Syria from London in 2013 after marrying into a six-man cell of ISIS recruits with close links to the filmed murders of western hostages by British Arab ISIS fighter Mohammed Emwazi, dubbed Jihadi John for his UK connection. The sisters husbands were later killed in fighting. Zara, 28, already had a son when she made the journey and was heavily pregnant with her second child, to whom she gave birth in Syria. She later had a third boy under the so-called ISIS caliphate. The family is believed to be in either Al Hol camp or another facility at Ain Issa in Syria. Her older sister, Reema, 30, has two sons, one of whom was born in Britain. They are in Roj camp, to which Shamima Begum was reportedly recently transferred. There is growing pressure on UK home secretary Sajid Javid since it was confirmed that 19-year-old Begum had lost her child, Jarrah, to pneumonia in the refugee camp on Thursday. Diane Abbott, the UK shadow home secretary, said the babys death was a stain on the conscience of this government. Javids own Conservative Party colleague and former justice minister, Phillip Lee, urged the government to reflect on its moral responsibility for the tragedy. We cannot just export the problem, he said. A UK government spokesperson said: The death of any child is tragic and deeply distressing for the family. The UK Home Office said it did not comment on individual cases, adding that decisions to withdraw citizenship from individuals were evidence-based and not taken lightly. Under international law, the UK can revoke a citizenship of a British national only if the individual would not be made stateless and can acquire the citizenship of another country. The use of the powers has risen sharply in the UK, with 104 deprivations of citizenship in 2017, compared to 50 in the previous decade, according to Home Office figures obtained by the immigration law website Free Movement. At least a dozen jihadi brides from Britain and more than 20 of their children are believed to be held in overcrowded camps run by western-backed Kurdish forces in Syria. From Dred Scott to anchor babies, Born in the USA has caused hot debate THE CIVIL WAR brought freedom to four million enslaved people. However, in January 1866, the meaning of that freedom under the law remained nebulous. The 13th Amendment, which states had ratified in December 1865, outlawed slavery. In 1857, however, the U.S. Supreme Court had in Scott v. Sandford denied citizenship to African-Americans, even those born in the United States. To Senator Lyman Trumbull (R-Illinois), the status quofreedom without citizenshipsmacked of continued involuntary servitude. The formerly enslaved born in America deserved birthright citizenship, the same as any white American enjoyed, Trumbull reasoned, and he vowed to make that reasoning a reality. On January 5, 1866, Trumbull introduced S-61, a bill to grant citizenship to all freed slaves born in the United States. He expected Congress to pass this bill, formally known as An Act to protect all Persons in the United States in their Civil Rights, and furnish the Means of their Vindication, and President Andrew Johnson to sign it into law. However, citizenship proved a more divisive issue than Trumbull had envisioned, and in a controversy with echoes into the present, Congress spent months heatedly debating who deserves to be an American. Initially, the concept of American citizenship was unsettled. Foreign-born immigrants became citizens by naturalization, a process the first Congress codified in 1790 that was limited to white persons and activated only after a five-year wait. Immigrants children born in the United States, however, enjoyed citizenship by virtue of jus soli, right of the soil, regardless of parental nationality. Jus soli, also called birthright citizenship, had originated in England and had emigrated to the colonies with the first settlers from that nation. Still, the issue was not clear-cut, since neither the Constitution nor any statute expressly recognized or defined birthright citizenship. Jus soli was assumed to be the law, its theoretical and practical contours vague. The United States was a nation of immigrants, and in the early 1800s its borders were open, with entry unrestricted. America needed hands to farm, backs to toil in factories, and pioneers to settle the West. By 1860, the population was 31.4 million, including 4.1 million foreign-born residents. Since Day One, European immigrants had come mostly by choiceexcept those Britain had transported as punishment. Most Americans of African descent had had no choice, arriving as they or their antecedents had in shackles as chattel. By 1860, the slave population of the United States of America had reached 3.9 million, mostly native-born. Between 1820 and 1860 tentative streams from Ireland and other European countries began what would become an immigrant tide, causing xenophobia among so-called nativists to surge. These descendants of immigrants formed the anti-immigrant American Party, or Know-Nothingsif queried about the party, members were instructed to say they knew nothingwhose 1856 platform proclaimed that Americans must rule America. That year, the partys presidential candidate, former chief executive Millard Fillmore, won 21.5 percent of the popular vote. Xenophobia was not universal. As of 1861, five statesIndiana, Kansas, Michigan, Oregon, and Wisconsinallowed non-citizens to vote. In 1862, the Homestead Act, implemented to settle portions of the West, allowed foreigners stating their intent to become citizens to take possession of publicly offered land. The issue of birthright citizenship had reached the Supreme Court in 1857. Dred Scott, a slave born in Virginia, had sued his owner for his freedom in federal court after the planter brought Scott to a non-slave state. The owner, a U.S. Army surgeon, had taken Scott for several years to the free state of Illinois and the free territory of Wisconsin before returning the slave and his family to the South. Scott needed to establish jurisdiction before the courts would consider his case; he invoked diversity jurisdiction, which allows a citizen of one state to sue a citizen of another in federal court. Citizenship seemed to be a given for the American-born Scott, but the Supreme Court disagreed, closing the courthouse door by holding that African-Americans were not citizens. Writing for the seven-justice majority, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney called blacks beings of an inferior order with no rights which the white man was bound to respect. Advocates of slavery rejoiced. Foes mourned. Enmity between North and South deepened. During the Civil War, immigrants and African-Americans rallied to the flag. More than 500,000 foreign-born mensome naturalized, some non-citizensand nearly 200,000 African-Americans fought for the Union. After the war, the 39th Congress faced the task of reunifying the country and eradicating bondage and its vestiges. On December 6, 1865, Georgia became the 27th state to ratify the 13th Amendment, and slavery was outlawed. The next step was establishing citizenship for the formerly enslaved. Importation of slaves had ended in 1807; most freedmen of the day had been born in the United States. The Scott decision flatly denied them citizenship. Nullifying that ruling would be politically astute for the Republicans controlling Congress. Citizenship begat suffrage and GOP leaders expected that African-Americans would embrace the political party that had freed them. Trumbull, 52, was point man on the citizenship drive. A moderate elected to the Senate in 1854, he had chaired the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee since 1861. The Illinois Republican was well-respected but aloof, lacking the warmth of temperament calculated to win personal friendship, a contemporary noted. The slim, 510 Trumbull bore a cast of countenance which marks the man of thought and was a clear and cogent reasoner but not gifted with personal magnetism. Trumbull may have seen citizenship for freed slaves as a matter of fairness, but he was a white man of his age. Among the strongest anti-slavery champions in the West and known in his lawyering days for representing slaves suing for freedom, he had as a senator drafted the 13th Amendment. Even so, in an 1858 speech, he had declared, I want to have nothing to do either with the free negro or the slave negro. Introduced on January 5, 1866, Trumbulls bill, now known as the Civil Rights Act of 1866, initially sought to make birthright citizens of persons of African descent born in the United States. Trumbull soon realized his bills language was too restrictive, implying as it did that only African-Americans qualified for jus soli. On January 30, 1866, he submitted a rewrite to cover (a)ll persons born in the United States, and not subject to any foreign Power. Trumbulls revised bill codified the long-held belief that children born in the United States were American citizens. As a matter of law, does anyone deny here or anywhere that the native born is a citizen, and a citizen by virtue of his birth alone? asked Senator Lot M. Morrill (R-Maine). Officially recognizing that principle, however, had wider implications, and officials worried about the bills reach. Would enactment of the bill make citizens of the children of Chinese and Gypsies born in this country? asked Senator Edgar Cowan (R-Pennsylvania). Undoubtedly, Trumbull replied. Cowan angrily predicted that the day may not be very far distant when California, instead of belonging to the Indo-European race, may belong to the Mongolian The very idea of granting non-whites citizenship outraged Senator Garrett Davis, a Unionist from Kentucky. Defining the American nation as a Government and a political organization of white people, Davis asserted that when a negro or Chinaman is attempted to be obtruded into it, the sufficient cause to repel him is that he is a negro or Chinaman. Senator Peter G. Van Winkle, a West Virginia Unionist, feared immigrants whose mixture with our racecould only tend to the deterioration of the mass. Van Winkle worried that the bills language was broad enough to cover a future immigration to this country of which we have no conception. Representative James F. Wilson (R-Iowa) insisted the bills reach was not unlimited. According to Wilson, that reach excluded children born on our soil to temporary sojourners, a remote issue, since owing to travel cost and time, most who came to America came to stay. The outcome was never in doubt. Republicans enjoyed a healthy majority in both houses, and the former Confederate states had not yet regained representation in Congress. On February 2, 1866, the Senate passed the bill 33-12. On March 13, 1866, the House approved 111-38. The Civil Rights Bill of 1866 went to President Johnson for his signature. Trumbull, who had met with the president while the bill was pending, believed he had Johnsons support. He felt betrayed on March 27, 1866, when the president vetoed the bill. Johnson claimed that since a European immigrant had to undergo a five-year wait to seek citizenship but a former slave would not, the bill discriminated against large numbers of intelligent, worthy, and patriotic foreigners, and in favor of the Negro. Reaction to Johnsons veto was mixed. The Nation attacked its logic as that of a stump speech, and its law would hardly pass current in a college moot court. The New York Times praised Johnson for rejecting the bills favoritism for the black freedman over the white immigrant. Counterattacking on April 6, 1866, the Senate overrode Johnsons veto 33-15. The vote drew applause in galleries that included some hundreds of men of colorwhose dusky but earnest faces were bent upon the fate of the bill. Three days later, the House overrode the veto 122-41, with the ensuing applause especially strong from the colored galleries. Birthright citizenship was now the law, but supporters were uneasy. If one Congress could adopt jus soli by legislation, a later Congress could reverse that action just as easily. A constitutional amendment, Republican leaders felt, would give greater permanence. They tacked citizenship onto the 14th Amendment, pending in the Senate. On May 30, 1866, Senator Jacob M. Howard (R-Michigan) added language to the amendment granting citizenship to all persons born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof. This provision was, Howard said, simply declaratory of what I regard as the law of the land already. Making that change, he said, would remove all doubt as to what persons are or are not citizens of the United States, an issue Howard called a great desideratum in the jurisprudence and legislation of this country. The subject to clause, he explained, would exclude children born to foreign ambassadors in America and those born to members of Indian tribes Congress treated as sovereign. Neither foreign diplomats nor these Native American tribes were considered subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. Native Americans had to wait until 1924 for citizenship. Pennsylvania Senator Cowan, jus solis most vocal foe, trotted out the bogeymen of the day: Gypsies and the Chinese. The Republican said he opposed citizenship for Gypsies, who, he said, wander in gangs in my State(and) followno ostensible pursuit for a livelihood. This was too much for Senator John Conness (R-California), who knew firsthand about immigration and bigotry. Born in Ireland in 1821, he had come to America in 1836 and had lived through the Know-Nothing era. I have heard more about Gypsies within the last two or three months than I have heard before in my life, Conness quipped, accusing Cowan of conjuring imaginary Gypsy hordes so that hereafter the negro alone shall not claim our entire attention. Cowan, who claimed to be as liberal as anybody toward the rights of all people, saved his strongest acid for the Chinese. [I]s it proposed that the people of California are to remain quiescent while they are overrun by a flood of immigration of the Mongol race? he asked. Are they to be immigrated out of house and home by Chinese? Conness mocked Cowans argument. It may be very good capital in an electioneering campaign to declaim against the Chinese, the California senator told his colleague, adding that Cowan should give himself no further trouble on account of the Chinese in California. Cowan had a loud voice but few votes. On June 8, 1866, the Senate passed the 14th Amendment 33-11, well exceeding the required two-thirds majority. On June 13, the House approved 120-32. The presidents signature was not needed to amend the Constitution, and the 14th Amendment went to the states for ratification. Ratification required approval by three quarters of the states. The amendments contentiousness rendered the process rough. Besides recognizing birthright citizenship, the instrument guaranteed due process and equal protection for all, meanwhile permanently barring certain former Confederate officials from federal office. The 11 former Confederate states, still not back in Congress, did count for ratification purposes, meaning for the amendment to become law, 28 of the 37 states had to approve. When the former rebel states balked, Congress threatened to withhold readmission to Congress. On July 9, 1868, South Carolina, the first state to secede from the Union, became the 28th to ratify the amendment. However, there was a bump. After ratifying the amendment, New Jersey and Ohio had rescinded their ratifications in formal votes by their legislatures. No one was sure what rescission meant, except to rattle the amendments backers. Ratification by Alabama and Georgia removed any doubt, bringing the total of state ratifications again to 28, and on July 28, 1868, Secretary of State William H. Seward certified the 14th Amendment as adopted. It had taken Lyman Trumbull two years, but he had succeeded in his quest for birthright citizenship. Trumbulls conscience, which had told him that people deserved certain basic rights, was his undoing. Seeing radical Republicans impeachment of Andrew Johnson as a partisan vendetta, in May 1868 he attacked his own partys intemperate zealots for seeking Johnsons removal. When impeachment came to a vote in the Senate, Trumbull voted to acquit, effectively ending his political career. He retired from the Senate when his term ended in 1873. Over the next two decades, immigration policy began to acquire its modern form by means of a rolling drumbeat of restrictions for entry. In 1875, Congress barred entry by prostitutes and foreign convicts, though providing no mechanism to determine who was a prostitute or convict. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act barred laborers from that country and denied naturalization to Chinese immigrants already living in the United States. The same year, Congress prohibited entry by any lunatic, idiot, or any person unable to take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge. In 1891, Congress excluded persons suffering from a loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease and polygamists. Imposition of these restrictions created a category for individuals coming to America in violation of these restrictions. Today they are called illegal aliens or undocumented immigrants, phrases unknown to the 39th Congress because in 1866 anyone could enter, and not until the 20th century did Congress begin setting country by country quotas for admission. Deportation also entered the picture, with Congress in 1891 ordering that anyone caught trying to enter illegally be immediately sent back on the vessel Co. by which they were brought in. Any forbidden immigrant found to have sneaked in was to be returned as by law provided. Executive agencies imposed particular limits on birthright citizenship. In 1884, Ludwig Hausding, raised in Germany, sought an American passport, claiming to be a U.S. citizen because he had been born here. On January 15, 1885, however, Secretary of State Frederick T. Frelinghuysen refused to issue the passport, finding that Ludwig was not a citizen because his German parents were not immigrants but only temporary visitors when their son was born. Later that year, the State Department came to the same conclusion regarding Richard Greisser, whose German father and Swiss mother had been visiting the United States at the time of his birth. Customs officials had their own restrictions. In August 1895, California native Wong Kim Ark, 22, visited relatives in China and returned to San Francisco. Customs collector John H. Wise refused to let Wong land. Born in San Francisco in 1873, Wong was as American as Wise, but the customs man, a self-proclaimed zealous opponent of Chinese immigration, could not see beyond Wongs race, language, color, and dress. Wong was imprisoned aboard ship in San Francisco Bay when attorney Thomas D. Riordan, known for his work on behalf of Chinese-Americans, came to his aid. Wong went to court. His case set the contours of birthright citizenship when the U.S. Supreme Court sided with him in a landmark 1898 decision. Writing on behalf of the six-member majority, Justice Horace Gray described Wongs ancestry as irrelevant and found him to be as American as the Fourth of July. Gray wrote that except for the children of foreign ambassadors and Native Americans, [e]very person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, becomes at once a citizen of the United States, and needs no naturalization. To hold otherwise, Gray noted, would be to deny citizenship to thousands of persons of English, Scotch, Irish, German, or other European parentage, who have always been considered and treated as citizens of the United States. Two justices disagreed. Dissenting Chief Justice Melville Fuller saw peril in jus soli for parents in the country unlawfully. The parents could be deported, he wrote, but as citizens, their children could stay. He decried as cruel and unusual punishments any move to tear up parental relations by the roots. Wong Kim Ark, still in effect today, seemed to settle the issue of birthright citizenship. However, the decision may have left open the question of jus soli for the temporary visitors issue and for children of those in the country unlawfully. The Supreme Court did not explicitly address either scenario because Wongs parents were neither temporary visitors nor illegal aliens. They had emigrated before 1882 to settle and to run a business. Birthright citizenship remains a flash point, and full resolution of the issues disputatious aspects may require another Supreme Court ruling, perhaps equal in significance to the Courts 1857 citizenship ruling. Stay tuned, legal scholar James C. Ho, now a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals, wrote in a 2006 law journal article. Dred Scott II could be coming soon to a federal court near you. _____ Still Making Headlines The American argument over birthright citizenship continues, with unexpected twists and a profound constantthe nation is still one of immigrants. The 2010 census counted some 40 million residents13 percent of the populationwere born elsewhere. Rules on lawful entry and stay are strict, but some estimates have more than 20 million people living illegally in the United States. Jus soli reverberates far beyond anything members of the 39th Congress could have imagined. In 1866, the country had no curbs on entry; today, birthright citizenship can legitimize the status of immigrants who entered illegally. In 2017, nearly 150,000 people became permanent residents based on sponsorship by their children, the Department of Homeland Security states. When unauthorized immigrants have a child in the United States, that child is a citizen. Raising a child who is a citizen enhances parents chances of gaining permanent residence. Upon turning 21, that child can sponsor his or her parents for lawful permanent residence. These offspring often are called anchor babies, a term immigration advocates view as pejorative. The Center for Immigration Studies says more than 300,000 American children per year are born to unauthorized immigrants. Jus soli has spawned birth tourism, a social phenomenon and a business. Affluent foreigners on tourist visas flock to bear children on American soil, obtaining a foothold on residencehighlighted recently by federal indictments arising from 2015 raids on Los Angeles-area operations alleged to engage in visa fraud, wire fraud, and identity theft. Chinese women pay as much as $80,000 to companies that handle logistics, providing apartments in complexes boasting resort-style opulence and amenities and outings to upscale eateries, Disneyland and a shooting range, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2015. Miami-based birth brokers charge comparably to provide such services to Russian and Brazilian women. Crowds of pregnant girls come here and then take away crowds of little Americans, a Russian mother who gave birth in Miami told the London Times in 2018. Customers pay separately, usually in cash, for medical care, often obtaining U.S. passports for their babies before returning home. No law regulates such expeditions, as long as pregnant travelers do not lie about their visits purpose. The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that birth tourists have more than 30,000 American babies per year. Since the 14th Amendment enshrines jus soli, only a new reading by the U.S. Supreme Court or a constitutional amendment can change that principle. A 2015 CNN/ORC poll showed that half of Americans favor retaining birthright citizenship, even for children of unauthorized immigrants; 49 percent want the law changed. Congress repeatedly has weighed and found wanting bills to eliminate jus soli for visitors children or unauthorized immigrants offspring by requiring that at least one parent be a citizen or a legal permanent resident. The U.S. Justice Department insists that only a constitutional amendmenta process that requires a two-thirds vote by both houses of Congress and ratification by three-quarters of the 50 statescan change birthright citizenship. Great Britain, originator of the American principle of jus soli, eliminated unconditional birthright citizenship in 1981, limiting jus soli to children with at least one parent who is a British citizen or a lawful permanent resident. Joseph Connor Half Moon Bay, CA (94019) Today Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. High around 55F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Mainly clear. Low 41F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Pipeline 11 March 2019 The 123-room Canopy by Hilton Paris Trocadero is scheduled to be the first Canopy by Hilton to open in France. Slated to open in mid-2020, the hotel is located in sight of the place du Trocadero and Palais de Chaillot in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, a cultural hotspot with several galleries and attractions such as the Palais Galliera and Palais de Tokyo museums. Construction has already started on the property, which is being transformed into an open and inviting space in touch with Canopy's local design influences. Canopy by Hilton hotels are thoughtfully curated to appeal to travellers seeking a locally inspired experience, with unique interiors that are influenced by the culture and history of the neighbourhood. Guests are welcomed by friendly Enthusiasts with expert local knowledge and recommendations and are invited to immerse themselves in the experience with local food and drink tastings and use of the complimentary Canopy by Hilton bicycles to explore the city. Pipeline 11 March 2019 Canopy by Hilton Bordeaux Chartrons is expected to open in early 2021. The new-build property will be constructed in the Chartrons neighbourhood, overlooking the Garonne River. Chartrons is famous for its waterside bars and dining, antique shops and vintage boutiques. The hotel will offer multiple dining options, including a spectacular rooftop restaurant, bar and pool overlooking the river and Bordeaux's city centre. The hotel's design will draw on the area's history as an industrial hub, made famous by its eponymous wine, which is produced in vineyards around the city. The hotel is owned by SAS RE Hotels, an affiliate of SAS Groupe Reaumur France, and will operate under franchise agreement. The hotel is located at 85 Quai des Chartrons, Bordeaux. Canopy by Hilton hotels are thoughtfully curated to appeal to travellers seeking a locally inspired experience, with unique interiors that are influenced by the culture and history of the neighbourhood. Guests are welcomed by friendly Enthusiasts with expert local knowledge and recommendations and are invited to immerse themselves in the experience with local food and drink tastings and use of the complimentary Canopy by Hilton bicycles to explore the city. Now Open 11 March 2019 Radisson Hospitality AB, part of Radisson Hotel Group, is proud to announce the opening of the Radisson Collection Hotel, Moscow. The rebrand is now complete and the hotel has become the latest addition to the group's exceptional collection of premium lifestyle properties. From the impressive, palatial exterior to the luxurious interior (featuring 501 stunning guest rooms and suites), the hotel is truly a Moscow landmark. The property itself is one of the capital's 'Seven Sisters', a family of renowned neoclassical skyscrapers, while the rooms and public spaces echo the special nature of the building - with the finest materials and most exclusive furniture seen throughout the hotel. A signature feature of the Radisson Collection brand is its outstanding service level, and the hotel is one of the most-awarded hotels in the whole of Russia - recognized for its service level, its professional conference expertise and luxurious hotel offers. Only recently, the hotel was awarded 'Best 5 Star MICE Hotel in Russia' at the Russian Hospitality Awards. The hotel's Guest Relations Managers all ensure that no details are left unattended - all to give the guests truly memorable stays. Located on the bend of the Moskva River, the hotel was formerly the tallest in Europe. It remains an imposing presence on Moscow's skyline - and offers spectacular views of the capital. In fact, it's a destination itself, with 26 on-site shops, its own art collection, a diorama of Moscow, an Olympic-sized swimming pool and its own flotilla of 10 yachts that offer city river cruises. With Moscow's most exceptional sky bar, the Mercedes Bar on the 31st-floor, the hotel is the perfect spot for guests who would like to get close to the twinkling stars and enjoy unparalleled views of Moscow. For gastronomy enthusiasts, there are 19 outstanding restaurants and bars on-site, serving a wide range of global cuisines from early morning until late at night. Business travelers can look forward to exceptional meetings and events facilities, as well as Moscow's largest Congress Park (with the capacity for over 1,500 people). Each of the 16 business spaces is equipped with the latest multimedia technology, while the interior design reflects the hotel's characteristic grandeur. The Radisson Collection Hotel, Moscow boasts the ideal city center location, and is the perfect starting point from which to experience Moscow's stand-out attractions - with Red Square, St Basil's Cathedral and The Kremlin all within easy reach. The Radisson Collection Hotel, Moscow boasts the ideal city center location, and is the perfect starting point from which to experience Moscow's stand-out attractions - with Red Square, St Basil's Cathedral and The Kremlin all within easy reach. Pipeline 11 March 2019 With the recent global rise in relocation, flexible accommodation and co-working spaces are fast becoming a new trend across the globe. In recognition, YOTEL recently launched YOTELPAD introducing its unique take on longer stay accommodation across North America. The innovative plug-and-play model gives guests instant access to the local community, maximising the clever use of space and without the hassle of daily chores like cleaning. Home to some of the world's most important non-profit organisations (NGO), many of the largest multinational companies (MNC), top universities and R&D centres, the Lake Geneva Region will soon welcome the innovative brand's first YOTELPAD in Europe. The first YOTELPAD to open in Switzerland in 2020 will be in Plan les Ouates - a 118 PAD new-build, located on Route de la Galaise, Geneva's industrial and business centre. A stone's throw away from large corporates such as Vacheron Constantin, Patek Philippe, Frederic Constant, Rolex, Ralph Lauren, Clarins and ST Microelectronics, making it an ideal hub for business travellers with three private meeting rooms able to hold 12-16 people, a gym, a bar, a GRAB+GO for a quick bite to eat and parking facilities. The PAD will have great transport links to the city and is a 20-minute drive to the airport by car. Pipeline 11 March 2019 With the recent global rise in relocation, flexible accommodation and co-working spaces are fast becoming a new trend across the globe. In recognition, YOTEL recently launched YOTELPAD introducing its unique take on longer stay accommodation across North America. The innovative plug-and-play model gives guests instant access to the local community, maximising the clever use of space and without the hassle of daily chores like cleaning. Home to some of the world's most important non-profit organisations (NGO), many of the largest multinational companies (MNC), top universities and R&D centres, the Lake Geneva Region will soon welcome the innovative brand's first YOTELPAD in Europe. YOTELPAD Etoy to open in 2020 will be in Etoy - a town nestled between Lausanne and Geneva, a 30 minute drive from Geneva airport. This PAD will be the largest of the three, with 212 PADs and will include a gym, a wellness centre, a roof top bar, meeting rooms, a home cinema and space for music and games. In addition to the YOTELPAD, the surrounding development will also include large scale office and meeting space as well as a major business centre, positioning it perfectly as an economic zone between Geneva and Lausanne and an ideal work and meeting destination. The property is close to businesses such as Chiquita, Ferring, Medtronic, Gem's in the area, as well as many outdoor activities to explore. YOTELPAD will provide guests with complimentary electric bicycles and there will be ample parking space. Press Release 11 March 2019 Dubai, UAE: March, 2019.The Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC)has announced a new initiative designed to celebrate the young, homegrown talent working within the region's dynamic hospitality industry. Advertisements Created in collaboration with the AHIC Advisory Board and Partners, the first Arabian Young Leader Award is open to GCC Nationals aged 30 years and younger that have been working in the Middle East hospitality sector for at least two years. Nominations are now open, with the winning nominee set to receive a full three-day access pass to AHIC and enrollment onto the Executive Certificate programme provided by The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management. Jonathan Worsley, Chairman of Bench Events and Founder of AHIC, said: "We're delighted to invite nominations for the Arabian Young Leader Award and encourage hospitality owners, operators and consultants to celebrate the dedication and achivements of the young people working within their teams. "The Arabian Young Leader Award provides a great opportunity to nurture our future leaders and showcase young talent and ideas. The development of the next generation of hoteliers is critical to the future growth of the hospitality industry and we have a collective responsibility to help them navigate these exciting, yet challenging, times of disruption as we strive for synchronised success," added Worsley. The Arabian Young Leader Award has been launched following the success of the first SHIC Young Leader Award, which took place at the Saudi Hotel Investment Conference in January and was open to Saudi Nationals aged 30 years and younger. Yasmin Al Sanea, Human Resources Manager at the Intercontinental Al Jubail, won the SHIC Young Leader Awardand was commended by the high profile judges for her exceptional achievements so early in her career. Prestigious industry leaders are also set to review and award the nominees for the Arabian Young Leader Award. The judging panel includes: Dr Badr Al Badr (Chief Executive Officer, Dur Hospitality), Gasem Al Maimani (CEO, Taiba Holding Company), Marc Dardenne (Chief Operating Officer, Public Investment Fund Amaala), Pascal Gauvin (Managing Director IMEA, IHG), Olivier Harnisch (Chief Executive Officer, Emaar Hospitality Group), Rudi Jagersbacher (President, Middle East, Africa & Turkey, Hilton), Amine Moukarzel (President, MENA Region, Louvre Hotels Group), Dr Scott Richardson (Executive Dean, Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management) and Gaurav Sinha (Founder & CEO, Insignia Worldwide). Dr. Scott Richardson, Executive Dean of the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management, said "The importance of attracting and nurturing young talent in one of the region's most dynamic sectors cannot be underestimated. For young people to be successful within the industry, it's not just about knowledge, but the ability to lead, innovate and share their passion for hospitality". Nominationsfor the Arabian Young Leader Award are open at https://www.arabianconference.com/arab-young-leader-award and will close on March 18. The winner will be announced at a special ceremony during the 15thedition of AHIC, which takes place on 9-11 April at the AHIC Village in Ras Al Khaimah. AHIC 2019, featuring 100 speakers from around the world and expecting to attract more than 900 delegates in total, has been curated around the theme Synchronised for Success. The programme will uncover innovative approaches to business, analyse market trends, foster harmonious relationships between all stakeholders and help them future-proof against evolving demands. For more information about AHIC 2019, visit: www.arabianconference.com External Article 11 March 2019 Travel industry leaders have insisted consumers can have "confidence in how their data is stored" despite growing concern about cyber security and after Google was fined 50 million under Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). However, Sabre Hospitality Solutions president Clinton Anderson said the data breach revealed at the travel technology company in 2017 was "a day of awakening". Sabre's SynXis hotel reservations system suffered a breach in 2016-17 which saw unauthorised access to credit card details, including card security codes. Speaking at German travel trade show ITB in Berlin, Anderson said: "We had a data breach 24 months ago. It was a day of awakening for us." Press Release 11 March 2019 Uninterrupted growth at a high level: despite a slowdown in the world economy demand within the world's travel industry remains extremely stable. As ITB Berlin comes to a close this Sunday the economic outlook for the global industry in 2019 is positive once again. The results of the five-day exhibition on the Berlin fairgrounds: trade visitor numbers rose to 113,500, a three per cent increase compared with last year, underlining the fact that even in times of widespread uncertainty due to geopolitical and economic events such as Brexit and trade conflicts, ITB Berlin has retained its position as the World's Leading Travel Trade Show. Advertisements "ITB Berlin is of great importance, particularly in times of widespread uncertainty. Even in a digitalised world, it is not possible for hi-tech communications to replace the confidence-building measure that face-to-face meetings and a direct exchange between business partners on issues concerning the global industry represent. That is why ITB Berlin functions", said Dr. Christian Goke, CEO of Messe Berlin. The sustained dynamic growth in all areas of the industry in Germany is due once again to the positive situation in the employment market and a generally buoyant mood among consumers. For Germany as a travel destination, the fact that domestic tourism is booming is especially welcome news. Germany's federal states are confident that the record figures achieved last summer will be repeated again in 2019. As regards the global outlook, the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) forecasts that this year international arrivals will increase in the order of three to four per cent. Trade visitors and exhibitors alike were extremely satisfied with ITB Berlin 2019. In a survey they gave ITB Berlin top marks for innovation. The trade show celebrated the successful launch of the Technology, Tours & Activities (TTA) segment, among others. Internationally, the ITB success story continues. Having already established ITB Asia in Singapore and ITB China in Shanghai, from 15 to 17 April 2020 Messe Berlin will be holding the first ITB India in Mumbai. Within the travel industry India is regarded as one of the most important source markets of the future. ITB Berlin, which was booked up months beforehand, is seen as a reliable economic indicator and forward-looking trendsetter of the global travel industry. As a recognised think tank and driving force for the industry, the ITB Berlin Convention was the main attraction again for many trade visitors. This year the number of high-ranking international speakers broke records. The CityCube Berlin, its new venue, was also very well received. Topics focused on by the convention included overtourism, sustainability and climate change, the shift in customer demands particularly in the luxury travel market, and the topic of Future Mobility. On Saturday and Sunday many members of the public came to the 26 display halls on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds to find out about products and gain inspiration. According to the show's organisers, International Women's Day, a public holiday which was celebrated on Friday for the first time in Berlin, had only a slight impact on public attendance. Many people from Berlin made the most of the long weekend and took a short break. In the opinion of Dr. Christian Goke, in Germany the healthy situation in the employment market and the positive consumer mood among the country's citizens is a guarantee that demand for travel products will remain stable. Dr. Christian Goke: "According to Germany's Annual Tourism Report, during the 2018 holiday season more German citizens travelled than ever before. In our society, going away on holiday is practically a basic need that is taken for granted. It is with that potential boost in mind that the travel industry can look forward to business this year. However, in Germany many people appear to be expecting a repeat of last year's record summer weather and intend to make travel plans at short notice, depending on the forecasts." In Dr. Christian Goke's view there is good reason to believe that the global travel industry will do satisfactory business in 2019. On the one hand the travel industry had learned to deal with the consequences of a poorly performing economy, and on the other there was clearly no evidence yet of German consumers displaying the lack of optimism that had now spread throughout the global economy, he said. Between 6 and 10 March 2019 over 10,000 exhibitors from 181 countries and regions displayed their products and services to visitors in 26 halls. The next ITB Berlin will take place from Wednesday, 4 to Sunday, 8 March 2020. Comments: Dr. Michael Frenzel, president of the Federal Association of the German Tourism Industry (BTW): "This year, ITB Berlin once again justified its role as the World's Leading Travel Trade Show. Naturally, there was a focus on many successful business deals and the release of the latest industry figures and subsequent discussions. Happily, people remain eager to travel and the industry is well-equipped to meet the demand. All these things give us hope that despite the somewhat gloomy economic outlook, 2019 will be a good year for the tourism industry. Once again the trade show was a place that inspired visitors to find out first-hand about important forward-looking topics and offered many opportunities to get to know each other better. In a world in which the focus is far too often on confrontation, it is this understanding among peoples, this cultural exchange - which the tourism industry stands for more than any other, and which year after year is why ITB Berlin functions - that is the bottom line. "Yes to openness!" and "No to racism!": that is the clear message that we as the tourism industry continue to carry to the four corners of the world." Norbert Fiebig, president of the German Travel Association (DRV): "ITB Berlin is the World's Leading Tourism Trade Show. This year, it was great to see Berlin becoming the main international and cosmopolitan meeting place of the tourism industry once again. The German travel industry is optimistic about business in a year that will present us with a number of challenges. Despite that, Germans are as keen to travel as ever and the industry is well-equipped to meet the demand. At ITB we exchanged views on digitalisation and sustainability, the main trends, and made progress with our joint development projects. We established many international contacts and met old and new friends." Whether or not youre a sneakerhead, weve all had that shoe store experience as a kid where our parents promised that wed be leaving with a fresh pair of kicks. You get to the store and you immediately scour the walls looking for the pair that will make you look like the flyest kid at school. As a child, the shoe wall looms larger-than-life: it appears to go all the way up to the ceiling and there are simply too many models and colorways to choose from. While it may seem like a futile exercise in decision-making, you squint your eyes to take all the options in, and finally you stumble upon the pair that your heart desires. Once youve made up your mind, you go up to the employee and ask if they have your size in that particular shoe. You watch as they head to the back of the store where they keep all their stock. From there, you wait with anxious excitement to see if they emerge with a box in their hands. If they do, its time to sit down on that typical shoe-store-bench, and try on the kicks. You walk around for a bit, grounding your heels into the floor and shifting your feet as you test the sneakers-- and hopefully, your parents will make good on their promise. Lisa Lake/Getty Images for PUMA Its moments like this that made me the sneakerhead I am today. Being able to touch and smell a pair of shoes before bringing them home brought me a joy that Im sure many other sneakerheads can identify with. Unfortunately, its a feeling that has become nostalgic, rather than something that has remained consistent. Copping shoes has become a chore. Instead of being something that brings me joy, its something that causes me a lot more stress and anxiety than it should. Heres why. 1. Online Releases Online shopping is a wonderful thing. You can buy pretty much everything from the comfort of your own home. When it comes to limited sneaker releases though, the internet creates some pretty frustrating barriers that you have to deal with. Each sneaker company has their own unique way of dealing with online releases. For instance, when Adidas drops a Yeezy shoe, instead of dropping it on the website as per usual, they force consumers to go through a splash page. The splash page acts as a waiting room of sorts. Every so often, the splash page refreshes and allows a handful of people into the actual purchase section of the website. While this sounds like a great idea on paper, its not on a first come first serve basis. Instead, its completely random. Image via Adidas.com This means that you could get onto the website at 10 A.M. right when a shoe drops and still miss out to someone who entered the splash page at 10:45 A.M. As for Nike, they use a first come first serve method on their website-- except, more often than not, the website ends up crashing. Theres nothing more frustrating than having your finger on the mouse ready to pounce on your size and add it to your cart when all of a sudden you get a 404 Error message. Copping the shoes in person at your local Foot Locker or boutique sounds like a much better idea but the problem is that when it comes to some of the best releases, stores just dont receive them. Long lines that result in grumpy consumers have led some companies to put an end to in-store releases on hyped shoes. 2. Sneaker Raffles When brands do decide to release a hyped up sneaker in-store, they do a raffle. Raffles are a game of chance that completely eliminates the first come first serve element. Long gone are the days of camping outside of a store in anticipation of a release. The problem with raffles is that you have zero control over whether or not you get the shoe. Probably the best example of the raffle system is the Nike SNKRS app. This is an online-exclusive raffle system that has given sneakerheads a lot more Ls than Ws. Just check Twitter during any big SNKRS release and youll see a whole lot of upset customers. Sure youll see the occasional dub here or there, but the ratio of losses to wins is staggering. https://twitter.com/_/status/895333563553296385 https://twitter.com/_/status/1093535193368051712 https://twitter.com/_/status/967453156048175105 https://twitter.com/_/status/932683121920679936 Raffles also benefit resellers who dont like to put in the effort when it comes to copping shoes. For instance, someone who simply wants to get the shoes at retail so they can cash in on the hype can easily enter every raffle possible to stack the odds in their favor. 3. Bots Bots are the bain of every sneakerheads existence when it comes to online releases. This doesnt necessarily apply to Nike or Adidas, but more so the smaller boutiques that dont have the backend capabilities to prevent bots from ravaging their websites. For the uninitiated, bots are typically a piece of technology you can download which allows you to track sneaker releases and have the software automatically cop shoes for you. The person controlling the bot usually sets it up beforehand and tells the bot how many pairs of a specific shoe they want. The second the shoe is released, the bot goes into the backend of the website and purchases it faster than any human could. Things are starting to improve on the bot front though. Boutiques are now figuring out which orders are coming from bots and which are coming from legitimate consumers. This has led stores like Deadstock in Canada to rerelease a given shoe after refunding all of the illegitimate purchases. Perhaps the best example of a boutique destroying bot owners was when Kith released a full-size run of Prestos in an off-white colorway on their website. While the pair was simply a general release, many resellers confused them for the Virgil Abloh Off-White Nike collab which typically resells for over $1000 USD. Naturally, the resellers attacked the website with their bots and the shoe sold out. When the buyers caught on to the fact that they had bought a shoe they didnt want, they tried to get refunds. In the fine print, Kith had stated that the shoes were non-refundable as they had an inkling that something like this would happen. Many were angry, but they have no one to blame but themselves. Image via Reddit user CouchMountain 4. Backdoor deals While the previous three hindrances I mentioned are pretty bad, perhaps backdoor deals are the worst because not only are they preventable, they are illegal as well. Backdoor deals are when an employee at a store sells pairs to people before the actual release. This ultimately creates a decrease in the expected stock numbers and a distrust between the consumer and the store. Usually, a backdoor deal will occur when an employee has friends who want the shoes and they keep some of the stores stock to the side to accommodate them. Its not always easy to prove, but some people have been able to catch stores red-handed. https://twitter.com/_/status/848760550750380032 For instance, this man at a Foot Locker took video footage which shows an employee going into the back and handing someone a pair of Jordans despite previously telling the man behind the camera that they had sold out. In another instance, an employee at Shoe Palace was allegedly caught selling Chicago Air Jordan 1s to resellers after telling customers over the phone that they wouldnt be having any in stock. Its these situations that can make copping shoes an absolute nightmare. https://twitter.com/_/status/604775830955302913 5. You cant even try on the shoes anymore This problem doesnt really apply to general releases but more so the hyped-up releases that drop in limited numbers. Whether you cop a shoe via a website, in-store raffle, camp out, or hell, use a bot, you cant try on the shoe before buying it. As I mentioned in my nostalgia-ridden prologue, one of the greatest feelings in the world is being able to take a pair of sneakers out of the box so that you can try them on in the store to see how they look and feel. With online shopping, picking up shoes can be a gamble. Sometimes shoes dont fit true to size and you end up paying big money for something that doesnt fit. The worst is when you buy something that you think will look good but you realize that your feet dont really suit the silhouette. Maja Hitij/Getty Images Even when picking up a shoe in-store after winning a raffle, retailers dont want you trying anything on because of the volume of people in the store. Not being able to try on what you want to buy ultimately takes power away from the consumer and robs people of an integral part of the retail process. Yet, despite all of this were all still going to do everything we can to get our hands on the next sneaker that catches our eye...How about you? Former MLB star Jose Canseco took to twitter last night with accusations that Alex Rodriguez has been cheating on his fiancee, Jennifer Lopez, with Canseco's ex-wife, Jessica. A-Rod proposed to JLo during a recent trip to the Bahamas, a little over two years since they started dating. However, Canseco says Lopez "has no idea who he really is." https://twitter.com/_/status/1104914647025704961 In a series of tweets posted late Sunday night, Canseco claims: "Watching World of Dance watching J.Lo text Alex Rodriguez little does she know that he is cheating on her with my ex-wife Jessica poor girl she has no idea who he really is" "I was there a few months back with her when he called her on her phone." "Alex Rodriguez stop being a piece of shit stop cheating on Jennifer Lopez" (Photo by Jon Kopaloff/WireImage) Additionally, Canseco challenged Rodriguez to a fight and says he's willing to take a polygraph test as proof that he's not lying. "Alex Rodriguez I challenge you to a boxing match or an MMA match anytime you want" This isn't the first time that Canseco looked to damage A-Rod's reputation. In his 2008 book, Vindicated, Canseco claimed to have introduced Rodriguez to his steroid supplier and mentioned that the Yankees Slugger was interested in his now ex-wife Jessica during the late 1990s. https://twitter.com/_/status/1104911787793793026 https://twitter.com/_/status/1104912429857804292 https://twitter.com/_/status/1104913113726488577 https://twitter.com/_/status/1104913333910728706 https://twitter.com/_/status/1104953772017676288 Before Jussie Smollett was indicted on 16 felony charges, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said at a press conference that the Empire actor paid "$3,500 to stage this attack and drag Chicago's reputation through the mud in the process." According to TMZ, Jussie did pay Ola and Abel Osundairo, but it was for fitness and health training. The publication details how the training program was for Jussie to get in shape for a music video shoot which makes the statement by Chicago Police inaccurate. The brother's attorney Gloria Schmidt paid a visit to Good Morning America and explained how the brothers took the payment for their fitness services and did the staged attack as a favour... My clients were just taken advantage of by someone they trusted, Gloria said on GMA. This was someone who the brothers thought could help their career. . . . Someone they had trusted to consider their best interest." "Im left hanging my head and asking why. Why would anyone, especially an African American man, use the symbolism of a noose to make false accusations? How could someone look at the hatred and suffering associated with that symbol and see an opportunity to manipulate that symbol to further his own public profile?" Eddie Johnson asked. "How can an individual whos been embraced by the city of Chicago turn around and slap everyone in this city in the face by making these false claims?" We live in a time where cell phones appear to be pretty easy to come by in prison. If you get caught with one, you're probably going to end up doing additional time. But if you hide it well enough, like Tay-K or Martin Shkreli, you may be able to post a few photos of yourself online for your fans to get super confused about. It's unclear who captured this photo of YNW Melly in jail but the Florida rapper has on a huge smile in a picture that has been shared by the likes of Kodak Black recently. It has jump-started a group of Melvin's peers to support the artist publicly, preaching for his freedom. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu4KJcSldTP In the photo, which has been liked by Meek Mill, Melly smiles big in his white and black striped jumpsuit. Kodak shouted out his cousin-in-law, Lil Soto, who has been accused of murdering three people. Soto is currently at the same facility as YNW Melly. Kodak isn't the only person to have spoken out in support of YNW Melly. Roddy Ricch, another rising rapper, added a photo of Melvin on his Instagram story, telling his fans that he should be free because "he's innocent." Obviously, we haven't gotten every piece of information related to Melly and YNW Bortlen's case. Do you think Melly should be released? https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu2rgLVH1is Nike pulled a fast one during the 2019 Grammy Awards back in February, as Travis Scott's "Cactus Jack" Air Jordan 1 High OG NRG unexpectedly released via Nike SNKRS. The limited edition kicks suddenly surfaced on the SNKRS app during La Flame's performance at Staples Center and, as expected, they sold out instantly. Fortunately, that's not the last time the kicks will release. (Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1: Image Via Nike) If you missed out the first time around, or are looking to strike gold twice, look for the Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1 collab to release again on April 26. The kicks retail for $160. The "Cactus Jack" Air Jordan 1 is built on a white and brown colorway, highlighted by a black, backwards Nike swoosh. Additionally, the limited edition 1s come equipped with a hidden stash compartment around the ankle collar. Check out some of the official images below. (Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1: Image Via Nike) (Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1: Image Via Nike) (Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1: Image Via Nike) (Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1: Image Via Nike) (Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1: Image Via Nike) Jordan Brand is known for some dope special edition shoes that tell interesting stories. Storytelling is an integral part of sneaker culture that can sometimes get lost in the hype. This latest rumored Jordan Brand release is being made exclusively for women and is modeled after an older woman named Gina who has been shopping at Shoe Palace for years. Gina's Instagram can be found @spginagotgame and on that account, she is constantly flexing her new kicks, typically Jordan's, straight from Shoe Palace. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt4QLMhFSZZ The shoe, which is dubbed the Air Jordan 1 "SP Gina," is modeled after her unique style. The whole sneaker is black and silver with red highlights and is comprised of an all-over ballistic mesh, which is quite different from the typical leather or suede that the Air Jordan 1 is known for. Some detailed images of the shoe are here courtesy of @zsneakerheadz. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu1Qz_dln-u There is no release date or price associated with these just yet so if you're looking to cop, you'll have to wait a bit. Although we will be sure to bring you updates as soon as they become available so stay tuned. It's looking as though this could be a Shoe Palace exclusive release but for now, that's just a rumor. CERAWeek is upon us, with oil, gas and coal executives gathering from around the globe to talk about how their industriesand corporationsremain at the center of the energy universe. At least for now. How the world generates and consumes energy is changing faster than anyone imagined five years ago. Experts back then dismissed electric vehicles as an odd hobby, considered renewable electriciy sources as an eccentric experiment and climate change as the bogeyman who should not be named. The same CEOs who rolled their eyes at wind, solar and battery power will brag this year about how they are vital components of their corporations portfolios. Most, with perhaps the exception of coal executives, will speak earnestly about reducing carbon emissions to fight human-made global warming. The times are a-changin, and one test for the top executives speaking at CERAWeek is whether they will get ahead of public and government sentiment on climate change or continue to sound like old-timers reliving their glory days. On HoustonChronicle.com: CERAWeek happy talk is cover for oil industrys doubts When executives from Total, Cheniere Energy and Royal Dutch Shell discuss Fuels of the Future: The new rivalry will any of them ask why an executive from a pure-play wind or solar company was not invited to join the discussion? What other rivalry is more profound than the contest between natural gas and renewable sources to generate electricity? IHS Markit, the consulting firm that organizes CERAWeek, also has a panel entitled, Coals Grand Challenges & Opportunities with their lead coal consultant questioning four coal company CEOs. In an industry that considers lies, damned lies and statistics as substitutes for healthy debate, IHS Markits exclusion of outside voices proves their mission is to retain their coal clients. Every few weeks I get a press release declaring that coal is going to make a comeback, but reports of the resurrection have been greatly exaggerated. Industry flaks can point to the number of coal-fired powerplants China plans all day long, but the funny thing is that they never get built. Texas Inc.: Get the best of business news sent directly to your inbox Even when IHS Markit invites renewable energy leaders onto the stage, the panels are still fossil-fuel focused. The Future of Renewables in the Power Mix asks two wind and solar executives to explain how natural gas offers unique benefits to help enable and support the power industrys shift to a lower carbon future. CERAWeek deserves some credit for getting some things right. Speakers in the past have correctly identified the potential of North American shale drilling, accurately predicted that natural gas would surpass coal in U.S. electricity generation and encouraged OPEC leaders to speak openly about how greater competition has hurt their monopolistic power. This years highlights will be the heretics allowed into the cathedral. William Clay Ford Jr., executive chairman of Ford Motor Company, will challenge industry skepticism about electric vehicles. Energy executives should also listen carefully to the panel of Wall Street types who will explain why only companies that demonstrate capital discipline will see their stock prices rise. Long-time observers should also watch the luncheon with Secretary of Energy Rick Perry for more signs that the former denier of human-made global warming has changed his tune. In recent weeks hes spoken passionately about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and finding ways to recycle materials from old lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. We have great interest in it (climate change), but we just dont talk about it, Perry said in a keynote speech to the Consumer Energy Alliance in November. On HoustonChronicle.com: Pity Perry, Trump wants him to blow up markets he pioneered Hopefully, he will talk more about climate change at CERAWeek, even if he will be calling for more natural gas, nuclear power and carbon-capture technology to extend the life of the coal industry. The only way to prevent the worst-case climate scenario is to deploy all of these tools and more, so Perry deserves credit of moving in the right direction. Perry proves that the best politicians monitor societys pulse and adapt accordingly. But the fossil fuel industry has long shrugged off consumer sentiment because they have held a monopoly in producing energy. Not anymore. Smart energy executives recognize that every day more consumers are concluding that climate change is real. American dont want to give up their luxuries, but they will adopt alternatives and expect their favorite brands to lead the way. With all of the talk about technology and policy, only one of the headliner panels at CERAWeek is dedicated to what consumers want. Thats a mistake. Industries that ignore their customers do so at their peril. Tomlinson writes commentary about business, economics and policy. chris.tomlinson@chron.com twitter.com/cltomlinson Daniel Yergin co-founded the small Cambridge Energy Research Associates consulting firm more than 35 years ago. A Pulitzer Prize and a corporate merger later, Yergin is still the host of the worlds preeminent energy conference focused on ideas and policies: CERAWeek by IHS Markit conference this week in downtown Houston. Yergin, vice chairman of IHS Markit, is recognized as one to the words leading experts and biggest thinkers on energy. His Pulitzer-winning book, The Prize, is considered the definitive history of the oil industry. The 2019 CERAWeek takes place as the U.S. produces more oil than ever 40 percent of which is from Texas but the world is shifting toward cleaner energy sources to help combat climate change. This years edition will explore that dichotomy and the other big issues confronting the energy industry as it hosts speakers ranging from the U.S. secretary of state and the OPEC secretary general to the chief executives of Chevron and BP to the CEO of Amazon Web Services. Q: Whats the main theme to this years CERAWeek by IHS Markit? A: The theme really is this new world of rivalries. Theres clear competition on trade issues and then, more specifically in terms of energy, theres competition among fuels, technologies, and a competition and rivalry about ideas for the future of energy. Q: What are some more specific examples? A: Theres the competition between conventional energy and renewables, and the degree to which theres going to be an inevitable partnership between natural gas and renewables. Theres a competition between gas and coal for global power markets. Its a competition between gasoline and electricity for the future of mobility. How should our energy system be organized? Whats going to be the balance in the future? This is a country in which 80 percent of its energy comes from fossil fuels. But theres a Green New Deal out there that wants electricity to be 100 percent renewable in 10 years. Thats a clash of ideas. Q: Is the proposed Green New Deal entirely unrealistic? A: It has aspirational goals. Energy innovation takes a long time. This isnt like introducing a new app. You have to have scale and reliability. You cant just sort of invent another energy system overnight. Q: Not everyone agrees that natural gas and renewable energy will be friendly partners. How do you see it? A: We see natural gas as a partner fuel. To manage a big, complex reliable electric power system, which people have to really count on, we see this partnership with gas as an important part to the stability of the system. We dont know how things will look 50 years from now, but certainly for the prospective future. Q: Do you still see coal as a viable, long-term industry? A: Clearly its footprint in the United States is shrinking as gas overtakes it, but globally coal capacity is actually increasing. Renewables are growing in China, but China also is adding a new coal plant just about every week. Youre going to see this rivalry and competition between gas and coal as the future for power in Asia. Q: How do you see the current state of the oil and gas sector, especially here in Texas? A: A few years ago the most dynamic factor in the world oil market was Chinese economic growth. Now the most dynamic factor is on the supply side not the demand and its whats happening with U.S. shale. Its quite extraordinary. A decade ago, for Texas to go from producing 1 million barrels of oil a day to 5 million barrels a day today wouldnt have been imagined. We now have a strong, vibrant domestic industry that plays a big role in the U.S. economy to a degree thats not recognized nationally. Q: And what about the West Texas booming Permian Basin specifically? The other thing is the pivot by the majors back to the United States and particularly back to the Permian. The Permian (4 million barrels of oil a day) in its entirety is something that could be expressed in terms of the Ghawar oil field (5 million barrels daily) in Saudi Arabia. The scale of whats happened is just enormous. When you see two companies (Exxon Mobil and Chevron) saying together theyll each do basically 1 million barrels of oil equivalent from the Permian, thats pretty awesome and its a very big signpost for the future. Clearly the biggest energy innovation of this century has been shale. If the Permian were a country, it would be near the forefront of the world. Q: Is there concern about U.S. energy companies depending on OPEC and Russia to balance oil prices by scaling back production? A: More than any other country, Saudi Arabia has taken the brunt of it. With Russia, the cutbacks are smaller. Its somewhere between a dialectic and a dance between the growth of U.S. shale on one side and whats become an alliance between Russia and Saudi Arabia. One of the geopolitical consequences of the rise of shale is its brought Saudi Arabia and Russia together in a new relationship. Its their response to what is a new and largely unexpected reality of the U.S. as the worlds leading oil producer. Q: How do you see the Permians growth potential from here? A: Theres a range of estimates, but given the scale of investments and the pivot from the majors, its going to remain on a strong growth track. By the end of the year, the U.S. is going to exceed 13 million barrels of oil a day. Q: And how do you see the rush to build export terminals? A: Weve always thought of the Gulf Coast as this refining powerhouse. But now the Gulf Coast is going to turn into a giant export machine for oil and natural gas. Its like a new geography is being created. Q: What do you think about shale critics who see it as a shell game of constantly drilling new wells without enough profitability? A: The new imperative is that the financial markets are requiring returns. The industry is having to adapt to that. That means managing cost structure, levels of activity and resilience to the system. This is an amazing new phase in the economic history of the United States and especially Texas, but its one that still has to respond to what investors want. And investors are not just satisfied with growth. They want financial returns. Its striking to see the shift. That said, its no longer barrels at any cost. Its barrels at what cost. What that means is theres a changing relationship between companies and investors. Its about what investors want, and I think companies have found its a tradeoff between growth and returns. Q: How do you see industry concerns about so-called peak oil demand? A: The notion that peak demand is around the corner is just wrong. Were going to see demand grow at least into the 2030s as populations and economies grow. There will be many more electric vehicles in the mix. But demand will continue to grow before it flattens out in the second half of the 2030s. Q: And why will this year feature many more tech companies? A: This is the first time you have Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Salesforce all significantly engaged with the conference. Its this theme of Silicon Valley meets the oil patch. The tech world realizes the energy business is a very big business and theres a huge amount of data to manage. Digitalization and artificial intelligence are all things that will be necessary for companies to be competitive and manage their costs. jordan.blum@chron.com twitter.com/jdblum23 Production for Use Every once in a while a film comes around to remind you what a gloriously bizarre state Texas really is. Welcome to J.R. Bob Dobbs and the Church of the SubGenius, which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival Sunday. Austin may pride itself on staying weird, but this particular brand of strange originated in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the late-70s. Thats when a pair of adventurous pranksters with rebellious ideas, Doug Smith and Steve Wilcox, created a pamphlet advertising a new religion dedicated to combating normalcy. They werent geniuses, they figured. But they did qualify as subgeniuses, hence the name of their agitprop, church-like organization. A room at the front of Angela and J.D. Slaughters Heights home was a blank slate: gray walls with white trim, wood floors stained brown and not a stick of furniture in it. Even a photo of the space staged by realtors for the spec homes online sales listing would have drawn a yawn. But Angela Slaughter understood the importance of having a welcoming spot for her family, friends and even business acquaintances to eat meals together. And after a trip to Scotland and England, she had some definite ideas about how she wanted that room to look and feel. It would be a dining room a formal, but comfortable, place for dinners.. Were a big family and have a lot of kids, so fancy things dont work with our lives, Angela said. On our trip we saw different uses of lighting, paneling on walls, and paper on the walls. The Slaughters had connected with Marie Flanigan Interiors earlier when they wanted interior design help, finding Marie Flanigan and her team on Houzz.com, an online resource for interior designers, architects and contractors. Marie gets us. She understands we live with five kids and two dogs. She has made incredible spaces we feel like we can live in, instead of standing outside, looking in and saying ooh, isnt that a pretty room? Though only two of the couples children are still at home and one is headed for college in the fall, they still have everyone home frequently, and J.D. Slaughter whos president of S&B Engineers and Constructors hosts business dinners. Theyre active in their church and faith-based nonprofits, which all find a place in their home, too. We host a lot and needed a large table. Even if each of our children invites one friend for dinner, well, we have a party right there, Angela said. We need to seat a lot of people in a formal place, but not one thats so fancy that you worry about dripping something on the floor. Flanigan said that her approach is to always start with the bones of the room. I always look at space and volume and how we can improve on the architecture. Then I look at how we can finish it with furnishings and color, Flanigan said, describing how she made the walls the central focus. The room had tall ceilings, so she took advantage of that by adding taller baseboards and vertical strips of trim to create a paneled effect and draw the eye upward. Within each panel, a local artist with Segreto Finishes created a chinoiserie-style mural with trees, flowers and birds. The inside story on the birds is that each member of the Slaughter family chose a bird to represent them. Two of the children are adopted, so they opted for birds native to their homelands Russia and Kenya. A red-tailed hawk and egret represent Angela and J.D. in literal ways. Ive always told the kids that a mom is a hawk who follows you and looks out for you and protects you always, so I had to be the hawk sitting at the top of the tree, Angela said. J.D. is an egret because its a Gulf Coast fish and he likes to wade fish. The kids had fun picking out the birds they were into it. One wanted a duck but it didnt fit with the theme. The mural had trees, not a pond. The mural has a rose gold background and deep blue-green leaves drawn from the deep teal-blue wool sateen draperies that hang from the base of the coffered ceiling, and the combination is breathtaking. We look for that, whats going to be the wow factor and the central focus. It was this rose gold chinoiserie, Flanigan said. A gray rug lightens up the floor, and a long wood table is surrounded by 10 stylish gray upholstered chairs from Hickory Chair. The dark stain in the floor, table and chair bases is offset by a white paint-finished buffet with a gray-wash top detailing and brass hardware, plus thin brass lamps from Visual Comfort a Houston lighting company and a sculptural, gold-framed mirror from Mecox. I have a sense of style but I dont know how to put everything together, Angela said. (Maries team) likes to have a big reveal and they set the table for you and put fresh flowers out. She stages it for you to say this is what your first dinner party can look like. Angela loved the mural not just for its beauty, but also because it serves as the rooms art. Instead of buying and hanging art which is intimidating to me we had it painted onto the wall, she said. The artist was here a whole week, and we watched it transform from plain walls to seemingly Old World painted panels. We have art in a different way. So far, the room has been a hit, Angela said. We have hosted people from our church. We like to entertain and share our space and our family with other people. I love to cook and everyone is very wowed because of that room, she said. We could put a bucket of ribs on the table and people would still think this is a very fancy day. Note: This is the first in an occasional series of stories that will look at how a homeowner or family transforms a single room in their home. If youre a homeowner or interior designer who has a project that should be considered for our One Room feature, write to diane.cowen@chron.com. ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia A jetliner with passengers from at least 35 countries crashed Sunday shortly after leaving Ethiopias capital, killing all 157 people on board and renewing concerns about the new model of aircraft involved in the accident, the popular Boeing 737 Max 8. After taking off from Addis Ababa in good weather and with clear visibility, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, bound for Nairobi, Kenya, struggled to ascend at a stable speed, according to flight data published by FlightRadar24. The pilot sent out a distress call and was cleared to return to the airport, Bole International, the airlines chief executive told reporters. But the plane the same Boeing model that went down in Indonesia in October, killing all 189 people on board lost contact with air traffic controllers six minutes after takeoff. It then plummeted to the ground near Bishoftu, a town southeast of the capital. At this stage, we cannot rule out anything, said Tewolde GebreMariam, chief executive of Ethiopian Airlines, which has a solid reputation for safety among aviation experts and is in the midst of a major expansion as part of its effort to make air travel easier across Africa. Images from the vast, smoky crater at the crash site revealed a grim tableau. Workers loaded black body bags into a truck, while plane fragments and various items from the flight cigarettes, shoes, napkins with the Ethiopian Airlines logo were strewn across the field. Flight 302 a two-hour shuttle between two of the busiest capitals in East Africa was carrying passengers from at least four continents. The dead included 32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians, nine Ethiopians, eight each from the United States, China and Italy, and seven from Britain, the airline said. The French Foreign Ministry said nine of its citizens were aboard. The passengers also reportedly included delegates traveling to Nairobi for a weeklong U.N. Environment Assembly that was scheduled to start Monday. While the cause of the crash was unclear, the disaster is certain to raise more doubts about the safety of the 737 Max 8, one of Boeings fastest-selling airplanes. The plane, delivered to Ethiopian Airlines in November, was new, just like the Lion Air airplane that plunged nose down into the Java Sea in October minutes after taking off from Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. Flight 302 took off in good weather, but its vertical speed became unstable right after takeoff, fluctuating wildly, according to data published by FlightRadar24 on Twitter. In the first three minutes of flight, the vertical speed varied from zero feet per minute per hour to 1,472 to minus 1,920 unusual during ascent. During takeoff, one would expect sustained positive vertical speed indications, Ian Petchenik, a spokesman for FlightRadar24, said in an email on Sunday. Crashes involving new planes in good weather are rare. The Lion Air accident also involved a plane that crashed minutes after takeoff and after the crew requested permission to return to the airport. The Lion Air pilots struggled to keep the plane ascending, with the jets nose forced dangerously downward over two dozen times during the 11-minute flight. The National Transportation Safety Board in the United States said it would send a four-person team to assist Ethiopian authorities investigating Sundays crash. The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement, We are in contact with the State Department and plan to join the NTSB in its assistance with Ethiopian civil aviation authorities to investigate the crash. Boeing said in a statement on Twitter that a technical team was ready to provide assistance at the request of the safety board. In the Lion Air crash, officials are investigating whether changes to the Max 8s automatic controls might have sent that flight into an unrecoverable nose dive. An investigation by Indonesian authorities determined that the Lion Air planes abrupt nosedive may have been caused by updated Boeing software that is meant to prevent a stall but that can send the plane into a fatal descent if the altitude and angle information being fed into the computer system is incorrect. The change in the flight control system, which can override manual actions taken in the Max model, was not explained to pilots, according to some pilots unions. Global alerts were sent to notify pilots flying the Max about how to counter the antistall system. Families of some of the victims of the Lion Air crash are suing Boeing, arguing that the company failed to properly inform pilots of the updated software. Lynette Dray, an aviation expert and senior research associate at University College London, said the Max model has a more efficient engine than the previous 737 aircraft, but its not revolutionary new. Boeing has delivered more than 350 Max 8 models to airlines around the world, including in the United States, Canada and Europe. The planes entered service in 2017, generally replacing older 737s. While both of the Max 8 planes that crashed experienced similar dips and climbs during their ascents, the airlines flying them have notably different reputations. Even before the October crash, Lion Air had a notorious safety record. Ethiopian Airlines, Africas biggest carrier, is widely considered its best and has expanded rapidly in recent years, opening new routes all over the continent. The airline has ordered 30 of the Max 8 planes and had five in its fleet, with the first being delivered last year, according to FlightRadar24. Boeing had promoted the model by minimizing the costs of upgrading, saying the 737 Max 8 required little additional training for pilots who had flown a previous version of the plane. That is believed to have been a key in winning orders from airlines that had also been considering an updated model, the Airbus A320, from Boeings archrival. There has not been a crash involving Ethiopian Airlines since January 2010, when a Boeing 737 crashed into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after it took off from Beirut. None of the 90 people onboard that flight 82 passengers and eight crew members survived. Ethiopian Airlines said Sunday that the captain of the flight, Yared Getachew, 29, had more than 8,000 flying hours and a commendable performance. The plane, which underwent a rigorous first check maintenance on Feb. 4, had flown back to the Ethiopian capital from Johannesburg, South Africa, on Sunday morning, according to the airline. Ethiopian Airlines is very, very highly regarded; its part of the Star Alliance, Graham Braithwaite, a professor of safety and accident investigation at Cranfield University in Britain, said by phone on Sunday. Braithwaite was referring to the airline alliance that includes carriers like Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and United. The lead investigation will start in the country where the crash happened, Ethiopia, he said, but other countries will also be involved Kenya and the United States, independently of Boeing, because the aircraft was made in the United States. Theyll want to work quite swiftly, Braithwaite said. Its in nobodys interest that a failure goes unknown. The priority will be to make sure there is no link between the crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia, and other countries and airlines will no doubt be watching closely, given the planes global popularity. At Nairobis Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, distraught family members and friends gathered at an emergency center established by authorities. Another emergency center was set up at a nearby hotel within the airport to provide counseling. I came to the airport to receive my brother but I have been told there is a problem, one family member, Agnes Muilu, told The Associated Press. I just pray that he is safe, or he was not on it. Flight 302 was popular with aid workers based in Ethiopia who needed to exit and re-enter the country regularly so as not to violate work permits. The executive director of the World Food Program, a U.N. organization, said on Twitter that staff members from the group were among the dead. Aid workers from the United Nations, Catholic Relief Services and other organizations were also aboard the plane. Ethiopia, with about 100 million people, is the secondmost populous nation in Africa. Since elections in March, the new prime minister has been embarking on a series of political reforms, chiefly to officially end two decades of hostilities with Eritrea, a neighboring country and longtime rival. The countrys flagship carrier has undergone a major expansion, more than doubling its staff to 11,000 employees in the past decade, with the goal of easing air travel in a part of the world where flying is notoriously complicated. It added nonstop flights, for instance, from Newark, New Jersey, to Lome, Togo, a hub for the airline, that then continue on to Addis Ababa. In Africa, Ethiopian has a reputation for having a newer fleet than other airlines, for operating flights that are mostly on time and for having accommodating schedules. Braithwaite described Ethiopian Airways as one of the best operators in Africa. This article originally appeared in The New York Times Hundreds started their spring break in heartbreak as they mourned a 14-year-old Jane Long Academy classmate who was stabbed to death during a fight believed by his peers to be over a brownie. The chocolate treat fueled a fatal melee Wednesday at a corner store across from the Sharpstown school, according to several teens who attended a candlelight vigil Sunday evening for the slain teen. Another 14-year-old boy allegedly stabbed Brian Angel in the head. A young witness to the attack said that as she ran across Bellaire Boulevard to find a teacher to help, the assailant left. The kid who stabbed Brian just walked away, eighth-grader Hetly Alverez said. Brian spent the next two days in a hospital and died Friday, officials said. The suspected stabber was arrested Friday and charged as a juvenile. Principal Keri Wittpenn told vigil attendees at St. Lukes United Methodist Church Gethsemane Campus that she learned about Brians death as she left a pediatrician appointment with her newborn son. She drove into a parking lot and cried, Wittpenn recounted. I sat and wept, trying to understand why one of our students didnt come home safely and, as a new mom, how to cope with the death of a child, Wittpenn said. I kept thinking how unfair it was that you sent your son to school and he did not arrive safely home, she added. I dont understand why this tragedy happened, and I have so many questions for God. Pastor David Horton assailed the violence as he addressed the packed church near Brians school. Once more, a moment of rage has crippled our community and brought us to our knees, Horton said. Violence is a virus that cannot exist without a carrier. The boys family were not members of St. Lukes, Horton said, but he offered the house of worship for a prayer service ahead of the vigil. He met with Brians family on Thursday at Memorial Hermann Hospital. I went to go see Brian before he passed away, and it was one of the greatest privileges in my life, Horton told visitors. The boys family at the service declined to comment. Several staff members from Jane Long Academy also declined to comment but joined the throng of mourners who marched down the boulevard to the Shop N Go business along Rookin Street where Brian was stabbed. Iris Ruiz, 16, was among the group and tightly held a box of donations she made Saturday to fund her friends funeral. He always stood up for people and had their backs, Iris said. She had known Brian since seventh grade and the two most recently shared a dance class together. He wasnt fond of the activity, she mused. Eighth-grader Emily Ramos, who lives in the same apartment complex as the suspect, said he and Brian were not close. Emily said she was upset that it took two days for the boy to be tracked to his parents apartment so close to her own. I was scared and mad, she said. The police never looked for him at his house. We had to go call the police. Five minutes later, the apartment complex in the 5400 block of Ashbrook Drive was swarming with police, she said. Authorities have not identified the accused assailant due to his age. He has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, officials said Friday. Houston ISD officials said in a statement Friday that grief counselors will return to Jane Long Academy when school resumes after spring break. nicole.hensley@chron.com 2 1 of 2 Christ Kingdom Church International House of Prayer Show More Show Less 2 of 2 Texas Department of Public Safety Show More Show Less Police say a homeless woman who said someone set her on fire last week actually sparked the blaze outside a west Houston church. Chandel Kenawell, 40, was burned late Tuesday night while sitting on a strip center walkway in the 4200 block of South Kirkwood, just south of the Westpark Tollway. As paramedics rushed her to an area hospital, she told investigators that a man walked up to her, doused her with lighter fluid and set her on fire, according to court documents. A mother of two was arrested and accused of beating her eldest daughter to death with a belt after initially telling investigators the child fell from a balcony at a southwest Houston apartment complex, according to authorities. The whipping is believed to have caused the death of 5-year-old Samantha Bell on Saturday, a prosecutor said Monday at a probable cause hearing. The girl's mother, Andrea Webb, 21, has so far been charged with a single count of injury to a child but that will likely be upgraded to murder pending the results of an autopsy, court documents show. The mother at first said her daughter fell from a second-story balcony at their building in the 8500 block of Broadway Street because "she was scared about being charged with murder," the prosecutor said. She soon recanted as investigators disputed her claim. The bruises that covered little Samantha were not consistent with a fall, according to police. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: CPS caseworker quits after accusing supervisor of lying in effort to remove 1-year-old boy The mother allegedly admitted to striking the girl with a belt as punishment and forced her to sit against a wall without "the support of a seat" for hours, the prosecutor said. She cut the belt in half "so she wouldn't hit herself with it," the official said, adding that when Webb decided her belt was not thick enough she had her boyfriend borrow another one from a neighbor. Defense attorney Tanya Kelley handed Webb a bundle of tissues as her bond was set at $50,000. She described Webb as an unemployed waitress who had relied on public transportation to get to-and-from work. This was her first known arrest in Harris County. The mother buried her face in her hands and sniffled as her hearing ended. The mother's unidentified boyfriend was arrested for a parole violation after the child's death. Child Protective Services spokeswoman Tiffani Butler said the agency had no prior case on the family. A 1-year-old child found inside the apartment during the police investigation was placed into their care, she said. nicole.hensley@chron.com julian.gill@chron.com Congress has another chance to address the issue of net neutrality, and this time we urge lawmakers to get the issue of internet regulation right, despite deep partisan divisions in Washington. The House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, which includes Texas representatives Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, and Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, has a hearing scheduled for Tuesday on the Save the Internet Act of 2019 unveiled last week. We ask those two representatives to put consumers ahead of corporate interests. As weve written before, internet service providers should treat everyone equally, from the largest online company to the smallest user. Early internet pioneers embraced this principled widely, and its one worth preserving still. Its the reason why in 2015 the FCC decided to issue new rules requiring broadband providers not play favorites among companies vying to use the information superhighway. And its why the FCC, acting under new leadership appointed by President Trump, was wrong to so quickly reverse course. Without rules protecting net neutrality, companies who control access to the basic infrastructure of the internet, including Comcast, Texas-based AT&T, and other firms, could essentially turn the digital freeway into a toll road. No broadband firms should be able to speed one companys ramp onto internet and slow anothers, or prevent one kind of content from reaching its audience but not anothers. Weve already seen this happen. In 2011, MetroPCS announced plans to only allow streaming video from YouTube over its 4G network and block all competitors. AT&T, Sprint and Verizon spent years blocking Google Wallet from being used over their networks because the service competed with one they had developed. Telecoms shouldnt have the right to pick and choose the winners and losers over their networks. In the 21st century, internet access has become another must-have utility like electricity or gas and should be regulated like one, especially since it touches nearly every aspect of modern-day life. But once Trump appointed a new FCC chairman in 2017, it rolled back rules subjecting broadband providers to a vastly streamlined version of the regulation familiar to utilities. The bill introduced last week in the House would restore those consumer protections. The bill, which also has support in the Senate, codifies net neutrality rules such as no blocking or throttling into law. . It also would also put broadband providers under the jurisdiction of Title II of the Communications Act, which provides the legal basis to regulate those companies and ensure the internet superhighway remains a freeway for all legal content. . The bills a good start, and Republicans should embrace it. But Democrats, too, will have to remain open to compromise, as a one-sided bill will go nowhere. And thats a dead-end we cant afford. You want to talk about a border emergency? Grab your passport, and take a quick trip with me around the world. Look at the tensions between Israel and Syria. India and Pakistan. Iraq and Iran. Colombia and Venezuela. South Korea and North Korea. Now, closer to home, look at this relationship: United States-Mexico. Thank goodness for good neighbors. Americans really need to stop hyperventilating about the supposed crisis on their southern border better known as the natural migration of people from one place to another and count their blessings. Ill start. Americans are fortunate that Mexican law enforcement provides regular intelligence on terrorist threats along the border. In 2011, then-U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder credited Mexican authorities with helping uncover a murder-for-hire plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States. The plan came to light when Manssor Arbabsiar, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Iran, met with a person he thought was part of a Mexican drug cartel but who was actually a confidential source for the Drug Enforcement Administration. Youre welcome, America. Or as the Mexicans say: De nada. A good friend is an anti-terrorism hawk who studies the U.S.-Mexico border and who recently gained access to a migrant caravan heading north through Mexico. What keeps him up at night are the so-called special-interest aliens from terrorist-producing countries who roam around the border, and what their intentions are. According to the libertarian Cato Institute, as many as 45,000 special-interest aliens have been captured by U.S. authorities since 2007. And yet there has never been a terrorist attack on U.S. soil linked to this population. Yet when I speak to groups about immigration, I never hear a peep about potential terrorists. You know what I hear? This: We have to stop this invasion of illegal aliens from Mexico who refuse to learn English and assimilate into our culture. As the Republican-led Senate pushes back against President Trumps attempt to declare a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border to clear a path for him to build his big, beautiful wall, it seems like a good time to clarify the exact nature of this emergency. The real four-alarm fire is a blinding fear of changing demographics and a clash of cultures that has worried nativists and other immigration restrictionists for 30 years. It was in the early 1990s that immigration from Mexico started surging and the media began running stories in the march to the 2000 census about how the Latino population was swelling and how whites would eventually become a statistical minority. That freaked out a lot of people. A decade later, some people were even more frightened by those massive immigrant marches in cities like Dallas, Phoenix, Chicago and Los Angeles. Over the years, fear gradually turned to resentment. Now resentment has morphed into panic with a dash of opportunism. For those who worry about changing demographics, Trumps national emergency declaration is a convenient vehicle to stop the browning of America. Thats what this whole calamity is all about. And no wall can fix that. This is about pulling up the drawbridge. This is like shutting down Ellis Island 100 years ago because the Italian immigrants who were entering were thought to be of inferior stock. Maybe Republican lawmakers know this full well, and they dont have the character to admit that there is nothing high-minded or righteous about Trumps emergency declaration. Or perhaps theyre so dense that they really do think whats happening on the border is about keeping out opioids, turning back criminals and rescuing children from human traffickers. Syndicated radio host and self-appointed expert on the U.S.-Mexico border Rush Limbaugh sounded the alarm last week when he told listeners: This crisis is transforming the United States into something it wasnt intended to be. Theres no question that there is an invasion going on of people who cant be absorbed or assimilated into our culture. I appreciate the honesty. Limbaugh is half right. Its a crisis all right. But its not about turning away undesirables. Every day, south of San Diego, more than 100,000 people cross the border between the United States and Mexico either to make money at work, or spend it at play. Not exactly a war zone. Rather, its about what America is turning into and those who want to turn it back to what it used to be. What we have on the border is not a security crisis. Its an identity crisis. Navarrette is a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post. History matters. The past is not something that is over with or gone. It is the very foundation future generations build on. Preservation of documents, artifacts, images, structures and the stories connecting people and places in time help provide a civic identity. Our history is how Houstonians know who we are. Houston garners headlines as the rest of the country and world realize how unique we are. People write celebrating our diversity, our world-class cuisine, our business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit, our prominence as the fourth largest city in the U.S. and much more. Our resounding success as a city and the ongoing improvements and development do, however, mean that someone needs to preserve some vestige of what came before. For the last 65 years, The Heritage Society at Sam Houston Park downtown has been the one making that effort. Today, the survival of The Heritage Society is in jeopardy. The board of the Heritage Society oversees 10 historic buildings that belong to the city and also operates a museum with a collection of historic artifacts. Hurricane Harvey flooded one of the historic homes and damaged a number of artifacts, but most critically delayed and caused cost overruns on the ongoing renovation of Kellum-Noble, a project already costing over $2 million. Most recently, the strained finances led to all staff being laid off, even those who had been at their job 10 to 20 years. Some staff have been asked back on a reduced schedule, as contractors. Founded by concerned citizens in 1954, The Heritage Society first saved the historic 1847 Kellum-Noble house. The citizen group, alarmed by the rapidly disappearing historic neighborhoods surrounding downtown, sprang into action. The city already owned Kellum-Noble, but there was no money to preserve or maintain it. From that day right up to this one, the city has not funded the preservation efforts of The Heritage Society. Built when the city of Houston was only 11 years old , Kellum-Noble has the distinction of being the oldest residential structure in the city on its original site. After successfully saving this first house, the society went on to save nine additional historic structures from demolition and move them to Sam Houston Park. Relocating, restoring and maintaining this unique collection of Houston history required a tremendous investment, which was funded through contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations. The result: a long established venue in the heart of downtown, in the reflection of the gleaming modern skyline, where old and young alike can walk into Houstons past. The juxtaposition of old and new provides the perfect environment to learn about our shared history.. The Heritage Society and the collection of historic structures preserved there provides the city with an asset worth many millions of dollars. However, the imminent and profound changes coming to Houstons downtown have created an air of uncertainty for the foundations and corporations that help fund The Heritage Society. The Texas Department of Transportations plan to restructure Interstate 45 will reshape part of downtown. Houston First, which operates the nearby Theater District facilities, and the Downtown Redevelopment Authority have their own construction plans, too. The lack of financial backing from the city also leaves doubt in the mind of donors but the city doesnt need to write a check in order to show its commitment to historic preservation. City Hall could provide incentives for corporate investment in Sam Houston Park. City Hall could provide incentives or facilitate corporate investment in Sam Houston Park that benefits The Heritage Society and release a statement of commitment to that end. The Heritage Society helps protect a valuable asset that adds to the cityscape and quality of life downtown but the true value is not merely financial. Houstons ability to preserve and maintain the house built by the Reverend Jack Yates only five years after his emancipation, along with family heirlooms and oral history, remain a sign of good faith to people outraged about the potential loss of bricks in Freedmens Town. Yates, the most famous resident of Freedmens Town, has a story that captures the entrepreneurial spirit of Houston. His story is just one of many shared by The Heritage Society that can resonate with people of all backgrounds. The majority of the historic structures preserved by The Heritage Society were relocated to Sam Houston Park precisely to escape the pressures of development bulldozers and clear space for progress. The city endorsed this strategy and The Heritage Society procured funding to make it happen. Over the years, the community has donated thousands of precious family heirlooms, unique and significant documents, rare works of art and countless hours of their time and expertise to further the efforts of the society to secure our history. I can think of no greater demonstration of support and endorsement from the public than the trust this indicates. The permanent collection currently numbers more than 23,000 artifacts, ranging from the personal effects of Sam Houston to the material culture of various ethnic communities, including German, Czech, Italian, French, Irish, Mexican, Serbian, indigenous peoples and others. The very depth and breadth of people, from all walks of life, who built Houston are represented, from the enslaved, the working class, the first fire chiefs, the teachers and the pioneering artists to the most illustrious and successful businessmen. Cultural heritage and historical character do fuel economic growth, attract the best and brightest minds and increase tourism. However, the greatest value The Heritage Society brings to the city is through education. People who know their history are engaged, concerned citizens, capable of critical thinking and willing to confront complex ideas and find solutions to difficult issues. The Heritage Society works to empower the future and inspire the present by telling the dynamic stories of Houstons diverse past. I believe this to be essential work for an engaged, capable citizenry both proud of their personal history as well as our collective identity. I think we all have to speak out. Too much has already been lost over the years, and Houstons history is in danger of being erased from the communitys memory. Houston history matters. Thomas is the regsitrar at The Heritage Society, where he has worked for more than 10 years. Morning has barely arrived, and the rancid odor of rotting Sheetrock wakes me up, burning my lungs and stinging my nose another day has passed since Hurricane Harvey tore through the city of Houston. Filthy rainwater drips quickly and incessantly from my bedroom ceiling, filling the four large buckets I had set out the previous night. I open my window and empty the buckets into the flooded street one story below. Above my bed, the decaying patch of black mold has grown incredibly large, and I fear that it will make me ill. My stomach growls. For the fourth consecutive day, I sit down at my round kitchen table with a small can of tuna and a package of crackers, rationing each morsel to lengthen the amount of time before I allow myself to eat again. As I begin walking to my bedroom to check on the buckets, I glance back at my kitchen table and loneliness consumes me once again. Two years have passed since anyone else has sat around at this table with me. Since 10th grade, I have hidden from my teachers, and friends that I have been living alone. As I walk back into my bedroom, I see a new leak develop on my white ceiling, dripping water and dirt all over the floor. I find a pink plastic tub full of papers. As I pull out the papers and scatter them all over my carpet, I see affidavits, fake IDs, court papers, letters of incarceration I think, How much longer will my mother continue to evade the police? Im a senior at Energy Institute High School in the Houston Independent School District. I am honored to share my journey. Before I continue, please remember this: Each of you has the power to help someone beat the odds. I grew up with the odds stacked against me. I am one of six children and the first of my siblings to go to college. I dont have my father in my life. I attended 12 different schools between kindergarten and 8th grade. And, for most of my life, my mother has been in and out of jail. That is five strikes against me. When people think about the type of student who gets in to the most selective colleges in the country, no one is imagining a student with my story. Because students with my story dont go to the most selective colleges in the country unless they have a program like EMERGE in their lives. Most people with my story end up like my siblings have high school drop outs and incarcerated. But calculating the odds has always been part of my DNA. When you spend every weekend of your childhood running around casinos, while your mother gambles away everything, you learn quickly that to survive you have to pay attention. So, when I entered high school, I decided that I needed to attend one school for all four years. To do that, I had to live alone and not depend on my mothers transient lifestyle. For years, I avoided CPS. I learned to ask for warrants when the police came to my door. And I learned that my only way to a different life was going to be through education. When I started high school, overnight, I transformed from a C student to an A student, and I became the valedictorian of my high school. In 10th grade, I attended the information session on my campus about EMERGE a program that prepares high-performing students from underserved communities to attend selective colleges and universities. I heard about other EMERGE students who had gotten into schools like Penn, Stanford and Duke all on full scholarships. I knew this program was a beat the odds opportunity, so as soon as the application opened, I applied. A month later, I was accepted. Over the last two years, EMERGE has taken me to visit colleges all over the country, connected me to a rigorous summer program at Princeton, helped me to increase my SAT scores and connected me to incredibly talented program managers. Maybe the most meaningful person EMERGE has connected me to is Judy Le, my mentor. Judy volunteered to be part of the mentor program this summer, and from the moment I was matched with her and she took me to go see Crazy Rich Asians, I knew she was the real deal. In the last six months, Judy has taken me in and made me part of her family. She throws me birthday parties, cooks me Sunday dinner and even lets me call her and her husband Mom and Dad. This fall, I decided to apply to the most selective college in the country Harvard. Last year, they accepted 1,900 students out of 42,000 applicants. I did the math: Thats 4.5 percent admit rate. The odds were stacked against me. On Dec. 13, 2018, I was alone in my apartment, back at the brown table in the kitchen, when I saw the email come through: Harvard Early Action Status Update. I froze. I opened the email and read every single word. Congratulations, it started. I am delighted to inform you . I got in! There are thousands of students like me, waiting to beat the odds. Please add EMERGE to the organization you decide to get involved with. You just might change somebodys life. Ngo is a HISD alum headed to Harvard University. This piece is adapted from a speech given Feb. 13 at an EMERGE luncheon. I have a friend whos creating an awesome side project: LED signs that you can control to let your coworkers know youre busy. He has a bunch of fun features that he considers important to the type of business he wants to build in the future: integrating with Slack & other online tools, different colors, sync with a Mac & iPhone app, and too much more. But the reality is that even though he gets orders with zero marketing hes still hand assembling the signs himself at his kitchen table. Whats the priority? Writing software for future use cases, or finding an assembler to build the signs for him? When presented like this you, dear reader, will think the choice is obvious. But to that I say: you make the same mistake every day. Where he gets stuck - where we all get stuck - is doing Future You Masturbation. The Big Vision with all the bells & whistles is fun to think about because it gives you all the benefits with none of the work. You can picture how youll look and feel, the money in your bank account, the respect of your friends and peers. At no cost you get to imagine a perfect future that has everything you want & nothing you dont. Because all the bad stuff, all the unexpected twists & turns, the late nights & early mornings, the rejections & betrayals even if you wanted to you couldnt imagine them because you dont yet know what theyre going to be. Future You Masturbation gives you the pleasure of all your future accomplishments with none of the work. Its your brain tricking you into something that feels good today in exchange for lost meaning and purpose and accomplishment in the future. Do The Work New projects are like being dropped in the middle of nowhere with 100 different paths in front of you. You have no clue where any of them will lead & can only see the first 3 steps in any direction. Most of us dont choose at all & instead do more research and planning. To continue the metaphor: instead of choosing one of the 100 paths and beginning to walk we start building a tower that we believe will let us see higher to help us choose the best path. Of course we dont know whether the extra vision from the tower will give us more useful information than walking a few steps down one of the paths, but we do it anyway because because it feels safer. You get to keep all the optionality and the Big Vision cant be messed with. And the entire time youre building your tower of research youre Future You Masturbating so it feels like youre making progress. What we should all do is pick the path that has the best 3 feet. In my friends case: follow the money! People want the signs so find the cheapest and most reliable way to make them ASAP. That requires going outside his expertise though. And, more importantly, it might not work! The path he chooses might be a dead end and will likely have more bumps than other paths he could have chosen. Who wants to work on something that might not even work out? Yet another reason to daydream about the future instead of doing work today. You probably point at my friend & think yeah but thats so obvious you do the thing in front of you first. OH REALLY? Have you ever been inspired to get in shape and instead of immediately running gone online to shop for workout clothes? Started a business by making a website instead of finding a customer? Complained about your dating prospects instead of making yourself more dateable? Emailed someone where a call would be better? Starting goal setting by buying a fancy journal instead of opening a Google Doc ? Put off the correct, hard work for the easier, less effective work? We are all my friend. This was originally published in my weekly newsletter, How It Actually Works. Meaning Without Success The hard work is the direction we need to go. Not only will it get us closer to the goals but it will add meaning to our lives even if we never accomplish them. Whether you have a Tesla in your brain or a Tesla in real life doesnt make a difference in how happy you are. Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print. Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition. If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. EMI Counter-Sues Kanye West For Breach Of Contract Kanye West has been hit with a lawsuit by his longtime music publishing company EMI, alleging breach of contract. The suit , filed in Federal court in Manhattan, follows Kanyes own January lawsuit against EMI in which he claimed that his contract violated California law because it lasted more than seven years without allowing him one moment of freedom. On Thursday, EMI counter-sued, noting that the rapper is not under a personal service contract with EMI, and arguing that his contract should be under the jurisdiction of New Yorks laws. In EMIs lawsuit, the labels attorneys accused Kanye of filing in California in a flagrant attempt to forum shop his way around the exclusive New York forum selection clause and New York choice of law clauses. In its suit, EMI alleges that West failed to deliver contractually agreed upon music and is seeking a declaratory judgment, as well as injunctive relief from Wests lawsuits, as well as coverage of EMIs legal costs. West announced his ninth studio album Yandhi in September, but missed the albums initial release date of September 29th after a baffling appearance on Saturday Night Live where he debuted a poorly-received cut off the album but did not identify it as such. Subsequently, Wests wife Kim Kardashian announced a rescheduled date of November 23, 2018, but that date proved to be illusory as well. In December, Kanye revealed that the album wasnt finished and announced he was heading to Uganda to record material. West has also reportedly been conducting Sunday studio sessions which include gospel versions of his previous works with collaborators such as Tony Williams and Ant Clemons. As of yet, no new release date for the album has been announced. Read the full lawsuit here. photo: David Shankbone [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons CelebrityAccess Share on: Stop & Shop Unions Authorize Strike NORTH ADAMS, Mass. The union local representing some 2,000 area Stop & Shop workers voted Sunday afternoon to authorize a strike. Members of United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 1459 unanimously endorsed the strike authorization at a meeting in Chicopee in response to the grocery chain's latest offer that includes reductions in wages and benefits. Local 1459's vote is in accord with four other UFCW locals that together represent some 30,000 workers in the grocery chain's New England stores. Union representatives are expected to continue talks with the company over the next two days. Stop & Shop employees have been working without a contract since Feb. 23, when the previous three-year contract expired. In a video message on Friday, Local 1459 President Tyrone Housey said union representatives had "soundly rejected" the latest offers by the grocer. "This company has an ideology and believe that because they're the only fully unionized grocery store that you should be taking less," he said. "We believe in fair wages, fair benefits. We want a fair deal ... for current employees and future employees." Stop & Shop, owned by Dutch multinational Ahold Delhaize, has countered that labor costs are having a "major impact" on the company's ability to compete in the changing market. National competitors like Walmart, Costco and Whole Foods/Amazon non-union stores have lower costs and access to lower prices, according to a press release put out by the company. The grocer also claims that full-time associates at Stop & Shop average $21.30 an hour in Massachusetts and that its proposal offers continued competitive wages and that "no one's pay would be cut." The union is objecting to changing the pension to a 401(k) it feels doesn't cover current future beneficiaries; Sunday premiums rather than time and a half (the company says the premium would be equal to time and a half for "current" employees); reductions in sick time and vacation time for future workers; and changes in health care contributions. Workers are also objecting to a rise in prepackaged meats over deli and butcher; the introduction of self-scan positions, carousels and Marty a self-propelled robot that scours the aisles looking for spills and obstructions. The authorization of a strike does not mean one will happen. A strike authorization was also approved about six years ago but workers have not walked in 30 years. Local 1459 respresents workers at the Stop & Shop on State Road and the stores on Dan Fox Drive and Merrill Road in Pittsfield. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- JETTA, FAW-Volkswagen's third sub-brand launched on February 26 in Germany, will roll out three new models on March 22 in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, according to local media. The yet-to-be-launched new models include two SUVsthe VS5 and the VS7, and a sedan model code-named VA3. JETTA is created to fill in the price blank ranging between RMB80,000 and RMB90,000 for Volkswagen's China market. The A+ segment SUV code-named VS7 is predicted to be priced from around RMB80,000, said Dr. Stephan Wollenstein, CEO of Volkswagen Group China, in an interview. Based on Volkswagen Group's MQB platform, the VS5 is positioned as an A+ segment SUV. The new model features a wheelbase that spans 2,730mm, which is longer than most joint-venture compact SUVs on the market. It will be powered by a 1.4-litre turbocharged engine that pumps out 110kW and produces 250 Nm of peak torque, probably hooked up to a 5-speed manual transmission or a 7-speed direct-shift gearbox. The VA3 is positioned as an entry-level compact sedan that is developed on the PQ25L platform. Powering the vehicle is an EA211 1.5-litre naturally aspirated engine that churns out 81kW and 150 Nm, mated to a 5-speed manual transmission and a 6-speed automatic transmission. It will be launched to compete with such models as the Cavalier after hitting the market. Oil2019-Presentation The United States will drive global oil supply growth over the next five years thanks to the remarkable strength of its shale industry, triggering a rapid transformation of world oil markets according to the International Energy Agencys annual oil market forecast. By the end of the forecast, oil exports from the United States will overtake Russia and close in on Saudi Arabia, bringing greater diversity of supply. While global oil demand growth is set to ease, in particular as China slows down, it still increases an annual average of 1.2 mb/d to 2024, according to the report, Oil 2019. Still, the IEA continues to see no peak in oil demand, as petrochemicals and jet fuel remain the key drivers of growth, particularly in the United States and Asia, more than offsetting a slowdown in gasoline due to efficiency gains and electric cars. Global oil markets are going through a period of extraordinary change, with long-lasting implications on energy security and market balances throughout our forecast period to 2024. The United States is increasingly leading the expansion in global oil supplies, with significant growth also seen among other non-OPEC producers, including Brazil, Norway and new producer Guyana. The story of how the United States transformed itself into a major exporter within less than a decade is unprecedented. It is due to the ability of the US shale industry to respond quickly to price signals by ramping up production. The United States accounts for 70% of the total increase in global capacity to 2024, adding a total of 4 mb/d. This follows spectacular growth of 2.2 mb/d in 2018. Iraq reinforces its position as one of the worlds top producers. As the worlds third-largest source of new supply, it also drives growth within OPEC to 2024. The increase will have to compensate for steep losses from Iran and Venezuela, as well as a still-fragile situation in Libya. The implications of these developments on energy security are significant and could have lasting consequences. (The IEA will be exploring the potential of Iraqs energy sector in a report coming out next month.) The second wave of the US shale revolution is coming, said Dr Fatih Birol, the IEAs Executive Director. It will see the United States account for 70% of the rise in global oil production and some 75% of the expansion in LNG trade over the next five years. This will shake up international oil and gas trade flows, with profound implications for the geopolitics of energy. In the longer term, security of supply is linked to upstream investment. Preliminary investment plans by major international oil companies indicate that upstream investment is set to rise in 2019 for the third straight year. For the first time since the 2015 downturn, investment in conventional assets could increase faster than for the shale industry. In the downstream sector, product markets are on the eve of one of the biggest shakeups ever, with the implementation of the International Maritime Organisations new rules governing bunker fuel quality in 2020. Although the shipping and refining industries have had several years notice, there have been fears of shortfalls when the rules come into effect. The IEAs updated analysis, however, shows that industry players are in a strong position to comply in the medium term. As for the first year, the situation will be tight. Prices for gasoil could rise as demand from the marine sector increases. The industry is adjusting, with the largest incremental volumes coming from the United States, the Middle East, and China. The US shale revolution is also altering the picture for refiners. These barrels are generally lighter and sweeter than the average crude slate, which means they require less complex refining processes to turn them into final products. These are extraordinary times for the oil industry as geopolitics become a bigger factor in the markets and the global economy is slowing down, said Dr Birol. Everywhere we look, new actors are emerging and past certainties are fading. This is the case in both the upstream and the downstream sector. And its particularly true for the United States, by far the stand-out champion of global supply growth. Download the Oil 2019 launch presentation. Several journalist groups in Malaysia have come together to urge thorough consultation on the establishment of a press council in Malaysia. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) welcomes the move by several groups, including IFJ affiliate National Union of Journalists (NUJ), Peninsular Malaysia and echoes its calls that journalists must be consulted in the development phases. Following the elections in May 2018, the clamps on Malaysia's media have loosened. With consultations starting for a new press council. Credit: Manan VATSYAYANA / AFP The Malaysian Media Council Journalists Alliance consists of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Malaysia, IFJs affiliate, and other organisations which are Institute of Journalists (IOJ) Malaysia, Gerakan Media Merdeka (GERAMM), Sabah Journalists Association, and Foreign Correspondents Club of Malaysia (FCCM). In the joint statement on Thursday March 8th, the Alliance said that whilst they welcomed the formation of a media council, the proposal submitted to the government by a group of publishers in the media industry was not made public or shared with all journalists. Aside of that, journalists were also not been invited to take part during the consultative process. Therefore, the journalists cannot endorse any submitted proposal that has not been seen or reviewed in detail by journalists at all levels of the industry. We believe it is essential that journalists be involved as they are the largest stakeholders in the media landscape, and have driven the formation of media councils around the world. We also believe that any effort towards the creation of a media council will be futile if its not in tandem with the repeal and/or amendment of certain repressive laws such as the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, the Alliance said. The Alliance also call on all journalists to participate in their Media Council Survey online. This survey will end on March 31st 2019, and results will be considered heavily in the Alliance's proposal. The Alliance invited others journalists groups which has the similar interest to join by March 31st 2019 and contacting them at geramm.media@gmail.com. The IFJ said: The establishment of a press council in Malaysia is an important step forward in the attempts to strengthen press freedom in the country. However we echo the concerns raised by the Alliance regarding the engagement of key stakeholders. Journalists and unions must be engaged and consulted in the process which will ensure a robust council is established that supports Malaysia media." In 2018 the IFJ visited Malaysia following the elections and published a situation report Fighting for Media Reform in the 'New Malaysia' and also published the first IFJ South East Asia Media Freedom Report - Underneath the Autocrats which documents working conditions, journalist safety and impunity in Malaysia. Imperial Valley News Center ExxonMobil to Pay Civil Penalty and Take Remedial Measures to Resolve Clean Air Act Violations Stemming from Deadly Fire Washington, DC - The Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a settlement with ExxonMobil Oil Corporation (ExxonMobil) today to resolve federal Clean Air Act claims arising from a 2013 fire at the companys oil refinery in Beaumont, Texas that killed two employees and injured ten others. In a complaint filed today with the settlement, the United States alleges that the company violated Section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act, which requires measures to prevent accidental releases of extremely hazardous substances that can have serious public health and environmental consequences. The April 17, 2013, fire at the refinery occurred when workers used a torch to remove bolts from the top, or head, of a device called a heat exchanger. The torch ignited hydrocarbons released from the head. EPAs inspection following the incident disclosed violations of Section 112(r) and of the regulations known as the Chemical Accident Prevention provisions. The deaths and injuries resulting from the 2013 fire at ExxonMobils Beaumont refinery are a terrible tragedy, said Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark for the Department of Justices Environment and Natural Resources Division. Todays settlement sends a clear message to companies handling hazardous substances in their operations that they must take the necessary steps to protect their workers under the environmental laws or face the consequences of vigorous enforcement. Additionally, the relief the United States has secured will aid in protecting a vulnerable surrounding community from future tragic episodes like this one. When companies shortcut the safety requirements that have been put in place, especially in high risk situations like this, people can die, said U.S. Attorney Joseph D. Brown of the Eastern District of Texas. It is important that companies understand that there is not only liability in private civil suits, but administrative fines to pay. We cannot put a price on the lives lost, but we hope to deter these kinds of violations to save lives in the future. We rely on companies to carefully follow environmental regulations, which are designedabove allto protect human health, said EPA Regional Administrator Anne Idsal. As the incident at ExxonMobils facility shows, failing to comply with these rules can have devastating consequences. Under the consent decree, ExxonMobil will pay a $616,000 civil penalty, hire an independent third party auditor to conduct a compliance audit of ExxonMobils procedures for opening process equipment at ten different process units at the refinery, and perform a supplemental environmental project (SEP) under EPAs SEP Policy to purchase a hazardous materials Incident Command Vehicle (ICV), valued at $730,000, for the Beaumont Fire & Rescue Service (BFRS). The auditor will also evaluate the companys procedures for conducting risk-based mechanical integrity inspections. The ICV will contain equipment specifically tailored to enhance BFRSs hazardous-material incident response capabilities, including its 24-hour emergency response services from 12 fire stations. From these stations, BFRS provides fire, hazardous materials, disaster, technical rescue, and first responder emergency medical services over 90 square miles containing numerous petroleum and/or chemical facilities. The ICV will enhance BFRSs capability to communicate and coordinate emergency response activities in the event of a fire, explosion or similar major incident. Imperial Valley News Center Justice Department Coordinates Largest-Ever Nationwide Elder Fraud Sweep Washington, DC - Attorney General William P. Barr and multiple law enforcement partners today announced the largest coordinated sweep of elder fraud cases in history, surpassing last years nationwide sweep. The cases during this sweep involved more than 260 defendants from around the globe who victimized more than two million Americans, most of them elderly. The Department took action in every federal district across the country, through the filing of criminal or civil cases or through consumer education efforts. In each case, offenders allegedly engaged in financial schemes that targeted or largely affected seniors. In total, the charged elder fraud schemes caused alleged losses of millions of more dollars than last year, putting the total alleged losses at this years sweep at over three fourths of one billion dollars. Attorney General Barr was joined in the announcement by FBI Deputy Director David L. Bowdich; Executive Associate Director Derek Benner for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Joseph Simons; Louisiana Attorney General and President of the National Association of Attorneys General Jeff Landry; Director Randolph Alles of the Secret Service; Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale; Barbara Stewart CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service; and former FBI director and CIA director Judge Webster and Lynda Webster. The charges are merely allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. Crimes against the elderly target some of the most vulnerable people in our society, Attorney General William P. Barr said. But thanks to the hard work of our agents and prosecutors, as well as our state and local partners, the Department of Justice is protecting our seniors from fraud. The Trump administration has placed a renewed focus on prosecuting those who prey on the elderly, and the results of todays sweep make that clear. Today we are announcing the largest single law enforcement action against elder fraud in American history. This years sweep involves 13 percent more criminal defendants, 28 percent more in losses, and twice the number of fraud victims as last years sweep. I want to thank the Departments Consumer Protection Branch, which led this effort, together with the Departments Criminal Division, the more than 50 U.S. Attorneys offices, and the state and local partners who helped to make these results possible. Together, we are bringing justice and peace of mind to America's seniors. A list of Elder Fraud cases by the Department of Justice is provided on this interactive map. Since President Trump signed the bipartisan Elder Abuse Prevention and Prosecution Act (EAPPA) into law, the Department of Justice has participated in hundreds of enforcement actions in criminal and civil cases that targeted or disproportionately affected seniors. The Justice Department has likewise conducted hundreds of trainings and outreach sessions across the country since the passage of the Act. In February 2018, the Attorney General announced the largest elder fraud enforcement action in American history at the time, charging more than 200 defendants in a nationwide elder fraud sweep. In November 2018, Department of Justice and Department of Agriculture hosted the first Rural and Tribal Elder Justice Summit in Des Moines, Iowa. The Summit focused on supporting the efforts of elder justice professionals to combat elder abuse and financial exploitation in rural and tribal communities. Technical-Support Takedown 2019 As part of the sweep, the Department of Justice and its law enforcement partners announced a tech-support fraud takedown, designed to combat an increasingly common form of elder fraud in which criminals trick victims into giving remote access to their computers under the guise of providing technical support. In 2018, technical-support schemes generated over 142,000 consumer complaints to the FTCs Consumer Sentinel Network. Consumers 60 and over filed more loss reports on tech-support scams from 2015 to 2018 than on any other fraud category reported to the Consumer Sentinel Network. The Department of Justices Consumer Protection Branch, the Criminal Divisions Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section, and 10 U.S. Attorneys Offices brought cases against perpetrators of technical-support fraud. The FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and HSI partnered with the Justice Department in investigating these cases, and the FTC, several state Attorneys General and the U.K.s City of London Police joined the effort by initiating their own cases. A fact-sheet with technical-support fraud case information can be found here. Were committed to investigating financial fraud schemes against the elderly, said FBI Director Christopher Wray. Weve dedicated additional resources to address a wide range of elder fraud threats, including technical-support fraud. Victims of these schemes often lose thousands of dollars or more apiece, which can cause significant harm to elderly victims and their caretakers. If anyone suspects that they or a senior they know may be a victim of fraud, we encourage them to report it to the FBIs Internet Crime Complaint Center. Transnational Criminal Organizations Committing Elder Fraud The sweep announced today brings the Postal Inspection Service to a landmark point in its battle against transnational criminal organizations committing mass mailing elder fraud, said Chief Postal Inspector Barksdale. In a recently unsealed case, two Canadians pled guilty and, thanks to the Spanish National Police, another was arrested in Spain for an alleged mail fraud scheme involving $180 million in losses to over one million victims. The Inspection Service has been at the forefront of protecting customers from fraud schemes for many years and we will continue to investigate and stop those who exploit older Americans for their own illegal gains. A fact-sheet with cases on mass mailing fraud can be found here. Many of the cases brought as part of the elder fraud sweep announced today including many of the technical-support fraud cases allegedly involved transnational criminal organizations. The Department of Justices Office of International Affairs worked with numerous countries to secure evidence and capture defendants. During the sweep period, defendants in elder fraud cases were extradited from Canada, The Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Poland. A fact-sheet with examples of a few elder fraud cases involving extradition in which the Office of International Affairs played a substantial role can be found here. Money Mule Initiative In addition, in a novel approach, the Department of Justice and its law enforcement partners took comprehensive action against the money mule network that facilitates foreign-based elder fraud. Generally, a money mule is someone who transfers money acquired illegally in person, through the mails, or electronically, on behalf of others. Across the country, money mules receive fraud proceeds directly from victims and forward proceeds to perpetrators and ringleaders of fraud schemesindividuals who often reside in other countries. As part of the sweep, the FBI and the Postal Inspection Service took action against over 600 alleged money mules nationwide by conducting interviews, issuing warning letters, and bringing civil and criminal cases. Secret Service agents aided these efforts by seizing and forfeiting elder fraud proceeds in transit from victims to perpetrators. Homeland Security Investigations is committed to the fight against elder fraud in conjunction with the Justice Department, and our other law enforcement partners, said Executive Associate Director Derek Benner. HSI Special Agents across the country have worked to address illegal fund transfers, fraudsters operating technical-support schemes, and elder fraud of all varieties. We will continue to use creative solutions to protect our nations seniors from fraud; financial security is critical to homeland security. The Secret Service is committed to aggressively investigating and disrupting organized criminal groups who prey on our most vulnerable citizens, said Secret Service Director Randolph Tex Alles. The results of the elder fraud sweep announced today demonstrate what can be achieved though incredible partnerships between federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. Public Education The Department of Justice and its law enforcement partners focused the sweeps public education campaign on technical-support fraud, given the widespread harm such schemes are causing. The FTC and State Attorneys General had an important role in designing and disseminating messaging material intended to warn consumers and businesses. Public education outreach is being conducted by various state and federal agencies, including Senior Corps, a national service program administered by the federal agency the Corporation for National and Community Service, to educate seniors and prevent further victimization. The Senior Corps program engages more than 245,000 older adults in intensive service each year, who in turn, serve more than 840,000 additional seniors, including 332,000 veterans. Information on Senior Corps efforts to reduce elder fraud can be found here. Global Efforts Exceptional assistance from foreign law enforcement partners amplified the effectiveness of the Departments initiative. The sweep announced today benefited greatly from the work of the International Mass-Marketing Fraud Working Group (IMMFWG), a network of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies from Belgium, Canada, Europol, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. The IMMFWG is co-chaired by the Department of Justice and the FTC, and law enforcement in the United Kingdom, and serves as a model for international cooperation against specific threats that endanger the financial well-being of each member countrys residents. Due to the IMMFWGs network of law enforcement, simultaneous technical-support fraud consumer education campaigns are being released in Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Elder Fraud Complaints Elder fraud complaints may be filed with the FTC at www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov or at 877-FTC-HELP. The Department of Justice provides a variety of resources relating to elder fraud victimization through its Office of Victims of Crime, which can be reached at www.ovc.gov. Imperial Valley News Center Mozambiques Former Finance Minister Indicted Alongside Other Former Mozambican Officials, Business Executives, and Investment Bankers Washington, DC - A four-count indictment was returned on Dec. 19, 2018, by a grand jury in the Eastern District of New York, charging two executives of a shipbuilding company, three former senior Mozambican government officials, and three former London-based investment bankers for their roles in a $2 billion fraud and money laundering scheme that victimized investors from the United States and elsewhere. Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue of the Eastern District of New York, and Assistant Director in Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. of the FBIs New York Field Office made the announcement. The indictment unsealed today alleges a brazen international criminal scheme in which corrupt Mozambique government officials, corporate executives, and investment bankers stole approximately $200 million in loan proceeds that were meant to benefit the people of Mozambique, said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski. The Department of Justice and our law enforcement partners are dedicated to using all tools at our disposal to prosecute those who engage in money laundering, financial fraud and corruption at the expense of U.S. investors, wherever those individuals may be located. As charged in the indictment, the defendants orchestrated an immense fraud and bribery scheme that took advantage of the U.S. financial system, defrauded its investors and adversely impacted the economy of Mozambique, in order to line their own pockets with hundreds of millions of dollars, said U.S. Attorney Donoghue. This indictment underscores the Department of Justices continuing efforts to end such fraudulent and corrupt practices and to hold those responsible to account for their crimes. Todays indictment proves that no matter who you are, or what position of power youre in, youre not immune from prosecution, said FBI Assistant Director in Charge Sweeney. The FBI will continue to use all resources at our disposal to uncover crimes of this nature and expose them for what they really are. Jean Boustani, 40, a citizen of Lebanon who worked for the Privinvest Group, a United Arab Emirates-based shipbuilding company, was arrested at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on Jan. 2, 2019 and arraigned later that day in the Eastern District of New York on charges that he conspired with others to commit one count of wire fraud, one count of securities fraud, and one count of money laundering in connection with $200 million in bribe and kickback payments he helped organize relating to three loans totaling more than $2 billion that were marketed and sold to U.S. victim investors. Boustani has pleaded not guilty to the charges; a trial date has not yet been set. Alongside Boustani, Privinvests chief financial officer Najib Allam, 58, a citizen of Lebanon, was charged with the same counts. Allam is alleged to have worked with Boustani to make the bribe and kickback payments. Allam is not currently in U.S. custody. Manuel Chang, 63, the former Mozambican minister of finance who is a citizen and resident of Mozambique, was charged with the same counts as Boustani, namely one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Chang was arrested at the request of the United States by South African authorities on Dec. 29, 2018. The United States is seeking Changs extradition. Antonio do Rosario, 44, a citizen and resident of Mozambique, was an official with Mozambiques State Information and Security Service and a director and officer of each of the three Mozambican entities that obtained the maritime loans. Do Rosario was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with his receipt of bribe payments relating to the loans. Do Rosario is not currently in U.S. custody. Teofilo Nhangumele, 50, a citizen and resident of Mozambique, acted on behalf of the Office of the President of Mozambique. Nhangumele was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with his negotiation and receipt of bribe payments relating to the loans. Nhangumele is not currently in U.S. custody. The three investment bankers, Andrew Pearse, 49; Surjan Singh, 44; and Detelina Subeva, 37, each of whom is a resident of the United Kingdom, were also charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. In addition, each banker was charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery and internal controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in connection with their roles in facilitating bribe payments to government officials in Mozambique and for circumventing the internal accounting controls of a foreign investment bank that arranged two of the loans. At the time, Pearse and Singh were managing directors of the investment bank, and Subeva was a vice president. Pearse, Singh and Subeva were arrested on Jan. 3, in the United Kingdom, all pursuant to provisional arrest warrants issued at the request of the United States. The United States is seeking their extradition. The indictment alleges that between approximately 2013 and 2016, the co-conspirators organized for more than $2 billion in three loans to be arranged by Investment Bank and another foreign bank. The loans were made to companies owned and controlled by the Mozambican government: Proindicus S.A., Empresa Mocambicana de Atum, S.A. (EMATUM) and Mozambique Asset Management (MAM). The money was purportedly to be used to fund three maritime projects for which the shipbuilder, Privinvest, would provide the equipment and services. Proindicus was to perform coastal surveillance, EMATUM was to engage in tuna fishing, and MAM was to build and maintain shipyards. Chang, in his capacity as minister of finance, signed guarantees on behalf of Mozambique for all three fraudulent loans. Singh signed the agreements on behalf of the investment bank for the two loans on which the bank acted as primary arranger. The investment bank subsequently paid the loans directly to Privinvest. As further alleged in the indictment, the co-conspirators facilitated Privinvests criminal diversion of more than $200 million in loan proceeds, including more than $150 million in bribe payments to Chang and other Mozambican government officials that Privinvest paid to ensure that Mozambique would enter into the loan arrangements. In addition to the bribe payments, the alleged fraud also included approximately $50 million in kickback payments to Pearse, Singh, and Subeva, who assisted the conspirators to obtain financing for the loans through their investment bank and a second foreign investment bank. Pearse, Singh, and Subeva, along with the other members of the conspiracy, allegedly subsequently sold the loans to investors worldwide, including in the United States. Moreover, the participants in the scheme allegedly conspired to defraud these investors by misrepresenting how the loan proceeds would be used, the amount and maturity dates of other loans and debt Mozambique was obligated to pay, and the ability of Mozambique or its state-owned entities to repay the loans. Mozambique and its state-owned entities have thus far allegedly failed to make more than $700 million of repayments that have become due on the loans. The charges in the indictment are merely allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. The investigation is being conducted by the FBIs New York Field Office. The governments case is being prosecuted by the Criminal Divisions Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS) and Fraud Section, and the Business and Securities Fraud Section of the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of New York. MLARS Trial Attorneys Sean W. ODonnell and Margaret A. Moeser, Fraud Section Trial Attorney David M. Fuhr, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew S. Amatruda and Mark E. Bini of the Eastern District of New York are prosecuting the case. The Criminal Divisions Office of International Affairs provided critical assistance in this case. The Department appreciates the significant cooperation and assistance provided by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Department also appreciates the assistance provided by law enforcement authorities in the United Kingdom and in South Africa. MLARSs Bank Integrity Unit investigates and prosecutes banks and other financial institutions, including their officers, managers, and employees, whose actions threaten the integrity of the individual institution or the wider financial system. Imperial Valley News Center Seven People, Including Three Filipinos, Charged with Fraudulently Selling Jewelry Imported from the Philippines as Native American-Made Phoenix, Arizona - On Feb. 26, a federal grand jury in Phoenix, Arizona returned a 38-count indictment against U.S. and Philippines-based conspirators for operating a fraudulent scheme to import Native American-style jewelry and sell it to retail stores and individuals across the southwest United States as authentic jewelry made by Native Americans. The conspirators allegedly perpetrated this international fraud and money laundering scheme for several years in violation of federal laws, including the Indian Arts and Crafts Act (IACA). Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth A. Strange of the District of Arizona, Assistant Director Edward Grace of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Office of Law Enforcement and Special Agent in Charge A. Scott Brown of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Phoenix Field Office made the announcement. According to the indictment, the defendants and their conspirators used various jewelry businessesincluding Last Chance Jewelers and LMN Jewelersto design and manufacture jewelry in the Native-American style at factories in the Philippines where Filipino jewelry-makers made all of the jewelry. The conspirators allegedly took several measures to ensure that the jewelry resembled authentic Native American-made jewelry, including copying jewelry designs from genuine Native American artists, using traditional Native American motifs and symbols in the jewelry, and stamping the jewelry with the initials of alleged Native American artists. According to the indictment, the jewelry was then imported into the United States by FedEx, or smuggled into the United States by hand or through the Philippines Postal System, to end destinations in Arizona. From there, it was allegedly advertised and sold to the general public as authentic jewelry made by Native Americans, at jewelry and crafts stores that purported to specialize in Native American pieces. The indictment alleges that none of these jewelry items were indelibly marked with the country of origin as required by customs law. The indictment alleges that Richard Dennis Nisbet, 70, and his daughter Laura Marye Lott, 31, both of Peoria, Arizona, conspired with others to design and manufacture the Native American-style jewelry in the Philippines and import the jewelry to the United States. Lott then allegedly delivered the jewelry to retail stores in Arizona, Texas, and other states and collected payments. Christian Coxon, 45, of Selma, Texas, was the owner and operator of Turquoise River Trading Company, a jewelry store in San Antonio, Texas that claimed to specialize in Indian-made jewelry. Waleed Sarrar, 43, of Chandler, Arizona, owned and operated Scottsdale Jewels LLC, a jewelry store in Scottsdale, Arizona that advertised as selling authentic Indian-made jewelry. According to the indictment, Coxon and Sarrar conspired with Nisbet, Lott, and others to pass off imitation jewelry manufactured abroad to the public as authentic Native American-made jewelry. Additionally, Mency Remedio, a factory manager in the Philippines, and Orlando Abellanosa and Ariel Adlawan Canedo, both of whom worked as jewelry smiths in the Philippines for the operation, were also charged with participating in the multi-year fraud and money laundering schemes. The IACA prohibits the offer or display for sale, or the sale of any good in a manner that falsely suggests that it is Indian produced, an Indian product, or the product of a particular Indian and Indian tribe. The law is designed to prevent products from being marketed as Indian made, when the products are not, in fact, made by Indians. It covers all Indian and Indian-style traditional and contemporary arts and crafts produced after 1935, and broadly applies to the marketing of arts and crafts by any person in the United States. The IACA provides critical economic benefits for Native American cultural development by recognizing that forgery and fraudulent arts and crafts diminish the livelihood of Native American artists and craftspeople by lowering both market prices and standards. An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. This case was investigated by the FWS Office of Law Enforcement for the Southwest Region and HSI Phoenix, with assistance from the Arizona Game and Fish Department, the Bureau of Land Management Office of Law Enforcement and Security and the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, the U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigations and the Texas Game Wardens. Trial Attorney Mona Sahaf of the Criminal Divisions Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Peter Sexton and Mark Wenker of the District of Arizona are prosecuting the case. Imperial Valley News Center Former Border Patrol Agent Sentenced to More Than Nine Years in Prison for Accepting Bribes Houston, Texas - Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick for the Southern District of Texas, Special Agent in Charge Perrye Turner of the FBIs Houston Field Office and Special Agent in Charge Juan Benavides of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) made the announcement. Robert Hall, 45, of La Feria, Texas, a former BPA, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr. of the Southern District of Texas, who also ordered Hall to pay a fine in the amount of $20,000. Hall pleaded guilty to one count of bribery on Sept. 14, 2018, which was unsealed today. According to the plea documents, between 2004 and 2014, Hall, working with others including Daniel Hernandez, 46, of Roseville, California, facilitated the trafficking of illegal drugs, including marijuana, into the United States from Mexico on behalf of a drug trafficking organization (DTO). In exchange for cash payments, he provided an individual in the DTO with CBP sensor locations, the locations of unpatrolled roads at or near the U.S.-Mexico border, the number of BPAs working in a certain area, keys to unlock CBP locks located on gates to ranch fences along the border and CBP radios. In total, Hall accepted over $50,000 in cash from the DTO in exchange for using his position as a BPA to enable the DTOs drug shipments to cross the border into Texas without law enforcement detection. Daniel Hernandez pleaded guilty Feb. 5 to one count of conspiracy to bribe a public official before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy K. Johnson in the Southern District of Texas. Sentencing has been scheduled for May 9, before U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller, who accepted the plea on Feb. 8. The FBI investigated the case with the assistance of CBP OPR. Trial Attorneys Rebecca Moses and Peter M. Nothstein of the Criminal Divisions Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie N. Searle of the Southern District of Texas are prosecuting the case. Mobile Telesystems Pjsc and Its Uzbek Subsidiary Enter into Resolutions of $850 Million with the Department of Justice for Paying Bribes in Uzbekistan Washington, DC - Moscow-based Mobile TeleSystems PJSC (MTS), the largest mobile telecommunications company in Russia and an issuer of publicly traded securities in the United States, and its wholly owned Uzbek subsidiary, KOLORIT DIZAYN INK LLC (KOLORIT), have entered into resolutions with the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and agreed to pay a combined total penalty of $850 million to resolve charges arising out of a scheme to pay bribes in Uzbekistan. In addition, charges were unsealed today against a former Uzbek official who is the daughter of the former president of Uzbekistan and against the former CEO of Uzdunrobita LLC, another MTS subsidiary, for their participation in a bribery and money laundering scheme involving more than $865 million in bribes from MTS, VimpelCom Limited (now VEON) and Telia Company AB (Telia) to the former Uzbek official in order to secure her assistance in entering and maintaining their business operations in Uzbekistans telecommunications market. Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman of the Southern District of New York, Special Agent in Charge Raymond Villanueva of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C. and Chief Don Fort of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) made the announcement. Gulnara Karimova, 46, a citizen of Uzbekistan, was charged in an indictment filed in the Southern District of New York on March 7 with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Karimova is a former Uzbek official who allegedly had influence over the Uzbek governmental body that regulated the telecom industry. Bekhzod Akhmedov, 44, a citizen of Uzbekistan and the former Uzbek executive, was charged in the same indictment with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), two counts of violating the FCPA, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Karimovas and Akhmedovs case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood of the Southern District of New York. Gulnara Karimova stands accused of exploiting her official position to solicit and accept more than $865 million in bribes from three publicly traded telecom companies, and then laundering those bribes through the U.S. financial system, said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski. The indictment and corporate resolution announced today, together with two prior corporate resolutions involving bribes allegedly paid to Karimova, demonstrate the Departments comprehensive approach to foreign corruption: we will aggressively pursue both corrupt foreign officials and the companies and individuals who bribe them in order to gain unfair business advantages, and we will do everything we can to keep the proceeds of that corruption out of the U.S. financial system. This is the third installment in a trilogy of cases arising from an almost $1 billion bribery scheme that reached the highest echelons of the Uzbekistan government and was orchestrated by some of the largest telecommunications companies in the world, said U.S. Attorney Berman. By funneling multimillion-dollar bribe payments through the U.S. financial system, the companies and individual defendants corruptly tried to tip the global economy in their favor and line their own pockets. But they are now paying the price. Today, my Office and our law enforcement partners are sending a bold, unequivocal message that the U.S. financial system is not in business to enable foreign bribery or money laundering. This Office stands ready to prevent, prosecute, and penalize foreign corrupt practices wherever in the world we find them. Corruption of this level and reach poisons our integrity as a participant in the global marketplace, said HSI Washington Special Agent in Charge Villanueva. Thanks to our skillful and collaborative investigators at HSI and the IRS-CI, Karimova and Ahkmedovs exploitive crimes will be presented before the just eye of our courts and no longer will such corruption be permitted to metastasize across our borders. With the increase in globalization and ease with which funds can be moved, criminals think their financial transactions cannot be trackedbut they would be wrong, said IRS-CI Chief Fort. We will continue to investigate violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to ensure our countrys financial institutions are not used for devious purposes. We are committed to aggressively pursuing all who engage in corruption, money laundering, and bribery for their own personal gain and at the expense of the U.S. government. According to the indictment against Karimova and Akhmedov, in or around the early 2000s, they agreed that Akhmedov would solicit and facilitate corrupt bribe payments from telecommunications companies seeking to enter the Uzbek market. In exchange, Karimova allegedly used her influence over Uzbek authorities to help the telecommunications companies obtain and retain lucrative business opportunities in the Uzbek telecommunications market. In total, Akhmedov conspired with the telecom companies and others to pay Karimova more than $865 million in bribes, and Akhmedov and Karimova conspired with others to launder and conceal those funds to, from and through bank accounts in the United States, in order to promote the ongoing bribery scheme, the indictment alleges. The charges in the indictment are merely allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. MTS entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice in connection with a criminal information filed yesterday in the Southern District of New York charging the company with one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery and books and records provisions of the FCPA and one count of violating the internal controls provisions of the FCPA. KOLORIT pleaded guilty to a one-count criminal information filed in the Southern District of New York, charging the company with conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery and books and records provisions of the FCPA. Pursuant to its agreement with the department, MTS agreed to pay a total criminal penalty of $850 million to the United States, including a $500,000 criminal fine and $40 million in criminal forfeiture that MTS agreed to pay on behalf of KOLORIT. MTS also agreed to the imposition of an independent compliance monitor for a term of three years and to implement rigorous internal controls and cooperate fully with the Departments ongoing investigation, including its investigation of individuals such as Akhmedov and Karimova. The case against MTS and KOLORIT is assigned to U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken of the Southern District of New York. In related proceedings, MTS reached a settlement with the SEC. Under the terms of its agreement with the SEC, MTS agreed to pay a $100 million civil penalty. Consistent with Coordination of Corporate Resolution Penalties in Parallel and/or Joint Investigations and Proceedings Arising from the Same Misconduct (Justice Manual 1-12.100), the Department of Justice agreed to credit the civil penalty paid to the SEC as part of its agreement with MTS. Thus, the combined total amount of criminal and regulatory penalties paid by MTS and KOLORIT to U.S. authorities will be $850 million. According to the companies admissions, MTS and KOLORIT, through various managers and employees within MTS, MTSs Uzbek subsidiaries Uzdunrobita LLC and KOLORIT, and other affiliated entities, paid approximately $420 million in bribes to Karimova, who had influence over the Uzbek governmental body that regulated the telecom industry. The bribes were paid on multiple occasions between 2004 and 2012 so that MTS could enter the Uzbek market through the acquisition of Uzdunrobita and so that Uzdunrobita could gain valuable telecom assets and continue operating in Uzbekistan. The companies admittedly structured and concealed the bribes through payments to shell companies that members of MTSs and Uzdunrobitas management knew were beneficially owned by Karimova. MTS and Uzdunrobita also acquired KOLORIT, knowing that the price MTS and Uzdunrobita paid was inflated, in order to bribe Karimova in exchange for Uzdunrobitas continuing to operate in Uzbekistan. Uzdunrobita made payments to purported charities and for sponsorships to entities related to Karimova. The Uzbek government expropriated Uzdunrobita in 2012 as a result of MTSs, Uzdunrobitas and KOLORITs failure to meet Karimovas demands for additional payments. A number of factors contributed to the Departments criminal resolution with the companies, including (1) the companies did not voluntarily disclose; (2) the companies level of cooperation and remediation was lacking, not proactive; (3) the nature and seriousness of the office, including $420 million in bribes to a high-level Uzbek official; and (4) the mitigating factors present in this case, including that the Uzbek government expropriated the companies telecommunications assets in Uzbekistan, resulting in no realized pecuniary gain to the companies as a result of the misconduct. The resolution, reached in coordination with the SECs resolution, marks the third such resolution by a major international telecommunications provider for bribery in Uzbekistan. On Feb. 18, 2016, Amsterdam-based VimpelCom and its Uzbek subsidiary, Unitel LLC, entered into resolutions with the Department of Justice and admitted to a conspiracy to make more than $114 million in bribery payments to Karimova between 2006 and 2012. On Sept. 21, 2017, Stockholm-based Telia and its Uzbek subsidiary, Coscom LLC, also entered into resolutions with the Department and admitted to a conspiracy to make more than $331 million in bribery payments to Karimova. The investigation has thus far yielded a combined total of over $2.6 billion in global fines and disgorgement, including over $1.3 billion in criminal penalties to the United States. In related actions, the Department has also filed civil complaints seeking the forfeiture of more than $850 million held in bank accounts in Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Ireland, which constitute bribe payments made by MTS, VimpelCom and Telia, or funds involved in the laundering of those corrupt payments to Karimova. The IRS-CI and HSI are investigating the cases as part of the IRS Global Illicit Financial Team in Washington, D.C. Assistant Chief Ephraim Wernick and Senior Litigation Counsel Nicola J. Mrazek of the Criminal Divisions Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Edward Imperatore and Daniel Noble of the Southern District of New York are prosecuting the case against MTS and KOLORIT. Assistant Chief Wernick and Trial Attorney Elina Rubin-Smith of the Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Imperatore and Noble are prosecuting the case against Karimova and Akhmedov. Trial Attorney Michael Khoo of the Criminal Divisions Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS) is prosecuting the forfeiture case with substantial assistance from former MLARS Trial Attorney Marie M. Dalton, now an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Western District of Washington. Law enforcement authorities in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Ireland, Isle of Man, Latvia, Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden and the United Kingdom have provided valuable assistance in this case. The Criminal Divisions Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance as well. The SEC referred the matter to the Department and also provided extensive cooperation and assistance. Netflix has announced that a third A Christmas Prince movie will be released and this latest instalment will feature a royal baby. The streaming service broke the news on Twitter on Monday with a message reading Some personal news..., along with an image of a sonogram of a foetus wearing a crown. Baby makes three A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby this holiday season, the announcement reads. A Christmas Prince, the original movie in what is now about to become a trilogy, came out in November 2017 and promptly became a viral success. It tells the story of American journalist Amber, who gets sent out on assignment to write a profile of Prince Richard, the future ruler of the fictitious European nation of Aldovia and naturally, ends up posing as a private tutor to conduct her investigation undercover, while slowly but surely falling in love with the royal. Best films of 2019 (so far) Show all 49 1 /49 Best films of 2019 (so far) Best films of 2019 (so far) The Favourite Macabre and fraught though The Favourite gets, this isnt so much a film about sex or power as it is about plain mischief. Its a hilarious, buffoonish pleasure, right down to the sets and costume design, and a breeze to spend 120 minutes with. Christopher Hooton Fox Searchlight Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Beautiful Boy Casting Chalamet as Nic was a very clever move. The young actor from Call Me by Your Name and Lady Bird has a natural charm and charisma. He still engages an audiences curiosity and sympathy even when his behaviour is at its most selfish and erratic. Geoffrey Macnab Amazon Studios Best films of 2019 (so far) The House by the Sea Guediguians storytelling style is deceptive. At first, it seems as if this is low-key social realism in the Dardennes or Ken Loach mould, albeit set on the French Riviera. Gradually, though, we realise how stylised and theatrical his approach really is. Geoffrey Macnab Best films of 2019 (so far) Stan & Ollie Director Jon S Baird, whose previous film was scabrous Irvine Welsh adaptation Filth, wrings every last drop of pathos he can from his material. This is very much a case of the tears of the clowns. Geoffrey Macnab Entertainment One Best films of 2019 (so far) Vice Vice is bravura storytelling. McKay isnt only taking us through Cheneys life and career but is giving us a whistle stop tour through US politics from the Nixon administration almost right to the present day. Geoffrey Macnab Annapurna Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Can You Ever Forgive Me? Playing Lee Israel, McCarthy manages something very special: she makes a character who is odd, obnoxious, difficult and alcoholic seem lovable and even heroic. The rest of the world is at fault, not Lee. Geoffrey Macnab Fox Searchlight Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Green Book "Green Book flatters the audience about its own good sense and tolerance. It deals with racism and homophobia but still has a fairytale, fantasy feel to it. Whatever humiliations Don endures on their road trip, we know no real harm will ever come to him as long as Tony is at his side. Geoffrey Macnab Universal Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Velvet Buzzsaw The golden age of bonkers horror movies is gloriously evoked by Netflixs latest feature length presentation. Beginning as a satire of the arts world, Velvet Buzzsaw swiftly and gleefully descends into a savage splatter-fest, smeared in paint, viscera and garishly-bright blood. Ed Power Netflix Best films of 2019 (so far) If Beale Street Could Talk The setting is New York in the 1970s. Anyone who has watched Martin Scorseses Taxi Driver knows this was an era of violence, corruption and sleaze on a monumental level, but [Barry] Jenkins somehow makes the city seem like a modern-day Eden. Geoffrey Macnab Annapurna Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) All Is True Written by Ben Elton and directed by its star Kenneth Branagh, the film plays so fast and loose with the playwrights final years that they neednt have bothered fitting Branagh with a prosthetic nose accuracy is clearly not the priority here. Alexandra Pollard Sony Pictures Classics Best films of 2019 (so far) The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part "The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is the doomed progeny of a celebrated genius brilliant but slightly stunted by the knowledge they will never live up to their predecessor. Clarisse Loughrey Warner Bros. Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Piercing Nicolas Pesces sleek and stylish horror comedy is repulsive and funny by turns. In adapting Ryu Murakamis cult novel, Pesce strikes just the right balance between humour and Grand Guignol-style shock tactics. Geoffrey Macnab Universal Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Capernaum "The best moments here are remarkable. Labaki elicits an astonishing performance from her young lead. Hes an irrepressible figure with such an inbuilt sense of moral decency the film seems upbeat and optimistic, even at its darkest moments. Geoffrey Macnab Sony Pictures Classics Best films of 2019 (so far) The White Crow "Ralph Fiennes combines thriller elements with poetic flashbacks to ballet legend Rudolf Nureyevs childhood and keeps a tight focus on the dancer. When he is most at risk, Nureyev makes decisions with his artistic future more in mind than his personal safety. As Fiennes reminds us again and again in what is his best film yet as a director, the 'white crow' will do anything to put himself in the limelight, the one place he is convinced he belongs." StudioCanal Best films of 2019 (so far) Border "Border reverses the perspective taken by most other horror films. In more conventional genre fare, Tina and Vore would be portrayed as malevolent outsiders, but in the world conjured up by director Ali Abbasi, the humans are the monsters. Tina is the innocent a visionary who hardly understands her own powers but who can sense human venality and corruption wherever it appears." TriArt Film Best films of 2019 (so far) Fighting with My Family "Certain scenes feel very trite and predictable but the film gets you in a choke hold early on and wont let you go. It is far more gripping than its subject matter might suggest. Who ever would believe a story about a wrestling family from Norwich could have quite such heart and resonance?" James Field Best films of 2019 (so far) Us "Doppelgangers abound in Jordan Peeles weird, creepy and ingenious new horror film. As in his Oscar-winning 2017 feature Get Out, Peele leavens matters with ironic humour but the joking becomes increasingly uncomfortable once the main characters come face to face with dark shadows of themselves which wish them extreme harm." AP Best films of 2019 (so far) Avengers: Endgame "The Avengers cycle comes to a rich and very satisfying conclusion with Endgame, surely the most complex and emotional superhero movie in Marvel history. At 181 minutes, this is a veritable epic, but with so many characters and plot strands, it fully warrants its lengthy running time." AP Best films of 2019 (so far) Eighth Grade "Its a rare and precious feeling when a film completely dismantles you. Eighth Grade the directorial debut of US comedian Bo Burnham breaks down every delusion we have about ourselves and burrows deep into those parts weve made such an effort to lock away. You may cry. You may shudder as every awkward social interaction thats kept you up at night replays in your head all at once. You may feel the sharp pain associated with those moments when you feel completely isolated from the world. Burnham may have crafted a simple story about the most ordinary of teenage girls, but it speaks with the emotions of a true cinematic epic." A24 Best films of 2019 (so far) Vox Lux "Natalie Portman gives her fiercest, most memorable performance since Black Swan in Brady Corbets enjoyably subversive satire about a troubled pop star whose loss of innocence mirrors the fall from grace of the US itself. Portmans character, Celeste, is certainly one of the most objectionable figures she has played: a pampered, hard-drinking drug-taking floozy whose appearance and high-handed behaviour rekindle memories of Liz Taylor and Joan Crawford at their monstrous worst." Neon Best films of 2019 (so far) High Life Robert Pattinson gives one of his most striking performances as Monte, the death-row criminal in outer space, tricked into making a voyage described at one stage as a class-one suicide ride. The former Twilight star makes his shaven-headed, gaunt-faced character seem hyper naturally sensitive and feral at the same time. A24 Best films of 2019 (so far) Amazing Grace Amazing Grace is as uplifting a film as you will see all year. Its a concert movie filmed over two nights and featuring Aretha Franklin, the first lady of soul, performing gospel standards in a church in Los Angeles in 1972, with a huge backing choir and an enthusiastic congregation. Neon Best films of 2019 (so far) Aladdin Disneys live-action remake of its 1992 animated feature is a rip-roaring, old-fashioned matinee-style spectacle that turns out far better than we had any right to expect. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Booksmart Olivia Wilde is a visually inventive director, who keeps the tempo here so brisk that we hardly notice how glib the storytelling sometimes becomes. We can tell exactly how the film will end, but it still feels original both in its screwball energy and in the deft way it continually reverses stereotypes and gender cliches. Geoffrey Macnab Annapurna Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) Late Night Late Night is a caustic satirical comedy that turns into an unlikely tearjerker. Its by turns snide and uplifting, and often very funny too. Its writer/producer/star Mindy Kaling makes vicious observations about the inanity, narcissism and corruption of the mainstream US media at the same time as she celebrates the professionalism of many of those who work within it. The film has a glorious performance from Emma Thompson and a very sly one from Kaling. Thompson is at her most imperious as Katherine Newbury, a legendary entertainer, the only female in a male-dominated field, but one whose career is beginning to slide. Geoffrey Macnab Amazon Studios Best films of 2019 (so far) Gloria Bell Gloria Bell is somewhat exhausting both unbearably intimate and at a constant remove but it is endlessly pulled back into focus by Moore, who has a firm understanding of the delicate balance between contentment and yearning, joy and pain, recklessness and spontaneity. In a remake that could have felt indulgent in the hands of people less skilled, she more than justifies its existence. Geoffrey Macnab Curzon Best films of 2019 (so far) Toy Story 4 "The brilliance of the new film lies in the surefooted way it caters both for children too young to have seen its predecessors and for adults whove grown up (or grown older) watching the previous instalments. It takes some kind of genius for the Pixar animators to give such a searing emotional charge to a story in which one of the main characters is a single use plastic spork retrieved from the trash." Pixar/Disney Best films of 2019 (so far) In Fabric In Fabric feels like Peter Strickland at his most free and playful, drawing as much from the British sense of humour dry and morbid to a fault as from Italian glamour. Curzon Artificial Eye Best films of 2019 (so far) The Flood "Perhaps The Flood isnt quite the urgent, profound film a crisis of this scale deserves, but in a culture where refugees are so rarely shown any empathy in mainstream media, maybe this is the film we need right now." Best films of 2019 (so far) Midsommar "Ari Aster's follow-up to Hereditary serves up much of the same: its a break-up movie wrapped up in pagan horror. Its also bound to be one of this years most memorable films, proving that Aster is far from a one-hit wonder." A24 Best films of 2019 (so far) The Lion King "The Lion King is undoubtedly a technological marvel that, much like Avatar, will come to be viewed as a milestone in special effects history, yet its just as interesting to see how all this innovation has been employed." AP Best films of 2019 (so far) Varda by Agnes "For a film thats almost entirely narrated by Agnes Varda's own voice, it doesnt feel driven by ego, but by pure intellectual and emotional curiosity." Best films of 2019 (so far) Animals "Animals treats its subjects with patience and generosity. Youll find no life lessons here. Its main characters are free to pursue their desires, to whatever end." Best films of 2019 (so far) Blinded by the Light "Blinded by the Light offers not only a reminder of Springsteens lyrical genius, but of how hes always served as a beacon for the disenfranchised." Warner Brothers Best films of 2019 (so far) Good Boys Lined up against some of this years other more heartfelt offerings, including Booksmart, Good Boys offers further proof that putting a little humanity in our comedy always gets the best results. Best films of 2019 (so far) Hustlers "Hustlers is an electrifying response to the deluge of stories weve had over the years about very rich, very bad dudes. Finally, we can turn the tables on every film thats used women, specifically strippers, as decorative accessories to drape over businessmen as they conduct their illicit backroom meetings. Or, failing that, to shake their out-of-focus tits in the background of a shot." AP Best films of 2019 (so far) For Sama For Sama is one of the most profoundly intimate depictions of the Syrian conflict ever put to film. Its the push to help those on the outside process something so incomprehensible in the depth of its horrors. Republic Film Distribution Best films of 2019 (so far) Ad Astra The real drama here is not whether or not apocalypse can be avoided but whether Brad Pitts character can reconcile himself with his father and overcome his own extreme emotional repression. In other words, in spite of all the jargon and the hardware, this is an intimate family melodrama at heart. Thanks to Pitts performance and Grays delicate direction, it turns into a very moving one. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Best films of 2019 (so far) The Farewell Wrapped up in all the intricacies of immigrant identity and family politics, The Farewell is a comedy of warmth and bracing honesty. Simply put, its one of the best films of the year. A24 Best films of 2019 (so far) Judy This is Renee Zellwegers Judy. It doesnt belong to Rupert Goold, its director. Nor does it belong to Tom Edge, its screenwriter. Its a performance of such overwhelming force that it wrests authorship from every other hand that guided the films creation. Pathe Best films of 2019 (so far) Ready or Not As absurd and self-indulgent as Ready or Not can get, it doesnt mess around with its social commentary. The class system is the game we never asked to play, dont get a fair chance at, and have no hope of winning. Its a timeless metaphor. 20th Century Fox Best films of 2019 (so far) A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon Despite its mouthful of a title, A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon is an utter delight proof that good storytelling and strong craft are what matters, however familiar the packaging. Studio Canal Best films of 2019 (so far) The Beach Bum Clearly, Harmony Korine is steered by his attraction to the theatrical, the absurd and the grimly nihilistic. The Beach Bum is all of that and absolutely none of it, too a leisurely, neon-soaked stroll through chaos and hazy bohemia, full of slapstick and pathos. It is as much Korines most mature film as it is his most juvenile. Neon/Vice Best films of 2019 (so far) The Last Black Man in San Francisco Its a beautiful, frightening and tragic vignette of the urban nightmare, though The Last Black Man in San Francisco isnt really an angry film. Its less of a rallying cry against gentrification than a rumination on the kind of pained acceptance those who suffer its effects must face. A24 Best films of 2019 (so far) The Irishman Scorseses signature camerawork goes down like a glass of fine whisky, as smooth and as elegant as youd expect. The violence arrives in short, sharp shocks. Steven Zaillians screenplay even nails the mobster patter, with arguments about fish, tardiness, and business shorts that feel destined to one day be quoted to death. Netflix Best films of 2019 (so far) Le Mans '66 The films greatest trick is saved for its final reel. For much of its running time, youd be easily fooled into thinking Mangold had made a grand ode to the American dream. Its a film about an immigrant worker who, through perseverance and toil, gains the respect of one of the richest men in the country. And then the rug is pulled right out from underneath you. Le Mans 66 may relish in the high life, but its final moments feel devastatingly hollow. AP Best films of 2019 (so far) Marriage Story The film never loses its sense of humour and absurdity. Somehow, in spite of the bleakness of the subject matter, it feels more redemptive than despairing. Best films of 2019 (so far) The Report Adam Driver plays Jones, Annette Bening Senator Feinstein, and director Scott Z Burns captures the events in a cold, rigorously factual, and largely dispassionate manner. But thats the point. The Report chooses to value the truth over bombastic displays of morality. AP Best films of 2019 (so far) Knives Out Casting an ensemble film is a little like perfecting a cocktail blend, balancing flavours until they sing together in harmony. Knives Out hits the mark here: the actors all feel well-suited to their roles and they bounce off each other with ease. Lionsgate Its sequel, A Christmas Price: The Royal Wedding, followed in November 2018. In this instalment, Amber prepares to marry Richard and struggles to continue living her life on her own terms while coping with the demands of her new existence as a royal. Netflixs description for this forthcoming third film reads: Its Christmastime in Aldovia and a royal baby is on the way! Amber and Richard host royals from a faraway kingdom to renew an ancient truce, but when the priceless 600-year-old-treaty disappears, peace is put in jeopardy and an ancient curse threatens their family! Royal fans have noticed that Richard and Ambers story has echoed that of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in several ways. Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up A Christmas Prince came out just days before the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their engagement in November 2017. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding was released six months after their wedding, which took place in May 2018 and the third instalment has now been announced as the pair are expecting their first child together. Phoebe Waller-Bridge has spoken about the violence of the characters in her BBC series Killing Eve. The writer and actor, who is also behind the popular drama Fleabag, spoke to Andrew Marr where she explained her belief that people are slightly exhausted from seeing women being brutalised on screen. Were being allowed to see women on slabs the whole time and being beaten up, she said. Seeing women be violent the flipside of that theres something instantly refreshing and oddly empowering. She pointed out that the challenge for Killing Eve was to make it feel very violent without actually showing anything. Killing Eve season 2 first-look photos Show all 5 1 /5 Killing Eve season 2 first-look photos Killing Eve season 2 first-look photos Sandra Oh in Killing Eve season 2 BBC/BBC America/PA Wire Killing Eve season 2 first-look photos Jodie Comer in Killing Eve season 2 BBC/BBC America/PA Wire Killing Eve season 2 first-look photos Sandra Oh and Fiona Shaw in Killing Eve season 2 BBC/BBC America/PA Wire Killing Eve season 2 first-look photos Sandra Oh in Killing Eve season 2 BBC/BBC America/PA Wire Killing Eve season 2 first-look photos Jodie Comer in Killing Eve season 2 BBC/BBC America/PA Wire There is hardly any blood shown in the series, she said, so the violence that takes place is a very different experience for an audience. Producers for Killing Eve have said the show could potentially run for years, as series two looks set to finally resolve the major cliffhanger that ended the first. Sally Woodward Gentle and Lee Morris said they have plenty of ideas on how to refresh the show. If you made it up in the first place, you can make it up again. So I think it can go on, and on, and on you just have to refresh it all the time. Fox News host Tucker Carlson has refused to apologise for comments he made on a new unearthed radio programme. Progressive media watchdog Media Matters for America published recordings from Carlsons shock jock show Bubba the Love Sponge, which originally aired from 2006 to 2011. In a statement, Carlson said: Media Matters caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago. Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: Im on television every weeknight live for an hour. If you want to know what I think, you can watch. Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why. The recordings, which see Carlson cover a wide range of topics, include a clip from 2007 in which he compares women to dogs, adding: Theyre extremely primitive, theyre basic, theyre not that hard to understand. And one of the things they hate more than anything is weakness in a man. On the subject of having political discussions with women, he said in 2006: You just need to be quiet and kind of do what youre told. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty The host also made controversial comments about statutory rape while defending Warren Jeffs, who, in 2009, was awaiting trial on sex crime charges in relation to a polygamist cult, that allegedly arranged marriages between adult men and underage girls. The case was eventually dismissed after two alleged victims backed out of testifying. In 2011, he was convicted on two counts of child sexual assault and sentenced to life in prison. The rapist, in this case, has made a lifelong commitment to live and take care of the person, so it is a little different. I mean, lets be honest about it, Carlson said. Heres my point: If a guy wants to be polygamist, thats kind of his business. After he was questioned about the age of the children involved, he responded: Hes not accused of touching anybody; he is accused of facilitating a marriage between a 16-year-old girl and a 27-year-old man. Thats the accusation. Thats what theyre calling felony rape. [crosstalk] Thats bulls***. Im sorry. Now this guy may be [crosstalk], may be a child rapist, Im just telling you that arranging a marriage between a 16-year-old and a 27-year-old is not the same as pulling a stranger off the street and raping her. Its disgusting! I think the religion is ridiculous, I think its a cult, I think its totally immoral. But thats not the point, he continued. The question is, two questions one: Is this guy one of the top 10 most dangerous people in America? The answer is no, unequivocally no. And two: If youre, like, for the government butting out of the bedroom and for gay marriage, and for the right of strip clubs to operate unimpeded by governments how exactly can you be against polygamy? On what grounds are you against polygamy? I dont get that. Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up The show host talks about Tucker Carlsons 14-year-old daughter and girls her age at school sexually experimenting with each other. Mr Carlson responds: If it werent my daughter I would love that scenario. In 2010, he said of now Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan: I dont like [Kagan] and I wouldnt vote to confirm her if I were a US senator. But I do feel sorry for her in that way. I feel sorry for unattractive women. I mean its nothing they did. You know, she didnt. Nobody deserves that. In 2006, he called TV host Alexis Stewart extremely c**** and called Ariana Huffington a pig. Cod fishing vessels have been accused of illegally dumping thousands of tons of fish into the North Sea in a bid to sidestep strict new European rules. Official data collected by the UK fisheries body shows there were no unwanted, undersized cod caught between January and mid-November last year at all. This result was branded impossible by campaigners from Our Fish, who said British fishers must have twisted the figures by discarding at least 7,500 tons of smaller fish. Manipulating the data in this way would also have allowed them to land around a third over their quota of cod in 2018, according to the group. Programme director for Our Fish Rebecca Hubbard said authorities in England and Scotland seemed to be turning a blind eye to this problem. Endangered sharks being served up in British fish and chip shops Show all 6 1 /6 Endangered sharks being served up in British fish and chip shops Endangered sharks being served up in British fish and chip shops Scalloped hammerhead shark Scalloped hammerhead shark fins were among those found being sold by an Asian food retailer in the UK. These sharks are endangered, and in parts of the Atlantic Ocean, their populations have declined by over 95% in the past 30 years. Istock/Janos Endangered sharks being served up in British fish and chip shops Spiny dogfish In the samples of takeaway fish and chips sampled, spiny dogfish made up 90% of those sold under the names huss, rock salmon and rock eel. Doug Costa, NOAA/SBNMS Endangered sharks being served up in British fish and chip shops Shortfin mako shark Another vulnerable species found in the dried shark fins tested in the British Asian wholefood retailer was the shortfin mako shark. Istock/Alessandro De Maddalena Endangered sharks being served up in British fish and chip shops Blue shark Blue shark was also found on sale in UK shops. This species is not as vulnerable as the others but is still listed as "Near Threatened" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Istock/Howard Chen Endangered sharks being served up in British fish and chip shops Nursehound Around a quarter of the sharks being sold in UK fishmongers were nursehounds, another relatively safe species that is nevertheless classified as near threatened. Mario Antonio Pena Zapateria Endangered sharks being served up in British fish and chip shops Misleading names in fish shops The scientists behind the study investigating the prevalence of endangered shark meat on sale concluded that shops must stop selling these species under "umbrella terms" that hide their true origin. Istock The UK government appears to be aware that large-scale unreported, illegal fishing for an important stock like cod is taking place within its fishing fleet, she said. It is incomprehensible and indefensible that such rampant non-compliance would be simply ignored. Our Fish has written to the European Commission, presenting the findings and requesting it takes at least 7,500 tons off this years UK cod quota to account for the alleged infringement. North Sea cod were thought to be on the rise after a long decline, but scientists have now recommended a significant cut to 2019 fishing limits to help their stocks recover. Under EU regulations introduced to curb overfishing, boats are no longer allowed to discard any undersized cod they catch. Instead, the smaller fish which cannot be sold for human consumption must be taken back to land and count towards their overall quota. The move is intended to encourage a shift towards better equipment and fishing practices that avoid catching young fish. To help the fishers cope with the sudden burden of extra fish cutting into their margins, they were granted an additional 5,200 tons of extra quota for the first year of the new regulations. French and British fishing boats clash in scallop war skirmish However, rather than filling this quota with their undersized fish, the vessels appear to have used it to fish for even more adult cod. A freedom of information request by Our Fish revealed these figures, along with the total catch of 21,596 tons of adult cod. Based on these numbers, it predicted at least 7,500 additional tons of undersized fish would have been caught, bringing the true total to over 29,000. The investigation came after industry reports that virtually no discards were being landed in UK ports, despite the EUs landing obligation covering cod from the start of 2018. Responding to the figures, a spokesperson from the governments Marine Management Organisation, which governs activity in England, said they were conscious that our role as a regulator includes educating the industry to new regulations. Recommended Endangered sharks being served up in British fish and chip shops They noted the final total for English cod landed below the minimum size by the end of 2018 was 19.9 tons. A Scottish government spokesperson said the extrapolation carried out to arrive at the 7,500 tons figure was fundamentally flawed, and that the fleet had been working tirelessly to avoid the capture of undersized fish. Furthermore, our compliance officers have not seen any significant levels of undersized codlings in any inspections, they said. A recent House of Lords committee report concluded there was little evidence the UK industry had been following the new landing rules, and committee member Lord Krebs said the newly emerged figures supported this conclusion. Even using very selective gear you would expect to catch some unwanted fish, so in my view this is exactly the kind of evidence that should be scrutinised in terms of checking whether the landing obligation is implemented by fishermen, he said. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Both Lord Krebs and Our Fish said CCTV onboard vessels must be made mandatory so the true quantity of fish being landed could be assessed. Barre Deas, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermens Organisations, said he agreed that the landing obligation is a mess, but blamed the EU implementing it with close to zero consideration of implementation issues. He also said that CCTV monitoring was not the panacea suggested by the campaigners and Lords. There are a range of practical, ethical and legal issues that remain to be resolved, he said, noting that after Brexit there will be a chance for the UK to develop a more tailored, fishery-by-fishery approach. A spokesperson from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the governments new fisheries bill would seize the opportunity of Brexit to help end the wasteful discarding of fish. The government remains fully committed to sustainable fishing. We are aware of the challenges posed to industry by the landing obligation, and will continue to work with the industry to address these, they said. Enormous concrete storage units that Shell wants to abandon in the North Sea contain radioactive waste which campaigners fear will eventually leach into the surrounding water, The Independent has learned. European authorities are considering Shells application for an exemption to legislation requiring companies to return the marine environment to its natural state after extraction operations. Shell wants to leave 64 concrete storage cells, which were part of offshore drilling rigs, on the seabed. Each is the size of seven Olympic swimming pools, and several still contain toxic oil and contaminated sediment. Part of the problem is that some of the materials are radioactive, said Robert Armour, a non-executive director at the Oil and Gas Authority. The most polluted towns and cities in the UK Show all 25 1 /25 The most polluted towns and cities in the UK The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 25. Middlesbrough 11 micrograms per cubic metre. A report from the World Health Organisation has given figures for fine-particle air pollution across the world. Here follow the 25 most polluted towns and cities in the UK The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 24. Derry 11 micrograms per cubic metre Getty The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 23. Hull 11 micrograms per cubic metre (estimate) Getty The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 22. Coventry 11 micrograms per cubic metre Getty The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 21. London 11 micrograms per cubic metre PA The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 20. Stoke-On-Trent 12 micrograms per cubic metre Getty The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 19. Sheffield 12 micrograms per cubic metre (estimate) Getty The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 18. Sandy, Bedfordshire 12 micrograms per cubic metre Google The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 17. Royal Leamington Spa 12 micrograms per cubic metre Getty The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 16. Prestonpans 12 micrograms per cubic metre Richard Webb The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 15. York 12 micrograms per cubic metre Getty The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 14. Plymouth 12 micrograms per cubic metre Getty The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 13. Nottingham 12 micrograms per cubic metre Getty The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 12. Eccles 12 micrograms per cubic metre (estimate) Rept0n1x The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 11. Grays 12 micrograms per cubic metre (estimate) Getty The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 10. Liverpool 12 micrograms per cubic metre Getty The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 9. Leicester 12 micrograms per cubic metre Getty The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 8. Leeds 12 micrograms per cubic metre Getty The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 7. Chepstow 12 micrograms per cubic metre Getty The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 6. Carlisle 12 micrograms per cubic metre The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 5. Gilllingham 13 micrograms per cubic metre Philip Halling The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 4. Swansea Getty The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 3. Manchester Getty The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 2. Gibraltar Getty The most polluted towns and cities in the UK 1. Scunthorpe Getty They have been brought up from deep underground and the concrete they are encased in is brittle. The materials inside the concrete are a mixture of solids and liquids and there is a risk that the concrete will rupture during any operation to remove them. Its a very difficult problem. Waste materials with elevated levels of radioactivity are routinely created by the oil and gas industry through the drilling process as particles such as uranium, thorium and radium are drawn to the surface. This is known as Norm (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials) waste in the industry and can become concentrated in sludge in oilfield tanks. The radioactive waste has been connected to bone cancers and can pose a health risk through external exposure as well as if it is ingested or inhaled. Shell says the safest option for decommissioning is to leave the concrete structures in place and undisturbed, but this has been opposed by environmental groups, which have said the company has provided insufficient information to support its case. Dr Lyndsey Dodds, head of marine policy at WWF, is concerned that the decommissioning process is biased towards cheaper options to avoid expensive removal costs. She said: The proposal to leave the concrete structures to degrade, disintegrate and collapse onto the seabed over time will result in disturbance and pollution from the hydrocarbon-contaminated drill cuttings and also release the contents, including any radioactive materials, into the marine environment. Environmental groups say Shell has downplayed the risk posed by the radioactive material in the tanks. Though Shell mentioned the Norm waste in its decommissioning proposal to the UK government in 2017 it does not mention the radioactive material in the formal documents that the UK has submitted to the commission that oversees the enforcement of the relevant European legislation. Greenpeace scientists are also critical of the methods Shell has used to estimate radioactivity in the concrete tanks, saying estimates were made using a low number of samples. Dr Doug Parr, chief scientist for Greenpeace UK, said: The oceans are increasingly fragile and threatened by waste, over-exploitation and climate change. They are nobodys dustbin. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The waste we try to throw there wont conveniently stay put, and has historically found ways of returning to haunt us sooner or later. This mixture of crude oil, drilling waste and radioactive material is Shells mess. No one is completely certain whats down there, either in terms of chemical contamination or radioactivity, and so we dont know how much of a risk it poses to the environment of the North Sea. But we do know that Shell made a lot of money creating the mess, and they can afford to spend a little cleaning it up. Under UK regulations, concentrated Norm waste has to be handled with protective equipment and disposed of in specialised facilities. A government report from 2014 estimated that the annual volume of Norm waste sent for specialist treatment in the UK was 300 tonnes, with half of that total coming from the offshore oil and gas industry. An environmental impact assessment published by Shell in 2017 said the radioactivity of the sediment in the concrete structures may have a moderate negative impact on the environment if they are left in place. A spokesperson for Shell said: After years of study and independent verification we know the sediment in the concrete cells contains no significant amounts of non-biodegradable compounds and will be safely contained for several hundred years. Independent laboratories have scrutinised the samples finding only very low levels of Norm, which were below the level of scientific concern. Earlier this year, Greenpeaces investigative unit revealed that the German government had written to the UK about Shells application for exemption expressing concerns that the methodology used was biased in favour of leaving the installations in place. Germany also said that Shell had failed to properly account for long term risks to the environment and shipping traffic. Spraying chemicals into the atmosphere to block sunlight could cut global temperature increases in half without any dangerous repercussions, Harvard scientists have suggested. Solar geoengineering has long been floated as a potential method to tackle global warming, but many are concerned about its potential for unwanted side effects. Liberally spraying aerosols into the air could even exacerbate climate problems by tampering with rainfall in some regions. But with rising concern about the devastating impact of climate change, experiments are already in the works to establish how effective such techniques could be. In a new study, a research team used computer models in an attempt to gauge the perfect dose of geoengineering that would slow warming without making things worse. 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 While the scientists acknowledged there were still many uncertainties surrounding this dramatic intervention, they suggested that overall it could yield significant benefits. The analogy is not perfect but solar geoengineering is a little like a drug which treats high blood pressure, said Dr Peter Irvine, who led the study. An overdose would be harmful, but a well-chosen dose could reduce your risks. While Dr Irvine noted that it would be better to not have high blood pressure in the first place, once the problem was underway he said it was definitely worth considering the options. Experts have warned that to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, annual greenhouse gas emissions must halve between now and 2030 a target the world is not on track to hit. Dr Irvine and his colleagues set out to investigate how effective a limited geoengineering programme combined with emissions cuts could be. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events They concluded that using such techniques to halve warming would not only cool the planet but also help curb some of the extreme weather effects linked with warming, such as hurricanes increasing in intensity. In this situation, the researchers found only 0.5 per cent of land would see potentially harmful climate effects as a result of the intervention. Big uncertainties remain, but climate models suggest that geoengineering could enable surprisingly uniform benefits, said Professor David Keith, who was the senior author of the study. The research was published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Another study that attempted to quantify the far-reaching impacts of solar geoengineering published last year concluded it could be remarkably inexpensive if existing planes are modified to drop the aerosols into the sky. However, other research has warned such efforts could harm global agriculture, and that focusing on such grand solutions distracts from the serious business of cutting emissions. Efforts to test the principles have so far been modest. Professor Keith is part of a group launching a balloon to mimic a large volcanic eruption by spraying chalk dust 12 miles above Earth in a small-scale test of the techniques feasibility. Hundreds of women are considering legal action over controversial breast implants that have been linked to a rare form of cancer. Allergan implants were withdrawn from the European market in December 2018 after it was revealed that six women who had them had developed anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL), a rare type of blood cancer. Last month, it was announced that nine US women had died from the cancer, with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announcing that the total number of women diagnosed with ALCL in the United States had increased to 457, up from 414 cases. Meanwhile, recent figures collected by plastic surgeons suggest that globally there have been at least 615 cases of the disease associated with breast implants and 16 deaths. Now, a group of more than 200 women who have been diagnosed with ALCL and say they were not sufficiently informed about the risks of textured Allergen implants have threatened to sue the company. Mastectomy: Stand Up To Cancer launches powerful photo campaign Show all 13 1 /13 Mastectomy: Stand Up To Cancer launches powerful photo campaign Mastectomy: Stand Up To Cancer launches powerful photo campaign Joanna, Newcastle (Image: Ami Barwell) Mastectomy: Stand Up To Cancer launches powerful photo campaign Mel, Merseyside (Image: Ami Barwell) Mastectomy: Stand Up To Cancer launches powerful photo campaign Lucy, Wakefield (Image: Ami Barwell) Mastectomy: Stand Up To Cancer launches powerful photo campaign Sharon, Bath (Image: Ami Barwell) Mastectomy: Stand Up To Cancer launches powerful photo campaign Jan, Hereford (Image: Ami Barwell) Mastectomy: Stand Up To Cancer launches powerful photo campaign Gillian, London (Image: Ami Barwell) Mastectomy: Stand Up To Cancer launches powerful photo campaign Fiona, Northampton (Image: Ami Barwell) Mastectomy: Stand Up To Cancer launches powerful photo campaign Anon S, West Midlands (Image: Ami Barwell) Mastectomy: Stand Up To Cancer launches powerful photo campaign Debbie W, Worcestershire (Image: Ami Barwell) Mastectomy: Stand Up To Cancer launches powerful photo campaign Debbie B, York (Image: Ami Barwell) Mastectomy: Stand Up To Cancer launches powerful photo campaign Clare, North Lincolnshire (Image: Ami Barwell) Mastectomy: Stand Up To Cancer launches powerful photo campaign Caroline, Brancaster (Image: Ami Barwell) Mastectomy: Stand Up To Cancer launches powerful photo campaign Anon (Image: Ami Barwell) According to The Guardian, three of the women were given the implants after having preventative mastectomies to protect against high genetic risk of breast cancer, while others have suffered different complications, including capsular contracture, where breast tissue hardens around the implant. Irene Kennedy who was diagnosed with ALCL in December, eight years after getting her implants, says she was not aware of the risks. Recommended One in five women wrongly believe a smear test detects ovarian cancer I hadnt heard of it, I didnt know anything about it at all, Kennedy told the publication. Its very scary. The 49-year-old has since had her implants and the surrounding scar tissue removed, which normally leads to a full recovery without the need for chemotherapy. However, she says she still feels anxious about the possibility of the cancer returning and wants to see greater awareness of the risks associated with breast implants. If someone said By the way, you could get a cancer your ears would prick up and it would be more of a thoughtful process youd go through, she added. In a statement, Allergan said the company is committed to strict adherence to all regulatory requirements and rigorous scientific evidence. Patient safety and product quality are Allergans highest priorities, it said. Allergan continues to stand firmly behind the benefit/risk profile of its breast implant products, including textured breast implants. The benefit risk profile of textured implants based on scientific evidence remains positive. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, recently published guidance on ALCL and breast implants, saying there was no need for women with Allergan breast implants to have them removed. ALCL is rare, but it is important healthcare professionals and patients who have implants know about it, the MHRA said. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events If you develop a seroma, a breast lump or swelling around your implant more than a year after having the breast implant (regardless of how many years later), you should seek advice from your surgeon or clinic. The advice continues by saying that if the surgeon or clinic which performed the original implant operation is no longer available, you should see your GP for referral to another surgeon. According to Macmillan Cancer Support, ALCL develops when white blood cells called T-cells become abnormal. These usually build up in the lymph nodes, but can affect other parts of the body. Most people are treated with chemotherapy and steroids with others may also have radiotherapy or stem cell treatments. For more information on anaplastic large cell lymphoma you can visit macmillan.org.uk or call their cancer support specialists free on 0808 808 00 00. Bloodwise also offers support and information to people affected by blood cancers, including lymphoma. Almost half of British women are unable to correctly label the vagina on a diagram, according to a new survey. The research, conducted by YouGov, involved showing 2,010 British adults an image of female genitalia and asking them to identify the various parts and functions. The study found that nearly half of women (45 per cent) were unsure about the location of the vagina. Moreover, more than half (55 per cent) were unable to explain where the urethra is and more than one in four women (43 per cent) failed to correctly label the labia. By contrast, six in ten (59 per cent) could not label the vagina, almost two thirds (61 per cent) were unsure where the urethra was, and around half of men (52 per cent) failed to label the labia. Forgotten Women: Ending FGM in Kenya Show all 13 1 /13 Forgotten Women: Ending FGM in Kenya Forgotten Women: Ending FGM in Kenya Nice Nailantei Lengete Nice Nailantei Lengete Alexander Schmidjell Forgotten Women: Ending FGM in Kenya Nice Nailantei Lengete talks to schoolgirls Nice Nailantei Lengete talks to schoolgirls in Kenya about the importance of education Alexander Schmidjell Forgotten Women: Ending FGM in Kenya Nice Nailantei Lengete talks to schoolgirls Nice Nailantei Lengete talks to schoolgirls in Kenya about the importance of education Alexander Schmidjell Forgotten Women: Ending FGM in Kenya Nice Nailantei Lengete Nice Nailantei Lengete Alexander Schmidjell Forgotten Women: Ending FGM in Kenya Nice with a Maasai community Nice with members of a Maasai community in Kenya Alexander Schmidjell Forgotten Women: Ending FGM in Kenya Nice with a Maasai community Nice with members of a Maasai community in Kenya Alexander Schmidjell Forgotten Women: Ending FGM in Kenya Nice Nailantei Lengete She was named by Time Magazine in 2018 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world Amref Health Africa Forgotten Women: Ending FGM in Kenya Nice Nailantei Lengete Nices community organised a homecoming ceremony for her when she returned from the TIME 100 gala in April 2018 Amref Health Africa Forgotten Women: Ending FGM in Kenya Nice welcomes Dr. David Nkedienye Nice welcomes Dr. David Nkedienye, the governor of Kajiado County at the time, to the official part of an Alternative Rite of Passage ceremony in Rombo, Kenya. His presence was a sign of acknowledgment and encouragement Anja Ligtenberg Forgotten Women: Ending FGM in Kenya Alternative Rite of Passage ceremony Nice helps young girls prepare for their Alternative Rite of Passage ceremony Anja Ligtenberg Forgotten Women: Ending FGM in Kenya Nice celebrates with Morans Nice celebrates with Morans (young men) from a Maasai community in Kenya Anja Ligtenberg Forgotten Women: Ending FGM in Kenya Nice Nailantei Lengete and her sister Nice Nailantei Lengete (left) and her elder sister (right) as children Nice Nailantei Lengete Forgotten Women: Ending FGM in Kenya Nice Nailantei Lengete A portrait of human rights activist Nice Nailantei Lengete Steve Murigi The only female body part that Brits were able to accurately identify was the clitoris by two thirds of men (69 per cent) and women (71 per cent). During the survey, researchers allowed for answers containing misspellings and euphemistic or descriptive responses in certain cases, for example the term wee hole to describe the urethra and lips to refer to the labia. The surveys participants were also asked their thoughts on the best method to keeping female genitalia clean with almost half of women (46 per cent) admitting to being unaware that medical professionals advise not washing the inside of the vagina. Meanwhile, a third (33 per cent) believed the vagina should be washed on a daily basis, one in six (14 per cent) suggested with water and soap, and one in five (19 per cent) with water only. One in fifty (two per cent) thought the body part should be washed with water after sex, with the figure rising to seven per cent of those aged from 18 to 24. Just over half (54 per cent) of women were found to be able to identify the correct method to keep female genitalia clean, which is to not wash inside at all. According to the NHS, the vagina cleans itself inside the body with natural vaginal secretions (discharge). Diagram showing anatomy of human vagina illustration (Getty Images/iStockphoto) "Its a myth that the vagina needs extensive cleaning with perfumed soaps or feminine hygiene products," Dr Vanessa Mackay, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist and spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists tells The Independent. The NHS advises women to avoid perfumed soaps, gels and antiseptics as these can affect the healthy balance of bacteria and pH levels in the vagina and cause infection, such as bacterial vaginosis or thrush, and inflammation. Dr Mackay adds: We would recommend women to use plain, unperfumed soaps to wash the area around the vagina (the vulva), not inside it, gently every day. Respondents in the survey were also asked to answer which statement they believed to be true with regards to whether a tampon is used to soak up blood during a period and if it interferes with urination. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Six in ten men (57 per cent) and eight in ten women (82 per cent) were able to correctly highlight that a tampon does not interfere with how a woman urinates. Last month, a male Twitter user was condemned on social media after attempting to, incorrectly, mansplain about female anatomy. A British newspaper recently shared an article about a photographers portraits of vulvas to which the unnamed Twitter user claimed the publication should technically have used the word vagina instead of vulva. Got shares in Ryanair? If you live in the UK youre in danger of losing all your rights. The airline has warned in the past that it will, in effect, disenfranchise its UK shareholders if this countrys catastrophically stupid government tips us off the no-deal Brexit cliff edge. With the clock ticking down, its warning has gone from threat to reality, as with so much else in the quite astonishing political freak show. The airline this morning announced that its board on Friday passed resolutions meaning that from the date of a hard no-deal Brexit, ordinary shares held by Britons will be classed as restricted. What that means is that their holders, regardless of whether they are institutions or individuals, will not longer be eligible to vote on company resolutions. They will thus be denied a say on the appointment of company directors, including the CEO and chair, on deals the company might enter into, on the annual report, boardroom pay, on anything of consequence in fact. They will no longer be able to speak at or even attend the companys AGM for as long as the shares are treated as restricted. Britons will also be blocked from buying any new shares in Ryanair. At this point you might very well be asking how on earth can the company can do this. Well, Ryanairs an airline, and under the rather arcane rules that exist around the world concerning airline ownership, it needs to be majority owned and controlled by EU investors to be able to fly around the bloc, which is where its majority of the business comes from. To ensure this remains the case in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the company has taken the step courtesy of the powers granted to its board by its articles of association. It is possible someone may attempt to challenge the move. But if the no-deal cliff edge crumbles they, and everyone else, will likely have bigger issues to deal with. So I wouldnt get your hopes up. There is an interesting wrinkle to this. According to Ryanairs most recent annual report, EU citizens held 52.8 per cent of the company. UK institutions and individuals make up a significant proportion of that. Much of the non-EU part is owned by Americans via American Depository Receipts (ADRs) which are a specific type of paper that non-US companies sell to US investors and that are tradable on US exchanges. So in theory, EU shareholders could be in the minority even if its UK shareholders are stripped of their rights. It will be interesting to see how the company works its way around that one. But this being Ryanair, you would presume the company had considered the issue and worked out a plan. Ryanair is popular in with US investors because it is very low cost, and not overly fond of unions. Its directors wont want to upset what has been a largely supportive part of its investor base. 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. By contrast, much of the fuss about the airlines business practices has been made on this side of both the Atlantic and Irish Sea. The company has been sharply critical of Brexit. Indeed, a lot of people who wouldnt normally be fans of its bumptious boss Michael OLeary will have found themselves nodding their heads in agreement over what hes said on the subject, and that of the UKs dismal political leadership. He memorably, and accurately, described both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn as idiots. Ryanair makes clear in its statement that it would prefer common sense to prevail. But if that doesnt happen, the airlines move will relieve it of some of its noisier critics. Every cloud, as they say... Boeing shares slumped almost 13 per cent on Monday after the second fatal crash of one if its 737 Max 8 planes. The sell-off wiped around $30bn (23bn) wiped off Boeings valuation leaving the worlds largest plane manufacturer on track to record its biggest single-day trading fall in two decades as concerns mount about a possible technical problem with one of its models. All 157 passengers and crew aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight died when the plane crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa on Sunday morning. No fault has been found and investigators are considering a range of possible causes for the tragedy. The Boeing 737 lost contact six minutes after departure from Bole International Airport in the Ethiopian capital, heading for Nairobi. Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Show all 15 1 /15 Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia People stand near collected debris at the crash site AFP/Getty Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia A man carries a piece of debris on his head at the crash site AFP/Getty Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Wreckage lies at the crash site of the Ethiopia Airlines Boeing 737 near Addis Ababa EPA Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Debris at the site of the crash near Addis Ababa Reuters Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia CEO of Ethiopia Airlines, Tewolde Gebremariam inspects the crash site AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Debris from the crashed aeroplane AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia UN staff observe a minutes silence for the victims of the plane crash. 19 UN workers were killed in the crash AFP/Getty Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Rescuers work at the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Rescuers work at the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 (ET-AVM), the same type of aircraft that crashed EPA Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Rescuers work at the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Members of the search and rescue team work at the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Reuters Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia A boarding pass at the scene of the crash Reuters Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Rescuers remove body bags from the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Wreckage at the scene of the Ethiopia Airlines flight AP Comparisons have been drawn with the crash of a Lion Air 737 Max 8 which plunged into the Java Sea minutes after takeoff in October, killing all 189 people on the plane. What impact might this have on Boeing? This depends on whether or not the latest crash is related to a fault with the plane. The shares have sold off on the back of speculation but if it is established that the two tragic crashes were not down to a technical fault, the companys share price fall will likely turn out to be a temporary blip. The Boeing 737 is the best-selling commercial aircraft of all time and has an excellent safety record overall. But if faults were found this could be hugely damaging for the company which is reliant on future sales of the 737, including the Max 8. Attention is growing on the anti-stall protection that the manufacturer has deployed in its most modern twin-jets. The 737 is operated by dozens of airlines around the world and Boeing says 4,754 of its total 5,870 unfulfilled orders are for the 737 family of planes. The list price of the 737 range is between $89.1m and $134.9m meaning, the total value of those orders could be between $420bn and $640bn. Airlines often secure discounts on these prices however. Boeing increased production of the popular 737 in the middle of 2018 to 52 planes per month in an attempt to clear a seven-year order backlog. Last year Boeing delivered a record 806 commercial aeroplanes with 580 of those being 737s and half of those being Max models which are more fuel-efficient than many other jets. How have airlines have reacted so far? Recommended China and Indonesia ground Boeing 737 jets after Ethiopia crash While the share price has taken a hammering, airlines have understandably taken a measured approach and there is no suggestion that any are considering cancelling their orders. Virgin Australia has ordered 30 of the planes and a further 10 of Boeings 737 Max 10s with the first of the new aircraft due to be delivered by the end of the year. Virgin said it was too early to comment on whether its order of Boeing 737 Max 8s will change. In Europe, holiday operator Tui has ordered 32 Max aircraft and took delivery of its first Max 8 in December making it the first UK-registered airline to receive one of the aircraft. The carriers German parent company is reported to have bought 54 Max 8s. Introducing the Boeing 737: The Icelandair plane using up to 20% less fuel than previous models Other airlines in Europe to use the Max aircraft include Air Italy and Norwegian which are both continuing flights as normal. Some governments have taken a tougher approach. Chinas aviation regulator ordered nearly 100 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft to be grounded by 6pm local time (10am GMT) on Monday. Given that two accidents both involved newly delivered Boeing 737-8 planes and happened during take-off phase, they have some degree of similarity, it said. Indonesia said on Monday it would temporarily ground the aircraft for inspection. Cayman Airways, the flag carrier of the British Caribbean territory, has also halted use of the model, while other airlines said they were continuing to monitor the situation closely. What has Boeing said? Safety is our number one priority and we are taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this accident, working closely with the investigating team and all regulatory authorities involved, a Boeing spokesperson said. In a statement on Sunday the company said: Boeing is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the passengers and crew on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a 737 Max 8 airplane. We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the families and loved ones of the passengers and crew on board and stand ready to support the Ethiopian Airlines team. A Boeing technical team will be travelling to the crash site to provide technical assistance under the direction of the Ethiopia Accident Investigation Bureau and US National Transportation Safety Board. The NHS is set to abandon its flagship guarantee that patients at A&E will be treated, admitted or sent home within four hours, plans unveiled by health service bosses show. New targets measuring time taken to initially assess patients on arrival, waits for those who are most urgent and an average wait across all patients will be piloted by NHS England this year. A final decision will be taken on the four-hour standards future ahead of 2020-21, but NHS England argued the new measures will give a more accurate picture of emergency room pressure and can end hidden long waits. The four-hour standard has not been met nationally since 2015 and performance hit record lows this year despite a milder winter than in 2018. A decade-long funding squeeze at a time when the health service is seeing more patients than ever has not helped performance, and the NHS has more than 100,000 staff vacancies in England. Cancer treatment standards and a waiting times for planned operations which exceeded 4 million patients last year have all deteriorated alongside emergency care. NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary Show all 18 1 /18 NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, addresses demonstrators following the march AFP/Getty NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary EPA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary Reuters NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary EPA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary PA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary REUTERS NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary PA NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images NHS at 70: demonstration and celebration march to mark anniversary AFP/Getty Images These issues prompted a national review of waiting times, led by NHS England medical director Professor Stephen Powis, announced alongside new investment in the health service. As we build an NHS that is fit for the future, now is the right time to look again at the old targets which have such a big influence on how care is delivered, to make sure that they take account of the latest treatments and techniques, and support, not hinder, staff to deliver the kind of responsive, high-quality services that people want to see, Professor Powis said. Around one-fifth of emergency admissions occur in the 10 minutes before the four-hour window would have been breached suggesting clinical decision making is being sidelined by the limit. Patients in mental health crisis will be among those A&Es should aim to treat within one hour under the new urgent case criteria. There will also be a commitment to give patients with suspected cancer a definitive diagnosis with 28 days of being urgently referred by their GP, and trials of a six-week limit to access medical tests for planned care. However, doctors leaders have warned against a return to the days of endless waiting, saying the four-hour standard is vital for ensuring flow through hospitals and would only benefit politicians if removed. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine has called for the four-hour standard to be preserved alongside additional complementary measures for more urgent patients. While we are dismayed by many of the myths being pedalled around the four-hour standard, we are keen to ensure that any changes are not imposed due to political will but are developed responsibly, collaboratively and are based upon clinical expert consensus in the best interests of patients, RCEM president Dr Taj Hassan said. Patient groups said that the public were not opposed to more sophisticated targets or potentially waiting longer for less urgent issues, but changes must work better for those who are ill. When the four-hour target was introduced in 2004 it helped to significantly reduce the lengthy waits faced by many patients, said Healthwatch national director Imelda Redmond. It will be supporting pilots over the coming months to see if the changes can improve patients experience of care, as well as safety and quality. Ultimately we want to see targets free up hard working A&E departments so they can concentrate on delivering the best possible care for their patients, Ms Redmond added. The impact of the new targets will be reviewed in the pilot areas through 2019 and any changes would take effect by April 2020 if they are deemed a success. Writers are often told to write what they know. If youre a creator of comic books featuring the adventures of super-powered, costumed heroes, that might be a difficult rule of thumb to apply. But perhaps not for Tom King. In Mister Miracle, from DC Comics, King and artist Mitch Gerads have created one of the most critically acclaimed graphic novels of the last year, and for the Washington-based writer, he drew on experiences that not a lot of other creators working in the field today have access to. King, 40, who was born in California, spent several years as a counter-terrorism officer for the CIA, working out in the field in Iraq and Afghanistan. Its fascinating to think about what King saw and did, and how that later informed his writing. Obviously, I suggest, if he tells me too much about it hell have to kill me. Hes heard that one before, of course, probably more times than he can count. No, he says, with what feels like an oft-trodden out reply, if I tell you too much about it, theyll have to kill me. Born to a film-writer mother in Southern California, King developed a love of storytelling and an understanding of narrative from an early age. During the 1990s he interned at the offices of the two big comics publishers, Marvel and DC. His ambition, though, was to become a lawyer and he graduated from Columbia University in the year 2000, intending to follow this path. He started working for the Justice Department. An enormous solar storm that struck ancient Earth has provided a stark warning another event of this size could be around the corner. Revealed by analysis of chemicals preserved in Greenland ice, the storm around 2,600 years ago was 10 times stronger than anything detected in 70 years of modern measurements. While the people of 660 BC had little to fear, such episodes would be of grave concern today given their capacity to destroy satellites, communications and electrical systems. Solar storms are triggered by flares of cosmic particles streaming towards Earth, bombarding its magnetic field and interfering with various technologies. Although just the third storm of its kind identified so far, the scientists said this was more evidence these major events had been underestimated, and must be urgently defended against. Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Show all 30 1 /30 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Solar Flare An image from Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows a 200,000 mile long solar filament ripping through the Sun's corona in September 2013 Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Nasa Celebrates 50 Years of Spacewalking For 50 years, NASA has been "suiting up" for spacewalking. In this 1984 photograph of the first untethered spacewalk, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless is in the midst of the first "field" tryout of a nitrogen-propelled backpack device called the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space A Hubble Cosmic Couple The spectacular cosmic pairing of the star Hen 2-427 more commonly known as WR 124 and the nebula M1-67 which surrounds it ESA/Hubble & NASA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope has unveiled in stunning detail a small section of the Veil Nebula - expanding remains of a massive star that exploded about 8,000 years ago Nasa's most stunning pictures of space The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launch The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, carrying three new astronauts to the International Space Station. It also took caviar, ready for the satellite's inhabitants to celebrate the holidays Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Earth from the ISS From the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Terry W. Virts took this photograph of the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. Gulf Coast at sunset Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Black Hole Friday Nasa celebrated Black Friday by looking into space instead sharing pictures of black holes Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space NuSTAR X-rays stream off the sun in this image showing observations from by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, overlaid on a picture taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Cassiopeia A c A false colour image of Cassiopeia A comprised with data from the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes and the Chandra X-Ray observatory Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Orion Capsule splashes down The Orion capsule jetted off into space before heading back a few hours later having proved that it can be used, one day, to carry humans to Mars Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Earth Observations From Gemini IV in 1965 This photograph of the Florida Straits and Grand Bahama Bank was taken during the Gemini IV mission during orbit no. 19 in 1965. The Gemini IV crew conducted scientific experiments, including photography of Earth's weather and terrain, for the remainder of their four-day mission following Ed White's historic spacewalk on June 3 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Frosty slopes of Mars This image of an area on the surface of Mars, approximately 1.5 by 3 kilometers in size, shows frosted gullies on a south-facing slope within a crater. The image was taken by Nasa's HiRISE camera, which is mounted on its Mars Reconaissance Orbiter Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Yellowstone from space NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman shared this image of Yellowstone via his twitter account Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Saturn This near-infrared color image shows a specular reflection, or sunglint, off of a hydrocarbon lake named Kivu Lacus on Saturn's moon Titan Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Worlds Apart Although Mimas and Pandora, shown here, both orbit Saturn, they are very different moons. Pandora, "small" by moon standards (50 miles or 81 kilometers across) is elongated and irregular in shape. Mimas (246 miles or 396 kilometers across), a "medium-sized" moon, formed into a sphere due to self-gravity imposed by its higher mass Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Solar Flare An X1.6 class solar flare flashes in the middle of the sun in this image taken 10 September, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy An image of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy seen in infrared light by the Herschel Space Observatory. Regions of space such as this are where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Mars Rover Spirit Nasa's Mars Rover Spirit took the first picture from Spirit since problems with communications began a week earlier. The image shows the robotic arm extended to the rock called Adirondack Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Morning Aurora From the Space Station Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora from the International Space Station Nasa/Scott Kelly Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Launch of History - Making STS-41G Mission in 1984 The Space Shuttle Challenger launches from Florida at dawn. On this mission, Kathryn Sullivan became the first U.S. woman to perform a spacewalk and Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space. The crew of seven was the largest to fly on a spacecraft at that time, and STS-41G was the first flight to include two female astronauts Nasa's most stunning pictures of space A Fresh Perspective on an Extraordinary Cluster of Galaxies Galaxy clusters are often described by superlatives. After all, they are huge conglomerations of galaxies, hot gas, and dark matter and represent the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Hubble Sees a Galactic Sunflower The arrangement of the spiral arms in the galaxy Messier 63, seen here in an image from the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope, recall the pattern at the center of a sunflower ESA/Hubble & NASA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Pluto image Four images from New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with colour data from the Ralph instrument to create this enhanced colour global view of Pluto Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Fresh Crater Near Sirenum Fossae Region of Mars The HiRISE camera aboard Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this closeup image of a "fresh" (on a geological scale, though quite old on a human scale) impact crater in the Sirenum Fossae region of Mars. This impact crater appears relatively recent as it has a sharp rim and well-preserved ejecta Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Hubble Peers into the Most Crowded Place in the Milky Way This Nasa Hubble Space Telescope image presents the Arches Cluster, the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way NASA & ESA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space An Astronaut's View from Space Nasa astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo from the International Space Station on 2 September 2014 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Giant Landform on Mars On Mars, we can observe four classes of sandy landforms formed by the wind, or aeolian bedforms: ripples, transverse aeolian ridges, dunes, and what are called draa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Expedition 39 Landing A sokol suit helmet can be seen against the window of the Soyuz TMA-11M capsule shortly after the spacecraft landed with Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan (NASA/Bill Ingalls) Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Jupiter's Great Red Spot Viewed by Voyager I Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and perhaps the most majestic. Vibrant bands of clouds carried by winds that can exceed 400 mph continuously circle the planet's atmosphere Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Chandra Observatory Sees a Heart in the Darkness This Chandra X-Ray Observatory image of the young star cluster NGC 346 highlights a heart-shaped cloud of 8 million-degree Celsius gas in the central region We dont know the statistics of how often these events occur but what I would say is that we now know it probably happens on a regular basis, Dr Raimund Muscheler from Lund University told The Independent. If that solar storm had occurred today, it could have had severe effects on our high-tech society. Relatively minor solar storms that have struck in recent years have caused extensive power cuts in parts of Canada and Sweden. Recommended Scientists prepare for solar storm that could destroy technology Previously, scientists have warned about the devastation that could result from larger storms striking the planet, but it has been difficult to guess when they might strike. To find clues about the regularity of such events, Dr Muscheler and his colleagues took polar ice samples and tested them for molecules formed by solar particles entering the atmosphere which spiked in the ice dating back to 660BC. Considering previous events that have been identified from the years 775 and 994, the scientists concluded these outbursts are probably a normal part of the Suns cycle. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events To those alive at the time of the last major events, it is likely the only observable effect would have been comparably pleasant as particles from the Sun blasted into the planet. People would have suddenly observed northern lights in very low latitudes, said Dr Muscheler. However, given their capacity for destruction, the scientists said this threat must be taken seriously, with adaptation strategies considered both for land and space-based systems. The new results were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Cars should be banned from idling near schools in a bid to cut pollution, health experts have said. In a new report, Public Health England (PHE) will call for a raft of measures, including stopping cars idling near school gates, promoting car pool lanes, and providing priority parking for electric cars. It is also calling for congestion charges to be imposed in cities across the UK. New Delhi toxic smog pushes air pollution to peak levels Show all 14 1 /14 New Delhi toxic smog pushes air pollution to peak levels New Delhi toxic smog pushes air pollution to peak levels India's Rashtrapati Bhawan is partly visible due to smog as traffic plies on Rajapth. Smog levels spike during winter in Delhi, when air quality often eclipses the World Health Organization's safe levels AP New Delhi toxic smog pushes air pollution to peak levels Cooler air traps pollutants -- such as from vehicles, building sites and farmers burning crops in regions outside the Indian capital -- close to the ground AP New Delhi toxic smog pushes air pollution to peak levels A man wearing a protective mask walks amidst smog in the early morning in New Delhi Reuters New Delhi toxic smog pushes air pollution to peak levels Indian people receive treatment for respiratory problems at a hospital in New Delhi AFP/Getty New Delhi toxic smog pushes air pollution to peak levels Buildings shrouded in smog Reuters New Delhi toxic smog pushes air pollution to peak levels A combination of pictures showing people wearing face masks to protect themselves against air pollution AFP/Getty New Delhi toxic smog pushes air pollution to peak levels Indian workers are seen in the morning smog as they clean a lane littered with remains of firecrackers AP New Delhi toxic smog pushes air pollution to peak levels Smog envelopes the horizon in New Delhi AP New Delhi toxic smog pushes air pollution to peak levels Motorists on a busy road amid heavy smog AFP/Getty New Delhi toxic smog pushes air pollution to peak levels A man cycles past a government building amid heavy smog AFP/Getty New Delhi toxic smog pushes air pollution to peak levels Commuters are seen amid heavy smog in New Delhi AFP/Getty New Delhi toxic smog pushes air pollution to peak levels An Indian shepherd walks along his herd of sheep amidst heavy smog AFP/Getty New Delhi toxic smog pushes air pollution to peak levels A train moves through heavy smog EPA New Delhi toxic smog pushes air pollution to peak levels A pedestrian crosses a road near the Indian President's house AFP/Getty Professor Paul Cosford, director for health protection and medical director of PHE, told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: Im a doctor, I see a figure of 35,000 to 40,000 people each year dying as a result of the harm that is caused by air pollution. And what I also see is that the technologies are available, the things that we need to do we know about, so this is a matter of how we take this issue as seriously as we need to and how we move the technologies and the planning and all of that into reality so we actually deal with this problem for us and for future generations. Lambeth Council accused of covering up air pollution crisis Asked about a proposal to ban cars from the school run, he said: I do think that if we consider this to be an issue of future generations, for our children, lets have a generation of children brought up free from the scourge and the harms of air pollution. And that does then take you to What can we do about making sure schools are at least as clean as possible? We should stop idling outside schools, we should make sure that children can walk or cycle to school, and we should make sure that schools work with their parents about how they can do their best for this. Calling for a culture change, he said: If we were having a conversation about 30,000 people dying each year because of a polluted water supply, I think we would have a very different conversation. It would be about What do we need to do now and how quickly can we do it?. Press Association Climate protesters are planning to blockade the main routes in and out of Dover on the day after Brexit to deepen any disruption to Britains food imports. Activists say their demonstrations on major roads from the port will cause major delays but nothing critical, and will highlight the need for emergency action on the climate and ecological crisis. But news of the plans by Extinction Rebellion organisers on Saturday 30 March was met with an immediate backlash from supporters, who warned that delaying food supplies was unfair and risked turning the public against them. There are already fears that Brexit could disrupt imports and exports of many goods if Britain leaves the European Union (EU) without a deal. Half the UKs food arrives through Dover and Folkestone, and in spring around 90 per cent of lettuces, 80 per cent of tomatoes and 70 per cent of soft fruit is sourced from or delivered via the EU. Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Show all 45 1 /45 Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion protestors block a road outside the Tate Gallery where Burberry held a show to protest impact of the fashion industry on the environment. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion co-founder Clare Farrell told The Independent: The industry has a greenhouse gas footprint the size of Russia. "Young people protesting recently are not going to thank grown ups for using up that carbon budget on throwaway clothing. We can change things as seen by industries during WW1 when factories making one product, within months, making arms instead. But were not here to tell everyone what to do. Extinction Rebellion is an alarm. Were here to say it cant go on, or well drive ourselves into extinction for the sake of an economic model we think we cant question and because we say we cant change it. Well I think that we can. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW LFW fans poses for a photograph on Sunday 19 February 2019, at The Strand, London, where Extinction Rebellion activists staged a road block demonstration in protest of the fashion industry's impact on the environment. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Climate change activists block the road as part of an Extinction Rebellion protest outside a London Fashion Week event at Tate Britain in London, calling on the fashion industry to use its influence to help to create a sustainable world. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW A LFW fan poses for a photograph on Sunday 19 February 2019, at The Strand, London, where Extinction Rebellion activists staged a road block demonstration in protest of the fashion industry's impact on the environment. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion activists gathered for a break at a small green space near Temple underground station on 19 February 2019 Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW A LFW fan poses for a photograph on Sunday 19 February 2019, at The Strand, London, where Extinction Rebellion activists staged a road block demonstration in protest of the fashion industry's impact on the environment. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion activists gathered for a break at a small green space near Temple underground station on 19 February 2019 Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW A LFW fan poses for a photograph on Sunday 19 February 2019, at The Strand, London, where Extinction Rebellion activists staged a road block demonstration in protest of the fashion industry's impact on the environment. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW A LFW fan poses for a photograph on Sunday 19 February 2019, at The Strand, London, where Extinction Rebellion activists staged a road block demonstration in protest of the fashion industry's impact on the environment. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW An Extinction Rebellion activist models a coat made of real grass during a protest against the fashion industry's impact on the environment during LFW on 19 February 2019. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW A LFW fan poses for a photograph during a protest by Extinction Rebellion activists. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion protestors block a road outside the Tate Gallery where Burberry held a show to protest impact of the fashion industry on the environment. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW LFW fans poses for a photograph on Sunday 19 February 2019, at The Strand, London, where Extinction Rebellion activists staged a road block demonstration in protest of the fashion industry's impact on the environment. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion activists model a coat made of real grass during a road block to protest the impact of the fashion industry on the environment on 19 February 2019 during LFW. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion co-founder Clare Farrell told The Independent: The industry has a greenhouse gas footprint the size of Russia. "Young people protesting recently are not going to thank grown ups for using up that carbon budget on throwaway clothing. We can change things as seen by industries during WW1 when factories making one product, within months, making arms instead. But were not here to tell everyone what to do. Extinction Rebellion is an alarm. Were here to say it cant go on, or well drive ourselves into extinction for the sake of an economic model we think we cant question and because we say we cant change it. Well I think that we can. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW LFW fans poses for a photograph on Sunday 19 February 2019, at The Strand, London, where Extinction Rebellion activists staged a road block demonstration in protest of the fashion industry's impact on the environment. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellon astvists converge outside the Tate during LFW. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW LFW fans poses for a photograph on Sunday 19 February 2019, at The Strand, London, where Extinction Rebellion activists staged a road block demonstration in protest of the fashion industry's impact on the environment. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion activists model a coat made of real grass during a road block to protest the impact of the fashion industry on the environment on 19 February 2019 during LFW. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW An Extinction Rebellion activist holds up a sign as LFW fans pose for a photograph on Sunday 19 February 2019. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Student and artist Sabrina Zahoe, 19, from Atlanta, Georgia, who studies in New York is a London Fashion Week fan. She said: Im very supportive of what the protestors are doing today. I say fuck fast fashion, so any kind of green fashion, I support tremendously. We do need to start thinking about fashion more consciously. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW An Extinction Rebellion activist holds up a sign during a road block outside the Tate Gallery to protest the impact of the fashion industry on the environment on 19 February 2019 during LFW. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Ella OBrien, 17 (left) and Raffy Parsons, 16 (right) said they love London Fashion Week but are conscious of its footprint on the environment. Ella, who said she wants to make her own line of sustainable fashion in the future, told The Independent: think its improtant for people to be aware of how much theyre confusing and look into more sustainable options and be more mindful in terms of where their clothing is coming from, how its being produced. It is getting better but theres a long way to go. Raffy added: Stopping getting new clothes when you could just recycle is really important. Were both vegan so were trying our best. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion activists enroute to The Tate Modern to orchestrate another road block stop to adorn a statue with Extinction Distinction flags on Sunday 19 February 2019. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Vegan LFW fan Raffy Parsons, 16, said he is conscious about the impact of fast fashion. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion activists enroute to The Tate Modern to orchestrate another road block stop to adorn a statue with Extinction Distinction flags on Sunday 19 February 2019. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion activist, Becky Boey, told The Independent: The fashion industry promotes a culture of unsustainable need for the next new fashion, and once its over, people want to buy the next new thing. "Consumerism has gone out of control. We have to make some real changes to the way we think about our climate and wasteful society. "The fashion industry in this respect is significant because it has a huge influence on young minds. "But were a society thats run on capital. Were so focused on the economy, but economic growth is not in line with having a sustainable planet to live on." Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion activists march to The Tate Modern to orchestrate another road block while before a Burberry catwalk show takes place on Sunday 19 February 2019. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion activists gathered for a break at a small green space near Temple underground station on 19 February 2019 Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion activists gathered for a break at a small green space near Temple underground station on 19 February 2019 Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion co-founder Clare Farrell told The Independent: The industry has a greenhouse gas footprint the size of Russia. "Young people protesting recently are not going to thank grown ups for using up that carbon budget on throwaway clothing. We can change things as seen by industries during WW1 when factories making one product, within months, making arms instead. But were not here to tell everyone what to do. Extinction Rebellion is an alarm. Were here to say it cant go on, or well drive ourselves into extinction for the sake of an economic model we think we cant question and because we say we cant change it. Well I think that we can. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion activists take a break at a small green space next to Temple station during LFW on Sunday 19 February 2019. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion co-founder Tamsin Omond speaks to a crowd of activists about the impact of the action and the media coverage received. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion activists gathered for a break at a small green space near Temple underground station on 19 February 2019 Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion activists gathered for a break at a small green space near Temple underground station on 19 February 2019 Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion activists gathered for a break at a small green space near Temple underground station on 19 February 2019 Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion activists are followed down the street by members of the press during LFW on Sunday 19 February 2019. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion protestors converge outside LFW, at The Strand, London, Sunday 17 February 2019. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion protestors block traffic at a road outside Temple underground station during LFW on Sunday 19 February 2019 to protest against the carbon footprint of the fashion industry on Sunday 17 February 2019. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW A disgruntled motorist stands next to his motorbike during a road block protest by Extinction Rebellion activist, staged to demonstrate against the fashion industry's carbon footprint near Temple underground station during LFW on Sunday 19 February 2019. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW An Extinction Rebellion protestor who joined activists to block traffic at a road outside Temple underground station during LFW on Sunday 19 February 2019 to demonstrate against the carbon footprint of the fashion industry on Sunday 17 February 2019. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW Extinction Rebellion protestors block traffic at a road outside Temple underground station during LFW on Sunday 19 February 2019 to protest against the carbon footprint of the fashion industry on Sunday 17 February 2019. Anu Shukla Extinction Rebellion swarm LFW An Extinction Rebellion protestor who joined activists to block traffic at a road outside Temple underground station during LFW on Sunday 19 February 2019 to demonstrate against the carbon footprint of the fashion industry on Sunday 17 February 2019. Anu Shukla On social media, the campaigners said: While newspapers resound with predictions of empty supermarket shelves as a result of Brexit, this is nothing compared to the misery of climate crisis-induced famine and hunger. The Dover block will highlight the extreme vulnerability of British people to food insecurity and underline the need for government to take emergency action on the climate and ecological crisis. They said the blockade would be non-violent and was unconnected to Brexit. There is no doubt this will be a controversial action but rest assured, the Dover blockade will not stop medicine and food supplies getting through," they added. "This is a symbolic one-day blockage. It will cause major delays, but nothing critical. Its purpose is to tell to the public and government to wake up; very soon we could have food supply collapse and medicine scarcity because of climate breakdown. The Extinction Rebellion movement, whose activists are prepared to be arrested in mass civil disobedience protests, is also planning international demonstrations next month to try to force world leaders to treat climate and ecological breakdown as an emergency. It will cause major delays but nothing critical its purpose is to tell to the public and government to wake up Extinction Rebellion Organisers insisted they had no political view on Brexit, adding: There will be no food on a dead planet, only dead people. Supporter Lois Brooks warned the blockade could prove crippling to crop growers abroad, and Jonathan Griffiths warned it was a massive mistake. He said: If Brexit goes ahead as scheduled, Dover is likely to be in chaos regardless of this action. I think that XR acting to worsen this and the likely food/essentials shortages the UK will experience is a very bad idea." Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events But another supporter said one day of action would have little impact on food supplies. Organisers have issued three demands, including the creation of a citizens assembly to oversee policy changes to halt carbon emissions. Shamima Begums mother has asked the Home Office to reinstate the teenagers British citizenship, in a letter sent to officials this morning. Sajid Javid announced his department was stripping Ms Begum of her citizenship in February, shortly after she resurfaced in a refugee camp in Syria and asked to return home to the UK. The Isis supporter left London and travelled to Syria to join the self-declared caliphate in 2015. We write specifically on behalf of Mrs Begum, Shamima Begums mother to ask you to reconsider your previous decision dated 19 February 2019 to deprive her daughter Begum of her British citizenship, the letter, sent by the Begum familys lawyers to the Home Office, reads. Ms Begum requests this reconsideration, as an act of mercy, on the basis of the following new information, namely the death of her newborn son. Timeline of the Isis caliphate Show all 19 1 /19 Timeline of the Isis caliphate Timeline of the Isis caliphate ISIS began as a group by the merging of extremist organisations ISI and al-Nusra in 2013. Following clashes, Syrian rebels captured the ISIS headquarters in Aleppo in January 2014 (pictured) AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi declared the creation of a caliphate in Mosul on 27 June 2014 Timeline of the Isis caliphate Isis conquered the Kurdish towns of Sinjar and Zumar in August 2014, forcing thousands of civilians to flee their homes. Pictured are a group of Yazidi Kurds who have fled Rex Timeline of the Isis caliphate On September 2 2014 Isis released a video depicting the beheading of US journalist Steven Sotloff. On September 13 they released another video showing the execution of British aid worker David Haines Timeline of the Isis caliphate The US launched its first airstrikes against Isis in Syria on 23 September 2014. Here Lt Gen William C Mayville Jnr speaks about the bombing campaign in the wake of the first strikes Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Isis militants sit atop a hill planted with their flag in the Syrian town of Kobani on 6 October 2014. They had been advancing on Kobani since mid-September and by now was in control of the citys entrance and exit points AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Residents of the border village of Alizar keep guard day and night as they wait in fear of mortar fire from Isis who have occupied the nearby city of Kobani Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Smoke rises following a US airstrike on Kobani, 28 October 2014 AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate YPG fighters raise a flag as they reclaim Kobani on 26 January 2015 VOA Timeline of the Isis caliphate Isis seized the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra on 20 May 2015. This image show the city from above days after its capture by Isis Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Kurdish forces are stationed on a hill above the town of Sinjar as smoke rises following US airstrikes on 12 November 2015 AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Kurdish forces enter Sinjar after seizing it from Isis control on 13 November 2015 AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Iraqi government forces make the victory sign as they retake the city of Fallujah from ISIS on 26 June 2016 Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Iraqi forces battle with Isis for the city of Mosul on 30 June 2017 AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Members of the Iraqi federal police raise flags in Mosul on 8 July 2017. On the following day, Iraqi prime minister Haider Al Abadi declares victory over Isis in Mosul Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Members of Syrian Democratic Forces celebrate in Al-Naim square after taking back the city of Raqqa from Isis. US-backed Syrian forces declare victory over Isis in Raqqa on 20 October 2017 after a four-month long campaign Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Female fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces celebrate in Al-Naim Square after taking back the city of Raqqa from Isis. US-backed Syrian forces declare victory over Isis in Raqqa on 20 October 2017 after a four-month long campaign AFP/Getty Timeline of the Isis caliphate Trucks full of women and children arrive from the last Isis-held areas in Deir ez-Zor, Syria in January 2019 They were among the last civilians to be living in the ISIS caliphate, by this time reduced to just two small villages in Syrias Deir ez-Zor Richard Hall/The Independent Timeline of the Isis caliphate Zikia Ibrahim, 28, with her two-year-old son and 8-month-old daughter, after fleeing the Isis caliphate, on Saturday 26 January 2019 Richard Hall/The Independent The letter suggests it is extremely unlikely that Shamima will be in a fit state to make any rational decisions. You will appreciate there are immediate fears for Shamimas health and safety, and the matter is urgent, it adds. The Begum family said they have been unable to contact the 19-year-old directly. Ms Begum told The Times in February that she did not regret her decision to pledge allegiance to Isis but wanted to return home so her child, then not yet born, could live. On Friday the Syrian Democratic Forces confirmed that the teenagers newborn son, Jarrah, had died. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The Independent has contacted the Home Office for comment. Theresa May has left London for Strasbourg in a bid to secure a last minute change to her Brexit deal, ahead of a critical vote tomorrow. Downing Street confirmed that the prime minister will meet Jean-Claude Juncker for talks following days of painstaking technical and political discussions. In the late afternoon Number 10 insiders were still playing down any talk that a deal had been actually struck, saying only that the PMs trip meant there are grounds for positive discussions. It comes just 24 hours before a crunch vote in the commons, with eurosceptic MPs threatening to oppose the deal unless Ms May secures significant changes. Earlier in the day Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said: The negotiations are ongoing. Many had hoped we would have clarity at this stage, particularly in advance of the vote tomorrow. We dont yet. The British prime minister is travelling to Strasbourg this evening, I understand, to try to finalise an agreement, if that is possible, to be able to put that to a meaningful vote in Westminster tomorrow. Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay, who was party to recent political discussions with Brussels along side attorney general Geoffrey Cox, will accompany Ms May to the talks. They and other officials are expected to land in Strasbourg at 8pm UK time, before going into a meeting with Commission president Mr Juncker. Photographers have been told to be ready for a 10pm press conference involving Ms May. She must convince Tory Brexiteer MPs in the backbench European Research Group and her Northern Irish DUP partners in government that any change she secures allows the UK a legally-binding way out of the Irish backstop arrangement currently set out in the withdrawal agreement. The backstop comes into play if the EU and UK have failed to agree future trading arrangements by the end of 2020, thus keeping the Irish border open, but also locking the UK into a customs union with the EU on a potentially indefinite basis. A key indicator of how successful her renegotiation of the withdrawal agreement has been, will be if Mr Cox is able to change his legal advice to the government relating to the indefinite nature of the backstop. Members of the ERG have previously said that the backstop would have to be replaced altogether, something the EU will not agree to, raising questions as to wether any alterations made by negotiators will suffice. Brexit minister Robin Walker confirms votes on no-deal and Article 50 extension this week if Theresa May's deal is rejected Speaking earlier in the day Mark Francois said: This isnt just semantics. Theres a big difference between replacing something, and just tweaking it. And what the government have asked them, is to tweak it. What the commons, what the House of Commons, what parliament gave her a mandate to ask for, was to replace it. Thats what the House of Commons voted for. The prime ministers de-facto deputy David Lidington is now set to make a commons statement on Brexit this evening, that could update MPs on any breakthrough. Insiders said it could be possible that the statement is pushed back as late as 10pm, in order to allow Mr Lidington to be in the best position possible to inform the house. Ms May will put a deal, one way or another, to a vote of the house on Tuesday and has said if she loses, there will be further votes on Wednesday on whether the UK should leave with no-deal and on Thursday on whether they should seek an extension to the Article 50 withdrawal process. Chancellor Philip Hammond is to use his spring statement this week to set out new steps to promote biodiversity and protect the environment. Mr Hammond is expected to say he has heard calls from young people about the degradation of the planet, when he delivers his statement on Wednesday. The measures will include a global review of the economic benefits of biodiversity to identify measures that can both enhance ecosystems and promote prosperity. It comes less than a month after thousands of school and university students walked out of lessons to call for action on climate change and the ecological crisis. And three weeks ago, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation warned that the worlds food supplies were increasingly under threat from destruction of the planets biodiversity. Insects at risk of extinction Show all 12 1 /12 Insects at risk of extinction Insects at risk of extinction Wasps Wasps are of the order Hymenoptera, one of the most at risk Getty Insects at risk of extinction Dragonflies Dragonflies are of the order Odonata, one of the most at risk Getty Insects at risk of extinction Bees Bees are of the order Hymenoptera, one of the most at risk Getty Insects at risk of extinction Butterflies Butterflies are of the order Lepidoptera, one of the most at risk Getty Insects at risk of extinction Ants Ants are of the order Hymenoptera, one of the most at risk Getty Insects at risk of extinction Dung Beetles Getty Insects at risk of extinction Caddisflies Caddisflies make up the order Trichoptera, one of the most at risk Getty Insects at risk of extinction Stoneflies Stoneflies are of the order plecoptera, one of the most at risk Getty Insects at risk of extinction Saw-Flies Saw-Flies are of the order Hymenoptera, one of the most at risk Getty Insects at risk of extinction Moths Moths are of the order Lepidoptera, one of the most at risk Getty Insects at risk of extinction Damselfly Damselflies are of the order Odonata, one of the most at risk Getty Insects at risk of extinction Mayflies Mayflies are of the order Ephemeroptera, one of the most at risk Getty The chancellor will also launch a consultation on how to conserve natural environments in the UKs overseas territories, from the ice fields of the British Antarctic to the islands of the Caribbean. Officials said the announcements followed recent figures that underlined the importance of biodiversity to the economy. The value of the UKs 1,500 species of crop pollinators, such as bees, is estimated to be at least 680m a year. According to estimates, ecosystems and biodiversity are worth up to 100 times more than the cost of conservation measures. Experts say human interference with wildlife and the climate is such that species are disappearing at 1,000 times their natural speed. They also say the overseas territories are home to 90 per cent of the biodiversity in the UK and the territories combined. The Falkland Islands, for example, are home to up to 70 per cent of the worlds black-browed albatrosses. Mr Hammond will also announce a review looking at expanding carbon offsets to passenger carriers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Ministers are also considering future-proofing all new-build homes to ensure they have low carbon heating and high energy efficiency standards. Additional reporting by Press Association More than 150 Labour MPs and Lords have attended a meeting of a new group, in a bid to offset the influence of the partys dominant left wing. The event organised by deputy leader Tom Watson was attended by 14 members of Jeremy Corbyns shadow ministerial team. Addressing the new social democratic Future Britain group, Mr Watson argued that the party faces its biggest ever schism unless it restores pluralism and tolerance. The gathering saw followers of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown mix, having once engaged in bitter infighting, with Peter Mandelson telling the group they must work together to save the party. Mr Watson announced that he would set up the group after 11 MPs quit the party, mainly over Brexit and antisemitism, with eight going on to form the new Independent Group with defecting Tories. The Labour deputy leader said: The last few weeks have been very difficult and upsetting. The departure of good people, in particular friends like Luciana [Berger] and Ian Austin, was for me a personal wake-up call to step up and do more. I really fear that unless we restore pluralism and tolerance to this party, it will be irreparably damaged and we will see a schism bigger than any we have experienced in our long history. This party is made of many elements and weve only ever worked and been elected to government when the pluralism of our different traditions has been respected. Labour split: the reaction on Twitter Show all 16 1 /16 Labour split: the reaction on Twitter Labour split: the reaction on Twitter Labour split: the reaction on Twitter Labour split: the reaction on Twitter Labour split: the reaction on Twitter Labour split: the reaction on Twitter Labour split: the reaction on Twitter Labour split: the reaction on Twitter Labour split: the reaction on Twitter Labour split: the reaction on Twitter Labour split: the reaction on Twitter Labour split: the reaction on Twitter Labour split: the reaction on Twitter Labour split: the reaction on Twitter Labour split: the reaction on Twitter Labour split: the reaction on Twitter Labour split: the reaction on Twitter Those at the event included leading Blairites such as Lord Mandelson, David Blunkett and Pat McFadden, as well as Brownites Stewart Wood, Yvette Cooper and Mr Watson himself. Other senior figures in attendance were former leader Neil Kinnock and former deputy prime minister John Prescott. In all, 13 former cabinet members attended the meeting, as did 14 current frontbenchers, including shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald, Gloria de Piero, Jim McMahon, Justin Madders and whips Mark Tami and Vicky Foxcroft. Referring to Labour leader Mr Corbyn, Mr Watson said: Jeremy to his credit kept the voice of his tradition alive through the campaign group during the New Labour years. So, he understands the need for those from the social democratic and democratic socialist traditions to give ourselves the strongest voice we can. Margaret Hodge on Jeremy Corbyn's 'inner circle' accused of interfering in cases of antisemitism in Labour's ranks: 'What is so awful about this is that Jeremy always proclaims zero tolerance of antisemitism' Among the policy areas the new group will focus on are foreign policy and defence, the future of work and pay, education and social mobility, and the future of the NHS and social care. Darren Jones MP insisted the group was not a faction or a Labour equivalent of the Tory European Research Group (ERG). Mr Jones told reporters: Some have said that this is a new faction it is in fact the complete opposite. As Neil Kinnock, our former leader was saying this evening, and Peter Mandelson, this is a coming together of previous factions into the mainstream Labour Party. We are not the ERG. We are not a party within a party. Margaret Thatcher personally supported one of her MPs who had an alleged penchant for small boys, MI5 files disclosed to a public inquiry reveal. An MI5 lawyer told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) it was a matter of regret that the service considered only the national security implications of allegations of possible child abuse by Peter Morrison, Conservative MP for Chester, and did not pass information to the police. The lawyer said MI5s review of its files uncovered no evidence to indicate the existence of a Westminster paedophile network and nothing to suggest any attempt to cover up a child abuse ring in parliament. But the witness, who gave evidence anonymously, admitted that memos and a letter from 1986 had discussed claims that Morrison had a penchant for small boys, and there was nothing to indicate MI5 passed the information in its possession to police. The inquiry heard that two 1986 memos were written by Eliza Manningham-Buller, who went on to be the director general of MI5 between 2002 and 2007. Chichester clergy child abuse Show all 12 1 /12 Chichester clergy child abuse Chichester clergy child abuse Reverend Gordon Rideout Reverend Gordon Rideout was convicted of 34 counts of indecent assault and two counts of attempted rape against a total of 16 victims from May 2013. He was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. He also pleaded guilty in December 2016 to a further count of indecent assault against someone under the age of 16 and was sentenced to nine months imprisonment. PA Chichester clergy child abuse Reverend Pritchard Reverend Pritchard pleaded guilty in 2008 to seven counts of sexual assault against two boys and was jailed for five years. BBC Chichester clergy child abuse Reverend Robert Coles Reverend Robert Coles pleaded guilty to counts of indecent assault and two of attempted buggery and was sentenced in February 2013 to eight years imprisonment. Chichester clergy child abuse Reverend Jonathan Graves Reverend Jonathan Graves was convicted in 2017 of 12 offences, including indecent assault and cruelty to a child, and was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. Chichester clergy child abuse Reverend Keith Denford Reverend Keith Denford was convicted of three counts of indecent assault in April 2013 and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. Chichester clergy child abuse Michael Mytton Church organist Michael Mytton arrives at Hove Crown Court in East Sussex to face charges of indecently assaulting boys under 16 dating back to the 1980s. PA Chichester clergy child abuse Reverend Christopher Howarth Reverend Christopher Howarth was convicted of 26 counts of sexual activity with a child and causing a child to engage in sexual activity and received 16 years imprisonment in total. Chichester clergy child abuse Deacon Peter Pannett Peter Pannett was a deacon in the Brighton area. He pleaded guilty to two counts of making indecent images of children, one count of attempting incitement of a child to engage in sexual activity, and two counts of inciting a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity. He also pleaded guilty to two counts of causing a child to watch a sexual act. He was sentenced to 32 months of imprisonment. Chichester clergy child abuse Bishop Peter Ball Peter Ball was the Bishop of Lewes between 1977 and 1992 (later Bishop of Gloucester). In September 2015, Bishop Ball pleaded guilty to counts of misconduct in public office concerning sexual activity with young adults and two counts of indecent assaults against adults. He was sentenced to 32 months imprisonment. The Reverend Vickery House was a vicar within East Sussex and a close associate of Peter Ball. He was convicted of five counts of indecent assault and was sentenced to six-and-a-half years imprisonment in October 2015. PA Chichester clergy child abuse Reverend Vickery House The Reverend Vickery House was a vicar within East Sussex and a close associate of Peter Ball. He was convicted of five counts of indecent assault and was sentenced to six-and-a-half years imprisonment in October 2015. PA Chichester clergy child abuse Michael Walsh Michael Walsh, involved with Chichester Cathedral and the Prebendal School(which educates the choristers who sing in the cathedral and has boarding facilities.) In 1990, Michael Walsh, who was a teacher at a state-run Anglican secondary school and was head of music at an Anglican church in Chichester, was also involved heavily with music in the Chichester area. He was convicted, in 1990, of having unlawful sexual intercourse with teenage girls who were pupils at his school and some of them may also have been involved with Chichester Cathedral as well. It is not clear. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment. Chichester clergy child abuse Terence Banks Terence Banks and the associated offending of Michael Walsh and David Bowring. Terence Banks was the steward of Chichester Cathedral. He was convicted in May 2001 and sentenced to 16 years' imprisonment for 32 sexual offences against 12 boys. Her role, the inquiry was told, would have been confined to passing on information, rather than making decisions on what to do about the MP, who had been one of the first backbenchers to urge Thatcher to stand for the Tory leadership in 1975 and her parliamentary private secretary in 1990. In one 1986 memo, the future Dame Eliza stated Morrison had told her he was being doorstepped by reporters seeking comments about five-year-old allegations that the press had become keen to publish now former Tory deputy chair Jeffrey Archer had been caught paying off a prostitute. The inquiry heard Ms Manningham-Buller wrote that Morrison did not tell her what the allegations involved, adding: Peter hoped the press would publish something so that he could sue and nail the lies that were being spread about him. The prime minister was aware of it and was supporting Peter. Admitting that in the 1980s the service considered the allegations only in national security terms, the MI5 lawyer said: Its a matter of regret that no consideration was given at the time to the criminal aspects of the matter. "The knowledge and understanding of child sexual abuse at the time was much, much lower than it is now. So Im to some extent unsurprised that wider consideration wasnt given in 1986. With hindsight, its a matter of real regret. The MI5 lawyer added that MI5s reasoning in 1986 would have been: If the prime minister [Thatcher] knew of the allegations and was not particularly, on the face of it, concerned about them, if this is a true account of the situation, then there would be little point in MI5 investigating them further. Brian Altman QC, lead counsel to the inquiry, also quoted from the 2014 independent Wanless-Whittam review of information held in connection with child abuse between 1979 and 1999, which had summarised MI5s handling of the Morrison allegations by saying: In response to claims from two sources that a named member of parliament has a penchant for small boys ... Matters conclude with acceptance of his word that he does not, and the observation that at the present stage the risks of political embarrassment to the government is rather greater than the security danger. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Mr Altman said: The risk to children is not considered at all. The witness said that if the same information came into MI5s possession today, it would be referred to police. Mr Morrison, who between September 1986 and June 1987 was deputy to Conservative party chair Norman Tebbit, was knighted in 1991 and died in 1995 aged 51. The inquiry has already been told by Mr Altman that there will be exploration of whether there was a culture whereby people of public prominence were shielded from investigation at the expense of their victims. Mr Morrison is forming one of three case studies, along with the late Liberal MP Cyril Smith and Green Party member David Challenor who was jailed for 22 years in August after being convicted of sexual assault against a 10-year-old girl. Mr Altman said a question by Labour deputy leader Tom Watson in the House of Commons in 2012, in which he said there was clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to parliament and No 10, could be seen as the catalyst for the establishment of this inquiry. But he clarified that some allegations had already been shown to be false. Geoffrey Robertson QC, acting for Harvey Proctor whose home was raided under the Metropolitan Polices Operation Midland before the probe closed in 2016 without a single arrest claimed Mr Watson and various febrile journalists had started a moral panic over an alleged paedophile ring. The inquiry continues. The United States told airlines it was safe to fly Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes as investigators found two black box recorders that will help piece together the final moments of an Ethiopian Airlines crash which killed 157 people. The announcement came after China and Indonesia grounded all of their fleets citing safety concerns, contributing to a drop in Boeing Co shares that wiped billions of dollars off the market value of the world's biggest plane maker. Ethiopias flag carrier has also suspended use of the aircraft over safety concerns as the east African country marks a day of mourning and authorities search for the remains of victims, including at least nine Britons. The US Federal Aviation Administration however, issued a "continued airworthiness notification" to assure operators of the plane that it was safe to fly. It said it was collecting data on the crash and keeping in contact with international civil aviation authorities and would take immediate action if it identified any safety issues. Southwest Airlines Company which operates the largest fleet of 737 MAX 8s, said it remained confident in the safety of all its Boeing planes even as it received a rush of queries from customers wanting to know if they were booked to fly on a 737 MAX 8. Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Show all 15 1 /15 Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia People stand near collected debris at the crash site AFP/Getty Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia A man carries a piece of debris on his head at the crash site AFP/Getty Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Wreckage lies at the crash site of the Ethiopia Airlines Boeing 737 near Addis Ababa EPA Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Debris at the site of the crash near Addis Ababa Reuters Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia CEO of Ethiopia Airlines, Tewolde Gebremariam inspects the crash site AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Debris from the crashed aeroplane AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia UN staff observe a minutes silence for the victims of the plane crash. 19 UN workers were killed in the crash AFP/Getty Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Rescuers work at the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Rescuers work at the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 (ET-AVM), the same type of aircraft that crashed EPA Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Rescuers work at the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Members of the search and rescue team work at the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Reuters Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia A boarding pass at the scene of the crash Reuters Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Rescuers remove body bags from the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Wreckage at the scene of the Ethiopia Airlines flight AP "Our customer relations team is responding to these customers individually, emphasising our friendly, no-change fee policy," America's fourth biggest airline said in a statement. There has been no immediate indication as to why the plane went down in clear weather six minutes after departing Addis Ababa for the Kenyan capital Nairobi. It was the second disaster involving the new 737 Max 8 in less than five months, after a flight operated by Indonesian budget airline Lion Air crashed into the sea in October, killing 189 passengers and crew. Chinas civil aviation administration ordered all airlines to ground the model the latest version of Boeings most popular passenger jet on Monday. Given that two accidents both involved newly delivered Boeing 737-8 planes and happened during take-off phase, they have some degree of similarity, it said. Indonesia also said it would temporarily ground the aircraft for inspection. Cayman Airways, the flag carrier of the British Caribbean territory, and South Africa's Comair have also suspended use of the model. Other airlines said they were monitoring the situation. Alan Diehl, a former National Transportation Safety Board investigator, said reports of unstable vertical speed in the Ethiopian jet's ascent were "clearly suggesting a potential controllability problem." However, experts cautioned against drawing comparisons between the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air disasters until more information was known. Other possible causes of the crash include engine problems, pilot error, weight load, sabotage or bird strikes, Mr Diehl said. I do hope though that people will wait for the first results of the investigation instead of jumping to conclusions based on the very little facts that we know so far, said Harro Ranter, founder of the Aviation Safety Network, which compiles information about accidents worldwide. Indonesian investigators have not yet determined the cause of Octobers crash, although they are probing whether faulty readings from a sensor might have triggered an automatic nose-down command to the plane. Ethiopian Airlines said the jet that crashed on Sunday had undergone a rigorous first check maintenance on 4 February and no problems had been detected ahead of the disaster, according to the company's chief executive. Pilot Yared Getachew had a "commendable record" and more than 8,000 hours of flying experience, according to the airline. The planes black box flight recorder was recovered at the crash site on Monday, but officials said it was partially damaged and we will see what we can retrieve from it. The aircraft was one of five 737 Max 8 planes the airline had received so far after ordering a fleet of 30. The remaining four in operation have been grounded until further further notice as an extra safety precaution, said spokesman Asrat Begashaw. A Boeing spokeswoman told The Independent: Safety is our number one priority and we are taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this accident, working closely with the investigating team and all regulatory authorities involved. The investigation is in its early stages, but at this point, based on the information available, we do not have any basis to issue new guidance to operators. Ethiopian Airlines crash Boeing has taken more than 4,700 orders of the model since it was launched in 2017. A spokesman for Tui Airways, which became the first UK airline to receive a Boeing 737 Max 8 in December last year, said it had no indication that we cant operate our 737 Max in a safe way like we do with all other planes in our network. The company, which has 15 of the aircraft and plans to increase that number to 32, added it was in close contact with the manufacturer. Scandinavian airline Norwegian, which serves London Gatwick, Manchester and Edinburgh in the UK, said the 18 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft in its fleet were operating as normal on Monday. Cayman Airways, which operates two of the jets, said it had suspended them to maintain "undoubtable safe operations". Comair, which has one of the model in its fleet but It came as details of the lives lost in Sunday's crash began to emerge. Victims spanned more than 35 nationalities, with most from Kenya, Canada, Ethiopia, China, Italy, the US, France, the UK, Egypt and Germany. Nineteen employees of UN-affiliated organisations are thought to have been killed, with the disaster coming a day before an environmental forum was due to start in Nairobi on Monday. They included Joanna Toole, 36, one of three Britons and one Irishman identified as having been on the plane. A spokesperson for the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office said "at least nine British nationals" had been on board the flight. "Our staff at the British Embassy in Addis Ababa are continuing to work with the relevant authorities in Ethiopia to obtain further information," the spokesperson added. Joseph Waithaka, a dual Kenyan-British national, University of Plymouth graduate Sarah Auffret were also killed, and Irish aid worker Michael Ryan were also killed. Additional reporting by agencies Three of the nine Britons, and one Irish citizen, who died when the Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed on Sunday have been identified. Joanna Toole, 36, from Exmouth in Devon, was on the plane heading to Nairobi to attend the UN Environment Assembly. Her father, Adrian, described her as a very soft and loving woman whose work was not a job it was her vocation. Everybody was very proud of her and the work she did. Were still in a state of shock, he told the DevonLive website. Joanna was genuinely one of those people who you never heard a bad word about. He said his daughter used to travel to the remote Faroe Islands to prevent whaling. Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Show all 15 1 /15 Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia People stand near collected debris at the crash site AFP/Getty Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia A man carries a piece of debris on his head at the crash site AFP/Getty Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Wreckage lies at the crash site of the Ethiopia Airlines Boeing 737 near Addis Ababa EPA Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Debris at the site of the crash near Addis Ababa Reuters Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia CEO of Ethiopia Airlines, Tewolde Gebremariam inspects the crash site AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Debris from the crashed aeroplane AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia UN staff observe a minutes silence for the victims of the plane crash. 19 UN workers were killed in the crash AFP/Getty Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Rescuers work at the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Rescuers work at the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 (ET-AVM), the same type of aircraft that crashed EPA Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Rescuers work at the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Members of the search and rescue team work at the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Reuters Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia A boarding pass at the scene of the crash Reuters Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Rescuers remove body bags from the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Wreckage at the scene of the Ethiopia Airlines flight AP Manuel Barange, head of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations fisheries and aquaculture department, tweeted that he was profoundly sad and lost for words over the death of a wonderful human being. Irishman Michael Ryan was among seven dead from the UNs World Food Programme (WFP), which distributes huge amounts of rations every year to those in need. The Rome-based aid worker and engineer, known as Mick, who was formerly from Lahinch in Co Clare, was believed to have been married with two children. Recommended Plane carrying 157 crashes on way to Nairobi His projects included creating safe ground for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and assessing damage to roads in Nepal from landslides. Irish premier Leo Varadkar said: Michael was doing life-changing work in Africa with the World Food Programme. Joseph Waithaka, a 55-year-old who lived in Hull for a decade before moving back to his native Kenya, also died in the crash, his son told the Hull Daily Mail. Ben Kuria, who lives in London, said his father had worked for the Probation Service. He helped so many people in Hull who had found themselves on the wrong side of the law, he said. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Mr Waithaka had dual Kenyan and British citizenship, the BBC reported. Polar expert Sarah Auffret died on the flight as she made her way to Nairobi to talk about a Clean Seas project, her Norway-based employers Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO) said. Norwegian media reported that the University of Plymouth graduate was a French-British dual national. Sarah was on her way to Nairobi to talk about the Clean Seas project in connection with the UN Environment Assembly this week, an AECO statement said. Joanna Toole was one of seven British citizens on board the flight (Facebook) (Joanna Toole via Facebook) Words cannot describe the sorrow and despair we feel. We have lost a true friend and beloved colleague. Initial reports had suggested that seven Britons were on board the plane but the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said on Monday that nine citizens had died. "We can now sadly confirm at least nine British nationals were on board flight ET302," a spokesperson said. "Our staff at the British Embassy in Addis Ababa are continuing to work with the relevant authorities in Ethiopia to obtain further information." The Boeing 737 flight ET 302 took off from the capital Addis Ababa, heading to Nairobi in Kenya. Agencies contributed to this report. The black box of recorded data from the Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed on Sunday has been recovered. The passenger jet bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 passengers and crew members on board. An anonymous airline official said that the black box containing a digital flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder was partially damaged. He said: We will see what we can retrieve from it. Investigators are attempting to determine the cause of the crash, which occurred in clear weather outside Addis Ababa shortly before 9am local time. Ethiopian Airlines said the planes senior pilot issued a distress call and was told to return, but all contact was lost shortly afterwards. The plane ploughed into the ground six minutes after takeoff. Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Show all 15 1 /15 Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia People stand near collected debris at the crash site AFP/Getty Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia A man carries a piece of debris on his head at the crash site AFP/Getty Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Wreckage lies at the crash site of the Ethiopia Airlines Boeing 737 near Addis Ababa EPA Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Debris at the site of the crash near Addis Ababa Reuters Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia CEO of Ethiopia Airlines, Tewolde Gebremariam inspects the crash site AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Debris from the crashed aeroplane AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia UN staff observe a minutes silence for the victims of the plane crash. 19 UN workers were killed in the crash AFP/Getty Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Rescuers work at the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Rescuers work at the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 (ET-AVM), the same type of aircraft that crashed EPA Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Rescuers work at the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Members of the search and rescue team work at the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Reuters Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia A boarding pass at the scene of the crash Reuters Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Rescuers remove body bags from the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Wreckage at the scene of the Ethiopia Airlines flight AP Airline spokesperson Asrat Begashaw said searching and digging to uncover bodies and aircraft parts will continue with the help of forensic experts from Israel. Ethiopian Airlines also announced that it has grounded all of its Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft as an extra safety precaution. Aviation authorities in both Indonesia and China also ordered airlines to temporarily ground their Max 8s. Caribbean carrier Cayman Airways said it was temporarily grounding the two it operates. Ethiopian authorities are leading the investigation into the crash, but are assisted by specialists from other countries. These kinds of things take time, Kenyas transport minister, James Macharia, told reporters. The airlines that have grounded Boeing 737 Max jets following the Ethiopian Airlines crash (Statista) People from 35 countries died in the Sunday morning crash. Kenya lost 32 people, more than any other country. The UK, US, Canada, Ethiopia, China, Italy, France, Egypt, Germany, India and Slovakia all lost four or more citizens. Three Britons and one Irish citizen who died in the crash have been identified so far. Leaders of the United Nations, the UN refugee agency and the World Food Programme announced that colleagues had been on the plane. The UN migration agency estimated that 19 UN-affiliated employees were killed. Both Addis Ababa and Nairobi are major hubs for humanitarian workers, and some had been on their way to a large UN environmental conference set to begin on Monday in Nairobi. The UN flag at the event flew at half-mast. Michael Moller, director-general of the UN headquarters in Geneva, said: It is one of the biggest catastrophes we have had in years. The crash was strikingly similar to that of a Lion Air jet of the same Boeing model in Indonesian seas last year. Nearly 200 died in that incident. The Ethiopian plane was delivered to the airline in November. The jets last maintenance was on 4 February, and it had flown just 1,200 hours. A Boeing spokesperson told The Independent: Safety is our number one priority and we are taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this accident, working closely with the investigating team and all regulatory authorities involved. The investigation is in its early stages, but at this point, based on the information available, we do not have any basis to issue new guidance to operators. Additional reporting by agencies A British backpacker missing in Guatemala left her hotel in the middle of the night with a puppy that was later found alone on the side of a volcano. Catherine Shaw, 23, from Witney, Oxfordshire, had been travelling in the country for two weeks with a friend when she vanished last Tuesday. The Lucie Blackman Trust, which is supporting Ms Shaws family, said she left Eco Hotel Mayachik in the area of Lake Atitlan, near San Pedro and San Juan, at 1.37am on Tuesday, but then returned at 3.19am. She then left again for the last time at 5.23am with a puppy, heading in the direction of the lake. Guatemalan tourists later found the animal alone, shivering and crying, at the highest lookout of Indian Nose, a volcano overlooking Lake Atitlan, San Pedro and San Juan, between 5am and 6am on Friday morning. 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 A hand drum, known as a hang, previously reported to be in Ms Shaws possession, was left behind and has been located. The trust has received many sightings of female travellers matching Ms Shaws description, and it has become clear that there are at least three travellers similar to her hiking in the area. It said many people reported seeing a woman matching Ms Shaws description with a guitar and a tattoo on her ribs, hitchhiking with another female. But it has since been confirmed that Ms Shaw, who had been travelling since September and had already visited Mexico and California, did not have a tattoo on her ribs, nor did she have a guitar. Three search teams have been hunting for her but nothing has been found. Search teams look for backpacker Catherine Shaw, 23, from Witney, Oxfordshire (Finding Catherine Shaw Facebook) The charity has identified two of the other hitchhikers, and is working on further leads. The trusts chief executive, Matthew Searle, has urged the other women backpackers to get in touch. He said: There are clearly a number of female travellers in the area that match or are similar to Catherine in appearance. We would like to speak to any of these travellers to both rule them out and to ask if they have seen or spoken to Catherine on their travels. If anyone knows of friends in the area that may be mistaken for Catherine, please let us know. Ms Shaws parents said their daughters disappearance was unusual and that she had always been good at keeping in touch and informing family of her whereabouts. In a video released by the trust, Ms Shaws mother urged her to get in touch as they need to know she is happy and well, while her father described his daughter as about 5ft 7in and of slim build. Her father, who has travelled to Guatemala to join the search, added: Your friends, your family are all really worried about you. Please come home, sweetheart. Donald Trump has said he just meant to "save time and words" when he referred to Apple boss Tim Cook by the wrong name. The president was widely mocked last week when he referred to the CEO as "Tim Apple" during a meeting at the White House. "At a recent round table meeting of business executives, & long after formally introducing Tim Cook of Apple, I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words," he wrote, five days after the event. "The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story!" Mr Trump's Twitter post came after Axios reported that Mr Trump had actually said "Tim Cook, Apple" very quickly, and that the "Cook" part of the sentence had been quiet. Mr Trump made the mistake during a White House meeting in which Mr Cook spoke about the importance of teaching children to code. Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Show all 20 1 /20 Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Donald Trump's Cabinet Donald Trump's Cabinet is one the richest in American history, filled with billionaires, conservatives and several career politicians. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Mike Pence US Vice President Mike Pence has defended Donald Trump throughout his presidency while walking a fine line to avoid any public involvement in major scandals. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Mike Pompeo Secretary of State Mike Pompeo replaced Donald Trump's previous appointment to the post, Rex Tillerson, and has led talks with North Korea in establishing high-profile summits between the president and Kim Jong Un. Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Wilbur Ross Secretary of Commerce Wibur Ross raised controversy when he was accused of falsely claiming to have sold stock in a bank and violated a government ethics agreement. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Robert Lighthizer US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has been a fixture in Donald Trump's ongoing trade spat with China. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet William Barr Attorney General William Barr replaced Jeff Sessions as the nation's top cop in early 2019 and has refused to commit to recusing himself from the Russia probe despite an unsolicited memo he sent to the Justice Department decrying the investigation. EPA Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Rick Perry Energy Secretary Rick Perry has held his post throughout Donald Trump's presidency despite previously undermining the need for the agency he now leads in past public statements. Ken Shipp / United States Department of Energy Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Betsy DeVos Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has also held her post throughout the presidency, despite major backlash to her apparent undermining of the nationwide public school system and advocacy for charter programmes. Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Steven Mnuchin Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has faced numerous controversies throughout his tenure as the head of Treasury, including costing taxpayers at least a million dollars in travel expenses. AP Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Robert Wilkie Veterans Affairs secretary Robert Wilkie was appointed after Donald Trump's White House doctor Ronny Jackson withdrew over allegations he provided prescription drugs to patients without prescriptions. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet David Bernhardt Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt took office in January 2019 after the resignation of Ryan Zinke after previously serving as Zinke's deputy. Before taking office Bernhardt worked for many years as a solicitor for the Department of the Interior. Tami Heilemann / United States Department of the Interior Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Elaine Chao Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has held her post throughout the presidency and has mostly avoided controversy, despite a report claiming her office has been in frequent coordination with her husband's, Mitch McConnell. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Kevin McAleenan Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan took over from Kirstjen Nielsen after she resigned in April 2019. He previously worked as the executive director of the executive director of the Office of Anti Terrorism in the Customs and Border Protection agency United States Customs and Border Protection Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Ben Carson Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson was appointed shortly after Donald Trump took office and raised controversy over an exorbitant furnishing bill for his office. Reuters Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Gina Haspel CIA Director Gina Haspel was appointed in 2018 and faced backlash surrounding her oversight of Guantanamo Bay. Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Dan Coats Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats could be the next person to leave Donald Trump's administration over his refuting the president's claims surrounding ISIS. Reuters Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Sonny Perdue Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has been dogged by ethics questions throughout his tenure and faced controversy when emails showed the agency appeared willing to eagerly work with lobbyists under his leadership. Reuters Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Alex Azar Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is a former pharmaceutical lobbyist and former drug company executive. Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Mick Mulvaney Acting Chief of Staff and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney has described himself as one of the most conservative officials in the White House. EPA Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Robert Wilkie Secretary of State for Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie has spent his career on Capitol Hill serving in various roles in foreign affairs and defence. He holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the US Air Force Reserve. Gene Russell / United States Department of Veterans Affairs As he responded to Mr Cook, who was sat in front of a card bearing his name, Mr Trump said: We have so many companies coming in. People like Tim, youre expanding all over and doing things that I really wanted you to right from the beginning. Recommended Trump suggests making Daylight Saving Time permanent I used to say, Tim, youve got to start doing it over here, and you really have. I mean, youve really put a big investment in our country. We appreciate it very much, Tim Apple. Mr Trump's tweet reflects the White House's presentation of the moment, if not the one seen in the video. In the official transcript of the meeting, the words "Tim" and "Apple" are separated by a dash, as if the president had paused. Even Mr Cook who in the meeting nodded to Mr Trump and did not comment on the mistake later appeared to mock the moment, changing his name on Twitter to reflect the moniker. His name on the site is now "Tim" followed by an apple icon. That small icon only shows on Apple devices, appearing as an X or a square on Windows computers and Android phones. Mr Trump is thought to tweet from an iPhone, however, which would show the image. The "Tim Apple" moment was not the first time that Mr Trump has called someone by the name of their company. In 2018, he referred to Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson as Marillyn Lockheed. A jaguar in Arizona has attacked a woman who jumped over a barrier and entered the animal's enclosure to take a photo, a zoo has confirmed. Eyewitnesses reported that the visitor crossed the barriers on Saturday evening and was attacked by the jaguar at the Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium & Safari Park in Litchfield Park. The woman sustained non-life threatening injuries to her arm, a spokesperson for the zoo said. "At the request of the family, paramedics were called," the zoo's statement added. "At no time was the animal out of its enclosure." First photos of a black leopard in over a century Show all 10 1 /10 First photos of a black leopard in over a century First photos of a black leopard in over a century Black leopard photographed with a Camtraptions camera trap at Laikipia Wilderness Camp, Kenya Will Burrard-Lucas First photos of a black leopard in over a century Black leopard photographed with a Camtraptions camera trap at Laikipia Wilderness Camp, Kenya Will Burrard-Lucas First photos of a black leopard in over a century Black leopard photographed with a Camtraptions camera trap at Laikipia Wilderness Camp, Kenya Will Burrard-Lucas First photos of a black leopard in over a century The Camtraptions camera trap used to capture the black leopard Will Burrard-Lucas First photos of a black leopard in over a century Black leopard photographed with a Camtraptions camera trap at Laikipia Wilderness Camp, Kenya Will Burrard-Lucas First photos of a black leopard in over a century Black leopard photographed with a Camtraptions camera trap at Laikipia Wilderness Camp, Kenya Will Burrard-Lucas First photos of a black leopard in over a century The Camtraptions camera trap used to capture the black leopard Will Burrard-Lucas First photos of a black leopard in over a century Black leopard photographed with a Camtraptions camera trap at Laikipia Wilderness Camp, Kenya Will Burrard-Lucas First photos of a black leopard in over a century The Camtraptions camera trap used to capture the black leopard Will Burrard-Lucas First photos of a black leopard in over a century The Camtraptions camera trap used to capture the black leopard Will Burrard-Lucas Adam Wilkerson, an eyewitness who was at the zoo when the incident took place, described the scene as "pandemonium". He said he was visiting the park when he heard a woman screaming and saw the jaguar's claws on her hand, according to ABC 15. It seems like pandemonium. Everyone yelling for help," he wrote in a Reddit post. On Twitter, the zoo said the animal would not be put down. "We can promise you nothing will happen to our jaguar," a spokesperson said. "Shes a wild animal and there were proper barriers in place to keep our guests safe- not a wild animal's fault when barriers are crossed." Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The zoo is investigating the incident. A Missouri woman arrested for murder has claimed she and her boyfriend were acting out a scene from a film when she shot him with a handgun. Kalesha Peterson, a 37-year-old nurse, admitted shooting her 36-year-old partner David Dalton in the head at her home in Fulton, but told police it had happened accidentally. The nurse said she and Mr Dalton had been drinking and watching a film on the evening of 7 March, when her boyfriend had suggested the two play out a scene in the movie that involved a firearm. She told officers they had then retrieved a handgun kept in the bedroom to act out the scene. Police officers attempted to save the Mr Dalton after Peterson called 911 for help, but he was pronounced dead shortly after medics arrived and attempted to treat him. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty The woman has been charged with second-degree felony murder and unlawful use of a weapon, according to Fulton Police Department. The department did not reveal which film the couple had been watching. Ms Peterson admitted she had been drinking whisky and was intoxicated at the time of the shooting. A bottle of whisky was found in the bedroom where Mr Dalton died. She also said she had been taking several medications. Officers found bottles of prescription medications known to increase impairment when used with alcohol at her home. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Two spent shell casings were found in a .38 calibre revolver at the property. The medical examiners office confirmed Mr Dalton suffered a single fatal gunshot wound to the head. Peterson said Mr Dalton had used the firearm a few weeks prior to his death. Peterson stated that she had accidentally shot her boyfriend, read a Fulton Police Department statement. Peterson stated that she had the gun in her hand when the gun discharged. The nurse was jailed at a Calloway County prison without bail following her arrest. They measure 24 feet wide and 42 feet high, which makes them taller than a telephone pole but 3 feet shorter than the letters in the Hollywood sign. The two photographs, according to the man who had them installed last week on one of the tallest residential buildings in the Western Hemisphere, are a proclamation of love. That man is real estate developer Harry Macklowe, who is pictured in one of the photographs and was married for the second time Thursday. His new wife, the woman in the other photograph, is Patricia Landeau, president of the French Friends of the Israel Museum. Mr Macklowe built the building where the images appear, 432 Park Avenue. Mr Macklowe, 81, said Saturday that he had bid $2,000 at a charity auction for photographs by Studio Harcourt in Paris. He loved the results My wife looks gorgeous, and I love the picture of me, he said Saturday and began thinking about ways to show them off. Since I wasnt getting married during the summer in the Hamptons, he said, I wasnt able to hire an aeroplane with a banner to go up and down the shoreline. I thought: I own a building. Why dont I just hang a banner from my own building?' 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 So he did. A sign company printed the images on polyester mesh and placed them on the Park Avenue Cube, a white-glass structure that is part of 432 Park Avenue and is to be occupied by the auction house Phillips. The images look out from the northwest corner of Park Avenue and East 56th Street. It did not take long for the tabloids to notice. Macklowe puts new wifes pic on Park Ave. bldg. where ex nixed apt, The New York Post wrote. Ex was a reference to Mr Macklowes first wife, Linda. They were married for more than 50 years before a public breakup in 2016 that preceded a contentious 14-week divorce trial. It ended in December when Justice Laura Drager of state Supreme Court in Manhattan ordered their $2bn fortune divided. That means selling what the judge called an internationally renowned collection of modern art they had amassed over the years. It includes works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol. Richard E Grant prepares for the oscars by jumping on trampoline Linda Macklowe, an honorary trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a vice president and trustee of the Guggenheim Museum, was not required to go through with the planned purchase of an apartment in the building that is now adorned by the images of Harry Macklowe and his new wife. The first wife had had a contract to buy the apartment on the 78th floor of 432 Park Ave., but another court had permitted her to exit the deal, according to the judge in the divorce settlement. The divorce court awarded Linda Macklowe the couples condominium in the Plaza Hotel created by joining seven apartments they bought in 2007 and valued by the court at $72m but gave Harry Macklowe a $36m credit on it. Macklowe said Saturday that some of his male friends had told him their wives now wanted the big-picture treatment. He said some of his female friends had said the same thing. I got an email from a neighbour across the street who said, I want my husband to do this for me for Valentines Day,' he said. If the photographs are like an art installation, the reviews from passers-by on Park Avenue were mixed. If you have the money and you want to do it, go ahead, said Halle Mae Nottage, a college student from Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. But its devastating to see people spend such money on such shallow things when there are bigger and more pressing issues on which money can be spent. Teya Goakey, a graphic design student from Port Angeles, Washington, said she would not want her portrait on the side of a building. Its weird to see, she said, and I feel like if I had that kind of money, I wouldnt need the whole of New York City see my and my other halfs face on the side of a building. Thats a private thing. I wouldnt need the whole city to know of my wedding. Allen Gross of the Bronx was unimpressed. He could have done something much better, he said, something that would attract peoples attention. Thats not going to do it, he said, looking up at the two photographs and apparently concluding that they were too discreet. But Eric Torres, who delivers groceries for FreshDirect, said he would do the same thing if he had the money and a wife. Is it pointless? he asked. Its 50-50 on that one. The simple fact is, if the marriage doesnt work out, he just wasted a lot of money. The newlyweds love may be everlasting, but the photographs will not be. Macklowe said he had not decided how long the images would adorn the building. The New York Times An unvaccinated boy almost died after falling seriously ill with the first case of tetanus in one US state for more than 30 years. The six-year-old spent two months in hospital with the bacterial illness after suffering a deep cut while playing in a farm in Oregon, according to a case study published by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). His care cost nearly $1m (770,000), about 72 times the average for a paediatric hospitalisation in the US, noted the paper, in a case that has alarmed preventative medicine experts. The unidentified child received an emergency dose of the tetanus vaccine in the hospital, but his parents declined to give him a second dose or any other childhood immunisation injections after he recovered. "When I read that, my jaw dropped. I could not believe it, said William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Tennessee. That's a tragedy and a misunderstanding, and I'm just flabbergasted. 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 added: This is an awful disease, but ... we have had a mechanism to completely prevent it, and the reason that we have virtually no cases anymore in the United States is because we vaccinate, literally, everyone." Cases of tetanus have dropped by 95 per cent since widespread vaccination began in the US in the 1940s. Judith Guzman-Cottrill, the paediatrician who treated the Oregon child, said she had never seen tetanus in a patient before the 2017 case, details of which were made public on Friday. The boy was rushed to Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland with muscle spasms so severe he could not talk, could not open his mouth and was struggling to breathe. He was unable to drink liquids for 44 days and subsequently required weeks of rehabilitation before he was able to walk, run and ride a bike. "We had a hard time taking care of this child watching him suffer and it is a preventable disease," Dr Guzman-Cottrill said. Doctors who treated the boy declined to provide any further information about his family, citing medical privacy laws. Details of the case emerged as politicians in Oregon and Washington consider bills that would end non-medical exemptions for routine childhood vaccines. The debate comes as the northwest states weather their third month of a measles outbreak. Seventy people, most of them unvaccinated children, have been diagnosed with the highly contagious viral illness in southwest Washington this year. There have also been a handful of cases in Portland. Unlike measles, which is a virus, a patient who has survived a case of tetanus is not immune and can get the illness again if they remain unvaccinated. Tetanus is transmitted by bacterial spores found in soil, household dust and human or animal faeces, rather than person-to-person through sneezing or coughing. Symptoms including muscle spasms, lockjaw, breathing difficulties and seizures typically begin within three to 21 days. The disease can cause severe disability or death. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events About 30 people contract tetanus in the US each year, according to the CDC, and 16 people died of the disease between 2009 and 2015. It is rare among children, with those over 65 the most vulnerable. The CDC recommends a five-dose series of tetanus shots for children between the ages of two months and 6 years, and a booster shot every 10 years for adults. Health bodies around the globe have voiced concerns about parents refusing to get their children immunised, as well as about myths peddled on social media about the supposed risks of vaccinations. In January, the World Health Organisation listed the anti-vaccine movement one of the worst threats facing humanity in 2019. Additional reporting by agencies At least 40 per cent of Republicans in Iowa - the crucial state which holds the nations first presidential caucus ten months from now - would like to see Donald Trump face a challenger from within own his party. A new poll suggests more than 81 per cent of Republicans in the state where so many presidential dreams have either been broken or else given flight, think the president is doing a good job. And yet in place where people pride themselves on the benefits of debate and conversation, and where they take very seriously their role as the nations first vetters of potentially more than 20 Democratic and Republican candidates, 40 per cent think it would be good for Mr Trump to face a challenge from within. The same poll, by CNN/Des Moines Register/Mediacom, found 41 per cent of Republicans said they hoped he did not face a primary challenger, while 19 per cent were unsure. There has been a lot of talk from critics of Mr Trump that he should face a primary challenger. Among the names being bandied about are former Iowa governor John Kasich, a presidential candidate in 2016, and Maryland governor Larry Hogan. Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Show all 23 1 /23 Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Joe Biden The former vice president - poised to be a frontrunner - has announced his run. He recently faced scrutiny for inappropriate touching of women, but was thought to deal with the criticism well AFP/Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Bernie Sanders The 2016 runner-up has announced that he will be running again in 2020 Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Hillary Clinton The 2016 Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State says she is still considering whether she will run again. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Pete Buttigieg The Indiana mayor and war veteran will be running for president. If elected, he would be the first openly LGBT+ president in American history. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Kamala Harris The former California attorney general will be running for president in 2020. Introduced to the national stage during Jeff Sessions testimony, she has endorsed Medicare-for-all and proposed a major tax-credit for the middle class. AP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Elizabeth Warren The Massachusetts Senator has formally launched her bid for president in 2020. A progressive Democrat, she is a major supporter of regulating Wall Street. AP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Beto ORourke The former Texas congressman told Oprah Winfrey that he has been thinking about running for presidency, but stopped short of formally announcing his bid to run in 2020. AFP/Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Wayne Messam Mayor of the city of Miramar in the Miami metropolitan area, Wayne Messam has announced his bid. He intends to run on a progressive platform against the "broken" federal government. He favours gun regulations and was a signatory to a letter from some 400 mayors condemning President Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord. Vice News Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Kirsten Gillibrand The New York Senator formally announced her presidential bid in January, saying that healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Cory Booker The New Jersey Senator has announced that he will be running for the presidency in 2020. If he secures the nomination he said finding a female vice president would be a priority. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? John Delaney The Maryland congressman was the first to launch his bid for presidency, making the announcement in 2017. AP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Julian Castro The former San Antonio mayor announced his candidacy in January and said that his running has a special meaning for the Latino community in the US. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Tulsi Gabbard The Hawaii congresswoman announced her candidacy in January, but is likely to face tough questions on her past comments on LGBT+ rights and her stance on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Andrew Yang The entrepreneur has announced his presidential candidacy, and has pledged that he would introduce a universal basic income of $1,000 a month to every American over the age of 18. AFP/Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Marianne Williamson The author and spiritual advisor has announced her intention to run for president. She had previously run for congress as an independent in 2014 but was unsuccessful. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? John Kerry The former secretary of state has said he is still thinking about whether to run. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Michael Bloomberg The entrepreneur and former New York mayor with a net worth of around $50bn has said he will decide by the end of February whether to seek the presidency. AFP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Howard Schultz Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has not yet ruled out running for president in 2020, despite criticism that his bid could help re-elect Mr Trump by dividing the Democrat vote. AP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Eric Holder The former attorney general has said he will decide in the next month or so whether to run as a 2020 presidential candidate. AP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Eric Swalwell The California congressman said he is ready to do this and will decide before April whether to run. MSNBC Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Terry McAuliffe The former Virginia governor, who worked to elect Democratic governors during 2018 midterms, said there was a 50 per cent chance he would run. AP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Sherrod Brown The Ohio senator is still undecided about whether to run for president in 2020. Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Mitch Landrieu The former New Orleans mayor said he doesnt think he will run for president, but never say never. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin So far, only one recognised Republican has said they are exploring a primary challenger. Former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld last month told an audience in New Hampshire he was exploring running on a traditional Republican agenda of fiscal responsibility. He also said he would stand in contrast to the style of Mr Trump, who he said acted like a schoolyard bully. Hillary Clinton rules out 2020 run Sitting presidents rarely face a challenge from within their own party. When they do, even if they emerge successful, they can appear weakened in the subsequent general election. Democrat Jimmy Carter never forgave Ted Kennedy for his bruising challenge in the 1980 cycle, which he won but went on to be defeated later that year by Ronald Reagan. George HW Bush believed he was weakened by the 1992 challenge from Republican Pat Buchanan. He went on to lose his reelection bid to Bill Clinton. A growing list of Democratic candidates running for presidency in 2020 are backing the legalisation of marijuana by the US government. Last month New Jersey senator Cory Booker proposed a bill to decriminalise the drug at the federal level and provide extra funding for states taking steps to legalise it. Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris have co-sponsored the Marijuana Justice Act. And several other candidates, and anticipated candidates, have begun to talk about their support for legalisation on the campaign trail. Former Texas Congressman Beto ORourke, who is expected to join the Democratic field, last week emailed supporters to call for an end to the federal prohibition on marijuana. Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Show all 23 1 /23 Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Joe Biden The former vice president - poised to be a frontrunner - has announced his run. He recently faced scrutiny for inappropriate touching of women, but was thought to deal with the criticism well AFP/Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Bernie Sanders The 2016 runner-up has announced that he will be running again in 2020 Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Hillary Clinton The 2016 Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State says she is still considering whether she will run again. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Pete Buttigieg The Indiana mayor and war veteran will be running for president. If elected, he would be the first openly LGBT+ president in American history. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Kamala Harris The former California attorney general will be running for president in 2020. Introduced to the national stage during Jeff Sessions testimony, she has endorsed Medicare-for-all and proposed a major tax-credit for the middle class. AP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Elizabeth Warren The Massachusetts Senator has formally launched her bid for president in 2020. A progressive Democrat, she is a major supporter of regulating Wall Street. AP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Beto ORourke The former Texas congressman told Oprah Winfrey that he has been thinking about running for presidency, but stopped short of formally announcing his bid to run in 2020. AFP/Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Wayne Messam Mayor of the city of Miramar in the Miami metropolitan area, Wayne Messam has announced his bid. He intends to run on a progressive platform against the "broken" federal government. He favours gun regulations and was a signatory to a letter from some 400 mayors condemning President Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord. Vice News Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Kirsten Gillibrand The New York Senator formally announced her presidential bid in January, saying that healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Cory Booker The New Jersey Senator has announced that he will be running for the presidency in 2020. If he secures the nomination he said finding a female vice president would be a priority. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? John Delaney The Maryland congressman was the first to launch his bid for presidency, making the announcement in 2017. AP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Julian Castro The former San Antonio mayor announced his candidacy in January and said that his running has a special meaning for the Latino community in the US. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Tulsi Gabbard The Hawaii congresswoman announced her candidacy in January, but is likely to face tough questions on her past comments on LGBT+ rights and her stance on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Andrew Yang The entrepreneur has announced his presidential candidacy, and has pledged that he would introduce a universal basic income of $1,000 a month to every American over the age of 18. AFP/Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Marianne Williamson The author and spiritual advisor has announced her intention to run for president. She had previously run for congress as an independent in 2014 but was unsuccessful. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? John Kerry The former secretary of state has said he is still thinking about whether to run. Getty Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Michael Bloomberg The entrepreneur and former New York mayor with a net worth of around $50bn has said he will decide by the end of February whether to seek the presidency. AFP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Howard Schultz Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has not yet ruled out running for president in 2020, despite criticism that his bid could help re-elect Mr Trump by dividing the Democrat vote. AP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Eric Holder The former attorney general has said he will decide in the next month or so whether to run as a 2020 presidential candidate. AP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Eric Swalwell The California congressman said he is ready to do this and will decide before April whether to run. MSNBC Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Terry McAuliffe The former Virginia governor, who worked to elect Democratic governors during 2018 midterms, said there was a 50 per cent chance he would run. AP Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Sherrod Brown The Ohio senator is still undecided about whether to run for president in 2020. Who could be running against Trump in 2020? Mitch Landrieu The former New Orleans mayor said he doesnt think he will run for president, but never say never. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin Who is going to be the last man more likely than not a black man to languish behind bars for possessing or using marijuana when it is legal in some form in more than half of the states in this country? Mr ORourke wrote. Ms Harris, the California senator whose home state is the nations largest legal pot jurisdiction, said national decriminalisation was the smart thing to do. Another 2020 candidate, Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar, said she believes states should have the right to determine how to handle marijuana regulation within their borders but hasnt signed on to Mr Bookers legislation. Campaigners gather on the steps of the US Capitol to protest federal marijuana policy in April 2017 (REUTERS) Washington governor Jay Inslee, who entered the contest this month, said in his announcement speech that it was about time to legalise the drug nationally. During his 2012 run for governor, Mr Inslee opposed the ballot initiative that made Washington one of the first two states to legalise so-called recreational marijuana. As governor, however, he has frequently touted what he describes as Washingtons successful experiment with regulation and recently began pardoning people with small-time marijuana convictions. The new-found enthusiasm to talk about marijuana policy follows a growing level of acceptance about the drug across the country. The Simpsons predicted legalisation of marijuana in Canada In the late 1960s the era of Woodstock, and Vietnam only 12 per cent of Americans supported legalisation, according to the Gallup poll. By last year, the figure hit a record 66 per cent. About 75 per cent of Democrats support legalisation, along with a slim majority of Republicans also in support. The willingness to discuss the drug represents a major change from 1992, when then-candidate Bill Clinton reluctantly admitted to using pot as a graduate student claiming he tried it but didnt inhale". By contrast, a relaxed Ms Harris talked about how she smoked pot at college in the 1980s during a recent radio interview on The Breakfast Club show. The only dissenting view in the Democratic field comes from former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper. He opposed a ballot measure that legalised marijuana in Colorado in 2012, but said he accepted the will of the voters. Rather than calling for national legalisation, Mr Hickenlooper wants the drug to no longer be a Schedule 1 controlled substance. Many of the Democratic candidates have been keen to talk about how federal prohibition on marijuana and its classification as a Schedule 1 substance alongside heroin had criminalised too many people of colour. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The war on drugs has not been a war on drugs, its been a war on people, and disproportionately people of colour and low-income individuals, said Mr Booker when he introduced his bill at the end of February. The Marijuana Justice Act seeks to reverse decades of this unfair, unjust, and failed policy by removing marijuana from the list of controlled substances and making it legal at the federal level. Additional reporting by AP Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says that she thinks capitalism is irredeemable. Ms Ocasio-Cortez made the comment during an interview at South by Southwest in Austin, where she said that the US should be scared that corporations had taken over the country. Capitalism is an ideology of capital the most important thing is the concentration of capital and to seek and maximise profit, Ms Ocasio-Cortez said during a question and answer session with Bloomberg News. She continued: To me, capitalism is irredeemable. Ms Ocasio-Cortez has described herself as a democratic socialist, and said during the panel that recent concerns raised among conservative pundits around socialism misses the point. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez greets fellow lawmakers ahead of the State of the Union address Getty Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez participates in an event with Democratic members of Congress EPA Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures The Democrat senator speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol January 30, 2019 Getty Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and fellow Democrat Rashida Tlaib AP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the Senate chamber to watch two votes on January 24, 2019 Getty Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez arrives with Chellie Pingree at a House Democratic Caucus meeting Getty Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Ocasio-Cortez during Donald Trump's State of the Union address Reuters Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures New York State Assembly member Catalina Cruz with Ocasio-Cortez AFP/Getty Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Nydia Velazquez talks with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Reuters Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Ocasio-Cortez casts her vote for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House EPA Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez poses with a campaign worker during a whistle stop in the Queens borough of New York Reuters Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Ocasio-Cortez outside the US Capitol AFP/Getty Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Ocasio-Cortez after casting her ballot in the 2018 midterm general election at a polling site in New York EPA Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez looks on during a march organised by the Women's March Alliance in Manhattan Reuters Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - the Democratic congresswoman in pictures Ocasio Cortez looks on at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 16, 2019 AFP/Getty Just as theres all this fear mongering that government is going to take over every corporation and government is going to take over every business or every form of production, we should be scared right now because corporations have taken over our government, she said. In describing her economic philosophy for the nation which she has roughly introduced with her presentation of the Green New Deal Ms Ocasio-Cortez said that she believes that American workers need their rights protected. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Its just as much a transformation about bringing democracy to the workplace so that we have a say and that we dont check all of our rights at the door every time we cross the threshold into our workplace, she said. Because at the end of the day, as workers and as people in society, were the ones creating wealth. Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro has questioned why Bernie Sanders scepticism on reparations to address the lasting impacts slavery has had on the United States. During an interview with CNNs State of the Union, Mr Castro suggested that reparations could be compared to other big ticket progressive causes that Mr Sanders supports like Medicare for all or free college tuition. To my mind that may or may not be the best way to address it, Mr Castro said. However, it's interesting to me that when it comes to Medicare for all, health care, you know, the response there has been we need to write a big check, that when it comes to tuition-free or debt-free college, the answer has been we need to write a big check. He continued: And so if the issue is compensating the descendants of slaves, I don't think that the argument about writing a big check ought to be the argument that you make if you're making an argument that a big check needs to be written for a whole bunch of other stuff. Mr Sanders was recently asked for his thoughts on reparations, but declined to support the idea. Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Show all 15 1 /15 Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Darren McCollester/Getty Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Mary Schwalm/Reuters Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Brian Snyder/Reuters Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Brian Snyder/Reuters Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Brian Snyder/Reuters Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Brian Snyder/Reuters Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Brian Snyder/Reuters Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Darren McCollester/Getty Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP Bernie Sanders campaigns with Hillary Clinton Andrew Harnik/AP I think what we have got to do is pay attention to distressed communities: black communities, Latino communities, and white communities, and as president, I pledge to do that, Mr Sanders said during an appearance on The View. When pressed further on reparations, he said, I think that right now, our job is to address the crises facing the American people and our communities, and I think there are better ways to do that than just writing out a check. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events During his interview with CNN, Mr Castro wondered how the idea of paying descendants of slaves is much different from paying landowners through eminent domain. If under the Constitution we compensate people because we take their property, why wouldnt you compensate people who actually were property? he said. A former Justice Department spokesperson says that this week could show us how the special counsels investigation will be received and ultimately shape American politics in the weeks and months to come. Matthew Miller, who worked for the Justice Department during the Obama administration, said that several expected updates are expected that could provide a road map for what comes ahead. Its one of those moments when a number of threads are finally starting to merge together, which is to be expected because we do appear to be near the end, Mr Miller told Politico. Among the news we expect to come out this week will be former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manaforts total prison sentence which will tie up the first of Special Counsel Robert Muellers public legal fights. We also expect former Trump campaign strategist Roger Stones trial date to be established. In addition, we expect further updates on Michael Flynn and Rick Gates, both of whom have been cooperating with Mr Muellers investigation. Criminals who worked for Trump Show all 5 1 /5 Criminals who worked for Trump Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Cohen Former lawyer for Donald Trump was sentenced to three years in prison on counts involving evading income tax, false disclosure of the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels and another hush money charge Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Paul Manafort Former campaign manager for Trump Manafort was found guilty in February 2018 of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The crimes occurred prior to his appointment in Trump's campaign Getty Criminals who worked for Trump George Papadopoulos Former Trump campaign adviser Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in October 2017. He had lied about making contact with a professor who claimed that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Flynn Former White House National Security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December 2017. He had lied about conversations that he had with the Russian ambassador to the US during Trump's Presidential campaign. He was not given prison time due to his "significant assistance" to the Mueller investigation Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Rick Gates Deputy chairman of Trump's presidential campaign Gates pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in February 2018 AFP/Getty With the Mueller probe said to be winding down, these various updates could help us to understand how Mr Mueller plans on proceeding, and if any investigations will be handed off to other investigators across the US government like in the Souther District of New York. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events But the big question remains as to what Mr Muellers report which will be released to the attorney generals office might contain. There are a few options, with a recommendation for charging Donald Trump being the obviously most damaging possibility should the special counsel investigation have found proof of crimes. If that happens, it is likely that Democrats in the House will swiftly turn to impeachment proceedings. Should it not, the future of the investigation into Mr Trump is much more murky. President Donald Trump reportedly made some ill-judged jokes during a speech to Republican National Committee donors last week in Mar-A-Lago, including one where he quipped that Secret Service agents were in blackface when he saw them wearing their masks and night vision goggles in the White House. Mr Trump reportedly made the joke when he described to donors his time in the White House during the holiday season, Axios reported. The president recalled seeing many agents in the trees, on the lawn guarding 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue while wearing night vision goggles. Theyre in blackface, Mr Trump reportedly joked. They have to take them away. The comment was a snarky jab at Democratic Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, who received massive backlash when a racist photo of him wearing blackface resurfaced. Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Show all 20 1 /20 Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Donald Trump's Cabinet Donald Trump's Cabinet is one the richest in American history, filled with billionaires, conservatives and several career politicians. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Mike Pence US Vice President Mike Pence has defended Donald Trump throughout his presidency while walking a fine line to avoid any public involvement in major scandals. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Mike Pompeo Secretary of State Mike Pompeo replaced Donald Trump's previous appointment to the post, Rex Tillerson, and has led talks with North Korea in establishing high-profile summits between the president and Kim Jong Un. Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Wilbur Ross Secretary of Commerce Wibur Ross raised controversy when he was accused of falsely claiming to have sold stock in a bank and violated a government ethics agreement. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Robert Lighthizer US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has been a fixture in Donald Trump's ongoing trade spat with China. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet William Barr Attorney General William Barr replaced Jeff Sessions as the nation's top cop in early 2019 and has refused to commit to recusing himself from the Russia probe despite an unsolicited memo he sent to the Justice Department decrying the investigation. EPA Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Rick Perry Energy Secretary Rick Perry has held his post throughout Donald Trump's presidency despite previously undermining the need for the agency he now leads in past public statements. Ken Shipp / United States Department of Energy Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Betsy DeVos Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has also held her post throughout the presidency, despite major backlash to her apparent undermining of the nationwide public school system and advocacy for charter programmes. Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Steven Mnuchin Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has faced numerous controversies throughout his tenure as the head of Treasury, including costing taxpayers at least a million dollars in travel expenses. AP Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Robert Wilkie Veterans Affairs secretary Robert Wilkie was appointed after Donald Trump's White House doctor Ronny Jackson withdrew over allegations he provided prescription drugs to patients without prescriptions. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet David Bernhardt Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt took office in January 2019 after the resignation of Ryan Zinke after previously serving as Zinke's deputy. Before taking office Bernhardt worked for many years as a solicitor for the Department of the Interior. Tami Heilemann / United States Department of the Interior Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Elaine Chao Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has held her post throughout the presidency and has mostly avoided controversy, despite a report claiming her office has been in frequent coordination with her husband's, Mitch McConnell. AFP/Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Kevin McAleenan Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan took over from Kirstjen Nielsen after she resigned in April 2019. He previously worked as the executive director of the executive director of the Office of Anti Terrorism in the Customs and Border Protection agency United States Customs and Border Protection Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Ben Carson Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson was appointed shortly after Donald Trump took office and raised controversy over an exorbitant furnishing bill for his office. Reuters Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Gina Haspel CIA Director Gina Haspel was appointed in 2018 and faced backlash surrounding her oversight of Guantanamo Bay. Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Dan Coats Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats could be the next person to leave Donald Trump's administration over his refuting the president's claims surrounding ISIS. Reuters Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Sonny Perdue Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has been dogged by ethics questions throughout his tenure and faced controversy when emails showed the agency appeared willing to eagerly work with lobbyists under his leadership. Reuters Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Alex Azar Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is a former pharmaceutical lobbyist and former drug company executive. Getty Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Mick Mulvaney Acting Chief of Staff and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney has described himself as one of the most conservative officials in the White House. EPA Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet Robert Wilkie Secretary of State for Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie has spent his career on Capitol Hill serving in various roles in foreign affairs and defence. He holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the US Air Force Reserve. Gene Russell / United States Department of Veterans Affairs Mr Northam initially apologised for the photo, but then later denied it was not him in the controversial photo while simultaneously admitting he donned blackface in 1984 when he went to a Michael Jackson tribute party. RNC Donors at the Mar-A-Lago event had to store their phones in magnetised pouches during Mr Trumps remarks to avoid leaks. Donald Trump has weighed into a hot debate regarding daylight saving time (DST) this week, saying he is OK with making it permanent in the United States. Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is OK with me, Mr Trump tweeted on Monday. The tweet comes immediately after the Sunshine Protection Act, a congressional bill, introduced on Wednesday by Florida Republicans Representative Vern Buchanan and Senator Marco Rubio, which would have all states who participate in DST make it permanent year-round. In other words, states where DST is used will move their clocks ahead one hour, and as a result, enjoy more daylight. Supporters of the bill claim DST can lead to several benefits for the US economy and the country, some of which include reducing the number of car crashes, robberies, childhood obesity, and energy usage among many others. 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 DST is scheduled to end on November 3 this year. House investigators are planning to pursue interviews with two attorneys responsible for Donald Trumps ethics and financial disclosures, a sign that the congressional probes are broadening their scope into new members of the presidents orbit. House Oversight Committee chairman Elijah Cummings has his sights set on attorneys Sheri Dillon and Stefan Passantino, two figures that could help establish whether Donald Trump committed crimes while making hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels. Democratic aides tell NBC News that neither attorney has agreed to cooperate with the committee, and both failed to meet a deadline earlier this month to agree to provide transcribed testimony to the committee. The White House, meanwhile, has declined to make Mr Passantino available for interviews. The requests mark some of the first attempts by Democrats to compel the Trump administration to cooperate in their attempts to investigate questions surrounding $130,000 in hush money that was allegedly paid to Daniels just before the 2016 election. Criminals who worked for Trump Show all 5 1 /5 Criminals who worked for Trump Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Cohen Former lawyer for Donald Trump was sentenced to three years in prison on counts involving evading income tax, false disclosure of the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels and another hush money charge Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Paul Manafort Former campaign manager for Trump Manafort was found guilty in February 2018 of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The crimes occurred prior to his appointment in Trump's campaign Getty Criminals who worked for Trump George Papadopoulos Former Trump campaign adviser Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in October 2017. He had lied about making contact with a professor who claimed that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Michael Flynn Former White House National Security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December 2017. He had lied about conversations that he had with the Russian ambassador to the US during Trump's Presidential campaign. He was not given prison time due to his "significant assistance" to the Mueller investigation Getty Criminals who worked for Trump Rick Gates Deputy chairman of Trump's presidential campaign Gates pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in February 2018 AFP/Getty In letters to the lawyers, the House committee says they appeared to provide false information to federal officials in the financial disclosure forms. Mr Passantino was a White House deputy counsel overseeing ethics policy. He now works for the Trump Organisation. Ms Dillon is a personal attorney to Mr Trump. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Questions surrounding the payments gained newfound momentum following the testimony of Mr Trumps former personal attorney Michael Cohen, who provided the committee with copies of cheques he received from the president as reimbursement for that payment. Court fillings indicate that the payments may have been made in violation of federal campaign finance law. Republicans have push back on Democrat efforts to compel the new testimony, however, with Representative Jim Jordan leading a charge calling the suggestion that either attorney lid extremely unfair and unsupported accusations. This is a serious charge, for which you relied only on cherry-picked passages of incomplete, one-sided handwritten notes prepared, Mr Jordans wrote in a letter to Cummings, alongside Representative Mark Meadows. A Chinese database listing the name, phone numbers and addresses of 1.8 million women including those with a breedready status has been uncovered by a Dutch researcher. Victor Gevers, an internet expert from the non-profit group GDI Foundation, found the insecure data cache while searching for open databases in China. As well as indicating whether the women were of child-bearing age, the database also included information labelled in English for sex, age, education, marital status. The average age of women in the database was 32, with the youngest being 15, he said. Nearly 90 per cent of included entries were described single and 82 per cent were listed as living in Beijing. Sharing a series of screenshots of the public database on Twitter, Mr Gevers suggested it could be could be linked to Chinas falling birth rate. Many couples are reluctant to have children due to high property prices and soaring healthcare and education costs. 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 expressed his concerns about how far the government is willing to go to influence women to reproduce. Mr Gevers told The Guardian: More than this, we dont have at the moment. Our primary concern is that it gets secured asap. The investigator said he had started contacting some of those whose profile pages were linked to shed light on some of the information. However, some people have suggested the cache could be a database for an online dating site. All single ... Must be a dating site like Jiayuan.com, one person noted. His discovery comes weeks after China's statistics bureau revealed that Chinas birth rate had fallen to its lowest level in decades. It stood at 10.94 per thousand in 2018, compared to 12.43 per thousand in 2017, meaning 2 million fewer babies were born in China last year. This was the lowest it has been since records began. With life expectancy increasing, almost a quarter of the countrys population is expected to be over the age of 65 by 2040. Experts warned the population could fall drastically in the future without efforts to increase fertility. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The year 2018 will be remembered as a historical turning point for Chinese population, a new paper by researcher Dr Yi and Peking University economist Su Jian said. The Chinese population has started to fall, the ageing problems have accelerated, and economic vitality has weakened, they said. A man stranded 20 miles off the coast of New Zealand survived after inflating his jeans with a series of knots helping him stay afloat in the Pacific Ocean for more than three hours. German sailor Arne Murke, 30, was sailing a 12-metre yacht from Auckland to Brazil with his brother when he was knocked overboard by the boats swinging boom. After failing to reach a lifejacket thrown by his brother, Mr Murke found himself cast adrift in rough conditions, 20 miles off Tolaga Bay on New Zealands east coast. But he managed to withstand the waves long enough for rescuers to arrive by turning his trousers into a floatation device. The sailor told The New Zealand Herald he had remembered a survivalist trick used by US Navy Seals. Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Show all 52 1 /52 Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Puerto Rico: After a devastating hurricane, an island on its way back Puerto Rico is representative of the many fragile places around the globe right now: the islands facing a future of sea level rise and extreme weather. The arctic spots where winter itself is under threat. The cities where a combination of climate change and bad planning has resulted in devastation. That is why Puerto Rico earned the number one spot on our annual list of 52 places to visit in the coming year. The island and the other beautiful places at risk raise an urgent question: do we owe something to the places that make us happy? This is the new normal, and people have to look at this new normal and embrace it, says Martha Honey, executive director of the Centre for Responsible Travel in Washington DC. The idea that as visitors we should not cause harm and should seek out authentic experiences that get us deep into the local culture. Perhaps it would not be such a stretch to redefine the relationship between leisure travellers and their dream destinations. Mireya Navarro Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Hampi, India: An ancient archaeological complex becomes more accessible At the height of the Vijayanagar empire in the 16th century, Hampi thrived as one of the largest and richest cities in the world. Its architectural legacy lives on in the southwestern state of Karnataka with over 1,000 well-preserved stone monuments, including Hindu temples, forts and palaces. Spread over 16 miles near the banks of the Tungabhadra river, and surrounded by a sea of granite boulders, the Unesco world heritage site has been notoriously difficult to reach, until now. TruJet recently began daily direct flights from Hyderabad and Bangalore to Ballari, a 25-mile drive from Hampi. Travellers can stay in the newly refreshed Evolve Back Kamalapura Palace or at Ultimate Travelling Camps new Kishkinda Camp, which introduced 10 stately tents in December. The outfitters Black Tomato and Remote Lands now offer journeys in the region, from guided archaeological tours to rock climbing and river jaunts in basket boats. Nora Walsh Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Santa Barbara, California: The American Riviera becomes a hip food and wine haven Long known for drawing movie stars and millionaires to its resorts, Santa Barbara is now a foodie magnet. Acclaimed chef Jesse Singh oversees Bibi Ji, an edgy Indian restaurant try the uni biryani with a wine list curated by noted sommelier Rajat Parr. Top Chef alum Phillip Frankland Lee presides over the Monarch, a posh Californian restaurant, and Chaplins Martini Bar; he will open Silver Bough, a 10-seat tasting menu venue in January. The Santa Barbara Inns Convivo offers upmarket Italian fare and ocean views; nearby, at Tyger Tyger, Daniel Palaima, a veteran of the kitchens of Chicago-based chef Grant Achatz, serves southeast Asian fare (try the Szechuan pepper soft serve ice cream at Monkeyshine to finish off the night). The city has over 30 wine tasting rooms that dont look like their more staid cousins up north. Frequency and Melville feature modern furnishings and party-ready playlists; vinyl rules at Sanguis, a winery run by drummers. Sheila Marikar Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Panama: New eco-friendly resorts open on the countrys Pacific coast Two new Pacific island resorts are expanding Panamas west coast appeal, not far from the marine preserve around Isla Coiba. Cayuga Hospitality recently opened Isla Palenque in the Gulf of Chiriqui, with eight casitas and one villa on a lush 400-acre island. Besides offering access to seven beaches, mangrove kayaking and whale-watching, the resort grows some of its own food, has furniture made from fallen trees and maintains a no-plastics policy, including subbing papaya shoots for straws. In the Gulf of Chiriqui, Islas Secas Reserve and Panama Lodge opened in January on a 14-island archipelago. The solar-powered, nine-bungalow lodge offers sport fishing and scuba diving, and composts food waste and recycles water for irrigation. A Ritz-Carlton Reserve property is also under construction in the Pearl Islands. Elaine Glusac Getty Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Munich, Germany: Theatre. Art. Opera. What more do you want? As far as cultural triple threats go, its hard to beat Munich. Its theatres are considered among the most creative and ambitious in Europe, with its two main companies, the Munchner Kammerspiele and the Residenztheater producing more than 30 premieres between January and May 2019. And its museums are decidedly world class, especially since the renovation and reopening of the Lenbachhaus museum in 2017, with its unmatched collection of the German artists known as the Blue Rider school. But perhaps the best argument for visiting Munich right now is the Bavarian State Opera, which has emerged as one of the most exciting opera houses in Europe. The reason? In the words of a New York Times classical music critic, the miracle of Kirill Petrenko. Petrenko has just two more years remaining on his contract as music director at the opera. This summer, he will conduct a new production of Richard Strausss Salome, with the opening night performance on 27 June. Stuart Emmrich Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Eilat, Israel: A newly accessible Red Sea paradise Beneath the prismatic waters of this Red Sea resort on Israels southern tip lies a coral reef with hundreds of varieties of neon fish, sharks and stingrays. To get there, visitors used to have to catch a charter flight from Tel Aviv or brave the dusty drive through the Negev desert. But with the opening early this year of Ramon Airport, set in the Timna Valley and capable of handling 4 million international transit passengers a year, the world will finally get a direct route with nonstops from Munich and Frankfurt on Lufthansa, and budget carriers flying in from Prague, London and across Europe. New hotels, including the luxurious Six Senses Shaharut, opening just in time for Israels turn at hosting the Eurovision Song Contest 2018, are ready for the crowds. Debra Kamin Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Setouchi, Japan: Art and nature harmonise in Japans inland sea The Setouchi region will host the Setouchi Triennale 2019, a major art fair held in three seasonal instalments. One hour south via ferry or the Shinkansen bullet train, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum reopens this spring after an eight-year refurbishment. New trails and a dedicated Shimanami bike ferry that opened in October connect Japans main island of Honshu to the regions lesser-visited island of Shikoku. For those seeking more sybaritic forms of transport, the Guntu more a minimalist floating ryokan than a cruise ship with 19 walnut-clad rooms and open-air cypress soaking baths. In 2019, Setouchi Sea Planes will expand its scenic flights to several smaller islands and towns via Kodiak 100s. And a Japanese startup, Ale, launched the Shooting Star Challenge, a microsatellite that will create the worlds first artificial meteor shower, aiming to fill Setouchis skies in spring 2020, a taste of the high-tech one-upmanship to come in Tokyos 2020 Olympics. Adam H Graham Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Aalborg, Denmark: Architecture revitalises the waterfront Viking long ships once glided through Aalborgs mighty Limfjord. Today, the city is turning its most famous natural asset into an artistic one. Wildly innovative buildings have sprouted on its shores, including the Utzon Centre, designed by Jorn Utzon, the architect of the Sydney Opera House its new exhibition series on inspiring Nordic architects, runs through May. The curvilinear concert hall Musikkens Hus was recently followed by the vibrant Aalborg Street Food market; the pedestrian and cycling Culture Bridge; and the undulating Vestre Fjordpark, with an open-air swimming pool that meets the sea. Nordkraft, a power plant that was converted into a cultural hub, is celebrating its 10th anniversary with events in September. The Aalborg Akvavit distillery is being transformed into a new creative district over the next two years, presided over by a soaring glass polygonal sculpture by artist Tomas Saraceno, Harbour Gate from architect Bjarke Ingels, a hotel and more. Annelisa Sorensen Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 The Azores, Portugal: The Caribbean comes to the middle of the Atlantic In the nippy Atlantic Ocean a four-hour flight from the US, the subtropical volcanic islands of the Azores, complete with Unesco world heritage sites and biospheres, await discovery. Mystical green lushness, oversize volcanic craters now turned into lakes, steaming natural hot springs that puff out from the earth, blue hydrangeas by the thousands and the only coffee growers in Europe distinguish the island chain. New restaurants in Ponta Delgada include the locavore Casa do Abel, the Japanese-influenced Otaka, and Tasquinha Vieira, which specialises in local, organic cuisine, while new hotels include the Lava Homes on Pico Island, and the Grand Hotel Acores Atlantico, opening in July. Daniel Scheffler Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Ontario Ice Caves, Canada: See them now, as climate change may pose a threat The ice caves that emerge from the winds and waves that pound the north shore of Lake Superior have always been somewhat ephemeral. But climate change has brought an element of doubt into their future. For now, the caves are a regularly occurring feature, notably along the shoreline near Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. Made from snow and ice, the caves vary in size, shape and colour. Large waves before they freeze up are the essential ingredient for large caverns. The wind, shifts in the ice and the effects of the sun constantly remake the formations. February is the most reliable month for a visit. Getting to the caves involves driving one of the more scenic sections of the Trans-Canada Highway. Alona Bay and Coppermine Point are two of the more popular destinations. The staff members at Stokely Creek Lodge, a cross-country skiing and snowshoeing resort just outside of the Sault, keep track of where the most dramatic, but accessible, caves have formed each winter. Ian Austen Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Zadar, Croatia: Incomparable sunsets, a sea organ and untrammelled islands After the Croatian football team captured the worlds attention in the World Cup its captain Luka Modrics was particularly notable fans revved up their search engines and learned that he hails from Zadar, a pretty, compact town on the Dalmatian Coast. Ryanair have added regular flights from Prague, Hamburg, Cologne and Nuremberg, starting this spring. Beyond Zadars medieval core, the citys seaside promenade and music-making sea organ, created by architect Nikola Basic, is a must-see (or hear). The magical sunsets alone were enough to wow Alfred Hitchcock, who visited the city in 1964. The town is also a gateway to untrammelled islands, like Dugi Otok; an hour-and-20-minute ferry ride takes visitors to the sparsely populated island with uncrowded beaches and taverns. Seeking ultraclean waters? Then head to the island of Pasman, where the currents often change, making the surrounding waters some of the cleanest in the Adriatic. David Farley Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Williamsburg, Virginia: The cradle of American democracy reflects on its past In 1619, the area that includes the Jamestown Settlement, Williamsburg and Yorktown was home to some of the most significant events in American history: the official arrival of the first African slaves to North America, the convening of the first representative assembly in America and the first recorded proclamation of Thanksgiving in the New World. The area will observe the 400th anniversary of these events all year, highlighted by the Tenacity exhibition at the Jamestown Settlement, which recognises the contributions of women during the Colonial era, along with an archaeology-focused exhibit. Colonial Williamsburg, the expansive living-history museum, will give visitors a taste of life in the 18th century, along with the reimagined American Revolution Museum at Yorktown. For thrill seekers, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, the European-theme amusement park, will unveil a new pendulum swing ride, while Water Country USA will unveil the states first hybrid water coaster. John L Dorman Getty Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Las Vegas: Sin City bets big on culture Sure, there are still slot machines, strip clubs and steaks aplenty, but other options for culture in Americas playground abound. The new Park MGM hosts residencies from two music legends through 2019: Lady Gaga, doing one show of her pop hits and another riffing on American classics, and starting in April, Aerosmith. Also a rollicking iteration of the Italian emporium Eataly and Best Friend, a Korean restaurant by Roy Choi, the LA food truck pioneer, that becomes a hip-hop club afterwards. The Wynn recently added live, Dixieland-style jazz to its lakeside brunch; it also offers masterclasses on subjects like dumpling-making. Nearby, the Venetian debuted three craft cocktail bars, the Dorsey, Rosina and Electra, where guests can actually sit down and hear one another talk. Downtown, the Life Is Beautiful festival, which corrals an array of musicians and artists each fall, enters its seventh year; 2018 stars included the Weeknd and Florence and the Machine. Sheila Marikar Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Salvador, Brazil: The countrys original capital gets a makeover After completing a five-year historical preservation initiative to save its Unesco designation, Salvador, with its sherbet-coloured colonial facades, cobblestone streets and beaches, is gleaming. Rising along the coast of northeastern Bahia, the citys downtown historic district thrums with vibrant Afro-Brazilian culture, ranging from free weekly performances by samba and drum corps to classical music and capoeira. Visitors can also find Salvadors history exhibited in the new House of Carnival and, opening in 2020, the Museum of Music or catch a live concert at the Convention Centre, opening this year. The Fera Palace Hotel, a refurbished art deco gem, and the freshly minted Fasano Salvador, housed in a former 1930s newspaper building, both overlook All Saints Bay, which in November will host the finish of the International Regatta Transat Jacques Vabre, a 4,350-mile race along the historic coffee trading route between France and Brazil. Nora Walsh Getty Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Danang, Vietnam: A spot for foodies and beachgoers Vietnams third largest city, is known for being a gateway to the nearby Unesco Heritage town of Hoi An. But its begun to develop a reputation as the Miami of Vietnam, with a strong foodie scene and new hotels and resorts popping up on a five-mile beach strip. A typical day might start with a morning swim on the crescent-shape Non Nuoc Beach and perhaps a quick stop at the Han Market. Then, an afternoon visit to the Marble Mountains, where travellers can explore the temples and pagodas that look out over My Khe Beach and, later, dinner back in the city, perhaps at Nen, a new restaurant from much-followed food blogger Summer Le. Perhaps finish the day with a visit to Cau Rong Dragon Bridge in the hills above the city. Dont leave without sampling a bowl of mi quang, the justifiably famous local noodle soup made with a turmeric-infused broth, chicken, pork, local seafood and shredded cabbage, and available for about $1 (78p) at any number of street food stalls. Stuart Emmrich Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Costalegre, Mexico: A beach vacation, without the crowds Costalegre is a stretch of 43 largely unpopulated beaches, capes and bays along Mexicos gorgeous Pacific coast, about halfway between the better known destinations of Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo, and one that has so far escaped the attention of vacationers flocking to its popular neighbours to the north, Punta Mita and the surfers haven of Sayulita. One factor keeping away the crowds: lack of easy access. Up until now, the nearest airport has been more than a two-hour drive away, in Puerto Vallarta. But that will change with the planned opening of the Chalacatepec Airport in the second half of this year, which will cut travel time by more than half. And a clutch of luxury hotels will soon follow. For now, the best luxury option is Las Alamandas Resort, set on a 1,500-acre nature reserve, with just 16 suites in seven brightly painted casitas, as well as two restaurants, a spa and a large pool. Smaller hotels and even bungalows near the beaches can also be rented. Stuart Emmrich Alamy Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Paparoa Track, New Zealand: A new wilderness trail explores a remote national park Outdoor enthusiasts can head to New Zealand starting in October to trek the countrys first Great Walk trail to open in more than 25 years. Tracing the Pororari river along the west coast of the South Island, the Paparoa Track winds through Paparoa National Park, a reserve largely inaccessible until now. Built by the Department of Conservation for hikers and mountain bikers, the 34-mile trail (hiked in three days; biked in two) departs from a historic mining town and traverses epic limestone gorges, beech forests and sandstone bluffs before culminating at the Punakaiki Blowholes. For a small fee, travellers can stay overnight in two new 20-bunk huts overlooking the southern Alps and Tasman Sea. The Pike29 Memorial Track, which honours victims of the 2010 Pike River Mine tragedy, intersects the route. Reservations can be made on the Department of Conservations website; both tracks are free and no permit is required. Nora Walsh Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Puglia, Italy: Baroque architecture and Adriatic beaches in Italys heel The ancient fortified farmhouses called masserie, found only in the region of Puglia, are increasingly being turned into boutique hotels, most notably Rocco Fortes Masseria Torre Maizza, and the 17th century Castello di Ugento, where guests can take cooking classes at the Puglia Culinary Centre. And the regions 1,000-year-old wine culture, which began when the Greeks planted vines from their land across the Adriatic, is attracting more oenophiles to the area, including the owners of the London restaurant Bocca di Lupo, who recently bought a 600-acre estate in Salento called Tormaresca, where tastings are offered to visitors (you can also dine in their new restaurant in the town of Lecce). Puglia is also home to Europes Virgin Galactic spaceport, which is scheduled to open in 2019, with the promise of eventually sending passengers into space. No wonder Abercrombie and Kents new Italian cruise includes Puglia and Gargano National Park. Daniel Scheffler Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Tatra Mountains, Slovakia: Off-the-grid skiing, rock climbing and more While most visitors focus on Slovakias capital, Bratislava, the soaring Tatra Mountains have emerged as an under-the-radar destination for skiing and outdoor activities, with new gondolas at the Bachledka and Jasna ski areas; slopes planned at Mlynicka Dolina; and new chair lifts at Oravska Lesna in the nearby Fatra range to the northwest. And its not just about winter sports: there is excellent hiking, rock climbing, mountain biking and fly-fishing, while beyond the Tatras, Kosice, a regional capital, offers colourful street art and plenty of cafes and restaurants, thanks to its three universities and associated night life. Plan on posting plenty of photos: youll find untouched folk architecture throughout the region, as well as perfectly preserved gothic and baroque buildings awaiting your lens. Evan Rail Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Calgary, Alberta: A spectacular library adds to a once-neglected neighbourhood Calgarys new Central Library, from the architectural firm Snohetta, creates not just a design destination, with daily tours, but also a gateway in the form of an arched cedar-clad passageway linking downtown to the citys evolving East Village, a booming neighbourhood where the Bow and Elbow rivers meet. Calgary was founded in the East Village area in 1875, with a fort built to curb the growing whiskey trade, but the area suffered roughly 70 years of neglect before the Calgary Municipal Land Corp, formed in 2007, began transforming the area, adding parks, attractions and high-rises. The 240,000-square-foot library, with a performance hall, cafe, childrens play area and outdoor electromagnetic sculptures by Christian Moeller, is next to Studio Bell, home to the National Music Centre museum and performance space, and near the just opened Alt Hotel. Later this year, the multiuse building M2 promises more shops and restaurants beside the Bow river. Elaine Glusac Getty Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Olkhon Island, Lake Baikal, Russia: A natural wonder resisting the threats of development Lake Baikal in Siberia is the worlds deepest lake, plunging 1 mile into the Earths crust. It contains nearly 20 per cent of the worlds unfrozen fresh water and is so abundant in wildlife bears, foxes, sables, rare and endangered freshwater seals that Unesco calls it the Galapagos of Russia. The wildlife, like the lake itself, has been under threat for years, from indifferent Soviet industrial policy, from climate change and from todays rising tourism, especially from China. Even so, it remains largely unspoiled, and activists are working hard to keep it that way. Olkhon Island, Baikals largest, and a place that Buddhists consider one of the holiest in Asia, is a popular base for excursions year round, even from December to April or May, when the surface freezes into turquoise sheets of ice that Siberian winds churn into natural sculptures. The Baikal Ice Marathon, a charity devoted to the lakes conservation, will be held 2 March. Steven Lee Myers Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Huntsville, Alabama: Time to party like its 1969 The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing will draw crowds to Huntsville aka Rocket City home of the Marshall Space Flight Centre, where the spacecraft that launched astronauts to the moon were developed. Throughout the year, there will be daily reenactments of the moon landing at the US Space and Rocket Centre, but the biggest thrills are planned for the anniversary week of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission in July. Beginning on launch day, 16 July, the centre will attempt to break a Guinness World Record by launching 5,000 model rockets at 8.32 am, the precise time that rocket engines ignited in 1969. Festivities will continue with a classic car show, concerts, a homecoming parade and a street party in downtown Huntsville the same location where Apollo workers celebrated after the successful mission. If thats not fun enough, 2019 also marks the states bicentennial, giving Alabamians yet another excuse to party. Ingrid K Williams Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas): Five kinds of penguins, easier to reach The Falkland Islands, far off the coast of Argentina, offer an astonishing variety of wildlife that includes five kinds of penguins, hundreds of bird species, seals, sea lions and whales, as well as remote natural beauty that travellers often have to themselves. Two new local touring companies are increasing accessibility to the riches of the islands. Falklands Outdoors opened in November 2018 and offers mountain climbing, foraging, hiking and sea kayaking expeditions to beaches and penguin colonies that cant be reached by road; in January, Falklands Helicopter Services will start scenic flights to Volunteer Point (home to an enormous king penguin colony), and other isolated spots. While theres a single weekly commercial flight in and out of the Falklands, the first new route to the islands from South America in more than 20 years is being planned: LATAM is expected to begin weekly flights to the islands from Brazil by late this year. Nell McShane Wulfhart Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Aberdeen, Scotland: The granite city via brand new old-fashioned trains Just as many famous European overnight train routes have been retired, the Caledonian Sleeper, the train that travels through the night from London to the north of Scotland, is rolling out new carriages for summer. The new cars preserve the romance of overnight trains, in contemporary comfort, with a choice of hotel-style suites, classic bunk beds or seats. The Highlander route to Aberdeen leaves Euston station in the evening and hits the Scottish coast by 5 am, so travellers who take an early breakfast in the dining car can enjoy coastal views as the sun rises (get off at Leuchars for medieval St Andrews). Off the train, Aberdeen and its surroundings offer historic castles set in fields of purple heather, in pine woods and along the dramatic coastline. Hiking trails abound on and around the queens estate at Balmoral, and rail buffs can visit the former royal train station in Ballater, closed since 1966, and ride on the Royal Deeside Railway a short drive from there. Palko Karasz Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Golfo Paradiso, Italy: A rare unspoiled gem on the Italian Riviera The well-known pearls of the Ligurian Riviera Portofino, Cinque Terre, Portovenere are overwhelmed with tourists, a problem so acute that in some areas authorities have debated measures to stem the flow of daytrippers. But just a few miles away, between Portofino and Genoa, remains a peaceful sliver of coastline rarely explored by travellers to the region. Known as the Golfo Paradiso, this small gulf is home to five often-overlooked villages, including Camogli, a colourful fishing hamlet as charming as any of the Cinque Terre. Italians will boast about the renowned local cuisine: fresh-caught anchovies, hand-rolled trofie pasta and cheese-filled focaccia from the town of Recco, a speciality that recently earned IGP status, a prestigious Italian designation for quality food products. Between meals, explore blooming gardens in Pieve Ligure, beaches in Sori and the romanesque abbey of San Fruttuoso, which is accessible only by boat or a long, sweaty hike. Ingrid K Williams Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Dessau, Germany: A big birthday for Bauhaus This year marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of German architect Walter Gropius Proclamation of the Bauhaus, a radical reimagining of art, architecture and design. To celebrate the Bauhaus centennial, cities around Germany will hold events, from the opening festival in Berlin several days of art, dance, concerts, theatre, lectures and more this month to the debut of the Bauhaus Museum in Weimar, where the movement was born. But the most compelling destination might be Dessau. Home of the Bauhaus school during the 1920s and 1930s, the northeastern German city still contains the schools pioneering (and Unesco-listed) Bauhaus Building, the Gropius-designed Masters Houses, and the Prellerhaus studio building (a warren of former Bauhaus ateliers that now contains a hotel). And in September, Dessau opens its long-awaited Bauhaus Museum, a glassy, minimalist rectangle that will showcase typefaces, textiles, artwork, furniture and more from the movement. Seth Sherwood Getty Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Tunis, Tunisia: The spark for the Arab Spring, still lit Freedom is what makes Tunis unique. Eight years after it kicked off the Arab Spring, it remains the only Arab capital with real freedom of expression, not to mention the peaceful rotation of power. But the city holds many other charms. Among them are the ruins of the ancient city of Carthage, from which Hannibals elephants once threatened Rome. The carefully preserved old medina dates from the 12th to the 16th century, when Tunis was a major centre of the Islamic world. The tree-lined Avenue Habib Bourguiba downtown bears the influence of decades of French rule. And the cafes, art galleries and blue-and-white hues of the neighbourhood of Sidi Bou Said, overlooking the Mediterranean, have long lured European painters, writers and thinkers. A short taxi ride away are the beaches and nightclubs of La Marsa. The French-influenced north African food is delicious. The local red wines are not bad. And, in another regional rarity, Tunis in 2018 elected a woman its mayor. David D Kirkpatrick Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Gambia: Hippos and chimpanzees and a renewed sense of hope Gambias tourism industry was hit hard in 2017, when its long-time authoritarian ruler Yahya Jammeh refused to cede leadership after an election loss, forcing a political standoff that brought foreign troops in. But with its new president, Adama Barrow, now safely in place, theres a renewed sense of hope across continental Africas smallest country now more accessible than ever. In January, a new bridge over the Gambia river, three decades in the making, will be inaugurated with a nearly 200-mile relay run to Dakar, Senegal. Peregrine Adventures launches its first cruise up the 700-mile river, with a stop at Baboon Island, home to hippos, crocodiles and chimpanzees, part of Africas longest-running centre for rehabilitating chimpanzees into the wild. New and coming hotels, including the African Princess Beach Hotel, and two properties by Thomas Cook, will serve as stylish bases. And new direct flights from Europe make getting to this west African country easier than ever. Ratha Tep Getty Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Northern Rivers, Australia: Along a breezy coastline, boho paradise The coastline just below the New South Wales-Queensland border is known as the Northern Rivers thanks to the tidal system snaking through it. Anchored by Byron Bay, the area has become a beacon for those seeking a breezy boho way of life. In recent years a more moneyed, stylish vibe has settled in and seeped from Byron into neighbouring small towns. Mullumbimby hosts one of the countrys most vibrant weekly farmers markets. Brunswick Heads, is home to a huge historic pub with a sprawling patio, and offers great shopping and Fleet, a restaurant that serves some of Australias most delightful cooking. Up and down the coast, the restaurant scene is thriving: Paper Daisy in Cabarita Beach sits in the ground floor of an old surf motel turned boutique hotel; in Lennox Heads, Shelters dining room is open to the ocean breeze. For a taste of the old-school hippie wonderland from which all of this sprang, check out the Crystal Castle, a crystal experience in a hilltop garden. Besha Rodell Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Frisian Islands and Wadden Sea: Oysters, seals, birds and dark skies on Europes wild left coast Europes windswept Frisian Islands are shared by Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands and linked by the Wadden Sea. Hollands Lauwersmeer National Park offers dark-sky safaris and will open a seal rescue centre in 2019 that lets visitors rehabilitate and release two native seal species. Dutch campground resorts like Beleef Lauwersoog offer excursions to nearby Schiermonnikoog island and have expanded lodging options with new barrel-shaped sleeping pods and refurbished overwater bunkers, once used by duck hunters, on remote swaths of the North Sea. Denmarks Fanoe island started offering DIY oyster foraging safaris, where visitors can rent boots and shucking tools to gather invasive, but delicious, Pacific oysters, thus helping preserve Denmarks native Limfjorden oyster habitat. The Fanoe Oyster Festival, next in October 2019, has lured chefs across Denmark with an annual oyster cooking competition. Adam H Graham Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 New York City: New cultural monuments, and remembrances of the past redefine the citys physical and cultural infrastructure. At Hudson Yards, the largest single development since Rockefeller Centre took shape in the Depression, a cultural arts centre called the Shed will go into gear. Its largest theatre is a retractable structure on wheels that creeps back and forth like a giant steel caterpillar, turning the outdoor space of a plaza into indoor space for performances. Not far away will be what the developers are calling New Yorks Staircase, an eight-storey structure with 154 flights of stairs and 2,000 steps. The wraps are to come off the Museum of Modern Arts $400m expansion, increasing its space by almost a third. The TWA Hotel at Kennedy International Airport is a flight centre relic from 1962, with 512 hotel rooms in two new buildings. In June, the city will host World Pride first time in the US for the 50th anniversary. James Barron Getty Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Chongli, China: Witness a winter sports revolution The leadup to the next Winter Games is well underway in and around Beijing, and the spectacle is breathtaking. The most stunning transformations are happening a four-hour drive north in Chongli, once one of the countrys poorest areas and now home to several multibillion-dollar ski resorts, towering condominiums and flashy hotels. It has transformed into a glistening winter sports hub filled with restaurants, inns and watering holes. At least five ski resorts now surround the city, including places like Genting Secret Gardens, Fulong and Thaiwoo, which has an on-property brewery, a mid-mountain chalet that serves Swiss and Austrian fare, and brand new gondolas. A high-speed train from Beijing to Chongli should open in 2019. The skiing isnt world-class. Nearly all of the snow comes from a cannon, and runs average about 1,300 vertical feet. But go now to see firsthand how the worlds most populous country is working overtime to become a competitive winter sports nation. Tim Neville Getty Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Orcas Island, Washington: A small island is attracting big-time foodies (and Oprah) The horseshoe-shaped Orcas, one of the largest islands that make up the San Juan archipelago, has gained fame in recent years for its impressive tide-to-table culinary scene and experimental wines, attracting, among others, Oprah Winfrey (in 2018, Winfrey bought a 43-acre estate on the island for a reported $8.275m). A new wine enterprise, Doe Bay Wine Co, is presenting its Orcas Project in 2019 a collaboration between acclaimed winemakers and vineyards in the Pacific northwest. Ventures from James Beard-nominated chef Jay Blackinton, who owns Hogstone, a former pizzeria now featuring ambitious nose-to-tail fare, and its more upscale counterpart Aelder, are also on the horizon. Another addition to the island are the luxury suites at Outlook Inn, in the town of Eastsound, overlooking Fishing Bay. If you want to hike, or ride a horse, the islands Moran State Park will be adding trails to its 38-mile network this year. Daniel Scheffler Getty Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Uzbekistan: Visa-free travel and reopened borders along the Silk Road If you have ever wanted to travel the Silk Road, now may be the time to go. After more than 25 years since the fall of the Soviet Union, the former member country of Uzbekistan is going through its own perestroika. Among the modernising reforms are better official exchange rates and the ability to book flights and apply for visas online. Ground and air travel have also improved regionally, in part because of Chinas $800bn One Belt, One Road initiative (which links countries stretching between east Asia and Europe), as well as reopened borders with neighbouring countries, reestablished flight routes between central Asian capitals, like Tashkent and Dushanbe, and increased flight service between New York and Tashkent. In addition to the relatively new Hyatt Regency in Tashkent, other international hotels are expected to open in the coming years. Erin Levi Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Vestlandet, Norway: A bucolic paradise for mountain-climbing beer lovers Rural Vestlandet, in western Norway, home to some of Scandinavias most beautiful landscapes, is piquing the interest of outdoorsy types, especially those who take Rural Vestlandet is home to some of Scandinavias most beautiful landscapes and is piquing the interest of outdoorsy types. The Loen Skylift ferries travel more than 3,280 feet to the top of Mount Hoven in just a few minutes, while fearless climbers can put on a harness, hire a guide and make roughly the same journey in six hours, following a path that features one of the longest suspension bridges in Europe. After sightseeing, relax over an ale made with kveik, a local yeast that has enthralled brewers and scientists around the world in recent years for its fruity aromas and higher-than-normal fermentation temperatures. You can find it at bars like Tre Bror, in Voss, the Smalahovetunet restaurant and brewery nearby. Beer lovers who want to learn (and taste) more can time their visit to coincide with the October Norsk Kornolfestival, which features close to 100 beers made with kveik, often including juniper and other traditional regional ingredients. Evan Rail Getty/AWL Images RM Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Lyon, France: Soccer, sausage and fresh air Football fans should set their sights on France this summer, especially Lyon, where we could see the US women will clinch their fourth World Cup title in the final match 7 July. Even if you cant get tickets or detestez le football the city of half a million people and 4,000 restaurants is worth a visit. This year, Lyon plays host to an International City of Gastronomy project. The indoor, one-acre exhibition will include interactive workshops and conferences designed to showcase Frances cuisine and its contributions to health and pleasure. Held at the Grand Hotel Dieu, a sprawling complex first founded in the 1300s that reopens after four years of renovations with shops, restaurants, public spaces. When it comes time to work off all those plates of pork sausage, hike in nearby Ecrins National Park, where traditional working dogs protect herds of sheep. Book a stay at the Temple-Ecrins hut, where workers recently wrapped up three years of renovations. Tim Neville Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Doha, Qatar: Avant-garde architecture blooms in the desert As the next mens soccer World Cup approaches in 2022, the host nation, Qatar, is loading its capital with structures from the biggest names in international architecture. The sharp-angled, futuristic Qatar National Library, designed by Rem Koolhaas and his OMA firm, opened in 2018; 2019 will welcome the National Museum of Qatar, a sprawling expanse of interlocking tilted circular discs by Jean Nouvel. A contribution from a third Pritzker prize-winner, Zaha Hadid, is slated to materialise in the form of a swooping, curvaceous stadium; another stadium, from Pritzker-winner Norman Foster, is also under construction. The new structures add further dazzle to the Doha skyline, which already includes Nouvels syringe-like Doha Tower and the blocky white jumble of the Museum of Islamic Art, by IM Pei. Seth Sherwood Getty Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Batumi, Georgia: A hushed seaside escape Tbilisi, Georgias charming capital, has been flooded with tourists over the past decade. But Batumi, a hushed seaside city where verdant mountains slope down to the Black Seas smooth stone beaches, offers a different experience. Already a popular escape for Russians, Iranians, Turks and Israelis, the city is preparing itself for its inevitable discovery by the rest of the world: new hotels including Le Meridien Batumi and a Batumi instalment of the design-centric boutique Rooms Hotel line are rising, and a cable car will swing straight to the coast from the hilltop Batumi Botanical Garden. Winemaking is another draw at the family-run BQ Wine Bar and the underground Karalashvilis Wine Cellar, which pours the same rose and amber-hued chkaveri varietals that Josef Stalin adored. Debra Kamin Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Marseille, France: An influx of young creatives gives the city a new edge Six years after Marseille was named European Capital of Culture in 2013, the citys renewal is still galloping along. Jean Nouvel has just finished his striking new red, white and blue skyscraper La Marseillaise. The real proof of the citys metamorphosis, however, is that it is attracting young creative types from all over France and beyond. Laura Vidal, a sommelier from Quebec, and British chef Harry Cummins opened La Mercerie, a market-driven bistro in an old notions shop in the citys Noailles district last spring. Noailles is brimming with shops (dont miss Epicerie Ildeal, the best new food store), cafes and restaurants. Other districts in the heart of Marseille are being transformed as well. Near the opera, Tony Collins recently opened Deep, a coffee shop that roasts its own beans and also sells vinyl records; and the mixologists at the Copper Bay bar shake it up for locals and guests from the nearby Les Bords de Mer, the citys best new boutique hotel. Alexander Lobrano Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Wyoming: A sesquicentennial celebration of womens suffrage in the Equality State In 1869, the Territory of Wyoming passed the first law in US history granting women the right to vote nearly 51 years before the 19th amendment guaranteed the same entitlement to all women. This year, visitors can celebrate the 150th anniversary of Wyoming womens suffrage at the Wyoming House for Historic Women, which honours the first woman to officially cast a ballot in a general election, and 13 other trailblazing women in the states political history. The restored Capitol building (reopening midyear), Wyoming State Museum and Cowgirls of the West museum also feature exhibits and artefacts celebrating womens history. In addition, a variety of all-female trips are on offer throughout the year including Womens Wellness Pack Trips on horseback from Allens Diamond 4 Ranch, cattle herding and archery at the WYLD West Women retreat, Hike Like a Woman nature adventures and fly-fishing clinics at the Proud Wyoming Woman Retreat. Nora Walsh Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Los Angeles: Finally, more than Graumans (groan) Los Angeles too often gets boiled down to its least interesting element: Hollywood. Its an insult to a region with a vibrant Koreatown (sit in the hot salt at Wi Spa and then feast on roast gui at Dong Il Jang); two nationally recognised high school show choirs (John Burroughs and Burbank); art galleries like the quirky Parker, in a Los Feliz mansion; and several big-league sports teams, two of them soon moving to a new $2.6bn stadium. But in summer 2019 there will be an honest-to-goodness Hollywood reason to visit the area. After delays, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is scheduled to open in a Renzo Piano-designed complex on Wilshire Boulevard. Promised are interactive exhibits about the art and science of filmmaking, starry screenings in two theatres and to-die-for memorabilia the collection includes a pair of ruby slippers, 12 million photographs, 61,000 posters and 190,000 video assets. Brooks Barnes Getty Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Dakar, Senegal: An oasis of freedom in a region of unrest Ngor or rent a board for a few hours to surf the more than a half dozen beaches that offer a terrific year-round break. Or just sit back and watch the surfers while eating grilled fish at a long strip of beach restaurants. A Museum of Black Civilisations will be opening early this year and will showcase artefacts as well as contemporary art from Africa and the diaspora. The citys design and fashion creations would fit right in at New York showrooms. Take in a late-night concert with legends like Cheikh Lo and Youssou NDor crooning into the wee hours and a lively bar scene that offers all-hours entertainment. Day trips let you sleep in a baobab tree, zip line through a baobab forest or swim in a pink lake. But climate change, overfishing and a booming population may eventually take their toll. Dionne Searcey Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Perth, Australia: A city transformed and enlivened A decade-long development boom has supercharged Perth. Among the new attractions: Yagan Square, with its distinctive market hall, art park and 147-foot digital tower showcases work by local artists and livestreams events; Optus Stadium, a 60,000-seat venue for concerts and sporting events; and Raine Square, a $200m redevelopment that includes a movie theatre, shopping and restaurants including dim sum chain Tim Ho Wan, considered the worlds most affordable Michelin-starred restaurant. To accommodate the expected growth in tourism, 31 new or redeveloped hotels have opened in the past five years, including the luxury COMO, the hip QT and a Westin. Since 2007, liquor law reforms, including a 2018 change that let restaurants serve drinks without a meal, have changed the drinking and dining scene with more than 100 small bars opening in the central business district alone. And Qantas started a nonstop flight from London to Perth this year, the first from Europe. Kelly DiNardo Getty Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Hong Kong: Dazzling infrastructure eases travel but could threaten independence After Britain returned its former colony to China in 1997, Hong Kong prided itself on resisting mainland interference. Last year saw the opening of a high-speed train that takes passengers all the way to Beijing, and a 34-mile sea bridge linking Hong Kong to the mainland for the first time, opening the question of whether that independent streak can survive. For travellers, though, boarding a train at the new West Kowloon station bound for Beijing and more than 30 other destinations in China is a game changer. The 1,200-mile trip to Beijing is just nine hours, and the business-class seats are roomy. Whether they are headed to China or not, travellers can indulge in British nostalgia at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. The 25th-floor M bar offers fabulous views of the harbour, exotic cocktails like Sarawak Tea Punch and memories of the 1960s when the hotel opened as a symbol of luxury and style in this ever-glamorous city. Jane Perlez Bloomberg/Getty Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Iran: Tourism cautiously returns to this Middle East jewel The appeal of Iran for adventurous travellers is obvious: the monumental ruins of ancient Persia; the spectacular, centuries-old mosques of Shiraz and Isfahan; the Grand Bazaar and Golestan Palace in bustling Tehran. One additional reason to visit in 2019 is a major exhibition scheduled to open at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. Portrait, Still-life, Landscape (21 February to 20 April) will take over the entire museum, with a selection of about 500 works, including pieces by Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko and Marcel Duchamp, as well as about 40 Picassos recently discovered in the museums storage facilities (much of the collection has been kept under wraps since the 1979 revolution). The US State Department discourages, but does not prohibit, travel to Iran by American citizens, and Americans can travel to Iran only as part of an organised tour. Options for 2019 include three expeditions from Intrepid Travel, including the companys first-ever all-female tour. Stuart Emmrich Getty Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Houston: Rebounding bigger and better after a hurricane After Hurricane Harvey, the city is back on its feet and showing off the everything-is-bigger-in-Texas attitude. Four food halls opened in 2018, including Finn Hall, which features up-and-coming chefs like James Beard-nominated Jianyun Ye and a downtown outpost of his Chinese hotspot Mala Sichuan and a taqueria from local favourite Goode Co. The five-diamond Post Oak Hotel has a two-storey Rolls-Royce showroom, art by Frank Stella and a 30,000-bottle wine cellar. The Menil Collection, known for its eclectic art ranging from Byzantine antiques to 20th century pop art, underwent a renovation and opened the 30,000-square-foot Menil Drawing Institute. The citys museum boom continues with an expansion of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, to be completed in 2020, a newly built location for the Holocaust Museum, which will move in this spring, and a restoration of the Apollo Mission Centre that will open in time for the 50th anniversary of the moon landing in July. Kelly DiNardo Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Columbus, Ohio: Is this the American city of the future? With a revitalised riverfront and booming downtown, Columbus is already one of the nations fastest-growing cities. Now, its poised to become the model for the future of innovative urban transportation, with self-driving shuttles carrying travellers along the Scioto Mile, recently revitalised, adding 33 acres of riverfront green space for festivals, water sports and outdoor art. Among the newest dining options are Veritas, which specializes in small-plate offerings; Service Bar, run by young chef Avishar Barua, a veteran of New Yorks Mission Chinese and WD-50; and, in the North Market neighborhood, veggie-forward Little Eater. The Short North Arts District offers access to the citys local businesses like the new fashion store Thread and the original Jenis ice cream store. But dont skip Italian Village and German Village neighborhoods, where innovators and dreamers have opened destination shops like Stump Plants and Vernacular and bars like Cosecha. Daniel Scheffler Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Plovdiv, Bulgaria: A city ready for the spotlight With its colourful, cobblestoned historic centre, well-preserved Roman ruins and lively art scene, Bulgarias second-largest city is surprisingly overlooked by tourists who favour the quirky, post-Soviet charm of the countrys capital, Sofia. But as a European cultural capital of 2019, this gem is ready to shine. Organisers have planned more than 500 events throughout the city and its region, including concerts, open-air theatre performances and street-food fairs. Tucked into the heart of central Bulgaria and built on seven hills, Plovdiv features an artistic quarter called Kapana, whose winding streets are lined with galleries and stylish cafes, as well as a beautifully restored Roman amphitheatre that hosts summer opera performances under the stars. The citys location at the foot of the Rhodope Mountains with their stunning views of peaks and deep gorges makes it an excellent launch point for hiking day trips. Ann Mah Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Vevey, Switzerland: A once-in-a-generation winegrowers festival on the Swiss Riviera Everything runs like clockwork in Switzerland, including the Fete des Vignerons, although its timetable is considerably extended. This Unesco-recognised wine festival, which celebrates the viticultural traditions of the Lavaux and Chablais regions near Lake Geneva, takes place every 20 to 25 years in the heart of Vevey, a breathtaking lakeside town beneath sloping vineyards in the canton of Vaud. Since 1797, the date has been decided by the Confrerie des Vignerons, which has spent the past several years (and a reported 99 million Swiss francs, or roughly $98m) planning for the 12th edition, which will run from 18 July to 11 August. For the first time, tickets for the two-hour show can be purchased online. Oenophiles seeking a full-bodied experience of Helvetian wines, which are rarely exported, can also download the new app from the Canton of Vaud featuring eight wine-centric hiking routes, including one above Vevey. Erin Levi Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Cadiz province, Spain: Sparkling cities and towns in southwest Andalusia At the tip of a peninsula thrust into the Atlantic, the city of Cadiz, a trading hub since 1100, has a vibe thats more Havana than Madrid. A culinary renaissance is underway, with newcomers like Saja River and Codigo de Barra joining classics like El Faro. But the biggest gastronomic news lies across the bay in Puerto de Santa Maria, where Angel Leons Aponiente, which has three Michelin stars, offers a lyric poem to seafood (plankton risotto). A second Leon restaurant, Alevante, in nearby Sancti Petri just received its first star. Twenty minutes inland, Jerez de la Frontera is a cradle of the fortified wines known as sherry, which are now on the hot list of sommeliers and the craft-cocktail crowd. Beyond the cities, hilltop villages like Vejer de la Frontera lure expatriates with a blend of hip luxury hotels and art by the likes of Olafur Eliasson at NMAC sculpture garden. Add a stretch of Atlantic shore, and the province of Cadiz ticks all the boxes. Andrew Ferren Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 Elqui Valley, Chile: Eclipse mania, and nights of dark skies The Elqui Valley in Chile attracts a diverse group of wine and pisco aficionados, stargazers and nature lovers. In 2019, this tranquil agricultural region takes centre stage in the path of totality of a full solar eclipse 2 July. Demand for lodging around this time has far outstripped supply, with an estimated 300,000 people expected in the area, and even hotels at the nearby coastal town of La Serena are booked solid. But those travelling outside eclipse mania still have many reasons to stare at the exceptionally clear sky; the Elqui Valley was named the worlds first International Dark Sky Sanctuary as well as a centre of international global astronomy. When the sun is up, travellers can hike through vineyards or stroll through the streets of Vicuna, the largest city. It is a centre of pisco (brandy made in Chile and Peru) production and also the birthplace of poet Gabriela Mistral, winner of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Literature. Peter Kujawinski Getty/iStock Travel destinations: 52 places to go in 2019 The islands of Tahiti: The birthplace of the overwater bungalow ups its ecotourism Those looking to escape the news cycle cant get much farther away than this south Pacific archipelago, also known as French Polynesia, which in 2019 celebrates the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cooks arrival and subsequent trumpeting of its riches. Overwater bungalows were invented here: Tahitis clear waters offer views of more than 1,000 species of marine life. To guard against the climate change threatening parts of the region, the 118 islands and atolls have bolstered their conservation and ecotourism options. Paul Gauguin Cruises offers wildlife discovery immersions. Hotels are trying to decrease their carbon footprints: the Brando resorts eco-friendly facilities include a coconut-oil-powered electric plant, an organic garden and solar panels. Resorts arent the only lodging option. The Tahitian Guesthouse experience unchains visitors from hotels and offers a more authentic Polynesian experience. Air Tahiti Nui just unveiled new jets with high-speed wifi. Sheila Marikar Getty Luckily, I knew the trick with the jeans, he said. Without the jeans I wouldnt be here today - they were really the thing that saved me. He added: I saw it many years ago and I always thought if I ever go overboard without a life jacket Im going to do that. I took a deep breath, took out my jeans, made knots at the end of the legs and inflated the jeans, pull it over water and get air inside and then push it underwater - I had an improvised life vest. Tolaga Bay, on New Zealand's east coast (Ulrich Lange / Creative Commons) A rescue helicopter managed to locate the German sailor three-and-a-half-hours after he was knocked overboard on 6 March. Two times it was really close to me but they didn't see me and flew away, Mr Murke said. Fortunately it returned 20 minutes later and spotted him in the water. Mr Murke said he spent much of his time lost at sea thinking about his 10-month-old daughter, who lives with his girlfriend in the Philippines. While I was in the water I was just thinking, I cant leave my daughter behind without a father. That was the biggest motivation, he said. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The Lowe Corporation Rescue Helicopter Trust shared footage of the rescue on its Facebook page. The trust wrote: Imagine being stuck in the middle of the ocean for two hours without any idea if you will be saved, with 2.5 metre swells pushing you from side to side that is what our Rescue Crew attended yesterday. A man had gone overboard from a yacht and through the quick response from our team and other rescue services, we were able to find him. He is so incredibly lucky to be alive. A policewoman has been accidentally shot dead by a colleague as a gun went off unexpectedly. Some reports said the pair were playing a game of drawing their guns on each other wild West-style, when one weapon fired. Other reports said the male security officer had just picked up the womans gun. The 27-year-old officer, who was at the Paris police headquarters, was shot in the head. This is a stupid drama that has just ruined two lives, a police official told Le Parisien. Yellow vest protests continue in France Show all 20 1 /20 Yellow vest protests continue in France Yellow vest protests continue in France Protesters wearing a yellow vest (gilet jaune) stand next to a burning barricade as they demonstrate against rising costs of living they blame on high taxes at the A9 highway toll of Le Boulou, southern France AFP/Getty Yellow vest protests continue in France The "Yellow Vests" (Gilets Jaunes) movement in France originally started as a protest about planned fuel hikes but has morphed into a mass protest against President's policies and top-down style of governing AFP/Getty Yellow vest protests continue in France AFP/Getty Yellow vest protests continue in France AFP/Getty Yellow vest protests continue in France AFP/Getty Yellow vest protests continue in France AFP/Getty Yellow vest protests continue in France AFP/Getty Yellow vest protests continue in France AFP/Getty Yellow vest protests continue in France AFP/Getty Yellow vest protests continue in France AFP/Getty Yellow vest protests continue in France AP Yellow vest protests continue in France AP Yellow vest protests continue in France AFP/Getty Yellow vest protests continue in France AFP/Getty Yellow vest protests continue in France AFP/Getty Yellow vest protests continue in France AFP/Getty Yellow vest protests continue in France Reuters Yellow vest protests continue in France AFP/Getty Yellow vest protests continue in France AFP/Getty Yellow vest protests continue in France EPA Two other officers were present at the time, and the 28-year-old who fired has been taken into custody. The prosecutors office has opened an investigation, which will be conducted by the body that examines police abuses. The two officers worked for a unit responsible for the transfer of detainees and the surveillance of police custody. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused a womens march in central Istanbul of disrespecting Islam by booing the Islamic call to prayer. Several thousand women had gathered in central Istanbul on Friday evening for a march to celebrate International Womens Day but police fired tear gas to disperse them. In an election rally broadcast on television, Mr Erdogan showed a video taken during the protest, showing women chanting while a nearby mosque was reciting the call to prayer. They disrespected the Azan [call to prayer] by slogans, booing and whistling, Mr Erdogan told the crowd. Women who took part in the march said on Twitter the chanting and whistling was part of the demonstration and was not aimed at the call to prayer, which began during their protest. 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 Turkish police regularly prevent protests in central Istanbul and elsewhere. Ankara tightened restrictions after the imposition of emergency rule following an attempted coup in 2016. The state of emergency was lifted last July. Mr Erdogans rally was ahead of local elections on March 31 for mayors and municipal boards. Reuters - Reporting by Ece Toksabay, Editing by Jane Merriman A prominent Iranian human rights lawyer has been sentenced to seven years in prison after defending protesters against the Islamic Republics mandatory headscarves for women. According to Iranian news agency ISNA, Judge Mohammad Moghiseh ruled that 55-year-old lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh will spend five years in jail for colluding against the system and a further two years for insulting Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The case has now gone to the appeal court, Mr Moghiseh, who heads branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court, is quoted as saying. Ms Sotoudeh has 20 days to appeal the verdict. It was no clear when the sentencing took place. Her husand Reza Khandan said on Facebook that his wife's verdict was delivered to her in jail and that it was "five years imprisonment for her first case and 33 years imprisonment with 148 lashes for the second case." He did not elaborate. Mr Khandan was also sentenced to six years in prison in January 2019 for posting updates about his wifes case on Facebook. 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 Sotoudeh was arrested last June after taking on the cases of several women arrested for appearing in public without headscarves in protest at the mandatory dress code. At the time, she was told she had already been found guilty in absentia of espionage charges and sentenced to six years by the court. The award-winning activists conviction has prompted widespread condemnation, with many arguing that she was being unfairly persecuted. Hadi Ghaemi, director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said No amount of spin will be able to conceal the fact that Sotoudeh is being persecuted for her peaceful defense of human rights in Iran, including a womans right to choose whether to wear a hijab, said CHRIs Executive Director Hadi Ghaemi. He urged the international community to band together to forcefully condemn the abhorrent treatment of this courageous defence lawyer and demand her release. Ms Sotoudeh previously served three years for representing defending opposition members after the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009. She was released in 2013. Additional reporting by agencies Israels president has lashed out at prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for implying Arab-Israelis were second-class citizens when he said the country was only for Jewish people. The embattled premier is looking to curry favour with far-right voters ahead of elections on 9 April, where, under the shadow of possible indictment, he is facing stiff opposition from an alliance of popular former generals. President Reuven Rivlin did not directly name Mr Netanyahu but on Monday denounced what he called recent entirely unacceptable remarks about the countrys Arab minority. It came after Mr Netanyahu had commented on Instagram that Israel was not a state of all its citizens, but of the Jewish people and only it. Mr Rivlin wrote on his Twitter account: Recently, when political thinking is turning all reason on its head, we hear entirely unacceptable remarks about the Arab citizens of Israel. 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 added: The state of Israel complete equality of rights for all its citizens. There are no first-class citizens, and there are no second-class voters. We are all equal in the voting booth. We are all represented at the Knesset. Mr Netanyahus outburst comes as he is fighting to wrench back support of the right from Benny Gantz, the countrys popular ex-chief of staff who has formed powerful alliance with two former army chiefs and Yair Lapid, a leading centrist opposition figure. The premier had hoped to secure a fourth consecutive term in office making him the longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history. But support for his ruling Likud Party has plunged in polls after the countrys prosecutor-general said last month he planned to indict Mr Netanyahu in three corruption cases. The premier is due to face a pre-trial hearing in the coming months, after which the top prosecutor will issue a final decision on whether to send him to trial on a slew of charges including bribery. Mr Netanyahu, who is under pressure to rally the right, has come under fire for his comments targeting Israels Arab minority, who make up nearly 20 per cent of the population or 1.8 million people. On Monday he wrote on Instagram: Israel is not a state of all its citizens According to the basic nationality law we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people and only it, he concluded. The post was addressed to Israeli model and television actress Rotem Sela who had herself taken to social media to express disgust at anti-Arab comments made by Netanyahus firebrand culture minister Miri Regev. Ms Sela had written: Even the Arabs believe it or not are human beings. Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people and only it Benjamin Netanyahu, Israels prime minister The Israeli president was not the only prominent figure to criticise the prime minister. Hollywood actor Gal Gadot, best known for her role as Wonder Woman, posted in support of Ms Sela saying late Sunday: Love your neighbour as yourself. This isnt a matter of right or left. Jew or Arab. Secular or religious, the Israeli-born actress wrote on Instagram. Its a matter of dialogue, of dialogue for peace and security and of our tolerance of one towards the other, she added. Last month Mr Netanyahu sparked fury in Israel and among powerful pro-Israel lobby groups abroad, when he facilitated a controversial merger between key coalition partner Jewish Home, a nationalist religious party, and the extremist Jewish Power, an offshoot of the banned Kach movement. He also faced backlash for saying Arab parties not only do not recognise Israel, they are working to eliminate Israel. A US Navy veteran held in Iran has been charged with a national security crime, the spokesman for the countrys judiciary chief told reporters on Monday in a case that could worsen already frayed relations between Washington and Tehran. Michael White, a 47-year-old US citizen and California resident, had been traveling to the northeastern city of Mashhad to pursue a romantic relationship with an Iranian woman. He was arrested by security forces in the city last July. Gholamali Sadeghi, the Mashhad prosecutor, told a reporter for the ISNA news agency on Monday that "a verdict for this case has been issued, adding that Mr White had been indicted on security charges as well as a complaint filed by an individual. He gave no other details as he spoke along the sidelines of the induction ceremony for new judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric who was roundly defeated by the pragmatist president Hassan Rouhani in 2015 presidential elections. Mr Sadeghi's reference to security offences contradicts a 23 February claim by Irans deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Panahi-Azar that White's case was unrelated to security matters. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty Mr Whites detention the first of a US citizen since Mr Trump came to office and upped tensions with Iran, was first publicised in January, when his family spoke to the New York Times. The jailed American is a cancer survivor, and his family fears that the disease may have resurfaced. We think that Michael is in really poor health, he said. Under no circumstances do we think the Iranians are providing him with adequate care. A spokesman for the family, Jonathan Franks, told US-funded Persian-language Radio Farda that a diplomat from Switzerland, which represents US interests in Iran in the absence of formal diplomatic ties, had met with Mr White. He paid a fee at a tourist office in Mashhad and was in a taxi when he was pulled over by undercover police, arrested, he was beaten, detained in a detention centre for about two months, and interrogated about the time he was in the Navy, Mr Franks told Radio Farda. Embattled Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the country is not a state of all its citizens in yet another apparent attempt to win extremist anti-Arab support ahead of the upcoming general election. The comments, made on Facebook, were a direct reference to the countrys 1.6 million Arabs, who make up almost a fifth of the population. Israel is not a state of all its citizens, he wrote in response to comments from the TV host Rotem Sela. According to the basic nationality law we passed, Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people and only it. He added: There is no problem with the Arab citizens of Israel. They have equal rights like all of us. But, ahead of a later cabinet meeting, he reiterated the point further, saying Israel was a nation state not of all its citizens but only of the Jewish people, reports the Agence France-Presse news agency. Israel space mission ends by crashing into the moon: in pictures Show all 12 1 /12 Israel space mission ends by crashing into the moon: in pictures Israel space mission ends by crashing into the moon: in pictures Video grab from the live transmission of the launch on February 21 AFP/Getty Israel space mission ends by crashing into the moon: in pictures Israeli spacecraft Beresheet crashes into the moon in a botched landing attempt Reuters Israel space mission ends by crashing into the moon: in pictures The landing attempt was being streamed back on earth, this image was grabbed from the livestream just before crashing EPA Israel space mission ends by crashing into the moon: in pictures A long exposure photograph of the launch AP Israel space mission ends by crashing into the moon: in pictures A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with Israel's Lunar Lander and an Indonesian communications satellite at space launch complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida AP Israel space mission ends by crashing into the moon: in pictures A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with Israel's Lunar Lander and an Indonesian communications satellite at space launch complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida AP Israel space mission ends by crashing into the moon: in pictures A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with Israel's Lunar Lander and an Indonesian communications satellite at space launch complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida Reuters Israel space mission ends by crashing into the moon: in pictures A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with Israel's Lunar Lander and an Indonesian communications satellite at space launch complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida Reuters Israel space mission ends by crashing into the moon: in pictures A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is prepped for launch Reuters Israel space mission ends by crashing into the moon: in pictures A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is prepped for launch Reuters Israel space mission ends by crashing into the moon: in pictures A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is prepped for launch AP Israel space mission ends by crashing into the moon: in pictures A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is prepped for launch AP The comments will be seen as a naked attempt to court both his own nationalist base and far-right extremists, as polls suggest he is in danger of being unseated by a centrist alliance in the 9 April poll. The rhetoric builds on a theme that Mr Netanyahu who is facing corruption charges has consistently riffed on through the campaign: that his main challenger, Benny Gantz, will build a ruling coalition with the help of the countrys Arab parliamentary parties. This, he says, will lead to significant concessions being made on Palestine. Mr Gantz, an ex-military chief, has rejected the suggestion and flaunted his record of leading campaigns against militants in Gaza. Carole Nuriel, director of the Anti-Defamation Leagues Israel office, criticised Mr Netanyahu for his comments. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events This anti-Arab rhetoric is a deeply troubling trend that, if it continues, could undermine Israels vibrant democracy, she said on Sunday. The representation of Israeli Arabs in the Knesset has historically been a source of pride for Israel, highlighting its democratic character. The UK's Civil Aviation Authority has just banned the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft from the country's airspace, joining aviation bodies from Singapore, China, Australia, South Korea and Malaysia. It follows the Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 crash on Sunday, which killed all 157 people onboard. Tui Airways and Norwegian are the two biggest operators of the 737 MAX aircraft in the UK. If you've booked a flight, there are a number of ways to find out which aircraft you'll be flying on. How to find out the aircraft you'll be flying on All modern aircraft flying on commercial routes will typically be built by a handful of companies, most commonly Boeing or Airbus. The two major planemakers, headquartered in Chicago and Toulouse respectively, account for almost 90 per cent of the worlds commercial aircraft, while smaller producers include Brazils Embraer and Canadas Bombardier. Each company produces a range of aircraft types, under which there are different variations with modifications or additions. For example, Boeing has produced the 737 narrow-body aircraft since the 1960s, but has made improved variants over time such as the 737 MAX, which was the aircraft involved in the recent Ethiopian Airlines crash and the downed Lion Air jet in Indonesia last year. World's safest airlines 2019 Show all 19 1 /19 World's safest airlines 2019 World's safest airlines 2019 Eva Air Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Austrian Airlines Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 KLM Getty World's safest airlines 2019 Qatar Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Lufthansa Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Hawaiian Airlines Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Alaska Airlines Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 SAS Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Finnair Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Emirates Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Cathay Pacific Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 British Airways Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Singapore Airlines Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 All Nippon Airways Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Air New Zealand Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Swiss Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 American Airlines Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 United Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Virgin Atlantic and Australia Getty Images Meanwhile, some aircraft are more popular with certain airlines Emirates has a large fleet of A380s, Ryanairs workhorse is the Boeing 737-800 and British Airways has the largest fleet of Boeing 747s in the world. When you book with an airline, it will often detail the aircraft on the booking page or via the e-ticket confirmation. Alternatively, you can contact the airline directly and they should be able to help. SeatGuru lists the configurations of more than 1,000 aircraft. It has a handy tool that allows you to plug in your airline, date of flight and flight number, which will bring up the scheduled aircraft. It will then detail how that aircraft is configured for that airline, showing many seats are available in each cabin as well as seats that can be problematic with limited legroom or get cold from a draught, for example. There are also user reviews and photos. SeatGuru lists 157 airlines and the aircraft they operate. Seat Expert is not quite as user friendly, but lists all the aircraft in major airlines fleets, complete with seat maps and comments on best and worst seats to choose. Seat Link is similar. Live flight tracking apps, such as Flight Radar 24, Flight Aware and Plane Finder, will show the aircraft flying on a particular route, as well as live flight information. The aircraft registration number the ID given to each plane is available to registered users. However, this isnt an exact science, and the aircraft can be changed before the flight. How to tell if youre flying the Boeing 737 MAX There are a few variants of the Boeing 737 MAX jet, depending on the size of the aircraft. When booking a flight flown by a 737 MAX, sometimes the confirmation will include the letter M: 7M7, 7M8 or 7M9 are most typical. At the airport, the easiest way to spot a 737 MAX is by the aircrafts distinctive wingtips with fins that protrude down as well as up. As the investigators assess what caused Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 to crash with the loss of 157 lives, a steadily increasing number of carriers around the world are grounding their Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets. Around 40 per cent of the current in-service total of around 360 have been grounded. The Independent calculates that 80,000 passengers a day worldwide are affected by the cancellations, with 120,000 passengers a day booked to travel on 737 MAX 8 jets that are still flying. It is too early to tell if there is a fundamental safety issue with the aircraft. But the grounding of the aircraft has heightened anxiety among some travellers, many of whom have contacted The Independent with their concerns. What routes to and from the UK does the Boeing 737 MAX 8 serve? Tui Airways has five of the aircraft based in the UK, mainly in Manchester, and uses them on a wide range of longer European and North African links recent destinations including Funchal in Madeira, Paphos in Cyprus, and Agadir and Marrakech in Morocco. It is telling passengers: TUI Airways remain in close contact with the manufacturer and regulatory authorities and we have no indication that we cannot safely operate our 737 MAX aircraft. The safety and wellbeing of our customers and staff remains our primary concern. The other leading operator of the aircraft type from the UK is Norwegian, which has 18 of the variant and another on order. Research by The Independent on flights over the past week show that Gatwick-Helsinki is the most frequent UK service using the jet, but London and Edinburgh to Oslo and Edinburgh to New York (Stewart) are also popular. Norwegian is responding to travellers by saying: All American and European airlines are operating as normal. As we are an European registered airline with American aircraft, we will always operate in line with instructions and recommendations given by European and US airline authorities and Boeing. We will never risk safety of our passengers and employees. Safety is always our highest priority and this situation is not an exception. The jet is also used for Norwegians transatlantic services from Dublin. Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Show all 15 1 /15 Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia People stand near collected debris at the crash site AFP/Getty Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia A man carries a piece of debris on his head at the crash site AFP/Getty Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Wreckage lies at the crash site of the Ethiopia Airlines Boeing 737 near Addis Ababa EPA Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Debris at the site of the crash near Addis Ababa Reuters Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia CEO of Ethiopia Airlines, Tewolde Gebremariam inspects the crash site AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Debris from the crashed aeroplane AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia UN staff observe a minutes silence for the victims of the plane crash. 19 UN workers were killed in the crash AFP/Getty Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Rescuers work at the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Rescuers work at the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 (ET-AVM), the same type of aircraft that crashed EPA Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Rescuers work at the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Members of the search and rescue team work at the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Reuters Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia A boarding pass at the scene of the crash Reuters Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Rescuers remove body bags from the scene of the crash near Addis Ababa AP Plane crash kills 157 in Ethiopia Wreckage at the scene of the Ethiopia Airlines flight AP In addition, some foreign airlines operate services to the UK using the MAX 8, including Turkish Airlines from Istanbul to Birmingham and back. And abroad? Many airlines fly the type, and if you are flying on Turkish Airlines to connect in Istanbul with many cities in west Africa as well as other locations such as Muscat and Zanzibar then the onward links will be on a MAX 8. Oman Air flies regional services to and from Muscat with the jet. In North America, Southwest, American Airlines and Air Canada are the leading operators. Who has the planes on order? For British travellers, the most significant order is from Ryanair, which has 135 of a special version of the MAX 8 the MAX 200, holding 197 passengers, eight more than the number of seats on its existing Boeing 737s. The first aircraft are due to enter service from Stansted on 14 May, on flights to Tenerife and Thessaloniki, with links to Athens, Corfu, Faro, Lisbon, Madrid, Malaga, Malta, Rhodes, Venice and many other locations. What are my options if I am booked to travel on one? In the absence of the aviation regulators such as the Civil Aviation Authority ordering the planes to be grounded, or the airline unilaterally deciding not to fly them, you will pay normal cancellation penalties if you choose not to travel or wish to switch to another flight. In addition, insurance does not cover disinclination to travel. One exception to the rule of applying change fees is Southwest Airlines, which says: If you need to change an upcoming flight itinerary, youll only pay the cost in fare difference and will never incur a separate change fee. We dont charge you for changing your mind, your plans, or otherwise. Note also that if you were to book an alternative flight for one leg of your journey to avoid the MAX 8, eg from Istanbul to Muscat, then the rest of the trip will be automatically cancelled if you are regard as a no show. Have there been widespread groundings like this before and what is the effect on civil aviation? The last such incident also involved a new Boeing aircraft: the 787 Dreamliner was grounded for several months worldwide shortly after its commercial launch due to fears over the risk from the lithium batteries onboard. Several fires broke out, including one aboard an Ethiopian Airlines 787 at Heathrow. The ban was lifted when safety measures were put in place. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events In 1985, after the last fatal accident involving British Airways, earlier version Boeing 737s were grounded. Fifty-five people died when the Corfu-bound jet burst into flames on the runway at Manchester. BA grounded the aircraft as a precaution. In 1979, the US Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded the McDonnell Douglas DC10 after a series of crashes. Because most aircraft are worked hard, when a grounding takes place the effect on schedules can be substantial. Airlines will seek to minimise disruption by sub-chartering capacity, using larger aircraft or keeping older planes flying beyond their intended replacement date. Ethiopian Airlines has shuffled its fleet to cope with the ground of its remaining 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Two of the daily departures from the Ethiopian capital to Nairobi have been combined and will be operated with a much larger Boeing 787 jet. The flight number involved in the tragedy has been retired, and the flight previously known as ET302 is shown in future schedules as ET318. Would you fly on the 737 MAX 8? Yes. I am guided by the professionals. Aviation is extremely safe, and the UK and Ireland are top of the league. No captain will fly an aircraft they regard as unsafe. If he or she is happy to fly, I am happy to be a passenger. BUCKS COUNTY >> State Senator Steve Santarsiero (D-10) has announced that four Bucks County police departments will receive a total of $188,437 in state funding through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD). The breakdown of awards is as follows: Central Bucks Regional Police Department, $59,597; Solebury Township, $57,940; Lower Makefield Township, $36,000; and New Britain Township, $34,900 Keeping our... A flight had to turn back to Saudi Arabia after a mother reportedly left her baby at the airport. Kuala Lumpur-bound Saudia flight SV832 set off from Jeddah, but the pilot requested to turn back after a passenger told crew she had forgotten her baby in the boarding area of the terminal. A video in which the pilot can be heard relaying the story to air traffic control was uploaded to Youtube and has since gone viral, with more than 50,000 views. May God be with us. Can we come back or what? the pilot says over the radio. This flight is requesting to come backa passenger forgot her baby in the waiting area, the poor thing, an ATC operative can be heard saying. World's safest airlines 2019 Show all 19 1 /19 World's safest airlines 2019 World's safest airlines 2019 Eva Air Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Austrian Airlines Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 KLM Getty World's safest airlines 2019 Qatar Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Lufthansa Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Hawaiian Airlines Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Alaska Airlines Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 SAS Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Finnair Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Emirates Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Cathay Pacific Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 British Airways Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Singapore Airlines Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 All Nippon Airways Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Air New Zealand Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Swiss Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 American Airlines Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 United Getty Images World's safest airlines 2019 Virgin Atlantic and Australia Getty Images The pilot is asked to repeat the request, to which he replies: We told you, a passenger left her baby in the terminal and refuses to continue the flight. Ok, head back to the gate, says ATC. This is totally a new one for us! No further information on how the mother managed to forget her child has been released. The Independent has requested comment from Saudia. Its not the first controversial air travel-related parenting decision. In 2017, a photo of a woman whod left her baby on the airport floor while she used her phone, with the caption idiot, quickly went viral. However, the Illinois mother, Molly Lensing, was quick to defend her actions, explaining that a technical glitch with Delta had left her stranded in Colorado airport for more than 20 hours with her then two-month-old daughter. Anastasia had been held or in her carrier for many hours, Lensing said. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events My arms were tired. She needed to stretch. And I had to communicate with all the family members wondering where the heck we were. Lensing has said that her shaming experience should be a lesson to those who deem it acceptable to publicly judge a strangers parenting techniques online. In a week of hideous news upon hideous news, Im going to offer you yet another juicy turd of information. Dear reader, I give you the kidfluencer, a term coined for children (and were sometimes talking under-fives here) who are paid to promote brands on their Instagram and in some cases YouTube accounts. I know, mad right? These children are renowned for their enviable lifestyles and all the accessories and toys that come with it. These are the kind of kids you see in the park driving scaled-down versions of Daddys car or carrying handbags just like Mummys. These so-called mini fashionistas are model cute but rather than being photographed in a studio or on location, they are snapped as they go about their everyday glamorous business, on beaches and at ski resorts, in sunglasses and straw hats, in swimwear and salopettes. They do a lot of hand-on-hip and finger-on-chin posing, there is also a great deal of kiss blowing. Feeling queasy yet? I have nothing against children modelling, if I hadnt been such a plain lank-haired lump myself, Id have been itching to preen for any old catalogue that would have me. The fact is some kids are naturally that way inclined, and having worked for a photographer back in the Eighties and witnessed a couple of kiddie shoots its very easy to tell whos not enjoying it. And yes I did see at first hand the archetypal pushy parent, but equally I met a lot of mums who simply fancied putting a few bob in their childs saving account. What Im a lot less comfortable with is the concept of a child influencer whose entire life is being lived out for commercial gain in front of a smartphone lens. For these kids, every experience is a potentially lucrative photo opportunity. Leaving Neverland photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers Show all 9 1 /9 Leaving Neverland photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers Leaving Neverland photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers Michael Jackson with accuser Wade Robson Sundance Insitute Leaving Neverland photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers Accuser Wade Robson meeting Michael Jackson for the first time Channel 4 Leaving Neverland photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers Michael Jackson with the Robson family Channel 4 Leaving Neverland photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers Michael Jackson at the home of accuser James Safechuck Channel 4 Leaving Neverland photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers Dan Reed approached the Michael Jackson documentary with 'all the scepticism and rigorousness that I would approach a story about a terrorist attack' Channel 4 Leaving Neverland photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers Michael Jackson leaves the courtroom on a break at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse for the second day of closing arguments in his child molestation trial in Santa Maria, California, 2005 AFP/Getty Leaving Neverland photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers Michael Jackson accuser Wade Robson Channel 4 Leaving Neverland photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers James Safechuck, another of Jackson's accusers Channel 4 Leaving Neverland photos show Michael Jackson with his accusers Leaving Neverland director Dan Reed Channel 4 Of course behind every camera is the brains behind the enterprise and usually this is the mother, often herself with model good looks, camera in one hand, glass of prosecco in the other #dreamingofDubai. Some of these mums are taking their childrens careers so seriously that they have given up their own work, although inevitably many have a businessman husband in the background, along with a fashionable pooch and a great deal of fairy lights after all everything must sparkle. This is a weird extension of the celebrity wannabe, whereby people who dont do anything apart from look great with nice things are rewarded in kind or cash by retail companies. This is sort of understandable when its adults playing this ridiculous game, after all, following them is only like reading a mini digital Hello! magazine, Ooh, look at her kitchen, but when children get involved, its weird. But he/she loves it, comes the cry. Yes, but its still not normal. Its creating an off-putting bubble of childhood perfection, a la the Beckhams, where Christmas trees must skim the ceiling and holiday sand must be silver white, where bikes are never second-hand and no one has a squint. These are children who dont seem to ever wear the same thing twice: toddlers in pristine trainers; manicured little girls who are never without a bow in their hair. What I dont get is, who is following them? I love seeing the children and, more recently, the grandchildren of some of my friends on Instagram, but thats because I know them. Im genuinely interested in how theyre getting on Oh look, this one can walk now and that one baked a cake but the idea of following a strangers child because of what they wear and do on their holidays is extremely strange. After a week in which Leaving Neverland seemed to confirm everyones darkest suspicions, it seems peculiar to continue putting kids into a place where theyre potentially vulnerable. At this point Id also like to moot that lip gloss on a six-year-old is tantamount to child abuse. These children are being treated like props by their parents woe betide they grow out of their wide-eyed attractiveness. God help them if those baby teeth fall out and the big teeth come in all wonky and they suddenly need specs. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events I was talking to someone recently whose wife was hysterical over their daughter being prescribed glasses at the age of 11, insisting the child must have contact lenses or her social life would be over. Really? Are most kids that shallow or is this your problem? Vanity on behalf of our offspring is an occupational hazard and although its always pretty grotesque, very few of us manage to go through life without the occasional gloat. But magnifying that gloat on a social media platform is surely just stacking up problems for the future. You cant permanently gild your life kids get fat, they get spotty. What kind of message are you giving them if you suddenly stop snapping them every second of the day because they no longer fit the brand and the freebies have stopped tumbling through the door. Surely life needs to be worth living even if its not picture perfect? Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was back in the headlines on Sunday, after declaring on social media that Israel is not a state of all its citizens. The Likud leader later doubled down, telling his cabinet that Israel is the nation state not of all its citizens, but only of the Jewish people. Netanyahus comments are the latest grim episode in an election season that will see Israelis going to the polls on 9 April. Just last month, the prime minister helped engineer an election merger that could see far-right party Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) enter the Knesset. That latter piece of realpolitik in particular prompted outrage from a number of Israeli politicians, analysts and even US-based groups better known for their Israel advocacy. According to the critics, Netanyahus boosting of the far-right and indulging of racist rhetoric endangers Israeli democracy. Netanyahu is desperate, in the face of an electoral challenge from former military chiefs of staff as well as the looming indictments for corruption allegations. But recent developments are not just about motivating a right-wing base the problem goes much deeper than an embattled demagogue. Netanyahus election manoeuvres offer an opportunity to shine a spotlight on an uncomfortable truth: namely that only under the most superficial definition can Israel be considered a democracy. Palestinian protesters light fires along the Israel border Show all 10 1 /10 Palestinian protesters light fires along the Israel border Palestinian protesters light fires along the Israel border Palestinian protesters burn tires during a demonstration on the Israel border on February 22 2019 AFP/Getty Palestinian protesters light fires along the Israel border Palestinian protesters run through smoke from tear gas and burning tires during a demonstration near the fence along the border with Israel on February 22 2019 AFP/Getty Palestinian protesters light fires along the Israel border Palestinian protesters climb the fence along the border with Israel during a demonstration AFP/Getty Palestinian protesters light fires along the Israel border Palestinian protesters holding national flags walk past burning tires during a demonstration on the Israel border AFP/Getty Palestinian protesters light fires along the Israel border A Palestinian protester wears a head band as he takes part in a demonstration near the fence along the border with Israel, east of Gaza City on February 22 2019 AFP/Getty Palestinian protesters light fires along the Israel border Palestinian protesters and a medic run to pick up a child during a demonstration near the fence along the border with Israel on February 22 2019 AFP/Getty Palestinian protesters light fires along the Israel border Palestinian protesters run through smoke from tear gas and burning tires during a demonstration near the fence along the border with Israel on February 22 2019 AFP/Getty Palestinian protesters light fires along the Israel border A man carries the Palestinian flag during a demonstration near the border fence with Israel AFP/Getty Palestinian protesters light fires along the Israel border A Palestinian protester wears a mask painted in the colours of the national flag during a demonstration on the Israel border AFP/Getty Palestinian protesters light fires along the Israel border A Palestinian protester returns a tear gas canister thrown by Israeli troops during a demonstration on the border AFP/Getty Consider the following. Millions of Palestinians are subjected to a military regime which, for 52 years, has facilitated the establishment of illegal settlements. Settlers are Israeli citizens, and vote. The Palestinians they live among whose land the settlers inhabit and colonise are not. The April elections will lead to the formation of Israels 35th government. Israels military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip began during Israels 13th government. Those Palestinians who do have Israeli citizenship, meanwhile, are very much second-class citizens as Netanyahu has been at pains to emphasise. Yes, the Jewish Nation-State law passed last year is significant in that regard, defining Israel as the national home of the Jewish people, and asserting that the right to exercise national self-determination in the state of Israel is unique to the Jewish people. But the legislation was consistent with de jure and de facto discrimination going back to the very foundation of the state of Israel. As conflict studies scholar Nadim Rouhana wrote in 2010, there are few honest observers in Israel who dispute that a Jewish state, by definition, privileges one group of citizens over another. This is an inequality expressed in various ways, including in Israels Basic Laws and its laws of land control, immigration and resource distribution as documented by Palestinian citizens themselves, as well as international NGOs and human rights experts. Finally and this is regrettably rarely taken into account there are millions of Palestinians who, expelled from their homes in the 1948 Nakba and prevented from returning ever since, are denied their rightful citizenship and thus suffrage. A few weeks ago, Michael J Koplow, policy director of the Israel Policy Forum, wrote an unintentionally instructive piece for Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Netanyahus embrace of the Jewish Power party. Koplow argued that Netanyahus actions have damaged one of Israels most valuable national security assets, by which he meant that one of Israels most potent claims on the world stage is that it is the only democracy in the Middle East. Yet as the facts make clear, Israels democratic credentials are seriously lacking as soon as you go deeper than are the people to whom weve granted citizenship able to vote? Just last year a draft law by legislators representing Palestinian citizens was disqualified from even being debated in the Knesset plenum. Why? In calling for Israel to be a state of all its citizens, as opposed to the state of the Jewish people, the bill violated parliamentary regulations. Thus, the significance of the Jewish Power party and Netanyahus racist rhetoric is in the way it makes the claim that Israel is a liberal democracy that much tougher to make. Netanyahu did not say anything groundbreaking on Sunday: but he is making it harder to maintain an illusion. With no small amount of regret, I must ask you to consider this column in the format of David Attenborough documentary, except that the making of bit at the end will have to last for at least fifty minutes of the full hour. It is now coming towards the end of, even by current standards, one of the maddest days in British politics, and there remains no cogent point that can be made about it. The only way to shed any light on events is to attempt to describe the impossibility of the light shedding process. Since Sunday night, it has remained hinted at but nevertheless entirely unknown whether Theresa May will cancel her meaningful vote on Tuesday, or amend it some way as to make it meaningless. If she does do that, it may well be that the subsequent meaningful votes, on Wednesday and Thursday, which are meant to involve a) resolving to, as they say takehttps://www.independent.co.uk/topic/no-deal-brexit no-deal off the table and b) extending the Article 50 process, do not proceed as planned either. But no one knows if it is going to happen. Theresa Mays spokespeople were asked for guidance on the subject at regular intervals throughout the day. No such guidance came. The Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay was meant to be appearing before a Select Committee at 12.15pm, to update on progress negotiating the Withdrawal Agreement. The appearance was cancelled. Jeremy Corbyn tabled an urgent question in the House of Commons, to ask the Prime Minister to come and say what on earth was going on. Theresa May did not appear. She was too busy, over the road at Westminster Abbey doing a bible reading to an audience of Meghan Markle and others for National Commonwealth Day. Not even Stephen Barclay could find his way to the despatch box to answer it. Recommended May makes last minute dash to Strasbourg to secure new Brexit deal If Tuesdays vote is to be amended by the government, that amendment will have to make itself known in public at some point on Monday night. In the House of Commons, MPs wanted to know whether or not to expect it before 10pm, when the commons rises for the night, whether it might appear on the House of Commons website in the small hours of the morning, or indeed, just to be given any clue at all about what was going on at this impossibly serious times. Answers came there none. If the vote is to be amended, and parliament is not given a meaningful vote by 12 March at the latest, as Theresa May said it would be two weeks ago, she would, in Yvette Coopers opinion, have told a straight up lie. Such things could lead to another vote of no confidence in her. What would happen this time round? Would her party bring her down? A new government would have to be formed within two weeks. Brexit is meant to be happening in less than three. Again, nobody knows. All weekend, the media were kept very well briefed of the fact that talks between Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker had reached a complete impasse. That there was no way around the backstop problem. At 5pm, Theresa May decided she would go to Strasbourg to have further talks with Jean-Claude Juncker, but made clear that no one should expect them to amount to anything, beyond an arrival photograph at 9pm. No one knows anything. And we are at the point where no one knowing anything is not because they havent been told, but because there is nothing to know. The House of Commons isnt going to vote for Theresa Mays deal. The EU isnt going to give Theresa May the concessions she says she requires to get the House of Commons to change its mind. There is precious little evidence such concessions even exist. It might seem obvious to point out, but the European Union is a union, and it is standing by its member, Ireland, who will not countenance the removal of the backstop, and not its non-member, the United Kingdom. And thats it. Where it leads, nobody knows. No-deal? No Brexit? A delay? A long one? A short one? We are now at the stage where the bacon on Britains supermarket shelves has a longer shelf life than Britains membership of the European Union, and nobody has any idea what is going to happen. It is now almost three years since the country voted to leave the European Union. That is more than half of a parliamentary term. Electorates can and regularly do change their minds in such a period of time. Democracy itself is contingent on it. So it is not illegitimate to ask whether, on 23 June 2016, the people of the United Kingdom really did issue a mandate for where we now find ourselves. Which is in a situation of total chaos, and ungovernable country trying to take the most important and most perilous step it has taken in decades. It is completely unfit to do so. In 2016, the British people did only one thing, which was to advise parliament that it wished to leave the European Union. It expressed no view at all on the best way of doing so, and there are many options. For three years parliament has, in its way, functioned entirely normally, and it has found itself entirely incapable of finding a way in which to deliver on the advice it was given. There is virtually no more time left. Brexiteers and their media cheerleaders are going to great lengths to point out that the country is shifting in favour of a no-deal Brexit. Their justification for this is various polls in which support for such an outcome has risen to more than a third. But if you wish to alight upon that particular statistic, it is impossible to do so without also considering every single poll, be they right or wrong, which are now unambiguous that the country is in favour of remain. There are no good options. Something outrageous is going to happen. Even a second referendum would make little difference. Three years of mad government have not brought the country any closer to a place where a referendum could be held to offer a clear instruction on how to leave the European Union. There is still nothing agreed. The trade negotiations have not started. All we can do is write down the process. The votes, the amendments, the next steps, how x might happen. There is still no Great White Shark shooting out of the ocean. There is no mother penguin returning after the long winter with fish to regurgitate. There is still nothing. In such a situation, it is entirely legitimate to consider whether, having tried this hard for this long, just revoking Article 50 altogether might be the least insane thing to do. Michael Ryan, from Ireland, was working as an engineer for the WFP (PA) A FRIEND of Michael 'Mick' Ryan says he risked his life by trying to help others and his death on a domestic flight is a "real tragedy". Johnny Hegarty, of Save Cork City campaign group, said the community is in "terrible shock". Michael 'Mick' Ryan, who worked as a development aid worker with the United Nations, was the only Irish citizen on board the four-month-old aircraft that crashed yesterday en route from Ethiopia to Kenya, resulting in the deaths of all 157 passengers and crew. "Mick was doing good around the world which was great and that's what drove him in his life - to do good. He really thought about people being the benefactors of everything that was done and that's what makes it very tragic. He was often at risk in his work for the UN and we wouldn't have expected him to be at risk on an ordinary domestic flight," Mr Hegarty told Cork's 96FM. "I don't know anyone who didn't like him, I know people say that in these circumstances but it is so true in his case. He just literally wanted to help people "He was a great representation of Ireland abroad as a person doing good. It's a real tragedy, it's a real loss, he's a great loss to Cork and as a friend." Mr Hegarty spoke about the dangers of Mr Ryan's work and how his death in a plane crash was so unexpected. "In his work abroad he's been shot at and been in perilous situations... it's a real tragedy." Mr Ryan, a native of Lahinch, Co Clare, and a father of two young children, had recently been living in Cork. The Clare man worked as an engineer with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) over recent years. He had just redeployed to the WFP Rome office. He and his wife Naoise were due to move to Italy soon with their children from their home in Cork city. He died along with six of his WFP colleagues in the crash. Earlier today, the cockpit voice recorder was recovered from the Ethiopian Airlines plane, Ethiopian state TV said. Investigators at the crash site recovered the recorder. Theresa May is yet again set to push Brexit to the absolute brink in two parallel confrontations, with the EU on one side, and her own rebelling Conservative Party colleagues on the other. With just 18 days left to the Brexit deadline of March 29, the UK prime minister is still hanging on for EU concessions on the Irish Border backstop, which Brussels is resolutely refusing. It came as reports in the British press suggested the EU is preparing to charge Britain billions of euro and impose a number of other punitive conditions as its price for agreeing a Brexit delay if Mrs May is forced to ask for an extension this week. At the same time, Mrs May has ramped up a stark warning to her own party rebels that Brexit risks "not happening at all" if they fail to back her withdrawal deal in another crucial vote due in Westminster tomorrow. Almost two months ago, the House of Commons rejected the Withdrawal Agreement by a huge majority of 230 votes. That sent Mrs May back to renegotiate the deal she had agreed on November 25 at a special EU leaders' summit in Brussels. In Dublin to attend the Ireland-France Six Nations rugby international yesterday, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said contacts were ongoing with UK officials. But sources close to the process said there was no move beyond the deadlock which emerged on Friday when an EU formula was rejected out of hand by the UK government. Many MPs at Westminster have warned another defeat tomorrow now appears "inevitable". This raises the prospect of two more promised votes, possibly both to be held on Wednesday, one to rule out a calamitous no-deal crash-out, a second to seek an extension to the Brexit process beyond March 29. It also raises questions of the future of the British prime minister. Mrs May's earlier warnings to Brexiteers on the risk of a delay ultimately derailing the Brexit process was trenchantly repeated yesterday by a key ally. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned that any delay risked helping those seeking to keep Britain in the EU by improving prospects for holding another referendum. "There is a risk and possibility that we end up losing Brexit if we get the votes wrong in the next couple of weeks," he told the BBC. These comments were echoed earlier by Mrs May and followed weeks of EU-UK talks focused on the so-called backstop, an arrangement of crucial interest to Ireland. This is an element of the Brexit deal intended to keep the Irish Border open. It would keep Britain in the EU's customs union and parts of its single market unless and until another way, such as a future EU-UK post-Brexit trade deal, is found to avoid Border checks. Many MPs fear it is a trap to keep them tied to EU rules. Mr Barnier repeated on Friday that the bloc could offer a legally binding statement confirming the backstop was only meant to be temporary. But this was not enough to convince Mrs May's critics in the Commons, which rejected the deal by 432 votes to 202 in January. "It is inevitable this unchanged withdrawal agreement will be voted down again," two senior Brexit-supporting MPs, Conservative Steve Baker and Nigel Dodds of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), both warned yesterday in a joint newspaper article. If the prime minister loses, MPs are likely to vote against a "no-deal" exit on Wednesday, paving the way for another vote on delaying Brexit. Mrs May is offering the possibility of a "short, limited" delay, which she opposed for a long time. Any extension needs to be approved unanimously by the other 27 EU leaders, who will meet at a Brussels summit on March 21-22, just a week before Brexit day. However, reports in 'The Daily Telegraph' suggest the EU is preparing to charge up to a billion pounds a month and impose a number of other punitive conditions as its price for agreeing a Brexit delay. The report said some EU member states are "hardening" their attitudes towards a delay and will demand "legal and financial conditions" including an increase to the 39bn (45bn) divorce payment. Meanwhile, Boris Johnson, the runaway favourite among Tory members to succeed Mrs May, has accused the EU of treating Britain with "contempt" and expecting it to sign up to a "Carthaginian" deal. He urged his fellow MPs to vote against both the deal and a delay, to force the EU to come to the table when its leaders meet on March 21. The UK Government has secured "legally-binding" changes to the Brexit deal after Theresa May made a last-minute dash to Strasbourg for talks on the eve of a crucial vote in the House of Commons. In a joint press conference with EU chief Jean Claude Juncker, Mrs May said she stands by what the Brexit deal stands for, and that the deal sets the UK on course for a good future with the EU. "Having an insurance policy to guarantee that there will never be a hard border in Northern Ireland is absolutely right - it honours the UK's solemn commitments in the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement," she said. "But if we ever have to use that insurance policy, it cannot become a permanent arrangement and it is not the template for our future relationship." Mrs May said that she has secured what parliament asked for on the backstop and that she will speak in more detail in parliament tomorrow. Expand Close Leo Varadkar (Brian Lawless/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Leo Varadkar (Brian Lawless/PA) Read More Jean Claude Juncker told the press conference that he has spoken with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar who has agreed to support the approach taken by the EU tonight. In a letter to EU summit chair Donald Tusk, Mr Juncker said that Mr Varadkar is willing to support the agreement "in the interest of securing an overall deal". Mr Juncker said the backstop is an insurance policy and that the intention is that it is not to be used, and if it is used, it will never be used as a trap. He said that Britain must leave the European Union by the time EU voters elect a new European Parliament on May 23-26. "The United Kingdom's withdrawal should be complete before the European elections that will take place between May 23-26 this year," he wrote to Mr Tusk. "If the United Kingdom has not left the European Union by then, it will be legally required to hold these elections." As revealed by the Irish Independent last week, Mrs May and European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker negotiated a 'package' consisting of three elements. Brexiteers said they were "keeping an open mind" about whether to back a revised deal and will decide whether to support it in the all-important "meaningful vote". The package includes: - A legally-binding statement that makes clear neither side will negotiate after Brexit with the aim of indefinitely keeping the backstop; - An extended political declaration on the future ties; - And a document written by the UK side containing fresh legal advice on why the UK will not be trapped in the backstop. The legally-binding statement will set out that the backstop is intended to be temporary. It commits the EU to using "its best endeavours to negotiate and conclude expeditiously a subsequent agreement that would replace the backstop". A date of December 31, 2020 is prescribed. Sources in the Irish government told Independent.ie they "can live" with the additions to the original agreement if it helps Mrs May get it passed by the House of Commons. The DUPs Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds said everything will need to be taken together and analysed carefully. The UK prime minister's de facto deputy David Lidington gave the update to MPs earlier as Mrs May and Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay were meeting with EU leaders. Mr Lidington said: "Tonight we will be laying two new documents in the House; a joint legally-biding instrument on the Withdrawal Agreement and protocol on Northern Ireland and a joint statement to supplement the political declaration. "The first provides confirmation that the EU cannot try to trap the UK in the backstop indefinitely and that doing so would be an explicit breach of the legally-binding commitments that both sides have agreed." And he said the "joint instrument" reflects the commitment to "replace the backstop with alternative arrangements by December 2020". Mr Lidington added the Attorney General would be publishing advice ahead of Tuesday's debate, but needed time to consider the new changes. "The Attorney General will publish his legal opinion," he said. "That will be available in good time before the debate. "I think the house would expect the Attorney General to consider very carefully rather than rush an opinion out to meet the deadline for this statement this evening." Earlier, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar delayed travelling to Washington for the St Patricks Day festivities as the future of Brexit hangs in the balance. After a day of frantic activity in Dublin, London and Strasbourg, British Prime Minister Theresa May spent the evening in last-ditch negotiations with EU chief Jean Claude Juncker. The Cabinet met this morning to receive a final update on Brexit before ministers jet off on their traditional St Patricks Day trips. A decision had been taken for Mr Varadkar to fly to Washington yesterday so that he would be on the ground to watch the House of Commons vote. His official programme in the United States doesnt actually commence until Wednesday. However, while some of his officials made it as far as Dublin Airport, Mr Varadkar decided to stay put shortly before he was due to leave Government Buildings. Sources said he still fully intends to meet US President Donald Trump in the White House on Thursday but his travel plans are "fluid". Tanaiste Simon Coveney has already curtailed his planned visits to Paris, Brussels, The Hague and Berlin. The Cabinet were called to an emergency session at short notice this evening, leaving a number of ministers scrambling to get back into the city centre. Ministers have been told to be "extremely cautious" with their public commentary, amid fears that a triumphalist tone from Dublin would immediately derail any progress Mrs May hopes to make within her party. After discussing the situation in broad terms, the Cabinet broke up to allow the Taoiseach take a phonecall from Mr Juncker. Talks between the EU and UK collapsed over the weekend after Mrs Mays Cabinet rejected the original outline of what is now on the table. The view of the UKs Attorney General Geoffrey Cox was that it did not go far enough to convince him that the backstop would not "endure indefinitely". Ireland has repeatedly said it would not block a postponement of Brexit beyond March 29 but Mr Varadkar was nuanced on the idea when speaking to reporters earlier. He warned that the EU will not allow a delay if it merely creates for a "rolling cliff-edge". "Nobody across the European Union wants to see a rolling cliff edge where tough decisions just get put off until the end of April and then to the end of May and then maybe until the end of July. "The uncertainty around Brexit is already worrying citizens. It is damaging business confidence, it is effecting our agriculture in particular. It will affect other industries as well as the week goes on. I really think if there is going to be an extension it has to be with a purpose, that extension," he said. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe met with senior officials from the NTMA, Revenue Commissioners and Central Bank early today to discuss preparedness for a no-deal scenario. He said the country is in a good position but "a departure of the UK from the EU without an agreement or transition period, would have a sudden, immediate and negative impact on our economy". The Government plan is to allow the public finances "absorb the shock" this year but the strategy Budget 2020 would change. "The strength of the public finances will allow us to support economic activity through the operation of the automatic stabilisers on tax revenues and social transfers. "This will support economic growth in the short-run and provide the economy with a safeguard against the most immediate negative impacts that would arise," Mr Donohoe said. He added: "As the situation becomes clearer, the strategy for Budget 2020 will be based on an appropriate response to the economic circumstances." Additional reporting from PA Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has warned the EU will not allow British Prime Minister Theresa May delay Brexit if she is merely looking for a rolling cliff-edge. In a hardening of the Governments line on a possible extension of Article 50, Mr Varadkar said there would need to be a clear purpose for such a move. Previously Irish ministers have said they would not be an obstacle to a Brexit delay beyond March 29 but Mr Varadkars comments in Dublin this morning are closer to the stance being taken by countries like France. Nobody across the European Union wants to see a rolling cliff edge where tough decisions just get put off until the end of April and then to the end of May and then maybe until the end of July. The uncertainty around Brexit is already worrying citizens. It is damaging business confidence, it is effecting our agriculture in particular. It will affect other industries as well as the week goes on. I really think if there is going to be an extension it has to be with a purpose, that extension, he said. Mr Varadkar also said any attempt to stall the so-called meaningful vote in the House of Commons beyond misses the point. Some reports in London today suggest Mrs May is coming under pressure to cancel the vote amid fears she is on course for a second dramatic defeat. But the Taoiseach said: Were two and half years if not three years since the referendum. It is far too late for the United Kingdom to tell us what they want. The withdrawal agreement requires a compromise and this withdrawal agreement is already a compromise. Mr Varadkar leaves for the United States later today where he will meet with US President Donald Trump on Thursday as part of the St Patricks Day festivities. Tanaiste Simon Coveney has curtailed his travel plans for this week in order to be at home while the situation develops in London and Brussels. Approving Johnny Ronan's plans for additional floors on the Salesforce Tower development in Dublin's docklands "would make a mockery of the planning scheme process", according to a management company representing the interests of 616 property owners in the area. The company told Dublin City Council that the planning scheme for the area, which is a Government-designated "strategic development zone" (SDZ), sets the maximum permissible height at eight storeys. Mr Ronan wants to expand the building to 11 storeys, which he says would accommodate an extra 1,000 workers. In January, Mr Ronan wrote to the council saying approval of the floors was "essential" to accommodate Salesforce's needs, the 'Sunday Business Post' reported at the weekend. "Needless to say, this means extra quality JOBS, JOBS, JOBS for Ireland," the letter said. However, the management company, which represents property owners in the nearby Spencer Dock development, said its clients "would be undermined by any decision to grant permission in contravention of the planning scheme". It said that to consider permitting the additional building height "would be to completely undermine the integrity of the SDZ planning scheme process". "Setting aside the planning scheme would set a precedent for similar decisions throughout the entire docklands area which would make a mockery of the planning scheme process and bring such decisions under the threat of legal challenge." The management firm says the appropriate course of action is to undertake a detailed and systematic analysis of the merits or otherwise of increased heights across the docklands, and only then consider any proposals for heights exceeding those set down in the planning scheme. Planning consultant for Mr Ronan's Spencer Place Ltd, John Spain, has argued the application provides for only a modest increase in height. He said only allowing eight storeys is "a direct contradiction to national planning guidance which seeks to promote development in key urban sites". Appetites for offal are increasing across Europe, with changing demographics driving demand. One of the biggest markets for the so-called 'fifth quarter', including beef feet, ears and lambs' heads, continues to be the African continent. Traditionally beef feet were destined for that region where it is a high volume, low-content market, with the meat, bone and marrow destined for stew pots. Paul Daly, managing director of the Tullamore-based Irish Casings Company, said there is increasing interest across Europe for offal parts. However, these would have to be packaged and presented for the supermarket consumer. "We are looking at the market in Europe," he said, with changing tastes with many nationalities making Europe their home. Currently, some of the bigger buyers are in West Africa, such as the Ivory Coast and Ghana. However, the offal is still at the dearer end of the market there. It is competing with fish at 40c/kg and chicken backs from carcasses at 25c/kg. Another strong customer is Korea for pork offal. Cheap product Mr Daly said Brexit hopefully won't impact the trade to a major extent as it will come down to the world market price. However, he warned the market was "getting more difficult" due to cheap produce. "The people we deal with in Portugal say their freezers are full, similarly in Poland," he said. "There seems to be a lot of cheap product around and you can't produce at that price." Irish pig farmers are threatening to leave the industry as prices fail to lift from their 15-year low, IFA and Teagasc have warned, writes Claire Fox. Pig prices have dropped to 1.38-1.40/kg, with the margin over feed price running at as low as 0.28/kg. IFA pig chair Tom Hogan said that farmers are at their "wits' end and battling on" and warned that if a price rise doesn't come soon many will leave the industry. "Farmers are in despair. It's hard to take some of the phone calls I get from them as they are very despondent. Some will keep battling on but I fear that many farmers will leave as they don't see any price rise coming up," he said. Teagasc pig specialist Ciaran Carroll said farmers were hopeful when prices in Germany increased to over 1.40/kg mark as it was thought the Irish industry would see a rise but that hasn't been the case. He added that feed prices have increased by 10/t - this accounts for 70pc of the cost of production which is piling extra pressure on farmers. Storm Powell travelled to Roscrea Mart to hear farmers' opinions on beef prices, climate change and the prospect of a no-deal Brexit Action at Roscrea Mart last week. Kevin Byrne Photography Con Howard Ballintotty, Nenagh Expand Close Con Howard / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Con Howard "Beef farming is not viable at current prices", says Con (77), who farms 380ac with his son Tim. "It has been a non-profit making enterprise for the last three years." The present grading system of cattle is Con's biggest concern and he would like to see it reviewed. On climate action, the dairy and beef farmer says: "Nature sets its own controls. The Government should look at the carbon emissions caused by air and sea travel. Don't blame the farmers for everything." With regard to meat consumption, he says: "Do everything in moderation." Con believes the UK will look for an extension to the Brexit deadline of March 29. "There may be another vote or a general election." Shane Quigley Portroe, Nenagh Expand Close Shane Quigley / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Shane Quigley Dairy farmer Shane milks 40 cows on 80ac in Castlelough, where he lives with his wife and two young children. He also does farm contract work. Though dairying now, Shane previously had sucklers "but got out of them two years ago due to low margins". On farm emissions, he comments: "Our advisors are promoting dairy expansion but climate experts denounce its high carbon footprint. We get mixed messages and it's hard to know what to do." On a practical note, Shane suggests greater use of solar power on farms and would welcome further incentives for this. "The UK will be in serious trouble if there is a no-deal Brexit," says Shane. "At the moment, the prospects are bad, but hopefully a deal will be done in time." Cian Rigney Roscrea Cian (23) s a third generation calf and weanling dealer. Expand Close Cian Rigney / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Cian Rigney "There's a vibrant trade for calves and weanlings at the moment" says Cian, who spends his days travelling to marts nationwide. "It's hard to understand the high prices and hard to buy value. "If the Government are serious about reducing the farmers' carbon footprint, they could provide incentives to reduce herd size," says Cian, who also suggests the introduction of schemes to promote bioenergy. On Brexit, Cian says: "There is a lot scaremongering. The UK is trying to play hard ball. They will have exhausted every route before they agree on a deal at the 11th hour. A no-deal Brexit isn't good for any of us." Michael Harty Lismore,Toomevara Expand Close Michael Harty / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Michael Harty "Beef farming is not viable at current prices," says Michael, who was appointed CEO of co-operative marts group, Central Auctions (Roscrea, Nenagh and Birr) in 2017, and is also a dry stock farmer. "Beef farming is becoming big business and very specialised," says Michael. "The traditional farmer who bought stores in October, fed them and sold them in spring no longer has a profit margin. Most of them need an off-farm income. There is also a reduction in the quality of the suckler herd, which is a major concern." Michael fears that the expansion of the dairy industry is happening too quickly and is aware of its increasing carbon footprint. "We must look at our use of fertiliser and, where possible, carry out low-emission slurry spreading," he says. "The uncertainty of Brexit is frightening," adds Michael "and there is so much at stake. A no-deal Brexit doesn't bear thinking of. We must have something in place before March 29. The UK is not as cognisant of the farmer vote as we are. Tariffs or price reductions for Irish beef would be a disaster." Noreen Farrell Ballinveney, Toomevara Expand Close Noreen Farrell / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Noreen Farrell Noreen lives on a dry stock and sheep farm with her husband and four children. Her job as a carer supplements the farm income. "Beef farming is just about viable," says Noreen, "and we plan to stick with it. The family have been in sucklers for generations and the whole family have a huge interest in the farm and love it. Subsidies, admittedly, are a great help." On the climate, Noreen says: "Electric cars will come but not for the older generation. Pollution needs to be contained, slurry spread efficiently and household waste disposed of correctly." Noreen is confident that a Brexit deal will be brokered at the last minute. "If not, there will be a huge impact on the farming community," she adds. Richard Davis Knock, Roscrea Expand Close Richard Davis / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Richard Davis Richard has both a dairy and beef enterprise. "Beef farming is definitely not viable at present. Stores prices are too dear," says Richard. "A lot of commentators are blaming the farming industry for high carbon emissions. What about the aviation industry?" asks Richard, who farms 120ac. "Our age group find it difficult to get our heads around the issue of climate change. I don't know how we can reduce emissions. Cars will be adapted in time, but what about lorries? How will they run? Injecting slurry has been encouraged, but will this imply an added farm cost?" "If the UK crash out with a no-deal Brexit, there will be very serious consequences and beef prices will be seriously affected. The uncertainty has already affected people negatively. I'm hoping that there will be a settlement. But if the time is extended for longer than a month, chaos will continue to the detriment of everyone." Farmers cooperative Arla Foods, one of the worlds biggest dairy firms, plans to reduce carbon emissions by 30pc over the next decade to meet rising demand from consumers for more sustainable products, it said on Sunday. The target comes as Arla, owned by 10,300 farmers in Denmark, Sweden, Germany and the United Kingdom, faces increasing pressure along with the rest of the food industry to reduce emissions. Livestock farming alone is responsible for up to 18pc of the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, according to the United Nations. We believe that a growing number of consumers are willing to reward the most sustainable dairy farmers by paying a little more for their milk in the same way as we have seen with organic dairy, said Arla Chief Executive Peder Tuborgh. Arla plans to switch to more sustainable operations such as renewable energy, sustainable packaging and lower waste production, while farmers can plant more trees and bushes to help absorb carbon and improve biodiversity. Today, one liter of Arla milk emits 1.15 kilogram of carbon dioxide, which it aims to cut by 30 percent by 2030 and to zero by 2050. Arlas milk production will however still emit methane, a greenhouse gas which is produced through cows digestion. The company is looking into the cows feed composition to make them less gassy, for the sake of farmers and the environment. The United Nations says people need to change the way they use energy to eat, travel and live, for example by cutting meat and dairy consumption, driving electric vehicles or taking public transport, and buying low-carbon products. Irish Farmers Association president Joe Healy met chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier ahead of key Brexit votes en route to the Six Nations clash between Ireland and France. Healy bumped into Michel Barnier, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Tanaiste Simon Coveney along with the French farming leader FNSEA President Christiane Lambert at yesterdays Six Nations match against France. Healy said he acknowledged the strong, consistent approach of Michel Barnier throughout the Brexit process and the importance of maintaining EU solidarity in the coming weeks. Hopefully, the outcome will remove the uncertainty that has existed and restore confidence among Irish farmers, particularly in the beef sector, given the losses they have already incurred. The President of the IFA and the President of the French farmers union FNSEA Christiane Lambert will hold a joint briefing today, ahead of crucial votes in Westminster on Brexit next week. The French farm leader is in Ireland as the Brexit endgame on March 29 and the two farm leaders will be setting out the issues for agriculture and the importance of an outcome that doesnt damage the agri-food sector. The meeting comes as the UK cabinet meets this week to vote on a Withdrawal Agreement on Brexit. Theresa May is yet again set to push Brexit to the absolute brink in two parallel confrontations, with the EU on one side, and her own rebelling Conservative Party colleagues on the other. With just 18 days left to the Brexit deadline of March 29, the UK prime minister is still hanging on for EU concessions on the Irish Border backstop, which Brussels is resolutely refusing. At the same time, Mrs May has ramped up a stark warning to her own party rebels that Brexit risks not happening at all if they fail to back her withdrawal deal in another crucial vote due in Westminster tomorrow. Almost two months ago, the House of Commons rejected the Withdrawal Agreement by a huge majority of 230 votes. That sent Mrs May back to renegotiate the deal she had agreed on November 25 at a special EU leaders summit in Brussels. In Dublin to attend the Ireland-France Six Nations rugby international yesterday, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said contacts were ongoing with UK officials. But sources close to the process said there was no move beyond the deadlock which emerged on Friday when an EU formula was rejected out of hand by the UK government. Many MPs at Westminster have warned another defeat tomorrow now appears inevitable. This raises the prospect of two more promised votes, possibly both to be held on Wednesday, one to rule out a calamitous no-deal crash-out, a second to seek an extension to the Brexit process beyond March 29. It also raises questions of the future of the British prime minister. Mrs Mays earlier warnings to Brexiteers on the risk of a delay ultimately derailing the Brexit process was trenchantly repeated yesterday by a key ally. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned that any delay risked helping those seeking to keep Britain in the EU by improving prospects for holding another referendum. There is a risk and possibility that we end up losing Brexit if we get the votes wrong in the next couple of weeks, he told the BBC. These comments were echoed earlier by Mrs May and followed weeks of EU-UK talks focused on the so-called backstop, an arrangement of crucial interest to Ireland. This is an element of the Brexit deal intended to keep the Irish Border open. It would keep Britain in the EUs customs union and parts of its single market unless and until another way, such as a future EU-UK post-Brexit trade deal, is found to avoid Border checks. Many MPs fear it is a trap to keep them tied to EU rules. But Brussels has steadfastly rejected calls for a time-limit or unilateral way out of the backstop arrangement for Britain. Mr Barnier repeated on Friday that the bloc could offer a legally binding statement confirming the backstop was only meant to be temporary. But this was not enough to convince Mrs Mays critics in the Commons, which rejected the deal by 432 votes to 202 in January. Irish beef and dairy industries is facing a massive threat if the UK crashes out of the EU with no deal and looks to third countries for food imports. The Department of Agriculture has estimated the cost of potential tariffs for the sector as a whole is 1.7bn, based on Irish agri-food exports to the UK of 4.8bn in 2016. The dairy sector estimates that for just cheddar alone, the tariff threat is about 155m, and about 400m on overall exports to the UK. A post-Brexit trade deal with the US could see chlorine-washed chicken on UK supermarket shelves (PA) The UK government has insisted that a high standard in food quality will remain as researchers issue a warning over US farming practices. Last week, the US ambassador to London said Britain should not follow the European Unions Museum of Agriculture and let false concerns over US farming practices get in the way of a post-Brexit trade deal. The US laid out its objectives for a post-Brexit trade deal with Britain, seeking to entirely eliminate or reduce barriers for US agricultural products and streamline regulatory differences. Critics have argued that such a US accord would open up Britains markets to the likes of chlorine-treated chicken and genetically modified crops, while ministers have said the government would not lower food standards to win trade deals. Writing in the Lancet Prof Erik Millstone of the University of Sussex and Tim Lang, Professor of food policy at the University of London said that while few analysts think EU standards are perfect, comparing EU, US, and other food standards, they concluded that EU regulatory standards are among the highest in the world and rightly prioritise prevention over remediation. They said that several essential US foods standards are weaker than the EU's. "After years of crises over food safety, especially BSE, the EU decided to prevent rather than remediate food-borne diseases." On beef, the US Trade Representative claims science shows US beef industry products are safe. However, Millstone and Lang says this view fails to appreciate that when European expert advisors reach different conclusions, it is not because they fail to accept the evidence; rather, they ask and answer different questions and consequently look at different bodies of evidence. "The US assessment of the risks of eating beef from cattle treated with supplementary growth hormones only assesses risks to average healthy adults. "In the EU, the questions are extended to cover wider ranges of consumers. The EU Scientific Committee on Veterinary Measures relating to Public Health concluded that, although beef from hormone-treated cattle might be safe for average healthy adults, it is not acceptably safe for pre-pubescent adolescents, immunologically compromised people, and older people," they said. On chicken the pair highlight that the EU resisted US-style use of chlorinated water to clean chickens. US producers can lawfully use six chemical disinfectants, not just on poultry but on other meats as well as fish, fruits, and vegetables. "The dubious benefit of this approach has emerged from research at Southampton University, UK, in 2018, the results of which show that chlorine washing does not kill or weaken contaminating bacteria on food; it makes them harder to detect." Meanwhile, the UK government has said it will retain high EU food standards. Both its former Food Minister George Eustice (now resigned) and the Secretary of State Michael Gove at Defra (still in position) insist high standards will remain, but their draft Agriculture Bill, heavily focused on environmental land management, omits that commitment. Brendan Joyce of the Irish Natura and Hill Farmer's Association on his farm at Maam Cross, Co. Galway. Photo: Keith Heneghan The sheep industry must follow the consumer trend towards healthy eating by delivering lambs with lower fat scores. James Smyth, procurement manager for Irish Country Meats, says that buyers are increasingly posing questions about origin and carbon footprint rather than price. "People are more conscious of the level of fat they are consuming," he told last week's Teagasc Hill Sheep conference, adding that while the Irish and UK markets still want a nice level of fat cover at 3, French, Swiss and Nordic buyers want lighter carcasses. "That is where the industry is going, very health-conscious, and we have to follow that. "There is a drive towards defatted products and the whole area of healthy eating in Europe and beyond." Mr Smyth said with the growth in healthy eating, there are also strong opportunities in the organic market. "We have invested heavily in this area and see good opportunities in it," he said. The value of sheep protein to the Irish economy grew 15pc last year to 315m, with 70pc of lamb exported. "It is a real challenge to keep that momentum going, it is a substantial increase year on year," said Mr Smyth. For processors, the quality assurance scheme and a consistent year-round throughput of product were key to securing their markets. Markets Work is continuing to access the China marketplace but it is "slow", said Mr Smyth. "We are looking forward to serving that market, it probably won't be the high-value products but nonetheless there are ample opportunities there," he said, particularly for forequarter meat. Markets such as Belgium, Germany and Sweden now account for 29pc of Irish sheepmeat exports, reducing the reliance on the UK and France. However, Mr Smyth acknowledged that there was some negativity in the marketplace, with a 14pc decrease in the export tonnage going to the UK, and a 15pc fall-off in France. He said the level of nationalistic sentiment and labelling laws in France was a worry. "In years past when the labelling laws weren't quite as stringent they would have been procuring lambs from the UK and Ireland. "Now it tends to be French plus one other, and it has tended to be the UK. Whether that changes in the weeks and months ahead, we'll have to see," he said, adding that sheepmeat consumption in France has declined by 5-6pc every year over the last five years. He pointed out that the market in Germany has been strong, including for organic produce. Switzerland is also a purchaser of the light hill carcass lambs. "It is an expensive protein and in many ways it is a niche product, a treat really and is perceived as quite expensive," he cautioned. Overall prices were up substantially last year at around 5.04/kg, a 27c/kg increase on 2017. Hogget prices reached a five-year high of 5.58/kg in 2018. "We have and will endeavour to get a good price for these store feeders and get them back into the marketplace for good quality store feeders," continued Mr Smyth. He said February was proving a difficult month for the trade, but from mid-March slaughtering would begin for Easter, followed by Ramadan a fortnight later. The ideal market lamb for a Grade A was 18-20kg, with a fat score at a decent level. However, Mr Smyth stressed that the plain lamb was at the opposite end of the scale and there is "no profit" for anyone in marketing at this fat score. "The closer we can get to 20kg the better - it is more flexible, more marketable and more profitable," he added. Farmers need to deliver consistency in terms of the size of cuts and taste. "The quality of the lighter lambs coming through the system are much better," he said. "We would say spare a thought for the fat score and market the lambs in an orderly fashion. "We are gone from a situation where we used to debone 25pc, now it is 75-80pc. "In the future we will even go as far as 90pc further processed. Mr Smyth added that this was good for employment and the whole carcass market was now a "thing of the past". 'Farmers are excited about delivering a high- quality product direct to the marketplace' Marketing lambs under specific brands designed to appeal to consumers can yield benefits for hill sheep farmers. Brendan Joyce, vice president of the INHFA, who farms on the hills around Maam Cross in Connemara, is part of a producer group that has seen farmers come together to market their lamb under the Atlantic Hill Lamb brand. "We came together to see what could be done for it," he told the Teagasc Hill Sheep farming conference. It was out of those discussions with Kepak and Bord Bia that the Atlantic Hill Lamb brand was born. Ram lambs that were previously sold as stores off the hills are now delivered to Kepak. "It involves having those lambs with a carcase weight of 10kg-15kg with a minimum fat score and carcase confirmation of O2 or better," said Mr Joyce. The lambs have required some supplemental feeding, based on research from Teagasc, to reach these specifications. "This market is in its early stages yet, but is certainly showing promise and farmers are enthusiastic at delivering a high-quality product to the marketplace," he said. "Hopefully we can continue it and sell the story, as hill lamb has a great story to tell." Since last July over 16,000 lambs have been marketed directly to the factory through the Atlantic Hill Lamb producer group. Mr Joyce said hill farmers are among the most productive in the country. "I hope I'll pass on the knowledge to the next generation and hopefully there is a livelihood in it for them," he said. He stressed that one of their greatest challenges was the alignment of policies between what the National Parks and Wildlife Service see as good environmental practice and what the Department of Agriculture view as good agricultural practice. Often it can mean a place is considered to be in a "good agricultural state", but the environmental side might not agree. "They (the authorities) need to be able to give clear information to farmers. We have to leverage what we have in some of the finest pristine environments in Europe," Mr Joyce added. Ireland's oldest McDonald's has just got a very modern revamp. Owner Amir Afsar has had 16 digital ordering screens installed on the restaurant floor in Grafton Street, Dublin, where customers can punch in their order and have it delivered to their table. You can still order your food the traditional way if you want, but the space available to do so is reduced. The idea that automation might be coming for our jobs is well ventilated at this stage, but Mr Afsar says the screens have actually resulted in staff levels going up across his network. One of 22 McDonald's franchisees in Ireland, he owns 11 restaurants spanning Dublin city centre, south Dublin, and Arklow in Co Wicklow, and has already introduced the screens (or kiosks as McDonald's calls them) elsewhere. "With the introduction of kiosks my average restaurant's staff numbers have gone up by 20pc... I may need less people serving the customers, but now I have table service so I may need more people delivering food to our customers." More people may also be needed in the kitchens, as the new format allows more people to place orders at the one time. Home delivery has started as well - in partnership with the Uber Eats food delivery service. That's been exceptionally successful at attracting people who aren't coming to restaurants - 'incrementality' to use the business speak. "Our incrementality is exceptionally high. A lot of the customers we're getting for delivery are not customers that were visiting ... as we expand the number of restaurants doing it that incrementality will drop but it's exceptionally high," Mr Afsar said. The 55-year-old is something of a McDonald's lifer. At university in the UK, a friend who was working part-time in McDonald's encouraged Mr Afsar to do likewise. "I wasn't the most outspoken person in the world but I think one of the things McDonald's does is it forces you to come out of your shell. Because you're suddenly forced to go on the till, and talk to customers you have never met ... it really helps boost your self-confidence." He wanted to be a doctor but couldn't afford the fees, and so he decided to start working full-time at McDonald's because he was enjoying what he was doing so much. After moving quickly through the ranks, taking on various managerial roles, he came to Ireland 22 years ago on a secondment. His job was field services manager for the island - essentially helping franchisees open new restaurants here. Taking on a franchise for himself was a natural progression, and he started out with the restaurant at the Nutgrove Shopping Centre in Rathfarnham, south Dublin, the first restaurant in Europe to have a drive-thru. More than 1,000 people are employed across his restaurants, an indication of the scale McDonald's franchises can achieve. Though recruiting labour is challenging with the economy close to full employment, Mr Afsar has been helped by a societal attitude change towards working at McDonald's. "The misconception that people have about McDonald's - we don't have that any more. A lot of our employees introduce their friends. "It can turn into a career with us which has its own rewards. But there's a lot of transferable skills that you kind of learn in McDonald's... initiative, team building, decision making, these are the things to be honest that a lot of employees are learning, without even realising that they're being taught those things. "I have a lot of managers who are 18 or 19 years old, who have responsibility sometimes on a shift for 30 or 40 people... and everybody goes through that development." Any staff member who wants to emulate Mr Afsar and own their own franchise will face a challenging task, however. McDonald's, he says, is "very selective" in whom it awards franchises too. Prospective franchisees have to apply and make it past an interview process. Then they have to spend 12 days working in a restaurant for a preliminary evaluation. If they make it past that phase, they have to do a further nine months of unpaid restaurant work, taking on a wide variety of roles. It is only on passing this stage that someone gets the chance to own their own restaurant. Taking on that challenge looks more difficult now with Brexit looming. Mr Afsar's business sources much of its inputs here - beef, cheese, milk - but the all-important fries come from McCain in the UK. That means Brexit could potentially disrupt their supply. Mr Afsar says, however, that contingency plans are being put in place. The plans are being worked on by McDonald's itself, which won't reveal the details, saying these are commercially sensitive. McDonald's UK and Ireland told the Irish Independent it has "developed a robust contingency plan, taking into account all scenarios to look to ensure that there is minimal disruption to our supply chain following Brexit". "We continue to work closely with our supply chain partners to prepare accordingly," the company said. Mr Afsar said he is "100pc confident" that fries will stay on the menu. It's probably critical to his business they do so. Plans to end the veto of EU member states on tax changes could leave just five countries in control of taxation policy for Europe, a Department of Finance briefing warned. The EU Commission had in January suggested moving to a system of "qualified majority voting" for tax, a move which is vigorously opposed by Ireland. In an internal briefing prepared for Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe and his department, officials warned that five member states - Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK - would be able to create a majority voting bloc on the basis of population. The document explained: "Should the UK leave the EU, it will still be possible for as few as five member states to achieve a qualified majority." The briefing warned that any moves towards this type of voting "represents a threat" to Ireland's ability to set its own tax and said that "Ireland's voice would be diminished" in negotiating future tax deals. However, the briefing said that the proposals to end the tax veto were unlikely to find support, and that it would not just be Ireland opposing them. The briefing explained: "Many member states are expected to have serious concerns about the Commission's proposals in this area. As unanimity is required to make any changes, it is difficult to see any agreement being reached." The document also described how the EU Commission believed recent changes to rules on how multinationals and large companies pay tax were only achieved "due to public pressure" and had little to do with "an actual desire" for change from member states. It said the Commission also believed that countries in the EU - including Ireland - were using tax policy to play "off against each other". Internal emails also show how the department believed Ireland was likely to be seen as the ringleader in opposing any tax changes. One senior official wrote: "Ireland would not be supportive of ... [the] move and may potentially be singled out as the leader of the opposition. "In reality, I expect the majority of member states would also oppose the proposed change." Permanent TSB has insisted its tracker probe is complete despite claims there are thousands more cases yet to be resolved. The bank has restored fewer than 2,000 customers to trackers, refunded them overpaid interest and compensated them. But a leading authority on tracker denial cases claims there are another 2,500 cases that the bank is refusing to concede on, or where people got redress but were put on the wrong tracker margin. Trackers are priced at a set margin over the European Central Bank (ECB) rate, usually around 1pc above the rate. Financial adviser Padraic Kissane said the disputed cases will now be resolved by either the Financial Services Ombudsman or in the courts. He is fighting with the bank over an estimated 1,500 cases where the mortgage holders should be on a different tracker rate. These people started off on a tracker rate of ECB plus 0.75pc. When the discount period ended they were put on a rate of between 2pc and 2.25pc over the ECB rate. Mr Kissane contends that they should be on a rate of 1pc over the ECB rate. Another 1,000 customers of Permanent TSB did get redress, but Mr Kissane insists they are on the wrong tracker rate. They are being charged a margin of 3.25pc over the ECB rate. But Permanent TSB CEO Jeremy Masding has denied that there are any more tracker cases to be dealt with by the bank. "A total of 1,983 cases have been resolved and there are no additional numbers," he said. The bank boss said the lender was subject to Central Bank oversight as part of its tracker mortgage examination. He admitted the bank would now be fined for its role in the tracker scandal. Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said the airline does not plan to take any immediate action following the Ethopian Airlines crash, as the Irish carrier prepares to take a delivery of similar jets, beginning from next month. "We wouldn't take any action at the moment," he told the Irish Independent in an exclusive interview at Dublin Airport. Expand Close Devoted: Michael Ryan, originally from Lahinch, Co Clare, was killed in the crash / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Devoted: Michael Ryan, originally from Lahinch, Co Clare, was killed in the crash He said Ryanair will take the delivery of one of the new 737 Max jets from Boeing next month, two in May and two in June. "We need to wait and see what the outcome of the investigation will be," said Mr O'Leary. "They've recovered the black box this morning I understand, so we'll wait and see what Boeing and the safety agencies [say]." He said he's "not particularly" concerned. Expand Close Rescuers at the scene of the crash near Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, south of Addis Ababa (Mulugeta Ayene/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Rescuers at the scene of the crash near Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, south of Addis Ababa (Mulugeta Ayene/AP) "We're into the realms of speculation," he said. "There's a reasonable understanding of what the issue was with the Lion Air. I think Boeing and the FAA are looking at some software modifications, which I understand may or may not have been made. Again, the problem with this is you're into the realm of speculation and we're not speculating." He said he is expects an outcome to the Ethiopian Airways crash before Ryanair takes delivery of its first new aircraft. "There will be some detailed feedback or at least an understanding of the causes in the next days or week or two." He added: "Our first delivery is at the end of April. Like all other airlines around the world we will follow whatever guidance comes out from Boeing and EASA on the European side." Earlier today, all Chinese airlines were ordered to temporarily ground their Boeing Max 8 planes by the countrys aviation watchdog, while a Caribbean operator suspended operations with both of its new planes. Norwegian Air also said it is "in close dialogue with Boeing and follow both their and the aviation authorities instructions and recommendations." Norwegian, which operates flights from Ireland to the United States, received its first delivery of the 737 MAX 8 in June 2017. In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was closely monitoring developments following the incident, which comes months after a crash involving the same kind of plane that left 189 people dead. The European Aviation Safety Agency, which currently issues directives for the UKs Civil Aviation Authority, is yet to comment. Ethiopian Airlines also grounded its remaining Max 8 aircraft, although the cause of the crash was yet to be determined. Its chief executive, Tewolde Gebremariam, said the operator was one of the safest in the world, adding: At this stage we cannot rule out anything. Expand Close Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde GebreMariam / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde GebreMariam Ethiopian Airlines said it had contacted the families of all victims, who came from 35 nations. Expand Close Joanna Toole from Devon, UK, who was killed on the Ethiopian Airlines flight / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Joanna Toole from Devon, UK, who was killed on the Ethiopian Airlines flight Irishman Michael Ryan (39) from Co Clare, was named among the 157 people killed when Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 crashed six minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa on Sunday morning. Read More The married father-of-two was based in Rome with the UNs World Food Programme, which distributes rations to people in need. Known as Mick and formerly from Lahinch in Co Clare, Mr Ryan was celebrated for doing life-changing work in Africa by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. The UK Foreign Office confirmed that at least seven Britons were on board the Nairobi-bound aircraft, which crashed in Ethiopia at about 8.45am local time killing all on board. As many as 19 UN workers were feared to have been killed in the crash, the number being so high because of its environmental forum due to start on Monday. Manuel Barange, a UN director, said he was profoundly sad and lost for words over her death, saying she had been travelling to Nairobi to represent the organisation at the UN Environment Assembly. Many of the passengers were from Kenya, but others were said to be from Italy, France, the US, Canada, Ethiopia, Egypt, Germany, Slovakia, India and China. Ethiopian Airlines is one of the pioneers of African aviation and the continent's biggest airline. Owned by the Ethiopian state, it was founded in 1945 and has expanded widely, with a route network stretching right around the globe. That includes a presence in Dublin, from where the airline offers flights to a number of African cities, including Johannesburg, Lagos and Nairobi. Recently it cancelled a service from Dublin to Los Angeles. It has had a number of crashes before. In 2010, a flight caught fire shortly after take-off from Beirut, killing all 90 people on board. In 1988, 31 people were killed in another crash shortly after take-off from Bahar Dar in Ethiopia, when the aircraft hit a flock of birds. A terrorist hijacking in 1996 also resulted in the loss of another aircraft, with more than 100 people killed. In financial terms, the company reported revenues of $2.71bn (2.41bn) and profits of $233m (208m) in its most recently published annual report. It carried almost nine million passengers and 318,000 tonnes of cargo, the report said. "We see incredible opportunities for growth with the continued economic development of Africa and the need for increased air connectivity," group chief executive Tewolde GebreMeriam said. The Ethiopian government last year approved a plan to sell part of its stake in the carrier. Mr GebreMeriam backed the plan, and raised the possibility of selling shares to other African countries. Hozier has debuted at the number one spot on the top 200 Billboard chart in the US, making him one of the few Irish artists to achieve such immediate success for a second album. His sophomore album WASTELAND, BABY! surpassed his critically acclaimed debut album which launched at number two in the US charts. The 28-year-old, from Bray, Co Wicklow, thanked his team for helping him with the achievement, writing on Twitter: "Can't quite put it into words. Thank you, so so much to the fans for this #1. This is handmade, homemade music and your support of that is everything. Thank you to my incredible team @ColumbiaRecords, @Rubyworks. Thank you to @CarolineAtMCD and Denis Desmond! #wastelandbaby." The 14-track LP has been positively reviewed across the board and his American achievement complements his number one status in Ireland. He began his tour in Buffalo, New York, on Sunday night and will travel across Nashville, Austin, Los Angeles and Washington for a series of sold-out concerts before wrapping in April. He will also perform at a number of festival dates in the US and will tour Ireland and the UK this summer, including five shows at the London Palladium, Independent Park, Cork on 25th June 2019 and Belsonic Festival, Belfast on 27th June 2019. 'Game Of Thrones' is not about nudity, actress Emilia Clarke has insisted. The blockbuster drama has sparked headlines over violence and nudity and a scene involving Kit Harington's bottom was billed by some fans as an "epic" moment. "Kit's ass, someone else's ass, my ass, it doesn't matter! It's not what the show is about, it's not what any bit of acting is about," Clarke said. And she said: "As for my character, I can count on one hand the amount of times I've been naked." But she added of the drama's portrayal of women: "I can talk about the importance of women in this show until the cows come home. It has gone a way to changing the landscape of the industry as we see it, which is really vital and really important." Co-star Gemma Whelan said: "I think when people sit down to write a female character now - it won't get made if they write an unrealistic woman. "That's the important thing 'Thrones' will provide for people going forward - writing other female characters." Co-star Gwendoline Christie said her character, Brienne, "was defying gender norms and the female perceptions that we have" on TV so far. The final series of 'Game Of Thrones' will air on April 15 starting at 2am and 9pm on Sky Atlantic. 17-year-old Jodie Chesney, who was stabbed to death in Harold Hill, east London Metropolitan Police/PA Wire A 15-year-old boy has been charged with the murder of Jodie Chesney in east London, the Metropolitan Police said. The teenager, who cannot be named due to his age, will appear at Barkingside Magistrates' Court today. A second teenager, an 18-year-old man from Romford, is being held in police custody on suspicion of the 17-year-old's murder, the force said. He was one of four people arrested on Sunday as part of the probe into the teen's death. Expand Close People visit the area near to where 17-year-old Jodie Chesney was killed, at the Saint Neots Play Park in Harold Hill, east London, Britain March 3, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp People visit the area near to where 17-year-old Jodie Chesney was killed, at the Saint Neots Play Park in Harold Hill, east London, Britain March 3, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls A 50-year-old man and 38-year-old woman, both from Dagenham, east London, and a 17-year-old boy, were held on suspicion of assisting an offender. Jodie's death sparked a national outcry over knife crime and detectives are continuing to investigate the stabbing on March 1. The teen was playing music with friends near a children's playground at Harold Hill, Romford, when she was knifed from behind in a seemingly motiveless attack. She was pronounced dead just over an hour after officers were called at about 9.25pm. A post-mortem examination gave the cause of the Girl Scout's death as trauma and haemorrhage. A 20-year-old man, Manuel Petrovic of Highfield Road, Romford, was later arrested and charged with her murder. He is due to appear at the Old Bailey on Monday. The Met has asked anyone with information about Jodie's death to call Homicide and Major Crime Command's Incident Room on 020 8345 3775. They can also tweet @MetCC or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. A Ural Airlines passenger plane carrying 225 people bound for Moscow made an emergency landing in Baku after the cabin crew thought there might be a bomb on board the plane, RIA news agency cited Baku's airport as saying. The plane was flying to the Russian capital from Bahrain, the airport's press service was quoted as saying. Flight U6-1116 was en route to Moscow's Domodedovo airport when the crew "received information about possible restricted items" on board, a spokeswoman for Ural Airlines said. The crew of the Airbus A-321 plane requested an emergency landing at the nearest airport to have checks carried out and it landed in Baku, she said. A source at the airport told Reuters nothing suspicious had been found on the plane and that a passenger had been detained. A shop assistant, who celebrates her 28th birthday tomorrow, has been awarded more than 24,000 damages against her employer after tripping over the open flap of a clothes box in a store. Aisling Smith, of Woodlawn Way, Santry, Dublin 17 was told by Circuit Court President, Mr Justice Raymond Groarke that she had not been keeping a proper look-out for herself in the Vera Moda store and reduced her award to just over 19,000 on the grounds of contributory negligence. Barrister John Nolan, who appeared with Kent Carty Solicitors, told the court Ms Smith had injured her shoulders and back in the fall in November 2015. It was Ms Smiths case that the storeroom at the Vera Moda shop in the Pavilion Shopping Centre, Swords, had been cluttered with boxes. Ms Smith said she had been transferring stock from a store room when her knee snagged on the flap of a box, causing her to fall heavily. She had suffered injuries to her neck and both shoulders and her back and had a soft tissue injury to her wrist after having attempted to break her fall with her hands. Judge Groarke awarded Ms Smith a total of 22,500 damages but reduced the figure to 19,125 due to what he said was contributory negligence on her part. He said she had been working in the store for some time and had an obligation to keep a proper look-out. She had not done so and should have been more careful for her own safety. He said that evidence by forensic engineer Barry Tennyson, who had carried out an inspection of the stock room, would suggest to him that some considerable care had been taken by the defendant to tidy up the store in anticipation of a joint engineering inspection. Judge Groarke said the stock room had been kept in a rather haphazard condition. Smith told the court one of the stock boxes had been pulled out from a position against the stock room wall and left with one of its flaps lying open. An award of 2,000 for loss of earnings was included in her damages award. RESTAURATEUR Ronan Ryan says he and his wife Pamela Flood have received "threats and hate mail" after it was agreed they can walk away without paying any of the 1.2 million debt owed against their north Dublin home. Mr Ryan and the former Miss Ireland star were told that they will also not have to pay the legal costs bill incurred by two banks while trying to re-possess their family home at 136 Mount Prospect Avenue, in leafy Clontarf, Dublin 3. Speaking to Independent.ie, Mr Ryan said the story "looks horrific" when you only have one side of it. "It's just one side [you hear in court], it looks horrific... it looks like we sat in a house for nine years looking for a free place to live, but we were paying interest all along until we were told not to," he said. Expand Close Restaurateur Ronan Ryan and former TV presenter Pamela Flood married in 2014. Photo: David Conachy / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Restaurateur Ronan Ryan and former TV presenter Pamela Flood married in 2014. Photo: David Conachy "We've got the threats and the hate mail and the hate messages and the Twitter pile ons, but both sides of the story weren't told. I wasn't allowed speak, I wasn't in the court, but look it is what it is." Mr Ryan said the "real story is how a vulture fund buys a loan at a discount and sells it for three times the amount". He said they tried to sell the house on three previous occasions but "the offers weren't high enough". "Different people have had the loan over a different period of time. We would have been gone in 2011, 2013 and 2016 only for they wanted the asset to appreciate, which it has massively. Now they walk off into the sunset with the money. I have no animosity towards them but this is the fourth time we've tried to sell the house. "We had to pack our bags and take my pregnant wife out of the house every Saturday so people could view it the first time around but they weren't happy and wanted the asset to appreciate and we were told to remain in the house." Read More The couple gave the American-owned Tanager bank an undertaking they and their children will have vacated the property by July 9 next. "We're looking around elsewhere. As soon as we have something else, we'll be out," he said. The businessman was critical of how they didn't get to give their version of events in the Circuit Civil Court. When asked to give his side today, he said: "That's a bit like knocking someone down and saying afterwards I could have blown the horn." The court heard on Friday how the couple had been living in their family home rent free for the past nine years. Ms Flood and Mr Ryan, who had taken out a 1.1 million mortgage with Bank of Scotland just before Christmas 2006, had consented to the court granting Tanager an order for possession against them. The bank said it would undertake to limit the couples indebtedness to whatever it could recover from the sale of the property -- no legal costs, no repayment of 374,000 arrears they had built up since 2010 and no liability for the 1.25 million outstanding on the mortgage. The court heard how the bank had agreed to a stay on the execution of the order for four months on condition the couple delivered up vacant possession of the house, worth up to 800,000, along with all keys, fobs, electronic access devices and alarm codes and an undertaking to co-operate with an auctioneer to show off the property. Mr Ryan said when they first tried to sell the house, it was worth "around 500,000." The couple now have up to four months to find alternative accommodation for themselves and their four children. The court heard earlier that Ryan (48) had not paid anything off his 1.1 million mortgage since August 2010. His 47-year-old wife had not been named on the 2006 mortgage documents with Bank of Scotland but had been joined as a Notice Party to the proceedings following her marriage to Ryan in 2014. Tanager, described as an American-owned vulture fund, has a registered office at Clanwilliam Square, Grand Canal Quay, Dublin. It snapped up more than 2,000 distressed Irish home loans almost 10 years ago at heavily discounted rates from Bank of Scotland. More than 90 per cent of those loans were two years or more in arrears. Ryan used to own three restaurants which were hit by the financial recession of 2008. Flood, a former host of Off the Rails television series and several RTE shows, was to have presented a TV3 documentary series about older mothers but this was shelved after Virgin Media took over the station. The former model and now mother of four won the Miss Ireland pageant 26 years ago. She has stated in the past that despite her own career difficulties and those of her husband their marriage was rock solid. Under the agreement the couple, after a period of two weeks following todays court case, will facilitate house sales representatives access to their home for the purpose of photographing and assessing the property for inclusion in sales brochures. One of Irelands most notorious gangland criminals is in garda custody after a number of shots were fired in the Ballymun area this evening. The terrifying shooting incident happened at around 4.45pm in the Poppintree area of the north Dublin suburb. The incident happened near shops and a huge armed garda response took place leading to the arrest. It began when a member of the public saw him with a firearm. The arrested man is aged in his mid 30s and previously survived an assassination attempt in which two innocent people were killed. He is being held in Ballymun Garda Station. A gun was seized at a house on Cranogue Road and the area around the property is sealed off after the discovery of a device, the Defence Forces' Explosive Ordnance Disposal team are at the scene. Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said: "The Gardai involved showed great bravery in ensuring the safety of the public." Gardai are appealing to any witnesses who may have been in or around the area at the time of the incident to contact Ballymun Garda Station on 01 6664400, The Garda Confidential Telephone Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station. Hundreds marched in Dublin city centre yesterday to highlight the housing crisis. The demonstration called for government action as the official number of homeless in Ireland breaks the 10,000 mark and more than 80,000 people sit on waiting lists for social housing. A banner called on the Irish public to take part in a larger demonstration in Dublin on May 12. Anthony Flynn, CEO of Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH), said the Government was failing the most vulnerable: those forced to live on the streets. "We are seeing numbers of child homelessness go up month on month; we're not seeing any reduction in numbers. What we are seeing is a constant air of denial and spin from the Government in terms of actually tackling this crisis," he said. Mr Flynn said that the method of dealing with the problem was "totally unacceptable". He suggested that a rent cap similar to that of Berlin, which prohibits landlords from increasing rent by more than 10pc of the area's average, should be implemented. "Over 450m is going to be paid in 2019 to private landlords in order to subsidise housing assistance payment and that is just totally unacceptable," he said. "That money should be put into affordable housing. The 80,000 people are sitting on housing waiting lists and transfer lists and there doesn't seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel. "The Government are talking about acquisition and build programmes but unfortunately what we have is a voluntary housing body sector that is in 1.9bn worth of debt. We have a serious, serious problem and an over-reliance on the private sector in order to solve that problem." The march will be followed by another in Cork tomorrow night and at the weekend in Galway which will seek to raise awareness for the major demonstration that will take place on May 12. Mr Flynn said he was confident that the public would stay behind the movement. Devoted: Michael Ryan, originally from Lahinch, Co Clare, was killed in the crash THE mother of an Irish aid worker who died on an Ethiopian Airlines plane which crashed just minutes after takeoff has spoken of her heartbreak at the tragedy. Christine Ryan, a retired Clare schoolteacher, said her son, Mick (39), wanted to "save the world" through his work with the UN. Tragically, her son was due to travel to Rome at the end of the month to mark his 40th birthday - and to celebrate the christening of his young son. Mick was one of 157 people who were killed on board. This morning air crash investigators have recovered the black box of the Ethiopian Airlines flight. Mrs Ryan paid an emotional tribute to her son and said they were totally devastated by what happened. "He loved Lahinch, he loved Clare - he loved his work and he absolutely loved his family," she told RTE's Morning Ireland. "He was a visionary - he wanted to make a difference in the world. He would light up a room when he came into it." Her son was due to relocate to Rome with his wife, Naoise, and his two young children. "I knew he was going on a flight to Nairobi. I didn't know he was on the flight that crashed until his wife, Naoise, contacted me," she said. "I was hoping he wasn't on that flight. "He was an amazing person - we cannot come to terms with this. We are devastated - no one can believe this has happened. "He was a very enthusiastic person, he had great vision he believed with his engineering in putting people first. "He said he felt he made a difference. He had a marvellous vision - he got there and he just did it." She admitted his family were always concerned when he travelled, particularly to parts of the world that were dangerous or risky. "We would always be concerned. I was talking to Naoise and we were always concerned. "But he loved his job and he loved his work. He was supported by his family and his wife at all times - it was his life. You couldn't take that away from him. "It is unreal - we are finding it very unreal to come to grips with it. "He did a lot of work with Ebola and with landslides and flood relief - he always looked forward to doing his best for people. He basically wanted to save the world. "He just wanted to make a difference in the world. He was so enthusiastic about it. "Next week we were supposed to go to Rome for him, for his 40th birthday, on March 28. His son was going to be christened in Rome as well. We have our flights booked to go next week - he would have been back from Nairobi. We were all going out to celebrate his birthday." Developmental aid worker with the United Nations (UN) Michael 'Mick' Ryan was the only Irish citizen on board the four-month old aircraft which crashed yesterday morning en route between Ethiopia and Kenya resulting in the death of all 157 passengers and crew. Mr Ryan, a native of Lahinch, Co Clare and a father of two young children, had been working as an engineer with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) over recent years. The Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft crashed just six minutes after it took off from Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. It has now emerged the pilot reported difficulties with the aircraft, which is just four months old, and had been granted permission to return to Addis Ababa. This morning Evan Cullen, president of the Irish Pilots Association said it was "extraordinary" that a captain with a lot of experience would not have been able to correct the problem. "He was a very experienced captain with more than 8,000 flying hours. It was very likely that he flew a lot of Boeing planes," he said on RTE. Seconds later, the aircraft vanished from radar and exploded in a fireball on impact with open scrubland some 60km outside the Ethiopian capital. The death toll included citizens from at least 33 countries. Kenya suffered the greatest death toll. Mr Ryan was the only Irish national on board with US, UK, French, Chinese, Canadian, Italian, Dutch and Indian nationals also amongst the death toll. Locals in Lahinch and Ennistymon, where the Ryan family hail from, were last night heartbroken at the news of the tragedy. Outside the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Lahinch, one woman said it was "absolutely shocking." "I heard it this afternoon but I was praying it wasn't true and that there had been some mistake. They are a very well known and respected family here - I think his grandmother once ran a shop on the Main Street here," said the woman who asked to be unnamed. Another man said he spotted the engineer around Clare at Christmas. Prayers were offered at all Masses in Lahinch, Ennistymon and Milltown Malbay for the devastated family. Clare County Council has opened Books of Condolence for Mr Ryan at Aras Contae an Chlair in Ennis and at the West Clare Municipal District Office in Ennistymon. Cllr Michael Begley, Mayor of Cork, offered his condolences to Mr Ryan's loved ones. He said: "On behalf of Clare County Council and the people of Clare, I wish to extend my deepest sympathies and condolences to Michaels family and his wide circle of friends and former colleagues. "Michael was a valued member of the UN community for his work in humanitarian assistance for the World Food Programme. His work brought him all over the world and has benefited countless numbers of people down through the years. "His loss to the local community in North Clare and to the United Nations is immeasurable. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam." Mr Ryan's immediately family were last night making plans to fly to Ethiopia to assist with the identification and repatriation of his remains. Mr Ryan was described in both Lahinch and Ennistymon, where he boasted many friends, as "a wonderful, compassionate man who lived for his job of helping others." He is the son of Christine and the late Jack Ryan. His mother is a retired teacher who was based at Scoil Mhuire in Ennistymon. His late father, Jack, who died in 2013, was a respected accountant in Clare. Mr Ryan is survived by his siblings, Cristin, Siobhan and Tiernan. In a special message, the Lahinch Parish last night extended the sympathies of the entire community to the Ryan family. "We pray for all who have died so unexpectedly in this tragedy, their families, colleagues and friends." "We pray for all working at the accident site at this present moment." "We hope that God will bless everyone in this tragedy for so many people." Mr Ryan was one of Ireland's most respected developmental aid workers. He had worked on various UN programmes across the world including high profile projects in both Africa and Asia. He was especially proud of a project he had worked on for the UN in Bangladesh. It is understood he was flying to a development project in Africa when the tragedy occurred. He was an engineering graduate of the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG). Mr Ryan, an engineer, had been living in Cork city centre by Pope's Quay over recent years though he was due to relocate to Rome within a few weeks. He was a keen environmental campaigner and, using his engineering skills, had been closely following the controversial flood defence programme proposed for Cork. Mr Ryan had outlined his own proposals for the scheme and was a keen supporter of the Save Cork City campaign which aimed to avoid the use of high quay walls throughout the city centre. The Clare official had also closely monitored the success of the Mallow flood defence scheme on the River Blackwater. He had further put his engineering skills and knowledge to use through various heritage conservation programmes around Cork including as the Fota House Project. The UN World Food Programme confirmed they are liaising with the Ryan family over the tragedy. The Department of Foreign Affairs said it was doing everything possible to assist the family involved. The chief executive of Ethiopian Airlines Tewolde Gebremariam visited the crash site some 60km from the capital and extended his sympathies to all the families involved. Mr Gerbremariam confirmed that the pilot had reported difficulties and asked to turn back due to "no known technical problems". The airline boss said the pilot involved had an excellent safety record. One report from Ethiopia has indicated the brand new plane had an unstable vertical speed in the minutes before the tragedy. It is the second fatal accident involving the brand new Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet in the past six months. A Lion Air plane crashed shortly after takeoff in Indonesia on October 29 2018 resulting in the death of all 189 passengers and crew. The US aircraft giant said it has offered to send a technical team to Ethiopia to assist with the investigation into the tragedy. The hidden struggle of thousands of people with brain conditions who are suffering pain and financial hardship due to a lack of health services is revealed in a stark new survey today. The survey of people with conditions such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, migraine, epilepsy and acquired brain injury as well as rare illnesses, found one third are waiting a year to see a specialist to get a diagnosis. Many face long delays for counselling, physiotherapy, nurse specialists, home adaptation and home care support, according to the report from the Neurological Alliance of Ireland. Half of patients said they pay GPs fees themselves, while a third have had to pay for an MRI scan. The publication of the report marks the start of National Brain Awareness Week, which aims to highlight the plight of 800,000 Irish people with neurological conditions. The report describes a "cascade of challenges", including dealing with the impact of their condition on work, financial wellbeing and family relationships. Up to 20pc are unable to access physiotherapy, counselling and psychology services, with a significant number digging into their own limited income to support their care. Comparing the findings to previous research carried out in 2011 and 2014, the alliance said the number of patients reporting they cannot access physiotherapy has doubled from 9pc in 2011 to 18pc in 2018. For thousands of individuals and their families, a life-changing diagnosis is also the start of a long struggle to get care that is taken for granted in every other developed country. We've seen no commitment from this Government to invest properly in neurology and neurorehabilitation services. Mags Rogers - Executive Director Neurological Alliance of Ireland The survey showed: :: Half pay GP fees entirely out their own pocket and more than one-in-three has paid for an MRI scan. Others are paying to see a neurologist, physiotherapist or for medications; :: One-in-five is experiencing significant difficulties in the workplace because of their condition and 19pc have not disclosed their condition to their boss. Three quarters of those who are not working have had to give up their job due to their illness; :: The most frequently reported problems are pain, financial hardship, social isolation, difficulties in personal relationships and a lack of understanding about their condition; :: One third of carers are looking after people with brain conditions for more than 10 hours a day. The alliance said dedicated investment is needed to improve services. An ex-gratia scheme for women and families caught up in the CervicalCheck controversy is expected to be in place in a matter of weeks. The scheme is aimed at providing compensation to women and families of the deceased for non-disclosure of audit reports on their smear test results. The Cabinet signed off on details of the scheme today. It is unclear how much the individual payment will be. Health Minister Simon Harris said it would be assessed by an expert panel and would take into account the fact of and impact of the non-disclosure. Women will be invited to participate by the HSE liaison officers. This is separate to a tribunal which will hear claims for compensation for alleged negligence in the reading of smear tests. Legislation is needed to put this in place. Mr Justice Aindrias O'Caoimh has been appointed to chair the independent assessment panel in the ex-gratia scheme. The payment will be for the non-disclosure of the results of an audit carried out on the smear tests of women who developed cancer. The individual audits for 221 women, some of whom have since died, were issued to doctors in 2016 by CervicalCheck. They showed the test results given to the women were wrong although it is unclear how many were negligently read. Most of the women were not given the audit results until last summer after the Vicky Phelan High Court case revealed their existence. The delay in giving the women the audit results breached the HSEs policy of open disclosure. Mr Justice O'Caoimh, who was appointed by Health Minister Simon Harris is a former Judge of the High Court, and of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The ex-gratia scheme is "designed to provide an alternative, non-adversarial and person centred option for women affected by the CervicalCheck non-disclosure issue," said the minister. Uptake by teenage girls of the HPV vaccine, which helps protect against cervical cancer, has risen to 70pc, it emerged today. The uptake is continuing to recover after falling to 51pc two years ago due to unfounded fears about its safety. It is still not back to the 81pc uptake which it had reached in the years after the vaccine was first introduced in 2010. It means that one in three girls who could benefit are not getting the jab. The latest figures come as the HSE vaccination teams return to second level schools across the country to administer the second dose of the vaccine to first year girls. Dr Lucy Jessop, Head of the HSE National Immunisation Office said it was extremely encouraging and important that Ireland had achieved such a marked increase in such a relatively short period of time. Dr Jessop today also paid tribute to Laura Brennan, HPV vaccine patient advocate. The young woman has cervical cancer and has been prominent in urging greater take-up. Laura is an incredible young woman whose intelligence, determination and fearless advocacy over the past 18 months have undoubtedly influenced parents in making the important decision to vaccinate and protect their daughters. Ms Brennan commented: Im thrilled that people are listening listening to the reality of what life with cervical cancer is really like and finding out for themselves that this vaccine is safe and effective and along with cervical screening, its the best tool that we have to help us move towards eradicating cervical cancer. Health Minister Simon Harris TD today added: "Laura's bravery and advocacy has continued to inspire women across the country. Despite significant challenges including the spread of dangerous anti-vaccination myths, these figures show women are continuing to get vaccinated. "As Laura has strongly articulated, vaccination saves lives. I want to commend the HSE, Laura and other strong voices for continuing to show such exemplary leadership." The advice to parents is to speak directly with the school vaccination teams, their local GPs and their local pharmacists if they have any questions. Striking nurses from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation protest outside Naas General Hospital in Co Kildare (Niall Carson/PA) A row over a new contract for nurses that was offered to halt crippling strikes has been referred to the Labour Court. Talks between government officials and unions on the contract broke down in the early hours today. The contract that includes a higher pay scale was offered as part of a 35m deal in return for more productivity and flexibility in nurses work practices. Following a meeting of its executive council, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said the court will examine disputed clauses of the new draft contract. It said that it has been deadlocked in talks with employers and drafts of the contract were onerous and unreasonable. Balloting on the contract had been due to start today but the council has postponed the vote for two weeks. INM General Secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said the union is deeply disappointed with the governments attempt to stretch the limits set by the Labour Court in these contract talks. Government insistence on unreasonable contract terms would put nurses and midwives in some of the most insecure jobs in Ireland, allowing unilateral changes to work locations and hours, she said. We will not allow this. She claimed the contract proposals would worsen recruitment and retention problems. We believe that the governments proposed contract goes far beyond the Labour Court recommendation and will be making this case firmly to the court on behalf of our members, she said. Our constant focus is to improve conditions for our members and deliver safe patient care. We will continue to exhaust all avenues to achieve this aim. Devoted: Michael Ryan, originally from Lahinch, Co Clare, was killed in the crash The Irish aid worker who died on an Ethiopian Airlines plane which crashed just minutes after take-off has been hailed as a compassionate man who devoted his entire life to helping others. Development aid worker with the United Nations Michael 'Mick' Ryan was the only Irish citizen on board the four-month-old aircraft that crashed yesterday en route from Ethiopia to Kenya, resulting in the deaths of all 157 passengers and crew. Mr Ryan, a native of Lahinch, Co Clare, and a father of two young children, had been working as an engineer with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) over recent years. He had just redeployed to the WFP Rome office. He and his wife Naoise were due to move to Italy soon with their children from their home in Cork city. He died along with six of his WFP colleagues in the crash. Locals in Lahinch and Ennistymon, where the Ryan family hail from, were heartbroken at the news. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar paid tribute to Mr Ryan, saying: "Michael was doing life-changing work in Africa." Executive director of the WFP David Beasley said Mr Ryan and his colleagues were "willing to travel and work far from their homes and loved ones to help make the world a better place to live. That was their calling". Read More President Michael D Higgins said the tragedy had affected so many, with passengers from more than 30 countries on the flight. He said: In particular, I wish to extend my deepest sympathies to the family of Michael Ryan. Ennistymon priest Fr Willie Cummins said the town was in shock at the death of Mr Ryan. Outside the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Lahinch, one woman said it was absolutely shocking. I heard it this afternoon but I was praying it wasnt true and that there had been some mistake. They are a very well-known and respected family here, she added. Another man said he spotted the engineer around Clare at Christmas. Prayers were offered at all Masses in Lahinch, Ennistymon and Milltown Malbay for his family. Mr Ryans immediate family was last night making plans to fly to Ethiopia to assist with the identification and repatriation of his remains. Tragically, the accident occurred just weeks before Mr Ryan was to relocate with his wife Naoise and their two children, the youngest of whom is understood to be just seven-months-old, from their home in Cork city to Rome. Last night the WFP confirmed Mr Ryans death and said that seven of their team had died in the crash. It said Mr Ryan and his colleagues strived to create a better world. I can very, very sadly confirm that Michael Ryan worked for WFP and was based at our headquarters in Rome and was among those killed on ET 302, Mr Beasley said, adding it was a profoundly sad day for the WFP. Mr Ryan was described in Co Clare last night as a wonderful, compassionate man who lived for his job of helping others. He is the son of Christina and the late Jack Ryan. His mother is a retired teacher who was based at Scoil Mhuire in Ennistymon. His father Jack, who died in 2013, was an accountant in Clare. Mr Ryan is also survived by his siblings, Cristin, Siobhan and Tiernan. In a special message, the Lahinch Parish last night extended the sympathies of the entire community to the Ryan family. We pray for all who have died so unexpectedly in this tragedy, their families, colleagues and friends. We pray for all working at the accident site at this present moment. We hope that God will bless everyone in this tragedy for so many people. Mr Ryan was one of Irelands most respected aid workers. He had worked on various UN programmes across the world, including high-profile projects in both Africa and Asia. He was especially proud of a project he had worked on for the UN in Bangladesh. He was an engineering graduate of the National University of Ireland Galway and a keen environmental campaigner. He had been closely following the controversial flood defence programme proposed for Cork. Mr Ryan was a supporter of the Save Cork City campaign, which aimed to avoid the use of high quay walls in the city centre. He had also put his engineering skills and knowledge to use in various heritage conservation projects, including the Fota House Project. Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan paid tribute to Mr Ryan, saying he was committed to the highest ideals of fighting world poverty and providing food for all. The High Court has adjudicated three men found liable for the Omagh bombing bankrupt. On Monday Ms Justice Teresa Pilkington said she was satisfied to make bankruptcy orders in respect of Michael McKevitt, who the court heard is terminally ill, Colm Michael Murphy and Liam Campbell. The bankruptcy applications were brought by lawyers acting for relatives of those killed in the bombing, carried out by the Real IRA. In 2009 the judge Belfast High Court ruled that McKevitt, Campbell, Michael Colm Murphy and another man Seamus Daly were all liable for the bombing, and ordered them to pay Stg1.6m damages to 12 relatives of the bombing. That decision was upheld on appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. The 1998 attack was the single biggest atrocity of the Troubles, claiming 29 lives, including nine children and a woman pregnant with twins. All of the defendants denied having any involvement in the bombing. Arising out of the failure to pay the damages the relatives, represented by John O'Donnell SC, Andrew Robinson Bl instructed by solicitor Gary Daly brought proceedings before the High Court in Dublin seeking to have the three adjudicated bankrupt. The court heard that demands had been made on each of the three men to each pay some 439,000, which they had failed to do. When the matter returned before the High Court on Monday Campbell of Upper Faughart, Dundalk and Murphy of Lower Faughart, Dundalk, Co Louth and McKevitt from Blackrock in Co Louth did not appear in court. A barrister told the court that he appeared for Mr McKevitt, who he said it was difficult to get instructions from because his client has terminal cancer. The lawyer also said he acted for Mr Murphy, but did not have firm instructions in regards to the bankruptcy application. Mr O'Donnell told the court that all three should be adjudicated as bankrupts. The application, counsel said, had been going on for some time, and all three individuals had been served with documents in the case. Counsel said there had been correspondence last month from Liam Campbell, where he was seeking to obtain legal aid in regards the bankruptcy application. Counsel said that no adjournment should be granted in Liam Campbell's case. Counsel added that Michael McKevitt had written to his client in October 2015. In that correspondence Mr McKevitt, who repeated his denial of having anything to do with the bombing, said he had no assets, was suffering from terminal cancer, and the only source of income is the State pension. Counsel said that again there was no good reason advanced as to why Mr McKevitt or any of the others respondents should not be adjudicated as bankrupts. In her ruling, Ms Justice Pilkington said she was satisfied to adjudicate all three as bankrupts. The Judge said all the required criteria contained relevant sections of the 1988 Bankruptcy Act had been complied with. The judge said she was satisfied that all three had been served with the relevant documentation and it would not be appropriate to grant any further adjournments of the matter. In 2003 McKevitt was convicted of two terrorist offences, membership of an illegal organisation, the Real IRA and directing terrorism between August 1999 and October 2000. The three-judge Special Criminal Court sentenced him to twenty years in prison Colm Murphy was cleared of all criminal charges in connection with the bombing. He had been convicted in connection with the bombing by the Special Criminal Court in 2002, which was later overturned on appeal. An Irish aviation expert said there would be "alarm bells ringing" at Boeing after the same model of plane was involved in two fatal crashes within a six-month period. The Ethiopian Airlines tragedy comes six months after another plane crash in October in which 189 people died when a Lion Air 737 MAX plane - the same model as the plane in Ethiopia - crashed into the sea off Jakarta, Indonesia. Former pilot Fintan Ryan said Boeing would be concerned about the similarity between the two crashes. The periods in which a plane is most likely to falter are at the beginning and end of its life, but he said he had never seen two planes of the same model crash so soon after their introduction. "[The 737 MAX 8] is a brand new airplane and it's the same type as Lion Air. "This was six minutes after take-off, the Lion Air crash happened six minutes into the flight. "The flight details weren't as erratic as the Lion Air one, it happened in the same phase of flight so there will be alarm bells ringing." Mr Ryan said that the Lion Air crash was as a result of the runaway stabiliser faltering. The problem, he said, could have been solved by switching off two switches next to the throttle and depowering the stabilisers. Mr Ryan said that given the similarities in the data currently known from the Ethiopian Airlines crash, there was a strong possibility that the mistake was repeated. "It crashed on land so they will have the flight data recorder and the voice recorder fairly soon so they will be able to check out what happened fairly quickly." Boeing refused to comment on whether there would be an investigation into the model or if any planes will be recalled. However, a spokesperson for the aerospace company told the Irish Independent that it is prepared to send a technical team to help with the Ethiopian airline crash. The scene of an ATM robbery at Bank of Ireland in Kingscourt, Co. Cavan on Sunday morning. Photo: Lorraine Teevan People in a Co Cavan town face a 25km round trip to get cash out of the bank after its only ATM was stolen. The town of Kingscourt was yesterday hit by early morning raiders who transported a large digger on a low-loader to the Bank of Ireland and smashed down the wall to take the cash machine. Councillor Clifford Kelly said he was worried for local business after it was taken. "It's at least eight miles (12km) to Carrickmacross or Bailieborough to the next machine. If people have to go there to get their cash out, they'll likely spend it there too," he told the Irish Independent. Mr Kelly, who is a Fianna Fail councillor in the town, said as far as he knew nobody had reported hearing or seeing the robbery but it was understood it happened swiftly. "I don't understand it that nobody even heard a noise," he said. "But it must have been very quick. It seems that there's a gang going around doing this." A Garda spokesman said officers were alerted at about 4am and immediately went to the scene. "On arrival, they discovered that a large digger had been used to remove the ATM from the bank. The ATM was placed on a trailer being towed by a light-coloured large four-wheel-drive vehicle. "This vehicle left the scene in the direction of Carrickmacross." The scene was sealed off for a technical examination of the area by a Garda crime scene team. Gardai have appealed for witnesses to contact them at Bailieborough garda station on 042 9694570. The Bank of Ireland branch was also targeted by three armed and masked men in June 2010. That time, the men went into the bank and demanded staff hand over money, before escaping. No shots were fired and there were no injuries, but staff were left badly shaken. It was also robbed by armed men in May 2012. The men made off with a significant amount of cash and set alight their getaway vehicle a short distance away. In an incident that may be linked to last night's robbery in Cavan, a built-in ATM was also stolen from a petrol station on the Ballygawley Road, in Dungannon, Co Tyrone. Officers in the PSNI believe a digger was stolen from a business nearby before being used to smash down the wall. It was set on fire at the scene after the theft. The ATM was placed on a trailer, as it was in the Cavan incident, and towed away by a four-wheel-drive vehicle. A Belfast auction house has cancelled the sale of Nazi memorabilia after an outcry from Jewish leaders. Bloomfield Auctions in the city were set to auction a dinnerware set, which had an estimate of 20,000 (23,000), on Tuesday. Described on their Facebook page as "historically rare", the tablecloth, napkins and silver cutlery set are emblazoned with swastikas. They allegedly come from Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday glass observation wagon on the Deutsche Reichsbahn, the Third Reich's German state railway. "The tablecloth is probably the only one known to exist today, making it historically rare, along with the cutlery and napkins, where only a very few have ever appeared," the post read. Since the Facebook post was published, the auctioneers were criticised for what some viewed as profiting from anti-Semitism. Heino Schonfeld, director of Holocaust Education Trust Ireland, said he was appalled at the sale, and said the items should be kept in a museum. "We were quite appalled when we saw the advert, and I would agree that they are historical, they would be well placed in a museum, in context and with explanation attached," he said. "They should be displayed in a context that commemorates victims, and explains what they symbolise. "I'm not saying they should be destroyed, they're artefacts that should be displayed in their proper place. "Just to display them like this, with no explanation and without putting them into a framework - we find it appalling. "It is totally insensitive of the feelings of possible victims of the Nazi terror regime and others who were persecuted at that time. "We strongly object, we'd also point out that these kinds of displays are illegal in many jurisdictions, like Russia and France, for instance, very important countries who suffered under the Nazi regime, we would like to see a similar response from the governments in the UK and Ireland. "It is not illegal, but it is still wrong. "I personally would find it spooky to have them round the house, I don't know the psychology behind the person who would buy them, but I know they're very popular and traded for a lot of money." Mark Gardner, from the Community Security Trust (CST), a British charity established to ensure the safety of the Jewish community in the UK, said the auctioneers were turning a profit from Nazi memorabilia. "Anyone with an ounce of decency will be disgusted to see people trying to turn a profit on this Nazi memorabilia, which draws its so-called value from Hitler's depraved racism, mass murder and war-making across Europe." Craig Bennett, from Bloomfield Auctions, told the Press Association: "In light of the sensitivities surrounding the items, we've taken the decision to withdraw the sale, and they will not be sold by this company in the future." Selling Nazi memorabilia in the UK is not illegal, however the sale of such items is banned in other European countries, like Germany, France, Russia and Austria. The scene of the crash in Waterford A PILOT had a remarkable escape from serious injury after his light aircraft overturned and crashed on landing in Waterford. The accident, shortly before lunch today, occurred at a field at Ballygarran on the approach to Waterford Airport. The pilot involved is understood to be a trainee and was undertaking a routine practice circuit of east Waterford. However, he apparently detected a problem with the aircraft shortly after take-off and was attempting to make an emergency landing. He had lined the single engine light aircraft for a landing parallel to the airport. It is suspected the aircraft clipped trees by the perimeter of a field and the pilot immediately lost control of the plane. It struck the ground and catapulted over on to its back. Incredibly, the pilot suffered only minor injuries and was able to exit the wrecked aircraft unaided. He was treated at the scene for minor injuries and shock. Waterford sources indicated that the pilot will not require to be detained overnight in hospital. An investigation, as is routine, is now underway into the accident by both the Gardai, the Health and Safety Authority and the Department of Transport's Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU). Locals who contacted WLRFM indicated that it appeared the aircraft had some kind of engine difficulty in the seconds before it struck the ground. One person said, judging from the sound of the engine, that the aircraft appeared to be losing power in the seconds before the crash. In May 2011 I was invited by two Dundalk-born Muslim women to chat with them on record about their earlier lives, what prompted their conversion to Islam, and what life was like as Muslims living in Ireland. One of those women was Lisa Smith, now currently detained in Syria on suspicion of supporting Isil. What struck me most about Smith - apart from her remarkable charm and candour - was her enthusiasm and commitment to her new way of life. A self-confessed party girl before converting to Islam, by her own admission she "did it all - the drink, drugs, smoking, everything". "I didn't have much grounding in the Catholic religion. I was looking for answers as to why we're here, what's our purpose in life. The pressure of life got to me. There was so much pressure to look good and there were no morals, nothing solid inside me. I was all airy fairy on the outside but inside I knew there was something wrong. I wasn't settled." She said she got to know a few Muslim girls, initially through friends in Dundalk and then through Facebook. She spent the following three months studying Islam "nearly 24 hours a day, I was so excited about it". As for work (at the time Smith was employed with the Defence Forces) she said despite her employer's "great support" of her decision to convert to Islam she was nonetheless planning a change of career. "My role as a Muslim woman is to be a housewife or to get a job working with other women. Working with men is not really a good thing for a Muslim woman." She hoped to leave work in the following months, "if I find a suitable husband". Failing that, she planned to resign when her contract expired. She shrugged off the possible loss of pension entitlements and suchlike, and said if she was not married by then she could look for a new, more suitable job. "Maybe something in childcare." New lines: Glasses (3), crochet dress (25), bikini top (8) and bottoms (5), and (top right) earrings (4), kimono (25), bikini top (8) and bottom (5) arrive at Penneys stores in May Retailer Primark is entering an exciting new fashion chapter with expansions east and west. The fast-fashion company, which originally started as Penneys in Dublin in 1969, is now part of Associated British Foods. It will open its first store in Slovenia this summer in its capital city Ljubljana. This will be the 12th country for Primark to operate in and after that comes expansions into Poland and the Czech Republic, where leases have been signed on stores. Its first store in the Czech Republic will be in the centre of the tourist city of Prague. Next year a new jewel for the retailer comes when it opens at Sawgrass Mills near Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach in Florida. Sawgrass Mills is a major shopping destination for international holidaymakers and will add to Primark's visibility on the American retail landscape, where it first opened in Boston in 2015. It opened its ninth US store in Brooklyn last July. The expansion into Florida will not be lost on the fashion team headquartered in Dublin as, for many years, the clothes designed in Ireland were sent to Miami to be photographed on the beach. Tensions between the "big two" parties over continuing Government co-operation have again surfaced - this time on the key issue of climate change and major hikes in the carbon tax. Fine Gael TDs and senators on a special all-party committee considering actions against climate change, whose report has been repeatedly delayed, say they suspect Fianna Fail is trying to delay necessary tough decisions. Some Fine Gael members fear the effort may be to push the issue beyond local council and European Parliament elections on May 24 next. But Fianna Fail climate change spokesman Timmy Dooley has utterly rejected the Fine Gael claims. Mr Dooley said his party, Labour and Green Party were making common cause on the issue and he believed Fine Gael was actually behind the delays. The climate change action pressure group 'Stop Climate Chaos' has noted that the all-party committee has been operating and considering recommendations from the Citizens' Assembly since the middle of last year. The group said a report with strong recommendations is now urgently required, especially given the report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which warned that rapid, unprecedented and far-reaching action across all aspects of society is needed. "The outcome of the committee is a litmus test on whether our political representatives are up to the task of responding to the crisis. The committee must deliver clear recommendations for specific new actions the State should take," said Cliona Sharkey, policy adviser with Trocaire, adding that these must be enacted by Climate Change Minister Richard Bruton. The TDs and senators are contemplating a fourfold increase in carbon tax in belated efforts to put Ireland back on track to meet its 2030 climate change targets, bringing the levy to 80 per tonne. The committee report was originally due to be published in late January, but the deadline has slipped back and back, and many Fine Gael members fear delays will continue. Contacted about the issue, Fine Gael party chairman Martin Heydon confirmed there were concerns about Fianna Fail's attitude. "The real issue is that Minister Bruton must take this report on board in formulating his co-ordinated Government response to the issue and time is of the essence," Mr Heydon said. Such increases to be phased in over the coming decade would, in today's price terms, add 12 to the cost of filling a car with diesel or petrol, and 7.20 to a bag of coal. These will be difficult for any party to sell - even though the Government has pledged to offset them either through a cheque-in-the-post refund, increased welfare such as fuel allowances or child benefit, and incentives to help people switch to other energy. John FitzGerald, chairman of the Climate Change Advisory Council, has warned Ireland is increasing emissions at a rate of two million tonnes a year instead of the required one million tonne reduction. Unless Waterford Airport gets a 12m revamp it "does not have a viable future", a special report to Government has warned. The new report points out that up to 7m has already been secured via local authorities in the region and some private investors who are ready to come on board with managerial expertise at board level. That leaves a shortfall of 5m from national coffers. Former local government minister and Waterford senator Paudie Coffey has urged the Government to embrace the findings of the new expert report. The Fine Gael representative said that the demands of Brexit mean that transport facilities in the south east must urgently be improved. "The Ireland 2040 national investment plan envisages a 50pc increase in population across the entire south east region, with Waterford as the main centre driving development. New funding for the airport would be an indispensable part of much-needed transport facilities development," Mr Coffey told the Irish Independent. The report finds that while the south east has 8.8pc of the country's population, it generates just 5.5pc of national wealth and gets a similar volume of IDA-created jobs and overseas tourist visitor numbers. The document also notes that a viable regional airport is central to a region's effective economic development, with direct air access being a huge generator of new jobs. The report authors note that significant interest has been generated from private investors. "5m has been committed to date by a small number of regionally based private investors. An additional 2m has been committed by a number of local authorities in the south east, bringing to 7m the total value of funding that has been secured to date," the report states. The authors warn that "the private investment module is now at a virtual conclusion". So there is great stress on the need for an early decision by the Government. Changes envisaged include extending the runway to make the airport more user-friendly, and the forging of a commercial relationship with a low-cost airline. The report authors acknowledge that staffing will be the largest airport running cost but they also pledge to keep as tight a rein as possible on all the costs. Female leaders from various walks of life write about what courage means to them. Keelin Shanley, Broadcaster Courage is the ability to put worry, ego and fear to one side and push forward to try and bring about change. It's being able to say, 'What's the worst that can happen?' and facing down the prospect of failure. Courage is different to resilience, but the two are often confused. Resilience is about being able to deal with adversity, or making the best of something when you have no choice but to put up with it. Courage, to me, is proactive - choosing the tough route, when you also have an easier option. It's the person who intervenes when they see bullying or mistreatment; the person who questions the status quo; who risks their own well-being or comfort to do the right thing. We've seen huge courage both in Ireland and around the world in recent years, with individuals speaking out about experiences in an effort to change attitudes for those coming behind them. The #MeToo movement and the recent referendums encouraged many people on all sides to speak out, regardless of the personal cost. Working in journalism over the last three decades, I have met many courageous people. From well-known icons like Malala Yousafzai, to the unsung heroes who tell their stories of homelessness, drug addiction or crime, so we can shine a light on the world we live in. People like Maria, a girl I met who was trafficked into Ireland from Romania, and forced to work in a brothel from the age of just 16, until she was deported a few years later. Maria suffered horribly in Ireland. The only people she met were uncaring clients and vicious pimps. Yet, when we went to her home town in Romania, she was able to put the hurt and terror aside to tell the true stories behind the Irish sex industry. I had an early introduction to professional courage. I worked with Mary Raftery for two years on an arts programme in the 1990s. At the time, she was in the initial stages of making States of Fear. Many of the people she interviewed never expected to be even listened to, let alone believed. But Mary's sense of courage and her zeal for the story helped bring out courage in those she met. That documentary opened the vaults on horrors that many half-knew about, but had dismissed or ignored. Mary was never what you'd call easy. The great thing about that was she didn't care who she had to cross to get what she believed was right. She was the toughest taskmaster I've ever had. She missed nothing, and after a hard day's filming, there was nothing she loved more than a G&T and another good row. She was bolshy, warm, funny, difficult, and the purest example of courage I've known. Making a documentary is to walk a fine line. You want people to reveal themselves to you, but you need to ensure they're not paying too high a price. Mary managed to achieve that, and, in doing so, changed so much in Irish society, and inspired a generation of journalists and film makers who are still building on the work she started. Frances Fitzgerald, TD Expand Close Frances Fitzgerald / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Frances Fitzgerald Courage is the red badge of bravery. It's easy to buy into the conflict definition of courage. Particularly easy for me, as my father served in the Defence Forces for all his professional life. I remember as a teenager listening, with shock, to the stories of Irish men, who in the course of peacekeeping work in the Congo, had demonstrated exemplary courage in the face of terrifying circumstances. It took me a while to realise that while showing courage in an emergency is not easy, most people can rise to a crisis. It's everyday courage that's really difficult. Everyday courage when life presents a challenge that may, at first, seem dramatic, but, over time, becomes a grinding, relentless, insistent demand that is difficult to bear. And yet, each of us knows people in our own families, among our own friends, within our community, who somehow find the courage to cope with awful realities that, in theory, should bring them to their knees. Women and men coping with life-threatening illnesses, those who suffer unimaginable tragedies and appalling losses. A tiny minority become household names. But the majority of those who wear the 'red badge of courage' are not famous, nor does their challenge arrive with headlines attached. Every month, every week, every day - in this country and around the world - some women are subjected to trafficking, sexual and domestic violence, and rape. There are also those women who are diagnosed with breast or other cancers, and enter a half-life of treatment, pain, nausea and fearful hope. Many mothers and fathers care for family members with such debilitating physical and mental-health issues that simply starting another day filled with routine impossibilities requires courage. Massive courage. In politics, as in life, courage is a constant requirement, rather than an occasional demand. Politics is combative and conflictual beyond the value of combat or conflict, and the capacity to take on vested interests, to withstand the inevitable setbacks and to stay enthusiastic about doing the right thing, requires fortitude. Many of the social changes that our country has experienced in the last decade have been made possible by the courageous actions of others over many generations. Those who broke the moulds, fought adversity and raised emerging issues. It will take the courage of many more women, and the men who support them, to continue the efforts initiated by suffragettes over one hundred years ago to create an equal society: increased political representation, equal pay, and an end to sexual violence. As American poet and civil-rights activist, Maya Angelou said: "We may encounter many defeats - but we must not be defeated." Liz Cunningham, Finance Director, Google Expand Close Liz Cunningham of Google. Photo: Kip Carroll / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Liz Cunningham of Google. Photo: Kip Carroll Courage is feeling terrified out of your wits and doing it anyway. Or, in the words of Nelson Mandela, courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave person is not the person who does not feel afraid, but the one who conquers that fear. Most of us are courageous every day of our lives, but we don't look at it as being courageous, we just look at it as doing what we need to do at that particular point in time. Courage is recognising that we may not know where the road is taking us, but being guided by our own strengths and ideals. Probably the most courageous thing I have done in my career was to join Google. At the time, I had a small toddler; my husband had his own business and, like most small-business owners, was trying to survive in the middle of the worst recession in living memory; and I had a secure, senior position in a professional firm. The timing could not have been worse, but with the support of my husband, I took the risk of moving into the very fast-paced environment of the global tech sector. Today, people would say the decision was a no-brainer, but at the time it was a big risk, and it took all my courage to move. I see courage displayed in many different and subtle ways every day, especially in the workplace. I see the courage it takes to be the dissenting voice. In the corporate world, as in life, the easy option is to be agreeable and go with the flow. Being the lone voice in the meeting saying you think there is a different way is incredibly hard. It takes self-belief, and it takes courage. I see the courage of work colleagues struggling with issues in their personal lives and who can still come into work and give it their all. And I was incredibly proud of the courage of my many younger colleagues who decided, in a grassroots movement, to lead a walkout in protest at what they saw was behaviour not in keeping with the values of our company [Last year, staff in Google offices worldwide walked out as part of the Walkout for Real Change protest]. When we held our Compass Leadership Summit late last year, over 350 women came together in Google's Foundry to explore the theme of courage in our lives. The stand-out moment was [cervical cancer campaigner]Vicky Phelan entering the auditorium to a standing ovation. Vicky is certainly an example of courage in exceptional circumstances - she stood up and spoke out because she felt she had to right a wrong done to her and many other women. Sometimes courage is seen as something you choose, but more often than not, it's actually because you have no choice that you act in a courageous way. Courage enables us to not let the past or present dictate the future, to look back and know how far we have come and be confident that every experience - good and bad - emboldens us for the future. Noeline Blackwell, CEO Dublin Rape Crisis Centre Expand Close Noeline Blackwell of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. Photo: Kip Carroll / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Noeline Blackwell of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. Photo: Kip Carroll Over the course of my career and my voluntary work, I have been privileged to meet with women who have exhibited the most extraordinary courage. These are women who have spoken up or spoken out. They have stepped forward at risk to themselves in so many ways. They have defied expectations of what they should be or do as women. They have put their lives or their reputations at risk. They have fiercely defended the rights of others. They have caused consternation in their communities because they have called out human-rights violations or discrimination. In speaking out, all of them have taken risks and have shown huge courage. The courage to speak up, to speak out, is the courage to speak truth to power. The context has differed depending on my role, but in every situation, I have found women who refuse to condone injustice, and who refuse to stay silent. I do not underestimate what courage this takes, and I admire it every time I encounter it. In the context of my current work, the women who disclose and report on sexual violence are truly brave. It takes huge courage to confront your abuser, especially as this is usually someone in your family, your workplace, your community. I've seen them have that courage. I've seen the courage it takes to continue to hold that person to account when family and community is against you. That alone takes massive courage and clear-sightedness. Add to that the courage it takes to set aside the cloak of secrecy that our society would often like to shroud talk of rape and sexual abuse, and to come out publicly to tell their truth. I salute those people, and I wonder at the reserves of strength and courage that they have when they speak up. I was particularly pleased that the work of one such woman was recognised in the award of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. One of two committed heroic campaigners against sexual violence was honoured - Nadia Murad. Following her persecution by Isis and her subsequent escape, she has consistently told her story of multiple rape and sexual abuse by people who used it as a weapon of war. Telling that story was, and is, hard, but she does so because, she says, it is the best weapon she has against terrorism and to hold her persecutors and the persecutors of the Yazidi people to account. She is extraordinary. All of them who tell their story because it needs to be told, because they are protecting someone else, because they want to stop the evil of rape and sexual abuse in our society, are extraordinary. All of them are women of courage. When I spoke at the Google Compass Leadership summit this autumn, I closed with a quote from the American writer Audre Lorde, as a source of consolation and indication of why speaking out matters: 'My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you. But for every real word spoken, for every attempt I had ever made to speak those truths for which I am still seeking, I had made contact with other women while we examined the words to fit a world in which we all believed, bridging our differences.' We continue to need women of courage to bridge the differences. Ciara Clancy, CEO and Founder, Beats Medical Expand Close Ciara Clancy of Beats Medical. Photo: Kip Carroll / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ciara Clancy of Beats Medical. Photo: Kip Carroll Courage is walking away. Some of the toughest yet most courageous decisions I've ever made are the ones where I have walked away. But they have also been the best decisions I've made. From a young age, I wanted to help people, so my career path was always physio or nursing. Entrepreneurship was never presented to me as an option. Walking away from tradition and the expectations of a secure job in physio wasn't easy. I felt like I was walking away from where I thought I could help most. What I didn't realise then was that by becoming an entrepreneur one day, I could help people on a greater scale. Had I remained a physio, I could have treated 10 people in clinic a day, now we can potentially treat millions of people around the world every day through our technology. It's a dream come true, but a dream I never imagined possible when I was younger. Having the courage to walk away to choose another path can often be one of the first and most important steps in any journey. I have held on to this ideal in business. It's allowed me to hold out for the right partnerships and deals that were a fit for us, and enabled us to build the company we have today. Courage is knowing when to ask for help. Imposter syndrome can affect us all, the idea that we need to know everything. But I've come to learn that not knowing everything can be a strength, too. There is no blueprint to starting a business; you've got to assume nothing, take action quickly, and then adapt to the outcomes. But I've also learned that the road less travelled is a lot easier when you have people to give you that boost along the way. I started Beats Medical in my early 20s and I was high on passion, but low on experience. I had a product that helped people, but very few people knew about it. In order for this to have the global impact I wanted to have, I wanted to scale the business fast. So I reached out to business mentors, who not only had this experience, but thankfully shared my vision, and were willing to pass on their expertise. Getting people to say yes to providing their support was surprisingly easy - the hardest part was just plucking up the courage to ask! Courage is contagious. I truly believe courage is contagious. I have been inspired to set up a business because of challenges faced and the courage shown by people with neurological conditions. I am lucky that I work in an environment where I see courage every day. Beats Medical provides technologies for children and adults with neurological conditions. You can't not be inspired by their journeys. From John MacPhee, a person with Parkinson's who used our app to walk the length of the UK and inspired others to do the same, to Chloe Byrne, one of the users of our Dyspraxia app, who, as her mum describes, turns her disability into her ability every day, and inspires other children to follow suit. These acts of courage send a ripple effect that influences others to be courageous, too. Running a business can be filled with ups and downs, but these issues pale in comparison to what we're trying to achieve. Our users continue to push my team and me to take risks and do more for the people we treat. I don't believe anything can be more motivating than that. A Parian ware model of "two ballet dancers after Degas" sold at Adam's for 9,500 in November 2006. It was a superb piece, 60cm high, full of movement and delicately modelled in the uncoloured Parian china associated with Ireland's Belleek. The piece was designed by Cyril Arnold, manager of Belleek Pottery Company, but never went into production. The design was considered too intricate even for Belleek. The Arnold family had its own mini-dynasty in County Fermanagh. They came to Ireland in 1933, when Harry Arnold, who had previously worked for Copeland Spode, became general manager of Belleek. His son, Eric Arnold, became pottery manager in 1940. Eric's brother Cyril also worked for Belleek and went on to become general manager and production manager of the factory. "My interest in the family started when I realised that they produced three CEOs of Belleek" says Matt McNulty, former chairman of Design Ireland. Cyril, in particular, was a very talented designer and his ideas were hugely influential on Belleek. Parian china is generally white, and resembles marble, but Cyril introduced some pieces in pastel colours. The Belleek 1949 catalogue boasted that: "A number of our clients may prefer Belleek China without the painting, as of old, but the remarkable increased demand for the new designs proves that they are irresistible to many." On his retirement from Belleek in the 1970s, Cyril Arnold started his own pottery in the popular holiday resort of Bundoran. "The vast majority of the stuff that he made would have been for the holiday-makers, but he also made more serious artwork," McNulty says. Rare, and potentially of interest to collectors, Bundoran Pottery the kind of thing that might lurk undetected at the back of the china cabinet. Pieces are marked on the base as "Bundoran China" or sometimes "Donegal China". Bundoran China was one of several offshoots from Belleek. "A lot of good came out of these factories," McNulty says. "Almost everyone in the locality would have worked there at some stage, even if it was just a holiday job." Belleek created a lot of skill and many of its former employees found work in the smaller potteries that sprouted up on the other side of the Border. Among them was Donegal Parian China, made with Irish rose and trailing shamrock designs in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, from the mid-1980s until 2005, when it was taken over by Belleek. Celtic Weave China also had a factory in Ballyshannon between 1985 and 2018. "When Sybil Connolly was asked to design an Easter Egg for Tiffany & Co, she came to Donegal looking for someone who had the skill to make it," says McNulty. He introduced her to Tom Daly of Celtic Weave China, who went on to make Connolly's Tiffany Weave range in bone china. The egg-shaped trinket boxes can sell for up to 120. They can be identified by the mark on the base: "Designed by Sybil Connolly for Tiffany & Co. Made in Ireland. CWC." Other pieces from Donegal Parian China are still very accessible price-wise and will probably become more collectible in time. Cyril Arnold's Bundoran China was more adventurous and modern. Adam's At Home sale, which took place on February 24, included ten lots from the Cyril Arnold Studio, where McNulty, a native of South Donegal, purchased them from Mrs Arnold after her husband's death. The pieces sold within their modest estimates, indicating that collectors are interested but that, at the moment, it's a buyer's market. Some of the pieces were clearly experimental. An interesting Belleek-meets-Bauhaus flavour to a plain white "Donegal China" modernist vase, 17cm high, showed a "circular tapering baluster form, the body applied with variously shaped panels with textured surfaces." (Lot 282: est. 200 to 300; sold for 280) Another modernist vase had a flowing rim and a wavy band of white against a black body. It was offered with a green and yellow octagonal vase, painted with a motif of leaves coming from a central stem that look like a precursor to Orla Kiely's signature pattern. (Lot 277: est. 200 to 300; sold for 200). Other pieces were less obviously modernist. A trio of Bundoran China plates (Lot 279: est. 200 to 300; sold for 300) included two hand-painted with stylised starfish on yellow ground. Adam's auction also included a pair of Bundoran China figurines (pictured). These tall elegant ladies in long dresses and wide-brimmed hats (Lot 375: 70 to 100; sold for 100). "From talking to his wife, I understand that he was trying to create a series of wedding figurines," says McNulty. At its best, Arnold's work is exquisite (if not particularly fashionable). McNulty's favourite piece is a small group of three winged figures, reading a book beneath a blossomed branch. It's entitled "Fairy Tales - modelled and hand painted by Cyril Arnold, Bundoran China Ireland" and McNulty feels that it may have been inspired by illustrations by George Russell (AE). Arnold's fairy groups have come up at auction but rarely and not that recently. "It's not the kind of thing that you'd want to sell," he says. See adams.ie Seat of battle: Who's right? Is it the VIMLE-2 or a Knopparp variant? They might never find out. Photograph posed by models Nobody told me IKEA is a relationship rocker of renown. But as we pulled into the car park at the blue and yellow mother ship of flatpack, there were flashing red lights all around us. From beneath its hulk emerged a fighting couple pushing a trolley and tearing strips off each other. The next departing pair comprised a lady in a mustard hat gesticulating wildly at her man, he expending gargantuan effort to drag along a palette of precarious giant Jenga at the pace of a Jawa sandcrawler. You know the expression from TV animal appeal ads: The boulder-bearing Afghan donkey being whipped uphill? Broken. Tearjerk piano tinkling and emphatic voiceover: "Every Sunday Gerard is brought to a giant windowless warehouse where he must haul heavy loads on tiny castors for hours." "That's funny." "What's funny?" "We're only here and I've seen two couples fighting." "Didn't you know?" "Know what?" "That Ikea is notorious for couples fighting." It makes sense. Most men hate shopping. When I shop, it's a supermarket trolley grab. I run in, snatch, hit the till, out. When I was little I had a Rupert the Bear book with a story about Rupert getting accidentally locked into a department store for the night. It gave me nightmares. For years. The average IKEA is 350,000 sq ft with no windows. Instead of all the toasters in one place and swivel chairs in another, it mixes everything into endless showroom displays. You follow an arrow trail, obliged to see the entire 350,000 sq ft before you can buy a thing. Conversely, my other half loves shopping and is hard-wired to pick up and caress every single item in stock before she can leave. "Not us!" we laughed. We can disagree but we don't fight much. And we had our PIP (Pre-IKEA Pledge): "We need these three items. We know what colour, name and catalogue number. We are agreed not to buy anything else. At all. Or look at anything else. At all. We get in, get the stuff and get out." Not cloudy and there's definitely no chance of meatballs. We are only in the door and someone's lost their granddad. The couple are distracted with their list, but haven't seen granddad get on the escalator, expecting them to follow. Up he goes alone, croaking desperately, reaching an arm out and looking forlorn. He disappears into the ether above like David Niven's dead airman ascending to his heavenly maker in A Matter of Life and Death. The couple remain list-attached, unaware of their loss. Losing granddad at IKEA is a biggie. Already I am sullen with this "follow the arrows" malarkey. A satire news item online is headlined: "Man arrested in Atlanta for putting fake arrow decals on the floor in IKEA, creates labyrinth with no exit." I want to make that breadcrumb trail. We are in that labyrinth. Against my expectations I am first to break our pledge. I see two interesting architect lamps. I love architect lamps. I was off the arrows for thirty seconds max, I pleaded at the post mortem. That was it though - her licence to go freestyle. How many sets of handles can you have for something? No, it's a Kallax we want, not a BiTrade. No that's a Flysta. Is our home a cushion sanctuary?! Why do we need a special mat to scrub potatoes? Yes it's cool but it's still just a wooden box! There is an enormous machine that shoves flat-bed trolleys into a point where waiting customers will need one. There is a man with a clipboard. There are no trolleys. The machine is not working. Like passengers queuing to check in, the line builds up behind us. What do we do now? Word goes back "... gone to get someone." An older lady starts 'quiet crying.' An age later the machine starts rolling. We get a trolley. Onwards to the warehouse from Indiana Jones. This is where you discover, three hours after arriving, that they don't have the unit you came for. While I am trying to find our box among the millions stacked skyward, a mother and daughter approach with a particularly large example on their trolley. "Excuse me," says the daughter. "Can you tell me whether this can fit in my car?" "Em, well, I don't know. What car do you drive?" "A Renault Clio." "If your back seat and your front passenger seat both fold right down flat. And if your mum goes in the back seat. Maybe." "The back seat goes flat alright. But does my front seat fold down?" "Em, I don't know. It's your car. You could try it." And then mum in a low voice: "To be honest, I just wouldn't feel comfortable sitting in the back with all of that." And suddenly their fight is on. It's not just couples. But men and women need each other's skills for IKEA. Women have that find-a-needle-in-a-haystack thing that men would be lost without in there. Men have the Stanley retractable measuring tape. Now we discover IKEA doesn't have the colour we want in the Kube shelves. We need it to match one we already have. Compromise. We'll take a shorter Kallax unit in our colour and add a single box to it to bring it up in height. They don't have the box in that colour either. We find the last shorter unit in stock and in our colour and we'll come back for the box. Both snappy and smouldering, but almost there. Then. Between us and the tills a huge floor space opens with soft accessories. Ambush! Without saying a word, she veers off to the right, both hands already out, ready to receive. That smile starting. One thing. Then another. Feeling them up. Abandon trolley and into pursuit. We compromise. Ten minutes only. OK. OK. Back on route. The tills are coming. We get through. We are waiting in a queue for the giant lift for trolleys. We're at the front at last. The doors will open soon. An expensively dressed man bypasses the entire line, wheels alongside me and jabs the nose of his trolleyed Svalnas wall combo right in front of our Kallax. That was it. I totally lost my Knopparps. Walking to the car. Her Nibs: "Well if they really cared about the queue being skipped, someone else would have said it too!" Me: "He damn well knew what he was at!" Her Nibs: "There would have been another lift in a minute." Me: "And you? You think we should have let that w****r away with that?!" Her Nibs: "Oh f******g whatever!" And a couple just arriving in a car are both staring at us. Again it's all about the politics of delay as the United Kingdom's marathon emotional drama over EU membership is approaching its finale this week. We already know Brexit will be delayed beyond the March 29 deadline. But the question now is: delayed for how long and to what effect? Even at this distance from some kind of determination, an extraordinary array of options remain. Delay will happen even in the unlikely event of a last-minute twist emerging from ongoing EU-UK talks, allowing Theresa May bundle her unloved withdrawal deal over the line tomorrow in a House of Commons vote. If the MPs reject Mrs May's deal as expected, she had promised to let them vote on Wednesday about whether to reject leaving without a deal on March 29. If, as is also likely, they reject that option, then on Thursday they may well vote on a "limited" delay. Let's recall two things about an extension of Brexit: One, the UK has to specifically ask for it. Two, the other 27 have to unanimously back the idea. There is widespread EU support for the principle of a Brexit extension. But some countries, notably France, will insist it cannot be for more of the diffuse wrangling which has dominated the last two years of specifically English politics. Playing hardball on this again yesterday, French EU Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau told France Inter radio that she did not see any value in extending the window for talks. "More time to do what? We've had two years ... If there's nothing new, more time will not do anything other than usher in more uncertainty, and uncertainty just creates anxiety," Ms Loiseau said. "It's not time that we need, but a decision," she continued emphatically. From London yesterday afternoon came the absurd news that there might even be "a delay on the delay vote". In simple English, there was speculation that Mrs May might defer those two votes slated for Wednesday and Thursday. In that kind of scenario, the prime minister might yet again take her case once more directly to an EU leaders' summit due on Thursday and Friday of next week, March 21 and 22. That would leave us a bare seven days from B-day of March 29, knowing as little as ever about an outcome. It's impossible to see any gain for London here. Happily for Ireland, a no-deal Brexit continues to recede, but it could still happen, even after an extension of some kind. There were reports in Britain yesterday of a growing number of voters willing to risk a no-deal outcome, with more Conservative Party members urging the party leader not to fear it. Beyond all of that stretches the prospect of a snap election which remains ever present, with reports that Conservative MPs will increase pressure on Mrs May to quit. In any other place, at any other time, there would be no discussion there - she would already be gone. Then there is the slowly growing prospect of another Brexit referendum. That prospect still faces many obstacles and its outcome would remain very unsure. But it is still very much there. The opposition Labour Party's Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer, said his party would support staying in the EU if there was a second referendum. However, he also said his party would not be seeking to secure support in parliament for a second referendum in parliament votes this week. More immediately, Mrs May and her allies have again ramped up the "you will lose everything" warning delivered to ardent Brexiteers in efforts to get her deal through. British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt re-ran that threat yesterday, warning that the country was now in very perilous waters. "We have an opportunity now to leave on March 29, or shortly thereafter, and it's important we grasp that opportunity because there is wind in the sails of people trying to stop Brexit," Mr Hunt told the BBC. The foreign minister warned the Brexiteers that failure to back the prime minister's deal would mean delay - and potentially Brexit never happening at all. "If you want to stop Brexit, you only need to do three things: kill this deal, get an extension, and then have a second referendum. Within three weeks, those people could have two of those three things ... and quite possibly the third one could be on the way," Mr Hunt bluntly warned. On the other side, Nigel Dodds, deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up Mrs May's minority government, and Steve Baker, a leading figure in the Eurosceptic wing of the Conservative Party, combined to give it a bit of "No surrender!" yet again. "An unchanged Withdrawal Agreement will be defeated firmly by a sizeable proportion of Conservatives and the DUP if it is again presented to the Commons," they wrote in a joint article for the 'Sunday Telegraph'. The pro-Brexit pairing urged leaving on March 29 - whatever the consequences. "There is today no such thing as 'no-deal'," they insisted, arguing various practical arrangements were already being made and more could be put in place. Another UK newspaper, the 'Sunday Times', focused on the prime minister's uncertain future. The reports suggested Mrs May was battling to save her job, as aides were considering persuading her to offer to resign in a bid to get the deal approved. The UK newspaper also said cabinet ministers had spoken about whether she should go - even as early as this week. Given that the UK parliament rejected Mrs May's deal by a historic margin of 230 votes on January 15, a second heavy defeat would make her position very perilous. So far Mrs May has made little headway after seven weeks of trying to get change to the so-called Irish backstop. That is an insurance policy designed to prevent the return of a hard Border in Ireland by keeping the North inside the EU customs union close to single market product rules. Many Brexiteers object to the policy on the grounds that it could leave Britain subject to EU rules indefinitely. The DUP and some Brexiteers warn it could split Northern Ireland away from England, Scotland and Wales. As EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier joined the Taoiseach at the Ireland-France rugby international in Dublin yesterday afternoon, talks continued at official level in Brussels. The UK foreign minister, Jeremy Hunt, put a brave face on things, insisting tomorrow's vote will definitely happen. Despite many negative signals, Mr Hunt said it was too early to say these EU-UK negotiations had "run into the sands". He said realism and a lot of work were needed from both sides to get a deal. There has been a persistent view in Brussels and other capitals that the pragmatic thing to do might be to extend things for up to two years, rolling this crux into talks on a future EU-UK relationship. Add that to the other 'maybe' options. In light of the recent alleged abuse case being made against Michael Jackson, this has shed light on a darker underbelly of what we call "democracy". I would greatly appreciate if someone could answer me the following question. Under what kind of logic would a radio station make the decision to stop playing music of a deceased artist based totally on a single-sided interview by two alleged victims of sexual abuse? I urge others to be under no illusion that this is a real threat to democracy, censoring of such music is worrying, especially when the deceased artist has been extensively investigated by the authorities and proven not guilty in a court of law. Why should the artist's music be censored based on allegations and biased accounts? In a democracy are we not innocent until proven guilty? Under what thinking process would prominent DJs and radio stations side with allegations and not with factual evidence? The truth in all of this is the fact that trial by social media is being held in higher regard than trial by a court of law. If we adopt this fundamental principle of holding allegations/anecdotal evidence in a higher regard over empirical factual evidence, what type of society are we constructing? Can you imagine if we adopted this approach in our universities, in our scientific research departments, in our legal systems, in our hospitals and in our schools of education? Think about it. Caoimhe McQuillan Drogheda, Co Louth Driven up the wall by liberal hypocrisy over Trump's plan LIBERALS love to get on their high horse in berating Donald Trump for his proposed wall between the US and Mexico. Some of the outrage, I'm sure, is genuine. But a lot of it doesn't really stand up to scrutiny. At the same time as the president is proposing the construction of a wall, a massive construction is well on the way to being finalised between Turkey and Syria. The purpose of this wall is primarily to prevent refugees from Syria and further afield gaining access to Europe (via Turkey). The EU states have provided the government in Ankara with security and surveillance technology valued at more than 80m in exchange for the protection of its borders. So those in Europe (including Ireland) who get on their high horse over President Trump's wall have zero credibility. Likewise, the usual suspects in Hollywood (the Barbra Streisands, George Clooneys, Nancy Pelosis etc) who bleat most about "the wall", are not adverse to such security themselves. Most of the wealthy Hollywood luvvie crowd live in splendid, security-clad isolation, well away from the plebs. The hypocrisy is blatant. In fact, enough to drive one up the wall. Eric Conway Navan, Co Meath Two wrongs don't make a right with bias over gender I AM one of the women who Mary Mitchell O'Connor seems to feel patronised her by disagreeing with her policy of creating professorships reserved for women ('Men have 'teeny-weeny' interest in gender equality, says minister', Irish Independent, March 8). She dismisses the arguments by saying the objectors were mainly concerned with such posts being considered "second-rate". She alleges that "statistics prove that academic posts are outrageously biased ... towards men" and there has been a "huge, massive, ginormous, unconscious bias present for decades". To which allegation, unsupported by any figures justifying such hyperbole, I can only echo her and say "really? really?" When I studied at UCD 50 years ago there were three women professor heads of department and numerous other women academics in the science faculty. Perhaps Ms Mitchell O'Connor is thinking of an even more bygone era. It's difficult to know in the absence of a serious discussion of the subject. Even assuming Ms Mitchell O'Connor is correct, her argument seems to be that anti-woman bias in the past justifies anti-men bias now, which sounds uncomfortably like simple revenge for past wrongs being visited on present-day men. Two wrongs do not make a right. I can only hope this unjustified discrimination doesn't survive Constitutional challenge. She is lucky men have been silent about it. They should be up in arms. Jacinta Skelly PhD Glenageary, Co Dublin Bradley's comments were reminiscent of claims by SF THE stupid and insensitive comments by Karen Bradley remind us of the stance of Sinn Fein, which claims that blowing to pieces innocent men, women and children in pubs and restaurants is not murder either. Pat O'Mahony Dalkey, Co Dublin Internet connectivity is essential for most Irish businesses but a new service from Magnet Networks is set to revolutionise the way companies access the internet. Good connectivity is the cornerstone of modern business and its not just high-tech companies that require a fast, consistent service. These days, slow or unreliable internet access can reduce almost any companys daily output, bring day-to-day operations grinding to a halt, or even cause reputational damage. Magnet Networks has wholesale access to competitors networks to offer its customers all of Irelands existing business connectivity options in one place. Combining its own network capability with its competitors networks, the company has now established the countrys first single marketplace of connectivity. The single marketplace allows businesses to make one phone call and find out all of the options that are available, explains Magnet Networks Ireland Managing Director, Stephen Brewer. Of course, they could call all the other providers but what this will do is not just make it simple to buy it. It will make it simple to own it, run with it, and to get support when you need it. Expand Close Stephen Brewer, managing director of Magnet Network / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Stephen Brewer, managing director of Magnet Network Magnet Networks Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) offers its customers a direct connection to this larger, available wholesale network. That means it can provide an affordable, ultra-reliable internet service for businesses thats available virtually anywhere in the country. The advantage of DIA is that customers are guaranteed a certain level of service 24/7, he adds. With regular broadband, youre subject to how many people are using the line, the time of day and how busy it might be. With DIA, a circuit is brought directly into the business and its only for that business. So there will never be a day where it is slower than it was yesterday. It will always work at whatever speed you purchased, whether that is 50mbps, 100mbps or higher. Magnet Networks DIA provides businesses with exclusive access to their own internet circuit, whether that is via fibre, wireless or satellite. In simple terms, thats like driving to your destination on an empty road while your competitors take their chances with heavy traffic. Speed isnt the only advantage of the new DIA. Each circuit also comes with a 99.97 service level agreement (SLA), which is one of the most competitive SLAs in the country. Essentially, that means that youre guaranteed a fast response and resolution should you encounter any issues with your circuit. "Can you afford not to be connected? Although cheaper broadband options may be available, business owners need to consider if these options put their business at risk. If your business relies on broadband, or connectivity to the cloud all the time, then you need to have the service that will deliver all of the time not some of the time. Weigh up the cost. If your circuit is not available, what does that mean for your business? Thats the key question for any business owner. Can you afford not to be connected? This type of high-speed, exclusive connectivity would once have been provided by lease lines but business owners would have paid four figure sums for this service every month. Magnet Networks is now offering DIA from as low as 290 a month, making exceptional service an affordable reality for Irish businesses. Businesses around the country who are paying massive costs for legacy lines are entitled to know that theres a faster and better value option available to them through DIA, says Mr Brewer. Connectivity is now an essential part of business infrastructure and as important as electricity or heating. Poor connectivity can potentially result in lost business or reduced productivity. Its not just an issue that affects multinationals or companies in the tech sector. Security companies that remotely monitor sites cant do that without connectivity. Even a bakery needs connectivity to know how many orders it needs to fulfil for a given day. Internet access could also be the difference between a good and bad hotel review if a disgruntled customer complains about the WiFi. Magnet Networks constantly monitor their network for any issues, guarantee customers a quick resolution to technical problems and have an award-winning contact centre to deal with customer queries or problems. The biggest advantage we offer is that we answer the phone. We encourage customers to call with any problems. With DIA, were monitoring the circuits all the time. Well probably know if theres a problem before you even call it in and our team will most likely be on it and trying to resolve it. Magnet Networks DIA combines choice with affordability. Customers can choose from a range of speeds, connections and contracts. They can also upgrade their DIA speeds should their business needs grow within the term of their contract. For more information on Dedicated Internet Access, check out the Magnet Networks website. Sponsored by: The Duchess of Sussex arrives at Canada House in London for a Commonwealth Day youth event celebrating the diverse community of young Canadians living in London and around the UK The Duchess of Sussex arrives at Canada House in London for a Commonwealth Day youth event celebrating the diverse community of young Canadians living in London and around the UK Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, attends an event at Canada House, the offices of the High Commision of Canada in the United Kingdom, to mark Commonwealth Day, in central London, on March 11, 2019 Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attend the Commonwealth Service on Commonwealth Day at Westminster Abbey on March 11, 2019 in London Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attend the Commonwealth Service on Commonwealth Day at Westminster Abbey on March 11, 2019 in London Meghan and Harry, left, Kate and William, centre, and Meghan, at an earlier event, right, celebrating Commonwealth Day in London If there's one theme of 2019 for Britain's royal family, it's burying the Kate vs Meghan narrative of last year. Since the former Suits star (37) married into royalty last May, the inevitable comparisons were made between the two duchesses and their contrasting styles - informed by entirely different life experiences - before it came to a head in the second half of 2018 amid persistent reports the two were feuding. A show of unity on Christmas Day seemed to do the trick and put paid to the rumours, which are truly a thing of the past after two joint appearances in the last week alone. The Duchess of Cambridge and husband Prince William, led the senior royals, including the Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and Camilla, but it was Kate and Meghan that stole the show, as usual. Kate recycled a Catherine Walker coat with oversized buttons she first wore in New Zealand in 2014, while Meghan had her second event of the day and a quick-change to reflect the more formal dress code required. After dazzling in a custom Erdem coat at Canada House, a fitting engagement given her strong connections to the country, she opted for a white chain print dress by pal Victoria Beckham, a white pillbox hat and a pair of emerald green satin heels. Her commitment to four-inch heels while nearly eight months pregnant will be familiar to royal watchers, but her insistence at bending down to speak with children - while cradling her large baby bump and towering in high heels, is earning her new fans. Expand Close Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attend the Commonwealth Service on Commonwealth Day at Westminster Abbey on March 11, 2019 in London / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attend the Commonwealth Service on Commonwealth Day at Westminster Abbey on March 11, 2019 in London Commonwealth Day is traditionally marked by a service at Westminster Abbey, led by the British monarch, also including other senior royals and figures from national life on the guestlist. In her message to mark Commonwealth Day, the head of state has praised how the family of nations inspires its member states to find ways of protecting the planet and its citizens. Millions of people are "drawn together" because of the collective values shared by the institution, Queen Elizabeth said in her address to the 53 countries of the Commonwealth. Last week, Meghan revealed she didn't read the negative comments about her in a panel discussion with Anne McElvoy, senior editor of 'The Economist', on International Women's Day, when she was asked how she responded to newspaper headlines describing her feminism as "trendy" and whether it was "water off a duck's back". "I don't read anything, it's much safer that way, but equally that's just my own personal preference, because I think positive or negative, it can all sort of just feel like noise to a certain extent these days, as opposed to getting muddled with that to focus on the real cause," she said. Expand Close The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive for the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey, London / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive for the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey, London "So for me, I think the idea of making the word feminism trendy, that doesn't make any sense to me personally, right? This is something that is going to be part of the conversation forever." When asked later if she looked at Twitter, she replied: "No, sorry, no. For me, that's my personal preference." Video of the Day Devastation: The CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, Tewolde GebreMariam, looks at the wreckage of the plane. Photos: AP A man carries a piece of debris on his head at the crash site. Photo: Getty Shock: A woman talks on the phone as she awaits news of family members at Addis Ababa international airport yesterday after the crash. Photo: AP An Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after take-off yesterday, killing all 157 people on board and raising questions about the safety of the Boeing 737 MAX 8, a new model that also crashed in Indonesia in October. The flight left Bole Airport in Addis Ababa at 8.38am, before losing contact with the control tower at 8.44am. "The pilot mentioned that he had difficulties and that he wanted to return," Ethiopian Airlines chief executive Tewolde GebreMariam told a news conference. "There are no survivors," the airline tweeted alongside a picture of Mr GebreMariam holding up a piece of debris inside a large crater at the crash site. Passengers from 33 countries were aboard, said Mr GebreMariam. The dead included one Irish man and Kenyan, Ethiopian, American, Canadian, French, Chinese, Egyptian, Swedish, British, Dutch, Indian, Slovakian, Austrian, Swedish, Russian, Moroccan, Spanish, Polish, and Israeli citizens. Around the world, families were gripped by grief. Weeping relatives begged for information at airports in Nairobi and Addis Ababa. "We're just waiting for my mum. We're just hoping she took a different flight or was delayed. She's not picking up her phone," said Wendy Otieno, clutching her phone and crying. At the Addis Ababa airport, a woman called a mobile number in vain. "Where are you, my son?" she said, in tears. Others cried as they approached the terminal. Henom Esayas, whose sister's Nigerian husband was killed, told The Associated Press they were startled when a stranger picked up their frantic calls to his mobile phone, told them he had found it in the debris and promptly switched it off. The aircraft, a 737 MAX 8, is the same model that crashed into the Java Sea shortly after take-off from Jakarta on October 29, killing all 189 people on board the Lion Air flight. The cause of that crash is still under investigation. A senior US government official said it was too early to tell if there was any direct connection between the two accidents, but that reviewing the issue would be among the top priorities for investigators. A preliminary report into the October crash focused on airline maintenance and training and technical questions about the response of a Boeing anti-stall system to a recently replaced sensor. Boeing is working on a software patch on the system, while insisting cockpit procedures were already in place to deal safely with problems the Lion Air crew experienced. The 737 is the world's best-selling modern passenger aircraft and is seen as one of the industry's most reliable. Ethiopian's new aircraft had no recorded technical problems and the pilot had an "excellent" flying record, Mr GebreMariam said. "We received the airplane on November 15, 2018. It has flown more than 1,200 hours. It had flown from Johannesburg earlier this morning," he said. Flight ET 302, registration number ET-AVJ, crashed near the town of Bishoftu, 62km south-east of the capital Addis Ababa, with 149 passengers and eight crew aboard, the airline said. The flight had unstable vertical speed after take-off, the flight tracking website Flightradar24 tweeted. Data released by the Sweden-based service suggested the aircraft had climbed almost 1,000 feet after taking off from Addis Ababa, a hot and high-altitude airport whose thinner air requires extra effort from an aircraft's engines. It dipped about 450 feet before rapidly climbing another 900 feet until the point where satellite tracking data was lost. The aircraft had shattered into many pieces and was severely burnt, a Reuters reporter at the scene of the crash said. Clothing and personal effects were scattered widely over the field where the plane came down. There was no immediate indication of what caused the crash and safety experts said it was too early to speculate, adding most accidents are caused by a cocktail of factors. Nineteen staff from at least five UN and affiliated organisations died, including the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN refugee agency UNHCR, the International Telecommunications Union, the UN Environment Programme, the World Bank and the International Organisation on Migration, the IOM said. Michael Ryan, from Co Clare, was among the WFP workers to die. Seven Britons were killed, as were three members of a Slovakian MP's family. Anton Hrnko, an MP for the nationalist Slovak National Party, said he was "in deep grief" to announce that his wife Blanka, daughter Michala and son Martin were among the dead. Paolo Dieci, a founder of an aid group that works with Unicef in Africa, was also reported as among the dead. Norwegian Manchester United fans g have hailed compatriot Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for his success at Old Trafford (Hans Inge Ringodd) Video shows the moment Norwegian Manchester United fans gathered near their local church to celebrate the managerial success of compatriot Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Around 30 people gathered in Haugesund, in Rogaland, Norway, as the church bells played the tune of 1983 hit and fan favourite Glory Glory Man United. The footage, taken by Hans Inge Ringodd, sees the crowd braving what the journalist described as a cold and windy afternoon to show their support outside Var Frelsers Church. Solskjaer, who was born in Kristiansund, Nordmore, played for the Norway national team and spent 11 years at Manchester United as a player under Sir Alex Ferguson before becoming caretaker manager of the Red Devils in December 2018. Bernt Hjornevik is CEO of Manchester United Supporters Club Scandinavia said: Its actually quiet amazing to see Ole Gunnar it means a whole lot for us Norwegian (fans) to see him back at Old Trafford. Expand Close Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. (John Walton/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. (John Walton/PA) The supporters club has 42,000 members across Scandinavia, 39,000 of which are Norwegians, making them the largest supporters club in the world according to their CEO. Solskjaer has enjoyed an impressive run of results since taking charge of United, culminating in an historic victory over Paris St Germain in the Champions League last week, and for Mr Hjornevik he has done enough to earn the job full-time. He has turned the club upside down in a positive wave in just two and a half months, said Mr Hjornevik. Danger: A demonstrator throws a stone towards Indian police as a teargas shell fired by officers explodes behind him during a protest against the government in the northern city of Srinagar. Photo: Danish Ismail/Reuters The sari is being deployed as the latest political weapon in India's elections as the world's largest democracy prepares to go to the polls. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unveiled the "political saris", hoping the women's garments would act as mobile billboards for voters making up their minds in the coming weeks. India's election commission announced yesterday that the country's electorate, numbering more than 900 million, will go to the polls in seven phases between April 11 and May 19, with the results due on May 23. The first big campaigning stunt by the incumbent BJP was to launch the new saris, with pictures of Indian soldiers, fighter jets and Narendra Modi, the prime minister, printed on them. They were unveiled yesterday at the state BJP headquarters in Jaipur, Rajasthan, as party leaders hoped a rise in nationalism after the recent conflicts with Pakistan would encourage supporters literally to wear their loyalties. Last week, "airstrike" saris in shades of cream, saffron and green, as well as camouflage ones, became popular as the Indian government's fiery rhetoric prompted a wave of patriotic fervour. However, several sari vendors were left embarrassed after tweeters pointed out that their garments actually bore images of American forces, not Indian. The saris, however, may end up falling foul of the "model code of conduct" during election periods. The election commission asked to keep the military out of campaigning, saying the armed forces are "apolitical and neutral stakeholders in a modern democracy". The memo was issued on Saturday after billboards featuring BJP leaders such as Mr Modi and Amit Shah, its president, along with the Indian air force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, appeared around Delhi. "Everything is possible under PM Modi," the new billboards read. After the dates were announced, Mr Modi wrote on Twitter: "The festival of democracy, elections are here. I urge my fellow Indians to enrich the 2019 Lok Sabha [parliament] elections with their active participation. I hope this election witnesses a historic turnout. I particularly call upon first-time voters to vote in record numbers." Mr Modi had kept an intense schedule in the last fortnight as his administration tried to announce several policies and schemes before the code of conduct period was triggered. ( Daily Telegraph, London) Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021] Voting with their feet: North Koreans dance during election day at a polling station in Pyongyang. AP photo Millions of North Korean voters, including leader Kim Jong-un, went to the polls yesterday to elect a new line-up of 700 members for the next session of the national legislature. Voters were presented with just one state-sanctioned candidate per seat and cast their ballots not to select but rather to show their approval or, at least theoretically, disapproval of that candidate. The elections, last held in 2014, are for the entire Supreme People's Assembly, which on paper is the highest organ of power in North Korea. Its delegates come from all over the country and all walks of life. The candidates are selected by the ruling Korean Workers' Party and a couple of other smaller coalition parties that have seats in the assembly. Mr Kim, fresh off his trip to Hanoi for his second summit with US President Donald Trump, is a member of the assembly, though his power rests in his complete control over the ruling party, government and military. State media showed footage of him casting his vote at a polling centre at Pyongyang's Kim Chaek University of Technology. As was the custom in the Soviet Union and other communist countries, turnout is generally reported at 99pc or higher. Voting is generally regarded as a duty and responsibility. Simply staying at home is not an option. "I'm very proud to be voting for the first time," said 19-year-old university student Kim Ju Gyong, who cast her vote yesterday morning at the Pyongyang Primary School No 4 polling station. "I feel happy to be a citizen and I want to do my best for the future of my country." Expand Close Leading by example: Kim Jong-un casts his vote. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Leading by example: Kim Jong-un casts his vote. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP) Under North Korean law, citizens can vote from the age of 17. Voting began about 10am depending on the location and continued until late evening. Voters showed election officials their ID cards to get their ballot with the sole candidate's name on it, which they cast in a private booth. If they approved, they simply put the ballot in the box. If they didn't, they cross the name out and put it in the same box. But one official explained that such a thing rarely happens. "No one votes against the candidate," said Jin Ki Chol, the chairman of an election committee supervising a polling station at a cable factory in central Pyongyang. Election days have a festive mood. Bands play music as voters wait in line, and there is group dancing for those who have already finished. "The election will strikingly manifest the fixed will of our people to firmly trust and uphold to the last Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un despite storm and stress," the ruling party's official daily said yesterday. The number of deputies in the assembly is based on population - each represents from 30,000-35,000 people. Officials at two polling stations visited said they were not sure of the exact number this year, or when the results would be announced. Five years ago, 687 deputies were elected and the results, despite being a foregone conclusion, were announced two days after the vote. The elections are not intended to foster policy debates among the population or for the voters to change the nation's course from the bottom up. But for the authorities, they provide a veneer of democracy and a means of monitoring the whereabouts and loyalties of citizens. John Gildersleeve is to retire as chairman of property giant British Land this year after more than six years in charge. Mr Gildersleeve will step down at the conclusion of this years annual general meeting (AGM) on July 19, the company said on Monday afternoon. He will be replaced by Tim Score, who has been a non-executive director at the firm since 2014. Mr Gildersleeve said: British Land is a great business, led by a team of exceptional people and it has been an honour to serve on the Board, especially as chairman for the last six years. I am proud of the significant progress we have made as a team over that time and will step down from the Board in the summer with the business well positioned for the future. I wish everyone at British Land every success. Expand Close Tim Score will become chairman in July (British Land) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Tim Score will become chairman in July (British Land) Incoming chairman Mr Score currently leads British Lands audit committee, but will hand over his duties to fellow director Rebecca Worthington upon his accession to the top job. Mr Score said: It is a privilege to be appointed chairman of British Land. Since joining the Board I have seen first-hand the significant progress the business has made under Johns chairmanship and I am delighted to take on the role at such an important time for our business. The companys rental income took a hit last year on account of a string of failures in the retail industry. Its portfolio is made up of around 50% retail property and includes Sheffields Meadowhall shopping centre as well as several major London developments. Stephen Hawking's former nurse has been suspended and is facing a misconduct allegation over her care of the renowned physicist. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) in the UK handed Patricia Dowdy (61), who worked for the scientist for 15 years, an interim suspension in March 2016. A hearing into her professional conduct, which is expected to last until March 21 after beginning in February, has since been held behind closed doors. Matthew McClelland, director of fitness to practise at the nursing watchdog, said the rules of the NMC were "very clear that hearings will usually take place in public". But he said that "in some cases, including this particular case, there are reasons why this may not always happen". He said this could be "due to the health of those involved in the case, or that the allegations are related to a health condition of the nurse". Ms Dowdy has declined to comment, but revealed it has all been "very upsetting". The family of Professor Hawking lodged a complaint which prompted the investigation into Ms Dowdy. Prof Hawking died in March last year aged 76, having become one of the world's most renowned scientists, despite his decades-long battle with motor neurone disease. He was diagnosed with a rare form of the disease in 1964 at the age of 22 and was given just a few years to live. But he survived more than 50 years longer. He was married twice and had three children with his first wife. U.S. President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House. Photo: Al Drago/Getty Images Donald Trump plans to ask Congress for $8.6bn (7.6bn) to build a wall on the US southern border in 2020, a figure that far surpasses previous allocations for the project, according to reports. The president's new demand is six times what was allocated earlier this year for the wall, and 6pc more than he has sought to reallocate with his emergency declaration. It is unlikely to gain much traction with Democrats in control of the House of Representatives, however, who successfully thwarted his request for $5.6bn in border funding earlier this year. But the proposal could potentially set the stage for the president's re-election bid, even after a damaging start to the year that saw few concessions on the issue and Mr Trump taking the blame for the longest government shutdown in American history. "It gives the president the ability to say he has fulfilled his commitment to gain operational control of the southwest border," one administration official said. Another official said: "We have provided the course of action, the strategy and the request to finish the job. It's a question of, 'will Congress allow us to finish the job?'" The president's attempt to secure funding for the wall through an emergency declaration is being challenged in Congress and US courts. A resolution terminating the declaration is also being considered in the Senate and appears to have enough support from Republicans to pass. This would force Mr Trump to sign the first veto of his presidency, which would not likely be overruled in Congress. To balance the books, Mr Trump will propose slashing domestic and international programmes including foreign aid, environmental protection and transportation, according to various American news outlets. Larry Kudlow, the president's top economic adviser, revealed yesterday that the US leader wanted to see a cut in all domestic spending by 5pc. Asked whether another budget battle was on the horizon, he said: "I suppose there will be. [The] whole issue of the wall, of border security, is of paramount importance. We have a crisis down there. I think the president has made that case very effectively. "It will be a tough budget... [Trump] is going to stay with his wall. He's going to stay with the border security theme. I think it's essential." Mr Trump has made the wall a central promise of his presidency, having launched his 2016 election campaign with a promise to secure America's southern border. Fintech start-up Tide is to raise 60 million from investors after winning a multimillion-pound grant last month aimed at breaking the oligopoly of the big high street banks. Tide, along with is partner ClearBank, won 60 million from the Royal Bank of Scotlands (RBS) competition remedies fund and is aiming to match this with a cash injection from new and existing investors. The company said that in addition to its current backers, which include Anthemis, Augmentum, Creandum, Goodwater, LocalGlobe, Passion Capital and SpeedInvest, it has received interest from 70 venture capital funds. Tide provides bank accounts and services to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and said it will use the funds raised from the grant to help it grow. It is aiming to capture at least 8% of the SME market by 2023. The company, which operates solely via its app, currently has around 70,000 customers which equates to about 1.2% of the market. Oliver Prill, Tides chief executive, said: This new investment plan will help Tide accelerate its strategy to capture a significant share of the SME banking market. It will allow us to reach our goal of becoming the leading business banking challenger in the UK. We want to create a genuine scale challenger to the oligopoly that has dominated and failed SMEs for too long. SMEs should have the option of a dedicated and focused banking partner that will help them grow their business. Tide, which does not have a banking licence, applied for one of the larger pots of the fund with ClearBank, the first clearing bank to launch in Britain for 250 years which does have a licence. The fund is part of conditions attached to RBSs 45 billion bailout a decade ago at the height of the financial crisis. It is aimed at boosting competition in the banking sector which is dominated by the big lenders and helping smaller firms develop their services to SMEs. Metro Bank won the lions share of the fund with 120 million and digital-only challenger bank Starling was awarded 100 million. Send to Email Address Your Name Your Email Address Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Email check failed, please try again Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Actor Upen Patel says it is great to see both the countries saying no to war, because we need to fight the terrorist, not with each other. Multi-lingual actor Upen Patel raises some valid points in his recent social media post. The actor shared a series of video, where he is seen saying, India-Pakistan doesn't need to fight each other but combine forces to fight terrorist. "It is great to see tweets from both the sides, Pakistan and India, saying No To War, and that is wonderful because this is not about war, this is about a fight against terrorists, who are killing innocent people," says Upen Patel. In the wake of Pulwama Terror Attack, Indian Air Force and Pakistani Air Force have been engaging in aerial battle, and one Indian Air Force Pilot has been captured behind the enemy lines. The Pakistan Army released a video that shows a blindfolded man, identifying himself as a Wing Commander-rank IAF officer and his service number. Talking about the Pilot, Upen said, "Just saw the video of Indian pilot, who is being held in Pakistan, what a brave man. He is doing what he was ordered, representing his country. I am glad Pakistani authorities have treated him well. It is important to remember that this isn't about two nations, nor it is about religion, it is about coming together as nations and fighting terrorists, fight terror and those who cause terror." The Indian Government has strongly objected to Islamabad putting out photographs and videos of the pilot who was missing in action after he engaged with Pakistani jets that violated Indian airspace on Wednesday morning. After appearing in five back-to-back Tamil films in the last two years and working with top directors such as Shankar, AR Murugadoss and R Kannan, actor Upen will soon make his debut in the Telugu film industry. The mega project, which has already begun shooting in Jaisalmer, is being directed by Thiru. Actor Upen will be seen playing the main antagonist in the film, which also stars Gopichand. The action spy thriller will reportedly be shot at a massive budget. By Imani StephensCronkite News MESA With kicks, blocks and twists of the wrist, 16-year-old Kylie Hunts-in-Winter is teaching Native American boys and girls to stay safe. Her defense classes have a mission: to keep more indigenous women and girls from disappearing and dying. An estimated 500 have been lost to violence over the past decades, but experts said the number is under-reported. Native women are more likely to be a target of attacks and will need to defend themselves more, Hunts-in-Winter said as she taught members of the Native American Club at Westwood High School. Hunts-in-Winter, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, said she teaches people so they can teach others. Cronkite News Video by Imani Stephens: Valley teen teaches self-defense Ive been doing martial arts since I was 3 years old, she said. My dad walked me into the dojo as a young girl, he wanted me to be able to defend myself. As I progressed more in martial arts, I started to love it. Souta Calling Last, executive director of an educational nonprofit Indigenous Vision , said the class is one more way to educate others about violence inflicted on Native women. The awareness movement is known as #MMIWG , for missing and murdered indigenous women and girls There has been a missing, murdered indigenous womens movement that has been striving to get awareness, mainstream awareness about how many women in our community are met with violence and are disappearing, Calling Last said. In most instances, our cases are not looked into at all. study that began in 2017, by the Urban Indian Health Institute identified 506 cases of missing and murdered American Indian and Alaska Native American women and girls in 71 cities across the country. It also states that the number of cases is likely an undercount due to the limited resources and poor data collection. The self-defense class at Westwood High was led by Kylie Hunts-in-Winter, in red sweatshirt, and Souta Calling Last, founder and executive director of Indigenous Vision, a nonprofit that works to revitalize Indigenous communities. Photo by Meg Potter / Cronkite News It could be me, Calling Last said. An unprecedented amount of women from my community are disappearing at alarming rates and its an epidemic in Canada and the U.S. The epidemic hits as close as worrying about my own sisters and myself. Its important that we take our protection into our own hands and with these self-defense classes we give the girls the ability and the empowerment of a tool. Hunts-in-Winter has a black belt in Kenpo karate and holds belts in other martial arts. She highlights videos of other women in martial arts on her Instagram page (@kylie_hiw) , which has nearly 40,000 followers, some of whom tell her their personal stories of survival. I heard about someone who has been a part of human trafficking, someone who has gotten away, and just so many dangerous scenarios, Hunts-in-Winter said. But because they could defend themselves, they were able to be safe. A major part of self-defense is verbal. I think the most important thing is, dont leave where you are. Stay in a public place, Hunts-in-Winter said. As soon as youre taken away from the public place, youre a lot less likely to be able to get away. Hunts-in-Winter will teach classes next month on her reservation and this summer at a camp in Montana for Native American girls in foster care. Kylie Hunts-in-Winter, in red sweatshirt, shows Isaiah Herder, 16, how to roll during a self-defense class for the Native American Club at Westwood High School in Mesa. Photo by Meg Potter / Cronkite News Members of the Native American Club at Westwood High School in Mesa learn ways to protect themselves from violence, which an estimated 80 percent of Native women are likely to experience in their lifetimes. Photo by Meg Potter / Cronkite News This story originally appeared on Cronkite News and is published via a Creative Commons license . Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University Join the Conversation It's always a pleasure to see young officers commissioned in the Indian Army. Another proud moment for the army came on Saturday when 172 cadets were commissioned as Officers in Officers Training Academy, Chennai. The cadets also hailed from Bhutan and Afghanistan. PTI Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh, General Officer, Commander-in-Chief, reviewed the parade on March 9. He also asked the students to stick to core values of the Indian Army before presenting the Sword of Honour and a silver medal to academy under Officer Siddhartha Bhawnani. PTI Lt. Gen. Singh presented the gold medal to cadet Sandhya and bronze medal to the battalion under Officer Noyonika Binda, the press release said. Lt. Gen. Singh also congratulated OTA on the excellent standard displayed by all. PTI The Indian Army is one of the largest armies in the world and it also provides training to troops and cadets of other countries like Afghanistan and Bhutan. (With PTI inputs) With the announcement of general election to be held in seven phases, the country has descended into a sea of political rhetoric masquerading as the campaign to woo the voters and for the next two months, its going to be politics left right and centre in the worlds biggest democracy. But this political slugfest is bound to follow some rules set by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and they are known as Model Code of Conduct which needs to be followed by all political parties. Lets know more about Model Code of Conduct and how does it contain the political parties from crossing the line. What is the Model Code of Conduct? The Model Code of Conduct refers to the a set of guidelines released by the Election Commission in order to ensure a free, fair and peaceful conduct of elections. The Article 324 of the Indian Constitution vests power in the EC to monitor the Centre, all state governments, all candidates, polling booths, observers, and election manifestos to ensure that election process get completed in a fair and impartial way. What are the components of an MCC? Apart from election manifestos, the MCC deals with seven other provisions which includes meeting, processions, polling day, observers, polling booths, party already in power and general conduct. 1. General conduct is the most important aspect of the MCC as it allows the parties to criticise each other on the basis of their work and policies, but the use of religious and caste identities to lure voters is strictly prohibited under MCC. Reuters 2. For meetings and gatherings, the parties have to seek prior permission from the local body such as police before organising rally and public gathering. 3. Burning effigies of the rival candidates or parties is not allowed and its the job of the police that rival parties shall not be given permission to hold rallies in one area at the same time. If they do, their routes should be diverted. 4. On the day of voting, the workers of the parties inside the booth must wear a badge with party name and symbol and EC will allow them to enter the booth. 5. No political campaign can be held within the distance of 100 metres of the polling booth. Restrictions for the ruling party In 1979, some restrictions were introduced for the ruling party., both in the state as well as in the centre. These restrictions are: 1. The ruling party cant advertise by spending from the state coffers which belongs to the public exchequer. It also cant use official mass media for parties publicity or achievements. 2. No Member of Parliament or minister shall combine their official visit and the party campaign. AP 3. During the campaign, the concerned minister or other authorities cant announce any financial grant or promise to construct roads etc. 4. Other parties shall also be allowed to use public spaces for the campaign and the ruling party cant use their power to stop them from campaigning. (With News18 inputs) The tech industry is full of CEOs and successful entrepreneurs that come from humble roots. And while many studied hard and worked for years to get to the top, others also did the same without ever graduating college. And to Tim Cook, that's an important fact. Images courtesy: Reuters During the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board meeting on Wednesday, in the White House with President Trump and other members, the Apple CEO took a stand against jobs relying purely on educational qualifications. Also Read: Donald Trump Called Apple's CEO 'Tim Apple', And Everyone Trolled Both Of Them Like Crazy He insisted that there are certain skills in demand in the industry that students may not even learn in college. Things like coding for instance. "And so to that end, as we've looked at the - sort of, the mismatch between the skills that are coming out of colleges and what the skills are that we believe we need in the future, and many other businesses do, we've identified coding as a very key one," Cook said during the meeting. To that end, Cook was happy to say that about half of Apple's hires last year were from among people without a four-year college degree. And he believes these missing skills are exactly what the education system needs. According to Cook, every child in the US should have some level of training in coding before they graduate high school. After all, more and more fields these days involve some level of technical tasks, especially as more and more jobs become automated by AI. Also Read: Despite Bad iPhone Sales, Tim Cook Says Apple's Future Has "Never Been More Optimistic" That belief is why Apple launched its 'Everyone Can Code' program back in 2016. It's a school curriculum designed to help students learn coding in steps, all the way from kindergarten to college. Right now, at least 4,000 schools in the US use the curriculum. Other major companies also feel this way, ready to hire degree-less employees, including Google, IBM, and more. However, even as companies become more accepting of such hires, HR policies will likely take much longer to catch up. According to studies by the US Bureau of Labor, workers without a degree earn an average of 40 percent less than their peers with educational qualifications. In India too, you may be doing the same job, but an IIT or IIM graduate earn nearly double that of someone without that degree. And good luck even trying to land the job in the first place without a degree. Also Read: Tim Cook Says Facebook "Should Not Exist", Angry With The Social Giant's Privacy Issues Cook has a hope in this case however. After all, Apple itself was founded by a college dropout, Steve Jobs. He's not the only "uneducated" success either. Microsoft's Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard, as did Mark Zuckerberg decades later. Twitter's Jack Dorsey and Dell founder Michael Dell were also college dropouts when they began, as were many many more. At the end of the day Cook says, you could study for half your lifetime if you want, but "expanding your horizons" is what's really important. It's not easy to cope with the loss of a loved one. When a soldier is martyred in the battlefield, his family is left to struggle with grief so profound, it becomes hard to get on with life. But you'd be surprised by how much spirit such families have. Sangeeta Mall, the wife of a rifleman who was killed in action in Jammu and Kashmir while battling terrorists was recently commissioned into the Indian Army after passing out from OTA (Officers Training Academy) in Chennai on March 9. Twitter- TOI Sangeeta worked as a teacher before she got married to Shishir Mall in 2013. Shishir was part of Gorkha Rifles and was posted in Baramulla sector of Jammu and Kashmir when he was martyred in 2015 during a gun battle. After his death, Sangeeta quit her teaching job to be with her mother-in-law. Talking about her journey, Sangeetas brother-in-law Sushant Mall told TOI, Our family had to face several challenges but now, it is a matter of pride for us that she has become a commissioned officer. We are planning a grand welcome for her once she returns home. Not only did Sangeeta lose her husband but she also lost her unborn child in a miscarriage. A few months before Shishir passed away, her father-in-law - also an ex-serviceman - died. #ThoseThatWait This is a newly commissioned Lt Sangeeta Mall. Her husband, Rifleman Shishir Mall was martyred in Baramula in September 2015. She suffered a miscarriage post his martyrdom. Yet, determined to succeed, here she is today. A tough breed, the fauji wife! God Bless! pic.twitter.com/s9Nk8lhzpX Harpreet (@CestMoiz) March 11, 2019 My mother supported her and encouraged her to study further and do a banking job, said Sushant. He added that Sangeeta became motivated to join the army after she attended an investiture ceremony in Ranikhet in 2016 where Shishir was awarded Sena Medal posthumously. "She worked hard and cleared the OTA examination. The Darjeeling Chronicle After training at the academy, Sangeeta was commissioned in the army as a Lieutenant in the short service commission. She is expected to come home to Dehradun soon before reporting for duty. A bride in Bihar called off her wedding as the groom allegedly turned up drunk to the wedding. Rinki Kumari, told her family to ask the groom to leave as he was so unaware of their surrounding that he didnt even know why he was there. "The groom was so drunk that he was unaware of his surroundings. He misbehaved on the stage, so my daughter refused to marry him." Tribhuvan Shah, the bride's father told news agency ANI. Representational Image - Reuters Relatives of the bride also alleged that Bablu Kumar was not even able to stand or perform any ritual at the wedding that was held at Dumri Chapiya village. Both the families apparently tried to convince Rinki but she firmly refused. The villagers apparently did not let the grooms family leave until they returned the dowry they extracted from Rinkis parents. The Nitish Kumar led government banned liquor in Bihar in 2016. A similar incident happened in January 2019, where a bride in Nalanda district turned away the groom and his friends after they arrived drunk to the wedding venue. The villagers informed the police and the groom was charged for violating the prohibition. Indian American model/author/TV personality Padma Lakshmi, seen at The Cuts How I Get It Done at 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge March 4 in Brooklyn, New York, is the new Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Program. (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for New York Magazine) Newman, Calif., police officer Ronil Singh was fatally shot in the early morning hours of Dec. 26, 2018, as he pulled over a man suspected of drunk driving. Seven people have been charged with aiding the suspected killer of the Fijiian Indian American policeman. (Ronil Singh Facebook page) Welcome to Kumba Archives The head of a certain Ali Pima, hung on a stick, was discovered this Sunday March 10, around a neighbourhood in Kumba, with a note on it that states, Black Leg Ali Pima. Be warned. All Black Legs. The Ghost... Are Around Reports say Alis constant visits to the Kumba Central Prison, and his relationship with security officers had led to this mayhem. Some other reports say before being abducted this Sunday March 10, he had been warned severally by separatists( Amba boys), in that part of the country, to quit such acts. His body is yet to be found Reacting to Alis execution, activist Eric Tataw said he did all he could to convince Ali's abductors but they didnt listen to him. He however insisted that he cant state for a fact which group carried out the act. " I spoke with him hours before his death. I tried to intervene when his family called me but the boys rejected my plea, saying he's a big black leg. He was shot five times and it didn't penetrate him and the boys went this terrible way. I have voice records with them. I can't tell if the boys are Ambas or the Military. But, God knows I tried, said the activist, based in US. Since October 2017, the Anglophone crisis became deadly. Many people termed blacklegs are attacked and some killed. Black legs these days are those believed to leak out secrets about separatist fighters and their hideouts, to the police or those who believe in a United Cameroon. Most civil servants or high profiled personalities are targets. Government on its part, keeps minimising the increasing threats, killings ,looting, burnings, displacements , in the Anglophone regions. Many denizens suggest that government should initiate an inclusive political dialogue to end the war in these areas. However, despite the risks involved, it is rather forcing civil servants to resume work at most unsecured areas. Few days ago, Eselakwe Emile, First Assistant Senior Divisional officer for Lebialem in the South West region , passed an ultimatum on all civil servants and contract workers who abandoned their post of duty since April 2018, to resume latest March 25, 2019. These workers are torn between disrespecting the administrative order and getting sacked, or obeying and possibly work in a hostile environment. The number of active offshore drilling rigs in the world, excluding North America, was up by 56 year on year in February to 250, according to data from the oilfield services company Baker Hughes. This is the highest level of offshore drilling activity since late 2015. The biggest increase in... Nemenoff Report 12/09/2021 The PRICE Futures Group - 1 hour ago Financials: Mar. Bonds are currently 16 higher at 16110, 10 Year Notes 6 higher at 13012.5 and 5 Yr. Notes 1.5 higher at 12027. Quite a volatile week as the market bounced between support of... USDA WASDE DAY. The Corn & Ethanol Report 12/09/2021 The PRICE Futures Group - 1 hour ago We kickoff the day with Export Sales, Initial Jobless Claims (04/Dec), Jobless Claims 4-Week Average (DEC/04) and Continuing Jobless Claims (27/Nov) at 7:30 A.M., Wholesale Inventories MoM (Oct) at 9:00... Frontrunning CPI Monica Kingsley - 1 hour ago S&P 500 rose as VIX retraced over half of its recent spike, but tech and value have a short-term tired look. Cyclicals turning down while utilities with staples barely budge in spite of a surge in yields?... Austrians who flout vaccine mandate face fines up to $4,000 AP - Thu Dec 9, 8:51AM CST BERLIN (AP) Austria plans to impose fines of up to 3,600 euros (around $4,000) on people who flout a vaccine mandate it aims to introduce in February for all residents age 14 and over, the health... $SPX : 4,685.87 (-0.33%) $DOWI : 35,714.77 (-0.11%) $IUXX : 16,299.09 (-0.58%) WHO warns fears of omicron could spark new vaccine hoarding AP - Thu Dec 9, 8:48AM CST GENEVA (AP) The World Health Organization expressed concerns Thursday that rich countries spooked by the emergence of the omicron variant could step up the hoarding of COVID-19 vaccines and strain... $SPX : 4,685.87 (-0.33%) $DOWI : 35,714.77 (-0.11%) $IUXX : 16,299.09 (-0.58%) The new Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme (VHIS) will kick off on April 01 and is estimated to be worth HK$10 billion (US$1.3 billion). To encourage people to join the scheme, participants will receive an annual HK$8,000 tax break per family member listed on the health insurance policy. The government expects around 1.5 million people to participate in the VHIS within the next three years. According to the report, Hong Kong residents, or around 7.3 million people, are part of the public medical insurance programme, which covers doctor consultations at clinics, hospitalisations, and surgeries. The government funds 90% of costs, meaning a medical procedure may cost ten times more when obtained at a private hospital The citys public hospitals are swamped by people needing medical attention, meaning non-urgent surgeries may be delayed for years. Visiting public clinics may also entail waiting in line for hours. This led the government to back the VHIS by offering tax incentives as a way of encouraging individuals to move to the private insurance system and alleviate the burden on the government health infrastructure. The move is not meant to save taxpayers money, the report said - instead, it seeks to reduce the number of people using the citys public health facilities. The VHIS also allows elderly individuals to continue having medical coverage past age 60, or the age where many private health plans cut off coverage. Under the VHIS, individuals are covered up to age 100, with annual compensation of up to HK$420,000. The huge burden on the public medical system has created demand for private health insurance. A survey by AXA showed that 82% of respondents were open to buying a VHIS plan. Almost half (49%) preferred a private plan because they believe it offers better service. However, a similar proportion of respondents ended up choosing public hospitals due to the savings. Michael Saadat, executive director of financial services at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), said the regulator is planning further scrutiny of operators in the sector that has one of the most complained-about financial products, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. We are scoping a review of the travel insurance market this year, Saadat told the publication, as he noted that the wording in travel insurance policies is often what makes it difficult for policyholders to make a claim. The ASIC probe of the travel insurance sector, which the regulator said is currently in its early stages, may look at the sector's use of exclusions relating to health conditions. John Price, the Australian Financial Complaints Authoritys (AFCA) lead ombudsman for general insurance, said most travel-insurance complaints received by the EDR body were probably those related to pre-existing medical conditions. Often the exclusions contained in insurance policies, travel insurance policies in particular, are quite broad, Price told SMH, as he identified claims for stolen luggage where an insurer said the bags were left unattended, the loss of expensive jewellery that was not declared when taking out the policy, and injuries to unlicensed motorbike riders as among the common disputes. Price said that since AFCAs launch in November, the number of complaints about travel insurance remained broadly flat. In contrast, complaints across all of AFCA, which also deals with banks and wealth companies, saw a 40% increase. Campbell Fuller, the Insurance Council of Australias (ICA) general manager of communications, said the industry body and its members will assist ASIC if the corporate watchdog determines a travel insurance review is required, SMH reported. The WTW spokeswoman added that Chubb is the lead underwriter for the Ethiopian Airlines account. The global insurer is yet to respond to media requests for comment. Flight ET302 left Addis Ababa at 8:38am local time and was bound for Nairobi, Kenya. Contact with the jetliner was lost by 8:44am, according to Ethiopian Airlines. The firms chief executive officer Tewolde GebreMariam said the pilot reported problems shortly after takeoff and was cleared to return to the airport. The jetliner was carrying people from 35 nations on board, including 32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians, nine Ethiopians and eight Americans. The United Nations said it lost 19 staff members in the crash, who were traveling to an environmental conference this week in Nairobi. 2010 This got me thinking about our obsession with change. It gives us a weird amnesia about what has worked and what hasnt in advertising. We are always searching for the next thing in case we are not seen as contemporary or modern. Remember the frenzy around Pokemon Go? It was going to change the world. Google glasses too. Anybody remember Vine? And just last week, Amazon discontinued dash buttons. I remember being in Cannes and somebody in cool trainers saying they were the future. Nobody remembers what anybody said yesterday. We just keep moving forward. I understand that this happens with innovation. And innovation is energetic and sexy. What isnt sexy is stuff that is timeless. Things that dont change. Thats a bit boring. So, we dont really talk about it. Towards the end of last year, Mark Ritson wrote an article about marketers being obsessed with the future. He used the phrase the pornography of change. This has really stuck in my head. I think it is a excellent way of explaining our obsession with new stuff. VR headsets etc. Inherently, in advertising, we believe the new will always be the correct answer. I also think a lot of what comes and goes is the delivery mechanism. The platform. This is changing a lot and will keep changing. How stuff gets to you and what data that stuff can generate. What hasnt changed is it has to make you feel something. As the late great David Abbott once said, it doesnt matter how fast shit reaches you, its still shit. Perhaps, you dont want to look at film because you think that is old school. Ok. For the hell of it, go back to 2007 and look at the Tap Project. Now, look at few ideas from 2010. Go look at T-Mobile Dance, or The Zimbabwean, Droga 5s Jay-Z Decoded in 2011, Dove Sketches in 2013 and then look at Fearless Girl, a recent piece of brilliant work. What you will see is a whole lot of good work. You will also see how when you have a great idea time doesnt make much difference. A great idea is a great idea. Thats why they have value. Delivery and how things integrate is the place where there are many shifting tectonic plates. And this will continue to escalate rapidly. However, what that delivery mechanism serves you has not changed half as much as people make out. If you want a persons time, you better have something to give them. That was true yesterday and will be more true tomorrow. We are a business that is constantly looking at the future with good reason. However, occasionally we should learn from our past about what is unchanging. Last week WPPs Mark Read said this. We need to invest more in creativity. Weve disappeared down the rabbit hole of optimization, but a fantastic idea can multiply a clients budget by three to five times. He is right, although Les Binet and Peter Field would claim it is even more effective than that. What he is saying though is clear. Over the last couple of years, advertising went a bit crazy. Some people thought we were selling something else besides ideas and creativity that helps business grow. My question is what else besides creativity can do that to a clients budget? My next question is why did anybody ever move away from creativity if it can do that? The simple answer is people thought efficiency and effectiveness were the same thing. There are many examples right now in ad land of this blindness. For some, it will prove fatal. It would seem a good story is still a good story. A great idea will always be a great idea. An independent panel of judges, comprising insurance industry leaders and senior representatives, including from IAG, Sum Insured, QBE Australia and New Zealand, KPMG, SURA, and Allianz Australia, will select the winners. Winners will be announced at a black-tie gala event on May 03 at The Star, Sydney. They will also be published in Insurance Business magazine and online. To take part in the Sydney event, book here. QBE was named a finalist in three categories: Best Digital Strategy General Insurer, General Insurer Claims Team of the Year, and Blake Oliver Consulting Australian General Insurer of the Year. Two of its staff are also competing for the General Insurer BDM of the Year category: Justine Boyes and Melissa Corrigan. Vasudevas overall remit as COO, which she took on this month, is aimed at delivering more robust operational stability and working with the operating companies to remove complexity. Read more: AXA UK creates COO role The realignment will also see the strategy, brand, and communications functions as well as customer proposition and innovation fall under the oversight of the chief executives office. AXA PPP healthcare finance director Amber Wilkinson has been tapped to manage these areas. Appointed as chief of staff to AXA UK & Ireland CEO Claudio Gienal, Wilkinson will be in charge of the AXA brands reputation in the UK and Ireland and leading the units Beyond 2020 strategy effective April 01. Meanwhile chief customer and innovation officer Darrell Sansom will be assuming a new position involving plans to diversify the Irish business. He will be working with AXA Ireland chief executive Phil Bradley. These changes at a senior level are designed to reflect our desire to focus firmly on our customer experience and simplify decision making, explained Gienal. I am confident that the new structure and governance will allow us to deliver against the priorities we have set. The public process should have included studies to determine the premiums that the participating providers would have to pay to offset future claims. The plaintiffs claimed that by skipping the process, the funds solvency was threatened. In their complaint, the plaintiffs wanted the court to void all the actions taken by Franchini without an open process. However, then-state District Judge David Thomson determined that the decision would be too disruptive to the funds current members, as well as patients who were receiving compensation from the program. As an alternative, Thomson issued an order earlier this year that directed Franchini to create new rules for admitting the providers within 90 days. The order also asked the state official to do a risk assessment of general hospital Christus St. Vincent one of the member-providers of the fund and its outpatient facilities within 120 days to ensure that the entities were paying the right premiums into the fund. Franchini initially asked the judge to stay his order in February, reasoning that it could have a negative impact on physicians that wanted coverage from the fund within the 120-day period. However, he later withdrew that request and has recently filed a notice of appeal. Santa Fe New Mexican reported that the plaintiffs have since filed a motion requesting that Franchinis appeal be dismissed, claiming the appeal is impulsive since there are still some unresolved issues in the case. We are honored to contribute to the mission of these two incredible organizations that dedicate their time to helping our nations veterans and their families, said Bob Wiedower, vice president of sales development and military programs at Combined Insurance. The donations were part of the companys Operation Veteran GiveBack program, a nationwide sales competition in which the companys sales zones competed to give to a charity of their choice. Combined Insurances East Zone took first place and selected Lukes Wings. The Central Zone took second and selected Heartland Alliance. This is the fifth consecutive year that Lukes Wings has been a recipient of the donation, the company said. The support we receive from partners like Combined Insurance is invaluable for the work we do every day, said Fletcher Gill, founder and CEO of Lukes Wings. We are grateful for the commitment they show to our nations veterans, that allows us to reunite thousands of families with their veteran loved ones. Combined Insurance was named the number-one military-friendly employer for 2019 by VIQTORY and G.I. Jobs magazine, marking the companys eighth consecutive year in the top 10 and fifth consecutive year in the top five. Connecticut lawmakers were urged Friday to pass additional legislation to address the states crumbling foundations problem and also find additional funds to help impacted homeowners. Michael Marglaras, superintendent of the Connecticut Foundation Solutions Indemnity Company, said it is good news the entity created by the General Assembly has begun paying claims, but there are already $57 million in claim liabilities and only $18.6 million in cash on hand. He said 507 homeowners have so far filed applications for financial assistance. Many more are expected. That sounds a little bit like state government, he said, likening the captive insurance companys balance sheet to the states deficit struggles. He predicted the captive insurance company will be shut down by this time next year, unless additional funds are identified. Marglaras has warned lawmakers previously the $100 million in state bonding and proceeds from an annual $12 fee on homeowners insurance policies is not enough to help the estimated thousands of homeowners in eastern and central Connecticut whose foundations are deteriorating from the presence pyrrhotite, an iron sulfide that has reacted with naturally over time with water and oxygen. From the applications he has reviewed so far, Marglaras said the average cost to replace a concrete foundation is $168,000. The captive insurance company is capped at providing up to $175,000. He said the overall average cost of remediating a home, a price that includes replacing the concrete as well as decking, interior work and other things, has averaged $202,000 per home. Most affected homeowners have been unable to have those costs covered by their homeowners companies. Three insurance companies have so far provided $15.5 million to a fund to help policyholders bridge the gap between what they receive from the captive insurance company and the overall cost fixing their home, but lawmakers made it clear Friday they expect insurers to do more. There have also been ongoing efforts to obtain federal assistance. Two state legislative committees held a joint public hearing Friday on nine bills aimed at addressing the problem, which impacts more than 40 communities. More than 40 bills related to the concrete problem were filed this session. I think weve made progress from where we started in 2015, said Rep. Kurt Vail, R-Stafford Springs, who is part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers representing affected towns. But he said theres still a long way to go to fully address a problem that has been estimated to have at least a $1 billion price tag. I think were going to be here every year trying to fix things, he said. Fridays bills addressed various aspects of the crumbling foundations issue. Among other things, they would improve quarry standards, require sellers to disclose issues with pyrrhotite, and require homeowners insurance policies cover the peril of collapse, something the industry strongly opposes. The Insurance Association of Connecticut said such legislation would have a major negative impact on homeowners insurance premiums in Connecticut and may well prove to be highly disruptive of the market and affect the availability and affordability of insurance for every homeowner in Connecticut since all homeowners would have to purchase coverage for a new peril. Insurers would need to adjust premiums to account for an expensive new risk. This would affect the price of insurance for every homeowner in Connecticut, according to a statement from the association. It is important to recognize that homeowners insurance is not a home warranty contract it is neither designed nor intended to cover slow deterioration or wear and tear. Homeowners insurance is for sudden, accidental losses. Related: Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Carriers Legislation Homeowners Connecticut Theresa Mays government declared Brexit talks are deadlocked as ministers urged the European Union to make a last minute concession to stop the deal being thrown out by Parliament this week. Mays office said on Monday that she spoke to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker by telephone late on Sunday, but the prime minister is not planning to travel to Brussels because no progress is being made in the negotiations. The gloomy assessment from Downing Street followed appeals from Cabinet minister Andrea Leadsom, a leading Brexit supporter, for one last heave by British and EU negotiators to help win a crucial vote on the exit deal in Parliament on Tuesday. Leadsom appealed to Labour, Conservative and Scottish Nationalist Party members to back the deal and defer seeking changes until they debate legislation in the weeks ahead. I think we all need to support the prime minister, Leadsom said in an interview. That would mean that we can move on while leaving open the possibility to potentially amend how we do this, she said. While negotiations are continuing, the stalemate follows an offer from the EU on Friday, which was instantly rejected by the British side. If Mays deal is voted down this week, Parliament will then get a vote on whether to delay Brexit to avoid a chaotic no-deal exit. Pound investors are already pricing in postponement, which could allow lawmakers time to push for a softer Brexit, or even scrap the divorce altogether. Some members of Parliament are telling May to pull the vote because they expect a defeat on a similar scale to the historic defeat she suffered in January, the Times reported. The prime minister has warned that a defeat risks scuttling her blueprint for Brexit and replacing it with a scaled-down plan, potentially keeping the U.K. inside the EUs single market and customs union. For pro-Brexit campaigners, that would be a betrayal of the 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU. Exposing Weakness Cabinet ministers urged their Tory colleagues on Sunday to support Mays deal, with Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt saying both the EU and British parliamentarians need to be realistic. Health Secretary Matt Hancock insisted defeat is not inevitable. Benjamin Franklin said of the U.S. Constitution, I vote for this with all its faults and I think thats the approach that we need to take on Tuesday, Hancock told Sky News. Outlining tactics for Tuesdays vote, the opposition Labour Party said it wouldnt offer an amendment to force a second referendum. There is a growing feeling that Tuesday should be a straight up-down vote on the deal, Keir Starmer, Labours Brexit spokesman, told Sky News. Tuesday is about exposing the weakness of the prime minister. Other Key Developments: Attorney General Geoffrey Cox told the Mail on Sunday that any arbitration mechanism secured for the Irish border backstop could be triggered on the very first day. The Sunday Times predicted a 230-vote margin of defeat in the Commons on the so-called meaningful vote, the same gap as last time With assistance from Ian Wishart. Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Topics Europe Uk State-owned Brazilian bank Caixa Economica Federal is hoping to raise 15 billion reais ($3.88 billion) through the listing of four of its subsidiaries, chief executive Pedro Guimaraes told newspaper O Globo in an interview published on Saturday. The bank aims to list its insurance, asset management, lottery and credit card subsidiaries in the second half of 2019 or first half of 2020, Guimaraes said. In January, he had said they could be listed within 12 months. The company had previously disclosed that it plans to sell minority stakes in the subsidiaries through listings in Sao Paulo and New York. ($1 = 3.8671 reais) (Reporting by Jake Spring, Editing by Rosalba OBrien) Topics Carriers Funding Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI) announced it has appointed Pedro Mairos as head of Marine, and Sean Mannion as head of Property, for the UK and Ireland. Mairos comes to BHSI with nearly two decades working in marine insurance around the globe. He was most recently UK deputy chief underwriting officer and head of marine cargo underwriting, UK Branch, at AXA Corporate Solutions. He also held marine insurance roles at AXA in Paris, Hong Kong and Dubai. Mannion takes the reins as head of Property, UK and Ireland, with more than 35 years of industry experience. He was most recently head of Property & Energy Lines, Commercial Insurance UK, at Zurich. Prior to that he was senior vice president and global property executive at AIG UK. Mannion is a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute. Our new line of flexible marine products marks an important advance in providing broad, multi-line solutions for customers and brokers in the UK and Ireland, said Chris Colahan, head of UK and Europe, BHSI. Mairos and Mannion are based in BHSIs office in London. Topics Property AXA XL A statewide shortage of trained medical personnel has left many rural county ambulance services having to delay hospital transfers to ensure they have enough staff for emergencies. For example, in Norton County in northwest Kansas, the countys 5,400 residents are served by six full-time volunteers and nine volunteers, who respond to all 911 calls and taken patients from one hospital to another. Sometimes patients needing to be transferred are left waiting, said Craig Sowards, Norton County EMS director. In response to the problem, a proposal before the state Legislature would allow drivers without medical training to transport stable patients in rural areas, which sometimes can take hours. Ambulances would still need to have one person with medical training riding in the back, such as an EMT or a nurse, The Kansas News Service reports. Some state and local EMS officials say having only one trained person on board could be risky, and they worry about lowering standards of care in rural areas. Occasionally patients decline and its often helpful to have an extra set of hands to stabilize (patients) before they move on, said David Johnston, president of the Kansas Emergency Medical Services Association. Joe House, executive director of the Kansas Board of Emergency Medical Services, defended current regulations that require two medically trained workers on board, including the driver. We write our regulations to protect the publics well-being and safety, House said. Its either safe to do or not safe to do. Emergency medical services are competing with clinics, hospitals and schools for trained personnel and offer a starting wage of only about $21,000 a year, House said. Many rural ambulance services rely on certified volunteers. Phillips County in northwest Kansas has 84 volunteers to serve a population just under 5,400 but the number drops significantly in surrounding counties. Pete Rogers, EMS director for Phillips County, said he cant imagine operating ambulances without two medically trained personnel on board. If you have somebody thats simply a driver and you still have two technicians in the back of the truck with the patient then, then I, I see absolutely no problems with it, he said. But I would be concerned if it was a non-certified person driving and only one technician in the back. In Norton County, Sowards doesnt think its necessary to have two trained EMS workers for stabilized transfers. Ive been in EMS for 20 years running transfers maybe once in 20 years Ive had to have a driver come help, he said, adding allowing non-certified ambulance drivers for transfers could help a lot. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Personal Auto Kansas OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP and two other drugmakers on Friday lost a bid to delay a landmark trial set for May in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit by Oklahomas attorney general accusing them of helping fuel an opioid abuse and overdose epidemic in the state. Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkmans decision was a win for the state, even as one of the lawyers for the state said Purdue had threatened to file for bankruptcy rather than face the first trial to result from around 2,000 lawsuits nationally. This case needs to get to trial because people are dying every day, Reggie Whitten, the lawyer for the state, said during a hearing in Norman, Oklahoma. Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter, on Monday reported that Stamford, Connecticut-based Purdue, owned by members of the wealthy Sackler family, was exploring filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Doing so would allow it to address potential legal liabilities while halting the cases. Eric Pinker, Purdues lawyer, made no mention of a potential bankruptcy while arguing that the May 28 trial in the lawsuit brought by Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter against it, Johnson & Johnson and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd should be delayed. He said delaying the trial to Sept. 16 was necessary because the state belatedly turned over 1.6 million pages of records critical to Purdues defense. This case is not at a posture where it can fairly and fully go to trial in May of this year, Pinker said. But the judge said the drugmakers had not established the states actions had prejudiced them. Purdue in a statement said it categorically denies that the ruling will affect whether it files for bankruptcy. Purdue said it was looking at all of its options but had made no decisions. Opioids, including prescription painkillers, heroin and fentanyl, were involved in a record 47,600 overdose deaths in 2017, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The epidemic has prompted lawsuits by state and local governments accusing Purdue and other drugmakers of contributing to the crisis through deceptive marketing that downplayed the risks of addictive opioids. The companies deny wrongdoing, noting their drugs carried warning labels and pointing to others factors behind the epidemic. More than 1,600 lawsuits have been consolidated before a federal judge in Ohio, who has pushed for a settlement ahead of the trial before him in October. Other cases, including Oklahomas, are pending in state courts. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; editing by Grant McCool and Leslie Adler) Related: Topics Legislation Oklahoma | BY Kim Shaw | Born on one island and now living on another, Julie Thomas-Toda (pictured) left her home of Honolulu, Hawaii in 1991 to join AOI Pro. Inc. in Tokyo. Back in 1991, very few foreign women were employed in the Japanese advertising industry. Today, as the companys Creative Producer, AOI Pro. is a leader in cross-cultural advertising, bringing Japanese filmmakers together with international creative professionals. Next week, shes bringing three Asian filmmakers to Thailand to join a panel discussion at AdFest 2019: Karina Tiara, a film director, fashion and beauty photographer based between Paris and Milan; Sling Ng, Director at Directors Think Tank in Malaysia and Aki Mizutani, Director/Editor at Cutters Studio in Tokyo. You were living in Hawaii when you decided to make Japan home 27 years ago. What were your first impressions? Being born and raised in Hawaii, I had never really experienced the four seasons: winter, spring, summer and fall. To this day, I am still awestruck by the beauty of the cherry blossom trees here in Japan You know how in the movies the person begins their career in the mailroom? I literally started working at AOI Pro. by doing the company mail every day. Thats where I really improved my kanji reading skills. Then in the summer of 1992, one of our producers came back from Cannes. He gave me all the books written in English including the huge, thick book that listed every film and production company that had work entered into Cannes. Of course, we would buy the big 3/4 inch winners tape. (This was before the internet!) So, to see these ads from around the world that looked incredibly different from Japanese commercials, I was hooked. As my interest grew and I gathered my courage, I wrote letters to the companies whose work impressed me the most. I remember one of the first 3/4 inch showreels I had ever received was for the American fashion photographer and director Herb Ritts who I absolutely idolized! Herb Ritts revolutionized fashion photography, and transformed celebrities into icons. What were the biggest challenges you overcame when you were breaking into Tokyos production landscape? Back in the day, if I walked into a meeting being the only foreigner, everyone was inevitably going to stop and stare. Out in public, there were often times when Japanese people would be talking about me thinking that I didnt know what they were saying. I always had fun suddenly chiming into their conversation! My biggest challenge was definitely reading and writing Kanji Chinese characters. It still is, and I may never master that. How has Tokyos production scene evolved since then? Sadly, there are still very few female producers and even less working mothers in film production. Mothers upon returning to work tend to choose careers or positions in companies where their hours are not as hectic. Culturally in Japan, child rearing is expected of mothers. Little by little, though, things are changing. Whats been your proudest achievement at AOI Pro. Inc? Personally, my proudest achievement is that I was the first mother to ever return to work at AOI Pro. after having a baby. Now, 13 years later we have many more mothers working for us. Professionally, in regard to an actual production, the most memorable moment by far was when I worked with the worlds greatest living film composer, Ennio Morricone, and the Italian feature film director Giuseppe Tornatore. When I recall what it was like to be in their presence, I still get goosebumps! Cinema Paradiso and Malena were two of my all-time favorite films. Tell us about the directors youre bringing together for your panel discussion at AdFest next week. What makes them so insightful? All three of the directors that I will be speaking with originally began their film careers very differently. Karina started her career as a fashion photographer. Sling was an Art Director at an ad agency, and Aki was a creative editor. Now, they are successfully working as directors in Asia and internationally for a variety of distinctly different markets and clients. I was curious to know in what ways their film craft and aesthetic decisions as a director were influenced knowing that a particular ad was for a specific market. In what ways do filmmakers adapt their stories to appeal to the culture of the audience? Have you ever sat watching TV and suddenly an ad comes on that looks nothing like all the other ads? Maybe it was the framing and composition or the color tone, etc. You cant quite pinpoint exactly why, but for some reason it doesnt quite align with the general aesthetic tenets of everything else that you see on TV. Whatever the reason, however small the noticeable differences might be, you feel that it must have been made by a foreign filmmaker. Karina gave an interesting example of how she worked on two different chocolate ads, for two different countries, one after the other. Both required a woman to be eating chocolate. How the women were shown eating the chocolate varied greatly, as guided by the norms of their intended market. From the choice of cast and their performance, to camera work and lensing, to wardrobe, production design, edit, to music, color and saturation levels, etc. The idea as a storyboard was similar, and yet the end result was so very different. So, my big question for them asks: do the visual aesthetics, production techniques, and rules of filmmaking decisions transcend cultural and national differences? Is there even such a thing as a universal look to an ad? Do you think film craft in Japan is different to other markets in Asia? I think that in the past, the differences in film craft were much more pronounced. Very often a client or creative team would specifically say that they wanted a foreign or European look to the film. What that meant exactly is difficult to put in a few short sentences. Some people will not agree with me, but in my opinion, Japanese ads have the tendency to give the impression of appearing flat. Specifically the depth of field, everything evenly lit, no dark shadows, the camera locked. It is very two-dimensional, reminding me of the manga culture that we have here. There is also the 15-second ad, which dominates TV advertising in Japan. Every shot needs to invoke quick understanding by the viewer similar to jumping to the next frame in a manga magazine. So, I do feel that the manga culture has influenced how stories have been told here. What other differences have you observed over the past 27 years living in Japan? You know how Japanese people bow to each other? Its not a handshake or hug or kiss on the cheek like you would see in America or many European countries. There is a distinct distance that is kept between two people. Growing up culturally with that distance between people, without a doubt, naturally affects how you approach filmmaking, craft, and storytelling. It influences how a director frames / composes a shot or the way two people interact with each other. It is a very different approach to storytelling. There is also possibly the factor of genetics. For example, a light -eyed person will perceive color very differently from a dark-eyed person. For a light-eyed person, bright colors or the sunlight may hurt their eyes. So when a film is lite or color-corrected, it tends to look like the world that they see and find pleasing through their own eyes. Scientifically I dont know if this is true, but Japanese ads all seem to have the same color tone, whereas when working with a foreign DOP or colorist for a Japanese ad, the films really stood out. Another aspect is environment. Japanese are often born and raised under a central kino-flo light, everything is bright in their homes. On the other hand, Europeans have lamps in corners of rooms, so there are dark areas. This is reflective in their approach to filmmaking. Europeans also tend to use more shadows, muted colors, whereas, the Japanese tend to like everything bright and well lit. I can continue with many more examples, but at least these give you a few differences to think about. Comparing ads across Asia, Japanese ads are not as emotional or have family-themed storylines as ads for example from Malaysia or Thailand. It is important to consider that as we become more globally connected through the internet, these differences that I mentioned above seem to occur less often. Filmmakers are being influenced now by films from all around the world. Beyond Culture, What Influences Film Craft? takes place as part of the Craft@ADFEST stream on Wednesday 20th March, 4:50 5:25pm. A San Antonio woman pleaded guilty to fraud after a Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) investigation found she pocketed money from clients who thought they were buying home policies. Cynthia Olague, a former insurance agent, stole premiums from more than 20 different homeowners leaving their property unprotected. A TDI investigation found Olague would collect premiums but deposit the payments into her personal checking account, instead of forwarding the money to the insurance company. To hide the crime, she created fake insurance documents to give to her clients and their mortgage companies. Several victims only found out they did not have coverage when they tried to file insurance claims for losses. Olague was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay back $19,128. Source: TDI Topics Agencies Texas Prospects for a bill supported by bourbon producers and Mothers Against Drunk Driving improved Wednesday when Kentucky lawmakers reversed course to advance the proposal aimed at increasing the use of a device that blocks a vehicle from starting if the driver isnt sober. The bill to strengthen Kentuckys ignition interlock law had stalled at a recent House Judiciary Committee meeting when it failed to win enough support. It came up again Wednesday and won overwhelming backing. Supporters included several committee members who abstained from voting on the bill at the previous meeting. The Senate-passed proposal now heads to the House. If it passes there, it would return to the Senate for consideration of changes made by House members. Supporters say the bill aims to reduce drunken driving by making ignition interlock devices available to more first-time DUI offenders. Kentuckys existing interlock law makes the devices available to repeat offenders and drivers caught with extremely high blood alcohol concentrations. The bills supporters on Wednesday included Darrin Jaquess, who survived a fiery crash that killed 27 people in 1988 when a drunken driver struck a church bus on a Kentucky interstate. If we save one life, weve done something, he told the committee. Jaquess, who spent more than two weeks on life support after the horrific crash, said he sees the use of ignition interlocks as a deterrent that should apply to first-time DUI offenders. If we dont give stronger punishment to these first offenders, they become repeat offenders, said Jaquess, who is now a Radcliff real estate agent. An ignition interlock, about the size of a cellphone, is wired into the ignition system of a vehicle. Drivers must blow into the devices in order to start their vehicles. If drivers have measurable amounts of alcohol in their system, the vehicles wont start. The bills supporters include the Kentucky Distillers Association and MADD, the nations best-known advocacy group against drunken driving. Republican Sen. Whitney Westerfield, the bills lead sponsor, said that use of the devices remains low among DUI offenders. In 2017, Kentucky had about 24,500 DUIs, he has said. Under the bill, first-time DUI offenders could choose to have the interlock devices installed in their vehicles for six months, Westerfield said. They would retain their driving privileges. Those opting against installing the devices would face nine-month suspensions, he said. Westerfield said its an incentive meant to increase use of the devices. The bills critics said DUI offenders have to show proof of auto insurance to participate in the interlock program. But many offenders are unable to afford the sharply higher insurance premiums stemming from DUIs, the critics said. Meanwhile, the bill would significantly lengthen the license suspensions for first-time offenders not using the devices, they said. Critics also said fees associated with ignition devices would be onerous for offenders already facing legal costs, higher insurance premiums and other costs related to their DUIs. The result would be that some offenders continue driving without insurance and with suspended licenses in order to get to work, they said. Its got unintended consequences that they really havent addressed, said Lexington attorney Fred Peters. ___ The legislation is Senate Bill 85. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Politics Kentucky Irvine, California-based Burnham Benefits Insurance Services has promoted Maggie Lepore to vice president. Lepore continues to expand Burnhams central coast footprint through her diverse expertise with public entities. She will utilize the same resources and depth of knowledge to support a tailored services designstrategically. Lepore will also focus on the development of local talent. Lepore has 18 years of experience in employee benefits consulting, of which six were with Burnham Benefits. She holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Irvine. Lepores unique insight into public school districts stems from the fact that she is from a family of educators and administrators she understands the complex structure and speaks the language. Source: Burnham Benefits Insurance Services Topics California An Idaho jury has awarded more than $4.8 million to a woman injured in a U-turn accident after deciding it was partially caused by a sheriffs deputy. But the Idaho Statesman reports that Chellus Dawn Towell will receive only part of that amount due to a state law that caps judgments against public agencies at $500,000. A jury found Boise County Deputy David Lee and Towells husband, Douglas, were equally at fault for the 2014 accident that threw Towell from the back of her husbands motorcycle when Lee made a U-turn on Idaho Highway 21. Investigators said Lee was driving a sheriffs Ford Explorer south on the highway, and the Towells had been following him on their motorcycle for miles. When Lee saw a driver going the opposite direction who appeared to be speeding, he decided to go after the vehicle. The Towells said Lee stopped suddenly and turned with no warning, forcing Douglas Towell to lay down his motorcycle on the highway rather than go down a steep embankment. Chellus Towell wasnt wearing a helmet and was in a coma for months. Her mother said in an affidavit that Chellus had to relearn how to eat, walk and talk and will need care for the rest of her life. Authorities say Douglas Towell tested positive for alcohol and marijuana after the crash. His blood alcohol level was .09, just above the legal limit of .08, the Statesman previously reported. He later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor DUI and misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance, court records show. Attorneys for the countys insurer, the Idaho Counties Risk Management Program, represented the county during the nearly two-week trial in February, Boise County Prosecutor Adam Strong told the Statesman. The countys insurance will cover all but the $1,000 deductible, Strong said. The deputy was in another U-turn accident on the same highway in 2016. In that incident, Lee again attempted to make a turn to pursue a speeder when his sheriffs Ford Explorer was struck by a 2010 Ford Escape driven by a 69-year-old Salmon resident who was airlifted to a hospital. Lee was transported by ground ambulance, and both were out of the hospital the next day. Lee was cited for a traffic infraction involving a state law that requires drivers to make U-turns safely and without interfering with other traffic and fined $90, according to court documents. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Californias Santa Anita racetrack will impose new rules to scrutinize horses training on its racetrack and add a director of equine welfare following the deaths of 21 horses since Dec. 26. The main dirt track and turf courses were in a third day of examination Saturday in an effort to uncover what may have led to the series of catastrophic breakdowns. The racetrack remains closed indefinitely for racing. The inner training track, which has not had any breakdowns, was open for horses to jog and gallop only for the second straight day. It was supposed to be a huge day of racing Saturday at the historic track. But the San Felipe Stakes for 3-year-old Kentucky Derby hopefuls and the Santa Anita Handicap for older horses were scuttled when the track was closed on Tuesday. Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of The Stronach Group, said the new safety and welfare measures will take effect when racing resumes in the coming weeks. What theyre trying to do is the right thing, said Jim Cassidy, president of the California Thoroughbred Trainers. Just make sure everybody is accountable for their actions. The new rules announced by Santa Anitas owner TSG include requiring trainers to apply to hold timed workouts for their horses at least 24 hours in advance. Officials believe that will give track veterinarians time to identify potential at-risk horses through their past performances, workout date and physical inspection. Cassidy lost a filly from his 40-horse stable after she was fatally injured on the turf course during the meet that began on Dec. 26. He said she broke her hind leg around a turn. Im sure she took a bad step, he said. She never really had injuries at all. TSG says it has hired extra vets to observe all horses entering and exiting the dirt and turf course during morning training hours. The morning training schedule will change, too. The first 15 minutes of training after the dirt track opens, and each time its surface is renovated, will be reserved for horses completing official timed workouts. Officials say it will reduce the number of horses on the track at the same time and create a safer environment. TSG plans to hire an accredited vet as the new director of equine welfare. That person will lead a rapid response team for injuries and conduct transparent investigations into the injury while communicating the findings to the racing and general public. Santa Anita will require veterinary records of a horse to follow that animal through any ownership or trainer change. A similar rule is in effect at Floridas Gulfstream Park, which is also owned by TSG. This has worked very well at Gulfstream Park, Ritvo said. There was some pushback from the trainers at first, but this is the best thing for the horse. Cassidy sees no problem with keeping a horse and its vet records together. Most of these horses stay in the same hands, he said. Ritvo said TSG will invest in any new technology or equipment that will help discover pre-existing injuries in horses. Cassidy said any time a horse has an issue, trainers typically use X-rays, MRIs and nuclear scans to find a cause, as well as having their own vets and track vets look at the animals. Jockeys also share information about horses they exercise in the mornings or ride in the afternoons. These horses change from day to day to day. We look at them every single day, Cassidy said. Youre always going to have injuries. Santa Anita is expected to retain the services of Mick Peterson of the University of Kentucky and veteran track superintendent Dennis Moore, who are reviewing the dirt and turf courses. Were looking forward to returning to normal, Ritvo said, but it will be a new normal. Cassidy described the mood around Santa Anitas stable area as very somber. We will press on, he said, and hopefully all of these new changes will make a difference. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics California Agribusiness Training Development People Thumbnail Pennesi, who joins as the European tax coordinator, was an international tax partner at EY before joining Andersen in January. Before that, she worked for Deloitte. Specialising in business reorganisation and risk management, Pennesi has served such companies as KKR, Vestar Capital and Blackstone. Pennesi will be working closely with Gallucci, who also joined the Italian firm from EY. In his new role as partner, he will offer advice Italian and foreign multinational groups on compliance matters, as well as the tax control framework and risk assessment. The material on this site is for financial institutions, professional investors and their professional advisers. It is for information only. Please read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy before using the site. All material subject to strictly enforced copyright laws. 2021 Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. For help please see our FAQ. Share this article March 11, 2019 (Investorideas.com Newswire) On February 28, Medellin opened its fifth Metrocable for commuting. It is an environmentally friendly electrical system which already benefits more than 350,000 inhabitants of the Villa Hermosa and Buenos Aires neighborhoods, and which was financed by the Municipal Administration. Since 1995, with the start of the commercial operation of the Medellin Metro, the city began an urban transformation process for passenger mobility whose axis is the commitment to inclusion, service and environmental protection. The city began to improve the metro service through other solutions suitable for its topography, thus in 2004, it opens the first cable car system for commuting, connecting the furthest districts with the center of Medellin. A best practice in Latin America and the world. The implementation of these systems has earned Medellin a worldwide recognition for its urban and social innovation. Also, has made the city more attractive to delegations interested in knowing and building cable car systems as a means of mass transportation. The Integrated Transportation System of the Aburra Valley, SITVA, is a comprehensive mobility solution which combines multiple modes of transport such as metro, cable cars (Metrocable), BRT (Metroplus), public bicycle system (Enclica) and the tram. Therefore, reducing costs, improving the quality of the environment and shortening travel times. All this is linked to the recent efforts of the Municipal Administration to migrate to clean and environmentally friendly technologies, such as the recent acquisition of electric buses for the Metroplus system. Information for journalists Julian Rodriguez Rojas / Senior Communications Professional / (574) 320 34 30 Ext. 138 / jrodriguez@acimedellin.org Sandra Milena Ospina D'Alleman / Director of Communications / (+57) 318 5285705 / sospina@acimedellin.org More Info: This news is published on the Investorideas.com Newswire - a global digital news source for investors and business leaders Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. 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Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp | BY Kim Shaw | Jewel Changi Airport has unveiled its new brand film which takes viewers through the lens of its first visitors amongst lush landscaping and unique play attractions in an animated film created by Ogilvy Singapore. The stars of the film, and Jewels first visitors, are two little creatures a Pacific Swallow and a ladybug. Their story of friendship and adventure is captured in the film before the world-class tourist destination opens its doors to the public on 17 April 2019. The film brings to life the wondrous possibilities one can find in Jewel, where we welcome our first pair of visitors a pacific swallow and a ladybird, set against Jewels magnificent backdrop. The brand film provides a sneak peek of Jewel and we look forward to creating wondrous moments for all our visitors when we open, said Joyce Tan, Head, Corporate & Marketing Communications, Jewel Changi Airport Devt. Loo Yong Ping, Creative Director, Ogilvy Singapore said, We broke new ground with traditional real estate advertising when we introduced the first visitors at Jewel as two little creatures instead of people in the film. As the first brand film of Jewel, we wanted to evoke a sense of wonder and took a leaf out of the animated playbook to create characters mirroring Jewels wondrous nature. The animated film was a year in the making, with each play attraction within Jewel rendered from scratch to be as realistic as possible. The incredible attention to detail was depicted in the film from the way the mist on the Canopy Bridge disperses as the Pacific Swallow swoops across, to the accuracy of plant species housed in Jewel, right down to how a leaf should tilt. Credits Co-Chief Creative Officer: Melvyn Lim Creative Director: Loo Yong Ping Managing Partner: Brenda Han Executive Strategy Director: Iain Matthews Account Management: Timothy Samuel Barrett, Vanessa Liew, Ng Shin Yi Senior Art Director: Nico Tangara Copywriter: Sie TzeJie Agency Producers: James Brook Partridge, Tina Jodhi Production House: Chimney Group Singapore Executive Producer: Camilla Anderson VFX Supervisor: Struan Farquhar Director: Johan Polhem Music and Sound Design: Song Zu Singapore Composer: Gerard Fitzgerald Sound Designer: Damian Waddell Music Director: Lindsay Jehan Audio Producer: Ian Lew Ireland's Strategy for the US and Canada Global & Diaspora The Tanaiste launched the Government's new Strategy for the US and Canada for the period to 2025, under the Global Ireland Initiative, in Washington, D.C. on 6th February. The Strategy will also be officially launched in Canada over the St. Patrick's Day period 2019.This Strategy will see Ireland doubling its impact in both the US and Canada, through investment and engagement; deepening, broadening and securing these hugely important relationships at every level for the future. Underpinned by strong historical connections, deep people to people links and shared values, Ireland's relationships with the US and with Canada have traditionally been close. This strategy considers what sustains these important relationships and looks forward, outlining the milestones in relation to how Ireland will structure and focus its strategic relationships with both countries over the period of the Global Ireland Initiative to 2025. Global Ireland: Ireland's Strategy for the US and Canada 20192025 is Ireland's first whole-of-Government strategy for the US and Canada. To deliver on the ambition of 'Global Ireland', and the vision for the region, the following five strategic objectives will be pursued: Ireland will build strong, strategic political partnerships with the US and Canada and assume a lead role in building stronger transatlantic relations; Ireland will build a mutually beneficial two-way economic relationship, approaching 1 trillion USD by 2025; Ireland will consolidate, deepen and expand the extraordinary partnership with our diaspora in the US and Canada, doubling the impact of this collaboration in the period to 2025; Ireland will double our impact by promoting our culture and nurturing our reputation across the US & Canada; A strong Government-led Team Ireland will double its impact over the six years to 2025. Commenting on the launch of the US and Canada Strategy the Tanaiste said: "I and my Government colleagues are determined to protect, invest in and develop Ireland's relationship with the US and with Canada for the future. We want these relationships to thrive for the benefit of all of our citizens. "What's envisaged in this Strategy is nothing less than a step-change in our engagement; and an engagement commensurate with the importance of the relationships, taking account of new geopolitical realities and demographic change Download the US Canada Strategy (PDF, 7,862kb) A Belfast-based company is seeking landowners who want to utilise their unused fields to start their own micro-tourism enterprises. CEO and co-founder Peter Farquharson says the Further.Space holiday experience is aimed at great escapers, social energisers, and independent travellers who want to stay at locations off the beaten track. With 12m visitors to Ireland in 2018, Mr Farquharson says vast resources of land representing significant tourist opportunities are being left untapped, as research found that up to 37% of tourists prefer non-traditional accommodation. Mr Farquharson describes Further.Space holidaymakers as happy urbanites who want to enjoy the simplicity of camping in beautiful surroundings without giving up their home comforts. The standard pod has a robust outer skin made from aluminium and the interior has LED lighting. Sleeping a family of four with a sofa converting to a murphy pull-down bed and a bunk bed to the rear, a fully functioning shower room and breakfast bar complete the accommodation. Mr Farquharson says his company is looking to partner with authentic characters with local knowledge. He says the profit-sharing partnership provides the landowner with a turnkey solution to develop a micro-tourism business. The agreement consists of a 20-year lease, with the landowner funding the planning application and site works and bearing responsibility for hosting. Further.Space provides the pods from its sister company, Intupod, and guidance through the planning process, a booking platform, and marketing and branding support. Factoring in capital costs, site works, and planning, as well as services such as water, electric, and waste, and based on 50% occupancy, 180 nights at 100 (116) per night, Further.Space projects an annual gross profit of 3,500 per pod for the first five years. In year six, the company says that increases to 6,500 per pod. Mr Farquharson says revenues generated from the accommodation are not the end of the story. We provide a capital asset for our landowners to build a business, so they will be upselling in terms of breakfasts, packed lunches, bike hire, tour guiding, and deals with local restaurants. Having spent a decade as an engineer, Mr Farquharson moved to the non-profit sector. Susequent roles with NGOs followed before he started Intupod in 2015 with energy efficient housing entrepreneur David Maxwell. Glamping, or luxury camping, became popular through boutique festival experiences like Electric Picnic. The decision to pivot their business model came about following a change in manufacturing materials from textile as the outer layer to aluminium. This move impacted on the price point and reduced the size of the market. So from September 2017, the company began to explore other revenue models. Having spent months speaking to landowners, Mr Farquharson recognised that many had a desire to diversify their income streams. He spoke to second- and third-generation farmers who are multi- tasking to survive. Many had tried to go down the road of bricks and mortar but been frustrated by planning. The solution provided by Further.Space has low environmental impact and harnesses planning policies around diversification and sustainability in tourism. Projects are small scale and the company has resolved to limit schemes to eight pods. Having launched in November 2018, it currently has agreements in place with 32 landowners the first at Glenarm Castle in Antrim is due to open this summer, with four others under way in Donegal, Wexford, Meath, and Cork, and additional projects in Scotland. The project has received a total of 1.37m in outside funding to date. Currently focused on the UK and Ireland markets, Further.Space plans to deliver 60 pods by March 2020, with a goal of 575, equivalent to 125 projects, over five years. Using a Lego-style approach can deliver a semi-detached home in under eight weeks, writes Trish Dromey Taking a Lego-style approach to construction, Cork building technology company Glavloc has developed a rapid-build system it says can be used to complete an average-sized three-bed semi in just six to eight weeks. Our technology can be used to construct a building in a quarter of the time used in traditional masonry and half the time involved in building an offsite timber-framed structure, says Glavloc founder and managing director Paul Glavin, who has global plans for the innovative system for which he has secured worldwide patents. The system involves the mass production of generic components which are manufactured in a range of sizes along the lines of Lego pieces although made mainly from timber. The components can be fabricated and stockpiled regardless of the type of building they are being used for. This means much shorter lead-in times from ordering to delivery, he says. Using advanced robotic production lines, Glavloc now has the capacity to produce components for over 150 houses a year. With the addition of new production lines, Mr Glavin aims to increase this figure to 350 by the end of the year and up to 1,000 by 2023. It is a whole new approach to construction using automated robotic production to manufacture the components reduces the labour cost and speeds up the process, says Mr Glavin, explaining that the company uses the savings from labour costs to improve the quality of the components and insulation which he says are used to build structures to the new NZEB regulations (near zero energy buildings) coming in next year (A2+ BER) and passive house standard. A structural engineer who lost his job in the recession, Mr Glavin began looking at the idea of modular construction around five years ago and came up with the idea of creating standardised components. He spent two years developing the Glavloc system and set up the company in Blackpool in 2015 with some support from the Cork Local Enterprise Office. In 2016 Glavlocs rapid-build system produced its first building. We built a two-classroom creche in Carrigtwohill in just four weeks. This was our first demonstration of what we could do, he says. Working to establish itself as a building technology company, Glavloc began targeting architects and developers, using the internet and social media to develop sales. Our system has been used in educational facilities all around the country, as well as in small commercial structures and large one-off houses, says Mr Glavin. In early 2018, he raised a multimillion-euro investment and moved to a larger facility at the Kilbarry IDA Industrial Estate, where the company employs a full-time team of 12 as well as six contract workers. The company has since secured additional investment from Enterprise Ireland via its High Potential Start Up programme. In discussions with a number of builders and developers around the country, Glavloc is now about to see its rapid-build system used in housing developments for the first time. We are currently manufacturing components for the development of 50 units in Cork and Navan, says Mr Glavin, adding that other projects include developments in Dublin, Wicklow, Kerry, and Waterford. He says business has been doubling each year and the company expects to manufacture over 70 units this year, growing to 500 within two years. Investment in R&D is ongoing and Glavloc has now developed software to automate the construction process for its customers. We are continuing to develop the technology and are applying for a new patent every six months, says Mr Glavin. Within five years the company aims to become one of the largest offsite building manufacturers in Ireland and the UK. Exports are expected to start with a launch in the UK in 2020. Given that there is a housing shortage not just in Ireland but also across Europe, Mr Glavin sees enormous export potential for its rapid-build system. The components can be flatpacked so are both easily transportable and very exportable. Holding early stage partnership discussions with a company in China, he says Glavloc also has the US market in its sights. Many business tourists are beginning to extend their stay by up to four days, which offers a huge opportunity for growth, CBB manager Evelyn OSullivan tells Padraig Hoare Cork tourism chiefs are an ambitious lot, not only in the leisure side of things business tourism is an industry with huge growth possibilities for the region, according to Evelyn OSullivan. The manager of Cork Convention Bureau (CCB), Evelyn OSullivan, wants up to 8% annual growth on the 13m to 14m generated through conference and business tourism in recent years, and is prepared to be aggressive about winning it. The Mallow native said: I did arts in UCC and my first job was working in the tourist office on the Grand Parade. I then worked in the conference-organising industry for a number of years in Dublin, as well as working abroad. It still excites me to this day it is a wonderful sector to work in. But were all type-A personalities, were very competitive in tourism. People may think tourism is all the same, but there are many different strands. Youre competing against cities across Europe to bring conferences to Cork, so youve got to hook people into coming here. CCB is the business tourism arm, while Pure Cork is the leisure tourism arm, of the overall private- public partnership organisation Visit Cork. Pure Cork is launching a campaign in association with Tourism Ireland to actively encourage more French tourists to choose Cork as a destination, while CCB is targeting sectors like pharmaceutical, agri-science and marine to spend their money in Cork. Tourism currently supports almost 22,500 jobs in Cork, with more than 800 tourism businesses, festivals, and events currently listed on the new purecork.ie website. However, business tourism is also lucrative, with 13.2m generated through conferences and high-end delegates in 2018. Ms OSullivan said many business tourists are now beginning to extend their stay by up to four days, which offers a huge opportunity for growth. Conference people notice the small things too they are no different to most tourists. If half actually come back as leisure tourists, that is a real success. We are exposing them to Cork, which they may never have thought of. It doesnt take much to hook people in and Cork is one of Europes best-kept secrets. There is a phenomenal range of strength in various sectors across Cork. Teagasc, Tyndall, MaREI, CUMH, UCC, CIT were very strong in many sectors that people dont realise. We have bids in for three space-related conferences, and we did all three of those in conjunction with Blackrock Castle and CIT, she said. Cork will become the second-largest English-speaking city in the EU after Britain leaves. While Brexit will pose enormous challenges to business, it will also bring opportunity, said Mr OSullivan. If you are a deciding body looking at an application from the likes of Bristol and Cork, and you think things may be up in the air because of Brexit, then Cork may gain an advantage. We also promote Cork for corporate meetings and incentive travel. They are niche areas, but incentive travel is high-end, where staff are rewarded for reaching targets. Cork may not have featured historically for that sort of travel, it was predominantly Dublin or Killarney, but we are seeing more, and interestingly enough from the UK, she said. Evelyn OSullivan: Cork will become the second-largest English-speaking city in the EU after Britain leaves. Picture: Denis Minihane Delivering the long-mooted events centre for Cork is a must, according to Ms OSullivan, as Cork aims to cement itself in the top 100 cities by International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) rankings. The event centre would put us in another league, if we are coming into the ICCA rankings top 100. At the moment we have to say no to over 1,000 delegates. It would propel us to attract the larger conferences, trade fairs, and exhibitions and that type of thing. In turn, that brings more access to Cork. Cork Airport is also one of the best weapons in tourisms arsenal, she said. Sometimes we forget for a city of our size that we have 51 direct routes from Cork Airport. We have two flights a day to Amsterdam and two to Paris, and up to 10 flights to London. Cork as a hub cannot be understated. The French market, with Air France and Aer Lingus, is a real opportunity. The French seem to really like the south-west from a tourist point of view. Wed be looking at the high-end groups and tours, so we are hosting in conjunction with Failte Irelands Meet In Ireland, we are hosting a French familiarisation group at the end of this month. They are coming in as part of Failte Irelands largest in-Ireland event, Meitheal, that has been running for years. This year, there is a focus on a niche like incentive travel. They will come to Cork before going to Dublin for the event. It gives us an opportunity. Cork Airport in terms of new route development is focused on Germany and we were delighted to hear that about the German market. We all then need to support the routes, getting business in. We are all stakeholders for our region. Even though we have shortcomings, its the overall charm and attraction of Cork and Ireland that can win through, said Ms OSullivan. Irish exploration company United Oil and Gas is closing in on a number of asset acquisitions on the back of landing a first licence in Africa. The company, which is active in the UK, Italy and Jamaica, has hailed its expansion into Africa as being potentially "transformational" for the company. United has signed an option agreement to invest in an onshore licence in Benin. The move will potentially give the Irish company a 20% stake - for a phased payment of just over $1m - of the prospect area operated by west African-focused exploration company Elephant Oil. "We believe that Benin can be transformational for United," said chief executive Brian Larkin, adding that the company has bought into the licence "at a very small initial commitment". "As with our assets in Jamaica, the scale of this new licence in Benin, and its proximity to other working hydrocarbon systems, lend it to having huge potential high-impact upside with early data suggesting the presence of numerous large structures," he said. "This agreement in Benin is additional to our existing pipeline of potential near-term acquisitions and joint ventures," Mr Larkin said. At the end of last year, United said it was "aggressively" targeting new investment opportunities with an eye on making a "game-changing" purchase during 2019 that "really moves the market cap for the company". Announcing its African farm-in deal, United said it is progressing on further takeover targets. "United has, for some time, stated that our technical and commercial teams have been actively assessing a number of new opportunities that are development and production focused," said Mr Larkin. "A number of these more mature opportunities are under non-disclosure agreements and nearing advanced stages of due diligence and commercial negotiation." United has a market cap of around 16m and has seen the net present value of its licence portfolio balloon from $6m-$7m to $80m in a little over a year. Despite the latest news, the company's share price fell by nearly 1.5%. Our approach for 2019 is dual focused develop the existing assets as efficiently and effectively as we can and create as much value from them whilst also looking for a game-changing acquisition, Mr Larkin said in December. Ireland has come some way in tackling inequality in the past 40 years but still has a long way to go towards gender equality at the top of organisations, says Kyran Fitzgerald Back in 1972, an English businessman called John Bloom had a bright idea. He would open a chain of Tudor-themed eateries, one of which was called 1520. As his obituarist noted recently, the restaurants were overtly sexist establishments presided over by a Henry VIII figure. Customers, particularly women, were pilloried and pelted with buns if they did not enter into the spirit of things. The chain eventually went bust. An early victory, if you like, for an early version of the #MeToo movement. Mr Bloom, one suspects, would find it hard going securing support for such a venture these days. The world has changed a lot in the past 40 years, but then much, too, has remained the same. The world of wolf-whistling and bottom-patting may now belong to yesteryear, but have old-time attitudes really been banished from the boardroom? Not in the view of the new chair of the UK Institute of Directors, Charlotte Valeur. She insists that Britains top companies need to be more honest when it comes to the issue of recruiting females to their top ranks. Ftse 100 bosses have insisted that they simply cannot find suitable female and ethnic minority candidates for their boards. Ms Valuer insists that it is not true to say that the right people are simply unavailable. Currently, fewer than a quarter of directors of Ftse 250 firms 23.7% are women, of which just 6.5% are full-time executives with the companies concerned. The figure for Ftse 100 firms is a bit higher at nearly 30%. Over here, progress has been, if anything, slower. At the start of 2018, just 18% of directors of Iseq companies were female. Last summer, the Government established a review group headed by Brid Horan, former deputy CEO of the ESB, and Gary Kennedy, a former senior AIB executive. They will be seeking to emulate a similar UK group under Mervyn Davies, which has recommended that one-third of board seats on Britains top companies be filled by women by 2020. Most organisations such as the Confederation of British Industry favour a voluntarist approach in this area, but the Fawcett Society backs compulsion. In Norway, France, and Belgium, compulsory targets are now in place. It will be interesting to see what the Horan/Kennedy group comes up with. Presence of women at the top of the organisation is a useful measure, but a few swallows do not a summer make. The key goal of feminists is the capture of senior-level posts across the organisation. Some estimates suggest that just one in six senior executive posts in Ireland are held by women. Against this background, there has emerged much greater interest in what is known as gender pay gap reporting. As Mary Brassil, a partner with solicitors McCann FitzGerald points out, the gender pay gap is distinct from the concept of equal pay for equal work as it captures whether women are represented evenly across an organisation. In Ireland, the gender pay gap is around 14%, according to the latest estimates. This is actually slightly below the EU average of 16.7%, where the figures are skewed by those from part of Eastern and southern Europe. Speaking at the annual conference organised by Industrial Relations News, Ms Brassil identified some causes of the gender pay gap. These range from segregation of occupations to the concentration of women in part-time or lower-paid jobs as well as discrimination, or bias, intentional or accidental. In 2016, Labour Party senator Ivana Bacik published a Gender Pay Gap Information Bill which proposed an amendment to the 1998 Employment Equality Act to provide much more information on how the pay of employees is calculated and what sort of gaps exist. Designated officers would be appointed to check the information for accuracy and any complaint arising would be referred to the Workplace Relations Commission which is responsible for inspections. Fines could be handed out for breaches. Enactment of a Government version of the bill is expected soon. Outside the legislative arena, changes are already occurring. Survey data points to a shift in attitudes among young jobseekers. Around 85% of women aged 10 to 30 will look at an organisations gender pay gap situation before deciding whether to join that firm or body. At a time when demand for skilled labour is close to record levels in Ireland, this could become a real factor in recruitment markets. It may well be that greater changes will be stimulated via social media and ordinary conversations among millennials than may emerge as a result of consultations among the great and the good. Gender advancement can take many different forms, from trailblazing businesswomen of the 1980s like fitness guru Debbie Moore and Body Shop founder Anita Roddick to the contemporary social media influencers who are bypassing established businesses. That said, the existence of senior managerial role models continues to be of relevance. One only has to think of people like IMF managing director Christine Lagarde, or close to home, Bank of Ireland CEO Francesca McDonagh, Glanbias Siobhan Talbot, and Derville Rowland, the Central Banks head of regulation. Ms Lagarde played a key role as French finance minister after the financial crash in 2008. She stated recently that financial organisations would be more stable if their were more women on their boards. Where there are more women, the banks capital buffers are larger, the number of non-performing loans smaller, and risk indices lower, she said. But the consequences of gender inequality are arguably much greater when viewed from ground level across the developing world. Take Africa where the population is predicted to double in a generation. A key driver is the perpetuation of large family sizes, particularly outside the big cities. Promoting education among girls can counter this damaging trend. Education leads to greater economic activity and empowerment, leading ultimately to lower fertility, more manageable families, and greater possibilities of capital accumulation. In a recent address in honour of former chief executive of the Economist magazine Helen Alexander, Ms Lagarde quoted the English author HG Wells, who famously stated that human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. These comments have acquired added resonance in todays troubled world. Hundreds of people rallied in Cork tonight demanding radical action to address the housing crisis as new figures showed that 400 new homes could be developed in vacant upper floors in the heart of the city. An analysis by Cork City Council has found that there are 423 vacant or under-utilised upper floors in some 260 buildings in the city. Most are in the heart of the city, where 140 vacant upper floors were identified with potential to create up to 400 new homes. The council has arranged a seminar next week, with a range of experts, to explore the reasons for such urban vacancy and to explore possible solutions. The figures emerged as those attending the rally were told the lack of housing is the single greatest problem facing Irish society. Drawn from trade unions, womens groups, student unions, housing agencies, and community groups, all united under the umbrella of the Raise the Roof campaign, they demanded radical action on the housing emergency. The rally, which marched from City Hall to Lapps Quay, was addressed by a number of speakers including Barry Murphy of One Cork, the trade union representative group, Gillian Noonan of the Anti Eviction Taskforce, Traveller representative Bridget Carmody, and student activist Anna Heverin. Mr Murphy described the housing crisis as the single greatest problem facing our society today. We have record levels of homelessness, record numbers on housing waiting lists, and huge levels of insecurity in the rental sector, he said. We have had housing crises in the past and central to their resolution was the provision of public housing through the State and local authorities. Ms Carmody said Travellers are 11 times more likely to become homeless. During this whole accommodation crisis that has inflicted such suffering on our community, Government funding has been available but has gone unspent. Between 2000 and 2017, 55m earmarked for Traveller accommodation has gone unspent, she said. Ms Heverin said just over 400 students were listed as homeless during the last census. Some of the student accommodation development underway at the moment has cinemas and bowling alleys, with prices as high as 260 a week. Students dont need cinemas and bowling alleys. They need affordable housing. The rally coincided with a meeting of Cork City Council which supported a motion, tabled by the Lord Mayor, Cllr Mick Finn, calling for the housing crisis to be declared a national emergency. His motion included calls for a dramatic increase in funding for and supply of local authority-led public and affordable housing, the prioritisation of the delivery of housing on public lands, and a ban on evictions into homelessness. FG councillor Des Cahill branded it a populist motion and said the Government has allocated 500m to the city council alone for house building over the coming years and has provided and funded several instruments to help those in genuine mortgage distress. But Sinn Fein councillor Shane OShea said the Governments response to the crisis has been piecemeal. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has said a no-deal Brexit will have a sudden, immediate and negative impact on the economy but that Ireland is currently in a strong position. Speaking after a Cabinet meeting today and an update on the Brexit negotiations, Mr Donohoe also said he had meet Revenue and Central Bank authorities today about the implications of a no-deal. New electronic customs arrangements for a no-deal were being finalised, he said, and the recruitment of another 400 officials would be complete by the end of this month. A 200m EU rescue fund to help firms restructure here has already been agreed, said Mr Donohoe, and other state aid resources would be examined when the situation around Brexit becomes clearer. Ireland's EU membership was the country's greatest protection, added Mr Donohoe. Tanaiste Simon Coveney said talks were ongoing to agree on a deal, ahead of key votes in Westminster this week. He also confirmed that British prime minister Theresa May will fly to Strasbourg this evening to discuss options with EU officials. Mr Coveney reiterated that the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement could not be changed but that Ireland wanted to provide reassurances to Britain that it would not be somehow trapped with the Irish backstop in the customs union or single market. Barnier and his team trying to maximise chances of a deal being ratified in a meaningful vote tomorrow, but they will not compromise on core issues - @simoncoveney pic.twitter.com/8YM1fGijaI RTE News (@rtenews) March 11, 2019 The update comes as senior and junior ministers prepare to travel the globe for their traditional St Patrick's Day visits. A key message ministers would deliver to other nations, said Mr Coveney, was the importance of the North's peace process. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced Monday that her department will no longer enforce a restriction that prohibits religiously affiliated organizations from providing contracted services to private school students under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Some background: Under ESEA, whose current version is the Every Student Succeeds Act, districts have to offer low-income or vulnerable students who attend private schools the same services that their public-school counterparts get. The law prohibits the money from going directly to say, Catholic schools, however. Instead, districts must consult with private school leaders to get a sense of their needs. Then they can provide the services themselves, or work with a contractor to offer them. The provision is known as equitable participation, and it has been part of the law for decades. But the provision as it is now implemented bars religious organizations from serving as contractors under the law. That runs counter to the Supreme Courts decision in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. vs. Comer, DeVos and her team argue. The court decision found that a Missouri program that denied a church the opportunity to apply for a grant for playground resurfacing was unconstitutional. The provision impermissibly excludes a class of potential equitable service providers based solely on their religious status, just like the state policy that was struck down in the Trinity Lutheran case, DeVos wrote in a letter to Congress explaining her decision. It categorically excludes religious organizations simply because they are religious. Importantly, though, under the change districts will still have the ultimate say over which contractors are used. And any services provided have to be completely secular and non-ideological in nature. Whats more, the contractor chosen cant be affiliated with the private school where the services are being offered. Under ESSA, its already OK for a religious organization (say a Catholic university) to provide services to a school district (say professional development for educators) using federal funds, a department official noted. The only prohibition in the law was on contractors working with private schools. DeVos made the announcement at the Council for American Private Education (CAPE) annual meeting in Washington. Elizabeth Hill, a spokeswoman for DeVos said the move is further evidence of the secretary and the administrations commitment to making sure that schools are not discriminated against based on their religious affiliation. But Jeff Simmering, the director of government relations for the Council of the Great City Schools, said hes still mulling the impact and legal implications of the change. Im not saying its incorrect, but its a jump in legal logic to go from saying its OK to provide funds to a contractor who is going to resurface a private school playground to a contractor thats going to provide instructional services, he said. Im sure we will all have an opportunity to think long and hard about the impact of that, because Im sure its going to be challenged. Advocates who closely monitor the separation of church and state expressed concerns about the move. Betsy DeVos is neither the Supreme Court nor Congress. She does not get to unilaterally declare that a statute is unconstitutional, especially with a provision that is designed to protect church-state separation, a bedrock of our democracy, said Maggie Garrett, vice president for public policy at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, an advocacy organization. Trinity Lutheran was an incredibly narrow decision that was about providing playground material to a church not about providing educational services to impressionable young schoolchildren. Photo: Associated Press Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 . European Commission plans that could have removed Irelands veto on setting tax rates were described as highly sensitive and a red-line issue for the country in Department of Finance documents. An internal briefing explained how Ireland would not support any effort to change Irelands tax sovereignty, but suggested the plans were unlikely to be supported by enough EU countries. In January, the European Commission published a proposal, suggesting that qualified majority voting be introduced for EU tax policy. That would impact the ability of countries to set their own corporation tax rates, with a particular focus on taxation of digital giants like Facebook and Google. The internal brief, prepared for Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe and for officials, said any such move would be highly sensitive. This is a highly sensitive suggestion for many members states, including Ireland, it said, as any move to change the voting method used would reduce member states sovereignty. The brief said progress was being made on tax reform, with an unprecedented 21 initiatives agreed by all member states since 2015. It said: Ireland does not see the need for, or merits of, any proposals to move away from the requirement for unanimity. One section, flagging Irelands position, described how the country had consistently opposed any change on voting rules, since they were first flagged, in 2017, by European Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker. It explained how tax sovereignty was an important issue for Irish citizens and had been a key part of the debate over the Lisbon Treaty. The briefing said: Ireland values, and expects, tax sovereignty as the vital means by which to manage our economic growth and stability. Tax sovereignty provides the Government of the day with the most effective tools for managing their individual economies. In explaining why Ireland would not support any proposals to change tax-voting rules, it said this was a red-line issue for Irish citizens. The document also described how the EU Commission believed changes to rules on how multinationals and large companies pay tax were only achieved due to public pressure and had little to do with an actual desire for change from member states. It said the Commission also believed that countries in the EU including Ireland were using tax policy to play off against each other. The briefing warned that qualified majority voting on tax could mean changes would be possible with the support of only a small number of countries. It said: For example, it is possible for five of the 28 member states to create a majority on the basis of population (Germany, France, UK, Italy, and Spain). Should the UK leave the EU, it will still be possible for as few as five member states to achieve a qualified majority. The briefing warned that this type of voting represents a threat to Irelands ability to set its own tax. It said that Irelands voice would be diminished in negotiating future tax deals. However, the report also said that the proposals were unlikely to find support, and that it would not just be Ireland opposing them. The briefing explained: Many member states are expected to have serious concerns about the Commissions proposals in this area. A ladybird originating in the Mediterranean has been recorded for the first time in Ireland. The bryony ladybird, with its distinctive orange colour and 11 spots, was discovered when it flew into a house in Bandon, Co Cork, last month. It was released but seen again a week later on the exterior of the same home. The sighting was made by Lydia Rose who managed to photograph the insect and submit it for identification. Her find has since been verified by Gill Weyman, a researcher on a joint ladybird conservation project between Fota Wildlife Park and University College Cork, funded by the Irish Research Council. This is the first record for Ireland and the origin of this individual is not known. It may have arrived by a number of routes, for example, on a plant imported into the country, by vehicle from the ferry, or by air currents, said Ms Weyman. The bryony ladybird, unlike many other ladybirds, is a plant-eater and prefers members of the cucumber family. It has a preference for the plant white bryony from which it gets its common name, she added. The herbivore bryony is considered large at 5mm-7mm and fairly benign in terms of its impact on native wildlife. Ms Weyman said it was first recorded in the UK in the 1990s and its movement north may be as a result of a range of factors including climate change. Some 20 species of ladybird have been recorded in Ireland. The insect favourite comes with as few as two spots and as many as 24. Anyone with an interest in ladybirds is asked to submit their findings at biology.ie or via social media @irishladybirds. Local residents have blocked a large new housing development in Cloghroe amid concerns it was on a site prone to flooding as well as posing a road safety hazard. Senandale Residents Association successfully appealed last years decision by Cork County Council to grant planning permission for the development of 74 houses at Dromin, Cloghroe a village around 4km west of Blarney. An Bord Pleanala said the southern portion of the site, which would be used to access the proposed the new housing development, was at risk of flooding. The board said that it considered the project premature pending the carrying out of works to mitigate flooding along the Ballincollig-Kanturk road. The proposed development would therefore, be contrary to public safety and to the above mentioned guidelines and would seriously injure the amenities of future residents, it added. Senandale, which is one of three existing small housing estates in Cloghroe, adjoins the site of the proposed development. As part of the plans, developers Paul Coburn and Kevin McDonnell had also proposed a new access road linking the estate to the R579 Ballincollig-Kanturk road. Local residents expressed concern that no traffic assessment or road safety audit on the proposed development had been carried out. They also pointed to the lack of cycle facilities and substandard public footpaths in the area. The residents association said they had identified an alternative access site which would also avoid the area of the site prone to flooding. It also objected to the development on the grounds that the local area plan for Tower recommended a cap of 40 units in any new residential scheme in the area. The developers claimed their proposal should be seen in the context of the urgent need for high-quality residential accommodation and addressing unchecked rural housing in the open countryside. However, An Bord Pleanala said the minimisation of flood risk to the site could only be achieved in conjunction with an integrated programme of works on the R579. In the absence of such works which would be delivered by public authorities, it said the scenario of a one in 100-year flood event or greater would leave the proposed housing estate potentially marooned. The HSE has confirmed that the uptake rate for the (Human papillomavirus) HPV vaccine is at 70%, as HSE vaccination teams return to secondary schools to administer the second dose to first year girls. The figure is an increase of 20% in just over two years and means seven out of ten first year girls have received the first dose of the vaccine and are due the next dose. Update 12pm: The executive council of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation will meet this afternoon to be fully briefed after talks between the INMO, SIPTU, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, the Department of Health, and the Health Service Executive concluded late last night with no agreement. INMO general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha says that the INMO is all for change and the introduction of Slaintecare, but that the contract offered by the Government was inadequate and far from what the Labour Court had recommended. She told RTE Radios Today with Sean ORourke show that the Labour Court recommendation had been that there be a clear focus on fixing the problem or recruitment and retention. The Labour Court recommendation had been that a new contract be agreed within three weeks, but Ms Ni Sheaghdha said that the employer had not met until the end of the third week and that what had been proposed was way outside what the Labour Court had recommended. Were still not there. Theres still no indication that what theyre suggesting would be acceptable to our members. The general public knows that we dont have enough nurses. Ms Ni Sheaghdha said that the Labour Court had given clear instructions, but what was being suggested was way outside that and there had even been attempts to introduce work practices that were outdated and would not be accepted by any other public service unions. The employer is seeking the right to make all kinds of changes. We would not put that to our members. Nurses and midwives should be involved in productivity measures and instead they were being pushed out. She warned that nursing bills are going to be higher as the health service becomes more reliant on agency nurses. The focus should be on recruitment and retention and on improving conditions, she said. Instead the government and the Department of Health was focusing on a contract that in no way set out to fulfil the conditions set out by the Labour Court. Talks between nursing unions and HSE to continue Earlier: Talks between the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and the HSE ended last night without an agreement being reached. They met to discuss the new nursing contract which was proposed by the Labour Court last month. The INMO says the new contract aimed at avoiding further strike action would not be acceptable to their members. They say "a very large gap" exists between what nurses and midwives want and what the HSE is prepared to offer. Members' update, as talks on the new contract finish for the night (from 23:55, Sunday). pic.twitter.com/yeuEcSdadE Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation (@INMO_IRL) March 11, 2019 In a statement, the organisation said they believe the contract put forward does not fulfil the requirements of the Labour Court recommendation. Nurses believe the proposals would actually worsen the recruitment and retention problems which led them to strike in the first instance. INMO representatives will meet again today to discuss further steps. Digital Desk Plans for more than 1,400 new homes in east Cork were turned down due to infrastructure deficits. A lack of 'joined-up thinking' between An Bord Pleanala, Irish Water and Transport Infrastructure Ireland is reportedly to blame for the planning refusals. County councillors in Cork demanded Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy bring together the three bodies to strategically plan for major projects and ensure suitable infrastructure is in place. More worryingly, councillors say that recent projects refused were adjacent to the Cork-Midleton railway corridor which is specifically designated for major housing developments. Cllr Susan McCarthy proposed writing to the minister after Midleton, Castlemartyr and Carrigtwohill lost out on new schemes. All three areas have housing shortages. Cllr Susan McCarthy She said the Bord Pleanala decisions related to a lack of water infrastructure and road infrastructure in all three areas. There's a blatant lack of foresight, coordination and communication between Bord Pleanala, Irish Water and TII," she claimed. The lack of infrastructure, she said, was not just delaying housing projects but also long-fingering the Whitegate village renewal scheme. "Irish Water is holding up works there. These agencies have flawed communication between them, Cllr McCarthy insisted. Cllr Michael Hegarty also noted the high-density schemes being sought by Bord Pleanala were also a drawback to developers who will not build high-rise apartments in Midleton. Cllr Anthony Barry told the County Hall meeting he had spoken to a number of developers revealed high-density projects were not profitable for promoters. In support, Cllr Danielle Twomey said the lack of appropriate infrastructure to support new housing was hindering east Cork's growth economically. There is huge demand there for houses but no supply because the infrastructure is not in place. West Cork-based Cllr Paul Hayes said infrastructure deficit is also an issue in his region. "Development of hub towns like Clonakilty is being hampered because of water supplies being at crisis point. "We're now looking to source water from Bandon for Clonakilty. It looks as though Irish Water is making it up as they go along, he stated. The government introduced legislation more than a year ago where strategic developments with 100-plus houses would be determined directly by Bord Pleanala, rather than local authorities. Cllr Seamus McGrath said it had been window dressing by the government to make it look as though the new regulations would speed up planning but they had not worked. As a result, he said, there was a serious push for increased housing density in areas where it was clear the infrastructure was not sufficient. Mayor of County Cork, Cllr Patrick Gerard Murphy said he also had serious concerns about the lack of joined-up thinking and fully supported writing to the minister to address the issue. Cllr Hegarty added it was very worrying that Irish Water was 'holding up' much-needed development in key locations. A 74-year-old Dublin man is to face trial accused of indecently abusing a teenage boy in the 1980s. The man was remanded on bail after appearing before Judge Bryan Smyth at Dublin District Court today. He was ordered to appear again in seven weeks to be served with a book of evidence. The defendant, with an address in a north Dublin suburb, faces five charges. He is accused of indecent assault of a then 14-year-old boy on dates from February 1985 until January 1986. He is also accused of committing acts of gross indecency twice, between September 1986 and December 1987. The offences are alleged to have occurred at a house in north Dublin. Reopening backstop negotiations is not an option, the Justice Minister has said as the UK heads into a crucial week of Brexit votes As UK prime minister Theresa May faces into a series of critical votes in Westminster, Charlie Flanagan said he was not holding his breath when it comes to achieving a Brexit breakthrough. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier was in Dublin over the weekend, meeting with the Taoiseach and Tanaiste and attending the Ireland versus France Six Nations rugby match. Accompanied by Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney on his way into the stadium yesterday, Mr Barnier said his negotiating team are still working to reach an agreement. Rugby aside, the Irish & French in lockstep on the backstop and #Brexit. Bienvenue to @MichelBarnier & @ChLambert_FNSEA. Important week ahead for @campaignforleo & @simoncoveney. pic.twitter.com/T4NVhr4HYU Irish Farmers' Association (@IFAmedia) March 10, 2019 But after his social meeting with Mr Barnier, Mr Coveney said they were now realistic rather than optimistic about making any progress. Mr Coveney is today due to update Cabinet on Brexit developments ahead of the vote on the withdrawal agreement in Westminster on Tuesday. However, no progress had been made over the weekend, despite intense negotiations in Brussels. Hitting out at the UK Government, Mr Flanagan said: This was always going to be difficult because the detail was never thought through. While he said he would favour a short extension to Article 50 to avoid a hard Brexit, the Justice Minister said the UK would not automatically be granted this extra time and would have to make a case for it. Ultimately this is the responsibility of the UK; they had agreed certain terms of the agreement, he said. They now seem to be reneging on that. He accepted there is a difficulty with the backstop but said it has to be relied upon as an insurance policy. I dont believe that anybody is in a position to reopen that agreement, said Mr Flanagan. This was echoed by Business Minister Heather Humphreys, who said: We have the withdrawal agreement and that took 18 months to put together; we do believe that thats the best option in terms of Brexit. There is nothing particularly good about Brexit, nevertheless we fully support the withdrawal agreement. Asked about a Brexit extension she said: We certainly remain open to looking at that, along with our EU partners. While Ms Humphreys said nobody wants to see Britain crash out of the EU, her department has been working with businesses to help them prepare for the worst-case scenario while we continue to work for the best possible outcome. There are fears that the impact of a hard Brexit could be even worse than initially anticipated and the ERSI is due to publish an update on the consequences of a no-deal with the Department of Finance later this week. Regarding the threats of a no-deal, Ms Humphreys pointed to a recent report that predicted a 7% dampening of growth out to 2028. One of the larger service providers in the State for people with a disability, which faced the possible closure of some of its centres over serious concerns for residents, will now apply to register its newly reconfigured campus after a positive inspection report by health watchdog HIQA. There had been "significant concerns" about the centres operated at the Palmerstown campus in Dublin by Stewarts Care Ltd, to the extent where statutory notices of proposal to cancel the registration of two of the six designated centres were issued in June 2017, and similar statutory notices issued in relation to the remaining four centres on the campus in August of the same year. Three centres - Adults Services Palmerstown Designated Centre 1, Adults Services Palmerstown Designated Centre 5 and Adults Services Palmerstown Designated Centre 6 - were 100% non-compliant with standards in 2017 inspections. In those prior inspections, a range of issues was found, including widespread use of restrictive practices on the campus, that "mealtimes tended to be generally unpleasant, with institutional arrangements seen, such as hurried and fixed mealtimes to facilitate staff breaks" and that "many residents lived in overcrowded houses and were required to share bedrooms". It also found residents were not being adequately safeguarded and had a poor quality of life. However, improvements were noted during the past year. Last October the provider submitted applications to register newly reconfigured centres to the Office of the Chief Inspector, promising to divide the current six centres on the campus into smaller centres, each with their own person in charge. According to the report: "Between 2017 and January 2019, eight residents have successfully moved from their campus setting into a more appropriate placement in the community as part Stewarts Care Limiteds transition process. As of January 2019, there were 152 residents still living in the providers campus-based settings." HIQA said: "To date, inspectors have found that improvements have been made in the safety and the quality of life for many residents, and in the physical environment that residents live in. "However, this was not consistent in all centres and further progress and improvement was required to ensure all residents were provided with high-quality and safe services." It said it would maintain regulatory oversight across services provided by Stewarts Care Limited. The Board of Stewarts later confirmed that it has applied to HIQA for the registration of its newly reconfigured Designated Centres for the care and support of persons with an intellectual disability at its Palmerstown campus and "accepted fully its responsibility to resolve the issues of non-compliance highlighted by HIQAs work". Downing Street says Brexit talks between the UK and the EU remain "deadlocked". Negotiations continue between both sides today after weekend discussions failed to find a breakthrough. British MPs will vote again on the Withdrawal Agreement tomorrow which was defeated by a majority of 230 in January. Sinn Fein Brexit Spokesperson in the North, Mairtin O'Muilleoir, hopes the EU's solidarity with Ireland continues. "We have to protect the Good Friday Agreement, we don't want a return to the border, we have to protect the economy across the island," said Mr O'Muilleoir. "I hope and pray that Michel Barnier doesn't retreat on that. I don't see any evidence of that and I hope that the Irish government as well stands firm on the protections of our rights in the time ahead." Talks are taking place between Cork County Council and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) in an effort speed up roadworks in one of the country's industrial hubs, after claims they're causing major traffic gridlock. Standing orders were suspended at a council meeting in County Hall after councillors said something had to be done about the roadworks at Little Island. They involve adding an extra lane on an overbridge which is the main entrance into and out of the area. Cllr Padraig O'Sullivan said that while residents and the thousands of people employed there realised there had to be some short-term pain for long-term gain, they were angered by the huge tailbacks being experienced, especially at peak hours. There are 36,000 individual journeys in and out of Little Island every day. While I agree the works are necessary I want a number of questions answered, given this (work) will lead us up to June, he said. Cllr O'Sullivan asked that weekend and night work be used to speed up the process. The people who live there and the employees are saying it's very frustrating. This has had a knock-on impact in other areas and is backing up traffic as far away as Mahon and Glanmire, Cllr O'Sullivan said. Cllr Anthony Barry said Little Island was of major strategic importance. I hope something can be done. It's mad to see no weekend work going on. A woman who was onto me said she went into the bank there and was waiting and hour and a half to get out Little Island, he said. Cllr Bob Ryan said he was on business in Little Island recently and it took him an hour and three quarters to get out of the place". Council chief executive Tim Lucey said the works in Little Island were always going to be a challenge and there would be disruption for a number of weeks. He said the council was paying traffic corps gardai 1,800 per week to direct traffic in the area. Mr Lucey said his officials were in discussion with TII to speed up the project, which could include some weekend work and a new traffic management plan might also be implemented. The HSE has said the uptake rate for the HPV vaccine has increased by 20 percentage points in the past two years, following intensive campaigning against, what the Health Minister has described as, dangerous anti-vaccination myths. Seven in ten girls are now receiving the vaccine, according to the HSE. The figure had dropped to 50% in the 2016/17 school term. Dr Lucy Jessop, Head of the HSE National Immunisation Office said the increase was extremely encouraging and (it is) important that Ireland had achieved such a marked increase in such a relatively short period of time". It has been well articulated in recent months that eliminating cervical cancer is now an achievable goal, nationally and internationally," she said. Dr Jessop also paid tribute to Laura Brennan, a HPV vaccine advocate, describing her as an incredible young woman whose intelligence, determination and fearless advocacy over the past 18 months have undoubtedly influenced parents in making the important decision to vaccinate and protect their daughters". Ms Brennan was too old to receive the vaccine when it was first introduced in Irish schools and subsequently received a diagnosis of terminal cervical cancer caused by HPV. Im thrilled that people are listening, listening to the reality of what life with cervical cancer is really like and finding out for themselves that this vaccine is safe and effective and along with cervical screening, is the best tool that we have to help us move towards eradicating cervical cancer, Ms Brennan said in a video message welcoming the uptake numbers. Health Minister Simon Harris also commended Ms Brennans advocacy. Despite significant challenges including the spread of dangerous anti-vaccination myths, these figures show women are continuing to get vaccinated. As Laura has strongly articulated, vaccination saves lives, he said. Professor Mary Horgan, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland said it is delighted and encouraged by the latest figures, and that it looks forward to the roll-out of the scheme to boys next year. Vaccinating both boys and girls will further strengthen herd immunity and, if high uptake is achieved, can lead to potential eradication of HPV infection, Prof Horgan said. "Also, a lot of the cancers HPV causes are not just of the cervix; but also of the head and neck, which boys can develop too. So its really important that the vaccine is rolled out to as many people as possible." The Irish woman who went to Syria to join Isis will be allowed to return to Ireland despite serious concerns over the safety of the wider public from supporters of the group coming home, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said. Mr Varadkar said while Lisa Smith went to live in Isis-controlled parts of Syria, tearing up her citizenship would not be "the right or compassionate thing to do". It emerged over the weekend that 37-year-old Co Louth woman Ms Smith, who previously worked on the Government jet and is a defence forces graduate, left for war-torn Syria a number of years ago. Now a mother of a two-year-old child, she was arrested by Syrian authorities earlier this month as Isis-controlled territories in the country crumble. Her case is similar to that of 19-year-old Londoner Shamina Begum, who Britain last month said will not be allowed to return to the UK and had her citizenship revoked. However, speaking to reporters in Dublin on Monday, Mr Varadkar said despite concerns over the safety of the wider public Ms Smith has the right to return to Ireland with her child. "Going to Syria or going to live in what was called Islamic State is not in itself an offence or a crime. So we will need to carry out an investigation. "I know the authorities there will want to interrogate her to see if she has been involved in any crimes there. But its very possible that she wasnt a combatant, for example. "We really need to get to the bottom of the facts here, to carry out a security assessment to see if the Syrian authorities want to carry out a prosecution or not. "But ultimately this is an Irish citizen and we dont believe that removing an Irish citizens citizenship from her or her family, rendering them stateless, would be either the right or compassionate thing to do. As an Irish citizen, she will have the right to return to Ireland as will her child. But as an Irish citizen, its not just as simple as coming here and everything proceeding as if nothing had happened. "Well make sure that if she does return to Ireland, that she isnt a threat to anybody here either," Mr Varadkar said. Concerns have grown over the potential return of Isis members to European nations in recent weeks due to the collapse of Isis-controlled regions. Speaking to the Irish Examiner at the EU-Arab League summit in Egypt last month, Mr Varadkar said it would be "bad practice to revoke somebody's citizenship" as it would render them stateless and leave them to be somebody else's problem". An Bord Pleanala has upheld an appeal against Waterford Councils planning refusal for a solar farm in the west of the county. Eighteen months ago, the local authority had refused Dublin-based Highfield Solar Ltd permission to construct a solar PV energy development at Ballyard, Ballyhane, and Clashnagoneen, about 5km from Cappoquin. The development comprises a small single-storey electrical substation and associated works on a 62.8-hectare site. However, despite the reversal of the planning decision, the proposal cannot proceed until the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment launches a competitive auction system for the provision of renewable energy, most likely in the latter part of this year. Companies anticipate it will be at least late 2020 before construction of solar energy sites can commence provided the Government also proceeds with national guidelines. To date, some solar energy plants are operational in Northern Ireland but none has been developed in the Republic. The latest proposal in West Waterford drew four objections, including one from the national roads authority, Transport Infrastructure Ireland. The council, in September 2017, ruled that the development in itself and in combination with permitted development of a similar nature would represent an unduly obtrusive feature on the landscape and threaten the rural character and amenities of the area. It also felt the development would constitute extensive usage of agricultural land and cited a lack of guidance at a national, regional and local level. Furthermore, the council was dissatisfied that glint and glare could be properly mitigated, with the possibility of a negative impact on users of surrounding roads including the N72. It further feared the area posed a high flood risk with the project possibly exacerbating flood risk elsewhere. However, in its appeal to An Bord Pleanala, Highfield Solar argued that the absence of official guidelines was insufficient reason for refusal. It also advised that a visual impact statement had demonstrated such impact would be minimal. The company plans to address residents concerns by removing several solar panels in a north-western field where the level of solar reflection is low. The company cited other examples of solar farms on flood plains and said buffer zones either side of a stream would be provided. In determining the development would not likely have a significant effect on what is a Blackwater River area of special conservation, An Bord Pleanala granted planning for 25 years under 12 conditions and within a 10-year period. The company has, to date, secured planning for solar farms in 18 locations throughout the country. Peter Cluskey recounts how his wife, Adrienne, died on New Year's Eve after a Dutch hospital "lost" tests results in 2011 that showed she had cancer. After fighting the Dutch healthcare system for six years until she died on New Years Eve, my wife Adrienne Cullen and I were totally at one about why so many bad things happen in hospitals in the Netherlands: Because regulation is based on trust. Hospitals need to be regulated not because they are filled with people with malign intent towards patients, but because they are enormous, complex, incredibly expensive, multi-disciplinary cities, where communication is haphazard at best, and the idea of any one individual or committee having an overview is nonsense. Adrienne about to fly over Malta in an ancient Cessna Patients, these hospitals figure, need to be kept firmly where they belong in the waiting room. Thats not to be naive. Of course, without procedures nothing will work. The problem, however, in failing to have a culture of partnership between doctors and patients is that when things go wrong, who loses out? Not the hospital. Its a fact of corporate life that when large institutions are challenged, they do what it takes to survive and often thats not a pretty sight. In Adriennes case that bad behaviour meant the UMC (University Medical Centre) Utrecht not reporting to the health inspectorate in 2013 that a researcher had found test results that had been lost in 2011, and which showed that the patient involved had cervical cancer which must have advanced during that time. Their Bart Simpson-esque logic was that so much time had elapsed, no useful lessons could be learned by reporting themselves for their negligence even though it was during those two years that Adriennes cancer had not just advanced but become terminal. Despite protests from Adrienne and one of its most senior doctors, the hospital used much the same self-serving logic to avoid carrying out an investigation into what happened to Adriennes test results, whether a transition from paper to electronic filing played any part, and if so, how likely it was statistically that hers were the only results lost? That begs the awful question: Are there others out there who dont yet know what awaits them? When it became clear that Adrienne was not about to slink away quietly with 130,000 as compensation for losing her life that was the Dutch courts highest award at the time the hospital instructed its doctors that all communication was to be through its legal department, insurers, and loss adjusters. This was a challenge that Adrienne, tired and sick-unto-death though she was, accepted with a resolve powered by pure disgust. I suppose its hardball time, she smiled at me with resignation. Thats why she called her book Deny, Dismiss, Dehumanize: What Happened When I Went to Hospital. I was with her every step of the way, and that just about sums it up. Her 3 Ds, as we called them. Would her remaining months be worthwhile if she bowed to what we saw as bullying a dying woman? No was her answer. She never wavered. The doctors adage, First, do not harm, seemed like a quaint idea from a distant galaxy. In fact, one of her doctors told me afterwards: It was the biggest mistake of my career: Allowing m yself to be told by the people who run this hospital how I should or should not deal with one of my own patients. It still makes me feel ashamed. In a nutshell, Adrienne walked into an ultra-modern Dutch university hospital to see if it could treat a nagging illness. Instead, the negligence of the hospital left her terminally ill. Then, while accepting 100% legal liability, it began an actuarial process aimed at reducing the compensation for the destruction of her life to a minimum. Nothing to see here was its response to initial media queries about her case, which would become the most infamous here in the past decade. It set a new legal precedent for compensation to patients who lose their lives or are damaged through negligence, and forced new open disclosure protocols into all seven of the countrys university hospitals in cases of avoidable harm. Adriennes answer to those who seemed to think that having terminal cancer as a result of negligence was more or less the same as having terminal cancer through lifes ill luck was, Im not dying of cancer, Im dying of medical negligence. And before you think, Well, there cant be many cases like this, heres the chilling reality: Some 2,000 people die as a result of avoidable medical negligence in the Netherlands every year. Just think about that word, avoidable. Worse still, the figure balloons to almost 100,000 deaths across the EU annually though neither the EU nor MEPs seem to have anything to say about it. Why is it such a secret world? Because in too many cases the hospitals impose non-disclosure agreements or gagging clauses with the not-so-subtle subtext, You may be dying, but if you tell anyone how it happened, well be calling for your compensation back. When youre dying of cancer, have had multiple operations, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy perhaps more than once, cant sleep with the pain of the tumours, worry 24-7 about metastases, and want your family looked after when youre gone, youre not going to fight City Hall are you? WARRIOR WOMAN: Adrienne hearing from a hospital spokesman that a leading Dutch investigative journalist has been excluded from the openness talk. Adrienne Cullen did. She said no way to the inevitable gagging clause. She fought battle after battle and won - the highest-ever compensation for medical negligence, the first-ever written apology from the CEO of a Dutch hospital, an annual seminar on open disclosure after harm named after her by the hospital that caused her death, even finally forcing UMC Utrecht to reverse its decision not to carry out an investigation. That no way attitude was the reason she recognised a kindred spirit in Vicky Phelan. She wrote this about Vicky in The Irish Times last May: By God, Im going to take these guys on. Theyve fecked with the wrong woman this time. Those words took my breath away. I know the place inside that they come from. I know the finely honed pain and righteous anger that forged them. Id just like to say to Vicky, Go girl! And if theres anything I can do to help you, just say the word. Adrienne also wrote about the parallels between her case and Vickys. Both had cervical cancer, both had been let down in the worst possible way by the health services they trusted, both were forced to become litigants in pursuit of justice, and both had to go public to get their voices heard. If there was a difference, Adrienne felt it was that the Dutch public of 17m cared less than the Irish and that that indifference was reflected in the hospitals lack of any moral compass. How a scholar in Greek language and literature who studied at Trinity College Dublin became involved in an infamous incident in the notorious African slave trade is in some ways the conundrum of western civilisation. That supposedly civilised people versed in the Enlightenment values of reason and equality could perform acts of great evil on their fellow humans is simply baffling. Joseph Wall was born in Dublin in 1873 and was raised a Catholic before attending Trinity College. A man acquainted with the works of Homer and Socrates carried out an act of exceptional depravity that echoed down the centuries in military history. Soldiers of the British Empire carried out many horrific acts over the centuries but the empire often had many willing Irishmen in its ranks. Wall joined the British Army in 1760 and distinguished himself in the siege of Havana in 1762 when the British wrested control of the Caribbean port from the Spanish in the Seven Years War. The port was later returned to the Spanish. Thereafter, he joined the commercial colonial operation known as the East India Company and was stationed at Bombay. However, the Seven Years War affected the fringes of two continents and by 1773 the peripatetic Wall found himself secretary and clerk to the council of the Province of Senegambia modern-day Senegal and Gambia. He was appointed governor of Goree Island, a major slave entrepot whose ownership had passed through Portuguese, Dutch, French and now British hands. A posting here was regarded as something of a raw deal for the soldiery, and most were sent to the malaria-prone island as a sort of punishment. Into this unhappy cesspit arrived the Trinity scholar. He was accompanied by his brother Patrick who saw the incipient cruelty of his brother when Wall had a prisoner flogged. This was the continuance of a trend which saw Wall kill a man in a duel in Dublin. Patrick, appalled by what he had seen and having fallen into an illness, died soon afterwards. Senegals capital Dakar is the westernmost point in Africa and was an obvious strategic hub for colonial interests. Goree is a small tropical island just 2km off Dakar with a population of around 1,600 and decorated with magnificent baobab trees. Today, colonial buildings with elegant facades and public squares belie the horrors that took place here. The Slave House is a sturdy looking building where as many as 20 million people passed through on their way to a life of slavery in the Americas and Europe. Life on the island was proving difficult too for the new governor and he made plans to depart the island. Shortly before he could do so, a delegation of Africa Corps soldiers arrived at his house looking for a settlement of monies owed. Island governor Joseph Wall who had a reputation for cruelty and was himself executed The enraged and drunken Wall had the men arrested on the spot, charging them with mutiny and, without recourse to courts martial, had them summarily flogged. The chief agitator, Sgt Benjamin Armstrong, received 800 lashes. He and two others died from their injuries. The incident scandalised the troops and when Wall returned to England he was arrested after a report by an officer. His trial was delayed and Wall absconded. He was eventually arrested and stood trial in 1802. What seems to have outraged judge and jury was not that the savage punishment had been inflicted, but that it was inflicted by black men on white men. His trial was told that witnesses testified that Wall had shouted cut him to the heart, cut him to the liver during the flogging. The court found him guilty and he himself was executed in 1802. Wall was never to escape the consequences of his fatal brutality, and when in his 65th year he was executed, the cycle of savagery was harshly completed by an outburst of public rejoicing, wrote David Dean for the Royal African Society. Goree is a UNESCO world heritage site and though the provenance and scale of its tragedy is disputed, at the least it represents the fulcrum of an appalling evil perpetrated against Africa by colonial powers. How to get there: Ferry from Dakar port. Other: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 59, Wall, Joseph Despite various conservation efforts and bans on fishing, we now have fewer wild salmon than even a decade ago and many reasons are being put forward for the continuing decline. As scientists continue to probe reasons for the huge drop in salmon numbers, an expert says its an issue for everybody in our society; not just anglers and nature lovers. Some of the reasons are man-made. In the River Nore, for example, a recent Eco Eye RTE programme reported over 500 obstacles in the paths of salmon returning there to spawn. It should also be said that Co Kilkenny angling clubs are involved in efforts to make the river more salmon-friendly. Salmon numbers peaked in the mid-1970s when around 1.7m returned to Ireland. Today, returns are estimated at 250,000 to 300,000. These are figures from graphs quoted by Inland Fisheries Ireland chief executive Ciaran Byrne. He also looks at the number of juvenile salmon which survive at sea and make it back to their birth rivers and lakes to breed. Marine survival peaked around 1986, with about 31 of every 100 which set out on the perilous journey from an Irish river to the Atlantic returning compared to seven today. Salmon produce thousands of eggs and theres a biological reason for this. Nature decrees that only a small amount will survive. Whats different now, says Dr Byrne, is that the number which die is higher than what salmon have biologically planned for and this is leading to the fall in stocks. Writing in the latest issue of Sherkin Comment, he says this is also happening in many other countries. The easy answer would be to blame sea lice and fish farming, which can be significant factors, but the reality is far more complex. There are multiple factors in the decline of salmon stocks, each of which can have a different level of influence in different years, he says. Though illegal fishing has declined, according to Inland Fisheries Ireland, and all drift netting has been banned since 2006, salmon levels continue their decline. Dr Byrne says it is likely that changes in ocean temperatures, food availability and predators are also having dramatic impacts on salmon abundance. However, he says, such factors are effectively uncontrollable. So, what we have to do is to focus our efforts on controlling the controllables to ensure our juvenile salmon are given the best chance possible to survive at sea, he says. Salmon is the freshwater equivalent of the canary in the coalmine an early warning system for something being wrong, he says. Healthy salmon populations are possibly one of the best indicators of a healthy environment and every one of us will benefit from a healthy environment. There arent too many three bedroomed Irish bungalows come for sale with 1.1m price guides - but, then again, Knockrobin is in rather a special setting and in rather exalted company: were talking Compass Hill, Kinsale, and in one of its better perches too. Dating to the early 1980s, Knockrobins a one-off, single-storey home tucked under the road on Compass Hill, just on the town side of the brow of the hill. Its one of Kinsales priciest stretches of real estate, probably sharing that honour with Ardbrack and Scilly, which it faces across the scenic harbour. Despite having a clutch of 1m-plus sales, though, Compass Hill pretty much trails the sales successes of late at Arbrack and Scilly, with just four sales at and above this level showing on the Price Register, and two of them were for the same house. Ardcarrig, a large hillset Georgian semi-detached home 100 metres for Knockrobin on the town side, and shows again last January, at 1.79m. And, among the other sales visible there is No 1 Ard Alainn, the first sale of twelve new, 3,500 sq ft houses to be built by David Kitt: the dozen were launched by Savills over a year ago, priced at 1.35m, pretty much a current record price ask for a Munster scheme home, albeit in a top Kinsale setting. Lauchinghe c 35-year old 1,850 sq ft Knockrobin, for its Irish owners whove been here since the 1980s, estate agent Johnny OFlynn is confident of his 1.1m pricing, given the site size and setting. It has the full panorama view over the water, just upriver and high above the Trident Hotel, spanning the inner and outer harbours over James Fort, with marina, pier and Scilly Walk in the frame,and just about every botat that comes into or out of Kinsale will be espied from up here. As it stands, its a perfectly fine home in most peoples book, with good quality living spaces, and one of its original four bedrooms has been made over to dressing room use, limiting it at present to mere three-bed status.Thats easily enough reversed, say Sherry FitzGerald, whove just launched it to the open market this Bank Holiday weekend. Its well kept and presented, says Mr OFlynn, saying it has impeccable charm and character, and who says a new owner could just buy, move in and be perfectly happy for years before making any changes. But, design, and glazing options, and architectural elan and even planners willingness to embrace the new and the bold, has moved on quite a bit since the early 19890s, so it might not be any surprise to look back on this spot in a couple of short years time and to see something radically different to the Knockrobin of 2109. Most dated within is probably the kitchen, with its original oak units and a partial link to a dining room with views. Right now, it has the best of its three reception rooms through double doors off the main halls own entry point double doors by the back/entrance, with warm, honeyed-pine floor and ceiling plasterwork, while a central white marble fireplace at the end gable is flanked by tall corner windows either side, for tantalizing water and harbour views in several different directions once you stand right up to them. And, therein lies the rub, as such, of Knocrobin, its so much of the design ethos (and planners more cautious tastes) of earlier decades that youd nearly want to knock out the walls to open up the standard format picture windows, and go floor-to-ceiling as much as possible and as much as permitted. After all, there are examples galore of free rein given to highly glazed contemporary box architectural one-offs, across the way in Scilly (most recent top result? 2.55m) and Ardbrack, and in Summercove. Heck, there are even a few good examples along this blessed,scenic stretch, on and off Compass Hill. VERDICT: The house is good, but the sites the star. Compass Hill, Kinsale 1.1m Size: 172 sq m (1,850 sq ft) on 0.7 acre Bedrooms: 3/4Bathrooms: 3BER: E1 A majestic performance by Anne Dalton gave Kilkenny a 0-12 to 0-9 victory over rivals Cork in the Littlewoods Ireland Camogie League Division 1 semi-final in Carriganore. Now Galway stand in their way of becoming just the third team to complete a four-in-a-row with the Connacht side getting a 2-14 to 0-4 win over Limerick. Player of the Year Dalton was magnificent, scoring four points from play while Michelle Quilty landed six from frees. Cork had wind advantage in the opening half but struggled to make it count on the scoreboard as they were overly reliant on Orla Cotter and young Cliona Healy. Dalton and Quilty kept Kilkenny in touch and left them just a point adrift (0-6 to 0-7) at the break. Though Cotter extended Corks advantage within seconds of the restart, Kilkenny, who introduced Denise Gaule, shot the next six points to take control. Quilty doubled her tally with three more frees, Gaule converted another from distance and as Dalton shot two more for a 0-12 to 0-8 lead. Kilkenny failed to score in the last 12 minutes plus three of additional time but all Cork could manage was a Julia White point. Meanwhile, it was glory for Galway in similarly difficult conditions in Birr where Limerick fell at the penultimate league hurdle for the fifth season in a row. Niamh Hanniffy, who starred for the University of Limerick in their successful Ashbourne Cup campaign, carried on her goal-scoring run with an early major for Galway to lead by 1-2 to 0-0 after just four minutes. Niamh Mulcahy converted a Limerick free in the seventh-minute but thereafter the westerners ran amok. Four pointed frees by Carrie Dolan and a pair from play by Noreen Coen extended their advantage before efforts from Ailish OReilly and Niamh Kilkenny had them 1-8 to 0-1 clear at the break. Galway keeper Sarah Healy came to their rescue on the restart by denying Rebecca Delee and moments later Mulcahy doubled Limericks tally from another placed ball. It was only a brief reprieve as OReilly grabbed a second goal for the victors shortly afterward. Ann Marie Starr and Coen added points. Meanwhile, the relegation play-off between Offaly and Wexford scheduled for Coolock, did not take place, with Wexford refusing to play with both teams in attendance. When Lion Air Flight 610 plunged into the Java Sea off Indonesia shortly after takeoff last October, killing 189 people, analysts and passengers alike were cautiously satisfied in the aftermath with Boeing's explanation that its state-of-the-art 737 Max aircraft is safe. The fatal Ethiopian Airlines air crash, which killed 157, at the weekend has shaken that belief. There was an element of victim-blaming in the aftermath of the Lion Air tragedy, with aviation insiders in Ireland pointing to Indonesia's historically shoddy safety record as a way to alleviate queries about issues surrounding the so-called "game-changing" 737 Max. The 737 Max is perfectly safe, they said -- it is most likely poor safety and pilot error that brought Lion Air Flight 610 down. It is a different story today. Ethiopian Airlines has an excellent, though not impeccable, safety record and is the envy of others within the industry not only in Africa but across the world. While it would not to fair or accurate to cast aspersions on the safety of Boeing's wonder plane just yet, it is surely prudent to ask hard questions. Put simply, pilots have said they were not trained in new features of an anti-stall system that are different from previous 737s. The automated system is designed to help pilots avoid raising the planes nose too high, which can cause the plane to stall, or lose the aerodynamic lift needed to keep flying. The system automatically pushes the nose of the plane down. But if that nose-down command is triggered by faulty sensor readings -- as suspected in the Lion Air tragedy -- pilots can struggle to control the plane, which can go into a dive and perhaps crash, according to a Boeing safety bulletin and safety regulators. You don't get do-overs or mulligans in aviation, where innocuous human errors or technical faults can snowball into a chain reaction of catastrophic events, often fatal. With 5,000 orders of 737 Max aircraft from airlines around the world, and many billions of dollars on the line, the stakes could not be higher for the world's biggest planemaker, which saw a tenth wiped off its value as spooked investors jettisoned shares yesterday. Irish passengers may not have taken much notice previously, but there is a good chance that many were transported across the world on a 737 Max since mid-2017. Norwegian Air International uses the plane for its Irish flights to the US east coast, including Cork's first-ever transatlantic route to Providence, Rhode Island. Shares in that firm fell almost 7%. The airline is taking it seriously, but not grounding flights like some airlines. Norwegians director of flight operations, Tomas Hesthammer, said: "All of our Boeing 737 Max aircraft are operating as normal. We are in close dialogue with Boeing and follow their and the aviation authorities instructions and recommendations. Our passengers safety is and will always be our top priority. Ryanair waxed lyrical about the 737 Max in February's quarterly update. A query from this reporter regarding the 737 Max yesterday went unanswered. "We will take delivery of our first five 737 Max gamechanger aircraft from April. These aircraft have 4% more seats, are 16% more fuel efficient, have 40% lower noise emissions and...will drive unit cost efficiencies over the next five years," it said last month. It is due to take 42 deliveries from August until next March, and has options to buy 210 in total. The Irish Aviation Authority is taking notice: "We await further information from the accident investigation team, the manufacturer Boeing, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on the circumstances of this accident. There are a small number of Boeing 737 Max aircraft on the Irish aircraft register. "As safety is paramount to passenger and aircraft operating crews, the Irish Aviation Authority will issue notification to all operators of Irish registered Boeing 737 Max as soon as any further information becomes available." Alberto Costa is a Scottish Conservative of Italian parentage and the House of Commons has adopted his amendment to protect citizens rights in a no-deal Brexit, says Gordon Reid Alberto Costa is not a troublemaker. He is a 47-year-old Conservative MP whose parents came to Scotland from Italy 50 years ago. His viewpoint on Brexit goes beyond party political issues, to the human misery and damage it is causing. Alberto Costas views on Brexit are those of a worried family man. A quiet Scot, he stood up in the UK House of Commons and spoke, not about economics or national sovereignty, but about right and wrong. Mr Costa tabled an amendment to a UK government motion; he did so to protect his parents and millions like them. It was debated on February 27 and the vote made history. In his Commons speech, he said: My amendment does not deal in goods or services, backstops or borders, but people living and breathing, skin and bone. The rights and freedoms of over one million UK citizens in the EU, and over three million EU citizens in the UK, should never have been used as a bargaining chip during the negotiations for our withdrawal from the European Union. That such rights were placed on the table in the first place was wrong. Three million people from the EU, permanently settled by right in the UK for years or decades, are suddenly having to apply to stay in their homes. Even the UK Home Offices own target is a 95% success rate for their settled status scheme, which means that it expects 150,000 EU citizens to be unable to prove their right to stay in the UK. A right they never before had to prove, because, well, it was a right. Similarly, 1m people from the UK have built their lives on the EU project and the freedom of movement it offers. They have moved to work in other countries, fallen in love, settled down, made new homes. My family is among them. Im a Scot, like Mr Costa, and came from Scotland to Ireland via England, Germany, and Romania. My wife and most of my family are Romanian. UK citizens are secure within Ireland, because of old and new bilateral agreements. But others all over the EU, permanently settled by right according to EU law, are now having to deal with a multiplicity of registration schemes to stay in their homes. Their EU rights to social welfare and healthcare will be lost. People who work in more than one EU country will not be able to after Brexit. To add insult to injury, new immigration restrictions on EU citizens mean that many mixed UK/EU families will be unable to go back to the UK, even if it was previously their home. Returning to the EU partners home country may also be difficult or impossible. Returning to Europe from a work contract elsewhere in the world may be out of the question. So the imaginary safety net of if it doesnt work out, we can always go home doesnt exist for some of us, and, for many, moving to be close to the grandchildren suddenly becomes near impossible. My own family is affected. Since the 2016 EU referendum on Brexit, citizens groups have been campaigning to protect our rights. The 3 Million works for EU citizens in the UK, and British in Europe works for UK citizens elsewhere in the EU. Both the EU and the UK have maintained that citizens rights are their top priority; but in the withdrawal negotiations themselves, we have become bargaining chips, and our rights have been quietly, steadily, and covertly chipped away. The EU set out to protect all our existing rights, but the UK governments aim was to end free movement for EU citizens. As it eroded their rights in the UK, corresponding restrictions were placed on UK citizens in the EU. Although the final withdrawal agreement is far more restrictive than the EU first intended, it is still good enough for most of us, most of the time and, crucially, it would be an international treaty, so our rights would not depend on the vagaries of changeable national laws. We dont want to lose even that, in a no-deal scenario. This is why the Costa Amendment is so fundamental, and so welcome, because it would protect Part 2 of the withdrawal agreement, the part that deals with citizens rights. Without the Costa Amendment, a no-deal Brexit (which is looking increasingly likely) would destroy Part 2, along with all the rest, because of the principle that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. In fact, everything has been agreed, between governments, but the UK parliament continually refuses to ratify the withdrawal agreement. Conservative MPs in the anti-EU European Research Group (ERG), along with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), are unhappy about the backstop. This is the part of the agreement that protects against a hard border in Ireland. Vote after vote reinforces the message that the House of Commons is divided on the issue. Yet, in contrast to its habitual disunity on Brexit, the House of Commons did something exceptional when it adopted the Costa Amendment. When the vote came, there was a chorus of ayes in favour; the speaker asked for the no votes, but not a word was heard. A city council employee cleaning the streets of Glasgow: in 2016s Brexit referendum on Britains membership of the European Union, Scotland voted to remain, as did Northern Ireland, while England and Wales voted to leave. Every MP present had supported it, across the Brexit spectrum, from the pro-EU SNP, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and Green parties, all the way to the ERG and the DUP. Alberto Costa had done the seemingly impossible he had united the Commons in a Brexit vote. So, are we safe now? Can we all breathe a sigh of relief, knowing our rights are protected? Not quite. The Costa Amendment, valuable though it is, is an instruction to the UK government to seek agreement with the EU. The EU still needs to agree it, if we are to be safeguarded. Press reports in the UK about the Costa Amendment often say things like Brussels refuses to negotiate a mini-deal on citizens rights. This shorthand is misleading. The Costa Amendment is not asking for a mini-deal on citizens rights, separate from the withdrawal agreement. Citizens rights are already in the withdrawal agreement, and it would be absurd to negotiate them again. The Costa Amendment says that if we are facing the cliff-edge of a no-deal Brexit, the citizens rights part of the withdrawal agreement would become the deal. Theres a name for something that you hope you wont need to use, but you still have, in case the worst happens and nothing can be agreed in time. That name is familiar to us here in Ireland. Its a backstop. The Costa Amendment proposes a backstop for human rights. So, what has to be done to get Brussels to agree to it? Firstly, we have to be clear about what Brussels is shorthand for. The EUs decisions are made by the Council, which consists of the heads of government of its 28 (soon 27) member states, and by its directly elected parliament; the decisions are implemented by the Commission, which is the EUs civil service. Brussels refuses to negotiate this means The Commission doesnt have a mandate to negotiate this. This is true and not surprising. They are, after all, civil servants, allowed to do only what the Council has instructed them to do: to negotiate one single withdrawal agreement, which they have done. To get Brussels to agree to protect citizens rights in a no-deal Brexit, as the Costa backstop proposes, the Council has to give a new mandate to the Commission to negotiate it with the UK. Taoiseach Leo Vardakar is one of the 27 members of the Council, so he and his 26 counterparts, heads of government from around the EU, have our fate in their hands. The latest statement from the Commission is that protecting Part 2 in this way would imply that the negotiations have failed. But a backstop doesnt imply failure: its just a safeguard, in case negotiations do fail. The backstop we already have doesnt imply that future negotiations on the border in Ireland are going to fail; the clear intention is that they wil succeed, but the backstop is there, just in case. The same applies to the Costa backstop. Their common feature is that they both protect human rights: one protects the rights of people on the border and in the North; the other, people all over the EU and UK. Until Wednesday February 27, Alberto Costa was a parliamentary private secretary, the first rung on the ministerial ladder. It is not quite true to say he was sacked, as some reports have stated. Just before entering the Commons chamber, the UK prime minister, Theresa May, spoke to Mr Costa, and reminded him of what was expected of him. As he explained in parliament: There is a convention that a parliamentary private secretary is expected to resign if they table an amendment [to government policy], which is all I would say on the matter. Even at that moment, he was too honourable to utter a word of criticism. Mr Costa thanked fellow MPs with these words: We can all take pride in informing our constituents and fellow British citizens in the EU that we put citizens rights at the very front. Then, he thanked The 3 Million and British in Europe. Finally, he closed his speech with a reminder, as valid in the EU Council as it is in Westminster: Citizens rights is not about party politics. It is about people. People like me and my family, like friends in the UK and around Europe, thousands who are suffering anxiety and illness, because our rights are under threat. The more than 4m innocent victims of this Brexit tragedy. The EU Council meets on March 21 and 22, only a few days before Brexit. Previously, both EU Council and Parliament have consistently been far more generous about citizens rights than the UK government. We hope they have not forgotten that generosity, in their frustration with the UKs capricious indecision. Over 4m of us are hoping or praying that they will remember Mr Costas closing words. This is not about politics; it is about people. Gordon Reid is a member of The 3 Million and British in Europe, and Green Party local candidate for Bandon-Kinsale It seems humanly impossible not to have some sympathy for the Islamic State brides and their unfortunate children, many of whom are dying in refugee camps. That sympathy is qualified. The reality is that their useful-fools decision to be part of an organisation that brought barbarism to an almost unprecedented level in the modern world is the main reason for their, and their childrens, tragic, wasted lives. Those religious-belief-driven positions, however, cannot be applied to the Beirut street children whose lives are another shameful cameo in the Middle Easts eternal tragedy. They feature in Nadine Labakis Oscar-nominated Capurnaeum. Victoria White reports from Lebanon today and quotes Labaki: I thought if I stay silent Im complicit... Victoria White in a kindergarten, for Palestinian children at Beddawi Refugee Camp, where families have languished for years Lebanon, once bitten twice shy, cannot provide official refugee camps. The camps they offered Palestinian refugees since the 1940s are impoverished, dysfunctional ghettos and contributed to Lebanons bloody civil war and continue to destabilise that once-enviable country. The depth, the intractability of these differences make any difficulties we might have on these islands seem almost playful diversions. Despite that, todays report on how our courts process child care cases cannot be ignored after all, resolving these difficulties is within our reach if we dedicate the resources needed to make this process more child-friendly, more humane and most of all, the end of a process rather than the beginning of a litany of life-long failure. The Children Care Law Reporting Project report describes situations that might have shocked Dickens and represent deep social failure in a country with our resources and enthusiastic propensity for judging others failures. The CCLRP sent representatives to a full-day sitting in 35 courts, covering the 24 districts in the district court circuit, between October 2018 and January 2019. In one court on one day, with just one sitting judge, there were 139 cases listed, consisting of crime, general civil law, family law and child care. Anyone who expects justice, much less empathy and dignity, in such a stretched setting is optimistic. No judge, even one with the wisdom of David and the stamina of Dennis Kimetto, could deal with such a list as well as they might wish. In another district, the CCLRP found that judges can have over 120 cases listed on family law days. These impossibilities seem remnants from a time when the court process was imagined part of a sanction rather than part of the solution. CCLRPs Carol Coulter stressed the urgency of legislating for a specialist family court: This underlines... that legislation for a specialist family court is urgently needed. It may seem a stretch to conflate Isis brides and our failing childrens courts but every tragic life is somehow rooted in rejection, germinated by social failure and a lack of support at a moment of crisis. The CCLRP report describes exactly just such an environmnent. Interview Czech Republic Vows to Strengthen Relations, Economic Support Martin Tlapa, deputy minister of foreign affairs of the Czech Republic, spoke to The Irrawaddy in Yangon on March 7, 2019. / Kyaw Thura / The Irrawaddy YANGONMartin Tlapa, the deputy minister of foreign affairs of the Czech Republic, visited Myanmar last week. During his visit, The Irrawaddy spoke to him about the outcomes of his visit and relations between the Czech Republic and Myanmar. During your visit to Myanmar [in the first week of March], you have an MoU signed. What is the MoU about? The MoU is a declaration about [relations] on an official level between the Czech Republic and the [Myanmar] government officials. It [is] a tool for frequent contact between Myanmar and the Czech Republic at every level. This is the evidence of strong and important relations between our two countries and also mention[s] the topics on which sectors and in which areas we would like to cooperate in the future. This is the guideline for us for the future relations, some kind of program that we would like to do and terms. It is obvious that the Czech Republic should be your important partner in Europe in the EU family of countries because our relations are very strong. Czech [Republic] has always been a supporter of the Myanmar democracy movement. What other [connections] will Myanmar and Czech have in the future? What will be the future relations between Czech [Republic] and Myanmar because you have been supporting Myanmar a lot with humanitarian aid and in other sectors? Human rights are an important element of Czech foreign policy. We did a lot in the past to support the opposition. Now we are understandingmaybe more than othersabout how difficult it is to transform the country and economy from planning in advance and centralized to a free market and democracy because we had the same experience as your country. So it needs [much] patience and redirection. We do understand [that] people are demanding quick changes and how difficult it is so we can share our transformation experiences and we would like to really help in developing your country, development cooperation, and humanitarian assistance. When I was meeting with your officials and I was talking about investment from the Czech Republic. We can do more to bring the Czech technologies, for example, in agriculture, or processing, manufacturing, to upgrade the competitiveness of your economy. Regarding investments in Myanmar and challenges in finding foreign investment due to the criticism Myanmar has received over the past two years because of the Rakhine issue and the peace process, what do you recommend to others? I am sharing our experience. First of all, its not possible to change the economy without capital. If there is a lack of capital from domestic sources, you want to be open for foreign investors. For the Czech Republic, it was important to diversify the relations of investment from abroad: not to rely on one country or one group of countries. In our case, from the beginning of our transformation, there was huge investment coming to the Czech Republic from countries like Germany, the Netherlands. And Japan was a very important investor. Our strategy was to diversify relations, to keep independence and to keep the flow of capital to the economy. The second important thing is to prepare a business-friendly environment: to help start small businesses, medium-size businesses, to have financial institutions which can support new enterprises to start the business. It is very important for employment, and it also [allows] companies to be intermediate partners for the investors who are coming to your country. So this is what I will be sharing with people from the business [community] here in Myanmar. What other Czech businesses are running in Myanmar and how are you making sure that you have continued support? Maybe I will surprise you now but I dont know if many people know that you do much more export to the Czech Republic than we do export to your country. So you have a surplus in trade and the export of your country to the Czech Republic is almost $80 million a year, which is not a bad amount for the beginning according to Czech statistics. Its textiles, its some food and raw materials as well. But I think there is good cooperation also in the pharmaceutical industry and engineering. I think we have a base for upgrading relations to [give] the goods a higher added value in the future. Based on that, I think that for us its important to keep the privileged access of your companies to the European market. I think the Everything But Arms [agreement], which allows export without taxes to the European market is an important incentive for your companiesthe same preferential tariffsand it is important to keep this advantage also for the future. In time, it will be important for stabilizing your economy and there will be more robust growth in the future. Myanmar people are very familiar with your former president Mr. Vaclav Havel, because he is a close friend, supporter, to Aung San Suu Kyi. [How] are our countries alike? What is your experience with Mr. Harvels time and the time of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi here in Myanmar? It is a legacy. Vaclav Havel is a legacy person, who we are missing now in Czech politics and the Czech Republic. He was a leader who [went] from dissident to the position of president. Thats why the [comparison] with your State Secretary Madam Suu Kyi is so close. There were big friends and they did understand each other. Vaclav Havel, when he became president, he started to be criticized within one year. People were expecting that the economy would grow much faster, that there would be no unemployment, everything would be great and that we would be living like [our] rich neighbor countries immediately. It was not possible because we needed time to transform the economy and did take 50 years to then move to the level of European countries which we find in the EU. It needs patience and good keeping of the same direction of reforms. This is sometimes not easy to sell to the people, of course. And avoid mistakes. We did also make mistakes in some transformations and it is important to take that advice from us. I think based on that cooperation and relations among these two important people, we are your very close partner in the European Union and Europe. I was discussing, I was sharing the invitation of our prime minister to visit the State Secretary Madam Suu Kyi to the Czech Republic, which I hope will take place soon. And also the big decision, an important decision, is to open an embassy of your country in the Czech Republic, which is the strong evidence that the Czech Republic should play a key in your European ambitions of foreign policy and we will be very happy to assist you in this development. This decision has been taking place now for many many years, and this is a strong signal that democratic Myanmar will have a diplomatic mission in Prague. You visited Myanmar three timesback in 2015, 2017 and now 2019. What differences do you see? My first visit was in January 2015. I met with the officials of that time and I think there was a hope of change among the people. On the other side, it seemed to me that the government was thinking that everything has to be centralized, everything has to be planned and we have to avoid the mistakes of the market economy. Now, it is a different country for me. Maybe I can see it better from outside than the people living here because the changes when you are living here are not so visible immediately each day. But for me, it is a big change. I see more buildings in the cities, more products and people are much [freer]. All the challenges which we are facing, its a different country for me. You are looking at how to build your own democracy, its all challenges. Thats life and I think that this is a very good message for other countries to think about how to transform the economy. Dialogue is important and I can see much more tourists coming to your country, with the beauty of the landmarks here. So I believe in the future your country and the prosperity. In Myanmar, the EU and other countries are trying to bring the military leaders to the International Criminal Court. As a member of the EU, what is your view? For the EU, it is very important to keep the dialogue about peaceful solutions of all possible conflicts you may have in your country, to keep the dialogue, to try to settle these things through dialogue despite all difficulties which are associated with that. There are some comments at a European level about the situation in your country but I think it [could] be easily overcome by keeping the dialogue, by trying to find the solution. We also see lots of positive moments like the Constitution discussion, for example; the investment law; law[s] allowing to extend the foreign banks activities in your country; SME programs for small and medium-sized companies; infrastructure. So [they are] the reforms which have been demanded and at a political level it is important to try to overcome all possible challenges through peaceful dialogue and by trying to settle these things and inviting people to discuss how to keep the unity of your country, which is important for the prosperity of your people. Is the Czech Republics foreign policy towards Myanmar the same as before or has anything changed? No, we have a policy which is not changing. We would like to see the development of all diplomatic relations. We would like to support all development of your country and we would like to see a strong, democratic, united Myanmar which is peaceful, overcoming every challenge which appear[s] in the life of every society. Would you like to add anything? I hope more people will have a chance to travel to the Czech Republic, to find out not only the leaders of our countries are very close, but also that the people are very similar in the Czech Republic. We love to socialize with people, we are opened-minded and we love to talk about and criticize politicians and politics over [a] good coffee or tea and try to [have] a good time and keep the responsibility for life as well. Burma AA Occupies Tactical Base, Holds 11 Tatmadaw Troops in N. Rakhine The AA displays military weapons and equipment seized from the Myanmar Army during a clash in Paletwa on March 9. / AA website YANGON The Arakan Army (AA) announced Monday evening it occupied a temporary tactical command base and apprehended 11 prisoners of war during a clash with Myanmar Army troops near northern Rakhine States Buthidaung Township on March 9. AA spokesman U Khine Thukha told The Irrawaddy the detained troops were from Light Infantry Battalion No. 563 based in southern Rakhine States Gwa Township under the supervision of Light Infantry Division (LID) No. 5, which is currently deployed in the upper Paletwa region. We are feeding them regularly and treating them well, U Khine Thukha said. U Khine Thukha said the AA had detained the Myanmar Army (or Tatmadaw) soldiers, and that senior AA leaders were still deciding what to do with the captives, including whether to release them to the International Red Cross (ICRC) or take another option. He declined to comment on whether the detainees include high-ranking officers. It was unclear whether the prisoners of war were all military personnel or if they included civilians. The AA announced the fighting had taken place near Pyan So village, which sits on the boundary of Rakhine States Buthidaung Township and Paletwa. It said the armed group had seized one Tatmadaw soldiers body as well as 16 backhoe excavators, one Toyota car, a dump truck, and 60-mm and 80-mm mortars. The military launched hellfire missiles at AA fighters using two helicopters for about 25 minutes during the fighting, the AA said. Citing a statement from the Office of the Commander-in-Chief, state-owned newspapers reported that on March 9 about 200 AA troops attacked an under-construction border fence in Buthidaung Township from Bangladeshi territory. It says the construction site was situated between BP-67 and BP-68, but did not specifically say which battalion or border police regiment was deployed in the area. According to the state newspapers, workers at the construction site were removed safely. It did not state the number of workers and merely described authorities fencing activities in the area. The government of Myanmar began fencing along the Bangladesh and Myanmar border in 2010 and a total of 120 miles has been completed so far. Based on a map released by the government and the AA, The Irrawaddy has learned that fighting took place near Pyan So village between northern Buthidaung and Paletwa region. Some credible sources said two villagers who were staying in the joint security outpost were also arrested along with another nine soldiers. Last Friday, the AA announced that it had killed more than a dozen soldiers, including a military captain, from southern Rakhine States Kyaukphyu-based Light Infantry Battalion No. 542 in Paletwa. Last weekend, the AA attacked a police station in Ponnagyun Township, killing 9 policemen. Burma Lawmakers Debate Report on Charter Amendment Proposal Military-appointed lawmakers attend the Union Parliament in Naypyitaw on Friday. / Htet Naing Zaw / The Irrawaddy NAYPYITAW A military-appointed lawmaker accused the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) of breaking the law by going about amending the Constitution as it has during a session of the Union Parliament on Friday. Despite numerous promises to act in line with the law, lawmakers and speakers are acting against the law, which is totally unacceptable, Maj. Pyae Phyo Han said during discussion of a report on a proposed amendment to Article 261. The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has proposed amending the article to have region and state chief ministers elected by their local legislatures rather than appointed by the president as they are now. Military-appointed lawmakers raised strong objection to plans to have the proposal debated by a new committee now drafting proposed amendments to the Constitution rather than by the full Parliament. Amending [Article 261] in the 45-member committee doesnt comply with the law and also delays the amendment process. Only when this is amended can the wishes of the majority of ethnic people in regions and states be fulfilled, Maj. Pyae Phyo Han said. Daw Khin Saw Wai, a Lower House lawmaker for the Arakan National Party (ANP), said the ANP could not form the regional government in Rakhine State under the Constitution even though it won most of the seats in the local legislature. I am concerned that if the 45-member committee handles the proposal, it will take a long time and the proposal will come to nothing, she said. Lower House NLD lawmaker U Win Win said his party wanted to amend all the provisions in the Constitution that restrict democracy and federalism, not just Article 261. To make the Constitution acceptable to the people, and to amend it in line with the law, the article in the proposal should be amended along with [other provisions] in the joint committee formed with the consent of the Union Parliament, he said. NLD lawmaker and Bill Committee Secretary U Myat Nyana Soe suggested that the Constitution be reviewed for possible amendments in numerical order, beginning with Chapter 1. USDP lawmaker U Maung Myint criticized his suggestion. If you cant sympathize a little and make a little concession to ethnic minorities, no matter if federalism is introduced, it wont be a success, he said. A total 16 lawmakers from the NLD, USDP, ANP, military and Shan Nationalities League for Democracy joined the discussion on the Article 261 report on Friday. Another 52 lawmakers have signed up to comment as well. The Constitution guarantees the military 25 percent of the seats in Parliament. Amendments to that and other articles granting the military special privileges requires approval from more than 75 percent of lawmakers, giving the military veto power. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko. Burma Tanintharyi Chief Minister Arrested on Bribery, Corruption Charges Tanintharyi Chief Minister Daw Lei Lei Maw. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy YANGONTanintharyi Region Chief Minister Daw Lei Lei Maw was arrested on bribery and corruption charges in Dawei on Sunday, according to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). ACC spokesperson U Kyaw Soe confirmed to The Irrawaddy that the chief minister has been detained at Dawei Myoma Police Station, together with Global Grand Services (GGS) Managing Director U Thein Htwe, Director U Aung Myat and General Manager U Thura Ohn, right after the commission opened cases against the four under the anti-corruption law. The arrests come after a month-long investigation in Naypyitaw, Yangon and Dawei carried out between Feb. 4 and March 6. The commission said it has found that Chief Minister Daw Lei Lei Maw misused her position and committed corruption on a number of occasions since April 2016, just weeks after she was appointed as head of the region, in an announcement released late on Sunday evening together with its findings. The findings include details of the chief ministers corrupt activities in awarding contracts for the construction of a pavilion for a Myanmar New Year event in 2016 and for the removal of unwanted bushes from Dawei University and outside Dawei Airport in November 2016. It stated that the chief minister allowed a budget of 400 million kyats ($263,000) for the removal of unwanted bushes outside the airport. She also asked a director from the regional road management department in October 2018 to build a wall around two plots of land in Dawei owned by her husband but didnt pay the cost until the commission started the investigation against her, the commission said. The commission reported that she sold her house which was valued at 32 million kyats ($21,000) for 200 million kyats ($131,000) to the GGS company. In return, the company was awarded a number of contracts including for the electricity distribution project in Dawei, the construction of a fish market, a city hall and low-cost housing. The ACC added that it also found that GGS broke a contract made with the regional government and owes 8 billion kyats ($5.2 million) to the Ministry of Electricity and Energy for natural gas which has led to a loss of public funds. The case against Daw Lei Lei Maw has been filed under the Anti-Corruption Laws Article 55 which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment and a fine if found guilty. U Thein Htwe, U Aung Myat and U Thura Ohn of GGS have been filed under the Anti-Corruption Laws Article 63. Article 63 states that any person who instigates, attempts, conspires, manages or abets to commit any offence contained in the Anti-Corruption Law, shall be punished with the prescribed penalty for such offense. During State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyis visit to the region last month, local residents demanded the chief minister be replaced, as well as the regions planning and finance minister, U Phyo Win Tun, and U Aung Soe, who chairs the Tanintharyi regional committee for the National League for Democracy. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said she would take decisive action against officials who harm public interest. In January this year, more than 100 local residents of Myeik and Dawei sent a complaint letter about Daw Lei Lei Maw calling for an investigation. In the following days, the regional parliament also sent a report on public complaints to President U Win Myint and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. On This Day Daw Saw Hsa, Myanmars First Female Surgeon and Lawmaker -- Today marks the 57th anniversary of the death of Daw Saw Hsa, Myanmars first female surgeon and lawmaker. She received her F.R.C.S from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1912, when doctors were rare in Myanmar, and completed a diploma course in public health at the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland. Born in 1884, she was also the first female lawmaker in the Upper House of Parliament, appointed by the governor of British Burma, and the first female member of the Yangon municipal committee. She was named a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Daw Saw Hsa was known for her hospital for the poor in Yangons Sanchang Township from 1922 to 1940, and for the health care services she provided leprosy patients in Minbu in central Myanmar and war victims in Bago Region during World War II. Her book Manual for Midwives became a seminal contribution to the field. Before and after independence, she worked with several committees and organizations serving leprosy patients, orphans and women. Daw Saw Hsa was very patient. She treated patients more with love and kindness than medicines, said one relative. Never married, Daw Saw Hsa died on Feb. 28, 1962, at the age of 78. by Wei Yan Aung A 2014 study sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO), which focused on the most recent available data, estimated that in 2010 up to 1.7 million people were infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV), up to 315 000 with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and as many as 33 800 with HIV through an unsafe injection. While in the developed world, most injections are administered safely, injection practices worldwide vary widely, with reuse of injection equipment, poor handling of needles after use and informal cleaning still posing a problem in some regions. This is nothing new. The WHO launched its WHO Injection Safety Programme and the Safe Injection Global Network (SIGN) back in 2000 already, in a bid to achieve safe and appropriate use of injections throughout the world. At the start of the programme, it was believed that around 40 % of injections were administered with reused injection equipment, contributing to millions of new HBV and HCV cases and hundreds of thousands of cases of HIV. The WHO initiative led to the development of many new designs of syringes with features claimed to disable the syringe after its first use. However, not all of them fulfilled the single-use objective. ISO had already published standards for traditional types of syringes without auto-disabling features, so it seemed only natural that it should extend the series with new standards for syringes with auto-disabling features. ISOs expert committee on injection systems recognized that reuse of syringes wasnt the only risk to address. The infection by accidental needle-stick injury was a very real health hazard, especially for healthcare providers and people who come into contact with needles or other sharps2) in medical facilities or public places. Path to prevention Based on the WHO initiatives, ISOs expert committee on syringes was investigating the risks of reused syringes and the fact that the existing standards for single-use hypodermic syringes (ISO 7886-1 and ISO 7886-2) and hypodermic needles (ISO 7864) did not specifically address the risk of reuse. The committee agreed on the development of new standards to reduce these risks and thus prevent the spread of deadly diseases such as HBV, HCV and HIV. Although standardization work in that field began many years ago, there is a continued need to address unsafe injection practices on a global scale. It is no random coincidence, then, that abolishing the reuse of syringes is a key target in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), which form part of the UNs 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by world leaders in 2015. SDG 3 for good health and well-being pledges to end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases, and combat hepatitis, waterborne diseases and other communicable diseases by 2030. Preventing the reuse of syringes, and avoiding unintended needle-stick injuries, will clearly help towards this goal. William Dierick, who initially led the standards development work on auto-disabling syringes as part of ISO technical committee ISO/TC 84, Devices for administration of medicinal products and catheters, says the committees philosophy was and still is to focus on patient safety and ensure that the requirements of the standards are the most up to date. Where there are new technological improvements or features, or new types of medicinal products, we aim to be there to adapt the standards in order to ensure patients receive the safest and most effective care, he says. This is why we involve all parties when developing our standards, including health authorities such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), international organizations like the WHO and the United Nations International Childrens Emergency Fund (UNICEF), manufacturers of both drugs and devices, and end users such as patients and healthcare workers, he adds. This inclusive approach is one of the reasons why Danish Standards, which holds the secretariat for ISO/TC 84, entered into a twinning project with the Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) in order to encourage involvement of the African continent in the development of standards for safer medical devices. Chaired by Zimbabwe, the partnership led to the successful release of ISO 23908 for sharps protection features and ISO 23907 for sharps containers, which provide a welcome complement to other standards in the field, such as ISO 21649 (needle-free injectors) and the ISO 7886 series (hypodermic single-use syringes). Safer injections There are many reasons to enhance the safety of administering injections. The price and chronic shortage of medical supplies force desperate measures, which include reuse of single-use injection equipment. Moreover, scientific studies reveal that administering injections is not only a risk for medical personnel but also for ancillary staff such as cleaners, laundry workers or laboratory technicians. In an attempt to reduce the risks of injury and disease transmission, the WHO launched in 2015 a new policy on injection safety, calling on the international community to switch to safety-engineered syringes, whenever appropriate, by 2020. It issued highly detailed injection safety guidelines, which outlined a number of safety features for syringes that not only protect the recipient of the injections, but the healthcare worker who administers them as well. The WHO stressed that the transmission of infection is not just limited to developing countries as reuse of syringes occurs in many places. Adoption of safety-engineered syringes is absolutely critical to protecting people worldwide from becoming infected with HIV, hepatitis and other diseases. This should be an urgent priority for all countries, said Dr Gottfried Hirnschall, Director of the WHO HIV/AIDS Department, in a press release issued at the time the guidelines were launched. A standard language Published in 2015, the WHO guidelines on the use of safety-engineered syringes for intramuscular, intradermal and subcutaneous injections in healthcare settings provides basic rules for syringes with sharps injury protection features. It defers to the definitions of ISO 23908, Sharps injury protection Requirements and test methods Sharps protection features for single-use hypodermic needles, introducers for catheters and needles used for blood sampling, which provides internationally agreed minimum standards to reduce the risk of injury from sharps. In addition, the ISO 7886 series, which specifies properties and requirements for sterile single-use hypodermic syringes, also covers auto-disable syringes (ISO 7886-3) and syringes with reuse prevention features (ISO 7886-4). This makes it a highly useful tool both for the manufacturers that produce them and for users who can rest easy in the knowledge that the syringes meet minimum requirements for quality and safety. The WHO document references safety-engineered syringes according to their ISO definition to provide an exact characterization of the safety mechanism of each type of syringe and allow a common understanding between all guideline users. These ISO standards are updated regularly to ensure they continue to meet the needs of manufacturers and users, and take into account any new technologies that will contribute to reducing the risk of transmissible diseases. Looking ahead But it doesnt stop there. William Dierick says the committee is continually evolving and evaluating its work to develop standards that meet the needs of injection use in more and more settings. We also have other standards that focus on the requirements for devices to be used by specific groups, such as visually impaired patients and certain age groups, he adds. Whats more, our standards were originally focused on devices for use by healthcare professionals, but with the increased number of devices for self-administration, we decided to expand the work to include pen-injectors, auto-injectors and body-worn injectors. This will lead to more efficient and convenient administration of the medicinal products, with great benefits for healthcare systems and patients. All of this bodes well for countries as they approach the WHOs 2020 deadline, urging them to transition to safety-engineered syringes whenever appropriate. It also paves the way for achieving some of the UNs Sustainable Development Goals while saving lives in countries where the reuse of syringes remains high. 1) WHO Injection Safety Fact Sheet. Monday, March 11th, 2019 (9:37 am) - Score 1,859 More than 40 MPs from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Rural Business (APPGRB) have today called on Ofcom to introduce better annual monitoring in order to ensure that Mobile operators like Vodafone, Three UK, O2 and EE keep to their future 4G and 5G (mobile broadband) coverage obligations. According to Ofcoms most recent Connected Nations 2018 report, geographic 4G (LTE) mobile network coverage from all operators is 97% in urban locations but sadly this falls to only 62% in rural areas. Thankfully the Government have committed to extend geographic mobile network coverage to 95% of the UK by 2022. In keeping with the above, Ofcoms forthcoming auction of the 5G friendly 700MHz radio spectrum band includes new coverage obligations (here). This should extend outdoor data coverage to at least 90% of the UKs entire land area and provide coverage from at least 500 new mobile mast stations in rural areas, among other things. The 700MHz Coverage Obligation The binding coverage rules mean that up to two winning bidders would each have to, within 4 years of the award: 1. Extend good, outdoor data coverage to at least 90% of the UKs entire land area within four years of the award. 2. Improve coverage for at least 140,000 homes and offices which they do not already cover. This means new coverage will be targeted at areas that are harder to reach; and 3. Provide coverage from at least 500 new mobile mast stations in rural areas. This will ensure operators transform coverage in areas where it is lacking, rather than meeting the rules by just boosting existing signals. However the APPGRBs letter to Ofcom questions how this will be monitored because, at present, there is no obligation on mobile operators to report on successful mast completions until the end of the review process in 2024. It also notes that operators have historically been reluctant to build masts in rural areas owing to the significant costs involved. Julian Sturdy MP, Chair of the APPG on Rural Business, said: While Ofcoms initial announcement truly has the potential to revolutionise mobile coverage across the countryside, it will fall by the wayside if progress is not monitored on a regular basis. We need annual reporting to ensure that mobile operators are holding their promises to the public on delivering a 4G network which works for people wherever they live. Mark Bridgeman, CLA Deputy President, said: Increasing 4G coverage will unlock the potential of rural businesses and the countryside and we cannot let this opportunity slip owing to lax oversight. Given mobile operators previous reluctance to invest in rural areas, annual reporting on progress should be compulsory. Ofcom have made great strides in this area in recent times and it would be a shame if they did not take the simple step to give themselves the tools to publicly keep mobile operators to their word on expanding rural 4G coverage and ending the digital wilderness. As usual there are two sides to every story and the significant costs involved with reaching rural areas is not the only challenge. Many mobile operators would also like to build taller masts beyond the current 25 metre limit (its even lower in some parts of the UK, such as Wales) because this is one way to significantly boost coverage, while keeping costs under control. Around the EU a lot of countries have a 50m limit and the old 25m one seems increasingly redundant in the era of towering wind turbines. On top of that many rural residents often demand better mobile coverage, yet at the same time many will also object to planning applications for new masts. This creates a difficult problem for mobile operators to solve without Government help. Last years Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review (FTIR) made a number of rough proposals to help support mobile coverage (e.g. reviewing the recently revised electronic communications code, changing planning regulations and opening Government infrastructure up for use by operators etc.), although it remains to be seen what the actual outcome of that will be. These questions include how to manage growing data across an equally growing and diverse IT infrastructure, how to keep pace with compliance in a world of GDPR and improve resiliency in a world of ransomware. Todays digital world runs on data. It is a critical asset for any organisation or business. With the exponential growth of data, it is a digital imperative for organisations to make strategic choices around data management and protection strategies no matter where that data is located. said Howard Fyffe, managing director, Australia and New Zealand, Veritas. Our customers will want to extract insights from the data that are so rich and predictive in nature, to make more informed business decisions all while cutting costs and risks. These insights come against the backdrop of major trends in technology. A lot of the big changes have happened in the last decade. For instance, if you think about the advent of the cloud, it has really changed the way customers are doing business or managing their data. To add to the complexity, almost every organisation is gravitating towards not just one cloud, but multiple clouds. As a result, many customers are also grappling with the day to day operations in the multi-cloud environment, said Harish Venkat, vice president for global sales enablement and marketing, Veritas. The expansion of storage is another key trend that we are seeing today. Data growth is just off the charts and we are hearing new terms such as quintillion and zettabytes things that were unheard of in the past. In recent years, data is being created at an exponential rate. According to IDC, we can expect a 10-fold rise in worldwide data by 2025. Hence, if we think about what the future holds for data, it is absolutely going to hit the roof and it will be a key challenge for customers to manage the soaring volumes of data, Venkat said. Predictive analytics is another major trend. With the advent of artificial intelligence and machine learning, everyone is looking for an environment with an always-on business model with minimum outages. The notion of predictive analytics is in full gear, as more and more solutions utilise artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect potential issues, such as giving advance notice that something is going to break down, he said. Products announced at Veritas Vision Solution Day include: Veritas NetBackup 8.1.2 For fifteen years in a row, we are a leader in Gartners magic quadrant. Veritas NBU 8.1.2 is one of the biggest releases and I am really excited about the ease of usage made possible by the radically improved user interface, Venkat said. Extending the alliance with Pure Storage and Nutanix This a new partnership that builds on the integration between Veritas and Pure Storage on multiple fronts, Fyffe said. I think this is tremendous news for our customers in Australia and New Zealand, primarily based on three key areas. "First, were setting up Pure Storage All-Flashs environment as a backup target for Veritas, to enable rapid restores when necessary. As you may understand, this is super important, especially for customers who have large data sets but small windows for restore. Backing data is just one part of the equation. The key differentiator lies in having the ability to retrieve data quickly in the shortest time period. This is where Veritas has always been a leader in the market. Our partnership with Pure Storage with the consolidation of technologies will further help to strengthen our leadership position. Secondly, the collaboration offers improved data recovery with more reliable point-in-time copies with Veritas NetBackup and Veritas CloudPoint integration with Pure Storage. This could be done without lengthy snapshot windows and application time-outs. Managing data, understanding where it is located, whether it is bimodal on-premises or in the cloud is critical to our customers. Veritas can deliver solutions for both. The last key area will be long-term retention where Veritas plays a complementary role by protecting workloads in particular, those that are the mission-critical in nature. For instance, while production workloads can be run on Pure Storage, the long-term retention will require a more economical solution. This is where Veritas NetBackup Access Appliances serve the purpose of providing cost-effective long-term retention." One of the key advantages of this partnership is that organisation of any size can reap benefits from our technologies given the ease and simplicity of integration. I do not foresee any limits as to where we will be focusing. I think there will be organisations that will be able to further leverage this but anybody can benefit from this relationship, said Mark Jobbins, vice-president, Technical Services, Asia Pacific and Japan, Pure Storage. Predictive analytics infusion Veritas Predictive Insights utilises artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to deliver always-on proactive support. The scale of the Veritas telemetry data is enormous, with millions of data points collected from thousands of Veritas appliances, across our entire universe of customer installations. We have begun our journey by sending back phone-owned data from our products, including our flagship Veritas NetBackup," said David Noy, vice-president and general manager (Product Management and Alliances), Veritas "We will be adding the telemetry capabilities across a broader set of appliances over time. Currently, not every customer has been sending data back, but approximately more than half actually do. In fact, these customers have been doing so for many years. Hence, we have been gathering hundreds of millions of data points over the course of the years." The ability to review telemetry data harnessing the power of AI and continuous ML techniques to provide predictive analytics and suggestions to customers on how to fine-tune and optimise their environments is a key feature of Predictive Insights. This enables IT staff to proactively support and remediate a wide range of potential issues before they occur, react much quicker and allow for less costly resolution. If something is going to fail in terms of a backup job because one of the drives can potentially fail in the next thirty days, we are able to actually tell the customers they need to replace this drive because we can foresee a high chance of that drive failing, Venkat said. Veritas is currently in the first phase focusing on two key areas. First, to look at how much capacity the customers are using and the rate of utilisation. Not explained during conversations with customers, they also expressed interest to understand how to manage an inflexion in capacity. For instance, what is the cause of higher capacity usage or sudden uptake in capacity growth? Predictive insights will allow the review and pinpointing of specific causes. The second key component is providing a health score for the product, based on the telemetry coming back. Looking at historical data and signals Veritas can start to predict whether a hardware failure is likely to occur, for example, within the next thirty days theres an 80% chance the customer is going to have some sort of a failure. Initially, this functionality is available in Veritas NetBackup appliances. Thereafter, it will be available on Veritas Access and Flex appliances in coming quarters. In addition, Noy advises, Veritas is looking at including the solution in some of our legacy products such as InfoScale Enterprise because it will provide us with a lot of information about the health state of that product. Currently, Predictive Insights is available to customers as part of their Veritas support agreements. From our perspective, this reduces our cost of support in the long run as it is actually far more expensive to resolve any product issues than providing proactive remediation before problems can occur. If you look at your insurance Im sure you pay almost nothing to go to the doctor for preventive visits and Im sure you pay a lot if you go after the illness has actually occurred. Hence, a preventive stance is always better, Noy said. Extending the partner ecosystem We have over forty cloud connectors. We have built great alliances with our cloud service providers such as Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google and Oracle. We have just announced our Pure Storage alliance which will allow us to protect the All-Flash storage from Pure Storage. I have talked about cloud and how the advent of cloud has created benefits but also complexities at the same time. Now, we have a solution to ensure that the journey to the cloud is simplified. If you want to perform disaster recovery from on-premises to the cloud, there is a solution that allows you to do that. As customers are thinking about moving data and applications from on-premises to the cloud, we have a resiliency platform that helps with that journey. We are super excited about all these major trends, Venkat said. Compliance While not a product, any discussion on data in this day will eventually come around to GDPR and mandatory data breach reporting. Yet, while these legislations have brought data breaches into the open, the problem is age-old, explained Noy. Even before GDPR is in place, we can see from the newspapers that data breaches are almost happening on a monthly-basis affair. From time to time, I would get letters from my credit card companies or different retailers informing that somebody took a tape or some disc, or some data had been leaked. I am sure almost everyone I know has had some form of data leakage. It's a real problem. Some of them have been very public as they involved credit card numbers GDPR is just putting increased focus on data compliance and security. It is no longer a case of financial institutions losing their customers credit card information that got them mad. It is the harsh penalties from the government that is making an impact, I don't think that we have to tell boards data management is a priority. In fact, the boards are actually telling us that this is a priority. It is clear that data management is a top priority as many large organisations that we have engaged would bring up the topic immediately and flag out that they need to solve the issues at hand. Veritas has the solutions to address the data management challenges faced by the business decision makers. We are equally focused on improving our solutions over time. Most importantly, we understand the severity of the issues and will be there for our customers as they navigate in todays digital economy. Infosec outfit Resecurity, which has come under scrutiny by some well-known researchers over its attribution of some recent hacks, has hit back by accusing its detractors of having ulterior motives for indulging in such criticism. The company claimed last month that an Iranian-linked entity was behind the breach of the Australian Parliament network. More recently, it claimed that the same Iranian group was responsible for the breach at multinational software company Citrix Systems. In both cases, Resecurity put out blog posts which are somewhat similar in their content. Criticism of Resecurity's claim about the Australian Parliament hack, which was published by The Wall Street Journal and iTWire, was made on 21 February by Kevin Collier, a reporter with Buzzfeed, who cited the company's claims and then linked to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald where the counter-claim was made that China was behind the hack. Others who criticised Resecurity were, a reporter with ZDNet, who said he and, a reporter with Bleeping Computer, had talked about the Citrix hack and the latter had tried to contact Resecurity but received what was described as a "weird reply". Wrote Cimpanu: "There were a lot of details around this story that kept changing last night. Then he (Gatlan) got a weird reply from the company via email. Then there was their obsession with Iran." And Costin Raiu, a senior researcher and the head of Kaspersky Lab's Global Research and Analysis Team, said: "Some facts: the Resecurity website doesn't even have an About page. Their corporate movie has a bunch of actors talking about security but no names or titles. Their president has no work history before 2017. Of course, it may be legit, but for now it looks odd." Added Raiu: "I'd be cautious with this story (the Citrix story on CNBC), feels like there's a lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) surrounding it. Eg: 'Iridium broke its way into Citrix's network about 10 years ago, and has been lurking inside [...] ever since'. Then 'Citrix came under attack twice, once in December and again Monday." Brian Bartholomew, another senior researcher from Kaspersky, said: "These Resecurity folks are really jacking some shit up lately. First they say Iran is responsible for the AU parliament hack, and now they say an Iranian group named 'Iridium' is behind the Citrix stuff." The Resecurity website has only two research reports in its blog, about the Australian Parliament and Citrix hacks. There are claims on its website of supplying services to several high-profile clients like Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase and Amazon but the logos of these companies do not link to the clients' websites. There is also a list of awards that Resecurity claims to have won, but again the logos of these awards do not link anywhere. Asked for his response to the criticism, Resecurity researcher Jean-Jacques Goncalves told iTWire: "Unfortunately, we don't comment [on] such statements delivered in [the] form of 'tweets'. Moreover, they have no relation to the topic, and have minimal insight on it. We are not familiar with these wonderful gentlemen, and with interest read their communications when the time allows." Goncalves added: "None of them has reached out officially, besides Sergiu Gatlan, and has no relation to our company as well. We have provided an official comment only to Sergiu Gatlan through our press service, who later for some reasons said 'he has received a weird reply' (we have a copy, and documented correspondence with him, which included a kind and timely addressed recommendation to read an official statement published on our website)." He also pointed out that Cimpanu, Gatlan and Raiu were all of Romanian ancestry though he did not expand on the significance of this while Raiu, Bartholomew and Eugene Kaspersky who retweeted Collier's claims were all from Kaspersky Labs. Goncalves provided links to show the Russian company had a relationship with Citrix, though he again did not expand on what he was implying. "Probably, it may characterise the level of culture in general, but typically we don't comment such things," he said. "We wish only the best to Kaspersky Labs, understanding some challenges they had to face with in the past few years." The last statement was a reference to the issues Kaspersky Lab has faced in the US, which ended up with it losing all its business with the American public sector. Goncalves dismissed Collier's claims in detail, saying that only one of the three points he (Collier) had made was valid: the reference to the WSJ headline. Of the other two, he said Resecurity had a detailed blog post about the Australian hack, tying the group IRIDIUM to it. And he also contested Collier's claim about the SMH article being based on government or government-adjacent sources, saying that the article mentioned "top-level sources" who could not be in any way identified as they were not named. He also mentioned that China had denied any involvement in the Parliament attack. "Moreover, we have reached [out] to [the] lady [who] published this article Latika Bourke. After our contact, it has been modified several times (starting from wrong use of our company name, and ending with 'top-level sources', who in the past 'couldnt comment anything on the record'. In such case, on what sources she was relying is still a question. From our side, we havent changed a single word," he said. The company's website was down for quite some time on Monday morning Australian time; when asked about this, Goncalves said: "We have installed Cloudflare and you saw its cache for couple of minutes." Resecurity's claims about the Citrix hack have been reported by several tech and general sites such as The Register and CNBC. Today Partly cloudy skies this morning will become overcast during the afternoon. High near 70F. Winds WSW at 15 to 25 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph. Tonight Cloudy early, becoming mostly clear after midnight. Low 48F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Tomorrow Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 67F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - March 11, 2019) - Great Bear Resources (TSXV: GBR) (the "Company" or "Great Bear"), today reported drill results from reconnaissance drilling to the west of the Dixie Hinge Zone ("DHZ") at its 100% owned Dixie Project in the Red Lake District of Ontario, and acquisition of new district properties covering additional gold mineralization targets. Two exploratory drill fences were completed 150 metres and 400 metres west of the current DHZ drilling, along the D2 fold axis that is interpreted to be a significant gold control, using the recently added second drill rig as shown on Figure 1. All 5 of 5 drill holes intersected gold mineralization. Highlights include: 31.40 g/t gold over 0.70 metres within a 2.70 metre interval of 8.70 g/t gold at only 64 metres vertical depth . An image of gold within this new high-grade intercept is provided in Figure 2 . . An image of gold within this new high-grade intercept is provided in . Multiple gold-bearing veins were intersected in 2 of the 5 drill holes. were intersected in 2 of the 5 drill holes. The newly discovered gold veins may comprise significant strike length extensions to the DHZ vein system or may be new gold zones ; further drilling is required. ; further drilling is required. The second drill rig continues to drill test new targets across the Dixie property. Table 1: Results of reconnaissance drilling to the west of the Hinge Zone. All widths are drill indicated core length and insufficient data exists to determine true widths and vein orientations at this time. Drill Hole From (m) To (m) Width (m) Gold (g/t) Vertical Depth (m) DSL-016 83.30 86.00 2.70 8.70 64 including 83.30 84.00 0.70 31.40 DSL-017 126.00 127.50 1.50 2.95 106 and 255.30 255.80 0.50 1.11 214 DSL-018 75.30 75.80 0.50 3.84 54 and 214.65 217.15 2.50 2.68 154 including 214.65 215.15 0.50 6.32 DMS-001 35.77 39.20 3.43 2.09 29 including 38.00 39.20 1.20 4.95 and including 38.00 38.70 0.70 6.67 DMS-002 47.25 50.10 2.85 2.43 43 including 47.65 48.45 0.80 4.58 Additional drilling has also been completed within the Hinge Zone, results of which have not been received at the time of this release. DHZ drill results will be released once assay results are received and processed. Chris Taylor, President and CEO of Great Bear said, "In a district where 25 metre step-out drilling is considered aggressive, our new reconnaissance drill holes located 150 metres and 400 metres from the Hinge Zone have yet again shown the extensive footprint of gold mineralization at Dixie, and the apparent importance of major D2 fold axes as regional gold controls. We look forward to further drilling in these areas to determine if these are separate new gold discoveries, or whether the Hinge Zone extends through this entire strike length." The Company notes that gold-bearing veins have now been drilled over a strike length of approximately 500 metres from the easternmost Hinge Zone drill holes to the newest drilling to the west. This veining is located on the south side of an ultramafic body and fault that are sub-parallel to the regional D2 fold axis. Figure 1: Map of reconnaissance drill holes west of the Hinge Zone, adjacent to a D2 fold axis. Drill holes DL-016, 017 and 018 are located 150 metres west of current Hinge zone drilling. Holes DMS-001 and 002 are located 400 metres west of current Hinge Zone drilling. The Company also notes that the next interpreted D2 fold axis to the north, also shown on Figure 1, also hosts high grade gold within a quartz feldspar porphyry dike, including 30.20 g/t gold over 0.55 metres, within a wider interval of 12.41 g/t gold over 1.5 metres in hole DL-009, which was drilled by the Company in late 2017. This second fold axis is also an exploration target for future step-out drilling. Figure 2: Image of newly discovered high-grade gold returning 31.40 g/t gold over 0.70 metres at 64 metres depth, from reconnaissance drill hole DSL-016, located west of the DHZ. Great Bear is currently undertaking a fully-funded 30,000 metre, approximately 150 drill hole program that is expected to continue through 2019. A second drill rig was added to the project in February 2019 to accelerate this work and is now drilling additional gold targets. Property Acquisitions The Company also reports new low-cost, royalty-free property acquisitions adding to its strategic land positions in the Red Lake District of Ontario. The newly acquired properties will be mapped and prospected in summer 2019, with minimal impact on the Company's current Dixie property exploration budget and program. A map of the acquired properties is provided in Figure 3. Chris Taylor continued, "Following our recent drill success at Dixie, the total staked area within the Red Lake district increased by over 150%, constituting the area's largest staking rush in decades. We have completed a model-driven geological review of the district using the Dixie property's D2 fold and deep-seated structural gold controls as guides. This work suggests additional prospective areas for gold mineralization, which we have now secured, royalty free. We intend to prospect the new properties in summer 2019." Figure 3: Map of newly acquired and optioned properties in the Red Lake district. Great Bear has not completed sufficient work on the new properties to verify results from historical work. Dedee Property Highlights of the Dedee property include: Covers the western strike extensions of the major regional D2 fold axial plane that is interpreted as a control of the new high-grade gold discoveries at Great Bear's flagship Dixie property. Two folded greenstone belts are interpreted at Dedee that mimic the geometry of the Dixie folded greenstones. Historical drill reports of sulphides similar to the Dixie Limb Zone mineralization that were never assayed for gold. Conductive trends similar to the Dixie Limb Zone have also been identified in historic unpublished geophysical surveys; at Dixie, these led Teck Resources to the original gold discovery of the 88-4 zone and associated gold; they are also prospective targets at Dedee. 15,300-hectare land area (153 square kilometres) Road accessible though logging roads, approximately 20 minutes drive from Red Lake The Dedee property was acquired in part through staking, and will be acquired in part through an inexpensive royalty-free option agreement with an arm's length third party. Terms of the option portion of the acquisition are: (a) $6,000 upon signing the option agreement; (b) 15,000 shares after receiving acceptance of the Exchange for the issuance of the shares under this agreement; (c) $10,000 on or before the date that is one year after the Effective Date; (d) $12,000 on or before the date that is two years after the Effective Date; (e) $16,000 on or before the date that is three years after the Effective Date; and (f) $24,000 on or before the date that is four years after the Effective Date. Pakwash Property The 3,100-hectare (31 square kilometre) Pakwash property is located southeast of the Dixie property and covers portions a major regional fault structure lying along English River sediments. Historical work has identified gold lake sediment anomalies which are coincident with regional fault zones and gold-in-soil (MMI) anomalies which have not been followed up with detailed exploration. The Pakwash property will be acquired through an inexpensive royalty-free option agreement with an arm's length third party. Terms of the option agreement are: (a) $10,000 upon signing the option agreement; (b) 25,000 shares within seven (7) business days of receiving acceptance of the Exchange for the issuance of the shares under this agreement; (c) $8,000 on or before the date that is one year after the Effective Date; (d) $12,000 on or before the date that is two years after the Effective Date; (e) $15,000 on or before the date that is three years after the Effective Date; and (f) $20,000 on or before the date that is four years after the Effective Date. Sobel Property The 3,200-hectare (32 square kilometre) Sobel property, is located along the strike extension of the main D2 fold axial plane that is a major interpreted control of gold mineralization at the Red Lake Gold Mine, operated by Goldcorp. The property overlies prospective Balmer Sequence rocks of the main Red Lake greenstone belt. The Sobel property will also be acquired through an inexpensive royalty-free option agreement with an arm's length third party. Terms of the option agreement are: (a) $10,000 upon signing the option agreement; (b) 30,000 shares within seven (7) business days of receiving acceptance of the Exchange for the issuance of the shares under this Agreement; (c) $12,000 on or before the date that is one year after the Effective Date; (d) $20,000 on or before the date that is two years after the Effective Date; and (e) $20,000 on or before the date that is three years after the Effective Date. The Company has elected to buy out all the outstanding royalties on the newly optioned properties for total consideration of 38,500 shares of Great Bear. The schedule of optional payments for all of the optioned properties can be accelerated at any time at the Company's discretion in order to achieve full ownership at an earlier date. The options may also be terminated at any time subsequent to the initial cash and share payment. About Great Bear Great Bear's flagship Dixie property is located approximately 15 minutes' drive along Highway 105 from downtown Red Lake, Ontario. The Red Lake mining district has produced over 30,000,000 ounces of gold and is one of the premier mining districts in Canada, benefitting from major active mining operations including the Red Lake Gold Mine of Goldcorp Inc., plus modern infrastructure and a skilled workforce. The Dixie property covers a drill and geophysically defined 10-kilometre gold mineralized structure similar to that hosting other producing gold mines in the district. In addition, Great Bear is also earning a 100% royalty-free interest in the West Madsen, Pakwash, Dedee and Sobel properties, which cover regionally significant gold-controlling structures and prospective geology. All of Great Bear's Red Lake projects are accessible year-round through existing roads. Drill core is logged and sampled in a secure core storage facility located in Red Lake Ontario. Core samples from the program are cut in half, using a diamond cutting saw, and are sent to SGS Canada Inc. in Red Lake, Ontario, and Activation Laboratories in Ancaster Ontario, both of which are accredited mineral analysis laboratories, for analysis. All samples are analysed for gold using standard Fire Assay-AA techniques. Samples returning over 3.0 g/t gold are analysed utilizing standard Fire Assay-Gravimetric methods. Selected samples with visible gold are also analyzed with a standard 1kg metallic screen fire assay. Certified gold reference standards, blanks and field duplicates are routinely inserted into the sample stream, as part of Great Bear's quality control/quality assurance program (QAQC). No QAQC issues were noted with the results reported herein. Mr. R. Bob Singh, P.Geo, Director and VP Exploration, and Ms. Andrea Diakow P.Geo, Exploration Manager for Great Bear are the Qualified Persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101 responsible for the accuracy of technical information contained in this news release. For further information please contact Mr. Chris Taylor, P.Geo, President and CEO at 604-646-8354, or Mr. Knox Henderson, Investor Relations, at 604-551-2360. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Chris Taylor" Chris Taylor, President and CEO Inquiries: Tel: 604-646-8354 Fax: 604-646-4526 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. www.greatbearresources.ca Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This new release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors discussed in the management discussion and analysis section of our interim and most recent annual financial statement or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements. We seek safe harbor TORONTO, March 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lydian International Limited (TSX:LYD) (Lydian or the Company) today announced that, in connection with the ongoing blockades of road access to the Amulsar Gold Project, Lydian U.K. Corporation Limited (Lydian UK) and Lydian Canada Ventures Corporation (Lydian Canada), subsidiaries of the Company, have formally notified the Government of the Republic of Armenia (the Government of Armenia) of the existence of disputes with the Government of Armenia under the Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of Armenia for the Promotion and Protection of Investments, in force since July 11, 1996 (the UK BIT) and the Agreement between the Government of Canada and the Government of Armenia for the Promotion and Protection of Investments, in force since March 29, 1999 (the Canada BIT), respectively. Under the UK BIT, Lydian UK may submit the dispute to international arbitration three months after such formal notification, and under the Canada BIT, Lydian Canada can do so after six months. In the meantime, the Government of Armenia has an opportunity to continue amicable discussions with Lydian with a view to the prompt settlement of the disputes. Whether or not Lydian UK or Lydian Canada will initiate arbitration proceedings will depend on the conduct of the Government of Armenia, and there can be no assurance that Lydian UK or Lydian Canada will initiate any arbitration claim or application to any international arbitration court or of the outcome of any such claim or application. The Company does not intend to make any further public comments relating to these matters unless required by law. About Lydian International Limited Lydian is a gold developer focused on construction at its 100%-owned Amulsar Gold Project, located in south-central Armenia. However, illegal blockades have prevented access to Amulsar since late June 2018. Amulsar is expected to be a large-scale, low-cost operation with production targeted to average approximately 225,000 ounces annually over an initial 10-year mine life. Estimated mineral resources contain 3.5 million measured and indicated gold ounces and 1.3 million inferred gold ounces as outlined in the Q1 2017 Technical Report. Existing mineral resources beyond current reserves and open extensions provide opportunities to improve average annual production and extend the mine life. Lydian is committed to good international industry practices in all aspects of its operations including production, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility. For more information and to directly contact us, please visit www.lydianinternational.co.uk. For further information, please contact: Doug Tobler, Chief Financial Officer +1-720-307-5087 Pamela Solly, Vice President of Investor Relations +1-720-464-5649 Or: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Caution regarding forward-looking information Certain information contained in this news release is forward looking. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events, results, outcomes or developments that the Company expects to occur are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects, is expected, intends, anticipates or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, will, would, should, or occur or the negative or other variations of such terms. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, among others, statements with respect to: Lydian UKs and Lydian Canadas option to submit the disputes to international arbitration; the merits, outcome and/or success of the potential actions; the magnitude or impact of historical and future (if any) protests or blockade affecting Amulsar; the impact of protests, blockades or similar disruptions on the Companys construction, operations and financial performance; the realization of mineral resource estimates and the timing of development of the Amulsar Gold Project; the commitment to and implementation of good international industry practices; and the expected gold production from, and life of mine of, the Amulsar Gold Project. Statements concerning mineral resource estimates may also be deemed to constitute forward-looking information to the extent that they involve estimates of the mineralization that will be encountered when the property is developed. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on estimates and assumptions that are inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties and factors include, without limitation: changes in gold and silver prices; adverse general economic, political, market or business conditions; failure to achieve the objectives of the future exploration and drilling programs; regulatory changes; as well as "Risk Factors" included in the disclosure documents filed on and available at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results and future events could materially differ from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. All of the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are qualified by these cautionary statements. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, events or otherwise, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 10, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Imperial Metals Corporation (the "Company") (TSX:III) announces that it has entered into an agreement to sell a 70% interest in its Red Chris copper and gold asset in British Columbia, Canada to Newcrest Mining Limited (Newcrest) (ASX: NCM) for US$806.5 million in cash, while retaining a 30% interest in the mine. The Company and Newcrest will form a joint venture for the operation of the Red Chris asset going forward, with Newcrest acting as operator. The consideration payable will be subject to customary adjustments for certain assumed equipment loans, working capital and non-financial debt at closing. The Companys President, Brian Kynoch, said: This transaction presents a compelling opportunity for all stakeholders as it allows Imperial to significantly strengthen its balance sheet while forging a strategic partnership with a leading global mining company. We believe that this joint venture partnership will enable Imperial to unlock significant value at Red Chris by leveraging Newcrests unique technical expertise in block caving operations. With a stronger financial position and highly actionable path to exploiting the underground mining potential of Red Chris, Imperial will be in a much stronger position to create value and opportunities for its shareholders, stakeholders and the Tahltan Nation. Imperials portfolio of assets will include a 100% interest in the Mount Polley mine, a 100% interest in the Huckleberry mine and a 30% interest in the Red Chris mine together with a high potential suite of both advanced and early stage exploration projects including an approximately 50% interest in the Ruddock Creek lead/zinc property and a 100% interest in the Giant Copper property. Newcrests Managing Director and CEO, Sandeep Biswas, said: We are delighted to add this joint venture into the Newcrest portfolio. We believe we can bring our unique technical capabilities to unlock the full value potential of this orebody in one of the premier gold districts in the world. We have identified a clear path to potentially turn Red Chris into a Tier 1 operation. The geology of Red Chris is similar to our Cadia orebodies in Australia and we will be applying our considerable experience in exploration, open pit mining, caving and processing to maximize the value of Red Chris and the opportunities in the surrounding region. We look at this opportunity in the same way as we do with Cadia, where we have proven we can create significant value from deep underground porphyry orebodies. We are pleased to be establishing a joint venture with Imperial and look forward to building a collaborative relationship with Tahltan Nation and the Government of British Columbia. Transaction Overview and Timing The sale is subject to customary conditions precedent including all required regulatory approvals and the assignment or transfer of material permits and contracts. Closing is expected to occur in the third quarter of 2019 with an outside date for closing of August 15, 2019. On closing of the asset purchase, an unincorporated joint venture between wholly-owned subsidiaries of Newcrest and the Company will be established. Newcrest will be the operator of the joint venture. Each party to the joint venture will contribute to exploration and development expenditures according to its participant interest (Newcrest 70%, Imperial 30%). Dilution provisions apply if a party does not contribute to a program and budget. Use of Proceeds The Company intends to use the proceeds from the sale to repay certain existing debt obligations in accordance with their maturity dates, with remaining funds to be utilized for working capital purposes. Advisors BMO Capital Markets is acting as financial advisor to the Company in connection with the transaction. The Companys legal counsel on the transaction is Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. About Imperial Imperial is a Vancouver exploration, mine development and operating company. The Company, through its subsidiaries, owns the Red Chris, Mount Polley and Huckleberry copper mines in British Columbia. Imperial also holds a 50% interest in the Ruddock Creek lead/zinc property. About Newcrest Newcrest is the largest gold producer listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and one of the world's largest gold mining companies. Newcrest owns and operates a portfolio of predominantly low cost, long life mines and a strong pipeline of brownfield and greenfield exploration projects. Newcrest's asset portfolio includes operating mines that use a variety of efficient mining methods for large ore bodies, together with selective underground mining methods to optimise high-grade epithermal deposits. Company Contacts Brian Kynoch I President I 604.669.8959 Andre Deepwell I Chief Financial Officer I 604.488.2666 Sabine Goetz I Shareholder Communications I 604.488.2657 I This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Forward-Looking Information and Risks Notice Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect Company management's expectations or beliefs regarding future events and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the closing of the sale of a 70% interest in the Red Chris mine to Newcrest; that closing of the sale is expected to occur in the third quarter of 2019; that Newcrest will advance development of the Red Chris orebody to benefit shareholders, stakeholder and the Tahltan Nation; Newcrests belief that it can bring its unique technical capabilities to unlock the full value potential of the Red Chris orebody; Newcrests belief that it can turn Red Chris into a Tier 1 operation; the Companys intended use of proceeds from the sale. In making the forward-looking statements in this release, the Company has applied certain factors and assumptions that are based on information currently available to the Company as well as the Companys current beliefs and assumptions. These factors and assumptions and beliefs and assumptions include, among others, that Newcrest will comply with its obligations under the asset purchase agreement; that all required regulatory approvals will be obtained and all conditions to closing will be satisfied or waived by the third quarter of 2019; that the Company will be able to obtain extensions to the maturity date for its existing debt on terms satisfactory to the Company; that Newcrest will be able to achieve and extrapolate synergies between its Acadia orebody in Australia and the Red Chris orebody. By their very nature forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, risks that the transaction may not close; risks of litigation commenced to prevent the transaction from closing; risks that conditions to closing may not be satisfied at all or on terms satisfactory to the Company or Newcrest; risks that Newcrest may not be able to realize the full value potential for the Red Chris mine; risks that Newcrest may not be able to maximize the value of Red Chris and the opportunities in the surrounding region; risks that synergies and similarities anticipated between Newcrests Cadia orebodies and the Red Chris orebody may not be as anticipated; risks that Red Chris may not have the qualities necessary to become a Tier 1 operation; and the risk factors detailed from time to time in the Company's interim and annual financial statements and management's discussion and analysis of those statements, all of which are filed and available for review on sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. After resisting for 20 years, Malaysia finally ratified the Statute of Rome on March 4. It thus joins the International Criminal Court (ICC), a permanent court set up in 1998 which can try crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression committed anywhere in the world. Malaysia becomes the fourth country of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to join the ICC after Cambodia, East Timor and the Philippines. In March 2018, however, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced his countrys withdrawal from the ICC, after it announced a preliminary examination for crimes against humanity related to his war on drugs that killed thousands of people. The Philippines withdrawal could thus become effective from March 17, 2019. Flight MH17 There are two main reasons for the decision of Malaysia, which has been led since May 2018 by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad. The first is related to Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, a Boeing 777 carrying 298 people including 43 Malaysians that was shot down in July 2014 by a missile most likely fired by pro-Russian armed groups in eastern Ukraine, killing everyone on board. As most of the victims were Dutch, Malaysia consented to the criminal investigation and judicial process being carried out in the Netherlands. But some Malaysian politicians like Human Resources Minister Kulasegaran suggested that if Malaysia had already ratified the Rome Statute at the time, it could have brought the MH17 case to the ICC. The best way to bring justice to victims of crimes of this magnitude is for national courts to be complemented by the ICC, he said in November 2018. And after ratification of the treaty, Kulasegaran said that by joining the ICC, Kuala Lumpur can now play an important role in all matters related to crimes against humanity. Crimes against the Rohingyas The other, probably stronger factor is that Malaysia is the only ASEAN member to have clearly denounced the mass crimes committed against Rohingya Muslims by the Burmese military in eastern Myanmar. These crimes resulted in the forced exodus of about one million Rohingya to Bangladesh. In September 2018, ICC judges ruled that the court had jurisdiction over at least some of these crimes, and granted the ICC Prosecutor the right to investigate. Malaysias ratification therefore makes sense, as it is convinced that only an international mechanism can bring justice to the Rohingya. For us, it is very important that the (ICC) investigation into the case of Myanmar and humanitarian crimes shed light on the situation, so that the criminals responsible are brought before the Court, said Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah in February 2019. The ratification is also part of the new Malaysian Prime Ministers desire to play a more active role in ASEAN. This is illustrated both by Malaysian government interventions on the Rohingya issue and its support for peace negotiations between the Thai government and separatist rebels in southern Thailand. Malaysias accession brings the ICC a much-needed credibility boost. With a population of 31 million mainly Muslims, this country extends the Courts jurisdiction and influence in a region where it had remained little recognized. The last major country to join the ICC was Cote dIvoire in 2013 and before that, in 2011, Tunisia and the Philippines. Do supporters of Democrats pretty much have the education reform movement in a vise grip? Two education researchers say they do indeed, despite protests to the contrary. And they argue the potential consequences of this political monoculture could be quite harmful. But their new report has quickly attracted criticism in the education community. In Education Reforms Deep Blue Hue: Are School Reformers Right-Wingers or Centristsor Neither? Jay P. Greene and Frederick M. Hess analyze political campaign donationsmostly over the past decade from staffers at organizations receiving grants from two large philanthropies involved in education, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation. The groups highlighted in their study include a Whos Who of organizations that focus on issues including charter schools, changes to traditional educator labor rules, academic standards, robust school accountability, among them: Achieve, the New Schools Venture Fund, the Education Trust, Education Reform Now, KIPP, the New Schools Venture Fund, Teacher For America, and others. (To be clear, not all those groups work on all those issues.) Hess and Greene coded results for all the groups receiving at least $500,000 in the most recent annual reports from Gates and Walton, and also sampled groups receiving less cash. The results, Greene and Hess say, speak for themselves. For example, as the above chart from Greene and Hess indicates, 99 percent of the 2,617 contributions from staffers at Gates Foundation grant recipients went to Democratic causes, while just eight contributions total went to Republican causes. Staffers at groups benefitting from Walton largesse showed slightly more partisan diversity in their donations, with 87 percent of all grantees donations going to Democrats. Finally, donations from researchers who presented at the Association for Education Finance and Policy in 2018 going to Democratic causes 96 percent of the time, Greene and Hess found. But even as some activists falsely attack the education reform movement as largely the work of right-wing privatizers and neoliberals, the trend across those groups is clear, the two researchers argue. Remarkably, the deep blue hue of Gates and Walton education grantees ... rivals the leftward lean we see in Democratic precincts such as Hollywood and public-employee unions, Greene and Hess write, adding that education reforms partisan tilt may help explain some of its setbacks and reversals of recent years. Greene is the chairman of the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas. Hess is the director of education policy studies at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute who also writes a blog at edweek.org. (Education Week currently receives grant funding from the Walton Foundation and has previously received funding from the Gates Foundation, but Greene said in an email that to his knowledge the study did not reveal anything regarding donations from Education Week employees.) The Fallacious Assumption of Education Reformers As part of their study, Greene and Hess highlight a 2017 Education Week survey of educators political leanings ; while a plurality of respondents (41 percent) said they were affiliated with the Democratic Party, 30 percent said they were independents and 27 percent identified as Republicans. Hess said that survey is one indication that actual educators are much more diverse politically than the education reform sphere might presumeand such a presumption doesnt help them, he stressed. Lets first focus on what at least one of the authors believes are the ultimate consequences of this deep blue hue, using the Common Core State Standards and school choice as two examples. In an interview, Hess said the standards supporters in the education reform community, and leaders like Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, were unable or unwilling to forge political support for them on the right. He argued that they assumed conservatives would be fine with the standards, and instead rushed to shore up support among people like the American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, an early fan of the standards. That was a fallacious assumption. There was an assumption that these suburban families in red states were going to be on board, that Jeb Bush and a couple of retired governors could keep them in line, Hess said, noting that he expressed concerns about the politics around the common core early in its lifespan. By the time the reform community realized its mistake, he said, the standards had been permanently damaged. In a fight of a more recent vintage, Hess noted that earlier this year, following teacher protests in West Virginia that focused in part on the state legislatures consideration of a bill to allow charter schools, lawmakers there effectively killed the bill. What I heard from the legislators was: Why are we supposed to take bullets for these organizations? Hess said, referring to education reform groups. He added that while many Republicans do like charter schools in principle, they increasingly see creating allies among charter proponents in the education reform community as partnering with social agendas that they disagree with. And that gets to a two-part argument from Hess. On the one hand, he said that many education reform groups pitch themselves as bipartisan, nonpartisan, and centrist. On the other hand, he said that rather than focusing tightly on more technical issues like charters, accountability, and labor practices, theyve created an atmosphere that pretty much shuts out those with views on areas like social and racial justice that dont toe the liberal line. Are these organizations making any effort to reach out to people who hold conservative values? Are they making it OK to work in these organizations [for those] who think differently about how its constructive to talk about race? Hess asked. They have chosen to make litmus tests about issues that arent necessarily about the core of their work. By contrast, Hess said, Movements that are able to get things donethey have agreements in principle on certain issues. And they have ambassadors that go and talk to the right, and they have ambassadors that go and talk to the left. ... We do think there has been a lot of self-deception and a lot of confusion about where things stand. Varied Responses to Hess and Greene Several people have shared responses to the work from Greene and Hess, who published a Wall Street Journal piece on their findings last week. Not surprisingly, many came from the education reform community itself. For one thing, many argue that irrespective of how liberal many of the aforementioned groups employees are, and irrespective of how many reform groups get money from Gates and Walton, there are conservative or right-leaning advocacy groups that are commonly referred to as education reform organizations. Two examples many might point to are the Jeb Bush-led Foundation for Excellence in Education and the (aptly named for this debate) Center for Education Reform, and that have had notable policy influence over time. Jeanne Allen, the Center for Education Reforms founder, called Hess and Greenes work a great piece for noting much of the education reform communitys bubble, but also said it was not entirely accurate. First, the #edreform movement is not defined by those who run organizations or work in them. The Movement is defined by the many - millions - who are doing the work, the grassroots, and the majority of them are not organized into any easily identifiable packages. Jeanne Allen (@JeanneAllen) March 9, 2019 Hess acknowledged that there are some conservatives working in education reform, but that this doesnt ultimately rebut the concerns raised by his new study with Greene. On Friday, Stacey Childress, the head of the New Schools Venture Fund and a former deputy director at Gates, appeared to disparage the Hess-Greene study as part of an ultimately incoherent set of attacks on her groups work: Flavor of my week: charged with being a tool of right-wing marauding billionaires seeking to privatize edu & profit from poor children, & also of leading an org that has helped capture (& degrade) ed reform for Dems & left. Cool. Always striving for balance. Stacey Childress (@NextGenStacey) March 8, 2019 Then theres the argument thats surfaced claiming that to the extent these groups do have staffers who overwhelmingly donate to Democrats, its justified because of what many perceive as the odious conduct by Republicans in recent years, particularly under President Donald Trump, but also after President George W. Bushs administration. Others criticized the report by saying people like Hess for stirring up opposition to things like the common core, and then cynically blamed others for its political maladies: All true. I would go further and say that even the Republican Partys embrace of explicit racism precedes Trump, and in many ways, was aided by conservative reformers like Hess, who think that focusing on racial achievement gaps is an awful thing to do. https://t.co/KFEeyWT0wq RiShawn Biddle (@dropoutnation) March 8, 2019 (Biddle is an education writer and speaker, while Fasteau is a former Capitol Hill Democratic staffer who now works at EducationCounsel.) What about the argument that staffers donations might reflect the reality that many Republicans, for various reasons, might have retreated from working on education reform policies, except for school choice? Hess said he finds it unsatisfying to believe that the GOP and conservatives went from very interested to uninterested in these issues over the last 15 years, dating back to the No Child Left Behind Act. As for specific consequences of what Hess alleged: What about the argument that more than one political force undermined the common core, as unions and progressives eventually used the standards to savage testings place in accountability, while conservative activists quickly pounced on common cores political links to the Obama administration? Heres that view as summed up by David DeSchryver of Whiteboard Advisors, a consulting firm: They did! Are we forgetting the (un)comfortable alliance of tea party and unions to knock down those socialist, and at the same time, and corporate standards and tests? https://t.co/PY0mE423TB David A DeSchryver (@ddeschryver) March 8, 2019 Hess dismissed this theory as a misplaced excuse, a plea for the standards middle-of-the-road appeal, lodged only in retrospect from common-core supporters. The Greene-Hess thesis also overrates the extent to which the politics of education reform groups and their staffers has had a negative impact, argued Benjamin Riley, the founder of Deans for Impact, which works on teacher preparation in higher education. But is focusing on partisanship and political alignment the right way to frame issues in and problems for the education reform community? Ed Fuller, an assistant professor of education at Penn State University, said no: ed reform is often driven by ppl with large sums of money, regardless of whether they are right or left. And thats part of the problem. @shermandorn Ed Fuller (@EdFuller_PSU) March 9, 2019 The larger point behind Fullers critique is that the education reform communitys focus on charters, new labor rules, and accountability is not really about Democratic politics per se, even if nearly all donations from staffers getting money from big players like Gates and Walton go to Democrats. Its also important to highlight instances of where these organizations do not hew to what are common liberal or progressive lines on education issues specifically. Teach For America, for example, caught heat last month when it encouraged its members to cross the picket line during a potential strike in Oakland. The broader concerns raised in the study are far from new, and are not new from the studys authors. Just last August, in fact, Greene published a blog post about the political biases of many in the education research community with the title, Professors are getting more liberal. We reached out to Achieve, Teach For America, and the Alliance for Excellent Education to gauge responses from three of the groups Greene and Hess highlighted; if we hear back from them, well update this post. Read a Greene-Hess piece on their study here (the piece was published jointly by the American Enterprise Institute and Education Next, an education policy and politics journal): Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 . And follow the Andrew Ujifusa half of Politics K-12 @AndrewUjifusa. Dallas, Texas, 11/07/2018 / Story.KISSPR.com / If youve been charged with a crime, you might have already heard the term statute of limitations. A statute of limitations is a set time limit for how much time the state or federal government has to prosecute someone for allegedly committing a crime. There are also statutes of limitation in civil cases, and they mean the same thing in the civil context. Why Have a Statute of Limitations? One of the most important things to remember is that statutes of limitation vary from state to state and by federal statute. They also vary depending on the crime. For example, in Texas and many other states, there is no statute of limitation for murder or other serious crimes. Without a statute of limitation, it means an individual can be charged with murder even if the crime took place decades ago. In criminal cases, the law puts these time limits in place for a few different reasons. First, forcing prosecutors to bring charges within a reasonable time frame prevents evidence from deteriorating. The law is supposed to be fair for everyone, and every defendant deserves a chance to defend themselves with the best and most accurate evidence available. If several years have passed between the commission of the crime and the prosecution, the defendant is likely to be disadvantaged and the prosecution may have an unfair advantage. Putting a statute of limitations in place also helps conserve important court and law enforcement resources. If prosecutors are busy trying cases from previous decades, and police are forced to investigate crimes that happened many years in the past, they wont have as many resources to focus on more recent crimes. If the state or federal government attempts to bring charges after the statute of limitations has run, the defendants lawyer can typically ask for the case to be dismissed. Tolling the Statute of Limitations In some cases, the prosecution can still move forward even if the statute of limitations has run out. Instead of counting the normal years between the crime and the start of prosecution, the law suspends the statute of limitations. In other words, it hits the pause button on the statute of limitations. This pause is called tolling the statute of limitations. In most instances, the law permits this pause when an individual has deliberately concealed their crime or themselves. If someone is living openly and not trying to hide, a court may rule that the statute of limitations shouldnt be tolled. However, if the prosecution can show that the person assumed another identity or went to great lengths to hide from the law, its more likely that the court will toll the statute of limitations. Different Statutes of Limitation in Different States In some cases, a person may be prosecuted for a crime in one state but not in another state. Perhaps the most recent and notorious example of this is the sexual assault case involving Bill Cosby. Although prosecutors in some states tried to bring charges against Cosby, the majority of the cases were dismissed because the statute of limitations had run out. Many of the accusations dated from as far back as the 1960s, which presented a problem for prosecutors in a number of states. In Pennsylvania, however, the statute of limitations for sexual assault is 12 years, which meant prosecutors could pursue a case against Cosby in that state. Cosbys accuser had initially reported the assault to police in 2005, who said there wasnt enough evidence to pursue charges at that time. Later on, however, they discovered additional evidence and moved forward with charges. When a defendant has committed several crimes over a lengthy timespan across many different states, its possible the person can stand trial in more than one state under various statutes of limitation. In Wyoming and South Carolina, for example, there are no statutes of limitation for any criminal case. These are usually very complicated cases, which is why its important for anyone charged with crimes in different states to work with experienced criminal defense lawyer Mick Mickelsen. Statutes of Limitation in Texas In Texas, the statute of limitations for crimes like arson, prostitution, and forgery is 10 years. For crimes like identity theft and felony tax offenses, the statute of limitations is seven years. For misdemeanors, the statute of limitations is two years. These are just a few examples, and the laws are very specific for each type of crime, including aggravated crimes. Its important to note that Texas law permits the tolling of the statute of limitations if the defendant lived outside the state during the statute of limitations period. Meaning the statute of limitations gets paused, while the person lives outside the state. If you have been charged with any type of crime, whether in state or federal court, its important to speak to a criminal defense lawyer right away. If you are in need of the Best Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer Broden, Mickelsen, LLP please call us. Media Contact: Dallas Best Criminal Defense Lawyers Broden & Mickelsen (T): 214-720-9552 https://dallascriminaldefensel Sources: ***ATTORNEY ADVERTISING*** Prior results cannot and do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future case. Social Media Tags:Time Limits for Prosecutions, Statute of Limitations, Dallas Best Criminal Defense Lawyers, Best Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer Broden, Defense Lawyers Broden and Mickelsen Source: Story.KISSPR.com Release ID: 12146 It's only fair to share... Pinterest Linkedin email Print University center recognized for continued excellence in computer security research Monday, March 11, 2019 MANHATTAN The Center for Information and Systems Assurance at Kansas State University has once again been redesignated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Research by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. "Kansas State University received its initial designation in 2010," said Eugene Vasserman, director of the center and associate professor in computer science and Michele Munson-Serban Simu Keystone research scholar. "It was redesignated in 2014 and now again in 2019 through 2024." The mission of Center for Information and Systems Assurance is to conduct fundamental and applied research in information and computer security and high-assurance systems, as well as advance the knowledge of students in many disciplines within and beyond engineering. "Systems and information assurance is a cross-cutting area of computer science as well as many other disciplines," Vasserman said. "It is the theory and practice behind the design and operation of safe, secure and reliable systems across a broad spectrum of applications including hardware, networking and information storage. "The center also engages the professional community in collaborative efforts that support the understanding, operation and development of secure software systems that pervade our society." Vasserman headed up the redesignation effort and emphasized the benefit it brings to the university. "We are doing cutting-edge research that is important and valuable," he said. "This designation certifies that K-State continues to operate a highly regarded center for cybersecurity research we are a place that knows security. "Potential students pay attention to this designation we often get questions asking us to confirm that, yes, you can come to K-State where you will be able to contribute to these research efforts." David Rosowsky David Rosowsky joined Kansas State University as vice president for research in July 2021. As VPR, Rosowsky serves as the universitys chief research officer, providing leadership and expertise in fostering a campus environment that promotes collaborative, interdisciplinary efforts and produces high-quality research and scholarly work. Rosowsky encourages and facilitates the integration and enhancement of research, scholarly and creative activities across the universitys colleges and multiple research centers and leads universitywide strategic research growth activities. Additionally, Rosowsky serves as chair of the board of directors for K-State Innovation Partners, K-States hub of corporate engagement, technology commercialization and economic development. Photo: Contributed The loss of a beloved pet can be like losing a family member. With this in mind, Okanagan pet professionals will gather in Kelowna to learn about pet loss grief support. More than 62 per cent of Canadian households have a pet, and there has been an increased trend in humanizing pets or treating them as a member of the family. This results in real grief when pets inevitably die. It can be an emotionally devastating experience with few supports for the grieving. Jared Starling of Lake Country's Okanagan Pet Cremation discussed this with local veterinary clinics and found a real interest in information on the subject. This led him to host the forum for staff in the industry, March 17, at the Kanata Hotel. Participants will have the opportunity to meet with a panel of counseling experts who will discuss how staff can support their clients in dealing with the grief from the loss of a pet. The event is free, but pre-registration is required by calling 250-548-3351 or emailing [email protected]. Photo: The Canadian Press Investigators are trying to determine the cause of a deadly crash Sunday involving a new aircraft model touted for its environmentally friendly engine that is used by both Air Canada and WestJet. Eighteen Canadians were among the 157 passengers and crew who died when an Ethiopian Airlines plane went down shortly after departing from Bole Airport in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi, Kenya. The Boeing 737-8 Max was new and had been delivered to the airline in November, records show. The aircraft was also involved in a Lion Air crash in October when a two-month-old plane plunged into the Java Sea minutes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, killing 189 people. It was not clear what caused the plane to go down in clear weather, but the pilot sent out a distress call and was given clearance to return, the airline's CEO said on Sunday. Air Canada has 24 Boeing 737-8 Max planes in its fleet and WestJet operates 13. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the passengers and crew of Ethiopian Airline Flight 302 which was lost while enroute to Nairobi this morning," Air Canada spokeswoman Isabelle Arthur said in a statement. "These aircraft have performed excellently from a safety, reliability and customer satisfaction perspective." WestJet also expressed condolences, and said it would not speculate on the cause of the incident at this time. Boeing said it was "deeply saddened" to learn of the crash. "We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the families and loved ones of the passengers and crew on board and stand ready to support the Ethiopian Airlines team," it said in a statement. A Boeing technical team will be travelling to the crash site to provide technical assistance, working with Ethiopian authorities and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. Indonesian investigators have not determined a cause for the October crash there, but days after the accident Boeing sent a notice to airlines that faulty information from a sensor could cause the plane to automatically point the nose down. The notice reminded pilots of the procedure for handling such a situation. Data from a preliminary investigation report, which didn't state any conclusions, showed that the plane's nose pointed down 26 times on its fatal 11-minute flight despite repeated efforts by the pilots to manually aim the nose higher. Aviation expert and lawyer Arthur Rosenberg said investigators are just starting to gather information about the Ethiopia crash, but it's likely that the same system implicated in the Lion Air crash is involved in this one. "Based on that photograph, that impact crater that I saw, this plane pretty much just came straight down," he said. "It looks like this crew didn't really have much time to respond." The selling feature of this model 737 is that it is similar to older models, so flight crews would not need a lot of retraining, Rosenberg said. When the plane senses an imminent stall it pushes the nose down, and most pilots would react by pulling back on the control yoke, he said. But on this model it doesn't stop the nose dive instead, two toggle switches on the centre console are the only way to override the system, Rosenberg said. "There's just no time, (or) situational awareness to recognize what's going on and to take the appropriate action," Rosenberg said. "These are complex machines being piloted by human beings and I don't care how great a pilot you are, it takes time to process this information." The jetliner showed unstable vertical speed after takeoff, air traffic monitor Flightradar 24 said in a Twitter post. Ethiopian Airlines has a really good reputation and is known as a state-of-the-art airline, Rosenberg added. Safety experts cautioned against drawing too many comparisons between the two crashes until more is known about Sunday's disaster. The Ethiopian Airlines CEO "stated there were no defects prior to the flight, so it is hard to see any parallels with the Lion Air crash yet," said Harro Ranter, founder of the Aviation Safety Network, which compiles information about accidents worldwide. Ethiopian Airlines said Ethiopian authorities, manufacturer Boeing and other international stakeholders will collaborate on an investigation The jet's last maintenance was on Feb. 4, and it had flown just 1,200 hours. The pilot was a senior aviator, joining the airline in 2010, the CEO said. Photo: Cindy Rhyason Vernon Science Centre was overrun, in a good way, as more than 400 girls and their families took in a free all-day event to mark International Womens Day. The event is actually two-fold, said Jim Swingle, executive director of the centre. Its timed to celebrate International Womens Day, as well as address the big gender gap in science. We want to encourage young girls to consider careers in science. For the second year, the centre hosted local female scientists, who shared their knowledge. Jessica Nobrega of CARO Analytical Services led a tasty class in making ice cream using liquid nitrogen. Colleen OHare of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada took star gazers through the steps in creating their own pocket solar systems. Marta Green of Associated Environmental discussed all things water, including how it gets to our homes. Green also talked about her career as a geoscientist. The theme for International Womens Day this year was Better the Balance, Better the World, addressing the need for more equal representation in science and other fields. Statistics Canadas website states, Although they represented the majority of university degree holders in 2011, young women who attend university are less likely than young men to choose a program in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computer science, regardless of mathematical ability in high school. The stats for 2011 were 39 per cent women among STEM university graduates aged 25 to 34. The event at the Science Centre was intended to improve those numbers. A scavenger hunt and access to the interactive science galleries made for a loud and happy event, if all the smiles from parents and kids alike were any indication. Cindy Rhyason Photo: Contributed Rescuers work at the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines flight crash near Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, south of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Monday, March 11, 2019. UPDATE 6:45 a.m. A senior UN official and a New Brunswick forester were among the 18 Canadians who died Sunday when an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 157 aboard. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees said one of its Canadian-born employees was among the victims of the deadly crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane. The commission identified the woman as Jessica Hyba, who was working as the organization's senior external relations officer. Meanwhile, forestry groups identified Peter DeMarsh of New Brunswick as one of the victims. The Kenya Forest Service and the Family Forest Nepal Facebook pages both wrote posts offering condolences to the family of DeMarsh, who worked with the International Family Forestry Alliance. The International Family Forestry Alliance did not immediately return a request for comment Monday. The Kenya Forest Service post said DeMarsh was en route to Nairobi to attend a workshop on "access to international climate finance for small holder farmers." The plane crashed shortly after takeoff Sunday morning, killing all 157 aboard, including 18 Canadians. Ethiopia's state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate reported Monday that the black box was found from the crashed plane. An airline official, however, told The Associated Press that the box was partially damaged and that "we will see what we can retrieve from it." The official spoke on condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to speak to the media. It was not clear what caused the Ethiopian Airlines plane to go down in clear weather six minutes after departing Bole Airport in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa on its way to Nairobi, the capital of neighbouring Kenya. The accident was strikingly similar to last year's crash of a Lion Air jet that plunged into the Java Sea, killing 189 people. Both crashes involved the Boeing 737 Max 8, and both happened minutes after the jets became airborne. In the wake of Sunday's crash, Ethiopian Airlines as well as all Chinese airlines have ground their Boeing 737 Max 8 planes indefinitely. Air Canada said in an email statement Monday that it has operated Boeing 737 Max 8 aircrafts since 2017 and has 24 in its fleet. "These aircraft have performed excellently from a safety, reliability and customer satisfaction perspective," said spokeswoman Isabelle Arthur. "We continue to monitor the situation, and based on current information and recommendations by government safety regulators, including Transport Canada, and the manufacturer, we continue to operate our normal B737 schedule." WestJet and Sunwing did not immediately return a request for comment Monday. A mother and daughter from Edmonton, a renowned Carleton University professor, and an accountant with the City of Calgary were also among the Canadians who died in the crash. Mohamed Hassan Ali said his sister, Amina Ibrahim Odowaa of Edmonton, and her five-year-old daughter, Sofia Faisal Abdulkadir, were on board the jet that went down six minutes after it took off from the Addis Ababa airport on the way to Nairobi, Kenya. "(She was) a very nice person, very outgoing, very friendly. Had a lot of friends," Ali said of his sister, who was travelling to Kenya to visit with relatives. Carleton University confirmed Pius Adesanmi, a professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and the Institute of African Studies at Carleton University, was also killed in the crash. Benoit-Antoine Bacon, the school's president and vice-chancellor, described him as a "global thinker," and a "towering figure in African and post-colonial scholarship." Media reports indicated that Danielle Moore, 24, of Winnipeg, was among the victims. In a Facebook post on Saturday morning, Moore wrote that she was excited to be attending a UN environment event in Nairobi. University of New Brunswick professor Kimberly Davies said Moore was her honours thesis student when she worked at Halifax's Dalhousie University. She said Moore graduated from Dalhousie with a degree in marine biology in 2017 and was "exceptional in every sense." "She excelled at her studies, she was a kind and friendly person, and she was deeply devoted to environmental and human rights causes," said Davies in an email. Gladys Kivia, a domestic violence counsellor with the Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter, said her husband, Derick Lwugi, was also among the victims. The accountant who worked for the city leaves behind three children, aged 17, 19 and 20, Kivia said. The couple had been in Calgary for 12 years, and Lwugi had been headed to Kenya to visit both of their parents. UPDATE 5:17 a.m. Forestry groups have identified a New Brunswick man as one of the 18 Canadians who died Sunday when an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 157 aboard. The Kenya Forest Service and the Family Forest Nepal Facebook pages both wrote posts offering condolences to the family of Peter DeMarsh of International Family Forestry Alliance. The International Family Forestry Alliance did not immediately return a request for comment early Monday. The Kenya Forest Service post said DeMarsh was en route to Nairobi to attend a workshop on "access to international climate finance for small holder farmers." ORIGINAL 5:14 a.m. Details are emerging about the 18 Canadian victims of an Ethiopian Airlines plane crash in Addis Ababa that left 157 people dead. Here is what we know so far: Pius Adesanmi: Adesanmi was a Nigerian-born professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and the Institute of African Studies at Carleton University. He was a "towering figure in African and post-colonial scholarship," said the school's president, Benoit-Antoine Bacon. Adesanmi was the winner of the inaugural Penguin Prize for African non-fiction writing in 2010. Mitchell Dick, a Carleton student who is finishing up a communications honours degree, said he took a first and second year African literature course with Adesanmi. Dick said Adesanmi was "extremely nice and approachable," and stood out for his passion for the subject matter. Amina Ibrahim Odowaa and her daughter Sofia Faisal Abdulkadir: The 33-year-old Edmonton woman and her five year-old daughter were travelling to Kenya to visit with relatives. Her brother, Mohamed Hassan Ali, of Toronto, said he had planned to travel with them but had to cancel last week. "(She was) a very nice person, very outgoing, very friendly. Had a lot of friends," he said. A family friend said Odowaa has lived in Edmonton since 2006. Derick Lwugi: An accountant with the City of Calgary, Lwugi was on his way to Kenya to visit both his and his wife's parents, who live in the west of the country. "His mom was not feeling well," Lwugi's wife, Gladys Kivia, said in a brief interview from Calgary. The couple have three children, aged 17, 19 and 20, all of whom live at home. The family has lived in Calgary for 12 years. Danielle Moore: Media reports indicate the 24-year-old, who lived in Winnipeg, was among the victims. She posted on Facebook on Saturday morning that she would be travelling to Nairobi, Kenya, for the United Nations Environment Assembly. "Over the next week I'll have the opportunity to discuss global environmental issues, share stories, and connect with other youth and leaders from all over the world," she wrote. "I feel beyond privileged to be receiving this opportunity." 248 Shares Share For many months, artificial intelligence has been in my peripheral vision, just sitting there, ignored by me because it seemed too far in the future to be interesting now. And then, there were all these terms Big Data, machine learning, data science which circled the subject and, frankly, gave me a bit of a headache. Artificial intelligence is upon us, unleashed and unbridled in its ability to transform the world. If in the previous technological revolution, machines were invented to do the physical work, then in this revolution, machines are being invented to do the thinking work. And no field involves more thinking than medicine. I took 650 mg of acetaminophen and started reading because the truth about artificial intelligence is that its already here. The term artificial intelligence is credited to John McCarthy in 1956 when he used the term to describe a summer workshop he hosted called The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence to discuss thinking machines. He thought the term was a neutral and straightforward distinction between artificial machine or computer intelligence compared to natural human intelligence. Encyclopedia definitions of AI are the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence or a branch of computer science dealing with the simulation of intelligent behavior in computers. Perhaps the most succinct is the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behavior. Artificial intelligence is also described as strong AI and weak AI. Weak AI systems have specific intelligence whereas strong AI has general intelligence and is also called artificial general intelligence or AGI. Weak AI is the ability to do a specific task really well, such as IBMs Deep Blue which was victorious over Garry Kasparov in chess in 1997. Weak AI helps turn big data into usable information by detecting patterns and making predictions. Facebooks news feed, Amazons suggested purchases and Apples Siri are all examples of weak AI. Current systems that claim to use artificial intelligence are likely operating as weak AI focused on a narrowly defined specific problem. Strong AI is a hypothetical computer system that thinks exactly the way people do, which is a very difficult problem to solve and hasnt been invented yet. Its a form of machine intelligence that is equal to human intelligence with the ability to reason, solve puzzles, make judgments, plan, learn and communicate. Ultimately, artificial general intelligence is the end goal. There is also a third category somewhere in between where the majority of AI development occurs today. It is the field of machine learning: computers that use human reasoning to guide the performance of tasks without perfectly replicating human cognition. IBMs computer Watson uses human reasoning by looking at thousands of pieces of text, recognizing patterns and then weighs the evidence. It is then able to add up all the evidence to get an answer. This is an example of artificial intelligence which isnt exactly human cognition but is inspired by it and based on the three steps of pattern, prediction, and learning. Machine learning practical applications include improved user content on Pinterest, broad image curation on Yelp, chatbots use on Facebook, curated timelines on Twitter and customer relationship management programs such as Salesforce Einstein for building better customer profiles. In the health care field, machine learning generates cancer treatment recommendations from IBMs Watson, which is being used by hospitals today for stroke detection and an AI algorithm which preliminary results show predicts heart attacks significantly better than the ACC/AHA guidelines. A final term, data science, includes artificial intelligence and machine learning. It is the science of getting computers to act without being programmed by humans. This is the realm of deep learning, convolutional neural networks, and cognitive computing. And it is, perhaps, these concepts that give rise to the unease and fear that somehow machines will simulate human cognition on their own and will no longer be controlled by us. It is this general lack of trust that leaves AI in our peripheral vision. Lets bring AI and all its associated terminologies into focus so we can understand how its revolutionizing our world because the truth is were already using it. Kathryn Peper is an internal medicine physician. Image credit: Shutterstock.com OAKRIDGE, Ore. One man died in a house fire in Oakridge on Friday morning. Capt. Aric Higdon of Oakridge Fire Department said the cause of the fire remains under investigation and the name of the person who died will be released later. No one else was in the house when the fire started. The fire broke out at 8:14 a.m. Friday and a total of nine firefighters from Oakridge responded to help fight the fire. Firefighters from Lowell and Eugene/Springfield also responded, bringing to 17 the total number of firefighters who helped fight the fire. The house on High Prairie Loop was a total loss, and firefighters remained at the scene until about 5 p.m., helping with the investigation, Higdon said. Creswell fire crews helped out by coming in and covering the Oakridge fire station during the fire, Higdon said. Photo: CTV News The Okanagan is looking at the chance of flurries Monday morning turning into showers towards noon. Environment Canada is calling for a 40 per cent chance of flurries changing to 40 per cent chance of rain showers or flurries near noon and they are calling for a high of 4 degrees Monday in Kelowna. The situation very different in other parts of the province today. There is a snowfall warning in effect for Highway 3 on the Paulson Summit to Kootenay Pass with as much as 20 cms possible in that area. Environment Canada indicates an approaching frontal system will track across the southern interior Monday night bringing heavy snow which could persist overnight into Tuesday, with as much as 20 cm's expected by Tuesday evening. You are advised to prepare for quickly changing and deteriorating travel conditions with visibility impacted by heavy snow at times. There is also a weather alert for Metro Vancouver, including Coquitlam and Maple Ridge. Environment Canada is calling for snowfall amounts of about 5 cm as an approaching Pacific frontal system will bring precipitation to the south coast Monday. Rain over Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley will change to wet snow or snow mixed with rain tonight. Over the North Shore and the northeast sections of Metro Vancouver, wet snow will taper off to a few rain showers or flurries before Tuesday morning with an accumulation of 5 cm over higher terrain. Over the Fraser Valley, Snow mixed with rain overnight will continue into Tuesday morning. Snow accumulations up to 5 cm can be expected before the snow changes to a few rain showers midday Tuesday. You are advised to check DriveBC and Castanet traffic cameras before heading out on roadways or making travel plans. Met Eireann has declared Storm Gareth and issued Status Orange and Yellow weather warnings with 'damaging gusts' of wind expected this week. Kilkenny is included in the all-Ireland yellow wind warning. A Status Orange wind warning has been issued for Donegal, Leitrim, Mayo and Sligo as storm Gareth approaches, westerly winds will reach mean speeds of 65 to 75km/h with damaging gusts reaching 110 to 130km/h. There is also the risk of coastal flooding due to high seas. WATCH: Click here to see Storm Gareth's path across Ireland and the UK This warning kicks in from Tuesday, March 12 at 12:00 to Wednesday, March 13 at 09:00. Storm Gareth has also brought a Status Yellow rainfall warning for Connacht, Donegal, Clare, Cork, Kerry and Limerick with heavy rain followed by 'squally showers' will lead to the risk of rainfall accumulations of around 25mm. This warning is valid from Monday, March 11, at 18:00 to Tuesday, March 12 at 06:00. A third Storm Gareth warning covers all of Ireland. This Status Yellow wind warning for Ireland will bring westerly winds will reach mean speeds of 50 to 65km/h and gusts of 90 to 110km. There is a risk of coastal flooding due to high seas along Atlantic coasts. This is valid from Tuesday, March 12 from 12:00 to Wednesday, March 13 at 12:00. The UK Met Office has said Storm Gareth has been named by Met Eireann. #StormGareth has been named by @MetEireann and is forecast to bring strong winds and heavy rain to the UK later on Tuesday and into Wednesday #weatheraware pic.twitter.com/sdpxvNNWy1 Met Office (@metoffice) March 11, 2019 Hundreds of pet parents and four legged friends are expected to take part in Petmanias Operation Transpawmation dog walk in Kilkenny. The free event will take place in Castle Park, Kilkenny on Saturday (March 23). Registration begins at 2pm with the walk starting at 2.30pm. Petmanias experts will be on hand on the day providing free weight checks and body condition score checks for every dog that takes part. Each dog that has a weight check will go into Petmanias draw to win a hamper of goodies including a free groom at their grooming studio along with receiving a booklet with tips on preventing obesity and keeping your dog healthy. The Petmania Operation Transpawmation programme is currently running in Petmania Kilkenny until the end of March. Petmania are urging pet parents to avail of the free programme in any Petmania store with no appointment needed. The programme educates pet parents on how they can look after their pets health and wellbeing. The aim of the Kilkenny dog walk is to get pet owners active with their dogs for a fun filled day. Exercise is vital for dogs, getting out for exercise occupies their mind and is great for both their mental and physical health. With one in three Irish dogs being overweight, a nationwide survey by the specialist pet retailer of almost 500 respondents has revealed that it remains the number one issue for Irelands pets. The amount of exercise a pet needs depends on many factors such as age, breed and size but the average is estimated to be 45 minutes and just 40 per cent of Irish dogs are receiving this. It is recommended that pets are weighed every three months. 6% of Irish people have never weighed their pet, and 21% have not weighed their pets in the last 12 months. On average a dog should get 45 minutes exercise a day. 18% of Irish people give their dog just half the recommended amount with up to 20 minutes of exercise daily and only 40% of dogs receive the recommended amount. Managing portion size is key to pets maintaining a healthy weight, however 33% of Irish pet owners free pour their pets food. This approach may result in over feeding causing excessive weight gain. Petmania are urging pet parents of dogs and cats to understand the health impacts linked to being overweight. It can significantly shorten life expectancy and increase the risk of developing diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes, heart and respiratory illness or osteoarthritis. The Petmania store in Kilkenny located in Kilkenny Retail Park. For more information see www.petmania.ie The Indonesian woman accused of using a deadly nerve agent to kill Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, returned home Monday after Malaysian prosecutors withdrew the charge against her. An emotional Siti Aisyah, surrounded by government officials and reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jakarta, thanked her parents, President Joko Widodo and the Indonesian people for their prayers. The decision came as a surprise to many, including Aisyah herself, and kicked off a dramatic day at the Shah Alam High Court. Aisyah hugged her co-defendant, Doan Thi Huong of Vietnam, before leaving the courtroom. She later tearfully told reporters that she was "shocked" to have been freed after more than two years behind bars. The prosecutors gave no reason for their decision, her lawyer Gooi Soon Seng said. The prosecutors did not ask the judge to drop charges against Huong, a decision her lawyer criticized as "unfair." The trial is due to resume Thursday, when prosecutors are expected to announce whether they will continue with the case against Huong. Aisyah and Huong were charged with murdering Kim Jong Nam shortly after his death in February 2017, and faced the death penalty if convicted. Authorities say they exposed Kim to the nerve agent VX as he entered Kuala Lumpur International Airport, killing him in minutes. Security footage shows a woman approaching him from behind, rubbing something on his face and then running away. Lawyers for the two women have said they were duped by a team of North Korean agents, who tricked them into thinking they were taking part in a reality TV show. Rusdi Kirana, Indonesia's ambassador to Malaysia, said the decision to drop the case against Aisyah followed months of lobbying by Jakarta. The Indonesian Law and Human Rights Ministry released an image of an undated letter in which it requested that Aisyah be freed. The letter repeated many of the arguments made by her defense attorneys. It also asked that Malaysian authorities take into account the two countries' "good relations" when considering the request. Malaysian Attorney General Tommy Thomas responded with his own letter Friday, announcing that the prosecution would effectively drop the case. Copies of both letters were released by Indonesian authorities and a spokesman for Thomas confirmed their validity. Four North Koreans have also been charged with Kim's killing. Their whereabouts are unknown, and Interpol has put out red notices for each of them, asking governments around the world to send them to Malaysia to face trial. It's unclear why Kim Jong Nam was killed, but analysts said Kim Jong Un may have seen him as a potential threat. Jong Nam fell out of favor with their father, former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, nearly two decades ago and lived in self-imposed exile in the Chinese-controlled territory of Macau. North Korea has consistently denied involvement in the killing, though United States, South Korean and Malaysian authorities have said it was in fact responsible for Kim's death. Monday was the first time Huong and Aisyah had spoken publicly in the more than two years they spent behind bars. But Huong ended up only reading the first three lines of her prepared testimony in a tearful and stuttering tone. Defence lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik said she "was traumatized by the unfair decision" not to drop charges in her case, and her legal team had made a decision to stop the testimony. "Doan (Huong) was obviously disappointed," Teh told reporters. "She was in no position to testify." He said his team would request the withdrawal of the charge against her. 'Happy and so relieved' Aisyah had a tearful reunion with her parents Monday. Asriya, Aisyah's father, said he was "touched and happy" about his daughter's release. "A thousands of thousands thank you to all help we received. Thank you to Indonesia government that can release my daughter. Thank you President Jokowi. I pray for you, may God protect you, " Asriya said, overcome with emotion. Indonesia's Foreign Ministry brought Aisyah's parents to the capital ahead of her return. Benah, Aisyah's mother, said she was "happy and so relieved" that her daughter had been freed. "Since the very beginning we believe that she is not guilty. Siti is innocent. That's why we keep praying for her," she said. Benah said she didn't know what would happen next, but she planned to "make sure that Siti will only work at home." Speaking earlier at the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Aisyah thanked her lawyers, Indonesian authorities and the Malaysian government for securing her release. "I did not expect that today will be the day of my freedom," she said. Diplomatic tensions Kim Jong Nam's murder triggered a heated three-week diplomatic row between Malaysia and North Korea, further isolating Pyongyang. Kim Jong Un was viewed by many at the time as a calculating and ruthless leader shrouded in mystery. It would be more than a year before his much publicized meetings with the leaders of South Korea, China and the US. The diplomatic dispute ended after nine Malaysians effectively barred from leaving Pyongyang were allowed to return home and three North Koreans were permitted to leave Malaysia. It's unclear if Huong's detention has caused any friction between North Korea and Vietnam, one of the relatively few countries to maintain diplomatic relations with Pyongyang. Huong's case did not appear to be publicly discussed during Kim Jong Un's recent visit to Hanoi, when he met US President Donald Trump and Vietnam's leaders. In an interview last month, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc appeared to play down tensions between his country and Pyongyang over the incident. "This is an issue of the law. We also care about protecting the rights of our citizens, but both countries will discuss this specifically at a later time, not during this period," he said. NORTHWOOD, Iowa An Albert Lea man is sentenced to jail for a Worth County theft. Jacob Steven Segura, 20, pleaded guilty to 3rd degree theft for stealing items from a Joice home in September 2018. Authorities say Seguras shoes matched prints at the scene of the crime. Hes been ordered to spend 14 days in the Worth County Jail and pay a $625 fine. Segura is still facing a charge of 1st degree theft in Winnebago County over a stolen pickup truck. Photo: Police sketch Police in Vancouver have released a sketch of their suspect in an assault at the University of British Columbia. The victim was attacked last week after intervening in what appeared to be a domestic dispute. The couple ran off, leaving the victim seriously injured, CTV News reports. The male suspect is described as Asian in his mid-twenties, six feet tall, with dark eyes, a square face and short, dark hair. He had a deep voice and slight accent. He was last seen wearing a black puffy jacket, dark jeans and white shoes. Anyone with information is asked to call 604-224-1322. with files from CTV Vancouver CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa A Mason City woman accused of stealing drugs and illegally accessing patient information is pleading guilty to federal charges. Samantha Jo Rogers entered a guilty plea Monday in Cedar Rapids Federal Court to acquiring a controlled substance by fraud, wrongfully obtaining health information for personal gain, and making false statements related to health care matters. As part of a plea deal, over a dozen other charges have been dismissed. Prosecutors say Rogers, an occupational therapist, was fired from the IOOF home in Mason City in January 2017 after taking prescription pills out of the purse of another employee. Shes also accused of accessing patient records while working at North Iowa Therapy in Waverly, then visiting the homes of four patients between October 2017 and May 2018 to try and steal prescription medications. No sentencing date has been set. ROCHESTER, Minn. Daylight Savings is on Sunday, March 10, and people will move their clocks an hour ahead. Rochester Fire Department is just one of the departments in the viewing area encouraging people to also take this day to check their carbon monoxide detectors. With the winter we've had, as we know, the snow just keeps coming. We have seen, and we have responded to calls because the vents are not clear for those gas burning appliances and that has caused some carbon monoxide incidents, Captain Holly Mulholland with Rochester Fire Department said. According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, CO poisoning claims the lives of over 400 people every year. RFD advises people to check the batteries and check the alarm to make sure its working properly. To learn more about carbon monoxide and how to protect against poisoning, click here. A new report from the National Fire Prevention Association finds that three in five home fire deaths were in homes without a smoke alarm or without a working smoke alarm. This is why Capt. Mulholland also said Daylight Savings is a good reminder to check smoke alarms. "What we know about fires, right now, today, is that they're burning hotter, they're burning faster," She said. "So, that early notification of a fire in your home or in the building is going to allow you to evacuation more quickly and getting outside is the best way to keep yourself safe in the event of a fire." The NFPA gives these guidelines for fire alarms: Test smoke alarms at least once a month using the test button. Make sure everyone in the home understands the sound of the smoke alarm and knows how to respond. Replace all smoke alarms when they are 10 years old. ROCHESTER, Minn. A man charged with attempted murder is found not guilty due to mental illness. Roderick Miguell Malone, 37 of Fargo, North Dakota, was arrested in August 2017 after Rochester police said he fired about 20 shots from a patio at Village Green Townhomes. Police say the bullets hit a 30-year-old man in the chest and nearly hit two more people in a car. Malone pleaded not guilty to three counts of 2nd degree attempted murder, three counts of 2nd degree assault, and one count of 3rd degree assault. His trial was delayed so Malone could undergo a psychiatric evaluation. He was found competent in October 2018 and then waived his right to a jury trial so a judge could decide his case. On Thursday, that judge acquitted Malone of all charges due to mental illness. NORTHWOOD, Iowa A duo facing drug charges in Worth County is pleading not guilty. Mark Douglas Urbatsch, 61 of Manly, and Holly Jo Low, 45 of Northwood, were arrested on January 19 after the Worth County Sheriffs Office says it found narcotics and drug paraphernalia at a rural Manly location. Urbatsch is charged with possession of methamphetamine-3rd or subsequent offense and possession of marijuana-3rd or subsequent offense. Low is accused of possession of meth and possession of marijuana. Their trials are set to begin on May 1. Ryan: How much does college cost these days? The short answer is a lot, but really it depends on where you go, who you ask, and what kind of aid schools offer. Kiplinger staff writer Kaitlin Pitsker joins us to help you understand the cost of higher education in our main segment. On today's show, Sandy and I tell you how to track down money you may have misplaced, and Sandy explains why it might be a good idea to freeze your credit. That's all ahead on this episode of Your Money's Worth. Stick around. Episode Length: 00:23:12 Links and resources mentioned in this episode SUBSCRIBE: Apple Google Play Spotify Overcast RSS Ryan: Welcome to Your Money's Worth. I'm Kiplinger staff writer Ryan Ermey joined as always by my partner in crime senior editor, Sandy Block. Sandy, how are you? Sandy: I'm doing great, Ryan. Ryan: So today to kick off the show, we're talking about something that everyone likes, which is free money. I mean obviously we know that there's really no such thing, but it's that feeling when you put on that ski jacket that you haven't had on since last season, and you look in the pockets and you find like a crisp $20 in there. And it's like one of the best feelings in the world. Sandy: It's awesome. Ryan: So that's what we're talking about here, free money. The thing is, it's very possible that you, dear listener, have money out there that you don't know is yours. Sandy: That's right. Basically, Americans leave literally billions of dollars in inactive accounts, and if you don't access that money within a certain period of time, it reverts to your state. But the state doesn't get to keep it unless it's there for a really, really long time, but you got to go find it. And I think one of the most effective ways to track down this money, and this could be a bank account that you forgot about. I had it happen with some stock dividends from a employee owned stock plan that I was briefly involved in. Go to missingmoney.com. This is not, this is ... It sounds like something you'd hear on a late night commercial, but is totally legitimate. It is run by unclaimed property administrators. You go to missingmoney.com, plug in your information, and it will tell you whether you have money. And every time we write about this, I hear from somebody who found a few hundred dollars, sometimes more. Ryan: Yeah. So it'll direct you to your state's unclaimed property database. And you know, we're talking payroll and dividend checks that were never cashed, benefits from life insurance policies, distributions from trusts, stock certificates, and stuff from even like safe deposit boxes. Sandy: That's right. And there's just all this, you know, oftentimes as I said, it might be $50, might be $100, but who cares? You know, this is money that you don't. Now the one warning is sometimes companies will claim that they can go get this money for you for a fee. There's absolutely no reason to pay anybody to go find this money. You can find it yourself. Now missingmoney.com doesn't cover every state, but there's also a website www.unclaimed.org, and that will pick up some of the states that aren't covered by missing money. It may not be as easy to use, but you can look there, too. A couple other things we wanted to mention. Credit Karma has a tool. It doesn't cover every state, but again, it's free. It will look for money for you. If you have savings bonds, they're just just billions of dollars in unclaimed savings bonds out there. Sandy: Often they're savings bonds that have matured, been sitting in some sock drawer for years, and people have forgotten about it. Now, unfortunately, they're used to be a pretty cool tool called treasury hunt. The Treasury got rid of- Ryan: Discontinued. Sandy: I don't know why. Maybe they want to keep the money, but you can still ask treasury to look for you. What you need to do is go to treasury.gov look up form 1048 claim for lost, stolen, or destroyed US savings bonds. And then you fill it out with as much information about yourself as you can and hopefully treasury will be able to find your bond for you. Ryan: Yeah. You know, I definitely have a couple. I'll probably claim ... Well, I guess I can claim that they're lost because they are lost. I think I've had to move with them a couple times. They're like unlaminated pieces of paper. They're like physical paper bonds. So that's something that you can claim it. It's like my social security card. Like how can they issue social security cards with no laminate. Can't they make them out of plastic now? Sandy: But you're not supposed to carry that around anyway, Ryan. Ryan: I don't carry it around, but at some point I probably had to give it somewhere. I probably have to move with it four times. I've lived through all sorts of floods and things like that. Like, I don't know. Is it illegal to get it laminated? Can I get it laminated if I find it? Sandy: I think you can do whatever you want with it, Ryan. Ryan: Oh, that's good. I'm sure mine is dissolved in some sort of unspecified liquid by now along with my bonds. So maybe I'll call those destroyed. The last source of money that people may be missing is tax refunds. Sandy: Tax refunds, that's right. A lot of people don't bother to file tax returns and frankly, the IRS isn't going to come after you if they owe you money and most people do get a refund, but you can go get that money. But you only have three years from the time that you should have filed your tax return. So if you didn't file a tax return in 2016, you have until April 15th, 2019, which is just around the corner to file a tax return and get your refund. And again, the IRS has billions of dollars in unclaimed refunds that people just didn't get around to filing their tax return and never claimed. And why would you leave that money on the table? Ryan: I mean, yeah, I got a buddy of mine who will remain unnamed at the moment. Sandy: Is it beast? Ryan: No, it doesn't have any of the Brett Kavanaugh friend nicknames. Sandy: No Gordo? Ryan: This one just has like a normal first name. But, we always give him a hard time because he doesn't file his taxes. But I'm like, dude, it's going to be a ... Like it's a refund that you're going to get. You're going to get a few grand probably like it's worth filing. But he has three years, so he may be foregoing a year at this point. Sandy: If you're out there, file your taxes. I was talking to some young people on a financial literacy panel the other day, and a lot of young people, maybe they work a summer job and they don't bother to file a tax return because they're pretty sure they don't owe taxes, which is probably true. But what they don't realize is that probably some of their money was withheld for taxes and they can get that money back if they file their tax return. So file your tax return. Get your money. Ryan: There you have it folks. It's not free money, but it is already your money. So go get it. Coming up, narrowing down the college search just got easier. Our interview with Kaitlin Pitsker is next. Ryan: And we're back, and we're here with staff writer Kaitlin Pitsker, who is our expert on all things higher ed. And because this time of year is close to spring break, people are going to visit colleges, and very soon people are going to be getting acceptance letters and financial aid letters from colleges. We thought it would be a great time to talk to her about how people can understand the costs of college. So Kaitlin, thanks for coming on. Kaitlin: Thanks for having me. Ryan: So I guess a good place to start is how should people go about examining the costs if they say get into or are considering multiple schools? Kaitlin: That's a great question. It's really important to make sure that you're looking at the full picture here. Schools can be a little inconsistent about how they list expenses that families will pay. They might only list say tuition and room and board but you also need to consider what your student might be spending say on their books and supplies, as well as say transportation to and from campus for school breaks or other events. Sandy: Kaitlin, a lot of times when people will look at the cost of a particular school, they'll think well I shouldn't, we have no chance of sending anyone to that school because it costs $70,000 a year. But that's not really representative of what with what a lot of people will pay. Right? Kaitlin: That's right. Sticker shock is definitely a real thing when it comes to college prices. But that price isn't necessarily what your family's going to pay after need based and non need based aid. A non need based aid is also known as merit aid. Often the schools that have those really shocking sticker prices are the ones that do the best job of cutting those prices down to size for families. Sandy: So you shouldn't rule out a school, a really good school, or a school that your child is really interested in just because the sticker price is so astronomical. Kaitlin: Absolutely, you don't want to promise your kid the world if you really don't think you're going to be able to, but don't necessarily shy away from those schools either. One great step if you're looking at colleges and you really want to get a better sense before you really get out there and visit schools, is to go to a school's net price calculator. They're posted on the website, and they will ask for some basic information about your student and your family's financial situation. And it can give you a decent idea of what it might actually cost your family to send your student there. Ryan: So I also know that when it comes to grants and scholarships, what you see may not be what you get either. Right? Kaitlin: That's right. So the financial aid award that you get one year can vary the next year or even in subsequent years, while you are attending the school. So it's important to look at how the financial aid award has changed for other students. One thing that you can do to do this is visit collegenavigator.gov and look up the schools that your child is considering. And specifically look at the average awards for first year students and compare those with the average awards for all undergraduates. If you see a significant drop there, that's something you're going to want to look at it a little more closely or discuss with the financial aid office. It shows that a school may be awarding a really generous offer for first year students and then less so in subsequent years. Ryan: So all things to consider if, especially for people who are doing that grand spring break tour, where they go see 21 schools in seven days or whatever it is. But let's say a little bit further down the line, you actually get that acceptance letter. You get the financial aid award letter. I know that this is something that you covered in the April issue of Kiplinger's, coming to a newstand near you. But how should people go about starting to interpret those letters when they come in? Kaitlin: Those letters can be really confusing, and if your student has been accepted to numerous schools, the letters from different schools can also look incredibly different, which is just going to add to that confusion. So it's really important to sit down with those letters. Look at the full sticker price of attending that school. Again, that's all of the costs that your family would be incurring, and then break that award down into very specific components to make sure that you understand what, which portions of the aid are say grants and scholarships versus loans because some schools can make that a little bit unclear. Sandy: One thing that I've always found really troubling is that some schools will sort of put together scholarships and grants and loans in one big amount, whereas they're not doing any favors by offering you a loan. Anyone can get a loan, and it seems like that inflates the award and makes college look less expensive than it probably is going to be. Kaitlin: That's definitely a big problem. And sometimes they're not even labeled as loans. I've seen award letters where it's simply labeled as a specific term followed by the letter L or the letters LN, or just really not very clear if you haven't read several of these before. Sandy: So that makes it hard to compare offers, doesn't it? Kaitlin: That does. And we ran a piece a as Ryan mentioned in the April issue that helps families navigate these letters a little bit and also provide some great tips for figuring out what exactly is on the table for your family. Sandy: And I guess you can always call, right? And if you have any questions or confusion, you could call the financial aid office for more information. Kaitlin: Absolutely. The staff at the financial aid offices is really eager to hear from families when they have questions. They really do want to help families understand what they're accepting and help students make the best decisions for their own future. Ryan: Well, I talked in last week's episode about the idea that everything is negotiable. Everything you can always ask for a better deal. Is that the case when it comes to financial aid as well? Kaitlin: To some extent, yes. So financial aid awards aren't set in stone. The free application for federal student aid, or the FAFSA, uses older tax data now than it did previously. For the 2018-19 academic year, you're using 2016 tax data, and if your family situation has changed a lot since then, say maybe someone lost their job or you've incurred a major health expense, it's definitely worth going back to the financial aid office and sharing that situation with them and seeing if they can do what's called a professional review or a professional judgment and adjust the financial aid award accordingly. Sandy: So Kaitlin, I was talking to a parent the other day of two, one girl who's in college and another who's in high school and he said they had already visited 30 colleges, which just blew my mind. But for, whether people are visiting 10 or 30 colleges during the upcoming spring break, what should they be looking for when they actually go to a campus? And I'm asking you this because you have actually gone to quite a few campuses yourself in reporting our best college values cover. So what would you tell people they should be looking for when they actually go to campus? Kaitlin: That's a great question. One thing that I've noticed during my time visiting campuses, both in my job now and when I was doing this for my own interests applying to college, is that these tours can be such whirlwinds. Everything is crammed into a short period of time, particularly if you're trying to see 30 and maybe you're seeing three in a weekend or something a little bit intense like that. Try to make the most of your time on campus. Do the official tour, but also break off from the group, wander around on your own. Even encourage your student to grab a cup of coffee and chat with other students or whatnot, and let them do their own thing for a little bit. As a parent, you're not going to be there when they're in school. So let them do that themselves. And ask a lot of questions as well. Really let your student explore campus. Sandy: I think that's great advice Kaitlin 'cause a friend of mine, her daughter was a stellar student, and I won't name the school, but she got a really generous offer from a small private school. They went there and the daughter went by herself to have breakfast and she came back and she said, "Let's just go home," because the vibe she picked up in the cafeteria, I think it was a very jock central school. Ryan: Bro-ey. Sandy: Bro-ey school. And that just was not her scene. And she really, you know, you're going to be going there for four years. So there should be a level of comfort there that goes beyond the financial aid offer and all of those other things. And I think perhaps that's the only thing you can get by going to the cafeteria for breakfast or something like that. Kaitlin: Absolutely. And one more piece of advice on that subject. Many schools offer programs that allow accepted students to visit campus, not just for a tour and the Rah Rah, let's go whatever team, but for a real opportunity to test out the campus environment, perhaps stay overnight, probably attend a lecture. Really just get a sense of it. Definitely eat a meal in the dining hall. So if the schools that your student is considering, offer this, it would definitely be worth checking out. Ryan: All right. Well there you have it. So let the students get a feel for the campus. You get a much more specific feel for the numbers and for what you're paying. Kaitlin will be looking out for your story on deciphering the award letter in April and all of your upcoming college coverage. Thank you so much for coming on. Kaitlin: Thank you. Ryan: When we return. Sandy explains why freezing your credit is easier and smarter than ever. Stay right there. Ryan: All right. And before we go, we're going to do another explain like I'm five segment, which I'm excited about because we're going to be talking about something that I genuinely don't know very much about and need a thorough explanation. And the impetus for doing this is because data breaches have become so totally ubiquitous, that a lot of people are turning to a move that is a really good way to protect yourself from identity theft, and that is freezing their credit. So Sandy, what is a credit freeze, and why are people doing this? Sandy: A credit freeze is something you put on your credit report. You have three credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian, and Transunion. You can put a credit freeze on all three of them for free. It used to cost something, but after, as of September of last year, Congress got so fed up with all the breaches that they said, you should be able to freeze your credit for free and now you can. Once you freeze your credit, it basically means that no one can set up a new account in your name. They can't because lenders will always go to the credit bureaus to get information about you before they will extend any credit. And if there's a freeze on your credit, they can't get that information. So if somebody stole your identification information and tried to set up fake accounts in your name, they wouldn't be able to do it. Sandy: So it really is the most effective way to protect yourself from a popular kind of identity theft where someone sets up accounts in your name. It's very easy to do. You basically contact the three credit bureaus. You can do it online. You can do it on the phone. When you set up a credit freeze, they'll give you a PIN, a personal identification number, and you need this PIN because the only downside to having a credit freeze is that if you want to take out a loan, you can't do it. Ryan: It's frozen for you, too. Sandy: It's frozen, yeah. Now I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing because if you go to a department store and they try and get you to take out a credit card on the spot, well you can't do it. Ryan: You're not going to get talked into it. Sandy: But if you are in the market for a car loan or a mortgage, you're going to need to unfreeze your credit, and you can use your PIN to do that. And that won't cost you anything either. So basically this is a very easy way to protect yourself, whether you've been a victim or not, it's a good idea unless you're in the market for credit. And if you're not in the market for credit, there's really no reason not to do it. Now, the one caveat is that it is not foolproof. While a credit freeze will prevent someone from setting up an account in your name, it won't prevent someone from using, who stole your credit card from going out and buying a bunch of stuff. March 11 (Reuters) - Australian gold miner Newcrest Mining Ltd said on Monday it had agreed to acquire a copper and gold mine in British Columbia, Canada, from Toronto-listed Imperial Metals Corp for 806.5 million U.S. dollars. Newcrest will acquire a 70 percent joint-venture interest in, and operatorship of, the Red Chris mine and surrounding tenements, the company said in a statement. The property comprises 23,142 hectares of land with 77 mineral tenures. (Reporting by Ambar Warrick in Bengaluru; Editing by Kevin Liffey) Messaging: ambar.warrick.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication. Editor's Note: Kitco News has the best precious metals coverage in the world and is in the process of improving its mining news, so we want to hear from you. If you work in the mining sector please take this short survey to help us bring you the news you want. (Kitco News) - With their joint venture for Nevada operations announced Monday, Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: GOLD; TSX: ABX) and Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM) are going from good neighbors to partners in what would be the third-largest gold mining company in the world, the companies chief executive officers said. They declined to comment on whether the joint venture could lead to an even bigger deal, but both expressed optimism that the synergies would free up cash to pay still-larger dividends to their shareholders. Barrick will have the larger share of the joint venture and will be operator. With the deal, Barrick officials said they are withdrawing their previous offer to try to acquire Newmont. The joint venture is not a complete surprise, as Newmont had proposed talks for a JV when rejecting the Barrick merger offer, and news reports last week said the companies were engaged in talks on a possible joint venture. Goldcorp Inc. subsequently issued a statement saying that it supports the Newmont-Barrick joint venture. Earlier this year, Newmont and Goldcorp agreed to a merger in which Newmont will acquire Goldcorp, but the Barrick takeover proposal would have scuttled the Newmont-Goldcorp deal. About an hour after the two companies formally announced the joint venture, Barrick CEO Mark Bristow and Newmont CEO Gary Goldberg held a conference call with analysts, speaking from Elko, Nevada. Both called the joint venture a historic pact that would allow the companies to capture synergies from their large Nevada operations. Our joint venture will allow us to tear down the fences and operate our assets as one mining complex, making the best use of our combined infrastructure and running the most profitable and sustainable long-term gold-mining business in Nevada, Bristow said. He said the joint venture also puts us in a position to invest more capital in our collective mines and projects. Bristow commented that the joint venture will have three tier-one assets, had output of 4.1 million gold ounces in 2018 at all-in sustaining costs of $775 an ounce, well below current gold prices, and will have a reserve base of 48 million ounces. The companies will share in an estimated $5 billion in synergies, Bristow said. Goldberg pointed out that Newmont has operated in Nevada since 1965 and Barrick since 1986, meaning more than eight decades of combined experience operating in the state. During that time, our teams have been good neighbors, helped each other out during emergencies, and more recently together to make our joint venture at Turquoise Ridge a success, Goldberg said. Today, after more than two decades of looking at opportunities for further cooperation, we have reached a historic agreement to harness the power of both companies assets here in Nevada to create an even more efficient business in one of the richest gold districts in the world. Goldberg said his board of directors voted unanimously in favor of the new joint-venture agreement. We will create the worlds largest gold-mining complex and the third-largest gold-mining company here with world-class ore bodies and processing facilities in one of the most favorable mining jurisdictions, said Goldberg. At another point during the conference call, Bristow also alluded to the joint venture as being the third-largest gold company on the planet, with the parent companies being the only ones that are larger. The joint venture will be 61.5% owned by Barrick and 38.5% by Newmont. Bristow explained that the split was based on analyst consensus estimates of the two companies values in Nevada. Newmont previously called for a JV with a 55%-45% split. The difference between this and the eventual agreement was the exclusion of Newmonts Cripple Creek and Victor Mine, located in Colorado, Goldberg said. The companies reported that assets in the JV would include Barricks Goldstrike, Cortez, Turquoise Ridge, Goldrush and South Arturo, while Newmont would contribute Carlin, Twin Creeks, Phoenix, Long Canyon and Lone Tree. The JV would also include associated processing facilities. Some of the development assets are excluded for now but could be added at a later date, officials said. Barrick will have three board seats and Newmont two, reflecting ownership levels. However, the technical, finance and exploration advisory committees will have equal representation from the two companies. The two CEOs both declined to comment when they were asked whether the joint venture might be a stepping stone for a larger deal. You guys are never satisfied, Bristow said to analysts with a laugh. However, they were upbeat when asked if the synergies from the joint venture might mean higher dividends for shareholders. Of course, Bristow said with a chuckle. He later added, If we deliver what we believe is possible, we will free up extra cash flow for our respective shareholders. BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain will face EU demands for billions of euros in cash if it fails to strike a Brexit deal, Brussels officials and diplomats said on Monday after talks with London stalled 18 days before it is due to leave the bloc. Prime Minister Theresa May agreed a withdrawal treaty last year under which Britain would pay the European Union close to 50 billion euros over the coming years to meet commitments made while a member. But the British parliament has rejected the deal and the treaty will be void if nothing changes by March 29. In the event of a no-deal exit, likely to cause economic disruption, the EU would insist on Britain committing to settle those bills - a significant part of the EU budget - before any resumption of talks on how to manage future trading relations. Imagine all the bad blood and acrimony should we end up with a no-deal after two years of negotiations, an envoy who follows Brexit for one EU member state told Reuters. Yes, we would need to engage with them again. But not right away. And not before they show us the money. With May planning to put the package to a second vote in parliament on Tuesday, her negotiators failed to secure concessions in Brussels at the weekend. EU officials and national diplomats told Reuters they were growing pessimistic and looking at how a collapse of talks might play out. An assumption in Brussels that May would ask for, and get, a delay to the deadline of a few weeks is in question: We really want to be over with it now, one official said. Its not going anywhere so even an extension is unlikely to break the impasse. Theres not much patience or goodwill left on our side. Even if there is a disorderly departure, both sides acknowledge that they will have to return to the table to negotiate a long-term free trade agreement and arrangements to avoid a hard customs border on land between the EU and the British province of Northern Ireland, the issue on which Mays divorce deal has stalled. But, EU diplomats and officials said, Brussels would put a price on those talks. First, they would have to agree to pay what they are due, an EU official said. Diplomats said negotiators have briefed the 27 other governments that this would be a condition for talks. The other conditions would be to safeguard citizens rights and find solutions for the Irish border, the sources said. Another EU diplomat painted a picture of a Brexit snake eating its own tail in eternity. We have been very firm on these three issues because they are essential for us. And that doesnt change after a no-deal Brexit, the person said on condition of anonymity. So these would be back on the table as very clear conditions for starting trade talks, only the UKs position would be weakened again. It will be about what is your threshold for pain? (Kitco News) - Newmont Minings proposed merger with Goldcorp faces new drama even as a proposed takeover of Newmont by Barrick Gold Corp ends due to a joint venture agreement instead. This time, Newmont and Goldcorp are being taken to task over executive management compensation as a result of the proposed merger. Over the weekend, the Shareholders Gold Council (SGC) expressed its condemnation of Goldcorps board approving an additional retirement payment to Ian Telfer, chairman of Goldcorp. Under the agreement with Newmont, if the merger goes through, Telfer will be entitled to receive a lump sum payment retirement allowance from Goldcorp equal to approximately US$12 million, an increase from his current entitlement of approximately US$4.5 million. The SGC said that the new payout agreement is a blatant disregard for alignment between executive compensation and the interests of Goldcorps shareholders. The group added that the payout comes as the Goldcorp board has destroyed $3.7 billion in shareholder value since 2006. While Goldcorp is telling its shareholders to sell their shares close to a 13-year low, Goldcorp management stands to reap over US$33 million in potential change of control payments, the group said in its statement. SGC asks that the Goldcorp Board and the Newmont Board each publicly state how increasing Mr. Telfers retirement allowance benefits their respective shareholders. Adrian Day of Adrian Day Asset Management, an investment firm that is a member of the SCG had more harsh words about the proposed compensation packages. To triple Telfers payment right before the acquisition is one slap in the face too many, an insult to shareholders, he said. We intend to vote against the merger with Newmont if this payment is not rescinded. We have no voice in these payments, so this is our only way to make our position clear. The council added that it is supportive of continued consolidation within the mining sector. SGC believes that continued consolidation in the gold sector is plainly necessary so that the enrichment of directors and management teams at the expense of shareholders comes to an end by ridding the industry of poor stewards of shareholder capital, the group said. The SGC was launched last fall by John Paulson's U.S. hedge fund Paulson & Co. in an attempt to protect shareholder value in the mining space. The council is led by Christian Godin and some of the firms and fund managers backing it include Adrian Day Asset Management, Apogee Global Advisors, AMG Fondsverwaltung AG, Delbrook Capital, Equinox Partners LP, Equity Management Associates, John Hathaway, Kopernik Global Investors, Livermore Partners, La Mancha and Sun Valley Gold. Goldcorp shareholders will vote April 4 on whether to merge with Newmont to create the worlds largest gold-mining company. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Only a small number of Americans have not yet made up their minds about whether Donald Trumps 2016 election campaign coordinated with Russian officials, according to new Reuters/Ipsos polling, which also showed deep divisions in the United States in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election. Eight out of 10 Americans decided almost immediately about Trump campaign ties to Moscow and only about two in 10 appear to be undecided, the opinion poll released on Friday showed. About half of Americans believe President Trump tried to stop federal investigations into his campaign, the survey found. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is expected to soon wrap up his investigation into U.S. allegations that Moscow interfered in the U.S. political process as well as the Trump campaign links and possible obstruction of justice. Moscow and Trump deny the allegations. Barring bombshell revelations, the survey results suggest the investigations influence on voters in the 2020 campaign may already have run its course. The Reuters/Ipsos poll has tracked public opinion of the investigation since Mueller was appointed in May 2017 following Trumps firing of FBI chief James Comey, gathering responses from more than 72,000 adults. Public opinion appears to have hardened early, changing little over the past two years despite a string of highly publicized criminal charges against people associated with the Trump campaign. Every time respondents were asked about the investigation, about 8 in 10 Democrats said they thought the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, while 7 in 10 Republicans said they did not. With so few voters left undecided, the report expected from Mueller looks unlikely to serve as a significant voter turnout tool for Republicans or Democrats in November 2020 and could backfire on Democrats if they overplay it. We keep waiting for something to happen during the Trump era to vastly change the way people view him, said Kyle Kondik, a non-partisan analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. It hasnt happened yet, he said. Maybe at this point there just arent many minds left to change. According to the latest poll that ran Feb. 27 to March 4, 50 percent of U.S. adults believe Trump tried to stop investigations into his campaign, while 32 percent said he did not and 18 percent said they were not sure. It also found that 53 percent believe the campaign worked with Russia to influence the 2016 election, while 32 percent do not and 15 percent said they were not sure. The poll result is about the same as it was in April 2018, two months after Trumps former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates pleaded guilty to lying to investigators and agreed to cooperate and testify against his mentor Paul Manafort, who was Trumps campaign chairman for five months in 2016. It is nearly the same as it was in February 2018, after Trumps first national security advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with Russia, and in May 2017 after Trump fired Comey, who had been leading the probe. Many Democratic leaders have said they are waiting to see Muellers report before deciding whether to push for Trumps impeachment. But 48 percent of U.S. adults polled already said Trump should be impeached, while 40 percent said he should not, with most Democrats favoring impeachment and most Republicans opposed. People in the two parties also have sharply opposing views of the investigation: 73 percent of Republicans believe federal investigators are working to delegitimize President Trump, while 74 percent of Democrats believe Republicans and the White House are trying to delegitimize the Russia investigation. Overall, the poll found 40 percent of adults approved of Trumps performance in office, which is mostly unchanged in the past year. FEW ON THE FENCE To move public opinion at this point, political analysts said something truly remarkable and unexpected would need to happen. Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said Republicans may not peel away from Trump unless the Mueller report dismantles Trumps persona as a street-smart deal maker. Voters may not care about a presidents sexual behavior or business dealings, she said, but if in fact he is simply a crook who got buoyed up (financially) by the Russians, thats another story, Kamarck said. Democrats in Congress, who have started additional inquiries into the president and his inner circle, run the risk of galvanizing Trumps supporters and improving his chances for re-election the same way that the Whitewater investigation helped former Democratic President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. Clinton thrived in the eyes of the public as the investigation wore on. According to Gallup, he was more popular on the day he was impeached in 1998 than the day that Ken Starr was appointed as an independent counsel four years earlier. Nicholas Valentino, an expert on partisanship at the University of Michigan, said the American public is even more polarized now than it was in Clintons time, and that may further insulate Trump politically. There are fewer moderates in the Republican Party now that will be offended by anything Trump does, Valentino said. Few of the registered voters polled remained undecided about whether to impeach the president. About 9 percent of registered voters said they dont know if Trump should be impeached, including 10 percent of Democrats and 4 percent of Republicans. About one in five registered independents said they dont know if Trump should be impeached. Democratic voter Sarai Ivanova, 26, a science tutor in North Carolina, a presidential battleground state, was one of the rare respondents who said she needed more facts before taking a stance. Impeachment, she said, is not something that we should take lightly. The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English throughout the United States. The latest findings are based on responses from 2,379 adults, including 888 registered Democrats and 796 registered Republicans. It has a credibility interval, a measure of the polls precision, of about 4 percentage points. To see the poll data, click here: tmsnrt.rs/2C9VPf0, and for an interactive graphic, click here: tmsnrt.rs/2Uu1Om9 Photo: Contributed Atlanta-based rapper Gucci Mane will play the South Okanagan Events Centre this spring as a part of a first-ever Canadian tour. The trap-music icon plays an all-ages show in Penticton on May 28, supported by Merkules and Peter Jackson. Born Radric Davis, Gucci Manes discography has produced numerous chart-topping albums and singles, making him one of the top streaming artists in the world today. His most recent single Wake Up In The Sky featuring Bruno Mars and Kodak Black has gone double-platinum. His 10-city Canadian tour also features a stop in Vancouver on May 29. Tickets go on sale Friday, March 15. (Adds comments and details) By Yuka Obayashi TOKYO, March 11 (Reuters) - Some Japanese aluminium buyers have agreed to pay a premium of $105 per tonne for shipments in April to June, reflecting higher local spot premiums, four sources directly involved in the pricing talks said on Monday. It is the first increase in three quarters and puts the premium at 24 percent to 27 percent above the $83-$85 per tonne paid this quarter. Producers had originally sought $109-$112 per tonne. Japan is Asia's biggest importer of aluminium and the premiums for primary metal shipments it agrees to pay each quarter over the benchmark London Metal Exchange cash price set the benchmark for the region. "We have settled with two global producers at $105 per tonne last week," a source at an end-user said, saying that lower export from China of semi-fabricated metal which can be melted down for use as primary metal was behind a tighter market in Asia. China's aluminium exports fell to 343,000 tonnes in February, down a whopping 37.9 percent from January's record high of 552,000 tonnes. A source at a trading house also said his company has signed term contracts with three producers at $105 per tonne. "Many Japanese trading companies have trimmed inventories ahead of the end of their financial year on March 31, which helped tighten local supply and bolster spot premiums," he said. The latest quarterly price negotiations began late last month between Japanese buyers and global producers, including Rio Tinto, South32 Ltd and Alcoa Corp. Other Japanese buyers are still negotiating with global suppliers, with further deals expected later this month. (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; editing by Richard Pullin and Emelia Sithole-Matarise) Photo: The Canadian Press Transport Minister Marc Garneau says he would board "without hesitation" the type of aircraft that crashed in the Ethiopian Airlines tragedy on Sunday, stressing his confidence in the new plane. The accident, which killed all 157 aboard the Boeing 737 Max 8 including 18 Canadians has raised concerns over parallels to a Lion Air crash of the same model of aircraft in Indonesia last October, killing 189 people. Amidst concerns over continued flights in Canada, Garneau says people should not jump to conclusions about the cause of the crash, telling reporters it could be one of "dozens of different possibilities." He says he has been in touch with the U.S. Transportation Department Secretary Elaine Chao and is working with American aviation authorities to uncover the problem. Garneau's remarks come in the wake of a statement from the Air Canada Pilots Association that called on the minister "to take proactive action to ensure the safety of the Canadian travelling public." Canada's major airlines are being inundated on social media with questions about the safety of their fleet in the wake of the fatal Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday. The country's two largest airlines say they are confident in the safety of the 737. Air Canada says in an email its 24 Max 8 aircraft have performed excellently and met safety and reliability standards. WestJet tweeted Monday that it is not grounding any of its 13 Max 8s, and is working with Boeing to ensure the continued safe operation of our Max fleet. The Boeing jetliner is relatively new, entering into service at both airlines in 2017 and flying routes for Air Canada that include Vancouver to Montreal and Calgary to Vancouver. Ethiopian Airlines as well as all Chinese airlines have grounded their Boeing 737 Max 8 planes indefinitely in the wake of the crash, which occurred after takeoff from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, after a breathtaking primary election on Tuesday, October 2, emerged the gubernatorial candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos state, defeating the incumbent governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, with a landslide margin. Sanwo-Olus victory was imminent as he was clearly the choice of the national leader of the ruling party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and other party leaders in the state. However, apart from the fact that Sanwo-Olu was Tinubus preferred candidate, many do not know much about the man who is on the way to becoming the next Lagos state governor, if he wins the gubernatorial election in 2019. Legit.ng in this piece provides 14 important facts about the governor-elect in Lagos state. Family 1. Babajide Sanwo-Olu is 53-years-old. He is Christian and married to Dr (Mrs) Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, their marriage is blessed with four kids. Education 2. Sanwo-Olu is a graduate of the University of Lagos. He holds a B.Sc and an MBA in Surveying from the University of Lagos. He also attended the Kennedy School of Government, USA; the London Business School as well as the Lagos Business School (LBS). Babajide Sanwo-Olu declared the winner of the Lagos APC governorship primaries. Source: Depositphotos READ ALSO: APC NWC endorses Sanwo-Olus victory Profession 3. Sanwo-Olu is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) and a fellow of the Nigeria Institute of Training and Development (NITAD). 4. He was a renowned banker before venturing into politics. Between 1994 and 1997, he served as treasurer at former Lead Merchant Bank Plc. 5. Sanwo-Olu also served as head of foreign money market and deputy general manager at United Bank for Africa (UBA). 6. He was also deputy general manager, Divisional Head, at First Inland Bank, Plc. (now First City Monument Bank). 7. Sanwo-Olu was chairman of Baywatch Group Limited a multifaceted company with interests in construction, property development and human capital development; First Class Group Limited, a cooling, power and maintenance solutions provider, among others. Political appointment 8. In 2003, then deputy governor, Femi Pedro appointed Sanwo-Olu as special adviser on corporate matters. 9. He later became acting commissioner of economic planning and budget. 10. In 2007, Tinubu appointed Sanwo-Olu as the special adviser (corporate matters) before becoming a substantive commissioner for establishment. 11. Between 2007 and 2015, Sanwo-Olu served as Babatunde Fasholas commissioner for establishments, training and pensions. 12. Sanwo-Olu is currently the managing director/CEO of the Lagos State Development and Property Corporation (LSDPC) Awards/Social life 13. Sanwo-Olu has won several awards, which include the symbol of excellence award from the Civic Enlightenment Association of Nigeria, a gold mentor award from the National Association of Nigeria Nurses & Midwives (NANNM), a platinum award from the Lagos State Public Service Club and the 2009 best in human capital development award from the Industrial Training Fund (ITF). 14. Sanwo-Olu is a member of the Ikoyi Club, the Island Club, as well as the Clear Essence Health Club. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app Recall that Legit.ng earlier reported that Babajide Sanwo-Olu was declared the winner of the Lagos state governorship election. Sanwo-Olu scored 739,445 votes to defeat Jimi Agbaje of the c who polled 206,141 votes, according to official results declared by the electoral commission, INEC. Sanwo-Olu also won in all the local government areas in the state. Lagos Governor: Is Sanwoolu a Better Candidate Than Ambode? | on Legit.ng TV Source: Legit The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), winner of the March 9 governorship election in Abia. The INEC returning officer in the state, Prof Benjamin Ozurumba, on Sunday, March 10, said that Ikpeazu scored 261,127 votes to win the poll. He defeated Uchechukwu Ogah of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who polled 99,574 votes. He also announced that Alex Otti, candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) scored 64,366 votes. READ ALSO: LIVE UPDATES: Official INEC collation of governorship results Blessing Nwagba of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) scored 2,919 votes. According to Ozurumba, 433,315 votes were valid, out of the 444, 376 votes cast,while 11,061 votes were rejected. Ikpeazu won in 11 out of the 17 Local Government Areas of the state, while Ogah won in four local government areas, and Otti won in two. In Umuahia 3 South, PDP scored 8,257 votes, APC 4,562 and APGA got 4,502. PDP garnered 3,819 votes in Ukwa East as against APC which got 1,447 while APGA scored 1,935 votes. In Ukwa West, the result announced by the Collation Officer, Prof. Chukwuemeka Okafor, showed that PDP scored 11,602 votes in Ukwa West to beat APC, which got 3,140 votes, while APGA had 2,270 votes. APC scored 12,172 votes to win in Bende, as against PDPs 7,265 votes, while APGA got 4,283 votes. In Umunneochi, APC garnered 7,238 votes to emerge winner, while PDP scored 7,004 votes, while APGA had 3,190 votes. PDP won in Ugwunabo with 22,083 votes, APC scored 1,865 votes, APGA had 1,054 votes. In Osisioma, PDP won with 19,835 votes as against APCs 1,981 votes, while APGA had 2,298 votes. PDP scored 19,209 votes to win in Isiala Ngwa North, while APC got 2,404 votes, APGA had 2,084 votes. APGA won in Arochukwu with 8,924 votes, beating PDP and APC, which got 5,070 and 3,819, respectively. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app In Isiala Ngwa South, PDP scored 19,672 to defeat APGA which had 5,129 votes, while APC got 1,569 votes. PDP also won in Obingwa with 78,803 votes, as against APCs 3,390 votes. APGA had 2,679 votes. In Ikwuano, PDP scored 6,285 to beat APC, which had 5,619, while APGA had 1,588 votes. APC scored 14,146 in Isuikwato to beat PDD which had 3,564 votes, while APGA had 1,696 votes. PDP won in Ohafia having scored 19, 346 votes, APGA garnered 6,883 votes APC got 6,718 votes. The result in Aba South showed that APGA scored 6,802 votes to emerge winner, as against APCs 5,418 votes, while PDP had 5,256 votes. In Aba North, PDP scored 8,429 to defeat APGA which got 6,216 votes, APC had 4,209. APC won in Umuahia North with 16,833 votes, PDP scored 15,627 votes while APGA got 2,878 votes. Meanwhile, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been declared the winner of the Lagos state governorship election. Sanwo-Olu scored 739,445 votes to defeat Jimi Agbaje of the c who polled 206,141 votes, according to official results declared by the electoral commission, INEC. Sanwo-Olu also won in all the local government areas in the state. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng upgrades to serve you better. Protect your vote to make it count - PDP Guber Candidate | Legit TV Source: Legit - The Imo state PDP says its governorship candidate, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha is coasting to victory - According to Ray Emeana, state secretary of the PDP, Iheodia has won in 15 out of 27 local governments in the state - The PDP also accused the Imo state governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, of trying to scuttle the election The Imo state Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has maintained that it's governorship candidate, Emeka Ihedioha is in a comfortable lead in the gubernatorial election held in the state on Saturday, March 9. Ray Emeana, state secretary of the PDP, claims that from the results collated at the various local governments by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) offices so far, Ihedioha has won in 15 local governments out of 27. According to Emeana, the local governments include Ideato North, Oru West, Obowo, Mbaitoli, Owerri West, Owerri North, Ikeduru, Owerri Munucipal, Ngor Okpala, Ahiazu Mbaise, Aboh Mbaise, Ezinihitte, Oguta and Orsu. Emeana said the PDP candidate won in all the electoral wards in his Owerri zone and has gathered enough momentum in Orlu and Okigwe senatorial districts. READ ALSO: INEC declares Sanwo-Olu Lagos governor-elect He also thanked the people of the state for coming out enmass to vote the party's candidate. His words: The PDP in Imo state is humbled by the overwhelming harvest of votes by the Imo electorate and the determination by all well meaning Imolites to rally round us towards ensuring that the mandate freely given to our party is adequately protected against attempts and threats by Governor Okorocha and his agents to compromise our victory in the Saturday, March 9, 2019 governorship and state assembly elections. We acknowledge that the results so far collated establish the popular will of the people of the state to actualize the liberation and rebuilding of our beloved state, Imo. Indeed the imminent victory is that of the good people of Imo state. To God be the glory. From the results so far collated from 18 local government areas, we can confirm with certainty that our governorship candidate, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha has won in 15 local governments. The PDP chieftain also accused the Imo state governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, of trying to scuttle the election. He said: We are concerned with the level of desperate and primitive impunity being demonstrated by Governor Rochas Okorocha and his agents with an attempt to forcefully change the results with fake ones. He has hatched this plot, to once again, similar to how he won the 2015 governorship election, perpetuate himself in office for a third term, using his son in law as a stooge. This desperate ploy will continue to be resisted vehemently by our supporters and Imolites in general. We insist that our votes must count and the winner duly declared without any compromise. Once again, we wish to alert the security agencies, INEC, election observers Imolites and Nigerians in general of a deliberate delay of the announcement even when collation has been concluded in about 20 local government areas. There is no reason collation, announcement of results and declaration of Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha as the winner of the governorship election should tarry till this moment. He insisted that Ihedioha has won the election, warning INEC and security agencies not to compromise the electoral process in the state. He said: INEC and the security agencies must realize that Nigerians are keenly watching and monitoring every move and development in this exercise and anything short of credible results, will jeopardize the entire exercise and escalate into a full blown civil unrest. From available records and statistics, it is not disputed that our governorship candidate, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha is the most acceptable, popular, experienced, with overwhelming goodwill and grassroots appeal. It is important to note for emphasis that he is the only candidate that emerged through free, fair, transparent and credible primaries. Consequently we call on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare him the winner of the governorship election without further delay. This will douse the tension that has engulfed the entire state and also satisfy the already charged and jubilant Imo electorate and save the state from crises. We wish to state without any fear of contradiction that we will resist any compromised outcome in this election for whatsoever reason. We have consequently in our last press statement, alerted security agencies on the unfortunate activities of Governor Okorocha and his agents. READ ALSO: Atiku Bagudu re-elected governor of Kebbi Meanwhile, the governor of Enugu, Rt Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has been reelected to serve a second term as governor of the state as he polled the highest number of votes in each of the 17 local government areas of the state. The governor who ran under the platform of the PDP polled a total of 449, 935 to defeat his closest rival, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ayogu Eze who polled a total of 10,423. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: Same great journalism, upgraded for better service! Protect your vote to make it count - PDP Guber Candidate | Legit TV Source: Legit - Bauchi state governorship election has been declared inconclusive by INEC - INEC said the margin between the winner and opponent is less than the total number of votes cancelled in some polling units - The commission had earlier cancelled results from different parts of the state The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday declared as inconclusive, outcome of the governorship election held in Bauchi state. Prof. Mohammed Kyari, Returning Officer, who made the declaration, said that apart from the cancellation of the result from entire Tafawa Balewa local government area because of irregularities, the outcome of the exercise in some other polling units also suffered the same fate. The margin between the winner and opponent is less than the total number of votes cancelled in some polling units. By law, since the margin of winner is less than the total number of votes cancelled and registered voters in the areas where the votes have been cancelled, this elections is hereby declared inconclusive," he said. READ ALSO: LIVE UPDATES: Official INEC collation of governorship results He said his decision to declare the outcome inconclusive was in line with section 26 part 53 of the Electoral Act. News Agency of Nigeria reports that while announcing the votes garnered by the two contending parties before declaring the outcome inconclusive, the Returning Officer had given the scores of incumbent governor, Mohammed Abubakar of the APC as 465,453 votes and that of Bala Mohammed of PDP as 469,512 votes. Kyari said that the Independent National Electoral Commission is to conduct re- run election within 21 days in the affected local government area and polling unit which results had been cancelled before the final announcement of the winner. NAN correspondent covering the collation of the results of the governorship election reports that earlier in the day, the INEC collation officer in charge of Tafawa Balewa local government area, Dominion Anosike, had told the Returning Officer that the original result sheet was snatched by some thugs. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app She said the thugs later came back with an improvised result sheet and forced her to declare its content as being the outcome of the election in the local government area. Recall that Legit.ng earlier reported that the opposition PDP won the polling unit of Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at Makama Sarkin Baki. Results declared at the polling booth showed that the PDP won with a resounding 358 votes to the APC's 288 votes in the governorship election. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have upgraded to serve you better Election not a do or die affair - Sanwoolu - on Legit TV Source: Legit Kano state deputy governor, Nasiru Gawuna, and the state's commissioner for local governments, Murtala Sule Garo, have been arrested by the men of the Nigeria Police Force. The men were allegedly arrested for attempting to disrupt the collation of result at Nasarawa local government area of the state. The chairman of Nasarawa local government, Alhaji Lamin Sani was also arrested by the police. Kano state deputy governor in a police vehicle after his arrest. Photo credit: Twitter Source: Twitter The Nasarawa local government result is the last to be collated by the INEC out of the 44 local government areas in the state. Kano state commissioner, Murtala Sule Garo, while allegedly disrupting the collation process. Photo credit: Twitter Source: Twitter READ ALSO: Plateau governorship election is inconclusive - INEC The police said journalists will be briefed about the incident on Monday morning. See video of the arrest below. Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje told his supporters that there is no cause for alarm as voting reports project that the APC will emerge victorious in the governorship and state House of Assembly elections in Kano state. Ganduje in a statement signed by the state commissioner of information, Malam Muhammad Garba, on Sunday, March 10, urged his supporters to remain calm while collation of results from the elections continue. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app He however noted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was the only constituted authority to announce results of elections and declare winners. The governor advised people to wait for the announcement of the final official result by the INEC before embarking on celebrations. He implored the people to always be law abiding and desist from taking law into their hands and desist from any act capable of breaching peace in the state. Follow Legit.ng's Live updates on the official INEC collation of governorship results here NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng upgrades to serve you better. 2019 elections: Do you still trust INEC to conduct fair elections? - Nigerians speak| Legit TV Source: Legit - The collation of results for the 2019 governorship election in Kano state has been suspended - Although, the results of 43 out of 44 local government areas have been announced, INEC said the result for the one local government left will not be announced - INEC made the decision for security reasons after the deputy governor of the state and a commissioner allegedly tried to disrupt the process The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Kano has suspended the collation of results for the Saturdays governorship election. The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Prof. Riskuwa Arab-Shehu, announced this after the collation of results from the 43 out of the 44 local government areas of the state, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports. READ ALSO: LIVE UPDATES: Official INEC collation of governorship results The INEC commissioner said the suspension was necessary because of reports of the security challenges from the only local government left to be announced in the governorship elections results. According to the REC, the results were snatched away from the collation centre, and that the electoral body will refer to its primary and secondary data base to generate the result from the polling units and wards. Arab-Shehu explained that INEC will generate the result, verify and consider those that are acceptable within the electoral law. He added that party agents would be invited for the verification of the results to ensure transparency during the regeneration of the results. Legit.ng earlier reported that Kano state deputy governor, Nasiru Gawuna, and the state's commissioner for local governments, Murtala Sule Garo, were arrested by the men of the Nigeria Police Force. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app The men were allegedly arrested for attempting to disrupt the collation of result at Nasarawa local government area of the state. The chairman of Nasarawa local government, Alhaji Lamin Sani was also arrested by the police. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng upgrades to serve you better. 2019 elections: Do you still trust INEC to conduct fair elections? - Nigerians speak| Legit TV Source: Legit It has been reported that a certain man of God named Cosmos Walker Affran, the head of the Cosmos Walker Affran Ministries, predicted the crash of an Ethiopian Airline plane about a month ago. As earlier reported by Legit.ng an Ethiopian Airlines plane carrying 149 passengers and eight crew members from Addis Ababa . According to a statement, it was said that the plane crashed around 08:44 local time on Sunday, March 10, 2019, after taking off at the Bole International Airport six minutes earlier. Initially, information on survivors or casualties had been scanty but later reports suggested that all the 157 people on board the plane perished in the crash. Prophet Cosmos Affran predicted Ethiopian Airline crash in February READ ALSO: Power Couples Who Are Still Adored By The Public Decades After Ethiopia's prime minister Abiy Ahmed who was one of the first people to comment on the accident on social media sent condolences to the family and friend of the people who lost their lives in the accident. "The Office of the PM, on behalf of the Government and people of Ethiopia, would like to express its deepest condolences to the families of those that have lost their loved ones on Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 on regular scheduled flight to Nairobi, Kenya this morning," the prime minister's official Twitter account posted. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda While the world is still dealing with the news, it has emerged that Prophet Affran had asked for prayers for Ethiopian Airlines on February 7, 2019, after seeing an impending crash in a vision. In a Facebook post sighted online, the prophet wrote: Plane crash " Ethiopian" world should pray. "Thou saith the Lord." Prophecy by Prophet Cosmos Walker Affran" PAY ATTENTION: Get your daily relationship tips and advice on Africa Love Aid group Prophet Affran is noted for his many prophecies which he posts on his social media page which became prominent after he predicted doom for award-winning dancehall act, Shatta Wale, in February 2018. It was this prophecy that got Shatta Wale to threaten to burn down churches in Ghana if he lived beyond the time of the predicted time for his death. PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigeria's #1 news app The prophet also made some predictions concerning other prominent people like the Vice President of his country Mahamudu Bawumia and Stonebwoy. Pius Adesanmi, one of Nigeria's professors who reside in Canada, was one of the people aboard the ill-fated airline. Many Nigerians have expressed shock and dismay at his death. One of these people who have reacted in such manner is Kogi state governor. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We keep evolving to serve our readers better. My life after the plane crash Nigerian plane crash survivor Kechi Okwuchi speaks to Legit TV - Legit TV Source: Legit Nigeria The official collation of the results of governorship elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) continue on Monday, March, 11. Some states, like Oyo, Ogun, Lagos, Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Katsina, Niger, etc., have completed the collation processes and winners have been declared. Also, INEC has declared the governorship elections inconclusive in some states like Sokoto and Plateau. All eyes are on states like Kano, Benue, and others where collation processes are still ongoing and Nigerians impatiently await the final results. Legit.ng will be bringing live updates of the official results from the states where the collations are still ongoing. Check the live updates of the official results declared on Sunday, March 10. - The face of the woman who had a baby for Prophet Iginla has been revealed - Stella Zimasa Ndamase is reportedly married to the prophet and is allegedly expecting a second child for Iginla - It was gathered that the pastor had allegedly tried to cover his relationship with Stella up Legit.ng had earlier reported that popular Nigerian prophet, Joshua Iginla, had taken the bold step of revealing his secrets to his congregation during service. The prophet had revealed that he and his wife cheated on each other. The prophet also revealed that he had a child outside wedlock after he discovered that his wife, Yemisi Iginla, had also cheated on him and had a child. However, reports surfaced that there is more to the story than what Iginla shared with his congregation. The clergyman had reportedly told the story after he sent his wife and children to the United States. Meet Stella Zimasa Ndamase Joshua Iginlas South African prophetess babymama Source: Lailasblog Source: Depositphotos READ ALSO: US-based Liberian woman reveals how she dealt with her cheating Nigerian husband Iginla had allegedly bought a house worth $1 million (N360 million) to settle his wife. It was also gathered that the pastor had allegedly married his babymama in 2014. According to The Sun, the woman who is a South African prophetess, Stella Zimasa Ndamase, has a child named Rhema for the pastor. Ndamase is also reported to be pregnant with a second child. PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigeria's #1 news app Evidence of their marriage also surfaced on social media. The evidence shows that Ndamase married the pastor in 2014. Ndamase married Joshua Iginla in 2014 Facebook source: Daniel Sodiq Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Power Couples Who Are Still Adored By The Public Decades After PAY ATTENTION: Get your daily relationship tips and advice on Africa Love Aid group Meanwhile, Legit.ng had earlier reported that a US-based Liberian woman had explained in a viral video how her Nigerian husband cheated on her and how she was able to give him an unforgettable punishment. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda According to the lady, she had taken her kids and moved out of the house while her husband was in Nigeria. She also revealed that she rented out the house. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have upgraded to serve you better Top 3 Pastor Scandals: Most Discussed Humiliations - on Legit TV Source: Legit - Ugandan billionaire has shared his love story and the secret to his 60 year marriage - The billionaire had revealed that his wife had access to his accounts - Martin Aliker revealed that the secret to their beautiful marriage is to not keep secrets A Ugandan businessman, Martin Aliker, and his wife, Camille, are sharing their love story with the world. The couple who have been married for 60 years revealed that they do not keep secrets from each other. The Ugandan billionaire and his wife have showed that they were both responsible for each others growth and successes. Aliker, who had clocked 90 years old on October 21, recently celebrated 60 years wedding anniversary to his better half, Camille, in his home in Gulu Town. Ugandan billionaire and his wife have been married for 60 years Source: Baydorz9ja.blogspot.com Source: Depositphotos According to the billionaire, one of the reasons his marriage has stayed blissful is because he shares his financial details with Camille, he also added that they don't keep secrets from each other. He said: Our finances are one and the same. We have no secret accounts. Camille can withdraw money from the bank and all of it. If for 60 years she has not withdrawn all of it, I do not think she will. During the interview, the couple also talked about how they met. They revealed that Camille's family did not support their union. Her brothers had been skeptical about Camille coming to Africa. READ ALSO: Meet Stella Zimasa Ndamase, Joshua Iginlas South African prophetess babymama I have often asked Camille why she married me because at that time, Africa was the Dark Continent and a number of people did not want to be associated with Africa. Camille had many suitors in Chicago and beyond, but she chose to come to Gulu." Camille also revealed that she had been frightened coming to Uganda, adding that her father-in-law who was a chief had thrown her a big party. PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigeria's #1 news app The billionaire revealed that his wife has had access to my bank accounts for 60 years Source: Baydorz9ja.blogspot.com Source: Depositphotos "I arrived in Gulu as a big-eyed scared girl. I came on a flat boat made of bamboo. My father-in-law had a huge gathering to meet me. I was frightened to death but I did not show it. One of Martins sisters made it her business to check on me every 10 minutes. She would look at me, smile and run away. The woman also gushed about her 90-year-old husband. She noted that many men need to learn from her husband. Camille said: "It has not always been rosy but when you put God first in your marriage, you can succeed. Young people ask me what the secret to a lasting marriage is." PAY ATTENTION: Get your daily relationship tips and advice on Africa Love Aid group Aliker, who also narrated an incident that made his wife angry with him, shared some secrets about blissful marriage. A friend told me, in order to get this marriage going I have to treat it like a warfare. You have to expect that the is enemy going to strike today." He said: "I was a university chancellor and after I made a speech, a female minister said, you people do not know what Martin and I mean to each other. She went on to narrate how we had a long history of friendship. I had never seen that lady before and she was not even born when I was a student at Makerere. When the function ended, sergeant major (referring to his wife) gave me the silent treatment until we arrived home and then said, I did not know you and the minister were friends. To cut the long story short, you never know from which direction death is coming for you. "On the positive side, I have been very happy. I have a woman who is understanding, believes in me and we have done many things together. I think she thinks about her hair more than she thinks about me. My mothers temperament was similar to my wife - slightly mad." It was gathered that the couple had talked about their marriage during their thanksgiving service led by Northern Uganda Bishop Johnson Gakumba. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda Meanwhile, Legit.ng had earlier reported that a US-based Liberian woman had explained in a viral video how her Nigerian husband cheated on her and how she was able to give him an unforgettable punishment. The lady had taken her kids and moved out of the house while her husband was in Nigeria. She also revealed that she rented out the house. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have upgraded to serve you better Can you date, marry a yahoo boy? - on Legit TV Source: Legit - The PDP in Kaduna state have rejected the results of the state's gubernatorial election which was held on Saturday, March 9 - PDP said the result declared by the INEC were not the true reflection of the people's votes cast - The party agent in the state said the party rejects the result in its entirety The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kaduna on Monday, March 11, rejected the results of the state's gubernatorial election which was held on Saturday, March 9. The opposition party said the result declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were not the true reflection of the people's votes cast. The PDP's agent in the state, Jerry Ishaya, while speaking at the Kaduna state collation centre said the party rejects the result in its entirety. READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda Ishaya said the PDP agents in various polling units and wards across local government areas in the state informed the party leadership that card readers were not used at all. He said: "We have formally written the INEC that card readers were not used in those local government areas mentioned." Our agents told us how security agents overpowered them in some areas. The results were manipulated in collaboration with the INEC, security agents," Ishaya said. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state has cast his vote at his polling unit in the ongoing governorship and state House of Assembly elections. The governor, seeking re-election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) cast his ballot at polling unit 024, Runka/Marnona, Angwan Sarki, Kaduna. According to him, he is not afraid of losing his re-election bid. El-Rufai who shared photos on his Twitter handle said he was delighted to join fellow citizens to cast his vote in the elections. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We keep evolving to serve our readers better. Will the result of the presidential election have an effect on the guber polls? On Legit TV Source: Legit.ng South Africa: President Ramaphosa sends condolences after Ethiopian plane crash This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. President Cyril Ramaphosa has, on behalf of the government and people of South Africa, expressed condolences to the families affected by the Sunday crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane. In a statement issued on Sunday, President Ramaphosa said the thoughts of the South African people are with the people of all the affected countries, e... See more The suspension of Rivers state governorship election results has caused a heavy protest in Port Harcourt, the state capital. The protesters, led by one Jackson Omenazu, called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to complete the collation and announcement of the results, Vanguard reports. Legit.ng recalls that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) condemned what it described as confiscation of the Rivers governorship election results and demanded immediate release of the poll results to avert serious crisis. The PDP national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday, March 10, said that the party completely revile the subversive act by soldiers, who were alleged to have seized and diverted the results to an army barrack in Port Harcourt. READ ALSO: Tinubu congratulates Sanwo-Olu on election victory He called on all lovers of democracy to unite against the brazen attack on Nigerias democracy, saying such barefaced assault is only akin to a coup detat and should not be allowed to stand. He said that Nigerians watched in bewilderment as soldiers, in the company of alleged All Progressives Congress (APC) thugs, invaded polling units in Rivers, unleashed violence on voters, disrupted polling processes and made away with electoral materials. Ologbondiyan said this was just because the APC was not in the ballot following its self-inflicted exclusion from the election. He said that the use of soldiers to ambush the electoral process and confiscate results was an extreme scheme by the APC to enmesh the Rivers governorship election in controversy, seeing that there was no way they could take away victory from the PDP. Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) suspended the electoral processes in Rivers state, citing widespread irregularities. In a statement signed by Festus Okoye, INEC's national commissioner and chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, the electoral body said it's decision to suspend the elections was based on "reports from our officials in the field". The statement reads: "Based on reports from our officials in the field, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has determined that there has been a widespread disruption of elections conducted on the 9th day of March 2019 in Rivers state. "These initial reports suggest that violence occurred in a substantial number of polling units and collation centres, staff have been taken hostage and materials including result sheets have either been seized or destroyed by unauthorised persons. In addition, safety of our staff appears to be in jeopardy all over the state and the commission is concerned about the credibility of the process. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app "Consequently, at a meeting held today 10th March 2019, the commission has decided to suspend all electoral processes in the state until further notice. This is in line with Section 26 of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended) and Clause 479e0 of the Regulations and Guidelines of the commission." NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better Suspected political thugs hijack ballot materials in Rivers state | Legit TV Source: Legit.ng News - The Nigerian Army denies the alleged involvement of its men in the violence that erupted in some states during the governorship election - The Army accuses some politicians of recruiting and arming some thugs to disrupt the process in the affected states - The security organisation also cautions foreign interests to be mindful of the level of interference in Nigeria's internal issues The Nigerian Army on Monday, March 11, denied any involvement in the tension and violence that took place in some states of the federation during the governorship election held on Saturday, March 9. The Nigerian Army accused some unnamed politicians of recruiting thugs, arming and sponsoring them to engage in ballot snatching and scuttling of election processes in the affected states. The United Kingdom had reportedly criticised the alleged interference of the soldiers in the election. The security body, in a statement released by its spokesperson, Col Sagir Musa, further cautioned international bodies and interests to be mindful of how they interfere in what are, ordinarily, the internal issues in Nigeria. Read the full statement obtained by Legit.ng below: READ ALSO: NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng: a letter from our Editor-in-Chief Bayo Olupohunda RE: UK EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER MILITARY INVOLVEMENT IN RIVERS POLL The attention of the Nigerian Army (NA) has been drawn to a publication by an online medium that reported accusation against the NA of interference in the Rivers state elections. The NA wishes to state that the statement is totally baseless, untrue and therefore capable of misleading unsuspected members of the public, especially when there is no credible record of such involvement anywhere in Nigeria before, during and after the 2019 elections. The NA, as a responsible organisation, wishes to debunk such misrepresentation in order to set the record straight. Similarly, it is on record that the NA has been globally applauded by many individuals, foreign and local elections observers for its sacrifices/roles in creating an enabling environment for a secure, transparent and peaceful conduct of the elections. The NA has also drawn the attention of the public to mischievous activities of some selfish individuals who recruited thugs dressed in military uniform and armed to harass and intimidate their opponents. In some cases, as reported, and as indicated in various intelligence reports, - hoodlums dressed in military fatigue snatched ballot boxes and other electoral materials. Some INEC staff were reportedly abducted. The NA, for the umpteenth time, reiterate that it will remain apolitical, neutral and professional in the conduct of the 2019 general election and in all its assigned roles across the nation in line with the directive of the Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen TY Buratai. The NA has made it clear that its only interest and role in the entire electioneering processes is purely to assist civil authority and the Nigerian Police to have a secure and peaceful conduct of the elections. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Foreign interests are therefore enjoined to be mindful of interfering in our national internal affairs especially when there is no credible evidence. Any allegation against the NA must be confirmed from appropriate quarters before jumping to conclusions. Members of the public are further assured of the determination of the NA to objectively carry out its constitutional duties irrespective of the baseless accusations especially from those who felt it has denied them freedom to illegally and selfishly subvert the choice of Nigerians. As a noble institution, the NA, hereby, reassure members of the public of its determination to deal with any of its personnel whose actions fall foul of the law. Legit.ng earlier reported that following allegations of misconduct against some soldiers in the recent presidential and National Assembly elections, the Nigerian Army on Wednesday, March 6, launched a probe into the allegations of unprofessional conduct against its personnel. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng. We have upgraded to serve you better. Election not a do or die affair - Sanwoolu | Legit TV Source: Legit.ng The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has removed the name of Imo state governor, Rochas Okorocha, from the list of newly elected senators that was published on its website. Legit.ng reports that INEC published the list of elected federal lawmakers ahead of the presentation of the Certificates of Return on Thursday, March 14. READ ALSO: We have shamed those planning to use ethnicity to get votes in Lagos - Sanwo-Olu It was gathered that only senator-elect Onyewuchi Ezenwa Francis (Imo east), who won on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was listed in the slot for the three Imo senatorial districts. Official senators-elect list released by INEC. Credit: INEC Source: UGC The slot for Imo West senatorial district, where Okorocha contested, was filled INEC's remark- Declaration made under duress." The electoral umpire wrote "Supplementary" on the slot for Imo North. Governor Okorocha had contested the seat on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Saturday, February 23, and was declared winner by the Returning Officer for the senatorial district, Innocent Ibeawuchi. Ibeawuchi, later said that he was made to announce Okorocha as winner under duress. Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the INEC said that the electoral commission would not issue certificates of return to any candidate declared winner of an election under duress. Yakubu made the statement in Abuja on Thursday, March 7, during a meeting with the inter-agency consultative committee on election security. READ ALSO: LIVE UPDATES: Official INEC collation of governorship results The INEC chairman said the commission will not tolerate the intimidation and forcing its staff to declare winners under duress. NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have upgraded to serve you better Election not a do or die affair - Sanwoolu - on Legit TV Source: Legit.ng A note from some sex-starved amphibians: Hello. We're salamanders, frogs, spring peepers and other amphibians. And we're trying to get lucky. There are a couple thousand of us living in the Delaware Water Gap. Every year around this time, when it starts to get warm after the cold, lonely winter, we head over to breeding pools for ... ahem ... nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more. Unfortunately, we need to cross the road to get there. One-ounce frogs are no match for 2-ton cars. But the choice between risking life and limb or a life of abstinence and risking extinction is, for us, no choice at all! Fortunately, the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area closes roads to make our journey a safe one. When its rainy and warm in the evening, say in the 50s, we'll go hopping and crawling across a section of River Road in Middle Smithfield Township, about an hour north of Easton on the Pennsylvania side. We understand this can be difficult for those driving through, so well limit our crossings to evening and overnight hours -- how about between 4 p.m. and 6:30 a.m.? This will happen periodically until mid-April, so you may want to check the Delaware Water Gap website, Facebook page or call the office at 570-426-2452 to check on road closures. Please also watch out for our friends outside the water gap. And thanks in advance for letting us get on with getting it on. It may be on the chilly side today, but it's almost time for one of our annual spring rites of passage here in the park!... Posted by Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area on Friday, March 8, 2019 Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveNovakLVL and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. A Facebook video of a teenager throwing his dog off a steep embankment into a creek inspired vitriol from hundreds of commenters and a date in district court. The video shows 18-year-old Kyler Fox throwing his Australian shepherd mix, Buddy, off the embankment and into a creek. Humane police officer Barbara Morgan said the site is near Foxs home in Washington Township, Northampton County. When Morgan saw the video March 4, she determined a summary animal cruelty charge was warranted. Anything could have happened. He could have hit his head on a rock, said Morgan, a humane police officer for Northampton and Lehigh counties. Fox said the video was shot years ago on a hot summer day. He said he threw the dog in the creek so it could cool off. The dogs never been hurt," Fox said Monday. Fox said the video posted on the Reformers - Advocates for Animal Shelter Change in NJ page doesnt show the dog enjoying himself, jumping into the creek on his own from that height. You see the dog running around back to me, jumping in itself. The dog loves water, Fox said. He said the video was shot by his bitter ex-girlfriend. Its completely screwed up. My ex-girlfriend is trying to get me in trouble, Fox said. Collene Wronko confirmed the ex-girlfriend shot the video. Wroko said she founded the Reformers group in 2014 to expose corruption in the New Jersey SPCA. Her group is up to about 7,400 members, she said. She typically posts New Jersey cases of abuse but made an exception because the Fox video was brought to her attention by an animal control officer friend in Pennsylvania. Morgan said she was alerted to Buddys abuse on March 3. She went to Foxs home but found nothing amiss. Then her source showed her the video. It was like a gut punch, Morgan said. She said she returned to Foxs home on March 4 with Washington Township police. She intended to take the dog, but police determined Fox should keep the dog until the case is decided in court. The animal cruelty charge was filed in the jurisdiction of District Judge Alicia Zito. Morgan said she is investigating further allegations of abuse concerning Buddy and Fox. She couldnt disclose details at the point. The video posted March 8 has 18,000 views and 217 comments, mostly critical of Fox. An earlier version of the video had 100,000 views, Wronko said. Fox said hes been harassed and received death threats since the video was posted. He threatened litigation if lehighvalleylive.com or The Express-Times pursued a story. If it goes into the newspaper its going to be more drama for me for something thats not f-----g true, Fox said. Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook. A 44-year-old Monroe County man, already on the radar of Pennsylvania State Police, was followed last week as he bought heroin and methamphetamine from a man known as Big Bro in Easton with hopes of selling the heroin to a man named Pickle in Pen Argyl, court papers allege. The state police Northeast Strike Force on Wednesday followed William Joseph Shannon IV, of Eldred Township, from Monroe County to Easton as he rode in the front passenger seat of a yellow Ford Focus, court papers say. Shannon met with a man in the 700 block of Wolf Avenue in the city before going to an apartment complex and then a fast food restaurant near Northampton Street and Wood Avenue, police said. Shannon went back to Wolf Avenue, where he met with the same man, police said. The Ford then went to a Downtown fast food restaurant and investigators contacted a trooper from the Belfast barracks and asked he stop the car once he had cause to do so, police said. The driver didnt use a right turn signal when leaving the fast food restaurants parking lot and a traffic stop was made at the free bridge at Northampton Street and Larry Holmes Drive, police said. A clear plastic bag containing a crystallized substance and a grayish ... powder" was visible between the center console and the passenger seat, police said. Shannon was taken into custody and the driver was found to be carrying two plastic bags containing meth, police said. At this point, court records dont show charges against the driver. After being read his rights, Shannon told police he met with his drug supplier on Wolf Avenue, buying both meth and raw heroin from a man he identified as Big Bro, police said. Shannon said he was going to sell the heroin to a man named Pickle in Pen Argyl, police said. Shannon was arraigned Thursday morning before District Judge Jon Capobianco on two counts of possession with intent to deliver drugs, two counts of possession of a controlled substance and two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia (plastic bags), court records show. Shannon remained jailed Monday morning in lieu of 10 percent of $50,000, records show. His preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled 9 a.m. March 21 in the South Side Easton court of District Judge Daniel Corpora. Strike force units were established in six regional locations across the state, with the specific mission of dismantling large-scale drug trafficking organizations, Troop M public information officer Nathan T. Branosky explained when asked Monday morning. Specially trained troopers have been created to interrupt the flow of drugs and other contraband on Pennsylvanias major highways. These full-time units are strategically deployed across the commonwealth to obstruct traditional drug transport routes. Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are elected to lead and legislate, to work together to create laws and policies that benefit the wide variety of people who are and who long to be American citizens. That is what they are supposedly paid for not to conduct fabricated investigations wasting millions of taxpayer dollars and thousands of hours that could be spent creating beneficial legislation to improve the lives of millions of Americans. They also are not being paid to spew and tweet out hateful anti-Semitic rhetoric. Why is it okay to remove any sliver of Christianity from government but allow Rep. Ilhan Omar to interject her hatred-filled religious viewpoints without anyone having the guts to call her out and have her impeached? If there were true leaders in Congress (both Democrat and Republican) they would get up and walk out every time true bigots like Omar open their mouths to speak. This would send the message that promoting ill will toward Israel and Jews will not be tolerated. If you dont agree in supporting Israel, fine. However, there is a big difference in not wanting to support Israel and spewing religious-based hatred. As Omar spits out her hate-filled religious beliefs, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez regurgitates the rhetorical doctrine of her left-leaning college professors. They are not leaders, but followers of belief systems that are not in line with those of the Founding Fathers. How did they get elected? An ignorant or brain-washed electorate. Tom Discafani Lopatcong Township A Laois TD has welcomed planning approval for two major new industrial plants in Portlaoise. Fianna Fail TD Sean Fleming TD says the two approvals, for a cheese factory and a pharmaceutical industry are "a vote of confidence in Laois". "In the past week Laois County Council has granted planning permission for these two major developments. The planning permission for Glanbia cheese for their new plant at Junction 17 on the M7 at Togher, Portlaoise was finally granted," he said. Glanbia Cheese, the Joint Venture business between Glanbia plc and Leprino Foods plans to build a 130 milllion mozzarella cheese manufacturing facility in Portlaoise, creating 78 jobs. It was given planning approval by Laois County Council in September 2018 but was referred to An Bord Pleanala after several objections. Those objections have now been withdrawn. Laois County Council also granted planning permission to Greenfield Global LFS Ireland to build a new facility in the IDA Business Park, Mountrath Road, Portlaoise. They company is involved in blending materials for the pharmaceutical industry. "Everybody knows that the pharmaceutical industry is one of the biggest IDA backed industries employing many thousands of people in the country. It is good to see Laois getting a foot-hold into this industry," Deputy Fleming said. "I am very pleased that there are two major companies at an advanced stage in terms of commencing construction of new industrial plants in Portlaoise. These plants will provide significant employment in the county and will be a tremendous boost for the local economy," he said. He outlined his efforts to promote Laois for inward investment. "Last year I brought the Chief Executives of both the IDA and Enterprise Ireland to Laois to impress on them the suitability of Laois for investment. On March 1 I chaired a follow up visit by IDA and Enterprise Ireland with Laois County Council in an effort to make sure all relevant State Agencies were working together to promote Laois as an area for investment. I want to thank all of these agencies for their work, over recent times, which I hope is the start of many more announcements to come. "I am very pleased with the progress in relation to these two investments in Laois which I hope will bring substantial employment to the county in the immediate future," the Laois TD said. A young Laois man has been awarded a top academic scholarship that recognises his incredible achievements in life so far. Christopher Carew, 19, from Portlaoise is a past pupil of Mountrath Community School and Timahoe NS. He has been awarded an Ad Astra Academic Scholarship by University College Dublin. The scholarship celebrates the Universitys top 15 new high calibre students. The minimum application requirement is six H1s and the scholarship is also based on achievements outside the classroom and performance at interview. Christopher achieved top swimming and academic success while in secondary school. He has had a paper published in a medical journal, he has National and Provincial swimming medals, is a Linguistics All Ireland Team Champion and Individual Silver Award winner, and he was a Student Enterprise national finalist. He also received an award from MedEntry for achieving the highest score in the country in the 2018 HPAT, the admissions test for the selection of students into medicine. Christophers proud parents Tim and Martina Carew and the principal of Mountrath CS Siobhan McCarthy (below) all attended the award ceremony. As a UCD Ad Astra Academic scholar, Christopher will get a yearly monetary scholarship, mentoring and a range of tailored supports. He may also avail of allocated on-campus accommodation. In addition he receives a range of academic privileges which include the support of a dedicated academic mentor, a programme of workshops and seminars throughout the year. Christopher is currently studying in his first year of an undergraduate degree in Medicine at UCD. Below: Christopher Carew accepting the Ad Astra academic scholarship from Professor Mark Rogers We're sorry that the ministry you were looking for is no longer available on LightSource.com. However, below are some great ministries that offer related content. Enjoy the inspiration, encouragement, and Biblical challenge from these LightSource.com ministry partners! Gardai seized computers and documents from Patrick Quirke's property less than three weeks after DJ Bobby "Mr Moonlight" Ryan's body was discovered, the Central Criminal Court has heard. Detective Sergeant John Keane said when gardai arrived the accused asked him what they were looking for so he handed him a copy of the warrant. After Mr Quirke read it Det Sgt Keane noted that the accused said to him that the media were wrong when they said Bobby Ryan's clothes and wallet were found in the tank with the body. Det Sgt Keane also noted that Mr Quirke asked him how Mr Ryan died. The garda told Mr Quirke he couldn't tell him. Mr Quirke, 50, of Breanshamore, County Tipperary has pleaded not guilty to the murder of part-time DJ Bobby Ryan. Mr Ryan went missing on June 3, 2011 after leaving his girlfriend Mary Lowry's home at about 6.30am. His body was found in an underground run-off tank on the farm owned by Ms Lowry and leased by the accused at Fawnagown, Tipperary 22 months later in April 2013. The prosecution case is that Mr Quirke murdered Mr Ryan so he could rekindle an affair with the deceased's girlfriend Mary Lowry, 52,. Det Sgt Keane told prosecution counsel Michael Bowman SC that he had obtained a warrant to search Mr Quirke's home and land from Tipperary District Court on May 13, 2013 and executed it on May 17. The search began at 9.30am and gardai left at 16.45 that afternoon. The witness was in charge of searching the house and another team searched the lands. During the search, Det Sgt Keane's team's attention was brought to items in another house in the farm yard. He said Mr Quirke also gave gardai permission to search lands he had more recently started renting on a neighbouring farm. During the search gardai seized a computer, electronic devices, documents, green overalls, a red portfolio and other items of that nature, the witness said. They also took possession of a Ford pick-up truck and a trailer. Det Sgt Keane agreed with defence counsel Bernard Condon SC that that the accused made his comment about the media being wrong in relation to what was found in the tank after reading the warrant, which stated that gardai were looking for those items. It also stated that gardai were looking for the weapon used to murder Bobby Ryan. Earlier the jury heard from Patrick O'Donnell who told David Humphries BL, for the prosecution, that he worked as a contractor baling silage and spreading slurry on Patrick Quirke's lands at Fawnagowan and Breanshamore. Around March of 2013 he said Mr Quirke asked him for a loan of a tractor and agitator a device used to stir slurry so that it can be sucked into a tanker and spread on the fields. He said this would be a normal request and as neighbours, people would often lend things to one another. Mr O'Donnell's diary from 2011 showed that he cut silage at Fawnagowan on May 27 and 31. On June 2, one day before Mr Ryan went missing, he was cutting grass and baling at both Fawnagowan and Breanshamore. The following day he had no involvement with Mr Quirke and on June 5 he baled the grass he had cut two days earlier. From April 27 to May 6, 2013 he did no work at Mr Quirke's farm. Seamus Buckley told Mr Bowman that he sells farm machinery and met Mr Quirke at a sales show in Wexford in 2012. He sold a tractor to Mr Quirke, which was delivered the week before Christmas that year. Mr Quirke later agreed to buy a 2,000 gallon tanker from him, which was picked up by one of Mr Quirke's workers on the Friday before Mr Ryan's body was found. The witness agreed with Mr Condon that it is common sense that farmers upgrade their machinery. He added: "It is not unusual at all." The trial continues before Ms Justice Eileen Creedon and a jury of six men and six women. AN elderly Limerick man has been given one month to remove 1,500 used tyres which are being stored illegally on lands he owns. Limerick City and County Council has initiated legal proceedings against Thomas Galvin over his failure to comply with a notice under the Waste Management Act requiring him to remove the tyres and other waste materials from the lands which are located at Ashby Stud, Lisnagry. Previously, Limerick District Court was told the notice was served on him in March 2018 after an inspection of the lands was carried out by the local authority at that time. In September, Mr Galvin told the court the tyres related to a business he had which went bust and that he had intended using them to build walls within the lands. The 66-year-old said he is in receipt of disability allowance and that he could not afford to have the tyres removed given the costs involved. During a review of the case last Friday, solicitor Tom Kiely confirmed that his client has engaged a licenced waste contractor and is making an effort to comply with the terms of the notice. However, just 750 tyres have been removed since last September and more than 4,000 remain on the lands. Its a needle in a haystack, he said. Mr Kiely said his client is doing all he can and he suggested Irish Cements plans to begin burning alternative fuels in Mungret may provide a solution to his clients predicament. Solicitor Will Leahy, representing the local authority, said a inspection was carried out last week and that such a small amount of tyres have been removed that you wouldnt notice it. He said a very large scale operation is required and that Mr Galvin needs to put more urgency into it otherwise it could be a three or four year process. Mr Kiely said his client accepts the tyres have to go but that he doesnt have the means to do so. Having viewed up-to-date photographs of the lands and noting that Mr Galvin owns a detached house on the lands, Judge OLeary said she wants a further 1,500 tyres removed within a month. Its a pretty horrendous situation, she commented adding that she was not willing to allow the matter to drag on forever. AMATEUR drama is as much a part of Kilteely-Dromkeen as the stars in the sky and the grass on the ground. Plays were staged in the parish as far back as 1880. Continuing that tradition today are the St Patricks Players in Cloverfield. Treading the boards was so important in the locality that in 1979 they built their own permanent home for drama in Cloverfield. The Teach Dramaiochata, or The Teach, was born. This week the players will mark the buildings 40th birthday with their performance of Juno and the Paycock. It runs in The Teach on Thursday and Friday, March 14 and 15. Then it moves to Pallasgreen Community Centre on March 17. The curtain drops at 8.30pm on each night. One of the beating hearts of the drama group for decades has been Pat ODea. Known as the master, Pat has written, directed and starred in countless productions. He says Cloverfield and drama have been synonymous for over one hundred years. In 1912, the first drama group on record was known as the Kilteely Dramatic Society. They went out of existence in 1915 due to World War I. It must be remembered that paraffin lamps were the only means of lighting at the time. In fact paraffin oil was the only lighting system in rural Ireland up to the mid-forties when rural electrification was installed. From the 1920 period onwards social life in Ireland, as we understand it, did not exist due to the troubled times. When this group went out of existence, the oil lamps didnt flicker again until the mid-twenties, said Pat. It was the Boherroe Players who relit the burning passion for drama. They were followed by the Shamrock Players in 1942. The Sarsfield Players also joined the party in 1942. The Banba Players were formed in 1949. No parish in Ireland could perhaps claim to have four drama groups operating simultaneously, said Pat. In 1954, the St Patricks Players were set up and it has stood the test of time. Pat says the foundation stone was laid many years ago by dedicated women and men who consistently delivered good performances, often under very difficult circumstances. A review from the Limerick Leader in 1912 said a performance of Wolfe Tone by the Kilteely Dramatic Class was as nearly as perfect as possible. While their production of the well known farce - The Irish Doctor - made some people laugh who had never laughed before. We will always hold dearly the memory of these people, said Pat. He says they perform for the enjoyment and craic during rehearsals.. Our approach may be considered somewhat informal but we consistently present productions of a high standard, said Pat. Winning back to back All-Irelands in Scor is proof of that. It was in the early seventies that the Players decided they needed a permanent home. That desire was so great that The Teach was officially opened in 1979 by historian, Mannix Joyce. The first play performed there - The Silent Valley - was written by Pat and an annual show has continued there to this day. Forty years of fostering and imbuing the love of drama will be celebrated next week with Juno and the Paycock. The Teach is traditional in design and character and is very important in the cultural and social life of the area. It is also an ideal setting for traditional music, song and dance, said Pat. It is part of and for the community as last month's party for retiring postmistress, Mary McKenna and sacristan, Mikie ORiordan demonstrates. The Teach has inspired poems and lyrics. Sean O Moronaigh wrote a song entitled An Teach Dramaiochta from which the following verse is taken: The fire burns brightly, as young girls lightly, And strong men sprightly, dance round the floor, Musicians playing, great skills displaying, Their tunes obeying, the call for more, For those discerning, a place of learning, Of things concerning, our native lore, Ta sport is spraoi ann, ta togail croi ann, Ta uaisleacht Ri ann, is failte mor. A UNIQUE collaboration is ready to wow audiences for the ninth time with Dats Limerick Citaay. The show is performed by Daughters of Charity service users, Limerick Youth Theatre members, features Laurel Hill Colaiste FCJ and Ardscoil Ris choirs, music with Peter Hanagan and Katie Fitzpatrick and an original piece by Lumen Street Theatre. They all come together under the name of The Creative Show. The variety and family friendly production entitled Dats Limerick Citaay - was written by Marie Boylan and Myles Been. Myles directs while the movement pieces are choreographed by Angie Smalis and Jane Toal. Over 150 will perform together on stage. Dats Limerick Citaay follows a bride and groom on their wedding day. She is the bride from hell and he is double booked to referee the Munster v Leinster match and marry his bridezilla. Some of Limerick's well-known faces save the day - Celia Holman Lee finds a new dress after a dove disaster and Willie ODea steps in as best man. Myles said it is the theatrical highlight of his year. I am lucky to work with an amazing company made up of actors, dancers, choirs and musicians. A big thank you to our hard-working backstage crew in lighting, sound, set, projections and costume design. Special thanks to our friends and family for helping with lines, chauffeur duties and encouragement. Over the past nine years, we have been in space, fairytale land and all around the world. This year, The Creative Show is coming home and we hope you enjoy a day in the life of Limerick city. We have tried to cram in all that is unique to our home as well as the wit and spirit of its people because Dats Limerick Citaay! said Myles. Fellow writer, Marie Boylan said the audience are in for something special and can expect some cheesy one-liners and hilarious moments! Angie Smalis, artistic director of Limerick Youth Theatre, said these productions are why she chose a career in the performing arts. It challenges and teaches all involved to be patient, understanding, inclusive and respectful of peoples abilities and needs. Also, it is a tribute to my adoptive city and to its people! said Angie. Donal Sherlock, of the Daughters of Charity Service, said The Creative Show goes from strength to strength with increased recognition and participation from the local community. The show provides the nurturing environment which encourages personal growth, builds confidence and promotes each persons unique talents in the performing arts. I am privileged to be able to witness the personal growth of each individual involved, the lifelong friendships that are developed and the enhanced quality of life that results from being part of a family. The Creative Show is much more than a performance; it is an opportunity to belong, said Donal. It takes place on Thursday and Friday, March 14 and 15 in the Lime Tree Theatre at 8pm. Tickets 12 / 10 from 061 953400. A small, agile dinosaur with powerful hind legs roamed the ancient rift valley between Australia and Antarctica during the Cretaceous period. Archaeologists recently discovered fossils from this wallaby-size species while excavating 125-million-year-old rocks in Victoria, Australia. They found five fossilized upper jaws that resembled the upturned hulls of ships called galleons. The scientists named the species Galleonosaurus dorisae, after both the galleon and paleontologist Doris Seegets-Villiers, who received her doctorate while working in the area. Analysis of the bones showed that the newfound dinosaur was an ornithopod, a group of plant-eating dinosaurs that had bird-like feet and walked on their hind legs. [Images: These Downy Dinosaurs Sported Feathers] "These small dinosaurs would have been agile runners on their powerful hind legs," lead study author Matthew Herne, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of New England, said in a statement. The bones were buried in volcanic sediments that were likely carried in by rivers that flowed from an eastern volcanic range active during the Cretaceous period. "The sediments washed by rivers into the rift valley created a forested river floodplain upon which dinosaurs such as Galleonosaurus and many other types of dinosaurs and other animals flourished," Herne told Live Science. Just last year, the same team identified another small ornithopod species from these volcanic sediments: Diluvicursor pickeringi. Their analysis suggests that G. dorisae is a very close relative of D. pickeringi but 12 million years older. Jaw fossils and their 3D cat scan model of the newly-discovered dinosaur Galleonosaurus dorisae. (Image credit: Matthew Herne) They also found that this newfound species was more closely related to ornithopods from Patagonia than those from say North America and China, Herne said. "We are steadily building a picture of terrestrial dinosaur interchange between the shifting Gondwanan continents of Australia, South America and Antarctica during the Cretaceous period," Herne said. At the time, the supercontinent Gondwana was shifting and Australia and Antarctica were spreading apart (forming an ancient rift valley that eventually filled with water to form the Southern Ocean). The new finding suggests, "land connections (land bridges) between Australia and South America, via Antarctica, must have been available to dinosaur groups at times during the Cretaceous that resulted in closer genetic links between the dinosaurs on these continents than between these dinosaurs and those in other places," he wrote in an email to Live Science. The G. dorisae fossils were discovered a decade or so ago by volunteers with the Dinosaur Dreaming project directed by paleontologists of Museums Victoria and Monash University who were excavating near the towns of Inverloch and Wonthaggi, according to the statement. But it wasn't until recently that the scientists studied and described the species. Galleonosaurus is the fifth ornithopod genus (the classification right above species) identified from Victoria, which "confirms" that these small-bodied dinosaurs were very diverse and thrived in the rift valley that spanned Australia and Antarctica, Herne said. The researchers reported their findings today (March 11) in the Journal of Paleontology. Originally published on Live Science. Archaeologists and citizen scientists have unearthed what may be the monastery of Princess Aebbe, who was born a pagan but later spread Christianity along the northeastern British coast during the seventh century. Once the pagan-turned-Christian princess (615-668) became an abbess, she established the monastery at Coldingham, a village in the southeast of Scotland. But the monastery was short-lived; Viking raiders destroyed it it in 870. Archaeologists have been looking for the remains of this monastery for decades. Excavators have now located a narrow, circular ditch, which is likely the "vallum," or the boundary that surrounded Aebbe's religious settlement, DigVentures, a U.K.-based group led by archaeologists and supported by crowdfunding, announced March 8. Citizen scientists help carry out DigVentures' projects. [In Photos: The UK's Geologic Wonders] The team excavates what may be Princess Aebbe's monastery. (Image credit: DigVentures/Aerial-Cam) "Vallums weren't necessarily deep, intimidating defensive structures but more like a symbolic marker to show that you were entering a venerated or spiritual place," Maiya Pina-Dacier, the head of community at DigVentures, told Live Science in an email. Just outside the boundary, the excavation team made another surprising discovery: a giant pile of butchered animal bones, including those from cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, goats, domestic fowl and red deer. These were radiocarbon dated to 664-864, right around the time the monastery would have been up and running. "This is pretty much exactly when Aebbe's monastery was in existence," Manda Forster, the program manager at DigVentures, said in a statement. "Originally built around A.D. 640, it is said to have burned down shortly after her death but was then rebuilt and thrived until it was destroyed once again by Viking raiders 200 years later." Previously, other archaeologists searched for the monastery at a cliff-top location in Coldingham, overlooking the sea. But none of these experts could find hard evidence of an extensive, wealthy Anglo-Saxon monastery at this location, Forster said. The newfound site is farther inland, near the Coldingham Priory (a historical house for Benedictine monks), Forster noted. DigVentures decided to excavate there because this site had outlines of several possible archaeological structures. In addition, several artifacts including fragments of an Anglo-Saxon belt fitting, fragments of sculpture and possible early Christian burials had been found there. "And it makes sense that the later Benedictine monastery was built on the site of its Anglo-Saxon predecessor," Forster said. A team excavates what may be the monastery of a Scottish princess. (Image credit: DigVentures/Aerial-Cam) So far, the excavations indicate that the remains of Aebbe's monastery are probably located under Coldingham Priory. "Aebbe is an extraordinary figure an example of a powerful Anglo-Saxon woman who played a big part in establishing Christianity in the region during the seventh century," Forster said. "Now that we've got evidence to pinpoint exactly where her monastery was, we can help bring her story back to life." For instance, scientists know that the princess, who was the daughter of a Northumbrian warlord, fled with her siblings after their father was killed. They went to Dal Riata, a Gaelic kingdom that was a hub of early Christianity. Shortly after arriving, the family abandoned their pagan ways and converted. When her brother Oswald went to reclaim the Northumbria throne in 635, Aebbe accompanied him, determined to convert their subjects to Christianity. Meanwhile, Oswald created the famous monastery at Lindisfarne, which, just like his sister's monastery, was later raided by Vikings. In addition to crowdfunding, this DigVentures project was paid for by the U.K. National Lottery Heritage Fund and Friends of Coldingham Priory. Originally published on Live Science. This image shows the Western (or "Wailing") Wall, a surviving part of the Second Temple that Herod built. No images of Herod survive today but remains from his many building projects do. King Herod, sometimes called "Herod the Great" (circa 74 to 4 B.C.) was a king of Judea who ruled the territory with Roman approval. While Judea was an independent kingdom it was under heavy Roman influence and Herod came to power with Roman support. The Bible depicts Herod as a monster who tried to kill baby Jesus and, when he couldn't find him, killed every infant in Bethlehem. Historians today generally believe the story is fictional. While Herod did execute one of his wives, and three of his children, he was also a prolific builder who renovated and expanded the Temple in Jerusalem, the most holy site in Judaism. He also helped save the ancient Olympic Games during a financial crisis. [In Photos: Experience Ancient Jerusalem's Spendor with Virtual-Reality App] Rise to power While it's uncertain precisely where Herod was born, it's known that his father, Antipater (died 43 B.C.), came from Idumea (also called Edom), a region by the southern coast of the Dead Sea. His mother, Cypros, was from Nabataea, a wealthy kingdom in Jordan that included the city of Petra. A Roman force led by a general named Pompey waged a military campaign in the eastern Mediterranean in 63 B.C. that forced the Hasmoneans, a Jewish dynasty that controlled what is now Israel, to agree to Roman rule. Herod and his father supported the Romans and they were rewarded for it with greater power. By 43 B.C., Antipater, Herod and Herod's eldest brother Phaesael "exercised quasi-royal powers in the land with the agreement of the ineffectual and accommodating Hasmonean High Priest Hyrcanus II, who ruled only in name," Geza Vermes, who was professor emeritus of Jewish Studies at Oxford University until his death in 2013, wrote in his posthumously-published book, "The True Herod" (Bloomsbury, 2014). However, the control the three men had was tenuous. In 43 B.C., Antipater was assassinated by poisoning. Then in 40 B.C., the Parthians, aided by a revolt, took over Jerusalem, killed Phaesael, installed a loyal regime and forced Herod to flee to Rome. After his arrival in Rome, Herod sought out the support of Octavian and Mark Antony, who were allied at the time. The two agreed to make him king of Judea. Herod returned to Judea and, by 37 B.C., he retook Jerusalem and other parts of the region with support from the Roman military. [In Photos: Ancient Home and Barracks of Roman Military Officer] Herod's position was still weak, however. Family members from the Hasmonean Dynasty, who had been in power before the Romans arrived, resented the fact that the Romans had made Herod king of Judea. Herod married Mariamme, the granddaughter of the former high priest, Hyrcanus II, in an attempt to bring family members from the Hasmonean Dynasty into the fold. "She bore him three sons, Alexander and Aristobulus as well as a third son who died young in Rome, and two daughters," Vermes wrote. Herod executed Mariamme in 29 B.C. over accusations that she had committed adultery and had tried to kill him. Herod had at least 10 wives and believed that Judaism allowed polygamy. The king also executed his sons Alexander and Aristobulus in 7 B.C., and Antipater II, Herod's oldest son (whom he had with another wife) in 4 B.C. Herod accused the three sons of trying to kill him. Herod confiscated property belonging to those who he believed did not support his rule. "The confiscation of the wealth of the hostile Jewish upper classes made him exceedingly rich and provided Herod with funds to pay for the continued goodwill of his Roman overlord, Mark Antony," Vermes wrote. Additionally, Herod found himself in conflict with Cleopatra VII, the queen of Egypt and lover of Antony. Cleopatra VII coveted Herod's territory and used her influence with Antony to persuade him to turn over some of Herod's territory to her. The alliance between Octavian and Antony came to an end in 32 B.C. and the two faced off in a civil war, with Antony controlling the eastern parts of the Roman Empire and Octavian the west. Herod supported Antony and ended up on the losing side as Antony was defeated at the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C, and committed suicide in 30 B.C. Herod sailed to Rhodes to meet Octavian, not sure what would happen to him. When he met Octavian, Herod took off his crown and told Octavian that he had supported Antony to the end, the ancient historian Josephus (A.D. 37-100) wrote. "I am defeated with Antony and with his fall I lay aside my crown. I have come to you placing my hope of safety on my unblemished character, and believing that you will wish to know not whose friend, but what sort of friend, I have been," Josephus wrote (translation by English classicist G.A. Williamson). Octavian was so impressed that he not only allowed Herod to remain king but gave him back territory that Antony had given to Cleopatra VII. Herod the builder "Without a doubt he [Herod] was the greatest builder in the Holy Land, planning and overseeing the execution of palaces, fortresses, theatres, amphitheatres, harbours and the entire city of Caesarea, and to crown them all, he organized the rebuilding of the Temple of Jerusalem," Vermes wrote. The First Temple, which had been built by King Solomon, had been destroyed when the Babylonians captured Jerusalem in 587 B.C. While a Jewish temple was built on the site in the late 6th century B.C., Herod built a new temple that was far larger. Historians today often call it the "Second Temple." Although much of the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70, a section of it still remains. "The monumental section that still survives is the famous Western (or Wailing) Wall in Jerusalem, a glorious memorial of the past for some, and the most holy place of Jewish worship for others," Vermes wrote. Other famous sites Herod constructed include Masada, a clifftop palace-fortress decorated with beautiful mosaics; and the Herodium, a complex located 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) from Jerusalem that contains palaces, a bathhouse, a pool house and other structures that are constructed on top of a human-made hill. Herod also helped save the ancient Olympic Games. He donated "a large sum of money for the financial support of the quadrennial Olympic games, the survival of which was threatened by lack of funds." Vermes wrote. And because of Herod's financial assistance, "the organizers of the ancient games elected Herod perpetual Olympic president and recorded it in inscriptions." Did he kill Jesus? Historians generally believe that Herod died in 4 B.C., although there have been arguments made that he died in 5 B.C. or 1 B.C. The Gospel of Matthew claims that he tried to kill baby Jesus and succeeded in killing all the other babies in Bethlehem in an event that is sometimes called the "massacre of the innocents." Today, historians generally regard these claims as untrue. "The legendary 'massacre of the innocents' may reflect a Christian dramatization of Herod's execution of his own children," Peter Richardson, a professor emeritus of religion at the University of Toronto, and Amy Marie Fisher, an adjunct instructor of religion at the University of Edmonton, wrote in their book "Herod: King of the Jews and Friend of the Romans: Second edition" (Routledge, 2018). Another story that mentions Herod, told in the Gospel of Luke, claims that Mary and Joseph (the parents of Jesus) had to be registered in a census at the time Jesus was born. This is also believed by modern-day historians to be untrue, as there's no evidence of a census occuring during Herod's reign. "As for the census, whose purpose was to prepare the introduction of Roman taxation in Judaea, it could not have occurred during Herod's reign. As a friend of Rome, a rex socius or allied king, he was exempt from such interference," Vermes wrote, noting that no census occurred in Judea until A.D. 6. The fact that the Bible claims that Jesus was born before Herod died creates a problem that scholars have long been debating. Was Jesus actually born in 4 B.C, before Herod died? Or, did Herod live longer than the historical records suggest, and not die until closer to 1 B.C? Or, is the Bible's claim that Jesus was born before Herod died not true? The answers to these questions have been debated by scholars for well over a century. Grim ending Rebellion brewed near the end of Herod's life. Shortly before Herod died there was a group that tried to pull down an eagle, a Roman symbol, from the Second Temple. Herod had the people involved with the act executed. The expectation of his death "began to release the tensions buried just beneath the surface of a calm kingdom." Richardson and Fisher wrote. Josephus claimed that Herod was so despised in his final days and Herod had become so bitter toward his own people, that he asked his sister, Salome, to kill many of them after he died. He supposedly gathered the most eminent men of every village in Judea, locked them up in a hippodrome, and gave orders to his sister Salome to kill them when he died. According to Josephus, Herod announced, "'I know the Jews will greet my death with wild rejoicings; but I can be mourned on other people's account and make sure of a magnificent funeral if you will do as I tell you. These men under guard as soon as I die, kill them all.'" Salome disobeyed, and released the prisoners when Herod died, Josephus added. After Herod's death, a massive rebellion broke out in his kingdom and Rome had to send in military reinforcements. No surviving images of Herod exist today. Herod did not put his image on his coins and rarely built statues of himself out of concern of offending Jewish beliefs that sometimes opposed "the representation of human figures," Vermes wrote. Additional resources: An Arizona woman has been released from the hospital with minor arm injuries after being attacked by a caged jaguar at the Wildlife World Zoo near Phoenix. According to a statement from the zoo, the woman, in her 30s, climbed over a barrier to get closer to the exhibit for a selfie with the jaguar on Saturday (March 9), when the cat reached through the bars of its enclosure and slashed the woman's left arm. "We do not hold the jaguar responsible for what happened, and it has been concluded that the injuries were caused due to human error," zoo spokesperson Kristy Morcom told NBC news. She added that this is the second time a guest has been injured after getting too close to the jaguar's enclosure. (The zoo subsequently tweeted that the jaguar will not be put down.) Footage of the enclosure taken by NBC shows that a low concrete barrier surrounds the jaguar's cage, several feet away from the enclosure's bars. Several eyewitnesses told NBC and other news outlets that the attacked woman first climbed over the barrier to get closer to the animal. [Dying for a Selfie? Why People Risk Their Lives for Self-Photos] After the jaguar dug its claws into the woman's arm, several bystanders immediately responded to her cries for help. One woman reportedly shoved her water bottle through the cage bars to distract the jaguar, while her son pulled the injured woman to safety. A desire to take novel selfies leads to risky behavior, particularly in young men, social scientists have found. According to a 2018 study in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, there have been 259 documented deaths associated with selfies between 2011 and 2017 and 72.5 percent of those who died were men. Causes of selfie-related deaths include animal attacks, drowning, falling and vehicular accidents. The injured Arizona woman reportedly returned to the zoo on Sunday morning (Mar. 10) to apologize for trespassing. Originally published on Live Science. A gigantic solar storm hit Earth about 2,600 years ago, one about 10 times stronger than any solar storm recorded in the modern day, a new study finds. These findings suggest that such explosions recur regularly in Earth's history, and could wreak havoc if they were to hit now, given how dependent the world has become on electricity. The sun can bombard Earth with explosions of highly energetic particles known as solar proton events. These "proton storms" can endanger people and electronics both in space and in the air. [Top 10 Greatest Explosions Ever] In addition, when a proton storm hits Earth's magnetosphere the shell of electrically charged particles it is trapped by Earth's magnetic field. When the solar storm causes a disturbance in our planet's magnetosphere, it's called a geomagnetic storm which can wreak devastation on power grids across the planet. For example, in 1989, a solar outburst blacked out the entire Canadian province of Quebec within seconds, damaging transformers as far away as New Jersey, and nearly shutting down U.S. power grids from the mid-Atlantic through the Pacific Northwest. In this artist's conception of Earth's magnetosphere, the orange and blue lines depict the opposite north and south polarity of Earth's field lines. (Image credit: Greg Shirah and Tom Bridgman, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) Scientists have analyzed proton storms for less than a century. As such, they may not have good estimates of how often extreme solar eruptions happen or how powerful they can actually get. "Today, we have a lot of infrastructure that could be badly damaged, and we travel in air and space where we are much more exposed to high-energy radiation," senior study author Raimund Muscheler an environmental physicist at Lund University in Sweden, told Live Science. The so-called Carrington Event of 1859 may have released about 10 times more energy than the one behind the Quebec blackout in 1989, making it the most powerful known geomagnetic storm , according to a 2013 study from Lloyd's of London. Worse yet, the world has become far more dependent on electricity since the Carrington Event, and if a similarly powerful geomagnetic storm were to hit now, power outages might last weeks, months or even years as utilities struggle to replace key parts of power grids, the 2013 study found. Now, researchers have found radioactive atoms trapped within ice in Greenland that suggest an enormous proton storm struck Earth in about 660 B.C., one that might dwarf the Carrington Event. Previous research found that extreme proton storms can generate radioactive atoms of beryllium-10, chlorine-36 and carbon-14 in the atmosphere. Evidence of such events is detectable in tree rings and ice cores, potentially giving scientists a way to investigate ancient solar activity. The scientists examined ice from two core samples taken from Greenland. They noted a spike of radioactive beryllium-10 and chlorine-36 about 2,610 years ago. This matches prior work examining tree rings that suggested a spike of carbon-14 about the same time. [Photos: Craters Hidden Beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet] Previous research detected two other ancient proton storms in a similar manner one happened about A.D. 993-994, and the other about A.D. 774-775. The latter is the largest solar eruption known to date. Regarding number of high-energy protons, the 660 B.C. and the A.D. 774-775 events are about 10 times larger than the strongest proton storm seen in the modern day, which occurred in 1956, Muscheler said. The A.D. 993-994 event was smaller than the other two ancient storms by about a factor of two to three, he added. It remains unclear how these ancient proton storms compared with the Carrington Event, since estimates of the number of protons from the Carrington Event are very uncertain, Muscheler said. However, if these ancient solar outbursts "were connected with a geomagnetic storm, I would assume that they would exceed the worst-case scenarios that are often based on Carrington-type events," he noted. Although more research is needed to see how much damage such eruptions might inflict, this work suggests "these enormous events are a recurring feature of the sun we now have three big events during the past 3,000 years," Muscheler said. "There might be more that we have not yet discovered." "We need to search systematically for these events in the environmental archives to get a good idea about the statistics that is, the risks for such events and also smaller events," Muscheler added. "The challenge will be to find the smaller ones that probably still exceed anything we measured in recent decades." The scientists detailed their findings online today (March 11) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Originally published on Live Science. Spotting a celebrity during SXSW is like looking for a scooter in downtown San Antonio: It's not very hard to find one when walking down the street. South by Southwest, the annual festival in Austin that brings together the latest in film, music and more, began Friday and will run through March 17. Fig 3: TEM images (a, b) of HSSA MnO2 (MnO2 having a high specific surface area of about 300 m2/g) and photographs (c, d) of the HSSA MnO2 filter supported on alumina honeycomb used in these experiments. MnO2 was laminated onto the alumina honeycomb substrate by the dip coating method. The packing density of MnO2 was 50 g/L of filter Fig 2: Ozone generated in an atmospheric-pressure non-equilibrium plasma was passed through the MnO2 filter together with simulated exhaust gas. The simulated exhaust gas consisted of 500 ppm SO2, 500 ppm NO2,10wt% O2, 6wt% CO2, an N2 base, and 50 ppm O3 (when plasma is induced). The MnO2 was supported on an alumina honeycomb filter and the flow conditions (space velocity of 104 h?1) mimicked typical vehicle exhaust streams and filter dimensions. Fig 1: Activated chemical species (O3, OH radicals etc.) are generated by inducing an atmospheric pressure non-equilibrium plasma. These species promote desulfurization and denitration reactions with MnO2. In this paper, we evaluated the influence of ozone on the desulfurization and denitrification performance of an MnO2 filter. Diesel engines are widely used in agricultural machinery, vehicles, and ships because of their high thermal efficiency. The sulfur contained in the diesel fuel is oxidized to sulfur dioxide by combustion. This sulfur dioxide not only harms human health but also causes deactivation of the catalysts used to treat NO x in the exhaust stream. This problem can be overcome by using sulfur-free fuels based on biomass or clean coal technology or by installing a desulfurizing filter to remove sulfur oxides upstream of the NO x catalyst. Researchers at Kanazawa university have developed a plasma-assisted MnO 2 filter that produces exhaust free of NO x and SO x . This technology augments the desulfurization properties of MnO 2 with the activity of ozone from an atmospheric-pressure non-equilibrium plasma (Figure 1). Activated chemical species (O 3 , OH radicals, etc.) present in the plasma promote desulfurization and denitration reactions. MnO 2 reacts with sulfur and nitrogen oxides to produce sulfates and nitrates, respectively. The interaction between SO 2 and NO 2 degrades the performance of MnO 2 catalysts in eliminating both species. Prof Huang of the Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion analyzed the MnO 2 catalyst material after exposure to simulated exhaust gas containing both SO 2 and NO 2 and found that both manganese nitrate and manganese sulfate were produced. We evaluated the impact of ozone on the performance of the catalyst for SO 2 and NO 2 removal (Figure 2). An atmospheric-pressure non-equilibrium plasma was generated by the dielectric barrier discharge method. The performance of the catalyst in eliminating both SO 2 and NO 2 was improved by the introduction of ozone at a low concentration of about 50 ppm. The enhancement in NO 2 elimination was particularly notable. The introduction of ozone seems to give a reaction to reduce nitrogen oxides to nitrogen. At the initial stage of the reaction, over 99% of SO 2 and NO 2 were removed from the exhaust stream. The Kanazawa University researchers, led by Yugo Osaka, demonstrated for the first time that zero emissions of NO x can be achieved even in the presence of sulfur oxides by using a plasma-assisted MnO 2 filter. The plasma-assisted filter seems to augment the elimination of SO 2 because of SO 3 generation and also reduce nitrogen oxides to nitrogen. Albany Who's up for superficial odds-making focused on 2020 candidates with ties to New York and nearby states? Anybody? Nobody? Well, I'm going for it anyway. I admit this is silliness, and that ignoring candidates from other parts of the country is prognostication with a bad case of Northeastern myopia. But there are 329 men and women running, and I can't mention them all. Plus, what do I know about John Hickenlooper? As with a similar ranking I did three months ago, the long-shots come first. Mike Bloomberg The former New York mayor's recent declaration that he is not running bitterly disappointed three Americans, including two of his relatives. The rest of us barely noticed as we sipped from our huge sodas. The mega-capitalist still makes this list, though, because there's the possibility he enters the race if the quasi-socialist Bernie Sanders wins the nomination. The billionaire threatened to do the same in 2016. Odds of winning the presidency: 1,000-1 Hillary Clinton More Information Contact columnist Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse This might be a good time to review Clinton's electoral track record. In 2008, she entered the Democratic race as a heavy favorite but lost to an obscure senator from Illinois. Eight years later, she again entered the race as a heavy favorite and almost lost to an obscure senator from Vermont who was not even a Democrat. She went on to lose to Donald Trump. Donald Trump! It still boggles the mind. So yes, it's probably wise that Clinton sits this race out, as Hillary recently said she would. But even then, she sounded like a wannabe candidate and left the door a little open to one more run. Don't do it, Hillary. Don't do it! Odds: 400-1. Bill de Blasio New Yorkers don't like him much, according to polls, and there is no indication that the country would either. Yet the New York mayor is still traveling to Iowa and making noise about running. Why? Nobody knows. Hizzoner probably should have lower odds than I'm giving him, but de Blasio is a Red Sox fan and we stick together. Odds: 300-1 Kirsten Gillibrand I know she's the hometown kid with a campaign headquarters in Troy, but are we ready to acknowledge that her nascent campaign is floundering? Yes, it's still early. Still, the Real Clear Politics polling average has Gillibrand getting 0.8 percent of the primary vote, and some recent polls have her behind even Peter Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., who has a name nobody can pronounce. Honest question, asked with all due respect: Why would a voter choose Gillibrand over, say, Kamala Harris or Elizabeth Warren? Phrased another way, what is she bringing to the race that isn't better represented by higher-polling candidates? Odds: 200-1 Andrew Cuomo Our fair governor has said he's not running, but, c'mon, everybody knows he's itching to take on that other guy from Queens. The lane for Cuomo to run as a centrist, particularly on economic issues, is wide open but only if Joe Biden stays away. https://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Churchill-The-case-for-a-Cuomo-presidential-13521972.php My membership in the Cuomo Fan Club expired long ago, but there's good reason to think he could be a stronger-than-expected candidate. As I outlined in a January column, that's mostly because he's a big-state governor in a field dominated by senators. Sure, there are other governors in the race now, including that Hickenlooper fellow. But with apologies to folks in Denver, Colorado is not New York. I do love saying Hickenlooper, though. Hickenlooper, Hickenlooper, Hickenlooper ... Odds: 50-1 Cory Booker Is America ready for a vegan president? Odds: 15-1 Elizabeth Warren The Massachusetts senator is polling at below 10 percent, a grim showing given her substantial name recognition and relatively thoughtful policy positions. Warren's slow start suggests the whole Native America/DNA-test thing may be a blow from which she will never recover. Odds: 10-1 Bernie Sanders The talking heads on CNN don't want to admit it, but Sanders, along with the aforementioned Harris and possibly Biden, is a clear front-runner for the Democratic primary. The Vermonter has a devoted following, and he's raising buckets of money. Plus, the primary schedule hugely benefits him; Sanders will win Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two contests, giving him momentum that will be difficult to slow. That doesn't mean that a 77-year-old, self-described democratic socialist would be the candidate mostly likely to beat the next candidate on the list. You could easily make the case that he isn't. Odds: 3-1 Donald Trump Trump is deeply unpopular, he lies all the time, he kisses up to dictators and his presidency has been, to put it kindly, chaotic. But he was unpopular in 2016, he lied all the time, he kissed up to dictators and everyone knew his presidency would be nuts and he still won. Trump can triumph again. Odds: 2-1 Just days after former Laredo ISD Superintendent A. Marcus Nelson was charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession, thousands of individuals have signed a petition showing their support for him. Nelson, who is now the Waco ISD superintendent, was arrested Wednesday after he was pulled over by a state trooper and found in possession of less than 2 ounces of marijuana, DPS told the Waco Tribune-Herald. He was booked into the Robertson County Jail in Franklin, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) southeast of Waco and released on his own recognizance Thursday morning, jail records show. On Friday, Karol Gray, a Waco resident and retired teacher for Pflugerville ISD, created a petition on Change.org encouraging the community to "support our superintendent." The petition begins: "As parents and taxpayers supporting our children and Waco ISD, we respectfully encourage the Waco ISD school board to focus on Dr. Nelson's impact on academic achievement and stewardship of Waco ISD." READ ALSO: Facebook sounds off on why Laredo is stressed out Gray told LMTonline.com that she is hoping his mistake will not cost him his job as she believes it will be to the detriment of his students and community. "I see the progress that Waco ISD has made since he arrived and I would hate to see us lose him. I'm so sorry it happened, but our kids will suffer the biggest consequence if he leaves," Gray said. Nelson held the position at LISD from 2009 to 2017 and was named Superintendent of the Year by the Texas Association of School Boards in 2014. Over 4,000 individuals have signed the petition as of Monday afternoon, just hundreds short of the 5,000 signature goal. "The comments speak for themselves," Gray said. Individuals gave various reasons for why they signed the petition in the comment section. Some pointed to "bad laws," regarding the state's marijuana laws. Others said Nelson's positive influence on the district is why he should be supported in midst of the charge. "Our children deserve this imperfect man with perfect plans for their future," wrote one person. On Thursday evening, Laredo Morning Times reported on the arrest and shared the story to our readers on Facebook. Immediately and in an overwhelming consensus, comments poured in with support for the former LISD superintendent. "He was one of the best, if not the best superintendents we've had," commented one reader. "Regardless of whatever he does on his own time, I think he did a lot for LISD," another said. "His support is coming from a full cross section of the community. Everyone seems to be in agreement about the fine job he has done in an extremely challenging position for about the past year and a half," Gray said. READ ALSO: Laredo police chief says allegations against investigator are 'disturbing,' defends department I get that he committed a misdemeanor. Some people feel he should be above reproach, and this should ruin his career. We talk about 'teachable moments' all the time in education. Seems like this should be a teachable moment about many things." According to a report by the Waco Tribune-Herald, the school board plans to hold a special meeting on March 19 to discuss Nelson's options. The publication said that Nelson was arrested after a traffic stop for driving in the passing lane on U.S. Highway 190. A spokesman for DPS said there was no indication in the preliminary report that Nelson was smoking the marijuana at the time of the traffic stop. Furthermore, while it is unclear why Nelson was traveling, he was not in a district vehicle. Nelson has secured legal counsel and a court date will be set later, the Waco newspaper reported. Waco ISD did not respond to request for comment by email or phone at the time this article was published. JeriLynn Thorpe is a digital reporter for the Laredo Morning Times. Read more of her stories on LMTonline.com | jerilynn.thorpe@lmtonline.com Laredo Morning Times reporter Maria Salas also contributed to this report. ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Among the dead in Sunday's Ethiopian Airlines crash were law students, tourists, writers, academics and a number of aid workers and employees of the United Nations - 157 victims who represented more than 30 nationalities. The route connected East Africa's two premier cities: Addis Ababa, home to the African Union, has been called the political capital of the region, while vibrant Nairobi is the commercial capital. Both host regional headquarters for several international institutions and have large populations of expatriates. Addis Ababa is the location of the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa, while the World Food Program, the United Nations' refugee agency and its children's agency, UNICEF, all have their regional headquarters in Nairobi. Nineteen U.N. staffers were on board Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, many of whom were traveling to Nairobi for the U.N. Environment Assembly, which opened Monday with flags at half-staff and a minute of silence for the victims. One of them was Victor Shanghai Tsang, who, his colleagues say, embodied the spirit of the United Nations. A former intern who rose to become a program officer, he brought together a group of interns and staffers to promote innovation goals at this week's summit. He is survived by his pregnant wife and his son. "The environmental community is in mourning today," the U.N. Environment Program said in a statement, describing the loss of "seasoned scientists, members of academia and other partners." The Rome-based World Food Program, which provides food assistance to millions of people across the world and in the Horn of Africa, lost seven employees. David Beasely, the agency's executive director, said the loss was "devastating, heartbreaking. I don't think there was a dry eye today in our team in Addis." "Every day, our friends, our WFP team, put their life on the line for everyone out there," he said, describing the aid workers as "average people giving everything they've got to make the world a better place, and that makes them superheroes." Among the victims from the WFP was Irish aid worker Michael Ryan, who had been set to move from Cork, Ireland, to Rome in a matter of months and left behind a wife and two children, one just 7 months old. He was described by the Irish Independent newspaper as a respected aid worker who was involved in projects in Asia and Africa, including with Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh. "Michael was doing life-changing work in Africa," said Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. Kenya suffered the biggest loss among the countries represented on the flight, with 32 of its citizens killed. Cedric Asiavugwa, born in Kenya, was a third-year law student at Georgetown University. He was traveling back to Nairobi after the death of his fiancee's mother, according to university officials. Officials said the student's long-term plan was to return to Kenya to champion the rights of refugees. There were also 18 Canadians on the flight. Pius Adesanmi was a Nigerian-born scholar and the director of the Institute of African Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa. In online tributes and statements, colleagues described him as a leading figure in his field. He was the author of the satirical essay collection,"Naija No Dey Carry Last: Thoughts on a Nation in Progress." "The entire Carleton community is grieving the tragic death of Prof. Pius Adesanmi, a towering figure in African and post-colonial scholarship," wrote Benoit-Antoine Bacon, president and vice chancellor of Ottawa's Carleton University, on Twitter. In a statement, Chrystia Freeland, Canada's minister of foreign affairs, expressed shock and sadness at the news. "On behalf of the Canadian government, I extend my deepest condolences to all those who lost loved ones in this terrible plane crash," she said. Another Canadian victim, Danielle Moore, 24, posted on Facebook on Saturday that she was "so excited" and "beyond privileged" to announce she was attending the U.N. Environment Assembly in Nairobi. "Over the next week I'll have the opportunity to discuss global environmental issues, share stories, and connect with other youth and leaders from all over the world," she wrote. "I feel beyond privileged to be receiving this opportunity, and want to share as much with folks back home." Two Italians working with the WFP, Virginia Chimenti and Maria Pilar Buzzetti, were also killed. Buzzetti had been with the WFP for almost four years as a consultant and office assistant. Speaking to Italian newspaper Il Messagero, Buzzetti's mother said her daughter usually called her upon arrival, and she immediately sensed that something was wrong when there was no call on Sunday. Italian media outlets quoted family members on Sunday who described her as a humanitarian worker with a "passion that has taken her around the world." Other Italians killed in the crash included aid advocate Paolo Dieci, who worked with the International Committee for the Development of Peoples, a nongovernmental organization that seeks to end poverty across the globe. Three Italians working with humanitarian agency Africa Tremila - treasurer Matteo Ravasio, Carlo Spini and his wife Gabriella Viggiani - were also killed. According to Italian TV channel Rai, Spini was a retired doctor whose "love for Africa" had intensified after his retirement, the mayor of the couple's hometown said. At least seven British citizens were killed in the plane crash. Joanna Toole worked with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome and was on her way to the environment conference, where she was supposed to represent FAO's Fisheries and Aquaculture Department starting Monday. Her father, Adrian Toole, told the British broadcaster Sky News that he always worried about her constant flying. "In all the hundreds of flights she's taken, I've never been happy about her going on any of them, but I did appreciate that she had to do it in order to do her work," he said. "I don't think I'll never give up expecting her to actually ring." The Addis Ababa office for Catholic Relief Services was also hard hit, losing four senior Ethiopian staffers who were traveling to Nairobi for a training program related to the organization's aid programs in Ethiopia. They were identified as Sara Chalachew, Getnet Alemayehu, Sintayehu Aymeku and Mulusew Alem, all senior managers. "It's a really big loss for us," said country representative John Shumlansky. The International Organization for Migration said its staffer Anne-Katin Feigl, a young German working on a Sudan mission, died on the flight. "The staff are in a state of shock," said Catherine Northing, the chief of mission. "Her tragic passing has left a big hole, and we will all miss her greatly." The Norwegian Refugee Council, which works with displaced people in crisis zones, confirmed Monday that two of its staff members were passengers on the flight. Karoline Aadland, a 28-year-old program finance coordinator for the Norwegian Red Cross, also died on the flight, according to a statement posted on the organization's Twitter account. Six Egyptian citizens were also among the victims. Namira Negm, a legal adviser to the African Union and a former Egyptian ambassador to Rwanda, wrote in a Facebook post that two of the Egyptians, Susan Abu Faraj and Asmat Arnasa, were interpreters for the African Union who had been flying to attend the U.N. conference in Nairobi. The International Association of Conference Interpreters confirmed that three of its members and the daughter of another were passengers on the flight. "It has been the saddest day in AIIC history," wrote communications officer Martin Field. Two of the eight Chinese nationals who died in the crash also worked for the United Nations, as did Indian citizen Shikha Garg, a consultant with India's Environment Ministry working with the U.N. Development Program. She, too, was flying to attend the environment conference. In some cases, the victims were tourists. A young Russian couple, Yekaterina and Alexander Polyakov, had been traveling through Africa, posting videos on their social media accounts. The families of at least two politicians were directly impacted by Sunday's crash. In Slovakia, Anton Hrnko, a member of parliament with the Slovak National Party, confirmed on social media that his wife, his son and his daughter were on the flight. Hrnko wrote that he was "in deep grief." On Facebook, Sicilian Regional President Nello Musumeci confirmed the death of Sebastiano Tusa, the region's official cultural heritage councilor, which is the equivalent of a regional minister. Musumeci wrote that Tusa had been on his way to Kenya for work, and he mourned the politician as a "man who loved Sicily like few others." --- Noack reported from Berlin; Fahim reported from Istanbul. Amie Ferris-Rotman in Moscow, Niha Masih in New Delhi, and Emily Rauhala and Emily Tamkin in Washington contributed to this report. TUNIS, Tunisia - Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Monday said he would not seek a fifth term in office and delayed next month's elections, a stunning turnaround that came after weeks of massive street protests in the North African nation. Tens of thousands of Algerians packed the streets of the capital, Algiers, celebrating the political demise of their ailing leader who has rarely been seen in public since he suffered a stroke six years ago. Some waved the national flag, while countless others blew car horns, according to video and photos posted on social media. "Our protests have borne fruit! We defeated the supporters of the fifth term!" taxi-driver Mohamed Kaci, 50, told Reuters. Bouteflika, 82, became the fifth leader since the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings to be forced out of office by public pressure, following the ouster of autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. The Algerian president has led the country, a major producer of oil and gas, for two decades. His decision to run for a fifth term propelled tens of thousands of Algerians from all walks of life to demonstrate in the capital and other cities for weeks, demanding that he rescind his decision. The protesters were eventually joined by Bouteflika allies, as well as judges, clerics and other influential figures adding more pressure for him to step down. The sudden change of direction, announced by the country's official news agency, came a day after Bouteflika returned to Algiers from Switzerland, where he had been receiving medical treatment for the past two weeks. The elections, scheduled for April 18, will be postponed until a new interim leadership is established and can plan for a new vote, the news agency reported, citing the office of the presidency. There was no new date announced. A new constitution is to be drawn up and submitted for a public referendum, and political and economic reforms would be carried out, according to the office of the presidency. But even as Bouteflika has been pushed aside, his loyalists and allies will continue to rule the country. As part of a political shake-up announced Monday, Minister of Interior Noureddine Bedoui will replace Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahiaand; a diplomatic adviser to Bouteflika will become the deputy prime minister. The changes took place after Bouteflika met with the powerful army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gaed Salah, who told a local television station on Sunday that the military and the Algerian people have "a united vision," suggesting that Bouteflika's days were numbered. Bouteflika, the longest-serving head of state in Algeria, has governed since 1999. He oversaw the end of Algeria's decadelong civil war against Islamists in which as many as 200,000 people died. Once in power, he surrounded himself with other veterans of Algeria's war for independence in 1962 against its colonial ruler, France. Today, those veterans still control the nation. For decades, protests were rare as Algeria's powerful security and intelligence forces exerted total control. So when masses of Algerians first swept into the streets last month, few expected Bouteflika to fall. But in the end, the security forces, while firing tear gas to disperse protesters, did not resort to a violent crackdown. After Monday's announcement, many on social media congratulated the Algerian people for their courage. "I'm crying of joy right now," Rim-Sarah Alouane, a graduate student, tweeted. "I am thrilled and happy for the beautiful people of #Algeria. I am so proud of my beloved motherland. The Algerian people are strong and resilient and I keep learning so much from them." Still, Arabs across the region questioned on social media whether Algerians should stop their demonstrations or continue to push for a fresh generation of leaders. "The new prime minister was the former interior minister & the ancien regime remains very much entrenched in power, albeit shaken," tweeted Timothy Kaldas, a Cairo-based Middle East political analyst. "The peaceful pressure must be fully sustained." WASHINGTON - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is joining with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and other congressional leaders to extend a rare bipartisan invitation to NATO's secretary general to address a joint session of Congress next month. McConnell and Pelosi held quiet talks about the idea of an invitation to Jens Stoltenberg as they eye ways to honor NATO as it celebrates its 70th anniversary in April and underscore the U.S. commitment to the group's values and importance in securing global order, according to three people familiar with the discussions who were not authorized to speak publicly. "Leader McConnell and Speaker Pelosi have agreed to invite Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to address a joint session of Congress this spring," McConnell's office said Monday afternoon. "We will have additional details of the Secretary-General's speech in the weeks to come." The invitation to Stoltenberg comes as President Donald Trump's nationalistic foreign policy has rattled U.S. allies and NATO members - and as he has pushed them to pay more for having U.S. troops stationed on their territory and framed the alliance in transactional terms. In particular, Trump has told his aides in recent weeks that he has devised an eye-popping new formula for U.S. allies, including NATO countries, although he has not implemented it. Under his proposal, countries would pay the full cost of stationing American troops on their territory, plus 50 percent, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the idea, which could have allies contributing five times what they now provide. Trump calls the formula "cost plus 50," and it has struck fear in the hearts of U.S. allies who view it as extortionate. Republicans such as Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a member of party leadership, have criticized the suggestion. "It would be absolutely devastating," Cheney said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "It's going to be very important for us to make sure that people understand the danger that will do to our relationships and to our fundamental security," Cheney said. "Our security, we've been able to protect it because of our alliances and because we have been able to work with countries. We should not look at this that we need to charge them rent for the privilege of having our forces there." A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Stoltenberg addressing a joint session of Congress. NATO declined to say whether Stoltenberg would accept the invitation, saying that his schedule during his Washington trip in April "will be announced in due course." The invitation could put the NATO leader in a slightly awkward position. Stoltenberg has gone to great lengths to foster a positive relationship with Trump. If the congressional invitation were seen as too direct a rebuke to the White House, it could suck him into a domestic U.S. political battle he has been eager to avoid. Trump is personally friendly with Stoltenberg and has praised him, making frequent comments about the former Norwegian prime minister's efforts to increase members' financial contributions to NATO in exchange for U.S. military operations. And even as many European leaders cringe at Trump, Stoltenberg has strained to give Trump credit for shaking up negotiations over NATO finances and the U.S. military's support. "After years of cutting defense budgets, they have started to add billions to their defense budgets," Stoltenberg said last July at a meeting with Trump. "Why was that last year?" Trump asked. "Because of your leadership, because of your carried message," Stoltenberg told Trump. Trump then joked that reporters "won't write that, but that's okay." McConnell has been a defender of NATO and has split with Trump over the president's skepticism of the alliance, beginning with the candidate's assertion during his 2016 presidential campaign that he wouldn't automatically come to the defense of NATO allies if they were attacked. The majority leader also aligned himself with former defense secretary Jim Mattis when he abruptly resigned in December, urging Trump to nominate a successor who shared Mattis's support for global alliances. McConnell had initially reached out to Pelosi with the idea to extend an invitation for Stoltenberg, according to a person familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private communications between the two leaders. Not only did the majority leader want to demonstrate bipartisan congressional support for the alliance, but also give Stoltenberg a significant venue to address concerns - voiced most prominently by Trump - that some NATO members weren't meeting their defense spending obligations, the person said. The Democratic-controlled House, led by Pelosi, passed legislation in January affirming its support for NATO. The Senate passed a similar measure last July ahead of Trump's trip to the annual NATO summit in Brussels. In addition, Pelosi led a congressional delegation to Brussels in mid-February, where she and her colleagues met with NATO leaders, including Stoltenberg. During the visit, Pelosi said she was asked repeatedly by NATO and European officials whether the United States was having second thoughts about its membership given reports that Trump repeatedly floated withdrawing from the alliance. She promised them the U.S. was not considering an exit, arguing that Trump controlled only one branch of the government and that NATO had bipartisan support. "Over 50 members of Congress were there - House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans - reasserting our commitment to the transatlantic relationship between the U.S. and Europe, as well as our commitment to NATO to strengthen it," Pelosi said following the trip. "People seemed very happy to see such bipartisanship, House and Senate, with a very positive message of the importance of that region to us." While Trump has repeatedly groused about NATO members' financial contributions, his administration has worked to balance out those statements with overtures and reassurances from others. Trump broke with past U.S. presidents by omitting a pledge to common defense from his first address to NATO leaders in 2017. Speaking last month in Poland, Vice President Mike Pence highlighted the administration's commitment to the NATO alliance and its core mission of a united front against Russia on Wednesday, with a caveat that American interests will always come first. "The United States of America stands with Poland in the most successful mutual-defense alliance in the history of the world - an alliance that each of you serves to uphold and defend - the North Atlantic Treaty Organization," Pence said. "Under President Trump, the United States will always put the security and prosperity of America first. But as the president has made clear - and as all of you prove every single day - 'America First' does not mean America alone." - - - The Washington Post's Michael Birnbaum in Brussels and Philip Rucker, Ashley Parker and Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report. A chummy discussion between Vice President Mike Pence and former vice president Dick Cheney quickly turned into a vigorous back-and-forth over President Donald Trump's foreign policy at a private gathering on Saturday, with Cheney comparing the president's instincts to those of his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama, according to a transcript obtained by The Washington Post. At the closed-door retreat hosted by the American Enterprise Institute on March 9 in Sea Island, Georgia, Cheney respectfully but repeatedly and firmly pressed Pence on a number of the president's foreign policy moves - over which Cheney expressed concerns - from taking a harder line toward U.S. allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to deciding to withdraw troops from Syria during what Cheney fretted was "the middle of a phone call." Cheney also worried aloud to Pence that "we're getting into a situation when our friends and allies around the world that we depend upon are going to lack confidence in us," and then offered a blunt criticism of the current administration's response to foreign policy challenges. "I worry that the bottom line of that kind of an approach is we have an administration that looks a lot more like Barack Obama than Ronald Reagan," he said. Cheney's questions for Pence - which prompted Pence to joke about the lack of "softball" topics - provide a revealing glimpse into the churning and often strained debates inside the Republican Party, where longtime GOP hawks such as Cheney have increasingly balked at Trump's engagement with autocrats and his noninterventionist approach to U.S. military efforts in the Middle East. The discussion also underscored Pence's comfort in acting as Trump's unwavering ally and spokesman before a crowd of powerful Republican skeptics and donors, with the vice president shrugging off most of Cheney's anxieties and praising Trump as a candid and transformational leader. But the cracks between the more isolationist Trump wing and more hawkish Cheney wing of the Republican Party were on full display, unfolding in a conversation that was designed as a vice-presidential chat but became an almost academic exercise as Cheney peppered Pence with questions and Pence responded carefully but forcefully. The transcript was provided by a person familiar with the meeting who was not authorized to share material from the event. All attendees had agreed to keep the discussions "off the record," the person said. A spokesperson for Pence confirmed that the discussion took place over the weekend, but declined to comment. The conversation between Pence and Cheney, which was led by the former vice president, took place at AEI's annual world forum, which was attended by many the conservative think tank's donors and supporters - many of whom also are major Republican financiers. AEI has long been linked to members of the GOP's foreign-policy establishment, from Cheney to national security adviser John Bolton, who was a fellow there before joining the administration. Almost from the start, the discussion shifted from lighthearted catch-up to a cordial confrontation between the two men and the tense discussion surprised most attendees and caused murmurs in the room throughout the talk, according to a person present who was not authorized to speak publicly After dispensing with the traditional niceties - joking about the vice presidency being "the worst job in Washington"- Cheney expressed alarm over news reports that Trump "supposedly doesn't spend that much time with the intel people, or doesn't agree with them, frequently," as well as the high staff turnover rate at the various intelligence agencies. The former vice president then turned his attention to the situation in North Korea. He worried about Trump's decision to cancel the decades-long U.S. military exercises with South Korea, and referenced a recent Bloomberg News report about the president's directive "to pursue a policy that would insist that the Germans, the Japanese, and the South Koreans pay total cost for our deployments there, plus 50 percent on top of that." "I don't know, that sounded like a New York State real estate deal to me," Cheney quipped. Pence defended the administration's decision to halt the biannual "war games" between the U.S. and South Korea, saying that the Defense Department had assured the administration that the decision "will not affect our readiness in South Korea." "We're going to continue [to] train," Pence said. "We're going to continue to work closely with South Korea. We have a tremendous alliance there." Trump has made no secret about his willingness - even eagerness - to upend the post-World War II order, frequently demanding that NATO allies make good on their commitment under Article 5 of the treaty to spend at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense spending. Pence also found himself responding to Cheney's questions about Trump's occasionally hostile posture toward NATO, which Cheney said "feeds this notion on the part of our allies overseas, especially in NATO, that we're not long for that continued relationship, that we're looking eagerly to find ways where somebody else will pick up the tab." The resulting impression, at least publicly, Cheney warned, is that "the decision gets made overnight or it gets made oftentimes without consulting anybody else - that he's out there doing his thing." "Well, who wrote these softball questions?" Pence joked, a nod to the unexpected - and tough - tenor of Cheney's line of query. But Pence then mounted a fierce defense of the administration, arguing that Trump can ask his allies to pay more for their own defense while still maintaining warm ties. "I think there is a tendency by critics of the president and our administration to conflate the demand that our allies live up to their word and their commitments and an erosion in our commitment to the post-World War II order," Pence said. He added, "But we think it's possible to demand that your allies do more to provide for the common defense of all of our nations and, at the same time, reaffirm our strong commitment - whether it be to the trans-Atlantic Alliance or to our allies across the Indo-Pacific." Cheney was dubious about that commitment. He worried aloud, again and again, that for Trump, the former businessman-turned-president, foreign policy boils down to a crude dollars and cents transaction. Noting that NATO countries have provided their own troops to fight alongside the U.S. in Afghanistan, he said, "So it's a lot more than just the checkbook." At another point, Cheney again returned to the theme, noting that with allies, who support the United States in ways beyond financial commitments, "It's a lot more complicated than just, 'Here's the bottom line. Write the check.'" Pence reiterated Trump's commitment to the U.S. military and the nation's defense, noting that insisting that allies contribute more money is just another way to support Trump's policy of "peace through strength." "As the president is rebuilding our military and strengthening our commitment to our national defense, calling on our allies to live up to their commitments to do more, I think, is a way of ensuring the vitality and the prosperity of the free world," Pence said. Pence again defended the administration, articulating Trump's noninterventionist approach to foreign policy. On the decision to withdraw troops from Syria, for instance, Pence disputed the notion Trump made the move over the course of a single phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but said that Trump supporters have long known he was skeptical about ongoing military conflagrations involving U.S. troops. "When the American people elected this president, they elected a president who expressed concern about American deployments around the world," Pence said. "And they knew this was going to be a president that came and asked the fundamental questions about - you know, where are we deployed and do we really need to be asking men and women in uniform to be deployed in that part of the world?" Later, Pence concluded, "But, you know, it should come as no surprise to anyone: This President is skeptical of foreign deployments, and only wants American forces where they need to be." As Penced boosted Trump, he did poke fun at himself and his stylistic differences with the president, casting himself as a low-key salesman and support of the president's agenda rather than a showman. "Some people think the president and I am kind of different," he said as the crowd laughed, according to the transcript. "You know, he's New York City; I'm small-town Indiana. He's larger than life, you know, always memorable. And I'm not." And at the end of the event Pence joked about the unexpected line of questioning from Cheney, quipping "Gee, look at the time." He also attempted to reassure the former vice president and the assembled crowd that the administration shares their devotion defending the country. "But you can be confident, as one of my favorite hawks," Pence told Cheney, "we're going to continue to stand strong for a strong national defense with President Trump in the White House." Back in his day, Robert Morris was a pretty big deal. He was just one of two men to sign all three our nation's founding documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution. Morris came to prominence in Colonial America by making a pile of money in the shipping industry. When things went south with the British, he employed his ships and business connections to trade flour and other goods to France for guns. But in becoming the "Financier of the Revolution," Morris was also a target of critics who wondered whether he was using his government posts in finance to benefit a fellow named Robert Morris. In 1790, fed up with constant attacks in the press, Morris did something truly extraordinary: He wrote a letter to President George Washington and both houses of Congress asking - almost begging - to be investigated. "Wherefore, and encouraged by a consciousness of the Integrity of his Administration, your Memorialist is desirous that a Strict Examination should be had into his Conduct," Morris wrote, "in order that if he has been guilty of Maladministration it may be detected and Punished, if otherwise, that his Innocence may be manifested, and acknowledged." Morris's mouthful of a demand was taken up in the House of Representatives, where members referred it to a select committee, ultimately helping lay the foundation for the wide-ranging subpoena power Congress uses to investigate/torment the executive branch, including the president. That's right: Some of the fiery congressional hearings that have captivated Americans for centuries - from the John Brown raid on Harpers Ferry, to Watergate, to the Iran-Contra affair, to President Donald Trump's business deals and Russian connections - began with a Founding Father raising his hand to say, "Investigate me!" These days, the fireworks of congressional subpoenas are almost taken for granted. If Democrats control the House and a Republican occupies the White House, game on. Same goes the other way. During Bill Clinton's presidency, Dan Burton, the Republican chair of the powerful House Oversight Committee, issued more than 1,000 subpoenas. Last week, the House Judiciary Committee - now controlled by Democrats - sent letters requesting information to more than 80 Trump associates, including the president's sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. If they resist, subpoenas could follow. Back when Morris made his request, the idea of Congress conducting investigations was new, but not entirely novel. Like many aspects of governance, the founders and constitutional framers looked to the Brits for inspiration. James Wilson, a key framer, published an essay in 1774 extolling the virtues of the British House of Commons, members of which he called "grand inquisitors of the realm." "The proudest ministers of the proudest monarchs have trembled at their censures," Wilson wrote, "and have appeared at the bar of the house, to give an account of their conduct, and ask pardon for their faults." Therefore, it was the job of the House of Representatives, Wilson wrote, to "form the grand inquest of the state" and "diligently inquire into grievances arising from both men and things." One problem, though. "The Constitution," according to a Congressional Research Service paper, "provided no express powers for Congress to investigate, issue subpoenas, or to punish for contempt." Whoops. The power emerged from a series of precedents derived from congressional actions and Supreme Court decisions - implied powers that began, historians say, with Morris and his request that Congress investigate his tenure as superintendent of Finance under the Articles of Confederation. A select committee that included James Madison issued a report recommending that a panel of five House members examine Morris and his finances. While some members objected to the cost of an investigation, Madison argued that the effort was necessary because the House "should possess itself of the fullest information in order to doing justice to the country and public officers," according to a transcript in the Annals of Congress. In the end, the "committee did not find evidence of maladministration," the National Archives wrote in a footnote to a digital version of Morris's letter. (However, nobody has provided an explanation for how such a wonderful word - maladministration - vanished from the political lexicon.) After being cleared, Morris returned to life as a businessman. But after running into money problems following some bad land deals, the Financier of the Revolution spent three of his last eight years of life residing in debtors prison. Representatives from Lamar Institute of Technology shared center stage with other technical schools and workforce training institutes across the state for Tuesdays proclamation of an official day to honor career and technical trainings role in the Texas economy. In Southeast Texas, LIT is the force on the frontlines trying to connect people with the skills they need to land some of the high-demand jobs emerging in the area. The U.S. Department of Labor has identified Lamar Institute of Technology (LIT) as being No. 1 in the state of Texas for having student graduates with the highest salary outcomes, LIT president Lonnie Howard said in a presentation at the signing. So, career and technical education has great value and great benefit both in the short term and in the long term. The Legislatures recognition of career and technical training comes at a time when immediate post-secondary enrollment by graduating high schoolers is trending downward for both 2-year and 4-year institutions. Only 67 percent of graduating high school seniors enrolled in college by the October following their graduation, according to a report from the National Center of Education Statistics published in February. In 2017, around 44 percent of seniors enrolled in 4-year institutions and 23 percent enrolled in 2-year institutions. Meanwhile, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) predicted in a November study that 2.4 million manufacturing jobs would go unfilled between 2018 and 2028, about 400,000 more than predicted earlier in the year. A study from the Migration Policy Institute released Wednesday also posited industries in the Gulf Coast region could be vulnerable to a skilled labor shortage. Miranda Phillips, dean of academic and student success at LIT, said the school was aware of the labor issues its industry partners face in the region, but there approach is also about taking away the stigma of technical schools in order to give Southeast Texas kids a better future. We work very closely with local high schools to really educate students and show them some of the pricetags associates with these degrees, Phillips said. We want to show that an outcome is more meaningful than a major. Along with retraining and programs LIT offers to people transitioning from an unskilled job, students from districts like the Beaumont Independent School District can now dual-enroll in degree or certificate courses. Phillips said most incoming students already have some credits in their degree field, and some even have certificates. As a part of the grant process for some of LITs programs, specifically programs around the eight industries the Texas Workforce Commission targets as high-demand, some students can receive scholarships from TWC to pursue their career. After the hearing, Labor Commissioner Julian Alvarez hosted a ceremony where four students were each awarded $2,000 scholarships to attend LIT for future careers in advanced engine technology, crime scene analysis, business and biology. Howard chose to donate $1,000 to each of the scholarship recipients, as well. Congratulations to Jaalah, Seth, Savanna and Nicholas for helping to make history on this first Texas CTE Signing Day, Alvarez said. Your hard work and dedication has already been recognized by our leading Texas industries. Your successful career journey is just beginning, and I want to thank you for sharing this day and for being a wonderful example of what our workforce has to offer. jacob.dick@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/jdickjournalism A Maryland state trooper fatally shot a man who stabbed him Monday in Carroll County, officials said. The trooper encountered the man about 8 a.m. at Washington Road and Stoner Avenue in Westminster, and a "struggle ensued," Maryland State Police said. The trooper, a six-year veteran of the department, was treated for his injuries and released from a hospital. Officials said the trooper was responding to a call regarding the destruction of property along Washington Road. A man reported that his tires had been slashed and that his vehicle had been damaged for "the second day in a row," according to a police statement. While the trooper was responding, another driver reported that tires had been slashed. The second driver gave police a description of the suspect and said he had a knife. At about 8 a.m., the trooper saw the suspect walking along the road and tried to talk to him, police said. The two began to struggle, and the man stabbed the trooper in his side with a knife, officials said. The trooper then shot the man. The man, identified as Michael D'Angelo, 34, of Westminster, was pronounced dead at a hospital. The trooper was placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure. Westminster is about 45 miles north of Washington. Democrats have chosen Milwaukee to host their 2020 national convention. The convention will be held July 13-16. "I am ecstatic," Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said when asked about the news Monday morning. The Democratic National Committee's decision will take the party to the heart of the working-class Upper Midwest that delivered President Donald Trump to the White House. Before 2016, Republicans hadn't won Wisconsin since 1984. Trump added Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania to upset Hillary Clinton. DNC Chairman Tom Perez picked Milwaukee over Miami and Houston. It will be the first time in more than a century that Democrats gather in a Midwest city other than Chicago to nominate their presidential candidate. Milwaukee also will be one the smallest cities to host a presidential convention, topping two other finalist cities that have hosted national political conventions and Super Bowls. Last July, the Republican National Committee announced it had selected Charlotte, North Carolina, to host the GOP's 2020 convention from Aug. 24-27. Per political tradition, the party that holds the White House typically holds its convention after the opposing party. In Minnesota's Twin Cities, Jews and Somali immigrants have been partners for decades. When Somali refugees arrived in Minnesota, starting in 1993, Jewish leaders saw echoes of their forebears who faced virulent anti-Semitism as newcomers to the state more than a century before. The communities developed strong ties, joining to fight hunger and illiteracy and raising money for one another in response to discrimination and threats of violence. Then came the election to Congress last year of Ilhan Omar, a Somali immigrant who spent four years in a refugee camp as a child and arrived in Minnesota as a teenager. An outspoken critic of Israel, Omar has courted controversy with provocative remarks that some say invoke anti-Semitic stereotypes. The pattern has alarmed many Jews, and as Omar faced yet another firestorm last week, community leaders on both sides voiced pain and confusion, fearing that the comments could damage an alliance they have spent years trying to nurture. Somali community activist Omar Jamal of St. Paul said he is in touch with local Jewish leaders about how the two sides can reaffirm their solidarity at a moment of crisis. He said that he supported Omar's congressional campaign but that her comments are "wrong, period." "She can solve this problem if she wants to," Jamal said. "This is up to Ilhan Omar. She has really spoken in a very dangerous way, and it's going to be up to her to reach out to people and fix this." The controversy has roiled the Twin Cities, where Omar, a Democrat, represents Minneapolis and its large Somali-American community, as well as several neighborhoods that have been home to Jews for generations. The liberal and racially diverse 5th Congressional District was previously represented by state Attorney General Keith Ellison, who made history as the first Muslim elected to Congress in 2006. Omar joined the House this year as one of its first two Muslim women, drawing national media attention, as well as ugly and Islamophobic attacks from the right. She has been both apologetic and defiant as she faces backlash for comments she says were intended to criticize Israel, not Jews. "I am told everyday that I am anti-American if I am not pro-Israel," Omar tweeted March 3 in response to critics. "I find that to be problematic and I am not alone. I just happen to be willing to speak up on it and open myself to attacks." More for you Pelosi struggles to unify Democrats after fight over anti-Semitism This perspective has drawn sympathy from some Jews who oppose Israeli policy in the West Bank and see accusations of anti-Semitism against Omar as politically motivated attacks. But others have doubts about her underlying feelings. Steve Hunegs, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, said he recently told Omar why many Jews are offended when they are accused of dual loyalty, showing her a picture of a cousin who was killed in action during World War II. About a week later, on Feb. 27, Omar told an audience at a town hall event in Washington that accusations of anti-Semitism were meant to silence her criticism of Israel and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. She said she wanted to talk about "the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country." "It appalled me," Hunegs said. "It appalled me because we had had at least a one-way discussion in her presence with the picture of my cousin. You have to ask: Did she understand?" Omar tweeted in 2012 that Israel had "hypnotized the world" about its "evil doings" and in February that support for Israel among members of Congress was "all about the Benjamins," a reference to hundred-dollar bills. She has apologized for both tweets and said she was unaware of the phrases' dark history in reinforcing negative stereotypes about Jews. Omar and her staff have sat down with Jewish groups and leaders in recent weeks. But that has not quieted concerns among some critics. "Her words and her communications are anti-Semitic," said state Sen. Ron Latz, a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Latz, who is Jewish, spoke with Omar last year about her 2012 tweet. "I'm not going to try to judge what's in her heart, but I see the pattern of what she's saying. She clearly learned the attitude and the behavior from somewhere." Omar declined interview requests from The Post, and her office declined to answer wide-ranging written questions about her views on Israel and the criticism she has received. Senior aide Jeremy Slevin promised that a forthcoming op-ed piece in an unspecified publication would more fully explain Omar's views, and he pointed to a recent interview in which she endorsed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The first time Omar spoke publicly and at length about her views on the conflict was during a 2017 floor speech in the Minnesota House of Representatives, where she served one term representing part of Minneapolis. Omar invoked the "particular connection" between Muslims and Jews, "one that is fundamentally based on our shared space in history," while discussing a bill related to the movement to boycott Israel. "I am certainly saddened by the rise of anti-Semitism," she said. "I have been part of a community that has been raising funds to support the Jewish community in this time of need, because as my community is struggling . . . the Jewish community has been side-by-side fighting with us." Omar, 37, has said her grandfather taught her about the history of racial oppression in South Africa. She frequently compares Israel with an "apartheid regime." "I remember my grandfather talking to me about the stories of apartheid South Africa and telling me how that conversation shifted because so many people of conscience . . . decided that they were going to engage in boycotts of that government," she said in her 2017 floor speech. Omar's family arrived in the United States when she was 12. For four years, they had lived in the Dadaab refugee camp in eastern Kenya, home to thousands of Somalis who fled the country's bloody civil war. Latz, the Minnesota state senator, said he understands why Omar's background as a refugee has shaped her views. "The sense I get is that the Western powers were probably propping up the oppressors in her world as she was growing up," he said. "Anything she would have heard about Israel and Palestine would have been supportive of the Palestinians, many of whom were also living in refugee camps." Omar has defenders within the local Jewish community, particularly among those who have strong objections to current Israel policy. "She's not an anti-Semite," said Barry Cohen, a leader with the Twin Cities chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, which opposes Israeli occupation of the West Bank. "The way I look at it, how and why would she necessarily have an understanding of Jewish history and Israeli history in any depth any more than any member of Congress has understanding or knowledge of Somali history or culture? . . . This is politics in its ugliest form." On Capitol Hill, the House responded to Omar's comments Thursday by passing a broad measure condemning hatred. Asked Friday about the controversies, several Somali Americans in Minneapolis came to Omar's defense, particularly in light of a poster discovered this month at the West Virginia Capitol that featured an image of her underneath one of the World Trade Center towers in flames on Sept. 11. "Ilhan has nothing to do with that. That's not what America stands for," said Abdi Ali, 40, who runs the Barwaaqo Juice and Coffee shop in Minneapolis's Midtown Phillips neighborhood. Of the criticism Omar faces, Ali said: "I think Ilhan is a soft target because of her background - being Muslim, black, immigrant." Jamal, the Somali community activist, said Omar's use of allegedly anti-Semitic stereotypes does not reflect his community's view of Jews. He wrote a column in 2014 urging Somali Americans to reject anti-Semitism. "Of course, she has every right to offer opinions about the state of Israel, but I think this was beyond that and I think we completely disagree with it," he said. - - - The Washington Post Rachael Bade in Washington and Alexandra Baumhardt in Minneapolis contributed to this report. WASHINGTON - The Senate Intelligence Committee met in private Monday with Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos, whose husband unwittingly helped prompt the FBI investigation of President Donald Trump's campaign, as part of its ongoing probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. The panel asked Mangiante Papadopoulos about her former employer Joseph Mifsud, a London-based professor with suspected ties to the Kremlin, she told The Washington Post in a brief interview. Mifsud, prosecutors have said, offered to help her husband, George Papadopoulos, broker meetings between the Trump campaign and Russian officials - a subject of intense interest to special counsel Robert Mueller. George Papadopoulos, who also worked for Mifsud, spent two weeks in jail for lying to federal investigators about his contacts with Russians. Mifsud has told The Post he has no ties to Russia outside of academia. "I was happy to provide information," Mangiante Papadopoulos said, noting that congressional investigators sought her testimony because she has substantive knowledge of Mifsud. "Definitely not because I am a Russian spy," she added, a reference to accusations made on social media. Mangiante Papadopoulos said congressional investigators were more focused on her experience working with Mifsud than what she knew of her husband's activities during the campaign. Spokeswomen for the committee's leadership declined to comment. George Papadopoulos sparked federal investigators' interest in Trump because of a 2016 conversation Papadopoulos had with an Australian diplomat in which he indicated that the Russians had obtained emails damaging to Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton. The conversation occurred weeks before the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks made such emails public. Trump and those close to him have taken pains to distance themselves from Papadopoulos, denying that he played an important role in the campaign. But Papadopoulos has asserted that when he offered to use his contacts to reach out to Russia, Trump "nodded with approval," according to his lawyer. Mifsud ran an organization, the London Center of International Law Practice, where Mangiante Papadopoulos and her husband had worked. Mangiante Papadopoulos was hired after working for the European Parliament but left after three months. She has since suggested that Mifsud's operation was a "facade for something else," and that neither she nor her husband ever fully understood Mifsud's work. She told the Guardian newspaper last year that Mifsud never paid her. As The Post previously reported, Mifsud claimed in private to have several Russian contacts - and to have even met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In March 2016, according to court documents, he introduced George Papadopoulos to a woman he identified as "Putin's niece" - though she was not - to discuss arranging a meeting and "U.S.-Russia ties under President Trump." Papadopoulos later disclosed the exchange to Trump's national campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis, according to court documents. The next month, Mifsud told Papadopoulos that Russia had "dirt" on Clinton, including "thousands of emails," according to court documents. Papadopoulos also reached out several times to former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to offer to connect the campaign with Russian officials. It is not clear whether Lewandowski ever engaged him, though Clovis appears to have encouraged Papadopoulos's work, The Post has previously reported. A lawyer for Clovis has denied that, saying he was just being polite. - - - The Washington Post's Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report. Shootouts between soldiers and presumed organized crime members left six dead in and around Nuevo Laredo on Saturday and resulted in the temporary closure of the highway between the city and Monterrey. Military forces repelled three armed attacks in two separate incidents in which they faced at least one caravan of trucks with assassins, leaving multiple civilian vehicles overturned. WASHINGTON - The Trump administration has taken a harder-line approach for denuclearizing North Korea since their summit in Vietnam last month, raising doubts about whether the two sides will reach a deal on the centerpiece of President Donald Trump's foreign policy. In remarks Monday, a top U.S. envoy said the United States would not lift sanctions on North Korea until it completely dismantles its nuclear and ballistic missiles. The United States is also seeking an end to Pyongyang's chemical and biological weapons, he said. "We are not going to do denuclearization incrementally. The president has been clear on that," Steven Biegun, the special U.S. envoy for North Korea, said at a forum hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. Biegun added that there was "complete unity" inside the Trump administration on that approach. North Korea has long insisted that any steps it takes to denuclearize must be met with corresponding measures from the United States, including economic sanctions relief. The Trump administration's apparent rejection of that approach has left analysts baffled at where the two sides might find room to negotiate an eventual deal. "If we're going to stay firm on the maximalist position, it's hard to see where we go from here because there's no way Kim is going to accept this," said Vipin Narang, a North Korea expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In advance of Trump's meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam, U.S. negotiators considered a more modest deal that would trade some sanctions relief in exchange for the dismantlement of the Yongbyon nuclear complex, said diplomats familiar with the negotiations. The Yongbyon complex is a critical part of North Korea's nuclear program, but the country is believed to maintain missiles, warheads and enrichment facilities in other areas as well. Though Biegun appeared to be in favor of a more incremental approach before the summit, Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, has long opposed that strategy and has privately expressed his view that Biegun was offering too much to the North Koreans. Confronted with North Korea's insistence on major sanctions relief at the summit, the United States made a counterproposal demanding full sanctions relief for full denuclearization, said the diplomats, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations. North Korea refusal and the emergence of satellite imagery that appears to show activity at North Korean launch and assembly sites have fueled uncertainty about the future of the talks. Biegun said he could not explain the construction activity at the sites. Though he said the United States takes it "very seriously," he cautioned against drawing conclusions. In his remarks, Biegun insisted that "diplomacy is still very much alive" with North Korea, but the absence of any scheduled meetings between Washington and Pyongyang, and the initiation of suspicious construction activity at the Sohae site has raised concerns that the positive atmosphere between Trump and Kim could quickly unravel. "There is a serious risk of drift, and the North Koreans do appear to be sending a signal with the operations at Sohae that 'yes, we can reverse our nuclear and ballistic missile-testing halt,' " said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association. "It's a sobering reminder that without an agreement that verifies the dismantlement of North Korea's program, we can easily go back to a period of 'fire and fury' rhetoric." A Twitter user who said she was worried about an upcoming flight with her grandmother asked Delta Air Lines if it flew the Boeing 737 Max 8, and if so whether it would offer refunds so travelers could switch to another flight. Delta said it does not have the Max 8 in its fleet. American Airlines has 24 of the planes, with more on order. It was continuing to fly the plane, the airline said. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is urging President Donald Trump to name Houston's Ellington Field as United States Space Command headquarters. In a letter to the president dates March 4, Abbott argues that Houston is the best spot for the new Space Command headquarters, particularly Ellington Field with its spaceport designation from the Federal Aviation Administration and proximity to NASA's Johnson Space Center. "As you know, Texas has a long and proud history of supporting our military," Abbott said. "We also have the resources, universities, and human capital to support something as important to the Nation's future as the Space Command and Space Force." MISSION MOON: How 50 years of space exploration defined Houston He noted that Ellington Field is already home to the Texas Army and Air National Guard, Army Reserve, Navy Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve, and Coast Guard, as well as NASA flight operations. "Houston has supported the aerospace, aviation, and defense industries for decades, giving it a workforce that can get the Space Command headquarters up and running as fast as possible," Abbott said. The Space Force would live within the Department of the Air Force, if approved by Congress. 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 Jury selection is scheduled to begin today in the retrial of a San Antonio woman who was convicted of soliciting the kidnapping and slaying of her ex-boyfriend in 2010 and sentenced to 70 years in prison. The defendant, Vanessa Cameron, 38, is being retried after she won an appeal over a technicality that occurred during jury selection. The daughter of a retired San Antonio police sergeant, Cameron was convicted in 2012 in what was called a failed scheme to collect a hefty life insurance payout by orchestrating the death of her childs father, VIA bus driver Samuel Allen Johnson Jr., 26. A week after the slaying, Camerons mother, then-Sgt. Sylvia Cameron, drove her daughter to the police station to talk to a homicide detective. FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox During the videotaped interview, introduced as evidence in her first trial, Vanessa Cameron admitted that she knew Johnson was going to be killed. Her motive for soliciting his slaying, prosecutors argued, was jealousy over his new girlfriend and a $750,000 life insurance policy. A San Antonio jury convicted her of murder and sentenced her to 70 years in prison. Cameron appealed, arguing that her constitutional right to a public jury trial was violated. Camerons conviction was overturned after her attorney argued that her relatives werent allowed in the crowded courtroom during jury selection, thus violating her constitutional right to a public trial. During jury selection, the 379th state District courtroom was so crowded that Judge Ron Rangel ordered that all of the doors be opened to his court, including the ones that led to his back offices and the two sets of double doors at the entrance. In its motion, the state argued that while the pool of potential jurors took up all 65 seats inside Rangels courtroom, accommodations could have been made to seat other spectators had the defense made the choice to bring them in. The state wrote in its motion that trial judges are not ushers and shouldnt have the responsibility of rounding up spectators for trial. RELATED: San Antonio jury hands killer 75 years for friend's murder In 2014, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted Cameron a new trial. Cameron had three co-defendants her sister Susan Marie Sutton, 40, and her then-common-law husband, Bernard Brown, 33, and his cousin, LaKisha Brown, 36. She and Sutton each pleaded guilty to murder in 2013 and both agreed to testify against the others in exchange for 25-year prison terms. Prosecutors alleged Sutton lured Johnson to a house and told him she had money that was owed to him by her sister. Once there, LaKisha Brown told police she hit Johnson in the head with a two-by-four, and helped handcuff and tie his legs. As the man begged for mercy, LaKisha Brown put duct tape over his mouth. She told police she and her cousin put Johnson in the trunk of his own car and drove him to Seguin, where Bernard Brown shot Johnson several times, killing him. In October 2013, Bernard Browns attorneys successfully argued he was framed, and he was acquitted of murder by a jury, even though Sutton and LaKisha Brown testified against him and told the jury he was the triggerman. Mondays jury selection will be conducted in the 399th state District Court, the largest courtroom in the Cadena-Reeves Justice Center, where criminal trials are heard. RELATED: Two defendants sentenced in 2016 death of San Antonio man When testimony begins Tuesday morning, the panel will be in the 226th state District Court, with Judge Velia Meza presiding over the retrial. Prosecutors Karl Alexander, Jay Brandon and Ana Ochoa-Nelson are arguing for the state, while defense attorneys John Hunter and Gerald Goldstein are representing Cameron. If convicted, Cameron faces up to life in prison. Elizabeth Zavala covers county and state courts in San Antonio. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863 NEW BRAUNFELS A fine mist fell as dense clouds concealed the sun late Sunday morning, but the mediocre weather didnt stop Carla Ford and her clan from spending part of their spring break tubing on the Comal River. In fact, save for a group of scuba divers nearby, the Houston family pretty much had the river to themselves during their float. Ooh, this waters cold, shrieked Vanessa Rodgers, 49, after getting herself situated on a tube. Its not cold to me, said her plucky grandson, Justin Williams, 12. It was only 67 degrees cooler than the rivers temperature and roughly 20 degrees below what the mercury topped out at Saturday when about 80 people came out to Texas Tubes to kick-off tubing season. Really, tubing has not caught on too much as a true tourist destination for spring break, said Texas Tubes owner Coley Reno. A lot of people go to the coast. Weve always opened spring break if the weathers OK. RELATED: Texas tubing dos and don'ts Still, Memorial Day weekend generally marks the unofficial start of the tubing season on the Comal, San Marcos and Guadalupe rivers. Texas Tubes will be operating until the weather turns cold in the fall, Reno said. Ford and family came well-prepared for their adventure, wearing beach hats and water shoes while bringing reusable sport bottles filled with Gatorade or margaritas and a raft to transport a bulky speaker so they could have some tunes to listen to on their float. The family of 11 pretty much managed to get in their tubes without incident, except for Carmen Ford, 17, who tried jumping in her tube only to do a backflip into the river. Her flip-flops floated down the river without her before they were snagged by family members. As the family floated toward the tube chute at Prince Solms Park, some chose to climb out of their tubes and walk around. Negest Tsegaye, 18, though, headed down the chute that carried her into the roiling water below by the Float In bar and grill. Minutes later she was back, carrying her tube. I want to do it again, she said with a grin. A soaked Rodgers, meanwhile, recounted how she had somehow flipped her tube in the calm waters. I cant swim, she said. I thought I was a goner. There were no life guards on duty Sunday, unless you count Ben Bailey, 22, a Texas A&M University at Galveston student who was home on spring break. He previously has worked in the park as a life guard. Seeing Terry Demouchet, 34, heading down the chute without his tube, Bailey remarked, Im going to have to come out of retirement. The constant challenge of being a local ex-life guard. Fortunately for Baileys sake, Demouchet knew how to swim. Patrick Danner is a San Antonio-based staff writer covering banking and civil courts. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPD Harvest Health, which owns dispensaries or cultivation facilities in five states and trades on the Canadian Securities Exchange, has been eyeing an entrance into Illinois for a long time, said CEO Steve White. Illinois is an attractive market because it is a heavily populated state and lawmakers are drafting a bill to legalize adult-use marijuana, he said. Another court ruling makes clear that the Trump administrations reasons for an attempted insertion of a citizenship question in the U.S. census were contrived as in, built on what amount to lies. And, disturbingly, the ruling also points to the certainty that the questions intent is to achieve an undercount specifically to maintain and broaden one partys dominance. How does it do that? An undercount undermines one key function of the census. The count, aside from determining federal spending in the states, also is used to determine each states representation in Congress and the number of Electoral College votes. A census that fails to accurately count, say, immigrants even if theyre not documented will mean less representation for those states with high immigration populations. Think Texas, California and other Southwestern and Western states. But the fact is that immigrants, documented or otherwise, are everywhere. They are, however, concentrated in a handful of states. A citizenship question in the census cant help but dampen response both from households solely with undocumented immigrants in them and households with legal residents but which also contain undocumented relatives. And in some cases, this will mean even citizens arent counted in those households with undocumented immigrant parents and citizen children. This chilling effect on participation is a certainty in these fevered times on immigration. The presidents us-them, theyre-all-criminals rhetoric and his zero tolerance and deportation policies are fresh in memory. In these communities, there will be absolutely no confidence that the census will remain anonymous, nor that the data wont be used to target immigrants. The commerce secretary made what the court described as bad faith rationales for the question. Instilling this fear, its clear, was the point. The Constitution is even clearer on another point. It says the census should count every person, not just those eligible to vote, as in just native-born and naturalized citizens. The administration may be attempting an end run around the courts with a pending agreement first reported by the Associated Press between the Census Bureau and the Department of Homeland Security that the latter agency share its data on noncitizens. The agreement stipulates that the Census Bureau cannot share that information with other agencies, but there will simply be no trust that this will be honored. The mere existence of this deal will undermine such confidence amid fears that the Census Bureau will craft a noncitizen registry. As with a previous court ruling in New York, this ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco slams Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for essentially lying about why the citizenship question was necessary. He initially said it was at the Justice Departments request to help it in applying the Voting Rights Act. It soon became plain that he asked the Justice Department to make the request and that Census Bureau analysts believed the question would hurt an accurate count. This latest ruling goes a step further than the previous one. It found a breach of the Constitutions enumeration clause. The U.S. Supreme Court was already scheduled to hear an appeal on the New York ruling next month. It might now consider the constitutionality question. It should. So, if Texas is a state with a high concentration of immigrants, why would it not be leading the charge against this citizenship question? For the answer to that, one need look no further than the state leaderships efforts for years to stay Republican red a voter ID law, third-party voter registration rules and gerrymandering, to name a few. But there is a larger question here. On voter ID and gerrymandering alone, various courts have laid bare the discriminatory intent to restrict voting of those likely to vote Democratic think not just minorities but young people. This evidence of intent will exist even if the U.S. Supreme Court stacked with conservative justices, thanks in part to a GOP Senates refusal to act on an Obama nominee overturns these rulings. Where is the outrage over intentional discrimination by elected officials and public entities? Our hope is that the Supreme Court majority not find some expedient justification in the laws technicalities to paper over the unforgivable, but that it look at what is hiding in plain sight that intentional discrimination. In the case of the census and for voting laws and redistricting, the desire to maintain political dominance should have no place. When KiwiSaver started in 2007, there was a lukewarm response to implementing a national superannuation plan. Little did the politicians of the time truly realise they were putting in the foundations for New Zealanders to build a savings culture and develop long term wealth. More than 2.9 million people, including children, now have KiwiSaver savings topping $50 billion dollars which gives an average balance of $17,138. We only need to look at Australia, which is about 30 years ahead of us with their superannuation, to see the benefits of saving through your entire working life and having enough savings to provide a meaningful retirement lifestyle. Australians top the world median wealth charts and their superannuation schemes contribute strongly to this. With KiwiSaver, New Zealanders similarly have an excellent opportunity to actively save for their retirement. I have given investment advice to hundreds of people who have wanted help with their KiwiSaver and there are five common keys that lead to long-term success: 1. Place your KiwiSaver balance in a fund which is right for your investment timeline. How long will it be before you access your money? 2. Look to increase your contribution rate from 3 per cent to 4 per cent or 8 per cent. It will make a significant difference to your KiwiSaver balance on retirement. 3. Ensure your Prescribed Investor Rate (PIR) tax rate is correct. 4. When choosing a KiwiSaver fund to invest in, look at the funds performance, as there is some variation. Dont just look at the cheapest fees as the fund performance figures are more influential in growing your KiwiSaver balance. 5. Are you interested in certain types of investing? Is socially responsible investment important to you? Find a KiwiSaver that matches your style. I have seen a raft of issues with KiwiSaver where people have been in the incorrect funds, unnecessarily incurring the default maximum 28 per cent tax rate, or simply in poor performing funds. The impacts can be large. For example, one client in a Cash Enhanced Fund from 2007 to 2017 received a 2.1 per cent return on their investment. Had they been correctly invested in a Growth Fund, they would have doubled their funds with the better investment returns, so these issues can be significant. As fund balances grow significantly over the next 10 years, we all need to become more informed or need to seek financial advice to ensure our KiwiSaver money is working hard for us and we get a good rate of growth. If you have questions regarding the above five points, you should feel free to ask your KiwiSaver provider for personalised advice from an Authorised Financial Adviser (AFA). An AFA is the required qualification in New Zealand to give investment advice. You shouldnt need to pay anything extra for this service if you have a good KiwiSaver provider. As an alternative, look for an AFA working independently. A number of KiwiSaver providers will pay for them to provide you with the advice you are looking for. Dave Managh RMA Financial Rodney MPs Mark Mitchell and Marja Lubeck have taken diametrically opposing positions on a Capital Gains Tax (CGT) proposed by the Governments Tax Working Group. At the end of February, the group suggested the Government should impose a capital gains tax on investment properties, shares, business assets and farms. The group reckons this will reap $8 billion in revenue over five years and recommends the money be used to cut income taxes for middle and low income earners. Mark Mitchell But National MP, and MP for Rodney, Mark Mitchell says the proposed tax is an attack on ordinary New Zealanders ability to invest and save for their retirement. The last thing New Zealand needs is more taxes, but it seems like thats the automatic response from this Government to any issue impose another tax, he says. Mr Mitchell says the proposed CGT would be one of the most onerous capital taxation regimes in the world. He says those hurt most would be those on modest incomes, innovators and entrepreneurs. It is a tax on anyone who takes the initiative, works hard and tries to make something of themselves, he says. This isnt about taxing the rich this will hit people on middle incomes. Marja Lubeck But Rodney-based MP, and Labour-list MP, Marja Lubeck disagrees, saying imposing a CGT will make the tax system much fairer ensuring more tax is paid by wealthier households. I believe it is really important especially considering growing inequality that our tax system is fit for purpose now, as well as for future generations, she says. She says it doesnt seem fair that a person who earns $50,000 in wages will pay $8,020 in tax on that income, while someone who makes a $50,000 capital gain from the sale of a rental property ends up paying no tax on that gain. Meanwhile, KGA Warkworth chief executive, Jacqueline Ironside, says she agrees that treating capital gains the same as other forms of income for tax purposes is fundamentally a fairer system. She says there is a lot of money being made by big businesses and wealthy people buying and selling companies and shares and currently not paying tax on the capital gain from those transactions, when they ought to do so. But at the same time, she worries middle income earners could be unfairly hard hit by a CGT. She cites the example of an older couple who downsize their home and put money into a rental property, which then becomes subject to CGT. She is also concerned about small business owners. A small business owner may not earn a heck of a lot, but if they sell their business for $500,000, the capital gain on that could be, say, $200,000. They will pay 33 per cent on that, which I believe is unfair, she says. Ms Ironside says if a CGT is introduced, an exemption should be available for small business owners and marginal tax rates should be adjusted to reduce the tax burden for low and middle income earners. Meanwhile, Ms Lubeck says the Government will now take some time to consider the Tax Working Group proposals. The working groups report contains 99 recommendations for a more balanced tax system and the Government is not bound to accept all of them. Further announcements will happen in April, but anything the Coalition Government agrees to wont come into force until after the next election giving New Zealanders the chance to vote on any decisions made by the Government, she says. Related stories Farmers speak up on CGT Inventor and professor of applied science Dr Cyrus Varans first book is, as youd expect, thoughtful and rigorously researched. Now in his eighties, Cyrus lives in Red Beach. He says he is best known internationally for one of his patented inventions a system for capping underwater oil wells. Cyrus has lived on the Hibiscus Coast for around 20 years and says for all those years he has been thinking and reading about the nature of creation and wanted to share his conclusions with the wider public. The Wisdom and Wonder of Life is the result, and Cyrus offers it as a gift to the community to anyone who is looking for purpose and meaning in life. In the book, he draws together the views of great minds, such as Albert Einstein, along with the latest scientific discoveries, mathematical probability, biology, astronomy and physics all of which brought him to the conclusion that life cannot have begun as a series of chance events, but was the result of purposeful creation. He uses the example of a paper clip. It was invented because a need was recognised, followed by a solution, which was designed and fabricated. In the same way DNA, in all its complexity, is also an objective design and human beings can only be a purposeful creation. Cyrus, says the essence of a creator is beyond human comprehension and he seems happy to leave it that way he says it is certainly not a book about God. I want people to know there is a purpose for their existence that it can in no way be the result of random chance, he says. I think that makes life more bearable. All proceeds from the book are donated to charity. Mahurangi residents have put together a comprehensive plan to solve major environmental and traffic hazards if permission is granted for a controversial landfill, just north of the Dome Valley. A major concern with the landfill, proposed by industry giant Waste Management is that it would see an extra 300 heavy trucks a day on a stretch of State Highway 1 that is already notorious for accidents and fatalities. But the Mahurangi East Residents and Ratepayers Association (MERRA) says this problem could be solved if the bulk of the waste was transported by rail, not road. In a paper on its proposal, MERRA says it does not support the establishment of a landfill in such a sensitive and beautiful spot, but concedes such projects are driven by powerful needs and interests and they can be both difficult and expensive to stop. The paper goes on to point out that the much under-used Auckland to Whangarei railway line passes within 2km of the landfill site. It proposes construction of a short spur rail line to the site where waste could be unloaded from trains. The paper envisages the creation of truck-to-rail compacting stations close to the source of the waste, such as metropolitan Auckland. Rubbish would be loaded into standard shipping containers adapted to be top loading and self-closing. Trains could be scheduled to avoid peak commuter times, possibly travelling at night. The paper argues that the rail proposal fits well with Auckland Transports regional land transport planning, which is wrestling with the problem of moving goods efficiently on congested roads. Roads currently handle more than 85 per cent of Aucklands freight. It would also bolster government moves to upgrade the Auckland to Whangarei railway, adding significant benefits for the money invested. The paper says the alternative prospect of hundreds of trucks travelling through the Dome Valley is unacceptable. In addition to posing a traffic hazard, they would burn close to 20,000 litres of fuel daily, adding to carbon emissions. KiwiRail group general manager, sales and commercial, Alan Piper says KiwiRail has been in discussions with Waste Management to service the landfill site via rail. But he says so far, these talks have been general rather than detailed. Further work would be needed before the economic and practical viability of shifting waste by train to the landfill site in Dome Valley can be assessed, he says. Considerations would need to include the impact on existing services, the capacity of the North Auckland line and the costs of any upgrades or extensions to the line. But he stresses that rail had an important role to play in reducing congestion on roads and cutting emissions. Freight on rail has 66 per cent fewer carbon emissions compared compared to heavy road freight. Waste Management managing director Tom Nickels says the company remains open to a rail option if existing rail infrastructure is upgraded. This may well occur if a proposed relocation of Ports of Auckland to Northport takes place, as it will require upgrading transfer infrastructure at Wellsford. But Mr Nickels says Waste Management has previously trialled sending waste by rail to its landfill site at Redvale, but unfortunately it was not viable for various reasons. Therefore, at present we are proposing transport by road for the proposed landfill, he says. Meanwhile, Fight the Tip: Tiaki Te Whenua chair Dave Sawyer remains unimpressed by the rail option because he says the major problem with the landfill is that it will poison local waterways. By bringing up this new conversation about whether we should transfer waste by road or by rail is a total side tracking of the issue, he says. Waste Management is aiming to apply to Auckland Council for a resource consent for the proposed landfill next month. Its not every day that the Swiss ambassador turns up to your party to say happy birthday, so when this happened to 91-year-old Ritta Imhof last month, she was surprised and excited. Ritta, now a resident of Maygrove, was born in Switzerland and came to New Zealand at the age of 22 with her two aunts in 1950. She married Konrad Imhof, also originally from Switzerland, in 1952. The couple farmed in various locations and moved to Orewa in the 1980s to be near their grandchildren. Ritta remembers Riverside Road in those days as a dead end street with fields nearby that were the remains of a farm. Ritta and Konrad made many new friends in the local area and hosted a lot of overseas visitors their home became known as Hotel Imhof. As Rittas 91st birthday approached, the Swiss Embassy asked her family whether they could send representatives to wish her well. Swiss Ambassador, David Vogelsanger, and the Honorary Consul of the Auckland Swiss Consulate, Adrian Blaser, then came to Maygrove and presented Ritta with a book of photographs of Switzerland. A prosecutor has told a murder trial that the accused told gardai that he was going to sort out the deceased the night before he stabbed him to death outside a shopping centre. Patrick McGrath was outlining the States case to the jury yesterday (Monday) in the Central Criminal Court trial of a 26-year-old man accused of murdering another man in Longford. Rihards Lavickis, originally from Latvia, but with an address at Annaly court, Longford is charged with the murder of Polish man Akadiusz Czajkowski on 1st November 2016 at Rue Noyal Chatillon, Townspark in the town. The father-of-one has pleaded not (NOT) guilty to murder, but guilty to manslaughter. However, Mr McGrath told the jury that, according to the prosecution, this plea did not meet the facts of the case. He said that the deceased had recently come to live in Ireland, while the accused had lived here since he was 14. Neither man was working at the time of the killing, and deceased, who also lived in Longford, had developed a drink problem. He said that the jury would hear of a dispute and friction between them and that there had been an interaction between them near Longford Shopping Centre the evening before the stabbing. It was Halloween. He said that the accused had woken the following morning to find that his front windows had been smashed. He took the view that the deceased was somehow responsible and called the gardai. The guards were told by the accused that he was going to sort out the deceased, said Mr McGrath. The guards advised him against this. However, Mr McGrath said that the accused took a knife and went out looking for the deceased. He said that CCTV footage would show that hed later concealed himself in a gap in a wall near the shopping centre as the deceased approached. Youll see Mr Lavickis coming out from the gap and chasing or running at the deceased, crossing the road with his arm lifted and with what the prosecution says is a knife in his hand, he explained. The actual stabbing is not caught on CCTV. Mr McGrath said that there was no dispute that the accused had stabbed him three times outside a shop close to where this footage was captured. Mr Czajkowski died enroute to hospital. He informed the jury that the accused had admitted stabbing the accused, when questioned by gardai. The core question in the case is likely to be intent, he said. The prosecution says that when you take the various strands of evidence, this is a case where you will be entitled to reach the conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt that he intended to kill him or cause serious harm, he continued. If we do (prove this) you will be obliged to return a verdict of guilty of murder. The trial continues before Mr Justice Michael White and a jury of eight men and four women. Its expected to run for about 10 days. Under traditional Medicaid, the state pays hospitals and doctors for each service they provide to Medicaid beneficiaries. But under Medicaid managed care, the state pays the companies a set amount per member, regardless of how much care that member needs. In Illinois, about two-thirds of all people on Medicaid are in managed care, with the rest still part of the state-administered, traditional system. Medicaid is a state and federally funded health insurance program that serves many low-income people. A Brazilian man accused of driving with no insurance and being found at the wheel with no driving licence to his name, has been given bail. Suelmor Rocha Da Silva, of 115 Mostrim Oaks, Edgeworthstown, appeared at last weeks sitting of Longford District Court having been stopped by gardai earlier that morning. Garda Declan Miley said at around 11:40am at Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath, he stopped a vehicle allegedly being driven by the accused. After a brief discussion, Garda Miley said Mr Da Silva initially provided him with a false name and address. READ MORE: New documents uncover true extent of crime in council-owned estates in Longford. As a consequence, he was transferred to Athlone Garda Station and charged shortly after 2pm. He also said during his investigations and while Mr Da Silva was in custody, he discovered there had been an outstanding bench warrant in place. Garda Miley said the State would be applying for Mr Da Silva to be remanded on bail to a court sitting scheduled for yesterday (Tuesday). The 40-year-old was remanded on continuing bail to a court sitting in Tullamore for March 12 next. Updated 10/21/21: With the Unleashed October event in the rear view mirror, we dont expect any more events in 2021, with the possible exception of developer awards or Apple Music awards, neither of which are product-focused events for the general public. We have updated this guide with a preview of what we might expect in 2022. Apple doesnt often participate in big industry-wide events like CES or E3. The most valuable company in the world holds its own events, thank you very much. Several times a year, Apple invites the press and industry professionals out to a theater (or a computer screen) to hear all about its latest products and services. Apple calls these Special Events, and streams them online to its millions of fans. Theres also WWDC, Apples Worldwide Developer Conference, a multi-day event in the middle of the year focused on sessions for developers, helping them make the most out of the latest Apple tools and products. It kicks off with a big keynote that serves to announce new products (typically the latest versions of iOS and macOS, as well as a few hardware products). This article will be updated periodically as we get a clearer picture of when Apple will hold its yearly events, and which products it may introduce. Apple is a very secretive company, and the leaks and rumors about its products are often wrong. Bear that it mind: you never really know what Apple is going to do until the company makes a public announcement! PROMOTION Want the new iPhone? Sell your phone and upgrade to the new iPhone with Decluttr! They pay 33% more than carriers and will lock in your price for 28 days! Whats my device worth? Spring 2022: iMac, iPads, and iPhone SE? Apple has held an event in the spring for five of the last seven years. As the companys portfolio of products and services grows, its getting harder to cram them all into just two or three events. The spring event typically takes place in March, but in 2021 the spring event was in April. What might Apple announce in 2022? The iPhone SE was last updated in 2020, and current iPhone SE rumors suggest a refreshed model in 2022. There are conflicting rumors about what to expect, but most think the new iPhone SE will resemble the current model, updated with an A15 processor and 5G capabilities. Apple also has some more Macs to unveil as it furthers its transition away from Intel chips to Apple Silicon. There are two rumored products that could be ready in time for a spring announcement: A new 27-inch iMac with mini-LED ProRes display and M1 Pro or M1 Max processor, and an updated Mac mini with those same new processors. A spring event would mark one year since the last iPad Pro update, so we might see a new model with an M2 processor that carries forth the architectural improvements of the A15. June 2022: WWDC Apple always holds its week-long developers conference in June, typically in the first or second full week of the month. We expect WWDC 2022 to land in the June 6-10 week, though the 13-17 is a possibility. Apple always reveals its new operating systems at WWDC, which means: iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS 13, watchOS 9, and tvOS 16. New hardware sometimes makes an appearance at WWDC as well, and its usually the stuff that developers care most about: Pro model Macs. MacBook Pro models were just announced in late 2021, but the Mac Pro desktop could make an appearance, as could the Mac mini (a favorite product among developers), along with an external monitor. September 2022: iPhones and Apple Watch September is the month when Apple announces new iPhones and a new Apple Watch. We expect the iPhone 14 to offer a somewhat new design, and of course better performance and cameras. The Apple Watch Series 8 could bring the design changes we expected in 2021 but didnt get, like flat edges and additional colors. Theres also talk of potentially expanding the Watch line to three sizes. October/November 2022: Additional products Of course, Apple has plenty of other products to keep us up to date on. 2022 could see a new AirPod Pro update, Apple TV, a new MacBook Air, and of course a new version of the iPad or iPad mini. Any of these products could come in an October or November event. Apple has a number of services nowApple TV+, Fitness+, iCloud+, Music, News, and Arcadeand major improvements to them can be announced at any time. Of course, theres also room for new products, like the AR/VR headset we keep hearing about but never seems to materialize. Well have a better idea of what to expect from a year-end event as 2022 progresses. Awards and honors Apple has given out app awards for years, but 2019 was the first time there was an actual ceremony for such. The Best of 2019 app awards were held at a small December event in New York, with mostly the nominated developers and some press in attendance. It was not streamed online. Also for the first time in 2019, Apple held an awards ceremony for Apple Music. There was a live-streamed performance by Artist of the Year Billie Elish as part of it, the event as a whole was kept mostly to the music industry. In 2020, these events were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Awards were still given, but there was no event. At a Glance Experts Rating Pros Company doesnt keep logs Easy to navigate interface Cons Requires more personal data than other services Lower speeds Our Verdict PrivateVPN by Trunkspace Hosting has the beginnings of a good service with its promise not to do any kind of logging of customer data. But other VPNs offer more features, and the speeds could be better. On top of that, Trunkspace asks for an unusual amount of personal information from its customerseven those who wish to pay with methods other than credit cards. Best Prices Today Retailer Price Delivery Trunkspace Hosting $50.00 View Trunkspace Hosting is an interesting company. It offers virtual private server (VPS) and website hosting, music bots for the Discord chat service, and even game servers for titles such as Minecraft, CS:GO, and Team Fortress 2. The company also has its own VPN service dubbed PrivateVPNnot to be confused with PrivateVPN.com. Its a very straightforward and simple service that promises not to track your actions online, and delivers connectivity options for 48 different countries. Note: This review is part of our best VPNs roundup. Go there for details about competing products and how we tested them. Trunkspace PrivateVPN: Security, software, servers, and speed Trunkspace PrivateVPN with an active connection. Trunkspace says it does not log any of your information at all when connected to its service. And according to its updated Privacy Policy, IP addresses, connection timestamps, disconnect timestamps, bandwidth usage, and DNS requests are not at all logged. We achieve (and guarantee) this by having all log data output to /dev/null, so no data is stored anywhere for any length of time. The company is based in Montreal and its CEO is Atif Khan. Trunkspace uses the same interface on Windows and Mac for its service. Its a single panel that lists all the various locations available in the 48 countries Trunkspace supports. Select the country location you want and click the Connect/Disconnect button. As PrivateVPN connects, the banner towards the top of the window changes from red (no VPN connection), yellow (connection in process), to green (connected). Click the hamburger menu icon in the upper left corner to access the apps settings. Theres a Stealth VPN option to help users get around firewalls that block VPN connections, and the Mac app has a special Switch Driver option for compatibility with older Macs. Under Advanced Config, theres an Internet kill switch option called Disable Internet on disconnect. Finally, Trunkspace offers a Routing section that sends traffic from only specified domains over the VPN, such as email, for example. Overall, the app is fine. Its simple enough to use and understand, but if theres one thing I dont like, its that the app itself doesnt sit on the Dock. Instead, theres a nondescript circular icon in the status menu area at the top right. This is not particularly uncommon for VPNs on Mac, but I believe the status icon should be unique and recognizable so that you understand what youre looking at. As for speeds, taking a look at the average speeds across five locations (USA, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and Japan) during three different testing periods, Trunkspace retained 19.56 percent of my baseline bandwidth speeds overall. Few of the speeds I experienced were particularly bad, and most should be serviceable. But overall they werent as high as weve seen with other VPN services. Trunkspace PrivateVPNs settings. Trunkspaces PrivateVPN uses OpenVPN as its protocol. It also uses the following for encryption and authentication: Data encryption: AES-128-GCM (Default) / AES-256-GCM / DES-CBC (for backward compatibility with older routers) AES-128-GCM (Default) / AES-256-GCM / DES-CBC (for backward compatibility with older routers) Data authentication: SHA1 for HMAC authentication SHA1 for HMAC authentication Handshake: TLSv1.2 ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384, 2048 bit RSA Pricing Trunkspace currently charges $50 per year, or you can get a six-month commitment for $31.50, or pay month-to-month at $6.50 per month. As for the yearly charge, thats middle of the road for a VPN service. TunnelBear charges $60 per year, Mullvad is around $70, and Private Internet Access is just $40. For context, one of our favorite Mac VPNs, NordVPN, currently costs $84 a year but has a number of extra features such as double-hop connections and a guarantee to work with Netflix that arguably justify the greater cost. Trunkspace PrivateVPN is available as download directly from the companys site. The company says it does plan to add its app to the Mac App Store in the future. Conclusion Trunkspace is a perfectly respectable VPN service. The application itself isnt hard to use, but doesnt offer much in the way of added features. The no-logging promise is a good option for privacy, though during sign-up Trunkspace asks for your name, address, and phone number, which is not great if youre trying to remain as anonymous as possible. For the average person not trying to hide their tracks but wanting to remain private Trunkspaces PrivateVPN should be fine, but you can find more feature-rich alternatives, and VPNs with faster speeds. Editors Note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article. The future is here whanau! One of our best and most beloved delicacies is coming to Tamaki Makaurau's CBD. Chef and hangi connoisseur, Rewi Spraggon, will be dishing up traditional 'in-ground' hangi on Queens Wharf sevens days a week. The cafe earns the title of Auckland's first in-ground hangi cafe open to the public seven days a week, and will feature traditional hangi, breakfast wraps, hangi pies, and gourmet hangi sandwiches. Spraggon announced the opening on his Facebook page Hangi Master, where he also announced that there will be a hangi pit installed outside the shop in a month's time so people can experience the entire process of a traditional hangi. Police in Boston have released surveillance photographs of a man they are looking for in connection with the fatal stabbing of Alfred Rodriguez Nunez last month in East Boston. Authorities did not describe the man shown in the surveillance photos as a suspect. Officers were called to the area of Chelsea Street in East Boston on Feb. 17 for a report of a person stabbed. The stabbing was near the Taverna Medallo at about 2 a.m. Police found the victim with a stab wound. The man was rushed to a local hospital and died on Feb. 20, according to police. Family identified the stabbing victim as 31-year-old Alfred Rodriguez Nunez, according to NBC Boston. The television station reported that Nunez was the father of two children and lived in Revere. Anyone with information is asked to contact Boston Police Homicide Detectives at 617-343-4470. Federal authorities on Monday arrested a 36-year-old Boston man who they say had about 45 secretly-recorded videos of boys using the bathroom at Boston Latin School. In addition to filming the unsuspecting students at Boston Latin School, Eric Tran Thai is also accused of filming people in numerous public restroom locations throughout Greater Boston, officials said. Thai has been charged with five counts of sexual exploitation of children for secretly filming the students on 10 separate dates between February and December 2017, federal officials said. He is slated to appear in federal court in Boston on Monday afternoon. Thai was charged with filming Boston College students using the restroom on campus on two occasions last month, and in talking to police, admitted to not only taking some pictures of a man in the stall next to him without the mans consent, but to engaging in that activity for about a year, according to a statement from the office of U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling. Police searched Thais bag and discovered several covert camera devices, including faux smoke detectors, a water bottle containing a small cube recording device, and a pair of sunglasses outfitted with a built-in camera the statement said. Then, authorities searched Thais home on March 1 and seized about 26 computer hard drives, 20 thumb drives, 27 covert and regular cameras, 14 computers, iPads, and cell phones, and multiple SD and Sim cards. Investigators found several folders labeled BU, MIT, Harvard, Northeastern, Bunker Hill, Boston Latin High School, and several different malls, airports, and foreign country locations, the statement said. The folders labeled Boston Latin High School had about 45 secretly-recorded videos of male students in various states of dress using the urinals and stalls in a Boston Latin High School boys bathroom, according to Lellings office. In general, the videos show Thai sitting in a bathroom stall at Boston Latin High School recording individuals in adjacent stalls or at the urinals through various secret recording methods, the statement reads. In some videos, Thai appears to hold a camera over the top of the partition between the bathroom stalls and videotaping from overhead. In other instances, he appears to hide a small camera inside of his backpack, place the backpack on the bathroom floor and videotape individuals in the adjacent bathroom stall from under the stalls partition. It appears that the videos were created on 10 separate dates between February and December 2017, the statement said. While recording, it appears that Thai would simultaneously view what the camera was recording on a cellphone or a tablet device in his possession, the statement read. Based on this evidence, Thai was charged with five counts of sexual exploitation of children in violation of federal law. Officials did not say how Thai got access to the school. Thai is also accused of recording people in numerous public restroom locations throughout Greater Boston and elsewhere, Lellings office said. Investigators continue to analyze the data seized from Thais residence, officials said. Anyone who has questions, concerns, or information about this case is asked to call the U.S. Attorneys Office at 617-748-3274. President Xi Jinping Monday has led an outpouring of condolence messages from China to Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta over Sunday's deadly Ethiopian Airlines flight crash. The Boeing 737 Max-8 went down six minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa airport, killing all 157 people on board, including eight Chinese nationals. Rescuers work at the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines flight crash near Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, south of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Monday, March 11, 2019. [Photo: AP/Mulugeta Ayene] In his message, Xi said he was shocked to learn of the crash that has caused heavy casualties among nationals of several countries including Ethiopia, Kenya as well as China, and pledged to provide support and help to the Ethiopian government. Xi said he and the Chinese government and people deeply mourned the deceased and were sending sincere condolences to their families. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also offered condolences to his Ethiopian counterpart Abiy Ahmed. At a news conference on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang expressed sympathy to the families of the Chinese victims, saying they will be provided with all necessary support. "Local leaders are highly concerned about this aviation disaster involving Chinese citizens," Lu said. "The foreign ministry and the Chinese embassy in Ethiopia have begun providing services accordingly. The embassy has made contact with the families and is assisting them in any way they can." Lu also confirmed the identities of the Chinese victims, four of whom worked for Chinese companies, two were UN staff members, and two were tourists from Zhejiang and Liaoning provinces. I have been asking these questions, even though I know the answers, to reaffirm my belief that most of us (and I am guilty too) dont pay enough attention to the smaller details of the world around us, the city in which we live. Since the weather seems to be working its way toward warmth and we will be out and about more than we have been over the past few miserable months might I suggest keeping your eyes open. You might see all sorts of wonders you may have been missing. Louis D. Coleman III will remain in federal custody after he appeared in a Boston federal court on Monday in connection to the kidnapping and death of 23-year-old Jassy Correia. Coleman, 32, of Providence, appeared calm in an orange jumpsuit in the Moakley Courthouse in Boston on Monday. At the request of U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge M. Page Kelley, Coleman acknowledged that he had read over the complaint against him: a federal charge of kidnapping resulting in the death of Correia, a young mother from Dorchester who had been living in Lynn. Coleman, who was employed by Waltham-based defense contractor Raytheon prior to his arrest, said few words in the courtroom but agreed to have no detention hearing and waived his right to a preliminary hearing. Relatives of Correia, including her father Joaquin, sat in the front rows of the courtroom. They held hands, some wiping away tears as they saw the man authorities believe is responsible for their loved ones kidnapping and death. The family is just quality, wonderful people. And they have been put in a situation you cant even imagine, Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins said outside of the courthouse. I give them the utmost credit. Coleman was represented by two court-appointed attorneys, Jane Peachy and David Hoose. Hoose is an attorney based in Northampton who has defended suspects facing the death penalty in federal court. If convicted, the federal charge Coleman faces provides for a sentence of death or life in prison. Federal authorities in Massachusetts have not said if they will pursue the death penalty. Hoose is known for his experience on the Kristen Gilbert case, in which he convinced a jury to reject the death penalty for Gilbert, who was convicted in 2001 of killing four patients inside a Western Massachusetts veterans hospital. Authorities believe Coleman kidnapped Correia in the early morning hours on Feb. 24, after she had spent a night out at Venu nightclub in Boston celebrating her birthday. In the time Correia was missing, investigators swiftly targeted Coleman as a suspect through the use of search warrants and various surveillance footage near Venu nightclub and the suspects apartment in Rhode Island. He was arrested on Feb. 28, when Delaware State Troopers pulled him over and he allegedly told them, shes in the trunk." Troopers found Correia wrapped up with a sofa cushion, stuffed inside of a large suitcase in the trunk of the vehicle operated by Coleman, according to U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling. Lelling later said Correia died from strangulation and blunt force trauma. Federal authorities said surveillance footage from Colemans Providence apartment showed him carrying Correias limp body into his residence in the early morning hours on Feb. 24. Authorities said Coleman bought bleach, three Tyvek suits, duct tape, surgical gloves and other supplies after the alleged kidnapping, and could be seen on surveillance footage carrying Walmart bags into his apartment on Feb. 26. Two days later, authorities recovered the cleaning supplies, as well as a laptop computer and hard-drive, in the vehicle driven by Coleman. On March 4, Coleman appeared in Delaware federal court, where he waived his right to have detention and preliminary hearings in the District of Delaware. Coleman also faces multiple charges in Rhode Island, including kidnapping, refusal to report a death with intent to conceal, and mutilation of a dead body, according to the states attorney general office. The Suffolk County district attorney said that while the case is being handled by federal officials, her office is actively involved in the case. Rollins said it is her priority is to make sure Jassy Correias family remains informed on the court and criminal process with Coleman. Jassy is ours, shes from here. Her family lives here and we take this very seriously, Rollins said outside the courthouse Monday. We are not talking about jurisdiction...were talking about making sure Jassys family has answers. Rollins said that as district attorney, she is not eligible to charge someone with the death penalty and that her moral stance on the issue was irrelevant. The decision on that charge would be left in good hands to Attorney Lelling and the Department of Justice, Rollins said. The cost of riding the T is on the rise. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authoritys Fiscal and Management Control Board voted Monday to approve a proposed fare hike that drew criticism from city leaders and residents, while transportation officials say it is necessary and in line with other public transportation costs nationwide. MBTA fares will increase by 6.3 percent, on average, starting July 1. The vote passed 4 in favor, one abstaining. The MBTA shared the proposal earlier this year to raise fares, the first increase in three years. On Monday, the proposal was amended to keep bus fares and discounts for senior and students at current rates. Additionally, fare hikes will be frozen for the next three years. The meeting opened with public comment, which went for more than an hour and was overwhelmingly critical of the plan. The first to speak was Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu, who has been critical of the proposal. Calling the plan regressive and short-sighted," Wu asked the board to vote no. She called on the board to not make up budget shortfalls on the backs of riders, but instead look towards other long-term funding sources. She started a petition calling on the MBTA to not approve the fare hike, which has 3,200 signatures as of Monday. Wu is not the only city official to express concern. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh says the MBTA needs to explain to the public why its raising fees, before the proposed fare hike goes into effect. If the T wants to raise the fares they really have to explain to the public what exactly the fares go to and what the plans are long term, Walsh told reporters last month. He added Tuesday, Im pleased the MBTA adopted our recommendation to keep fares stable for seniors, riders with disabilities, and those who ride the bus. We still have further to go to ensure the MBTA is serving our residents equitably and effectively, but freezing rate hikes for those that would be impacted the most is the fair and responsible step forward towards a better transportation system for all. Since the proposal was announced in January, the board has held several public meetings to hear from and speak directly to the public. More than 100 people packed the State Transportation Building in Boston for a hearing in February. This board does not live in a vacuum, Joseph Aiello, the chairman of the board said Monday. We hear the comments and see the challenges of the region. 14 More than 100 people gather to speak on fare increase on the MBTA Under the proposal, rides on the subway would increase by 15 cents to $2.40 and a monthly pass would increase by $5.50 to $90. Bus rides will remain $1.80. Commuter rail passes would also see the fourth fare increase since 2012. Poftak said the MBTA will continue to keep safeguards for our most vulnerable customers by maintaining the same cash fare for buses and keeping youth, student, and senior passes. MBTA cost comparisons Cost comparisons were presented to the board comparing costs from public transit in other cities. In New York, rides on the subway and bus cost $2.75 for a single trip and $121 for a monthly full-fare pass. The city provides discounts for students and seniors. In Philadelphia, the cost is $2 for the subway or bus and $96 a month, with discounts available for certain residents. Board member Monica Tibbits-Nutt said the cost comparison fails to consider the costs offered in other metropolitan areas. Comparing agencies is tough because theyre selling a different product, she said, adding later. At this point we cannot operate the system as scheduled. She referenced a recent trip to Portland, Oregon where she rode public transit, saying she was happy to pay $2.50 to ride the bus, finding the trip worth the cost. Tibbits-Nutt said theyve heard from many regarding the proposed fare increase who dont view the service provided worth the cost increase. The Lawrence man who authorities say tried to kidnap a woman at a Methuen parking lot only to be thwarted by the womans quick-thinking and a passer-by was ordered held without bail after his arraignment in court Monday. Rafael Rosario, 53, of Lawrence was arraigned in Lawrence District Court on attempted carjacking, strangulation, assault and battery and attempted kidnapping charges. WHDH reports he was held without bail. Not guilty pleas were entered on his behalf. Rafael Rosario is getting arraigned now for allegedly trying to carjack a woman in a #Methuen grocery store parking lot Friday. #7news pic.twitter.com/TQnh2X910E Kimberly Bookman (@KimberlyBookman) March 11, 2019 The television station reports Rosario was on probation for larceny and assault charges. He returns to court March 15. Methuen police said Rosario forced his way into the womans car Friday night in the Market Basket shopping plaza on Haverhill Street. Rosario grabbed the woman by the throat and pushed her further into her vehicle. Fearing for her life, the victim started screaming for help and beeping the car horn to get someones attention, police said. A witness had just pulled into the parking space across from the victim in a pickup truck and saw the commotion and began to come help. Rosario ran from the car. The man who came to help had the woman call 911 and chased Rosario until police headed to the area. Officers found Rosario in a backyard on Hobson Street. He was hiding in the snow near a fence, police said. The man who helped, Jay Sarcione, told WCVB he knew something was wrong when he drove into the parking lot. "She was able to hit the horn, and the light came on inside," Sarcione told the television station. "She was being choked and her head, and whole body being pushed toward the passenger seat." The woman was not seriously injured. I would like to commend the brave citizen who witnessed this incident and sprang into action to help, Methuen Police Chief Joseph Solomon said in a statement. However, chasing after a suspect is something that can be extremely dangerous, and we ask all residents that find themselves in an emergency to call 911 and let our officers take over from there. Jose Libano, the principal of Sharon High School, has been placed on paid leave pending an investigation of Bradley Lengas, a former science teacher who has been accused of rubbing his body against female students. Lengas is no longer an employee at Sharon High School and is facing criminal charges. Dr. Libano has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into matters related to the recent removal of Mr. Lengas, Sharon School Committee Chairman Jonathan Hitter wrote in an email Monday morning. Because this is a personnel matter, on advice of counsel, I have no further comment at this time. Assistant Principal Beth Gavin and Chuck Fazzio, whose position is listed online as social studies coordinator, are assuming the administrative responsibilities of the high school, according to an email from Superintendent Victoria Greer, which was obtained by MassLive. A woman who answered the phone at Greens office on Monday morning said the superintendent would not comment. Libano did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment on Monday. Lengas, a 57-year-old Rhode Island resident, was arraigned in Stoughton District Court last week on charges of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 and older, as well as annoying or accosting a person. A not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf and he was released on personal recognizance. Several female students have accused the teacher of misconduct including rubbing his genital area against their backs during class as he walked along aisles of desks, brushing up against them, according to a police report. In an interview with MassLive, one student who had Lengas as a chemistry teacher when she was a sophomore said Lengas would repeatedly make fun of her, and eventually told her during class, I think about you all the time. Mostly good things, some bad things. When the girl told Lengas thats not nice, she said he responded that he meant it as a compliment. Lengas never made physical contact with that student, she said. That student said she believes the school has not taken the right actions in addressing the complaints against Lengas. After Lengas made the comment to the 16-year-old student, she was moved to a different chemistry class. One day this school year, the now junior year student went to her math class to find that Lengas was filling in as the substitute teacher. She told the Libano she was upset about the incident, and the principal responded that there was no guarantee that Lengas would never be her substitute teacher, a police report reads. That incident pushed the girl and her parents to bring the incident to the attention of Sharon police in the fall. Originally I felt very angry and I still am angry and disappointed with how [the school has] handled this, the student told MassLive. I just think its terrible that theyve allowed students to feel unsafe. On Friday, the girl along with dozens of other students led a demonstration in the school hallways and held a student-led assembly. More than 60 students brought letters to the school regarding Lengas. Im very impressed about what we as students have done to tackle this problem because its clear that the administration hasnt, the student said. Lengas has been ordered to stay away from Sharon High School, to have no contact with victims or witnesses and to avoid employment at a job that involves people younger than 18, according to the Norfolk District Attorneys office. He is scheduled to return to court April 29. According to a statement written by Hitter last month, Lengas employment was terminated in early February. Please know that the first priority of the Sharon School Department is the protection of our students. Dr. Greer along with our legal counsel will continue to cooperate with law enforcement as well as investigate and review our internal processes and procedures related to this matter, Hitter wrote. Dr. Greer also released a public statement regarding this matter. In her statement, she told the school community that she had suspended the teacher in early December 2018 when certain allegations came to light, the statement continued. As Dr. Greer also stated, the School Department has been cooperating from the start with local law enforcement on their investigations. The School Department conducted its own comprehensive investigation along side the criminal investigation and has shared their findings of this with law enforcement. An attorney for Lengas did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon. Students at a Haverhill school were dismissed early Monday after a threatening note was found inside a bathroom. Whittier Regional Vocation Technical High School Superintendent Maureen Lynch said students were dismissed at noon after the note was found. This morning, school staff were alerted to a threatening message inside a boys bathroom, Lynch wrote in a statement. Students were dismissed early today out of an abundance of caution, though school leaders have no reason to believe there is any imminent danger to students or staff. Haverhill police and the Massachusetts State Police were called to the school to investigate. I havent been to Ireland in a few years, and the longing is starting to ache. I miss the electric landscape of the wild Atlantic West Coast: Galway, Clare, Kerry and Cork. I miss the peat-packed verdant hills of the midlands. I pine for the people Ive befriended over the years, and even for those I hope to meet in the future. My feet look to stroll the city streets of Galway City and Dublin. My ears and heart yearn for the music in a crowded pub. But, of course, I also miss the beer. For me, theres nothing quite like quaffing a pint in an Irish pub. It doesnt matter whether its a popular metropolitan beer bar or brewpub or a quaint, historic county place that only serves Guinness, Harp and Smithwicks. Sipping a brew where the craic is good and the music might even be better is a pleasure that cant be replicated anywhere else, in my opinion. I have too many spots to mention, but Ill name a few in the three major cities for anyone heading over this year. Dublin is, of course, overflowing with pubs (although a few years back, someone actually figured out how to beat the challenge of James Joyces Ulysses and was able to draw a map of a path across Dublin that didnt pass a pub). But here are a few of my favorites: If youre looking for old-school traditional pubs in the dead center of town, you cant beat McDaids (3 Harry St.) which is right off Grafton Street the city center. This is where Brendan Behan drank, and it remains a perfect illustration of what an old Irish pub once was. Likewise, The Long Hall (51 South Great Georges St.) is one of the most beautiful pubs Ive seen in the country, with ornate wood and glass fixtures, and which is lush with Victorian sensibilities. If youre looking for more of an Irish craft beer experience (as Im guessing most readers will be), try Against the Grain (11 Wexford St.), which Ive mentioned several times over the years. Owned by Galway Bay Brewing, its a friendly place with a wide selection of Irish brews and usually has a cask or two on. Its also not far from The Long Hall. Likewise, The Porterhouse (two locations but Ive only been to the one at 16-18 Parliament St.) is a great brewpub not far from the River Liffey. In Galway (City), my favorites as far as old-school pubs are The Quays (11 Quay St.) and Feeneys (19 High St.) I also used to love An Pucan (11 Forster St.), but I have not been back since it reopened after closing a number of years back. I will definitely check it as soon as I get back there, though. I like the way it looks. For craft beer, you cant beat The Salt House (4 Raven Terrace, and again, owned by Galway Bay Brewing). Its a rustic cozy large room that invites the telling of tales, camaraderie, and the clinking of glasses. Not too far is the Bierhaus (2 Henry St.), which pours as good a pint as anywhere. And to round out the Big Three of Irelands major cities, Corks main craft attraction for me is the Franciscan Well (148 North Mall). Its one of the older brewpubs in the country and its selection of beers cant be beat. Bonus tip: If you find yourself in Ennis, Co. Clare, check out the Diamond Bar (25 OConnell St.) Happy St. Patricks Day. Slainte. SPRINGFIELD A Holyoke company hopes to open a marijuana store at 78 Island Pond Road in a building that also includes Murphys Pop Shop. Boston Bud Factory Inc. of Holyoke will present its plans at a community outreach meeting scheduled Wednesday, March 20, at 7 p.m., at the East Forest Park store site. "I think its a great thing for East Forest Park, said Frank Dailey, a neighborhood resident and co-owner of Boston Bud Factory. "It will bring funds for the library and school programs. It will have nothing but a positive impact on the neighborhood. The business is co-owned by Carlo Sarno of Longmeadow. The marijuana shop will total 800 feet of retail space in the building, and there will be additional space used for offices, Dailey said. The property is owned by Patrick Murphy. The City Council approved a zoning ordinance last September that will allow up to 15 recreational marijuana shops in Springfield, which are restricted to business and industrial zones. The council designated 58 streets where the shops could be located including the business zone section of Island Pond Road. When the council first considered approving a list of streets where marijuana stores could be located, Ward 7 Councilor Timothy Allen strongly opposed the inclusion of Island Pond Road, citing concerns about homes in that area. On Monday, Allen said there has been talk about a shop locating on Island Pond Road for a long time, and there have been neighbors raising concerns. Everybody has a right to apply," Allen said, adding well see how it goes. Boston Bud Factory is the ninth business, thus far, that has unveiled plans for marijuana shops in Springfield, and have conducted or scheduled state-mandated community outreach meetings. Ten shops have been proposed citywide including four in the downtown. Boston Bud Factory received approval in December from the Holyoke City Council for a retail marijuana shop planned in Holyoke at 73 Sargeant St. Marijuana shops in Springfield will also need approvals from the mayor, City Council and state Cannabis Control Commission, including a special permit and hearing before the City Council. Dailey said the partners would not open the marijuana shop until a branch library, now located on Island Pond Road in leased space, moves to a permanent library slated for construction on Surrey Road. NORTHAMPTON Ward 7 City Councilor Alisa Klein announced Sunday she will step down when her current term ends on Dec. 31. She has served on the on the City Council since 2014. Ive enjoyed every minute of serving my neighbors and friends in Ward 7 and throughout the city, Klein said in a statement. But its time to let others bring their ideas, energy, and advocacy to the council. She added, I have loved getting to know the residents of Ward 7 and am proud to have responded to constituent concerns on issues as diverse as the condition of our roads, the placement of the new Recreation Department building at JFK Middle School, the need for traffic calming, and proposed hunting in Ward 7 conservation areas." Klein listed numerous acts she has taken as a city councilor, including: Writing and co-sponsoring a resolution welcoming refugees to Northampton that set in motion the resettlement of over 50 refugees here Initiating a resolution to establish a Select Committee on Pesticide Reduction Advocating to achieve carbon neutral status for Northampton Co-sponsoring an ordinance prohibiting the installation of municipal surveillance cameras in downtown Northampton Advocating for a policy to protect immigrants from being reported to ICE, including co-authorship of a resolution calling for sanctuary city status for Northampton. Klein said she has worked full-time in her consulting practice and at two jobs throughout her years on the City Council. Im ready to devote more focused attention to my professional career and to return to my passion for grassroots activist work on social, economic, and racial justice; Israel-Palestine peace and justice; and other social and political issues," Klein said. "While Ive been able to use my position as a City Councilor to advocate for some of our more marginalized community members, I look forward to spending more time on issues such as the abolition of ICE and mass incarceration, racism, and houselessness, and increasing the use of harm reduction and transformative justice-based solutions in our community. Klein narrowly defeated two-term incumbent Eugene Tacy in November 2013 to win the Ward 7 seat. Springfield native Ruth E. Carter, who took home an Oscar last month for her Black Panther costume designs, has been recognized for her achievement by the U.S. Senate. Carter received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition, signed by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., in celebration of her Academy Award win. The famed designer posted her thanks, along with a photo of the honor and her Oscar on Twitter. Thank you senator @SenWarren I am proud to represent my home state of Massachusetts. Thank you for this honor. As a Springfield public school kid, my education fostered my path to Costume Design and began the journey to my win!, Carter tweeted. Carter, who has designed costumes for such films as Malcolm X, Amistad and Selma, is the first African-American to win an Academy Award for Best Costume Design. She had been nominated twice before. She recently received a career achievement honor from her peers at the 21st annual Costume Designers Guild Awards. The 58-year old Springfield Technical High School graduate apprenticed at the former StageWest. She cut her teeth as a costume designer 30 years ago on the Spike Lee films School Daze and Do the Right Thing. SPRINGFIELD American Outdoor Brands Corp., parent company of Springfield stalwart Smith & Wesson, will close its distribution operations here and elsewhere around the country as it opens a new $75-million warehouse near Columbia, Missouri, this year. Executives at the publicly-traded AOBC touted the cost savings and efficiencies associated with consolidating into its new 600,000-square-foot Missouri warehouse in a conference call with analysts last week. (The call followed AOBCs announcement of its most recent quarterly results.) There are 20 to 30 people at Smith & Wesson in Springfield whose current jobs will move to Missouri, said Elizabeth A. Sharp, vice president of investor relations for American Outdoor Brands Corp. But those people will move to other jobs here in Springfield. Therefore, we do not expect any job loss in conjunction with the transition, she said. The plan is to have all American Outdoor Brands products including firearms from Smith & Wesson and Thompson Center and knives, tools, and outdoor equipment from other American Outdoor Brands businesses ship through the new warehouse. Jeffrey Buchanan, AOBC's chief financial officer and executive vice president, ran through a list of company's existing distribution centers including two logistics warehouses in Massachusetts, one in Jacksonville, Florida and a smaller Missouri distribution center that will be folded into the new one. All that is going away, Buchanan told the conference-call audience, according to an available online transcript. At another point in the call, CEO P. James Debney told stock analysts that Springfield distribution and the old Missouri center will operate in parallel with the new center in Missouri as it ramps up. The transition process will play out during the current calendar year. The Missouri facility will hire 154 new workers as it opens a total of 328 new employees over the next few years, the company has said. The existing Missouri distribution center has 175 employees already. After that, American Outdoor Brands will transfer distribution work from Jacksonville and from its Crimson Trace logistics operation in Wilsonville, Oregon, and consolidate all that work in Missouri. American Outdoor Brands bought Crimson Trace, a maker of laser sights, for $95 million in 2016. Buchanan explained that there will be a state tax savings for the audience saying firearms made in Massachusetts will be shipped to Missouri and distributed from there. That means the profits will be with Smith & Wesson in Springfield, not the logistics facility. Sharp said Smith & Wesson will continue to pay taxes on the products will continue to make in Massachusetts. The benefit occurs to us at the Logistics facility, since it will now have nexus with our customers, and it will be less impacted by taxes when those products (upon which Smith & Wesson has already paid taxes in Massachusetts) are then sent to higher tax-rate states, Sharp wrote in an email. American Outdoor Brands has about 1,600 employees at its Springfield factory. Its other firearms factories are in Deep River, Connecticut, where it makes plastic parts and Houlton, Maine. American Outdoor Brands, then known as Smith & Wesson, announced the Missouri project in 2017. The local taxing authority, Boone County, has granted it a 50 percent property tax break over 10 years, according to the Columbia Missourian newspaper. Smith & Wesson traces its roots to 1852, when Horace Smith and Daniel Baird Wesson partnered to manufacture a firearm that used a self-contained cartridge. The company has a long history making firearms first downtown and later on Roosevelt Avenue. Springfield facility also houses the company's principal research, development, engineering, design sales, marketing, finance, and management functions, according to its most recent report to stockholders. That annual report, dating from June 2018, also says that American Outdoor Brands plans to continue to upgrade and improve its manufacturing operations, including those in Springfield. In 2011, Smith & Wesson this is prior to its 2017 name change too American outdoor Brands received a $6-million break on its state corporate taxes over the following seven years in exchange for moving 225 jobs here from Rochester, N.H. Well, its simple. When it all comes together, Marvel will have access to almost all of its characters, and thats something that most companies that have intellectual property characters have always had, Feige, the primary weaver of Marvels ever-growing cinematic tapestry, told the Times. Marvel, in a very unique way over the years, has not had access to all of its characters, and now it will. That just seems like something thats very appropriate and exciting for me at the potential and the possibilities to come. SPRINGFIELD With the final approval of an ordinance to ban single-use plastic bags at local stores on the horizon, the City Council has scheduled a committee meeting Wednesday to consider any additional public comments and amendments. The meeting of the councils General Government committee is scheduled or 2 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall. At-large Councilor Jesse Lederman, the lead sponsor, said the council will consider final passage of the ordinance at its regular meeting next Monday, March 18. The council meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall. "We've seen a lot of support in the community for the ordinance," Lederman said Monday. "I think it's a testament to the fact that people are becoming more informed about our need to reduce the amount of waste going into our environment." Under the proposed ordinance, checkout bags provided by retail stores must be either "a recyclable paper bag, a compostable and marine-degradable plastic bag, or a reusable checkout bag." The council gave first-step approval to the ordinance last Monday. There have been amendments approved aimed at improving the ordinance and addressing some of the business concerns, Lederman said. If approved, the ordinance will take effect 12 months after passage for retail establishments of 10,000 square feet or greater, and 18 months from final passage for stores less than 10,000 square feet. Check-out bags do not include: laundry or dry-cleaner bags; newspaper bags; bags to contain produce, frozen foods, meat or fish; a non-plastic bag without handles in which prepared food is served; a bag provided by a pharmacy for prescription medications, under the ordinance. If the ban on single-use plastic bags is approved, Springfield will join more than 90 communities in Massachusetts, including Boston, with similar bans, Lederman said. All bags distributed by a store will be sold to customers for no less than 5 cents to be retained by the store, under the ordinance. Big Y Foods Inc. announced in January that it will be eliminating single-use plastic bags in 2020 at the checkout of all of its supermarkets, Fresh Acres, Table & Vine and Big Y Express Gas and Convenience locations. Big Y said it now uses 100 million plastic bags and 3.5 million paper bags at its checkouts each year. The city would issue a warning notice if a store is found in violation of the ordinance for the first occurrence, the ordinance states. If there is an additional violation within one year, after a warning, the city would impose a first-offense penalty of $50. The penalty would rise to $100 for a second offense within a year and each additional offense, the ordinance states. The ordinance calls for enforcement by the city's Department of Health and Human Services. The council resurrected discussion of the plastic bag ban last fall after it was discussed in 2016 and 2017 without passage. The recent discussions have included input from the Springfield Chamber Commerce. Supporters of the ban on single-use plastic bags say its benefits include a reduction in the amount of waste that goes to landfills and incinerators and a reduction in litter and pollution. Opponents, including representatives of the plastic bag industry, have argued that the majority of so-called single-use bags are used more than once and are not a major source of litter, as alleged by proponents. The American Progressive Bag Alliance has opposed such bans. LAKEVIEW -- A 39-year-old resident is accused of trafficking cocaine following a police investigation into drug sales. Brian Maclay, of Lakeville, was charged with trafficking in more than 200 grams of cocaine, possession with intent to distribute cocaine, possession of Percocet and operating with a suspended license, Massachusetts State Police officials said. Members of the State Police, who received a search warrant for the home of Maclay, went to the home at about 4:35 p.m. Sunday. When they saw Maclay drive away, troopers stopped him and arrested him for driving on a suspended license, police said. During their encounter with Maclay, it was determined that he was in possession of a quantity of a substance believed to be cocaine, police said. The task force and a police dog and handler then searched the home on North Precinct Street and found cocaine, two Percocet pills and drug paraphernalia, police said. Maclay was held overnight at the Plymouth County House of Correction and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Wareham District Court, police said. Stop & Shop workers throughout much of southern New England are poised to strike over ongoing contract negotiations with the supermarket chain. Five local United Food and Commercial Workers International unions representing more than 31,000 workers throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island have now voted to authorize strikes. Workers contracts expired Feb. 23 and the first union, UFCW Local 1445, voted to authorize a strike the following morning. Four others have since followed suit, demanding that Stop & Shop nix a proposal that would cut take-home pay and benefits for thousands of workers, among other conditions. The chain said two more negotiation sessions are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. Stop & Shop remains committed to working diligently and in good faith with the union locals to reach new agreements, the company said in a statement. The unions have not set a timeline for a potential strike, which would be called for by a committee. But UCFW Local 1445 President Jeff Bollen previously said that a strike is likely. Theres a large percentage that were going to be going on strike this year, Bollen said in a video posted to Facebook. The company doesnt seem to be backing off on things -- they are adamant about their proposals. The grocery chain said it is one of the few remaining union grocers in New England and is forced to compete with non-union companies like Market Basket, Wegmans and Trader Joes that have much lower labor costs. Stop & Shop has more than 400 locations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island. Employees in New York and New Jersey have a separate contract. A medication used through an inhaler to treat asthma and other respiratory diseases costs $11.99 in some pharmacies. In others, it costs $1,136. The median price for the inhaler, according to researchers who called 250 pharmacies, is $462. A new study released by MASSPIRG Education Fund, a consumer advocacy group, detailed the extraordinary differences in prescription drug prices between different pharmacies. This massive price variation reveals a seemingly arbitrary system of drug pricing, where pharmacists selling the exact same medication and dosage were unable to give a consistent price for identical products, the study says. The researchers contacted more than 250 pharmacies in 11 states, choosing urban and rural locations and chain and independent pharmacies. In Massachusetts, the locations included Boston, Worcester and Greenfield. The researchers asked for the cash prices for a dozen common medications. The cash price is different from the amount paid by insurance. They found a huge variation. For example, 30 pills of the high blood pressure medication Lisinopril could cost between $3.99 and $59.02, with a median price of $12.49. Thirty pills of Lipitor, a medication for high cholesterol, cost between $193 and $865, with a median price of $520. The generic version of the high cholesterol medication, Atorvastatin, ranged in price from $6.99 to $393. For all the drugs surveyed, the median price was on average 892 percent higher than the minimum price. The study found that drugs purchased at large chain stores were often more expensive than at smaller pharmacies. According to the report, consumers could save between $102 and $5,400 a year by shopping around for drugs, based on the difference between the minimum and median prices. MASSPIRG notes that high drug prices are a huge driver of costs within the health care system. They can also affect health outcomes, since a patient who cannot afford medication may cut pills in half or delay taking medicine. MASSPIRG attributes the large price variation to a drug supply system that includes a complex web of agreements, middlemen, and failures of competition. The study recommends several policy changes to address the issue of unwarranted price variation. These include reforming patent laws to allow for increased competition, requiring more transparency in drug pricing, and empowering the state or federal government to reject price increases. Massachusetts lawmakers are currently debating how to best curb rising drug prices. Various proposals were included in bills that were discussed last year, but never passed. This year, Gov. Charlie Baker rolled out his proposal for giving MassHealth authority to set prices for expensive drugs. A bill proposed by Sen. Jason Lewis, D-Winchester, and Rep. Christine Barber, D-Somerville, would require more price transparency from drug companies; let the states Health Policy Commission set top prices for high-cost drugs; regulate pharmacy benefit managers; require pharmacists to tell customers when they could save money without using insurance; and make other changes aimed at reining in high drug costs. Read the full MASSPIRG report here. WARE Voters will act on a 20-article special town meeting warrant on Monday night that includes instituting a temporary, one-year temporary ban on construction of new solar energy facilities. Ware Planning Board unanimously voted to recommend the solar farm moratorium, for town meeting to consider. The ban, if enacted, would impact industrial solar installation that are planned to produce more than 0.1 megawatts of electricity. Town meeting will be asked to approve $20,000 for an architectural study to determine how to proceed with needed repairs at the town hall building at 126 Main St. Selectmen, finance committee and the town manager recommended that article be approved. There is a request from the school department for money to replace two heating units at the elementary school, projected to cost $917,000, and $3.3 million to fund window and door replacements at the middle school. According to Town Manager Stuart Beckley, Massachusetts School Building Authority would likely pay nearly 80 percent of the costs, provided Ware town meeting first agree to appropriate the money for the work. The special town meeting at the high school auditorium begins at 6:30 p.m. The search for an escaped inmate ended late Sunday when he was found by the Department of Corrections Fugitive Unit. Christopher Somsky was apprehended around 11 p.m. Sunday following a search by local, state and federal authorities. He was taken to an area hospital for treatment of a hip injury believed to have been sustained while fleeing authorities, then will be transferred to Northern Correctional Institution. Somsky went missing Saturday afternoon after he walked away from classes at Asnuntuck Community College in Enfield, where he was taking classes as part of a program for inmates. Somsky is serving a nine-year prison sentence following a 2014 arrest for threatening a security guard at a CVS in Bridgeport with a syringe. The guard suspected Somsky of attempting to steal medicine and while detained, pending the arrival of police, Somsky brandished a syringe and told the employee he had AIDS, according to court documents obtained by the Hartford Courant. He was found with seven packages of childrens Advil and four syringes and sentenced to second-degree robbery. His record dates back several decades, including a previous conviction of escape. Following his most recent escape, officials are suspending educational and work furloughs for Connecticut inmates pending review. Due to Somskys previous conviction of escape, which should have barred his participation in the program, correction officials will review the application process. Somsky was a participant in the Second Chance Pell Program, a pilot program announced in 2016 by the Department of Education during the Obama administration to provide greater access to educational programs to incarcerated individuals. Asnuntuck Community College was one of 67 colleges and universities selected to participate, enrolling about 12,000 inmates in educational and training programs nationwide. Through the program, up to 540 students could be awarded a certificate of completion from Asnuntuck. The majority of programs offered classroom-based instruction on-site at jails and prisons. Others offered educational opportunities online and at colleges for low-risk offenders. A 2013 study funded by the federal Department of Justice found individuals who participate in educational programs while incarcerated were 43 percent less likely to return to prison within three years than prisoners who did not participate. The study also estimated that for every dollar spent on educational programs, four to five dollars are saved on re-incarceration costs. GILL - A town police officer escaped serious injury Sunday morning on Route 2 when an oncoming vehicle crossed into his path and struck his cruiser head-on, police said. The officer and occupants of the other vehicle were all taken to the hospital for treatment of minor injuries. According to police, the officer, whose name was not disclosed to the press, was treated and then released from the hospital. The crash remains under investigation by the Massachusetts State Police. The preliminary investigation indicates the cruiser was heading west on Route 2 near Setback Lane at around 10 a.m. when an eastbound vehicle crossed the center line and struck it head on. A photo from the scene shows the cruiser received extensive damage to the front end. At the time, the road was slippery as a result of snow. SPRINGFIELD - Despite his adventure, Compass always points toward home. Compass, a Chow Chow, was returned to his family Monday morning just a few hours after he had gotten loose. He was returned only after state police and the Springfield Fire Department teamed up to rescue him after he had fallen through some thin ice in a small pond off I-291 in Springfield. Finding and rescuing the dog turned out to be a team effort. A worker with Columbia Gas apparently spotted him partially submerged in the ice and called the state police. Trooper Jonathan Blanchard was dispatched to investigate and he spotted the dog, cold, wet and hanging on, in the middle of a small pond off the highway near exit 3. He notified the Springfield Fire Department, which sent a water rescue team to fish Compass out and bring him to terra firma. Dennis Leger, aide to Fire Commissioner Bernard J. Calvi, said the pond is a small body of water located off Freedman Terrace. Firefighters used an ice sled to make it out to the dog and retrieve it. The dog had been reported missing earlier in the day by his family, according to staff at the T.J. OConnor Animal Control and Adoption Center. As a result, they were able to bring Compass, still a little damp and tired but safe, back to his family. U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, a Worcester Democrat and chairman of the House Rules Committee, urged congressional colleagues Monday to back a measure before his panel that would ensure the report from Special Counsel Robert Muellers 2016 election probe is made public. The congressman, who has vocally supported Muellers wide-ranging investigation into Russias interference in the 2016 election, endorsed a resolution that would put federal lawmakers on record as supporting or opposing public access to the special counsels findings. McGovern called on other House members to back the measure, which would also require the reports full release to Congress, shortly before it was set to appear before his committee. Noting that Mueller is expected to wrap up his work soon, McGovern argued that the American people ought to know whats in the special counsels report, no matter what it finds. We know that the president and his allies, including the new attorney general, are trying to find ways to basically keep the Mueller report away from the public. Thats wrong. ... Tonight in the Rules Committee we are going to be taking up a bill that will require that the Mueller report be made public, he said in a video posted on social media. I think its the right thing to do, I think every American ought to know what happened. McGovern added that the resolution should pass hopefully with a bipartisan vote, in what he called the spirit of transparency and sunshine. As they say, Sunshine is the best disinfectant. Thats why this week @HouseDemocrats are marking #SunshineWeek by moving forward a resolution to ensure the #MuellerReport sees the light of day. @SunshineWeek @RepMcGovern pic.twitter.com/AXoNMsIiQg House Committee on Rules (@RulesDemocrats) March 11, 2019 The panels focus on the resolution comes as part of Sunshine Week, an annual event focused on transparency and the importance of access to public information. The measure is expected to appear on the House floor later this week. Despite recent debate over whether Muellers entire report should be made public, Rules Committee officials noted that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including House GOP leaders, have supported releasing the special counsels findings. U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, a Springfield Democrat and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, meanwhile, is among the measures five original co-sponsors. Mueller is required to deliver his final report to Attorney General William Barr -- something which various news outlets have suggested could occur in the coming weeks. Barr did not commit to releasing Muellers full report to Congress or the public in his recent confirmation hearings, but pledged to make as much of it available as possible, the Los Angeles Times reported. Following a storm that brought a wintry mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain this weekend, meteorologists warn of the potential for slick roadways early morning. Localized areas of fog with temperatures around the freezing mark may result in patchy black ice early this morning, the National Weather Service wrote in a special weather statement released early Monday. Motorists driving in western Massachusetts and northern Connecticut should drive with extra caution early this morning. Temperatures will quickly rise above freezing by mid morning. Temperatures will rise into the 40s for much of the state Monday afternoon, with pockets in the high 30s and low 50s. It may feel colder at times Monday due to wind gusts as strong as 30 miles per hour expected during the day. We wanted to highlight that theres more in this area than just high-end shopping, said Michelle Rinard, operations manager for the surgical museum, which operations in a 1917 mansion at 1524 N. Lake Shore Drive. With the forming of this group and getting the word out there, we are educating our neighbors and visitors that theres more to this district, and theres also a huge history. Worcester Regional Airport has seen its first hiccup following several years of growth as American Airlines said Monday that it would be cutting some flights from its Worcester schedule. American Airlines announced last June that it would offer two daily flights to Philadelphia from Worcester, just two months after first announcing that it would offer one daily flight to the city. It was the third major airline to announce new flights out of Worcester Regional Airport over a period of 18 months. American Airlines flights to Philadelphia began in October. The company is reducing from two flights per day to one flight every day except Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday beginning in June, the airline said in a statement. Were always evaluating our network based on supply and demand, and made the decision adjust our schedule to meet the demand in the market, the statement continued. Customers from Worcester will still be able to connect to over 70 destinations in the evening through PHLs vast network. This summer, Delta Airlines is expected to begin flights from Worcester to Detroit. Delta and American fly out of Worcester in addition to JetBlue, which has offered daily flights to Orlando and Fort Lauderdale since 2013. At its peak in 1989, Worcester Regional Airport served more than 340,000 people. Massport owns and operates Worcester Regional Airport, as well as in addition to Boston Logan International Airport, public terminals in the Port of Boston and Hanscom Field. The challenge with the current defined benefit plan is the funding requirements as proscribed by the IRS have grown dramatically in recent years, said Alexanders letter. In the case of the CSO, for example, two years ago we were required to put $803,000 into the DB pension fund. This year we will be required to put in $3,800,000. Projections indication we will have to contribute $5 to $6 million per year into the DB fund over the next several years, and $36 million into the fund over the next eight years. Beginning in May, the City of Chicago will implement a security perimeter and bag check for all concerts and events that take place in Millennium Park. Outside alcohol will be prohibited at the Pritzker Pavilion events with the highest attendance, including the Chicago House Music Festival on May 24-25; the Chicago Blues Festival from June 7-9; the Chicago Mariachi Festival on June 30; the Grant Park Music Festival Independence Day Salute on July 4; the Broadway In Chicago Summer Concert on Aug. 12; and the Chicago Jazz Festival from Aug. 29 to Sept. 1. Anti-venom is referred to as a purified antibody which is used against venoms and its components. It is a process where animals are immunized with the venom of a snake, and later antibodies are extracted from it. Market Research Future (MRFR) speculates that the global anti-venom market is predicted to witness 6.5% CAGR throughout the forecast period (20172023) owing to unmet medical needs. It is considered the only definitive treatment against scorpion or snake bites. It is also used to treat bites from jellyfish, spider, stone fish, and others. It detoxifies the poisoning of the venomous bites and is prepared by milking venom of animals like spiders, snakes, scorpions, and other venomous animals. Industry Updates In 2019: According to the Pharmaceutical Factory, Myanmar is making technical cooperation with Brazil in anti-venom production and research. The Pharmaceutical Factory under the Ministry of Industry has planned to increase its production of anti-venom production to 100,000. Get Free Sample Copy at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/5859 Global Anti-Venom Market: Segmental Analysis The global anti-venom market has been segmented on the basis of type, species, mode of action, products, and end-users. By mode of type, the global anti-venom market has been segmented into monovalent heterologous antivenom, polyvalent heterologous antivenom, small molecule anti-toxins, and homologous antivenom. By type of species, the global anti-venom market has been segmented into scorpions, snakes, spiders, and others. By mode of action, the global anti-venom market has been segmented into neurotoxic, cytotoxic, cardiotoxic, haemotoxic, myotoxic, and others. By mode of product type, the global anti-venom market has been segmented into scorpion anti-venom, snake anti-venom, spider anti-venom, and others. By mode of end-users, the global anti-venom market has been segmented into clinics, hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, and others. Regional Insights Geographically, the anti-venom market spans across regions namely, Europe, America, Asia Pacific, and the Rest-of-the-World (RoW). Among these, the American region is considered to dominate the anti-venom market and is estimated to retain its dominance in the coming years. The factors influencing the market growth are the accelerating prevalence of scorpion bites and snake bites coupled with increasing expenditure on healthcare. The European region is presumed to occupy the second position owing to the financial support by the government towards R&D activities coupled with the reimbursement scenario in this region. As per data suggested by the Eurostat, it has been noticed that among the EU member states, Germany was predicted to record the highest value of healthcare expenditure followed by France and the U.K. The Asia Pacific region is predicted to expand at the fastest growth rate due to the presence of a huge patient population coupled with the augmenting advances in the pharmaceutical sectors in this region. As per the Indian Brand Equity Foundation, the generics market in 2016 stood at USD 26.1 billion. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 2.8 million people are bitten by snakes, and around 46 900 people die from snakebite each year. Brows complete Premium Research at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/anti-venom-market-5859 Competitive Dashboard The prominent players operating the global anti-venom market are Stryker Corporation, Boston Scientific Corporation, Smiths Medical, Allison Medical Inc., Owen Mumford Ltd., Ypsomed Holding AG, Terumo Corporation, Hamilton Company, Medline Industries Inc., UltiMed Inc., Artsana S.p.a., Hu-Friedy Mfg. Co. LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Dickinson and Company, Roboz Surgical Instrument, B. Braun Melsungen AG, Hill-Rom, Medtronic plc, Novo Nordisk A/s, Johnson & Johnson Services Inc, Becton, and others. Drivers and Constraints Impacting the Market With the rising cases of snake bites, growing patient population, growing funding from the government, unmet medical needs, enhancing regulatory framework, and augmenting awareness regarding antivenoms are some of the major factors considered to propel the anti-venom market growth throughout the appraisal period. Launches and approvals of novel drugs in major regions are anticipated to flourish the market growth. For instance, Silanes Laboratories, in October 2018, had received the FDA approval for Anavip, which is an anti-venom acting against snake bites of the Crotalus family. Market giants are also focusing on increasing shelf life and are extending the expiry date of their products. For instance, BTG plc. in September 2018 had announced that the U.S. FDA had approved for upgrading the shelf life CroFab Crotalidae Polyvalent Immune Fab (Ovine) to 60 months. On the contrary, strict regulations from the FDA, the high cost of the available anti-venoms, poor healthcare infrastructure especially in the low and middle-income economies and poor healthcare infrastructure are some of the major concerns considered to vitiate the market growth in the coming years. Inquire for Discount at https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/5859 About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members. Contact: Market Research Future +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Technological advancements have had significant impact on the development of autopsy equipment market in the recent years. Increasing demand for automation in mortuary procedures over the traditional methods has further influenced the growth of autopsy equipment market. Apart from determining the cause and manner of death, medical cadaveric examination is widely conducted for clinical research and academic purposes. Significant development in forensic sciences is directly proportional to the growing usage of advanced devices which in turn is likely to fuel growth of the autopsy equipment market. Common autopsy equipment include dissection tables, rectangular and L-shaped autopsy tables, trolleys and autopsy toolkit. Rising number of hospitals which has equally increased the number of morgues is a key factor favoring growth of autopsy equipment market. Manufacturers are focusing on the replacement of traditional platforms with advanced ones and additionally introducing equipment such as refrigeration units and other accessories which will possibly complement the future expansion of autopsy equipment market. In addition, cultural factors including funeral traditions that requires the maintenance of cadaver for certain period of time is expected to boost the demand for autopsy equipment. Increasing medical colleges along with development in healthcare sector are also anticipated to accelerate the market growth. Technological advancements have had significant impact on the development of autopsy equipment market in the recent years. Increasing demand for automation in mortuary procedures over the traditional methods has further influenced the growth of autopsy equipment market. Apart from determining the cause and manner of death, medical cadaveric examination is widely conducted for clinical research and academic purposes. Significant development in forensic sciences is directly proportional to the growing usage of advanced devices which in turn is likely to fuel growth of the autopsy equipment market. Common autopsy equipment include dissection tables, rectangular and L-shaped autopsy tables, trolleys and autopsy toolkit. Request Free Sample Report@ https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=1108 Rising number of hospitals which has equally increased the number of morgues is a key factor favoring growth of autopsy equipment market. Manufacturers are focusing on the replacement of traditional platforms with advanced ones and additionally introducing equipment such as refrigeration units and other accessories which will possibly complement the future expansion of autopsy equipment market. In addition, cultural factors including funeral traditions that requires the maintenance of cadaver for certain period of time is expected to boost the demand for autopsy equipment. Increasing medical colleges along with development in healthcare sector are also anticipated to accelerate the market growth. An autopsy is also referred to as post-mortem, obduction or necroscopy. An autopsy is the type of procedure involved in the examination of dead bodies performed by medical doctors called pathologists, who have special training in examining tissues and body fluids. An autopsy is performed mainly to determine the cause of death, to characterize the extent of disease, for legal issues, for criminal investigation, to check the effectiveness of the treatment and for teaching and research purposes. Forensic autopsies are performed to determine if the death occurred was a suicide, accident, homicide or a natural event. Clinical autopsies are performed by the doctors to check the effectiveness of the given drug and to study its side effects. To perform a post-mortem procedure, different autopsy equipment are required, such as trolleys, autopsy platforms, dissection tables and other different accessories, such as knives, scalpel, etc. Nowadays, with advancements in technology, different automated autopsy equipment are used which decrease procedural timings as well as increase the efficiency of the process by dissecting tissues accurately. Autopsy equipment Market: Drivers & Restraints One of the drivers for this market is the rise in the academic and clinical research on cadavers. Forensic labs and academic institutions are using different autopsy equipment, which is increasing the overall market growth. Growing demand for automation in autopsy procedures is the leading factor expected to drive the autopsy equipment market. Different types of automated autopsy equipment, such as autopsy platforms, dissection tables, trolleys and accessories have eased autopsy procedures. Increasing efficiency of advanced equipment has significantly reduced the timeline required for autopsy procedures. This has resulted in significant growth in terms of adoption from the end user. Another recent significant development in the autopsy equipment market is the preservation of the donated body by medical institutions for research. In the past few years, there has been a rise in the number of body donors, which is expected to increase the demand for autopsy equipment and accessories during the forecast period. In addition, autopsies are expensive and require consent and other ethical concerns are also involved, which might also limit the overall growth of the autopsy equipment market. Request/View TOC@ https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1108 Autopsy equipment Market: Segmentation The global market of autopsy equipment is segmented on the basis of product type, application type, end user and geography. Based on product type, autopsy equipment market is segmented into: Dissection Tables Rectangular autopsy tables L-shaped autopsy tables Trolleys Autopsy Toolkit Based on application type, autopsy equipment market is segmented into: Manual Automated Based on end user, autopsy equipment market is segmented into: Hospitals/Medical Institutes Private Morgues Forensic labs Autopsy equipment Market: Regional outlook The global autopsy equipment market is segmented into seven regions: North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan and Middle East & Africa (MEA). North America is the dominant market for autopsy equipment due to technological advancements and better healthcare facilities in hospitals and forensic labs. North America is followed by Europe due to growth in academic and forensic research in the region. On the other hand, Asia Pacific and Japan are expected to grow in the autopsy equipment market during the forecast period. The significant increase in healthcare facilities, donation of the whole body for research and transplantation and increase in the number of medical institutions and private morgues are the factors which will help in the growth of autopsy equipment market in the region. Autopsy equipment Market: Overview The academic and clinical research on cadavers has increased in recent years, which in turn, has led to the growth of the autopsy equipment market. Technological innovations will have a significant effect on market growth. The demand for automated autopsy equipment, such as autopsy platforms and dissection tables, is one of the leading factors responsible for the growth of this market. Replacement of the traditional equipment with these automated equipment for better healthcare facilities will also increase the overall growth of this market. Autopsy equipment Market: Key players Some of the key companies operating in the autopsy equipment market are Kugel Medical, Mopec, Mortech Manufacturing, Thermo Fisher Scientific, LEEC, AFOS, Angelantoni Life Science, Barber Medical, Ferno-Washington, EIHF ISOFROID, CEABIS, Fiocchetti, Flexmort, Funeralia, and Hygeco. The report covers exhaustive analysis on: Market Segments Market Dynamics Market Size Analysis Current Trends/Issues/Challenges Competition & Companies involved Value Chain Analysis The regional analysis includes: North America (U.S., Canada) Latin America (Mexico. Brazil) Western Europe (Germany, Italy, France, U.K, Spain, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) Eastern Europe (Poland, Russia) Asia-Pacific Excluding China and Japan (India, ASEAN, Australia & New Zealand) China Japan The Middle East and Africa (GCC, S. Africa, N. Africa) The report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macroeconomic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies. Report Highlights: Detailed overview of parent market Changing market dynamics in the industry In-depth market segmentation Historical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and value Recent industry trends and developments Competitive landscape Strategies of key players and products offered Potential and niche segments, geographical regions exhibiting promising growth A neutral perspective on market performance Report Analysis@ https://www.factmr.com/report/1108/autopsy-equipment-market Medical pendant is referred to as a wireless device which is designed to alert the healthcare professionals about the occurrence of any hazard or emergency which require immediate attention. A medical pendant system is usually installed on the ceiling of a hospital with a strong body system which is built of supporting rods and stainless-steel extensions. They are compact with customizable configurations to fulfill the requirements of healthcare centers and hospitals. The growing need for low-risk and safe workspace for medical workforce is fueling the global medical pendant market during the assessment period. Technological advancements such as button-press enabled medical pendants which facilitate the systems arm movement are further fostering the global market. Devices with multifaceted designs and ultra-flexible configurations are commercially available which focuses on fulfilling the requirements of the healthcare specialties. Such devices are expected to gain traction across the globe which is further likely to trigger the market growth in the coming years. Moreover, growing demand for medical pendants in the ICU and operating theatres are likely to spur the market growth. On the flip side, high cost of medical pendants coupled with the lack of professional technicians are anticipated to impede the market growth in the coming years. Get Free Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/6681 Industry Updates: March 21, 2018: Designed for seniors, TruSense, a smart home monitoring solution, has recently announced that it has added its first-ever smart personal emergency response pendant which combine GPS with notification when it is not being worn, thus extending protection even when outside the home. TruSense GPS Smart Pendant works in combination with TruSense Home. The combination offers customized alerts whenever the pendant is not being worn, thereby eradicating all the false sense of security created. Key Players for Global Medical Pendant Market Market Research Future (MRFR) recognizes the following companies as the key players in Medical Pendant Market: There are plenty of large and small market players which operate in this market all over the globe. The noteworthy players operating the global medical pendant market are MEDIMAXKOREA, Starkstrom, Tedisel Medical, Megasan Medikal, Surgiris, Brandon Medical Co. Ltd., BeaconMeds, Skytron LLC, Elektra Hellas S.A., and Ondal Medical Systems GmbH. Segments for Global Medical Pendant Market The Global Medical Pendant Market has been segmented on the basis of product, application, and region. By mode of product, the global medical pendant market has been segmented into fixed pendants, fixed retractable pendants, single arm movable pendants, double & multi-arm movable pendants, and accessories. Among these, the fixed pendants hold the largest market share, whereas the single arm moveable pendants account for the fastest growing segment. By mode of application, the global medical pendant market has been segmented into hospital, clinics and others. The hospital segment is further sub-segmented into intensive care unit (ICU), operating theatre (OT) & recovery room (RR), and emergency room (ER). Among these, the clinics segment is expected to be the fastest growing segment. Regional Analysis for Global Medical Pendant Market Geographically, the Global Medical Pendant Market span across major four regions, namely Europe, America, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. The North American region in the Americas is presumed to dominate the global medical pendant market in terms of revenue owing to the presence of world class healthcare infrastructure, advanced facilities, top notch healthcare practices, and strict mandates from the regulating authorities. The Asia Pacific region is anticipated to account for the fastest growth owing to the rapid growth in the healthcare infrastructure, increased spending, and government initiatives and focus on better healthcare practices owing to the rising medical tourism industry. Browse Complete Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/medical-pendant-market-6681 About Market Research Future: At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Statistical Report, Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services. Contact Us: Market Research Future Hadapsar, Pune 411028 Maharashtra, India Phone: +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com The Global Microarray Analysis Market is expected to witness tremendous growth during the forecast period. Microarray analysis is a molecular biology technique that uses microchips containing attached short DNA segments which are used for the analysis of gene expression on a large scale. This enables medical practitioners to decide the most effective treatment for individual patients. Microarray analysis can be used in various experiments such as epigenetics, genotyping, biomarker profiling, translation profiling, pathway identification mutations, and gene expression profiling. The techniques allow the scientists to analyze several genes at a time with accurate results. The rising prevalence of genetic disorders, increased focus on drug discovery and development, and rising demand for personalized medicines are driving the market growth. According to the Genetic Disorders UK 2017, every year approximately 30,000 new born children are diagnosed with genetic diseases. Microarray analysis helps in understanding the gene patterns in different types of tumors. They are also used for detection of cancer biomarker and also for its research. Hence the rising prevalence of cancer and increasing investments for cancer research can drive the market growth. However, factors such as high costs of diagnosis, contamination, and inaccurate results are expected to hinder the market growth during the forecast period Request Free Sample Copy @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/896 Key players Some of the key players for the Global Microarray Analysis Market are Affymetrix, Inc., Agilent Technologies, Inc., Sequenom, Inc., Roche NimbleGen, Illumnia, Inc., and Applied Microarrays. Other companies operating in the global microarrays market are biomerieux SA, Discerna, Gyros AB, Luminex Corporation, NextGen Sciences, PLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and ProteoGenix. Segmentation The Global Microarray Analysis Market is segmented on the basis of type, application, product type, and end-user. The Global Microarray Analysis Market, by type, is segmented into DNA microarrays, protein microarrays, tissue microarrays, cellular microarrays, chemical compound microarrays, glycan arrays, and phenotype microarrays. The application segment is segmented into research, genotyping, forensic analysis, proteomics, genomics, disease diagnosis, drug discovery, and toxicological research. The product type segment is further sub-segmented into reagents, primers, buffers, DNA chips, reagent kits, and instruments. The instrument category consists of scanner, hybridization oven, Multi-Channel (MC) instrument, target preparation instrument, slide imprinters, centrifuge, and others. On the basis of end-user, the market is categorized into pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, hospitals and clinics, diagnostic centers, academic and research institutes, and ambulatory care centers. On the basis of region, the Global Microarray Analysis Market is segmented into the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. The Americas is sub-segmented into North America and South America. The North American region is further segmented into the US and Canada. The European region is divided into two, namely, Western Europe and Eastern Europe. Western Europe is further classified into Germany, Italy, France, the UK, Spain, and the rest of Western Europe. The Asia-Pacific region is sub-segmented into Japan, China, India, Australia, the Republic of Korea, and the rest of Asia-Pacific. The Middle Eastern and African region is sub-segmented into the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, and the rest of the Middle East and Africa. Regional Market Summary The Microarray Analysis Market is dominated by the Americas owing to the adoption of advanced technology for diagnosis, awareness among people for better diagnostics, and high investments in research. The National Cancer Institute received USD 5.665 billion from the States Congress for cancer research programs in 2018. It is estimated that Europe was the second largest in the Global Microarray Analysis Market. The rising focus on drug discovery, personalized medicines, and targeted therapy are driving the growth of the market in this region. In November 2016, over 30 European and international members along with the European Commission established an initiative called the International Consortium for Personalized Medicine, or ICPerMed to establish Europe as a global leader in personalized medicine research. Thus, the increasing research in personalized medicines serves favorable backgrounds for the market to grow in this region. The Microarray Analysis Market in Asia-Pacific is expected to witness growth owing to rising prevalence of genetic disorders, growing awareness among the people, and government initiatives. According to Alzheimers Disease International, in 2015, 23 million people in the Asia-Pacific region had dementia, and by 2050 the number is expected to rise to 71 million. The Middle East and Africa holds the least share in the Global Microarray Analysis Market due to low funding in medical and health research. However, the rising prevalence of genetic diseases and increasing healthcare spending favor the market growth in this region. Browse Full Reports @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/global-microarray-analysis-market-777 Contact Us: Market Research Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune 411028 Maharashtra, India Phone: +1 646 845 9312 Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com by Tanya Gazdik , March 10, 2019 The TWA Hotel at JFK Airport in New York will feature an exhibit of historic items as part of its opening May 15. Exhibits will feature rare crew uniforms, personal memorabilia and even vintage furniture from the TWA Hotels collection of 2,000 items. Former TWA employees and their families donated many personal items, including photos, letters and even an autograph given to a flight attendant by passenger Kirk Douglas. Graphic matchbooks, gilded playing cards, custom tableware and an (extra dry) martini-in-a-bottle represent just a few of TWAs in-flight offerings. Located within the former TWA terminal a historic landmark designed by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen and opened in 1962 the exhibit will allow visitors to experience the jet age through authentic artifacts, interactive displays and personal narratives. advertisement advertisement Over the last two years, MCR/Morse Development has restored Saarinens masterpiece, dark since 2001. Two new buildings behind the terminal house the hotels 512 guestrooms. MCR/Morse hired an archivist to catalog each item and partnered with the New York Historical Society to develop the exhibitions. The teams research has taken them from Kansas City home of the TWA Museum to Yale Universitys Saarinen archives to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which donated original blueprints of the TWA terminal. Evolving exhibitions will initially focus on two major themes: Trans World Airlines history including eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes tenure as the airlines owner and Saarinens development of the terminal at JFK. Future exhibits will delve into the dawn of the jet age in New York City, as well as the mid-century modern design movement. Crafting the exhibits was a priority from the start of the TWA Hotel project, says Tyler Morse, CEO and managing partner of MCR and Morse Development. We want our guests and visitors to fully engage with both the history of this building and the remarkable story of TWA, states Morse. In just a few months, people will not only fill this landmark again, but also take away a greater appreciation of where it all began. The hotel will feature six restaurants, a coffee bar, high-end retail outlets, event space, a rooftop bar and observation deck, and what it claims is the worlds biggest hotel gym, a 10,000-square-food center. A Lockheed Constellation Connie L-1649A plane has been transformed into a cocktail lounge. by Sean Hargrave , Staff Writer, March 11, 2019 On the face of it, Facebook's new rules on political advertising were supposed to bring in an era of transparency. If an ad was political, it would show who funded it. The only problem with that is, who's funding the guy who funded it? That's the inevitable question that comes from Facebook releasing figures which show that since October last year when the new rules were brought in, Britain's Future is by far the platform's biggest political advertiser. The Guardian points out that the GBP340,000 it has spent is more than all the main political parties put together. We know this because of the new rules, and yet we still don't actually know who is really paying for the ads on Facebook and Instagram. We also don't know the value of any advertising the group, which is campaigning for a hard Brexit, is spending on Google search and other sites. Google is planning to bring in more transparent political advertising for May's EU Parliamentary elections. So the question remains: who is Britain's Future? The group appears to be rather "obscure," as The Guardian puts it. The main guy appears to be a sitcom writer, raising the question mark of where the money is really coming from. His answer, apparently, is that it's due to Brexit supporting "friends." It's a question well worth asking, because not only does it shine a light on how inadequate the new Facebook rules are, it reminds us all that it is the Leave side of Brexit campaigning that was found guilty of breaking electoral law over pooling of finances to coordinate ad campaigns from Vote Leave and Leave.EU who were supposedly separate groups. All that Britain's Future would need to do, to register for political advertising, is provide proof of a UK address, and then they're off. There is no inspection on where the money is coming from -- and, let's not forget that the Leave side of the argument has some big guns pumping in money that nobody is too sure about the true of. Arron Banks, for example, has come under investigation at Channel 4 recently looking to prove Russian links, but all the broadcaster seems able to allege is that Banks was interested in Russian deals that didn't come off. American readers may well hear a "sounds familiar" klaxon ringing in their ears as they read this. So the transparency provided by Facebook and Instagram simply opens up another question that remains obscure. A group has come out of nowhere to be, by far, the country's biggest political advertiser, and the only thing we know about them is what they're called. You can also hear Jerry Maguire screaming at the social giant to "Show me the money," not just a name. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, March 11, 2019 Senate newcomer Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) is urging the Federal Trade Commission to investigate tech companies, including Google and Facebook, over their repeated deceptions of consumers and encroachments on user privacy. These companies have failed us. Washington has failed us. The FTC has a special role to play in protecting consumers, but it too has failed us, Hawley says Monday in a letter to FTC Chair Joseph Simons. Any robust definition of consumer welfare must acknowledge that these companies have harmed consumers by conditioning participation in the modern public square on giving away enormous -- and growing -- amounts of personal information and by leveraging scale to cripple emerging competitors in their infancy. His letter comes one day before a planned Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about privacy. advertisement advertisement Hawley provided a list of examples of alarming activity by Facebook and Google that has generated criticism. Among others, Facebook allegedly combined its information about users with data provided by users to WhatsApp, acquired by Facebook for $19 billion in 2014. In 2016, WhatsApp said it planned to begin sharing data about users, including their phone numbers, with Facebook. The following year, authorities in Europe fined Facebook $122 million for allegedly misleading officials about its ability to automatically combine data about its users with those of the messaging service WhatsApp. When European Commission considered whether to approve Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp, Facebook allegedly indicated that it wasn't able to automatically link users of both companies. Hawley also said Google consistently misinformed users about its use of geolocation data, continuing to collect data even when users disabled location services. The lawmaker was apparently referring to a 2017 report by the Associated Press, which said Google stores location data gleaned from some services -- including search and maps -- even when people turn off the "Location History" setting. People who want to prevent Google from storing any location data must turn off a separate setting -- "Web and App Activity." (After the AP's report came out, Google revised a help page to inform people that turning off Location History doesn't affect other location services, and that some location data may still be saved.) Hawley says in his letter that Congress bears primary responsibility for privacy matters, but adds that he is concerned that the FTC has not investigated these companies and enforced the law as vigorously as it should. Privacy advocates have made many of the same arguments for years. For instance, in 2016, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy urged the FTC to investigate, arguing that the new policy represented a significant change from WhatsApp's prior promises to never share users' personally identifiable information. The FTC didn't take any public action as a result of that request. Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, says Hawley's criticism reflects lawmakers' increasing willingness to tackle privacy. The pressure is building in Washington to finally rein in the wild west business practices of the digital data giants, he says. The data driven bad conduct of both Google and Facebook has helped trigger a growing bipartisan movement to regulate the industry. "He was going to be one of the few who was not going to be in it, because he was committed to 'Riverdale,'" Stapf said, adding that Perry would be honored in some way in the show, but "how we deal with that moving forward is yet to be determined. That's something the writers are going to have to figure out." by Chuck Martin , March 11, 2019 Samsung is partnering with Revieve, a beauty-technology company in Finland, to launch a selfie-based skin analysis with personalized skincare recommendations. The skin analysis tool will first launch on Samsungs flagship device, the Galaxy S10 in the U.S. and Korea, according to Revieve. Consumers with the mobile device will be able to receive an individualized skin analysis by talking a selfie with Bixby Vision, Samsungs intelligence platform. The skin analysis is powered by Revieves selfie skin technology. Were excited to be partnering with Samsung in bringing a market-leading selfie skin-analysis and personalized recommendations to Samsung-customers, stated Revieve CEO Sampo Parkkinen. Samsung has clearly positioned itself as a front-runner in offering consumers with personalized services directly on the mobile phone. The Bixby Vision virtual assistant is built into the phone camera and includes object recognition technology. The majority of people with sleep apnea do not receive a diagnosis. However, brain scans have revealed that there may be an association between this condition and a form of dementia. Share on Pinterest There may be an association between sleep apnea and dementia, according to a recent study. According to the American Sleep Apnea Association (ASAA), an estimated 22 million people in the United States have sleep apnea. This condition, which causes a person to stop breathing during sleep, can be infrequent or regular. Doctors refer to regular sleep apnea as obstructive sleep apnea. Without treatment, it can lead to a number of cardiovascular problems, including high blood pressure, stroke, and chronic heart failure. Obstructive sleep apnea also has links to both depression and type 2 diabetes. Recent research has linked sleep apnea to an increased risk of dementia, notes Dr. Diego Z. Carvalho, a neurology fellow at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Along with colleagues, he authored a study to investigate whether there was a potential relationship between sleep apnea and a particular Alzheimers biomarker. This biomarker is a protein called tau, which is present in the brains of people with Alzheimers. Tau proteins form tangles that doctors can identify on scans. Difficult diagnosis A person normally has fewer than five episodes of apnea per hour during sleep, states Dr. Carvalho. The issue is that many people do not know that they have the condition. The ASAA report that an estimated 80 percent of people with moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea do not get a diagnosis. To determine which of the participants experienced sleep apnea, researchers asked their bed partners to look out for episodes of stopped breathing during the night. A total of 288 people aged 65 years and older took part in the study. None had any signs of cognitive impairment. In addition to asking the participants bed partners to monitor their sleep, the researchers used PET scans to check whether the tau protein was present in their brains. Specifically, they examined the entorhinal cortex area, as tau tangles are more likely to build up there. This part of the temporal lobe plays a role in memory, navigation, and time perception. Which came first? Dr. Carvalho and colleagues found a link between sleep apnea and a higher presence of tau in the brain. The overnight monitoring process revealed that 43 people experienced apnea episodes during the night. On average, those participants had levels of tau in the entorhinal cortex that were 4.5 percent higher than those in the participants without sleep apnea. The team identified this increase after controlling for other factors, such as age, sex, cardiovascular risk factors, and other sleep issues. The medical community considers these results to be preliminary as they have not yet featured in a scientific journal. However, the researchers will present them at an upcoming American Academy of Neurology meeting in Philadelphia, PA. Dr. Carvalho concludes that these results raise the possibility that sleep apnea affects tau accumulation. However, he describes the findings as a chicken-and-egg scenario, adding: Its also possible that higher levels of tau in other regions may predispose a person to sleep apnea. LAS VEGAS March 11, 2019 Hawaii Hawaii Jamie Rosen Las Vegas, NV The Best Vaporizers of 2019 www.drdabber.com Chloe Zubka chloe@drdabber.com /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Dabber releases their second collaboration from their product line's Artist Series this March - the Aaron Kai x Aurora Kit. Arriving just in time for Spring, the Aaron Kai x Aurora Kit is offered in two vibrant colors - "Dabber Blue" and "Summer Camo."native, Aaron Kai, is notorious for his colorful, cartoon-style wave patterns. The post-pop artist has been drawing his entire life but has only begun his professional art career in the last six years. Drawing inspiration from his days of surfing in, Aaron Kai applied his wave-like designs to Dr. Dabber's award-winning Aurora pen. "Dr. Dabber's innovative vaporizer has allowed me a quick, convenient, and accessible way to enjoy my smoking experience. Whether I'm traveling or at home, this vaporizer is an integral part of my creative process." - Aaron Kai, ArtistDr. Dabber's crew has been huge fans of Aaron Kai for quite some time now and is therefore super excited for the release of this product collaboration. Over the years, Aaron Kai has collaborated with major brands such as Adidas, Nike, Jameson Irish Whiskey, and The Hundreds, so the vaporizer company is both excited and grateful to support Aaron Kai as his art career flourishes."We're really excited to be continuing our Artist Series with another one of our favorite artists. Aaron's creative, laid-back art style really meshes well with the Dr. Dabber brand and the collaboration led to some really cool ideas, like the sealed paint can container, which was Aaron's idea. The Aaron Kai Aurora is one of the coolest looking products we've ever released and I'm excited to give our customers a chance to grab one of these limited edition pens." -, CEOThe Aurora is a variable voltage, magnetic vaporizer pen designed with the user in mind. Introduced to Dr. Dabber's product line in 2016, the Aurora has since proven to be one of the vaporizing company's best-selling products. As the only vaporizer pen on the market with fully magnetic connections, the Aurora makes for a seamless user experience. Having won several awards including Best Durability and Best Taste, the Aurora is truly a top-grade pen.Located in, Dr. Dabber is a premium vaporizer manufacturer that has been operating since 2013. With products sold online and in countless dispensaries worldwide, Dr. Dabber has rapidly grown to be one of the top vaporizing brands in the cannabis industry. Dr. Dabbers' products have received several awards including the 2016 Winner of the High Times Cannabis Cup and first place on Digital Trends' list of. To learn more about Dr. Dabber, visitDr. Dabber(855) 362-3227 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dr-dabber-teams-up-with-post-pop-artist-aaron-kai-for-the-second-release-in-their-ongoing-artist-series-300809616.html SOURCE Dr. Dabber BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. March 11, 2019 Emanuele Filiberto Notte di Savoia Charity Gala April 6, 2019 Los Angeles Southern California Italy Emanuele Filiberto King Umberto II Italy's Victor Emmanuel II Italy Emanuele Filiberto Bruno Serato the United States Daniel J. McClory Larissa Van Duser Geneva, Switzerland Victor Emmanuel Naples Duke Emanuele Filiberto Italy Italy Europe's Piedmont Italy France Switzerland Sicily Sardinia Turin Piedmont Italy Switzerland France Japan the United States New York City the United States of America Europe Japan Southern California /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- HRH Princeof Savoy will be the guest of honor at the second annualonin. The white and black-tie charity gala, taking place at the Montage Beverly Hills Resort, will benefit Caterina's Club, which provides 25,000 weekly warm meals, affordable housing assistance, and job training to homeless and low-income families throughout. The Notte di Savoia has been organized by the American Foundation of Savoy Orders continuing the spirit and tradition of charitable giving and hospitaller care of the historic, dynastic orders of knighthood and merit of the thousand-year old Royal House of Savoy.The elegant Mediterranean-style Montage Beverly Hills will provide the sumptuous surroundings for the Notte di Savoia, recreating the traditions and pageantry reminiscent of 19th century European court events. Following a glittering outdoor reception on the elevated terrace, dignitaries and guests, with gentlemen resplendent in tail coats and wearing colorful chivalric and military decorations, and ladies in formal gowns, will proceed to dinner in the Marquesa Ballroom to strains of historic Savoy royal anthems and marches popular whenwas a monarchy under the House of Savoy.The guest of honor, His Royal Highness Princeof Savoy, is the grandson of the latelast reigning sovereign. His ancestor, King, united the nation ofunder his rule between 1861 and 1870.Princesaid: "The Savoy Orders are my family's ancient orders of knighthood which date back to the Crusades. They have traditionally been devoted to charitable works, and recognize individuals for their contributions in public service, medicine, the arts, music, government, business and philanthropy. Caterina's Club and the work of Chef, a Savoy knight, is a great and contemporary cause to support in our royal tradition of assistance to the less fortunate, the Prince concluded "The American Delegation of Savoy Orders, through its charitable arm, the American Foundation of Savoy Orders, contributes to humanitarian, hospitaller and charitable projects and initiatives inand abroad, particularly in healthcare and hospice care, disaster relief, education programs and children's causes. The Savoy Foundation is a NGO at the United Nations.To purchase tickets for the 2019 Notte di Savoia Los Angeles, please click here.For more information on supporting the Notte di Savoia and Caterina's Club click here:CONTACT:, Notte di Savoia Event Chairman dan@mcclory.net +1 949 233 7869, Executive Director, American Foundation of Savoy Orders amsavoy(at)aol.com, +1 212 972 0495ABOUT THE ROYAL HOUSE OF SAVOY The Dynastic Orders of the Royal House of Savoy http://www.ordinidinasticicasasavoia.it/ are among the oldest orders of Knighthood and Merit in the world. The Savoy Orders are headquartered inand have 35 Delegations worldwide that support the Orders' ongoing charitable works. Their origins and their principles, traditions and humanitarian goals date back a thousand years. HRH Prince, Prince ofandof Savoy, is Head of the House of Savoy and Grand Master of the Savoy Orders. Princeis his son and hereditary Prince and currently serves as President of the Council of the Savoy Orders. Among his hereditary titles is Crown Prince ofIn 1946, when the Kingdom ofcame to an end, the House of Savoy was theoldest reigning dynasty. The heads of the House of Savoy had ruled, first as counts, then as dukes and finally as kings, for almost a thousand years. Descended in the direct male line from a tenth-century vassal of the Holy Roman Emperor, the Savoys ruled the Alpine state of Aosta, as well as Savoy, where they established themselves at Chambery. Their dominion was eventually extended to includeand other territories in what are nowand. By the eighteenth century, the Savoys were kings ofand then, and it was under their aegis that the Italian states were united by 1871.The Royal Family's heritage can be seen in castles and palaces, and in the beauty of the northwestern Italian city of, the Savoys' magnificent capital in the heart ofin the 16th into the 19th centuries. The dynastic chivalric traditions of the House of Savoy continue. The Order of the Annunciation and the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, two of the world's oldest knightly institutions, are still alive today, epitomizing the dynasty's medieval spirit while supporting very modern charitable works inand elsewhere. Chivalry lives. Today, the House of Savoy remains one of the oldest royal dynasties.ABOUT THE AMERICAN FOUNDATION AND DELEGATION OF SAVOY ORDERS Headquartered in, the American Delegation of Savoy Orders, which includes, is among the 35 delegations of the Savoy Orders located throughout, the Americas andThe American Foundation of Savoy Orders, Incorporated, http://www.savoia.org a tax-exempt 501 (c) (3) charitable organization, supports local, national, and international charities focusing on medical, educational, and humanitarian fields, including philanthropy for hospitals and relief agencies for children, the poor, sick and elderly. The Foundation is a Non-Governmental Organization in Roster Consultative Statues with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.ABOUT CATERINA'S CLUB Caterina's Club's mission is to provide warm meals, affordable housing assistance, and job training to homeless and low-income families throughout. It is supported by a vision where we are creating a modicum of consistency in these children's lives through something as simple yet meaningful as a nightly dinner. http://www.caterinasclub.org/SOURCE Savoy Foundation INDIANAPOLIS March 11, 2019 Australia Canada Costa Rica Mexico the Philippines Calgary, Alberta, Canada 26 July 2019 Beth Baldwin Tigges Michael Joseph S. Dino Philippines Amanda Ullman, RN, GC Griffith University Queensland Australia Miguel Angel Villegas Pantoja TAMAULIPAS NUEVO LAREDO Nuevo Laredo Mexico Ana L. Solano-Lopez Costa Rica San Jose Costa Rica Gillian Strudwick University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario Canada Armenia Australia Botswana Brazil Canada Colombia England Ghana Hong Kong Ireland Japan Jordan Kenya Lebanon Malawi Mexico the Netherlands Pakistan Philippines Portugal Singapore South Africa South Korea Swaziland Sweden Taiwan Tanzania Thailand the United States Wales /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing (Sigma) will recognize five emerging nurse researchers representing, andat its 30th International Nursing Research Congress in, this July. The Emerging Nurse Researcher awards will be presented during the Second Plenary Session on Friday,Sigma's Emerging Nurse Researcher award was created in 2015 to recognize one nurse researcher from each of Sigma's seven global regions who has received a PhD within the last five years and whose research has impacted the nursing profession and the people it serves."I am proud that Sigma encourages and recognizes the valuable contributions of emerging nurse researchers through the Emerging Nurse Researcher award," said Sigma President, PhD, RN, PNP, BC. "I offer my sincere congratulations to the five outstanding nurses being honored this year."Sigma's annual Congress attracts more than 1,000 nurse researchers, students, clinicians, and leaders, who share information and learn from hundreds of peer-reviewed, evidence-based research presentations. The theme for the 30th International Nursing Research Congress is Theory-to-Practice: Catalyzing Collaborations to Connect Globally. To view details or register for the event, visit http://www.sigmanursing.org/congress.2019 Emerging Nurse Researcher Honorees, PhD, MAN, RN, LPT Director, Research Development & Innovation Center Our Lady of Fatima University Valenzuela City, PICU, MAppSci, PhD, Centaur Fellow Associate ProfessorNathan,, DNSc, MNSc, BSN Full-Time Professor and Researcher UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE, NURSING SCHOOL OF, PhD, RN Professor of Nursing University of, PhD, RN Independent Scientist and Assistant Professor Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and, Institute of Health Policy, Management and EvaluationAbout Sigma The Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing (Sigma) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is advancing world health and celebrating nursing excellence in scholarship, leadership, and service. Founded in 1922, Sigma has more than 135,000 active members in over 90 countries and territories. Members include practicing nurses, instructors, researchers, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and others. Sigma's more than 530 chapters are located at more than 700 institutions of higher education throughout, and. Learn more at http://www.SigmaNursing.org. SOURCE Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing Rishi Kapoor, the 66-year-old opinionated actor , who is currently in New York undergoing treatment for an unknown disease shared his two bits on the Indo-Pak situation, and we completely agree with him. After Kangana's remark about how Bollywood celebrities should be more participatory in political matters, a wave of actors came forth to share their two bits about India's current situation with Pakistan. We aren't sure if it's because of the statement Kangana made or celebrities really have a dominant opinion but in a way it's good the industry is meting out their opinions because it heavily impacts their fan base. Twitter Kapoor came forth on Twitter and said Pakistan should join hands with India to 'root out terrorism' and we completely agree with him, as that seems as the most probable and sane solution at hand, right now, sans the violence. He said : "Agree with @arunjaitley If Pakistan truly wants to root out terrorism as they say so,they should join hands with India to do so. We and you have nothing against our respective civilians. If Imran cannot, Pakistan Army or ISI should do it. Think!" Agree with @arunjaitley If Pakistan truly wants to root out terrorism as they say so,they should join hands with India to do so. We and you have nothing against our respective civilians. If Imran cannot, Pakistan Army or ISI should do it. Think! Rishi Kapoor (@chintskap) 10 March 2019 Kapoor's opinion on Twitter came forth after Arun Jaitley, the finance minister, spoke to a news channel and shared his opinion about how Pakistan has been in dismissal about the Indian air-strikes and the state isn't cooperating to curb terrorism. And we completely agree with him and with Rishi Kapoor. Twitter Post the Pulwama attack, where over 40 CRPF jawans lost their lives, India and Pakistan have been trying to validate peace through acts of violence and the best possible way to curb the dire situation is if the two countries have a dialogue and reach a pivotal point of eventuality, where steps are taken to remove terrorism from the root. While that may take time to occur, a good way to start the process is by joining hands and coming up with apt tactical solutions that will benefit both the countries. Twitter While most politicians and other celebrities want the idea of peace to prevail between the two states, following through with the imminent ideology may take time and we really hope it happens before it's too late. While Rishi Kapoor, amongst many others, shares his opinion on the matter, we hope for nothing more than normalcy between India and Pakistan, soon. "I have not seen an abuse of medical marijuana, especially in this age group. Our grandparents are not abusing medical marijuana," he continued. "They want improved quality of life. They want to come off the opioids, which have a long list of side effects." When an airline loses your luggage but eventually recovers it, the airline has a lot more flexibility on compensation. So Iberia could have told you to take it or leave it. A closer look at your claim suggested that while you presented the receipts, you also could have included an itemized list that clearly explained what your wife had purchased. You did, and I shared that new list with Iberia. It cut you a check for the full amount of your claim. The Area South detective, identified as Eric Concialdi, 44, was found in the 1500 block of West Monroe Street, according to the medical examiners office. The office ruled the death a suicide. Muhammad, dressed in civilian clothes, told investigators in his initial interview more than a month after the incident that he identified himself as a police officer and asked the person what he was doing but that the male said something and ran off. After making a U-turn, Muhammad said he again announced his office to the male and said, Let me see your hands, the report said. In December, many New Yorkers were shocked by a video of NYPD officers ripping Jazmine Headleys baby from her arms. Her crime? Sitting on the floor of a Brooklyn food stamp office after waiting for hours and getting into a dispute with New York City Human Resources Administration peace officers. The video went viral, and was widely circulated by news outlets. Condemnation of the NYPDs behavior was so ubiquitous, even the New York Posts right-wing editorial board noted that the de-escalation training the NYPD rolled out after the fatal 2014 takedown of Eric Garner clearly didnt help much here. While elected officials swiftly denounced the actions of everyone involved, one notable voice declined to criticize the NYPD: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Several days after the news broke, de Blasio called the incident disturbing but blamed the agency security staffers. By the time the NYPD arrived, this situation was already out of control, he said. (Internal investigators at the NYPD found no wrongdoing by its officers.) This was not the first time de Blasio was reluctant to denounce police officers for the use of force on people not even suspected of any serious crimes. In January 2018, in an incident captured on video outside a federal office building near City Hall, protesters gathered to prevent the deportation of immigrant rights activist Ravi Ragbir were manhandled put in a headlock, shoved in the throat and arrested by police, including members of the New York City Council. Many of us suddenly and without warning or provocation (were) shoved and pushed, Council Speaker Corey Johnson said afterward. I was not blocking anyone. I was not resisting in any way. Hes not willing to be bold, to stand up for police reform and criminal justice reform when he ran on that. - Alyssa Aguilera, VOCAL-NY co-executive director The Daily News reported that de Blasio called the protest a very, very problematic incident but would not say whether the NYPD officers involved were in the wrong. The NYPD defended the arrests on the grounds that the protesters were in the way of an ambulance. (One officer involved was disciplined and one was transferred to a different unit; nine other officers were cleared.) To some of de Blasios supporters, incidents like this represent a betrayal of the credo of his first mayoral campaign and the coalition that elected him. Bill de Blasio is mayor today because he won the support of two key constituencies in 2013: African-Americans and liberals. He did so by campaigning against the racial and economic tale of two cities that existed under then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Reining in the NYPDs perceived trampling of civil rights in marginalized communities was at the very top of that agenda. Now, many of the mayors usual allies ask why these incidents still happen, why few officers ever seem to pay a price for it and why the mayors penchant for starkly moralistic language suddenly evaporates when its most sorely needed. Mayor de Blasio has had a lot of accomplishments in a lot of different areas but in police reform, hes fallen extremely short in my eye, City Councilman Antonio Reynoso said. By many measures, de Blasios tenure has coincided with impressive reductions in police brutality and other intrusive practices. According to City Hall, stop and frisk is down 94 percent since 2013, and complaints of excessive use of force by police officers declined 34 percent from 2014 to 2017. Instances of police discharging their firearms have continued a long-term decline, reaching record lows. By historical standards, and compared to other large American cities, todays NYPD demonstrates impressive self-control. "The mayor I endorsed in 2013 doesnt seem to be the mayor I see now. - New York City public advocate Jumaane Williams And yet some liberal leaders have problems with the mayors record including persistent racial disparities in policing, and rollbacks in transparency and accountability. Hes not willing to be bold, to stand up for police reform and criminal justice reform when he ran on that, said Alyssa Aguilera, co-executive director of VOCAL-NY, a statewide grassroots low-income advocacy organization. The police unions have outsized weight and nasty tactics. Thats why its important that you have someone who is very principled and not going to make all their decisions on politics. Thats what this mayor was lacking. Jumaane Williams told City & State during his successful campaign for New York City public advocate that the mayors record is a mixed bag. There is a clear difference between this administration and the last (on policing), he said. There have been some very good things that have happened. But he added, There are two primary areas where that hasnt happened: accountability and transparency. On those issues, Williams said: The mayor I endorsed in 2013 doesnt seem to be the mayor I see now. Why do these critics think de Blasio has failed to reform the NYPD? The answer, which may disappoint progressives even more, is that the reasons depend less on who is mayor than on the structural constraints that any mayor faces. NYC Council/Flickr The occasions in which police kill someone get most of the attention, even though New York City has a relatively low rate of such incidents. But there are lesser-known policy disputes that activists say have allowed the NYPD to continue some aggressive practices in low-income communities and communities of color, for whom de Blasio is supposed to be a champion. The Right to Know Act The most painful fight for activists and progressive legislators was the struggle to prevent cops from intimidating suspects into allowing unwarranted searches. In de Blasios first term, a bill to require officers to apprise civilians of their rights, specifically when searched or questioned, languished in the City Council despite having majority support because it was opposed by the mayor. The City Council passed a compromise version, which de Blasio backed, of the Right to Know Act in December 2017, which required police in many situations to explain why they are questioning someone and to let them know when they have the right to refuse to comply with a search. But advocates say that the mayor worked behind the scenes to water down the legislation by creating broad or vague exceptions. The gutting of the Right to Know Act was heartbreaking and not what we expected, said Johanna Miller, advocacy director at the New York Civil Liberties Union. Hes wiping out the bread and butter of most police interactions with the public. De Blasios spokeswoman Olivia Lapeyrolerie replied that the laws carefully crafted balance has helped further bridge the police-community divide at the center of keeping neighborhoods safe. There are also accusations by activists that updates to the patrol guide do not follow the law. According to Joo-Hyun Kang, the director of Communities United for Police Reform, the patrol guide makes it sound as if any public gathering is an exception to the restrictions on bag searches. In the law, that exception only applies to gatherings where youre submitting to a search for example, entering the barricaded section in Times Square on New Years Eve, Kang said. Last year, she told the Daily News that the guide doesnt make it clear that non-English speakers cant consent to a search without translation. NYPD spokesman Phil Walzak said at the time: The NYPD will of course continue to talk to advocates to fine tune the policy as it is implemented and we can assess whats working and what might be improved. He later told City & State that the NYPD fully complies with the Right to Know Act. Lapeyrolerie said, Officers are trained on how to work with non-English speaking New Yorkers in the academy. The law exposes a wide gulf between the views shared by progressive activists and council members and those of many police officers, who contend that the civil libertarians make unreasonable demands because they dont understand policing. Almost everything theyre calling for is absurd; the Right to Know Act is absurd, said Eugene ODonnell, a former NYPD officer and prosecutor who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Are you going to have a colloquy with people who are maybe armed and dangerous? 50-a Citing Section 50-a, a 1976 provision of the state civil rights law that prevents the release of officers personnel records, the NYPD abruptly stopped making police officer disciplinary actions public in 2016. It used to be, after a disciplinary hearing, you could find out what happened at 1 Police Plaza, Kang said. It was no longer at the clipboard. First, the excuse was they were moving to an electronic system. Eventually, we realized thats not happening and it became clear through court rulings they were taking a different position going forward. Despite complaints from advocates, state courts have sided with the administrations new interpretation of the law, while de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner James ONeill support the state Legislature revising it to allow more disclosure. The mayor and police have been clear that this state law needs to be reformed, Lapeyrolerie said. But in the meantime, the NYPD has no choice but to comply with the Law Departments ruling. Meanwhile, the police unions are offended by the mayors call to change the disclosure law. Reckless efforts to repeal 50-a intentionally ignore the serious statewide impact on policing this would have, not just in New York City, but in Long Island, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess and every other county, town and village in our state, said Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins in an emailed statement. Interestingly, the NYPD supported keeping 50-a in recent litigation that went all the way to the Court of Appeals. The only things that have changed between then and now are leftward-leaning elections, and the mayors renewed flirtation with national politics. Strategic Response Group Advocates say the mistreatment of the Ravi Ragbir protesters in January 2018 occurred in part because policing rallies is now handled by the Strategic Response Group, which was created in 2015. It was initially supposed to be a 350-person unit that de Blasios first police commissioner, Bill Bratton, said would handle counterterrorism and protests. Activists objected at the time to the conflation of peaceful demonstrations with terrorism, but ONeill, then the NYPDs chief of department, said, Theyll have no role in protests. Their response is single-fold. Theyll be doing counterterror work. Within a year, the group expanded to 800 members and became involved in nonterrorism-related activities. Last year, the groups officers responded to 911 calls regarding a mentally ill man in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, named Saheed Vassell who was brandishing what looked like a gun but turned out to be a metal pipe. Officers shot and killed him. Neighbors said that local precinct police would have recognized Vassell and known that he was harmless. Criminal justice news website The Appeal reported, Days later, during a large march in Brooklyn demanding justice for Vassell, the SRG showed up to try to intimidate protesters. What should happen is a re-examination of policies for protests and the Special Response Group, Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, told City & State. The NYPD did not respond directly as to whether the units mandate is too broad. SRG is comprised of highly trained officers that specialize in a range of functions and duties, Walzak said. Referring to the Ragbir protest from January 2018, Lapeyrolerie said, This isolated event should not undermine the fact that the NYPD patrols thousands of protests each year without any issue. Lieberman agreed that there had been a shift from the Bloomberg era, when the city denied permits for rallies, police crammed protest crowds into pens and, during the 2004 Republican National Convention,1,800 people were arrested many pre-emptively leading to millions of dollars in wrongful arrest settlements. The Bloomberg years began with people being arrested for attempting to attend a rally, with people being held in protest pens that were basically jail cells without a ceiling. I think its better now, Lieberman said. But, she hastened to add: Im not saying its good. Arrests for quality-of-life crimes Perhaps no issue better illustrates institutional resistance to policy change than de Blasios struggle to reduce arrests for minor infractions. Arrests are down 37.5 percent from 2013, which is partly because there is less crime but also due to shifts away from arresting every perpetrator of piddling offenses. During his first mayoral campaign, de Blasio said low-level marijuana possession arrests have disastrous consequences, explaining the racial bias in marijuana enforcement and calling the policy unjust and wrong. In de Blasios first year in office, City Hall directed the NYPD to switch from arrests to tickets for most minor pot infractions. Arrests dropped substantially, then leveled off at around 17,000 per year between 2015 and 2017. In 2017, 86 percent of those arrested were black or Latino roughly the same proportion as it was before de Blasio took office even though studies show whites and nonwhites use marijuana at similar rates. Politico New York noted last year that de Blasio has been reticent to criticize the police force for failing to follow his policy direction. In 2018, the city announced a new policy that would eliminate arrests for smoking pot in public with exceptions, such as encounters with those who are on probation or parole. Williams warned these loopholes would perpetuate racial disparities, and he was right. Pot arrests have subsequently dropped dramatically, but the racial gap has widened. The culture of the NYPD is really intractable, said Miller, the NYCLUs advocacy director. The Compstat era of the 90s made cops show they were doing what they were supposed to do with numbers. Every few years, we hear about some precinct commander saying, Go out and get five collars or six tickets with each shift. Frivolous arrests are still rampant. And the numbers show that these enforcement actions are falling very disproportionately on communities of color. The NYPD says it is trying to change that culture, to reward demonstrations of good judgment rather than merely making arrests for its own sake. For the past four and a half years, Commissioners Bratton and ONeill have made a forceful and department-wide commitment to redirect the NYPD from what they believed to be a too-narrow focus on enforcement numbers by past administrations to a targeted, specific focus on the sources of serious crime and disorder, Walzak wrote in an email. One example of this shift can be seen in Compstat meetings, where captains and inspectors are routinely challenged about arrests that do not contribute to public safety i.e., arrests for smoking marijuana, when the defendant has no criminal record. Broken windows De Blasio has defended his belief in the underlying principle of the Rudy Giuliani and Bloomberg era crackdown on quality-of-life crimes, such as open alcohol containers and loitering, even if the principle was overzealously or incorrectly executed. Theres been a failure to make a full break with the discredited policies of the past, including broken windows policing, which the mayor is a fan of and he should get over it, Lieberman said. He should use the bully pulpit of his mayoralty to match the rhetoric of his campaign and recognize broken windows as the ineffective and discredited and divisive theory it is. But some experts say enforcing quality-of-life laws through respectful community engagement is different from indiscriminately arresting every loiterer or litterer and that de Blasio has struck the right balance. Broken windows is often confused with zero tolerance, said Richard Aborn, president of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City, a nonprofit research organization. Broken windows policing is about maintaining orderly conditions. That shouldnt be conflated with overpolicing. To some in communities of color, de Blasios promise to end the overuse of stop and frisk was part of a larger philosophical reorientation of policing that would include an end of broken windows policing. But while de Blasio has not lived up to all of those expectations, he has undertaken some efforts to make policing less antagonistic. In 2015, the NYPD launched a neighborhood policing initiative to repair relations with communities. It also professionalized its school safety agents and just began a pilot program to bring neighborhood policing into schools, which have experienced an almost 30 percent decrease in major crimes over the past five years. Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office/Flickr Like the military, the police are a powerful constituency because of the esteem in which they are held by much of the public, and the fear of what harm would befall citizens without their protection. Just as former President Bill Clinton was brushed back by the armed services in his effort to allow gays to serve openly, police officers can fight back against unwelcome policy changes from Democratic mayors looking to institute liberal reforms. They could learn from President Barack Obama, who having learned from Clintons experience tried to get military buy-in for ending dont ask, dont tell by re-appointing President George W. Bushs Defense Secretary Robert Gates and commissioning a report from top military brass on the best way to implement a repeal. One can see this strategy in de Blasios decision to bring back Bill Bratton a revered figure in law enforcement who pioneered proactive policing in his first term as police commissioner under Giuliani and in the mayor increasing the NYPDs budget and, at the request of then-City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, hiring more officers. But every new initiative to improve accountability has been met with backlash from the rank and file. Since the NYPDs internal investigations of reports of sexual misconduct against officers are opaque and victims may fear reporting to the department itself, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the independent oversight agency that examines allegations of police brutality with support from City Hall and the NYPD expanded its scope to include allegations of sexual harassment and assault by officers. The New York City Police Benevolent Association, the largest union representing officers, sued to block change. On Feb. 28, a judge in Manhattan upheld the CCRBs new authority while striking down some of the accompanying rules. PBA President Patrick Lynch said the union may appeal or file a new suit on different grounds. The PBA has likewise sued to prevent the release of body camera footage. After losing a state court ruling on body cameras on Feb. 19, the PBA recently announced plans to appeal. Mayor de Blasio and the NYPDs leadership have made a grave error in attempting to appease these forces, because they will never be satisfied. Their goal is the end of any law enforcement in New York City, period. - Patrick Lynch, New York City Police Benevolent Association president Last June following BuzzFeeds reporting that the NYPDs discipline process is arbitrary and allegedly perpetrated retribution against a female officer who complained about sexual harassment ONeill appointed a blue-ribbon panel of leading law enforcement experts like Mary Jo White, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, to analyze the NYPDs disciplinary process and recommend improvements. Lynch responded with scorn when, a month ago, the NYPD adopted the panels recommendations to enhance transparency and to address findings such as the department having failed to consistently discipline officers when they had made false statements. When we see a panel of distinguished law enforcement figures bowing to the demands of anti-police, pro-criminal advocates, it is clear that public safety in this city is headed down a very dark path, Lynch said. Such warnings should be taken with a grain of salt, since conservatives and the PBA predicted a crime wave would ensue if stop and frisk was abandoned. In keeping with national trends, although murders ticked up in the first two months of this year, shootings and murders in New York City continued their long-term decline to impressive new lows in 2018. Although the PBA continues to predict a return to the crime and disorder of the 1970s with each additional reform, de Blasios success at keeping crime down reduces the salience of that argument. The union was very invested in stop and frisk and their assumption was that crime would skyrocket without it, Aborn said. There was an assumption that crime would come back under de Blasio, and de Blasio has proven progressives can be very effective crime fighters. Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office/Flickr The de Blasio administration is caught between its base on the one hand, and the police on the other. Cops feel like theyre being forced to walk on eggshells and progressives think de Blasio hasnt gone far enough. We tune out the critics on both sides and focus on doing the work that keeps people safe, said Lapeyrolerie, the de Blasio spokeswoman. That leaves some progressives wondering why de Blasio is tuning them out instead of taking their side. Despite the data, the police officers union doesnt see it that way. The agenda these anti-police activists are pushing has nothing to do with public safety concerns we hear from regular New Yorkers every single day, Lynch said in an emailed statement to City & State. Mayor de Blasio and the NYPDs leadership have made a grave error in attempting to appease these forces, because they will never be satisfied. Their goal is not reform. Their goal is not fairness. Their goal is the end of any law enforcement in New York City, period. One sobering lesson of de Blasios record on policing is that both sides, for understandable reasons, care deeply about the mayors tone because they are extremely invested in feeling like the mayor is on their side. Even if the mayor carefully crafts compromise policies, his inability to defend either cops or a victim of apparent brutality with unbridled indignation will leave at least one constituency unsatisfied. Police allies and other conservatives have asserted that de Blasio engaged in anti-police rhetoric during his 2013 mayoral campaign. That perception laid the groundwork for an uproar from the police in December 2014 when de Blasio said Eric Garner, an unarmed black man from Staten Island, should be with us. Garner had been choked to death by police for half-heartedly protesting being arrested for selling loose cigarettes, which Garner denied doing. De Blasio also admitted that, as the father of black son, he has had to warn his son about the possible threat of belligerent cops. Hes a lot more concerned with the voices of the Patrick Lynches of the world than he is with the police reform movement, a group that helped get him elected. - New York City Councilman Antonio Reynoso The PBA responded to de Blasios remarks by circulating a form for officers to fill out that would ask de Blasio and Mark-Viverito to not attend their funeral, if they were killed in the line of duty. When later that month, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, a man with a long rap sheet in Ohio and Georgia, killed an ex-girlfriend in Baltimore and then drove to New York City and murdered Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos in Brooklyn, the PBA was quick to blame the mayor. Lynch said the blood on the hands starts at the steps of City Hall in the office of the mayor, and cops turned their backs on de Blasio at the slain officers funerals, then booed him at the next Police Academy graduation ceremony. It was the key turning point in the administrations approach to policing. He took on the NYPD and he paid a very heavy political price for that, said a staffer to a citywide official who requested anonymity to speak openly. It was a very difficult time for de Blasios tenure. Just a month later, The New York Times reported, de Blasio took pains last week to emphatically convey respect for the police, trumpeting current low crime rates while twice describing the force as the worlds greatest. Ever since, de Blasio has been more cautious critics say timid. Hes a lot more concerned with the voices of the Patrick Lynches of the world than he is with the police reform movement, a group that helped get him elected, Reynoso said. The cops also have the power to undermine a mayor by refusing to do their job. After Liu and Ramos were murdered in 2014, NYPD officers dramatically scaled back their activity: the following week, they made two-thirds fewer arrests and wrote 94 percent fewer tickets than in the same period from the previous year. At least they went back to working. In Baltimore, murders have gone up for the past three years, while the proportion of cases being solved has gone down. Its an example of the Ferguson effect, named for the city in Missouri where protests against the police killing of Michael Brown gained national attention. In Baltimore, there has been what The Washington Post called a documented officer slowdown since protests over the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray at the hands of the Baltimore Police Department. Police officers have an incredible amount of discretion, said the staffer for a citywide official. If they (stop working) and the crime rate rises, its an absolute nightmare. Any elected executive comes into office with two or three things theyre willing to devote significant political capital to, because you make enemies along the way and you need support to get things done. De Blasio has universal pre-K. He has housing. He has inequality. He got stop and frisk done and felt hed done enough. He didnt want it to become him versus the NYPD for eight years. De Blasio clearly has larger political ambitions, and some observers speculate that his desire not to alienate the police and their supporters is motivated by hopes of appealing beyond his liberal urban base.I believe he wants to portray himself as pragmatic, even-keeled, bipartisan, to show this level of leadership that isnt solely beholden to the people who got him here, Reynoso said. He chose the NYPD to be the place where he does that. He chose it to be the agency that hes not going to war with, that hes going to embrace. The mayor contends that what some see as political expediency is just his responsibility to be circumspect when handling a 50,000-person department with a crucial function. The difference between me and other elected officials, de Blasio told WNYCs Brian Lehrer, regarding the Headley imbroglio, bluntly, is Im in charge its very easy to critique when youre not in charge. When youre in charge, you better get your facts straight. So thats why I dont jump in the first hour all the time to say what might be convenient or populist. Emotions were running high Monday at the annual Judiciary Committee public hearing on a variety of gun bills. An anti-gun activist was removed from the hearing by Capitol Police after Second Amendment supporters captured a photo of her texting that If I had a gun, Id blow away Sampson and a large group of NRA. Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, is a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment. The incident was reported to Capitol Police. Capitol Police Sgt. Jeffrey Barter said they determined there was no threat. The woman was asked to leave, but was not arrested. It was unclear if she was a member of any of the anti-gun groups present. WASHINGTON President Donald Trumps Pentagon budget, released Monday, appears to increase Electric Boats production of Virginia-class submarines from two to three next year. The decision to boost submarine production, mentioned in a White House budget summary, was welcomed by supporters of the Virginia-class program, but somewhat of a surprise. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, who represents Electric Boat and the Naval Submarine Base in New London, was part of an earlier effort to increase Virginia class production in 2022 and 2023 but was rebuffed by the White House and Pentagon. Todays announcement is a welcome reversal from the Department of Defense which, just eight months ago, publicly opposed my efforts to increase fast attack submarine construction to three per year, Courtney said. The $750 billion Pentagon budget request for 2020 would increase military spending by 5 percent over 2019, while making sharp cuts to a number of domestic programs. Full details of how the Pentagon plans to allocate the $750 billion will not be available until Tuesday. The Navy declined on Monday to expand on its plans for the Virginia-class program. The Defense Department is expected to trim the number of F-35s it plans to buy in 2020. At a cost of about $8 billion, the Pentagon is expected to request 78 F-35s, which are built by Lockheed Martin. Thats down from the 84 fighter jets the Defense Department had projected to purchase in the next fiscal year. The engine for the F-35, called the F135, is built by Pratt & Whitney. The Pentagon is also expected to ask for eight new advanced F-15 jetsto be used by the Air Force and the Air National Guard. Those fighter jets are built by Boeing, whose engines are made by General Electric, and would presumably replace some of the F-35s the Air Force is projected to buy. Rep. John Larson, D-1st District, and other members of the congressional F-35 caucus wrote Trump last week, objecting to the Defense Departments plan to purchase the first F-15s since 2001. The F-15 has been updated, but is still not stealthy or as advanced as the F-35, they argued. Investing in new old aircraft does not align with congressional intent, presidential direction, nor does it align with the National Defense Strategy, the lawmakers wrote. Bypassing the acquisition process to initiate the purchase of a cold war era plane without identifying a valid requirement, performing an analysis of alternatives, and no competition simply does not make sense. Agencies that would feel the brunt cuts in Trumps budget include the Department of Education, State Department, Department of Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency. To cut spending on mandatory safety net programs, like Medicaid and food stamps, Trumps budget would propose new work requirements for adult recipients. Trumps budget would also eliminate funding for Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act that has gone to Connecticut and nearly three dozen other states over the past five years. The budget also includes an additional $8.6 billion to build a wall between the United States and Mexico, money that would come out of the budget for the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagons military construction budget. A divided Congress is unlikely to agree to many of the proposed cuts to domestic spending and funding for the border wall. This budget request is dead on arrival, said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. This budgets reflect priorities, and President Trumps priority is clearly catering to his base ahead of his re-election campaign. He includes massive cuts to programs Connecticut families rely on to pay for his tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, and a ridiculous amount of money for his border wall that no one wants. Murphy, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, also said Democrats and Republicans on that panel have basically ignored the presidents budget request for the past few years and came together on bipartisan government funding proposals. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, and a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said It would be a cold day in hell before I helped pass a budget like this. But Courtney, chairman of the House Armed Services Seapower subcommittee, said he would work to keep the increased submarine construction money in a final budget. I am prepared to do everything in my power as chairman of the Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee to ensure that this proposal from DOD is authorized, appropriated, and signed into law, Courtney said. Southbound Route 9 in New Britain has reopened after a multi-vehicle crash Monday morning. Firefighters from Berlin and New Britain were dispatched to the scene of a multi-vehicle crash between exits 25 to 23, firefighters said. At a hearing at the Cook County courthouse in Skokie, Scott A. Larsen, 61, of Kenosha, also pleaded not guilty to violating Scotts Law, which increases potential penalties for those who fail to reduce speed and stay clear of stopped emergency vehicles that display warning lights. The law is named for Chicago Fire Department Lt. Scott Gillen, who was struck and killed by an intoxicated driver while rendering aid on the Bishop Ford Freeway in 2000. OLD SAYBROOK State Sen. Norm Needleman, D-Old Saybrook, toured the Old Saybrook Fire Department last week, learning from firefighters how he can best assist them with his work at the state Capitol. Needlemans visit coincided with his sponsoring of a committee bill that would provide volunteer firefighters and volunteer first responders with increased tax abatements representing additional financial relief, according to a press release. Many Connecticut fire departments, including Old Saybrook, rely on voluntary support from their members. As the First Selectman of Essex, Needleman works closely with local emergency response departments. He hopes to visit every volunteer department in the 33rd District during his time in the Senate, the release said. The Old Saybrook Fire Department has more than 60 volunteers who respond to fires, medical emergencies and other situations requiring fast action. Volunteers are the backbones of the small towns, and we really need to make sure we understand how important they are to town governments. I dont think we could afford to have our own fire departments if not for volunteers, Needleman said in a prepared statement. Its great our politicians outside of our town are coming in and seeing what we need for support, Old Saybrook Fire Lt. Bill Decapua said in the release. If passed, the bill would increase the current property tax abatement offered to volunteers from $1,000 to $1,500 annually or provide a tax exemption applied to their property values. It also includes tax relief for volunteers who live and volunteer in multiple towns or cities. Our volunteer first responders put their lives on the line to protect and rescue members of the public. They make personal and professional sacrifices to keep our homes and our families safe. We owe it to them to return this favor, Needleman said. By putting this tax abatement increase in place, we ensure that our first responders are rewarded for their bravery and their dedication to their communities, he added. Needleman represents the 33rd Senate District, which consists of Chester, Clinton, Colchester, Deep River, East Haddam, East Hampton, Essex, Haddam, Lyme, Portland, Westbrook and part of Old Saybrook. He is also the four-term first selectman of Essex, and founder of Tower Laboratories, an Essex manufacturing company that employs over 250 people. On Nov. 3 Illinois voters will consider whether to change the state constition to allow for a graduated income tax as a way to fix Illinois' shaky finances. The proposal would increase taxes for the wealthy and lower taxes for the great majority (97 percent of state taxpayers) by applying different tax rates on different levels of income. Currently everyone pays a flat income tax of 4.95 percent. Airmen Have Five Days to Get Immunized After Vaccine Exemption Is Denied or They Face Punishment, Air Force Says The service required all active-duty troops to become fully vaccinated by Nov. 2 after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in... MIAMI -- A Dutch delegation visited Coast Guard Air Station Miami Thursday on behalf of the Minister of Defense of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to present the Humanitarian Service Medal to members of Coast Guard Tactical Law Enforcement Team South for their disaster relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma in 2017, also including the ribbon Windward Islands St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius. The award was presented to Lt. Thomas Chronet; Chief Maritime Enforcement Specialist Andrew Lloyd; Machinery Technician First Class Edward Hinshelwood; Maritime Enforcement Specialist Second Class Julian Cubbies; Maritime Enforcement Specialist Second Class George Soto; Maritime Enforcement Specialist First Class Michael Walden; Boatswain Mate First Class Anton Lesovsky; Boatswain Mate First Class Micahel Kugelmann. "We have the unique pleasure and opportunity of deploying onboard vessels of our partner nations," said Cmdr. Joseph Meuse, commanding officer of TACLET South. "Together we work to disrupt and dismantle transnational organized crime networks and, in doing so, we strengthen relationships with those nations. Serving on vessels of the Royal Netherlands Navy and the successes shared during those deployments showcase joint-nation interoperability. Between 2017 and 2018, TACLET South Law Enforcement Detachment Teams deployed onboard three Royal Netherlands Navy vessels totaling over 170 days at sea, seized 2,056 kilograms of cocaine and successfully utilized Airborne Use of Force on three occasions to stop drug-smuggling vessels. Meuse added, "I commend the recipients of this award for their adaptability and service to others in the face of a devastating natural disaster and I thank Air Commodore Herber, our guests from the Netherlands, and Capt. Michael Ferullo for their support of the mission and for recognizing our members' accomplishments. I look forward to continued opportunities to deploy our LEDETs onboard Dutch vessels and to share in future successes." The Dutch delegation who visited Air Station Miami included NLD Defense Attache to the USA, Air Commodore Paul Herber (DATT); Naval Attache, Captain Hugo Ammerlaan; and JIATF-S Liaison, Lt. Cdr. Hein van Gerner and from the Office of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Consulate General in Miami, Deputy Chief of Mission, Willemijn Kallenberg. "In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, the LEDET and the crew of the HNLMS Zeeland became one team in an unplanned mission to provide desperately needed emergency relief and humanitarian aid to the people of St. Maarten," said Dutch Defense Attache, Air Commodore Paul Herber. "Together, we helped bring order, safety, and restoration to areas of the island, and for that, the LEDET has the eternal gratitude of the Kingdom of the Netherlands." Mary Dever is the assistant national communications director at Disabled American Veterans. When former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lifted the ban on women in combat roles in 2013, he gave the military two years to complete integration. In 2015, two women successfully completed Army Ranger School, leading to a Pentagon decision calling for combat specialties to be opened to women. The following year, one of those women -- Army Capt. Kristen Griest -- became the first female infantry officer in American history. With this change, and as the role of women in the military continues to expand, Women's History Month is the perfect time to recognize the thousands of women who fight to protect our country and how this new modern-day warrior is forcing changes in the services, programs and culture facing our veterans. In fact, the number of women in the armed services -- and subsequent veteran population -- is rapidly increasing. According to the Defense Department, women now make up 20 percent of the Air Force, 19 percent of the Navy, 15 percent of the Army and almost 9 percent of the Marine Corps. Women now make up approximately 10 percent of the current veteran population, the fastest-growing demographic. The number of female veterans treated at the VA almost tripled between 2000 and 2015. As a result of this rapid growth, the VA experienced difficulty meeting the clinical needs of female veterans at all sites of care. "As we learn more through VA research about the impact of military service on the physical and mental health of women veterans and their specific needs, continued adjustments in federal programs and policies and new legislation will be needed to address the programmatic gaps," said Joy Ilem, national legislative director of Disabled American Veterans. "There's a culture shift happening in today's military, led by women trailblazers. These women need VA to be prepared for them not just today, but for future generations of women veterans." In 2018, the DAV released a comprehensive new report, Women Veterans: The Journey Ahead, based on the quality of programs and services currently available to female veterans, as well as recommendations for shaping the VA culture and system to better serve this population. "It's critical to remember that women aren't just small men," Ilem said. "Women's body proportions and hormonal makeup are different." After Army veteran Brenda Reed had to have her leg amputated as the result of injuries sustained during her military service, she experienced firsthand that the VA is not as prepared to help a female veteran amputee as it should be. "I got my first prosthetic six weeks after the amputation, and I didn't have any problems learning to walk on it," she said. "But it was getting the right fit, which still isn't good. I was under the impression I would be able to get a [prosthetic] foot for my size that looked similar, and it was just the opposite." Reed was given a prosthetic foot designed for a man. As a solution to the poor fit, the VA opted to shave off parts of the prosthesis rather than provide her with one created for women. "I was told [by the VA tech] I was the only woman that he had seen, and he wasn't exactly sure what to do because he had never done prosthetics for women," Reed said. "I told him it shouldn't be any different from doing it for a man. A fit is a fit. If it doesn't fit, it isn't right." The VA is trying to implement new policies to address the barriers female veterans using their services face and created the Center for Women Veterans as a resource to help them navigate the system. However, Ilem said, VA officials need to look at what's happening in today's military and the long-term impact of that service on women's physical and mental health, so they are prepared to meet the future needs of female veterans. "When women raise their right hands and swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, they understand it could mean sacrificing their lives," said DAV National Commander Dennis Nixon. "Military service requires placing this duty above their personal well-being. Unfortunately, the sacrifices they make are not always recognized or acknowledged, and women work hard to reconcile their societal roles as caregivers, mothers and wives with the warriors they are." Ilem added, "Women experience military service differently than men and have different post-deployment challenges and distinct health care needs. They also rightly expect VA health providers and benefit representatives to have expertise in women's health and to be knowledgeable about their military service." -- The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Military.com. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration. The White House on Monday backed a 3.1 percent pay raise for the military as part of its overall defense spending proposal of $750 billion for fiscal 2020. The roughly 5 percent increase for defense, up from a total $716 billion defense budget enacted in fiscal 2019, was included in the record $4.75 trillion budget request for all government spending for fiscal 2020 that President Donald Trump sent to Congress. But the proposal also calls for major reductions in domestic spending. Congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle, who guard Congress' "power of the purse," said Sunday that Trump's budget request is only a suggestion that will be picked apart in their deliberations, as have others in the past. But they also said a military pay raise in the range of 3.1 percent is likely to survive. The White House proposal on military pay matches the 3.1 percent increase indicated in the U.S. Employment Cost Index (ECI) of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) that serves by statute as the major guideline for military pay. It would mark a boost of 0.5 percent over the 2.6 percent military pay increase in 2019. In the budget announcement, Trump said the proposed military pay hike is "the largest increase in a decade." According to the Pentagon, the military pay increase for 2010 was 3.4 percent. In addition to the pay raise, the White House defense budget proposal asks for funding "for a full range of compensation programs, from monthly incentive pays to recently modernized retirement benefits." Trump signaled last year that he might call for cuts in defense spending, but he eventually went along with the recommendation of then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis for a $750 billion request, an increase from the record amount approved for fiscal 2019. The $750 billion includes $718 billion for the Defense Department, and another $22 billion for related nuclear weapons programs at the Department of Energy. The White House defense budget proposal also calls for adding a total of 30,000 troops to the rolls to bring the active duty and reserve force to a total strength of about 2.14 million. The White House did not break down how the additional troops would be apportioned between the active duty and reserve force; details are expected when the DoD releases its detailed budget request Tuesday. The most controversial part of the proposal is likely the request for a huge increase in the funding for Overseas Contingency Operations, the so-called "war budget," from $69 billion to $165 billion, which would not be subject to spending caps under the Budget Control Act of 2011. The White House proposal also calls for an expansion of the nation's missile defenses against nuclear threats, focusing on the "hit-to-kill" missile ranges in Alaska. "The budget sustains deployed missile defense assets, improves system reliability against today's threats, increases engagement capability and capacity, and makes strides to rapidly address the advanced threat," the White House announcement states. The proposal calls for "a new missile field at Fort Greely, Alaska, with 20 silos and 20 additional Ground-Based Interceptors (GBIs) in support of the administration's plans to increase the number of deployed GBIs to 64, to protect the homeland against North Korean and other intermediate- and long-range ballistic missile threats," the announcement said. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. Keep Up With Military Pay Updates Military pay benefits are constantly changing. Make sure you're up-to-date with everything you've earned. Join Military.com for free to receive updates on all of your military pay and benefits, delivered directly to your inbox. The White House's proposed fiscal 2020 budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs would increase funding for the third straight year -- $220 billion in total spending to support consolidation of the VA's private health programs, modernize its technology infrastructure and expand the national cemetery system. Its an increase of nearly 11 percent from last years $198.6 billion total VA budget proposal. The VA's proposed $97 billion discretionary budget would be $8 billion more than President Donald Trump sought in the fiscal 2019 budget. According to the White House, the increases would largely go toward implementing key legislative initiatives, including the VA Mission Act -- the law that supports consolidating the department's private medical care programs -- and expansion of a VA program that provides compensation and health care to the caregivers of injured veterans. The proposed budget would provide $8.9 billion to implement the VA Mission Act and $1.6 billion for modernizing the VA's medical records system, with a goal of deploying a new electronic health system compatible with the Defense Department's system at three initial sites, with more to follow. The budget also would support expansion of the VA's caregiver program to include those who care for veterans injured on duty before Sept. 11, 2001. And it would fund the technology infrastructure needed to implement the program, although the initial budget releases did not state the amount of funding allocated to expand the caregiver program. The budget also would fund a new program to allow most veterans enrolled in VA health care up to two urgent care visits per year without a co-payment. Other programs within VA that would see increases under the president's budget include women's health ($547 million for gender-specific health care); funding for a new hospital in Louisville, Kentucky ($410 million), and improvements to the VA medical center in Manhattan, New York ($150 million). The budget includes a 4.2 percent increase to the VA's National Cemetery Administration to support opening five new cemeteries across the country and sustain 144 current cemeteries and sites. The funding also would help support the transfer of 11 cemeteries from the Department of the Army to the VA. Those cemeteries include active and former posts at Fort Devens, Massachusetts; Fort McClellan Post Cemetery and Prisoner of War Cemeteries, Alabama; Benicia Post Cemetery, California; Fort Sheridan Cemetery, Illinois; Fort Missoula Cemetery, Montana; Fort Stevens Cemetery, Oregon; Fort Douglas Cemetery, Utah; and Fort Lawton, Fort Worden and Vancouver Cemeteries, Washington. VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said the budget request will "ensure that the nation's veterans receive high-quality health care and timely access to benefits and services." "This is a significant increase in VA funding and demonstrates the administration's commitment to supporting our veterans," he said. According to the administration, the budget also focuses on customer service and transparency. It proposes spending $8.1 million to improve customer service, $22 million to support the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection, a 25 percent increase from the previous year, and an increase in the Office of Inspector General's budget of nearly 8 percent to $207 million, to "strengthen accountability, promote transparency and reduce waste, fraud and abuse." The budget also includes $123.2 billion for mandatory funding, an increase of $12.3 billion, or 11 percent, to fund required budget items such as compensation and pensions, housing, insurance and other benefits. This story will be updated. -- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Military.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime. Capt. Andrew "Dojo" Olson soared above RAF Fairford, England, piloting an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter during the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) last July. It was the first time Olson had given aviation geek enthusiasts and skeptics alike a taste of maneuvers the fifth-generation stealth jet can perform at the world's largest military air show. Now, Olson will be showing off those moves and more on tour. "This show is going to solidify the F-35 in its rightful place, just [as] the absolute, cutting-edge stealth fighter jet [that's] here and it's ready and so capable," said Olson, an instructor pilot and commander of the F-35A Heritage Flight Team. Military.com recently spoke with Olson, with the 56th Fighter Wing at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, about the upcoming 2019 demonstration season, in which he will be the solo F-35 performer at 17 shows across the U.S. and Canada. Related content: "It's just a total, absolute rage fest within 15 minutes," Olson said. The F-35 Lightning II has been part of the Heritage Flight for three seasons and is gearing up for its fourth starting this month, officials said. The Heritage Flight Foundation is a contractor with Air Combat Command and performs across the U.S. and overseas, flying old warbirds such as the P-51 Mustang. Only four aircraft -- the A-10 Thunderbolt II, F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-22 Raptor and F-35 -- are certified to fly alongside the planes from a bygone era. But this year is the first time the F-35 will have a breakout role in the 30-minute, full-narration air show, with its own 13-minute demo featuring state-of-the-art aerobatics. "We're going out there to showcase the jet, [and] we're doing it fully aerobatic fully showcasing the maneuvering envelope of the F-35," Olson said. That means a minimum of 16 maneuvers, including rolls, loops, high-degree bank turns, and inverting to be fully upside down, among other actions. There will also be two new passes with the older warbirds, including a "fun bottom-up pass where the [audience] can see the bottom of the aircraft as it arcs over the crowd," he said. Olson said the show pulls from the strengths and maneuvers of multiple airframes that came before the F-35. For example, the F/A-18 Super Hornet is "very impressive at a slow-speed capability, being able to do things like a square loop" and the F-16 Viper demo "is very fast and agile," he said. Audiences will be able to see the F-35 do both. The F-35 "will be able to power out of other maneuvers" more swiftly because of its F135 engine, which propels it with more than 40,000 pounds of thrust, Olson said. He will perform a pedal turn similar to the F-22, in which the F-35 banks and climbs high, eventually simulating a somersault-like move. But Olson will not use thrust vectoring or manipulate the direction of the engine's to control altitude or velocity. "This is really just a testament to the design and the flight control logic that's built into the jet. And all these maneuvers are repeatable under all conditions no matter what kind of temperature, or elevation, all these maneuvers are safe," Olson said. "For the first three seasons, we wanted the public to see the F-35, but it wasn't fully ready," Olson said, meaning that not every jet used for demonstrations was configured to the latest Block 3F software. "The F-35 program involved concurrent production and test. There was a little extra amount of testing still left to do and software and hardware modifications." That restricted pilots to a maximum of 7 G-forces, but now Olson can pull a full 9Gs if he wishes. And he has: During the RIAT show in July, Olson climbed to a full 9G configuration because that specific jet was fully capable. But he said he still wasn't performing the high-banking maneuvers he now can for the upcoming season. Olson and a small team at Luke have been working on the first-of-its-kind show since December. They traveled to manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-35 simulator facilities in Fort Worth, Texas, to develop the show alongside Billie Flynn, Lockheed's experimental test pilot. The demo moves also simulate how the F-35 will perform in combat, Olson said. "Through our narration, we attempt to succeed in connecting the maneuver at the air show to its real world, tactical application," he said, adding that he flies the F-35 like he's in a combat configuration but he won't be carrying an ordnance load. Still, "you are seeing the jet and how it would perform in actual combat," he said. As additional jets came to Luke for pilot training, it gave the demo team breathing room to practice because they weren't taking planes away from the primary training mission, Olson said. The base now has 87 of the jets, with more than 90 percent configured to the Block 3F software. "As far as flying operations go at Luke, [we now have enough] jets to support a demo team," said Olson, who was previously an F-15E Strike Eagle pilot. The show routine has been flown more than 40 times. Each time, he and other pilots, maintainers, avionics specialists and others involved in the show watch the tape from the cockpit and another recorded from the ground to see what can be perfected. "We grade ourselves down to the foot, and down to the knot of airspeed," Olson said. "When you travel at 1,000 feet per second, that's a tight tolerance. But that's the precision in which we designed this thing." He added, "No one has seen the F-35s perform this way and I think it really sets the bar for what a demo [show] can be." Olson says he doesn't see additional F-35 jets being added to the demo, though maneuvers may be tweaked or added in future seasons. "That work is never finished," he said. "Connecting the U.S. military, the U.S. Air Force with the American public is the goal. And the F-35 demonstration is the conduit for which we forge that connection." -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. Military members and veterans can get up to four free months of Apple Music through the Apple Music military discount -- but... With tax return season upon us, scammer season is also in full swing. How can you be sure you aren't being scammed when you have somebody prepare your taxes? Scammers are everywhere. In fact, the Marine Corps just put a tax prep company outside the Camp Pendleton gate on the off-limits list. The "Go Navy Tax Service" company was put off limits after the Corps investigated complaints by several Marines. According to Google reviews of the company, it would lure in young Marines with free trolley passes and promises of free tax preparation. Employees would then use high-pressure sales tactics to get Marines to deposit their refunds into various financial products, such as tax-free annuities or life insurance products. Employees would also convince the Marines sign up for allotments to these accounts. Of course, the payouts were nothing like promised, and many Marines saw their money disappear. No criminal charges have been filed, and the company has admitted no wrongdoing, but its website now says it is "unable to provide tax preparation services this season." This is nothing new. All of us have stories of places outside the main gate of almost every military installation we've been on that prey on young military members. A big difference these days is that scammers exist everywhere via the internet. How can you be safe? Beware of Scams. Use Common Sense This year, the Internal Revenue Service is warning taxpayers to avoid unethical tax preparers, known as ghost preparers. According to the IRS' website, by law, anyone who is paid to prepare or assist in preparing federal tax returns must have a valid Preparer Tax Identification Number. Paid preparers must sign the return and include their number. But "ghost" preparers don't sign the return. Instead, they print the return without including their name or ID number, and tell you to sign and mail it to the IRS. These people will charge you a percentage of your refund to complete the return. Therefore, much of the data on the return could be wrong as the preparer inflates a lot of the numbers to get a larger refund -- and therefore a larger fee. Since they don't include their name and tax preparer ID number, if the IRS audits your return and finds the errors, you are on the hook for any back taxes and penalties. Good luck getting any help from the person who did your taxes. They usually disappear pretty quickly. That's why the IRS calls them "ghost preparers." The IRS lists other things to watch for that may tip you off to a shady tax preparer: Requiring payment in cash only, and not providing a receipt. Inventing income to qualify you for tax credits or claiming fake deductions to boost refunds. Depositing refunds into their own bank account rather than your account. Trying to sell you an investment to deposit your refund into, often promising large investment returns. Having you sign a blank return or not giving you a copy of your return after it is filed. How to Avoid Problems The IRS reminds you to always review everything you sign, and to ask as many questions as you can. It's especially important to review the routing and bank account number on the completed tax return to make sure your refund is going to your bank account, not the preparer's account. You should always avoid tax preparers who claim they can get you a much larger refund than other preparers. Also, avoid those who base their fee on a percentage of the refund. Some common sense hints include: Check the person's credentials. Only attorneys, CPAs and enrolled agents can represent you with the IRS in all matters, including audits, collections and appeals. Other return preparers may represent you only for audits of returns they prepared. Find out whether the preparer is affiliated with a professional organization that provides its members with continuing education and resources and holds them to a code of ethics. Consider whether the individual or firm will be around to answer questions about the preparation of your tax return months, or even years, after the return has been filed. Friends and co-workers are also a good resource. Ask them who they used to prepare their taxes, and whether they would go back to that person or company. Remember, no matter who does your taxes, you are the one who is ultimately responsible for everything on the return. You will be the one the IRS comes looking for if there is anything wrong. Therefore, you want to make sure the person or company you hire is reputable. Finding a good tax preparer may seem difficult at first, but luckily we have put together some resources to help you. There are several free and discounted tax resources available to military members, veterans and retirees. Check out our listing of free and discounted tax preparation resources. You can also get tax assistance at many local libraries, or through the AARP. Get the Latest Financial Tips Whether you're trying to balance your budget, build up your credit, select a good life insurance program or are gearing up for a home purchase, Military.com has you covered. Sign up for a free membership and get the latest military benefit updates and tips delivered straight to your inbox. Steven Yeun's popular character Glenn Rhee was killed off at the end of season six of "The Walking Dead," and many fans think the show has never really recovered. Yeun returned to his native South Korea and made "Burning" (out now on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital) with acclaimed arthouse director Chang-dong Lee. It's a surprising choice. Most actors grab a high-paying Hollywood gig after such a big TV role, but Yeun wanted to do more challenging work. "Burning" is an elliptical, maddeningly vague mystery that takes the rough outline of a crime thriller but never offers any real resolution to the mystery. It's also a fantastic movie that has many rewards for viewers interested in something more challenging that the stuff we usually cover around here. Very loosely based on the Haruki Murakami short story "Barn Burning" (in turn inspired by the William Faulkner story of the same name), "Burning" tracks a relationship between Jong-su (Ah-in Yoo) and Haemi (Jong-seo Jun). Haemi claims to have grown up near Jong-su when she picks him up at the store where she's working as a product girl. Jong-su agrees to watch her (possibly imaginary) cat while she goes on a trip to Africa, and he's shocked when she returns with a new boyfriend named Ben (Yeun). Ben is a wealthy kid with no apparent job and a fancy flat in the elite Gangnam district. Jong-su struggles to process this turn of events while he's also struggling to deal with his father's legal troubles caused by dad's assault of a government official. He claims he wants to be a writer inspired by Faulkner, but he doesn't really have a clue what he wants to write. Haemi disappears, and Jong-su investigates. He believes that Ben has something to do with it, and his search leads to a climactic showdown between the men. If you're looking for answers, director Chang-dong Lee isn't particularly interested in giving you any definite ones. He has made an achingly beautiful movie that features three amazing performances. Both guys see Haemi through their own distorted filters, and neither one is a relationship she should have bothered to pursue. What happens to her is a mystery, and that mystery (not its solution) is the point of "Burning." Gas prices in the U.S. and Michigan continue to climb at a steady rate as prices have jumped by more than a nickel nationwide and by more than 8 cents in the Great Lakes State. As of Monday afternoon, March 11, the average cost for a gallon of self-serve unleaded gasoline in Michigan is at about $2.54 per gallon. This not only represents more than an 8 cent increase in the past week, but a 26 cent jump in the last month alone. Prices across the U.S. are coming in at an average cost of about $2.49 per gallon, which represents a 20 cent increase in the past month. GasBuddy reports that this is the fourth-straight week weve experienced an increase in prices at the pump stateside. As predicted, gas prices advanced across much of the country for the fourth straight week even as oil prices held relatively stable at $56 per barrel, Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said in a news release. The reason for the continued disconnect remains similar to weeks past: refinery maintenance is ongoing and eating into supply and production levels, while more expensive, cleaner-burning gasoline is now the predominant fuel being produced. This has pushed up wholesale gas prices even as oil remains mostly calm. He adds that there were only 135 gas stations left in the country selling feel at $1.99 per gallon or less at the end of last week, and that the most common price in the U.S. is $2.39 per gallon. If Michigan's (full) gas tax proposal had been in effect today, #gasprices in #Michigan would be hitting ~$3.15/gal instead of the jump to $2.69/gal that's happening. Patrick DeHaan (@GasBuddyGuy) March 11, 2019 The national average will rise over $2.50/gal in the next 48 hours, and possibly hit $2.55/gal in the next week. It may also briefly push beyond the average a year ago. #gasprices Patrick DeHaan (@GasBuddyGuy) March 11, 2019 GasBuddy shows that as of a little after 4 p.m. Monday that the cheapest gas in the state can be found at the Mobil station in Williamsburg at $2.09 per gallon. After that, its the Costco in Traverse City at $2.14 per gallon and the Circle K in Woodhaven at $2.16 per gallon. AAA reports that 26 states saw prices increase by at least 5 cents in the past week, and that the combination of gas stocks decreasing while demand increases is that keeps driving prices higher. While motorists are paying more to fill up today than at the beginning of the year, gas prices are still cheaper year-over-year by a nickel, Jeanette Casselano, AAA spokesperson, said in a news release. Pump prices will continue to increase in coming weeks, but AAA does not expect this years high to be nearly as expensive as last years peak price of $2.97. See below for a rundown of gas prices from around the state as of Monday afternoon courtesy of AAA: See below for a full rundown of average gas prices across the state: LANSING, Mich. -- A data breach possibly involving the theft of names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, insurance contract information and numbers, phone numbers, and medical information of more than 600,000 Michigan residents has state Attorney General Dana Nessel urging residents to pay close attention to their personal information and credit reports. Data breaches can be devastating to the affected individuals, Nessel said in a statement released Monday. Its important this office provide affected customers with any and all available resources to help limit the effects of this or any breach. And today, were doing just that. The data was stolen from Detroit-based Wolverine Solutions Group and may have included data for customers of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Health Alliance Plan, McLaren Health Care, Three Rivers Health, and North Ottawa Community Health System. Wolverine says it does not believe personal information was stolen, but Nessels office is still asking residents who may have been part of the breach to be diligent about watching their credit reports. Wolverine is offering two levels of identity protection to individuals affected by the breach, said Department of Insurance and Financial Services Director Anita G.Fox. "If you receive a letter from the company, we urge you to read it carefully and consider enrolling in the free credit monitoring service. The attorney generals office is now seeking more information about the breach. Under state law, Wolverine was not required to share information about the breach with the office. Nessel said her office was first made aware of the breach through media sources. The company announced the breach on Jan. 1, 2019 on its website, but did not list how many people may have been impacted by the breach. NEGAUNEE, MI A Michigan man was killed in a head-on crash with a van in the Upper Peninsula. According to WLUV-TV6, the crash occurred on County Road in Negaunee just before 4 p.m. on Sunday. A 1997 Ford E-350 full-size van driven by a 69-year-old Ishpeming man was eastbound when he collided head-on with a westbound 2012 Chevy Impala driven by a 29-year-old Negaunee man. The 29-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the TV station. The driver of the van suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The Negaunee City Police Department was assisted by the Marquette County Sheriffs Office, Michigan State Police Negaunee Post, UPHS-Bell EMS and the Ishpeming City Police Department. The crash is under investigation and names have not yet been released. Michigan police agencies are allowed to permanently seize assets related to criminal investigations on controlled substances, identity theft, public nuisance and an assortment of other crimes. According to the Michigan State Police 2018 Asset Forfeiture Report, police agencies got $13.1 million from such asset forfeitures in 2017. A new bill recently passed the State senate that would prohibit seizures of property valued at less than $50,000 without a conviction in the case, and is currently making its way through the legislative process. The Michigan House recently passed a pair of bills making significant changes to the civil asset forfeiture law as well. Last year 2,875 instances - 43% of all cases involving a seizure - resulted in a conviction, with another 2,368 pending charges. When it comes to the kind of case that brought police to investigate, the predominate issue was - in both 2017 and 2016 - drugs. Violations of the Public Health Code as it relates to controlled substances made up more than 83% of all instances of forfeiture last year. Below is a searchable database tracking all of the crimes that caused a seizure. Each category below is a broad subset of numerous specific violations that can result in assets being seized. For example, possession of less than 25 grams of cocaine, heroin or another narcotic had the most instances of property seizure, with 1,306. Agencies also broadly itemize how the money taken in from seized assets was spent. Last year 36% of all money was devoted to equipment like records management systems, mobile data terminals, live stream video, and evidence collection enhancements. That represented the highest percentage spent in expenditures, with only the category Other breaking a double digit share of the pot at 17%. Other encompasses things like cell phones, GPS trackers, vehicle purchases, off-site storage units for toxic materials and various evidence collection materials. NASA is celebrating the fact that it recently photographed the interaction of shockwaves from two supersonic aircrafts in flight for the first time by sharing the fascinating images. The U.S. space agency says that this accomplishment was 10 years in the making, and that it represents a significant milestone for its Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. The images featured at the top of this post were made during recent Air-to-Air Background Oriented Schlieren flights at a base in Edwards, California. Related: NASAs Mars Curiosity rover back up and running after mysterious reset These flights reportedly saw the successful testing of an upgraded system that makes high-quality images of shockwaves possible. NASA says that shockwaves happen when aircraft merge together as they travel through the atmosphere and are responsible for what is heard on the ground as a sonic boom. We never dreamt that it would be this clear, this beautiful, J.T. Heineck, NASA physical scientist at the Ames Research Center, said in a news release. "I am ecstatic about how these images turned out. With this upgraded system, we have, by an order of magnitude, improved both the speed and quality of our imagery from previous research. During the tests featured in these images, the space agency says it used two T-38 U.S. Air Force jets flying in formation at supersonic speeds about 30 feet from each other. The T-38 flying behind is said to be about 10 feet lower than the one in the lead. With exceptional clarity, the flow of the shockwaves from both aircraft is seen, and for the first time, the interaction of the shocks can be seen in flight, NASA writes. Related: If NASA can reduce sonic booms, passenger jets could fly NY to LA in 2 hours This work is part of NASAs efforts to make the commercialization of supersonic travel possible. Supersonic flights are typically not allowed over land, so results from the space agencys series of tests will recommend new standards to replace existing restrictions. As for what these tests could lead to that matters to the general public, the goal is to eventually accommodate jets that can fly from New York to Los Angeles in two hours. In regards to the upgrading imaging system that captured the photos at the top of this page, the space agency says it will be used to capture crucial data to confirm the design of its $247.5 million X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology X-plane. Whats interesting is, if you look at the rear T-38, you see these shocks kind of interact in a curve, Neal Smith, a research engineer with Aerospace Computing at the NASA Ames center, said in the release. This is because the trailing T-38 is flying in the wake of the leading aircraft, so the shocks are going to be shaped differently. This data is really going to help us advance our understanding of how these shocks interact. We never dreamt that it would be this clear, this beautiful. An advanced technology test by @NASAaero produced the first-ever images of the interaction of shockwaves from two supersonic aircraft in flight. Here's how we'll use them: https://t.co/ZVRFaaM06P pic.twitter.com/2NBvMAGyUi NASA (@NASA) March 6, 2019 NASA awarded Lockheed Martin a $247.5 million contract to build its experimental X-Plane back in April 2018. Once the plane is fully tested and deemed safe to fly in the National Airspace, it will begin making supersonic flights over select communities to measure residents reactions in 2022. The X-plane's design is based on a Lockheed Martin preliminary design, which will make an aircraft 94 feet long with a wingspan of 29.5 feet and weigh in at 32,300 pounds with a full tank of fuel. Once complete and ready for flight, the space agency says the plane will cruise at an altitude of 55,000 feet at 940 mph, and that its top speed will be a projected 990 mph with one pilot in the cockpit. Related: NASA awards $247.5M contract for construction of low-boom supersonic X-plane The data from the AirBOS (Air-to-Air Background Oriented Schlieren) flights will continue to undergo analysis, helping NASA refine the techniques for these tests to improve data further, with future flights potentially taking place at higher altitudes, NASA writes. These efforts will help advance knowledge of the characteristics of shockwaves as NASA progresses toward quiet supersonic research flights with the X-59, and closer toward a major milestone in aviation." DETROIT - The Wayne County Prosecutors Office said it is still reviewing a warrant request for a Pittsburgh official after an alleged physical altercation with officers from the Detroit Police Department. In a Monday email, Prosecutor Kym Worthys office says that a charging decision is not expected today. This case involves Allegheny County Controller Chelsea Wagner, who is a former state representative, the womans husband, Khari Mosley, and Detroit police. The alleged incident occurred shortly after midnight on Wednesday, March 6 at the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel in Detroit. Police allege that Wagner attempted to forcibly stop officers from removing her husband from the hotel. But the Pittsburgh official claims the actions of officers were appalling and that their side of the story is inaccurate. Detroit Police Chief James Craig said during a press conference that officers were responding to a disorderly person who was under the influence of alcohol creating a disturbance. He added that officers responded with the intent to resolve the issue without an arrest, and that those on the scene showed tremendous restraint and accommodated the gentleman to the next level" in escorting him back to the couples room. Upon arrival, Craig said that Mosley had his hands in the air shouting hands up, dont shoot, was taunting security guards with his superior educational background, and was using profanity toward officers. The officers were concerned that there was something wrong in the room that he was supposed to be in, Craig said during a press conference in Detroit. "When the officers went to the room, the door was ajar, and they went in to investigate -- very methodical and took their time, but at some point, the situation did escalate. During the initial contact with the female companion, the wife of the male, there were several times where I could see in the video where she was placing her hands on the officer, not in a very aggressive way but she certainly was pushing and touching, at least six or seven times. But, that was not at the point she was arrested. Detroit Police Chief James Craig giving update on Pittsburgh Elected Official... Posted by Detroit Police Department on Friday, March 8, 2019 Craig says officers and hotel security then left the couple at the room, but as officers left, hotel security made the decision based on some loud banging noises that he (the husband) could not stay at the hotel. While escorting the man out of the hotel, Craig said that Mosley was handcuffed to prevent injuries to the officers and the suspect based on his behavior. They get to the elevator, and the wife blocks the door. They ask her to move away from the door of the elevator and she continues to stay there, Craig said. "At some point she puts her hand on the officer, and the officer takes the wife to the ground. You can hear in the video that he was saying Be careful, it almost seems as if he was trying to break her fall. He (the officer) did handcuff her, and she was arrested for assault and battery." The Associated Press reports that Wagner, a Democrat, spent about 12 hours in jail and that her lawyer is disputing the Detroit police chiefs account. Wagners lawyer, Heather Heidelbaugh, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the county controller tried getting on the elevator ahead of police as they escorted her husband and was thrown to the ground. The cop grabs her, pulls her out of the elevator and throws her to the ground, Wagners lawyer told the newspaper. Shes a victim. Im doing an investigation. Craig has maintained that video of the incident backs up his account, and that body camera footage shows that the former state representative grabbed an officers jacket and attempted to block the entrance to the elevator. In an additional interview, the Detroit police chief told the Detroit News that the officer pushed Wagner off of him after she grabbed his jacket. She started to fall, and the officer tried to grab her to break her fall, because he didnt want her to be injured," Craig told the Detroit newspaper. AP reports that Wagner said her two young sons are traumatized by the situation, knowing that their parents were in handcuffs and in jail. The news organization adds that the couple confirmed they were in Detroit for a concert, had a steak dinner with several glasses of wine at a restaurant and went back to the hotel room. The husband claims that he went to the hotel bar while Wagner went back up to the couples room to go to sleep. Once finishing up at the bar, Mosley reportedly realized he forgot his key to the room and attempted to get help from hotel staff but was refused after they did not hear back from Wagner in the room. This is when the situation escalates because I respond I think the way any rational thinking hotel guest would respond, Mosley said, according to AP. The penalty for losing my hotel key is now I have to go to a completely different hotel and book a completely different room? Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at an MLive roundtable last week expressed interest in an idea to phase-in income taxes paid by recent graduates of Michigan colleges as a way to help them pay off their debt and keep them from leaving the state. I think thats an interesting potential thing to discuss with regard to keeping young people like you in Michigan, especially when youve incurred debt or put this type of investment into your skills -- which we need people with skills like yours, Whitmer said March 6, speaking to Eastern Michigan University student body president Candice Crutcher during a roundtable discussion moderated by MLive. MLive hosted the citizen roundtable to have Michigan residents ask the governor questions about her newly proposed $60.2 billion budget. Crutcher asked how Whitmers plan to offer free community college would affect people who were already in school. Whitmer acknowledged the burden of student debt -- and mentioned she had just read an interesting proposal from a man in southwest Michigan about phasing in income tax. Recently Rob Cleveland, president of Berrien Countys economic development organization Cornerstone Alliance, proposed a five-year income tax phase-in for all graduates of colleges and universities in the state. He called it the HUGE -- Homegrown Undergrad and Graduate Education -- Incentive. In several opinion columns published across Michigan, Cleveland describes his incentive proposal as an option to Reverse the Brain Drain of college graduates leaving the state. Michigan college graduates would pay no income tax their first year after graduating with any degree from associate to doctorate, under Clevelands proposal. The second year they would pay a one percent income tax; the third and fourth years they would pay a three percent tax and the fifth year they would pay a four percent tax. Michigans income tax rate is 4.25 percent. Cleveland suggested the tax savings could be used to pay down student loans. Giving tax breaks to recent college graduates isnt a new idea in Michigan. In 2013 the legislature considered a tax credit program for student loan payments, put forward by then-state Rep. Andy Schor, D-Lansing. It died in a House committee. Whitmer does have a proposal to help students entering college from high school. A tuition assistance plan would make community college debt-free or provide up to $5,000 for people pursuing degrees at four-year universities. She hasnt put a cost on the plan, yet, and its not included in this years budget as it would not start until the following fiscal year. ANN ARBOR, MI - She may root for the green and white, but Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will deliver the spring commencement address for the University of Michigan. The university announced Whitmer will deliver the address on May 4 inside Michigan Stadium. She is the sixth sitting governor to deliver a commencement address for UM in the past 40 years. Whitmer was sworn in and officially inaugurated as the states 49th governor on Jan. 1 after defeating Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Schuette 53 to 44 percent in the general election. Whitmer is a former state lawmaker, first elected in 2000, who rose through the ranks to become the Senate Minority Leader in the 2011-2015 Senate session. She comes from a political family - her mom worked for former Attorney General Frank Kelly, and her father for former Gov. William Milliken. She went into law, completing her undergraduate education and law school at Michigan State University. Most recently, before hitting the campaign trail, she served as an interim prosecutor for Ingham County in 2016. During her time as Senate Minority Leader she was a vocal advocate for liberal causes. She gained statewide attention for sharing the story of her own sexual assault on the House floor in 2013. In addition to her legislative experience, Whitmer taught at both UM and MSU. In 2011, former Gov. Rick Snyder delivered the address during his first year in office. Eight years before that, it was Gov. Jennifer Granholm delivering the commencement address. While Whitmer will deliver the commencement address, Randy Schekman, a Nobel Prize winner and professor of cell and developmental biology at the University of California, Berkeley, will deliver the address for the for those receiving masters or doctoral degrees through the Rackham Graduate School on May 3. For a list of recent commencement speakers, visit UMs website. FLINT, MI -- Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist III gave a speech about Bayard Rustin, an openly gay civil rights activist, to emphasize the importance of ensuring equality for all at a Flint NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner on March 9. The message supporting civil rights for the LGBTQ community was prompted by anti-gay remarks from Flint NAACP Vice President A.C. Dumas. Dumas took to Facebook last October to say he would not vote for Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is married to a woman, because shes gay" and said he could not support a gay candidate because of his religion. The Freedom Fund Dinner is held each year to support scholarships given out to students by the NAACP. It is our responsibility to stand even when were uncomfortable so that everyone, no matter race, gender or sexual orientation, can be counted and given the opportunity to be their true selves, Gilchrist said. Flint activist Quincy Murphy and protesters set up signs boycotting the dinner outside of the Holiday Inn Gateway Center Banquet, where the event was held. We asked for his (Dumas') resignation and he wouldnt resign, Murphy said. We asked for the board (Flint NAACP) to remove him as vice president, they didnt do that. We asked for the board to hold education forums on the LGBTQ community and they didnt do that. Weve asked people to boycott the Freedom Fund Dinner and for the Lt. Gov. to speak on the comments that were made. Nessel previously said national NAACP leaders have stood up against all discrimination in the past and she expects the organization -- including the Flint branch -- will continue to do so. Flint NAACP President Frances Gilcreast previously said Dumas is pushing his own personal agenda that isnt affiliated with the NAACP. Discrimination of any kind is not the model of the NAACP. Our main concern is to get people out to vote, we dont care who they vote for. We are still on our mission to eliminate hatred and bigotry, Gilcreast said. In addition to Murphys request for action against Dumas, other groups wrote to Gilcreast in February, urging her to denounce homophobia and transphobia within your organization and to uphold the founding principles of the NAACP through the inclusion of all persons -- including the LGBTQ community. Representatives of the Equality Caucus of Genesee County, Flint Gay Pride Society and Wellness AIDS Services Inc. were among those who signed the letter. 6. Cut Medicare by more than $500 billion. Trump promised on the campaign that he would not touch Social Security or Medicare, but he uses this budget to propose a major cut to Medicare for the first time. Trump wants to "reduce wasteful spending" on Medicare by expanding the list of treatments that require prior authorization before the procedure can be done and putting medical providers on notice who charge more than others. The administration argues these cost savings will help ensure Medicare can last for many years to come, but some argue it will result in people who need treatment having it delayed or not receiving it because of extra paperwork and hurdles. GRAND RAPIDS, MI It was a typical morning when Luciano Marban left his home on Grand Rapids Northwest Side last October and headed to a downtown construction site, where he was performing demolition work for Walsh Construction Company. His wife, Martha, expected to see him at home later that day to take her and their grandchildren to a movie. But Marban never returned. He was struck down that afternoon by a large piece of wood scaffolding roughly 16 feet long, weighing 75 pounds that fell from the roof of the seven-story building at 50 Monroe Ave. NW when a burst of wind reportedly swept through the area. The 48-year-old was taken to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Its just an empty hole in our hearts, said Luis Marban, 21, who more than four months later is still grieving for his father, a man he remembers for his humor, his passion for cooking and the love he showed his family. And while the state of Michigan has fined two companies Walsh Construction Company and Owen-Ames-Kimball a total of $8,500 in response to the Oct. 20 accident, Luis Marban says the penalty does little to ease his familys pain. They could fine them a million dollars, but its not enough because my dad is gone, he said. That was my best friend. That was the man that was teaching me everything, that taught me everything Both companies are appealing their fines. Records from the Grand Rapids Police Department and the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration, obtained by MLive.com through the Freedom of Information Act, provide a glimpse into what happened the day Marban was killed. At the time of the accident, which occurred about 2 p.m., Marban and his colleagues were working on the lower level of the building, using chip hammers to remove masonry block wall. The former office building is being converted into a 130-room hotel. Above them, on the roof of the building, a large piece of wood scaffolding had been installed along the upper edge of the penthouse roof to hold down roofing material that was unable to be completed until the exterior walls of the penthouse could be finished, according to MIOSHAs report. But the scaffolding apparently became dislodged due to strong winds, causing it to fall from the structure, the report states. It struck Marban, who was wearing a helmet, on the side of his head and his arm. He went into cardiac arrest and was taken to Mercy Health St. Marys Hospital and pronounced dead at 2:34 p.m. At time the time of the accident, the weather was cold and rainy and a very large wind had just picked up in the downtown area, according to a report from the Grand Rapids Police Department. Luis Marban questions why his father and others were permitted to work in such conditions. How come they couldnt just say, hey youve got to go home, he said. I wonder that every day. Walsh Construction Company, 1035 Butterworth St. SW, has been fined $7,000 the maximum amount for a single violation classified as serious by MIOSHA. The company allegedly violated a construction safety standard that requires firms performing demolition work to perform a daily inspection to detect hazards and unsafe conditions, and to ensure that an employee is not permitted to work where hazards exist. MIOSHAs report says Walsh Construction Company did not perform a daily inspection on adjacent structures prior to employees working at lower levels removing masonry block wall at 50 Monroe Ave. Company owner Ken Walsh said he feels terrible about Marbans death and remembered him as a good worker and a very happy-go-lucky guy. But hes fighting the $7,000 fine, saying we had nothing to do with that stuff that fell off the roof. It was not our stuff and not our equipment, Walsh said. He questioned why his firm, which was working on the lower level of the building and not the roof, would be responsible for inspecting the roof for safety issues. Nobody would ever think that there would be a danger up on the roof, Walsh said. Marban was one of 38 workplace deaths across Michigan that were investigated by MIOSHA in 2018. There have been five such deaths this year, according to the agencys website. Owen-Ames-Kimball, the general contractor on the 50 Monroe project, was fined $1,500 for violating a construction safety standard requiring firms to remove all scrap lumber, waste materials, or rubbish from the immediate work area as the work progresses. Specifically, the company failed to remove wooden planks on the roof after they were done being used, according to MIOSHAs report. Robert Gulliver, the safety director at Owen-Ames-Kimball, declined to comment, but acknowledged in a statement that the company is appealing the MIOSHA fine. The companys appeal letter, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act Request, disputed MIOSHAs characterization of the wooden plank that killed Marban as scrap material, waste material or rubbish. It said the timber was being used for various purposes to aid in the ongoing work. The company also said there was not a substantial probability that serious physical harm could result from the scaffolding plank, given its size/configuration and the restricted access to the area. It added, therefore the citation should not be classified as Serious. Gulliver declined further comment when asked by MLive whether Owen-Ames-Kimball performed safety inspections on the site to ensure materials such as the wooden plank that killed Marban were properly secured. Its not unusual for companies to appeal a MIOSHA violation. The agency provides a two-step appeal process. The first gives the business an opportunity to submit an appeal to MIOSHA. If that appeal is unsuccessful, the business can submit an appeal to the state Board of Health and Safety Compliance and Appeals. A hearing is called with an administrative law judge if a settlement between the state and the employer cannot be reached, according to MIOSHA. Pardeep Toor, a MIOSHA spokesperson, said the agency does not track how frequently violations are overturned on appeal. MIOSHA does not track the aggregate results of appeals, he said. Each appeal is managed and reviewed individually based on the specific details of the case. Mark Dotson, a professor at Cooley Law School, says its likely difficult to have a violation completely overturned on appeal. Its more probable that an employer would enter into a settlement in which the penalty may be reduced. If its going to be dismissed outright, it would be dismissed outright on the merits initially, he said. In other words, there never would have been a finding of responsibility if it was that clean. Meanwhile, Marbans family is still coming to grips with the incident. Luis Marban, who is helping support his mother who cannot work because of a knee problem, says he once enjoyed spending time with friends in downtown Grand Rapids. But because of the accident, he says he now avoids the area. Every time we go through downtown its like a negative feeling, he said. I just want to cry at that moment. GRAND RAPIDS, MI A part-time worker at Lowell Area Schools on Monday, March 11, pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court to charges of producing and distributing child pornography. Madalynne Paige Iteen, 22, is accused of taking sexually explicit photos of an 8-month-old boy she was babysitting and distributing the images on Snapchat, according to court records. Attorney Christopher Wirth, who is representing the boys parents, said after the hearing that the parents support investigators and the prosecution but are concerned about protecting their son. He said it was disturbing to learn that others are trying to learn his identity. People are trying to figure out who the child is. At this point, (the parents are) trying to maintain as much anonymity as possible. He said that U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI, does not believe that the photos of their son have been shared on the internet other than the Snapchat message that Iteen allegedly sent to a man in Canada. Iteen has no previous criminal record. Seated next to her attorney, Helen Nieuwenhuis, answered most of Magistrate Judge Ray Kents questions with Yes, your honor. She had many supporters in the courtroom. A man said they did not want her photographed as she left federal court, which does not allow cameras in courtrooms. She covered her face with a maroon sweater to avoid having her face photographed. She was a part-time worker at Lowell Area Schools but school officials have not identified her job or status. A letter to parents said she was on administrative leave. The production of child-pornography charge carries a penalty of at least 15 years, and up to 30, in prison upon conviction. The distribution charge carries a penalty of five to 20 years. She was arrested last month after Homeland Security Investigations in Grand Rapids was contacted by Durham Regional Police Service in Ontario, Canada, which had assumed the email account of a suspect arrested for child pornography. An Ontario investigator, using the email, gained access to a directory containing photos with child exploitative names, HSI special agent Scott Bauer wrote in a criminal complaint. A folder shows pornographic and non-pornographic images and videos that appear to be Iteen, along with images of an infant being abused, Bauer wrote. Several images of sexually explicit photographs involving an infant boy believed to the (the victim) were also contained with the Camera Uploads folder , he said. Iteen told police she had contact with someone who sent videos of young girls performing sex acts with men, which she deleted. She said she took photos of the boy, whom she was babysitting, at that persons direction, police said. She is free on $50,000 bond. IONIA COUNTY, MI Police on Monday, March 11, have shut down M-66 north of Ionia for a serious crash. Ionia County Sheriffs Department expects to release further details about the crash later today. The road will be shut down for several hours while police investigate and remove vehicles. The Michigan Department of Transportation said lanes in both directions are blocked. MDOT said the crash was reported around 2:30 p.m. GRAND RAPIDS, MI As part of its grow your own solution to Michigans teacher shortage, the Kent ISD is launching a new Teacher Cadet Program at its tech center next school year. Right now, we have a trend that is scary in the number of graduates from high school who are seeking an educational pathway that would lead to them becoming a certified teacher, said Bill Smith, assistant superintendent for instruction for Kent ISD. We not only have a concern that we have a shortage of teachers, but it is even more concerning to us the shortage in diverse teachers. In February, the Kent ISD School Board approved the addition of a two-year Career Technical Education (CTE) program for teacher preparation and an instructor position. Smith said the goal of the program is to take graduates of the diverse high schools in the 20 districts the ISD supports and build their capacity and awareness regarding the impact of public education. He said the idea is to get interested students on the right track so the districts can hire them back when they complete their degree. "This issue for us has been part of conversations with a variety of stakeholder groups, including business and industry, community leaders, and educators,'' Smith said. Unlike other CTE programs, the students wont be spending a third of the day on the Kent ISD campus learning. Rather, they will be in their school district working with mentor teachers. As they progress in the program, the plan is to have them out working in different areas of education at elementary, middle, and in some cases high schools. Once a month, Smith said the students and their mentor teachers will come to the Kent Career Technical Center campus for training. For example, on using data to drive instruction and having a culturally responsive classroom. Enrollment in teacher-prep programs in Michigan colleges and universities have seen steep enrollment declines - by 66 percent over a recent seven-year period, according to the February report Michigans leaky teacher pipeline: Examining trends in teacher demand and supply, from the Citizens Research Council of Michigan. Those completing a teacher preparation program declined 30 percent from 2010-11 to 2015-16. At its peak in 2003-04, there were 9,664 issued initial certificates, which are required to enter the teaching profession. In 2017-18, there were 3,317, down from 3,719 the prior year. This school year, Grand Rapids Public Schools launched its new Academy of Teaching and Learning, a partnership with Ferris State University, to create a talent pipeline. Comstock Park schools has had a teacher cadet program for a few years. Smith said they hope to recruit between 44 and 90 students to launch the program. He said interested students should contact their high school counselor or the Career Tech Center. Educators say there are a variety of factors contributing to the shortage, including the opportunity to earn a higher salary. Salaries for public school teachers in Michigan averaged $62,260 in 2016-17, according to data from the Michigan Department of Education. This was the first time in five years that the average teacher salary increased. The lack of diversity in classrooms has been an issue in Michigan and across the country. One of every three Michigan students are children of color, but more than 90 percent of teachers and 80 percent of school administrators are white, according to the Michigan League for Public Policy. "We know that the research is very clear that if we can get a diverse teaching population that students of underrepresented populations, diverse students, tend to perform significantly higher when we have a multicultural educational force,'' Smith said. Kent ISD is modeling its program after the successful Traverse Bay Area ISDs Teacher Academy that began in 2002 in response to the expected shortage in educators. Smith said the program is succeeding at building a career pathway for students interested in teaching and a pipeline of area teachers available for hire in the future. While seeking to attract interested students of all races, he said the Kent ISD wants to put a diversity and equity lens on the program to move the needle on recruiting racially diverse teachers. JACKSON, MI A Jackson County judge was publicly censured Friday by the states highest court, months after admitting he violated judicial conduct for the sake of speeding cases along. The Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission, supported by the Michigan Supreme Court, issued the censure on March 8, announcing that District Judge Joseph Filip acted irresponsibly and violated judicial conduct rules when he emailed prosecutors asking questions about open cases without including the defense attorneys involved. A censure is a formal reprimand that will remain in his judicial file unless appealed. I just wanted to get the feedback from (prosecutors), not to give them a heads up, Filip said, apologizing for the error. I wasnt trying to give anyone an advantage, (just) trying to move the case along. Its part of my job. In accordance with the Michigan Code of Judicial Conduct, adopted by the Michigan Supreme Court, judges are not allowed to discuss case matters with only one party of a pending case. All matters of a case must be discussed or considered when both parties are present. Attorney Sheldon Halpern filed a complaint with the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission in October 2017 because Filip -- who served as Jackson Countys elected prosecutor from 1985-92 -- shared information via email about an appellate decision pertinent to a case only with the cases assigned assistant prosecutor Jeremiah Smith and not with him. Chief Assistant Prosecutor Kati Rezmierski brought the judges email to Halperns attention in August, more than 30 days after Smith had received it. Halpern asked the judge to disqualify himself from the case against his client, Rama Tyson. Filip granted Halperns request, recusing himself in open court Sept. 8, 2017. Months prior to this, a similar complaint was filed by District Judge Michael Klaeren in the case against Kathleen Adkins, where Filip emailed Smith but not Adkins defense attorney, Michael Dungan, an appellate court decision Dungan, was going to introduce. Mike had two or three newer cases in his brief. Prosecution did not have those, so I took it upon myself to send an email to Jeremiah Smith and say take a look at these cases, Filip said. My intent was to get the prosecutions response to (the case) rather than wait until we came to court. Mike does a good job, he doesnt just throw things against the wall and see what sticks. Filip was unaware of this complaint until he received a letter in mid May 2018 from the JTC regarding the Halpern complaint. Filip responded to the JTCs investigation June 4, admitting to the claims in both complaints, again stating his intent in sending the emails was to speed the cases along. More than a year passed since the filing of the complaints to the issuance of Fridays censure, frustrating Filip, who called the long wait irritating. Why did the process take so long? Filip asked. This is a slam dunk against me. I did it. What took so long to come up with (the censure)? The JTC meets once a month and the time frame for completing an investigation can vary from a few weeks to several months, depending on the complexity of the case, according to the JTC. MONTAGUE, MI Big Flower Creek near Montague is unhealthier than most streams running through agricultural areas, according to research commissioned by a group seeking to block a pig farm nearby. Findings suggest the creek is very degraded due to agricultural practices in the area, said Richard Rediske, professor of water resources at Grand Valley State University. He couldnt say whether the pig farm thats under construction would directly impact the water quality. High levels of E. coli make the creek unsafe for human contact during rain events, he said. Sediment and E. coli are also threatening fish populations, including brook, rainbow and brown trout, according to the research. Rediske will present his report during a community forum at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 12, at Montague City Hall, 8778 Ferry St. The event will be hosted by Reviving Our American Democracy (ROAD). In July, the group filed a petition with the state seeking revocation of the operating permit for a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) at Flower Creek Swine near Lake Michigan. It was one of several moves the organization has planned to block the CAFO, according to a previous news release. Potential manure pit leaks at Flower Creek Swine and ground application potentially compromising water quality are at the crux of ROADs protests. The CAFO is about one-quarter mile from Big Flower Creek and about two miles from Lake Michigan in Claybanks Township, just north of Montague in Muskegon County. It is near Big Flower Creek, which flows into nearby Lake Michigan. Construction of the CAFO barn continues, owner Jacob Marsh said on Friday, March 8. The concrete pit is completed, and the barn atop it is mostly framed. Its unclear when it will be ready to house pigs. The covered, enclosed barn is expected to house up to 4,000 pigs at a time and sit atop a 1.5 million-gallon concrete pit that will collect waste through slatted floors. Plans call for the manure to be pumped into tankers for application on fields in the area. In December, ROAD was denied in Muskegon County Circuit Court an injunction to stop construction of the CAFO. In the revocation petition to the DEQ, ROAD claims that the permit terms dont protect water quality in the nearby Flower Creek watershed, which feeds into Lake Michigan. The petition is moving through the process, and has not been resolved, said Chris Conn, environmental quality specialist for the DEQ water resources division, enforcement unit. The DEQ responded earlier to public concerns, voiced during a hearing in January 2018 and in written comments, by approving a restrictive permit that requires Flower Creek Swine to track and document where manure goes and how it is applied to the land, according to DEQ officials. The permit, which is valid through Oct. 1, 2022, was granted by the DEQ last May. The current degraded state of Big Flower Creek is due to agricultural runoff by existing farms in the area, Rediske told MLive/Muskegon Chronicle. Water from 22,000 acres of nearby land drains into the creek, according to the recent ROAD release. He wouldnt say whether he thought Flower Creek Swine would have a direct negative impact on the creek. All we can say is the stream is very degraded now and any additional manure applications would increase the level of degradation, Rediske said. We're suggesting farm management practices be looked at in the area. The damage to the creek suggests that local farmers may not be following environmental regulations when it comes to spreading fertilizers, he said. The DEQ is aware of the water quality issues in Flower Creek, Megan McMahon, environmental quality analyst for the DEQ, said previously. The CAFO permit was written so as not to contribute to those problems, she said. It is very rare for a permit to be rescinded, McMahon said earlier. Marsh is working to diversify his familys 300-acre farm. He started the CAFO application process during April 2017. The Marsh family also grows corn and soy and has a 160-head dairy cow operation. The family has been farming for 23 years and moved to the property in Claybanks about 13 years ago. Storing, transporting and spreading manure is not new to the family, David Marsh, Jacob Marshs father, has said. Manure from the dairy operation is used to fertilize the corn and soy fields, and the pig manure would be sold to local farmers as fertilizer, which he said is better for the environment than artificial fertilizer currently being used. There should be additional studies after the CAFO is built to determine whether (water) conditions worsen, Rediske said. BAY CITY, MI A Bay City veteran is helping his fellow homeless brothers in arms by renovating a house for up to 15 of the veterans. Bruce Douglas is a Vietnam War veteran from Bay City who owns a rummage shop in town in addition to a house that is being renovated in the hopes that up to 15 homeless veterans can stay there and get back on their feet. I get tired of stopping at a stop sign or red light and have some veteran come over soliciting funds to get to a motel, Douglas said. Thursday, March 7 marks the one-year anniversary of owning the building located at 303 18th St. that Douglas, his wife Mary Ann and a former homeless vet are renovating. Douglas, recipient of the 2005 Bay County Veteran of the Year award, said the community has helped them get materials for the house. Home Depot, for example, donated the roof they will replace on the house, and all of the drywall and paint that will be used to get the house in shape. The unique way he is in part helping pay for it comes from the Veterans Rummage Shop he also owns which takes donations to help veterans who are on a fixed income or need help where all of the money made there goes to pay the bills for heat and electricity at the new homeless shelter. The Douglases said they were able to purchase the house last year for $2,300. She added that they bought the five-bedroom and two-bathroom house and donated it to their charity, Veterans Rest, which will also be the name of the homeless shelter when it is finished. Bruce Douglas, who served several tours in Vietnam from 1960 to 1966 and later medically evacuated out said for veterans it can be hard to get back into civilian life, especially after seeing conflict and dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. We didnt have a lot of sergeants with combat experience, they made me a platoon sergeant, we walked into some really bad stuff, Douglas said. I seen my whole platoon wiped out in Vietnam, youre never gonna get that out of your mind; I left part of a kidney and lung over there. Vince Caillouette, a former homeless veteran from Portland, Oregon, said ordinary homeless shelters cant really deal with homeless veterans because they have more unique experiences or medical conditions than the average homeless person. Some of those veterans have complete, severe PTSD or something of that nature and if they get strongly approached by somebody or have night terrors or something like that, nobody in the shelter knows how to take care of it other than to shake it off, he said. He ended his service as a private second class after serving from 2009 to 2013 and said he sort of looks to Douglas as a father figure. I honestly love doing carpentry, Bruce is pretty much like a dad to me, he needs my help, I help him and put my foot into something he started, Caillouette said. I want to be known here in Bay City to be doing something. He added that he helped rewire the entire house to help get it up to the citys code and that cost nearly $10,000. The rummage shop is run by another veteran, Timothy Causley, who said Douglas is the reason why its all possible. The reason why I do it is because of that man sitting back right there, he said, he helped me for years like hes helped thousands of veterans and its my way of helping back. Since Bruce owns that building as well, he pays the bills at the rummage shop to make sure every penny of the items sold go to the house he is renovating. Causley said the shop receives donations from all over the state and have gone as far north as Houghton Lake and as far south as Trenton. Bruce and his wife married for 56 years said they are happy to be doing what they are doing because they believe it is what they were supposed to do. Mary Ann said youre gonna spend your money on something and it is better than having the money spent at the casino or something else. She added things work out the way they are supposed to. I am hoping that we can have a nice Christmas here I dont want my veterans next year to be out (in the cold) I want them to know all about this place, Bruce said. Icy road have led some mid-Michigan school districts to cancel classes to begin the week. Beaverton Rural Schools will be closed on Monday, March 11 due to dangerous back road conditions, reads a message Sunday night on the districts Facebook page. Beaverton Rural Schools will be closed on Monday, March 11 due to dangerous back road conditions. Posted by Beaverton Jr/Sr High School on Sunday, March 10, 2019 The Gladwin Community Schools Facebook page states the district is closed on Monday due to icy back roads." A complete list of school and organization closings and delays is available on the ABC 12 website here. High temperatures are forecast to jump each day, topping out with a high on Thursday at or above 60 degrees before falling off to the 30s by the weekend. The Anne Frank Center has waded into the debate around ISIS terrorists returning to Germany with an unlikely take, seemingly implying that they deserve the same rights as Jews persecuted by the Nazis. A tweetstorm ensued. The German government announced plans to strip some Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS or ISIL) fighters returning to Germany of their citizenship last week. More than 1,000 Germans left to take up arms for the Caliphate since 2013, and around a third have returned. Another third are believed to be dead, with the rest in hiding or captivity in Iraq and Syria. Also on rt.com Cowardly West too weak to punish its ISIS recruits so hands dirty work off to Third World justice The decision will apply to adult German nationals with dual citizenship who join the terror group in the future. The Frankfurt-based Anne Frank Center a human rights nonprofit founded by Franks father Otto jumped into the discussion with an unlikely defense of the Islamist militants. A lot of protest has broken out against the governments decision, the center tweeted, with reference to the Third Reich. In fact, the Nazis made generous use of the means of naturalization. In several waves, a total of more than 39,000 people were expelled especially Jews. As of Nov. in 1941, they automatically lost their citizenship when they crossed the borders of the Reich regardless of whether 'voluntarily' emigrated or deported. Albert Einstein was affected on the grounds that he had violated 'the duty to be faithful to the Reich and the people.' "Also expelled was Hannah Ahrendt, from whom the saying comes: 'The naturalized person loses the right to have rights. In democracies, withdrawal of citizenship is a means that deprives the sovereign, the citizens, of the opportunity to participate. While the centers comparison wasnt a direct one, plenty of commenters took offense at the notion that a brutally persecuted group could be compared to people who willingly joined a terrorist organization. You are abusing Anne Franks name for dirty propaganda, read one tweet. Millions of murdered Jews would turn in the grave because of this comparison. You seriously compare IS fighters to persecuted Jews in Nazi times? Incredible...And then you are named after Anne Frank. It doesn't get any more disgusting than that, read another. In a two can play at that game move, another commenter compared the policies of Chancellor Angela Merkel to Adolf Hitler, drawing comparisons between their attitudes on censorship, socialism, and Islam. A terrible insult, tweeted retired British Colonel Richard Kemp. They should delete this disgraceful tweet. The center didnt delete its tweets, and said it was trying to put the means of withdrawing citizenship in its historical context. Some users have understood the connection as an equation of Jewish victims of National Socialism and German members of the IS terrorist militia, the center continued. We very much regret that our text allowed this room for interpretation. Such an equation was, of course, not our intention. The debate over what to do with returning IS fighters was thrust into the headlines last month when the British government stripped the citizenship of British-born Shamima Begum, who left the UK as a teenager to join the Islamic State in Syria. Although Begum has expressed no remorse for joining the group, her lawyer has pleaded with the Home Office to reinstate her citizenship as an act of mercy, following the death of her infant son. In the US, President Trump has refused to take back a New Jersey-born IS bride who claims she deeply, deeply regrets her flight to the Middle East. However, Trump has demanded that European leaders take back their own IS fighters and put them on trial. Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! The ceremonial debut of Boeings 777x wide body aircraft, planned for March 13 in Seattle, will be postponed indefinitely, the company said, following the second deadly accident in just five months involving its 737 Max 8 plane. We will look for an opportunity to mark the new plane with the world in the near future, Boeing said in a statement Sunday night, emphasizing that at the moment the company was focused on supporting Ethiopian Airlines in the wake of the tragic air accident, which claimed 157 lives. Also on rt.com China grounds its 737 MAX fleet after latest-gen Boeing jet suffers 2nd crash in 5 months The unveiling ceremony at Boeing's Everett Factory was supposed to be attended by top executives and numerous honored guests, who were more-than-eager to see the presentation of the "largest and most efficient twin-engine jet in the world." Designed to build on the success of the 777 and 787 Dreamliner series, the plane is being assembled to replace the current generation of retiring 747 fleets. Production of the first 777X test model began in 2017, with first deliveries scheduled for next year. Once operational, the plane is expected to sell for at least $360.5 million. Also on rt.com Fatal flaw made Lion Air flight nosedive 20+ times before deadly crash in Indonesia, report finds Boeing's plans, however, were thrown into disarray on Sunday, when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed just six minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi, Kenya. All 157 people on board, mostly foreigners, were killed in the incident. Following the tragedy, Boeing announced that it will dispatch an investigative team to the crash site to provide technical assistance. The 737 MAX was only four-months-old when the jet allegedly demonstrated "unstable vertical speed during its takeoff. The official cause of the crash is not yet known. Sunday's disaster was the second recorded crash of the brand new Boeing narrow-body aircraft. In October, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 operated by Lion Air crashed minutes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia, killing all 189 passengers and crew. That crash is also under investigation. Despite the cancelation of the inauguration ceremony, the 777X's development program will proceed on-schedule, the company said. Like this story? Share it with a friend! "There's no question that that was horrible for the country. It was unnecessary and the rest," she said. "But in terms of where we are, as Thomas Paine said, the times have found us. And the times have found us now. We have a very serious challenge to the Constitution of the United States in the president's unconstitutional assault on the Constitution, on the first branch of government, the legislative branch. . . . This is very serious for our country." Chinese airlines have been ordered to ground their Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes, after the modern jet suffered a second fatal crash in just five months with its aviation watchdog noting disturbing similarities between the incidents. Given that two accidents both involved newly delivered Boeing 737-8 planes and happened during take-off phase, they have some degree of similarity, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said Monday, emphasizing its principle of zero-tolerance on any safety hazards. All Chinese domestic airlines were requested to suspend operation of the 737-8s by 6:00pm local time (10:00am GMT) and, according to local media and flight tracking resources, on most routes the jet has already been replaced with older-generation planes. Also on rt.com Ethiopian Airlines brand new Boeing 737 MAX crashes on way to Kenya with 157 people on board With the first 737 MAX crash in late October still under investigation, the tragedy on Sunday that claimed 157 lives might well have been a coincidence, but security concerns and the potential grounding of the entire MAX fleet would severely impact Boeings business. A Boeing spokesman declined Reuters request for a comment. Chinese carriers account for about 20 percent of the planes sales, with dozens of Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets already in operation and many more scheduled for delivery. China Southern Airlines Co. has the biggest fleet, with 16 of the aircraft, while Air China Ltd. currently operates 14 jets. China Eastern Airlines Corp. has 13. While the US manufacturer continues to emphasize the jets unmatched reliability and to market MAX 8 as the customer's preferred choice for comfortable flying experience, the latest generation Boeing 737 has a gloomy track record since its commercial debut in 2017, having been involved in two fatal crashes in the last five months. Also on rt.com Fatal flaw made Lion Air flight nosedive 20+ times before deadly crash in Indonesia, report finds On October 29, 2018, a two-months-old jet belonging to Indonesian low-cost airline Lion Air crashed into the Java Sea, just 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta. All 189 on board died. The cause of the crash is still under investigation, but early reports indicate that the pilots struggled to control the climb due to an autopilot system malfunction, which kept on forcing the jet's nose to dive. A similar fate was suffered by Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on Sunday when its 737 MAX 8 crashed some six minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi, Kenya. The aircraft was only four months old. All 149 passengers and eight crew members on board died. Also on rt.com MAXimized danger: Are 200+ new Boeing 737s plagued with glitch that led to crash in Indonesia? The tragedy of a truly international magnitude on Sunday killed three Russians, eight Americans, four Indians and eight Chinese citizens in addition to 18 Canadians, 32 Kenyans, eight Italians, nine Ethiopians, six Egyptians, three Australians, four Slovaks and five Dutch persons. Morocco and Poland each lost two of its nationals. Among the passengers were 19 UN Workers representing different nationalities. While Boeing has sent an investigative team to get to the bottom of the tragedy, Swedish flight-tracking website flightradar24 said the jet displayed an unstable vertical speed during its takeoff. Despite worldwide concerns over the aircrafts safety, Boeing has yet to make a decision on whether to ground the planes globally, pending investigation. Currently 350 units of the 737 MAX have been delivered worldwide. Another 4,661 are planned for delivery. Also on rt.com Boeing cancels 777X launch event after Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 crash Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! God created penises and vaginas, and all those stupid priests who arrogantly think they can suppress their basic instincts are a threat to women, the Philippines President claimed, in his latest tirade against the Catholic church. God gave him a penis. What will they do with that? Will they slap it against the door every morning? Women should stay away from priests, Rodrigo Duterte advised, claiming that most clergymen are more than willing to use their God-given gift to act on their suppressed tendencies. When you are near him, he will just smell the scent of your body...[and] he will court you... because he is a man, Duterte added, noting that only stupid men enter the priesthood. Also on rt.com Who needs religion like that? Catholic Church will be gone in 25 years, Duterte says Is there an intelligent priest? They are all stupid. If they arent stupid, they wouldnt enter the priesthood. You keep on looking at all the beautiful women that you cant court. My God, Duterte said, immediately drawing criticism for his vulgar comments. The controversial president, who in the past admitted to being a womanizer and serial misogynist should be the last person to advise women not to deal with the clergy, the Gabriela Womens Party said. Duterte, who revealed in 2015 that he was molested by a priest when he was young, has frequently slammed the institution of the Catholic church, which has been particularly critical of his harsh anti-drug policies. Also on rt.com Most of them are gay: Duterte urges Vatican to allow its useless priests to have boyfriends Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! As Israelis prepare to go to the polls next month, hundreds of profane posters are popping up around the country, depicting the states establishment politicians giving the middle finger to the electorate. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seen in many of the provocative, photoshopped, billboards, but opposition leaders havent been spared from the attacks. Labor Party leader Avraham "Avi" Gabbay, Blue and White leaders Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, while New Right leaders Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennett have also received the bird-flip treatment. This time, dont vote for politicians who will give you the finger in return, the posters read, playing on the fact that the words for to vote and to point are the same in Hebrew. The posters are the work of the new Yashar party, which is running on a platform that includes giving citizens the ability to influence lawmakers daily decision-making through a smartphone app. The party erected 400 signs in prominent locations around Israel. The middle finger campaign is making waves throughout the country, a Yashar spokeswoman told The Jerusalem Post. The public is responding to it, because we all know this is the truth. The politicians dont care about us.... Most of us dont have who to vote for. Also on rt.com Wonder Woman v Bibi? Gal Gadot comes to rescue of TV host berated by Israeli PM However the outrageous posters have received some pushback from voters. One Tel Aviv resident told Ruptly that he finds the stunt extremely distasteful. It's negative. Its not respectful at all. It disgusts me, Haim said. Polling suggests Yashar will fail to make any waves when polling opens on April 9. Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! At least two passengers believe they have been given a second chance at life after missing the fatal Ethiopian Airlines flight that killed everyone onboard after the Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed shortly after takeoff. Just two minutes can make a difference to someones fate, Antonis Mavropoulos discovered this weekend after arriving late at the gate, preventing him from boarding the doomed flight. I could see people boarding. I was very angry they didnt let me in, he told Greeces ALPHA TV, recalling how his fury disappeared after he was told that the brand new Boeing 737 MAX had crashed just six minutes after takeoff. Also on rt.com Safety precaution: Ethiopian Airlines grounds Boeing 737-8s after deadly crash After the initial shock of hearing the news, the Greek man came to realize that it was his lucky day. Im grateful to live and that I have so many friends that made me feel their love, he said in a lengthy Facebook post. Mavropoulos was not the only passenger who was thanking his lucky stars on Sunday. Ahmed Khalid also missed his flight to Nairobi, after his connecting flight from Dubai to Addis Ababa was delayed. Like this story? Share it with a friend! Sen. Marco Rubio was besieged by social media mockery after declaring that power outages in Caracas were caused by an explosion at a German Dam the name of journalist who reported on the blackouts. The Florida lawmaker and devout Juan Guaido supporter took to his Twitter podium on Saturday to once again proselytize about the evils of Nicolas Maduros government. Commenting on the recent waves of blackouts in Venezuela, which Caracas has blamed on US-backed sabotage, Rubio shared some insightful Senate intelligence. Today another transformer explosion at the German Dam in Bolivar State caused another massive blackout. The result? Critically ill patients have died, the #Caracas metro remains out of service & few if any flights have arrived at or departed from Caracas in over 20 hours, he tweeted. Theres only one problem with Rubios otherwise watertight dam theory: There is no German Dam in Bolivar State or any other part of Venezuela. It seems that the senator confused the name of a journalist covering the power outages, German Dam, with an imaginary (but combustible) inanimate object. Responding to Rubios tweet, Mr Dam informed the senator that he was a human and not a barrier constructed to hold back water that mysteriously blew up. Also on rt.com Lashing out at media over Venezuela, Rubio accuses CNN of Russian collusion Senator @marcorubio, an important transformer exploded in Bolivar and that, in part, again collapsed the Venezuelan Electric System; however it was not in a dam, much less german. My name is German Dam, I am one of the journalists who published the information, he wrote. Rubios hot take on Venezuelas power troubles received much respect and awe on social media. How is this still not deleted? You thought German Dam, a journalist, was an ACTUAL dam. You, a sitting US Senator from my state, literally spread fake news. You were corrected by the journalist, whose name is GERMAN DAM. Yet, here it is, still. Bottomless depths of ineptitude, wrote former sportswriter Carter Gaddis. Kind of hard to take you seriously when you cant understand basic concepts like the difference between inanimate objects and real people, quipped an equally astounded netizen. The tweet which remains bravely undeleted prompted some Floridians to apologize to the world for their oafish representative in the Senate. I had to stop following Rubio. The man is literally out of his mind. Apologies from Florida, wrote Twitter user @anneinflorida. I would like to apologize on behalf of the State of Florida for Marco Rubio, another Florida resident tweeted. Rubio is something of a specialist when it comes to launching gaffes into the Twitterverse. He once hinted that CNN was in cahoots with the Kremlin, which, to Rubios credit, actually exists. Like this story? Share it with a friend! Rouhani arrives in Baghdad as Iran wants to retain influence in region Rouhani arrives in Baghdad as Iran wants to retain influence in region Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has arrived in Baghdad, Iraqs government said on Monday. The official visit is aimed at shoring up Tehrans influence in Iraq and expanding trade ties. Iran also aims to send a strong message that it retains its influence in much of the region despite US sanctions, Reuters said. Before his historic first visit to the country Shiite Iran is determined to strengthen its brotherly ties with neighboring Iraq, Rouhani said, state television reported. During the three-day visit, a series of agreements will be signed in energy, transport, agriculture, industry and health.Source : RT - Daily news The US could overtake Russia and Saudi Arabia as the worlds top oil exporter by 2024, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has predicted. In its annual oil outlook, the agency forecast rapid growth of American oil supplies to the global market in the next five years, as output from the countrys shale fields continues to surge. In February, US crude oil exports hit an all-time high, with shipments amounting to over 3.6 million barrels a day. The United States accounts for 70 percent of the total increase in global capacity to 2024, adding a total of four mb/d (million barrels per day). This follows spectacular growth of 2.2 mb/d in 2018, the organization said in a statement. Saudi Arabias total gross exports are predicted to stand at 9.52 million barrels a day in 2024, while US is rapidly closing the gap with the kingdom. In 2023, American oil exports will be on course to overtake Russias by around 0.3 million barrels. US crude shipments are projected to stand at 8.93 million barrels a day in five years just 0.59 million less that Riyadh, and 0.24 million barrels more than Moscow. IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol noted that the second wave of the US shale revolution is coming, adding that the significant rise of US share in global oil production and the gas trade will shake up international oil and gas trade flows, with profound implications for the geopolitics. Also on rt.com BP boss Dudley says US shale is 'a market without a brain The report comes as OPEC countries and allied major oil producers led by Russia are trying to balance the oil market. The oil cartel and partners agreed to slash production in December, taking 1.2 million barrels per day off the market in order to prevent supply glut and a further slump in crude prices. However, OPEC member Iraq, which failed to observe its commitment to the organization several times in the past, is set to reinforce its position as one of the worlds top producers, according to the IEA. Brazil, Norway, the UAE and Guyana are also set to become the biggest sources of supply growth, but their total oil output will still fall behind that of the US. The supply growth is a positive thing in the IEAs view, as oil demand around the world could increase by up to 1.2 million barrels per day over the next five years. These are extraordinary times for the oil industry as geopolitics becomes a bigger factor in the markets and the global economy is slowing down, Birol said. Everywhere we look, new actors are emerging and past certainties are fading. For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section Relationships with students and families were so important to Mary, DiRienzo said. She wanted to keep her same students as much as possible from year to year. Mary was always an advocate for her students and worked hard to provide what a student needed in order to do the best they could in a classroom. Whoa! I know! Its mind-boggling! This has never happened before, except when it happened two years ago, when Wonder Woman came out, which was also when an impressively large press cohort collectively and conveniently forgot the countless strong female leads that had occurred even before then! Remember those fevered days? Remember when an alarming number of movie critics simultaneously lost their minds over the sheer raw feminism of Wonder Woman, documenting how they cried at the theater and declaring that viewing Wonder Woman might have been the most powerful experience of their life, which should deeply worry us all if that is indeed really true? Here's how he talked about impeachment: "I would like to see this president and the style of politics that he represents sent off through the electoral process, decisively defeated at the ballot box. ... Because I just don't think that's what America is. I understand how it happened." He went on: "Believe me, I come from the industrial Midwest. There are a lot of people who voted for him and also voted for me and also voted for Barack Obama. So these things are complicated. But part of how it happened was a lot of people felt that the system was letting them down and, frankly, kind of voted to burn the house down. And that's, in some ways, what we got. I don't think that he put forward a real program for how to turn our country into a better direction, though. And so I think that the best way to defeat and end this is through an election." Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 11) The truth is out. Actor James Reid finally quelled rumors about his living situation with girlfriend and fellow celebrity Nadine Lustre. In a televised interview on Sunday, the 25-year-old was asked about his three-year relationship with Lustre when he accidentally revealed that they were living together. "Well we live together so like, oh did you know that already? Okay well, we live together," Reid said during his guest appearance in "Gandang Gabi Vice." Talk of the two sharing a home first surfaced on 2017. Lustre had repeatedly refused to confirm or deny the rumors. Reid further described their dynamic as a live-in couple. "Sometimes kasi araw-araw kayo nagkikita [You see each other everyday]. There's no space. Sometimes you get too comfortable but then there are days when she's working, she's super busy and when she gets home we really miss each other still, kahit isang araw lang [even just for one day]," he said. The couple rose to fame after working together in the hit film "Diary ng Panget" in 2014. They first admitted their relationship back in 2016. That said, the two crashes may stem from completely separate causes; early theories about air disasters are notoriously unreliable. But similarities between the two incidents provoked speculation on a possible problem with the computerized flight controls of the 737 Max. By Monday, carriers in China, Indonesia and elsewhere had grounded their 737 Max fleets, an unusual response given that major airline crashes arent typically associated with fear of design flaws. What usually gets the blame is a one-off event, such as a pilot error, bad weather or foul play. As of Monday, carriers in the U.S., including American and Southwest, were keeping their 737 Max planes in operation. 1. Prime Minister Abe welcomed the President Remengesaus visit to Japan, stated that he would like to further develop the relationship with Palau which is the special friend of Japan with historical bond at this occasion of 25th Year Anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relationship between Japan and Palau this year. In response, President Remengesau expressed his gratitude for the warm welcome and showed appreciation for the friendship between both countries which is continuing for even more than 25 years. 2. Both leaders discussed about the cooperation for strong and sustainable development of Palau. Prime Minister Abe stated that Japan will continue to cooperate with Palau for the realization of thefree-and-open Indo Pacific including maritime security and connectivity through discussions with Palau. In concrete, both leaders attended the signing ceremony on grant aid regarding the provision of motorboats and floating markers as assistance towards the fields of maritime security and fishery, and Japans new assistance towards disaster prevention and reduction was announced. President Remengesau expressed his gratitude towards the long lasting assistance by Japan. 3. Both leaders discussed the way to further develop Japan and Palaus strong bilateral relationship. Prime Minister Abe expressed his idea of promoting trade, investment and tourism through the economic mission to Palau and a business seminar. On the other hand, President Remengesau expressed his high hope for the promotion of economic exchanges among private sectors. In addition, both leaders confirmed to continue cooperating on the recovery of the remains of the war dead, the stable operation of the Japanese fishing vessels, and people-to-people exchanges including those of young generations. 4. Both leaders discussed regional situations such as North Korea. In addition, Prime Minister Abe requested Palaus understanding and cooperation on the early resolution of the abduction issue to which President Remengesau showed his support. 5. Both leaders agreed to contribute to the stability and prosperity of the Pacific Island Region by strongly developing bilateral relationship hand-in-hand, taking this opportunity of President Remengesaus visit to Japan. 6. The dinner which followed the meeting was done in a friendly atmosphere, and wide range of issues were discussed. Jackson died in 2009. His family and estate have long denied the allegations contained in Leaving Neverland. But the documentary raises uncomfortable questions about predatory behavior. Among them: How does a mother luxuriate in a hotel suite while her young son is in bed with a grown man a few floors away? At least part of the answer is a grooming process in which victim and family come to trust and care for the accused predator. Viewers may pat themselves on the back for being smart enough not to let their children sleep with a gloved pop star. But look at Larry Nassar, the USA Gymnastics doctor accused of molesting hundreds of girls and grooming an entire community. Or at the hundreds of abuser priests who were widely trusted figures. Answer: Nintendo A small research firm named Media Create Co (MCC) in Tokyo is helping hedge funds trade shares of consumer electronics company Nintendo Co. Founded by Atsushi Hosokawa, the company tracks sales of Nintendo products in Japan and other Asian countries and has attracted over two dozen clients, Bloomberg reported. MCC estimates shipments of Nintendo ahead of the official company releases and has been very precise up till now. In 2018, the company said that Nintendo's Switch console was not doing as well as expected, information which made millions for clients who shorted the stock before the official announcement in January. An 11-person firm, MCC is getting famous among hedge fund managers. Its latest reports show that Nintendo will comfortably hit its revised targets, indicating that the shares could get a boost this year. Clients pay a fee of $20,000 or more annually for these forecasts. "Our data doesn't fail. The Switch is still headed for growth in its third year," Hosokawa told Bloomberg. MCC is one of many specialist data providers that help investors make better decisions about particular industries. Hosokawa has built MCC upon close relations with over 2,000 gaming shops and publishers. These are the sources of MCC's data reports on hardware and software in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Analysts said that the data is not exhaustive but it is enough to extrapolate valuable information. These research firms pay more attention to sales than earnings reports. For instance, after a new Nintendo console launch, their data is useful to determine the future profitability of the company. Hosokawa said that clients started showing more interest in Nintendo after MCC's reports showed that Switch sales were flat, which was not compatible with market consensus for a more than 30 percent jump in the current fiscal. Around this time, the stock began to fall. Hosokawa is positive about the stock this fiscal year, expecting hardware shipments to peak. The stock has gained 1.1 percent this year, after it fell 29 percent last year, its worst performance since 2011. Media Create was founded by Hosokawa in 1994 when the original PlayStation was launched in Japan. That is when he started developing his contacts and relationships with retail outlets, asking for point-of-sale data. "With our data, we are trying to be the infrastructure for the whole industry. I'd like to think that's why overseas investors trust us," Hosokawa said. Representative image live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Vaccine maker Bharat Biotech International said two of its vaccines against Zika and Chikungunya will be entering phase-II clinical trials, where they will be tested on humans for safety and efficacy. So far there are no vaccines in the world against Zika and Chikungunya. Both are viral diseases and spread primarily by mosquito bites. We are ready for phase-II trials, said GVJA Harshvardhan, Director at Bharat Biotech. In the first phase, the vaccine was tested on healthy volunteers to determine the safety, Harshvardhan added. It takes around 10 to 15 years to complete all three phases of clinical trials of a vaccine before it can get marketing licensing. Phase-II trial takes around two years and the vaccine has to be tested on 200-300 patients. Clinical trials require a lot of money, and the risk of failure is high, Harshvardhan said. Bharat Biotech mitigates the risk of failure associated with R&D through research grants and supply commitments from funding agencies, governments and partnerships. The Hyderabad-headquartered company had successfully developed and launched vaccines for Japanese Encephalitis, Rotavirus and Typhoid. So far the company has invested around $200 million on vaccine development. Zika vaccine Bharat Biotech surprised the world when it announced in February 2016 that it had developed two Zika vaccine candidates, one of them is an inactivated vaccine or that contains inactivated virus. The company also said it was probably the first in the world to file for a global patent for Zika Vaccine candidates. Apart from Bharat Biotech, globally several drugmakers including Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Cerus Corporation, Immunovaccine are in the race to develop a vaccine for Zika. Zika virus, transmitted through the aedes aegypti mosquito, causes fever, skin rashes, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain. Zika infections during pregnancy have been linked to miscarriage and can cause microcephaly, a potentially fatal congenital brain condition. In the backdrop of Zika outbreaks in India starting Ahmedabad in 2017, Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), according to media reports announced undertaking phase-II trial of the Bharat Biotechs vaccine. Chikungunya vaccine Bharat Biotechs Chikungunya vaccine is in for development for some time. It completed Phase I in January 2018. It takes a lot of time in getting regulatory approvals, identifying right contract research organisation (CRO) and hospitals, before we administer a trial, Harshvardhan said. Chikungunya is associated with fever and joint pains is rarely fatal, but patients face the issue of mobility for some time. Private market focus Founded by yeast molecular biologist Krishna Ella, Bharat Biotech generates revenues like most other Indian vaccine makers, from public health vaccination and immunisation contracts, launched governments of emerging countries and multilateral agencies like United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef). But with rising competition from Chinese and South Korean vaccine makers and lower price realisations, Bharat Biotech is focusing on private label market where the margins are healthy, but barriers are high. The private market involves brand building and reaching out to doctors through a dedicated sales force, requiring a lot of investment on the front end, over and above the spend on research and development and manufacturing of vaccines. To mitigate this Bharat Biotech has entered into a licensing arrangement with US drug major Abbott to distribute its influenza, typhoid and rotavirus diarrhea vaccines in India. The company maintains its own sales force to market its other vaccines, and is also looking for partners in other countries to distribute its vaccines. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More The grounding of Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft by several operators, following the Ethiopian Airlines crash on March 10 that led to the death of 157 passengers and crew, has again put the world's largest aerospace company under the scanner. A Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed six minutes after take-off from Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa. It was en route to Kenyan capital of Nairobi. While Ethiopian Airlines has grounded its fleet of four 737 Max 8 planes, Cayman Airlines has also suspended operations of its Max 8 aircraft. In a similar step, China has asked all its airlines to operate these aircraft only after "confirming relevant measures to effectively ensure flight safety." In India, Jet Airways has a fleet of five 737 Max 8 aircraft, and SpiceJet 13. While Jet is said to be "awaiting the investigation report of the unfortunate incident before taking any steps," there was no communication from SpiceJet. Industry regulator DGCA may release a public notice on the aircraft later on March 11. The urgent response to the crash reflects the unease among airline regarding the aircraft, which was also involved in the Lion Air crash in October last year. Twelve minutes after taking off from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, the plane crashed into the Java Sea, killing all 189 on board. Also read: US lawsuit blames Lion Air crash on Boeing's 'dangerous' airplane The Lion Air tragedy and raised doubts over the design of the Boeing aircraft, which has been a bestselling product since its first flight in 2016. According to a tweet on Sunday by Flightradar24, the popular flight tracker, there were 145 of the 737 Max 8 active in the air. In India, Jet Airways and SpiceJet have ordered 225 and 100 of these planes, respectively, which promise to be fuel efficient and less polluting. In the Lion Air crash, investigations showed that a malfunction in one of the sensors lead to the aircraft computer to automatically initiated a dive. There were concerns that pilots weren't trained for this. The fears have resurfaced again. Flightradar24, in a tweet, said that the Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302, was unstable after take off. Instead of gaining height, as is the norm after a take off, the plane supposedly descended twice. This is similar to the flight of Lion Air flight 610. Investigations showed that eight minutes into the flight, the plane descended to about 5,000 fleet and its altitude fluctuated. Read: Boeing eyes Lion Air crash software upgrade in 6-8 weeks In its first comment after the Sunday crash, Boeing said it is 'ready to support' the Ethiopian Airlines team. "A Boeing technical team is prepared to provide technical assistance at the request and under the direction of the US National Transportation Safety Board." A Jet Airways spokesperson said, "Jet Airways is deeply saddened by the unfortunate accident involving a B737 MAX aircraft of Ethiopian Airways. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the bereaved families and friends and all our colleagues from the aviation community impacted by this tragedy." "Jet Airways has 5 B737 MAX in its fleet but is currently not flying any of these aircraft. The airline is in contact with the manufacturer and the regulator in context of this development and remains committed to implementing all directives or advisories that may be published by those authorized," the spokesperson said. Industry observers though warn that it is too early to connect the two tragedies, and conclusions should be drawn only after investigations. Brian Moynihan, the global CEO of Bank of America, spoke to CNBC-TV18 about the US-China trade worries and investment opportunities in India. On the China-US front, he said, "When you think about the trade question, the administration in the US has been clear; everyone is reciprocal. We want open access to markets. It sounds are we are getting close to it though I have no special insight that would be good for the world because you cannot have the 2 biggest economies in the world at loggerheads with each other." "You need to get by that period and that will calm the world down because the amount of dependence on both import and export from China, US and investments coming from both countries would be better settled if it settles down and hopefully that will happen in next few weeks is what they keep telling us," Moynihan said. Talking about the India-US trade relations, Moynihan said, "If the Indian government continues to provide open access and stuff, I am sure things will work through. These two countries have strategic relations among all dimension and that's very important. So I wouldnt be too worried about the relationship between these two countries." Source: CNBC-TV18 Jet Airways owes banks nearly Rs 8,000 crore. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Gulf carrier Etihad Airways is likely to infuse around Rs 1,600-1,900 crore into cash-strapped Jet Airways under a proposed deal wherein Naresh Goyal would step down as chairman of the domestic carrier, according to sources. Jet Airways, a full-service airline, has been grappling with acute financial crunch that has also forced it to ground many planes as well as delay payment of salaries and loan repayments. Under the proposed deal, Goyal would step down as chairman and director of Jet Airways but can nominate two persons to the airline's board. Goyal would be designated as chairman emeritus while his son Nivaan Goyal would be offered an appropriate executive position subject to certain conditions, the sources said. By infusing Rs 1,600-1,900 crore, Etihad's stake in Jet Airways would rise to 24.9 per cent, the sources said citing a memorandum of understanding between the two airlines. Currently, Etihad has 24 per cent stake in the domestic airline. Besides, a new investor is likely to pump in around Rs 1,600-1,900 crore into the domestic carrier. Lenders are expected to infuse Rs 1,000 crore wherein their shareholding would be around 29.5 per cent, as per the sources. In the revamped board, there would be a total of 12 members, including two nominees each of Goyal and Etihad, they added. Representative image Three directors of erstwhile board of Essar Steel on Monday approached the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) against a lower bankruptcy court order that allowed takeover of the company by ArcelorMittal. The matter was mentioned before a two-member bench headed by Chairman Justice S J Mukhopadhaya, which asked it to be listed after the Ahmedabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) posts its full written order. The three directors of Essar Steel are - Prashant Ruia, Dilip Oommen and Rajiv Bhatnagar. Standard Chartered Bank has also approached the appellate tribunal against the order. On Friday, the Ahmedabad bench of the NCLT had approved the lenders' plan to let global steel giant ArcelorMittal take over the debt-idden Essar Steel. Passing an order, the tribunal had suggested that the payment of Rs 42,000 crore by ArcelorMittal be distributed among financial and operational creditors in the ration of 85:15. The detailed written order of the Ahmedabad bench is still awaited. Representative image India has cut the royalties that local seed companies pay to German drugmaker Bayer AG's Monsanto unit for the third time in four years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has decided to reduce royalties paid by Indian seed companies to Monsanto for its genetically modified (GM) cotton by 49 percent to 20 rupees for a packet of 450 grams, according to a farm ministry order. Before it was 39 rupees. The decision could prompt Monsanto and other foreign seed companies to further scale back investment in the sector, said Ram Kaundinya, director general of the Federation of Seed Industry of India. The decision comes at a time when India's cotton output is falling and needs a breakthrough to help maintain its leading position in the global cotton market, said Kaundinya. New Delhi's cotton output is likely to fall to 32.8 million bales of 170 kg each in the year to September 2019 - the lowest in nine years, triggering higher imports of the fibre, according to industry group Cotton Association of India. "The order is most disappointing," said Shivendra Bajaj, executive director of the alliance for Agri Innovation, an advocacy group. Other than cutting Monsanto's royalties, the government raised the prices of GM cotton seeds by 1.43 percent to 710 rupees ($10.16) a packet. New Delhi approved Monsanto's GM cotton seed trait, the only lab-altered crop allowed in India, in 2003 and an upgraded variety in 2006, helping transform the country into the world's top producer and second-largest exporter of the fibre. Monsanto's GM cotton seed technology went on to dominate 90 percent of India's cotton acreage. However, Monsanto became embroiled in a dispute with Indian seed company Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd (NSL), which argued that India's Patent Act did not allow Monsanto any patent cover for its GM cotton. Monsanto and NSL are engaged in a maze of arbitration proceedings and legal cases. Last month Reuters reported that Monsanto has won proceedings against NSL in a royalty dispute. The farm ministry first cut Monsanto's royalties in 2016, triggering a long-running feud that prompted the US ambassador to India at the time, Richard Verma, to approach Modi's office. Hindu nationalist groups close to Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have opposed both Monsanto and GM technology in India's agriculture. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More There was plenty of action for a holiday-shortened week. The Nifty50 formed a bullish candle on the weekly charts for the week ended March 8. Well, for Friday, it was a day of profit booking on D-Street weighed down by muted global cues but Nifty50 and Sensex both managed to close above their crucial support levels. The Nifty50 closed above 11000 while Sensex held on to 36,650. On a weekly basis, Nifty50 closed with gains of 1.5 percent while the Sensex rallied over 600 points or 1.6 percent for the week ended 8 March. In the coming week, the market will watch out for CPI, WPI data. On the International front, investors will watch out for US Retail sales on Monday and China Markets Industrial Production. The Indian rupee closed near to Fridays low at 70.15 per dollar, down 15 paise versus Thursday's close of 70 per dollar. On the institutional front, FPI were net buyers in Indian markets for Rs 1095 crore while DIIs remained net sellers to the tune of Rs 470 crore, provisional data showed. Oil prices fell about 1 percent on March 8 after disappointing US job growth revived concerns about a slowing global economy and weaker demand for oil. Big News: The Nifty50 closed above 11,000 for the first time since September 2018. The index closed at 11,143 for the week ended September 21, 2018. The index also posted its best weekly gains since November 2018. The Nifty50 rose over 3 percent for the week ended November 30, 2018, data showed. However, the big trend was seen in the broader market which outperformed benchmark indices for the second consecutive week in a row. The S&P BSE small-cap index rose 3.9 percent while the S&P BSE mid-cap index rallied a little over 2 percent for the week ended March 8. The S&P BSE small-cap index which rose over 4 percent in just 4 days saw as many as 154 stocks rallying 10-40 percent which includes names like V-Mart, Astral Poly, Vinati Organics, Sagar Cements, JK Cement, Avanti Feeds, Birla Corporation, Aarti Drugs, Repco Home Finance, Vakrangee, Kwality, Tree House Education among others. Technical View: Nifty formed a bearish candle on daily charts but formed a bullish candle on a weekly basis Bulls are in an advantageous position despite weak price behaviour of the last three sessions on the daily chart, suggest experts As long as Nifty sustains above 11,000 levels bulls can read last 3 sessions of price behaviour as a temporary pause in the current upswing and remain optimistic and look for initial targets of 11,200-11300 levels India VIX fell by 2.29 percent to 14.94 levels. Now, VIX has to continue to hold below 16-15 zones to get the smooth ride in the market. Three levels: 11008, 11049, 11100 Max Call OI: 11500, 11300 Max Put OI: 11000, 10800 Stocks in news: The Reserve Bank on Friday said it has imposed penalties worth Rs 71 crore on 36 public, private and foreign banks for non-compliance with various directions on time-bound implementation and strengthening of SWIFT operations. This includes banks like Bank of Baroda, City Union Bank, HSBC, ICICI Bank, SBI and YES Bank. State-owned Syndicate Bank on Friday said it has reduced its marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) by 0.10 percent for various tenors. Jet Founder and Chairman Naresh Goyals stake will come down to 17 percent from the current 51 percent, sources based story from a news website. Technical Recommendations: We spoke to Angel Broking and heres what they have to recommend: ITD Cementation: Buy| LTP: Rs 122.70| Target: Rs 142| Stop Loss: Rs 112| Upside 16% Petronet LNG: Buy| LTP: Rs 233.90| Target: Rs 255| Stop Loss: Rs 223| Upside 9% : The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts 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. Nifty50 might have reclaimed 11,000 for the first time since February, but majority of the action was seen in the small & midcaps. Nifty made a low of 10,585 on February 19 before it started moving higher to reclaim 11K. The index has rallied about 450 points, or 4.2 percent, since February 19. Nearly 50 percent of the stocks in the Nifty500 index rose 10-100 percent in the same period. The Nifty has significantly outperformed the midcap index since Dec 2017, but things are changing in favour of the broader market after recent correction, feel experts. Ahead of crucial elections, it looks like small & midcaps are getting attention. The bounce back in the market was led by a handful of Nifty50 names but the big trend was seen in the broader market which saw double-digit returns. As many as 242 stocks in the Nifty 500 index have risen 10-100 percent since February 19. These include Sun TV, GSPL, Mahindra CIE, Bajaj Finserv, Tata Steel, Cochin Shipyard, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, JustDial, Voltas, UCO Bank, ACC, Vedanta and Tata Motors. Table: 20 stocks with highest returns from the list of 242 The relentless underperformance of midcaps can largely be attributed to macro headwinds, concerns about governance/liquidity issues, and the lack of pick-up in earnings growth. Over last one year, a lot of midcaps corrected and are now available at a reasonable price and provide good entry opportunity. Given the environment is very dynamic and mid-cap companies require far more research than large-cap peers, it is best managed by professionals, Meenakshi Dawar, Fund Manager, Reliance Mutual Fund told Moneycontrol. A part of investment can go into mid-cap funds, but the investment horizon should be long, and one should maintain discipline while investing, she said. Valuations The battle between the mid and largecap as to which theme is more suitable for investing is not new. Recent data suggests that the froth seen in the broader market has come down and the valuations are ripe for selective stock picking. The chart below highlights the relative performance of midcaps and largecaps. The midcaps underperformed largecaps during 2006-2014 period. The Mid-cap outperformance accelerated in 2016 and 2017, and since 2018 to now, mid-cap performance has reverted back in line with largecaps, as midcaps have surrendered their outperformance to largecaps, at the index level, Sanctum Wealth Management said in a note. Valuations for mid-caps have dropped to in line with large caps. However, bottom-up efforts to identify attractively valued mid and small caps continue to turn up only limited alternatives, it said. Midcaps had a stellar run in CY17. Notably, the Nifty mid-and small-cap indices delivered 47 percent and 57 percent returns compared to the Niftys 29 percent return in that year. As a consequence, the P/E valuation premium of mid v/s largecaps reached 46 percent in March 2018. However, after the correction in midcaps, the P/E premium now stands at just 10 percent, Motilal Oswal highlighted in a report. The presence of several loss-making PSU banks in the mid-cap index makes the P/E-based valuation comparison slightly distortionary, in our view. From P/B based valuation perspective, the midcap index has corrected significantly from a peak of 3x in Aug18 to 2.3x, while the Nifty trades at a P/B of 2.6x, it said. We believe that the broad underperformance of midcaps is overdone and interesting bottom-up opportunities are now available in this space across sectors, added the report. Representative image live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Central Bank of India rallied 5.6 percent and Indian Overseas Bank climbed 7.9 percent intraday after Moody's upgraded its ratings on both lenders. At 14:20 hours IST, Central Bank of India was quoting at Rs 34.70, up 5.15 percent and Indian Overseas Bank was trading at Rs 15.48, up 6.46 percent on the BSE. The global rating agency said it has upgraded Central Bank of India as well as IOB's ratings to Ba2 from Ba3 earlier. Both banks along with other PSUs received capital infusion, which would help them increase lending that had slowed due to liquidity crisis as well as asset quality concerns. In February, board of directors of both banks separately approved issue of equity shares on preferential basis to Government of India for the capital infusion of Rs 2,560 crore and Rs 3,806 crore respectively for financial year 2018-19, Central Bank of India posted a loss of Rs 718.23 crore for the quarter ended December 2018 against loss of Rs 923.6 crore in September 2018 and loss of Rs 1,664.22 crore in December 2017, but its asset quality improved with gross non-performing assets declining to 20.64 percent against 21.48 percent sequentially. Same was the case of Indian Overseas Bank which posted a loss of Rs 346.02 crore in October-December 2018, against loss of Rs 487.3 crore QoQ and loss of Rs 971.2 crore YoY. However, the lender managed to improve its asset quality with gross non-performing assets falling to 23.76 percent in Q3FY19 against 24.73 percent Q2FY19. This doesnt sit well with all members. Republicans widely accused President Barack Obama for of overstepping his powers to get around Congress, while Democrats generally supported him. The most notable was Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which allowed undocumented immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children to stay and work. It came after Obama failed to get legislation to protect the dreamers and after he said he lacked the power to protect them without such legislation. Well, one thing is certain that there were no Monday blues on D-Street. Both Sensex, and Nifty recorded their highest level in 2019. The S&P BSE Sensex closed above 37000 for the first time since September 19, 2018, while Nifty50 reclaimed 11,100 levels for the first time since September 21. Anecdotal data suggests that except for 2009, the market has always rallied in the next session of all Lok Sabha poll date announcements since 1999, CNBC-TV18 data showed. Lok Sabha elections will begin on April 11 and polling would be held over seven phases till May 19, followed by counting of all votes on May 23, the Election Commission announced the dates over the weekend. Almost all the sectoral indices participated in the rally and the broader indices too showed noticeable buying. The S&P BSE Mid-cap index rose 1.96 percent while the small-cap index gained 1.6 percent in trade today massively outperforming benchmark indices. The final tally the S&P BSE Sensex rallied 382 points to close at 37,054 while the Nifty50 ended at 11,168, up 132 points. But, the next big question is what should investors do now? Should you stay put, or wait for corrections before initiating fresh longs? Well, experts feel that fresh longs should be avoided but every dip should be used as a buying opportunity. The investment horizon should be of more than 12 months. If investors are holding positions for long they could book profits. If the investment horizon is 12-18 months, then every dip is a buying opportunity because we are quite bullish for the next 1 year hence booking profits might not be advisable, Ritesh Ashar - Chief Strategy Officer - KIFS Trade Capital told Moneycontrol. My advise is to stay away from creating fresh longs but every dip should be considered as a buying opportunity with an investment horizon of 12-18 months, he said. Indian market shrugged off weak global cues after commentary from various government sources suggested that the govt will be able to meet its fiscal deficit target of 3.4 percent for the current fiscal, despite a likely shortfall in indirect tax collection. The statements from various government bodies on meeting the fiscal deficit target in this fiscal and plans for inviting fresh FDI in various sectors boded well for the market sentiment, Jayant Manglik, President - Retail Distribution, Religare Broking Ltd told Moneycontrol. It shrugged-off weak global cues in early trades and opened with strong gains. It gradually inched higher afterward and closed around the day's high, he said. Stocks in news: Shares of Godfrey Phillips India rose nearly 10 percent after the company clarified on the news report about violation of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) laws by the company. NBCC (India) shares rallied 3 percent after the company has secured new works from Raipur SMART City Limited (RSCL) for various infrastructure projects. Bharti Airtels share price jumped over 8 percent on March 11 after promoter entity Bharti Telecom said it will renounce post-rights stake in favour of GIC, bringing down total promoter holding in Bharti Airtel by 4 percent to 63 percent. Shares of Dilip Buildcon rose 6.7 percent after the company declared as the lowest bidder for the project in the state of Maharashtra. Global Updates: European markets are trading higher on Monday as traders looked ahead to a crucial vote in the UK which will determine whether the countrys Brexit deal will be approved. Asian markets ended mixed as investors remained cautious over a possible global economic slowdown. Shanghai Composite gained 1.92 percent to end at 3,026.99, Nikkei was up 0.47 percent at 21,125.09. The Kospi ended flat at 2,138.10, while Hang Seng index was up 0.93 percent to close at 28503.30. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Oil prices rose on Monday, lifted by comments from Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih that an end to OPEC-led supply cuts was unlikely before June and a report showing a fall US drilling activity. Brent crude futures were at USD 65.04 per barrel, up 30 cents, or 0.5 percent. Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih told Reuters on Sunday it would be too early to change OPEC+ output policy at the groups meeting in April. However, oil marketing companies including the likes of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation and heavyweight Reliance Industries were all trading in the green by up to 6 percent. The Energy index jumped over 2 percent with HPCL spiking 6 percent followed by BPCL which jumped over 4 percent. The other top movers included IOC, ONGC, GAIL India and Reliance Industries. The S&P BSE Energy jumped over 2 percent HPCL, BPCL, Gujarat Gas, GP Petroleums, Indian Oil Corporation, Chennai Petroleum Corporation, Petronet LNG and Oil India Limited. HPCL witnessed spurt in volume by more than 1.90 times while Petronet LNG saw spurt in volume by more than 1.08 times. Technical Analyst Mitessh Thakkar of mitesshthakkar.com has recommended a buy on Petronet LNG with a stop loss of Rs 228 and target of Rs 245. Research firm ICICIdirect.com also has a buy on Petronet LNG March 240 Call at Rs 4-4.50 with target at Rs 12 and stop loss at Rs 1.60 with a time frame till March expiry. It believes that the stock has started witnessing closure of short positions after a quite long consolidation near Rs 200. Five-month high volumes were seen in the stock at Rs 230 levels at the start of February. Thereafter, it took its time and consolidated below these levels for a month. Now, once it has taken out these levels, a more pronounced up move is expected, the firm added. Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd. Ananya Roy Traditional finance theory - the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) in particular - makes many assumptions. The rationality of investors is arguably the most important of them. It assumes that all investors arrive at the same opinion about each stock in the market, and that opinion is based on their analysis of company fundamentals. However, as the working of the real market suggests, this is rarely the case. In fact, one may go so far as to say that... live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More These are the stocks in the news today: DHFL: Brickwork Ratings India downgraded its rating on secured NCD of the company worth Rs 29,000 crore to AA (credit watch with negative implications) from AA+ (credit watch with developing implications), citing degrowth in business on account of inability to raise funds. Alok Industries: National Company Law Tribunal approved the resolution plan submitted by Reliance Industries, JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Company and JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Company (as trustee to JMF ARC - March 2018 - Trust). Sharda Motor Industries: Board unanimously approved the scheme of arrangement of the company with the resulting company presently under incorporation in the name of NDR Auto Components Limited. The scheme provides for the demerger of Automobile Seating undertaking into the resulting company. GMR Infrastructure: Subsidiary GMR Airports received the formal Letter of Award from MIHAN India Limited, the concessioning authority for the Nagpur Airport, towards the development, operations and management of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport, Nagpur, at a revenue share of 14.49 percent of gross revenues. Vishal Bearings: Board allotted 44,96,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each, as bonus shares to those members of the company entitled thereto as on March 04, 2019 being record date fixed for the purpose. Bharat Electronics: Board declared the second interim dividend of 70 paise per share of Re 1 each fully paid-up (70 percent) for the financial year 2018-2019. Suven Life Sciences: Board approved the creation of wholly owned subsidiary (WOS) Suven Pharma, Inc a Delaware Company in USA under CRAMS division, and investment of $75 million in the said WOS for new business opportunities and acquisitions, etc. HG Infra Engineering: Company has received a letter from NHAI with respect to nullifying of bidding process and to re-invite the bids for new EPC project under NHAI for construction of 6-lane access controlled Green field highway in Rajasthan. Mangalam Cement: Board approved the amalgamation of Mangalam Timber Products Limited with the company and approved loan up to Rs 5 crore to Mangalam Timber Products. Salora International: The company proposed voluntary delisting of equity share from National Stock Exchange of India without giving exit opportunity to the shareholders as the equity shares of the company will continue to remain listed on BSE Limited. Monte Carlo Fashions: Company will dispatch the Letter of Offer along with the tender forms for the buy-back to eligible shareholders appearing on the record date of February 22, on or before March 13, 2019. The buyback will open on March 19 and close on April 2. Bharat Dynamics: Company has fixed March 27 as the record date for the purpose of payment of first interim dividend. Tata Motors: Global wholesales in February, including Jaguar Land Rover, dropped 9 percent to 1,10,262 units YoY. CES: Company completed the acquisition of 37 percent stake in CES Technology Services Private Limited. Celebrity Fashions: Promoter Rama Rajagopal created a pledge on an additional 7.8 lakh shares (1.64 percent of paid-up equity). He created a pledge on 13.71 percent stake out of total 18.81 percent. Mcleod Russel: Company decided to dispose of its estates and bearer plants and other assets of Boroi Tea Estate in Assam, and for the said, it entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Jatinga Agro Tech Private Limited. CG Power and Industrial Solutions: Company completed the divestment of its power business in the US and the automation business based out of Spain. Hence, the board decided to re-classify its businesses and as of now the non-cash impact of such re-classification is estimated to be approximately Rs 200 crore in the consolidated financial statements. Cipla: Company's wholly owned subsidiary Goldencross Pharma Private Limited has completed the closing of Wellthy Therapeutics Private Limited, transaction representing an acquisition of 11.71 percent stake in Wellthy. Eveready Industries: DSP Trustee cuts its stake in the company by 3.8 percent to 1.09 percent. Religare Enterprises: Board of directors of Religare Broking and Religare Commodities approved a scheme of merger and consequently, Religare Commodities will merge with Religare Broking. Dilip Buildcon: Company has been declared L-1 bidder for EPC project in Maharashtra, NH-547E, valued at Rs 480.06 crore by the National Highways Authority of India. Nitesh Estates: Company successfully managed to reduce its debt by Rs 407.88 crore from the overall consolidated debt. The company through its wholly owned subsidiary Nitesh Indiranagar Retail Private Limited has signed Share Purchase Agreements with Abbey's Realtors LLP a nominee of Ela Realty Private Limited, Group Entity - ABIL Group and sold its 100 percent holdings in step down Tier- II Subsidiary - Koregaon Park High Street Properties Private Limited. Dhampur Sugar Mills: CARE reaffirmed its rating of the company with revision in outlook from 'A-; Negative to A-; Stable for long term credit facilities from banks and fixed deposits. UCO Bank: Competent Authority has fixed issue price of Rs 14.25 per share for new equity shares to be issued under UCO Bank Employee Share Purchase Scheme 2019. Oil India: Company received two oil blocks in Tripura and KG Offshore. Sun TV Network: Board declared a fourth interim dividend of Rs 2.50 per share of Rs 5 each for the financial year 2018-19. Zicom Electronic Security Systems: Board appointed Dhaval Mehta as an (additional) independent director of the company. Bulk deals on March 8 Wipro: Promoter Azim Premji Trust sold 2,66,66,667 shares of the company at Rs 256.58 per share on the BSE. Laurus Labs: Amansa Holdings Private Limited purchased 12,09,249 shares of the company at Rs 350 per share on the NSE and 10,18,308 shares at the same price on the BSE. Anup Engineering: Avadh Material and Equipment Suppliers LLP bought 1,39,369 shares of the company at Rs 548.35 per share on the NSE and 59,633 shares at Rs 556.53 per share on the BSE. Vikas EcoTech: Margi Jigneshbhai Shah purchased 21,75,000 shares of the company at Rs 11.45 per share on the NSE. Balaji Telefilms: Shobha Ravi Kapoor bought 7,02,964 shares of the company at Rs 87 per share on the NSE. Granules India: Promoter Krishna Prasad Chigurupati sold 50,00,000 shares of the company at Rs 101.08 per share on the NSE. Thermax: Reliance Mutual Fund bought 10,00,000 shares of the company at Rs 940 per share while Impax Environmental Markets PLC sold 6,04,436 shares at Rs 940.02 on the BSE. (For more bulk deals, click here) Analyst or Board meet/briefings Allcargo Logistics: Management of the company will be attending the Valorem Analyst Conference 2019, organised by Valorem Advisors to be held on March 11. Shreyas Shipping & Logistics: Management of the company will be attending the Valorem Analyst Conference 2019, organised by Valorem Advisors to be held on March 11. Alphageo (India): Management of the company will be attending the Valorem Analyst Conference 2019, organised by Valorem Advisors to be held on March 11. Kwality: Board meeting is scheduled for March 14 to consider the unaudited financial results for the quarter and nine months ended December 2018. VBC Ferro Alloys: Board meeting is scheduled on March 11 to consider the issue of fully paid up convertible warrants on preferential basis to OPL Renewable Energee Private Limited & Sourya Vidyut Nigam Private Limited. Blue Star: Company's officials will meet Aberdeen Standard Investments on March 11. Mahindra & Mahindra: Company's officials will meet Renaissance PMS on March 11, several funds/investors/analysts on March 19 and Banyan Tree Advisors on March 20. Rallis India: Analyst meet is scheduled to be held on March 11. Multi Commodity Exchange of India: The company's officials will have concall with Prusik Investment Management on March 11. Himachal Futuristic Communications: Management of the company will be attending the Valorem Analyst Conference 2019, organised by Valorem Advisors to be held on March 11. Commercial Syn Bags : Management of the company will be attending the Valorem Analyst Conference 2019, organised by Valorem Advisors to be held on March 12. Viceroy Hotels: 18th meeting of the Committee of Creditors of the company is scheduled to be held on March 11. Fiem Industries: Company's officials will meet IDFC Mutual Fund, DSP Mutual Fund, Reliance Mutual Fund, Principal Mutual Fund, IndgrowthCapitalAdvisors in Mumbai on March 11. Sheela Foam: Officials of the company will be meeting with various investors on March 11 in Mumbai. Bharat Forge: Company's officials will interact with Kotak MF, SBI MF and Loomis Sayles in Pune on March 11. Zenith Healthcare: Board meeting is scheduled for March 22 to review the performance of Non-Independent Directors and the board as a whole, and the performance of the chairman of the company. Allied Computers International (Asia): Board meeting is scheduled for March 18 to review the performance of Non-Independent Directors and the board as a whole, and the performance of the chairman of the company. : Company to meet analyst/institutional investors at Valorem Analyst Conference, 2019 on March 12. Anil Ambani live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More As per media sources, Reliance Capital has initiated talks with global investors to sell its stake in Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management (RNAM). Earlier, it had invited Nippon Life Insurance to buy up to 42.88 percent of its stake in the asset management company (AMC). Nippon life is co-promoter in the AMC with an equal stake of 42.88 percent. While further progress needs to be closely monitored, the development will be positive for minority shareholders of the company. Read: What does Reliance ADAGs intent to exit the mutual fund business mean for Reliance Nippon Life AM's shareholders? RNAM, the first AMC to list, debuted on the bourses in November 2017 at around Rs 295, a premium of 17 percent over its issue price of Rs 252. Despite reporting healthy trends in asset flows, the stock of RNAM has remained under pressure. The financial problems of the Reliance ADAG Group, of which the company is a part of, has hurt the stock. Even though Nippon Life is an equal partner with 42.88 percent stake in the AMC, Reliance ADAGs stake has been a key overhang for the stock. Hence, we see Reliance ADAG groups decision to reduce its stake in the business will help assuage investor concerns. The stock has rallied more than 30 percent following the announcement. Despite the rally, RNAMs valuations are reasonable considering its strong retail brand, improving asset mix and well-diversified sourcing platform. At the current market capitalisation of Rs 12,500 crore, RNAM is trading at 5.3 percent of average MF AUM of Rs 2,36,300 crore as at December-end. In terms of price-to-earnings metric, RNAMs stock is currently trading at 20 times FY20 estimated earnings. On a relative basis, valuation are very compelling. RNAMs stock is trading at a discount of more than 40 percent to HDFC AMCs valuation. The most common push back to comparison with HDFC AMCs valuation is that HDFC AMC is in a league of its own and commands a premium valuation for its brand and superior return ratio with a return on equity (RoE) at 40 percent. While rightful discount to HDFC AMC is justified, RNAM is trading at a significant discount, which could narrow down. Given the reasonable valuations, the stock could further re-rate with exit of ADAG group. For more research articles, visit our Moneycontrol Research page Disclaimer: Moneycontrol Research analysts do not hold positions in the companies discussed here live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More As the largest lender in the country, State Bank of India (SBI) has plenty of firsts to its credit. It added one more over the weekend with its decision to link a portion of its savings bank deposits as well as select loans to an external benchmark the repo rate. Incidentally, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its fifth bi-monthly monetary policy statement in FY19 had recommended the use of an external benchmark for swifter transmission of policy rates. RBI had suggested banks should price their floating rate retail/MSME loans based on an external benchmark. SBI has decided to price savings accounts with deposits above Rs 1 lakh at 2.75 percent below the prevailing repo rate of 6.25 percent. The effective rate works out to be 3.5 percent, which is same as the prevailing rate. But a closer look shows SBI is actually placating the regulator without hurting its shareholders. As on December 2018, the share of savings account deposits in total deposits was 38.9 percent. According to SBI, close to 33 percent of its savings bank deposits are above Rs 1 lakh. Essentially, the move would impact close to 12.8 percent of its total liabilities. On the asset side, SBI is linking external benchmarking to a similar sized exposure, thereby balancing assets and liabilities without hurting margin. On the advances side, the bank has announced cash credit accounts and overdraft facilities over Rs 1 lakh to be priced at 2.25 percent over the repo rate. At the prevailing repo rate of 6.25 percent, this would mean a floor price of 8.5 percent. The bank would charge a risk premium over the floor rate, depending on the credit quality of the borrower. Thats the key to watch out for. We definitely expect banks with a stable liability franchise to adopt similar asset-liability matching by linking to an external benchmark, without impacting margins. Also see: SBI links deposit, loan interest to repo rates; experts believe other PSBs may follow So, most private lenders with a superior liability profile will take on this challenge from SBI with elan. The entities that will feel the pinch would be banks with weaker liabilities (most public sector banks are fast losing their edge in garnering low cost deposits) and to that extent would be more disadvantaged and could lose market share. But the weak competitive landscape, tighter liquidity and demise of weak non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) are resulting in a return of pricing power to banks. We do not see the challenge thrown by SBI as disruptive - it is unlikely to impact spread for the banking sector at this stage. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More A few years ago, Sadbhav Infrastructure was demerged from Sadbhav Engineering to resolve the groups debt issues and unlock value through a separate listing of its asset or project business. But it hardly resolved the groups concerns. Now media reports suggest the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), with a stake in L&T InvIT, is looking to acquire or invest close to Rs 3,000 crore through the InvIT in 12 of Sadbhav Infrastructures projects. While the company has been scouting for financial investors for quite some time, the contours of the deal are not yet known. Should the investment come through, this could be a good move for the group. Sadbhav Infrastructure has 11 under-construction projects including HAM projects where close to Rs 1,000 crore of equity infusion is estimated. This will help it repay some of the loans taken from the parent company, Sadbhav Engineering, which in turn needs working capital to execute its existing order book of close to Rs 13,000 crore. The potential investment would also bail out the group from deteriorating financial conditions and improve its consolidated balance sheet. During Q3FY19, Sadbhav Infrastructure, which gets consolidated into Sadbhav Engineering, incurred finance cost of close to Rs 3,000 crore and reported a quarterly loss of Rs 606 crore before tax and exceptional transactions. The company is sitting on a debt of about Rs 8,500 crore on a negative net worth of Rs 255 crore. After the IL&FS crisis, the number of road projects on sale has increased. In this backdrop, it is unlikely that the deal would fetch great valuations. What is important at this juncture is that divestment of assets through InvIT could reduce the groups debt and provide growth capital needed for the business. This potential reflected in the positive stock price movement of both Sadbhav Engineering and Sadbhav Infrastructure. TR Ramachandran India has made significant progress on its journey towards a less cash society. Though demonetisation gave digital payments a sharp impetus, the secular growth is creditable. At just over 10 percent of PCE (Personal Consumption Expenditure) being transacted digitally, the journey, however, has just begun. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has played a key catalyst role in the digital payment narrative, with its articulated focus on the five Cs as elaborated in its Vision 2018Coverage, Convenience, Confidence, Convergence and Cost. To its credit, the RBI has walked the talk, in particular, with initiatives such as interoperability of PPI guidelines, the transition of Indias massive card base to secure EMV chip-based cards and guidelines for tokenization to name a few. Setting up of the Nandan Nilekani committee to recommend steps on Deepening of Digital Payments further highlights the RBIs intent to accelerate the pace of digital penetration across India. So as the RBI committee continues to solicit industry views, here are some suggestions to widen the net for digital payments in India. Regulate to facilitate growth Open ecosystems with multiple players mitigate risk by allowing for redundancy, eliminating the single point of failure scenario and spurring competition between payment players, thereby giving rise to innovative product and services as well as enhanced security measures and greater reliability. A competitive payment landscape buoyed by transparent regulatory frameworks will encourage investment and innovation in the private sector. Establishing a level playing field with incentives for all or none encourages competition among state-owned, domestic and global players, giving consumers the best choices, value and functionalities. The open and competitive approach adopted by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is worth emulating, given its considerable success in driving digital payments through NETS, the local payments brand, and international networks. Technology often moves faster than regulations, as seen in the wake of IoT and cryptocurrencies. It will be fitting to transition to a principles-based regulatory framework, allowing already regulated entities to innovate and co-create solutions, intervening when necessary. Resources can instead be channelled towards fostering consumer protection initiatives, eliminating systemic risks and alleviating potential single points of failure. Security needs to be embedded deep into payment business models. With Indian digital payments expected to touch $1 trillion by 2023, efficient transaction monitoring methods like risk-based authentication is required. Players can then focus on high-risk categories/merchants, suspicious transactions etc., to reduce transaction dropouts and increase payment success rates. Geotagging transactions can also provide behavioural insights to facilitate policy intervention, financial inclusion and more efficient fraud prevention. Regulations may at times stunt creativity, necessitating a regulatory sandbox to aid innovation. This environment would, through selective application of otherwise potentially restrictive regulations, promote concept testing and financial services innovation while protecting core customer, financial system and regulatory interests. Such sandboxes in places like the UK and Singapore have pushed over 100 applicants through their systems in just two years. Let payments profit Businesses will not invest or innovate without the incentive to profit. Market forces determining competitive prices for interchange and Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) will ensure that incentives are spread across participants, negating the need for creative solutions to offset the revenue loss with other charges. With just 4 million acceptance points for a country the size of India, introduction of an Acceptance Infrastructure Development Fund (AIDF) funded by payment players could subsidise acceptance infrastructure costs and motivate banks and other acquirers to accelerate merchant acquiring. Additionally, the regulator could also allow non-banks to acquire merchants, currently exclusive to banks, giving rise to healthy competition. This could reduce acquiring costs and broaden alternatives for end users. Countries such as Poland, Indonesia and Malaysia have successfully rolled out AIDF linked projects to drive digital expansion. Interoperability at scale Innovations in retail payment markets can raise new questions regarding standardisation. There is a growing challenge for standardisation on a global as well as domestic level, particularly for underlying technical standards. For central banks, the challenge is to ensure an appropriate level of involvement in such activities. Similar to the PPI guidelines, it is time for the RBI to consider interoperability of retail payment systems to ensure quicker adoption and stickiness across consumers and merchants alike. Extending credit to the needy could be as easy as leveraging NBFCs for credit card issuance. This form of financial inclusion will address the limited availability of short-term credit, currently skewed towards affluent segments and Tier 1 cities. It will also diversify the concentration risk in the ecosystem. Mass transit payments will soon become a growth driver for digital payments if given the right direction. Typically, these are low value, repetitive payments whose experience must be seamless, not different from a regular transaction. Enabling open loop, interoperable account-based ticketing will offer consumers the choice to just turn up and ride. RBI has been a strong proponent of EMV contactless payments in India; it is only logical then to consider the option of enabling consumers to use their bank-issued debit or credit contactless card for commutes. Also Read - One Nation-One Card: All you need to know about the new mobility card Make benefits tangible and monetary Cash is seen as a no-cost payment method, though its actual cost is estimated at around $28 billion in India itself. Shifting to digital payments confers a range of benefits, including formalising transaction trails, clamping down on the informal economy and curbing corruption thereby boosting tax revenue and economic growth. But for the taxpayer, it is an incentive only when he or she benefits directly from it. The RBI could explore the introduction of tangible benefits such as income tax incentives based on the digital transactions consumers initiate, while merchants could get GST credits based on the volume of digital payments they accept. Surcharge removal and MDR subsidies on government payments like taxes, tolls and utility bills could help a large chunk of payments go digital. As the telecom revolution has taught us, we are a nation of digitally savvy consumers. Competitive pricing, easier onboarding, seamless experiences and an incentive to transition are key drivers that continue to be important. We look forward to the views of the Nilekani committee that is expected to come up with the next set of enablers to accelerate the digital payments journey. Archit Gupta Privacy issues related to Aadhaar have been a matter of intense debate and vehement opposition. But in September 2018, the Supreme Court confirmed that Aadhaar is compulsory for filing of income tax returns. It has maintained the validity of section 139AA of the Income Tax Act. The government placed crucial arguments in favour of linking PAN and Aadhaar citing duplicity of PAN numbers as a reason for tax evasion and the importance of fixing identity of taxpayer via Aadhaar to prevent misreporting of financial transactions undertaken. This section was added via the Finance Act and made effective from July 1, 2017. Even though this was not part of the Budget documents of 2017, it found a place in the amendments to the Finance Act 2017, placed before the Parliament for approval. The deadline was extended on several instances to allow taxpayers more time. Let us understand the law behind this newly introduced section 139AA. Section 139AA of the income tax act, lays down two basic rules, firstly, Aadhaar must be quoted in all PAN applications, secondly, Aadhaar must be quoted in income tax returns. It says that every person who is eligible to obtain Aadhaar as per the Aadhaar Act, 2016, must mention Aadhaar while filing tax returns. The Aadhaar Act further says that only a resident individual can obtain Aadhaar. The term Resident has different meanings as per the Income Tax Act, FEMA and the Aadhaar Act. Since Resident for this purpose here shall be as per the Aadhaar Act; it means an individual who has resided in India for a period of 182 days or more in the 12 months immediately before the date of application for enrolment of Aadhaar. If this seems all too confusing, remember this basic rule if you have Aadhaar you must quote it while filing your income tax returns, if you are resident based on the Aadhaar Act, you must get yourself an Aadhaar and then link it with your PAN number. This section also allows the central government to notify persons to whom this requirement will not apply. It means that the central government has powers to make rules to allow some individuals to apply for PAN and file tax returns without Aadhaar. The central government has so far notified 4 categories of persons residents of Assam, Jammu & Kashmir and Meghalaya; a non-resident Indian as per the income tax act; those who are more than 80 years old; and those who are not citizens of India. These individuals, who do not have an Aadhaar, are not required to obtain one for the purpose of filing tax returns. However, in case they do have an Aadhaar card it must be reported while filing tax returns. They may have got an Aadhaar for purposes other than reporting in tax returns. Do note that once an Aadhaar has been linked with your tax return, it cannot be delinked, even when a change in residential status takes place. This section further says that PAN numbers without Aadhaar will be invalid. However, it does not define the consequences of such invalidation. It is apparent that in such a case, one may not be able to file tax returns. The Supreme Court as part of the same ruling struck down the linking of Aadhaar with bank accounts and telephone numbers. In-validation of PAN due to non-linkage with Aadhaar could impact online transactions involving PAN such as payment of tax, deduction of TDS while buying a property etc. Certain reports state that more than 40 crore PANs are present, however, less than half of them have been linked with Aadhaar. PAN may be still un-linked for those individuals, who have sought a PAN for bank accounts but have never filed a tax return. It is important that such individuals get their PAN and Aadhaar linked at the earliest. Aadhaar can be linked on the www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in website. In case a discrepancy exists between your Aadhaar and PAN, due to difference in name or date of birth, make sure you get this corrected before attempting to link. Aadhaar linkage has become important for several transactions done online, such as on the EPFO website, at the time of opening or closing bank accounts or making financial investments online. Non-linking of PAN could jeopardize some of these transactions. The Income Tax Department has set a final deadline of March 31, 2019 for linking of PAN with Aadhaar. Therefore, every PAN holder who has an Aadhaar must link it on the income tax department website. Do note that this does mean that every Aadhaar card must have a PAN linked to it, rather the other way round. Angel Commodities' report on Crude oil Last week, WTI crude was down by 0.1 percent whereas Crude on the MCX was down by 0.55 percent. Supply cuts by OPEC and U.S. sanctions on OPEC members Venezuela and Iran continue to support the crude. OPEC and its allies stated that the production cuts were imposed to avoid the supply glut that could soften prices. OPEC further added that they might continue with the supply cuts for six months. OPEC and its allies meet next in Vienna on April 17-18, 2019. However, China trimmed down there growth targets for 2019 which raised fresh demand concerns for Crude. China is one of the biggest consumer of Crude, lower demand from China weighed on the Crude prices. Last week, U.S. Crude inventories rose by 7.1 million barrels to 452.93 million barrels. U.S. crude oil production continues to be at a record high of 12.1 million barrels per day (bpd), which is 2 million bpd higher since early 2018 which further pressurized the prices. Outlook Prices might trade higher after Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih stated that an end to OPEC-led supply cuts was unlikely before June 2019. On the MCX, oil prices are expected to trade lower today, international markets are trading higher by 0.61 percent at $56.41 per barrel. For all commodities report, click here Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. Read More In January, a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services inspector general revealed a second cohort of thousands of separated children who entered the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement and then were released either to relatives or non-relatives in the United States. The initial ruling in the Ms. L. case had only applied to children who were in Office of Refugee Resettlement custody, so the government made no attempt to locate these other children, much less consult the separated parents to see if they approved of their childrens current guardianship. Representative image live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Shares of Power Mech Projects added 4.5 percent intraday Monday as company received work order from Government of Andhra Pradesh. The company by way of JV has been awarded contract by Water Resources Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh for HNSS Project - Supply of water from Chitravathi Balancing Reservoir to HNSS Main Canal, Punganur Branch Canal and Kuppam Branch Canal in Chittoor District through Yogivemana Resevoir Project in Ananthapuram District, Andhra Pradesh (Hydro, Electro - Mechanical works etc.) for a total contract price of Rs 1238 crore. The said work to be completed within a period 24 months. The trading window for all designated persons as under Power Mech - Insider Trading Policy will be closed from March 12 to March 13, 2019 (both day inclusive). At 12:14 hrs Power Mech Projects was quoting at Rs 975, up Rs 32.55, or 3.45 percent on the BSE. For more market news, click here The world's second largest mobile operator Vodafone said on Monday it aims to cut its Italian workforce by 16 percent as part of a broader effort to reshape its business model given increasing pressure in the country's mobile market. The company will open negotiations with local trade unions over 1,130 redundancies, it said in a statement on Monday. Vodafone employs around 7,000 people in Italy, according to its website. Last week Telecom Italia has reached a deal with trade unions on 4,300 job cuts, a source familiar with the matter has said. The AIADMK in Tamil Nadu Monday kick-started its candidate selection process for the April 18 Lok Sabha elections in the state, holding interviews for ticket aspirants in 20 of the 39 constituencies. AIADMK Co-ordinator and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam's son O P Ravindranath Kumar was among those who appeared for the interview before the party's Parliamentary Board here. The board among others include Panneerselvam and party joint co-ordinator and Chief Minister K Palaniswami. The ruling party also invited applications from aspiring candidates for the by-polls to 18 assembly segments, which will be held along with the parliament elections. Elections to 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and the lone Puducherry segment will be held on April 18, in the second of the seven phases of polling across the country for a total of 543 seats. The board interviewed the aspiring candidates for constituencies, including Salem, Theni, Nilgiris, Tuticorin and Coimbatore, a party release said. Ravindranath reportedly sought ticket for Theni Lok Sabha segment. In May 2018, Ravindranath was appointed the secretary of Theni district unit of the Puratchi Thalaivi Amma Peravai, a party wing named after late chief minister J Jayalalithaa. On Monday, he said he had been involved in party work for the last 21 years. "I am doing party work since I was 18. Now I am 39 years old. I have visited every town and village (in Theni)... I am keen in doing public service and the (AIADMK) Coordinator (Panneerselvam) has said efficiency and loyalty to the party are key (for a post)," he later told reporters. Kumar exuded confidence that the AIADMK-led alliance will win all 40 seats. The AIADMK is heading the NDA in Tamil Nadu, whose constituents are the BJP, PMK, DMDK, Puthiya Tamizhagam and Puthiya Neethi Katchi. The party has allotted seven seats to PMK, five to the BJP, four to the Vijayakanth-led DMDK, and one each to Puthiya Tamizhagam and Puthiya Neethi Katchi, thus leaving 21 for itself as of now. There are expectations that former Minister GK Vasan- led Tamil Maanila Congress may join the AIADMK front, giving the final shape to the combine that will take on the DMK-led alliance. The lone Puducherry seat has been allotted to AINRC, headed by former chief minister N Rangasamy. The AIADMK invited applications from aspirants for 18 assembly seats in the state where bypolls are scheduled. The by-polls are considered crucial as it would have a bearing on the stability of the Palaniswami-led AIADMK government which needs to win a sizeable number of them to retain its majority in the 234-member House. Of the 18 seats, sixteen had fallen vacant following the disqualification of ruling AIADMK MLAs loyal to rival party leader TTV Dhinakaran. The by-poll to Tiruvarur seat has been necessitated by the death of sitting member and late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi while the Hosur seat fell vacant following the disqualification of Minister K Balakrishna Reddy after his conviction by a court in a decades-old criminal case. Bypolls were not scheduled for Tiruparankundram, Ottapidaram and Aravakurichi constituencies, which are also vacant, in view of election petitions pending in the Madras High Court. The choice is between Mahatma Gandhi's India or Godse's India with love on one hand and hate on the other, Congress president Rahul Gandhi told his party's booth workers here on Monday, a day after the Lok Sabha elections were announced. In an all out attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gandhi flayed him on a host of issues such as the Rafale deal, employment generation, national security and alleged agrarian distress. "You have to decide, you want Gandhi's India or Godse's India. On the one hand there is love, brotherhood, on the other is hate, fear. Gandhi ji was fearless, stayed in jail for years, but spoke with the British with love, while (Veer) Savarkar wrote letters to Britishers apologising and asking to be let off," he said. He said Modi keeps talking about Make in India, but his shirt, shoes and phone, with which he takes selfies, are made in China. Gandhi said 40 CRPF personnel were killed in the Pulwama terror attack carried out by the Jaish-e-Mohammed whose chief Masood Azhar was released from jail by the BJP. "Two of our prime ministers were martyred. We don't bow before anyone," he said. He also urged booth workers to work hard and win all seven seats in Delhi. IT company IBM on Monday said it will collaborate with Central and state governments to upskill around one million female students in science technology, engineering and maths fields over a period of three years. "We can see 100 per cent jobs are going to change. You need more women in workforce. We are announcing for 200,000 from grade eight to twelve, we are going to prepare them for STEM over a three year period," IBM Chairman, President and CEO Ginni Rometty said at a company event. She said the program is not about conducting technical training session, but to focus on basics of critical thinking, life skills, among others. "All of us are capable of teaching our employees sort of hardskills. It is softskill, in technology world that we have to learn. Collectively our programs are doing one million in numbers and helping four million teachers," Rometty said. The company will collaborate with seven state governments across India to prepare over 200,000 girls and women in government schools over the next three years for "new collar" jobs through the exploration and study of STEM subjects in classrooms and online, a company official said. As part of its ongoing engagement with the government, around 4,000 mentors and 6 lakh mentees will benefit from IBM's AI-powered mentor platform which will include 5 lakh women students. Rometty announced IBM's collaboration with Kendriya Vidyalaya school network to support maths teachers across India with its artificial intelligence platform 'Teacher Advisor With Watson' that will cater to around 3 lakh female students. IBM also announced a two-year Advanced Diploma Programme in emerging technologies created in collaboration with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship which will be available to 100 Industrial Training Institutes (ITI), including 50 all-women ITIs, over the next three years. The company will also offer internships of up to five months to some students under the program. Under the skills and educational program, IBM will offer science training resources to four million teachers in the Indian Open Educational Resources community for STEM. Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, who was also present at the occasion, said women in India have performed exceptionally well whenever they are given opportunities. "It is not possible for India to grow at 9-10 per cent without focussing on women. Every single place where we have given opportunity to women, they have performed better than men. Government has to play the role of facilitator, but it's the men who have to change their mindset that women should get place in organisations," Kant said. File image Viju Cherian The Election Commission of Indias (ECIs) Model Code of Conduct has kicked in. Over the next 73 days, ECI will oversee the election strategies adopted by the parties, the conduct of candidates, and events on polling day. At the end of this, on May 23, the results to the Lok Sabha elections will usher in the next government. About 900 million voters are expected to vote over seven phases. Fifteen states will have single-phase polling while in the remaining 14 polling will be held over multiple days. With seven phases, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal will see the longest polling cycle. The seven Union Territories will have polling on a single day. If in 2009 it was a five-phase poll, in 2014 it went up to nine. This time, however, it has been reduced to seven. While many political parties have welcomed the announcement of the dates, some even calling it overdue as in 2014 the dates were announced on March 5, some political parties have taken exception to the schedule. Post the announcement, a lot of focus has been given to the poll schedule in West Bengal. In 2014, polling in the state was stretched over five days (in the nine-phase schedule) but this time that has increased to seven (in a seven-phase schedule). This could be a reflection of the law and order situation in the state. The panchayat elections on May 14, 2018, saw many instances of violence across the state. To get a clearer picture of the lawlessness, consider this statistic: in the 2013 panchayat polls, repolling was ordered in 21 booths compared to 570 booths in 2018. This is a setback for the Mamata Banerjee government as it shows the ECIs concerns over security during the polls. What should be more upsetting for Banerjee and other opposition parties is that the seven-phase schedule would mean that for most of the time the Trinamool leader will be tied down to the state. This, in turn, could weaken the united oppositions Grand Alliance. The five-phase poll in Jammu & Kashmir is similar to how it was in 2014. However, questions have been raised as to why the state polls have not been announced. Security concerns could a reason, but by not holding the assembly polls along with the Lok Sabha polls, the ECI has punched holes in the governments push for simultaneous elections. It is interesting to note that though it is a seven-phase poll, by the third phase (April 23), more than half of Indias states and UTs would have gone to the polls. Polls in all the states in south India and the North-east would be done by then. This gives the political parties time to focus and recalibrate their campaign to suit it to the demands of the Hindi-belt and West Bengal. If the campaign by various parties does not get caustic, ultra-nationalistic and polarising during the first three phases, expect it to head that way April 23 onwards. Past elections in the Hindi heartland, as recent as the December 11 assembly polls, have shown how campaign turn disturbingly communal, and even personal. The ECI has issued guidelines for the use of social media and Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora has said that any violation of the Model Code of Conduct will be dealt with in the strictest manner. However, with the code having no statutory backing, its power will have to be seen. For more Opinion pieces, click here File image Amid criticism by political parties over the ECI's decision not to hold state polls with the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shalinder Kumar on March 10 said "we must respect the wisdom of the election commission" as simultaneous polls were not possible due to the prevailing security situation in the state. He said the incident like February 14 Pulwama terror attack on a CRPF convoy has put the administration on alert and all necessary measures have been taken to ensure free and fair elections across the state including the border areas facing frequent ceasefire violations by Pakistan. "We must respect the wisdom of the EC for whatever decision has been taken. It is decided, now so why and what may not be serving any purpose... Let us take it in a stride that single election has been announced and now let us conduct single election in a most free and fair manner," Kumar told reporters here this evening. Asked if security atmosphere was the condition for not holding simultaneous elections, then how the EC going to conduct Lok Sabha polls, he said "having both the elections together means that you need more security for candidates." "We have 87 assembly constituencies and if we roughly calculate at least 900 candidates will be in the fray. All those candidates are required to be provided with security especially in the valley at both the places - whenever he goes out of his house for campaigning and at his house. This is additional requirement," the CEO said. Kumar said during assembly, the campaign area remains very large and the candidate tries to reach out to his electorate, thereby putting pressure on police to provide a larger area security and area domination besides giving security to his election meetings. "When we go for simultaneous elections, the requirement of security goes many fold so we generally understand that the security requirement remains same. It is not like that as we have 10 candidates in every parliamentary constituency which would be around 60 candidates. "If assembly elections are held together we have 1000 candidates which is a large number. In Jammu division, we have certain areas where movement of militants and incidents of subversive kind of things have happened," he said defending the EC's decision. The Congress, National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flayed the Centre for not holding the assembly polls along with the parliamentary election, which will be held in five phases in the state. Terming the February 14 attack on the CRPF convoy as "very sad and tragic", he said the elections are being conducted in the state in a very challenging situation. "That type of incident had definitely put us on alert. We have to devise our own mechanism to avert that type of situation," he said, adding it is heartening that within days of that incident the police was able to get the mastermind that shows about the strength and capability of "our security set up". On the challenge due to continuous shelling by Pakistan along the borders, he said "what is happening on the borders is not happening for the first time." "Definitely, the administration has prepared its plan to meet the challenge of shelling on the poling day. We have no direct control over cross-border shelling," he said. Kumar said the model code of conduct has came into force with the announcement of the polls and "we will ensure its implementation strictly." On the steps to ensure maximum participation of the people in the democratic exercise, he said "we are going aggressively for two things - one is enrolment of new voters which is very encouraging this time and secondly the EC can only appeal to the voters to come out and vote. As per election law it is not mandatory for every voter to vote." Kumar said the election commission is going to launch an APP called 'C-vigil' and it will go online when the first election notification would be issued eight days later. "Any citizen can upload information about violation of model code of conduct on this APP which will directly land in the EC server, CEO server and district election office server. It is a very big step," the CEO said. He said district election officers and senior superintendent of police have been directed to keep a strict watch in communally sensitive areas. Lok Sabha elections will begin on April 11 and continue for over a month till May 19 across seven phases, followed by counting of votes on May 23, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced in New Delhi on Sunday. The polling will be held on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19 for 543 Lok Sabha seats across the country in which nearly 90 crore voters would be eligible to vote, the Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said at a packed press conference. File image The United Kingdom's home secretary has recently referred India's request for extraditing bank-fraud accused Nirav Modi to a court for initiating legal proceedings against the diamantaire, official sources said on March 9. A British daily reported that Modi, accused in the USD 2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, is living in a swanky 8-million pound apartment in London's West End and is now involved in a new diamond business. Sources in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said they had been officially informed about UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid's move to forward the case to a London court about two days back. This move takes the process of extraditing and bringing back Modi to face the law in India to the next stage, the sources said. Soon, they said, a joint team of the ED and the CBI would travel to the UK to apprise the lawyers about the Indian case and evidence against Modi, in a similar fashion that was done in the case of another absconding bank-fraud accused, Vijay Mallya. The ED and the CBI are investigating Modi, his uncle Mehul Choksi and others for alleged money laundering and corruption to perpetrate the alleged scam in the Brady House branch of the PNB in Mumbai that was unearthed last year. Modi, 48, is currently living in a three-bedroom flat occupying half of a floor of the landmark Centre Point tower block, where rent is estimated to cost 17,000 pounds a month, The Telegraph reported. Read: Nirav Modi's seaside bungalow demolished using explosives The revelation comes a day after Modi's 30,000 sq ft seaside mansion at Kihim beach in Maharashtra's Raigad district was demolished by authorities using explosives for alleged violation of coastal regulation rules. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) also reacted on the issue of Modi's extradition, saying the UK was still considering India's request. India is taking all steps necessary for his extradition, an MEA spokesperson said Saturday. Modi has been charge-sheeted by both the agencies and the ED has also attached his assets worth crores under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Congress in Telangana on March 11 announced it would boycott the MLC election on March 11, accusing ruling TRS of poaching four of its MLAs and a TDP legislator 'in a brazen manner by adopting all illegal means. The decision was taken in protest against the defection of its MLAs being 'encouraged' by the ruling TRS ahead of the MLC polls, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy said. "KCR ji (Chief Miniser K Chandrasekhar Rao), who assumed office after swearing in as per Constitution, violated the oath of office and admitted Telugu Desam and Congress MLAs into the TRS in a brazen manner by adopting all illegal means," he told reporters. "In protest against this, Congress is boycotting this MLC election so that Telangana people know the undemocratic, and anti-Constitutional, illegal actions being resorted to by the Chief Minister in this MLC election," Reddy said. He was referring to the announcement of Congress MLAs -- MLAs -- Rega Kantha Rao, Atram Sakku, Chirumarti Lingaiah and Haripriya Naik -- and a TDP MLA (Sandra Venkata Veeraiah) to join TRS in the interest of development of their constituencies. In the election to fill five vacancies in the Council, TRS has fielded four nominees, leaving one seat to its ally AIMIM. In the December 7 2018 Assembly elections, TRS bagged 88 of the total of 119 seats. An independent MLA and an AIFB legislator have also declared support to the ruling party. The AIMIM has seven MLAs. The Congress fielded one candidate in the Council election. It had won 19 seats in the Assembly polls and was banking on the support of two-member TDP. However, the announcement of four Congress MLAs and the TDP MLA to join TRS hurt its chances in the MLC election. The PCC president said his party has fielded one candidate in the MLC election as it was in a position to win the seat with the support of two TDP members. "The defection of MLAs is a dangerous trend (for democracy) that the ruling TRS has started," Reddy alleged and added that his party would stage a demonstration against it. The Congress and TRS have been engaged in a war of words on the issue of MLAs moving to the ruling party. Responding to Reddy's comments that TRS 'purchased' its MLAs, TRS had referred to instances of public representatives joining Congress from other parties and asked if that too was a "purchase". Reddy said TRS MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy joined the Congress after the completion of his tenure. He dismissed reports that Congress MLA and senior leader P Sabita Indra Reddy also might join TRS. He said he and other party leaders have spoken to her. Facebook's election war room at its Menlo Park office (Image: Facebook) Facebook will be starting an operations centre in Delhi to prevent the spread of fake news on its platform during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, according to a report by Mint. The social media giants Delhi operations centre will coordinate with its offices at Menlo Park, US; Dublin, Ireland and Singapore to monitor election content round the clock, the report added. Facebook is aiming to engage with the Election Commission of India (EC) to help ensure the general elections are safe from abuse and misinformation on its platform. Operations at its India centre is expected to be modelled on its US hub. Multiple cross-functional teams will look at various aspects of the platform including content. Some teams will work closely with the EC, the report cites Shivnath Thukral, Director, Public Policy, India and South Asia, Facebook as saying. Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report. The 'war room' in the US was built ahead of the mid-term elections there and for the Brazil elections. The control centre was part of Facebooks efforts to block the spread of misinformation on this platform. While announcing the election schedule on March 10, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora said social media platforms will deploy 'appropriate fact checkers' to scan fake news and use of abusive language. Facebook had in February expanded its fact-checking network in India, taking the number of partners to seven. It said it was toughening rules governing political advertisements in India to create more transparency. The Mark Zuckerberg-led company has been under pressure to crack down on fake news on its platform. In February, a parliamentary panel had summoned representatives of Facebook, its messaging service WhatsApp and photo-sharing app Instagram to appear before it and discuss how to safeguard citizens rights on social media. Also read: Opinion | Increasing scrutiny on social media platforms wont resolve Indias fake news problem Ahead of the Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana in November-December 2018, it was reported that Facebook was planning to deploy a task force of specialists to help monitor the Lok Sabha polls, as part of its efforts to stop misuse of the platform during elections. Facebook was planning to setting up an election war room for India, similar to the one set up in the US, reports suggested. On other issues besides taxation, the leftward shift of the Democratic caucus in Springfield has been dramatic. Legislators are considering bills to make abortion more accessible to minors and to women in the later stages of pregnancy. The legislature passed and Rauner already signed House Bill 40, which expanded taxpayer funding of abortion. Those bills, even under a Democrat-led House with Speaker Michael Madigan, would not have seen the light of day a decade ago. Madigan used to boast about his 100 percent pro-life voting record. And the legislature used to be peppered with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle who supported abortion rights but not unlimited, unrestricted, taxpayer-funded abortion for minors. File image With the Election Commission of India announcing poll dates on March 10, the country has shifted gear into election mode. Not only political parties, but roughly 90 crore eligible electors are all set to take part in the crucial Lok Sabha polls, slated to take place over seven phases. Out of the 90 crore voters, roughly 1.5 crore will be voting for the first time. Along with the dates, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora announced that 10 lakh polling stations will be set up and that VVPAT machines will be used in all polling stations this time. Lets take a look at what these machines are and how they are different than the EVM machines and the conventional ballot papers. What are VVPAT machines? VVPAt stands for Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail. It is an independent system attached with the electronic voter machine (EVM) that allows the voters to verify that their votes are cast as intended. How does it work? When a vote is cast, a slip is printed on the VVPAT printer containing the serial number, name and symbol of the candidate and remains exposed through a transparent window for 7 seconds. Thereafter, this printed slip automatically gets cut and falls in sealed drop box of the VVPAT. What does it look like? The VVPAT consists of a printer and a VVPAT Status Display Unit (VSDU). It runs on a battery of 22.5 volts. The control unit and VSDU are kept with the Presiding Officer/Polling Officer and balloting unit and printer are kept in the voting compartment. A VVPAT machine. (Image: ECI Official Website) Why was the VVPAT machine commissioned by the EC? In a meeting of all political parties conducted in October 2010, most parties had expressed their satisfaction with the functioning of the EVM. However, some parties appealed that VVPAT machines be introduced for more transparency and accountability in the polling process. Is there something wrong with EVMs? The Opposition has, time and again, accused the ruling BJP of tampering with EVMs in order to win the elections. This happened especially in the aftermath of the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections where the saffron party won with a landslide victory. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati and Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav accused the BJP of rigging EVMs. They were soon joined by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal, who blamed EVM tampering for its loss in the Punjab and Goa Assembly polls held the same year. However, the trend of questioning EVMs was actually started by the BJP with veteran leader LK Advani demanding reintroduction of ballot papers for the Maharashtra Assembly polls in 2009. At that time, Advani was the Leader of Opposition. He said, "We should revert to ballot papers unless the Election Commission is able to ensure that EVMs are foolproof and every possibility of their malfunctioning is taken care of." In fact, the decision to adopt VVPATs in 2010 was taken in the wake of BJPs campaign against EVMs in 2009. VVPAT vs EVM vs ballot papers In 2013, the Supreme Court had lauded the Election Commissions decision of adopting VVPAT machines for conducting free and fair elections, directing the Centre to ensure adequate funds for procuring these machines for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Since 2015, all state assembly elections have been conducted using VVPAT machines. As far as EVMs are concerned, the polling body has never conceded that they can be hacked or tampered with despite a multitude of claims by the Opposition and apparent cyber experts. So sure was the Election Commission that EVMs are non-corruptible and tamper-proof, they had thrown an open challenge to political parties to rig them. At least 16 Opposition parties had demanded returning to the ballot papers, yet the Election Commission has rejected it outright. What are other democracies using? Out of the 120 countries that practise democracy, a little over 20 use EVMs. Britain, which is regarded as the mother of all democracies, relies on Ballot paper to elect 650 MPs to the House of Commons. The US, on the other hand, uses a combination of direct voting machines (different to EVMs, in that they are connected to the internet and are more vulnerable to cyber attack) and paper trail audit machines (similar to VVPAT).Brazil, the fifth most populous country, has been successfully using the EVMs on a large scale since 1990. File image: Twitter/@INCMaharashtra The Election Commission of India (EC) on March 10 announced schedule for the general elections to constitute the 17th Lok Sabha. The election will be held in seven phases. Counting of votes will be held on May 23. A month before the nation goes to polls, some of the alliances, especially in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) camp, have been sealed, while alliances in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) camp are still taking shape. According to reports, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on March 12 in Gujarat will give shape to the UPA's seat-sharing pacts, but till then, here's a look at all the alliances which have been sealed so far. Uttar Pradesh The way to Delhi goes through UP, and for good reason: the state has the highest number of Lok Sabha seats at 80. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in alliance with the Apna Dal and the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), both of which have been bickering allies and have given the BJP a difficult time in recent days. The Congress is going it alone in the polls, while the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) have stitched up an alliance in the state. SP and BSP will contest on 38 and 37 seats respectively, while the RLD has been given three seats to contest from. Maharashtra Maharashtra has the second highest number of seats at 48, and the BJP here announced its alliance with the Shiv Sena after much speculation. BJP will contest on 25 seats while the Sena would be fielding candidates from 23 seats. Smaller parties, such as the Republican Party of India (RPI), headed by Ramdas Athawale, will be accommodated from within either the Sena or the BJP's quota. The Congress, which is in alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), is yet to announce its seat-sharing pact. The Congress-NCP alliance also includes Swabhiman Paksha, and the opposition alliance is in talks with Prakash Ambedkars Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM). The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), headed by Asaduddin Owaisi, is also a major player in the state, and is in alliance with the BBM. West Bengal In West Bengal, which has 42 Parliamentary seats, it's a season of going alone till date. While there are talks of Congress aligning with the Left, no announcement has been made yet. This effectively leaves the Congress, Trinamool Congress, the Left and the BJP to contest alone in the crucial state. Bihar Bihar was one of the first states where the NDA finalised its seat-sharing pact. The heartland state has 40 Lok Sabha seats, out of which the BJP will contest on 17 and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) will contest on 17 seats. The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) of Ram Vilas Paswan will contest on six seats. The Grand Alliance in Bihar comprises Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Lok Janata Dal (Sharad Yadav), Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), Vikasheel Insan Party (VIP) and former NDA allies Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM) and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP). The Mahagathbandhan in Bihar is yet to announce a seat-sharing pact. Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu has 39 Lok Sabha seats, where the BJP sealed an alliance with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). The BJP will contest on five seats, the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) will contest on seven while the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) will contest on four seats. The rest will be contested by the AIADMK. The Congress announced its alliance with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on February 20, with the grand old party contesting on nine seats and DMK on 20. The rest of the seats have been divided between other smaller allies. Karnataka Karnataka has 28 Lok Sabha seats, and the BJP would be going it alone in the crucial southern state. The Congress has been in alliance with the Janata Dal (Secular), though various reports have indicated that the alliance, one of convenience from the start, is on tenterhooks. The parties have not announced a seat-sharing pact yet. Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh, where assembly polls are also scheduled, has 25 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP has not announced an alliance in the state yet, while Congress' Oommen Chandy had earlier announced that Congress would be contesting on all the 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state, effectively ruling out an alliance with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). Congress-TDP had contested together during the Telangana assembly polls, but had suffered defeat. This would mean that Andhra would witness a three-cornered fight, with YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) also in the arena. Assam After the exit of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the NDA in Assam now has three allies, including Bodoland People's Front (BPF), Rabha Jatiya Aikya Manch (RJAM) and Tiwa Jatiya Aikya Manch (TJAM). Assam has 14 Lok Sabha seats. The Congress has allied with the United People's Party (UPP) while the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) will also be entering the arena in Assam. The seat-sharing pacts for NDA and the UPA have not yet been announced. Jharkhand In Jharkhand, the BJP is in alliance with All Jharkhand Students' Union (AJSU), which will contest from one seat while the BJP will contest from the remaining 13 seats. The Congress will contest on seven seats in alliance with Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), which will contest on four while the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) and RJD have been given two and one seat each respectively. Telangana Telangana has 17 Lok Sabha seats, with the BJP going it alone and Congress contesting the elections in alliance with the TDP, CPI and the Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS). The Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS), which swept the recent assembly polls, will be looking to ride on the prevailing sentiment to win the most number of Parliamentary seats in the state. Punjab Punjab has 13 Parliamentary seats, out of which the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) will contest on 10 seats in alliance with the BJP, which will contest on three. While there was speculation regarding a Congress-Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) alliance in the state, Congress has not announced any tie-up yet. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "surrendered" before Pakistan, militants and separatists, National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah said onMarch 10, soon after the Election Commission's no to simultaneous assembly and Lok Sabha polls in Jammu and Kashmir. The EC announced the schedule for Lok Sabha polls to be held in seven phases across the country, including in J-K (five phases), but cited security grounds for not holding the assembly polls simultaneously. In Anantnag Lok Sabha seat, polling will be held in three phases due to security reasons. "In light of the failure to conduct assembly elections on time in J&K I'm retweeting my tweets from a few days ago. PM Modi has surrendered to Pakistan, to the militants & to the hurriyat. Well done Modi Sahib. 56 inch chest failed. #slowclap, Omar, the NC vice-president, wrote on Twitter. The first phase will be held on April 11, second on April 18, third on April 23 and fourth on April 29, fifth on May 6, sixth on May 12 and seventh phase on May 19. Counting of votes for all seven phases would be done on May 23. Omar said Modi's "abject surrender" to anti-India forces is "a crying shame". "Balakote & Uri are not symbols of PM Modi's handling of national security, J&K is and look at the mess he has made there. The abject surrender to anti-India forces is a crying shame, he said. The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said it was for the first time since 1996 that Assembly elections in the state were not being held on time. Remember this the next time you are praising PM Modi for his strong leadership, he said. Omar said in 2014, J-K had Lok Sabha elections on time and assembly elections on the schedule even after the most devastating floods, but delaying them now "shows how badly the BJP & earlier the BJP-PDP mishandled J&K. "What happened to (Union Home Minister) @rajnathsingh's assurance to Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha as well as to the all party meeting recently in Delhi that all forces would be made available for simultaneous polls? he asked in another tweet. Omar said he never thought Modi would be willing to confess his failure on a global stage by not conducting the assembly polls on time in J-K. With the amount of international attention elections in J&K attract I never thought PM Modi would be willing to confess his failure on a global stage but we all make mistakes & that was mine, he said. you are here: US President Donald Trump is ready to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un again for denuclearisation talks, the White House said, underlining that his decision to walk out of the Hanoi summit sent a signal to other countries as well that he is not desperate for a deal unless it is in America's interest. US National Security Advisor John Bolton told ABC News that Trump's walk out from his meeting with Kim was "friendly" and it is not a reflection that the talks broke down. I don't really think it broke down. I think the president did exactly the right thing, he said, referring to the failed summit between the two leaders in Hanoi in Vietnam on February 26 and 27. Trump and Kim's Vietnam meeting ended abruptly without a deal on North Korean denuclearisation in return for sanctions relief. On Friday, Trump told reporters his relationship with Kim was a very good one and said he would be surprised in a negative way if he did anything that was not per our understanding. Trump and Kim first met in Singapore in June 2018, producing only a North Korean commitment to work towards complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. "Trump and Kim Jong-un had had a number of conversations about what might be done to denuclearise North Korea. Kim offered a partial deal. The president has been very clear that he doesn't want to make the same mistakes as past administrations, Bolton said. "Trump proposed to Kim what he talked about really going back to Singapore, is what he called the big deal, that North Korea completely denuclearize. And, in exchange for that, there was a very bright economic future for the North Korean people," Bolton said. The two leaders went around on this several times. They had a full exchange of views, as the saying goes. It was clear they weren't going to reach agreement, Bolton said. So, what the president did was, as he put it, to walk away in a friendly way from the discussion. He said he's prepared to meet Kim Jong-un again. It's no date set or anything like that, but it's possible that North Korea will go back and rethink the position they came in with and come back to talk to the president about the big deal, he told the news channel in a talk show. According to Bolton what the president did in Hanoi, was important not just in the negotiations with North Korea on their nuclear programme, but also with China on trade, and also with Russia on arms control and other countries. Despite all the media speculation, the president turned out not to be desperate for a deal. He didn't have to come away with a success. In the pursuit of American national interest, he was prepared to risk people characterising the Hanoi summit as a failure, because he wasn't going to accept terms that weren't in our national interest, he said. I do think that's a message for others that we're involved in significant negotiations with. Now, in terms of China specifically, you know, we just concluded another round of negotiations here in Washington, Bob Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative, Steven Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, and others leading that, he said. Talks with China are making progress, but there's work to be done. So it's true, as you say, there's no date set for the next summit, but it could be just a short time thereafter. We're going to have to have some more conversations and do the additional work, Bolton said. US President Donald Trump will seek USD 8.6 billion in fresh funding for a wall on the US-Mexico border in the 2020 budget request, likely triggering another fight with Congress, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said. The request, which is to be unveiled Monday, would far exceed the USD 5.7 billion Trump demanded last year, which led to an impasse that resulted in a 35-day partial shutdown of the US government, the longest ever. Democratic congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer decried the move, warning Trump that another legislative defeat would await him. Kudlow, interviewed on "Fox News Sunday," conceded that the new request would likely mean a renewed fight in Congress over wall funding. "I suppose there will be," he said. But he said Trump "is going to stay with his wall. He is going to stay with his border security. I think it's essential." In a joint statement, Pelosi and Schumer charged that Trump "hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos when he recklessly shut down the government to try to get his expensive and ineffective wall." "Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again. We hope he learned his lesson," they said. The Washington Post reported that the president's request for wall funding will come in the form of USD 5 billion from the Department of Homeland Security and another USD 3.6 billion from the Pentagon. That will be on top of the USD 6.7 billion in wall funding that Trump has ordered redirected from other government programs under a national emergency he declared last month. He declared the emergency after the Congress approved only USD 1.375 billion for construction of 55 miles (90 kilometers) of barriers along the border in Texas. On a separate issue, Kudlow expressed optimism that US economic growth will surpass three percent "in 2019 and beyond," adding that the 2020 budget anticipates a five percent reduction in government spending. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on March 11 described ties with Iraq as "special", as he prepared to travel to Baghdad on his first official visit to the neighbouring country. Rouhani's three-day visit comes as Iraq has been under pressure from Washington to limit ties with its neighbour, particularly after the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and hit Tehran with sanctions. "Iran-Iraq relations are special," Rouhani said at Tehran's Mehrabad airport, state television reported. "Whenever the people of the region had a problem and asked Iran for help, the people and government of Iran rushed to their help with all their power," he added. Iran has close but complicated ties with Iraq, with significant influence among its Shiite political groups. The two countries fought a bloody war from 1980 to 1988 and Tehran's influence in Baghdad grew after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. Iran was the first country to respond to Iraqi calls for help after Islamic State group jihadists captured Mosul in 2014 and threatened to overrun Baghdad and Kirkuk. Tehran dispatched "military advisors" and equipment overnight along with the famous Revolutionary Guards elite Qods Force commander Qasem Soleimani to prevent IS jihadists from approaching its western borders. Following the defeat of IS in Iraq, Iran is trying to position itself to gain a prime role in rebuilding the war-ravaged country. "Iran-Iraq relations are not comparable with (Iraq's relations) with an aggressor country like America," Rouhani said. "America is despised in the region. The bombs that the Americans dropped on Iraqis, Syrian people and other countries cannot be forgotten and," he said. Rouhani's visit to Iraq will be the first since he became president in 2013. He is set to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, President Barham Saleh and the country's chief Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, according to the Iranian government's website. Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif arrived on March 10 in Baghdad to prepare for the visit. File image After remaining untraceable for months, billionaire fugitive Nirav Modi was spotted in London. He was tracked down by The Telegraph journalist while roaming the streets of London. The diamond tycoon is wanted in India for his links in one of the biggest banking frauds in the country. He is an accused in the over-Rs 14,000 crore Punjab National Bank fraud case. When the journalist approached him, he kept dodging all questions with a stoic expression and not a word more than no comments to spare. However, more than him being spotted finally or his nonchalance, what the Internet could not stop talking about was his obnoxiously expensive ostrich leather jacket. Exclusive: Telegraph journalists tracked down Nirav Modi, the billionaire diamond tycoon who is a suspect for the biggest banking fraud in India's historyhttps://t.co/PpsjGeFEsy pic.twitter.com/v3dN5NotzQ The Telegraph (@Telegraph) March 8, 2019 In the video released by the scribe, Nirav Modi can be seen sporting a handle bar moustache and an ostrich leather jacket worth 10,000 pounds, nearly Rs 9 lakh. Ostrich leather clothing is rare and one of the most expensive variants too, due to its longevity. Ostrich leather has a typical quill pattern, which looks like embossed polka dots. For a man who has duped so many and absconded the country leaving hundreds at their own mercy, it came as a shock that he is still living lavishly in a foreign land, splurging on extravagant clothing. So, after the video went viral on social media, Twitter users went on an unabashed rant to admonish the affluent diamond merchant. Also, what's noteworthy is that the 'poor man' had a really tough time hailing a cab. They knew he wouldn't pay later. Ankita Singh (@DelhiteAnkita) March 9, 2019 It could have been titled better "Finding NiMo" Susheel Pant (@sanjuP1981) March 9, 2019 Hope the cabbie took the fare at the start of the trip.. Ankit (@tyagi_ankit) March 9, 2019 Suit Boot Ki Sarkar Hai, Chowkidar Chor Hai This proves it. Srivatsa (@srivatsayb) March 9, 2019 The moral of the story is this... No matter how hard you try... No matter how much ostrich skin you wear..... It's hard to get a cab in London. #NiravModi Vir Das (@thevirdas) March 9, 2019 I bet he asked "Bhaiyya, meter se jaoge?" Abhishek Shenoy(Max) (@shenoy_abhishek) March 9, 2019 The cab drivers in London are anti-Nationals, Congressi, Anti-Hindu, Pappu-Lovers. They ignored him because his surname is Modi. This is Nehru's fault mitron CJ Edward (@CarneyJHouston) March 9, 2019 South Korea's military said on Monday it was closely monitoring North Korean facilities after a series of satellite images triggered international alarm that Pyongyang might be preparing a long-range missile or space launch. Analysis indicates increased activity at two key sites -- the Samundong missile research facility and the Sohae rocket-testing facility. Any launch could send stuttering talks on denuclearisation into disarray. South Korea is "closely tracking and looking into all activity for possible scenarios including a missile launch" across the border, in close coordination with the US, said Kim Joon-rak, spokesman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Satellite images of Samundong taken on February 22 showed cars and trucks at the site, as well as rail cars and cranes at a yard, US news outlet NPR reported. "When you put all that together, that's really what it looks like when the North Koreans are in the process of building a rocket," Jeffrey Lewis, a researcher at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, was quoted as saying. Located on the outskirts of Pyongyang, the Samundong facility was built in 2012 to support development of long-range missiles and space-launch vehicles. As well as developing the Hawsong-15 ICBM, which analysts agree is capable of reaching the whole US mainland, Samundong constructed the long-range rockets that were then transported and successfully launched from the Sohae satellite launch station in 2012 and 2016. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed last year to shutter the Sohae site at a summit with the South's President Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang. Satellite pictures in August suggested workers were dismantling an engine test stand at the facility. But the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies suggested last week rebuilding was progressing quickly at the facility. A moving structure that had been used to carry vehicles to a launch pad on rails has been restored, said respected research website 38 North project. It added the work had started before last month's failed meeting on denuclearisation between Kim and US President Donald Trump. John Bolton, President Donald Trump's national security adviser, said Sunday the US sees "exactly what they are doing" in regard to possible missile or rocket launch moves by the nuclear-armed state. "We see it unblinkingly, and we don't have any illusions about what those are," he warned, adding his boss would be "pretty disappointed" if a nuclear-armed state conducted a new missile test. North Korea has been banned by the UN security council from carrying out space launches, as some of its technology was similar to that used for intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs. Since the collapse of the Hanoi summit, Trump has been cautious in his forecasts, continuing to suggest a deal remains possible. Trump said Kim promised he would carry out no more missile or nuclear testing, adding, "I take him at his word." The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irdai) is examining the possibility of enforcing a directive on insurance companies to protect policy holders' funds stuck in the now downgraded bonds of IL&FS, but provisioning for such investments is a must, the Irdai chairman said on Monday. Asked what Irdai will do to ensure that policy holders don't lose money, and if the regulator would enforce some rules in this regard, Irdai Chairman Subhash Chandra Khuntiasaid: "We will find some way to ensure that policy holders are protected." He, however, did not give any details or assurance that this may actually call for any enforcement of regulations on insurance firms from the regulator's side. Khuntia also said the insurers have to make provision for such investments gone sour. "Either they (insurers) back it fully or they will have to provide for it. Some of the IL&FS companies may be better off ", Khuntia said on the sidelines of a Ficci health insurance event. He said insurance companies must make provisions for their exposure to IL&FS. Irdai rules mandate that insurance firms invest only in better rated companies and be watchful on rating changes. Making provisions for investments is already a guideline for insurance companies which had been stressed after a lot of policyholders' fund got stuck in the now downgraded bonds of IL&FS. Some of the listed companies of the now crippled IL&FS group were downgraded by ICRA and CARE Ratings to below investment grade following a string defaults since late August last year. IL&FS defaulted on interest payments on many commercial papers in which mutual funds (MFs) and insurance firms had invested funds from the public. Disclaimer: Information, facts or opinions expressed in this news article are presented as sourced from IANS and do not reflect views of Moneylife and hence Moneylife is not responsible or liable for the same. As a source and news provider, IANS is responsible for accuracy, completeness, suitability and validity of any information in this article. When it was Preckwinkles turn, she said, That shes open and honest about her LGBTQ orientation. You know, I think its really important in this country that we be respectful of differences and that we understand that all of us matter and that there is dignity in each and every one of us. And there has been so much discrimination and prejudice and homophobia in our country, its very important that particularly prominent people declare their sexual orientation and do it with pride. The major indices of the Indian equity market opened in the green on Monday and closed with strong gains. On the NSE, there were 1257 advances, 485 declines and 350 unchanged. Amid mixed global cues Sensex surged close to 250 points as key equity indices opened in green on Monday, owing to gains in the banking and finance stocks. Healthy buying was seen in all the sectors with BSE Oil and Gas index leading the pack, closely followed by banking and finance scrips. The Sensex of the BSE opened at 36,741.57 from its previous close at 36,671.43 on Friday. The Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) opened at 11,068.75 from it's previous close of 11,035.40. On Friday, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought stocks worth Rs 1,095.06 crore while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold stocks to the tune of Rs 470.70 crore. The share price of Birla Corporation fell over 14% on Monday after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ordered a stop to all mining activities in Rajasthan`s Chittorgarh city. The company said that it was studying the implications of the NGT order on its mining operations at Chanderia. Insurance regulator Irdai is awaiting state-run LIfe Insurance Corp`s (LIC) proposal on the timeline of reducing its stake of 51% in IDBI Bank before taking any decision to enforce the 15% equity cap, a senior official said on Monday. As per Irdai rules, LIC will have to pare its stake to 15% keeping in place the regulator`s investment limit in listed investees. In IDBI Bank, LIC holds 51% under a specific permission from Irdai but under the condition state-run insurance behemoth will bring the stake down. Not just Irdai, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also told LIC that it cannot hold more than 15% stake in IDBI Bank over a long period of time. IDBI Bank also has to move out of its IDBI Federal Life Insurance interest. As per Irdai norms, one promoter cannot have two insurers, in order to avoid conflict of interest. New guidelines by the National Housing Bank (NHB) for India's housing finance companies (HFCs) will not address the major challenges of credit risk for these companies, a Moody's report said on Monday. The NHB last week proposed to increase the capital adequacy ratio (CAR) for HFCs to 15% in a phased manner by March 2022. The housing finance regulator also reduced the borrowing limit of HFCs from 16 times of net owned funds to 12 times by March 2022. "The new guidelines would be credit positive because they would limit HFCs' credit growth and cap their maximum exposure to the debt capital markets. However, the new guidelines do not address issues regarding the key credit risk of these companies, their funding and liquidity," said the report. Kalpataru Power Transmission Ltd (KPTL) has bagged new orders worth Rs 1,288 crore from its transmission and distribution and oil and gas business. KPTL is a specialised engineering, procurement and construction company in India engaged in power T&D, oil and gas pipeline, railways, infrastructure development, civil contracting and warehousing and logistics business. The top gainers and top losers of the major indices are given in the table below: The closing values of the major Asian indices are given in the table below: The the Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) contagion continues to spread aggressively, the latest casualty being the Indian armed forces. Several lakhs of salaried workers across public sector undertakings and Postal Life Insurance have already been infected with these bonds. Now, it is learnt, the virus has also spread to the armed forces. IANS learns that a few sections of the armed forces, primarily the army, have invested their corpus of funds in the once AAA rated IL&FS bonds to secure their future. The Indian Army has three specific funds in which fellow countrymen can contributeArmy Welfare Fund Battle Casualties (set up in 2016 after the Siachen avalanche disaster and the Pathankot/Uri incidents), Army Central Welfare Fund and the Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre Punetowards the members/families of the armed forces who have made the supreme sacrifice for the nation. It is still not known whether these funds have invested in the virus-laden bonds. There is also the flagship National Defence Fund which was set up to take charge of voluntary donations in cash and kind received for promotion of the national defence effort. The Fund is used for the welfare of members of the Armed Forces and paramilitary forces and their dependents. At the end of 31 March 2018, the total expenditure was Rs64.75 crore, while receipts were Rs83.85 crore and the total cumulative balance was Rs1,115.18 crore. There is also a department for ex-servicemen's welfare which gives benefits to the widows of fatal battle casualties. This pertains to death due to accident in course of duties, death due to terror violence, death during enemy action in war or border skirmishes or against militants/terrorists and death during enemy action in war or warlike engagements specifically notedthe benefits are given in the following way, which is Rs10 lakh each in the first two cases and Rs15 and Rs20 lakh, respectively, in the latter two cases. Various other benefits are provided to war widows. These funds, formed by servicemen with the objective of supporting fatalities and army widows, have invested in these bonds considering the ratings and safety assurances portrayed by the rating agencies. The corpus has membership of armymen and provides support to millions of armymen and their widows in case of eventualities. With the IL&FS default, all these investments are now nearly junk, jeopardising the interest and future of millions of armed forces. The army, it is learnt, will be making a representation to the defence ministry in this regard to seek directions and resolution. Since it's a non-government effort by military men to create a safety corpus, the government may not be able to resolve the same immediately, said government sources. However, add government sources, this is likely to touch a sensitive nerve in an election year, especially against the backdrop of the Pulwama attack and the retaliatory act by India. Politically, this is a land mine. Armed forces and the increasing patriotism will certainly take an aggressive campaign agenda in coming weeks. Disclaimer: Information, facts or opinions expressed in this news article are presented as sourced from IANS and do not reflect views of Moneylife and hence Moneylife is not responsible or liable for the same. As a source and news provider, IANS is responsible for accuracy, completeness, suitability and validity of any information in this article. March 11, 2019 Russian Internet Protests - These Crowd Estimates Are Propaganda The Russian parliament is currently discussing a new law that will establish an autonomous internet in Russia. The network will no longer depend on servers and services hosted in other countries. The U.S. dislikes that as shutting down Russia's internet by manipulating servers in the U.S. will no longer be an option. Spying on Russian internet traffic will also become more difficult. The usual 'liberals' in Russia were told to raise some protest against the planned move. The BBC reports: Thousands of people in Russia have protested against plans to introduce tighter restrictions on the internet. A mass rally in Moscow and similar demonstrations in two other cities were called after parliament backed the controversial bill last month. The government says the bill, which allows it to isolate Russia's internet service from the rest of the world, will improve cyber-security. But campaigners say it is an attempt to increase censorship and stifle dissent. Activists say more than 15,000 people gathered in Moscow on Sunday, which is double the estimate given by the police. Reuters gives slightly different numbers: The rally gathered around 15,300 people, according to White Counter, an NGO that counts participants at rallies. Moscow police put the numbers at 6,500. Reports of crowd numbers are used for propaganda purposes and often false. On February 22 the British oligarch Richard Brenson organized a concert in Cucuta, Colombia. While "authorities" in Colombia claimed that there were "over 400,000 people in attendance", Vice News reported more than 300,000 and the Washington Post wrote that 200,000 were there. By using aerial pictures and scientific crowd density measurements we proved that less than 20,000 people attended the concert. Following that the Washington Post silently deleted its 200,000 claim. The BBC provides two pictures with its piece. Note that both are relatively tight front shots of the demonstration. It is impossible to check a crowd size from frontal pictures. Professor of Crowd Science at Manchester Metropolitan University G. Keith Still notes about density estimates that: Density can appear higher with lower CCTV angles That such frontal pictures are very misleading was demonstrated in 2015 when photos revealed how a small number of hypocrites abused a large memorial march they did not take part in for a photo-op. Here now is an aerial picture of the "mass rally" in Moscow. That picture allows for a quite accurate crowd estimate. The width of an arterial road lane is 3.3 to 3.6 meters (11-12 feet). The street in the picture has ten lanes plus a medial strip of 1 meter. The total front of the demonstration is thus 37 meters. One can use the comparison to the lane width to measure the depth of the crowd. Detail picture analysis shows a medium dense crowd in the first 7 meters from the front with about 2.5 people per square meter and a light to medium density of 1.5 people per square meter for the next seven meter. The number of people beyond that are probably some 300 in total. We can thus calculate: 37m * 7m * 2.5 ppl/m2 + 37m * 7m * 1.5 ppl/m2 + 300 ppl = 1.336 people Even if we assume a high density of 3.5 ppl/m2 in the front zone, 2.5 ppl/m2 in the zone behind them, and 500 people mingling in the rear area the total is only 2,054 people. The city of Moscow has a population of 17 million with another three million in the suburbs around it. 2,000 protesters are 0.01% of its population. One would have to triple the density to even reach the police estimate of 6.500 participants or 0.0325% of the people living in Moscow. Neither the police estimate nor the much higher estimate of the White Counter 'NGO' that Reuters quotes are consistent with the picture. According to a 2014 blog post at irevolutions.org "White Counter" was created in Russia: in order to counter government figures on the number of protestors who join demonstrations. As is typical, the Kremlin will always downplay the numbers. In this case the Kremlin seems to have tripled the attendance number. Is Putin somehow against the new law? Posted by b on March 11, 2019 at 20:06 UTC | Permalink Comments A Saudi Arabian Airlines flight was forced to turn back just moments into its near nine-hour flight after a passenger realised she left her child at the airport. No, this is not a sequel to Home Alone. This actually happened this week at Jeddah's main airport, as reported by The Independant. The flight had just left on its way to Kuala Lumpur and when the captain was informed of the unique situation, he decided to turn the plane around. The cockpit crew contacted air traffic control and informed them of the situation, leaving them stunned. A recording of the conversation has been uploaded to social media and has been viewed tens of thousands of times. Translated into English, the pilot can be heard being asked twice to repeat the reason for his request. "We told you, a passenger left her baby in the terminal and refuses to continue the flight." The controllers then express surprise and concern over the incident. "This flight is requesting to come back... a passenger forgot her baby in the waiting area, the poor thing." The flight was cleared to return immediately and the mother was reunited with her unharmed child. Newshub. In February, Morningstar manager research analysts affirmed the Morningstar Analyst Ratings of 112 funds and six separately managed accounts. The ratings of five funds were upgraded, 10 were downgraded, and three funds were placed under review. A select group of ratings is showcased below, along with tables of changes for the month. Upgrades Baird Aggregate Bond (BAGIX) employs a cohesive team and a proven and deliberate process, and it sports low fees, all of which supported an upgrade to Gold from Silver. Lead manager and Baird CIO Mary Ellen Stanek heads a veteran team of five portfolio managers who have each worked at Baird for nearly two decades. Stanek and team curate a portfolio thats focused on investment-grade corporate credit, securitized debt, and U.S. government bonds--the primary sectors of the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index benchmark. The team matches the funds duration to the index, while avoiding derivatives, leverage, and esoteric fare, and uses high yield sparingly. For most of the strategys life span, it has maintained persistent overweightings to corporate and securitized debt and downplayed U.S. Treasuries, which has given it a slight yield advantage over the benchmark. The funds low fees also set this fund up for success over the long term relative to higher-priced peers. Friday will be cold again; Saturday will be the coldest day of the week, said Amy Seeley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Chicago. Its not going to be anywhere near as cold as it was, but after Thursday it might feel chilly. No doubt about it, many company retirement plans--especially those offered by smaller employers--are not serving savers well. Their administrative costs are often too high, employer matching contributions can be lackluster, and investment lineups can be full of costly also-rans. 403(b) plans, which are offered to educators, can be even worse. If you suspect your plan is subpar, here are the key steps to take. (Note that Ive used 401(k) plan interchangeably with company retirement plan during the course of this article, but all of the ideas contained herein can be applied to 403(b) and 457 plans as well.) Step 1: Ask and answer: Just how bad is it, anyway? The first step when deciding how to deal with a subpar company retirement plan is to do a bit of homework on just how bad it really is. Checking the expenses on the investment options is a good place to start, because its usually pretty easy to find the data. (If your plan includes collective investment trusts rather than mutual funds, finding information on the options can be a bit trickier because disclosure requirements are less stringent.) If you see a lot of expense ratios of 1% or more, even on vanilla investment types like large-cap blend funds, thats a red flag that youve got a high-cost plan. Also check up on the administrative expenses on the plan; high administrative expenses can chip away at your returns, even if you focus on the cheapest investments available inside your plan. This article discusses how to conduct a review of the quality of your 401(k) plan. If, after some due diligence, it turns out that your plan could use some improvement, alert your plans overseers, whether thats a 401(k) plan committee or your firms benefits manager. Be as specific with your criticisms as possible and put them in writing, bullet point by bullet point. Plans can and do improve thanks to feedback from well-informed participants who take the time to share it. Step 2: Take advantage of the tax-efficient 'gimmes.' Assuming youve found your plan lacking, that doesnt mean you shouldnt put a penny in. If your employer offers matching contributions on the money you invest, its worth steering at least the minimum amount needed to earn any matching contributions. After all, those matching dollars, assuming you stay around long enough for them to vest, provide you with a 100% return on Day 1. If you have additional assets to invest, above and beyond what you need to put in to pick up matching contributions, consider steering those dollars into an IRA. Within the confines of an IRA, you can avail yourself of tax benefits that largely mirror those of company retirement plans, and you can usually circumvent the type of administrative expenses that can erode the returns of 401(k) plan participants. You can set up an automatic investment plan for your IRA contributions, much as your 401(k) contributions go in on autopilot. Because an IRA doesnt constrain you to a preset list of investment choices, you can also invest in very low-cost products, such as total market index funds or target-date funds. Of course, the open architecture of IRAs can invite problems, too; the choices can be overwhelming, and it may be tempting to invest in very narrowly focused investment products that you wouldnt find in most 401(k)s. An additional option for tax-advantaged savings, assuming your company retirement plan is subpar, is to use a health savings account for additional savings. If youre covered by a high-deductible healthcare plan, then you can also save within an HSA. HSAs offer even greater tax benefits than company retirement plans: pretax contributions, tax-free compounding, and tax-free withdrawals for qualified healthcare expenses. Of course, if your company retirement plan isnt so great, your employer-provided HSA might not be, either. But theres a workaround if thats the case; you can periodically transfer money from the captive HSA to one of your own choosing, as discussed here. Step 3: Determine what to do with any additional investable assets. For some savers, investing enough in the company retirement plan to earn matching contributions and funding an IRA (and even an HSA) up to the limits will tap out their investable assets. But if youve taken those steps and still have money to invest, the question is whether to steer additional assets--above and beyond what you need to earn matching contributions--into the 401(k) or whether youre better off employing a taxable brokerage account. More on This Topic How Good Is Your 401(k) Plan? The answer depends on a few different variables, as follows: 401(k) quality: Just how bad is the plan? (See Step 1, above.) Unless your plan is truly terrible, you may be better off investing inside of it rather than forgoing it altogether. The quality and tax efficiency of the investments in the taxable accounts: Investing in a taxable account may be the better option if you're able to invest in securities that make few ongoing distributions of income, capital gains, or both. The investor's tax bracket at the time of the contributions: The ability to make pretax contributions--as is the case with 401(k)s--will be more valuable to the investor who's in a high tax bracket at the time of that contribution than it will be to the person who's in a lower tax bracket. The tax bracket at the time of withdrawals: Withdrawals from taxable accounts receive more favorable (and flexible) tax treatment than withdrawals from traditional 401(k)s. Investors pulling from their taxable accounts will owe capital gains taxes, whereas money coming out of a traditional 401(k) is taxed at the investor's ordinary income tax rate, which is higher. Moreover, because the 401(k) money has never been taxed, investors owe taxes on the entire withdrawal, not just the appreciation; taxable-account investors, by contrast, will only owe tax on their gains. Finally, 401(k) assets are subject to required minimum distributions at age 70 1/2. For investors who expect to be in a high tax bracket upon retirement, having assets in a taxable account--and enjoying more favorable taxation on the distributions--will tend to be particularly beneficial. This article does a deep dive into deciding between a company retirement plan or a taxable brokerage account. Step 4: Make the best out of your 401(k) choices. Assuming youve determined that it makes sense to invest inside of a 401(k), even if youve found it wanting, there are a few ways to derive the maximum benefit. Here are a few routes to do so. Embrace index funds: Investors ongoing preference for index funds hasnt been lost on 401(k) plan providers; these products are showing up on more and more plan menus. If the plan's options include index funds--offerings that track a given market benchmark rather than attempting to beat it--you can obtain broad market exposure at a reasonable cost. Even if the index funds in your plan aren't the best, you're probably still better off going the index route than you are opting for a lackluster active fund. True, the active manager--even the one with a subpar past record--has a shot at beating his or her benchmark, at least in theory. In practice, however, the active fund's expenses--as well as transaction costs that aren't reflected in its expense ratio--weigh heavily on that manager's ability to beat the benchmark. Sink a lot into the best options: It's natural to want to craft a 401(k) portfolio that's diversified across all of the major asset classes (bonds and U.S. and foreign stocks), but that might not be practical or prudent if your company plan doesn't offer viable options in all of these areas. If your plan features a few standout options and the rest are subpar, load up on the few decent funds and avoid the rest. You can use your IRA, your taxable accounts, or your spouse's retirement plan to delve into those asset classes and investment styles in which your own plan is lacking. For example, say the stock funds in your company plan are poor but the lineup does offer a top-quality core bond fund. Even though your overall asset-allocation plan calls for just 30% in bonds, you could sink a big share of your 401(k) portfolio into the bond fund and then go light on bonds in your other accounts. The key to making this strategy work is to look at all of the assets geared toward a particular goal or time horizon in aggregate. Morningstar.com's Instant X-Ray can make easy work of this task. Just enter all of your retirement-related holdings into the tool, then click Show Instant X-Ray to see aggregate asset-class, investment style, and sector data for all of your holdings. Investigate the brokerage window. Increasingly, 401(k) plans--particularly those from large employers--are offering so-called "brokerage windows," which may also be called "self-directed accounts." If your plan offers such an option, you'll have the opportunity to delve into hundreds of other mutual funds, stocks, and even exchange-traded funds that aren't part of your 401(k) plan's preset menu. But be sure to read the fine print. You may pay an extra fee (often levied annually) to participate in the brokerage window, and those extra costs can quickly erode the extra returns you might gain by venturing beyond your plan's preset menu. In addition, you may pay separate transaction costs to buy and sell securities that are part of the brokerage window. Finally, using the brokerage window may require additional work on your part. Whereas most 401(k) contributions are deducted directly from your paycheck, thereby adding valuable discipline to the investment process, you may have to actively make the trades into investments via your brokerage window. This article takes a closer look at brokerage windows. B.C. Attorney-General David Eby expressed his ire at the fact that the report ended up in limbo. He stated that such an analysis wouldve helped convince the federal leadership and the previous provincial government to act decisively against malignant foreign influences. Its really frustrating to know that a report was prepared but not finished on exactly those issues, because I believe that had it gone forward, we might not have been in the position we are in today, Eby told The Globe and Mail. Its another example of what appears, to me, to be a number of people inside various watchdogs and regulators who have identified concerns and, for one reason or another, those concerns have not made it out to the public or perhaps even up to the political level. Read more: B.C. money laundering issue intimately tied to the fentanyl crisis The heavily redacted FINTRAC report which was classified at the Protected B security level, meaning that it could cause serious injury to an individual, organization or government should it get publicized was only recently provided to Ottawa-based researcher Ken Rubin, who fought for the documents release since May 2016. The real estate board has done considerable polling through Ipsos, the results of which seem to corroborate Palmers claims. Most people support missing middle housing, but when you frame the question as where it should go, you get the not in my backyard response, said Palmer. Almost 59% oppose high-rise condos within a kilometer of where they live, and even with detached homes, you still get 30% opposed. The consequence of NIMBYism is a pusillanimous political class unwilling to ruffle their constituencies feathers. That partly impelled the Ontario Real Estate Association and Ontario Home Builders Association to call on the Doug Ford government last week to implement as-of-right zoning around 200 transit hubs so development occurs at a faster pace. The two associations also funded a report by the Ryerson Universitys Centre for Urban Research and Land Development to demonstrate that transit nodes are woefully underutilized. Far too often, local politicians, whether in Toronto or other cities, are more concerned with existing residents than they are about new residents who want to move in, and as a result NIMBYism can grind everything to a halt, said Tim Hudak, CEO of OREA. I worry if we wait for municipalities to up-zone transit hubs, well be talking about colonizing Mars for housing before we get that done, and thats why were calling on the Ford government to look at these 200 stations and mandate as-of-right zoning to allow for intensification and more housing for those who need it. Hudak notes that homeownership rates are falling and would-be first-time buyers are stuck in mom and dads basement. Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier? Sign up to receive news and updates from this site directly to your desktop. Breaking News Columbia Breaking News Greenville Breaking News Myrtle Beach Breaking News Aiken Breaking News N Augusta Breaking News Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time. Success! Please click the 'Allow' button in the 'Show Notifcations' alert in your browser if one is available. Thank you for signing up! Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page. (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. took four hours on Wednesday morning to tell investors: Hold on a bit, we got this. But investors arent in a patient mood with high-spending oil and gas companies, and Exxons capital-expenditure budget summary: not much change from $35 billion a year drew the unsurprising response. Yet, looking beyond the next couple of years, Exxon provided a lot for everyone, investors and competitors, to chew on. Exxon is doing nothing less than an overhaul of the portfolio, as might be expected after a few years of setbacks. When youre this big the size of an OPEC producer that costs money. Exxon projects it will generate $190 billion of free cash flow through 2025, equivalent to almost 60 percent of its current market cap and implying $90 billion after dividends potentially available for buybacks. However, eyeballing the fuzzy bars on Exxons deck, that capacity doesnt start coming through in earnest until 2021. The fact that Chevron Corp., which held its own analyst day on Tuesday, is already buying back stock and yielding more on near-term payouts is where much of the interest in Exxon ends in the current environment. But there are implications from Exxons numbers that shouldnt be ignored. Exxons guidance implies cash from operations almost doubling by 2025 to $60 billion. Coincidental or not, that would match the peak reached in 2008. Production is projected to be higher; the fuzzy bars suggest annual increases of 3 to 4 percent through 2025. Even so, that level of cash flow would be astounding at a $60 oil-price assumption compared with the $100-a-barrel that prevailed in 2008 (dont forget U.S. natural gas averaged almost $9 per million BTU that year, too). The most striking detail beneath these headline projects concerned, of course, the Permian basin. As with Chevron, Texas is at the center of Exxons strategic plan. The biggest question hanging over the majors is whether they can take shale, the preserve of the smaller E&P companies, and make it generate the free cash flow needed to fund dividends. Exxon says its Permian position will fund its capex by 2021 and actually generate $5 billion of free cash flow after capex in 2023. That was far from being the biggest number in Exxons presentation. Consider this, however: Only one U.S. E&P company makes $5 billion of free cash flow across its entire business today (ConocoPhillips). The next two biggest generators of free cash flow Occidental Petroleum Corp. and EOG Resources Inc. made less than $2 billion each in 2018. Screening E&P companies with a market cap of $5 billion or more on the Bloomberg Terminal, Exxons projected $5 billion of free cash flow from its Permian business alone in 2023 would be almost as big as all 18 companies other than Conoco. It is just a huge number. Is it a realistic number? If Exxon hits its projected production of somewhere around 1.1 to 1.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2023 (according to the fuzz-o-scope) then ... maybe (see the math below).(1) But that depends a great deal on Exxons contention that its upfront investment in infrastructure in the Permian basin and Gulf Coast, as well as a dollop of experience-curve benefits, proves right. It would be foolish to discount Exxons ability to bring its machine to bear. However, the companys track record with production-growth targets is spotty at best. And, as with its peers, the performance of the past decade or so has put a big dent in Exxons reputation for discipline and rock-solid returns. Thats why four hours of explaining that big upfront check left the market unmoved on Wednesday morning. But its also why other stakeholders frackers and OPEC, say should lace their skepticism with a healthy dose of nervousness about what could be coming down the pipe. (1) Assume output of 1.15 million barrels-equivalent a day, at 60 percent oil and 40 percent natural gas. Assume $60 oil and $3 gas for a blended price of $43 per barrel-equivalent. Assume $20 per barrel of cash operating expenses and royalties.This generates cash from operations of about 9.7 billion (in line with Exxon's fuzzy bar chart on slide 51). Then assume 40 rigs operating at $120 million each per year, and that leaves just under $5 billion. All of these numbers are, like Exxon's fuzzy bars, subject to change/adjustment/scathing criticism. Nina Ansaroff, who got her first UFC victory two years ago and was ranked 13th in July, has ascended the ranks and will fight fellow No. 3 Tatiana Suarez on a path to face the winner of a UFC 237 match in Brazil between defending champion Rose Namajunas and Jessica Andrade. After two deployments in Afghanistan and one to Iraq, U.S. Army Veteran and Midland College graduate Benjamin Jake Hall decided it was time to come back to Midland and raise his family. The 36-year-old husband and father of two is a Midland native and Greenwood High School graduate. I graduated from high school in 2000, Hall said. That was before 9/11, but I knew from an early age that I wanted to serve my country and join the military. So, on August 1, 2000, I headed to basic training in Fort Benning, Georgia. After Fort Benning, I was stationed at Fort Bragg with the 82nd Airborne Division, where I later deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Hall thought that he was ready to leave the military and head back to West Texas in 2003. He worked in oilfield production for a short time, but soon discovered that he wasnt finished with military service. He re-enlisted in the U.S. Armys 101st Airborne Division in January 2009, and was stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. A little over two years later, he transferred to the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team in Vicenza, Italy. During this time, he deployed to Logar Province in Afghanistan. During my second deployment in 2010, we spent almost 13 months in Afghanistan close to the Pakistan border, said Hall. During that time, we patrolled the mountains day and night and were constantly bombarded with mortar and rocket fire. In addition to fighting the Taliban, we were also fighting al-Qaida affiliates and foreign-born fighters from Egypt, Jordan, Syria and elsewhere. A lot of them were in their teens just young boys. During his time with the 173rd Airborne, Hall met his wife Brittany, and the two were married in April 2012 while he was home on leave. Hall was once again deployed to Afghanistan in July 2012. This time, however, his third deployment was short-lived because of an enemy ambush, in which his platoon suffered multiple casualties. Hall was attempting to pull his fellow soldiers off a hill under machine gun fire when he was shot in the left leg. He was transported to Germany for recovery and later back to Vicenza, Italy. Hall was honorably discharged at the rank of sergeant E5, and the couple moved to Midland in 2014 just before their first son, Joseph, was born. Hall had various jobs in the oil and gas industry, and in November 2016, the couples second son, Morgan, was born. Ben decided that in order to better support his growing family, he needed a college degree. He enrolled in MC in the spring term of 2016, and in just one year, graduated with an associate degree. I really enjoyed the time I was at MC, he said. I became involved with the Midland College Veterans Association. I still keep in touch with friends I met through the association. It was nice being able to share stories with people from all branches of the military, and it was also a great support system. Hall fondly recalls several MC faculty members who offered him guidance. Among those are Dale Westfall in the accounting department and math Professor Alma Brannan, who assisted him with an honors project in calculus related to economics. After graduating from MC, Hall immediately enrolled in the University of Texas of the Permian Basin and majored in business management. During the last year I attended UTPB, I also lost my dad, Mike Hall, he said. He passed away on Jan. 31, 2018 in Dallas. That was really tough and shocking, but I was determined to finish my degree by all means necessary; I was deeply committed. Hall graduated from UTPB on Aug. 3, 2018, with a bachelor of business administration degree in management. He then enrolled in a hybrid MBA program at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. My goal is to finish the MBA program in roughly two years or so, Hall said. Most of the coursework is online, but there are several residency components where I will attend weekend courses at JHUs Carey Business School. Fortunately, Brittany holds down the fort while Im out of town during my residencies. Thanks to a special scholarship fund established at Midland College for military veterans who transfer to other institutions, Hall is able to help pay for expenses, including airfare and hotel, associated with his residencies. Midland College helped me transition from the Army to the next phase of my life, said Hall. Thanks to the academic support offered at Midland College, I was able to succeed here every semester. The next goal was to stay motivated through my bachelors degree and start focusing on graduate school. Rebecca Bell is executive director, Institutional Advancement, at Midland College. PHOTOS How to handle unexpected unemployment Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, 59% of Americans were living paycheck-to-paycheck, according to a 2019 Charles Schwab survey. In March, the number of people reporting a temporary layoff more than doubled, bringing the number to 1.8 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the same survey, it was noted that the number of people who are unemployed rose by 1.4 million. This marked a March increase in the unemployment rate of 0.9 percent the largest monthly increase since January 1975. If your job was one affected by the coronavirus, coping with the effects of that loss can be emotionally taxing. Here are some ways to handle the sudden change and to stay positive. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 11) The Court of Appeals (CA) denied the motion for partial reconsideration filed by Rappler and its holding company, Rappler Holdings Corp. (RHC), on the case the media outfit had with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In the 25-page ruling dated February 21, the CA Former Special 12th Division upheld its stance that Rappler violated foreign equity restrictions in mass media under the Constitution. This was SEC's ground to cancel Rappler's license to do business. "After a careful scrutiny of the instant Motion, this Court finds that it presents no compelling reason to justify the reconsideration of this Court's Decision dated 26 July 2018. The arguments raised by petitioners are essentially the same as those that have already been discussed and were exhaustively passed upon," the Court ruling obtained Tuesday said. Rappler previously argued in its petition that the restriction did not apply to them since they were not a mass media entity under constitutional provisions. But the CA affirmed that the firm is a mass media entity, and subject to laws on foreign equity restrictions concerning outstanding capital stock and voting rights. "The capacity to control a corporation may also exist without owning shares of stock or voting rights in that corporation through corporate control-enhancing mechanisms," the CA said. In January 2018, the SEC revoked Rappler's business registration due to its alleged violations, after the news agency allowed its foreign investor Omidyar Network (Omidyar) to hold Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs). A PDR is a financial instrument that foreign entities can buy into for financial returns in a local company but not in the form of dividends which are tied to ownership. But the CA affirmed that RHC cannot claim it fully owns Rappler shares since a clause in the PDRs granted to Omidyar allowed it to direct the voting on Rappler's shares. "Mere grant of control, regardless of the actual exercise of such control, already constitutes a violation of the foreign equity restriction on mass media," it said. The CA also did not find grave abuse of discretion on the part of SEC for its decision. But the appellate court refrained from commenting on Omidyar's donation of the $1.5 million (around 78 million) investment to the media agency's 14 Filipino managers, since it has remanded the ruling back to the SEC. Illinois is poised to provide greater access to reproductive health care and abortion procedures than any other state in the country. Proponents and opponents agree passage of the Reproductive Health Act, repealing and replacing current abortion law, is a near certainty. It would fulfill a promise by Gov. J.B. Pritzker to turn the Prairie State into the most progressive state in the nation for access to reproductive health care. It would also, detractors say, create a series of unintended, undesirable consequences. There seems little doubt Democrats will have a legislative victory in the matter. The party holds a super-majority in both chambers of the 101st General Assembly, with 29 more seats than Republicans in the House and 21 seats more in the Senate. Right now, this bill is passing, said Peter Breen, vice president and senior counsel for the Thomas More Society, a conservative, pro-life law firm. The House version has more than 40 sponsors. The Senate version has nine. Leading the push in the House are Reps. Kelly Cassidy and Emanuel Chris Welch. The Senates main sponsors are Sens. Melinda Bush and Elgie Sims, Jr. The measure will not be successful without a philosophical fight initiated by those on the right; or, likely, without Illinois being thrust into the national political spotlight much like New York was after its state legislature approved an controversial bill with a name identical to the one Illinois General Assembly will consider. Breen said the Thomas More Society will likely challenge some aspect of it in court, and it is probable other conservative legal groups will as well. Illinois current abortion statute was passed into law in 1975. Legislators wrote their objective was to reasonably regulate abortion procedures to adhere with the U.S. Supreme Courts decision in Roe v. Wade. Since then, though, courts have struck down several aspects of the Abortion Law, such as a ban on fetal experimentation, a prohibition on sex-selective abortion procedures, and a provision allowing the husband of a woman seeking the procedure to receive a court order barring her from doing so. Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has also pointed out that the states law includes a provision allowing doctors to be jailed for performing an abortion procedure. According to a memo prepared by the Thomas More Society, the Reproductive Health Act goes much further than bringing the states law up-to-date. A bill intended to repeal only unconstitutional provisions of Illinois law would have been half a page long, not 120 pages, the memos author wrote. The Society is challenging a measure former Gov. Bruce Rauner signed two years ago, allowing tax dollars to be spent on abortion procedures through Illinois Medicaid and state employee health insurance programs, in court. Most recently, it filed paperwork asking the states Supreme Court to take up the case. This new legislation would repeal current abortion law and replace it with language enshrining reproductive health as a fundamental right. As is written in the measure, This Act sets forth the fundamental rights of individuals to make autonomous decisions about ones own reproductive health, including the fundamental right to use or refuse reproductive health care. The time for such a change is now, ACLU attorney Amy Meek said, because of the national landscape. We have a president who has said that women should be punished for having an abortion and a majority of Supreme Court justices and courts who are hostile to Roe v. Wade and signaled that their goal is to outlaw abortion and to put it out of reach for women at any stage of pregnancy, she said. The Reproductive Health Act is filed as twin pieces of legislation in both chambers of the General Assembly. The push for House Bill 2495 is being led by Cassidy, from Chicago, and Welch, from Hillside. This is modernization; this is clean-up; this is not breaking much, if any, new ground, Cassidy said. We are making clear what the state of our law is once and for all, we are making clear that health care decisions are made between a medical professional and a woman. Senate Bill 1942 is sponsored by Bush, from Grayslake, and Sims, from Chicago. The Reproductive Health Act prohibits the state from intruding in a womans reproductive health care decision-making, whether that be choosing to carry a pregnancy to term or opting for an abortion procedure. It creates an avenue for a woman to bring a lawsuit should she feel this right was violated. It also allows local governments to write ordinances strengthening reproductive health care, but bars them from weakening access to such procedures as abortion. The proposed legislation additionally requires health care professionals to file a report with the Department of Public Health of each abortion procedure they perform. This requirement, though, is less specific than current statute, which mandates the type of information to be collected and reported. The Act exempts these reports from Freedom of Information requests. Criminal penalties for doctors who perform abortions are removed from the proposal. Colleen Connell, executive director of the states chapter of the ACLU, said that part of existing law was dangerous. The reason doctors arent going to prison today for providing abortions and prescribing certain forms of birth control is because the ACLU has gone to court time and again and secured more than 14 injunctions blocking the enforcement of these dangerous laws, she said at a news event in Chicago earlier this month. Among other statutes, the measure repeals the Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act, which was struck down as unconstitutional, the Abortion Performance Refusal Act and part of the Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Center Act. At the end of the day, this is treating abortion care as health care, which it is, and removing it from the criminal code, said Julie Lynn, manager of External Affairs for Planned Parenthood of Illinois. The Thomas More Society released a 13-page analysis of Illinois abortion law overhaul last week. It includes what its attorneys say will be legal repercussions. The Reproductive Health Act is an extreme bill that would basically enshrine abortion as a positive good in Illinois law, according to the memo from the conservative pro-life law firm based in Chicago. The Society takes issue with a mandate that private insurance companies operating in Illinois would have to cover abortion procedures if they also provide pregnancy-related benefits. This would cause two problems, according to the memo. One is that groups that oppose abortion for religious, moral or other reasons but purchase insurance policies would be forced to provide coverage for the procedure. The other is that all those who participate in the policy the insurance company, employers, employees have no way to opt out. A related issue is that the proposal would repeal sections of at least three statutes that give legal protections for health care workers and providers who refuse to take part in or perform abortion procedures. One law, the Health Care Right of Conscience Act, would remain on the books. The memo, though, makes a case that a legal challenge could render it ineffective because a health care worker could be hindering a womans newly-created fundamental right to reproductive health care. Taken together, Breen said it looks as if the Reproductive Health Act would enshrine that right as stronger than that of those in the U.S. Constitutions First Amendment. It is a concern shared by the Catholic Conference of Illinois, a group representing the states six bishops. These bills taken together crowds us out. For people who have moral objections, they basically are saying we dont have any rights, Robert Gilligan, executive director, said earlier this month. Thats whats going on, that people with First Amendment rights are being crowded out of protections under the law. Another statute might additionally be made obsolete should the Reproductive Health Act successfully become law, according to the Societys memo. There are twin measures in both chambers of the General Assembly that would repeal the Parental Notice of Abortion Act, which requires a minor to consult with her parent or guardian before terminating a pregnancy. Both bills are sponsored by Democrats. The House version has four supporters, and the Senate version has eight sponsors. It is unclear what level of legislative success they will have. Even if the measures do not pass, the memos author wrote, the Reproductive Health Act says the government would not be allowed to impede a womans ability to decide what to do in her pregnancy. The act does not differentiate between an adult and a minor. State lawmakers are debating restrictions on whether a landlord can report a tenant who is living in the country illegally to authorities. State Sen. Christina Castros legislation was vetoed last year by Gov. Bruce Rauner. In his veto message, Rauner said the bill would violate U.S. laws about blocking federal agencies. If passed into law, Castros bill would allow a tenant to sue the landlord for up to $2,000 in civil court. She said the aim of the bill was to give immigrants a shield from discrimination. This bill is to allow our immigrant communities to feel safe and not retaliated against based on what their immigration status is, she said. Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, said the bill entirely blocks landlords from reporting illegal immigrants to the authorities. You are telling your landlords no, you cant say a word to anyone in law enforcement about that individual, he said. Is there any other area that you can think of in state policy where you would so tie a landlords hands? The bill now awaits House consideration. California has a law that prohibits landlords from asking tenants about their immigration status. Theres an effort in Washington D.C. to charge a landlord guilty of reporting a tenant to immigration with felony extortion. Meanwhile, the board did not vote Tuesday on a new lease for the One to World program, which provides Apple iPads and Macintosh laptops to each SD220 student for use at home and in school, Ptashkin said. Yvonne understands the concerns of all stakeholders: taxpayers, students, parents and staff. She seeks out and appreciates input of ideas and concerns from others and incorporates them into her positions. She comes to the table with no hidden agenda and no personal stake in any outcome (as her children have all graduated from District 86). President Donald Trump View Photos President Trump made several remarks last week at an American Workforce Policy Advisory Board Meeting held inside of the White House. Trump was Mondays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Here are his words: Were going to be opening up the labor forces, because we have to. We have so many companies coming. Were opening it up. We have to bring people in. We want them to be people based on merit, and we want them to come in legally. You see whats going on at the border. And were doing a great job, whether its Border Patrol, ICE, law enforcement, generally. Were all working together. We have our military sent to the border. We have 8,000 military personnel right now at the border. We are doing an amazing job considering its really an onslaught very much. I call it invasion. They always get upset when I say an invasion. But it really is somewhat of an invasion. And were stopping drugs at a record level, but a record number of drugs are pouring up and coming up. And were getting it done. Human trafficking is a disaster. Nobody knew too much about it until recently. Its been going on for a million years, actually. Its been going on for a long time. But weve seen it. Weve spotted it. Its being slowed down, but we cant slow it down unless we have a very strong and powerful separation between us and whoever it is it may be. And in this case, it happens to be Mexico. And Mexico has helped us, but Mexico has a record number of murders this year a number thats so large, its actually hard to believe. And were working very hard on doing actually having one of the safest weve ever been. We have some of the best numbers weve ever had, from the standpoint of crime, murders, killings included. One of our best years ever was last year. And were down 6 percent from last year, so thats very important. But we want to have a very strong border, but were going to have a lot of people coming in. A lot of people dont understand that. They think were shutting it out. Were not shutting it out. We want people to come in, but they have to come in through a process. So we have a process thats really moving along rapidly. Last year, we took in a large number of highly qualified, wonderful people. And theyre for the most part, theyre working already in your companies. But we also have a lot of companies coming in. I was with Prime Minister Abe the other day, and he said we spoke the other day. And he said that Japan is going to be sending about seven at least seven more big factories into this country. And its got to do more than that; we have too big a deficit with Japan. We have for a long time. But theyre going to you saw a couple of openings big openings in Michigan. Chrysler Fiat just announced that theyre going to spend $4.5 billion in Michigan around the Detroit area. We have a tremendous number of not only car companies coming in; we have a lot of car companies coming in. Theyre coming in, theyre building new, but theyre also expanding. And theyre going to Pennsylvania. Theyre going to Ohio. Very heavy in Michigan. South Carolina, North Carolina all over. We have we have companies coming into this country at a record pace, and really at a pace that nobody thought possible because nobody thought youd ever see these particular companies again. Many of them are coming back. They want to be where the action is. Theyre coming back. They left years ago I used to talk about it as a civilian. But they left years ago, and now theyre coming back, and theyre coming back in numbers that nobody believes. So were going to let a lot of people come in because we need workers. We have to have workers. Unemployment at 3.7, 3.6, probably. These are low numbers. And, in one way, I love it. But, in another way, I dont want to make it hard to get those companies rolling with really great people. Because without the great people, it doesnt work. All of these wonderful things we talk about are nice, but you need the people and you need really good people. And we have great people. And we have the best in the world, in my opinion. And we are having other people come into our country that youre going to be very proud of and the job they do. One of the things that has happened and people dont talk about it but because of the great economy, we have a prison population that, for the first time ever, is getting a shot at working. When they got out of prison, they had a stigma, and it was a tough stigma. And, in many cases, there was not much they could do; they couldnt get a job. They couldnt no matter what, they couldnt get a job. And now theyre getting jobs because our economy is so strong because you want workers. And Ive spoken to at least six big employers, and they are loving what they see. They cannot even believe how good some of these people are. Not in all cases, I guess, but you can say that about everybody but how great they have been. And its very nice to hear. First time ever. The first time thats ever happened. And to a large extent, its because we take some credit because of the economy. But its an incredible thing whats happening with respect to the prison population. Theyre getting out, theyre getting jobs, and theyre doing a fantastic job. And its really beautiful to see. And thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML. Associated Press Writer Protesters who challenge war policy by civil disobedience are resurrecting the powerful tactics of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, but they will likely find it hard to sway most Americans for now, say historians and some activists. "I don't think it's going to be very effective, at least for the time being," said Lawrence Wittner, a historian at State University of New York at Albany who has written about the American peace movement. "I think that the targets are probably not well chosen." He said protesters have risked antagonizing the public, for example, by blocking city streets. The outbreak of war with Iraq has brought a tide of civil disobedience, an exalted tool to many promoters of social change. As framed by its 19th century theoretician, Henry Thoreau, civil disobedience is a lawbreaking act of personal conscience to resist government injustice. Thoreau once went to jail briefly when he refused to pay taxes for a war with Mexico. Perhaps civil disobedience has never spoken so forcefully as when a mass movement of Indians, led by Mohandas Gandhi, resisted British laws and wrested independence for what is now the world's largest democracy. Many of the great American reform movements _ from the abolition of slavery, to labor unionizing, to King's drive to challenge legalized racial segregation _ have also prevailed with a strong element of civil disobedience. Such protests have hastened radical political shifts, as when draft resisters helped turn public opinion against war in Vietnam. Propelled by the attack on Iraq, anti-war protesters have blocked downtown streets and building entrances _ often at federal offices or courts _ in cities across the country and induced police to arrest them, sometimes by the vanload. "It's very symbolic," said Adam Miles, 22, after he was hauled away from a sit-in outside a federal courthouse in Boston. "It's not like it's going to effect a policy change, but it shows I'm committed." In San Francisco, where roving bands blocked downtown streets, Assistant Police Chief Alex Fagan Sr. called it "absolute anarchy." Some motorists and passers-by have honked in solidarity, but others have jeered or quietly fumed in frustration. When an anti-war protest blocked a bridge in Portland, Ore., Cecille Kelly sat behind the wheel, thinking unkind thoughts. "I have every right to access this bridge. They have no idea what extremely important things I have going on in my life, and why I might need to use this bridge!" she said. Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has warned that such protests could drain police resources needed to keep watch for terrorism. Historians say a successful campaign of civil disobedience is built on a clear message, often with a moral edge; a sympathetic public; and carefully focused acts that don't turn ordinary Americans into the target _ as when commuter traffic is paralyzed. Wittner said effective anti-war disobedience might target more sites that serve military purposes, like army outposts _ not city streets used by everyone. Also, he said, opinion polls show the public rallying behind President Bush right now, making it difficult to change minds. Less confrontational protest methods might work better, some authorities say. "The militants by themselves may turn people off," said historian Katherine A. S. Sibley, at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia. Historian Larry Gara, who teaches peace studies at Wilmington College in Ohio, said, "I think civil disobedience is sort of a last weapon. I'm not an advocate of widespread use." He says one danger is that protesters will go to jail and be out of circulation for months. He should know. He was jailed three years for draft resistance during World War II. James Tracy, a San Francisco activist who gives civil disobedience training, says the tactic is embraced so strongly by today's anti-war movement because many are disillusioned with government accountability. He largely blames the collapse of the Enron energy company and the Electoral College defeat of Al Gore, who won the popular presidential vote. "I just don't think people believe they can vote their way to peace any more," he said. Acts of civil disobedience "maintain the spirit of resistance," said Howard Zinn, a retired Boston University historian who committed civil disobedience during the Vietnam War. And, for better or worse, he added, they do tend to catch the ear of the news media. Even that holds potential for backlash, though. Bob Fischer was thinking about such news coverage when he came to a rally in Reno, Nev., to back the war effort. "With all the bad publicity and all the media attention to the leftists and the peace movement, it's more important now to show our support for the president and our troops," he said. Flower Child has inked the first lease in Market at Houston Heights, its third Houston location. The 3,500-square-foot restaurant is scheduled to open in the 30,000-square-foot lifestyle development going up at 1533 N. Shepherd Drive in the Heights early next year. The restaurant, which serves healthy, farm-fresh fare in a casual setting with counter service, is part of Phoenix-based Fox Restaurant Concepts. Other concepts include North Italia, True Foods Kitchen and Blanco Tacos & Tequila. It debuted in Houston in Uptown Park last year and recently opened at 1900 Lake Woodlands Drive in The Woodlands. Usually when we get money in the mail, its because someone is paying for a ticket, so when we got this from the Crete Police Department we knew something was different, a social media post from Park Forest police stated. The post included a photo of a pack of $20 bills, along with an accompanying note from Crete police Chief Scott Pieritz to Jones. Authorities said a man is accused of breaking into a Phoenix apartment and helping himself to tortillas and soup. Court documents show that 31-year-old Jerry Christopher Drane was arrested March 1 on suspicion of criminal trespassing. A man was arrested early Monday after leading police on a chase in southwest Houston and then crashing his vehicle, officials said. As police were investigating, a suspected drunken driver struck two cruisers that were blocking traffic near the crash site. Police tried to stop a man for traffic violations about 1 a.m. at Bissonnet and U.S. 59, but he refused, according to Metro Video. The man then led authorities on a five-minute chase for about 2 miles, said Sgt. Patrick Morrissey with the Houston Police Department. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: As Houston police scandal widens, the stakes couldn't be higher [Editorial] Police say the suspect lost control around West Bellfort, where he tried to turn when going too fast, and crashed in to a metal shopping center sign. He then left the car and ran. Citizens tried to help authorities get the man, who had run across the street and then jumped into a bayou. He soon surrendered after authorities surrounded him. He was then arrested. He is expected to face evasion charges. While police were working that incident, a man who police said they believe was driving drunk struck two unoccupied police cars that were blocking the feeder road near the crash site. Earlier this month, another suspected drunken driver crashed into an unoccupied Houston Police Department vehicle that was also blocking a roadway during a crash investigation. NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message | Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here. Google Maps A man whose body was found in a retention pond in the Willowbrook area last month had been shot several times, authorities said. The man has been identified as 21-year-old Trey Abrian Winn. A Bexar County fire captain had a church friend set fire to his vehicle so he could get out of monthly payments that were preventing him from moving out of his parents' home, according to court records. Michael Salinas, 34, faces charges of arson and retaliation. He was booked into the Bexar County Jail Saturday on a $50,000 bail. He has since posted bond and is awaiting release, according to jail officials. FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox According to his arrest affidavit, Salinas was paying about $400 to $500 a month for a 2017 Ford Focus and couldn't afford to move out of his parents' home. Rather than sell the vehicle, authorities allege Salinas had a friend he knew from church take the car in the middle of the night and set fire to it. When fire investigators responded to the blaze at about 4:30 a.m. on June 3, 2018, at a home in the 4200 block of Noyes Road, they found a trail of gasoline leading to and from the vehicle, police said. A few months later, on September 17, a tipster told fire investigators that Salinas had confessed to having his friend take his car and burn it. The friend, the tipster said, has apparently "set several vehicles on fire in the past and has not been caught," according to the affidavit. The informant also told investigators that Salinas' parents were suspicious because the night before his car was destroyed they saw him remove all of his belongings, including his daughter's car seat, from the vehicle, the affidavit says. RELATED: SAPD: Driver fatally struck woman, dragged her for 2 blocks before fleeing Investigators later recorded a phone conversation between Salinas and the tipster. During the call, Salinas was "pleading" with the tipster to stall investigators. He also expressed his regret about confessing to the tipster, police wrote in the affidavit. "I wish you could forget," he said, according to his arrest affidavit. On Feb. 16, Salinas threatened to have the friend who committed arson go after the tipster and their family, police said. The threat put the tipster in fear for their life, as Salinas had on multiple occasions expressed his own fear that his friend would come after himself and his own family, officials said. Authorities in March secured a warrant for Salinas' arrest on the two charges. Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com Caleb Downs covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County. Read him on our breaking news site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | cdowns@mysa.com | @calebjdowns Police are searching for a driver who a witness said fatally ran over a woman on the West Side early Monday after an argument. San Antonio police officers responded to Culebra Road and Memorial Street around 1 a.m. after receiving reports of a reckless driver in a black SUV who hit a pole, according to a police report. A San Antonio police officer was fired for hitting a handcuffed suspect multiple times and having the woman sit on the ground in the rain, according to disciplinary documents. Officer Elizabeth Montoya received her indefinite suspension notice for inhumane treatment of a suspect on Jan. 17 in connection to an arrest she made on July 5, 2018. On that day, Montoya was dispatched to the 1200 block of San Luis Street for a disturbance, the documents showed. FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox A female suspect who was placed in handcuffs kicked Montoya with her bare foot while the officer was conducting a search, officials said. The suspect was "placed on the ground" while Montoya completed the search but later kicked Montoya again while being taken to a police car, according to the document. Montoya retaliated by striking the woman once on her right breast and seven times on her head, the records showed. The officer also pulled the suspect's hair as she put her into the patrol car, according to police officials. Later, Montoya forced the suspect out of the vehicle and placed her on the ground for 26 minutes in the rain, the suspension documents say. "The Administration alleges that Officer Montoya ... did not give (the suspect) humane treatment when she left her on the ground in the rain," administrators wrote in the suspension document. RELATED: Twice-fired SAPD detective cited again for writing tickets for violations he didn't witness Montoya was also cited for muting her body worn camera when she should not have. Administrators also disciplined Montoya for an unrelated call she handled at a convenience store in the 300 block of North Zarzamora Street on Aug. 20. Montoya was recorded on body worn camera threatening a vagrant who was sleeping in the parking lot, according to documents. She allegedly told the vagrant "pick up all your f***ing trash ... I don't want to f***ing hear it ... I'll f***ing taze you." Montoya's actions in that arrest "brought reproach and/or discredit on herself and the department" by using profane language, according to the document. In that incident, Montoya was given a 10-day suspension. Montoya is appealing the rulings, according to the documents. A Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas attorney representing her requested arbitration. She denies all the allegations against her, according to the appeal notice. Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County. Read him on our breaking news site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | fsabawi@mysa.com|@FaresInSA Here we go again with the stupid time change. The sun was coming up at 6:45 a.m., and it was a beautiful morning. Now, we go back to darkness at that hour. Schoolchildren have to wait for buses in the dark. People going to work are back to driving in the dark. Im a morning person, and I resent losing an hour in the morning. Texas Rep. Lyle Larson wrote an excellent op-ed last fall (Clock has run out on senseless daylight saving time, Another View, Nov. 5). I wish I had saved it. He made some very good points. The people of Arizona were smart enough to opt out. I wish Texas would do the same! Congress should repeal this law and get back to dealing with really important issues. Dont try to manage our lives! Phyllis Soret Why the big peach? What is the big deal to impeach President Donald Trump? If he had affairs, it was before he became president. Look at Bill Clinton. He had an affair with Monica Lewinski and he was the president. And in the White House. He was impeached but acquitted in the Senate. And Barack Obama traded three dangerous terrorists for one deserter. Why was he not impeached? Trump is trying to protect this country from cartels, drug smugglers, murderers and caravans. I know that Trump has not been the ideal president, but it could be worse. If Hillary Clinton had been elected, she would have let the Central American caravans into the U.S. easily. Then we would have homeless people tenfold. No, people, Democrats are bad for the nation. Think before you vote. Rick Martinez History will judge Michael Cohen has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and is preparing to go to jail, in part, for lying. At last count, another individual made, in 588 days, about 4,229 false statements, claims and/or other untruths to the American people in one form or venue that could jeopardize the whole lot of us not just here, but worldwide. If you had to judge the greater offense based on facts, not emotion or loyalties, how would you? No matter what, there is what history will eventually determine and a greater judge will adjudicate. James L. Larabee Its (almost) time to put away the ice scrapers and banish that bulky, battered winter coat to the rear of your closet. Spring is hereand its not just the mercury thats heating up. This is the unofficial kickoff to the home-buying season, when buyers come out of hibernation and start hitting the open houses in earnest. And this years spring market is extra significant, since it will tell us whether the recent slowdown in home sales and price appreciation is just a flukeor the new normal. But while everyone is obsessing over prices, prices, prices, we're taking a deep dive this week into lesser-known waters, a (data) stream that can help bring the big picture into focus, warts and all: how long it takes homes to sell. After all, when there's way more demand (eager buyers!) than supply (homes for sale!), it means places fly off the market in mere daysterrific for sellers, not so much for buyers. A more leisurely paced market indicates a slowdown, and that translates into opportunities for price-conscious buyers to window-shop and negotiate while sellers cool their heels, and get a wee bit nervous. So where are homes selling the fastestand the slowest? To find out, our data team looked at how long it took homes to sell in the 250 largest metropolitan areas* on realtor.com from March 2018 through February 2019. Here's what we learned: Nationally, we do indeed seem to be moving closer to a true buyer's market. For four consecutive years through 2018, the length of time it took to sell a home fell. But this February the typical home sat on the market 83 days, unchanged from last year. It's a telltale sign of a market that's pumping the brakes, if not yet slamming into reverse. But we continue to be a nation of housing haves and have-nots. While homes are disappearing off the market in around 30 days in the fastest-moving market, they are taking a positively pokey 131 days to sell in the slowest. Still, the gap is closing! Many of the places where homes are selling the fastest are the nations most expensive coastal marketsthe very places becoming overheated, where days on market are inching up. Meanwhile many of the places where homes sit on the market the longest are smaller Midwestern and Southern markets where home prices have long lagged, but are now starting to see such much needed improvement and homes sell a tad faster. The churn is leading to opportunitiesand challengesfor eager home buyers, says Chief Economist Danielle Hale of realtor.com. "In a lot of these markets you can probably negotiate on price more than you could a year ago," she says. But it cuts both ways: "In a fast-moving market, you need to move quickly. A home you saw one week might be gone the next." So, first, where do buyers need to be ready to pounce? Markets where homes sell fastest Tony Frenzel Median list price: $1.1 million Median days on market: 30.1 Change in days** on market: +8 days San Jose, CA SpVVK/iStock Yes, the epicenter of America's booming tech biz remains the most competitive market for real estate. But paradoxically enough, it's also nucleus of the nation's real estate slowdown. Still following us? Santa Clara County [home to San Jose] was probably the hottest, most competitive market in the country. However, since midsummer 2018 it became the market in the [San Francisco] Bay Area that cooled off the most, says Patrick Carlisle, Bay Area chief marketing analyst at the real estate firm Compass. Median home prices in the metro fell 10% in February year over yearor more than $100,000. In the meantime, the number of homes for sale on the market has climbed 124%. But let's get real: The pace of San Jose's market is less frantic than it was a year ago, but buyers still better be ready to act fast. Most homes that go up for sale have a new name on the deed within a month. And sellers in this market, especially those in Palo Alto and Mountain View, where Google is based, still hold all the power. Buyers in the Bay Area have been trained to act quickly," Carlisle says. Median list price: $397,000 Median days on market: 37 Change in days on market: +8 days Salt Lake City AndreyKrav/iStock While both urban and suburban homes are still selling fast in this outdoor lover's paradise, they spend a bit more time on the market than they did at the same time last yeareight more days, to be precise. Still, there's no shortage of buyers hungry to get into the market here, and they have plenty of attractive options. Unlike many Western cities, Salt Lake City has many new homes going up. In fact, about 1 in 3 homes on realtor.com in that market is new construction. At a median price of $389,000, these new homes actually cost less than existing homes in the market, despite typically having an extra 400 square feet. Median list price: $592,000 Median days on market: 37.8 Change in days on market: +19 days Pike Place Market in Seattle Sean Pavone/iStock Long the poster child for rapidly rising home prices, high-flying Seattle finally hit the power lines late last year. Would-be buyers were priced out at the same time that sellers and investors, sensing the metro had peaked, began listing more properties. That resulted in homes staying on the market for 19 days longer in February compared with a year ago. And that big drop still wasn't enough to get Seattle knocked off our ranking. Far from it, in fact. Its still a tight market, but it is not as tight as weve seen over the last couple of years," says Matthew Gardner, chief economist at Windermere Real Estate, a Seattle-based brokerage. "Well-positioned, well-priced homes are still selling very quickly. There are fewer bidding wars, Gardner says. But buyers who think that means they don't have to act fast will lose out. "We are still a sellers market, but its just a little less frantic, he says. Median list price: $462,000 Median days on market: 40.2 Change in days on market: +4 days Denver Stefan Tomic/iStock The Mile High City is in the midst of a record housing shortage that gives buyers hoursnot daysto submit their offers. "I see bidding wars every day. Itll go back and forth between buyers trying to offer the highest and try to best each other. And half those offers are in cash," says Ryan Penn, associate broker at 360dwellings Real Estate, in Denver. "Ive had clients list their house on a Monday and have 10 to 15 offers by Tuesday night." The Denver market is driven by well-off, first-time home buyers looking for something between $300,000 to $500,000. There's precious little below that range anymore, Penn says. Median list price: $340,000 Median days on market: 40.9 Change in days on market: -1 day Boise peeterv/iStock San Francisco's loss may be Boise City's gain. Folks from higher-cost Western cities continue to flock to the Idaho mountain town, driven by good prices, natural beauty, and its own burgeoning tech scene. "Its not uncommon for a home priced under $250,000 to get eight, nine offers," says Robert Inman, director of operations for Boises Best Real Estate Team, a Keller Williams affiliate. "The prices have just gone up, up, up. " Home prices are up 8.8% here year over year as the population has increased 9.3% from 2013 to 2017. Popular neighborhoods include Boise's North End, where many of the three-bed, one-bath, wooden abodes were built in the early 1900s. Homes there are going for around $400,000, but can be worth more than $1 million once they're fixed up. The rest of the top 10 metros with the fewest days on market are Omaha, NE; Nashville, TN; Las Vegas; Columbus, OH; and Minneapolis. OK, now let's take a tour of the cities where you have plenty of time to shop around for a homeand maybe even negotiate down prices. Markets where homes take longest to sell Tony Frenzel Median list price: $200,000 Median days on market: 130.9 Change in days on market: -11 days Brownsville, TX DenisTangneyJr/iStock This U.S.-Mexico border town enjoys its high-energy celebrations, from the annual Latin Jazz Festival to the Sombrero Fest. But when it comes to housing, things amble along at a relaxed pace. The reason? Paychecks tend to be smaller in Brownsville, and folks don't part with their money easily. In this market, sellers often have to make sacrifices in order to sell their homes faster. "A lot of these folks dont have the down payments," says Bruno Zavaleta, a broker at Zavaleta Realty, in Brownsville. "So theyre asking for seller concessions to help with closing costs." But that doesn't mean first-time buyers can be too relaxed. Homes priced from $80,000 to $130,000 sell considerably faster. Earlier this year, Zavaleta listed a three-bed, two-bath home with a pool for $129,000, and within a week he had three offers on it. The opposite is true for expensive homes. "Half-a-million-dollar homes will sit there for months, if not years, before they sell," Zavaleta says. Median list price: $259,700 Median days on market: 119.0 Change in days on market: -18 days Downtown Claremont Visions of America/UIG via Getty Images The city of Claremont has poured millions into revitalizing sections of its downtown. That helped improve the housing market here, but not quite enough: Claremont has long lagged behind the rest of the state, and still has a lot of catching up to do. A big reason is that folks just don't have the income to afford the high cost of New England living. The median household in New Hampshire brings in $71,305 per year, compared with just $58,777 in Claremont. But there are deals to be had. There are a number of homes under $140,000 in this market, although they tend to sell at a faster rate as first-time buyers try to get into the market. Median list price: $187,500 Median days on market: 112.8 Change in days on market: +2 days Four-bedroom home in Houma realtor.com Just an hour from New Orleans, Houma lies in the heart of Cajun country. Houma's downtown district is on the National Register of Historic Places. But while many in this Gulf community still work gathering shrimp or shucking oysters, these days the oil industry dominates the job market. Local offshore drilling took a hit in 2015, when the price of oil dropped, and it hasn't fully reboundedweakening the economy and pulling the steam out of its housing market since fewer people are looking to buy. "When oil prices went down, more houses went on the market and they took much longer to sell," says Michelle Parsons, an associate broker at Town and Country Real Estate, in Houma. But buyers still need to move quickly in areas with good schools, like Mulberry School District. Brick one-story homes priced under $250,000 near this school go faster than most. Median list price: $317,000 Median days on market: 111.8 Change in days on market: No change Home in Salisbury realtor.com Located east of the Chesapeake Bay, Salisbury is a quaint, coastal community known for its great seafood (try the Maryland blue crab!). But when it comes to reeling in a home, buyers can let that line sit out for a while. This market doesn't have a huge number of the first-time buyers who usually keep a market churning at a steady rate. Four in 10 home buyers here are over 60, and they tend to take their time. But these older buyers have plenty of choices. In fact, realtor.com recently named Salisbury one of the top markets in the country to buy a "forever home." The many one-level rambler-style homes are local favorites, and one can be grabbed for under $200,000. Median list price: $140,000 Median days on market: 110.5 Change in days on market: 40 days Lynchburg, Virginia SeanPavonePhoto/iStock Home buyers in Lynchburg almost have too many choices after the number of homes on the market jumped 53% over the previous year. And the length of time it takes to sell a home has skyrocketed, too. But not every neighborhood is buyer-friendly. Those looking to move up into old-money neighborhoods like Boonsboro, a very desirable suburb, had better be ready to put down a bid fast, says Scott Fogleman, associate broker at Keller Williams Lynchburg. Competition is fierce on properties like this two-story brick home with four fireplaces, priced at $360,000. The rest of the top 10 metros with the most days on market are Torrington, CT; Hilo, HI; Naples, FL; Hilton Head Island, SC; and Huntington, WV. * A metropolitan statistical area is a designation that includes the urban core of a city and surrounding smaller towns and cities. ** Change in median days on market between February 2018 and February 2019. Allison Underhill and Clare Trapasso contributed to this report. The post Spring Housing Slowdown? No Way! Here's Where Homes Are Flying Off the Market appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. A growing movement of Generation Z activists those born in the mid-1990s and early 2000s argue that its finally time for us to talk about periods. Openly. Members of the menstrual equity movement, as theyre calling it, are working to make hygiene products accessible and affordable to all who need them, from school campuses to homeless shelters. In reducing the stigma and inconvenience surrounding a biological function that half of all humans experience, they hope to erase stubborn barriers to gender equality. Period care often gets ignored because half the population doesnt have direct experience of it, says Annie Wang, 20, a member of the UC Davis chapter of Period, an organization founded by Nadya Okamoto, Harvard undergraduate and author of the 2018 book Period Power: A Manifesto for the Menstrual Movement. Its such a basic hygiene need that would be easily addressed if we put the right products in public places, Wang continues. She and fellow students are working with UC Davis to make sure each building on campus has at least one bathroom stocked with pads and tampons; currently only two buildings do. This new openness to discussing periods isnt limited to activists. A full-on cultural shift is in progress: Rayka Zehtabchis Period. End of Sentence, a film about impoverished women in India who make low-cost sanitary pads for their community, just won the Oscar for best short documentary. Snart phone keyboards are about to gain a period emoji. Sarahbeth Maney / Special to The Chronicle The shift may have started in 2015, when poet Rupi Kaur posted a photo of herself on Instagram wearing sweatpants with a period blood stain, an image the social media company famously took down twice for breaking community guidelines. Later that year, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump said that Fox News host Megyn Kelly had blood coming out of her wherever after she hosted during a Republican debate, raising awareness about how often period insults are used to sideline women. This association that one, its gross, and two, that its something that can be used in a joking matter Oh, are you on your period? hides a certain degree of misogyny that we need to unpack, says Malika Dia, 19, a sophomore at Johns Hopkins University and youth ambassador at Plan International USA, the global organization for childrens rights and girls equality. This year, the group successfully lobbied the Unicode Consortium to add the image of a single drop of blood to the standard emoji set. (The consortium didnt approve the groups original proposed image of a pair of underpants with a few dainty blood drops on the front, according to Plan International.) The goal of the emoji was partly to demystify periods, says Dia, who recently learned that a friends teenage brother thought they came only once a year, rather than once a month. Emojis are all about being seen in the world and being able to represent what youre going through and your mood, says Dia. Its a great way, just casually in conversations, to normalize it. Sarahbeth Maney / Special to the Chronicle Taboos dont disappear overnight, however, and activists say there are still other crucial issues to address, especially period poverty, or the inability to afford feminine hygiene products. Its a concept better known in the United Kingdom, where a 2017 survey conducted by Plan International found 1 in 10 women and girls between the ages of 14 and 21 cant afford to buy pads or tampons. In the United States, a survey conducted last year by the pad manufacturer Always found that 1 in 5 girls has missed school or left school early because they didnt have access to period products. Wang, the UC Davis student, can speak from personal experience. As a freshman, she was seated toward the front of a 500-seat chemistry lecture hall when her period started. She didnt want to interrupt the middle of the lecture, and she knew there werent products in the bathroom anyway. By the end of class, she realized, I left my mark on UC Davis in a way I didnt want to. When she talked with fellow students about what had happened, she learned that many had had similar experiences. After founding their chapter of Period, the group conducted a survey that found 50 percent of UC Davis undergraduate and graduate students had missed some kind of academic or professional development because of their periods. Having a period shouldnt be something that prevents you from having equal opportunity, or prevent you from feeling clean and healthy, or from working hard, Wang says. Sarahbeth Maney / Special to the Chronicle Sarahbeth Maney / Special to The Chronicle In California public schools, the situation is improving somewhat after AB10 went into effect last year. The new law requires middle and high schools with at least a 40 percent low-income population to stock free feminine hygiene products in restrooms. More Information Period. The Menstrual Movement. Founded by then high schoolers Nadya Okamoto and Vincent Forand in 2014, this organization's mission is to "celebrate periods and provide products to those in need." https://www.period.org. Plan International USA works toward advancing children's rights and equality for girls, with projects in 50 countries. https://www.planusa.org. Simply the Basics. This San Francisco nonprofit provides hygiene products to schools, homeless shelters and individuals. http://www.simplythebasics.org. -Tara Duggan See More Collapse In San Francisco, Simply the Basics, a 3-year-old nonprofit organization and self-proclaimed hygiene bank, delivers products to schools once a semester to augment what they already have, and recommends each school put pads and tampons in the library as well as in restrooms and locker rooms for all genders. Thats partly to serve transgender and nonbinary students who menstruate, and also to make the issue more open to both boys and girls. Ying Wu, 18, started the Care Club, a group at Lowell High School in San Francisco, in the fall with 10 other girls after stumbling across a video on YouTube about homeless women needing access to pads and tampons. The video showed how women struggle on the streets getting products and how they have to stretch those products out, she says. It really resonated with me. During their first after-school hygiene drive, students dropped off 240 individually wrapped pads and tampons. Club members placed two-month supplies in paper bags and donated them to the Mission Neighborhood Resource Center, which provides services to the homeless. The Care Club advertises its fundraisers with a poster that raises awareness in itself. An unwrapped pad and tampon are taped to the front. When people notice, Ying says, sometimes their eyes shift and they walk away especially the adults. Other times theyre curious and want to know more. We want it to just be as visible as a box of Kleenex, says Simply the Basics founder Meghan Freebeck. If its something you see more often, youll understand its a human issue even if you dont use it. Tara Duggan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tduggan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @taraduggan Ortiz: Residents want to know if Elgin will try passing a sugar tax, like Cook County did. He said he would be opposed to that and would advocate for the formation of a new commission to explore ways to produce more city revenue without raising taxes. MDC Secretary General Douglas Mwonzora was last week slapped with a warrant of arrest after he failed to appear before the Harare Magistrates court for trial on charges of negligent driving. Isheanesu Mhiti appearing for the state pleaded with the court that Mwonzora be on a warrant of arrest since he staged a no show on the trial date (Thursday 7 March). Mwonzora is facing charges of negligent driving, failure to insure a motor vehicle and to licence a motor vehicle after he was involved in an accident in May last year. Mwonzora initially appeared before Magistrate Richard Ramaboa, who released him on free bail. The MDC supremo who is reportedly challenging party leader Nelson Chamisa at the elective congress penciled for May 24 to 26 2019 was however seen at the Mutare rally over the weekend. It is the states case that on 27 May last year, Mwonzora was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser along Tynwald Road in Harare. It is alleged the vehicle was neither insured nor licensed, contrary to the provisions of the Road Traffic Act. The State alleges that when Mwonzora approached the intersection of Kirkman Drive and Tynwald Road, he reversed and bumped into another Toyota Land Cruiser which was being driven by Onismo Muzhingi. The State alleges that Mwonzora was negligent after he failed to keep his vehicle under proper control. 263Chat Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News Former Mashonaland West Minister for Provincial Affairs Webster Shamu has turned Harare into a typical Sodom and Gomorrah by running a strip club, Jealousy Mawarire the Spokesperson of National Patriotic Front has alleged. Mawarire exposed Shamu while responding to a Youth Advocacy For Reform Democracy (YARD) member who accused Pastors of destroying family institutions through prophecy. I hope you are not turning a blind eye to the Sodom and Gomorrah Cde Webster Shamu has created in downtown Harare. I havent heard any Zimbabwean talking about it, it is foreigners who are shocked by the moral decadence being promoted there. Leave churches alone. https://twitter.com/mawarirej/status/1104836008405856256 Mawarire further ridiculed the debauchery taking centre stage at Shamus club, noting that the strip club would have been long shutdown if it was in another country. He (Shamu) is running a striptease joint that has turned Harare into a Sodom and Gomorrah. All kinds of vice take place in the bar. My Zambian friend who alerted me to the rotten place vowed that such a bar wont operate even for 30 minutes in Lusaka before officials close it down. https://twitter.com/mawarirej/status/1104844392312045568 -ZwNews Breaking News via Email Loading... Related Zimbabwe Latest News Yves here. Michael Olenick is correct to point out how one of the many bad features of US exceptionalism is that we refuse to learn from the experience of other countries, particularly with health care. And thats before you get to the fact that big swathes of the public have been propagandized to view foreign socialized medicine programs as failures and thus regard like Medicare for All and other single-payer initiatives with suspicion. Having said that, there would be transition issues with the adoption of any Medicare for All type program in the US. However, what isnt sufficiently well recognized is that US doctors are already being transitioned to corporatized medicine, where they are employees of large health care organizations and have little autonomy. By Michael Olenick, a research fellow at INSEAD who writes regularly at Olen on Economics Sitting here in France and watching the Medicare for All debate. Good idea? Bad idea? How would it work? How would costs be controlled? I think everybody, for and against and in the middle, miss an enormous point: there are lots and lots of national healthcare systems to copy. Theres no need for the US to create a new one from scratch. Nothing happens in the US besides the current cesspool called healthcare thats any different than the UK, France, Spain, Germany, or countless other developed countries that have healthcare systems. My wife was just saying this morning I should probably see the doctor but dont want to waste the 35. All but 1.50 is put back into our account within a few days, I answered. Shes used to the US system. Even the idea that seeing the doctor is a waste is foreign here; people are encouraged to go for the most minor things, which can turn out to be nothing, because they can also turn out to be something thats much easier to treat earlier than later. Even chronic hypochondriacs have something wrong with them a mental issue that needs to be treated. The French run off to the doctor for virtually anything, and thats the way the system is supposed to work, and it costs much, much less. As for the socialized thing thats not even true. Like everybody else here legally for more than three months were enrolled in the government system. That pays 2/3rds of less serious things, an amount that increases with seriousness. Regular doctor visits are reimbursed 2/3rds of the government rate of 25. Our mutuelle, private supplemental insurance provided by employers or that the self-employed buy at a reasonable price (or thats free for poor people) pays most of the rest. But, you might have noted, you said your doctor charges 35 is that a typo? No, it isnt. Our doctor speaks fluent English and is close-by. Like all doctors, he sets his own rate schedule; he doesnt have to charge the government price. In our case, our supplemental insurance pays all but 1.50 of the difference. If we had a doctor that charged 25 and there are many, many that do (and most speak English we just like ours) itd be reimbursed at 100%. So there is still a private system, doctors in private practices which most doctors are set their own rates. And the public/private insurance companies reimburse at those rates. Pharmacies outside hospitals are all privately run and seem to have lots of customers but the prescriptions are paid for by insurance; the ones weve had are reimbursed at 100%. Hospitals are typically run by the government (Ive been told all are, but the American Hospital in Paris is private, so that cant be accurate). Clinics, that often look a lot like hospitals, are all private. In any event, theyre all affordable. This public/private combination is common. Government healthcare systems do not eliminate the private market. In many ways, the system here has more elements of a genuine marketplace than the US, where insurance companies often dictate more terms than governments do. I cant think of any US insurers that allow people to choose more expensive than baseline doctors then cover the vast majority of the cost. Usually, they pay a set fee and if people want something above it the patient pays the difference. There is no gaming prescriptions like we see in the US; pharmacies fill what a doctor prescribes and insurance (the public/private combination) pays. I dont know the numbers but overhead has to be much, much less than in the US. Americans tend to be creative, which is usually a fine attribute, but not in this case. Stop overthinking take a system and copy it. And maybe come to the realization the complexity is not in the implementation, its in the political will to stop bickering and break away from a broken system that literally kills people for profit. * * * As Lambert added: By Kendra Chamberlain, a freelance journalist overing renewable energy technology and smart infrastructure. Originally published at DeSmog Blog Follow her on twitter @KendraRC976 Support for the ambitious Green New Deal proposal has uncovered widening rifts within the Democratic Party as presidential candidates begin fleshing out their 2020 platforms. To date, the Green New Deal resolution introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) has attracted 68 co-sponsors from Democratic congressmembers. However, according to a recent report from Public Accountability Initiative (PAI), centrist Democrats and party leadership are part of what it calls an anti-Green New Deal coalition that could seriously impede the GNDs goal to transition the country to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Heres the breakdown of how the 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls fall in their less-than-full-throated support for the GND. To clarify, this so-called anti-Green New Deal coalition is not homogenous or coordinated. As report co-author Derek Seidman told The Intercept: You have on the one end, a very powerful part of this coalition that wants to completely crush the Green New Deal, and thats the fossil fuel industry and the Republican Party. And then you have whats going on among Democrats. The Democratic Field for 2020: Spinning Away Support for GND The GNDs early popularity among voters, along with increasing public awareness around climate change, has made the climate issue an essential facet of any Democratic presidential platform in 2020, more so than any other election to date. This has been huge, said Corina McKendry, an associate professor of political science at Colorado College. Weve seen more Democratic candidates come out with strong climate commitments than we ever have before. Many Democratic candidates have voiced support for the GND. But there are still plenty who PAI says instead have joined the chorus of the anti-Green New Deal coalition, shaping their climate positions to appease its critics. The Hedging Their Bets Democrats Senator Amy Klobuchar made her announcement to run for president in 2020 on a snowy Sunday in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Credit: Lorie Shaull, CC BY-SA 2.0 Some candidates have leveraged the vagueness of the GND as a way to support the popular policy idea without committing to anything. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), a co-sponsor of the non-binding resolution, hedged her support in an interview with Fox News. I see it as aspirational. I see it as a jump-start, she said. So I would vote yes, but I would also if it got down to the nitty-gritty of an actual legislation as opposed to, oh, here are some goals we have, that would be different for me. When pressed if she would support specific policies, such as drastically reducing air travel, she replied, I am for a jumpstart of the discussion, or framework I am not for reducing air travel. She made similar comments about net-zero emissions. I dont think that is going to happen in the next few years, she said. A request for clarification on which GNDframework policies she supports went unanswered. Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, another Democratic candidate in the crowded field, has taken the opposite approach. In an interview with ABCs The View, Gabbard said she has a strong track record as an environmentalist but doesnt support the GND. I think we need to take serious action to address climate change, she said. I have some concerns with the Green New Deal, and about some of the vagueness of the language in there, so I have not co-sponsored that resolution. Gabbards campaign website lists her accomplishments as an environmentalist but doesnt outline how Gabbard plans to address climate change in her presidential platform. Requests to the campaign for comment were not returned. The Im Still a Democrat Crowd Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper speaks at the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2017 opening ceremony. Credit: Jack Dempsey/ U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathalon, public domain Still others have voiced outright contempt for the GND and its effect on the Democratic Party. John Hickenlooper, former governor of Colorado, a major U.S. oil and gas producer, last month said the GND shouldnt become a litmus test of what it takes to be a good Democrat. He later admitted he hadnt yet read the GND resolution, but said, Im going to guess that 99 percent of whats in the Green New Deal I will be happy to embrace. His bare-bones campaign website lists no plan or platform to address climate change. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who recently dropped out of the race, made a similar argument. I dont need to co-sponsor every bill that others think they need to co-sponsor to show my progressive politics, he said. The My Plan Is Better Democrats Former congressman and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful John Delaney. Credit: Marc Nozell, CC-BY 2.0 A handful of Democrats have deemed the proposal too unrealistic to support despite the shrinking window for avoiding catastrophic climate change. Mike Bloomberg, former New York City Mayor, criticized the GND in a statement announcing he would not run for president. The idea of a Green New Deal first suggested by the columnist Tom Friedman more than a decade ago stands no chance of passage in the Senate over the next two years. But Mother Nature does not wait on our political calendar, and neither can we, he wrote. Former congressman John Delaney (D-MD), meanwhile, has been vocally critical of the GND. In a pair of tweets from February 14, Delaney called the GND a step backwards in fighting climate change because its unrealistic goals and linkage to other unrelated policies will make it harder to do anything. The GND is a step backwards in fighting climate change because its unrealistic goals and linkage to other unrelated policies will make it harder to do anything & WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME. A carbon tax can get done now & should be the focus + 5x increase in DOE energy research. John Delaney (@JohnDelaney) 14 February 2019 The Green New Deal as it has been proposed is about as realistic as Trump saying that Mexico is going to pay for the wall, he tweeted. The Green New Deal as it has been proposed is about as realistic as Trump saying that Mexico is going to pay for the wall. Lets focus on whats possible, not whats impossible. #GND #GreenNewDeal John Delaney (@JohnDelaney) 14 February 2019 Delaney argued that his opposition to the GND revolves around the sweeping scope with which the resolution ties climate change policy to other big reforms. I actually dont think the Green New Deal is the way to go, he said in an interview with The Hill. The reason is that I want to do something about fixing climate change tomorrow. I dont want to tie it to fixing health care. Delaney who famously announced his bid for the presidency back in 2017 stands out among Democratic candidates for already having a fully formed platform for addressing climate change, which would rely heavily on a carbon tax. Ultimately, overcoming opposition to the GND, the PAI report says, will require strategies such as finding ways to divide the coalitions different parts and push some of its members, who are not all equal in their opposition, or who have bases that are more supportive, closer to the Green New Deal camp. By Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She is currently writing a book about textile artisans. Yesterday, an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 passengers on board. The crash occurred less than five months after a Lion Air jet crashed near Jakarta, Indonesia, also shortly after takeoff, and killed all 189 passengers. Both jets were Boeings latest 737 Max 8 model. The Wall Street Journal reports in Ethiopian Crash Carries High Stakes for Boeing, Growing African Airline: The state-owned airline is among the early operators of Boeings new 737 MAX single-aisle workhorse aircraft, which has been delivered to carriers around the world since 2017. The 737 MAX represents about two-thirds of Boeings future deliveries and an estimated 40% of its profits, according to analysts. Having delivered 350 of the 737 MAX planes as of January, Boeing has booked orders for about 5,000 more, many to airlines in fast-growing emerging markets around the world. The voice and data recorders for the doomed flight have already been recovered, the New York Times reported in Ethiopian Airline Crash Updates: Data and Voice Recorders Recovered. Investigators will soon be able to determine whether the same factors that caused the Lion Air crash also caused the latest Ethiopian Airlines tragedy. Boeing, Crapification, Two 737 Max Crashes Within Five Months Yves wrote a post in November, Boeing, Crapification, and the Lion Air Crash, analyzing a devastating Wall Street Journal report on that earlier crash. I will not repeat the details of her post here, but instead encourage interested readers to read it iin full. The key point I want to pick up on from that earlier post is this: the Boeing 737 Max includes a new safety feature about which the company failed to inform the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). As Yves wrote: The short version of the story is that Boeing had implemented a new safety feature that operated even when its plane was being flown manually, that if it went into a stall, it would lower the nose suddenly to pick airspeed and fly normally again. However, Boeing didnt tell its buyers or even the FAA about this new goodie. It wasnt in pilot training or even the manuals. But even worse, this new control could force the nose down so far that it would be impossible not to crash the plane. And no, I am not making this up. From the Wall Street Journal: Boeing Co. withheld information about potential hazards associated with a new flight-control feature suspected of playing a role in last months fatal Lion Air jet crash, according to safety experts involved in the investigation, as well as midlevel FAA officials and airline pilots. The automated stall-prevention system on Boeing 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 modelsintended to help cockpit crews avoid mistakenly raising a planes nose dangerously highunder unusual conditions can push it down unexpectedly and so strongly that flight crews cant pull it back up. Such a scenario, Boeing told airlines in a world-wide safety bulletin roughly a week after the accident, can result in a steep dive or crasheven if pilots are manually flying the jetliner and dont expect flight-control computers to kick in. Notice that phrase: under unusual conditions. Seems now that the pilots of two of these jets may have encountered such unusual conditions since October. Why did Boeing neglect to tell the FAA or, for that matter, other airlines or regulatory authorities about the changes to the 737 Max? Well, the airline marketed the new jet as not needing pilots to undergo any additional training in order to fly it. I see. Why Were 737 Max Jets Still in Service? Today, Boeing executives no doubt rue not pulling all 737 Max 8 jets out of service after the October Lion Air crash, to allow their engineers and engineering safety regulators to make necessary changes in the planes design or to develop new training protocols. In addition to considerable potential huge legal liability, from both the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes, Boeing also faces the commercial consequences of grounding some if not all 737 Max 8 planes currently in service temporarily? indefinitely? -and loss or at minimum delay of all future sales of this aircraft model. Over to Yves again, who in her November post cut to the crux: And why havent the planes been taken out of service? As one Wall Street Journal reader put it: If this tragedy had happened on an aircraft of another manufacturer other than big Boeing, the fleet would already have been grounded by the FAA. The arrogance of engineers both at Airbus and Boeing, who refuse to give the pilots easy means to regain immediate and full authority over the plane (pitch and power) is just appalling. Accident and incident records abound where the automation has been a major contributing factor or precursor. Knowing our friends at Boeing, it is highly probable that they will steer the investigation towards maintenance deficiencies as primary cause of the accident In the wake of the Ethiopian Airlines crash, other countries have not waited for the FAA to act. China and Indonesia, as well as Ethiopian Airlines and Cayman Airways, have grounded flights of all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, the Guardian reported in Ethiopian Airlines crash: Boeing faces safety questions over 737 Max 8 jets. The FT has called the Chinese and Indonesian actions an unparalleled flight ban (see China and Indonesia ground Boeing 737 Max 8 jets after latest crash). Indias air regulator has also issued new rules covering flights of the 737 Max aircraft, requiring pilots to have a minimum of 1,000 hours experience to fly these planes, according to a report in the Economic Times, DGCA issues additional safety instructions for flying B737 MAX planes. Future of Boeing? The commercial consequences of grounding the 737 Max in China alone are significant, according to this CNN account, Why grounding 737 MAX jets is a big deal for Boeing. The 737 Max is Boeings most important plane; China is also the companys major market: A suspension in China is very significant, as this is a major market for Boeing, said Greg Waldron, Asia managing editor at aviation research firm FlightGlobal. Boeing has predicted that China will soon become the worlds first trillion-dollar market for jets. By 2037, Boeing estimates China will need 7,690 commercial jets to meet its travel demands. Airbus (EADSF) and Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, or Comac, are vying with Boeing for the vast and rapidly growing Chinese market. Comacs first plane, designed to compete with the single-aisle Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A320, made its first test flight in 2017. It is not yet ready for commercial service, but Boeing cant afford any missteps. Boeing has made significant inroads in China with its 737 MAX family. A dozen Chinese airlines have ordered 180 of the planes, and 76 of them have been delivered, according Boeing. About 85% of Boeings unfilled Chinese airline orders are for 737 MAX planes. The 737 has been Boeings bestselling product for decades. The companys future depends on the success the 737 MAX, the newest version of the jet. Boeing has 4,700 unfilled orders for 737s, representing 80% of Boeings orders backlog. Virtually all 737 orders are for MAX versions. As of the time of posting, US airlines have yet to ground their 737 Max 8 fleets. American Airlines, Alaska Air, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines have ordered a combined 548 of the new 737 jets, of which 65 have been delivered, according to CNN. Legal Liability? Prior to Sundays Ethiopian Airlines crash, Boeing already faced considerable potential legal liability for the October Lion Air crash. Just last Thursday, the Hermann Law Group of personal injury lawyers filed suit against Boeing on behalf of the families of 17 Indonesian passengers who died in that crash. The Families of Lion Air Crash File Lawsuit Against Boeing News Release did not mince words; Its pretty asinine for them to put a system on an airplane and not tell the pilots who are operating the airplane, especially when it deals with flight controls, Captain Mike Michaelis, chairman of the safety committee for the Allied Pilots Association, told the Wall Street Journal. The president of the pilots union at Southwest Airlines, Jon Weaks, said, Were pissed that Boeing didnt tell the companies, and the pilots didnt get notice. The aircraft company concealed the new system and minimized the differences between the MAX and other versions of the 737 to boost sales. On the Boeing website, the company claims that airlines can save millions of dollars by purchasing the new plane because of its commonality with previous versions of the plane. Years of experience representing hundreds of victims has revealed a common thread through most air disaster cases, said Charles Herrmann the principle of Herrmann Law. Generating profit in a fiercely competitive market too often involves cutting safety measures. In this case, Boeing cut training and completely eliminated instructions and warnings on a new system. Pilots didnt even know it existed. I cant blame so many pilots for being mad as hell. Additionally, the complaint alleges the United States Federal Aviation Administration is partially culpable for negligently certifying Boeings Air Flight Manual without requiring adequate instruction and training on the new system. Canadian and Brazilian authorities did require additional training. Whats Next? The consequences for Boeing could be serious and will depend on what the flight and voice data recorders reveal. I also am curious as to what additional flight training or instructions, if any, the Ethiopian Airlines pilots received, either before or after the Lion Air crash, whether from Boeing, an air safety regulator, or any other source. Californias second super bloom in two years transformed a desert into a wildflower wonderland USA Today Quirky election trends from around the world Economic Times. Alas, handmarked paper ballots, handcounted in public, has yet to catch on as the universal global voting standard. And even India- which achieves far higher rates of voter participation than does the US, for example uses machines, albeit simple ones, claimed to be unhackable (although there are concerns.) EU will soon require US visitors to apply for visa-like travel pass NY Post Testers look into security of car alarms Tech Explore (chuck l) John Lanchesters Fiction Tells the Truth New York magazine The Other Kind of Climate Denialism New Yorker (david l) Rowan Williams says pupils are right to protest over climate Guardian (martha r) The Comment Moderator Is The Most Important Job In The World Right Now BuzzFeed (david l) A Hedge Fund Steps Into Nigerias $9 Billion Corporate Dispute Bloomberg (martha r) India China? Venezuela Imperial Collapse Watch Robert Gaines & Scott Horton: Its Time to Stop Fighting Osama bin Ladens War Bretibart (The Rev Kev) Yes, I know, Breitbart, but.Read it and make up your own mind. Brexit Big Brother IS Watching You Watch New Cold War 2020 Cutbacks in local news leave some communities in the dark ABC News (martha r) Covington Catholic students lawyer plans lawsuit against CNN after suing Washington Post USA Today Realignment and Legitimacy Making Georgias Bad Elections Even Worse New Republic (re Silc) Anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews express solidarity with Rep. Ilhan Omar Daily Sabah (furzy) Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is not a state of all its citizens Guardian (The Rev Kev) Class Warfare Trump Transition Antidote du Jour (via). Jerri-Lynn here. This photo of one of my favorite birds shouldnt be difficult to identify: what a photo! See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here. Nature has manufactured the perfect machines. Only the fastest, toughest, and most cunning creatures have endured. We examine how animals have evolved and how we can benefit from their evolution. Sundays from 8:30pm AEDT. On Tuesday, 12 March 2019, the NATO Deputy Secretary General, Ms. Rose Gottemoeller, will travel to Prague where she will participate in a commemoration ceremony and conference marking the accession of the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Republic of Poland and the Slovak Republic to NATO. The accession of these countries took place 20 and 15 years ago. The ceremony will be held in the presence of President Milos Zeman of the Czech Republic, President Janos Ader of Hungary, President Andrzej Duda of the Republic of Poland and President Andrej Kiska of the Slovak Republic. The Deputy Secretary General will deliver a keynote speech entitled 20 Years of NATO Enlargement at a conference on Defence & Security. Photographs and the text of the Deputy Secretary Generals prepared remarks will be available afterwards on the NATO website. Follow the Deputy Secretary General on Twitter (@Gottemoeller). Also follow us at (@NATO and @NATOPress). (Natural News) One would be forgiven for believing that there is an epidemic of depression worldwide. In the United States, for example, the number of prescriptions filled out for antidepressants more than doubled in 12 years, from 11.2 million in 1998, to 23.3 million in 2010. But is this a true reflection of the mental health of the nation, and indeed the world? Are all these people truly depressed, or could many of these diagnoses be incorrect? Experts warn that part of the problem may be a health questionnaire used by doctors to determine whether or not their patients might have depression. Known as the PHQ-9, the nine-part quiz asks patients how often they have been aware of certain issues over the preceding two-week period. These problems include: Little interest or pleasure in doing things; Feeling down, depressed or hopeless; Trouble falling or staying asleep, or sleeping too much; Feeling tired or having little energy; Poor appetite or overeating; Feeling bad about yourself or that you are a failure, or have let yourself or your family down; Trouble concentrating on things like watching TV or reading the newspaper; Slow speech or movement; and Thoughts of suicide or the desire to hurt oneself in some way. Patients are required to select either a) not at all; b) several days; c) more than half the days; or d) nearly every day. Points are assigned for each response, and hey presto, a diagnosis is made of no depression, mild depression, moderate depression, moderately severe depression or severe depression. It is obvious just by glancing at this questionnaire that there is no way it could accurately make a diagnosis of depression, let alone the exact degree thereof. Most of us can identify with many of the feelings on the list, and have probably experienced several of them simultaneously when going through periods of higher than normal stress, like divorce or the death of a loved one. In many cases, those symptoms are simply a reflection of the fact that we are going through a tough time, and we often start feeling better after a few weeks. The questionnaire is especially subjective in that it only examines a two-week period most certainly not a sufficient period of time to make the diagnosis of a serious mental health issue. And yet, doctors around the world have been using this set of questions for the past two decades to make instant depression diagnoses. What many of these doctors probably dont realize is that the quiz was developed with funding from Pfizer, the same company that manufactures some of the most commonly prescribed drugs for the treatment of both depression and anxiety. If more physicians were aware of this glaring conflict of interest they might be less willing to label people on the basis of this very general set of questions. The fact is, it is no small thing to misdiagnose depression. For one thing, these drugs come with a long list of side effects. A report published in the journal Psychiatry, found that 40 percent of people taking antidepressants report side effects, with a quarter of all patients saying that these were very bothersome. Some of these effects included weight gain, sexual problems, headaches, joint pain, muscle aches, nausea, diarrhea, rashes and sleep disturbances. Even more concerning are the long-term effects of these drugs. Even the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned that drugs like Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa and Lexapro have been linked to suicide and incidents of violence. They also warn that certain behaviors are known to be associated with these drugs, including anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, impulsivity, akathisia (severe restlessness), hypomania, and mania. So, if youre feeling blue, and the doctor hauls out a checklist and starts asking you a set of questions, dont be too quick to accept a diagnosis of depression. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk Patient.info TheGuardian.com Breggin.com EverydayHealth.com (Natural News) A rabid feminist and Christian social ethicist by the name of Rebecca Todd Peters recently hosted a lecture at Emory University in Georgia, where she tried to make the case that abortion is somehow a moral good for American society. Entitled, Reframing Choice: Abortion as a Moral Good, Peters lecture focused on the right of women to murder their unborn children, and blamed racism and the patriarchy for judging and shaming women over abortion but presumably has no problem with forcing everyone to get vaccinated for the greater good. The starting point of our ethical conversation should be womens lives, [yet] the problem that we face in this country is our failure to trust women to act as rational, capable, reasonable moral agents, Peters, who works as a professor of Religious Studies at Elon University in North Carolina, writes in her book, Trust Women: A Progressive Christian Argument for Reproductive Justice. For more related news, be sure to check out Evil.news. Peters claims theres nothing Christian about being pro-life Peters has made the news before, including back in 2018 when she published a column on Elons website suggesting that theres nothing Christian about being pro-life. Entitled, Trusting Women to Make Abortion Decisions is a Christian Norm, Peters column laments that women shouldnt have to justify their decision to murder their unborn children, adding that its somehow anti-Christian to force women to continue pregnancies against their will. An ordained minister within the Presbyterian Church USA, Peters holds a Master of Divinity (Mdiv) degree in Christian Social Ethics from Union Theological Seminary in New York. If we truly value women and healthy families, we must accept that I do not want to have a baby is an imminently appropriate reason to end a pregnancy, Peters column goes on to say. And we must trust that pregnant women are the only ones who are capable of making these decisions. Emory University gleefully sponsored Peters seminar on how abortion is supposedly a Christian value Peters was not only invited to speak at Emory on her Christian support for abortion, but the universitys Center for Women at Emory and Emory Reproductive Health Association also both contributed financially to make it happen. In a statement to Campus Reform, Peters explained that her lecture would focus on reframing the public conversation about abortion in this country mainly pushing the ridiculous and blasphemous idea that Jesus Christ is somehow in support of women irresponsibly getting pregnant, then proceeding to murder their unborn children. My hope for the lecture is that it will generate a respectful and productive conversation about abortion and reproductive justice, Peters added in a statement. Campus Republicans chastise Emory for using students tuition money to fund Peters blasphemous lecture In responding to the event, Emory College Republicans told Campus Reform that its members were deeply disappointed in Emorys decision to support Peters lecture, especially since the school would more than likely never support an opposing event featuring a speaker giving a lecture on how abortion is murder, and is 100 percent anti-Christian in every way. Emory GOP, of course, is very disappointed in the universitys overt decision to support this event, a group spokesperson said in a statement. However, we do respect the right to speak about this topic. We actually have a few members that are going to the event to ask questions and encourage an important dialogue on the disastrous implications of this speakers message. The Leftist death cult, of which Peters is a member, is anything but Christian or moral. Be sure to check out this article to learn more about the deeply Satanic implications of the pro-abortion movement. Sources for this article include: Elon.edu TownHall.com NaturalNews.com Politicians put up fences, too: How come all these politicians who are wanting to let everyone cross the border and get free things have fences and guards around their property? Does that make sense? What are they trying to keep out? Are they special? What about the rest of us? Fences around politicians houses, and then they say lets not build fences because everybody gets to get in. (Natural News) Doctors are now warning that taking selfies can result in injury due to people becoming unaware of their surroundings. A review of four case studies conducted by researchers at University Hospital Galway highlights the risk of self-induced trauma caused by inattentiveness when taking a selfie. These injuries mostly occurred in the upper extremities, particularly in fractures along the distal radius, causing a new type of trauma called selfie wrist. In all of the cases reviewed, it was seen that the arm that was injured was the less dominant one, or the one not carrying the mobile device. This suggests that people are more likely to protect their phone (and dominant arm) when experiencing a fall or accident. Interestingly, none of the people reviewed were using any other accessory device, such as a selfie stick. All of them were trying to take a picture of themselves in odd angles or in public places and did not notice that they were in immediate danger. For example, a 17-year old female fell down while attempting to take a selfie while running up a flight of stairs. As she tripped, she placed her left hand (the less dominant limb) to protect her face and sustained a broken wrist. She had to wear a cast for six weeks. Similarly, a 40-year-old woman broke her wrist after she tried to take a selfie on uneven ground at a well-known tourist attraction. As she was adjusting for the perfect angle, she took a few steps backwards and fell on rocks. Her wrist needed to wired with steel pins for four weeks. These injuries are no longer few and far between. Medical professionals are seeing a rise in cases of people injuring themselves because of selfies. The selfie wrist phenomenon is not only limited to accidents and falls, as well. Dr. Levi Harrison, an orthopedic surgeon based in California, told Medical Daily that the condition is what happens [when] the nerves [in the carpal tunnel] become inflamed and angry. Selfie wrist is similar to overuse injury, and may also occur when a person constantly takes selfies by flexing their wrist inwards. This is not a natural position and can cause repeated stress along the wrist, resulting in damage. Deaths, injuries because of a selfie In 2015, the Russian government released a Safe Selfie guide that encouraged people to practice good habits while taking a selfie. Using various infographics, the guide attempts to explain the dangers of trying to take a photo of ones self while driving a car, being in a public space, walking along a railroad, or hanging out in a dangerous area. It is mentioned that people often lose their spatial perception as they try to take a selfie. This lack of awareness can be dangerous and can result in injury or even death. A 2018 global study revealed that 259 people have died between 2011 and 2017 in an attempt to take an extreme selfie. These are self-taken shots on tops of mountains, tall buildings, and lakes. Researchers of this study noted that drowning, transport accidents, and falling were the most common causes of death. These numbers have prompted researchers at the U.S. National Library of Medicine to recommend no selfie zones at dangerous spots. Among those who died while trying to take a selfie, 72.5 percent were men. Many selfie-related deaths occurred in India, Russia, the United States, and Pakistan. Researchers warn that deaths or injuries happening because of selfies may rise in the next few years as more people become obsessed with their social media image. (Related: If you enjoy taking selfies, you could be a psychopath.) Research.news has more articles that talk about the dangers of social media. Sources include: IMJ.ie MedicalDaily.com MIA.ru BBC.com (Natural News) The number of vaccinations mandated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has risen sharply in recent decades. These medical interventions are touted as full-proof solutions to many previously common childhood illnesses, including measles, mumps and chicken pox, as well as more serious diseases like polio and smallpox. As dependence on vaccination continues to grow, fewer and fewer people know how to boost their immune systems naturally, instead placing all their trust in vaccines to keep them healthy. This is a dangerous trend, however, because vaccines have the potential for serious side effects and long-term health problems. Interestingly, even the CDC itself openly acknowledges that any vaccine can cause side effects. [Emphasis added] In addition, many vaccines arent that effective in the first place. It is therefore important to know how to naturally boost lifelong immunity rather than relying on ineffective and dangerous vaccinations. There are side effects associated with ALL vaccinations Vaccines are almost always presented as safe, 100 percent effective solutions with very few if any side effects. Parents allow their tiny babies to receive dozens of shots with very few of them ever being told about the serious side effects associated with these medications. Natural Health 365 compiled a list of just some of the serious side effects associated with vaccines. All of these risks are openly acknowledged on the CDC website and/or on the package inserts of the vaccines themselves. Below are a few of the side effects linked to the most commonly administered vaccines. Flu vaccine: Seizures Guillain-Barre Syndrome Diarrhea Fever Abdominal pain Joint pain Upper respiratory tract infections Sore throat Cough Swollen glands Nausea and vomiting Rash, itching and bleeding Fatigue Headaches Diphtheria, Tetanus and acellular Pertussis (DTaP): Permanent brain damage Seizures Coma Fever Nausea and vomiting Rash and itching Bruising or bleeding Fatigue Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine: Permanent brain damage Seizures Coma Deafness Low blood or platelet count and bleeding disorders Fever Joint pain Rash and itching Bruising or bleeding Varicella (chickenpox) vaccine: Permanent brain damage Seizures Pneumonia Low blood or platelet count and bleeding disorders Fever Rash and itching Bruising or bleeding Measles, Mumps, Rubella and Varicella (MMRV) vaccine: Permanent brain damage Coma Deafness Low blood or platelet count and bleeding disorders Fever Rash and itching Bruising or bleeding Rotavirus: Bowel blockage which requires hospitalization and possible surgery (intussusception) There is a similarly disturbing list of potential side effects for every single vaccine, and almost all of them are linked to serious allergic reactions. Anti-vaxxers labeled a global health threat Despite openly acknowledging that all vaccines have the potential for serious side effects, the CDC, World Health Organization and media are clamping down hard on those who do not choose to expose themselves or their children to these dangers. The World Health Organization recently labeled these people commonly known as anti-vaxxers as a global health threat, on the same level as Ebola and climate change. Natural News previously reported: The WHOs position is that vaccine hesitancy a delay or refusal to accept vaccines is threatening a global resurgence in vaccine-preventable diseases. The WHO claims that vaccines prevent upwards of three million deaths each year, but that 50 percent more lives could be spared if everyone, everywhere agreed to accept every mandated vaccine. They claim that the recent resurgence in measles outbreaks is an example of how a reduction in the number of people vaccinated can cause an increase in occurrences of a disease. Choosing to boost immunity naturally Despite this type of external pressure, many people are standing their ground and refusing vaccinations. For these people, working with the body instead of against it to boost immunity naturally just makes more sense. Focusing on eating unprocessed, non-GMO, organic produce, exercising regularly and increasing consumption of spirulina, zinc, vitamin c and other immune boosters will help the body fight off viruses and other diseases without the risks associated with vaccinations. Learn more at Vaccines.news. Sources include: NaturalHealth365.com CDC.gov NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Just as weve been predicting, Mark Zuckerbergs baby, Facebook, has decided to go all-in with fascist plans to censor all content on its platform that in any way questions the holy grail of vaccines. In a formal announcement, Facebook clearly indicated that its siding with global health organizations such as the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (C.D.C.), both of which have dubbed all honest skepticism about vaccine safety and effectiveness as verifiable vaccine hoaxes. If these vaccine hoaxes appear on Facebook, we will take action against them, the announcement from Facebook reads, adding that group or Page admin posts that share vaccine misinformation will be excluded from Facebooks official recommendations. Further, Facebook plans to reduce these groups (sic) and Pages distribution in News Feed and Search, and reject ads with this misinformation. The drastic move comes after California Democrat Adam Schiff recently called on Facebook, Amazon, and various other Big Tech giants to allow only government-approved propaganda about vaccines to be shared, sold, or otherwise propagated on their platforms an online book burning, if you will. As we recently reported, Amazon was similarly compliant with Schiffs petition, having recently agreed to remove all anti-vaccine films from its Prime service, which means it might potentially go after anti-vaccine e-books on Kindle as well. We are exploring ways to share educational information about vaccines when people come across misinformation on this topic, Facebook reiterated about its own plans to conduct similar censorship raids on anti-vax content. For more news about Big Tech fascism and censorship of free speech, be sure to check out Fascism.news and Censorship.news. Big Tech fascism and censorship of free speech is a BIPARTISAN attack on the First Amendment While Schiff is the one getting the most attention for orchestrating this crusade against online free speech, its important to note that some Republicans are also on-board with this fascist agenda, including Texas Republican Michael Burgess, who helped co-introduce bipartisan legislation along with Schiff that calls for mass censorship of unfounded and debunked theories about vaccines. The repercussions of this legislation, which hasnt even been passed yet, is already being seen on other tech platforms besides Facebook and Amazon, including on Instagram where anti-vax hashtags will no longer be showing up on Instagrams official hashtag page. These same anti-vax hashtags will also be blocked from Instagrams Explore tab. YouTube, which is now owned by Google, also recently demonetized a channel known as Stop Mandatory Vaccination, which is run by former executive director of the California Naturopathic Doctors Association, Larry Cook. Not only has Cooks YouTube channel lost its income stream, but his books are now being promoted less on Amazon as well, reports indicate. As far as Facebooks ongoing plans to target vaccine free speech, Monika Bickert, the companys head of global policy management, indicated in a statement that the social media platform plans to simply block from view all groups, pages, and possibly even individual accounts that share anti-vax content. Facebook, Bickert says, is working to tackle vaccine misinformation on Facebook by reducing its distribution and providing people with authoritative information on the topic. Facebook, Google, and many other tech platforms pushing censorship are really just CIA-run deep state spook mechanisms in disguise Its important to remember that Facebook, Google, and many other similar platforms are really just covert extensions of the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) and other deep state entities, and that theyre being used to control the population, steer the narrative, and ultimately enslave the planet. Google really isnt a private company, Zero Hedge warned back in 2017. If it continues to attack alternative media like Alex Jones and NaturalNews.com, it may find lawsuits headed in its direction. The same may go for Facebook too. Sources for this article include: NaturalNews.com ZeroHedge.com NaturalNews.com Bing.com ZeroHedge.com (Natural News) The giant-leaved fig (Ficus lutea) is usually known as a pretty ornamental tree or a very useful source of food and wood products. Now, an Egyptian animal study indicated that the leaves of the tree could provide a natural way of protecting the liver from oxidative stress. Also called the Lagos rubbertree, this species is a common tree in the warm subtropical coasts of Africa. Its beautiful appearance, numerous clusters of edible fruit, and useful bark ensure its place in natural ecology and human economy. This tree is also one of the fig species that is used in traditional African medicine. Its leaves are prescribed as a herbal remedy for diabetes and similar diseases. In 2014, the University of Pretoria conducted a study on the anti-diabetic properties of 10 different Ficus species. The giant-leaved fig was the only tested species that displayed considerable effect on the metabolization of glucose. In particular, the F. lutea extract was shown to influence H-4-II-E liver cells. The results of these and other studies suggested that the giant-leaved fig could play an important role in regulating the functions of the liver. (Related: Sesame seeds may relieve liver damage caused by modern drugs.) Can the large leaves of Ficus lutea protect the liver from oxidative stress? Searching for plant-based compounds that could shield the liver from oxidative stress, researchers at the National Research Centre (NRC) in Egypt investigated the giant-leaved fig. They processed dried powdered fig leaves to produce an ethanol-based extract. The crude cold ethanol extract underwent a series of liquid fractionation processes. Eventually, an n-hexane fraction was produced. Analysis of the fig leaf extract and its fraction was performed via saponification and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. During the latter test, the researchers used column chromatography to separate the individual chemical compounds based on the color of the substance. The standard DPPH free radical test determined the in vitro antioxidant activity of the extracts. The amount of DPPH scavenged by each substance was recorded for comparison. For the in vivo test, the NRC researchers created an animal model of liver disease. They induced liver disorders into rats via injections of carbon tetrachloride (CCI4). Afterward, they divided the CCI4-injured rats into several groups. Each group got a different extract or fraction as treatment. The treatments were evaluated based on their effects on oxidative stress markers and liver enzymes. An untreated group of healthy rats served as the control. At the end of the trial, the rats were sacrificed to provide liver and blood samples for histopathology and chemical analysis. Giant-leaved fig contains phytochemicals that prevent liver damage The chemical tests revealed that triterpenoid saponins and steroids comprised most of the plant compounds. The most common saponins were 20,22- Epoxyeupha-24-ene-3-one, alpha-amyrin acetate, lupenone (lupane skeleton), and methyl isomasticadienonate (8-tirucallane skeleton). For steroids, the most notable one was stigmasterol. In the free radical test, the n-hexane fraction demonstrated the greatest antioxidant activity. It outperformed the crude cold ethanol extract when it came to scavenging DPPH. Finally, in the in vivo test, CCI4-injured rats displayed liver damage consistent with expectations. CCI4 is commonly used to replicate the effects of liver diseases like cirrhosis and hepatitis. Furthermore, the treated animals displayed healthier livers than untreated rats. They showed fewer signs of oxidative stress and more normal levels of liver enzymes. Histopathology showed that the livers of treated animals showed less scarring from oxidative stress. The NRC research team concluded that the giant-leaved fig showed considerable antioxidant and liver-protective properties. They believed that further studies would identify the specific active compound responsible for these proper. Sources include: Science.news BMCComplementAlternMed.BioMedCentral.com TandFOnline.com PZA.sanbi.org (Natural News) Prior to the 2018 midterm elections, a movement among blacks to exit the Democratic Party nicknamed Blexit began as more and more began to realize that the Donkey Party had not done anything for them except foment misery and poverty while perpetuating dependence on big government. Blexit is a Renaissance, movement champion Candace Owens said in an interview with Fox News in late October. Blexit is the black exit from the Democratic Party. Its the black exit from permanent victimhood, the black exit from the false idea that we are somehow separate from the rest of America. The movement she helped popularize was similar to another dubbed #WalkAway, which was founded by Brandon Straka, a gay New York-based actor who was a regular supporter of the Democratic Party until it morphed into all of the things he disliked. I know there are millions of other people who are feeling exactly the same way Im feeling too, that their party has left them, that the Democratic Party has become a party of rage and hate and lies and the liberal media machine that backs them up, Straka told Fox News and national radio host Mark Levin last week. Now, yet another movement to abandon the party comprised of people who were once solid Democratic voters Jews has begun, and for similar reasons: The party no longer represents them. In fact, many believe, todays Democratic Party is morphing into something more akin to Adolph Hitlers Nazi Party. (Related: Why did it take the Democrat-controlled House an entire WEEK to pass an anti-hate bill?) As reported by Conservative Tribune, the nascent movement is dubbed Jexodus and, according to its website, states, We are proud Jewish Millennials tired of living in bondage to leftist politics. We reject the hypocrisy, anti-Americanism, and anti-Semitism of the rising far-left. Progressives, Democrats, and far too many old-school Jewish organizations take our support for granted. After all, were Jewish, and Jews vote for Democrats. Until today, the website continued. Democratic lawmakers have completely turned on Israel Jexodus comes as an increasing number of Democratic Leftists scorn, shun, and chastise Jews with anti-Semitic attacks and financial punishment. In 2005, a movement called Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) began as a means of working to end international support for Israels alleged oppression of Palestinians. Another movement called Divestment from Israel is a campaign to use economic boycotts to pressure Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian territories that were captured during the 1967 war. In the U.S., a new crop of freshmen Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly drawn the ire of Republicans and even some in their own party for repeated instances of anti-Semitism. One of them is of Palestinian descent Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). Shortly after winning her election, she decided to forego a traditional congressional delegation to Israel for new members sponsored by Israeli lobbying organization AIPAC. Instead, Tlaib announced she would instead lead a delegation to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which the U.K.s Independent called unprecedented. Another is Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). She recently suggested that some lawmakers (Republicans, mostly) have more of an allegiance to Israel than their own country a statement which drew immediate condemnation and outrage from the GOP and her own party leadership. She was rebuked last week sort of when the House voted to approve a resolution condemning hate anti-Semitism, sure, but also racism and Islamophobia. Though Omars comments were solely responsible for the resolution, her name wasnt even mentioned, which drew scathing condemnation of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) from Fox News host Judge Janine Pirro. President Trump was right when he said the democrat party is now the anti-Israel party. Dont forget Nancy, history has proven over and over when you appease to anti-Semitic sentiment, the worst happens, she wrote on Twitter. Left-wing Democratic extremism is responsible for Jexodus and Blexit, and #WalkAway. As the partys leaders lose what remains of their minds, the partys traditional base will continue to bolt. Read more about the craziness and insanity of the Libtard Democrats at Libtards.news and Insanity.news. Sources include: FoxNews.com TheNationalSentinel.com ConservativeTrubune.com Following a series of recent surveys in north-western Liberia and south-eastern Guinea, an international team of researchers found three stiletto snakes which were later identified as a species previously unknown to science. The discovery, published in the open-access journal Zoosystematics and Evolution by the team of Dr. Mark-Oliver Roedel from the Natural History Museum, Berlin, provides further evidence for the status of the western part of the Upper Guinea forest zone as a center of rich and endemic biodiversity. Curiously, stiletto snakes have unusual skulls and venom delivery system, allowing them to attack and stab sideways with a fang sticking out of the corner of their mouths. While most of these burrowing snakes are not venomous enough to kill a human - even though some are able to inflict serious tissue necrosis - this behavior makes them impossible to handle using the standard approach of holding them with fingers behind the head. In fact, they can even stab with their mouths closed. The new species, called Atractaspis branchi or Branch's Stiletto Snake, was named to honor to the recently deceased South African herpetologist Prof. William Roy (Bill) Branch, a world-leading expert on African reptiles. The new species lives in primary rainforest and rainforest edges in the western part of the Upper Guinea forests. Branch's Stiletto Snake is most likely endemic to this area, a threatened biogeographic region already known for its unique and diverse fauna. The first specimen of the new species was collected at night from a steep bank of a small rocky creek in a lowland evergreen rainforest in Liberia. Upon picking it up, the snake tried to hide its head under body loops, bending it at an almost right angle, so that its fangs were partly visible on the sides. Then, it repeatedly stroke. It is also reported to have jumped distances almost as long as its entire body. The other two specimens used for the description of the species were collected from banana, manioc and coffee plantations in south-eastern Guinea, about 27 km apart. "The discovery of a new and presumably endemic species of fossorial snake from the western Upper Guinea forests thus is not very surprising," conclude the researchers. "However, further surveys are needed to resolve the range of the new snake species, and to gather more information about its ecological needs and biological properties." A body found in a duffel bag on a trail east of Los Angeles was identified as that of a 9-year-old girl Sunday, and two people have been detained as persons of interest in the case, according to authorities. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department confirmed that the body discovered inside a bag Tuesday morning on a Hacienda Heights hiking trail was identified as Trinity Love Jones. The body was in a rollaway-type bag left at the bottom of an embankment close to Colima Road and the 3400 block of Hacienda Boulevard, near the His Lai Buddhist Temple. Two people were detained in connection with the investigation, but authorities did not identify them. No details were provided about their connection to the case. Relatives of the girl gathered Sunday at the memorial site to remember the child. A man who identified himself as Antonio Jones, Trinity's father, said he heard the awful news earlier in the day. "Words can't explain what I'm feeling right now," Anthony Jones, Trinity's father, said Sunday at memorial site. "I just want answers. I just want justice. She was just the best -- full of character, full of life, full of joy." The memorial has been growing in recent days, with family members adding Trinity's picture to the abundance of flowers, balloons and candles on Sunday. Relatives originally told NBC4 prior to confirmation from the LASD that Trinity's body was found on the trail. The death was ruled as a homicide, but the cause of death was being withheld, according to the LASD. County workers clearing brush in the area uncovered the girl's remains. The sheriff's department released a composite sketch of the girl on Wednesday and photos of a pink long-sleeve top with the words "Future Princess Hero" and gray pants with pandas on them that she was wearing when her body was found. The body had likely been left near the trail late March 3, investigators said. Anyone with information on the case was urged to call the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477. Mother Nature brought a slew of hail, roaring thunder and lightning strikes to parts of the Bay Area Sunday afternoon. People on social media were posting about hail storms in the East Bay and North Bay and hail with thunder and lightning in the South Bay. The storm that emerged across the region Sunday was a slow-moving cell, thus allowing for significant hail accumulations, according to NBC Bay Area meteorologist Rob Mayeda. A cold compact storm brought thunder at times and periods of hail (enough to pile up on the ground in spots) in the East Bay and eventually into the Santa Clara Valley near San Jose by Sunday evening. A video posted to Reddit and YouTube also shows a lightning explosion near a power pole, while it was hailing. [[507002921, C]] Daytime heating and cooling air aloft was a recipe for firing off some of these stronger showers, with a boost from upward vertical motion on the east side of a compact area of low pressure just west of San Francisco, Mayeda said. Check out our weather reports and forecasts for the latest info on storms. Following the unexpected passing of San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi more than two weeks ago, Mayor London Breed has selected Deputy Public Defender Manohar Raju to take his place. During a ceremony at City Hall on Monday, Breed announced Raju as her pick to lead the office. "Mano has the commitment, the experience and the vision to lead this office and fight for those who need a voice both in the courtroom and in the community," Breed said. "I look forward to partnering with Mano on what I know are going to be some great policies," she said. "I know that we are never going to be able to replace Jeff Adachi but we can build on his legacy and I am confident that we have someone who is committed to doing just that." Raju said, "Being a public defender is a calling for me. It is a calling rooted in the spirit and resiliency of our clients and their families. It's also rooted in the staff of our office, it's also rooted in the communities in this city." He said, "I'm different than Jeff, so there will be some changes. But the core of what we do, the mission, that's not going anywhere. We are going to renew and recharge our commitment to excellence for our clients, we are going to continue broader reform efforts. We are going to continue to protect the public against overreaching and government abuses. We are going to continue our struggle for racial justice in this city and statewide, and we are going to deepen our empowering engagement with the communities we are serving. "Those are the core values of the San Francisco Public Defender's Office. Jeff embodied those values and his fight will continue to live through us," he said. Matt Gonzalez, the public defender's office chief attorney, also spoke at Monday's event. "I've never been concerned about this transition, of course losing Jeff was a big loss to our office. It's not one that we'll quite ever get over," Gonzalez said. "Mano is just a fantastic choice and I could not be happier with this decision. "He understands the work of the public defender has to be rooted in the community. I've seen him prepare cases for trial and work with the community and I know that he's going to do a terrific job carrying on Jeff's legacy," Gonzalez said. Before his appointment, Raju managed the public defender's office's felony division. He first began working as a public defender in Contra Costa County 18 years ago and has working in San Francisco for the past 11 years. Raju will serve as public defender until this November's election, when voters will decide whether to choose him to serve the remaining three years of Adachi's term. San Francisco's public defender is the only one in California to be voted into office. Adachi, 59, served as public defender since 2002 until he passed away on Feb. 22 after having dinner with a friend in the city's North Beach neighborhood. Foul play has been ruled out in the death. Tesla is walking back plans to close most of its showrooms worldwide and announced price hikes for most of its electric vehicles. The Palo Alto-based electric carmaker announced last month that it would shutter most of its stores to cut costs so it could sell its lower-priced Model 3 for $35,000. The company continues its shift to toward online-only sales, but now says it won't close as many stores as originally thought. The $35,000 base Model 3 will still be available, but the company is raising prices by 3 percent on all other models. In a Monday filing with government regulators, Tesla now says it closed 10 percent of its stores, but a few of those will now remain open. Another 20 percent are being evaluated and some could remain open. The company gave no numbers, but said it would close only about half the stores that it had intended to. It has 378 stores and service centers worldwide and about 100 stores in the U.S. "As a result of keeping significantly more stores open, Tesla will need to raise vehicle prices by about 3 percent on average worldwide," a company's statement said. "We will only close about half as many stores, but the cost savings are therefore only about half." Remaining stores could have fewer workers, but will have vehicles available for test drives and a small inventory in case people want to buy immediately, the statement said. The company also announced Monday that it has purchased car-hauling trucks and trailers from a California company in a stock deal worth about $14.2 million. Tesla paid for the purchase with about 50,000 previously authorized shares. Tesla wants to increase its vehicle transportation capacity and cut delivery times. The reversal shows that Tesla had second thoughts about shuttering the stores and whether buyers would make such a large purchase without a test drive. The company says it still plans to offer buyers the ability to return purchased vehicles at no cost after a seven-day or 1,000 mile test drive. Gartner analyst Michael Ramsey called the move "startling" and said it undermines the credibility of Musk and Tesla's management. "How else can you view it except to see it as a remarkable example of lack of foresight or planning?" Ramsey asked. "It's almost as if the decision was announced and made without any analysis of what the outcome would be." Musk probably realized that he was locked into long-term leases on the stores that he would have to pay regardless of whether they were closed, Ramsey said. The move made no sense to begin with because Tesla had spent millions fighting in courts and state legislatures trying to change laws that prevented companies from selling vehicles at their own stores, Ramsey said. But he also said the move to close 10 percent of stores and evaluate others is the right thing to do, and said most retail companies do that all of the time. Messages were left Monday seeking comment from a Tesla spokesman. Shares of Tesla edged up less than 1 percent in trading early Monday. In announcing the move on Feb. 28, CEO Elon Musk said it was necessary to cut costs in order to profitably sell the mass-market version of the Model 3 sedan for $35,000. That's a price point needed to reach more consumers and generate the sales that the company needs to survive, Musk has said. Before the announcement, the cheapest Model 3 started at $42,900. "This is the only way to achieve the savings for this car and be financially sustainable," Musk told reporters during a conference call announcing the change. "It is excruciatingly difficult to make this car for $35,000 and be financially sustainable." On Feb. 28, the company said shifting totally to online sales would allow it to lower all vehicle prices by 6 percent, on average, including its higher-end Model S and Model X. At the time, Musk also walked back the company's guidance that it would be profitable in all future quarters, saying it would post a loss in the first quarter of this year. All other major automakers rely on vast dealer networks, but Musk co-founded Tesla in 2003 in an effort to shake up the industry, starting with a focus entirely on a fleet of cars powered by electricity instead of gasoline. Authorities in Ethiopia, China and Indonesia grounded all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft Monday following the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jetliner that killed 157 people, and investigators found the flight recorders from the field where the plane went down. The new plane crashed shortly after takeoff in clear weather outside Addis Ababa on Sunday, and the airline decided to ground its remaining four 737 Max 8s until further notice as "an extra safety precaution," spokesman Asrat Begashaw said. Ethiopian Airlines had been using five of the planes and awaiting delivery of 25 more. As Ethiopia observed a day of mourning, Red Cross workers slowly picked through the widely scattered debris near the blackened crash crater, looking for the remains of those aboard, while heavy machinery dug for larger pieces of the plane. The plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders were found, Ethiopian Airlines said. An airline official, however, said one of the recorders was partially damaged and "we will see what we can retrieve from it." The official spoke on condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to speak to the media. Ethiopian authorities are leading the investigation into the crash, assisted by the U.S., Kenya and others. "These kinds of things take time," Kenya's Transport Minister James Macharia told reporters. Sunday's crash was strikingly similar to that of a Lion Air jet of the same Boeing model in Indonesian seas last year, killing 189 people. The crash was likely to renew questions about the 737 Max 8, the newest version of Boeing's popular single-aisle airliner, which was first introduced in 1967 and has become the world's most common passenger jet. Safety experts cautioned against drawing too many comparisons between the two crashes until more is known about the disaster. Besides the groundings in China and Indonesia, Caribbean carrier Cayman Airways temporarily grounded their Max 8s. People from 35 countries died in the crash six minutes after the plane took off from Ethiopia's capital for Nairobi. Ethiopian Airlines said the senior pilot issued a distress call and was told to return but all contact was lost shortly afterward. The plane plowed into the ground at Hejere near Bishoftu, scattering debris like a shredded book, a battered passport and business cards in multiple languages. "I heard this big noise," resident Tsegaye Reta told the AP. "The villagers said that it was a plane crash, and we rushed to the site. There was a huge smoke that we couldn't even see the plane. The parts of the plane were falling apart." Kenya lost 32 people, more than any country. Relatives of 25 of the victims had been contacted, Macharia said, and taking care of their welfare was of utmost importance. "Some of them, as you know, they are very distressed," he said. "They are in shock like we are. They are grieving." In Addis Ababa, members of an association of Ethiopian airline pilots cried uncontrollably for their dead colleagues. Framed photos of seven crew members sat in chairs at the front of a crowded room. Canada, Ethiopia, the U.S., China, Italy, France, Britain, Egypt, Germany, India and Slovakia all lost four or more citizens. Leaders of the United Nations, the U.N. refugee agency and the World Food Program said colleagues had been on the plane. The U.N. migration agency estimated that 19 U.N.-affiliated employees were killed. Both Addis Ababa and Nairobi are major hubs for humanitarian workers, and some had been on their way to a large U.N. environmental conference set to begin Monday in Nairobi. The U.N. flag at the event flew at half-staff. The crash shattered more than two years of relative calm in African skies, where travel had long been chaotic. It also was a serious blow to the Ethiopian Airlines, which has expanded to become the continent's largest and best-managed carrier and turned Addis Ababa into the gateway to Africa. The state-owned carrier has a good reputation and the company's CEO told reporters no problems were seen before Sunday's fight. But investigators also will look into the plane's maintenance, which may have been an issue in the Lion Air crash. The plane was delivered to Ethiopian Airlines in November. The jet's last maintenance was on Feb. 4, and it had flown just 1,200 hours. China's Civil Aviation Administration said that it ordered airlines to ground all 737 Max 8 aircraft as of 6 p.m. (1000 GMT) Monday, in line with the principle of "zero tolerance for security risks." It said it would issue further notices after consulting with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing. China Southern Airlines is one of Boeing's biggest customers for the aircraft. Chicago-based Boeing said it did not intend to issue any new guidance to its customers. It plans to send a technical team to the crash site to help Ethiopian and U.S. investigators, however, and issued a statement saying it was "deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the passengers and crew" on the Ethiopian Airlines Max airplane. The 737 is the best-selling airliner in history, and the Max, the newest version of it with more fuel-efficient engines, is a central part of Boeing's strategy to compete with European rival Airbus. "Safety is our No. 1 priority and we are taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this accident, working closely with the investigating team and all regulatory authorities involved," the company said in a statement. ___ Meseret reported from Addis Ababa. There's no money, no sex and nothing illegal happened. This is what passes for a scandal in Canada. U.S. President Donald Trump has been engulfed in allegations involving possible collusion with Russia and secret payments to buy the silence of a porn star. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing a controversy that seems trivial by comparison, but it could topple him in elections later this year. Two high-profile women ministers in Trudeau's Cabinet, including Canada's first indigenous justice minister, resigned in protest, and his top aide and best friend quit too. The former justice minister and attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, says Trudeau and senior members of his government pressured her in a case involving a major Canadian engineering company accused of corruption related to its business dealings in Libya. Trudeau reportedly leaned on the attorney general to instruct prosecutors to reach the equivalent of plea deal, which would avoid a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, because he felt that jobs were at stake. "People south of the border would be astonished to think that this is the type of scandal that they have in Canada," said Eddie Goldenberg, a former adviser to former Prime Minister Jean Chretien. Many countries would be jealous of a scandal that went no further than a prime minster asking another minister to do something she is legally entitled to do, Goldenberg said. "I just don't really see it as a scandal," he said. "There is a political correctness here. Nobody wants to go after an indigenous woman minister. It's become politically incorrect to question the former minister." Trudeau has said he asked Wilson-Raybould to revisit her decision not to instruct prosecutors and said she agreed to consider that. He denied applying any inappropriate pressure, saying he and his officials were only pointing out that prosecution could endanger thousands of jobs. SNC-Lavalin has pleaded not guilty to fraud and corruption charges related to allegations it paid about $35 million (CA$47 million) in bribes to public officials in Libya between 2001 and 2011. "It's a pseudo-scandal. It's crap. What the hell? You are doing business in Libya and you are not bribing?" said Robert Bothwell, a professor of Canadian history and international relations at the University of Toronto. "It does suggest to me that the director of public prosecutions ... is also nuts. And so is Wilson-Raybould. These people are delusional." Wilson-Raybould was demoted from her role as attorney general and justice minister in January as part of a Cabinet shuffle by Trudeau. She has testified that she believes she lost the justice job because she did not give in to "sustained" pressure to instruct the director of public prosecutions to negotiate a remediation agreement with SNC-Lavalin. That solution would have avoided a potential criminal conviction that would bar the company from receiving any federal government business for a decade. The company is a major employer in Quebec, Trudeau's home province. It has about 9,000 employees in Canada and more than 50,000 worldwide. The company publicly led the lobbying charge for a law that allows for deferred prosecution agreements as a way to resolve the criminal charges it faces. The new attorney general has not ruled out approving a settlement. Wilson-Raybould has said herself that the pressure from Trudeau and others was not illegal and that she was not explicitly instructed to do a remediation agreement. Gerald Butts, Trudeau's former principal secretary and best friend who resigned, said nothing inappropriate was alleged until after Wilson-Raybould left the Cabinet, suggesting she felt sour grapes about losing her dream job. Opposition Conservative Andrew Scheer leader has demanded that Trudeau resign, saying he tried to interfere in a criminal prosecution. Canadian media have covered the story as intensely as American networks have covered Trump, noted Nelson Wiseman, a professor at the University of Toronto. "Trudeau would not be able to get away with what Trump does because the political cultures and the state of political polarization of the two countries are still quite different," Wiseman said. The differences among Canadian media outlets, for example, are "relatively narrow compared to the chasms between Fox and MSNBC or CNN. The American media are reporting on two different worlds. The Canadian media are reporting on the same Wilson-Raybould-Trudeau story," Wiseman added. Daniel Beland, a politics professor at McGill University in Montreal, said Trudeau has framed himself differently than Trump. Trump said sympathetic things about Russia during the campaign and was elected despite that and other controversies, giving him "the sense that he can do anything and his base will still follow him." Trudeau, meanwhile, promised transparency while describing himself as a feminist who was also determined to right the wrongs against Canada's indigenous people. Women make up half of his cabinet. "He depicted himself as a feminist, as someone who believes in indigenous reconciliation, and then you have two of his top female Cabinet ministers resign, and they are depicting him in a very different light," Beland said. Trudeau said he tried to foster an environment where his lawmakers can come to him with concerns, but one of his female Liberal party colleagues, Celina Caesar-Chavannes, took issue with that, tweeting, "I did come to you recently. Twice. Remember your reactions?" "When you add women, please do not expect the status quo. Expect us to make correct decisions, stand for what is right and exit when values are compromised," she also tweeted. Caesar-Chavannes, who is not running for re-election, has issued messages of support for Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott, a respected Cabinet minister who said she lost confidence in how the government has handled the affair. "It is a fundamental doctrine of the rule of law that our Attorney General should not be subjected to political pressure or interference regarding the exercise of her prosecutorial discretion in criminal cases," Philpott wrote in the resignation letter to Trudeau. Other Liberal lawmakers have expressed confidence in Trudeau. The federal election is in October. Antonia Maioni, McGill University's dean of arts, said citizens of every democracy will look at the Trump scandals and say everything else is small potatoes. But, she added, "I'm not sure Trump is a good reference point here. Leaders fall in parliamentary systems for many other reasons beyond personal scandal." Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., has positioned herself as an advocate for women. She led the charge calling for former Sen. Al Franken's, D-Minn., resignation after he was accused of sexual misconduct in 2017, a decision that still haunts her political prospects among some donors today. And she has been an outspoken figure in the #MeToo movement, pushing for legislation on sexual harassment policy. But when a sexual harassment complaint was filed in Gillibrand's own office, her former aide felt the situation was mishandled, Politico reported. The woman, who asked to remain anonymous because she fears damage to her career for speaking out, resigned out of protest after she felt the office did not take her allegation that another staffer was sexually harassing her seriously. "I have offered my resignation because of how poorly the investigation and post-investigation was (sic) handled. I hope that your office will choose to handle cases like this with more sensitivity and understanding in the future," Politico reported the former aide wrote in a letter to Gillibrand dated Aug. 30, 2018. The woman, who is in her mid-20s, alleged that Abbas Malik an Iraq War veteran who had worked for Gillibrand since 2011 started making unwanted advances after he was told he would be getting a promotion. In his new role, Malik would be supervising the former aide. The woman said Malik made repeated comments such as if we had met in a bar would it have happened for us? and I thought by debrief you meant you were hitting on me, referring to an earlier text message. The woman made it clear that she was not interested in a sexual relationship with Malik, including texting him, Youre married!! But he continued to flirt, according to the report. Malik did not respond to Politico's request for comment. When the former aide reported her experiences with Malik to Gillibrand's deputy chief of staff Anne Bradley on July 25, the office immediately opened an investigation into the alleged behavior in consultation with Senate Employment Counsel. At every step of the process, immediate action was taken by the office," Whitney Mitchell Brennan, Gillibrand's communications director, told NBC News in a statement. "A full and thorough investigation into the evidence revealed employee misconduct that, while inappropriate, did not meet the standard for sexual harassment." The office did take disciplinary action against Malik, issuing a final warning and retracting his expected promotion. The former aide was upset that Malik had not been fired, but she decided to trust that the office had done all it could to rectify the situation. Soon, however, another story emerged. The woman learned that chief of staff Jess Fassler had allegedly told Malik that the office could have fired him instead of just disciplining him. When she asked why Malik had not been terminated if there were grounds for his dismissal, she says she was told by Fassler that he had reason to fire everyone in the office, including her. After tensions peaked, the former aide sent Fassler her resignation letter less than three weeks after reporting the alleged sexual misconduct. These are challenges that affect all of our nations workplaces, including mine, and the question is whether or not they are taken seriously," Gillibrand told NBC News in a statement. "As I have long said, when allegations are made in the workplace, we must believe women so that serious investigations can actually take place, we can learn the facts, and there can be appropriate accountability. Thats exactly what happened at every step of this case last year. I told her that we loved her at the time and the same is true today. Gillibrand's statement references an interaction she had with the woman after the harassment investigation ended, when the senator gave her aide a quick hug and said "we love you." Politico reported that "the woman considered it an empty gesture." Malik remained on staff until Politico approached Gillibrand's office two weeks ago with evidence of more alleged workplace misconduct by him and the senator's office opened another investigation. Malik was terminated last week. One of the new allegations was made by a former staffer whom Gillibrand's office had failed to contact during the initial investigation last July, according to Politico. The woman alleged that Malik "often called her fat and unattractive to her face and made light of sexual abuse." She remembered a conversation about another woman Malik said couldnt get laid unless she was raped. Gillibrand is not the first 2020 Democratic hopeful to deal with reports of sexual harassment in her workplace. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., faced scrutiny recently when The Los Angeles Times reported The California Department of Justice settled more than $1.1 million in claims from DOJ employees who were allegedly sexually harassed and retaliated against by co-workers while Harris served as the state's attorney general. Harris told the Times through a spokesperson that she was unaware of the settlements but still took responsibility for what happened under her watch. As the chief executive of a department of nearly 5,000 employees, the buck stopped with me, Harris said in a statement. No one should face harassment or intimidation in the workplace, and victims of sexual misconduct should be listened to, believed and protected. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has also responded to accusations of "episodes of sexual harassment and demeaning treatment as well as pay disparity" during his 2016 presidential campaign, according to The New York Times. "To the women on my 2016 campaign who were harassed or mistreated, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for speaking out. I apologize," Sanders wrote on Twitter. But unlike with Sanders and Harris, the allegations against Gillibrand's office come as she is already struggling to build up steam for a presidential bid. She is the only Democratic senator running for president who has not yet been endorsed by one of her congressional colleagues from her home state, according to reports. The allegations also complicate Gillibrand's status as one of politics' most ardent #MeToo supporters. Gillibrand's record on women's issues had partly motivated her former aide to work for her. "After the 2016 election I was devastated by the choice that America made, and I felt driven to work for a politician who would fight for women's rights at a time when they were being openly threatened in our country. Senator Gillibrand, you were the public servant I wanted to work for," the woman wrote in a letter to Gillibrand. But, she continued, "Your office chose to go against your public belief that women shouldn't accept sexual harassment in any form and portrayed my experience as a misinterpretation instead of what it actually was: harassment and ultimately, intimidation." The eventual Democratic nominee will face President Donald Trump, who has denied multiple accusations of sexual misconduct. The Springfield man police identified as the gunman who opened fire on a U.S. Marshals task force team at a Rockford hotel Thursday has a long criminal history in Illinois dating back to the 1990s, records show. Authorities believe Floyd Brown, 39, was the gunman who shot and wounded an officer at the Extended Stay hotel off North Bell School Road before embarking on a nearly 100-mile journey south of Chicago at a high rate of speed. He was eventually stopped by Illinois State Police near Lincoln, where a standoff shut down the interstate in both directions. Three months earlier, Brown, a resident of Springfield, has been identified as a burglary suspect in Bloomington, Illinois. Police said Brown fled from officers investigating the burglaries, driving without headlights at a high rate of speed before crashing in a multi-car accident. He fled the accident scene on foot, police said, and it was not clear if he was ever taken into custody. A reward of up to $1,000 was being offered for information leading to his arrest at the time. According to Sangamon County court records, Brown's history with law enforcement in the area dates back to 1996. He previously was found guilty in that county of domestic battery, resisting peace officers, criminal trespass to a residence, aggravated battery of a peace officer or fireman, reckless discharge of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a felon, reckless driving, endangering the life of a child and more. Court record also indicate Brown has had two orders of protection against him, though one was dismissed. The Thursday incident began at the Extended Stay hotel off North Bell School Road, where authorities initially said officers were investigating an "active shooter" situation. Rockford police said members of the task force were attempting to serve an arrest warrant around 9:15 a.m. when they were fired on. One officer was hit in the gunfire and critically wounded. Police said the suspect, armed with a rifle, fled the room and was not in custody as of 1 p.m. Thursday. Rockford police identified the suspect as Brown, who they believed was in a light blue or silver Mercury Grand Marquis with a license plate of BF13112 or a temporary plate of 4850256. Illinois State Police said Brown crashed in a rural area off Interstate 55 south of Bloomington, between Springfield. He remained in the vehicle as negotiations were underway. Police spokesman Andre Brass warned that Brown is considered "armed and dangerous." "We just want to end this incident peacefully with his surrender," Brass said. The man charged with fatally shooting a deputy trying to serve a warrant at a Rockford hotel appeared in court Monday for the first time since the shooting and subsequent hours-long standoff last week. Floyd E. Brown, 39, appeared in federal court in Rockford four days after the incident the spanned over 100 miles in Illinois. He was charged with killing a special deputy United States Marshal, a charge that carries a potential penalty of death or life in prison if convicted. Brown, who had bandages on both of his arms and appeared in a wheelchair, told a judge he understood the charges against him. He was ordered detained until a preliminary hearing set for March 20. Brown's sister said at the courthouse Monday she hadn't spoken to her brother in months, but had no idea he was in trouble. "It's scary," she said of seeing him in court. "It's a nightmare." The charges stem from the shooting Thursday, in which authorities said officers of the U.S. Marshal's Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force attempted to execute state warrants for Brown at around 9:15 a.m. at the Extended Stay hotel on North Bell School Road in Rockford. A complaint detailing the murder charge against him said that officers Brown and Brown's girlfriend were staying in room 305 of the hotel and knocked on the door. Meanwhile, other officers "were positioned around the exterior of the hotel," including Deputy Jacob Keltner. When police knocked, they heard a male voice inside yell "Don't do it," the complaint states. When the officers used a key to open the door, they discovered the interior swing lock was still engaged, according to the complaint. Brown's girlfriend, who came to the door but did not open it, said she wanted to get out, the complaint reads. Meanwhile, a male voice could be heard yelling from inside the room before gunfire came through the hotel door and walls. Brown fled out of the hotel room via a third-story window, the complaint states, shooting Keltner in the head as he did. Keltner was taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead hours after the shooting. Brown fled the scene in a vehicle before police located him on an expressway in the Bloomington-Normal area, authorities said. Once officers began pursuing him, he shot at them "multiple times using a long gun," according to the complaint. Illinois State Police said Brown's vehicle was struck by a police cruiser and crashed in a rural area along Interstate 55 in Logan County. A standoff with state police and SWAT officers ensued for several hours, officials said, until Brown was apprehended and hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries related to the crash. Brown, a resident of Springfield, was been identified as a burglary suspect in Bloomington, Illinois, three months prior to the shooting. Police said Brown fled from officers investigating the burglaries, driving without headlights at a high rate of speed before crashing in a multi-car accident. He fled the accident scene on foot, police said, and it was not clear if he was ever taken into custody. According to Sangamon County court records, Brown's history with law enforcement in the area dates back to 1996. He previously was found guilty in that county of domestic battery, resisting peace officers, criminal trespass to a residence, aggravated battery of a peace officer or fireman, reckless discharge of a firearm, possession of a firearm by a felon, reckless driving, endangering the life of a child and more. Brown was wanted on warrants out of Sangamon County, McLean County and Champaign County, authorities said, plus a parole violation warrant from the Illinois Department of Corrections. It was not clear which of the warrants the officers, including Keltner, were attempting to execute in Thursday's incident. Keltner's body was escorted in a procession Thursday night to the Winnebago County Coroner's office, with a line of police cars that could be seen for miles. The nearly 13-year veteran of the McHenry County Sheriff's office was married and had two children, officials said. "Deputy Keltner was an integral part of our office, someone who had risen quickly to greater responsibilities after he was first sworn in in 2006," McHenry County Sheriff Bill Prim said Thursday. "He was loved and respected by all his colleagues, and he will be sorely missed." First and foremost, we would like to extend our deepest condolences to the McHenry County Sheriffs Office and the family of Deputy Keltner, ISP Acting Director Brendan F. Kelly said. The men and women of the Illinois State Police, including responding Troopers from District 16, District 1, District 15, District 6, District 8, and District 9, all responded with seamless professionalism alongside the law enforcement of this state. ISPs SWAT team in particular showed incredible tactical restraint, bravery and boldness today. This dark day has come to an end, and this defendant can now be brought to justice." Backlash is growing over plans to shutter Westlake Hospital in suburban Melrose Park. Los Angeles-based Pipeline Health announced plans to close Westlake Hospital on Feb. 16, saying it intended to discontinue service at the 230-bed facility if its application was approved by the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board, the company said in a statement. The announcement came less than three weeks after Pipeline Health purchased the hospital, along with West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park and Louis A. Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago, from Tenet Healthcare on Jan. 29. Pipeline Health said in a statement that in-patient services pffered at Westlake, like obstetrics and gynecology, surgery and intensive care, would be consolidated with West Suburban Medical Center, which is roughly four miles away. The company also said Westlake employees would be invited to apply for positions at the other two facilities owned by Pipeline, and that a shuttle from Melrose Park to West Suburban was "in the works." But the impending closure angered some community members, elected officials and organizations, claiming that Pipeline purchased the three facilities "with promises to 'save the hospital,'" Lilian Jimenez, associate director of PASO-West Suburban Action Project, a social justice organization, said in a statement. PASO was one of several groups that held a news conference ahead of a hearing with state lawmakers Friday, demanding answers as to why Pipeline is shuttering the facility. "We demand that Pipeline consult with the community before abruptly closing Westlake Hospital. We cant afford to lose a hospital that primarily serves the Latinx and Black communities," Jimenez said in a statement. "Losing this community anchor will exacerbate the health disparities that already exist in the Western Suburbs between low-income and wealthy communities." The Village of Melrose Park filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging that Pipeline and its leaders committed fraud with their purchase of Westlake, officials said. Pipeline called the suit "defamatory and false," according to the Chicago Tribune. Several elected officials, including state Reps. Kathleen Willis and Emanuel Chris Welch, plus Melrose Park Mayor Ron Serpico and Bellwood Mayor Andre Harvey, were expected to address the hospital's closure and the lawsuit at a news conference Monday afternoon. Police and family of a McHenry County Sheriffs deputy killed in the line of duty in Rockford last week are asking residents to line a procession route during his funeral this week. A visitation will be held for Deputy Jacob Keltner on Tuesday, March 12 at the DeFiore Funeral Home, located in the 10000 block of Dundee road in Huntley, according to the McHenry County Sheriffs Office. Public visitation will be held from 2 to 8 p.m., and a formal law enforcement walk-through will be held at 6 p.m., according to the department. Deputy Keltners funeral will be held on March 13 at Woodstock North High School, located in the 3000 block of Raffel Road. The funeral service will start at 10 a.m. The public is being encouraged to line the official procession route Wednesday to "show their support and honor Deputy Keltner," police said. (Full route below) Keltner was killed on Thursday as U.S. Marshals attempted to serve an arrest warrant at the Extended Stay Hotel in Rockford. The suspect, identified as 39-year-old Floyd Brown, fled the scene after the shooting and was later apprehended after a lengthy stand-off on Interstate 55 in central Illinois. A campaign has been launched to help pay off the mortgage of Keltner's home. If you wish to donate to the fundraising effort, click here. Full procession route: [[507026171, C]] Leave Woodstock High School north (right) on Raffel Road Turn west (left) on Charles Road Turn south (left) on Route 47 Turn southeast (left) on Route 14 Turn south (right) on Route 31 Turn west (right) on James R. Rakow Road James R. Rakow Road turns into Randall Road Turn west (right) on Algonquin Road Turn south (left) on Ruth Road Turn south (left) on Dundee Road End at DeFiore Funeral Home Jacob Keltner's wife, Becki Keltner, wrote a letter Monday to share just who her husband was. She asked to keep the letter in its entirety. We just happened to be a group of co-workers that like and believe in the cause, Conway said. We saw this as a cool opportunity, and we plan on doing it for many more years. The dozens of community and nonprofit theaters across the U.S. forced to abandon productions of "To Kill a Mockingbird" under legal threat were offered an olive branch in the form of Aaron Sorkin's script for the Broadway version. Scott Rudin, producer of the New York adaptation of Harper Lee's novel, had cited an agreement with Lee's estate in demanding that what he called improperly licensed productions be shut down. Following a backlash in recent days, Rudin said the theater companies could perform the Sorkin play as long as they use his adaptation. The offer is intended to "ameliorate the hurt caused here," Rudin said in a statement provided Saturday to The Associated Press. "For these theaters, this is the version that can be offered to them, in concert with our agreement with Harper Lee. We hope they will choose to avail themselves of the opportunity." Maybe, maybe not, said the artistic executive director of one of the affected theaters. "We are interested in the offer and intrigued," said Seth Miller of the Grand Theatre in Salt Lake City. But Rudin has yet to respond to questions that would need to be answered first, including how long the offer is good for, Miller said Saturday. At this point, he said, it's too late to stage it during the play's allotted three-week run, which was to begin March 26. Miller said he has yet to see the Sorkin version and would have to evaluate the script before making a decision. "I've heard good things about the show, I've heard people that weren't thrilled with some of the changes," Miller said. "I'm not going to commit to doing something I haven't read." Rudin, an Oscar-winning film producer ("No Country for Old Men"), had argued that Lee signed over to him exclusive worldwide rights to the title of the novel and that Rudin's current adaptation is the only version allowed to be performed. Lee died in 2016 at age 89. Rudin's demand forced the scuttling of adaptations in small venues such as the Mugford Street Players in Marblehead, Massachusetts, and the Kavinoky Theatre in Buffalo, New York, as well as in Salt Lake City and a planned United Kingdom and Ireland tour. They had licensed the rights for a different version, written by Christopher Sergel and licensed by the Dramatic Publishing Company, or DPC. The all-volunteer Curtain Call Theatre in Braintree, Massachusetts, said it received a letter threatening damages of up to $150,000, a burdensome amount for a venue where tickets for plays are $20 and $25 for musicals. The Grand Theatre's estimated loss is $20,000, "a considerable sum for a community theater," Miller said. Options are being weighed to fill the "Mockingbird" run. Rudin had defended his original position in a recent statement: "We hate to ask anybody to cancel any production of a play anywhere, but the productions in question as licensed by DPC infringe on rights licensed to us by Harper Lee directly," he said. "The Sergel play can contractually continue to be performed under set guidelines as described in detail in its own agreement with Harper Lee and as long as those guidelines are adhered to, we have no issue with the play having a long life." That sparked an online revolt with the rallying cry of #BoycottRudinplays. Chris Peterson, founder of the OnStage Blog, asked ticket buyers to avoid all current and coming Rudin productions on Broadway, including "Hillary and Clinton," ''Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus," ''King Lear," ''The Ferryman" and "The Book of Mormon." "If a theatre was consciously stealing creative license, that would be one thing," Peterson wrote online. "This is something else entirely. This is wrong." He added: "Prohibiting others to perform this piece goes against everything the novel is about in the first place." The Broadway adaptation by Sorkin, creator of TV's "The West Wing" and the Oscar-winning screenwriter of "The Social Network," stars Jeff Daniels as Atticus Finch, the Alabama lawyer who defends a black man from a false charge of raping a white woman. A spokesman for the American Association of Community Theatre said last week the organization would not weigh in on the dispute. ___ AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy in New York contributed to this report. On Monday, a public hearing was held in Hartford to tighten laws on gun storage safety. The bipartisan bill for gun storage safety would make it required for both loaded and unloaded guns to be safely stored in homes occupied by minors and people not allowed to legally have access to firearms. Ethan's Law would be a law requiring the safe storage of all firearms, whether loaded or unloaded in a home with a minor under the age of 18. Ethans Law is named after Ethan Song. Ethan was a Guilford teen who accidentally shot and killed himself last January at a friends house. The gun was only stored in a cardboard box in a bedroom closet. Ethans parents, Mike and Kristin Song, spoke before and at the hearing, pushing for a law that would require all guns to be stored properly. Ethans Law would change the definition of a minor in a home from age 16 to 18 when it comes to gun storage. Also, anyone who violates the safe storage laws could face criminal consequences. I want to tell you, although I may sound passionate, this is obviously the last place you would want to be as a parent. You wouldn't want to be standing up talking about how your child, through the negligence of guns and ammo stored in cardboard boxes and not monitored by an adult, is now no longer here physically with us, said Mike. Mark Barden, the founder of Sandy Hook Promise, who lost his son in the Sandy Hook shooting six years ago also spoke as an advocate for the law. If you identify as a responsible gun owner, then you agree that guns should be safely stored and out of the reach of young children and if you don't do that, then there should be accountability, said Barden. The Connecticut Citizens Defense League President, Scott Wilson, said in a statement in part If Connecticut lawmakers are serious about reducing gun accidents involving children, they need to develop a plan or implement one of several plans that exist already. The proposed law calls for punitive action, whereas our plan offers preventative safety measures that might actually protect children from harm or death." A General Dynamics employee faces charges after allegedly making a threat against the lives of several other employees, according to City of Groton police. Police said the investigation began on Friday when they received a complaint of what they described as a credible threat against several General Dynamics employees who work at the location at 75 Eastern Point Road. Investigators determined the threats were made by another employee who was overseas, identified as 39-year-old Edward Lesniak, of Coventry, Rhode Island, according to police. Police said investigators seized weapons from the suspects Rhode Island home, including a .50 caliber rifle, a shotgun and multiple handguns. Lesniak was arrested on Saturday when he tried to reenter the U.S. at JFK Airport in New York. He was charged as a fugitive from justice in New York and is pending extradition to Connecticut to face charges of first-degree threatening and breach of peace. He was held on a $200,000 bond. Police said this appears to be an isolated incident and no other arrests are expected. City of Groton police were assisted by General Dynamics Security, the New London County States Attorney, United States Customs Agents, New York Port Authority Police and Coventry, Rhode Island Police. The top member of the Connecticut Senate told NBC Connecticut that David Lehman, the nominee to lead the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, has not yet been approved by lawmakers. Sen. Martin Looney, (D New Haven), said a vote will not happen this week as Lehman continues to meet with members of the State Senate. I think what were trying to do is due diligence on this appointment. Obviously, the period during which he was active at Goldman Sachs is one at which there was grave concern about Goldman Sachs, Looney said. Lehman spent most of his professional career at Goldman, reaching leadership roles within the financial institution. He carried the titles of managing director and partner. When he was 28, Lehman worked in a part of Goldman that packaged securities to be sold and marketed to investors. Those securities included high-risk mortgages, which led to the financial crisis, and the loss of billions in investment and retirement accounts for millions of Americans. Goldman eventually paid $5 billion in fines for its role in the financial crisis. Lehman even testified before Congress to answer questions about his role in the meltdown of the American economy. Some Democrats have told Sen. Looney that they need more information before they go ahead with a vote on his confirmation. Looney said, We have to vet that fully and we have our legal team doing some research on that looking back at a lot of the studies and investigations that were conducted after the collapse in 2007 and 2008 and looking at Goldman Sachs role in it. Before the committee that decides on executive nominations, Lehman forcefully denied any role in knowingly packaging or selling junk investment products. He said, Any suggestion that I knew a product was going to be worthless and subsequently sold it to a client is completely and wholly untrue. Gov. Ned Lamont has also come to Lehmans defense. Even though Lehman only met Lamont shortly after the November 2018 election, Lamont has been his strongest ally. He told WNPR last week that Lehman was suffering, guilt by association, for having worked for Goldman. A vote on Lehman could happen next week, but not before Lehman has had contact with more lawmakers and more information is gathered on what exactly he did at the financial giant. Looney says he will not predict how the vote may go. Thats something I wouldnt jump ahead of, he said. I think thats something wed have to discuss collectively as a caucus. Its that time of year when you and your car can feel them. As winter winds down, potholes are popping up on main roads and in neighborhoods. In the Westville section of New Haven, Robin Gales told NBC Connecticut the potholes in her neighborhood are expanding. It sounds like your tire is going to pop because of the pressure because theyre so deep, Gales said. You cant even duck the potholes because you come into the opposite lane of the oncoming traffic, so its dangerous. Gales said she doesnt want any more damage to her care after spending more than $300 on Friday at an auto repair shop. I had to go get brakes done and something else that had to do with hitting the potholes, the alignment of your car, she said. The arrival of warmer weather after recent winter storms means there are potholes plaguing drivers through the city. Lot of potholes out there so just be patient well get to them, said Dave Lawlor from the New Haven Department of Public Works. Lawlors crew is one of four from DPW that took advantage of Mondays good weather to fill-in potholes in problem spots, like a stretch of Chapel Street near the Yale Bowl. We got new patch from New York, its more permanent patch it stays in a lot better and goes down easier so we should have no problem, Lawlor said. Fortunately for car owners in Gales neighborhood, someone used the SeeClickFix app to alert the DPW about the pesky potholes on Marvelwood Drive. You call your alderman and they do return your calls, but they dont run the city departments, Denise Botto from New Haven said. The city department tells your theyre coming out you have more faith in it. Residents can also report potholes by calling the Department of Public Works. While crews are asking for patients, they hope to respond to a complaint within 48-72 hours, Lawlor said. An employee for the United States Headquarters of Save the Children was killed in the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash that killed all 157 people on board Sunday morning, authorities said. The headquarters stationed in Fairfield, Connecticut announced that Tamirat Mulu Demessie served as Child Protection in Emergencies Technical Adviser of the organization, according to a Save the Children spokesperson. "[Demessie] worked tirelessly to ensure that vulnerable children are safe during humanitarian crises," the spokesperson said in a statement. "Our thoughts are with Tamirats family and the loved ones of the 156 other people who lost their lives in this terrible tragedy." The Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 was expected to travel from Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, to Nairobi, Kenya when it crashed nearly six minutes after take-off, authorities said. It is not clear what caused the airplane to go down. Save the Children is a nonprofit organization that aims to give girls and boys in the U.S. and around the world an education, protection from harm and a healthy start, according to their website. A man who drove for Uber in New York City has pleaded guilty to kidnapping a woman who fell asleep inside his vehicle and leaving her on the side of the road in Connecticut. Harbir Parmar pleaded guilty to federal charges Monday in U.S. District Court. The kidnapping happened in February 2018 after the woman requested a ride from Manhattan to her home in White Plains, New York. Prosecutors said Parmar groped the woman in the back seat and changed the address of her destination. He eventually left her on the side of I-95 in North Branford, Connecticut after she asked to be taken to a police station. Parmar also pleaded guilty to wire fraud for overcharging riders by inputting false information about their destinations. Prosecutors said the fraud amounted to thousands of dollars. Parmar faces up to life in prison at his June 24 sentencing. Deborah Moylan signed up to switch from Verizon to Sprint during a promotion that would save her hundreds of dollars on the bill. But she reached out to NBC Connecticut Responds for help when she ran into a problem with the payoff for the final Verizon bill. As a AAA member, Moylan enjoys all the perks. She wanted to save even more money and jumped at the chance to get a discount on her cell phone bill. It was part of a promotional offer through Sprint for AAA members 55 and older. Ive never been with anybody other than Verizon, said Deborah Moylan. The Sprint deal offered to pay off Moylans Verizon bill if she made the switch to Sprint. Her new monthly bill would be $70 for two cell phone lines. It required us to come into the store, make sure our current equipment was compatible, said Moylan. Moylan and her husband met with the sales associate to switch their phones over to the Sprint Network and submit the final Verizon bill to pay off. She thought it would be a simple process. He informed me that only the store manager can enter the information into the computer and he was out that day, said Moylan. So, the couple left the store and came back a second, then a third, and a fourth time where she says each visit they were met with more excuses about why Sprint couldnt follow through on the deal. We were told by the store manager that unfortunately when he tried to enter the information into their promotion, it didnt take it, said Moylan. When Moylan pushed back, she said the store manager and the sales associate referred the payment problem to the district manager. He called Moylan and told her that: The problem was not going to be taken care because there was no money in the budget, said Moylan. Frustrated over her $713 outstanding Verizon bill, she contacted NBC CT Responds for help. A Sprint spokesperson told us in a statement: In order to protect their privacy, we do not typically share information about our customers. However, I am pleased to report that our Customer Care team was able to connect with Ms. Moylan and find a resolution. After we reached out, Moylan confirmed to us that Sprint gave her a $713 credit to pay off her Verizon bill. I was thrilled. I was thrilled. It was perfect, Moylan said. In 1874, Berthe Morisot, considered one of the founding members of French Impressionists movement, reached a career milestone: one of her paintings entered the Musee de Luxembourg. "It was very important to her," Sylvie Patry, Chief Curator/Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and Collections at the Musee d'Orsay, Paris and Consulting Curator at the Barnes Foundation, said. "For a woman, it was even more important. For Morisot, it was recognition that she was a professional." Nearly 150 years after her death, Morisot returns to the museum world with an enthusiastic exploration of her work. "Berthe Morisot: Woman Impressionist," an international tour exploring Morisot's work, is now on display at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) through May 26. Despite Morisot's significance in her lifetime, her work is not as well-known as her Impressionist colleagues, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. With the ambition to re-establish Morisot in the canon, the exhibition traces the artists development in an era when women were not afforded the same professional opportunities as their male counterparts. Dallas Museum of Art It took a team of curators and museums to stage Morisot's renaissance. This exhibition featuring 72 of Morisot's works is co-curated by Patry and Nicole R. Myers, the DMA's Barbara Thomas Lemmon Senior Curator of European Art. It is co-organized by the DMA, the Musee national des beaux-arts de Quebec, the Barnes Foundation and the Musee d'Orsay. When this exhibition appears at the Musee d'Orsay, it will be the first exhibition devoted to Morisot at a French national museum since 1941. Most of Morisot's work is held in private collections. Myers admits she has never worked on a project where she didn't know where many of the works would be coming from when she sent out the loan requests letters in 2016. Private collectors responded unreservedly, eager to assist in the artist's resurrection. Morisot was both respected and criticized for her technique, her approach to her subjects and her bold style. "The critics could not figure out what the magic was, how she was able to build up the surface. These paintings, in general, reproduce terribly because they are activated by light and you approaching them and looking at them. They are ethereal," Myers said. The Art Institute of Chicago / Art Resource, NY Early in her career, Morisot painted her sisters with their children and affluent women dressing for events or wearing the fashions that defined the era's French femininity. Once she married, her favorite model was her daughter, Julie. In a painting of her toddler, Morisot left the little girl's right foot incomplete, detailed only with a flourish of brushwork as she experimented with leaving portions of her canvas unfinished. "This unplaced right foot is actually very much what Morisot was looking for: to express how fidgety her daughter was when she was painting her. So, it goes back to Morisot trying to express modern life, contemporary life and the reality of what it was to be a mother, an artist, a mixture of art and life," Cindy Kang, Associate Curator of the Barnes Foundation. Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY Several works feature Julie with her father, Eugene Manet. The brother of artist Edouard Manet, he considered an artistic career, but he became his wifes greatest champion. "He gave up his artistic ambitions," Patry said. "This is not a typical situation with the wife pursuing an artistic career while the husband gives it up." A series of father-daughter paintings show a shift in the relationship between landscape and human figures, with the landscape enveloping the figures. Morisot painted the women employed in her household, treating them with dignity. "These were incredibly intimate depictions of how one would live with the caretaker of her children, with the cooks setting the table or feeding the baby. Shes not painting herself as a mother with her child," Myers said. Musee Marmottan Monet, Paris, France / Bridgeman Images Her self-portrait at age 44 shows an artist at work, holding the tools of her trade. "The most captivating thing about this self-portrait is the gaze. She shows herself as this totally self-confident, poised professional painter. That's how she chose to share her image with the world," Myers said. As she pushed the boundaries of society's expectations of women as artists, Morisot began exploring the boundaries of space. Transitional places such as windows and balconies became the settings for her experimentation. "You can see in the works how she gradually begins to fuse indoor and outdoor spaces," Kang said. Melancholy looms over the final gallery in this exhibition. Morisot's final paintings reflect her attempts to capture a fleeting moment, but time was not on her side. She died at age 54, only months after her painting entered Musee de Luxembourg. To help patrons understand why they might not know more about Morisot, the exhibition explains what happened to the work of an artist who happened to be a woman. "We hope we won't have to do this again, that this is a definitive moment of introducing audiences in Europe and the United States to this incredibly talented painter, talented regardless of gender," Myers said. MORE: DMA.org North Texas-based airlines say they are monitoring the investigation into the Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed shortly after takeoff from the country's capital Sunday, killing all 157 people on board. In a statement to NBC 5, Boeing said it would send a technical team to the crash site to help uncover what caused the 737 MAX 8 aircraft to crash. "There's a lot of people out there that don't want to fly this airplane," said Denny Kelly, a retired pilot, flight instructor and aviation expert. "It's a shame because it's a good airplane." Fort Worth-based American Airlines and Dallas-based Southwest officials sent their condolences to the families and friends of those who were on Ethiopian Airlines flight 302. Both airlines have Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft in their fleets. AA said it follows investigations into all aircraft accidents and would continue to make safety its first priority for customers and team members. An AA spokesman said there are 24 MAX 8 aircraft in the American Airlines fleet and all were in operation Monday. Southwest said all 34 of its MAX 8 aircraft also remain in operation, and the airline remains "confident in the safety and airworthiness of our entire fleet of more than 750 Boeing 737 aircraft, and we don't have any changes planned to 737 MAX operations," a statement read. "It's really critical when you ground an airplane," said Kelly, who doesn't think American-based carriers should ground the planes yet. "Until they know what happened to this airplane for sure, no. But if it comes up that this MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) caused an accident again, absolutely!" Read the full statement from American Airlines below. "American Airlines extends our condolences to the families and friends of those on board Ethiopian Airlines flight 302. At this time there are no facts on the cause of the accident other than news reports. Our Flight, Flight Service, Tech Ops and Safety teams, along with the Allied Pilots Association (APA) and Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), will closely monitor the investigation in Ethiopia, which is our standard protocol for any aircraft accident. American continues to collaborate with the FAA and other regulatory authorities, as the safety of our team members and customers is our number one priority. We have full confidence in the aircraft and our crew members, who are the best and most experienced in the industry." Read the full statement from Southwest Airlines below. Our heart goes out to the families and loved ones of the passengers and Employees on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. As Southwest operates a fleet of 34 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, we have been in contact with Boeing and will continue to stay close to the investigation as it progresses. We remain confident in the safety and airworthiness of our entire fleet of more than 750 Boeing 737 aircraft, and we dont have any changes planned to 737 MAX operations. Chicago-based Boeing's stock plunged 8 percent Monday morning as aviation authorities in China, Indonesia and Ethiopia ordered airlines to ground their Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes. Click here to read more from our media partners at The Dallas Morning News to see how you can tell if you are on a 737 Max. NBC 5's Noelle Walker contributed to this report. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 11) -- Due to a demand for more workers in the country amid upcoming projects in infrastructure, the labor department plans to slow down the processing of applications of construction workers to go abroad. Labor chief Silvestre Bello said the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) will instruct agencies this week not to entertain incoming applications from skilled workers in the construction industry. This will affect engineers, electricians welders and other skilled workers who have not yet applied to work overseas. Meanwhile, those who have already forwarded their applications may be allowed to proceed, Bello clarified. "We are coming up with a governing board - the POEA governing board - to slow down'Yung mga hindi pa nag-aapply, hindi muna mae-entertain [Those who have not yet applied, will not be entertained yet]. Pero 'yung mga nag-apply na [But if they have applied], if they meet the requirements, we will allow them to go," he said. Bello said the government needs between 800,000 to one million construction workers every year to meet the demand for their "Build, Build, Build" program and the private sector's needs. Sonny Africa of local think tank IBON Foundation criticized the move, saying the government has yet to address the alleged influx of Chinese workers in the country. "Arbitrarily setting limits just because they say they need more work for construction and for infrastructure projects, I think that restricts freedom of movement, affects their free choice of where they want to work," Africa said. Bello maintained that the construction industry is not dominated by Chinese nationals. He added that these Chinese workers are mostly in the online gaming field or Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO). "'Yung mga sinasabi nilang may mga construction worker, kung meron man, illegal 'yan [If there are Chinese construction workers, that is illegal]because we don't allow foreign workers to do jobs that can be done by Filipinos. 'Yung alam ko lang sa POGO [Those that I know of are POGO]," he explained. CNN Philippines' correspondent Xianne Arcangel contributed to this report. Officers are searching for the man they say struck and killed three people while they were trying to change a flat tire on Interstate 635 in Dallas early Sunday morning. Police said not only did Jesus Chavarria-Vasquez, the driver of the vehicle that hit them, abandon the scene, but he left his truck with his injured 12-year-old son inside. Dallas police officers were dispatched to the 3200 block of I-635 around 3:30 a.m. Investigations revealed that a gray, 2005 Rav 4 was disabled on the eastbound side of the highway. Three of its passengers were standing outside of the car, attempting to fix a flat tire. The Dallas County Medical Examiner identified the three people killed Sunday as 22-year-old Hieu Doan, 23-year-old David Nguyen and 23-year-old Christopher Pham. Doan was one month away from celebrating his 23rd birthday. "He was really smart," said his sister Tammy Doan. "He had so much potential in him." His family said the Garland native was driving eastbound on I-635 in Dallas with a group of friends after they went to a concert when his SUV had a flat tire. As they attempted to fix the flat, police said Chavarria-Vasquez's Chevy Silverado that was traveling eastbound struck and killed all three passengers who were standing outside and also injured two people who were sitting inside the Rav 4. "Our whole family, his friends, we all love him so much," Doan's mother said in Vietnamese. "He's so young. He had a lot ahead of him." One of the people still inside the Rav 4 was transported to an area hospital with severe injuries, while police interviewed the other and took them to a local hospital. Officers said Chavarria-Vasquez fled the scene on foot. Police are continuing to look for him. His 12-year-old son was transported to a local hospital and reunited with his mother. Police did not say if he sustained severe injuries. Doan said her big brother earned a dual bioengineering degree from the University of Texas at Dallas last year. He wanted to become a pharmacy technician and build prosthetic limbs, she said. "Everyone loved him," she said. "He's a little dorky. That's what makes him like, probably the reason why. He's really helpful. He loves volunteering." The Doan family credited their Buddhist faith for their ability to withstand their loss and send this message to Chavarria-Vasquez. "We're pretty forgiving. We're not going to get mad at you for that," Tammy Doan said. "Please turn yourself in. We're not mad." When located, Chavarria-Vasquez will be charged with manslaughter and failure to stop and render aid, police said. According to police, Chavarria-Vasquez also has a black 2008 Cadillac with a Texas license plate JZS0584 and may also be driving a white work van. If you have any information regarding this incident or suspect Jesus Chavarria-Vasquez, please contact Vehicle Crimes Detective Jackson at 214- 671-0009. A Facebook fundraiser was started Sunday to help Doan's family with unforeseen expenses. NBC 5's Holley Ford contributed to this report. Sunday marked two years since the disappearance of a retired Dallas firefighter, and his daughter says she's not giving up the search. Michael Chambers retired from Dallas Fire-Rescue in 2008 after more than 35 years, according to family members. Chambers was 70 years old when he was last seen leaving a Quinlan Walmart near his home in Hunt County on March 10, 2017. Investigators found Chambers' wallet, but his license and some cash were missing. Chambers' cell phone was gone and there was a blood trail in his workshop where Chambers spent time fixing up old cars. Extensive searches around the area turned up no sign of Chambers. His daughter, Suzy Chambers Losoya, said she's still actively looking for her dad. "He needs to be found, he needs to be brought home and laid to rest with dignity," Losoya said. "We need closure." The case has puzzled investigators from the beginning. While investigators confirmed there was blood in Chambers' workshop, they didn't believe it was enough to indicate a sign of a struggle. Surveillance video from the Walmart did not indicate Chambers was in trouble or was followed, according to investigators. Over the last two years, the Hunt County Sheriff's Office has said it was possible Chambers became injured in his workshop and walked away looking for help. Investigators have indicated it could be possible Chambers was taken against his will. Last year, Hunt County Sheriff Randy Meeks said Chambers may have died by suicide, but investigators insist it is only a theory. Losoya is working with private investigator Philip Klein in her efforts to find her father. Klein told NBC 5 he believed Chambers was murdered. Klein said he's uncovered new evidence and has requested the Texas Office of the Attorney General review the case. "Someone knows," Losoya said. "People don't disappear and someone knows what happened to dad." Klein said his team will launch additional searches this year in hopes of finding Chambers. "I do not want people to forget because he deserves so much better than this," Losoya said. Anyone with information in regards to Chambers' disappearance is asked to call the Hunt County Sheriff's Office at 903-453-6809 or email jhaines@huntcounty.net. A newborn baby was found dead in a ditch in South Dakota, but the case went cold. Then a detective picked up the case again 28 years after the crime, NBC News reports. "This case felt solvable, it always felt like we were so close," retired Sioux Falls Detective Michael Webb told NBC News. Ten years after he picked up the case, the baby's mother has been arrested and faces murder charges. The key was DNA and a searchable database that led to a match between the mother and the newborn. DNA technology company Parabon NanoLabs found two possible genetic familial matches using GEDMatch.com, a free open-source website that allows people to upload their genetic information retrieved from genetic testing companies like 23andMe and Ancestry to find other relatives or for research. Results from the open-source database together with old wedding and birth announcements allowed investigators to build "limited" family trees, eventually leading them to Theresa Bentaas the baby's biological mother, who still after nearly four decades lived in Sioux Falls. A portion of Interstate 5 will have a new speed limit for the next three years as crews continue construction on the freeways carpool lanes, according to San Diego Association of Governments. Interstate 5s speed limit will be reduced from 65 miles per hour to 55 miles per hour on the eight-mile stretch from Manchester Avenue in Encinitas to Palomar Airport Road in Carlsbad. The new speed limit will take effect beginning Monday and continue through the completion of the construction, which is estimated to finish in 2022. SANDAG said the change is to ensure the safety of the traveling public, and construction and maintenance professionals. Drivers will be alerted when they enter into this eight-mile zone and when they leave it with posted signs, according to SANDAG. Speed radar detectors will also be posted in the area to help remind drivers of their speeds. The California Highway Patrol will monitor the area during construction, where drivers could receive citations over $1,000 for speeding, driving aggressively, texting, or other forms of distracted driving. Interstate 5 will see eight weeks of construction to widen its carpool lanes. NBC 7's Joe Little is in Encinitas with more on the upgrades. The construction of new carpool lanes on I-5 is part of Build NCC, a collaborative infrastructure upgrade by SANDAG, Caltrans, and the U.S. Department of Public Transportation. What to Know Long Beach police arrests fourth person suspected in the 2018 murder of Imani Keith. Long Beach police detectives asked anyone with information regarding the shooting to call them at (562) 570-7244. Police in Long Beach Sunday announced the arrest of a fourth person in connection with the shooting death of a 21-year-old woman in June 2018. Homicide detectives on Saturday arrested Nyla Hall, 21, of Los Angeles in connection with the shooting death of Imani Keith, the Long Beach Police Department reported. Hall was arrested on suspicion on being an accessory after the fact and residential burglary. She was being held in lieu of $1 million bail. "Detectives believe she had knowledge of the murder and assisted Rodney Scott with the intent he might avoid prosecution," according to a news statement. "Through their investigation detectives also discovered Hall was part of the 2018 residential burglary in Los Angeles." Authorities on Thursday arranged for the custody transport of Scott, a resident of Los Angeles, from the California Correctional Center in Susanville to the Long Beach Jail behind the belief that Scott is responsible for the June 28 shooting death of Keith, the Long Beach Police Department reported. They also believe Scott is responsible for a 2018 residential burglary in Los Angeles and is guilty of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. Scott was being held in lieu of $2 million bail, police said. On Friday, police arrested Richard Scott, 21, of Los Angeles, who was booked on suspicion of being an accessory after the fact and was being held on $1 million bail. Police did not disclose if Rodney Scott was related to Richard Scott. Christina Collier of Los Angeles, 23 was also arrested on suspicion of the same charge and was also being held in lieu of $1 million bail. Dana Moore of Los Angeles, 49, was arrested on suspicion of the same charge and being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm. She was also being held in lieu of $1 million bail. David Thomas of Los Angeles, 24, was arrested on suspicion of residential burglary and was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail. Detectives believe Thomas was also responsible for the same 2018 residential burglary in Los Angeles that Rodney Scott was allegedly a part of. Detectives believe Richard Scott, Moore, Collier -- and now Hall -- had knowledge of the murder and assisted Rodney Scott with the intent he might avoid prosecution. "Search warrants were served in several residences in City of Los Angeles, where five firearms were recovered, along with additional evidence,'' police said. "Detectives believe Rodney Scott, David Thomas, and victim Keith were known to each other, and the shooting was the result of a dispute between them." On June 28, at about 12:10 a.m., officers were dispatched to the 1100 block of Via Wanda regarding a shooting. When officers arrived they found Keith with a gunshot wound to the upper torso. She later died from her gunshot wound about 3 p.m. at an area hospital. Long Beach police detectives asked anyone with information regarding the shooting to call them at (562) 570-7244. What to Know Mount Waterman in a ski area in La Canada Flintridge. The ski area closed this weekend due to snow accumulation and unsafe conditions to operate. Both of the hikers rescued were treated and airlifted to a trauma center for further assistance. Two hikers were rescued after a fall on icy Mount Waterman in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles. Video posted Monday by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Special Enforcement Bureau shows the helicopter hoist rescue. The rescue team saved two hikers, who fell approximately 100 feet in icy conditions on Mount Waterman in the La Canada Flintridge area. According to Altadena Sheriff's Station, the male hiker from Riverside possibly broke his ankle and the female hiker from Anaheim Hills possibly fractured her ribs when one victim slipped on ice to help the other victim. The hikers used a personal satellite-based locator to request help. They were on a trail approximately one mile off Highway 2 when Sheriff's Air Rescue 5 responded, according to Altadena Sheriff's Station. After two hours the hikers were located and airlifted to a hospital. The hikers were a part of a 30 person hiking group and are expected to recover. The ski area closed Sunday due to snow accumulation and unsafe conditions. Mount Waterman is scheduled to open once again for St. Patrick's Day Weekend. The Altadena Sheriff's Station reccomends people to pack extra equipment in case of any emergency. Santa Anita will reopen its main dirt track for limited training Monday nearly a week after the historic racetrack was closed to training and racing in the wake of 21 horses dying since Dec. 26. Horses can only jog or gallop on the dirt; no timed workouts will be allowed. "This track is in outstanding condition and it's ready for training," veteran track superintendent Dennis Moore said Saturday. The racetrack remains closed indefinitely for racing. Moore, along with Mick Peterson of the University of Kentucky's Agricultural Equine Program, has spent the last few days visually inspecting the one-mile oval, as well as analyzing soil samples and test data. "It's been very helpful that we have not had any significant rain since this past Wednesday," Moore said. That's allowed the dirt to be roto-tilled and aerated repeatedly in order to get a uniform consistency on the track's top cushion, which is six inches deep. Peterson has done testing that simulates the force and speed generated by the leading leg of a thoroughbred running at full speed. He's gathered data that shows firmness, cushioning, grip and consistency from locations around the oval. "It clearly indicates our cushion is right where it needs to be," Moore said. Santa Anita announced new rules to scrutinize horses training on its racetrack and add a director of equine welfare in an effort to mitigate the series of catastrophic breakdowns. The inner training track, which has not had any breakdowns, was open for horses to jog and gallop only on Saturday. It was supposed to be a huge day of racing Saturday at the historic track. But the San Felipe Stakes for 3-year-old Kentucky Derby hopefuls and the Santa Anita Handicap for older horses were scuttled when the track was closed on Tuesday. Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of The Stronach Group, said the new safety and welfare measures will take effect when racing resumes in the coming weeks. "What they're trying to do is the right thing," said Jim Cassidy, president of the California Thoroughbred Trainers. "Just make sure everybody is accountable for their actions." The new rules announced by Santa Anita's owner TSG include requiring trainers to apply to hold timed workouts for their horses at least 24 hours in advance. Officials believe that will give track veterinarians time to identify potential at-risk horses through their past performances, workout date and physical inspection. Cassidy lost a filly from his 40-horse stable after she was fatally injured on the turf course during the meet that began on Dec. 26. He said she broke her hind leg around a turn. "I'm sure she took a bad step," he said. "She never really had injuries at all." TSG says it has hired extra vets to observe all horses entering and exiting the dirt and turf course during morning training hours. The morning training schedule will change, too. The first 15 minutes of training after the dirt track opens, and each time its surface is renovated, will be reserved for horses completing official timed workouts. Officials say it will reduce the number of horses on the track at the same time and create a safer environment. TSG plans to hire an accredited vet as the new director of equine welfare. That person will lead a rapid response team for injuries and conduct transparent investigations into the injury while communicating the findings to the racing and general public. Santa Anita will require veterinary records of a horse to follow that animal through any ownership or trainer change. A similar rule is in effect at Florida's Gulfstream Park, which is also owned by TSG. "This has worked very well at Gulfstream Park," Ritvo said. "There was some pushback from the trainers at first, but this is the best thing for the horse." Cassidy sees no problem with keeping a horse and its vet records together. "Most of these horses stay in the same hands," he said. Ritvo said TSG will invest in any new technology or equipment that will help discover pre-existing injuries in horses. Cassidy said any time a horse has an issue, trainers typically use X-rays, MRIs and nuclear scans to find a cause, as well as having their own vets and track vets look at the animals. Jockeys also share information about horses they exercise in the mornings or ride in the afternoons. "These horses change from day to day to day. We look at them every single day," Cassidy said. "You're always going to have injuries." Cassidy described the mood around Santa Anita's stable area as "very somber." "We will press on," he said, "and hopefully all of these new changes will make a difference." Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg said Sunday night that he and Vice President Mike Pence have different views of their Christian faith and that he doesn't understand Pence's loyalty to President Donald Trump. The mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said his feeling "is that the Scripture is about protecting the stranger, the prisoner, the poor person, and that idea of welcome. That's what I get in the Gospel when I'm in church." He said Pence's view "has a lot more to do with sexuality, a certain view of rectitude." Mayor Pete Buttigieg on VP Mike Pence: "This guy teamed up with the least, I mean by most of our measures, I think, the least Christian figure imaginable to be running for president." #SXSW #SXSW2019 pic.twitter.com/tEuqXZvrZG The Hill (@thehill) March 11, 2019 Buttigieg said he is puzzled by Pence's strong support for the president. "How could Pence allow himself to become the cheerleader of the porn star presidency?" and added, "Is it that he stopped believing in Scripture, when he started believing in Donald Trump?" Buttigieg made the comments at a CNN town hall in Austin, Texas. Pence is a former Indiana governor and congressman. Whos Running for President in 2020? The race for the 2020 presidential election is underway, and the field of Democratic candidates is packed. Those who have announced presidential bids include a vice president, senators, House members and three mayors. As for the GOP, a single Republican has announced his bid to challenge President Donald Trump for the party nomination: former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, who ran for vice president (and lost) in 2016 on the Libertarian party ticket. Click the photos to learn more The House Committee on Homeland Security Thursday expressed great concern about a secret list used by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents to stop, detain, question and search 59 reporters, attorneys, and immigration advocates. In a letter to CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, committee chairman Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., said CBPs targeting (of) journalists, lawyers, and advocatesraises questions about possible misuse of CBPs border search authority and requires oversight to ensure the protection of Americans legal and constitutional rights. The Committees letter -- and other harsh criticism about the CBP surveillance program -- was prompted by a detailed report on the secret surveillance published Friday by NBC 7 Investigates. To read the exclusive investigation, click here. Rep. Thompson and Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., who chairs the panels Subcommittee on Border Security, set a March 14 deadline for CBP to provide them with a copy of the list of individuals subject to surveillance. Thompson and Rice also requested copies of any dossiers on those private citizens, details on how many times those individuals have been stopped for questioning by CBP, and other information. The Committee also expressed concern that some individuals have been required to allow CBP officers to search their cell phones before being released from detention. PHOTOS: Leaked Documents Show Government Tracking Journalists, Immigration Advocates CBP Thursday issued a statement on the controversial program, describing it as a necessary response to assaults against Border Patrol agents in November 2018 and January of this year. CBPs Assistant Commissioner of Public Affairs, Andrew Meehan, said the agency identified individuals who may have information relating to the instigators and/or organizers of these attacks. Meehan said efforts to gather this type of information are a standard law enforcement practice, and assured critics that, CBP does not target journalists for inspection based on their occupation or their reporting. CBP also revealed that its Office of Professional Responsibility launched an internal inquiry of the surveillance program last month, to ensure that all appropriate policies and practices were followed. The Office of Inspector General in the Department of Homeland Security is also involved in that internal review. But that internal inquiry was apparently started after NBC 7 Investigates first questioned the agency about the controversial program and confirmed that it had obtained internal documents about the surveillance effort. NBC 7 first contacted the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection and other agencies involved in the intelligence gathering effort on Feb. 27. One of the immigration activists subject to government surveillance and included in the documents obtained by NBC 7 strongly criticized the secret CBP program. What is especially concerning is the number of human rights defenders and journalists who are being interrogated and added to this list, which is only designed to intimidate them and discourage them from speaking out, said Alex Mensing of the pro-immigrant group Pueblo Sin Fronteras. Its upsetting to know the U.S. government is using its resources to monitor human rights defenders and journalists who are doing their work, Mensing said. Some of the people listed in a federal database attempting to gain information on the migrant caravan are speaking out. NBC 7's Danny Freeman has more. During a visit to San Diego Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom denounced the dossier project as a Big Brother abuse of government power. Newsom also contrasted CBPs extensive surveillance of private citizens with the governments flawed effort to keep track of immigrant children separated from their parents at the border. I mean the irony of that shouldnt be lost on anyone, Newsom told NBC 7. That we have better data collection against journalists than we do of children and their parents. Thats America in 2019. Its a disgrace. Three local congressmen, all Democrats, also criticized the surveillance program. The Trump Administration should not be secretly tracking law-abiding journalists, lawyers, and advocates to stop them from simply doing their jobs, said freshman Rep. Mike Levin, 49th District. This is a stunning abuse of power and potentially unconstitutional. Rep. Scott Peters, 52nd District, called the dossier collection an egregious abuse of power and another attempt by the Trump Administration to undermine the freedom of the press, which is vital to our democracy. Peters said Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen should be focused on keeping track of (immigrant) children separated from their parents (and the border), not people lawfully doing their jobs. Rep. Juan Vargas, 51st District, described himself as deeply troubled by the reports of U.S. and Mexican officials targeting journalists, attorneys, and immigration advocates at our southern border. NBC 7 Investigates requested a comment from Republican Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, 50th District, an outspoken critic of illegal immigration and staunch supporter of President Trump and his efforts to build a border wall. Hunters office has not replied to that request of comment on the CBP surveillance program. The controversy also reverberated in Mexico City, where that countrys secretary of foreign relations denied any involvement in the surveillance program. The government of Mexico disapproves of all acts of illegal espionage against any person, domestic or foreign, the foreign secretary said. The Mexican government does not conduct illegal surveillance on anyone, for any type or category of activity. But the Foreign Relations Office also pledged to ask the U. S. government, via official channels, to clarify any possible cases of illegal spying. Officials said they received calls of shots fired in that general neighborhood about 90 minutes before Mirandas body was found. Police have spoken to more than one person who heard the gunshots, but have not identified any witnesses, police said. What to Know Thousands of pounds of Chef Boyardee microwavable bowls have been recalled because they're labeled as chicken and rice but have beef ravioli The products also have some allergens -- milk and wheat -- that are not mentioned among the ingredients on the labels No adverse reactions have been confirmed; anyone who has the affected products is advised to throw them away or return them A Pennsylvania-based company has recalled nearly 3,000 pounds of Chef Boyardee products because they were labeled as chicken and rice but are beef ravioli. Conagra Brands, Inc., said Saturday it was pulling 2,871 pounds of 7.5 oz. canned microwavable Chef Boyardee bowls because of the misbranding. The products may also contain some allergens -- milk and wheat -- not represented on the label. The affected products were shipped to retail locations in New York, Florida and Kentucky, officials say. Multiple consumers complained, which is how the issues were discovered; there have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions. Anyone who has purchased the affected bowls is advised to throw them out or return to them to the place of purchase. Consumers with questions about the recall can reach out to Danielle Richardson, Conagra's manager of quality, at 1-800-921-7404. For more details from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service, click here. Authorities in Florida say a woman shot her boyfriend during an argument about his loud snoring. News outlets report that when the Brevard County Sheriff's deputies arrived at the couple's home last week they were told the shooting was accidental. But as they investigated, they found that the shooting happened during an argument between 47-year-old Lorie Morin and her boyfriend. As the argument escalated, deputies say Morin got a shotgun and fired at her boyfriend. Deputies say the two were fighting about his snoring. The man was taken to a hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. Morin faces attempted murder and aggravated battery charges. She's being held without bond in the Brevard County Jail. Records didn't list a lawyer. Anyone can own and operate a plastic surgery center in Florida, even if theyre not a doctor. But that could change. A new bill that passed a Senate committee on Monday would require the person operating a plastic surgery center to be a medical doctor. The bill would also give the state more power to revoke a doctors license. Senator Anitere Flores, R-Miami, wrote the legislation after the NBC 6 Investigators were first to uncover the deaths of at least ten women since 2010 - who died after having plastic surgery. The issue has since received national attention. Really the reporting that weve seen over the past few months and really over the past few years has been incredibly eye-opening and its high time something get done, Senator Flores said. The new bill would enact a number of changes. It would require all surgery centers to be registered to a medical doctor. It would allow the states Board of Medicine to revoke a center or doctors registration in the case of serious injury or death, and it would require a clean record for five years before anyone can open a surgery center. People are coming to South Florida to get cosmetic surgery done and they are dying and we need to fix that problem, Senator Flores said. Plastic surgeon Dr. Michael Salzhaur, better known as Dr. Miami, also spoke in front of the Senate Committee on Health Policy Monday afternoon. He supports the bill, along with the Florida Society of Plastic Surgeons. Anything we can do to strengthen patient safety, Im for, Dr. Salzhaur said. He also believes the bill could go even further and require tougher restrictions on doctors involved in a death. Its kind of like grounding the fleet when theres an airplane crash, Dr. Salzhaur said. I feel like that office or that operating room should just stop for two weeks and then do a thorough assessment. The Health Policy Committee passed the bill Monday. However, the legislation still has to be passed in at least one other committee hearing before it can go to the Senate floor for a vote. This is a real black eye on Florida and specifically South Florida and we have to make it stop, Senator Flores said. The bill has received some opposition from those in the anesthesia industry. The bill requires stricter protocols for putting a patient under before surgery that, some say, would cost more money. The Florida Association of Nurse Anesthetists released a statement saying in part, While we applaud the Senators efforts to protect patients, we are extremely concerned about a provision in her legislation that would impose restrictions on Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists that are not required in any other healthcare setting or state law. The deaths uncovered by the NBC6 Investigators led to a worldwide study in 2016. It found people were twenty times more likely to die after a Brazilian Butt Lift than any other kind of plastic surgery. The study led doctors to issue new recommendations on how the Brazilian Butt Lift procedure should be performed. Also, in 2017, the reporting done by the NBC6 Investigators led a group of surgeons from around the country to travel to Miami to study cadavers to learn additional steps to make the industry safer. Their findings are expected to be released later this year. A rental car company with hundreds of customer complaints is now under investigation in two states. NBC 6 Responds first started looking into Executive Car Rental, Inc. after a customer called us and reported she had waited weeks for the company to return a $250 deposit. Terri Banks rented a car from the companys Fort Lauderdale location in September. The company has a total of 16 locations in Michigan and Florida. She says the rental experience was not a problem at first. The car was fine, it was a new car. There was not a problem with the car, Terri said. But her problem started when she waited to get back her deposit. She says when she rented the car she was told by an employee she would receive it within 10 days of returning the vehicle. By the time she called NBC 6 Responds she says she had waited more than a month for the money to be returned to her account. When we looked online, we found reviews filled with complaints like hers. One renter wrote, It's been 5 months, can I please have my deposit? Another saying, 18 Business days later and still no refund on my deposit. In January, the Michigan attorney generals office sent a notice of intended action and a cease and desist order to the car rental company. The Michigan attorney generals office says they have received more than 400 complaints and that Many of the departments concerns relate to damage deposits of $250 or more that were allegedly not returned timely. In some instances, deposits were either not returned or were withheld for allegedly questionable reasons. Since putting the company on notice, a spokesperson with the Michigan attorney generals office sent us this update stating Executive Car Rental has responded to the notice of intended action. Monday, Feb. 4, Michigan Attorney General staff met with Executive Car Rentals owner and attorney for two hours. It was a productive conversation and the parties are exploring the potential for an assurance agreement that will address consumer concerns while improving the companys business operations. More information will be forthcoming following further negotiations. We reached out to the Florida attorney generals office to find out if they were also looking into the company. A spokesperson told us by email, Since January 2018, we have received more than 160 complaints about Executive Car Rental. We currently have an active consumer protection investigation. After stopping by the companys Fort Lauderdale location, we received a phone call from CEO Mark Waad. He told us over the phone that he had been in touch with Michigan officials and that he was personally looking into the operations at all Florida locations. He blamed many complaints on the miscommunication of the companys policies and acknowledged the company is dealing with a customer service issue. Terri says she was not able to get her money back after repeated phone calls to the company. I needed to get that money and put it back into my account, Banks said. But a week after we called the company, the money was back in her account. She thinks the company should pay back deposits like other companies do. As soon as you turn the car back in they only charge you what the rental was and the rest of that deposit just drops off or the authorization drops off your credit card, she said. A reputed Connecticut mobster who authorities believe is the last surviving person of interest in the largest art heist in U.S. history is nearing the end of a four-year prison sentence in an unrelated weapons case. Robert Gentile, 82, is scheduled to be released from the Fort Dix federal prison in New Jersey next weekend on March 17. Federal prosecutors have said they believe Gentile has information about the still-unsolved 1990 heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. In the early-morning hours of March 18, 1990, two men disguised as police officers stole an estimated $500 million worth of artwork, including works by Rembrandt, Manet and Johannes Vermeer. The art has never been recovered. Gentile has denied knowing anything about it. His Manchester home was also searched three times and investigators never found any evidence. He pleaded guilty in the weapons case stemming from federal agents' seizure of firearms and ammunition from his Manchester home. He cannot possess firearms as a convicted felon. In 2017, the museum doubled its reward to $10 million for information leading to the return of the 13 masterpieces. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is the homeland "only of the Jewish people," in a new jab at the country's Arab minority ahead of April's election. Netanyahu on Sunday addressed "slightly confused people" after an Israeli celebrity defended the rights of Israel's Arab population. Arabs comprise about 20 percent of Israel's 9 million residents. They have full citizenship rights but have faced decades of discrimination. On Saturday, actress Rotem Sela denounced Netanyahu's frequent talking point that his political rival will form a government with Arab political parties. "When the hell will someone in this government tell the public that Israel is a country of all its citizens," Sela wrote on Instagram. Netanyahu responded: Israel "is the national state, not of all its citizens, but only of the Jewish people." On Instagram, Israeli actress and "Wonder Woman" star Gal Gadot shot back at Netanyahu for his seemingly exclusionary comments, according to NBC News. "It is not a matter of right or left, Arabs or Jews, secular or religious," Gadot said. "It is a matter of dialogue, of dialogue for peace, and of our tolerance for each other. It is our responsibility to shine hope and light for a better future for our children." What to Know Hundreds of police officers swarmed a Westchester County hospital amid unconfirmed reports of a gunman, officials say Investigators found no evidence of a gunman at NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville; no one was found to be injured, either Officials reviewed hospital security footage, but have not yet found any evidence of a gunman, authorities said Police rushed to a Westchester hospital late Sunday after two patients reported seeing a man with a shotgun, but after hours of searching and reviewing security camera footage, officials concluded it was a false alarm. "There are no victims and at this point, we don't believe there was a suspect in the hospital who was armed," said Bronxville Police Chief Christopher Satriale. Cops had responded to a report of a man with a gun at around 8:45 p.m., but no shooter or evidence of a gunman was found at NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, officials said at a press conference at the scene. No one was found to be injured, either. Satriale said two patients staying in the same room on the sixth floor reported to nurses that they believe they saw a man with a gun, and the hospital was quickly locked down. Authorities searched the hospital, but found no evidence of any danger or threat, Satriale said. Officials reviewed survillance footage and again found no evidence. We were aided tremendously by the video tapes, Satriale said. The video tape was clear and in that area at that time on that floor there was not an armed person. The hospital asked people not to come to the hospital Sunday night unless it was an emergency. No evacuations were ordered. "We are continuing to gather details about tonights developments and will provide an update when we can," the hospital said in a statement. Patrol cars lined up outside the hospital and the entrances were blocked off for several blocks with local, county and state police. Satriale was asked if the patients might have made up the report maliciously. He said no and called them "credible witnesses" who thought the information they were providing was accurate. "They might just be wrong in what they thought they observed," he said. Some visitors inside the hospital's waiting room told NBC 4 New York they were asked to move into an emergency room with several other patients during the investigation. A few neighbors saw the commotion and heard the sirens and came to see what was going on. "It's going to be a scary situation," said Matthew Dicicco, who lives nearby and works as a nurse but not at Lawrence. Nearly two years ago, a shooter opened fire in a Bronx hospital. Henry Bello, a doctor and former Bronx-Lebanon Hospital employee, entered the hospital on June 30, 2017, and started shooting a AR-15 rifle. Bello killed a doctor and wounded five members of the medical staff and a patient before taking his own life. An unvaccinated 6-year-old Oregon boy was hospitalized for two months for tetanus and almost died of the bacterial illness after getting a deep cut while playing on a farm, according to a case study published Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 2017 case is the first case of pediatric tetanus in Oregon in more than 30 years and alarmed infectious disease experts who said tetanus is almost unheard of in the U.S. since widespread immunization began in the 1940s. The child received an emergency dose of the tetanus vaccine in the hospital, but his parents declined to give him a second dose or any other childhood shots after he recovered, the paper said. "When I read that, my jaw dropped. I could not believe it. That's a tragedy and a misunderstanding, and I'm just flabbergasted," said Dr. William Schaffner, an expert in infectious diseases and chair at the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. "This is an awful disease, but ... we have had a mechanism to completely prevent it, and the reason that we have virtually no cases anymore in the United States is because we vaccinate, literally, everyone." Doctors in Portland, Oregon, who treated the child declined to provide any further information about the family at a news conference Friday, citing medical privacy laws. It was the first time that Dr. Judith Guzman-Cottrill, the pediatric infectious disease expert who treated the child, had ever seen tetanus because of widespread vaccination against it in the U.S. When the boy arrived at the emergency department, his muscle spasms were so severe he could not talk, could not open his mouth and was struggling to breathe, she said. "We had a hard time taking care of this child watching him suffer and it is a preventable disease," Guzman-Cottrill said. News about the tetanus case comes as lawmakers in Oregon and Washington are considering bills that would end non-medical exemptions for routine childhood vaccines as the Pacific Northwest weathers its third month of a measles outbreak. Seventy people in southwest Washington, most of them unvaccinated children, have been diagnosed with the highly contagious viral illness since Jan. 1, as well as a handful of people in Portland, Oregon. Unlike measles, which is a virus, someone who has survived a case of tetanus is not immune and can get the illness again if they remain unvaccinated. Tetanus also isn't transmitted person-to-person by sneezing or coughing like the measles, but instead comes from bacterial spores that are found in the environment. Tetanus spores exist everywhere in the soil. When an unvaccinated person gets a deep, penetrating wound, those spores can invade the cut and begin producing the bacteria that causes the illness. The tetanus bacterium secretes a toxin that gets into the bloodstream and latches onto the nervous system. Anywhere from three to 21 days after infection, symptoms appear: muscle spasms, lockjaw, difficulty swallowing and breathing and seizures. The disease can cause death or severe disability in those who survive, Schaffner said. About 30 people contract tetanus each year nationwide, according to the CDC, and 16 people died of it between 2009 and 2015. It's rare among children; those over 65 are the most vulnerable. In the case in Oregon, the boy cut himself on the forehead while playing, and his family stitched up the wound themselves. Six days later, he began clenching his jaw, arching his neck and back and had uncontrollable muscle spasms. When he began to have trouble breathing, his parents called paramedics and he was transported by air to Oregon Health & Science University's Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland. When he arrived, he asked for water but could not open his mouth. The child was sedated, put on a ventilator and cared for in a darkened room while wearing earplugs because any stimulation made his pain and muscle spasms worse. His fever spiked to almost 105 degrees (40.5 Celsius), and he developed high blood pressure and a racing heartbeat. Forty-four days after he was hospitalized, the boy was able to sip clear liquids. Six days later, he was able to walk a short distance with help. After another three weeks of inpatient rehabilitation and a month at home, he could ride a bike and run a remarkable recovery, experts said. The child's care not including the air ambulance and inpatient rehabilitation cost nearly $1 million, about 72 times the mean for a pediatric hospitalization in the U.S., the paper noted. "The way to treat tetanus is you have to outlast it. You have to support the patient because this poison links on chemically and then it has to be slowly metabolized," Schaffner said. Cases of tetanus have dropped by 95 percent in the U.S. since widespread childhood vaccination and adult booster shots became routine nearly 80 years ago; deaths have dropped 99 percent. The CDC recommends a five-dose series of tetanus shots for children between the ages of 2 months and 6 years and a booster shot every 10 years for adults. What to Know If the funding bill is not passed, Three Mile Island will begin the process of closing in June. In total, Pennsylvania customers paid more than $14 billion for electricity in 2018, including distribution charges and taxes. Pennsylvania, the nation's No. 2 nuclear power state, has five nuclear power plants. Legislation designed to pump hundreds of millions of ratepayer dollars into Three Mile Island and Pennsylvania's other nuclear power plants was introduced Monday and could usher in heated debate over whether the plants deserve what critics call a bailout. The debate in Pennsylvania's Capitol will run up against a June 1 deadline in the nation's No. 2 nuclear power state. That's when Three Mile Island's owner, Chicago-based Exelon Corp., has said it will begin the monthslong process of shutting down the financially struggling plant that was the site of a terrifying partial meltdown in 1979. As the anniversary of the incident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant comes upon us, we look back at the events that transpired. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Thomas Mehaffie, R-Dauphin, said the plan is projected to cost ratepayers around $500 million a year by requiring that all five nuclear power plants get preferential treatment like what solar power, wind power and a few other niche energy sources received under a 2004 state law. In total, roughly 6 million Pennsylvania electric customers paid more than $14 billion for electricity in 2018, including distribution charges and taxes, according to federal data. By all accounts, three of five nuclear power plants in Pennsylvania are profitable for the foreseeable future, and there is no plan to prematurely shut down all five. But the plants' owners warn that the same market dynamics that make Three Mile Island unprofitable will eventually affect Pennsylvania's entire nuclear fleet. They contend that the legislation ensures the plants' survival against hostile market conditions, sustains "carbon-free" energy sources in the fight against global warming and, should all five shut down at once, prevents electricity bills from rising. "So the Legislature can save Pennsylvania consumers money, keep our nuclear power plants open and keep our air clean," Mehaffie said at a news conference Monday at a Harrisburg-area Ironworkers hall. Without nuclear power, the regional grid will lack a hedge for electricity bills against a growing natural gas power sector should prices spike, Mehaffie and others say. Under the proposed legislation, regulated utilities would bill electricity customers for the cost of buying nuclear power credits at a premium similar to what the utilities pay wind and solar producers now. Mehaffie estimated that his plan would cost the average household $1.77 a month. An amount, he said, that pales in comparison to the multibillion-dollar hit to Pennsylvania's economy if the five plants shut down at once. That would push the average household bill up by $2.39 per month, he said, although that scenario envisions no new power sources replacing the plants. Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. projects that its Beaver Valley nuclear power plant in western Pennsylvania will become unprofitable in 2021 and has said it will shut it down by then, unless the state rescues it. Independent analysts do not predict much effect, if any, on ratepayer bills if Three Mile Island and Beaver Valley shut down. What they foresee, however, is nuclear power being replaced by electricity from carbon-emitting natural gas- and coal-fired plants that typically run below capacity in a saturated market. The bill's future in the Republican-controlled Legislature is unclear. Opponents are lining up and include anti-nuclear activists, the AARP, large industrial electricity buyers and the state's considerable natural gas industry. They say the bill would effectively undo the state's competitive electricity market has kept power prices low for consumers. A bailout means investing in outdated, inefficient and expensive power plants, and benefiting shareholders of profitable companies Exelon reported $2 billion in profits last year and largely profitable plants on the backs of Pennsylvania ratepayers, they say. Environmental groups criticized the bill for failing to do more to fight climate change, like imposing a cap on carbon emissions in Pennsylvania. Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, said any legislation would need to provide benefits for consumers and that nuclear power plant owners must be transparent about their plants' finances. Pennsylvania's five nuclear power plants are owned by Exelon, FirstEnergy, Texas-based Talen Energy, PSEG Inc. of New Jersey and 14 rural electric cooperatives. They support Mehaffie's bill, elements of which emerged publicly last month, and Exelon is fresh off winning subsidies for plants in New York and Illinois and, with PSEG, in New Jersey. The companies release little power plant-specific financial information, but Three Mile Island is widely viewed as unprofitable and at a disadvantage because it has just one generating unit after the second one partially melted down in 1979. Analysts project the other three plants Limerick, Peachbottom and Susquehanna will be profitable for the foreseeable future. The godmother of the child of a 23-year-old mother from Massachusetts whose body was found dead in the trunk of a vehicle last month says she thinks the suspect deserves the death penalty. Louis D. Coleman III, 32, of Providence, Rhode Island, made a brief appearance in federal court in Boston Monday to face charges in the kidnapping and death of 23-year-old Jassy Correia of Lynn. The hearing was an initial appearance to formally address the charge. His public defender said Coleman has agreed to remain held without bail and waived his right to a preliminary hearing. If convicted, Coleman could face either life in prison or the death penalty. Prosecutors have not said whether they will seek the death penalty in the case. The godmother of Correia's 2-year-old daughter was in court Monday and told NBC10 Boston she'd like to see Coleman get the death penalty. "I'd rather him get the death penalty because he took Jassy's life," Jessica Tyler said. Another friend, Victoria Maestre, said she's less sure. "Yes and no," she said. "I would rather see him rot in jail with other people." Coleman was led into court Monday in handcuffs and an orange prison jumpsuit. Correia's family, including her father, sat in the front row next to U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling. Coleman's family was also present for the hearing. Suffolk District Attorney Rachel Rollins attended the hearing, saying she was there out of respect to the family and because Coleman could face additional charges for crimes committed in the Boston area. "Jassy is ours. She's from here, her family lives here, and we take this very seriously," she said. Rollins would not comment on whether she thinks Coleman deserves the death penalty because that is up to the U.S. Attorney to decide. Coleman has been charged in the death of Correia, who disappeared after celebrating her birthday at a downtown Boston nightclub on Feb. 24. Her body was found four days later in the trunk of Coleman's car after police stopped him in Delaware. Her body was found wrapped in a sofa cushion cover, which was inside of a black trash bag inside a large suitcase that matched the one Coleman was observed bringing into his apartment three days after Correia's disappearance. Correia was found naked, with significant bruising and a bloodied face. She was bound with gray duct tape and covered in what is believed to be baking soda. Correia's funeral was held Saturday at Saint Peter Parish in Boston. Prosecutors have said she died from strangulation and blunt force trauma. Authorities said they believe Correia put up a fight, saying there were "definitely indications that she did not go quietly." They said the forward windshield of Coleman's vehicle was cracked in two locations on the passenger side, there was significant bruising on Correia's body, and there was a scratch on Coleman's face from Correia. Authorities have said it does not appear that Correia knew Coleman, but there is still a lot left to learn. Three major U.S. airlines said Monday they will continue flying the Boeing 737 Max 8 as aviation authorities in several countries grounded the aircraft after one crashed in Ethiopia, killing all 157 people on board. The Ethiopian Airlines jet crashed shortly after it took off from Addis Ababa on Sunday, drawing renewed scrutiny of the plane just four months after a similar crash of the same model that killed 189 people in Indonesia. Authorities in China, Indonesia and Ethiopia ordered airlines to ground their Boeing 737 Max 8 planes on Monday. American Airlines, Southwest and United said they stand by the new plane and are monitoring the investigation. American Airlines, which has 24 Max 8 aircrafts in its fleet, said it has "full confidence" in the aircraft and no immediate plans to ground them. United Airlines has likewise said they have no plans to ground the 14 Max 9 planes on their fleet. Southwest also said all 34 of its Max 8 aircrafts remain in operation and the airline has "full confidence" in the "airworthiness" of the Boeing jet. Chicago-based Boeing is planning to update training requirements and manuals along with proposed changes from the FAA, which said Monday that it expects to mandate design enhancements to the automated system and signaling on board the planes by April 2019. The 737 is the best-selling airliner in history, and the Max, the newest version of it with more fuel-efficient engines, is a central part of Boeing's strategy to compete with European rival Airbus. "Safety is our number one priority and we are taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this accident, working closely with the investigating team and all regulatory authorities involved," the company said in a statement. Boeing's stock fell 7 percent to $391.80 in afternoon trading. A spokesman for Ethiopian Airlines, Asrat Begashaw, said the carrier had grounded its remaining four 737 Max 8 planes until further notice as an "extra safety precaution." The airline had been using five new 737 Max 8s and awaiting delivery of 25 more. Asrat said the search for body parts and debris from the crash was continuing. China's Civil Aviation Administration said that it ordered airlines to ground all 737 Max 8 aircraft, in line with the principle of "zero tolerance for security risks." It said it would issue further notices after consulting with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing. On Monday, the FAA said in a statement that the American agency's people were at the crash site outside Ethiopia's capital with representatives of the National Transportation Safety Board. They are joining an Ethiopian-led investigation that includes authorities from neighboring Kenya and elsewhere. Meanwhile, the National Association of the Flight Attendants-CWA said passengers and airline crew members alike are expressing concerns about the safety of the Max 8. AFA-CWA president Sara Nelson said in a statement it is "vitally important that U.S. airlines work with Boeing, the FAA, and the NTSB to address concerns and take steps to ensure confidence for the traveling public and working crews." The national president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants which represents over 26,000 American Airlines flight attendants issued a bulletin advising members who dont feel it is safe to work aboard the 737 Max, "you will not be forced to fly it." Chinese carriers and leasing companies operate 96 Boeing 737 8 Maxs, according to the government, with dozens more believed to be on order. China Southern Airlines is one of Boeing's biggest customers for the aircraft. Indonesia also grounded 11 737 Max 8s for inspections to ensure flight safety and that the planes are airworthy, said Director General of Air Transportation Polana B. Pramesti. Cayman Airways also said it was temporarily grounding two Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft along with Comair, the operator of British Airways and Kulula flights in South Africa. A statement does not say how many of Comair's planes are affected. Wrenelle Stander, executive director of Comair's airline division, says in the statement that Comair "remains confident in the inherent safety of the aircraft." It's unusual for authorities to take the step of grounding planes, and it's up to each country to set standards on which planes can fly and how those planes are maintained, said Todd Curtis, an aviation safety analyst who directs the Airsafe.com Foundation. "If there is a suspicion...that there's not only something inherently wrong with 737 Max 8 aircraft, but there are no procedures in place to cure the problem, then yes, they should either ground the plane, or there are several levels of things they could do," Curtis said. For example, authorities could require that airlines check certain planes do not have a specific problem before they could fly, or they could require replacing parts or systems before the next flight, Curtis said. The FAA frequently directs airlines to ensure certain corrections are made within a specific timeframe, he said. The FAA told airlines in November to update the plane's operating manual with information about the 737 Max 8's system that can automatically turn the plane's nose down, and inform pilots how to respond if the system kicks in. Real time flight radar apps showed dozens of the aircraft still operating around the globe. The head of Indonesia's national transport safety agency, Soerjanto Thahjono, offered to aid the Ethiopian investigation into Sunday's crash. A witness to the crash told The Associated Press that smoke was coming from the rear of the plane before it hit the ground. "Before falling down, the plane rotated two times in the air, and it had some smoke coming from the back then, it hit the ground and exploded," Tamrat Abera said. The NTSB likewise said it was sending a team to help Ethiopian authorities. Boeing and the U.S. investigative agency are also involved in the probe into the Lion Air crash in Indonesia in October. Like the Ethiopian Airlines crash, which happened minutes after the jet's takeoff from Addis Ababa, the Lion Air jet that crashed off Indonesia had erratic speed during the few minutes it was in the air. Safety experts cautioned, however, against drawing too many parallels between the two disasters. "I do hope though that people will wait for the first results of the investigation instead of jumping to conclusions based on the very little facts that we know so far," said Harro Ranter, founder of the Aviation Safety Network, which compiles information about accidents worldwide. The situation will be better understood after investigators analyze the Ethiopian plane's black boxes, said William Waldock, an aviation-safety professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. An airline official said Monday that the black box and cockpit voice recorder had been found, but the box was partially damaged. Waldock said the way the planes both crashed a fatal nosedive was likely to raise suspicion. Boeing will likely look more closely at the flight-management system and automation on the Max, he said. "Investigators are not big believers in coincidence," he said. Boeing has delivered about 350 737 Max planes to scores of airlines and has orders for more than 5,000. Alan Diehl, a former National Transportation Safety Board investigator, said reports of large variations in vertical speed during the Ethiopian jetliner's ascent were "clearly suggesting a potential controllability problem." Other possible causes include engine problems, pilot error, weight load, sabotage or bird strikes, he said. Ethiopian has a good reputation and the company's CEO told reporters no problems were spotted before Sunday's fight. But investigators also will look into the plane's maintenance, which may have been an issue in the Lion Air crash. Days after the Indonesian accident, Boeing notified airlines that faulty information from a sensor could cause the plane to automatically point the nose down. The automated system kicks in if sensors indicate that a plane is about to lose lift, or go into an aerodynamic stall. Gaining speed by diving can prevent a stall. The notice reminded pilots of the procedure for handling such a situation, which is to disable the system causing the automatic nose-down movements. Indonesian investigators are examining whether faulty readings from a sensor might have triggered the automatic nose-down command to the plane, which the Lion Air pilots fought unsuccessfully to overcome. The Lion Air plane's flight data recorder showed problems with an airspeed indicator on at least four previous flights, although the airline initially said the problem was fixed. Boeing Chairman and CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in December that the Max is a safe plane. ___ Associated Press reporter writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, and AP Airlines Writer David Koenig in Dallas, Texas, contributed to this report. One CEO is helping this little boy get his wings. When Alex Jacquot, a 10-year-old boy, wrote to Qantas Airways CEO Alan Joyce for advice on operating his "airline," Oceania Express, the more experienced CEO didnt hesitate to respond. Our competitors don't normally ask us for advice, but when an airline leader reached out, we couldn't ignore it. Naturally, there was only one way to respond: CEO to CEO. pic.twitter.com/JTFpzn5a6Y Qantas (@Qantas) March 11, 2019 I have already started some stuff like what types of planes Ill need, flight numbers, catering and more, Jacquot wrote in a handwritten letter. Jacquot said hes also gotten his company, Oceania Express, off the ground by naming himself and his co-founder CEOs and hiring a chief financial officer, head of maintenance, head of onboard services and head of legal. The 10-year-old also asked the rival CEO if he had any idea of what he could for his company during his school vacation and what tips he might have on starting an airline. Im thinking about, as you are, about an A350 for Sydney/Melbourne to London flights, Jacquot said, alluding to Qantas Project Sunrise plan to fly customers non-stop between Australias east coast and London. Seeing as it is a 25-hour flight, we are having a lot of trouble thinking about sleep. Although Joyce said he didn't usually give advice to its competitors, he said he responded to Jacquots letter because he too was a young boy who was so curious about flight and all its possibilities. Joyce sent the letter on Feb. 19. My number one tip for starting an airline is to put safety front and center, Joyce wrote. And do everything you can to make travel as comfortable and affordable as possible for your passengers. Joyce also offered tips on Jacquots concerns about sleeping on flights from Australia to London by noting the different designs Qantas is exploring to increase stretching space. We want to think up as many ideas as possible to make the journey more comfortable for all, Joyce continued. For this reason, I would like to invite you to a Project Sunrise meeting between myself, as the CEO of Australias oldest airline, and you, as the CEO of Australias newest airline. Jacquot told Australian radio station 4bc about how excited he was when the letter arrived in the mail. I ripped open the envelope," Jacquot told host Ben Fordham. "I quickly read it and I was so excited I was running around the house for ten minutes. In an interview with The Australian, Natasha Jacquot, Alex's mother, said the family wasn't expecting the response, and that they're confirming the meeting dates with Qantas. The letters, which were posted on Qantas Twitter page, immediately went viral. Within 13 hours, the post gained approximately 9,000 retweets and 25,000 likes. Many users commended the Qantas CEO for using his position to encourage a young boys dreams. Corporate Australia taking our young people seriously! I love it! Investing in the future....Can't wait to book a ticket with Oceania Express.... https://t.co/zJ8YBIyaLd Jane Artup (@Janeartup) March 11, 2019 Corporate Australia taking our young people seriously, one Twitter user responded. I love it! Investing in the future....Can't wait to book a ticket with Oceania Express. While some accused the post of being a publicity stunt, most agreed that the boys letter made for a heart-warming story. Seeing it posted on social media does make this more of a marketing exercise, but cant fault it if the end result is inspiring entrepreneurs of any age, another Twitter user commented. Well done Qantas. NBC 7 Investigates has identified another U.S. Immigration Attorney named as a target in a secret surveillance program tied to the migrant caravan. Erika Pinheiro, an attorney for the immigration law center Al Otro Lado and U.S. citizen, said the Trump administrations actions have left her essentially stuck in Mexico. "It did not surprise me," Pinheiro said, upon learning she was listed in the surveillance program's database. Documents obtained by NBC 7 show agents listed Pinheiro, along with another attorney she works with, as targets for increased scrutiny when crossing the border. According to the database documents, agents were waiting for Pinheiro in January to cross the border to interview her. On Thursday, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the agency compiled the list of 59 individuals tied to the migrant caravan because they may have information related to Tijuana border clashes from November 2018 and January 2019. But Pinheiro said she was in New Jersey with family during the late-November incident and at home with a sick baby during the January clash. Ironically, Pinheiro said she was interviewed by journalists following the New Years incident, denouncing anyone who encouraged immigration activists to storm the border. We saw how it was really unsafe for the children who were present, Pinheiro said. Pinheiro is not alone. Al Otro Lado Refugee Director and attorney Nicole Ramos is also listed as having an alert placed on her passport through the surveillance program. In addition, agents created a dossier on Ramos, including personal details on the car she drives, her mothers name, and her work and travel history. To think the government is suspicious of us just for doing our jobs is very troubling, immigration attorney Jonathan Montag said. At the end of January 2019, the administration implemented a new policy that said those seeking asylum must stay in Mexico as they wait to go through immigration courts. Montag said between the controversial government surveillance program and the new Trump Administration Remain in Mexico policy, the challenges of the job could turn attorneys away from helping those in need at the border. Its really scary that it has come to this, Pinheiro said. That theyve started targeting U.S. citizens." Pinheiro agrees with Montag that there may be a chilling effect for some border attorneys, but she said shes emboldened to continue fighting for asylum seekers. Anyone who opposes these policies should be afraid that theyre next, Pinheiro said. On Friday, in a letter to the Department of Homeland Securitys Secretary Kristjen Nielsen, Senator Richard Blumenthal asked for more information on the surveillance program and raised the issue of attorneys being targeted by border agents. While this administration has a disturbing history of harassing immigration attorneys, these lawyers serve a critical public function, Blumenthal said. The U.S. government created a secret database of activists, journalists, and social media influencers tied to the migrant caravan. NBC 7's Mari Payton has more. A Somali woman was remembered Saturday at the second annual March for Black Women in Lincoln Park. The event was to raise awareness of the issues facing black women, especially transgendered black women, including alleged police brutality, deportation, sexual violence and domestic violence. Among the victims being remembered was Muna Kuri, 36, who was found dead in the City Heights apartment she shared with her husband. Police were still searching for him. Her family believes it was a case of domestic violence. The most disrespected, neglected, unprotected woman in this world is the black woman, Kuris cousin Hamdi Mohammed said at the rally before the march. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black women are killed nearly three times the rate of white women. We talk about police brutality, gender violence, its often black men who are in the spotlight, Nyisha Green Washington, the marchs co-organizer, said. But we have numerous, numerous of police custody brutality toward black women. The marchers had four demands: Challenge and acknowledge the violence, end the abuse, increase access to health care and have economic justice for low-income women. During the march, which started at the intersection of Euclid and Logan avenues and ended at Kennedy Neighborhood Park, marchers chanted, Say her name, say her name. Muna Kuri, Muna Kuri. We are fighting to get justice for her, Mohammed said. Its been a really painful process. Muna was a really caring person who was a mentor to many young blacks through her daycare center she had. Some students get more out of the evening than a chance to make a friend for the night. Brianna Thompson said one of her friends brother has disabilities and shes considering studying special education in college, so she is trying to spend more time around people with disabilities. A company run by a donor to President Donald Trump claimed it could provide Chinese clients with a chance to mingle and take photos with the president, along with access to his private club in Palm Beach, Florida. It remains unclear how much Li "Cindy" Yang charged for the services and whether she was ever hired to provide them. But the company's claims and other eyebrow-raising activity, which were first reported by The Miami Herald and Mother Jones, mark the latest in a litany of complications and ethical issues stemming from Trump continuing to own and operate a private club where dues-paying members and their guests rub shoulders with the president of the United States and his family, friends, White House staff and members of his Cabinet. The Associated Press has previously reported that aides who accompany the president on frequent trips to the club are always on alert for club members and guests with nearly unlimited access who like to buttonhole the president. They raise pet projects, make policy suggestions and share oddball ideas ranging from the benefits of nuclear-powered cars to personal plans for Mideast peace. Former administration officials have described the lengths to which aides have gone to try to run interference, including reserving the dinner table next to Trump's to keep as close an eye on him as possible and scanning guest lists for visitors who might prove problematic. Yang appears to be a relative newcomer to Palm Beach's political scene. GY US Investments LLC, a company she registered in 2017, according to Florida state documents, describes itself on a now-defunct, mostly Chinese website as an international business consulting firm. The firm "provides public relations services to assist businesses in America to establish and expand their brand image in the modern Chinese marketplace," according to a translation of the page accessed through an internet archive service. That has included, the website claims, access to presidential dinners and roundtables, White House events, photo opportunities and "VIP" activities including the "opportunity to interact with the president, the Minister of Commerce and other political figures." The site also featured numerous photographs, including a picture of Trump's Mar-a-Lago club and photographs of Yang with Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and former White House aide Sebastian Gorka. Yang is described on the website as the company's "Founder CEO," as well as a member of a "Presidential Fundraising Committee" and a "Presidential club member." Yang and the company did not respond to messages seeking comment, nor did the Trump Organization, Mar-a-Lago club or the Republican National Committee. But Yang told NBC 6 Investigators, "I go to lots of parties and take pictures." Christian Ziegler, vice chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, played down the significance of the webpage and photos Yang has posted of herself with the president and other prominent Republican politicians. "Anyone can buy tickets to any event and I'm assuming that is what she had done," Ziegler said. "I've never met the lady and I could never pick her out of a police lineup." He added: "I know the media, Democrats, the left is going to try to do everything to connect her with us, but she had zero role with us. It just looks like she attended some events and took some pictures." In China, however, pictures can be an end unto themselves, giving an appearance of influence. Pictures with famous people are especially valued in the country, where personal relationships and connections carry special weight in business and politics. Mother Jones on Saturday detailed Yang's efforts to provide Chinese clients access to Trump and his circle. The Miami Herald on Saturday reported that Yang arranged for a large group of Chinese business executives to attend a paid fundraiser for Trump in New York City at the end of 2017. Only citizens and permanent residents are allowed to donate to U.S. political campaigns, and it would be illegal for foreign nationals to pay back a U.S. citizen who had purchased their tickets to a fundraiser. A Republican fundraiser told the AP on Sunday that patrons attending a Republican National Committee dinner at Mar-a-Lago last year noticed a large contingent of Chinese attendees. There was a discussion afterward about making sure they were vetted, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. The Herald on Friday also published a photo of Yang with Trump at a Super Bowl party at his West Palm Beach country club and reported on the link between Yang and the spa where New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft was charged with soliciting prostitution. Yang was a former owner of the spa. Yang wasn't charged in a multiagency anti-human trafficking operation that resulted in 25 arrests, including Kraft's, and shut down 10 Asian day spas in South Florida last month. None of the spas is registered to Yang or her family. She sold the Jupiter spa to Hua Zhang around 2013. Zhang was charged with racketeering and running a house of prostitution and has pleaded not guilty. Yang told NBC 6 Investigators she "never did illegal stuff" when she owned the day spas. Yang's family still owns several South Florida spas. ___ Schneider contributed from Orlando, Florida. Associated Press writer Zeke Miller in New York contributed to this report. Maryland State Police say a trooper shot and killed a man who stabbed the trooper during a struggle. The trooper was taken to a shock trauma center after the shooting Monday in Westminster, about 36 miles northwest of Baltimore, police said. His injuries aren't thought to be life threatening, police spokesman Greg Shipley said. State police say Michael J. D'Angelo, 34, stabbed the trooper. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. The trooper came across the suspect about 8 a.m. while responding to two reports of slashed car tires. One of the callers said the suspect was armed with a knife, police said. As the uniformed trooper approached Washington Road and Stoner Avenue, he saw the suspect and walked up to him while trying to talk to him. Instead, the suspect stabbed the trooper in the side of his body during a struggle, before the trooper shot him, according to police. A knife was recovered from the scene, police said. Shipley said the suspect was white. He said he thinks the trooper is too. Police are reviewing video from nearby buildings, he said. The trooper did not have a body-worn camera, and Shipley said he didn't know if the trooper had a dashboard camera. The trooper is a six-year State Police veteran. The deceased suspect is from Carroll County, where the shooting occurred. Police said later Monday that the trooper, a six-year State Police veteran, was released from the hospital in the afternoon. He will be on administrative leave as police investigate the shooting. A motive for the stabbing remains unknown, according to police. If youre dying to catch some Zs, Mondays national holiday is for you. March 11th is National Napping Day. The unofficial holiday falls (appropriately) the day after Daylight Saving Time this year. While falling asleep at work or school is never a good idea, you can rest assured in the fact that people across social media are also struggling with the time change. Monday mood. Anyone else struggling with the time change? @nbc6 pic.twitter.com/s9egAoItkI Sheli Muniz (@SheliNBC6) March 11, 2019 Finally! A day just for me! #NationalNappingDay pic.twitter.com/DjmCXI3ygL L E Y A (@leya_shi) March 11, 2019 Who else feels like this grey seal getting out of bed this morning? #MondayMotivation #NationalNappingDay pic.twitter.com/ricyAwK1zt RSPB (@Natures_Voice) March 11, 2019 Chugging down coffee and shots of cafecito seems to be a coping mechanism for many tired worker bees. But some organizations took it upon themselves to educate the public about the benefits of naps. Southern New Hampshire Health shared a graphic about the perks of napping, saying a 20-minute snooze can help relieve stress, increase alertness and revive energy. Who will be celebrating National Napping Day today? Take some time for yourself and reap the health benefits of a quick 20-minute nap! #NationalNappingDay pic.twitter.com/KAwndCXbys Southern NH Health (@SNHHealth) March 11, 2019 According to the National Sleep Foundation, napping can also have psychological benefits. Scheduled napping can even help those suffering from the sleep disorder known as narcolepsy. Of course, overindulgence is never a good thing. The foundation warns that too much napping can have a negative effect on nighttime sleeping patterns, and may lead to feelings of disorientation and grogginess upon waking up. The organization notes that this sleep inertia doesnt last long, but can be detrimental when one needs to focus or perform a task after waking up. For more information about napping, click here. Someone sent a racist image to Boston high school students attending a regional jazz festival on the campus of the University of New Hampshire, according to a spokesman for Boston Public Schools. In a letter sent to students' families, Boston Arts Academy Headmaster Anne Clark said the students "were subjected to a disturbing incident of racism." A number of students were sent the image shortly before they were scheduled to perform by one or more people nearby who used the AirDrop feature on an iPhone. The picture in question is a selfie edited with black marker on the persons face. The caption at the bottom reads, Celebrate black history month. The incident happened over the weekend at the Clark Terry UNH Jazz Festival hosted by the university. The festival is an annual event that features guest artists, UNH jazz faculty, the UNH Jazz Band, and high school and middle school students from throughout New England. Clark told the students' families, "This incident was completely unacceptable, and I am very sorry that our students had their otherwise positive experience disrupted by a hateful act." Both Boston Public schools and the University of New Hampshire issued statements Sunday night. "We are deeply disturbed that Boston Arts Academy students were subjected to racist conduct during a regional high school jazz festival out of state, and are ensuring that the affected students receive support," Boston Public Schools said in a statement. "There is no place for such hateful and vitriolic conduct in our society." "We were saddened to learn that students from one of the participating schools received racist images on their smartphones via AirDrop while guests on our campus," a UNH official said in a statement. "This behavior has no place on our campus and goes against all of our values as a community. Our first concern is for the affected students." The Boston Arts Academy students say they had spent hours rehearsing for the jazz festival. "It was like a big new experience for us because we actually never left the school as a collective," senior Brandon Volel said. But before a single note was played Saturday, students began receiving pictures on their phones. Samantha Marcelino, a freshman in the band, says, "The first couple airdrops were just different like memes and different pictures. And then my friend Leanne she had took my phone to see what they were and that's when I got the black face picture." Marcelino said after receiving that image, she felt "just weird, kind of felt out of place after that." They were the only kids of color in the space that they were in. It starts off with pictures, it starts off with what they think is harmless words, but you know we have a long really turbulent history based in this type of stuff when it comes to race, Marcelinos mom said. I'm sending her out into the world on her own and in this journey of music and that this is one of the first experiences that she has going out there, it's a little bit disheartening and a little worrisome." Volel says he had to calm down some students before they went on. "It's very alarming to be a person of color, to have to still deal with that in 2019," he said. Volels mom, Maria Andrade, says the students had been practicing too hard to have to deal with this racially-charged intimidation. I honestly don't feel they're mature enough at the level to understand the ignorance behind it," she said. "It may just be a joke to you, but it's not. No one should be ridiculed, no one should be laughed at. No one should be made less than because of the color of your skin." Headmaster Clark says she has offered her support to the effected students and she is working with the BPS Office of Equity and officials at UNH to ensure this incident is investigated and addressed. "Each and every day, we strive to foster a safe, welcoming, supportive, and inclusive environment at Boston Arts Academy and throughout the Boston Public Schools. I commend our students for carrying on with integrity, maturity, and respect after this deplorable incident occurred," Clark said in her letter. "Boston Arts Academy is full of trusted adults, and we are always here for any students who wish to talk or are in need of counseling or other resources. Racism has absolutely no place in our society. We must do all that we can to support one another and stand up against this type of offensive behavior." The University of New Hampshire says this behavior has no place on their campus and they are working to find out who is responsible. Boston Public Schools says they are working along with UNH officials to review this incident. The natural gas company blamed for a series of explosions and fires in Massachusetts' Merrimack Valley says it'll resume replacing damaged heating equipment for property owners this spring. Columbia Gas of Massachusetts said furnaces, boilers and hot water heaters repaired but not replaced during the monthslong recovery process will now be exchanged for new equipment. A company spokesman said about 900 customers are expected to get the work, which won't cost them anything. The company has committed to finishing all work by Sept. 15. It announced this next phase in the recovery process Saturday during community forums in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover. The disaster last Sept. 13 resulted in one death, dozens of injuries, damage to hundreds of buildings and thousands of customers without natural gas service for months. A Massachusetts priest has been placed on leave effective immediately, according to Fall Rivers Catholic diocese. Father Mark R. Hession was put on leave from active priestly ministry because of conduct inconsistent with standards of ministerial behavior. In a statement, the diocese says parishioners at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Seekonk, and priests of the Fall River Diocese, were informed of the decision. The diocese says Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha made the decision to place Father Hession on leave based on complaints he received about inappropriate communications that Father Hession allegedly sent to several adult parishioners. This is a direct violation of the code of conduct for priests, according to the diocese. Father Hession was formerly assigned to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church until August 2018 when he was reassigned to duties in the Diocesan Tribunal. While on leave, Father Hession is not permitted to exercise publicly ministry or present himself as a priest in public settings. Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo is trying to build support for her proposal to expand the state's free tuition program. The free tuition program is currently offered at the Community College of Rhode Island to recent high school graduates. Raimondo wants to offer it to adult students at CCRI and cover the last two years of a four-year degree at Rhode Island College. The Democratic governor is scheduled to speak at a rally in support of the Rhode Island Promise Scholarship proposal on Tuesday at the State House. She's also scheduled to testify Tuesday about the proposal before the House Committee on Finance. Raimondo's budget proposal for fiscal 2020 includes $13.2 million for free tuition. Some lawmakers have questioned whether the state can afford to expand the program. Massachusetts lawmakers are pushing legislation to ban so-called "gay conversion therapy" for minors. The legislature's Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities moved two bills Wednesday that would make Massachusetts the 16th state to outlaw the practice -- which aims to alter a person's sexual orientation. Supporters of a ban say the practice is widely discredited by medical and mental health associations and can lead to depression and suicide in young people. Opponents say health professionals who counsel children struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction or gender confusion shouldn't face criminal liability. They point to individuals who say they've benefited from such treatment. A similar bill was approved by lawmakers last summer but stalled in the session's final hours. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker said he's inclined to approve the measure. Rain and an expected warmup in temperatures forecast for later this week have emergency management officials in Vermont eying rivers and lakesand any changes to their icy surfacesto stay alert to potential public safety impacts. Montpelier has already taken steps aimed at reducing the risk of ice jam flooding. Twenty-seven years ago Monday, the heart of Vermonts capital city was swallowed by frigid floodwaters. That was devastating to our downtown merchants, Chief Bob Gowans of the Montpelier Fire Department recalled. Devastating. We definitely dont want to see a repeat of that. The Winooski River had become jammed with big blocks of ice, leaving the river behind that clog with nowhere to go but up and into the streets. The floodwaters left behind widespread property damage. Fast forward to today, and a gushing discharge of clean, 45-degree water is pouring into the Winooski from a riverbank. It is designed to open up a channel in the ice and keep things flowing normally. The hope is by opening that channel, if we were to get an ice jam, it would give a place for the ice to move through, Gowans explained. Montpelier and other Vermont communities prone to ice jams are now watching their rivers. As spring approaches, splintering river ice can mean jams, with rapid snow melts and heavy rain only worsening the threat from rising river levels. Gowans said the city is now hoping for a slow, gradual thaw with no heavy rainto lower the risk of flooding. A rapid and sustained warmup, combined with rain, would greatly increase the risk for flooding, Gowans said. An excavator with a long arm has just been placed along the Winooski, as well, in case an ice jam does form. Montpelier emergency management officials want the excavator at the ready in case they need to bust up a possible jam, Gowans said. On Lake Champlain, the expected warmup later this week is also sparking safety reminders. There are going to be areas that are extremely thin, cautioned Scott Whittier of the National Weather Service. Satellite imagery from Friday had the National Weather Service declaring the lake frozen overeven at its widest pointsomething that hasnt happened since 2015, according to NWS data. NWS Meteorologist Scott Whittier noted some spots in the ice on Lake Champlain are soft. Whittier added that milder temperatures, combined with the angle of the sun in March, could mean deteriorating ice conditions. As we get into the next couple of weeks, get your ice fishing done and heed the warnings from public officials to stay off the ice, Whittier advised. Monday, the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife reminded anglers that state law requires ice fishing shanties to be removed from the ice before it weakens or cant support shanties. The deadline to remove shanties and all contents and associated fishing materials from the ice this year is March 31. Failure to do so could mean a $1,000 fine, Fish & Wildlife said. A new group is hoping to distribute 100,000 diapers this year through some food banks in Vermont's most populous county. Vermont Public Radio reports The Diaper Bank held a ribbon cutting on Thursday. The diaper bank is organized by the Junior League of Champlain Valley. Food shelves rarely stock diapers and families can't use food subsidies to buy them. Organizer Amanda Herzberger says it's a common requirement that parents give child care providers enough diapers to last a day for their children. Diapers can cost between $70 and $90 a month. Herzberger says they're hopeful they will be able to expand. As several thousand people, including firefighters from across the nation, gathered in Maine to honor the life of one of their own, a fire chief in attendance suffered a medical emergency and later died. Maine Gov. Janet Mills says Oxford Fire Chief Gary Sacco died after attending Sunday's funeral for Berwick Fire Capt. Joel Barnes, who was fatally injured shielding a colleague while battling a four-alarm fire on March 1. "Our hearts, already broken by the loss of Captain Joel Barnes, also mourn the loss of Oxford Fire Chief Gary Sacco. In a testament to his own character, Chief Sacco lost his life while honoring that of his fallen brother, fellow firefighter Captain Barnes," Gov. Mills said on Twitter. "I join with people across Maine in offering my thoughts and prayers to Chief Saccos family and friends, the Oxford Fire Department, and all of Maines first responders. The State of Maine has given two of its best to the Heavens." Maine Medical Center spokesman Matt Wickenheiser confirmed that Sacco was stricken at the funeral, rushed to a hospital and pronounced dead in the emergency room. Sacco served in the Oxford Fire Department starting in 2017 after he retired from New Gloucester where he was fire chief for 12 years, affiliate WCSH reports. He also served in the Auburn Fire Department. The staff of the Oxford Fire Department planned to gather Sunday evening to mourn the loss of Chief Sacco. Sacco was among hundreds of firefighters from across New England who attended the public memorial for Barnes at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland. A Massachusetts high school principal has been placed on paid administrative leave as school officials investigate matters related to the firing of a teacher accused of indecent assault. Sharon School Committee Chairman Jonathan Hitter said in a statement Monday that Sharon High School Principal Jose Libano has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into matters related to the recent removal of teacher Bradley Lengas. Hitter said he couldnt elaborate further, citing the advice of counsel. Lengas, 56, of Cumberland, Rhode Island, faces a charge of indecent assault and battery on a person over the age of 14. He was released on personal recognizance following a court appearance last week. The school district initially suspended Lengas in December; he was fired in February after Sharon police announced the criminal charge. The details of the case have not been released. Students who felt left in the dark over the allegations took matters into their own hands when they were caught protesting Friday on campus. "We were matching the halls, we were chanting, 'hear us now' because the students didn't feel like they were being heard," said student Matt Jacobson. Students also wrote letters about their experiences with sexual harassment and posted them around the building of the school. Students say however, school leaders put a stop to it all. "I don't think administration wanted that around. Obviously, that can get a little chaotic," said student Noah Martinez. "They actually unplugged the printer to keep students from printing the letters," added Jacobson. NBC10 Boston obtained one of the letters students wrote to school administrators which read in part: "What I cannot wrap my head around is how the administration continued to disregard allegations of sexual harassment during the 2017 wave of the #MeToo movement." Lengas is due back in court on April 29. A special education teacher accused of abusing children at a Massachusetts elementary school appeared in court Monday on assault charges. Tricia Rossman, 52, of Rockland, pleaded not guilty in Quincy District Court on two counts of assault and battery on a disabled person and one count of assault and battery on a disabled person causing injury. The accusations stem from Rossman's work at the Kennedy Elementary School in Randolph where aides and parents claim shes been abusive to special needs students. "There are three different allegations involving students in her classroom, all of which have some sort of disability," said a court prosecutor. Police were first informed of the accusations in January. According to court documents obtained by the Patriot Ledger, staffers described Rossman's classroom as "toxic" and said she "manhandled" students, with one staffer saying she'd seen Rossman drag a child and believed Rossman hit that student in the face. Rossman's attorney Peter Pasciucco dismissed the charges, blaming a disgruntled teacher's aide for the allegations after she allegedly couldn't do her job. "The investigation by the Randolph Police Department is wholly and woefully inadequate," said Pasciucco. Parent Joan Batson claims her autistic son Eric is one of the victims. "Just a lot of marks. There are no answers for them," said Batson outside of court. "I feel like she's the one responsible, definitely." Batson said she believes her son suffered bruises at the hand of the defendant. "Especially with all the people coming forward, its just ridiculous that they said would say it's not true," said Batson. While Rossman remains on administrative leave from the school, the judge ordered her to stay away from the alleged victims and their families. She was also ordered to stay away from Randolph Public Schools. She's due back in court April 29. Unions representing thousands of Stop & Shop workers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island are voting to authorize a strike if a contract dispute with the supermarket chain drags on. Members of Local 328 of the United Food and Commercial Workers' union voted unanimously in favor of the authorization Sunday in Foxboro. Three other UFCW locals have also voted to authorize a strike. Another chapter representing Stop & Shop workers, Local 919, was slated to meet later Sunday. The contract dispute centers on health insurance, pensions and vacation time. The union says Stop & Shop is looking to "degrade the quality of life'' of workers. The supermarket chain says it's offered proposals that "would ensure full-time associates continue to be among the highest paid food retail workers in the region.'' A bizarre car crash occurred Monday morning in Massachusetts when a turkey flew through a driver's windshield. Sandwich police say they were called to the scene around 8:30 a.m. by a report that a SUV driving east on Route 6A in East Sandwich hit a turkey while it was crossing the road. "The call came in originally, came across the speakers as 'A bird hit the windshield,'" said Sandwich firefighter/paramedic Matt Thompson. "So we're like, 'OK.'" The turkey crashed through the windshield and past the driver between the driver and passenger seats. It soared through the car, ultimately hitting the rear tailgate. It did not survive the crash. The driver, only identified as a 43-year-old woman, received minor injuries from the shattered glass. There were no other passengers at the time. "She said she was driving down the road when all of a sudden, the turkey broke through the windshield," said Lt. Robert Black with the Sandwich Fire Department. "It actually went through the windshield, through the vehicle and into the rear passenger compartment." Police say solar glare may have contributed to the crash. The car had to be towed from the scene. Students at a Massachusetts high school were dismissed early Monday after authorities say a threatening message was found in a boy's bathroom. Superintendent Maureen Lynch said out of an abundance of caution, students at Whittier Tech Vocational High School in Haverhill were dismissed noon. Details of the message were not disclosed but school officials did not believe there is any imminent danger to students or staff. The Massachusetts State Police bomb squad responded to the scene to assist Haverhill police with the investigation, which is ongoing. Authorities said explosive detection K9s searched and deemed the area safe. Lynch said in a statement she was disappointed a school day was "needlessly disrupted for the second time in less than a week." "This behavior is unacceptable and is counter to our values. We will address the seriousness of this issue directly with our students in order to make it clear that there is no place for threats like this at Whittier," said Lynch. As a precaution, Lynch said there will be an increased police presence at the school Tuesday. "I want to emphasize that students, staff and families should remain vigilant in coming forward to report any issues that may jeopardize the safety of our school community," said Lynch. The Superintendent added that because of Monday's early dismissal, Friday, which was supposed to be a half-day, will now be a full day of school. The investigation into the threat is ongoing. State police are offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to an arrest. After months of speculation, Mellanox found a suitor -- and it was a surprise, to say the least. GPU leader Nvidia snatched up the networking vendor for $6.9 billion, topping a rumored previous offer of $6 billion from Nvidias nemesis, Intel. The acquisition ends months of rumors of a suitor for Mellanox. Intel, Microsoft, and Xilinix were all reportedly bidding for the Israeli company, which specializes in high-speed networking. Mellanox Technology was formed in 1999 by a former Intel executive and was a pioneer in the early adoption of InfiniBand interconnect technology, which along with its high-speed Ethernet products is now used in over half of the worlds fastest supercomputers and in many leading hyperscale data centers. It will also be far and away the biggest acquisition in Nvidias history. The firm has grown entirely organically, and its few acquisitions have been relatively small, so this is somewhat out of character. "The emergence of AI and data science, as well as billions of simultaneous computer users, is fueling skyrocketing demand on the worlds data centers," said Nvidia founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang in a statement. "Addressing this demand will require holistic architectures that connect vast numbers of fast computing nodes over intelligent networking fabrics to form a giant data center-scale compute engine," he added. At $6.9 billion, thats almost half of Nvidias $11.7 billion in annual revenue for 2018 and nearly wipes out the $7.4 billion in cash the company was holding. Mellanoxs net profit for fiscal 2018 was $134 million, putting the purchase multiple of 52 times earnings. I am flabbergasted at what they paid for it. I dont get those ratios at all, said Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research, which follows the graphics market. Two things we know. One, Jen-Hsun doesnt do dumb things and two, he doesnt throw money around. Those two tell me he has something figured out that I dont understand. Peddie speculates that this deal is designed to goose Nvidias own interconnect effort, NVLink. Its not cheap to design high-speed communications networks. Its as bad as designing a GPU. Mellanox can close the gap with their tech. My speculation is the next-generation GPU will get Mellanox next-gen communications stuck in it that is better than or equal to CXL, he said, in reference to the new high-speed interconnect announced by Intel and partners. Jim McGregor of Tirias Research also believes its a data center play. Nvidia is trying to shore up its position in the data center because thats where its still growing. It helps build out its strategy from a single box solution to a multi-box solution. So it doesnt have just the stuff in the box; it has the stuff to connect the boxes, he said. But had an interesting tidbit to share. He was on a conference call with Huang, who said, The only reason we acquired them is they called us. Mellanox said they were getting unsolicited offers and said they were pretty good, and they called Nvidia because the two companies have a long-standing relationship. I think it was a cultural exchange because they like working with Nvidia and preferred working with them. It sounds like both sides wanted it to happen but it was going to be expensive, McGregor said. And if it gives Nvidia a chance to thumb its nose at its hated rival Intel, so much the better. The Silicon Valley is a fairly chill place of friendly competition, but you rarely see two companies that hate each other more than Intel and Nvidia. Nvidia and Mellanox expect the deal to close by the end of this year. And Nvidia said "customer sales and support will not change as a result of this transaction." When you think of Facebook services, high-speed connectivity is not the first thing that comes to mind. But the social media giant is doing just that, offering high-capacity fiber-optic routes to sell unused capacity between its data centers for third parties. Facebook has created a subsidiary called Middle Mile Infrastructure to sell excess capacity on its fiber, starting with new fiber routes between its data center campuses in Virginia, Ohio, and North Carolina. The company made the announcement in a blog post by Kevin Salvadori, director of network investments. We intend to allow third parties including local and regional providers to purchase excess capacity on our fiber, he wrote. This capacity could provide additional network infrastructure to existing and emerging providers, helping them extend service to many parts of the country, and particularly in underserved rural areas near our long-haul fiber builds. [ Also read: The hidden cause of slow internet and how to fix it ] To be clear, the company will not be providing fiber services to consumers the way Google Fiber works. This is for carriers and operators. Construction is set to begin this year and take approximately 18 to 24 months. One of the routes will connect a data center cluster in Ashburn, Virginia, with a new campus in New Albany, Ohio. That means the fiber will run through the state of West Virginia, a state that has struggled with broadband access because the carriers and operators have been slow to support rural states. One thing the big hyperscalers (Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook) have in common is they often have to build supporting solutions because existing products dont quite cut it. The Open Compute Project was borne out of dissatisfaction with existing hardware, for example. And the big hyperscalers have also started building their own fiber backbones to connect their data centers, which are the size of malls and have to move immense amounts of data. Facebook recently introduced the Fabric Aggregator, custom networking gear that was driven out of necessity because its traffic outgrew what Cisco hardware could handle. Pros and cons My view on this is a bit mixed. On the one hand, it is welcomed that Facebook is monetizing excess capacity. Thats how Amazon Web Services (AWS) was born, after all. Amazon had all this idle capacity it had bought and installed for the Christmas crush sitting idle, so it did a little experiment renting its excess capacity. Boom, EC2 and S3 were born, and the rest is history. On the other hand, this industry is legendary for overbuilding and being left with excess inventory. GPU makers are sitting on a ton of video cards right now because of the mad rush for cards for cryptomining. Well, the cryptocurrency market has since collapsed, and suddenly people arent buying a dozen top-of-the-line GPUs anymore. And guess who is stuck with the inventory? Likewise, there is such a glut of DRAM and NAND flash memory that prices are set to drop 20 percent or more this year. I dont doubt for a second that data center capacity is any different. Google alone will spend $13 billion on data center expansion this year, while Research and Markets projects the global data center construction market will grow to $22.73 billion this year, which should do wonders for sucking up that excess memory supply. But what happens if all that construction grinds to a halt, for whatever reason? Everything is cyclical. Facebook faces numerous headwinds, in particular. What if its popularity tanks? The nation is already dotted with dead malls. When will we see the first dead data center? Junqueira was among more than 600 people who came to the opening of the exhibit Marvelocity: The Art of Alex Ross at the Lake County Forest Preserves museum. Ross was there for three hours to autograph his new book Marvelocity, as well as various other books, drawings and other works of art he created that superhero and art lovers brought to the event or purchased there. The agency has seen its ridership drop 9 percent between 2014 and 2018, mainly due to higher fares, poor service and cheap gas, the Chicago Tribune reported last month. Ridership dropped from 83.4 million trips in 2014 to 76.1 million passenger trips in 2018, which was about the same number as in 2005 and was down from a high of 86.8 million in 2008. HARTFORD When immunization rates fall below a certain percentage, vulnerable populations such as babies under six months or individuals with certain medical conditions are at risk, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Is your community at a higher risk of infection based on declining immunizations? On Feb. 7, CTNewsJunkie requested information from the state Department of Public Health regarding the number of unvaccinated children in each Connecticut town. The DPH denied the request on March 5. At the moment, the requested information is not being made available to the public, based on Connecticut General Statute 19a-25: Under Conn. Gen. Stat. sec. 19a-25 (see attached), the Department cannot publish, make available or disseminate reports of the findings of studies of morbidity and mortality (such as a school or school districts immunization rates) or any other documents that include identifiable health data or any item, collection, or grouping of health data that makes the individual or organization supplying it or described in it identifiable (e.g. in the case of the annual immunization survey, a specific school), the department said March 5. In addition, the same statute precludes the Department from producing reports that do not contain identifiable health data in response to specific requests since doing so would result in linking the report to an identifiable individual or organization. The DPH confirmed that it already collects immunization information from schools, but department officials said they only make that information available on a statewide or county-level basis and without identifiable information. According to data from the 2017-18 school year, Hartford County had the highest number of preschoolers declining vaccinations, including the flu shot. Of the 6,811 pre-schoolers in Hartford county, 548 children cited exemptions to vaccinations. Of those, 359 involved religious exemptions and were only used to skip the flu shot. The immunization rate jumped slightly among children entering kindergarten. That same year, of the 9,971 kindergarteners in Hartford county, only 169 claimed exemptions. Among seventh graders the number of Hartford county students who cited either a religious or medical exemption dropped to 117 out of 11,420 students in 136 schools. In Fairfield County, 500 out of 5,388 preschoolers filed exemptions and 297 were religious exemptions and only for the flu shot. Of the 11,279 kindergarten students in Fairfield county, only 286 filed exemptions. In seventh grade, 212 of the 12,585 students that year filed exemptions. Most of the exemptions at all three grade levels were on religious grounds. Rep. Liz Linehan, D-Cheshire, said parents should have access to more information about immunization rates. She said its unlikely that town-by-town data would be able to identify a family and should be publicly available. If Im a family with an immunocompromised child, then I would like to know how much danger theyre in if we decide to live in a specific community, Linehan said. She cited clusters of measles outbreaks that have been reported on the West Coast. Measles is a preventable disease that was eliminated from the U.S. in 2000, but is still common overseas and has made a comeback in the US since vaccination rates began dropping. According to the CDC, the US experienced 23 measles outbreaks in 2014 for a total of 667 cases. The largest was an outbreak of 383 cases that occurred primarily among unvaccinated Amish communities in Ohio. There have been at least two measles cases in Connecticut this year. As of Feb. 28, there have been 206 cases of measles reported in 11 states including Connecticut, according to the CDC. On Thursday, the New York Times reported that one unvaccinated student with measles in Brooklyn, N.Y. infected 21 other students with the virus many of whom also were unvaccinated. According to the CDC, measles is a highly contagious virus that lives in the nose and throat mucus of an infected person. It can spread to others through coughing and sneezing. Also, measles virus can live for up to two hours in an airspace where the infected person coughed or sneezed. If other people breathe the contaminated air or touch the infected surface, then touch their eyes, noses, or mouths, they can become infected. Measles is so contagious that if one person has it, 90 percent of the people close to that person who are not immune will also become infected. Rep. Josh Elliott, D-Hamden, said last year that he requested school-level data about immunization rates and was denied access. He said if someone doesnt want to vaccinate their child, then they shouldnt be allowed to enroll them in public school. I do not want us to become the Pacific Northeast, Elliott said. There was a bill introduced in 2017 that would have provided the general public with access to unidentifiable, aggregate data regarding immunization rates for each public and private school in Connecticut. Former Department of Public Health Commissioner Raul Pino testified in 2017 that the state was providing insufficient information on student immunization rates, because the public did not have access to the level of detail necessary to measure any individual schools vulnerability to vaccine-preventable diseases. Aside from medical exemptions to vaccinations, any parent in Connecticut can cite a religious exemption to vaccinating their child as long as they have the form signed by an attorney, judge, family support magistrate, town clerk, justice of the peace, or school nurse. The Childrens Committee is debating a bill, HB 7005, that would eliminate school nurses from the list of individuals able to sign off on the form. School nurses have testified that by the time they are asked to sign the form a parent has already made up their mind and theres no opportunity to have a conversation about the importance of vaccinations. The deadline for the committee to approve the bill is Tuesday. However, thats one of a few bills this year dealing with vaccinations. Unlike other states Connecticut has no legislation seeking to tighten vaccine exemptions. However, those who are staunchly against vaccinations say theyre concerned about the legislative creep of the Childrens Committee bill. They fear the bill will be amended on the floor to tighten or eliminate the religious exemption. Elliott said theres not enough support for such a measure within the Democratic caucus, which is divided on the issue, so leadership is not taking a position. Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-Westport, who co-chairs the Public Health Committee, has declined to comment on whether more information should be publicly available. Kevin Barry, who is president of a group that advertises itself as a nonprofit that works to protect religious exemptions from state interference, said there is more going on than just removing school nurses from the list of officials who can approve an exemption. Parents who have religious objections to vaccination have valid concerns about legislative creep, Barry told the Childrens Committee on Feb. 7. Barry said he was worried that a law that starts off simply removing a school nurse as a signer will later be amended to totally eliminate exemptions from vaccinations. NAUGATUCK - Police are looking for a suspect who grabbed cash from a man who withdrew the money from a store ATM. The robbery happened around 11 p.m. Feb. 27 in the Cumberland Farms store on North Main Street. Two dogs have died within the past week here in Lake County. One idiot owner shot his dog in the head and tried to conceal the death by throwing it in the Dumpster. Thank God for the neighbor who informed the police. And the other lame-brain claimed her dog got loose, was sick and died. One can only hope that you both will get the same punishment, maybe even worse. You deserve to be punished. You are both a disgrace to the human race, as well as the canine population, and should never be allowed to own an animal. You both are sick. Rep. Ilhan Omars (D-MN) comment that the influence of the Israeli lobby in Washington pushes lawmakers to take a pledge of allegiance to a foreign country was bad enough. A watered-down House resolution condemning, not Omar, but all hatred was as tepid as denouncing drunk driving. After heated debate within their caucus, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership released a separate statement: Congresswoman Omars use of anti-Semitic tropes and prejudicial accusations about Israels supporters is deeply offensive. We condemn these remarks and we call upon Congresswoman Omar to immediately apologize for these hurtful comments. Omar complied, but this is not the first time shes had to walk back controversial comments about Israel. In 2012, Omar tweeted: Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel. The implication was that Israel and its backers are being manipulated to support the Jewish state. This old anti-Semitic trope will be familiar to anyone with a minimal understanding of the history of the Jewish people and the genocidal goal of their enemies. Yes, Omar apologized, but not until she got to Congress. This assumes her apology was more political, than sincere. Consider her appeal to Allah. Why would she, or any Muslim, disobey Allah? Sarah Stern, who heads Endowment for Middle East Truth, which bills itself as a Washington, D.C.,-based think tank and policy center with an unabashedly pro-America and pro-Israel stance, emailed to say, We Jews have learned from our long and painful history that words matter. Violence against Jews does not erupt in a vacuum; and the increasing ease with which anti-Semitic comments are uttered within certain segments of our society is deeply painful and disturbing. That truth can also be seen in Israel where Palestinian Arafat Irfayia, the prime suspect in the murder of Israeli teenager Ori Ansbacher, was indicted last week. World Israel News reports his explanation for stabbing and then raping the girl: Because she was a Jew. The publication says Irfayia left his home in Hebron with the express intention of killing a Jew. You have to be taught to hate, as Oscar Hammerstein wrote in the musical South Pacific, and hatred is at the heart of anti-Semitism, most notably in radical Islam. It can only get worse if those who harbor anti-Semitic sentiments like Omar and her colleague and fellow Muslim, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) are elected to Congress. According to The Daily Caller, Maher Abdel-qader, a key fundraiser for Tlaib, shared an anti-Semitic video which described Jews as satanic. The clip included this comment: Research the truth about the Holocaust, and youll definitely start to question what you thought you knew. The videos narrator went on to question whether 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust. The Caller writes, Abdel-qader shared the video both on his personal Facebook page and within the group that now includes Tlaib. Morton A. Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), the oldest pro-Israel group in the U.S., told Mark Levin on Levins radio show: the Democrat party has shown a lack of will to tell the truth of the Arab-Islamist war against Israel. In a recent BDS vote to stop BDS, boycotting Israel, the innocent Israel, half of the Democrats voted against that bill. Virtually every Republican voted for it. So we have a real problem with the Democratic party. In a New York Times column last week, Bret Stephens, who is Jewish, wrote: If Pelosi cant muster a powerful and unequivocal resolution condemning anti-Semitism, then Omar will have secured her political future and won a critical battle for the soul of the Democratic Party. At that point, the days when American Jews can live comfortably within the Democratic fold will be numbered. I wish, but the history of Jewish loyalty to the Democrats is long, which is a mystery since in the end we are again talking about their survival, not just as a Middle East nation, but as a people. This year marks Cal Thomas 35th year as a syndicated columnist. Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. The isolation of DNA was successfully carried out in 1869. However, its sequencing had to wait until the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, more than a hundred years later. vitstudio | Shutterstock Modern genomics dates back to the 1970s, but its foundation was laid at least twenty years before this, with the creation of radioactive labels to study biomolecules. This helped scientists understand multiple bodily processes. More importantly, it helped to find the Holy Grail of genetics the structure and sequence of the DNA double helix. Discovering the structure of DNA The greatest genetic discovery of the modern age is credited to Francis Crick and James Watson, who, along with Maurice Wilkins, received the 1962 Nobel Prize for Medicine for discovering the structure of DNA. Crick was a promising English physicist who interrupted his career when the Second World War broke out to join the Admiralty. During those eight years, he switched his research field to biology, after reading the eminent physicist Erwin Schrodingers book, What is Life? and eventually joined the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. Maurice Wilkins was born in the wilderness of New Zealand to an Irish physician-researcher, but lived in the UK from the age of six. After taking his doctorate in physics, he was involved in the Manhattan Project to develop the first nuclear bomb in the USA. Here again, Schrodingers book inspired him to look for the physics in genetics. After the war, he moved back to England, and joined Randalls biophysics laboratory at Kings College, London. Here a team was eventually organized to find the structure of DNA. This included Rosalind Franklin, an amazingly talented researcher who had joined Randalls lab to upgrade the X-ray crystallography unit there. However, Wilkins and Franklin never did hit it off together. James Watson was a brilliant young American scientist who first met Wilkins at a conference at Naples in 1951. The previous year, Wilkins and one of his PhD students, Raymond Gosling, had produced several X-ray images of the DNA molecules crystalline structure. Some of these were presented at the Naples meeting. One image in particular proved so intriguing to James Watson that he joined Cavendish Laboratory the same year to pursue the structure of DNA. There he met 35-year-old Francis Crick, and there the lines met, for both of them agreed to work on DNA. At the same time, Rosalind Franklin also joined the race to interpret the elusive molecule. Despite working all alone, she came astonishingly close to cracking the puzzle. Watson and Crick worked out various theoretical aspects of DNA structure. However, to confirm its accuracy, Franklins clear X-ray images and her accurate measurements of various distances within the DNA unit cell proved crucial. Incorporating this data, they succeeded in publishing the double helix structure of DNA in 1953, as well as showing its replication capability. Despite the key role played by Franklins work, she was omitted from the Nobel Prize citation. Francis Crick went on to study protein manufacture and genetic regulation of this process. He also put forward the sequence hypothesis - that it was the sequence of bases in the DNA molecule that encoded genetic information (the order of amino acids built up into each protein). Crick teamed up with George Gamow, another physicist-biologist, to publish their famous triplet theory in 1958. This hypothesis, now known as the central dogma of molecular biology, states that the DNA code is transcribed into RNA which is decoded by means of codons. Codons are sets of three bases which specify different amino acids. The order of these triplets decides the specific order of amino acids which will form the given protein. The Eagle Pub where Crick and Watson announced they had discovered the structure of DNA in 1953. (Image taken by Claudio Divizia, 2018 - Shutterstock). What is Sanger sequencing? Following the discovery of DNA, new technology rapidly emerged, that allowed rapid automated determination of the nucleotide sequences in DNA fragments. The polymerase chain reaction was invented, allowing enormous amplification of a minute amount of DNA containing a gene of interest. Later innovations made this method cost-effective and 'fuss-free'. Recombinant DNA technology was developed in 1973, and allowed the characterization and manipulation of large genomes. 1977 saw the first gene being isolated. The honor of sequencing a genome for the first time goes to Fred Sanger, giant among British scientists, and double Nobel laureate. He sequenced both a viral and a mitochondrial genome completely, making him the first genomics scientist. After working on the sequencing of DNA for 15 patient years at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory in Molecular Biology, he published the earliest technology to determine the order of bases in a DNA molecule - the Sanger sequencing method. Sanger sequencing kicked off an epoch in DNA sequencing, and shaped the science of genomics. It also earned him his second Nobel Prize. Today the method has advanced to allow the reading of up to 800 bases simultaneously. ktsdesign | Shutterstock The Human Genome Project The breakthroughs in DNA structure, decoding and sequencing were crucial to the establishment of the Human Genome Project. From 1993 to 2003, it brought together top-notch scientists from 20 institutions across six countries to successfully unravel the sequence of the three billion nitrogenous bases in a human DNA molecule. Why is genome mapping important? The answer is that it puts together bits of the whole genome to help researchers find their way around it and locate genes of interest. Enter John Sulston, a vicars son, who had always been curious about how organisms work. Eventually becoming a molecular biologist, he joined the MRC Laboratory, Cambridge. John Sulston and the worm South African Sydney Brenner was working on mutations which caused changes in the way the worm moved, because he wanted to know how genes regulated life processes at molecular level. Sulston collaborated with him at MRC but space and funds were short. Sulston then successfully lobbied the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council to set up a new laboratory devoted to genomic studies. This was the start of the Wellcome Sanger Center, of which he became the founder-director in 1992, remaining until 2000. In 1998, after 12 years of patient work, Sulstons team, working with Robert Waterstons team in St. Louis, USA, published the first ever complete animal DNA sequence, of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), used as a prototype for other species. For this, he shared the Nobel Prize along with fellow researchers Sydney Brenner and Robert Horwitz. While this project had initially been intended to follow up on the connection between the development of C. elegans and its genetics, it was so successful that it rapidly became a prototype for the Human Genome Project, for which this became the UK center. Its success was a crucial proof-of-concept for the cost-effective high-throughput methods used to uncover the human DNA sequence, as well as to show their limitations and advantages. By the end of his tenure, using the Sanger sequencing methods, the first draft of the sequence of the human genome was complete. John Sulstons passion was not just making scientific discoveries, he also insisted on making all his scientific research freely available to anyone. This, he felt, was the only way to speed up progress within the community. This has remained central to the Wellcome Sanger Institute ethos to this day. Mike Stratton and cancer genes Simultaneously, Mike Stratton began to set up the Cancer Genome Project at the Institute, attempting to map all the cancer-causing genes in the human genome. He had already identified the BRCA2 gene, one of the two genes that cause most breast cancers in women, and the BRAF gene involved in six out of ten malignant melanomas. He also helped discover other genes implicated in breast, testicular, colorectal and thyroid cancer. The next step forward could have happened only after full-genome sequencing succeeded, because it focused on mapping the functional genome, which consists only of functional genes. This led to the focused study of gene regions within the DNA molecule in order to relate the physical structure to their outer expression in the body and its working. Allan Bradley worked throughout his student life at Cambridge, following which he took up the production of knockout mice using embryonic stem cells. These are mice which lack certain specific genes. He followed this up with work on gene targeting and genetic manipulation techniques, which were useful in many laboratory genetic technologies and processes. At this point he was engaged in making his work commercially viable by offering it for sale. When he later became the new director of the Sanger Institute in 2000, he transformed it into a center which focused on obtaining biological information from the sequenced genome. Some examples include the International Cancer Genome Consortium which focused on the cancer genome, and the 100 000 Genomes Project to sequence genomes from both normal and affected cells in patients with cancer, for instance, and those with a rare disease.. Next-generation sequencing emerged in 2007 and proved to be another transformative step, enabling millions of DNA samples to be sequenced together using massive parallel sequencing (MPS). This makes sample preparation faster, it is extremely customizable, and has brought down the cost enormously. It is actually possible to sequence one human genome for less than 700 in a single day, compared to the 2 billion and 10 years it took for the first one! Almost immediately this has been followed by third-generation sequencing. This technology makes use of bases labeled with fluorescent tags and DNA polymerase enzyme technology. This produces DNA fragments 10-15 thousand bases long, making genomic sequencing much simpler and eliminating the need to join fragments in the case of smaller genomes. This has enabled the revision of already sequenced genomes to virtually 100% accuracy, and eventually scientists hope to sequence the entire human genome within just one hour! All this has occurred within just two years of the Human Genome Project. Doubtless, many more discoveries are to be made which will facilitate personalized diagnosis and treatment based on genomic variations in a host of disease conditions. Further Reading Every time a cell divides, during normal growth, the chromosomes first duplicate themselves once, and only once, with perfect accuracy. When this process is disrupted, a mutation occurs. The result is unregulated cell proliferation. This amazingly accurate concept was put forward by Theodor Boveri in 1914, as the somatic mutation theory of cancer. Today cancer is defined as a disease of the genome. Kateryna Kon | Shutterstock More than eight decades have passed since the time of Theodor Boveri, and today molecular proof of cancer biology is readily available, in the form of mutated genes that cause cancerous cell changes. These genes are called oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes, mutations in either of which can result in the abhorrent proliferation of cells, leading to cancer. Of the 300+ cancer mutations known today, only one in ten are oncogenes while the rest are tumor suppressor genes. These allow a tumor to grow if they are damaged. The environment and cancer It was the English physician, John Hill, who first reported his observations on the effect of environmental factors in the development of cancer, when he related tobacco smoke to cancer of the nose in 1761. Percival Pott was another English physician who noted that testicular cancer occurred more frequently in men who had been chimney sweeps at any time of their lives. This was an important landmark in the history of occupational cancer, as it related cancer of the scrotal skin to contact with coal-containing soot. Pott also noted the long gap between exposure and cancer development, which proved that cancer was caused by a series of mutations over a long period of time. The epidemiologist Julian Peto also conducted an epic study of asbestos workers which accurately predicted an epidemic of mesothelioma, a deadly cancer of the lung covering, due to inhalation of asbestos fibers. This was partly instrumental in getting a ban on cancer-causing forms of asbestos (blue and brown) in 1985. However, seven mesotheliomas on average are diagnosed every single day, owing to exposure before this date. The need to understand cancer biology led to the establishment of the Cancer Research Fund in 1902. This became part of Cancer Research UK (CRUK) in 2002. Infectious agents can cause cancer Much experimental proof poured in between 1908 and 1970, that when an extract from cancer cells was injected into another animal, a cancerous growth resulted. This cancer-transmitting factor was believed to be an infectious agent. In 1970 the src gene from the Rous Sarcoma Virus (RSV) was shown to be the culprit, and thus became the first cancer gene (oncogene) to be found. Next came the finding that oncogenes transmitted by viruses are mutated versions of normal genes that are crucial to the growth and development of the organism. These came to be known as proto-oncogenes. Researchers then found that there was no simple one-on-one relationship between the mutation and the cancer. Instead, different genes were responsible for the origin of cancer in different cells within the same tumor, as well as in different tumors. This discovery spurred international discussion on the possibility of sequencing of the entire human genome. Despite the almost complete lack of efficient and rapid sequencing tools at that time, sequencing the whole genome had such obvious advantages that the Human Genome Project was launched in 1990, and completed in 2003. This feat, with the emergence of incredibly fast and inexpensive massively parallel sequencing techniques, led to cancer genomics the methodical examination of the genome in order to detect the genes commonly mutated in specific types of cancer. A prominent name in this field is that of Mike Stratton at the Sanger Institute, who discovered the most frequent mutations in malignant melanoma cells. Similar discoveries in other parts of the world led to the Human Cancer Genome Project (2009), now called the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Simultaneously, he initiated the International Cancer Genome Consortium with collaboration of researchers from over 15 different countries. In the 1940s David Smithers collated data from the family trees of over 450 patients with breast cancer to show how breast and ovarian cancer run in some families. Using linkage analysis, Doug Eastons team found that the genetic culprit was the BRCA1 gene. Bruce Ponder mapped the gene to a small region on chromosome 17, and the locus was finally pinpointed by an American scientist, Mark Skolnick. However, this caused only a minority of hereditary breast and ovarian cancers. Mike Strattons team at the Sanger Institute found another oncogene, a BRCA2 gene on chromosome 13. Paul Nurse, director of the Cell Cycle Laboratory at CRUK, received the Nobel Prize with Tim Hunt in 2001, for their discovery of how cell division is controlled. This is a central piece of the puzzle about how uncontrolled cell proliferation occurs in conditions like cancer. Illustration Forest | Shutterstock Hedgehog genes and breast cancer Malcolm Stevens is a pioneering UK scientist whose team developed a drug against glioblastoma in the 1970s. This is among the commonest of adult brain tumors. This has since become first-line treatment for this cancer. Phil Inghams work on fruit fly hedgehog genes in the 1980s onward helped identify similar oncogenes in vertebrates, proving them to be genes which normally play key roles in embryonic development. A drug targeting hedgehog gene signaling has now been made available for clinical trials in certain cancers and could save patients not responding to other therapies. In 1989 Bill Gullick reported that levels of the HER2 gene as well as its encoded protein were present at much higher levels than normal in cells from aggressive breast cancers, and this increased the aggressiveness of the cancer. This led to the creation of an antibody targeting this gene, thus stopping cancer cell growth - the drug called Herceptin, used on thousands of HER2-positive breast cancer patients, and now for HER2-positive stomach cancer patients as well. Other potential targets include pancreatic and lung cancer, as well as a subset of HER2-negative breast cancers. Immunohistochemistry showing HER2 positive breast cancer (David Litman | Shutterstock). Medical treatment of cancer Another hero is the chemist Alexander Haddow who tinkered with the chemistry of nitrogen mustard, a new drug then being used experimentally to stop tumor growth in rodents. He eventually found out in 1948 which parts were essential to its anti-cancer activity and how it destroyed the white blood cell. This marked the start of chemotherapy in cancer, a difficult but often rewarding pathway to surviving cancer. It was Hamilton Fairley, who was born in Australia but lived for most of his life in Britain, and tragically lost his life in a 1975 terrorist car bomb attack, who brought medical oncology to the forefront as a critical component of cancer treatment. Professor Malpas and Professor Eric Scowen set up the first department of medical oncology in the country with Hamilton Fairley, at St. Bartholomews hospital, also pioneering combination chemotherapy in Britain. This was vastly more effective than the earlier monotherapy. Tim Connors brought the process forward in the 1970s, by developing platinum-based drugs to destroy cancer cells, literally saving thousands of lives. Ken Harrap was a pioneer at the Cancer Research Fund, discovering and developing many cancer drugs. Born in 1931, he was an excellent biochemist, applying his skills to develop anti-cancer drugs from mainly two categories: those producing DNA damage, and antimetabolites. Ken Harraps trademark was his inclusion of specialists from multiple disciplines, and the clinicians actually treating the patient, to evolve the best possible drug treatment applied in the most optimal manner. He also emphasized that it was important to understand how these drugs actually acted within the body and on the cancer cells. The close relationship he maintained with cancer specialists ensured that he received rapid feedback on the real needs of therapy, and the failures experienced with many common drugs in specific situations. The result was accelerated drug development to the phase of human trials. Discovering p53 and other tumor suppressor genes David Lane discovered the small molecule p53 in the 1970s, but little did this eminent scientist realize that he had just unlocked another door to understanding cancer cell proliferation. This molecule was the first tumor suppressor protein to be found. Tumor suppressor genes prevent tumor growth in the body, thus mutations in these genes can promote cancer. Known as the guardian of the genome, p53 helps to protect cells from turning cancerous by arresting their growth or promoting apoptosis (programmed cell death) when they are severely damaged. Defects in p53 are found in most human malignancies, with catastrophic effects due to its large range of functions. At the beginning of the 1980s, Mike Jarman and Elaine Barrie introduced medical castration in prostate cancer, avoiding surgery while preventing relapse. This was found to be invaluable in relapsed prostate cancer which is not dependent upon external androgens, but produces its own hormones. In 1984, another high-impact paper was published by Julian Downward which showed for the first time that a cancer arose in a cell because of changes in the cells own genome. This led to several other drugs targeting oncogenes. Walter Bodmor and his team worked on finding the killer gene in hereditary colon cancer patients, along with Ellen Solomon and her colleagues, and in 1987, they independently pinpointed the locus on chromosome 5. This led to the discovery of the APC gene, four years later, which allows family members of a patient with this condition to be screened as well as to undergo genetic testing, which could save their lives. Valerie Beral in 1990 suggested that Kaposis sarcoma, a rare soft tissue cancer occurring commonly in people with AIDS, was caused by a sexually transmitted infection. Four years later, it was discovered to be a virus dubbed HHV-8, independent of HIV. In 1992, Gerard Evans found that an oncogene called the Myc gene not only spurred cancerous proliferation of cells but also the opposite it caused cells to enter apoptosis when the conditions changed. An illustration of p53, by Juan Gaertner on Shutterstock. Modern day pioneers In 2016, scientists began to hone in on the role of the immune system in cancer development. This helped understand why immunotherapy can be so effective in some cases but so impotent in others. Perhaps gene editing, to remove or inactivate the sleep gene turned on in some immune cells by cancer cells, could help develop better treatments. Some tumors are being targeted by antibodies developed against the chemicals that help them develop a strong and independent blood supply. This could conceivably lead to a disarmed cancer, which exists in the body but cannot grow, and therefore cannot cause disease. Novel blood tests help test for specific mutations in a particular gene, irrespective of which type of tumor is present. This can help doctors treat the gene mutation itself rather than having to treat different cancers caused by the same mutation. Blood markers such as p53 can help follow up cancer treatment. Scientists at CRUK Center are finding powerful tools to fight individual cancers by exposing flaws in their armor, such as leaky blood vessels which provide free access to chemotherapy drugs. Further Reading Britain has been home to many pioneers of immunology, ranging from cellular biologists to virologists and biochemists. This article aims to provide a brief overview of Britain's history in this vital field. Juan Gaertner | Shutterstock Developing the world's first vaccines One of the hallmarks of modern preventive medicine is immunization. Known as the father of vaccination, Edward Jenner he performed an ethically doubtful experiment (by todays standards) but succeeded in proving the effectiveness of vaccinating against smallpox by innoculating a child with cowpox. A key adjuvant in vaccines is alum (potassium aluminum sulfate), which boosts its efficacy enormously, though the mechanism is unknown. The reason may be that they produce the same effect on the immune system as certain bacterial or viral antigens, thus mimicking natural infection and producing an enhanced immune response. This substance has been used in vaccines since 1926, when Alexander Glenny, at the Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratories, London, reported on its benefits in diphtheria immunization. This has led to its widespread use in vaccines. Other salts of aluminum, like its phosphate or hydroxide, or mixed salts, are also effective. Vaccinating the poor of New York City against smallpox in 1872. In 1863, mass production of smallpox vaccine was developed, allowing for broad immunization of North American and European populations.(Everett Historical | Shutterstock) Epidemiology meets immunology In 1854, John Snow identified cholera as a water-borne disease rather than a miasma, or airborne plague. He traced the cases by location in one major outbreak in London, and found that the houses affected were placed around the well of Broad Street where water was hand-pumped. He came to the conclusion that the well contained the source of infection. With commendable zeal, Snow got the civic authorities to remove the handle of the hand pump a simple and completely effective measure to contain the epidemic. He was among the first successful epidemiologists, proving the source of infection to be a cesspool containing human waste, which had leaked into the well spring. Proving the role of the immune system in allergic responses Ten years later, in 1865, Charles Blackley of Lancashire tested the theory that grass pollen can cause skin allergy. This physician, who originally tested the theory on himself, was the founder of the skin prick test, which has proved immensely useful in detecting specific allergy to drugs, dust and pet dander, amomgst other s. For over 10 million people in England, summer months are far from pleasant because of hay fever. This common allergic condition is caused by the entry of pollen into the airways, especially from grass. While the link between hay fever and pollen had been established since the beginning of the last century, it was in 1911 that Leonard Noon of St Marys hospital reported his revolutionary desensitization experiments. Leonard injected grass pollen under the skin to induce immunity to the allergenic substance. John Freeman, his colleague and successor, thus initiated the early form of immunotherapy. This was later carried forward in a clinical trial by William Frankland, also of St Marys, in 1954, which set the practice of immunotherapy for allergens on a firm footing. Anaphylaxis is a major health risk with allergy. In the 1950s onwards, John Humphrey was a pioneer in studies on immune cells, reporting on how anaphylaxis works, as well as the way memory cells are generated. Memory cells are immune cells that enable rapid immune response to a previously encountered antigen. Radiolabeled and fluorescent-labeled antigen determination was part of his work, and he set forth the role of the antigen in immune tolerance and antibody production. Transplants and more Skin grafting was actively explored by Peter Medawar, the father of transplantation, often regarded as the greatest biologist of that time. He became interested in grafting because of the need for treating severely injured soldiers and airmen who had sustained serious burns in World War II. Medawar wanted to understand why it was not possible to take skin from a donor and graft it to another person (allograft or homograft), while it was quite feasible to graft skin from one area to another (autograft). This, he hypothesized, was because of tissue rejection, since the grafted tissue taken from another individual lacked the self-antigens. This concept had been put forward by the Australian immunologist Frank Burnet. He hypothesized that the introduction of a foreign substance into an immunologically immature embryo would lead to its being accepted as self. Thus, even if the substance was again introduced to the individual, no specific antibodies would be generated against it. This was later named immunological tolerance. While Burnet explained the theory behind immunological tolerance, it was Medawar who proved the process experimentally at University College, London. For this seminal work, both scientists received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1960. nobeastsofierce | Shutterstock Cellular and humoral immunity is discovered In 1961, another important discovery was made. Jacques Miller, studying leukemia at the Chester Beatty Laboratories in London, switched to the thymus. He found something astonishing: removal of the thymus produced immunodeficiency. Later studies confirmed this, showing that the thymus produced one class of white blood cells called T-lymphocytes. Between 1960 and 1980, Delphine Parrott worked on T-cell function as well, advancing organ transplantation and clarifying thymus function in health and disease. Robert Coombs was the founder of clinical immunology, putting forward a range of important diagnostic tests and textbooks which changed how people understood the functioning of antibodies. The Coombs test (1967) detects antibodies against the RhD antigen on red cells which is responsible for hemolytic reactions against mismatched blood cells in fetal life and during transfusions. From 1968 to 1981 Deborah Doniach pioneered the study of autoimmune disease of the thyroid, liver, adrenal and other endocrine glands. Another step in understanding immune function was taken when the Y-shaped antibody structure was discovered by Rodney Porter of Oxford and the US scientist Gerald Edelman, using two different methods. The vast specificity of antibody molecules is due to this structure, which has a basic common structure but millions of possible variations produced by different amino acid sequences in the arms of the Y. They received the 1972 Nobel Prize in Medicine for this discovery. Brigitta Askonas was known as the Mother of immunology during this period when she headed the division of immunology at the National Institute for Medical Research. She found that B cells produced antibodies as part of the immune response, and enlarged current understanding about how humoral and cellular immunity works. Hybridomas and the modern era of immunology The MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge saw another fundamental discovery with the invention by Cesar Milstein and Georges Kohler of hybridoma technology. This fuses antibody-producing B cells with myeloma cells to allow the production of unlimited quantities of identical antibodies directed against specific antigens. These are called monoclonal antibodies and have transformed scientific research, diagnostic techniques and the immunotherapy of some forms of cancer. Milstein and Kohler shared the 1984 Nobel Prize for this work with Niels Jerne. Alister Voller and Dennis Bidwell of the Institute of Zoology in London reported on the use of the microplate for rapid testing in both field and laboratory, of multiple blood samples for microbes dangerous to humans, using the ELISA technique. They left the technology open for unlimited use, used globally to improve the health of literally millions. The contribution of British immunologists to the health and wealth of the world is thus quite striking in many invaluable areas of knowledge, and the setting up of premier institutions of science during the last century will help to advance this field still further. Further Reading The extension of working life is a hot topic in many European Countries and will have numerous implications on individuals and society at large. On Wednesday 6 March 2019, COST Action IS1409: Gender and Health Implications of Policies to Extend Working Lives in Western Countries, held a Policy Event at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. The event aimed to highlight policy messages representing 4 years of collaborative research by a network of 140 individuals from 34 countries. The event was opened by Director of the COST Association, Ronald de Bruin before welcome addresses were given by Lambert van Nistelrooij MEP, Chair of Intergroup on Active Ageing and Mairead McGuinness, Vice President of the European Parliament. McGuinness highlighted the importance of the Action and expressed the need for more experts to understand the challenges faced in view of gender and health implications in extended working lives in Western countries. 6 policy briefs were presented during the event - Age Management, Health, Employment and Care, Inclusion and Gender, Pensions and Pension Planning. The work of the Action COST Action IS1409, which commenced activity in 2015, has been working to advance scientific knowledge about the gendered impacts of extended working life on the health and economic well-being of older workers in Europe. The Action has also been working to support informed gender-sensitive future policy, explicitly considering the differential needs of women and men. "On inclusion and gender, in the context of pension spending in Europe which is one of the biggest spending areas of government, the income gap between men and women still exists and it is most critical. To reduce the gap, we do not have enough policies implemented. This is because we have paid little attention to changes in the labor market to understand gender inequality and its outcomes for women." Dr Nata Duvvury, Working Group Leader for COST Action IS1409 and Senior Lecturer and Director of the Centre for Global Woman's studies and Leader of Gender and Public Policy Cluster in the Whitaker Institute at National University of Ireland. "There is still room to reduce age stereotypes and improve diversity in the work environment. Innovative approaches and trainings to managers can be organized to train their staff to be aware of the different need workers have according to gender and age. It has been proven to be very effective to allow aging workers to maintain a work life balance."Jonas Radl, COST Action Management Committee for IS1409 and Associate professor of Sociology and at the Department of Social Sciences of Universidad Carlos III of Madrid "I must insist on the achievement early career investigators have gained by being involved in this network. This is the next generation of researchers with new approaches and creativity setting a solid base for future collaborations."Dr. aine Ni Leime, COST Action IS1409 Chair and Deputy Director of the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, National University of Ireland, Galway The event was organized by the Subgroup on Active Aging in the Intergroup on Active Aging, Intergenerational Solidarity and Family Issues, with support from the COST Association. Source: https://www.cost.eu/news/action-on-ageing-gender-and-health-policies-to-extend-working-life/ To get a good night's sleep, turn off your smartphone at least 30 minutes before going to bed, says Loyola Medicine sleep specialist Sunita Kumar, MD, in recognition of Sleep Awareness Week, March 11 17. "Many Americans are chronically sleep-deprived," said Dr. Kumar, director of Loyola Medicine's sleep program. "Be it social obligations, work or our lifestyles, we are staying awake longer and longer now. We still need seven to eight hours of sleep a night on average. But too many people are getting by on six hours or less." Lack of sleep increases the risk of high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack, weight gain, mood changes and accidents. When you are sleep deprived, your cognitive throughput how fast you respond to cognitive tasks slows down. Consequently, small tasks seem to take longer. Studies also have found that going without sleep for long periods can hinder how your body regulates your feelings.This can cause mood changes that can make you anxious, confused, or irritable or focus on negative events. Inadequate sleep also can cause weight gain. "Sleep deprivation affects the food choices we make. We tend to go for the sugary doughnut after a night of poor sleep," Dr. Kumar said. Dr. Kumar recommends powering down smart phones, tablets and other electronic devices at least 30 minutes before bed. The blue light, she explains, interferes with circadian rhythms that control sleep and some studies have shown that it affects melatonin secretion, a hormone needed for sleep onset. Also when you are unable to fall asleep, one should avoid using these electronic devices. "Many of my patients think watching TV will help them fall back asleep when it can have the opposite effect." Dr. Kumar has noticed that more of her patients are using fitness trackers and smart watches to track their sleep. "While these devices are great for encouraging an active lifestyle, I would be cautious when using them to track sleep," Dr. Kumar said. "You can use the information as a gauge of time spent in bed, but they are not as accurate as a sleep study performed in a sleep lab to determine different stages of sleep." Adding, "So obsessing about the amount of deep sleep or REM sleep, as shown by your fitness tracker, can cause unwanted anxiety." If you find you aren't getting enough sleep or feel tired during the day, Dr. Kumar suggests speaking with your doctor. "Often times, a pattern of poor sleep can be an indicator for an underlying sleep disorder," Dr. Kumar said. "If you have a sleep disorder, your doctor can help you with a treatment plan and get you back to a good night's rest soon." Loyola Medicine's Center for Sleep Disorders provides a comprehensive approach to diagnosing and treating adult and pediatric sleep problems, including snoring, sleep apnea and narcolepsy. The multidisciplinary team of sleep specialists includes neurologists, pulmonologists, otolaryngologists and oral and maxillofacial surgeons. The center is accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Source: https://www.loyolamedicine.org/ The tsetse fly has wreaked devastation across large swaths of sub-Saharan Africa. About the size of a housefly, the insect transmits a parasite that can be lethal to both humans (sleeping sickness) and animals (nagana) - especially cattle. In many countries of the sub-Sahara, there are large regions where farmers cannot raise cattle; most eventually die as a result of infection caused by the trypanosomiasis parasite. And if farmers take the risk of raising cattle, they must live with the constant fear that their livestock will be infected by the parasite. The tsetse has caused many farmers to lose their livelihoods as well as an essential source of nutrition for their villages. Across the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, cattle deaths from trypanosomiasis can cause billions of dollars of production and economic losses. This Columbia team is therefore pioneering a machine-learning based imaging and sorting solution that aims to drastically reduce Africa's tsetse population. The research is supported by a $100,000 Seeds Fund Grant from Columbia's Data Science Institute. The solution, which allows for the sorting of male and female tsetse flies, was discovered by Zelda Moran, now a researcher at the Earth Institute. While working as an intern at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Moran first used near infrared light to peer inside the pupae of tsetse flies. She placed the pupae under a microscope and used the near infrared light to photograph them, allowing her to discern if the developing flies were male or female. She designed this novel sorting technique to support the Sterile Insect Technique, which the IAEA has used to eradicate tsetse populations in Zanzibar and other countries. The sterilizing technique uses irradiation to render large numbers of male flies infertile. The flies are then released into breeding grounds, where they mate with female flies. Since the females usually mate only once in a lifetime, the unfertilized mating will drastically reduce the tsetse population and help eliminate the spread of the disease, enabling farmers to more safely raise livestock. As it is, though, fly-production labs use a manual and time-consuming technique to sort the flies by sex. The sorting solution pioneered by the Columbia team, once refined, will enable the labs to sort the flies faster and more efficiently and on a larger scale. This enhancement will allow the labs to ship a higher number of sterile flies, in earlier stages of their life cycles, out to the sub-Saharan breeding grounds. This innovative research project was born out of a chance encounter. Four years ago, Moran and Szabolcs Marka met at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. They were both interested in finding high-tech solutions to public-health problems, and soon found themselves discussing how to use machine-vision methods to combat the tsetse fly infestation. After Moran finished her internship at IAEA and later moved to New York, she teamed up with the Marka lab at Columbia. In that lab, Szabolcs Marka, an astrophysicist with an expertise in biophysics, and Zsuzsa Marka, an experimental physicist, had previously collaborated on insect behavior research, including how to mitigate malaria mosquitoes and fruit flies. The Markas' expertise in optics, hardware instrumentation and electronics has also been used successfully in biophysics and astrophysics applications. Most prominently, they are members of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, a consortium of scientists who worked on the instrument that in 2015 detected gravitational waves - a discovery that resulted in scientists at LIGO winning the Nobel Prize. John Wright, the fourth member of this research team, is an electrical engineer who does high-dimensional data analysis and develops algorithms to solve imaging problems-in this case, the pupae images. Wright and the Markas are also affiliates of the Data Science Institute. Together, the team aims to work in the lab to develop a sorting-machine prototype that can process tens of thousands of pupae images a day. Right now, the four are focused on amassing large numbers of pupae images that will be used to train a machine-learning algorithm. At the same time, they are also designing a robot that can sort the pupae based on the result of the algorithm. Once the robot can process a large number of images with high accuracy, they will send it to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which will use it to sort the male flies, irradiate them and release them in Africa. "We'll use data science to create a machine-learning-based automated system that can quickly determine from a tsetse pupae if it's male or female," says Zsuzsa Marka. "And that system will be the basis for a robotic sorting machine that we hope will eventually be used in sub-Saharan Africa to mitigate the scourge of the tsetse fly." An analysis of census tract data for neighborhoods in America's three largest cities suggests black-majority neighborhoods are associated with disparities in access to trauma centers. The study paired census tract data for New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago with coordinates for trauma centers within a five-mile buffer. Black-majority neighborhoods were more likely than white-majority neighborhoods to be located in so-called trauma deserts in Chicago and Los Angeles, although racial/ethnic disparities were only significant in New York after accounting for poverty and its interaction with race. This suggests that New York's extensive trauma network may limit racial/ethnic disparities by ensuring access to low-income neighborhoods. New York is more densely populated than Los Angeles and Chicago. Hispanic/Latino neighborhoods were less likely to be in trauma deserts in New York and Los Angeles but slightly more likely in Chicago. A limitation of the study is that it only shows associations and causal inferences can't be drawn. This study suggests trauma planning should address racial equity. Australian and US researchers have developed a way to discover elusive cancer-promoting genes, and have already identified one that appears to promote aggressive breast cancers. The University of Queensland and Albert Einstein College of Medicine team has developed a statistical approach to reveal many previously hard-to-find genes that contribute to cancer. Associate Professor Jess Mar, of the University of Queensland's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, said the majority of 'oncogenes' identified to date showed up in most patients with a particular cancer type. "When you average the data across those patients, those common oncogenes tend to stand out, but they don't paint the full picture," Dr Mar said. "Even if a group of people all have the same type or even subtype of cancer, the molecular makeup of that cancer is different from person to person because the activity of genes vary between people," she said. "If an oncogene is over-active in one group of patients but inactive in another group, that's statistically harder to see using the tools that we had available. "If you only look at the average activity of a gene across the two groups, you'd never see the high activity in the first group." The Oncomix method enables researchers to 'zoom in' on genetic information from cancer patients and identify genes with two distinct 'bumps' of data - low activity in one group of patients but high activity in another. "We're acknowledging that there is diversity among cancer patients, but we're still looking for trends in the data that pertain to groups of people," Dr Mar said. Dr Mar and her colleagues used Oncomix to examine breast cancer data from The Cancer Genome Atlas patient database. They identified five genes that were over-active in a subset of breast cancer patients and followed up on the most promising target, known as CBX2. "Previous studies have shown that most healthy female tissue has low levels of CBX2 activity, while an aggressive subtype of breast cancer has been shown to have high levels of CBX2 activity," Dr Mar said. "This suggested a possible link between CBX2 activity and breast cancer, but the nature of that link hadn't been investigated. "So we switched off the gene in a human breast cancer cell line and this slowed down the growth of those cancer cells, suggesting that CBX2 might promote tumor growth." Dr Mar said if further tests confirmed that CBX2 was an oncogene, it could be a potential therapeutic drug target for aggressive types of breast cancer. "This discovery highlights the potential value of the Oncomix approach," Dr Mar said. "Identifying 'hidden' oncogenes that are unique to smaller groups of cancer patients will open up new therapeutic avenues and move us closer to personalized medicine." Source: https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2019/03/new-gene-hunt-reveals-potential-breast-cancer-treatment-target When we listen to loud sounds, our hearing may become impaired for a short time. Researchers at Linkoping University, Sweden, have discovered a mechanism that helps to explain how this happens. Their results are presented in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS. "Most people have experienced that their hearing is impaired and the ear feels numb after listening to loud sounds. After a while hearing returns to normal. We have discovered that a tiny structure in the cochlea known as the tectorial membrane plays an important role in this process, by acting as a storage depot for calcium ions. These calcium ions contribute to regulating the function of the sensory cells", says Anders Fridberger at the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, who has led the study. Calcium ions, which are calcium atoms with a positive charge, play a key role in the processes that make hearing possible. The conversion of sound waves to nerve impulses takes place in the inner ear, also known as the cochlea, which looks like the spiral shell that some snails have. The cochlea contains many sensory cells, which detect sounds and generate signals that are passed on to the brain. Previous research has shown that the fluid that surrounds the sensory cells in the cochlea has a low concentration of calcium ions. There were, however, questions surrounding this, because sensory cells that are placed in fluids with the natural level of calcium no longer work normally. The scientists at LiU have investigated the calcium ion concentration in the inner ear of guinea pigs, which is very similar to the human ear. By fluorescently labelling the calcium ions, the researchers discovered that a membrane that lies on top of the sensory cells, the tectorial membrane, has a much higher concentration of calcium ions than the surrounding fluid. The membrane seems to function as a store, such that the sensory cells are surrounded by higher levels of calcium ions than previously believed. When the scientists added a substance that mops up calcium ions, the sensory cells ceased to function. In the next step, they exposed the inner ear to noise levels that correspond to those experienced at rock concerts, which had the same effect. "When we expose isolated inner ears to loud noise in the lab, the level of calcium in the tectorial membrane falls, and the sensory cells cease to function. After a while, however, the calcium ion concentration returns to its previous level, and the sensory cells start to function again", says Anders Fridberger. Until now, scientists have thought that the tiny membrane has a mainly mechanical function, but the discovery made by the LiU researchers suggests that the tectorial membrane may play an important role in regulating hearing by storing calcium. "We knew that the tectorial membrane is necessary for hearing, and that it must be intact and correctly located, but it has been unclear why damage to this membrane contributes to impaired hearing", says Pierre Hakizimana, one of the researchers behind the study. The research group is now planning to investigate whether the same mechanism is important in age-related hearing impairment. High-altitude areas-; particularly the US intermountain states-; have increased rates of suicide and depression, suggests a review of research evidence in the Harvard Review of Psychiatry. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer. The increased suicide rates might be explained by blood oxygen levels due to low atmospheric pressure, according to the article by Brent Michael Kious, MD, PhD, of University of Utah, Salt Lake City, and colleagues. Pending further research, the evidence may point to possible treatments to reduce the effects of low blood oxygen on mood and suicidal thoughts. Altitude Linked to Variations in Suicide Rate Further Study of Mechanisms Needed The researchers reviewed and analyzed previous evidence linking higher altitude of residence to increased risk of suicide and depression, and considered possible explanations for these associations. "There are significant regional variations in the rates of major depressive disorder and suicide in the United States, suggesting that sociodemographic and environmental conditions contribute," Dr. Kious and coauthors write. They analyzed 12 studies, most performed in the United States, including population-based data on the relationship between suicide or depression and altitude. While the studies used varying methods, most reported that higher-altitude areas had increased rates of depression and suicide. In general, the correlation was stronger for suicide than for depression. The highest suicide rates were clustered in the intermountain states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. (Alaska and Virginia also had high suicide rates.) In a 2014 study, the percentage of adults with "serious thoughts of suicide" ranged from 3.3 percent in Connecticut (average altitude 490 feet) to 4.9 percent in Utah (average altitude 6,100 feet). Other key findings from previous research on altitude and suicide included: Populations living at higher altitudes had increased suicide rates despite having decreased rates of death from all causes. Rather than a steady increase, the studies suggested a "threshold effect": suicide rates increased dramatically at altitudes between about 2,000 and 3,000 feet. Suicide rates were more strongly associated with altitude than with firearm ownership. Other factors linked to suicide rate included increased poverty rate, lower income, and smaller population ratios of white and divorced women. However, the studies could not account for all factors potentially affecting variations in suicide, such as substance abuse rates and cultural differences. While more than 80 percent of US suicides occur in low-altitude areas, that's because most of the population lives near sea level. Adjusted for population distribution, suicide rates per 100,000 population were 17.7 at high altitude, 11.9 at middle altitude, and 4.8 at low altitude. Studies from some other countries, but not all, also reported increased suicide rates at higher altitudes. Why would altitude affect suicide rates? Dr. Kious and coauthors suggest the answer might be "chronic hypobaric hypoxia": low blood oxygen related to low atmospheric pressure. That theory is supported by studies in animals and short-term studies in humans. The authors suggest two pathways by which hypobaric hypoxia might increase the risks of suicide and depression: by altering the metabolism of the neurotransmitter serotonin and/or through its effects on brain bioenergetics. If borne out by future studies, these mechanisms suggest some possible treatments to mitigate the effects of altitude on depression and suicide risk: supplemental 5-hydroxytryptophan (a serotonin precursor) to increase serotonin levels, or creatinine to influence brain bioenergetics. Dr. Kious and colleagues identify several areas in need of further research, including the effects of prolonged exposure to altitude on both serotonin metabolism and brain bioenergetics. Promoting interdisciplinary exchange and fostering potential collaborations between academia and industry on highly promising scientific fields relevant to both scientists and businesses: this is the objective of Sartorius in hosting its third Research Xchange Forum (RXF2019) on April 25, 2019, which will spotlight CAR-T cell therapy. The forum is being organized in collaboration with Science/AAAS. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the worlds largest general scientific society, and the forum will be held at the AAAS headquarters in Washington D.C. Experts from the academic, clinical and biotech sectors will offer insights on novel developments in CAR-T cell therapies. Guest speakers will include Prof. Bruce Levine (University of Pennsylvania), Rick Morgan, Sr. VP Immunogenetics (Editas Medicine), and others from institutions such as UCLA, Boston University, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Horizon Discovery, Colorado State University, MaSTherCell and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The Sartorius & Science Prize for Regenerative Medicine & Cell Therapy will be awarded in an invitation-only post-event ceremony. Through sponsoring the award, Sartorius and Science/AAAS aim to recognize outstanding research contributions made in the regenerative medicine and cell therapy fields by the next generation of young scientists, the next thought leaders shaping our future as a society. Children with Type 1 diabetes have only one option to control their blood sugar: insulin treatment. Ravaged by an autoimmune disease that attacks their own pancreas and islets -- microscopic clusters of cells that sense blood sugar and produce insulin -- patients are forced to rely on insulin from an external source. But for the 200,000 youth living with Type 1 diabetes in the United States, insulin shots, pens and pumps fail to perfectly manage blood sugar, which may lead to long-term complications. When the body fails to tightly regulate sugar levels, like in diabetes, much can go wrong. "The absence of this natural ability -- minute-to-minute regulation of glucose levels -- can result in long-term complications, such as blindness, amputation and kidney failure," says Klearchos Papas, PhD, a professor in the Departments of Surgery and Medical Imaging at the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson. "Even with automated insulin delivery devices and continuous glucose monitoring -- the best way possible to control your blood sugar -- you still can end up with these consequences." Dr. Papas adds, "Interestingly, if you administer insulin aggressively to help lower and keep your blood sugar in the normal range, you actually increase your risk of potentially deadly hypoglycemic, or low blood sugar, episodes." For the last two decades, Dr. Papas has been working on a solution to this problem. In collaboration with other scientists across the nation, the UA researcher has been developing a tiny, implantable device that senses glucose levels and releases insulin when needed. Now, with a two-year, $1.2 million grant from the JDRF, Dr. Papas will continue to perfect and test his device in preparation for clinical trials in humans. The project, which also includes a contribution from Novo Nordisk, is in collaboration with Tom Loudovaris, PhD, of St. Vincent's Institute, and Greg Korbutt, PhD, of the University of Alberta. The device operates using a medical innovation known as islet transplantation. In adults with Type 1 diabetes, islets are taken from donor bodies and dripped into the patient's liver, similar to an intravenous, or IV drip. Eventually, these islets begin producing insulin for the body, but in order for the patient's body to accept the transplanted cells, the patient must take lifelong immunosuppressive drugs. Because of this need for immunosuppressive drugs, islet transplantation is not recommended in children. "The need for lifelong immunosuppression is a major concern," says Dr. Papas, who leads the UA Institute for Cellular Transplantation. "Children would be more susceptible to infections and lifelong treatment could cause other serious health conditions." To avoid immunosuppressive medications in children and adults, Dr. Papas' device can protect transplanted insulin-producing islets from the body's attack. Donor islets are placed inside of the implantable, tea bag-like device, which has a special exterior that shields the islets from any attacks from the immune system. "It's like a tea bag," Dr. Papas says. "The tea leaves stay inside but tea, or insulin, comes out. And the tea bag keeps out the immune cells that would normally attack the islets." Such tea bag technology has been explored for decades but has not yet made it to patients for routine clinical use. One of the key issues that has limited the technology's success is the large size of the tea bag -- at one point analogous to a large flat-screen TV. The professor also has developed a technology to feed oxygen to the islet cells in the tea bag for optimal health and insulin production. "The unique thing we bring to the table is the combination of an optimized tea bag with its own oxygen supply," Dr. Papas says. "Islets are happier with an oxygen supply; they survive and function better and this has been overlooked in the past." Under current plans, the oxygen generator -- the size of a stack of quarters -- eventually will be implanted alongside the islet tea bag. Implant locations include under the skin of the arm or back. The oxygen generator, which will use battery power, could be recharged without wires or removal from the body using a technology known as transcutaneous energy transfer. If testing is successful with the two-year JDRF grant, Dr. Papas could launch clinical trials with the device in the next three to four years. "This is not pie-in-the-sky crazy science," he says. "We believe, engineering-wise, it is achievable. The cells and the biology were the difficult part and they have come a long way in the past five years." If taken to market, human islets from donors will be placed in the tea bags, but Dr. Papas believes that islets generated in the lab from human stem cells soon will be available. As part of the two-year study, Novo Nordisk has donated human stem cell-derived islets to test in the tea bags. If successful, stem cell-derived islets would make it easier to help treat the millions of people with diabetes. UA President Robert C. Robbins, MD, said he is eager to see Dr. Papas and his team continue to develop this promising technology and take the device to market. "This is an incredible example of the kind of innovative and collaborative research that is taking place on the UA campus that has only recently become possible with the convergence of the physical, biological and digital worlds," Dr. Robbins said. "The work that Dr. Papas and his team are doing to help children with diabetes is a great example of using new technology to significantly improve quality of life for patients, and why the UA is primed to be a leader in developing digital health." Each year there are nearly 11 million cases of typhoid, a disease that is spread through contaminated food, drink and water. Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine are leading an international consortium that is studying the impact of a typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) in an effort to accelerate introduction of the vaccine in countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia where there is a high burden of typhoid. In a supplement published by Clinical Infectious Diseases, Kathleen Neuzil, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics and Director of the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD) at UMSOM, underscores the importance of introducing a TCV, while outlining the challenges in accelerating wide use of the vaccine in typhoid-endemic countries. "In the past year, policy and financing milestones have paved the way for the introduction TCVs. In this supplement, collaborators from around the globe detail efforts and provide data to inform country-level decisions on vaccine introduction as a critical part of public health interventions to decrease typhoid disease," said Dr. Neuzil, who is leading the Typhoid Vaccine Acceleration Consortium (TyVAC), an international group of researchers with a mission to accelerate the introduction of TCV in low-income countries. The special TyVAC journal supplement, edited by Dr. Neuzil, Dr. Andrew Pollard of Oxford University and Dr. Anthony Marfin of PATH, brings together the body of research conducted by TyVAC to date, as well as additional research from other research partners. The research underscores the challenges of typhoid surveillance, the growing resistance to antibiotics and the increasing numbers of typhoid outbreaks in the most vulnerable low-resources settings. "The growing threat of typhoid necessitates a global effort that includes preventative measures such as vaccines and improved waster, sanitation, and hygiene.," said Dr. Neuzil. In the supplement, TyVAC researchers detail clinical trials that are underway in Nepal, Bangladesh, Malawi, and Burkina Faso. They highlight the health economics of the disease, the growing concerns of drug resistance, and the cost-effectiveness of mass campaigns of a vaccine. Release of the supplement comes as TyVAC researchers in addition to several UMSOM disease experts in the CVD will present their research in Hanoi, Vietnam on March 26-28 at the 11th International Conference on Typhoid and Other Salmonelloses. Dr. Neuzil is a keynote speaker at this event. "This research led by Dr. Kathleen Neuzil demonstrates the impact our work at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has across the globe. It will help inform global vaccine policymakers in settings where diseases like typhoid are a serious threat," said UMSOM Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, who is also the Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor. The recent measles outbreaks across the country emphasize the importance of vaccinations. "For many infectious diseases, we rely on herd immunity to prevent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable infections. Herd immunity is the protection of the 'herd,' our population, by preventing infections in the vast majority people," said Kate Langwig, an infectious disease ecologist at Virginia Tech. "We can calculate the percentage of the population that needs to be vaccinated to prevent diseases from spreading and maintain herd immunity. For some pathogens, like measles, the number that needs to vaccinated is very high because the measles virus spreads so easily." Langwig, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, is researching ways in which vaccine efficacy can be improved. The measles vaccine has been shown to have 97 percent efficacy, but "understanding the circumstances that contribute to vaccine ineffectiveness can help to better protect populations," Langwig said. Langwig and her lab ran mathematical modeling simulations to determine if vaccine efficacy might be lower when individuals are exposed to high pathogen doses, and when individuals vary in their susceptibility. For example, if you have been vaccinated against the measles, but someone sneezes very close to your face, or you're caring for a sick kid who is sneezing, coughing, etc., are you more likely to get sick? In addition, if you're run down (maybe from chasing that kid the week earlier), are you more likely to get infected even if you've been vaccinated? Langwig and her lab found in their simulations that vaccines are predicted to be less effective at higher pathogen doses and when individuals in the population have similar susceptibility. These findings were recently published in Scientific Reports. "Susceptibility, meaning how likely an individual is to get infected, is also important. Individuals that are younger or have poor nutrition can be more likely to get infected, even if they have been vaccinated. We found that populations that have more variable susceptibility have higher vaccine efficacy," said Langwig, an affiliated faculty member of the Global Change Center, an arm of the Fralin Life Science Institute. Langwig and her lab were interested in validating their simulations with some real-world data, so they did a systematic literature review with help from Virginia Tech undergraduate researchers to determine whether there were examples of diseases where vaccines efficacy is reduced at high doses. "What we found was a bit of a shock - there are a very small number of studies that test whether vaccines are effective across multiple pathogen doses. We reviewed almost 6,000 articles and identified only about a dozen studies that had tested vaccines across multiple pathogen doses. Within those few studies, the pattern was generally consistent with our simulation - vaccine efficacy tended to be lower at high pathogen doses," said Langwig. They did find that some vaccines did offer complete protection regardless of pathogen dose in several model organisms, suggesting that not all vaccines are less effective when individuals are exposed to high doses. Extrapolation to human systems should be done with care, but this research helps increase the understanding of host susceptibility, pathogen dose, and vaccine efficacy. "One thing that surprised us is that many scientists are vaguely aware that vaccines might fail at high pathogen doses, but there were a very small number of studies that had ever examined this," said Langwig. Langwig is currently collaborating with another lab to test vaccine efficacy and different pathogen doses in a species of rainbow trout. They will continue to design mathematical models to test predictions in real-world situations to determine how populations can be further protected. Advances in biotechnology capabilities during the last two decades have made it possible to engineer biological molecules for medical purposes, e.g., recombinant hormones and growth factors, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), vaccines. Such treatments, commonly referred to as biotherapeutics, are typically proteins or polypeptides of >40 amino acids whose active components are constructed using biotechnology. This broad class of drugs, which includes agents for a wide variety of indications, now accounts for a significant proportion of new drug approvals. Monoclonal antibodies in particular are a valuable tool for providing targeted treatments by virtue of their high specificity. In 2017, 22 of the 46 drugs approved by the FDA were biotherapeutics, and 10 of these were mAbs. ustas7777777/Shutterstock.com As is the case for traditional small molecule drugs, biotherapeutics must be fully characterized before they can be marketed to ensure patient safety. Indeed, this is especially important for protein-based therapies as these have the potential to elicit an immune response. The complexity of biological therapies and their susceptibility to denaturisation mean there is a huge scope for structural variations. Since even the smallest change can significantly impact both function and immunogenicity, it is important that biotherapeutics can be analysed to the highest level of detail. Furthermore, the complex manufacturing process for biotherapeutics provides even greater scope for structural deviation. It is therefore critical to ensure that only correctly formed and conjugated product reaches the supply chain. The need to gain in-depth structural and compositional knowledge of complex biopharmaceuticals has placed huge demands on bioanalytical capabilities. Indeed, it has catalysed the development and enhancement of numerous techniques for analysing proteins and determining immunogenicity. Characterization of biotherapeutic products The slightest structural changes in a protein can have serious efficacy and safety concerns. In addition, there is considerable potential for contamination with degradation products and unconjugated precursors, which could give rise to adverse effects. Such safety concerns led to the introduction of regulatory requirements for each component of a biotherapeutic to be isolated and individually characterized. The powerful separation capabilities of ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC), combined with its speed and good resolution, makes it a valuable tool for the detailed characterization of biopharmaceuticals. Atis Chakrabarti of Tosoh Bioscience LLC will be giving a presentation at Pittcon 2019, "Different Modes of Analytical Chromatography Techniques for the Characterization of Biomolecules", in which he will explore the use of different chromatographic modalities in the characterization of mAbs. The various UHPLC techniques are used in combination with a detection capability, such as UV, or light scattering, and additional structural information can be acquired using mass spectrometry. Such a multidimensional analytical approach serves to increase the potential sensitivity and makes it possible to characterize more complex proteins. However, to achieve complete separation of biotherapeutics, an arduous and complicated method development process is often needed to find the optimal UHPLC configuration. At Pittcon 2019, Michael Dong will be detailing techniques for speeding up method development in his talk entitled "UHPLC in Method Development of Stability-Indicating Methods". Determining biosimilarity Biosimilars are the biotherapeutic equivalent of generics for small molecule drugs. The abbreviated licensure pathway for biosimilars enables new versions of a biotherapeutic already on the market to be licensed if they are proven to be comparable to the product they copy. Since even the slight difference in post-translational modifications, such as glycosylation, can significantly alter the function and immunogenicity of a biomolecule, highly efficient analytical methods are needed to confirm that a biosimilar closely replicates the originator molecule. At Pittcon 2019, Akos Szekrenyes of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals will be giving an overview of the current analytical techniques used to assess the similarity of biosimilars in his presentation "Comprehensive Analysis of Biosimilar Monoclonal Antibodies: Current Trends based on the Lately Approved Follow-On Products". Evaluation of immunogenicity The numerous opportunities for structural heterogeneity in recombinant proteins give rise to the risk of immunogenicity. If a patient raises an immune response to an introduced biotherapeutic it can have dangerous consequences, such as reduced efficacy, destruction of the endogenous counterpart, alterations in drug pharmacokinetics, and hypersensitivity reactions. It is thus important that antibodies against a biotherapeutic can be reliably detected and distinguished from other antibodies. In addition, it is necessary to fully characterize the precise pattern of post-translational modifications on a biotherapeutic so immunogenic potential can be assessed early in development. Intact liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) techniques are valuable tools for assessing structural modifications, such as glycation, of proteins. Pittcon 2022: Mar 6-10 Click here to learn more Ernest N. Morial Convention Center New Orleans, LA USA In his talk at Pittcon 2019 entitled "Mass Spectrometry Imaging of Bacterially Infected Human Skin Tissue on Silicon Nanopost Arrays, Jarod Fincher of George Washington University highlights the ability of mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) to not only detect a wide range of biomolecules but also simultaneously map out their spatial distributions Validation of new bioanalytic techniques The complexity of biotherapeutics means that regulatory bodies cannot specify the techniques that are acceptable to demonstrate the purity, immunogenicity or biosimilarity of a treatment, since it is usually necessary for the analytical methodology to be tailored to a particular biotherapeutic. Instead the manufacturer must propose the appropriate analysis technique and prove that it is fit for purpose. Analytical method validation (AMV) not only gives the regulators confidence in the results reported by pharmaceutical companies, it also ensures the quality of the development and production processes, which in turn ensure a quality final product. The development of an analytical methodology that will meet regulatory requirements begins with the determination of specific properties or characteristics, be they physical, chemical, biological, or microbiological, that should be within an appropriate limit to ensure the desired product quality. These are known as critical quality attributes (CQA). At Pittcon 2019, Li Tao of Bristol Myers Squibb will be discussing analytical development based on critical quality attributes and how this relates to the characterizing of biotherapeutics in her presentation entitled Current Status of Analytical Development During Process Development for Biologics. Find out more at Pittcon 2019 The research and technologies highlighted here will be covered in more detail in the symposia, oral presentations and short courses at Pittcon 2019. Check out the Pittcon 2019 guide to learn more about these talks, symposia and courses and their presenters. Numerous market-leading producers of bioanalytical technologies, products, and services, including Advion, Bruker, SilcoTek, ThermoFisher and Waters Corporation, will also be present at Pittcon 2019 to discuss the latest additions to their capabilities and address your specific analytical requirements. References About Pittcon Pittcon is a registered trademark of The Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, a Pennsylvania non-profit organization. Co-sponsored by the Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh and the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh, Pittcon is the premier annual conference and exposition on laboratory science. Proceeds from Pittcon fund science education and outreach at all levels, kindergarten through adult. Pittcon donates more than a million dollars a year to provide financial and administrative support for various science outreach activities including science equipment grants, research grants, scholarships and internships for students, awards to teachers and professors, and grants to public science centers, libraries and museums. Visit pittcon.org for more information. Sponsored Content Policy: News-Medical.net publishes articles and related content that may be derived from sources where we have existing commercial relationships, provided such content adds value to the core editorial ethos of News-Medical.Net which is to educate and inform site visitors interested in medical research, science, medical devices and treatments. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 11) President Rodrigo Duterte, in an event recognizing women, told them not to deprive him of his right to freedom of expression in relation to his remarks called out for being misogynist or sexist. "You know, you women, you are depriving me of my freedom of expression," Duterte said Monday evening at the Outstanding Women in Law Enforcement and National Security of the Philippines in Malacanang. "You criticize every sentence or word I say, but that is my freedom to express myself." He claimed he wanted to test the "limits of despair" with his comments. "Even if I am just a president, do not take me away from the crowd of being a Filipino citizen," he said. Duterte's recent tirade against women was prompted by criticisms about his warning for women to stay away from priests since they are men. "Kung ni-reject ka na ng pari, wala na akong, kung pati pari ayaw na sa inyo, tapos dito kayo magalit sa akin. Wala akong magawa para sa inyong mga babae," he explained. [Translation: If a priest rejects you, and you direct your anger at me, I cannot do anything for you women.] The President is no stranger to controversial remarks about women. In 2016, the President cracked the infamous "Dapat mauna ang mayor" [The mayor should go first] rape joke about a detained Australian missionary, to which he apologized. He also previously said female communist rebels should be shot in the vagina, something which he defended as a "lecture." In June 2018, he also kissed a married Filipina on the lips during an official visit to South Korea. But Duterte said he does not remember disrespecting or dishonoring anyone, saying his track record since he was Davao City mayor would support his claim. "Basta, ako, mahal ko ang babae. Kaya nga makita mo naman, dalawa ang asawa ko. Ibig sabihin, talagang gusto ko ang babae. Hindi ibig sabihin na gustong galawin, gusto ko lang ang babae," he said. [Translation:I love women. That's why you see I have two wives. That means I like women. And not in the sense that I want to have relationship with them.] The school is at 6855 N. Crawford Ave., Lincolnwood. The forum, which is presented by School District 74, is open to all Lincolnwood residents, and the schools website has a link in which residents can submit questions that might be asked during a Q-and-A segment. Hawkeye could be the next step in bringing the Dark Avengers or Thunderbolts to the MCU feature There are things happening in the MCU that look an awful lot like the comic book history of the Dark Avengers and Thunderbolts Sorry! This content is not available in your region Do you want to go into a profession where its so determined on whether there was going to be anything to open school doors? Eccarius said. Those are things that I think are definitely impacting people going into education. The resident was advised by the 911 operator to make sure all doors, including the overhead garage door, the release said. Had this not been done, the damage would have been far greater, fire officials officials said. New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government will discuss with aviation regulator DGCA on action that needs to be taken regarding Boeing 737 MAX planes being operated in India following the crash of the aircraft in Ethiopia that killed 157 people, a senior official said Monday. This is for the second time in less than five months that a Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane crashed. In October 2018, an aircraft operated by Lion Air crashed killing over 180 people in Indonesia. Against the backdrop of full-service carrier Jet Airways and budget airline SpiceJet operating 737 MAX planes, the DGCA has decided to seek information about the aircraft from Boeing as well as the two domestic carriers. A senior civil aviation ministry official Monday told PTI it would discuss with the DGCA on the action that needs to be taken with regard to 737 MAX aircraft. Jet Airways has placed orders for 225 737 MAX planes with Boeing and some have already been delivered. SpiceJet, which has embarked on ambitious expansion plans, has a deal with Boeing for up to 205 aircraft, including at least 155 737 MAX 8 planes. The two airlines did not offer any immediate comments regarding the MAX planes. The 737 MAX is the fastest selling airplane in Boeing's history. Currently, SpiceJet has 13 737 MAX 8 planes and Jet Airways has 8 such aircraft in their fleets, as per data available with planespotters.net website. On Sunday, 157 people, including four Indians, were killed when a Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines' 737 MAX aircraft crashed after taking off from Addis Ababa. In the wake of the incident, various jurisdictions and airlines have initiated actions, including grounding of the 737 MAX aircraft. The Civil Aviation Administration of China has asked its local carriers to stop commercial flights with 737 MAX 8 planes and Ethiopian Airlines has grounded its fleet of such aircraft. Last December, the DGCA asked Jet Airways and SpiceJet to immediately report any "abnormal" issues related to the MAX plane's Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), following the Lion Air crash. MCAS is a kind of stall-recovery system that is used in Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and generally alerts the pilot in case there is stalling of the plane or fall in speed, among others. Prior to that, the DGCA, in November 2018, asked the two carriers to take corrective action to address possible issues with their 737 MAX planes that could lead to "significant altitude loss" of the aircraft. After the crash in Ethiopia, Boeing, on Sunday, said it was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the passengers and crew on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a 737 MAX 8 airplane. "A Boeing technical team will be travelling to the crash site to provide technical assistance under the direction of the Ethiopia Accident Investigation Bureau and US National Transportation Safety Board," the aircraft maker said in a statement. "The 737 MAX is the fastest selling airplane in Boeing history, accumulating nearly 4,700 orders from more than 100 customers, worldwide," according to Boeing website. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of Indias 561st meeting holds a key detail that shows how Narendra Modi government went ahead with the note ban decision despite clear dissent. The minutes of the meeting have revealed how the Central bank had differed with Modi govt over the landmark decision. According to a report in Business Standard, on November 8, 2016, the RBI had told the govt that it must not ban the high-value currency notes as it wont help in curbing black money economy. This was at 5:30 pm. Two and a half hours later, at 8 pm, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation that would ban the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes. The minutes of the meeting were obtained under an RTI filed by Venkatesh Nayak. The RBI has confirmed that the details are genuine. At that time, the share of banned notes in circulation was 86%. Apart from this, the RBI also said that it has no data on the old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes used to pay for utility bills such as fuel at petrol pumps -- payments that are anonymous and are believed to have formed a good part of the demonetised currency that returned to the banking system. After the November 8, 2016 shock decision to ban the use of old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, the government had allowed the exchange of the junked notes as well as they being used for payment of utility bills for 23 services. Both 500 and 1,000 rupee notes could be used at government hospitals, railway ticketing, public transport, airline ticketing at airports, milk booths, crematoria/burial grounds, petrol pumps, metro rail tickets, purchase of medicines on doctor prescription from the government and private pharmacies, LPG gas cylinders, railway catering, electricity and water bills, ASI monument entry tickets and highway toll. On November 25, 2016, the exchange of old notes was stopped and the government allowed the use of only old 500 rupee notes at these utilities till December 15, 2016. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: It enthralled children with stories of Indian mythology for decades while narrating virtues of good deeds, but the 'Chandamama' magazine's new owners are now in the dock for allegedly stashing illicit funds in Swiss banks. Mumbai-based Geodesic Ltd, which acquired the iconic magazine in 2007, and its three directors are being probed by the Indian authorities for alleged money laundering and other financial irregularities and Switzerland has agreed to provide "administrative assistance" regarding their accounts in Swiss banks, which broadly means sharing of information with India. Switzerland was widely known as an alleged safe haven for black money before it bowed down before the global pressure and agreed to bring down the famed secrecy walls that had historically surrounded the Swiss banks, provided the requesting country gave proof for financial irregularities done by the concerned person or the company. Along with several other countries, India has also been making use of this change in stance of Switzerland by seeking details of suspected black money hoarders in Swiss banks and it has already got back information in a large number of cases in the last few years. In a decision dated March 5, Switzerland's Federal Tax Administration (FTA) has decided to grant "administrative assistance" to India in respect of Geodesic Ltd and its three directors -- Prashant Sharad Mulekar, Pankajkumar Onkar Srivastava and Kiran Kulkarni, according to the official documents. As per the Swiss law, the FTA decision can be appealed within 30 days, provided the appellant is able to give sufficient ground to challenge it. Earlier on October 30, 2018, also, the FTA had decided to provide the administrative assistance in respect of Geodesic Ltd and the three individuals. While that decision is appeared to have been challenged, the FTA has again decided to share the details with the Indian authorities, indicating that the earlier appeal could not sustain. In a similar case, the FTA also decided on March 5 to provide administrative assistance' to India in case of a Chennai-based entity, Aadhi Enterprises Pvt Ltd. This decision can also be appealed within 30 days. An earlier decision was taken by the FTA on October 16 to assist Indian authorities in this case, but now a fresh notification has been issued for providing administrative assistance to India in case of this real estate firm which saw a meteoric rise soon after being incorporated in November 2014 and is said to have got significant political links. Geodesic, on the other hand, used to be a publicly-listed entity and has already faced the wrath of capital markets regulator Sebi for multiple violations. Its shares have not been trading since August 2014 when its share price had dipped to as low as Rs 1.50 apiece. While the Swiss government documents did not disclose specific details related to the information and assistance sought by the Indian authorities regarding the two companies and the three individuals, such an 'administrative assistance' follows submission of proof about financial and tax-related wrongdoings and typically involves sharing of information relating to bank account details and other financial data. Repeated attempts to contact the two companies and the three individuals for their comments failed to yield any result. In the past, they have denied any wrongdoing. The 1982-incorporated Geodesic, once known as a fast-growing company with cutting-edge technology solutions, does not have a functional website anymore and is also no longer a listed entity as trading in its shares has been suspended by stock exchanges for "procedural reasons". The company and its directors have faced regulatory action by Sebi as well as other authorities like the Enforcement Directorate and the Economic Offence Wing of the Mumbai Police. Aadhi Enterprises had reportedly landed in trouble due to alleged links to tainted politicians and for allegedly indulging in money laundering. According to reports, the Income Tax Department has conducted multiple raids on properties of the company's promoters. While Switzerland has always denied being a safe haven for black money, it has begun sharing details for last few years with several countries including India after submission of evidence about financial and tax-related wrongdoings of the clients of Swiss banks. Besides, a new framework of automatic information exchange has been now put in place and the details can be accessed under the new system from this year. For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Fire broke out at sixth floor of Vikas Bhawan in New Delhi area on Monday. Three fire tenders have been pressed into action. Initial reports suggest that a short-circuit is believed to be the cause behind the blaze. Last week, a CISF sub-inspector died due to suffocation in the fire that broke out on the fifth floor of the Pandit Deendayal Antyodaya Bhawan at the CGO Complex on March 6. Identified as MP Godara, the CISF personnel was a native of Churu in Rajasthan. He had gone inside the building to check if any one was trapped, but he fainted and was rushed to AIIMS. However, doctors failed to revive him. The fire department got a call around 8.34 am and as many as 24 fire tenders were rushed to the spot to douse the blaze. The fire started at the Office of the Ministry of Social Justice's Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and quickly spread. Pandit Deendayal Antyodaya Bhawan is an 11-storeyed building and houses the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. It was earlier known as the 'Paryavaran Bhawan'. High rise cranes were used in the firefighting operations. On January 12, a fire had erupted on the first floor of the B block of the GCO complex because of a short circuit. At that time, 18 fire tenders were rushed to the spot and the fire was controlled within an hour. New Delhi: In what could be another big blow to the Congress ahead of the ensuing Lok Sabha Elections 2019, Purushottam Sawariya, the party MLA from Gujarat, has been inducted into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Sawariya joined the Saffron party in presence of its senior leaders IK Jadeja and KC Patel. The development came days after Sawariya along with another Congress MLA - Jawahar Chavda - quit the party, bringing down its Assembly strength to 72. On March 8, Chavda too joined the BJP hours after resigning as a Congress MLA in Gujarat. "Gandhinagar: Congress MLA from Gujarat, Purushottam Sawariya who had resigned from the party last week, joins BJP," the news agency ANI reported. Gandhinagar: Congress MLA from Gujarat, Purushottam Sawariya who had resigned from the party last week, joins BJP. pic.twitter.com/4PaYB21hK9 a ANI (@ANI) March 11, 2019 Industrialist Sawariya was elected to the house for the first time in 2017 from Dhrangadhra constituency. The former Congress MLA, who was jailed for 4 months in connection with a corruption case, claimed that he quit the Congress in order to be part of the developmental process. It seems like the BJP aimsA to sweep votes fromA Koli community in Sourashtra asA Sawariya is well known among these communities. Sawariya and Chavda have become the latest adition to the list of poached leaders from the Congress. The internal feud in Gujarat Congress led several top leaders to join the ruling BJP ahead of March 12's crucial Working Committee meeting. Sawariya is the third Congress MLA to have resigned from the House in the past few months. In July last year, senior Congress MLA Kunwarjibhai Mohanbhai Bavaliya had resigned as the legislator. He was later made a cabinet minister in the current BJP dispensation. Last month, first-time MLA from Unjha seat in Mehsana, Asha Patel, had resigned from the House and the Congress, and later joined the ruling BJP. The development assumes significance as speculations have been rife that Gujarat Congress MLA Alpesh Thakore is likely to join the BJP.A However, the OBC leader and Congress legislator from Radhanpur in north Gujarat, denied such rumours, adding that he is not keen to contest the Lok Sabha elections and will continue to fight for the rights of his Thakore community. Addressing a press conference in Ahmedabad, Thakore said, "I am very clear that I have to fight for my people. So, I will stay with Congress and will continue to support the party. I want respect and rights for my people". "Everyone wants to hold the position of a minister. At one point, I did aspire to becoming a minister to be able to serve my community better, but I have now decided to take the path of struggle," he stated being asked about the reports of him joining the Congress. New Delhi: After the Election Commission announced the schedule for the 2019 parliamentary election on Sunday, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Amanatullah Khan on Sunday took to Twitter and wrote, May 12 will be the day of Ramzan in Delhi if Muslims vote less, it will directly help the BJP, said Amanatullah Khan. AAP head and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also took to Twitter and said it was time to throw out the Narendra Modi dispensation, the most dictatorial and anti-federal government in the history of India, with the help of the people. Ultimately back to We the people -- the real power of our democracy. Time to throw out the most dictatorial and anti-federal govt in the history of India. Time to seek answers on demonetisation, jobs, destruction of traders and destroying brotherhood amongst different communities, Kejriwal said in a tweet. Earlier, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and Kolkata Municipal Corporation Mayor Firhad Hakim said, People will face problems in exercising their voting rights as some poll dates are clashing with Ramzan. Since the Election Commission is a constitutional body, I dont want to comment much into the matter. But they should have considered that people will suffer during Ramzan (in casting votes). He said, EC has announced the poll dates on Ramzan so that minorities are unable to cast their votes. But I would like to tell them (the BJP) that the people of Bengal are with (Trinamool chief) Mamata Banerjee. The state of West Bengal has nearly 31 per cent Muslim voters and many believe that the dates clashing with Ramzan will become a key issue in Bengal. In Malda and Murshidabad districts alone, the minority voters strength is nearly 52 per cent and 66 per cent, respectively. During the last panchayat election also, party leaders led by minister Partha Chatterjee met West Bengal election commissioner AK Singh and requested him to conclude the rural polls before the month of fasting for the minority community begins. New Delhi: Amid speculaion over forging an alliance with Aam Aadmin Party (AAP), Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday said his party will contest on all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi alone. "There will be no tie-up and the Congress will go it alone on all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi," Gandhi said while addressing a party meeting in New Delhi. On Saurday, Delhi Congress president Sheila Dikshit met senior party leader Sonia Gandhi and rejected the issue of alliance with the ruling AAP for the Lok Sabha polls. However, there were speculation that the issue of alliance with the AAP in Delhi was discussed during the meeting. The decision (against alliance with AAP) after meeting Rahul Gandhi still continues, that is all, Dikshit told news agency PTI when asked whether the alliance issue came up during her meeting with Sonia Gandhi. Last week, Dikshit had announced that it would not form an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party in the national capital. "A unanimous decision has been taken that there will be no alliance in Delhi," Dikshit had said. The announcement by the former Delhi chief minister had come following a meeting with the Congress president. Police said Tyus, of the 1000 block of North Waller Avenue in Chicago, and her passenger were taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood. Tyus later died of her injuries, police said, and the passenger was hospitalized in critical condition with multiple injuries. An update on the passenger was not immediately available, officials said. New Delhi: National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Monday said all parties are in favour of holding simultaneous the Lok Sabha and state assembly polls. "Environment is conducive for Lok Sabha polls but not state polls in Jammu and Kashmir. Local body polls were held peacefully, there are enough forces present, then why can't state elections be held, he said. The Election Commission on Sunday announced that the assembly elections in four states Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Odisha and Arunachal Pradesh will be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls. The poll panel further said the assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir will not be held along with the general elections. Since the J&K has been dissolved, the EC is bound to hold fresh polls there as well within a six-month period, which will end in May. Earlier, former chief minister Omar Abdullah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "surrendered" before Pakistan, militants and separatists. "In light of the failure to conduct assembly elections on time in J&K I'm retweeting my tweets from a few days ago. PM Modi has surrendered to Pakistan, to the militants & to the hurriyat. Well done Modi Sahib. 56-inch chest failed. #slowclap (sic), Omar, the NC vice-president, wrote on Twitter. ALSO READ | Lok Sabha polls to be held in seven phases starting from April 11, counting on May 23 Omar said in 2014, J-K had Lok Sabha elections on time and assembly elections on the schedule even after the most devastating floods, but delaying them now "shows how badly the BJP & earlier the BJP-PDP mishandled J&K. "What happened to (Union Home Minister) @rajnathsingh's assurance to Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha as well as to the all-party meeting recently in Delhi that all forces would be made available for simultaneous polls, he asked in another tweet. Omar said he never thought Modi would be willing to confess his failure on a global stage by not conducting the assembly polls on time in J-K. The Centre and the state administration, being managed by the Centre-appointed Governor, are against holding the two elections together. However, all political parties in the state favoured simultaneous polls during a meeting with the Election Commission earlier this week. The J-K assembly's six-year term was to end on March 16, 2021, but it got dissolved after a ruling coalition between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fell apart. Lok Sabha elections will begin on April 11 and polling would be held over seven phases through May 19, followed by counting of all votes on May 23. New Delhi: Speaking exclusively to News Nation, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday launched a scathing attack against opposition parties and said that the people of India will reject the opportunistic politics grand alliance. Placing confidence on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Yogi said that the Bharatiya Janata Party will win more than 74 seats in Uttar Pradesh in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls 2019. He also exuded confidence that the ruling BJP will win the Congress bastion of Amethi in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls on the basis of its welfare works and hard work of its workers. Yogi Adityanath blamed the Congress' "appeasement policies" for the "growth of terrorism" in the country and asserted that the BJP will never compromise the country's security. Stressing that the saffron party will put an end to the appeasement politics, he called upon people to ensure that Narendra Modi is re-elected as the country's prime minister in the coming Lok Sabha polls as only he can defeat Pakistan backed violence. As the Election Commission (EC) announced the polling dates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath speaks exclusively to News Nation. Earlier, Yogi had said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will return to power with a bigger majority than it had in 2014. The Bharatiya Janata Party alliance under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will get bigger majority than it had in 2014, Adityanath told ANI. On Sunday, the EC announced that the elections for Lok Sabha will be held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19 with the counting of votes scheduled to take place on May 23. Here are the highlights: 15:08 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Our target is to win more than 74 seats in Uttar Pradesh, says Yogi Adityanath. 15:07 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In People of Uttar Pradesh will reject 'Mahamilvat', says Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. 15:05 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Terrorists were served biryani during UPA era, says UP CM Yogi Adityanath. 15:04 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In BJP will win Azamgarh seat in UP aswell, it will be a landmark verdict: Yogi Adityanath 15:03 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In NDA will win more seats than 2014, says Yogi Adityanath. New Delhi: The BJP is likely to win 17 of the 25 seats in Rajasthan in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, according to an opinion poll conducted by News Nation. The Congress, which defeated the BJP in last years assembly elections in the state, is expected to win the remaining eight seats, the opinion poll added. The data shows a downfall in BJPs performance which had won all the 25 seats in the state in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP is expected to get a vote share of 40 per cent while the Congress may garner 36 per cent of the votes, according to the poll. The opinion poll has predicted 270 seats for the NDA in the Lok Sabha elections, while the UPA may win 134 seats. Others are expected to claim victory on 139 seats, it added. In the state assembly elections held in December last year, the BJP suffered a major blow at Congress hands. The Congress won 99 seats, BJP won 73 and BSP won 6 seats out of the 199 seats that went to polls. Mayawati supported the Congress, helping it cross the majority mark of 101 and form government. Also See | Opinion Poll: PM Modi likely to win Lok Sabha polls 2019, may get second term Political observers blamed the BJP's loss on the SC/ST seats on the 'Bharat Bandh' and the anti-incumbency factor against the party. Riding on the resentment, the Congress won most of the seats in the eastern districts of Rajasthan which were dominated by the SC/ST communities. Lok Sabha elections will be held in two phases in Rajasthan where 13 constituencies will go to polls on April 29 and remaining 12 seats on May 6. As per the schedule, Tonk-Sawaimadhopur, Ajmer, Pali, Jodhpur, Barmer, Jalore, Udaipur, Banswara, Chittorgarh, Rajsamand, Bhilwara, Kota and Jhalawar-Baran will go to poll on April 29. Elections in Ganganagar, Bikaner, Churu, Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Jaipur rural, Jaipur, Alwar, Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur, Dausa and Nagaur will take place in second phase on May 6. highlights This time, several opposition parties are trying to come under one roof, in their attempt to dethrone the BJP at the Centre. The NDA is likely get a combined vote share of 34 per cent 4.5 per cent less than what it got in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The alliance between Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and RLD is expected to dent the BJPs sentiments in Uttar Pradesh. New Delhi: The BJP-led NDA government is likely to retain power at the Centre, riding the "Modi wave", and is expected to win 270 of the 543 seats in the highly anticipated Lok Sabha elections, according to opinion poll conducted by News Nation on Monday. On the other hand, the Congress, despite being buoyant after the victories in Assembly polls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, will be able to win only 134 seats (with its partners) while others are expected to win 139 seats. However, according to the opinion poll, the NDA will get a combined vote share of 34 per cent 4.5 per cent less than what it got in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The UPA is expected to get a vote share of 28 per cent while Others may get 29 per cent of the votes. As per the opinion poll, 47 per cent of the respondents said they want Modi to continue as the prime minister while 30 per cent chose Congress chief Rahul Gandhi over the former. Also, 55 per cent of the participants said there is no match to PM Modi's stature, while 32 per cent disagreed on this. Narendra Modi had led the NDA to a sweeping victory in 2014 as it won 336 seats, reducing the incumbent Congress to its lowest total of 44 seats. The BJP had won 282 seats handing a crushing defeat to the 10-year-rule of the United Progressive Alliance led by Congress. Also See | Opinion Poll: PM Modi likely to win Lok Sabha polls 2019, may get second term This time, several opposition parties, despite have contrast political ideologies, are trying to come under one roof, in their attempt to dethrone the BJP at the Centre. The BJP has worked out a seat-sharing formula with some new allies and several old partners, by even making concessions in states such as Bihar, which has 40 seats. However, opposition parties are yet to do so in several states. After losing three state polls last year, the BJP believes its Lok Sabha campaign is back on track following decisions such as 10 per cent quota for the general category poor, money transfer to farmers and a populist budget. What has injected further confidence into the NDA fold is the fronting of the nationalist plank in the poll campaign after the Indian Air Force's strikes on terrorist camps in Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attack, which killed 40 CRPF personnel. The BJP has been citing 2016 surgical strikes on terror launch pads and the Balakot air strikes to assert that only a government headed by Modi will be capable of taking on Pakistan over terrorism. The News Nation Opinion Poll also conducted state-wise surveys to get an in-depth approximation of how the parties may perform in the upcoming elections. Let's take a look: Uttar Pradesh The alliance between Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and RLD is expected to dent the BJP's sentiments in Uttar Pradesh. The SP-BSP-RLD alliance is expected to win 43 seats, while the NDA may win 35 seats. The Congress is expected to win two seats. Rajasthan Despite losing the state to the Congress in last year's Assembly polls, the saffron party is expected to outshine the Grand Old Party in the Lok Sabha polls. According to the opinion poll, the BJP is expected to win 17 of the 25 seats while the Congress may claim victory on the remaining eight seats. Madhya Pradesh In Madhya Pradesh another Hindi heartland state which the BJP lost to the Congress last year it is likely to win 21 of the 29 seats, while the Congress may win only 8 seats. Chhattisgarh In Chhattisgarh, the BJP-led NDA is expected to win 5 seats (41 per cent vote share) while the UPA may claim victory on 6 seats (with vote share of 42 per cent). The BJP shockingly lost the state to the Congress in 2018 assembly elections as it was former's stronghold for 15 years. Tamil Nadu In Tamil Nadu, BJP's alliance with AIADMK, PMK and DMDK is expected to win it 15 seats (38 per cent vote share). On the other hand, the UPA is likely to win 24 seats with 41 per cent vote share. Andhra Pradesh In Andhra Pradesh, YS Jaganmohan Reddys YSRCP is likely to dominate and may win 16 of the 25 seats, while Chandrababu Naidu's TDP may claim victory on four seats. The BJP and the Congress are expected to win two and one seats respectively. Telangana After claiming a thumping victory in the Assembly polls, K Chandrashekhar Rao's TRS is likely to continue its winning run in the state. According to the opinion poll, the TRS may win 14 seats, while the BJP and the Congress are expected to win one and two seats respectively. Karnataka In Karnataka, the BS Yeddyurappa-led BJP is expected to gain an edge over the Congress-JD(S) alliance. While the BJP may win 15 seats, the alliance is likely to win 13 seats. Kerala In Kerala, the UPA (Congress and UDF) is expected to win 15 of the 20 seats while the CPM-LDF alliance may win 4 seats. The BJP will win only one seat, according to the opinion poll. Gujarat The BJP is expected to continue its dominance in Narendra Modis home state in the upcoming elections. However, the seat share may see a downfall as compared to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls when the saffron party had won on all 26 seats. According to the opinion poll, the BJP is expected to win 21 seats while the Congress may claim victory on five seats. Maharashtra The BJP restoring ties with the Shiv Sena is likely to benefit it in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra. According to the opinion poll, the NDA is likely to win 33 seats while the Congress-NCP alliance may win only 15 seats. Assam In Assam, the BJP is expected to win seven seats while the Congress will claim victory on four seats, as predicted by the News Nation opinion poll. Jammu and Kashmir In Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP is expected to win three of the six seats. The PDP, the National Conference and the Congress may win one seat each. West Bengal Mamata Banerjees Trinamool Congress is expected to win 29 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal. On the other hand, the BJP, which had won only 2 seats in 2014, is likely to win nine seats this time. Odisha Here, the BJP is expected to win nine seats while Naveen Patnaiks Biju Janata Dal may claim victory on 12 seats. Bihar The BJP-JD(U)-LJP alliance in Bihar is likely to outplay the RJD-led grand alliance in Bihar, with the former is expected to win 29 seats and the latter 10 seats. Jharkhand In Jharkhand, the BJP is likely to win 10 seats while the UPA may garner only 4 seats. Uttarakhand The BJP may win four seats while the Congress may garner only one in Uttarakhand. Haryana The BJP is likely to win six out of ten Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. The Congress may win on two seats whereas the INLD and JJP will garner one seat each. Himachal Pradesh The BJP is expected to clean sweep all the four seats in the state. Delhi The BJP is expected to see a downfall in its performance in the national capital as compared to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The saffron party is likely to win four seats while the AAP may win on remaining three seats. Punjab Both the NDA (BJP-SAD alliance) and the Congress are expected to win six seats each, while the AAP may garner one seat in Punjab. Goa In Goa, the BJP may either win both the seats or at least one of the seats, the opinion poll has predicted. Northeast (7 states/11 seats) The NDA may win six of the 11 seats in the seven north-eastern states while the Congress may claim victory on four seats. Union Territories (6 seats) The BJP is expected to win five out of six seats in UTs while the Congress may claim victory on one seat. New Delhi: Ali, the popular Telugu actor known for his superb comic timing began a new inning by launching his political career. Ali joined YSR Congress Party in presence of party chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy on Monday. News agency ANI posted two pictures on Twitter. Earlier, Telangana Chief Minister and TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao made an appeal to the people of Andhra Pradesh to back Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP in the State and Lok Sabha elections due by May. Spokesperson for the ruling TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samiti) Abid Rasool Khan described Reddy as a "key secular person and a friend of the poor." Khan also said YSRCP is definitely "going to have good results in the elections." A Hyderabad: Telugu actor and comedian Ali joins YSRCP in the presence of party president YS Jaganmohan Reddy. pic.twitter.com/Lo0ul371rb a ANI (@ANI) March 11, 2019 Noting that there was a sizeable population of "Telangana people" in Andhra Pradesh -- like relatives, family members and business partners --, he said Telangana's good work and Rao's appeal "will go a long way in getting votes" for YSRCP. Rao and his son and TRS Working President KT Rama Rao have already committed support to Reddy, he said, adding, "we will definitely do not want to 'interfere' in Andhra Pradesh (affairs)". Andhra Pradesh's ruling TDP, led by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, had entered into a pre-election alliance with the Congress in the December seven Assembly elections in Telangana. During campaigning, the TRS had attacked the TDP dubbing it an "Andhra party" interfering in Telangana and alleged that if the Congress-TDP government came to power in Telangana, Naidu would call the shots. A New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday announced the dates of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. According to the dates announced by the commission, the elections will be held in seven phases. The state of the Nation opinion poll conducted by CVoter stated that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will fall marginally short of a majority in the Lok Sabha but will comfortably form the government with post-poll tie-ups. The survey has also stated that had there been no Mahagatbandhan in Uttar Pradesh, the Narendra Modi-led NDA would have walked home with over 300 Lok Sabha seats. The poll was conducted in the month of March when the Modi government took the decision of carrying out an aerial strike on Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror camp in Pakistan, leading to a new wave of nationalism across the country. The poll has projected that the NDA will get 264 seats while the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is expected to reach a tally of 141 and all other parties are expected to get 138 seats. In terms of seats, the BJP is expected to get 220 seats on its own and the allies are likely to get 44. If NDA gets into a post-poll alliance with parties like YSR Congress, Mizo National Front (MNF), Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS), the NDA tally will go up to 301. In the UPA camp, the Congress is expected to get 86 and other partners will add up another 55. If the UPA goes for a post-poll alliance with parties like All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), Left Democratic Front (LDF), MGB (Mahagathbandhan in UP), Trinamool Congress (TMC), its tally will go up to 226. The Congress will improve its 2014 tally of 44 by getting most of the seats from Assam (7, up from 3 in 2014), Chhattisgarh (5 against only 1 in last election), Kerala (14, one more than 2014), Karnataka (9, same as last time), Jharkhand (5, a seat less than last time), Madhya Pradesh (5, against 3 last time), Maharashtra (7, a marginal improvement from 4 in 2014), Punjab (12 against 3 last time), Rajasthan (5, up from nil in 2014), Tamil Nadu (4 against nil last time) and Uttar Pradesh (4, up from 2). The India TV-CNX Opinion poll has also predicted that the BJP may win 238 seats in the Lok Sabha elections 2019, which would begin from April 11. The opinion poll further predicted 82 seats for the Congress which is far better than its performance in 2014 general elections when the grand old could manage to win just 44 seats. Here the state wise prediction of the India TV-CNX Opinion poll: Uttar Pradesh: BJP 40, BSP 16, SP 18, Congress 4, RLD 1, Apna Dal 1, Total 80. Uttarakhand: BJP 5. Total 5. Rajasthan: BJP 20, Congress 5, Total 25. West Bengal: Trinamool Congress 30, BJP 12, Total 42. Odisha: Biju Janata Dal 14, BJP 7, Total 21. Madhya Pradesh: BJP 23, Congress 6, Total 29. Chhattisgarh: BJP 6, Congress 5, Total 11. Punjab: Congress 9, Akali Dal 3, AAP 1, BJP 0, Total 13. Haryana: BJP 9, Congress 1, Total 10. Bihar: BJP 15, RJD 8, JD(U) 12, Congress 2, LJP 3, Total 40. Jharkhand: BJP 8, JMM 3, Congress 2, JVM(P) 1. Total 14. Gujarat: BJP 26, Congress 0. Total 26. Himachal Pradesh: BJP 4, Congress 0, Total 4. Maharashtra: BJP 22, Shiv Sena 10, Congress 9, NCP 7, Total 48. Goa: BJP 2, Congress 0, Total 2. Tamil Nadu: DMK 16, AIADMK 12, AMMK 2, Congress 5, BJP 1, PMK 2, Other-1.Total 39. Andhra Pradesh: YSR Congress 22, TDP 3, Congress 0, Total 25. Telangana: Telangana Rashtra Samithi 14, AIMIM 1, Congress 2, Total 17. Karnataka: BJP 13, Congress 13, JD(S) 2, Total 28. Kerala: UDF 12, LDF 7, BJP 1, Total 20. Jammu & Kashmir: BJP 2, NC 1, Congress 2, PDP 1, Total 6. Assam: BJP 8, AIUDF 2, Congress 4, Total 14. Other North East states: BJP 3, Congress 3, MNF 1, NPP 1, CPI(M) 1, NDPP 1, SDF 1. Total 11. Delhi: BJP 7, Congress 0, AAP 0. Total 7. Other Union Territories: BJP 4, Congress 2. Total 6. The final party wise projections: BJP 238, Congress 82, Trinamool Congress 30, YSR Congress 22, SP 18, BSP 16, DMK 16, AIADMK 12, TRS 14, Left Front 6, JD(U) 12, NCP 7, RJD 8, Shiv Sena 10, BJD 14, smaller parties and Ind 38. Total: 543 Lok Sabha elections will begin on April 11 and polling would be held over seven phases through May 19, followed by counting of all votes on May 23, the Election Commission announced on Sunday. Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal, Odisha and Sikkim will also be held simultaneously, the Election Commission (EC) said. However, elections for the Jammu and Kashmir assembly, which was dissolved after the ruling coalition between the BJP and the PDP fell apart, will not be held along with the Lok Sabha polls. Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said the model code of conduct would come into immediate effect from Sunday and 10 lakhs polling stations would be set up this time as against about nine lakhs in 2014. Nearly 90 crore voters would be eligible to vote for 543 Lok Sabha constituencies across the country. The election will pit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance against several opposition parties, including the Congress, the Left and regional forces who are continuing to work out a grand alliance to minimise a division of votes against Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led ruling combine. The BJP has succeeded in working out seat-sharing formula with some new allies and several old partners, by even making concessions to them in states like Bihar. However, opposition parties are yet to arrive at a deal in several states. While the NDA hopes to make history by coming back to power for a second full term, the Opposition wants to unseat the Modi government by raising questions on its performance on a host of issues, including economic growth, employment, corruption and social harmony. Atal Bihari Vajpayee had led the NDA to back to back Lok Sabha wins in 1998 and 1999 general elections but he was at the helm of only one full-term government. Announcing the schedule for 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission said the ?voter verifiable paper audit trail' (VVPAT) will be used in all polling stations this time. The first phase will be held on April 11, second on April 18, third on April 23 and fourth on April 29, fifth on May 6, sixth on May 12 and seventh phase on May 19. Counting of votes for all seven phases covering 543 Lok Sabha constituencies would take place on May 23, Arora said. In the first phase, 91 constituencies will to go for polls, 97 constituencies in the second phase, 115 constituencies in the third, 71 in fourth phase, 51 in fifth phase, 59 in sixth and 59 in the seventh phase. With the model code of conduct for elections coming into immediate effect, the government cannot announce any policy move that may impact voters' decision. Arora said all political advertisements on social media will need pre-certification. In 2014, when the BJP swept to power, the Lok Sabha elections were held across nine phases beginning April 7 and ending May 9. The counting of votes had taken place on May 16. The total contestants in fray were 8,251, with an average of 15 candidates in each constituency. However, deposit was forfeited in case of 7,000 contestants. A total of over 55 crore voters (66.3 per cent) exercised their vote, while there were 9.27 lakh polling stations. There were nearly 60 lakh NOTA' votes. Out of total 543 elected candidates, only 62 were women from 668 who had contested. After suffering losses in assembly polls in three states recently, the BJP believes that its Lok Sabha poll campaign is back on track due to a host of decisions, including 10 per cent quota for the general category poor, money transfer to farmers and presentation of a populist budget. What has injected further confidence into the NDA fold is the fronting of the nationalist plank in the poll campaign after the Pulwama terror attack, which killed 40 CRPF personnel, that was followed by the Indian Air Force' strikes on terrorist camps in Pakistan. The BJP has been citing 2016 surgical strikes on terror launch pads and these air strikes to assert that only a government headed by Modi will be capable of taking on Pakistan over terrorism, as it has sought to corner the Congress on the issue. Many political pundits feel the prime minister has already launched a full-fledged campaign accusing opposition parties of coming together for the sole purpose of removing him while he is working to "remove poverty, corruption and terrorism". He had led the NDA to a sweeping victory in 2014 as it won 336 of 543 Lok Sabha seats, reducing the incumbent Congress to its lowest total of 44 seats. The BJP on its own won a majority, a first for the party, by bagging 282 seats. New Delhi: The BJP-Shiv Sena combine is likely to win 33 seats in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha elections 2019, while the Congress-NCP alliance may improve its tally by bagging 15 seats, according to the News Nation national opinion poll. The figures could be a matter of concern for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Sena as it had bagged 41 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra in 2014. The BJP won 23 while 18 seats by the Sena. The Congress had won only two seats, while the NCP did a tad better by winning four. As far as vote-sharing is concerned, the saffron parties combine is expected to get 39 per cent of the votes, while the Congress-NCP may settle with 34 per cent of the total votes, the poll predicted. On Monday, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said he will not contest next month's Lok Sabha election. The 78-year-old veteran politician said as two members of his family are going to contest the polls, "somebody had to step back." Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the NCP chief's decision to pull out from poll fray was because he had "sensed the change in the air". "Since I have already won elections 14 times, I decided not to contest the poll (this time)," the Rajya Sabha member told reporters after holding a meeting with party leaders. Pawar announced that his nephew and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar's son Parth Pawar will be NCP's candidate from Maval Lok Sabha constituency. Overcoming their strained ties, the BJP and the Uddhav Thackeray-led party on February 18 announced to contest the ensuing Lok Sabha and Maharashtra assembly elections together. As per the seat-sharing agreement, the BJP will contest 25 seats and Shiv Sena 23 of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. Also See | Opinion Poll: PM Modi likely to win Lok Sabha polls 2019, may get second term The two parties will contest an equal number of seats, after allotting allies their due share of segments, in polls for the 288-member state Assembly, due this year. BJP chief Amit Shah also acknowledged that Sena's support was crucial for his party for making a comeback to power, especially in the absence of the 2014 "wave". At present, Sena has 18 MPs in Lok Sabha, its biggest tally since its inception. It was also conveyed to Sena that the party could claim more portfolios in the Central government if it manages to retain its current stock post elections. Lok Sabha polls will be held in four phases in Maharashtra starting from the Vidarbha region on April 11. At 48, Maharashtra sends the second largest number of MPs to Lok Sabha, after Uttar Pradesh which has total 80 constituencies. The schedule for seven-phase Lok Sabha elections in the country, beginning April 11, was announced by the Election Commission in Delhi this evening. The counting of votes will be taken up on May 23. In Maharashtra, voting will be held on April 11 for seven seats, namely Wardha, Ramtek, Nagpur, Bhandara-Gondiya, Gadchiroli-Chimur, Chandrapur and Yavatmal-Washim, all in Vidarbha region. The seats that will vote in the second phase on April 18 are Buldana, Akola, Amravati, Hingoli, Nanded, Parbhani, Beed, Osmanabad, Latur and Solapur constituencies. Most of these seats fall under Marathwada region. A total of 14 Lok Sabha seats will go to polls on April 23 during the third phase. They include Jalgaon, Raver, Jalna, Aurangabad, Raigad, Pune, Baramati, Ahmednagar, Madha, Sangli, Satara, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Kolhapur and Hatkanangle. The final phase of polling in Maharashtra will be held on April 29 when 17 constituencies including Nandurbar, Dhule, Dindori, Nashik, Palghar, Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Thane, Mumbai North, Mumbai North-West, Mumbai North-Central, Mumbai South-Central, Mumbai South, Maval, Shirur and Shirdi will go for polls. The total number of voters in Maharashtra, as on January 25, stood at 8,73,30,484 as against 8,07,98,823 in 2014. The number of voters has gone up by over 65 lakh since 2014 while more than 11,000 new polling booths have been added in urban areas. Simultaneously, around 6,000 polling booths in rural areas have been cancelled. New Delhi: The AIADMK, BJP, PMK and DMDK alliance is likely to win 15 Tamil Nadu seats, while the DMK, Congress and VCK combine mayA perform better than its rivals with 24 seats in the Lok Sabha elections beginning next month, according to the News Nation national opinion poll. DMKas arch-rival and ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) swept the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu in 2014 and won 37 out of the 39 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) managed to win just one seat, while the DMK and Congress failed to win any. The BJP is contesting five seats in Tamil Nadu in the 2019 national polls in alliance with the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu as it seeks to return to power at the Centre. It has peaked in its western and northern Indian strongholds like Uttar Pradesh, where it won 71 out of the 80 seats in 2014. On Sunday, ending days of suspense and hard bargain, the ruling AIADMK inked an electoral pact with the DMDK led by actor-turned politician Vijayakanth, allotting it four of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in th state. #NNOpinionPoll predicts 15 seats for AIADMK-BJP-PMK-DMDK alliance, while Congress along with DMK, VCK and CPI is likely to secure 24 seats in Tamil Nadu#ElectionsWithNewsNation Follow LIVE updates: https://t.co/JLdQgs7aJN Watch LIVE: https://t.co/8BhJ6kHL2g pic.twitter.com/wRxXZgBpdB a News Nation (@NewsNationTV) March 11, 2019 An agreement was signed between the top leadership of the two parties -- Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam and Vijayakanth and DMDK Treasurer and his wife Premalatha. Incidentally, the announcement came shortly after the Election Commission announced the Lok Sabha poll schedule. Tamil Nadu is going to polls on April 18. The AIADMK-led alliance already has the BJP, PMK, Puthiya Tamizhagam and AINRC as its members.A The DMDK was expected to be part of the alliance in time for the March 6 election rally addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi near Chennai. However, it did not materialise though leaders of the two parties had indicated that by the next meeting to be addressed by Modi in the state, the alliance would be firmed up. The DMK has entered into alliance with Congress, VCK, IUML, MDMK and CPI-M and CPI. By signing the pact with the DMDK, the AIADMK has almost come to the penultimate stage of finalising the alliance led by it in Tamil Nadu. Already, the party has finalised seat sharing with BJP and PMK and a few smaller outfits for the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, alloting 18 of the 40 seats at stake. It has alloted seven seats to PMK and one to Scheduled Caste-based Puthiya Tamizhagam in the state and the lone Puducherry seat to AINRC. The alliance parties have also agreed to extend support to the AIADMK for the byelections. There are expectations that former Minister GK Vasan led Tamil Maanila Congress may join the AIADMK front, giving the final shape to the combine that will take on the DMK-led alliance. The AIADMK which for the first time joined hands with the DMDK in 2011 is again tying up with that party after a long hiatus. This election should be DMK chief MK Stalinas for the taking. But several factors weigh down the DMK alliance. Despite A Raja and M Kanimozhi being acquitted in the 2G case, the DMK has not been able to shed the tag of corruption. With A Raja, Kanimozhi and Dayanidhi Maran expected to get a seat in the Lok Sabha Elections, the AIADMK and the BJP will no doubt target the DMK-Congress alliance over corruption during the UPA era, according to News Minute. Reports suggest with Jayalalithaa no longer on the electoral scene, the anti-AIADMK votes should go to the DMK. But TTV Dhinakaran can only split the AIADMKas vote, he may also end up playing spoilsport for the DMK as well. New Delhi: The Election Commission announced the schedule for the highly anticipated Lok Sabha elections on Sunday, kick-starting a mega electoral battle which is shaping up to be a "Modi versus rest" showdown. All eyes are now on May 23 a the day counting of votes will be done to decide whether the Narendra Modi-led BJP government manages another term at the Centre or a revived Congress, under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, manages to return to power. At this time, News Nation has come up with its opinion poll which will give an idea of the nationas mood and an approximation on how the parties may perform in the elections. A A Read in Hindi 21:31 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Haryana: BJP - 6 seats, Congress - 2 seats, INLD - 1 seat, JJP - 1 seat 21:05 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Uttar Pradesh: SP-BSP-RLD alliance to dent NDA's sentiments in UP. BJP may win 35 seats, SP-BSP-RLD may win 43 seats 20:30 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Bihar: NDA is likely to win 29 seats, UPA may win 10 seats 20:03 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Odisha: BJP is expected to win 9 seats while Naveen Patnaik's BJD may win 12 seats 20:01 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In West Bengal: BJP - 9 seats, TMC - 29 seats, Congress - 2 seats 19:36 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Jammu and Kashmir: The BJP is expected to win 3 of the 6 seats. Congress, NC and PDP may win one seat each. 19:35 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Assam: BJP - 7 seats, Congress - 4 seats, AIUDF - 2 seats 19:01 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Gujarat: BJP is likely to win 21 seats (49% vote share) while the Congress may win 5 seats (41% vote share). 18:38 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Kerala: UPA is expected to win 15 of the 20 seats while the CPM-LDF alliance may win 4 seats. The BJP will win only one seat, according to the opinion poll. 18:09 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Telangana: TRS - 14 seats, BJP - 1 seat, Congress - 2 seats; Expected vote share: TRS - 47%, BJP - 7%, Congress - 28% 18:05 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Andhra Pradesh: YSRCP - 16 seats, BJP - 2 seats, Congress - 1 seat 18:04 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Tamil Nadu: NDA likely to win 15 seats (38% vote share), UPA may win 24 seats (41% vote share) 17:47 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In In Chhattisgarh, the NDA is expected to win 5 seats while the UPA may claim victory on 6 seats. Expected vote share: BJP - 41%, Congress - 42%, Others - 5% 17:53 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In In Madhya Pradesh, BJP is likely to win 21 of the 29 seats, while the Congress may win only 8 seats. Vote share: BJP - 41%, Congress - 35% 17:33 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In In Rajasthan, BJP is expected to win 17 of the 25 seats while Congress may win only 8 seats, according to the opinion poll. BJP's vote share is likely to stand at 40 per cent in the state, while Congress may get 36 per cent votes. 17:09 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In NDA may get 34 per cent vote share, UPA may get 28 per cent vote share and Others may get 29 per cent vote share, according to opinion poll. New Delhi: The decision of the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) to come together in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha election 2019 could turn out to be a massive setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according the News Nations national opinion poll. The opinion poll conducted by the news channel found that the BJP and the Apna Dal may garner only 35 seats in the General Elections beginning from April 11. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP bagged 71 of the 80 seats, surpassing its highest tally of 58 seats in the state which had catapulted the NDA to power in 1998. On the other hand, the SP, BSP, RLD grand alliance may secure 43 seats, which could be a significant improvement from their last General Elections performance. The SP, BSP and RLD have forged an alliance while elbowing the Congress out of it. The SP-BSP bonhomie won the Lok Sabha by-elections in Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Kairana last year. The Congress led by Rahul Gandhi may only win two seats. Also See | Opinion Poll: PM Modi likely to win Lok Sabha polls 2019, may get second term Uttar Pradesh the politically-sensitive state which sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha will go to polls in seven phases starting April 11, the Election Commission announced on Sunday. Voting in Uttar Pradesh will be held on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19. The counting of votes will take place on May 23. When it comes to vote-sharing, the News Nation opinion poll predicts that the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) could again do better than the BJP-AD alliance. While the parties of Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati and Jayant Sinha may win 39 per cent of the votes, Amit Shah-Anupriya Patel alliance may end up with 36 per cent of the total votes. Whereas the Congress may bag only 13 per cent. The high-voltage elections in the state will see Rahul Gandhi contesting from Amethi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi. Meanwhile, putting rumours of retirement to rest, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will be contesting from Rae Bareli. The date sheet shows Varanasi constituency voting last on May 19, while a number of high-profile seats, including Amethi and Rae Bareli, will vote on May 6. Voting in Lucknow, which elected Home Minister Rajnath Singh in 2014, would also vote on May 6 and so will be the case for another high-profile union minister Ram Vilas Paswan's Hajipur constituency. Mainpuri, one of the two seats that elected Mulayam Singh Yadav in 2014, will also vote on April 23, while voting in Azamgarh, which the senior Samajwadi Party leader retained, will happen on May 12. Kannauj, which elected his daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav in 2014, will vote on April 29. Among other restrictions, the model code bars the government from announcing any policy move that may impact voters' decision. The EC said the 'voter verifiable paper audit trail' (VVPAT) will be used in all polling stations this time. After more than one year of discussions and initial support, the current board of education in November scrapped plans to begin a pilot program that would have placed a police officer in each of the middle schools four hours a day, two days per week. Board members struggled to agree on rules that would govern the officers and were met with resistance from some parents. New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday announced the dates of the upcoming Lok Sabha Polls. According to the dates announced by the commission, the state of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal will cast their votes in all seven phases. Soon after the announcement, political parties in the state of West Bengal were seen divided over the dates clashing with Ramzan. Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and Kolkata Municipal Corporation Mayor Firhad Hakim said, People will face problems in exercising their voting rights as some poll dates are clashing with Ramzan. Since the Election Commission is a constitutional body, I dont want to comment much into the matter. But they should have considered that people will suffer during Ramzan (in casting votes). He said, EC has announced the poll dates on Ramzan so that minorities are unable to cast their votes. But I would like to tell them (the BJP) that the people of Bengal are with (Trinamool chief) Mamata Banerjee. The state of West Bengal has nearly 31 per cent Muslim voters and many believe that the dates clashing with Ramzan will become a key issue in Bengal. In Malda and Murshidabad districts alone, the minority voters strength is nearly 52 per cent and 66 per cent, respectively. During the last panchayat election also , party leaders led by minister Partha Chatterjee met West Bengal election commissioner AK Singh and requested him to conclude the rural polls before the month of fasting for the minority community begins. West Bengal Congress president Somendra Nath Mitra also said the poll panel should consider the matter. We have a large number of Muslim voters and the EC should consider the poll dates as per the Ramzan observance, Mitra said. However, the BJPs all-India secretary, minority morcha, Arshad Alam, said, Its not written anywhere in Islam that one has to take rest in air-conditioned rooms while fasting during Ramzan. For us, Ramzan mean Ibadat under any circumstances. A true Muslim will keep roza during Ramzan and will also perform his/her normal duties towards society and family. I dont understand why political leaders every time drag Ramzan during elections. This time, we have decided to make this an issue and we will make people aware that please dont fall in this trap of the opposition. Lok Sabha elections will begin on April 11 and polling would be held over seven phases through May 19, followed by counting of all votes on May 23, the Election Commission announced on Sunday. Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal, Odisha and Sikkim will also be held simultaneously, the Election Commission (EC) said. However, elections for the Jammu and Kashmir assembly, which was dissolved after the ruling coalition between the BJP and the PDP fell apart, will not be held along with the Lok Sabha polls. Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said the model code of conduct would come into immediate effect from Sunday and 10 lakhs polling stations would be set up this time as against about nine lakhs in 2014. Nearly 90 crore voters would be eligible to vote for 543 Lok Sabha constituencies across the country. The election will pit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance against several opposition parties, including the Congress, the Left and regional forces who are continuing to work out a grand alliance to minimise a division of votes against Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led ruling combine. The BJP has succeeded in working out seat-sharing formula with some new allies and several old partners, by even making concessions to them in states like Bihar. However, opposition parties are yet to arrive at a deal in several states. While the NDA hopes to make history by coming back to power for a second full term, the Opposition wants to unseat the Modi government by raising questions on its performance on a host of issues, including economic growth, employment, corruption and social harmony. Atal Bihari Vajpayee had led the NDA to back to back Lok Sabha wins in 1998 and 1999 general elections but he was at the helm of only one full-term government. Announcing the schedule for 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission said the ?voter verifiable paper audit trail' (VVPAT) will be used in all polling stations this time. The first phase will be held on April 11, second on April 18, third on April 23 and fourth on April 29, fifth on May 6, sixth on May 12 and seventh phase on May 19. Counting of votes for all seven phases covering 543 Lok Sabha constituencies would take place on May 23, Arora said. In the first phase, 91 constituencies will to go for polls, 97 constituencies in the second phase, 115 constituencies in the third, 71 in fourth phase, 51 in fifth phase, 59 in sixth and 59 in the seventh phase. With the model code of conduct for elections coming into immediate effect, the government cannot announce any policy move that may impact voters' decision. Arora said all political advertisements on social media will need pre-certification. New Delhi: The Jodhpur High Court on Monday issued a notice to Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Neelam Kothari, Tabu and Dushyant Singh on an appeal by the state government challenging their acquittal in the Blackbuck poaching case. This comes over five months after the four actors were acquitted in the said case due to lack of evidence, while Salman Khan was convicted and sentenced to five years' imprisonment after being found guilty of killing two Blackbucks in Jodhpur during the shooting of his 1998 blockbuster Hum Saath Saath Hain. Salman Khan will make a reappearance in court on April 3rd to hear his appeal against the CJM Rural Court ruling in the 1998 black-buck poaching case. In a statement to ANI, advocate Sushma Dhara had said, "Salman Khan's appeal against the sentencing was supposed to be heard yesterday, but it has been postponed due to the court being busy," further adding, "The date has been postponed to April 3." The Bharat actor was charged under Section 51 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act and others under Section 51 read with Section 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code. For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Shah Rukh Khan, is, in all likelihood taking a long break after the Zero debacle. After fans were hit with given the upsetting reports that King Khans Don 3 will be the last of the franchise, there is even sadder news for the thriller movie with some of Bollywoods coolest lines and hair-standing stunts. The film, which reportedly has been in works for a very long time just have very little details about the makers plan to take the franchise forward. In fact, nothing official for the Don 3, titled, Don: The Final Chapter, has been confirmed yet. Ritesh Sidhwani, while speaking to Mumbai Mirror, cleared the air for the last Don franchise and the news is one SRK fans have always been dreading. The producer told the daily, "We are still working on it and dont know when it will happen. Its a keenly awaited franchise and we cant disappoint the fans." This report is definitely a domino fall for SRK Fans who have taken into heart that the last Don franchise will go on floors this year with Farhan Akhtar reportedly finally settled down on a script and would begin filing soon. As of now no official confirmation is to be taken at face value about the start of the shoot. Shah Rukh Khan, meanwhile, after producing Badla, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu is also rumoured to play a pivotal role in Salman Khan-Sanjay Leela Bhansalis next collaboration. For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Uttarkashi: Actor Vivek Oberoi on Saturday hurt himself while shooting for the biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the picturesque Harshil valley of Uttarkashi district in Uttarakhand. Vital parts of the movie chronicling Modi's early life and political journey are being shot in the district at places like Ganga ghat, Kalp Kedar Mandir and the suspension bridge connecting Dharali bazar and Mukhba village. Oberoi hurt himself slightly in the leg while shooting a scene which shows Modi walking barefoot on snow at Ganga ghat near Dharali village. Doctors immediately did a stitch on the actor's leg who had got a cut from the pointed branch of a tree. However, unit members said the actor is fine and has resumed shooting. The scene showing Modi unfurling the national flag at Srinagar's Lal Chawk along with other BJP leaders was also shot on a set erected in Dharali bazar.? The film is being directed by Omung Kumar, who is best known for films such as "Mary Kom" and "Sarabjit". For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Los Angeles: Hollywood legend Whoopi Goldberg has revealed that she almost died during her battle with pneumonia but she is fine now. The 63-year-old Oscar winner prerecorded a message that was played during the recent episode of "The View", a show where Goldberg serves as a co-host. "Hey, yes, it's me. I am here. I am up and moving around. Not as fast as I'd like to be, but I am okay. I'm not dead. So here's what happened: I had pneumonia and I was septic. Pneumonia in both lungs, which mean there was fluid, there was all kinds of stuff going on," Goldberg said. "And yes, I came very, very close to leaving the Earth. Good news, I didn't. Thank you for all of your good wishes. And all of the wonderful things that you have been saying," she added. The actor said she is also grateful to those who do not like her but still sent their get well messages, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "Even people who are not huge fans of mine have actually said nice things about me. We all know that's gonna change when I get back, but for right now it's brilliant," Goldberg said. She then addressed her co-hosts and said, "Ladies, I cannot wait to see y'all. This has been interesting and I'll tell you about it when we're all at the table. See you soon." For all the Latest Entertainment News, Hollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: X-Men star, James McAvoy, who got his Oscars shirt signed by actors such as Captain Marvel'sA star Brie Larson, Charlize Theron, Amy Adams, Samuel L Jackson, Michael B Jordan, Bryana Holly, Jason Momoa among others is putting up the prized shirt for an auction. According to reports, the 39-year-old Irish actor is auctioning off the shirt he wore to the 91 stA Academy Awards to raise funds for a charity organisation providing support to child cancer patients and their families. In case the behind scenes of the Oscar celebration, the Split actor, who managed to get the signatures of numerous celebrities during the occasion on February 24 after finding a sharpie had also posted on his Insa handle with a selfie. "Went to the Oscars. Presented. Got mugged by sharpie wielding celebrities. #thuglebrity Iam sure my shirt is going to be defaced by more of these entitled graffiti mentalists as the night goes on," he wrote. The 39-year-old actoras shirt as of now is up for sale to the highest bidder on Prizeo as a fundraiser for the Ronald McDonald House in New York. Fans can enter the contest to win the shirt with a minimum donation of $10. "When I found a Sharpie lying on the floor, I just asked people to totally deface my beautiful white shirt. Sure, it was an off-the-cuff, alcohol-infused idea, but now I get to auction it off and raise money for an organization that means a lot to me!," McAvoy wrote on Instagram. "I'm going to sweepstake this amazing shirt in aid of @rmhnewyork. It is an incredible charity that helps house and feed children and their families whilst they battle cancer. For just 10 bucks or pounds or whatever your currency is you can have the chance to win this shirt or some great secondary prizes and help some beautiful families," he wrote in another post. McAvoy mentions that for just 10 bucks or pounds or whatever your currency is one can have the chance to win this shirt or some great secondary prizes and help some beautiful families. The contest is open for anyone who wants to help the cancer fundraiser on the Prizeo website. For all the Latest Entertainment News, Hollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: A crime that shocked the nation, the fateful night on December 16, 2012, Netflix just released the trailer of the seven-part anthology series, Delhi Crime based on Nirbhaya rape case and it is a powerful performance one is forced to revisit. The series is reportedly based on the crime files of the Delhi police and stars Shefali Shah, Rasika Dugal, Rajesh Tailang, Adil Hussain, Gopal Datt, and Vinod Sherawat in important roles. A fictionalised depiction, Netflix says it will capture the complexities of the scrutiny, the emotional toll on the investigating team, and their determination to bring the perpetrators to justice in a fraught environment. The Delhi Crime trailer opens with a patrolling unit of the Delhi Police finding the victims on the side of a road, before we are introduced to our protagonist DCP South Delhi, Varthika Chaturvedi (Shah) and her powerful line, This crime is not just heinous, it is insanity. The trailer makes us revisit the horrendous memories of the crime, one would like to erase from the fateful cold December night in Munirka. The 2: 14-minute trailer also shows Nirbhaya as she is being carried to a hospital and requesting the cops to not tell her father about the incident before her coma and eventually her death from the unspeakable injuries for more than two weeks after her attack on December 29. Watch the trailer here: The series was premiered at the Sundance film festival 2019 and has received thumbs-up reviews from critics across the world. Delhi Crime will begin streaming from March 22, 2019 on Netflix. New Delhi: At least 18 terrorists, including eight from Pakistan, have been neutralised in the last 21 days since the terror attack in Pulwama which had claimed the lives of 40 CRPF jawans, the Indian Army said on Monday. The Indian Army and Jammu and Kashmir Police, addressing a joint press conference, said that Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist Mudasir Ahmed Khan alias 'Mohd Bhai' the mastermind of the Pulwama attack was also killed in the encounter in Tral's Pinglish area in Pulwama district. The presser was addressed by Indian Army Lieutenant General Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon, IG Kashmir S P Pani and IG CRPF Zulfiqar Hussain. IG Kashmir S P Pani said that the killing of Mudasir has caused a major dent to the Jaish leadership in the Valley. He added that one of the militants killed has been identified as 'Code Khalid', believed to be Pakistani. Mudasir was among two militants killed in the encounter which lasted past midnight. Khan and an JeM operative, who officials believe is Sajjad Bhat, whose vehicle was used in the Pulwama attack, were killed in the gunfight with security forces. "In first 70 days of 2019, security forces have been successful in eliminating 44 terrorists, mainly from Jaish-e-Mohammed. Against 1629 ceasefire violations along Line of Control in 2018, this year 478 ceasefire violations have already taken place along LoC," Indian Army sources were quoted by ANI as saying. Lesser-known JeM terrorist Khan has been identified as the brain behind the audacious terror strike in Pulwama that left 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel dead on February 14, officials said on Sunday. The CRPF personnel were killed when a JeM terrorist rammed an explosives-laden vehicle -- a Maruti Eeco minivan -- into their bus.The minivan was bought by Bhat just 10 days before the suicide attack. Suicide attacker Adil Ahmed Dar, who blew the explosive-laden vehicle next to the bus, had been in constant contact with Khan, officials said. Zulfiqar Hussain, IG CRPF, said that the Tral encounter could not be called an "avenge" of the Pulwama terror attack as the CRPF had lost several men. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale began a three-day visit to the US on Monday during which he will meet senior officials of the Trump administration and exchange views on major foreign policy and security-related developments, officials said. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said Gokhale is visiting Washington in connection with bilateral foreign office consultation and strategic security dialogue with his American counterparts. During his visit, Gokhale is also likely to meet with senior leaders in the US administration and US Congress, he said in response to a query on the foreign secretary's visit. The foreign secretary's visit to the US comes in the backdrop of growing tension between India and Pakistan. "Foreign Secretary is visiting Washington DC on March 11-13 in connection with the bilateral foreign office consultation and strategic security dialogue with his US counterparts, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson respectively," Kumar said. "These are regular high-level dialogue mechanisms to review bilateral relations, exchange views on major foreign policy and security-related developments and coordinate respective positions on issues of common interest," he said. Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after Indian fighter jets bombed terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed's biggest training camp near Balakot deep inside Pakistan on February 26. Pakistan retaliated by attempting to target Indian military installations next day. However, the IAF thwarted their plans. The Indian strike on the JeM camp was carried out 12 days after the terror outfit claimed responsibility for the Pulwama terror attack on a CRPF convoy in Kashmir, killing 40 soldiers. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Even as Pakistan continues to deny the February 26 air strike in its Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, sensational proofs unmask Islamabads doublespeak. Latest media reports by two news channels have revealed how Islamabad tried to get rid of the terrorists bodies after the Indian Air Force air strike on the terror camp run by Jaish-e-Mohammed. According to Republic TV, an eyewitness have come forward and talked extensively about the way authorities across the border tried to doctor the site. Bodies of some terrorists were thrown in river while others were set on fire. Meanwhile, Times Now, another news channel ha also aired some incriminating details about the Balakot air strike. According to the news channel, 263 terrorists had gathered at the terror camp. These terrorists were categorised according to a strict hierarchy, the channel reported. 18 senior Jaish commanders were present at Balakot facility to train the terror recruits. While 83 terrorists had assembled for Daura-e-Aam the beginners training course, 91 terrorists had assembled for Daura-e-Khas advanced training, the channel reported. As many as 25 terrorists were selected for special fidayeen training. A total of four missiles, which have now been identified as SPICE bombs were dropped at the Balakot JeM camp by Indian Air Force Mirage-2000 fighter jets. Among those killed were IED expert, video expert of the Jaish-e-Mohammed. Those injured were send to a local hospital in adjoining Waziristan. In a three-minute long video proof, the Republic channel quoted an eyewitness saying that the local residents of Balakot was forced to give away their cellphones. The internet services have been suspended in the area since the February 26 pre-dawn air strike. While post-strike images of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist training camp in Pakistan's Balakot showcase prominent bomb impact points in the area, the Pakistani security officials have reportedly barred the media from entering the site yet again on Friday, denying any damage to the place. A group of Reuters journalists on Friday reached Balakot to visit the Islamic seminary and the adjacent buildings but could not climb the hillock as the path to the buildings was blocked. The camp has been sealed off for journalists and visitors for an indefinite period of time, according to sources. On February 26, the Indian Air Force (IAF)'s Mirage 2000 fighters armed with SPICE 2000 satellite-guided bombs had struck the Jaish-e-Mohammed's Balakot training camp in response to the gruesome terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14. Being touted as the Surgical Strike 2.0, the airstrike killed "a very large number of Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists, trainers, senior commanders, and groups of jihadis" at the alleged terror camp in Balakot, Indias foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale said. This was the third time in the last nine days that the media professionals were prevented from entering the site, citing security, weather and organisational reasons. The press wing of the Pakistani military said that no media visits will be possible for a few more days. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Coleman and Charles Jenkins spoke with Crystal Jenkins on the phone March 6 and 7 about the money and the stuff she was supposed to give to G, the affidavit states. Crystal Jenkins told her brother that she has everything and is waiting to deliver to another person, according to the affidavit. New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj launched a Twitter appeal on Monday in a bid to reach out to the family of Shikha Garg, the Indian killed in Ethiopia Airlines crash. aI am trying to reach the family of Shikha Garg who has unfortunately died in the air crash. I have tried her husband's number many times. Please help me reach her family,a Swaraj said on micro-blogging site. Shikha Garg was a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) consultant attached with the Environment Ministry. She was on her way to attend a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) meeting. aMy condolences to the families of four Indian nationals who have died in an unfortunate crash of Ethiopian Airlines.Sadly,a UNDP consultant attached to my ministry @moefcc Ms Shikha Garg,also died in the crash. My prayers for the departed souls. @IndiaInEthiopia @SushmaSwaraj (sic),a Union Minister Harsh Vardhan said a day earlier on Sunday. A I am trying to reach the family of Shikha Garg who has unfortunately died in the air crash. I have tried her husband's number many times. Please help me reach her family. a Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) March 11, 2019 "I am sorry to know about the unfortunate crash of Ethiopian Airlines plane ET 302. We have lost four Indian nationals in the air crash. I have asked Indian High Commissioner in Ethiopia to provide all help and assistance to the bereaved families," Swaraj had tweeted on Sunday. She said the Indian Embassy in Ethiopia has informed her that the deceased Indian nationals are Vaidya Pannagesh Bhaskar, Vaidya Hansin Annagesh, Nukavarapu Manisha and Shikha Garg. A Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines Boeing crashed minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa Sunday, killing all eight crew and 149 passengers on board, including four Indians, tourists, business travellers, and "at least a dozen" UN staff. Ethiopia has declared a national day of mourning for Monday amid a global stream of condolences for loved ones, many of whom gathered in tears at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). "The House of People's Representatives have declared March 11, 2019, a national day of mourning for citizens of all countries that have passed in this tragic accident," Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's office said on Twitter. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: In a major setback for former Union Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, the Delhi High Court on Monday allowed the CBI to bring additional submissions on record in connection with the INX Media case. The High Court was hearing the CBI plea, which was filed in the court on March 9. The court had on January 25 reserved its order on the anticipatory bail plea of the Congress leader in both the cases lodged by the CBI and the ED. In its application, the CBI said it wanted to file additional submission regarding ongoing investigation in larger interest of justice. Earlier, while opposing the anticipatory bail plea, the CBI and Enforcement Directorate had asserted that custodial interrogation of Chidambaram was required in the case as he was evasive in giving answers during questioning. The high court had reserved its order and said that the interim protection from arrest granted to Chidambaram will continue till the decision is passed on his plea for anticipatory bail. The high court had on July 25, 2018 granted interim protection from arrest to Chidambaram in both the cases and it was extended from time to time. The senior Congress leader's role had come under the scanner of various investigating agencies in the Rs 3,500-crore Aircel-Maxis deal and the INX Media case involving Rs 305 crore. It was during his tenure as finance minister in the UPA-I government that clearances from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) were given to the two ventures. In the INX Media case, the CBI had registered an FIR on May 15, 2017 alleging irregularities in the FIPB clearance granted to the media group for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 during Chidambaram's tenure as finance minister. Thereafter, the ED had last year lodged the money laundering case in this regard. A trial court here had also on May 30, 2018, directed the ED not to take coercive action against Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis money laundering case. He was also granted protection from arrest in the Aircel-Maxis case in which he and his son Karti are named in the charge sheet filed by the CBI. The interim protection has been extended from time to time. Chidambaram's petition had said that though no summons had ever been served on him by the ED in this case, he had an apprehension of arrest in view of the summons issued to him by the CBI, which was investigating the scheduled offence. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: A major attack has been averted by the Army in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir after a person namely Rajinder Singh was arrested with two grenades. Army has handed him over to the Jammu and Kashmir for further investigation. Today a person who had come to attend recruitment rally in Surankote organised by Territorial Army namely Rajinder Singh Krishan (33), resident of village Dhalyote, Tehsil Kalakot, district Rajouri was apprehended near Army town gate Surankote and during search C- 90 grenade, UBGL grenade and detonators were recovered from his possession, official said. Balakote in Poonchs Mendhar area has been witness to intense shelling and small arms fire by Pakistani troops on many occasions since last month. Earlier, Pakistan violated the ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Balnoi and Mankote areas of the Poonch sector Jammu Kashmir on Sunday around 4.30 am onwards by resorting to shelling with mortars and firing of small arms. The Indian Army retaliated and firing stopped around 7.30 am. The Indian Army retaliated effectively. On Saturday, Pakistan had violated the ceasefire in the Sunderbani sector of Rajouri district. Pakistani troops had violated ceasefire along the LoC on Saturday by targetting forward post in Keri Battal area of Akhnoor, Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan has used heavy artillery guns prompting strong and effective retaliation by the Indian Army. There has been a spurt in ceasefire violations by Pakistan after India's pre-emptive air strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammad terror camp in Balakot on February 26 following the February 14 Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. Four civilians, including three members of a family, were killed and several others injured as Pakistan targeted over 80 villages in over 100 incidents of ceasefire violations along the LoC in the state since then. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq will not be appearing in person before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for questioning over alleged terror funding case. Umar, however, will be submitting a written statement to the NIA in response to the summons. The NIA on Saturday had asked him to report for examination on March 11 at 10.30 am at its New Delhi headquarters. The NIA had on February 26 carried out searches at premises of separatist leaders, including the Mirwaiz, in connection with the case related to the financing of terrorist and separatist groups in Jammu and Kashmir. The NIA team, accompanied by police and CRPF personnel, searched residences of some of the separatist leaders, including the Mirwaiz, Naseem Geelani and Ashraf Sehrai, the chairman of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat. The houses of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Yaseen Malik, Shabir Shah, Zaffar Bhat and Masarat Alam were also raided. Barring the Mirwaiz and Sehrai, all other leaders were jailed for some time. The NIA had questioned two maternal uncles of the Mirwaiz - Maulvi Manzoor and Maulvi Shafat - and his close aides last year. Both Manzoor and Shafat are retired senior government officers. The NIA probe seeks to identify the chain of players behind the financing of terrorist activities, pelting of stones on security forces, burning down of schools and damaging of government establishments. The case names Hafeez Saeed, Pakistan-based chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), the front for banned Lashker-e-Taiba, as an accused, besides organisations such as the Hurriyat Conference factions led by Geelani and the Mirwaiz, Hizbul Mujahideen and Dukhtaran-e-Millat. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Most of the leading dailies in Kashmir printed their front pages in blank on Sunday as a mark of protest against the "unexplained denial" of advertisements to two newspapers by the Jammu and Kashmir government. The Kashmir Editors' Guild (KEG) had claimed last month that the state government had stopped giving advertisements to two major local dailies -- Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Reader. "With utmost regret, Kashmir Editors Guild wishes to inform that the Jammu and Kashmir government has stopped state government advertisements to two major daily newspapers Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Reader," the guild had said in a statement, adding the decision was neither conveyed formally nor was any reason detailed to the respective organizations. PDP President Mehbooba Mufti while condemning the act said, aGreater KashmirA is one of the most popular local dailies of J&K. The Centreas decision to stop advertisements should be viewed in the context of their attitude towards the press and electronic media in general. Kowtow to their warped agenda and sing praises. Or else suffer. Greater Kashmir is one of the most popular local dailies of J&K. Centreas decision to stop ads to it should be viewed in context of their attitude towards press & electronic media in general. Kowtow to their warped agenda & sing praises. Or else suffer. pic.twitter.com/6f5SnRWEHm a Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) March 10, 2019 "The government is attempting to choke the media by denying them advertising revenues. I hope the Centre and the State immediately reverse this decision of trying to silence the fourth estate,a NC vice-president Omar Abdullah. The front pages only carried a message from the KEG saying "in protest against unexplained denial of government advertisements to Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Reader." A spokesman of the KEG said the guild and the Kashmir Editors Forum had on Saturday decided to print the front pages of the papers as blank against the government's move "to scuttle" the media in Kashmir. The KEG and the editors forum held a protest at Press Club here on Sunday afternoon against the government decision. Speaking on the occasion, Bashir Manzar, general secretary KEG and editor of Daily Kashmir Images, said the government decision has the potential of impacting the state and the status of journalism in Kashmir. "We consider the decision against democracy and in violation of the free media that is guaranteed by the constitution," he said. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Three terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in Tral area of Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday. One of the killed terrorists is said to be Jaish-e-Mohammed man, Mudasir Ahmed Khan, alias 'Mohd Bhai, who has been identified as the brain behind the Pulwama attack. 23-year-old Khan, an electrician with a graduate degree hailing from Pulwama district, arranged the vehicle and explosives used in the terror strike. However, the official confirmation is yet to come out. On February 14, at least 42 CRPF personnel were killed in one of the deadliest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district when a Jaish suicide bomber rammed a vehicle carrying over 30 kg of explosives into their bus in Pulwama district that also left many critically wounded. More than 2,500 Central Reserve Police Force personnel, many of them returning from leave to rejoin duty in the Valley, were travelling in the convoy of 78 vehicles when they were ambushed on the Srinagar-Jammu highway at Latoomode in Awantipora in south Kashmir. A resident of Mir Mohalla of Tral, Khan joined the Jaish-e-Mohammed sometime in 2017 as an overground worker and was later drawn into the JeM fold by Noor Mohammed Tantrey, alias 'Noor Trali', who is believed to have helped in the revival of the terror outfit in Kashmir Valley. After Tantray was killed in December 2017, Khan disappeared from his home on January 14, 2018 and has been active since then. Suicide attacker Adil Ahmed Dar, who blew his explosive-laden vehicle next to a bus in a CRPF convoy on February 14, had been in constant contact with Khan, officials said. After completing his graduation, Khan did a one-year diploma course as electrician from an Industrial Training Institute (ITI). The eldest son of a labourer, Khan is also believed to be involved in the terror strike at the army camp in Sunjawan in February 2018, in which six personnel and a civilian were killed. His role has also come under lens in the Lethpora attack on a CRPF camp in January 2018 that left five CRPF personnel dead. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the February 14 terror attack, had carried out searches at the residence of Khan on February 27. A Maruti Eeco minivan was used in the Pulwama terror attack and it was bought by another Jaish-e-Mohammed operative just 10 days before the strike. The JeM operative, identified as Sajjad Bhat, a resident of Bijbehara in south Kashmir, has since been on the run and is believed to have become an active militant now, they said. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: While everybody hailed Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman for his superior aviation skills that helped him bringing down an F-16 fighter jet, many questioned the fact as to why the Indian Air Force didnt send its ultra-modern Sukhoi-30 to intercept the airspace violation on February 27. Now a report suggests that it was because of bureaucratic delay in constructing hard shelters also known as blast pens due to which the Sukhois couldnt be stationed in forward areas. A report by The Hindu said the project was sanctioned only at the end of 2017, two decades after the jets were bought. Owing to the bureaucratic delays, we could not develop blast pens for Su-30 MKIs near the Line of Control (LoC). The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) sanctioned the project only at the end of 2017, the defence source was quoted as saying by The Hindu. The Indian Air Force carried out pre-dawn airstrikes on February 26 and destroyed major launch pads of the terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed, which was behind the February 14 Pulwama terror attack. The initial reports suggested that the Surgical Strike 2.0 decimated Jaish-e-Mohammeds Alpha 3 Control Rooms located in Balakot, Muzaffarabad and Chakothi in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. More than 10 bombs were dropped by the multi-role fighter jet Mirage 2000 at around 3:30 am on February 26 morning. Understandably, Pakistan has downplayed the airstrike. The aerial attack came a day after Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a high-level meeting with all three service chiefs. Following which, the Pakistan Air Force had tried to bomb military installations along the Line of Control on February 27. Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman became the first ever fighter pilot in the world to shoot down an F-16 from a vintage MiG-21 Bison combat jet. Though several accounts have emerged about the 90-second dogfight in the skies over the Line of Control, new report has revealed the last radio message that the braveheart had sent. According to a Times of India report, the last radio message sent by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was 'R-73 selected.' This cryptic message tells us that the IAF pilot had managed to lock on Pakistan Air Forces F-16 before shooting it down with the short-ranger missile. Air Vice Marshal Ravi Kapoor in a press conference had said that, "at around 1000 hrs IAF radars detected a large package of PAF aircraft heading towards the Indian territory towards general area Jhangar." Media reports had said that the 'large package' of the Pakistan Air Force consisted as many as 24 fighter jets. According to an NDTV report, that Pakistan's strike squad included eight F-16s, four Mirage-3 aircraft, four Chinese made JF-17 "Thunder" fighters. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. London: Dinosaurs were unaffected by long-term climate changes and flourished before their sudden demise by asteroid strike 66 million years ago, according to a study. Scientists largely agree that an asteroid impact, possibly coupled with intense volcanic activity, wiped out the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period. However, there is debate about whether dinosaurs were flourishing before this, or whether they had been in decline due to long-term changes in climate over millions of years, according to the study published in the journal Nature Communications. Previously, researchers used the fossil record and some mathematical predictions to suggest dinosaurs may have already been in decline, with the number and diversity of species falling before the asteroid impact. Now, in a new analysis that models the changing environment and dinosaur species distribution in North America, the UK researchers from Imperial College London, University College London and University of Bristol have shown that dinosaurs were likely not in decline before the meteorite. "Dinosaurs were likely not doomed to extinction until the end of the Cretaceous, when the asteroid hit, declaring the end of their reign and leaving the planet to animals like mammals, lizards and a minor group of surviving dinosaurs: birds, said lead researcher Alessandro Chiarenza, a PhD candidate at Imperial. "The results of our study suggest that dinosaurs as a whole were adaptable animals, capable of coping with the environmental changes and climatic fluctuations that happened during the last few million years of the Late Cretaceous, Chiarenza said in a statement. Climate change over prolonged time scales did not cause a long-term decline of dinosaurs through the last stages of this period, he said. The study shows how the changing conditions for fossilisation means previous analyses have underestimated the number of species at the end of the Cretaceous. The team focused their study on North America, where many Late Cretaceous dinosaurs are preserved, such as Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops. During this period, the continent was split in two by a large inland sea. In the western half there was a steady supply of sediment from the newly forming Rocky Mountains, which created perfect conditions for fossilising dinosaurs once they died. The eastern half of the continent was instead characterised by conditions far less suitable for fossilisation. This means that far more dinosaur fossils are found in the western half, and it is this fossil record that is often used to suggest dinosaurs were in decline for the few million years before the asteroid strike. "Most of what we know about Late Cretaceous North American dinosaurs comes from an area smaller than one-third of the present-day continent, and yet we know that dinosaurs roamed all across North America, from Alaska to New Jersey and down to Mexico, Philip Mannion from University College London, said. For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: In a big boost for security forces, India on Monday successfully tested two Pinaka guided extended range rockets off the Pokhran Range in Rajasthan. According to reports, both the rockets hit their targets at 90-km range.A Pinaka is a multi-barrel rocket launching system developed by Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), for the Indian Army with a range of 38 km. Production of Pinaka rockets by Ordnance Factories (OFs) was started back in 2007-08. "India today successfully carried out two tests of Pinaka guided extended range rockets off the Pokhran Range in Rajasthan. Both the rockets hit their targets at 90-km range," the news agency ANI reported. Correction: Two tests of Pinaka guided extended range rockets were carried out by India at Pokhran Range, not Balasore as reported earlier. Error regretted https://t.co/cTLKifB7mt a ANI (@ANI) March 11, 2019 Pinaka, the multiple rocket launcher being used by the Indian Army, is capable of firing a salvo of 12 HE rockets in 44 seconds. The system is mounted on a Tatra truck for mobility. Pinaka was used extensively during the Kargil War to destroy enemy positions on the mountain tops. Each Pinaka battery consists of six launcher vehicles, each with 12 rockets; six loader-replenishment vehicles; three replenishment vehicles; two Command Post vehicle (one stand by) with a Fire Control computer, and the DIGICORA MET radar. A battery of six launchers is capable of neutralising an area of 1,000 m A 800 m. The battery which is generally deployed by Army has a total of 72 rockets, which can be fired in 44 seconds. Each launcher can be used to fire rockets in a different direction too. The system has a fire control computer too, which provides it the flexibility to fire all the rockets in one go or only a few. Each launcher comes equipped with an individual computer, which allows it to operate autonomously if it gets separated from the other five vehicles. The launcher can operate in autonomous mode, stand-alone mode, remote mode and manual mode. Though the process to introduce the indigenously manufactured Pinaka rockets commenced in 2007, its supply to the Indian Army was halted till July last year due to some errors. The excessive short-ranging of Pinaka rockets were observed during proof firing in March 2011, October 2011, April 2014, March 2015 and December 2015. Further, problems such as bursting of rockets, burning chunks of propellant were observed during practice field firing of one lot in March 2016 and static and dynamic proof trials of two lots in June 2016. Post that,A an upgraded version of Pinaka rocket, with a guidance system and an enhanced range, was successfully test-fired in Odisha May 2018. The range of that rocket was 70 km. For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: China on Monday ordered domestic airlines to suspend commercial operation of the Boeing 737 MAX 8, citing the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight of that model after takeoff from Addis Ababa. Operation of the 737 MAX 8 aircraft will resume after "confirming the relevant measures to effectively ensure flight safety", China's Civil Aviation Administration said in a statement. According to an aviation website The Air Current, Chinese airlines make up fully one-third of all 737 deliveries and is Boeings most important and strategic customer. In another related development, Cayman Airways have also suspended the Boeing operations. Though Boeing has not issued any comment on the current situation, the aviation giant did release a statement on Ethiopian crash. Boeing is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the passengers and crew on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a 737 MAX 8 airplane. We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the families and loved ones of the passengers and crew on board and stand ready to support the Ethiopian Airlines team. A Boeing technical team will be travelling to the crash site to provide technical assistance under the direction of the Ethiopia Accident Investigation Bureau and U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, the statement read. On Sunday, a Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines Boeing crashed minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa Sunday, killing all eight crew and 149 passengers on board, including four Indians, tourists, business travellers, and "at least a dozen" UN staff. Ethiopia has declared a national day of mourning for Monday amid a global stream of condolences for loved ones, many of whom gathered in tears at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). "The House of People's Representatives have declared March 11, 2019, a national day of mourning for citizens of all countries that have passed in this tragic accident," Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's office said on Twitter. Identities of the victims from 35 countries started to emerge as foreign governments and the United Nations reacted with shock. Four Indians are also among those who have lost their lives in the crash. "Deeply saddened by the news this morning of the plane crash in Ethiopia, claiming the lives of all on board. My heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of all the victims - including our own @UN staff - who perished in this tragedy," tweeted UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The passengers included "at least a dozen" UN-affiliated staff headed for an annual assembly of the UN Environment Programme, which opens in Nairobi Monday with some 4,700 heads of state, ministers, business leaders, senior UN officials and civil society representatives, a UN source told AFP. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. The victim saw Salinas point the gun at his forehead, and the two of them began wrestling for control of the gun, the affidavit states. Salinas fired again, and the victim was struck in his right thigh, according to the affidavit. The two continued wrestling for the gun and the gun fell on the floor, court records state. New Delhi: Investigators have recovered one of two black box recorders on the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 that crashed just outside Addis Ababa Sunday, killing all 149 passengers and eight crew, Ethiopian state media reported. #BreakingNews: The black box voice recorder from Ethiopian Airlines aircraft which crashed yesterday has been recovered: #Ethiopia, FANA Broadcasting Corporate said on its Twitter page. The Ethiopian Airlines CEO and Kenya's transport minister said Indians, Canadians, Chinese, Americans and others are among the many nationalities among the victims of Sunday morning's deadly plane crash after takeoff from Addis Ababa. Authorities earlier said 32 Kenyans and nine Ethiopians were killed. Now, they add 18 Canadians; eight each from China, the United States and Italy; seven each from France and Britain; six from Egypt; five from the Netherlands and four each from India and Slovakia. All 157 people, 149 passengers and eight crew died in the crash. We hereby confirm that our scheduled flight ET 302 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi was involved in accident today," the airline said in a statement. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's office tweeted it "would like to express its deepest condolences to the families of those that have lost their loved ones on Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 on regular scheduled flight to Nairobi, Kenya this morning''. (With inputs from PTI) For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: US President Donald Trump will seek US dollar 8.6 billion in fresh funding for a wall on the US-Mexico border in the 2020 budget request, likely triggering another fight with Congress, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Sunday. Earlier, the US House of Representatives dealt a blow to President Donald Trump, approving a resolution blocking him from obtaining funding for a Mexican border wall through his declaration of a national emergency. Dismissing a veto threat by the president, the Democratic-controlled House struck down Trumps emergency declaration by a comfortable margin of 245-182, sending the measure to the Republican-held Senate. Thirteen Republicans have joined Democrats in voting to terminate Trumps emergency declaration, which the Republican president issued on February 15 after failing to secure billions of dollars from Congress for the wall. The request, which is to be unveiled Monday, would far exceed the US dollar 5.7 billion Trump demanded last year, which led to an impasse that resulted in a 35-day partial shutdown of the US government, the longest ever. Democratic congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer decried the move, warning Trump that another legislative defeat would await him. Kudlow, interviewed on "Fox News Sunday," conceded that the new request would likely mean a renewed fight in Congress over wall funding. "I suppose there will be," he said. But he said Trump "is going to stay with his wall. He is going to stay with his border security. I think it's essential." In a joint statement, Pelosi and Schumer charged that Trump "hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos when he recklessly shut down the government to try to get his expensive and ineffective wall." "Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again. We hope he learned his lesson," they said. The Washington Post reported that the president's request for wall funding will come in the form of USD 5 billion from the Department of Homeland Security and another USD 3.6 billion from the Pentagon. That will be on top of the USD 6.7 billion in wall funding that Trump has ordered redirected from other government programs under a national emergency he declared last month. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday held separate telephonic conversations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, while Saudi Arabia's junior foreign minister called on him -- engagements which came in the backdrop of escalating tensions between India and Pakistan. It was not immediately known whether Indo-Pak tensions figured in the Prime Minister's telephonic conversations with the leaders of Turkey and UAE. Government sources said there was no offer of any mediation by any country to de-escalate tensions between India and Pakistan even though Islamabad was reaching out to several foreign governments for such a role. The official statement on Modi's conversation with Erdogan said that the Prime Minister stated that terrorism remains one of the gravest threats to global peace and security. He underscored the importance of immediate, demonstrable, and irreversible action against terrorism by all countries concerned, the Ministry of External Affairs statement said, without mentioning Pakistan. In Modi's telephonic talks with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, who is also the Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, the two leaders expressed happiness at the growing strength of all-round bilateral cooperation. They reiterated their commitment to further consolidate the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership, the statement said. Saudi State Minister for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir also called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed bilateral issues, officials said. "The Prime Minister thanked the leadership of Saudi Arabia for expressing full solidarity with India in the fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations," the MEA said. "It was agreed that Saudi Arabia and India should work together for irreversible, verifiable and credible steps against all terrorists without any discrimination," it added. Jubeir briefed Prime Minister Modi on the follow up of the outcomes of the "historical visit" of the Saudi Crown Prince in February 2019. The engagements came against the backdrop of global efforts to de-escalate tension between India and Pakistan triggered by the suicide attack by JeM in Pulwama on February 14 in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed and subsequent aerial strike by India on a training camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror outfit in Balakot on February 26. Pakistan retaliated the next day by unsuccessfully attempting to target Indian military installations. Last week, Jubeir visited Islamabad and met Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. During the meeting, he delivered to Khan a "special message" from Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, according to Pakistani media reports. He also held talks with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. Countries like the US, the UK, China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were involved in easing tensions between India and Pakistan. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: US President Donald Trump is ready to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un again for denuclearisation talks, the White House said, underlining that his decision to walk out of the Hanoi summit sent a signal to other countries as well that he is not desperate for a deal unless it is in America's interest. Earlier, Donald Trump had said that he is very, very disappointed with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un if reports that work is underway to rebuild a long-range rocket site are confirmed. Speaking to reporters, Trump said its too early to see if the information about work at the North Korean site is true. Warning hed be disappointed, he added: I dont think I will be, but well see what happens. Trump and Kim met last week in Vietnam to negotiate on getting rid of North Koreas nuclear arsenal, but the summit broke up early with no progress. US National Security Advisor John Bolton told ABC News that Trump's walk out from his meeting with Kim was "friendly" and it is not a reflection that the talks broke down. I don't really think it broke down. I think the president did exactly the right thing, he said, referring to the failed summit between the two leaders in Hanoi in Vietnam on February 26 and 27. Trump and Kim's Vietnam meeting ended abruptly without a deal on North Korean denuclearisation in return for sanctions relief. On Friday, Trump told reporters his relationship with Kim was a very good one and said he would be surprised in a negative way if he did anything that was not per our understanding. "Trump and Kim Jong-un had had a number of conversations about what might be done to denuclearise North Korea. Kim offered a partial deal. The president has been very clear that he doesn't want to make the same mistakes as past administrations, Bolton said. "Trump proposed to Kim what he talked about really going back to Singapore, is what he called the big deal, that North Korea completely denuclearize. And, in exchange for that, there was a very bright economic future for the North Korean people," Bolton said. At their ground breaking first summit in Singapore last year, Kim and Trump produced a vague statement on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. There were high expectations for Kim and Trumps second meeting in Hanoi, but no agreement was reached. Despite the stalemate, both sides said they were open to further talks. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. With 69 points under the states school grading system, it was right on the edge of a C, which would have taken it off the states bad list for those in danger of losing their eligibility. The chief Pentagon spokesman yesterday said there will grave consequences to military relations between the United States and Turkey should Ankara go ahead with the purchase a Russian S-400 missile system, US government funded news outlet Voice of America reported. If Turkey takes the S-400, there would be grave consequences in terms of our relationship, military relationship with them, Charlie Summers told reporters, noting that the consequences would include losing US military sales to Turkey, including the long-awaited sale of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet. Turkey and Russia finalised an agreement worth a reported $2.5 billion on the sale of the Russian missile defence systems in December 2017 despite objections from its NATO allies, who are concerned that the system could collect data on NATO jets and undermine their defences. Ankara, for its part, maintains the S-400 offers the best value for its needs and is not a threat to NATO systems. Link Atelier, the Kingdoms largest design centre, hosted a Japanese Tea Ceremony for many guests and dignitaries. The Japanese Tea Ceremony, also called the Way of Tea, is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of matcha, powdered green tea. Link Ateliers founder and principal designer Nahed Eshaq welcomed Hideki Ito, the newly appointed Ambassador of Japan to the Kingdom and other guests. Tea master and tea sommelier Bedoor hosted a special session on preparing and serving authentic Japanese tea. Sessions were also held on Japanese history, etiquettes as well as traditional garments. An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 crashed yesterday morning en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, killing all 149 passengers and eight crew on board, state media reported as African leaders offered condolences. We hereby confirm that our scheduled flight ET 302 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi was involved in accident today, the airline said in a statement, later confirming a report by Ethiopias FANA Broadcasting Corp that there were no survivors. It is believed that there were 149 passengers and eight crew on board the flight, it said. The airline has not provided information on passengers nationalities but there are reports people from 33 countries were on board. The crash came on the eve of a major, annual assembly of the UN Environment Programme opening in Nairobi. State-owned Ethiopian Airlines, Africas largest carrier, said the plane had taken off at 8:38 am (0538 GMT) from Bole International Airport and lost contact six minutes later near Bishoftu, a town some 60 kilometres (37 miles) southeast of Addis Ababa by road. The weather in the capital, according to an AFP reporter, was clear when the brand-new Boeing plane, delivered to Ethiopia last year, plane took off. The Boeing came down near the village of Tulu Fara outside Bishoftu. A reporter said there was a massive crater at the crash site, with belongings and airplane parts scattered widely. Rescue crews were retrieving human remains from the wreckage. Police and troops were on the scene, as well as a crash investigation team from Ethiopias civil aviation agency. In the Kenyan capital, family members, friends, and colleagues of passengers were frantically waiting for news at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). I am still hoping that all is fine, because I have been waiting for my sister since morning and we have not been told anything, Peter Kimani told AFP in the arrivals lounge over an hour after the plane was scheduled to land at 10:25 am local time. His sister is a nurse who he said had gone to Congo. She travels a lot on missions. We are still expecting our loved one from Addis... we have just received news that there is a plane that has crashed. We can only hope that she is not on that flight. Hoping for the best Among those waiting, Khalid Ali Abdulrahman received happy news about his son, who works in Dubai. I arrived here shortly after 10:00 am and as I waited, a security person approached me and asked me which flight are you waiting for. I answered him quickly because I wanted him to direct me to the arrivals, so I told him Ethiopia, and then he said: Sorry, that one has crashed. I was shocked, but shortly after, my son contacted me and told me he is still in Addis and did not board that flight, he is waiting for the second one which has been delayed, Khalid told AFP. I am waiting for my colleague, I just hope for the best, added Hannah, a Chinese national. African Union commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat said he had learnt of the crash with utter shock and immense sadness. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmeds office tweeted it would like to express its deepest condolences to the families of those that have lost their loved ones. Kenyas President Uhuru Kenyatta said he was saddened by the news, adding: My prayers go to all the families and associates of those on board. Mahboub Maalim, executive secretary of the IGAD East African bloc, said the region and the world were in mourning. I cannot seem to find words comforting enough to the families and friends of those who might have lost their lives in this tragedy, he said in a statement. The black flag of the Islamic State group flutters above a bullet-scarred building. Women covered head-to-toe stroll below, as bearded men zip on motorbikes down dirt roads strewn with debris. Pushed flush along a bend in the Euphrates River, this scrap of a desert hamlet in eastern Syria is the only territory the jihadists have left. Were a few dozen metres away from them, said Ahmad al-Siyyan, a fighter with the Syrian Democratic Forces, raising a pair of binoculars for a better look This is the closest point we control, he told AFP journalists on the front line during a fragile ceasefire. The 24-year-old motioned towards three men dressed in khaki tunics walking through an end-of-days mass of tattered tents and cloth-covered trenches. This is the Baghouz camp, he said. The Kurdish-led fighters pushed into the ragged tent encampment some 10 days ago as they and their US-led coalition backers pounded the jihadists, but they soon paused to allow more civilians to leave. The no-mans land between the SDF and the jihadists is filled with abandoned cars, shreds of clothing and holes dug by IS fighters and civilians for shelter. The charred and twisted remains of a trucks freight trailer lie on the ground. Once an IS ammunition cache, it was hit during the most recent spurt of fighting, sending a pillar of black smoke jutting into the sky for days. When the sun comes up, civilians come towards us... but (IS) snipers fire on them to force them back, Siyyan said. A fragile ceasefire has held since the last round of fighting, as the SDF continues its push to clear the redoubt of non-combatants. Weve managed to pull some civilians out of the camp, he added. Today, an Emirati (fighter) tried to sneak up on us, but we managed to capture him. The US-backed fighters have been hoping for weeks that the final day has come for ISs caliphate. Tens of thousands of women, children, and men have streamed out of the besieged bastion since December. Thousands more poured out after last weeks fighting, upending assumptions that few families remained holed up in the area. Pots, pans, explosive belts Black smoke billows into the air from an IS-held area of the camp where SDF fighters say jihadists sometimes burn tyres. Sporadic bursts of gunfire echo across the flat dusty terrain, punctuated by a singular roaring explosion. The ground floor of the pockmarked building serving as the SDF front line position is strewn with syringes and packs of medicine -- remnants of a jihadist field hospital. Spent ammunition of all sizes lie between zig-zagging trenches, scorched pots and pans and scraps of clothes left behind. The SDF worry the area has been littered with mines left by the jihadists, who have routinely planted explosives and dispatched car bombs to halt advancing forces. Everywhere we go we find two or three explosive belts, said SDF member Shevan alHasakeh, adding there is a real fear that most of the fighters left would be using them. In this area Ive personally seen 10 to 15 -- all different sizes, he added. Inside one makeshift tent, a wood stove topped with metal cookware sits on the lip of a metre-deep trench lined with mattresses and blankets. Flies buzz above the discarded detritus of everyday life. An infants blue sweater, an overturned baby stroller, a crushed pair of glasses. They were stashing weapons here, said one fighter, gesturing towards a trench lined with a singed carpet. He said the SDF also found stores of ammunition and the bodies of dead jihadists. With jets from the US-led coalition rumbling overhead, two young SDF fighters fiddle with the scope on a sniper rifle, joking easily between each other before falling into song for a faraway sweetheart. If my heart wanes, how will I embrace you, the two belt out, their comrades looking on with broad smiles. They have all fought for years against IS, losing friends and family along the way. But with hopes high that the end of the long battle is near, the mood among those surrounding the holdout jihadists is triumphant. They only have the camp, theyve lost, said Hasakeh. The battle is settled... Its a fait accompli. Everyone's favorite morning news host brought her megawatt smile and newest children's book to the Nutmeg State this weekend, stopping by a Connecticut store for a book signing. Fans lined up to meet Today show co-anchor Hoda Kotb as she made an appearance at the RJ Julia book shop on the Wesleyan University campus on Sunday, March 10 to sign copies of her latest kid's book, "You Are My Happy." Her most recent title is the followup to her No. 1 New York Times bestseller, "I've Loved You Since Forever," and offers a tale of how gratitude for life large and small gifts can bring happiness, according to RJ Julia. Romance writer Jamie Beck loves a good love story. Her favorite relationship topic, she says, is unrequited love, but if that sounds at odds with how most romance novels end, no worries. Beck, 52, says as an author she can give any couple a happily ever-after ending. In a recent phone interview from her New Canaan home, the best-selling author (with book sales at more than 2 million copies) gave us insight into her fast-paced world of romance writing. Q: Your first career was as a lawyer. When did your love affair with writing begin? A: When I was young I wanted to write for television and the movies. My parents didnt know about writing and publishing and didnt encourage that. I did commercial real estate and lending work for about 10 years and when (my husband and I) moved from Pittsburgh (her hometown) to Connecticut I was a stay-at-home mom with my two children. I was grateful to have the opportunity to be at home with them (but) I was searching for something to do that would be interesting to me. One day when my kids were in grade school I thought maybe Ill try to write a book. I did it in secret and hid it under the bed. I really didnt know what I was doing. Then I started to learn more about writing and publishing. Q: What happened to that first novel and did more books follow? A: Its still under my bed. By the third book I got an agent (in 2013), but its an odd story, it was my second book, In the Cards, that got published first (in 2014). Q: How do you feel about being called a romance author rather than maybe a womens fiction writer? A: My books are all romance. A lot of readers dont know how to distinguish (between the genres). Romance is when the couple is the center of a story and it has a happy ending. Womens fiction is usually a story thats about a womans journey after some kind of event, like after a divorce or a death, and about the growth of the woman from point A to point B. You could have a romantic element, but its not the main story. Love could or could not be a part of the story. In 2020 Ill be flipping to womens fiction with romantic elements. The romance will not be the main thrust of the story, but an element. Q: You describe your novels as smart fiction with heart that deal with real-world problems, such as alcoholism or trauma, and the characters are everyday people, not the very rich. Why? A: For me, romance novels really represent hope in a way, that through love we can overcome most things and we can be our best self. Thats probably the message in well-written romance novels. It helps readers relate to characters who are very realistic. Its important to deal with real topics because thats what we all deal with. Q: Are you surprised by your success in such a relatively short time? A: Very surprised. I thought (my writing) would be pocket money or for a trip to Europe. My first break-out book was Worth the Wait in spring 2015. It sold 100,000 books in three months. I thought (what I was writing) is what I would like to read. It was different than the other romance books out there. I had the right story at the right time and I kept my readers. Q: One way you seem to have kept readers is with the different series of books you created. A: Writing a romance series is more of a publisher suggestion. Romance readers love coming back to characters and seeing their progression. Its like a soap opera. The Sterling Canyon novels are the sexiest and probably the most explicit. The best-selling is the St. James series and there's the Cabot series. They are both family dramas. Q: Your latest series, Sanctuary Sound, is set in a fictional town on Connecticuts shoreline. The first one debuted in October and the second, The Promise of Us (Montlake Romance, $12.95), comes out April 9. Is the fast turnaround of romance novels and coming up with ideas difficult? A: The Wonder of Now (the last in the series) is coming out in September. I used to have to write three books a year because romance readers are very voracious. I always know where I want (a story) to begin and end. The middle is always the hardest struggle. Q: Authors seem to have mixed reactions about their work being turned into films. Do you see any of your books becoming a Hallmark TV movie? A: Hallmark is too sweet and theres not too much anguish (in its movies). Mine are more like a Lifetime movie. I do have mixed feelings. I hear the characters in my head and if I didnt have control (over the casting), I probably would hate it. Sometimes when I listen to audio tapes (of my books), its never quite how I would do it. Q: What advice would you give someone who wants to be a writer? A: I would encourage anyone who had the thought to write a book to just sit and start. I think were going to see a rise in funny, humorous books of all kinds. Theres a lot of fighting going on in the outside world and I think people will gravitate towards humor. Im not funny. Id have to work really hard to write fun, clever dialogue. You have to play to your strengths. The Romance Writers of America is a great group to join and you dont have to be a romance writer. Its an invaluable thing to meet with other writers and talk. I had people help me and I try to be there to answer new writers questions and help people reach their dreams. Jamie Beck will be part of the Romance Writers of America annual conference July 24-27 in New York City. Eileen Fischer is a freelance writer and former editor of Sunday Arts & Style. DANBURY A former high school safety advocate is applying for accelerated rehabilitation after being charged with felony assault and three misdemeanors last month. Sueanna Lamontagne, 50, applied for the diversionary program during her appearance Monday at state Superior Court in Danbury. Lamontagne had been a Danbury High School safety advocate for 13 years until her employment ended on March 1, according to the school districts human resources department. The district did not disclose the terms of her departure. Lamontagne was charged Feb. 22 with second-degree breach of peace, disorderly conduct, interfering with an officer and felony assault of public safety or emergency medical personnel. Police said she repeatedly hit an officer in the face and cursed at cops during an incident on Forty Acre Mountain Road. Police said they responded to the intersection of Forty Acre Mountain Road and Old Forty Acre Mountain Road and found a yellow Chevy Malibu parked diagonally across the road, obstructing traffic around 11 p.m. on Feb 22. Drivers had exited their vehicles and were pleading with Lamontagne to move the car, police said. Lamontagne was sitting in the front passenger seat of the car, which was not running. Witnesses told officers the man driving the Chevy walked away from the scene. Detective Lt. Mark Williams said the driver was never found. Officers tried unsuccessfully to coax Lamontagne out of the car as they called for a tow truck to move it, but she refused and hurled a series of profanities at the officers, police said. When one officer attempted to unbuckle Lamontagne from her seat, she repeatedly punched him in the face with a closed fist, according to police. Accelerated rehab States Attorney Stephen Sedensky said the courts adult probation office will determine if Lamontagne is eligible for the accelerated rehabilitation program by her next court date on April 8. Accelerated rehabilitation is a diversionary, pretrial intervention program that allows first-time offenders to avoid criminal conviction. Because she is applying for the program, Lamontagne did not enter a plea on Monday. If Lamontagnes application is granted, she will be required to notify her victim that she has applied for the program. The victim then has an opportunity to provide an opinion whether the defendant should be allowed to participate in the program. If Lamontagne successfully finishes the program, charges against her will be dismissed. kendra.baker@hearst.com NEW HAVEN Though it is known the rate of gun deaths are on the rise in the country, some experts are interested in what is unknown about gun violence. U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, announced Monday that in light of this and as chairwoman of the appropriations subcommittee that funds the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she will advocate for the appropriation of money to research gun violence. Gun violence is a public health emergency, she said at New Haven Police Department headquarters. It demands public research dollars. According to CDC statistics that were released in 2018, the New York Times reported, nearly 40,000 died from firearm injuries in 2017, the third consecutive year the rate had increased. Nearly two-thirds of those deaths were suicides. Since 1996, Congress has followed a provision called the Dickey Amendment, which forbids any research by the CDC that could be used to promote gun control. DeLauro said that despite sepsis and gun violence both claiming about the same number American lives, sepsis received 150 times as much funding for CDC research. DeLauro noted that Jay Dickey, the Arkansas representative for whom the amendment is named, has recanted, declaring in 2015 that gun violence should be researched by the CDC. Recent attempts to repeal the amendment, with mostly Democratic support, have been unsuccessful. DeLauro said she is not opposed to the Dickey Amendment if having it in place soothes the concerns of gun control opponents into supporting a bipartisan consensus on gun violence research. We are going to push to make sure the CDC is involved, DeLauro said. She said she cannot account for what happens in the Senate, where Democrats are a minority, but an overwhelming victory in the House will place pressure. Police Chief Anthony Campbell said the department believes in data-driven policing, which would be made possible with more research into gun violence. Kirsten Bechtel, co-principal investigator of the Injury Free Coalition for Kids at Yale New Haven Children's Hospital said federal funding for gun violence should at least be proportionate with the number of deaths related to guns. She said that, although far more American households have access to a car than to a firearm, car deaths declined dramatically after research was done on safety measures such as car seats for infants. Bechtel made a request of DeLauro that she fund the National Institutes of Health as well; DeLauro said there was a funding precedent there following the mass shooting in Sandy Hook, but those projects were discontinued. DeLauro said the NIH and CDC both would be directed to conduct research on gun violence. Karl Minges, director of the University of New Havens masters in public health program, said gun deaths are 100 percent preventable, and there are many questions that can be researched to decrease deaths, such as why gun violence has increased, who gun violence affects disproportionately, correlations between domestic violence and gun violence and the effects of gun violence on the urban poor. Minges said if the federal government tracked gun deaths then it would be an effective epidemiological tool. Brent Peterkin, statewide coordinator of Project Longevity a Connecticut-based program that uses social-emotional strategies to reduce gun violence said the emotional and economic toll that gun violence has on families and communities is obvious, but underexplored. He said there must be trauma-informed research for people to draw upon to help families mourning gun deaths and children who have been targeted by gun violence. We must consider how this impacts black and brown communities, he said. brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com A Kansas doctor was sentenced to life in prison Friday for unlawfully prescribing medication blamed for an overdose death, the latest prosecution in a government crackdown on physicians amid an opioid epidemic. Steven R. Henson was immediately taken into custody following sentencing. There was an audible gasp in the packed courtroom when U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten announced the life sentence. Henson showed no emotion. A federal jury convicted the 57-year-old Wichita doctor for the 2015 death of Nick McGovern. Prosecutors alleged McGovern, who received prescriptions from Henson, died of an overdose of the anti-anxiety drug alprazolam and methadone, which is used to wean addicts off heroin. The government presented evidence at trial that Henson wrote prescriptions in return for cash, postdated prescriptions and wrote them without a medical need or legitimate medical exam. Prosecutors said the doctor prescribed opioid medications in amounts likely to lead to addiction. He also was convicted of conspiracy to distribute prescription drugs outside the course of medical practice, unlawfully distributing various prescription drugs, presenting false patient records to investigators, obstruction of justice and money laundering. His case is the latest in a string of prosecutions across the nation targeting physicians accused of overprescribing opioids. I want this case to send a message to physicians and the health care community, U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said in a news release. Unlawfully distributing opioids and other controlled substances is a federal crime. The National Association of Attorneys General, working under a research grant, found there had been 378 doctors who had been charged or whose cases were resolved by the end of 2016. Of those, U.S. attorneys offices charged 249 and state authorities charged 131, its researchers found. Defense attorney Michael Thompson said his client was disappointed in the sentence and planned to appeal. When acting as a physician he always acted with the best interest of patients, Thompson said. His attorneys had urged the court to impose the lowest possible sentence, arguing McGovern had ingested far more pills than prescribed on the day he died and had taken other drugs that were not prescribed. They contended Henson did not write a prescription that would have resulted in the death if taken as directed. In a brief courtroom statement, Henson said he trained hard to become a physician. I only had one goal in life as a physician and that is to take excellent care of patients and increase functionality, he said. But the judge was unmoved by that statement, telling Henson he put his patient in a position where he had to take those pills in order to get through the day. You were exacerbating a problem; you were not treating it, Marten said. Several tearful members of the McGoverns family spoke in court of the impact the death has had on them, telling the court the family deserves to see justice served so this example wont ever happen to another family. Some 47,600 Americans died of opioid overdoses in 2017 , according the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Opioid deaths were 13 percent higher compared to 2016, up a notch compared to the nearly 500 percent increase in overdose deaths since 1999. The street drug fentanyl is the top overdose killer now, displacing heroin and pain pills. Prescription painkillers contributed to 14,495 deaths in 2017. Officers arrived at the hospital where a 39-year-old man from Gary had a single gunshot wound to his back, Hamady said. The 39-year-old said he was sitting in a vehicle with his friend when an unknown male approached the vehicle and began shooting at them, the release states. Serial entrepreneur Billy Levy has a good nose for business opportunities. In 2007, Levy co-founded a gaming company, which eventually caught the eye of Richard Branson who invested and changed the name to Virgin Gaming. In 2012, Levy co-founded a seed-to-sale marijuana company called Mettrum, which he sold last year for over $430 million (Canadian dollars). Now he's co-founder and president, of SLANG Worldwide, a leading cannabis-focused consumer packaged goods company. The company sells its products in 2600 plus stores across 10 states in the U.S. and has a market value of about $500 million on the Canadian Securities Exchange. Image credit: SLANG Worldwide Here, we do a deep dive into some tips and tricks he's learned along the way. What business tips did you learn from Richard Branson? As an entrepreneur myself, having the opportunity to work with him was a bit of a dream come true. One of the main things that I learned was not to take everything so seriously. It's easy for things to get lost in the shuffle of the day. Richard is a free spirit who's always having a lot of fun, but also like super serious and sharp about what he's doing. And it's a tough balance to have, but he's mastered it. For example, when we first announced Virgin Gaming, I had never done a press conference and been on stage in front of so many people and cameras. I'll never forget how nervous we were, but to him, everything was laughs and jokes, and that helped make things easier on us, which was appreciated. He's been public about his support for legalization. Have you had any conversations with him about getting into the business? Yeah, but not that I can share. He does a lot for the cause and has been very public with a policy-driven approach. He sees it more as a social justice issue. But he's a great supporter of the cause. Related: Richard Branson: Just Say Yes to Smoking Pot With Your Kids You went from a very lucrative exit from the gaming industry to cannabis. Why? A guy I had worked with in Canada, Peter Miller [who is co-founder at CEO of Slang] said to me, "Are you aware that the medical marijuana laws in Canada are changing?" I said no, and I don't care. His family has a deep agricultural background and over a thousand acres about an hour outside of Toronto, and he felt that we could build a grow facility on their land. I was completely uninterested. I had never seen a live marijuana plant before. Having a videogame business was easy for me because I played a lot of video games. I used cannabis, but I had no idea about anything related to growing it or the business of it. But Peter kept sending me news articles and research reports on the entrepreneurial opportunity within the cannabis industry. Finally, I said, "Ok, let's go for it. And that led to Peter, and I did the first new construction project for a license cannabis producer in Canada. Most people were retrofitting old facilities, but we were super naive about it. Long story short, it ended up paying off for us. We were awarded one of the original licenses and co-founded Mettrum together. What was an innovation you introduced there to make you stand out? We found that physicians didn't want to prescribe products with names like Super Lemon Haze and O.G. Purp. So we came up with a color system for our products, which we called the "Mettrum Spectrum" to simplify the conversation. The colors were based around the potency of the product, and it just made it easier for patients and physicians to have a conversation. Describe the idea behind your newest business venture, SLANG. We looked at our experience with Mettrum as fully vertically-integrated producer and distributor of cannabis in a limited license environment in Canada, and that was a great business experience and boot camp in terms of how to actually run one of these grow businesses. But ultimately we saw that there are not any parallels we could think of in which, right out of the gate, you had to be a good farmer, good manufacturer, good marketer brander, distributor, retailer, etc. All of those are very different and separate businesses. Ultimately, cannabis is just a consumer product. And how are consumer products businesses successful in the real world? It's great brands that are really widely distributed. So that's what we've set up with SLANG-- a host of really good brands that have the best distribution. In looking for a partner, we merged with companies like Organa Brands because we saw that they had product in 1200 stores at the time. That was the biggest distribution footprint we had heard of. Would you advise that other cannabis entrepreneurs consider mergers and joint ventures as part of their strategy? Yeah, I think there's a lot of power and collaboration and partnership being that the industry is new and growing so fast. A lot of people do tend to have their elbows out and are a little bit competitive or maybe want to try to do everything themselves. But the reality is that it's just really difficult to do. You could get a lot of value through partnership, and you don't have to do everything yourself. Related: Your Cannabis Company Was Acquired. Now What? What's something that you've learned along the way you can share with other aspiring business owners? I've been lucky, but I think part of the success has been having a real interest in whatever you're working on. I've seen for myself that makes all the difference because there are a lot of times now where it doesn't really feel like work and I'm able to go that much harder because of the interest that I have in the topic. Like I said, I was a gamer, and I played competitively, so the vision was to build this great competitive gaming product. But when I first got into cannabis, I was thinking so much about the growing and agricultural that I didn't ultimately realize this is about building a brand and a market. And that I was going to be working with the type of product that I would also like to consume. Related: Over 2 Billion Served: How This Cannabis Company Got There Cannabis Boxes Curated by Celebrities Are Big Business What Happens When AI Meets a Cannabis Grinder Copyright 2019 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved President Donald Trump is absolutely right: We are confronting a national emergency, and we must act. But its not our national emergency. It is the absolute life or death emergency of our neighboring families who are being terrorized by murderous gangs in the failed nations of Central Americas so-called Northern Triangle El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Gangsters and the drug cartels that run them, having bought off and scared off top officials and local police, are extorting and murdering our southern neighbors. And theyre getting away with their terror. We need to help ourselves by helping our neighbors. We cannot just wall ourselves off from reality. In 2015, El Salvador became the worlds most violent country not at war, with 103 homicides per 100,000 people, edging past Honduras, according to a Council on Foreign Relations report. In 2017, El Salvadors murder rate declined a bit to 81, but homicides in all three Northern Triangle countries are significantly higher than in its Central American neighbors. No wonder families are grabbing their children and fleeing for their lives. On TV news, a woman who fled El Salvador with several small children recently told her terrifying story: She and her husband ran a small taco cafe until her husband was murdered after refusing to pay gangsters the protection money they demanded. When she tried to run the cafe alone, the gangsters threatened her: Pay protection money or shell get what her husband got. She fled in terror with her children, joining one of those caravans our president keeps frightening us about. I began asking people I know, who came here from those Northern Triangle countries, about her story. Every person responded by sharing similar stories about folks they knew back home. If those gangs now terrorizing El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala were called al-Qaida or ISIS, you know what our president and his political minions would be saying and doing. Theyd be denouncing the terrorists. Some would even be talking about sending troops to safeguard our homeland by dealing with the problem at its source. But these murderous gangs are called MS-13 and Barrio 18. And ever since Trump first glided down his golden escalator and into our presidential campaign, he cleverly realized he could get elected by frightening us with tall tales about the horrible dangers posed by those invading immigrants (who of course look nothing like his ancestors who once fled here from Germany). None of this has turned out the way our leaders envisioned a generation ago. In 1961, Americas new young president, John F. Kennedy, inspired us with a bold plan that he called the Alliance for Progress. He visualized a U.S. major effort of aid and expertise to help Latin America develop something we had and they didnt: a robust middle class. The Kremlins shiny new spearhead Fidel Castros Cuba was already fomenting communist revolution through Latin America, where populations were poor and ruling elites were rich. Kennedy hoped to foster Latin American middle classes that cherished democracy. While JFKs program had its shortcomings, all U.S. presidents from both parties have pursued those goals since. But 28 years ago, a much-celebrated event on the other side of the planet the collapse of the Soviet Union generated an unanticipated side effect that is still rippling through the Americas. And Bernard Aronson, the highly praised former assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs under presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, recalled one of the most unforeseen of all the consequences of that stunning event. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, a lot of the urgency about Latin America seemed to disappear, Aronson told me in an interview. Our government could only do a certain amount of things at a time. And urgency and concern about Central America faded background. Aronson came back to play an important role as Barack Obamas special envoy who brokered the peace deal that ended Colombias decades of drug-trade guerilla warfare with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. My hope was that the era of coups would be long over, he said. I dont think any of us foresaw the crisis we see today in Central America. One of the lessons we surely ought to have learned is that we cannot just wish away todays problem or wall ourselves off from it. Homeowners surely get it: When a big leak starts flooding your basement, the solution isnt to just build a wall at the foot of your basement stairs. Youve got to fix the leak at its source. Nothing else will do. Martin Schram, an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service, is a veteran Washington journalist, author and TV documentary executive. Readers may send him email at martin.schram@gmail.com. Edward Hearn, the attorney, took issue with the councils motion, the need for Kirkpatrick to secure the bond when he and Kirkpatrick said the towns blanket insurance policy was sufficient, and with the councils request that Kirkpatrick pay for part of the bond himself, among other issues. Some observers wonder why people in Connecticut are making such a fuss over proposals to install tolls. After all, most of us pass through tolls regularly. They are part of everyday life in surrounding states, so what is the big deal? Why are protests popping up all over? The opposition had become so contentious that one state representative suggests that towns protesting tolls should be denied state transportation aid. This is unfortunate when an honest open dialogue is needed on what could become one of the most costly tax increases for residents coming on the heels of the historic increases in 2015 and 2011. Those increases give Connecticut the dubious distinction of having the highest combined federal, state and local tax burden in the nation. The state is losing people and jobs as a direct result. Connecticuts economy is an eco-system. Everything is connected. Legislators should be asking how tolls and taxes taken as a whole will impact the states reputation as a business and taxpayer friendly place. Any increases to the cost of living should be closely scrutinized, especially since Connecticut is one of the only states that has not recovered from the great recession of 2008, and GDP growth of 0.4 percent is the weakest in the Northeast. Tolls are commonplace. However, what is not commonplace is the sheer volume of Connecticut taxes that other states dont have: High income tax that does not allow deductibles High car property taxes 8 percent gross petroleum gas added to a high gas excise tax Real-estate conveyance tax Gift and estate taxes Social security and pension taxes Luxury sales tax High licensure fees Highest property tax in the country Hundreds of services taxes Other factors that should be considered: Connecticut is a small state and tolls would appear on every major route. Connecticut could become the most tolled state in the nation. Plans call for tolls on both cars and trucks spread across 53 to 80 gantries; revenues would approximate $800 million. Thirty-percent of drivers without EZPass avoid paying a toll. As a result of this, and DOTs high administrative costs (Connecticut spent more than $83,000 per mile in administrative costs compared to $10,000 per mile nationally), show revenue estimates based on toll prices of up to four times the highest rate in the country. Studies find 60-to-75 percent of toll revenues would come from Connecticut drivers. This would hurt state businesses and workers whose jobs require daily travel. Congestion toll pricing increases during peak travel periods, but a typical worker cannot dictate their schedule. Congestion pricing is regressive as it penalizes those who least can afford it. A toll could become a $240 monthly pay cut per month. Connecticut receives approximately $528.6 million from the federal government to make up for lack of tolls. Those funds could be lost if tolls move forward. Higher truck tolls equal higher prices that will be passed along to consumers in the form of higher priced goods and services. Drivers avoiding tolls will detour through local roads creating congestion and wear and tear on roadways not accustomed to tractor-trailers and increased traffic. One bill would allow the DOT to construct tolls almost immediately without the approval of the General Assembly if no vote is taken within 15 days of convening the legislature. Another bill creates a Transportation Authority that would decide toll placement and rates also without a vote taken. This would absolve legislators from taking responsibility from enacting tolls or raising prices drastically like the $46 congestion pricing for a 10-mile one-way trip on I-66 in Virginia. These decisions should not circumvent those who are answerable to the public. Transportation improvements are needed, but tolls are not the solution. Prioritize Progress is an alternative funding plan that utilizes current state resources to provide $65 billion for infrastructure projects over 30 years. It requires that all bonding, beyond the states core needs such as school construction, must go to transportation infrastructure. It guarantees a steady flow of funding and operates within the states bond cap without burdening people with tolls or taxes. The state has yet to recover job losses from the great recession. Rather than piling on, lawmakers need to control costs and embrace alternatives. Commuters are looking for relief, not another historic tax increase. Call it what you will a toll is tax and a big deal for Connecticut! Toni Boucher, a Wilton resident, is a businesswoman and former state Senate Co-Chair and State House Ranking Member of the Legislatures Transportation Committee. A surge in illegal border crossings, especially by Central American parents and children seeking asylum in the United States, has been seized on by administration officials as justification for President Donald Trump's emergency declaration and border wall. The spike in numbers is a genuine humanitarian crisis, but not one that would best be addressed by adding more border barriers. Mitigating the migrant flow requires, first and foremost, a renewed focus on improving the conditions driving migrants to leave their home countries. Unfortunately, the administration is doing the opposite. The current surge has overwhelmed U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Designed mainly to handle single adults - traditionally, Mexican men seeking work - the agency's resources and remote outposts are ill-equipped to deal with children and families, some of whom arrive in poor health. Administration officials have taken some useful steps to address the crisis, mainly by revamping and expanding medical care, deploying additional interpreters and adding a processing center in El Paso, Texas. WALLINGFORD Superior Court Judge Julia Dewey recently joined students of the High Road School of Wallingford in a Read Across America event to promote childrens literacy in honor of Dr. Seuss birthday. The High Road School of Wallingford is a special needs school serving children in kindergarten through seventh grade. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 11) More pumps will be built all over Metro Manila's east zone to address the water supply situation linked to a low reserves supply and an increase on demand, the government agency in charge of water privatization in the metro said Thursday. Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) Administrator Reynaldo Velasco said they have talked with the National Water Resources Board for the project, and are just awaiting the memorandum of agreement. "Bibigyan ang [They will give] Manila Water ng authority to construct pumps equivalent to 100 MLD (million liters per day) all over Manila, Quezon City, all over the east zone kasi sa kanila 'yun [because it's theirs]. Para magkaroon ng solusyon dito sa kanilang problema [So they could solve their problem]," Velasco said Friday. The MWSS Administrator added that Manila Water's plant in Cardona will give another 50 MLD to add to Manila's supply. Maynilad, the concessionaire in charge of Metro Manila's west zone, will also lend an additional 50 MLD. Water in some parts of Metro Manila has been scarce following Manila Water's announcement of interruptions. The concessionaire pointed to critical water levels in La Mesa Dam due to El Nino or a pattern of scarce rainfall. However, Velasco said at least 96 percent of Metro Manila's water supply comes from Angat Dam -- with 2,400 MLD allotted to Maynilad and 1,600 allotted to Manila Water. La Mesa Dam in Quezon City contributes another 80 MLD to 100 MLD. Based on Manila water's estimate, about 52,000 households or about 250,000 people have been hardest hit by the water interruptions since the past few days, mostly from Mandaluyong and Pasig. CNN Philippines' Correspondent Jelene Fule contributed to this report. The informant tells police that they later saw missing person reports on social media for Lanham and Grill and knew what Kerner was saying was real, and that they were present when other people texted Kerner asking about Grill, because he was supposed to go to Kerners residence. The informant said Kerner provided them with misinformation, according to court documents. NEW HAVEN An alleged serial rapist of perceived sex workers Monday pleaded not guilty to three new charges of first-degree sexual assault. Navardo Lockhart, 26, of New Haven, appeared briefly in front of Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Clifford, who appointed a public defender for Lockhart. Clifford also entered not guilty pleas on Lockharts behalf, which is standard practice for cases at this early stage. Lockhart, attired in an orange prison jumpsuit, did not speak. Senior Assistant Public Defender Scott M. Jones stood beside Lockhart during the hearing. Clifford noted that New Haven Public Defender Beth A. Merkin, who was supposed to represent Lockhart, was upstairs, having been called for jury duty. Lockhart has pleaded not guilty to all five separate charges concerning alleged sexual assaults in the area of Whalley Avenue, Edgewood Park and Norton Street between May and August of last year. Police said they have linked eight cases to Lockhart through DNA evidence, physical evidence, victims statements and identifications. Clifford noted Lockharts bond for the three new cases is $550,000, making his total bond more than $1 million. But Jones told Clifford that Lockhart wants to hold a hearing to seek a reduction in the bond. Clifford said Merkin can argue for this when she returns. Senior Assistant States Attorney Stacey Miranda said she will need at least two or three weeks to seek new evidence in the cases before the next hearing. Clifford then scheduled Lockharts next appearance for April 15. randall.beach@hearstmediact.com WEST HAVEN U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal appeared on the front steps of VA Connecticut Health System in West Haven Monday to convey an urgency to Washington D.C. officials in correcting surgical sterilization facility issues that have left the facilitys operating room at 30 percent capacity. Blumenthal said veterans in many cases are having their surgeries delayed or outsourced to Yale New Haven Hospital or other facilities. Thats unacceptable. The veterans deserve so much better, Blumenthal said. The veterans who depend on this facility deserve first-rate surgical care without delay. The problems are in the Sterile Services Processing Unit, a facility that Blumenthal says has antiquated infrastructure, that breaks and prevents surgeries. There are plans for a new permanent facility to be completed in five years and a temporary mobile unit within a year, but Blumenthal has said its not good enough. Blumenthal has been on the case for a year, but in a recent letter to Robert Wilkie, secretary of Veterans Affairs for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington D.C., the senator upped the urgency. Blumenthal wrote: As my office continues to receive whistleblower reports regarding canceled patient operations due to SPS failings, there is an urgent, immediate need for you to personally intervene to expedite and rush both the installation of a mobile SPS unit and construction of a new SPS facility. The VA issued this response to Blumenthals letter and call to action: VA appreciates the senators views and will respond to him directly. Its important to note, however, that VA Connecticut Healthcare System is and has been providing continuous surgical care for West Haven-area patients both on campus and through nearby non-VA providers at government expense. As we work toward construction of the sterile processing service facility, VA Connecticut will continue providing the best possible care to Connecticut-area veterans whether on or off campus. Blumenthal said at the press conference that it wasnt done sooner because of, A lack of attention in DC management. Last October, Blumenthal called for an investigation after hearing complaints regarding the policies and procedures for sterilizing surgical tools and equipment at the West Haven VA. According to Blumenthal, the West Haven VAs sterilization facilities last year were shut down for three months, from November through January, as a result of a flood, with surgeries transferred to Yale New Haven Hospital as a result. They have the money, which was part of $17 million Blumenthal requested last June for a new sterilization plant at the West Haven VA, but (delivery and installation) has to be expedited, he said. In order to get there, they have to do the design, have to make contract, and the process, done through the VA in Washington, moves very slowly, Blumenthal has said. Blumenthal in his letter requested several pieces of information from Wilkie, including: - A thorough update on the status of the two projects; - When a mobile SPS unit be purchased and when it be installed; - How soon the design phase of the SPS facility be done; - The emergency procurement options available to expedite these two projects. MIDDLETOWN Auerfarm 4-H Education Center in Bloomfield, Connecticut has recently selected Barbara G. DeMaio as its new interim executive director, as they begin the search to permanently fill the position. Auerfarm has engaged the services of Harvest Development Group, Middletown, to recruit DeMaio and conduct the search. Barb is a seasoned business executive with more than 30 years of strategic, results-driven experience and a strong commitment to the community. Shes the perfect choice to carry on our mission as a center of excellence for children and adults to learn about and enjoy agriculture, science and the environment, said Mark Weisman, Chair of the Auerfarm Board of Directors, in a statement. We thank Harvest Development Group for swiftly applying their experience with nonprofit organizations and bringing us such an excellent candidate. DeMaio comes to Auerfarm from Solutions By Design, LLC, where as CEO and founder she focuses on product innovation and customer experiences for the healthcare and financial services industries. Prior to that, DeMaio served as Global Head of Health Product Development & Design for AIG, and Head of Customer Operations, Local and Regional Business, and Head of Individual Business for Aetna. She has also held positions with MassMutual Financial Group and CIGNA Corporation DeMaios community service has included membership on the board of directors of Gifts of Love, the advisory council of the Boys & Girls Club of Hartford, the Womens Leadership Advisory Board and as a Vice Chair/United Way Executive. DeMaio is presently an adjunct professor at the UConn School of Business. DeMaio received her B.S. in Accounting, summa cum laude, from UConn. She resides in Simsbury, Connecticut. Key Cars Group acquires Jackson Chevrolet MIDDLETOWN The Key Cars Group, owners of Key Hyundai in Manchester and Milford, are proud to announce the acquisition of Jackson Chevrolet in Middletown, now Key Chevrolet. When the opportunity to acquire Jackson Chevrolet came to us, we knew it was a perfect fit. Jackson Chevrolet was also female owned and operated by a 3rd generation Connecticut car dealer, TJ Jackson and the company shared our values. Our common history is remarkable, down to the fact that our Grandfathers were both named Sam and both started our families off in the car business, said Jill Merriam of Key Cars Group, in a statement. According to the statement, Key Chevrolet will retain all the Jackson Chevrolet employees, including all the mechanical staff who have years of experience servicing Chevrolets and other General Motors brands. All Jackson Chevrolet customers can expect a seamless transition when they come to service their cars and trucks. Jill Merriam went on to explain that she and her business partner and brother, Jeff Merriam, are excited to build on the great history of Jackson Chevrolet by bringing in their Dealer for the People mission statement. They will continue to provide car buying services to all customers, including customers with credit challenges and customers looking for the perfect car at the perfect price and payment for their needs. Learn more at keychevroletct.com Goff House seeks sponsors for concerts EAST HAMPTON The Joseph N. Goff House seeks individuals, local businesses and organizations to help sponsor the annual Joseph N. Goff House Gazebo Music Series, which takes place five Thursdays during the summer at the Center School Gazebo in the East Hampton Village Center. Sponsors will be listed by donations level, Soprano and Alto, $150 and $75; Tenor, $50; Bass, $25 in promotional materials and posters displayed around town and handed out at concerts. The Joseph N. Goff House is a nonprofit organizations and donations are tax deductible. New members to the board are welcome! 860-205-7376 for information. Donations can be mailed to The Joseph N. Goff House, c/o Deb Rotteck, 163 Hog Hill Road, East Hampton, CT 06424. Go to goffhousehct.blogspot.com for a 2019 band lineup soon. Foster, adoptive parent sessions scheduled NEW BRITAIN Klingberg Family Centers are holding Foster & Adoptive Parent Information Sessions at its Main Campus building, 370 Linwood St. Sessions will be held every second and fourth Monday, 5:30-6:30 p.m. and on the first and third Wednesday from 10-11 a.m., except on holidays, through December 2019. The information session will review how to share a home as a safe place for a child in need of foster care and how to use the experience to provide stability as a Therapeutic Foster Parent. An overview of the approval process and the ongoing support provided to all foster and prospective adoptive families and children placed in their care will also be reviewed. Walk-ins are welcome; RSVP preferred. This is a no obligation information session. For questions or to RSVP, contact Nicolin Carr at 860-832 5536 or nicolin.carr@klingberg.com. For more information, visit us on the web at www.klingbergfosterandadoption.org. Kates Camp For Kids presents summer programming OLD SAYBROOK - The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center and Community Music School are partnering again for the seventh year under the umbrella of their performing arts summer camp, Kates Camp for Kids, to present a full summer of programming at The Kate, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook. The camp runs for five week-long sessions, 9 a.m.- 5 p.m., starting July 8. Launched in 2013, Kates Camp for Kids is a performing arts camp for children ages 5-10 incorporating music, dance, theater, and visual art. Directed by Martha Herrle, a 17-year member of the Community Music School faculty and certified Kindermusik educator, this years camp themes will be Yee Haw, Everyone Needs Superhero, Arf, Sing Me a Story, and Dinostars. Each show features original songs and easy-to-learn rhyming dialog, and the program culminates in a lively performance for friends and family. Tuition for this camp is $295 and scholarships are available for families with a financial need. For additional information and to register, visit www.cmsct.org or call 860-767-0026. Community Music School offers innovative music programming for infants through adults, building on a 35-year tradition of providing quality music instruction to residents of shoreline communities. CMS programs cultivate musical ability and creativity and provide students with a thorough understanding of music so they can enjoy playing and listening for their entire lives. Learn more at visit www.cmsct.org or call 860-767-0026. A Texas woman is accused of leaving her five children home alone for several days last summer while she went to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to look for a job and go to the beach. The Austin American-Statesman reports the children ranged in age from 15 months old to 12 years old. Chrystal Nichole Walraven, 28, was charged with two counts of abandoning or endangering a child. Police in Round Rock became aware of the situation when the Gattis Elementary School principal called authorities on Aug. 29, 2018, after the kids complained during school about having to stay up all night to change their baby sisters diaper. When officers went to the home, a 10-year-old answered the door and said everything was OK, but officers noticed there was an overwhelming odor of feces and garbage coming from the house. Upon entering the house, police found a 15-month-old lying in a crib with a blanket pulled over her mouth. Officers initially feared the girl was dead. Police found a dirty diaper in a closet, stains on the carpet, flies in the kitchen and multiple knives that the children could reach, according to an affidavit. School officials called a man listed as one of the kids' parents, who said a neighbor was watching the children and that he was not living there anymore. The neighbor told police she had made dinner for the children the night before but never knew exactly what was going on with the children." The neighbor also said one of the kids' fathers was checking on them. That man told police he was occasionally visiting the children, but had told Walraven he could not watch them before she left. In a police station interview, Walraven told officers she took a trip to Myrtle Beach to look at a job opportunity and because she needed to get away with everything that was happening at home, the affidavit said. While at Myrtle Beach, she went to the beach, checked out the job and visited tourist locations while staying with a male friend, the affidavit said. According to Fox 7, court documents said Walraven told police she should not have left the kids alone. She left on Aug. 26 and returned home on Aug. 30, according to documents. She was arrested Feb. 11. Police said they did not issue an arrest warrant earlier because we needed to conduct a thorough investigation to make sure we had enough evidence. WEST HAVEN Joan Downing Connor, 86, a founding member of the West Haven Irish-American Club and perhaps best known as The Blue Lady during her years monitoring the hallways of West Haven High School, will receive the citys Irish Person of the Year award Friday. It will be at noon during a celebration near Citys Halls Campbell Avenue entrance, according to a release from City Hall. A green street sign near the Campbell Avenue entrance will read, Joan D. Connor Square for a year. Last years winner, Coleman W. Walsh Jr., will be given his sign to take home, officials said. The Irish Person of the Year honor is bestowed annually on an Irish resident, or couple, who personifies service in the citys rich Irish-American community, the release states. It means the world to me to be thought of like this and to remember everyone who started the Irish-American Club, Connor said in the release. It brings back such fond memories. On her heritage, Connor also said, Being Irish means family, friends, love, laughter taking care of each other, and having a laugh and a good time while you do it. Accompanied by Celtic music played by bagpipers and drummers, members of the West Haven Police Color Guard will escort Connor. The committee made a wonderful choice, Mayor Nancy R. Rossi said in the release. Mrs. Connor is the epitome of a first-generation American. She is proud of her heritage and cherishes her home community of West Haven. Following the ceremony, a corned beef and cabbage lunch will take place at First Congregational Church of West Havens Fellowship Hall, 1 Church St. The St. Patricks Day Committee, led by Chairwoman Beth A. Sabo, the citys commissioner of human resources, includes the lifeblood of West Havens Irish-American society, such as members of the Irish club and former honorees, as well as former and current city, fire and police officials, the release states. Connor is the daughter of John Downing and the former Nellie Reilly who in 1911 at the ages of 24 and 21, respectively, left Ireland in search of a better life, eventually met in New Havens Newhallville neighborhood and married there in 1922. Connors father worked as a waiter and bartender, and her mother as a maid and homemaker, raising the couples four daughters. I was brought up with pride to be Irish and to be an American, Connor said in the release. I am very proud to say that I am first generation here. My parents were very proud to be American citizens, and my mother always said we were American Catholics of Irish descent. Connor was born in New Haven in 1932, and grew up in a two-family home at 109 Lilac St. She graduated from Wilbur Cross High School in 1950 and two years later married James J. Connor and had three children, Joanne Connor, James P. Connor, who died in 1980, and Patricia Connor Thompson. The Connors moved to West Haven in 1957 to raise their family and build a better life for themselves. Connor stepped into her role at the high school long before there were school resource officers, keeping teens in class and out of trouble. Her friend, Mary Reynolds, who also monitored the halls, was known as The Pink Lady, for the smock she wore, so Connor chose The Blue Lady, in honor of the Virgin Mary and her strong Irish Catholic faith, her daughter Joanne Connor said. The Connors were instrumental in founding the Irish-American Club in 1962 with John and Mary Reynolds, Jim and Rita Artes, Jack and Bea Neylan, Dick and Kate Jones, the release states. After more than a half-century of continuous operation, the Irish club is still going strong and Connor is still a hands-on member. The mayor will present Connor with an Irish flag and a proclamation citing her commitment to carrying on the spirited traditions of Ireland and the spiritual teachings of St. Patrick. Connor will also receive a jacket embroidered with her new title: Irishwoman of the Year. Washington was on probation from a previous case at the time of the alleged incident with Sparks-Wade, and hes being held without bond on that potential violation. He has a hearing Tuesday on the issue, and Mullins said he also plans to address bond in that case at the hearing. Another year, another real estate deal for Die Hard star Bruce Willis. The actor and his wife, Emma Heming, have picked up a brand-new Brentwood area estate in Los Angeles, Variety reported. According to realtor.com records, the home sold for $9.98 million last month. The couple made headlines earlier this year when they announced their decision to move to the West Coast, and put their Bedford Corners, NY, spread on the market. The New York property is still available for $11.9 million (a price cut from the initial ask of $12.95 million), but that doesnt seem to have stopped the couple from moving ahead on their SoCal plans. Bruce Willis buys in L.A. realtor.com Living room realtor.com Formal dining room realtor.com Open kitchen realtor.com Family room with access to the outdoors realtor.com Master suite with fireplace and balcony realtor.com Spa with indoor pool realtor.com Yard and pool realtor.com The brand-new, three-level home has 13,048 square feet of living space with seven bedrooms and 12 bathrooms. A double-height foyer leads to the formal living room with a fireplace and built-ins, as well as a formal dining room. The open kitchen looks out to a family room featuring glass pocket doors that open to the patio and backyard, extending the living space outside. The grounds feature a pool, spa, two cabanas, and a barbecue area. Upstairs is a master suite featuring dual closets, a fireplace, and private balcony. Downstairs, there's a full spa experience, with an indoor pool, sauna, and steam room. A home theater, gym, and family room are also located on the lower level. In addition to placing their country house on the market, the couple also put their Upper West Side duplex on the market for $17.75 million in 2018. The swanky pad sold for asking price, according to the New York Post. However, the duo still have a foothold in the neighborhood. Last year, they purchased a smaller condo nearby for $7.9 million. The 63-year-old wont have too much time to enjoy either placehe's starring in several upcoming films, including the just-completed Motherless Brooklyn. The post Buy Hard: Bruce Willis Picks Up L.A. Estate for $9.98M appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. Sometimes you have to lose before you can win. Gov. Phil Murphys proposed 2020 budget calls for spending $206 million more on direct aid to public schools, and it reallocates another $90 million from districts considered overfunded by the state to districts that have long suffered from underfunding. The result? Districts shortchanged for the better part of a decade are finally catching up on state funding theyve been owed. Statewide, Murphys proposed budget would give nearly 370 districts an increase in funding, while almost 200 would have their aid reduced. Only a dozen districts would see flat funding. Here are the 10 districts that would gain the most, ranked by the biggest percentage increase followed by the biggest dollar increase. Atlantic City School District is one of the biggest winners in this year's state budget, making up for years of underfunding. (Lori M. Nichols | For NJ.com)SJN Percentage winners 10. Fairview: 15.6 percent more Proposed aid: $15.6 million Dollar increase: $2 million 9. Edison: 16.2 percent more Proposed aid: 22.9 million Dollar increase: 3.2 million 8. Elmwood Park: 16.7 percent more Proposed aid: $9.9 million Dollar increase: $1.4 million 7. South Hackensack: 16.8 percent more Proposed aid: $345,738 Dollar increase: $49,678 6. Atlantic County Vocational: 17.4 percent more Proposed aid: $10.2 million Dollar increase: $1.5 million 5. North Brunswick: 19.1 percent more Proposed aid: $22.4 million Dollar increase: $3.6 million 4. Cumberland County Vocational: 19.8 percent more Proposed aid: $6.3 million Dollar increase: $1 million 3. Woodbridge: 21.8 percent more Proposed aid: $41.3 million Dollar increase: $7.4 million 2. Atlantic City: 39.3 percent more Proposed aid: $40.4 million Dollar increase: $11.4 million 1. Lakewood: 63.7 percent more Proposed aid: $38.4 million Dollar increase: $14.9 milion NOTE: Lakewoods increase stems from a proposed rise in transportation and special education aid to help the district serve its large number of private school students. Newark Public Schools would receive nearly $25 million more under Gov. Phil Murphy's proposed education budget. (Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Dollar winners 10. Bayonne: $5.5. million more Proposed aid: $65.5 million Percentage increase: 9.2 percent 9. New Brunswick: $6 million more Proposed aid: $139.2 million Percentage increase: 4.5 percent 8. Woodbridge: $7.4 million more Proposed aid: $41.3 million Percentage increase: 21.8 percent more 7. Trenton: $8.6 million more Proposed aid: $250.8 million Percentage increase: 3.5 percent 6. Plainfield: $8.6 million more Proposed aid: $140.8 million Percentage increase: 6.5 percent 5. Atlantic City: $11.4 million more Proposed aid: $40.4 million Percentage increase: 39.3 percent more 4. Paterson: $13.2 million more Proposed aid: $439.3 million Percentage increase: 3.1 percent 3. Lakewood: $14.9 million more Proposed aid: $38.4 million Percentage increase: 63.7 percent 2. Elizabeth: $15.1 million more Proposed aid: $405.7 million Percentage increase: 3.9 percent 1. Newark: $24.8 million more Proposed aid: $812.4 million Percentage increase: 3.2 percent Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. 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. Four people who have left their mark on Jersey City will be honored with New Jersey City University Leadership Awards, university officials announced. The awards for former Rep. Frank Guarini, arts advocate Meredith Burns, health care leader Joseph Scott and former Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham will be presented at an NJCU Foundation celebration at Liberty House in Jersey City on June 6. The Leadership Awards were created to honor, promote and encourage exemplary efforts by individuals and organizations who have made and continue to make exemplary contributions to Jersey City. Burns, executive director of Art House Productions, will receive the Arts Award. Guarini, the long-time congressman and philanthropist, will receive the Service Award. Scott, executive vice president for health care transformation at RWJBarnabas Health and the former president and CEO of Jersey City Medical Center, will receive the Innovation Award. Cunningham, who was mayor of Jersey City from 2001 to 2004 and who died in office, will receive the Legacy Award. We are thrilled to celebrate our outstanding honorees for their vision, achievements, and continuing commitment to advance their areas of expertise on behalf of Jersey City, NJCU President Sue Henderson said. "The four recipients ... demonstrate the true spirit of professional and personal leadership to our community. With Burns at the helm, Art House Productions, a non-profit organization, has established itself as a pioneer of artistic and cultural programming in Hudson County, continuing to engage, inspire, entertain and educate diverse communities through theatre, dance, comedy and the visual arts. Guarinis career has been distinguished by a lifetime of service as a veteran, congressman and philanthropist. His deep involvement in civic affairs includes ongoing leadership on many boards of charitable, educational and cultural organizations. He has funded the creation of centers and institutes at Dartmouth College, New York University School of Law, St. Peters University, New Jersey City University and John Cabot University in Rome, Italy. Under Scotts leadership, Jersey City Medical Center was transformed and has grown to become one of the regions most recognized health care systems with more than 35 awards and designations for quality services, diversity, patient safety, and community outreach. He has assumed leadership positions with community organizations, including the March of Dimes and the American Heart Association. Cunningham was the first black U.S. marshal for New Jersey and in 2001, Cunningham made history when he was elected the first black mayor of Jersey City. His passion for education led to the creation of the Sandra and Glenn D. Cunningham Foundation, which was founded shortly after he was elected as mayor. BAYONNE In his 40-plus years as city clerk, Robert Sloan has seen 'em come and seen 'em go. As the city celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, Sloan will be marking his own historical milestone: on April 17, hell be the longest serving clerk in the citys history. Weve had 28 mayors, and six municipal clerks in the past 150 years. Two of those clerks were only in office for three years each, he said. So its been a long-term job. Ive been through a few things, he said with a laugh. An historic year for the Peninsula City officially kicked off Saturday to commemorate Bayonnes 150th anniversary. The municipality was incorporated as a town in 1861 and on March 10, 1869, the state Legislature approved the township of Bayonne becoming the city of Bayonne. Public officials and residents joined Mayor Jimmy Davis, who served as master of ceremonies, in the gallery on the second floor of the Bayonne Public Library Saturday where a number of people added items to a time capsule that was sealed for future residents celebrating the 200th anniversary. Sloan added copies of the invitation to Davis and the current council members inaugural meeting as well as the minutes to the meeting. And he also put in his own oath of office from July 25, 1978, the date he was sworn in. "Overall it's been a very positive experience," he said. "I've enjoyed doing it and I think my efforts have been appreciated." A number of other officials who were in attendance added their own contributions, including Councilman at large Juan Perez, Bayonne Fire Chief Keith Weaver, and others. Deputy chief of the police department, Walter Rogers, added a letter written by Chief Robert Geisler to the future citizens of the city, as well as uniform patches and a listing of all current police personnel serving the city. The ceremony featured opening and closing vocal performances by Rich LaLena, the official Town Crier of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities. The Bayonne High School Honors Choir, sang the National Anthem while the Bees Knees of Bayonne High School, an a capella group, sang America the Beautiful and Cant Take My Eyes Off of You. The capsule will be opened in 2069, during the city's 200th anniversary. Two other events celebrating Bayonnes 150th anniversary have also been announced: a city hall ceremony on April 11 to unveil new portraits of mayors and city council presidents; and a food truck festival on May 18. How do you remove 30 tons of garbage and debris from Jersey City streets without it costing the city a dime? You organize hundreds of volunteers to come together on the same day with the notion that every scrap of paper and every empty soda can they pick up will make a difference. Jersey City is putting out the call again to city residents to do more than just complain about the debris in the streets. The fourth annual Great Jersey City CleanUp is scheduled for April 13, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., city officials announced. The cleanup is organized by Keep Jersey City Beautiful (KJCB), the first affiliate of Keep America Beautiful (KAB) in New Jersey. During the event, residents are encouraged to clean parks and streets, while also separating recyclables from non-recyclable items. With John Lynch, chief of administrative services for the city DPW taking the lead this year, the city ramping up its recruiting effort and wants to double the number of volunteers to 2,000. The recruiting effort is being aimed at students, especially those looking to fulfill their schools community service hours requirement, Jersey City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said. Organizations like Big Brothers, Big Sisters and the Boys and Girls Club have committed to participate, Wallace-Scalcione said. Through the KAB leadership, Jersey City has organized other initiatives such as Stop the Drop Anti-Litter Program and the Jersey City Mural Arts Program. Neighborhood groups or block associations will select a perimeter to clean, and on clean-up day, individual volunteers clean a two-to-three block radius, including parks, alleys and main and side streets. Some of the targeted areas for the clean-up are Audubon Park, Lincoln Park, Journal Square Plaza, Pershing Field, Leonard Gordon Park, Riverview Park, Hamilton Park and Arlington Park. For more information, go to volunteer.jerseycitynj.gov or call the Resident Response Center at (201) 547-4900. JERSEY CITY Councilman at large Danny Rivera sprang into action Monday morning to help revive a man who had passed out following a major medical episode during a police promotion ceremony. Eyewitnesses speaking to The Jersey Journal described the dramatic scene, which unfolded moments after the beginning of the event, when the promotions of 16 deputy police chiefs were finalized. City Halls council chambers was filled with top city officials, police officers and their families. The man, seated about three rows from the front, reeled back a bit and then fell onto the floor. One of his family members yelled out for someone to call 911. Rivera, who was seated on the council dais, ran down to help. The two-term councilman, first elected in 2013, spent over 20 years working in autopsy rooms. Rivera, 53, said the victim a father-in-law of one of the new deputy chiefs was unconscious and had no pulse. One eyewitness said the mans hands had turned white. He was on a bad road, Rivera said. The mans daughter, a nurse, gave him chest compressions while Rivera performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. After two full breaths, Rivera said, the man revived. An ambulance took the man to Jersey City Medical Center. The mans family declined to comment, but city spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said they appreciate the swift response. Any time you can help somebody out especially to be there if theyre having an episode or an event, its always good to help out with critical care, Rivera told The Jersey Journal. I believe that if you have the training to do something like that you should definitely do it. Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook. A Bronx man who stole $50,000 in high-end sneakers during a series of heists at a Secaucus warehouse was arrested Sunday afternoon when he was caught in the act, police said. Daqwaun Ralls, 26, faces a slew of burglary, theft, and weapons charges stemming from four different burglaries at the County Road facility dating back to October 2018. Authorities say Ralls stole dozens of rare sneakers during the heists at the warehouse for GOAT, an online marketplace where sneaker aficionados can buy and sell high-end sneakers, which the company independently verifies are authentic. Police said Ralls is a former employee but did not specify when he worked for the company. GOAT, which is based in Los Angeles, did not respond to a message seeking comment. The Secaucus Police Department had responded to the warehouse on Oct. 20, Nov. 19, and Jan. 13 following reported burglaries that resulted in the loss of more than 50 pairs of sneakers worth in excess of $52,000, police Capt. Dennis Miller said. On Sunday, officers were again called to the facility for a reported burglary and found signs of forced entry to the loading dock doors. They later discovered wires for the closed-circuit TV and security systems had been cut, Miller said. After searching the warehouse, officers cornered Ralls in a stairwell and placed him under arrest, Miller said, adding that he was holding a large knife in his hand when police found him. The Secaucus police officers demonstrated an adequate use of restraint in the face of this potentially deadly force situation, Miller said. Numerous pairs of sneakers that police say Ralls intended to be steal were also recovered. Meanwhile, as Secaucus police were investigating the break-in at the warehouse, Special Agent Matthew Weithenauer of the Norfolk Southern Police Department located Ralls vehicle running on County Avenue. The same vehicle was seen on surveillance video footage taken during some of the previous burglaries, Miller said. Miller added that evidence gathered from the previous incidents and blood recovered at the scene Sunday led to Ralls arrest. Ralls, who was additionally charged with criminal mischief and possession of burglars tools, was taken to Hudson County jail in Kearny. McDermott had prompted the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission to create the task force last year. He said delays caused by trains blocking Hammond crossings had increased since the Indiana Supreme Court threw out a state law that allowed cities to issue fines to railroads for doing that. The political appointee who oversees the Essex Countys troubled detention program for unauthorized immigrants has been getting a significant boost in pay each year, atop his six-figure salary, for managing the countys lucrative contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Records show Philip Alagia, the top aide to Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, is currently being paid an additional $45,900 a year to keep tabs on the troubled detention program, which has come under scathing criticism by federal inspectors. And those bonus payments have increased substantially over the past five years. DiVincenzo announced the creation of the additional position of County Director of ICE Programs in 2011, naming Alagia to the job and adding $30,000 to his then-$108,645 salary. Last year, Alagias total annual salary including the nearly $46,000 adjustment in connection with the ICE detention contract came to $163,599, according to documents released by the county under a public records request. A spokesman for DiVincenzo said that before he was assigned to oversee the ICE program, Alagia was spending much of his time working on issues related to the Essex County Correctional Facility and Essex County Juvenile Detention Facility. The contract with ICE was a new experience for Essex County and additional oversight by the chief of staff was deemed necessary to get the program started. In addition, it was important to have a member of the county executives staff to cultivate a good working relationship with the federal government and interact with ICE on an executive level, said spokesman Anthony Puglisi. In an interview, Alagia, 51, said he is at the jail often, describing his role as a liaison between county government and the correctional facility, and with ICE. The public records released by the county said he spends more than a quarter of his time each day supervising the ICE program for Essex, which has a long-term contract to house up to 800 detainees a day at the county jail in Newark. If there is something that needs to happen, they reach out to me, he said. I supervise the program. The Essex County Correctional Facility on Doremus Avenue in Newark. (File photo)SL That program, meanwhile, has been blasted by the Department of Homeland Securitys inspector general. In a report last month, the department which has oversight over ICE called for an immediate and full review of the Essex County Correctional Facility and the Essex County Department of Corrections management of the facility. The findings came after a surprise inspection last year that discovered substandard conditions representing significant health and safety risks for the hundreds of detainees being held there. Most of those being held for ICE by the jail are awaiting deportation hearings, or applying for asylum. The inspector generals report revealed serious security incidents that were never reported by the county, including a detainees discovery and reporting of a guards loaded handgun left in a facility staff bathroom that the detainee was cleaning. The county was also cited for dozens of food safety violations which led to potentially contaminated food being served to detainees, including mishandling of raw, spoiled, or expired meats and storage of moldy bread, open packages of raw chicken leaking blood all over refrigeration units, and slimy, foul-smelling lunch meat. According to the report, the countys food handling was so substandard that ICE and the detention facility had the kitchen manager replaced during the federal inspection. Faced with violations of federal detention standards that inspectors said to represent significant threats to detainee health and safety, the county now faces financial penalties that could result in fines of up to 5 percent of what Essex bills ICE to detain thousands of immigrants at the jail each year. The Essex County Correctional Facility is held accountable, through various contract oversight measures, for full compliance with the terms of their Intergovernmental Service Agreement, said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in a statement. A penalty of 5 percent of the countys monthly bills to ICE would be no insignificant sum of money. According to invoice records released by the county, Essex County charged ICE more than $30 million to house immigrant detainees last year through November the latest figures that were available. An additional $642,471 was billed in 2018 to transport detainees within the facility, to medical facilities outside the jail, and to immigration court in Newark. All that money goes into the countys general fund, according to Alagia. The county official added that the issues raised by the Department of Homeland Security were fixed immediately. At the same time, he defended the countys agreement with ICE, which has been under increasing attack by a number of immigrant advocacy groups. I think we provide a service for ICE and those detainees. If they werent detained here, they would be detained far away from their families and lawyers, Alagia said. Essex is one of three counties In New Jersey that hold immigration detainees under contract with ICE. The others are Bergen and Hudson counties. A private detention facility in Elizabeth also holds immigration detainees. Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. 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 180 people aboard a United Airlines flight from Newark on Sunday night had a harrowing few minutes when one of the planes engines caught fire just before the plane landed safely in Houston. No one was injured when the Boeing 737-900 touched down at George Bush Intercontinental Airport around 10:30 p.m., local time. Passengers told ABC13 in Houston they heard a loud bang and saw a flash of light. After the plane landed, the passengers were told to evacuate via emergency slides. United flight 1168 from Newark, New Jersey to Houston experienced an issue with one of the engines shortly before landing," United said in a statement emailed to NJ Advance Media. "After landing safely, customers were evacuated from the aircraft and were bussed to the terminal. Local authorities responded immediately and our maintenance team is currently inspecting the aircraft. The flight, which had 174 passengers and six crew members, took off from Newark at 7:27 p.m. When the plane catches fire while landing so you evacuate on the tarmac pic.twitter.com/V4Zmbl3PA4 Philip Twain Morrow (@PhilipTwain) March 11, 2019 Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. To sum up five hours of absolutely brutal testimony before the New Jersey Senate, some of which will be repeated today for the Assembly: Its easy to rape a child and get away with it. We heard this from four sisters abused as girls by the same priest, and two of the Olympic gymnasts assaulted by team doctor Larry Nassar. We heard it from burly men and grandparents, who cried as they relived their childhood terror. The problem is, child victims are put on a clock. By law, they have only two years to file a civil suit, from the time they first realize that the abuse damaged them. When a person sexually assaulted at age 7 finally figures this out, and grapples with the trauma, it can be too late. The predator goes unpunished, and so do his enablers. And without the discovery phase of a civil lawsuit, forcing testimony from church officials, for instance, we may never know why an abuser was moved from parish to parish. Patty Fortney-Julius, one of the sisters sexually abused for nearly 10 years by a transferred priest, will wonder for the rest of her life: Did the Newark Diocese knowingly move our pedophile monster priest to our front door? In effect, our state law is safeguarding these secrets. That must end. A reform pushed doggedly for 17 years by Sen. Joe Vitale (D-Middlesex) would vastly expand the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse in civil cases. It also puts more responsibility on the institutions that protect predators, whether its the Catholic Church or the Boy Scouts. His bill doesnt address the legitimacy of the claim, of course, just the right to get a fair hearing in a court of law. If theres no good evidence, its the job of the courts to reject the claim. But at the very least, we owe these victims the right to make their cases. Thats why this legislation, passed out of Senate committee last week, should finally get the majority support it deserves, and be signed by the governor. On average, survivors dont come forward to tell their stories until age 52. One man who testified was 71. Another, Todd Kostrub, told his story to State Police 20 years ago and along with a photo of himself as a 7-year-old, he waved the investigative report in which he says other boys also came forward, and the clergyman admitted what he had done. But the Burlington County Prosecutors Office had said it was too late. And now he has no recourse, no matter how compelling the evidence. I have my proof, Kostrub said. I have never tasted justice my entire life. Everything in my life has been tainted by this. The Catholic Church, whose influence reaches high into government, doesnt want this bill to allow retrospective lawsuits against institutions themselves. Its worried about the legal exposure. But given the Pennsylvania grand jury report detailing some of its worst coverups, how can we bury this in the past? The list of abusive priests it released in New Jersey didnt say why they were repeatedly transferred, or how many victims they preyed upon. And its new victims compensation fund doesnt force such details to become public, as a civil lawsuit would. Thats not enough, because it lets the enablers keep their secrets. The institution was a co-conspirator, as Vitale says. Why shouldnt they be held accountable? The same goes for a school district, or a boy scout troop. Why wouldnt we want to know, if they are responsible for shielding a predator? For the victims like Kostrub, and for the public, it should never be too late. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. A smattering of disgruntled districts brought busloads of protestors to stand outside the Statehouse on Tuesday, while Gov. Phil Murphy gave his budget address. Save our schools, they shouted. But lest the hard truth be drowned out by the noise: Murphys the good guy here. What his proposed budget actually includes is more money for schools. It was a substantial increase of more than $206 million, after funding was frozen for years under former Gov. Chris Christie. This is great news. And its not just more money. Its a fairer distribution of that money. Murphy is keeping faith with his agreement with Senate President Steve Sweeney, by returning some equity to this process. His 2020 budget is step two of a gradual ramp-up to full school funding by about 2025, and of course, there will be tussling over individual districts. Some, like Brick, will see cuts. But most will be cheering. And all know why these changes had to be made. For years, state funding was wildly unfair. Murphy is putting us back on the path to the reasonable formula approved by the Supreme Court in 2008, one that had bipartisan support in the Legislature. It accounts for factors like property tax wealth, enrollment and the number of needy, more-expensive-to-educate students. Over a decade, political meddling distorted that sensible formula. For the political winners, it meant that even as their enrollment dropped by the thousands, like Brick, or their local property tax revenue exploded, like booming Jersey City, their state funding hardly changed. That was deeply unfair. Meanwhile, other districts with huge enrollment growth, like Woodbridge, got no corresponding bump in state funding. They were the political losers. Now Murphy is working to fix that rigged game. We recognize that its tough for districts facing redistribution cuts to catch up, by phasing in more local property taxes. But the solution is not to retain the unfair status quo. Its to find ways to chip in more of their own tax dollars. Murphys made a significant contribution toward school aid every year. Last year was a major jumpstart, and it continues to be a priority. And on redistribution, he made right call, one that was hard but fair. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. Back on Jan. 2, we opined that the campaign for West New York Town Hall was already getting ugly and we expressed a hope that the mud would be kept to a minimum in the runup to the May 14 election. That was not to be. In the last three weeks, weve seen Mayor Felix Roque file ethics complaints against his own town attorney and then a 25-page lawsuit against the attorney and three commissioners, accusing them of flouting the law in a power grab. Both Roque and the opposing side also invoked a tragedy to score points. And those were the niceties. On the even nastier side, public meetings have become profanity-laced shouting matches and commissioners heckle Roque at news conferences, Journal reporter Terrence T. McDonald wrote last week. Is it any wonder voters get disgusted and stay away from the polls? Theres still time to change course, though, and start a civil discourse on the issues. It could start at noon today when the mayor has scheduled a press conference at Town Hall. He could stick to his promised discussion of important issues instead of making personal attacks and the opposition could either stay away or refrain from heckling. Roque and his four fellow commissioners ran together four years ago. Today, the five-member commission has bitterly split. How bitter? Videos of commission meetings found on Hudson County View demonstrate the nasty unraveling and are embarrassing for all involved. Roque is running for re-election under the Continue the Progress banner along with Commissioner Susan Colacurcio, Board of Education trustee Maite Fernandez, political newcomer Ana Luna and unsuccessful ed board candidate Richard Acosta. The other three commissioners -- Gabriel Rodriguez, Cosmo A. Cirillo and Margarita A. Guzman are running on an opposition slate, New Beginnings, with newcomers Victor M. Barrera and Yoleisy Yanez. In the commission form of government, voters elect five commissioners who then vote among themselves to select a mayor. So far, just the two slates have thrown their hats in the ring for the non-partisan race. Potential candidates have until today to file petitions to run. Its time for the candidates to stop the childish attacks and prove to voters why they should be trusted with the very real job of running a local government. Submit letters to the editor and guest columns to jjletters@jjournal.com. Six officials from the Paterson public schools are heading to Puerto Rico this week seeking Spanish-speaking teachers willing to move to New Jersey and take a job in the states third-largest city. It is a follow-up to last winters recruitment trip to Puerto Rico that resulted in the hiring of six teachers that remain on the job in Paterson, school district spokesman Paul Brubaker said. The delegation from Paterson is flying to Puerto Rico on Monday and returning Friday. Starting Tuesday, they will be visiting four university campuses in three days in a bid to fill around a dozen teaching vacancies in bilingual, English as a second language (ESL) and world language classes. Moreover, the district is seeking to fill up to 10 Spanish-speaking teacher positions in the upcoming newcomers program launching this fall at Eastside High School. A recruitment poster from the Paterson school district shows upcoming events in Puerto Rico While New Jersey has reported a shortage of bilingual educators since 2004, according to the state education department, the need is especially pressing in Paterson. More than 61 percent of the citys 148,000 residents are Hispanic, according to U.S. Census figures. Of the 4,885 students enrolled in English Learner Language (ELL) classes in Paterson, a total of 4,167 speak Spanish, Brubaker said. Of the rest, 332 speak Bengali, 279 speak Arabic and 7 speak other languages. Paterson is not alone in seeking teaching recruits from Puerto Rico, which in recent years has attracted recruiters from across the nation. In 2013, the Perth Amboy school board approved a four-day, $5,808 trip after traditional methods, such as job fairs and advertising, failed to draw enough bilingual math and science teachers. David Fuentes, an associate professor at William Paterson University whose academic specialties include teacher workforce diversity, said the need for bilingual educators in New Jersey is trending upward. Theres been a shortage in that area for a very long time, arguably since the inception of bilingual education. We know that, in the next 10 years, we expect that to continue, Fuentes said. Patersons school board approved the trip to Puerto Rico, totaling $13,700, on Jan. 22. The school district is sending deputy superintendent Susana Peron, assistant superintendent Sandra Diodonet and bilingual/ESL/world languages director Lourdes Garcia, as well as human resources employees Karen Dever, Susette Chavez and Licerda Munoz. Brubaker said the district has taken a multi-pronged approach at recruiting over the years, including job postings and providing a bilingual and ESL endorsement program for teachers. Currently, the district has 87 bilingual teachers, 41 bilingual/ESL teachers and 48 world language teachers, he said. The average starting salary of Paterson is $52,865. Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@RobJenningsNJ. 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 UPDATE: Prosecutors turn over their files to the ex-Murphy staffer accused of rape. Alleged victim files angry protest. Attorneys for Albert J. Alvarez, the former Gov. Phil Murphy administration staffer forced to resign amid rape allegations, have gone to court seeking not only the criminal investigative files in connection with the charges, but also any surveillance recordings that might exist from the night of the alleged incident. A judge issued an order to show cause on Friday requiring the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office to release its case files to Alvarez. The request was not expected to derail Alvarezs appearance before a special legislative committee Tuesday, committee officials said on Sunday, following their subpoena to him last week to answer questions about how he got his job with the administration. Attorney Stacy Ann Biancamano in her filing late Friday said Alvarez was entitled to see the investigative files collected by prosecutors before being compelled to provide testimony to the legislative committee. But the panel has already agreed not to ask him about the rape allegations during his appearance. Biancamano did not respond on Sunday to requests for comment. Christopher Kuberiet, the first assistant prosecutor for Middlesex County, said in a letter to the court that it should not order the release of any documents obtained through the grand jury process, which would remain confidential, nor any confidential medical records. However, he did not object to the overall request for files. The civil complaint seeking the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office files was first reported by New Jersey Globe. Alvarez, who was a member of Murphys campaign staff, was forced to leave his high-paying political post at the New Jersey School Development Authority in October. His resignation came in the wake of allegations by Katie Brennan who later became chief of staff to the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency that she was raped by him in her apartment after a gathering of campaign workers at a bar in Jersey City in April 2017, in the months prior to the election. Alvarez has denied the allegations, saying the incident was consensual. In separate investigations, both the Middlesex County and Hudson County prosecutors offices declined to charge him with a crime. Albert J. Alvarez (File Photo) Alvarez is scheduled to appear Tuesday morning in Trenton before the Legislative Select Oversight Committee looking into the hiring practices of the Murphy administration, in the wake of the charges made by Brennan. State Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen the co-chair of the committee, said his attorneys agreed to allow his testimony regarding issues related only about hiring policies including who hired him. Questions about the criminal investigation will be off-limits, she said. In the civil complaint, Alvarezs lawyer said his guilt has become a foregone conclusion and the truth has become inconsequential. In making the request to the prosecutors office for its files, Biancamano made clear she was focusing on questioning the validity of the allegations that were made. The origin of the committee is undoubtedly rooted in the predetermined conclusion that Mr. Alvarez committed the alleged sexual assault on Ms. Brennan. As demonstrated throughout the hearings, the committee has readily assumed that Mr. Alvarez is guilty of the accusations, praising the credibility of Ms. Brennan and vilifying the decision by not one, but two county prosecutors not to file charges against Mr. Alvarez, Biancamano wrote. Mr. Alvarezs ability to defend himself is severely hampered by the fact that neither he nor the committee have reviewed the files of the HCPO (the Hudson County Prosecutors Office) and the MCPO (the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office). In fact, she said her office In anticipation of his testimony sent a letter to the prosecutors office on Feb. 20, requesting access to investigative files. A spokeswoman for the prosecutors office could not be reached on Sunday, but in a letter filed with the court earlier this month, investigators said the office was not in the possession of any video surveillance recordings from the night of the alleged incident. Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Prosecutors say they have handed over their investigative files to attorneys for the former Gov. Phil Murphy administration official who had been accused of rape by another administration staffer. At the same time, the alleged victim in the case lodged a protest with the court. The moves came after a judge issued an order to show cause seeking the release of the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office case file to Albert J. Alvarez, who was forced to resign in October. The resignation came after Katie Brennan, also with the administration, made public her accusations that Alvarez had raped her after a gathering of campaign workers at a Jersey City bar in 2017. The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office received written requests for our file from both Brennans and Alvarezs attorneys, said spokeswoman Andrea Boulton. The Prosecutor's Office informed both attorneys that we would turn over our file if a judge issued a valid order. After state Superior Court Judge Alberto Rivas signed an order to show cause to release the files, Boulton said the office turned over the appropriate portions of the Middlesex County and Hudson County Prosecutors Offices files to Alvarez. Brennans attorneys had the same option but have not obtained a court order. If they do so, we will then turn over our file to them as well, Boulton said. Alvarezs attorneys had sought the files, including any surveillance recordings that might exist from inside the bar, before his scheduled testimony on Tuesday before a state legislative committee that is investigating the hiring practices of the Murphy administration. But attorneys for Brennan immediately filed new legal papers posted to the court website on Monday morning, strongly objecting to the unfettered release of information about Brennan, including confidential health records. Clearly, Mr. Alvarez has sought the MCPO (Middlesex County Prosecutors Office) file in order to publicize it during his March 12, 2019, committee testimony and to smear Ms. Brennan, wrote Kathryn McClure, who represents Brennan. She said the legislative committee that subpoenaed Alvarez has agreed not to ask him questions about Brennans allegations. The committee does not seek to question him about the underlying criminal complaint, McClure wrote to the court, calling the emergent filing for the records by Alvarezs attorneys disingenuous at best. At the same time, McClure said her office only learned of the Alvarez application through press and media reports, and called for a protective order to protect any public dissemination of any private or privileged information that may be included in the file. The case had initially been investigated by Hudson County after Brennan reported the alleged incident, and then re-examined by Middlesex County at the direction of the state attorney general. Both offices declined to charge Alvarez with a crime. He has denied the allegations, saying any incident was consensual. Alvarez played a major role in the campaign as outreach director for Muslim and Latino communities, and was later hired to a state position after Murphy was elected, and made chief of staff of the New Jersey Schools Development Authority a job that he left when Brennan went to the Wall Street Journal to tell her story. The request for the investigative files from Middlesex County came after attorneys for Alvarez went to court, arguing that he was entitled to see them before being compelled to provide testimony before the Legislative Select Oversight Committee, which had subpoenaed him. The New Jersey Legislative Select Oversight Committee, which is scheduled to hear from Albert J. Alvarez on Tuesday, after he was subpoenaed as part of the committee's investigation into the administration's hiring practices.NJ Advance Media for NJ.com In her civil complaint filed on Friday, attorney Stacy Ann Biancamano of Cranford said Alvarezs guilt has become a foregone conclusion and the truth has become inconsequential, questioning the validity of Brennans allegations. Biancamano did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. 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. TAMPA, Fla. After homering in his first two games with the Yankees, shortstop Troy Tulowitzki has hit a serious rough patch, looking the part of a 34-year-old who hadnt played since 2017 at the plate, anyway. In his last four games, Tulowitzki is 0-for-11 with eight strikeouts. Still, manager Aaron Boone explained why hes thinking there are still big things to come for Tulowitzki, whom the Yankees expect to be their Opening Day shortstop. Get tickets to see the 2019 Yankees: StubHub, SeatGeek, PrimeSport, Ticketmaster Thats a result of you miss a year and a half, and you face some big-time velocity, Boone said after a 6-5 win over the Pirates at George M. Steinbrenner Field on Sunday. Hell get there. Im convinced of that. Boone said he believes Tulowitzkis timing if off. Thats what it is, the manager said. Its finding that timing again. Theres been an upside to the veterans struggles, Boone said. The one thing I like is that hes not just going up there rushin and touchin, said Boone, referring to a struggling player desperate to make contact. Just trying to find his timing, get himself on time. I feel like the last few days, hes had some good swings on balance. Hes fouled some pitches back. But thats a timing thing that eventually I feel like hell start to get results there. But he just needs reps. Tulowitzki didnt play in 2018 thanks to surgeries to remove bone spurs on each of his heels. The spurs, the Yankees believe, have hampered him since about 2016 and have been at the root of several of his other injuries. Toronto cut Tulowitzki, eating the $38 million hes owed the next two seasons. The Yankees are paying him the major-league minimum. They signed Tulowitzki after watching him at a pair of workouts, one of them private. Tulowitzki is hitting .176 with two homers, one double, a walk and five RBI in 17 at-bats this spring. Hes expects to share some time at the position with second baseman Gleyber Torres, who finished third in the American League All-Star vote last year, until regular shortstop Didi Gregorius (Tommy John surgery) returns sometime this summer. Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook. And, on cue, here they come. Democrats, after winning last year with vows to lower health-care costs, rebuild infrastructure and clean up corruption, are now being pulled toward costly and divisive plans for government-run health care, a Green New Deal and reparations for African-Americans. Some are agitating for impeachment even before special counsel Robert Mueller releases his report. And House Democrats just engaged in an ugly internal squabble over anti-Semitism. A study to determine which homes in Southwest Coastal Louisiana will qualify for voluntary relocation or elevation recently received funding after much back-and-forth between parish officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. While financing for the study only accounts for a small chunk of the overall project, it represents the first time a non-structural project within the states coastal master plan has been given funding, said Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana Board Chairman Chip Kline. Flood proofing businesses, home elevations and voluntary home acquisitions are all considered non-structural measures. The most recent version of the 50-year plan estimates 26,569 homes and businesses across Louisiana will be eligible for help, at a cost of more than $6 billion. But finding money for non-structural projects has proven difficult, Kline said. Many of the pots of money the state uses to pay for coastal projects have restrictions that only allow the money to be used for building levees or restoring coastal marsh. We would have to really look into those current funding streams to reallocate them for non-structural, he said. So making a push with the feds and even within the state legislature to earmark or to allocate more for the non-structure has got to be a priority for us the next several years. Several advocacy groups have pointed out that non-structural projects are a quick and cost-effective way to reduce flood risk. Yet, progress on those projects has been slow. Non-structural projects will be more of a priority moving forward, Kline said. It cant just be about hard structures and building land, he said. Weve got to turn our attention to more of the resiliency aspects of the master plan. The Southwest Coastal Louisiana project is aimed to reduce hurricane and storm surge damage risk in Calcasieu, Cameron and Vermilion Parishes. A feasibility study for the $900 million project began in 2009. The project was authorized by Congress in 2016. A design agreement signed in January allocated $1.2 million to find which homes and businesses are eligible for funding, according to a news release. Funding for the study was provided through a 65-percent federal, 35-percent state cost share. Getting to the study phase was a tedious process, said Laurie Cormier, a member of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority board and Assistant Planner and Coastal Zone Manager for the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury. In the middle of scoping the project, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers changed its process. As a result of the slow down, more funding was necessary. We just trudged through and made it happen, Cormier said. Parish and state officials pushed for the non-structural measures to be done on a voluntary basis because not all business owners and home owners want to flood proof or elevate, Kline said. Thats unfortunate because we cant do everything for everybody across coastal Louisiana, he said. You do have some willing residents and industry and business owners who want to elevate and if they want to, then we should be able to give them opportunity. Two young children drowned and one was rescued in Mississippi, after their mother left them in an SUV that rolled into a creek, the Mississippi Clarion Ledger reported. The mother, Jenea Monique Payne, 25, told police in Leland, Mississippi, that she left her children ages 4, 2 and 1 - in the vehicle while she went into Stop-N-Shop Saturday afternoon (March 9). When Payne came out of the store, she realized that the vehicle had rolled into a creek across the street from the store, the newspaper reported. Payne said her two sons, Steve Smith, 4, and Rasheed Johnson Jr., 1, and her daughter, Raelynn Johnson, 2, were locked inside the vehicle. Paynes daughter was the only child who survived, according to the Clarion Ledger. At around 5:45 p.m. Saturday, police and firefighters were called to the scene and found the Nissan Pathfinder floating in Deer Creek. Rescuers jumped into the water, broke the vehicles windows and were able to pull Raelynn out, the newspaper reported. The vehicle drifted down the stream before the other two children could be rescued. Read the entire Mississippi Clarion Ledger story here. A public school district in Utah has issued an apology after a fourth-grade student was forced to remove ashes from his forehead on Ash Wednesday, the Catholic News Agency reported. William McLeod, a student at Valley View Elementary School in Bountiful, Utah, came to school Wednesday (March 6) with a cross formed in ashes on his forehead, a custom for Catholics at the beginning of the Lenten season, the news agency reported. His teacher forced him to remove the ashes with a sanitizing wipe. The school released a statement of apology, saying that the matter is being taken very seriously, the news agency reported. The teacher has been placed on administrative leave, and additional disciplinary action is being considered. Jean Hill, government liaison for the Diocese of Salt Lake City, told the Associated Press that mistakes occur, and that the event was a positive opportunity for interreligious dialogue. Catholics are a minority in the predominantly Mormon state of Utah. Read the entire Catholic News Agency story here. A jaguar attacked a woman who reportedly crossed over a barrier while trying to take a photo Saturday (March 9) at an Arizona zoo, according to reports by Arizona Central. Fire crews responded to a report of a lady attacked by a jaguar around 6:40 p.m. at the Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium and Safari Park in Litchfield Park. The woman suffered a laceration to the hand. The jaguar did not escape its enclosure at any time during the attack. The zoo confirmed the jaguar would not be euthanized after word of the attack spread throughout the internet. Read the full report at Arizona Central. In 2009, federal prosecutors recommended that U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III stick to federal sentencing guidelines and give William Jefferson, who had represented Louisianas 2nd Congressional District, between 27 and 33 years in prison. When Ellis sentenced Jefferson for 11 charges, including soliciting bribes, depriving citizens of honest service, money laundering and using his office as a racketeering enterprise, he departed from those guidelines and gave Jefferson less than half the recommended minimum. Even so, the 13 years Ellis gave Jefferson still stood out as the longest sentence ever handed to a member or former member of Congress for crimes committed while in office. Federal guidelines called for Paul Manafort, President Donald Trumps former campaign manager, to serve 19-24 years for bank and tax fraud, and Ellis sentenced Manafort to 47 months, nine of which hes already served. Theres quite a difference between 47 months and 13 years. And quite a difference in how far from the guidelines Ellis departed. He gave Jefferson, then 62, about half the recommended minimum and Manafort, 70, a fifth of it. One could say, Hey, he gave both men a break. The problem with that argument is that no objective observer of Jeffersons trial thought his sentence was short. Who believes Manaforts is? Ellis himself said, Reasonable people may disagree with the amount of time he gave Manafort, which is an indication that the judge was aware even as he was handing down his sentence that it would be derided as unacceptably lenient. Ellis has been on the federal bench since 1987, and while it might seem unfair to pick two cases to compare in a 31-year career, the fact is that New Orleanians are going to remember Ellis because of the long sentence he gave Jefferson and are certain to use that 2009 case as a point of reference when hearing about Manaforts sentence. And theyre going to wonder if Jefferson being a black Democrat and Manafort being a white man who worked on the presidential campaigns of Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole and Trump made a difference to the Reagan-appointed judge. After Jefferson was incarcerated, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that made it more difficult to convict public officials of bribery. That caused Ellis to throw out seven of Jeffersons convictions. The government dismissed another one, and Jefferson was ordered released after five years in prison. According to prosecutors, some of Jeffersons ill-gotten money was used to send his daughters to the nations top schools. Manafort, prosecutors say, amassed a $1-million wardrobe including a $15,000 ostrich-skin jacket. Ellis ordered Manafort to pay at least $6 million in restitution, the amount of taxes he withheld from the U.S. government. But Ellis gave the government permission to seek up to four times that amount from Manafort, meaning that he could be on the hook for $24 million. Jefferson was made to forfeit $470,653.47 his jury determined was funneled to shell companies under his familys control through his bribery schemes. The person ordered to pay back at least 13 times more money gets a prison sentence thats 30 percent as long. Does that seem right to you? Department of Justice guidelines call for public officials to be sentenced more harshly than others for corruption and elected public officials more harshly still. Thats reasonable. And some might say that that accounts for some of the difference between the two sentences. But Ellis cant hide behind that excuse because when he sentenced Manafort, he made it plain that the sentencing guidelines are not binding. "Let me be clear, he said. The guidelines would suggest sentencing is a calculation. It is not. It is a judgment. And Ellis judgment seems to be clouded by more concern for Manafort than Jefferson. But for his convictions on eight federal charges, Ellis said Manafort had lived an otherwise blameless life. Isnt Ellis aware that Manafort is also due to be sentenced in a separate federal case Wednesday? A case in which he pleaded guilty, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and then breached that plea deal by repeatedly lying to them. Thats not to argue that Ellis should have given thought to Manaforts other case and another federal judges determination that he lied to prosecutors, but because he decided to take a panoramic view of Manaforts life, he should at least have acknowledged whats plainly visible. Ellis cant even claim that he was moved by Manaforts contrition. Yes, he asked for compassion, but Ellis said from the bench, I was surprised that I did not hear you express regret. That doesnt make any difference on the judgment that I am about to make but I hope you reflect on that. Telling a guilty party to think about what he did is what parents say when theyre grounding a child. Its not what one expects to hear said to a defendant whose crimes were described by prosecutors as "serious, longstanding, and bold." In a sentencing memo, government attorneys said that "the government has not located a comparable case with the unique array of crimes and aggravating factors." There must be some kind of greed virus that attacks those in power, Ellis said when he was sentencing Jefferson. Back then Ellis believed such greed warranted great punishment. But this time? Not so much. Jarvis DeBerry 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 Jarvis at jdeberry@nola.com or @jarvisdeberry. Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, declined Sunday (March 10) to second-guess federal Judge T.S. Ellis slap-on-the-wrist sentencing last week of President Donald Trumps one-time campaign chairman Paul Manafort in a decade-long, multimillion-dollar fraud scheme. Although sentencing guidelines called for a prison term of 19 to 24 years, Ellis gave Manafort only 47 months, raising questions about disparities for the punishment of white-collar crimes and what it meant for Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Kennedy, who is known for offering instant analysis on just about any topic placed before him, told Face the Nation interviewer Margaret Brennan that his initial reaction was that the sentence seemed too light, but that he was not prepared to criticize Ellis. "Number one, I was surprised at his sentence, I thought it would be longer," he said on the CBS News show. "Number two, as I said in the past, Mr. Manafort is a grifter. He used to be a partner with Roger Stone. He's ... I'm sorry Margaret. ... He's just a sleazoid. I mean he's always played at the margins. "Number three, you know rather than just be opinionated, I'd rather be informed. Judge Ellis has been on the bench 30 years, I haven't read the sentencing memos. ... There's a lot of stuff in there that you and I don't see." Cantrells lack of transparency still a chief concern Ellis called the sentencing guidelines vindictive and way out of whack for Manafort, who is 69. Hes lived an otherwise blameless life, Ellis said. And hes also earned the admiration of a number of people. President Trump, presumably one of those admirers, said Friday morning that he felt very badly for Manafort who is facing "a very, very tough time. Asked about a possible pardon, Trump said that only the media have brought up the subject. I dont even discuss it, the president said. Some legal experts say that with credit for the nine months he has already spent in jail and a break included in a sentencing law just approved by Congress, Manafort could be out in as little as 22 months. Manafort was found guilty by a federal jury last August on two counts of bank fraud, five counts of tax fraud and one count of failing to declare a foreign bank account. The jury did not reach a unanimous decision on 10 other charges. The government said Manafort's misconduct involved more than $16 million in unreported income, more than $55 million hidden in foreign bank accounts and more than $25 million secured through lies to banks. "Manafort did not commit these crimes out of necessity or hardship," Mueller's office said. "He was well-educated, professionally successful, and financially well off. He nonetheless cheated the United States Treasury and the public out of more than $6 million in taxes at a time when he had substantial resources." Ellis showed his dislike for special counsels throughout the trial and legal proceedings. He said Mueller's office had the authority to prosecute Manafort, but that doesnt mean that I decided the wisdom or appropriateness of delegating to special prosecutors broad powers. The defense played to the judges sentiments, insisting that Manafort has been pursued for relatively mundane crimes only because of his importance to the special counsels inquiry into the 2016 presidential election. In response to a separate question about former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who helped set the special counsel investigation into motion, Kennedy said he does support the Mueller probe even though he has issues with how McCabe and others at the FBI have handled the case as well as allegations about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. We dont want the Falcons to eat our lunch on this "I do support the Mueller probe," Kennedy told Brennan, "but that doesn't preclude Mr. McCabe from being what he is, a bent two-by-four. And he hurt the FBI badly and all the people over there who tried to help Clinton or who tried to help Trump, every one of them should have his head in the bag." In the event that the Judiciary Committee calls McCabe to testify, Kennedys questioning will no doubt be informed and opinionated. Sounds like must-see TV. 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. If youre a victim of a tornado in Alabama and you have an FHA mortgage, you likely qualify for foreclosure relief. On March 7, 2019, HUD announced that it is providing foreclosure relief for the victims of the recent deadly tornadoes in Alabama. If you live in an eligible area and are behind in your mortgage payments, you can get a 90-day foreclosure moratorium (postponement) and possibly qualify for other relief. (To learn about disaster relief for homeowners in general, see Help for Homeowners Facing Foreclosure After a Natural Disaster.) Help for Homeowners with Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Loans Victims of the tornadoes that happened in Alabama on March 3, 2019, who have an FHA-insured loan, and meet certain criteria, are entitled to a foreclosure moratoriumwhich means a foreclosure can't start or proceed. You might also qualify for a loss mitigation option, like a forbearance or loan modification. 90-Day Foreclosure Moratorium Generally, if you fail to make your mortgage payments, the loan owner may foreclose. In some cases, though, a foreclosure moratorium will prevent this from happeningat least temporarily. HUD is offering an automatic 90-day moratorium on foreclosures of FHA-insured home mortgages in the counties covered listed in this Presidential declaration, specifically Lee County, starting on the day of the declaration (May 5). Other Relief HUD is also makings mortgage insurance available to those disaster victims whose homes were destroyed or damaged beyond repair. In addition, HUD's Section 203(k) loan program enables those who've lost their homes to get a single mortgage to finance the purchase or refinance a house along with its repair. Homeowners who have damaged houses can also finance the rehabilitation of their existing single-family home. To learn more, read HUD's press release. General Foreclosure Relief for Borrowers With FHA Loans Under HUD policy, the servicer must review a borrower who has an FHA-insured loan and is behind in paymentsor about to fall behindfor a foreclosure alternative. (Read about the foreclosure of FHA loans.) The servicer generally, subject to a few exceptions, has to evaluate the borrower using a process called a "waterfall" to determine which, if any, of the below options are appropriate. Under the waterfall, a borrower might qualify for a: (For general information about different loan workout options for borrowers with FHA loans, read Help for Homeowners With FHA Loans. For specific information about your particular situation, call your loan servicer.) Getting Help If you need help dealing with your loan servicer, want more information about different ways to avoid foreclosure, or are seeking information about foreclosure relief after a natural disaster, make an appointment to talk to a HUD-approved housing counselor. HUD-approved counselors can provide you with information and advice at no charge. Effective date: March 5, 2019 Early adopters can keen to get their hands on the Android Q beta will have a wider range of devices from which to choose this time around. Android developer Illiyan Malhev has revealed the even more OEMs will be on board for the Android Q beta testing program expected to launch at Googles I/O 2019 developer conference in May. 4 Reviews , News , CPU , GPU , Articles , Columns , Other "or" search relation. 3D Printing , 5G , Accessory , AI , 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 , E-Mobility , Education , Exclusive , Fail , Foldable , Gadget , Galaxy Note , Galaxy S , Gamecheck , Gaming , Geforce , Google Pixel , GPU , How To , Human 2.0 , 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 , Single-Board Computer (SBC) , 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 Googles Project Treble helped ensure that the Android 9 Pie beta program had several OEMs on board for the preview to help with the final development phase of the operating system. In the past, this was limited to Googles own Pixel hardware. The good news for those interested in getting their hands on Android Q as soon as possible is that Google will add even more OEMs this time around. Speaking on the Android Developers Backstage podcast, Android developer Illiyan Malchev revealed that there will be even more OEMs on board for the final development and testing phase of Googles next version of Android. Although not revealing names, it is safe to bet that OEMs participating this time around will include those involved last year including Sony, Nokia, OnePlus, LG, HTC, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi. Will any luck, this could mean Samsung and Huawei will join the fold. This would mean devices like the just launched Galaxy S10 could get a much earlier look at Googles latest and greatest than is otherwise usually the case. This could also help the process of pushing out the finished version of Android Q to users faster than in the past. Manufacturers who participated in the Android 9 Pie beta have generally been better at pushing upgrades to devices launched with Android 8 Oreo. Microsoft has recommended that Windows 10 users suffering from problems with graphics or mouse performance degradation in certain games should uninstall the latest update for the ubiquitous operating system. KB4482887 was rolled out for quality improvements but has ironically affected quality in a number of crucial areas. 4 Reviews , News , CPU , GPU , Articles , Columns , Other "or" search relation. 3D Printing , 5G , Accessory , AI , 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 , E-Mobility , Education , Exclusive , Fail , Foldable , Gadget , Galaxy Note , Galaxy S , Gamecheck , Gaming , Geforce , Google Pixel , GPU , How To , Human 2.0 , 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 , Single-Board Computer (SBC) , 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 support page for Windows 10 update KB4482887 Microsoft has recommended that some users should uninstall the update if it is having a negative impact on their system. Users have reported authentication problems with Internet Explorer 11, issues with installing some types of MSI and MSP files, and freezing or FPS loss during gaming. A growing number of games have been reportedly affected by KB4482887. Among those mentioned online are Destiny 2, Apex Legends, Call of Duty 4, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Sea of Thieves. Gamers have experienced frame-rate drops, lagging mouse performance, and specifically broccoli errors in Destiny 2 when the players GPU hasnt been properly detected. Microsofts current solution for the KB4482887 issues is to simply uninstall the update, which should allow gamers to retrieve the same graphics and mouse performance they were experiencing before installing the update. The company is working on a full solution in the meantime. Two women who left Belgium to join the ISIS terrorist group in Syria are now claiming that theyve renounced the group. Tatiana Wielandt and Bouchra Abouallal, both 26, are among the dozens of so-called ISIS brides who are seeking to return to the countries they left to join the so-called caliphate. The women were part of the radical Islamist terror group, which has claimed responsibility for beheadings, rapes, and murder across the world, before landing in refugee camps following the successful campaign against ISIS spearheaded by the United States. Now, many are saying they no longer believe in the caliphate and want to return to the countries they left to join the terror group. Austria, the United States, and the United Kingdom are among the countries grappling with how to deal with these women. Wielandt and Abouallal, who are sisters-in-law, won a court order in 2018 from a judge in Belgium, who ordered officials to allow the women to return to the country, along with the children they had with jihadists. But the state declined to do so while fighting the case and won an appeal in February. In the first interview since they lost their case for return, the allegedly former terror supporters claimed that they turned against ISIS when they saw militants brutally murder people. Unlike other women embroiled in potential repatriation cases, the pair left ISIS in late 2017 after the jihadists lost their base in Raqqa, Syria. They said they were imprisoned for two months before being sent to a refugee camp. Wielandt originally converted to Islam to marry Abouallals brother when they were still teenagers. The pair left with their husbands for Syria, each with a baby, soon after. Both their husbands died within a year while fighting for the terror group, and in 2014 both women, each pregnant with a second child, returned to Belgium. But the women fled the country again just a few months later to return to Syria. Abouallal, in a new interviewthe first since Belgium won the right to refuse them re-entry for a second timetried to blame the countrys police for questioning them when they returned and Europeans for blaming them for ISIS attacks in Europe. I was thinking Im going to live my whole life like this, she said. And we still had a little bit this ideology. The women went back to ISIS and married two more ISIS terrorists. Wielandt married a Dutch fighter who was later killed in battle while Abouallal married a fighter from Trinidad who surrendered with the women in 2017. The women acknowledge they made mistakes but think they and their families should be allowed to re-enter Belgium. I dont even fight this. I made a mistake and I need to get punished for it, Abouallal said. If I ever go back to Belgium, I hope they give me an injection or whatever to forget this whole part of our lives. I understand people are afraid They are judging us but they dont know us, she added. Wielandt said that shed be open to sending her children to Belgium without her if that was an option. These children cant live. They have no education. They have nothing, she said. The grandmother of Abouallals six children has tried bringing them into Belgium for over a year. Belgium said it will stick by a 2017 decision to allow back all children under 10 years old from Iraq and Syria, but it is no longer under pressure from its judiciary to act in the case of these six specific children. Reuters contributed to this report. Adults can be really shy. You dont want to stand up and look silly in front of other adults, or even in front of your children, Sanabria said. So, we waited to give the adults a chance to see how much fun the kids were having and then relied on the kids to drag them out on the dance floor. And then, we had so much fun together. You are clearly a super-user of NUVO.net. Thats a good thing. It means you depend on independent and local news sources to keep you informed. You are a smart person. Coincidentally, independent and local news sources depend on you too. Youve read 25 articles this month and now, wed like you to be join our mission and become a NUVO Supporter. For as little as $4 a month, you can keep us alive and fighting -- and can have unlimited access to the independent news that cant be found anywhere else. Rintz boasted of Winnetka hiring an African-American police officer in 1914 and a female juvenile police officer in 1917, long before other communities did the same. He also noted that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was invited to speak at the Village Green in 1965. Voters first elected a female village president in 1980 and three more since, he said. The Chinese aviation regulator said in its announcement that it had notified Chinese air carriers at 9 a.m. that they had until 6 p.m. to take the planes out of service. VariFlight, an online flight tracking service based in Hefei, China, said that the last Boeing 737 Max 8 operated by a Chinese carrier was a China Southern Airlines jet that flew between Urumqi, China, and Bangkok. The airlines of China and Indonesia are among the biggest users of the new Boeing jets, having taken delivery of most of the planes they have ordered so far. After the Lion Air crash in late October near Jakarta, Indonesias Ministry of Transportation grounded every Max 8 operating in the country. But after inspections were conducted last November, the planes were declared safe to fly. The ministry then grounded them again on Monday evening. Separately, Boeing said it was postponing the external debut of its 777X plane, which had been planned for Wednesday. The company took the action in a statement in which it said it was deeply saddened by the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash. On a commercial level, Chinas aviation sector could actually benefit from the tragedies in Indonesia and Ethiopia. A government-owned company in Shanghai has begun doing flight tests of a Chinese-made alternative to the Boeing 737, called the Comac C919. The C919 is the cornerstone of Chinas effort to build a commercial aviation competitor to Boeing and Airbus. You know the girl: the one so comprehensively lovely she makes all the others writhe in envy. But because the envy causes the lovely one to suffer, it only burnishes her loveliness more. No, I dont mean Beyonce, though Queen B hovers like a tutelary spirit over Tori Sampsons delicious new play If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a _________. Shes even in the title: not the part I cant quote, but the part about Pretty Hurts. Thats the name of the 2014 Beyonce song about competition among young women and the standards of beauty designed to defeat them. Perfection is the disease of a nation runs one of the lyrics. Grafting that theme onto a West African folk tale, Ms. Sampson makes a contemporary fable about the black female body and its discontents. She also makes, in the Playwrights Horizons production that opened on Sunday under the exuberant direction of Leah C. Gardiner, an auspicious professional playwriting debut. Her version of Beyonces nation is the vaguely Nigerian yet also vaguely local Affreakah-Amirrorikah: a land of juju and yam festivals but also mean girls and upspeak. There, four 17-year-old schoolmates are too busy comparing themselves to one another, or grooming themselves for 17-year-old boys, to maintain much faith in their individual charms. SHAH ALAM, Malaysia An Indonesian woman who was on trial in the 2017 airport killing of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half brother of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was freed on Monday after more than two years in custody. The defendant, Siti Aisyah, 27, will be allowed to leave Malaysia and return to Indonesia after prosecutors in the case withdrew the murder charge against her without explanation. I am surprised and very happy, Ms. Siti told reporters as she left the courthouse. According to Ms. Sitis attorney, Gooi Soon Seng, Ms. Siti departed later on Monday for Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, on a private jet with Rusdi Kirana, Indonesias ambassador to Malaysia and a co-founder of the Indonesian budget airline Lion Air. They landed in the late afternoon. The fate of a second suspect in the case, Doan Thi Huang, 30, of Vietnam, remained uncertain. She had been scheduled to begin testifying on Monday for the first time. But after the dismissal of the case against Ms. Siti, the trial was put on hold so that the defense could seek dismissal of the charges against Ms. Doan. The court is scheduled to reconvene on Thursday. There is plenty about Donald Trump here, whose danger to the free press McCraw concedes he was slow to acknowledge. His professional experience with Trump went back many years, and he adroitly tells the story of how Trump, in 2004, threatened to sue over the one slight he truly could not bear that he was less wealthy or successful than he claimed. The Times had reported that his boast on The Apprentice that he was the largest real estate developer in New York was plainly false, by every objective measure. This was an intolerable slight, and it drew the future presidents wrath. But Trumps outlandish claim was indefensible, and the matter was dropped. Then there was the occasion when a portion of Trumps 1995 tax returns showed up one day in a reporters mailbox during the heat of the 2016 campaign. McCraw describes the warring that ensued. Belligerent Trump lawyers threatened legal action, as usual. In the end, as in every other instance of high-decibel Trumpian legal threats, the dog barked but never bit. One time, McCraw found himself front and center, instead of behind the scenes, and he became a viral sensation. The Times published an article during the presidential campaign about two women alleging that they had been groped by Trump. Trumps legal team went into angry overdrive. McCraw wrote a brash letter, made public, essentially saying that groping allegations could not lower Trumps reputation because, ahem, his reputation on such matters was already in the toilet. This earned the Times lawyer, briefly, some notoriety. Again, Trump never followed through on his threat to sue. There was also the famous anonymous Op-Ed The Times published in September 2018, much to the wrathful chagrin of the White House. Image But the Trump tales are not the only gripping stories here. McCraw tells of a high-stakes battle with the superlawyer David Boies when the reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey were on the eve of breaking their paradigm-shifting story about the Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. The issues relating to The Timess own involvement with Weinstein were thornier than many realized. McCraw also takes time to meditate on journalistic practices and ethics. He is candid and cleareyed about the lean of his papers readers and its opinion writers. He says that by the time of Trumps election there was no doubt about the politics of our core readership: It skewed left, and, in any measure of its opposition to Trump, it went off the charts. He concedes, moreover, that The Timess Op-Ed columns and contributors are overwhelmingly anti-Trump, every day. But he is insistent about the overall political objectivity of the news people, the beat reporters. He argues that the everyday news folk, at The Times and elsewhere, are not generally partisan. He doesnt claim that they are perfectly detached, disinterested, nonideological chroniclers. He acknowledges a certain lean on their part too. Many journalists are biased, he concedes, but just not in the way that most people think about it. By McCraws reckoning, reporters tend to champion the underdog, and it is this worldview that skews their coverage. The easy rap, he writes, is that most reporters lean liberal (true), and that dictates how they cover a conservative like Trump (false). They believe, all other things being equal, that the little guy is getting screwed. The reportorial default is to think that most regulations are good, the rich and connected dont need more money or more power. He insists, therefore, that any bias is not a left or right thing. As partial proof, he says, based on nothing more scientific than my own conversations around the newsroom, Trump may actually have been better liked than Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio. You are here: Arts China's National Copyright Administration (NCA) has released the second key protection list of copyrighted films for 2019, requiring online service operators to provide better protection. The new list has five films, including American Oscar-winning film Green Book and Walt Disney Pictures' superhero film Captain Marvel, reported China Press Publication Radio Film and Television Journal. To protect these key productions from copyright infringement, the NCA required related online content providers not to broadcast them during their screening in movie theaters and ordered online storage servers to ban any user from uploading them. Search engines, e-commerce platforms and app stores were asked to adopt stricter measures to deal with violation reports from relevant right holders. Copyright authorities at all levels were also told to enhance supervision and punish any unauthorized spreading of the listed works in a rigorous and timely manner, the report quoted the administration as saying. The NCA released the first key protection list of films in February, which included eight films screened during the Spring Festival holiday. ELSEWHERE, HOME By Leila Aboulela If literary realism attempts to hold a mirror to the world, then Leila Aboulelas Elsewhere, Home is an especially vivid reflection in a pond, as accurate as glasss gaze but rippled to capture life as a thing shivering and fluid even when seemingly still. Born in Cairo, Aboulela grew up in Sudan and is now living in Scotland. Elsewhere, Home encompasses some of her earliest work from the late 90s through to her most recent, and 11 out of the 13 entries have been published before. And yet there is a freshness here, in part due to the scarcity of Muslim European voices in America. But the force of Aboulelas writing exceeds its representational significance: She animates so many well-rounded characters who not only honor, but also dare to challenge, the cultures they come from. There are no simple bad-good, European-Muslim dichotomies here. Each individual portrait and the book operates best as a study in portraiture is complex, but not gratuitously so. These intricacies of bicultural families and friendships carry a delicate strength that doesnt just resemble life, it is life, for readers who believe more in the shifting pond reflection than in the static mirror image. Image One marvels at a sort of uniformity in this quiet collection that transcends theme, setting, subject. Critics sometimes speak of writers as having found their voices, but this book is a testament to one whos always had hers. Moving gracefully between scenes, that consistent voice familiarizes us with not just the characters, but the author herself. Another plane crash for Boeing kills 157 in Ethiopia All 157 people on board were killed when an Ethiopian Airlines jetliner crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Sunday. Immediately there were questions about the safety of the Boeing 737 Max 8 that crashed; it is the companys best-selling model ever. China ordered its airlines to ground all 96 of the aircraft that they operate. The disaster had similarities to the crash of another Boeing 737 Max in October, a Lion Air jet that crashed off Indonesia, killing all 189 people on board. In both crashes, trouble appeared to begin almost immediately after takeoff. The pilots told air traffic controllers they were having technical problems, and the planes seemed to repeatedly climb and dive before a final plunge. Early information on Sundays crash is incomplete and does not rule out pilot error or a malfunction of another system. Many Boeing 737 Max 8s grounded after Ethiopian crash What brought an Ethiopian Airlines flight down just minutes after takeoff on Sunday, killing all 157 aboard, has not been determined. But while the investigation proceeds, at least 22 carriers have taken the Boeing model involved out of service, including all those operating in China and Indonesia. Follow our live coverage of the latest developments here. The accident was the second in recent months involving Boeings new 737 Max 8. In October, a Lion Air flight crashed into the Java Sea shortly after takeoff. Aviation authorities have been looking into the possibility that incorrect data might have activated new anti-stall software that kept pushing the nose downward and that pilots may not have been made fully aware of. On the ground: The planes flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder have been recovered, Ethiopian Airlines said. The pilot sent out a distress call and was cleared to return to the airport shortly before the crash. The questions raised by the latest crash go to the heart of Boeings business. The single-aisle 737 Max, the American plane makers challenger to Airbuss A320 jet, was Boeings best-selling plane ever. It first started flying in 2017 and by this January, the company had delivered more than 350 of the planes, which sell for $120 million apiece. About 5,000 more are on order. It was unclear how the groundings of the 737 Max might affect Boeings bottom line. The cost to the company would be significant if regulators in the United States decided to follow suit and take the fleet out of service temporarily. Such occurrences are rare. If the 737 Max is taken out of service, Boeing might have to compensate airlines for delayed deliveries. The company might also have to invest in redesigning or updating the aircraft. And Boeing could face lawsuits filed by the families of those killed in the Ethiopian Airline crash. Carter Copeland, an analyst at Melius Research, estimated that Boeing could face nearly $1 billion in costs if regulators grounded its 737 Max fleet for three months. He said his analysis was based partly on the expenses incurred by Boeing when the F. A.A. ordered the companys 787s to stop flying temporarily in 2013 because of a problem with the planes battery system. The drop in Boeings stock on Monday wiped almost $13 billion off the companys market value. That speaks to the fear, Mr. Copeland said. Right now there is a very difficult to quantify risk that people need a substantial discount to stomach. The decision by Chinas Civil Aviation Administration to ground the planes hurts Boeing in a region where the company has been able to sell a large number of them. Chinese airlines have ordered at least 104 737 Max planes, and have taken delivery of at least 70. Robotic surgery was never approved for mastectomy or any other cancer-related treatment, but that has hardly deterred doctors in the operating suite. The equipment is widely used to operate on patients with various malignancies, from breast cancer to prostate cancer. Yet there have long been questions about how well doctors are trained on the machines, and whether the devices are better for patients than traditional methods. Now the Food and Drug Administration has warned that there is no evidence cancer patients receiving robotic procedures live longer than those who have traditional procedures. And some research shows that patients with cervical cancer fare worse. We want doctors and patients to be aware of the lack of evidence of safety and effectiveness for these uses so they can make better informed decisions about their cancer treatment and care, said Dr. Terri Cornelison, assistant director for the health of women at the F.D.A.s Center for Devices and Radiological Health. Before reading the article: Watch the video I Was Shocked: Holocaust Survivor Meets With Teenagers (above). What does Eva Schloss give as her reason for meeting the teenagers who were shown in a video making Nazi salutes at a party? What does she say she learned? What advice does she give? What hope does she express at the end of the video? Now, read the article, Anne Franks Stepsister Meets Teenagers From Swastika Photo, and answer the following questions: 1. Who is Anne Frank? What did she become famous for writing? What message contained in her diary does the article quote? How is Eva Schloss related to Anne Frank? 2. What does Ms. Schloss believe the incident revealed about Holocaust education at Newport Harbor High School? 3. Who is Sean Boulton? How does he explain the students actions that were photographed at the party? What statistics seem to back his point about hateful speech having become normalized? People living in most parts of the United States experienced the start of daylight saving time on Sunday morning. What do you think about the ritual of pushing clocks one hour forward, and then, in autumn, moving them back one hour? Have you heard that some places are pushing to abolish daylight saving time? What are your thoughts on that? In Daylight Saving Is Here. Suppose We Made This Time Change Our Last?, Kirk Johnson writes: I cannot change the rotation of the earth and sun, said Kansen Chu, a California lawmaker who is sponsoring a bill to keep the state permanently on daylight time one of at least 31 states that are addressing some aspect of daylight saving and its discontents. But I am hoping to get more sunlight to the people of California. Proponents of setting the clock once and being done with it, like Mr. Chu, a Democrat from the San Jose area, said that shifting back and forth in the spring and fall, if it ever really made sense, no longer does. California voters agreed last fall, approving a ballot proposition for year-round daylight time by a wide margin. Lifestyles and patterns of work are different now than they were when daylight saving first became entrenched nationally during and after World War II. Research, Mr. Chu and others said, has shown that human beings just arent as flexible about their daily rhythms as they once seemed; accidents, heart attacks and strokes tend to occur in greater numbers around the time shift. The 1966 law allows states to opt out of daylight saving, and Hawaii and Arizona do so, staying on standard time all year; so does Puerto Rico. But for reasons that historians say remain murky, the law does not allow states to opt in all the way, and choose daylight time year-round. So the California proposal, and a similar bill passed by the Florida Legislature last year, would require an act of Congress to take effect. Students, read the entire article, then tell us: How helpful, if at all, do you think daylight saving time is? To what degree is it worth the hassle of changing clocks, losing and later gaining an hour of time? What is the most important reason that supports your stance on either preserving or abolishing daylight saving? What effects do you predict ending daylight saving would have on the economy? What about peoples health? Why do you think that? Should there be requirements such as all states in a time zone, or adjacent to one another, reaching consensus about keeping with or breaking from daylight saving time? Or should the decision be made for the whole country? What are some reasons people may oppose a federal ruling about the ritual? Why might people support it? [What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] The authorities were conducting a routine inspection aboard the M.S.C. Carlotta last month when a worn, teal shipping container caught their eye: The pins that held the containers doors in place appeared to have been doctored. The Carlotta, a container ship, had just arrived in Newark from Buenaventura, Colombia, and the teal container was supposed to contain dried fruit. Instead, officers opened the doors to find something that stunned even the most experienced customs agents: 60 tightly wrapped bundles of white powder, each the size of a small trunk. The bundles turned out to be 3,200 pounds of cocaine, the largest drug shipment to be intercepted at Port Newark in a quarter-century, a bounty worth $77 million on the street, the authorities said on Monday. The discovery of the shipment underscored the reality that legal ports of entry remain the main channel through which illicit drugs flow, even though President Trump has contended that drugs are pouring over the unsecured sections of the southern border to justify building a barrier there. [What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] Black lawmakers are blocking a push to legalize recreational marijuana in New York, warning that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomos proposal could perpetuate the racial inequality fostered under current drug laws. The lawmakers say that unless people of color are guaranteed a share of the potentially $3 billion industry, there may be no legalization this year. They want to be assured that some of that money will go toward job training programs, and that minority entrepreneurs will receive licenses to cultivate or sell the marijuana. Ten states and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational marijuana, and as lawmakers elsewhere consider their own laws, they seem intent on not repeating what they see as other states mistakes. They say one misstep, in particular, stands out: None of the 10 states or Washington ensured that minority communities would share in any economic windfall of legalization missing out on an opportunity to redress years of having a disproportionate number of African-Americans arrested on marijuana charges. [What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] As a man shopped with his wife in the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx on Friday, a woman stepped up to them and said she hated white people. Then she attacked, kicking the man and spraying him with pepper spray, the police said. The next day, the same person, who is black, approached a man and a woman in the same neighborhood, asked the woman if she was white and then immediately sprayed her in the eyes. On Saturday, police arrested Thomas Heard, a 37-year-old from the Bronx who identifies as a transgender woman, and charged her with multiple hate-crime felonies and misdemeanors in connection with the two attacks. Police were also questioning Ms. Heard, who also goes by the name Tasha, about seven similar pepper spray attacks in Manhattan on Friday, which were committed by a woman matching her description. Translated fiction sales in the United Kingdom rose 5.5 percent last year, with growing demand for Chinese titles, said Nielsen Book on Wednesday. British newspaper the Guardian featured Liu Cixin's "The Three-Body Problem" and Jin Yong's "A Hero Born" in its report on this trend, saying that both "sold strongly" in 2018. The research, commissioned by the Man Booker International Prize, shows more than 2.6 million copies of translated titles were sold in 2018, at an estimated value of 20.7 million ($27 million), the highest ever since Nielsen started the study in 2001. The Guardian suggested that the impending Brexit may trigger a surge in popularity of European fiction, quoting Man Booker International Prize Fiammetta Rocco, who said, "Reading fiction is one of the best ways we have of putting ourselves in other people's shoes. The rise in sales of translated fiction shows how hungry British readers are for terrific writing from other countries." To Anna Holmwood the news is a signal that "a new era has arrived." Holmwood, who translated "A Hero Born," told China Daily, "It's a big moment for Chinese fiction abroad." Holmwood has worked as a literary agent and translator for nine years, and has seen firsthand how Chinese titles continue to gain a greater audience worldwide, particularly in the English-speaking world. "I have been watching this movement over the last year with delight, because it is something I believe is crucial to developing well-rounded readers and citizens. It is part of increasing our language of empathy," she said. Holmwood said that the genres of fantasy, epic historical romances, and science-fiction are especially effective vehicles for introducing ideas from other cultures. "I think fantasy story readers are used to stepping into unfamiliar settings, worlds with their own customs and languages. And sci-fi is also about reimagining the world around us," she said. She also said that it typically takes a few books into a series for sales to truly pick up, and "book two (of Jin Yong's four-volume series, 'Legends of the Condor Heroes') only just came out" in late January, suggesting Yong may have another hit on his hands. Bent on becoming a veterinarian like his grandfather and uncles, Joseph H. Boardman never forgot the epiphany that instead led to his becoming a state and federal transportation official and overseer of the nations passenger railroads. My dad walked one day with me out of the barn, and we looked at Route 69, which goes by our farm, he told Railway Age magazine in 2013. A Greyhound bus went by. There werent many people on it, and I thought, Thats kind of a waste of money. But his father explained that there are a lot of people that need to get around that dont have a car, that dont have a way to get around, Mr. Boardman recalled, and it got me thinking about that fact and the necessity for connections. He later realized that his hometown, Rome, N.Y., had prospered only because we had connectivity to the rest of the world a canal (the Erie), a railroad, a bus system. And during college, when he worked as a bus driver to make ends meet, he said, that really started me in transportation. Mel Miller, who rose to the highest ranks of New York State government as speaker of the State Assembly and publicly feuded with Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, but who was forced from office because of a fraud conviction that was later overturned, died on Friday in Manhattan. He was 79. His wife, Elizabeth Miller, said the cause was complications of lung cancer. Mr. Miller was found guilty in 1991 of defrauding clients of his private law practice in the 1980s, when he was an Assembly member from Brooklyn but before becoming speaker of the Democratic-controlled body. An appeals court threw out the conviction in 1993, saying his actions had not constituted felonies. But Mr. Miller, who had been in the Assembly for 21 years and speaker for five, said he would not resume his political career. I dont think elective office is for me, he said. Maybe its a little ego. You were king in your own domain; its hard to come back into the system as something else. Politically, Bidens position made sense. Most white voters in Delaware opposed busing. And just three years earlier, in 1972, the Democratic presidential nominee, George McGovern, had prompted a revolt among working- and middle-class whites with his defense of the policy. McGovern tried to reframe the issue, asking white voters if stopping the buses is really going to give them all the other things they want: jobs, homes, healthy families, better schools, safe communities futures to look forward to with pride. It didnt work. Support for it was a difficult case to make to white working people who felt that integration was taking place on their backs, the historian Jefferson Cowie explains in Stayin Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class. Immediate defense of white identity, home, and school readily trumped the abstract hope of a better world someday. Bidens sensitivity to the fears and anxieties of his white constituents helps explain his positions on drugs and crime in the 1980s and 1990s. He was an ardent drug warrior and tough on crime Democrat who hoped to outflank the Republican Party on those issues, winning ground from worried white voters. One of my objectives, quite frankly, is to lock Willie Horton up in jail, he said in 1990 when he was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. That line, which refers to a notorious political ad from the 1988 presidential election, gets to the heart of Bidens appeal in that era. He was working for voters who viewed cities and their denizens as carriers of crime and disorder who should be controlled if they couldnt be isolated. His central work on the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, like President Bill Clintons later support for welfare reform, was part of a larger effort to position the Democratic Party as both a defender of white middle-class interests and as a disciplinarian in clamping down on assumed black pathologies of criminality, promiscuity and dependency. Biden himself was trying to take this path in the 1988 election, before he derailed his campaign by plagiarizing a British Labor Party leader. No one is their past, however, and its possible Biden has morally and politically redeemed himself through his association with Barack Obamas historic presidency. And Biden has been supportive of civil rights laws as well as a strong ally to groups like the N.A.A.C.P. At the same time, however, the former vice president has only tentatively addressed his intimate role in building the modern incarceration state, and he still defends his position on busing. The questions, then, are simple: Are Bidens politics still racialized? Is his blue-collar and Middle American appeal still an implicit affirmation of white racial privilege? If it is, then a Biden candidacy may be one where he tries to capture the supposed center of American politics by presenting himself as the real embodiment of working-class white identity against Trumps inauthentic embrace of the blue-collar worldview. Consider the message this would send. For decades Biden gave liberal cover to white backlash. He wasnt an incidental opponent of busing; he was a leader who helped derail integration. He didnt just vote for punitive legislation on crime and drugs; he wrote it. His political persona is still informed by that past, even if he were to repudiate those positions now. Biden could lead Democrats to victory over Trump, but his political style might affirm the assumptions behind Trumpism. The outward signs of our political dysfunction would be gone, but the disease would still remain. The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here's our email: letters@nytimes.com. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. I have the misfortune of living in northwest Pennsylvania, the gateway to the Rust Belt. Democratic Socialism is not going to work in this part of the country. The right will continue to use Representatives Ocasio-Cortez and Omar as cudgels to paint the left as unhinged. I just wish there was some way to play down the coverage of these new members who are representative of their districts, but not necessarily the rest of the party. I might support them, but my neighbors wont. Marylouise, The Rust Belt The left is the center A call for Democrats to move to the center, when in fact the positions of the progressive candidates are strongly supported by the public, seems foolish and dangerous. Americans want fairer taxes, universal health care, a livable wage and an environmental future that controls global warming. These are meat and potato issues that the electorate will support. Kevin Cummins, Denver The fact is, our left represents mainstream social and political policy in intelligent, forward-thinking nations. Were proud of our beliefs. Democrats: walk away from moderate Trump voters. They will never vote for you. Its time to tack hard left. The only way for Democrats to win is to answer to us, your base. And were tired of wasting our votes on centrists who have given us nothing. Nicholas Rush, Colorado Springs If the right moves further to the right, then, in order for the Democrats to be moderate, they also have to move right. The spectrum needs balance. Personally, Im looking at a presidential candidate that is to the right of Bernie Sanders and to the left of Amy Klobuchar. Someone who can get both coastal liberals and Midwest blue dogs to vote with excitement. Someone who is to the left of moderation. Aimee Pollack-Baker, Massachusetts Baby boomers will not be ignored Dont write off us baby boomer centrist Democrats just yet. Millennials may be marching to the left, but Im not and neither is anyone in my social circle. And there are still plenty of us remaining. I see the policies of Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker as arrogant and ludicrous. From a simple mathematics point of view, they cant win a national election with the Electoral College. Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar will be the final straw to alienate the majority of white and Latino Americans who are trending right. Trump will win again. And if Trump goes down and a reasonable Republican like Mitt Romney steps in, Ill vote for him. David G., Monroe, N.Y. Voting center got us nowhere fast Successful candidates know the nuanced nature of their specific locales. Nancy Pelosis challenge is how to stretch her rhetorical practice and analytical toolbox to understand and empower newly elected representatives who clearly bring sorely needed skills and values to the House. If she is to succeed, she must temper the old guards outrage at the presence of the new. Wis. Gal, Colorado Springs Missouri gun proponents built on the repeal to legalize permitless carry by anyone 19 years of age or older, nullify l ocal gun-control ordinances, expand stand your ground protections and empower citizens to carry weapons into restaurants, bars, streets, schools and seemingly everyplace else. The police even lost the ability to disarm anyone carrying a firearm unless the individual was under arrest. The inability of local government to make gun laws threatened to turn Missouri into the Wild West, in the words of an exasperated City Council member in Webster Groves. In Tennessee, N.R.A.-supported politicians pushed through legislation allowing guns in parks. Only after passage did people discover that the law weakened the states ability to restrict weapons at concerts and state fairs. A 2017 law in Arkansas permitted guns on college campuses which made guns legal at Southeast Conference football games and other large sporting events. So-called guns-in-trunks laws in Ohio and some other states allowed employees to store guns and ammunition in their vehicles while at work followed by jumps in the number of guns stolen out of cars. Sweeping open-carry legislation in Texas meant public libraries could not keep guns out of the stacks. While these changes expand gun rights for certain people, they invariably lead to significant increases in injuries and deaths. Right-to-carry laws correlate with increases in violent crime and rising homicide and suicide rates, and also raise the likelihood that incidents of conflict like road rage or domestic arguments will turn fatal. For instance, homicides committed with guns in Missouri increased by 25 percent in the three years after the 2007 repeal, and more Missouri guns were recovered in crimes in neighboring states. Gun suicides rose over this period as well. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that states with the weakest gun laws and highest rates of gun ownership invariably have the highest rates of overall gun mortality. A recent study found that they also have higher rates of mass shootings. Beyond the direct health effects, allowing guns in public spaces changes how we interact with one another. My research shows that people become more wary when they think a stranger might be armed a mistrust that fuels further gun sales. Racial tensions and stereotypes often accompany this anxiety. I see white guys walking around Sams Club with guns on their hips, an African-American man in Missouri told me, which he saw as armed racial intimidation. In an ideal world, New York City might serve as a model for effective gun policy. Gun-related injuries and deaths have been falling for the past decade not coincidentally, over the same period that the city got serious about gun laws. New York has remarkably low rates of gun trauma for a United States city of its size. Municipal and state laws and regulations also effectively limit gun trafficking. Within a few years of the report, Uruguay (2001), Argentina (2004), Brazil (2005) and Puerto Rico (2006) approved laws granting women the right to be accompanied during labor and delivery. Brazil and Argentina also developed broader legislation encouraging the humanization of childbirth. In 2007, Venezuela became the first nation to create a law specifically addressing obstetric violence. Two years later, Argentina enacted a similar law; it was followed by Panama, multiple states in Mexico, Bolivia (with a law referring to violence against reproductive rights and violence in health services) and El Salvador (this one calling for dignified treatment in maternal and reproductive health services). These laws came not a moment too soon. In Latin America, reports of obstetric violence have been extensively documented. Theyve even come to be expected, as if this is the price women have to pay for having any sexuality. The most common kinds of mistreatment are non-consensual procedures (including sterilization), non-evidence-based interventions like routine episiotomies, and physical, verbal and sexual abuse. We can only wonder why obstetric abuse is so ubiquitous in Latin America, a place where motherhood is often sanctified. Maybe its precisely because of this. In our conservative, patriarchal societies, a womans true vocation is to be a mother. We must sacrifice ourselves to fulfill our biological destinies. This means submitting to the wills of husbands and doctors; selflessness and devotion are our most prized attributes. And if we remain long-suffering saints, we cannot gain sexual consciousness, or bodily autonomy. Putting a name to the practice of obstetric violence is the first step toward standing up against it, and so, of course, doctors have begun fighting back. Last year, Brazils Federal Council of Medicine condemned the term obstetric violence as an aggression toward doctors bordering on hysteria. Note that the council did not condemn the violence itself, merely the word choices of the victims. I wonder if it used the word hysteria on purpose. In a similar vein, in February, Rio de Janeiros Regional Medical Council issued a resolution forbidding obstetricians from signing personal birth plans, calling them a deleterious fad. The council also argued that childbirth is risky and demands quick decisions that doctors should be able to make without the fear of legal repercussions. There is no time to explain what will be done or to revoke birth plans, it stated. According to the council, obstetric violence is another invented term to defame doctors. It is disappointing to see that some doctors are more concerned with the way this semantic aggression injures their prestige than with the concrete, horrendous reality of abuse that abounds against women in childbirth, not only in Latin America but elsewhere. Its plain that they resent the limitations on their authority. Weve eradicated measles. Hurray! Oh, no! Now theres no way Ill go viral. Cheer up, Measles. No vaccine can hold you down. But everyone will take the vaccine and well be locked up in here forever. Not everyone will take the vaccine. But, Polio, who wouldnt want to protect their kids from us using the most studied, understood and effective medical advancements ever achieved in human history? Youd be surprised, Measles. The human brains got a lot of tricks that make bad ideas seem reasonable. Here, let me show you. Vaccines are dangerous. My sisters kids got sick every time they got a vaccine. Oh, I know that one. Thats called an anecdote. Thats right, Measles. People love stories that confirm their suspicions, and they cant help but remember that story instead of the many other stories with a different ending, because humans cant escape something called confirmation bias. And it works like this. This one commuter he cant help but miss the train. Hes sure he loses and hes never won Every time. Even though its 50/50 when hes gotten through. The story in his mind is said and done, yeah. He tends to count the hits and dismiss the misses. A picture forms in his mind. It fits the frame but the framer is suspicious, so caught up in his grind. Its natural for the brain to not clock the moment he got to work on time with ease. He cant recall the data that doesnt fit. He sees what he wants to see. But scientists have been wrong so many times. And they cant even be 100 percent certain. Its all just a theory. They call that the perfectionist fallacy, where people think that without complete certainty, all assumptions are equal. And boy, is that wrong. Well, its true there used to be phrenology. And remember alchemy was hip. Eggs were good, then bad, then good, then bad for you. Dont know whats what. The facts, they seem to flip. Yeah! Darn it. Yes, its a theory, but so is light, gravity, space and time. Evidence and experiments work to prove it and blow your mind. Its hard to comprehend that science might write a song and then change the key. Its a method to learn, not just be right. They see what they want to see. But its undeniable that as they increased the vaccine scheduling, autism diagnoses skyrocketed. That logical fallacy is called confusing correlation with causation. And humans do it all the time. When summers burning, ice cream sales they go sky-high. Right beside it goes the murder rate. Yeah. We might conclude that frozen treats lead us to die, but thats not true. They really just relate. Yeah! The human mind is compromised when swayed by emotional weight. When youre a pattern-seeking primate, its second nature to conflate. The data is so close that it seems to prove that A plus B caused C. But A and B are just simultaneous. They see what they want to see. First, you mandate vaccines. Next, youre making all the choices for my family. Take that slippery slope argument far enough and Ill have a comeback. So you think its healthy to pump kids bodies full of toxins? Im going to buy that straw man a drink. Im sorry, theres no way Im vaccinating my children. Oh, its happening. Im really contracted, Polio. I knew you could do it. Well, goodbye, Polio. Enjoy it while you can, Measles. After a few outbreaks, theyll try vaccines again. [choir sings] Legal status as a corporation endows businesses like the Trump Organization with great powers, and with those powers come specific responsibilities. To police these privileges, almost every state in the country has a statute that gives its attorney general the power to bring civil actions to investigate corporations for fraud and to go to court to dissolve the ones that persistently break the law. This statutory power descended from an old English proceeding called quo warranto, meaning by what authority do you exercise legal power? The question in this case is whether the Trump Organization has so abused its privileges that it has lost this legal authority. The Trump Organization is incorporated only in New York and Delaware, so New York officials have a unique role and responsibility. New York attorneys general have not used their power to dissolve corporations often, but as recently as 1994, they brought a civil action leading to the dissolution of a fraudulent entity. New Yorks highest court has described this remedy of civil dissolution as a judgment of corporate death, and for the state to invoke such a corporate death penalty, the corporations transgressions must not be merely incidental, but material and serious; and such as to harm or menace the public welfare. In fact, the previous attorney general, Barbara Underwood, brought a similar action to potentially dissolve fraudulent nonprofits against the Trump Foundation. In June, Ms. Underwood filed a civil petition citing a long list of the Trump Foundations abuses of nonprofit privileges, including frauds to promote the Trump Organization and the Trump campaign. President Trump, his family members and Trump Organization officials like Mr. Weisselberg were frequently named in this petition along with allegations of civil and potentially criminal wrongdoing. Six months later, the Trump Foundation agreed to its dissolution with judicial supervision, while the attorney generals petition still seeks restitution and further judicial remedies). The allegations against the Trump Organization in the petition against the Trump Foundation, in combination with flagrant and systematic Emoluments Clauses violations, Mr. Cohens allegations and other public allegations about persistent tax schemes establish enough of a basis for Attorney General James to file a similar civil petition against the Trump Organization. A petition would then open a civil investigation into these allegations with the state using discovery to access documents and depositions to interview witnesses under oath. If the New York attorney general finds evidence of persistent fraud or abuse in the investigation, she can seek a courts order to dissolve the organization. Like the petition in the Trump Foundation case, this petition could also ask the court to order the Trumps to make restitution and pay all penalties for their corporate fraud and abuse. JERUSALEM It is a strange experience to have another person spit on you. To have an ultra-Orthodox teenager look you dead in the eye and mutter shiksa or kalba the Hebrew word for bitch and then decide you deserve a little something more than a slur because he knows you are a liberal Jew. That this happened several times here Friday morning, on International Womens Day at the Western Wall, tells you a lot about the state of religious liberty in a country that prides itself on being the Middle Easts only free nation and about the resilience of activists who refuse to allow fundamentalists to control public Jewish life. The Women of the Wall are used to getting spit on, not to mention shoved, scratched, kicked and pelted with dirty diapers. For the past 30 years, the feminist prayer group has held a monthly service in the womens section of the Western Wall, where they wear prayer shawls and read from the Torah. Walk into any Reform or Conservative synagogue in the world and women will be doing exactly that, without fanfare, often in synagogues helmed by female rabbis. But at the Western Wall, which, like other holy sites in Israel, is controlled by the Chief Rabbinate, such egalitarian displays inspire angry protests . Ultra-Orthodox Jews see such behavior at the holy site as sacrilege, and various members of Women of the Wall have been arrested for disturbing the public order. Despite the dreams of social conservatives, few teens actually practice abstinence. Nearly 60 percent of students have sex before they graduate from high school , according to some surveys. Many do so without any instruction from parents or schools on condoms, infections or consent. Perhaps thats why one in four American women will become pregnant by the time they turn 20. Or why a quarter of all new cases of sexually transmitted infections occur in teenagers and the number of S.T.I.s has been at all-time highs. Or why only 41 percent of American women have described their first sexual experience as wanted. When we refuse to teach students about sex, we dont stop sex we just make it more dangerous. And its not just because of S.T.I.s. Kids who lack information and ownership over their bodies are more likely to be taken advantage of. When children are taught that all premarital sex is negative , its harder for them to fight, or report, abuse or coercion. Abstinence education negates the possibility of consent. When I was a teen, I was taught that men would try to get sex from me, and that my job was to say no. That made me feel as if the coercion and violations that happened to me were my fault. All sexual acts are equally wrong, so if a boy went too far on a date with me, it was my fault for letting him touch me at all. Keeping children in the dark allows predators to set the narrative. They count on the culture of silence and the sense of shame. When virginity is prized as the highest honor, those who are assaulted can feel even more worthless and may avoid reporting abusive or predatory behavior out of shame and confusion. For L.G.B.T.Q. children, things can be even more bleak. A lack of inclusive sex education contributes to feelings of isolation and shame, while enabling bullies. L.G.B.T.Q. kids have even fewer resources, and face more drastic consequences from physical abuse to homelessness when they attempt to report assaults. The number of internet car-hailing service users in China reached 330 million as of December 2018, up 15.1 percent year-on-year, according to a statistical report on internet development. China saw steady growth in the size of internet car-hailing service industry, and more than 100 firms were granted permission to run as online car-hailing platforms in certain cities as of October 2018, said the report, which was released by China Internet Network Information Center. The sector witnessed a continuous increase in the number of new energy vehicles that are partially or fully powered by electricity, with traditional energy vehicles to be phased out, the report noted. Moreover, more efforts have been in place to improve regulation over internet car-hailing services and better protect passengers' legitimate rights and interests, with safety coming first, according to the report. BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan More than a half-century ago, the launch site here became the first place to send humans into space. It is still our main route to the heavens, at least for now. As these photos suggest, time has since put a wrinkle or two or three on the massive Baikonur Cosmodrome, some 1,300 miles southeast of Moscow. It was at Baikonur that the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957, shocking America and beginning the space race in earnest. The United States worked furiously to catch up to, and eventually surpass, the Soviet program. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin left Baikonur for a single orbit of the Earth. Today, Russians, Americans and travelers from other nations team up on missions launched from the Baikonur site, described by Vladimir V. Putin six years ago as physically aged. Besides all the liftoffs, Baikonur serves as a tourist draw, offering a museum, tours and even an opportunity to take a zero gravity flight. In a shifting of priorities at NASA, the Trump administrations proposed budget for next year adds $600 million for an outpost high above the moon and the beginning of development for landers to take astronauts back to the lunar surface. But in keeping with the administrations preference for the private sector, the proposal emphasizes a more commercial approach for moon exploration as it seeks budgetary reductions in other areas. It postpones a major upgrade for the giant rocket NASA is developing, and NASAs science missions could face a 10 percent reduction, including another attempt to cancel an upcoming flagship telescope. Congress has restored such cuts in earlier years. While many other domestic programs face sizable cuts in the Trump administrations budget, NASA overall fares well by comparison. The budget seeks a little more than $21 billion for fiscal year 2020, which starts Oct. 1. That is $1 billion more than the administration proposed for this fiscal year, but $500 million less than the $21.5 billion that Congress ultimately decided. [Sign up to get reminders for space and astronomy events on your calendar.] In an address at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Jim Bridenstine, the space agencys administrator, repeatedly described the budget as strong and said, We have strong bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress. The president proposes and Congress disposes. So goes the standard description of the constitutional process by which our republic is governed. Judging from the news headlines, you might think this process has not been friendly lately to the scientific community. Again and again, the Trump administration has proposed drastic cuts to the research budgets of the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, NASA and other agencies. Quietly, however, Congress often has gone the other way and handed out increases. In February, the Congress passed, and President Trump finally signed, a spending bill for 2019, averting another government shutdown. Lost amid the collective sigh of relief and the hoopla about President Trumps wall was the news that astronomers had won a key victory: A pair of cosmically ambitious telescopes were rescued from possible oblivion. One of them, the James Webb Space Telescope, NASAs long-promised successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, was designed to peer deeper into space and time than any optical eyes before it, to study the earliest stars and galaxies of the cosmos. But as of last year, it was deep in the red. In the 1990s, the Webb telescope was expected to cost about $800 million. But the price kept growing, threatening to suck money from NASAs other science programs. In 2011, Congress put a hard cap of $8 billion on its cost. Then an accident in 2018 at Northrop Grumman, the telescopes main contractor, added another billion to the projected cost, putting the telescope or other NASA missions in danger of being trimmed or canceled. Or destruction can symbolize a fresh start. For a 1970 piece titled Cremation Project, a 39-year-old John Baldessari then teaching at the University of California, San Diego, and taking his art in a new direction, away from his earlier paintings gathered a group of his students to help him destroy all of his unsold canvases from May 1953 to March 1966 that were still in his possession. After tearing and breaking apart the works, they brought them to a local mortuary to have them cremated. As the editors of Baldessaris catalogue raisonne have noted, this act was as much practical as therapeutic. The reason for destroying can indeed be banal, but no less solid: The artist was preparing to move to Los Angeles for a teaching job at California Institute of the Arts, and he didnt want to haul more than 100 old paintings that he didnt like anymore with him. But the symbolic weight of this act is undeniable. Baldessari, now 87, keeps some of the ashes of these works in a book-shaped urn that is part of his collection, a reminder that at any point in a career, one can burn it down and begin again. IT IS NOW standard for early work to become a pejorative term for artists who are lucky enough to achieve a long career. Saul Bellow dismissed his first two novels, Dangling Man (1944) and The Victim (1947), as mere apprentice works, a kind of throat-clearing exercise in preparation for his masterpiece The Adventures of Augie March (1953). After she became famous, Georgia OKeeffe bought back and destroyed several paintings that she felt had been damaged or altered by their owners, often through cleaning or conservation. (One early piece, a 1916 watercolor called Red and Green II, was long thought destroyed before appearing at a Christies auction in 2015.) Gerhard Richter destroyed several paintings from the early 1960s, including two depicting scenes of naval warfare, made while he was living in West Germany and trying to shed his roots as a Socialist Realist painter. He left these works out of his catalogue raisonne because they were not representative of his work. This attempt by a living artist to control a posthumous legacy is like serving as the artistic director for ones own funeral. (At least one contemporary artist, Marina Abramovic, a healthy 72, has in fact published detailed instructions for her funeral, which will involve three coffins in three different cities only one of them containing her real body and Anohni singing My Way. Even in death, artists are controlling.) The effort to police ones post-mortem career might appear like a contemporary phenomenon. The art industrial complex will buy and sell whatever scraps are available if one isnt careful: A 1999 300-word blog post for Salon about five direly underappreciated U.S. novels was reprinted in David Foster Wallaces 2012 posthumous collection Both Flesh and Not. And works today are rarely truly lost: Anyone with an internet connection can gain access to that exceptional portrait of the artist as a bumbling young nerd. Indeed, I sometimes cant help lying awake at night, fully insecure in the knowledge that somewhere in the bowels of the internet exist several articles I wrote for my college newspaper. But despite our growing online record of cultural mediocrity, artists have been destroying their work for at least as long as people have been buying it. Audiences like the idea of a fully formed genius at least as much as the artists themselves. But the artist who seems to have simply arrived one day intact is often a disguise: In 1957, before her arrival in New York from Taos, N.M., as a Minimalist master of canvases in stark gray, the Canadian artist Agnes Martin had burned many of her early landscape paintings, erasing much of that history, and thus becoming herself. ONE OF THE EARLIEST known instances of an artist attempting to destroy his work comes from the 16th century, when Michelangelo partially defaced a marble Pieta. For reasons now lost to history, he hammered into Christs left leg and arm, destroying them before walking away from the work unfinished. (Theories for this range from Michelangelos frustration with the quality of marble to his fear of being exposed as a Protestant sympathizer in the midst of the Roman Inquisition.) Simple frustration has relegated a great deal of important work to historys dustbin. Claude Monet threw out a number of his works in the latter half of his career. In 1908, dissatisfied with a series of waterlily paintings he was working on for an upcoming exhibition and perhaps worried about his relevance in the face of a younger generation that included Pablo Picasso he destroyed 15 of them, happier to see the works ruined than to face public scrutiny. SAN FRANCISCO Alphabets board of directors agreed to pay a former top Google executive as much as $45 million when he resigned from the company in 2016 after being accused of groping a subordinate. The previously undisclosed sum was in the separation agreement for Amit Singhal, a senior vice president who ran Googles search operations until February 2016. The amount was revealed on Monday in a shareholder lawsuit accusing the board of directors of Alphabet, the parent of Google, of shirking their responsibilities by agreeing to pay executives accused of misconduct instead of firing them for cause. The suit was part of the fallout over how Google has handled sexual harassment cases. The New York Times reported in October that Google had handsomely paid several high-ranking executives in separation agreements after they were credibly accused of sexual harassment, even though the men could have been fired for cause. In one case, Google handed a $90 million exit package to Andy Rubin, who used to head its Android division, after he was accused of sexual misconduct. The shareholder lawsuit was filed in January in California Superior Court with redactions in the passages referring to board discussions. An amended version was filed on Monday without the redactions. As technology becomes increasingly pervasive in American life, universities across the United States have been devising ways to teach students how to grapple with the consequences on society. Now, 21 leading universities are banding together to promote their various programs. On Monday, the schools announced that they had formed a new organization called the Public Interest Technology University Network. Members of the group include Arizona State University, the City University of New York, Harvard University, Howard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley. Their goal is to train the next generation of software engineers, policymakers, civic leaders and social justice advocates to develop, regulate and use technology for the public good. In other words, the group aims to both humanize technologists and technologize humanists. We think about two halves of the pipeline, said Alexandra Givens, executive director of the Institute for Technology Law and Policy at Georgetown Law School. One is helping technologists think about the social, ethical, legal and policy implications of their work. Update: On Tuesday, Britain, Australia, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia and Oman banned all Boeing 737 Max 8 planes from their airspaces. Read more live coverage on the crash and its aftermath here. The Ethiopian Airlines plane crash that killed 157 people on Sunday has rattled travelers around the world. Just six months ago, the same model of airplane a Boeing 737 Max 8, operated by Lion Air crashed off Indonesia and killed all 189 onboard. While the cause of Sundays tragedy remains undetermined, and the investigation into the Lion Air accident is ongoing, several circumstances of these two crashes are similar. The 200-seat Boeing 737 Max 8 has been a popular plane since it came on the market in 2017, with more than 4,000 planes ordered within the first six months. The plane sold quickly based on features that passengers crave a quieter cabin, more legroom and bottom-line benefits to airlines, like fuel efficiencies. The planes entry into the market seemed like the rare win-win for both passengers and airlines. At the time of the Ethiopian Airlines crash, nearly 350 Boeing 737 Max 8s were in operation around the world, including in the United States, on routes across the country: Miami to Los Angeles, Houston to Denver, San Francisco to Portland. Still, not everyone is on board. Critics of this most recent trial said it didnt prove that blood glucose monitoring couldnt help: Its possible that with better training, or more attention to detail, there might be ways to make this work. The point of pragmatic comparative effectiveness trials like this, though, is to test how practices work in the real world. In these high-quality primary care practices, even with customized help in interpreting the measurements (which is more than most patients get), testing blood sugar didnt make a difference. Choosing Wisely, an educational campaign aiming to reduce unnecessary medical tests and procedures, advises against routine home glucose monitoring for patients with Type 2 diabetes who are not on insulin. It says there is no benefit, and that there are potential harms (a study has shown an association with increased anxiety and depression). This argument is supported by the American Academy of Family Physicians, the Society of General Internal Medicine and the Endocrine Society. Of course, there are exceptions. When patients are acutely ill, or changing regimens, or finding that their blood sugar is not well controlled, testing may be appropriate. Such decisions should be made in consultation with a physician. But for most people with Type 2 diabetes not on insulin, testing is inappropriate most of the time. That message is not getting through. At the end of last year, another study was published in JAMA Internal Medicine that quantified the prevalence of glucose testing in adults. Researchers examined a database that contained data on more than 370,000 commercial health insurance and Medicare Advantage beneficiaries who had Type 2 diabetes. Of the more than 23 percent of patients who were using testing strips, more than half were probably doing so in spite of widespread recommendations that they shouldnt. They were using a median of two testing strips a day at a cost of more than $325 per year per patient. On another front, The New York Times has reported that a surprisingly large number of people who use insulin are using less because they cant afford it, putting themselves in danger. With a health care system as complicated as ours, its hard to take money from one pot and shift it easily to another. Efficiency in each system is crucial. The fact that a necessary facet of diabetes care is increasingly out of reach while unnecessary and potentially harmful care is easily overused illustrates how much work still needs to be done. In recent years, dozens of states and municipalities have prohibited employers from asking job -candidates about prior arrests; prosecutors have moved to clear convictions for marijuana possession; and police chiefs have instructed officers to stop arresting people for low-level crimes. A law approved in Pennsylvania last year automatically clears the records of people with misdemeanor offenses if, after 10 years, they have not been convicted of any other crime. So far, the California proposal has raised few public objections, largely because it does not expand the range of crimes that can be sealed. Under current law, people in California can seek to have records of misdemeanors and low-level felonies sealed by making a formal request to a court; under the new legislation, sealing would happen automatically. Under the current rules, its rare that people pursue sealing their records, and most dont even know it is an option, according to George Gascon, San Franciscos district attorney. Only about 20 percent of those eligible to get their records sealed in California actually do so. (Mr. Jordan said he was among people who didnt know, at first, that sealing his record was an option.) In an interview, Mr. Gascon, a Democrat, acknowledged that the legal system, including his own office, was partly responsible for the low rate. Mr. Gascon said he decided that it was critical to shift the burden away from individuals, and onto the judicial system. People dont understand how it works, or they dont have the capacity to get it done, he said. We cannot keep people caged in a paper prison for the rest of their lives. Offenses that would qualify to be automatically sealed under the new legislation are identical to those that people are permitted to seek to have sealed now, said Phil Ting, the State Assembly member, a Democrat, who introduced the bill. It seemed like a straightforward question: Should Houston firefighters be paid the same as the citys police officers? Almost 60 percent of voters said yes. But now, four months after that vote in November, the mayor of Houston is threatening to lay off up to 400 firefighters to pay for the raises mandated by the ballot measure. The fight over the citizen-driven charter amendment, known as Proposition B, has exploded into what one expert called a blood feud between the mayor, Sylvester Turner, and the union for one of the nations largest fire departments, for which the proposed cut would mean about a 10 percent reduction in staff. Beyond Houston, the situation offers a stark example of the perils of ballot initiatives while providing fuel for employers who warn that higher pay will lead to job cuts. Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here. You are here: Business China's largest SUV and pickup maker Great Wall Motor Co. Ltd. saw its H6 model sustain China's No. 1 top-selling SUV model for 69 months. It sold 69,037 new automobiles in February, up 18.34 percent year on year. Among them, 25,728 units were H6 vehicles. Continuing its push into the electric vehicle market, Great Wall Motor sold 3,280 units of its ORA brand last month. Headquartered in the city of Baoding, north China's Hebei Province, the company owns several SUV and car brands like Haval, Great Wall, WEY and ORA. It sold 1.05 million vehicles in 2018 and aims to sell 1.2 million this year. A former police officer in Bradenton, Fla., spent years abusing his access to sensitive information to target women for dates, according to an investigation by his former department, which interviewed nearly 150 women. The interviews revealed a pattern of negative and inappropriate behavior by the former officer, Leonel Marines, according to Melanie Bevan, chief of the Bradenton Police Department. An audit of Mr. Mariness use of drivers license and vehicle records showed a clear focus on searches for women over men. He was using it in a variety of ways, via social media, cold telephone calls, visits to their home under the guise of being there for police business, you name it, to try and get dates with these women, Chief Bevan said at a news conference late last week. Mr. Marines was very persistent and successful at times, she said, adding that his activity may have started as early as 2012. WASHINGTON Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced Monday that she will no longer enforce a provision in federal law that bars religious organizations from providing federally funded educational services to private schools. The move comes after the 2017 Supreme Court decision, Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia Inc. v. Comer, in which the high court found that Missouri had unconstitutionally engaged in religious discrimination when it denied a church-run preschool publicly funded tire scraps for its playground. Ms. DeVos said that after consultation with the Justice Department, education officials determined that a provision in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the federal law governing the nations elementary, middle and high schools, was also unconstitutional. The law calls for students in public and private schools to receive equitable services, such as special education, tutoring or mentoring, and allows districts to hire contractors to deliver those services. But the law requires that those contractors be independent of any religious organization. The Trinity Lutheran decision reaffirmed the long-understood intent of the First Amendment to not restrict the free exercise of religion, Ms. DeVos said in a statement. Those seeking to provide high-quality educational services to students and teachers should not be discriminated against simply based on the religious character of their organization. WASHINGTON Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, extended a bipartisan invitation on Monday to the head of NATO to address a joint session of Congress, in an unsubtle jab at President Trumps foreign policy that is meant to underscore broad congressional support for the alliance. The presidents antagonistic stance on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization publicly railing against its members while privately discussing withdrawing from the military alliance entirely has set off a bipartisan concern on Capitol Hill, where support for the alliance has remained largely unwavering. During this critical time for the United States, NATO and the European Union, the U.S. Congress and the American people look forward to your message of friendship and partnership, as we work together to strengthen our critical alliance and advance a future of peace around the world, Ms. Pelosi said Monday in a letter to Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary general. The invitation, endorsed by the minority leaders of both chambers Representative Kevin McCarthy of California and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York is intended to provide Mr. Stoltenberg the opportunity to respond to criticism that alliance members are not living up to their commitments on military spending, according to a Republican aide. [Sign up for our politics newsletter and join our conversation about the 2020 presidential race.] The Democratic National Committee has selected Milwaukee as the site of its national convention, placing a spotlight on a key Midwestern battleground state that Democrats lost for the first time in three decades in 2016 and see as central to the partys efforts to reclaim the White House. The convention will be held next year on July 13-16 in the newly built Fiserv Forum, a 17,500-seat arena thats home to the N.B.A.s Milwaukee Bucks. Milwaukee was selected over a pair of larger Sunbelt cities, Houston and Miami, to host the event. Milwaukee organizers raised more than $10 million and reassured officials that they had secured sufficient hotel capacity for the event, ameliorating concerns that the city lacked the finances and infrastructure to support an event that regularly draws tens of thousands of out-of-town activists, officials and media. Wisconsin holds a searing place in the Democratic Party psyche after Hillary Clinton, the partys last presidential nominee, opted not to campaign in the traditionally blue state during the general election a decision that some blamed for her 22,000-vote defeat in the state. Senator, lawyer, mother, childrens book author and now, Democratic candidate for president. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is in. Im filing an exploratory committee for president of the United States tonight. Hailing from President Trumps home state of New York, shes joining what will likely be a crowded 2020 field. Which Democrats Who will run for president in 2020? The list is growing. It ranges from Gillibrand is a former corporate lawyer and congresswoman. Growing up in a political family in Albany, She fell in love early on. I was drawn into politics when I was a little girl. And it was really with my grandmother, who loved politics. She was appointed to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate in 2009. Welcome, Senator. Gillibrand went on to win the seat again in a 2010 special election and has held it ever since. Over time she has reversed her positions on immigration and gun control. You start off in a different place on immigration and now youre more progressive on that. On guns, you started off, you know, more kind of pro-Second Amendment. Now, you went from having an A to an F from the N.R.A. I recognize that there was a lot of things I didnt know, and I should have been fighting for them before. Shes now one of the partys most reliably liberal voices. Some of her priorities: A populist economic agenda, womens rights and gender equality and fighting for victims of sexual assault with a focus on the military. Who is being held accountable for doing nothing since 2013? Who? Which commander? Gillibrand was the first senator in her party to call for the resignation of fellow Democrat Al Franken, following accusations of sexual misconduct. Enough is enough. Here she is during Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaughs confirmation hearings. I want to really have Dr. Blasey Fords back tomorrow. So Im going to sit behind her. Not only do I support her. But I believe her. So what is her dynamic with President Trump? He said: Shes just a puppet of Schumer. You know that. He put her there. Hes also referred to her as a lightweight who would do anything for money. She responded this way. It was a sexist smear. Its part of the presidents effort at name calling and its not going to silence me. Gillibrand has also voted against almost all of Trumps major nominees. I urge my colleagues. Reject this bad choice. So what are her chances? Gillibrand is seen as a serious contender, but so far her poll numbers are low. Her next step? Building a national profile and campaign. Last weeks story on the statements made by Representative Ilhan Omar, and the Democrats response to them, clearly resonated with readers. We got over 100 emails, covering views on all sides of the issue and coming from across the country (and even a few from around the globe). Some readers felt that Ms. Omars statements, regardless of possible anti-Semitism, addressed an issue that is in dire need of serious political debate. Jean Davis, Washington State: I am horrified that the moderate, older Dems wanted to rebuke Ms. Omar. Her comments were perhaps ill-advised, but why should she be singled out when comments made by other public figures are much more ugly and yet are let slide? People of different generations were raised with completely differing views of Israel my generation, the baby boomers, were taught to revere the strong new state of Israel, while people now in their 20s and 30s see the damage Israel is causing the Palestinians. Ms. Omar is of that generation and also an immigrant, and must be given some slack. Above all her First Amendment rights must NOT be trampled by Democrats! Malcolm Burnstein, California: Here is an 85-year-old Jew who strongly supports Ms. Omar, and who agrees with her that the Israeli and Aipac policies are racist and anti-Arab. If Aipac was not so cash heavy, Congress would judge its policy on the merits, and it would have little weight; and, likewise, Israeli discriminatory policy towards its Arab citizens and neighbors would merit criticism and not acceptance. At my age I witnessed the Nazi policy of murder toward Jews and I had hoped that the Jewish state would know, as no one else, how wrong and muddle headed those policies were. Alas, the Jewish state seems to have learned little from the far-to-recent past. Many others felt that Ms. Omars statements were plainly anti-Semitic, and that the Democratic reaction was not strong enough. Rachel Reiss, New York: Passing a resolution condemning all hate in response to a specific instance of pointed anti-Semitism, especially in the midst of an undeniable and disturbing upswing in anti-Semitic attacks both globally and nationally, is like passing a resolution that all lives matter in response to police violence against black men; it says the exact opposite of what it purports to say. David Friedland, Nevada: As a lifelong Democrat, I was upset at Ilhan Omars blatantly anti-Semitic, age-old canard about Jewish people having loyalty to another country. And I am equally upset at my party cowering to an increasingly tyrannical minority and failing to pass a specific resolution to a specific comment. Does not Congresswoman Omar know about Goebbels and his usage of propaganda such as the insidious international Jewish financiers, or the danger of Jewish penetration of law, medicine, property, and the arts. Has she not studied history and the power of the spoken word on a national platform? No bigotry should ever come close to being tolerated. Nor should hesitancy in unequivocally condemning a specific outburst of bigotry such as displayed by Congresswoman Omar ever be tolerated as well. And then there were those whose concerns were not the content of Ms. Omars statements, but the political fallout that they could have. Dave Stoller, Arizona: I applaud the enthusiasm of the congressional newbies. However, I say to each of them, be guided by this reality: you dont know everything, you cant do everything, especially all at once. You are the new kids on the block. You each need to learn how to be an effective legislator, how to communicate, how to work with other legislators, even those with whom you often disagree. Succeeding in Congress may require compromise, even with those you dont like. Arnie Serota, Hawaii: The Democrats need to get their act together and stop infighting on divisive issues. The number one theme, for the time being, should be the defeat of Donald Trump and the far right. If you want to share your thoughts, send us an email: onpolitics@nytimes.com. ____________________ What to read tonight With a tough election looming for Benjamin Netanyahu, The Times digs into the mutually beneficial feedback loop between him and President Trump. Silicon Valley searches for an IRL monument of its own. No trash is as glorious as Mardi Gras trash. Bloomberg Businessweek on what, exactly, happens to all those beads. ____________________ Seriously Last week, President Trump called Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, Tim Apple. It seemed like a lighthearted gaffe, the internet chuckled for a moment, then everyone moved on. Well, apparently not everyone. Payments to a variety of health care providers would also be cut. Medicare payments to hospitals for unpaid bills and uncompensated care would be reduced by $136 billion over 10 years. Mr. Trump would cut projected Medicare payments to hospital outpatient departments by $131 billion over 10 years. In addition, the budget squeezes more than $100 billion over 10 years from Medicare payments to nursing homes and home health agencies that care for Medicare patients who have left the hospital. The president offers a suite of proposals to lower prescription drug prices, with federal savings estimated at $69 billion over 10 years. The changes to the drug program may have the effect of increasing premiums for Americans who rely on Medicare, but they would also, for the first time, limit the amount that seniors with very expensive drugs could be asked to pay each year. Some of the plans resemble proposals unsuccessfully offered by President Barack Obama. And Mr. Trump proposed spending $26 billion less on Social Security programs, the federal retirement program, including a $10 billion cut to the Social Security Disability Insurance program, which provides benefits to disabled workers. Those cuts would be achieved in various ways, including more aggressively policing fraud in the program. The largest reductions would come from spending on discretionary domestic programs, outside of the military, which would be cut by $1.1 trillion over the course of a decade. Those cuts would not be across the board but would come from federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, which Mr. Trump once promised he would reduce to little tidbits. The budget proposes cutting the E.P.A.s funding by 31 percent. WASHINGTON He likes one and admits to falling in love with the other. He treasures letters from each of them. And he believes the personal rapport he built with both could clear the way to historic agreements on trade and nuclear arms that have eluded his predecessors. To President Trump, all diplomacy is personal, especially with the two Asian strongmen he has courted most avidly, Kim Jong-un of North Korea and Xi Jinping of China. But Mr. Trumps honeymoon with Mr. Kim came to an abrupt end in Vietnam last month, and his conviction that agreements between nations are little different than real estate deals between bosses now faces another stiff test with the Chinese president. In trade talks with China that are heading toward a potential meeting with Mr. Xi, Mr. Trump hopes to overcome decades of distrust to sign an agreement that would end a bitter trade war between the worlds two largest economies. For months, Juan Sanchez was at the center of the national uproar over family separations at the Mexican border because the nonprofit he founded, Southwest Key Programs, was housing migrant children taken from their parents. On Monday, facing intense scrutiny from his own organization and federal investigations over alleged financial improprieties, he stepped down after 32 years at the helm. The charitys chief financial officer, Melody Chung, left last month after a New York Times article outlined allegations of mismanagement and possible malfeasance at the charity. Southwest Key began an internal investigation after the article was published in December. The Justice Department also started investigating. The Southwest Key shelter in a former Walmart superstore in Brownsville, Tex., known as Casa Padre, became a symbol of the Trump administrations family separation policy, with immigration advocates likening it to a warehouse for children. But it was also a generator of millions of dollars in federal grants at a nonprofit unusually concerned with its bottom line. You are here: Business U.S. aircraft manufacturing giant Boeing Sunday promised to offer technical assistance to Ethiopia over a deadly air crash of Ethiopian Airlines. "A Boeing technical team will be traveling to the crash site to provide technical assistance under the direction of the Ethiopia Accident Investigation Bureau and U.S. National Transportation Safety Board," Boeing said in a short statement. It also offered condolences to the families of the passengers and crew on board Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 (ET 302). The Boeing 737-800 MAX airplane of Ethiopian Airlines with 157 passengers and crew members aboard crashed earlier Sunday en route to Nairobi, Kenya, killing all people on board. CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Group Tewolde Gebremariam told a press conference in Ethiopia that the 157 people aboard Flight 302 were nationals from over 30 countries. ALBUQUERQUE New Mexicos governor is feuding with county sheriffs, accusing them of going rogue by refusing to enforce new gun control legislation. Counties in Oregon are passing militia-backed measures against stricter gun laws. Washington State is warning sheriffs they could face legal action if they dont run enhanced background checks approved by voters. As states have approved dozens of restrictive gun control measures since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., last year, efforts to resist such laws have gathered strength around the nation as rural gun owners say their rights are being violated. This is just a gun-grab measure, Shane Ferrari, the sheriff of San Juan County, said of a provision that requires background checks on most gun sales in New Mexico, signed into law this month by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat. Sheriff Ferrari, a Republican, said he believed that the new law was a violation of the Second Amendment and the states existing gun laws, and that he would not enforce it unless a court ruling told him to do so. And all but a handful of counties in New Mexico have expressed similar opposition. Dr. Francine M. Ducharme, a professor of pediatrics and social and preventive medicine at the University of Montreal, has studied the efficacy and safety of asthma management. When a treatment of known efficacy doesnt work for a child, she said, the four major reasons are inadequate technique, suboptimal adherence to the regimen, other coexisting medical issues, or environmental triggers (for example, maybe the child is profoundly allergic to the cat). Problems with technique and adherence are the main ones. Its not enough to observe the child once, she said. We need to recheck the technique, children are very creative. Often, they use the correct technique the first time through, then find ways of getting around it. Whenever a medication doesnt work or have efficacy, before you think about stepping up medications, you need to review those four criteria. Everyone, adult or child, should use a spacer, she said, to make sure the drug is properly inhaled into the lungs rather than deposited in the mouth. In a 2018 study of what convinces parents to adhere to inhaled corticosteroid regimens with their asthmatic children, a large proportion of parents said that children 8 and over were partially responsible for using their inhalers and noticing whether they were empty. But proper inhaler technique needs to be taught to parents, she said, and they need to understand that they have an important ongoing role. In their clinic, an asthma educator works with families, Dr. Ducharme said, and its amazing the number of times we find things that have to be corrected. Parents may believe their children have mastered the technique and learned all the steps, Dr. Anderson said, but we need the parents to be there to observe them and make sure theyre taking it correctly, especially for children under 12. In fact, among the patients in the study, he said, although there was across the board poor inhaler technique, the group with the best technique was the 4- to 11-year-olds; the researchers cant say why, but their working theory is parental supervision. The worst technique was in the 18- to 29-year-olds. One risk of poor inhaler technique is that childrens asthma will be more severe, and they will miss out on the opportunity to play or participate in sports, or perhaps even will need trips to the emergency room. They may feel frustrated because theyve been trying to take care of themselves by using their inhalers, and it just doesnt seem to be helping. But another risk is that because they seem not to be responding to the medications they are taking (because the medications are not being delivered to their lungs in the right doses), their doctors may prescribe stronger and more expensive medications, or more complex regimens. Any airline disaster demands explanation, but the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday the second in less than five months by the same new model of plane raises more than the usual questions and fears. Shortly after the Boeing 737 Max 8 took off from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, bound for Nairobi, Kenya, the pilot sent a distress call and received permission to return to the airport. Six minutes after takeoff, the jet plunged to earth, killing all 157 people aboard. Here is a look at what we know about the disaster and what we still dont. [Read our latest updates on the Ethiopian Airlines crash.] What caused the crash? It is much too soon to say why the plane went down, or to rule out possibilities like pilot error, mechanical breakdown, maintenance problems or terrorism. When I got there, boarding had closed and I could see the last passengers in the bellows boarding the plane. I was demanding to get in too, but they didnt allow it, Mr. Mavropoulos said on Monday. Three hours later, as he was boarding the next flight to Nairobi, two security guards escorted him to the airports police station, over his loud protests he did not want to miss his meetings in Nairobi. But an official explained that he should stop protesting and thank God, instead. They could not let him leave before they had established who he was and why he had not boarded the flight, which had crashed. Mr. Mavropoulos was shocked. The thoughts came like streaks of lightning: Oh my God, he said. Im alive because the connection ambassador was a few minutes late, and then that I was demanding theyd let me in the flight imagine what would have happened if they had done so. Image A picture of the ticket that Mr. Mavropoulos posted on social media. Credit... Antonis Mavropoulos He realized he should contact his family, let them know that he was not on Flight 302, that small, random events had made him miss it: not having a suitcase, missing the airline representative, running late. A spokesman for Ethiopian Airlines confirmed on Monday that Mr. Mavropoulos booking was changed to the 4:25 p.m. flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi. He thanked his good fortune for what he had berated as bad luck. I broke down the moment I had that thought, he wrote. Political analysts say that Indians are rallying behind Mr. Modi again, and that he seems to be making crucial gains among independent and undecided voters. The fact that Indias airstrikes probably missed their targets, and that a fighter jet was shot down by Pakistan, doesnt seem to matter to most Indians. Their country was hit, and Mr. Modi hit back. Even if they go below the seven seas, I will find them, Mr. Modi said in a speech this month, referring to terrorists. To settle the score is my habit! Some of his supporters in India see Mr. Modis aggressive stance not as pandering for votes, but as a return to his old passion and focus. Whatever our criticisms about him regarding the economy and jobs, at the end of the day he has done an incredible job of delivering justice for the martyrs, said Prapti Bhattacharya, a law student and first-time voter. Before this, I would have voted for Congress, the leading opposition party, she said. Now Im voting for Modi. The Pakistan crisis has provided him with a golden narrative, said Milan Vaishnav, the director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The thing about a national security crisis is that it plays up decisiveness, leadership and nationalism. These are three characteristics he often touts. HERAT, Afghanistan Taliban fighters killed or captured an entire Afghan National Army company of more than 50 soldiers on Monday, Afghan officials said, the latest in a series of major attacks by the militant group even as it pursues a peace deal with the United States. The attack, in which the Taliban were reported to have killed 16 soldiers and taken 40 prisoner, took place in northwestern Badghis Province, close to the countrys western border with Turkmenistan. It came as Taliban negotiators entered a third week of talks with American diplomats in the Persian Gulf kingdom of Qatar. In the assault, a large force of Taliban insurgents surrounded a base in the Bala Murghab district. After four hours of fighting, the militants captured or killed all of the soldiers in their base, as well as others at two outposts nearby, according to Abdul Aziz Beg, head of the Badghis provincial council. The episode was the deadliest in a weeklong insurgent campaign that has killed, wounded or captured 70 soldiers in the district, Mr. Beg said. The district is on the verge of collapse, Mr. Beg said. The fighting has gone on for a week, but the government is not paying any attention. PARIS For Adam Kirkwood, a weekend getaway in Paris that included museum visits and strolls along the Seine had gone pretty smoothly. Until it was time to go back to London. On Monday, he experienced a flavor of Frances protest culture combined with a taste of Brexit when his Eurostar train was delayed for two hours at the Gare du Nord. The wait was caused by a French customs officers protest against what they see as Frances lack of preparation ahead of Britains exit from the European Union. I am not sure that we, in Britain, are as worried as the French customs officers about Brexit, Mr. Kirkwood, 68, said. Maybe we should stop drinking tea and start thinking about what comes next. As Britain prepares for another crucial vote on Tuesday about the withdrawal, customs workers on the other side of the English Channel have been showing what might happen. Without extra funding and staffing ahead of the March 29 deadline, they say, the ports, train stations and tunnel linking Britain and France will face mayhem. WOLVERHAMPTON, England To understand the contradictions that are tearing the Labour Party apart, consider Ruth Wilkinson and Philip Handley, both Labour supporters. Ms. Wilkinson, 24, voted for Britain to remain in the European Union. Mr. Handley, 60, to leave. The only bond that unites them is their fury at Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, and his handling of the opposition to the governments plan for Britains departure from the European Union, known as Brexit. Both are ready to ditch the party altogether. Im absolutely devastated about the direction were traveling in, Ms. Wilkinson, who works for a charity, said. The party that I hold dear, and the party that I would stand behind, is not doing anything to offer a solution or an alternative. Mr. Handley said Labour had misled people like him. Ive always voted for the Labour Party, said the retired transport manager, who would prefer that Britain leave the bloc with no deal. But this is the only thing I disagree with Jeremy Corbyn how he handles Brexit. If there is no agreement by March 29, Britain will depart the bloc without any deal. That could mean a brutal economic adjustment, as the terms of trade would change overnight, disrupting the flow of goods to and from the continent. In January, the prime ministers Brexit withdrawal proposals were defeated by 230 votes in the 650-seat Parliament, one of the greatest defeats in British history. Overturning that is a formidable task. But if Mrs. May can at least limit the size of a second defeat, she might be able to kick the can down the road one last time. Under that scenario she might seek one further concession at a summit of European Union leaders on March 21, then perhaps hold a third final vote on her deal just before Britains scheduled departure, offering it as the only alternative to delaying Brexit. Lawmakers, however, are getting restive and are threatening to try to seize control of the process. Mrs. May has promised that if Parliament rejects her deal again on Tuesday, it will be offered votes on whether to leave the bloc without an agreement, something that a majority of lawmakers oppose. If they decide against that, legislators would then be allowed another vote on whether Britain should request an extension of its negotiations with Brussels. Mrs. May is increasingly trapped between warring factions of her own Conservative Party. One group is determined to prevent the prospect of a potentially chaotic no deal departure. But another faction wants to keep that option open in the hope that the threat of a disorderly Brexit would force a better deal out of European nations, whose economies would also suffer. BAGHDAD From financing the expansion of the vast courtyards that lead into the Shiite shrines of the holy city of Najaf, to ensuring that a Tehran-friendly candidate gets the job of interior minister, Irans role in Iraq keeps growing. President Hassan Rouhani of Iran arrived in Baghdad on Monday for a visit to a place that his country has shaped in ways big and small over the past several years. Iran was the real winner of last years parliamentary elections in Iraq: The parties linked to the paramilitary Popular Mobilization Forces, most of them with ties to Tehran, emerged as the kingmakers. Iran is a small body with a big brain, and the United States is a big body with a small brain, said Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni Muslim who was a former speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, trying to explain how Iran seemed to have gained the upper hand in Iraq. Adnan al-Zurfi, a Shiite member of the Iraqi Parliament who has lived in the United States, put it succinctly. A self-driving tractor with application of BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) was tested successfully Sunday in northwestern Tunisia. The representatives of China-Arab BDS/GNSS center and the Arab Information and Communication Technologies Organization (AICTO), as well as the academic staff of an engineering school in Mjez El-Beb region in northwestern Tunisia, attended the test ceremony. This smart tractor, used in various agricultural activities, was equipped with a BDS, so that it can be controlled remotely without a driver. "I am very impressed and surprised by the quality of the equipment offered by BeiDou," said Sami Trimech, the strategic planning and development director at AICTO. "We had a dream to bring BeiDou to the Arab countries," said Nour Laabidi, the project manager at AICTO and head of China-Arab BDS/GNSS center in Tunisia. "This is a pilot project. We are happy to implement it in our country and I hope that all Arab countries will be able to use this Chinese technology," said Laabidi. Hassan Kherroubi, a specialist in the mechanical industry at the Mjez El-Beb engineering school, stressed the contribution of this Chinese technology to the agricultural sector in Tunisia. According to Kherroubi, a series of agricultural activities, including the harvest, will be more profitable and more effective with such technologies. "Our main concern is to benefit all Arab and African countries of this fruitful cooperation between Tunisia and China," Kherroubi said, adding that this advanced technology will bring a bright future to the region. BDS is compatible with other navigation systems, such as GPS, and users can receive services from both systems at the same time, improving positioning accuracy. Civil aviation authority asked domestic airlines to temporarily suspend operation of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft after a model operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed on Sunday, according to report by Caijing.com. All 157 people on board the aircraft from Addis Ababa to Nairobi died in the accident, according to Ethiopian Airlines. It is the second time in less than five months that Boeing 737 MAX was involved in such a deadly crash. According to Caijing.com, the Civil Aviation Administration of China told domestic airlines to replace many of the domestic flights that were set for the Boeing 737 MAX with Boeing 737-800 models. There are over 60 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft that have been delivered to Chinese carriers, including Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines. Where Max 8 jets were: Still flying Grounded Monday morning Reykjavik Oslo Helsinki Warsaw London Vancouver Montreal Milan Istanbul Boston Beijing Seoul New York U.S. San Francisco China Los Angeles New Dehli Dubai Miami Shenzhen Mexico City Hawaii Addis Ababa Site of Sundays crash Bogota Singapore Nairobi Jakarta Fiji and Samoa Bali Lima Brasilia Johannesburg Brisbane Sydney Buenos Aires U.S. China Hawaii Site of Sundays crash Fiji and Samoa U.S. China Site of Sundays crash U.S. China Site of Sundays crash U.S. China Site of Sundays crash Where Max 8 jets were: Still flying Grounded Monday morning Reykjavik Oslo Helsinki Warsaw London Vancouver Montreal Milan Istanbul Boston Beijing Seoul New York U.S. San Francisco China Los Angeles New Dehli Dubai Miami Shenzhen Mexico City Hawaii Addis Ababa Site of Sundays crash Bogota Singapore Nairobi Jakarta Fiji and Samoa Bali Lima Brasilia Johannesburg Brisbane Sydney Buenos Aires U.S. China Hawaii Site of Sundays crash Fiji and Samoa U.S. China Site of Sundays crash U.S. China Site of Sundays crash U.S. China Site of Sundays crash Where Max 8 jets were: Still flying Grounded Monday morning Reykjavik Oslo Helsinki Warsaw London Vancouver Montreal Milan Istanbul Boston Beijing Seoul New York U.S. San Francisco China Los Angeles New Dehli Dubai Miami Shenzhen Mexico City Hawaii Addis Ababa Site of Sundays crash Bogota Singapore Nairobi Jakarta Fiji and Samoa Bali Lima Brasilia Johannesburg Brisbane Sydney Buenos Aires U.S. China Hawaii Site of Sundays crash Fiji and Samoa U.S. China Site of Sundays crash U.S. China Site of Sundays crash U.S. China Site of Sundays crash Where Max 8 jets were: Still flying Grounded Monday night Reykjavik Oslo Helsinki Warsaw London Vancouver Montreal Milan Istanbul Boston Beijing Seoul New York U.S. San Francisco China Los Angeles New Dehli Dubai Miami Shenzhen Mexico City Hawaii Addis Ababa Site of Sundays crash Bogota Singapore Nairobi Jakarta Fiji and Samoa Bali Lima Brasilia Johannesburg Brisbane Sydney Buenos Aires U.S. China Hawaii Site of Sundays crash Fiji and Samoa U.S. China Site of Sundays crash U.S. China Site of Sundays crash U.S. China Site of Sundays crash Where Max 8 jets were: Still flying Grounded Tuesday morning Reykjavik Oslo Helsinki Warsaw London Vancouver Montreal Milan Istanbul Boston Beijing Seoul New York U.S. San Francisco China Los Angeles New Dehli Dubai Miami Shenzhen Mexico City Hawaii Addis Ababa Site of Sundays crash Bogota Singapore Nairobi Jakarta Fiji and Samoa Bali Lima Brasilia Johannesburg Brisbane Sydney Buenos Aires U.S. China Hawaii Site of Sundays crash Fiji and Samoa U.S. China Site of Sundays crash U.S. China Site of Sundays crash U.S. China Site of Sundays crash Where Max 8 jets were: Still flying Grounded Tuesday morning Reykjavik Oslo Helsinki Warsaw London Vancouver Montreal Milan Istanbul Boston Beijing Seoul New York U.S. San Francisco China Los Angeles New Dehli Dubai Miami Shenzhen Mexico City Hawaii Addis Ababa Site of Sundays crash Bogota Singapore Nairobi Jakarta Fiji and Samoa Bali Lima Brasilia Johannesburg Brisbane Sydney Buenos Aires U.S. China Hawaii Site of Sundays crash Fiji and Samoa U.S. China Site of Sundays crash U.S. China Site of Sundays crash U.S. China Site of Sundays crash Where Max 8 jets were: Still flying Grounded Wednesday morning Reykjavik Oslo Helsinki Warsaw London Vancouver Montreal Milan Istanbul Boston Beijing Seoul New York U.S. San Francisco China Los Angeles New Dehli Dubai Miami Shenzhen Mexico City Hawaii Addis Ababa Site of Sundays crash Bogota Singapore Nairobi Jakarta Fiji and Samoa Bali Lima Brasilia Johannesburg Brisbane Sydney Buenos Aires U.S. China Hawaii Site of Sundays crash Fiji and Samoa U.S. China Site of Sundays crash U.S. China Site of Sundays crash U.S. China Site of Sundays crash Where Max 8 jets were: Still flying Grounded Wednesday afternoon Reykjavik Oslo Helsinki Warsaw London Vancouver Montreal Milan Istanbul Boston Beijing Seoul New York U.S. San Francisco China Los Angeles New Dehli Dubai Miami Shenzhen Mexico City Hawaii Addis Ababa Site of Sundays crash Bogota Singapore Nairobi Jakarta Fiji and Samoa Bali Lima Brasilia Johannesburg Brisbane Sydney Buenos Aires U.S. China Hawaii Site of Sundays crash Fiji and Samoa U.S. China Site of Sundays crash U.S. China Site of Sundays crash U.S. China Site of Sundays crash Where Max 8 jets were: Still flying Grounded Monday morning Reykjavik Oslo Helsinki Warsaw London Vancouver Montreal Milan Istanbul Boston Beijing Seoul New York U.S. San Francisco China Los Angeles New Dehli Dubai Miami Shenzhen Mexico City Hawaii Addis Ababa Site of Sundays crash Bogota Singapore Nairobi Jakarta Fiji and Samoa Bali Lima Brasilia Johannesburg Brisbane Sydney Buenos Aires U.S. China Hawaii Site of Sundays crash Fiji and Samoa U.S. China Site of Sundays crash U.S. China Site of Sundays crash U.S. China Site of Sundays crash Note: Based on historical flight patterns from from Feb. 25 to March 3. Days are based on the Eastern time zone. | Source: Flightradar24 and aviation authorities. All Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft are believed to have been pulled from use worldwide after the model crashed twice in just five months, raising questions about its safety. The United States was the latest country to ground the planes, following Canadian aviation authorities earlier on Wednesday. Concerns about the model first surfaced after a Lion Air flight crashed near Indonesia in October, killing all 189 people aboard. On Sunday, a second plane crashed outside Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, killing 157 people. It is unclear why the second plane crashed or whether the causes of the crashes are related. See our latest coverage of the Ethiopian Airlines crash. The European Union, China, Indonesia and more than a half dozen countries had already barred the planes from their airspace as the investigation into the Ethiopia crash continued. All 47 airlines that have the Max 8 in their fleets are believed to have stopped flying it. Countries that have grounded Max 8 planes Note: Not all countries are labeled. Status of Max 8 flights by airline as of March 13 Airline Status Number of 737 MAX 8s in Fleet Southwest Airlines Grounded 34 American Airlines Grounded 24 Air Canada Grounded 24 China Southern Airlines Grounded 22 Norwegian Air Grounded 18 TUI Fly Grounded 15 Air China Grounded 15 SpiceJet Grounded 13 WestJet Grounded 13 Turkish Airlines Grounded 11 FlyDubai Grounded 11 Shanghai Airlines Grounded 11 Hainan Airlines Grounded 11 Xiamen Airlines Grounded 10 Lion Air Grounded 10 Smartwings Grounded 7 GOL Airlines Grounded 7 Shandong Airlines Grounded 7 SilkAir Grounded 6 Aeromexico Grounded 6 Shenzhen Airlines Grounded 6 Jet Airways Previously grounded 5 LOT Grounded 5 Oman Air Grounded 5 Aerolineas Argentinas Grounded 5 Sunwing Airlines Grounded 4 China Eastern Airlines Grounded 4 Ethiopian Airlines Grounded 4 Icelandair Grounded 3 Air Italy Grounded 3 Lucky Air Grounded 3 Enter Air Grounded 2 Fiji Airways Grounded 2 S7 Airlines Grounded 2 Cayman Airways Grounded 2 Fuzhou Airlines Grounded 2 Kunming Airlines Grounded 2 Okay Airways Grounded 2 Eastar Jet Grounded 2 Mauritania Airlines Unknown 1 Corendon Airlines Grounded 1 SCAT Airlines Grounded 1 9 Air Grounded 1 Royal Air Maroc Grounded 1 Comair Grounded 1 MIAT Mongolian Airlines Grounded 1 Garuda Indonesia Grounded 1 Note: Jet Airways has not flown Max 8 jets since the beginning of March due to financial distress. SCAT Airlines has suspended all Boeing 737 Max 8 operations to comply with regulations from Kazakhstan and the UAEs Civil Aviation Safety Authority. Flight records show no recent flights on Max 8 jets on Mauritania Airlines. The Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing originally stood by the planes safety, and Southwest and American Airlines continued to fly it in the United States after other airlines had grounded their fleets. The F.A.A. said on Wednesday that an analysis of new evidence collected at the site of the Ethiopian Airlines crash affected its decision. The 737 class is a workhorse for airlines worldwide, and the single-aisle 737 Max has been Boeings best-selling plane ever. More than 340 of the Max 8 planes are registered, and many more are on order. An estimated 8,600 flights use the plane in a typical week of travel, according to an analysis based on data from Flightradar24, a flight tracking service. But the model accounts for a small fraction of planes in the air at any given time, according to Ian Petchenik, a spokesman for Flightradar24. The most popular routes are in North America and China. Where Max 8 planes fly most often CANADA Calgary Vancouver Montreal Boston San Francisco UNITED STATES New York City (LGA) Los Angeles Miami Monterrey Mexico City Santo Domingo Barbados Trinidad and Tobago Air Canada Bogota American Airlines Quito Aeromexico Lima Urumqi Beijing Tianjin CHINA Nanjing Shanghai Nanning Shenzhen Air China Shanghai Airlines Shenzhen Airlines Note: Only routes with 40 or more flights per week on a given airline are shown. Investigators recovered both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder for the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Monday. Some circumstances of the crash, such as unusual altitude changes after takeoff, were similar to those in the Lion Air flight, but the cause is not known. South Korean automaker KIA Motors is considering suspending production at one of its Chinese factories, just days after a similar announcement from fellow car producer Hyundai, amid growing concerns about slumping sales in the world's biggest auto market. In a statement released Sunday, KIA said a suspension of operations at one of its plants in Yancheng, east China's Jiangsu Province was under review "to secure production efficiency and profitability." KIA, South Korea's second biggest vehicle manufacturer, saw its sales slump 44 percent in 2017 amid tensions over Seoul's installation of the THAAD missile system. Despite recovering by around nine percent last year, KIA's sales in China failed to reach targets. The company has three production plants in Jiangsu Province, with a combined capacity of 890,000 vehicles per year. KIA's statement followed a similar announcement by Hyundai on Friday, with South Korea's largest automaker saying it was considering suspending production at its No.1 plant in Beijing. Hyundai said it was "taking voluntary retirements" from staff at its oldest plant in China, amid a decline in sales. Once China's third-biggest auto brand, Hyundai has the capacity to produce more than 1.6 million vehicles in China, but only sold 820,000 in 2017. Hyundai and KIA are two affiliated brands, forming the world's fifth-largest automaker. However, car buyers worldwide are turning away from "Made in South Korea," with the country's vehicle exports declining 1.2 percent year-on-year in February. China, the world's biggest car market, saw sales of new vehicles decline in 2018 for the first time in almost 30 years, amid falling consumption and a growing second-hand sector. A strict mother in China reportedly abandoned her 12-year-old son in the middle of a busy street in Luoyang City after he only managed to score 81 percent on an exam, which apparently wasnt good enough. Police officers in Luoyangs Gucheng district found the boy wandering the streets close to where his mother dropped him off before driving away. They had been alerted by passers-by who saw the woman stopping her car in the area, pulling the boy out and then scolding and hitting him before leaving him there by himself. CCTV footage shows the officers approaching the disoriented child in an attempt to find out what happened. They later told local reporters that the boy had been abandoned for not achieving the 95 percent score that his mother expected on a recent exam. Photo: ken19991210/Pixabay Was it your mother who beat you? one police officer can be heard asking the boy, surnamed Yang, in the police car, to which the 12-year-old answers Yes, I didnt do well in my exam. After interviewing eye-witnesses and identifying the woman who abandoned the boy by her cars license plate number, officers took the boy to the station and contacted the woman to come pick him up. Shockingly, the mother told police that she did not want him back, and that she would not come to get him even if they threatened to charge her. I dont want him anymore. You can do whatever you want with him. You can even charge me, the strict mother said during the phone call. According to the police report, the 12-year-old boy spent about an hour at the station before being picked up by an uncle. It is unclear if he was taken back by his mother, or if the police plan to charge her with anything. Its a known fact that Chinas school exams are very serious business, with the dreaded Gaokao national exam responsible for shaping the future of millions of young students, but even so, the mothers reaction to her sons less-than-perfect exam score was criticized on social media. You should be patient and give your child advice if he did anything wrong, not abandon him on the side of the street, one person wrote. You are such an irresponsible mother, another commenter added. Danielle Kent There are anywhere between 80 and 95 million Millennials in the U.S., which means this demographic currently comprises approximately 30 percent of the population. By next year, its expected theyll have a collective purchasing power of $1.4 trillion. Whether its a response to consumer demand or new policy implementations affecting the food industry, one things certain: the age of the super-sized cheeseburger drenched in trans-fats is over. And unlike years past, when fast food could regularly be produced with cheap and unhealthy ingredients, its clear that Millennials are driving the demand for a certain level of care in the production of their food, regardless of cost. Governmental interference on the menu Leading the trend in health-driven change in the fast food industry, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg banned trans-fats across his municipality. Though that policy was initially perceived as extreme, three years after the ban went into effect studies showed that diners at fast food restaurants in the city were eating an average of 0.5 grams of trans-fat per meal, down from 2.4 grams of trans fats prior to the ban. Beyond that, the number of meals without any trans-fat at all went up from 32 percent before the ban to 59 percent after the fact. Several cities have since followed suit with similar bans. Additional policies enforced by the FDA include mandating restaurants with more than 20 locations to note calorie counts on their menus, though studies have shown that only a sixth of consumers make note of those numbers. Spending more in the name of quality In a recent survey by Deloitte, 83 percent of respondents said the typical fast-food menu didnt offer enough healthy choices. As the trend of fast casual restaurants maintains its stronghold, we see that Millennial consumers are willing to spend a few more bucks to seek food they perceive as higher quality. Brands like Panera have seen major success in investing their funds in reformulations of signature menu items to meet their customer bases interest in cleaner choices. Keywords like local and natural majorly sway Millennial purchasing behavior, and even competition from higher cost food trucks and local restaurants is more of a threat than ever. Millennials asked and they received Executives at companies like McDonalds have seen sales slip in recent years and have been quick to tweak even its most popular items to regain their previous position in the marketplace. The Happy Meals evolution over the past six years is indicative of a major shift in Americas dining behavior; portion sizes have been reduced, sliced apples and yogurt are encouraged over fries, and bottled water has replaced sugary sodas as the default beverage. From adding salads to their once burger-centric menus to their promise to reduce the added sugar content in their chocolate milk, its clear that the power of the discerning consumer is a force to be reckoned with. Food politics expert and author Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University noted The trend is clear: fresh, natural, local, organic. This is hard for fast food and processed food makers to accomplish, but they are all trying. In a competitive and overly saturated industry like fast food, flexibility is necessary to stay competitive. Meanwhile, marketers are tasked with reframing the public opinion surrounding fast food. A question of credibility comes into play as todays consumers are asked to trust that establishments once offering nothing more than burgers and fries have shifted their offerings to include salads and fruit platters. Low cost and fast service is no longer the sole factor driving fast food purchases; marketers must alter the tone of fast food brands to position them as nutrient-dense quick meal options rather than junk food. Without adjusting their core values to adhere to the health interests of Millennials, fast food brands will struggle to stay afloat. *** Danielle Kent is based out of Marketing Mavens Los Angeles headquarters. Former RTE newsreader Aengus MacGrianna is urging businesses in Offaly to support cancer patients and their families by getting behind the Irish Cancer Societys Daffodil Day on Friday, March 22, to ensure as many patients as possible receive the help and support they need this year. Aengus, who lives on an alpaca farm run by his husband Terry, is calling on businesses in Offaly to help the Irish Cancer Society meet ever increasing demands for services such as counselling. Aengus was just 11 when he lost his mother to cancer, and her death was devastating for his whole family. Losing mum to cancer was heart-breaking, especially as she was so young and we were still growing up. It was an extremely tough time. The Irish Cancer Societys free counselling sessions for families affected by cancer didnt exist when I was younger." "This support, which is only available because of Daffodil Day donations, could be a lifeline for someone struggling with the impact of a diagnosis. Get your workplace involved on March 22 to ensure families like ours can receive free services and get the help they need to cope with a cancer diagnosis. Last year, with the help of Daffodil Day donations, 281 counselling sessions were provided to people from Offaly to help them deal with a cancer diagnosis. This represents an 18% increase in the number of sessions provided in 2016. With cancer incidence on the rise, the Society expects even more people to seek counselling in 2019, a demand that can only be met if enough funds are raised on Daffodil Day. Companies can help rally around their customers and staff affected by cancer by hosting a fundraising coffee morning in work or by volunteering to sell daffodils on the day. Boots Ireland is the sponsor of Daffodil Day this year and all 87 stores are backing the campaign by selling daffodils and hosting in-store fundraisers. Chief Executive of the Irish Cancer Society Averil Power said, Because more people are getting cancer each year, not everyone is getting the care and support they need. We must do more to ensure we can support every cancer patient. With the help of local companies and supporters on Daffodil Day, cancer patients and their families can receive free counselling sessions across the country through our affiliated cancer support centres. To help deliver more care and support locally, and meet increasing demands, we are asking more companies to get involved in Daffodil Day this year. Bernadette Lavery, MD, Boots Ireland said: Boots staff come face to face with people facing cancer every day. We do our best to offer support through local services such as the Boot Irish Cancer Society Information Pharmacists, who are trained specifically to provide information and advice on cancer, and our Beauty Cancer Advisors, who help women manage the visible side effects of cancer. Staff in our 87 stores are looking forward to showing further support for people affected by cancer on March 22, with cyclathons, bake sales and other fundraising activities taking place in our stores around the country. To get involved register at www.cancer.ie/daffodildayatwork Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider subscribing to our ePaper and/or free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. Lupita Nyongo Says She Watched Get Out Five Times In One Month While Working On Black Panther Elijah C. Watson Elijah Watson serves as Okayplayer's News & Culture Editor. When Her enthusiasm for Jordan Peeles directorial debut is why she accepted her role for Us without even knowing what it was. Lupita Nyongo takes on the lead role of Adelaide Wilson in Jordan Peeles upcoming film Us. But even when NyongO was first approached to be in Peeles follow-up to Get Out without even knowing who shed be portraying, she said yes. Speaking with Buzzfeed News Profile, Nyongo revealed that her enthusiasm for Get Out played an important part for her want to work with Peele, even admitting that she saw the movie five times in one month while working on Black Panther. Black Panther was intense and time-consuming and all-encompassing, she said. But I found time to go to the cinema five times in one month while I was working on that film to watch Get Out. [Peele] created a cinematic experience that we could grab and take with us, she continued. It became such a joy to just live in his mind. I was just like, I need to work with that guy right there. Us premiered last week at SXSW. Peele previously explained how Us and Get Out are different, discussing the former as a horror film without any caveats that not only tackles race but also how the movie industry views race. There hasnt been a horror film about a black family, that I can remember. I think thats an important thing to note. We have a lot of films in this genre where a family meets a monster, but the fact weve never seen a black family in that situation is a problem to me, Peele said. Theres a presumption in the industry that if black people are the leads in a film it has to be in some way about race. I wanted to show that we can push past that. Source: Buzzfeed News The alumni included, left to right: Doug Ledbetter, Nate Geist and Brad Johnson. The alumni included, left to right: Doug Ledbetter, Nate Geist and Brad Johnson. Business College Alumni Share Wisdom with Current Students March 11, 2019 The Paul Dickinson College of Business at OBU hosted its spring business forum Friday, March 8. The event took place in Tulsa Royalties Auditorium inside Bailey Business Center on the OBU campus in Shawnee. The forum included a panel with three OBU alumni who gave advice and guidance to students, including Nate Geist, Brad Johnson and Doug Ledbetter. Geist graduated from OBU in 2005 with degrees in accounting and finance. He spent 10 years as a CPA in Oklahoma City before joining Edward Jones in 2015. He now offices in the Quail Springs area of northwest Oklahoma City. Johnson also graduated in 2005 with a degree in accounting and a minor in mathematics. He joined Finley and Cooks audit practice following graduation. In 2009, he began working at the Baptist Foundation of Oklahoma where he served as vice president and controller for eight years. In 2018, he was promoted to senior vice president and CFO. Ledbetter, also a 2005 graduate, earned degrees in accounting and finance. He joined Ernst and Youngs Oklahoma City audit practice upon graduation. In 2010, he transferred to the companys Wichita office where he was promoted to partner in 2017. In Wichita, he works with several public and private companies in the aerospace, commodities and manufacturing sectors. Each of the alumni spent time describing to students where they are now and how they got there from OBU. They also discussed how, when they were searching for jobs, they looked at companies that aligned with their beliefs. Although I work for a secular organization, their values align with my beliefs, Ledbetter said. That has been very helpful to me to be able to live in a way that is honoring God through my business career. Geist encouraged students to work every day and do the best they can. He reminded them that each day matters when working toward long-term goals. Johnson encouraged the audience to build relationships and use those relationships to their advantage, while also giving their best effort for even routine daily tasks. Dont be afraid to reach out and build those relationships, he said. Take a small task and take it seriously. Take that ownership mindset and start applying it immediately. Innovate and make it better, make it faster. People will notice that. Learn more about OBUs Paul Dickinson College of Business. At the annual National People's Congress (NPC) meeting, China has set its economic growth target for 2019 at 6.0 to 6.5 percent. To put this into comparison with the world's three largest economies, China is expected to grow this year more than twice as fast as the U.S. and more than three times as fast as the EU. This is particularly significant because China's performance will be set against the background of an overall slowdown of the Western economies. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its latest forecast in January, projects that growth in the advanced Western economies as a whole will fall from 2.3 percent in 2018 to 2.0 percent in 2019. In the U.S. it will fall from 2.9 percent to 2.5 percent, and in the Eurozone from 1.8 percent to 1.6 percent. Even if the IMF's projection that China's growth will be 6.2 percent in 2019 is accurate and that falls toward the bottom end of the government's target range this means that not only will China be growing more than twice as fast as the U.S., but the economic slowdown in the U.S. will be much more severe in relative terms than in China. The U.S. economy would slow from 2.9 percent to 2.5 percent, or by 14 percent of the previous figure, while China would slow from 6.6 percent to 6.2 percent, by only 6 percent from the previous figure. But China, in correlation with its growth target, has simultaneously set internationally leading targets on climate change and environmental issues. To put it in popular Western terms, China is emphasizing "green growth." Both aspects therefore need to be analyzed to understand the significance of the NPC's resolution. Not just growth per capita growth Starting with China's growth target, the issues involved can be seen most clearly if they are considered in per capita terms. China's population growth is slower than other major economies; growth in 2018 was 0.5 percent, compared to 0.7 percent in the U.S. and 1.3 percent in India. Therefore, a part of U.S. and Indian total GDP growth, compared to China, is simply due to their more rapid population growth. However, the increase in the wellbeing of any country's population is determined not by total GDP but by per capita GDP. In per capita GDP terms, as shown in Figure 1, China's growth in 2018 was the fastest for any major economy 6.1 percent compared to 5.9 percent in India and only 2.4 percent in the U.S. or 1.8 percent in Germany. Figure 1 The true target beyond GDP growth But China rightly emphasizes that GDP growth cannot by itself be the target. The correct goal is "human-centered development" that is the improvement of the situation of humanity and the overall living conditions of China's population. China has long led the way in raising living standards, faster over the last 40 years than any major economy. It has led in poverty reduction, too since 1978 China has accounted for almost three out of four of the number of people who have risen out of poverty worldwide, as defined by the World Bank. China's pledge to entirely eliminate absolute poverty by 2020, repeated at this year's NPC, remains an inspiring goal for all humanity. This illustrates that growth of per capita GDP is not just a question of "concrete and steel," that is physical production. Economists know that average life expectancy is the best indicator of overall human living conditions as it sums up in a single figure all positive (reduction of poverty, education, good health care, environmental protection) and negative (poverty, bad health care, lack of education, environmental damage) trends. Internationally, more than 70 percent of differences in life expectancy between countries are explained by differences in per capita GDP. But as China develops, its most important targets and methods necessarily have to change. To lift more than 800 million people out of poverty, as China has done since 1978, China necessarily had to rely on overall economic growth no targeted measures would have been nearly powerful enough. But even with economic growth, the last few tens of millions of people living in absolute poverty in China could be left behind, either because they are in inaccessible parts of the country or for other reasons. Therefore, for ultimate success in eradicating absolute poverty, China has to rely on targeted measures which require a deliberately directed state policy as set out by the NPC. Building an 'ecological civilization' In addition to the immediate struggles to raise living standards, to provide social protection, to extend health care, and to eliminate poverty, in the present world human-centered development must also centrally include the fight against environmental degradation and especially against climate change. The latter, in particular, is literally a deadly threat to the whole future of humanity. These goals require building an "ecological civilization," as President Xi Jinping has called it. The effects of global climate change are already clear. The world is already seeing record-breaking temperatures, extreme heatwaves, storms, floods, and wildfires leaving a trail of death and devastation and this situation will become progressively worse as global temperatures continue to rise. As the UN's Antonio Guterres said, scientists have warned the world about global warming for decades, but "far too many leaders have refused to listen [and] far too few have acted with the vision that science demands." But the effective fight against climate change requires both the correct policies and huge technological and industrial capacities. China possesses both. The emphasis placed by the NPC on becoming an ecological civilization is particularly important in light of the fact that, unfortunately, the Trump administration continues to undermine the Paris Climate Agreement and has made clear that it will withdraw when the rules allow them to do so in 2020. The NPC decisions go exactly counter to this, and are both in the interests of the Chinese people and increasingly in line with international opinion. In a key target, the government work report projects China's energy consumption per unit of GDP to continue to fall by about 3 percent in 2019. Regarding key forms of environmental pollution, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions will drop by 3 percent, and the concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) will continue to decline in key areas. The progress made by China in tackling pollution is already remarkable. A few years ago, Beijing and other major Chinese cities had severe smog and pollution. In 2018, Beijing is no longer even in the top 100 most polluted cities in developing countries a fact that even Ian Bremmer, head of the Western "risk evaluation" Eurasia Group and vocal critic of China, can't dispute. Of course, much still remains to be done to fight against climate change and tackle pollution, as the NPC emphasized. To sum up, in pursuing human-centered development combining economic growth, improvement to immediate social conditions and living standards, and tangible steps against climate change and environmental pollution the NPC has affirmed that China's policies continue to be among the most advanced in the world. John Ross, Senior Fellow, Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China, is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/johnross.htm Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. If you would like to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinion@china.org.cn. Flash After years of global efforts, the first ever images of our own Galaxy's central black hole are expected to come out within this year, according to scientists working in the project. "We're very optimistic that it will succeed. We've done almost everything," Sheperd Doeleman, project director and senior astronomer at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told Xinhua at a conference session of the on-going 10-day South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference and Festivals, a platform that gathers innovators and entrepreneurs from across the globe to breed and fund new ideas. Doeleman said that the remaining work is testing and double checking what have been obtained, after that the images will be finalized and officially announced sometime in 2019. According to four scientists, involved in the project along with about 200 scientists globally, who delivered speeches at the conference session, the expected images are products of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), which is a global effort to construct an Earth-sized virtual telescope array, able to actually "photograph" nearby supermassive black holes. It had its first full run in April 2017, collected data of black holes with eight telescopes around the globe, including one in the South Pole. "We've a goal of seeing something that struggles with all of its might to be unseen, and we're pushing the technology as far as we can go," said Doeleman. Sera Markoff, professor of theoretical astrophysics and astroparticle physics at the University of Amsterdam, said that the EHT images will be the first real bird's eye view which helps understand how the black hole can profoundly impact the largest structures in the universe. Predicted almost a century ago by Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, black holes not only exist, but actually power some of the most extreme phenomena in the Universe. Dimitrios Psaltis, Professor of Astronomy and Physics of the University of Arizona, said that it feels like going to a new place for the very first time, "nothing will take away the excitement that we are going to feel." He said the project can test Einstein's predictions, "what if the black holes are not really what we think they are, what if Einstein's theory of general relativity does not work so well in the solar system?" According to the scientists, the EHT has collected image data of two supermassive black holes with the largest apparent event horizons: Sagittarius A at the center of the Milky Way and M87 in the center of the Virgo A galaxy. The EHT project includes theoretical and simulation studies that are framing questions rooted at the black hole boundary that may soon be answered through observations. The images will become available once the EHT collaboration is confident that the data is fully calibrated and that all procedures have been robustly tested, according to the scientists. The proposed administrative restructuring of the administration as presented at the latest board of education meeting is clearly an overreaching abuse of power by the the superintendent of Oneida City School District and a few of its board members. Unfortunately, the district under Ms. Zehrs leadership is going down a very slippery slope legally. Her guidance is not coherent as a leader of the district. She indicated in the meeting that she did research regarding her proposal. To any reasonable person in the audience it was immediately apparent that her proposal lacked any empirical data. She stated at the board meeting that she emailed West Genesee and Liverpool school districts. These high schools graduate between four to six hundred students per class. They certainly do have Executive High School Principals, however they are in charge of three house principals and three deans of students within the high schools. What Ms. Zehr fails to tell the public is that no other schools possess the model she is proposing. She has frantically tried to reach out to all superintendents through the New York School Council of Superintendents list serve to determine if any districts has adopted this model. She attempts to cover her tracks after she rolled out this proposal to the board, staff and public. Ms. Zehr wouldnt you have done a little research before your proposal? The saddest part of all in this is that Ms. Zehr has put kids in the middle of this political charade, including Mr. Gallaghers daughter. When Brian started as assistant principal in the 2003-2004 school year, he was granted, as an employee, a gentlemans agreement by former Superintendent Peter Tamburro and the Board of Education, which allowed his children permission to attend the district. That commitment was continued under former Superintendent Ron Spadafora and the Board of Education. This past September, Brian was notified by Peter Gleason, Brians union representative, that Erin would no longer be allowed to attend the school district at the conclusion of this year. This action is an example of Ms. Zehrs vindictiveness against Brian and his daughter, who is innocent in this political nonsense. Anyone who knows Brian knows he is committed to the success of all students. I am shocked and outraged as a parent, teacher, and former principal that Ms. Zehr would put a child and other community members children in the middle of this political charade. This personal attack against Brian Gallagher and his family has gone on long enough by certain people in this community. They need to let it go. The current support of the community speaks to the respect that parents, students and staff feel towards Brian. I ask the community to speak out against this vindictive and destructive proposal on March 12 at 6 p.m. at Willard Prior Elementary School. Curfew in Ahmedabad extended till 6am on May 21; Night curfew to continue in 36 cities for another 3 days GUJCET 2019 date likely to be changed in view of LS polls Ahmedabad oi-Madhuri Adnal Ahmedabad, Mar 11: GUJCET 2019 exam dates are likely to be rescheduled by the GSHSEB as it clashes with the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2019. However, the new date is yet to be notified and will be released soon by the Board on its official website. However, this isn't the first time the GujCET exam date is rescheduled. Earlier, Gujarat Board had changed the exam dates on three different occasions. Being a compulsory examination for admission to engineering and pharmacy colleges in the state, a large number of students will be appearing for GUJCET 2019 exam. As per the earlier date changes, the GUJCET 2019 was to be held on 28th March which was postponed to 4th April and finally to 23rd April. But now, as the date clashes with the Lok Sabha Elections 2019, it is very likely that the exam dates will be delayed further. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 13:44 [IST] Bhopal hospital fire: 4 infants killed even before parents could name them Digvijaya Singh on BJP MLA's call to break legs of Congressmen: I'll go to his house to recite Ramdhun Madhya Pradesh govt appoints Computer Baba as river trust chairman Bhopal oi-Madhuri Adnal Bhopal, Mar 11: Computer Baba was appointed on 8 March as the Chairman of 'Ma Narmada, Ma Kshipra and Ma Mandaknini River Trust'b in the state. The controversial seer was accorded the minister of state status by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in April 2018 but he resigned in October and campaigned against the BJP in the assembly elections, accusing it of being irreligious. He even campaigned against Chouhan in Budhni constituency. Madhya Pradesh governor passes ordinance to hike OBC quota He said that his priority will be to stop illegal sand mining around the Narmada. "I quit because the previous government did nothing to stop illegal mining. The new government has entrusted me to stop the illegal practice so I have accepted it." Last year, the Congress had strongly opposed the BJP government's decision to grant Computer Baba and other Hindu spiritual leaders MoS status. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 13:56 [IST] AgustaWestland: After saying witness may have died, ED cites a little birdie to say he is alive AgustaWestland case: ED issues order to attach Paris-based property of Michel's ex-wife India pti-PTI New Delhi, Mar 11: The ED said on Monday it had issued an order to attach a Paris-based property worth Rs 5.83 crore of the former wife of Christian Michel, the alleged middleman arrested in the VVIP choppers scam case, under the anti-money laundering law. The agency said a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was issued to attach the asset located at 45 Avenue, Victor Hugo in Paris, which was registered in the name of M/s SCI Solaime and belonged to Michel's former wife, Valerie Michel. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) also alleged that Valerie had received the "proceeds of crime" from her former husband. The agency said its probe had found that Michel "had transferred the amount received as kickbacks to various entities, including 9,22,185.76 euros (equivalent to Rs 5,83,40,422) to Valerie Michel and subsequently, to SCI Solaime for buying the immovable property". [Christian Michel seeks judicial inquiry for keeping him in solitary confinement] The ED would soon send the attachment order to its French counterpart and the asset would be seized and held with a competent court in France till the case was finalised and the accused convicted in India, a senior official of the agency said. He added that the probe revealed that "funds were transferred from Dubai-based companies to various entities". [AgustaWestland: Rajeev Saxena's recording of statement deferred] Michel was extradited from the UAE in December last year and was arrested by the ED. He is currently in judicial custody. Michel is among the three alleged middlemen being probed in the Rs 3,600-crore case by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The other two are foreign nationals Guido Haschke and Carlos Gerosa. The ED, in its chargesheet filed against Michel in June 2016, has alleged that he received 30 million euros (about Rs 225 crore) from AgustaWestland, the manufacturer of the helicopters. "Further investigations to identify the remaining proceeds of the crime are under progress," the agency said. PTI Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 11) Malacanang on Monday offered a piece of advice for Filipino workers and citizens who felt slighted by the latest controversial remark of special envoy to China Ramon "Mon" Tulfo Jr. While Filipino workers have gained recognition as "generally" industrious, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo, in his press briefing, advised them to reevaluate their work ethics. "The general impression and reputation of Filipino workers abroad are very good. We are industrious, we are honest. If we put our hearts into it, magagaling talaga ang mga Pilipino. Meron ding tamad (Filipinos work well, but there are also lazy workers)," Panelo told reporters. "So dapat yung mga Filipinos na natamaan doon ay dapat mag-isip isip din kung baka totoo ang sinasabi. Kung hindi naman, magsalita sila, hindi totoo yan," he added. [Translation: So the Filipinos who felt slighted by the statement should think twice if the statement was true. If it is not, then they should voice out their opinions that it is not true.] This comes amid Tulfo's controversial comment defending the influx of Chinese workers in the country. Tulfo, speaking to CNN Philippines' On The Record on Thursday, said Chinese workers were better and more hardworking than their Filipino counterparts. Several labor groups have slammed the sentiment, but Tulfo maintained his stance on the issue and refused to apologize for his remarks. Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Friday said he "violently" disagreed with Tulfo's opinion. Panelo, however, said Tulfo was just "relaying" what some developers in the country voiced out. He added Malacanang will not make any move to "advise" or discipline Tulfo as the latter is entitled to his own opinion. "Alam mo yang katamaran, hindi na tine-train yan. Ethics yan eh. Kung talagang tamad ka, tamad ka... Wala nang magagawa ang gobyerno doon," Panelo stressed. [Translation: You know, laziness cannot be trained. That's ethics. If you're lazy, you're lazy. The government cannot do anything about that.] A big number of Chinese nationals have flown to the country since President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office in 2016. Duterte had established ties with China, which provide funds and loans for several projects under the administration's massive infrastructure program. Amid the Philippines' stronger relationship with China, the number of Chinese nationals flocking to the country to work has also ballooned. READ: Tulfo not sorry for 'lazy' Filipino workers remark CNN Philippines Digital Producers Alyssa Rola and Robert Vergara contributed to this report. Flash India's Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora announced the general election schedule on Sunday. According to him, the election will be held in seven phases, and the first phase of polling will be held on April 11. The second phase of polling will be held on April 18, the third phase on April 23, the fourth phase on April 29, the fifth phase on May 6, the sixth phase on May 12, and the seventh and last phase of polling would take place on May 19, said the CEC. All the votes will be counted on May 23, he added. The CEC further stated that a total of 900 million voters will be casting ballots across the country, as compared to 816 million voters in the last general election held in 2014. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday welcomed the announcement of the election. He also urged the voters to exercise their right to vote in large numbers. "I urge my fellow Indians to enrich the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with their active participation. I hope this election witnesses a historic turnout. I particularly call upon first time voters to vote in record numbers," tweeted Modi. India has a bicameral parliament and Lok Sabha is the lower house of the parliament. "2019 polls are about a spirit of confidence and positivity with which India is fulfilling the aspirations of its people," Modi said in another tweet. Elections are held every five years for the lower house. The term of the present Lok Sabha is to end on June 3. There are 545 lawmakers in Lok Sabha, out of which 543 are elected directly by the people and the rest two are reserved ones. According to the CEC, there are around 84.3 million new voters added since the last parliamentary polls, out of which 15 million voters are in the age ground of 18-19 years. Going slow on Hafiz Saeed, looking up to Azhar, Pak is only worsening its case at FATF Did Pakistan ever act against Azhar? Intel reports show, he remained protected always From plotting a hijack to creating the JeM, why Pakistan guards Masood Azhar so much Ban on Masood Azhar: UNSC likely to take up matter on Mar 13; China wants responsible solution India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa New Delhi, Mar 11: The contentious matter of ban on JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar may come up in the UN Security Council on March 13. India has been pressing for a resolution to declare Pakistan-based JeM chief as a global terrorist. Meanwhile, China, which has been opposing the ban on Azhar, on Monday said: "a responsible solution" can only come through discussions, according to a PTI report. Beijing also said security issues constituted an "important topic" in its talks to ease tensions between Pakistan and India following the Pulwama terror attack. Is Maulana Masood Azhar dead? The US, the UK and France had moved a proposal at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) after the Pulwama tragedy to designate the chief of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), which has claimed responsibility for the suicide attack, as a global terrorist. According to reports, the resolution was expected to be taken by the 1267 committee of the UNSC on March 13. China, which has thrice blocked such moves by India and other UN members, is yet to announce its stand. Asked about India's appeal and China's stand on the issue, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang told reporters, "First I would like to say that the UNSC as a main body of the UN has strict standards and rules of procedures... China's position on the designation of a terrorist by the 1267 Sanctions Committee is consistent and clear. China adopted a responsible attitude, follows the rules of the procedure of the committee and participated in the discussions in a responsible manner. Only through discussions can we come up with a responsible solution." Recently, Chinese vice-foreign minister Kong Xuanyou travelled to Pakistan and held talks with Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and other officials. On Saturday, India said all the UNSC members were aware of the JeM training camps and the presence of Azhar in Pakistan and urged the nations to designate him as a global terrorist. To another question whether the issue of Azhar's ban figured in China's talks with Pakistan, Lu said, "Recently, India and Pakistan has experienced a lot. We think those indents are not in the interest of peace and stability in the region". "We have engaged in mediation efforts with both sides and held talks to promote the easing of tensions. We made enormous efforts. While exchanging ideas security is an important topic and I can say that our talks were wide ranging and quite deep," he said. Tensions flared up between India and Pakistan after a suicide bomber of JeM killed 40 CRPF personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14. Action against Masood Azhar's brother more protective in nature Amid mounting outrage, the Indian Air Force carried out a counter-terror operation and reportedly hit the biggest JeM training camp in Balakot, deep inside Pakistan on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured an Indian pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1. OneIndia News with PTI inputs For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 20:12 [IST] Bengal to see 7-phase election when even disturbed J&K will have 5 phases: A sorry affair India oi-Shubham Ghosh Kolkata, March 10: The schedule of the 17th Lok Sabha election was announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI). The election will take place over seven phases starting April 11 and continuing till May 19 with the election results announced on May 23. In 1999, Bengal had 1 phase election; in 2019, it's seven Three states will see elections taking place on their soil on all seven days and they are West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Of these, Bengal has 42 seats and the seven-phase polling in the state will be the longest it will see in a national election. In 1999, Bengal had gone to a single-phase polling while in 2004 and 2009, it saw a three-phase polling. Lok Sabha elections 2019: Candidate photos, with party symbols to feature on EVMs Last time, the number of phases of polling in Bengal was five. And now, it is seven. It's quite a parameter to see how things have deteriorated in Bengal over two decades - politically. For the state, it is certainly not an encouraging sign. In the recent past, Assembly elections in the state have also witnessed several phases while panchayat elections were so marred by violence that they were virtually turned into farce. The BJP has taken a jibe at the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) saying seven-phase polling in the state shows the law and order situation in the state. The TMC was not impressed with the multi-phase polling and said factors like heat and Ramzan will make it difficult for people to cast their ballots. The Left Front said it didn't matter in how many phases the election takes place but that it should be fair. The fact that Bengal will have election in phases even more than those in the disturbed Jammu and Kashmir (five) clearly speaks about the volatile political situation there. By increasing the number of days of election, the ECI will look to ensure that more protection is put in place for a fair election and bullying of voters is kept at a minimum. But even then one can't really assure that elections in Bengal will be fair for the state is deeply polarised on the level of party politics. It is something which is ingrained in the state's political culture and the latest major combatants are the TMC and BJP. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has asked her party to secure all 42 seats while the BJP has also vowed to curb the TMC's power in the state with an eye to topple it from power in 2021. The Congress and Left have forged an alliance on the other hand to unify the anti-TMC and anti-BJP votes. It's going to a fierce three-way fight in Bengal this time with Banerjee and the BJP set to dominate the tussle. Lok Sabha elections 2019 dates: 7-phase polling to be held from Apr-11 to May 19, counting on May 23 The growing number of days devoted to election in Bengal, once considered one of the most progressive states of the country, is a dangerous trend for politically, it has turned into a tinderbox. Identity politics has spread its wings in the state with the eclipse of the secular and Leftist brand of politics and both Banerjee and the BJP have fed each other's political arsenal, charging up the atmosphere in the state. It will be hoped that the ECI succeeds in keeping the violence to the minimum in the upcoming Lok Sabha election for an escalation in violence will make things precarious in the border state and encourage the evil elements to make use of the situation. For the administration of Banerjee who vowed to bring 'Parivartan' eight years ago, this is a story that disappoints. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 10:58 [IST] UP govt beat those seeking employment with sticks, remember this when BJP seeks votes: Rahul Gandhi BJP will return to power at Centre if it takes its allies along: Om Prakash Rajbhar India pti-PTI Lucknow, Mar 11: Uttar Pradesh Cabinet minister and leader of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) Om Prakash Rajbhar has said the BJP will return to power at the Centre under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi if it takes along all its allies. He lauded the BJP for following the coalition dharma. "If the BJP takes along all the alliance partners in this way, the NDA will form the government at the Centre in 2019 and Narendra Modi will become the prime minister (again)," Rajbhar said in a tweet late Sunday. The statement of the backward class welfare and empowerment of persons with disabilities minister came shortly after the BJP-led state government hurriedly announced the names of top office bearers in various commissions, councils and corporations. Lok Sabha elections 2019: Candidate photos, with party symbols to feature on EVMs Rajbhar's son, Arvind, was appointed as the chairman of Uttar Pradesh Small Industries Corporation Limited. Rana Ajit Pratap Singh, another office-bearer of the SBSP, was appointed as the chairman of Uttar Pradesh Seeds Development Corporation. PTI What Congress demanded when farm laws were being repealed? Mamata, Pawar want to keep Congress at bay: Devendra Fadnavis Election expenditure: How much did BJP, Congress, DMK, CPI, TMC, AIADMK receive funds and spent during polls? Opposition front not possible without Congress: Shiv Sena leader Raut after meeting with Rahul Gandhi Congress likely to release second list for LS polls today India oi-Hardeep Singh Bedi New Delhi, March 11: The Congress' Central Election Committee (CEC) Meeting is likely to finalise the party's Lok Sabha candidates for many states. The Congress' second list may be released after the meeting, scheduled later in the day. The first list was released on March 7 in which the party announced 11 candidates from Uttar Pradesh and four from Gujarat. 'Will join Congress on March 12 in presence of Rahul Gandhi', says Hardik Patel The list included names of Congress President Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi who would be contesting from their home turf Amethi and Rae Bareli respectively in Uttar Pradesh. It is notable that only Rahul and Sonia had managed to win their seats for the party in UP that has 80 Parliamentary constituencies. Congress' candidates for four Gujarat Lok Sabha seats also include Vadodara and Anand constituencies that are BJP strongholds. In order to finalise the second list, the party has asked senior leaders not to leave Delhi before 7 P.M. for the Congress Working Committee meeting scheduled in Gujarat on Tuesday. The Congress Working Committee meeting, party's highest decision-making body, will be held in Ahmedabad on March 12 to mark the launch of historic Dandi March by Mahatma Gandhi from the Sabarmati Ashram here in 1930. Congress president Rahul Gandhi, his mother Sonia Gandhi, sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and chief ministers of Congress-ruled states will participate in the meeting, which is being held in Gujarat after a gap of 58 years. The meeting comes in the backdrop of party's better performance in the recently held assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan where it formed the government. Congress may give Tumkur seat to JD (S) The Congress is going to repeat at least its 10 Members of Parliament (MPs) from Karnataka, including Mallikarjun Kharge, Veerappa Moily and K.H. Muniyappa Karnataka that sends 28 MPs to the Lok Sabha will vote in general elections in two phases. While 14 seats will go to the polls in phase two on April 18, the rest 14 will vote in phase three on April 23. Election dates announced: Congress accuses BJP of 'wasting' mandate, Modi seeks people's 'blessings' "The party will repeat nine out of 10 MPs from Karnataka. Only Tumkur MP S.P. Muddahanumegowda may not get the ticket as the seat is likely to be given to party ally Janata Dal (Secular) as per the seat-sharing arrangements," sources tell One India. According to the sources, the JD (S) was very much interested in Chikkballapur seat that is being represented by senior Congress leader and former Union Minister M. Veerappa Moily, but the Congress did not agree. Congress' Central Election Committee meeting later in the evening is likely to put a stamp on these names. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 11:54 [IST] CWC meeting to chart out election strategy today in Ahmedabad India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa Ahmedabad, Mar 12: The day-long meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) to finalise the strategy for Lok Sabha elections 2019 will be held in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, today (March 12). The Congress is set to give final shape to its strategy for Lok Sabha elections at its working committee and will sound the poll bugle from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state, party leaders said, as per a PTI report. The meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's highest decision-making body, assumes significance as it comes barely two days after declaration of poll schedule for the general elections. Sources said the Congress is seeking to give a strong political message to the entire nation from the land of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel, with the party leadership scheduled to hold a prayer meeting Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, followed by the CWC meet at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel national memorial there. The CWC meeting is being held in Gujarat after a gap of 58 years. ['Modi bowed before China with folded hands': Rahul derides PM over Doklam standoff] It was last held in the state at Bhavnagar in 1961. The party will also hold a public meeting in Adalaj in Gandhinagar district of Gujarat with the slogan of "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan". Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is also likely to address this meeting in her first public rally after entering politics. Patidar leader Hardik Patel, who shot to fame by spearheading a quota stir in the state and is set to fight the Lok Sabha polls, will also join Congress at the meeting in presence of the party chief Rahul Gandhi. Besides giving final shape to its Lok Sabha election strategy, the party will demand answers from Prime Minister Modi and the BJP on what they call "failures" and "unfulfilled" promises of the government. Top Congress leadership, led by Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh, and other senior leaders will deliberate on key issues for the national elections beginning April 11. The party leaders will also discuss ways to corner Modi and his government on issues of governance, agrarian and economic crisis, unemployment and lack of job creation, national security and women safety. ["Masood Azhar ji": Rahul's remark gives fresh ammo to BJP] The party is of the view that the narrative for the general elections needs to be steered towards real issues and problems confronting people of the country, from what its leaders see as the "propaganda" plank of the current regime, especially after Pulwama attack and subsequent air strike on terror camps in Pakistan. PTI report quoted sources as saying that the party will issue a statement after the CWC, covering all these issues. The Congress leaders feel that the party needs to demand answers from the prime minister on status of the promises made by him five years ago and on his governance track record. After the CWC meeting, senior Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh, as well as current and former party chief ministers will attend the 'Jan Sankalp' rally', state party unit chief Amit Chavda said. The party has been alleging that Modi has "fooled" the people with his "false propaganda" and "boastful claims" and has not delivered on his promises. It has also alleged that the Modi government has inflicted pain and misery on the poor, the unemployed and the farmers during its five years of power, which needs to be made an election issue. They will start their day by paying tributes to Mahatma Gandhi as March 12 marks the launch of the historic Dandi March by him from the Sabarmati Ashram here in 1930. Besides, 2019 is also being celebrated as the 150th birth anniversary year of the Father of the Nation. OneIndia News with PTI inputs For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, March 12, 2019, 1:38 [IST] DGCA will take 'some time' before deciding on Boeing 737 MAX planes DGCA seeks info from Boeing & carriers operating Boeing 737 MAX in India India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, Mar 11: Aviation regulator DGCA on Monday sought information from the plane maker Boeing & carriers operating Boeing 737 MAX in India. The DGCA is expected to release a public notice on the issue this afternoon. Ethiopian Airlines cash yesterday is the 2nd crash involving Boeing 737 max in 6 months. Jet Airways and SpiceJet fly Boeing 737 MAX planes. As many as 149 passengers, including Indians, were killed when a Boeing 737 MAX plane operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed soon after taking off from Addis Ababa. Earlier in thday, China had ordered that it has asked all airlines to ground all the commercial operations of all Boeing 737-8 planes. Google dedicates Doodle to 30th anniversary of World Wide Web India oi-Vikas SV New Delhi, Mar 12: Today's Google Doodle is dedicated to 30th anniversary of WWW or the World Wide Web. Google has decided to celebrate the birthday of WWW with an animated doodle. On this day in 1989, that is March 12, 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee proposed the "Information Management: A Proposal." Sir Tim Berners-Lee is regarded as the inventor of the World Wide Web. The WWW, commonly known as the Web, is an information space where documents and other web resources are identified by Uniform Resource Locators, which may be interlinked by hypertext, and are accessible via the Internet. The resources of the WWW may be accessed by users via a software application called a web browser. [Google dedicates Doodle to "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin] English scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989. He wrote the first web browser in 1990 while employed at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland. The browser was released outside CERN in 1991, first to other research institutions starting in January 1991 and to the general public on the Internet in August 1991. The World Wide Web has been central to the development of the Information Age and is the primary tool billions of people use to interact on the Internet. What is Google Doodle? A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages that commemorates holidays, events, achievements, and people. The first Google Doodle honored the Burning Man festival in 1998, and was designed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to notify users of their absence in case the servers crashed. [On Valentine's Day, Google dedicates Doodle to Madhubala] Subsequent Google Doodles were designed by an outside contractor until 2000, when Page and Brin asked public relations officer Dennis Hwang to design a logo for Bastille Day. Since then, a team of employees called Doodlers have organized and published the Doodles. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, March 12, 2019, 1:58 [IST] CBSE Class 12 Results 2021: Not satisfied with your exam marks? Here's what you can do CBSE Class 10 Results 2021 likely to be declared next week NEET 2021 to be held on Sunday: Check out timings, dress code, guidelines and other details ICAI CA exam dates: ICAI CA May 2019 exam postponed due to elections; Find out new dates here India oi-Vikas SV New Delhi, Mar 12: ICAI CA May 2019 exam, which was supposed to be held from May 2 to May 17, has been postponed. The new dates for ICAI CA exam have been announced and the May 2019 ICAI CA exam would now be held from May 27, 2019 to June 12, 2019. Click Here for the new schedule of ICAI CA May 2019 exam. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) holds CA intermediate and final exams twice in a year. Visit official website icaiexam.icai.org for complete information on how to apply for the ICAI CA exam. ICAI CA May 2019 exam application process will begin from February 20 and will conclude on March 12, 2019. ICAI CA IPCC 2018 exam, which was held in November 2018 by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), was declared in February. CA IPCC November 2018 examinations were conducted from 2nd November 2018 to 16th November 2018 and CA Inter Nov 2018 exams were conducted from 2nd November 2018 to 18th November 2018. While applying for ICAI CA May 2019 exam, the candidate must give a declaration. Click here for the format of the declaration. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, March 12, 2019, 1:24 [IST] Is the Delhi battle between BJP and Congress only India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa New Delhi, Mar 11: Union minister and senior BJP leader Vijay Goel on Sunday said his party had a direct fight with the Congress in the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi and the AAP will bag the third place in the national capital in the upcoming general election. "People will vote to form a government at the Centre, so our fight in Delhi is with the Congress. Who will vote for Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP, which has no say in the formation of the next government in the country," Goel told PTI in an interview. Congress likely to release second list for LS polls today The former Delhi BJP chief, who was termed by party president Amit Shah as the "eighth" Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP, is a probable from the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha seat, currently held by Union minister Harsh Vardhan. Goel is currently a Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan. "In the coming Lok Sabha election, the BJP will have a direct contest with the Congress. The people of Delhi are disenchanted with (Chief Minister) Arvind Kejriwal. The BJP will again win all the seven seats in the national capital," the Union minister claimed. His comments assume significance as the speculation on a pre-poll alliance between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress in Delhi for the upcoming polls refuses to die down. Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit, after a meeting with party president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday, had said there was unanimity in her party against an alliance with the AAP for the Lok Sabha election. Later, Gandhi had also said the Delhi unit of his party was against such an alliance. Goel said the AAP had conceded that the Congress was ahead of it in the coming polls and that his why party supremo Kejriwal was "pleading" to it for an alliance. "He (Kejriwal) has no option but to go it alone in the polls now as the Congress has refused to ally with his party," he added. "The refusal of the Congress to go for an alliance with the AAP shows its confidence to take on the BJP. But the AAP, which rules Delhi, lacks even that confidence," Goel said. An old-timer in the Delhi BJP, Goel was its president in 2013. He was the BJP MP from Delhi Sadar (1996) and Chandni Chowk (1998 and 1999), before being sent to the Rajya Sabha and given a cabinet berth in the Narendra Modi government. The Union minister claimed that the AAP had "failed" to live up to the expectations of the people after its massive victory in the 2015 Delhi Assembly polls, adding that its leaders had also been accused of corruption. 'Will join Congress on March 12 in presence of Rahul Gandhi', says Hardik Patel "The AAP learnt no lessons from its defeat in the municipal corporation election in 2017. People have made up their mind to vote against the party in the Lok Sabha polls, because it has failed them," he said. The BJP holds all the seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital. Uncertainty prevails over an alliance between the AAP and the Congress for the Lok Sabha polls, but if it comes about, the saffron party will face an uphill task to retain its 2014 tally. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 12:32 [IST] Just a matter of time for 9 day encounter in Rajouri-Poonch jungles to end Guided by ex-Pak army officials, operating in buddy pairs: Why the Poonch encounter has dragged so much Tire, track eliminate: Why has the Poonch encounter dragged on for so long J&K: Pulwama terror attack mastermind believed to be killed in Tral encounter India oi-Madhuri Adnal Srinagar, Mar 11: Top Jaish commander who was part of Pulwama attack conspiracy believed to be dead in an encounter in the Tral area of South Kashmir. The encounter in Pinglish area of Tral in south Kashmir's Pulwama district lasted past midnight in which Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist Mudasir Ahmed Khan alias 'Mohd Bhai' was among the three militants killed, the officials said. He is amongst 3 killed in the encounter but the bodies are charred and disfigured. A DNA test is being conducted to ascertain identity. "OpPinglish, Tral (Pulwama). Three terrorists killed. Joint operations in progress," tweeted the Indian Army's official Twitter handle. Mudasir Ahmed Khan alias 'Mohd Bhai', one of the masterminds of Pulwama terror attack which claimed the lives of more than 40 jawans, is believed to be among the three terrorists killed. However, there's no official confirmation on the same. Lesser-known JeM terrorist Khan has been identified as the brains behind the audacious terror strike in Pulwama that left 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel dead. Security officials said that 23-year-old Khan, an electrician with a graduate degree and a resident of Pulwama, arranged the vehicle and explosives used in the terror strike. A resident of Mir Mohalla of Tral, Khan joined the JeM sometime in 2017 as an overground worker and was later drawn into the terror outfit by Noor Mohammed Tantrey, alias 'Noor Trali', who is believed to have helped the terror group's revival in the Kashmir Valley. Suicide attacker Adil Ahmed Dar, who blew his explosive-laden vehicle next to a bus in a CRPF convoy on February 14, had been in constant contact with Khan, officials said. The security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Pinglish after receiving specific intelligence input about the presence of militants in the area. The operation turned into an encounter after the militants opened fire at the search party of the forces who retaliated. On March 7, one terrorist was killed in an encounter in Jammu & Kashmir's Handwara. The terrorist was reportedly a Pakistan national and was affiliated to terror organisation Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). These encounters come at a time when India has been reinstating its effort to curb the menace of terrorism. The recent Pulwama terror attack that was carried out by JeM has triggered a huge outrage among the people of the country who have been demanding stern action against terrorists and their outfits. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 10:07 [IST] Flash Ethiopian Airlines confirmed that all 157 people aboard a flight that crashed earlier Sunday en route to Nairobi, Kenya, were killed. The 157 people aboard ET 302 included nationals from over 30 countries, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Group, Tewolde Gebremariam, told a press conference. The victims include 32 from Kenya, 18 from Canada, nine from Ethiopia, eight each from China, Italy and the United States, seven each from Britain and France, six from Egypt, and five from the Netherlands, he said. They also include four each from India and Slovakia, three each from Austria, Russia and Sweden, two each from Israel, Morocco, Poland and Spain, and one each from Belgium, Djibouti, Indonesia, Ireland, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Norway, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovenia, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Uganda, and Yemen. The aircraft, a Boeing 737-800 MAX, took off at 08:38 a.m. local time Sunday from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport and lost contact at 08:44 a.m., and crashed around Bishoftu town, some 45 km from the capital Addis Ababa, the airline said. The plane arrived from Johannesburg, South Africa, nearly three hours before, said Gebremariam, the airlines' CEO. "It just came this morning from Johannesburg and arrived in Addis Ababa with no remark and it was dispatched with no remark," he said. "It was a clean airplane. It is a brand-new airplane... there is no problem on technical side," Gebremariam said. "The routine maintenance check didn't reveal any problem." "At this stage, we cannot determine the cause of the accident," he said. The aircraft, which was obtained by the Ethiopian airline last November, has only been in service for four months, flying more than 1,200 hours until Sunday's crash, according to the airline. The flight's captain, Yared Mulugeta, has been working with the airline since 2010, Gebremariam said. "He is a senior pilot with more than 8,000 hours," the CEO said. "Today is a very sad and tragic day for all of us," Gebremariam said. Karnataka CET 2019 exam postponed to April 29, 30 India oi-Madhuri Adnal Bengaluru, Mar 11: The Karnataka CET 2019 exam has been postponed to April 29, 30 and May 1st following the announcement of the election dates by the Election Commission. The Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has announced the new dates on Monday. Now, the CET 2019 will be held on April 29, 30 and May 1st, as against the earlier dates of April 23, 24 and 25. As per the Karnataka CET 2019 exam schedule announced by the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), the state-level entrance exam was scheduled to start on 23rd April 2019. However, with yesterday's announcement of Karnataka election dates, was clashing with the exam dates. The KEA had scheduled the biology and mathematics papers of the CET for April 23, while physics and chemistry are scheduled for April 24. On Sunday the ECI announced that Karnataka will vote in two phases - on April 18 and April 23 - but two CET papers are also currently scheduled for April 23. [Karnataka CET (KCET 2019) exam dates announced: Registration likely to begin from February] The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), organised by the National Testing Agency is also slated for April 7 and April 20. However, according to reports, KEA executive director Girish R said that the authority will hold detailed discussions and deliberations with the PU Board director in this regard over the next few days before announcing the final decision. Karnataka CET 2019 is the state-level entrance exam that is conducted by the Karnataka Examinations Authority. The exam is held to screen students for admission to engineering, pharmacy and other professional courses in the state-run higher educational institutions. Lok Sabha election 2019: A look at West Bengal constituencies: COOCH BEHAR India oi-Shubham Ghosh Kolkata, March 11: The schedule for the 17th Lok Sabha election was announced by the Election Commission on Sunday, March 10. The election will be held in seven phases between April 11 and May 19 with the results to be declared on May 23. Of all the states in the country, West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh will witness elections in seven phases. Here we take a look at all the Lok Sabha constituencies (42) of Bengal and how parties have fared there over the years. Constituency: COOCH BEHAR (reserved for Scheduled Castes) Date of election: April 11 (Phase 1) Since 2009, the Cooch Behar constituency comprises seven segments and they are: Mathabhanga (SC), Cooch Behar Uttar, Cooch Behar Dakshin, Sitalkuchi (SC), Sitai (SC), Dinhata and Natabari. It is located in the district of Cooch Behar in the extreme north-eastern part of West Bengal. What happened in 2014: In the 2014 Lok Sabha election in which the ruling Trinamool Congress swept the state, Cooch Behar also went to it. Renuka Sinha won the election from this seat (5,26,499 votes), defeating her nearest rival Dipak Kumar Roy (4,39,392 votes) of Forward Bloc - a constituent of the Left Front which dominated this seat for a long time - by 87,107 votes. Majority of Trinamool MPs remain 'highly inactive' in 16th Lok Sabha The BJP finished third in the table with its candidate Hem Chandra Barman polling 2,17,653 votes. The Congress finished fourth with 74,540 votes and NOTA got 11,409 votes. In the 2014 election, the district of Cooch Behar had 16,55,472 valid voters out of whom 39.86 per cent voted for the TMC, 33.62 per cent for the Left Front, 16.57 for the BJP and 5.41 for the Congress. Others polled 4.54 per cent votes. 2016 by-election: TMC wins again; BJP finishes second Renuka Sinha died of heart attack in August 2016 necessitating a by-election in this constituency and the TMC won it again with its candidate Partha Pratim Roy 3.13 lakh votes. However, this time, the BJP was in the second position although the difference had increased while the Forward Bloc was relegated to the third position with less than 88,000 votes. History of Cooch Behar constituency results: A fortress of Forward Bloc once This constituency was a fortress of the Forward Bloc for decades. Since the first election held in Cooch Behar in 1957, the Forward Bloc won 12 times (1962-67, 1977-2009) while the Congress won twice (1957 and 1971). Late leader Amar Roy Pradhan had won from this constituency a record eight times between 1977 and 1999. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 18:02 [IST] TMC delegation to meet Election Commission in Delhi today; To request for early bypolls in Bengal Lok Sabha elections 2019: From tackling fake news to monitoring spending, the EC has its hands full India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Mar 11: Tracking fake news will be one of the biggest challenges as India gets set to vote in one of the most hard fought elections. The social media platforms in particular will be under the scanner. Social media platforms would deploy appropriate fact checkers to scan fake news. The use of abusive language too would come under the scanner. Lok Sabha elections 2019: Candidate photos, with party symbols to feature on EVMs Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said each of the social media platforms had created a mechanism to accept only pre-certified political advertisements during the election process and would share the expenditure incurred in this regard with the election authorities. Further the election management related news on all news channels will be monitored and if there is a violation noticed, immediate action would be taken. VIGIL: The EC for the first time has launched a citizen centric mobile application for reporting of cases of Model Code of Conduct violation. District election authorities have to revert to complainants within 100 minutes of receiving complaints about the status of the case. Expenditure: To monitor election expenditure, there would be several observers. Banks and the Financial Intelligence Unit have been asked to forward any information relating to suspicious cash withdrawal to the election officials. There would be control and complaint monitoring centre with 24 hour toll free numbers. Further several police officials will be deployed as observers at both the state and district levels. They would oversee the deployment of law and order. VVPAT: The EC announced that 'voter verifiable paper audit trail' will be used in all polling stations this time. Voters would also for the first time find the faces of their candidates along with their respective party symbols on the electronic voting machines. Lok Sabha elections 2019 dates: 7-phase polling to be held from Apr-11 to May 19, counting on May 23 For the disabled: All eligible voters in the category of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) can request for new registration, change in address, change in particulars and mark themselves as PwD through the use of the mobile application. They would have to enter their contact details and the booth level officer is assigned to provide doorstep facility. The app is currently available on the Google Play store. Further the Braille photo voter slips have been introduced to ensure active participation of those with visual impairment. Helpline: Citizens can call universal toll-free helpline number of Election Commission of India - 1950 - to connect directly to District Contact Centre. Further the EC has also introduced a website to seek feedback, suggestions and also resolve voter related issue. The portal is eci-citizenservices.eci.nic.in. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 11:13 [IST] Those who sent Anil Deshmukh to jail will pay the price: Sharad Pawar 'There is no UPA now': Mamata Banerjee takes swipe at Cong, calls for unity of regional parties against BJP Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Why Sharad Pawar is the man to watch out for India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa Mumbai, Mar 11: At least three Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, including the one which NCP chief Sharad Pawar will contest despite his earlier decision of withdrawing from electoral politics, will be keenly watched in the upcoming general polls. Besides Madha Lok Sabha seat from where 78-year-old Pawar is likely to contest, the other constituencies such as Nagpur and Solapur will also be in the limelight. Pawar, currently a Rajya Sabha member, had earlier announced he will not contest the Lok Sabha polls, but recently changed his decision. Here is report card of NCP MPs in 16th Lok Sabha He said some of his party colleagues were insisting he contest the Lok Sabha poll from Solapur's Madha seat, currently represented by party leader Vijaysinh Mohite Patil. According to a political observer, prime ministerial ambitions have always been associated with Pawar, but the veteran politician earlier said he was not eyeing the top post. "Pawar may still win from Madha, but it may not be a cake-walk," the observer said. The former Union minister, whose party is in talks with the Congress for seat-sharing, earlier said there will be state-specific alliances and not a national tie-up against the BJP and he will try to bring all like-minded parties on one platform to take on the saffron outfit. Besides, former Union minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who faced defeat for the first time in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, was also being persuaded by the Congress leadership to contest from Solapur again, a party source said. Another source said that Nagpur, from where Union Transport and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari is likely to contest, will also be keenly watched by political observers. Former BJP MP Nana Patole is likely to contest on Congress' ticket against Gadkari. Patole, who quit the BJP last year, had defeated NCP stalwart Praful Patel from Bhandara-Gondia seat in 2014. State Congress chief Ashok Chavan, the sitting MP from Nanded, may also contest the Lok Sabha poll, though his supporters want him to contest the Assembly election due in the second-half of 2019, a source said. Maharashtra, which has around eight crore voters, sends 48 MPs to the Lok Sabha, the second highest after Uttar Pradesh which has 80 seats. Pawar slams Modi for skipping all-party meet on Pulwama attack The BJP, riding on the 'Modi wave', surged ahead in the state in 2014 by winning 23 seats while its ally Shiv Sena bagged 18. The Congress, which ruled the state in alliance with the NCP for 15 years, managed to win just two seats while Pawar's party bagged four. The BJP and the Shiv Sena, despite internal bickerings, have already finalised their alliance to contest 25 and 23 Lok Sabha seats, respectively. The Congress and NCP have so far not announced their seat-sharing details and are trying to woo Dalit Leader Prakash Ambedkar to be a part of their alliance. Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari said there has been a 5 per cent increase in his party's vote share since 2014 due to its electoral success in the urban and rural local bodies elections. Admitting that farm issues were critical, he claimed cultivators have faith and trust that the BJP was "genuinely working for them". "Since 2014, the Congress and NCP have done nothing that people should trust them again. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's personal popularity and the performance of the BJP-led governments performance in the state and at the Centre will ensure overall support to us," he said. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 10:40 [IST] Didnt think twice before getting into bed with Shiv Sena: Captain hits out at Congress Sena targets NCB: Officers trying to extort money by framing youngsters must be arrested Opposition front not possible without Congress: Shiv Sena leader Raut after meeting with Rahul Gandhi Sanjay Raut on chopper tragedy: We claim to have modernised armed forces, how could this happen? Lone MNS MLA, Sharad Sonawane joins Shiv Sena India oi-Madhuri Adnal Mumbai, Mar 11: Five years after quitting the Shiv Sena, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's (MNS) lone MLA, Sharad Sonawane from Junnar in Pune, on Monday joined Shiv Sena. Sonawane, along with his supporters, joined Sena in presence of party president Uddhav ThackerayJunnar assembly segment is part of Shirur Lok Sabha constituency, which is currently represented by Sena MP Shivajirao Adhalrao Patil. Apparently unhappy with the MNS, he met Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray last week along with some supporters. "He explained the situation on the ground and said that he would join the Sena. [Why Shiv Sena agreed for an alliance with BJP] However, his re-entry into the Sena wouldn't be a cakewalk for him as the party's workers in Junnar have put up a stiff opposition to him. Known for his organisational skills, Sonawane is a businessman who became socially and politically active about nine years before joining the Sena in the early oughties. Even though he was made the ena district vicepresident, owing to his differences with the party MP and other local leaders, he was denied a ticket in the last assembly election. The Sena instead fielded his longtime rival Ashatai Buchke. This upset Sonawane and just before of the poll, he joined the MNS. Sonawane went on to defeat Buchke by a margin of nearly 17,000 votes. Sonawane's exit will be a big blow to the MNS. The party, which had 13 MLAs in 2009, lost all but one seats in 2014. The iftaar that never happened: BSF jawans were killed while buying bread Ramadan 2021: When does it begin? Know Shehri and iftar timings, check moon sighting in India LS poll dates clashing with Ramzan, will be tough for people: TMC leader Firhad Hakim India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, Mar 11: After the Election Commission announced seven-phase polling for Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and Kolkata Municipal Corporation Mayor Firhad Hakim said dates for voting are clashing with Ramzan period (May 5-June 4, 2019). Firhad Hakim said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) doesn't want minorities to exercise their franchise in the Lok Sabha polls. With nearly 31 per cent Muslim voters, election during Ramzan will become a key issue of Bengal politics in the upcoming days. [LS election 2019 date highlights: EC announces poll schedule, no assembly elections in J&K] "People will face problems in exercising their voting rights as some poll dates are clashing with Ramzan. Since the Election Commission is a constitutional body, I don't want to comment much into the matter. But they should have considered that people will suffer during Ramzan (in casting votes)," Hakim told news agency ANI. "EC has announced the poll dates on Ramzan so that minorities are unable to cast their votes. But we aren't worried. People are committed to BJP Hatao, Desh Bachao," Hakim was quoted as saying. West Bengal Congress president Somendra Nath Mitra also said the poll panel should consider the matter. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 10:32 [IST] As Mamata Banerjee takes swipe at Rahul Gandhi, Cong says such posturing for personal ambition will help BJP Modi bowed before China with folded hands: Rahul derides PM over Doklam standoff India oi-Vikas SV New Delhi, Mar 11: In a scathing attack on the Prime Minister over the handling of the Doklam standoff, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday alleged that Narendra Modi went to China without agenda and 'bowed before them with folded hands' to resolve the crisis. The Congress president was addressing party's booth workers at Delhi's Indira Gandhi Stadium. Gandhi also trained gun at National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and it was him who 'handed over Masood Azhar in Kandahar'. "When Doklam issue was on, PM Modi went to China and held a meeting without agenda. He bowed before China with folded hands and said keep Doklam and that no one in India will come to know and the media will be tackled. Matter over. This is the reality of Modi ji," Gandhi said at Indira Gandhi Stadium. If you say 'Chowkidar' people will respond with 'Chor Hai': Rahul Gandhi "Jaish-e-Mohammad caused the bomb blast in Pulwama... The current NSA chief Ajit Doval handed over Masood Azhar in Kandahar... BJP released Masood Azhar," Rahul Gandhi further said. Stepping up the attack, Gandhi said 'PM Modi keeps saying Make in India but his shirt, shoes and phone, with which he takes selfies, are made in China'. Gandhi exuded confidence that the party would win all seven seats in the national capital and confirmed that the Congress would not join hands with the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi. The Congress is set to give final shape to its strategy for Lok Sabha elections. A Congress working committee meeting would also be held in Ahmedabad tomorrow (March 12). The day-long meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's highest decision-making body, assumes significance as it comes barely two days after the declaration of poll schedule for the general elections. A PTI report while quoting sources said the Congress is seeking to give a strong political message to the entire nation from the land of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel, with the party leadership scheduled to hold a prayer meeting Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, followed by the CWC meet at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel national memorial there. Congress likely to release second list for LS polls today "Do you want Mahatma Gandhi's India or Godse's India," Gandhi said today in Delhi. The party has been alleging that Modi has "fooled" the people with his "false propaganda" and "boastful claims" and has not delivered on his promises. It has also alleged that the Modi government has inflicted pain and misery on the poor, the unemployed and the farmers during its five years of power, which needs to be made an election issue. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 19:07 [IST] PM-Kisan 10th installment to roll out by next week: How to check your status and name in beneficiary list? National security pitch, last minute allies: Has the BJP got its math right India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Mar 11: After riding on the popularity of Narendra Modi in 2014, the BJP ended up with 282 out of the 543 seats in 2014. The challenge ahead this year is immense and the BJP at the moment looks like a more confident unit than it did two months back. On Friday, the BJP held its Parliamentary board meeting, in which a variety of issues were discussed. The party is said to have done away with its 75 age rule. This decision, sources say was taken only to ensure the winnability factor. Election dates announced: Congress accuses BJP of 'wasting' mandate, Modi seeks people's 'blessings' During the meeting, several leaders said that their chances of winning had increased after national security became a poll issue. This confidence was exhibited by particularly those MPs from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The same leaders did not feel confident in the aftermath of the defeats in the assembly elections in MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. While there were doubts if the BJP could retain as many seats in the Hindi heartland as it did in 2014, it moved its focus to South India to better its tally. The alliance with the AIADMK is being seen a major positive for the party. The BJP has also forged alliances with the PMK and DMDK. This would help the AIADMK and BJP put up a better showing in northern Tamil Nadu and in districts of Salem, Tirpur and Thiruvallur. Further it also managed to cobble up the alliance with its ever bickering ally, the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. An alliance was also formed with the All Jharkhand Students Union in Jharkhand. The BJP would however have an uphill task in the north eastern states. The party had made huge gains in this region, but finds itself on the back foot owing to the Citizenship Amendment Bill. Due to this allies such as the AGP in Assam and UDP in Meghalaya pulled out as a result of which the BJP would find the going hard. In Karnataka, where the BJP has its best chance down south, it is up against the JD(S) and Congress. The combine has performed well in all the local polls and this time around threatens to pose a formidable challenge to the BJP. In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the party does not have any formal alliance. However the poll prospects for YSR Congress in AP and TRS in Telangana remain very bright. The BJP is hoping that these parties would remain friendly towards it. Enough is enough, we cannot keep suffering till eternity: PM Modi at 50th Raising Day of CISF Uttar Pradesh is a big challenge for the BJP. It is up against a strong coalition of the SP and BSP. The party hopes that its national security pitch would help overcome the caste equations that the SP and BSP would tap into. In Bihar, the BJP is an alliance with the JD(S) and LJP. While it was hoping to make inroads in West Bengal, the challenge in this state for the BJP remains huge. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 10:17 [IST] Those who sent Anil Deshmukh to jail will pay the price: Sharad Pawar 'There is no UPA now': Mamata Banerjee takes swipe at Cong, calls for unity of regional parties against BJP NCP chief Sharad Pawar won't contest Lok Sabha polls, says '2 family members are contesting' India oi-Chennabasaveshwar P Mumbai, Mar 11: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Chief Sharad Pawar will not be contesting Lok Sabha elections, according to reports. After making the announcement, Pawar said, "I thought that already two members of my family are contesting polls this time and hence I felt this is right time to take decision to not contest since I already have contested 14 times in the past." "There was a lot of insistence (from within NCP) that I contest from Madha. However, my candidature hasn't been declared yet," Pawar said. The NCP chief also indicated that Parth, son of his nephew and senior party leader Ajit Pawar, may be fielded from Maval LS constituency in Pune district. Last week, Sharad Pawar had held a meeting with the top leaders of his party to chalk out the election strategy for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The names of probable candidates, including those for the Aurangabad and Nagar seats, were also discussed during the meeting. Congress likely to release second list for LS polls today Congress party and National Congress Party (NCP) have reached a consensus on December 24 sharing 40 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. However, his decision to not contest elections was not clear. He previously served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra on three separate occasions and held the posts of Minister of Defence and Minister of Agriculture in the Government of India. Pawar hails from the town of Baramati in the Pune district of Maharashtra. He is a member of the Rajya Sabha where he leads the NCP delegation. He holds a position of prominence in national politics as well as the regional politics of Maharashtra. Pawan Kalyan says Playing national anthem in Cinema halls is not a test for my patriotism India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, Mar 11: Actor-turned-politician and Jana Sena Pawan Kalyan on Saturday questioned the rationale behind the Supreme Court order that everyone should stand up and show respect when the national anthem is played in cinema halls. Kalyan said,''Playing of national anthem (in cinema theatres)... is it to showcase your patriotism in cinema theatres? You go there to throw flowers and if you listen national anthem at that time.... how will be your feeling?.'' ''Cinema theatre is not a test for my patriotism. War is going on at border, it's test for my patriotism. Rowdyism is prevailing in society, it is test for my patriotism. Whether I can prevent bribery is the test for my patriotism,'' he further said. [J&K: Viral video shows college students not standing up during national anthem at a varsity function] Kalyan said those who preach and enforce laws should lead by setting an example. "The highest offices in the country should also play the national anthem," he said. He had raised the issue back in 2016 when the apex court had passed the directive. The Supreme Court had issued an order on November 30, 2016, making it compulsory for cinema halls and theatres to play the national anthem. But on January 9, 2018, the order was modified by a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. Under the modified order, it now depends on owners of cinema halls whether they want to play the national anthem or not. PM-Kisan 10th installment to roll out by next week: How to check your status and name in beneficiary list? Red caps are like red alert for UP, PM Modi's jibe at Samajwadi Party in Gorakhpur rally PM Modi lauds UP govt for the work done for the benefit of sugarcane farmers PM speaks with Abu Dhabi crown prince, thanks for inviting India to OIC meeting India pti-PTI New Delhi, Mar 11: Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with the crown prince of Abu Dhabi on Monday and thanked him for inviting India to address the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. The prime minister and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces expressed happiness over the growing strength of all-round bilateral cooperation. "They reiterated their commitment to further consolidate the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership," a statement from the Prime Minister's Office said quoting the telephonic conversation. Modi took this opportunity to thank the crown prince for the invitation extended to India for addressing the OIC Foreign Ministers' Council as a guest of honour in Abu Dhabi on March 1. "He expressed hope that this historical participation would contribute to attaining the common objectives of peace and progress," the statement said. [Highlights: MEA Sushma Swaraj's speech at OIC conclave] In a major diplomatic achievement, India for the first time addressed the OIC meeting, and asserted that the war against terrorism, which was destabilising regions and putting the world at great peril, was not against any religion. [Hindi declared as third official court language in Abu Dhabi] India's participation came despite strong demand by Pakistan to rescind the invitation to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to address the grouping of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation which was turned down by the host UAE, resulting in Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi boycotting the plenary. PTI List of 28 agreements/MoUs signed during the 21st India-Russia Annual Summit in New Delhi Reciprocal visit by Indian officials to Pak cancelled India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa New Delhi, Mar 11: Amid heightened tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad, a reciprocal visit by the Indian team to Pakistan for inspection of projects in Indus river basin this month has been postponed, senior officials said. During the 115th meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission held in Lahore from August 29-30, 2018, both the commissioners had agreed to undertake the treaty-mandated tours of the Indus basin on both sides, the official said. The tour of the Pakistani side was originally scheduled in October 2018 but was postponed because of local bodies elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Subsequently, the Pakistani team visited India in the last week of January to inspect projects in the Chenab basin in the state. Pakistani Indus Commissioner Syed Mohammad Mehar Ali Shah and Indian Commissioner PK Saxena along with respective advisers visited the under-construction Indian hydropower projects in Chenab basin namely Pakal Dul (1000 MW), Ratle (850 MW) and Lower Kalnai (48 MW). The delegation also visited the under-operation Baglihar hydro electric project (900 MW). The Pakistani commissioner extended an invitation to his counterpart to undertake a visit of the Indus basin on Pakistani side. 'Hostile nation's animosity is well known': Pak wants India's removal from FATF review body The Indian team was supposed to visit Pakistan this month, a senior official said. "But amid the ongoing tension it has now been postponed," the official added. The official remained non-committal about the date, but said the visit has to take place by March 2020. Under Article VIII of the treaty, both commissioners are mandated to undertake, once every five years, a general tour of inspection of the rivers for ascertaining the facts connected with various developments and works on both sides. The current five-year block ends in March, 2020. The PCIW, formed under the Indus Waters Treaty, was signed between India and Pakistan in 1960, and it includes Indus commissioners of both countries. The treaty provides for both the commissioners to meet at least once every year, alternately in India and Pakistan. 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. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 6:04 [IST] Cleaning up the inside rot: The importance of gunning down Kashmirs white collared terrorists Rs 6,000 stipend, reformative measures for terrorists who want to return to mainstream India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Srinagar, Mar 11: A return policy for terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir is in the making. It includes jobs, reformative measures and a monthly stipend of Rs 6,000. The draft is under consideration and would need a final approval by J&K Governor, Satya Pal Malik. This is being put in place to encourage those who have joined the terror ranks to give up arms. The draft aims at giving such persons an opportunity to reform and also provides for livelihood. To encourage terrorists to join the mainstream, the policy also provides for a monthly stipend of Rs 6,000. This is however not applicable to those involved in heinous crimes. Advise sons not join terror groups, top Army official advises mothers In 2010 a policy had been put in place to facilitate the return of former militants from J&K who had crossed over between January 1989 and December 2009 for training, but later returned due to a change of heart. In 2004, a rehabilitation policy was put in place for those terrorists who had a change of heart and wanted to pursue a normal life. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 6:50 [IST] Hindutva neither Left nor Right, integral humanism its essence: Dattatreya Hosabale RSS worker stabbed to death in front of wife in Kerala BJP leader with RSS background now Cong nominee for MLC elections in Maharashtra RSS passes resolution to protect Hindu traditions India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa Gwalior, Mar 11: The RSS, on the third day of its Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS) meet here, Sunday passed a resolution stressing on the need to protect beliefs and traditions of Hindu society. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh said it was the considered opinion of the ABPS that there has been a "systematic design to insult and hurt Hindu beliefs and traditions" on the basis of non-Bharatiya perspective by entities with vested interests. "The case of Sabarimala temple is a recent example of this design," the RSS said, in a resolution passed at the conclusion of its three-day meet. Kerala: Two RSS workers attacked in Trivandrum, case registered It said "Hindutva is not a monolithic or exclusivist thought but a view of life" manifested in diverse and varied ways of cultural expressions, characterised by the uniqueness in the modes of worship, local traditions and festivities. It is anomalous to impose monotonous homogenisation over the beauty of diversity in our traditions, the RSS further said. The ABPS is the Hindutva organisation's highest decision-making body and its three-day meet, involving over 1,400 members, started here on Friday. BJP chief Amit Shah on Saturday met RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and attended the meeting of ABPS. On the second day of its meet, it resolved to "rebuild" the Indian family system which is "torn by social change". For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 5:58 [IST] What is Sabarimala Thantri's view over use of halal jaggery to prepare prasadam: plea in Kerala HC Sabarimala temple to open for annual 10-day festival today India oi-Deepika S Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 11: The Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala will open by 5 pm on March 11 for a ten-day long annual festival and poojas of the month of Meenam. A release issued by the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), which administers the shrine, said that head priest Kandararu Rajeevaru would preside over the temple opening ceremony. The festival will end on March 21. The temple will also get a new gold-plated door for the sanctum sanctorum when the hill shrine opens for the festival. The existing door, which developed tiny cracks, would be replaced with the new one. The holy door, made of quality teak wood, has been plated with at least four kilograms of gold after engraving and embossing it with copper. Only 2 women entered Sabarimala temple, says Kerala govt in assembly A group of Sabarimala devotees, led by one Unni Namboothiri, met the expenses of the new door as an offering to the presiding deity, TDB president A Padmakumar had said. "The new door is designed in such a way that the gold platings can be removed if the door suffers any damage in course of time," the TDB chief had said. The temple and its base camps had witnessed violent clashes between police and traditionalists during the 64-day annual pilgrimage season that ended on January 20. More than 10,000 people were booked in connection with the violence. On September 29, 2018, the Supreme Court had struck down a rule that disallowed girls and women in the 10-50 age group from entering the Sabarimala Temple in Kerala. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 9:49 [IST] Samjhauta express blast: Twist, turns and when the US blamed Lashkar India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, Mar 11: The investigations into the Samjhauta Express blast case has witnessed several twists and turns. While the chargesheet by the National Investigation Agency named Swami Aseemanand, Lokesh Sharma, Sunil Joshi, Sandeep Dange and Ramchandra Kalasangra alias Ramji as accused in the case, a probe into the role of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba had also been probed. The probe initially began with the agencies blaming the Lashkar-e-Tayiba for the incident. However later it took a turn, with a new set of accused being blamed for the attack. However in 2016, the NIA was again looking at the role played by one Arif Kasmani. The NIA had sought evidence from the United States of America regarding Kasmani, a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative who is alleged to have funded the blasts on the Samjhauta Express. Samjauta Express blasts: A timeline On February 18 2007 bombs planted in two carriages of the Samjautha Express exploded killing 68 persons and injuring several others. It was stated after the blast that it was the handiwork of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. However the probe a year later took a complete different turn with investigators blaming a group called the Abhinav Bharat. It may be recalled that it was the US treasury department which had suggested in June 2009 that Kasmani could have funded the operation. The NIA team will meet with officials in the US including those from the FBI to seek out more details regarding the case and the Kasmani angle. If the Kasmani angle is ascertained then it becomes clear that there was a hand of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba in the blasts. The case has seen several turns since the investigations commenced. At first it was blamed on the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Students Islamic Movement of India Later on investigators suggested that it could have been the handiwork of the Abhinav Bharat. The NIA team had even obtained a confession from Swami Aseemanand who was named as an accused in the case. During the confession, he speaks about the role of the Abhinav Bharat. However the confession could not be used as Aseemanand denied giving any such confession. An accused has a right to deny a confession in police custody stating that it was obtained under duress. The NIA following this has not been able to gather any concrete evidence to link the Abhinav Bharat. With the probe hitting a dead end the NIA has decided to take a re-look into the Lashkar-e-Taiba angle. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 16:28 [IST] TN: Rs 34 lakh in cash and nine luxury cars seized from premises linked to ex-AIADMK minister KC Veeramani Suspense ends, DMDK finalises poll deal with AIADMK India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa Chennai, Mar 11: Ending days of suspense and hard bargain, the ruling AIADMK Sunday inked an electoral pact with DMDK led by actor-turned politician Vijayakanth, allotting it four of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu. An agreement was signed between the top leadership of the two parties -- Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam and Vijayakanth and DMDK Treasurer and his wife Premalatha here. Incidentally, the announcement came shortly after the Election Commission announced the Lok Sabha poll schedule.Tamil Nadu is going to polls on April 18. The AIADMK-led alliance already has the BJP, PMK, Puthiya Tamizhagam and AINRC as its members. Tamil Nadu: DMK to contest in 20 Lok Sabha seats, allies given 20 Talking to reporters at a star hotel, where the final leg of parelys which stretched to over two weeks were held, Panneerselvam, the coordinator of the AIADMK, said it was a committed alliance. "It has been decided to allot 4 seats to DMDK. In the bypolls to 21 Assembly constituencies, the DMDK will support the AIADMK," he said. Describing his party led front as "a mega and victory alliance", he said the constituencies to be contested by the allies will be announced after consultations. The finalisation of the alliance with DMDK brings the curtains down on days of uncertainty amid reports that the party was seeking higher share of seats. Several rounds of talks were held between the leaders of the two parties and even senior BJP leader and Union Minister Piyush Goyal, election in-charge of the party, had met Vijaykanth at his home. The DMDK was expected to be part of the alliance in time for the March 6 election rally addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi near here. However, it did not materialise though leaders of the two parties had indicated that by the next meeting to be addressed by Modi in the state, the alliance would be firmed up. At one stage, the DMK too was said to have been keen on a tie-up with the DMDK, but earlier last week it announced the conclusion of its alliance, shutting doors on any more partners. The DMK has entered into alliance with Congress, VCK, IUML, MDMK and CPI-M and CPI.By signing the pact with the DMDK, the AIADMK has almost come to the penultimate stage of finalising the alliance led by it in Tamil Nadu. Already, the party has finalised seat sharing with BJP and PMK and a few smaller outfits for the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, alloting 18 of the 40 seats at stake. It has alloted seven seats to PMK, five to the BJP and one to Dalit-based Puthiya Tamizhagam in the state and the lone Puducherry seat to AINRC. The alliance parties have also agreed to extend support to the AIADMK for the byelections. There are expectations that former Minister GK Vasan led Tamil Maanila Congress may join the AIADMK front, giving the final shape to the combine that will take on the DMK-led alliance. Asked if there was a scope for Tamil Maanila Congress joining the AIADMK front, Paneerselvam said "a good decision" will be out in a day or two. Lok Sabha elections 2019: CPI, VCK finalise alliance with DMK "It is a robust coalition," he said adding interview of candidates seeking party tickets will commence from tomorrow at AIADMK headquarters. The AIADMK which for the first time joined hands with DMDK in 2011 is again tying up with that party after a long hiatus. Premalatha pledged her party's support to the AIADMK in the bypolls to 18 assembly seats, to be held along with the Lok Sabha polls, and local body elections, expected in May. Asked if she was satisfied with the number of seats offered to her party, the DMDK leader said "yes, there is nothing in numbers, it all boils down to your thought process." She was apparently indicating that AIADMK and DMDK were together in their line of thought. "It is a victory alliance and an example is 2011 Assembly election when the AIADMK-DMDK alliance had a big win," Premalatha said. She hit out at the DMK and hailed the AIADMK as a party nurtured by a woman leader late Jayalalithaa. The DMDK and AIADMK were natural allies, she added. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 6:39 [IST] Top Lashkar commander gunned down with two more terrorists in Pulwama The 23-year-old electrician behind the Pulwama attack India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Srinagar, Mar 11: Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist Mudasir Ahmed Khan, alias 'Mohd Bhai', has been identified as the brains behind the Pulwama terror attack. Piecing together evidence gathered so far, security officials said that 23-year-old Khan, an electrician with a graduate degree hailing from Pulwama district, arranged the vehicle and explosives used in the terror strike. A resident of Mir Mohalla of Tral, Khan joined the Jaish-e-Mohammed sometime in 2017 as an overground worker and was later drawn into the JeM fold by Noor Mohammed Tantrey, alias 'Noor Trali', who is believed to have helped in the revival of the terror outfit in Kashmir Valley. J&K: Pulwama terror attack mastermind believed to be killed in Tral encounter After Tantray was killed in December 2017, Khan disappeared from his home on January 14, 2018 and has been active since then. Suicide attacker Adil Ahmed Dar, who blew his explosive-laden vehicle next to a bus in a Central Reserve Police Force convoy on February 14, had been in constant contact with Khan, they said. After completing his graduation, Khan did a one-year diploma course as electrician from an Industrial Training Institute (ITI). The eldest son of a labourer, Khan is also believed to be involved in the terror strike at the army camp in Sunjawan in February 2018. What is Form 26 and how it helps voters make an informed choice India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa New Delhi, Mar 11: With the election dates for the Lok Sabha polls being announced, there would be a host of formalities that the candidates would have to follow. All candidates would have to submit certain documents to contest the elections. To contest the Lok Sabha polls, a candidates would have be aged 25 or above. List of documents to be submitted: Nomination paper in Form 2A for Lok Sabha election and Form 2B for Assembly election. Affidavit in Form 26 with all the columns filled up and sworn before an Oath Commissioner or Magistrate of First Class or before a Notary Public Additional Affidavit regarding public dues Certified extract of electoral roll (when candidate is an elector of a different constituency) Form A and Form B (applicable in the case of candidates set up by political parties) Copy of Caste certificates (if the candidate claims to belong to SC/ST) Security deposit Oath and affirmation Form 26: The objective behind introducing Form 26 was to help the voter make an informed decision. A candidate is required to file an affidavit called Form 26, in which information on assets, liabilities, educational qualifications, criminal antecedents and public dues, if any has to be provided. The same has to be filed along with the nomination papers. It needs to be sworn before an Oath Commissioner of Magistrate of the First Class or before a Notary. Earlier, the candidate had to declare on the last IT-return, for self, souse and dependants. Now it is mandatory to declare their own income tax returns of the past 5 years rather than only one. The details of the offshore assets as well as the details of the spouses and dependants have to be revealed. The affidavit in Form 26 need to be filed with the following details: Particulars relating to criminal antecedents, if any, (cases of convictions and all pending cases) Details of PAN and status of filing of Income tax return of self, spouse and dependents Details of the assets (movable and immovable etc.) Liabilities/dues of candidate, spouse and all dependents to government and public financial institutions Details of profession or occupation of candidate and spouse Highest educational qualification of the candidate Why have successive J&K Governments not adopted Operation Sadbhavana? India oi-Hardeep Singh Bedi New Delhi, March 11: Indian Army's Operation Sadbhavana was supposed to be taken over by Jammu and Kashmir government three years after its launch, a senior retired army official tells One India. The officer was posted at the Northern Command when the Operation Sadbhavana was launched in 1998. "Operation Sadbhavana was started by the Indian Army in Jammu and Kashmir under its Military Civic Action programmes, which was aimed at 'Winning the Hearts and Minds' of the people in the region, especially terror-hit areas. Initially, it was decided that the Army would carry out the social activities for three years under the programme and afterward the state government was supposed to take over the project," said the army veteran. Advise sons not join terror groups, top Army official advises mothers He added: "The National Conference (NC) President Farooq Abdullah was heading the Jammu and Kashmir government back in 2001, but he did not come forward to take up the project. Since successive state governments have not shown any interest in taking up Operation Sadbhavana, the Indian Army is successfully changing the lives of many people." After the departure of Farooq Abdullah government, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Congress formed the government in which PDP supremo late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad were chief ministers as per their coalition pact. Farooq Abdullah's son, Omar Abdullah, was chief minister from January 2009 to January 2015. Mufti Mohammad Sayeed again became chief minister in March 2015 with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and remained on the post till his death on January 7, 2016. His daughter Mehbooba Mufti became chief minister on April 4, 2016, and remained on the post till June 19, 2018, as the BJP withdrew its support from her government. The army official said that the main reason behind the successive state governments' aloofness towards Operation Sadbhavana is that J&K based parties- the NC and the PDP- don't want to be seen in the Kashmir Valley promoting any initiative of the Indian Army. "They (NC and PDP) don't want to be seen on the Indian Army's side because of their political compulsions and hence have kept a distance from the Operation Sadbhavana. But, by doing so they have not done any benefit to their voters and, in fact, have indirectly pushed them towards militants and separatists," the retired Army official said. "Had the Operation Sadbhavana got the support of the NC and the PDP, it would have been able to eradicate militancy almost completely," said the army veteran. He maintained that the army has been tirelessly continuing its social outreach programme and is successful in doing what the elected governments were supposed to do. "For example, the army has started two boarding schools-one in Rajouri and second in Anantnag- which are imparting world-class education. Inspired by the education system of these schools, Bharti Airtel Foundation is interested in joining the Operation Sadbhavana," he said. Indian Army needs free hand to counter Pakistani e-jihad in Kashmir It is notable that Operation Sadbhavana was launched by the army in 1998 in rural areas of Jammu & Kashmir where terrorists and anti-national elements had wreaked havoc by large scale destruction of government property and public assets like schools, bridges, electricity supply system, etcetera causing severe hardships to locals. Till now, the army has spent approximately Rs. 650 crore on initiatives like quality education, women and youth empowerment, infrastructure development, health, and veterinary care. In addition, basic needs like water supply schemes, electrification and animal husbandry in far-flung areas are given priority under Operation Sadbhavana. Educational/motivational tours outside J&K are undertaken to expose the rich heritage and progress of India for the students. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 11:34 [IST] Gujarat Cong didn't give me any work in local body polls; even opinion not sought: Hardik Patel 'Will join Congress on March 12 in presence of Rahul Gandhi', says Hardik Patel India oi-Madhuri Adnal Ahmedabad, Mar 11: Patidar quota leader Hardik Patel said that that he will join Congress on March 12 in the presence of the party's national president Rahul Gandhi. Speaking to media, Patel said,'' Would like to work for youth and farmers. Preferably would like to fight elections from the Jamnagar seat but the final call will be taken by the party high command.'' The Congress Working Committee meeting is scheduled for March 12 in Ahmedabad. [Hardik Patel to join Congress on March 12, to contest from Jamnagar] The Jamnagar Lok Sabha seat is currently represented by Poonamben Maadam of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). atel's joining will coincide with the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in Ahmedabad, following which top party leaders will address a public rally there. The Congress is focussing on Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and had give a tough fight to the ruling BJP in the last assembly polls in the state. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 9:39 [IST] Bring vaccine in open market says Odisha CM Patnaik in letter to PM Modi BJD not to hold rallies, campaign meets for May 13 Pipili by- polls: Patnaik More than 1,000 govt schools in Odisha will be transformed with modern facilities: CM Will the historic step to field 33 per cent women candidates work for the BJD India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa Bhubaneswar, Mar 11: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik said the BJD would field 33 per cent women among its candidates in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, terming the move a "benchmark for women empowerment" in the country. Making the announcement at a rally in Kendrapara, the Biju Janata Dal president said the "historic step" would lead the way in empowering women. "If India is to lead the world, if India has to compete with countries like America and China and become an advanced nation, women empowerment is the only answer," he said. Patnaik's decision would mean that the ruling BJD will field women candidates for at least seven out of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state. At present, there are three women Lok Sabha MPs from Odisha. The BJD had won 20 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in 2014. Patnaik, however, did not make any such announcement for the assembly polls which is slated to be held along with the Lok Sabha polls. Odisha's 147-member assembly has 12 women MLAs at present. BJD to have 33% quota for women in allocation of LS seats: Naveen Patnaik In November last year, a resolution was passed unanimously in the state assembly seeking 33 per cent reservation for women in state legislative assemblies and Parliament. The BJD supremo said he had sent a proposal in this regard to all the national parties and chief ministers. "I call upon all the national parties that they should be true to their words and must follow what they propagate for women empowerment," he said. Patnaik reminded the crowd that his father and former chief minister Biju Patnaik implemented 33 per cent reservation for women for the first time in the country, in the three-tier panchayati raj institutions and government jobs. The state government enhanced the reservation for women to 50 per cent in panchayats in 2012. Patnaik's announcement, however, was dubbed by opposition BJP and Congress as a "pre-poll game plan" to woo women voters. Union Minister and BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan said reservation of seats for women is "welcome", but the timing of the BJD's announcement, ahead of the elections, is nothing but a "gimmick to grab the votes" of women electors. Terming the move as a "tool" to influence female voters, a senior Congress leader said his party has no objection if women get 33 per cent reservation in state assemblies and Parliament, but the BJD is using it as a "last ditch effort" to get votes as its "popularity has nosedived". Lok Sabha elections 2019 dates: 7-phase polling to be held from Apr-11 to May 19, counting on May 23 Patnaik had in December last urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to initiate steps to pass the Women's Reservation Bill, pending in the Lok Sabha. He had subsequently written to the chief ministers of all the states and Union territories seeking their cooperation to secure 33 per cent reservation for women in legislative assemblies and Parliament. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 10:31 [IST] Be present in Lok Sabha, RS says BJP in 3 line whip to its MPs Election expenditure: How much did BJP, Congress, DMK, CPI, TMC, AIADMK receive funds and spent during polls? Yogi donates Rs 2,51,000 from his salary to party fund India oi-Chennabasaveshwar P Lucknow, Mar 11: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath donates Rs 2,51,000 from his salary account to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s 'samarpan kosh'; directed ministers, MLAs, Municipal Corporation Presidents and Vice-Presidents to donate their one month salary to the party fund. Prime Minister Narendra Modi donated Rs 1,000 to the party through the party's phone app and asked others to emulate them. Lok Sabha elections 2019: From tackling fake news to monitoring spending, the EC has its hands full Last month Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah had urged party workers to donate funds to the organisation in a bid to reduce the dependence on "money bags" given by builders and contractors. Shah said the BJP should run on contributions from its workers, and should set an example for other parties, PTI reported. "BJP workers should say with pride that we run this party from our money and no industrialist, contractor, money bag or builder can run it," Shah said. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 18:59 [IST] Gen Rawats chopper crashes: Those who were on board IAF chopper crash: Bollywood, south celebrities mourn the untimely death of Bipin Rawat, others Gen Bipin Rawat, others killed in helicopter crash: IAF's Mi17V5 chopper involved in a few incidents in past Tamil Nadu copter crash: Lance Naik from Andhra spoke to wife four hours before mishap Gen Bipin Rawat, wife to be cremated in Delhi on Friday You hunted the hunter, IAF tells Abhinandan India oi-Oneindia Staff By Anuj Cariappa New Delhi Mar 11: Continuing with its poetic praise on its personnel, the Indian Air Force on Sunday described Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman as someone who "hunted the hunter". Posting a poem on its official Twitter handle @IAF_MCC, 'Sabke Bass Ki Baat Nahi', written by Bipin Allhabadi, the IAF described the fighter pilot's feat as something that is not possible for everyone. Abhinandan Varthaman can fly again if he's declared fit: BS Dhanoa What Abhinandan Varthaman did is not everyone's cup of tea. He hunted the hunter, the Hindi poem read. Tensions between India and Pakistan flared up after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) terror group killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14. India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 and captured Varthaman. Newborn named after Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman However, in the air fight, the Air Force pilot had also shot down Pakistan's F-16 fighter jet. After his capture and subsequent release, the Air Force pilot became an overnight sensation across the country. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 5:54 [IST] DGCA will take 'some time' before deciding on Boeing 737 MAX planes Ethiopian Airlines crash: China orders to ground Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes International oi-Madhuri Adnal Beijing, Mar 11: A day after a deadly crash of a 737 MAX 8 by Ethiopian Airlines, China's civil aviation regulator said on Monday that it has asked domestic airlines to ground all the commercial operations of all Boeing 737-8 planes. [All 157 people on board Ethiopian Airlines flight killed in crash] Earlier on Sunday, an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8 bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after take-off on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board. It was the second crash of the 737 MAX, the latest version of Boeing's workhorse narrowbody jet that first entered service in 2017. In October, a 737 MAX flown by Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air flying from Jakarta on a domestic flight crashed 13 minutes after take-off, killing all 189 passengers and crew on board. Talks with China will not help says USA NSA on situation on Ladakh 20 members of a family removed from US flight after mask of 1 slipped under nose AUKUS will be game-changer in Indo-Pacific, won't compete with Quad: US Deputy Secretary Eye for detail: US teacher wins $10k after reading fine print of her insurance policy International oi-Shubham Ghosh Washington, March 11: How many times do we read lengthy documents, like an insurance policy or a legal copy of a newly bought apartment? Mostly not because it's boring and time-taking. However, a schoolteacher from Georgia, US, recently proved that by overlooking the fine print, we could miss as much as $10,000! Yes, that's true. Video: Wheelchair-bound man engages in dangerous stunt on highway Donelan Andrews is known to have an eye for details and she also tells her students to read the fine print of every document that they get, be it examination questions or a life-insurance policy. For those who might have thought her to be a maniac, she recently achieved a feat that will silence them. The 59-year-old Andrews recently purchased an insurance package while planning for a trip to England in the event that she would have to scrap, the Washington Post reported. As per her habit, she went through the documents in detail and discovered something unusual written on the seventh page. Donelan Andrews bought travel insurance from a Florida-based company that hid a contest within their policies to emphasize the importance of reading an entire contract. pic.twitter.com/XBD5YkbBKt Dose (@dose) March 10, 2019 It was written there that the first person to read everything and discover the contest would bag a prize money of $10,000 (almost Rs 7 lakh), Squaremouth reported. "If you've read this far, then you are one of the very few Tin Leg customers to review all of their policy documentation," the text read, adding that the person who read it must email Squaremouth and mention the contest to win the prize. Germany: Man gets life for poisoning co-workers for mysterious reason Andrews shot the mail immediately and eventually won the money. "I always read all the fine print," she was quoted as saying by The Washington Post. "I know I sound like a nerd, but I learned to read contracts so you don't get taken advantage of." Andrews plans to arrange for a trip to Scotland with her husband to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary, USA Today reported. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 12:40 [IST] Seven US Lawmakers write to Mike Pompeo on Farmers' protest In India FS Gokhale calls on Pompeo, assert that Pakistan must deny safe haven to terrorists International oi-Vikas SV Washington, Mar 11: Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale on Monday called on US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo in Washington and apprised tha latter about recent developmens in the region after February 14 Pulwama terrorist attack. Both hailed the significant progress and quality of India-US Strategic Partnership since Pompeo's visit to India last year to take part in the '2+2' dialogue. Gokhale appreciated the US Government and Secretary Pompeo personally for the firm support that India received from the US in the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Pulwama, reported ANI. US condemns Pulwama attack in strongest terms Pompeo reportedly expressed his understanding of India's concerns regarding cross-border terrorism. They agreed that Pakistan needs to take concerted action to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure and to deny safe haven to all terrorist groups in its territory, ANI reported. The United States on February 15 condemned in the strongest terms the Pulwama terror attack carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammed in which 40 CRPF jawans were martyred. Pompeo last week discussed with British NSA Mark Sedwill the current situation between India and Pakistan and the efforts to reduce tensions between the two South Asian neighbours Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district in February 14. India launched a counter-terror operation in Balakot. Mike Pompeo stresses on finding common ground between India and Pakistan The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured its pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1. The US, the UK and France, the three permanent veto-wielding members of the 15-nation United Nations Security Council, last month moved a fresh proposal in the UNSC to designate JeM's chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist. Pompeo on March 5 said the United States is trying to find a common ground between India and Pakistan. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 21:29 [IST] Russian arms exports to India fell by 42 pc between 2014-18 and 2009-13: Report International pti-PTI Washington, Mar 11: Russia's arms export to India fell by a whopping 42 per cent between 2014-18 and 2009-2013, according to a new report. As a result, Russia accounted for 58 per cent of total Indian arms imports in 2014-2018, compared with 76 per cent in 2009-2013, according to the report "Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2018" released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). [Indo-Russia nuclear powered submarine deal, explained] In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's effort to reduce country's dependence on foreign arms, India's import of arms decreased by 24 per cent between 2009-2013 and 2014-2018, according to the figures released by the report. This decline in India's import is also partly due to delays in deliveries of arms produced under license from foreign suppliers, such as combat aircraft ordered from Russia in 2001 and submarines ordered from France in 2008. Still, India was the world's second largest importer of major arms in 2014-18 and accounted for 9.5 per cent of the global total. Israel, the USA and France all increased their arms exports to India in 2014-18. Pakistan's arms imports decreased by 39 per cent between 2009-13 and 2014-18. The US has become increasingly reluctant to provide military aid or sell arms to Pakistan: US arms exports to Pakistan fell by 81 per cent between 2009-13 and 2014-18, it said. Pakistan has instead turned to other suppliers. For example, in 2018 it ordered 4 frigates and 30 combat helicopters from Turkey, it added. The decrease in India's arms import is significant given that the volume of international transfers of major arms in 2014-18 was 7.8 per cent higher than in 2009-13 and 23 per cent higher than in 2004-2008. The five largest exporters in 2014-18 were the United States, Russia, France, Germany and China. The five largest importers were Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt, Australia and Algeria. The US was the top arms exporter in 2014-18 and 2009-13. Its exports of major arms grew by 29 per cent between the two periods and its share of total global exports rose from 30 per cent to 36 per cent. As a result, the gap between the USA and Russia - the second largest exporter - continued to widen. In 2009-13, US exports of major arms were 12 per cent higher than those of Russia, whereas in 2014-18 they were 75 per cent higher. [Why US is against India-Russia deal on S-400 Triumf missile system] Russian exports of major arms decreased by 17 per cent between the same periods. The fall was partly due to general reductions in Indian and Venezuelan arms imports - two countries that have been among the main recipients of Russian arms exports in previous years, the SIPRI said. "Although India remained the chief recipient of Russian arms in 2014-18, Russian arms exports to India fell by 42 per cent between 2014-18 and 2009-13. Arms exports to Venezuela, which was the fifth largest recipient of Russian arms in 2009-13, decreased by 96 per cent between the two periods," it said. PTI The day India came up with poll dates, North Korea went to election; yes, you heard it right! International oi-Shubham Ghosh Pyongyang, March 11: On Sunday, the election schedule of the world's largest democracy - India - was announced. The election will go on for a month-and-half and over seven phases as the country of 130 billion people will choose its next government. In a matter of irony, on the day the Election Commission of India announced the dates of the parliamentary election in the country starting April 11, the country of North Korea went to its parliamentary election - the second such instance since its current supreme leader Kim Jong-un took office in December 2011 on the death of his father Kim Il-Sung. After summit with Trump tanks, N Korea leader Kim stresses on economic growth Even though the hermit kingdom is known for the family rule it is under for several decades now, voting for the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) is a must though there is no choice of candidates and any kind of dissent is not heard of. The turnout as a result is 100 per cent and the approval for the ruling alliance is universal. North Korea allows anybody in the population aged 17 or more to cast ballots. "As a sign of loyalty you're expected to turn up early, that means there'll likely be long queues," North Korea analyst Fyodor Tertitskiy, based in the South Korean capital Seoul, was quoted as saying by BBC. The voter receives a ballot paper with just one name on it (it needs no explanation). He/she has to take the paper and put it into the ballot box kept in the open. The process is complete and the dictatorship continues. On paper, a voter can strike out the name of that single candidate but in reality, that is something only an insane would do. After casting the ballot, the voters are expected to join those cheering and celebrating outside for being happy over the fact that they could cast their votes to the country's wise leadership. Is North Korea preparing for a missile or space launch? The SPA is a rubber-stamp parliament with zero power. It just formally approves the laws that are written by party apparatus. There is only one party in North Korea but three different factions in the alliance though they have no differences. The result of Sunday's election is expected in a few days' time though the conclusion is foregone. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 13:01 [IST] UK revokes citizenships of two more IS brides, both sisters International oi-Shubham Ghosh London, March 11: With terrorism becoming more of a home-grown individual-centric menace for nation-states, they are turning stricter in allowing people who decided to turn jihadis and now wanting to return home. Two more women - Reema and Zara Iqbal, both sisters - recently have had their British citizenships revoked because they wanted to fled the UK to end up as jihadi brides, Lad Bible reported. Mike Pompeo, British NSA discuss tension between India and Pakistan The duo is currently in refugee detention camps in Syria with their five kids. Three of them were born in the UK while the remaining two are believed to have been born in the West Asian nation. Recently, a woman named Shamima Begum had her UK citizenship revoked after she left Britain to become a jihadi bride. According to the Lad Bible report, the British authorities have alleged that the two sisters - aged 30 and 28, have parents who are from Pakistan and they could be eligible for citizenship there. The two left the UK six years ago in search of Islamic States husbands who have been connected to Islamic extremism. Reema recently told The Telegraph, UK, about her plans to return to the country of her birth. "The security services came to speak to me and I was honest," she was quoted as saying by the newspaper. "I told them my whole story so now it's up to them to judge. I don't know if my Mum every got me a Pakistani passport or not, I've never been to Pakistan." India once again fail to make cut for easier UK visa norms "There's not enough food for bigger families. It's a prison here, but we're serving no sentence. If I face court, fine, but take me back to the UK, that's where I'm from." The two sisters' citizenship battle comes in the wake of the Shamima Begum case. She had left the UK when she was a teenager but pleaded to be allowed back so that her unborn baby could be taken care of. However, her citizenship was revoked. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 12:47 [IST] Curfew announced in Jaipur from 6 pm to 5 am 4 calves, three cows rescued from jeep in Rajasthan Jaipur court sentences rapist 20 years in prison within 9 days of committing crime Armed men vandalise toll plaza, loot Rs 9 lakh in Jaipur Jaipur pti-PTI Jaipur, Mar 11: Armed men vandalised a toll plaza in Rajasthan's Bhilwara district and looted around Rs 9 lakh from the employees there, police said Monday. A case was registered against two accused, they said. Nearly two dozen people with sticks and iron rods vandalised the Khachrol toll plaza here, the Mandalgarh Police said. Rajasthan: 15 schools to be named after martyrs The entire incident was recorded on CCTV cameras installed at the plaza, they added. The two accused were identified by toll plaza employees as Ashok Khandelwal and Mahesh Khandelwal who were booked by the police, they said. PTI Businessman in Kolkata shot at after his car was stopped by 18 men West Bengal Police recruitment 2019: Now apply for 3,000 Excise Constable posts Kolkata oi-Madhuri Adnal Kolkata, Mar 11: West Bengal Police has invited application process for 3,000 vacancies for the position of Excise Constable in the subordinate excise service under finance department Govt. Of West Bengal, 2019. Both male and female can apply for the posts from 11 March to 10 April 2019. All the candidates who are interested in applying for the same can apply on WBPRB website. UPPCL Recruitment 2019: Now apply for 4102 Technician posts, last date on April 30 West Bengal Police Constable recruitment 2019: Vacancy details Excise Constable (including Lady Excise Constables) - 3000 Posts Unreserved (UR) - 1170 Unreserved (E.C.) - 480 Scheduled Caste - 450 Scheduled Caste (E.C.) - 210 Scheduled Tribe -120 Scheduled Tribe (E.C.) - 60 OBC-A - 210 OBC-A (E.C.) - 90 OBC-B - 150 OBC-B (E.C) - 60 Important dates to remember Starting Date of Application - 11 March 2019 Last Date of Application - 10 April 2019 (5 PM) West Bengal Excise Constable selection process: Preliminary written exam 2019 will be conducted Candidates who qualify in the WB Constable Prelims exam will be called for Physical Measurement Test (PMT). Those who qualify in PMT will be called for Physical Efficiency Test (PET.) The candidates who qualify in PMT and PET will be called for a final written examination followed by Interview on the basis of merit. Educational Qualification: The applicant must have passed Madhyamik Examination from the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education or its equivalent having Bengali/ Nepali as a language paper of or above the Madhyamik level. Must be a citizen of India. Age limit: The applicant must not be less than 18 years old and must not be more than 27 years old as on 01/01/2019. The Upper-age limit shall be relaxed for the SC/ST applicants of West Bengal only by 05 (five) years and OBC applicants of West Bengal only by 03 (three) years. The upper age limit is also relaxable for NVF and Home Guards Personnel (serving in West Bengal Police only) as per existing Government Rules. However Age relaxation is NOT available to Civic Volunteers. Meanwhile, West Bengal Police Recruitment Board (WBPRB) has released the admit card for the final written exam for recruitment to the post of Sub-Inspector and Lady Sub-Inspector of Excise under Department of Finance, Government of West Bengal. The admit cards are available on the official WBPRB website. The exam will be conducted on March 24, 2019. Candidates would need their application number and date of birth to download their admit cards. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 16:50 [IST] Members of farmers' body detained in Lucknow for trying to burn effigies of PM Modi, Shah UP: Leopard attacks farmer, he grapples with it for 10 mins before help came Lucknow oi-Vikas SV Lucknow, Mar 11: A farmer from Surjipurwa Semrigathi village in Uttar Pradesh was attacked by a leopard on Sunday when he was going towards his farm. The farmer is lucky to have survived the attack as the Leopard pounced on him in a secluded place and the peasant had to grapple with the animal for almost 10 mins before help came, said reports. While grappling with the wild animal, the farmer raised alarm and by the time people came with sticks and cane to rescue him, it was almost 10 minutes. The farmer is severely injured, but has survived the attack, reported Amar Ujala. Leopard, after seeing many people armed with sticks, fled to the nearby forest. Decoded: Patterns of lion, tiger and leopard attacks on humans The people rushed the farmer to a local clinic, and from there he was referred to district hospital. The villagers have informed the matter to the forest department. The farmer who was attacked has been identified as one 32-year-old Rambhavan. Rambhavan was walking towards his farm on Sunday morning when the leopard emerged from a sugarcane farm and pounced on him. The forest department has confirmed that they have been intimated about the attack. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, March 11, 2019, 20:48 [IST] China Aviation Daily | Mar. 11, 2019 Falcon Aviation, a leading business aviation services company in the UAE, is exhibiting at the new Saudi International Airshow (12th to 14th March) to highlight its helicopter and business jet VIP air charter services, together with its MRO and FBO capabilities. "We are very pleased to participate and showcase our various capabilities," said Captain Raman Oberoi, COO of Falcon Aviation. "We are especially looking forward to meeting prospective customers, and building strong partnerships." The region is ideal for helicopter activity, Capt Raman suggests, emphasising Falcon Aviation's considerable experience in the sector. Its helicopter touring operation in the UAE has grown substantially. Likewise, Falcon Aviation's helicopter filming activity out of the UAE has experienced growth and in Saudi Arabia (KSA) it is a regular visitor with its fleet of VIP/VVIP charter helicopters and business jets. GACA Approval for Falcon Aviation MRO Falcon Aviation is looking forward to building on a strengthened aviation relationship with Saudi Arabia. Early in 2019 it won approval from Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) to provide MRO services on Saudi registered business jets. "We have been approached by a number of Saudi business jet operators and have started taking bookings for base maintenance at our MRO facilities in UAE," said Nicolas Tejera, Director of Maintenance of Falcon Aviation. "We also offer line maintenance support, parking, hangarage for business jets at our Abu Dhabi and Dubai DWC bases," he elaborated. Falcon Aviation is looking forward to formally opening its new MRO for business jets at DWC Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai South soon, complementing its established MRO and HQ at Al Bateen Executive Airport in Abu Dhabi. The newly built hangar in over 24,000-sqm land, includes workshops, wash bay and landside office space with an additional 13,000 sqm of apron, providing plenty of aircraft parking spaces. The new facility complements Falcon Aviation's VIP FBO at Dubai South and heliport (also run and managed by Falcon under its AOC). At the same time, Falcon Aviation's Al Bateen facility is being expanded to become a leading centre for third party regional turboprop aircraft MRO, supporting Bombardier Q400 aircraft and eventually, other types. Falcon Aviation also offers extensive Helicopter MRO capabilities at the base too. During the MEBAA Show at the end of 2018 Falcon ratified a new partnership agreement with Honeywell Aerospace to become an authorized Channel Partner in the region. (This programme was created by the OEM to help its regional dealerships to market the company' solutions more efficiently.) Falcon offers part programmes and technical support. Kuwait Helicopter Oil Contract Commences with Leonardo AW169s Reinforcing it is open to exploring new opportunities in new regions, with new partners, Falcon Aviation has just commenced a new offshore and onshore operation in Kuwait with three new Leonardo AW169 helicopters dedicated to the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC). Falcon built the new 2,000-sqm hangar at the 160,000 sqm heliport located in the oil company's premises last year to support the operation. Over the last four years Falcon Aviation has successfully introduced 19-seat AW189 helicopters for the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and is now the world's lead operator of this helicopter type. Similarly, in 2016, to meet the OGP standards for TOTAL oil and gas operations in UAE, it introduced an eight-seat AW169 and is now world leader on the type. Falcon Aviation's Managing Director leads the strong Falcon Aviation contingent attending the Saudi International Airshow, which includes senior management from Falcon's Engineering, FBO and Sales Divisions. Contributed by Falcon Aviation China Aviation Daily | Mar. 08, 2019 Around 800 delegates from the world of aviation route development will shortly be making their way to the City of Cebu, the Philippines. Hosted by the Philippines Department of Tourism for the second time, Routes Asia takes place 10-12 March, returning to the country after previously being held in Manila in 2016. The 17th annual Routes Asia forum will allow airports in the Asia-Pacific region to meet with key airline decision makers, to develop existing relationships and forge new connections with some of the most influential aviation professionals in the world, while discovering the wider area's beauty and business potential. Having recently opened a new terminal that has increased overall passenger capacity to 12.5 million, Mactan-Cebu International Airport is already targeting further expansion, with ambitions to grow capacity to 35 million passengers per year to 2025. Erwin Balane, head of route development for The Philippine Department of Tourism, said "Hosting Routes Asia gives us the opportunity to encourage carriers to consider the international gateways of the Philippines. "We will be able to raise our profile in the Asian aviation community and demonstrate that the Philippines is a multi-gateway destination, where aviation infrastructures are in place and international airports are compliant with international aviation standards." "By promoting the Philippines to leading carriers in Asia, we will continue to improve air connectivity from major tourist source markets to the Philippines." Hosting Routes Asia has proven to be a successful tactic for the Philippine Department of Tourism. Having previously hosted the event in Manilla in 2016, what followed was significant spike in international air seats to the Philippines from new international air routes. According to OAG figures, new international air seats to the Philippines grew by 4.5 million in 2017, and by another 1.79 million in 2018, going from 30 million to 36.3 million since 2016 - an increase of over 20%. Steven Small, brand director of Routes, said "The Philippines has seen fantastic growth in the last few years'. In hosting Routes Asia 2019, the City of Cebu is perfectly placed to welcome more air connectivity by showcasing its growing economy and impressive new airport infrastructure to the region's key decision makers. "We look forward to welcoming the route development connectivity to Cebu and we are sure that they will have a productive and enjoyable time discovering that 'It's more fun in the Philippines'. Contributed by UBM Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: Singapore-based AI open-platform fund manager Noviscient has been selected as one of eight winners and the first Asian startup to join the Copenhagen Fintech Accelerator. The Singaporean-Danish FinTech tie continues to pave the way for strong startup collaboration - the latest living proof is Noviscient, pointed out the investment management firm in a press release. "As the two FinTech hubs seek to strengthen their global positions, Singapore-based Noviscient, as the first company to become part of the Copenhagen FinTech Accelerator, expresses the joint ambition to lead the future of financial technologies by connecting startups. The process saw 135 entries from 35 countries," the release said. As Scandinavia has one of the most progressive and well-funded pension and savings sectors, the bridge gives Noviscient a great platform to further develop its business and exposure. "We are incredibly excited by the opportunity be part of the Accelerace programme. We are benefiting from their depth of experience in building and scaling global companies. At the same time, we are seeing continued interest and engagement from institutional investors in the Danish and broader European ecosystem.," said Scott Treloar, Founder and CEO of Noviscient. The release said that over the course of the six-month program, Noviscient will be working with partners and mentors in the accelerator to create new solutions that create value ...................... To view our full article Click here Opalesque Industry Update - The European Commission welcomes the political agreement reached by the European Parliament and EU Member States today on new rules on disclosure requirements related to sustainable investments and sustainability risks. The agreed rules will strengthen and improve the disclosure of information by manufacturers of financial products and financial advisors towards end-investors. First proposed by the Commission in May 2018 as part of the Sustainable Finance Action Plan and the Capital Markets Union, these rules are an integral part of the EU efforts, under the EU's sustainable development agenda and the carbon neutrality agenda, to connect finance with needs of the real economy. They also support the 2012 United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals and the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement targets. The new regulation sets out how financial market participants and financial advisors must integrate environmental, social or governance (ESG) risks and opportunities in their processes, as part of their duty to act in the best interest of clients. It also sets uniform rules on how those financial market participants should inform investors about their compliance with the integration of ESG risks and opportunities. By so doing, it addresses information asymmetries on sustainability issues between end-investors and financial market participants or financial advisors. The availability of information is crucial to the integration of risks related to the impact of ESG events on the value of investments, for example in assets located in flood-prone areas. The regulation also requires the disclosure of adverse impact on ESG matters, such as in assets that pollute water or devastate bio-diversity, to ensure the sustainability of investments. Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President responsible for the Euro and Social Dialogue, also in charge of Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, said: "The EU is fully committed to implementing the Paris agreement and leading the global fight against climate change. Thanks to today's agreement, we are making sure that the financial system works towards this goal. The new rules on disclosures will enable investors and citizens to make more informed choices so that their money is used more responsibly and supports sustainability." Vice-President Jyrki Katainen, responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, said: "The Paris Agreement is a massive investment opportunity. We need to seize it. Today's agreement will help Europe's financial sector position itself as a leading global destination for investments in green technologies." The new regulation is built around three main pillars: Elimination of greenwashing (unsubstantiated or misleading claims about sustainability characteristics and benefits of an investment product) and an increase of market awareness on sustainability matters; Regulatory neutrality: the rules introduce a disclosure toolbox to be applied in the same manner by different financial market operators. The three European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs), and in particular the Joint Committee of the Authorities, will ensure further convergence and harmonisation of disclosures in all the sectors concerned. Level playing field: the regulation covers the following financial services sectors: (i) investment funds; (ii) insurance based investment products (life insurance products with investment components available as individual retail life policies as well as group life policies); (iii) private and occupational pensions, (iv) individual portfolio management; and (v) both insurance and investment advice. Background The EU and governments around the world committed to the objective of a more sustainable economy and society when they adopted the Paris Agreement on climate change and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The EU is already making a difference thanks to the EU 2030 Energy and Climate framework, the Energy Union, the Circular Economy Action Plan, and the EU implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. To achieve more sustainable growth, everyone in society must play a role. The financial system is no exception. Re-orienting private capital to more sustainable investments requires a comprehensive rethinking of how our financial system works. This is necessary if the EU is to develop more sustainable economic growth, ensure the stability of the financial system, and foster more transparency and long-termism in the economy. On 24 May 2018 the Commission presented a series of legislative measures that follow up to the first ever EU Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth. Today's agreed measures are part of that package, together with the EU rules for the creation of benchmarks for low-carbon investment strategiesagreed on 25 February by the European Parliament and Member States. The Commission is working with the co-legislators with the objective to reach an agreement on the remaining part of the package: the Commission proposal to establish a unified EU classification system ('taxonomy') of sustainable economic activities. Opalesque Industry Update - Allen & Overy today announced Nick Robinson has joined the firm's securitization and structured finance practice as a partner based in New York. Nick joins from Milbank LLP where he practiced for almost 15 years, most recently serving as Special Counsel in the Alternative Investments Practice. Nick has extensive experience representing underwriters, asset managers and investors in collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), with a focus on broadly syndicated and middle market CLOs. He also specializes in representing lenders and borrowers in structured loan facilities, CLO warehouse facilities and a variety of other asset backed securities transactions. He is frequently consulted on regulatory matters, in particular as to U.S. and EU risk retention compliance. "Nick's impressive CLO expertise, along with his keen ability to manage deals across both the arranger and manager sides, is complementary to our existing practice and will enable us to continue our impressive growth in the CLO market in the U.S. and to expand our global capabilities. Growing the CLO practice is a strategic objective for us and Nick adds depth and experience to this important product area, benefiting our capital markets clients, whether based in the U.S. or internationally." said Lawrence Berkovich, Partner at Allen & Overy. Over the past three years, Allen & Overy has quickly grown its global CLO practice. In 2018, Allen & Overy advised on deals with an aggregate value of over $48 billion. The group is run by Franz Ranero in London and Lawrence Berkovich in New York. Nick received his Juris Doctor from Boston College and his Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from New York University. Global Deblistering Devices Market Expected to Witness a Sustainable Growth over 2024 Top Key players like Top Key players like Sepha,SaintyCo,Omnicell,Inc. https://www.marketresearchreportstore.com/reports/342415/global-deblistering-devices-market https://www.marketresearchreportstore.com/reports/342415/global-deblistering-devices-market https://www.marketresearchreportstore.com Market Research Report Store offers a latest published report on Deblistering Devices Market Analysis and Forecast 2019-2025 delivering key insights and providing a competitive advantage to clients through a detailed report. The report contains 91 pages which highly exhibit on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability.Click to view the full report TOC, figure and tables:Deblistering Devices is a auxiliary equipment of Blister Machine, it can empties tablets, gel caps and capsules from reject blister packs, separates products from waste packaging without contaminating product.According to this study, over the next five years the Deblistering Devices market will register a xx% CAGR in terms of revenue, the global market size will reach US$ xx million by 2024, from US$ xx million in 2019. In particular, this report presents the global market share (sales and revenue) of key companies in Deblistering Devices business, shared in Chapter 3.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversManualSemi-automaticFully AutomaticMarket Segment by Type, coversPharma ManufacturersMedical Waste RecyclersPharmaciesMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoMachinery & EquipmentSephaOmnicellSaintyCoJornen MachineryUhlmann Pac-SystemeRBP BauerO.M.A.R. Pharmaceutical Blister SolutionStripfoil Deblistering TechnologyPearson Medical TechNuova ICS AutomazioneFor More Information On This Report, Please Visit @Related Information:North America Deblistering Devices Market Growth 2019-2024United States Deblistering Devices Market Growth 2019-2024Asia-Pacific Deblistering Devices Market Growth 2019-2024Europe Deblistering Devices Market Growth 2019-2024EMEA Deblistering Devices Market Growth 2019-2024Global Deblistering Devices Market Growth 2019-2024China Deblistering Devices Market Growth 2019-2024Customization Service of the Report :Market Research Report Store provides 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 Us:Market Research Report Store (MRRS) is a professional organization related to market research reports in all directions .To provide customers with a variety of market research reports, MRRS cooperates with a large of famous market report publishers all over the world. Owing to our good service and the professional market reports in the wide range, MRRS enjoys a good reputation in the market. In pace with the development of MRRS, more and more customers and market report publishers choose to cooperate with us. As a specialized platform, MRRS upholds the supremacy of customers and aims to provide customers with better service and richer select.Contact USMarket Research Report StoreE-mail: info@marketresearchreportstore.comTel: +86-15521064060 00852-58197708(HK)Add: 17890 Castleton Street Suite 218 City of Industry CA 91748 United StatesWebsite: Submarine Cable System Market to Witness Growth Acceleration During 2018-2025 Subcom, NEC, Fujitsu Limited, Hengtong Group, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Nexans, Prysmian Group Submarine Cable System Market http://bit.ly/2SzxPbc http://bit.ly/2UqrxM5 Asia Pacific region comprises of majority of developing economies and also a huge underserved population for internet services. This presents fortunate opportunities for leading social media players and internet based service providers to reap benefits of the untapped market. With proliferation of cheap smart phone and tablets and increasing penetration of computing devices in business and households, the region presents highest growing user base seeking internet based services. Thus, strong growth of internet connected users coupled with good economic growth in the region are the factors luring the enterprise and cloud service providers to establish servers in proximity to the users enabling them to access data with reduced latency and reaction time.This directly translates to the growth in the submarine cable systems market in the region that bring about the connection between the terrestrial fibers cables with the international broadband networks. The Asia pacific region is said to constitute one of the most expansive undersea cable networks that has played a crucial role in the transformation of this region. Further, with the multi- folds rise in demands of increased trans- pacific bandwidth by 2020, it is anticipated that investments for the submarine cable systems would reach new heights in the coming years. Asia Pacific contributes heavily to the data consumption. Higher rates of smartphone penetrations in the Asian countries especially India and China coupled with the parallel advancements in the 3G and 4G communication technologies have significantly contributed to the communications industry advancements in the region.Get sample PDF Copy at:APAC submarine cable systems market is expected to grow from US$ 5,612.6 Mn in 2017 to US$ 14,719.3 Mn by 2027 at a CAGR of 9.8% between 2018 and 2027.The top companies operating in the field of submarine cable system include Alcatel (Nokia Networks), NEC Corporation, TE Subcom, and others. Various other companies operating in the market and are coming up with new technologies and offerings which is helping the market for the submarine cable system to expand over the years in terms of revenue.Asia Pacific comprises of various emerging economies where the Governments in the recent times are support various policies for enabling economic growth. Digitalization of the economy has taken center stage in majority of the countries such as India, china, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The power of internet is being harnessed for enabling rapid economic progress in the countries. As a result, many submarine cable system deployments are being witnessed currently in the Asia Pacific region. The Malaysia, Combodia, Thailand (MCT) submarine cable system, and the NEC supported submarine cable system for connecting Chennai with Andaman & Nicobar Islands are few examples of ongoing submarine cable system deployments in APAC market.Government in both developed and developing economies are focusing on enhancing targets of broadband coverage and internet capabilities in both rural and urban areas, government are aggressively spending on digital infrastructure, expanding network capabilities for efficiently rolling out new technologies and connecting citizens with broadband and technology, which will also indirectly boost the growth of other industry as well. Developing economies such as India and China are one of the prime examples of countries where governments are taking positive steps for fostering adoption of optical fiber cables as well as the underlying submarine cable systems to provide interconnection to the terrestrial networks.The APAC submarine cable systems market has been segmented on the basis of service, and application. On the basis of service, the market has been segmented into installation services, and maintenance & upgrade services. The submarine cable system finds its applications into the communication sector and also in the energy & power sector.Various significant developments have been witnessed with regards to the deployments of the submarine cable systems in the Asia Pacific region. By 2020, the bandwidth demand for the trans-pacific undersea cables network is anticipated to grow to seven-folds of the current bandwidth value, and thereby attract huge investments for the market. Also, with growing demands for increased capacity of the submarine cable systems in the Asian region, a sharp decline in the prices are witnessed over the last two-three years.Place an Order This Report at:Reason To BuyHighlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies.The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the Asia Pacific submarine cable systems market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies.Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering in the markets.Scrutinize in-depth APAC market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to segmentations like service and application.About Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Automotive and Defense.Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.com Endodontics and Orthodontics Market to 2028 |3M, Align Technology, Inc, DENTAURUM GmbH & Co. KG, FKG Dentaire SA, Ivoclar Vivadent Inc, Patterson Companies, Inc., Market Research Hub https://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=2119582 https://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/endodontics-and-orthodontics-market-global-industry-analysis-2013-2017-and-opportunity-assessment-2018-2028-report.html Market Research Hub (MRH) has carefully analyzed this research study titled Endodontics and Orthodontics Market: Global Industry Analysis 2013-2017 and Opportunity Assessment 2018-2028, which is available on its online portal. The aim of this assessment is to highlight the various projections expected to occur in the global market for Endodontics and Orthodontics Market. Readers can gain knowledge related to prime market facets such as market size, Y-o-Y growth and market dynamics, which are projected to change during the stated forecast period. According to research findings, the global Endodontics and Orthodontics Market is likely to advance at a steady CAGR of during the period between 2018 and 2028.Get Sample Copy of This Report @A recent market study published by FMI 'Endodontics and Orthodontics Market: Global Industry Analysis 2013-2017 & Opportunity Assessment 2018-2028' consists of a comprehensive assessment of the most important market dynamics. On conducting a thorough research on the historic as well as current growth parameters of the Endodontics and Orthodontics market, growth prospects of the market are obtained with maximum precision. The report features unique and salient factors that may have a huge impact on the development of the Endodontics and Orthodontics market during the forecast period. It can help market players modify their manufacturing and marketing strategies to envisage maximum growth in the Endodontics and Orthodontics market in the upcoming years. The report provides detailed information about the current and future growth prospects of the Endodontics and Orthodontics market in the most comprehensive way for the better understanding of readers.Chapter 1 Executive SummaryThe report commences with the executive summary of the Endodontics and Orthodontics market, which includes the summary of key findings and key statistics of the market. It also includes market value (US$ million) estimates of the leading segments in the Endodontics and Orthodontics market.Chapter 2 Market OverviewReaders can find detailed taxonomy and the definition of the Endodontics and Orthodontics market in this chapter, which will help them understand the basic information about the Endodontics and Orthodontics market dynamics, supply chain, cost structure, pricing analysis, list of key distributor and suppliers, and list of key market participants.Chapter 3 Global Endodontics and Orthodontics Market Analysis (2013-2017) & Opportunity Assessment (2018-2028) by Endodontic Product TypeBased on endodontic product type, the Endodontics and Orthodontics market is segmented into endodontic products and orthodontic products. In this chapter, readers can find information about key trends and developments in the Endodontics and Orthodontics market, and market attractive analysis based on product type, such as permanent sealers, files, obturation devices, and others.Chapter 4 Global Endodontics and Orthodontics Market Analysis (2013-2017) & Opportunity Assessment (2018-2028) by Orthodontic Product TypeBased on orthodontic product type, the Endodontics and Orthodontics market is segmented into dental braces, molar bands, wires, retainers, and others.In this chapter, readers can find information about key trends and developments in the Endodontics and Orthodontics market, and market attractive analysis based on orthodontic product type.BROWSE Full Report NOW @Executive SummaryMarket OverviewMarket AnalysisPMR Analysis and RecommendationsWheel of FortuneMarket IntroductionMarket DefinitionMarket TaxonomyOrthodontics & Endodontics Market Opportunity AnalysisMacro-Economic FactorsOpportunity AnalysisMacroeconomic AssumptionsMarket BackgroundOrthodontics & Endodontics EvolutionList of Growth Hacking ManufacturersMarket DynamicsDriversRestraintsMore Information@@@About Market Research HubMarket Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports of different sector like Healthcare market research and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of industry reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.Contact Us90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free: 800-998-4852 (US-Canada)Email: press@marketresearchhub.com China Aviation Daily | Mar. 08, 2019 During a press conference held at Japan Airlines Headquarters on Friday afternoon, T.B.L. Co., Ltd. Representative Director and President, Shingo Nishida, announced the name of Japan`s first medium to long-haul low cost carrier as ZIPAIR. With the registration now official, the company will be established as ZIPAIR Tokyo Co., Ltd., as of March 8, 2019. As previously announced, the new carrier will prepare for launch during the summer schedule of 2020. Brand and Trade Name As a result of this announcement, T.B.L. Co., Ltd. will officially change its trade name to ZIPAIR Tokyo Co., Ltd. and has released the company`s logo as shown above. About the Name 'ZIPAIR Tokyo' is a coined word derived from the English word ZIP, which describes speed, such as how fast time can pass when traveling on a unique airline. In addition, the brand name incorporates the idea of traveling to destinations in various ZIP CODES, while aiming to create a calculated travel experience that encompasses the originality and ingenuity of the Japanese culture. And finally, the word Tokyo was added to the name, as the airline will be based in one of the most advanced cities in the world. About the Logo The logo was developed in consultation with SIX INC.; a creative engagement agency based in Tokyo and has a track record of winning more than 400 creative awards in Japan and abroad, including CANNES LIONS. SIX INC. URL - sixinc.jp Application for Air Transportation Business License ZIPAIR Tokyo Co., Ltd. applied for an air operator's certificate to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on March 8, under Article 100 of the Aviation law. The contents of the air operator's certificate application include: 1) Aircraft: Boeing 787-8 2) Business Profile: To operate the following routes from the 2020 Summer Schedule - Tokyo (Narita) = Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International Airport - Tokyo (Narita) = Seoul-Incheon International Airport Recruitment of Personnel Recruitment briefings will be held in April 2019. We are looking for employees full of spirit who will be active in a wide range of fields such as airport operations, planning services, as well as cabin crew, as opposed to the conventional recruitment style of filling a singular role in a corporation. Contributed by Japan Airlines Tooling Composite Market Revenue Growth Opportunities to 2024 - Cytec, Hexcel, TenCate, Sika AG, Airtech International, Gurit, Teijin, PRF Composite Materials and SGL Group Tooling Composite Market Worth US$ 490 Million By 2024 https://www.search4research.com/request-sample/73941/ https://www.search4research.com/inquiry/73941/ https://www.search4research.com/industry-reports/73941/global-tooling-composite-market-growth-status-and-outlook-2019-2024/ www.search4research.com https://www.linkedin.com/company/search4research According to research study, over the next five years the Tooling Composite market will register a 2.1% CAGR in terms of revenue, the global market size will reach US$ 490 million by 2024, from US$ 430 million in 2019. In particular, this report presents the global market share (sales and revenue) of key companies in Tooling Composite business.The composite tools are made either from glass fiber or carbon fiber mixed with a suitable matrix (resin) such as epoxy, BMI, and others. The composite tools provide lightweight, dimensionally accurate, and affordable tooling. The increasing penetration of tooling composites in aerospace and other niche applications is the driving force of the global tooling composites market.Global tooling composite consumption and production market, by geography is segmented into Europe, USA, Japan China and the rest of world. USA and Europe belong to the larger consumers, which together account for more than 75% of global consumption in 2015. As for main production countries, Europe accounted 39% of global tooling composite output in 2015, while USA ranked second position with about 36 % share.Get Request Sample Copy atTooling Composite Market provides a detail overview of latest technologies and in-depth analysis that reflect top vendors portfolios and technology; examines the strategic planning, challenges of leading brands and market opportunities for newcomers. Tooling Composite Market research analysis about industry status, enterprise competition pattern, advantages and disadvantages of enterprise Products, industry development trends (2018-2024), regional industrial layout characteristics and macroeconomic policies, industrial policy has also be included. In a word, this report will help you to establish a panorama of industrial development and characteristics of the Tooling Composite market.An exclusive Tooling Composite market research report created through broad primary research (inputs from industry experts, companies, and stakeholders) and secondary research, the report aims to present the analysis of Global Tooling Composite Market By Type, By Segment, By Application, By Company, By Region - North America, Europe, South America, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The report intends to provide cutting-edge market intelligence and help decision makers take sound investment evaluation. Besides, the report also identifies and analyses the emerging trends along with major drivers, challenges, trends and opportunities in the global Tooling Composite market. Additionally, the report also highlights market entry strategies for various companies across the globe.Leading Tooling Composite Market Players:CytecHexcelTenCateSika AGAirtech InternationalGuritTeijinPRF Composite MaterialsSGL GroupWorldwide Tooling Composite Market Analysis and Forecast to 2024 is a specialized and in-depth study of the Tooling Composite industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global Tooling Composite market with detailed market segmentation by product/application and geography. The global Tooling Composite market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Tooling Composite players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Inquire Before Buying atThe report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global Tooling Composite market based on product and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2024 for overall Tooling Composite market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa and South America, which is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities and future trend and provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions.Also, key Tooling Composite market players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. The report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered financial information and key development in past years.Global Tooling Composite Market - Regional and Geographical SegmentNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanMiddle East & AfricaIndiaSouth AmericaOthersComplete Report is Available atContact Us:Search4ResearchCall: +1-707-633-0404Email: sales@search4research.comWebsite:Follow Us on LinkedIn:About Us:Search4Research is a premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services. Our research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers. Our goal is to empower global businesses with accurate, actionable insights which would help them to strategize, plan ahead, and ultimately succeed in their endeavors.Search4ResearchFlat No - 12, 3rd Floor, Vaishali HeightsMalwadi Road, HadapsarPune, Maharashtra - 411028INDIA Sleep Disorder Global Market SWOT Analysis and Opportunities To 2026 | Key Players : GlaxoSmithKline plc, Becton Dickson and Company, Cardinal Health, Natus Medical Incorporated Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited Sleep Disorder Market https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3695870-sleep-disorder-market-share-size-trends-industry-analysis https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/3695870-sleep-disorder-market-share-size-trends-industry-analysis https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=3695870 WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On Sleep Disorder Global Market SWOT Analysis and Opportunities To 2026 | Key Players : GlaxoSmithKline plc, Becton Dickson and Company, Cardinal Health, Natus Medical Incorporated Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited.Sleep Disorder Industry 2019Description:-The sleep disorder market size is anticipated to reach over USD 1.31 billion by 2017. In 2017, the sleep apnea devices dominated the global market, in terms of revenue. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the Fastest growing contributor to the global market revenue in 2017.Sleep is complex neurological state that helps in restoring energy level in the body. Alterations in the quality and pattern if sleep may cause sleep disorder. Sleep disorder is defined as a sleep problem, which is characterized by snoring, insomnia, depression, and sleep apnea. Recently, in a study it is found that the approximately more than 75% of Americans from the age of 25 to 59 suffer from sleep disorder in the U.S. Sleep disorder is basically characterize by the difficulty in falling asleep, daytime fatigue, lack of concentration, anxiety, and depression.Get a Free Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comThe sleep disorder market is primarily driven by the increasing number individual population suffering from various mental disorders, and rising awareness for the treatment of sleep disorders in the coming years. Furthermore, the changing life style of the people, and rising preference to the sedentary life style to also support the market growth in the coming years. Additionally, changing working culture, increasing geriatric population, and lack of quality sleep to also boost the market growth during the forecast period.On the other side, increasing morbidity due to sleep disorder has increased the healthcare cost, and related side effects of the drugs, and increasing patent expiries that are used in treating sleep disorders which would impede the market growth during the forecast period. The treatment for include medication, better sleeping habits, and devices. Medicines such as, Hetlioz (tasimelteon) by Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Intermezzo (zolpidem tartrate sublingual tablet) by Transcept Pharmaceuticals, and Silenor (doxepin) by Somaxon Pharma are some of the FDA approved drugs that are observed to be beneficial during the treatment of sleep disorders.The industry is segmented on the basis of disorder type, device, treatment, and geography. Based on disorder type, the market is bifurcated into sleep apnea, sleep breathing disorders, insomnia, hypersomnia, circadian rhythm disorders, parasomnia, and sleep movement disorders. on the basis of devices, the market is segmented into sleep apnea devices, sleep laboratories, and mattresses & pillows. By Treatment, the market is further bifurcated as psychiatric treatment, behavioral treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy, and medication therapy.The market for sleep disorder in North America generated the highest revenue in 2017, and is expected to be the leading region globally during the forecast period. High number of patient population suffering the sleeping disorders is the primary factor accountable for the highest market growth. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services reports, approximately 20% Americans are suffering from sleep disorder. Thus, increasing demand for early treatments along with increasing patient pool, and growing patient awareness for proper diagnosis methods are factors boosting the growth in North America.Asia Pacific is estimated to be the fastest growing region in terms of revenue. Growing awareness about sleep disorders and developing healthcare infrastructure are some of the factors that are projected to generate lucrative opportunities for the market in APAC.The major key players operating in the Sleep Disorder industry include GlaxoSmithKline plc, Becton Dickson and Company, Cardinal Health, Natus Medical Incorporated Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Koninklijke Philips N.V., and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. These companies launch new products and collaborate with other market leaders to innovate and launch new products to meet the increasing needs and requirements of consumers.The global sleep disorders market on the basis of disorder, devices, treatment and region:Sleep Disorder by Disorder Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 2026)InsomniaHypersomniaInsufficient Sleep SyndromeNarcolepsySleep ApneaSleep Breathing DisordersCircadian Rhythm DisordersParasomniaSleep Eating DisorderSleep TerrorREM Sleep Behavior DisorderOthersSleep Movement DisordersRestless Leg SyndromeSleep Leg CrampsSleep Disorder Devices Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 2026)Sleep Apnea DevicesSleep LaboratoriesMattresses & PillowsSleep Disorder Treatment Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 2026)Psychiatric TreatmentBehavioral TreatmentCognitive Behavioral TherapyMedication TherapyPrescription DrugsOTC DrugsHerbal Drugs.Enquiry About Report @Table Of Contents Major Key Points1. Overview and Scope1.1. Research goal & scope1.2. Research assumptions1.3. Research Methodology1.3.1. Primary data sources1.3.2. Secondary data sources1.4. Key take-away1.5. Stakeholders2. Executive Summary2.1. Market Definition2.2. Market Segmentation3. Sleep Disorder Market Insights3.1. Sleep Disorder Industry snapshot3.2. Sleep Disorder - Ecosystem analysis3.3. Sleep Disorder Market Dynamics3.3.1. Sleep Disorder Market Forces3.3.1.1. Sleep Disorder Market Driver Analysis3.3.1.2. Sleep Disorder Market Restraint/Challenges analysis3.3.1.3. Sleep Disorder Market Opportunity Analysis3.4. Industry analysis - Porter's five force3.4.1. Bargaining power of supplier3.4.2. Bargaining power of buyer3.4.3. Threat of substitute3.4.4. Threat of new entrant3.4.5. Degree of competition3.5. Sleep Disorder Market PEST Analysis3.6. Sleep Disorder Market Value Chain Analysis3.7. Sleep Disorder Industry Trends3.8. Competitive Ranking Analysis, 20174. Sleep Disorder Market Size and Forecast by Disorder, 2018-20264.1. Key Findings4.2. Insomnia4.3. Hypersomnia4.3.1. Insufficient Sleep Syndrome4.3.2. Narcolepsy4.4. Sleep Apnea4.5. Sleep Breathing Disorders4.6. Circadian Rhythm Disorders4.7. Parasomnia4.7.1. Sleep Eating Disorder4.7.2. Sleep Terror4.7.3. REM Sleep Behavior Disorder4.8. Sleep Movement Disorders4.8.1. Restless Leg Syndrome4.8.2. Sleep Leg CrampsContinuedBuy 1-user PDF @ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028. Play Room Furniture Market Key Insights and Booming Factors till 2028 | Market Key Players are Ashley Furniture Home Stores, ETHAN ALLEN GLOBAL INC., KidKraft, etc. https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=RC&rep_id=974 https://www.factmr.com/report/974/play-room-furniture-market https://www.factmr.com/checkout/974/S https://www.factmr.com/ https://factmrblog.com/ The report studies the Play Room Furniture Market worldwide, especially in North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, India and Other Regions with production, size, growth, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions. The intelligent report also anticipates that global play room furniture market would grow at a constructive CAGR until 2028. In order to study the various trends and patterns prevailing in the concerned market, FactMR has included a new report titled Play Room Furniture Market Key Insights and Booming Factors till 2028 to its wide online database including upcoming trends and growth factors.Get Sample PDF Illustration Here Production trends of playroom furniture have largely been influenced by changing consumer preferences. In recent years, steady rise in consumer preference for multi-functional playroom furniture has significantly rubbed off on growth of the playroom furniture market. Additionally, rising awareness on sustainability among consumers has led manufacturers to focus more on hand-crafted yet affordable & durable products.Flourishing furniture industry worldwide, coupled with the rise in middle-class population across developing nations will continue to be key growth determinants for the playroom furniture market. Albeit the playroom furniture market presents the occupancy of few established stakeholders, a large number of domestic players collectively account for major shares of the market. This has further inhibited prospects of import penetration of playroom furniture, as local vendors of playroom furniture are first in the line to leverage potential opportunities by attracting consumers through their novel offerings. This, along with lower mass production of playroom furniture owing to rising trend of customization, will continue to constrain its market growth prospects.A new FactMR study envisions the playroom furniture market to present an impressive 6.1% value CAGR during the forecast period, 2018 to 2028. Urbanization and expansion of the real estate industry has significantly impacted prospects of the furniture industry. This has led housing contractors to deliver a wide range of home infrastructures, with playroom furniture being one of the key offerings. This has further lured consumers who seek creative aesthetics for their childrens rooms, thereby favoring growth of the playroom furniture market.A dramatic transformation has been witnessed in the way child care arrangements are employed in recent years, with the statistics from the U.S. Census Bureaus survey indicating nearly 2X rise in out-of-pocket costs apropos of child care. Ripple effects of this increased expenditure on child care have underpinned demand for playroom furniture. Growth of the playroom furniture market will also remained supported by growing number of families with employed mothers, which have been reported to spend nearly 170 percent more on child care according to the survey of U.S. Census Bureaus survey.Check this Complete Report Here -Manufacturers of playroom furniture are concentrating on the adoption of smarter production techniques, to keep their product offerings in line with evolving consumer preferences. With the trend of nuclear families on the rise, sizes of homes have reduced over past years, which in turn has led the development and demand for compact household products and accessories, and furniture is no exception.Key stakeholders in the playroom furniture market have introduced products that are easily disassembled and foldable. Consumers continue to seek playroom furniture that can be put to use even after the kids grow up, which in turn has augured well for sales of multifunctional playroom furniture that feature storage facilities.Companies operating in the playroom furniture market have directed their focus toward the provision of innovative designs that fall in line with interest of children. Playroom furniture with superhero designs dedicated for boys and dollhouses for girls are key trends observed in the market since the recent past. As the residential sector is witnessing a resurgent growth worldwide, to cater housing requirements of the growing population, manufacturers have introduced a wide variety of theme-based playroom furniture to leverage the potential opportunities.Leading stakeholders in the market are joining forces to enhance their portfolio and introduce novel products in the market. A prime example of such partnerships is the one between Pottery Barn - North Americas leading furniture brand, with Lilly Pulitzer a renowned resort wear brand. The partnership has recently introduced the collection of Lilly Pulitzer for Pottery Barn Kids. On the back of surging number of working women, day care centers have been gaining increased traction worldwide, wherein manufacturers of playroom furniture are focusing to capitalize the opportunity. This is another key growth determinant for the playroom furniture market.To Purchase this Report, Click here -With the growing consumer appetite for online shopping, playroom furniture manufacturers have adopted online sales channel to expand the exposure of their products. Playroom furniture has become one of the popular categories sought by consumers on e-commerce platforms. Domestic playroom furniture manufacturers are approaching online portals such as Trendsutra Platform Service Private Limited (pepperfry.com) and Urban Ladder to showcase their products. Along with organized retailing, the online retail platform is expected to add fuel to the growth of the playroom furniture market.About FactMRFactMR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFactMR11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400, Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@factmr.comWeb:Blog: Latest Report on IoT Sensors Market Growth and Companies like Linear Technology, Texas Instruments, LORD, Semtech, Analog Devices, Millennial Net | Global Forecast till 2023 IoT Sensors Market https://www.businessindustryreports.com/sample-request/98674 https://www.businessindustryreports.com/buy-now/98674/single https://www.businessindustryreports.com/check-discount/98674 A fresh report has been added to the wide database of Business Industry Reports. The research study is titled IoT Sensors Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023 which provides important data about the production, consumption, revenue and company profiles for key industry participants.Global IoT Sensors Market Synopsis:According to Market Analyst, The Global IoT Sensors Market is expected to grow at an impressive Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) from 2019 to 2023.If you want to know more about IoT Sensors, Get Sample Copy of Report @The IoT sensor market is thriving with various types of sensors connected with devices and people, which enables a two-way communication process between man and machine. There are various end-use industries where IoT sensors are deployed to facilitate this two way communication and for gathering data.Some of the significant factors driving the growth of the Global IoT Sensors Market are increased use of sensors in IoT devices and other applications owing to their reduction in size, plummeting costs, and technological advancements; growth in internet penetration rate; high demand for connected and wearables devices; introduction of IPv6 creating larger address space; and importance of real-time computing for IoT applications.The global IoT Sensors market can be segmented based on product, applications, and region. In terms of product, the IoT Sensors market can be classified into Pressure Sensors, Temperature Sensors, Light Sensors. Based on Industry, Market can be sub segmented into Consumer Electronics, Healthcare, Automotive, Industrial, Building Automation, Retail, Other.Regionally, North America is expected to hold the largest share of the IoT sensors market by 2018. The increasing internet usage in technologically advancing economies as well as the growing adoption of wireless sensors and networks across major applications such as industrial, automotive and transportation, healthcare, oil & gas, and consumer electronics propel the growth of the IoT sensors market.This report focuses on IoT Sensors volume and value at the global level, regional level and company level. From a global perspective, this report represents the overall IoT Sensors market size by analyzing historical data and future prospect. At the company level, this report focuses on the production capacity, ex-factory price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer covered in this report.Complete report on IoT Sensors Market spread across 93 Pages and No. of Table of contents. Buy Research @The Market is segmented and projected on the basis of major key players:1 Linear Technology2 Texas Instruments3 LORD Corp4 Semtech5 Analog Devices6 Millennial Net7 Fujitsu8 RenesasMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report covers:1 United States2 EU3 China4 Japan5 South Korea6 TaiwanRequest a Discount on standard prices of this premium report @Key Questions Answered in this Report:1 Which would be global IoT Sensors market opportunities and restraints with producers in the industry?2 What all segmentations covered?3 Which will be the IoT Sensors trending variables currently impacting the market shares?4 What will be the global IoT Sensors market size in 2023?5 Who will be the top vendors in IoT Sensors market?6 Whats going to be the growth speed?7 Which will be the significant IoT Sensors market trends?8 Which industry regions are currently affecting on IoT Sensors markets development?TABLE OF CONTENTSGlobal IoT Sensors Market Research Report 20191 IoT Sensors Market Overview2 Global IoT Sensors Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global IoT Sensors Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2019)4 Global IoT Sensors Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2019)5 Global IoT Sensors Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type6 Global IoT Sensors Market Analysis by Application7 Global IoT Sensors Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis8 IoT Sensors Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors Analysis12 Global IoT Sensors Market Forecast (2019-2023)13 Research Findings and Conclusion14 AppendixAbout usBusinessindustryReports.com is digital database of comprehensive market reports for global industries. 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.Media ContactBusiness Industry ReportsPune Indiasales@businessindustryreports.com+19376349940 Low Profile Additives Market 2023: PolyOne Corporation (U.S.), Ashland (U.S.), CCP Composites (U.S.), Wacker Chemie AG (Germany), LyondellBasell Industries Holdings B.V. (Netherlands), Momentive (U.S.) Low Profile Additives Market Research Report Forecast to 2023 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/6221 https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/low-profile-additives-market-6221 Global Low Profile Additives Market: Information by Technique (SMC, BMC, RTM), Product (PVA, PMMA, PS, HDPE), End-Use Industry (Automotive, Construction, Military & Aerospace, Electronics, Consumer Products & Home Appliances), RegionForecast till 2023Market OverviewFree Sample Request For This Report @Low profile additives are thermoplastics particles that are incorporated into unsaturated polyester resin to enhance the surface finish of fiberglass by shrinkage compensation. Low profile additives, when used in unsaturated polyester resins systems, offer improved characteristics such as viscosity thickening plateau, paste viscosity, and phase separation.The global low profile additives market is primarily driven by the increasing use of these additives in the automotive industry. The use of low profile additives in automobiles makes them lightweight yet strong, and therefore more efficient and durable. Moreover, the increasing use of the product in the building and construction industry is propelling market growth. This can be attributed to the properties of low profile additives such as electrical insulation, dimensional stability, and corrosion resistance. Dynamic growth-centric countries in Asia-Pacific such as China, India, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia are expected to offer lucrative opportunities for growth to market players during the forecast period. Additionally, the use of fiber reinforced plastics incorporated with low profile additives offers design flexibility, cost reduction, weight reduction and improved lead time. The widespread use of fiber reinforced plastics in the military and aerospace industry is likely to fuel the demand for low profile additives during the assessment period.However, the volatility of raw material prices is likely to hamper market growth during the review period. Also, the substitution by polymers in major end-use industries such as automotive, construction, and pharmaceuticals may have a negative impact on market growth.Nevertheless, market players are focusing on strategic developments such as partnership agreements and product launches. For instance, in September 2014, CCP Composites expanded its low-profile additives range with the addition of Norsolook A70066 for high-performance SMC formulations. In another instance, in November 2017, Arkema announced a development partnership with EOS GmbH to develop novel high-temperature powders, the Kepstan PEKK, adapted to the latest 3D printing platform, EOS P 500.Regional AnalysisThe global low profile additives market has been segmented into five regions, namely, Asia-Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa.The market in Asia-Pacific dominated the global low profile additives market in 2017 due to the high demand in the automotive industry. The increasing demand for lightweight and fuel-efficient automobiles in the region due to environmental concerns is expected to drive market growth during the forecast period. Fast-paced industrialization in emerging economies such as China and India is also expected to fuel product demand.North America accounted for the second-largest market share in 2017 on account of the high demand for low profile additives in the automotive, electronics, construction, and aerospace industries in the region.The European market is expected to grow at a significant rate due to the high production and sales of automotive parts in the region.The Latin American market is projected to witness considerable growth due to the growing automotive industries in Brazil and Argentina.The market in the Middle East & Africa is also likely to grow due to the presence of infrastructure hubs in the region.SegmentationThe global low profile additives market has been segmented on the basis of technique, product, end-use industry, and region.Based on technique, the global low profile additives market has been segmented into sheet molding compound (SMC), bulk molding compound (BMC), resin transfer molding (RTM), and pultrusion.On the basis of product, the market has been segmented into polyvinyl acetate (PVA), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polystyrene (PS), and high-density polyethylene (HDPE).By end-use industry, the market has been segmented into automotive, construction, military and aerospace, electronics, consumer products and home appliances, and others.Browse Full Report @Key PlayersSome of the manufacturers operating in the global low profile additives market are PolyOne Corporation (U.S.), Ashland (U.S.), CCP Composites (U.S.), Wacker Chemie AG (Germany), LyondellBasell Industries Holdings B.V. (Netherlands), Momentive (U.S.), FRP Services & Company (Japan), Reichhold LLC 2 (U.S.), Command Chemical Corporation, Inc. (U.S.), Changzhou Huarun Composite Materials Co., Ltd. (China), Arkema (France), and Swancor Ind. Co., Ltd. (Taiwan).Intended AudienceLow profile additives manufacturersTraders and distributors of low profile additivesResearch and development institutesPotential investorsRaw material suppliersNationalized laboratoriesAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com Global Online Beauty and Personal Care 2019 Market Key Players LOreal, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Estee Lauder, Avon, Johnson & Johnson...... https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3798799-global-online-beauty-and-personal-care-market-research-report-2019 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/3798799-global-online-beauty-and-personal-care-market-research-report-2019 https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=3798799 Online Beauty and Personal Care Market 2019Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Online Beauty and Personal Care Global Market Growth, Opportunities, Analysis Of Top Key Players And Forecast To 2025 To Its Research Database.Description:Beauty and personal care products are applied to the skin in order to avoid symptoms such as early aging, black patches, and pimples.The increasing number of millennial shoppers has added to the growth of online retail channels, most of which are price-sensitive. Moreover, consumers prefer shopping online at discounted rates and therefore increasingly adopt online shopping. Hair conditioners, hair styling gels,bath gels,and shower products are the commonly purchased beauty and personal care products online.Additionally, the wide range of products available on online platforms and the time-saving aspect of the medium are factors that have contributed to the rise of the online retail phenomenon. E-retailers offer better security features for online payments, customer-friendly services, easy-to-navigate shopping websites, and easy delivery, due to which the number of consumers using online shopping portals is anticipated to increase significantly in the next few years.The global Online Beauty and Personal Care market is valued at xx million US$ in 2018 is expected to reach xx million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of xx% during 2019-2025.This report focuses on Online Beauty and Personal Care volume and value at global level, regional level and company level. From a global perspective, this report represents overall Online Beauty and Personal Care market size by analyzing historical data and future prospect. Regionally, this report focuses on several key regions: North America, Europe, China and Japan.At company level, this report focuses on the production capacity, ex-factory price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer covered in this report.The following manufacturers are covered:LOrealUnileverProcter & GambleEstee LauderShiseidoBeiersdorfAmore PacificAvonJohnson & JohnsonKaoChanelLVMHCotyClarinsNatura CosmeticosRevlonPechoinPhilipsJALA GroupFLYCOShanghai JawhaRequest Free Sample Report @Segment by RegionsNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSegment by TypeSkin CareHair CareColor CosmeticsFragrancesOral Hygiene ProductsBath and Shower ProductsMale Grooming ProductsDeodorantsBaby and Child Care ProductsOthersSegment by ApplicationLuxuary/Pharmarcy MarketMass MarketEnquiry before Buying @If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of Content:Executive Summary1 Online Beauty and Personal Care Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Online Beauty and Personal Care1.2 Online Beauty and Personal Care Segment by Type1.2.1 Global Online Beauty and Personal Care Production Growth Rate Comparison by Type (2014-2025)1.2.2 Skin Care1.2.3 Hair Care1.2.4 Color Cosmetics1.2.5 Fragrances1.2.6 Oral Hygiene Products1.2.7 Bath and Shower Products1.2.8 Male Grooming Products1.2.9 Deodorants1.2.10 Baby and Child Care Products1.2.11 Others1.3 Online Beauty and Personal Care Segment by Application1.3.1 Online Beauty and Personal Care Consumption Comparison by Application (2014-2025)1.3.2 Luxuary/Pharmarcy Market1.3.3 Mass Market1.4 Global Online Beauty and Personal Care Market by Region1.4.1 Global Online Beauty and Personal Care Market Size Region1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2014-2025)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2014-2025)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2014-2025)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2014-2025)1.5 Global Online Beauty and Personal Care Market Size1.5.1 Global Online Beauty and Personal Care Revenue (2014-2025)1.5.2 Global Online Beauty and Personal Care Production (2014-2025)..7 Company Profiles and Key Figures in Online Beauty and Personal Care Business7.1 LOreal7.1.1 LOreal Online Beauty and Personal Care Production Sites and Area Served7.1.2 Online Beauty and Personal Care Product Introduction, Application and Specification7.1.3 LOreal Online Beauty and Personal Care Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2014-2019)7.1.4 Main Business and Markets Served7.2 Unilever7.2.1 Unilever Online Beauty and Personal Care Production Sites and Area Served7.2.2 Online Beauty and Personal Care Product Introduction, Application and Specification7.2.3 Unilever Online Beauty and Personal Care Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2014-2019)7.2.4 Main Business and Markets Served7.3 Procter & Gamble7.3.1 Procter & Gamble Online Beauty and Personal Care Production Sites and Area Served7.3.2 Online Beauty and Personal Care Product Introduction, Application and Specification7.3.3 Procter & Gamble Online Beauty and Personal Care Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2014-2019)7.3.4 Main Business and Markets Served7.4 Estee Lauder7.4.1 Estee Lauder Online Beauty and Personal Care Production Sites and Area Served7.4.2 Online Beauty and Personal Care Product Introduction, Application and Specification7.4.3 Estee Lauder Online Beauty and Personal Care Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2014-2019)7.4.4 Main Business and Markets Served7.5 Shiseido7.5.1 Shiseido Online Beauty and Personal Care Production Sites and Area Served7.5.2 Online Beauty and Personal Care Product Introduction, Application and Specification7.5.3 Shiseido Online Beauty and Personal Care Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2014-2019)7.5.4 Main Business and Markets Served7.6 Beiersdorf7.6.1 Beiersdorf Online Beauty and Personal Care Production Sites and Area Served7.6.2 Online Beauty and Personal Care Product Introduction, Application and Specification7.6.3 Beiersdorf Online Beauty and Personal Care Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2014-2019)7.6.4 Main Business and Markets Served7.7 Amore Pacific7.7.1 Amore Pacific Online Beauty and Personal Care Production Sites and Area Served7.7.2 Online Beauty and Personal Care Product Introduction, Application and Specification7.7.3 Amore Pacific Online Beauty and Personal Care Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2014-2019)7.7.4 Main Business and Markets Served7.8 Avon7.8.1 Avon Online Beauty and Personal Care Production Sites and Area Served7.8.2 Online Beauty and Personal Care Product Introduction, Application and Specification7.8.3 Avon Online Beauty and Personal Care Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2014-2019)7.8.4 Main Business and Markets Served7.9 Johnson & Johnson7.9.1 Johnson & Johnson Online Beauty and Personal Care Production Sites and Area Served7.9.2 Online Beauty and Personal Care Product Introduction, Application and Specification7.9.3 Johnson & Johnson Online Beauty and Personal Care Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2014-2019)7.9.4 Main Business and Markets Served7.10 Kao7.10.1 Kao Online Beauty and Personal Care Production Sites and Area Served7.10.2 Online Beauty and Personal Care Product Introduction, Application and Specification7.10.3 Kao Online Beauty and Personal Care Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2014-2019)7.10.4 Main Business and Markets Served7.11 Chanel7.12 LVMH7.13 Coty7.14 Clarins7.15 Natura Cosmeticos7.16 Revlon7.17 Pechoin7.18 Philips7.19 JALA Group7.20 FLYCO7.21 Shanghai JawhaContinued..Buy Now @Contact US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Smart Tourismnning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:: Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt Ltd: Pune 411028: Maharashtra,: Ph: +91 841 198 5042 Crane Market Growth By Regional Manufacturers Konecranes, Terex Corporation, XCMG Group, Welbilt Inc, Liebherr Group, Komatsu Ltd. Crane Market https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2398 https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/2398 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/crane-market https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2960 https://www.gminsights.com/ In the Crane Market, the oil & gas industry accounted for around 20% of the overall revenue and is anticipated to grow at a steady rate over the forecast timespan. The rise in the adoption of mobile Crane Market is expected to accelerate owing to the expansion in the cement plants and infrastructure development.Crane Market is expected to exceed USD 20 billion by 2024. Increasing construction spending across the globe is a major factor driving the crane market growth.Request for a sample copy of this report @Shifting focus of the government entities on infrastructure development coupled with growing consumer preference for aesthetic and luxurious constructions will drive the industry growth. Urbanization, environmental impacts, and population growth have surged the need for sustainable and smart infrastructure solutions.The construction and transportation sectors are the major segments contributing toward the adoption of mobile cranes with many on-going projects.Several major economies across the globe are contributing toward the industry growth, with construction and retrofit market growing at a significantly high pace. The crane market will witness a growing demand for the upgrading of mobile cranes in the coming years.Crane Market, By Product Mobile Crane Truck Loader Crane Rough Terrain Crane All Terrain Crane Crawler Crane Fixed Crane Monorail Crane Stiffleg Crane Tower Crane Gantry CraneMake an Inquiry for purchasing this Report @Growing adoption of mobile and tower cranes for construction activities is accelerating the U.S. crane market growth. Increasing adoption of the cranes was owing to the rise in home construction, nonresidential building, and government construction activities. According to the U.S. Commerce Department, the construction spending rose to 0.9 percent in November 2016 by 0.3 percent. The constantly-growing population in the region has resulted in increased investments in the infrastructure development sector. Rapid urbanization in the country is demanding the faster construction of facilities and buildings for the growing population. In addition, the rising government investments in infrastructural operations have provided a potential for the growth of the crane market.Public infrastructure and government utilities in North America will witness a high adoption of cranes owing to the construction of reservoirs, wastewater treatment plants, and power lines across the region thereby providing an impetus to the crane market.In Europe, the focus of the crane manufacturers is on implementing new safety standards relating to the assembly and dismantling of the machine. An important product development issue across the entire range of crane types is the reduction of diesel engine exhaust emissions in compliance with Stage V of the EU Regulation on emission limits for mobile machinery. Europe accounted for the second largest revenue in crane market owing to the growing usage of cranes across the construction and oil & gas industries. However, the European market was hurt by changes in subsidies in the wind power market in Germany, resulting in fewer crawler crane sales.Browse Report Summery @Key players participating in crane market include Palfinger AG Terex Corporation, Komatsu Ltd., Konecranes PLC, Liebherr Group, Tadano, Ltd., XCMG Group, Hitachi Sumitomo Heavy Industries, and Manitowoc among others. The crane industry is highly fragmented and competitive in nature owing to the presence of several regional and international players, who are actively investing in R&D and developing technologically-advanced products to sustain in the industry. There is an inclination toward energy-efficient cranes as they help in reducing carbon emissions. Several players are ensuring new product development initiatives to foster the crane market growth.Browse Related Reports:Crawler Crane Market to reach US$ 3 bn by 2024Crawler Crane Market size is set to exceed USD 3 billion by 2024; according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. The shipments are expected to grow at a CAGR of over 4%.Increasing utilization of crawler cranes in the energy sector is anticipated to drive the crawler crane market growth. These machines offer heavy lifting operations at the nuclear and renewable energy sites and facilitate the operators in handling the materials efficiently. Several manufacturers have developed energy sector-specific machines that witness a high demand. For instance, Manitowoc has launched a wind power crane, Grove GTK1100, that is used for wind turbine operations such as erection and construction. Additionally, the crawler crane market is witnessing growth opportunities due to the increasing infrastructure projects across the globe.Request for a sample copy of this report @About Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone:1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb: Beverage Refrigeration Market Growth By Regional Manufacturers Whirlpool Corporation, Electrolux, Dover Corporation, GE, Haier. Beverage Refrigeration Market https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2111 https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/2111 https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/beverage-refrigeration-market https://www.gminsights.com/ North America Beverage Refrigeration Market is anticipated to surpass USD 1 billion by 2024. This can be credited to escalating consumption of refreshment drinks and technological improvements in refrigeration systems. In addition, government encouraging utilization of energy-efficient and eco-friendly technologies in refrigerators.Beverage Refrigeration Market to reach USD 4.5 billion by 2024. Escalating demand for refrigerators to store and serve drinks for social gathering and private events, is a key factor driving beverage refrigeration market growth. Ongoing technological advances to reduce the overall cooling time and consumer demand for distinctive features such as bottom freezer drawer and powerful filtered water will boost beverage refrigeration market.Request for a sample copy of this report @Manufacturers are anticipated to invest in new product development to comply with new energy standards implemented by the regulatory bodies. Further, increasing penetration of refrigerators that employ specific features such as modifiable shelves to accommodate bottles and cans will boost product sales.Increasing consumer preference for packaged drinks which are convenient to consume at home will support the product demand. According to recent statistics, the global consumption of packaged drinks was estimated more than 1.05 trillion liters in 2016 and Chinese consumption amounted to about 178.6 billion liters.Beverage Refrigeration Market, By Producto Under counter beverage refrigerator Gliding door Swing Dooro Countertop beverage refrigerator Gliding door Swing dooro Storage beverage refrigeratoro Milk coolersMake an Inquiry for purchasing this Report @Under counter beverage refrigerator was valued at over USD 1 billion in 2016. Product offering such as stainless-steel body or custom panel-ready fronts are stimulating the demand. In addition, better shelving and temperature control will support segment penetration over the forecast period.Rising demand to preserve milk in dairy shops will propel coolers demand over the projected timeframe. Diary companies are upgrading their existing capacities, and setting up cold storages along with the processing plant. This will generate the overall revenue over the forecast period.Asia Pacific market holds over 20% of overall industry share in 2016. According to industry estimates, the region is anticipated to account for more than two-thirds of the global beverages consumption by 2020. The region accounts for 60% of the world population and increasing consumption will provide lucrative opportunities for manufacturers.Browse Report Summery @Global Beverage Refrigeration Market is fragmented in nature. Key industry players are Electrolux, Daikin Industries, Avanti, Dover Corporation, KingsBottle, Whirlpool Corporation, Edgestar, Haier, Ford and General Electrics. Other Industry participants are Koolatron, Coca-Cola, Danfoss, Gamko, Liebherr, Marvel, Kegco, Danby, Johnson Controls, U-line, HABCO, Allavino, Kenmore, Marvel, United Technologies Corporation and Illinois Tool Works.About Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone:1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb: New Profitable report on Block chain technology Market Progresses for Huge Profits by the End 2026 | IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd https://www.itintelligencemarkets.com/request_sample.php?id=1458 https://www.itintelligencemarkets.com/ask_for_discount.php?id=1458 https://www.itintelligencemarkets.com/enquiry_before_buying.php?id=1458 The block chain is a distributed database of public ledgers in transactions, and the list of named records is constantly growing. Each block contains a timestamp linked to the previous block. Block-chain technology is based on distributed computing systems with high Byzantine error tolerance. Block-chain technology is an important and innovative technology that proves every transaction on the network. Block Chain technology creates all block chains stored in the system. Block Chain technology maintains a complete database of complete addresses and databases of all addresses from the origin block to the most recent block. This is a key block factor driving the demand for worldwide block chain technology.The global blockchain technology market will surge at +66% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) during the review period (2019-2026).An ongoing statistical surveying report as of late incorporated into the huge research report database of IT intelligence Markets spreads out a point by point investigative perspective of the worldwide market. The report breaks down key components of the market and the fundamental business to exhibit a 360-degree perspective of the present condition of the market before the peruse. The report is titled "Worldwide Block chain technology Market Size, Status and Forecast 2019."For Sample duplicate of this report:Major Key Players in this report are: IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd., Blockchain Tech Ltd, Digital Asset Holdings, Ripple Labs Inc., Global Arena Holding, Inc., BitFury USA Inc., Chain, Inc., Coinbase Inc., Abra, Inc., Circle Internet Financial Limited, and Global Arena Holding, Inc.Block chain technology showcase has been examined as far as all parameters, for example, applications, sorts, items and numerous other. Every last information prompting development or fall of the separate fragments have been clarified. Whole production network as for Block chain technology advertise is contemplated top to bottom and is passed on in the most exhaustive way that is available. The reasons there will be an expanding pattern to this market are examined and are expounded. Main thrusts, restrictions and openings are given to help give a superior photo of this market speculation for the gauge time of 2019 to 2026.Avail discount on this report:This report is a full examination which incorporates item compose, applications, organization, verticals, innovation and local divisions. To pick up a reasonable comprehension of the breakdown of the Block chain technology showcase, the report additionally audits the execution of it's in the market situation, control. The report gives insights to each key fragment of the worldwide Block chain technology advertise keeping in mind the end goal to reveal insight into the advancement designs displayed by the market. Most recent figures showing the execution of the Block chain technology showcase are given in detail in the report keeping in mind the end goal to give a granular photo of the market's most recent conditions. An entire investigation of the aggressive scene of the worldwide Block chain technology showcase have been given, introducing bits of knowledge into the item portfolio, money related status, mergers and acquisitions, and the SWOT examination.The Global Block chain technology Market's position is legitimize and fortified by various archives and studies. Regardless of whether it maintains its position or not, is to be solid disapproved by the market patterns and its Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR). At all be the situation, there's little difference against its achievement.For more enquiry:What our report offers: Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments Market share analysis of the top industry players Strategic recommendations for the new entrants Market forecasts for a minimum of 7 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations) Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsAbout IT Intelligence Markets :At IT Intelligence Markets, we model all our work on our core philosophy that believes in customer satisfaction. We serve a global clientele by supplying market intelligence research reports after conducting exhaustive research. Our reports are replete with productive insights & recent market dynamics as the healthcare industry is constantly undergoing changes like ever-changing consumer preferences, supply channels and latest technologies. Our market research analysts not only investigate the market for drivers, restraints & challenges but also gauge the overall progress of the market by comparing chief market players. Our report forms a crucial piece of intelligence using which our clients can unleash their potential & tap their capacity to harness the correct technologies & surpass their competitors.Erika ThomasPhone no : +1 (888) 312-3102Address: US 76 AT US 19 & HWY 129 Murphy Highway, Blairsville, GA, USA Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 Barry Lopezs Horizon (Knopf, 592 pages, $30) has the feel of a capstone project. The Oregon author has visited 70-plus countries, his experiences grist for the National Book Award-winning Arctic Dreams among other works of nature writing, and fiction, that have won him acclaim as a master of the form. Yet, Id missed a lot on my first passes through these places, Lopez writes in Horizon. Ive never been drawn to the idea of writing definitively about anything In revisiting these places, then, I was more interested in how, in reviewing my previous experience of that location, I might find another truth, one different from the one I first wrote about. From a starting point staking out an incoming storm on Oregons Cape Foulweather, Horizon is a travelogue of travelogues a meta-travelogue hopscotching about in space and time, from pole to frigid pole via equatorial swelter, traversing Lopezs career. Its narrative is discursive, crotchety, righteous, premonitory shot through with foreboding about our political present and ecological future and retailed in crisp, often gorgeous prose. Alive to the mystery in the deep nature of every place, yet attuned to the numinous dimension of certain inanimate objects, Horizon imprints the reader with images and sensations. A scrim of water rises around a woman vaulting into a pool, like the flair of a flamenco dancers skirt. The post-downpour Oregon backwoods soaked and gleaming have a pristine feel. And the commotion of an archaeological dig in Canadas High Arctic evokes the accretions of time: These sounds, tiny pebbles in the great basin of indigenous silence, led me to appreciate the way one century nestled within another here, the verticality of time On the Galapagos Islands, Lopez beholds: A dying immature masked booby, hung up like a broken kite in the branches of a palo santo tree, having misjudged a swirling wind blinking its last looks plus giant tortoises lumbering on elephantine legs. Iron ore hauled by train from an Australian mine is heaped in dark umber mounds sitting inert in the cars, levelled off in the shape of neat trapezoids (that) follow each other like a series of mountain ranges. When he scuba-dives off Antarctica, an air pocket between ocean and ice is rank from seal exhalations. A theme runs seam-like through these disparate peregrinations: existential anguish, a sense of civilization on a precipice and of loss from the evisceration of indigenous cultures a humanitarian tragedy but also a depletion in our way(s) of knowing akin to the collapse of biodiversity, at a juncture when diverse perspectives are essential. We could do worse, Lopez writes, than tap the wisdom of elders from traditional societies as handmaiden to a less avaricious, more harmonious future. Observing dissension between an Aboriginal and white Australian over Aboriginal artwork, he notes the age-old collision of scholarship and deference to mystery. Horizon straddles these worldviews: exacting yet eking out space for wonder and awe. But its also rather self-serious. Perhaps because the material has been worked over, it has a shut-in feel, the product of much time spent inside Lopezs head as he maunders about societal ills and freights his observations with weighty pronouncements. These are at times pompous Once when I was talking with the American composer John Luther Adams about the way music might pry something ineluctable out of a particular landscape or anodyne: If prisons are awful places violent, mind-numbing, and unsafe then, obviously, prison reform is called for; if people are imprisoned who shouldnt be there, then social reform is called for. Such sentences land with a leaden clank amid the otherwise felicitous prose. Barry Lopez book launch When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 19. Where: The Old Church, 1422 S.W. 11th Ave. Tickets: Free. Police have publicly identified an armed man fatally shot by a pair of detectives last week in Hazel Dell as a 43-year-old Vancouver resident. Carlos M. Hunter was the third person fatally shot by Vancouver police in as many weeks. Dennis Devlin, 45, and Colton Price, 30, have been identified as the detectives who shot him. Police have said the detectives pulled over a man, identified as Hunter, in a car about 1:40 p.m. in the 2500 block of Northeast 78th Street as part of a drug trafficking investigation. Police said he had a gun, didnt comply with the detectives orders and at some point was shot by both detectives. Authorities havent detailed the circumstances of the shooting. Hunter died at the scene. A Vancouver police spokeswoman described him as a documented gang member. His family disputed that assertion, however. The Columbian reports family said he had gang ties when he was younger but broke them off to focus on his five kids. The Camas Police Department said Monday that Vancouver police hired detectives Devlin and Price in 2004 and 2012, respectively. Both of them are on critical incident leave, which is standard practice after police shootings. The shooting remains under investigation. Three people have been killed by Vancouver officers in shootings since last month. Cpl. Roger Evans killed 16-year-old Clayton Joseph on Feb. 19 after police said Joseph didnt follow officers orders to drop a knife he was holding. Officers Christopher Douville and Andrew Dunbar fatally shot 29-year-old Michael E. Pierce on Feb. 28 after police said Pierce displayed a gun while officers were responding to reports that he was pointing the firearm at passing drivers and pedestrians. Vancouver police were also involved in another shooting in Portland on Feb. 5, where a shootout occurred on Interstates 205 and 84 between police and alleged suspects in a January killing in Kelso, Washington. Portland police said one Vancouver officer suffered apparent minor injuries and one of two men in the truck suffered serious injuries that werent gunshots. No other injuries were reported. -- Jim Ryan; jryan@oregonian.com; 503-221-8005; @Jimryan015 Everton Bailey Jr. of The Oregonian/OregonLive staff contributed to this report Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox. A Camas woman who repeatedly slashed her live-in boyfriend with a samurai sword because she believed he had been unfaithful was sentenced Monday to 19 years in prison. Emily Javier, 31, had faced up to 20 years behind bars when she pleaded guilty in January to attempted first-degree domestic violence murder in Clark County Superior Court. Javier had no prior criminal history, The Columbian reported. The grisly attack drew national and international headlines last year, both because of Javiers choice of weapon as well as her boyfriends easygoing attitude about the whole episode. I saw the look in her eyes, and it scared the living poop out of me, an upbeat Alex Lovell, then 29, told The Oregonian/OregonLive from his hospital bed. I was just so proud for beating this samurai wannabe crazy lady with hate in her heart." Javier told police she had hatched the brutal assault on Lovell because she discovered he had a Tinder dating app on his phone and suspected he had been cheating on her, records show. She also fumed over his penchant for playing video games, according to a probable cause affidavit. Enraged, Javier said she went to a shopping mall and purchased a samurai sword. She said she then spent the next week stewing and plotting her revenge before whipping out the saber and repeatedly slashing Lovell in bed during the wee hours of March 3, 2018. Afterward, a grief- and horror-stricken Javier called 911. I just stabbed my boyfriend, she told an emergency dispatcher just seconds after the attack. I think hes dead. You need to hurry. Officers later entered the bedroom of the couples Northeast Garfield Avenue home and found the walls splattered with blood and Lovell curled up in ball, a police report showed. Lovell, who admitted to playing video games 12 hours a day but insisted he was never unfaithful, suffered life-threatening injuries, including wounds to his torso, neck and the left side of his head. His index, middle and ring fingers were nearly lopped off at the base, though doctors managed to reattach them, he said. Though facing months of recovery, Lovell remained positive. I was able to wing chun my way to survival, he said, referring to a traditional Chinese martial art that focuses on close-range combat. "I've been preparing my whole life for something like this." Read More: Boyfriends Tinder app triggers samurai sword attack in Camas, woman tells police You used a sword? 911 call captures grisly, Tinder-inspired samurai-saber attack Boyfriend who survived samurai sword attack: It scared the living poop out of me -- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632 Bigs Chicken, the smoked chicken shack that lived fast and died young in its original Northeast Portland location before making it big in Beaverton, will return to the Rose City with a second restaurant less than 10 blocks from the first. The restaurant, which started life as the Five Napkin Chicken pop-up in the parking lot of Laurelhurst Market, closed in 2017 near the height of its popularity after fire destroyed its Northeast Glisan Street building. After searching for a new location nearby, Your Neighborhood Restaurant Group owners Ben Dyer, Jason Owens, David Kreifels and chef Ben Bettinger took the concept to Beaverton last year, opening a much larger restaurant in the former Beaverton collectors shop The Peddlers Pack. Its been a hit. Last week, the team began work to transform The Hutch, a former bar on Northeast Glisan Street just 10 blocks down from the original restaurants North Tabor neighborhood location, into a new Bigs Chicken. (The Beaverton restaurant remains open). The team, which now includes Bettinger as an equal partner, hopes to open by the summer. With about 60 seats, roadhouse decor and the same menu as the Beaverton location, the restaurant should look familiar to neighbors who frequented the original before the fire. Expect smoked chicken slathered in Bigs Alabama-style white sauce, JoJos and dirty rice, veggies sides, the cheeseburger that debuted in Beaverton, plus craft beer, cocktails and walls lined with vintage Oregon ephemera from Owens personal collection. When the buildout is complete, Your Neighborhood Restaurant Group will own seven restaurants, including Reverends BBQ in Sellwood, Hawaiian restaurant Ate-Oh-Ate and modern steakhouse Laurelhurst Market, where Bettinger remains chef. Their new breakfast and lunch spot, La Luna, recently began hosting pop-ups, wine dinners and other events at night, including a handful of private dinners featuring Laurelhurst Market food. More events are planned. Look for Bigs Chicken to open this summer at 4606 N.E. Glisan St., diagonally across from Providence Portland Medical Center. When Belise Nishimwe was young, growing up with her family in a refugee camp in Tanzania, she was privileged enough to have people who believed in her, who fought for her success. That support, as well as courage the 17-year-old Portlander has carried with her, culminated in one of the great successes of her young life Saturday as she was crowned Oregons Poetry Out Loud champion. She now heads to the national competition this spring. A sophomore at St. Marys Academy in downtown Portland, Nishimwe beat out about 8,000 other high school students in Oregon, according to the Oregon Arts Commission, which organizes the competition in the state. At the end of April, shell represent Oregon in the national Poetry Out Loud contest held in Washington, D.C. I feel in disbelief, honestly, Nishimwe said. I still barely have any words to describe how I feel. Poetry Out Loud is a national recitation competition organized by the Poetry Foundation and supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. A total $50,000 in awards and school stipends are handed out during the national finals, according the competitions website. The state winners are each awarded $200, and each of their schools gets $500 to buy poetry books. Because its a recitation contest, Nishimwe didnt speak her own words, but the words of some her favorite poets: Percy Bysshe Shelley, Claude McKay and Marilyn Nelson. The challenge of recitation, she said, is interpreting the poems respectfully and making those other poets words her own. It just really takes a lot of courage to get up there and be able to interpret a poem and say a poem the way that you feel it should be said, Nishimwe said. That courage is palpable when she reads. It was noticed by the judges and audience Saturday, but also by Oregon Poet Laureate Kim Stafford, who was in attendance and performed at the event. When I listened to Belise deliver poetry to a silent room, I recognized her genius is a combination of skill and courage, he said in a news release Saturday. Poetry comes up from the earth through her voice to the world. Nishimwes family made it out of Tanzania when she was five, moving to America with help from Catholic Charities of Oregon. Once in Portland, she enrolled at Holy Redeemer Catholic School, then St. Marys Academy for high school. Now a U.S. citizen, the teenager is pursuing a career path toward immigration law, hoping to connect with the kinds of refugee communities she came from if not to help, then just to be there, she said, to be able to say, I got you. I feel like Ive been given these opportunities, she said. I want to be able to give those back to the world. Poetry might not seem an obvious path to law, but Nishimwe said performing with Poetry Out Loud has strengthened her voice and helped her to think more about how to represent complex thoughts in a way other people can understand. For now shes focused on the upcoming national competition. That means more practice, more memorization and more honing the skills she already has. Winning would be great, of course, but shes also trying to keep her success in perspective. Im going to remember that its even great that I got to this point, Nishimwe said. Thats a victory I already have. The national Poetry Out Loud competition will be streamed online at arts.gov. Belise Nishimwe and other regional state winners are scheduled to perform on Tuesday, April 30, at 1 p.m. Pacific Time. The final round will take place the following day. --Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB By E.J. DIONNE JR. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., walks to the chamber Thursday, March 7, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington, as the House was preparing to vote on a resolution to speak out against, as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said, "anti-Semitism, anti-Islamophobia, anti-white supremacy and all the forms that it takes," an action sparked by remarks from Omar. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)AP WASHINGTON -- The polling is imperfect, but its fair to say that more than 70 percent of American Jews and Muslims vote Democratic. They do so, in part, because Democrats have spoken out strongly against both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. And now, both groups are horrified by Trumpism's embrace of discrimination against Muslims and its trafficking in anti-Semitism. Just watch the Trump campaign ad attacking what it claims is "a global power structure that is responsible for economic decisions that have robbed our working class," while flashing images of prominent Jews. And you can't help but cheer the fact that Jews and Muslims across the country have stood in solidarity when the local institutions of either group were defaced or attacked. Bigotry is bigotry. It must always be opposed. This is why the dangerously careless use of language by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., about Jews and Israel -- she spoke of people who "push for allegiance to a foreign country" -- has been cause for both heartbreak and anger. I get that some readers will see my use of the word "careless" as too soft because the dual-loyalty charge has historically been so poisonous. But in refraining from stronger language I'm putting my bet on hope. I'm wagering that Omar's personal history ought to mean that she understands the dangers of prejudice better than most. Last fall, many of us celebrated her breakthrough election. She won strong backing from the Jewish community in her district. Maybe I'm also giving her a break because she's progressive. Anti-Semitism is utterly antithetical to anything that deserves to be called liberal or progressive. Surely Omar doesn't want the Democrats ensnared in the sort of left-wing anti-Semitism now haunting the British Labour Party. Opposing anti-Semitism should be axiomatic for everyone. And for me, it's also personal. My observant Catholic parents moved to our city's most Jewish neighborhood shortly after I was born, and my sister and I were raised to see anti-Semitism as sinful. My very first friends in the world were Jewish, and my late mom regularly sat down with our next-door neighbor to compare notes on Catholic and Jewish views about the nature of God. As I've written before, my informal second father was Jewish. A dear man named Bert Yaffe informally took me into his family after my dad died when I was a teenager, and his kids welcomed me as a brother. Partly because of this history, but also in common with almost all liberals and social democrats of a certain age, I have always -- and will always -- support the existence of Israel as a democratic Jewish state. I spent a month in Israel in the spring of 1974, as the country experienced searing existential anxiety after its close call in the Yom Kippur War, and I visited Kiryat Schmona, a development town in the north that suffered under regular Palestinian attacks. It was an enduring lesson in the constant fear that haunts Israelis over the prospects of their country's survival. But Israel's commitment to democracy is also an important reason for my admiration, which is why I support a two-state solution and oppose continued settlements in Palestinian areas. Israel will not remain democratic if it continues to occupy the West Bank and Gaza, and justice requires Palestinian self-determination. When I covered the war in Lebanon in the 1980s, a Palestinian friend underscored for me the cost of being stateless. All he wanted, he would say, was the legitimacy that citizenship and a passport confer. It did not seem too much to ask. Thus, my sympathies have always been with the beleaguered peace camps on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides. This has led to deep frustration with Palestinian rejectionists, but also with the politics of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu has done enormous damage to Israel's standing with young Americans who did not grow up with my gut commitment to Israel's survival. His appearance before Congress in 2015 to trash President Obama's nuclear agreement with Iran greatly aggravated this problem. His alliance with a virtual fascist party leading into next month's elections is unconscionable and a gift to anti-Israel propagandists. So, yes, I know full well that you can love Israel, be critical of its current government, and truly despise anti-Semitism, all at the same time. What you cannot do is play fast and loose with language that cannot help but be seen as anti-Semitic. I pray Omar now realizes this. At this moment, opponents of bigotry must be able to rely on each other. E.J. Dionne is on Twitter: @EJDionne. (c) 2019, Washington Post Writers Group The Club for Growth appears to have learned from the Russians. During the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, Russian intelligence operatives sometimes pretended to be American progressives as they used social media to make people question their own strongly held beliefs. So it now goes for the Club for Growth, which typically criticizes former President Barack Obama but in a new ad heralds him as a progressive champion who sought to combat inequality and harmful stereotypes. Why is the conservative, limited-government interest group, one of the most determined opponents of Obamacare, now praising Obama? Because its directing its latest spot at progressives in hopes of sabotaging former Texas Congressman Beto ORourke, whos expected to announce a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination any day. Club for Growth president David McIntosh says his group is targeting ORourke for an obvious reason: the 46-year-old politician is polling well in swing states and could put Texas, a reliably GOP state, in play in 2020. Politico magazine says the attack ad is part of a broader campaign [by Republicans] to meddle in the opposing partys contest to take on President Donald Trump. Whether this anti-ORourke ad counts as meddling is debatable, but it definitely hits hard. Beto ORourkes image crafters say hes Barack Obama, but white, intones the ads disapproving female narrator. A series of comparisons follow that make Obama look good -- and ORourke look like a preening, entitled fraud. It slams ORourkes blue-blood pedigree and insists his billionaire father-in-law, William Sanders, bought him a congressional seat after Beto did [Sanders] bidding on the El Paso city council. Is this true? Forbes magazine has stated that Sanders is not a billionaire, putting his net worth more likely ... in the neighborhood of $500 million -- still a tidy sum, to be sure. Whether ORourke helped out his father-in-law as an El Paso councilman remains an open question. In a nutshell, says Forbes, ORourke abstained from some relevant votes but didnt object when the mayor of El Paso threatened property owners with having their properties seized under eminent domain and sold to a real-estate investment trust started by Sanders. The Club for Growth ad goes on to insist that ORourke demeaned the opposite sex while in college, casting aspersions on working women whose, quote, only qualifications seem to be large breasts and tight buttocks. (ORourke, then 19, was referring to performers in a Broadway musical. When the student-newspaper theater review came to light during his unsuccessful U.S. Senate run last year, ORourke apologized for it, saying he was ashamed of what I wrote.) The spot points out that Barack Obama was editor of the Harvard Law Review, breaking barriers. ORourke, the ad then states, crashed into them [meaning actual, rather than metaphorical, barriers], causing a collision while driving drunk, then fleeing the scene to avoid accountability. ORourke has also apologized for the 1998 drunk-driving arrest and has claimed he did not try to leave the scene of the accident. Apart from bringing up some of ORourkes youthful mistakes, the ad aggressively presses progressive hot buttons, calling the former congressman the poster boy for white male privilege and saying his drawn-out process of deciding on a presidential run represents the kind of navel-gazing, self-involved behavior a woman or a person of color could never get away with. Especially after losing an election. With a charmed life like his, you can never really lose, the ad continues. Thats why Betos running for president. Because he can. Watch the video below: -- Douglas Perry @douglasmperry Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox. The internet is full of rumors about Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russias undermining of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and Russias connections to the Trump campaign. And it has been for almost two years straight. Rational people take this talk with a boulder-sized grain of salt. Reputable news outfits, however, also regularly weigh in on the matter, with actual inside sources rather than just hopes and dreams. Even then, of course, its hard to be sure whats real, for Mueller and his team run a tight ship -- that is, they dont leak. Yet there was the British magazine The Spectators pseudonymous political column, Cockburn, on Friday insisting Muellers report has been completed -- and that the special counsel wants to indict President Donald Trump himself. An excerpt from the column: Several sources tell Cockburn that the Special Counsel has indeed completed his report. It is said to recommend indicting three of President Trumps children -- Don junior, Ivanka and Eric -- as well as his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The Attorney General, William Barr, is said to have silently assented to this. Its also claimed that Mueller wants President Trump himself to be indicted. Barr is said to oppose this. The two men met on Friday but apparently could not agree and this was the reason for the delay in any announcement from the [Department of Justice]. At least this is what the sources say. Cockburn acknowledges that its sources are, at best, third-hand: they heard it from the people briefed by the people in the room. But the column insists that all of its sources, from different places within the government, are saying the same thing. They all claim the Trump children and Kushner will face charges for financial crimes while the president, if Barr allows it, will be hit with obstruction of justice. Current U.S. Department of Justice policy says a sitting president cant be indicted, but the attorney general can overrule the policy. Could it be true that indictments are about to fall on the Trump kids, Kushner and maybe even the president himself? We dont know. Heres what we do know: The right-leaning, 191-year-old Spectator says its U.S. edition, where the Cockburn column resides, is pro-America and pro-Americans. Read the Cockburn column: -- Douglas Perry @douglasmperry Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox. Nvidia Corp. agreed to buy Israeli chipmaker Mellanox Technologies on Monday, which will help it gain technology used to speed the flow of information around data centers. Nvidia said it will pay $6.9 billion for the Israeli company. Nvidia outbid rivals including Intel. Speculation that it would be acquired has sent Mellanoxs stock surging. Shares of the company, which is based in Yokneam, Israel and Sunnyvale, California, have risen 66 percent from a low in October and 18 percent just this year through Friday. Mellanoxs technology is crucial in transferring information from one component to another both within and between computers. The rate at which chips direct that traffic has become increasingly important as corporate computer networks and cloud service providers try to make sense of the growing flood of data being generated. Multiple companies have an interest in adding such capabilities to their own array of products as they try to make themselves more attractive to major buyers of computer infrastructure, such as Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Amazon.com Inc.'s AWS and Microsoft Corp.'s Azure. The emergence of (artificial intelligence) and data science, as well as billions of simultaneous computer users, is fueling skyrocketing demand on the worlds data centers, Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said in a written statement. Addressing this demand will require holistic architectures that connect vast numbers of fast computing nodes over intelligent networking fabrics to form a giant datacenter-scale compute engine. Nvidia is the largest maker of graphics chips used by computer gamers. The company has been pushing its technology into new areas, arguing that it has the best solution to the tougher requirements of processing data related to artificial intelligence. It's already won over data center owners: The unit that serves that market has tripled sales in the last three years. Mellanox's revenue surged 26 percent in 2018, topping $1 billion for the first time. The deal may signal a restart of consolidation in the $470 billion semiconductor industry which has been reshaped over the past five years as companies have increasingly combined to add scale amid rising costs and shrinking customer lists. The transaction will still have to win approval from regulators. That process has become more complicated due to the U.S. trade stand-off with China. The U.S. is the world's largest producer of chips, while China is the biggest consumer. The Trump administration has blocked deals over concerns about China's ambitions to acquire new semiconductor technology. China in turn has made it harder to secure its approval for transactions. --- Bloombergs Yaacov Benmeleh contributed to this report. A Portland ad agency is responding to the Oregon and Washington measles outbreak by using something not usually associated with an outbreak of a once-eliminated communicable disease: humor. Borders Perrin Norrander, an ad agency that has worked with brands like Columbia Sportswear and the Oregon Lottery, is now selling snarky anti-vax gear and putting the proceeds towards vaccination education. The project -- Unvaccinated!Life (Live it while you can) -- has a website, an Instagram account and an online shop where you can buy their shirts, beanies, onesies and other anti-vax accessories. Humor seemed like a powerful way to disarm people and, hopefully, make them rethink their position, Rob Thompson, executive creative director at BPN, said over email late last week. The specific idea was born out of a conversation with my wife, Kris, he said. We imagined what it would be like to really believe in the anti-vaccine cause. Embracing that attitude led us to ask What if we created an anti-vaccination lifestyle brand? that would proudly reject logic, science and decades of proven efficacy. The resulting apparel is subtle but pointed. One shirt mimics a Beatles tour shirt but says, The Measles Reunion Tour. It then lists locations of measles outbreaks in the six years. Unvaccinated!Life gear Weve sold stuff, Thompson said, but, to be honest that was never really the point. Success for us has always been people interacting with our brand in various channels and the conversations that could lead to. The money BPN does make off the shirts, phone cases and other items, they are donating to the most pro-vaccine organization we could find, the United Nations Shot@Life. Anyone who purchases anything is clearly told thats where the money is going before they hit the buy button, Thompson said. Were not trying to trick anyone. Unvaccinated!Life gear Thompson said that at first some of the satire on the site was a little too subtle, and people didnt realize it was a joke. That led us to dial up the level of parody. We really wanted people to get it quickly, he said. Within a few days, we saw the tide turn to mostly positive comments, likes and shares. Today, when we get an outraged response, we try to reply to that person in an effort to bring them in on the joke, he added. The point isnt just to make fun of the anti-vax mentality, its to make people realize Oh, its a joke and, next, ask themselves what it means that they fell for it. Unvaccinated!Life gear An earlier version of this story incorrectly named Rob Thompson Rob Thomas. Cotonou, Benin (PANA) A massive demonstration by Benins opposition parties Monday hit the streets of the national capital, Cotonou, to protest against their exclusion from the countrys parliamentary elections Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) A hundred experts on Monday met in Ouagadougou to examine the countrys cotton field which has been facing a drop in output over the past few years, official sources told PANA New York, US (PANA) - United Nations flags flew at half-mast around the world on Monday to honour the 157 people killed in Sundays Ethiopian Airlines crash, including at least 21 UN workers South Africa: New school feeder zone regulations to ensure fair access The new school feeder zone regulations announced by the Gauteng Education Department (GDE) will ensure fair access to schools, says MEC Panyaza Lesufi. Making the announcement on Sunday, Lesufi said the new regulations mean that children will not be discriminated against based on where they live. Approval of the said regulations implies that our schools will be easily transformed and as such learners will access quality education and be treated the same way and which will also necessitate same opportunities, said Lesufi. According to the MEC, the key changes in the regulations are: To affirm the power of the HOD to administer admissions in the province. Outlaws all forms of unfair discrimination. Delegates the authority of determining feeder zones to the department. Enables the management of admissions in entry phase grades through an online admissions process. Finally, there are technical adjustments to bring it in line with court case judgement. It clarifies criteria of placement of learners. Following the approval of the regulations by the Gauteng Legislature, the GDE will gazette the amendments to the admissions regulations. The commencement of the amended regulations will be effective from the date of publication. The 2020 admissions process will be conducted under the provisions of the amended admission regulations, said Lesufi. The consultative process for the feeder zone determination was accommodative to everyone who participated. The MEC established a feeder zone task team, consisting of officials from GDE and external stakeholders representing Governing Body Associations (NASGB, FEDSAS and GBF); STATSSA; Equal Education; Premiers Office (Spatial Planning); GCRA and the Municipal Demarcation Board participated. Accordingly, about 2 067 maps were finalised and published. However, about 334 schools contested their proposed feeder zones, and fortunately their concerns were addressed. We must emphasise that the adjudicating process was in favour of 90 percent of schools that contested and recommended adjustments, which were implemented accordingly, said the MEC. Lesufi said the remaining 10% of schools misinterpreted their feeder zones, confusing the 30km application radius with the feeder zone determination which was not provided for in terms of the criteria for determining feeder zone. The confusion was swiftly resolved. During the admissions application process, the said amended regulations are intended to assist learners to access a school, in compliance with the set criteria which is: (1) if their place of residence is closest to the school within the feeder zone; (2) has a sibling in the school; (3) the place of employment of at least one parent of the applicant is within the feeder zone; (4) learners place of residence is within 30km radius of the school, indeed this will depend on space availability; and (5) learners place of residence is beyond a 30km radius of school, once more space availability will be a determining factor. Publication of feeder zones dictates that, schools will have to submit their admission policies to the HOD for ratification within 90 days. However, there will be transitional arrangements for the implementation of revised school policies, this will provide the department with an opportunity to mediate the new requirements with schools on how to draft the new admissions policies. Feeder zone determination play a significant role in ensuring that access to our schools is fair, transparent and conducted in an equitable manner. Our officials and stakeholders contributed immensely to the successful consultative process and we are excited that all concerns raised during this vigorous process were addressed, said the MEC. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2019-03-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 11) Malacanang on Monday retracted its earlier statement that Alexander Balutan was fired as Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) general manager amid allegations of corruption. In a statement Monday, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo now revealed Balutan has resigned "out of delicadeza." "We wish to clarify that former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) General Manager Alexander Balutan has indeed tendered his resignation through a letter submitted to the Office of the President," Panelo said in his statement. "Mr. Balutan resigned out of delicadeza because of, as we have said, serious allegations of corruption in the PCSO. He has requested the President for a fair and impartial investigation to ferret out the truth on the matter." Reports that Balutan was relieved from his post circulated on Friday. PCSO Deputy Spokesperson Florante Solmerin claimed the former general manager resigned due to "personal reasons." But in a statement later that day, Panelo said that he was fired due to "serious allegations of corruption." Panelo on Monday clarified that Balutan's letter was only formally received by the Office of the President after the Palace had already released its first statement. "We hope this sets the record straight on the timeline of what transpired," Panelo added. Balutan's stint as the general manager of the PCSO was marred by accusations of improper spending, especially on the government agency's Christmas party at luxury five-star hotel EDSA Shangri-la. Balutan admitted that they spent 6.3 million for the party for their 1,580 employees and guests. The Commission on Audit, in its 2017 audit report, also flagged the "extravagant expenditure" for the Christmas party, saying the state lottery firm could have held it at a much cheaper venue. The state audit agency also found that the PCSO's 5.89 billion charity fund was not used for charity programs and was overspent by officials. Balutan is a former Marine general who availed of early retirement in anticipation of an appointment to the Bureau of Corrections. Duterte instead appointed him to the PCSO in 2016. CNN Philippines' Ina Andolong, Alyssa Rola, and Xave Gregorio contributed to this report. I am Jewish and the notion that Representative Ilhan Omar is anti-Semitic seems ridiculous to me. Yes, she has trafficked in language that Western anti-Semites have used against us Jews, but her policies (the stuff that actually affects us) do not reflect that kind of hatred and she did not grow up in the West. She spent the first fourteen years of her life in Somalia and Kenya before fleeing as a refugee to the United States. Are you aware of all the problematic words and phrases in East African cultures? No? Then why should Omar know every turn of phrase that anti-Semites born in America like Henry Ford used? Democratic Minority Whip James Clyburn correctly pointed out how its more personal with her in the wake of the latest mess where Democrats tried to condemn her, but wound up backtracking to a pointless, generic, boilerplate condemnation of hate (that 24 Republicans then refused to vote for). Ilhan Omars criticism of Israel basically boils down to this tweet addressing her usage of the word hypnotized (another Western anti-Semitic trope that she may be completely unaware ofbottom line, the criticism of Omar to make is political, not moralas she should be aware of these words and phrases by now given how quickly the press and our politicians are to interpret comments in bad faith from a woman wearing a hijab). Drawing attention to the apartheid Israeli regime is far from hating Jews. You are a hateful sad man, I pray to Allah you get the help you need and find happiness. https://t.co/SvEXjlxlEN Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) May 31, 2018 The word apartheid is one of the biggest flashpoints in all of Judaism. Those like me who are critical of the state assert that it is, definitionally, an apartheid state (more on that in a second), while those more in line with AIPAC (the lobbyist organization for Benjamin Netanyahus right-wing Likud party) recoil in horror at labeling a country we all love with a term so intrinsically hateful. But Im sorry, folksOmar is rightIsrael is an apartheid state. Soon-to-be-indicted Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, basically said so over the weekend on his Facebook page: First of all, an important correction: Israel is not a country of all its citizens. According to the Nation-State Law that we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish nation and its alone. As you wrote, there is no problem with Arab citizens they have equal rights like everybody and the Likud government has invested in the Arab sector more than any other government. You know how we can tell that the second sentence about Arab citizens having equal rights is BS (other than the law he touts contradicting it)? Netanyahu immediately went on to repeat his campaign slogan: Its either a strong right-wing government led by me, or a weak left-wing government led by Yair Lapid and [Benny] Gantz, with the support of the Arab parties. So per Netanyahu, Arab citizens have equal rights, but if he loses, then Arab parties will have power in the government and that is an unacceptable nightmare. That doesnt really square up with his assertion that they have equal rights. They dont, like Netanyahu saidhe passed a Nation-State law that among other things, mandated that the state views Jewish settlement as a national value and will labor to encourage and promote its establishment and development. In other words, expanding settlement into Palestinian territory is legally deemed as vital to the Jewish state, as is the designation of Hebrew as the countrys official language (a change from the previous 70 years where Hebrew and Arabic were the official languages), per the leader of the Jewish state. Encyclopedia Britannica defines apartheid as: policy that governed relations between South Africas white minority and nonwhite majority and sanctioned racial segregation and political and economic discrimination against nonwhites. Apartheid simply means having a legally defined second class with fewer rightsa longstanding policy I would argue the United States of America has tooand in a post pushing back against criticism from a TV star, Israels president emphasized the Nation-State law he passed while asserting that Israel is the Nation-State of Jews alone. This is how we arrive at a point where Palestinians live in Israeli-legislated hellish conditions in Gaza while being unable to leave a 140 square mile area their entire lives. Problematic words aside, Ilhan Omars fundamental criticism of Israels apartheid governance is spot on, and Benjamin Netanyahu just proved her right. Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling. Disney is launching their own streaming service, as is DC Universe, Apple, Facebook, your middle-aged neighbor who still lives with his motherso why not a streaming service solely focusing on booze? DrinkTV is a new channel available on Roku and AppleTV that offers new and curated content focusing on cocktails and beer. William Shatner has a show on the service where he and a guest blind taste wine from a brown paper bag. Its called Brown Bag Wine Tasting. Shatner. Drinking booze from a brown paper bag. Genius. You also get Drinktionary, where booze journalist Matthew Latkiewicz explains things. And then theres Are You Smarter than a Drunk Person, where a really smart drunk person goes head to head with sober regular people in trivia. Then youve got The Brewdog Show, where the founders of Brew Dog travel the world collaborating with other brewers. The whole idea behind the network is to give booze the same sort of coverage as high and low cuisine. I mean, how many shows are there where a chef/celebrity travels around eating from taco trucks? The answer is a lot. There are a lot of chef/celebrity taco truck travelogues out there. Why isnt drink culture celebrated in the same way as food? asks co-founder Jared Cotton in a press release. We aim to change that. The highlight of DrinkTVs programming has to be Four Sheets, which follows comedian and actor Zane Lamprey as he travels the world trying to understand foreign cultures by drinking with the locals. Most of the time, things get weird. Theres fire and vomit and alpaca llamas. Its good fun and it will make you start looking for ways your own boozy adventures can take wild turns for the better. For example, in Peru, he drinks a tea made with coca leaves, enjoys chicha on the streets, and imbibes toxins from a frog. Mmmm, frog toxins. A month of DrinkTV runs $2.99. You dont get a new Star Wars show like on Disney, but you might find inspiration for your next night out. Punk will die if it doesnt change, if it just becomes a documentary [points directly at camera] where all us old farts are, like, fucking talking about shit that happened a hundred thousand million years ago. Thats not punk. Its what kids are doing right now, to take whats already happened and turn it into something for the future. Thats the whole point of this; thats the whole point of talking about it. Because we dont want to canonize it. You canonize it, its dead. Its in a coffin. Kathleen Hanna, Bikini Kill The best punk show I ever saw was over in thirty minutes. The band Teenage Bottlerocket, out of Laramie, Wyoming played their firecracker set straight through, without a single pause. It was fast; it was loud; it was perfect. I left the cramped gig space run from the basement of the local line dancing club sweaty and flushed with adrenaline and ready to take on my tiny teenage world. Punk, the new docuseries about the birth and legacy of punk rock that premieres tonight on EPIX and was executive produced by Iggy Pop and John Varvatos, left me feeling none of those thingsand not just because Im no longer 17. Where a great punk show is all wild crowds, frenetic energy and the pulse of the contemporary cultural moment, Punk is individual punk rock elders striding slo-mo into the frame from the shadowy depths of an empty industrial space to perch themselves on leather-couch pedestals bathed in almost hagiographic light to wax at length about their contrarian youths. In other words: Its not what I expected. And Im having trouble squaring it. My first instinct was to declare that punkwhose signature quality is to defydefies, with a special kind of fuck you force, the very things that define documentary as a narrative art. Introspection is not punk rock. Self-contextualization is not punk rock. Taking chaos and smoothing it into meaning is not punk rock. But then I stepped back and thought about all the punk bands people my age loved growing up, from Sleater-Kinney to Against Me! to, yes, Teenage Bottlerocket, and I realized that, actually? In the right hands, those things are totally punk rock. Sure, punk can be about giving an outlet to all the combustible ingredients kids load up with as they careen into puberty, as Black Flag/Rollins Band frontman Henry Rollins puts it in Punks third episode. It can absolutely be a vehicle for a vicious animal energy (Flea, about the punk scene in the 1980s), or having fun, doing what you liked, and not getting so heavily involved with the political situation (Marky Ramone, of the early American punk scene specifically). But it also can be about giving an outlet to kids unjaded enough to get fucking incandescent at the infinite injustices happening all around them, even if theyre still too young to do much about it but rage on a crowded dance floor. Thats introspective. Thats self-contextualizing. Thats taking chaos and finding a way to give it meaning. Punk is absolutely aware of the more socially engaged, documentary-friendly side of the scene, which has existed since the very beginning (Joe Strummer had this great empathy towards his fellow human being, Don Letts notes at the start of one promising narrative thread in the second episode, and he believed in music as a tool for social change), but for whatever reason, it doesnt have the tools to incorporate those elements with any nuance. Whenever it starts an important thread, the thread just fizzles out. Theres a chasm between what punk can accomplish and what Punk cant, and this, I think, is where this particular documentary project misses the mark. Most of the series key elements touch this chasm at some point (bizarrely slick aesthetics included), but its especially gaping in the few instances in which the series tries, and fails, to take on Big Issues. Punks rocky relationship with race, for example, is introduced by Letts and Pauline Black and DC hardcore pioneers Bad Brains, but beyond giving them each a few scenes to note how straight-up Caucasian punk was in the early yearsbefore Strummer made some room for progress and the Bad Brains innovated the subgenre of hardcore Punk evinces no interest in investigating racial issues any further. (Adding to the frustration, Death, the black proto-punk band that got its start in Detroit at the same time that Iggy Pop and MC5 were making names for themselves, and which was the subject of a recent documentary, is excluded from Punk entirely.) Similarly anemic is Punks handling of gender, an almost literal cock-up which manifests first in the wild number of punk elders who seem wholly indifferent to the concept of correctly gendering punk pioneer Jayne County (despite her identifying publicly as a woman since 1979), then in how unfailingly womens legacies in punk rock history, from The Slits to Debbie Harry to Joan Jett, get short shrift. On the one hand, a certain amount of shortchanging happens to most of the stories started in the three episodes made available to criticsI had to have Wikipedia open almost the entire time I was watching, just to try and catch half the necessary context elided on screen (dates; whole people, just disappearing). On the other hand, theres the fact that Punk seems happy to have made the Sex Pistols miserably smug Johnny Rotten a key player, in spite of the fact that at one point he blames Nancy Spungen not just for corrupting Sid Vicious, but for instigating her own murder. With such baseline contempt making it past the cutting room floor, its no wonder that the most interesting parts of the stories behind how women (let alone other, more marginalized groups) made punk a safe and more open space for themselves arent given the space or attention they deserve in a history meant to be as sweeping as Punks. Ultimately, the broadest point of the of the chasm that Punk cant seem to cross is the very question of what it is trying to accomplish. While the first episode opens on Penelope Spheeris, Legs McNeil, Iggy Pop and other OG punk giants declaring that, so long as there are 16-year-olds around to rage against the world, punk will never die, the idea that punk is about the future is not something that the series first three episodes seem to believe. I dont think the series is trying to say the opposite, but it wasnt until I was sent a clip from the fourth episode, in which Bikini Kills Kathleen Hanna points at the camera and says that looking backwards is akin to putting punk in a coffin, that I realized many of my frustrations with Punk could be boiled down to the fact that punk rockers reveling in the kind of navel-gazing nostalgia this kind of documentary project requires seems anathema to the whole punk-rock ethos. (To be fair to punks older luminaries, its clear that many of themRollins and Pop and MC5s Wayne Kramer, most notablyseem to be on the exact same page as their 1990s-era legacies. Pop, astonishingly, goes further than most by declaring Soundcloud punks to be this cultural moments biggest risk-takers; Billie Joe Armstrong, at least, has the good sense to argue for genre fluidity being the next big punk frontier.) To be punk rock is to be introspective and self-contextualizing, sure, but more than that, it is to be young, looking hungrily forward; none of the aging punk elders looking back at punks origins would disagree. So the fact that they spend so much time basking in retrospection, half of them wearing the same fuck-you outfits that made them edgy when they were 20 but just make them look caught in amber today, feels like the kind of grown-up bullshit that they would have spit at when they were actual young punks. And that cognitive dissonance is hard to overcome. Punk premieres tonight at 9 p.m. on EPIX. Alexis Gunderson is a TV critic and audiobibliophile. She can be found @AlexisKG. Last week, Foreign Policy reported that the U.S. State Department rescinded an award given to Finnish investigative journalist Jessikka Aro. The reason? She criticized Donald Trump on Twitter. The State Department chose Aro for, ironically enough, her years of work exposing propaganda pushed by Russian internet troll farms, for which shed endured a steady stream of death threats and online harassment. (Further irony: Aros nomination came from the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki, where last summer Trump held his borderline treasonous press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin.) In January, the State Department told Aro she had been named for the International Women of Courage Award, which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would present to her the next month in Washington, D.C. The State Department then pulled the offer, chalking it up to a regrettable error. But Aro and U.S. officials gave Foreign Policy a different account: U.S. government officials had looked through Aros Twitter feed and found she didnt seem to like the President very much. I think it was absolutely the wrong decision on so many levels, one source told Foreign Policy. [It] had nothing to do with her work. Personal retribution against critical press is on page one of Trumps authoritarian playbook. But thats exactly why its even more disturbing to learn the Presidents fingerprints actually werent on this decision. Per Foreign Policy: There is no indication that the decision to revoke the award came from the secretary of state or the White House. Officials who spoke to FP have suggested the decision came from lower-level State Department officials wary of the optics of Pompeo granting an award to an outspoken critic of the Trump administration. In other words, this is more evidence Trumps authoritarian streak has spread beyond his own ever-distending gut: He didnt even have to give the order. Hes successfully created a government culture that caters to his eggshell ego on autopilot, even if it means compromising our most valuable fundamental democratic principles. We shouldnt overlook the pettiness, either: The State Department didnt just choose not to give Aroa relatively unknown Finnish journalistthis award. It took the award back after she won it, simply because the ceremony risked embarrassing the President and might have imperiled his relationship with Pompeo. Now, a stronger president might welcome such an opportunity, because it a) shows he can take a punch, and b) demonstrates support for the vital role the press plays in a democracy, even if that sometimes comes at his expense. But the line-level officials at State calculated, all on their own, without orders from any senior officials, that Trump cant take a punch even this small, and that he has no interest in supporting the press if it dents his self-image. This isnt purely academic. Russia, we know, is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a journalist. PolitiFact recently calculated that at least 34 Russian journalists have been killed since the year 2000. For context, Russias numbers run about even with Pakistan and Somalia, and theyre much higher than the stats in Mexico and Afghanistan. Since 2000, three journalists were killed in the United States. But as I wrote last year for Paste, the risks to journalists in Russia dont come straight from Putin: The scary thing, thoughand this is where we get to Trumpis that its actually unclear what role Putin has had in those killings [of journalists in his country]. American journalists who have spent years and even decades reporting in Moscow have said that, even though these murders are politically motivated, opposition journalists in Russia actually dont believe Putin ordered the murders of their colleagues. Instead, they hold Putin accountable for creating the culture where its permissible for journalists to be killed for speaking out. In other words, things are so bad in Russia that Putin doesnt even have to give orders. He rules with a wink, or as wed say, a dog whistle. Worse, this latest story comes at the same time NBC San Diego reported the Trump administration has created a secret database of activists, journalists, and social media influencers tied to the migrant caravan and in some cases, placed alerts on their passports. Per that report, documents detail an intelligence-gathering effort by the United States and Mexican authorities, targeting more than 50 people including journalists, an attorney, and immigration advocates. Some journalists reported the U.S. government had placed alerts on their passports, which at least two photojournalists (as well as an immigration attorney) alleged prevented them from entering Mexico to do their work. The government reportedly carried out the intelligence-gathering as part of Operation Secure Line, an effort created to track last Decembers migrant caravan of asylum-seekers as it approached the U.S. border. The list includes ten journalistsseven of them U.S. citizensas well as a U.S. attorney and 48 people from the U.S. and other countries identified as organizers, instigators, or having unknown roles. According to the documents, U.S. border security agencies stopped and interviewed a number of journalists on the list, including U.S. citizens: According to NBC San Diego, minutes after the story dropped U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) told NBC News the journalists in the database had been present when sporadic violence broke out at the border wall last November, and they were being tracked because the government wanted to learn more about what started that violence. NBC San Diego said CBP initially never clarified that point directly to them when asked for comment five days before publication. At that time an agency spokesperson instead told them: Criminal events, such as the breach of the border wall in San Diego, involving assaults on law enforcement and a risk to public safety, are routinely monitored and investigated by authorities. It is protocol following these incidents to collect evidence that might be needed for future legal actions and to determine if the event was orchestrated. CBP and our law enforcement partners evaluate these incidents, follow all leads garnered from information collected, conduct interviews and investigations, in preparation for, and often to prevent future incidents that could cause further harm to the public, our agents, and our economy. Again, some of the journalists in the database werent simply interviewed, they were blocked from crossing the border. Its unclear to me what kind of open democratic government assumes journalists might pose a violent threat, unless that government is deeply paranoid and conscious of its own culpability in violence, be that at the border or elsewhere. Or elsewhere. Or elsewhere. Or elsewhere. Or elsewhere. As for Aro, the Finnish journalist, she said she sent the State Department a letter asking for an explanation for the decision, and who was responsible for making it. In it, she also reserved the right to pursue damages that arose from the annulment. I use Twitter to exchange ideas and share information freely, she told Foreign Policy. I find the idea of U.S. government officials stalking my Twitter and politicizing my perfectly normal expressions of opinion deeply disturbing. Nvidia cut its fourth-quarter revenue estimate by half a billion dollars in January because of weak demand for its gaming chips in China and lower-than-expected data center sales. Nvidia's response has been quick. NVIDIA and Mellanox today announced that the companies have reached a definitive agreement under which NVIDIA will acquire Mellanox. Pursuant to the agreement, NVIDIA will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Mellanox for $125 per share in cash, representing a total enterprise value of approximately $6.9 billion. Once complete, the combination is expected to be immediately accretive to NVIDIAs non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP earnings per share and free cash flow. The acquisition will unite two of the worlds leading companies in high performance computing (HPC). Together, NVIDIAs computing platform and Mellanoxs interconnects power over 250 of the worlds TOP500 supercomputers and have as customers every major cloud service provider and computer maker. The data and compute intensity of modern workloads in AI, scientific computing and data analytics is growing exponentially and has put enormous performance demands on hyperscale and enterprise datacenters. While computing demand is surging, CPU performance advances are slowing as Moores law has ended. This has led to the adoption of accelerated computing with NVIDIA GPUs and Mellanoxs intelligent networking solutions. Datacenters in the future will be architected as giant compute engines with tens of thousands of compute nodes, designed holistically with their interconnects for optimal performance. An early innovator in high-performance interconnect technology, Mellanox pioneered the InfiniBand interconnect technology, which along with its high-speed Ethernet products is now used in over half of the worlds fastest supercomputers and in many leading hyperscale datacenters. Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA stated that "The emergence of AI and data science, as well as billions of simultaneous computer users, is fueling skyrocketing demand on the worlds datacenters. Addressing this demand will require holistic architectures that connect vast numbers of fast computing nodes over intelligent networking fabrics to form a giant datacenter-scale compute engine." As of noon eastern time, Wall Street appears to see the acquisition positively as noted in the chart below showing +5.88% or $8.86/share. You could check out this chart later in the day to see if it continued to go up or slide back here. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus. Apple's two iPhone fire sales in China this quarter to burn off inventory (01 & 02) has led America/Merrill Lynch to reverse a call it made in November. The firm said several issues that were negatives at that time have reversed themselves, including inventory levels and growth rates at Apple's services business has led to a "buy" from "neutral," according to a new CNBC report. That's the good news. The bad news, according to a second CNBC report today is that "Wall Street is turning sour on Apple." According to FactSet, analysts have the lowest percentage of buy ratings on Apple's stock in nearly 15 years, signaling a bearish shift on the company's prospects not seen since the year it released the first-ever iPod Nano. "I think it's basically a repricing of the stock away from a sexy tech stock to, essentially, a stodgy, dodgy, blue-chip-with-a-dividend stock, simply because the growth story in Apple has really petered out," Boris Schlossberg, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset Management, said Friday on CNBC's "Trading Nation." "It's by no means a sour apple," Schlossberg continued. "But it's just [that] the growth prospects here are quite limited, simply because the whole story or the narrative that they're moving into services, I think, is very problematic." Schlossberg pointed out that roughly 40 percent of Apple's services revenue comes from one source, Google search, and that Apple's history might be capping its potential. "I think Apple, at its core, culturally, is very much a hardware company. They need a huge hardware hit that's what they haven't had. Until they have one, the growth story's going to be very limited," he said. "They do have one interesting possibility with the Watch as a medical device, but that seems to be still a very embryonic market. And I think that's the key thing: The market is just not excited about anything new on Apple." Piper Jaffray, who makes a market in Apple sees it differently of course. Jaffray analyst Craig Johnson says that Wall Street is split on Apple with 22 buys and 22 holds and one sell. "I think there's more room for this stock, ultimately, to work, and I wouldn't be too concerned about the place marker that the analysts have out there at this point in time, given some of the concerns and changes in the business model they've got," he said. "I think it's just been a resetting of expectations, but I think the longer-term picture for Apple is still quite positive." Apple's stock AAPL is as split as analysts are. With Apple shares closing on Friday about $5 away from its average price target of $178.13 and still about 30 percent off its 52-week high, where the stock goes next seems to be an open question. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus. It seems to me that Ive told this story somewhere before but I cant find it, so I guess that Ill tell it. Again, perhaps. After a few days at our conference in Tehran, some of us Westerners began to think about Sundays coming program. It was crammed full of meetings. No time set aside for religious observance. I was the only Latter-day Saint in the group. (Heck, for all I know I was the only Latter-day Saint in all of Tehran at that time, or in Iran as a whole.) But several of us were religious, and we didnt like the idea of missing Sunday services altogether. Moreover, we thought it important to send our Iranian Shiite Muslim hosts a message, that not all Westerners are godless amoralists. So we asked the Foreign Ministry people whether there was any way for us to attend church. No, they said. The Sunday program was too full. Well, we asked, how would you feel if we were to host a program and to schedule meetings solidly through the Friday noon prayer? Oh, they replied. We see your point. So they eventually arranged for a van and driver to take us on Sunday to a small expatriate Catholic church on the other side of Tehran (which is a very large city). When we arrived at the church, the priest (a Spaniard, as I recall) was thrilled to see us. He was especially happy that one of our number was Father David Burrell. The people in his congregation, he said, were so sick of him. Would David be willing to celebrate mass in his place? So David found some suitable vestments and officiated. Several in our little group were Catholics, so they felt right at home. Two, I think, were Episcopalians. This was pretty familar to them, as well. I found myself seated in the back of the church, alongside the young Iranian Foreign Ministry employee who had come as our escort. Early on, he leaned over and confided to me that this was the very first time that he had ever been inside a Christian church. Could I possibly explain to him what was going on? So I did my best. I remember thinking at the time how funny it was to have a Latter-day Saint providing a running commentary on the Catholic mass to a Shiite Muslim in the capital of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Tad Walch, of the Deseret News, has written a number of thoughtful and interesting articles on Latter-day Saint subjects, and this piece is certainly among them: Pope Francis meets with President Nelson in the Vatican If you havent already read it, I encourage you to do so, even if you think that you already know all you need to know about the meeting of the Prophet and the Pontiff in Rome the other day. It offers a fascinating glimpse of the recent history of relations between the Catholics and the Latter-day Saints, as well sketching the cooperation of the two churches on humanitarian projects, which is, I suspect, much more extensive than many people realize. One dimension that could have been included would be the efforts of the pre-2012 Maxwell Institute to digitize documents in the Vatican Apostolic Library. That story needs to be written down before its lost. I was somewhat involved in the project, which involved (among other things) meetings with several cardinals at the Vatican. Also by Tad Walch: President Nelson refers to apostles Peter, Paul during Rome Temple dedication *** Washington Post: After decades of behind-the-scenes diplomacy, leaders of Catholic, Mormon churches meet in Rome Voice of America: Center of Christianity Has its First Mormon Temple Deutsche Welle: Europes biggest Mormon temple complex opens in Rome: In the heartland of the Catholic Church, a new Mormon temple is now open for business. The Rome Temple has been 10 years in the making. *** I recently read a very negative discussion of the missionary program of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, arguing that the Church keeps its missionaries in a cultural bubble, restricting them from immersing themselves in local theater, music, literature, and art, and thus effectively preventing them from being more than robotic, cookie-cutter, uncultured, small-minded, provincial cultists. Its true, of course, that missionaries in Japan dont spend much of their time reading The Tale of Genji ( Genji monogatari), that missionaries to Russia dont often return as experts on either Dostoyevsky or Shostakovich, and that missionaries in Austria dont typically study Gustav Klimt and the Vienna Secession. But they return well equipped to become very knowledgeable on those topics if they so choose I didnt serve in Austria, but my wife and I are very fond of Klimt, have visited sites associated with him and his movement, and own several reproductions of his work because, where its applicable, they typically learn the languages of their assigned areas better than they would from multiple college courses in Japanese, Russian, or German. And thats an inestimable gift. Moreover, by the end of their missions, wherever they serve, they will have spoken with and been in the homes of thousands of people, of all socio-economic, educational, and religio-philosophical backgrounds, giving them a familiarity with ordinary daily life and with a range of congenial and uncongenial worldviews in Japan, Russia, or Austria (or Bolivia, or Louisiana, or New Zealand, or Thailand, or Ghana, or Finland, or Brazil, or Australia, or British Columbia, or the Dominican Republic, or Scotland, Romania, or Mexico, or Wisconsin, or Korea, or South Africa, or wherever) that no semester-abroad program could ever bestow. Moreover, I dont know how atypical my mission was, but it was on my mission that I became acquainted (at the Oper Zurich) with Mozarts Die Zauberflote, and learned to love it. I can read Goethe and Schiller and the lyrics of Wagners opera in the originals because of my mission. It was on my mission that I learned at first hand about Swiss foods and culture, about Alpenhorns, about seasonal aspects of cowherding and cheese production, about the folklore of the Bernese Alps, about the political side of religion in the Swiss Confederation, about the subtle differences between Zurchers and Berners and Appenzellers, about the countrys citizen army, and so on and so forth. My early residence in Switzerland, along with the love that I developed for Alpine Europe in general and Switzerland in particular, has been a source of continuing blessings and happiness to me. And I expect that Im not the only returned missionary whose life has been altered for the good even leaving religious considerations out of the picture by my experience. And, although its deteriorated rather badly (as can be readily detected from the recording below), Ive made use of my German ever since most recently a couple of days ago: Daniel Peterson Freiberg Temple Stake Education Day (The text for the brief talk above can be found here: Ihr seid wir sind seine Zeugen.) It was on this day, the 11th of March, in 1984 that Rinzai Zen master Soen Nakagawa died at Ryutakuji monastery in Japan. I shared this last year. Felt appropriate to offer it again. In my study of Zen come West, Zen Master Who? I wrote about him. Through his regular visits, his Dharma heirs, and others he taught, Soen Nakagawa would become one of the most important figures shaping a Western understanding of Rinzai Zen. Soen Nakagawa was born (on the 19th of March,) 1907 in Iwakuni, near Hiroshima. His father was an army doctor, and so the family relocated frequently. While Soen was still very young his father died. His mother, who never remarried, struggled to support the family. Eventually Soen was admitted to Tokyo Imperial University to study Japanese literature. He specialized in poetry, specifically Basho, perhaps Japans most beloved poet. Basho had studied as a Zen monk, and while he may have never been formally ordained, the Zen spirit clearly pervades his work. Fascinated by the idea of the literary monk, Soen Nakagawa determined to ordain. In 1931, a year after taking his degree, Soen was ordained an unsui by the Rinzai master Katsube Seigaku Roshi at Kogakuji. He spent considerable time in a mountain retreat at Daibosatsu Mountain in Yamanashi Prefecture. At this time he published some poetry and diary entries in a magazine called Fujijn Koron, Womans Review. Nyogen Senzaki read these and in 1934 initiated what would become a lifelong correspondence and profound friendship. At about the same time, Soon Nakagawa met the renowned Genpo Yamamoto Roshi, the abbot of Ryutakuji. Soens first book of poems, Shingan, Coffin of Poems, was published in 1936. This was followed by three more, the last being in 1985 (the year after his death). Continuing his penchant for deep personal practice, not long after being accepted as a student of Genpo Roshi, he returned to Daibosatsu for two years of solitary retreat. He then returned to Ryutakuji and more formal training. In 1950 he succeeded his teacher as master of this renowned training hall. Senzaki Sensei thought Soen Nakagawa Roshi would be a perfect teacher for the West and spent years trying to lure him to North America. Soen Roshi first planned to come to America in 1941, but the War intervened. He arrived in the West for the first time in 1949, where he met Nyogen Senzaki, who arranged his first talk at the Los Angeles Theosophical Society. In 1950, Soen Nakagawa returned to Ryutakuji. Upon Nyogen Senzakis suggestion, young Robert Aitken made his way there and began studying with him. The next year, Philip Kapleau would stay there for three months before going on to Sogaku Harada Roshis temple, Hosshingji. Of equal importance, Soen Roshi would visit the United States thirteen times, leading sesshin, intensive meditation retreats on both coasts and spending extensive time with many different students. Sean Murphy in his One Bird, One Stone recounts the following: Soen loved to walk around New York City. Hed stare at the lighted skyscrapers, at their tops, he claimed he saw Buddha figures in the lights. Look at the Buddha, hed point, Shining Buddha! Hed fill the sleeves of his robes with nuts and berries from Central Park or herbs growing in the sidewalk cracks, and add them to his bowl at the next meal. He loved the musical Fiddler on the Roof, and when asked a question about why some particular point of ceremony needed to be performed in a certain way, he might burst into song, responding Tradition! Soen was a creative teacher. Famously, he was known to conduct tea ceremony using Coca-Cola or instant coffee and occasionally using Styrofoam cups. Nothing was off limits if it would hep point the way. The wrier and (later) Zen teacher Peter Matthiessens 1975 journal recorded in Endless Vow: The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa describes his experience with this remarkable teacher: Cleaning the Zendo after evening sitting, I find Soen alone in the shadows at the end of the empty row, in the stillness of zazen. He is the archetypal old monk of the paintings, ancient as death, burning with life. I dust around him. These days his joy in life is dear; he refers gleefully to the majority, as he calls the dead Each day he reminds us that, despite all the tumult and delusion of our life, our true nature is always there, like the sun or moon above black wind and clouds. The sun is shining; the sun is always shining. That sun is enlightenment; everything is enlightenment! He dabbled his fingers in a water bowl, Do you hear? That is enlightenment! Apparently, in 1967 while trying to climb a tree, Soen fell and sustained a severe head injury. From that point on, Soen Roshi suffered from continuous pain and occasional bouts of depression. Following his retirement as abbot of Ryutakuji, he spent increasing amounts of time in solitary retreat. Whether this inclination wa connected with the pain he suffered, with depression, or simply with ever deepening practice is unknown. He died in 1984 and his deaht poem summarizes an authentic Zen life. Mustard blossoms! There is nothing left to hurl away. Soen Nakagawak Roshis influence in the West and North America is substantive Half his ashes are interred at Ryutakuji, half in America. As a special treat a series of talks touching on the life and teachings of Soen Nakagakwa by the remarkable American Zen teacher Roshi Mitra Bishop. The ripples playing out form his life continue to wash across the West. State police have accused a Lebanon County woman of delivering nearly 500 doses of a drug to a state prison inmate in Northumberland County. Nayda Rodriquez-Vazquez, 38, of the 1200 block of Lehman Street, was arrested and arraigned over the weekend for alleged offenses involving smuggling contraband and drugs into a prison. According to state police, Rodriquez-Vazquez visited an inmate at the state prison in Coal Township on Saturday and gave him 494 strips of suboxone. Suboxone is a drug that is often used to treat opioid addiction by blocking the effects of opioid withdrawal. An opioid, suboxone can also produce a mild high and is sometimes abused and sold on the street. State police said Rodriquez-Vasquez passed the strips to Victor Davila-Melendez, an inmate, in a visitation room. A video surveillance system allowed prison staff to see the exchange, and the suboxone fell out of the inmates clothing after corrections officers approached, state police said. By the time Hap A. Seiders finished the sixth grade, hed lost interest in school and started getting into trouble. And by age 16, hed earned his first arrest and incarceration specifically a burglary conviction that landed him in a juvenile corrections facility. From there, getting into trouble became something of a routine for Seiders. Over the next few decades, he orchestrated a counterfeit coin-selling operation and reportedly paid members of a motorcycle gang to blow up a Harrisburg building as part of a fraud scheme. Then there was an accusation of bigamy and a guilty plea to assaulting his wife. Now, at age 65, Seiders is in jail again. This time, hes accused of criminal homicide in Cumberland County. There, investigators believe he assaulted, killed, dismembered and burned his wife, Rabihan, who disappeared in 2012. Investigators said they believe that Rabihan Seiders, 53, was assaulted, killed, dismembered and burned in this home at 100 Willow Mill Park Road in Silver Spring Township.Sean Sauro It was while testifying before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on elder abuse in 1981, that Seiders, a New Bloomfield native, shared information about his childhood in rural Perry County. That information included the burglaries that landed him in juvenile detention for 10 months at 16. By that age, Seiders said he had committed at least 50 burglaries, all against businesses. At the detention center, I came into contact with boys from the city, who at this young age, were already hardened criminals, Seiders said, according to a transcript of his testimony. It was his time at the detention center, Seiders said, that gave him a renewed interest in education, which led him back to high school, to graduation and eventually to a career as a computer specialist. The job, Seiders said, also gave him the knowledge needed to set up a side-business selling and dealing in rare coins. I had always been interested in rare coins, Seiders said, according to the printed testimony. Though I had little money, I had managed to buy a few coins starting when I was about 8 years old. I continued to study coins and became something of an expert. It was a legitimate business opportunity, he said, until he found out that some dealers dabble in counterfeit coins. Slowly, Seiders said he began introducing counterfeit coins into his own operation. In his testimony, he described the scheme, a mail-based auction, by which Seiders would sell fake coins to the highest bidder, receiving as much as $4,100 for coins that cost him only $100. 11 Paxton Plaza Bombing 1978 When Seiders testified before the Senate subcommittee in October 1981, he was serving a 10-year sentence at a federal prison in Morgantown, W.Va. for a fraud scheme related to the rare coins. It was only three years earlier, when Seiders was 25 years old, that he played a role in the bombing of a building he owned at 157 Paxton Street in Harrisburg a crime that landed him in federal prison, according to a Dauphin County prosecutor. About 12:45 a.m. Oct. 6, 1978, packages of dynamite were exploded inside of the building, known as Paxton Plaza. The blast blew at least one hole in the building, blew the doors off and sent shattered glass and other debris into a nearby parking lot, The Evening News reported. By 1980, two members of the Pagan motorcycle gang had pleaded guilty to the bombing, and one of them implicated Seiders, according to a UPI report. A former leader of the motorcycle gang told authorities he agreed to set the bombs only after Seiders promised him $6,000, the news organization reported. Seiders had the building insured for $330,000, according to the UPI. Cumberland County District Attorney Skip Ebert is hosting a news conference to discuss a homicide charge filed this week against Hap A. Seiders related to his wife's 2012 disappearance. In charging documents, investigators said they believe Rabihan Seiders was killed, dismembered and burned in a Silver Spring Township home. Posted by PennLive.com on Wednesday, March 6, 2019 In addition to ongoing trouble with the law, Seiders had an ongoing history of marriages and divorces. And in 2008, those two constants in his life coincided. It was in that year that a Dauphin County prosecutor charged Seiders with bigamy. According to a report from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Seiders was released from federal prison in 1983, and, that same year, he married a woman in Perry County. That wife filed for divorce in 2002 in Dauphin County, but the split wasnt finalized until 2009. The finalization date became a problem because, in 2006, Seiders married a different woman in Las Vegas. That Las Vegas marriage was annulled in Massachusetts in 2007, but the annulment didnt fend off the Dauphin County bigamy charge that came a year later. Seiders eventually was convicted of the charge, but appealed, and in 2010, the state Superior Court voided the conviction, citing a section of the Pennsylvania Crimes Code that stipulates that a second marriage has to occur within the state for a bigamy charge to be upheld. The prosecutor in that case was Fran Chardo, who is now Dauphin Countys district attorney. Last week, Chardo said he did not want to comment on Seiders ongoing legal troubles. In 2010, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette quoted Chardo calling Seiders a career criminal. This image of Rabihan Seiders was shared after her 2012 disappearance. In October 2009, Seiders married again. That time it was to Rabihan, a native of the former Soviet Union. By mid-2011, Rabihan Seiders had filed for a protection from abuse order against her husband. In the filing, she said her husband once told her he would dispose of her body in the river in many pieces, according to a 2012 Patriot News report. That same Patriot-News report cited an August 2011 incident in which Seiders punched his wife repeatedly in the head, until she required medical attention. He pleaded guilty to a charge of simple assault in the incident in December of that year. In the spring of 2012, Rabihan Seiders was reported missing by her adult daughter, Valeria Kulbova, police said. The search for the missing woman eventually was expanded to include investigators from the FBI. Kulbova spoke to investigators about her mothers fear of Hap Seiders. Her mother told her that if anything ever happens to her, that Kulbova should tell police that Hap Seiders did it, police revealed in charging documents filed last week. According to Kulbova, her mother told her that she was afraid that Hap Seiders was going to hit her so hard she would never wake up and that she was afraid Hap Seiders was going to poison her with antifreeze." On Tuesday, Cumberland County District Attorney Skip Ebert announced that Hap Seiders had been arrested and charged with criminal homicide in his wifes 2012 disappearance. Seiders also faces charges of tampering with or fabricating evidence and abuse of a corpse, online court documents show. A message left for Hap Seiders attorney, George H. Matangos, Thursday afternoon was not returned. At at Wednesday news conference, Cumberland County District Attorney Skip Ebert said Hap Seiders was arrested on charges, including criminal homicide, at a park near his Silver Spring Township home. Willow Mill Park is only a few feet away. In a criminal complaint, investigators list evidence found at the couples former home at 100 Willow Mill Park Road in Silver Spring Township, Cumberland County, that led them to suspect Rabihan Seiders was killed there. The evidence includes bone fragments found in fireplace ash and spattered blood on carpeting that matches Rabihan Seiders DNA profile. Investigators said they believe Rabihan Seiders was assaulted, killed, dismembered and burned inside of the home, which sits hidden behind other homes and trees near a bend in the roadway. Although there is no direct proof of the homicide, Ebert said he is confident about his chances to successfully prosecute Hap Seiders. At a news conference Wednesday, Ebert did not say why it took so long since the 2012 disappearance to bring charges against Hap Seiders, except to say the case was at one time tied up in a grand jury investigation prior to him taking office. Ebert, a former county judge, took over as district attorney after his predecessor, David Freed, was named U.S. attorney in fall of 2017. Last spring, Ebert said he reviewed Cumberland Countys open cases after taking office. A motive for the suspected killing also was not revealed, though Ebert said finances, specifically missing gold coins, could have played a role. Online court documents show Seiders was denied bail and remains in the custody of Cumberland County Prison. It has been two weeks since Padam Lal Rizal disappeared, and his family is asking for the publics help. Rizals daughter and son, along with members of the Bhutanese community, gathered at the Susquehanna Township Police Department on Monday to share a new missing poster with the public, and announce a reward. Anyone with information that can lead to Rizals whereabouts could receive up to $10,000. Rizal was last seen before 2 p.m. on Feb. 21. He was supposed to meet family, but never arrived. Police said Rizals silver Kia Forte was found abandoned on Interstate 83, on the overpass south bridge over the Susquehanna River, around 1 a.m. Friday Feb. 22. Rizal is described at a 49-year-old man, 5 foot 9 inches, 165 pounds, with salt and pepper short hair. Padam Rizal was last seen on Feb. 21 around 2 p.m., in Harrisburg, Pa. Anyone with information is asked to contact Susquehanna Township Police at 717-652-8265. In particular, the family asked that anyone who spoke with Rizal after 2 p.m. Thursday to come forward to police. He is very well respected and dedicated many, many years of his life serving the community, especially the Bhutanese/Nepali community in Harrisburg, Rizals daughter said. Rizal was self employed, but recently served on Gov. Tom Wolfs Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs. According to Rizals biography for the commission, he was born and raised in southern Bhutan, and his family was expelled from the country in 1990. He lived in a Nepali refugee camp before coming to the United States, and worked in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Bhutanese Refugee Project. Rizal worked on the west coast upon arriving in the states, including involvement with several Bhutanese community organizations, eventually finding himself in Harrisburg. Rizals daughter said Rizal was self employed, and according to the commissions biography of him, Rizal runs a language solutions business that provides translation, interpretation and transcription services to clients throughout North America. Anyone with information on Rizal is asked to contact the Susquehanna Police Department at 717-652-8265. President Donald Trump says hes in favor of putting an end to changing our clocks for Daylight Saving Time. Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is O.K. with me! he tweeted Monday, a day after most of America lost an hour of sleep due to springing forward an hour. Daylight Saving Time, sometimes referred to as daylight savings time," was first established during World War I to conserve fuel for war industries. The law was repealed after the war ended, but was re-established by Congress during World War II due to energy consumption. According to Fox News, Daylight Saving Time became law in 1966 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Uniform Time Act, and establishing uniform start and end times within standard time zones. The policy, regulated by the Department of Transportation, requires turning clocks forward one hour on the second Sunday in March at 2 a.m. and observing Daylight Saving Time for eight months; America then turns the clocks back one hour in the fall (fall back") to end Daylight Saving Time. CNN reports Daylight Saving Time was kept because Americans were believed to use less energy by extending summer daylight into the evening. However, a 2008 Department of Energy study found that Daylight Saving Time reduces annual energy use by just 0.03 percent, and another study by the University of California-Santa Barbara found DST might even increase energy consumption. Only two U.S. states -- Arizona and Hawaii -- do not participate in Daylight Saving Time. Florida is awaiting federal approval, and New York state Assemblyman Angelo Morinello proposed a bill two years ago that would let NY opt out too. Making Daylight Saving Time permanent, meaning no more springing forward or falling back, would require congressional approval. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) reintroduced legislation last week to make DST permanent nationwide and end the changing of clocks. Its unclear if Trump plans to encourage Congress to vote on Rubios legislation. The number of people who died by suicide in York County reached a tragic record last year. Ninety-two people, ranging in age from 12 to 93, took their own lives, nearly doubling the number of suicides recorded ten years ago, according to the York Coroners year-end report. It was the highest number of suicides ever recorded by the office, said Coroner Pam Gay. While the county is growing and an increasing population could play a role in the climbing numbers, the suicide rate in York County represented 20.6 deaths per 100,000 people, far above the national age-adjusted suicide rate of 14 per 100,000 individuals. National suicide rates have been rising since 1999. Suicides declined in Dauphin County last year, however, according to the Dauphin County Coroner Graham Hetricks year-end report. The suicide rate in Dauphin County last year was 15.9 per 100,000 residents. Coroners in York and Dauphin counties release year-end reports noting that its important to analyze how and why people are dying each year to identify trends and try to find ways to save lives. Other local coroners offices, including some that have limited resources, dont release detailed year-end reports. The increase in suicides was one interesting part of York Countys 2018 Coroners Report. Here are ten other facts revealed by the report: The York County Coroner currently operates out of an office at the county annex building. But the coroner office is soon set to move to a new location. Men in their 50s most likely to die by suicide The age group in York County with the most people to die by suicide was males, 50 to 59, with 17 deaths. That mirrors national statistics that show the highest rate of suicide in middle-age white men. It held true in Dauphin County too, where males ages 60 to 69 comprised the largest group. The next highest age category in York County for suicides was men, ages 20 to 29. Of all the people to die by suicide, more people over the age of 50 died in York County than under the age of 50. The county recorded eight suicides by people in their 70s, and six suicides by people in their 80s. Two men in their 90s also died by suicide. York County saw a small uptick in the number of children killing themselves with six people under the age of 18 dying by suicide, last year including a 12-year-old boy and two 14-year-olds. Males far outnumbered females among the people who died by suicide as females represented about 24 percent. Suicides as broken down by the report. Relationship and financial problems contribute to suicide numbers If notes are left behind after a death by suicide in York County, they typically indicate problems with finances, a relationship or a legal matter, such as a recent DUI arrest, Gay said. Medical issues, including terminal diagnoses, also are sometimes cited. The disintegration of families, difficulty obtaining mental health treatment and a lack of established coping mechanisms likely play a role in the increased suicides, according to Gay and Cindy Richard, of Suicide Prevention of York. Suicide prevention advocates have been working to try to combat any undeserved stigma with regard to mental health and to improve access to mental health services. More specifically, advocates are working with doctors to help identify patients with serious medical issues who could be at risk of suicide and advocates also are starting a new project to educate gun shop owners how to identify suicidal customers and refuse to sell to them if necessary, and to supply them with suicide prevention materials. A Gun Shop Project in New Hampshire offers a checklist to gun shop owners. Signs may include fidgeting, acting nervous, and not making eye contact. Some verbal requests also are indicators: Customers who dont want a cleaning kit or more than one box of ammunition, because they know they wont be using them, according to an article about the project on the Tonic website. The bulk of York County suicides were completed with guns (52) while hangings claimed 21 lives and drugs were used in 14 cases. Everyone can try to help to reduce suicides by listening to people who may be struggling, asking the person directly if they are considering suicide and offering assistance not advice, Richard said. Just being kind in general can help as well, Richard said, as some people who die by suicide had been beaten down by constant negativity and bullying-types of behavior. People who die by suicide dont want to die, Richard said. They just need someone to care. March was the worst month for suicides last year. Feeling suicidal requires help and people feeling suicidal should reach out. The National Suicide Prevention hotline is 1-800-273-8255. Accidental deaths were analyzed in the report. Majority of coroner cases are accidental The highest percentage of cases investigated by the York County Coroner last year (51 percent) ended up being accidental deaths. That contrasts with Dauphin County, where most cases last year (51 percent) ended up being natural deaths. Coroner Pam Gay said offices like hers with high case volumes but low staffing need to triage, and educate doctors on which cases actually require coroner intervention. She said her office has done outreach to doctors to teach them how to complete death certificates as some did not previously know how. Ideally, the coroner could review more natural deaths, just on the off-chance something untoward could be found, but Gay said her office has to figure out our number one priority, and those are cases with questions or suspicious circumstances. As it stands, her office already has to review many natural deaths if patients have primary doctors located nearby but in the state of Maryland. Doctors in Maryland cant sign death certificates in Pa., Gay said. In York County last year, 350 cases were accidental deaths, 211 cases were natural, 92 were suicide and 18 were homicide. Pam Gay was elected coroner in York County in 2013. Fatal accidents at home, work have doubled Deaths from accidents at home and at work in York County have doubled since 2008, according to the coroners report. The county reported 128 such deaths last year compared to 64 deaths ten years ago. The county is growing in population so that could account for some of the increase as well as improved reporting, Gay said. Her office has launched an educational effort for doctors to report any death where a patient suffered a fall and never returned to their prior base line. Some of those deaths were previously going unreported as natural deaths, Gay said, especially delayed deaths where the triggering event was a fall but the final cause of death could be something like pneumonia after months of being bed-ridden. The coroners office is working with the Falls Free Coalition of York County to educate the public about risk factors that can predispose senior adults to potentially deadly falls and the importance of getting treated immediately after a fall. Some senior residents are hesitant to report falls in their homes, Gay said, for fear of being placed into a care facility, but delays in reporting injuries can prove deadly, particularly with slow brain bleeds. Increased use of blood thinners among the older population also could be contributing to a higher number of deadly falls, Gay said. The prescription blood thinners are better than ever at their primary goal of reducing blood clots but one of the unintended consequences is that it is harder than ever to reverse bleeding when a patient is on such medication. Thats another reason older people who fall should seek immediate medical attention, she said. Seventy-five percent of fatal home accidents last year represented falls by people 55 and older, according to the coroners report. The York County Coroner currently operates out of an office at the county annex building. But the coroner office is soon set to move to a new location. Work-related deaths increased York County recorded an uptick of work-related deaths with 12 last year. There are no particular reasons behind the trend, Gay said, as the deaths mostly represented freak accidents. A 30-year-old man died in January after he was trapped underneath a front-end loader as he was grading an area. Two firefighters died in March after a burned building collapsed on them. Four co-workers died when their utility truck crashed into a septic tanker truck on Route 30 in Paradise Township. The driver of the utility truck cross the center line for an unknown reason. All four men were wearing their seatbelts, according to the coroner, but they died from multiple blunt force trauma. A 34-year-old man died in June when a tree fell on him while he was working to cut a tree down. A 39-year-old man died in August in York County, more than a year after suffering a spinal cord injury and quadriplegia after a tree fell on him as he worked as a day laborer in West Virginia. A 49-year-old Sprint car driver died during a September 20 race at BAPS Motor Speedway in Newberry Township, which was counted as a work-related death. Hoyt Greg Hodnett lost control of his vehicle in Turn 1, causing him to hit a wall at high speed A 63-year-old man died in November when the cargo van he was driving for the Bountiful Blessings charity was crushed in between two semi-tractor trailers on I-83. The first truck had come to a stop, and so did the charity van driver, then then another semi-tractor trailer failed to stop and hit the van, pushing it into the back of the trailer. A 58-year-old man died on Christmas Day of an acute coronary event while working at a Northeastern Area EMS station. Homicides were analyzed in the report. Homicides dropped York County recorded 18 homicides last year, down from 27 in 2017. Guns were involved in nearly every homicide last year, although one victim was fatally stabbed and another fatally beaten. While the drop in homicides was dramatic, it brought the level back to the historically-normal range of homicides for York County, which is between 15 and 20 homicides, Gay said. The county records more shootings than police would like but wounds that missed vita organs and great medical care by doctors helps to prevent most of them from turning into homicides, Gay said. The worst months for homicides last year represented a three-way tie among the months of April, May, and October. Natural deaths were analyzed in the report Heart disease biggest killer Of all the natural deaths in York County last year, heart disease claimed the most lives at 160. Thats a slight increase compared to 2017, but in line with historical trends for heart disease. The next highest category was respiratory problems with 14 deaths followed by alcoholism and cancer. One of the reasons heart disease is the top killer is because it is often responsible for sudden, otherwise unexplained deaths. People who die from degenerative diseases typically arent referred to the coroners office for an investigation. Instead, their primary doctor signs the death certificate. But Gay said the heart disease category also is the largest because it includes many cases where autopsies werent performed but that is the coroners best guess for why a person died. Autopsies are expensive and time-consuming, so they are reserved for suspicious and unexplained cases. But the death of an older person with heart disease and diabetes, for example, would likely be chalked up to heart disease without an autopsy. The York County office conducted autopsies on 250 of its 688 investigations, which is about 36 percent of the cases. The coroner did toxicology tests and/or external examinations in the other cases. The coroner determines both cause and manner of deaths. More cases pending, but fewer undetermined There were 16 cases pending at the end of last year, up from eight the year before. Its unclear why more cases were awaiting test results, but it could be because such a larger percentage of the coroners cases now concern drug overdoses. In addition to the pending cases, the coroner could not determine a manner of death in six cases last year, which was down from nine cases in 2017. The reasons why a case could be labeled undermined typically falls into three categories, Gay said. The first category is the unexplained death of an infant. If a baby dies in a pristine sleeping environment (meaning not a single risk factor such as co-sleeping with a parent or soft bedding material) then the babys death would be attributed to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, a subset of natural deaths. But if there were one of the risk factors present, then the death could remain undetermined without further information from parents that could push the death into the accidental category. The second category involves drug overdoses that cant be identified through the specific drug screens that are used. This can be the case if the person overdosed on a newly altered synthetic drug. We can only test for so many different known drugs, Gay said. We have cases (with newly formulated drugs) where we dont have the tests to test for it yet. The third category includes cases where every test and examination simply comes up empty. In some cardiac arrhythmia cases, for example, it leaves no trace or evidence behind. The arrhythmia cant be recreated. The coroner continues to examine undetermined cases as time allows and as new testing procedures are available. The cases are never simply closed without explanation, she said. This January 2018 crash claimed the life of a 77-year-old man in Franklin Township. More deaths from car crashes More people died in automobile crashes last year: 56 deaths, up from 38 in 2017. It was the highest death toll from motor vehicle crashes since 2009. It included 10 pedestrian deaths, although just five of those cases occurred inside the county limits. But 2017 was an unusually low year, an aberration in the historical number of deaths for crashes, which averaged 48 deaths per year over the prior 11 years. That means last years uptick put the county more in line with prior years. A person with substance use disorder prepares heroin, placing a fentanyl test strip into the mixing container to check for contamination, Wednesday Aug. 22, 2018, in New York. If the strip registers a "pinkish" to red marker then the heroin is positive for contaminants. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)AP Drug overdoses down, but remain problematic York County logged 158 drug overdose deaths last year, down from 170 in 2017. It was the first year that fatal overdoses had declined since 2009, and the decline was in line with several other counties across the Commonwealth, including Lancaster County, that reported declines. The number of fatal overdoses in Dauphin County, however, continued to climb last year. In York County, 92 percent of fatal overdoses were opioid-related, while 86 percent were heroin and/or fentanyl related. While the numbers declined, the sheer volume of drug deaths remains incredibly high, nearly quadruple the number recorded in 2008. Just this month, York County recorded five overdose deaths within several days. While our overall opioid deaths were slightly less last year, it is important that the public understand that there are still many who struggle with opioid addiction and continue to be at high risk, Gay wrote on the coroners Twitter account last week. If you or someone you know is an opioid user, please equip yourself with naloxone. And if you are in need of help for opioid addiction, please call 1-866-769-6822. There is help and hope. U.S Sen. Pat Toomey selected Blake Lynch, community policing coordinator for Harrisburgs Bureau of Police, to attend The United States Army War Colleges National Security Seminar. Lynch brings a unique perspective to the seminar, the Pennsylvania Republican Senator said. The four-day annual event is held in early June. It is a convergence of Army War College students and invited guests, who gather to examine current national security issues, according to the Carlisle-based military college. Guests are invited from across the country, and represent a broad range of occupations, geographic regions and age groups. I was proud to nominate Blake Lynch to the Army War Colleges NSS and congratulate him on being selected, Toomey said. Lynch said its an honor to be nominated by Toomey and to join distinguished men and women of the military to discuss the challenges of civil-military relations. I am also interested to learn more about the role domestic politics plays in national security, foreign policy, and much more, Lynch said. Student suspended, charged for making threat to Petoskey Public Schools Petoskey Public Safety received information regarding a threat made on social media on Dec. 4, and a 12-year-old student has been charged. ORLANDO - A Sunday surge to victory at Arnies place it just makes sense. For the second year running this time from Italian Francesco Molinari a stunning 8-under 64 final round has turned up a champion at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. It is like Palmer himself, who was known for his aggressive charges up the leaderboard, has a hand in it from the great beyond. Molinari started the final round five shots behind the leader, but his bogey-free Sunday shot him to 12 under and a two-shot win. It was punctuated by a stunning 43-foot, nine-inch birdie putt on the final hole the scene of so much drama over the years. The Italian now has three PGA TOUR wins in his last 12 TOUR starts and rocketed from 151st to 20th in the FedExCup and to seventh in the world rankings. I tried to be aggressive from the start and it was nice to see quite a lot of putts dropping especially for my standards, Molinari said. I think it's been the best putting round ever in my career. And it's nice to do it, obviously in those circumstances, at Arnie's place. And I don't know, there must be something going on with that line (on 18), because it seems that a lot of guys winning the tournament make that putt. A year ago it was Rory McIlroy shooting 8 under on Sunday to win. He had a chance to go back-to-back having started just one off the lead but faded to a T6 finish. Overnight leader Matt Fitzpatrick (71) finished two back. Molinari said it was certainly fitting for the event to be won in a way Arnold would likely have been satisfied with. Exempt status PGA TOUR: Top 125 in 2019-20 FedExCup standings (thru 2020-21) International Victories (3) 2014 Rolex Trophy [EurChall] Rolex Trophy [EurChall] 2015 BMW PGA Championship [Eur] BMW PGA Championship [Eur] 2015 Shinhan Donghae Open [Kor] PLAYOFF RECORD PGA TOUR (0-2) 2016 Lost to Jamie Lovemark, Brian Stuard, Zurich Classic of New Orleans Lost to Jamie Lovemark, Brian Stuard, Zurich Classic of New Orleans 2018 Lost to Bryson DeChambeau, Kyle Stanley, the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide National Teams 2019 Presidents Cup 2016 Olympic Games 2016, 2018 World Cup Personal English name is Ben. Parents are Jae Hyung Ahn and Zhimin Jiao, who represented South Korea and China, respectively in table tennis, with both parents earning medals. Moved to the U.S. in 2005 to attend the David Leadbetter Golf Academy in Florida. Special Interests Soccer, Computer Games, Manchester United Career Highlights 2020 Season Qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs for the fourth consecutive season, advancing to the BMW Championship for the third time and finishing the season No. 33 in the FedExCup standings, the first top-40 final standing of his career. Recorded five top-10s, collecting more than four for the first time in his career, and made the cut in 15 of 22 starts. Competed for the International Team at the Presidents Cup, making his debut at the event. The Honda Classic: Finished T4 at The Honda Classic despite opening with a 76 that placed him T132 after 18 holes. Was the only player in the field to finish with three consecutive scores in the 60s. Finished T4 at The Honda Classic despite opening with a 76 that placed him T132 after 18 holes. Was the only player in the field to finish with three consecutive scores in the 60s. THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES: Finished T6 at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES, the best result of any of the 16 Korean players in the field. Held the first-round lead after an opening 64, the second 18-hole lead/co-lead of his career (fell to 0-for-2). Finished T6 at THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES, the best result of any of the 16 Korean players in the field. Held the first-round lead after an opening 64, the second 18-hole lead/co-lead of his career (fell to 0-for-2). Sanderson Farms Championship: Earned the seventh top-five of his career at the Sanderson Farms Championship, finishing alone in third place at 17-under 271. Opened with back-to-back 66s to hold a two-shot second-round lead, the third 36-hole lead/co-lead of his career (fell to 0-for-3). Played the par-4s in 14-under, the best mark in the field. 2019 Season Qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs for the third time in as many seasons on TOUR and advanced to the BMW Championship for the second straight season, finishing No. 53 in the FedExCup standings. Earned three top-10s and made the cut in 19 of 22 starts, highlighted by a third-place result at the Wyndham Championship. Wyndham Championship: After holding at least a share of the lead each of the first three rounds of the Wyndham Championship (including a one-stroke lead entering the final round), closed with a 3-under 67 to finish solo-third and two strokes behind J.T. Poston. After no bogeys on his first 68 holes, had two down the stretch (Nos. 15 and 18). Fell to 0/3 when carrying the lead/co-lead into the final round on TOUR (2017 Waste Management Phoenix Open/6th, 2018 RBC Canadian Open/T2, 2019 Wyndham Championship/3). After holding at least a share of the lead each of the first three rounds of the Wyndham Championship (including a one-stroke lead entering the final round), closed with a 3-under 67 to finish solo-third and two strokes behind J.T. Poston. After no bogeys on his first 68 holes, had two down the stretch (Nos. 15 and 18). Fell to 0/3 when carrying the lead/co-lead into the final round on TOUR (2017 Waste Management Phoenix Open/6th, 2018 RBC Canadian Open/T2, 2019 Wyndham Championship/3). Valero Texas Open: Recorded a bogey-free 66 in the final round of the Valero Texas Open to finish T7, his first top-10 at the event in his second start. Recorded a bogey-free 66 in the final round of the Valero Texas Open to finish T7, his first top-10 at the event in his second start. Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard: After opening with matching even-par 72s, closed 69-68 to finish T10 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, five strokes behind champion Francesco Molinari. Marked his first top-10 finish since a runner-up showing at the 2018 RBC Canadian Open. 2018 Season Advanced to the FedExCup Playoffs for the second time, ending his season at No. 42 in the FedExCup. Season included 19 made cuts in 24 starts, led by a playoff loss to Bryson DeChambeau at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. Ended the season following Playoffs starts at THE NORTHERN TRUST (T40), Dell Technologies Championship (T31) and BMW Championship (T29). RBC Canadian Open: In his first start at the RBC Canadian Open, tied for second place to earn his second runner-up of the season (T2/RBC Canadian Open, P2/the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide). Entered the final round in a four-way tie for first place, the second 54-hole lead/co-lead of his career (solo/2017 Waste Management Phoenix Open; finished sixth). Moved into the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking (40th) to qualify for the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational the following week. In his first start at the RBC Canadian Open, tied for second place to earn his second runner-up of the season (T2/RBC Canadian Open, P2/the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide). Entered the final round in a four-way tie for first place, the second 54-hole lead/co-lead of his career (solo/2017 Waste Management Phoenix Open; finished sixth). Moved into the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking (40th) to qualify for the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational the following week. the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide: Tied for second at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, falling in playoff to Bryson DeChambeau on the second extra hole. Entering the final round two shots off the lead, shot a 3-under 69 to play his way into a three-way playoff at 15-under with DeChambeau and Kyle Stanley. Was the lone player in the field to post four sub-70 rounds (68-67-69-69). The P2 matched his previous-best result on TOUR (P2/2016 Zurich Classic of New Orleans). Tied for second at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, falling in playoff to Bryson DeChambeau on the second extra hole. Entering the final round two shots off the lead, shot a 3-under 69 to play his way into a three-way playoff at 15-under with DeChambeau and Kyle Stanley. Was the lone player in the field to post four sub-70 rounds (68-67-69-69). The P2 matched his previous-best result on TOUR (P2/2016 Zurich Classic of New Orleans). RBC Heritage: Posted a 2-under 69 in the final round of the RBC Heritage to finish T7 with six other players at 9-under 275. His round was highlighted by an eagle-3 on the par-5 fifth hole, where he stuck his second shot to six feet and made the putt for eagle. In his only other appearance at the RBC Heritage, finished T59 at 1-over 285 in 2010. Posted a 2-under 69 in the final round of the RBC Heritage to finish T7 with six other players at 9-under 275. His round was highlighted by an eagle-3 on the par-5 fifth hole, where he stuck his second shot to six feet and made the putt for eagle. In his only other appearance at the RBC Heritage, finished T59 at 1-over 285 in 2010. The Honda Classic: Following rounds of 70-72-69-65276 (-4) at The Honda Classic, claimed a share of fifth place with Webb Simpson. His 5-under 65 in Sunday's final round at PGA National, highlighted by birdies on two of his last three holes, tied Derek Fathauer for the day's lowest score. 2017 Season Collected four top-25 finishes in 21 starts through the Wyndham Championship, highlighted by a top-five showing in Texas. Advanced to the FedExCup Playoffs for the first time, but was eliminated after missing the cut at THE NORTHERN TRUST. Ended his season just outside the top 100 in the FedExCup standings, coming in at No. 102. AT&T Byron Nelson: With four rounds in the 60s, finished T5 in his first-ever start at the AT&T Byron Nelson, four strokes out of the Billy Horschel-Jason Day playoff. Represented a career-high third top-10 finish of the season. Also marked the first time in his career he recorded back-to-back top-10s in consecutive starts, having come into the week off a T8 finish at the Wells Fargo Championship. With four rounds in the 60s, finished T5 in his first-ever start at the AT&T Byron Nelson, four strokes out of the Billy Horschel-Jason Day playoff. Represented a career-high third top-10 finish of the season. Also marked the first time in his career he recorded back-to-back top-10s in consecutive starts, having come into the week off a T8 finish at the Wells Fargo Championship. Wells Fargo Championship: Following a missed cut in 2016, finished T8 in his second appearance at the Wells Fargo Championship. Posted rounds of 72-70-69-71 at Eagle Point. Following a missed cut in 2016, finished T8 in his second appearance at the Wells Fargo Championship. Posted rounds of 72-70-69-71 at Eagle Point. Waste Management Phoenix Open: Continued his stellar record of play at desert golf courses at the Waste Management Phoenix Open by shooting a bogey-free, 5-under 66 in round one at TPC Scottsdale. Earned a share of the 36-hole lead with another 66 in round two, then took the solo lead headed to Sunday with a flawless 6-under 65 in round three. Held a three-shot lead on Sunday after birdie at the ninth hole, but struggled to a 4-over 40 on the back nine to settle for a sixth-place finish. 2016 Season Claimed five top-25 finishes in 14 starts on the PGA TOUR, of which two were top-10 showings, to earn 2016-17 TOUR card through the Non-member Money List. With the 245 Non-member FedExCup points earned for the finish in New Orleans, took up Special Temporary Membership. As such, became eligible for unlimited sponsor exemptions for the remainder of the 2015-16 Season in his bid to earn his 2016-17 PGA TOUR card through the Non-member Money List or Non-member FedExCup Points List through the Wyndham Championship. Olympic Men's Golf Competition: Represented South Korea when golf returned to the Olympics for the first time since 1904 in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Finished T11 in the 60-man field. Represented South Korea when golf returned to the Olympics for the first time since 1904 in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Finished T11 in the 60-man field. Zurich Classic of New Orleans: Came close to capturing his first PGA TOUR win in his 20th career start on TOUR at the rain-shortened Zurich Classic of New Orleans with a bogey-free 7-under 65 in the third (final) round to finish 15-under, a score matched by Jamie Lovemark and Brian Stuard. Bogeyed the first playoff hole to be eliminated before Stuard went on to defeat Lovemark at the second extra hole. Came close to capturing his first PGA TOUR win in his 20th career start on TOUR at the rain-shortened Zurich Classic of New Orleans with a bogey-free 7-under 65 in the third (final) round to finish 15-under, a score matched by Jamie Lovemark and Brian Stuard. Bogeyed the first playoff hole to be eliminated before Stuard went on to defeat Lovemark at the second extra hole. World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play: As the No. 27 seed, began group play at the World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play halving his match with Scott Piercy in round one, defeating Jason Dufner, 2-up, in round two, then halving with Rickie Fowler in round three. Tied with Piercy with 2 points each at the conclusion of group play, won a sudden-death playoff with a birdie at the first extra hole to advance to the round of 16 where he lost to eventual consolation match winner Rafa Cabrera Bello, conceding the match at the 12th hole after suffering a neck injury for a T9 result. 2015 Season DP World Tour Championship: Closed the season with a T4 at the DP World Tour Championship to finish seventh in the Race to Dubai, the third highest showing by a rookie. Closed the season with a T4 at the DP World Tour Championship to finish seventh in the Race to Dubai, the third highest showing by a rookie. BMW Masters: Had a strong tournament in mid-November at the BMW Masters in Shanghai, China, but still walked away disappointed when his 16-under total of 272 was one short of the Kristoffer Broberg-Patrick Reed playoff that Broberg won. Entered the final round trailing 54-hole leader Thongchai Jaidee by a shot after opening 65-71-66 at Lake Malaren GC. Recorded a Sunday 70 to T3 with Lucas Bjerregaard, Jaidee and Henrik Stenson. Had a strong tournament in mid-November at the BMW Masters in Shanghai, China, but still walked away disappointed when his 16-under total of 272 was one short of the Kristoffer Broberg-Patrick Reed playoff that Broberg won. Entered the final round trailing 54-hole leader Thongchai Jaidee by a shot after opening 65-71-66 at Lake Malaren GC. Recorded a Sunday 70 to T3 with Lucas Bjerregaard, Jaidee and Henrik Stenson. Turkish Airlines Open: Contended all week at the Turkish Airlines Open in late-October, early November. Began the final round tied for fifth, three shots behind leaders Victor Dubuisson and Jaco Van Zyl at The Montgomerie Maxx Royal in Antalya. Made a move early, recording four birdies over his first seven holes Sunday. An up-and-down, four-hole stretch ended his chances. Double-bogeyed the ninth hole, birdied No. 10 and eagled No. 11 before making bogey at No. 12. Birdies on two of his last three holes gave him a wild 66, leaving him in fourth, three shots behind Dubuisson. Contended all week at the Turkish Airlines Open in late-October, early November. Began the final round tied for fifth, three shots behind leaders Victor Dubuisson and Jaco Van Zyl at The Montgomerie Maxx Royal in Antalya. Made a move early, recording four birdies over his first seven holes Sunday. An up-and-down, four-hole stretch ended his chances. Double-bogeyed the ninth hole, birdied No. 10 and eagled No. 11 before making bogey at No. 12. Birdies on two of his last three holes gave him a wild 66, leaving him in fourth, three shots behind Dubuisson. BMW Championship: Won his first European Tour title in style, capturing the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club in late-May by six strokes over the duo of Thongchai Jaidee and Miguel Angel Jimenez. Opened with a 1-under 71 then made his move in the second round, shooting a tournament-best 64 to move into solo second, a stroke behind 36-hole leader Francesco Molinari. Caught Molinari in the third round with a 5-under 67, then coasted Sunday with a final-round-best 65. The victory moved him from No. 132 to a then career-high 54th in the Official World Golf Ranking. Won his first European Tour title in style, capturing the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club in late-May by six strokes over the duo of Thongchai Jaidee and Miguel Angel Jimenez. Opened with a 1-under 71 then made his move in the second round, shooting a tournament-best 64 to move into solo second, a stroke behind 36-hole leader Francesco Molinari. Caught Molinari in the third round with a 5-under 67, then coasted Sunday with a final-round-best 65. The victory moved him from No. 132 to a then career-high 54th in the Official World Golf Ranking. Volvo China Open: Added his third top-10 of the season when he recovered from a third-round 76 at the Volvo China Open to post a final-round 68 to T8 at Tomson Shanghai Pudong GC, five shots behind winner Ashun Wu. Added his third top-10 of the season when he recovered from a third-round 76 at the Volvo China Open to post a final-round 68 to T8 at Tomson Shanghai Pudong GC, five shots behind winner Ashun Wu. Joburg Open: Was in the top 10, with a T7 in Africa at the Joburg Open. Opened with a 65 and closed with a 67 to finish at 14-under. Was in the top 10, with a T7 in Africa at the Joburg Open. Opened with a 65 and closed with a 67 to finish at 14-under. Commercial Bank Qatar Masters: Earned his first top-10 of the European Tour season when he shot a final-round 65 to T5 at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters. Earned his first top-10 of the European Tour season when he shot a final-round 65 to T5 at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters. European Tour's Rookie of the Year: Was named the European Tour's Rookie of the Year to become the first Korean winner of the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Award. 2014 Season Finished his Challenge Tour season with three top-fives in four starts. Dubai Festival City Challenge Tour Grand Final hosted by Al Badia GC: Was fourth at the Dubai Festival City Challenge Tour Grand Final. Was fourth at the Dubai Festival City Challenge Tour Grand Final. National Bank of Oman Golf Classic: T5 at the National Bank of Oman Golf Classic. T5 at the National Bank of Oman Golf Classic. Kazakhstan Open: Was third at the Kazakhstan Open. Was third at the Kazakhstan Open. Rolex Trophy: Broke through for his first victory as a professional when he won the Rolex Trophy on the European Challenge Tour in August. Entered the final round in Geneva, Switzerland, tied for fifth, trailing Lasse Jensen by seven shots. Posted a sterling, 8-under 64 to pull away from the field and defeat Benjamin Hebert by three shots. Broke through for his first victory as a professional when he won the Rolex Trophy on the European Challenge Tour in August. Entered the final round in Geneva, Switzerland, tied for fifth, trailing Lasse Jensen by seven shots. Posted a sterling, 8-under 64 to pull away from the field and defeat Benjamin Hebert by three shots. Vacon Open: Finished T4 at the Vacon Open in Finland, five strokes short of winner Mark Tullo. Finished T4 at the Vacon Open in Finland, five strokes short of winner Mark Tullo. Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge: Was again in the hunt, this time at the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge in France in July. Four under-par rounds, including a 66-67 weekend at Golf PGA France du Vaudreuil left him T2 with Connor Arendell, Jens Fahrbring and amateur Clement Sordent, four shots behind winner Andrew Johnston of England. Was again in the hunt, this time at the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge in France in July. Four under-par rounds, including a 66-67 weekend at Golf PGA France du Vaudreuil left him T2 with Connor Arendell, Jens Fahrbring and amateur Clement Sordent, four shots behind winner Andrew Johnston of England. The Open Championship: Made the cut in his first major championship, finishing T26 at The Open Championship in July. Made the cut in his first major championship, finishing T26 at The Open Championship in July. Karnten Golf Open presented by Mazda: Came close to breaking through into the victory column in May when he was runner-up at the Karnten Golf Open in Godersdorf, Austria. Shot four rounds in the 60s at Golfclub Schloss Finkenstein (67-69-64-66) only to come up a stroke short of winner Moritz Lampert of Germany. Came close to breaking through into the victory column in May when he was runner-up at the Karnten Golf Open in Godersdorf, Austria. Shot four rounds in the 60s at Golfclub Schloss Finkenstein (67-69-64-66) only to come up a stroke short of winner Moritz Lampert of Germany. Challenge de Catalunya: First top-10 of the campaign came at the Challenge de Catalunya in Spain. Finished T8 at the weather-shortened, 54-hole event. 2013 Season Had a consistent season, making 17 cuts in 21 starts. Three top-10s including top-10 at the National Bank of Oman Golf Classic and a T6 in late-October at Almouj Golf's The Wave Course. Scottish Hydro Challenge: Initial top-10 came at the Scottish Hydro Challenge that almost resulted in a victory. Entered the final round at the event at Macdonald Spey Valley GC tied with Steven Tiley, a stroke ahead of Brooks Koepka and Andrea Pavan. Could only muster a Sunday, 1-over 72 to T2 with Pavan, Tiley and Sam Walker, three behind winner Koepka. Initial top-10 came at the Scottish Hydro Challenge that almost resulted in a victory. Entered the final round at the event at Macdonald Spey Valley GC tied with Steven Tiley, a stroke ahead of Brooks Koepka and Andrea Pavan. Could only muster a Sunday, 1-over 72 to T2 with Pavan, Tiley and Sam Walker, three behind winner Koepka. Volvo China Open: T33 in his lone European Tour start, at the Volvo China Open. 2012 Season Spent his first full season as a professional on the European Challenge Tour, with three European Tour starts also to his credit. Enjoyed two top-10s. Norwegian Challenge: The first top-10 of the season came at the Norwegian Challenge, a T9, after four sub-70 rounds. The first top-10 of the season came at the Norwegian Challenge, a T9, after four sub-70 rounds. ALLIANZ Challenge de France: Closed his season with a T8 at the Allianz Open de Lyon in Monthieux, France. 2011 Season Defended his U.S. Amateur title in 2011, making it to the semifinals before falling to David Chung, 1-down, in the semifinals. 2010 Season In 2010, made eight PGA TOUR starts, including an invitation to the U.S. Open. Missed the cut at Pebble Beach GL. Verizon Heritage: Lone made-cut in 2010 was at the Verizon Heritage on Hilton Head Island a week after the Masters. Finished T59 after opening 69-70. Lone made-cut in 2010 was at the Verizon Heritage on Hilton Head Island a week after the Masters. Finished T59 after opening 69-70. Masters Tournament: In his first major championship appearance, played in the 2010 Masters as an amateur. Amateur Highlights The Limerick Generating Station and other Pennsylvania nuclear power plants could qualify for alternative-energy credits, paid by ratepayers, under legislation introduced Monday. Read more After two years of preparation and months of speculation, supporters of Pennsylvanias nuclear industry on Monday unveiled a proposed $500 million rescue package that they say would cost each state household about $1.77 a month in higher electric rates. The bill, introduced by Rep. Tom Mehaffie (R., Dauphin), which would require utilities and other retail sellers of electricity to buy half their power from zero-emission nuclear power plants, immediately triggered a fierce debate over how much government should tinker with competitive energy markets. With its introduction, Pennsylvania becomes the fifth state to take up a proposal to support nuclear power plants, which have struggled to compete in energy markets where low-cost natural gas has driven down the price of electricity. A coalition of environmental groups denounced the bill and urged the state to focus on supporting renewable energy rather than nuclear power. Natural gas producers, whose market share would be constrained under the bill, called for competitive markets to prevail. Gov. Tom Wolf was noncommittal, saying through a spokesperson that he empathized with nuclear-industry workers whose jobs are threatened, and recognized the important" contribution nuclear power makes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. At the same time, any solution to ensure the sustainability of nuclear facilities should have a fair cost-benefit ratio for consumers and be based on full transparency from operators seeking assistance, the governor said in a statement. Mehaffie pegged the bills costs at the lower end of the range that analysts were expecting some estimated up to $900 million, or more than $5 a month for residential customers. Mehaffies district is next to Three Mile Island Unit 1, whose owner, Exelon Generation, has threatened to shut down the plant in September if there is no financial aid. First Energy Corp., which owns the twin-unit Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station in western Pennsylvania, has announced the plants closure in 2021 if it cannot obtain a subsidy. Cost of doing nothing While much discussion will occur in the coming months about costs, the cost of doing nothing is $4.6 billion, including $788 million annually in higher electricity costs to consumers, whereas the cost of this bill is approximately $500 million thats an 8-to-1 benefit-to-cost ratio, Mehaffie said in a statement. He unveiled the bill Monday at an Ironworkers union hall in Harrisburg, along with labor and business leaders. The bill, called the Keep Powering Pennsylvania Act, would amend the states 2004 Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act (AEPS), which mandates that 18 percent of power sold in the state be derived from alternative energy sources by 2021. The bill would add a category of zero-emission power reserved largely for nuclear producers that would supply 50 percent of the states electricity demand. Advocates say the rescue plan would save high-paying nuclear jobs, preserve a diverse mix of electricity sources, and prevent an increase in emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants from natural-gas plants that would step in to replace retiring nuclear plants. Opponents, including the natural gas industry, large industrial customers, and consumer groups such as AARP have derided the bill as a bailout that will increase costs, distort competitive energy markets, and fail to improve the reliability of the electric grid. They say the subsidy would enrich most of the owners of the states five nuclear plants, led by Exelon Generation, which operates three of the plants TMI Unit 1 in Dauphin County, Limerick Generating Station in Montgomery County, and Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in York County. Critics maintain that most of the states plants are profitable without a subsidy. Nuclear Caucus Sen. Ryan Aument (R., Lancaster) is expected to introduce a similar version of the nuclear bill this week. Aument and Mehaffie are among the leaders of a bipartisan group of legislators that formed the Nuclear Caucus two years ago to lay the political groundwork for a nuclear rescue. The bills authors say that by amending an existing law, they hope to limit the grounds of an expected legal challenge. The bill differs from nuclear rescues approved in Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut, which created a zero-emission credit specifically targeting nuclear energy. Federal courts have upheld the laws in Illinois and New York, and opponents have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn them. The New Jersey zero-emission credit, approved last year but not implemented, could provide the states three reactors with up to $300 million in subsidies, though under the law the plants operator, PSEG Nuclear, must prove that the plants are financially stressed. The New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel, the states consumer advocate, has challenged the process, saying PSEG has failed to meet its burden to show the plants need subsidies. In Pennsylvania, the current AEPS rewards two tiers of power producers. The first tier reserves 8 percent of the market for emerging renewable producers, including wind, low-impact hydro, geothermal, and biogas, and includes a 0.5 percent market share for solar photovoltaic producers. A second tier sets aside 10 percent of the market for alternative power producers, including large-scale hydro, waste-coal generators, and power plants that burn solid waste. Mehaffies bill would create a Tier III credit that would reward zero-emission power producers that are connected to the grid (individual solar and wind producers need not apply). The producers would need to demonstrate that Pennsylvanias environment would be negatively impacted if the power plant shut down or failed to come into service. Though out-of-state nuclear plants or even wind and solar producers could qualify for the credits, the Public Utility Commission would rank applicants, which would presumably favor Pennsylvania producers. Under the proposal, a qualifying power plant could not receive subsidies in other states. Solar and wind producers could qualify for either Tier III or Tier I credits, but not both. New vs. old The bills advocates say it would put nuclear energy on equal footing with other forms of zero-carbon power sources. But a coalition of environmental groups said the state should move on from nuclear power. This legislation does nothing to advance the deployment of renewable energy in Pennsylvania and further locks us into increasingly expensive nuclear power from old and outdated equipment, said the green advocates, including the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Clean Air Council, PennFuture, PennEnvironment, Keystone Progress, Clean Water Action, Physicians for Social Responsibility Philadelphia/Pennsylvania, Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia Solar Energy Association. Citizens Against Nuclear Bailouts, an opposition coalition that includes the powerful natural gas industry, denounced the bill as an anti-consumer measure. The Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard was intended to advance the development of new and innovative technology, not to bail out old technology developed in the 1960s that is leaving a generational legacy of nuclear waste, the organization said Monday in a statement. Furthermore, nuclear power relies largely on imported uranium from foreign interests, including Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson (left) and Jeanine Pirro issued statements Sunday night after their own comments led to widespread criticism. Read more Two of Fox News most prominent opinion hosts Jeanine Pirro and Tucker Carlson began the week under fire for comments they made that drew intense criticism over the weekend. Pirro an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump who has become a fund-raiser in Pennsylvania and elsewhere for Republicans questioned whether a hijab worn by Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar signaled her support of Sharia law. Think about it: Omar wears a hijab, Pirro said on her Fox News show Justice Saturday night. Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution? Pirros comments were widely condemned. Hufsa Kamal, a Fox News producer who works on Special Report with Bret Baier, was among the loudest critics of Pirros comments, asking her colleague to stop spreading this false narrative that somehow Muslims hate America. You have Muslims working at the same network you do, including myself, Kamal wrote on Twitter. In a statement issued Sunday evening, Fox News said it condemned Pirros comments and had addressed the matter with her directly. But Pirro remained unapologetic. Ive seen a lot of comments about my opening statement from Saturday nights show and I did not call Rep. Omar un-American. My intention was to ask a question and start a debate, but of course because one is Muslim does not mean you dont support the Constitution, Pirro said in her own statement. I invite Rep. Omar to come on my show any time to discuss all of the important issues facing America today. Omar thanked Fox News for condemning Pirros comments. She also said its wrong to question an individuals commitment to the Constitution because of their faith or country of birth. Pirro wasnt the only Fox News host under fire Sunday. Earlier in the day, the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters unearthed old audio clips of Carlson calling into the syndicated radio show of Bubba the Love Sponge, a shock jock best known for filming the notorious Hulk Hogan sex tape. The audio files from 2006 to 2010 feature Carlson making vulgar comments about women, offering a defense of statutory rape, and playing down the seriousness of illegally arranged marriages between men and underage girls. I mean, I love women, but theyre extremely primitive, theyre basic, theyre not that hard to understand, Carlson said in one October 2007 clip. And one of the things they hate more than anything is weakness in a man Carlson who has shed advertisers after saying certain immigrants made America poorer and dirtier issued a statement Sunday night, downplaying the seriousness of his comments and, like Pirro, did not apologize. Media Matters caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago, Carlson said in a statement. Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: Im on television every weeknight live for an hour. If you want to know what I think, you can watch. Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why. Fox News did not comment on Carlsons old statements. Carlsons view of the c-word which he used in one of the audio clips to describe Martha Stewarts daughter Alexis in 2006 was different last year, when he was highly critical of Samantha Bee, who used the same term on her TBS show Full Frontal last year to describe Ivanka Trump. That one word that [Bee] used. I dont know any man who uses that word because it is kind of the one word that is actually degrading, Carlson said at the time. The controversy over Pirro and Carlson comes after the Democratic National Committee decided to exclude Fox News from hosting any primary debates after a report in The New Yorker alleged an inappropriate relationship between Trump and Fox News. Recent reporting in The New Yorker on the inappropriate relationship between President Trump, his administration, and Fox News has led me to conclude that the network is not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate for our candidates," DNC chairman Tom Perez said in a statement last week. The Bold Women & Beer Festival will feature beers from more than 40 breweries, as well as food trucks and live music. Read more This spring, Philly beer lovers will celebrate women in the beer industry with the Bold Women & Beer Festival, billed as Philadelphias first ever female-focused beer festival. Set to take place May 4 at Love City Brewing (1023 Hamilton St.), the Bold Women & Beer Festival will feature beers from more than 40 breweries, as well as food trucks and live music. The event is from 1 to 4 p.m.; tickets are $45, and are available now. Proceeds from the event will go to a scholarship fund run by the Philadelphia regions chapter of the Pink Boots Society, an international organization that works to benefit women in the brewing industry. Founded in 2007 by brewer Teri Fahrendorf, the group has some 1,900 members in chapters around the world, including the Philly faction, which is headed up by Devils Den owner Erin Wallace and St. Benjamins Shawn Dulee. As part of the festival, Love City partnered with the Pink Boots Society to brew a collaborative beer in honor of International Womens Day. Dubbed Smash It Up Saison, the beer is a 6.5-percent ABV American Farmhouse Ale that is currently being brewed at Love Citys Philly headquarters, according to a release. The beer will debut at the Bold Women & Beer Festival on May 4. In addition to Smash It Up Saison, 10 other satellite brews, as a release calls them, are in the works at breweries in the Greater Philadelphia area, such as Cape May Brewing in New Jersey and Harrisburgs Evergrain. Collectively, a release notes, the beers will showcase a range of brewing styles and skills, and run the gamut from IPAs and saisons to cream ales and sours. The Philadelphia area, of course, is home to several notable women in the craft beer industry, including early pioneers such as Carol Stoudt, who started Stoudts Brewing Company in 1987 and served as the first female brewmaster since Prohibition, and Rosemarie Certo, who opened Dock Street Brewery, Phillys first microbrewery, in 1985. Historically, women were the earliest brewmasters, going back 7,000 years to ancient Mesopotamia and Sumeria, when, U.K. drinks author Jane Peyton says, women were the only ones allowed to brew [beer] or run any taverns. The festival comes amid calls for increased diversity in craft beer, particularly as sales growth begins to plateau for the industry after years of double-digit growth, the New York Times reported in January. According to 2018 Nielsen-Harris data presented by the Brewers Association, craft beer drinkers nationally are about 68.5 percent male, and 31.5 percent female. Scarborough data from 2017, meanwhile, found that in the Philadelphia area specifically, that breakdown changes to 74 percent male and 26 percent female. The U.S. population, according to 2018 US Census estimates, is about 50.8 percent female. If you are going to grow, Brewers Association diversity ambassador Dr. J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham told the Times earlier this year, you cannot simply sell beer to young white dudes with beards. Wander Inn, 2500 S. Third St.; 4-7 p.m. Monday-Friday Jonn Klein (the Dive, Watkins Drinkery) revived a classic name in Philly taproom lore last summer when he set up this bar at Third and Porter Streets in South Philadelphia. The Wander Inn, once a regular venue of blues legend Bessie Smith, stood for decades across town at 18th and Federal Streets in Point Breeze. It sank into nuisance-bar status by the time of its closing around 2005 and is now the home of American Sardine Bar. This Wander Inn rocks the classic corner bar vibe with killer rock jukebox, blue-casted lighting, galvanized metal cladding the wall behind the bar, and a drink tower made up of pipes and plumbing fittings. Pool table and games are on the second floor. Drink list includes three cocktails on draft (discounted to $5 during happy hour), plus a good supply of whiskeys. Happy hour also means half-price drafts and $5 wines by the glass. Chef Brandon Murray, whose kitchen is open till 1 a.m. daily, puts up various specials both inside and outside the happy hours, including $1 wings on Sunday nights (six-wing minimum) and loaded fry boats ($7) on Friday. New Jersey native JP Teti last year decided to give London a taste of Philadelphia with Passyunk Avenue, a cheesesteak shop across the pond serving up some Philly favorites. But Guardian restaurant critic Jay Rayner wasnt particularly impressed in a recent review. The restaurant, Rayner writes, is a cheese whiz-smeared, blitzed bacon-pelted act of devotion to Tetis old Philadelphia-area stomping grounds one that plays muted reruns of Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia while alternately blaring Lynyrd Skynyrds Sweet Home Alabama and the Steve Miller Bands The Joker over its soundsystem. But is the steak good? Oh God yes, Rayner writes, adding that Passyunk Avenues steak features what a server called a kind of cheddar fondue serving as Cheez Whiz paired with beef that has been sliced and sliced again. The result, he says, is a mess of cheesy oniony beef (or beefy oniony cheese) that will stay with you, possibly for days. One small caveat, though: Rayner admits he has never had a cheesesteak in Philadelphia, though he has had versions of the sandwich in Los Angeles and New York which, to us, may mean that he has technically never had a cheesesteak at all. As Rayner noted, however, authenticity has never trouble me as much as whether something tastes nice, which Passyunk Avenues steaks apparently do. Rayner also lauded the restaurant for its buffalo wings, which had the perfect lip-tingling smack of heat and salt and sour, as well as its tater tots, though he admitted diners may want to have access to a defibrillator after the latter dish. Its iceberg wedge salad, meanwhile, was cracking, and seemed to come live and direct from 1976, which Rayner found refreshing. Passyunk Avenues roast pork sandwich, however, left much to be desired for Rayner, who noted that the porchetta used in the dish was more like limp, depressed, grey slices of meat than the sumptuous pork Philadelphians know and love. The restaurants cannolis, meanwhile, looked like giant stubbed out cigarettes, Rayner wrote. As a result, he says, Passyunk Avenue is a one dish kind of place, and that dish is the cheesesteak. Least impressive for Rayner were the restaurants newly establish brick-and-mortar digs, which are a step up from its humble beginnings as a food truck known as Liberty Cheesesteak Company. Though, in the Guardian critics perception, Passyunk Avenue hasnt upped its game in that arena much. While it now has walls and windows, in truth thats what it still feels like, Rayner wrote. The critic also noted that seating, which he called benches that are not much evolved from planks, is not exactly comfortable. As Teti, a London resident of about a decade, told the Inquirer last January, that last bit a criticism was expected. The goal, he said, was to create a one-off dive bar vibe, which is a concept thats not really understood in Europe. The cheesesteak, he added, was also something of a shock to locals. We had this initial shock from the locals who have had to sort of re-understand what a sandwich is, and then I think comes a deeper appreciation for what were doing in general, he said. Rayner, at least, picked up on that last part, noting in his review of Passyunk Avenue that the restaurants creators wanted a bit of Philadelphia in London, and created it for themselves after being unable to find a suitable surrogate. In truth, Rayners review of Passyunk Avenue isnt exactly bad at least not by his standards. Take, for example, his newly published review of Londons Farm Girl Cafe, in which he wrote that the food was so bad, a nearby Yorkshire terrier started to look more appetising. Or perhaps his April 2017 review of Le Cinq, a Paris-based restaurant that supplied by far the worst restaurant experience the critic had ever had, which he also admitted was an achievement of sorts. Rayner, in fact, has published so many blistering restaurant reviews across his decades-long career that last year, he published a book of them. Dubbed Wasted Calories and Ruined Nights: A Journey Deeper into Dining Hell, the book contains about 20 of the critics most brutal restaurant reviews. Though, as Rayner noted in post online last year, he doesnt exactly enjoy writing bleak reviews, and only about a fifth of his annual published work is negative. In that sense, Passyunk Avenue maybe got off light. Passyunk Avenue seemed pretty happy with the review on social media. Thanks to Jay for understanding that our concept is not only about the food, Passyunk Avenue wrote via a tweet, but also our devotion to representing our city and its culture. Speaking of that culture: Jay if you ever want to try a real, authentic steak, give us a ring. After all, we sort of are experts in that kind of stuff. A visiting imam accused of making anti-Semitic statements at a North Philadelphia mosque has said the slurs attributed to him are completely false, prompting the Anti-Defamation League on Monday to label him shamefully unrepentant and his denial brazen." Imam Abdelmohsen Abouhatab was recorded delivering sermons in Arabic during a series of guest speeches at the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society. The excerpts were taken out of context to accuse me of anti-Semitism, he said in a statement released Saturday. Islam, he said, calls me to living peacefully alongside others who share different faiths, and to never transgress against the rights of others, while always speaking the words of truth when need be and under the shade of the law. Abouhatab delivered at least three sermons at Al-Aqsa over several months starting last November, when he was recorded calling Jews the vilest people and, in a discussion of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon, referred to former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin as a Polish crook who would take bets about the gender of a pregnant womans baby and then slit open the womans stomach. The statements, contained in a five-minute compilation video, were released last week by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which monitors and translates Arabic and Muslim media. The Inquirer confirmed the accuracy of the translation with several area professors who are fluent in Arabic. The professors also viewed one hour-long sermon from which several of the excerpts were taken. The imam, who speaks limited English and is known for his skill in reciting the Quran, has spoken at several area mosques but is not employed by any one, said Calvin Shuja Moore, director of Masjid Al-Jamia in West Philadelphia. The imam, who has an Egyptian background, served at that mosque for 10 years before he was let go about three years ago, Moore said. While serving in West Philadelphia, Abouhatab did not make any kind of controversial statements, Moore said, but was a little political, which is one reason he is no longer there. The imam was let go primarily because mosque officials wanted him to teach more in the community and perform other duties in addition to preaching, which he declined to do, according to Moore. Leaders of Al-Aqsa, known for its interfaith outreach, immediately apologized for Abouhatabs statements and said they had launched an investigation. A representative of Al-Aqsa also apologized this weekend at a banquet hosted by the Philadelphia branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Springfield, Delaware County. Officials of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in Philadelphia have talked with leaders at the mosque, and said they were grateful for Al-Aqsas rapid response and heartened by the mosques declaration that hate against Jews or any group will not be tolerated. In response to Abouhatabs Saturday statement, the ADL called the imams denial "flying in the face of multiple expert translations. Abouhatab is shamefully unrepentant for spouting anti-Jewish hate, the ADLs statement said. The organization has conferred with the citys Commission on Human Relations about the incident and will continue its interfaith work with Al-Aqsa as the mosque investigates the series of sermons, the ADL said. The group is working to schedule a meeting with mosque leaders, said Nancy K. Baron-Baer, the ADLs regional director. A decade ago, Radnor Townships manager gave himself nearly $130,000 in unauthorized bonuses right under the noses of township commissioners. After that, officials vowed to be more transparent about how they ran the government. With that goal in mind, the Main Line township has rolled out its Open Finance website, an interactive tool that lets the public residents, investors, business owners and government employees explore the townships budget through charts and graphs. As of late last month, users could look at broad data or drill deep into certain funds to the point of seeing individual check amounts to vendors. Lisa Borowski, president of the townships Board of Commissioners, said transparency helps officials govern and engage the community. Residents need to know how their money is being spent and where its being spent and have a say," she said. Nearly all governments share budget information online, but the extent to which they share varies. They increasingly are moving beyond uploading static PDF versions of financial statements and lists of revenues and expenses. Theres a growing appetite among local governments to be more transparent, especially about finances, as citizens demand that information be more readily available, said Mark Mack, a manager at the research and consulting center of the Government Finance Officers Association. Strides in technology have enabled smaller governments to offer the same types of online tools some of their larger counterparts started using years ago, he said. This is something thats definitely on the rise," Mack said. A lot of governments are wrestling with how to do it and do it right. Some are wary of posting too much detail online and risking the security of that information, he said. And most residents dont regularly check their governments websites and dont have backgrounds in finance, so officials need to address these challenges. The association is developing best practices around online budget tools. Interactive websites are used by Philadelphia; Montgomery County; Chester County; Pittsburgh; the state of Delaware, and other governments around the country to share financial data with the public. They can customize the tools to fit their needs and level of information they choose to share. Each week, Radnors financial system automatically sends data to the Socrata Open Finance platform which, like the financial system, is made by the public-sector-software company Tyler Technologies. The township pays a $12,000 annual subscription fee. But do people know what theyre looking at? Christopher Berry, faculty director at the Center for Municipal Finance at the University of Chicago, said he is skeptical about how useful these budget tools are for average people who dont understand the ins and outs of municipal budgets, which virtually nobody does. I think youve got a lot of work to do to even get the average person to want to come to the website in the first place, he said. Berry said he hasnt seen great models for making financial information accessible to the typical citizen. At a basic level, people want to know whether their government is doing a good job and the value of their tax dollars, he said. Thats not something they can get from looking at straight numbers no matter how prettily governments display them without context and comparison. This buzzword of transparency gets hold of people and they think it means just dump everything on the web, he said. Radnor officials hope eventually to add more explanation behind the numbers, said William White, Radnors assistant township manager and finance director. Chester and Montgomery Counties have used the OpenGov platform for their interactive budget tools since 2015. The counties include information that residents have continued to request through the years about the counties finances, such as the amount of money spent on employee wages and benefits, annual tax revenue, and county staffing levels. Simone Brody, executive director of What Works Cities a four-year-old Bloomberg Philanthropies data-driven intitiative said governments should use online tools as part of a larger plan that includes meeting people where they are and creating bite-size ways for residents to engage with financial data, which is what Los Angeles does. Brody said she doesnt think most governments are using online tools to their full potential. Its not enough to just put information out there," she said. "You really need an engagement strategy. Pennsylvania will launch an investigation into child abuse and lawbreaking at the Glen Mills Schools in response to an Inquirer investigation, the state auditor general said Monday. The alleged abuse of students and long-running culture of secrecy at Glen Mills shocks the conscience, said Auditor General Eugene DePasquale. Because the institution receives public funds, I am demanding that the school answer what, if any, policies it has to prevent the abuse of students and ensure that reports of abuse are properly handled. The probe will focus on whether Glen Mills complied with all laws regarding child abuse; whether the school has policies and effective procedures to prevent such abuse; what avenues students have to report abuse; and whether Glen Mills has properly conducted background checks on its counselors and other employees. Protecting kids from abuse is job one, DePasquale said. No young person, no matter what circumstances led to their placement in a reform facility, deserves to be mistreated." Last month, The Inquirer published an investigation documenting decades of abuse and cover-ups at the Delaware County campus for court-ordered boys. In response to the story, judges from Los Angeles and Houston to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh removed more than 100 boys nearly half of the enrollment from Glen Mills, the oldest existing reform school in the United States. Through a spokesperson, Glen Mills leaders said they would cooperate with the auditor general and other local and state officials who are investigating the school. We take these allegations very seriously, and we will continue to provide access to information requested by those individuals, as well as Glen Mills Schools families, customers and our independent review panel," they said in a statement. Leaders at Glen Mills have denied wrongdoing, and formed a review panel to investigate any misconduct. The Glen Mills board president resigned Feb. 28, citing personal and business reasons. Executive director Randy Ireson is taking a leave of absence for health reasons, according to the school, and continues to receive compensation and live in school-affiliated housing. Last week, local and state lawmakers gathered outside Philadelphias juvenile courthouse to demand a comprehensive state-level investigation into abuse and cover-ups at Glen Mills. Both the state Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Delaware County district attorney have said they are investigating allegations of abuse at Glen Mills. Gov. Tom Wolf said he was reviewing oversight of Glen Mills by DHS, which licenses and inspects these juvenile programs. J.J. Abbott, a spokesperson for the governor, said the auditor generals investigation is separate and unrelated to the review by DHS, which is attempting to interview former students about their time at Glen Mills. He encouraged current or former students, parents, staff, or anyone else who has experienced or is aware of potential incidents of abuse to contact the state through its toll-free hotline. Many of these alleged incidents could rise to a level of criminality that would go beyond what a state audit could reasonably address, said Abbott. Gov. Wolf wants justice for victims and accountability for those responsible. Glen Mills, founded in 1826 as the Philadelphia House of Refuge, will receive a formal letter this week outlining objectives for the audit, DePasquale said. He expects to share his findings with DHS. Gary Miller, a spokesperson for the auditor general, said reviews typically take less than a year. Miller characterized the probe as a performance audit," rather than financial, and said he could not discuss the specific steps the auditor general would take to investigate the school. At the conclusion of the investigation, the auditor general could suggest policy changes and legislative actions. Well go wherever the facts lead us, Miller said. Philadelphia had spent upward of $52,000 per boy each year at Glen Mills. Following weeks of placement hearings, all 51 of those boys had left Glen Mills by Monday, Philadelphia Human Services Commissioner Cynthia Figueroa said. Still, Figueroa said she supported the deeper investigation," adding, We hope the auditor generals investigation will underscore the need for change." Marsha Levick, chief legal officer for the Juvenile Law Center, said she was pleased that the auditor general would investigate Glen Mills; but also called on the governor to convene a special commission to fully address the conditions and circumstances across each branch of government in the commonwealth that allowed this situation to flourish over decades. Delaware County District Attorney Katayoun M. Copeland has had an open investigation of Glen Mills since last summer, when The Inquirer reported that counselors choked and beat an asthmatic teen from Philadelphia. After The Inquirer investigation was published last month, two state lawmakers and several local council members called on Copeland to work with Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. Shapiros office can only investigate if a district attorney refers a case to him, citing a conflict or a lack of adequate resources. As elected officials, we need to know what law enforcement agencies in Delaware County, including the District Attorneys Office, have known about these repeated incidents, and why no actions have been taken to stop the systemic abuse of children in our county, said Delaware County Council members Kevin Madden and Brian Zidek in a statement released Monday by Jack Stollsteimer, a Democrat and a prosecutor challenging Copeland for her seat this year. Philadelphia City Councilwoman Helen Gym said she applauded the auditor general for launching an investigation. But Gym said she would like to see more investigative authorities at the state level follow suit: I still believe that every single relevant law enforcement and oversight agency needs to get involved to seek truth and bring justice for the boys abused at Glen Mills. Plaintiff Mark Janus stands outside the Supreme Court after the court ruled that states can't force government workers to pay union fees. Read more Shalea Oliver had been trying to leave her union for more than a year when she found a website offering help. It had a template resignation letter that she could send to her union, SEIU Local 668, and a form to fill out if the letter were not effective, which she did. Next, an organization called the Liberty Justice Center got in touch. That was in August, two months after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that many predicted would savage public-sector unions. In Janus v. AFSCME, a case brought in part by the Liberty Justice Center and championed as one of its most notable successes, the Supreme Court said public-sector unions could not require workers to pay union fees even though the union still has to bargain on their behalf. Union advocates say the conservative groups that funded the case hope it would cripple organized labor, and its political power, by driving public employees to leave their unions, while those groups say they are just fighting for workers rights. Now, Oliver, 29, a caseworker who serves Southwest Philadelphia for the states Department of Human Services, is the face of the lawsuit filed last month by the Liberty Justice Center, which describes itself as a nonpartisan nonprofit that fights to protect economic liberty, private property rights, and free speech. The lawsuit argues that the Janus decision made it illegal for the state to deduct dues from Olivers paycheck and that shes entitled to refunds of the dues, as well as the dues she paid before the Janus decision because she had no choice about joining the union. If that sounds convoluted, thats kind of the point: to test the limits of Janus. Olivers legal action is part of a wave of lawsuits filed by groups such as the Liberty Justice Center to find other potential legal weaknesses in how unions operate. There have been at least nine lawsuits filed on behalf of Pennsylvania workers since Janus. In one that mirrors Olivers case, this one from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a bus driver named Michael Mayer, who works for the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District, sued his employer and Teamsters Local 312 for collecting dues from him after Janus. In another case, from the Fairness Center, a group of workers at Erie Water Works is suing AFSCME, alleging poor representation. And in a class action filed right before Janus against the Pennsylvania State Education Association and others, teachers are alleging that their unions were illegally collecting fees. That was part of a series of class actions filed by lawyer Jonathan Mitchell, described by the New York Times as a mastermind of the anti-union legal campaign." Hes also a Trump nominee for a federal agency to improve government operations. >> READ MORE: From 2018: How the Supreme Court ruling on labor unions in Janus vs. AFSCME could upend politics in Pennsylvania Groups such as the Fairness Center and the Liberty Justice Center, which are backed by funders with business and conservative interests including billionaires Charles and David Koch, have filed similar suits since as early as 2012, but the legal actions have ramped up since Janus. Although some of the suits have been settled with unions refunding dues or fees to plaintiffs, no judge has issued a precedent-setting opinion on any Pennsylvania case. Our cases are about protecting workers rights and the right to say no to a union is just as important as the right to say yes, said Kristen Williamson, a spokesperson for the Liberty Justice Center. Eric Rosso, who tracks these groups in his role as executive director of Pa. Spotlight, a watchdog for anti-union activity, says the Liberty Justice Center and its counterparts have doubled down on what he calls busting unions in the legal sense" because their campaigns to get public-sector employees to drop out of their unions have not worked. Thats in large part, unions have said, due to labors efforts to counter the anti-union narrative and get members to sign recommitment cards. (Groups such as the Liberty Justice Center argue thats because unions make it hard for members, such as Oliver, to drop out.) In Pennsylvania, public-sector unions have seen only a tiny fraction of members leave. SEIU Local 668, which represents about 20,000 state employees, has lost about 100 members since Janus, said president Steve Catanese. The Pennsylvania State Education Association, which represents about 142,300 teachers across the state, has lost about 1,200 members since Janus, said spokesperson Chris Lilienthal. The five unions at the School District of Philadelphia represent about 18,000 workers and lost about 600 paying members, according to data from the School District. That number doesnt distinguish between those who left their jobs in the last nine months and those who chose to leave the union because of Janus. Rosso said these groups bringing lawsuits against unions are focusing on Pennsylvania because they see it as a swing state. They think they can find more conservative-leaning union members to carry the water, he said. Beyond the Liberty Justice Center, the Fairness Center, and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, there are several other groups that have spent money on anti-union efforts in the state, he said, including the Commonwealth Foundation, Americans for Fair Treatment, Free to Teach, the Commonwealth Partners Chamber of Entrepreneurs, and MyPayMySay. Other states that have seen several anti-union lawsuits include Illinois, where Mark Janus of the Janus case is from, and California. These cases generally follow a formula, Rosso said: Find one person who is disgruntled with the union and use that person to try to turn the entire union upside down. Janus, for example, was a child-support specialist who became the face of the attack on public-sector unions and went on to work for the Liberty Justice Center after the Supreme Court ruling. Government workers from all across the United States have reached out to us because their newly restored First Amendment rights are being violated," said Williamson of the Liberty Justice Center. Catanese, the Harrisburg-based president of Local 668, said what lawsuits like these do, other than cost the union time and money, is distract from his unions involvement in the fight for a higher state minimum wage or broader health-care access. Instead, [the story] ends up being somebody suing the union," he said. Dan Egan, a spokesperson for the states Office of Administration, said it does not comment on pending litigation. As for Oliver, whos suing Local 668, she said the union did not advocate for her interests as a newer, younger hire, though it did seem to do so for older, longtime employees. Instead of a pension, like her older colleagues, she said, she has a hybrid 401(k). And folks doing her exact same job get paid sometimes $20,000 more because theyve been there longer. Thats not fair, she said. I do believe in the idea of union membership, she said. I just dont support this one. Michael J. Bransfield, a former bishop in West Virginia, cannot celebrate mass in West Virginia or Baltimore. (Dale Sparks / Associated Press, file) Read more Catholic Church officials announced Monday that they had banned Roxborough native and former West Virginia Bishop Michael J. Bransfield from exercising any priestly or episcopal ministry in two dioceses after completing a preliminary investigation into allegations of sexual harassment and financial improprieties against him. Bransfield, 75, stepped down in September as bishop of the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese amid claims that he had sexually harassed adults. Pope Francis appointed Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori to handle the investigation and serve as a temporary administrator of the diocese. In a statement Monday, Lori said the investigative team had examined multiple allegations of sexual harassment of adults and financial improprieties, and interviewed more than 40 people, including Bransfield. The team, which included five lay experts, completed a report and sent it to the Vatican for further action. Pending the assessment of the findings of the Holy See, as apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, I have directed that Bishop Bransfield is not authorized to exercise any priestly or episcopal ministry either within the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston or within the Archdiocese of Baltimore, he said. Reached on his cell phone Monday, Bransfield declined to discuss the investigation in detail except to say he looked forward to being able to speak for myself and defend myself before church officials in Rome. Speaking publicly for the first time since he stepped down, the prelate said: This happened, but I retired first. I am a retired bishop of West Virginia, and my title is bishop emeritus of the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese. Bransfield said he was interviewed once by Loris team during the inquiry. He noted he was not privy to what information was sent to the Vatican, but said the investigators questions "were not, in my estimation, that formidable. Raised in a family of prominent Philadelphia clerics, Bransfield has been living in Philadelphia since the fall. He said he hasnt returned to West Virginia since September. Tim Bishop, spokesperson for the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese, which covers the entire state, said he had no additional information on the probes findings. In effect, the Vatican owns the investigation, Bishop said. No one at the diocese has seen it, nor do we have a copy of it. Like everyone else we await judgment from the Holy See, Bishop added. Bransfields resignation late last summer came after a wave of damaging reports involving Catholic bishops and sex abuse. It followed the release of a Pennsylvania grand jury report in August that accused church leaders of covering up decades of clergy sex abuse, and the ouster of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, amid criticisms that church leaders had ignored reports of his sexual misconduct or harassment. Loris role in overseeing the Bransfield investigation mirrors a proposal that at least one ranking U.S. bishop raised during last months historic clergy sex-abuse summit in Rome. Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago urged his colleagues to empower him and other metropolitan archbishops to investigate sex abuse claims made against their colleagues in neighboring dioceses. Francis said church leaders would continue to consider changes and improvements that might make abuse victims more comfortable reporting allegations involving bishops. After Bransfield stepped aside, a person familiar with the matter told The Inquirer that at least three priests had come forward with claims that Bransfield had subjected them to unwanted sexual advances and physical contact. A hotline set up subsequently drew more than 75 calls alleging misconduct in West Virginia, Washington, and Philadelphia that stretched back decades. Bransfield was accused of sexual misconduct while a priest in Philadelphia. In 2007, a former student at Lansdale Catholic High School said Bransfield molested him when the priest was assigned in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Instead of sending the claim to a civilian review board created to independently review allegations, church officials conducted their own investigation. Cardinal Justin F. Rigali, then the head of the Philadelphia Archdiocese, determined that the former students complaint was unfounded. The archdiocese also forwarded the complaint to Montgomery County prosecutors, who opted not to bring charges. In the 2012 child-endangerment trial of Msgr. William J. Lynn, a ranking administrator in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, two witnesses testified that Bransfield knew about the sexually abusive behavior years ago of a fellow priest and seminary classmate, the Rev. Stanley Gana. Through a spokesperson, he denied the claim. No charges were filed against Bransfield, and the most recent investigation did not uncover any criminal activity. Bransfields cousin Msgr. J. Brian Bransfield is a ranking officer of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. A nephew, the Rev. Sean Bransfield, is vice chancellor of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Michael Bransfield previously served as president of the Bala Cynwyd-based Papal Foundation, one of the largest Catholic fund-raising organizations in the nation. FILE - In this Feb. 21, 2019, file photo, U.S. Attorney Robert Hur (center) of the District of Maryland speaks as Art Walker (left), special agent from the Coast Guard investigative service, and Gordon Johnson, special agent in charge of the FBI's Baltimore office, listen during a news conference about Coast Guard Lt. Christopher Paul Hasson, outside the federal courthouse in Greenbelt. Hasson, accused of stockpiling guns and compiling a hit list of prominent Democrats and network TV journalists, pleaded not guilty on Monday, March 11, 2019, to drug and firearms charges. An attorney for Hasson, 49, entered the plea on his behalf at an arraignment on charges of illegal possession of firearm silencers, possession of firearms by a drug addict and unlawful user, and possession of a controlled substance. Read more GREENBELT, Md. (AP) A Coast Guard officer accused of stockpiling guns and compiling a hit list of prominent Democrats and network TV journalists pleaded not guilty on Monday to drug and firearms charges. An attorney for Christopher Paul Hasson, 49, entered the plea on his behalf at an arraignment on charges of illegal possession of firearm silencers, possession of firearms by a drug addict and unlawful user, and possession of a controlled substance. Public defender Liz Oyer didn't ask for Hasson to be freed on bond and declined to comment after the hearing. Federal prosecutors have said Hasson is a self-described white nationalist and "domestic terrorist" who "intends to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country." Hasson has been detained since his Feb. 15 arrest. He faces a maximum of 31 years in prison if convicted of all charges in his four-count indictment last month. Hasson answered several routine questions from a magistrate judge during Monday's brief hearing at the federal courthouse in Greenbelt. Investigators found 15 firearms, including seven rifles, and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition at Hassons basement apartment in Silver Spring, Md., prosecutors said. Hassons Feb. 27 indictment also accuses him of illegal possession of tramadol, an opioid painkiller. In a court filing, prosecutors said Hasson has espoused extremist views for years and drafted an email in which he said he was "dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth." Prosecutors also claim Hasson drew up what appeared to be a computer-spreadsheet hit list that included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, presidential hopefuls Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris. Several network TV journalists MSNBC's Chris Hayes and Joe Scarborough and CNN's Chris Cuomo and Van Jones also were mentioned. However, Hasson hasn't been charged with any terrorism-related offenses. A different public defender has accused prosecutors of making inflammatory accusations against Hasson without providing evidence to back them up. During a hearing last month, a different magistrate agreed to keep Hasson behind bars but said he was willing to revisit his decision if prosecutors didn't bring more serious charges within two weeks. Hasson, a former Marine, worked at Coast Guard headquarters in Washington on a program to acquire advanced new cutters for the agency. He was a lieutenant at the time of his arrest. In this Friday, March 8, 2019 photo, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador answers questions from journalists at his daily 7 a.m. press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City. Lopez Obrador's first 100 days in office have combined a compulsive shedding of presidential trappings with a dizzying array of policy initiatives, and a series of missteps haven't even dented his soaring approval ratings. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte) Read more MEXICO CITY (AP) Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador celebrated what he called his administration's "cordial" relations with the United States on Monday as he marked his first 100 days in office. When Lopez Obrador took office Dec. 1, many feared the leftist was headed for a certain clash with conservative U.S. President Donald Trump. But the two have maintained civil relations, without the frequent insults and name-calling Trump had once subjected Mexico to. Mexico has quietly cooperated with the United States by allowing asylum applicants to be sent back to Mexico while they await resolution of their cases. Lopez Obrador said that "accusatory and angry talk is no longer heard. Instead we use diplomacy and constant communication." He noted the United States has committed to investing $2.5 billion in Central America and $4.8 billion in Mexico, to help create jobs. The new president was largely self-congratulatory in his 100-days speech, even regarding the economy. Many view economic policy as his weak spot because he angered investors and businessmen by cancelling a partly built $13 billion airport project, Nevertheless, Lopez Obrador said "There is confidence among foreign and Mexican investors." But his biggest focus was on what he called social justice, bringing more equality even to tourist zones. "We are going to reduce the strong contrast between luxury hotel zones and impoverished neighborhoods," Lopez Obrador said. "We want modernity, but forged from below, and for all." Perhaps one of Lopez Obrador's biggest challenges is to staunch the huge expectations that won him election. For example, the president was blindsided by a wave of strikes at assembly plants on the northern border, where employees demanded 20-percent wage increases and bonuses. The president clearly wants that movement to slow down. Some plants threatened to leave the border city of Matamoros. "The new labor policy, of restoring the lost purchasing power of wages, cannot yield spectacular results overnight," he said. "It has to be applied slowly, but steadily." "It has to be a gradual increase, in order to not hurt businesses." A poll taken by the newspaper El Universal of 1,200 voters on March 2-7 showed that over 79 percent of those interviewed approved of Lopez Obrador's performance as president. Eleven percent disapproved, and 8 percent didn't approve or disapprove. The poll's margin of error was 2.9 percentage points. By comparison, Lopez Obrador's predecessor, Enrique Pena Nieto, left office with a historically low approval rating, which in several polls ranged from 20 percent to 24 percent. The new president has been able to implement major policy reforms, especially on security issues like fighting fuel theft from government pipelines and winning approval for the formation of a highly militarized National Guard to fight crime. However, Lopez Obrador's fight against the country's homicide epidemic hasn't gone so well. In December and January, his first two months in office, homicides rose to 5,699, up 3.6 percent from the preceding two months and over 10 percent higher compared to the same two months one year ago. We have only been able to contain criminality, but not significantly reduce it as we had wished, said Lopez Obrador. A Phoenix Police Department officer walks past the main entrance of the Hacienda HealthCare facility after a shooting in the parking area Monday, March 11, 2019, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) Read more PHOENIX (AP) The shooting of an armed man outside an Arizona long-term care facility does not appear to be connected to the rape of an incapacitated woman who later gave birth there, authorities said Monday. Phoenix police said the 58-year-old suspect, who was shot by an off-duty officer working security at Hacienda HealthCare, was targeting a woman in the facility's parking lot. Investigators say neither the shooter nor the woman was a resident there. The suspect, who has not been identified, was listed in critical condition at a hospital, but police say he's expected to survive. The woman suffered minor injuries. The shooting unfolded around 5:30 a.m., when three off-duty officers patrolling the facility heard screams, Sgt. Armando Carbajal said. When they went to investigate, the officers saw a 56-year-old woman lying on the ground as a man wielding a handgun stood over her. A confrontation ensued, and the suspect tried to flee. Carbajal said even while fleeing, the man fired multiple shots in the woman's direction. One of the officers fired his handgun and struck the suspect, Carbajal said. The Florence Police Department, where the officer works, placed him on paid administrative leave pending the results of a Phoenix police investigation. Hacienda officials said in a statement the gunman was the ex-husband of a worker. Police have not confirmed the victim and the suspect's relationship, Carbajal said. The health care provider also said its residents were never in any danger. "Our security worked as intended and it continues to be improved on a daily basis," Hacienda said in a statement. Hacienda attracted widespread attention after a longtime patient was sexually assaulted and subsequently gave birth to a boy in December. Nathan Sutherland, a male nurse, was arrested after investigators found his DNA matched a sample taken from the infant. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of sexual assault and vulnerable adult abuse. Since the revelations, Hacienda has seen the departure of its CEO, senior management and several board members. Last week, the provider came under the regulatory control of the state. The agreement calls for numerous conditions including hiring of a third-party manager to oversee daily operations. The scandal has also inspired legislation requiring intermediate care facilities that serve intellectually disabled or medical fragile residents in Arizona to obtain state licensing. A U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighter walks through a tent encampment that had been occupied by Islamic State group militants, in Baghouz, Syria, Monday, March 11, 2019. A spokesman for U.S.-backed Syrian forces fighting the IS said they have made "limited advances" into the last village in eastern Syria held by the Islamic State group amid heavy fighting. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo) Read more BAGHOUZ, Syria (AP) U.S.-backed Syrian forces pounded the last village held by the Islamic State group with artillery and heavy weapons from multiple sides Monday and made slow advances on its edges, battling militants holed up in underground tunnels. The fighters of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces moved toward a tent encampment in the village of Baghouz and at one point encircled a group of IS militants, killing a number of them in an hour-long battle, an SDF spokesman said. After weeks of besieging Baghouz, the operation launched Sunday night aims at finally taking the last tiny patch of land held by the militants, a pocket on the banks of the Euphrates River in eastern Syria near the border with Iraq. Operations against IS "will continue until we totally wipe them out," the SDF vowed in a statement Monday, saying SDF fighters had made "tangible progress" since Sunday, with 37 militants killed and five SDF fighters wounded. Some 500 IS fighters are believed to be still in the territory, along with possibly 3,000 to 4,000 civilians, including women and children mainly family members who remained after thousands of civilians streamed out of Baghouz in past week during pauses in the fighting. The fighters are heavily dug in and have laced the area with land mines and booby traps. They lashed out Monday with attempted suicide attacks four IS fighters assaulted SDF positions, setting off their explosive belts, though they only succeeded in damaging a minesweeper, the SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said in a tweet. A senior U.S. defense official said in Washington on Friday that it would not be a surprise, based on current conditions, if it took another couple of weeks to finish "mopping up" the IS enclave. The capture of Baghouz would be a milestone in the devastating four-year campaign to defeat the group's so-called "caliphate" that once covered a vast territory straddling both Syria and Iraq. In Monday's fighting, SDF fighters captured an arms depot and marched toward the tent settlement on the edge of Baghouz, Bali wrote. The U.S.-led coalition carried out 11 airstrikes destroying depots, fortifications and vehicles. SDF explosives experts have begun removing mines and booby-traps "to open the way for our attacking forces," the SDF statement said. Throughout the day, thuds of renewed artillery and heavy weapons fire could be heard. The village lies in an agricultural area squeezed between a bend in the Euphrates and the cliff of a desert plateau, and SDF forces could be seen firing at it from all sides by the evening. "If as we advance, we notice there are civilians, we will do all we can to evacuate them from the battlefield," Bali told the AP. The tent camp had been home for many of the thousands of civilians who had been holed up in Baghouz for weeks. On Monday, an AP team was able to see a part of the camp that had been abandoned earlier. Many tents were damaged and burned, some of them set up over empty trenches and foxholes. The AP viewed it from a house captured by the SDF that IS appeared to have used as a clinic by IS. Medical equipment stood in place still wrapped in its plastic, as well as a microscope still in its box. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said SDF fighters captured seven IS gunmen in Baghouz since Sunday. During years of battles against IS, thousands of extremists have been taken prisoner by the SDF in Syria as well as tens of thousands of family members who were moved to tent settlements in northeastern Syria. A senior U.S. defense official said last week that the SDF is believed to have about 5,000 IS fighters in captivity, of whom about 4,000 are Iraqis and Syrians. The other 1,000 or so are foreign fighters from dozens of other countries, the official said. Bali said the SDF recently handed over a number of Moroccan citizens who were staying in tent settlements in northeastern Syria to their home government. Bali did not give a number, but thousands of fighters and supporters from north Africa joined IS since declaring the so-called caliphate in 2014. ____ Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue contributed to this report from Beirut. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, left, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, right, visit the border between Israel and Syria at the Israeli-held Golan Heights, Monday, March 11, 2019. Graham says he will push for American recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a territory it captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war. (Ronen Zvulun/Pool via AP) Read more JERUSALEM (AP) U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham on Monday vowed to push for U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, in what would represent a new contentious political gift to Israel from the Trump administration. The South Carolina Republican said he aimed to change the current U.S.-designation of the Golan, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967, as disputed territory. He spoke during a tour of the frontier with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "The Golan is not disputed. It is in the hands of Israel and will always remain in the hands of Israel," Graham said from a cliff overlooking Syria, where Syrian flags could be seen fluttering in the distance on buildings damaged in the country's civil war. "My goal is to try to explain this to the administration," he said. In past negotiations, Syria has demanded a withdrawal from the Golan as part of any peace deal. With Syria ravaged by a nearly eight-year-old civil war, peace talks with Israel seem unlikely anytime soon. Graham called the prospect of Israeli withdrawal from the Golan "a strategic nightmare" and political "suicide," citing shared Israeli and American concern over Iranian entrenchment in neighboring Syria. Israel has admitted to carrying out scores of airstrikes in Syria against Iranian targets in recent years. A beaming Netanyahu applauded Graham's remarks and asserted that Israel would never give up the land. "I think it's very important that the international community recognize this fact, and accept it, and most especially our great friend, the United States of America," Netanyahu said, thanking Graham for his "unbelievable support." Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, a move not recognized by most of the international community. Republican senators introduced a bill last month that would recognize Israeli sovereignty over the disputed territory. Graham, one of the co-sponsors, said he expected the legislation to galvanize bipartisan support. Such a move would upend decades of U.S. policy but fall in line with the Trump administration's pattern of lavishing Israel with symbolic gifts and political support. The Trump administration has moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority and shut down the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington. Last week the U.S. also shuttered its consulate, which served as a de facto embassy to the Palestinians, and handed diplomatic reigns to ambassador David Friedman, a staunch supporter of the Israeli West Bank settlement movement. These steps have sidelined the Palestinians, who say they have lost faith in the administration's ability to be a neutral arbiter. The Israeli government has welcomed this string of supportive moves in anticipation of "Deal of the Century," the administration's peace plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which the Palestinians have preemptively rejected. Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has said he will unveil the plan after Israeli elections on April 9. Investigators say Naseema Sami returned, unannounced, to a house on West Indian Lane in West Norriton Township where she had lived 20 years prior, and then killed the home's owner and another woman in a violent outburst. Read more Investigators dont know what Naseema Sami was running from Thursday. But it was enough, apparently, to drive her to kill two women in front of her 6-year-old son, one of them a former landlord who had offered her a helping hand if she ever needed it. The violence tore apart the stillness of West Indian Lane, a row of tidy homes on a bank of the Schuylkill in West Norriton Township. They were the first homicides recorded in this slice of Montgomery County since 1986, and allegedly came at the hands of a woman whose only prior criminal offenses in Pennsylvania were traffic violations. The deaths of these two kind, wonderful women are sad, are tragic, and our hearts go out to their families," Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele said Monday afternoon in announcing Samis arrest. Sami, 43, was arraigned late Monday and charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Lila Frost, 78, and Lorraine Gigliello, 68, as well as criminal trespass, tampering with physical evidence, and endangering the welfare of a child. She was denied bail and remains in custody at the county prison. Investigators were called to Frosts home Sunday night after one of her tenants said he hadnt seen his landlord for several days, even though her car, a candy-apple red Toyota Corolla, was parked on the property, according to an affidavit of probable cause. The caller also told police that he had seen a stranger enter the first floor of the home, which Frost kept as her residence. When police arrived, the front door was locked. They gained access through a rear door, left unlocked. Inside, they found a very bloody scene, according to Steele. Then Sami emerged from her hiding spot under a bed, her 6-year-old in tow. The Folsom, Delaware County, woman had what appeared to be dried blood on her hands, the affidavit states, and had barricaded all but one door with furniture. In a nearby bathroom, officers found Frosts body in a bathtub, covered in a blanket. They later found Gigliellos under a kitchen table, wrapped in sheets or towels, the affidavit said. An autopsy determined that Frost died of multiple injuries and Gigliello of head trauma, according to Steele. The manner in both was ruled homicide. In a subsequent interview with detectives, Sami said she had driven to Frosts home, where she had rented an upstairs apartment 20 years ago, on Thursday night. She chose that spot, she said, because she desired a safe place to go, according to the affidavit. Steele did not elaborate Monday, saying it was too early in the investigation. She was worried, concerned about something, Steele said. And she decided to go to a kindhearted person who years before had offered her help. At the time of her arrival with her son, Sami found the home empty and entered through an unlocked door. Gigliello knocked on the front door, walked in on the two, and began asking questions why they were there. When Gigliello threatened to call the police, Sami struck the older woman on her face and chest, according to the affidavit. Frost walked into the home in the middle of the melee. During the fight, Sami broke a bottle of tomato sauce and began slashing at Gigliello with a shard of broken glass. At one point, she pushed Frost into the bathroom, knocking her into the tub. There, she kicked her in the head and neck until she died, Sami told police. Her son witnessed the entire ordeal, Steele said. He stayed with his mother in the apartment for days, watching as she attempted to clean up the crime scene on Saturday with as many as 10 bottles of bleach. The boy was later interviewed by staff at Mission Kids, the countys child advocacy center, and released into the care of a family member. Neighbors reeled at the news Monday, having been taken aback by the heavy police presence that had descended on their street just hours earlier. From outside, Frosts home appeared untouched, its trademark Lady Sadie, Perfect No. 10 sign still above the doorway. One neighbor had left a bundle of roses at the foot of the driveway, wrapping them in a handwritten note that read, We will miss you. Jeff White, who lives on the street, was walking his dog in the waning sunlight. I knew her 30 years, she was just a nice woman, White said. This is all so hard to believe. The Philadelphia Museum of Art has reopened its Chinese galleries to literally glowing reviews after 10 months of renovations, during which a new LED lighting system was installed, among other improvements. Visitors can now better appreciate the colorful painted details on lacquered cabinets and vivid expressions on porcelain figures. Artifacts that were covered in grime at one point now gleam under the new lights, thanks to the work of a large team of conservators who worked around the clock to make sure the 7,000 objects in the museums collection were ready for their closeups. The ceramic vases and carved wooden armchairs in the Chinese galleries arent the only items visitors will be seeing in a new light. The LED lighting system in the Chinese galleries is part of a much larger project: The Art Museum plans to replace the 11,000 lightbulbs and fixtures in its main building, Perelman annex, and Rodin Museum with LED bulbs and fixtures. That includes the American Art galleries, the Modern and Contemporary galleries, and new spaces that are part of the museums ongoing renovations, among them the new restaurant. The museum is joining many other art museums of its caliber around the world, such as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, looking to increase LED use and move away from incandescent lighting to conserve energy. The Penn Museum and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University are also starting the transition. A new trend is to blend LED lighting with natural light to give viewers the best experience possible. The Philadelphia Museum of Arts efforts will be the biggest overhaul in favor of LED lighting in a Philadelphia museum to date. Elegant and effective lighting is a key part of the visitor experience in an art museum, museum director Timothy Rub said. Its our single most significant aesthetic deficit right now. We have a lot of antiquated lighting that is no longer adequate for its purpose. Once were done, the lighting well have will be far superior to the lighting we have in most of our galleries and public spaces today. The new lighting is part of an $11.3 million energy-conservation upgrade at the museum funded by the City of Philadelphias Office of Sustainability, the Philadelphia Energy Authority, and Johnson Controls as part of the citys energy master plan developed in 2017. The city owns the museum building and pays an average of $3 million a year to heat, light, and cool the space. The energy conservation effort is expected to cut costs by 24 percent annually. Until now, the museums lighting has been largely incandescent and fluorescent. Incandescent bulbs are lighted by running an electric current through a metallic filament, which wastes a lot of energy as heat. Fluorescent bulbs, which emit less heat and are therefore more efficient, are lighted by exciting a gas, usually a mixture of argon and mercury vapor, with a current, causing it to glow. LED lights are the most efficient of all. They produce a flow of electrons through a semiconductor, generating light directly without heating metal or gas. They are particularly well-suited to museums because, unlike traditional light sources, heat is not projected forward with the beam of light, so fragile items are affected less. LEDs also last 25 times longer than traditional lightbulbs, so museums can go a decade or more without having to replace them, according to Jason Rainone, lighting designer at the Penn Museum, where the newly reopened Middle East Galleries feature LED lighting. Though lighting is not something most visitors think about at the Art Museum, the way an artwork is lighted shapes their experience with it. Tasteful spotlighting and washes of color can draw the eye to certain works in a room crowded with them and highlight details; dim lighting in the wrong color can give a painting a green tint. Jennifer Sontchi, director of exhibits and public spaces at the Academy of Natural Sciences, said that museum is looking to slowly transition to an all-LED lighting system in the near future. The Barnes Foundation is also looking to make the transition, said Deidre Maher, director of communications there. The Barnes already uses an intelligent lighting system that allows the museum to control the balance in its galleries between artificial and natural light. The Philadelphia Museum of Arts South Asia galleries reopened in 2016 with a combination of LED, halogen, and fluorescent lighting after 19 months of renovations, significantly improving the presentation of one of the museums signature works of art the 16th-century Indian Temple Hall, the only such structure standing outside India. One space in the Art Museum that will drastically change after the lighting upgrades have been made is the west entrance, which is currently illuminated by three downlights in the ceiling. Rub said he expects the addition of LED lights in 2020 to provide the room with a much richer and clearer illumination, making it more welcoming to visitors. Museum lighting options have changed more in the last five years than in the last 30, Rub said. Because of this, were able to light both individual works of art and our galleries in ways that are precise, visually compelling, and conservationally sound. State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, left, says he will file petitions to challenge Mayor Jim Kenney, right, in the May 21 Democratic primary election. Former City Controller Alan Butkovitz, center, has already filed as a candidate in that race. Read more The door to the Board of Elections office on the first floor of City Hall will swing shut at precisely 5 p.m. Tuesday, petition day. By that time, would-be candidates in Philadelphias May 21 primary must have filed their nomination petitions to have any chance of gaining a spot on the ballot. Based on potential candidates expressed intentions, its shaping up as an unusually competitive election, from the Democratic primary for mayor through the crowded contests for City Councils seven at-large and 10 district seats. State Sen. Anthony H. Williams plans to file petitions in the Democratic primary for mayor, apparently making him the second well-known challenger trying to deny Mayor Jim Kenney a second term. Former City Controller Alan Butkovitz entered the primary race in November, while Williams had been inching closer to a campaign after finishing second to Kenney in the 2015 primary. On the Republican side, the partys endorsed candidate, ward leader Daphne Goggins, who has engaged in a caustic and controversial early battle with Democrat-turned-Republican Billy Ciancaglini, dropped out of the race Monday night in a Facebook Live speech. Ciancaglini had vowed on Facebook on Saturday to challenge Goggins petitions. The filing deadline is the traditional start of challenge season, when politicians or their proxies go to court in an effort to get potential primary opponents knocked off the ballot for alleged problems with their paperwork. Challenge season was already off to an early start this year because two former Traffic Court judges, Thomasine Tynes and Willie Singletary, are circulating petitions to seek Council at-large seats despite spending time in federal prison for lying to investigators in a corruption probe. Attorney Kevin Greenberg, an election law expert at the firm Greenberg Traurig, said Friday he would contest in court the candidacies of Tynes and Singletary if they file petitions Tuesday. These individuals were entrusted with public service and abused that trust, Greenberg said. Theyve had their due process, and at this point the Pennsylvania Constitution is crystal clear that they should never again be placed in a position to abuse the people of Pennsylvania. Article 2, Section 7, of the Pennsylvania Constitution says people convicted of embezzlement of public moneys, bribery, perjury, or other infamous crimes are ineligible to hold any office of trust or profit in the state. A legal challenge to the candidacies of Tynes and Singletary could settle what appears to be an open question: If the state constitution prohibits their serving in public office, does that mean they cant run for elected office? Tynes, the former president judge of Traffic Court, was sentenced to 23 months in prison; Singletary served 20 months. The 2013 indictments of nine judges, a former court official, and two business owners prompted the Assembly to shut down the notoriously corrupt Traffic Court. Voters in a 2016 statewide referendum approved abolishing Traffic Court. Both former judges question whether the prohibition on felons holding public office applies to elected office in Philadelphia. Im prepared for any challenges, Singletary said. My case does not prohibit me from running for office. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld the convictions for Tynes and Singletary on Jan. 18. That ruling also said Singletary, who served 20 months in prison, should be resentenced. Thats set for Wednesday. A third former Traffic Court Judge, Mike Lowry, appeared last month on the roster of people who pulled nomination petitions for Council seats. Lowry, who refused to comment when it was first reported, said last week that he had been demonstrating the online petition-creation process for someone and did not realize it would generate a petition listing his name as a candidate. Nazareth Teklesenbet stands up and speaks about her knowledge of Kaleb Belay to a crowd at Ethiopian Community Center in West Philadelphia on 4400 Chestnut St. Philadelphia, PA, Sunday, March 10, 2019. Simon Haileab, Belay's attorney, wanted to inform media and community members about Belay as a person, the police cooperation in the case, and Belay's physical health. Read more Kind. Courteous. Soft-spoken. To the people who know him, its unfathomable that Kaleb Belay, 25, could have provoked a police officer to shoot him multiple times. Yet, Philadelphia police say thats just what happened Wednesday on the 4900 block of Hazel Avenue in West Philadelphia. I just cant see him being an aggressive person toward anybody," said Nazareth Teklesenbet, who described Belay, a Temple University student and bookkeeper for a local restaurant, as a helpful and positive person at a community meeting Sunday afternoon that drew close to 100 people concerned about his shooting. Two Philadelphia officers responding to a call for a person with a weapon and a report of a stabbing got out of their patrol car on Hazel shortly before 7 p.m. The officers reported that Belay came from behind a large bush holding a knife. The officers backed away and ordered him to drop the knife several times, but, police said, he kept walking toward them. One of the officers shot him multiple times in the chest, police said. The department reported that Belay was holding a steak knife. There did not end up being a stabbing victim associated with this incident, police reported Sunday. Belay is charged with aggravated assault, possessing an instrument of crime, and simple assault, police said Sunday. He is being treated at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he remains under guard by police, said his lawyer, Simon Haileab. He was in stable condition, the lawyer said. Court records show Belay has no previous arrests in Philadelphia. >>READ MORE: Man shot by police in West Philly Neighbors at the meeting said the police account of Belays actions was at odds with how they know him. He had been studying finance at Temple University, they said, and was notable for his gentle, even introverted, demeanor. He is described as no taller than 5-foot-6 and weighing about 150 pounds. Belay, an Ethiopian immigrant, moved to West Philadelphia about 10 months ago. His immediate family is in Ethiopia, and he has some relatives in Virginia. The night he was shot, he had plans to go to work. He was due to come in and do payroll work that night, said Saba Tedla, the owner of Bookers Restaurant & Bar on Baltimore Avenue, where Belay had worked his way up from busing tables to bookkeeping within the last year. Though he was a relative newcomer to the neighborhood, his shooting has shocked the community, where many have ties to Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea. He is new to this community, however, as an Ethiopian community we do stand by our own, said Lula Abera, a board member at the Ethiopian Community Center at 44th and Chestnut Streets, where the meeting was held. There are from 7,000 to 10,000 Ethiopians living in the Philadelphia area, Haileab said. People at the meeting were measured in their comments, but expressed concern and anger, particularly Tedla, who said she was disappointed that this happened in Philadelphia. Hes being treated as a criminal because he is currently under arrest at the hospital, she said. "There is no crime that has occurred except his shooting." Haileab credited the police with being communicative and transparent about their investigation, and allowing Belay to have visitors even though he is considered in police custody. The Police Department has agreed to not question Belay without Haileab present, the lawyer said. The Philadelphia District Attorneys Office reviews all police shootings, spokesperson Ben Waxman said Sunday, and an investigation into Belays shooting is underway. The purpose of the meeting was to mobilize support for Belay. Haileab is seeking video footage that might have captured the shooting. The officers involved were from the 18th District, which has not been equipped with body cameras, police said. We are actively conducting an investigation to protect Kalebs interests, Haileab said. >>READ MORE: SEPTA cops strike touches on a national issue: Who should see body camera footage? He also is organizing fundraising to help Belay cover the costs of multiple surgeries and what will likely be a long recovery, and for his legal defense. He also hopes to raise money to help Belays mother travel from Ethiopia to visit her son. I cant even speculate as to what she knows and what shes been experiencing, Haileab said. He anticipated holding a fundraiser next week. Haileab said it remains unclear how well Belay will recover from his wounds. He is able to communicate, mostly nonverbally, Haileab said, but is not fully aware that he is in police custody and faces criminal charges, and has not been able to provide his own account of what led to his being shot. Hes not out of the woods, Haileab said. He has a long road of recovery ahead of him. The area around the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul will be used as collateral for loans needed to pay clergy sex abuse claims. Read more A Northeast Philadelphia priest has been placed on administrative leave following an allegation of sexual abuse, according to a statement by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The Rev. Steven J. Marinucci, 71, who had served as an assistant to the pastor at St. Matthew Roman Catholic Church since 2010, is accused of sexually abusing a minor in the late 1970s. Marinucci has denied the allegation, which was received by the archdiocese in late January and shared with parishioners during weekend services at St. Matthew, 3000 Cottman Ave. It is the only allegation the archdiocese has received against Marinucci, the statement said. The matter has been referred to law enforcement, and the archdiocese will also investigate. Ordained in 1974, Marinucci has served at parishes including St. Bernard (1974 to 1978), St. Bartholomew (1978-83), St. Clement, (2000-01), and St. Agatha/St. James (2001-10), all in Philadelphia, as well as Our Lady of Fatima in Bensalem (1983-85), St. John the Evangelist in Morrisville (1985-90), and St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood (1990-2000). He worked at schools including St. Hubert Catholic High School for Girls (1975-79), and Little Flower Catholic High School for Girls (1980-83), both in Philadelphia. The allegation was reported less than three weeks after the archdiocese announced that two area priests had been found not suitable for ministry following an investigation by church officials of sexual-abuse allegations against them in the early 1980s. The Rev. John F. Meyers had most recently served as interim rector at Malvern Retreat House. The Rev. Raymond W. Smart is retired and has been on leave because of failing health since 1995. Another priest, Msgr. Joseph L. Logrip, had been placed on administrative leave after a sexual-abuse allegation was made against him for conduct in the early 1980s, the archdiocese also announced at the time. Logrip earlier was cleared of similar allegations that surfaced after a 2011 grand jury report. In August, Roman Catholic leaders in Pennsylvania were revealed to have covered up decades of child sex abuse involving more than 1,000 victims and hundreds of priests, in a new grand jury report. The U.S. Justice Department has launched its own investigation. Nancy Morris Kirk, 92, of Lafayette Hill, a longtime model who got her start as a teenager when she posed with a fishing rod on a beach at the New Jersey Shore, died Monday, March 4, of respiratory failure at Abington Hospital-Jefferson Health. The image of Mrs. Kirk fishing in the surf was the linchpin of a promotional campaign created in the 1940s by the Ocean City Tourism Office. She was modestly turned out in a straw hat, long pants, and a sleeveless top. The photo was used on a billboard to welcome vacationers as they crossed the bridge between Somers Point and Ocean City, her family said. It also appeared in a tourism brochure and on postcards. Mrs. Kirk went on to work out of the Models Guild of Philadelphia, the forerunner of professional modeling agencies in the city. Her photo appeared in a 1953 Look magazine article on how parents should tell children about the birds and the bees. She was pictured in a Philadelphia Flower Show program book wearing a prim suit and flower-trimmed hat. She was president of the Models Guild for many years. In 1949, a smiling Mrs. Kirk was photographed peering out from behind a large facsimile of the guilds January calendar as if ushering in the new year. In a March 28, 1963, article in the Ambler Gazette, Mrs. Kirk, by then married and the mother of four, said that it took more than a pretty face and attractive figure to be a professional model. The job wasnt romantic or glamorous. Modeling is a business, although most people dont think of it as such, she said. You have to want to work hard all hours of the day and night, and you must possess a tremendous amount of stamina. Born in Abington, Mrs. Kirk took up modeling after graduating from high school. She had planned to go to art school but reconsidered when she married psychologist Earl Bruce Kirk in 1945. Armed with encouragement from her mother, Mrs. Kirk enrolled in the John Robert Powers Finishing School, a training ground for models, in the Bellevue Stratford hotel. She then auditioned for acceptance to the Models Guild. To her surprise, she was accepted as a full-fledged model. She quickly found work at the fashion shows staged by department stores in the 1950s and 1960s to showcase apparel. Anyone who has ever attended a fashion show at one of Philadelphias large department stores has probably seen Mrs. Kirk in anything from a bathing suit to a wedding gown, the Gazette reported. She appeared in TV commercials, church fashion shows, and charity events at the Whitemarsh Country Club. Although most people assume that a model must be beautiful, it isnt really so, Mrs. Kirk told the Gazette. Above all, a model must have a certain quality that can be captured in a picture. A model must also be graceful and well-groomed, she added. Mrs. Kirk juggled family with career. She volunteered with the Girl Scouts and served as a homeroom mother at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School, where her children attended classes. She enjoyed painting, dancing, traveling, music, and swimming. Her husband died in 2001. She is survived by daughters Barbara Ann Kirk, Diane Teresa Kirk, and Mary Ann Walters; a son, Earl Bruce Kirk Jr.; six grandchildren; and two sisters. A visitation will be held starting at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, March 16, followed by a 10:30 a.m. Funeral Mass, at St. Philip Neri Roman Catholic Church, 437 Ridge Pike, Lafayette Hill. Interment is in George Washington Memorial Park, Plymouth Meeting. Renderings of the high-tech indoor gym that will be Fitler's Club. The gym will open later this year. Read more Fitler Club, modeled after the high-end private-membership-club chain Soho House, is slated to open soon. The goal is to give Philadelphia its own (and definitely overdue) exclusive social club, catering to the citys business, creative, and social leaders. I frequent the Soho Houses domestically and abroad, and was originally super excited about Fitler Clubs potential. However, once I began reading articles highlighting some parts of the vision of the clubs founder and CEO, David Gutstadt, my excitement faded. In a recent Inquirer article, Gutstadt said he wants the membership to be more like the city at least 40 percent female and 15 percent diverse. To what city is he referring? The last official demographics of the city stated that Philadelphia was 52.8 percent female and 47.2 percent male, 41 percent non-Hispanic white, 43.4 percent non-Hispanic black, and 12.3 percent Hispanic. Ill concede that those numbers come from the 2010 census, but I doubt they have changed so immensely in the last nine years that the city is now only 15 percent diverse. It made me wonder how Gutstadt defines diversity. Growing up in West Philly in the 90s and early 00s; diverse to me meant white. During my formative years, the mayor was black (John F. Street and Michael Nutter), the fire commissioner was black (Lloyd Ayers), the police chief was black (Sylvester M. Johnson), my swim team was black (shout-out to the Serpents of the 52nd Street Y), and it felt as if 90 percent of the people west of the Schuylkill and east of City Avenue and Cobbs Creek were black. My main interactions with diverse members of the city came from my middle and high school years at the citys JR Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School, and to be honest, my Italian American classmates from South Philly and Irish American classmates from Manayunk and Roxborough were basically black. (What I mean is that their parents had the same civil servant jobs our parents had, they dressed like and used the same slang that we did, and they dealt with the same plights in their neighborhoods that we did.) Now that Im an adult, I tell people how, when I was growing up, the television always told me I was a minority, but I had no idea what that actually meant until I found myself in my freshman year of college in Chapel Hill, N.C., where the black population was closer to 12 percent and the campus main drag was Jefferson Davis Highway. I cant say for sure, but Id bet that my definition of diversity is not the same as Gutstadts. If the Fitler Club hopes to emulate the essence of Soho House, a series of social clubs whose energy and sustainable revenue thrives on diversity be it race, religion, gender, sexual preference, or chosen profession it should strive for a membership that accurately reflects the demographics of Philadelphia. Philadelphia is a city where one in four people lives in poverty, half of those people being black, and the income gap between the wealthiest and poorest is the third highest in the nation. Yet, Fitler Clubs proposed initiation fees are $1,500 to $2,500 with accompanying monthly fees of $250 to $500. That cost of entry seems like a pretty good way to make sure the club is not reflective of the city. My former law school professor at Harvard, now-U.S. Circuit Judge David Baron, would read this and quickly remind me that correlation does not imply causation, but my childhood friend Muhammad from 49th Street, now a local real estate mogul, would quickly tell me Id be drawin to not at least bring up the point. As a lifelong Philadelphian, I do not want to see new Philadelphia millennials, whose parents fled to Bucks, Montgomery and Chester Counties, revel in the citys gentrified renaissance while the people who had to suffer through the Rizzo years, crack epidemic, and now gentrification no matter their race become outsiders looking in. That pertains to every aspect of the city, from who is flipping properties in our neighborhoods to who is able to join the new, hip social club in town. Kirkland Alexander Lynch is a lawyer, CPA (inactive), consultant, and president and chairman of Kirkland Alexander Enterprises Inc., and business affairs strategist for the Stevie Wonder Organization. I recently returned from a gathering of the worlds top security officials in Munich, Germany, deeply concerned about Americas standing in the world. Last month, I joined more than 50 senators and representatives at the Munich Security Conference. The annual gathering began in 1963, during the height of the Cold War, to bring Americans and their transatlantic allies together to discuss the worlds most pressing security challenges. It is clear from my discussions in Munich that our allies have serious doubts about American leadership and the current course of U.S. foreign policy. Its normal for us to at times disagree with our allies sometimes it can be a useful exercise to reach a better outcome. But I am worried that this administrations treatment of our allies has further alienated them at a time when we need them most. As the world evolves, we must make necessary adjustments to our foreign policy to ensure it continues to serve U.S. interests. But the United States cannot tackle much less resolve the multitude of global challenges we face on our own. We cannot stop Russian and Chinese aggression, cyber crime, terrorism, drug trafficking, global pandemics, or climate change, to name a few, without partners. The partners we have relied on over the last 70 years are those that share our values a respect for democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. Take a look at our approach on Iran. I agree with the administration that the Iranian government is a destabilizing force in the Middle East and a threat to key allies like Israel. It subjects its citizens to terrible human rights violations, flouts international norms, and supports terrorist activity recently on European soil. But this administrations decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, otherwise known as the Iran nuclear deal, imperfect though it is, has created a rift between the U.S. and our European allies that Iran is masterfully exploiting. Just consider the audible silence that met Vice President Mike Pence in Europe when he publicly lambasted our European partners for remaining in the JCPOA. Instead of working with our allies to find ways to stop destabilizing Iranian activity, the administration is publicly feuding with them. Part of this erosion in Americas standing is due to our sinking credibility. How can our allies trust in the U.S. when the president announces precipitous withdrawals from Syria and Afghanistan by tweet before consulting with our partners or Congress, much less his own advisers? What will happen the next time we ask countries to help share the burden of fighting terrorism in a country far from home? Part of our credibility gap is the result of our own domestic problems. How can our diplomats credibly encourage other governments to respect their own peoples basic rights when our president lauds authoritarian leaders, calls the press the enemy of the people, and undermines the legitimacy of his own judicial system? How will we persuade countries to act on the warnings of our intelligence agencies when the president regularly seeks to undermine and discredit them? In Munich and later in London, I met with presidents, ministers, and other top officials from around the world and made clear that there remains a strong bipartisan commitment in Congress to stand by our longtime allies and partners. I emphasized that I would do my part to try to convince the administration that it is better to work in partnership with instead of in opposition to our allies. The congressional delegation that traveled to Munich this year was named in honor of my friend Sen. John McCain, who long championed the historic ties between the U.S. and Europe. I am confident he would agree that we can keep America at the forefront while recommitting to the longstanding alliances that have advanced global peace and prosperity for 70 years. Failing to do so would be to the detriment of our own security. Chris Coons has been a U.S. senator from Delaware since 2010. IOWA CITY, Iowa Two minutes into his stump speech in this strongly Democratic college town, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., made his first of many references to President Donald Trump, calling him "the most dangerous president in modern American history." A short time later, he told the crowd that Trump "embarrasses us every day," before attacking the president's health care promises. "I know it will shock you when I tell you he lied," Sanders added. Then, at an appearance in New Hampshire on Sunday, he told the crowd how his governing style would differ from Trump's. "The underlying principles of our government will not be racism, sexism, homophobia and religious bigotry," he said. "The principles that our government will work on will be based on justice." In his first swing through Iowa and New Hampshire, Sanders has been an anomaly among the Democrats vying for the White House, as he routinely uttered two words that other candidates have often avoided: "Donald Trump." The president dominates Twitter feeds, news cycles and the political landscape in almost every corner of the country except venues where Democrats with presidential aspirations are speaking to voters. Those Democrats are strategizing about how or whether to attack Trump explicitly, and in a twist, many are uttering his name rarely if at all. Given Democrats' anger at Trump, it might seem natural for the party's hopefuls to frequently give voice to that fury. But most have concluded that they must show they can rise above ferocious attacks, especially if they hope to carry their message to a general election where not everyone shares their sentiments. It's also an attempt to learn the lessons of the 2018 midterm elections, when victorious Democrats, especially in swing districts, generally focused on issues such as health care, education and job security, which polls show voters care deeply about. Recent history suggests that getting into a verbal war with Trump often plays into his hands, as reflected in the fate of 2016 GOP rivals such as Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, whom Trump dubbed "Little Marco," and Ted Cruz of Texas, who received the moniker "Lyin' Ted." Sanders got his own nickname: "Crazy Bernie." Instead, many Democrats are taking the line that the election is about more than Trump. In a recent swing through Charleston, South Carolina, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., made little mention of the president except to urge voters to look beyond him. "I know it's so motivating to turn on the TV every day and see somebody you so disagree with," Booker said. "We have got to understand this is not about him. It's about us. We should be motivated not by what we're against but what we are for as a country." A few days later, Pete Buttigieg, the South Bend, Indiana, mayor who is weighing a presidential run, was asked by a reporter about Trump's absence from his remarks to voters in New Hampshire. "At the end of the day, if all we're talking about is him, folks in communities like mine and around here will be saying, 'OK, well, no one's talking about us,' " he said. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., has avoided using Trump's name even when she's clearly talking about him, instead decrying "powerful voices that are sowing hate and division among us" or declaring, "I will not conduct foreign policy by tweet." That makes Sanders' approach stand out. His statement that "we must defeat Donald Trump" garnered sustained applause during a speech at the Iowa Fairgrounds on Saturday, suggesting that it's a line many Democrats at least Sanders' crowd want to hear. And steering too clear of the president carries other risks. If some Republicans regretted getting into a war of words with Trump in 2016, others concluded that it had been a mistake to ignore him for much of the campaign, on the theory that he couldn't win. Sanders' language reflects his message that he's best positioned to defeat Trump, as well as an effort to assume the mantle of a front-runner who is looking ahead to the general election. "A central question for Democratic primary and caucusgoers is, who is the best candidate to take on and beat Donald Trump?" said Jeff Weaver, a senior Sanders adviser. "And I think Bernie Sanders provides a powerful contrast to Trump." But Democratic pollster Celinda Lake said Sanders' attacks risk alienating older, female and black voters. Sanders has "a 25 percent base that is fired up by this, that sent him $6 million in his first day," Lake said. "But is his job just to hang on to that base, or is his job to expand that base? I think others are going to find this too harsh too much negative and not enough about the alternatives about what the Democrats provide." Cheryl Ridgeway, a 61-year-old Iowa City resident who is undecided but leaning toward Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said she doesn't like candidates "fighting back and forth" with Trump, but she can see the need for someone who can engage him. "I want someone who appeals to our better angels, our better nature, but sometimes you've got to fight back," Ridgeway said. "I'm trying to see if they can stand up to Trump instead of kowtowing. If someone can stand up to Trump and come out on top, I think that says a lot about how they're going to deal with policy, how they're going to govern." Warren's path shows the risks of tangling with Trump, who has nearly 59 million Twitter followers. Seizing on disclosures that Warren years ago had claimed to be Native American on some documents, even though she is not a member of a tribe, the president began mocking her as "Pocahontas." In an effort to fight back, Warren in October released DNA results that showed she had a Native American ancestor, though it was between six and 10 generations ago a move that backfired. Many Cherokee leaders and other Native Americans were upset, feeling that Warren had appropriated their culture without being a part of it, and Warren later apologized. Sanders, who has drawn significant crowds, can better weather the risk because he is not introducing himself to voters, his supporters say. Other candidates' speeches include policy prescriptions wrapped in personal accounts of who they are and why they're running. For Sanders, who ran a strong primary campaign in 2016, that introduction may not be needed. What he does need, many voters said in interviews, is to convince people that a 77-year-old white man who calls himself a democratic socialist can be the 21st-century face of a younger, diversifying Democratic Party. Anti-Trump zingers set him apart from the other candidates, and they excited the crowds that endured cold, rainy weather to see Sanders in his recent Iowa swing. "Donald Trump is the elephant in the room; there's no avoiding it," said Jeff Shotwell, 67, who knocked on doors for Sanders in 2016 and attended Saturday's rally. "All of this is going to boil down to who can go head to head with Donald Trump. Don't underestimate the power of the Jerry Springer mentality." Springer's television show featured shouted, angry confrontations. Shortly after Sanders announced he was seeking the Democratic nomination, one supporter tried to turn the nickname bestowed by Trump, the 45th president, into a rallying cry. "Listen, I don't care when 45 calls him 'Crazy Bernie,' because he is a just a little crazy," said Black Lives Matter activist and writer Shaun King, who helped introduce Sanders at his kickoff event in Brooklyn this month. "And I think all of us got a little crazy in us, if you know what I mean." The Washington Posts Annie Linskey, Sean Sullivan and Chelsea Janes contributed to this article. In Minnesota's Twin Cities, Jews and Somali immigrants have been partners for decades. When Somali refugees arrived in Minnesota, starting in 1993, Jewish leaders saw echoes of their forebears who faced virulent anti-Semitism as newcomers to the state more than a century before. The communities developed strong ties, joining to fight hunger and illiteracy and raising money for one another in response to discrimination and threats of violence. Then came the election to Congress last year of Ilhan Omar, a Somali immigrant who spent four years in a refugee camp as a child and arrived in Minnesota as a teenager. An outspoken critic of Israel, Omar has courted controversy with provocative remarks that some say invoke anti-Semitic stereotypes. The pattern has alarmed many Jews, and as Omar faced yet another firestorm last week, community leaders on both sides voiced pain and confusion, fearing that the comments could damage an alliance they have spent years trying to nurture. Somali community activist Omar Jamal of St. Paul said he is in touch with local Jewish leaders about how the two sides can reaffirm their solidarity at a moment of crisis. He said that he supported Omar's congressional campaign but that her comments are "wrong, period." "She can solve this problem if she wants to," Jamal said. "This is up to Ilhan Omar. She has really spoken in a very dangerous way, and it's going to be up to her to reach out to people and fix this." The controversy has roiled the Twin Cities, where Omar, a Democrat, represents Minneapolis and its large Somali-American community, as well as several neighborhoods that have been home to Jews for generations. The liberal and racially diverse 5th Congressional District was previously represented by state Attorney General Keith Ellison, who made history as the first Muslim elected to Congress in 2006. Omar joined the House this year as one of its first two Muslim women, drawing national media attention, as well as ugly and Islamophobic attacks from the right. She has been both apologetic and defiant as she faces backlash for comments she says were intended to criticize Israel, not Jews. "I am told everyday that I am anti-American if I am not pro-Israel," Omar tweeted March 3 in response to critics. "I find that to be problematic and I am not alone. I just happen to be willing to speak up on it and open myself to attacks." This perspective has drawn sympathy from some Jews who oppose Israeli policy in the West Bank and see accusations of anti-Semitism against Omar as politically motivated attacks. But others have doubts about her underlying feelings. Steve Hunegs, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, said he recently told Omar why many Jews are offended when they are accused of dual loyalty, showing her a picture of a cousin who was killed in action during World War II. About a week later, on Feb. 27, Omar told an audience at a town hall event in Washington that accusations of anti-Semitism were meant to silence her criticism of Israel and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. She said she wanted to talk about "the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country." "It appalled me," Hunegs said. "It appalled me because we had had at least a one-way discussion in her presence with the picture of my cousin. You have to ask: Did she understand?" Omar tweeted in 2012 that Israel had "hypnotized the world" about its "evil doings" and in February that support for Israel among members of Congress was "all about the Benjamins," a reference to hundred-dollar bills. She has apologized for both tweets and said she was unaware of the phrases' dark history in reinforcing negative stereotypes about Jews. Omar and her staff have sat down with Jewish groups and leaders in recent weeks. But that has not quieted concerns among some critics. "Her words and her communications are anti-Semitic," said state Sen. Ron Latz, a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Latz, who is Jewish, spoke with Omar last year about her 2012 tweet. "I'm not going to try to judge what's in her heart, but I see the pattern of what she's saying. She clearly learned the attitude and the behavior from somewhere." Omar declined interview requests from The Post, and her office declined to answer wide-ranging written questions about her views on Israel and the criticism she has received. Senior aide Jeremy Slevin promised that a forthcoming op-ed piece in an unspecified publication would more fully explain Omar's views, and he pointed to a recent interview in which she endorsed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The first time Omar spoke publicly and at length about her views on the conflict was during a 2017 floor speech in the Minnesota House of Representatives, where she served one term representing part of Minneapolis. Omar invoked the "particular connection" between Muslims and Jews, "one that is fundamentally based on our shared space in history," while discussing a bill related to the movement to boycott Israel. "I am certainly saddened by the rise of anti-Semitism," she said. "I have been part of a community that has been raising funds to support the Jewish community in this time of need, because as my community is struggling the Jewish community has been side-by-side fighting with us." Omar, 37, has said her grandfather taught her about the history of racial oppression in South Africa. She frequently compares Israel with an "apartheid regime." "I remember my grandfather talking to me about the stories of apartheid South Africa and telling me how that conversation shifted because so many people of conscience decided that they were going to engage in boycotts of that government," she said in her 2017 floor speech. Omar's family arrived in the United States when she was 12. For four years, they had lived in the Dadaab refugee camp in eastern Kenya, home to thousands of Somalis who fled the country's bloody civil war. Latz, the Minnesota state senator, said he understands why Omar's background as a refugee has shaped her views. "The sense I get is that the Western powers were probably propping up the oppressors in her world as she was growing up," he said. "Anything she would have heard about Israel and Palestine would have been supportive of the Palestinians, many of whom were also living in refugee camps." Omar has defenders within the local Jewish community, particularly among those who have strong objections to current Israel policy. "She's not an anti-Semite," said Barry Cohen, a leader with the Twin Cities chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, which opposes Israeli occupation of the West Bank. "The way I look at it, how and why would she necessarily have an understanding of Jewish history and Israeli history in any depth any more than any member of Congress has understanding or knowledge of Somali history or culture? This is politics in its ugliest form." On Capitol Hill, the House responded to Omar's comments Thursday by passing a broad measure condemning hatred. Asked Friday about the controversies, several Somali Americans in Minneapolis came to Omar's defense, particularly in light of a poster discovered this month at the West Virginia Capitol that featured an image of her underneath one of the World Trade Center towers in flames on Sept. 11. "Ilhan has nothing to do with that. That's not what America stands for," said Abdi Ali, 40, who runs the Barwaaqo Juice and Coffee shop in Minneapolis's Midtown Phillips neighborhood. Of the criticism Omar faces, Ali said: "I think Ilhan is a soft target because of her background being Muslim, black, immigrant." Jamal, the Somali community activist, said Omar's use of allegedly anti-Semitic stereotypes does not reflect his community's view of Jews. He wrote a column in 2014 urging Somali Americans to reject anti-Semitism. "Of course, she has every right to offer opinions about the state of Israel, but I think this was beyond that and I think we completely disagree with it," he said. The Washington Post Rachael Bade in Washington and Alexandra Baumhardt in Minneapolis contributed to this article. German real estate company Medici Living Group plans so-called coliving apartments with communal kitchens and bathrooms over an Alex Rodriguez-backed fitness studio at the former site of a beer distributor in Northern Liberties. Medici, of Berlin, has a lease to operate the six-story building under construction at Germantown Avenue and North American Street as apartments under its Quarters coliving brand, it said in a release on Monday. Medici already operates Quarters locations in New York and Chicago. Its Philadelphia expansion comes after a $300 million investment that also will allow the company to open new locations in cities such as Washington D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles, it said. The Philadelphia project will consist of 186 units across 74 shared two- and four-bedroom flats, of 550- and 1,064-square-feet, respectively, it said. Residents or members, in the companys parlance share kitchens and bathroom. Other communal spaces include a roof deck, lounge, espresso bar, and shared offices, it said. The building is being developed by an ownership group that includes Philadelphia businesswoman Dana Spain, who had previously planned a more conventional apartment project with fewer units at what used to be the site of the Global Beer Distribution beer store. The project is also to include a branch of Las Vegas-based fitness chain TruFusion, which counts former New York Yankee star Rodriguez among its financial backers. The fitness club will be on the buildings ground floor and in part of its basement, which Spain said would be a yoga sanctuary." New Zealand Disorder: Queenstown Burning: Soren Farenholtz - 2018: Skywire - Sam Blenkinsop: Spencer Wight - Flight Path: Fitzgerald Mountain - Springdale, Arkansas: MCBP - Stranger Days Ahead: William Flandrin - Testing Session: Chris Akrigg and the Envoy: Abstract 2 - Alius: Harry Campbell - MTB Edit: Tripin' The Movie: Corey Walsh - Pedal Fast: Corey Walsh - Full Speed Through Portugal: Dylan Rieder - A Time To Shine: Dylan Rieder - True Blue: Weird Waves Season 1 - The Eisbach: Every Single Street With Rickey Gates: Eli: The Fifty - Ep. 4. Hypodermic Needle: Contraddiction: Couch fires, shralping, shenanigans, and more. One month in Queenstown with the boys. It doesn't get much better than this!Some fall riding captured by Matty Miles.Blenky has the best style.In between university classes, Spencer Wight has been logging some serious air miles (at least before the snow arrived). He was kind enough to get in front of my lens knowing I had never filmed a rider other than myself before! Video: Max McCulloch.Imagine ribbons of dirt punctuated by stretches of boulders that have been expertly knit together into undulating waves of trail. Thats what youll get at Fitzgerald Mountain, just east of downtown Springdale. Fitzgeralds many features run the gamut, from a strider course for kids just starting to learn to bike to some of the largest expert-level features in the country.We're celebrating 20 years of downhill this season at Mountain Creek and we're looking forward to stranger days ahead with you all. Opening day Friday, April 19th.This is how William rides local trails in France.Chris Akrigg takes our cargo bike, the Envoy out for a spin in typical Akrigg fashion. @ChrisAkrigg Abstract is my mixtape. Collecting footage for a year on my own time and allowing myself to try new things. Experimenting with different ideas and songs. I try not to take things too seriously, making a project for myself because it's what I love to do. Spent a lot of time making this one, hope you enjoy it!Filmed by Dirt Wars and MTB legend Cliff Barbeary at Rocket World one sunny Sunday afternoon.Directed by Frank Marbet and Stevie Schneider.Sometimes you immediately know when a rider has something special. Watch this edit and you will feel the same...Straight after placing second at the Vans BMX Pro Cup in Malaga, Corey Walsh headed to Portugal. He cruised around with Robin Pearson (filmer), Jason Watts, and a great crew, riding concrete, camping wild, roasting transitions, and having a badass time.In his prime "Golden Boy" era, Dylan shone brightly in the last part in our 2006 video. Shortly after ATTS came out, Alien Workshop turned Dylan pro and he went on to one of the most stylish, influential, and iconic careers skateboarding has ever seen - cut way too short due to complications with leukemia. Rest in peace, Dylan. We love you forever.RIP.For the Weird Waves Season 1 finale, Dylan Graves, Tanner Gudauskas, and Keoni Lasa decide to go to the birth place of stand up river surfing, Munich, Germany. They meet up with local pro Tao Schirrmacher who plugs them into the local scene at the Eisbach River.Rickey Gates decided to run every single street in San Francisco - to get to know a very small area of America, as well as its people, intimately. With over 1100 miles of street the film documents Rickeys journey, and the people he meets along the way, as he runs through one of the most iconic and diverse cities in the world.As a rancher growing up in the rugged northeast corner of the Navajo Nation with no electricity or running water, Eli Neztsosie learned through years of work what it meant to rely on discipline and endurance. Now he relies on these same skills as an ultrarunner - striving every day, in his words, to be better than he was the day before.After a quick jaunt to the deserts of Nevada, the crew returns to Utah for a long walk and narrow ski. The goal, to ski a line that many have gawked at but few have gone to. Joining up with Cody is Pep Fujas, who fulfills a dream 16 years in the making and Ian Provo, a Wasatch backcountry ninja. Starring Pep Fujas, Ian Provo, and Cody Townsend.Contraddiction - a complicated reflection on snowboarding's beautiful simplicity.Photo: Kelley Hale Photo To check out videos submitted by fellow Pinkbike members that didn't quite make Movie Mondays here Written by Andrew Jones When you think about it, Italy having one of the worlds biggest and best bike shows makes total sense. Like Japan with their bullet trains and the Swiss being so good at watches, motorcycles seem to be at the very heart of the Italian psyche. And one visit to a show like Motor Bike Expo 2019 only drives the point home. Its not wall-to-wall factory bikes or a bunch of business types shifting units and exchanging email addresses. Its honest-to-goodness, grass-roots passion and real builders proudly displaying their blood, sweat and tears rendered in metal. Heres some photo highlights. As much as wed like to toot our own horn, were going to refrain from revisiting the 2019 Pipeburn stand we did enough of that while we were there. Needless to say that we went bigger and better than last year with a premium selection of bikes and guests, including killer builds from Londons Auto Fabrica, Swiss luminaries VTR Customs, Germanys Kingston Customs, Belgique boffin Bernard Mont, Viba Motors Yann, the very fun Jack Watkins and our good mate Dave from Bottpower. Thanks to all of them for supporting us. Our brief from the shows organisers was simple find Europes best bikes outside of italy for that particular year and get them at the show. As exciting as this may seem, its never easy having to exclude local Italian builders from our selezione della competizione. Luckily, the cream of the Italiano crop made an appearance, including the always amazing Filippo from Officine Rossopuro, Phonz and Marco for Anvil Motociclette and Dopz from Romes Emporio Elaborazioni. Some other show highlights included the amazing Royal Enfield 650 Twin from Rough Crafts, DNAs Billet Sting CNCd BMW R nineT, Abnormal Cycles NSU grass tracker and XTR Pepos silly cool Ducati Monster 821. Oh, and lets not forget Messner Motos super sweet CB750. But the one factory bike we really wanted to see was sadly absent. Thatd be the Harley-Davidson LiveWire; its likeness was plastered all over their stand, but two very exasperated-looking Harley Italy employees grimaced when they told us that no, it wasnt making an appearance. The other factory bike that grabbed our attention an thats been on our radar for a while was Hondas new-ish CB1000R. You have to hand it to the brand they dont run with the bulls, but when they put their mind to something, they can really hit them out of the park. And while weve not seen any customised examples as of yet, watch this space to see that oversight rectified in the near future. The legendary Shinya Kimura also dropped by the Pipeburn stand to say hello. As quiet and sensei-ish as ever, he walked straight towards Bernard Monts Nowhere Faster Ducati Sprint racer and proceeded to talk tech with the man himself. Some guys have all the luck. Yes, the celebs can get you all hot and bothered but some of the most enjoyable exchanges were with Signore e Signori Joe Pubblico, who invariably ended their half English, half Italian chats with the word, Complimenti! [superquote]The legendary Shinya Kimura also dropped by the Pipeburn stand to say hello.[/superquote] And my personal highlight? It may not seem like much, but meeting the inimitable Jose XTR Pepo Rosell, seeing his incredibly beautiful Ducati in the flesh and then having the very talented German photographer Marc Holstein shoot it on the spot was the stuff of custom bike dreams. Ticking things off your bucket list that quickly can be quite disorentating. Note to self: when you get a bunch of the worlds best talents together in the one room, amazing things tend to happen. So, if youre reading this and you live anywhere within a days ride of Verona, you owe it to yourself to take a long weekend off and pay it a visit next year. Snowy alpine passes willing, the show is big enough to keep even the most picky of visitors entertained. And if you run out of brain space to process all the cool bikes youll see, theres always the option to see the city itself. If it was good enough for Romeo and Juliet, its good enough for us. See you there. [ Motor Bike Expo Facebook Instagram Tickets | Photos by MBE, Christine Gabler & Marc Holstein ] Follow the Action from Lex Live Spring Festival Main Event at PokerNews March 11, 2019 Matthew Pitt PokerNews is delighted to inform you our live reporting team is heading to the Grand Casino de Namur in Belgium to bring you all the action from the inaugural Lex Live Sping Festival Main Event. Lex Live Spring Festival runs from March 27-31 and is a new live tournament series hosted by Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis. The 225 buy-in Main Event sees players sit down with 50,000 chips and play to a 30-minute clock on three starting flights, with 15-minute blinds on Day 1D then 45-minute blinds thereafter. Veldhuis has worked tirelessly to increase his presence on the streaming channel Twitch and has seen his community grow exponentially over the past few years. When my community starting growing on Twitch, people started talking about having a meet-up where everyone could meet each other and hang out," explained Veldhuis. "It's cool to be able to take the next step and strengthen the relationships. Lex Live Spring Festival Schedule Date Time Event Buy-in Clock Starting stack Wed 27 March 6:00 p.m. Lex Live Main Event Day 1A 225 30 mins 50,000 7:30 p.m. Satellite to Main Event Hit and run 60 20 mins 10,000 10:00 p.m. Lex Live Main Event Day 1A turbo 225 15 mins 50,000 Thurs 28 March 6:00 p.m. Main Event Day 1B 225 30 mins 50,000 8:00 p.m. Satellite to Main Event Hit and run 60 20 mins 10,000 10:00 p.m. Flip out satellite 60 10:00 p.m. Lex Live Main Event Day 1B turbo 225 15 mins 50,000 Fri 29 March 4:00 p.m. Satellite to Main Event Hit and run 60 15 mins 10,000 6:00 p.m. Main Event Day 1C 225 30 mins 50,000 8:00 p.m. FU Friday Flip 60 10 mins 15,000 9:00 p.m. Main Event Day 1D 225 15 mins 50,000 10:00 p.m. Lex Live Main Event Day 1C turbo 225 15 mins 50,000 Sat 30 March 4:00 p.m. Main Event Day 2 45 mins 5:00 p.m. PLO Omaha 170 20 mins 15,000 6:00 p.m. Lex Live eSports sit and go 7:00 p.m. Progressive Bounty 115 20 mins 15,000 8:00 p.m. The Golden Beaker High Roller Day 1 550 30 mins 25,000 Sun 31 March 3:00 p.m. Main Event Day 3 Final Table 45 mins 3:30 p.m. The Golden Beaker High Roller Day 2 30 mins 4:00 p.m. SUPER SUNDAY 65 20 mins 20,000 While the tournament will have plenty of fierce competition for big bucks, Veldhuis sees his Main Event as a way to interact and have fun with his ever-growing community. "There are so many different kinds of people from all walks of life in the channel," he explained. "There are people who come home from work and always watch for an hour, and others who always watch on their lunch break. There are those who have it on in the background while they are working at home, people day trading and doing other things online. It's a very relaxed, fun environment with little to no toxicity, so people are very comfortable chatting and it's a great community." Community members have stepped up to support one another during difficult times as well as to celebrate each other's successes. "People really develop relationships," said Veldhuis. "I feel like we're ready to take the next step with the community, and having a live event is a good next step." Qualify for the Lex Live Spring Festival Main Event PokerStars is hosting several online satellites feeding into the 225 buy-in Main Event. These 3.30 buy-in Lex Live (Belgium) Satellites run at 5:10 p.m. CET March 12-16 with two more scheduled for 3:30 p.m. CET and 5:25 p.m. CET on March 17. The 3.30 satellites award 22 ticket to the Lex Live (Belgium) MEGA Satellite on 5:15 p.m. CET on March 17 that has five packages, worth 1,100 each, guaranteed. The package grants its winner the 225 Main Event buy-in and five nights hotel accommodation with the remaining money given for expenses. The Stars Group is a majority shareholder in iBus Media Sunday Briefing: Combes Runner-Up in Sunday Million, Boivin 2nd in High Roller Gladiator March 11, 2019 Matthew Pitt Some big prizes were awarded this weekend with the high roller action once again taking place at Natural8. Lets check it this weeks mammoth-sized hauls with PokerStars up first, followed by partypoker, 888poker, and Natural8. PokerStars $109 Sunday Million Date March 10th Buy-in $109 Guarantee $1,000,000 Entrants 10,469 Prize pool $1,046,900 ITM 1,826 The cut price PokerStars Sunday Million continues to be popular with 10,469 players turning out for it this week, creating a $1,046,900 prize pool as a result, impressive for a $109 buy-in tournament. That $109 investment was worth $7,808 by the time the nine-handed final table was reached and was the prize awarded to ninth-place finisher Donborno3250 of Denmark. United Kingdoms Bluestarze was the first player to lock up a five-figure prize, their eighth-place finish awarding them $10,860 and the prize money increased rapidly from that point onwards. Gyony77nyc busted in seventh-place for $15,105 with Niklas Kley Kley turning their $109 into $21,008 follo0wing his exit in sixth-place. Russian grinder Kazeev S.S fell in fifth-place and locked up a cool $29,218 before the first of two Brazilians at the final table, Iforoni saw their tournament come to an abrupt end in fourth-place for $40,637. The second Brazilian, vcezar collected $56,518 after falling in third-place, setting up a heads-up battle between the UKs Charlie JIZOINT Combes and Lithuanias BalticMoose. Combes, who has several major online titles to his name, including the Super Tuesday, fell in second-place but not before striking a deal that saw him bank $83,813, leaving the Lithuanian to walk away with a massive $104,126 and the title of Sunday Million champion. Place Player Country Prize 1 BalticMoose Lithuania $104,126* 2 Charlie JIZOINT Combes United Kingdom $83,813* 3 vcezar Brazil $56,518 4 Iforoni Brazil $40,637 5 Kazeev S.S Russia $29,218 6 Niklas Kley Kley Sweden $21,008 7 gyony77nyc Romania $15,105 8 Bluestarze United Kingdom $10,860 9 Donborno3250 Denmark $7,808 * reflects a heads-up deal Charlie JIZOINT Combes finished runner-up for $83,813* PokerStars $2,100 Sunday High Roller Date March 10th Buy-in $2,100 Guarantee $200,000 Entrants 112 Prize pool $224,000 ITM 13 Swedens anteen was another player who won big this Sunday thanks to outlasting a star-studded field of 112 players in the $2,100 Sunday High Roller. What made the Swedes victory all the more impressive was they managed it on their one bullet, despite several other players firing three $2,100 shots at the prize pool. Again, the final table was a whos who of online poker with Artem veeea Vezhenkov being the first player to fall at the nine-handed final table. Moldovas silentm0de crashed out in eighth-place with Dominik Bounatirou Nitsche exiting in seventh-place for the second week running, this one worth $10,593. Any of the final six players would have been a worthy champion, but tournament poker only allows for one winner. Laszlo omaha4rollz Bujtas collected $13,793 for his sixth-place finish, CrazyLissy of Russia fell short and busted in fifth-place for $17,959 while Kristen krissyb24 Bicknell turned her $2,100 into $23,384. Luke Bit2Easy Reeves fired three bullets and turned those into $30,447, leaving Ivan Negriin Luca and anteen to battle for the lions share of the prize pool. It was a fight the Swede went on to win, securing the $51,617 top prize and resigning Luca to a $39,643 consolation prize. Place Player Country Prize 1 anteen Sweden $51,617 2 Ivan Negriin Luca Argentina $39,643 3 Luke Bit2Easy Reeves United Kingdom $30,447 4 Kristen krissyb24 Bicknell Canada $23,384 5 CrazyLissy Russia $17,959 6 Laszlo omaha4rollz Bujtas Hungary $13,793 7 Dominik Bounatirou Nitsche United Kingdom $10,593 8 silentm0de Moldova $8,136 9 Artem veeea Vezhenkov Russia $6,248 Ivan Negriin Luca finished runner-up for $39,643 partypoker Sunday High Roller Gladiator: $250K Gtd Date March 10th Buy-in $2,100 Guarantee $250,000 Entrants 123 Prize pool $252,150 ITM 16 Over at partypoker, Moldovan pro nipa3p3 walked away $61,307 richer thanks to taking down the $250,000 guaranteed Sunday High Roller Gladiator tournament. Some 123-players bought in for $2,100 and saw the guarantee surpassed by $2,150. There were plenty of big names at the final table, as you would expect from such a high buy-in affair. Rudiqa1 of Latvia was the final tables first casualty, their eighth-place was worth $15,848 when bounties were taken into consideration. Chelsea72 is a regular in partypokers bigger buy-in tournaments, and they fell in seventh-place for $10,605 before IamPEAKing of Costa Rica busted in sixth-place for a $7,137 haul. Fifth-place and $9,646 went to dean23price before Finlands Samuel JHelppi Vousden crashed out in fourth-spot for a $22,597 addition to his bankroll. Vousden was joined on the sidelines by onehundredeyes who scored a $26,408 prize, which set up a one-on-one encounter between UK-based Belgian Thomas chaAt Boivin and nipa3p3. Boivin busted in second-place for $28,841, leaving nipa3p3 to bank $61,307. Place Player Country Prize Bounty Prize Total Prize 1 nipa3p3 Moldova $23,157 $38,160 $61,307 2 Thomas chaAat Boivin United Kingdom $23,132 $5,709 $28,841 3 onehundredeyes Austria $16,532 $9,876 $26,408 4 Samuel JHelppi Vousden Finland $11,572 $11,025 $22,597 5 dean23price Netherlands $8,596 $1,050 $9,646 6 IamPEAKing Costa Rica $6,612 $525 $7,137 7 Chelsea72 Austria $5,290 $5,315 $10,605 8 rudiqa1 Latvia $4,298 $11,550 $15,848 Thomas chaAat Boivin fnished runner-up for $28,841 partypoker Sunday High Roller Deepstack: $200K Gtd Date March 10th Buy-in $1,050 Guarantee $200,000 Entrants 203 Prize pool $203,000 ITM 32 Three players from the United Kingdom reached the eight-handed final table of the Sunday High Roller Deepstack, a $200,000 guaranteed affair that saw 203 players buy in for $1,050. Team partypokers Roberto WelshWizard Romanello was the first of the British trio to bust from this event, eventually falling in fifth-place for $11,165; Romanello was the first player in the tournament to win a five-figure score. Russia pair justkot and aLiNeNok1617 then fell in fourth and third-place respectively, turning their $1,050 investments into $15,834 and $21,416, leaving a British duo as the last two players standings. BigPescado69 and CardiffPhil fought one-on-one for the title and it was the latter who emerged victorious, banking a cool $41,391 and leaving the runner-up to collect a still welcomed $30,044. Place Player Country Prize 1 CardiffPhil United Kingdom $41,391 2 BigPescado69 United Kingdom $30,044 3 aLiNeNok1617 Russia $21,416 4 justkot Russia $15,834 5 Roberto WelshWizard Romanello United Kingdom $11,165 6 whresmymind Brazil $8,526 7 KryptoKing420 Canada $6,293 8 SchelampigaUhu Austria $4,669 Roberto WelshWizard Romanello finished fifth for $11,165 888poker $100,000 Mega Deep Date March 10th Buy-in $215 Guarantee $100,000 Entrants 510 Prize pool $102,000 ITM 45 Now to 888poker where DeuceofDuc0 finished on top of a 510-strong field in the $100,000 Mega Deep, a finish worth $19,737. Everyone at the nine-handed final table was guaranteed at least $1,785, the sum Tim REALTTWIST Kelly walked away with. Kelly was joined in the showers by LucySagara70, Lik3az0mbY, last weeks champion DubaiPrince4 and nitGMmator, the latter scooping $5,814. A prize weighing in at $8,415 was awarded to Brazils ivanlimeira when they fell in fourth-place, and the first five-figure prize went to komarolo222 of Uruguay who busted in third-place for $11,220. DeuceofDuc0 defeated Germanys Barkley83 heads-up for the title, leaving the German to collect $14,790. Place Player Country Prize 1 DeuceofDuc0 $19,737 2 Barkley83 Germany $14,790 3 komarolo222 Uruguay $11,220 4 ivanlimeira Brazil $8,415 5 nitGMmator Brazil $5,814 6 DubaiPrince4 Norway $4,488 7 Lik3az0mbY Germany $3,468 8 LucySagara70 $2,448 9 Tim REALTTWIST Kelly Canada $1,785 888poker $50,000 Sunday Whale Date March 10th Buy-in $1,050 Guarantee $50,000 Entrants 59 Prize pool $59,000 ITM 6 After reaching the final table of the $100,000 Mega Deep, Canadas Tim REALTTWIST Kelly navigated his way to a second-place finish in the $50,000 Sunday Whale. Only six of the 55 starters received prize money, wisimaki being the first player to bust inside the money, so a $3,245 haul was theirs. Malta-based pro Farrugia_1 has enjoyed many big results at 888poker and added $4,425 to their winnings there courtesy of a fifth-place finish, while Simon IggyGak Pedersen turned their $1,050 into $5,900 after falling in fourth-place. Ukrainian superstar Roman Romeopro33 Romanovskiy collected the $8,850 third-place prize, with Kelly banking $14,750 for his runner-up finish. This meant the champion, tmurdah secured a $21,830 prize for being the last player standing. Place Player Country Prize 1 tmurdah $21,830 2 Tim REALTTWIST Kelly Canada $14,750 3 Roman Romeopro33 Romanovskiy Ukraine $8,850 4 Simon IggyGak Pedersen Denmark $5,900 5 Farrugia_1 Malta $4,425 6 wisimaki United Kingdom $3,245 Natural8 Sunday Blade $10K Date March 10th Buy-in $10,000 Guarantee $200,000 Entrants 38 Prize pool $368,600 ITM 5 FuTimReilly of Austria helped themselves to a $122,954 prize by winning the Natural 8 Sunday Blade $10K on Mar. 10. It was a $10,000 tournament that saw 38 entries and a $368,600 prize pool that was shared among the top five finishers. Thailands ImLividBuddy burst the money bubble, paving the way for SasukeUchina to bank the $23,169 fifth-place prize. He was joined on the sidelines by AceKing41 who collected $36,808 only a week after finishing second in this event for $83,125. Third-place went to NONAMES of Mexico, a finish worth $58,478 which left FuTim Reilly and Canadas Shark Bait to lock horns heads-up. The heads-up duo struck a deal for the remaining prize pool that saw Shark bait walk away with $127,189, slightly more than the $122,954 the champion FuTimRielly secured. Place Player Country Prize 1 FuTimReilly Austria $122,954* 2 Shark Bait Canada $127,189* 3 NONAMES Mexico $58,478 4 AceKing41 Canada $36,808 5 SasukeUchina Canada $23,169 Natural8 Sunday Blade $5K Date March 10th Buy-in $5,000 Guarantee $200,000 Entrants 55 Prize pool $261,250 ITM 7 This weekends Sunday Blade $5K was another tournament at Natural8 to smash its guarantee thanks to 55 players creating a $261,250 prize pool shared among the top seven finishers. A min-cash weighed in at $10,844, the prize gifted to carsonwentz for his seventh-place finish. A larger $15,021 is now nestled in the Natural8 account of 0milly of the United Kingdom after they busted in sixth-place, while baita of Brazil took home $20,809 for their fifth-place bust out. Representing Costa Rica was TexasPete whose tournament ended in fourth-place, a finish worth $28,825 before NONAMES, fresh from a $58,478 cash in the Sunday Blade $10K, dusted off their stack in third-place for an additional $39,930. There was no heads-up deal despite a near $35,000 difference between first and second-place. This meant when Dutch player ExclusiveA fell in second-place, they banked $55,312 leaving ImLividBuddy to scoop the $90,506 top prize. Place Player Country Prize 1 ImLividBuddy Thailand $90,506 2 ExclusiveA Netherlands $55,312 3 NONAMES Mexico $39,930 4 TexasPete Costa Rica $28,825 5 baita Brazil $20,809 6 0milly UNited Kingdom $15,021 7 carsonwentz Mexico $10,844 The Stars Group is a majority shareholder in iBus Media Timothy Adams Wins Triton Jeju Main Event; Koon Adds Another Win March 11, 2019 Jason Glatzer Not one but two massive events were wrapped up in Jeju, South Korea this weekend. Both the Main Event and refresh event saw big name players come out on top. Timothy Adams Wins Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Jeju HKD 2,000,000 Main Event Timothy Adams won the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Jeju HKD 2,000,000 Main Event for HKD 27,760,500 ($3,536,550) after agreeing to a deal with Bryn Kenney during heads-up play. Adams: "I obviously had to run very, very good, as I think most people have to to win a poker tournament. Im thrilled that its me." This was the largest single cash for Adams, who now has more than $14 million in live tournament earnings. "To win, it feels amazing," Adams said to Triton Poker after his win. "I obviously had to run very, very good, as I think most people have to to win a poker tournament. Im thrilled that its me." The tournament attracted 48 entries, including 16 reentries, to generate a HKD 90,204,000 ($11,491,541) prize pool. A total of six players cashed with the top five walking away with at least $1 million. 2019 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Jeju HKD 2,000,000 Main Event Results Place Player Country Prize (HKD) Prize (USD) 1 Timothy Adams Canada HKD 27,760,500* $3,536,550* 2 Bryn Kenney United States HKD 24,039,500* $3,062,513* 3 Dan Smith United States HKD 13,600,000 $1,732,572 4 Peter Jetten Canada HKD 10,390,000 $1,323,634 5 David Peters United States HKD 8,150,000 $1,038,269 6 Isaac Haxton United States HKD 6,300,000 $802,589 *Reflects heads-up deal. 2019 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Jeju HKD 2,000,000 Main Event Final Day Recap According to Triton Poker, Adams entered the six-max final table with a commanding chip lead with 107 big blinds followed by Kenney with 64 big blinds. Peter Jetten, Dan Smith and David Peters were closely bunched at the bottom of the pack with 12-16 big blind stacks while Isaac Haxton entered the final table with 25 big blinds. A player was eliminated on the very first hand, and it wasn't one of the shorter stacked players. Instead, Haxton was the first to go in sixth place for HKD 6,300,000 ($802,589) after he three-bet jammed ace-ten and couldn't get there against Kenney's kings. Kenney: "Thats the nastiest run-out Ive ever seen." On the very next hand, Peters was eliminated in fifth place for HKD 8,150,000 ($1,038,269). He jammed for 10 big blinds from the small blind with ace-three and couldn't hold after Jetten called with king-ten suited from the big blind. Jetten was the next to go in fourth place for HKD 10,390,000 ($1,323,634). He jammed with king-nine suited on a king-high flop and was eliminated after Kenney called with a set holding pocket kings. Smith was ousted in third place for HKD 13,600,000 ($1,732,572) after his king-eight couldn't get there against Kenney's ace-deuce. Kenney entered heads-up play in a marginal chip lead against Adams before the duo agreed to a deal with each player locking up more than $3,000,000 and about $500,000 left to play. Adams then delivered Kenney a horrific cooler when his eight-five gave him a higher full house than Kenney's ace-four with two fours coming on the flop followed by a five on the turn and another five on the river. "Thats the nastiest run-out Ive ever seen," said Kenney after the hand. Bryn Kenney Kenney surrendered the rest of his chips making a hero call with ace-high only to run into a queen-high flush held by Adams. "Its kind of standard," Adams said about the final hand. "I was obviously very thrilled to get called." Despite Kenney's frustrations during heads-up play, he did walk away with a massive runner-up prize of HKD 24,039,500 ($3,062,513), while Adams became the latest Triton Poker High Roller Series Main Event champion. Adams shared he felt good about the win especially considering the difficulty of the field. "It feels really good," Adams said after the win. "Im really tired right now, three really grueling days of poker. The field was really tough. The best players in the world were in the field." Jason Koon Wins Second Triton Poker Series Jeju Event Triton Poker Ambassador Jason Koon continued his dominance at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Jeju at Landing Casino over the weekend. He won the Triton Refresh HKD 1,000,000 No Limit Hold'em Event for HK$7,640,160 ($973,306). Koon agreed to a heads-up deal with Stephen Chidwick, who due to his chip advantage at the time walked away with a higher prize of HK$8,859,840 ($1,128,685). Koon: "Its ridiculous to sign up for six tournaments and turn up and final table four of them, and win two of them" This marks the second Triton Poker Super Series Jeju title after previously winning the Triton Poker Super Series Jeju HKD 1,000,000 Short Deck Ante-Only event for HK$22,300,000 ($2,840,945) and has notched up four final tables in the six events he has played. Koon claims he ran fire hot to achieve this amazing performance. "Its ridiculous to sign up for six tournaments and turn up and final table four of them, and win two of them," Koon said. "It doesnt happen very often. Ive run extremely, extremely well, but thats what has to happen. Some weeks you run good, this week I ran fire hot." The event attracted 25 entries including three reentries to generate a HK$ 23,500,000 ($2,993,745) prize pool. The tournament was originally scheduled to play over the course of two days, but organizers changed it to a one-day event while adding an extra event to the schedule. 2019 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Jeju HKD 1,000,000 Triton Refresh Results Place Player Country Prize (HKD) Prize (USD) 1 Jason Koon United States HKD 7,640,160* $973,306* 2 Stephen Chidwick United Kingdom HKD 8,859,840* $1,128,685* 3 Paul Phua Malaysia HKD 4,200,000 $535,052 4 Michael Addamo Australia HKD 2,800,000 $356,702 *Reflects heads-up deal. 2019 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Jeju HKD 1,000,000 Triton Refresh Final Table Action Michael Soyza, who already won an event this festival, fell short of the money in fifth place in cruel fashion after his ace-queen couldn't hold against the ace-jack held by Paul Phua. After the bubble burst, Phua was in the chip lead with Koon at the bottom of the pack. Phua expanded his chip lead further after eliminating Michael Addamo in fourth place for HKD 2,800,000 ($356,702). Koon and Chidwick battled before Chidwick eliminated Phua in third place for HKD 4,200,000 ($535,052). Koon and Chidwick agreed to a deal with the latter earning a bit more due to his chip lead. With only the trophy left to play for, Koon and Chidwick struck a new deal with the tournament organizers allowing them both to go all-in. Koon finished on top and added his second Triton Poker Super Series Jeju trophy to his collection. "Its been a dream week," Koon said. "It was incredible, it was amazing." Jason Koon # And it's a wrap! # Thank you all who tuned in for #TritonJeju2019 ## Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) * Images and hand data courtesy of Triton Poker. 1.1k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Republicans are making it clear that they are scared of Beto ORourke by running ads against him in Iowa before he is a declared candidate. Republicans Fear Beto ORourke Politico reported: The anti-tax Club for Growth is expected to begin airing a two-minute commercial in Iowa this week aimed at dampening liberal support for ORourke, whos expected to enter the race any day. The spot paints the former Texas congressman as a politician dripping with white male privilege whos undeserving of the comparisons hes drawing to Barack Obama. .. The decision to go after ORourke, whose spokesman didnt respond to a request for comment, reflects a fear that he would mobilize the millennial and suburban voters who powered the Democratic 2018 House takeover and imperil Trumps reelection. Republicans would be at risk of losing Texas if ORourke is the Democratic standard bearer, said Club for Growth President David McIntosh. Beto ORourke is the anti-Trump If there is one unannounced candidate on the Democratic side who could catch fire and have an Obama-like rise to the nomination, it is Beto ORourke. Former Rep. ORouke would put Texas in play for Democrats because Trump is the least popular Republican president in the state in the modern presidential election era. ORourke can mobilize young voters, Democrats, minorities, and outside of Joe Biden, he has the best chance of mobilizing the Obama coalition. Beto ORourke is young, energetic, charismatic, well spoken, and he emotionally connects. Donald Trump has none of these characteristics. Republicans fear Beto because ORourke could beat Trump. It is not the smartest idea for Republicans to be telegraphing their fears so openly, but the GOP is trying to protect their corrupt and sinking president, which means that they are going to try to sabotage any Democrat who they think can beat Trump. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook 1.8k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Sen. Maize Hirono said on Sunday that Mueller is not the be all and end all and that investigations into Trump will continue after Mueller is done. Hirono said on MSNBC, I think there are legitimate areas of investigation the House has to pursue. The Mueller investigation, really, he was focused on the Russian interference with our elections and any cooperation, collaboration by the Trump Organization, that is a relatively limited scope, although out of the Mueller investigation there are other investigations being conducted in U.S. Attorneys offices in Washington, D.C. And in New York. There are so many areas of inquiry. Therefore, were not looking at the Mueller investigation as be all and end all. There will be other investigations that must continue. Video: Democrats are going to continue to investigate Trump no matter what Mueller finds. https://t.co/cl41dubzGo pic.twitter.com/lYpxT1ryJP PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) March 11, 2019 Sen. Hirono went on to list campaign spending violation, his foundation, money raised for his inauguration, and Emoluments Clause violations as continued areas of investigation for Democrats beyond Mueller. Even if Mueller wraps up his investigation tomorrow and finds no conspiracy with Russia. There are at least a dozen other potential investigations that must continue beyond Russia. Mueller is the tip of the iceberg. There are years worth of probing and investigative pain heading straight for Donald Trump, his business, and his family. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook 877 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Barack Obamas Vice President Joe Biden has a commanding lead over the rest of the field of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates in Michigan, according to a new poll. The Emerson College poll shows Biden leading all announced and unannounced candidates by a large margin. In fact he has a 17 percent lead over the second place finisher, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Biden received the backing of 40 percent of registered Michigan voters who participated in the new survey. This is an unusually large number given that respondents were asked to choose among 14 different candidates, including someone else. Sanders came in a distant second with 23 percent of Michigan voters supporting the Vermont senator who ran a very strong presidential campaign against Hillary Clinton in 2016. Ironically, Biden has not yet formally announced that he will be running for the White House next year. It is widely assumed, however, that he will enter the 2020 Democratic race by the end of this month. Michigan is seen as a key state for Democrats in 2020, given that Donald Trump won it by just 10,000 votes in the 2016 presidential election. Behind the two elderly white male frontrunners came two younger women: Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) with 12 percent of the vote and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) with 11 percent. None of the other candidates received more than 5 percent support among Michigan Democrats, the poll found. If Biden does not enter the race for the 2020 nomination, many of his supporters would move to Sanders. According to the poll, 42 percent of registered Michigan Democratic voters would cast their primary ballots for Sanders if Biden doesnt run. Sanders is followed by Harris with 23 percent and Warren with 18 percent. Sanders scored an upset victory over eventual Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Michigan Primary, beating the former First Lady by one percentage point. The Emerson poll also showed each of the top Democratic candidates beating Trump in Michigan in a potential 2020 matchup. Biden would defeat Trump by the widest margin, according to the poll, with 54 percent of the vote to Trumps 46 percent. When Trump won Michigan in 2016 it was the first time the state had gone for a Republican presidential candidate since 1984. 764 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Fox News has condemned outrageous remarks by host Jeanine Pirro over the weekend suggesting that Rep. Ilhan Omar supports Sharia law in defiance of the U.S. Constitution because she wears a hijab. We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirros comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar, Fox News said in a public statement. They do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly. Pirros comments came on her weekly broadcast Saturday during a segment criticizing Omar, who is Muslim. The Minnesota congresswoman recently made statements about Israel that have provoked bipartisan repudiation. They also led to a House resolution condemning bigotry. Omar in 2018 became one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, along with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). On her show Saturday Pirro said: Shes not getting this anti-Israel sentiment doctrine from the Democrat Party. So if its not rooted in the party, where is she getting it from? Think about it. Omar wears a hijab, which according to the Quran 33:59 tells women to cover so they wont get molested. Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution? A Muslim who works at Fox News as a producer also added her voice to those criticizing Pirro for her comments about Rep. Omars hijab. Hufsa Kamal Khan wrote on Twitter: @JudgeJeanine can you stop spreading this false narrative that somehow Muslims hate America or women who wear a hijab arent American enough? You have Muslims working at the same network you do, including myself. K thx. @JudgeJeanine can you stop spreading this false narrative that somehow Muslims hate America or women who wear a hijab arent American enough? You have Muslims working at the same network you do, including myself. K thx. https://t.co/ZfKhRhlvM3 Hufsa Kamal (@hufkat) March 10, 2019 Kamal Khan identifies herself online as an associate producer on Fox News show Special Report with Bret Baier. Pirro has issued a statement to clarify her remarks and she now says she wants Omar to come on her show any time. Ive seen a lot of comments about my opening statement from Saturday nights show and I did not call Rep. Omar un-American, Pirro said. My intention was to ask a question and start a debate, but of course because one is Muslim does not mean you dont support the Constitution. I invite Rep. Omar to come on my show any time to discuss all of the important issues facing America today. 579 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough expressed astonishment this morning that Donald Trump continued to lie to a group of Republican donors even when confronted with video evidence that proves he did. Trump kept insisting to the donors that he hadnt called Apple CEO Tim Cook by the wrong name, Tim Apple. But the presidents flub was recorded on video that was shared across social media and other news sites. In the video clip Trump mistakenly called the tech executive Tim Apple, which led to widespread mocking across the internet. But Trump denied making the error Friday during a speech to Republican donors. In a move that stunned even his own donors, President Trump denies what you just heard, said Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, after rolling video of the mistake. It never happened, Scarborough said. Dont believe your eyes. He insists he said Tim Cooks name correctly, and its just the fake news media playing a big trick on everyone, Brzezinski said. Added to the sad steady march toward 10,000 lies in office literally that number, thats where we are. Scarborough said some of the presidents supporters still dont believe he lies, although theres plain evidence in this case that Trump was dishonest. I love when people say, Oh, he doesnt lie, give me an example, Scarborough said. You have it there on videotape, and as his donors were saying this weekend at Mar-A-Lago, its on videotape. Its on videotape yet he calls it fake. Again, there are those who believe what they believe. Let those who have ears hear. Here is a description of the incident as first reported by Axios: Republican donors in attendance called it one of Trumps weirdest lies ever. On Friday night, under a tent erected over the pool at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, President Trump claimed the media were spreading fake news when they said he called the CEO of Apple Tim Apple. Trump told the donors that he actually said Tim Cook Apple really fast, and the Cook part of the sentence was soft. But all you heard from the fake news, he said, was Tim Apple. Two donors who were there told me they couldnt understand why the president would make such a claim given the whole thing is captured on video. Nobody cared, they said, and Tim Cook took it in good humor by changing his Twitter profile to Tim Apple. I just thought, why would you lie about that, one of the donors told me. It doesnt even matter! CLICK HERE to watch the video clip on Morning Joe. 3.7k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders fell apart while she was trying to claim that Democrats hate Jews when she was asked about Trump not condemning Steve King. Here was the exchange: Sanders: The president has been unwavering and committed ally to Israel and the Jewish people and frankly the remarks that have been made by a number of Democrats failed to be called out by Democrat leadership is frankly sad. It is something that should be called by name. It should not be put in a watered-down resolution. It should be done the way the Republicans did it when Steve King made terrible comments, we called it out by name and stripped him of his committee memberships. Jon Karl of ABC News: First of all you mentioned Steve King. Correct me if I am wrong, the president has not condemned Steve King for praising white supremacy. Has the president publicly came out to say anything to criticize or condemn? Sanders: I have talked about that a number of times and I referred you back to those comments where I used words like aberrant and unacceptable. Video: Sarah Sanders falsely claims that Democrats hate Jews, but crumbles when asked why Trump has condemned Steve King for his white supremacy. pic.twitter.com/YaYwaH2Gm7 PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) March 11, 2019 As long as Trump is president, Republican have no moral standing on racism and bigotry The White House is running with the Democrats hate Jews lie because they are trying to divide the Democratic Party while picking up as many votes from their small base as they can in 2020. Sarah Sanders was stopped cold when she was asked why Trump hasnt condemned Steve King. This White House has no answer for Trump behavior that is thrown back in their faces. Jon Karls follow-up question shows why this administration has essentially stopped doing briefings. They cant defend or justify Trump, and every time Sarah Sanders is in that room in front of reporters, it backfires on the White House. For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group. Follow Jason Easley on Facebook 2.1k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings wants to talk to two new attorneys in the Michael Cohen/Stormy Daniels hush money probe. The lawyers Sheri Dillon and Stefan Passantino were formerly employed in the White House and responsible for the presidents ethics and financial disclosures. Their testimony could be critical to figuring out whether or not the president was guilty of committing crimes when he made hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. According to NBC News: These two relatively unknown figures could soon emerge as key players in the congressional investigations into President Donald Trump. Neither lawyer has agreed to cooperate with Cummings committee, however. They have consistently disregarded a March 6 deadline that the committee chairman set to provide transcribed interviews to his committee. He is now hoping to receive the transcripts later next week, according to his congressional aides. As the process plays out it will be a test of the ability of House Democrats to force Trump administration officials and allies to provide information to Congress. As Trump people keep dragging their feet and refusing to comply, Cummings will probably be forced to play hardball. Nobody will be surprised if he has to issue subpoenas to get them to give him the information he has requested. Passantino and Dillon are the first targets Cummings is publicly pursuing since Michael Cohen testified in front of the Oversight Committee on February 27. According to documents sent by the committee to the two attorneys, they appeared to provide false information to federal officials about payments to Cohen to keep the alleged Trump affair from becoming public. In other words, it looks like they filed false financial disclosure forms with the Office of Government Ethics. It also appears that they falsified ethics officials written notes documenting evolving stories from the two about the payments and Trumps improper failure to disclose them. Passantino was a White House deputy counsel in charge of ethics policy, and is now working for the Trump Organization to field inquiries from the Democratic-led House. His signature was on Trumps disclosure form. Dillon is in a law firm, and serves as a personal attorney for Trump. Republicans, in a letter to Cummings, said suggestions that the two may have lied are extremely unfair and unsupported accusations. This is a serious charge, for which you relied only on cherry-picked passages of incomplete, one-sided handwritten notes prepared by OGE staff, wrote Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the ranking Republican on the committee, and Mark Meadows of North Carolina, who also said the charges were made public before speaking directly to the attorneys. But Democrats say the lawyers may have good reason to avoid the newly empowered Democratic House majority. Its often the second-tier players who know a lot and reveal a lot, said Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat on the committee. These folks may not be household names but they could prove critical witnesses in providing corroborating testimony and further details about what may be a violation of federal election law and a conspiracy to affect the 2016 election, Connolly said. Cummings has said he will also probably request testimony from Allen Weisselberg, the Trump familys longtime accountant and the Trump Organizations chief financial officer, who has been granted immunity to share information by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. (CNN) All 157 people on board an Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed soon after taking off from Addis Ababa have been killed, the airline said on Sunday morning. The plane, en route to Nairobi, Kenya, lost contact at 08.44 am local time, six minutes after taking off from Bole International Airport in the Ethiopian capital. The aircraft, flight number ET 302, went down near Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa. An airline spokesperson told CNN the victims were of 32 different nationalities. Eight Chinese passengers were on board, said Li Liang, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy to Ethiopia. "The group CEO who is at the accident scene right now regrets to confirm that there are no survivors," Ethiopian Airlines wrote on Twitter. "He expresses his profound sympathy and condolences to the families and loved ones of passengers and crew who lost their lives in this tragic accident." The airline said in an earlier statement that staff would "be sent to the accident scene and will do everything possible to assist the emergency services." It added that a passenger information center and hotline "will be available shortly for family or friends of those who may have been on flight." The Ethiopian government expressed its "deepest condolences to the families," the office of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who first broke the news of the crash, said on Twitter. Ethiopian Airlines has gained the reputation of being one of the best airlines in Africa. It has a good safety record and the newest fleet of planes on the African continent, according to its website. "Ethiopian Airlines is a very, very well-run airline," said CNN anchor Richard Quest, who specializes in aviation. "There is no safety issue on Ethiopian. They've made it their business to be the African airline that operates like a western airline." The Boeing 737 MAX 8 is the same type of plane as the Indonesian Lion Air jet that crashed soon after takeoff from Jakarta in 2018 -- killing 189 people. But Geoffrey Thomas, the editor in chief of Airline Ratings, told CNN the Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday had "significant differences" to the Lion Air crash last year. On the Lion Air flight, there were "wild fluctuations in air speed and... we continued to get data from the plane all the way down to impact." Sunday's crash, however, had "no fluctuations and all of the sudden transmission" ceased, he said. "That transmission ceasing indicates catastrophic failure in air." "I think [Ethiopian Airlines] are going to be looking at whether there was an engine failure," CNN's Quest said. "The plane is climbing out at a normal fashion, but there are mountains in the area, and longstanding pilots are well aware that if you have an issue departing Addis on that particular route, you've got a mountain in front of you." The aerospace giant said in a press statement that it was "deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the passengers and crew." It added that a "Boeing technical team is prepared to provide technical assistance at the request and under the direction of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board." The last major accident involving an Ethiopian Airlines passenger plane was in January 2010, when a flight from Beirut went down, killing 83 passengers and seven crew. Thi story was first published on CNN.com, "No survivors in Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 crash near Addis Ababa." 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. Mary Katherine, who also goes by MK, covers health care for The Post and Courier. She is also pursuing a master's degree in data science. She grew up in upstate New York and enjoys playing cards, kayaking and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Paul Bowers is an education reporter and father of three living in North Charleston. He previously worked at the Charleston City Paper, where he was twice named South Carolina Journalist of the Year in the weekly category. Assistant Columbia bureau chief Adcox returned to The Post and Courier in October 2017 after 12 years covering the Statehouse for The Associated Press. She previously covered education for The P&C. She has also worked for The AP in Albany, N.Y., and for The Herald in Rock Hill. 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. The Post and Courier provides a forum for our readers to share their opinions, and to hold up a mirror to our community. Publication does not imply endorsement by the newspaper; the editorial staff attempts to select a representative sample of letters because we believe its important to let our readers see the range of opinions their neighbors submit for publication. The political caucuses in the South Carolina Statehouse are allowed to keep their records and meetings private. File/John A. Carlos II/Special to The Post and Courier Hulet A. Sherry, a 12-year resident of Hiawatha Homes, has spent her life speaking out for people with disabilities. And even after living with cerebral palsy for much of her life, her voice will still be heard at Disability Day at the Capitol on Tuesday. In a music room at the service center for people with disabilities, Sherry displayed more than 50 typed letters to Minnesota legislators. Each was signed with a large "H" her "classic signature." The issue this year: the states budget for Direct Support Professionals salaries. After last years budget cuts for the workers who care for people with disabilities, Hiawatha Homes has seen decreased staff and huge turnover, which impacts residents lives and ability to get out into the community. Trips out of Hiawatha were and are a bonus, after staff members finished caring for the residents and their homes. But now that Hiawathas staff has shrunk, the number of day trips are severely limited, Sherry said. "We just cant go shopping, or to (the) movies, and taking trips no," Sherry said. "Its just so hard to go anywhere. So I dont go anywhere." Many groups affected Sherry is just one of the Rochester residents directly impacted by the states budget cuts for disability services. Teams from Ability Building Center, Adapta, ARSYS, Bear Creek Services, Cardinal of Minnesota, Hiawatha Homes, and PossAbilities will rally Tuesday in support of the Best Life Alliance bill, which calls on the Legislature to invest in higher wages for Direct Support Professionals (DSPs). Even the trip to the Capitol was made monumentally more difficult by the staffing shortages, said Crystal Landherr, director of development and communications for Hiawatha Homes Foundation. "Everywhere, everyones trying to coordinate with the staff they had to make it all work," she said. The field has seen a steadily decreasing workforce, Landherr said. The wages for DSPs are 17 percent behind other, comparable occupations. Wages frozen Many of Hiawathas workers have taken jobs at other organizations where they earn more money and receive better benefits, Sherry said in her letter to legislators. According to a study by the Case For Inclusion earlier this year,Minnesota providers reported an average DSP vacancy rate of 15 percent, or approximately 10,000 positions. More than 50 percent of the positions see turnover every year. The average direct support professional in Minnesota is paid around $12 an hour, and since funding for DSPs salaries comes from the government, providers cant raise wages without altering state legislation. By writing to legislators and traveling to the Capitol Tuesday to demonstrate their need, Sherry and others hope to convince the state to "increase wages and have better health insurance" for DSPs. Its just the latest step in a lifetime of advocacy for her. "Over her lifetime, Hulet has written lots," Laurie Brownell, a Hiawatha Homes volunteer and former program director, said. "Its one of her best ways to get her voice out." Brownell has been friends with Sherry since the 80s, and remembers campaigning for accessibility in movie theaters with her early on. Since then, shes seen Sherry work on the governors council for people with disabilities. Sherry was also awarded the Mayors Medal of Honor in 2012 for "Services to People with Disabilities." "Whenever theres an issue and a voice needs to be heard, Hulet is willing to step up and speak out," Brownell said. INSIGHTS Why is it that we Americans seem to need a war to be happy? Its not that we start the wars exactly, but we embrace them with a strange fervor Read more Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 11) President Rodrigo Duterte will not sign an illegal budget. "I said my piece. I will not sign anything that would be an illegal document," Duterte said at the awarding ceremony for outstanding women in law enforcement Monday night. Congressmen and senators are at odds over the 2019 budget bill. Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III said he would not sign the General Appropriations Act (GAA) to be transmitted to Malacanang for Duterte's signature if the House of Representatives made changes after Congress approved its final version. Government is currently operating on a reenacted budget amid the impasse, but Duterte warned it will impact the economy. "Magkaroon tayo ng slide sa GDP (gross domestic product) niyan [Our GDP will slide] if we are going to reenact the budget. And everybody will suffer including the law enforcement," he added. Malacanang earlier said reenacted budgets may further delay government projects. The Department of Transportation on March 6 said government failed to pay the required advanced payments for three key railway projects -- the MRT-3 rehabilitation, the Metro Manila subway, and the Philippine National Railway Tutuban-Malalos railway -- as the funds were listed under the 2019 GAA. But Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the President will likely wait for the enrolled copy of the national budget, and use his veto powers if necessary. "He will exercise his power to veto if he feels that, indeed, the budget to be given to him does not conform with the constitution," Panelo said. House Appropriations Committee Chairperson and Camarines Sur 1st District Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. said that both chambers of Congress itemized lump sum amounts in the P3.757 trillion budget for this year after its ratification. But senators have denied making amendments to the budget, and claimed these changes were illegal and unconstitutional. I am currently reading Andrew Roberts biography of Winston Churchill. So I followed, with interest, the link that someone (probably Scott) put up as a Power Line Pick to this piece by Roberts in the Spectator about his book tour in America. His theme is that Americans, in general, esteem Churchill now more than ever. Which is a good thing. I want to comment on a single paragraph in Roberts article: The livid scar down the center of his forehead that Churchill received in that accident is visibly to the fore in George W. Bushs excellent portrait of him that hangs in the Dallas Country Club. At dinner a trois with the former president and Laura Bush there, 43 as everyone in Texas seems to call him pondered whether he might turn out to be the last Republican president in American history, because clearly Trump doesnt count. We discussed the Whig-Democrat struggles of the 1830s and 1840s, and the way that no political party has an inherent right to exist. Having no reason to doubt Roberts account, I take it that at a private dinner at the Dallas Country Club, former President George W. Bush suggested that he might have been the last Republican President ever, on the ground that Donald Trump doesnt count. And maybe after Trump there will be no more Republicans. I have never thought of W as an arrogant manon the contrarybut this attitude reeks of the ignorant contempt with which the establishment, in all its many branches, views President Trump. In what way is Trump not a real Republican? I can think of one: he is not a budget hawk. But then, I dont recall either of the Bushes being much of a budget hawk, either, when in office. At least Trump didnt run as one. Trump has governed considerably more as a traditional Republican than I expected. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a classic Republican measure, has been a smashing success, as I testified before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. Lots of Republicans talk about cutting needless regulations, but Trump has actually done it to an extraordinary and praiseworthy degree. Some years ago I was invited to attend an event at SMU sponsored by the George W. Bush Presidential Library. (I wrote about it on Power Line, but I cant readily find that post in our archives.) The theme of the event was the need to increase our rate of economic growth. Various economists and President Bush himself explained that we should be striving for 4% annual GDP growth, something that used to be considered routine in the U.S., but during the Obama years was said to be a thing of the past. Strong economic growth solves a lot of problems. Under President Trump, our rate of economic growth has doubled, although not to 4%not yet, anyway. George W. Bush should be delighted with this result, but it doesnt sound as though he expressed such delight to Andrew Roberts. Then there is foreign policy. President Trump is standing up to Russia and China. He has rejected Barack Obamas absurd dream of an alliance with Irans mullahs. He is completing the destruction of ISIS. He is staunchly pro-Israel. To what, in this litany, does W object? Nothing, I assume. Then we have the voters. Gallup reports that 90% of Republicans approve of President Trumps performance. Other surveys have placed the number even higherhigher than Ws own approval among Republican voters through most of his time as president. So, in what sense is Trump not a real Republican? In this sense, I think: George W. Bush was a good president. I gave him a B- rating when his second term ended. But he had one great failing: he didnt fight back against the Democratic Partys continuous assaults on his administration. He was BusHitler. We havent forgotten. Has he? Artists produced images of Ws brains being blown out by assassins, in what turned out to be a preview of the Trump administration. Liberals absurdly claimed that, contrary to the CIAs assurances, Bush was the one person who knew all along that Saddam Hussein didnt have vast stocks of chemical weaponsit turned out that Saddam only had small stocksand Bush lied his way into Iraq in order to steal that countrys oil. Which, of course, didnt happen. It was all a Democratic Party lie. George W. Bush was slandered in myriad ways, almost all of them absurd. But instead of fighting back, he just took it. His administration gave little or no aid to those, like us at Power Line, who wanted to defend him. And the Democratic Party press-the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Associated Press, and all of the fringe characters whom they empowerdestroyed his administration. Donald Trump isnt like that. He fights back. He calls out liberal news sources that lie about him as fake news, which they are. He may lose in 2020no one knows what next years presidential election might bringbut if so, he will go down fighting against the forces that hate him and that hate America, and want to move our country toward socialism. The same forces that ultimately defeated George W. Bush. The sad thing, in my view, is that W apparently has joined the establishment. He thinks Trump isnt a Republican, and the Republican Party likely has no future after the current aberrant office-holder. News flash, W: the cause of freedom didnt die when you moved back to Texas. The Republican Party stands for liberty, for limited government, for a strong foreign policy, for a better life for ALL Americans, not just app developers and Wall Street wizards. And guess what, George: Donald Trump, for all his faults, has done a better job of advancing these ideals than you did. Which is why virtually all Republicans approve of what Trump is doing. I dont know what the future holds, but I think Donald Trump has made it more likely, not less likely, that future presidents will be Republicans. I never met John Dingell, the long-long-serving congressman from Michigan who died last month. My main recollection of him is the fear he struck in lawyers of my acquaintance with the investigations he conducted as Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations (he also chaired the full Committee). Some Washington law firms had what they called a Dingell practice devoted to helping clients cope with the bullying (as they saw it) to which Dingell and his ambitious staffers (some of whom presumably aspired to work one day in a Dingell practice) subjected them. Recently, I heard a Dingell anecdote that may provide a window into the man. My source, whom I trust completely, is a former lawyer who needed Dingells sign-off on some sort of fix for one of his firms clients. The lawyer didnt know Dingell, but had a good relationship with Rep. Henry Gonzalez. Readers of a certain age may remember Gonzalez. He was Texas Democrat who served in Congress from 1961 until 1999. His politics were left-wing with a strong populist current. Although he helped found the Hispanic Caucus, he wasnt much into identity politics, and eventually quit the caucus. Gonzalez was a formidable guy. In 1989, he became chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee. Though he could be gruff, Gonzalez became known for his open and gentlemanly conduct of committee hearings. It was to this powerhouse that my source turned for help in persuading Dingell to sign-off on his proposal. But Gonzalez wouldnt do it. He didnt want to have anything to do with Dingell. My source thus turned to another powerful House Democrat of the 1990s, who shall remain nameless. That congressman went to Dingell, who complied with the request. My source asked that congressman why Gonzalez wouldnt go to Dingell. The congressman explained that Gonzalez wont speak to Dingell because Dingell demeans him. For example, the congressman revealed, Dingell calls Gonzalez a fellow committee chairman Speedy Gonzales. As a young member of the Texas State Senate the first Mexican-American elected to that body Gonzalez was sometimes referred to by colleagues as that Mexican. But Im not sure that even the good old boys in the Texas legislature, circa the late 1950s, ever called him Speedy Gonzales. Unless one is familiar with the New York Timess coverage of issues related to Israel (i.e., Alice in Wonderland style), one might wonder at what Michael Schwirtz is talking about in his story Trump Envoy to Middle East Lashes Out at Palestinian Authority (accessible here via Outline). Schwirtz asserts in the opening of the story: One of President Trumps lead Middle East peace negotiators lashed out at the Palestinian Authority on Friday, accusing it of institutionalizing support for terrorism amid a dispute over Israeli tax transfers that make up a significant portion of Palestinian revenues. Following this opening, Schwirtz reports the usual murderous intransigence from long-time Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas: Under longstanding accords, Israel makes monthly transfers to the Palestinian Authority from certain taxes it collects related to Palestinians. Last month, Israel announced a freeze on about 5 percent of the tax payout, as punishment for the Palestinian Authoritys policy of paying stipends to Palestinian prisoners in Israel and to the families of Palestinians killed or wounded in confrontations with Israelis. In response, and despite the authoritys financial problems, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, rejected the full tax transfer and vowed to continue to pay the stipends. So where is Greenblatts lash? This must be it: On Friday, the Trump administrations Middle East envoy, Jason D. Greenblatt, accused Palestinian leaders of offering the stipends as a reward for acts of terrorism. If your citizens were being routinely attacked by terrorists, which of you would tolerate a reward system that compensated the attackers for their crimes? he wrote in one tweet. How can we possibly censure Israel for taking the same stance? Seems like more of a wet noodle to me. Schwirtz adds this note further into his story without further comment: The Palestinian Authoritys refusal to accept any of the revenues only adds to its financial woes. So judgmental! Via FDD Overnight Brief. Peggy Noonan advises us to get ready for the coming struggle session. Whats a struggle session? The term comes from Communist Chinas cultural revolution of the 1960s. Noonan explains: In the struggle sessions the accused, often teachers suspected of lacking proletarian feeling, were paraded through streets and campuses, sometimes stadiums. It was important always to have a jeering crowd; it was important that the electric feeling that comes with the possibility of murder be present. Dunce caps, sometimes wastebaskets, were placed on the victims heads, and placards stipulating their crimes hung from their necks. The victims were accused, berated, assaulted. Many falsely confessed in the vain hope of mercy. Noonan sees the spirit of the struggle session in contemporary American politics. She attributes it in part to the internet, in part to the extremity of our politics, and in part to loneliness. What is the evidence that the spirit of the struggle session is upon us: Noonan writes: The air is full of accusation and humiliation. We have seen this spirit most famously on the campuses, where students protest harshly, sometimes violently, views they wish to suppress. Social media is full of swarming political and ideological mobs. In an interesting departure from democratic tradition, they dont try to win the other side over. They only condemn and attempt to silence. The spirit of the struggle session is all over Twitter . On literary Twitter social-justice warriors get advance copies of new books and denounce them for deviationismas insensitive, racist, appropriative, anti-LGBTQ. Books on the eve of publication have been pulled, sometimes withdrawn by authors who apologize profusely. Everyones scared. And the tormentors are not satisfied by an apology. Theyre excited by it and prowl for more prey. Has the struggle session spilled over from college campuses and the internet into electoral politics? A few months ago, I might have said it hasnt. But that was before Democratic presidential candidates commenced groveling: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand understood the mood of things when she self-abased all over television after she announced for president. Once a Blue Dog Democrat, now a progressive, she nervously expressed remorse at her past deviationism. Her previous conservative stands, she said, were callous. They certainly werent empathetic. I did not think about suffering in other peoples lives. She was embarrassed and ashamed of past stands. I was not caring about others. . . . I was wrong. At least no one cut her hair [as occurred during Chinas cultural revolution]. Maybe that will be in the 2024 cycle. Joe Biden understands the moment. He quickly apologized last week after calling Vice President Mike Pence a decent guy. Progressive Cynthia Nixon denounced Mr. Pence as Americas most anti-LGBT elected leader and asked Mr. Biden to consider how this falls on the ears of our community. Youre right, Cynthia, he quickly responded. All the Democratic candidates have apologized for something. Elizabeth Warren is abjectly sorry she took a DNA test. Theres a distinction, of course, between apologizing for past positions taken as a means of winning over voters and apologizing to avoid being executed by the government. Still, the mea culpas are unseemly and maybe a little frightening. I have had a mixed view of social media, in which I do not participate. Its obviously a cesspool. On the other hand, its an outlet. It gives would-be warriors a place where they can go over-the-top in expressing outrage without the need to act out the outrage in violent ways. This view increasingly seems too optimistic. I take it that after a while, even the most venomous social media posts can feel inadequate as an expression of rage. Moreover, a social media mob can, to some extent, impose struggle sessions, not so much on its enemies for now, anyway as on those who, in general, tend to agree with the mob, but not angrily or wholeheartedly enough. Noonan is right to conclude that none of [this] portends good. What it portends, I fear, is cold civil war. President Trump will request from Congress at least $8.6 billion to build additional sections of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. This money is in addition to the $1.3 billion Congress appropriated earlier this year and the approximately $7 billion Trump appropriated via his declaration of a national emergency at the border. Trump will seek the $8.6 billion as part of his proposed 2020 budget. The budget also calls for 5 percent cuts in most domestic spending programs and an increase in military spending. The Democrats declared Trumps proposal for more border wall money a non-starter. We hope he learned his lesson from the recent bruising battle over the wall, Speaker Nancy Pelosi intoned. Trump seems to have emerged from that battle unscathed, though. His poll numbers show no decline in popularity as a result of the shutdown and the ensuing deal. Trump would be foolhardy not to seek significant wall funding in the 2020 budget. Even with the funds he found in connection with his national emergency declaration, Trump doesnt have the money he needs to build the walling/fencing he wants. Its also unclear that the judiciary will uphold Trumps self-appropriation of money for the wall. Thus, failure to seek substantial wall funding in the 2020 budget would signal capitulation in the fight to fulfill his signature campaign promise. By fighting on, Trump keeps his signature issue alive for the 2020 election. Its even possible that the Democrats will give him a little more money for the wall. Congress and the White House must agree on a new budget deal by the end of September. They must also agree to a resolution raising the debt ceiling at around that same time, or else risk having the government fall behind on its obligations, which could rattle the economy and financial markets. Although another government shutdown isnt in Trumps interest, and he certainly wont want to rattle the economy and financial markets, the September-October deadlines do mean that Democrats will have to negotiate. Its possible they will agree to some wall funding in exchange for more funding for domestic programs. Its possible they will agree to some wall funding in exchange for concessions for the DACA population or, more broadly, for Dreamers. I wouldnt bet on these outcomes. Congressional Democrats dont have anything much against the wall, but they are determined to prevent Trump from building much of it because they think they can deal him a deadly political blow in that way. Trump would deal himself a more serious blow if he didnt renew his fight for wall funding via the 2020 budget. PR-Inside.com: 2019-03-11 14:11:30 Press Information Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: abhishek.b@futuremarketinsights.com FMI Blog: https://www.fmiblog.com/ Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com Blog: http:// Abhishek Bhudholiya Manager +1-347-918-3531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 653 Words 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: abhishek.b@futuremarketinsights.comFMI Blog: https://www.fmiblog.com/Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.comBlog: http://Manager+1-347-918-3531 Brazilian hemorrhagic fever (BzHF) is an infectious disease caused by the Sabia virus, an Arenavirus. The Sabia virus is one of the arenoviruses from South America to cause hemorrhagic fever. This viral hemorrhagic fever, believed to originate from Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1990, with only 3 reported cases (2 of which were due to laboratory accidents) to date, characterized by fever, nausea vomiting myalgia tremors, and hemorragic manifestations such as conjunctival petechia and haematemesis, leading potentially to shock, coma and death. It shares a common progenitor with the Junin virus, Machupo virus, Tacaribe virus, and Guanarito virus. It is an enveloped RNA virus and is highly infectious and lethal.This disease is transmitted by rodents, contracted through contact with or inhalation of rodent excretion, and human-to-human transmission through contact with bodily fluids. The common symptoms of this disease are fever, eye redness, fatigue, dizziness, muscle aches, weakness; whereas, some severe symptoms are bleeding under the skin, internal organs, or from body orifices, shock, nervous system malfunction, coma, delirium, and seizures. The limited treatment options available for this disease are medical treatment, supportive treatment, and quarantine. The incubation period for this treatment is 7 - 16 days.Request For Report Sample@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-6870 Brazilian Hemorrhagic Fever (BzHF) Treatment Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe BzHF treatment market is expected to mark a significant growth in the coming few years due to high probability of increase in number of patient suffering from transmitted disease specially. Hemorrhagic fever viruses are mainly zoonotic diseases caused by viruses that usually reside in an animal or arthropod hosts that may serve as health vectors.The other major growth factor which likely to play wide role in this market is increase in R&D activities for the innovation of newer drugs. Addition to this, government initiatives, and favorable reimbursement policies also propel this market. However, lack of awareness amongst patient about the available treatment restrains the market growth. The expanding drug pipeline for BzHF treatment and awareness amongst regarding mental health among key stakeholders, are major opportunities for this market.Brazilian Hemorrhagic Fever (BzHF) Treatment Market: SegmentationTentatively, global BzHF treatment market has been segmented on the basis of distribution channel and geographyBased on distribution channel, global BzHF treatment market is segmented as belowHospitals PharmaciesRetail PharmaciesOnline PharmaciesBrazilian Hemorrhagic Fever (BzHF) Treatment Market: OverviewThe global market for BzHF treatment market is expected to witness high growth over the forecast period. Since there are no established cure for viral hemorrhagic fevers, patients with viral hemorrhagic fevers usually receive only supportive therapy. However, ribavirin (Rebetol, Copegus) medical treatment has been effective in treating some individuals with Lassa fever, and treatment with convalescent-phase plasma has been used with success in a few patients -- other experimental antiviral agents have also been tried in a few patients.In developed countries, scientists and health researchers are addressing the threat of viral hemorrhagic fevers to humans by attempting to develop immunological, molecular, and containment methods to prevent these hemorrhagic fevers and restore health to individuals who get hemorrhagic fevers.Brazilian Hemorrhagic Fever (BzHF) Treatment Market: Key PlayersThe market for BzHF treatment is consolidated with a presence of few strong players. Some of the players identified in global BzHF treatment market include Teva Pharmaceuticals, Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Roche Diagnostics Corp. Essex-Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals, ICN Pharmaceuticals/Valent Pharamceuticals International in Costa Mesa, California (a place where ribavirin was discovered) and Three Rivers Pharmaceuticals in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania are other major players operating in this market.Request to View TOC @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-6870 Many pharmaceutical companies manufacture ribavirin in People's Republic of China. The most notable ones are Chengdu Diao Group Jiuhong Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd in Chengdu, Sichuang, China National Medicines Guorui Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd in Beijing, Jiangsu Lianshui Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd in Lianshui, Jiangsu, Siping Juneng Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd in Siping, Jilin, and Zhejiang Zhebei Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd in Deqing Xinshi, Zhejiang. PR-Inside.com: 2019-03-11 14:16:00 Press Information Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: abhishek.b@futuremarketinsights.com FMI Blog: https://www.fmiblog.com/ Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com Blog: Abhishek Bhudholiya Manager +1-347-918-3531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 662 Words 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: abhishek.b@futuremarketinsights.comFMI Blog: https://www.fmiblog.com/Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.comBlog:Manager+1-347-918-3531 Cranial clamps are instruments designed to hold and stabilize the head during a neurosurgery so as to prove better access during surgery. A head fixation device is the most important medical device in neurosurgery as it is preconditioned to allow neurosurgeons to operate. Most neurosurgery procedures need rigid fixation of the head for successful operation.Cranial Clamps Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe growing number of neurosurgeries, owing to growing risk factors such as trauma, cancer and others are leading to an increase in the adoption of cranial clamps. The growth in healthcare infrastructure, growing number of hospitals, development of specialty neurosurgical centers and others are also surging the market demand for cranial clamps.Advancements in technology such as the development of radiolucent and sterilizable cranial clamps are leading to larger market adoption. Development of new surgical techniques have generated demand for miniaturized instruments to reduce surgical footprint. These has resulted in innovative designs such as multipoint instruments and the development of sensors to gauge the pressures on the skull. Further, the growing adoption of aluminum inserts has resulted in lightweight instruments.On the other hand, the wounds caused by pin-type clamps, risk of depressed skull fractures and the high risk of neurosurgeries are some of the major deterrents to the market growth.Cranial Clamps Market: SegmentationTo gain a birds eye view and a better understanding of the future market equity, the cranial clamps report is segmented on the basis of design type, application, patient, specialty, end user and region. The pin fixation clamps Mayfield design dominates the market with greater than a 90% market share by volume. On the other hand, the horseshoe headrest clamps design is favored for pediatric surgery, owing to the greater safety profile of these cranial clamps.Based on design type, the global cranial clamps market can be segmented into,Horseshoe Headrests Clamps (Sugita)Pin Fixation Clamps (Mayfield)Based on application, the global cranial clamps market can be segmented into,SurgeryNeurosurgerySpine surgeryOthersImagingBased on patient, the global cranial clamps market can be segmented into,PediatricAdultBased on specialty, the global cranial clamps market can be segmented into,GeneralRadiolucentSterilizableBased on end user, the global cranial clamps market can be segmented into,HospitalsClinicsOthersCranial Clamps Market: OverviewThe global market for cranial clamps is fragmented with many players dotting the scene. The large market is captive with specialty neurosurgical hospitals, which necessitates close collaboration. Some of the established brands of cranial clamps are Integra Lifesciences Holdings Corporation, Mizuho, B Braun Melsungen AG, OsteoMed, Pro Med Instruments Inc, Zhejiang Apeloa Medical Technology Co and others.Cranial Clamps Market: Regional Wise OutlookThe global cranial clamps market can be classified into seven regions viz. North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan, Middle East and Africa. North America, led by the U.S., accounts for the largest share of the market, owing to the large number of procedures performed in the region. The Europe market is dominated by Germany, France and the U.K. and other nations such as Italy and Spain are also pegged to remain attractive markets.The Asia Pacific market excluding Japan is expected to account for the fastest growth in the global cranial clamps market, owing to the growing healthcare sector and rapid economic development in the region. China and India are expected to account for the lions share of the market growth.The Middle East and Africa market is expected to be skewed in favor of the Gulf economies of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. The poor healthcare expenditure in Africa is expected to be a deterrent for the cranial clamps market in the region.Request Sample Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-7139 Cranial Clamps Market: Market ParticipantsSome of the major players in the global cranial clamps market include Integra Lifesciences Holdings Corporation, Mizuho, B Braun Melsungen AG, OsteoMed, Pro Med Instruments Inc, Zhejiang Apeloa Medical Technology Co and others. Thousands of companies currently employ people from a variety of online job search engines. If you are an internet user and looking for a job, you can check out a job search engine that can help you find a job online. They can give you a part-time job or a full-time job for you. Job Search Engines Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-03-11 19:37:56 Press Information QYReports Pune,India Jones John Sales Manager +1-9764607607 email https://www.qyreports.com # 504 Words Pune,IndiaSales Manager+1-9764607607 The Global "Job Search Engine Market" study 2019 highlights key details and provides in-depth analysis of the market with future growth, outlook and industry needs analysis. Explore the analysis with a complete report that includes figures, graphs, and table of contents. Analyze the global advertising market and evaluation of 2026.Request report sample pages prior purchase@: https://www.qyreports.com/request-sample?report-id=105731 This report on global Job Search Engines market is a detailed research study that helps provides answers and pertinent questions with respect to the emerging trends and growth opportunities in this particular industry. It helps identify each of the prominent barriers to growth, apart from identifying the trends within various application segments of the global market for Job Search Engines Collecting historical and recent data from various authentic resources, and depending on all the factors and trends, the report presents a figurative estimate of the future market condition, along with compound annual growth rate (CAGR).Top key player profiled in this report: Smartjobboard, ATTB Group, Workable, webJobs, Betterteam, EasyJobScript, Ilance, JobSite, Enterprise Infinity, Careerleaf, Adicio, Indeed among others.This report studies the global Job Search Engines market, analyzes and researches the Job Search Engines development status and forecast in North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East & Africa and Latin America. Various key players are discussed in details and a well-informed idea of their popularity and strategies is mentioned.The study segments the market by geography into: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. It provides in-depth forecasts of revenue of the market as a whole as well as each and every application segment. The competitive landscape is mapped depending on product and technology.Get Up To 40% Discount on this Premium Report: https://www.qyreports.com/ask-for-discount?report-id=105731 This study also offers an overview of pricing trends and ancillary factors that will be influencing pricing in the global Job Search Engines market. The market study, estimation, and market sizing have been done utilizing a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches.Most important data include the key recommendations and predictions by our analysts, intended to steer a strategic business decision. The company profiles section of this research service is a compilation of the growth strategies, financial status, product portfolio, and recent developments of key market participants.The report provides detailed industry analysis of the global Job Search Engines market with the help of proven research methodologies such as Porters five forces. The forces analyzed are bargaining power of the buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, and the degree of competition.Report Overview:Global Job Search Engines Market Research ReportJob Search Engines Market OverviewGlobal Economic Impact on IndustryGlobal Market Competition by ManufacturersGlobal Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionGlobal Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsGlobal Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeGlobal Market Analysis by Application Manufacturing Cost AnalysisIndustrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersMarketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersMarket Effect Factors AnalysisGlobal Market Forecast PR-Inside.com: 2019-03-11 14:15:01 Press Information Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: abhishek.b@futuremarketinsights.com FMI Blog: https://www.fmiblog.com/ Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com Blog: http:// Abhishek Bhudholiya Manager +1-347-918-3531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 820 Words 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: abhishek.b@futuremarketinsights.comFMI Blog: https://www.fmiblog.com/Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.comBlog: http://Manager+1-347-918-3531 Human anatomy is complex and multi-functional, made up of the multiple organs. Visualization is the important factor in anatomy studies. Students need to learn the anatomical structure of different body organs with the relationship with surrounded organs. While textbooks provide the 2-dimensional view of the body structure. Therefore high-quality human anatomical models are built up to understand body functions and provide a three-dimensional view of body organs. Introduction of reformed study techniques in medical, dental, and other health education institutes has prompted the emergence of innovative education strategies in order to maximize the student learning. Human anatomical models are the type of models to study the overall internal and external structures of the human body. These human anatomical model helps to medical students to correctly identify anatomical structure. The human anatomical models are used in biomedical research and practices to develop new treatment options for the various disorder. The wide range of human anatomical models are used for teaching and learning prospect such as skeleton model, muscle model, heart and circulatory systems model, brain model, skull model, urinary system model, digestive systems model, denture model and others. Healthcare professional, medical students, doctors, professors gain profit from human anatomical models.Human Anatomical Models Market: Drivers and Restraints-Development of new human anatomical models, the emergence of new 3-D printed human anatomical models manufacturing techniques and technological advancement expected to fuel the growth of human anatomical models market. Adoption of new learning techniques in the medical institute as well as in schools is expected to favor the growth of human anatomical models market. Increasing government funding for medical education institutes, increasing research and development studies for the development of new products are expected to spur the demand for human anatomical models over the forecast period.A Sample Of This Report Is Available Upon Request @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-7136 Human Anatomical Models Market: SegmentationOn the basis of product type, human anatomical models market can be segmented as:Skull, Brain Model & Nervous Systems ModelSkeleton & Muscle ModelHeart and Circulatory Systems ModelDigestive Systems ModelTorso and Organs ModelDenture ModelPregnancy ModelSkin ModelOthersOn the basis of the end user, the human anatomical models market can be segmented as:Hospitals & ClinicsEducation CentersScientific Research CentersRehabilitation CentersOthersHuman Anatomical Models Market: OverviewThe demand for human anatomical models is high in education centers for teaching the complex anatomical structures of the human body. School and colleges are utilizing proper education resources for effective teaching. These educational institutes are adopted visual teaching aids such as human anatomical model to make complex anatomical study easy for students. There is a different type of human anatomical models are used to understanding the anatomy of different human body parts. A human anatomical model represents different body organ by different color and dimensions to diagnosis basis of the highly accurate human anatomical model. Different medical specialist gets training through specialized human anatomical models such as eye model, brain model, heart and circulatory model and dermatology model to the understood appropriate mechanism of the organ. Increasing number of medical education & training programs for doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals are expected to boost the demand for human anatomical models in hospital and healthcare facilities.Human Anatomical Models Market: Region-wise OutlookIn terms of geography, human anatomical models market has been divided into eight regions including North- America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Asia- Pacific excluding China & Japan (APECJ), China, Japan, Middle-East & Africa and Latin America. North America is the most dominating market for human anatomical models market due to the high adoption of new 3D printed human anatomical models and great medical education facilities. Western Europe like Germany, France, and the UK is another fastest growing region in human anatomical models market due to the increasing number of anatomical studies and new product development for realism in anatomy. APECJ region includes fastest developing country such as India, which provide the most promising market for human anatomical models market. India is expected to grow with significant CAGR in human anatomical models market due to increasing government funding for medical education. China is one of the highest contributing countries in global human anatomical models market due to the presence of a large number of Chinese players in human anatomical models market.Read Comprehensive Overview with Methodology of Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-7136 Human Anatomical Models Market: Key Market ParticipantsExample of some market players participants in global human anatomical models market identify across the value chain are 3B Scientific, GPI Anatomical, Honglian Tech, Laerdal Medical, Frasaco USA, Simulaids, Xincheng Scientific Industries Co., Ltd., Adam Rouilly, Columbia Dentoform Teaching Solutions, Prodont- Holliger, A. Alego Limited, Sakamoto Model Corporation, Altay Scientific Group S.r.l., Erler Zimmer, Nasco, Hager & Werken GmbH & Co. KG, Scientific Publishing, 3DIEMME srl and Dynamic Disc Design Corporation. Large number of regional players are participating in human anatomical models market. Depending upon the geographic regions Image Guided Systems market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Asia pacific excluding japan, Japan, Middle East and Africa. Image Guided Systems Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-03-11 11:57:56 Press Information Future Market Insights Future Market Insights U.S. Office 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com Umesh SEO Manager 3479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 509 Words Future Market InsightsU.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb: https://www.futuremarketinsights.comSEO Manager3479183531 Image Guided Systems (IGS) or Interventional radiology is a specialty encompassing the diagnosis, investigating and image guided therapeutic management of vascular and non-vascular diseases.Image-Guided Systems refers to a surgical procedure that are using in the preoperative images for diagnosis of accurate place, these provides guidance to surgical instruments while surgery in the operative field.Image Guided Systems are helps in diagnosis and treatment of diseases and defects. Image guidance systems are improves the accuracy in surgeries, and thus help in surgeries efficiently. IGS devices are guide doctors in planning for the surgery and help surgeons in conducting the surgeries.IGS has wide range of applications such as cardiology, neurology, oncology, orthopedics and others.Imaging modalities such as Computed Tomography (CT) scanners, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) , X- Ray Fluoroscopy Machines, Positron Emission Tomography , Endoscopes and single positron emission computed tomography (SPECT) equipment are mostly used in Image Guided Surgeries.Image Guided Systems Market: Drivers and restraintsGlobal Image guided systems market can be driven by following driving factors such as rising the incidence of cancer along with increasing demand for minimally invasive surgeries owing to ease it provides to patients compare to conventional surgeries are vital drivers of this market. Increasing awareness among people and healthcare professionals about Image Guided Systems, Increasing the Prevalence of diseases such as Neurology, Cardiology, Orthopedics and ENT problems are driving the Image guided Systems devices market. Technological advancements and improvement in health care facilities are playing a predominant role in driving the IGS devices market.Request Sample Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-959 Image Guided Systems Market: SegmentationGlobal Image Guided Systems market can be segmented as following typesBy Product:Computed Tomography (CT) ScannersMagnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)EndoscopesX- Ray FluoroscopyUltrasound SystemsPositron Emission Tomography (PET)Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT)By Application:Neurology ApplicationsCardiology ApplicationsGastroenterology ApplicationsUrology ApplicationsImage Guided Systems Market: OverviewRising the demand for minimally invasive surgeries and most accurate in critical surgeries and increasing demand for reduced hospital stay are contributing growth of cardiology and neurological operations. Increasing geriatric population coupled with increase in number of surgeries are providing a significant growth rate in forecasting period.Image Guided Systems Market: Region-Wise OutlookDepending upon the geographic regions Image Guided Systems market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Asia pacific excluding japan, Japan, Middle East and Africa.North America dominating the image guide Systems market. High income with the population of this region and increasing awareness among the people towards the use of new technologies and reimbursement policies of the government. Asian Pacific region market is considered to rapidly evolving healthcare infrastructure, this region is anticipating providing a lucrative growth of Image Guided Systems Market.Request to View TOC @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-959 Image Guided Systems Market: Key playersSome of the key players in Image Guided Systems market are GE Health Care, Inc., Siemens AG, Integra Life Science, Medtronic, Plc. Brain lab AG, St. Jude Medicals, Toshiba Corporation. PR-Inside.com: 2019-03-11 16:12:56 Press Information Research Solution Insights (RSI) 42 joseph street, Portcarling P0B 1J0, Muskoka, Ontario, Canada T: +1-631-721-4201 Email: admin@researchreportinsights.com Web Site: http://www.researchreportinsights.com Phone - (+91) 7875758555 email Published by Ethan Taylor +44-631-787-4201 e-mail https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com # 460 Words 42 joseph street,Portcarling P0B 1J0,Muskoka, Ontario, CanadaT: +1-631-721-4201Email: admin@researchreportinsights.comWeb Site: http://www.researchreportinsights.comPhone - (+91) 7875758555Ethan Taylor+44-631-787-4201 The global market for lighting fixtures is estimated to reach a market size of over US$ 76 Billion all through 2025, up from a market value of over US$ 25.8 Billion during 2017. Increased penetrations in LED lighting, as well as the need for smart fixtures, are the major aspects anticipated to fuel the overall growth in revenue terms of the worldwide market for lighting fixtures. The market will be recording a healthy 14.2% CAGR all through the calculated period.Report For Sample with Table of Contents@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/sample/110114996/Lighting-Fixtures-Market Market Segmentation Based on the type, the global market is segmented as Decorative & Residential Lighting, Architecture & Commercial Lighting, Outdoor Lighting and Industrial Lighting. The outdoor lighting is estimated to increase exceedingly at US$ 20,548.0 through 2025 end. The architectural and commercial lighting is likely to grow at a high CAGR in value terms all through the predicted period. Based on the application type, the global market is categorised into corporate campus lighting, street lighting, airport lighting, education facilities lighting, retail outlets lighting, healthcare facilities lighting, government office & building, recreation & public venue lighting, industrial & warehouse lighting, restaurant & hotel lighting and residential lighting. The street lighting category is estimated to be majorly attractive in the worldwide market for lighting fixtures market over the calculated period. However, the residential lighting category is estimated to record soaring Y-o-Y rates of growth all through the calculated period. This category is likely to grow at a 16.3% CAGR in value terms over the calculated time frame. Based on the light source, the overall market is divided into fluorescent, incandescent and LED and OLED. The fluorescent division is estimated to lead the worldwide market for lighting fixtures by gaining the maximum market shares over the calculated period. On the other hand, the LED and OLED division are projected to register substantial growth in market share from 37.4% during 2017 to 59.7% by 2025.Request For Report Discount@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/discount/110114996/Lighting-Fixtures-Market Based on the region, the overall market is assessed across Middle East & Africa, Latin America, North America, Asia Pacific and Europe. Europe and North America jointly are estimated to gain market shares in revenue terms during the assessment period. However, the MEA region is estimated to see a reasonable growth pace all through the calculated period.Key Market PlayersSome of the top Players functional in the worldwide market include Hubbell Lighting Inc., CREE INC, OSRAM Licht AG, GE Lighting LLC, Acuity Brands Lighting Inc, Royal Philips NV, Panasonic Corporation, ATG Electronics, Eaton Corporation, D. Kichler Co. and others. While some other players include Briloner Leuchten GmbH, Kenroy Homes, Delta Light, Brilliant Lighting Limited, Beghelli SpA, Disano Illuminazione S.p.A, IKEA, Glamox lighting, Endo Lighting Corp, EGLO Leuchten GmbH and others.Report Analysis@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/rd/110114996/Lighting-Fixtures-Market Network Monitoring Software Market Report provides global coverage of network monitoring software market data from 2013 to 2019. Network monitoring software reports start with an overview of the network monitoring software industry, chain structure, and current network monitoring software industry situation, analysis global network monitoring software market share / volume and forecast up to 2023. Network Monitoring Software Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-03-11 19:39:05 Press Information Research N Reports Houston, TX, USA Sunny Denis Sales Manager 888-631-6977 email https://www.researchnreports.com # 494 Words Houston, TX, USASales Manager888-631-6977 Network Monitoring Software Market Report Major regional research networks in the world Profile / analysis of major players in the monitoring software industry, regional scope insights, product insights, network monitoring software Product types and product application insights.Request report sample pages prior purchase@: https://www.researchnreports.com/request_sample.php?id=166407 Top key player profiled in this report: CA Technologies, HPE, IBM, NETSCOUT, SolarWinds, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, Avaya, Axence, BMC Software, InfoVista, ITelSib, Juniper Networks, ManageEngine, netikus, Paessler, Spiceworks'Global and Network Monitoring Software Market Research Report' is a professional and in-depth study of the current status of the global network monitoring software industry focused on the market. This report provides key statistics on the market conditions of network monitoring software manufacturers and is a source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry.Major Highlights of the Report: Market segmentation Market stocks and approaches of Network Monitoring Software top players Study and analysis of current industrial improvements Entire frame survey including an examination of the parent market Covering of economy Trends Identification of emerging market sections and regional niches Seven years forecast for major aspects such as sections, sub-segments, and also the regional niches; Suggests for firms to prove their foothold in the industry progress Noteworthy changes in the market dynamics Past, present, and potential market size of this market in terms of the volume and valueFor Instant Discount on this Premium Report, Visit @: https://www.researchnreports.com/ask_for_discount.php?id=166407 By demonstrating current trends and strategies adopted by key players, market participants will be able to enhance their position in the global network monitoring software market and increase their market share. Important information is presented in a graphical format that delivers key insights into strategy-oriented workouts, competitive landscape and market assessments.First, the report provides a basic overview of the industry, including its definition, applications and manufacturing skills. This report includes strategic analysis of key downstream vendors in the network monitoring software market and focuses on enterprise requirements such as sales opportunities, drivers, constraints, key risks and challenges in the sales market.In conclusion, this report predicts global network monitoring software market trends, volume (USD million USD) and CAGR (%) for the forecast period of 2018-2023. The Network Monitoring Software Report defines monetization across various segments and illustrates a notable investment strategy for the network monitoring software market. It also provides key ideas for the geographical landscape of the network monitoring software market, the launch of new products, and the competition that players play in the major network monitoring software market.Enquiry Before Buying: https://www.researchnreports.com/enquiry_before_buying.php?id=166407 Overview of Report:Global Network Monitoring Software Market Research ReportNetwork Monitoring Software Market OverviewGlobal Economic Impact on IndustryGlobal Market Competition by ManufacturersGlobal Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsGlobal Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeGlobal Market Analysis by Application Manufacturing Cost AnalysisGlobal Market Forecast.CONTINUED FOR TOC BFSI stands for Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance. BFSI usually consists of commercial banks, non-banking financial companies, insurance companies, co-operatives, mutual funds, pension funds and other small financial institutions. Banking includes core banking, private, retail, and corporate, cards and investments. Financial services include stock broking, mutual fund, payment gateway, etc. BFSI Security Market PR-Inside.com: 2019-03-11 19:40:32 Press Information QYReports Contact: QYReports Jones John (Sales Manager) The Work Lab, FC Road, Pune, MH, India +91-9764607607 sales@qyreports.com www.qyreports.com Jones John Sales Manager +91-9764607607 email http://www.qyreports.com # 449 Words Contact:QYReportsJones John(Sales Manager)The Work Lab,FC Road, Pune, MH, India+91-9764607607sales@qyreports.comwww.qyreports.comSales Manager+91-9764607607 This research report on BFSI Security provides detailed analysis on the main growth prospects and challenges in the market. This research study is expected to guide the new and existing key players in the market in making current business decisions in order to sustain in the rigid competition of the global BFSI Security market. The report sheds light on the main product portfolios, geographical segments, key applications, and the competitive landscape of the global BFSI Security market that have been mentioned in the study.Get Sample Copy of this Report @: https://www.qyreports.com/request-sample?report-id=50869 Some of the prominent Players of Markets includes:Cisco Systems, Computer Sciences Corporation, EMC Corporation, Honeywell International, IBM Corporation, Booz Allen Hamilton, McAfee, Sophos Group Plc, Symantec Corporation, Trend Micro Incorporated, and Other.Factors that are expected to influence this global market are the rising employment rate among investments in emerging economies are mentioned in the report. Export incentives offered by several competitive nations and robust trade agreements are other factors that also favor the growth rate in the global market for BFSI Security industry. The report presents a thorough overview of the whole market growth. For this, the global BFSI Security production, revenue, and share of the prominent players, and the average price has been provided. The competitive situation and trends, the report explores the market, the recent mergers and acquisitions, and their expansion strategies which allow the readers and players to have a strong understanding of the overall market.Get Special Discount on this Report @: https://www.qyreports.com/ask-for-discount?report-id=50869 The findings of this report will not only help companies progress with the existing dynamics in the global BFSI Security market, but will also help them plan their future expansion plans and growth strategies based on reliable analysis. In this report, the geographical regions, segments as well as data on the top performing companies are given in a detailed manner for understanding to the readersThis report covers North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America. It focuses on the leading and the progressing countries from every region in detail. Thus, helping give right ideas about the present and the future market scenario for the given forecast period.Table of ContentsBFSI Security Market Research Report 2025Chapter 1 BFSI Security Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3 Global Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4 Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5 Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6 Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersFor More Information @: https://qyreports.com/enquiry-before-buying?report-id=50869 PR-Inside.com: 2019-03-11 14:17:51 Press Information Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018, Valley Cottage, NY 10989, United States T: +1-347-918-3531 F: +1-845-579-5705 Email: abhishek.b@futuremarketinsights.com FMI Blog: https://www.fmiblog.com/ Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com Blog: http:// Abhishek Bhudholiya Manager +1-347-918-3531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 536 Words 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: abhishek.b@futuremarketinsights.comFMI Blog: https://www.fmiblog.com/Web: https://www.futuremarketinsights.comBlog: http://Manager+1-347-918-3531 Scleroderma is a umbrella term for a group of autoimmune diseases resulting in changes in blood vessels, skin, muscles, and other organs. The symptoms of Scleroderma include thickened and stiff skin, lethargy, and poor blood flow to extremities of the limbs such as fingers and toes on exposure to cold. Scleroderma can also result in deposition of calcium deposits, Raynaud's syndrome, and esophageal problems.Scleroderma Treatment Market: DynamicsThe increasing incidence and screening rates of Scleroderma is the prime driver of the Scleroderma market. The prevalence of Scleroderma in the U.S. accounting for 240 per million and an annual incidence of 19 per million is an indication of large unmet need. The European prevalence of Scleroderma is estimated to be between 10 and 150 per million people, while the annual incidence has been reported to be between 3 and 28 per million people.The increasing exposure to risk factors such as exposure to silica, aromatic and chlorinated solvents, ketones, welding fumes and the development of advanced high sensitive and selective skin biopsy and blood tests is driving a large market growth. The high recurrence and expanse of the disease to systemic resulting in death due to heart, lung, and gastrointestinal complications is driving a large market owing to low elasticity of demand. The incidence of systemic Scleroderma is estimated to be around 3 for every 100,000 people per year. The growing geriatric population is another driver of the market as Scleroderma most often begins in middle age.However, factors restraining the Scleroderma treatment market include lack of curative treatment, poor efficacy and efficiency of present drug regimens, and others.Scleroderma Treatment Market: SegmentationThe scleroderma treatment market is segmented on the basis of drug class, types, distribution channel and region.Based on drug class, the global scleroderma treatment market is segmented into:Anti-inflammatory agentsImmunosuppressive agentsVascular agentsAnti-fibrotic agentsOthersBased on types, the global scleroderma treatment market is segmented into:LocalizedSystemicBased on distribution channel, the global scleroderma treatment market is segmented into:Institutional SalesRetail SalesOnline SalesScleroderma Treatment Market: OverviewBased on regions, the global scleroderma treatment market is classified into North America, Latin America, Europe, CIS & Russia, Japan, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) and the Middle East & Africa (MEA). North America is expected to account for the largest share in the global Scleroderma treatment market owing to growth in the income of women, large investments by pharmaceutical companies and the huge potential of the market.The scleroderma Treatment markets in Europe is expected to be led by Germany, France and the UK. China and India are expected to drive the lions share in the Asia Pacific Scleroderma treatment market.The Middle East and Africa Scleroderma Treatment market is expected to be driven by the gulf economies of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. However, poor per capita income of African countries is likely to hamper the Scleroderma Treatment market growth in this region.Request Sample Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-8315 Scleroderma Treatment Market: Key PlayersSome of the major players in the global Scleroderma Treatment market are Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Gilead Sciences, Inc., Pfizer, Inc., Sanofi, Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH, Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings, Inc., Actelion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.,, Bayer AG, Cytori Therapeutics, Inc., and others. PR-Inside.com: 2019-03-11 16:12:42 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 723 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 ALBUQUERQUE, NM / ACCESSWIRE / March 11, 2019 / The AHCC is excited to announce a new business accelerator program titled Avanzar. The USHCC and Wells Fargo in collaboration with the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce (AHCC) and the Latin American Chamber of Commerce of Charlotte (LACCC) will administer a year-long accelerator program designed to help small scalable HBEs Avanzar (or advance) and take their business to the next level.For the past four years, Wells Fargo has spent more than $1 billion per year with diverse suppliers. ''We're committed to increasing our spend with diverse suppliers through building capacity in diverse businesses across the country. The Avanzar Program is one of our innovative approaches to creating a pipeline of strong Hispanic owned businesses,'' said Regina Heyward, senior vice president and head of supplier diversity for Wells Fargo.Each month for eight consecutive months beginning in March, the LACCC and AHCC will convene their ten participating Hispanic businesses for an educational programming series. The administered curriculum and training will help the participants overcome barriers to success in order to scale their businesses and build sustainable enterprises.''The growth of these business owners and the impact they will have on their communities is something we are proud to support,'' said Rob Myers, Small Business Strategy Leader, Wells Fargo. ''Programs like this are excellent examples of why we value our longstanding collaborations with USHCC and local businesses owners in Albuquerque, Charlotte and across the country.'' ''We are thrilled at the prospects of this new program rooted in our steadfast commitment to the Hispanic business community,'' said Ramiro Cavazos, USHCC President & CEO. ''Hispanic entrepreneurs start businesses three times faster than the average American, but they often face undue barriers to scaling. If Hispanic-owned businesses scaled as quickly as non-minority-owned businesses, there would be an additional $1.47 trillion dollars in the American economy. We are committed to helping the Hispanic business community reach its full potential.'' Participant CriteriaHispanic businesses between $100K - $ 1 MM in revenueMust be an established business with at least 3 years of operationsMust have a business that in the long term is scalable into an enterpriseBe in good membership standing with the local chamber of commerce''We are grateful to Wells Fargo and to the USHCC for working with us to support our local Hispanic small businesses,'' said Ernie C'deBaca, AHCC President & CEO. ''Avanzar will allow business in our community to grow and thrive through this dynamic and beneficial programming opportunity.'' ''I am excited to see the Hispanic Albuquerque community continue to grow with the help of the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce. The Albuquerque Hispano Chamber takes pride in supporting the needs of small businesses and that is why it is a privilege to team up with them on this new pilot centered around long-term scalable businesses,'' concludes Joe Trimble, Vice President, Desert Mountain Small Business Leader at Wells Fargo. Trimble, who is a board member of the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce and will be teaching one of the ''Access to Capital'' classes as part of the Avanzar Program.For the Avanzar program application in Albuquerque, click here.About Wells FargoWells Fargo & Company is a diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.9 trillion in assets. Wells Fargo's vision is to satisfy our customers' financial needs and help them succeed financially. Found in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through 7,800 locations, 13,000 ATMs, the internet ( wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 38 countries and territories to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 265,00 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 26 on Fortune's 2018 rankings of America's largest corporations. News, insights and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories.About USHCCThe USHCC actively promotes the economic growth, development, and interests of more than 4.37 million Hispanic-owned businesses, that combined, contribute over $700 billion to the American economy every year. It also advocates on behalf of 260 major American corporations and serves as the umbrella organization for more than 200 local chambers and business associations nationwide. For more information, please visit ushcc.com . Follow us on Twitter @USHCC.Contact: email@ ahcnm.org SOURCE: Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce PR-Inside.com: 2019-03-11 13:05:37 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 935 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 ~TIMIA Broadens Fintech Platform through non-dilutive capital structure and significantly increases investment capacity~VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 11, 2019 / TIMIA Capital Corporation ("TIMIA" or the "Company") (TSX-V: TCA / OTC PINK: TIMCF) today announced the formation and structure of $10.5 million in TIMIA's first Limited Partnership ("LP"). External investors will invest $7.6 million in the LP with TIMIA retaining a $2.4 million interest. Additional subscription agreements totaling $500,000 have been received and are expected to close shortly for a total LP value of $10.5 million. The LP, TIMIA Capital 1 Limited Partnership, will be governed under the terms of a limited partnership agreement with TIMIA Capital GP Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of TIMIA, acting as the LP's General Partner ("GP").Existing financing agreements with TIMIA's portfolio of SaaS companies, representing approximately $8.2 million in value will be transferred into the LP with related monthly payments being distributed, after deduction of fund expenses, to LP unit holders, including TIMIA, on a monthly basis. The remaining $2.3 million will be invested in SaaS companies through TIMIA's fintech platform and proprietary investment algorithms. In exchange for transferring the loan facility future cash flows into the LP, TIMIA will receive $5.8 million in cash on its balance sheet, and a $2.4 million interest in the LP.Transaction Highlights Include:Accretive to the Company with no dilution to the shareholders,TIMIA Capital will retain at least a 20% interest in the LP, thus still participating in a proportionate share of the revenue from the current investment portfolio while increasing its consolidated cash position to approximately $8.7 millionAssets under management go from approximately $15 million to approximately $23 million, representing roughly a 55% increase,TIMIA will receive a 1.5% servicing fee to manage the LP as its GP,TIMIA will receive a performance fee based upon the profit of the LP for the life of the fund, subject to investors achieving their preferred return firstTIMIA will have approximately $8.7 million of new capital to invest in SaaS companies in North America"This transaction is a significant milestone for the Company and its shareholders and reflects the confidence of investors in our strategy and ability to source quality investments," said Mike Walkinshaw, CEO of TIMIA. "Prior to the LP, TIMIA has raised approximately $10 million in total capital and have been able to execute $17 million of transactions. We've leveraged our proprietary lending algorithms and related software to efficiently generate deal flow and deliver stronger than industry average returns." "According to data collected from pitchbook.com , the market size for loans to North American Software companies generating approximately $1 million to $10 million in revenue represents $14 billon and is growing at over at 25% per year. With this in mind, we felt that this was the right time to raise capital and expand our fintech platform. We're moving quickly into new geographies and, as a result, expect this capital will be quickly deployed in companies where our capital can speed growth." TIMIA is continuously seeking new and exciting investments in the software as a service or SaaS industry. Under TIMIA's revenue-based financing model, TIMIA advances capital to a SaaS business with a recurring revenue stream that allows the portfolio company to make monthly payments to TIMIA that are a combination of principal and interest with a repayment schedule sculpted to the portfolio company's revenue streams. The amounts advanced are secured and may be repaid early. The Company expects to make further investments in the coming months, in the pursuit of its business model, which is to earn a combination of monthly payments and periodic gains on investments.About TIMIA Capital CorporationTIMIA Capital Corporation is a specialty finance company that provides growth capital to technology companies in exchange for payments based on monthly revenue. This alternative financing option complements both debt and equity financing, while allowing entrepreneurs and existing stakeholders to retain ownership and control of their business. TIMIA's singular focus is the fast growing, global, business-to-business Software-as-a-Service (or SaaS) segment. We align ourselves with entrepreneurial management teams growing their sales from $1 million to $10 million in Annual Recurring Revenue. For more information about TIMIA Capital Corporation, please visit www.timiacapital.com For more information, please contact:Darren SeedVice President, Capital Markets & CommunicationsMike Walkinshaw, CEOTIMIA Capital Corporation(604) 398-8839IR@ timiacapital.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.Forward-Looking InformationCertain information and statements in this news release contain and constitute forward-looking information or forward-looking statements as defined under applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements normally contain words like 'believe', 'expect', 'anticipate', 'plan', 'intend', 'continue', 'estimate', 'may', 'will', 'should', 'ongoing' and similar expressions, and within this news release include any statements (express or implied) respecting the closing of the LP transaction, TIMIA's ownership of LP units, future administration fee payments and carry on LP funds per year, further investments in SaaS companies with the remaining $2M and expectations regarding moving into new geographies, the quick deployment of capital and making further investments in the coming months. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, actions, or developments and are based on expectations, assumptions and other factors that management currently believes are relevant, reasonable and appropriate in the circumstances, including, without limitation, the following assumptions: that the Company and its investee companies are able to meet their respective future objectives and priorities, assumptions concerning general economic growth and the absence of unforeseen changes in the legislative and regulatory framework for the Company. Although management believes that the forward-looking PR-Inside.com: 2019-03-11 08:47:24 Press Information Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,, Abhishek Budholiya Manager 3479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ Published by Abhishek Budholiya +1-347-918-3531 e-mail http://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 689 Words 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,,Manager3479183531Abhishek Budholiya+1-347-918-3531 Transmission Overload Protectors Market: IntroductionTransmission Overload Protectors is mainly used as a protective device which limits the transmission of torque in the drive system in case of an instantaneous increase in torque. The instantaneous increase may occur due to a slow increase in load for instance dirt contamination or damaged bearings. When the available torque exceeds the required torque, it releases the torque to prevent system damage. It also reconnects the system automatically when the overload torque is passed. In case of dirt contamination or damaged bearings the electronic sensing can be used, as there is time to stop the drive but in case of sudden increase which may be due to mechanical breakage or misfeed mechanical transmission overload protectors can only be effective to protect the drive. It prevents machine from damage and ensure optimum utilization as well as saves time by eliminating breakdown time. The transmission overload protectors possess minimum maintenance, wide torque adjustment, simple design and easily adjustable, economical, compact and durable.Request For Report Sample @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-5651 Transmission Overload Protectors Market: Market DynamicsThe rising scope of repair and maintenance activities involved electrical power transmission and distribution equipment has been mainly attributed behind the growth of the transmission overload protectors market. The increasing need for high yield and production owing to growing demand of the products, increasing focus on standardisation and accuracy to ensure world-class quality as well as increasing focus of companies to decreasing operational cost to increase its profit margin without compromising quality, which can be attain by decreasing the maintenance cost is expected to impact the transmission overload protector market positively. Also, transmission overload protectors have become an integral component of all the industries which uses conveyer drives such as automotive, aerospace, chemicals, food and beverages etc. and hence, the growth of transmission overload protectors market will also depend on the growth of these industries.However, the lack of awareness amongst people and lack of expertise for the arrangement of transmission overload protector can act as a restraint to the growth of the global transmission overload protectors market. However, the current trend to use better technology and equipment to get better results will increase the demand for transmission overload protectors during the forecast period.Transmission Overload Protectors Market: Market SegmentationOn the basis of by transmission type, the transmission overload protectors market can be segmented as follows:LinearTorquePositive TorqueFriction TorqueOn the basis of by interface type, the transmission overload protectors market can be segmented as follows:Single PositionMulti-positionBall/detent interfaceOn the basis of the application, the Transmission Overload Protectors Market can be segmented as follows:IndustrialPulp & PaperMetal IndustryPackagingMiningOil & GasPower GenerationOther ManufacturingAutomotiveAgriculturalOther ApplicationsTransmission Overload Protectors Market: Regional OutlookEurope holds a major share in the global transmission overload protectors market. It is followed by North America and Asia Pacific. Europe is projected to be major consumers as well as producer owing to the extensive applications of transmission overload protectors in the manufacturing Industry. Increase in international trade which is evident from the Increasing globalization, and inbound- outbound FDI, will lead to positive growth in one economy and in correlated economies, such as Russia, India, Brazil, China etc. thereby. High growth in PMI (purchase manager index) numbers in India, China, Australia and UK and Increase in industrial production in countries, such as China, India and Germany, and will influence the growth of end-user industries in Asia Pacific, which in turn, will influence the demand for transmission overload protectors in the region during the forecast period. The Rest of the world is estimated to account for a relatively small share in the transmission overload protectors market.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC): https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-5651 Transmission Overload Protectors Market: Market ParticipantsSome of the examples of the market participants operating across the value chain of the global Transmission Overload Protectors Market are:Siemens AGBondioli & Pavesi S.p.A.TOK, Inc.Rotolinear SystemsCross & Morse.Wellman Wacoma Ltd.TORQUE-TECH PRECISION CO., LTD.KTR.Altra Industrial Motion Corp. PR-Inside.com: 2019-03-11 08:45:53 Press Information Future Market Insights 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,, Abhishek Budholiya Manager 3479183531 email https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ Published by Abhishek Budholiya +1-347-918-3531 e-mail http://www.futuremarketinsights.com # 705 Words 616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,,Manager3479183531Abhishek Budholiya+1-347-918-3531 Viscosity is considered to be a key factor for the measuring of quality of a lubricant. Viscosity is the quantity for expressing the magnitude of the internal frication of the fluid whereas, viscosity index determines the extent of viscosity of the hydraulic fluid which can change with the temperature as the viscosity index improves there may small change in fluid viscosity for the given temperature. Viscosity Index Improvers enhance lubrication under high stress which are an integral part of fuel additives for smooth functioning of automotive as well as non-automotive engines. Lubricant as well as Additive Chemical Manufacturers have been associated with the development of the product for automotive and industrial end users which are also termed as viscosity modifiers.Viscosity index improvers are the polymers additives taken from polyalkyl methyl acrylates, poly iso butylenes, olefin co-polymers, etc. which may reduce the impact of increasing temperature on viscosity of lubricants. Lubricant viscosity index improvers help the lubricant blenders to achieve the required significant properties, such as reduction of lubrication viscosity tendency to change when it subjected to temperature fluctuation to protect equipment at extreme temperature. Viscosity index improvers reduce the dependency of the lubrication viscosity in order to change increase or decrease of temperature. Viscosity index improvers belongs to two key properties which are shear stability and thickening efficiency. In order to achieve excellent fuel efficiency, durability and performance all these can be achieved by proper selection of viscosity index improvers. The application of viscosity index improvers achieves the maximum efficiency, performs better even at low temperature and protect the equipment from harmful wear. Environmental concern is expected to play key role in the viscosity index improvers market. Additionally, the reduction of some elements such as phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine and other metals proceeded at a fast rate over the last couple of years.Request For Report Sample @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-5628 Market Dynamics: Viscosity Index Improvers MarketIncreasing adoption of technology in viscosity index improvers market is expected to capture the maximum market share in terms of revenue in between the forecast period. Significant advantage associated with use of viscosity index improvers and increasing demand from the end use industries are the positive key drivers which is expected to propel the overall demand of the viscosity index improvers market. One of the major key factor is expected to hamper the market growth is relatively high cost of the raw materials in the global market. Increasing demand of green products and fully automated system are the benchmark trends for the viscosity index improvers market in the coming future.In terms of classification, polymethylacrylate is expected to dominate the global market with more than half of the market share in terms of value and volume. Increasing industrial application is expected to cater the market growth in the forecast period. On the basis of geographical region, Western Europe and North America are expected to gain maximum share in terms of revenue in viscosity index improvers market globally. Middle East and Africa is expected to grow with sluggish growth in viscosity index improvers market.Market Segmentation: Viscosity Index Improvers MarketViscosity index improvers market segmented on the basis of classification and application.On the basis of classification viscosity index improver segmented asPolymethacrylate Viscosity Index ImproverOlefin Copolymer viscosity improversOthersOn the basis of application viscosity index improvers market segmented asIndustrial LubricantsVehicle LubricantsOthersRegional Outlook: Viscosity Index Improvers MarketGlobally, Western Europe and North America are anticipated to drive the growth with healthy CAGR over the forecast period followed by Asia Pacific Middle East and Africa. Developing nations, such as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) will contribute significantly to the global viscosity index improvers market in between the forecast period. Manufacturers tend to equip their end products with high-end safety and better quality to the customers in the global market. This is anticipated to act as a catalyst for the growth of the overall viscosity index improvers market over the forecast period.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC): https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-5628 Some of the key players in the viscosity index improvers market areLubrizol CorporationShengyang greatwallInfineumOroniteNanjing RunyouEvonikSanyo ChemicalAfton PR-Inside.com: 2019-03-11 16:03:46 Press Information Research Solution Insights (RSI) 42 joseph street, Portcarling P0B 1J0, Muskoka, Ontario, Canada T: +1-631-721-4201 Email: admin@researchreportinsights.com Web Site: http://www.researchreportinsights.com Phone - (+91) 7875758555 email Published by Ethan Taylor +44-631-787-4201 e-mail https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com # 458 Words 42 joseph street,Portcarling P0B 1J0,Muskoka, Ontario, CanadaT: +1-631-721-4201Email: admin@researchreportinsights.comWeb Site: http://www.researchreportinsights.comPhone - (+91) 7875758555Ethan Taylor+44-631-787-4201 A voice-directed warehousing means utilization of the speech recognition and voice direction software in distribution centres and warehouses. A worker has to put on a headset linked to a pocket-size or wearable computer that states the worker what to do and where to go by means of vocal prompts. The workers then affirm their jobs by verbalizing reading confirmation codes and pre-defined commands written on products or locations all through the warehouse. The software functioning on the wearable computer interprets the worker's reactions. A voice-directed warehousing solution is generally utilized rather than a mobile computer or paper-based method which requires workers to interpret instructions as well as key-enter information or scan barcodes to verify their tasks.Report For Sample with Table of Contents@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/sample/110114993/Voice-Directed-Warehousing-Solutions-Market The global voice-directed warehousing solutions market is predicted to expand at a higher rate by exhibiting a 14.4% CAGR over the predicted period and is predicted to account for a valuation in excess of US$ 2,500 Million through 2025.Market SegmentationBy component type, the overall market is segmented into services (implementation & integration and consulting) and voice-directed warehousing platform. The voice-directed warehousing platform is predicted to remain the biggest market regarding market share. Although, the services segment will be recording a high 15% CAGR in value terms for the duration of the predicted period.By industry type, the worldwide market is segmented as food and beverage, electrical and electronics, e-commerce, pharmaceutical, tracking, logistics and transport, retail and others. The retail segment is predicted to account for around US$ 866 Million in value terms through 2025 end projecting to expand at a moderately quicker rate to record a 15.7% CAGR all through the predicted period.The worldwide market on the basis of the region is assessed across Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, North America and Middle East & Africa. APAC region is predicted to be dominating the market globally in the said period. The region is predicted to account for a market valuation in excess of US$ 985 Million through the end of the eight-year projection period and is predicted to grow at a high 16.3% CAGR for the duration of the predicted period of 2025.Request For Report Discount@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/discount/110114993/Voice-Directed-Warehousing-Solutions-Market Key Market PlayersThe key players effective in the worldwide market voice-directed warehousing solutions includes, Dematic Corporation, Honeywell International Inc. (Vocollect), TopVox Corporation, Voiteq Ltd., Speech Interface Design Inc., Lucas Systems Inc., Zebra Technologies Corporation , Voxware Inc., Zetes Industries S.A., Honeywell Intelligrated, Business Computer Projects Ltd. and Ivanti Software Inc.. Other players functional in the overall market includes Symphony EYC Solution UK Ltd., HighJump Software Inc., BEC (Systems Integration) Ltd., Blue Horseshoe Solutions, Inc., Ehrhardt + Partner Group (TopVox Corporation) and Proteus Software Ltd.Report Analysis@ https://www.researchreportinsights.com/report/rd/110114993/Voice-Directed-Warehousing-Solutions-Market President Muhammadu Buhari says his administration has broken the fertilizer jinx that has bedeviled the countrys agricultural sector for decades, saying the commodity is now available in all local governments across the country at affordable rates. The president said this on Sunday when he received representatives of community and development associations from Daura Emirate at his private residence in Daura, Katsina State. The association representatives were at the presidents place to congratulate him on his election for a second term. The President told his guests Nigerians were already benefiting from the good agricultural policies of his government, as lifestyles are changing and standards of living among the poor on the rise. Nigerians are already benefiting from the good agricultural policies of this administration. I can say that lifestyles of an average Nigerian involved in agriculture are changing and standards of living among the poor are rising. Investments in agriculture will be sustained. In the last three and a half years, the contributions of agriculture to gross domestic product (GDP) have been impressive, in addition to earnings from food exports. I can boast we have broken the fertilizer jinx. The product is today available in all local governments at low prices. More measures are in the offing to transform the lives of millions of Nigerians across the country, he said. The president pledged to introduce new programmes and projects that would make agriculture more attractive to Nigerians and increase jobs in the sector. Under the Presidential Fetiliser initiative (PFI), the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has revamped and restored production in about 20 fertiliser-blending plants in 2018. The revamped fertilizer-blending plants have the capacity to deliver about million bags of fertilizer at about N5,500 per bag, about 30 percent below market prices. The PFI was President Buharis initiative to boost farming output and reduce the economys dependence on oil. A retired Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), Sani Daura, who was also at the event, said the presidents honesty and integrity in public governance would remain a thing of pride to the community. Mr Daura said the presidents those attributes, among others, guaranteed his re-election. Also, a youth representative, Mohammed Sale, commended the Federal Government for establishing an irrigation scheme, skills acquisition centre and completing a sub-station to boost electricity in the community. He appealed for a new Federal Medical Centre and a university in Daura. The youths are ready to participate actively in the next level of your government, Mr Sale told the president. Later at a separate event in Daura, a victory party to celebrate the presidents re-election was organized by Porridge Dealers (Fura da Nunu) Association in the ancient town. The president, who was represented at the fete by his senior aides and family members, joined the local community to some traditional singing, dancing and exchange of gifts. (NAN) Crude oil prices rose marginally on Monday, driven by comments from Saudi Arabian oil minister, Khalid al-Falih, that an end to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)-led supply cuts was unlikely before June. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures stood at about $56.39 per barrel at 0323 GMT, up 32 cents, or 0.6 percent from their last close on Friday. Brent crude futures were at $65.04 per barrel, up 30 cents, or 0.5 per cent. Last December, OPEC members and their non-OPEC allies agreed to cut a total of 1.2 million barrels of crude oil from their supplies based on the October production levels. While OPEC members agreed to cut about 800,000 barrels, their non-OPEC allies led by Russia resolved to cut their output by 400,000 barrels, in a bid to strengthen crude oil prices, tighten and stabilize the crude oil market. The resolution was to be subject to a review to either extend the cut by June, or discontinue after the monitoring team has reviewed the impact. Despite the gains, commodities markets were somewhat held back after U.S. employment data raised concerns that an economic slowdown in Asia and Europe was spilling into the United States, where growth has so far still been healthy. Downward revisions in global growth forecasts by OECD and ECB have capped bullish gains, said Benjamin Lu of Singapore-based brokerage Phillip Futures. Oil markets have generally been supported this year by this ongoing supply cuts. The OPEC is scheduled to meet in Vienna on April 17-18, with another gathering scheduled for June 25-26, to discuss supply policy. Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih told Reuters on Sunday it would be too early to change OPEC output policy at the groups meeting in April. We will see what happens by April. If there is any unforeseen disruption somewhere else. But, barring this, I think we will just be kicking the can forward, Mr Falih said. Prices were also supported by U.S. energy services firm Baker Hughes latest weekly report showing the number of rigs drilling for new oil production in the United States fell by nine to 834. High drilling activity last year resulted in a more than two million barrels per day rise in production, to 12.1 million bpd reached this February, making the United States the worlds biggest producer of crude oil ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia. The slowdown in drilling points to more timid output growth going forward, but because the overall drilling level remains relatively high despite the recent decline, many analysts still expect U.S. crude output to rise above 13 million bpd soon. This is the third straight week of declineafter a number of oil producers trimmed their spending outlooks for 2019, ANZ bank said on Monday. Sudans parliament on Monday voted to shorten from one year to six months a state of emergency declared by President Omar al-Bashir in February in response to widespread protests. Parliament can, however, renew the measure. Mr Bashir declared the nationwide state of emergency, the first since 1999, on February 22 to try to quell demonstrations that have posed the most serious challenge to his three-decade rule. Parliaments deputy speaker Ahmed Attijani said some lawmakers objected to the state of emergency because of its implications for freedoms, particularly given Sudan was due to hold a presidential election in 2020. The state of emergency gives security services expanded powers to search buildings, restrict movement of people and public transport, arrest suspects and seize assets or property during investigations. In the days after its imposition, Mr Bashir announced a raft of other measures, including setting up emergency courts and prosecutors across the country. Activists say over 800 people have been tried in the courts. We reject the state of emergency completely and these measures will not stop the popular mobilisation, Omar al-Degair, head of the opposition Sudanese Congress Party, said. Near-daily demonstrations set off by a worsening economic crisis have shaken Sudan since December 19. Protesters have called for Mr Bashir to go, blaming him for the countrys problems. He has pointed a finger at infiltrators and foreign agents. (Reuters/NAN) The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday sanctioned a Moscow-based bank owned jointly by Russian and Venezuelan state companies in a bid to step up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduros embattled regime. All property or interests of Evrofinance Mosnarbank, as well as entities owned by it in the United States or controlled by U.S. citizens, are blocked. The bank was targeted for supporting the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, a vehicle for corruption, embezzlement, and money laundering by Maduro and his cronies, the statement added. According to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, this action demonstrates that the U.S. will take action against foreign financial institutions that sustain the illegitimate Maduro regime. Mr Mnuchin said Mr Maduro contributed to the economic collapse and humanitarian crisis plaguing the people of Venezuela. Venezuelas self-declared interim president, Juan Guaido, meanwhile, asked the National Assembly, which he heads, to declare a national emergency over a power blackout that has persisted since Thursday. Electricity has been restored only in parts of Caracas, while the outage also affects other regions. The daily El Nacional reported that Caracas authorities were deploying buses to replace the underground, which was not functioning. The blackout has also led to water and fuel shortages, school classes remained suspended, while looting was reported in some parts of the Caracas district. According to El Nacional, the power outage has also affected many hospitals. Mr Guaido said it had led to 17 deaths, without giving details on how those people died. (dpa/NAN) The Code of Conduct Tribunal has ruled that the trial of the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, shall continue on a daily basis. The tribunal made the decision after deciding that the application challenging its jurisdiction in the matter be reserved till the end of the hearing. The tribunal chairman, Danladi Umar, who presided over two other members of the bench on Monday gave the ruling and ordered the continuation of the matter on Tuesday. Mr Umar said his decision is in line with Section 296 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act which provides for a speedy dispensation of criminal matters in court. Mr Umar said the tribunal would in its subsequent hearing entertain other applications brought by the prosecution lawyer, Aliu Umar, on Monday and reserve ruling, in a like manner. Mr Onnoghens lawyer, Adegboyega Awomolo, had reminded the tribunal of their application challenging the jurisdiction of the tribunal on the grounds that the NJC is the body empowered by law to try serving judicial officers. Mr Awomolo reminded the tribunal of its previous ruling in the case of a Supreme Court Justice Sylvester Ngwuta who was discharged of false asset allegations on account of another ruling by the Appeal Court which ordered that only the NJC was empowered to first indict a serving judicial officer, before he can be tried in any court of law. Mr Awomolo described the tribunal ruling in Mr Ngwutas case as a ruling online with constitutional provision and asked the tribunal to follow the dictates of that ruling since it has not been contested by the prosecution. In his part, the prosecution lawyer, Mr Umar, asked for an extension of the ex-parte motion seeking the suspension of Mr Onnoghen and demanded that the tribunal revisits the application. Mr Umar said the ruling discharging Mr Ngwuta was not duly brought to the knowledge of his clients and argued that if the reason aduced by Mr Awomolo was the reason for the discharge of Mr Ngwuta, the tribunal should not continue in its erro of aligning with the appeal court ruling in the case of Nganjiwa. In a ruling after parties had concluded their arguments, Mr Umar said the matter deserved utmost dispatch and ruled that the case be continued on a daily basis. In respect of section 296 (2) of the ACJA it is very clear that motions will be reserved till the time of the delivery of judgement. The tribunal deems it fit to treat the motion with utmost dispatch. Hence the need for speedy trial. The tribunal has ordered that all rulings needed can be ruled upon with the substantive matter. The hearing of the substantive matter shall proceed day by day. Mr Umar said his ruling was in compliance with the provisions of the ACJA and the practice direction of the tribunal, paragraph 5. Mr Onnoghen is facing trial for alleged false declaration of asset. He was controversially suspended on January 25 by President Muhammadu Buhari and replaced by the current acting CJN, Muhammad Tanko. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bauchi State has claimed victory in Saturdays governorship election in the state and has berated the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for declaring the election in the state inconclusive. Speaking at a press briefing held in the state capital on Monday morning, the chairman of the party in the state, Hamza Akuyam, stated that the party will use or legal options available to it to expeditiously return the peoples mandate within the shortest time possible. In the early hours of the day, the states returning officer, Mohammed Kyari, declared the result of the gubernatorial election inconclusive. Mr Kyari explained that the margin between the two leading parties, the PDP and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of 4,059 votes was less than the 45,312 cancelled votes. He, therefore, stated that according to Section 26 part 53 of the Electoral Act, supplementary elections would be held within 21 days in areas where election were not held before a winner would be announced. But before the making the declaration, Mr Kyari had rejected the votes from Tafawa Balewa local government following violence at the local government collation centre. Tafawa Balewa is a stronghold of the PDP and is one of the three local governments that make up the constituency of the speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara. From the result announced by collation officer, Dominion Anosike, at the local government collation centre, the PDP had the largest votes with 40,010 followed by the APC with 29,862 votes. But this vote was rejected by Mr Kyari for the reported violence at the collation centre despite the claim by Mrs Anosike that there was no violence at the polling units. She, however, said she was made to announce the results at the local government collation centre under duress. The opposition PDP was in the lead after scoring 469,512 votes while the APC had scored 465,453 votes from 19 out of the 20 local governments that were announced at the state collation centre. Unconstitutional decision Describing decision of INEC to declare the election inconclusive as arbitrary and unconstitutional, Mr Akuyam said the national leadership of the commission should compel the collation officer at Tafawa Balewa, Mrs Anosike and the state returning officer, Mr Kyari, to declare his party the winner of the poll. We demand that the chairman of INEC should immediately compel the two officers to return to the state collation centre at once and complete the process of return of the Bauchi State governorship election. They are without an iota of doubt a party to the sadistic plan orchestrated by Governor MA Abubakar designed to return to office at all cost, he said. Let me reassure the general public that the PDP will spare no effort to reclaim that mandate which was freely given to us by the people of Bauchi on 9 March 2019, he added. Attack by thugs The chairman alleged that the thugs affiliated to the APC broke into the collation centre at Tafawa Balewa and stole the uncompleted result sheet (Form EC 8C 1) meant for the collation of the governorship election result from 11 wards of the local government. He said the police stood by and refused to arrest the thugs and when they were accosted by youth in the area they abandoned a 4WD Jeep with registration number AAA 769 EW belonging to the APC House of Representative candidate for Tafawa Balewa. He said the youth later discovered 30 machetes and sticks in the vehicle. He said having lost the original result sheet to the thugs, a duplicate copy of the form was used to collate the result and that the collation officer and electoral officer of the local government informed the state returning officer of the decision, but he refused to accept the result on the ground that it was written on the wrong form. The decision of the state returning officer declaring the Bauchi State governorship election as inconclusive and issuing order of supplementary election within twenty-one days is unwarranted and illegal as no any condition precedent for such directives had existed. Worst still is that the Bauchi State returning officer lacks the legal competence to cancel an election duly conducted by various presiding officers and validly collated at ward and local government level devoid of any opposition by any political party, he said. Mr Akuyam, who had earlier accused the states police commissioner, Ali Janga of collaborating with Mr Abubakar to intimidate and abduct supporters of the party, also demanded that Mr Janga, the head of the police Rapid Response Squad and the states resident electoral commissioner be removed from their positions unconditionally saying his party has lost confidence in their ability to treat the opposition parties with civility and respect. The PDP chairman also demanded the prosecution of some supporters of the APC such as Sarkin Lere, Khalid Musa, Saddique, Suleiman Mado and Bala Burga, who he accused of orchestrating the attack on the Tafawa Balewa collation centre for electoral malpractice. Similarly, he said Mrs Anosike, who he claimed was a card-carrying member of the ruling APC, should be prosecuted for giving false information and perjury. Also, speaking at the press briefing, the speaker of the House of Representative, Yakubu Dogara, asked the national chairman of INEC, who is also from the state, to do the right thing and not be a party to stealing of the mandate of his people. The press conference was also attended by the senator representing Bauchi Central senatorial district, Isa Misau, and the PDP governorship candidate, Bala Mohammed. Gunmen attacked two communities in the troubled Kajuru Local Government of Kaduna State on Monday morning, Multiple sources confirmed the attack to PREMIUM TIMES, although the police and state government are yet to react. The attacks occurred in Ikirimi village, as well as Iri, Dogon Noma in Ungwar Gamo, both in Kajuru Local Government Area. The attacks left a yet-to-be ascertained number of casualties, this newspaper learnt. The attack is coming a day after a similar onslaught which left many dead in Ungwar Barde. It started around 7 a.m. this morning, an indigene of Dogon Noma who simply wants to be identified as Hon Stingo said. All of a sudden they (villagers) heard gunshots. When they began to come out of their houses, some were being shot dead. They shared themselves into three batches. One batch was standing strategically in the bushes surrounding the village. Two groups went in. The first group was the one firing. When people began to scamper for their lives, the second group enters and began to set the house on fire. Then those who ran into the bushes, those that were standing there were waiting for them. In the whole community, theres no house that was not set ablaze. As we are talking, nobody can tell the number of casualties. Apart from the man (dead bodies) that have been heaped, there are many in the bushes around. A prominent person in the community who does not want to be named for security reasons confirmed the killings to PREMIUM TIMES. Yes, there was an attack in some villages in the early hours of today. Many people were killed and houses burnt. But we have since informed the security operatives, he said. The police are yet to react to the latest developments. Contacted Tuesday afternoon, the Public Relations Officer of Kaduna Police Force, Yakubu Sabo, could not comment on the incident. I will get back to you, he said. The Sunday Attack The Sunday ambush occurred in Ungwar Barde, the village where the recent violent attacks started some four weeks ago. In the February attack, 11 people were killed in the community. The casualty figures for the latest attack are yet to be officially declared but the figures may well be over what was recorded in the first attack. Seventeen people died according to what I was told. They said they are still searching for more bodies, a sympathiser who does not want himself named told PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday. Gory pictures of the strike seen by this newspaper show that the victims were largely women and children. The state government, in a statement on Sunday, condemned the violent attack and extended its sympathy to the community and the families of the victims. The statement by Governor Nasir El-Rufais spokesperson, Samuel Aruwan, said more troops had been deployed to the community, while the Air Force was carrying out aerial surveillance. The statement says, Heads of security agencies in Kaduna State have informed Governor Nasir El-Rufai of an attack on Ungwan Barde community by unknown bandits, today, 10th March 2019. The government condemns this violent attack and extends its sympathy to the families of the victims and the entire community. The security agencies have informed the governor that measures are being taken to contain the situation and to secure the general area. More troops have been deployed to the community, while the Nigerian Air Force personnel are carrying out aerial surveillance and reconnaissance. The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has won the governorship election in Nasarawa Local Government Area, the only local government that delayed the final announcement of governorship election result in the state. After collation of results from 10 wards of the local government, PDP scored 54,349 votes while the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), scored 34,297 votes. Based on the results collated at the state collation centre, the PDP, which had earlier polled 960,004 votes from 43 local governments now has a total of 1,014,353 votes. The APC which had polled 953,522 votes from 43 local government areas now has 987,819 votes. The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the state, Riskuwa Shehu, had ordered for fresh collation of results from the wards in Nasarawa local government after the local government collation centre was attacked and the main result sheet was torn. However, only results from 10 out of the 11 local governments were collated before the process was disrupted. As a result, it is the result of the 10 local governments already collated that were regenerated at the state collation office. The results from Gama ward was, therefore, not included. Also, the state collation officer, Bello Shehu, a professor, said that after final collation, he will look at the number of cancelled votes and the margin of difference between the two leading candidates. This will determine if the PDP candidate will be declared the winner or if the election will be declared inconclusive. The Kaduna State Police Command on Monday said no fewer than 16 persons were killed by gunmen at Barde Village under Maro in Kajuru Local Government Area of the state. The Commands Public Relations Officer, Yakubu Sabo, confirmed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna. Mr Sabo said at about 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, some unknown armed men entered Barde Village under Maro in Kajuru Local Government Area and started shooting sporadically which resulted in the death of 16 persons. He said on receipt of the information, the command mobilised teams of police operatives led by Kajuru Divisional Police Officer (DPO) alongside military personnel with a view to apprehend the perpetrators and restore normalcy to the area. He added that the operation was ongoing and the situation had been brought under control. While investigation is in progress, the Commissioner of Police, Ahmad Abdurrahman, has vowed to uncover the masterminds of this dastardly act and bring them to justice, he said. He appealed for calm and extended his heartfelt condolences to the families of those who were affected by the recent carnage. Residents had earlier narrated how the attack occurred to PREMIUM TIMES. It started around 7 a.m. this morning, an indigene of Dogon Noma who simply wants to be identified as Hon. Stingo said. All of a sudden they (villagers) heard gunshots. When they began to come out of their houses, some were being shot dead. They shared themselves into three batches. One batch was standing strategically in the bushes surrounding the village. Two groups went in. The first group was the one firing. When people began to scamper for their lives, the second group enters and began to set the house on fire. Then those who ran into the bushes, those that were standing there were waiting for them. In the whole community, theres no house that was not set ablaze. As we are talking, nobody can tell the number of casualties. Apart from the man (dead bodies) that have been heaped, there are many in the bushes around. The death of a prominent Nigerian Professor, Pius Adesanmi, who died in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash of Sunday, has continued to elicit grief in many Nigerians. The columnist was among the 157 passengers and crew members killed in the crash on Sunday morning, which occurred shortly after the plane left Addis Ababa for Nairobi in Kenya. The Nigerian-born Canadian, who before his death worked at the Institute of African Studies in Carleton University of Canada, was a columnist at PREMIUM TIMES as well as other Nigerian media outfits. Another Nigerian, Abiodun Bashua, was also a victim of the disaster. Before his demise, Mr Bashua was a UN expert who had extensive experience in several United Nations peacekeeping operations in Africa. This paper reported how the airline management released the flight manifest showing the countries of origin of the 149 passengers on board, which included a Nigerian, 32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians, nine Ethiopians, eight Italians, eight Chinese, eight Americans, seven Britons, seven French citizens, one Egyptian, five Dutch citizens, and four each from India and Slovakia. Tributes On Sunday evening, public figures and many other personalities paid tributes to the late Professor. President Muhammadu Buhari, in a statement issued by Garba Shehu, condoled with the families of the two Nigerians. Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic partys candidate in the 2019 Presidential election, said Mr Adesanmi will be remembered for how he brought scholarship to progressive advocacy. His numerous followers on the social media will miss his insightful contribution towards a better Nigeria. I pray his soul will forever Rest In Peace. The Special Assistant to the Vice-President on media and publicity, Laolu Akande, on Sunday evening mourned the demise of the scholar. We mourn, with his family & associates, one of our notable public intellectuals of the day, Pius Adesanmi, award-winning writer & Canada-based professor, who reportedly passed on in todays unfortunate Ethiopian Airlines crash. What a painful loss! May his memory be blessed,p, he tweeted. Former presidential candidate, Remi Sonaiya, in a tweet also sent a condolence message to the families of the deceased. Just to come here and express condolences to the families of the victims of the #EthiopianAirlineCrash not expecting to know anyone on it. Only to be confronted with the news that Prof. #PiusAdesanmi was on that flight!!! Pius, dear God! How so painful. #NigeriaMourns Just wanted to come here and express condolences to the families of the victims of the #EthiopianAirlineCrash not expecting to know anyone on it. Only to be confronted with the news that Prof. #PiusAdesanmi was on that flight!!! Pius, dear God! How so painful. #NigeriaMourns Remi Sonaiya (@oluremisonaiya) March 10, 2019 Dele Momodu, a publisher, also expressed his shock. My very dear friend PROFESSOR PIUS ADESANMI was in the crashed Ethiopian Airlines plane My God, why Pius, that prodigiously brilliant gentleman!!! Rest in Peace, a great son of Africa My very dear friend PROFESSOR PIUS ADESANMI was in the crashed Ethiopian Airlines plane My God, why Pius, that prodigiously brilliant gentleman!!! Rest in Peace, a great son of Africa pic.twitter.com/kyB2Cs8CRD Dele Momodu Ovation (@DeleMomodu) March 10, 2019 Ahmed Salkida, a Nigerian investigative journalist tweeted: #PiusAdesanmi, a brilliant scholar and an open-minded person. Your memory will always remind me to be a better person and to seek nothing short of good governance in #Nigeria. #PiusAdesanmi, a brilliant scholar and an open minded person. Your memory will always remind me to be a better person and to seek nothing short of good governance in #Nigeria. pic.twitter.com/9AWriA52sq Ahmad Salkida (@A_Salkida) March 10, 2019 More tweets Another Nigerian, Ajibola Dolapo, tweeted: Yours was one of the tweets I look forward to reading everyday. Full of life and wisdom. You inspired the world with your brilliance and intelligence. I didnt get to meet you in person but we had a few memorable engagements here. #PIUS #PIUSADESANMI Yours was one of the tweets I look forward to reading everyday. Full of life and wisdom. You inspired the world with your brilliance and intelligence. I didnt get to meet you in person but we had a few memorable engagements here. #PIUS #PIUSADESANMI pic.twitter.com/69T8rvTQzN #TeamLaycon #BBNaija5 #Laycon #iCONS (@ajibolabakey) March 10, 2019 Tunji Lardner stated that Africa has lost a star. Shining with iridescent brilliance across many disciplines. Warm, compassionate & generous, giving of his mind, time & spirit. Nigeria has lost a TRUTH SAYER constantly aligning our broken moral compass. We have lost a friend & our muse. RIP #PiusAdesanmi Africa has lost a star. Shining with iridescent brilliance across many disciplines. Warm, compassionate & generous, giving of his mind, time & spirit. Nigeria has lost a TRUTH SAYER constantly aligning our broken moral compass. We have lost a friend & our muse. RIP Tunji Lardner (@TunjiLardner) March 10, 2019 Elizabeth Okunola: Nigerians, do not despair, Prof. Pius isnt dead because his impact will live on and we will never forget him. Lets use this time to pray for his loved ones and celebrate the fact that he was here. #PiusAdesanmi Nigerians, do not despair, Prof. Pius isnt dead because his impact will live on and we will never forget him. Lets use this time to pray for his loved ones and celebrate the fact that he was here. #PiusAdesanmi Elizabeth Okunlola (@reinelade) March 10, 2019 @WhaleHarry So its confirmed a sad day for Education in Nigeria and a sad day for Nigerian all around the globe we lost a voice RIP #PiusAdesanmi You will be forever remain in our heart. https://twitter.com/WhaleHarry/status/1104862459133939713?s=19 Investigations begin Airline Meanwhile, the airline, in a statement issued on Sunday evening said it has launched an investigation into the tragic incident and has also moved to get the dead bodies across to their family members. A committee comprising of Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority, and Ethiopian Transport Authority has been set up to carry out the investigations, the statement said. Once the identities of the deceased are identified, their bodies will be delivered to their families and loved ones. Ethiopian Airlines has already contacted the families of the victims to inform them of the tragic accident. Investigation will be carried out to determine the cause of the accident, in collaboration with all stakeholders including the aircraft manufacturer Boeing, Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority and other international entities, it added. Apart from Canada-based professor of Literary Arts, Carleton University, Pius Adesanmi, who died carrying a Canadian passport, the other Nigerian, Abiodun Bashua, who had a UN passport, was among 19 UN officials who died in the ill-fated Ethiopian Airline crash on Sunday. Mr Bashua was a former UN and African Union (AU) Deputy Joint Special Representative in Darfur, Sudan. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said Mr Bashua, a retired Nigerian career ambassador, was until his death, working on contract with the United Nations Economic Commission of Africa (UNECA). Following the crash, the UN Department of Safety and Security in Kenya, said in a statement the plane had on board no fewer than 19 of its officials. Details of the officials lost from the different UN agencies and affiliates include six staff from the World Food Programme (WFP), two each from the Office of the High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Also, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in South Sudan, World Bank and UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) each lost one staff member. Six staff from the UN Office in Nairobi (UNON) were also affected. As a mark of respect IOM said it would fly its flag at half-mast at its offices today, as will the UN and its agencies. The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement he was deeply saddened at the tragic loss of lives. The UN chief conveyed his heartfelt sympathies and solidarity to the victims families and loved ones, including those of United Nations staff members, as well as sincere condolences to the Government and people of Ethiopia. The statement said the UN was in contact with the Ethiopian authorities and working closely with them to establish the details of United Nations personnel who lost their lives in this tragedy the Secretary-General stated. The disaster happened on the eve of the UN Environment Assembly when Heads of State, environment ministers and thousands of others will convene for five days in the Kenyan capital. Many senior UN officials took to Social Media to express their condolences and sadness. On Twitter, Jose Graziano da Silva, Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO,) sent his heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the bereaved families, saying that one FAO staff member was among the victims. Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), David Beasley tweeted that the WFP family mourns today, revealing WFP staff were also among those on board the flight. We will do all that is humanly possible to help the families at this painful time. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers, he said. Houlin Zhao, ITU Secretary General tweeted his sincere condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives in the plane crash. Noting that two ITU staff were on the flight, he said: Our colleagues in Addis are providing support to their families during this difficult time. All of us at UNICEF mourn the tragic loss of our UN colleagues and all those who died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash today. May they rest in peace. Our thoughts are with their families and loved ones, Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of the UN Childrens Fund, tweeted. On behalf of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), whose Headquarters are in Nairobi, Executive Director Maimunah Sharif tweeted her deepest condolences and prayers to the Great Nation of Ethiopia and to the families of the passengers and crew members who lost their lives in this tragedy. May they rest in eternal peace, Sharif said. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi issued a condolence statement saying: UNHCR has suffered today a huge loss. IOM Director-General Antonio Vitorino issued a statement expressing his deep sadness over the 157 lives lost, including a young IOM staff member Anne-Katrin Feigl, who was en route to a training course in Nairobi as part of her role as a Junior Professional Officer. Catherine Northing, Chief of the IOM Mission in Sudan where Feigl worked, called her an extremely valued colleague and popular staff member, committed and professional, saying her tragic passing has left a big hole and we will all miss her greatly. (NAN) In the aftermath of Sundays ill-fated crash of Ethiopian Airlines, Chinas aviation regulator on Monday grounded nearly 100 Boeing Co 737 MAX 8 aircraft in its fleet. An Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after take-off on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board. Following the crash, the Ethiopian Airlines promptly announced its decision to ground the rest of their carrier in its fleet of the jets. The two Nigerians aboard the ill-fated flight were Canada-based professor of Literary Arts, Carleton University, Pius Adesanmi, and a former UN and African Union (AU) Deputy Joint Special Representative in Darfur, Sudan. News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted the airlines as confirming the crash was the second of the 737 MAX 8, the latest version of Boeings workhorse narrowbody jet that first entered service in 2017. In October, 2018 a 737 MAX 8 operated by Indonesian budget carrier, Lion Air, crashed 13 minutes after take-off from Jakarta on a domestic flight, killing all 189 passengers and crew on board. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said all Chinese airlines had to suspend their use of the 737 MAX 8 by 6 p.m. (1000 GMT) on Monday. The aircraft is the latest version of Boeings workhorse narrowbody that entered service in 2017. The CAAC said it would notify airlines as to when they could resume flying the jets after contacting Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ensure flight safety for passengers. Given that two accidents both involved newly delivered Boeing 737-8 planes and happened during take-off phase, they have some degree of similarity, the CAAC said. It added that the order was in line with its principle of zero-tolerance on safety hazards. The 737 MAX 8 is sometimes referred to as the 737-8. NAN reported a Boeing spokesperson declined to comment. Chinese airlines have 96 of the 737 MAX 8 jets in service, the state company regulator said on Weibo, including Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Hainan Airlines. Chinese aviation data firm, Variflight, said at least 29 international and domestic flights were canceled on Monday, with airlines having to swap the plane on 256 other flights earlier scheduled to use it. China Easterns Chairman, Liu Shaoyong, told financial publication Caixin on the sidelines of a parliament meeting in Beijing it would only consider resuming 737 MAX 8 flights once Boeing issued a safety commitment for the jets. Also, to prove there was no aircraft design link between the two crashes. The cause of the Indonesian crash is yet to be known, as investigations are still ongoing. A preliminary report in November, before the cockpit voice recorder was recovered, focused on airline maintenance and training and the response of a Boeing anti-stall system to a recently replaced sensor but did not give a reason for the crash. Ethiopian Airlines said it had grounded its 737 MAX 8 fleet until further notice as an extra safety precaution even though it did not know the cause of Sundays crash. The airline has a remaining fleet of four of the aircraft, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24. Cayman Airways said it had grounded both of its new 737 MAX 8 jets until it got more information. But, no other airlines or regulators said they were grounding the aircraft. By the end of January, Boeing had delivered 350 of the 737 MAX family jets to customers, with another 4,661 on order. (Reuters/NAN) FAT/IS A poultry farm expert, Oduware Efe, on Monday warned against the consumption of imported frozen chicken to avoid negative effect on the health of consumers. Oduware, who gave the warning in an interview with the News Agency of Nigerian (NAN) in Lagos encouraged Nigerians to patronise the locally processed chicken instead. He said there were multiple inherent dangers of consuming imported frozen chicken, because of the chemicals used in their preservation process. There are so many negative effects of consuming imported frozen chicken as it relates to the health of consumers. Generally, they are not healthy for consumption when compared to freshly prepared chickens. It has been analyzed by the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), University of Ibadan and other research institutes across the country that the chemicals used in the preservation of these imported chickens are dangerous to human health. These preservatives are done in these foreign countries to make sure the chickens have a longer shelf life, so it does not get contaminated. However, the issue of storage and cold-chain transportation will make the chickens lose their value following hitches encountered during transportation. The chemicals used to preserve dead bodies are the same being used to preserve the imported frozen chicken. The preservatives in the chicken contain heavy metals that are not good for the body. These metals have negative ripple effects on our internal organs such as kidneys, livers and even the lungs, he said. Oduware also harped on the negative impact of consuming frozen imported chickens on the economy, calling on Nigerians to appreciate locally processed chickens in spite of the cost. The consumption of imported frozen chicken also has a negative impact on the economy of the country. When we import, we take jobs from Nigerians who are involved in the poultry value chain which involves production, processing and marketing of locally bred chicken. We are killing the local economy when we consume imported frozen chickens. We have to preserve the jobs of these Nigerians by patronizing our locally processed chickens. Although frozen chickens are listed among banned goods by the government, but we still see them smuggled into the country. The government should put in place strict measures to curtail it. The problem is that Nigerian consumers have a penchant for imported frozen chicken because of its hard meat, and low-income earners prefer it because of its affordability. Most of the imported frozen birds are offal, which is the rejected ones from their processing farms, which they do not want to circulate in their market, Oduware said. (NAN) The absence of Justice Adedayo Akintoye of an Igbosere High Court in Lagos on Monday stalled the trial of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Rickey Tarfa (SAN), on the accusation of perversion of the course of justice. Justice Akintoye was said to have been away on an undisclosed official duty. It could not be independently confirmed if the Judges absence has to do with the ongoing Judges conference. Consequently, the court adjourned the hearing in the case until March 19. Mr Tarfa is standing trial on a 26-count charge bordering on alleged offering of monetary gratification to two judges of the Federal High Court Justices Hyeladzira Nganjiwa and Mohammed Yunusa. The Economic ans Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in its charge said Mr Tarfa had between June 27, 2012 and January 8, 2016, paid about N5.3 million in several tranches into Justice Nganjiwas account. The anti-graft agency also accused the defendant of paying into Justice Yunusas account, a total of N800,000 in three tranches between February 9 and November 30, 2015. The agency further accused Mr Tarfa of age falsification. He was initially arraigned on March 9, 2016. But, on his re-arraignment on November 16, 2016, Mr Tarfa pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was granted bail on self-recognition. Though EFCC has since closed its case, but the court dismissed Mr Tarfas no case-submission application. NAN also reports that Mr Tarfas first witness, a Deputy Chief Registrar (DCR)of the Federal High Court in Lagos, Bello Okandeji, is yet to finish his cross-examination. The trial on the last adjourned date, January 21, suffered a setback because of Mr Tarfas absence. Mr Tarfas counsel, Jelili Owonikoko, told the court his client traveled outside the country for medical treatment. Mr Owonikoko, who informed the court that Mr Tarfa would be away for three months, said his failing health condition urgently needed medical attention abroad. Counsel to the EFCC, Rotimi Oyedepo, affirmed receipt of a medical report and a letter from the defendant in which he had requested for an adjournment date. He, however, said the defendant should have come to court to apply for leave to travel before embarking on such a trip. Justice Akintoye, however, who granted the request, asked the defence counsel to ensure his client appeared in court on the next adjourned date. At the resumed hearing on Monday, the court did not sit apparently because of the ongoing Judges conference. (NAN) Proceedings in the trial of a nursery school staff, Rukayat Amisu, charged with killing a toddler out of negligence by sitting her on top of hot water container were stalled on Monday. The absence of Justice Adedayo Akintoye of an Igbosere High Court, Lagos, was blamed for the development. The judge was said to be on another official duty. The case was consequently adjourned until May 8 for hearing in a bail application filed by the defendant. The police had on March 4 arraigned Amisu on a count charge of manslaughter. The court remanded her in prison pending hearing and determination of her bail application. According to prosecution counsel, Babatunde Sunmonu, the defendant, committed the alleged offence on October 21, 2015, at 10.00 a.m. at No. 11, Idowu St. on Lagos Island. He said the defendant unlawfully killed three-year-old Aliyah Ahmed by negligently sitting her on top of a container of hot water, while feeding her. Sunmonu said the toddler fell inside the hot water and it burnt her and led to her death. According to him, the alleged offence contravenes Section 227 of the Criminal Law Lagos State, 2011. The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge. Her counsel, A. O. Ladipo, filed the bail application on her behalf. (NAN) A Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere on Monday ordered a surety, Nurudeen Ekundayo, to appear on June 24 to explain why he failed to produce a British man, Syed Kamran, facing N10.3 million fraud charge. Mr Ekundayo is facing a count charge of showing cause why his bail bond should not be forfeited because of his failure to produce Mr Kamran who he stood surety for. At the resumed hearing, Judge Modupe Nicol-Clay renewed her January 21 order for the defendant to either produce Mr Kamran, forfeit his bail bond or be ready to serve a jail term. The judge warned Mr Ekundayo, who was absent in court on alleged account of ill-health, that unless he appeared in court in person, a bench warrant would be issued against him. The warning followed an application for a bench warrant made by Lagos State counsel, Bisayo Apata. Mr Ekundayos counsel, O. Adeniyi, however, opposed the application and pleaded for more time, saying that the surety was seriously ill. She tendered a medical report from a general hospital on his clients behalf. But the judge refused the application. In a bench ruling, Justice Nicol-Clay held: He has three options: produce the defendant, forfeit his bail bond or be ready to serve his time. The medical report says he is hypertensive. That shouldnt stop him from appearing. She adjourned hearing until June 24, for hearing. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Kamran was first arraigned sometime in 2015, at a Chief Magistrates Court, Lagos, for allegedly defrauding 11 Nigerians to the tune of N120 million. Mr Kamran was re-arraigned before Justice Nicol-Clay in 2016 on a two-count charge of conspiracy and obtaining the sum of N10.3 million by false pretence from a traditional ruler in Imo State, Chuks Ubochi. The prosecutor said the defendant committed the alleged fraud through an elaborate diesel Local Purchase Order (LPO) scam. Mr Kamran pleaded not guilty, following which he was granted bail. According to the Lagos State prosecutor, soon after Mr Kamran fulfilled his bail bond, he missed court dates, prompting the judge to summon Ekundayo to show cause. At the last adjourned date, January 21, the prosecution counsel told the court that Mr Kamran had jumped bail. The prosecutor told the court that Mr Kamran was believed to have fled abroad. The prosecutor stated this following the surety (Ekundayos) failure to produce the Briton for trial. (NAN) The Catholic Arch-Bishop of Abuja, John Onaiyekan, has described the low turnout of voters in Saturdays elections as a demonstration of lack of confidence by Nigerians in the electoral system. Mr Onaiyekan also said the low turnout was a loud protest against the outcome of the presidential polls. Speaking during a homily at a mass organised to mark the beginning of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) first plenary session for 2019 on Monday, Mr Onaiyekan said the majority of the winners in the elections emerged due to bad laws which made implementation problematic and at times offered a lacuna for evil-minded people to exploit things to their advantage. He said: Nigerians who aided in rigging elections should understand the consequences of exploiting the peoples franchise. Whatever the outcome of our elections, fair or foul, whoever holds power at the end of the day, must remember that power belongs to God alone. He will demand strict accountability on how anyone takes power and uses it. God cannot be deceived or challenged. Those who claim that these elections were wonderful because it worked in their favour should be reminded that bad elections cannot lead to good governance. The massive boycott of the polls on March 9 in many places can well be a loud protest and vote of no confidence in a process that had destroyed their trust in the system. The government that has been declared re-elected must listen to the sounds of murmurs and protests in the wind and take proactive steps to pull the nation together, even while we await the outcome of the legal challenge already on course in the tribunal. Mr Onaiyekan described as unfortunate the many cases of election manipulation, violence and other electoral offences witnessed in the polls. He called on the winners to search their consciences and ensure that the countrys citizens are treated with care as children of God. Those who have been declared winners in these elections must combine their euphoria in victory with a sincere examination of conscience before God. Not only the good of the nation but also their salvation before God are at stake. Saturdays governorship elections witnessed low turnout and many cases of violence in parts of the country. Some elections have also been declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). President Muhammadu Buhari Monday in Daura declared that he would want to be remembered as a leader who kept his word that elections in Nigeria must be free, fair and credible. Receiving Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State, who came to formally inform him of his election victory in last Saturdays governorship poll, the president commended Nigerians who heeded to his pre-election appeals to cast their votes peacefully. The president, who described last Saturdays governorship and state assembly elections across the country as largely successful, said: I have maintained a position that elections must be free and fair and people have the right to make their choices and vote their consciences. I am happy they understood the message and did just that. Power is a public trust that belongs to the people. Power is not by strength or wisdom but by Providence. Elected persons must be fair and just. This is the legacy I want to leave behind. A leader must be fair and just. All leaders should strive to do that. Governor Masari, who was accompanied by officials of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Katsina State, thanked the president and the party for the support which led to his decisive victory on March 9. The governor pledged to work for the good of the people of Katsina State, in line with the vision of the APC government at the centre. The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Monday listed several measures it has in place for the prevention and control of the Lassa fever outbreak. Among them, NCDC identified contact tracing as crucial in curtailing the spread of the deadly disease. An outbreak of Lassa fever was declared in Nigeria on January 21, 2019. Since then, 420 confirmed cases and 93 deaths have been reported in 21 states according to the NCDC. By these figures, deaths recorded in the first quarter of the year alone is more than half of that in 2018. An annual report by NCDC last December showed that there were 149 deaths with 3,276 suspected cases in 23 states in 2018. Contact Tracing But in a press briefing Monday in Abuja, NCDC, the agency charged with the responsibility of emergency response to the outbreak of highly infectious diseases, said there was a decline over the last five weeks in the number of new cases. It also said there was reduction in number confirmed cases compared to 2018. Of the 3,276 suspected cases reported last year, 588 were confirmed positive. In an interview with PREMIUM TIMES shortly after Mondays briefing, Chioma Dan-Nwafor, NCDCs incident manager for Lassa fever explained how contact tracing helped in reducing confirmed cases so far this year. Main goal of contact tracing is to prevent human to human transmission. It also helps identify these cases early so that you can initiate management on time and with this, we now have better progress, she said. According to NCDC, 4499 contacts have been identified from 18 states in the wake of the Lassa fever outbreak. Of these, 1987 are currently being followed up, 2461 have completed 21 days follow up, while four were lost to follow up. He said 77 symptomatic contacts have been identified, of which 47 have tested positive. Mrs Dan-Nwafor said some of the human transmission, if detected and isolated on time, do not pose a threat to the immediate community and also when presented to a health facility, the health worker present at that point knows what to deal with. Speaking earlier, Director-General, NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu, said even when a contact dies, you still have to trace to the end. You still have to identify the contacts and understand how much contacts happened before the patient passed away. We are also doing grief management and psychosocial support. Over 4000 contacts have been followed up. Challenges Contact tracing (also known as partner notification) is a primary means of controlling infectious diseases such as tuberculosis (TB), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). However, little work has been done to determine the level of investment in contact tracing. Contact tracing comes with its peculiar challenges, Mrs Dan-Nwafor explained. First and foremost, its a capital-intensive activity in that you have to identify these contacts and you have to visit them daily for three weeks and keep checking on them. You have to cover funding for transportation. You also have to provide free medicals for these contacts so they can check their temperature and once they become symptomatic, they can immediately alert you or if you identify they have any of the symptoms of Lassa fever, you recommend any of the treatment centres immediately for management. Another problem, the official said, is when contacts provide us with fake addresses thereby leading to lesser follow up. So, you try to follow these contacts up with the addresses and phone numbers they dropped and you find out that you cannot reach them because they have provided you with fake information. These we try to mitigate by involving other sectors such as paramilitary to be able to identify these contacts if we cannot. We also engage traditional rulers and religious rulers who these people respect to be able to provide us with details of their current locations so that we can follow them up within the 21 days required. Out of over 4000 contacts, we were unable to track only four people which is a very insignificant number. The others that have completed their 21 days follow up with no symptoms have been successfully discharged and no longer pose a threat to nobody. Many Nigerians were killed in electoral violence during Saturdays governorship and state house of assembly elections. The process was also fraught with widespread irregularities including ballot snatching, kidnapping and harassment of both voters and electoral officials. These were the main details of a post-election security assessment report carried out by the Centre for Law Enforcement and Education, (CLEEN) foundation. CLEEN, alongside its partners including Police Service Commission (PSC) and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) said it tracked security-related developments across the country through its 1,600 observers who were deployed in the 774 local governments in the country. The report by the CLEEN Election Security Support Centre (ESSC) which covered incidents from the opening to the close of the polling units on Saturday stated that there were reported killings in Rivers, Kogi, Imo, Akwa Ibom, Oyo, Ebonyi, Benue and Enugu states. Five persons were reported killed in Khana LGA and one person in Ahoada West LGA of Rivers State while Benue, Kogi and Katsina States recorded two deaths per state, according to the report. The organisation said the widespread violence witnessed during the process was as a result of insecurity. The report found that electoral violence and insecurity remains a serious challenge in the country. Benson Olugbuo, Executive Director of the organisation said it is disturbing that we are yet to have a violence-free election. He said reports of violence raise great concerns and demanded for critical interventions to stop the trend. Elections must be devoid of violence for democracy to continue to grow and flourish, he said. CLEEN, in the report released on Monday, stated that apart from its observers, it also deployed a citizen observer mobile application called Tella which allows ordinary citizens to report security issues in their polling unit. Read the full report below Election related killings There were reported killings in Rivers, Kogi, Imo, Akwa Ibom, Oyo, Ebonyi, Benue and Enugu states. Five persons were reported killed in Khana LGA and one person in Ahoada West LGA of Rivers State while Benue, Kogi and Katsina States recorded two deaths per state. Snatching of Electoral Materials: The incidents were recorded in PU003, Ward 8 Kwami LGA, Gombe State; Wards 2, 3, 11, 12, 13 and 17 of Gokana LGA of Rivers State; Ward 04 PU 1 and 2 Ikwere LGA and Wards 1, 4, 6, 8, 9 and 10 of Ahoada West LGA Presence of Armed Forces: Our observers reported the presence of different security agents including the Nigerian Armed Forces during the elections. The presence of Nigerian Armed Forces was most visible in some states in the South-South (Akwa Ibom and Rivers), South East (Abia) and North Central (Plateau, Benue and Kwara). In some places, their presence raised different security concerns. For example, in Gokana, Oyigbo, Degema, Ikwerre, Emouha, Ogu-Bolo, Okrika, Khana, Obio Akpor, Etche, Akuku Toru LGAs of Rivers State, Security Personnel in Military uniform were allegedly involved in sporadic shooting, voter intimidation, killing and carting away of electoral materials. In addition, observers reported that they were denied access into collation centres by armed men in Military uniform mostly in Rivers and Akwa Ibom States. In Iwarnyam Ward, Awajir, Konshisha LGA in Benue State, observers reported that armed security personnel were seen aiding politicians in compromising the electoral process. Harassment of Observers/Voters: At PU002, Ward 11, Itak Ikom LGA of Akwa Ibom State, party agents and political thugs intimidated and threatened observers and journalists. In addition, the phone and handbag of a CLEEN Foundation Observer were snatched at gun point by political thugs at PU 2 Ward 03 Rivers State Asari Tolu LGA. In addition, the mobile device used by a CLEEN Foundation Observer deployed to Obio Akpor LGA Ward 5, PU 30 was smashed by armed men in Military uniform and memory card removed as he attempted to record an incident of electoral malpractice. Arrival of Security Personnel at Polling Unit: CLEEN Foundation observed that 77% of security personnel arrived at the polling units across the country before 8:00am while 16% arrived between 8:00am 8:59am; and 5% arrived 9:00am or later. However, during the Presidential and National Assembly Elections, our Observer reports show that 65% of security personnel deployed for election duty arrived before 8:00 am. Compared to the Governorship and Houses of Assembly Elections, there is a significant improvement on the punctuality of security personnel at the polling unit. Possession of Firearm at the Polling Unit: CLEEN Foundation observed that in 88% of the polling units across the country security personnel deployed for election duty were not armed. However, there were reports of fire arm possession in 8% of the polling units. For example, Ward 1, in Polling Unit 5, Abia State Polytechnic, Aba North LGA, Abia State, security personnel were armed inside the polling area. During the Presidential and National Assembly Elections, 13% of security agents deployed for election duty bore arms at polling unit. This shows a marginal decrease in the number of security personnel who were armed at the polling units. Adequacy of Security Personnel at Polling Unit: CLEEN Foundation observed that on the aggregate, 68% of the polling units had two or more security personnel on ground while 31% of the polling units had one security personnel on ground. However, during the Presidential and National Assembly Elections, 70% of the polling units had two or more security agents while polling units with just one security officer was 27%. Identification of Security Personnel CLEEN observed that 94% of the security personnel are wearing easily identifiable name tags. However, 4% of the security personnel were not wearing identifiable name tags. However, during the Presidential and National Assembly Elections, 92% of the security personnel were wearing easily identifiable tags 6% were not wearing easily identifiable tags. Approachability of Security Personnel: The security personnel on election duty were observed to be approachable. Reports from our field observers show that 94% of the security personnel at the polling units were approachable. 4% were observed to be somewhat approachable while 2% of security personnel were not approachable. There was no significant difference with the data obtained during the Presidential and National Assembly Elections. Impartiality of Security Personnel at the Polling unit: Statistics available to CLEEN Foundation shows that 93% of security personnel were impartial while 1% of the security agents were some-what partial. The status of impartiality of 5% of the security personnel was not ascertained. Safety at the Polling Units: CLEEN observed that 89% of the polling units were safe and secure while 9% were observed to be somewhat safe and secure. Voters Intimidation: In Ebonyi State, Ohaukwu LGA, voters were forced to vote for a particular political party in addition to widespread vote buying or inducement. Similarly, a party agent was forced to leave the polling unit entirely. In Ondo State at Ward 007, PU 018, Ondo West LGA, party thugs dragged the voting cubicle and insisted anyone not voting for a particular party should leave the polling unit. Voter Apathy: Generally, CLEEN observed low turnout of voters across the polling units observed when compared to the Presidential/NASS elections two weeks ago. Specifically, at Polling Unit 011, Customs Qtrs Karu Site 2, Abuja, there was low voter turnout. Almost all the states in the federation experienced low voter turnout. Deployment of INEC Officials: The deployment of INEC personnel for the Governorship/NASS elections indicates an improvement from the Presidential/NASS elections. CLEEN observed the early arrival and setting up of polling units across the country. CLEEN observed the issue of poor welfare of Corps members. At PU 026 Ojodu, Ward B Lagos State, INEC Ad-Hoc personnel reportedly refused to go to the polling unit on the allegation that they were not paid. This was also observed in several Polling Units across Lagos State including Ogudu, Ojota and Maryland areas of Lagos Metropolis. Card Reader Issues: CLEEN Foundation observed increased performance of card readers across the country, CLEEN only observed few incidents of non-performance of card readers such as at the Community Primary School Alusekere, Owode Ede, Ede North, Osun State as well as Shomolu and Alimosho LGAs in Lagos State. However, the issues were resolved by INEC and voting continued in the respective polling units. Vote Trading: CLEEN Foundation observed incidents of vote trading across the country. In some States like Ekiti and Lagos, it was done discreetly, while in some states, it was open and public knowledge. Observers noted cases of vote trading in Ebonyi State (Ohaukwu LGA, Effium Ward 01 PU 004 Akparata Market Square); Enugu State (Enugu East Mbuluowehe Ward CPS Amokpo 1). Niger State, (Chanchaga Polling Unit close to David Umar HousePiggery junction); Imo State (Owerri West Obinze/08 Practicing school Obinze/005); Kwara State (Ilorin East Polling Unit 012 Baare; Ilorin South Akanbi IV Govt Sec school 1/012; Edu Lafiagi Ward 1Somasun Polling Unit 03). Vote trading was also recorded in Kogi state, Muslim Community Secondary Lokoja polling unit 004, ward A. Our observers also noted cases of vote trading at PU3, Makurda/Makurda ward, Rimi LGA Katsina State. In addition, at PU 007 Comprehensive Secondary School Amakohia Owerri North, there were incidences of vote trading. Furthermore, in Makurdi, Benue State, EFCC officials intercepted a bus load of money suspected to be moneys meant for vote trading. Votes were traded at different amounts. Under Age Voting: There were cases of underage voting observed by CLEEN Foundation. For example, in Polling Unit 006, Ward Nasarawa, Katagum Zaki LGA, Bauchi State, under-aged voters were present. Conclusion and recommendation The 2019 general elections, despite the unfortunate cases of violence leading to the death of some citizens, can be regarded as another important step in Nigerias experience with democracy. It is, however, disturbing that we are yet to have a violence free election. The reports of violence raise great concerns and demands for critical interventions to stop the trend. Elections must be devoid of violence for democracy to continue to grow and flourish. We commend the majority of Nigerians that have demonstrated commitment to the electoral process, by going out to vote and largely conducted themselves in a peaceful manner. The ESSC of CLEEN Foundation finds it imperative to call on the federal and state governments, the security agencies, civil society organisations and all well-meaning Nigerian citizens to think of measures that need to be put in place to ensure the conduct of free, fair and violence-free elections in Nigeria. We cannot continue to have violence featuring in our elections at all levels of government. It is disturbing that Rivers State has continued to experience violence in almost all general elections in Nigeria. We call upon the traditional and religious leaders, political leaders, business people and professionals, civil society leaders and government to come together and find lasting solutions to violence that mark elections in that state. Rivers State is only a sad example of what happens in other places during elections. The country as a whole, therefore, needs to take a serious view of election violence with a view to bringing it to an end. It is our candid view that if politicians do not become desperate in their quest for power, the level of violence will be minimised greatly. Some Nigerian politicians have decided to turn a civil way of acquiring power into war. If politicians have abided by the rules and respected the wish of the people to freely and peacefully choose their representatives, the level of violence in the elections will be curtailed. This resort to violence places unnecessary pressure on the security agencies and the Nigerian people during elections. It is time that political parties commit themselves to peaceful participation in elections beyond the ceremony of key contestants signing peace accords. It is a worrisome development that requires a serious soul searching on this persistent, but unhealthy culture of electoral violence. Widespread insecurity in the country negatively affected the elections. It led to deployment of the military in policing elections with adverse implications for unfettered participation of the electorates. Deployment of the military for election duties also resulted from the desperation and conduct of politicians who sponsor electoral violence, hire thugs and promote inter-ethnic and inter-religion intolerance and hatred. Government should introduce and implement programmes for political culture reorientation of citizens, especially politicians to internalise the values and norms of democratic politics, elections and governance. Collation of results from Nasarawa local government Kano state, the only remaining local government whose result is yet to be announced in Kano, has commenced. The State Returning Officer, Bello Shehu, had earlier postponed the process following an invasion of the Nasarawa local government collation centre by thugs during which the result sheet was torn. However, the State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Riskuwa Shehu, said the commission is determined to conclude the collation process and will use its primary and secondary results from polling units and ward levels. He said the exercise would be carried out in the presence of party agents and other relevant groups. Collation subsequently continued a few minutes after 2pm. Results from 43 out of the 44 local government areas had already been released. The released results shows that Yusuf Abba of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), scored 960,004 votes against 953,522 votes scored by incumbent governor Abdullahi Ganduje. Deputy Governor released Meanwhile, Kano deputy governor, Nasiru Gawuna, who was arrested alongside the commissioner of local government and chieftaincy affairs Sule Garo earlier on Monday, has been released. The two top officials and one other were arrested after they reportedly invaded the collation centre in Nasarawa local government and disrupted the process. Kano commissioner of Police, Mohammed Wakil, told the Hausa service of the BBC that Mr Gawuna was released because he has immunity from arrest according to the constitution. Mr Wakil however, said the other two persons will be arraigned before a court of law after investigations have been concluded. The governorship candidate of the African Action Congress in Rivers State, Biokpomabo Awara, says he is leading Governor Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party in the results of the governorship election in the state. He made the claim after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) suspended the collation of results Sunday evening. Mr Awara is being backed in the elections by the All Progressives Congress (APC) which is led in the state by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi. The APC adopted the AAC after it was disqualified from participating in the elections due to the crisis over its primaries. INEC cited reports of widespread disruptions of the elections for its suspension of the results collation process. Sources told PREMIUM TIMES on Monday that observers and INEC officials in the state sent the reports of disruptions to the electoral commissions headquarters in Abuja. Reacting on Monday afternoon through a statement he made available to PREMIUM TIMES in Port Harcourt, Mr Awara said the suspension of the collation process was a move to help Mr Wike gain some respite and frustrate my victory. He then rejected the suspension. He said the collation exercise had ended in seven local government areas and that he secured 289,773 votes against Mr Wikes 76,633 votes in those areas. According to him, the areas are Ahoada West, Eleme, Asari Toru, Akuku Toru, Ikwerre and Oyigbo. But while the PDP and Mr Wike are also claiming a win already and asking that the results should not be changed, INEC at the state level did not confirm any of the claims. According to his Linkedln profile, Mr Awara is an engineering graduate from the Rivers State University of Science and Technology and has worked with Shell. Until last Wednesday when he was endorsed by the APC, which has no candidates in the elections, he was not considered a serious challenger to Mr Wike. Continuing in his statement, Mr Awara said the collation exercise was still ongoing in 16 LGAs, including Mr Wikes Obio Akpor, before the suspension was announced. He said: The INEC pleaded insecurity, violence, seizure of electoral materials by hoodlums etc. as the reasons for suspending the remaining stages of the Election. I reject the reason given by INEC. This because in the Local Government Areas that were affected, voting had concluded, results declared at the polling units and collation had begun before the abrupt suspension of the process. The Commission does not have the power under our Electoral Act to suspend elections that has already been concluded. Mr Awara accused the INEC in the state of partiality and being compromised by the state government. According to him, The suspension of the elections by INEC was done to give respite to candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who was trailing behind, frustrate my victory. My party went into these elections against an umpire dangerously skewed in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The Resident Electoral Commission, all the Electoral Officers, Assistant Electoral Officers, Heads of Department in the Rivers Offices of The Commission were all working for the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party. No wonder when they saw that I was leading and would eventually win the election, they raised a false alarm to the Headquarter of the Commission and misinformed them that there was widespread violence and seizure of electoral materials. We have on good authority the following facts: i. Every Local Government Council Chairman in Rivers State pays the sum of One Million Naira (N1,000,000) the Electoral Officer assigned to his Local Government and other sums of money to other electoral personnel; ii. The Resident Electoral Commissioner was bought a house for in Maitama Area of Abuja by the Governor of Rivers State, who incidentally is the Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); and iii. The Administrative Secretary of the Rivers State office of the Commission, Elder Etim John was paid the sum of Three Hundred Million (N300,000,000) Naira by Governor Wike as inducement to secure 100 per cent posting of the Ad-hoc staff list in favour of the PDP. To justify the financial inducement given to him by the Governor, the said Administrative Secretary Elder Etim John did not only ensure that the posting of the Ad-hoc staff overtly favoured the PDP but he also got carried away to the extent that he even included the names of well-known relatives of some PDP candidates and chieftains in the list. On his part, the State Resident Electoral Commisioner (REC) Mr Oboe Efaga on the eve of the election replaced most of the ad-hoc workers which were already published on the Commissions notice boards with the names of card carrying members of the PDP. For instance, in the following Local Government Areas the under listed persons were suddenly deployed as Local Government Collation Officers: PREMIUM TIMES has not independently verified these claims. The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) to Nigeria has concluded that the governorship and State House of Assembly elections on March 9 were marred by overall low turnout and violence including against election officials and voters. The mission said while there were operational improvements in the elections, these were overshadowed by systemic failings, including a lack of transparency, incumbency advantage and a troubling electoral security environment. The EU Chief Observer, Maria Arena, said this while presenting the missions preliminary statement in Abuja on Monday where she said the problems demonstrate the need for an inclusive national discussion on electoral reform. Millions of Nigerians on Saturday voted in the elections. Governorship elections were held in 29 states while state assembly elections were held in all 36 states. Council elections were held in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. While results have been announced in some states, collation is still ongoing in other states. According to Ms Arena, the mission deployed 73 observers to monitor voting, counting and the collation of results in 22 states, in all the geopolitical zones. Ms Arena condemned the violence and intimidation against election officials and voters, and also referred to the obstruction of citizen observers by the military and security agents on election day observers, including EU observers, were denied access to collation centres in Rivers. Overall, the elections were competitive with freedom to campaign. However, there was misuse of incumbency, including on state-owned state media, which prevented a level playing field. In the two weeks leading up to the state elections, EU observers saw some misuse of state offices, as well as institutional websites being used for campaigning by both APC and PDP incumbent governors. State-level media broadcast political debates in 21 states, giving voters the opportunity to directly compare candidates. However, in 12 states, incumbents or their main challengers refused to participate. All nine state-owned radio stations monitored by the EU Election Observation Mission served the interests of incumbent governors. The mission also noted pressure on local media outlets and journalists before and on election day. The systemic problems evident in the 2019 electoral process show the need for an inclusive national discussion on reform for greater electoral integrity and participation. We echo the view of leading civil society organisations that say that there is an urgent need to restore faith in the electoral process. We encourage a national conversation on electoral reform and strongly believe that it would meaningfully contribute to Nigerias democratic development, she added. The EU EOM also presented its assessment of the collation process for the presidential and National Assembly results. It concluded that inconsistent numbers, lack of clear checks and explanations, and insufficient public information undermined confidence in the integrity of the process. The mission also emphasised the need for better training of collation staff, improved data management and, in particular, more information and explanation from INEC on such an important phase of the election process. The systemic failing and electoral security problems of the last few weeks and months show that there is a real need for serious reform in Nigeria. We echo the view of leading civil society organisations that say there is an urgent need to restore faith in the electoral process. While there can be many reasons for a low turnout, and it is not for me to speculate, it is surely disappointing that, overall, only a relatively small portion of what is by far and away Africas largest electorate actually cast a vote on both election days. As the 2019 elections in Nigeria have demonstrated, there are important improvements to be made. Elections can always be better. The systemic problems evident in the 2019 electoral process show the need for an inclusive national discussion on reform for greater electoral integrity and participation. The Deputy Chief Observer, Hannah Roberst, stated that of the 30 EU recommendations made to the federal government as well as the electoral commission, only four were visibly implemented in the 2019 elections. Some of the recommendations are continuous voting and accreditation. She said INEC failed to implement recommendation on more transparency in the result collation process. The mission said it will continue to observe the collation process for the state elections, the announcement of results, as well any petitions and a final report, including recommendations for future elections, will be published approximately two months later. A new class of governors has emerged following the elections in 29 states on Saturday. The Independent National Electoral Commission has so far announced the winners of the elections in 20 states. Governors-elect have not been named in nine states as of the time of this report. Of these, the commission has declared the elections in five states inconclusive. The affected states are Bauchi, Benue, Sokoto, Adamawa and Plateau. Election processes have been suspended in Rivers State entirely. Declaration of results was still being expected in Kano, Imo and Taraba States at the time of this report. Governorship elections did not hold in seven states in this round. The states are Edo, Kogi, Ondo, Ekiti, Anambra, Osun and Bayelsa. Below is the list of the new governors: Babagana Zulum, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has maintained his lead in the ongoing collation of results of Saturdays governorship election in Borno. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the APC candidate won 24 of the 27 local government areas in the ongoing collation exercise at the Kashim Ibrahim College of Education, Maiduguri. The collation exercise presided over by the INEC Returning Officer in the state, Prof Alhassan Gali, was conducted smoothly in the presence of party agents, election observers, security agents, and journalists. NAN reports that election results from 24 of the 27 Local Government Areas of the state were submitted for collation by their respective returning officers. The councils were Nganzai; Mobbar, Dikwa, Abadam, Guzamala, Gubio, Magumeri, Marte, Kukawa, Monguno, Mafa, Kaga and Konduga. Others were Kala Balge; Gwoza, Kwaya Kusar, Ngala, Biu, Bayo, Damboa, Askira Uba, Chibok, Shani and Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC). . The governorship election results so far collated indicated that Zulum garnered more votes than his closest opponent, Muhammad Imam, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The results as announced by the Returning Officer in charge of Nganzai, Ibrahim Mustapha, showed that the APC candidate scored 20, 196 as against the 907 votes scored by the PDP candidate. In Mobbar, Kamsale Umar, the Collation Officer, declared that Zulum polled 35,828 votes while Imam scored 622 votes. For Dikwa; the Collation Officer, Muhammad Hassan, disclosed that the APC candidate scored 22,138 against the 1,542 votes scored by the PDP candidate. Shamaki Usman, the Collation Officer in charge of Abadam, said that the APC candidate polled 9,968 while the PDP candidate got 50 votes. The Collation Officer in charge of Guzamala, Muhammad Auwal, announced that Mr Zulum polled 28,030 votes against the 277 votes scored by PDPs Imam. Also, Kachalla Mohammed, the Collation Officer in charge of Gubio, declared that the APC candidate polled 33,203 votes while the PDP flag bearer got 419 votes. Adamu Yahaya, the Collation Officer in charge of Magumeri, announced that Mr Zulum polled 22,261 against the 123 votes scored by Imam. In Kukawa, the Collation Officer, Umar Adamu, declared that the APC candidate garnered 29, 040 against the 344 votes polled by the PDP. Salihu Ibrahim, the Collation Officer for Marte, announced that the APC candidate got 19, 329 against the 173 votes scored by Imam, while Abdulkareem Ibrahim, the Collation Officer in charge of Monguno, declared that APC polled 41,999 votes and 173 votes. Similarly, the Collation Officer for Konduga, Kaka Bunu, declared that Mr Zulum scored 31, 484 votes against 2, 407 votes polled by the PDP candidate while in Kaga, the APC candidate scored 16, 647 and PDP polled 1, 166, as declared by the Collation Officer, Ali Mustapha. Muhammad Abba, the Collation Officer in charge of Ngala, announced that the APC candidate scored 42, 301 votes while his PDP opponent got 1, 910. The Collation Officer for Biu, Usman Alhaji, announced that APC scored 46, 794 and PDP 5, 597 votes. The Collation Officer for Askira Uba, Adamu Bala, disclosed that Mr Zulum polled 58, 719 while PDPs Mr Imam scored 9, 800 votes, and in Damboa, the Collation Officer, Zanna Chiroma, announced that APC polled 36, 617 and PDP scored 721. Hassan Sada, the Collation Officer for Chibok, declared that APC scored 19, 370 votes and PDP polled 1, 804 votes while in Shani, the Collation Officer, Ibrahim Ali, announced that the APC candidate polled 23, 006 and his closest opponent of the PDP scored 8, 405 votes. In Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC), the Collation Officer, Sadiq Usman, declared that APC scored 168, 952 votes while the PDP scored 5, 493. NAN also reports that election results from three local government areas are expected to be declared on Monday, when the state returning officer resumes by 10:00 am. (NAN) Mohammed Kyari, the returning officer of governor election in Bauchi, has declared the governorship election in Bauchi State inconclusive. Mr Kyari explained early Monday morning at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office where the results from the 20 local governments of the state were being collated that the margin of 4,059 votes between the two leading parties was less than 45,312, which was the number of cancelled votes after results from 19 local government were collated. As a result, Mr Kyari stated that according to Section 26 part 53 of the Electoral Act, supplementary elections would be held within 21 days in areas where elections were not held before a winner would be announced. Meanwhile, after the announcement of election from 19 of the 20 local governments in the state, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is in lead after scoring 469,512. The PDP was closely followed by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) with 465,453 votes. The Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) came third with 45,735 votes followed by the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) with 31,057 votes. Mr Kyari rejected the result from Tafawa Balewa local government following reports of violence and disruption of collation of result at the local government collation centre. When she was called to announce the result collated at the local government, the local government collation officer, Dominion Anosike, explained that thugs attacked her and other officials of the INEC during collation and made away with result sheets and other documents. She, however, explained that after the police and other security agencies in the local government restored peace, she continued with the collation of the results with her laptop and added that she was made to announce the result at the local government collation centre under duress. When asked if the result she was about to announce was genuine, she said it was. But the agent of the APC, Umar Tilde objected. According to Mr Tilde, the results were manually inputted into her computer and thus was not a true reflection of the results from the wards. Therefore, Mr Kyari said due to the confusion around how the results were collated and because Mrs Anosike did not follow INEC guideline on how to collate result in cases where collations were disrupted by violence, he cannot accept the result from Tafawa Balewa. Tafawa Balewa is a stronghold of the opposition PDP and is one of the three local governments that make up the constituency of the speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara. During the 23 February national assembly elections in the local government, Mr Dogara won the APCs candidate with about 5,000 votes. According to the result announced by Mrs Anosike at the local government collation centre, the PDP had the largest votes with 40,010 followed by the APC with 29,862 votes. The agent of the PDP, Tanko Dutse, said the cancellation of the result from Tafawa Balewa was illegal as the returning officer did not have the power to cancel result already collated. He also added that since there were no reports of violent clashes and disruptions of voting at the polling units (this was also collaborated by Mrs Anosike), which he said was the only ground for the cancellation of results, the returning officer acted outside his power by rejecting the result from Tafawa Balewa. The All Progressives Congress (APC) has won 19 of the 24 seats in the Gombe State House of Assembly, with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winning the remaining five seats. The APC has only members in the outgoing assembly, while the PDP has 16 members. The APC won in at least a seat in all the 11 local government areas of the state except for Billiri and Nafada. Another development is the return of female lawmakers to the House. Each of the 11 local government areas has two lawmakers, except Akko and Yamaltu Deba, which have three seats each because of their population. The local government areas that elected members under the APC are Akko, Balanga, Dukku, Funakaye, Gombe, Kaltungo, Kwami, Yamaltu Deba and one in Shongom. Although there were 18 female candidates out of the 253 who ran for the House of Assembly elections, two were elected. The two female elected members are Rabi Daniel of Billiri East Constituency and Asmau Iganus who will represent Shongom State Constituency. The Yobe State governor- elect, Mai-Mala Buni, has urged opposition parties in the state to join hands and move the state forward. He made the call in his victory/acceptance speech in Damaturu, the state capital on Monday. Mr Buni was the national secretary of the All Progressives Congress before his election on the platform of the party on Saturday. To those who did not vote for us, the elections are over and we still remain the good people of Yobe. I extend hands of fellowship to every one of you to join hands with me and contribute meaningfully to the development of our state, he said. Mr Buni reiterated his determination to justify the confidence reposed in him by people of the state. I also want to thank you immensely for the confidence reposed in me and my election as the state governor. I promise to justify this confidence, make your choice a worthy investment and pledge to make our state the pride of all, he said. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Mai-Mala Buni as the winner of Saturdays governorship election in Yobe. (NAN) The Borno State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the governorship election result declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state. However, the Action Peoples Party (APP) and Alliance of Social Democrats (ASD) hailed the election and pledged to support the incoming APC government. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that INEC had declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Babagana Zulum, winner of the Saturdays governorship election in the state. INEC Returning Officer in the state, Alhassan Gani, a professor, declared that Mr Zulum polled 1, 175, 440 votes to defeat PDPs Muhammad Imam, who scored 66, 117 votes. Mr Gani explained that the election was contested by 32 candidates fielded by political parties in the state. In a swift reaction, Umar Bello, the Organising Secretary of the party, said the PDP rejected the result declared by INEC over alleged irregularities. Mr Bello, who was also the partys agent at the result collation centre, said he did not sign the document declared by INEC in protest, adding that the party would announced its position on the result. On his part, Abdulkadir Grema, the Chairman, Action Peoples Party (APP), expressed joy over the peaceful conduct of the election in the state. Mr Grema said that political parties under the umbrella of Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) worked to promote unity and peace building in the state. He added that his party had accepted the outcome of the election in good faith and pledged support to the incoming APC administration. We hope that the governor-elect will carry everybody along to assist in ensuring effective leadership to take the state out of the social and economic destruction caused by the Boko Haram insurgency, he said. Also, Abba Aji, the Chairman, Alliance of Social Democrats (ASD), said the parties and their candidates would support the new administration in the state. Mr Aji commended INEC over the conduct of free, fair, credible and peaceful election in the state. NAN also reports that hundreds of APC supporters trooped to the streets on motorcade, singing party song to celebrate its victory at the polls while residents of Maiduguri metropolis went about their normal activities. (NAN) The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, says with the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 23 and March 9 general elections in Kwara, the partys broom has swept the state clean of hegemony politics. The minister who stated this at a post election news briefing on Monday in Ilorin added that the long battle for the emancipation of Kwara had been attained with the outcome of the polls. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the Kwara APC had a clean sweep of the presidential poll, as well as elections into the three senatorial and six House of Representative seats held on February 23. Also, the party defeated the incumbent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the governorship elections and won all the 24 seats in the Kwara State House of Assembly in the elections held on March 9. The major upset was the defeat of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki of the PDP, in his stronghold, Kwara Central Senatorial zone by the APC candidate, Ibrahim Oloriegbe. Addressing reporters, the minister said that with the unprecedented victories, the people could confidently say that the Berlin Wall of hegemony politics in Kwara has finally fallen for good. It is a great victory for all the good people of Kwara and we give all gratitude to God for this victory. It is beyond our power. Then, of course, we thank most sincerely the good people of Kwara. To the long-suffering people of Kwara, this is your victory. You worked hard for it. You made incredible sacrifices, and your efforts paid off. You said O To Ge (Enough is Enough) and it came to pass. Thank you to all the good people of Kwara. Never again will anyone enslave you under the guise of dynasty or hegemony politics. Never Again!!! The minister thanked the security agencies that provided the conducive atmosphere for the people to exercise their franchise without fear. He also thanked the leadership of the party at both the state and national levels and expressed special gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari for his unflinching support which propelled the party to victory. Our victory here transcends Kwara State. It is a victory for all advocates of good governance everywhere. It is the triumph of good over evil, no matter how long it takes. It will forever be a reference point in the political history of Nigeria, and a hard blow to those who willfully turn the public treasury into their personal piggy bank, he said. The minister said that with the victories, the real work had just begun for the party because the expectations of the people were very high and they could not afford to disappoint them. We must ride on the wave of their enthusiasm and determination to deliver to them the dividends of democracy, for which they have been yearning. All our leaders, both elected and otherwise, must come together to channel the energy and vibrancy of our people to positive goals, he said. Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State on Monday expressed shock over the tragic death of Kogi-born professor, Pius Adesanmi, on the ill-fated Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 on Sunday. Mr Bello in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Onogwu Muhammed, described Mr Adesanmi as an illustrious and proud ambassador of Kogi and Nigeria at large. The governor described the death as a personal loss, stressing that Kogi had lost an accomplished academia. He condoled the departed scholars wife, daughter and family members. We are really pained and shocked over the tragic death of our great son and proud ambassador. This is one death too many. The whole of Kogi State has been thrown into deep mourning. Our sincere prayers and words of encouragement go to his young family, mother and the beloved ones he left behind. We shall continue to remember him for the honour and glory he brought to Kogi State and Nigeria through his literary accomplishments. Prof. Adesanmi never denied his Kogi roots as he continued to draw our attention to areas that we needed to accord priority as a state. His words and submissions were always hinged on the need for government to address challenges facing our people. As sad as we are over this unfortunate occurrence, we have taken solace in the fact that his creator has called him home for good, Mr Bello said. (NAN) The Katsina State police command says three INEC ad-hoc staff kidnapped during Saturdays governorship and state assembly elections in the state have been released by their abductors. It would be recalled that gunmen killed one policeman in Danmusa Local Government Area of the state and kidnapped three INEC ad hoc staff. Katsina State police spokesperson, Gambo Isa, said, in a statement, that the victims were taken to Danmusa Hospital for medical attention and later reunited with their respective families. He added that efforts are ongoing to arrest the hoodlums. (NAN) The All Progressive Congress (APC) Governorship Candidate in Sokoto State, Ahmed Aliyu, has urged party supporters to accept INEC declaration of inconclusive polls in the states gubernatorial election. Mr Aliyu who spoke to journalists in Sokoto on Monday said the declaration was right. Before the formal announcement by INEC on the inconclusive nature of the governorship election, our supporters have started jubilating our victory. But the announcement halted the jubilation, which set to manifest. So we should always remain calm and law abiding for the true will of the people will soon prevail The action of the Chief Returning Officer, who declared the election as inconclusive was in line with the nations constitution, as well as the Electoral Act, 2010, as amended, he said. He commended the APC supporters in the state for their dedication and commitment to ensure the victory of the party at all levels. We have shown a lot of commitment worthy of commendation despite all the harassment, attacks and intimidation we suffered during the election. As such, we should all accept the INEC declaration and return back to canvass more support that will ensure our victory during the rescheduled election. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that INEC on Sunday declared the March 9 governorship election in Sokoto State inconclusive. The State Returning Officer said the decision was because the 75, 403 cancelled votes in 136 polling units was higher than the 3, 413 margin between PDPs score and that of the APC. Fatima Muktar, a professor and Vice Chancellor, Federal University Dutse (FUD), Jigawa State, had declared that Mr Tambuwal polled 489, 558 votes while his closest rival, Mr Aliyu of the APC scored 486, 145 votes. (NAN) The governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has thanked people of the state for re-electing him for another four years term. Mr El-Rufai was declared the winner of the Saturday governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) having polled a total of 1,045,427 votes. He defeated his closest rival, Isa Ashiru, with a margin of 231,259 votes. Mr Ashiru had a total of 814,168 votes. In a state broadcast Monday evening, Mr El-Rufai thanked Kaduna residents for not only re-electing him but for their support for President Muhammadu Buhari. The text of the broadcast was shared by his spokesperson, Samuel Aruwan. I wish to begin this address with gratitude to Almighty God for His many blessings and protection. Under our Creators watch, we flawed mortals have conducted largely peaceful elections in this state. The results have now been announced. As you did in 2015, you have again decided to entrust in me the responsibility to lead Kaduna State for another four years. I accept my reelection with gratitude and humility. I thank the people of Kaduna State most profoundly for this vote of confidence in our stewardship. I wish to put on record my immense gratitude to you for voting to reelect President Muhammadu Buhari two weeks ago, together with a strong delegation to the National Assembly. It is heartwarming that Zaria Local government gave President Buhari the highest vote in the whole country. On behalf of the people of Kaduna State, we wish the President every success in the second term . Before the election, Mr El-Rufai was criticised for his choice of Hadiza Balarabe, a fellow Muslim, as running mate. Asides this, he was also criticised for his reforms, one of which was the massive retrenchment of teachers in the state. For winning the election despite these, Mr El-Rufai promised to live up to expectations. My fellow citizens, with your votes Kaduna State has made history by electing a woman as Deputy Governor, the first elected in the far north of our country. It is absolutely necessary to put on record my immense appreciation to you for this. You have defied those who do not wish to allow our women to use their talents in all spheres. You have taken a bold step forward to create a much-needed role model for every girl-child in Kaduna State and Northern Nigeria. I assure you that Dr. Hadiza Sabuwa Balarabe and I will work resolutely for the progress of our dear state. We campaigned hard for your vote because we do not take you our people for granted. This outstanding victory has been achieved because you stood by us. You supported our governance agenda of Putting People First. You embraced our efforts to make lives better by focusing on the things that matter to ordinary people. In difficult circumstances, you saw that we were promoting equality of opportunity, that we were improving schools and hospitals to make lives better for the people, that we were making our state attractive for business. How can we not be grateful when you upheld us so strongly when certain forces began resisting our reforms? You stood resolutely by us as we undertook programmes to expand access to Education and Health and to revitalise the public sector. My fellow citizens, you have spoken. You have spoken with a loud voice and voted for the continuity of our reforms. You have voted for equal opportunity. You have voted for genuine development and growth. You have rejected the politics of parochialism. Never again can the few entitled elite pursue their narrow interests using sentiments, and masquerading under the disguise of fighting for our people. This victory is a resounding vote in support of governance reforms. We were threatened with dire electoral consequences because we dared to disengage unqualified teachers, redundant public servants, restructured district administrations and over-bloated local government staff. We were warned that even though we were doing the right things and doing them right, the beneficiaries of our policies the ordinary citizens of our state will not understand and will vote us out. We never relented, confident that you know that we are working honestly for you. You did not disappoint us. We thank you again. He called on citizens with different preferences to cooperate with him in moving the state forward while promising not to disappoint. In this moment of victory, we acknowledge and respect the preferences of our fellow citizens who did not vote for us. We would listen to their concerns, but we invite them to join hands with us so that we can together build a better Kaduna State. The elections are over, and so should the divisive rhetoric that certain persons and groups chose to inject into the campaigns. It is time to come together and continue the work of rebuilding Kaduna State. Where there has been strife, let us seek calm through accord and conciliation. Where suspicion and ill-will have reigned, let us enthrone goodwill. We can do so much for the good of our state and all its people when we come together. We ran for election as APC candidates. But today, we are back to leading Team Kaduna. There is so much to do to make our state stronger, to tackle poverty, to improve health outcomes, to provide decent education to create jobs for our youths, and to secure our communities. Let us do it together. We do not have time to exult in our victory. Our duty is to work diligently for our people. We shall not disappoint you. You have invested your hope in us. We shall not deliver despair. It is a new day in our state. Let us work together to make it the start of a better future. Isa Ashiru, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governorship Candidate in Kaduna, has rejected the outcome of the governorship election in the state. Mr Ashiru expressed his rejection of the result as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) while speaking to journalists in Kaduna on Monday. The PDP candidate who lost to Governor Nasiru El-Rufai, candidate of the All progressives Congress (APC), said he has substantial evidence showing that the election was manipulated. He called for outright cancellation of the results, alleging gross irregularities in some local government areas of the state. According to him, reports obtained by his party agents across the state revealed that the elections were marred by a lot of irregularities. It is on the basis of these established irregularities that our party in a petition to the state Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC rejected the results and called for its outright cancellation. It is important for you to note that available reports have shown that smart card readers were not used during the elections in a lot of polling units, he said. The PDP candidate listed areas affected by the alleged irregularities as Giwa, Birnin Gwari, Kaduna North, Igabi, Zaria, Lere and Ikara Local Government Areas. It is our firm belief that the non-usage of the card readers which is a violation of the electoral guidelines have rendered the results from these areas invalid. Another issue of concern to our party was the clear militarisation of the electoral process in various part of the state, he said. Mr Ashiru said the disparity between the number of votes obtained by the APC in the presidential elections and that of the governorship elections was another cause for concern. How can the people of Kaduna State be convinced the APC will earn more votes during the governorship elections than it got in the presidential elections, he asked Meanwhile, INECs Resident Electoral Commissioner in Kaduna, Kaugama Abdullahi has confirmed receiving a petition against the outcome of the governorship poll from the PDP. Mr Abdullahi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the PDP had requested to inspect the election materials used during the poll in the state. He said the commission had already directed its legal department to take necessary actions on the petition since the request was within the law. (NAN) The incumbent governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel, has won re-election for a second term. Mr Emmanuel of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was announced the winner of the governorship election, at about 12:27 a.m. on Monday, in Uyo by the state returning officer, Faraday Orunmwense, a professor and vice chancellor of the University of Benin. The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mike Igini, was present during the announcement. The state chairman of the PDP, Paul Ekpo, and the Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Onofiok Luke, were present in collation centre. Mr Emmanuel defeated his main opponent, Nsima Ekere of the All Progressives Congress (APC), with 519, 712 votes. Mr Ekere, a former managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) polled 171, 978 votes, and also lost in his Ikot Abasi Local Government Area. It was not really a tough election battle, as many people anticipated, as Mr Emmanuel won convincingly in 30 out the 31 local government areas in the state; he lost only in Essien Udim, where Godswill Akpabio, a senator from the state, comes from. It was not also a bloody election as many had feared, except for pockets of violence here and there, in some parts of the state; no life was lost. None has been made public, at least. The APC rejected the election and accused INEC of assisting PDP to rig the election. The APC representative at the state collation centre, Samuel Akpan, walked out of the centre after making known his partys rejection of the election. Mr Emmanuel, a former director with Zenith bank, is the fourth civilian governor of Akwa Ibom State. His campaign for re-election was anchored on his administrations industrialisation drive and a peaceful Akwa Ibom where everyone is guaranteed the freedom for self-actualisation. His campaign slogan, only God, had mass appeal, and almost became a movement in the state. The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Cross River and Delta States, have rejected results of Saturdays Governorship and State House of Assembly elections announced by INEC. The acting Chairman of the party in Cross River, John Ochala, in a statement on Monday, said: We dissociate ourselves from this `rape on our democracy in the name of governorship and house of assembly elections. Mr Ochala assured members of APC in the state that its leadership would seek legal means to redress the situation. He, therefore, urged them to remain calm. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that INEC had on Monday, declared the incumbent governor, Benedict Ayade of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of Saturdays election. According to INEC, Mr Ayade polled 381,484 votes as against 131,161 polled by John Owan-Enoh, the governorship candidate of APC. Similarly, the leadership of APC in Delta State has called for outright cancellation of the governorship and state assembly elections in the state. The Chairman of APC in Delta, Jones Erue, who made this known in Warri on Monday, said that the party would approach the Election Petition Tribunal should the electoral umpire refuse to cancel the elections. He said the elections were marred by a lot of irregularities across the 25 local government areas of the state with the aid of security operatives. You all witnessed an electoral process where soldiers aided thugs to hijack ballot boxes and materials in collaboration with the presiding officers and thumb print them for a particular party. Our people were not allowed to enter any collation centres; our agents were treated as enemies of the electoral process. The whole place was militarised and results were changed at will. For example, at Emede Ward 5 unit 2 in Isoko South, soldiers aided the destruction of that unit at about 10:00 a.m. ballot boxes and ballot papers were carted away. Our members were brutalised and presiding officers collaborated with PDP to undo us. In Warri South and Warri South-West most of the materials did not get to their units. We are, therefore, rejecting the result and also call on INEC to cancel the election and failure to do that, we will approach the Tribunal to get our mandate, he said. Serth Jaja, a professor and the Collation Officer in Delta State had on Monday declared Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as winner of the governorship election in the state. According to Mr Jaja, Mr Okowa polled a total of 925,274 to defeat Great Ogboru of the APC who scored 215,938 votes in the contest. Responding, the Spokesperson of the 6 Division, Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt, Aminu Ilyasu, a colonel said APCs allegations were baseless. People see security agencies as an instrument of the state that can be used by the ruling party. The opposition parties will bash on the security agency, the ruling party will also bash on the security agencies. The elections are over; if he is not satisfied, he should go the Election Petition Tribunal, he said. (NAN) Senior officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deployed from the headquarters in Abuja grilled local staff in Rivers State on Monday in efforts to investigate reports of disruptions and violence that necessitated the suspension of Saturdays elections in the oil-rich state. The officials who constituted what the commission called Fact-Finding Committee were led by a national commissioner, Anthonia Okoosi-Simbine. They arrived at Port Harcourt on Monday, PREMIUM TIMES learnt. According to our source, the committee started their work around 1 p.m. and finished some minutes past 9 p.m. The source said the committee work was without the presence of officers in the state office, including the Resident Electoral Commission, REC, Obo Effanga. The REC is not even here at all, said the source, speaking from the Aba Road Port Harcourt office of the commission where the commission sat for their work. The source explained that electoral officers from local government areas were being called in one after the other for questioning. It has not ended, the source said referring to the investigation. The remaining officers will be called in tomorrow. It continues tomorrow and a statement will be issued. The spokesperson for the commission, Festus Okoye, a national commissioner, had announced the suspension of all electoral processes in Rivers State on Sunday evening from Abuja. Mr Okoye cited reports of widespread disruptions and violence in substantial number of polling units and collation centres from our officials in the field. Our source said it was the state office that had taken the decision to report the incidents of violence affecting elections to the Abuja headquarters following reports from local areas. Before the suspension, voting had ended in the state. The governorship candidate of the African Action Congress, Biokpomabo Awara who is the main challenger of the Peoples Democratic Partys Governor Nyesom Wike said the collation exercise had ended in seven LGAs and that he was leading with 289,773 votes against the incumbents 76,633 votes. He said the suspension was to help Mr Wike gain some respite and frustrate my victory. Mr Wike, though not stating definite figures, also claimed victory already. But none of these claims is accepted by the state office of the commission. In fact, the decision to report to the Abuja head office followed an insistence on not accepting any result from the LGAs due to reports of violence and disruptions. About a week after he was suspended by his party, Rochas Okorocha has not been recognised officially as a senator-elect. The name of Mr Okorocha, the outgoing governor of Imo State, was excluded from the list of senators-elect published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday. The commission in a post on its official website said it will issue certificates of return to all successful candidates in 2019 National Assembly elections on Thursday at the International Conference Centre in Abuja. INEC noted that only senators-elect as listed on the commissions website are invited for the ceremony. Mr Okorocha contested to represent Imo West Senatorial District in the February 23 election. Under duress Though the returning officer, Innocent Ibeabuchi, declared Mr Okorocha winner after a controversial collation of results, he clearly noted he did so under duress. I have been held hostage here for days so Im trying to ease off and take my life home back to my children and for the sake of that I am calling these results under duress, Mr Ibeabuchi had said before reading out the results. In INECs list of senators-elect, Mr Okorochas name was omitted. Declaration made under duress, was boldly written instead. PREMIUM TIMES reported how Mr Ibeabuchi, a professor, refused to complete collation of the three remaining LGAs in Imo West at the INEC office in Orlu. The official said he received an urgent call from the states Resident Electoral Commission (REC), Francis Ezeonu, to return to Owerri and continue the process Monday morning. But Mr Okorochas supporters insisted the returning officer must complete the announcement. They blocked the professor from leaving the building but Mr Ibeabuchi stuck to his guns until he was forced to declare the results Monday morning. In the declaration made under duress, Mr Ibeabuchi said the governor who ran under the All Progressives Congress (APC) polled 97,762 votes and Jones Onyeriri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came second with 63,117 votes. Mr Okorochas rival and a former senator, Osita Izunaso, came third with 30,932 votes. Okorochas defence Meanwhile, the governor accepted the controversial results, describing the Returning Officer as a bloody liar who may be acting a script. But Mr Okorochas opponents rejected the results, insisting the elections be cancelled because there was no return since the returning officer was forced to make the declaration. The elders forum of Imo West (Orlu) also disagreed with the governor. They commended the returning officer for his resilience in standing against impunity with all the pressure to go against his conscience. As at the time of this report, Mr Okorocha was still battling to ensure his preferred candidate emerges governor-elect in Imo. Mr Okorocha supports his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, of the Action Alliance to succeed him. Mr Nwosu was trailing Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party in results declared so far as at the time of this report. The immediate past governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose has taunted the outgoing governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun, over his preferred candidate, Adekunle Akinlades defeat in the governorship election. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Dapo Abiodun, the governorship candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) the winner of the election held on Saturday. He led with 241,670 votes against his closest rival, Mr Akinlade, of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), who scored 222,153 votes. Mr Amosun, now a senator-elect under the APC, backed the candidature of Mr Akinlade while also working against his partys interest. His decision to install his protege pitched him against the APC leadership. The final results released on Monday by the INEC also showed that Gboyega Isiaka of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) polled 110,422 votes while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Candidate, Buruji Kashamu, got 70,290 votes. The results were announced by the Returning Officer, Idowu Olayinka, of the University of Ibadan, who, thereafter, declared Mr Abiodun of the APC as the winner of the election. Fayoses mirth In a tweet on Sunday evening, Mr Fasoye took to his Twitter to taunt Mr Amosun. He also alleged that the governor conspired with the APC to defeat PDP in Ekiti in 2018 adding that Mr Amosun is now facing a similar defeat. Mr Fayoses move to install his deputy at the last Ekiti governorship polls was also unsuccessful. The governor then alleged that the ruling APC, which won the election, rigged. I congratulate Gov ibikunle Amosun for LOSING the guber election of his political son, Adekunle Akinlade of APM. He can now join our club, having forcefully supervised & funded the rigging of Ekiti 2018 election by the same Prof Abdulganiyu Raji who served as REC in both states I congratulate Gov ibikunle Amosun for LOSING the guber election of his political son, Adekunle Akinlade of APM. He can now join our club, having forcefully supervised & funded the rigging of Ekiti 2018 election by the same Prof Abdulganiyu Raji who served as REC in both states Peter Ayodele Fayose (@GovAyoFayose) March 10, 2019 YE Ibikunle Amosun, pls join us as we battle our orchestrated loss at the tribunal. What goes round has come round. You Ja Ekiti Gba!, they have Ja Ogun Gba. YE, please remember to congratulate HE. Dapo Abiodun o. My name is Ayo Fayose, the outspoken ex-governor wrote on Twitter. YE Ibikunle Amosun, pls join us as we battle our orchestrated 'loss' at the tribunal. What goes round has come round. You "Ja Ekiti Gba!", they have "Ja Ogun Gba." YE, please remember to congratulate HE. Dapo Abiodun o. My name is Ayo Fayose. Peter Ayodele Fayose (@GovAyoFayose) March 10, 2019 The gubernatorial candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Saturdays election in Oyo State, Adebayo Adelabu, has reacted to his loss. Mr Adelabu lost the election to Seyi Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party. Mr Adelabu while declaring that his party was still studying the incidents of violence and reported electoral malpractices during the election to know the next line of action, however, congratulated Mr Makinde. The returning officer during the gubernatorial election, Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, had Sunday evening declared Mr Makinde as the winner of the election having secured more votes than other candidates who participated in the election. Mr Ogundipe, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, declared that Mr Makinde secured 515, 621 votes to defeat Mr Adelabu who scored 357,982 votes. The APC candidate in a statement he personally signed, a copy which was made available to PREMIUM TIMES Monday morning, also sympathised with the families of those who lost their lives during the election. At least two people including a federal lawmaker were killed in Ibadan during the elections. I am full of gratitude to God and to every single one of you for the journey so far. I offered myself up for service for the good of Oyo State. We ran a campaign that was issues based and was above board all through and I am quite proud of that. No life is worth being lost for any reason, I sincerely sympathize with the families of the bereaved, May their souls Rest In Peace. While my party is studying the incidents of violence and various reported cases of electoral malpractices to determine further course of action if necessary. I congratulate Seyi Makinde of PDP. Thank you. Bayo Adelabu God bless Oyo State God bless Nigeria, the politician wrote. The electricity distribution company, Ikeja Electric, has threatened to withdraw its services from communities in Lagos where their workers are assaulted and physically harmed. Felix Ofulue, the head of corporate communications, said in a statement that there were communities where their workers had been brutally assaulted, leading to severe injuries. The communities where Ikeja Electric staffers were assaulted, Mr Ofulue said, include Oshodi, Ipaja, and Ikorodu. However, some of the perpetrators of the act have been arrested, charged before a magistrate court and remanded in prison while others are still at large, he added. According to the company, Abiodun Makinde was arrested for allegedly beating up Oluwaseun Onate, a staff of Ikeja Electric while he was disconnecting debtor customers at Aberuagba Street, Oshodi, Lagos, a month ago. Mr Makinde has been arraigned before a magistrate court at Ogba, Lagos. Although, the suspect was granted bail, the court ordered him to be remanded at the Kirikiri Maximum Prisons until bail conditions are met. The case was thereafter adjourned to March 14 for further hearing. Rotimi Bamigbade and Kazeem Adeniyi Owoleye are other suspects remanded in Kirikiri prison after being charged on a five-count charge at Magistrate Court 14, Ogba, for allegedly physically assaulting an Ikeja Electric linesman at Ajasa Command, Ipaja. Also, Kazeem Adeniyi Owoleye was arraigned before T.A. Azeez sitting at Ikorodu Magistrate Court 1, on a two-count charge of alleged assault on staff at Rilwan Lawal Street, Luwa Estate, Ikorodu. Olusola Ayeni, a Corporate Communications officer at Ikeja Electric, showed video to a PREMIUM TIMES correspondent of how one of their workers was attacked with a machete at Itile community, in the Ayobo area of Lagos while people watched. Although the suspect is still at large, Mr Ayeni said Ikeja Electric would not rest until the suspect is arrested and charged to court. For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME. Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire. Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever. Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation. View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union. Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history. Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words. Announces appointment of Adam Eades as President of Cboe Europe B.V. LONDON, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Cboe Europe, the largest stock exchange by value traded in Europe and a division of Cboe Global Markets (Cboe: CBOE), today announced that Cboe Europe B.V., its new subsidiary based in Amsterdam, has received authorisation from the Dutch Ministry of Finance. Cboe Europe B.V. is now authorised to operate a Regulated Market (RM), Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) and Approved Publication Arrangement (APA), which will be regulated by the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM). Mark Hemsley, President of Cboe Europe, said: "We are pleased to have received regulatory approval for our new Netherlands-based venue. We are committed to providing pan-European services to our customers and this authorisation helps ensure we are well-positioned to continue to service our customers across Europe post-Brexit." Cboe will continue to operate its existing Recognised Investment Exchange (RIE) in the UK. Cboe Europe will offer the same services at both its UK and Netherlands venues. Post-Brexit, Cboe is planning to make all EEA-listed symbols available for trading on the Netherlands venue, while UK and Swiss-listed symbols will trade on the UK venue. Adam Eades, currently Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer at Cboe Europe, has been appointed President of Cboe Europe B.V. and will oversee the operations. Mr. Eades said: "I'm delighted to lead Cboe Europe B.V. and work closely with the London team to ensure a seamless launch of the new venue. We've been working closely with our customers over the past two years and have made the necessary preparations to ensure we are ready for any potential Brexit scenarios." Cboe Europe B.V. is currently scheduled to launch on 1st April 2019. Cboe is closely monitoring the political discussions and will react as quickly as possible to any developments that would alter this launch date. Additional information regarding Cboe's Brexit plans is available on the company's Brexit Microsite. About Cboe Global Markets, Inc. Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE) is one of the world's largest exchange holding companies, offering cutting-edge trading and investment solutions to investors around the world. The company is committed to relentless innovation, connecting global markets with world-class technology, and providing seamless solutions that enhance the customer experience. Cboe offers trading across a diverse range of products in multiple asset classes and geographies, including options, futures, U.S. and European equities, exchange-traded products (ETPs), global foreign exchange (FX) and multi-asset volatility products based on the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX Index), the world's barometer for equity market volatility. Cboe's trading venues include the largest options exchange in the U.S. and the largest stock exchange by value traded in Europe. In addition, the company is one of the largest stock exchange operators in the U.S. and a leading market globally for ETP trading. The company is headquartered in Chicago with offices in Kansas City, New York, London, San Francisco, Singapore, Hong Kong and Quito, Ecuador. For more information, visit www.cboe.com. Media Contacts Analyst Contact Stacie Fleming Suzanne Cosgrove Debbie Koopman +44-20-7012-8950 +1-312-786-7123 +1-312-786-7136 sfleming@cboe.com scosgrove@cboe.com dkoopman@cboe.com CBOE-EE CBOE-C VIX is a registered trademark of Cboe Exchange, Inc. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners. Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. You can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as "may," "might," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" or "continue," and the negative of these terms and other comparable terminology. All statements that reflect our expectations, assumptions or projections about the future other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements, which are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions about us, may include projections of our future financial performance based on our growth strategies and anticipated trends in our business. These statements are only predictions based on our current expectations and projections about future events. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. We operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible to predict all risks and uncertainties, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the loss of our right to exclusively list and trade certain index options and futures products; economic, political and market conditions; compliance with legal and regulatory obligations; price competition and consolidation in our industry; decreases in trading volumes, market data fees or a shift in the mix of products traded on our exchanges; legislative or regulatory changes; potential difficulties in our migration of trading platforms and our ability to retain employees as a result of the acquisition; our ability to protect our systems and communication networks from security risks, cybersecurity risks, insider threats and unauthorized disclosure of confidential information; increasing competition by foreign and domestic entities; our dependence on and exposure to risk from third parties; fluctuations to currency exchange rates; our index providers' ability to maintain the quality and integrity of their indexes and to perform under our agreements; our ability to operate our business without violating the intellectual property rights of others and the costs associated with protecting our intellectual property rights; our ability to attract and retain skilled management and other personnel, including those experienced with post-acquisition integration; our ability to accommodate trading volume and transaction traffic, including significant increases, without failure or degradation of performance of our systems; misconduct by those who use our markets or our products; challenges to our use of open source software code; our ability to meet our compliance obligations, including managing potential conflicts between our regulatory responsibilities and our for-profit status; damage to our reputation; the ability of our compliance and risk management methods to effectively monitor and manage our risks; our ability to manage our growth and strategic acquisitions or alliances effectively; restrictions imposed by our debt obligations; our ability to maintain an investment grade credit rating; impairment of our goodwill, investments or intangible assets; and the accuracy of our estimates and expectations. More detailed information about factors that may affect our actual results to differ may be found in our filings with the SEC, including in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 and other filings made from time to time with the SEC. We do not undertake, and we expressly disclaim, any duty to update any forward-looking statement whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/622233/Cboe_Logo.jpg Related Links http://www.cboe.com SOURCE Cboe Global Markets, Inc. The groom, Rushang Shah -- the son of the Chairman & CEO of Embassy National Bank, an Atlanta-based community bank -- and his bride Kaabia Grewal -- co-founder of The Outhouse, a luxury jewellery brand -- certainly spared no expense with a extravagant week-long party. This was truly 'the Wedding of the Century'. Two charter flights flew to Phu Quoc International Airport from India with 700 wedding guests on board. The entire entourage, along with a troupe of models and performing artists from Italy, Thailand, India, Russia, made their way to the award-winning JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay which boasts 234 spacious and beautifully appointed rooms, suites, villas, on the southernmost tip of this tropical island. Guests were spellbound by white sandy beaches, heavenly sea views and romantic sunsets. Destination wedding specialists from India worked together to pull out all the stops for the couple with a veritable extravaganza of entertaining events with a different theme and dress code for each day. The guests dressed in pink from head to toe one day and in ethnic costumes another and there were different activities, such as lantern making, and viewing marine life, on offer for guests. Naturally, the most eye-catching event was the main wedding ceremony, held on March 9th. Guests described it as "something out of a fairytale" when the stunning bride floated across the gentle waves in a boat adorned with pink and white flowers to arrive on shore and tied the knot with the handsome groom. Considered to be a 'masterpiece of resort design', JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay was conceptualised by the renowned Bill Bensley with investment from Sun Group, Vietnam's premier developer of luxury resorts and tourism-related infrastructures. The resort, much admired for its superlative services and stunning location, was listed as one of the Top 50 Best Resorts in the world by Conde Nast Traveller. Video: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_3hrzranyzMAeCRAQocUQyRNxI2EcWkD Video - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/833376/Indian_wedding_JW_MARRIOTT.mp4 Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/833322/Wedding_Phu_Quoc_Vietnam.jpg SOURCE Sun Group HILLSIDE, New Jersey, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- WizKids, the industry leader in high quality pre-painted & unpainted miniatures, is pleased to announce a new partnership with premier hobby paint brand Vallejo. The first release as part of this partnership will be an all-new line of custom WizKids Paints. These paints will be specially formulated and will be available in colors specifically designed to complement WizKids iconic unpainted miniatures lines. "With more than 50 years in the industry, Vallejo stands out as one of the most popular and high-quality brands of hobby paint in the industry. A leader in this field, they were the first to introduce acrylic colors for miniatures," said Justin Ziran, president of WizKids. "We are looking forward to learning new techniques and innovating with Vallejo on new products and programs." Vallejo's WizKids line of paints will be released in late 2019 and will feature all-new colors that are perfect for hobbyists to enjoy as they create their most immersive miniatures yet! "We are very proud to be entering this new venture with WizKids," said Alex Vallejo, CEO at Vallejo. About WizKids WizKids/NECA, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NECA, is a New Jersey-based game developer and publisher dedicated to creating games driven by imagination. WizKids first pioneered the Combat Dial system featured in HeroClix, the leading collectible miniatures game on the market, with over 750 million miniature game figures sold worldwide. Learn more: www.wizkids.com. Media Contact: press@wizkids.com Distribution Inquiries: orders@wizkids.com About Vallejo Vallejo Hobby Colors,a family owned company, was established in 1965 in N.J. USA. In 1969 the company moved to Barcelona Spain. Since 1970, Vallejo has specialized in the manufacture of acrylic colors for fine arts and hobby and In the nineties the company released the first hobby ranges; Vallejo was the first to promote the use of water-based acrylics for painting miniatures. Acrylicos Vallejo currently produces several lines of specific colors for model painters in all categories, such as Model Color, ideal for brush-on techniques, Model Air for airbrushing, Game Color for table top figures, and several exclusive color ranges for historical and fantasy figures, as well as colors for AFV, Aircraft, Diorama Effects, etc. Vallejo's most valued asset is the experience and accumulated know-how of 50 years in the industry, and the commitment to continue offering products of exceptional quality. Learn more: www.acrylicosvallejo.com Distribution Inquiries: customerservice@acrylicosvallejo.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/696661/WizKids_Logo.jpg Related Links https://www.wizkids.com SOURCE WizKids "The amount of positive responses we received from extremely qualified candidates passionate about water exceeded our expectations," said Mark-Hans Richer, senior vice president, chief marketing and innovation officer, Fortune Brands Global Plumbing Group. "After meeting Nina, who is a two-time MIT graduate, we knew almost immediately she was the perfect fit to join us as we evolve how we interact with water and challenge the status quo, specifically in how consumers can better manage this resource through innovation." A licensed professional engineer in Illinois and Florida, Nina will be a conduit in connecting Moen to her network of individuals and organizations who are focused on broader-scope water situations across the country. There's also an opportunity for product innovation that falls hand in hand with helping consumers become more aware of how they use water, and the infinite benefits of leveraging more water-efficient and smart-water products within the home. "Elevating the way people experience water by creating innovative technologies that use this vital resource in a smarter way has been the focus of my career," said Nina Kshetry, water director for Moen. "My hope is that this collaboration will inspire people to look differently at the way they use this resource every day and to understand how products, like those developed and offered through Moen, can improve their lives while protecting the environment." Follow along on Nina's journey as Moen's first Water Director at moen.com/waterdirector. Tweetable Highlights @Moen names first Water Director to help people see and experience water in new and different ways FOLLOW MOEN Facebook: /moen Twitter: @moen Pinterest: /moen Instagram: @moeninc YouTube: /moenfaucets Houzz: /pro/moen ABOUT MOEN As the #1 faucet brand in North America, Moen offers a diverse selection of thoughtfully designed kitchen and bath faucets, showerheads, accessories, bath safety products, kitchen sinks and garbage disposals for residential applications delivering meaningful innovation, useful features, on-trend styling and lasting value. In addition, Moen Commercial offers superior-performing products that can deliver lower lifetime costs for today's facilities. Moen is part of Fortune Brands Home & Security, Inc. (NYSE: FBHS ), which creates products and services that help fulfill the dreams of homeowners and help people feel more secure. Moen anchors the Global Plumbing Group (GPG), which also includes several brands under The House of Rohl including Perrin & Rowe, ROHL, Riobel, Shaws and Victoria + Albert. Its other segments include Master Lock and Sentry Safe security products, MasterBrand Cabinets and Therma-Tru entry door systems. Fortune Brands is part of the S&P 500 Index. For more information, please visit www.FBHS.com . SOURCE Moen High-Margin Derivative Products Accelerating European Revenue Growth TSX |NYSE: ACB EDMONTON, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - Aurora Cannabis Inc. (the "Company" or "Aurora") (NYSE: ACB) (TSX: ACB) (Frankfurt: 21P; WKN: A1C4WM) today announced that it has commenced sales of cannabis oils to German pharmacies following receipt of all necessary approvals from the Canadian and German regulatory authorities. Pedanios 5/1 drops have become the first extract derived oil product compliant with the German monograph for in-pharmacy preparation. Aurora is the medical cannabis market leader in Germany. The Company has supplied the German market with dried cannabis flower via Aurora Deutschland (formerly Pedanios) since December 2015, and with Canadian-grown Aurora products since September 2017. Aurora has established a strong brand as a trusted supplier among prescribing physicians, dispensing pharmacies, and German patients. As one of few companies able to sell oils in this rapidly growing market, Aurora is well positioned to establish brand leadership in the European derivatives market. "Having established early mover advantage in selling cannabis oils in Germany, we are exceptionally positioned to extend our market leadership and accelerate growth of our European operations," said Neil Belot, Chief Global Business Development Officer. "As our global production capacity continues to ramp up, we are able to strategically allocate more product from our EU GMP certified cultivation facilities to this higher margin market that continues to be significantly undersupplied." About Aurora Headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with funded capacity in excess of 500,000 kg per annum and sales and operations in 24 countries across five continents, Aurora is one of the world's largest and leading cannabis companies. Aurora is vertically integrated and horizontally diversified across every key segment of the value chain, from facility engineering and design to cannabis breeding and genetics research, cannabis and hemp production, derivatives, high value-add product development, home cultivation, wholesale and retail distribution. Highly differentiated from its peers, Aurora has established a uniquely advanced, consistent and efficient production strategy, based on purpose-built facilities that integrate leading-edge technologies across all processes, defined by extensive automation and customization, resulting in the massive scale production of high quality product at low cost. Intended to be replicable and scalable globally, our production facilities are designed to produce cannabis of significant scale, with high quality, industry-leading yields, and low per gram production costs. Each of Aurora's facilities is built to meet EU GMP standards, and its first production facility, the recently acquired MedReleaf Markham facility, and its wholly owned European medical cannabis distributor Aurora Deutschland have achieved this level of certification. In addition to the Company's rapid organic growth and strong execution on strategic M&A, which to date includes 16 wholly owned subsidiary companies MedReleaf, CanvasRX, Peloton Pharmaceutical, Aurora Deutschland, H2 Biopharma, Urban Cultivator, BC Northern Lights, Larssen Greenhouses, CanniMed Therapeutics, Anandia Labs, HotHouse Consulting, MED Colombia, Agropro, Borela, ICC Labs and Whistler Aurora is distinguished by its reputation as a partner and employer of choice in the global cannabis sector, having invested in and established strategic partnerships with a range of leading innovators, including: Radient Technologies Inc. (TSXV: RTI), Hempco Food and Fiber Inc. (TSXV: HEMP), Cann Group Ltd. (ASX: CAN), Micron Waste Technologies Inc. (CSE: MWM), Choom Holdings Inc. (CSE: CHOO), Capcium Inc. (private), Evio Beauty Group (private), Wagner Dimas (private), CTT Pharmaceuticals (OTCC: CTTH), Alcanna Inc. (TSX: CLIQ) and High Tide Inc. (CSE:HITI). Aurora's Common Shares trade on the TSX and NYSE under the symbol "ACB", and are a constituent of the S&P/TSX Composite Index. For more information about Aurora, please visit our investor website, investor.auroramj.com Neither the TSX, NYSE nor their Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX and NYSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Terry Booth, CEO Aurora Cannabis Inc. Forward looking statements This news release includes statements containing certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law ("forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur and include, but are not limited to the variety of cannabis products that Aurora will supply to the German medical market and Aurora's ability to establish brand leadership in the European derivatives market. These statements are only predictions. Various assumptions were used in drawing the conclusions or making the projections contained in the forward-looking statements throughout this news release. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. The Company is under no obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law. SOURCE Aurora Cannabis Inc. Related Links https://auroramj.com/ McDermott was awarded a substantial* engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) SURF contract. McDermott plans to use its upgraded Amazon vessel, DLV 2000, North Ocean 102 (NO 102) and third-party vessels to support installation scheduled to begin in late 2020. The Amazon modifications are scheduled to be completed before the installation campaign begins and will include a multi-joint (hex) J-Lay system to handle the most challenging ultra-deepwater projects as well as the addition of a multi-joint facility, dual pipe loading cranes and additional power generation. McDermott-designed pipeline and riser structures will be fabricated at its yard in Batam, Indonesia. BHGE is demonstrating the benefits of early-engagement and collaboration some of the key components of Subsea Connect as well as bringing its expertise in deepwater, long-offset gas projects. The company will provide five large-bore deepwater horizonal xmas trees (DHXTs), a 6-slot dual bore manifold, a pipeline end manifold, subsea distribution units (SDUs), three subsea isolation valves (SSIVs), diverless connections and subsea production control systems, specifically designed to enable the future integration of additional wells for the first phase of the development. "This contract marks a number of firsts: our first significant subsea EPCI project in West Africa; the first project using our state of the art pipelay vessel Amazon; and our support of BP's first entry into Senegal and Mauritania. This project is also of significant importance in support of our aspirations in this region," said Tareq Kawash, McDermott's Senior Vice President for Europe, Africa, Russia and Caspian. "Our collaboration with BHGE allows us to offer BP an integrated approach that builds on our proven solutions. We look forward, along with BHGE, to deliver this landmark project to BP with the highest levels of safety and quality." "Together with McDermott, we will deliver the best-in-class solution to BP with cost-efficiency and industry-leading safety. These awards demonstrate the value of early-engagement, collaborative partnerships and holistic project planning, which are very much central to our new approach to subsea developments, Subsea Connect," said Graham Gillies, BHGE's Vice President, Subsea Production Systems & Services. "This major deepwater gas development is strategically important for Mauritania and Senegal's domestic and global gas supply, and supports the industry's drive for a more sustainable, lower carbon future." These latest awards follow an initial front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase, awarded in March 2018, during which BHGE and McDermott worked together to define the technology and equipment scope for a four-well development phase. Project management and engineering teams from BP, BHGE and McDermott will remain co-located at McDermott's London offices for this next phase. BHGE has also signed an agreement to become a "Country Partner" of Invest in Africa's (IIA) Senegal chapter, of which BP is a founding member. The IIA helps local suppliers to connect with international oil and gas companies, increasing the opportunities for local businesses to support large-scale projects, and training African suppliers on core business skills and entrepreneurship. Project Details The initial subsea infrastructure connects the first four of 12 wells consolidated through production pipelines leading to a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel. From here liquids are removed and the export gas is transported via a pipeline to the floating liquid natural gas (FLNG) hub terminal where the gas is liquefied. * - McDermott defines a substantial contract as between $500 million to $750 million. The contract award will be reflected in McDermott's first quarter 2019 backlog. About McDermott McDermott is a premier, fully integrated provider of technology, engineering and construction solutions to the energy industry. For more than a century, customers have trusted McDermott to design and build end-to-end infrastructure and technology solutions to transport and transform oil and gas into the products the world needs today. Our proprietary technologies, integrated expertise and comprehensive solutions deliver certainty, innovation and added value to energy projects around the world. Customers rely on McDermott to deliver certainty to the most complex projects, from concept to commissioning. It is called the "One McDermott Way." Operating in over 54 countries, McDermott's locally focused and globally-integrated resources include approximately 32,000 employees, a diversified fleet of specialty marine construction vessels and fabrication facilities around the world. As used in this press release, McDermott includes McDermott International, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates. To learn more, visit www.mcdermott.com. About Baker Hughes, a GE company Baker Hughes, a GE company (NYSE: BHGE) is the world's first and only fullstream provider of integrated oilfield products, services and digital solutions. We deploy minds and machines to enhance customer productivity, safety and environmental stewardship, while minimizing costs and risks at every step of the energy value chain. With operations in over 120 countries, we infuse over a century of experience with the spirit of a start-up inventing smarter ways to bring energy to the world. Visit us at BHGE.com Forward-Looking Statements In accordance with the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, McDermott cautions that statements in this press release which are forward-looking, and provide other than historical information, involve risks, contingencies and uncertainties that may impact McDermott's actual results of operations. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements about backlog, to the extent backlog may be viewed as an indicator of future revenues or profitability, and statements about the expected value, scope, execution and timing of the project discussed in this press release. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that those expectations will prove to have been correct. Those statements are made by using various underlying assumptions and are subject to numerous risks, contingencies and uncertainties, including, among others: adverse changes in the markets in which we operate or credit markets, our inability to successfully execute on contracts in backlog, changes in project design or schedules, the availability of qualified personnel, changes in the terms, scope or timing of contracts, contract cancellations, change orders and other modifications and actions by our customers and other business counterparties, changes in industry norms and adverse outcomes in legal or other dispute resolution proceedings. If one or more of these risks materialize, or if underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those expected. For a more complete discussion of these and other risk factors, please see McDermott's annual and quarterly filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018. This press release reflects management's views as of the date hereof. Except to the extent required by applicable law, McDermott undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement. McDermott International, Inc. Investor Relations Scott Lamb Vice President, Investor Relations +1 832 513 1068 [email protected] Global Media Relations Gentry Brann Global Vice President, Communications +1 281 870 5269 [email protected] Baker Hughes, a GE company Investor Relations Philipp Mueller +1 281 809 9088 [email protected] Media Relations Lynne Turnbull +44 7771996140 [email protected] SOURCE McDermott International, Inc.; Baker Hughes, a GE company Related Links https://www.mcdermott.com/ The auction, to be held on March 30 th in New York City, will be comprised of bottles solely from the chateau's own cellars with vintages representing every decade of their ownership dating back to 1868. "Each vintage tells a different story: written by the hands of the people that made them, through wars, frost attacks and recessions," says Saskia de Rothschild, the new chairwoman of Chateau Lafite Rothschild. "Together with my father, we chose vintages for which we wanted to find new homes, straight from the Lafite cellars to yours." With 3384 bottles, this represents the largest collection of single-owner Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) wines ever to be auctioned. The auction will also include wines from Chateau L'Evangile, Chateau Duhart-Milon, Chateau Rieussec and Carruades de Lafite. Among the rare, direct from chateau lots are: Large-format Imperials signed by Saskia de Rothschild (Chairwoman of Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite)) and her father, Baron Eric de Rothschild . A single bottle of 1868 in wood case: this is one of a handful of bottles left at the chateau. Baron James purchased the estate that year on the advice of his three sons but sadly died soon after the purchase and never had the opportunity to taste this first vintage. The winning bidder of this lot will also be invited to visit and have lunch at Chateau Lafite Rothschild. A single bottle of 1870 in wood case and with a wax capsule, is said to be one of Lafite's most mythical vintages which took 50 years to reach maturity and realize its full potential. Wines from iconic vintages including the 1945, 1947, 1949, 1959, 1961, and modern wines from 1982 through current vintages can all be found in 750ml and large-format bottles. All of the wines in this auction were stored without labels. The labels are specific to this auction with all vintages printed on modern, security paper and affixed with a proof-tag to guarantee authenticity. The auction will take place in New York City on March 30, 2019 at Le Bernardin Prive, 153 W 51st New York, NY 10019. Online bidding is now live at https://auction.zachys.com/auctions/Default.aspx?AuctionId=308. About Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) have based their development in the crafts of the vine and of wine. Around Chateau Lafite Rothschild, the Group has grown with the successive acquisition of Chateau Duhart-Milon (Grand Cru Classe in Pauillac), Chateau Rieussec (Premier Grand Cru Classe in Sauternes) and Chateau L'Evangile (Pomerol). In parallel, it has expanded outside the Bordeaux region: Vina Los Vascos (Chile, 1988), Domaine d'Aussieres (Languedoc, 1999), Bodegas CARO (Argentina, 1999) and China since 2008 with the development of a vineyard in the region of Penglai. The Group has also produced Legende and Saga, a range of Bordeaux wines. With 1,200 hectares of their own vineyards, Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) work with a worldwide network of more than 80 distributors. For more information: www.lafite.com About Zachys Wine Auctions Founded over 70 years ago, Zachys is one of the largest independent wine auction houses and retailers in America with offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Hong Kong, and dedicated wine specialists in mainland China, Tokyo, London, and Europe. CEO Don Zacharia played a major role in creating the fine wine auction marketplace in America. Today, Zachys has established itself as the nation's largest and most powerful retailer and auctioneer of fine Bordeaux, Burgundy and beyond. For more information visit www.zachys.com/auctions . SOURCE Zachys Related Links http://www.lafite.com SHANGHAI, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- InventisBio Inc., a clinical stage biotech company, announced the closing of a $70 million USD Series C financing in January 2019. This round of investment was co-led by Advantech Capital and CMBI, followed by Pudong Innotek. Also participating were existing investors Lilly Asia Venture (LAV) and OrbiMed Asia. "The new investment will accelerate the development of our clinical candidates into phase 2 trials and help us develop first-in-class drug candidates into clinical stage," said Dr. Yaolin Wang, InventisBio Chairman and CEO. "Our goal is to develop innovative drugs with our own intellectual property rights, to achieve global drug approvals based on international multi-center clinical trials for diseases with unmet medical needs. We are very pleased to have the support from top notch investment firms like Advantech and CMBI. Further funding from our previous rounds of investors LAV and OrbiMed Asia demonstrates the confidence of our strategic investors in our team and pipeline products for the global market." Benjamin Qiu, Partner and Co-Head of Healthcare Investment at Advantech, commented, "As an innovative biotech company, InventisBio has fully utilized the management team's experiences in selecting targets with significant unmet medical needs and in small molecule drug design and development. With their clinical development expertise in both US and China, the team has quickly developed several unique and novel drug candidates into clinical trials. The D-0502, a selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) for ER-positive breast cancer, is a front-runner of similar products being developed globally. Healthcare is a key area of Advantech's investment focus and we are pleased to support InventisBio in developing innovative products in clinical trials with the goal to benefit global patients." About InventisBio InventisBio is a clinical stage biotech company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel therapeutics against cancer and metabolic diseases. The company has three drug candidates in clinical development for breast cancer, lung cancer and gout. In Dec. 2018, the company licensed out 3rd generation EGFR-T790M inhibitor D-0316's China right to Betta Pharma, and is co-developing it in phase 2 clinical trial for non-small cell lung cancer. InventisBio received angel investment from Beautiful Mind Capital, Series A financing led by LAV in 2016 and Series B funding led by OrbiMed Asia with participation from LAV in 2017. About Advantech Capital Advantech Capital is a private equity fund, focused on innovation-driven growth capital in China. Its two main areas of investment are IT and Healthcare. About CMBI CMB International Capital Corporation Limited ("CMBI") is an integrated financial institution providing comprehensive and professional services. CMBI and its subsidiaries have been actively implementing diversified business strategies and set up an overall layout of main business segments including Corporate Finance, Asset Management, Wealth Management, Equity and Structured Finance, etc. Company Website www.inventisbio.com SOURCE InventisBio Inc. Related Links http://www.inventisbio.com/ CHICAGO, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Thomas G. Gardiner, partner at Gardiner Koch Weisberg & Wrona, is representing the relatives of Lion Air Flight 610 co-pilot Harvino in a wrongful death lawsuit against Boeing. Tom offers the following statement regarding this weekend's plane crash in Ethiopia: "We offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the pilots, crew and passengers who died aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302. We are anxiously awaiting results from investigators to review similarities between this tragedy and Lion Air Flight 610." Additionally, our clients in Indonesia express their deepest sympathies. Novi Cahyadi, Harvino's older brother, said, "We know too well the feelings that the families of the crew and passengers have right now. Our deepest condolences for their loss." Gardiner Koch Weisberg & Wrona filed a lawsuit in December against The Boeing Company on behalf of the family of Harvino, the co-pilot of Lion Air Flight 610, who died when the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft crashed into the Java Sea on October 29, 2018. All 189 people on board died upon impact. Media Contact: Kate Gardiner, 312-725-0146, [email protected] Related Links http://www.gkwwlaw.com SOURCE Gardiner Koch Weisberg & Wrona Related Links http://www.gkwwlaw.com GENEVA, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Australian Tamil Congress (ATC), the British Tamils Forum (BTF), the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) and the US Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC) today welcomed the UN Office of the High Commissioner's report to ongoing 40th session of the UN Human Rights Council on progress made in implementing the transitional justice program Sri Lanka committed to in 2015's Resolution 30/1, reaffirming that commitment in 2017's 34/1, following atrocity crimes committed during and after the war that ended in 2009. The OHCHR under the leadership of different High Commissioners has been instrumental in ensuring that human rights and accountability in Sri Lanka remain under the international spotlight. Mr. V. Ravi Kumar, General Secretary of the British Tamils Forum noted, "We are pleased with the forthright and thorough assessment done by High Commissioner Bachelet in her report and endorse her calls "for the Government to demonstrate sustained commitment and leadership to move that agenda forward", and "for the Council to continue to monitor and engage on developments in the country." "The report, in many aspects, is spot-on," said Mr. M. Manokaran, Chairman of the Australian Tamil Congress (ATC). "While acknowledging some positives such as engagement with UN systems and incipient institution-building, the report rightly points out that these actions 'have yet to produce concrete benefits for individual right holders,' and 'such slow progress in establishing meaningful transitional justice measures has engendered mistrust among victims and other stakeholders.' As for the non-existent progress in criminal accountability, we fully concur with the report's assessment that 'virtually no progress has been made in investigating or prosecuting domestically the large number of allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity collected by OHCHR in its investigation, and particularly those relating to military operations at the end of the war.'" The report categorically states that the Government has not moved fast enough with tangible confidence-building measures viz. restitution of the land held by the military; repealing the Prevention of Terrorism Act; effective conclusion of the cases of the remaining security detainees; no decisive progress on several emblematic cases involving security forces; stopping security force surveillance, harassment and torture; security sector reforms; and devolution of political authority. Dr. Vadivelu Shanthakumar, Chairman of the Canadian Tamil Congress, stated, "The abject failure to build confidence among the victimized Tamil community, which is essential prerequisite for successful transitional justice agenda, demonstrates the lack of will and urgency on the part of the Sri Lankan Government and its leaders." Mr. S. Seetharam, President of the US Tamil Political Action Council, said, "We concur with the High Commissioner's view that 'Sri Lanka has failed to seize the opportunity provided by the Human Rights Council to establish a trustworthy domestic mechanism to address impunity' and support her call for the 'application of universal jurisdiction principles' and to explore 'alternative measures including some forms of international investigation and prosecution to ensure that those most responsible for the most serious crimes are prosecuted,' while Sri Lanka firmly remains in the UNHRC agenda." Mr. Kumar went on to say, "We believe the High Commissioner's recommendations to 'Prepare a comprehensive strategy on transitional justice, with a time-bound plan to implement the pending commitments,' and to 'Invite OHCHR to establish a full-fledged country office' are critically important if Sri Lanka is going to make any systematic and meaningful progress in implementing Resolution 30/1. We earnestly request the High Commissioner and her office to do all that they can to ensure the contents of this report, particularly these two important recommendations, are reflected in the resolution being considered by the Human Rights Council at present, and to also include provision mandating the OHCHR to assist Sri Lanka in devising and implementing such a time-bound plan." For further information, please contact: S. Sivam, President, US Tamil Political Action Council T: +1 202 595 3123 Website: www.ustpac.org Email: [email protected] Twitter: @UstpacAdvocacy Dr. Vadivelu Santhakumar President, The Canadian Tamil Congress T: +1-416-240-0078 Website: https://www.canadiantamilcongress.ca/ Email: [email protected] V Ravi Kumar General Secretary, British Tamils Forum T: +44 (0) 7814 486087 Website: www.britishtamilsforum.org Email: [email protected] Twitter: @tamilsforum M. Manokaran, Chairman, Australian Tamil Congress T: +61 300 660 629 Website: http://www.australiantamilcongress.com Twitter: @austamilcongres SOURCE USTPAC PORTLAND, Oregon, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Growing demand for frozen food worldwide as they are nutritionally rich and have longer shelf life, rise in preference for convenience food products, increase in the number of high-end bakery shops in developed countries, and heavy investment in R&D activities in order to introduce new products drive the growth of the global frozen bakery products market Allied Market Research recently published a report, titled, "Frozen Bakery Products Market by Product (Breads, Pizza Crust, Cakes & Pastries, Waffles, Donuts, and Cookies), Source (Corn, Wheat, Barley, and Rye), End Use (Retail, Food Service Industry, and Food Processing Industry), and Distribution Channel (Artisan Baker, Retail, Catering, and Online Channel): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2018 - 2025." The research offers a detailed analysis on changing market dynamics, key investment pockets, major segments, and market competition. According to the report, the global frozen bakery products market generated $33.87 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach $49.11 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 4.2% from 2018 to 2025. Request Sample Report at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/5179 Rise in demand for frozen food as they are nutritionally rich and have longer shelf life, increased preference for convenience food products, demand for European bakery products in the Asia Pacific region, growing number of high-end bakery shops in developed countries, and heavy investment in R&D activities to introduce new products drive the growth of the market. However, high operating cost for frozen food products in cold chain process and low water activity and low pH value in frozen bakery products which suggest high possibility of growth of microorganisms in them restrain the growth of the market. Conversely, fast paced lifestyle of consumers looking out for convenient food products and surge in demand for bakery products in Asia Pacific create new opportunities for growth of the market. Breads segment to be dominant, waffles to grow the fastest Among product types, the breads segment grabbed more than one-third of the market share in 2017 and would maintain its revenue lead through 2025. This is due to the large-scale application of breads in various food service industry as well as retail sectors. However, the waffles segment would grow at the highest CAGR of 5.4% from 2018 to 2025. Europe to be dominant, Asia-Pacific to exhibit the fastest growth Europe captured more than one-third of the market share in 2017 and is likely to dominate the market through 2025. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to register the fastest CAGR of 5.3% from 2017 to 2023. The other regions analyzed in the report include North America and LAMEA (Latin America, Middle East and Africa). For Purchase Enquiry: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/5179 Key players of the industry Leading market players analyzed in the research include General Mills (Pillsburry), Aryzta AG, Grupo Bimbo S.A.B. de C.V., Europastry, S.A., Lantmannen Unibake International, Associated British Foods plc, Flower Foods Inc., TreeHouse Foods, Inc., Dawn Foods Products Inc., and Vandemoortele NV. These market players have adopted various strategies including collaborations, joint ventures, partnerships, expansions, and others to gain a strong position in the industry. Access KNOWLEDGE TREE (Premium on-demand, subscription-based pricing model) at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/knowledgetree Knowledge tree is a cloud-based intelligence platform that offers more than 2,000 selective, off-the-shelf reports on niche markets to enable our clients gain deep insights on the latest trends, dynamic technologies, and emerging application areas. Similar Reports: Frozen Pizza Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023 Frozen Vegetables Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023 About Us Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry. Contact: David Correa 5933 NE Win Sivers Drive #205, Portland, OR 97220 United States USA/Canada (Toll Free): +1-800-792-5285, +1-503-894-6022, +1-503-446-1141 UK: +44-845-528-1300 Hong Kong: +852-301-84916 India (Pune): +91-20-66346060 Fax: +1(855)550-5975 [email protected] Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com SOURCE Allied Market Research LAS VEGAS, March 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Gaming Standards Association (GSA) has established a presence in Japan. GSA Japan will provide relevant educational services and act as a conduit offering unbiased gaming industry information and education on the technical aspects of gaming and regulation to the relevant authorities, as well as Japanese business entities that wish to enter the gaming industry. The Gaming Standards Association is a well-known and respected industry body, with long established policies and practices. The Japanese market is actively looking for the right answers and GSA Japan is here to provide them. Japan's rich economic power and technological strength will lend itself towards learning from practices in other countries and developing solutions that are of the highest standards and integrity. With the addition of the casino industry, Japan can develop a strong tourism industry that will be highly competitive internationally. GSA President, Peter DeRaedt: "For more than 20 years GSA have brought together the industry and policy domains and successfully facilitated discussions leading to the creation of a number of key standards that provide an important level of transparency to governments, regulators, operators, and manufacturers. As a non-profit international trade association, we have always stayed true to our mission of being the leading gaming standards forum, creating value by facilitating innovation and efficiencies for the gaming industry. We are looking forward to supporting the Japanese government and its representatives with the unbiased information they are looking for." GSA Japan Managing Director, Mr. Kaji Takeshi: "The Japanese Government stipulates that casinos are developed using the world's highest standards of regulation to guarantee the integrity of casino management, along with its supporting systems to avoid any possible adverse side effects. In order to fulfill this important goal, and to develop the casino industry and create better-integrated resorts that conform to international standards, a good partner like GSA is of great value. The support of a sincere and experienced guide is optimal to be successful." There is a level of membership for every type of company. Is your organization interested in working with GSA on the creation of future standards? Please join us visit www.gamingstandards.com to learn more, and follow GSA on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. GSA Platinum members include: Aristocrat Technologies Inc.; International Game Technology (IGT); Konami Gaming Inc.; Microgaming Software Systems, LTD.; NOVOMATIC AG; Playtech, (PTEC.L) & Scientific Games International (SGMS). Other members include: Adlink Technology Inc.; Ainsworth Game Technology Inc.; Alphaslot; Amatic Industries GmbH; AmTote International; APEX pro gaming; Appolonia; Ares Way; Aruze Gaming America, Inc.; Atlantic Lottery Corporation; AxesNetwork Solutions Inc.; BMM Testlabs; Canadian Bank Note Company, Limited; Canadian Gaming Association; Casinos Austria; Cashpoint Payment Solutions; ComTrade Gaming; Combination AB; Crane Payment Innovations (CPI); DRGT Europe; European Casino Association; Everi; Fortunet; Foxwoods Resort Casino; Gaming Laboratories International, LLC. (GLI); Gaming Consultants International; Gaming Technologies Association; Gauselman GmbH; Genlot Game Technology Co., Ltd.; Grand Vision Gaming; House Advantage; Incredible Technologies; Intralot S.A. (INLr.AT); Inspired Gaming Group Ltd.; Interblock USA; JCM Global; Loto-Quebec; Macao Polytechnic Institute; Macau Gaming Equipment Manufacturers Association; Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries Corporation; Maxgaming; Mobile Gaming Monitoring On GmbH; Multi-State Lottery Association; Nidec Sankyo Corporation; Oregon Lottery; Paltronics Australasia Pty. Ltd.; PVS Australia Pty, Ltd.; Quixant; Radical Blue Gaming; Random Consulting; Sega Sammy Creation, Inc.; Seminole Tribe of Florida; Seoul National University of Science & Technology; Smernax Holdings Ltd.; Synergy Blue; U1 Gaming; Universal de Desarrollos Electronicos, S.A.; UNLV International Gaming Institute; VEIKKAUS; Western Canada Lottery Corporation; Wojskowe Zaklady Lacznosci Nr 1 S.A. CONTACT: Peter DeRaedt Gaming Standards Association Paul Speirs-Hernandez Steinbeck Communications Takeshi Kaji Gaming Standards Association Japan President President Managing Director Tel: +1 (775) 846-4422 +1 (702) 413-4278 +81-90-1507-5515 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] SOURCE Gaming Standards Association Related Links http://www.gamingstandards.com AUSTIN, Texas, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Golden Developing Solutions, Inc. (OTC PINK: DVLP) ("DVLP" or the "Company"), an emerging leader in the Cannabis and CBD industries, is proud to announce the completion of its acquisition of Infusionz, LLC (CBD Infusionz), a manufacturer of CBD based products. CBD Infusionz offers it's broad product line through it's website, https://www.cbdinfusionz.com/ , retail outlets and contract manufacturing agreements. "CBD Infusionz is a true leadership play in the CBD space, with rapidly growing sales and the best quality products in the industry. This is the company that developed and launched one of the first edibles in the legal marijuana space and now they have created the best acquisition in the CBD space. Our business is growing exponentially with massive upside with capital improvements and operational sophistication. We strongly believe this acquisition adds an enormous dose of value for DVLP and its shareholders," noted the Company's CEO, Stavros Triant. With the CBD business experiencing robust growth and the Farm Bill's increased momentum, management believes that CBD Infusionz is ideally placed to benefit from these legislative advances and greater awareness of CBD among consumers. The addition of CBD Infusionz, powerfully positions DVLP to take advantage of this accelerated industry and utilizing it's technological and manufacturing expertise. Mr. Triant continued, "We are extremely excited to have such a promising and popular CBD market now under our ownership. We expect to add significant value and facilitate a further acceleration looking ahead." About Infusionz, LLC Infusionz, LLC is an American CBD company known for its diverse and high quality product line. CBD Infusionz was started in 2014 and provides their CBD Family with top quality CBD products that they know they can count on. CBD Infusionz also provides the sourcing of Hemp CBD isolate, distillate, wax, shatter, and live sauce. Infusionz, LLC private labels and manufactures products including Hemp CBD edibles, capsules, soft gels, pet products, dog treats, lotions, salves, topical, vape and much more. About Golden Developing Solutions, Inc. Golden Developing Solutions (DVLP) is developing an online retail business for cannabidiol (CBD), hemp oil and health/wellness-related products. The Company is also developing a high-capacity, high-quality CBD extraction and production facility. In addition, through the website of its joint venture partner, Pura Vida Vitamins (www.PuraVidaVitamins.com), as well as through wholesale and distribution channels, the Company offers a broad range of high-quality, price-competitive products, including traditional vitamins, supplements, and CBD-based tinctures, vapes and soft gels, among other products. Merchandise also includes hemp and CBD-related products and additional products focusing on health and lifestyle. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release are forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "potential," "continue" or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties, and there are important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Investors are encouraged to review the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Investors should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects the Company's current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. The contents of any website referenced herein are not incorporated into this press release. SOURCE Golden Developing Solutions, Inc. Related Links https://www.cbdinfusionz.com KEY BISCAYNE, Fla., March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- IMMUSE, the most advanced peptide immune support supplement, announced today the launch of its newly redesigned website at www.immuse.com. The completely revamped website features a streamlined and simplified design, improved functionality and enriched content to help anyone looking to achieve optimal health and overall well-being through a preventative and curative daily essential. IMMUSE New Website Home Page "We are thrilled to debut our new website that will enable both first-time visitors and members of our wellness community better understand the numerous health benefits of IMMUSE," said Founder and President Fabrizio Acquaviva. "This website redesign is another way that we at IMMUSE are committed to providing an essential immune supplement designed to serve as the foundation for a well-balanced, healthy lifestyle while also creating the best user experience for our wellness community. With our new website, we will also be able to better serve our global community and give back to those who do not have the same access to traditional medicine through our Take One Give One outreach program." The new website was created by 561 Media, a digital marketing firm located in Boca Raton, FL. Both companies are excited about the opportunity to work together and make IMMUSE accessible to the community in order to promote health and prevent disease. To celebrate the launch of the new website, IMMUSE is offering a one month supply for $20.00 to all new subscribers. For every bottle purchased, IMMUSE will provide to families in third world countries like Haiti relief supplies such as clean water and organic meals. Visitors are encouraged to explore the new website and become members of their ever-growing wellness community by visiting the Shop Now page. About IMMUSE IMMUSE is a revolutionary daily essential made from the most natural source using peptides, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants to strengthen the immune system's response against harmful bacteria, viruses, and environmental toxins. Through their special extraction process, IMMUSE has managed to maintain 95% of protein integrity, creating the most powerful and concentrated peptide blend. IMMUSE is also dedicated to helping people who may not have access to preventative medicine and basic medical treatments with their Take One Give One outreach initiative. For more information, please visit www.immuse.com . Media Contact: Fabrizio Acquaviva 844-466-8731 [email protected] SOURCE IMMUSE Related Links http://www.immuse.com "I've led successful go-to-market strategies and sales teams, from startups to established firms for over 20 years," said Sherwood. "A large part of my success stems from using data to drive outcomes that are good for both our business and our customers. I am excited to lead the North Americas sales team for Centrica Business Solutions and deliver the insights and solutions our customers are looking for, while supporting Centrica's focus to shape a low carbon future." Prior to joining Centrica Business Solutions, Kate was senior director of grid modernization at 3M, where she led the introduction of new data-enhanced material science solutions into the global utility & critical infrastructure markets. Prior to 3M, Kate spent over a decade in the solar and energy storage industries, where she held leadership roles with Advanced Microgrid Solutions, SolarCity, Recurrent Energy, and SunPower. Prior to solar, she spent over a decade in finance, marketing, and strategy consulting with the U.S. Department of Justice, Sun Microsystems, and Accenture. "Kate is the type of leader Centrica Business Solutions needs. She has an impressive background of originating new business and leading high performing sales teams," said Stephen Prince, Head of Centrica Business Solutions North America. "Her passion for the profitable implementation of renewable energy and sustainability solutions for customers will play an integral role in supporting the North America growth agenda. I'm excited to welcome Kate to my management team." Kate holds an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a BS cum laude from George Mason University in Virginia. She resides in Austin, Texas with her entrepreneur spouse and sons. About Centrica Business Solutions Centrica Business Solutions is part of Centrica plc an international energy and services company dedicated to satisfying the changing needs of its customers. Centrica Business Solutions has been established to help customers gain competitive advantage from energy, building intelligent end-to-end energy solutions that power performance, and resilience. Through Centrica we also provide energy trading services, and supply energy through Direct Energy in North America, British Gas in the UK, and Bord Gais in Ireland. To learn more about Centrica Business Solutions, please visit www.centricabusinesssolutions.com. SOURCE Centrica Business Solutions Related Links http://www.centricabusinesssolutions.com Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 11) Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III said he would not sign the budget bill that will be sent to Malacanang for President Rodrigo Duterte's signature if the House of Representatives made changes after Congress approved its final version. Sotto told reporters Monday that lawmakers will violate the Constitution and the Revised Penal Code if they change anything in the bicameral conference committee report after its ratification by the Senate and the House. "'Pag nakita namin iba doon sa ni-ratify namin, eh hindi namin ita-transmit sa Presidente and I will tell the President, 'This is not what we passed,'" he said. [Translation: If we see that this is different from what we have ratified, then we won't transmit it to the President and I will tell the President, "This is not what we passed."] Camarines Sur 1st District Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., House appropriations committee chair, has said that both chambers of Congress itemized lump sum amounts in the 3.757-trillion budget for this year after its ratification. While Andaya insists there was nothing wrong with what lawmakers did, senators have said the changes were illegal and even unconstitutional. "After the bicam report is ratified by both chambers, hindi na pwedeng palitan ito [this cannot be changed,] because that would constitute unauthorized alterations of legislative records. You cannot change, even if you are the Speaker or Senate President, what was approved by the chambers," Senate Minority Franklin Drilon said. Drilon also belied Andaya's claim that they only were only itemizing lump sum items, saying they have received information that 62 lawmakers allied with former Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and former House Majority Leader Rodolfo Farinas got less or no funding for their districts from the 75 billion worth of realigned funds. Senators also denied they touched the budget after its ratification, with Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson saying Andaya should provide more details about this. Sotto added that the House should have itemized lump sum provisions in the budget during the bicameral conference committee meetings. Drilon said that if the House wants to push for supposed realignments, Congress could recall the ratification of the bicameral conference committee report on the budget and meet again in a bicameral conference committee. But House leaders said that if senators find portions of the budget to be irregular, they should allow it to be transmitted to Malacanang for Duterte to reject these provisions. Lacson, in particular, said congressmen might have violated the Constitution, which bars amendments to bills which have passed on final reading, and the 2013 Supreme Court ruling outlawing the Priority Development Assistance Fund and the intervention of lawmakers in the execution of the budget after it has been passed into law. However, Andaya told a media briefing on Monday said that since the budget bill has not been passed into law, the Supreme Court ruling does not apply. "I don't understand nga 'yung sinasabi ng ibang senador na you cannot do anything after the ratification. The Supreme Court decision states 'post-enactment,' meaning to say may batas na. Wala pa tayong batas na pinaguusapan ngayon," he said. [Translation: I don't understand what other senators are saying that you cannot do anything after the ratification. The Supreme Court decision states "post-enactment," meaning to say that there is already a law. There is still no law to speak of.] Andaya said that he and Senate Finance committee chair Loren Legarda met to agree that they will itemize lump sum amounts in the budget. Drilon earlier said that the Senate's amendments to the budget had already been itemized during the bicameral conference committee meetings. Andaya also presented the Senate's submission to the House of their itemized budget for the Public Works department to show that congressmen were not the only ones who continued work on the budget even after its ratification. Andaya's office also sent to House reporters a list of Senate staff who supposedly submitted the Senate's itemized provisions to the House during a meeting between the Senate staff and Andaya on February 11. The budget was ratified on February 8. "Mali po ang akala na dapat nandito (bicameral conference committee report) na po lahat ng detalye. Ito muna po 'yung lump sum, ito muna po 'yung pinirmahan ng lahat ng senador at congressmen," Andaya said. [Translation: It's a mistake to think that the bicameral conference committee report should contain all the details. In here is the lump sum, this is what all senators and congressmen sign first.] 'Equitable' allocations Andaya assured that even if allocations for some congressmen were changed, as alleged by some senators, the budget is the same bill approved in the bicameral conference committee and ratified by Congress. "You can only move within the bicam report and the parameters that you have. So it's only within those amounts that you agreed upon that you can move. So the detailing should be within those amounts," Andaya said. Lacson and Sotto said the district shares of some congressmen were reduced after the final budget bill was approved by Congress, supposedly upon the direction of Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Sotto said these alleged last-minute budget realignments total to around 79 billion. "Mayroong mga decrease at increase doon sa mga districts at may mga congressman mismo na tumatawag samin na nakarating sa kanila iyong nangyayaring iyon, sila ang nabawasan, nadagdag sa kung saan," he said. [Translation: There were decreases and increases in districts and some congressmen are calling us, telling us that they've gotten wind of that, that they were the ones who had allocations shaved off and added elsewhere.] Andaya said this was in keeping with Arroyo's directive to make budget allocations for all congressmen "equitable," making sure to offset allocations in districts which barely got funding in previous years due to their political affiliation. But he said the focus should not be on whose district got more funding, but on the fact that all districts got funding, unlike in previous House leaderships. READ: Arroyo assures no 'zero budget' for opposition solons "Siguro dapat sabihin na lang natin eh mabuti pala at nakita ng ating Speaker na marami pala o karamihan ng mga congressmen zero ang alokasyon sa kanilang mga distrito," Andaya said. [Translation: Maybe what we should say is that it's good that the Speaker saw that many or most of the congressmen got zero allocations for their districts.] Bad blood blocking budget? Should Sotto change his mind about not signing the budget bill for transmission to Duterte's desk, Andaya expects the 2019 budget to finally be passed in five days after being delayed by three months over allegations of irregularities. He added that the budget should not be held "hostage" just for amounts being questioned which represent only a fraction of the entire budget. "Pinaguusapan natin dito 'yung kapulisan, upgrading ng ospital, scholarship, agriculture Lahat ito maho-hostage mo for three percent of the budget?" Andaya said. [Translation: What we're talking about here are policemen, upgrading hospitals, scholarships, agriculture All of this will be hostaged for three percent of the budget?] Deputy Minority Leader Anthony Bravo suspects that Lacson is blocking the passage of the budget due to a personal grudge against Arroyo, who was president when he was tagged in the double murder of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito. "In my own analysis, the agenda is clear: He doesn't want the Speaker to be successful and her leadership as a Speaker," Bravo said in a media briefing on Monday. In response, Lacson said he is a forgiving person and has forgiven all those who wronged him. "This is not about [Arroyo] or any legislator. It is about my anti-pork crusade. More importantly, it is about the national budget," Lacson said. The government has been operating on a reenacted budget since January, which has impacted the implementation of some projects, including the rehabilitation of the MRT-3, the Metro Manila subway and the Philippine National Railway Tutuban-Malolos railway. Drilon warned that should the House and the Senate fail to meet halfway on the budget, the government stands to continue operating under a reenacted budget for the rest of the year which may impact the construction and improvement of hospitals and other health facilities. This story has been updated to include statements from Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon. CNN Philippines Correspondents Joyce Ilas and Xianne Arcangel contributed to this report. That's the amazing story of the Key Marco Cat a world famous enigmatic half cat/half human wooden carving created by the Calusa Indians or their ancient Muspa ancestors 500 to 1,500 years ago. The intriguing and remarkably well-preserved artifact has been described as one of the finest pieces of Pre-Columbian Native American art ever discovered in North America. For the first time in more than 100 years, the wandering feline is reunited on Marco Island with other rare artifacts discovered there in 1896 during a Smithsonian sponsored archaeological expedition led by archaeologist and anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing. This expedition produced some of the greatest discoveries in the history of North American archaeology. Because they were buried in an oxygen-free layer of muck, the rare wooden objects were astonishingly well preserved. Many began disintegrating upon exposure to the air. However, expedition artist Wells M. Sawyer recorded their original details and colors in field photographs and watercolors. Surviving artifacts and field recordings provide extraordinary insight into the lives of the Calusa Indians who dominated Florida's Southwest Coast and controlled South Florida by the time the Spanish arrived in the 16th Century. On loan from the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History and University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the artifacts can be viewed at the Marco Island Historical Museum in a dynamic exhibit now through April 3, 2021. In addition to the Key Marco Cat, the loaned artifacts include a ceremonial mask, alligator figurehead, painted human figure and sea turtle figurehead. The artifacts are showcased in the Marco Island Historical Museum's award-winning permanent exhibit Paradise Found: 6,000 Years of People on Marco Island. The exhibit features an immersive life-size Calusa village, more than 300 Pre-Columbian Native American artifacts from Marco Island and surrounding areas, activity stations, animations, and original artwork depicting the 1896 archaeological dig and lives and ceremonies of the Calusa. Since their discovery, the returning Key Marco artifacts have been preserved by the Smithsonian and University of Pennsylvania. Others are at the National Museum of the American Indian, Florida Museum of Natural History and British Museum. "This exhibit is the culmination of a 25-year vision to bring these incredibly important artifacts back to Marco Island in order to educate and inspire people of all ages about the fascinating history of our region," says Marco Island Historical Society Curator of Collections Austin Bell. "It has taken years of planning and discussions with the lending institutions and the continuation of a public-private partnership that includes the Marco Island Historical Society, Collier County and the community." Just six inches tall and carved from native hardwood, the Key Marco Cat has captured the public's imagination for over a century. "The Key Marco Cat from the Smithsonian collections is an extraordinary object that attests to the unique archaeological record of Key Marco and the people and cultures who lived there for millennia," notes Torben Rick, Chairman of the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. "Perishable artifacts, like the Key Marco Cat, are rare in the archaeological record. Its significance lies in the information it holds about the human past, cultural diversity, and the ways that these issues can inspire researchers and the public." Meg Kassabaum, assistant curator for North America at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology states that the objects from the Penn Museum demonstrate the remarkable preservation of the organic materials from Key Marco. "Usually these materials do not preserve on ancient sites, so the Key Marco materials show us what we're missing from most other archaeological contexts," she states. "These particular artifacts are prime examples of the complex iconography used by pre-Columbian Floridians and probably had deep ritual significance to the people who created them. In particular, the paint that remains on the wooden objects serves as an important reminder of the level of detail and skill attained by pre-contact Native artists and gives just a hint of how beautiful these pieces would have been when they were made. The fact that they have survived so long is truly incredible and provides a nearly unique window into the past," she concludes. The Marco Island Historical Museum is located at 180 S. Heathwood Drive, Marco Island, Florida, and open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free. Handicapped accessible. For information, call 239.389.6447 or visit www.theMIHS.org . The Key Marco Artifacts exhibit is a cooperative effort funded in part by Collier County Tourist Development Tax, www.paradisecoast.com. SOURCE Marco Island Historical Society The investment, which is being made through Lear Innovation Ventures (LIV), enables future collaboration and deepens Lear's involvement in the mobility technology ecosystem. Maniv Mobility's portfolio and investing activities are largely focused on Israeli start-up companies in the connected, autonomous, ridesharing and mobility sectors, as well as on investments in the U.S. and other markets. "Maniv is recognized as one of the premier investment funds focusing on the key trends in the automotive market, which makes it a great opportunity for LIV," said John Absmeier, Lear's Chief Technology Officer. "This is an exciting time of transformation for the industry, and Israel is at the forefront of the flourishing auto tech sector. We look forward to this strategic partnership and the innovations that will come from both start-ups and established companies that are driving the future of mobility." The partnership is not Lear's first mobility investment in Israel. In 2017, Lear acquired EXO Technologies, an Israeli developer of high accuracy vehicle positioning technology designed to meet the demands of the industry and drive change through increased accuracy, reliability and functional safety for ADAS and Autonomous driving applications. About Lear Corporation Lear Corporation Lear is one of the world's leading suppliers of automotive seating systems and electrical systems (E-Systems). Lear serves every major automaker in the world, and Lear content can be found on more than 400 vehicle nameplates. Lear's world-class products are designed, engineered and manufactured by a diverse team of approximately 169,000 employees located in 39 countries. Lear currently ranks #148 on the Fortune 500. Lear's headquarters are in Southfield, Michigan. Further information about Lear is available at lear.com or follow us on Twitter @LearCorporation. Lear is where passion drives possibilities. About Maniv Mobility Maniv Mobility is a leading venture capital fund dedicated exclusively to a new mobility future. Investing in early-stage startups, Maniv seeks out ideas around automotive connectivity and data, autonomous vehicle technologies such as sensors and software, and novel business models. With deep connections throughout the global automotive industry, policy and technology communities, Maniv leverages its network to provide hands-on support to its growing portfolio. For more information, visit www.maniv.com SOURCE Lear Corporation Related Links http://www.lear.com KELOWNA, BC, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - Liht Cannabis Corp. (CSE: LIHT) (OTCQX: LIHTF) or the "Company") today responds to the claim made against the Company by Veritas Pharma Inc. ("Veritas"). On March 4, 2019, Veritas Pharma Inc., filed a Notice of Claim against the Company for recovery of a loan of $1 million. October 13th, 2018, the terms of repayment of the loan were settled. Veritas by filing the Notice of Claim has reneged on the repayment terms. History Veritas had claimed that they were a discovery and development company, advancing the science behind medical marijuana. They brought together a highly accredited team of pharmacologists, anesthetists and chemists with substantial success in both academia and industry, specifically in drug development. They had a laboratory at the University of British Columbia (UBC) where they were applying a comprehensive scientific approach to medical marijuana claims. Veritas's mission has been to develop the most effective proprietary cannabis strains for specific disease conditions and to provide doctors and patients with conclusive science evidence to recommend and use medical marijuana with confidence. We believed in the Veritas business model and the beneficial synergy between our companies. As a result, in 2017, we provided capital to Veritas to execute their business plan by investing $1,350,000 CDN through two private placements. The Company acquired shares and share purchase warrants of Veritas for support and investment purposes and still retains significant securities of Veritas. The Company will be filing a response to the Notice of Claim filed by Veritas. "We had anticipated a mutual settlement agreement between us. We are extremely disappointed with the deterioration of the relationship between our companies. We share mutual values, ethics and research goals in this shared cannabis space. It would have been our preference to reach an agreement and to move forward amicably." Rahim Mohamed, CEO ABOUT LIHT CANNABIS CORP. www.lihtcannabis.com Liht Cannabis Corp. is a publicly traded company investing in the medical and recreational cannabis space, since 2014. Liht has rapidly expanded to include cultivation, production and dispensary locations in the key North American states of Washington, Nevada, and California, and are seeking expansion opportunities worldwide. SOCIAL MEDIA: twitter.com facebook.com STOCK EXCHANGES: Liht trades in Canada, ticker symbol LIHT on the CSE, in the United States, ticker symbol LIHTF on the OTCQX. Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider, nor the OTCQX has approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the CSE nor the OTCQX accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. MARIJUANA INDUSTRY INVOLVEMENT: Canadian listings (CSE) will remain in good standing as long as they provide the disclosure that is rightly required by regulators and complying with applicable licensing requirements and the regulatory framework enacted by the applicable state in which they operate. Liht owns marijuana licenses in California and Nevada. Marijuana is legal in each state however marijuana remains illegal under US federal law and the approach to enforcement of US federal law against marijuana is subject to change. Shareholders and investors need to be aware that adverse enforcement actions could affect their investments and that Liht's ability to access private and public capital could be affected and or could not be available to support continuing operations. Liht's business is conducted in a manner consistent with state law and is in compliance with licensing requirements. Copies of licenses are posted on Liht's website. Liht has internal compliance procedures in place and has compliance focused attorneys engaged in jurisdictions to monitor changes in laws for compliance with US federal and state law on an ongoing basis. These law firms inform any necessary changes to our policies and procedures for compliance in Canada and the US. FORWARD - LOOKING STATEMENTS: Certain statements in this release are forward-looking statements, which includes, the expected outcomes of its business, and other matters. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding looking wording such as "may", "expect", "estimate", "anticipate", "intend", "believe" and "continue" or the negative thereof or similar variations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not occur. Forward-looking statement are necessarily based upon a number of factors that, if untrue, could cause the actual results, performances or achievements of the Company to be materially different from future results, performances or achievements express or implied by such statements. These assumptions, risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the state of the economy in general and capital markets in particular, present and future business strategies, the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. While such estimates and assumptions are considered reasonable by the management of the Company, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive and regulatory uncertainties and risks. Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual events, level of activity, performance or results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: that laws and regulations may become more onerous; the ability of the Company to obtain necessary financing; the economy generally; the future growth, results of operations, performance and business prospectus and opportunities; changes in and the effect of government policies; demand for products; competition; anticipated and unanticipated costs; reliance on management; claims and legal proceedings; conflicts of interest; and market price and volatility of the Common Shares. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions, the loss of key directors, employees, advisors or consultants, technology failures, failure to obtain a license from Health Canada or from other government agencies, failure to develop new and innovative products, failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations and fees charged by service providers. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include, litigation, global economic climate, loss of key employees and consultants, additional funding requirements, changes in laws, competition, and failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and, accordingly are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty of such statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additionally, the Company undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of, or statements made by, third parties in respect of the matters discussed above. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed, nor approved the contents of this news release. SOURCE Liht Cannabis Corporation Related Links https://lihtcannabis.com/ BALLERUP, Denmark, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- LiqTech International, Inc. (NYSE AMERICAN: LIQT) ("LiqTech"), a clean technology company that manufactures and markets highly specialized filtration technologies, is pleased to announce the appointment of Peter Leifland to its Board of Directors, effective today. Mr. Leifland most recently served as Executive Vice President and member of Group Management of the Alfa Laval Group. Mr. Leifland served as President of the Alfa Laval Marine division during the years 2011-2018 and previously was legal counsel and held operational sales roles in many regions around the world between 1985 and 2011 for the Alfa Laval Group. Prior to joining the Alfa Laval Group, Mr. Leifland worked as a lawyer in Stockholm. Mr. Leifland served on the Board of Cision AB during the years 2005-2011, a publicly-traded company that specializes in communications management. Mr. Leifland holds a graduate degree from Brussels University in Belgium and a Bachelor of Law degree from Lund University in Sweden. Sune Mathiesen, CEO of LiqTech, commented, "Peter Leifland joins our board at an important time when LiqTech International is gaining significant market traction in the marine scrubber market and other new markets and applications for the company's silicon carbide membrane systems and filters. Peter brings meaningful relevant experience in our primary end market and in developing industrial engineering businesses. We are delighted to have Peter join the board and look forward to his contributions." About LiqTech International, Inc. LiqTech International, Inc., a Nevada corporation, is a clean technology company that for more than a decade has developed and provided state-of-the-art technologies for gas and liquid purification using ceramic silicon carbide filters, particularly highly specialized filters for the control of soot exhaust particles from diesel engines and for liquid filtration. Using nanotechnology, LiqTech develops products using proprietary silicon carbide technology. LiqTech's products are based on unique silicon carbide technology which facilitate new applications and improve existing technologies. LiqTech offers a wide range of filters and membranes for micro- and ultrafiltration, and by incorporating LiqTech's SiC liquid membrane technology with the Companys long-term systems design experience and capabilities, LiqTech offers solutions to the most difficult water pollution problems. For more information, please visit www.liqtech.com Follow LiqTech on Linkedln: http://www.linkedin.com/company/liqtech-international Follow LiqTech on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LiqTech Company Contact: Sune Mathiesen, Chief Executive Officer LiqTech International Phone: +45 5197 0908 [email protected] Investor Contact: Robert Blum Lytham Partners, LLC Phone: (602) 889-9700 [email protected] SOURCE LiqTech International, Inc. Related Links https://www.liqtech.com NEW YORK, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Global marketing and communications firm, Finn Partners, reported that its technology practice, now nearly 150 people around the world, has seen 13 percent revenue and 17 percent talent growth globally year-over-year. The team was also recognized as the third largest global technology firm by O'Dwyer's and, most recently, as Power PR Firm in Technology by the Observer. The impressive performance is attributed to the practice's new focus on creating experiences, whether it's a campaign to reach a client's audience or a unique way to engage with its own employees. Jodi Brooks, Managing Partner and Head of the Technology Practice at Finn Partners. Technology communications has long moved beyond speeds and feeds. The rise of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and the internet of things challenges brands to evolve the way they engage with customers, influencers and media, and rethink the type of experiences they offer across all touchpoints. "The new battleground in technology communications is how to win the emotional side of your target audience, while consistently telling the ROI story. This requires a different approach to communications. It's about creating memorable experiences that bring the benefits to life," said Jodi Brooks, managing partner and head of the technology practice at Finn Partners. This experience-based philosophy has enabled FINN's technology practice to win 49 clients globally in 2018, including BlackRidge Technology, a global provider of adaptive cyber defense solutions, Brother, a leader in document imaging solutions, DXC Technology, the world's leading independent, end-to-end IT services and solutions company, Financial Force, a customer-centric Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Professional Services Automation (PSA) cloud solution native to the Salesforce Platform, and Jabbrrbox, a solutions-based company innovating for the mobile workforce. Today, companies have high expectations from their agency partners. FINN's technology practice has not only grown in size, clients and revenue, but it has also evolved its client engagements, creating experiences that go beyond the standard agency-and-client relationship: The practice leveraged more than 15 years of experience navigating the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to host an event, convening more than 200 technology companies and influencers, with a keen focus on global corporate incubators. Logitech was able to stand out on the frenetic noise at CES by building striking murals in partnership with Phoenix -based artist and designer Timmy Ham and engaging the crowd to document their creativity. -based artist and designer and engaging the crowd to document their creativity. In Shanghai , at the Bauma China exhibition, a top trade show for the Asian construction machinery industry, the team executed a mobile programmatic advertising campaign for MTU, part of Rolls Royce, utilizing geofencing technology to drive both ad engagement and booth traffic. "Beyond client engagement, this experience-based approach has also evolved as our internal mantra. It's part of our culture. Essentially, we practice internally and what we preach to our clients," said Brooks. This means offering immersive experiences to our own employees: FINN's top performers participated in a three-day leadership summit in Hunter, New York , to connect with leaders across the agency and collectively develop a creative proposal for a dream technology client of their choice. , to connect with leaders across the agency and collectively develop a creative proposal for a dream technology client of their choice. Members of FINN's technology practice attended major industry and media events from WSJ's Future of Everything Festival to HIMSS and South by Southwest (SXSW), to meet industry influencers and witness firsthand the way technology is changing the future. The practice engaged in a marketing effort centered around key centers of excellence including 5G and cybersecurity, producing thought-leadership, contributing to the media conversation and generating leads. This experience-focused culture has resulted in double-digit talent growth including industry-recognized leaders like Thekla Eftychiadou, a 12-year technology veteran from Burson-Marsteller's technology practice. About Finn Partners, Inc. Founded in 2011 on the core principles of innovation and collaborative partnership, Finn Partners has quadrupled in size in seven years, becoming one of the fastest growing independent public relations agencies in the world. The full-service marketing and communications company's record setting pace is a result of organic growth and integrating new companies and new people into the Finn Partners world through a common philosophy. With almost 700 professionals, Finn Partners provides its clients with global access and capabilities in the U.S., Europe and Asia, in addition to PROI Worldwide. Headquartered in New York, Finn Partners' other offices are located in: Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Hong Kong, Fort Lauderdale, Frankfurt, Jerusalem, London, Los Angeles, Munich, Nashville, Paris, Portland, San Francisco, Singapore and Washington D.C. Find us at finnpartners.com and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @finnpartners. Contact: Finn Partners: Renee Martin, Partner [email protected] 646.307.6334 (New York) SOURCE Finn Partners Related Links http://www.finnpartners.com As the industry ushers in a new upsurge, NEX China will take place in Hall E4-E5 of Shanghai New International Expo Centre on June 18-20, 2019. The exhibition will be expanded to 20,000m 2 this year and gather over 600 Chinese and overseas quality suppliers, with the industry development opportunities and resource superiority of China in the animal and plant extract area. Also to comply with the latest trend of big health, the organizer will hold plenty of match making and visiting group events for Chinese and overseas buyers of dietary supplements on site, to help enterprises forge ahead at the forefront of big health and build the future together. Quality suppliers to be showcased, together with the leading-edge products and technologies Moving ahead with the Chinese natural extract industry for 10 years, NEX China keeps an eye on the industry dynamics, continues to enrich the scope of exhibit, and guides numerous natural extract companies towards the international stage, which is recognized by top companies of the industry. A large number of top companies of the industry will appear on the NEX China 2019 site, including Guilin Layn, Shaanxi Huike, Xi'an Yuensun, Acetar, Shaanxi Jiahe, Hunan Huacheng, Chenguang Biotech, Chongqing Joywin, Yuwang Pharmaceutical, and Angel Yeast. With their more diversified innovative products and technologies: the yeast beta-glucans extracted from yeast cell walls by Angel Yeast can significantly enhance immune activity, improve blood lipids and intestinal tract, and resist radiation, with the production and application technologies granted with many Chinese and overseas patents. The vegetarian soft capsule developed by Weihai Baihe is a capsule shell made from protein, and as the company has passed MUI Halal Certification, it can process the vegetarian soft capsules for pure oils, such as DHA algal oil capsules, flaxseed oil capsules and fish oil capsules. The phycocyanin extracted by Binmei Biotechnology from spirulina appears blue and has been recognized by the U.S. FDA, EU, and China's GB2760 food additive list as natural food coloring, and it is also a nutritious protein itself and can also serve as a raw material for medicines, health products and cosmetics and as biochemical reagent. The joining of these industry leaders further proves that NEX China has become the platform of choice for quality enterprises of the industry to display brands, booster trades and make information exchanges. Focusing on Healthy China and connecting the health food industry In the context of the Healthy China, NEX China, the weather vane of the natural extract industry, has led Chinese natural extract companies to successfully connect the nutrition and health food industry through its commerce and trade strength in the industry. Many hi-level match making and grouping events for nutrition and health product buyers will be held on the 2019 exhibition site, wherein, the host will hold 2019 Health Product Buyer Matching Meeting jointly with the HNC 2019, to achieve maximum resource integration, promote all-win, and jointly help the big health industry achieve development, and transformation and upgrading. Furthermore, the host will also invite overseas buyers for cooperation together with industry-leading overseas media, so as to better satisfy the demand of Chinese enterprises to develop overseas markets and expand international business. There have been nearly 100 buyers from the Europe and North America who have registered and will talk face-to-face with exhibitors on site. Enterprises will access a direct and convenient channel to display innovative products and core technologies on the international stage, thereby rapidly establishing cooperation. Alongside the matchmaking events, the China-US Pharmacopeia Forum hosted by the Chinese Pharmacopoeia Commission (ChP) and United States Pharmacopeia Convention (USP) and organized by the China Chamber of Commerce for Import & Export of Medicines & Health Products (CCCMHPIE) will take place in China for the first time during the period of NEX China. The Forum will focus on the quality safety of natural plant products, provisions on heavy metal and pesticide residue, along with plant product international standards and trade regulations, and plans to invite experts from ChP, USP and officials from the National Medical Products Administration of China and the U.S. FDA to jointly discuss the development scenario for the plant extract and health industries. The host will also launch China-World Natural Ingredient Conference 2019, to gather authoritative experts from the Chinese and overseas governments, focus on customs code classification, international market trend, and global regulation changes relating to extracts, feel the pulse for industry development, and guide the development for enterprises. The topics of the Conference will include principles for customs classification of plant extracts, analysis of hot sale overseas varieties, influences of the U.S. FSVP on the export of the Chinese plant extracts, information sharing of innovative plant extract products, and overview of the export of plant extracts in the first half of 2019, etc. The exhibition host: CCCMHPIE, an authoritative certification body for quality plant extracts in the industry, will also continue to introduce quality plant extract suppliers and quality products and launch awards of the innovative plant extract products of the year in China for the first time, to promote Chinese plant extract enterprises to build brand competitiveness. The certified exhibitors and products will be centrally displayed during the exhibition. Want to talk face to face with the industry giants, obtain the exclusive industry analysis report, and see the latest products and technologies? Register now to save RMB100 ticket fee. Visit the exhibition website www.cphi-china.cn/nex/en now to join the annual event of the natural extract industry! SOURCE Shanghai UBM Sinoexpo SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- While most students in the United States begin college at the age of eighteen, or shortly after graduating high school, the course for students in Israel varies due to their national obligation to serve in the Israeli military. For men, the minimum is three years and for women, it's two years. To many parents in the US and other western countries, this seems like a harsh reality. In this side of the world, college is traditionally associated with parties, alcohol, and independence from your parents. In Israel, it's a very different story. However, in light of a recent interview with Nir Yahav, a Stanford business school graduate and former Israeli naval officer, more parents may find themselves encouraging their children to join the military, if only for the advanced training in the many hot fields that are booming in Silicon Valley. Nir Yahav was an Israeli naval officer for six and a half years, where he received the Top Admiral Award for best operations and weapons officer. This got him promoted to Deputy Commander after only three months, instead of the standard twelve months that it takes other officers. Not long after leaving the navy, Yahav began working at Intel, which eventually lead to his position at the Israel Electric Corporation as the Head of Business Development. There, he was part of an award-winning team that collaborated with Cisco and other European companies to build the first-ever fiber optics technology infrastructure across the entire country. This billion dollar project took years to develop but is expected to bring in over sixty million dollars in annual revenue in less than five years. The success of this massive undertaking earned him and his team the Bonus of Excellence Award from the Government Companies Authority Head, one of the most prestigious and rare awards to be given to an individual. Yahav now works as the New Growth Program Manager at Applied Materials, a fairly broad position in a very forward-thinking Silicon Valley company. In a recent interview, he revealed that his military background armed him with a wealth of knowledge and many transferable skills that helped him with his high-flying career. He cites leadership skills, having a goal-oriented mindset, and being direct as three key factors in this, all of which he learned in the Israeli navy. Yahav's story may provide inspiration for other Israeli students seeking to follow in his footsteps and find their own lucrative career path. About Applied Materials Applied Materials is the leader in materials engineering solutions used to produce virtually every new chip and advanced display in the world. Press Contact: Nir Yahav +1-408-563-5300 [email protected] SOURCE Nir Yahav Related Links http://www.appliedmaterials.com AKRON, Ohio, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its ongoing efforts to protect nesting birds, the Pennsylvania Power Company (Penn Power) has proactively installed new fiberglass crossarms on nearly two dozen utility poles along the Route 18 causeway over the Shenango River Lake in Mercer County. The work will help prevent electrical service disruptions by discouraging ospreys from nesting on utility poles. Crossarms are mounted on the top of a utility pole to hold up power lines or other equipment. Penn Power line workers replaced 21 wooden, double crossarms with a new, single fiberglass crossarm. Unlike a double crossarm, the single crossarm design does not entice an osprey because it is not large or stable enough to hold the nest, which can measure up to three feet in width. "Ospreys typically arrive in Pennsylvania in late March and return to the same nesting sites from the year before," said Amy Ruszala, an environmental scientist and avian expert at Penn Power's parent company, FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE). "It was important to not only remove unoccupied osprey nests that were situated on our utility poles, but also take action to prevent the birds from making new nests on our equipment this spring." The Penn Power service area has experienced a spike in the osprey population over the past five years, but the company's previous attempts to deter them from nesting on utility poles along the causeway have been unsuccessful. Ospreys prefer to nest near large bodies of water in a large, bulky pile of sticks, put together on the top of a tall tree, a rocky ledge or utility pole crossarms. A nesting platform was installed by Penn Power near the lake to discourage them from nesting on utility poles, but the birds were not receptive to the structure. "These nesting habits often place the birds near electrical equipment, which jeopardizes their well-being and can potentially cause power outages," said Ruszala, who worked closely with Penn Power utility personnel and engineers last fall to identify pole nesting sites that would benefit from a single crossarm design. Electricity to the distribution line that spans the Route 18 causeway had been rerouted to another line since June to protect the nesting birds and prevent hazardous situations like pole fires. With the new fiberglass crossarms providing a more permanent solution to the osprey nesting issue, the line has been reenergized and customers in the area are benefiting from a more reliable, resilient system. While the birds were south for the winter, utility personnel also worked closely with FirstEnergy's environmentalists and state wildlife officials to remove nests from substations and transmission towers. Ospreys are a month away from their peak breeding season and will lay their eggs between April and July. Penn Power is a subsidiary of FirstEnergy and serves more than 160,000 customers in all or parts of Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Crawford, Lawrence, and Mercer counties in western Pennsylvania. Follow Penn Power on Twitter @Penn_Power, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PennPower, and online at www.pennpower.com. FirstEnergy is dedicated to safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies form one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, serving customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. The company's transmission subsidiaries operate more than 24,500 miles of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Follow FirstEnergy online at www.firstenergycorp.com and on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp. Editor's Note: Photos of Penn Power's new upgrades to protect nesting birds are available for download on Flickr. SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp. Related Links http://www.firstenergycorp.com HERNDON, Va., March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Privia, the industry-leading Business Capture and Proposal Management software and services solution to the government contractor market, is pleased to announce its Platinum Sponsorship of the 22nd Annual Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) Southern Proposal Accents Conference (SPAC) in Atlanta, Georgia, March 20 - 21, 2019. The Privia team will be on site discussing how real-time collaboration is helping proposal teams save time, reduce costs, and improve quality. The 1.5 day event, co-hosted by the Georgia Chattahoochee, Carolinas, and Florida Sunshine APMP chapters, brings together regional proposal and business development professionals to share lessons learned and hone their business-critical skills. The theme, "Proposal MagicIt's Not Smoke and Mirrors" will focus the conversation around real-world private and public sector know-how on everything from proposal process and change management to writing and communications. "At Privia, we know from experience that winning proposal management takes collaboration," said Mr. Jay McConville, Privia CEO, "because the more efficiently your team collaborates, the more time you save to invest in the quality that increases your win rate and helps you grow." Proposal team collaboration improves more than just efficiency; it also increases organizational visibility and accountability, something executives struggle with when time is scarce and resources are limited. By bringing teams together real-time, anytime, anywhere, experts come to consensus on strategy and reviews faster. The result helps deliver the winning quality that executives demand from their limited resources. Privia also supports better reporting key to forecasting resource demands for future opportunity pursuits. "As an APMP member and SPAC Platinum sponsor," continued Mr. McConville, "we are looking forward to sharing how proposal team collaboration with Privia helps teams focus on strategy and writing, rather than on process, to yield winning results." Learn why a record number of businesses chose Privia for proposal collaboration in 2018. Read CIO Review's Top 20 Most Promising Workflow Solution Providers today. Learn more about Privia and request a demo today. About Privia Privia is the "Proposal Company" known by its 10,000+ users for providing the software and services needed by today's government contractor market to bid and win government contracts. Industry-leading organizations including IBM Watson, Huntington Ingalls Industries, CGI, Noridian Health and Sotera Defense, use Privia to collaborate, manage and build winning proposals every day. Privia software streamlines their capture and proposal management process from opportunity, workflow automation, and content reuse to real-time reviews, contract management and business intelligence while expert services ensure teams are working as efficiently and effectively as possible throughout the process. At Privia, we are business developers and proposal managers, technologists and innovators. We want you to win. We're here to help you save time, reduce costs and increase proposal quality. Media Contact: Cheryl Smith [email protected] 703-539-0248 www.privia.com SOURCE Privia Related Links http://www.privia.com During the American Advertising Federation of Jackson, Mississippi's 2019 ADDY Awards ceremony, the company earned a Gold Award, the organization's highest honor, for the publication of the Sanderson Farms Corporate Responsibility Report, an annual report detailing the company's corporate responsibility efforts and annual sustainability progress. Sanderson Farms also received a Silver Award from the federation for the publication of an internal annual report detailing the Corporate Communication Department's efforts on behalf of the company. For the practice of public relations, the Corporate Communication Department was recognized with three awards by the Pine Belt Chapter of the Public Relations Association of Mississippi's 2019 SPARK Awards. During the SPARK Awards ceremony, Sanderson Farms brought home one of only two SPARK Awards issued by the chapter in 2019 for the publication of an internal annual report. In addition, the company earned two Awards of Excellence for the publication of the Sanderson Farms Corporate Responsibility Report and the launch of new corporate social media pages. Since the Corporate Communication Department's inception in 2015, Sanderson Farms has expanded corporate and employee communication efforts for its more than 15,000 employees, garnering the poultry producer more than 30 public relations and advertising accolades across the local, state, regional and international levels of competition. Members of the company's Corporate Communication Department include Ashley Rea, manager of communication; Lorin Pugh, graphic designer; Marissa Landon, communication specialist; and Emily Pickering, communication specialist. "These awards are the fruits of the labor of many employees at Sanderson Farms, and I am thankful to have been a part of the creative process," said Rea. "It has been a privilege to have the opportunity to create platforms which showcase the effort our employees dedicate each day to making Sanderson Farms successful and promoting our company's inherent sense of corporate responsibility by helping to conserve natural resources and give back to our local communities." To view the most recent editions of Sanderson Farms' award-winning publications, visit www.sandersonfarms.com/corporate/. You can also stay in touch with the nation's third largest poultry producer by following "Sanderson Farms Corporate" on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Sanderson Farms, Inc., founded in 1947, is engaged in the production, processing, marketing and distribution of fresh and frozen chicken and other prepared food items. Employing more than 15,000 employees in operations spanning five states and 17 different cities, Sanderson Farms is the third largest poultry producer in the United States. As a company, Sanderson Farms is committed to adopting a fresh approach in everything that they do. Not only where products are concerned, but companywide as well. Though the company has grown in size, it still adheres to the same hometown values of honesty, integrity and innovation that were established when the Sanderson family founded the company back in 1947. SOURCE Sanderson Farms Related Links http://www.sandersonfarms.com LINCOLN, Neb., March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Sandhills Publishing will host more than 100 dealers, auctioneers, rental and leasing companies, and other sellers in the agriculture, construction, commercial trucking, and aviation industries at a dealer forum event in Chicago, Illinois, on March 21st. In addition to roundtable discussions and seminars, attendees will have the opportunity to participate in one-on-one consultations focused on individual strategies for long-term sales growth. Sandhillsthe Nebraska-based tech company behind such brands as Machinery Trader, CraneTrader, TractorHouse, Truck Paper, AuctionTime, RentalYard, and morehas held annual and semi-annual forums attracting attendees from across the country and around the world for nearly two decades. The Chicago forum will kick off with one-on-one consultations with industry experts covering key areas including asset valuation software; retail, wholesale, and auction marketplace solutions; global wholesale parts networks; and digital marketing efforts including high-value SEO and SEM strategy. The forum follows with seminars, roundtable discussions, and demonstrations that focus on key industry challenges and opportunities. Topics include insights on new and engaging ways to sell, the latest asset valuation and market assessment technology, best practices for remarketing new and used assets through multiple sales and marketing channels, and ways to streamline financing, payment processing, shipping, and other logistics. Forums also provide dealers with networking opportunities and information about the user-friendly, industry-specific products from Sandhills. "To reach and communicate with today's buyers, equipment sellers need technology that's easy to implement and built specifically for their industry," explains Sandhills' Chief Administration Officer Nancy Paasch. "Our forums are designed to educate sellers and provide actionable steps and resources that help them overcome obstacles and capitalize on key market opportunities through simple yet powerful technology that eliminates pain points and revenue drains, all while improving efficiencies and streamlining internal operations." Register for the upcoming dealer forum through your Sandhills sales rep, or by contacting Sandhills directly. About Sandhills Publishing Sandhills Publishing is an information processing company headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska. Our products and services gather, process, and distribute information in the form of trade publications, websites, and online services that connect buyers and sellers across the trucking, agriculture, construction, heavy equipment, aviation, and technology industries. Our integrated, industry-specific approach to hosted technologies and services offers solutions that help businesses large and small operate efficiently and grow securely, cost-effectively, and successfully. Sandhills Publishingwe are the cloud. Contact Sandhills: www.Sandhills.com [email protected] (402) 479-2181 SOURCE Sandhills Publishing Company Additionally, 3 Boys intends to open its first two dispensaries in the State of Florida in April of 2019, with an additional six locations in development and expected to be fully operational by the end of the fiscal year. The eight initial dispensary locations are located in prime medical and retail corridors throughout Florida, including St. Petersburg, Fort Myers, Stuart, Port St. Lucie, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee, Tampa, and North Miami. The dispensaries will be unique in concept, providing a customized patient-centric experience including innovative educational tools highlighting tailored benefits of CBD and medical cannabis products. 3 Boys also intends to commence extraction and processing operations at its new GMP farm and laboratory facility in Indiantown, Florida by the last week of March 2019. The new facilities include 60,000 square feet of indoor space and 50,000 square feet of greenhouse. Cultivation at the new facility is expected to commence in the 4th quarter of 2019. This new branch will add onto the already robust production capacity of the 3 Boys network which currently harvests 350 pounds of premium-quality cannabis flower per month out of their Ruskin facilities. The Florida Department of Health's approval for the transfer of assets follows news that the Florida Senate has passed a bill that would legalize smokable cannabis flower in the state. If and when the legislation is signed into law, the market for premium cannabis flower products is expected to see explosive growth. Florida is emerging as one of the largest and fastest-growing medical cannabis markets in the U.S., with one of the highest patient-to-license ratios in America. Total annual market revenue of medical cannabis in Florida is expected to reach an estimated $2.5 billion by the year 2025. Additionally, Florida is considering legalizing recreational use of cannabis, a move that would result in estimated 2025 annual revenues of $5.5 billion. "3 Boys Farm is well-known for creating the best cannabis flower products in Florida and we couldn't be happier that they will join our other premiere cannabis assets under the SOL Global umbrella," said Brady Cobb, CEO of SOL Global. "3 Boys is led by a first-class cultivation team including Master Grower Chris Keller. The quality of production and the team's collective knowledge and passion for the cultivation process ensures a top-rate product. Once smokable flower is legalized, you would be hard pressed to find better flower in the state of Florida." With authorization to cultivate, process and dispense medical cannabis in accordance with Florida law, 3 Boys' operation consists of 40,000 square feet of fully-operational greenhouses located on an eight-acre parcel of land. The existing facilities include a two-acre odor mitigation space that is run 100% with harvested rainwater, solar pumps and repurposed high-volume chilled air from the cultivation greenhouses a true zero-carbon footprint. 3 Boys' innovations, including alternative energy use, greenhouse cooling designs, and rainwater harvesting, were recognized and honored by the Governor's Environmental Leadership Award. About SOL Global Investments Corp. SOL Global is an international investment company with a focus on, but not limited to, cannabis and cannabis related companies in legal U.S. states, the hemp and CBD marketplaces and the emerging European cannabis and hemp marketplaces. Its strategic investments and partnerships across cultivation, distribution and retail complement the company's R&D program with the University of Miami. It is this comprehensive approach that is positioning SOL Global as a future frontrunner in the United States' medical cannabis industry. Cautionary Statements This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature may constitute forward-looking information. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by words or phrases such as "may", "will", "expect", "likely", "should", "would", "plan", "anticipate", "intend", "potential", "proposed", "estimate", "believe" or the negative of these terms, or other similar words, expressions and grammatical variations thereof, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" happen, or by discussions of strategy. Some of the forward-looking information contained in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to: the Company's proposed acquisition of CannCure; 3 Boys' strategic plans; and the Company's expectations regarding the Florida medical cannabis market. Forward-looking information is based upon certain material assumptions that were applied in drawing a conclusion or making a forecast or projection, including management's perceptions of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other considerations that are believed to be appropriate in the circumstances. While we consider these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to management, there is no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. By their nature, forward-looking information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. A variety of factors, including known and unknown risks, many of which are beyond our control, could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information in this press release. Such factors include, but are not limited to: the Company's ability to comply with all applicable governmental regulations in a highly regulated business; investing in target companies or projects which have limited or no operating history and are engaged in activities currently considered illegal under US federal laws; changes in laws; limited operating history; reliance on management; requirements for additional financing; competition; inconsistent public opinion and perception regarding the medical-use and adult-use marijuana industry; and regulatory or political change. Additional risk factors can also be found in the Company's current MD&A and annual information form, both of which have been filed on SEDAR and can be accessed at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned to consider these and other factors, uncertainties and potential events carefully and not to put undue reliance on forward-looking information. The forward-looking information contained herein is made as of the date of this press release and is based on the beliefs, estimates, expectations and opinions of management on the date such forward-looking information is made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, estimates or opinions, future events or results or otherwise or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking information, except as required by applicable law. The securities referred to in this news release have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended ("U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons absent such registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act. This news release does not constitute an offer for sale of securities for sale, nor a solicitation for offers to buy any securities. SOURCE SOL Global Investments Corp. DUBLIN, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The "The Top Supermarket Chains in Ethiopia" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. This report provides the most up to date analysis of the leading supermarket chains in Ethiopia. It analyses proprietary research on the emerging supermarket sector with data on the key players, challenges for operators and brand owners, and includes forecasts on the future development. Reasons to Buy Identify the market leaders in the Ethiopian supermarket sector. Quantify the number of stores, floorspace and position of the top supermarket chains. Understand how each retailer positions itself and targets consumers. Assess the balance between domestic and foreign players in the retailer landscape. Understand how top supermarket chains compete against one another. Assess the size of the supermarket sector and its growth. Analyse the market opportunity and future outlook for supermarket retailers in Ethiopia . . Gain important insights on future developments for the sector in Ethiopia . Major Issues Ethiopia , with 8%+ GDP growth and a young, burgeoning population, is one of the hottest markets in Africa for brand owners. , with 8%+ GDP growth and a young, burgeoning population, is one of the hottest markets in for brand owners. But 2018 has been a challenging year for supermarket chains in Ethiopia , with little to no network growth and ongoing bureaucratic challenges and costs. , with little to no network growth and ongoing bureaucratic challenges and costs. A major issue is investor concern about government intervention and the pace of liberalisation of the wider food sector, which is structurally geared towards traditional channels. There are no major international supermarket chains in Ethiopia - we analyse why and when they might enter. Key Questions Answered Who are the leading supermarket chains in Ethiopia ? ? What share of the grocery retail floorspace do they take? Which supermarket chains are expanding? How do leading chains compare against one another? What is the national penetration of the leading supermarket chains? Which market segments does each chain operate in? Who are the future winners and losers? Key Topics Covered: 1. Supermarkets In Ethiopia 2. The Top Supermarket Chains In Ethiopia 3. Supermarket Store Networks 4. Modern Grocery Retail Floorspace 5. Positioning Of Leading Supermarket Chains 6. Supermarket Chains In And Outside Addis Ababa 7. Key Findings And Future Outlook Companies Mentioned Fantu Safeway Shoa For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/bzqvjs/the_top?w=5 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com Highly regarded office real estate specialist becomes Principal, will help expand firm's consultation and tenant-representation practice in Philadelphia and Wilmington PHILADELPHIA, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - David Fahey, Avison Young Principal and Managing Director of the company's Philadelphia office, announced today that highly regarded office real estate specialist Wayne Hunt has joined the firm in Philadelphia. Effective immediately, Hunt becomes a Principal of Avison Young and will help expand the firm's consultation and tenant-representation practice in Philadelphia and Wilmington. He will continue to provide consultation and tenant-representation services to office users in those areas while emphasizing needs assessment, expense alignment, corporate efficiency and strategic planning. "We are very excited to have Wayne join the Avison Young team in Philadelphia," comments Fahey. "Adding an experienced professional with a consultative approach to servicing clients makes for a perfect fit. Wayne is a multifaceted executive with many years of progressive institutional experience in commercial real estate as both a manager and practitioner. Avison Young will benefit from his deep local knowledge of Philadelphia and Wilmington and the strong client relationships that he has developed during his career." Hunt brings 42 years of commercial real estate experience to Avison Young, most recently as a member of Tactix Real Estate Advisors in Philadelphia. His experience includes asset management, agency leasing, value-add/asset repositioning, development, acquisitions and dispositions, and tenant advisory services. He has participated in the structuring and negotiation of 11 million square feet of leases, $525 million of sales/exchanges/repositionings and $200 million of development projects. Hunt began his commercial real estate career in Chicago, first as an asset manager with Henry Crown and Company and then as the Operations Manager for the Chicago Board of Trade. Since his relocation to Philadelphia, he has served as the regional president of The Galbreath Company, a senior vice-president and regional manager for Jones Lang LaSalle, and an executive-director at Cushman & Wakefield. Before entering the commercial real estate industry, Hunt completed four years of active worldwide duty with the United States Air Force, which bestowed him with a commendation medal. Hunt's past and current clients include: MetLife, GE Capital, DuPont Capital, Textron, Christiana Care, Independence Blue Cross, Saul Ewing, Turner Construction Company, Cargill, DLA Piper and HSBC. "I am delighted to join the Philadelphia office of Avison Young, an extremely professional and well-managed international real estate firm," says Hunt. "Over the past five years, the profound local and international growth of Avison Young has been a testament to its innovative approaches and dedication to client service. The firm's Principal-led ownership structure and service-delivery model ensure devotion to client needs, and add immeasurably to the attractiveness of the brand." In the community, Hunt is active as a Lower Merion Township ward committeeman, past-president of the Haverford Civic Association, member of the mayor's private sector task force, past men's committee chair of the Devon Horse Show, Philadelphia Antiques Show volunteer and Radnor Races race committee participant. He holds a Master of Business Administration in international finance from Babson College and a Bachelor of Science in finance from the University of Massachusetts. Avison Young is the world's fastest-growing commercial real estate services firm. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Avison Young is a collaborative, global firm owned and operated by its Principals. Founded in 1978, with legacies dating back more than 200 years, the company comprises approximately 5,000 real estate professionals in 120 offices in 20 countries. The firm's experts provide value-added, client-centric investment sales, leasing, advisory, management and financing services to clients across the office, retail, industrial, multi-family and hospitality sectors. For further information/comment/photos: Sherry Quan , Principal, Global Director of Communications & Media Relations, Avison Young: 604.647.5098; cell: 604.726.0959 , Principal, Global Director of Communications & Media Relations, Avison Young: cell: David Fahey , Principal and Managing Director, Philadelphia , Avison Young: 610.276.1081 , Principal and Managing Director, , Avison Young: Wayne Hunt , Principal, Avison Young: 610.276.3145 , Principal, Avison Young: Earl Webb , President, U.S. Operations, Avison Young: 312.957.7610 , President, U.S. Operations, Avison Young: Mark Rose , Chair and CEO, Avison Young: 416.673.4028 www.avisonyoung.com Avison Young is a 2019 winner of the Canada's Best Managed Companies Platinum Club designation, having retained its Best Managed designation for eight consecutive years. Follow Avison Young on Twitter: For industry news, press releases and market reports: www.twitter.com/avisonyoung For Avison Young listings and deals: www.twitter.com/AYListingsDeals Follow Avison Young Bloggers: http://blog.avisonyoung.com Follow Avison Young on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/avison-young-commercial-real-estate Follow Avison Young on YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/AvisonYoungRE Follow Avison Young on Instagram: www.instagram.com/avison_young_global Editors/Reporters Please click on link to view and download photo of Wayne Hunt : https://www.avisonyoung.com/documents/20342/2631393/WayneHunt.jpg SOURCE Avison Young Related Links www.avisonyoung.com MADISON, Wis., March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- In December 2018, the Wisconsin EMS Medical Director's office approved the use of LifeVac by EMS rescue squads. Fennimore Rescue Squad will be the first EMS service in Wisconsin to carry LifeVac on its ambulances. LifeVac "This is a major milestone for LifeVac," said Arthur Lih, Founder and CEO of LifeVac. "We could not have done this without the support of the Bruegmann family, who tragically lost their son, Camynn, from choking on a rubber ball in 2016. We are grateful to Courtney and Matt for their dedication to the LifeVac mission of saving lives," Lih continued. Nathan Flynn, Fenimore Fire Chief, received (5) five LifeVacs donated by the Bruegmann family. "My EMT's were all for it but there is protocol that needs to be followed and it can be a long process," Flynn said. "We went through the proper channels and it was ultimately approved. It is very exciting to part of something that can be a game changer in life saving." As of March 2019, LifeVac has (20) twenty documented saves using the device. About LifeVac - LifeVac is a non-powered, non-invasive, (ACD) airway clearance device developed for resuscitating a victim with an airway obstruction. Save a life! www.lifevac.net Media Contact: Mike Plunkett 877-LIFEVAC (549-9822) [email protected] SOURCE LifeVac Related Links http://www.lifevac.net The inaugural Aurora Forum to be held in Armenia, October 14-21, 2019, will bring together thought-leaders and change-makers from Armenia and across the world to facilitate discussions, share knowledge, and experience educational and cultural activities in the sectors spanning from health to technology to education to arts to ecology to humanitarianism. The Aurora Forum is made possible with the cooperation of various organizations in Armenia and globally. "We are proud to have established a network of people who have made real impact on the world in their particular field," said Vartan Gregorian, Aurora Forum Co-Founder. "The role of the Goodwill Ambassadors is crucial in making the Aurora Forum a platform to inspire the next generation to take the leap toward achieving meaningful, sometimes disruptive, change." The 2019 Aurora Forum coincides with a special moment in Armenia's history. Last year's non-violent transition of political power put Armenia in a global spotlight by demonstrating how a nation with an educated workforce and commitment to peaceful means can push for a national change. Armenia's "Velvet Revolution," combined with its location at the crossroads between East and West and its rich cultural heritage led to The Economist's designation of Armeniaone of the world's smallest countries in landmass and populationas the Country of the Year in 2018. The Aurora Forum will harness this momentum to highlight the possibilities of social change and the solutions that can be developed by combining national and international efforts and resources to advance humanity. "There is no greater time to convene and celebrate the disruptors, the thinkers and the innovators in Armenia and across the world," said Armen Orujyan, the CEO of the Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology (FAST). "We truly believe the expertise and professional achievements of the Goodwill Ambassadors will help make the Forum a success and position Armenia as a hub for scientific, technological and socio-economic development in the region. Aurora Forum will serve as the epicenter of creativeness and innovation assembling some of the greatest thought-leaders and luminaries in science and technology from all over the globe." "The Aurora Forum is based on our belief that we are all citizens of the world. If we aspire to tackle the world's most pressing challenges, education is key building block for doing so," said Gabriel Abad Fernandez, Head of UWC Dilijan. "As an educator, I am excited to be part of this endeavor dedicated to making lasting advances in the humanitarian, educational, social, cultural and scientific spheres and I am particularly thankful to the Goodwill Ambassadors from around the world who have already joined to make this initiative a success." The Goodwill Ambassadors are being announced on March 10, 2019, marking the 4th anniversary of the founding of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative - the founder of the Aurora Forum along with IDeA Foundation, FAST, Scholae Mundi Global Educational Platform, UWC Dilijan International College, and Ameriabank. The October 2019 Aurora Forum's events in Armenia will consist of various activities presented by each of these organizations. For more information about the Aurora Forum Goodwill Ambassadors, please click here. Contact: Michael Kelly, [email protected], +44(0)7772178030 SOURCE Aurora Forum Related Links https://auroraprize.com/en/ DENVER, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- 361 Capital, a leading boutique asset manager, today announced that its 361 Global Managed Futures Strategy Fund (AGFZX) has won a Refinitiv (formerly Thomson Reuters) 2019 Lipper Fund Award for delivering historically strong risk-adjusted returns over a three-year time period in the Alternative Managed Futures Funds category. The fund, which seeks portfolio diversification with low correlation to global markets using a unique counter-trend approach that attempts to profit from short-term price extremes, also received a Lipper award during last year's ceremony.* Learn more about the fund: https://361capital.com/financial-advisor/all-products/361-global-managed-futures-strategy-fund/?utm_source=pressrelease&utm_medium=prnw&utm_campaign=lipperaward "We are delighted and honored that Lipper has again recognized the strong, consistent performance of the 361 Global Managed Futures Strategy Fund," said John Riddle, CFA, chief investment officer. "Our fund recently passed the five-year mark, and we are proud of the results our investment team has achieved during that time for our clients." The fund has achieved the following as of Dec. 31, 2018: 5-Star Overall Morningstar Rating TM based on risk-adjusted returns. The 361 Global Managed Futures Strategy Fund Class I shares were rated among 95 Managed Futures Funds. based on risk-adjusted returns. The 361 Global Managed Futures Strategy Fund Class I shares were rated among 95 Managed Futures Funds. 4 th percentile in the Morningstar Managed Futures Category based on total return for the three-year period ranking 4 out of 95 funds (as of Feb. 28, 2019 , the fund ranked in the 1 st percentile for the annualized three-year period, ranking 1 out of 96 funds in the category)** based on total return for the three-year period ranking 4 out of 95 funds (as of , the fund ranked in the 1 percentile for the annualized three-year period, ranking 1 out of 96 funds in the category)** Returned 2.66% (vs. 0.61% for the Managed Futures category) with a 0.24 correlation to the category, and a 0.29 correlation to global equities, as measured by the MSCI World Index (vs. 0.61% for the Managed Futures category) with a 0.24 correlation to the category, and a 0.29 correlation to global equities, as measured by the MSCI World Index Generated 1.19% in alpha (vs. -0.56% for the Managed Futures category) The fund is managed by Aditya Bhave; Jason Leupold, CAIA; Blaine Rollins, CFA; and John Riddle, CFA. The Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards are granted to funds and fund management firms in 20 countries worldwide for their consistently strong risk-adjusted three-, five-, and 10-year performance relative to their peers, based on Lipper's proprietary performance-based methodology. The awards were announced March 7 in New York at the Mandarin Oriental. About 361 Capital 361 Capital is a leading boutique asset manager. Founded in 2001, the firm offers a suite of actively managed alternative and behavioral-based equity strategies that seek to deliver meaningful alpha, manage risk and offer diversification potential to investor portfolios. 361 Capital is majority employee-owned with strategic investments from Lovell Minnick Partners, a private equity firm and Lighthouse Investment Partners. For more information, call 866-361-1720 or visit 361capital.com. About the Refinitiv (formerly Thomson Reuters) Lipper Fund Awards For more than three decades and in over 20 countries worldwide, the Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards have honored funds and fund management firms that have excelled in providing consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. % Total Returns as of 12/31/2018 4Q18 1 Year 3 Year Since Inception (2/12/2014) AGFZX Class I -2.13% -4.43% 4.64% 2.66% FTSE 3-Month T-Bill Index 0.57% 1.86% 0.99% 0.62% Morningstar Managed Futures Category -3.64% -6.04% -2.42% 0.61% Returns shown over one year are annualized. Returns include the reinvestment of dividends and income. Past returns shown do not guarantee future results. Current performance may be lower or higher. Call 888-736-1227 for the latest month-end returns. Return and principal value will fluctuate so that shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than original cost. Annual Expense Ratio: Gross: 1.70%*** /Net Expense Ratio after recoupment: 1.77% The Net with Limitation expense ratio is 1.74% for Class I. Gross expense ratio includes dividend and interest expense on short sales, acquired fund fees and expenses. ***The Advisor has contractually agreed to waive certain fees and/or pay expenses to limit expenses to 1.74% as a percent of the average daily net assets until Feb. 29, 2020. Reflects a reimbursement from the fund. Subject to certain limitations, the adviser is permitted to seek reimbursement from the fund for a period ending three full fiscal years after the date of the waiver or payment. You should consider the Fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. For a prospectus, or summary prospectus, that contains this and other information about the Funds, call 1-888-736-1227. Please read the prospectus or summary prospectus carefully before investing. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. Futures prices can be very volatile. The small margin required for futures contracts magnifies the effect of market volatility and allows the loss from a contract potentially to exceed the Fund's initial investment. With short contracts, the loss is theoretically unlimited since the appreciation of the underlying asset also is theoretically unlimited. Foreign investment entails additional risk from adverse changes in currency exchange rates, tax regulation, and potential market instability. Frequent trading by the Fund may reduce returns and increase the number of taxable transactions. Concentration of its portfolio in relatively few issuers may make the Fund more volatile than a diversified fund. * About the 2018 Thomson Reuters Lipper Fund Award The 361 Global Managed Futures Strategy Fund, Class I shares, received a Thomson Reuters Lipper Fund Award for the three-year time period among 82 funds in the Alternative Managed Futures Funds category. Lipper Awards are granted annually to the funds in each Lipper classification that achieve the highest score for Consistent Return, a measure of funds' historical risk-adjusted returns, measured in local currency, relative to peers. Winners are selected using the Lipper Leader rating for Consistent Return for funds with at least 36 months of performance history as of 11/30/17. About the Refinitiv 2019 Lipper Fund Award The 361 Global Managed Futures Strategy Fund, Class I shares, received a Refinitiv 2019 Lipper Fund Award for the three-year time period among 84 funds in the Alternative Managed Futures Funds category. Lipper Awards are granted annually to the funds in each Lipper classification that achieve the highest score for Consistent Return, a measure of funds' historical risk-adjusted returns, measured in local currency, relative to peers. Winners are selected using the Lipper Leader rating for Consistent Return for funds with at least 36 months of performance history as of 12/31/18. Awards are presented for the highest Lipper Leader for Consistent Return within each eligible classification over 3, 5 or 10 years. Other share classes may have different performance and expense characteristics. Although Lipper makes reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data contained herein, the accuracy is not guaranteed by Lipper. Lipper awards are not intended to predict future results. Past performance does not guarantee future results. About the Morningstar Rating *The 361 Global Managed Futures Strategy Fund's Overall Morningstar Rating is derived from a weighted average of the fund's three-, five- and 10-year risk-adjusted returns as of 12/31/2018. For the 3-year period, the Fund was rated 5 stars out of 96 funds in the Morningstar Managed Futures Category as of 12/31/2018. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Ratings reflect fee waivers in effect; in their absence, ratings may have been lower. The Morningstar Rating for funds, or "star rating", is calculated for managed products (including mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life subaccounts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and separate accounts) with at least a three-year history. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product's monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are: 100% three-year rating for 36-59 months of total returns, 60% five-year rating/40% three-year rating for 60-119 months of total returns, and 50% 10-year rating/30% five-year rating/20% three-year rating for 120 or more months of total returns. While the 10-year overall star rating formula seems to give the most weight to the 10-year period, the most recent three-year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all three rating periods. 2019 Morningstar. All rights reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete, or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. **For the one-year period ending December 31, 2018, the Fund ranked in the 36th percentile ranking 39 out of 117 funds in the Morningstar Managed Futures Category. For the one-year period ending Feb. 28, 2019, the Fund ranked in the 17th percentile ranking 15 out of 115 funds in the category. Statistics data is from 3/1/2014 to 12/31/2018, representing the Fund's first full month of operation. The Fund's inception date is 2/12/2014. Statistics calculated using monthly return data relative to the MSCI World Index. Correlation is a statistical measure of how two securities perform relative to each other. Alpha measures the difference between a fund's actual and expected returns, based on beta, and is generally used as a measure of a manager's added value over a passive strategy. The 361 Funds are distributed by IMST Distributors, LLC. Margaret Kirch Cohen Partner CL-Media Relations, LLC [email protected] (m) + 1 847-507-2229 @mkirchcohen http://cl-media.com/about.html SOURCE 361 Capital Related Links https://361capital.com ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill., March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. today announced the acquisition of Shelton, Connecticut-based Merit Insurance, Inc. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in 1950, Merit Insurance is a retail property/casualty broker and employee benefits consultant offering a broad range of coverages and services to clients across the Northeast from offices in Shelton and Bridgeport, Connecticut. Areas of focus include contractors, public entities, real estate developers, nonprofits and high-net-worth clients. Sean Carroll, James Benson and their associates will continue to operate from their current locations under the direction of Patrick Kennedy, head of Gallagher's Northeast region retail property/casualty brokerage operations, and Tom Belmont, Jr., head of Gallagher's Northeast Atlantic employee benefits consulting and brokerage operations. "Merit Insurance is a highly regarded, socially responsible firm that enhances our presence in Fairfield County and brings us complementary strengths in a number of areas," said J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr., Chairman, President and CEO. "I am delighted to welcome Sean, Jim and their associates to Gallagher." Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG), a global insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services firm, is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. The company has operations in 35 countries and offers client service capabilities in more than 150 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants. Investors: Ray Iardella Media: Linda J. Collins VP Investor Relations VP Corporate Communications 630-285-3661/ [email protected] 630-285-4009/ [email protected] SOURCE Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. "Dave brings a wealth of East Coast market multifamily operations experience to Avenue5, and we believe that he is well positioned to provide an additional layer of support to our teams as they continue to build value for assets located in the Mid-Atlantic region," confirmed Steve Davis, chief operating officer at Avenue5. "His expertise will be critical in delivering operational excellence and long-term performance for our assets under management." Ohlrich began his real estate career in 1987, and has overseen multifamily assets in markets across the East Coast. He holds extensive expertise in leading operations and capital investment projects for diverse multifamily asset types, ensuring that properties' revenue milestones are achieved through effective operational strategies, restructuring property management processes to address operational gaps and improve efficiencies, instituting accountability programs to assess performance, managing due diligence for acquisitions, generating detailed business plans and financial models, and implementing improved risk management, insurance, and supplier relations processes. Prior to joining Avenue5, Ohlrich served in executive roles at organizations including Kettler, Federal Capital Partners, NVR, and Equity Residential. He holds bachelor's degrees in engineering and architecture from the University of Michigan, and a master of business administration degree from the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business. For Avenue5 chief executive officer Walt Smith, Ohlrich's new role will prove invaluable as the company plans the further expansion of its property management services for institutional investors, advisors, high-net-worth individuals, and other multifamily owners interested in opportunities on the East Coast. "Our client base has shown an increasing interest in maximizing their growth potential in markets ranging from Atlanta to Boston, and Dave has a proven track record in driving results in these geographic areas," stated Smith. "Under Dave's leadership, we look forward to leveraging the strength of our operations, marketing, and maintenance experts in order to support our clients' complex and rapidly changing needs." Ohlrich will be based in the Washington, DC area, and will report to Davis. About Avenue5 Residential Avenue5, a multifamily property management services firm, oversees more than 290 properties and 55,000 units in 12 states. The company is headquartered in Seattle, and has offices in Denver, Orange County, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Diego, Spokane, and greater Washington, DC. In addition, Avenue5 retains local experts in major markets including Northern California, Reno, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Colorado Springs, Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, and Baltimore. The firm employs about 1,500 associates nationwide. www.avenue5.com SOURCE Avenue5 Residential Related Links http://www.avenue5.com DALLAS and NEW YORK, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP (BAL) , the leading immigration law firm in the world, today announced it has selected UiPath, the leading enterprise Robotic Process Automation (RPA) platform, to continue its intelligent automation journey. Last year, BAL established its Automation & AI Development Center, which accelerates automation within the business processes that underlie immigration and global mobility. As the firm continues to evolve its use of automation, BAL will apply UiPath's RPA solution across departments to maximize overall business performance. This will allow BAL to leverage technology to perform certain repetitive manual tasks and allow BAL personnel more time to invest into the customer experience. As part of its strategic 2020 plan, the firm set out to identify a vendor that could partner with them and enhance their automation applications. After a rigorous research and evaluation process, BAL selected UiPath as their RPA vendor, namely for the company's unique capabilities in the area of human-bot interaction a criterion that BAL was particularly focused on to ensure easy onboarding and management of the solution amongst its employee base. The firm also collaborates with UiPath partner Accelirate, which plays a critical role in the procurement and training process, offering BAL guidance from experienced RPA practitioners. With the help of Accelirate, BAL identified several internal processes to automate with RPA, such as new employee onboarding, managing client requests and streamlining time-intensive administrative and clerical tasks. The firm is also deploying UiPath in conjunction with its Cobalt global immigration management platform, which includes the industry's first mobile immigration app and enhances operational excellence and security throughout the global mobility process. By leveraging RPA to help manage these processes, BAL seeks to alleviate the burden of repetitive tasks so both internal and client-facing teams are able to focus on higher value and more customer-focused interactions. This strengthens the underlying service relationship while also improving operational efficiency. "With UiPath, we are delivering cognitive capabilities that go well beyond basic RPA areas, such as swivel chair web automation, document processing and form assembly. By adding UiPath to our data, machine learning models and supercomputing power in our Cobalt digital platform, we are in a unique position to continue delivering client service like no other firm," said Vince DiMascio, CIO of BAL. "Partnering with UiPath's advanced capabilities maintains BAL's position as the technology and innovation leader and marks another first in the industry." "Delivering exceptional service and insight to our clients means investing in innovation and equipping our legal and operations teams with digital tools and the skills to use them. With UiPath, we increase velocity while creating capacity across our firm, enabling our people to focus on quality, strategy, and expert advice for our clients," said Edward Rios, a partner at BAL and the firm's Innovation Leader. "BAL is just the type of innovative organization we are eager to support, and we're thrilled they've adopted our technology to further that innovation," said Coenraad van der Poel, Head of the Americas at UiPath. "Our platform is meant to help companies focus on what they do best bringing supreme products to market and delighting customers and BAL is already doing just that. As the company continues to digitize its business, we expect their results with our solution will only get better." About UiPath UiPath is leading the "Automation First" era championing one robot for every person, delivering free and open training and collaboration and enabling robots to learn new skills through AI and machine learning. Led by a commitment to bring digital era skills to more than a million people, the company's enterprise Robotic Process Automation (RPA) platform has already automated millions of repetitive, mind-numbing tasks for business and government organizations all over the world, improving productivity, customer experience and employee job satisfaction. Recently named by Comparably as the 6th happiest place to work and the 11th best company culture among large businesses, UiPath has become one of the fastest growing enterprise software companies in history. The company is backed by over $400 million in funding from Accel, CapitalG, Credo Ventures, Earlybird's Digital East Fund, IVP, Kleiner Perkins, Madrona, Meritech, Seedcamp and Sequoia. About Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP BAL is one of the world's most recognized corporate immigration law firms, and is the Best Lawyers "Law Firm of the Year" in Immigration Law in America for 2019. The firm is singularly focused on meeting the immigration challenges of corporate clients around the world in ways that make immigration more strategic and enable clients to be more successful. Established in 1980, the firm provides immigration expertise, top-notch information security and leading technology innovation like its Cobalt digital immigration services platform. The firm entered into a strategic alliance with Deloitte UK to create the world's first global immigration service delivery model. BAL and its leaders are highly ranked in every major legal publication, including Best Lawyers, Chambers, The Legal 500, and Who's Who Legal. See website for details: www.balglobal.com. SOURCE Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP MIAMI, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Louis Hernandez Jr. of Black Dragon Capital, a growth-oriented private equity fund focused on technology investment opportunities in industries disrupted by digitization, today announced the acquisition of SRMS Technologies, a Pennsylvania-based provider of specialized managed services to financial institutions, and the subsequent merger with ASI Group, one of its portfolio companies and a leading cloud-based solutions provider for the financial services industry. The combined company, which will have headquarters in the United States, will continue its expansion in the Americas with nearly 150 clients evenly distributed between Latin America and the United States. "Market demands in the Americas have created an extraordinary opportunity for technology companies and we are poised to address it by leveraging ASI and SRMS' unique capabilities," said Hernandez, founder, managing director and CEO at Black Dragon Capital and an ASI Group board member. "Black Dragon Capital will continue investing to allow our portfolio companies to expand and grow while supporting them through our unique capabilities," Hernandez added. "ASI's products and services will be ideally complemented by SRMS' capabilities to produce a unique and differentiated value proposition that will benefit the financial services community in the Americas as they continue searching for the necessary technology required to maintain competitiveness and relevance," said Hernando Torres, president and CEO at ASI Group. The combined company aspires to grow rapidly by leveraging cross-selling opportunities that will naturally arise as new and unique solutions, including both companys products and services, will address specific unaddressed needs in the financial sector. "We know the financial sector requires new and creative solutions in many areas. By combining forces from two leaders, we will gain additional traction in the market while we continue defining new and unique strategies to help the financial institution achieve their goals," said Hernandez. SRMS provides solutions and managed services to 85 financial institutions throughout the United States and has rightfully earned customer respect and loyalty by consistently providing the highest quality products and services delivered by experienced and certified staff. ASI Group, with U.S. headquarters in Miami Beach, Fla. has operations in 14 countries, and has more than 80 clients with a total of $40 billion assets processed. The company's open solutions have helped financial institutions achieve higher customer satisfaction and increased profitability while ensuring strict compliance with regulations in multiple countries. The open-architecture microservices-based platform provides applications in enterprise core processing, omni-digital channels, collections, loan origination and analytics, all of which are offered on-premise as well as in the cloud through software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery models. Boilerplates Black Dragon and its Portfolio Black Dragon Capital is a private equity fund focused on growth investments, particularly in digital commerce, financial services and media technology. Black Dragon's team of industry professionals have significant operational experience, strong financial backgrounds, proven track records of success and investment experience, ranging from startups to billion-dollar organizations in both public and private vehicles. The company leverages its network expertise and deep domain knowledge to assist in accelerating growth and profits in selected markets all while working closely with entrepreneurs. Learn more at blackdragoncap.com. About ASI Group Founded in 1985, ASI Group is the most experienced company creating and implementing technological solutions for financial institutions in Latin America and the United States. For 33 years it has been an ally for the financial sector, dedicated to research, innovation and the use of technology to increase the profitability of its customers, and achieve the satisfaction of their consumers. Recognized for its competitiveness, ASI Group offers solutions for electronic banking, mobile banking, collections systems, business intelligence and regulation, international regulation, risk prevention, remittances, credit card core and an impressive core banking system, providing flexible solutions. Fulfilling its commitment to offer the highest quality standards in the service, ASI Group has continuously maintained the ISO 9001: 2008 Certification and the implementation of CMMI DEV best practices. For information, contact [email protected]. About SRMS Technologies SRMS Network Technologies is a national computer services provider headquartered in South Eastern Pennsylvania. Secure, Reliable, Managed, Solutions (SRMS) was founded in 1998 and has since become an industry leader in the area of information technology. SRMS is committed to customer service and our highly experienced and certified staff set us apart from the competition. "We are committed to excellence in every way, in our work ethic, in the products and services we provide, and in our relationships with clients, employees, and partners" serves as the foundation of a company that has grown to serve over 80 clients in the US. Media contact: Todd Aydelotte, 646-428-0644 Allison+Partners [email protected] SOURCE Black Dragon Capital Related Links http://www.blackdragoncap.com/ WASHINGTON, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- EDENS, a leading national retail real estate owner, operator and developer, announced that Blaze led by Jessica Holton is the winner of the 2019 EDENS Retail Challenge, an annual competition aimed to discover and launch the next generation of retail. Blaze was selected after an intensive competition, which evaluated some of the best and most innovative concepts from entrepreneurs and students across 29 universities nationwide including Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University. Jessica Holton of Stanford University's winning concept, Blaze, is reimagining skincare for today's consumer: what would skincare look like if we designed it from scratch, forgetting everything we know about the skincare industry, to be ridiculously intuitive? On a mission to make skincare intuitive and joyful for 'the rest of us,' Blaze is an innovative D2C brand introducing daily-dose skincare: a daily, tailored routine that fits in the palm of your hand. Because skincare is not just for 'beauty people' - we all deserve to feel confident in how we take care of ourselves and like we're part of the wellness club. Trailblaze on. The Retail Challenge culminated on Friday, March 8th with final presentations hosted at Angelika Theater in the Union Market District in Washington, D.C. During the competition, the finalists worked with business mentors and EDENS leadership for mentorship, concept innovation and business plan development and refinement. "EDENS purpose is to enrich community through human engagement. It is because of this that we have always celebrated entrepreneurship and innovation in the retail industry," said Jodie W. McLean, CEO of EDENS. "Our panel of judges and mentorship teams were inspired and energized by the level of excellence, passion and talent exhibited by all three finalists today. We are excited to see the next chapter of their innovation and growth. I commend Jessica Holton of Blaze on her incredible win." The final pitches were made to a panel of industry luminaries: Taryn Jones Laeben, Former SoulCycle COO Jenny Abramson, Founder & Managing Partner ReThink Impact David Hall, Partner Rise of the Rest Seed Fund Jodie W. McLean, CEO of EDENS Sponsor partners included CORE, Deloitte and COMO. The other finalists of the 2019 EDENS Retail Challenge were Tall Order and Vegetable + Butcher. Previous winners include Rhoback (2016), a high-end, activewear lifestyle brand; Follain (2013), a wholesome beauty store curated with health-focused products; and Artis (2013), coffee retail store and cafe introducing America's first live-roast experience. For more information please visit www.edensretailchallenge.com. ABOUT EDENS EDENS is a retail real estate owner, operator and developer of a nationally leading portfolio of 125 places. Our purpose is to enrich community through human engagement. We know that when people come together, they feel a part of something bigger than themselves and prosperity follows economically, socially, culturally and soulfully. EDENS has 250 employees across offices in key markets including Washington, D.C., Boston, Dallas, Columbia, Atlanta, Miami, Charlotte, Houston and Denver. For additional information about the company and its retail real estate portfolio, visit www.edens.com or follow @WeAreEDENS. SOURCE EDENS Related Links http://www.edens.com NEW YORK, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Upon completion of the leadership succession process that Deloitte US undertakes every four years, Joseph Ucuzoglu has been elected chief executive officer and Janet Foutty has been elected chair of the board, effective June 2, 2019. Ucuzoglu and Foutty will succeed current Deloitte US CEO Cathy Engelbert and Chairman Mike Fucci at the conclusion of their four-year terms. "Joe's distinguished record of serving our clients and driving transformative, technology-driven change positions him to lead our firm as clients, the capital markets, and society at large turn to Deloitte to navigate the opportunities brought on by the fourth industrial revolution," said Fucci. "Janet's extensive leadership experience across multiple dimensions of our businesses, combined with her deep understanding of technology and innovation, the workforce of the future, and her commitment to inclusion have earned her a broad followership internally and externally. I am confident that Joe and Janet possess the right mix of leadership experience, strengths, and skills to lead our firm over the next four years." Engelbert remarked, "I have enjoyed working closely with Joe and Janet over many years, and I know the strong foundation of the firm driven by our commitment to innovation, delivering services of the highest quality, and our diverse and inclusive culture will continue to thrive under their leadership. It has been my privilege to serve as Deloitte's CEO for the past four years." Fucci added, "I would like to offer my gratitude to Cathy, a recognized leader in the business community who has led Deloitte US during her term to record growth while making significant investments in innovation and supporting our people's professional lives and career journeys with a series of groundbreaking initiatives." Joe Ucuzoglu Ucuzoglu currently serves as the Chair and CEO of Deloitte & Touche LLP, where he has overseen all aspects of the transformation of our Audit & Assurance practice over the past four years, delivering profession-leading innovation and quality and preparing Deloitte's talent for a digitally driven future. "I am truly honored and humbled by this opportunity my partners have given me to lead Deloitte," said Ucuzoglu. "Our multidisciplinary platform positions us uniquely to lead our diverse stakeholders through a period of disruptive change and capitalize on the rapid pace of innovation. It is imperative that, as a business community, we project a positive vision of the many benefits that a technology-driven future will have across our society. We are deeply committed to delivering differentiated value and making a positive impact on our clients, our people and our communities." Ucuzoglu remains actively engaged in serving several of Deloitte's largest clients across multiple sectors and serves on Deloitte Global's board of directors. He sits on a number of external boards including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and speaks frequently on a broad range of current issues facing the business community such as the evolving regulatory landscape and the role that businesses must play in leading society through the rapid pace of change that the world is experiencing. Previously, Ucuzoglu served as senior adviser to the chief accountant at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), advising on complex accounting, auditing and public policy matters, and interacting frequently with other governmental agencies and Congress. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California (USC), a certified public accountant, and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Janet Foutty Foutty is currently the Chair and CEO of Deloitte Consulting LLP where she oversees a large workforce focused on helping Fortune 500 companies and government agencies translate complex issues into opportunity. She also serves on Deloitte Global's board of directors. Previously, Foutty led Deloitte's federal government practice and the Deloitte Consulting technology practice. She also held leadership roles serving Deloitte clients that span the retail, technology, government, energy and financial services industries. Janet has led continuous learning efforts, recognizing the critical importance of ongoing accessibility to skills development and training, especially in the technology domain, and has been active in building our growing footprint of ecosystem alliances. Foutty is an author and public speaker about the changing business landscape, the C-suite of tomorrow, inclusion, tech disruption and leadership. She is also a passionate advocate for women in technology and the need for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. Foutty holds a Bachelor of Science from Indiana University and a Master of Business Administration in finance from the university's Kelley School of Business. She currently serves on the boards for Bright Pink, a nonprofit dedicated to women's health, and NYU Stern's Tech MBA program. Janet is also an inductee of the Kelley School of Business Academy of Alumni Fellows. "Leading the Deloitte board is a privilege and I'm grateful for the confidence our partners have placed in me," said Foutty. "I am committed to ensuring effective, transparent governance while at the same time providing collaborative strategic guidance to Joe and his management team as we strive to further differentiate the value we deliver to the marketplace and fulfill our public interest responsibilities." Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms. SOURCE Deloitte Related Links http://www.deloitte.com/us NEW YORK, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- As the 50th anniversary (July 20) of historic Apollo 11 lunar landing fast approaches, The Explorers Club's 115th Annual Dinner will host all remaining Apollo astronauts and engineers who made the once unimaginable moon-landing a reality. The Apollo team will join over 1,500 of the world's greatest explorers, scientists and researchers at the annual dinner, taking place at Marriott Marquis on Times Square, New York, on Saturday, March 16, 2019. The list of celebrated NASA alumni includes: Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins , Apollo 11 Astronaut , Apollo 11 Astronaut Walt Cunningham , Apollo 7 Astronaut , Apollo 7 Astronaut Charlie Duke , Apollo 16 Astronaut , Apollo 16 Astronaut Fred Haise , Apollo 13 Engineer , Apollo 13 Engineer Harrison Schmitt , Apollo 17 Astronaut , Apollo 17 Astronaut Rusty Schweickart , Apollo 9 Astronaut , Apollo 9 Astronaut Tom Stafford , Apollo 10 Astronaut , Apollo 10 Astronaut Al Worden , Apollo 15 Astronaut "We are honored to have these heroes of space exploration join us at the Dinner," said Richard Wiese, President of The Explorers Club. "These astronauts and scientists have left a lasting impression on our community and the world, and continue to inspire the next generation of explorers." The audience at dinner will also include Shuttle astronauts (and Explorers Club members) including Kathryn Sullivan (first American woman to walk in space), Mike Massimino, Dave Williams, and Terry Virts, among many others associated with both publicly- and privately-funded space travel. These space pioneers will be honored with this year's Explorers Club Awardees a group of inspirational researchers and explorers who, like the Apollo astronauts, have dedicated their careers and lives to advancing the understanding in their own respective fields. This includes: Kenneth Lacovara , Ph.D. who has unearthed some of the largest dinosaurs in existence, including the super-massive Dreadnoughtus, will be awarded this year's Explorers Club Medal. The Dean of the School of Earth & Environment at Rowan University has blended exploration in remote locations with advance imaging and modeling techniques to understand these prehistoric creatures. , Ph.D. who has unearthed some of the largest dinosaurs in existence, including the super-massive Dreadnoughtus, will be awarded this year's Explorers Club Medal. The Dean of the School of Earth & Environment at has blended exploration in remote locations with advance imaging and modeling techniques to understand these prehistoric creatures. Michael Eliot Barth will receive this year's Citation of Merit for his leadership of the Roy Chapman Andrews (RCA) Centennial Expedition to the Gobi Desert. His team is credited as being the first to apply specific NASA imaging and mapping technologies to the work of paleontological fossil prospecting. Also being honored by The Explorers Club: Dr. James B. McClintock winner of the Finn Ronne Memorial Award for his research on marine invertebrate and the impacts of climate change and acidification on these species, and Milbry C. Polk winner of the Sweeney Medal for her commitment to women in science and discovery as Executive Director of Wings WorldQuest, The New Explorer Award will be given to Ian R. Mangiardi a Wilderness-EMT who founded The Dusty Camel, a non-profit organization that consults on expedition planning at all levels. The Explorers Club was founded in New York City in 1904. It is a multidisciplinary, not for profit (501c-3) organization dedicated to scientific exploration of the oceans; land; the air; and space by supporting research and education in the physical, natural and biological sciences. The Club's members have been responsible for an illustrious series of famous firsts: first to the North Pole, first to the South Pole, first to the summit of Mount Everest, first to the deepest point in the ocean, and first to the surface of the moon. With over 3,000 members worldwide, the organization has its headquarters at 46 East 70th Street, New York, N.Y. 10021. Tel. (212) 628-8383; www.explorers.org. SOURCE The Explorers Club Related Links https://www.explorers.org LOS ANGELES, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Fulfillment Fund, a leading college access and success nonprofit in Los Angeles, announced Allysunn Walker-Williams, MBA, MPH, as the organization's new Chief Executive Officer after an extensive nationwide search. Walker-Williams comes to the Fulfillment Fund after five years as the President and CEO of the California Council on Economic Education (CCEE) where she led a statewide consortium of seven Centers for Economic Education and dozens of partnerships which promote education and financial literacy among PK-16 teachers, students, and parents. While sharing her enthusiasm, Walker-Williams said, "I am humbled and honored to have been chosen to lead this incredible organization with its 40 years of solid results and enduring mission. I look forward to working with the board, staff and our partners to chart a course for the next 40 years of growth and continued impact. At this time in this nation's history, a college education is essential to ensuring that our kids are prepared to take advantage of opportunities and be competitive in a global economy. The Fulfillment Fund's mentors and services help kids with not only college access, but college persistence and college completion. Their mission is aligned with my own personal mission, and is, indeed, my personal story." A bridge-builder and effective communicator with a visionary voice, Allysunn has been an advocate for under-resourced and under-invested communities throughout her career. Prior to CCEE, Allysunn was CEO and Founder of the Walker-Williams Group, Inc., a management consulting firm specializing in community economic development and market-driven, innovative strategies for community restoration. Her full bio and extensive experience can be read in the attached PDF. About the Fulfillment Fund Fulfillment Fund's mission to make college a reality for young people growing up in educationally and economically under-resourced communities. This year Fulfillment Fund will serve nearly 3,000 first-generation and lower-income middle and high school students through a unique combination of innovative programs including classroom-based instruction, one-on-one college and financial aid counseling, individual and group mentoring, digital learning courses, scholarship opportunities, experiential learning groups, college field trips, and more. At every grade level, students build critical stepping stones on their road to high school graduation, college access, and ultimately, college success. For more information about Fulfillment Fund's impact please read our annual report available at: http://bit.ly/FFARFY18 Media Contact: Rachel Lichtman Communications Director, Fulfillment Fund 323-900-8713 [email protected] SOURCE Fulfillment Fund NEW YORK, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Driver Monitoring System Market By Vehicle Type (Passenger Car & Commercial Vehicle), By Monitoring Type, By Offering Type, By Component, By Region, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2017 - 2024 Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05750991 Global driver monitoring system market is projected to grow from $ 718 million in 2018 to around $ 1.5 billion by 2024, exhibiting a CAGR of over 13% during the forecast period. Anticipated growth in the market can be attributed to rising need to curb road accident fatalities, technological advancements in the automotive industry and increasing awareness about safe driving. Government of several countries are implementing rules and regulations, which are aimed at bringing down fatalities and increasing on-road safety of commuters as safe driving, pedestrian safety and driving comfort are the major concerns for both automakers and users. Growing sales of luxury cars across the globe are further expected to aid global driver monitoring system market, as these cars are equipped with various advanced driver assistance systems, like driver monitoring systems. Years considered for this report: Historical Years: 2017 Base Year: 2018 Estimated Year: 2019 Forecast Period: 2020-2024 Objective of the Study: To analyze and forecast global driver monitoring system market. To classify and forecast global driver monitoring system market based on vehicle type, monitoring type, offering type, component and region. To scrutinize the detailed market segmentation and forecast the market size by segmenting global driver monitoring system market into vehicle type: passenger car and commercial vehicles. To scrutinize the detailed market segmentation and forecast the market size by segmenting global driver monitoring system market into monitoring type: driver fatigue monitoring, drunk driving monitoring, driver alertness/distraction monitoring, identity recognition and others. To scrutinize the detailed market segmentation and forecast the market size by segmenting global driver monitoring system market into offering type: hardware and software. To scrutinize the detailed market segmentation and forecast the market size by segmenting global driver monitoring system market into component: pressure mats, steering angle sensors, strain gauges, infrared sensors and others. To scrutinize the detailed market segmentation and forecast the market size by segmenting global driver monitoring system market into regions: Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa, South America and North America. To identify drivers, challenges and trends in global driver monitoring system market. To identify and analyze the profile of leading players operating in global driver monitoring system market. Some of the major players operating in global driver monitoring system market are Continental AG, DENSO Corporation, Valeo S.A., Robert Bosch GmbH, Delphi Automotive PLC, Autoliv Inc., Visteon Corporation, Jabil Inc., Veoneer Inc., Seeing Machines, etc. To perform the study, TechSci Research conducted primary as well as exhaustive secondary research.Initially, TechSci Research prepared an exhaustive list of driver monitoring system manufacturers and distributors operating globally. Subsequently, TechSci Research conducted primary research surveys, which included primary calls, email responses, etc., with the identified companies. While interviewing, the respondents were also asked about their major competitors. Through this technique, TechSci Research could include manufacturers which could not be identified due to the limitations of secondary research. TechSci Research analyzed product offerings, distribution channels, and regional presence of all major driver monitoring system companies across the globe. TechSci Research calculated global driver monitoring system market size using a bottom-up technique, wherein volume sales data for different product type (passenger car and commercial vehicle) were recorded as well as forecast for the future years.TechSci Research sourced these values from industry experts and company representatives, and externally validated through analyzing historical data of respective companies to arrive at the overall market size. Multiple secondary sources such as directories and databases such as OICA, World Bank, company websites, company annual reports, white papers, investor presentations and financial reports were also studied by TechSci Research. Key Target Audience: Driver monitoring system manufacturers and distribution companies End users of driver monitoring systems Associations, organizations, forums and alliances related to driver monitoring system industry Government bodies such as regulating authorities and policymakers Market research and consulting firms The study is useful in providing answers to several critical questions that are important for industry stakeholders such as driver monitoring system manufacturers, dealers, customers and policymakers. The study would also help them to target the growing segments over the coming years, thereby aiding the stakeholders in taking investment decisions and facilitating their expansion. Report Scope: In this report, global driver monitoring system market has been segmented into following categories, in addition to the industry trends which have also been detailed below: Market, by Vehicle Type: o Passenger Car o Commercial Vehicle Market, by Monitoring Type o Driver Fatigue Monitoring o Drunk Driving Monitoring o Driver Alertness/Distraction Monitoring o Identity Recognition o Others Market, by Offering Type: o Hardware o Software Market, by Component o Pressure Mats o Infrared Sensors o Strain Gauges o Steering Angle Sensors o Others Market, by Region: o Asia-Pacific China India Japan South Korea Singapore Australia Malaysia o North America United States Canada Mexico o South America Brazil Argentina Colombia o Europe France Germany United Kingdom Italy Spain o Middle East & Africa South Africa Saudi Arabia UAE Qatar Competitive Landscape : Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies operating in global driver monitoring system market. Available Customizations: With the given market data, TechSci Research offers customizations according to a company's specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report: Company Information Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players (up to five). Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05750991 About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links http://www.reportlinker.com DUBLIN, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The "IR (Infrared) Camera Market - Growth, Trends, and Forecast (2019 - 2024)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The IR camera market was valued at USD 5.63 billion in 2018, and it is expected to reach a value of USD 9.15 billion by 2024, at a CAGR of 8.3% over the forecast period (2019-2024). With increasing demand for advance driver assistance systems (ADAS) in future and investments in autonomous cars, IR cameras are expected to witness a significant adoption in vehicles. The demand for surveillance has increased across various applications, such as military and defense, energy, and commercial spaces (such as banks) etc. With energy usage becoming a crucial part of the global strategy to manage natural resources, solar energy is gaining prominence. As solar power is becoming increasingly popular and solar panels are a costly and vulnerable commodity, good security is a must. IR imaging has shown to be a better tool for the quantitative measurement of temperature than single spot infrared thermometers. However, these cameras can encounter errors in acquiring accurate temperature measurements in the presence of other environmental heat sources. Asia-Pacific offers potential growth opportunities due to the rise in technology penetration, high defense spending, and presence of a large number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Key Market Trends LWIR and MWIR is Expected to Have Significant Growth LWIR and MWIR are the most used wavelengths of IR camera for security and surveillance applications. However, there are certain applications where LWIR is more efficient than MWIR, including objects of detection that span a very wide temperature range requiring intra-scene imaging of both hot and cold objects. In harsh environments, where MWIR may not perform well in imaging through smoke or aerosols, LWIR is usually the chosen technology. These mainly include the firefighting and military applications. Also, for most of the surveillance situations (man or vehicle to be detected within ambient temperature background), there is more flux (thermal energy emitted by the targets and by the environmental background), which is not efficiently contained by the MWIR due to the lack of band availability. Such applications have also witnessed the increased adoption of LWIR. Asia-Pacific Region is Expected to Have Highest Growth In China, IR cameras are witnessing an increased adoption in armed forces, owing to their day-night working capability and their ability to perform well in all weather conditions. For instance, the government of China offers huge military budgets for the incorporation of modern technology, owing to reforms by the Chinese communist party. One of the world's largest makers of drones, Chinese DJI, has partnered up with FLIR Systems, to bring infrared cameras to DJI's drones. DJI is providing drones attached with thermal imaging cameras, which were used by coast guards, and are now also available at lower costs to the public for recreational purposes. Furthermore, Southern China plays a significant role in the Chinese IR camera industry, as it acts as an access to the international technological and market hub Hong Kong. This makes it easier for players in Shenzhen to purchase IR LEDs, a key component in IR cameras, which give them an edge over their competitors in Northern and Eastern China. Competitive Landscape The IR camera market is highly competitive with a large number of players in the market. Some of the major players in the IR camera market are, FLIR Systems Inc. and Opga. Some of the key recent developments in the IR camera market are as follows: FLIR Systems launched a high-resolution thermal vision automotive development kit that features high-performance FLIR Boson thermal camera for automakers, tier-one automotive parts suppliers, and innovators of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). The new FLIR ADK enables developers to add an affordable, long-range thermal camera to their ADAS development vehicles, primarily to help advance reliability and redundancy required for self-driving cars in January 2018 . . Raytheon Company secured a potential five-year logistics contract from the US Navy, which is worth SD 59.7 million, to support the infrared thermal imaging systems for V-22 and CH-53 aircraft. Topics Covered 1 Introduction 1.1 Study Deliverables 1.2 Study Assumptions 1.3 Scope of the Study 2 Research Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Market Dynamics 4.1 Market Overview 4.2 Introduction to Market Drivers and Restraints 4.3 Market Drivers 4.3.1 Rising Demand for Surveillance Across Various Verticals 4.3.2 Gradually Decreasing Costs of Thermal Cameras 4.3.3 Rapid Development of High Performance Infrared Cameras 4.4 Market Restraints 4.4.1 Lack of Accuracy in IR Camera Functionality 4.5 Value Chain Analysis 4.6 Industry Attractiveness - Porter's Five Forces Analysis 5 Market Segmentation 5.1 By Detector 5.1.1 Cooled 5.1.2 Uncooled 5.2 By Material 5.2.1 Germanium 5.2.2 Silicon 5.2.3 Sapphire 5.2.4 Other Materials 5.3 By Type 5.3.1 Short-wavelength IR 5.3.2 Medium-wavelength IR 5.3.3 Long-wavelength IR 5.4 By End-user Vertical 5.4.1 Military and Defense 5.4.2 Automotive 5.4.3 Industrial 5.4.4 Commercial 5.4.5 Residential 5.4.6 Other End-user Verticals 5.5 Geography 5.5.1 North America 5.5.2 Europe 5.5.3 Asia-Pacific 5.5.4 Rest of the World 6 Competitive Landscape 6.1 Company Profiles 6.1.1 Flir Systems Inc. 6.1.2 SPI Corporation 6.1.3 Opgal Optronics Industries Ltd. 6.1.4 Raytheon Company 6.1.5 Seek Thermal Inc. 6.1.6 Fluke Corporation 6.1.7 Testo AG 6.1.8 HGH Infrared Systems 6.1.9 Teledyne Dalsa Inc. 6.1.10 DRS Technologies Inc. 6.1.11 Optris Infrared Sensing LLC 6.1.12 Xenics N.V. 7 Investment Analysis 8 Market Opportunities and Future Trends For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/rs836s/global_ir?w=5 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com NEW YORK, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Powered Agriculture Equipment Market Anticipated to Reach $151.19 billion by 2023, BIS Research Report Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05753452 The global agricultural industry has witnessed a massive transformation owing to the increasing demand for efficient powered agriculture equipment.Rising world population and the subsequent rise in global food demand along with the shrinkage of agricultural workforce have resulted in growing concerns to enhance farm yield and increase the demand for farm mechanization across the world. With the rapid implementation of powered agriculture equipment, farmers are able to enhance productivity by increasing inputs and efficiently manage their farm enterprises.The advent of innovative equipment has resulted in reduced energy consumption and overall cost-effective operations owing to their more precise and resource-efficient approach. As a result, the powered agriculture equipment industry is anticipated to progress due to the ever-growing affinity for more convenient and smart farming solutions than the traditional methods. The market research study offers a wide perspective of the different types of powered agriculture equipment and analyses its impact on the agriculture sector by providing critical insights into the direction of its future expansion. The research is based on extensive primary interviews (in-house experts, industry leaders, and market players) and secondary research (a host of paid and unpaid databases), along with the analytical tools that have been used to build the forecast and the predictive models. The report answers the following questions about the global powered agriculture equipment market: What is the global powered agriculture equipment market size in terms of value along with the unit sales during the period 2017-2023? What is the revenue generated and volume sales by the different types of powered agriculture equipment such as tractors, harvesters, planters, and sprayers? What are the volume sales of different tractors on the basis of power output? What are the major next generation agriculture equipment expected to witness positive growth in the next five years? What is the anticipated market size for different regions based on various equipment in the forecast period? What are the key trends and opportunities in the market pertaining to countries included in different geographical regions? How attractive is the powered agriculture equipment market for different stakeholders present in the farming industry by analyzing the complete supply chain? What are the major driving forces that are expected to increase the demand for powered agriculture solutions during the forecast period? What are the major challenges inhibiting the growth of the global precision agriculture market? What kind of new strategies are being adopted by the existing market players to expand their market position in the industry? What is the competitive strength of the key players in the powered agriculture equipment market , through the analysis their recent developments, product offerings, and regional presence? The report further includes a thorough analysis of the impact of the five major forces to understand the overall attractiveness of the industry. The report also focuses on the key developments and investments made in the powered agriculture equipment market by the players and government. Moreover, the report consists of a comprehensive analysis of powered agriculture equipment market for different geographical regions.The powered agriculture equipment market holds a prominent share in various countries of the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Rest-of-the-World (RoW). The report also provides a country-based analysis for all the leading countries in every region, including the U.S, Canada, Germany, the U.K, France, Italy, Russia, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Korea, and Brazil. Each geographical region analysis details individual driving and restraining forces acting in the market in addition to the key players from that particular region. The key players identified in the market are AGCO Corporation, CLAAS Group, CNH Industrial N.V., Deere & Company, Escorts Group, ISEKI Co. Ltd., Kubota Corporation, Mahindra & Mahindra, SDF Group, and Kinze Manufacturing Inc. Executive Summary Farm productivity across the globe has been significantly increasing since the last decade.With the exponential growth of the world population, subsequent rise in global demand for food, shrinking agricultural lands, and depletion of finite natural resources, the need to enhance farm yield has become critical. The increase in urban population in developing countries with the enhancement of quality of living due to high income levels and the demand for fresh crop produce and animal protein are the major factors boosting the demand for crop production. Limited availability of natural resources, such as fresh water and arable land, along with declining yield trends in several staple crops, have prompted growers and companies in the farming sector to introduce innovative agriculture equipment in order to enhance farm profitability. The farming industry has witnessed numerous revolutions over decades starting from the domestication of livestock and crops to the organized use of crop rotation with the help of new farming techniques.This was followed by the large-scale usage of fertilizers and pesticides and systematic breeding called the green revolution. Finally, with the introduction of Information and communication technologies (ICT) in farming since the last decade, the farming industry has been witnessing another revolutionary phase.Over the last decade, the agriculture equipment market has witnessed a steady growth in terms of technological advancement and cost reduction. Moreover, the rapid development of contract farming services and corporate partnerships has led to the increased demand for powered agriculture equipment across the globe. Another looming concern over the farming industry is the changing structure of agricultural workforce.Numerous countries across the world are witnessing an increase in average age of farmers. According to 2012 Census of Agriculture, the average age of a farmer in the U.S. was 58, which has increased by 8 years, since 1982. According to the Labor Force Survey of 2016, 59.2% of the working population were 40-64 years old in the European Union countries. Alarmingly, the average age of farmers in Japan was found to be 65.8 in 2013, as per the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research. Agricultural labor in most of the countries has declined as well. As per World Bank, the East Asia and Pacific region has witnessed a decline from 51% in 1991 to 21% in 2017, whereas Latin America and the Caribbean Countries witnessed a shift from 25% in 1991 to 14% in 2017. Subsequently, change in structure of agricultural workforce has made farm labor expensive across the world over time. This change in the global aging demographic has eventually triggered the adoption of powered agriculture equipment. The powered agriculture equipment market is projected to grow from $XX billion in 2017 to $151.19 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of XX% from 2018 to 2023. High growth in the market is expected to be driven by the increasing need for increasing the agriculture production and reducing the requirement of the manual labor. Moreover, the global powered agriculture equipment market has been strongly motivated by the substantial support of the government in terms of investments, favorable initiatives, and trade policies. The powered agriculture equipment market encompasses a wide array of solutions such as tractors, combines, planters, sprayers, and other equipment such as tilling equipment, haymaking equipment and balers.Farm tractors accounted for the largest share in the market, followed by combine harvester, planters and sprayers. Farmers across the globe are increasingly adopting powered agriculture equipment to improve the yield, soil fertility, operational efficiency, and profitability. The demand for next generation powered agriculture equipment is growing due to the increasing applications in the farming industry.Farmers across the world are using auto-guided tractors to reduce multiple trips for farm monitoring, hence reducing crop damage, and fuel consumption. Some of the major next generation agriculture equipment penetrating the market are drones, harvesting robots, and driverless tractors. These equipment are witnessing gradual adoption by the farmers especially in the U.S., Australia and Germany. Some other emerging agriculture equipment are robotic sprayers and weeding robots. Key players innovating in this field are Deere and Company, AGCO Corporation, Autonomous Tractor Corporation, CNH Industrial, Yanmar Co. Ltd., Kinze Manufacturing Inc., Lovol Heavy Industry Co. Ltd., and Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd., among others. The trends of the powered agriculture equipment market vary across different geographical regions.The powered agriculture equipment market holds a prominent share in various countries of the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), and Rest-of-the-World (RoW). In 2017, Asia-Pacific was at the forefront of the global powered agriculture equipment market, with huge market concentration in China and India. Competitive Landscape The competitive landscape for the powered agriculture market demonstrates an inclination toward companies adopting strategies such as product launch and development.The major established players in the market are focusing on product launches and developments to introduce new technologies or developing further on the existing product portfolio. Deere and Co., CNH Industrial, AGCO Corporation, CLAAS Group, Kinze Manufacturing Inc., ISEKI Group, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Escorts Group, among others, are the prominent players in the powered agriculture equipment market. The market is highly fragmented with the presence of a huge number of small-sized to medium-sized companies that compete with each other and the large enterprises. Key players operating in this market have ramped up their product launch activities over the recent years, in order to generate public awareness about their existing and new products and technologies and to compete with the competitors' product portfolio.This has been the most widely adopted strategy by the players in this market. For instance, in December 2017, AGCO Corporation's brand Massey Ferguson launched a new self-propelled sprayer, MF 9130 Plus. In September 2017, Escorts Group introduced a new electric & hydrostatic concept tractor to expand its portfolio of tractors for the export and domestic market. Countries Covered Asia-Pacific China India Japan Australia, New Zealand (ANZ) South Korea The Americas The U.S. Canada Brazil Europe Germany The U.K. France Italy Russia Rest-of-the-World (RoW) Middle East Africa Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05753452 About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links http://www.reportlinker.com CLEVELAND, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Bituminous products (including asphalt shingles and corrugated panels, as well as low-slope products) were the most popular roofing material in 2017, accounting for 34% of global roofing sales in area terms. These and other trends are presented in Global Roofing, a new study from The Freedonia Group, a Cleveland-based industry research firm. More information about this study is here: https://www.freedoniagroup.com/industry-study/global-roofing-3698.htm Bituminous roofing product demand is forecast to rise 2.0% per year through 2022 to 4.8 billion square meters, valued at $38.5 billion. Bituminous product sales in North America, the largest market for these products, will benefit from healthy housing markets in the US, as well as rising reroofing activity, particularly in the US where weather-related damage is an ongoing concern. Additionally, demand will be supported by above average growth in the Asia/Pacific region, where low-slope products are expected to enjoy strong growth due to the rapidly expanding nonresidential markets in China, India, and Indonesia. However, a faster growth rate will be restrained by a slowdown in residential construction activity. Concrete and clay tile were the second most commonly used, representing 30% of global roofing demand in area terms, followed by metal (11%), fiber cement (6%), rubber (4%), and plastic (5%), with other types accounting for the remainder (less than 10% in the aggregate). In dollar terms, tile roofing represented a larger share of world roofing sales than bituminous materials due to the higher average price for these products. Through 2022, global demand for all types of roofing products is forecast to rise 2.4% per annum to 14.4 billion square meters valued at $120 billion. Global Roofing (published 02/2019, 394 pages) is available for $6700 from The Freedonia Group. Please link citations to https://www.freedoniagroup.com/World-Roofing.html About The Freedonia Group, a division of MarketResearch.com The Freedonia Group is a leading international industrial research company publishing more than 100 studies annually. Since 1985, we have provided research to customers ranging in size from global conglomerates to one-person consulting firms. More than 90% of the industrial companies in the Fortune 500 use Freedonia Group research to help with their strategic planning. Additional Construction & Building Products studies can be purchased at www.freedoniagroup.com, www.marketresearch.com and www.profound.com. Press Contact: Corinne Gangloff +1 440.684.9600 [email protected] SOURCE The Freedonia Group Related Links https://www.freedoniagroup.com/ DUBLIN, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Welding Controllers Market 2018-2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The welding controllers market will register a CAGR of more than 4% by 2022. Growing welding information management systems to drive growth in the market. The growing automation in the welding industry has given rise to welding information management systems that are being incorporated within the welding equipment. Market Overview Growing adoption of automated welding The welding industry is expected to be impacted significantly due to a positive outlook of the overall construction industry. Welding is used extensively in the construction industry, especially for the welding of structural steel. Lack of awareness regarding automated welding Automated welding solutions can ensure high levels of operational safety at low cost in tasks involving high risk. However, there is a major challenge in the adoption of this technology, owing to the lack of proper awareness regarding the deployment of robots for welding applications. Competitive Landscape The market appears to be fragmented and with the presence of several companies including Dengensha Manufacturing and TECNA, the competitive environment is quite intense. Factors such as the growing adoption of automated welding and the growing welding information management systems, will provide considerable growth opportunities to welding controllers manufactures. ARO Welding Technologies, Bosch, Dengensha Manufacturing, and TECNA are some of the major companies covered in this report. Key Topics Covered: PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT PART 03: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY PART 04: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market ecosystem Market characteristics Market segmentation analysis PART 05: MARKET SIZING Market definition Market sizing 2017 Market size and forecast 2017-2022 PART 06: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition PART 07: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY APPLICATION Segmentation by application Comparison by application Spot welding - Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Seam welding - Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Market opportunity by application PART 08: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE PART 09: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY END-USER Segmentation by end-user Comparison by end-user Automotive - Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Electronics - Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Heavy machinery - Market size and forecast 2017-2022 A&D - Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Others - Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Market opportunity by end-user PART 10: REGIONAL LANDSCAPE Geographical segmentation Regional comparison APAC - Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Americas - Market size and forecast 2017-2022 EMEA - Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Market opportunity PART 11: DECISION FRAMEWORK PART 12: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers Market challenges PART 13: MARKET TRENDS Growing use of welding information management systems Growing demand for automation due to lack of skilled workforce Increasing adoption of multi-robot cells PART 14: VENDOR LANDSCAPE Overview Landscape disruption Competitive landscape PART 15: VENDOR ANALYSIS Vendors covered Vendor classification Market positioning of vendors Amada Holdings ARO Welding Technologies (Langley Holdings) Dengensha Manufacturing Harms & Wende Robert Bosch TECNA For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/n83l6z/global_welding?w=5 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com DUBLIN, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Woodworking Machines Market 2018-2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The woodworking machines market will register a CAGR of more than 3% by 2022. IoT in woodworking machines to gain traction. IoT is an ever-growing network of physical objects that features an IP address, thus allowing it to connect to the internet and the communication between these objects and other internet-enabled devices. Market Overview Increasing adoption of automated woodworking machine The increasing focus toward ensuring flexibility and highly personalized product in the woodworking industry has increased the need for highly specialized woodworking machinery in the production process. Declining woods supply and increasing timber prices Since the majority of demand is from the furniture industry, the fluctuation in wood supply and rising timber prices affected the woodworking machines market. Competitive Landscape The market appears to be fragmented and with the presence of several companies including Michael Weinig and SCM Group, the competitive environment is quite intense. Factors such as the IoT in woodworking machines and the increasing adoption of automated woodworking machine, will provide considerable growth opportunities to woodworking machines manufactures. Biesse Group, Drr, IMA-Schelling-Group, Michael Weinig, and SCM Group are some of the major companies covered in this report. Key Topics Covered: PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT PART 03: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY PART 04: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market ecosystem Market characteristics Market segmentation analysis PART 05: MARKET SIZING Market definition Market sizing 2017 Market size and forecast 2017-2022 PART 06: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition PART 07: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY APPLICATION Segmentation by application Comparison by application Furniture - Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Construction - Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Others - Market size and forecast 2017-2022 Market opportunity by application PART 08: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE PART 09: REGIONAL LANDSCAPE Geographical segmentation Regional comparison Key leading countries Market opportunity PART 10: DECISION FRAMEWORK PART 11: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers Market challenges PART 12: MARKET TRENDS IoT in woodworking machines Growth in modular and panelized constructions Integration of robots with woodworking machines PART 13: VENDOR LANDSCAPE Overview Landscape disruption Competitive landscape PART 14: VENDOR ANALYSIS Vendors covered Market positioning of vendors Biesse Group Drr IMA-Schelling-Group Michael Weinig SCM Group For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/w8hbn4/global?w=5 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com SHANGHAI, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- GreenTree Hospitality Group Ltd. (NYSE: GHG) ("GreenTree" or the "Company"), a leading franchised and managed hotel chain in China, today announced that it has subscribed shares in Zhejiang New Century Hotel Management Co., Ltd. ("New Century Hotel Management") in its Global Offering ("IPO"), a leading mid-scale to upscale hotel operation and management company in the PRC, for a total amount of US$29.2 million. Upon the completion of the IPO, GreenTree will own 4.95% of outstanding shares in New Century Hotel Management. New Century Hotel Management operates and manages mid-scale to upscale hotel chains in the PRC. As at Dec 31, 2018, New Century Hotel Management operated and/or managed 150 hotels with over 34,000 hotel rooms in 22 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. New Century Hotel Management ranks third in China and has the highest market share among domestic hotel group in terms of the operating and contracted upscale hotel rooms. It consists of a wide range of brands, with strong brand recognition among the industry and hotel guests, and an extensive loyalty program that could complement GreenTree's. This investment is expected to benefit both GreenTree and New Century Hotel Management as there will be potential collaboration opportunities between the two companies in the mid-scale to upscale hotel segment to create value for customers, franchisees, and shareholders. About GreenTree Hospitality Group GreenTree Hospitality Group Ltd. ("GreenTree" or the "Company") (NYSE: GHG) is a leading franchised hotel operator in China. As of September 30, 2018, GreenTree had 2,558 hotels, among which 2,528 are franchised and managed hotels. The Company had the highest proportion of franchised-and-managed hotels among the top four economy to mid-scale hotel networks in China. In 2017, GreenTree was the fourth largest economy to mid-scale hotel group in China in terms of number of hotels according to China Hospitality Association. The Company has built a strong suite of brands including its flagship "GreenTree Inns" brand as a result of its long-standing dedication to the hospitality industry in China and consistent quality of its services, signature hotel designs, broad geographic coverage and convenient locations. GreenTree has positioned its brands to appeal to value-and-quality-conscious business travelers and leisure travelers. For more information on GreenTree, please visit http://ir.998.com. For more information, please contact: GreenTree Ms. Selina Yang Phone: +86-21-3617-4886 ext. 7999 E-mail: [email protected] Mr. Nicky Zheng Phone: +86-21-3617-4886 ext. 6708 E-mail: [email protected] SOURCE GreenTree Hospitality Group Ltd. Related Links http://ir.998.com NEW YORK, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- HSA administration company, Clarity Benefit Solutions, offers tips for keeping millennial workers engaged. Millennials are categorized as those who were born between the mid-eighties and the early 2000s, who are currently in the age range of 18-35. This is a fairly large range that approaches the workplace differently than their older counterparts, so it is vital to keep them engaged and interested in their jobs. Here are some tips for accomplishing this task. Offer flexibility. Millennials are not only tech-savvy, they are expert multitaskers. As such, they expect flexibility in the workplace. Employers need to revisit the standard 9 to 5 workday, as technology is so advanced that work can be accomplished outside of the office. Progressive employers should offer flexible hours to keep their millennial workforce engaged. Foster career development. Millennials will seize every chance they get to develop and broaden their skills. It is vital to create a multitude of opportunities for millennials, ranging from additional training to new projects to keep them engaged in their career path. Provide an enjoyable working environment. The millennial generation desires to be friends with those they work with every day. Employers should provide ample opportunities for millennials to become acquainted with their coworkers outside of the workplacewhether it be off-site lunches, happy hours, or sporting events. These are all effective methods for employees to connect and interact. Give regular feedback. Millennials crave frequent feedback regarding their job performance. Rather than waiting for a yearly review, provide regular feedback to not only increase their level of engagement, but improve their performance. They need to know how their job is impacting the company's short- and long-term goals. Embrace change. There's no doubt that the millennial generation is full of creative thinkers. They are focused on trying new things, and employers need to respond in kind by being open and respectful of their new ideas. Support charitable efforts. Millennials crave a working environment that shares their values. As such, employers should incorporate such endeavors into their overall identity and encourage their employees to play an active role in these activities. About Clarity Benefit Solutions: Clarity Benefit Solutions HSA Administration Company provides technology that makes the health insurance plan selection process fast, easy, and straightforward. For over two decades, we have provided clients with industry-leading technology, compliance, and exceptional customer service. Our offering is designed to save time and lower the costs of managing benefits while also promoting employee self-service and automated ACA compliance. SOURCE Clarity Benefit Solutions Related Links http://claritybenefitsolutions.com NEW YORK, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Interactivation, a holding company owned by entrepreneurs Joe Covey and Matthew Davidge, today announced that it has acquired Med School Tutors, the leading medical school tutoring company that helps aspiring physicians succeed in medical school, on their standardized exams, and beyond. Founded in 2006, Med School Tutors has tutored thousands of students for the USMLE, COMLEX, Shelf Exams, and medical coursework. The company also offers admissions and residency advisement, in addition to consulting services for medical schools. "Our success is a testament to the power of putting people first in medical education. I am honored to hand over the reins to Joe and Matthew. I believe they will provide the resources and expertise to help many more med students and doctors excel and thrive on the arduous yet noble path to becoming physicians," said Robert Meekins, Med School Tutors Co-founder. "Med School Tutors has done so much to improve physician education and therefore the quality of health care throughout the United States," said Joe Covey. "Robert Meekins has built a terrific company with a highly successful team. I see great growth ahead, for our students, tutors, and on an institutional level." This is the sixth acquisition since 2008 for Joe Covey and Matthew Davidge. Prior acquisitions include The Wellness Network patient education TV networks and the Mag Rack educational cable TV network. Med School Tutors is located in New York City with more than 150 tutors nationwide. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. About Med School Tutors Med School Tutors (www.medschooltutors.com) is the leading medical school tutoring company offering one-to-one online tutoring for the USMLE, COMLEX, Shelf Exams, Medical Coursework and Admissions and Residency Advisement, as well as consulting services for medical schools. Established in 2006, Med School Tutors was founded with a singular purpose: to revolutionize the way aspiring physicians prepare for standardized tests. Media contact: Dana Herman [email protected] 212-643-1088 SOURCE Interactivation STOCKHOLM, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Itiviti, a leading technology and service provider to financial institutions worldwide, today announced a unified products and solutions portfolio - the industry's broadest range of solutions and services spanning asset classes and trading applications across Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas. Based on a modular, open architecture, Itiviti's solution facilitates tailored, customized deployments, including integration with third parties. For customers, this means faster time-to-market and the ability to quickly adapt to business needs and regulatory change. The new Connect and Trade solution portfolios define one of the industry's most comprehensive offerings in capital markets technologies and services. Across these two pillars, Itiviti provides flexibility and breadth of functionality to serve any trading style across asset classes. The Connect portfolio mirrors the growing importance of FIX as the universal language in financial markets. It offers world-class FIX engines, testing and onboarding tools, as well as a global connectivity ecosystem formed by the NYFIX order routing network with a community of 1,600 buy- and sell-side firms of all sizes. portfolio mirrors the growing importance of FIX as the universal language in financial markets. It offers world-class FIX engines, testing and onboarding tools, as well as a global connectivity ecosystem formed by the NYFIX order routing network with a community of 1,600 buy- and sell-side firms of all sizes. The Trade portfolio features exceptional tools for adapting to change and to capitalize on market dynamics, including solutions for Agency Trading, Principal Risk Trading, Market Making and Execution Management, complemented by low-latency access to 150+ global trading venues. The updated solutions and services portfolios enable financial institutions to seize opportunities in global markets, while adding value by providing dependable, efficient support to their daily operations. Richard Bentley, Itiviti's Chief Product Officer and Interim CEO, said: "Itiviti stands for a solid commitment to innovation, and to supporting market participants as they face new challenges from markets, regulation and technology. Our vision is to evolve trading for the augmented age, enabling firms to turn market dynamics and complexity into business opportunities. We have built on the heritage of Ullink and Itiviti, leveraging the incredible power of our combined offer to unify and re-energize our brand." The inherent flexibility of Itiviti's offering extends from architecture to delivery, with multiple options for deployment, technical support and system administration. Solutions are available for on-premise deployment or as managed services, all covered by 24/6 multi-language global support. "Being a trusted supplier of high-performing financial technology is no longer enough," said Richard Bentley. "Today's customers want Itiviti to be a partner whose contribution goes beyond trading hours. They need our innovation to support their business and strategic ambitions. And as global capital markets have never been more complex or costly to navigate, they also want guidance and mentorship, so that we share our knowledge and help them foresee challenges." The unified offering is introduced in conjunction with the launch of Itiviti's all-new brand and website. About Itiviti Itiviti enables financial institutions worldwide to transform their trading and capture tomorrow. With innovative technology, deep expertise and a dedication to service, we help customers seize market opportunities and guide them through regulatory change. Top-tier banks, brokers, trading firms and institutional investors rely on Itiviti's solutions to service their clients, connect to markets, trade smarter in all asset classes by consolidating trading platforms and leverage automation to move faster. A global technology and service provider, we offer the most innovative, consistent and reliable connectivity and trading solutions available. With presence in all major financial centers and serving around 2,000 clients in over 50 countries, Itiviti delivers on a global scale. For more information, please visit www.itiviti.com. Itiviti is owned by Nordic Capital Fund VII. For further information, please contact: Richard Bentley, Chief Product Officer and Interim CEO, Itiviti, +44-20-7743-7223, Email: [email protected] Christine Blinke, Chief Marketing Officer, Itiviti, Tel. +46-739-01-0201, Email: [email protected] This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/itiviti-group-ab/r/itiviti-introduces-unified-offering-following-merger-with-ullink,c2760445 The following files are available for download: https://mb.cision.com/Main/13830/2760445/1005279.pdf Press release in PDF format https://news.cision.com/itiviti-group-ab/i/richard-bentley--chief-product-officer-and-interim-ceo--itiviti,c2589066 Richard Bentley, Chief Product Officer and Interim CEO, Itiviti SOURCE Itiviti Group AB Related Links http://www.itiviti.com SEATTLE, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- JND Class Action Administration THIS NOTICE AFFECTS all individuals or entities who purchased or otherwise acquired the common stock of Precision Castparts Corp. during the period of May 9, 2013 through January 15, 2015, inclusive, and were damaged thereby (the "Class"). YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED, pursuant to Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and an Order of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon, that Murphy v. Precision Castparts Corp., et al., Case No. 3:16-cv-00521-SB ("Action") against Precision Castparts Corp. ("PCC"), Mark Donegan, and Shawn R. Hagel (collectively, "Defendants"), has been certified as a class action on behalf of the Class, except for certain individuals and entities that are excluded from the Class by definition as set forth in the full printed Notice of Pendency of Class Action ("Notice"). Lead Plaintiffs AMF Pensionsforsakring AB and the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System have been appointed by the Court to represent the Class. There is no settlement or monetary recovery for Class Members at this time; this is only a notice that the Class has been certified. IF YOU ARE A MEMBER OF THE CLASS, YOUR RIGHTS WILL BE AFFECTED BY THIS LAWSUIT. The full printed Notice is currently being mailed to known Class Members. If you have not yet received a full printed Notice, you may obtain a copy from the website for the Action, www.PrecisionCastpartsSecuritiesLitigation.com, or by contacting the Administrator: Murphy v. Precision Castparts Corp., et al. c/o JND Legal Administration P.O. Box 91228 Seattle, WA 98111 (888) 305-6485 [email protected] If you did not receive the Notice by mail, and you are a member of the Class, please send your name and address to the Administrator so that if any future notices are disseminated in connection with the Action, you will receive them. Inquiries, other than requests for the Notice, may be made to Court-appointed Class Counsel: Gregory M. Castaldo, Esq. Richard A. Russo, Jr., Esq. KESSLER TOPAZ MELTZER & CHECK, LLP 280 King of Prussia Road Radnor, PA 19087 (610) 667-7706 [email protected] James W. Johnson, Esq. Michael H. Rogers, Esq. LABATON SUCHAROW LLP 140 Broadway New York, NY 10005 (888) 219-6877 [email protected] If you are a Class Member, you have the right to decide whether to remain a member of the Class. If you choose to remain a member of the Class, you do not need to do anything at this time other than retain your documentation reflecting your transactions in PCC common stock. You will automatically be included in the Class, and you will be bound by the proceedings in the Action, including all past, present and future orders and judgments of the Court, whether favorable or unfavorable. If you are a Class Member and do not wish to remain a member of the Class, you must take steps to exclude yourself from the Class. If you timely and validly request to be excluded from the Class, you will not be bound by any orders or judgments in the Action, but you will not be eligible to receive a share of any money which might be recovered in the future for the benefit of the Class. To exclude yourself from the Class, you must submit a written request for exclusion postmarked no later than May 3, 2019 in accordance with the instructions set forth in the full printed Notice. Pursuant to Rule 23(e)(4) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, it is within the Court's discretion whether to allow a second opportunity to request exclusion from the Class if there is a settlement or judgment in the Action; accordingly, this may be the only opportunity to request exclusion from the Class. Further information may be obtained by contacting the Administrator as set forth above or visiting the website www.PrecisionCastpartsSecuritiesLitigation.com. Please Do Not Call or Write the Court with Questions. DATED: March 11, 2019 BY ORDER OF THE COURT UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF OREGON SOURCE Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP; Labaton Sucharow LLP KINGSTON, N.J., March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Martin Tuchman has been inducted into the NCE 100 Alumni Hall of Fame of Newark College of Engineering (NCE) at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). The inaugural NCE 100 group of eleven (11) was inducted in March 2019 to celebrate the College's centennial. To be included among the distinguished individuals that make up the NCE 100 is to be recognized for a significant contribution with tangible positive effect on society for the profession through authorship and composition; high-impact research, discovery or artistry; or major long-term and widely-recognized leadership of organizations and groups beneficial to the public. Up to ten (10) new members will be elected once every two years by the membership of the NCE 100. Among the other notables included in the inaugural NCE 100 group were Pierre Ramond, who is credited with initiating the development of Superstring Theory; Ellen M. Pawlikowski, a former United States Air Force General; and Gerard J. Foschini, who held the position of Distinguished Inventor in Bell Laboratories' Wireless Research Laboratory. In 1962, Tuchman joined the Railway Express Agency (REA) as an automotive engineer. While at the agency, he worked with the American National Standards Institute and, together with a group of other shipping engineers, developed the current standard for intermodal containers and chassis. The purpose of the standard was to allow for interchangeability of equipment in each mode of transportation: rail, truck and ship, as well as for structural integrity. The standard is still in use today. In 1968, Martin Tuchman and Warren Serenbetz founded Interpool, one of the nation's leading container and leasing corporations. In 1978, TBG Holdings, N.V., an international holding company, acquired Interpool; Tuchman remained as CEO until 1985. In 1988, Tuchman re-acquired Interpool. He had it listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1993. Today the company ranks as one of the top three international leasing companies in terms of net worth, with headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, and offices throughout the world. In 1987, Tuchman formed Trac Lease, and developed it into the largest chassis leasing company in the United States, with over 150,000 units operating over the road and in rail service. Among his many public positions, Tuchman served on the United Nations Business Council; the Board of Trustees and Board of Overseers of NJIT; and the Board of Directors of the Parkinson's Disease Foundation of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York. In 1995, Tuchman was honored as Entrepreneur of the Year in an awards program founded by Ernst & Young LLP. In 1996, he was named Alumnus of the Year by NJIT. On March 3, 2016, NJIT's School of Management was named in his honor the Martin Tuchman School of Management. Martin Tuchman received a Bachelor of Science degree from New Jersey Institute of Technology (Mechanical Engineering, 1962); and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Seton Hall University (1968). He is chairman and chief executive officer of The Tuchman Group, a firm with holdings in real estate, banking and international shipping. CONTACT: Rick Gross, The Tuchman Group, (609) 921-7642, [email protected] SOURCE The Tuchman Group The new vessel, named ' Kaimana Hila ,' is the sister ship to ' Daniel K. Inouye,' which was christened in June and went into service in November of 2018. "Kaimana Hila" is a Hawaiian transliteration for "Diamond Head," the name of Hawaii's iconic landmark crater near Waikiki Beach. The two ships were built for Honolulu-based Matson by Philly Shipyard at a total cost of approximately $418 million for the pair, and are the first of four new vessels that Matson will put into its Hawaii service during the next 18 months. "This is a proud day for everyone at Matson," said Matt Cox, Matson's chairman and chief executive officer, at the shipyard ceremony. "Daniel K. Inouye has performed well in its first four months of service, and we are excited to have Kaimana Hila joining it soon. These new vessels herald the beginning of a new era in our Hawaii service and will allow us to serve our customers better than ever for decades to come." Steinar Nerbovik, Philly Shipyard President and CEO, said, "I'd like to extend my gratitude to Matson. Construction of the Kaimana Hila, and its earlier sister ship, has provided good skilled work for nearly 1,500 people at Philly Shipyard over the last three years. We are immensely proud to provide another quality and safe vessel that Matson can be proud of for years to come." Matson invited U.S. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii to officially christen the vessel by breaking a ceremonial bottle of champagne against the ship's navigation bridge super-structure. The ceremony was attended by approximately 70 representatives of Matson and PSI. Weighing in at over 51,400 metric tons, the 850-foot long and 3,600 TEU* capacity Kaimana Hila and Daniel K. Inouye are Matson's largest ships and the largest containerships ever constructed in the U.S. They are also Matson's fastest vessels, with a top speed of nearly 24 knots, helping ensure on-time deliveries in Hawaii from Matson's three West Coast terminals in Seattle, Oakland and Long Beach. In addition, both Aloha Class vessels incorporate the latest environmentally friendly technology, including dual fuel engines that can be adapted to use liquefied natural gas (LNG), double hull fuel tanks, fresh water ballast systems and a more fuel efficient hull design. More information on Matson's new vessels and fleet modernization program is available at www.Matson.com. * Twenty-foot Equivalent Units, the standard unit of measurement for container capacity About Matson Founded in 1882, Matson (NYSE: MATX) is a leading provider of ocean transportation and logistics services. Matson provides a vital lifeline to the domestic non-contiguous economies of Hawaii, Alaska, and Guam, and to other island economies in Micronesia. Matson also operates a premium, expedited service from China to Southern California and provides services to Okinawa, Japan and various islands in the South Pacific. The Company's fleet of owned and chartered vessels includes containerships, combination container and roll-on/roll-off ships and custom-designed barges. Matson Logistics, established in 1987, extends the geographic reach of Matson's transportation network throughout the continental U.S. Its integrated, asset-light logistics services include rail intermodal, highway brokerage, warehousing, freight consolidation, Asia supply chain services, and forwarding to Alaska. Additional information about the Company is available at www.matson.com. About Philly Shipyard Philly Shipyard is a leading U.S. commercial shipyard constructing vessels for operation in the Jones Act market. It possesses a state-of-the-art shipbuilding facility and has earned a reputation as the preferred provider of oceangoing merchant vessels with a track record of delivering quality ships. Philly Shipyard is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange and is majority-owned by Aker Capital AS, which in turn is wholly-owned by Aker ASA. Aker is a Norwegian industrial investment company that creates value through active ownership. Aker's investment portfolio is concentrated on key Norwegian industries that are international in scope: oil and gas, fisheries and biotechnology, and marine assets. Aker's industrial holdings comprise ownership interests in Aker Solutions, Kvaerner, Aker BP, Aker BioMarine, Ocean Yield and Akastor. For more information on Philly Shipyard, visit www.phillyshipyard.com. Matson Investor Relations inquiries: Matson News Media inquiries: Philly Shipyard News Media inquiries: Lee Fishman Keoni Wagner Kelly Whitaker Matson, Inc. Matson, Inc. Philly Shipyard, Inc. 510.628.4227 510.628.4534 215-875-2640 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] SOURCE Matson, Inc. Related Links https://www.matson.com NEW YORK, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG), one of the world's leading financial institutions, today announced its global Healthcare Banking franchise has expanded to include a U.S. Middle Market group. The development of a Middle Market business is a natural extension of MUFG's successful global Healthcare Banking practice which underwrote $33.5 billion in loan transactions, the second-highest total in the industry for 2018, and good for a 9.9% U.S. market share*. MUFG's current Middle Market Healthcare clients have more than $2.5 billion in commitments, and come from sectors including healthcare services, medical technology and pharmaceuticals. The bank defines the healthcare middle market as companies with $2 billion and less in annual revenue. MUFG's Middle Market Healthcare group is led by Beth Everett, a Managing Director with more than 25 years of experience; she joined the bank's Healthcare Banking group in 2012 and reports to Allen Fisher, Global Head of Healthcare. "As a global leader in healthcare finance, MUFG is well-positioned to provide the products and services most important to middle market companies -- whether it's transaction banking, leveraged finance or asset-based lending," Ms. Everett said. "Further, with our presence in more than 50 countries, we can offer clients growth opportunities that we see via our broader healthcare practice, as well as access to the world's capital markets." MUFG's Middle Market Healthcare team also works closely with financial sponsors, an effort led by Steven Killilea, a Managing Director in MUFG's Healthcare Banking group. "Our relationships with private equity firms that invest in healthcare is particularly important," said Mr. Killilea, "as we provide these clients with financing to support domestic and international acquisitions, recapitalizations, working capital and additional liquidity." To underscore his point, Mr. Killilea pointed to 2018's middle market M&A volume of $428 billion, of which 53% was private equity-related, with healthcare accounting for 13% of the total. *according to data from Dealogic. About Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc.'s U.S. Operations including MUFG Americas Holdings Corporation and MUFG Union Bank, N.A. The U.S. operations of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG), one of the world's leading financial groups, has total assets of $326.5 billion at September 30, 2018. As part of that total, MUFG Americas Holdings Corporation (MUAH), a financial holding company, bank holding company and intermediate holding company, has total assets of $161.0 billion at September 30, 2018. MUAH's main subsidiaries are MUFG Union Bank, N.A. and MUFG Securities Americas Inc. MUFG Union Bank, N.A. provides a wide range of financial services to consumers, small businesses, middle-market companies, and major corporations. As of December 31, 2018, MUFG Union Bank, N.A. operated 352 branches, consisting primarily of retail banking branches in the West Coast states, along with commercial branches in Texas, Illinois, New York, and Georgia, as well as 22 PurePoint Financial Centers. MUFG Securities Americas Inc. is a registered securities broker-dealer which engages in capital markets origination transactions, private placements, collateralized financings, securities borrowing and lending transactions, and domestic and foreign debt and equities securities transactions. MUAH is owned by MUFG Bank, Ltd. and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. MUFG Bank, Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc., has offices in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Canada. Visit https://www.unionbank.com or www.mufgamericas.com for more information. About MUFG Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG) is one of the world's leading financial groups. Headquartered in Tokyo and with over 360 years of history, MUFG has a global network with over 1,800 locations in more than 50 countries. The Group has over 150,000 employees and offers services including commercial banking, trust banking, securities, credit cards, consumer finance, asset management, and leasing. The Group aims to "be the world's most trusted financial group" through close collaboration among our operating companies and flexibly respond to all of the financial needs of our customers, serving society, and fostering shared and sustainable growth for a better world. MUFG's shares trade on the Tokyo, Nagoya, and New York stock exchanges. For more information, visit https://www.mufg.jp/english. SOURCE Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. Related Links https://www.mufg.jp/english AUSTIN, Texas, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- At the annual South by Southwest Conference, Kaiser Permanente today announced a partnership with Community Solutions to help accelerate efforts to end chronic homelessness in 15 communities within Kaiser Permanente's national footprint. As part of the new partnership, Kaiser Permanente will provide $3 million over a three-year period to Community Solutions' Built for Zero initiative, which uses real-time data to help local leaders better understand the dynamics of homelessness in their communities. Built for Zero enables communities to adopt problem-solving tools and technologies to end homelessness and the conditions that create it. "Kaiser Permanente is investing in efforts to reduce homelessness and housing insecurity because there is a proven link between housing and health," said Bernard J. Tyson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente. "Addressing affordable housing and homelessness is crucial to Kaiser Permanente's mission to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve, and to advance the economic, social and environmental conditions for health." Mortality rates among people experiencing chronic homelessness are three to four times that of the general population. Without a safe, stable place to live, it is nearly impossible to maintain one's health or sustain health improvements achieved in a medical setting. "Living without a home can have a dramatic impact on a person's health, yet many of the communities we serve are grappling with extreme rates of housing insecurity and homelessness," said Bechara Choucair, MD, Kaiser Permanente's chief community health officer. "We know there is no simple solution to such a complex problem, but through strategic partnerships, such as the one with Community Solutions, we believe it can be solved." "We are thrilled to work with Kaiser Permanente to accelerate Built for Zero in these communities," said Rosanne Haggerty, president of Community Solutions. "Together, we will use data and analytics to help these communities adopt the tools they need to end homelessness and address the conditions that create it." Built for Zero is Community Solutions' national effort to end chronic and veteran homelessness. It is currently operating in more than 70 communities across the country. Since January 2015, more than 65,000 veterans and 38,500 chronically homeless Americans have been housed by participating communities. To date, three Built for Zero communities have ended chronic homelessness and another nine have ended veteran homelessness. The Tableau Foundation recently announced additional data and analytics software support to Community Solutions' expansion of Built for Zero. Kaiser Permanente is a mission-based nonprofit, and this effort is the latest example of the organization's commitment to address the social factors that affect health outcomes, such as access to stable, secure, affordable housing. In January, Kaiser Permanente announced a commitment to house 500 individuals experiencing homelessness in Oakland, California, who are over the age of 50 and live with a chronic condition. Last year it created the Thriving Communities Fund, a $200 million impact investment fund focused on addressing affordable housing and other factors that contribute to the homelessness and housing crisis. The 15 Kaiser Permanente communities participating in Built for Zero are: 1. Sacramento & Sacramento County, Calif. 8. Washington, D.C. 2. Marin County, Calif. 9. Baltimore 3. Richmond & Contra Costa County, Calif. 10. Montgomery County, Md. 4. Fresno & Madera Counties, Calif. 11. Arlington County, Va. 5. Santa Cruz, Watsonville & Santa Cruz 12. Fairfax County, Va. County, Calif. 13. Denver 6. Bakersfield & Kern County, Calif. 14. Atlanta 7. Riverside County, Calif. 15. Honolulu About Community Solutions Community Solutions (CS) helps communities adopt the best problem-solving tools from multiple sectors to end homelessness and the conditions that create it. CS works upstream and downstream of homelessness by helping communities end it where it happens and improve the conditions of inequality that make it more likely to happen in the future, especially in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty. A national nonprofit organization based in New York City, CS brings together local innovators, committed citizens, government, businesses and nonprofits to design practical, cost-effective solutions that can be implemented, measured and spread quickly. www.community.solutions About Tableau Foundation The Tableau Foundation is a philanthropic initiative led by the employees of Tableau Software that encourages the use of facts and analytical reasoning to solve the world's problems. Tableau Foundation grants combine Tableau's two most valuable resources its people and its products with financial support to nonprofits that are using data to reshape communities around the globe. To learn more, please visit www.tableaufoundation.org. About Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente has a mission to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve more than 12.2 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal Permanente Medical Group physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to share.kaiserpermanente.org. Marc Brown [email protected] 510-271-6328 SOURCE Kaiser Permanente Related Links http://www.kaiserpermanente.org CLEARWATER, Fla., March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- LinkTek Corporation, the world's leading provider of automatic link handling software, announces the latest release of their LinkFixer Advanced application. According to sources within the development team at LinkTek, this latest release, Version 5.0, is a huge jump forward providing the software with its biggest user interface facelift ever. The user interface was completely redesigned based on numerous usability labs and customer feedback. In addition to an upgraded user experience, LinkFixer Advanced 5.0 introduces a new level of performance control, called "Moderate" allowing users to adjust the speed of the link repairing process to suit their system, server environment and needs. This new control is a balance between the software's existing "Cooperative" and "Aggressive" performance levels. LinkTek's Executive Vice President for Operations, Oscar Albornoz, stated, "We have really spent a lot of time listening to users, getting their feedback on every aspect of LinkFixer Advanced and this release is the result of that investigatory process. We are really proud of 5.0 and know IT professionals will be impressed with this upgrade." With the mounting pressure and demand on IT managers to move to a cloud-based or hybrid environment comes the need for software applications that help mitigate the problems that arise during a data migration. LinkTek has been supporting hundreds of large organizations making this transition easier and more effective with LinkFixer Advanced. Albornoz continued, "We have been doing this for over 15 years, and been in the trenches with lots of IT pros, making sure their data migrations go smoothly, or helping fix them when they didn't. LinkFixer Advanced 5.0 is really the culmination of all of that experience and knowing all the little things that can get sticky. We built those into this version." About LinkTek LinkTek's patented product, LinkFixer Advanced, automatically finds and fixes broken links in an organization's most critical file types so that migrations and file system reorganizations can be completed quickly, accurately and without causing lost data or lost productivity due to broken file links. Headquartered in Clearwater, Florida, LinkTek Corporation provides the world's leading solution for the management and automatic repair of file links found in today's most common file formats. LinkTek's purpose is to improve the lives of computer users and IT professionals by providing software that automatically repairs file links and also protects them from the effects of data migrations and user errors. For more information, visit www.linktek.com. For more information about LinkFixer Advanced, visit LinkTek's Web site at http://www.linktek.com/, call Jamie Sene at 727-442-1822 or email him at [email protected]. SOURCE LinkTek Related Links http://www.linktek.com DUBLIN, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The "2018 North American Water Dispensing Solutions Market" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. A comprehensive analysis of the Water Dispensing Solutions Market (drinking fountains, water coolers, bottle fillers and water dispensers) in North America including market sizing, market share by competitor, market share by distribution channel, drivers, restraints, product pricing trends, industry quotations, company profiles and market forecasts to 2024 for the United States and Canada. This study aims to provide a detailed analysis of the North American Water Dispensing Solutions Market along with qualitative trends for the year 2017. The market includes drinking fountains, water coolers, bottle fillers and water dispensers. The market numbers included in this report represent revenues generated by companies operating in the United States and Canadian Drinking Fountain Market. The base year for the study is 2017 and the forecast period is from 2018 until 2024. This study captures the following information on the North American drinking fountain market: Market Size, Growth Rate, Revenue Forecasts (2018-2024) Growth Drivers & Restraints Market Data Quotes by Key Industry Participants Market Share Analysis Market Trends Key Topics Covered: I Scope of Research/Definitions II Market Landscape a Executive Summary b Market Drivers c Market Restraints d Market Challenges e Consumer Trends f Market Trends g Technology Trends h Competitive Factors i Distribution Trends III Market Data a North American Water Dispensing Solutions Market Revenue Forecast (2018-2024) b Market Share by Manufacturer c Competitive Landscape d Market Share by Region (USA vs Canada) e Market Share by Product Type f Market Share by Application: Outdoor vs Indoor h Market Share by Manufacturer i Market Share by End-User j Market Share by Replacement vs New Installation k Market Share by Filtered vs Unfiltered l Market Share by Refrigerated vs Non-Refrigerated m Pricing Trends Companies Mentioned Bohlmann Quality Products Inc. Central Brass Company Elkay Manufacturing Company Filtrine Manufacturing Company GlobalTap LLC. Haws Corporation Kohler Co. Most Dependable Fountains Inc. Murdock Manufacturing Inc. Oasis International Stern-Williams Sunroc Corporation Whitehaus Collection For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/cqxv62/north_american?w=5 Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com DENVER, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- SCRAM Systems, a global leader in electronic monitoring, announced the launch of Nexus, a first-of-its-kind software platform that makes community supervision data actionable. SCRAM Nexus empowers officers to do their job more efficiently and gives departmental leadership the information needed to make decisions based on science and real-time information by bringing together data from clients, treatment providers, other client touchpoints and data systems into one platform. The real-time response recommendations automated in the systembased on each client's own supervision and treatment planallow officers to better address client behavior with the proper magnitude of rewards or interventions that lead to improved outcomes. As a result, the system makes evidence-based engagement possible to help people on community supervision access needed services and successfully exit the criminal justice system. As a trusted name in the community corrections monitoring and technology market, SCRAM Systems has leveraged its experience working with agencies to build a platform designed to meet the needs of an evolving field and address top challenges. Systemic issues facing community corrections include: Officers typically manage large caseloads of clients and often must cull client information from disparate sources and manually enter it into static systems. This process can consume up to 60 percent of an officer's time on administrative work. In addition, client information is not only difficult to obtain, but when it is available it is outdated and incomplete. At best, officers are unable to respond to client behavior swiftly or with the proper magnitudeboth critical to improving client outcomes. At worst, responses are uninformed or inaccurate. typically manage large caseloads of clients and often must cull client information from disparate sources and manually enter it into static systems. This process can consume up to 60 percent of an officer's time on administrative work. In addition, client information is not only difficult to obtain, but when it is available it is outdated and incomplete. At best, officers are unable to respond to client behavior swiftly or with the proper magnitudeboth critical to improving client outcomes. At worst, responses are uninformed or inaccurate. Department leaders lack data and analytics to understand how their own policy, procedures and evidence-based practices (EBP) initiatives are being carried day-to-day or how they impact clients. Without a baseline understanding of the effect of existing policies, it is impossible to identify areas for departmental improvements. lack data and analytics to understand how their own policy, procedures and evidence-based practices (EBP) initiatives are being carried day-to-day or how they impact clients. Without a baseline understanding of the effect of existing policies, it is impossible to identify areas for departmental improvements. People under community supervision are obliged to participate in activities or services that may not meet their specific risk profile or clinical needs, increasing the chances that they will violate and not successfully complete their supervision. Nexus addresses each of these challenges by providing a central portal for all client information, including risk and need profile, supervision criteria and participation, and automating tracking of treatment attendance and progress, drug test results, electronic monitoring data and more. The web-based interface and mobile access also allow officers and treatment providers to report data in real time. For example, when a client attends a treatment meeting, the provider can record attendance and make comments in the purpose-built portal. Nexus then automatically notifies the officer when that information is submitted and prompts a positive response to the client. Without Nexus, treatment providers must manually submit information about a client's attendance and participation, creating a delay of weeks or months before the officer is aware. This delay prevents the officer from responding to the client in a timely way that could effectively improve the client's behavior. SCRAM Systems CEO Mike Iiams says, "Parole and probation departments play a vital role in public safety, yet they lack the tools needed to maximize client success. Nexus fills a substantial gap by giving departments the ability to answer their most essential questions: Is what we are doing working? Who is it working for? What steps can we take to improve outcomes and better help clients?" The data and information collected in Nexus also allows for unparalleled insights into officer and client performance. For the first time, parole and probation department leadership will have a tool for assessing how their own policies are being implemented and how they are impacting client outcomes. Developed to integrate with departments' existing case management software systems, Nexus allows for seamless implementation across platforms. "SCRAM Nexus provides departments with the most up-to-date technology to implement and deploy the latest in evidence-based solutions to improve outcomes for clients and communities. Increased officer and client engagement, combined with analytic capabilities and evidence-based recommendations will make meaningful, positive changes for clients and communities across the county," Iiams says. West Huddleston, SCRAM Systems Vice President for Business Development and former CEO of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, notes, "Throughout my 30-year career, I have seen firsthand the challenges that courts and community correction agencies face in providing the services, guidance and accountability clients need to succeed. With a counsel of community correction leaders, behavioral scientists and software engineers, Nexus was created to help pretrial, probation and parole officers ensure that their decision-making is grounded in data and evidence. Nexus will not only make them more efficient and effective at their jobs but will also help clients make the changes needed to succeed and exit the criminal justice system for good." Nexus is currently undergoing beta testing in El Dorado County, CA, and Miami County, IN. About SCRAM Systems SCRAM Systems is the world's leading provider of electronic monitoring and software solutions for the criminal justice industry. The company's flagship Continuous Alcohol Monitoring (CAM) technology, launched in 2003, revolutionized the way courts, agencies and treatment providers monitor and manage alcohol-involved offenders. In 2013 the company launched the industry's most comprehensive suite of electronic monitoring technologies, which includes SCRAM Remote Breath, SCRAM GPS and SCRAM House Arrest. Last year the company introduced its first license-based software platform, SCRAM 24/7, to support probation and pretrial sobriety programs. SCRAM Systems employs 280 people worldwide and is a privately-held company headquartered in Littleton, Colorado. SOURCE SCRAM Systems Related Links http://www.scramsystems.com WASHINGTON, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The federal Food & Drug Administration and the cosmetics industry must do a better job protecting consumers from harmful chemicals in cosmetic products including cancer-causing asbestos found in talc-based makeup and body powders, outgoing FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb declared in a strongly worded statement released March 4. Consumer watchdogs welcomed the FDA advisory and called for Congress to review and revise outdated laws governing the FDA's ability to adequately protect consumers from dangerous chemicals found in cosmetics. Fortunately, the new Democratic majority in the House saw the urgent need and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, called a subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, March 12, to focus on the public health risks of carcinogens in consumer products, specifically talcum powder. "Dr. Gottlieb should be commended for taking this important stand and making clear that there is currently no effective oversight to prevent manufacturers from selling dangerous products," said Mike Lux, co-founder of the non-profit American Family Voices. "This issue must be a priority for this Congress and the next FDA chief." This hearing comes as recent tests by the FDA confirmed the discovery of asbestos in cosmetic products sold across the country by Claire's and Justice retailers. While Justice and Claire's stopped selling some of its powder, blush, cream and eye shadow products, Claire's refused to comply with the FDA's recall request, and the agency has no authority to mandate a recall. "What's happening is a powerful argument for why the FDA needs a greater ability to not only regulate these products but also be compelled to protect the health and safety of all Americans," said Mr. Lux of American Family Voices. "There is an even larger company that refuses to stop selling these dangerous products, and the FDA doesn't have the resources or authority to stop them. Despite Johnson & Johnson's claims that the FDA says talcum powder is safe, the agency conducts little independent testing of cosmetic products and relies on those manufacturers to self-police through an industry-funded group called the Cosmetic Ingredient Review. It's a classic example of the fox guarding the hen house. The FDA has no true oversight in this area, and that's something the public and our representatives need to acknowledge." Indeed, internal Johnson & Johnson documents disclosed in litigation have shown that the company has known about asbestos contamination in its products for decades. Yet the FDA and the public were never advised of the safety concerns. Safety advocates also urged transparency in the development of cosmetic products testing procedures to ensure that these procedures comply with objective scientific standards and cannot be manipulated by the cosmetics industry. Dr. Gottlieb's statement notes that laws governing FDA's oversight of cosmetics have not been updated in more than 80 years and that the agency has no authority to require manufacturers to test their products before putting them on store shelves. He recommended that the FDA move away from this self-regulatory model and also urged the industry to embrace a "more modern approach" by registering products, listing their ingredients in a transparent way and doing a better job of notifying the FDA about adverse incidents involving cosmetics. The House committee hearing will be held on Tuesday, March 12, at 10 a.m. ET in room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing will be streamed and archived at https://www.youtube.com/user/OversightDems. Media Contact: Barry Pound [email protected] 800-559-4534 SOURCE American Family Voices WASHINGTON, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Pass USMCA Coalition, an alliance advocating for the swift passage of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, launched its first major advertising campaign. The television and digital advertisements highlight the benefits of the modernized North American trade pact and encourage voters to urge their congressional representatives to ratify the deal. "The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement will propel American trade into the 21st century," said Gary Locke, honorary co-chairman of Pass USMCA. "Millions of Americans who see this first commercial will know it benefits workers and the economy." With an initial, seven-figure spend, the 30-second TV spot will run over three weeks and reach viewers across multiple states. The TV ad can be found at PassUSMCAnow.org. The script is below. "I'm thrilled that so many Americans will hear about the value of USMCA," said Joe Crowley, honorary co-chairman of Pass USMCA and a former congressman from New York. "I hope those who see it urge their congressional representatives to ratify this deal cleanly and quickly." As the new trade pact continues moving forward in Congress, the Pass USMCA coalition plans to release a series of television commercials and digital advertisements across the country in target media markets. "The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement is a win for workers -- and a win for workers is a win for America," said Pass USMCA's executive director, Rick Dearborn. "We're committed to making sure all Americans recognize the importance of this trade deal." SCRIPT: All across America, a new era of economic and creative prosperity is within reach. The U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement will level the playing field for our workers, consumers, and farmers with more free markets, fairer trade, and robust economic growth. By increasing exports, raising wages, and accelerating innovation, it will propel U.S. trade into the 21st century. Call Congress today. Urge swift passage of the USMCA -- because a win for workers is a win for America. About Pass USMCA Pass USMCA Coalition is a group of trade associations and businesses advocating for the swift passage of the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement. The provisions outlined in USMCA will defend American jobs, cultivate innovation, and encourage business development, spurring growth for local, state, and national economies. For more information visit www.PassUSMCA.org. Contact: Emily Troisi (202) 471-4228, ext. 120 [email protected] SOURCE The Pass USMCA Coalition Related Links http://www.PassUSMCA.org ARLINGTON, Va., March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Pharmacists for Healthier Lives (PfHL) a coalition of pharmacy organizations seeking to raise consumer awareness of the full-range of essential healthcare services pharmacists provide each day announced today the release of a report outlining activities for stemming the opioid crisis from more than 100 pharmacy schools from across the country. In July 2018, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), a founding partner of PfHL, issued a call to colleges and schools of pharmacy asking them to provide information on their opioid-related activities. 104 of 143 schools responded, providing 398 specific activities addressing the epidemic. AACP reviewed the submissions and categorized the activities into five areas: Advocacy : State planning to combat the opioid crisis, position statements on opioid use and pain management, state regulations, and collaborative practice agreements to support harm reduction practices. : State planning to combat the opioid crisis, position statements on opioid use and pain management, state regulations, and collaborative practice agreements to support harm reduction practices. Education : Informational efforts targeting practicing pharmacists, student pharmacists, other health professionals, student health professionals, and the general public. : Informational efforts targeting practicing pharmacists, student pharmacists, other health professionals, student health professionals, and the general public. Service : Establishment of programs such as drug take back programs and drug disposal systems, and distribution of naloxone. : Establishment of programs such as drug take back programs and drug disposal systems, and distribution of naloxone. Practice : Utilization of various tools, such as the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, opioid risk assessment tools, and patient electronic health records, to monitor and respond to opioid use. : Utilization of various tools, such as the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, opioid risk assessment tools, and patient electronic health records, to monitor and respond to opioid use. Research: Development of new, non-addicting medications and modalities for pain management and medication management protocols to reduce opioid misuse and abuse. "For the first time, this research provides a comprehensive picture of activities our nation's pharmacy schools are deploying to address the opioid epidemic on multiple levels - including research, policy initiatives and educational efforts," said Dr. Lucinda L. Maine, executive vice president and CEO of AACP. "The report covers activities taking place across the country by pharmacists and pharmacy students who see the impact of the opioid crisis every day. By understanding which activities are most effective, the pharmacy profession is working to share 'best practice' solutions with policymakers, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders to help combat opioid abuse." AACP will update the database as new activities are submitted. To review the executive summary and examples of pharmacy school activities, visit www.aacp.org/opioid. For more information about the campaign, visit www.PharmacistsForHealthierLives.org. Pharmacists for Healthier Lives (PfHL) is a national awareness initiative aimed at highlighting the important role pharmacists play in helping people live their healthiest lives. Our goal is to educate the public about the variety of services pharmacists perform and the rigorous training they undertake to achieve the PharmD (Doctor of Pharmacy) degree, and to raise the profile of pharmacy as an essential healthcare profession. Contact: Stephanie Saunders Fouch AACP 703.739.2330 x1006 [email protected] Dan Sweet RP3 Agency 301.760.3207 [email protected] SOURCE Pharmacists for Healthier Lives Related Links http://www.PharmacistsForHealthierLives.org ATLANTA, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- PrimeRevenue, Inc. , the leading provider of working capital financial technology solutions, announced today that one of its valued customers, PetersenDean Roofing & Solar, has been recognized by Treasury Management International (TMI) for its Most Sustainable/Ethical Corporate Supply Chain Initiative 2019, a TMI Treasury4Good Award. Launched this year as the first awards of their kind in the Treasury industry, the Treasury4Good Awards were created to recognize the growing importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) and Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) in the treasury marketplace. The Awards are dedicated to those corporate treasury teams, banks, and vendors truly making a difference to their organization's sustainable growth - and the world around them. "Supply chain finance helps provide the predictable capital that the residential construction industry requires to maintain healthy businesses year-round; small companies get paid early and large distribution houses improve cash flow, thus strengthening the entire supply chain," said Brian Medley, VP, Global Head of Sales, PrimeRevenue. "We congratulate PetersenDean on skillfully leveraging their partnership with PrimeRevenue to meet the economic challenges inherent in their industry while strengthening and sustaining companies throughout their supply chain." "We are honored to be recognized for our creation of a sustainable, ethical corporate supply chain initiative. PrimeRevenue's supply chain finance program is the base on which that initiative is built," said Steve Doll, Chief Financial Officer, PetersenDean. "Within the context of the construction business, SCF mitigates the uncertainty inherent in the economic model. Unforeseen delays, such as rains, are punitive to the working capital cycle. Our suppliers would normally have to suffer through the same delays we did. This has a domino effect because it delays the timing of their expenditures and requires that they maintain excess cash / liquidity for a 'rainy day.' With SCF, we're relatively agnostic to the delays that often affect our industry. We can target a specific date and know that we can make the payment on that date every time. Our suppliers value this, because it helps them with their projections and planning." The TMI Treasury4Good Awards ceremony is being held on May 4 in London, as a not for profit event supporting two charities: The Kamuli Mission Hospital and Sightsavers. For more information, please visit www.treasury4good.com. About PetersenDean Roofing & Solar Founded in 1984 by Jim Petersen, PetersenDean is the largest, full-service, privately-held roofing and solar company in the United States. Specializing in consumer retail, new residential, and commercial construction. PetersenDean works directly with consumers in addition to some of the nation's largest builders and developers. With more than a million roofs under its belt and over one hundred thousand PV installations, the Fremont, Calif.-based company employs 3,000 workers and operates in eleven states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Nevada, Oklahoma and Texas. Please visit http://www.petersendean.com/ for more details. About PrimeRevenue PrimeRevenue's supply chain finance (reverse factoring) solutions help organizations in 70+ countries optimize their working capital to efficiently fund strategic initiatives, gain a competitive advantage and strengthen relationships throughout the supply chain. As the leading provider of working capital financial technology solutions, PrimeRevenue's diverse multi-funder platform processes more than $200 billion USD in payment transactions per year. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, with offices in London, Prague, Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Melbourne. Additional information about PrimeRevenue can be found at www.primerevenue.com | Twitter: @primerevenue | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/primerevenue. Media Contact: Ariane Wolff Warner Communications [email protected] 978.729.3542 (U.S.) SOURCE PrimeRevenue, Inc. Related Links http://www.primerevenue.com His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid highlighted that the United Arab Emirates' cultural legacy is a precious asset that must be treasured by both present and future generations, and is driving the leadership's aspirations for a nation built upon the values of tolerance and coexistence. His Highness mentioned that the preservation of the UAE's cultural and intellectual legacy is integral to its progressive journey thus far, and that the opening of Qasr Al Watan reflects the leadership's dedication to fostering a strong connection between the community and their heritage. His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed reaffirmed the leadership's dedication to preserving the nation's cultural and intellectual legacy, underscoring its ability to empower and inspire future generations by instilling a deep sense of national pride. His Highness emphasised the importance of continuing the legacy of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan who sought to preserve the heritage of the UAE while encouraging cultural dialogue and openness. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed highlighted Qasr Al Watan as an important symbol of the UAE's progressive journey, reflecting the leadership's commitment to boosting cultural understanding amongst nations. Their Highnesses toured Qasr Al Watan and its iconic wings, and were introduced to exhibits that reflect the country's governing values and traditions, in addition to highlighting Arab contributions to various fields of knowledge. The tour concluded with the 'Palace in Motion' a remarkable light and sound show projected onto the facade of the iconic building. A story told in three acts; the show draws a link between the aspirations of Qasr Al Watan and the vision of the nation, reflecting on the UAE's journey of the past, present and future. The opening of Qasr Al Watan is a testament of the leadership's role in shaping the future of the nation, in line with their ambition to develop national competencies a core part of the Vision 2021 National Agenda, which aims to ensure sustainable growth for the country's economy across all sectors. Qasr Al Watan visitors will gain a deeper understanding of the UAE's governing traditions and values, as they are invited to explore a well-preserved legacy of knowledge and tradition that has shaped the nation's journey. Visitors to the UAE's newest tourist attraction will enjoy an enriching journey throughout their tour at the Palace, beginning at The Great Hall the heart of the building. In the west wing of the Palace, they will learn about the formation of the UAE and its system of governance, and have access to halls typically reserved for official state guests such as the Spirit of Collaboration, a chamber where Federal Supreme Council and UAE Cabinet meetings as well as official summits are held. Visitors can also explore a collection of diplomatic gifts received from visiting Heads of State and foreign dignitaries, displayed to the public for the first time. At Al Barza, visitors will learn about the traditional role of a Majlis (which means council or assembly) - a space for cultural, political and social gatherings - through an engaging multimedia show which sheds light on the continuation of a tradition historically followed by Emirati leaders to govern with the consensus of their people. Continuing their journey to the House of Knowledge in the east wing of the Palace, visitors will have access to two rooms featuring rare artefacts, books, manuscripts and antiquities from the Arab world. Visitors will also be able to view key artefacts and historic maps that represent some of the earliest Arab contributions to human knowledge during the period of enlightenment referred to as the Arab Golden Age. The Palace also houses the Qasr Al Watan Library where scholars can explore a vast collection of over 50,000 books and resources about the UAE and learn about the nation's progressive journey. Qasr Al Watan will be open to the public seven days a week from 10:00 AM to 8:00 pm with tickets available for purchase from the Visitor Centre and online via the official Qasr Al Watan website www.QasrAlWatan.ae. NOTE TO EDITORS: The Palace will be open 7 days a week from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM The Palace in Motion evening light and sound show starts at 7:30 PM for a duration of 15 minutes for a duration of 15 minutes Tickets can be bought daily at the visitor centre from 9:30 AM until 7:00 PM and online via the official Qasr Al Watan website - www.QasrAlWatan.ae About Qasr Al Watan: Qasr Al Watan in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, is housed in the Presidential Palace compound. At Qasr Al Watan, visitors will have the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the UAE's governing traditions and values, and will be able to explore a well-preserved legacy of knowledge and tradition. The Palace also houses the Qasr Al Watan Library where scholars will be able to explore a vast collection of books and resources about the UAE's political, social and cultural history and learn about the nation's progressive journey. For more info: www.QasrAlWatan.ae Video: https://youtu.be/1PSnN24JALo SOURCE Qaser Experiences Related Links http://www.QasrAlWatan.ae MONTREAL, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - Resolute Forest Products Inc. (NYSE: RFP) (TSX: RFP) will hold its annual meeting of stockholders on Friday, May 24, 2019, at 10:00 a.m. (Eastern), at the Hampton Inn Cleveland, located at 4355 Frontage Road, Cleveland, Tennessee. About Resolute Forest Products Resolute Forest Products is a global leader in the forest products industry with a diverse range of products, including market pulp, tissue, wood products, newsprint and specialty papers, which are marketed in close to 70 countries. The company owns or operates some 40 facilities, as well as power generation assets, in the United States and Canada. Resolute has third-party certified 100% of its managed woodlands to internationally recognized sustainable forest management standards. The shares of Resolute Forest Products trade under the stock symbol RFP on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange. Resolute has received regional, North American and global recognition for its leadership in corporate social responsibility and sustainable development, as well as for its business practices. Visit www.resolutefp.com for more information. SOURCE Resolute Forest Products Inc. Related Links www.resolutefp.com GAITHERSBURG, Md., March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Sirnaomics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of RNAi therapeutics against cancer and fibrotic diseases, today announced that the Company's management will present its platform technology and discuss the potential utility of RNAi therapeutics at the 4th Annual Oligonucleotide & Precision Therapeutics: Discovery, Development and Delivery conference on March 25-28, 2019 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Patrick Lu, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer, will share an overview of Sirnaomics' differentiated RNAi technology platform, which leverages a proprietary polypeptide nanoparticle (PNP) drug delivery system, and the Company's pipeline of RNAi therapeutics spanning oncology and anti-fibrosis indications at the following presentations. Presentation: Chairperson's Remarks Date & Time: March 26 , 10:45 am ET Date & Time: , Presentation Title: Novel siRNA Therapeutics for Immune Oncology Therapeutics Presentation Track: Oligonucleotide Discovery and Delivery Date & Time: March 26 , 2 pm ET Presentation Track: Oligonucleotide Discovery and Delivery Date & Time: , Presentation Title: Can We Push for siRNA Cancer Therapeutics Similar to Experiences with mAbs? Date & Time: March 27 , 8 am ET Also, Dmitry Samarsky, PhD, Chief Technology Officer of Sirnaomics, will chair a short course, "Examining The Safety and Toxicity of Nucleic Acid Therapeutics", on Monday, March 25 starting at 6:50 pm ET. He will also participate in a panel discussion, "Bridging the Gap between Discovery, Development and Compliance", on Tuesday, March 26 at 9:15 am ET. About Sirnaomics, Inc. Sirnaomics, Inc., a leading privately held biopharmaceutical company for discovery and development of RNAi therapeutics, is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA, with subsidiaries in Suzhou and Guangzhou, China. The company's mission is to develop novel therapeutics to alleviate human suffering and advance patient care in areas of high unmet medical need. The guiding principles of the company are: Innovation, Global Vision with a Patient Centered focus. Members of the senior management team have a great deal of combined experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, financial, clinical and business management in both the USA and China. The company is supported by funding from institutional investors, corporate partnerships and government grants. Sirnaomics has developed a strong portfolio of intellectual property with an enriched product pipeline. The therapeutic areas of focus include oncology and anti-fibrotic therapeutics. Learn more at www.sirnaomics.com. CONTACT: Sirnaomics, Inc. Michael Molyneaux MD MBA Chief Medical Officer [email protected] ICR Healthcare Investors: Stephanie Carrington Tel: +1 646 277 1282 Email: [email protected] Media: James Heins Tel: +1 203 682 8251 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Sirnaomics, Inc. Related Links http://www.sirnaomics.com BRIGHTON, Mass., March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- In the wake of Steward St. Elizabeth Medical Center's (SEMC) failure and refusal to provide contractually guaranteed RN staffing levels at Steward Health Care's flagship facility, the 600 registered nurses of SEMC have provided management with the required notice of their plan to conduct an information picket outside the facility on March 19. The protest is designed to alert the public about patient care conditions at the facility, and to seek the public's support in calling on SEMC to keep its promises to ensure safe patient care. "We will be holding this picket because we are concerned for our patients' safety." said Chris Kenney, RN, a nurse at SEMC and co-chair of the nurses' local bargaining unit with the Massachusetts Nurses Association. "Nurses go to work every day with the fear that an unnecessary patient injury will take place under the current staffing conditions. Last July, we ratified a new contract signed by SEMC management that promised the addition of RN staffing to ensure our patients get the care they expect and deserve from this Boston teaching hospital. Enough is enough, it's time for Steward to keep its promises." The nurses' concerns for the safety of their patients are well documented. From July 2018, when the nurses ratified their contract with Steward, to the end of February 2019, nurses have submitted more than 160 official unsafe staffing reports (nearly one every other day) detailing instances where nurses were forced to take excessive patient assignments that "poses a serious threat to the safety and well-being of my patients." Each of these reports was shared with and signed by management representatives in real time, and in nearly every case management refused to alter the nurse's patient assignment or provide any relief to ensure appropriate care. The typical responses by SEMC management are "we have no one to send you, there is no one available, the whole house is short or do the best you can." The issue of patient safety and the need for increased staff support is an ongoing issue for nurses working throughout the Steward system. As nurses report that their patients' care is in jeopardy, Steward has been involved in a multi-billion dollar expansion plan, purchasing more than 26 hospitals in nine states, the entire health care system on the Island nation of Malta, while also pursuing the purchase of additional facilities in Montenegro, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo. This issue is especially true at SEMC, the flagship tertiary care facility of the 10 hospitals owned by Steward in Massachusetts. At SEMC, Steward has embarked on a $100 million renovation plan, including new medical units, OR suites and a parking garage, yet it refuses to provide the RN staffing it promised to ensure an appropriate level of care to its current patients. "Our hospital and our nurses are expected to not only care for the patients in our community, but we also are expected to handle some of the most complex patients that are transferred from other Steward community hospitals," said Kirsten Ransom, RN, a SEMC nurse and co-chair of the nurses local bargaining unit. "In our last contract, we negotiated with management to provide staff needed to ensure we can respond to the needs of this complex patient population, yet Steward has refused to provide those promised resources." Specifically, the nurses' contract called upon Steward to increase staffing for the patients by having "charge nurses" to start each shift with no patient assignment. Charge nurses provide a valuable role on all hospital units, overseeing the assignment of patients among other staff on the unit, ensuring an efficient flow of patients in and out of the unit, communicating with physicians and others to ensure patients receive the care they need and most importantly, providing an extra pair of hands when a patient crisis occurs. Unfortunately, much of the time there is not enough staff to provide this level of care. Steward also agreed to add several "resource nurses" on some of the hospital's busiest floors. These nurses would be there to assist newer nurses with complex cases, to take on assignments when patient census spikes, and to facilitate patient admissions and discharges to maintain efficient patient flow and care delivery. Again, SEMC management refuses to comply with the contract. There are no resource nurses. The lack of these resources also can cause longer wait times and more patients boarding in the hospital's busy emergency department while waiting to be admitted to a bed on the floors. The situation has been further exacerbated by a number of other factors, including SEMC's failure to schedule adequate numbers of certified nurse assistants, unit secretaries, and "sitters," staff to be on hand to monitor patients at high risk for falling, or psychiatric patients at risk for self harm. The nurses also point to a chronic lack of basic supplies in the hospital. "It appears that ours is not the only contract that Steward fails to honor. The vendors won't deliver without being paid," Kenny explained. The nurses have filed numerous grievances and have held numerous meetings over a period of years with management to demand immediate action simply meet their contractual commitments. Contributing to this problem is the lack of consistent leadership in senior management positions at the hospital. In the last six years, there has been no less than six CEOs and seven chief nursing officers. The current chief of nursing has been at the facility since September of 2018 and will be leaving within the next few weeks. "Nurses at St. Elizabeth's can no longer remain silent while the company that owns the hospital uses their profits to buy more hospitals throughout the U.S. and in other countries at the expense of the care and safety of our patients," said Kenny. "The public has a right to know about decisions that are being made at these hospitals that jeopardize their safety." "By signing that contract, Steward made a promise to provide a safe standard of care," Ransom added. "We will be out in front of our hospital on March 19 to help make sure they keep that promise" MassNurses.org Facebook.com/MassNurses Twitter.com/MassNurses Instagram.com/MassNurses Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 23,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public. SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association Related Links http://www.massnurses.org "The Glenlivet Winchester Collection Vintage 1967 is a unique expression that allows the current generation to peek into the rich past of The Glenlivet," says Sona Bajaria, Vice President of Marketing, The Glenlivet, Pernod Ricard USA. "This rare release pays homage to The Glenlivet's accomplished Master Distiller, Alan Winchester, and to the valued heritage of the brand. Looking towards the next 50 years, we hope to continue to open up the scotch whisky category with expressions that can stand the test of time." The Glenlivet Winchester Collection 1967 brings together malts from several rare oak casks, the youngest of which was filled in December 1967. Slowly matured in its cask over the 50-year period, portions of the whisky have evaporated through the wood over time, as typical with aged whiskies, resulting in a precious amount of rare liquid that remained for bottling in June 2018. The whisky is non-chill filtered at cask strength, and boasts a rich and fruity nose, notes of apricot jam and sweet ripe peaches, and a hint of toasted almonds. The smooth taste continues with fondant orange and milk chocolate flavors, velvety texture and a long, and a luxuriously sweet finish. "The launch of Vintage 1967 is a momentous occasion for The Glenlivet, and a particularly proud one for me personally," says The Glenlivet Master Distiller Alan Winchester. "To have my name associated with one of the finest single malts that money can buy is an honor what a fantastic way to celebrate more than 40 years in the Scotch whisky industry. By collaborating with the talented Bethan Gray, we have been able to epitomize not only Vintage 1967's luxurious quality but also the craftsmanship that led to its creation. The result is a beautiful and captivating bottle that ensures Vintage 1967 is a feast for the eyes as well the palate." Taking inspiration from the rolling hills that surrounds The Glenlivet distillery in Scotland, award-winning British designer Bethan Gray handcrafted the exquisite bottle and case that hold the 50- year-old single malt, reflecting the craftsmanship and exceptional quality of its contents. Alan and Bethan worked closely on gathering influences for the design on the grounds of the distillery, where Bethan also has her own historical past. Her grandfather lived and worked as a forester in the Cairngorms, home of The Glenlivet, and the layers of mist that gather in the surrounding valleys became inspiration for the unique reinterpretation of her Dhow pattern that surrounds the bottle. "Everything I do is about collaborating with people to tell stories through craft, so it was a real honor to work with Alan Winchester to create this incredibly special bottle of scotch whisky," said Bethan Gray. "We're both inspired by spending time in nature, so what better inspiration than the Cairngorms, where The Glenlivet distillery is based?" The Scotch whisky making process itself was further inspiration for Bethan. The bottle is blown by master glassblower Brodie Nairn to precisely the right size and thickness and then hand-cut, creating an ombre color effect that mimics the ageing process of the liquid inside. It is then engraved and hand-painted, making each one unique. The hand-stained birds-eye maple case is made using solid copper overlays that reflect The Glenlivet's charred barrels and copper stills. Created by hand by artisans, the technique used to overlay the delicate copper was invented specifically for this case in its curved form. The mother-of-pearl inlaid into the case has been inspired by the local freshwater pearl mussel shells indigenous to the Spey River. Consumers can follow @TheGlenlivet_US and visit www.theglenlivet.com/en-us for the latest happenings or to find out more about The Glenlivet Winchester Collection. About Pernod Ricard USA Pernod Ricard USA is the premium spirits and wine company in the U.S., and the largest subsidiary of Paris, France-based Pernod Ricard SA, the world's no. 2 in wines and spirits. The company's leading spirits and wines include such prestigious brands as Absolut Vodka, Chivas Regal Scotch Whisky, The Glenlivet Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Jameson Irish Whiskey, Malibu, Kahlua Liqueur, Beefeater Gin, Seagram's Extra Dry Gin, Martell Cognac, Hiram Walker Liqueurs, Pernod, Ricard and Avion Tequila; such superior wines as Jacob's Creek, Kenwood Vineyards and Brancott Estate; and such exquisite champagnes and sparkling wines as Perrier-Jouet Champagne, G.H. Mumm Champagne and Mumm Napa sparkling wines. Pernod Ricard USA is based in New York, New York, and has roughly 650 employees across the country. Pernod Ricard USA urges all adults to consume its products responsibly and has an active campaign to promote responsible drinking. For more information on this, please visit: www.responsibility.org. About Bethan Gray London-based Bethan Gray is one of our most celebrated furniture and homeware designers, having been awarded four Elle Decoration British Design Awards including the coveted Best British Designer. Her work features extensively in global media; and she has exhibited in London, Milan, Paris, New York and Dubai. Bethan's ancestors went on an incredible journey across continents - Bethan has since visited many of the places they passed through, inspired by a love of travel, art and culture. Today, her mission is to bring contemporary relevance to the traditional techniques from these regions keeping both cultural narratives and craft skills alive. She believes in the power to tell stories through craft and design and has formed joint ventures based on mutual trust and respect that support over 400 master crafts people globally. Established in 2008, Bethan Gray Design creates luxury handcrafted collections of furniture and home accessories that are sold through global retailers such as Harrods, Liberty, Lane Crawford. SOURCE Pernod Ricard USA NEW YORK, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- High global prevalence of cancer and increasing funding for life sciences are expected to drive the overall growth of the exosome research products market Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05751085 The global exosome research products market is projected to reach USD 264 million by 2024 from USD 91 million in 2019, at a CAGR of 23.8% during the forecast period. Factors driving the growth of this market include the increasing funding for life science research, the high global prevalence of cancer, and the increasing interest in exosome-based procedures. However, the dearth of skilled professionals is a major factor that is expected to restrain the growth of this market to a certain extent in the coming years. The pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period Based on end user, the exosomes research products market is segmented into academic & research institutes, hospitals & clinical testing laboratories, and pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies.Pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies are expected to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period. This can majorly be attributed to significant investments by companies in research activities for the development of exosome-based diagnostics to combat new diseases. The lung cancer segment accounted for the largest share of the exosome research products market during the forecast period Based on cancer applications, the exosomes research products market is segmented into lung, prostate, breast, colorectal, and other cancers.In 2018, lung cancer accounted for the largest share of the exosomes market for cancer applications. The large share of this segment can primarily be attributed to factors such as the increasing prevalence of lung cancer, technological advancements in instruments & assays for liquid biopsy, and the growing demand for advanced diagnostic technologies. North America to dominate the market during the forecast period In 2018, North America accounted for the largest share of the exosome research products market.The North American market is also expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Factors such as the availability of government funding for life science research, favorable regulatory environment, increasing focus on exosomes in research and diagnostics, and the presence of high-quality infrastructure for clinical and laboratory research are driving the growth of the exosomes market in North America. According to R&D Magazine (2018), North America accounted for 27.36% of global R&D spending. North America has several national institutes that support biotechnology and life science research activities. The growth of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries and growth in the number of cancer cases in the region are also supporting market growth. The primary interviews conducted for this report can be categorized as follows: By Company Type: Tier 1 (55%), Tier 2 (20%), and Tier 3 (25%) By Designation: C-level (58%), D-level (19%), and Others (23%) By Region: North America (40%), Europe (30%), Asia (10%), and RoW (20%) List of Companies Profiled in the Report Thermo Fisher Scientific (US) QIAGEN N.V. (Netherlands) Lonza (Switzerland) Bio-Techne (US) System Biosciences, LLC. (US) NX Pharmagen (US) Miltenyi Biotec (Germany) AMS Biotechnology (Europe) Limited (UK) NanoSomiX (US) Norgen Biotek Corp. (Canada) Research Coverage: This report provides a detailed picture of the global exosome research products market.It aims at estimating the size and future growth potential of the market across different segments, such as product & service, application, end user, and region. The report also includes an in-depth competitive analysis of the key market players, along with their company profiles, recent developments, and key market strategies. Key Benefits of Buying the Report: The report will help market leaders/new entrants by providing them with the closest approximations of the revenue numbers for the overall exosome research products market and its subsegments.This report will also help stakeholders better understand the competitive landscape and gain more insights to better position their business and make suitable go-to-market strategies. It will also enable stakeholders to understand the pulse of the market and provide them with information on the key market drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05751085 About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 SOURCE Reportlinker Related Links http://www.reportlinker.com LOS ANGELES, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Help Group is excited to announce the launch of one of its newest programsKaleidoscope, serving LGBTQ+ children, adolescents, young adults, and their families. While Kaleidoscope will serve all LGBTQ+ individuals, it will also specialize in working with LGBTQ+ individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, LD and social and emotional challenges and their families. Kaleidoscope will support building healthy relationships, strong social connections and critical life skills. Through high quality, innovative evidence based programming, Kaleidoscope's goal is to help each person realize their unique potential. According to Dr. Susan Berman, COO of The Help Group, "With a growing number of LGBTQ+ young people, including those with special needs, seeking a safe place to connect with peers and explore their emerging identity, it was clear that there was a pressing community need for a program such as this. Believing that strengths in differences make the world a better place, and that all LGBTQ+ individuals should have access to a full complement of services, Kaleidoscope was born." Kaleidoscope plans to offer the following services: Support, advocacy, and education Social events, social clubs, and community engagement Resources and referrals Training for community partners Individual, group, and family counseling School programs According to Bryan Scheihing, LMFT and Program Coordinator of Kaleidoscope, "It's important to recognize that LGBTQ+ youth are facing unique challenges. Those challenges are more complex when combined with social and learning differences - "a double rainbow." Understanding and accepting that each child, teen and young adult has a unique story is critical in providing more specialized support for this population." To learn more about Kaleidoscope, visit www.thehelpgroup.org/kaleidoscope. About The Help Group: Founded in 1975, The Help Group is the largest, most innovative and comprehensive nonprofit of its kind in the United States serving children, adolescents and young adults with special needs related to autism spectrum disorder, learning disabilities, ADHD, developmental delays, abuse and emotional challenges. www.thehelpgroup.org. SOURCE The Help Group Related Links http://www.thehelpgroup.org SAN FRANCISCO, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Government of India launched the Smart City Mission, an initiative to upgrade the infrastructure of 100 cities. This initiative by the Indian Government has resulted in the development of innovative solutions leveraging new digital technologies like IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Analytics. To make this a reality, IoT plays a critical role in bringing intelligence to devices and making them citizen friendly. ThingLogix Foundry's serverless IoT platform has empowered startups working on these important projects to reduce time to market by developing solutions in weeks instead of months. "ThingLogix is proud to help NetEdge deliver innovative IoT solutions to enable the Smart City of the Future initiative in India, now supporting the 10 fastest growing cities in the world," says Eric Dirst, COO of ThingLogix. NetEdge leveraged the ThingLogix Foundry serverless platform to quickly design and deploy solutions for startups in these segments and more: Intelligent Drip Irrigation system: The solution reduces consumption of water, only irrigating land needed to sustain crops. A big impact as agriculture accounts for 80% of the global water consumption. The solution reduces consumption of water, only irrigating land needed to sustain crops. A big impact as agriculture accounts for 80% of the global water consumption. Warehouse Facility Management: To monitor, maintain and report on the ambient temperature and humidity in the warehouse, reducing wasted food items. To monitor, maintain and report on the ambient temperature and humidity in the warehouse, reducing wasted food items. Feedback Mechanism: Captures the mood of service associates. This feedback is analyzed and leveraged for training to improve the quality of service. "ThingLogix Foundry enabled Vida to develop the product and launch the service in only months and empowered us to stay ahead of our competitor," says Prateek Kumar, Founder of Vida, the developer of Mood Counter. "There are tremendous large-scale deployment opportunities for of IoT-enabled devices in agriculture, food technology, energy, utilities and healthcare sectors. This is all made possible by the fast moving, scalable ThingLogix IoT platform. ThingLogix speeds IoT solutions to market in a fraction of time," says Dr. Manoj Saxena, CEO of NetEdge. About ThingLogix ThingLogix provides Serverless IoT solutions and Serverless No-Code Solutions including serverless AppDev, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. Customers can customize our platform by writing Function as a Services (FaaS) Lambda functions using one of 7+ coding languages, or by integrating with our published REST-based API framework. We get your project to deployment quickly so you can monetize your solution. For more on ThingLogix visit: http://www.thinglogix.com ThingLogix Kelly C. Powell, MBA VP of Sales & Marketing 650-226-5904 [email protected] SOURCE ThingLogix Related Links http://www.thinglogix.com NEW YORK, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Cohen & Steers Real Estate Securities Fund (Class I: CSDIX) and Cohen & Steers MLP & Energy Opportunity Fund (Class Z: MLOZX) have received 2019 Lipper Fund Awards for consistent strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. Lipper's proprietary performance-based methodology earned Cohen & Steers Real Estate Securities Fund the distinction for its risk-adjusted returns among 174 share classes of funds in the Real Estate category during the 5-year period ended December 31, 2018. Cohen & Steers MLP & Energy Opportunity Fund was singled out among 99 share classes in its energy MLP funds category for its risk-adjusted returns during the 3-year period. "We're grateful Lipper has again commended the Fund for its high standard of excellence," said Thomas Bohjalian, head of U.S. real estate securities and portfolio manager of the Cohen & Steers Real Estate Securities Fund. "We believe REITs provide an exceptional way to diversify in today's market, offering attractive relative valuations, low correlations with equities and a history of outperforming the broad marketparticularly in the late stages of the business cycle." Tyler Rosenlicht, Senior Vice President and portfolio manager of Cohen & Steers MLP & Energy Opportunity Fund said, "Lipper's accolade confirms the merits of our broad and diversified approach to investing in the midstream energy sector. Looking ahead, we believe midstream valuations are quite compelling, at a time when the fundamental outlook for the sector is strengthening and midstream companies continue to improve their governance and capital allocation policies." Cohen & Steers MLP & Energy Opportunity Fund takes a differentiated approach to investing in the midstream energy universe. The Fund's regulated investment company (RIC) structure allows it to invest in a wide range of midstream businesses in an effort to maximize total return. This compares to midstream funds structured as C-corps, which we view as income vehicles that primarily hold MLP securities. The RIC structure also offers potential tax advantages over C-corp mutual funds. Please consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of any Cohen & Steers fund carefully before investing. A summary prospectus and prospectus containing this and other information may be obtained, free of charge, by visiting cohenandsteers.com or by calling 800.330.7348. Please read the summary prospectus and prospectus carefully before investing. Lipper Leader Ratings for Consistent Return. Ratings for consistent return reflect funds' historic returns, adjusted for volatility, relative to peers. Ratings are computed for all Lipper classifications with five or more distinct portfolios and span both equity and fixed-income funds. The ratings are subject to change every month and are calculated for the following time periods: 3-year, 5-year, 10-year, and overall. The highest 20% of funds in each classification are named Lipper Leaders for Consistent Return. The overall calculation is based on an equal-weighted average of percentile ranks for the Consistent Return metrics over 3-year, 5-year, and 10-year periods (if applicable). Lipper Leaders for Consistent Return may be the best fit for investors who value a fund's year-to-year consistency relative to other funds in a particular peer group. Investors are cautioned that some peer groups are inherently more volatile than others, and even Lipper Leaders for Consistent Return in the most volatile groups may not be well suited to shorter-term goals or less risk-tolerant investors. Cohen & Steers Real Estate Securities Fund. The Fund is subject to special risk considerations similar to those associated with the direct ownership of real estate due to its policy of concentration in the securities of real estate companies. Real estate valuations may be subject to factors such as changing general and local economic, financial, competitive and environmental conditions. The Fund is classified as a "non-diversified" fund under the federal securities laws because it can invest in fewer individual companies than a diversified fund. However, the Fund must meet certain diversification requirements under the U.S. tax laws. Cohen & Steers MLP & Energy Opportunity Fund. The Fund is subject to special risk considerations similar to those associated with the direct ownership of MLPs. The Fund is classified as a "non-diversified" fund under the federal securities laws because it can invest in fewer individual companies than a diversified fund. However, the Fund must meet certain diversification requirements under the U.S. tax laws. Symbol: (NYSE: CNS) About Cohen & Steers. Cohen & Steers is a global investment manager specializing in liquid real assets, including real estate securities, listed infrastructure, commodities and natural resource equities, as well as preferred securities and other income solutions. Founded in 1986, the firm is headquartered in New York City, with offices in London, Hong Kong and Tokyo. SOURCE Cohen & Steers Related Links http://www.cohenandsteers.com MINNEAPOLIS, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- A multidisciplinary team from the University of Minnesota is giving patients a more interactive role when making decisions about their care through a new award-winning app. It's called PRISM, which stands for PROMIS Reporting Insight System from Minnesota, and was developed by experts from the University of Minnesota Medical School, Institute for Health Informatics, Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and the Carlson School of Management, in partnership with Fairview Health Services, EMF Consulting, and Perk Motivation. PRISM recently won the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Step Up App Challenge, a competition to address the need for greater use of standardized patient-reported outcomes (PRO) data in clinical care and research. The app's data can be used to provide insight into a person's health status, function, and quality of life as well as evaluate the physical, mental and social health in adults and children. "Improving healthcare quality can't happen without the patient," said Steve Johnson, Director of Informatics Innovation Dissemination, University of Minnesota Institute for Health Informatics and Clinical and Translational Science Institute. "This app facilitates the broad implementation of PROMIS measures while integrating the patient's responses with their medical records so clinicians can easily access the information and see trends during a clinic visit." PRISM can show patients how their data compares to the overall population and provide personalized recommendations on how to improve their health. Perk Motivation provided the software development for PRISM and incorporated engagement techniques from their experience developing other healthcare apps. "Validated patient-reported outcome instruments, like the PROMIS measures, are uniquely effective in capturing the subjective patient experience," said Andrew Portis, M.D. Chair, Fairview HealthEast Kidney Stone Institute. "We have leveraged unnecessarily complex systems to great success, and we are optimistic that the PRISM app should make it easier for other centers to better adapt care to serve their patients." "Technological advancements in healthcare have evolved at a rate that outpaces our ability to apply these new tools in a meaningful way," said Michael Borofsky, M.D., assistant professor, University of Minnesota Medical School. "Similarly, huge efforts have been made to create instruments that accurately capture our patients' health; however, finding a way to integrate these into daily clinical practice has been challenging. With PRISM we are hopeful to bring technology and outcome reporting together in a simple to use way." The AHRQ Step Up App Challenge is part of an ongoing effort to help shape the nation's digital healthcare ecosystem. "This app could not have been created without each of the project's collaborators," said Pinar Karaca-Mandic, Ph.D., Academic Director, Medical Industry Leadership Institute (MILI) at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management. "We named our app as a 'solution from Minnesota' to celebrate the innovation coming from our university; our state. This app truly represents what can be created when you put great minds from education and industry together to tackle a grand challenge." PRISM will be piloted in nine practice settings affiliated with MedStar Health in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Other PRISM collaborators include De Liu, Ph.D., associate professor of Information and Decision Sciences and 3M Fellow in Business Analytics at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota; Carla Pavone, Ph.D., associate director of the Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship and program director of Minnesota Innovation Corps (MIN-Corps); Elisha Friesema, M.B.A, founder and principal consultant of EMF Consulting, and a member of the Medical Industry Leadership Institute alumni board; Sue Neises R.N., M.A., CPHQ, manager at Fairview/HealthEast Kidney Stone Institute; Zach McGill, founder and CEO of Perk Motivation; and Doug DeBold, founder and CTO of Perk Motivation. PRISM is co-led by Drs. Johnson and Karaca-Mandic. This application was developed with support from the University of Minnesota Medical School's New Opportunities to Improve Outcomes (NOTIO) grant and the University of Minnesota's National Institute of Health's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences Clinical and Translational Science Award, grant UL1TR002494. Seed funds were also provided by the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management's Medical Industry Leadership Institute. ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA OFFICE OF ACADEMIC CLINICAL AFFAIRS The Office of Academic Clinical Affairs (OACA) provides leadership and is home to centers and institutes that facilitate clinical research and training at the University of Minnesota. Our mission is to encourage interdisciplinary collaborations that strengthen clinical practice, advance patient care and serve as a national model for innovation and discovery. Contact: Krystle Barbour [email protected] 612-626-276 SOURCE University of Minnesota Medical School TORONTO, March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Wave is honored to announce its place at the top of the list as TrustRadius, a community of professionals sharing software reviews and best practices, released its top-rated budgeting and accounting software for 2019. Wave users quoted in the survey results love the ease of sending quotes and invoices, although Wave offers much more to over 4 million brave entrepreneurs and small businesses. TrustRadius utilizes verified reviewers, doesn't sell paid placement and ensures through this system that vendors can't skew results. "Entrepreneurs and small businesses will be more successful when their finances are managed in the all-encompassing system Wave has created for them to track their money faster and more efficiently. That's why we're honored to earn the TrustRadius Top Rated Accounting Award Based on customer ratings," says Paul Marshall, Chief Operating Officer at Wave. "Simplifying the financial lives of entrepreneurs is our core purpose, and with our recent acquisition of Every, we are more prepared than ever to offer entrepreneurs the full complement of automated financial and banking services." Wave scored 9.1 out of a possible 10 points in the TrustRadius survey. The data comes from more than 17,000 professionals who left reviews, and the top badges were awarded solely on user feedback and satisfaction scores. About Wave & the Wave App: Toronto based Wave is a revolutionary software app that simplifies the financial tasks involved in running a small business, allowing those business owners or entrepreneurs to focus on doing what they love. Wave automates accounting, invoicing, payments, credit products and even payroll. With insights built around each user and an intuitive interface, Wave is the go-to financial operating system designed purposefully and solely for the entrepreneurs and small businesses we serve. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WaveHQ/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/wavehq?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wave-hq Media Contact: Erin Steed SOURCE Wave Related Links https://www.waveapps.com PISCATAWAY, N.J., March 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- LIXIL Americas' kitchen and bath brands, American Standard and GROHE, are proudly supporting the Somerset County Vocational and Technical High School (SCVTS) in Bridgewater Township, N.J. By providing some of the latest plumbing innovations, LIXIL aims to help students receive the proper training necessary to pursue a plumbing career in today's modern world. The support is part of a larger effort of LIXIL Americas, maker of pioneering water and housing products, to steer the conversation towards the importance of plumbers, and how their contributions ensure that communities have safe drinking water, a clean shower and proper sanitation. "World Plumbing Day is a critical reminder of the vital work that plumbers perform to protect the health of the nation. Currently, millions of stable, highly-lucrative trade jobs remain unfilled, and the health of our communities is at risk," said Steven Delarge, chief executive officer, LIXIL Americas. "This gap will continue to grow, and therefore, LIXIL is committed to building the 'next generation' of trained plumbers by providing the most innovative products on the market to SCVTS and other vocational schools." The SCVTS program in Bridgewater Township provides students with instruction in all aspects of residential and commercial plumbing. As part of their training, students receive manufacturer literature and specification sheets to better understand behind-the-wall plumbing and drain sizing. Because modern plumbing systems are more complex, much of their learning is devoted to training on the most innovative products including American Standard faucets and toilets. Third- and fourth-year students spend part of their days working in the field with local plumbing contractors. "Partnering with LIXIL has given our students the opportunity to participate in such a robust training program using products that are at the forefront of technologythey are thrilled because they feel more prepared for a full-time plumbing career," Robert Setlock, plumbing instructor, SCVTS. "Also, the feedback from our contractor partners has been overwhelmingly positive they are impressed with our students' 'ready-to-work' attitude and the knowledge they bring when they arrive in the field." In New Jersey, plumbing candidates can jumpstart their careers by fast-tracking current four-year apprenticeship programs, enabling them to reach "Journeyman" status once they complete four years of vocational high school training. After one year of "Journeyman" status, they can apply for a Master Plumber license, which yields the highest earning potential, averaging $115,000 in New Jersey. For Master Plumbers who choose to start their own business, earning potential is much higher. Over the past year, LIXIL supported seven vocational and technical schools in New Jersey, including Payne Tech in Newark and West Caldwell Tech in West Caldwell. Also, LIXIL often hosts groups of local STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) students at its Research and Design Center in Piscataway, where they receive a full day of mentorship. For more information on SCVTS training opportunities, please visit https://www.scvths.org/. FOR MORE INFORMATION: Nora DePalma, Dialogue For LIXIL Americas - American Standard, DXV, GROHE 678.642.5075 [email protected] ABOUT LIXIL LIXIL makes pioneering water and housing products that solve everyday, real-life challenges, making better homes a reality for everyone, everywhere. Drawing on our Japanese heritage, we create world-leading technology and innovate to make high quality products that transform homes. But the LIXIL difference is how we do this; design, an entrepreneurial spirit, a dedication to improving accessibility for all, business growth. Our approach comes to life through industry leading brands, including LIXIL, GROHE, American Standard, INAX, and TOSTEM, as well as specialty brands such as DXV. Over 70,000 colleagues operating in 150 proud to make products that touch the lives of more than a billion people every day. LIXIL of the LIXIL Group Corporation (TSE Code: 5938), the listed holding company for LIXIL's portfolio of businesses. Learn more at www.lixil.com, facebook.com/lixilgroup and www.linkedin.com/company/lixil-group . ABOUT SCVTS Somerset County Vocational and Technical Schools (SCVTS) provides students with a variety of opportunities focused on career and college preparation. We offer a comprehensive academic and career program aligned to the New Jersey Student Learning Standards. Students attending our programs are afforded individualized structured plans that prepare them for careers, post-secondary options or both. Students in our programs are able to connect conventional classroom instruction with work-linked experiences. By designing our courses of study to meet the needs of our business and industry partners, students leave with a clear pathway to a career in our global economy. SOURCE LIXIL Americas Related Links http://www.lixil.com Caracas, March 11 : The head of Venezuela's opposition-controlled Parliament, Juan Guaido, who has been recognised as the country's interim president by about 50 governments around the world, has announced that he will ask lawmakers to decree a "state of emergency" to deal with the "catastrophe" being experienced by the country as a result of a power blackout that now has lasted some 70 hours. Guaido on Sunday said at a press conference at the National Assembly in Caracas that the legislative body "will go into emergency session (on Monday) to evaluate a state of national emergency and take (appropriate) action." "We're going to ask Parliament (to decree the emergency). We must attend to it immediately," Guaido insisted without specifying what powers the interim government he heads would be able to accrue to itself if the decree were to be approved, reports Efe. He said that the opposition was maintaining "talks" with a German company with the ability to immediately provide electrical plants and other supplies needed to stabilise the electric grid. Most of Venezuela has been without electricity since Thursday at 5 p.m., when the Guri hydroelectric facility -- the country's most important such installation, providing service to 70 per cent of the national territory -- went down. The Nicolas Maduro government said at the time that the installation had been the target of a "cyberattack" launched by the United States, the country his regime habitually blames for all of Venezuela's serious problems. But Guaido on Sunday said that the blackout was not caused by sabotage and pointed to lack of investment and poor management as the true causes of the prolonged shutdown of the electric grid. In addition, he criticised the response of the Maduro regime to the crisis and for refusing to fully inform the public of the cause of the problem and efforts being made to resolve it. Guaido also confirmed that 17 people have died in hospitals around the country due to the blackout. "There are 17 confirmed dead, 15 of them in Maturin, but because of the lack of communications we haven't been able to monitor 17 of the 40 hospitals that are normally monitored," the opposition leader said during his press conference at the National Assembly. Meanwhile, The New York Times on Sunday reported that the fire that destroyed humanitarian supplies in an aid convoy heading for Venezuela most likely was caused when an opposition member mishandled a Molotov cocktail, thus discounting the prevailing narrative that the Maduro regime had caused the blaze. The daily, which examined video images along with other material to reconstruct the February 23 incident, said that a thrown Molotov cocktail was the most likely cause for the fire that destroyed some 40 tons of aid -- ostensibly a shipment of medicine -- on board several trucks. Kuala Lumpur, March 11 : An Indonesian woman was freed on Monday after a Malaysian judge discharged her of murder charge in the killing of North Korean leader Kim Jong-uns half brother, Kim Jong-nam. Siti Aisyah, 25, had the murder charge against her discharged in the nerve agent killing of Kim Jong-nam, Al Jazeera reported. The judge discharged Siti without an acquittal after prosecutors said they wanted to withdraw the charge. However, they did not specify. A judge last August had found there was enough evidence to infer that Siti, along with Vietnamese suspect Doan Thi Huong and four missing North Koreans had engaged in a conspiracy to kill Kim Jong-nam. Siti's defence was put on hold as the court heard arguments over obtaining a witness statement. A car carrying Siti Aisyah, 25, was seen leaving the court earlier after the court ruling, Al Jazeera reported. "We appreciate (the decision)," Indonesia Ambassador Rusdi Kirana told reporters outside the courtroom. "We feel the court is fair. She's our daughter..." Siti and the others were accused of smearing a toxic agent, known as VX, on Kim Jong-nam's face while he was at Kuala Lumpur's airport on February 13, 2017. The half brother of the North Korean leader, had reportedly had a falling out with the regime and lived in exile. Amsterdam, March 11 : The Talibans elusive one-eyed leader Mullah Omar lived within walking distance of US bases in Afghanistan, a new book has claimed. Bette Dam's "The Secret Life of Mullah Omar" says the leader never hid in Pakistan as believed by the US, the BBC reported. Instead, he lived in hiding just three miles from a major US Forward Operating Base in his home province of Zabul. Dutch journalist Dam spent five years researching and interviewing Taliban members for her book. She managed to speak to Jabbar Omari, the man who effectively became Omar's bodyguard when he went into hiding after the ousting of the Taliban regime in 2001. Omari hid the Taliban leader until his death from illness in 2013, the report quoted the Dam as saying. Soon after the fall of the Taliban, Omar -- on whose head the US placed a $10 million bounty after the 9/11 terror attacks -- hid in secret rooms in a house close to a base, the book said. US forces even searched the accommodation on one occasion, but failed to find his hiding place, it added. He later moved to a second building just three miles from another US base, home to about 1,000 troops, Dam said, adding that Omar got his news from the BBC's Pashto language service. Despite claims by the militants, Omar could not run the Taliban group from his hiding places. However, he is said to have approved the Taliban office in the Gulf state of Qatar, where US officials have been talking with Taliban leaders in a bid to end the long war in Afghanistan, the BBC report said. Dam's book was published in Dutch in February, and is set to be available in English shortly. Mullah Mohammed Omar signed control of the Taliban over to his Defence Minister, Mullah Obaidullah, in December 2001. He lived three miles from Forward Operating Base Wolverine, home to 1,000 US troops and where US Navy Seals and British SAS forces were sometimes based, Dam's book claimed. Omar would sometimes hide in irrigation tunnels to avoid detection. He lived in isolation and eventually invented his own language. He died on April 23, 2013, and was buried without a coffin in a featureless grave, Dam said. Washington, March 11 : US National Security Adviser (NSA) John Bolton has said that President Donald Trump was open to a third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, although nothing has been scheduled. Bolton made the remark on Sunday in an ABC News interview. "He (Trump) said he's open to a third summit, none has been scheduled... But he's prepared to engage again because he does think that the prospects for North Korea, which he's been trying to persuade Kim Jong-un to accept if they denuclearized, are really quite spectacular," the NSA said. When asked about the new satellite images, which were made public on Friday, suggesting that North Korea could be preparing to revive its missile testing, Bolton said: "I'd rather not get into the specifics on that... We've seen a lot in North Korea. We watch it constantly... There's a lot of activity all the time in North Korea, but I'm not going to speculate on what that particular commercial satellite picture shows." The images that were made public on Friday showed vehicles, cranes and rail cars near a facility outside Pyongyang where North Korea has previously assembled some of its intercontinental ballistic missiles, leading some experts to believe North Korea is preparing to launch what would be its first missile or rocket in over a year. Bolton said that Trump would be very disappointed if there was another test launch from North Korea. "The president said repeatedly that he feels the absence of nuclear tests, the absence of ballistic missile launches is a positive sign." Trump and Kim's second summit in Vietnam last month ended abruptly without a deal on North Korean denuclearization in return for sanctions relief. Before the images were made public, Trump on Friday told the media that relationship with Kim was "a very good one" and said he would be "surprised in a negative way if he did anything that was not per our understanding". Bolton also said that "one mistake that previous administrations made was assuming that North Korea will comply when they undertake obligations". "The North Koreans have pledged to give up their nuclear weapons programme at least five separate times, beginning in 1992.. they never seem to get around to it, though. "I think Kim Jong-un has a very clear idea of where the president stands, what the objectives he's trying to achieve are." Trump and Kim first met in Singapore in June 2018, producing only a North Korean commitment to "work towards complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula". Bolton told ABC that he was not aware of any contact between the US and North Korea since Vietnam, though it was "possible the South Koreans have spoken to North Korea". Nairobi, March 11 : A total of 4,700 heads of state, business leaders, senior UN officials and civil society representatives, who are gathering in this Kenyan city for a five-day meeting of the world's top body on the environment, will take bold decisions that move global societies to a more sustainable path. The fourth UN Environment Assembly began on Monday under the theme "Innovative Solutions for Environmental Challenges and Sustainable Consumption and Production". It is the biggest gathering in the Assembly's short history, with attendance almost double the last event in December 2017. Prominent world leaders attending the Assembly will include French President Emmanuel Macron and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta along with CEOs from major corporations. "Everyone can contribute to solutions to pollution. Policy direction from the government, like the single-use plastic ban helps set the tone for businesses and encourages them to develop sustainable solutions," UN Environment's Acting Executive Director Joyce Msuya told IANS. On her expectations from individuals, governments, civil societies and businesses globally, she said: "Upwards pressure from individuals changing their habits and civil society campaigns force business to provide the non-polluting products that consumers demand." Bold decisions and outcomes are expected as the delegates will negotiate late into the night for five days, says the UN Environment. Resolutions are on the table to push harder for sustainable consumption and production patterns, commit to the protection of the marine environment from plastic pollution, reduce food waste, and advance technological innovation that combats climate change, and reduces resource use and bio-diversity loss. This Assembly's status as the only UN body outside the General Assembly where all member states convene, and its power to bring together all sectors, means that the global environmental agenda is defined here. Decisions have a profound impact on the goals of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as paving the way towards the UN Climate Change Summit 2019 and impacting the overall UN agenda. Ahead of the meeting, Msuya appealed to nations to step up and start delivering real change. "Time is running short. We are past pledging and politicking. We are past commitments with little accountability. What's at stake is life, and society, as the majority of us know it and enjoy it today," she wrote in a policy letter. As delegates assemble in Nairobi, the UN Environment expressed grief over the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane on Sunday, killing all 157 people onboard. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those affected. We are following developments closely," it said in a statement. A UN Environment background report for the Assembly, which serves as a basis for defining problems and laying out new action areas, makes a strong case for urgent action. The report puts the value of lost ecosystem services between 1995 and 2011 at $4 trillion to $20 trillion; shows how agricultural practices are putting increasing pressure on the environment, costing an estimated $3 trillion per year, and estimates pollution-related costs at $4.6 trillion annually. "As never before, the time to act is now," said President of the UN Environment Assembly and Minister of Environment of Estonia Siim Kiisler. The Assembly will also see new research launched by the UN Environment, including the latest edition of the world's only comprehensive global scan of the environment: Global Environment Outlook 6, which was produced by 252 scientists and experts from over 70 countries. The International Resource Panel's Global Resources Outlook, meanwhile, takes stock of material extraction, including the future outlook and recommendations on how to use natural resources more sustainably. The Assembly is not just about the resolutions and science. Side events and exhibits provide the opportunity for attendees to form partnerships and make deals that benefit people and the environment. The Sustainable Innovation Expo acts as an innovation hub, with over 40 environmental technologies and innovations on display. The One Planet Summit -- co-organised by the governments of France and Kenya, and the World Bank -- is also being held around the edges of the Assembly, focusing on Africa's environmental challenges. (Vishal Gulati is in Nairobi at the invitation of the UN Environment. He can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in) New Delhi, March 11 : Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale on Monday began his three-day visit to the US to carry out bilateral consultation and strategic security dialogues with American President Donald Trump's administration. The Foreign Secretary will meet US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other US Congress leaders in Washington D.C.. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said: "Gokhale will be consulting with his US counterparts Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson, respectively, during the bilateral Foreign Office Consultation and Strategic Security Dialogue." Kumar said that these were regular high-level dialogue mechanisms to review bilateral relations, exchange views on major foreign policy and security-related developments and coordinates respective positions on issues of common interest. Islamabad, March 11 : Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that Islamabad's ties with Washington are set to take a new turn on account of the country's role in the US-Taliban peace dialogues. Qureshi made the remark while speaking to the media at an event on Sunday, reported Dawn news. "US had placed Pakistan in the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and consequently, its relationship with Islamabad was not that great. But because of our successful foreign policy, ties between both countries are improving," he said. He attributed this to Pakistan's behind-the-scenes role in US-Taliban peace dialogue. "Our relations with the US are going to take a new turn. US-Taliban peace dialogues are underway in Doha and positive results are expected. "If peace is restored to Afghanistan, Pakistan could not only purchase cheap hydel energy from central Asia but the country's economy would strengthen and there would be an increase in the country's exports," the Minister added. Kolkata, March 11 : Only 75 sex workers have benefitted from the West Bengal Government's Muktir Alo ('light of freedom') scheme since its inception in 2016, an RTI query by a Kolkata advocate has revealed. The scheme aims to rehabilitate sex workers who want to exit the profession, as also victims of sex trafficking, and enable them earn a living. Advocate Vipan Kumar lodged a Right to Information (RTI) query with the West Bengal Women Development Undertaking last October wanting to know details about the implementation and outcome of the scheme. "I had asked how many of the survivors had applied for the scheme. It was clarified that only NGOs could apply. Two NGOs were approved out of six that had applied. Shockingly, only 75 sex workers and survivors of sex trafficking have benefited from the scheme since its inception," Kumar told IANS. According to him, Muktir Alo should focus on communities that are collectives of survivors rather than just allowing NGOs that run shelter homes or have experience in women development. The NCRB data states that 3,579 individuals were trafficked out of West Bengal in 2016 - 44 per cent of the nation's total trafficked population. "So we expect the schemes to give maximum benefits," he said. The state government, however, said one should not focus merely on numbers to assess its success. "Muktir Alo is mainly for sex workers, and rehabilitation is not an easy process. So do not just focus on the numbers. Bringing back even a single woman to mainstream society is an achievement. "If more organisations come, they will be benefitted from the scheme," Women Development, Social Welfare and Child Development Minister Sashi Panja told IANS. The RTI poser brought out that NGOs Women Interlink Foundation (WIF) and Divine Script (DS) have trained 50 and 25 beneficiaries. WIF trained 20 of them in hand block printing, 20 in cutting and tailoring and 10 in spice grinding. ADS trained 12 in product making, using recycled tyres and 13 in cafeteria management. According to the RTI reply, Rs 31,49,260 was allotted to DS and Rs 24,24,000 to WIF for implementing the scheme. "The department says both the NGOs have utilised the entire allotted fund and trained only 75 survivors till date. It shows that around Rs 75,000 thousand was spent on each survivor for their training and it is a good indicator," Kumar said. "If there is wider dissemination of the scheme then more NGOs can come forward and implement the scheme," he added. Presently, the scheme reaches out to a rescued victim of sex trafficking sheltered at a protective home or is released in the care of her family and booked under ITP Act. The primary law on trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation is the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (ITPA), 1986 and punishes offences, including procuring a person for the purpose of prostitution, living on the earnings of prostitution of another person and keeping or using a brothel. Seeking a clarification of this provision, Kumar had asked: "If a person who is a resident of West Bengal and a victim of sex trafficking but is not sheltered in protective homes or is not released in the care of her family but is booked under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act in West Bengal, whether such a victim will be eligible as a candidate under the said scheme?" "The instruction by the department is very vague as it has not clarified as to who will refer such matters to the department on a case to case basis," he added. "When Muktir Alo was launched, as a part of the project our girls were given training in acting. Around eighteen women had participated, got studio exposure but there have been no proper link ups for future work," said Smarajit Jana, chief advisor of the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (sex workers' forum) and principal of the Sonagachi Research and Training Institute in Asia's largest red light area. Jana mentioned that along with the buzz of the scheme two to three girls got small roles as extras on screen but nothing happened further. (Binita Das can be contacted at binita.d@ians.in) The famous religious corridor called as the Kashi Vishwanath corridor has always been Narendra Modis dream mission. The Prime Minister of India inaugurated the project on March 8, 2019. The event was recorded and posted on his Twitter page. The Kashi- Vishwanath Corridor is said to be 50 feet wide and as per the plan it will connect the large shrine and also Jyotirlinga temple to the ghats of the city of Varanasi. The Modi government aims to bring a huge makeover to the holy temples in the area. The project will now project and uplift about 40 temples in this place. It is located to the left side (the banks) of the Ganga river. There are a collection of temples that have remained invisible for long. So, for their improved accessibility, the nearby buildings, shops and homes will get demolished and that will help more people to visit the holy shrines. Snapshot About the Kashi- Vishwanath Corridor Project It will link the Lalita Ghat and the Gangas Manikarna Ghat to the Kashi Vishwanath Jyotirlinga temple. The entire project seems to have roped in about 600 crores. They plan to set up lodgings, food streets and enquiry centres for those who would like to visit the place. There will be special waiting rooms for visitors and lodges for priests who visit the place. Once the venue is ready, it will be a place where a lot of pujas and yagnas will be held for special functions. In terms, of tourism and tourism related income- the place reflects a new light of hope for India. Apart from religious sentiments, the place holds a sound historical value in Indian heritage. So, Image Source: https://twitter.com/narendramodi Challenges Faced: This corridor is in the midst of very congested roads, buildings and houses that have been built since ancient days. During the festive season, the place has to manage the flow of thick crowds and that can cause a lot of inconvenience to the people. In fact over 5000 people visit the place on a daily basis and on festivals- it could shoot upto 3 lakh. With the corridor, such challenges can be put to a stop. Amaravati, March 11 : A US-based young physician from Andhra Pradesh was among the 157 killed in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash. Nukavarapu Manisha, hailing from Guntur district, was on her way to Nairobi to see her sister who had delivered three baby boys a few days ago. She was also looking to visit her parents Venkateshwar Rao and Bharathi, who were with their elder daughter. A relative of Manisha tweeted to Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj that her parents were waiting to receive the body in Nairobi. The Minister replied that she had asked Rahul Chhabra, the Indian High Commissioner in Nairobi, to provide all help and assistance. Four Indians were among those who died in the Boeing 737 jet crash on Sunday which occurred shortly after it took off from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. After doing medicine from Guntur Medical College, Manisha went to the US for higher studies and was settled in Tennessee. She is listed as one of the resident physicians of Department of Internal Medicine, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University. Addis Ababa, March 11 : Antonis Mavropoulos, President of the non-profit International Solid Waste Association, survived the Ethiopian Airlines crash that on Sunday killed all 157 people on board by being just two minutes late in boarding the flight. In a Facebook post, Mavropoulos, who was on his way to attend a five-day fourth annual UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, wrote that he was "mad because nobody helped me to reach the gate on time". "The flight ET 302 Addis Ababa-Nairobi crashed 6 minutes after taking off. I missed it by two minutes and when I arrived the boarding had been closed... I was screaming to put me on the flight but they did not allow it," he wrote. An angry Mavropoulos later booked a later flight but by then the crash of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet led to the cancellation of flights. The airport staff "told me gently not to protest and pray to God because I am the only passenger who did not enter the flight which is missing", he wrote. Mavropoulos was also probed by the authorities as he was the only person who did not board the flight. "They did not let me go until they determined who I am because I was the only passenger who did not get on the flight," he added. Ethiopia and China have grounded all Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets after the crash. The Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 302, on its way to the Kenyan capital Nairobi from Addis Ababa, crashed six minutes after take-off. It ploughed into a field near Tulu Fara village outside the town of Bishoftu, some 60 km southeast of the Ethiopian capital. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Global Pearl Milk Tea Market Research Report is specific descriptive information of industry which elaborates the important factors such as Segmentation, key regions, top Manufactures, production value, and market scope to enhance business growth. The report encloses important data about consumption, share, and future aspects. The Pearl Milk Tea report provides competition analysis along with company profile, revenue, product & services, latest developments trends. 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Our reports repository boasts of over 500000+ industry and country research reports from over 100 top publishers. We continuously update our repository so as to provide our clients easy access to the world's most complete and current database of expert insights on global industries, companies, and products. We also specialize in custom research in situations where our syndicate research offerings do not meet the specific requirements of our esteemed clients. Contact Us Ruwin Mendez Vice President Global Sales & Partner Relations Orian Research Consultants US: +1 (832) 380-8827 | UK: +44 0161-818-8027 Email: info@orianresearch.com Website: www.orianresearch.com/ Follow Us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/13281002/ Washington, March 11 : US President Donald Trump is expected to seek $8.6 billion for his long-promised wall along the border with Mexico when he submits his 2020 congressional budget on Monday, likely igniting another funding standoff with Congress. A senior administration official confirmed the figure, which is expected to be used to build or replace roughly 700 miles of barriers along the US-Mexico border, the Hill magazine reported. The budget proposal also would include $3.6 million in military construction funding to help fund projects affected by the wall, according to the New York Times. Trump earlier failed to extract extra funding for his wall that shut down parts of the federal government for a record 35 days. His fresh effort will likely lead to another showdown with Democrats who vowed to block his signature project. "I would just say that the whole issue of the wall and border security is of paramount importance," said Trump's top economic adviser Larry Kudlow. "We have a crisis down there." Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Kudlow said that "there will be" a fight over the issue in Congress. Fiscal Year 2020 will begin on October 1, the US Congress must pass the budget prior to that date to ensure that the federal government can operate after fiscal year 2020 begins. Reacting on news reports about Trump's intended move, top Congressional Democrats -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer -- said in a joint statement that they would block the budget proposal containing the $8.6 billion wall money. "President Trump hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos when he recklessly shutdown the government to try to get his expensive and ineffective wall," the joint statement said. "Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again. We hope he learned his lesson." Trump in December triggered a partial government shutdown when he demanded $5.7 billion in wall funding. He agreed after 35 days to reopen the government without wall funding, but continued to press lawmakers for $5.7 billion for the structure. Congress ultimately approved $1.375 billion for border barriers and the President issued a national emergency to bypass Congress and spend roughly $8 billion to construct his long-desired border wall. The US Congress is expected to block the national emergency in the near future as multiple Republican lawmakers anxious to preserve Congress' power of the purse voiced their opposition to the national emergency. Beijing, March 11 : An open database in China contains the personal information of more than 1.8 million women, including their phone numbers, addresses and a "BreedReady" status which could describe whether a woman has children or was of child-bearing age, according to a researcher. Victor Gevers, a Dutch Internet expert from the non-profit group GDI.Foundation, found the insecure data cache while searching for open databases in China, the Guardian reported on Monday. The database included fields labelled in English for sex, age, education, marital status, as well as a column titled "BreedReady". It is not clear whether the database is related to a dating app, government registry or another organisation or company. Gevers, who also identified a database maintained by a surveillance company tracking at least 2.5 million residents in Xinjiang, said he was still taking samples and working on verifying the data. "More than this, we don't have at the moment. Our primary concern is that it gets secured ASAP," he told the Guardian. The average age of women in the database was 32, with the youngest being 15, he said. Almost 90 per cent of included entries were described single and 82 per cent were listed as living in Beijing. The database also included fields labelled "political" as well as links to what appear to be Facebook profile pages. Facebook is blocked in China and can only be accessed through virtual private networks. Washington, March 11 : Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu US Congresswoman and Democratic 2020 presidential candidate, said that she believed her past comments on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have been misunderstood, declining to call him a war criminal. Gabbard was pressed during a CNN interview on Sunday whether she believed Assad used chemical warfare against Syrian civilians. "I want to correct that, because there has been some misunderstanding," the Hawaii Representative said. "There have been reports showing that chemical weapons have been used in Syria, both by the Syrian Government as well as different terrorist groups on the ground in Syria. "The scepticism and the questions that I raised were very specific around incidents that the Trump administration was trying to use as an excuse to launch a US military attack in Syria," she added. Gabbard met Assad in Syria two years ago. She said last month that Assad was "not the enemy of the US because Syria does not pose a direct threat" to Washington. When asked if she was unsure whether Assad was a war criminal now, Gabbard said: "Everything that I have said requires that we take action based on evidence. (If) the evidence is there, there should be accountability." Gabbard cited her experience serving in Iraq as informing her approach to Syria. "I served in a war in Iraq, a war that was launched based on lies, and a war that was launched without evidence," she said. "And so the American people were duped." Chennai, March 11 : Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK on Monday said those aspiring to contest in the Assembly by-elections to be held for 18 constituencies have to submit their applications on Wednesday. In a statement issued here, the party said applications priced at Rs 25,000 per constituency will be available at the party headquarters here on Wednesday morning. According to the statement, aspirants have to submit their filled in applications by Wednesday evening itself. The Election Commission on Sunday said by-elections for 18 vacant Assembly constituencies will be held on April 18. New Delhi, March 11 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina on Monday jointly inaugurated four projects, via video conferencing, in the areas of transport, health and education. Both leaders unveiled "e-plaques" for the supply of buses and trucks, inaugurated 36 community clinics, 11 water treatment plants and the extension of the National Knowledge Network to Bangladesh. Speaking on the occasion, Modi noted that this was his sixth video conference with Hasina and that these projects were directly linked to the lives of the common people. He said that Prime Minister Hasina's vision is the biggest inspiration for stronger connectivity between India and Bangladesh. "The National Knowledge Network will connect scholars and research institutes in Bangladesh to India and the world. The buses and trucks would assist the efforts towards affordable public transportation, water treatment plants will help supply clean water, and community clinics will benefit about two lakh people in Bangladesh," Modi said. He said these projects showed that India-Bangladesh relations are playing a key role in improving the quality of life of the people. Modi appreciated and reiterated India's support for the ambitious development targets set by Hasina for Bangladesh. He expressed confidence that bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh would continue to grow even further. Tehran, March 11 : Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Monday left for his first official visit to Iraq with the aim of bolstering ties with the Shia-majority Arab country amid the US' renewed sanctions on Tehran. During his three-day trip, Rouhani will meet his Iraqi counterpart Barham Salih and Prime Minister Adel Abdelmahdi, reports Efe news. "We are very much interested to expand our ties with Iraq, particularly our transport cooperation," Rouhani said before his departure. "We have important projects that will be discussed during this visit," he added. The Iranian leader will also meet Iraq's top Shia cleric, Ali Sistani, and visit holy shrines. Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who arrived in Baghdad two days ago, described Rouhani's visit as "historic". Rouhani was later set to take part in an economic conference with Iraq's public and private sectors at a time when Tehran is seeking to increase trade after US President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal and re-imposed tough sanctions on the country. In addition, both countries are to sign agreements on petroleum, gas and electricity, in addition to carrying out railway projects and facilitating the procedures of issuing visas. Ties between Iran and Iraq have strengthened after the 2003 toppling of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who fought the 1980-88 war against Tehran. Iraq is a close ally of the US and also maintains good relations with Iran. Beijing/Addis Ababa, March 11 : The Chinese government and EthiAoApia on Monday grounded all Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets, a day after an Ethiopian Airlines plane of the same model crashed shortly after take-off, killing all 157 people on board. The Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 302, on its way to the Kenyan capital Nairobi from Addis Ababa, crashed six minutes after take-off on Sunday, prompting the carrier to ground the rest of its fleet of the jets. It ploughed into a field near Tulu Fara village outside the town of Bishoftu, some 60 km southeast of the Ethiopian capital. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) issued a notice on Monday morning ordering domestic airlines to suspend the commercial operations of the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft before 6 p.m., CNN reported. In October 2018, another aircraft of the same model being operated by Lion Air had crashed in Indonesia 12 minutes after take-off due to failures in the automatic system, killing 189 people on board. The CAAC said the decision was taken owing to security concerns after two other newly-delivered Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes had crashed similarly in the take-off phase. The regulator said the grounding of the planes was "in line with our principle of zero tolerance for safety hazards and strict control of safety risks". The CAAC said it would be contacting US aviation authorities and Boeing before restoring flights of the aircraft. The move affected hundreds of flights on Monday in China, where 13 carriers operate more than 90 of the Boeing 737 Max 8 jets, according to the Chinese media. EthioApian Airlines in a statement said that the cause of the accident was still not known but the decision to suspend flying such aircraft was taken as a precautionary measure. "Following the tragic accident... Ethiopian Airlines has decided to ground all B-737-8 MAX fleet effective March 10, 2019 until further notice," the statement said. "Although we don't know the cause of the accident, we had to decide to ground the particular fleet as extra safety precaution," said the largest carrier in Africa. Cayman Islands carriers announced a similar decision. Cayman Airways, which also flies the Boeing 737 Max 8 craft, announced it would ground the planes while the investigation into the crash was ongoing. According to a report in the Guardian, over 300 Boeing 737-MAX planes are in operation and over 5,000 have been ordered worldwide since 2017. Several other carriers including Fiji Airways, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Australia and Korean Air told the daily that they did not intend to ground their Boeing aircraft. According to the EthioApian Airlines, the pilot made a distress call saying he was having "difficulties" and got clearance to return, moments before losing contact with the control tower. He was identified as Yared Getachew, 28, of Addis Ababa. He had 8,000 hours of flight time and was the youngest pilot in EthioApian Airlines history to captain a Boeing 737. Dhaka, March 11 : Customs authorities at an airport here on Monday seized 12 kg of gold bars from a toilet of a Bangladeshi aircraft. The gold bars were recovered with support from the National Security Intelligence after the plane arrived at Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka from Dubai, said Customs Department's Deputy Commissioner Othello Chowdhury. "The gold bars were wrapped up with tape on the back of a mirror in the plane's toilet. A total of 106 bars weighing 12 kg were recovered after removing the tape," he was quoted as saying by bdnews24.com. No one has been arrested over the incident, Chowdhury said, adding, "we will start an investigation to find the smugglers". Tokyo, March 11 : At least 52,000 people still remain displaced in Japan even eight years after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that caused the Fukushima nuclear disaster and killed thousands. The country on Monday remembered the 18,896 victims and the over 2,500 who were reported missing in the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck off the Pacific coast of Tohoku and the subsequent tsunami on this day in 2011, Efe news reported. After eight years, 94.5 per cent of the reconstruction work has been completed in the affected coastal regions, according to latest official data. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in an address at a ceremony held at the National Theater in Tokyo, said that Japan was firmly moving towards recovery, and specifically underlined the construction of houses and infrastructure and the progress made at the Fukushima nuclear plant. Around 52,000 people are still unable to return to their homes, most of them from Fukushima prefecture that was heavily contaminated by radioactive residues from three of the four reactors of the plant. After completing the cleaning tasks and radioactive decontamination, authorities have progressively lifted restrictions on access in four of the seven localities that were worst affected by the accident. On the other hand, Futaba, Okuma and Namie - the localities nearest to the plant - continue to be termed as areas of difficult return and it remains to be seen when the residents of these places will be allowed to return. According to Greenpeace Japan, the radioactivity levels in several parts of Namie and Litate localities - where evacuation orders were recently lifted - are more than 100 times than the maximum recommended at the international level, which would pose a significant risk for the people living there. Data collected by non-profit Japan Platform also shows that levels of radioactive elements detected in food products from Fukushima or in soil samples from the area were significantly higher than in other parts of the country, even though they are within the limits considered safe for consumption. Along with cleaning the nuclear residues and enabling those displaced to return to their homes, the Japanese government aims to dismantle the Fukushima plant, a process that is expected to take at least 30 years and the cost for which could reach 20 trillion yen ($180 billion). Amsterdam, March 11 : The Taliban's elusive one-eyed leader Mullah Omar lived within walking distance of US bases in Afghanistan for years and never hid in Pakistan as believed by Washington, a new book has claimed. Dutch journalist Bette Dam's "The Secret Life of Mullah Omar" claims that American troops once even searched the house where Mullah Omar was hiding but failed to find a secret room built for him, the Guardian reported. Dam, who has been reporting from Afghanistan since 2006, worked on the biography for more than five years and also interviewed Taliban members. It was published in Dutch in February and will be available in English soon. According to the book, Mullah Omar never hid in Pakistan as believed by the US and instead lived in hiding three miles from a major US Forward Operating Base in his home province of Zabul in Afghanistan. The BBC says that Dam managed to speak to Jabbar Omari, the man who effectively became Mullah Omar's bodyguard when he went into hiding after the ousting of the Taliban regime in 2001. Omari hid the Taliban leader until his death from illness in 2013, the report quoted Dam as saying. Soon after the fall of the Taliban, Mullah Omar -- on whose head the US placed a $10 million bounty after the 9/11 terror attacks -- hid in secret rooms in a house close to a base, the book said. US forces even searched the accommodation on one occasion, but failed to find his hiding place, it added. He later moved to a second building just three miles from another US base, home to about 1,000 troops, Dam said, adding that Mullah Omar regularly listened to the BBC's Pashto language service, but rarely commented on news of the outside world, even when he learned about the death of Osama Bin Laden. The book says that Mullah Omar rarely went outside, except to take the sun in winter and would often hide in the irrigation tunnels as US planes flew over or troops passed by. "It was very dangerous for us there," Omari told Dam. "Sometimes there was only a table width between us and the foreign military." The book said that as disillusionment grew over corruption within the Afghan government and civilian casualties caused by its US backers, Mullah Omar started to receive gifts of food and clothes from the villagers. According to Dam, Omari said that Mullah Omar would go for days barely talking, his only interaction being with his guard and cook. Mullah Omar had an old Nokia mobile phone, without a SIM card, that he used for recording himself chanting verses from the Quran, the book says. Despite claims by the militants, Omar could not run the Taliban group from his hiding places. However, he is said to have approved the Taliban office in the Gulf state of Qatar, where US officials have been talking with Taliban leaders in a bid to end the long war in Afghanistan, the BBC said. The book claims that Mullah Omar signed control of the Taliban over to his Defence Minister Mullah Obaidullah in December 2001. Mullah Omar died on April 23, 2013, and was buried without a coffin in a featureless grave, Dam said. Mumbai, March 11 : Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan on Monday shared a snippet of a thrilling quest he experienced after meeting a mysterious woman in Dubai, his favourite city. Shah Rukh took to Instagram to share a video in which he is seen walking around Souk Madinat when he meets a mysterious lady who hands him a covered box, leading him to discover hidden gems of the city. "So I was at the Souk Madinat, enjoying a nice quiet day by myself. A lady walked up to me and said 'Hadiya Min Dubai, Iktashifha'," he said in the vide. He captioned the video: "A Dubai holiday, filled with the most epic adventures... Join me as I return to my favourite city. But this time, on a thrilling quest! #BeMyGuest." The video is a part of Dubai Tourism's #BeMyGuest campaign, which aims to offer people compelling reasons to visit and revisit Dubai with friends and family. Shah Rukh, who calls Dubai his 'home away from home', seems to be enjoying a range of experiences as he hunts for clues around the city with help from residents and his fans, taking him to key attractions and destinations there. On playing a pivotal role in advocating Dubai as a must visit destination, Shah Rukh had earlier said in a statement: "I have been travelling regularly to this wonderful city for years and each time I visit, I'm just amazed by so much that's new, exciting and the best-of-its-kind in the world. Hyderabad, March 11 : Telangana's main opposition Congress on Monday decided to boycott the elections to state Legislative Council scheduled on Tuesday in protest against the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi's resorting to "engineering defections". Accusing the TRS of undermining democracy by engineering defections in the opposition, state Congress chief Uttam Kumar Reddy said the party will not take part in the elections to the upper house. Elections to five seats of the Council from the MLA quota are scheduled on Tuesday. Congress had fielded a candidate with the hope of getting support from both legislators of its ally Telugu Desam Party (TDP). The Congress had 19 members in 119-member Assembly but with the defection of four MLAs during last one week, the tally has come down to 15. It required at least 21 votes to win the seat. With one of the two TDP MLAs also crossing over to TRS, the ruling party is set to win four seats with the fifth seas going to its ally Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen. Uttam Kumar Reddy said though they cooperated with TRS in unanimous election of Speaker and Deputy Speaker, the ruling party's attitude was undemocratic. He alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao was resorting to "undemocratic, illegal and unethical" practices to engineer defections in opposition parties. Congress's floor leader in the Assembly, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said the TRS government's actions posed a threat to democracy. "Opposition is required for a democracy to run effectively but the Chief Minister is trying to finish off the democracy by ensuring that there is no opposition," he said and called for a national debate on the happenings in Telangana. New Delhi, March 11 : Lambasting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for destroying the economy through demonetisation, the Congress on Monday claimed that if voted to power, it will probe the post-note ban deposits in tax havens and Indian banks, including a Gujarat bank with BJP President Amit Shah as its director which had netted a very high amount of money. The Congress' fresh attack against Modi on demonetisation came following revelations that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had contested the impact of the move, particularly in the context of its stated objective of curbing black money and counterfeit notes. Citing the minutes of the RBI's central board of directors' meeting held just prior to Modi's November 8, 2016, announcement, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the government imposed demonetisation on the RBI and termed it a "huge money lacquering scheme". The minutes of the RBI board meeting attended by the then Governor Urjit Patel were obtained and made public by RTI activist Venkatesh Nayak. "The fact that the directors were not convinced by the objectives which the government sought to achieve, particularly the impact on black money and counterfeit notes, proves that the demonetisation decision was imposed on the RBI which ultimately devastated the Indian economy," Ramesh told the media here. He also said that Patel, while appearing before three parliamentary panels, never revealed about the minutes of the RBI board meeting or about their concerns. According to the minutes, the directors observed: "Most of the black money is held not in the form of cash but in the form of real-sector assets such as gold or real estate and that this move would not have a material impact on those assets." "Rs 400 crore as a percentage of the total quantum of currency in circulation in the country is not very significant," the minutes further read. Harping on these two points, Ramesh said that demonetisation not only devastated the economy, destroyed millions of jobs and broke the backbone of the small traders, but it was also a huge money laundering scheme. "When the Congress comes to power, we will probe all the aspects of demonetisation. From the huge money deposited in a Gujarat cooperative bank of which Amit Shah is a director, to the spate of purchase of properties by the BJP just before and after demonetisation. "We will also look into how demonetisation was used to launder black money through foreign tax havens. Demonetisation is a scam and the Congress government will investigate all the angles," added former Union Minister Ramesh. New Delhi, March 11 : With technology entering every sphere of our lives and giving rise to a new gamut of concerns and disputes to resolve, glory in the realm of law will go to those who will turn themselves into "super lawyers", in other words, lawyers who can read and analyse data with the same ease as they would the penal codes, contended the country's top notch legal and cyber experts on Monday. The term was discussed at "Lex Concurcus", the annual conference of Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) organised here. "In this time of innovative technology and artificial intelligence, the future of the Indian judiciary lies in the hands of super lawyers," said C. Raj Kumar, founding Vice-Chancellor, O.P. Jindal Global University, according to a statement released by the university. Raj Kumar, also the Founding Dean of the Jindal Global Law School (JGLS), urged budding lawyers to broaden their aspirational spectrum to look beyond the options of a classical lawyer to becoming legal entrepreneurs, with their own corporate law firms. The forum reflected on the future of the legal system in the era of technological innovations and what the budding lawyers must do about it. "With all the information and technological support at hand, the client will already have the data analysis and insights. They would require lawyers to guide them through it and provide necessary support. Hence, future lawyers need to be super lawyers with analysts, broadcasters and lawyers, all rolled into one," Pavan Duggal, a cyber expert said. Badrinath Durvasula of Hindustan Construction Company Ltd, defined a 'super lawyer' as a "Jack of all, as well as a master of all". 'Lex Concursus' is an annual conference conceived to bring together new-age legal practitioners and law students to contemplate over the future of legal practice in India. ADDIS ABABA, March 10, 2019 (Xinhua) -- People gather at the crash site of an Ethiopian Airlines' aircraft, some 50 km east of Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, on March 10, 2019. All 157 people aboard Ethiopian Airlines flight were confirmed dead as Image Source: IANS News ADDIS ABABA, March 10, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers work beside the wreckage of an Ethiopian Airlines' aircraft at the crash site, some 50 km east of Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, on March 10, 2019. All 157 people aboard Ethiopian Airlines flight we Image Source: IANS News ADDIS ABABA, March 10, 2019 (Xinhua) -- The wreckage of an Ethiopian Airlines' aircraft is seen at the crash site, some 50 km east of Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, on March 10, 2019. All 157 people aboard Ethiopian Airlines flight were confirmed Image Source: IANS News ADDIS ABABA, March 10, 2019 (Xinhua) -- An excavator works at the crash site of an Ethiopian Airlines' aircraft, some 50 km east of Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, on March 10, 2019. All 157 people aboard Ethiopian Airlines flight were confirmed de Image Source: IANS News Addis Ababa, March 11 : The flight recorders from the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed a day before have been recovered by investigators, the airline said on Monday after several airlines grounded Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets, the model involved in the accident that killed all 157 people on board. The Boeing 737 Max 8 -- flight ET 302 -- en route from Addis Ababa to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, crashed six minutes after take off on Sunday, prompting the carrier to ground the rest of its fleet of the jets. The devices recovered from the crash site were the cockpit voice recorder and the digital flight data recorder, the BBC reported. The months-old aircraft ploughed into a field near Tulu Fara village outside the town of Bishoftu, some 60 km southeast of the Ethiopian capital. The cause of the disaster was not yet clear. However, the pilot had reported difficulties and had asked to return to Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Airlines said. Four Indians were among those who died in the crash. According to reports there were more than 30 nationalities on board the flight, including Kenyans, Canadians and Britons. The largest number were from Kenya. Among the dead were 22 UN staff, many heading for an assembly of the UN Environment Programme in Nairobi. Several airlines grounded the model following the crash. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) issued a notice on Monday morning ordering domestic airlines to suspend the commercial operations of the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft before 6 p.m. In October 2018, another aircraft of the same model being operated by Lion Air had crashed in Indonesia 12 minutes after take-off due to failures in the automatic system, killing 189 people on board. The CAAC said the decision was taken owing to security concerns after two other newly-delivered Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes had crashed similarly in the take-off phase. The regulator said the grounding of the planes was "in line with our principle of zero tolerance for safety hazards and strict control of safety risks". The CAAC said it would be contacting US aviation authorities and Boeing before restoring flights of the aircraft. The move affected hundreds of flights on Monday in China, where 13 carriers operate more than 90 of the Boeing 737 Max 8 jets, according to the Chinese media. EthioApian Airlines in a statement said the decision to suspend flying such aircraft was taken as a precautionary measure. "Although we don't know the cause of the accident, we had to decide to ground the particular fleet as extra safety precaution," said the largest carrier in Africa. Cayman Islands carriers announced a similar decision. Cayman Airways, which also flies the Boeing 737 Max 8 craft, announced it would ground the planes while the investigation into the crash was ongoing. According to the EthioApian Airlines, the pilot made a distress call saying he was having "difficulties" and got clearance to return, moments before losing contact with the control tower. He was identified as Yared Getachew, 28, of Addis Ababa. He had 8,000 hours of flight time and was the youngest pilot in EthioApian Airlines history to captain a Boeing 737. According to a report in the Guardian, over 300 Boeing 737-MAX planes are in operation and over 5,000 have been ordered worldwide since 2017. Several other carriers including Fiji Airways, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Australia and Korean Air told the daily that they did not intend to ground their Boeing aircraft. New Delhi, March 11 : A Delhi court on Monday ordered Tihar Jail authorities to file a response on the Enforcement Directorate's plea seeking to question British national Christian Michel, the middleman accused in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case, in judicial custody. Special Judge Arvind Kumar's order came after the ED moved a plea seeking to interrogate Michel again in the case. Special Public Prosecutors D.P. Singh and N.K. Matta, appearing for the ED, told the court that the investigation agency had received some more documents and wanted to further interrogate the accused in judicial custody for two days. Michel's counsels, on the other hand, requested the court's permission to remain present at the time of his interrogation. Michel's advocates Aljo K. Joseph and Vishnu Sankar also requested the court to shift him from an isolation cell to a normal cell in Jail number 7, where white collar accused are housed. The counsels informed the court that Michel was kept in isolation in Jail number 1, which also houses 27 alleged Kashmiri suspects, and was not allowed to interact nor walk around in the prison. The court had on March 5 directed Tihar Jail authorities to shift Michel to Jail No. 1, 3 or 4, which are meant for keeping undertrials. Michel was extradited to India on December 4, 2018 from the United Arab Emirates. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had filed charge sheets in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case naming Michel and others as accused. The court issued a production warrant against Michel and listed the matter for further hearing on March 12. Patna, March 11 : Bihar's ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is set to announce the names of candidates for all 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state before the festival of Holi that is falling on March 21 this year. Janata Dal-United (JD-U) General Secretary K.C. Tyagi on Monday said the process of selection of candidates and seat identification are in the final stage. "We hope that all candidates will celebrate Holi at their home," he said. Claiming that the NDA will perform far better this time than in the last Lok Sabha polls, he said: "NDA has the support of over 51 per cent voters. There are no challenges for the NDA. We will win the 2019 general elections and also the Bihar Assembly polls in 2020." As per the seat-sharing formula, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the JD-U will contest from 17 seats each, while the remaining six seats will be contested by Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party. Imphal, March 11 : The three labourers, kidnapped by suspected tribal militants in Manipur on March 6, were set free, police said on Monday. The labourers, identified as S. Bijoy, K. Gopen and K. Tenba, all hailing from the Thoubal district, said they had been kidnapped from the Senapati district. They were taking part in the repair work on the National Highway 2. Members of the Naga People's Organisation (NPO) in the Senapati district found the labourers wandering in the mountain after they were released on Sunday midnight and provided them food and shelter before the three left for Imphal on Monday morning. Solomon Arow, president of NPO, said: "We had been trying to secure release of these labourers. We are thankful to several organisations, including students, for demanding safe release of these labourers." Police said in the past, militants used to kidnap labourers when there were inordinate delays in payment of protection money. No complaint had been filed by the officials of M/s BIPL, which undertook the construction and repairing work in the national highway that passes through Manipur. Seoul, March 11 : The South Korean military said on Monday that it was closely monitoring North Korean facilities for the possibility of Pyongyang carrying out a rocket launch or its first missile test in more than a year. Satellite images analyzed by experts on March 5 showed that North Korea has been restoring facilities at a long-range rocket launch site that it had begun to dismantle last year as part of its disarmament process, reported Efe news agency. This follows a failed bilateral summit with the US over the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. "We are thoroughly tracking and monitoring all movements, including the possibility of (the North's) preparation for a missile launch, under cooperation with the US," Kim Joon-rak, spokesperson of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in comments published by local news agency Yonhap. "But we can't comment on concrete details," he added. When asked about activities reported last week in the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in the northwest of North Korea, Kim said they are "analyzing it with various possibilities in mind." According to analyses of the satellite images provided by two US-based think tanks, Pyongyang has been rebuilding some key structures of the Sohae launch site - also known as Tongchang-ri - leading to speculation that it could soon launch a satellite onboard a space rocket, something which the international community considers a cover for testing intercontinental missiles. Other satellite images released on Saturday also showed activity at the Sanum-dong rocket production facility situated near Pyongyang, which is being seen as further evidence of possible missile launch preparations by the North Korean regime. Some analysts have said that North Korea, which has not carried out weapon tests since November 2017, is mobilizing resources in Sohae with the aim of pressuring Washington after disagreements brought the recent summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi to a sudden end. Although Pyongyang and Washington have given different versions of the summit outcome, the disagreements seem to revolve around dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons programme and the volume of international sanctions on the country. Los Angeles, March 11 : Socialite Paris Hilton sparked concern among fans when her father Rick said that he had been unable to contact her. The hotel heiress, 38, took to Instagram on Friday to share a throwback clip of her music video "Stars are blind", but fans were more concerned by her dad Rick's comment, reports dailymail.co.uk. Under the clip, Rick, 63, posted: "Paris it is very important you call dad's cell. We can't reach you on any of your lines." Concerned fans replied to his post, writing: "Dying to know what was so important"; "Call your dad", "Girl, call your dad" and "OMG! I hope she's okay". Despite the concerns, it seems Rick's mind was put at ease, as he later shared a carefree clip listening to a song. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Chromatography Data System (CDS) is the software program, which automates instrument control, data acquisition, data processing, data filtering, data storage, and database management in various chromatography systems such as Gas Chromatography (GC), High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (SFC), and Capillary Electrophoresis (CE). CDS provides multiuser access and multi-instrument control for safe and secure instrument use. Click To Read More On Chromatography Data System Market Chromatography Data System Market Drivers Addition of new features in the existing CDS, to enhance user interface is expected to boost growth of the chromatography data system market. For instance, Data Apex, a chromatography software development company, in July 2018, launched Clarity version 8.0. Chromatography Software, which has advanced features such as excellent performance, cost-effectiveness, and proficient technical support. Chromatography Data System Market Restraint Data integrity violations, enforcements, and criminal investigations of companies during audit by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) and failure to meet Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMP) by companies is expected to hamper growth of the chromatography data system market. For instance, in January 2016, USFDA sent warning letter to Ipca Laboratories Limited for manipulating the processing parameters used for CDS, in order to obtain approvals for its drug products. Furthermore, in June 2016, SEKISUI MEDICAL CO., LTD., a Japan-based firm, failed to clear the USFDA and Department of Health and Human Services inspection, due to manipulation in the chromatography data by deleting failed chromatograms, absence of raw data back-up, and nonfunctional CDS. Chromatography Data System Regional Analysis On the basis of region, the global chromatography data system market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. Geographically, North America is probable to dominate during the forecast period in the chromatography data system market, owing to collaboration strategies adopted by various key players for sophisticated chromatography technologies and analysis software in the region. For instance, in February 2015, PerkinElmer, Inc., collaborated with Waters Corporation to deliver Waters Empower CDS Software and premium instruments in the U.S. market. This software manages multi-vendor data and simplifies data collection, processing, and reporting. Ask For Sample Copy Of This Business Research Report : https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/2239 Asia Pacific is estimated to grow with fast rate in the chromatography data system market during the forecast period, owing to launches of new products by key players for better productivity and functionality of chromatography systems. For instance, in February 2018, Shimadzu Corporation of Japan launched Shimadzu gas chromatography (GC) setup, which imbibed Chromeleon 7.2, a CDS software of Thermo Fisher Scientific. Shimadzu GC instrument parameters are set through the protocols embedded in the Chromeleon software. It allows for optimal sample injection system that helps to maximize analytical productivity. Key players operating in the chromatography data system market are Advanced Chemistry Development, DataApex, Agilent Technologies, Inc., Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., Gilson Incorporated., PerkinElmer Inc., Chromperfect Chromatography Software, Shimadzu Analytical (India) Pvt. Ltd., SRI Instruments, a dba for Scientific Repair, Inc., a California corporation., Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Waters Corporation. About Coherent Market Insights: Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity. Contact Us: Mr. Shah Coherent Market Insights 1001 4th Ave, #3200 Seattle, WA 98154 Tel: +1-206-701-6702 Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.com Nairobi, March 11 : An annual assembly of the UN Environment began here on a gloomy note due to the plane crash that killed 157 people, including 22 United Nations staffers and four Indians, most of them on way to the summit. The UN flag was flying at half-mast at the UN Environment headquarters. Acting Director-General of UN Office in Nairobi and Executive Director of UN-Habitat Maimunah Mohd Sharif in her opening remark at the assembly that saw delegates from 193 nations, said 22 UN employees were among those who died when the Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines jet crashed near Addis Ababa. "I wish to express my deepest condolences and prayers to the great nation of Ethiopia and the familiars of passengers and crew members who have lost their life in this tragedy," Sharif told delegates. Sharif said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had also called her at 11.23 p.m. last night and asked her to convey the condolences. In a statement ahead of the conference, the UN said it was "deeply saddened by the news of the Ethiopian Airlines accident. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those affected. We are following developments closely," it said. Over 4,700 heads of state, business leaders, senior UN officials and civil society representatives, participating in the five-day meeting of the world's top body on the environment, will take decisions that would move global societies to a more sustainable path. It is the biggest gathering in the Assembly's short history, with attendance almost double the last event in December 2017. French President Emmanuel Macron and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta along with CEOs from major corporations are attending the fourth UN Environment Assembly that began on Monday under the theme "Innovative Solutions for Environmental Challenges and Sustainable Consumption and Production".. (Vishal Gulati is in Nairobi at the invitation of the UN Environment. He can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in) Kabul, March 11 : The Afghan government on Monday denied reports that the founder of the Taliban terror group had lived near two US bases in the South Asian country for years. Dutch journalist Bette Dam had claimed that the Taliban's elusive one-eyed leader Mullah Omar lived within walking distance of the two American bases in Afghanistan and later died in the country, in her new book, "The Secret Life of Mullah Omar". According to the book, Mullah Omar never hid in Pakistan as believed by the US and instead lived in hiding three miles from a major US Forward Operating Base in his home province of Zabul in Afghanistan. It claims that American troops once even searched the house where Mullah Omar was hiding but failed to find a secret room built for him. Afghan government spokesperson Arif Samin dismissed the claims and said that there was "no ambiguity in the fact that Mullah Omar lived and died in Pakistan", Efe news reported. "It is very clear, there is no ambiguity in this issue to be investigated again. It is an established fact and based on exact sources and concrete proof that Mullah Omar was living there and died over there in a Karachi hospital," he added. The presence of the Taliban faction, Haqqani Network and the leadership of Quetta Shura in Pakistan was "general knowledge", Samin claimed. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's spokesperson Haroon Chakhansuri said: "We strongly reject this delusional claim... We have sufficient evidence, which shows he lived and died in Pakistan. Period!" he tweeted. In the book, that Dam wrote after a five-year-long investigation, she claimed that soon after the fall of the Taliban, Mullah Omar -- on whose head the US placed a $10 million bounty after the 9/11 terror attacks -- hid in secret rooms in a house close to a base, according to the Guardian. US forces even searched the accommodation on one occasion, but failed to find his hiding place, it added. He later moved to a second building just three miles from another US base, home to about 1,000 troops, Dam said, adding that Mullah Omar regularly listened to the BBC's Pashto language service, but rarely commented on news of the outside world. Although it was believed that he was the top leader of the Taliban group, the book claims that in 2001 he delegated responsibilities to others and became a recluse until his death. However, he is said to have approved the Taliban office in Qatar, where US officials have been talking with Taliban leaders in a bid to end the long war in Afghanistan, the BBC said. The journalist also interviewed Jabbar Omari, former Governor of the Taliban regime, who effectively became Mullah Omar's bodyguard when he went into hiding after the ousting of the Taliban regime in 2001. Omari hid the Taliban leader until his death from illness in 2013. The book says that Mullah Omar rarely went outside and would often hide in the irrigation tunnels as US planes flew over or troops passed by. Mullah Omar had an old Nokia mobile phone, without a SIM card, that he used for recording himself chanting verses from the Quran, the book says. The book claims that Mullah Omar signed control of the Taliban over to his Defence Minister Mullah Obaidullah in December 2001. Mullah Omar died on April 23, 2013, and was buried without a coffin in a featureless grave, Dam said. Kollam, March 11 : The revolutionary socialist party, a constituent of the congress-led UDF coalition, on Monday lodged a complaint with the central election commission (CEC) against CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan accusing the CPI(M) leader of defaming RSP candidate for Kollam constituency N K Premachandran. RSP state secretary A A Azeez in his complaint to the CEC alleged that Mr. Balakrishnan speaking at a party function made an ad hominem attack against Mr. Premachandran in a bid to defame the RSP leader and sow doubts in the minds of voters in Kollam constituency. Mr. Balakrishnan had allegedly said at the function that Mr. Premachandran would defect to the BJP at any time. "K N Balagopal (CPI-M candidate for Kollam constituency) will win with a thumping majority. You are familiar with the rival candidate. UDF has chosen as their candidate someone who is capable of switching allegiance to the BJP any time," the CPI(M) state secretary had reportedly said at a function the other day. The remarks are in tune with the CPI(M)'s propaganda to dissaude anti-BJP voters from exercising their franchise in favor of the congress citing the defection of congress MLAs and MPs in other states to the BJP. The RSP has also sought action against CPI(M) candidate for Kollam K N Balagopal for violation of election code of conduct on the ground the CPI(M) state secretary made the objectionable comments in the presence of the CPI(M) candidate. Incidentally, RSP used to be a constituent of the CPI(M)-led LDF coalition and Premachandran had been a minister in the LDF cabinet led by CPI(M) veteran V S Achuthanandan from 2006 to 2011. The party had left the LDF fold just before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and joined the UDF owing to differences of opinion with the left coalitions leading partners over seat sharing. Mr. Premachandran was elected to the lok sabha from the Kollam constituency as a UDF candidate defeating CPI(M) politbureau member M A Baby in 2014. New Delhi, March 11 : The schedule of Lok Sabha elections announced on Sunday has provided the Bharatiya Janata Party an opportunity to run concerted campaigns in some of the crucial states it is trying to expand or is facing tough contests. The party, however, also faces challenge of sustaining its narrative on national security till the end of the seven-phased election that begins on April 11. For the Congress, which is short on resources, the long campaign poses its own challenges: it requires to make more strenuous efforts to build its narrative on unemployment, farm distress and Modi government's unfulfilled promises in the face of perception that the air strikes on a terror base camp in Pakistan has altered the poll narrative. The Congress' best hopes are in the states its rules - Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. It is also expecting to improve its performance significantly in Uttar Pradesh due to appointment of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as general secretary in-charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh. The party also has good hopes in Maharashtra and Bihar, where the opposition alliance is likely to formalised in the next few days as also in Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu, where the alliances have been sealed. It is also expecting a turnaround in Haryana and improve its performance in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and northeastern states. Punjab will go to the polls in the last and seventh phase on May 19, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh will see polling across all seven phases from April 11 to May 19, Himachal Pradesh will go to the polls in the last phase on May 19 and Haryana and Delhi in the penultimate phase on May 12. Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand will have a four-phased election which will end with the last phase on May 19. The two-phase election in Rajasthan, where BJP had won all the seats in 2014, will also be held in the fifth (May 6) and the seventh and last phase (May 19). Maharashtra will go for election in the first four phases - April 11, 18, 23 and 29 - and Chhattisgarh in the first three phases. Gujarat, where too the BJP had got a clean sweep in 2014, will go to the polls in the third phase (April 23). Uttarakhand will see polling in the first phase on April 11. The schedule shows that in all the states where the Congress is hoping to do well, it will have to sustain a long and hard campaign. It will need to carefully plan rallies of party chief Rahul Gandhi. The BJP has time to plan its campaign in Hindi heartland states where it had done very well in the 2014 campaign but faces challenges due to anti-incumbency and the Congress gaining ground. The party has already started building on its narrative "nationalism", national security and speed of governance but the challenge remains to sustain it in the face of opposition's campaign on bread and butter issues like unemployment and agrarian problems. BJP leaders have been referring to the air strikes on a terror camp in Pakistan last month as also surgical strikes of 2016 to portray the Modi government as strong and decisive compared to Congress led UPA on the issue of fighting terror from Pakistan-based groups. The narrative is being led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP can carefully plan its campaign in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal which have seven-phased elections. It can also do so in Odisha which will have a four-phased election. This is the first time that Odisha will have multi-phased elections. These four states together account for one-third of the Lok Sabha seats. In UP, which has 80 Lok Sabha seats and where the BJP in 2014 won 71 seats on its own (two were won by its ally Apna Dal), the party faces combined challenge of the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal. In Bihar that elects 40 MPs, the ruling alliance of the BJP-Janata Dal-United and the Lok Janshakti Party faces a tough contest with a combined opposition that includes Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress, Rashtriya Lok Samata Party and Hindustani Awami Morcha. The BJP has been focusing on West Bengal to emerge as the main opponent of the ruling Trinamool Congress. The party is hoping to improve its performance beyond the two Lok Sabha seats that it won in the state in 2014. Odisha (21 seats) is another state where the BJP has been making serious efforts to gain ground. The Congress has not been able to put up a strong fight over the past few elections against the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD). The BJP hopes good performance in West Bengal and Odisha will help it compensate for losses in the Hindi heartland states where it performed remarkably well in the last Lok Sabha elections. Three of these -- Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan -- are now ruled by the Congress. Two other states where BJP is trying to expand its footprint -- Kerala and Tamil Nadu -- will have a single-phased election. (Prashant Sood can be contacted at prashant.s@ians.in) New Delhi, March 11 : A day after an Ethiopian Airlines' Boeing 737-800 MAX flight crashed, killing all 157 people on board, Union Minister Suresh Prabhu here on Monday directed India's civil aviation regulator to undertake safety assessment of Boeing 737-MAX aircraft, flown by domestic carriers. "Directed officials of DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) to undertake safety assessment of Boeing 737-MAX (being flown by domestic carriers)," Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation Minister Prabhu tweeted. "Safety of the passengers is our utmost concern. Directed Secretary and DGCA to take appropriate action immediately." Earlier during the day, the civil aviation regulator said it will issue safety directives soon for Boeing 737-800 MAX operations. "The DGCA is reviewing safety issues post Boeing Ethiopian Airline B737-800MAX accident on March 10," said a senior official. "The DGCA will issue additional safety instructions," the official said, adding the measures could be issued on Monday night or Tuesday morning. In India, SpiceJet and Jet Airways operate more than 15 Boeing 737-800 MAX aircraft. They have also placed orders for 355 737-MAX aircraft. Of this, SpiceJet has 205 737-MAX aircraft on order and Jet Airways 150 planes of the same type. In a statement about the Ethiopian Airlines crash, Boeing said: "A Boeing technical team will be travelling to the crash site to provide technical assistance under the direction of the Ethiopia Accident Investigation Bureau and the US National Transportation Safety Board." The Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi crashed on Sunday claiming the lives of all 149 passengers and 8 crew on board. The victims were of 35 nationalities, including four Indians. Following the tragedy, Ethiopian Airlines grounded its entire B-737-8 MAX fleet on March 10. "Although we don't yet know the cause of accident, we decided to ground the particular fleet as extra safety precaution," Ethiopian Airlines said on its Twitter handle. Aviation regulators in China and Indonesia have also grounded the Boeing 737-MAX aircraft fleet. Patna, March 11 : A day after the Election Commission announced seven-phase Lok Sabha elections, more than half-a-dozen sitting BJP MPs, including Union Ministers in Bihar, are unsure about getting the party ticket this time. A senior BJP leader, who refused to be identified, said some party MPs may not get a chance to contest polls again this time. "Taking anti-incumbency as well as winnability factor into consideration, the party is likely to deny ticket to some sitting MPs to contest polls," he said. There are 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. Sources in the BJP as well as its alliance partner the JD-U say the saffron party is ready to sacrifice some of its sitting MPs to keep JD-U's Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister, happy. The BJP has already agreed to give two-three of its share of 22 seats to the JD-U, besides one to the LJP, another ally. There had been buzz in political circles since BJP President Amit Shah announced in Delhi in January that the BJP and JD-U will contest an equal number of Lok Sabha seats in Bihar under a seat-sharing formula. This signalled that the party was set to deny tickets to about half-a-dozen sitting MPs. With Amit Shah's deciding not to play "big-brother" in Bihar, the BJP will have to compromise, said a JD-U leader. According to BJP sources here, there is confusion over ticket to party MP from Ara and Union Ministers R.K. Singh, pary MP from Buxar and Union Minister Ashwani Choubey, MP from Patliputra and Union Minister Ramkirpal Yadav and party MP from Nawada and Union Minister Giriraj Singh.